The CPUSA’s national leadership is known for stifling any move towards radicalism by local chapters. The most charitable interpretation for their leadership is that the fear of becoming scapegoated like Eugene Debbs was, whose imprisonment killed off the SPA, is one where no electoralist approach has yet found a solution for a century later.
For the DSA, I was specifically referring to the DSA’s National Political Committee, which notoriously de-chartered their Palestine/BDS working group in 2022 after the DSA endorsed an Iron Dome-voting Zionist congressman. My understanding from individuals who were part of the DSA’s East Bay chapter, which partly led the opposition to the attack on the Palestine working group, was that the DSA NPC had been, and gave off the impression during the dispute, attempting to exercise a de facto sort of democratic centralism, which was unsupported by the DSA’s constitution. From what I understand, nowadays, their present issue appears to be an overcorrection towards the other direction, most recently exemplified in the fight with the DSA-LA chapter over LA’s new mayor.
The CPUSA’s national leadership is known for stifling any move towards radicalism by local chapters. The most charitable interpretation for their leadership is that the fear of becoming scapegoated like Eugene Debbs was, whose imprisonment killed off the SPA, is one where no electoralist approach has yet found a solution for a century later.
For the DSA, I was specifically referring to the DSA’s National Political Committee, which notoriously de-chartered their Palestine/BDS working group in 2022 after the DSA endorsed an Iron Dome-voting Zionist congressman. My understanding from individuals who were part of the DSA’s East Bay chapter, which partly led the opposition to the attack on the Palestine working group, was that the DSA NPC had been, and gave off the impression during the dispute, attempting to exercise a de facto sort of democratic centralism, which was unsupported by the DSA’s constitution. From what I understand, nowadays, their present issue appears to be an overcorrection towards the other direction, most recently exemplified in the fight with the DSA-LA chapter over LA’s new mayor.