Английская Википедия:Democratic Socialists of America

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Pp Шаблон:Use American English Шаблон:Use mdy dates Шаблон:Primary sources Шаблон:Infobox political party Шаблон:Socialism US The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a multi-tendency, democratic socialist political organization in the United States. After the Socialist Party of America (SPA) transformed into Social Democrats USA, Michael Harrington formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). The DSOC later merged with the New American Movement to form the DSA. The organization is headquartered in New York City and has about 80,000 members. It leads organizing and protest campaigns, and has members in the House of Representatives, state legislatures, and other local offices.

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.

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. Membership peaked at 95,000 in 2021, when the organization had 239 local chapters, before declining to 77,575 members by August 2023. 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. Between 2013 and 2017, the median age of its membership declined from 68 to 33, leading some, such as Holly Otterbein of Philadelphia, to credit the organization for the rise of millennial socialism.

The DSA's stated goal is to participate in "fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people", with a long-term aim of social ownership of production as public enterprises, worker cooperatives, or decentralized planning. To this end, it has endorsed candidates for political office and led various organizing campaigns for labor organizing, public electricity, social housing, tenants unions, abortion rights, and Palestinian liberation, among others.

The DSA is a decentralized organization with local chapters and dues-paying memberships. Some of its members have run in elections and been elected. Some of its members in Congress have initiated various pieces of legislation central to the modern progressive movement in the United States, including the Medicare for All Act in 2003 by John Conyers and the Green New Deal in 2019 by Ocasio-Cortez. Former longtime members of the United States House of Representatives, including Conyers, Ron Dellums, House Whip David Bonior and Major Owens, have been affiliated with the DSA. As of 2018, three endorsed members of the DSA serving in Congress are Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush, with Greg Casar serving as an unendorsed member. Шаблон:As of, 55 state lawmakers and 136 local officials were affiliated with the DSA.

Early history and leadership

Файл:Dorothy Healey.jpg

Dorothy Ray Healey, "The Red Queen of Los Angeles", was an important link from the Old Left of the far-left organized labor oriented Young Workers League of the 1930s to the CPUSA during the Cold War and then to the New Left of the Vietnam War protest era.

Formed in 1982 by the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM), the DSA is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. At its founding, it was said to consist of approximately 5,000 members from the DSOC, plus 1,000 from the NAM. Dorothy Ray Healey, a communist and former leading figure of the Communist Party USA, served as Vice Chair in 1982.

The DSA inherited both Old Left and New Left heritage. The NAM was a successor to the disintegrated Students for a Democratic Society. The DSOC was founded in 1973 from a minority anti-Vietnam War caucus in the Socialist Party of America (SPA)—which had been renamed Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA). DSOC started with 840 members, of whom 2% had served on its national board, and approximately 200 of whom came from SDUSA or its predecessors (the Socialist Party–Social Democratic Federation, formerly part of the SPA) in 1973, when the SDUSA stated its membership at 1,800, according to a 1973 profile of Harrington.

The red rose is part of the official DSA logo. 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. The fist and rose logo was originally designed for the French Socialist Party in 1969 and later shared by socialist and labor political organizations worldwide.

DSA's first convention took place in a Manhattan high school on October 14-16, 1983. Guillermo Ungo, leader of the Revolutionary Democratic Front in El Salvador, was a featured speaker. Barbara Ehrenreich was elected co-chair of DSA. Notable attendees included Randall Forsberg and U.S. Representative Ronald Dellums.

DSA's second national convention took place in at the Berkeley Community Theater in California on November 9-11, 1985. Featured speakers were Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel d'Escoto and Mpho Tutu, daughter of Bishop Desmond Tutu. Notable attendees included Ehrenreich, Michael Harrington, and Cornel West.

Membership

Файл:BoiseDSAMembersAtABigTentIdahoanDemocratEvent.jpg

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, the new organization's membership grew to an estimated 7,000 in 1987.

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.

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. 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.

In August 2023, the organization claimed 77,575 members. According to the finance data for the 2021 DSA convention, the organization collected $4.6 million in membership dues in 2020. The DSA offers dues waivers for members who "may be experiencing financial problems right now".

