Happy Easter! As we have all been trying to keep safe and healthy, some big news this week from the Bernie Sanders campaign. Here are some thoughts from the three co-chairs of Sacramento DSA for Bernie as we re-tool and re-group. Bernie has only suspended his campaign, and will still have at least elected delegates, so who knows what what the next months will bring. No matter what else happens, however, I can confirm that there will not be a DSA for Biden campaign. We hope you and your loved ones are safe and happy, and again, Happy Easter! -JRP
Dear Friends:
As you probably have heard, Bernie Sanders has suspended his campaign for President. I’ve been in mourning for a few days about it. A quote keeps coming back to me as the past month’s events turn through my mind, from a great interview with Mike Davis:
"To be a socialist in the United States is not to be an orphan, it really is to stand in the shadow of an immense history of radicalism and labor, but with the responsibility to ensure its regeneration."
And I think that’s the most important lesson, and duty, for those of us who were out there fighting for Bernie, and specifically for DSA for Bernie. Whatever else you want to say about Bernie’s campaign, we made real steps towards the regeneration of socialism in this country--in the minds of millions, cracks in the seeming total ideological hegemony of capitalism have begun to emerge, and tens of thousands of people are now organizing for socialism. But the structural barriers we face cannot be underestimated. In this primary season, those barriers were far lower in Sacramento and in California than they have been in much of the rest of the country. And now, COVID-19 itself has become part of electoral politics in this country, cynically manipulated in Wisconsin to crush voter turnout. Democracy and public safety are casualties of the ruling class’ fight against working people.
So what is to be done? If you haven’t, now is a good time tojoin DSA! More specifically: Join a Q&A with Yong Jung Cho, Constituency Organizing Director for Bernie 2020, and other DSA members to hear about who we are and what we do, especially if you’re looking for next steps after the Bernie 2020 campaign.
Catch up on what your chapter is doing, and get involved. What that is going to look like in the age of coronavirus, we are still figuring out. There will be more class struggle campaigns that will need your work--and one lesson from the Bernie work we have done is that we have a unique opening in California and Sacramento to push for socialist candidates, socialist ballot measures, and socialist politics (within and without the electoral arena). We now know, with the success of Bernie in the primary here, and with Katie Valenzuela’s successful run for city council, that “socialism” can win here. So let’s keep winning!
But “socialism” doesn’t really mean anything in the abstract when it is disconnected from the multiracial working class. I don’t think we are going to see the working class really contest the ruling class unless and until massive, militant organization of the working class. So, in addition to getting involved with DSA, you can get some help from DSA to organize your workplace to protect yourself and your co-workers from COVID-19! Or, you can volunteer to help workers organize to protect themselves against COVI-19! Join a union, work to make your union more democratic and representative of the rank and file if you are in a union, and support unions, strikes, and boycotts wherever you can.
Last, though, I want to thank you. We did incredible work on the Sacramento DSA for Bernie campaign, reaching thousands of people, signing up hundreds of people, and getting out the vote in Sacramento for Bernie. I want to thank my co-chairs Sam Greenup [emeritus], Bryan Reese, and Andres Estebanez, and our members who really stepped up to do the hard work, leading canvasses, especially Andrea Arnott, Dov Salkoff, Peter Lucas, Jonah Paul, Micaela Vazquez, Seth Strumwasser, Annabel Vera, Maddie Beck, Michael Lucas, Johnny Lucas, Alyssa De La Rosa, Will Fayer, Kelsey Brewer, Harjit Singh Gill, and everybody else who showed up! You are everything. Thank you and take care and be safe.
Solidarity forever,
J.R. Parker
Sacramento DSA for Bernie Co-Chair
* * * * *
Let’s not beat around the bush, the last month has been rough. Between Covid-19 and the Democratic establishment carrying Biden’s flailing campaign, we find ourselves longing for the post-Nevada primary days when Bernie was on top of the world, surging his way to the nomination. Sadly though, this is not a movie where the hero walks away victorious, and with the news yesterday that Bernie is suspending his campaign, we have been grieving for both our present and our future. After a day to cope with the news, our message at DSA is this: Thank you Bernie, we will take it from here.
Bernie understands better than anyone that this is not about one man, this is about all of us. Bernie has been fighting for all of us since before most of us were even born, and it is on us now to continue the struggle for equality and justice for all people, not just the elite few. At Sacramento DSA for Bernie, we have always focused our efforts around not just trying to get Bernie elected, but primarily around building a movement, and you are a part of that movement. Whether you are one of the thousands of students we met at local college campuses, a regular Sacramento DSA member, or anywhere in between, you are what this movement is all about. Our movement is both the present and the future. One amazing example is Katie Valenzuela, a Sacramento DSA member who with the help of our efforts, was able to defeat Steve Hansen and earn a spot on the Sacramento City Council. Our movement has more targets at the local, State, and National level and with your help, we will succeed.
Not Me, Us. That was Bernie’s campaign motto. Those three little words speak volumes. We know that our path forward is long and arduous as we continue to build this movement, and we want your help in building it. If you are not already a DSA member, please join at DSAUSA.org/join. If you are not already on our Slack channel, please join us there at SacDSA.Slack.com. Once the quarantine is lifted and we can meet in person again, please join us for our monthly Sacramento DSA meetings. Together, we will continue the struggle.
Thank you Bernie, we will take it from here.
Solidarity Forever,
Bryan Reese, Sac DSA for Bernie co-chair
* * * * *
If one views the DSA’s campaign this year as merely an attempt to elevate Bernie Sanders to the Democratic nominee for president, one can only view the recent news of his concession as a failure. I have been working on this campaign for the better part of a year, and what interested me was not the token political act of casting a ballot every few years, but of building a sustained, popular movement for betterment of the conditions of all people. It is for this reason that I declare our campaign a great success.
Many have rightfully bemoaned the lack of participation of young people or the surge of support for Biden from wealthy suburbs, but these shortcomings in this election also show us the way forward for building a new mass-movement. Bernie’s success in this election was built upon our organizing of young people, working-class people, and people of color whose voices have long been ignored by the political establishment. The ultimate lesson of the Sanders campaign was that we need to build-out these links even further to challenge the entrenched power of the elite.
Now, in light of the needless and absurd cruelty being shown to workers during the coronavirus crisis right now, I would like to encourage all of you to join DSA Sacramento, if you have not already, so that we can fight for better conditions for all of us. We are currently undertaking several campaigns to offer relief to those affected by the crisis, put pressure on local government, and to build mass workng-class power. Sign up at https://www.sacdsa.org/join/.
Join up, and we can build a to build a better world for all!
Best,
Andres
Sacramento DSA for Bernie Co-Chair
