On August 23rd, Bernie Sanders will be hosting a “town hall” event with Rebecca Cooke, candidate in the 2026 Democratic Party 3rd Congressional District election, near Viroqua. This follows his June 19th endorsement of her. We, the Executive Committee of the Coulee Region chapter (CDSA) of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), denounce this endorsement and campaign event and urge Senator Sanders to withdraw this endorsement.

Senator Sanders has been a principled socialist for his entire life, and has been a leader and inspiration for millions of progressives and socialists for decades. This made his endorsement of Rebecca Cooke extremely shocking. Rebecca Cooke is no socialist, or even a progressive. She refuses to endorse Medicare For All. In 2024, she was “grateful” to be endorsed by the genocide-apologist organization Democratic Majority For Israel.¹ In June of this year, she was a featured speaker at “WelcomeFest”, a convention of the anti-progressive wing of the Democratic Party, sharing the billing with genocide-apologists and neoliberals.² In the struggle between progressives and reactionaries within the opposition to the current fascist regime, she has declared on which side she places herself- it’s not with us, and it shouldn’t be with Bernie Sanders.

There are two other candidates in this primary, namely Laura Benjamin and Emily Berge, who would make far more sense for Senator Sanders to endorse. Both have endorsed Medicare For All. Both have better stances on Palestine. Laura Benjamin is a member of DSA, is committed to socialist principles, and is a fiery public speaker. Emily Berge is firmly in the La Follette Progressive tradition and has years of experience in local elected office.

For these reasons, in the spirit of socialist comradeship, the Coulee Region chapter of Democratic Socialists Of America urges Bernie Sanders to withdraw his endorsement of Rebecca Cooke.

COULEE DSA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE & CHIPPEWA VALLEY DSA OC, AUGUST 19^th, 2025

Coulee Democratic Socialists Of America can be found at https://coulee.dsawi.org/, on Facebook, on Instagram, and by emailing couleedsa@gmail.com. Chippewa Valley DSA can be reached at chippewavalleydsa@gmail.com

1“DMFI PAC announces new endorsements in Arizona, New York, & Wisconsin” https://dmfipac.org/news-updates/press-release/dmfi-pac-announces-new-endorsements-in-arizona-new-york-wisconsin/

2“I Just Got Back From the Centrist Rally. It Was Weird as Hell.” https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/welcomefest-dispatch-centrism-abundance/

The post Bernie Sanders Endorsement of Rebecca Cooke A Betrayal of Socialist Movement first appeared on Coulee DSA.

By Amanda Matyas & Lauren Trendler

The DSA national convention this month for the first time included a Cross-Organizational Political Exchange: more than 40 speakers from unions, social movements, and socialist parties across the globe came to confer with DSA. The convention website explained that the idea was “to pave the way for party-building and a May Day 2028 coalition.”

This exchange was critical to asserting DSA as a pre-party formation, as 1,300 delegates from across the country gathered in Chicago to debate the direction of the organization — six weeks after Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City and our subsequent membership surge. Amidst the contentious resolutions being debated, this non-voting part of the convention served not only as a space for comradely exchange but as a chance to see the enormous potential of international solidarity in building a socialist party.

Addressing the crowd and explaining the process of planning the exchange, convention co-chair Laura Wadlin said, “There [wasn’t] a spreadsheet of cool unions — but now there is.”

Now that the cool union spreadsheet exists, it can serve as a blueprint for building a real coalition that is often invoked rhetorically but rarely put into practice. We engaged with other groups and navigated how we orient towards the world. According to Wadlin, the two main goals in organizing the exchange were to make the convention less inwardly focused and to feel like it has stakes, and to create a next step for May Day 2028. “There were so many other benefits of the process,” Wadlin said, “that we ended up gaining more goals. I now see it as expanding our horizons for what’s possible in the working class.”

Delegates also had a chance to speak, interspersed with the guests, as determined by a lottery. Detroit DSA member Erin T was selected and spoke about her work in the teachers union.

The fast-paced cross-organizational exchange showcased our shared excitement for two massive projects: a new electoral formation independent from the two major parties, and UAW President Shawn Fain’s call for strikes and working-class political action on May Day 2028.

Union reform caucuses Higher Education Labor United (HELU), Build a Fighting NALC (letter carriers), Railroad Workers United (RWU), and Caucus of Rank-and-File Electrical Workers (CREW) all called for a new party (a call that RWU first made in 2012!). HELU noted they have a policy platform on higher education, a key battleground under Trump, ready for a new party to adopt.

The Palestinian Youth Movement urged DSA to commit to an anti-war strategy that could “be bold on Palestine because it is the winning thing to do.” CREW tied the call for party-building back to its roots, noting that a workers party must “…come from an organic and independent working class culture of self-activity and militancy. It stands to reason that there can be no labor party that does not have deep, organic ties to labor. Get a job in strategic industries and callous your hands alongside us.”

Organizing towards May Day 2028 gives us a concrete opportunity to build rank-and-file class consciousness, cross-union organization, popular support, and renewed ties between the socialist movement and the labor movement.

FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

Political organizations from across the globe were moved to travel great distances to discuss May Day 2028 with DSA, and representatives from La France Insoumise and the Workers Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) both noted their excitement to see this activity developing in the U.S.