DSA membership in 2023 declined from 2021, when membership peaked at around 95,000 members. Some members, such as Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, have argued that this decline was primarily due to dissatisfaction with decisions of DSA congresspeople on military aid to Israel and the 2022 United States railroad labor dispute.Шаблон:Better source needed Others have argued this stagnation is consistent with those of other progressive organizations since Joe Biden was elected president.

Year (Dec)	Membership	Шаблон:Abbr
2015	6,200
2016	11,000	77.4%
2017	32,000	190.9%
2018	55,000	71.9%
2019	56,000	1.8%
2020	87,000	55.4%
2021	95,000	9.2%
2022	83,000	-12.6%
2023 (est.)	78,000	-6.0%

Structure

National conventions

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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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. Шаблон:As of, the DSA lists 206 official chapters and organizing committees in all 50 states, as well as 126 student chapters.

Staff

The DSA hires staff to "fulfill the goals set by DSA's elected volunteer leadership." The DSA states that staff do not set its political goals and do not provide political advice.

Staff include the National Director and positions in finances, organizing, communications, development, operations, and grievances.

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. 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).

In December 1980, the IDS organized a three-day conference, "Eurosocialism and America", attended by over 2,000 U.S.-based activists and featured democratic socialist and social democratic activists and leaders, including Jean-Jacques Honorat, Ron Dellums, Olof Palme, Willy Brandt, Michael Manley, François Mitterrand, Joop den Uyl, and Rudolf Meidner. The event included speeches about economic democracy and the Meidner Plan, advances in social democracy in Sweden, the Netherlands, and France, democratic education, and revitalization of democracy in movements and parties.

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.

Publications

The DSA publishes Democratic Left and Socialist Forum, quarterly magazines of news, analysis, and internal debate. 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.Шаблон: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.

Several DSA caucuses have their own publications, including The Call, run by Bread and Roses; Assembly, of the Libertarian Socialist Caucus; Partisan, affiliated with the Communist Caucus and other smaller caucuses; Cosmonaut, affiliated with the Marxist Unity Group; The Agitator, by the Socialist Majority Caucus; Reform & Revolution by the caucus of the same name, and Zenith by Red Star.

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. Tempest frequently publishes pieces involving DSA internal politics and participates in debates within DSA. 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. In 2014, JacobinШаблон:'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".

Policy and ideology

DSA members espouse a range of ideological positions within democratic socialism, including eco-socialism, democratic road to socialism, libertarian socialism or anarchism, and various forms of communism, such as orthodox Marxism, Trotskyism, left communism, and autonomism. DSA members have varying positions on market socialism and democratic economic planning, reform and revolution, democratic centralism, and degrowth. The DSA underwent major ideological shifts after 2016, when many young new members brought DSA to adopt anti-Zionist and pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions positions as well as to include a more diverse range of ideological tendencies; and at the 2023 DSA National Convention, where Marxist and revolutionary socialist factions won a majority of seats on DSA's 2023-2025 National Political Committee.

Economy

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.

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. 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.

The DSA holds that there are many routes to its goal of democratic socialism, while rejecting social democracy and authoritarian socialism:

Welfare policy

One olderШаблон:When 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". 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.

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 jobШаблон:Sndeven a low paying oneШаблон:Sndand 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". DSA members have been supporters and active participants in fights to increase the minimum wage across the country, including the Fight for $15 protests.

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. It is argued that the enactment of these laws reduces the efficacy of collective bargaining agreements, putting workers at a disadvantage. 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'".

PRO Act campaign

On March 7, 2021, DSA launched a coalitional effort with Communications Workers of America and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, with rallies and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to voters. Numerous other unions and progressive organizations expressed support for the PRO Act around the same time. During the 117th Congress, the bill passed the House but died in committee in the Senate.

Union organizing

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. Jacobin attributed various labor organizing drive and union election victories to the assistance of EWOC organizers. The DSA has frequently adopted the strategy of getting socialists hired in key occupations to establish new unions or reform caucuses within existing unions. 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. In 2023, the DSA organized national campaigns to support striking or pre-striking workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and United Auto Workers 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.

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.

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.

Environment

DSA supports the decommodification and democratic control of electricity and agriculture to replace capitalist private ownership. 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.

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.

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. 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.

In March 2023, DSA members in the U.S. House Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul to urge the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA).

