Electoralism

Where Movements Go to Die: The Democrats are Draining the Resistance’s Life

By Eoin Higgins, Paste Magazine For a brief, fleeting moment, it seemed that this time it might be different. Donald Trump’s inauguration was followed by the largest one-day protest in American history. The next week, spontaneous actions broke out across the country’s airports in response to the administration’s travel ban. People started talking about a general […]

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Horizontalism: Anarchism, Power and the State

We are excited to present “Horizontalism: Anarchism, Power and the State” by Mark Bray which appears as a chapter in the collection Anarchism: A Conceptual Approach from Routledge. In this piece Bray relates a range of global movements from mass neighborhood assemblies in Argentina, to the squares movement in Europe and Occupy Wall Street to various political conceptions of power, […]

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On Magical Thinking VS Sober Analysis of the Ocasio-Cortez Victory in NY

We reprint this post as part of our ongoing efforts to critically look at left electoralism and to pose an alternative vision of movement building and popular power from below. In this piece Black Agenda Report editor Bruce Dixon gives a critical assessment of the primary victory of New York congressional candidate Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez which […]

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“Campaign in Poetry, Govern in Prose”: Interview with a Former Campaign Consultant

A decades-long veteran of the Democratic Party explains why elections fail to bring meaningful change. It’s often said that it’s easy for radicals to criticize from the outside, but what about when the critique resonates for someone who is an insider? As a follow up to the publication of “The Lure of Elections: From Political […]

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“Wild, Unprecedented” Reformism: The Case of Larry Krasner

The election of Larry Krasner as Philadelphia District Attorney was hailed by many on the left as a positive example of left electoralism – the election of a “people’s prosecutor.” This piece by Tim Horras of Philly Socialists puts forward well argued criticisms of the assumed narrative around Krasner that the election of progressive politicians […]

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“Electoral Pursuits Have Veered Us Away”: Kali Akuno on Movement Lessons from Jackson

By Adam Weaver Introduction Pledging to make Jackson become “the most radical city on the planet,” the July 2017 election of Chokwe Antar Lumumba as Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi is by many accounts an inspiration as to the ability of the left to critically engage in social change through elected office. By no means an […]

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The Lure of Elections: From Political Power to Popular Power

We recommend this article as a starting point for critical discussions of left electoral strategies and thinking about alternatives based around building power from below. For more related content see our reader, Socialist Faces in High Places: Elections & the Left. By Frank Ascaso, Enrique Guerrero-López, Patrick Berkman and Adam Weaver Originally published at Truthout.org […]

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