This is an update to gjohnsit's article, Rise Of The Socialist Left:

https://caucus99percent.com/content/rise-socialist-left

From Naked Capitalism:

UPDATE “[F]or Democrats willing to pull to the left and identify as socialists — or at least support socialist issues like single-payer health care, a raise in the minimum wage to at least $15, criminal justice reform and a rejection of corporate influence over politics — the DSA is staffing campaigns with hundreds, perhaps thousands of volunteers”

Interesting approach:

… The DSA is not a party. Instead, they provide candidates and manpower, sometimes for their own candidates, and sometimes for Democrats. When local DSA chapters decide to support a candidate, they swoop in, set up volunteer networks, tap into a national network of phone banks and bring in a media team that can make images, posters, videos and graphics.”

Two lessons:

The first is the DSA’s model for organizing its ground troops. The Sanders campaign used a combination of apps like Slack, virtual call centers and online forums to quickly convert rank-and-file volunteers into organizers who then become responsible for their own, new network of volunteers.

The DSA learned many of its lessons on running effective campaigns from volunteering for Bernie Sanders’ presidential run.

The other takeaway is a point that Berniecrats have been drilling Democrats on since the 2016 election loss: coming out with a strong set of ambitious goals instead of defining themselves by what they’re not.

Very encouraging. More here:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/200pm-water-cooler-882017.html