My draft SDA January newsletter
My dear comrades,
Dear Comrades,
If you would like to become a paid voting or non-voting member of the Social Democrats of America, please follow this link: https://socialists.us/join.
This year, we have once again doubled the membership of Social Democrats of America, the Socialist faction inside the Democratic Party. This month’s draft newsletter is therefore intended to welcome all the new Socialists into the movement.
Welcome!
I will open with the words of Socialist International President Pedro Sánchez regarding the regulation of 500,000 migrants.
I publish this draft newsletter on the last day of the month and post it on Substack so you can always refer to it if you forget to check your spam folder or feel that SDA did not send you anything.
We are not a customer service organization, so it is up to every member to stay informed about what SDA does.
That said, we also know that we are human, and that the American system has accustomed people to being treated like kings—where one becomes annoyed if they are not the center of the world.
SDA is not going to waste your membership money paying a private company to ensure that the newsletter lands in your inbox.
Just like changing the battery in your smoke detector when the time changes, SDA publishes a newsletter on the last day of the month, organizes an onboarding meeting on the first Wednesday of the month, and holds an open discussion on Zoom at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.
What SDA’s Success Depends on Is You!
We are all volunteers, and the goal is to create a Socialist caucus within the Democratic Party to build the Socialist philosophy inside the Democratic Party and to run Socialist candidates.
If you do not participate in your local county Democratic Party, then SDA will not be successful.
To understand Socialism, you need to understand three concepts illustrated in The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
American philosopher Stephen Petro provides the cliff notes so you do not have to read these works right now in order to be effective as a Socialist, a Social Democrat, or a Democratic Socialist.
This newsletter is intended to explain to all new voting and non-voting members what they signed up for.
A Small Library Project
A French comrade asked me that, if you happen to be in front of a library (not a bookstore), you take a photo like the example below—one where the word library is clearly visible, with people coming in or out—and, of course, include the precise location.
His idea is to publish a book of libraries from all over the world to highlight the importance of books in culture and democracy.
I am sharing this request because, as Socialists, we have a network of comrades around the world working on small projects, and whenever we can help, we do. If you would like to participate, you can email the photo to theo@socialists.us, and I will forward it to Ambroise. Please also let me know how you would like to be credited.
Change What We Can Control
The goal of SDA is to change what we can control and learn to let go of what we cannot.
I say this because I remember members of my own community organizing postcard campaigns to replace George Santos, and now the same group is calling to replace Tom Suozzi for voting in favor of ICE. But when it came to building Socialism in the neighborhood, they were nowhere to be found.
What I can control is, by sheer luck, running into George Santos, telling him that I am a Socialist, and working on the narrative. That day, I was with photojournalist Sophie Bellard, who took that picture.
What I can control is not infringing on his First Amendment rights—agreeing where agreement is possible and disagreeing where it is not. But at the end of the day, I live in NY-13, not NY-03, so we must concentrate on what we can actually change, even if it is an uphill battle.
We all have politicians in our own backyard who need to be replaced.
If we each focus on doing that locally, those who live far away—whom television or the internet brings into our homes—can be ignored.
Socialist, Social Democracy, or Democratic Socialism Is the Same Thing
Socialism, Social Democracy, and Democratic Socialism are the same thing, and you can refer to the movement using the term you feel most comfortable with.
You will hear Socialist leaders use all three terms interchangeably, so if another leftist tries to pull you into a semantic debate over their definitions, do not waste your time.
A Socialist member of the Greek Parliament explains the differences, in his country, between the Progressive International (DSA in the USA, SYRIZA in Greece) and the Socialist International (SDA in the USA, PASOK in Greece).
We Decide What Socialism Is
We, the members of the Socialist International community, decide what Socialism is.
When someone who is not a member of a Socialist organization declares what is and is not Socialism, it usually means they do not know. Some of these individuals may have been members of a Socialist organization at some point, but left following a disagreement.
That is the case with many leaders and organizations—such as Lenin, Marx, Bernie Sanders, the entire Democratic Socialists of America organization, and the American Socialist Party, to name a few—which have all left the Socialist International movement. From that moment on, these organizations ceased to be Socialist in the organizational sense.
Socialism is full of philosophical drama, and there are bylaws to deal with that drama.
One thing we are clear about is that we are in the United States, and that Michael Harrington authored the Socialist International’s 1989 Declaration of Principles, which is what we follow: https://www.socialistinternational.org/about-us/declaration-of-principles.
