Marxism and Politics Lecture Series: A Party of Our Own?

Join PHL DSA for our Marxism and Politics Lecture Series. The lecture series brings political analysts and writers to Philadelphia to give seminars on their recent work. For this lecture, Jared Abbott (PhD candidate in Government at Harvard) and Dustin Guastella (Director of Operations for Teamsters Local 623), will discuss their recently published piece in Catalyst Journal "A Socialist Party in Our Time?"

For the first time in several decades, the US left has the unique opportunity to marshal widespread political and economic disillusionment into a political movement capable of gaining and exercising power. As more people seem open to the idea of democratic socialism, the left must channel this widespread discontent and newfound receptivity into a coherent and effective strategy. This Marxism and Politics Lecture will take up a set of strategic issues, specifically around the relationship between elections and the broader left pursuit of power. US socialists have struggled with two primary questions in their debates around electoral strategy: First, what type of organization is best suited to the left's goals? Second, how does a responsible and effective left relate to the Democratic Party? Through considered analysis of the innumerable barriers imposed by existing institutions — the electoral system, the Democratic Party, and big-money donors—Abbott and Guastella propose a solution of a "party surrogate" model capable of mobilizing working-class voters disillusioned with the Democratic Party.