As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez seeks the reendorsement of NYC DSA, many comrades have raised concerns regarding her failure to uphold basic socialist principles. Most prominently, this has related to her failure to maintain a principled internationalism, particularly regarding Palestine (her vote to maintain funding of Iron Dome), but also in her support for military aid to Ukraine, and in various comments illustrating a foreign policy in line with the imperial-liberal mainstream.

However, I will not tarry on the international front. It is already very well litigated. On the other hand, I will highlight her vote to break the railroad strike in 2022. A blanket prohibition on strikebreaking must be the most foundational point of agreement for socialists. To violate it is to fundamentally rend the fabric of working-class solidarity.

However, in the spirit of restorative justice, I would like to propose the following course of action for the Representative to begin a process of repairing her relationship to the socialist and workers' movements (to the degree that there are such movements). Of course, the representative is more than welcome to offer a counterproposal, as are other workers and socialists. I take no pretense that this plan is mine alone to propose, but merely offer it as a starting point. If the representative rejects this plan and does not offer a reasonable counterproposal, I hope that comrades in NYC DSA will join me in voting against her endorsement.

1. The comrade will not seek reelection this cycle (I will not ask her to resign in this job market — she will need at least a few months to transition) and instead will aim to rejoin the proletariat (the wage-earning non-managerial class, for our purposes).
2. For at least the next four years, the comrade will either take up working in an unorganized workplace and join organizing efforts as a rank and file (non-staff) worker-organizer or will find employment in an already unionized workplace and spend the time as a rank-and-file militant within that union.
3. During her time re-proletarianizing, the comrade will also attend to her failures of internationalism by actively militating within her workplace in support of an Arms Embargo on Israel and working to develop concrete organizing relationships internationally in her union work.
4. If at the end of four years the comrade remains interested in public office, she will commit to a clear and democratically decided-on program that includes pledges against strikebreaking, against any votes for military funding, and in support of a total cessation of all aid to Israel. She will further commit to subjecting herself to the democratic discipline of an organized socialist and workers’ movement.

I await the Representative’s reply and counteroffer.

Adam I. Ascione D'Elia