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CHICAGO — From August 3 to 6, roughly 1,000 elected delegates and alternates, as well as observers, from across the country gathered in Chicago for the 2023 National Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America. After the virtual one in 2021, this was the first in-person DSA Convention since 2019 in Atlanta.

Based on membership size, chapters and at-large DSA members are apportioned and elect a certain number of delegates to DSA Convention, which meets every two years as the organization’s highest decision-making body. They debate and vote on constitutional and bylaws amendments that change DSA’s structure and internal rules, platform amendments that update our beliefs and goals on key issues, resolutions that inform the work of the national organization and chapters, and our top leadership between conventions on the National Political Committee (NPC), the members of which make sense of and direct the implementation of convention decisions.

The NPC includes 16 members, with one vote each, elected by delegates at DSA Convention, plus the two co-chairs of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), who share one vote. The annual YDSA Convention, which elects its co-chairs and YDSA’s National Coordinating Committee (NCC), also met in the city in the days immediately prior to DSA Convention.

DSA is a multi-tendency socialist organization, which means there is a range of different socialist politics across the membership. Caucuses and other similar member formations are the organized expression of these political tendencies and form when like-minded members choose to join together to organize internally for their political vision for the organization and its work. That can consist of running candidates for chapter leadership, convention delegate, and NPC, and also submitting proposals that may be debated at Convention. Candidates may also organize themselves into slates without the backing of a formalized caucus, and any DSA member in good standing can draft and submit proposals for Convention provided they gather signatures from other members and support from delegates.

While most DSA members and delegates are uncaucused — being no member of any formation — DSA has no ban on factions. These organized political tendencies help present politically distinct paths for the future of DSA for us to consider and debate and are a vehicle to advocate for them too.

Below, Working Mass presents 10 statements reflecting on this year’s DSA and YDSA Conventions. Collected from a selection of attendees across most chapters in Massachusetts and the range of tendencies represented in their delegations, they lay out a variety of perspectives and highlights that we hope gives an impression of these conventions and their outcomes.

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Michaela and Desmond, Bread & Roses

Bread & Roses had about 90 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

As proud Bread & Roses members, we see the 2023 DSA Convention as a massive step forward. Nearly a thousand delegates recommitted to the rank-and-file strategy in labor, endorsed a more independent, oppositional electoral strategy, and approved paid political leadership. Combined, these decisions could lay the foundation for a more democratic, powerful, party-like DSA in the coming years.

To start, Convention made important interventions on electoral strategy. The base Electoral Consensus Resolution included important structural reforms to the National Electoral Commission (NEC). B&R’s “Act Like an Independent Party” amendment, which calls for DSA to develop organizational, strategic, visible independence from the Democratic Party, passed with almost 80% support. By passing another B&R-authored proposal, “Defend Democracy through Political Independence,” Convention also rejected a strategy of fighting the authoritarian right by tailing the Democrats. Instead, we committed the organization to defending democracy by running independent campaigns to build working-class organization and consciousness. These votes amount to an overwhelming endorsement of political independence for DSA, an important choice as the 2024 elections loom.

On labor, delegates voted down two amendments to the Labor Consensus Resolution. One would have weakened DSA’s commitment to the rank-and-file strategy, hinting that we would privilege working with union leadership over rank-and-file workers and even stripping language about building and collaborating with Labor Notes. The other would have scuttled the base language about paying our two National Labor Commission (NLC) co-chairs as elected full-time organizers, kneecapping our national labor work at a crucial moment of revival in the labor movement. Delegates rejected the former 69-31 and the latter 54-46.

Finally, this Convention made big gains for DSA as a democratic mass organization. In the consent agenda alone, we passed B&R-endorsed resolutions to revive the National Activist Conference (NAC), which can become an important learning hub for our activist layer, and to establish a DSA Editorial Board that can build out Democratic Left and Socialist Forum into a lively, serious party press. We passed a strong YDSA Consensus Resolution that will empower our youth wing with the resources and autonomy to keep growing. The newly approved Democracy Commission will research and plan for a more democratic internal structure for DSA. Most significantly, the Convention rejected austerity arguments and passed B&R’s proposal to elect two full-time paid co-chairs of DSA. Soon, we will have elected national spokespeople whose full-time job is to build DSA!

We didn’t celebrate every convention decision. B&R’s amendment to the International Consensus Resolution, “Class Struggle Internationalism,” was defeated, and we weren’t able to stop the stripping of language around accountability for electeds from the “Defend Democracy” resolution. Still, we’re excited to engage with DSA’s international work going forward, and the bulk of the defend democracy strategy – including the core commitment to political independence – passed overwhelmingly.

We have our work cut out for us, but this Convention was a huge win for all who want DSA to become a real mass socialist organization that can organize the working class to fight for its own liberation.

Michaela B (she/her), a delegate from River Valley DSA, is the chair of the Matching Funds subcommittee of the Growth and Development Committee and is a past co-chair of River Valley DSA. She joined DSA in 2017, and this was her second consecutive DSA Convention as a delegate.

Desmond O (he/him), a delegate from Boston DSA, is the rank-and-file organizing chair in Boston DSA’s Labor Working Group and organizes with the DSA Logistics Committee. He also serves on the Bread & Roses National Coordinating Committee. Desmond joined DSA in 2021, and this was his first DSA Convention as a delegate. He is a member of UNITE HERE Local 26 in Boston.

Russell, Socialist Majority Caucus

Socialist Majority Caucus had about 55 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

This Convention found a DSA energized and mobilized, politically matured, and financially stretched. Where we are by 2025 and by 2033 and beyond will depend on the choices comrades make now and in months to come.

I joined Socialist Majority Caucus when it formed in 2019 because it was made up of comrades I saw do good organizing across DSA in the 2-3 years before united by a belief in a strong, well-funded, politically coherent national organization; running socialists for office using whatever ballot line is easiest for them to win on; campaigns to build the organization; and the centrality of race and racial justice in the fight for socialism.

In 2019 and 2021, delegates consistently voted for SMC’s ideas, passing resolutions for multi-racial organizing, pragmatic electoral strategies, and a version of the rank-and-file strategy in labor that emphasizes organizing the unorganized; defeating resolutions to weaken the national organization by decentralizing or financially undermining it; and electing our candidates to a plurality on the National Political Committee.

At the 2023 Convention, it was gratifying to see many of our ideas have become consensus positions in DSA, underlying many consensus resolutions that passed, especially labor, electoral, multi-racial, growth and development, internationalism, and the Green New Deal. There are no longer debates about decentralizing or defunding national or against organizing through power-building campaigns. Delegates defeated resolutions committing DSA to self-marginalizing electoral strategies. Most excitingly, our top political priority — a national campaign for DSA to fight the right through work to defend abortion and trans rights — passed overwhelmingly!

That said, while our allies on the Groundwork slate won four seats, SMC’s NPC candidates mostly lost and won’t hold a plurality for the first time since 2019. Most tragically, SMC fought hard for a necessary reform to democratize DSA by expanding our structurally dysfunctional elected leadership from 18 members to 31. It won support from 61% of delegates, but not the 67% supermajority needed to pass. However, a “Democracy Commission” to study NPC reform did pass, so hopefully we can win some kind of reform in 2025.

The Convention heard reports from national staff and elected leaders that we spend more than we take in, and we’re depleting savings built up over many years. Convention then created numerous new paid positions and committed to expensive projects and campaigns. The new NPC faces a hard job deciding priorities, and all DSA members need to recruit more comrades and increase dues.

However, after nine years in DSA, I have more hope than ever for our ability to meet this moment of rising worker militancy and the rising fascist right. This Convention showed an organization of tens of thousands of members who are already organizing — investing time, energy, and money in the socialist movement — and ready to do much more. We must!

If you agree with the Socialist Majority vision I’ve laid out, join us: socialistmajority.com!

Whether you do or not, sign up for income-based dues to support DSA’s fight for socialism at dsausa.org/join!

Russell W (he/him), a delegate from Boston DSA, is a solidarity co-chair in Boston DSA’s Labor Working Group, a past co-chair of Central New Jersey DSA, and a past NPC member. He joined DSA in 2014, and this was his fifth consecutive DSA Convention as a delegate. He is a member of the Boston Teachers Union (AFT Local 66).

Connell, Marxist Unity Group

Marxist Unity Group had about 30 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

One of our priorities is electoral work that moves toward independence from the Democratic Party and has standards for DSA electeds decided democratically by membership. For me, this Convention was an extremely positive step for DSA’s direction.

Compared to the results from 2021, there is a definite shift toward political independence. The electoral amendment “Act Like an Independent Party” establishes that we must present a democratic socialist alternative for the working class that is independent of the Democratic Party and that we should develop our own party identity while we work toward our organizational independence. This amendment passed with about 80% of delegates voting in favor, whereas a similar amendment failed last Convention.

There were also failed amendments that nevertheless show growing support for change to the DSA electoral status quo. The amendment “Towards a Party-Like Strategy” that MUG wrote with Reform & Revolution would have established DSA electeds should fight for our platform, and among other things set out a few red lines in advance. These red lines would set an expectation of people we endorse to oppose increases to police budgets, refuse to vote to restrict the right to strike, oppose all forms of oppression and discrimination, and oppose military budgets and aid. It got 40% of delegates voting in favor so it failed, but compare this to a similar resolution from 2021 that got around 30% in the pre-convention delegate survey and did not make the agenda. Because of a procedural motion with the resolution “Defend Democracy through Political Independence,” we also got to take an unexpected poll on one aspect of our political orientation. While the vote on it failed, 49% of delegates supported the idea the National Political Committee should publicly disapprove of DSA candidates and electeds supporting or endorsing centrist Democrats. Between these three votes, we see a trend toward political independence that we can continue building on.

The NPC election was another sign of positive change for DSA. As a relatively small and new caucus, MUG members are very excited to have elected both of the NPC candidates we ran, Rashad and Amy. They are experienced chapter leaders with a commitment to transforming DSA into a mass socialist party. Many DSA members have been dissatisfied with the level of transparency and member input into DSA, and the NPC elected this Convention has good prospects of putting membership in control.

Other positive convention outcomes are the defeat of the Groundwork labor amendments that would have weakened DSA’s commitment to rank-and-file workers, a national campaign for trans rights and bodily autonomy, and paid full-time co-chairs both for the National Labor Commission and the NPC. The opportunities from these new member leadership positions are exciting, but only if we can pay for them. Since Convention closed there has already been a surge in DSA members with renewed commitment signing up for income-based dues. Whether or not you agree with my assessment of Convention, if you’re financially able, sign up for your 1% for the 99%!

Connell Heady (they/them), a delegate from River Valley DSA, is a co-chair of that chapter. They joined DSA in 2020, and this was their second consecutive DSA Convention as a delegate.

Eve, Reform & Revolution

Reform & Revolution had about 25 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

The 2023 DSA Convention was a big step forward for our organization. Delegates amended the agenda to take on some of the key debates for DSA today, like whether and how to run fighting national campaigns, the question of party-like socialist electoral work, and the lessons learned from the conflict between the outgoing NPC and the BDS working group and our approach to anti-Zionism. In the end, despite substantive debate and a sense of seriousness and maturity compared to 2019 and 2021, many important issues were left unresolved or untouched. The Convention was silent on U.S. support for Ukraine and how socialists should relate to the 2024 presidential election and Joe Biden. But with an energized left wing of the organization emboldened by gains on the NPC and a strong plan for a national campaign on trans and reproductive rights, Reform & Revolution delegates came out of Convention excited to build DSA in 2024 and beyond!

Eve Seitchik (they/she), a delegate from Boston DSA, is a past co-chair of that chapter. They joined DSA in 2018, and this was her third consecutive DSA Convention as a delegate.

Shane, Red Line

Red Line had about 15 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

Three DSA members in Congress voting to ban a strike prompted Red Line’s formation, and our delegates were pleased by leftward movement toward more principled electoral work, even when we lost, as we voted as a bloc for:

• Yes on Amendment I, “Act Like an Independent Party,” which with 79% support amended the electoral consensus resolution, for a DSA “organizationally, strategically, and visibly independent of the Democratic Party.”
• Yes on Amendment P, “Towards a Party-Like Electoral Strategy,” which failed with 41% support and would’ve formalized expectations that DSA electeds oppose strengthening the police, restricting the right to strike, oppressing vulnerable groups, or funding the military or U.S. client states like Israel.
• Yes on retaining, within “Defend Democracy through Political Independence,” lines 41-46, which failed with 49% support and would’ve directed the NPC to “publicly communicate disapproval” of DSA electeds “explicitly or tacitly support[ing] centrist leaders of the Democratic Party.”
• No on the Green New Deal Campaign Commission resolution, which passed with 37% opposed and commits significant funding and staff to their electoral strategy, expands redundancies with the National Electoral Committee and National Labor Commission, and lacks substantive reflection on the Pass the PRO Act and GND for Public Schools campaigns.
• No on the NPC recommendation moving the BDS Working Group to the International Committee, which passed with 48% opposed and disciplines the BDS WG for strident opposition to unprincipled votes by Congressman Bowman.

While more active under new leadership, the NLC’s relationship with chapter labor committees remains unclear, it lacks a socialist labor publication, and its work often defaults to cheerleading workers from the sidelines while many DSA members’ union work is uncoordinated and individual. On labor, Red Line voted:

• No on Amendment H, “We are Workers,” to the labor consensus resolution, which failed with 69% opposed, because we reject prioritizing relations with leadership at the expense of standing with the rank and file — whether it’s tying ourselves wholesale to leadership’s bargaining goals and strategy or opportunistically pursuing endorsements for our electoral and legislative work.
• Mostly Yes on Amendment F, which passed with 97% support, to build out EWOC locally, but believing that it cannot be a way to sidestep confrontation with union leadership or hard choices while “boring from within” existing major unions — as reorienting them to the class struggle is necessary to organize the unorganized on a mass scale.

Competitive elections, a vibrant political culture, and left organization produced a more representative and more left NPC, and we’ll now see how it actually lands on the issues. DSA’s internal democracy is strong, but we hope for staff and structural reforms, a better agenda-setting process, proportional election of all delegations going forward, and that the successful resolution revitalizing DSA’s publications further empowers members.

In sum, Convention affirmed the value of socialist regroupment within DSA and the error of abstention from the center of the socialist movement in this country and from the ideological struggle over its character and future. Join Red Line in the fight for it!

Shane Levett (he/him), a delegate from Worcester DSA, is a member of the board of Working Mass, the National Labor Commission’s Solidarity Fund Committee, and in his third term on his chapter’s steering committee. He is also a past member of the Organizing Committee of the Boston DSA Electoral Working Group. Shane serves on the Red Line provisional steering committee. He joined DSA in 2020, and this was his second consecutive DSA Convention as a delegate. He is on the organizing committee in his workplace with IBEW 2222.

Paul, North Star

North Star had about 10 members at DSA Convention as delegates.

I came home from Convention with a great deal of hope and enthusiasm for the future of the democratic socialist movement in the United States.

DSA is finally metamorphosing into the powerful organization we dreamed of in the early 1980s when we merged the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) to form DSA.

Some of the few surviving veterans of that effort attended the 2023 Convention as delegates associated with the North Star Caucus. I think most of them would agree with my positive assessment that this was the most hopeful and inspiring Convention held in the four decades since we helped launch DSA.

I personally feel pride and gratification in the vitality and converging sense of unity and commitment demonstrated in Chicago. This does not mean that I agree with the outcome of every contested vote or voted for every successful NPC candidate. That is not important.

What matters is that DSA LIVES! Ten years ago, we were barely surviving, with an aging membership loyally soldiering on. I served six years on the NPC from 2009 to 2015, when we had four to six functioning chapters and a few campus organizations. Beyond maintaining a modest office and paying a minimal staff through membership dues, we depended on legacy bequests to support any national programming.

We made some seminal decisions that eventually paid off in 2016-17: hiring Maria Svart as National Director in 2011 and David Duhalde as Youth Organizer and later Deputy Director, putting office procedures and financial reporting into good order, and putting most of our scarce resources into campus organizing, which became the core of YDSA. Above all, we helped encourage Bernie Sanders to run for President as a self-identified democratic socialist in the Democratic primary.

I want to share two anecdotes from Convention. During the comradely but heated debate on amendments to the labor consensus resolution, I went outside to refill my water. When I went to reenter, I ran into Sean Orr, National Labor Commission co-chair and a UPS Teamster key to our Strike Ready campaign, and known to me as the resolution’s primary drafter. Sean was not a delegate but a volunteer freed up from his intensive union work by the tentative agreement. We had a great discussion on the spot, agreeing that the outcome of the amendments would not much affect our ongoing work.

One meal time I happened to sit with Jane Slaughter, now a member of Detroit DSA. I first met Jane in the 1980s, when we were in NAM and she and her comrades in the International Socialists respectfully left because they thought we were insufficiently committed to a strategy of concentrating on heavy industry. Now together in DSA, we celebrated our growing convergence with Labor Notes on a pragmatic rank-and-file strategy.

Without multiplying instances, I was inspired by encounters with comrades of all generations from all over the USA. I would do it over again, and not even complain about frivolous points of order.

Paul Garver (he/him), a delegate from Boston DSA, is a steering committee member on the International Committee, its liaison to the National Labor Commission, and a past National Political Committee member. Paul was a member of the New American Movement from its beginning and was a founding member of DSA. This was his tenth DSA Convention as a delegate after 1982, 1984, 1986, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Bryan, uncaucused

Walking into the Convention, I was a mix of excitement and a little uncertainty. It was a bunch of firsts all rolled into one — traveling to a new state (not just another East Coast trip), hopping on the train with fellow delegates from different parts of New England, and hanging out with fellow delegates from chapters all over the place. I’ll admit, I was a bit nervous at first about facing so many new faces, but meeting all these comrades from different walks of life was really cool and informative, and they made me feel right at home. Getting the lowdown on how other chapters are dealing with things was pretty eye-opening, and even on the train ride, as well as before and during, I was talking with fellow delegates and chapter leaders about ways we could work together to make our chapters thrive.

When we got to the voting part, I’ve got to say, I was genuinely impressed. The whole process went smoother than I thought given what I had heard from previous years, and a lot of those votes went the way I was really hoping for. I’m pretty excited that we’re giving reproductive and trans liberation some major attention in DSA. Those issues really need all the support they can get, especially with the challenges they’re facing from almost all fronts. And the decision to start the process of stepping away from the major political parties to have our own? I’m totally on board. It’s about time we carve out our own political path for the working class!

Let’s chat about those breakout sessions and panels — they were awesome. I not only learned a lot, but the people leading them were really spot on. They made sure everyone’s questions got answered, whether they had the answers or they pointed us toward more info. I’m even happy to say I will be working with some members on ways we can grow our local chapter and do more in our community. I’m really excited about the newly elected National Political Committee (NPC). The fact that this group consists of people with diverse backgrounds and a range of ideologies is a great sign in making sure folks are represented as well as ensuring that all comrades’ voices are heard. It’s clear that every member of the NPC is dedicated to helping the organization thrive and grow. This gives me a lot of confidence that our movement is in good hands, ready to move forward with inclusivity and a shared goal of progress.

As the curtain falls on this transformative event, I’m totally amped about the possibilities that lie ahead. Memories of the good times made with comrades and the insights and experiences I’ve got from this Convention will keep driving me to make things happen in my chapter and beyond. The Convention was a reminder that stepping into the unknown with a mix of excitement and those butterflies in your stomach can lead to some seriously awesome growth and empowerment.

Bryan Sylvestre (he/him), the alternate from Cape Cod DSA, is a co-chair of that chapter and a past media coordinator on its executive committee. He joined DSA in 2019, and this was his first DSA Convention as a delegate.

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Vivian, Constellation

Constellation had about 20 members at YDSA Convention as delegates.

When I speak to DSA members about YDSA, many are surprised by the extent of the differences between our main political debates. Because YDSA does not conduct its own independent electoral campaigns, formations like Socialist Majority and Groundwork are not represented. Instead, our main debates center labor and internationalism and are generally preoccupied with the following questions:

1. Should we run a large national campaign? What issue should that campaign center, and what tactics or strategies should we use in that campaign?
2. What sort of labor work should we do? Should we prioritize salting in strategic industries, such as healthcare, labor, and logistics? Should we prioritize campus labor organizing? Or can we do both?
3. How much should we integrate into DSA? Should our committees remain relatively independent with a liaison going between them, or should we operate as subcommittees that work on YDSA priorities within larger DSA committees?

The 2023 YDSA Convention was the first where my caucus, Constellation, had an official presence. Last year, several of our founding members formed a slate known as TRAIN, an acronym summing up several of our major priorities, including big tent internationalism, grievance reform, building up YDSA’s national organization, and others. This year, Constellation advanced many of the same priorities as TRAIN, but with a larger focus on diversity. We were the only caucus to run exclusively people of color for the National Coordinating Committee, one being Aron Ali-McClory, one of YDSA’s new co-chairs, and the other myself.

Our status as a caucus allowed us to meet regularly before Convention and plan out a more developed strategy. Four of our nine proposals this year were placed on the consent agenda, and eight were adopted by the Convention. Additionally, Aron came in first in the YDSA co-chair election by a 45-point margin, demonstrating once again that our politics have gained significant popularity. This was a big improvement from TRAIN, which elected none of its NCC candidates and only passed two of its proposals.

We are particularly pleased that the Convention voted down R23, “Class-Struggle Internationalism,” 49–85. Internationalism is one of Constellation’s biggest priorities, and our founding members have served both on the International Committee’s Youth Leadership Committee and on IC Steering. Those of us with extensive experience doing international work felt that R23 would unnecessarily separate YDSA’s international work from DSA’s, greatly decreasing YDSA members’ ability to rely on the DSA IC to help us form and maintain relationships with other youth formations.

We are also pleased with the results of the NCC election this year, particularly the election of Callynn Johnson and Hailey Sowa, two Constellation-recommended candidates, since Aron and I were guaranteed at least at-large seats due to the POC quota. The past year’s NCC had a Bread & Roses majority at the time of its election, though one B&R member resigned in the middle of the term. This year’s NCC has a little more caucus diversity, with B&R, Marxist Unity Group, and Constellation members all being elected. 

Vivian Dai (she/they), a delegate from Boston University YDSA and Boston DSA, is a co-chair of BU YDSA and a past Silicon Valley DSA steering committee member. She joined DSA in 2020, and this was their third consecutive YDSA Convention as a delegate and first DSA Convention as a delegate.

Ruy, Reform & Revolution

Reform & Revolution had about 10 members at YDSA Convention as delegates.

YDSA’s 2023 Convention was a marked shift to a more boldly socialist and fighting organization. Delegates affirmed not only a national campaign for bodily autonomy and trans rights, but also committed the organization to become the youth wing of a socialist party (as opposed to the campus wing), argued that we are against the Constitution and need to build a new one, and generally fixed many organizational issues that we’ve been dealing with. Our delegates from Reform & Revolution YDSA are amped and ready to get to work over the next year!

Ruy M (he/him), a delegate from Harvard College YDSA, is the co-chair of that YDSA chapter and a past co-chair of the Austin DSA Electoral Working Group. He joined DSA in 2016, and this was his third YDSA Convention as a delegate after 2020 and 2021.

Hunter, uncaucused

The UMass Amherst YDSA chapter was represented by William O’Dwyer as a delegate, Benjamin Campanella as an alternate, and me as an observer. All three of us in attendance are uncaucused but on most issues are sympathetic to Bread & Roses’ policy agenda and their candidates for elected positions in the organization.

In terms of resolutions passed, while UMass YDSA is sympathetic to the sentiment of R21, “Winning the Battle for Democracy,” we opposed its passage. We believe that encouraging DSA to advocate for sedition against the Constitution serves only to marginalize our organization and alienate sympathetic working people from our cause without accomplishing anything substantive toward further democratizing the U.S. government.

UMass YDSA was pleased with the passage, unamended, of R12, “Recommitting YDSA to the Rank-and-File Strategy,” and by the election of Winnie Marion of B&R to the National Coordinating Committee.

Overall, UMass YDSA is excited to continue our chapter’s participation in the national organization, and we remain a committed partner in the fight to build socialism in our time in the United States.

Hunter Cohen (he/him), an observer from UMass Amherst YDSA, is a past president of that chapter. He joined DSA in 2021, and this was the first YDSA Convention he has attended. He is a past member of Teamsters Local 170.

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Featured image credit: Overlayed on a photo by Claire B of delegates singing “Solidarity Forever” at the close of DSA Convention are headshots of the members of DSA’s new National Political Committee, appearing in circles colored according to their caucus or slate, if any, with the diameter of each circle based on the number of first preferences they received in the NPC election (or total votes received in the case of the two YDSA co-chairs, who were not elected by single transferable vote). Graphic by Shane Levett/Working Mass

In response to the recent decision by the South Carolina Supreme Court to uphold a six-week abortion ban we urge you to give to the Palmetto State Abortion Fund, an organization dedicated to ensuring that financial barriers do not impede access to essential reproductive healthcare services. Your contributions will directly aid those affected by this ban, reaffirming their freedom over their bodies and lives.

We also urge you to join DSA! If you are mad as hell. If you refuse to accept the erosion of our rights. If you are worried, or scared, or unsure of the future, then now is the time to come together. Only together can we resist the march of tyranny. Together we are strong enough to demand change. Together are strong enough to support those in need, and work tirelessly until reproductive rights are once again secure for all. Join DSA today!

Despite decades of howling about freedom, the recent ruling to uphold the inhumane and draconian six-week abortion ban reinforces their true intentions; they want to control women. Even the women of the Republican party know it. That’s why they joined with Democrats earlier this year to oppose a bill that would ban abortion from conception.

But the GOP has been increasingly bold, and kept marching. Their talk about freedom rings even more hollow. The abortions bans are just one part. Book bans, restrictions on protests, restrictions on what to teach. They won’t even legalize cannabis. So how can they claim to be the party of freedom?

Well, it’s a snakelike rhetorical trick to call for freedom but never democracy. Republicans will say you have the freedom to leave if you don’t like it, but will never mention the democracy to change it. A recent poll by Winthrop University showed that just 37% of South Carolinians support a ban on abortions after six weeks. If they truly valued freedom, they would never do something so unpopular. If they actually supported life, as they claim, they would support adoption, social services, free contraception, and comprehensive sex education. But that is completely absent from their legislation and rhetoric.

In truth, Republicans are only against governmental tyranny but in favor of private tyranny. That is, the tyranny of the wealthy elite. They’re against a single dictator, but in favor of many little dictators. A dictatorship of the bosses. A dictatorship of the husbands. They use their wealth and privilege to impose their wants and desires on working class people. The wealthy elites already control you at work, and they want to go back to a time where they can control you at home.

We say no! We want an end to this oppression! Join DSA today!

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Greetings Comrades, 

Twin Ports Pride celebrations kick off this week! Come join the celebrations and learn about our ongoing work. 

Events

• Monday, August 28 (today!)

  • 6:00 pm, tabling prep at Sarah's house. Come help make posters, bike decorations, button designs, and more!

  • 6:30 pm, Socialism and a Slice by the Northwoods Socialist Collective

• Pride celebrations start Thursday! See the full calendar of events.

• Saturday, September 2

  • Pride Fest at Bayfront Park

  • Come visit our table and make a button!

• Sunday, September 3

  • 12-2 pm, Pride Parade in Superior

  • Come join in! Walk, roll, or bike! Respond to this email for details.

News

• 53 years ago: Queer liberation’s roots were socialist, working class and anti-imperialist

• In a Summer of Record Heat, These Striking Workers Are Making Climate Demands

• UPS Teamsters Across the Nation Are Voting on the Tentative Agreement 

• DSA Statement : UPS Teamsters Show Us The Way

See you at Pride!
Sarah Kjorlien
TPDSA Secretary

(If you have been receiving these emails and aren't a member yet, we want you to join! Our goals are both broad and local,  and we intend to win as many as possible. Simply put – the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, Green Housing for All, a justice system that helps instead of harms, an end to poverty, socialists in office everywhere – these goals and more will not happen without mass participation. Use this link to join or renew.)

Into the Bright Sunshine, by Samuel Freedman (Oxford University Press) is subtitled ” Young Hubert Humphrey and the Struggle for Civil Rights.” You might think the book was something for a history class, a chronicle of events long ago; even for that, you might turn away, if like many DL readers you mostly think of Humphrey as the man who didn’t stand up to Lyndon Johnson on the U.S. war against Vietnam. But as Freedman, who’s also an award-winning journalist and professor at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, explores in this book, there’s a lot more to Humphrey’s story, much of it useful for today’s struggles against racism and inequality. Freedman’s previous books are Small Victories: The Real World of a Teacher, Her Students and Their High School (1990); Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church (1993); The Inheritance: How Three Families and America Moved from Roosevelt to Reagan and Beyond (1996); Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry (2000); Who She Was: My Search for My Mother’s Life (2005); Letters To A Young Journalist (2006); and Breaking The Line: The Season in Black College Football That Transformed the Game and Changed the Course of Civil Rights (2013). (Ed.)

Interview conducted by email on August 22, by DL Online Editor Chris Lombardi CL). (Full disclosure: Lombardi studied with Freedman decades ago, in the book seminar he runs at Columbia Journalism School).

CL: At some points, Humphrey’s journey feels kinda Joseph Campbell-ish, with young Hubert painted as a naif hero, going forth to conquer the forces of prejudice: “It was in Louisiana that Hubert first met Jews…” It can’t have been that simple.

SF: I wouldn’t necessarily invoke Campbell, but Humphrey’s childhood was incredibly isolated. He came from a town of 500 people, almost all of them white Protestants with roots in northern Europe or Scandinavia. One Jewish family in town. A small community of Black railroad workers 40 miles away. A Catholic town ten miles away that had crosses burned on its outskirts. It was a tribute to Humphrey’s father H.H. — a freethinker, a liberal Democrat — that Hubert as a boy was infused with a broader political and social perspective. 

CL: Can you speak to his religious evolution, and where does his Quaker grandma fit in?

SF:As far as I can tell, his Quaker grandmother wasn’t such a big influence. But the Social Gospel strain of Protestant theology was. Growing up as a member of the local Methodist church, and being best friends with the minister’s son, Hubert was exposed to a theology that put much less emphasis on personal purity and making it into heaven than it did on building the Kingdom of God (the term that was used) on Earth. Doing so meant supporting organized labor, reaching out across denominational and racial lines. That sensibility informed much of Humphrey’s public life.

CL: What distinctions did he see between the Social Gospel and all-out socialism, leading him to steer the Democratic Party away from the Henry Wallace crowd?

