The Build & Fight 501(c)(4): A Movement-Led Electoral Formation

We are living through a historic conjuncture—a moment when old institutions are losing legitimacy faster than new ones are being built. And ordinary people know it. As Antonio Gramsci says, "The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters."

The crises are not isolated. They are systemic and connected. Many are correctly calling it a polycrisis.

Capitalism produces inequality and ecological collapse as a matter of design. Empire sustains itself through endless war and extraction. White supremacy and hetero-patriarchy organize power, wealth, and violence. If we are serious about transformation, then we must be equally serious about strategy.

That means being clear: We cannot reform our way out of systems designed to exploit and dominate. We must dismantle them—and build what comes next.

For those of us grounded in movement work, this requires a shift away from illusions that have repeatedly failed us. The leadership of the Democratic Party remains structurally committed to capitalism and empire. Even its most progressive wing seeks to manage these systems, not abolish them. Remember, progressive icon Senator Elizabeth Warren proudly proclaimed “I am a capitalist to my bones.”

Time and again, insurgent energy is absorbed, redirected, and neutralized.

1. Why does The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) engage in elections at all?

We engage in elections because they are one terrain of struggle within a broader project of social transformation. We are unapologetic in our belief that capitalism, empire, white supremacy, and hetero-patriarchy must be dismantled—not managed.

At the same time, we reject the illusion that elections are the primary vehicle for liberation. As the Spanish 15-M (Indignados) movement declared: “Nuestros sueños no caben en sus urnas.” (Our dreams do not fit in their ballot boxes).

Elections, however, can be used to build power IF AND ONLY IF they are subordinated to movement strategy. They can help politicize new layers, elections can win non-reformist reforms, and elections can expose the structural limits of the existing system.

Once again drawing on Gramsci, we understand that we are in a war of position—a long-term struggle to transform “common sense” and challenge the cultural hegemony that normalizes capitalism and empire. 

Electoral work is one tool in that struggle, but only when it strengthens movement capacity and contributes to building true Dual Power.

We do not engage in elections to govern the existing system more efficiently. We engage to help make it obsolete.

2. How does The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) engage in elections?

The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) engages elections on our terms—not as an appendage to the Democratic Party or any institution committed to preserving the status quo.

We explicitly reject the dominant model of electoral politics. This includes formations like the Working Families Party, which function in practice as an auxiliary to the Democratic Party—channeling movement energy into candidates and strategies that ultimately reinforce the limits of capitalist governance.

We also reject the NGO-ization of political struggle through the nonprofit industrial complex, where priorities are shaped by funders, access, and institutional survival rather than by base-building and transformative vision.

As a movement-led electoral formation, we are guided by three core principles:

• Movement Leadership: Organized people—not politicians, donors, or consultants—must set the agenda.
• Non-Reformist Reforms: We pursue demands that improve material conditions while expanding movement power and exposing systemic limits.
• Dual Power: Electoral work must strengthen independent, democratic institutions that can ultimately replace the current system—not simply manage it.

We are different from most 501(c)(4) organizations. We are not primarily funneling money to candidates. We are organizing to educate, pressure, and align candidates with movement demands—making clear that they are accountable to movements, not to capital.

For us, elections are a tactic within a broader strategy—not a destination.

3. What campaigns does The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) work on?

The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) engages only with campaigns and candidates that align with our movement-led, dual power strategy.

Our work is grounded in three broad arenas:

• Democratizing elections
• Democratizing the economy
• Democratizing law and society

Across these areas, we focus on campaigns that expand democratic participation, challenge concentrated economic power, and dismantle systems of structural oppression. A fuller list of issue areas and policy demands can be found below.

While our primary focus is issue-based campaigning, we will engage selectively in candidate work under specific conditions:

• When candidates can amplify movement demands
• When campaigns can expose the limitations of partisan electoralism, particularly the constraints of the Democratic Party
• When we can leverage partnerships, including 501(c)(3) allies, to advance accountability tools such as candidate questionnaires and public commitments

We do not approach electoral work as an investment in candidates. We approach it as an opportunity to build organization, deepen political clarity, and strengthen independent power.

4. Who will The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) work with?

The Build & Fight 501(c)(4) emerges from and is accountable to a broader movement ecosystem. We are inspired by and informed by the  Resist, Build, Fight, Transform framework. 

We proudly engage with Resist & Build, an ongoing movement building process that is itself inspired by the World Social Forum and the US Social Forum. We look to concrete examples of Dual Power in action like  the People’s Network for Land and Liberation.

We function as a political and policy nexus within this ecosystem, helping to align movement strategy with electoral and policy interventions.

We also seek to play a constructive role within the election reform space. Our goal is not to ideologically realign that field, but to engage it strategically—identifying campaigns that can be pushed toward a non-reformist reform orientation and helping strengthen their transformative potential.

At the same time, we will pursue principled collaboration with formations on the political left, including the Green Party, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the Working Families Party, and progressive forces—to the extent that they are willing to break from subordination to the Democratic Party and engage in independent, movement-aligned work.

Our approach is not sectarian, but it is disciplined. 

We work with others where there is alignment in practice, not just rhetoric. Our goal is to build independent political power rooted in movements—not to recycle energy back into institutions that stabilize the system we are trying to transform.

5. What issues does Build & Fight 501(c)4 work on?

The Build & Fight C4 was created to engage in electoral politics from an explicitly transformational perspective, integrate political education into electoral work, and build a cross-sectoral democracy movement to: