As previously promised, here is a quick recap for the DSA convention that just wrapped up. I could probably write something longer, but I'll stick to highlights because I am extremely tired.
~~Democrat Supporters of America~~ ~~Direct Sellers Association~~ ~~Dick Suckers Agency~~ Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist org in the US with ~90,000 members. It is a mass party with ties to labor unions and a few electeds scattered around the US. Once every two years DSA holds a convention composed of delegates elected from each chapter based on membership size. This year the total delegate count was ~1,200, with the largest delegations being from NYC, LA, and DC.
The convention is the highest decision making body in the org and is tasked with voting on member-submitted resolutions and electing the org's two co-chairs and its increasingly large National Political Committee (NPC) which is the highest decision making body between conventions. I won't bore everyone with the individual votes, but I'll try to explain where the org is at.
DSA is a "big tent" org. This means factions of vastly different tendencies are allowed to operate openly and advocate for their own vision of the org. The ideological range here varies from radlibs who want the org to operate like an NGO, and revolutionary MLs who want to overthrow the government by force. You might predict this produces a contentious body, and it does, but the org has spent the last decade since its rebirth maturing. I've been told by long-timers that this was the most comradely convention since 2015.
From what my sleep-deprived brain can remember, here are the biggest decisions we made:
- A large internal reform was passed by DSA's Democracy Commission based on an analysis of global parties similar to DSA. This included, as some folks have posted, a repeal of a ban on democratic centralism. To be pedantic, the bylaw in question banned any DSA member from being "under the control of a democratic centralist organization" (DSA allows dual-carding). This ban has never been enforced to my knowledge and was probably cooked up by Michael Herrington's insane brain out of a rabid hatred of communism.
- Speaking of hating Herrington, the org passed its strongest national statements on Zionism, declaring direct support of Israel a red line for membership and electeds that can lead to expulsion. A similar resolution was debated during the 2023 convention and failed. Growth!
- A couple of big electoral resolutions got passed. One says we need to run 10 socialist candidates on an independent ballot line in 2026 (I'm skeptical) and another says we should run a presidential candidate in 2028 (I'm very skeptical we can get a candidate who can win to run).
- Convention voted for National to start up some kind of big Abolish Ice campaign in 2026.
- I'm very proud of the convention for voting down an amendment to our wonderful International Committee's consensus resolution that would have imposed certain members' idea of "democracy" and "worker's rights" onto the considerations of what parties we can and cannot reach out to.
- We voted to delete our Twitter account lmao
I'm sure there's more but I'm blanking. And I'm also mad we ran out of time to get to vote to censure AOC. Other highlights:
- As you've maybe seen already, yes, someone did say that delegates not voting for a One Member, One Vote resolution were like John Adams, slavers, and Jim Crow. No, we did not stop making fun of them all weekend.
- Multiple international guests honored us with their presence, including reps from PT in Brazil and Morena in Mexico, both of whom I was privileged enough to hear speak their message of solidarity to DSA.
- DSA has an excellent relationship with the PCC in Cuba, and had planned to have a delegation from Cuba return this year. Unfortunately (per a rumor I heard), there were concerns about traveling to America (fair), so Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent in a video, which was played before the convention body, expressing the plight of the Cuba people and the necessity of international solidarity.
- In a much more unexpected appearance, Jeremy Corbyn also sent a video wishing well to DSA, including a call for something like "A new Atlantic alliance, this time based on peace, cooperation, and socialism."
- Our keynote speak was Rashida Tlaib. The self-proclaimed "big sister" of DSA fired off some very obvious subliminals at AOC, and demanded more independence from the Dems, and for labor to fight for a free Palestine. She was undoubtedly the greatest speaker we had and it was very comforting to visibly see her bodyguards standing near her.
Most people I spoke to described the convention body as more "left" than ever on virtually every issue, which is visible somewhat in the results of the NPC election having more of a bent towards the left of the org than before. I think the 2027 convention, with a looming presidential race and the much talked about May Day 2028 strike, will have a lot more substantial to chew through.
I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has.
join dsa if ur not in an org
k goodnight
Thanks for the writeup. Promising developments for sure.
How strong or influential is Red Star at the national level?
Red Star is the only ML caucus, right? I hear MUG isn't exactly ML.
Red Star is the only ML caucus with a seat on the NPC. MUG is Kautskyist and imo struggles with being under practiced and organizing and having an electoral bent.
