DSA and its activities have been covered in many news outlets recently, not always favorably. Here, RS contributor C. Don Jones responds to Dennis McIntyre’s August 19 article in Patheos. It appeared in the August 20 issue of Patheos.We reprint it  in slightly adapted form with the authors permission.–Eds.

I read Dennis McIntyre’s recent Patheos article The Rise of DSA And America’s Socialist Movement with great interest. Even when we disagree, I find McIntyre to be a good writer and a sincere believer in Christian hope. I join him in his prayer “that all involved have open hearts and focus on the common good, guided by the values Jesus gives us.” I normally do not write about political ideologies. His thoughts are worth discussing.

U.S. Socialist Movements

My first objection to his piece is that there has never been one U.S. socialist movement. There have been many approaches to socialist thought and practice in the United States. The Democratic Socialists of America is the largest group of socialist organizers in U.S. history, if we go by numbers rather than percentage of the population. It is a multi-tendency organization. We have experienced a number of socialist organizations in our history. DSA won’t be the final expression of the socialist dream.

There has not been a common unifying ideology of socialism in the United States either.. McIntyre errs in equating socialism with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, which is the official doctrine of about five countries in the world and unlikely to grow. There is a reason Marxist-Leninists are called “tankies.” They do not take or maintain power by democratic means. Democratic socialism is messier because democracy is messy. 

Religious Socialists

My second objection is McIntyre’s neglect of the tradition of religious socialism. McIntyre presents what he calls “the Catholic view.” I know many Catholics who are socialists. Why could they not claim theirs is “the Catholic view”? The reason is simple. They know there is not simply one such view. However, when we consider the claim that “Jesus focused on voluntary generosity and on transforming hearts,” we  must ask , “What is the point of transforming hearts if the people as a community do not transform their habits, interactions, and shared goals?” I ask another question about voluntary generosity: “Is individual generosity morally superior to collective generosity?” My experience in ministry is that pooling resources leads to more efficient use and better outcomes.

DSA has a working group of active Religious Socialists promoting shared devotion and values as part of their activism. Although they come from many faiths, these are people who also join the prayer “that all involved have open hearts and focus on the common good. . . .”

A Few Questions

I applaud every effort made by people of faith who attempt to alleviate the economic suffering of other people. Honestly, though, is it really better to have a church attempt to pay off the medical debt of people in their community than for there never to have been any debt? The same question could apply to school-lunch debt.

Which is moral: a government that provides housing or one that criminalizes homelessness? Which would Jesus. who had no place to rest his head. support?

Would Jesus support keeping workers in poverty or support human dignity with humane working conditions and pay raises to keep up with the cost of living? Historically, unions/organized labor have raised the standard of living for everyone.

Because the Gospel of John asserts that the “Word” that “became flesh” is the Creator, is environmental destruction okay with him? Would it not be moral to find ways to make the world a more livable place?

The answers DSA offers support “human flourishing, dignity, protects freedom, strengthens families, and reflects biblical principles of justice and mercy.”

Jesus, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx

Karl Marx was the biggest fan Adam Smith ever had. Reading Capital by Marx and Smith’s Wealth of Nations for comparison would be important for Christian believers to understand the problems of moral philosophy as it applies to economic questions. The basic problem is a misunderstanding of human nature that comes from materialist thought.

Humanity has a spiritual side that is largely dismissed in economic thought. We do not define rational as decision making based on our own material interests. Human beings often do not know what those are. Jesus once praised the widow’s apparent irrationality of giving “all she had” amid people who gave large sums to the Temple Treasury. Why did she do that? She saw the injustice of her life that was caused by the institution of the Temple and the wealthy people who held abundance in the midst of poverty. She did not simply give her money. The mite was useless. She threw it away. Jesus pointed this out to his followers. who, to this day, fail to understand.

The post A Religious Socialist Defends Democratic Socialism appeared first on DSA Religious Socialism.

On Monday, August 24, masked ICE thugs abducted over 25 of our immigrant neighbors across Danbury, Stamford, and Bridgeport. Their […]

Maps of results for Larkin in Florida, Bush in St. Louis, McKinney in Detroit, and Kiros in Denver.

The post Red Atlas: Four DSA House Races, Precinct by Precinct appeared first on Democratic Left.

Note: posts by individual GMDSA members do not necessarily reflect the views of the broader membership or of its leadership and should not be regarded as official statements by the chapter.

