Points of Unity

1. MC-DSA is a principled anti-imperialist organization. We recognize that to liberate the masses of working people domestically, we must seriously contend with the role of the United States in the continued oppression and domination of working people abroad. We strive as an organization to combat imperialism in all of its forms, emphasizing our responsibility as socialists in the so-called belly of the world imperialist beast to oppose the economic, military, and political domination of the Global South. We recognize that the U.S. military exists to serve U.S. imperialism and that there can be no progressive utility in American patriotism.
2. MC-DSA recognizes that domestic fascism is an inevitable reflection of global imperialism, as the imperial state silences the dissent of its own citizens by replicating methods of counter-insurgency, repression and social control which were tested and refined through colonial violence abroad. Opposition to imperialism then requires principled political opposition to the armed forces of empire not only abroad but also within our own borders, including the national guard, the police force, and U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
3. Landlords exploit the labor power of their tenants by leveraging access to basic living needs in exchange for passive income, all while maintaining inadequate and sometimes dangerous living conditions. In this capacity, we recognize landlords as inherently opposed to the interests of the working class. We advocate for the rights of tenants through means of organizing tenant unions, pushing for legislative constraints on landlords, etc. We must weaken the power landlords hold over their tenants, linking their struggle with that of the working class.
4. We recognize the historic role of the working class as the driving force of the liberation of all people. As the capitalists intensify their efforts to extract ever-increasing profits from working and oppressed people, such people become alienated from their work, their communities, and their own interests. We must defend what little concessions, protections, and rights remain for working people, and we must link them with the broader struggle for a total transformation of society.
5. The class struggle has fashioned and continues to naturalize the oppression of all marginalized groups in our society, and that marginalization cannot be eradicated under capitalism. We recognize that the social and economic liberation of people of color, queer people (and especially transgender people), women, unhoused people, disabled people, and all other marginalized individuals is a necessary and inextricable aspect of the liberation of the proletarian class as a whole.
6. Capitalist society fails to properly meet the basic survival needs of working people. As such, it is necessary to build working class political power and social infrastructure that functions independently of the current system through the development of dual power. We prioritize the building of dual power in Mesa County, including:
   1. Community run and funded aid and relief networks (mutual aid) which provide necessities and services.
   2. Organized labor, such as trade unions and workers associations.
   3. Councils for settling disputes without interference from law enforcement.
   4. Organizations for community self defense.
7. MC-DSA rejects charity-model and business-model organizing practices which fortify toxic individualist cultural scripts, arbitrarily deny survival aid to those considered “undeserving” of it through moralized eligibility requirements, and reinforce dependency on the capitalist state. These practices reinforce an individualistic and punitive view of dignity, responsibility, and justice. This model of organizing is a reactionary one, and one which unjustly attributes collective responsibilities to individual fault. Combating this framework requires the establishment of alternative structures, constructed and maintained by the community, and oriented in its members’ collective interests. Our successes and our failures belong to us all, and we recognize the responsibility of the individual to the collective, as well as that of the collective to the individual.
8. Our approach is principally scientific – that is, we must both learn from practice and base our practice on what we have learned. We recognize the necessity of engaging with local, national, and international conditions as they are, rather than as we would prefer them to be, and we recognize that such conditions are always in flux. Mesa County DSA emphasizes the need to build a powerful and united movement based on a participatory and scientific understanding of the work to be done.
9. MC-DSA advocates for the separation of the DSA from the current political establishment. The capitalist class will never allow itself to be defeated through its own power structures. Mesa County DSA will not endorse nor do work for the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is ingrained in the same exploitative power structures as the Republican Party. In the final instance, it will always act in service of the interests of the ruling class – that is, the capitalist class – only enacting measures that serve to quell dissent but do not meaningfully challenge the system.
10. Socialism is the collective and democratic management of society and the economy in the interests of the working class. Such an arrangement is impossible under the dictatorial rule of the capitalists, and as a result, socialism can only be achieved through the total transformation of society under the organization of the working class as the ruling class – by any means necessary. The completion of this transformation marks the end of class distinctions. On this basis, the rule of the working class is categorically transformed into the direct and collective administration of things by the people as a whole. Production under socialism thus serves the interests of the whole of the people rather than a small group of the well-connected, rich, and powerful at the top of society.