They were joined by members of the Workers Party (PT) and the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) of Brazil, Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana of Puerto Rico, the Movement for Democratic Socialism of Japan, and the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) of Mexico, whose powerful speech ended with, “We [Mexican immigrants] will be deported if we go out on strike and you cannot allow that.”

The Amazon Labor Union urged DSA to “focus on political education to help workers connect issues in the workplace to issues outside the workplace.” The Los Angeles Tenants Union cautioned the group to “plan for before and after mass action,” and the Debt Collective, based in Washington, D.C., asked the crowd, “What would it look like if while workers withheld their labor, debtors withheld their payments?”

Not only were our guests from these unions, social movements, and socialist parties invited to speak; they also mingled with DSA members all weekend, met at the hotel bar, joined our parties, and made connections that will continue to guide DSA towards our goals.

The preliminary discussions that began at the Cross-Organizational Exchange show there is broad support for an independent working class party, but more discussion and debate are needed to determine what our next decade of organizing looks like. The Exchange gathered many key organizers for our massive May Day 2028 project, but two-minute speeches from dozens of organizations is just the beginning — much more collaboration is needed.

The resolution Fighting Back in the Class War: Preparing for May Day 2028 committed DSA to several specific next steps. Over the next two years, DSA will anchor a May Day Convention in concert with major unions and other organizations that have taken up May Day 2028 as a priority, to collectively establish a plan and a set of demands for May Day 2028. DSA will encourage members to get jobs in strategic workplaces, industries, and unions, and DSA members in unions will organize to line up their contracts to expire on or around May Day 2028. DSA chapters will develop materials for agitation and political education around the need to build class power ahead of May Day 2028, and hold political education events directed at workers broadly.

We hope that all DSA delegates returned to their chapters invigorated by this exchange and with a laser focus on our shared goals. “If we don’t recognize the obligation we have to act in the world, we could miss our potential,” Laura Wadlin remarked. “DSA is not just an online subculture. We’re a political player on an international stage, and we need to match that.”

[Amanda Matyas and Lauren Trendler were elected convention delegates from Detroit.]

Workers of the World Unite for DSA’s First Cross-Organizational Political Exchange was originally published in The Detroit Socialist on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ten years ago, the Illinois General Assembly passed a ridiculous law signaling unconditional political support for Israel. Now we have an opportunity to repeal it.

Former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, a Republican and private equity investor who held the position from 2015 to 2019, was a political failure on his own terms. Once he got into office, he made it clear to the Democrat-controlled legislature that he would not sign any budget unless it was passed alongside the regressive “reforms” that constituted his Turnaround Agenda for Illinois. The legislature did not budge and as a result Illinois went more than two years without a budget. Rauner tried to take everyone in the state hostage, and he did a lot of harm trying to make the Illinois regulatory environment more like Republican-dominated Wisconsin. Today, he is remembered as a bush-league do-nothing who couldn’t get his agenda through Springfield.

But there was one thing that Rauner and the Democratic majority did agree on: that people should face consequences if they have the wrong opinion about Israel. In 2015, the General Assembly unanimously passed legislation that prevented the state from investing public pension funds in any company that participated in the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS is a non-violent campaign to economically pressure Israel into adopting policies that would respect the rights and dignity of Palestinians. It functions similar to the boycott movement against apartheid South Africa in the late 20th century, encouraging consumers to spend their money ethically and pressuring businesses to divest from a country that systematically violates human rights.

Rauner drinks chocolate milk to celebrate the concept of diversity during Black History Month, February 2018.

In opposition to BDS, pro-Israel lobbying groups have convinced a super majority of state legislatures across the country to pass laws that impose a variety of legal consequences on individuals and organizations that participate in the boycott against Israel. The version that Rauner signed, which was among the first of its kind, created the Illinois Investment Policy Board. The law gave the board the authority to withdraw Illinois pension funds from any company that participates in a campaign to “penalize, inflict economic harm on, or otherwise limit commercial relations with the State of Israel or companies based in the State of Israel or in territories controlled by the State of Israel”. Essentially, any company that refuses to do business with Israeli companies or the Israeli government can lose investment from the state’s pension board, regardless of why or how they are choosing to sever their relationship.

There has never been a better time to get rid of this law. It does absolutely nothing to benefit Illinoisans, and it punishes constitutionally protected opposition to blatantly illegal actions taken by Israel. The law does nothing to fight anti-Semitism; in fact, it makes it worse. The law seeks to make support of Israel non-negotiable, and that position is firmly out of line with the wishes of a majority of Democratic voters across the country. As efforts to finally repeal the law escalate,  people of conscience have an opportunity to bring state law into line with the will of Illinois voters.

What the law does, and why it’s extremist.

For the uninitiated, most state and municipal employees in America are enrolled in a defined benefit pension retirement plan. These pensions pay out a set amount determined by a formula to retired public workers each month over the course of their lives, effectively acting as a 401(k) with a guaranteed payout. To ensure these benefits are funded, employees and the state government contribute money to a pool that is invested in the private sector. The returns on these investments are used to help pay for pension obligations. This model benefits everyone: Springfield uses the stability of a pension to attract workers that might otherwise pursue for-profit careers, retirees have a guaranteed source of income after they stop working, and companies receive extra investment that can help them grow. It is also very common for governments to form oversight boards to manage their pension investments. This ensures that the funds are stewarding public resources well, and they prevent state money from being invested in firms that actively harm the public interest. In Illinois, Springfield has passed laws that prohibit investment in companies that “shelter migrant children” (i.e., participate in Donald Trump’s nightmarish mass deportation plans) and companies based in a few countries that have been sanctioned by the federal government.

