the fear of the moderate and fascist right has already started to stoke the coals on class consciousness, people who are ardently anti-electoral in any sense just don’t think they’re seeing the results of it because they can’t fathom that electoralism doesn’t exist in a vacuum and will change who it presents to represent changing material conditions.
Electoral reformism doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists as a release valve to consume that energy and displace it towards ends that are not threatening to the ruling class.
Whenever communists historically participated in bourgeois elections they did so as communists, under a communist party. Not as stray cat “leftists” or within the Democrat Party (or equivalent Liberal-Fascist Party). They did so fully expecting to be ratfucked and cheated out of any victory they may obtain, but most importantly they did not conceal their beliefs or put their hopes into whatever random opportunists happened to volunteer to advance their own positions.
Rent freeze and free childcare are a little more than a release valve, they open up the actual ability to further organize and take the kinds of political and social risks that go a long way to keeping socialist sentiment down in the US
January 1st, 2026 when Zohran is sworn in and can appoint the balance changing vote of the Rent Guidelines Board with the single at-will appointee that serves at the mayors behest, thus changing the voting balance of the Rent Guidelines board from 5-4 in favor of raising the rent to 5-4 in favor of freezing the rent
Well, rent won’t feeeze on the first since the latest guidelines board voted to raise it by that one, critical vote this year, but it won’t go up after that so I guess technically the rent freeze isn’t in effect until it gets voted on again later that year, but yeah that’s how it works so just be wary of that around the end of next year unless the appointment is enough itself
Almost all gains for the working class in American history were achieved through rioting, labor pressure and strikes and competition against the USSR. Basically none of it was achieved through social Democrat electioneering
Now here’s an instance where if you go for 5 a minute walk on a Tuesday one (1) time you could freeze the rent for millions of proletarians, potentially including yourself, for years and also stop billions of dollars from going into the pockets of the local landlord class. The other option is the opposite of all of that happens and rents go up, including your own, and landlords get billions of dollars.
Pretty straightforward and easy choice to make. If you don’t do this you are actually playing yourself, or are so privileged that several hundred dollars a month extra in your pocket mean nothing to you.
Yeah it’s just about 5 minutes of showing up. That’s all electoralism is. It isn’t a drain of millions of dollars of resources and thousands of hours of volunteer labor! And it certainly isn’t the crux of the social reformist worldview about how change is done, which you proselytize to the detriment of all other forms of activism. No way is it the underlying principle around which you convince others to organize
yeah spending thousands of hours volunteering and forming working political relationships with likeminded explicit socialists with common goals in your community is a terrible idea, no one should do it
i don’t mean this rudely but it sounds like you have no real life experience with the actual people working the campaign and their politics, or you met the absolute weirdest brainwormed motherfucker out there and are basing your entire mental image around it
That’s what I’m saying. I know voting is bare minimum activism but like it’s more than nothing and you’ll never stop people from engaging in electoralism so what if you just got to tell all of the people in your neighborhood a socialist wants to freeze your rent?
voting is not activism but spending the effort and making the connections to align disparate people and organizations under a single banner of a coherent political platform that is very far to the left of the current regime is a worthwhile endeavor whose results will be felt long after this election, regardless of its outcome
Election already happened big dawg. Candidate is on the ballot. I doubt you are doing any electoral organizing given how clear you’ve made your stance on the subject.
Because of the hard work of other leftists, it would just be a 5 minute walk for you to freeze your own rent, the rent of millions of proletarians, and keep billions of dollars out of the pockets of landlord.
Armchair Leftist Final Boss type thought process to not simply participate at that point
for me the question is, if a rent freeze happens, how is that different than all the other “progressive charities” that do genuinely provide a lot of necessary support for poor people but do not mobilize those people in any way to scale up the project and seize more power?
