Thinking Through The Gap: DSA Amid The Fragments Of The American Left

The contemporary American left is vibrant yet fragmented. Across this broad terrain, a variety of movements and organizations find different ways of dealing with the problem of the gaps between existing and imagined political forms. These attempted solutions, which manifest as different approaches toward centralization and structure, are, I argue, ultimately determinative of these formations' abilities to work toward their goals. Centering my analysis primarily on my experience with the FTP coalition in New York City in the winter of 2020, and with Democratic Socialists of America in recent years, I posit that approaches of particular organizations produce unique collective and individual subjects with unique capacities and argue for a conception of these fragments toward their unity through the mediating vehicle of organizational structure.