Photo Credit: Coldwell Banker, Hickok & Boardman

This article originally appeared on https://organizethis.substack.com/

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Working people of Waterbury,  

I arrived in Waterbury homeless. I got a restaurant job and worked as much as I could and as long as I could to stack enough cash to get a dump apartment renting from Joe Handy with the caveat of a terrible roommate. In the years that elapsed post-homelessness, I worked hard, got my feet under me and became a contributing member of the community, with a halfway decent living situation. That situation turned sour when my landlord booted myself and my former partner out of our downtown apartment to make way for an Airbnb. That moment set off a years-long chain of events that would push me to run for Select Board on a platform of working class struggle and affordability and by the faith vested in me by the community, I won. 

In the 3 years I spent on Waterbury’s Select Board I tried to prevent working people from being forced out of this town by greedy landlords, short term rental owners and bad bosses. I tried to call attention to the plight of the service industry and hospitality workers whose wages had long since failed to keep up with the rising cost of housing. I tried to create a system where the municipal government would fund the construction of affordable apartments for working people, I proposed capping short term rentals, I proposed limiting down-payments on apartments and finally, I lobbied the other members of the select board to enter into a purchase agreement with the state so that a large developer could build much needed housing to alleviate the pressure on what’s left of Waterbury’s working class. All of these attempts were failures. There has been no relief for struggling working people in Waterbury.

Since leaving the Select Board, I’ve done some much needed reflecting. If you know me at all, you know that means staring at bodies of water in silent contemplation and calling it fishing. During one of these moments of silent contemplation I came to the realization that one working class individual serving in government won’t change a damn thing. The opposition is too entrenched, too bought-in, too set in their ways and too powerful for one person to face on their own. But hey, I gave it my best shot. 

If service and hospitality workers, factory workers and teachers in this town want any real change, there is only one way that they’re going to get it — and that’s organizing. Organizing labor unions, organizing tenant unions and organizing community meetings. It will take all of you — all of us, to hit back at a system that so very clearly takes advantage of you, leaving you out in the cold. I’m not talking about Trump or the Governor or the federal government, or even Elon Musk. I’m talking about your boss and your landlord. I’m talking about Waterbury’s wannabe ruling class. People whose decisions impact your life every single day. 

For years your boss has kept your wages low and your landlord has kept your rent high and it's only ever gotten worse. You know it because you’ve been living it. Your friends live it, your coworkers live it and your neighbors live it. This town’s entire economy runs because of your sweat, because of your stress and because of your time. Now, with the local option tax, the town gets a cut of your sweat, stress and time too. We’re being squeezed and we’re all running out of juice. That tax was proposed as a means to build affordable housing and fix Waterbury’s aging infrastructure. It has not lived up to its promised goals. 

Paycheck-to-paycheck didn’t cut it years ago and it definitely doesn’t cut it now. You cater to tourists, guests and customers day in and day out just to have your hours slashed in stick season or have your boss’ buddy get the raise that you’ve worked so hard for. Instead of giving you a cost of living adjustment, your boss’ restaurant group opens a new restaurant or buys a brewery instead. You get that letter from your landlord that says that rent is going up again right after you just had to fork over hundreds to get your car to pass inspection. You skip this week's grocery trip because you’re obligated in your lease to pay for heat in an apartment with century old insulation. It’s just not sustainable anymore nor has it ever been.

The only way to stare down this machine and bargain for a better Waterbury is to do it together. Where I failed alone, we can succeed together. United we bargain but divided we beg — and we’re all tired of begging. We’re tired of begging for rent relief and we’re tired of begging for raises - and we will beg no more. It’s up to you to talk to your coworkers and talk to your neighbors about organizing. You won't be alone and you won’t fail. There are many of us who will stand behind you. 

For those of you who are teachers, talk to your fellow union members about supporting candidates for School Board and Select Board who actually understand your struggles and your plight. 

For those of you in factories, service or hospitality, talk to your coworkers about organizing labor unions in your work places. There are more of you than there are bosses to stop you and if enough of you have had enough of meager earnings and exorbitant rent and if we all can stick together, you will win better pay, benefits, working conditions and affordability.

If you rent, talk to your neighbors about forming tenant unions and create renters committees who can relentlessly hound the Select Board until they actually work up the backbone to do something about the local affordability crisis. 

If your coworker or neighbor approaches you about starting a union, listen and participate. Sign a petition, sign a union card, or take the lead. It doesn’t matter how you organize. It just matters that you organize. Your friends, coworkers and neighbors are your strength because a rising tide lifts all boats and there is no better time than right now.

Always remember, there is no economy without working people. There is no economy without you. It’s time that you get treated that way.