If there isn’t a coherent political program that each voter gets plugged into and participates in daily/weekly/monthly at least, all you are doing is bribing people to vote for you again the next time. FDR famously said he “saved capitalism” with the new deal, and this is the type of imagery people like AOC have used as well with the green new deal. providing charity is nice and really helps people who need it, and probably gets you reelected next time, but how does that become a greater movement? If the only answer is to have thousands of Mamdanis run for every office and take over, maybe if every major local office is taken and held for the next 15-20 years they can begin to do something, but this isn’t possible or realistic with the timeline of climate change. slowly take over city by city with socialist cities, and then the greater state? through bourgeois electoral cycles?
I’m hoping the DSAers organizing this are actually creating an engaging program that turns at least 10-20% of the workers who vote for Mamdani into political cadre because without that crucial piece this isn’t really political organizing in a revolutionary way, it is just doing populist bourgeois political organizing the way plenty of populist bourgeois politicians have set out to do in the past. Since DSA hasn’t managed to have a membership reflective of average workers, it is obvious they don’t yet have a way to turn this campaign into a political project that average workers will be involved in and dedicate their precious free time to, or else they would already have unleashed it.
Election already happened big dawg. Candidate is on the ballot.
Oh ok, so this is the final Democrat Party election the DSA is participating in since they already sunk the cost and they’ll change their methods going forward?
No, I can assure you that there will always be some leftists who will keep fighting like this forever, despite your protests. Every so often, despite the inefficacy that often accompanies electoralism, despite the fact that you believe those organizers are engaged in work you may deem a waste, you will be handed you a praxis layup that involves nothing more than taking a 5 minute walk on your end. This time it happens to have made something possible on the scale no other leftist organizing in the U.S. has managed to achieve in a very, very long time, and directly improves the material conditions of millions of proletarians at the explicit cost of the landlord class.
Refusing to engage with it at this point IS upholding Armchair Leftist Final Boss Thought. ”I disagree with the work those leftists did, so I will categorically deny the working class the benefits it could provide them at literally no mental, financial, or physical anguish to myself.”
the fear of the moderate and fascist right has already started to stoke the coals on class consciousness, people who are ardently anti-electoral in any sense just don’t think they’re seeing the results of it because they can’t fathom that electoralism doesn’t exist in a vacuum and will change who it presents to represent changing material conditions.
Electoral reformism doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists as a release valve to consume that energy and displace it towards ends that are not threatening to the ruling class.
Whenever communists historically participated in bourgeois elections they did so as communists, under a communist party. Not as stray cat “leftists” or within the Democrat Party (or equivalent Liberal-Fascist Party). They did so fully expecting to be ratfucked and cheated out of any victory they may obtain, but most importantly they did not conceal their beliefs or put their hopes into whatever random opportunists happened to volunteer to advance their own positions.
Rent freeze and free childcare are a little more than a release valve, they open up the actual ability to further organize and take the kinds of political and social risks that go a long way to keeping socialist sentiment down in the US
You’re not wrong but let me know when there’s a realistic chance of that happening
January 1st, 2026 when Zohran is sworn in and can appoint the balance changing vote of the Rent Guidelines Board with the single at-will appointee that serves at the mayors behest, thus changing the voting balance of the Rent Guidelines board from 5-4 in favor of raising the rent to 5-4 in favor of freezing the rent
Just wanna say for what it’s worth I really hope I’m apologizing to you on January 1st
Well, rent won’t feeeze on the first since the latest guidelines board voted to raise it by that one, critical vote this year, but it won’t go up after that so I guess technically the rent freeze isn’t in effect until it gets voted on again later that year, but yeah that’s how it works so just be wary of that around the end of next year unless the appointment is enough itself
I am sure we’ll be kept well apprised here of the results of the latest bernard
Latest Bernard actually make me lol
Almost all gains for the working class in American history were achieved through rioting, labor pressure and strikes and competition against the USSR. Basically none of it was achieved through social Democrat electioneering
Very true.
Now here’s an instance where if you go for 5 a minute walk on a Tuesday one (1) time you could freeze the rent for millions of proletarians, potentially including yourself, for years and also stop billions of dollars from going into the pockets of the local landlord class. The other option is the opposite of all of that happens and rents go up, including your own, and landlords get billions of dollars.