SF: It’s pretty clear that Humphrey was in the New Deal camp of using activist government to save capitalism from itself rather than seeking state ownership of major industries, etc. But it’s also true that in the Dakotas, where he grew up, there’d been a strong tradition of farmers forming their own cooperatives in order to have leverage against the power of the railroads and the commercial grain, dairy, and livestock markets. Humphrey was a major supporter of Wallace in the mid-1940s. He even gave one of the seconding speeches to Wallace’s (failed) nomination as vice president in the 1944 convention. But the emerging Cold War totally shattered their friendship and alliance. Wallace fervently opposed the Marshall Plan, while Humphrey strongly supported it. And I think that Humphrey interpreted Wallace in light of the bitter factional fighting in Minnesota’s Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party between Popular Front and anti-Communist forces. 

CL: How, in showing us a hero, did you avoid the “white-savior” narrative?

SF: From the outset of work on this book, I vowed not to fall into the white-savior trope. So I was always looking for the Black (and Jewish) allies and influences on Humphrey. Key among them was Cecil Newman, who founded, published, and edited the Black newspaper in Minneapolis, the Spokesman, and was really Humphrey’s tutor on racism in Minneapolis. And when the book moves forward to the 1948 Democratic convention, I was very attuned to A. Philip Randolph’s campaign for mass Black draft resistance if Harry Truman didn’t desegregate the military. After Humphrey’s speech at the convention led the Democratic Party to fully embrace civil rights for the first time, Humphrey and one of Randolph’s top aides exchanged letters that expressed their understanding that you needed both inside and outside forms of pressure to achieve political change. Humphrey never perceived himself as doing things for Black people (or Jews), but rather doing things with them. 

CL: You say early on that you wanted a full portrait of Minneapolis’s struggles with racism, pinging off the 2020 George Floyd flashpoint. When did you realize how huge the scope would be? You note, “The first Black person recorded in what became Minnesota was a fur trader…” and soon locate Dred Scott at Fort Snelling! That scope covers geographic space as well as time. Did you always know it would be like that?

SF: When I started this book in 2015–with Barack Obama in his second term and marriage equality being declared a Constitutional right–I thought I was filling some important historical and biographical gaps, about both Humphrey and the proto-Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s. I was intent on researching the context of racism and anti-Semitism in Minneapolis during Humphrey’s years there. But when [Donald Trump was elected in 2016] and George Floyd was murdered in May 2020, I realized that I was writing current events. The parallels between the struggles that Humphrey was involved in—whether to reform a bigoted, abusive police force or more generally to advocate for inclusive democracy against right-wing extremists like Gerald L.K. Smith–were almost eerie to comprehend. But, as an author, I also appreciated that my book might have a lot more present-day relevance than I’d initially assumed. 

CL: You show Humphrey learning how to use political means to try to address racism/anti-Semitism. He acted as what we would today call an ally/accomplice. And you name points on the journey from South Dakota to Minneapolis to Jim Crow Louisiana and back again. What’s your story, of learning you had to be an ally/accomplice? Or did you think of yourself as neither, just a super-accurate observer?

SF: I grew up in Central Jersey in a very politically minded, leftie household. My father and his entire family had lived in an anarchist community in Stelton, NJ, and though he went on to become a successful capitalist–as a machinist, inventor of microbiology machinery, and ultimately founder of a biotech company – e was firmly a man of the Left. My mother was less overtly political but was very formed by having rejected her parents’ Orthodox Judaism. The harshest insult in my father’s lexicon would be to say to me, “You’re so bourgeois.” In any case, the dinner conversations of my youth were often about the Civil Rights Movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. My parents were both Gene McCarthy supporters in 1968, though they were sane and practical enough to vote for Humphrey against [Richard] Nixon that November. So my entire career as a non-fiction author has been very much inspired by the political milieu of my family and by the belief that one’s work should contribute something positive to society.

CL: Speaking of which, can a writer be an ally, or even an accomplice (joining struggles outright, against our own privilege)? I’m guessing your answer is about reporting, and about listening– the latter word also used in today’s ally/accomplice discussions. What do you tell writers who ask you how to best explore these questions?

SF:I definitely believe a writer can be an ally. But the writing can only be credible if it also looks with intellectual honesty even at social and political movements a writer supports or endorses. You can’t be an author and also be writing de facto p.r. 

CL: Do you mean for Bright Sunshine to be an antidote for the helplessness we can easily feel when Silver-Shirts types resurface? What can Humphrey teach us all now?

SF: The battles that Humphrey fought against American fascists/bigots like Gerald L.K. Smith and Strom Thurmond are so instructive for our battles today against Trumpism. Humphrey’s enemies were Christian Nationalists, white supremacists, American Firsters. Sound familiar? The fact that we need to fight these battles anew every generation or two doesn’t mean that Humphrey, Randolph, et al,, failed; it means that victory doesn’t last forever and that progress always provokes backlash. But it’s vital for progressives today to be reminded that we can win, and have won, these battles in the past.

CL: In a book with 2020’s “reckoning” at its center, let’s talk Humphrey and policing.I was especially struck by that 1946 moment when goes against his own police commissioner after Dreamland Cafe. What’s the role of policing in this story? What would Humphrey think of today’s “defund the police” narrative? 

