Upon the organization's founding, Harrington and the socialist feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected co-chairs. After the merger, the DSA became the largest socialist organization in the United States, with a membership of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members.[12]
From 2015 to 2021, DSA membership increased 15-fold from 6,200 after Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, the presidential victory of Donald Trump, the 2018 election of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14][15] Membership peaked at 95,000 in 2021, when the organization had 239 local chapters,[12][16] before declining to 77,575 members by August 2023.[17] The organization has gained at least 2,400 new dues-paying members since October due to its pro-Palestinian stance during the Israel-Hamas war.[1] Between 2013 and 2017, the median age of its membership declined from 68 to 33,[18] leading some, such as Holly Otterbein of Philadelphia, to credit the organization for the rise of millennial socialism.[19]
The red rose is part of the official DSA logo.[45] It was drawn from the logo of the DSOC, its precursor organization, and previously of the Socialist International, which shows a stylized fist clenching a red rose, the fist replaced by a biracial handshake pertaining to the DSA's staunch anti-racism.[46][47] The fist and rose logo was originally designed for the French Socialist Party in 1969[48] and later shared by socialist and labor political organizations worldwide.
Two founding Idahoan DSA members at a big tent event in late September 2018
In the early 1980s, the DSOC's estimated membership was 5,000, but after its merger with the NAM and subsequent founding of the DSA,[52] the new organization's membership grew to an estimated 7,000 in 1987.[53]
In 2017, the organization passed a resolution calling for the national office to provide the group's paid members with a copy of a financial report in non-convention years. A first such report covering 2017 and the first half of 2018 was published in August 2018.[54]
The DSA's membership greatly increased following Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, the presidential victory of Donald Trump, the 2018 election of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[13][14][15] In May 2020, organizers said the DSA had attracted about 10,000 new members since March of that year. According to DSA leaders, after Sanders dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in April, many supporters previously aligned with his campaign moved over to the DSA.[15]
In August 2023, the organization claimed 77,575 members.[17] According to the finance data for the 2021 DSA convention, the organization collected $4.6 million in membership dues in 2020.[55] The DSA offers dues waivers for members who "may be experiencing financial problems right now".[56]
Biennial national conventions represent the DSA's highest authority and help guide it and its policies. Conventions are held every odd-numbered year. Convention delegates are primarily chosen by local chapters from their membership, but some are selected at-large by members not associated with a specific chapter.[59]
National Political Committee
Between conventions, DSA is governed by its National Political Committee (NPC), which simultaneously serves as its board of directors. Since 2001, the NPC has had 16 members elected at the national conventions.[60] The DSA's constitution requires at least 8 of the NPC's members to be women and at least 4 from "racial or national" minority groups.[61] A 17th vote is split between two delegates from the Young Democratic Socialists of America, at least one of whom must be a woman or gender non-binary. The NPC meets four times a year.[62]
The NPC elects seven of its own members to a leadership committee, the Steering Committee, two of whom must be the representatives of the youth section. At least two of these are constitutionally required to be women and at least one a person of color. The National Director and the Youth Section Organizer also participate as ex officio non-voting members. The Steering Committee meets bimonthly, either in person or by conference call.[63]
Chapters
The DSA is organized at the local level as self-governing chapters with guidance from the NPC and national conventions, and works with labor unions, community organizations, and campus activists on issues of common interest. As of July 2023[update], the DSA lists 206 official chapters and organizing committees in all 50 states,[64] as well as 126 student chapters.[65]
Staff
The DSA hires staff to "fulfill the goals set by DSA's elected volunteer leadership."[66] The DSA states that staff do not set its political goals and do not provide political advice.[66]
Staff include the National Director and positions in finances, organizing, communications, development, operations, and grievances.[66]
Nationwide campaigns are coordinated by the organization's national office in New York City, directed by the national conventions and the NPC.