In May 2023, the DSA claimed that the four-year organizing campaign led by New York state chapters enabled the BPRA to pass. 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.

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.

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".

Migration

Файл:Abolish ICE Banner-SF 19Jun2018.jpg

Protesters in San Francisco with a DSA banner calling for the abolition of ICE

DSA's political platform calls for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an end to all immigrant detention and deportations, and a "demilitarization" of the Mexico–United States border. At the 2019 DSA Convention, the group announced its support for open borders.

DSA has coordinated campaigns for immigrant rights via its national Immigrants' Rights Working Group, and various rallies and protests in support of immigrants and the abolition of ICE.

Prisons and police

DSA supports the prison abolition movement and the police abolition movement, calling for alternatives to imprisonment and policing. The DSA highlights disproportionate police violence against and imprisonment of BIPOC communities as a consequence of institutionalized white supremacy, and argues for "reducing the size, power, and authority of the repressive forces of the state" in favor of neighborhood councils, robust social programs, and community-based restorative justice programs to empower working-class self-determination. It endorses the demands of 8 to Abolition with regard to prison and police abolition, which include defunding the police, decriminalization, demilitarization, and working-class self-organization.

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.

The DSA has an Abolition Working Group that supports abolitionist organizing. DSA Atlanta prioritizes support for a citywide referendum in favor of Stop Cop City.

Internationalism

DSA's political platform supports anti-imperialism, anti-militarism, and socialist internationalism. The organization prefers diplomacy to interventionism, and calls for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO, lift sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran, close all U.S. foreign military bases, and allow for the self-determination of indigenous nations and current U.S. territories. Its anti-imperialist ideology includes support for anti-colonialism, anti-Zionism, and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

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. Delegates at the 2021 DSA National Convention voted to apply to join the São Paulo Forum, and DSA became an Associate Member organization in 2023. 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.

China

The DSA IC views current U.S. policies on the People's Republic of China as Sinophobic attempts to wage a Second Cold War. In 2022, the DSA IC delivered an open letter to U.S. Congress co-signed by Yanis Varoufakis, Abby Martin, and other organizations and individuals condemning the United States Innovation and Competition Act as legislation that would destabilize U.S.-China relations, advance U.S. imperialism and economic hegemony, and fuel anti-Asian racism.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The DSA opposes Zionism and the current form of the State of Israel, which it views as an imperialist ethnostate. 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".

On August 5, 2017, DSA members nearly unanimously passed a resolution to formally endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 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" and compared Israeli policy in the occupied territories to apartheid. The DSA has expressed support for Ahed Tamimi. The statement also reiterated the DSA's support for the liberation of the Palestinian people. 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".

Iron Dome vote controversy

Шаблон:Further 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. Bowman was also criticized for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on a trip to Israel organized by J Street.

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", 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. Petitions for and against Bowman's expulsion circulated within DSA in 2021, with the national BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group endorsing his expulsion.

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. Others in DSA challenged this interpretation, including the BDS Working Group. 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. A subsequent petition against the NPC's decision gathered 1,416 signatures, 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. Various Palestinian organizations condemned the NPC's decision and urged a boycott of DSA until it was rescinded. Multiple NPC members resigned in reaction. Ultimately, the NPC unanimously voted to rescind its decision to decharter the BDS Working Group, while maintaining the leadership suspension. 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. 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".

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." 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. Casar voted for the resolution.Шаблон:Efn

2023 Israel–Hamas war

Шаблон:Further information 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. The same day, Cori Bush released a statement mourning "the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today", criticizing Israel's military response to the attack, and calling for "ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid". 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. 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.

Файл:Gaza Ceasefire Now Rally NYC DSA, Oct 20, 2023.jpg

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.

Over the months following the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, various DSA chapters and DSA rank-and-file members and public officials organized and participated in numerous protests and vigils alongside Jewish and Palestinian advocacy groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Students for Justice in Palestine, in support of a ceasefire and Palestinian liberation.

