THE PEOPLE ARE NOT ONE | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation
Date and Time
Jul 23, 2026 6:00 pm
Location
450K
450 K St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001
Jul 23, 2026 6:00 pm
450K
Join Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn and members of the DC DSA for a spirited discussion on socialist strategy and left populism.
In The People Are Not One, Daniel Tutt and C. Derick Varn dismantle the central illusion of contemporary left politics: that “the people” can serve as a coherent subject of emancipation. Against both right and left populisms, they argue that this fantasy of unity obscures real class antagonisms and traps socialism in a dead-end politics of moral appeal and electoral maneuver.
Through a sustained critique of left-populism, post-Marxist theory, and Democratic Party–oriented socialism, Tutt and Varn show how the collapse of mass politics, alongside debates over the professional-managerial class and the atomization of working-class life, has produced a strategic impasse on the left.
What follows is not a lament but a provocation: a call to abandon populist shortcuts and rebuild socialist strategy on the terrain of class struggle as it actually exists—uneven, divided, and politically unformed. The People Are Not One is a manifesto for a post-populist left willing to confront fragmentation head-on and begin the long work of reconstructing class power.
This event is free and open to all. Doors open to guests at 5:30pm. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A and book signing. Copies of THE PEOPLE ARE NOT ONE will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will be livestreamed.