DSA Fund
The Institute for Democratic Socialism (IDS) was founded in 1978 as a 501(c)(3) organization under the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee to distribute funding to promote democratic socialist ideals via political education and activist trainings.[67] The IDS continued under the DSA upon its founding and, in the mid-1990s, IDS renamed itself the Democratic Socialists of America Fund (DSA Fund).[67]
In the 1990s, the DSA Fund directed resources to the Prison Moratorium Project led by the youth section of DSA, which aimed at divesting from private prisons and contributed to Sodexo partially divesting from private prisons.[69][67]
Publications
The DSA publishes Democratic Left and Socialist Forum, quarterly magazines of news, analysis, and internal debate.[70][71]Democratic Left continues in an uninterrupted run from the original Newsletter of the Democratic Left published by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, a DSA predecessor, since its establishment in 1973.[citation needed] In 2008, DSA members active in the American labor movement founded Talking Union, a blog that focuses on labor politics, working-class struggles and strategies.[72]
Several DSA caucuses have their own publications, including The Call, run by Bread and Roses;[73]Assembly, of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus;[74]Partisan, affiliated with the Communist Caucus and other smaller caucuses;[75]Cosmonaut, affiliated with the Marxist Unity Group;[76]The Agitator, by the Socialist Majority Caucus;[77]Reform & Revolution by the caucus of the same name,[78] and Zenith by Red Star.[79]
The Trotskyist and revolutionary socialist online publication Tempest has roots in DSA, although its writers demonstrate varying membership in DSA and alignment in support of or critical of DSA.[80]Tempest frequently publishes pieces involving DSA internal politics and participates in debates within DSA.[81] Prominent contributors to Tempest include DSA members Dan La Botz, Stephen Shalom, and Joe Allen.
Left-wing quarterly magazine Jacobin is often aligned with DSA, although they are not affiliated.[82] In 2014, Jacobin's founder and then-editor Bhaskar Sunkara, a DSA member, praised DSA founder Michael Harrington, calling him "very underrated as a popularizer of Marxist thought".[83]
The dominant position in DSA regards the abolition of capitalism and the realization of socialism as a long-term goal, therefore the organization focuses its immediate political energies on reforms within capitalism that empower working people while decreasing the power of corporations.[96][97][98][99]
The DSA characterizes its vision of socialism as an economic system based on a range of models for social ownership, including publicly owned enterprises, worker-owned cooperatives, and decentralized planning. The DSA rejects traditional centralized economic planning in favor of democratic planning or market socialist mechanisms.[100] Additionally, because the DSA does not believe capitalism and private corporations can be immediately replaced with socialism, the organization supports expanding corporate regulations and organized labor to make private businesses more accountable to what it considers the public interest in the short term.[101]
We believe there are many avenues that feed into the democratic road to socialism. Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in the dustbin of history.
— Democratic Socialists of America
Welfare policy
A 2009 leaflet detailing the group's ideas, "What is Democratic Socialism?", states that "no country has fully instituted democratic socialism". Nonetheless, according to the DSA, there are lessons to be learned from "the comprehensive welfare state maintained by the Swedes, from Canada's national healthcare system, France's nationwide childcare program, and Nicaragua's literacy programs".[103] The DSA lauds the "tremendous prosperity and relative economic equality" established by the social democratic parties of Scandinavia and parts of Western Europe, while the organization maintains its goal to move beyond capitalism entirely.[103][102]
Labor
The DSA has long been a supporter and defender of the labor movement in the United States and has also argued for the increase of international worker solidarity. The DSA believes in a livable minimum wage for all workers, but it notes that this fight only goes so far and is only the first step in building a more humane economic system: "Ultimately the minimum wage only works for those lucky enough to find a job – even a low paying one – and it doesn't really 'work' for them, because it doesn't come with health benefits, adequate schools, or enough money to set aside for retirement".[104] DSA members have been supporters and active participants in fights to increase the minimum wage across the country, including the Fight for $15 protests.[105][106]
The DSA opposes right-to-work laws, which are seen as an attack on the rights of workers and the historic advances of the labor movement.[107] It is argued that the enactment of these laws reduces the efficacy of collective bargaining agreements, putting workers at a disadvantage.[107] In a statement released in 2014, the organization said: "Such 'right to work' laws consciously aim to weaken union strength; they are the main reason why the 'right to work' is, as Martin Luther King Jr. put it, 'the right to work for less'".[107]
The DSA has been involved in a variety of labor organizing campaigns. In 2020, the DSA and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America founded the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) to "help workers organize" by developing training programs and connecting labor organizers with appropriate resources.[110][111][112]Jacobin attributed various labor organizing drive and union election victories to the assistance of EWOC organizers.[110] The DSA has frequently adopted the strategy of getting socialists hired in key occupations to establish new unions or reform caucuses within existing unions.[113] In 2022, it initiated its first national labor campaign to support Starbucks Workers United-led efforts to unionize Starbucks stores and negotiate a national contract.[114] In 2023, the DSA organized national campaigns to support striking or pre-striking workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters[22][113][115][116] and United Auto Workers[23][117] as each respective union aimed toward new contracts.