Events & Actions

Tuesday August 18 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Tuesday August 25 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Ecosocialist Bi-Weekly Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Wednesday August 26 (6:45 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Thursday August 27 (5:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Phonebank for Prop I (Affordable Housing Guarantee Act) (1916 McAllister St)

 Thursday August 27 (7:00 PM – 9:00 PM)  Emergency Planning Training (new location!) (1 Lilac St)

 Saturday August 29 (10:00 AM – 12:00 PM) Yes on I Lit Drop (Douglass Playground, Douglass St &, 26th St)

 Saturday August 29 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM) Fundamentals of Tenant Organizing [ETOC] (1916 McAllister St)

 Saturday August 29 (3:00 PM – 4:30 PM) Decolonization Studies (1916 McAllister St)

 Sunday August 30 (11:00 AM – 2:00 PM)  Prop B Field Kickoff! (Mission Playground Park)

 Sunday August 30 (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM)  What is DSA? (Bayview Branch Library, 5075 3rd Street)

 Monday August 31 (6:30 PM – 8:00 PM) Homelessness Working Group Regular Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Tuesday September 1 (5:30 PM – 7:00 PM) Social Housing Working Group (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Wednesday September 2 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Tenant Organizing Working Group Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Thursday September 3 (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM) Education Board Open Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Thursday September 3 (7:00 PM – 8:30 PM) Immigrant Justice regular meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Saturday September 5 (11:00 AM – 1:00 PM)  No Appetite for Apartheid: Consumer Pledge Canvass (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

 Monday September 7 (7:00 PM – 8:00 PM) Labor Working Group Meeting (online and in person at 1916 McAllister St)

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Emergency Planning Training

ICE makes immigrants “check in” periodically at their office to avoid deportation. But when immigrants show up, in many cases ICE has been detaining them anyway. An injury to one is an injury to all! Come learn how you can support immigrants outside these check-ins by helping them make an emergency plan, and get legal help if needed Thursday August 27, 7-8:30PM (1 Lilac St)
RSVP here 

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Yes on B Campaign Kickoff

This is a big week for Prop B as we will have our field kickoff at 11AM on Sunday the 30th at Mission Playground. We want comrades to come out in force to win a public bank in SF! RSVP here! 

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Decolonization Studies

Come join your friendly neighborhood socialists for study time! We’re reading from a collection of texts chosen to elevate our understanding of decolonization, reading is done beforehand and participants are invited to the office for a monthly in-person facilitated discussion. Please feel free to come to the session even if you’ve only partially completed the readings!
RSVP here (Decolonization Studies – DSA San Francisco Organization)

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Beach Day with Palestine Solidarity Working Group

Join the Palestine Solidarity Working Group at Ocean Beach on August 29 at 2:00 PM as we play some games and enjoy some time on the beach together! We’ll have snacks/drinks and a volleyball net, and of course we will be snagging a bonfire pit for the vibes.  Please bring whatever you’d like to roast over the fire and come learn more about our work with Palestine!

RSVP for Beach Day via Partiful

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Check out https://dsasf.org/events for more events and updates.

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Reportbacks

Socialist Picnic

A big socialist thank you to all the comrades new and old who came out to picnic and socialize together this past Saturday, especially our comrades visiting from the Boise DSA chapter! The better world is the one we make together! See you at the next one!

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No Appetite for Apartheid Canvassing 

On Sunday Aug 23rd, seven of us from the Palestine Solidarity Working Group canvassed local stores in the Excelsior neighborhood and were able to put up three No Appetite for Apartheid posters! We had a few Spanish speakers who were able to connect with local businesses and met a few Palestinian American business owners.

Hit @Ryan Cruz or @Eli Edelman up if you’re ever looking to get plugged in as we continue our NA4A campaign and also set our sights on Rainbow!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2026

Contact:
Susie & Katie
Co-chairs, Denver Democratic Socialists of America
info@denverdsa.org

DENVER, CO, August 25, 2026 — The Denver Democratic Socialists of America are proud to announce their endorsement of Councilwoman Shontel M. Lewis for Mayor of Denver in the 2027 election.

Lewis was previously endorsed by Denver DSA in 2023 for her successful race to represent the communities of East Colfax, Montbello, Park Hill, Northfield and Central Park in District 8 on Denver City Council. 

"Shontel Lewis has spent her career advancing socialist policies to help working people," said Katie, Denver DSA Co-Chair. "With the city in a budget crisis and survival becoming more precarious for everyday Denverites, we need a Mayor with the vision, experience, and tenacity to make meaningful change happen." 

During her time in office, Lewis has fought alongside Denver DSA and other working-class coalitions to deliver on municipal sentencing reform, renter protections, collective bargaining rights for city workers, and most recently, protections for trans Denverites.

