We Don’t Need Another New Progressive Organization
Everyone on the Left wants a more coherent, effective movement. But we’ll get there by devising creative new strategies for building our working-class base, not by launching yet another national progressive organization.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorses Bernie Sanders for president at a Sanders campaign rally in Queensbridge Park on October 19, 2019, in Queens, New York City. (Bauzen / GC Images)
In their recent piece, “To Win a Political Revolution, We Need a New Mass Organization,” Jeremy Gong and Nick French argue that the Left’s inability to build effectively on the promising red shoots of the Bernie Sanders campaigns, the 2018 teacher strike wave, and other recent signs of left resurgence come down largely to a failure of organization. If Sanders and “the Squad” had acted together and formed a new, membership-based mass organization, they argue, the Left would be in a much stronger position today.
While we are sympathetic to the need for more effective coordination among left organizations, we believe Gong and French dramatically overstate the effect that consolidating left-wing forces would have today. Only by devising new and creative strategies for winning elections outside of Democratic strongholds and raising political awareness among disaffected workers through unions and related organizations can we get to the point where Gong and French’s call for a consolidated left might yield real dividends for working-class politics.
Putting the Progressive Cart Before the Working-Class Horse
Gong and French are refreshingly clear-eyed about the nature and scale of the US Left’s challenges today. They correctly stress that despite many important advances the Left has made in recent years, critical factors that might allow us to leap from Overton window–movers to influential policymakers remain out of reach — most notably, a strong base among workers and mass working-class organizations (particularly unions).
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