As far as SDA is concerned, we do not recognize any of the current management of the Socialist International, which is why we reverted to the original name under which George Herron represented SDA at the first meeting in 1901: the Committee of the Second Socialist International.
All we need to prove ourselves is to elect SDA members to public office in counties across the United States, and that is something we can control.
And now you are part of that global adventure, but your participation is in your county.
Social Democrats of America is your organization
When I say it’s your organization, it does not mean that you get to change the organization’s bylaws unilaterally because you do not like how it is run today.
By joining SDA, you agree to the common rules laid out in the bylaws: https://socialists.us/direct/declaration/bylaws. If you do not like these bylaws, then you are welcome to join other “socialist” organizations.
In the United States, there are two Social Democratic organizations, Social Democrats, USA and us: one that follows the American bylaws system that mirrors DSA, and one that follows the intricate European bylaws established after the 1970s.
You can find all the information about who they are here: https://politicalcenter.org.
When it comes to which one will be the Socialist organization, the voters in your county will get to decide at the ballot box.
Social Democrats, USA, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and us share the same common Socialist root, but we have different management styles, and that management style is what drives how ideas go from brainstorming to realization. Change is gradual and occurs over a long period of time.
What is the next step for you?
If you are alone in your county, you need to recruit five members to create a Social Democratic Branch of the SDA Salon, and you will need to participate in your monthly local Democratic Party meeting.
Once you have recruited five members, you then organize a monthly meeting following the Ben Franklin Circles rules.
How is Socialism created?
By organizing Ben Franklin Circles in your communities and grooming leaders to run for elected office and apply the Socialism manifesto to their policies.
Socialism is a living movement that evolves over time through trial and error in applying policies when elected.
We are Reformists
Being a Socialist is being a reformist. Over the last century, all the way to 2017, the debate between reformists and revolutionaries has raged and continues to this day.
The revolution is the last resort when democratic processes have failed. It is our job to educate the electorate (however painful it is to lose) that our movement is the best equipped to bring positive change.
We are Democrats
We are Democrats; therefore, we build and recruit Socialist comrades inside the Democratic Party. We recruit into the Democratic party and we play by the rules of the Democratic party.
We play by the rules, and when other factions inside the Democratic Party do not play by the same rules as the Democratic Party, we also can draw outside the lines and play meaner.
We believe in democracy, but believing in democracy does not mean we believe in right-wing liberal policies.
We are looking for 3,600 leaders
We are looking for 3,600 leaders to run a Socialist Ben Franklin Circle in your county. Don’t worry if it’s not you; it’s someone you know, and if you start looking locally around the things you can change, you will realize that the answer was in front of you all this time.
Having said all that, the first rule is communication, so please use the email lists for your county to organize the monthly salon, share ideas, and debate local issues, and use the national debate to voice your frustration about things you can’t change but wish were different. Most likely, some comrade who is locally frustrating you will hear you.
Two minutes to change the world locally
At a New York City Council committee, chaired by my own councilman, I asked that a bill be amended to include “UN Week” to express my frustration with the United Nations for behaving as if they did not belong in this world.
So, applying the concept of changing what I can control, I can control my ballot for my councilman, I can control my speech in front of the NYC Council, I can control what is posted on the Socialist.US website, and I can recruit people to enhance the proposal: https://www.socialists.us/direct/UNClosures/policies.
These local steps may seem useless, but when you put them side by side, they tell a very different story—a story that we build together, over time.
Socialism, or whatever makes you comfortable—Social Democracy or Democratic Socialism—is as American as apple pie.
Welcome to SDA. Go down your driveway to your mailbox, look right, look left, look up, and, like Pedro Sánchez, change the world by changing what you can control.
Organize your first SDA salon if you don’t have one: https://socialists.us/localwork
And if you did not go to an on-boarding meeting, just join me one hour before the announced time (8 pm ET / 5 pm PT) to have an open discussion: https://socialists.us/events, and bring someone.
In the first paragraph, I relayed a request that I received from a comrade in France for a book project he is working on, and when I stop in front of a library, I will take that picture.
That is how, by doing something we can control locally, we can change the world the way Ben Franklin imagined it.
Welcome dear Comrade!
In solidarity,
Hasta la victoria, ¡siempre!
Theo