October 3-7 | Starting at $500Socialist Majority Reading List
Labor
How How Can We Bridge the Gap Between Electoral and Labor Organizing?David Duhalde, Socialist Forum, Winter/Spring 2023
At The River I StandMartin Luther King Jr., Memphis, TN, 1968
The labor movement has been at the heart of socialist politics because organized working people have an interest in transforming society and the potential power to do it. Socialist Majority Caucus believes that the strength of the labor movement comes from deep one-to-one organizing; strategic, mass participation strikes, and mass politics campaigns that shift the balance of power from employers to workers over the long term. In our current political climate, rank-and-file organizers are faced with the dual challenge of organizational transformation and power building. To be successful at both, it is critical to understand not only how to build an organized workforce, but also how to exercise that power for the common good.
The following readings discuss well-tested organizing methods for building democratic unions led by workers. We also include timely case studies for leveraging labor power for mass politics that benefit all working people.
What if the ‘Next Upsurge’ Never Comes?Chris Maisano, Socialist Forum, Spring 2024
LA Teachers’ Road to Durable PowerAlex Caputo-Pearl, Convergence, Sep 2 2024
Meeting the Moment: Building a Left Pole in the Labor MovementSocialist Majority Steering Committee, The Agitator, July 11 2024
Electoral Strategy & the Party Question
Moving Beyond the Dirty StayDavid Duhalde, The Agitator, December 29 2022
Three Million DoorsTascha Van Auken on The Dig, December 5 2025
Socialist Majority Caucus’s position on DSA’s relationship to the Democratic Party and the feasibility of an independent socialist party with its own ballot line is grounded in our analysis of the particular historical development of the U.S. political system and political parties. The long persistence of the two-party system means that the Democratic Party - which is where key social forces like organized labor, anti-racist, feminist, and other movements are politically organized - is the only realistic venue for building democratic socialist power through the ballot box. After earlier failed attempts to change the party’s structure to our advantage, DSA has adopted - and SMC supports - the “party surrogate” or “inside/outside” strategy.
The following readings flesh out the historical context and theoretical grounding for SMC’s approach.
Organized for Democracy? Left Challenges Inside the Democratic PartyAdam Hilton, Socialist Register, 2018
How SMC Members Contributed to the Historic Protest Vote Against Genocide in GazaRenée Paradis and Mike D., The Agitator, July 18, 2025
Political Parties Are IllegalMichael Kinnucan, The Agitator, April 20 2025
Racial Oppression & Black Liberation
How How Can We Bridge the Gap Between Electoral and Labor Organizing?David Duhalde, Socialist Forum, Winter/Spring 2023
At The River I StandMartin Luther King Jr., Memphis, TN, 1968
White supremacy reinforces the longstanding economic disadvantages of people of color communities in education, housing, jobs, healthcare, and even the environment, while justifying violent policing and the prison-industrial complex. Moreover, capitalism relies on institutionalized white supremacy to suppress the working class as a whole, including white people. Building white resentment against Black and Brown people and stoking anti-immigrant sentiment provide cover for the state to terrorize those who dissent against fascism and maintain the far-right grip on power. The fight against white supremacy and capitalism are thus inextricably connected. Further, because the Black Liberation Movement is the closest we’ve come to a mass working class movement in the US, Socialist Majority Caucus draws heavily from this legacy.
The readings in this section explore the history of socialist anti-racism and democratic socialist approaches to dismantling white supremacy.
What if the ‘Next Upsurge’ Never Comes?Chris Maisano, Socialist Forum, Spring 2024
LA Teachers’ Road to Durable PowerAlex Caputo-Pearl, Convergence, Sep 2 2024
Meeting the Moment: Building a Left Pole in the Labor MovementSocialist Majority Steering Committee, The Agitator, July 11 2024