First National United Front Meeting
Gwendolyn Hart
On July 18th, United Front for a Workers’ Party held its first national meeting over Zoom. The theme: “Dump the Democrats – Elect Independent Socialists!” Among the attendees were members of several socialist organizations from across the country: Labor Militant, Red Spark, ISA(r), the Spartacist League, Workers’ Voice, the Socialist Party of Indiana, and Rhode Island DSA.
There were three main speakers, who are currently at the head of independent socialist campaigns. Ben Davis, member of the new Socialist Party of Indiana, who is running for the Indiana State House. Jesse Brown, a sitting member of the Indianapolis City Council who helped found the SPI. Brittany Kubicek, member of Rhode Island DSA, who is running for the Rhode Island State House as an independent socialist.
The Socialist Party of Indiana was founded in response to the Democrat Party’s purging of socialists and progressives in Indiana. The Democratic Party removed the names of one hundred progressives from internal elections and expelled Jesse Brown, who ran as a Democrat, from the party caucus because he opposed budget cuts to public schools. Ben Davis, who is running to unseat a MAGA Republican, recounted his experience:
“I didn’t know that I wanted to run as a Democrat …. I was on the fence. I talked to the Democratic Party. I said I’m willing to run as a Democrat and campaign to win this seat. And they were like, ‘No. We don’t want a democratic socialist at all. We’d rather not run anybody in this district.’ So I said, ‘Alright thanks for helping me get off the fence.’”
The Rhode Island chapter of DSA is unique in that they have passed a resolution banning any endorsement of Democrats in elections. They stand for a clean break in the DSA with the Democrats and for organizing on an independent basis as socialists. They are running the only independent socialist campaign endorsed by the national DSA.
Brittany explained the necessity of socialists to run independent campaigns outside the Democratic Party:
“Being able to target the entire electorate and people who have been unrepresented in politics has been a huge positive for us. …. We believe we need to build a labor party. The best way we can prove our point that we need to do this is to win. One of the number one things I hear from people is, ‘Is it viable to run as an independent?’ Based on what I’m seeing on the doors, it’s 100% viable.”
After the speakers, there was a general discussion. There was agreement on many topics but also debate. One of the main topics of debate was whether socialists should participate in the DSA. Organizations like Red Spark argued that as DSA is a reformist organization that acts as an appendage of the Democratic Party, it is a detriment to the socialist movement to participate in it. Organizations including the Spartacist League and Labor Militant argued that revolutionaries need to go into the DSA and use this contradiction to fight for a split along class lines, and this is a necessary part of the process for breaking the socialist movement away from the Democratic Party.
Debates like these will be ongoing. In order to build a socialist party, we need to forge national links, debate the differences between the different socialist groupings, and unify around joint work in common campaigns. This was a productive first step in starting such a process.
The next national meeting of United Front is on August 22nd. Sign up here to get the link!