On October 8, the New York City DSA chapter promoted a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square. 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. The DSA later distanced itself from the rally, as did Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Representative Shri Thanedar, who claimed he renounced his DSA membership, though a spokesman said he had been expelled a month earlier. Representative Jamaal Bowman confirmed in light of the rally that he had let his DSA membership expire in 2022. 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. Jewish members of DSA denounced Mayor Eric Adams for falsely accusing the DSA of "carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people", calling the accusation "horrific defamation". New York State Senator and DSA member Jabari Brisport echoed a denunciation of Adams's accusation. Progressives outside of DSA as well as opponents of the organization similarly deemed Adams's comments inappropriate and false. 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."

On October 13, Mamdani and another DSA New York State Assembly member, Marcela Mitaynes, were arrested for disorderly conduct at a rally in Brooklyn for a ceasefire, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Mamdani told media, "We are looking at imminent genocide ... now is not the time to be silent", and said he had received death threats and Islamophobic voicemail messages in the days following the protest.

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. Ocasio-Cortez was also an initial co-sponsor. 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.

On October 20, New York City DSA led a more than 3,000-person protest in Manhattan calling for U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer to support a ceasefire resolution. At the event, 139 protesters were arrested for "acts of civil disobedience as protesters sat down and blocked traffic", including DSA member and New York State Senator Jabari Brisport.

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. 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.

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. 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 and 6 police officers. The groups released a joint statement characterizing the protest as peaceful civil disobedience suppressed through police violence without warning. Representative Brad Sherman and Senator Marco Rubio claimed the protestors were violent and "pro-Hamas."

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. Five members of Congress joined the strikers to speak in support on November 29, including Bush and Tlaib.

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.

Mexico

Шаблон:See also In October 2021, the DSA IC affirmed its support for the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and their struggles for anti-capitalism and anti-colonialism; and opposition to paramilitary attacks against the Zapatista communities and U.S. intervention in Mexico. Its statement echoed Subcomandante Marcos's accusation that the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico was potentially backing violent actions in Chiapas to undermine the center-left government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the leadup to the 2022 Mexican presidential recall referendum.

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."

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Шаблон:See also 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. 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". Many Democratic members of Congress, including politicians affiliated with the DSA, criticized this statement, with some calling it "tone-deaf". Others defended the statement and criticized the responses from mainstream media and politicians attacking the organization. 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."

Syrian Civil War

Шаблон:See also 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.

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.

Venezuela

Шаблон:See also 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".

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. 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.

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 (Шаблон:Lang-es), 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". 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 Шаблон:Interlanguage link, where rooms cost $200 a night, and for partying despite the COVID-19 restrictions in Venezuela. It was also criticized for giving "a bad name to the international left in Venezuela".

Elections

Шаблон:See also 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. In 1988, the DSA enthusiastically supported Jesse Jackson's second presidential campaign. 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". During the 1990s, the DSA gave the Clinton administration an overall rating of C−, "less than satisfactory".

In the early 2000s the DSA was critical of the Democratic Party leadership, which it argues is corporate-funded. The organization has stated: Шаблон:Blockquote

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". 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. DSA also developed a stricter endorsement policy since 2016, endorsing only democratic socialists.

Presidential elections

In 1984, the DSA endorsed Walter Mondale in the 1984 United States presidential election. In 1987, the DSA endorsed Jesse Jackson in the 1988 Democratic Party presidential primaries, to Jackson's disapproval.

In 2000, the DSA took no official position on the presidential election, with several prominent DSA members backing Green Party nominee Ralph Nader while others supported Socialist Party USA nominee David McReynolds and others voting for Democratic nominee Al Gore.

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." The only resolution on upcoming elections at the DSA's 2005 convention focused on Bernie Sanders's independent campaign for the Senate in Vermont. 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.

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, arguing that Obama was the most progressive viable Democratic presidential candidate since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

Following Obama's election, many on the political right 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".

Файл:Bernie Sanders by Gage Skidmore.jpg

Bernie Sanders speaking in Phoenix, Arizona during the 2016 presidential primaries. Many have credited Sanders for popularizing democratic socialism and the DSA in the United States.

In the 2016 presidential election, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president. Sanders's candidacy prompted a surge in DSA membership among young voters. 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, 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". The DSA ran the internally focused #WeNeedBernie campaign to mobilize DSA supporters for Sanders. 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.

In 2020, the DSA endorsed Sanders for president again after an advisory poll reported 76% of the participating membership approved his endorsement, despite objections from part of the membership about Sanders's statements on, among other topics, slavery reparations. 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. Two DSA chapters (Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City) voted to endorse Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.