They also prevent the fund from investing in companies that refuse to do business in Israel. This already makes Illinois’ anti-BDS law unique compared to the other similar laws in the state; there are no other countries that companies are punished for not investing in. The law is very clearly meant to disincentivize firms from considering a boycott by excluding them from receiving any of the money that state pension funds invest in the private sector.

The law does not differentiate between motives. If a company decides to stop doing business with Israel because its board is dominated by avowed anti-Semites, then it is ineligible to receive any pension investment funds from Illinois. But what if a firm’s leadership divests because they agree with Amnesty International’s conclusion that the country is practicing apartheid? Or because they believe that what the IDF is doing in Gaza constitutes genocide? Or because the Israeli government regularly treats minorities who live in Israel as second-class or non-citizens? Or because they are disturbed by the number of Americans killed by the Israeli military or Israeli militias? Or because they are horrified by the Israeli refusal to allow food, baby formula, and medical aid to enter Gaza, resulting in mass starvation? The Illinois General Assembly made no distinctions between these reasons when it passed the state’s anti-BDS law, so the Illinois Investment Policy Board is forced to consider these motivations equally worth divestment.

This is already extreme, but the truly ridiculous part is that the law also punishes companies for boycotting illegal Israeli occupations of foreign territories. Since the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israeli government has encouraged its citizens to cross the border into Palestinian territory and establish ‘settlements’ there. These self-described ‘settlers’ retain their Israeli citizenship, can vote in Israeli elections, are protected by the Israeli military, and live their lives under Israeli law. Their Palestinian neighbors who live in these areas do not enjoy any of those rights. Many of them are denied self-representation and live under martial law imposed by a government they have no say in. Palestinian families in the area are regularly dispossessed and attacked by settlers. In fact, it is widely acknowledged that the Israeli government is using settlement as part of a strategy to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state, giving Israel an excuse to indefinitely control the region without having to offer Palestinians any sort of rights or sovereignty. Just this month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled a new settlement plan that he claimed would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

Illinois prohibits investment in any company that refuses to do business in these settlements, despite the fact that they are illegal under international law and that they exist to deny the two-state solution that most American politicians claim to support. 

Embarrassingly enough, the most well-known invocation of this anti-BDS law was used to punish a company for violating this portion of the statute. In 2021, the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s (whose founders are both Jewish) announced that it would no longer sell their products in the West Bank because of the illegality of the settlements. The company also clarified that they did not support BDS as an organization. Ben & Jerry’s products would continue to be sold in Israel proper, and the company’s founders identified themselves as supporters of the country. This decision prompted the Illinois Investment Policy Board to pull any pension funds that were invested with the brand’s parent company, Unilever. Effectively, an ice cream company decided not to do business outside of Israel while continuing to do business in Israel. As a result, the State of Illinois declared it would blacklist the company and all of the firms they were associated with.

This law grants symbolic and unconditional support to Israel, including implicit support for policies that many people in the state consider to be criminal and in opposition to U.S. interests. Even if you think it’s appropriate for Illinois to engage in these kinds of sweeping foreign policy commitments, this is the wrong one to make.

The law doesn’t fight anti-Semitism

One common argument in favor of anti-BDS laws is that they are a protection against bigotry or an environment that encourages it. Rauner’s initial statement after the state’s law was signed in 2015 proclaimed that Illinois was standing up against anti-Semitism by distancing the state from boycotts. Other organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have taken the stance that BDS itself isn’t inherently anti-Semitic, but that it creates an atmosphere where engaging in anti-Semitism is more acceptable.

There is nothing about this law that actively combats anti-Semitism. It does nothing to address the enormous 900% increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the country in the last ten years, and it does nothing to discourage hateful rhetoric. It is simply a way to punish businesses for taking a moral stance against genocide or for responding to consumer demands to do the same. These kinds of laws are also an attack on the right to free speech and free association guaranteed under the U.S. constitution, and their legality is dubious at best.

There’s no actual prohibition against supporting bigotry written into the law. It punishes companies that boycott Israel, but there are plenty of disgusting people in business who say and do anti-Semitic things that wouldn’t lose out on the opportunity for state investment. Right-wing businessman and extremist provocateur Elon Musk is a perfect example. 

Not a bit from The Producers, somehow.

Regardless of whether you think Elon Musk throwing up a Nazi salute in January 2025 was an intentional expression of anti-Jewish hatred, he has a long history of embracing the kind of vile rhetoric most people would instantly recognize as anti-Semitic. Musk has indicated that he believes Jewish Americans are part of an anti-white conspiracy to flood the country with “hordes of minorities”. Under his direction, Twitter/X changed its moderation rules to allow a surge in anti-Semitic posts that have caused advertisers to flee en masse. The AI chatbot that his company built for the website has called itself MechaHitler and often launches into unprovoked rants about people with Jewish-sounding last names. Musk has received so much backlash that he’s felt the need to do damage control by visiting Auschwitz and making a PR trip to Israel alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite Musk’s repeated anti-Semitic comments and behavior, he hasn’t ruled out doing business with Israel, so Springfield is technically allowed to invest pension funds in his companies. The purpose of this law cannot be fighting the spread of anti-Semitism if it allows for Illinois to engage in a financial partnership with someone like this. Its only logical purpose is to shield the Israeli government from criticism.