In 2023, the University of Oregon YDSA chapter won its campaign to unionize undergraduate students on its campus as "UO Student Workers", forming the nation's largest undergraduate student workers' union, with more than 3,800 workers.[4][118]
Housing
The DSA views the housing market as a key element of the exploitation of the working class under capitalism, and supports a universal public housing program. The organization believes in rent cancellation and the creation of a "Social Housing Acquisition fund" to develop democratically controlled social housing and tenant-owned housing cooperatives.[119]
In March 2022, the DSA Housing Justice Commission founded the Emergency Tenant Organizing Committee (ETOC), named after the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), to support chapter campaigns to establish tenant unions and lead tenant organizing efforts.[120][121]
Environment
DSA supports the decommodification and democratic control of electricity and agriculture to replace capitalist private ownership.[119] The organization's platform describes decolonization and an end to the military–industrial complex as central parts of this goal, simultaneously espousing a "just transition" toward this end that expands social programs, public research, and protection of vulnerable communities via a global Green New Deal.[119][4]
Though it is controversial within the organization, some DSA members, such as the Caracol caucus, support degrowth, as promoted by such academics as Julia Steinberger, Giorgos Kallis, and Jason Hickel; the International Committee has expressed interest in international degrowth proposals, arguing that they align with Green New Deal principles.[122]
Build Public Renewables Act campaign
In late 2019, the New York City DSA chapter established the Public Power NY Coalition, aimed at expanding public renewable energy in collaboration with organized labor and DSA members in the New York state legislature.[24] According to campaign organizer Ashley Dawson, the Coalition was formed after private utility company ConEd increased electricity prices; it was also concerned about ConEd's fossil fuel lobbying, its failure to invest in upgrading its energy infrastructure, and respiratory illnesses caused by pollution in low-income and minority neighborhoods.[24]
In May 2023, the DSA claimed that the four-year organizing campaign led by New York state chapters enabled the BPRA to pass.[126][24] DSA and progressive media called it "the biggest Green New Deal victory in U.S. history" due to its provisions for public renewable energy, unionized public jobs, electricity price discounts, and closing natural gas plants.[125][126][127][128][4]
Gender and sexuality
The DSA aligns itself with the socialist feminist movement. The organization holds that capitalism is built on white supremacy as well as male supremacy. The DSA maintains that reproductive rights are central to the feminist movement. Connecting democratic socialism and socialist feminism, the DSA says "that birth control and safe abortion should be provided as part of a comprehensive single-payer healthcare program". Believing that electoral politics can only take socialist feminism so far, the organization also says that the emphasis must be on community-based grassroots movements. The DSA further says that socialist feminism must include the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.[129]
The DSA is committed to the rights of the LGBT community, connecting anti-gay prejudice to capitalist exploitation. This includes pushes for equal rights and protections for all those who identify as LGBTQIA+ as well as rights to housing, jobs, education, public accommodations, and healthcare. The DSA recognizes that those who are most discriminated against based on identity are disproportionately women and people of color. The organization also seeks to ensure public schools are safe places for LGBTQIA+ students and that students should have total access to facilities that reflect their gender. The DSA supports the protection of same-sex marriages, but it "views marriage as only a first step in recognizing the diversity of human relationships".[130]
DSA has coordinated campaigns for immigrant rights via its national Immigrants' Rights Working Group,[132] and various rallies and protests in support of immigrants and the abolition of ICE.[133][134][135]
In the 1990s, the DSA Fund directed resources to the Prison Moratorium Project led by the youth section of DSA, which aimed at divesting from private prisons and contributed to Sodexo partially divesting from private prisons.[69][67]
The DSA has an Abolition Working Group that supports abolitionist organizing.[136] DSA Atlanta prioritizes support for a citywide referendum in favor of Stop Cop City.[137]
DSA generally coordinates its messaging and national organizing on international issues through its International Committee (IC) and, until its merger with the IC, the BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group. The DSA IC often voices support for international leftist groups, popular uprisings, and anti-imperialist struggles.