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. 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".

In 2023, DSA member and former DSA honorary chair Cornel West announced his campaign in the 2024 United States presidential election, initially with the People's Party, then with the Green Party, and then in October 2023 as an independent candidate. Шаблон:As of, the DSA has not made an endorsement in the 2024 general presidential race, and DSA members have expressed split views on West's campaign despite widespread admiration for him, with some citing controversies within the People's Party or the potential for a spoiler effect, and others arguing the campaign could be an opportunity to make socialist ideas more visible. In February 2024, DSA and member Rashida Tlaib endorsed the Listen to Michigan campaign to vote "Uncommitted" in the 2024 Michigan Democratic presidential primary to protest the Biden administration's policies supporting the Israel Defense Forces in the Israel–Hamas war.

Congressional elections

Шаблон:Multiple image Шаблон:Anchor On June 26, 2018, DSA member and endorsee Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary against incumbent Representative Joseph Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district in an upset, virtually guaranteeing her the congressional seat in the heavily Democratic district, which spans parts of the Bronx and Queens. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed the win as "not to be viewed as something that stands for anything else" and said it represented change only in one progressive district. In contrast, Democratic National Committee head Tom Perez called Ocasio-Cortez "the future of our party". The Trotskyist International Committee of the Fourth International critiqued her and the DSA as a "left" cover for the "right-wing Democratic Party", particularly in regard to foreign policy. Six weeks after Ocasio-Cortez's primary victory, DSA member and endorsee Rashida Tlaib won the Democratic primary in Michigan's 13th congressional district. Both Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib won their general elections to become members of Congress.

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 and its largest ever one-day increase in membership. These signups helped boost the organization to 42,000 members nationally in June 2018. That number increased to 50,000 by September 1, 2018.

In the 2020 elections, at least 36 DSA members won office, earning more than 3.1 million votes. Four DSA members were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, including incumbents Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib and newly elected members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. DSA members were unsuccessful in being elected to the House in West Virginia (WV-2), Mississippi (MS-1) and California (CA-12).

In Tennessee, Marquita Bradshaw won the Democratic nomination for the 2020 Senate election in an upset. Initially not nationally endorsed, she was endorsed by the Memphis-Midsouth chapter of DSA and after her primary victory was also endorsed by Tennessee's other DSA chapters, in Knoxville, Chattanooga, Middle and Northeast Tennessee. She lost the general election to Bill Hagerty.

In November 2022, Greg CasarШаблон:Efn was the fifth DSA member jointly elected to the House, though he was not endorsed due to his stances on Palestine. In the following year, Bowman announced that he had stopped paying his membership dues, and Shri Thanedar, who had quietly joined the organization, was expelled for having substantial disagreement with its principles.

State and local elections

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. 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) 56% of the DSA members who ran in this election cycle won, compared to 20% in 2016. These results encouraged dozens more DSA members to run for office in the 2018 elections.

In the 2018 midterm elections, DSA anticipated reaching 100 elected officials nationwide from its strategic down-ballot campaigns, with most of those in state and local races. 39 formally endorsed people ran for office at the state and local levels in 20 states, including Florida, Hawaii, Kansas and Michigan; Maine's Zak Ringelstein, a Democrat, was its sole senatorial candidate. Local chapters endorsed around 110 candidates in total. Four female DSA members (Sara Innamorato, Summer Lee, Elizabeth Fiedler and Kristin Seale) won Democratic primary contests for seats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, with Innamorato and Lee defeating incumbents. Additionally, Jade Bahr and Amelia Marquez won their primaries in Montana for the State House and Jeremy Mele won his primary for the Maine House of Representatives. In California, Jovanka Beckles won one of the top two spots in the primary and advanced to the general election for a State Assembly seat in the East Bay. Ultimately, about a dozen members (or non-members who were endorsed) won office in state legislatures. In the aggregate, the DSA had backed 40 winning candidates at the state, county and municipal levels. DSA members elected to state legislatures in 2018 include Hawaii Representative Amy Perruso, New York Senator Julia Salazar, and Pennsylvania Representatives Fiedler, Innamorato, and Lee.

