Colorado Springs Socialists

Last updated
Colorado Springs Socialists
Founded2016
Dissolved2020
Merged into Democratic Socialists of America
HeadquartersColorado Springs, Co
NewspaperRocky Mountain Revolution
Ideology Marxism
Socialism
Non-Tendency
Political position Far-left
Website
cssocialists.com

Colorado Springs Socialists was a small organization located in the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Contents

History

The CSS was initially founded as a Marxist reading group in the Autumn of 2016, before developing into a formal political organization in 2017. By late 2018, the group exceeded 100 members,[ citation needed ] operating on two university campuses and in the city of Pueblo, Colorado. [1] In January 2020 the group announced on their Facebook page that they would be dissolving and merging into the DSA Communist Caucus. [2]

Ideology

The CSS was an organization that holds the position that capitalism must be abolished and replaced with a socialist based political and economic structure. The organization took a non-tendency position on Marxism and Socialism, accepting Democratic Socialists, Anarchists, Libertarian socialists, Left Communists, Maoists and Trotskyists. [1] The CSS was involved in a project called the Marxist Center, an attempt to unite other non-tendency revolutionary socialist organizations across the United States into "the first nation-wide, non-tendency Marxist organization." [3]

Police infiltration and arrests

In March 2017, four members of the CSS were arrested during "March Against Imperialism" protest in downtown Colorado Springs, on charges of obstructing traffic ways, a misdemeanor crime in Colorado. [4] [5] The CSS referred to these arrests as the "Trial of the Socialist Six", alleging The Colorado Springs Police Department took part in outrageous conduct, endangering of protesters, [6] and frequently participating in arbitrary arrests. [7] On August 2, 2017 Colorado Springs Independent writer Nat Stein uncovered body-camera footage of Colorado Springs officers discussing the infiltration of the organization. [8] The Colorado Springs Police Force placed two undercover officers, under the aliases of "Mark" and "Amy", into the CSS as part of a surveillance of the organization. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialism in New Zealand</span> Political movement advocating socio-economic change in New Zealand

Socialism in New Zealand had little traction in early colonial New Zealand but developed as a political movement around the beginning of the 20th century. Much of socialism's early growth was found in the labour movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solidarity (United States)</span> U. S. socialist organization

Solidarity is a revolutionary multi-tendency socialist organization in the United States, associated with the journal Against the Current. Solidarity is an organizational descendant of the International Socialists, a Third Camp Marxist organization which argued that the Soviet Union was not a "degenerated workers' state" but rather "bureaucratic collectivism," a new and especially repressive class society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Alternative (Australia)</span> Political party in Australia

Socialist Alternative (SA) is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia. As a revolutionary socialist group, it describes itself as aiming to organise collective struggles against oppression and inequality while promoting the need for a revolutionary movement that could one day overthrow capitalism. Its members have organised numerous campaigns and protests around LGBT rights, climate change, racism, refugee rights and more. The organisation also intervenes in the trade union and student union movements. It has branches and student clubs in most major Australian cities and publishes the fortnightly newspaper Red Flag.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom Road Socialist Organization</span> Marxist–Leninist political organization in the United States

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a Marxist–Leninist organization in the United States. FRSO formed in 1985 amid the collapse of the Maoist-oriented New Communist movement that emerged in the 1970s. The FRSO's component groups believed that ultraleftism was the US New Communist movement's main error. Merging under the FRSO banner, these groups hoped to consolidate the movement's remnants in a single organization and move beyond the sectarianism that marked the previous decades.

The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement during the 1970s and 1980s. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and Maoists inspired by Cuban, Chinese, and Vietnamese revolutions. This movement emphasized opposition to racism and sexism, solidarity with oppressed peoples of the third-world, and the establishment of socialism by popular revolution. The movement, according to historian and NCM activist Max Elbaum, had an estimated 10,000 cadre members at its peak influence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernie Tate</span> Irish Trotskyist (1934–2021)

Ernie Tate was a long-standing supporter and leading member of Trotskyist groups in Canada and the United Kingdom and a founder in the 1960s of the International Marxist Group and Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in Britain.