"I am proudly running again as a democratic socialist and having the support of Denver’s DSA behind another one of my races means the world to me," said Lewis.

"I was asked to run for mayor by union organizers, my neighbors who go to work every day and still struggle, tired folks close to losing their hope. We can run a campaign of joy, one centering what our city and her residents deserve. We will bring lasting and real change to Denver, we have a world to win and I am committed to the vision.”

This endorsement comes as a result of Denver DSA’s democratic process, including candidate forums, member deliberation, and an all-member vote. It reflects the democratic will of the organization’s almost 2,000 members and commits the membership to volunteer for Lewis's campaign.

Denver DSA is proud to stand alongside Councilwoman Lewis in her fight to win the mayoralty and build the Denver that workers deserve. 

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ABOUT DENVER DSA: Denver Democratic Socialists of America is the metro Denver chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the country. We seek to build a mass movement and transfer power from the ruling elite to the working class, thereby gaining freedom and democratic control over all aspects of our society. A better world is possible - join DSA to build it with us.

The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book “The American Road to Socialism: The Unfinished Struggle for Democracy”

Ask an American whether workers should own the results of their labor, and you will get a yes. Ask whether the economy is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy, and you will get a yes – 70 percent of respondents in a national poll last year, including 58 percent of Republicans, said the system is rigged and needs to be replaced. Ask whether your boss, your landlord, and your insurance company have too much control over your life, and you will get a yes. Then say the word “socialism,” and watch the yes turn into a maybe.

That gap is the central strategic problem we in the American left face. This is a challenge we socialists have faced for decades, but the political foundations are changing. Sixty-two percent of Americans under thirty now hold a favorable view of socialism. Among Democrats, favorable views have climbed from 50 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in 2025. Meanwhile Gallup found the approval rate of capitalism slipping to 54 percent, its worst showing in over a decade of polling. Roughly 15 percent of 2024 Trump voters — younger, more racially diverse, and largely disengaged from politics — told pollsters they prefer democratic socialism to capitalism. These results have been matched with equal intensity in the waves of socialist primary victories across the country this cycle. DSA endorsed roughly 150 candidates in 2026. By the end of June, thirty-five had won their primaries or gone unopposed. 

These wins are only the beginning of building a durable socialist movement in this country. If we are to displace the political establishment rather than merely embarrass it, we have to build a movement that crosses the partisan spectrum. Closing the gap between what Americans already believe and what they think socialism is takes three things: understanding why the gap exists, learning to speak in a way that closes it, and building an organization disciplined enough to contest the communities where the gap will be closed.

Why Has America Not (Yet) Embraced Socialism?

We first have to address the elephant in the room: Why over the 250 years of this country’s existence has socialism failed to take root? There are four structural obstacles in this country that have historically prevented the United States of America from embracing socialism. First, the deliberate repression of the left by capital and the state cannot be ignored when answering this question. McCarthyism, COINTELPRO, the destruction of radical unions, elite-driven cultural backlash to eras of progressive political dominance, and the outright assassination of prominent leftist leaders in this country have all been tools used by the elite to prevent the destruction of capitalism. 

Second is elite-driven racial divisiveness. In a multiracial society like ours, racism has been the most reliable instrument the political and economic elite have for keeping the working class divided against itself, deployed by reactionary coalitions from the founding of this country, through the end of Reconstruction, the Dixiecrats and the Southern Strategy, and present day racial divides. When workers are pitted against each other, they cannot organize alongside one other against the capitalist minority.

Third, unlike almost every other industrialized democracy, the United States has for most of its history lacked a durable labor or socialist party, leaving the working class without an independent political vehicle to organize. The Socialist Party, as well as the Democratic Party at certain points in its history, offered a space for working class political organization. But this wasn’t permanent. The structural explanation for this absence lies in the American electoral system itself. Winner-take-all elections, single-member congressional districts, and the Electoral College create nearly insurmountable barriers to third parties that simply do not exist in the proportional representation systems of Europe and Latin America.

The fourth obstacle is closely related to the third—the cultural identification of socialism with foreign ideologies and anti-Americanism. For a century, the right has successfully branded socialism as something alien to the American tradition: a European import at best and Soviet totalitarianism at worst. This branding has been reinforced by a corporate-controlled media apparatus that has consistently marginalized socialist voices from mainstream political discourse while amplifying the association between socialism and authoritarianism. This is the obstacle that matters most, because all others can be overcome through organizing, institution-building, and political strategy. If Americans continue to believe socialism is fundamentally un-American, no amount of doorknocking will overcome that barrier. The cultural and rhetorical reframing of socialism that we present to the masses is the foundation everything else rests on.

