DSA

DSA needs a democratically-chosen and accountable national editorial board. And we need a place for comrades to have principled arguments about organizing and strategy.

At the 2023 National Convention, it is up to DSA’s active layer to force the most important questions: Where does DSA stand? How did we get here? And how can we leverage the coming year and convention to build our organization and the socialist movement?

As democratic socialists, we believe in the strategy of “not me, us.” Our electoral tactics should reflect that. We should strive to build party-like structures that unite all our campaigns.

If NYC-DSA can centralize our comms work for our electoral campaigns, we can run more effective races that build popular identification with our project.

The takeaways from YDSA’s convention success are clear: By bringing organizers together in real-life space, we grant each other the grace necessary to carry out debate that is intense, sophisticated, and productive, all while ensuring respect and comradeship.

DSA must discipline Jamaal Bowman after his vote to support Israeli apartheid and his tour of Israel.

Our greatest strength does not come from how vigilantly we police the boundaries of political discourse and how quick we are to exact punitive discipline. It comes from whether or not we can gain hegemony through education, democratic debate, winning elections, and hard nosed organizing.

DSA’s electoral work has taken big steps forward since 2016. Now at DSA’s 2021 National Convention, delegates have the opportunity to push that project even further in the direction of building a real party.

DSA chapters should prioritize building strong socialist electoral apparatuses. Agitating today for an eventual split from the Democratic Party would stunt our power and make the formation of a mass workers’ party less likely.

We can build a diverse DSA through strong local political organizing in the multiracial working class. But national metrics are potentially counterproductive.