Socialism 2024

Democratic rank-and-file caucuses in labor unions are key sites of political contestation and power-building for socialists. Cohering and developing caucuses allows us to model revolutionary formations, through collective struggle around political and material questions. Over the decades, caucuses have varied in their form and the extent to which they seek to genuinely develop a rank-and-file movement. Some have failed to get any traction, while others have succeeded in turning their unions upside-down and ushering in a new era of militancy; some have served solely as “reform” vehicles for a wing of the union bureaucracy, while others have anchored deep rank-and-file movements with a reinvigorated class struggle vision. Caucuses have also varied in key questions relating to their organizing approaches and goals, how they make democratic decisions, what level of independence they have from the leadership they elect, and whether they take on political questions and confront the state and capital. We’ll hear from four caucus leaders, who will discuss and debate the caucus-building practices and strategies that they think are effective for socialists organizing to radicalize the labor movement toward class struggle.