Seth Ackerman is to be commended for seriously engaging with the problem of how to build a sustainable and effective working-class politics in the post-Bernie moment. Unlike many commentators who portray this phenomenon in ahistorical terms, as if it sprang up from the minds of the faithful, Ackerman roots his analysis in a historical understanding of American politics and, concretely, in the failed attempt to launch a union-backed labor party in the late 1990s.

As we assess the capacity for independent working-class politics in the post election period, Ackerman’s suggestions about how to build a party of the working class outside of the highly regulated formal party structures of US election and campaign financing laws may prove valuable.

The Sanders campaign has shaken up politics in potentially significant ways. Here was an open socialist running on a social-democratic program who received nearly 13 million votes and challenged the connection between big money and viable political candidates. Unlike contemporary European strains of social democracy, Sanders placed class struggle at the center of his appeal, denouncing Wall Street greed and an economic elite whose control of the political process is the most proximate cause of massive and growing inequality.