3/27/20

Friends, socialists, comrades!

Build is springing into action. We’ve been keeping the lights on, reconfiguring internally, and getting some exciting projects going.

First and foremost, we are recommitting to our values. Our core mission is to listen to and amplify DSA locals. Local organizing committees and chapters are the thriving laboratories working towards bringing socialism to our present day reality. By lifting up their voices and providing support to their research by deed we are creating a diverse and nimble organization capable of rising to any challenge the capitalist system presents.

Second, it is paramount that we protect the big tent nature of DSA. Every tactic has a context and every comrade has a unique and valuable perspective to our shared struggle. While we do not shy away from fighting for specific policies that we believe will help our organization, we adhere to no explicit ideological line beyond a staunch commitment to anti-capitalism and the liberation of all working people.

Finally, we operate strictly on a “yes, and” philosophy of organizing. One piece connects to another, often several others—which then build into solidarity networks and community support systems. We see the space, flexibility, and necessity for an unending variation of projects and tactics. Our horizon is wide. We want national DSA to match that horizon.

We have also been hard at work on our internal culture. Sexism, racism, ableism, and abuse is an inexcusable part of both our society as a whole and, as a result, our organization today. We have instituted a new chaplain program to proactively address internal conflicts within Build and give a safe space for members to voice any and all concerns they may have with no fear of retaliation on an organizational or social level. If we are to present a vision for the future, we must prove to ourselves that we can be better than the present, and this our first step in doing that. We hope eventually if it is successful to be able to release this framework for use in other groups, both within DSA and without.

Practically, we have ended the distinction between our Horizon series and the Build publication as a whole, rolling them into one. For the time being we will be releasing articles online one at a time, and plan to release collections in the more familiar Build Zine format down the line. As always we need writers, editors, and solicitors to keep this project moving. We also need folks to help compile work from locals to help signal boost fundraisers, projects, petitions, and other initiatives to a national level.

Other projects we’re working on now:

Online trainings, like our training on community defense against CoVID-19 with Dr. Gaddy of Vanderbilt University. Over 130 comrades across the country joined us, and you can watch the recording at the link above.

Communication and analysis are critically important right now. So we’re starting a blog series on pandemic capitalism, looking at the guts of capitalism that socialists rarely think about as our broken system breaks down. See the first post on bond markets by Dave Backer here.

As always, we’re lifting up local work happening in chapters and branches around the country. In the near term we will do our best to disseminate helpful information related to the crisis at hand.

If you’re interested in getting involved, fill out this form and we will set up a one on one with a current Build member.

Solidarity,

Build



