As Soon As Possible!

It's that time of year again. Its nine days until the New Year – a time when lots of people are making New Year's Resolutions!

December is a perfect time to ask the question, "What will it take to win a new world?" While it will take a lot of things, the main thing we need, is more organizing. We need lots and lots (and lots and lots) of people. A hundred million people fully desiring social transformation – longing for it, working for it, telling others about it, actively participating in it – wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Participatory Economics As An Alternative
by John J. Cronan Jr

“TINA”
Margaret Thatcher is credited for coining the phrase, “there is no alternative”, or TINA for short, referring to her assertion that there is no alternative to neoliberalism—meaning that economic activity is better left to the dictates of the
market. Though what she really meant is “there is no better alternative,” or TINBA, because obviously there have been non-capitalist societies. Thatcher said this in the 1980's, and if one were to look at the current economic state of the world, one might think that she was right. We are said to live in a “flat world”--one where globalization has made countries, companies, and individuals more interdependent on one another; therefore allowing a greater possibility for countries, companies, and individuals to prosper. However, even though neoliberalism is expanding, so is resistance and struggle against it.

Dear SDS Family,

Recently at the National Convention, we passed a vision statement committing ourselves and the organization to, among other things, what we called “long haul struggle” or “organizing for the long haul”. By taking on this commitment we are saying, organizationally, that we understand the level of dedication and long-term, patient (yet urgent) work it will take to lead us on the path to victory. If we are serious about this commitment and about winning, this is a discussion that should begin at all levels of the organization: “What will it take to build a community of loving support and what will it take to organize for the long haul?” In other words: “What will it take to build a community that can support us in our work, make us feel loved and supported? What will it take to build a community which prevents burnout and makes our organizations, selves, identities, friendships, comradeships, relationships, partnerships, and political alliances stronger and more effective?”

So this is it. We've managed, in a couple of years, to create a multi-issue student group with hundreds, thousands of members across the country. We've got a national structure and one hundred active chapters. We want revolution, we want systemic change, we want a better world - another world. A more participatory, just, equal world. And we think we can do it. But do we have what it takes?

I'd been following SDS, mostly through online news stories, for a few months prior to starting our chapter in Lancaster. SDS stood out to me as something new - something that the movement needed, but it didn't have. A student movement for participatory democracy, framed exactly as such. I'm an anarchist that doesn't like to call himself one. The word anarchism carries a lot of baggage with it. By the time I'd heard of the new SDS, I had figured out that any group that defined itself as explicitly anarchist would have an immensely hard time with movement building.

By John J. Cronan Jr.

(This is an edited version of an essay that originally appeared in pamphlet form at the 2007 SDS National Convention.)

We seem to face a serious class crisis within our movements and organizations that has taken two forms: 1) the issue of class has fallen off the list of priorities, and 2) those that do spend adequate attention to it, have the wrong class analysis, rendering it useless. As a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), I see that we are not immune to this problem; therefore this essay seeks to briefly, but succinctly, tackle and address these problems, beginning with the latter. The traditional Left's two class analysis will be scrapped in favor of introducing a third class—the coordinator class; and after identifying this new class, I will discuss the ramification it has on our movements and organizations, drawing especially from SDS experiences. It should be noted that class is going to be examined in a more simplistic nature than it should; however, keep in mind that the author believes that class can never been defined as an individual oppression separate from other oppressions that stem from community and cultural, kinship, and authority relations; but rather, each is actively entwined with one another (what is sometimes called a “totalist” approach, or “complimentary wholism”).

"A New Left, As Soon As Possible.
Peace, As Soon As Possible.
Justice, As Soon As Possible.
Popular Participation, As Soon As Possible.
Classlessness, As Soon As Possible.
Self-Management, As Soon As Possible.
Feminism, As Soon As Possible.
Intercommunalism, As Soon As Possible.
Revolution, As Soon As Possible.
Liberation, As Soon As Possible."

This website is the (rapidly updating) product of a few years of discussion on various topics related to movement building, especially vision and strategy for revolutionary movements.

We hope you will read some of it, tell us what you think, and enjoy!
-ASAP!