Meet the Candidates
Sofia Guimarães Cutler
Gilman Bagga
Laura Gabby
The Bread and Roses caucus is excited to introduce our slate for the 2021 National DSA convention: Sofia Guimarães Cutler, Gilman Bagga and Laura Gabby! Laura comes from one of the largest chapters in New York City, while Sofia and Gilman hail from smaller chapters in North New Jersey and Louisville.
While we come from different locations and are involved in distinct organizing projects, we each believe, to quote Marx, that “the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working class itself.” We center the working class as the agent of change in all the work we do, and our work focuses on winning material gains and building working class power to fight for themselves. From Laura’s rank-and-file organizing in her carpenter’s unions, to Sofia’s work building up an independent chapter electoral campaign to elect longtime chapter member Joel Brooks to city council in Jersey City, to Gilman’s work recruiting and building chapter infrastructure in Louisville — all of our work focuses on building the organization and self-activity of the multiracial working class.
Building this power means prioritizing the workplace and the state as key terrains of struggle while developing DSA into a tribune for socialism. History has shown us that labor and electoral organizing are two strategic ways to conduct winnable campaigns, advocate socialist politics, and build working-class power to take on bigger campaigns in the future. In order to achieve this, we will also need to strengthen National DSA’s ability to support, lead and have more democratic input from the locals so that chapters can better organize on a national level.
It’s by building rank-and-file power in our unions, launching class-struggle election campaigns and bold legislative fights that work in coalition with the labor movement, and building a strong DSA that we can win a Green New Deal, the abolition of ICE, Medicare for All, defunding the police, and ultimately socialism.