The organization was a member of the Socialist International from 1982 to 2017. A majority of delegates at the 2017 DSA National Convention voted to leave the International due to its alleged support for neoliberal economic policies.[8] Delegates at the 2021 DSA National Convention voted to apply to join the São Paulo Forum,[5] and DSA became an Associate Member organization in 2023.[6] Delegates at the August 2023 DSA National Convention voted for the organization to join the Progressive International, and DSA became an official member in October 2023.[138][139]
The DSA opposes Zionism and the current form of the State of Israel, which it views as an imperialistethnostate.[142][92] The DSA supported Israel during the late 20th century, including socialist and progressive people and movements in the state. Former DSA vice-chair Jo-Ann Mort has said the group was formerly "the place to go on the left if you were a socialist and you were pro-Israel".[92]
On August 5, 2017, DSA members nearly unanimously passed a resolution to formally endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.[142][92][143] The resolution condemned "all efforts to deny the right of Palestinians in the United States and their allies to free speech, assembly, and academic freedom"[144] and compared Israeli policy in the occupied territories to apartheid.[145] The DSA has expressed support for Ahed Tamimi.[146] The statement also reiterated the DSA's support for the liberation of the Palestinian people.[146]Alternet noted that this had been a divisive issue between the older labor Zionist minority trying to "reconcile socialism with Zionism" and the younger anti-Zionist majority, who consider the movement a "time-tested means of nonviolent protest" and "the most powerful force to combat Israeli apartheid in the 21st century".[142]
In 2021, the DSA attracted criticism from the socialist left due to a vote by U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, an elected member of DSA at the time, in favor of providing $1 billion in additional annual aid to Israel, in violation of DSA's anti-Zionist and pro-BDS platform.[147][148][149][150][4] Bowman was also criticized for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on a trip to Israel organized by J Street.[147][150][149]
In response, many DSA members and the DSA National Political Committee (NPC) condemned Bowman's actions. In a statement, the NPC expressed the "importance of developing greater accountability for DSA electeds", vowed to "reevaluate our national endorsement process",[151] and said it "will not re-endorse Bowman unless he is able to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine" but that his criticisms of the Israeli government and perceived progress on this subject due to DSA engagement with his office did not warrant his expulsion from the organization.[151] Petitions for and against Bowman's expulsion circulated within DSA in 2021, with the national BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group endorsing his expulsion.[151][152]
In February 2022, Bowman removed his sponsorship of the Israeli Relations Normalization Act, which some NPC members considered a win from engaging with Bowman's office.[153] Others in DSA challenged this interpretation, including the BDS Working Group.[154] In March 2022, the NPC voted 9–8 to punish the BDS Working Group for alleged disruptive behavior, which included dechartering it, moving its work to the International Committee, and banning its leadership from DSA leadership positions.[155] A subsequent petition against the NPC's decision gathered 1,416 signatures,[156] while another petition with 361 signatures argued that it was an "unfortunate but necessary decision" due to the working group's alleged inappropriate behavior and for acting independently of the elected NPC leadership.[157][158] Various Palestinian organizations condemned the NPC's decision and urged a boycott of DSA until it was rescinded.[159][160][161] Multiple NPC members resigned in reaction.[162] Ultimately, the NPC unanimously voted to rescind its decision to decharter the BDS Working Group, while maintaining the leadership suspension.[162] The leadership suspension has since expired.
In April 2023, Bowman co-led a letter to President Biden with Senator Bernie Sanders urging a probe into the use of U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.[163][164] The letter called for restricting $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel and "immediate action to prevent the further loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives".[163]
In July 2023, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, 412–9, declaring that "The State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state, Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia, and the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."[165] Among those voting against the resolution were DSA members Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Bush, and Bowman, who each cited the Israeli government's human rights abuses against Palestinians.[165]Casar voted for the resolution.[165][a]
On October 7, 2023, DSA published a statement saying Hamas's attack that day was the direct result of Israel's "apartheid regime". It went on to condemn all civilian casualties, reaffirm its stance against the occupation of Palestinian territory and support for Palestinian statehood, call for an end to U.S. financial support to the State of Israel, and endorse an initiative by New York State Assembly member and DSA member Zohran Mamdani.[166] The same day, Cori Bush released a statement mourning "the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today",[167] criticizing Israel's military response to the attack,[168] and calling for "ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid".[169] On October 8, Rashida Tlaib released a statement that likewise grieved "the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day", called for lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and ending Israeli occupation and apartheid, and cited U.S. government support for Israel as part of the problem.[170] DSA-endorsed members of Congress—Bush, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez—have all called the State of Israel an apartheid regime, citing human rights abuses against Palestinians.[165]
Protestors at a New York City DSA-led protest marches in Manhattan to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas war, and an end to Israeli apartheid.
