So, what does it mean for us to be a "base-building" socialist organization? Is it that different from being in any other socialist group? Good question, ourselves! To give you a flavor of what being in PS is like, here's a partial list of what we've been doing the past 2 weeks:
1) Our independent journal, @PhillyPartisan, offers a hyperlocal look at Philly politics and activism, but it also features theory, cartoons, poetry. They planned their next issue out one night, then they hosted a banger of a party at our office.
2) Our West Philly ESL program ran their regular 2 classes per week at a local library. Leaders of our North Philly ESL class went out flyering in the neighborhood and promoted the class at this weekend's Mexican Independence Day Festival.
3) The three student branches of the org at Penn, Temple, and @DrexelSocialist, linked to organizers who're done with dang school, prepared to have their first meetings of the semester this month.
4) Cadre working in the Philly Tenants Union continued their campaign at a West Philly apartment complex facing mass eviction. Their efforts led to the slumlord CEO meeting with the tenants in a heated exchange last week. This week, cadre and residents met and planned escalation.
5) We hosted Charlie Post on a Saturday night, where he spoke to a packed room of PS members and the public about his take on the Popular Front period, how the Communist Party USA traded away real power by collaborating with the Democratic Party.
6) Members kicked off a study group of W.E.B. DuBois' Black Reconstruction, hosting it at a worker owned co-op.
7) More Tenants Union cadre kept up the recruitment drive the union recently committed to--going out to transit stops and talking to renters about their landlord problems, getting info to have follow up organizing conversations.
8) Member @ptrmsk gave a talk at Penn on THE book highlighting how capitalists cause gentrification, How to Kill a City. They were joined by PTU's Coalition Liaison, recruited to the organization in an eviction defense last year.
9) We began canvasses with our newest project, Dignity, beginning to recruit leaders to the work of creating a workers center. Cadre went out and spoke to workers on the job at more than a dozen worksites.
10) This is the work we believe socialists need to commit to: rebuilding working-class institutions, going to the people directly, struggling with our enemies, educating ourselves, and taking care of each other while we do it. It's hard work, but if we don't do it, who will??