The 2019 Chicago aldermanic elections saw six DSA members elected to the 50-seat Chicago City Council: incumbent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and newcomers Daniel La Spata, Jeanette Taylor, Byron Sigcho-Lopez, Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, and Andre Vasquez. The six newly elected DSA members informally organized the Chicago City Council Socialist Caucus in 2019, later formalizing it in 2021 as the Democratic Socialist Caucus. In the 2019 off-year elections, DSA members made further gains by capturing over a half dozen city council seats across the country; Dean Preston became the first democratic socialist elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 40 years, while Lee Carter was reelected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

In 2020, the DSA made significant gains in state legislatures. Over 30 DSA members and endorsed (either nationally or by local chapters) candidates were elected in 16 states, including five in Pennsylvania and seven in New York.Шаблон:Efn Notable victories were in West Philadelphia, where Rick Krajewski beat a 35-year incumbent, and in New York City, where a slate of five candidates was (re)elected to the state house and the state senate. All DSA incumbents were reelected, with the sole exception of Jade Bahr, who lost her race for the Montana House of Representatives.

Dozens of DSA members and affiliated candidates have won races for local offices since 2020. Most notably, Nithya Raman, endorsed by the national DSA, won her race for Los Angeles city council in district 4, and Janeese Lewis George won her race for Washington, D.C. city council ward 4, after winning her primary against incumbent Brandon Todd. Dean Preston was reelected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. José Garza was elected as district attorney for Travis County in Texas and Gabriella Cázares-Kelly was elected county recorder in Pima County, Arizona Other DSA-affiliated candidates were elected to city councils in Austin, Aurora, Oakland, Burbank, Berkeley, Mountain View, South San Francisco, Redwood City, Sacramento, Burlington, Madison, Stoughton, St. Petersburg, and Portland, Maine.

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. After the elections, the entire Nevada Democratic Party staff resigned. On March 4, 2023, a "unity" slate of candidates was elected, ending DSA leadership of the party. 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:

In June 2021, the Buffalo, New York chapter-endorsed candidate, India Walton, won the Democratic Party primary election for mayor, defeating incumbent Byron Brown. Following the primary election loss, Brown qualified for the general election as a write-in candidate. In November 2021, Walton lost the mayoral race to Brown, who earned 38,338 write-in votes to Walton's 25,773 votes.

At the 2023 DSA National Convention, delegates declared school board elections to be an electoral priority. 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.

See also

• American Left
• Democratic socialism
• List of Democratic Socialists of America public officeholders
• Socialist Party of America
• Socialist Party USA
• Green Party (United States)
• Communist Party USA
• The Squad (United States Congress)

Further reading

• Kate Aronoff (August 7, 2017). "Are the Democratic Socialists of America for Real?". The New Republic. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
• Joel Freedman (November–December 1981). "No Enemies on the Left as DSOC and NAM Merge". New America. New York. vol. 18. no. 6. p. 5.
• Lauren Gambino (August 6, 2019) 'We're here to win': US democratic socialists move to center stage. The Guardian. Retrieved August 7, 2019
• Joel Meyerson, "What the Socialists Just Did — And Why", The American Prospect, August 9, 2019.
• Jennifer Swann (February 8, 2017). "How Democratic Socialists Are Building on Bernie's Momentum". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
• Marc Tracy, "Is 'Bernie or Bust' the Future of the Left?" New York Times, August 6, 2019. Print version: "Party on the Left Gets Bigger, Stronger and Declares 'Bernie or Bust.'" August 6, 2019, section A, pg. 11.
• "DSA Members Comment on Their 2017 Convention". Portside.org. August 24, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2018.

External links

• Шаблон:Official website
• Constitution of the DSA. Dsausa.org. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
• Young Democratic Socialists official website (youth affiliate of DSA).
• January 2018 National Public Radio segment on the burgeoning interest in the DSA.
• July 2018 National Public Radio segment on the political impact of the DSA.
• Maria Svart's editorial in the New York Daily News following Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's primary win.
• What We're Building. A methodological survey of DSA chapters.
• Pinkos Have More Fun : Socialism is AOC's calling card, Trump's latest rhetorical bludgeon, and a new way to date in Brooklyn New York article by Simon van Zuylen-Wood about socialism's sudden popularity, with a focus on DSA. (March 3, 2019)