Mamdani's win confirms to many democratic socialists that they are on the right track, as do the elections of Brandon Johnson in Chicago, Katie Wilson in Seattle, several city council members in Portland OR, and in other cities around the country. I have argued that US "sewer socialism" from the first few decades of the last century as a cautionary tale. The US Socialist Party of American members who were elected in cities like Milwaukee accomplished some reforms, but were all eventually defeated leaving little trace of their accomplishments. That my take on ballot-box socialism in the US.
Eric Blanc has taken a "new look" at sewer socialism (https://www.laborpolitics.com/p/sewer-socialism-in-wisconsin-and) and writes "Contrary to what much of the literature on sewer socialism has suggested, the party’s growth did not come at the cost of dropping radical politics. That they didn’t get closer to overthrowing capitalism was due to circumstances outside of their control, including relatively conservative public opinion. And the fact that they did achieve so much was because they flexibly concretized socialist politics for America’s uniquely challenging context." According to the article, the Wisconsin socialist mayor was finally defeated in 1939 "by employer opposition and public opinion." In other words, by capital. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#39464): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/39464 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/116460247/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
