DSA Corner is a monthly feature highlighting headlines from the Democratic Socialists of America from the last month.

NEW ANALYSIS OF MEMBERSHIP TRENDS IN DEMOCRATIC LEFT
“For decades, DSA hovered around 5,000 members. Then, suddenly, from 2016 to 2020, DSA’s membership ballooned to about 50,000. An average of about 2,400 new members joined every month with over 125,000 members joining over the period. In 2021, DSA topped out at just under 79,000 members in good standing.”

The first part of a “State of DSA” analysis commissioned by the 2023 DSA Convention has been released by the Growth and Development Committee this month which attempts to identify membership trends in the last eight years that we can use to exploit our first moment of rapid membership growth since 2021. Though the data is in some ways limited, we can see a high rate of member churn and variation in member experience across chapters. Different sized chapters have a tendency to grow at different rates, with small chapters often experiencing more explosive growth than larger chapters but larger chapters containing a greater proportion of members overall. 

DSA CO-CHAIR DEFENDS OPPOSITION TO TRUMP REGIME IN FACE OF DEM PARTY “DESISTANCE”
“But on the ground, what was clearest was the belief awakened in millions: we can make change by fighting for more, not settling for less.”

Writing in Newsweek this month DSA co-chair Ashik Siddique takes on claims by moderate pundits like Matt Yglesias that advocacy groups and nonprofits that led the Democratic Party’s resistance to the first Trump presidency are to blame for Trump’s current presidency. Instead of losing because the Democrats fought too hard in 2024 they instead lost because they failed to fight for the resistance policies that they campaigned on and won with in 2020. This can be seen in DSA’s recent growth, a rare bright spot in a currently bleak political landscape.

LUISA M SHARES PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH HORRORS OF US IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
“Socialism made me understand the solution is not amnesty — it’s about ending U.S. imperialism so no one lives in fear or shame and everyone has access to a life with dignity.”

National Political Committee member Luisa M urges DSA members to get involved with immigrant rights work and not to leave that work to specialized nonprofits. She argues that DSA empowers undocumented people in a way that these groups do not, drawing on her own personal experiences to illustrate how socialism provides a dignity to her identity that established liberal advocacy groups and a culture of shame towards immigrants denied her.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PARTY SURROGATE MODEL
“[T]he state has set rules such that it is ILLEGAL for us to have an organized group of socialists who make collective decisions and have those decisions be binding on an electoral US party. It’s not merely hard or impractical – it’s impossible.”

Michael Kinnucan develops the “party surrogate” theory this month in an essay that explores the limitations of party formation under the legal structures of the ballot line in the United States. Because ballot lines are controlled by the state in this country political parties cannot exert ideological control over them in the way that many who support breaking with the Democrats would like to do and which is possible in other countries. He argues that breaking would leave any new socialist ballot line vulnerable to infiltration and abuse, making it pointless to break from the Democratic Party especially considering the success DSA has had running candidates like AOC on that ballot line.

MEME PAGE ADMINS SLAM “ONLINE LEFT”
“It kinda went from being this very theoretical where I was like ‘capitalism bad’ … but it was very divorced from like ‘what are we going to do about it?’ And that’s where I think a lot of the Left unfortunately right now is … where I was when I was 16 … but we do need to pair it with something real.”

The anonymous founder of the @OrganizerMemes Twitter meme page and their public-facing collaborator Emma M join the Left on Red hosts to discuss the history of their meme page, how it grew from a place for political workers to vent about the horrors of working in politics to taking contracts to support progressive campaigns with cutting edge comms work, as well as the limitations in how the Left currently communicates ideas online. Notably excluded from the conversation were recent controversies including allegations that one or more members of the meme page worked for the Biden administration while it was supporting the genocide in Gaza and concerns about the content of contracts taken by the meme page from the Kamala Harris campaign.

MARXIST UNITY GROUP RELEASES PRIMER ON DEMOCRACY
“Socialism is ultimately a means to freedom. If you don’t have a say in decisions that affect you, you are not free. If you do have a say in the decisions that affect you, your freedom is secured by taking part in democracy.”

Cliff C from MUG takes on the concept of “democracy” in that caucus’ new journal Light and Air. In his essay he argues that “democracy” in the United States is a lie and has been from the very foundation of the constitution, which instead of enfranchising regular working people instead was designed to keep us from the levers of real power which are placed firmly in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Instead of just squeezing reforms from this undemocratic system he argues it is the task of DSA to build a true democratic majority for socialism, to do this he advocates for a form of democratic centralism in the organization that allows for comradely debate and dissent and empowers workers to engage with internal democracy actively and protagonistically, in turn creating a vanguard of the working class that rallies the class to take control of political institutions as a mass party, led by democratically elected tribunes of the people. 

RED STAR ANNOUNCES A MARXIST-LENINIST POSITION FOR CAUCUS IN NEW POINTS OF UNITY
“Our primary goal, the goal which informs all of our organizing work, is to abolish capitalism and, ultimately, to achieve communism. We do not believe that capitalism can be reformed into socialism – it must be overthrown and replaced.”

The Red Star caucus has released points of unity this month that establish their commitment to revolution over reform and their belief that DSA can be the vehicle for historical revolutionary change. Red Star offers a vision of Marxist-Leninism in DSA that emphasizes scientific socialism, materialism, anti-imperialism, and the role of a socialist party as the revolutionary vanguard of the worker’s movement. In doing so they openly break with the reformist (and staunchly anti-communist) worldview of DSA founder Michael Harrington, claiming that intentionally or not his social democratic politics disempowered membership by keeping the power to set political direction out of the hands of rank-and-file members.

SAN FRANCISCO ORGANIZERS SHARE WHY WINNING ELECTIONS IS NOT ENOUGH
“We can only continue to win, however, if we build a people-powered information machine willing to spend every day countering misinformation and informing voters how socialists have materially improved their lives.”

Alexander G from San Francisco DSA explores the triumphs and challenges his chapter has faced in and around campaigning for former Supervisor Dean Preston and current Supervisor Jackie Fielder. Alexander argues that Preston lost reelection due to a well funded smear campaign from an astroturfed “YIMBY” movement backed by Silicon Valley oligarchs like Garry Tan, who were threatened by the effective reforms he was able to pass while in office. Fielder avoided these smears and was able to connect with voters on issues of economic inequality. Despite her huge win we must now develop a strategy to counteract the toxic misinformation narratives that prevented Dean Preston’s reelection.