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

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, operating on two university campuses and in the city of

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populo ...

. In January 2020 the group announced on their Facebook page that they would be dissolving and merging into the DSA Communist Caucus.

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 Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

Anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

Libertarian socialists Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (20 ...

, Left Communists,

Maoists Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...

and

Trotskyists Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a re ...

. 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."

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. 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, and frequently participating in arbitrary arrests. On August 2, 2017 ''

Colorado Springs Independent The ''Colorado Springs Independent'' (commonly referred to as ''The Independent'' or simply ''The Indy'') is a newsweekly that serves the Pikes Peak region of Southern Colorado (El Paso, Teller, and Pueblo counties). It is Colorado Springs's larg ...

'' writer Nat Stein uncovered body-camera footage of Colorado Springs officers discussing the infiltration of the organization. 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.

References

{{reflist Anti-capitalist organizations Political organizations established in 2016 Organizations disestablished in 2020 Organizations based in Colorado Springs, Colorado Far-left politics in the United States Student political organizations in the United States Colorado Springs, Colorado Defunct communist organizations in the United States