Valuing the Black Radical Tradition
Why Seattle DSA Needs Black (r)eparations
by Kaileah Baldwin, Walé Ogundipe, Wes, Kelli Branch, and Olivia Lintz
We want equality. We want the end of capitalism and victory for socialism. And we use our steps, our grips, our breaths to make this happen. But we will no longer have the breath to fight if we continue with business as usual in Seattle DSA and the greater Seattle community of Left activism.
Black comrades have made SDSA what it is today. We’ve been bringing in new members, building new coalitions, organizing new actions, and making serious gains in the socialist movement. This summer, SDSA voted to prioritize #BlackLivesMatter and answer local Black organizers’ call for a campaign to #DefundSPD. Black comrades led these efforts amidst a global pandemic; one that continues to disproportionately ravage Black communities.
SDSA has stated its commitment to Black Lives, agreeing to follow Black people’s lead, because the chapter recognizes the need for Black radicalism in our socialist movement. But so far it’s failed to support and sustain Black members. Black DSA and AFROSOC activists are working ourselves to the bone, putting ourselves on the front lines of our shared struggle to little acknowledgement, let alone relief. We’re spending car miles, gas gallons, hours, and dollars to advance the socialist project, but it’s unsustainable for both us and the organization to continue this way.
As Marxists, we are historical materialists and recognize there is a historic, material basis for the burnout of Black activists: the racial wealth gap. The racial wealth gap impacts not just our society at large. It affects our membership. Black socialists are part of Black communities, whose wealth was decimated through centuries of white supremacy. Chattel slavery stole Black wages. Jim Crow and mass incarceration have deprived our communities of the political and economic power we need to achieve true equality. Neoliberal austerity impacts Black people more acutely. Every day Black comrades face evictions and housing instability, unemployment and financial insecurity, and medical risks without sufficient medical insurance. Yet every day, Black comrades continue to show up for the socialist cause.
We see Reparations as part of a broad political platform that advances the struggle against capitalism and towards a socialist future. We invoke the Akan symbol of Sankofa: we must go back to move forward. Because capitalism was built largely on our backs and continues to hyper-exploit Black workers, we are committed to taxing the rich and targeting corporations as part of a larger strategy of fighting for Reparations on a city-wide and ultimately national level. But to reach these goals, we need to be sustained and valued internally.
“The Resolution to Create a Seattle DSA Black Reparations Fund” is an investment in Black membership and a move toward racial equity in our organization. Passing it will signal SDSA’s commitment to activating existing Black members, supporting new Black members, and cultivating Black socialist leadership in Seattle and beyond. More importantly, creating a Black reparations fund will more substantively and authentically embed SDSA in local BIPOC communities and allow Black activists to be at the forefront of mobilizing mass movements that unite the multiracial working class.
As our chapter works to build intersectional solidarity in the fight for socialism, we advocate for the fundamental need for a universal solidarity fund as a foundation for sustaining members who are vulnerable. The Black reparations fund is an acknowledgement of the added work SDSA has to do to sustain its Black members in particular.
The murder of George Floyd at the end of May sparked mass protests like we haven’t seen in this country for over half a century. Throughout the summer and into the fall, DSA membership boomed as a result of Black people’s struggle against oppression. In light of the outcry of Black rage, people joined DSA in droves, paying dues and donating generously to the chapter. At the same time, SDSA has leaned heavily on Black organizers to lead efforts to defund the police and strengthen coalitions with Black-led organizations.
We are tired of people being ready to do anything but pay us. Our non-Black comrades quote MLK and Malcolm X until their non-Black faces turn blue, but they refuse to give credit where it’s due. SDSA has the money to give credit, and this resolution presents the opportunity to do so. It’s time to heed the words of the brilliant Black socialist feminist, Angela Davis, who says:
‘The personal is political’…We oftentimes do the work of the state in and through our interior lives. What we often assume belongs most intimately to ourselves and to our emotional life has been produced elsewhere and has been recruited to do the work of racism and repression.
How we treat one another inside our chapter is intimately tied to how we fight alongside one another in the larger struggle. As Seattle DSA, we need to stop being complicit in the work of racism and repression, and start working to correct it. SDSA can start by paying reparations.