Speaking American: How We Talk About Socialism 

The reason why socialism in this country has failed to take off isn’t because Americans reject its core premises, but because they reject its branding. When we describe the actual tenets  of democratic socialism: workers controlling their workplaces, affordable housing, universal healthcare, strong communities, freedom from corporate domination, etc., polls consistently show majority support among Americans. What Americans reject is the word socialism and the cultural associations it carries. The task is therefore to show them that what they already want is socialism. We can achieve this goal through five cultural and rhetorical strategies.

The most effective brand of political communication is narrative rather than argumentative. People are not persuaded by policy papers, ideological frameworks, or abstract appeals to justice. What persuades voters are stories that connect political ideas to lived human experiences. When a worker describes watching the company they spent twenty years building get sold out from under them so that a private equity firm could extract its assets, that story makes the case for cooperative ownership more powerfully than any theoretical argument ever could. When a single mother describes choosing between filling a prescription and paying rent, that story makes the case for universal healthcare in terms no policy brief can match. Socialists must learn to lead with stories because stories create the emotional connection that opens people to ideas they might otherwise reject on ideological grounds. This is the basis of agitation as a political strategy—the simple act of using leading questions and “whose side are you on” to bring voters to your desired outcome—which then opens voters to political organizing. 

The American Dream with Socialist Characteristics 

Socialism isn’t a rejection of the American Dream, but is instead its ultimate fulfillment. The dream as originally conceived—that through hard work, anyone can build a good life in this country—has been hollowed out by capitalism. When wages stagnate, housing is unaffordable, healthcare bankrupts families, and student debt crushes an entire generation, the promise of a better life becomes a cruel joke for the working American. Socialism restores the American Dream by giving Americans the material security to actually turn their hard work into a higher standard of living. This is how we should communicate our vision to the American public—not as a radical departure from what they’ve been promised, but as a radical fulfillment of the promise they have known their whole lives. It is through socialism that the life of a happy family, a happy home, a good job, and a Fourth of July barbecue can be realized for the working majority of this country.

You Do the Work, You Own the Results 

Producerism is the belief that those who produce wealth should get to control wealth. Producerism should be at the rhetorical and policy center of our movement. In a country where voters pride themselves on hard work, hard work should be rewarded. Socialism accomplishes this by giving workers control over their own labor. No longer is there surplus labor value for capitalists to extract. What you create is what you control. Producerism has deep roots in the American political tradition from Jefferson, Jackson, and the Populists all the way through the labor movement, the New Deal, and the Great Society. The twenty-first century version of this argument is simple: you produce the wealth, you should own it. Corporate executives, Wall Street traders, and trust fund inheritors produce nothing. Instead, they extract wealth from Americans who work for a living. Socialism—which is fundamentally the belief that workers should control the wealth they create—isn’t a foreign import. Cooperative ownership is the logical conclusion of the producerist principle that Americans have believed in for two centuries. When we talk to voters, we should frame our project as “we believe the people who do the work should own the results of their work.” That is a sentence that virtually every American will agree with, and it is the most basic definition of socialism.

Your Neighbor is Not Your Enemy 

Americans have a deep attachment to community, whether religious, familial, neighborhood, or civic. Barn raisings, mutual aid societies, the labor union, and the tradition of neighbors helping neighbors were all core institutions of American culture hollowed out by capitalism. Capitalism has left the American worker small, isolated, and unable to defend themselves against either an abusive employer or an indifferent state. Cooperatives, tenant unions, and popular assemblies are the tools ordinary people use to rebuild that. Socialism is what happens when neighbors decide to look out for each other instead of leaving everyone to fend for themselves.

Us Against the Oligarchs 

The defining feature of American politics right now is that voters across the spectrum are furious at elites. The right channels that fury at cultural figures, immigrants, and minorities. Our job is to channel it to the economic elites who actually control people’s lives. Democratic socialism is not “big government.” It is the opposite of oligarchy: a system where ordinary people hold power instead of billionaires. Every proposal we make should be framed as transferring power from elites to working people, not from the private sector to the state. Americans distrust both big business and big government, and our answer is therefore neither. Socialism is the democratic self-governance of working people, which is what the natural conclusion of the values most Americans ascribe to the founding of this country.

What Freedom Really Means 

This is the framing we underuse most. The right insists socialism means the government running your life. In reality it is the capitalist class running it. Your boss controls your time, your wages, your conditions. Your landlord controls your housing. Your insurance company controls whether you get treatment. There is no meaningful freedom when every condition of your survival depends on the decisions of unaccountable private actors. Democratic socialism offers two freedoms at once: the freedom that comes from a baseline of material security, and the freedom that comes from actual control over your workplace, your building, and your neighborhood. What could be more American than that?

“The Party Within the Party” 

That brings us to the question every American socialist has to answer: what do we do with the Democratic Party? Make a clean break and start a third party, or organize inside? The answer is both: the “party within the party.”

This strategy is not new or revolutionary for the DSA, but it could use some sharpening and clarity. Building a third party under current conditions is not possible given the design of our electoral system and the entrenchment of the duopoly. When those conditions change, likely through our own efforts, so should our approach. But working within the Democratic Party carries its own risks. Without an independent organizational base we will be absorbed and neutralized, which is exactly what happened to progressive movements throughout the twentieth century. I can’t say when the DSA will reach a state where it can truly break from the Democrats and its bourgeois politics, but our goal is not to become Democrats. Instead, we must use Democrats’ existing infrastructure to build our own power and base of support. What we therefore need is an independent socialist organization with its own membership, funding, discipline, and platform. We can and should use the Democratic ballot line as a vehicle to win elections, gain national publicity, and push for reforms to the political system. As we do so, we will win over the sympathy of left-leaning voters while retaining the independence to hold our own officials accountable, mobilize outside election cycles, and build working-class institutions that outlast any party. 

In order to accomplish this, we must do three things: streamline our endorsement process, run for and win smaller local and state offices, and expand our fight to contest elections in more rural and conservative parts of the country.

The Endorsement Process

Ours should be an endorsement that candidates actively seek out, not one selectively and arbitrarily given. Right now the process is often slow, contentious, and dominated by factional dynamics that prioritize ideological alignment over strategic opportunity. Candidates substantively aligned with democratic socialist principles get denied because they fail to check a few boxes in our process, and races go uncontested by socialists because nobody clears the purity threshold. A strategically oriented process would test candidates against a short list of non-negotiables — economic democracy, racial justice, anti-militarism, labor rights — allow flexibility on secondary questions, and prioritize races we can actually win.

The Local Governance Gap

There are thousands of offices in this country decided by a few hundred or even a few dozen votes: city councils, county boards, township trustees, school boards, water reclamation districts, planning commissions. They are not glamorous. They generate no national press. They are also where the governance that shapes working people’s daily lives actually happens. A single organized chapter can win them with minimal resources. Winning them turns municipal and state governments into laboratories of socialist policy — and, just as importantly, makes voters comfortable with the idea of socialists governing, because they can see it working down the street. It is also how we build a bench. You do not produce candidates capable of competing at the highest level without officeholders who have already governed something. DSA’s habit of pouring electoral energy into high-profile congressional races while neglecting the offices where socialism can be practiced most tangibly is a strategic failure that caps our growth.

Purple & Red Territory

Fifty-eight percent of Republicans think the economy is rigged for the rich. Of the respondents who had never heard of DSA, 43 percent were more amenable to democratic socialism against 38 percent for capitalism — meaning our brand problem is, in a real sense, an introduction problem. Bernie Sanders and AOC draw enormous crowds in places where we currently have limited resources and support. These are communities where a candidate running the producerist message alongside concrete local issues — housing costs, healthcare access, job quality — can win, particularly in local and state races where national partisan dynamics matter least.

The proof of concept of the socialist electoral model is no longer hypothetical, and it is no longer only applicable in progressive areas like New York. Zohran Mamdani started at 1 percent in the polls and beat the entire New York establishment twice, winning 30 percent of the districts Trump carried in 2024 — not because those voters had a conversion experience, but because Mamdani was the only candidate talking about their rent. Donavan McKinney just won a congressional primary in Detroit with a fraction of his opponent’s money, running on working-class representation in government, taxing the wealthy, and getting corporate cash out of politics. Neither man asked anyone to become a socialist. Our candidates have won by speaking to material conditions and letting the label take care of itself. They are using their success in office to bring people into socialism by example. That is a replicable model, and we have been rationing it. Imagine every chapter with a few hundred members identifying one winnable local race, recruiting a candidate committed to the platform, and running a real field operation.

Expanding the Project 

But how do we accomplish all of these goals? There are several ways in which we can go about expanding the reach of the DSA organization which mostly entail building upon already existing programs.

