Ep 11: Expanding the Tent with Rael Almonte

0:00:34

Welcome to left on red where a gen x mom and gay millennial do socialism. We've got left wing views on news you can use. I'm Scott. I'm Susan, and we have a guest with us today. Hey, I'm rail a little Monday. And we're here to talk about rail and his journey to socialist and what he does in the Democratic socialist of America and you're in for a treat. So, yeah, thank you guys for for for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

0:01:01

My so I come from a more or less left wing family. My dad was a member of the Communist Party at some point, and I have a lot of family members who are the Communist Party in the United States or In the Dominican Republic, I'm from the Dominican Republic. So my dad was part of the Communist Party. My aunt was part of, like, a modest party. So left wing, Napo Baby? Yeah. It's basically basically stuff we have no money or power. So What was the difference between the mouse party and the communist party? So the communist party because all that you put three left us in a room and you got fourteen parties. The Communist Party basically wanted industrialization while the Maoist Party wanted to focus on agrarian socialist. Right. So this is all peasant podcast Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So your your family's also peasants. Yeah. Yeah. Right? They come from, like, the mountains and stuff. It's our new tagline. A peasant a peasant and a peasant do socialism. But now we're just jealous. Yeah. So it it made sense actually in the Dominican Republic because it was, like, eighty five percent, like, rural, like, people live mostly in rural areas. Now it's like seventy two percent. And, like, the communist party doesn't do anything anymore. But but the yeah. So I come from that family. I also have a lot of family members who are like fascist and conservative. But, yeah, we moved to the US. We were, like, not doing so great. And I have a lot of family members work up.

0:02:22

So when I went to college, I ended up starting as a police science major because convinced me to be a police officer. Where were you, Yen? Just John j is, like, it started as a cop college, so it has a lot of majors that that have to do a lot with, like, criminal justice and stuff. So I had a lot of cousins that were cops, and they they convinced me to go down the trajectory as a cop. You'd have to go to college to be a cop, don't you just go to, like, the Police Academy? No. You need to have two years for them. Yeah. Sixty credits. Yeah. It's a minimum. Yeah. And to go up the ranks, you have to like, I think past sergeant that is, you have to have a a hundred and twenty credits. Right. You have to have a four year degree if you wanna move up. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, yeah. I mean, this is the way up. This is for for for social mobility, and I'm gonna be a cop.

0:03:10

I just wanna, like, point out that this is something I think a lot of Leftists don't think about, which is that people become police because it's a good public sector union job. And one of the things that we don't often do in the socialist movement is talk about we need more good jobs. Like, with pensions, with health benefits with, like, you know, a salary scale that people can do without lots of technical expertise or, like, very high grades. Right? For the most part, that kind of middle class security is largely cut off from people with the decline of industrial production. Right? And so one of the things that we don't talk about is like, why do people like cops or defend police. It's because for many people, they see their children becoming police or themselves becoming police as a ticket towards middle class stability. Yeah. Yeah.

0:04:06

They're also in general, like, in general with a lot of American working class communities, jobs with good reputations. Like, you could imagine, like, reading a child, a storybook about what is, you know, what jobs do adults do? What do you wanna be when you grow up? And you're not gonna see in that story book jobs that are like, I wanna work for Wall Street. And be a back office person. I wanna send emails about my nonprofit. You're gonna see jobs like, police officer, sanitation worker, teacher, you know, these kind of like real tangible jobs that seem to provide a public service. And for the most part and I think this is changing. But for the most part, Americans perceived police is providing a public service. Right.

0:04:48

I just wanna add one addendum with my mom hat on is that children wanna do the work. That they see as useful in their community. So this is why my younger son wants to be a school nurse now and my older son wants to be a smoothie maker. So because these are people who bring joy, pleasure, and service in their everyday lives. They never say I'd like to be a defense attorney for a pharmaceutical company. They never say I'd like to Right? What is another job, like, be a marketer? Right. Now they they see the people in their communities every day bringing actual value and service to their jobs. But anyway, let's go back to your jobs. Just to add to that though, like, I I I think that was one of the biggest problems once I I kind of, like, left the police science behind, kind of convincing people that this is not the way to go, like, try to go try to change it.

