History

DSA in Sacramento began as a DSOC local in 1978.  We participated in electoral, union, and activist campaigns opposing NAFTA, the Wars in Central America, fighting for immigration reform and opposing racism.

 

   In 2006  some  Sacramento DSA folks, and former DSA members, were interested in forming a Progressive Alliance, at first working with PDA.  Our work with the Progressive Alliance became our primary electoral and anti war work.  We maintained a separate process to contact DSA folks per DSA.  The Progressive Alliance reaches out to about 2000.  The local DSA membership is about 90.

Since the last  DSA convention we held a DSA forum on the divisions in labor (Change to Win v. AFL-CIO).  We had Cornel West speak at our campus and Dolores Huerta, and we tabled at both events.  Both Cornel and Dolores gave us plugs and urged people to visit our tables.  The Progressive Alliance holds a monthly film series.  We featured DSA at the May Day event with a film on Paul  Wellstone.

In the Fall of 2006 we participated in important electoral campaigns through the Progressive  Alliance. On May Day 2006 we joined with over 40,000 ( in Sacramento) in the national days of protest for immigrant  rights.  One million marched nation wide.  We participated actively in the planning and the intense conflicts over this march.

I spoke representing DSA at a number of conferences and in university classes.

Our primary work and focus is on a university campus.   We did not participate in any significant manner in the Bernie Sanders effort.

In the Fall of 2007 and 2008 we hosted a Progressive forums attended by 250.  The DSA part of the forum was to present the draft Economic Justice Agenda.   The forum was well attended and  served to re introduce DSA from the “shadows”.

In the Fall of 2007 through the present we have worked to promote the Obama campaign. 

Here is a brief explanation of our considerations.

What kind of a campaign will it take to win?  Which candidate will build the kind of a campaign that will gain the White House, and several seats in the Senate and even more in the House?

A win will require the mobilization of broad new forces in our political system.   I propose an in depth discussion of which candidate will be able to mobilize new forces? 

Which forces will be brought into the mobilization? 

 

How will we change the political landscape and make room for  future mobilization.  I am impressed with the growth of the youth vote for Obama. 

I have taught at a university for the last 35 years and have regularly worked with politically active students.  This Obama effort is different.  It has an energy an enthusiasm that I have rarely seen.  And, it is positive, not cynical.

We need to recognize  that a person who is 22- 25, was only  17 when George Bush was elected. They have only begun to pay attention to politics.  Their entire political experience has been the Republican war/Katrina debacles.  Their participation in this effort is formative for them.   One of my early elections was for Eugene Mc Carthy (1968) , and another was for George Mc Govern (1972).  These efforts taught me not to trust the  D.P.  What we know is that these campaigns created an environment which benefited the creation of a left. 

The Obama  campaign ed  create a significant environment for a new generation of  young people.  It engaged  them in political efforts.  Our work on the Obama campaign is well documented at http://www.sacramentopa.blogspot.com 

The Obama campaign takes the U.S. issue with race one step forward.  It is not a final push.  However, it is a major step.  And, this generation is prepared to work together across racial lines.  This has not been true in prior campaigns.  Even the Jackson campaign (which I worked in) was a project of the African American community and a group of progressives.  This Obama campaign, particularly the youth part of it, is a campaign  of a broad majority in pushing forward on race.

In the election,  race and racism were  on the agenda.  Important in this effort will be  to divide the stone cold racists from those in the majority communities  who are not  actively participating in oppression but who deny the importance of racism  in our society. 

As a candidate he represents a new generation of Black leaders, yes, a post Civil Rights generation.   Barack is skilled at organizing and reaching out to new people. He used an organizers approach to elections.  There are several good papers on this.  

It is important at this juncture to bring in as many new young people as possible and to engage them in anti racism work; both working to elect Obama and working to oppose anti immigrant hysteria that is approaching. Most recently we sponsored one of the several platform development sessions to suggest ideas for the national DP.  We proposed a progressive position on immigration and we proposed the national DSA campaign of Re-negotiate NAFTA.  Now, we need to see what gets incorporated

Progressive forces in the U.S. have won a major victory with the defeat of the Bush/McCain administration and the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency.  Victory was created by an unprecedented mobilization of Black, Latino, White, Asian , union members, youth and other progressive forces- some  of whom participated in elections for the first time. The election victory was a result of many forces  including well organized volunteers, organized labor, systematic mobilizations in the Black community ( including its churches), the Latino community and other progressive forces. 

The Obama campaign was a broad coalition of forces uniting progressives and middle groups (moderates) to win a clear and decisive victory. This coalition includes major conservative and financial establishment forces.  The campaign won in part by expanding the electorate.  Obama won among all major demographic group except White men, and even there the organized union vote reduced the usual preference of white males for Republican candidates.

 Sacramento DSA is proud to have played an active role in this campaign working through the Sacramento Progressive Alliance. 

  

For our electoral work we are working through the Progressive Alliance (see http://www.sacramentopa.blogspot.com ) and the local Obama campaign.  All readers are invited to join in.