The Socialists in Office program (SIO) is a DSA-sponsored program that coordinates with and supports DSA officials in public office through a co-governance model. The organization works with SIOs on building coalitions with key communities, teaching our politicians the ropes of local governance, and on drafting and passing legislation. The SIO program has been incredibly effective at building a base of socialist politicians with strong constituent services and strong legislative skills, but the program could be significantly expanded. 

Imagine if the SIO program was involved in the electoral process before candidates won their races? The program should be the primary vehicle by which we elect socialists across the country. It should work with candidates during their campaigns, providing media training, fundraising support, and organizing training. It should work to build coalitions between DSA candidates and key groups like labor, students’ groups, and tenants’ organizations. And it should be involved in identifying candidates across the country to run for office under the DSA banner.

But engaging in electoralism alone will not be enough to move the masses towards socialism. In essence, the DSA must break from the two-party tradition of only showing up in communities when it comes time for Americans to vote. DSA cadres must be continually present in communities, doing the work of building strong relations with local residents. As we expand our organizing capacity, we should engage in mutual-aid work, providing communities with key services that corporations and governments refuse to offer. From the public housing complex to the barn-house, we must be in the communities that will decide the future of this country, becoming a key resource for local residents without ever asking for a vote or donation in return. This is how we, and by extension socialism, can become the most trusted political project in this country.

The road to socialism here will not be paved by one election, one candidate, or one project. It will be built by the sustained, unglamorous work of people who refuse to accept that the richest country in human history cannot provide a dignified life for everyone in it. The framings and arguments above are a toolkit to be adapted to the conditions of communities across the country. The question is no longer whether socialism can win in America. It is whether we are willing to do the work to achieve that victory.

The post The Road to Power: A Socialist Guide to Winning in America appeared first on Midwest Socialist.

by Alex K.

Many of the arguments I have heard against the Participatory Democracy proposal boil down to one simple phrase: “What if I can’t participate?”. Often a theoretical member who works the night shift, or is taking care of family members, or cannot attend these meetings for a myriad of reasons is given as to why Participatory Democracy is not only unfair, but akin to a poll tax or a literacy test. I would ask why the Cleveland DSA is required to replicate Liberal voting structures in an organization that looks to create a system outside of the current oligarchy built upon centuries of white supremacy, misogyny, and outdated Enlightenment ideals. 

Voting should be the end process of a long period of conversation, deliberation, and, most importantly, organizing. I dare those reading this to try and think outside of the individualist society that so many of us have grown up in to think of voting not as a question of “What happens if I cannot vote?”, but as a question of “Am I organizing effectively enough to trust my comrades who can?”. While the title of this article, “You Aren’t Special – And Neither Am I” is meant to be inflammatory, I challenge the reader to think of Cleveland DSA not as an organization made up of individuals, but as an organized mass that is anchored in the idea that the collective is always stronger than the sum of its parts–of which voting is only one minor part.

As a Marxist, and a part of the Marxist Unity Group (MUG), I am interested in theories of Democracy and the ways that we can make our structures more Democratic, and I reject the idea that the ultimate form of Democracy is casting a ballot. Patricia Springborg notes that Marx sees the “positive case for democracy as bearing a peculiar and intimate relation to politics and its emergence as a historically specific cultural complex–a uniquely intimate relationship that is not shared by other regimes such as monarchies and aristocracies.”(1) Though this may seem complex at first, the crux of Marx’s argument is simple: Democracy is more than existing under a political system, it is about being able to have a true, meaningful relationship to the way that a person interacts with and shapes their own political system. While this point may seem to express, at the very least, sympathy towards One Member One Vote, Springborg expands on this basis to show that there is more to Democracy than the simple act of voting.

There are two additional points that Springborg makes about Marx’s views on democracy: one is that “democracy does not require the participation of all members of society as individuals in the decision-making process and that, therefore, the debate over the relative merits of direct or representative democracy is misdirected.”(2) This goes hand-in-hand with the final argument Springborg describes–“political participation turns not on the function of deputies or representatives but rather on political suffrage,” and in quoting Marx, reiterates that “Voting, ‘considered philosophically … is the immediate, the direct, the existing and not simply imagined relation of civil society to the political state.’”(3) Together, these arguments paint a picture of Democracy based on a foundation of universalism, rather than individualism. Democracy does not come about through giving everyone a day off to cast a ballot. Rather, it is essential that everyone can cast a ballot, but that casting a ballot comes about through people having a deep connection to what they are voting on, understanding that part of democracy is that not everyone who is able to participate does participate, and that voting is a political act–not the political act.

