Julian Guerrero, Author at puntorojo

May 25, 2020

Building tenants’ power in the Bronx: interview with Manny Pardilla

As of May 7th, at least 33.5 million people are unemployed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The poor response by the state and employers is pushing working class people into tension with the pressures of everyday struggles. Healthcare workers are demanding greater protection, housing activists are calling for mass rent strikes, unemployment claims are expected to grow – this crisis will continue to expand. The push by capitalists to re-open the economy, and the state’s unwillingness to face the deadly realities of the pandemic will mean that Covid-19 is generating the conditions for mass struggle in the United States.

The organized labor movement’s timid efforts to push the Federal Government has been uninspiring and with huge swaths of working people disorganized, the descent into further barbarism stands over us all. The tasks faced by the new socialist movement in overcoming this divide stands over it like a mountain. But there are militants on the ground who are doing what they can to organize the people around them and build independent organizations.

August 1, 2019

by Julian Guerrero

A base building primer for the socialist movement

Millions of people are coming to radical conclusions over the nature of the social problems they face. The deceptive promises of the free market to rationally organize social life is falling apart in the neoliberal wasteland people find themselves in. And this is powering the resurgence of interest towards socialist politics and the growth of a new, if still modest socialist movement.

The growth of interest in socialism and the number socialist activists has raised a series of strategic paths towards reconnecting the politics of socialism with the working class. This is necessary because if one were to survey the current socialist movement they would notice the predominance of academics in its leadership and a high number of white-collar white workers in its ranks. The need to root the socialist movement in the multi-racial working class remains the litmus test for the movement’s continued growth and development.

It’s against this background that socialist electoral strategy has dominated as the main way to reconnect with the working class. But as several socialist campaigns have shown, without a strong social base from which the socialist movement can exert power, socialists in office will struggle to overcome the bureaucratic obstacles and political pressure the state has thrown in the way of political movements intent on challenging the status quo. The low level of working class self-organization and dominance of non-profit organizations leave the movement without a way to make that connection immediately.