Their subject matter naturally included vilifications of socialist states like China, Nicaragua and Cuba. And it's notable that the Socialism Conference has long functioned as a platform for the International Socialism Organization, a vociferously Trotskyist and anti-communist group that's focused itself on attacking virtually all of history's socialist countries as "not truly socialist." With the help of organizations like the DSA, the ISO's ideological heirs are now using the Democratic Party to try to popularize imperialist sentiments among the American left.
These "socialists" are allowed power within the Democratic Party because they won't confront the American empire or global capitalism. They only want to expand social programs while maintaining capitalism and the global violence that capitalism uses to perpetuate itself.
No honest leftist can see this as an acceptable end goal. And amid America's situation of imperial collapse, growing ruling class backlash against increasing working class mobilization, looming financial crisis, and early-stage climate collapse, a left that refuses to present a systemic alternative won't prevent the calamity that the country is heading towards.
Pushing forth a genuine anti-capitalist agenda will require separating ourselves from the Democratic Party. This doesn't mean disapproving of the party's current leadership while investing our energy into helping "leftist" insurgent Democratic candidates who can neither gain serious power within the party nor be persuaded to fight capitalism and imperialism. It means building a serious and powerful American anti-capitalist movement that's independent from the Democrats.
The country has institutions that are ready to assist those who want to build such a movement. Some of the biggest anti-capitalist third parties are the Socialist Party USA, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and the Party of Communists USA. The Green Party can be taken in an explicitly anti-capitalist direction in the coming years if more socialists get involved in it. And the American socialist movement is already well developed enough that it has factions dedicated to arming and training people to defend from fascist violence for in case worse comes to worst.
There are also candidates outside the Democratic Party that one can make a real impact by voting for. Third parties like the Greens and the Socialists are carrying on a long American leftist tradition of building power for social movements by running potentially substantial presidential candidates. The significant 1912 candidacy of the Socialist Party USA's Eugene Debs helped set off vast gains for the labor movement, and we can create another boost for today's leftist social movements by voting for a leftist third party in great numbers.
If we build up these organizations, help the candidates who they represent, and spread anti-capitalist messages through our online platforms, America's genuine far-left movement will gains a major presence. If poor and working class people were able to give over $200 million to Bernie Sanders' campaign in 2016, they're able to make the actual socialist movement into a massive force. They just have to switch their commitment towards an agenda of true class liberation and anti-imperialism.
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