It is often said that in America the bosses have two parties so the workers need one of their own. With the recent failures and betrayals by Democrats, first over Gaza and then against Trump, the call for a new party is once again building.

But why has this never been successfully achieved? Come learn about the history of independent parties on the US left, what has been tried, what has worked, and what didn't. We'll also talk about some of the fresh approaches DSA has tried in the past decade, and get you up to speed on various DSA perspectives on electoral strategy, coming from diverse political perspectives within the organization. This is a four part series which covers:

1. What is a party, anyway? We'll discuss the history of party politics on the left globally and in the United States. And we'll get into some of the strange features of the US party system that pose a challenge for socialists, such as state-managed ballot lines and legal structures that entrench a Democratic-Republican duopoly and make it hard for third parties to break in.

2. Third Parties in US history. There have been many attempts to form alternatives to the Democrats and Republicans in the past century or so, using a variety of different strategies. We'll talk about some of these, including examples like the Socialist Party, Communist Party, Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, New Party, Labor Party, Green Party, and others. We'll get into what the objectives of these parties was, and how the conditions of party politics in the US shaped their successes and failures.

3. DSA and the Party Question. In this session, we'll get into how DSA has attempted to navigate the difficult terrain for independent politics in the US, particularly over the last decade. We'll talk about the rise of elected socialists in office, and introduce some varied perspectives on electoral strategy from different tendencies within DSA, focused on whether or how to build independently of the Democrats. You'll be introduced to concepts like "realignment", the "clean break", and the "dirty break", as these are used by various people in and around DSA.

4. An in person discussion on the previous three topics. Come share your thoughts, and talk about the path forward for socialists at a moment when an independent political organization is more important than ever.

Parts are meant to be non cumulative, come to the ones you can. Recordings of parts 1 and 2 are available upon request.