On October 8, the New York City DSA chapter promoted a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square.[176] Several New York politicians condemned the rally for statements at the event by Party for Socialism and Liberation member Eugene Puryear mocking the victims of the Re'im music festival massacre and for an unidentified attendee displaying a swastika on a cellphone.[177][178][179] The DSA later distanced itself from the rally,[179][180] as did Ocasio-Cortez[181] and U.S. Representative Shri Thanedar, who claimed he renounced his DSA membership, though a spokesman said he had been expelled a month earlier.[182] Representative Jamaal Bowman confirmed in light of the rally that he had let his DSA membership expire in 2022.[183] In the days after the rally, some socialist magazines such as Jacobin published editorials disputing negative characterizations of DSA, arguing that mainstream media outlets had falsely accused it of supporting Hamas and organizing the rally.[184] Jewish members of DSA denounced Mayor Eric Adams for falsely[179][185] accusing the DSA of "carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people", calling the accusation "horrific defamation".[186][187] New York State Senator and DSA member Jabari Brisport echoed a denunciation of Adams's accusation.[188] Progressives outside of DSA as well as opponents of the organization similarly deemed Adams's comments inappropriate and false.[179][185] In addition to denouncing Adams's comments, Abby Stein wrote disapprovingly in the New York Daily News that other New York politicians, such as Ritchie Torres and Nicole Malliotakis, had "repeatedly tried to smear everyone endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as antisemitic simply because the organization hastily tweeted about a Palestinian solidarity rally", adding: "I may have my disagreements with some of DSA's positions. But their endorsed elected officials are in fact the ones who've shown true moral leadership during this crisis."[185]
On October 16, Bush and Tlaib introduced a congressional resolution calling on the Biden administration to call for deescalation and ceasefire in the conflict, and the entry of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.[192][193][194][170] Ocasio-Cortez was also an initial co-sponsor.[193] The DSA hosted regular phonebanking drives to urge constituents to call public officials' offices for a ceasefire, producing hundreds of thousands of calls to members of Congress, and which the organization attributes for pushing dozens of congresspeople to sign on to the Bush-Tlaib ceasefire resolution.[195][196]
On November 7, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 234–188 to censure Rep. Tlaib for her statements on the war and her use of the phrase "from the river to the sea" to call for a binational one-state solution.[200] The following day, DSA condemned the censure as "part of an attempt to stifle the voices of the millions of people who have gone to the streets to demand a ceasefire and ... peace and justice for the Palestinian people" and shared a call by Tlaib to join DSA and pro-Palestine protests.[201]
On November 15, JVP, DSA, and IfNotNow held a candlelight vigil and protested at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC to call for a ceasefire in Gaza during a fundraiser attended by members of Congress.[202][203][204] The vigil and protest ended in U.S. Capitol Police clashing with protestors who were "illegally and violently protesting" at the building, according to police, injuring 90 protestors[205] and 6 police officers.[202][204] The groups released a joint statement characterizing the protest as peaceful civil disobedience suppressed through police violence without warning.[205]Representative Brad Sherman and Senator Marco Rubio claimed the protestors were violent and "pro-Hamas."[205]
From November 29 to December 2, DSA officially joined a coalition led by the Adalah Justice Project to carry out a five-day hunger strike outside the White House, with DSA members including New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Michigan State Representative Abraham Aiyash, Palestinian writer Sumaya Awad, actress Cynthia Nixon, and then-interim DSA chair Ashik Siddique participating in the strike.[206][207][208][209][210][211] Five members of Congress joined the strikers to speak in support on November 29, including Bush and Tlaib.[209][210][211][212][213]
Korea
The DSA IC supports efforts to "formally end the Korean War with a peace treaty" and carry out the Korean Peace and Reconciliation process, which they say "is the product of the struggle of Korean left and popular movements." They support the U.S. lifting restrictions on travel to and trade with North Korea, and work with Women Cross DMZ, Nodutdol, and other Korean peace organizations to support such ends.[214]
