The decision by Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman to support President Biden’s effort to impose a contract on the railway workers and impose a legal sanction against a strike is a blow against the very heart of the socialist project. Solidarity with labor is the non-negotiable foundation of socialism, and the betrayal of the railway workers is the betrayal of that foundation, and indeed a betrayal of our movement and our organization.
Solidarity with labor is the non-negotiable foundation of socialism, and the betrayal of the railway workers is the betrayal of that foundation, and indeed a betrayal of our movement and our organization.
The Winter Caucus therefore reaffirms our solidarity with the railway workers in the fight for a contract on their terms and will support their efforts through any strike, legal or illegal. Further, we identify the following steps as those most becoming of a healthy socialist organization:
1) The rescindment of the endorsements of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush, and the expulsion of those Representatives and of Representative Jamaal Bowman.
2) A moratorium on new congressional endorsements for 2024 and lasting until such time as our organization is capable of demanding and maintaining socialist discipline of its endorsed representatives.
We recognize that DSA as it is currently structured is incapable of undertaking such steps through its leadership bodies. In order to build DSA into the socialist party we need, we must therefore organize the rank and file membership to take ownership of the organization. Only when the organization is grounded on principles of proletarian democracy, programmatic accountability, and active membership can it develop the base and apparatus needed to maintain a socialist caucus in Congress.