0:05:41

Because a lot of people go in there, I think it's a mix of what you both are saying. A lot of people go in. It's like, no. I'm gonna go in there. I'm gonna change the the the system from within. It's just, like, that's just not your job. Like, it's that's a police officer.

0:05:53

But it's also like a a a big issue that I kind of realized, like, towards the end of of being a John j. Just like, who am I to tell this person who's like parents have never made a combined income of like twenty thousand that like this, which is probably your easiest way to get into the middle class, It's just not a way to go. It's very difficult to tell people because, like, it is objectively, like, a pretty, like, well paying job that, like, requires very little to no skills, at least technical skills. At least for entry. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For entry. Yeah. They have some skills Sure. Yeah. Yeah. They have to pick up along the way, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, eventually, I met some great professors, including Susan can You met me late though, so -- Yeah. Yeah. -- don't give me credit.

0:06:35

Elton Beckett takes a lot of the credit of getting me off off the the the the police science track. He was a a speech professor that I had who's like sat me down and was like, so why do you wanna be a police officer? And I was like, I just wanna make money. He was just like, well, you can you can just have any any major. You don't have to be a police scientist. You could be picking up trash, cleaning toilets major if you want, and become a cop. And I was like, yeah, that makes sense. He was like, what do you like? And I was like, I like politics. And I started down the path of political science. And eventually, that got me to some awesome professors like Susan King.

0:07:08

By the time I was in Susan Kanks class, I was very much I didn't wanna be a police officer at that point. I didn't know what I wanted to be. But Susan kind of got me on the track of DSA, but would really, like, develop my, like, love of mass politics with the Palestinian movement. I was involved with the SJP at John j. We went to Washington. SJP stamp. Sorry. Students for justice in Palestine. And they're a student movement that works with worsen universities across the US to to kind of further Palestinian rights. And just seeing how, like, the John j s j p is really good. They were very much, like, kind of big tent when it came to like their politics. So they were with, like, basically, bringing in anybody who was down to to stand up for Palestinian rights. And I kind of shape a lot of the politics that I had afterwards.

0:07:55

Before that, I kind of went down a trajectory of, like, Marsh's Lettiness, kind of, like, bitterness in a lot of ways. Not saying all martial artists are bitter, but No. Tell us about the because this is a I didn't know about this journey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is a very common this is, like, deserves its own episode or segment. The liberal to ultra left pipeline -- Yeah. -- which is when a lot of people first start learning about ideologies outside traditional capitalist, liberalism, they start considering, like, radical Communism, Marxist Leninism. They go all the way. They say there's no worth in doing anything besides a full scale revolution. Yep. I think it happens through a lot of, like, rage, bitterness, a lot of very justified Black and white thinking too. Yes. And there's also a lot of despair behind it because there's no there's not really an easy path. To this revolution. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Tell tell us all about that.

0:08:47

You guys had a great episode on non reformist reforms and, like, I think it it really, like, nice. Talks about, like, the the the kind of, like, the the value of these, like, nonreformis reforms and how people hated so much. But, yeah, like, before the Bernie campaign, I think between when I left the police science, which was probably, like, twenty, like, late twenty fourteen, early twenty fifteen, and, like, the burning movement. That's when, like, I was, like, down this, like, very much, like, Marxist Leninist, very bitter kind of like a How'd you feel about Bernie then? I in love. I'm sorry. I I loved Bernie. When you said how you feel about Bernie's, and did you mean during the Bernie campaign or before? No. I mean, if you were, like, this bitter march this year. Yeah. We wanna hear more about this. Like, tell us how you went from bitter march with alumnus to, oh, I really like Bernie. I think that this is something possible. Something interesting.