In 2023, the DSA IC stated that it opposed U.S. media coverage critical of MORENA and López Obrador's proposed reforms to the National Electoral Institute and Mexico's expansion of state-owned electricity production. It also condemned rhetoric by 2024 Republican Party presidential primary candidates for the U.S. to invade Mexico as an escalation of the U.S. war on drugs, adding that the committee "stands in solidarity with the working class of Mexico, the MORENA Party, and AMLO in its 'fourth transformation' process."[216]
On February 26, 2022, the DSA issued a statement condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine while arguing that the U.S. and NATO provoked Russia.[217] The statement called for "diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis" and for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO and "end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict".[218][219] Many Democratic members of Congress, including politicians affiliated with the DSA, criticized this statement,[218][217] with some calling it "tone-deaf".[219] Others defended the statement and criticized the responses from mainstream media and politicians attacking the organization.[220][221] According to Intelligencer, "The suggestion that the U.S. was somehow to blame for Vladimir Putin's war of aggression was seized on by the DSA's critics across the ideological spectrum—from the New York Post to Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose—while setting off a round of recriminations and counterstatements among American leftists."[218]
The DSA opposes U.S. intervention in the Syrian Civil War. A statement issued in April 2017 called the Trump administration's intervention a violation of both domestic and international law. In the same statement, the DSA called for protests of Trump's actions and for the lobbying of Congress to halt any further intervention.[222]
In January 2019, the DSA International Committee stated its solidarity with Rojava and support for its efforts to build an autonomous socialist and democratic society in northeastern Syria, while reaffirming DSA's opposition to U.S. intervention.[223]
In 2016, the DSA issued a statement of solidarity with Venezuela. It called the sanctions placed on Venezuela by the Obama administration unjust and illegal. It called for the U.S. to cease its interference in Venezuelan affairs, saying: "We call on the President and Congress to reverse these actions and stop seeking to undermine the Venezuelan people and their legitimate, democratically elected government".[224]
In 2019, the DSA published a statement against U.S. intervention in Venezuela during the Venezuelan presidential crisis, arguing that both the "increasingly top-down Venezuelan government as well as the fractious Venezuelan opposition ... bear significant responsibility" for the crisis.[225] The statement included a condemnation of Juan Guaidó, noted as part of the "right-wing Voluntad Popular," proclaiming himself as president despite having not been elected.[225]
In June 2021, a DSA delegation of the International Committee traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, to meet with Nicolás Maduro and attend the Bicentennial Congress of the Peoples (Spanish: Congreso Bicentenario de los Pueblos), considered not an autonomous body, but rather "an assemblage of national and foreign supporters" of Maduro launched "to coat itself with a veneer of international support".[226][227] The DSA International Committee was criticized both externally and by DSA members for giving legitimacy to the Maduro administration, as well as for having its delegation stay at one of Caracas's most expensive hotels, the Gran Meliá Caracas [es], where rooms cost $200 a night, and for partying despite the COVID-19 restrictions in Venezuela.[228] It was also criticized for giving "a bad name to the international left in Venezuela".[229]
Historically, the DSA was associated with Michael Harrington's position that "the left wing of realism is found today in the Democratic Party". In its early years, the DSA opposed Republican presidential candidates by giving critical support to Democratic nominees like Walter Mondale in 1984.[230] In 1988, the DSA enthusiastically supported Jesse Jackson's second presidential campaign.[231] Since 1995, the DSA's position on American electoral politics has been that "democratic socialists reject an either-or approach to electoral coalition building, focused solely on a new party or on realignment within the Democratic Party".[232] During the 1990s, the DSA gave the Clinton administration an overall rating of C−, "less than satisfactory".[233]
In the early 2000s the DSA was critical of the Democratic Party leadership, which it argues is corporate-funded.[234] The organization has stated:[235]
Much of progressive, independent political action will continue to occur in Democratic Party primaries in support of candidates who represent a broad progressive coalition. In such instances, democratic socialists will support coalitional campaigns based on labor, women, people of color and other potentially anti-corporate elements.
Electoral tactics are only a means for democratic socialists; the building of a powerful anti-corporate coalition is the end.