Marx clearly states that if members of the state–or perhaps Cleveland DSA if you are so inclined–“are an integral part of the state, then it is obvious that their social existence is already their actual participation in it. They are not only integral parts of the state, but the state is their integral part.”(4) Those who choose to be in Cleveland DSA are an integral part of it, and it is notable that being part of Cleveland DSA is a unique choice that exists outside of, though not independent from, the larger American political sphere. Springborg expands on Marx’s rejection of the separation between the self and the state in how focusing on individual political actions as “all” or “not all” “falsely presumes the political to be constituted by single political acts performed by individuals, focusing exclusively on the legislature as the locus of popular participation.”(5) Voting is the ultimate realization of a single political act performed by an individual. I challenge all persons in Cleveland DSA to think beyond themselves to a politic based on all of us, together, regardless of a single person’s circumstances.

In writing this, I look to challenge ideas of what it means to vote as a member of Cleveland DSA, outside of the historical understanding of what Democracy can, and should, look like. What does it mean to be Democratic as the systems made to suppress and silence political engagement are potentially replicated in Cleveland DSA? In an organization whose program clearly states that “[The Democratic Socialists of America] are workers fighting to transform society: to win the battle for democracy, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic,”(6) it is essential to look beyond American individualism and the idea that the ultimate form of Democracy is exemplified through a ballot. I do not believe that replicating the same systems that have not only failed us, but were designed to oppress and suppress, will create the future we all look towards. It is only through meaningful, powerful organizing that the systems we look to transform can truly change: not through the vote of a single individual.

Footnotes

1 Patricia Springborg, “Karl Marx on Democracy, Participation, Voting, and Equality,” Political Theory 12, no.4 (1984): 538: http://www.jstor.com/stable/191498

2 Springborg, “Karl Marx on Democracy,” 538.

3 Springborg, “Karl Marx on Democracy,” 538.

4 Karl Marx, “Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right,” §§ 308 Civil Society and the Estates, Marxist Internet Archive, accessed August 19, 2026, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/ch06.htm

5 Springborg, “Karl Marx on Democracy,” 542.

6 Democratic Socialists of America, “Our Program,” section “Our Perspective” paragraph 5, accessed August 19, 2026, https://program.dsausa.org/

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Unions in New York City and across the country could learn from DSA’s membership-led endorsement process, guided by a political program

The post Powerful Union Endorsements Need the Rank and File appeared first on Democratic Left.

There has been a momentary lull in the mass demonstrations against Trumpian fascism. We haven’t seen a “No Kings Day” since March 28 (although one is being scheduled for October), and it’s been almost four months since the most robust May Day participation in this country since the 1940s. Thus as we count down to the November 3 election it is all the more important to get out on the streets on Labor Day, Monday September 7, to rebuild the public profile for mass action, which in turn supports enthusiasm for progressive candidates and ballot measures.

Traditionally Labor Day is the official kick-off within the labor movement to canvassing in an election year. This time around in California the difference is that it features a rejuvenated left edge to the state’s unions in the wake of the important decision at the August 4 California AFL-CIO convention to support the Billionaire Tax, Prop 40, along with Prop 3, the Education and Health Care Act. Enactment of this dual hit on ruling class income and wealth will produce a fairer share of taxes paid by the state’s richest residents to support public education and health care. 

It will also send a signal to the most reactionary tech bro capitalists that their insane level of political spending can’t buy our democracy.

Historic Opportunity

The marquee political campaign for California DSA this year is our Tax the Rich effort. Our state council endorsed both measures before any other organization in the Golden State. As a result we have set up committees and working groups in our chapters, held (and continue to hold) educational forums and trainings, and crafted materials to use in educating our members, unionists, and the electorate. 

Due to our level of preparedness, our chapters are in good position to work with local central labor councils and their new mandate to support Props 3 and 40 across the state on Labor Day and onward toward the election. One example: East Bay DSA is partnering with the Alameda Labor Council to phonebank and canvass for the two tax the rich measures along with candidates for office endorsed by both groups. 

The increased cooperation between organized labor and DSA has been driven by the tremendous successes of DSA’s electoral program around the country. There is a new level of respect within unions for the hard work and principled cooperation of socialists in politics. 

The labor movement, for its part, is more prepared for Labor Day than I’ve seen in a long time. The California Federation of Labor Unions has posted the upcoming activities of its councils well in advance of the holiday and is organizing for marches, picnics, and other actions and celebrations. See the local events here.

This Labor Day let’s continue to build on the synergy. A strong socialist presence at Labor Day events will grow both movements. 

• Labor Day events

• Tax the Rich campaign materials

• Taxing the Rich in American History: A Forum with Vanessa Williamson September 16