0:09:37

I think one of the and by the way, I wasn't part of, like, any groups, which I think had a lot to to had a lot of impact on that because I think when you're part of a group, like, look, I have a lot of respect for a lot of, like, Marxist Leninists. They do some work. But I think that a lot of groups in the US tend to be cult ish. And I think that contributes to kind of like a very difficult kind of the attachment from the from, like, from that this Vanguardist. Kind of a way of looking at things. We have to be a small group, the revolutionary vanguard. So I wasn't part of any group. I was kind of like reading on my own. I had some friends who were Marxist Leninists.

0:10:11

But the burning campaign, it was really, like, the mass like, the massiveness of it. Just, like, it was I remember one of the things that my sister was really into it who my sister's, like, hates capitalism, but she's not really, like, politically in there. But I remember we went to a to a burning rally in the Bronx. Where I forget her name all the time. She's an actress, and she was like a big burning person. Susan Sarandon? No. No. No. No. No. I love Susan Sarandon, though. Damn it. I forgot her name. What is Rosario Dawson? Yeah. Rosario Dawson. Rosario Dawson.

0:10:43

So Bernie had this huge rally, and it was just, like, literally it was thousands of people there. And it was just like this whole movement and it it got it kind of got me to question of like, wait. So what is this whole thing about, like, having a little group or something like that? And then I got into, like, the Palestinian politics. And like I said, Sanjay students for justice in Palestine was much more big ten than other ones. So I think it might have had a different effect in other universities. But just working with people who were, like, were labs who were who were, like, you know, sometimes a little bit more conservative, but were pro Palestinian.

0:11:17

One of the things that I got out of that is that no matter where you were with the exception of some people who were much more privileged than others. Like, John j is overwhelmingly a working class institution. So, like, the underlying thing, whether they were socially conservative, or, like, socially, like, very left wing, very liberal, very progressive no matter where there were socially. Economically, most people were, like, capitalism is killing us. And I think that shaped the way I I saw Bernie after that as well.

0:11:46

And to this day, I love Bernie. Yeah, there's something to be said about that type of like. I think it's like a transcendental part of a human experience to be surrounded by a lot of other people who are all currently experiencing the same like hope or inspiration for something. I think that more than anything else, like, moved me into socialism and continues to propel me in DSA. It's not like the material results of work that we might do. It's not, you know, some of the power that we're able to use to affect change. It's the fact that I'm doing this with so many other people.

0:12:25

I think the Bernie rally in Long Island City in twenty twenty or Twenty nineteen. Twenty nineteen. Thank you. I was like, come to the minute. In twenty nineteen really like planted me firmly on the left just because there was something about being surrounded by so many people, all the same experience, that mass part of the movement that just gets you. So it's great to hear that it was a burning rally. Like, one little event, you know, that really landed you into this type of politics, but also just like constantly emphasizing the human, the social nature of what we're talking about. This is not something you can find in books. It's something you have to find in other people. So I was wondering if okay. So you rang that with you're thinking about Marxist Leninism and you were kind of jaded and then you, you know, learn about Bernie, you went to this big rally, you organized with the students for justice and Palestine. And then what was the step that got you to join DSA though? I was wondering.

0:13:26

It was a a great Gen Z mom called Susan. Tazzy. It's a gen x. Sorry. I don't know the generations, but I was It's our tagline. Right? Mom, gay millennial and today are straight millennial. Do socialism. Yeah. So Susan was the first person who was, like, you should check this. You're on the left. Like, you should she was my professor at that time too. No. I didn't say this to you when I was Oh, no. No. No. You're right.

0:13:53

It was afterwards. I followed the rules. Sorry. Okay. New York state. Yeah. Yeah. It was afterwards. It was It was when you were fully matric matric no. You were graduated. You were a graduating student. And you were no longer in any kind of position. I'd no longer had a position of authority over you, so it was totally above board at I mean, like, literally because, like, we're not we're not I joined DSA.