In recent years, the DSA's stated long-term goal has been to form an independent workers' party, while in the meantime it adopts a "proto-party" strategy called the "dirty break".[236] DSA's elected leadership has often seen running in Democratic Party primary elections, rather than immediately forming a third party, as necessary for socialist visibility and electoral victories while the organization builds the resources for a viable workers' party.[236] DSA also developed a stricter endorsement policy since 2016, endorsing only democratic socialists.[237]
In 2004, the organization backed John Kerry after he won the Democratic nomination. In its official magazine, the DSA's Political Action Committee said that Kerry's defeat would be taken as a defeat of the mainstream left, but that "a Kerry victory will let us press onward, with progressives aggressively pressuring an administration that owed its victory to democratic mobilization from below."[241] The only resolution on upcoming elections at the DSA's 2005 convention focused on Bernie Sanders's independent campaign for the Senate in Vermont.[242] The organization's 2007 convention in Atlanta featured record-breaking attendance and more participation by the organization's youth wing. Sanders gave the keynote address.[243]
In 2008, the DSA supported Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in his race against Republican nominee John McCain. In an article in the March 24 edition of The Nation, DSA members Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr., along with Tom Hayden and Danny Glover, announced the formation of Progressives for Obama,[244] arguing that Obama was the most progressive viable Democratic presidential candidate since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.[244]
Following Obama's election, many on the political right[245] began to allege that his administration's policies were "socialistic", a claim the DSA and the Obama administration both rejected. The claim led DSA National Director Frank Llewellyn to declare that "over the past 12 months, the Democratic Socialists of America has received more media attention than it has over the past 12 years".[246]
In the 2016 presidential election, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president. Sanders's candidacy prompted a surge in DSA membership among young voters.[247] The DSA made clear that Sanders's New Deal-inspired program did not sufficiently prioritize worker ownership, but considered his campaign a favorable development in American politics,[248] since he was a self-identified democratic socialist who favored worker ownership of the economy and "a lifelong champion of the public programs and democratic rights that empower working class people".[249] The DSA ran the internally focused #WeNeedBernie campaign to mobilize DSA supporters for Sanders.[249] After Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries, the DSA called for Republican nominee Donald Trump's defeat, but did not officially endorse Clinton.[250]
In 2020, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president again after an advisory poll reported 76% of the participating membership approved his endorsement,[251] despite objections from part of the membership about Sanders's statements on, among other topics, slavery reparations.[252] No other candidates were included in the poll. After Sanders dropped out in April 2020, the DSA explicitly did not endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.[253] Two DSA chapters (Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City) voted to endorse Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.[254]
In May 2020, 91 "founders, officers and activists" of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s criticized the DSA's failure to endorse Biden in an open letter "to the New New Left From the Old New Left" published in The Nation.[255] Daniel Finn of Jacobin responded that in invoking the specter of fascism under a second-term Trump, the former SDSers were engaging in "melodramatic hyperbole", and that climate change was not an issue that could wait until 2024 or 2028. "No socialist", he argued, "who campaigned for Bernie Sanders should feel guilty about abandoning [the Democrats] and concentrating on building a movement that is the only real hope for the planet's future".[256]
Ocasio-Cortez's victory and the subsequent publicity for the DSA led more than 1,000 new members to join the organization the next day, approximately 35 times the daily average[269] and its largest ever one-day increase in membership.[270] These signups helped boost the organization to 42,000 members nationally in June 2018.[271] That number increased to 50,000 by September 1, 2018.[272]
In November 2022, Greg Casar[a] was the fifth DSA member jointly elected to the House, though he was not endorsed due to his stances on Palestine.[283] In the following year, Bowman announced that he had stopped paying his membership dues,[284] and Shri Thanedar, who had quietly joined the organization, was expelled for having substantial disagreement with its principles.[285][286]
In the United States elections of 2017, the DSA endorsed 15 candidates for office, with the highest position gained being that of Lee J. Carter in the Virginia House of Delegates.[287] DSA members won 15 electoral offices in 13 states, bringing the total to 35 (having changed its electoral strategy at its national convention, the DSA had anticipated picking up approximately five seats)[288][289] 56% of the DSA members who ran in this election cycle won, compared to 20% in 2016.[289] These results encouraged dozens more DSA members to run for office in the 2018 elections.[290]
In March 2021, an all-DSA leadership of a state Democratic party was elected for the first time in its history, sweeping the leadership of the Nevada Democratic Party.[327][328] After the elections, the entire Nevada Democratic Party staff resigned.[329] On March 4, 2023, a "unity" slate of candidates was elected, ending DSA leadership of the party.[330] In February 2023, the DSA's Las Vegas chapter said that communication between the slate and the chapter had faltered and the slate had become increasingly moderate over its term despite initial statements in favor of democratic socialist causes. From this experience, the chapter wrote in opposition to both entryism in the Democratic Party and solely focusing on electoral organizing as formidable strategies for socialist organizers:[331]
This is our lesson, and we hope socialists everywhere will pay close attention: the Democratic Party is a dead end. It is a "party" in name only; truly, it is simply a tangled web of dark money and mega-donors, cynical consultants, and lapdog politicians. ... We don't want milquetoast progressive reformist-reforms; we want socialism. We won't get it by playing the DNC's games, and we won't get it by being a mildly obnoxious thorn in their side, either. Our task is to out-organize them entirely, and not merely within the confines of the voting booth.
