Tacoma Socialist Network (TSN) is pretty much what the title says it is. This is a place for Tacoma-area socialist activists to network. Note the word “activists” is in bold typeface.
What are we networking about?
- How can we socialists participate in and be the best builders of the mass movements for social and environmental justice?
- How can we build roots in, participate in, and help renew and rebuild a vigorous workers’ movement?
- How can we help the majority of our fellow workers understand the necessity of socialism?
We are not a party or a tendency, nor do we have a party line. We do not see ourselves as the nucleus of a vanguard party.
Instead, TSN activists are part of a new awakening, a new world-wide consciousness sweeping across the globe, from Russia to Brazil, from Egypt to Europe, from Israel to Damascus. We are the youth, seniors, workers, unemployed, underemployed, retired, women, gays, minorities. Although our numbers as socialists are small, we are the gusts of wind blowing in the top of the trees before the storm that uproots the poisonous system of capitalism, leaving a compost for the working class to nurture new society of human decency, the world of tomorrow.
We are those who are alienated from the current social system. Nevertheless, we are positive. We dare to labor for a more decent future.
The essential points that allow us to be part of the Tacoma Socialist Network are:
- We work for the replacement of the capitalist system with a socialist system, a system that places the world and her resources under common ownership. Those whose labor makes human society possible, the working class, the majority, should rule.
- We TSN comrades understand we can’t vote in socialism. If the majority voted for socialism, the capitalists would cancel or invalidate the election. Social change comes about only through the power of mass action. We can achieve power only when the majority, especially the majority of wage earners, demand and take power in our own name. Power takes a backward step only in the face of power, and our power lies in our ability to build a mass movement.
- We are not armchair generals. We are activists. We encourage, support, participate in, and build movements that empower working people. We aim to be among the best builders of these movements. Some movements we currently participate in are the $15/hour minimum wage campaign in Tacoma, the Justice for Janitors unionization campaign, and the immigrant rights struggle.
- While we do not think it likely that we can achieve socialism in an election, we see participation in elections as a useful tool to build these mass movements. When socialists run, elections can be an opportunity for educating others about socialism and to publicize and build mass movements. We can support candidates who are not explicitly socialist if they run against the Democratic and Republican parties and advocate a break from them. However, we do not support candidates of the pro-capitalist parties, including the Democratic and Republican parties.
So, if you are an activist and a socialist, we welcome you to participate in networking with other Tacoma-area socialists. How can we socialists help each other? What can we learn from each other.
If you wish to contribute posts or articles to this site, please contact us Tacoma Socialist Network by by clicking here to use the Contact Form. Articles will be edited, but we won’t post your article until you okay the edits. Most of the editing will be for formatting issues or for grammar and spelling.