0:14:15

I think it was officially officially in twenty twenty one. I think it was. Which was after I came back from Vienna. Right. We we became sort of DSA curious after AOC one. Right? Yes. Yes. I I did some volunteering for the AOC campaign in the Bronx. I have a picture. It's an awesome picture.

0:14:34

And full disclosure in the Bronx, it was it was to rough man. I remember doing that last canvassing shift and I was like, man, we're gonna lose so bad. It's not even funny. But when We don't buy tier two though. Don't worry. But when we found the Bronx, it was tough, though, man. It was, like, that was, like, cop area, you know. So when she won, I was like, oh my god. This is possible, which actually gets to, like, something we're gonna talk about later.

0:15:00

I think it's just, like, how do we kind of, like, implement these things? Man, like, winning is just, like, it's it's a it gives you this, like, ecstasy, you know. But, yeah, I joined DSA. Susan was the one that really, like, pushed me to join DSA. I was, like, let me give it a try. And then, like, most people in DSA you go to one e w g meeting, and then you're, like, on seventeen different o c's and twenty different o c's. Yeah. But here's the thing is it took you a while to join DSA. You tell me why it took you a while? Why didn't you join, like, right after AOC one?

0:15:33

I was a bit skeptical. I'm not gonna lie. And I think this is something that a lot of people on, like, the broad left people who actually do stuff. The people online, like, we shouldn't really care about too much. That's my hot take. But I think for people who, like, actually, you know, do organizing either in their community or with different groups, that don't necessarily hate us or cults.

0:15:52

I think that there's a bit of a skepticism because of, like, the kind of reputation that is very most of for the most part, like, very much false. About DSA. What's that reputation? Kind of like, oh, they're just lips. They're just white lips and stuff like that. Just, like, walking around and doing But also, like, rich, trust one baby. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, they've never been to abuse You're to trust one. Love some of us. No. No. No. But But yeah. Yeah. It's it's just like this reputation that it kinda proceeded around them.

0:16:20

But when I was in Austria, I was on my, like, man, maybe the social democracy thing could work, this and that. But it kinda radicalized me because, like, I had a lot of friends in the social democratic party in in Austria. And they were just like, no, man. They are privatizing everything. The moment that capital gets the upper hand, like, it's over man. Kinda radicalized me a bit more. And I was, like, we need to do something.

0:16:42

So when I came back, I was, like, I talked to Susan. I think we've met at, like, that Vietnamese place in in near flushing. And when Jackson Heights were you -- Yeah. -- I learned that he doesn't like onions. Yeah. Yeah. I hate onions. Terrible Dominican.

0:16:56

But, yeah, Susan told me a little bit about the work that was going on, and I really wanted to get involved. And literally, like, a month later, I was a delegate for convention for a bum. Which was like I was like, I don't even know what this means. But but I talked Liche also helped a lot. I shout out to Liche, who lives in Brooklyn, unfortunately now. But Leachy, like, guided me through it. She's like an awesome person.

0:17:18

But yeah.

0:17:19

Yeah. It it Yeah. He was like, what exactly am I doing? And I was like, trust me, it's gonna be fine. Just just cut the convention. You learn all about DSA. Yeah. Yeah. And I Really, it was kind of a throwing the kid into the deep end of the pool situation. Yeah. But you did float. I did. I did. I missed some awesome comrades that that day. I also gave everybody a a a COVID scare. Possibly. Yeah. But not COVID. It wasn't COVID. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I almost got I thought it was positive, but I wasn't Yeah. Did you get that email? Is it called Bradley Exchange? No. But that's I thought I was positive, but I wasn't. Oh, what a payoff? What a punch line? I It's interesting that you talked about the reputation and what kept you from joining DSA.

0:18:00

It's kinda funny. I joined DSA because I was worried about Jennifer occasion and, like, hipsters in New York City. And so I don't think I made the right connection in my mind of who had the reputation of what. But I never got that reputation when I was considering joining. And I hear that DSA has many reputations.