Finally, it’s worth considering whether this kind of law could actually increase anti-Semitism. The State of Illinois has (wrongfully) declared to the world that it views an entire ethno-religious group to be inseparable from another country halfway across the world. They have also declared that there is no acceptable way to criticize that country, even as it engages in a genocide that most people (rightfully) find morally reprehensible. The potential effects of this kind of rhetoric were neatly summed up by New York Times journalist Ezra Klein on his podcast a few months ago:

I am a Jewish person…it is very important that it is possible and understood to be possible that you can be anti-Zionist without being anti-Semitic…you just have to be able to be against what the Israeli state has become and not be anti-Semitic. I think it is an incredibly dangerous game that pro-Zionist people have played trying to conflate those things. Because if you tell people enough that to oppose Israel is to be anti-Semitic at some point they’re going to say “Well, I guess I’m anti-Semitic”.

If Klein is right about this, our state’s anti-BDS law could be creating social permission for more conspiracy-minded people to slip into open bigotry. Is that worth risking to preserve a law that doesn’t do anything to fight anti-Semitism?

The biggest obstacles to repeal are elected officials, not voters.

All of these criticisms were true ten years ago, but it mattered very little at the time because supporting Israel has been a bipartisan project in American politics for decades. The real reason that it is an opportune moment to repeal the law is that there has been a seismic shift in how the electorate views Israel. 

Since the Israeli government launched their brutal response to the October 7th attacks, we have seen poll after poll after poll after poll showing that Americans view Israel more negatively than ever before. This is true across party affiliation, but it is especially true among Democrats. Now that Joe Biden has not been in a position to excuse Israel’s behavior and Trump is using the issue to justify illegal, politically motivated deportations, a clear majority of Democratic voters has come to sympathize more with the Palestinian cause than with the Israeli state.

There is an enormous gap between how party elites and voters think about this issue, and most Democratic politicians have yet to catch up to their base. Illinois has been no exception. Only one of the candidates running to replace retiring Senator Dick Durbin, Representative Robin Kelly, has indicated a willingness to pursue an arms embargo against Israel, and the vast majority of the Illinois congressional delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives has consistently refused to substantively criticize the government’s Israel policy. At the state level, only a minority of Democratic legislators have signaled their support for legislation to repeal the anti-BDS law.

This is disheartening regardless of whether politicians are deeply ideologically committed to what Israel represents or whether they have just decided to avoid challenging powerful interest groups. But there are signs that this gap between party elites and their voters nationwide could start to close. In New York City, home to more Jews than any other city in America, outspoken critic of Israel Zohran Mamdani handily won the Democratic nomination for mayor with a plurality of the Jewish vote, in part because of his views on Palestine. Over half of Senate Democrats recently voted to oppose some military aid to Israel, including both Senators Durbin and Duckworth of Illinois. Some Democrats in Congress have even started to call for the U.S. to recognize a Palestinian state. Just as crucially, it does not appear that Israel’s right-wing government has any plans to end their illegal invasion and blockade of Gaza, making the issue more pressing than ever.

It is possible to get Democratic politicians to adopt the positions their base holds under these conditions, even if it’s for entirely cynical reasons. A repeal of our state’s anti-BDS law would not just be popular, it could set the stage for even more policy changes on the national level, especially as Democratic candidates begin to position themselves for a presidential run in 2028. 

With this in mind, Illinois-based groups that have committed themselves to changing our country’s relationship with Israel like Chicago DSA should consider joining the Illinois Coalition for Human Rights as supporting organizations, and should come up with local campaigns to lobby their state officials. The ones that are planning to endorse candidates for state-level office should also take advantage of the upcoming March primaries to ask fresh faces to sign on as a condition for their support.

Like-minded individuals should also make an effort to tell their representatives this is an important issue to them by sending them messages like this one. They should consider getting involved with organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago, CAIR Action Illinois, and IfNotNow Chicago that have already signed on to stay engaged with the repeal campaign.

To steal a turn of phrase from the infamous American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), supporting Palestine is “good policy and good politics” within the Democratic Party. The only question now is whether we can get our elected officials to wake up to that reality while we have the momentum.

The post Now is the Time to Repeal Illinois’ Extremist Pro-Israel Law appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

Author: Ary C

(These opinions reflect the author’s and are not necessarily representative of those of DSA Cleveland or the National DSA)

This summer I had the honor and privilege of attending the 2025 DSA National Convention as an alternate of the Cleveland delegation alongside 11 of my comrades. As the member of our delegation with the shortest tenure in the chapter, this experience was invaluable in learning more about DSA at the national level and how our chapter fits into the broader context of the national organization. Due to my role as an alternate and not a voting delegate, I felt more able to observe and reflect on the events of Convention broadly. Below are some of my thoughts and observations.

