Debates

  • A painting of three people sitting face to face over a table, looking down at a book. A pink filter over the photo.

    Organizing for reform and socialism in the Mamdani era

    In this response to Ashley Smith, Alan Maass argues in support of electoral socialist campaigns, including those that make use of the Democratic Party line.

  • A vibrant purple background. Against it are black silhouettes of people and podiums. In the top right is a red square with a small graphic of a tornado below black text reading "Tempest Debates."

    For a strategy of independence and mass struggle

    Ashley Smith responds to Todd Chretien’s defense of Zohran Mamdani.

  • A dusky orange background. Against it are black silhouettes of people and podiums. In the top right is a red square with a small graphic of a tornado below black text reading "Tempest Debates."

    Mamdani’s fight is our fight

    Todd Chretien argues that socialists need to find “a useful role inside the Mamdani experiment” instead of issuing warnings from outside.

  • A mosaic image of two goldfish facing each other against a background of orange, above a wavy strip of blue.

    Hiding our goals is no way to win

    brian bean and Thomas Hummel respond to Ben Burgis’s recent Jacobin article, “The Point of Politics is to Convince People, Not Grandstand.”

  • Block, squander, disorganize?

    Ashley Smith responds to Max Elbaum’s overheated polemic on the question of strategy for socialists in the 2024 elections.

  • A red pencil draws a straight, red line from the left to the right of the image against a solid yellow background.

    Lenin, Luxemburg, and the revolutionary tradition 

    Helen Scott and Paul Le Blanc respond to John Marot, offering a clarification of their position on Rosa Luxemburg.

  • A flat blue background with two outlines of faces facing each other in a side profile.

    Luxemburg’s lessons and the roots of Stalinism

    In a follow up to his article, Rosa Luxemburg and the democratic road to socialist revolution, John Marot responds to Helen Scott and Paul Le Blanc.

  • Luxemburg on the Russian Revolution

    Helen Scott and Paul Le Blanc, editors of Volume 5 of Verso’s Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, reply to John Marot’s Tempest article based on the book.

  • Once More on Hamas

    As part of a continuing exchange on October 7, the Palestinian resistance, and the posture of the Left towards Hamas, Dan La Botz and Stephen R. Shalom reply here to Sean Larson. La Botz and Shalom had previously submitted a response to an article by Jonah ben Avraham to which Larson, in turn, responded.

  • The Left under Brandon Johnson

    brian bean argues the need for independent organizing and struggle under Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago

  • On the Chicago race for mayor

    Kirstin Roberts argues that given the stark political choice, the broad mobilization of left and movement forces in support of Brandon Johnson, and the groundwork laid over the last decade by union and social struggles in Chicago, the elections offer real opportunities for socialists committed to political independence.

  • Making sense of Chicago’s election

    Joe Allen sets the Chicago mayoral election in historical context and argues that the choice on offer, however stark, also reflects the political limits of the strength of the Left and our (social and trade union) movements.