0:18:21

A lot of people think many different often contradictory things about the organization. And I'm trying to like square the circle. Why is that? I think for a few reasons. One, I think the moment you as an organization or anyone begins to develop a little bit of power, not a lot. Let's be clear, but a little bit. I think that's ultimately going to upset at least some people. When someone has and is using power and it's not them going to accept some people. You're not gonna do things the way literally everyone in the world would wanna do them. You're going to do things in the way that this messy Democratic organization trying to collectively decide. Some people aren't gonna be happy. And then two, I think one of the things that the essay does, which is continues to be to this day a little radical is we go out and we choose to organize people.

0:19:12

And a lot of folks especially in this current, like, neo liberal moment, conceive of being organized or going to organize someone almost as like violent or offensive, that you need a neighborhood's consent in order to go and talk to people there, that you need a person's consent to knock on their door and say, hey, I want to organize you. And something really really critical that we must always do in DSA is reject that logic. And say no. We are members of the working class. We are organizing other members of the working class, and we're not going to apologize for going up to and trying to organize you into this massive collective project. We are trying to make you more powerful. We will pull you in kicking and screaming if necessary. But it will be for the greater good. That's collective work that I think a lot of people shy away from That's a lot of liberalism, individualism, this idea that people have the right not to be disturbed, have the right not to be pulled into something, but we're already in it. We're all in a collective struggle. We're all working class. You you can't opt out of this. And so as members of the Democratic socialist of America, I'm very proud we got and we say we're going to organize you no matter what.

0:20:28

And I think one of the one of the things that keep to keep in mind first of all, this idea that, like, DSA is, like, too wide. That's and it it is a real problem of the left, but it's not something unique to DSA. Like, anytime I hear, like, a random, like, cult talking about, like, dude, so he was too wide. It's like, dog. It's like fucking it's like ten dudes. That are, like, cisgender white in your entire group. But I think that it's important to keep in context when we talk about this reputation of the three groups of people that really, like, push this narrative that DSA is too wide.

0:21:00

DSA doesn't have the permission of the of the neighborhoods and communities to come into these neighborhoods. It's one, the, like, a hundred dudes that are, like, left of us or whatever, quote unquote, who, like, just don't like us because they think they see us as competition within the left. We shouldn't really care about them generally. They're like a hundred dudes, like I said. A hundred dudes. The establishment is the big one that we should worry about because they're gonna push this narrative. Like, the Karl, I wouldn't say maybe I don't know if it's Karl Hasty's, but, like, definitely, like, the -- Like those. -- those the establishment political leadership class. Yeah. The mayor Adams of the world, you know, like, conservative democrats who, like, don't want us organizing in these communities, and this is what you were talking about, Scottie.

0:21:43

And the third one is like something that we really have to worry about because, like, this can definitely have an impact on the reputation of actually good community groups. Is, like, community groups that are, like, three people that, like, claim, like, like, ownership. We speak for this community. We speak for this neighborhood. What is this blood encrypts not? Like, this is not like, we're all working towards the same goal. So what's your problem? But the reality of it is, it's just that they see it as as their turf. So that context is super important.

0:22:11

Well, what? Keep in mind. What did we say? When you gain power and you use power, that threatens people. Yeah. We do live especially under capitalism in this political system in like a zero sum operation where someone gaining power means other people might not be gaining it or might be losing it. So those people are obviously threatened. And again, that's like that liberalism, that individualism of like my organization, my nonprofit needs resources. Anyone else gaining power in this community is a threat to that. All of that is true, but I I do appreciate what you're saying, which is It's true.