Pretty straightforward and easy choice to make. If you don’t do this you are actually playing yourself, or are so privileged that several hundred dollars a month extra in your pocket mean nothing to you.
Yeah it’s just about 5 minutes of showing up. That’s all electoralism is. It isn’t a drain of millions of dollars of resources and thousands of hours of volunteer labor! And it certainly isn’t the crux of the social reformist worldview about how change is done, which you proselytize to the detriment of all other forms of activism. No way is it the underlying principle around which you convince others to organize
yeah spending thousands of hours volunteering and forming working political relationships with likeminded explicit socialists with common goals in your community is a terrible idea, no one should do it
Pick one. Social Democrats aren’t explicit socialists.
i don’t mean this rudely but it sounds like you have no real life experience with the actual people working the campaign and their politics, or you met the absolute weirdest brainwormed motherfucker out there and are basing your entire mental image around it
That’s what I’m saying. I know voting is bare minimum activism but like it’s more than nothing and you’ll never stop people from engaging in electoralism so what if you just got to tell all of the people in your neighborhood a socialist wants to freeze your rent?
voting is not activism but spending the effort and making the connections to align disparate people and organizations under a single banner of a coherent political platform that is very far to the left of the current regime is a worthwhile endeavor whose results will be felt long after this election, regardless of its outcome
Election already happened big dawg. Candidate is on the ballot. I doubt you are doing any electoral organizing given how clear you’ve made your stance on the subject.
Because of the hard work of other leftists, it would just be a 5 minute walk for you to freeze your own rent, the rent of millions of proletarians, and keep billions of dollars out of the pockets of landlord.
Armchair Leftist Final Boss type thought process to not simply participate at that point
Yeah because rent freeze is definitely an actual possibility here lmao
https://citylimits.org/second-year-of-the-de-blasio-rent-freeze-a-graphic-history/
https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2025/06/court-appeals-upholds-kingstons-rent-control-policies/406184/
for me the question is, if a rent freeze happens, how is that different than all the other “progressive charities” that do genuinely provide a lot of necessary support for poor people but do not mobilize those people in any way to scale up the project and seize more power?
If there isn’t a coherent political program that each voter gets plugged into and participates in daily/weekly/monthly at least, all you are doing is bribing people to vote for you again the next time. FDR famously said he “saved capitalism” with the new deal, and this is the type of imagery people like AOC have used as well with the green new deal. providing charity is nice and really helps people who need it, and probably gets you reelected next time, but how does that become a greater movement? If the only answer is to have thousands of Mamdanis run for every office and take over, maybe if every major local office is taken and held for the next 15-20 years they can begin to do something, but this isn’t possible or realistic with the timeline of climate change. slowly take over city by city with socialist cities, and then the greater state? through bourgeois electoral cycles?
I’m hoping the DSAers organizing this are actually creating an engaging program that turns at least 10-20% of the workers who vote for Mamdani into political cadre because without that crucial piece this isn’t really political organizing in a revolutionary way, it is just doing populist bourgeois political organizing the way plenty of populist bourgeois politicians have set out to do in the past. Since DSA hasn’t managed to have a membership reflective of average workers, it is obvious they don’t yet have a way to turn this campaign into a political project that average workers will be involved in and dedicate their precious free time to, or else they would already have unleashed it.
Oh ok, so this is the final Democrat Party election the DSA is participating in since they already sunk the cost and they’ll change their methods going forward?
No, I can assure you that there will always be some leftists who will keep fighting like this forever, despite your protests. Every so often, despite the inefficacy that often accompanies electoralism, despite the fact that you believe those organizers are engaged in work you may deem a waste, you will be handed you a praxis layup that involves nothing more than taking a 5 minute walk on your end. This time it happens to have made something possible on the scale no other leftist organizing in the U.S. has managed to achieve in a very, very long time, and directly improves the material conditions of millions of proletarians at the explicit cost of the landlord class.
Refusing to engage with it at this point IS upholding Armchair Leftist Final Boss Thought. ”I disagree with the work those leftists did, so I will categorically deny the working class the benefits it could provide them at literally no mental, financial, or physical anguish to myself.”