Org Update: a change in strategy

As of late, the members of DMSG have been convening in order to rethink our plans for the organization and how we’d go about accomplishing our goals. For most of our existence, the plan was to create socialist material and distribute it to others, in order to raise class consciousness and generally help destroy notions of capitalist realism in America. Pamphlets, posters, art, videos, and writing these articles was what we had decided to focus on, because the fact of the matter was that we really had no one else who was worth working with or collaborating with. We thought that it would be smart to expand our reach at one point and focus on appealing to different segments, and while we have earned a few consistent readers from doing that, the risk that is beginning to run is not worth the additional exposure at this point. While DMSG will continue to mostly operate as is, there have been major societal shifts within the last year that have prompted us to abandon earlier ambitions and for our members to decide on creating new plans for the organization.

While DMSG would serve as a production center for media content initially, through which we could distribute it through other channels that DMSG was not formally connected to, that idea has been shelved for now. Our members had thought that creating an unrelated-to-DMSG caucus in the Democratic Socialists of America would help to create a platform on which to implement political change, despite our revulsion for the neoliberal organization, but the decision of the DNC to ensure that superdelegates will be in charge of deciding who will go on to the primaries has effectively nerfed the ability for change to be made. Unless we win over the entire system, supplanting the bourgeois politickers with pro-worker forces across the entire country, there can be no non-violent political changes made under the current system at all. Which gets to our next point: based on the current inverted totalitarianism of the United States, in which communication and coordination is disrupted continually by the government and its corporate colluders, it doesn’t seem likely that any meaningful resistance can form against the current regime regardless of methods and means. Revolutions and political changes have historically never been started by the workers in countries with centralized political power and we doubt any powerful person’s interests will ever align with our own enough to generate the momentum that proletarians need in order to create a socialist country. For what it’s worth, the notion of creating political change of any sort beyond what the establishment desires in America is not only becoming fantastical but suicidal in America.

Beyond the directly political solutions that our members had desired to pursue in the past through unrelated organizations, we’ve noticed legacy organizations that once fought for the working man like the IWW have been taken over by neoliberals as well. For all intents and purposes, the system has erected countless roadblocks to change through formal channels. While it is without a doubt that many of these roadblocks are emergent, it also seems very likely that these roadblocks in the way of implementing actual change and coordinating workers have been put into place by the federal government. Putting it simply, our freedom today only extends so far and it is on a leash who’s length depends entirely on how convenient it is for our corporate overlords. With the increases in regulation of speech and government persecution of individuals that voice opinions contrary to the interests of the status quo, it is doubtlessly inevitable that within the coming years, any current dissent that we can express will be entirely outlawed. At this point, you may ask: well, will you tell me something here that I don’t already know?

And the answer to that question is: yes. As I repeat like a parrot on this website, material conditions determine social conditions and the forces that have emerged in order to warp the government, its corporate benefactors, and this farce of a political system into the tyranny that we live under today have only aligned out of economic interests. If you can beat these entities in an economic struggle, then you can change the nature of politics without having to ever dip your toe in that shark cage. For now, the three main goals of DMSG are as follows now:

1. to begin investing in the means of production abroad, in order to ensure that in the ensuing years that we can leverage the current power of the American dollar to set up camp elsewhere. Perhaps, we’ll just create a commune with properties under its control where our descendants can be taught – in a way similar to classical religions – about the world around them through the materialist lens we’ve forged at DMSG. Perhaps, we will try to implement changes in those areas abroad or perhaps we will resign ourselves to just waiting out the industrial collapse. As one of our members said last night, “there is no point in a man trying to hold back a tsunami from destroying his town. It is better that the man focuses his energy on building a raft.” For us, DMSG is the raft because it is tax-exempted and we can continue to put write-offs into properties abroad.
2. to begin looking for ways to subvert the capitalist system entirely. When we look at the direction that the economy is taking us in, it seems that non-profits and co-ops may be systems more compatible with an economic environment in which the declining General Rate of Profit is forcing corporations to merge with one another and play a larger role in government regulation. Based on success rates, lending opportunities, and a whole host of other factors, this may be a way in which we can subvert the power of capitalist forces and erode their sway over the government. While open-source projects and co-ops have not dominated the economy thus far, it doesn’t mean they can’t in the future and while this may seem overly optimistic, it isn’t out of the question. In terms of services provided, these options seem to be the most affordable avenues and their decentralization guarantees that their subversion is harder to implement. Through subsidiaries, volunteers, and funding, it is may be more possible in the future to naturally arrive at a post-capitalist society
3. look to begin creating new labor organizations in the future. The fact of the matter is that every existing labor organization has been subverted at this point, having either grown complacent and staffed by capitalists or having been ground into the dust by the forces of government. We need a new and uncorrupted variant of the IWW, built as an organizing place for actual workers rather than as a safe space for edgy liberals, and in time, perhaps that will be accomplished.

The goals stated above are listed in an order of priority, because having the fallback is far more important and realistic than gambling our lives and futures on succeeding in this authoritarian system. Once we have accrued enough productive capital in a second-world country, it will be possible to begin sponsoring the creation of non-profits and co-ops, and through that, the creation of new labor organizations through which the proletarians can rally around. It is a long shot and it may not work, but as long as we have this information to pass down and the resources to invest in future generations of DMSG members, at least we don’t completely lose out. In the coming years, DMSG will strive to keep low and just keep on chugging along, because we are in hostile territory. America is going to hell in a handbasket, and if we can’t change its trajectory, then we need to change where we live. For those of you who aren’t members that have read this far, I’m not asking you to join DMSG but if this plan seems solid to you, let me know in case that you want free consultation on how to go about doing this yourself or in case you want to collaborate with us. As I’ve said before, this strategy is a long shot and as long as there’s like minded people pursuing the same thing, whether it be with us or without us, it increases the chances of this working out.

We will continue to post articles, intermittently, in order to articulate things, elaborate on views, and dip our toes into new philosophical ideas. If we’re being completely honest, the changes that have occurred in this past year have stripped the steam out of us, as its left us wondering what to do and where to direct our energies. This article entails the results of all the debates and deliberations that have taken place since March, as we’ve struggled to find new purpose for DMSG in a world that has changed. While I am not religious anymore, I want to end this article on one last note: may G-d bless those of us fighting the good fight.

Signing off, DMSG staff