0:22:46

DSA and the left in general. And in general, a lot of political operations, organizations are very white and often very male. Part of the reason is obviously, if you are white in this country, you are probably more likely to have a little bit more money, a little bit more security, and thus exactly the time and energy to go spend on volunteerism, on political organizing. Right? But another component of that is a lot of people of color feel very distrustful of large organizations and institutions in the United States. For extremely good reasons. And one of the things that we don't currently do and we're working towards as DSA is we need to be organizing more in ways that we can reach and effectively support people of color in this organization. I'm not just getting people into reading groups and getting them to read and think the right things, because a lot of people of color are already very firmly on the left, but getting organizing into their communities and their neighborhoods where we're providing resources, where we're like quote, we're part of the working class there, that's important to building trust. You know, DSA is working on, but not not on it yet.

0:24:01

So I wanna go back to something you said earlier, which I think is sort of the question for DSA. You know, we wanna organize into a mass social movement, that's multiracial, multilingual. And so we talked about students at Cuny, students at Jiaon j. And they get that capitalism is restoring their lives. So what do you think, you know, from the perspective of a native New Yorker as somebody who grew up in this the social context, like, how do you bring people like the students you went to school with, onboard to a socialist organization, or a socialist project in general? Yeah.

0:24:39

I think it's super important to, like, keep in mind, like I mean, student movements generally for the left has been in a lot of countries, have been, like, the life and blood. And it's really pitiful. I don't like the US, the student movement is basically, like, more abundant. It's dead. Not dead, but, you know, like, it's not as as vibrant as it is in in different countries. Like, coming from the Dominican Republic, like, literally all of my my leftist family, like, got radicalized at universities.

0:25:06

So in Cuny, we have, like, this kind of, like, intersect of one people who are working class. To people who have time because they're students. They typically community students tend to work and stuff like that. But while they're on campus, like they can show up to events and stuff like that, And three people who, like, are already, like, curious more or less about different things because they're at university. I'm not saying people aside aren't, but is just typically people in university have the time and kind of like because of their classes tend to get exposed to different literature. I think This is something that I've actually talked with Gianna a lot, another comrade from from DSA.

0:25:43

And I think, like, bringing in people of color from from CUNY is is kinda it's just difficult. Right? Because, like, there's that aspect of, yeah, they have free time, but do they wanna use it? To kind of like work on this political project. Not necessarily. Maybe they just wanna hang up with the friends or maybe they have to go work or something like that, maybe take care of family.

0:26:03

But I think that especially with the multiracial aspect of it, I think part of it really comes down to kind of like advertising ourselves as like not only people who win and this is like the serious socialist project for the left, but also highlighting kind of, like, our relationships with, like, different movements in the Latin American left, for example. My dad, like, it's no lie. Like, not a communist anymore. Like, he's very much on, like, the center left, but he loves Lula. To death. Like this man would die for lulu. And it's just like the historical kind of like story behind it.

0:26:41

And I think a lot of people in in a lot of youth who consider themselves on the left might be in the same real trajectory as me. I mean, to this day, I love, like, I have a lot of respect for the Cuban revolution. And, like, national DSA just, like, has has take the position as, like, no no one embargo. And maybe that's something we should be highlighting. But I think the bigger part of it get like a broader spectrum is just to highlight our work at the university level to say that we are the serious socialist movement. And that's difficult. It is hard. It's something that's gonna take time to grow, but it is something that we can work with a lot of our young comrades at YDSA and and something that we should be pushing for a lot.

0:27:22

Also, by the way, new deal for CUNI is is a it's a difficult process, but it is a great opportunity because it's very similar to landlords. Everybody hates their landlord no matter who they are. Like, everybody hates their landlord in the same way that every CUNY student, no matter where they are socioeconomically, hates tuition. They they understand that tuition shouldn't be a thing they have to deal with. And I think a new deal for and also knows the fact that, like, capital projects have dried up in Cuny. And I think that that's something that can help a lot in building DSA's presence in in CUNY and just around generally in in university systems.