An unavoidable aspect of Convention is the presence of caucuses, whose power and influence is undeniable. While our own chapter is largely uncaucused and rarely does the topic come up (outside of the lead-up to Convention), they are one of the primary lenses delegates view and participate in Convention, right down to the post-deliberation parties. Several comrades have made the comment/joke ‘caucuses exist for Convention’. This conception partly motivated me to join a caucus myself, about a week before Convention. Members of the biggest caucuses mark themselves with branded swag like hats, bandanas, and shirts, as well as hold official socials and unofficial parties. More importantly, they are whipping votes and distributing literature as much as possible to influence delegates’ positions on resolutions and on National Political Committee candidates. Walking into the deliberation hall, the Convention tables (and chairs!) were fully covered in flyers, handbills, and zines from various caucuses. Some, like Marxist Unity Group (MUG) and Reform & Revolution (RnR) even printed daily bulletins in response to the events of the day before. To me, it honestly seemed a bit wasteful and excessive, like junk mail. However, I know many delegates had not developed strong positions on resolutions or candidates, like the bulk of our delegation had, and I suppose I have to respect the game. 

While there is some understandable pushback to characterizing caucuses as left or right due to the connotation and aversion of being categorized as ‘right-wing’, from my experience it is plain that there is a split within the organization. Caucuses that are typically characterized as ‘left-wing’ such as MUG, Red Star, and Libertarian Socialist Caucus (LSC, my own caucus) tend to self-partition politically and socially away from ‘right-wing’ caucuses Groundwork and Socialist Majority Caucus (SMC) (see also LSC’s A Guide to DSA Politics). There are also ‘center’ caucuses like RnR and Bread and Roses (BnR), although based on my impressions during Convention they lean slightly left and right respectively. 

Going into Convention, I expected all of my comrades to engage in principled debate and was honestly open to being swayed on many resolutions. In general, I strongly value including a diversity of thought and perspectives in our collective struggle for socialism; in my mind this is critical to developing a democratic and just movement. Therefore, I do my best to operate under an assumption of good faith in my comrades. That being said, I was somewhat disappointed by the arguments put forward by some comrades, often belonging to the ‘right-wing’ caucuses. The first example of this occurred during what might have been the most contentious resolution heard at Convention, Groundwork’s CB02: One Member One Vote for National Leadership Elections. One memorable supporting argument compared not allowing asynchronous NPC elections to historical examples of restricting suffrage for oppressed peoples and asserted comrades opposed to the resolution were ‘scared to let disenfranchised members vote’. It is hard to view this as anything other than an assertion of bad faith towards the opposition, who reasonably brought up examples of how online asynchronous voting reduced deliberation and participation in their own chapters and the concern of turning national leadership elections into a listserv competition. Other examples include opposition arguments on R20 A01: Democratic Socialists and the Labor Movement Need Each Other, which would require endorsed candidates for elected office from the labor movement to identify as democratic socialists and assert DSA’s political independence. SMC delegates argued against the amendment by claiming ‘we shouldn’t tell workers to do socialism even if we think it is the correct path’ and falsely claimed Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign didn’t center or promote DSA very much, concluding it was unimportant for endorsed elected officials to identify as socialists and promote DSA. Finally and most upsetting to me was the support for R22 A01: Align with the BDS Movement, which removed clauses from the original resolution that would require endorsed electoral candidates to uphold DSA’s support for Palestinian liberation and provide a mechanism to hold members accountable for violating DSA’s policies and principles with respect to Palestine solidarity. Fortunately, this amendment failed. Overall, these examples show how the right faction of DSA concerningly tend to view winning electoral campaigns as more important than holding ideological or even ethical/moral lines. 

An additional disappointment I cannot directly attribute to factionalism occurred at the start of convention. A rule was proposed by an immunocompromised comrade to require masks on the debate floor who also cited a confirmed case of COVID at Convention had already been reported. Oppositional arguments heard included the claim that while there was enough masks purchased for all delegates, there was not time to distribute masks (which were available at the registration desk and could be distributed easily by Convention staff and volunteers) and that certain delegates were hard of hearing (live captions were displayed on screens with reserved seating nearby). The pushback to such a simple request, especially one with important health and safety implications, was deeply troubling to me. The failure to adopt this rule was is testament to the work DSA still needs to do to in the realm of disability justice. I am at least proud of my fellow Cleveland comrades who did voluntarily mask on the Convention floor from then on. 

Despite these disappointments, there were also many occasions to celebrate. Of course, many moments and aspects I consider particularly exciting corroborate my own political tendencies falling well within DSA’s left faction. That being said, I know I am not the only member of the Cleveland chapter relieved to see 1M1V defeated and single transferable voting mandated for Convention delegate elections. These decisions are important for upholding the authority of deliberative democracy via proportionally representative delegates at Convention. I was also heartened to see our organization commit to clear standards regarding endorsement of elected officials by passing the amended CR05 (A03, A04, and A05): National Electoral Commission Consensus Resolution and the unamended R22: For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA. 

Outside of the resolutions, I have to commend the professionalism and expertise of our convention chairs. Despite ongoing technological frustrations and occasional failures of delegates to maintain decorum, all of our chairs did a fantastic job of maintaining objectivity and facilitating deliberation. I highly encourage folks from our chapter to seek out and attend national chair trainings and will probably sign up for one myself in the future. 

