Talking Socialism with Alexandreia Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her way to speak at NYC's Women's March. [Photo by Corey Torpie]

 

TALKING SOCIALISM | Catching up with AOC

MARCH 19, 2021 BY DON MCINTOSH, PUBLISHED ON DEMOCRATIC LEFT.

 

And so it was that first meeting that I felt, ‘Okay, this is something that’s real.’ Also, in the history of New York City and in communities of color, when you have the Young Lords and you have this organizing heritage, there has historically been tension between DSA and these organizing collectives of color, whether it was Latino and Puerto Rican collectives, Chicano collectives, black collectives…. It was like, “Oh, it’s these white folks. [LAUGHS.] There was this historical fissure. But it really felt like a moment where we were coming together. And so when I would see DSA showing up providing real structural support at BLM rallies, or support for abolishing ICE, where we felt like there wasn’t this class essentialism, but that this really was a multiracial class struggle that didn’t de-prioritize human rights, frankly, I was really impressed. And I felt like it was something worth being part of.

My run for Congress, so much of it was based in coalition building. In the New York City context, I wasn’t a DSA candidate that was homegrown from the start. I went through a process of earning the DSA endorsement. And that was in addition to stitching a collective together of the movement for Black lives and the movement for immigrant rights. Our congressional district is half immigrant, extraordinarily working class and just incredibly diverse in the Bronx and Queens. Along with Senator Sanders’s campaign, which I also proudly worked on, prior to all of this, you know, all of that, I think, really contributed to this moment.

And, for me, there’s a real distinction between us saying that we’re about something and us really being about it in our actions. And it was really that distinction, in the action and in the praxis, that made it distinctive to me and made it something to be a part of.

Read the entire interview on our blog

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/talking-socialism-catching-up-with-aoc

Or on Democratic Left.

https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/aoc/

 

 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: 'We Have To Keep Organizing, We Can Not Stop' ...

DSA's newest Congresswoman

In a galvanizing victory speech to an electrified crowd of admirers, Ocasio-Cortez waved away the latest criticism—of her admittedly skeletal plan to pay for an expensive agenda—with the assurance that will finds a way. "They will always call the ambitious naive, they will always call the ambitious uninformed," she said, but the overwhelming excitement her primary win engendered matters—precisely because it was not partisan. Neither party does enough for its constituents, and her victory emphasized a widespread readiness for a fresh political approach, and the possibility of real change that new course presented. 

"Our deepest challenges are not left and right, they are not red and blue; they are top and bottom, they are right and wrong," she said. "It is not good enough to throw a rock at our neighbor's yard, we need to clean up our own house."

She also acknowledged disappointment at the evening's mixed bag of returns: Democrats won the House, but lost key gubernatorial races across the country to Donald Trump-approved candidates: Georgia Representative Stacey Abrams seemed poised to lose, narrowly, to Brian Kemp (although Abrams had not conceded at time of writing); progressive Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum lost to the same windbag who underestimated Ocasio-Cortez.

If Millenials Vote- We Win

If Millennials Vote- We win.

 The critical elections of 2018 will determine if the Congress can put the brakes on Donald Trump, his allies, and the Koch-Adelson agenda. The question is, will enough people turn out to vote?

According to Pew Research surveys, 2018s will see a record turnout of 18- 34 year olds for a mid term election.  More, 57% of millennials who are registered plan to vote for Democrats and only 37 % for Republicans.  I have no measure of how the decline to state voters will vote. 

Given the enthusiasm of youth for common sense social democratic proposals as shown by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we can hope that young people will vote left. 

People who are unlikely to vote make up some 50% of the population. 

 If Millennials don’t vote- we lose. 

Latino Voting in the Trump Era

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Latinos in the Trump era: Angry but unmoved

What good are anger and discontent if something is not done about it? A study shows that Latinos remain static before a government that has stigmatized them since day one.

By Yamily Habib

August 02, 2018

Faced with a government like that of Donald Trump, being Latino and being upset is not very difficult.

What does seem to be a challenge, though, is to mobilize the Hispanic population in the United States and convince them of a political proposal to support with their vote.

A study funded by the Democratic Party and published on Tuesday found "significant challenges for Democrats" in convincing Latino voters that a Congress controlled by the Blue Party would bring important changes to their community.

The polling firm Latino Decisions led the research commissioned by the three most important Democratic political action groups: the House Majority PAC, Priorities USA and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Bold PAC, as Roll Call reported.

The data was collected in study groups of around 1,000 registered Latino voters, who made clear their deep disagreement with current policies, "particularly regarding the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies and health care rollback efforts.”

While Latinos support the Democrats by 67% - versus 22% in favor of Republicans - according to the study "only 44% of the respondents said they were 'certain' they will vote for Democrats, and only 53% said they were certain to vote in November at all."

The conclusion seems to be that the Democratic Party is still failing on the same key issues as during the 2016 elections, when they didn’t know how to directly and clearly communicate their political agenda to the Latino community in the country.

"Democratic candidates should avoid 'generalities and buzzwords,'" Roll Call quotes from the study's findings. Instead, they should "take a clear stand on reversing Trump's immigration policies."

The study also recommends the reformulation of communication strategies such as the use of "radio and television stations in Spanish and bilingual advertisements that promote clear conclusions about what specifically will change when voting in 2018."

However, and for groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), this strategy should have been the basis of the whole movement of the party from the beginning.

In an article prior to the results of the presidential elections in September 2016, Dolores Delgado Campbell and Duane Campbell explained that the issue of immigration is precisely what could redraw the political reality of the country, without disregarding other fundamental issues for the Hispanic community.

In short, a comprehensive and well-communicated campaign in direct contact with the population on the street is the only viable strategy to get Latino voters to join the Democratic campaigns in the country, and thus take back the reins of the nation.

And if there are any doubts about it, we just need to look out for campaigns like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York to understand that the grass-roots initiatives can be much stronger than money when it comes to politics.

Socialists Challenge the Democratic Party

PBS Newshour on this topic
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/will-socialism-ever-have-its-moment-in-u-s-elections