At the 2023 DSA National Convention, delegates declared school board elections to be an electoral priority.[4][335]Jacobin and the New York Post both noted the success of DSA candidates in school board elections in at least 15 states since 2021 from left- and right-wing perspectives, respectively, including that such candidates ran on supporting transgender rights, fighting systemic racism, and supporting teachers' unions and funding for public education.[335][336]
^ abcWoodward, Alex (October 21, 2023). "More than 100 arrested at protest calling for ceasefire, aid for Gaza". The Independent. Retrieved October 22, 2023. More than 3,000 people marched in heavy rain from Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan to the office of US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, where they condemned the killings of Palestinians and Israelis and demanded she and other members of Congress support a ceasefire resolution. ... New York State Senator Jabari Brisport was among those arrested. In a video he shared on social media, the senator chants "free Palestine" as he stands in a handcuffed group behind a line of NYPD officers.
^Dorothy Healey and Maurice Isserman, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 245–249.
^O'Rourke, William (1993). "L: Michael Harrington". Signs of the literary times: Essays, reviews, profiles, 1970–1992. The Margins of Literature (SUNY Series). SUNY Press. pp. 195–196. ISBN0-7914-1681-X.
^Weaver, Adam (August 5, 2017). "A Turning Point on the Left? Libertarian Caucus Debuts at Democratic Socialist Conference". Truthout. Retrieved July 17, 2023. In addition, many are viewing the DSA convention this week in Chicago as a key turning point within the organization. Coming out of the DSA is a new caucus called the Libertarian Socialist Caucus. The LSC promotes a vision of 'libertarian socialism' ...
^"Rise of the democratic socialists". The Week. July 30, 2018. Archived from the original on April 28, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. DSA's national platform calls for abolishing capitalism
^Bohannon, Molly. "Congressman Leaves Democratic Socialists Of America For Promoting Pro-Palestinian Rally After Hamas Attack". Forbes. Retrieved October 19, 2023. A spokesperson for the Detroit chapter of DSA told Forbes in a statement that Thanedar's 'views are not—and have never been—representative of Detroit DSA.' Thanedar was expelled from the chapter last month 'due to his support of the far right, violent, Islamophobic Modi regime in India,' the spokesperson said.
^Burke, Kerry; Quigley, Liam (October 21, 2023). "Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gather in Midtown Manhattan". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 22, 2023. Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter helped organize the demonstration, calling on New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to demand a ceasefire in the conflict.
^ abHayden, Tom; Ehrenreich, Barbara; Fletcher, Bill Jr.; Glover, Danny (March 25, 2008). "Progressives for Obama". The Nation. Retrieved August 8, 2017.
^Democratic Left Editorial Team (Winter 2020). "Chapter and Verse: DSA specialty: Toppling incumbents". Retrieved January 5, 2021. At least 48 DSA members were on the ballot this November, and at least 36 won office, earning more than 3.1 million votes for socialist candidates altogether.
^"Meg Gorman for Congress". www.facebook.com. Retrieved October 13, 2020. I'm beyond proud to receive the endorsement of Chattanooga Democratic Socialists of America.
^Bohannon, Molly. "Congressman Leaves Democratic Socialists Of America For Promoting Pro-Palestinian Rally After Hamas Attack". Forbes. Retrieved October 17, 2023. A spokesperson for the Detroit chapter of DSA told Forbes in a statement that Thanedar's "views are not—and have never been—representative of Detroit DSA." Thanedar was expelled from the chapter last month "due to his support of the far right, violent, Islamophobic Modi regime in India," the spokesperson said.
^Neavling, Steve. "Thanedar was a harsh critic of Israel before becoming an outspoken defender". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved October 17, 2023. The Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America fired back at Thanedar, saying he can't renounce his membership because he was removed from the local group on Sept. 17.
^"Spring 2020 Voter Guide". Madison Area Dsa – Democratic Socialists of America. March 31, 2020. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
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