DSA Corner is a new monthly feature of handpicked headlines from the previous month highlighting news from the Democratic Socialists of America and related issues.
DSA DEMOCRACY COMMISSION RELEASES 61 PAGE REPORT AHEAD OF POLICY SUGGESTIONS
“Democracy thrives on direct, honest, and comradely debate conducted in open meetings with meaningful stakes, where analysis is developed to inform specific strategies.”
The 21 member Democracy Commission elected after the 2023 DSA National Convention has released their report to membership this month in the lead up to the release of recommendations to the upcoming 2025 convention later this year. The report is separated between an analysis of internal democratic structures across DSA and research into the structures of socialist parties outside of DSA at home and abroad. The report finds significant variance but also highlights some common themes and strategies identified as particularly effective or ineffective.
ROSE D RESIGNS LEADERSHIP ROLES CITING TRUMP THREATS AND PERSONAL REASONS
“This may be a temporary setback, which a new spring of freedom will soon wash away, or it may be, as I fear it is, the closing of our contemporary era of pluralism and tolerance, and the start of a darker, meaner period, from which our society may not awaken for many years to come.”
Maine DSA member Rose DuBois stepped down from the National Political Committee and the National Electoral Commission this month in a letter published on Twitter. Rose highlights her personal connection to the risk posed to trans and otherwise marginalized organizers by the incoming far-right Trump regime and criticizes political rivals in DSA by claiming unnamed members have given Trump “ammunition” and describing the 2024 staff layoffs as “politically motivated.”
LEFT ON RED TAKES ON LA WILDFIRES
“All of us – the working class – we sorta fail every day when we remain disorganized and we allow the state to be captured by the wealthy. We should be the state!”
NYC-DSA members and podcast hosts Susan Kang and Stylianos Karolidis are joined by Leslie Chang and William Prince from DSA-LA to discuss what is really to blame for the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires. It isn’t “DEI,” nor the pistachio billionaires of the Resnik family. Instead the blame lies with manufactured crime hysterias, abuse of prison slave labor, and the failure of the American working-class to organize up until now and seize state power.
LIBERTARIAN SOCIALISTS UPDATE POLITICAL COMPENDIUM
“DSA is not simply focused on electoral campaigns. It has also played a key role in organizing and leading efforts for militant, class-struggle labor and tenant unions … and more across the country, with significant variations in priorities across chapters, caucuses, and ideological tendencies.”
Bryce S of DSA’s Libertarian Socialist Caucus has released a comprehensive update to a 2023 overview of DSA politics. This document, coming from a distinctly horizontalist perspective, tackles not only the fundamentals of DSA’s governing structures but also provides explainers on contemporary debates within the organization as well as descriptions of the factions waging them and power analysis of how those factions are represented in our governing structures.
REFORM & REVOLUTION CAUCUS CLAIMS NEW RED SCARE ALREADY UNDERWAY, TARGETING ANTI-GENOCIDE ACTIVISTS
“Red Scares can take different forms. But what they all have in common is that they are a response to the rise of a mass movement gaining steam, and create an atmosphere of fear that encourages people to distance themselves from these popular movements.”
Members of the small caucus Reform & Revolution draw alarming historical parallels between the contemporary crackdown directed at pro-Palestine protests and historical Red Scares this month. They highlight how Trump’s “Project 2025” playbook is set to follow examples set by Senator McCarthy and General Palmer and provide a strategy to combat it. This strategy includes three parts; building independent left-wing media (including social media), breaking from the Democratic Party, and building rank-and-file power for our movement in unions.
EXCHANGE PROGRAM EXPLORES POTENTIAL FOR INTERNATIONAL ANTIFASCISM
“It is only through hard work, experimentation, honest conversation, and debate that we can move our movement forward. This exchange program is one step in that direction.”
Democratic Left reports on an exchange program organized by members of DSA and Brazil’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) intended to collaborate on socialist strategy in combating the rising threat of fascism across the world. DSA and PT share many similarities, both being big tent socialist coalitions, and both facing many of the same organizing challenges. PT has, like DSA, grappled with the moderating realities of wielding the powers of government. Unlike DSA and the Democratic Party however, PT succeeded in bringing Brazilian fascist leader Jair Bolsonaro to justice in a way we could not with Donald Trump. Ultimately these sorts of collaborations allow us to develop strategies beyond winning political power towards our primary goal of transforming our political system.
GROUNDWORK CAUCUS PRESENTS NEW INTENTIONAL RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
“We’ve seen thousands of new members join across the country, and over 700 join where I’m writing from in New York City. These members will constitute what we hope to be a second Trump Bump, but we’ve got to make sure these new members are prepared to help us build the left and fight the right.”
NYC-DSA treasurer and member of the Groundwork caucus Allegra R released a recruitment strategy this month intended to harness membership spikes that DSA sees around major elections. Arguing that our approach to recruitment should be focused on our political priorities, their proposed strategy presents a six-point plan to plug new members directly into work like phone banking or tabling for strategic electoral campaigns.