Communist Caucus is also ML but abstains from leadership elections, instead focusing on poaching DSA people for tenant, labor and anti-prison organizing. When they need something to happen nationally they usually lobby Bread and Roses (the pro-labor center caucus) to bring it forward for them.
Imo theyre the realest caucus in DSA by a long shot.
Theres also local ML caucuses like Black Red Guard's thing, Red Labor, and Emerge.
I've organized closely with communist caucus members and they are not MLs. I have heard different members go on rants against tankies on many occasions. I won't say more specifics so I don't dox myself but those people are some of the worst settlers I've ever organized with
people on this site have weird ideas about DSA for some reason, i've seen someone here call B&R part of the DSA "left" which left me kind of flabbergasted tbh
also, never had much interaction with communist caucus in the past, they even worse than ~~socialist~~ settler majority caucus?
CC is all anarchists that read Lenin and made their own left-communism from it.
This is a perfect description
ah... they sound horrid, glad ive never interacted with anyone from that caucus
I would assume only someone who is in B&R would say that? Haha
But either way people like to promote their party on here, whether that's DSA or PSL, so I can see someone trying to see the best in them. Weird thing to say though.
i would be kind of amazed if someone willingly participating within B&R used this site lol. ig tbh "left" vs "right" really doesnt mean much in general, especially in dsa, but i really struggle to understand how anyone could use some sort of definition that includes B&R with the other "left" caucuses unless ur like settler majority caucus's strongest soldier or something like that lol.
What I would say is people usually categorize B&R as "left" when compared to SMC and GW, totally discounting international issues. As far as I can tell B&R might be the absolute furthest right on international issues of any major caucus. I'm weirdly glad they did not do well on the NPC this convention.
Yes, I've seen so much heinous shit come from of DSA members that I can't say because it would dox me, but I have been surprised by the sentiments here towards DSA.
I haven't interacted with SM because I've never been a DSA member and only interacted with DSA members in organizing spaces outside DSA that their members are involved in. When it comes to caucuses like SM and B&R, it is easy to spot their terrible politics from a mile away, but with CC they posture so much to be "the good ones" that I think they are worse for being manipulative and deceitful. I wrote out the things I've seen them do but deleted it because it does feel like a way to get identified.
Edit: also they are huge rojava stans
Would you say Red Star is generally better, besides or in addition to being ML?
They do seem better from the outside but I haven't worked with them directly. I did meet a few at a party once and one of them was arguing in favor of electoralism and using Venezuela as an example of how electoralism could work in the US to bring about socialism. I referenced this in one of the recent Mamdani struggle sessions. I liked that they were pro Venezuela but immediately thought it was a display of their lack of understanding of dialectical and historical materialism to assume that the conditions in Venezuela which lead to Chavismo were anything similar to the US
Thanks for the heads up about MUG, that was my impression but just wanted to confirm.
Besides being ML, how's Red Star usually?
So full disclosure I'm an anarchist but generally I like having either Red Star or Bread and Roses in leadership. Red Star is big on setting priorities for chapters and then having the whole chapter throw their weight behind it, which is exhausting when that priority is a candidate campaign and very cool when its anything else.
They also are big on two-camp anti-imperialism, which can sometimes be useful at cutting through the bullshit but can lead to edge lord behavior like the time they cyber-bullied a trot for being rude to a Cuban diplomat or the time they released a pamphlet entitled "we commend hamas." Like, neither of those things are neccesarily wrong, but theyre internet behavior, not irl organizing behavior.
If you're talking about the delegation trip, the people who were responsible for the "protests" (and were rude not just to a diplomat but to Diaz-Canel himself) shouldn't be able to show their face in public again. It was definitely good that they immediately published a denouncement of this behavior.
Oh no, it was rude as hell, but being in community where we're actually accountable to each other means pulling them aside and privately going "dude wtf" and then doing a polite and formal public apology.
The internet flaming was unfortunate and gauche, but the kind of shit you get with MLs since most of them were radicalized online before they started IRL organizing.
How much of an apology did we actually get from the rogue faction of delegates? I'd expect they apologized for procedural violations and that's it. This wasn't just some offhand bad response or misbehavior at a single night's event, it was a premeditated little campaign where they chose again and again to do the wrong thing even when the disciplined part of the delegation gave them a negative response. Denouncing them is completely appropriate; They set themselves up with deliberation and independent effort as a hostile agitating force that is at the same time completely unserious about addressing their issues with the Cuban state (or else they might have thought it helpful to talk to the fucking President about their complaints!).
Give me a break
Are you referencing Maria during the trip to Cuba?
Thanks for the heads up!