Beyond caucuses and the debate floor, I found Convention rewarding in other aspects. I attended as much programming as possible. Admittedly, I think programming is one of the weakest parts of Convention and that at least some of that time would have been better spent getting through more of the agendized resolutions. Even so, I attended a couple sessions I really enjoyed. The presentation I thought was the most interesting and useful was the Growth & Development Committee’s State of DSA Report, which involved quantitative and qualitative analysis of trends in membership over the past decade. Major findings included that large membership swells occur in response to major national events that are followed by large member exodus exactly a year later, and that this phenomenon generally affects all chapters equally, meaning no chapters are particularly good at recruiting members outside of major political events. Even though many of the results are unsurprising, I was impressed by the analysis nonetheless and hope the GDC is able to explore membership data with more depth in the future. The second programming session I really enjoyed was titled ‘Lessons from the Lean Years’, a panel discussion including three comrades who had been involved in DSA prior to the 2016 explosion in membership. Panelists highlighted the past organization’s willingness to participate in coalitions as a strength, the need to build a united front of organizations in the future, and a call for more rigorous and locally focused political education. They also encouraged DSA to be humble, reflective, and flexible. However, the most sobering piece of advice was that we should keep in mind that whether the revolution happens in our lifetimes or not, we still have to live and enjoy our lives fully. As someone who often falls into puritanical thinking, maintaining a balance of work, DSA, rest, and familial obligations is something I rarely if ever achieve. Especially as I begin to mature as an organizer, I struggle with the idea of delegating without also directly participating in the work and the feeling that doing is superior to planning the work. I will certainly at least try to keep in mind the advice of my older comrades as I continue to navigate these challenges.

By far the best part of Convention was the ability to connect with comrades across the organization, especially my fellow Ohioans inside and outside of our chapter. A big reason my partner and I joined DSA in the first place was to join a community of people with shared values, and there’s really nothing like three days of intense political debate interspersed with very little sleep without the luxury of complimentary coffee to bond folks together. I appreciate that our chapter chose to sit together on the debate floor throughout Convention, despite political disagreements and the pull to spend time with their caucuses and friends. I also enjoyed getting to know delegates from other Ohio chapters and learning more about their individual strengths. Special shoutout to Joe from Mahoning Valley, who was somewhat adopted by our delegation. Although my feelings about a statewide formation have changed somewhat, I still believe it is important to connect and learn from our sister chapters as often as possible and hope that the Ohio chapters will prioritize regular in-person meetups in the future. Finally, I was delighted to run into a comrade from my original DSA chapter, Coulee DSA in La Crosse, Wisconsin at the GDC table. In fact, David was the first member who invited Joe and I to join DSA from our weekly Palestine protests. Although we were only in the chapter a few months, it obviously made a big impact and led us to get active in Cleveland once we moved home. 

At the close of Convention, I was struck by how impactful each of the ~1200 delegates were, regardless of their caucus status or chapter. Several resolutions passed or failed within 50 votes. One, R44: Resolution on Staff, Contractors, and Budgeting, came within 11 votes, well within the margin of abstentions. Delegates came from all over the country, from very small chapters like Ohio’s Mahoning Valley to the extremely influential megachapters like NYC. Through a show of hands, there appeared to be a relatively even split in the room in terms of the number of Conventions attended, although most folks I talked to were attending for the first time. Even as a non-voting member of our delegation, I felt I had an impact through conversations with my comrades on the debate floor. The idea that people so new to the movement could have so much power in the leadership of the national organization was deeply moving. I hope we are able to send more comrades to Convention in the future as delegates and observers to share in this experience.  

When running for a spot on the delegation, I declared my motivation to run for convention delegate was to continue growing as a DSA member and socialist to better serve the chapter. Although it is certainly too soon to tell – I’m drafting this the day after convention – I feel confident that I will achieve those goals. Attending Convention has been an overwhelmingly energizing and positive experience from the delegate election process to reading each resolution to the Spotify jam session on the drive home. I am deeply grateful to my comrades who had the confidence in me to represent them and am excited to continue sharing lessons learned with my comrades and to become more involved in national bodies like the Growth & Development Committee. I look forward to the future of DSA both in Cleveland and at the national level over the next two years, after which I do hope to return to Convention as a full delegate.

Solidarity forever, 

Ary C

The post Thoughts on DSA National Convention appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.

David Duhalde’s essay, “The Long Reroute: A Historical Comparison of the Debsian Socialist Party of America and the New Democratic Socialists of America,” places debates within today’s DSA in historical context while advocating for democratic decision making as the best means for resolving them. For those not familiar with the author, it’s useful to know a little bit about his background. David’s father survived Chilean fascism and imbued in him a profound faith in democratic socialism and the working class. He joined DSA in 2003, so he is just about the oldest of the new DSA. He’s held many responsible posts—from the bottom to the top and back again—in DSA over the last quarter century and is just as committed and involved today. That is a model of leadership to which all DSA cadre ought to aspire. And, as he makes clear in a footnote—always read the footnotes—he is a member of the Socialist Majority Caucus (SMC). I consider him an outstanding thinker and a good friend. I learned long ago that making friends with politicos in competing or complementary factions or organizations is one of the best ways to keep your balance under conditions not of our own choosing.

David’s essay is divided into four parts, starting with a sketch of Socialist Party history and the long metamorphosis of one part of it into today’s DSA, followed by three punchy sections comparing debates around labor, elections, and internal party organization in the SP and DSA. David admirably compresses 100 years of history into a few pages and I think his overview is an excellent primer for new DSA members. Rather than cutting ourselves off from all that messy history, David invites us to learn from it in order to fight more effectively today. And, to put it bluntly, to toughen up. Faction fights, splits and bad tempers are just as much a part of our history as are comradeship, faith, and unity.