The New American Movement (NAM) was an American New Left multi-tendency socialist and feminist political organization established in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socialist Alternative (United States)</span> Political party in United States

Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. It describes itself as a Marxist organization, and a revolutionary party fighting for a democratic socialist economy. Unlike reformist progressive groups, it argues that capitalism is fundamentally incapable of serving the interests of the majority of people.

The American Left can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as a shorthand for groups aligned with the Democratic Party. At other times, it refers to groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists, and socialists with international imperatives are also present within this macro-movement. Many communes and egalitarian communities have existed in the United States as a sub-category of the broader intentional community movement, some of which were based on utopian socialist ideals. The left has been involved in both the Democratic and Republican parties at different times, having originated in the Democratic-Republican Party as opposed to the Federalist Party.

The Spartacist League is a Trotskyist political grouping which is the United States section of the International Communist League, formerly the International Spartacist Tendency. This Spartacist League named themselves after the original Spartacus League of Weimar Republic in Germany, but has no formal descent from it. The League self-identifies as a "revolutionary communist" organization.

Entryism is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. If the organization being "entered" is hostile to entryism, the entryists may engage in a degree of subterfuge and subversion to hide the fact that they are an organization in their own right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revolutionary Communist Party, USA</span> Political party

The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA is a new communist party in the United States founded in 1975 and led by its chairman, Bob Avakian. The party organizes for a revolution to overthrow the system of capitalism and replace it with a socialist state, with the final aim of world communism. The RCP is frequently described as a cult around Avakian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Workers World Party</span> Political party in the US

The Workers World Party (WWP) is a Marxist–Leninist communist party founded in 1959 by a group led by Sam Marcy. WWP members are sometimes called Marcyites. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them their support for Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party in 1948, their view of People's Republic of China as a workers' state, and their defense of the 1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary, some of which the SWP opposed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Party for Socialism and Liberation</span> Communist party in the United States

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a communist party in the United States. PSL was established in 2004, when its members split from the Workers World Party. The group believes that a socialist revolution is necessary to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism. The organization works toward this end by organizing and participating in local protests, running candidates in elections, and political education favoring a revolutionary socialist vanguard party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Borotba</span> Political party in Ukraine

The Association "Struggle" was a Stalinist organization operating in Odesa, Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Dnipro in Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Marxist Tendency</span> Trotskyist political international

The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) is a Trotskyist political international founded by British-based South African political theorist Ted Grant and his supporters after they broke with the Committee for a Workers' International in 1992. The organization's website, Marxist.com or In Defence of Marxism, is edited by Alan Woods. The site is multilingual, and publishes international current affairs articles written from a Marxist perspective, as well as many historical and theoretical articles. The IMT is active in over 40 countries.

On November 27, 2015, a mass shooting occurred in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to nine. A police officer and two civilians were killed; five police officers and four civilians were injured. After a standoff that lasted five hours, police SWAT teams crashed armored vehicles into the lobby and the attacker surrendered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organization of Marxists</span> Political party in Ukraine

The Organization of Marxists was a radical left-wing political association in Ukraine.

References

  1. 1 2 "About - Colorado Springs Socialists". cssocialists.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  2. "Colorado Springs Socialists". facebook.com.
  3. "About | Colorado Springs Socialists". cssocialists.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  4. Benzel, Lance (24 May 2018). "4 members of socialist group dodge jail time after arrests at Colorado Springs protest march". Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  5. Benzel, Lance (30 March 2018). "Jury: Colorado Springs protesters infiltrated by undercover officers guilty of blocking traffic". Colorado Springs Gazette. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  6. Stein, Nat. "Socialists get arrested for marching in the streets". Colorado Springs Independent.
  7. "Trial of the Socialist Six - Rocky Mountain Revolution". cssocialists.com. Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
  8. Stein, Nat. "Jaywalking case exposes law enforcement embedded in far-left group". Colorado Springs Independent.
  9. Stein, Nat. "Undercover officers take the stand to explain infiltration of local Socialists". Colorado Springs Independent. Retrieved 29 November 2018.