Colin MahnsFor Political and Technological Independence: A Path to Exit from Capitalist and Democratic Party Tech
I’ve been part of DSA’s National Tech Committee (@dsa_tech) for the last 5 years, it’s been one of my highlights as an organizer.
I and other NTC members have put forward a resolution for DSA’s Convention this year to draw lines for our org independence:
“For Political and Technological Independence: A Path to Exit from Capitalist and Democratic Party Tech” — the aims of it are simple: 1. assess all of DSA’s technology currently in use 2. identify potential problems for us and 3. start setting deadlines for replacements for tools.
The politics for why we need to do this are as clear as day: the more we win and advance DSA as a political project, the bigger threat we are to capital and the ruling class parties. It’s a liability that we’re using their tools for membership db, voter outreach/canvassing, and daily life in DSA.
Losing these tools will be catastrophic to DSA operations, halting chapters and campaigns and putting us in a scramble to identify and move to new tools that might not even be able to handle what we need them to do. For a member-led organization, this is a nightmare scenario.
We fortunately have time, and this risk isn’t impending but it’s getting closer by the day, exactly why DSA passed “Act Like an Independent Party” (ALIP) two years ago, to prepare ourselves for when the dirty break is inevitable. We have time to do this work right, but only if we start now.
The first shots against us as the real oppositional force of the working class are starting to get fired our way as Jesse Brown, Councilor from Indianapolis, can attest.
I see this as the NTC’s project plan for Act Like an Independent Party. I’m thrilled to get to work.
It’s also a political choice on where we spend our money. Past tech purchasing decisions have picked for-profit Democratic Party consultants over worker-owned cooperatives competing with similar products. Non-unionized vendors over ones that have unions. Proprietary programs over open source code.
We exist in capitalism, the tech budget for DSA won’t fix that and I don’t have illusions that it will. But we can spend our money, our dues money, on things that better align with our politics as an organization. We as members have the power to push for this and demand it. That’s the DSA difference.
If you’re a DSA member, I’d love for you to sign on: https://discussion.dsausa.org/t/r-for-political-and-technological-independence-a-path-to-exit-from-capitalist-and-democratic-party-tech/41851?u=cmahns
You’ll need a forum account to sign on, visit optin.dsausa.org to join!