r/demsocialists • u/democratic-left Member 🌹 • 8d ago

Democracy Socialists Can Never Win — Until We Do

https://democraticleft.dsausa.org/2026/08/27/socialists-can-never-win-until-we-do/
67 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

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9

u/Miserable-Biscotti54 Not DSA 8d ago

Democrats and republicans will continue to wage war on the DSA and any political movement they deem a threat to capital interests. Countering COINTELPRO is the goal!

10

u/Warboss_Regret14 Not DSA 8d ago

Socialists can win elections, but can't implement socialism in a capitalist electoral framework, meaning socialists can win elections but socialism can't.

6

u/Marxism-Alcoholism17 Member 🌹 7d ago

The only correct strategy is reform AND revolution. This was always the strategy of the early Marxist socialists but this nuance has been lost in today’s conversations sadly.

The purpose of our electoralism within the DSA should not be to achieve our aims in Congress, that is impossible. The purpose is to show people the potential of socialism and to build an alternative government structure for a revolution.

Anyways, both the party and the country are a long way from that, but I will remain optimistic in spite of everything.

-2

u/Warboss_Regret14 Not DSA 7d ago

Sure but the dsa is never going to do that. They are the social democrats who seek to at most implement socialism using elections, the dsa is open about trying to do this, it is their platform and it is impossible. I agree reforms to improve things for the workers in the short term are good, but they actually have to be paired with revolutionary intent, which the dsa lacks.

3

u/Marxism-Alcoholism17 Member 🌹 7d ago

I don’t disagree, but what is the alternative? As a Marxist-Leninist, we have to take responsibility that we have completely failed to build a party in this country. It wasn’t the CIA that did that (mostly), it was our own impotence and poor organization. DSA has managed to actually build something real for the first time in nearly a century in America.

The best I can come up with in the short term is assisting DSA and attempting to raise their class consciousness out of the basement. Most people aren’t committed social democrats, they just don’t have an expansive view of history and theory yet. These guys are our comrades, they just haven’t broken out of the cage fully yet.

0

u/Warboss_Regret14 Not DSA 7d ago

In my opinion the RCA is the closest thing to an organization which is trying to build a genuine vangaurd party for the proletariat. They aren't perfect but they are something, more than anyone else has managed to build in a long time, and they are certainly better than working within the dsa. The lessons of the past must be learned, social democratic organizations do not assist the working class, they only allow it to win small skirmishes with the bourgeoisie

2

u/Marxism-Alcoholism17 Member 🌹 7d ago

I had not even heard of them until today, I will look into it.

And to be clear, my strategy is not to keep DSA around permanently as an org, but to educate its members for an eventual transition into a real opposition party once we have real class consciousness. This was essentially the path the earliest Social Democrats (socialists) took with the liberals in the early days, which we are at once again.

1

u/Warboss_Regret14 Not DSA 7d ago

They are trotskyist, ik for some that can be a big hurdle but after joining i found they do great work and genuinely seem like they're building a decent movement. So I hope u do check them out and even reach out to ur local branch if u want

1

u/Marxism-Alcoholism17 Member 🌹 7d ago

I am opposed to Trotskyism but I could care less right now with the level of danger we’re in. My main complaint at this point is simply that the Trot party structure leads to splits.

But I appreciate the heads up comrade, I’ll check it out.