If I’m being a critical critic, I think the first section could have been extended to focus on the causes and conflicts that led to the SPs rise and fall. For instance, David notes that the SP “steadily declined nationally in the 1920’s” after reaching 120,000 before World War I. But he doesn’t really offer us a convincing “why.” It’s a tough question and he wanted to get to his main points, but I’d like to know what he thinks. For comrades who want to know more about the contest between the SP and the CP in the 1920s and 1930s, I’d recommend perusing David’s comprehensive bibliography. If you’re interested in filling out the picture of post-WWII democratic socialism, read Chris Maisano’s A Precious Legacy in Socialist Forum. And if you buy me a beer, I’ll tell you more than you want to know about the “takeover attempt” by Trotskyists in the 1930s.

But those are minor preliminaries. The real strength of David’s piece follows in three sections dedicated to labor, elections, and internal party organization. I’ll comment on each and then conclude with a few summary remarks. 

Labor

All socialists worth their salt have looked to the organized working class as the only force powerful enough to defeat the billionaire class. Exactly how to transform the proletariat from a class in itself to a class for itself (Marx’s old dictum) has been, and continues to be, easier said than done. David provides us with a useful crash course in U.S. labor history, from the Knights of Labor to the AFL to the IWW and the CIO and traces how competing strategies divided sections of the socialist movement. I think he’s right to highlight that today’s DSA, with the benefit of hindsight, has managed to coalesce around some of the most successful of these strategies, what we might call a flexible rank-and-file approach. As he notes, “While this strategy was not universally accepted when it was proposed in 2019—many veteran DSAers were uneasy with publicly siding in internal union disputes and elections—it has gained more widespread acceptance among different caucuses and factions of DSA over the last few years.” I don’t think it’s possible to overstate just how important this insight is and David is correct to draw attention to it. This ethos is not the property of one or another caucus, but represents the shared experience and intelligence of thousands of DSA members fighting to build durable labor unions. 

Elections

David points out that the Debsian-era SP’s electoral strategy had sought political independence from the beginning. Electoral independence did not constitute a left v. right tension. Remember, the Democratic Party of this era was the party of the Klan in the South and Tammany Hall in the North. Debs and Berger both wanted an independent Socialist ballot line. There’s a lot more to say about what happened in the 1930s during the New Deal, but David concentrates on how a section of the SP—led by Michael Harrington in the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee in the 1960s and 1970s—hit on the strategy of “realignment,” which aimed to transform the Democratic Party into a kind of social democratic party. The results were, generously, a mixed bag. 

Today’s DSA has adopted, according to David, a new strategy, “contesting Democratic primaries as the main arena for struggle,” typically conceived of as preparing for a “dirty break”—or a “dirty stay,” as David has suggested elsewhere—with the Democrats. Just how and when and under what circumstances such a break might occur, has led to “serious tensions” inside DSA today. As he puts it, “unity around the mere idea of being or becoming a party does not necessarily result in consensus around how the party and its elected officials should operate, especially together.” Although David’s SMC caucus has a definite view on this question, here David raises a political conundrum that all of DSA will have to confront, namely, “the polarization today between the Democratic and Republican parties, which did not exist when the Socialist Party operated,” adding how such polarization “makes voters more partisan and less open to new options.” He concludes that “Democratic voters may be happy to vote for socialists within primaries, but may not want to vote for the same candidate if they ran on another line.” The road to any kind of break leads through demonstrating, in practice, how to overcome this dilemma. 

Internal organization

This final section of David’s analysis contains—and it ought to—his most controversial assertions. Rather than shy away from the debate, or paper over disagreements, David makes a clear case for how he believes internal debates are most fruitfully resolved. I would characterize David’s view as a strong belief in the efficacy of conducting and resolving political debates within DSA’s structures, however imperfect they may be. There’s simply no other way to settle sharp disputes. At times, as has been common in the past, that turns out to be impossible and some comrades may decide to leave. For example, David summarizes the case of several debates around Palestine:

1. The factions and partners in the new DSA can change but the program such as Palestine solidarity will continue. 2. These disagreements are largely born out of internal, “homegrown” struggles over major strategic disagreements about how to approach politics. Both groupings who departed DSA were active in the organization as individual members, not as outsiders trying to influence DSA policy to foster splits. People leave when they feel they can no longer achieve their objectives through the existing democratic process.

Turning to factionalism, David argues there are two principle kinds: entryism and homegrown. In terms of entryism, I differ with his view—it’s overly generalized and defensive—but I’ll leave that discussion for another time. I will simply point out the danger that lumping together any future organizational merger with different political tendencies—whether they emerge from labor, civil rights, or other socialist movements—under the banner of “entryism” can be counterproductive. For instance, longtime—and now former—DSA member Maurice Isserman placed the “blame” for DSA’s forthright defense of Gaza on unnamed “entryists.”

