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THE “SOCIALISM-FROM- BELOW” tradition views the working class as the central agent of overthrowing a system based on the market and the exploitation, alienation and unequal society it perpetuates.
Steve Downs’ writings, first in Hell on Wheels (2008) and in Socialist Strategies in Unions, a working paper (2022), outline how a variety of socialists active in the NYC transit system over two decades worked to build a rank-and-file caucus with a class struggle perspective.
Growing differences over how to carry out campaigns against management on the job and for democracy in the union put great strains on the caucus. When they were unable to resolve those differences, and agree on a role for the caucus once it had won control of their local, the caucus fell apart and their project ultimately failed.
You can read and download the working paper, Socialist Strategies in Unions, here.
Socialism, What It Is, Why We Need It outline capitalism's exploitation of both workers and the environment and sketches an alternative.
You can order copies of Hell on Wheels, the working paper Socialist Strategies in Unions, and Socialism, What It is, Why We Need It here.