0:27:59

This reminds me though, what you're saying makes me think about this, like, constant conundrum we have in DSA, which is we have a lot of political positions that are actually very popular, such as new deal for Cuny, like you said, ending the embargo on Cuba. Literally, any random part of our platform you talk to a student about, and they might be interested in, or they might find it compelling. But what we're fighting upstream is I don't think there's a sense, you know, you talked about the student movement in the United States being more abundant, but I don't feel like there's really any political movement that makes sense to a student. When I was in college, I never thought of like joining an organization or movement I feel like in the United States, it's just you are a registered democrat or a registered republican, and that's it. We don't have political parties where you can join and participate and be this, like, active political member of unless you personally run for office. So again, I feel like there's that individualism liberalism, rearing its head again. Right? The only way you can participate in politics is as an individual, you run for office, you accrue like fame and power for yourself. There's no organization or collective that you can join.

0:29:14

But dealing with that, knowing that there these other countries have movements organization institutions to join for a variety of different political spectrums. What do we do? How do we get people into that? We can talk to them about the policies that are popular with them. I'm sure if you talk to any student in CUNY right now about new deal for CUNY. They think it's great. But how do we get them to the next step, which is, okay, you should join the organization that is mobilizing and organizing for it. I wanna piggyback on that too because I was Canvasing at John j for New Deal for Cuny, and somebody stopped me and said, why shouldn't I do anything? Because it's not gonna make a difference.

0:29:50

So a lot of students I think are even if they're interested in politics and they don't like the way the world looks, they also feel like my putting an effort is just another disappointment and it's not gonna work. So we have to change those two mindsets. Right? Both the individualism and the defeatism. And I think that one winning really, like, just showing, like, real substantive wins can destroy that defeatist attitude, but also just getting it to that individualistic way of looking at things. Even if we have because this is the thing. It's it's in a lot of ways, it resembles a snowball going down a mountain. We have and I'm not gonna put words in in their mouth.

0:30:31

We have comrads who come from, for example, like, the students for Democratic society, who one of them, Diana, like, one time told me, like, yeah, when I was in it, I didn't really understand what what they stood for necessarily, but I knew I wanted to make a change And I knew that, like, these were the only people who are, like, yelling at people in in in a way that I like. And I think that that is really important for, like, the student movement. Because a lot of people they are all like me. Like, I didn't know what being a Marxist lender necessarily meant. I didn't know what socialism necessarily meant. I just wanted to, like, be with people that, like, we're making a difference in one way or another and why do you say it can be that pipeline for us? But I think honestly, like because it is true. Like, it it's a very lonely world, and it is a very, like, defeatist world that neo liberalism has fed us. And I think showing people that we can win. This is something that can is possible, is something that is extremely powerful in bringing people into the, not only the left, but DSA.

0:31:30

Well, you heard it here first, especially if you're a student and you wanna be doing socialism. If you wanna be doing I don't even wanna say politics. We wanna be doing change with other people. You should join an organization. We think that organization is the democratic social of America. And they even have a youth wing. Yeah. The young Democratic socialist of America. Technically, I am a young Democratic socialist, but I am not a member don't rub it in to those of us who aren't young. I'm younger. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Check us out.

0:32:01

Join DSA especially if you're a student, there might be a Y DSA chapter in your university, or you can go ahead and start one. And even if there isn't, you can always join the regular DSA chapter in your hometown neighborhood, wherever you happen to be, you can always send us an email at left unread nycgmail dot com If you have any questions or you wanna talk to some folks who are in DSA and you don't know where to get started. You can follow us on Instagram. Please Subscribe on whatever platform you like. Don't forget to rate us and like us. And soon, we'll have an episode talking about Neil Limbrel that word that we kept using today. I think we need to get into. Thanks, everybody, and have a great rest of your day. Solidarity forever. Bye, guys. Left on red is reported live at left on red studios International all in beautiful historic Astoria Queens, the most filmed neighborhood in all of New York City. It's hosted by Susan Kang and Scott Karolidis. It's produced with original music by me Noah Teachey, and Julianna Mirra manages our comms. Thanks for listening, solidarity forever.