What if “socialism” is not a prefigured identity to aspire to, but a culmination of effects produced through the struggle to reshape society itself? In his latest work, Kolya Ludwig revisits the left’s misunderstanding of political subjectivity and its implications for socialist strategy, drawing on Ernesto Laclau’s theory of populism.

Nithya Raman has won the official endorsement of DSA-LA following weeks of contentious yet constructive debate in Geese by both sides of the question. J. Ryder argues that the entire chapter should now mobilize and unite under a permanent campaign to build a socialist pole in LA and defeat Karen Bass to meet the crucial challenges ahead against the establishment.

Washington, D.C. has been occupied by the National Guard and federal police for more than a year. Trump has extended the occupation through inauguration day 2029. Andy C provides an overview of the federal occupation of D.C., locating its roots in the Trump administration’s experience of the 2020 uprisings. Whether we’re headed for a People’s January 6th or if you see more hot summers on the horizon, the left needs to pay attention to what’s happening in the streets of D.C.

NYC-DSA is threatening to upend New York’s electoral battlefield. But to do so most effectively, it must manage to both win new seats and maintain a distinct socialist pole from any elected official. Nik M. argues for a NYC DSA convention proposal that will give us an independent socialist electoral strategy.

Few concepts within Marxism are as contested as the idea that, once the relations of production arise, a whole world of ideology, consciousness, institutions, and norms follows. Understood through the Base/Superstructure metaphor, this idea has been contested and expanded by a wide range of Marxists, from György Lukács to Theodor Adorno. Devin G. proposes a different approach. Rather than accepting any sort of deterministic framework, communists should revisit Marx’s more general ‘mode of production’ thesis as a synoptic, fluid totality based on human activity.