More fruitful, in my view, is David’s description—drawing on his discussion with Bill Fletcher–of the new DSA as “an unplanned left-wing refoundation.” That is, “the idea that a stronger left is possible through both regroupment of existing radical structures into a new formation alongside the rethinking and retooling of current left-wing strategy into an alternative orientation.” Of course, there is a difference between an entryist smash and grab operation and honest regroupment, my only point is that comrades should be careful not to paint any organizational regroupment as necessarily entryism with a negative sign placed above the latter. David, I believe, provides the tools to do so by placing his matter-of-fact summaries of the many homegrown caucuses within DSA next to his observation that some of those caucuses have “external influences,” which is only natural and to be expected. In fact, those influences are a sign of DSA’s openness and vitality, not a weakness. As such, “factionalism” is just a normal consequence of any genuinely democratic organization, especially one that has grown as explosively as DSA. As David explains, 

DSA’s factionalism is homegrown. Simply put, the divisions and debates originate largely within DSA, not outside of it. For the hundreds of members who were long-time members of other organizations before joining DSA, tens of thousands more had their first experience in a political organization, much less a socialist one, in DSA. These two groups do interact with each other and many of the caucuses have external influences—both contemporary and historic. Every grouping has their own unique history.

David is, I think, right to downplay generational conflict within DSA, although he does note that older and more experienced members can have difficulty adapting to new melodies and—to extend Irving Howe’s metaphor—new and younger members might not recognize the lyrics. My only quibble here is that David’s one example of intergenerational dynamics is the resignation of some long-term, high-profile members over DSA’s forthright defense of Gaza. That is certainly worth pointing out. But I would also point out that—to my understanding—the “old guard” welcomed the transformation of the organization in 2017. That decision to turn over the keys to the newbies represents an act of political perspicacity on the part of DSA’s veterans and, in my experience, is not as common as one might hope. Of course, David’s own middling generation, those who joined between 9/11 and Bernie 2016, represented a mediating layer of cadre who paved the way for mass growth by creating institutions such as Jacobin and revitalizing YDSA. It’s a lesson that the new generation of DSA cadre should take to heart as we prepare for larger influxes of new socialists and new phases in the ongoing “unplanned left-wing refoundation.”

Lastly, The Long Reroute fits squarely into an undervalued category of what I might call cadre writing. It is a form of exposition that draws on academic and specialist knowledge, but extracts political value expressly designed to speak to socialist organizers and leaders. The general public may get something out of it, although they may well be overwhelmed by all the history and acronyms. And academics may well dismiss it as lacking in original archival research, even as the best of them engage with it. It’s just what the doctor ordered for DSA’s developing cadre, that is, our most active and dedicated members who aspire to help lead DSA on both a national and local level. David’s work provides a framework and language for raising our cadre’s sophistication and capabilities and expands the possibility for caucus and non-caucus cadre to communicate and collaborate, even while debates rage on. It is a must read.  

We’ll be hosting our next Greenville event on Saturday, August 23rd, from 2-4 pm at the Flat River Community Library.

We’ll be discussing Trump’s new ICE Detention Center in Baldwin, Michigan. The conversation will center around the racist anti-immigrant efforts rising around us, why we’re against them, and what we can do about it!

RSVP to the event here, and share the details with a friend! We’re looking forward to a robust discussion with you.

The post Concentration Camp in Your Community: Discussing the Baldwin ICE Detention Center with the GRDSA appeared first on Grand Rapids Democratic Socialists of America.

Victory in the Democratic primary has transformed what’s possible for socialists in New York City. A 10,500 member-strong NYC-DSA's road to November is paved with opportunities to expand our base and muster the forces needed to implement his agenda.

The post A Million Doors to a Million Votes: NYC-DSA’s Plan for a Mamdani Mandate appeared first on Democratic Left.

Champion for working class wages, Michael Westgaard has qualified for the 2025 General Election in Renton!

The Renton City primary on August 5th narrowed the pool of candidates to the top two, which will go on to the General Election.

Michael and his Seattle DSA comrades began raise the wage efforts in earnest in 2023 and the initiative won in 2024. However, Renton residents have yet to see these democratically demanded wage increases from $16.28 to $20.29. Michael is determined use his position to defeat the bureaucratic blockade preventing Renton residents from raising the minimum wage.

As with Zev Cook in Tacoma, Michael is facing extreme opposition in his race, in this case with funding coming from Amazon and big real estate. Unsurprisingly, Michael’s General Election opponent has even argued that minimum wage should not be a living wage and disgustingly cast minimum wage workers as “unskilled.” In stark contrast, Michael is channeling the sewer socialism tradition, which Alex Brower successfully campaigned on earlier this year in Milwaukee.

We encourage all DSA members to help out with the Michael Westgaard campaign or send a donation!

Our DSA candidates in Washington state are sending a clear message – whether it happens this November or in a future year, socialist cash will take out the capitalist trash.

Tireless advocate for the Palestinian cause and Co-Founder of Tacoma for All, Zev Cook, has qualified for the 2025 General Election!

Tacoma’s primary election narrowed down the pool of candidates to a total of six, which will go on to the General Election for selecting the three new city council members.

Motivated by her Jewish values of community repair, Zev has worked with various direct aid and non-profit organizations and co-founded Serve the People Tacoma which has provided over 10,000 meals and other supplies for homeless neighbors over two years.

Super PAC money has been flooding into Tacoma to oppose Zev and mislead voters into equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.

Zev will be facing off with Joe Bushnell this November, who plans to increase policing should he win. These two have previously battled over Zev’s wildly popular efforts to protect renters, Tacoma for All. Despite this fact and Zev’s years of community organizing to protect the most vulnerable of the population, she is facing very difficult odds for the General Election. Fellow Washington state candidate Michael Westgaard is similarly facing steep opposition, in his case from Amazon and real estate interests.

We encourage all DSA members to help out with the Zev Cook campaign or send a donation!