“Communities of Resistance” will Uplift Base-building as a “COR” political activity in NYC-DSA
By: Laurel G.
“Crazy Quilt,” pictorial wool quilt constructed through interwoven images of everyday life [Credit: The Met Open Domain Collection]
Editorial Note: This piece is written by a Marxist Unity member and may not reflect the views of the caucus as a whole.
The patient construction of a mass working class movement requires a comprehensive strategy built upon diverse forms of political activity.
NYC-DSA’s organizational structure, culture and skill-base developed out of the Bernie campaign, laying the foundation for the hegemony of the campaign-form within the chapter. It follows that a designation of Citywide Priority Campaign status was made the primary method of accessing chapter funding, membership resources and visibility within the organization. This creates a self-fulfilling feedback loop by restricting “priority” status to “campaigns,” to the exclusion of other types of organizing. This narrow tactical focus limits who feels connected to the chapter’s organizational culture and who becomes a leader, in doing so undercutting potential inroads on building a base of support for our electoral and legislative campaigns themselves.
It is within this context that members of IWCO (Independent Working Class Organizing) and Marxist Unity Group propose Communities of Resistance (COR), a network of support to seed and develop base-building work across the chapter, thereby uplifting independent working class organizing as a “COR” political activity within the chapter.
The IWCO base-building resolution, passed during the 2022 chapter convention, has been primarily dedicated to tenant organizing for the past 2 years. IWCO has built an integrated network of DSA members and tenant union members who organize their buildings side-by-side. It has established active groups in 5 branch areas including 4 separate neighborhoods in Queens. IWCO members reestablished the Astoria Tenant Union and built the new Upper Manhattan Tenant Union, while connecting members to existing independent tenant unions like Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU), Tenant Union Flatbush (TUF), Ridgewood Tenant Union (RTU) and Brooklyn Eviction Defense (BED-TU).
The success of IWCO has demonstrated the potential for an expansive base-building culture within the chapter, where DSA members not only participate in campaign work, but are building independent organizations across all facets of their lives. This could look like members forming tenant associations in their buildings with support from a local tenant union, participating in worker circles sponsored by DSA’s Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) or joining existing community safety groups like The Crown Heights Care Collective.
In order to achieve this cultural shift towards more expansive forms of organizing, the chapter must build the infrastructure for base-building. This requires intentional allocation of space where organizers across areas of work can experiment, connect and reflect on what is working strategically in this historical moment. This includes mapping existing and potential base-building activity inside and external to the chapter and, as the COR resolution recommends, sharing tactics and reflections through quarterly meetings, an annual conference, and a publication.
This shifting orientation towards base-building will allow the chapter to reflect on what it means by “base-building.”The term is well referenced within the chapter, but often without a clear definition or strategy attached. It has been co-opted by NGOs to describe top-down engagement of groups that deprioritize class struggle in favor of funding outcomes. It is important therefore to create clarity for members and future members about how NGO “base-building” work fundamentally differs from DSA’s theory of change.
Some may question the focus on building independent working class organizations when DSA is itself an independent organization for the working class. Why not simply focus on building DSA?
By organizing tenant associations where we live, labor organizations where we work, community safety groups in our neighborhoods, we are building DSA. We are learning from our neighbors, adjusting our tactics accordingly, developing leaders and infusing socialist activity into every aspect of our lives. DSA simply does not yet have the reach to organize every workplace, every neighborhood, and every home. It may seem counterintuitive, but we must venture outside of the organization to build an organization worthy of representing the wider working class.
A publication by the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), unearthed from the Marxist Archives, frames it this way:
“Base-building means a lifelong commitment by cadre to live in a community or work in a factory; to share the life of the people, to join their organizations or build new ones, to learn from them and to struggle side by side with them. Our social and family life must develop so that it is linked with the work, not separate from it and seen as an additional burden.”
This definition speaks to an ideal beyond the campaign cycle we have grown accustomed to in NYC-DSA. Base-building integrates organizing into our lives and breaks down the lines of separation between organizer and non-organizer. It is a way of living that is vital to our communities and to each of us as individuals, a reflection of the world as we wish it to be.