SF: Humphrey saw extremely clearly the bigotry, the abusiveness, and the inbred culture of the Minneapolis police force in the 1940s. Not only did he personally intercede in such cases, but he had the entire police force sent for training in “human relations,” as the term was back then, at the University of Minnesota. The tragedy of his rapid ascent from Minneapolis into the U.S, Senate is that he never fully implemented his police-reform plans, and over the succeeding decades, the powerful police union defied every other attempt at reform. The historian Michael Lansing at Augsburg University has written very compellingly on that point. But Humphrey, in my view, would not have had any truck with defunding the police.

CL: I’m also thinking of his role in prodding Truman to finally desegregate the military, after working with A. Philip Randolph during the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Did he think of the military families he met then, later, when anti-war activists targeted him?.

SF: Humphrey’s support for the Vietnam War was the gravest mistake of his political life, as he ultimately acknowledged. But he was like a lot of other Cold War liberals, including Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Walter Reuther, if I remember correctly, who bought into the “domino theory,” at least initially.

CL: Why are socialists Michael Harrington and Bayard Rustin missing from the book? Harrington, the first editor of this magazine, served on the board of Americans for Democratic Action as a student in 1948 , just as Humphrey was using the anti-communist lefty group to reshape the Democratic National Committee, and he later worked with Humphrey on the War on Poverty. Humphrey thanks him in The Education of a Public Man, along with Bayard Rustin. 

SF: Purely a matter of already being about 30,000 words over my promised length for the manuscript and not being able to squeeze in everything I would have wanted to. 

The post “Into the Bright Sunshine”- Why Hubert Humphrey Speaks to Our Times appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

During our August 27th, 2023, General Meeting, the membership of CT DSA voted unanimously to endorse Abdul Osmanu and Laurie Sweet in the upcoming Democratic primary for the Legislative Council of Hamden. Both incumbents in their offices and DSA members, councilpersons Osmanu and Sweet, have spent the last two years fighting for racial, social, and economic justice for tenants and working people in Hamden and across Connecticut, and we look forward to sending them back for another term in office.

CT DSA endorsed Abdul Osmanu in 2021 as a part of our first Hamden slate of Justin Farmer and himself for Council alongside Mariam Khan for Board of Education (JAM Slate). Since winning the election as the youngest councilman in town history, Abdul has worked to make the Hamden Police accountable to the people and stood alongside tenants and labor unions fighting for fair contracts. 

Laurie Sweet supported our JAM Slate in 2021 while running for the Legislative Council herself. Although not a DSA member nor endorsed for her election, she has worked closely with us and Hamden Tenant Union, an affiliate of Connecticut Tenants Union (CTTU), in the fight to protect and expand tenants’ rights and has since become a DSA member. Laurie traveled to Hartford on several occasions to speak on behalf of her tenant constituents in public comments before legislative committees and has worked closely with Abdul and Justin to push for a town government that is accountable to and empowers the working and renting class.

We are sad to see our long-running elected comrade Justin Farmer retire from the Council this year after four years in office, but we have immense trust in his fellow DSA members in Hamden to carry his mission forward. We congratulate Justin on his long and successful tenure in office and for all his efforts to build the socialist movement in Connecticut. Board of Education member Mariam Khan will not be up for reelection until the next cycle.

We encourage our members, supporters, and allies to get involved in Abdul and Laurie’s campaigns and to vote for them in the September 12th, 2023, Democratic primary. 

Solidarity forever,

Jacey L, co-chair

Jason R, co-chair

CT DSA Steering Committee

LVDSA Office Hours

August 31st @ 7pm

Drop in during our office hours to ask any questions about DSA, our chapter, any of the work we’re doing, or just enjoy some company while you do DSA work. Register here.

Tenant Canvassing

September 2nd @ 9am

We will be going door-to-door informing tenants of their rights to a habitable dwelling unit and how to defend themselves against eviction. Join us and help build tenant power in our city! Register here.

Labor 101

September 3rd @ 3:30pm

Join us this Labor Day weekend for an event to examine the history of the labor movement in the United States and discover ways to show solidarity with unions as numerous labor struggles break out across the country and in our own city. Register here.

Socialist Vibes

September 4th @ 7pm

Join us for a virtual discussion group covering socialists concepts & theories. Stay tuned for more information on the discussion topic. We’d love to hear from you about what topics would interest in you in the future. Drop by and share what you’d like to see from our political education program! Register here.

September General Body Meeting

September 7th @ 7pm

Join us for our September General Body Meeting to hear updates on the chapter, discuss issues relevant to our work, and vote on any chapter business. Register here.

Communities United: A Multicultural Festival

September 9th @ 4pm – 9pm

We will be joining SEIU 1107 and community partners for the Communities United, Raising the Stakes 2023 Multicultural Festival. We will be celebrating all of the different communities throughout Las Vegas and Nevada with performances and food trucks. Communities United is free to attend to and open to everyone! View details.

We have a big weekend coming up. On Saturday, September 2nd we will be tabling all day at Twin Ports Pride Fest. Join us a Bayfront Park. Then Sunday we head to Superior for the Pride Parade, always a favorite. Finally, on Monday we participate in the Cloquet Labor Day Parade. We need more parade marchers! We have a pile of new t-shirts if you want to try one, and we will be distributing stickers on The Minnesota Health Plan. Contact us a dsa.duluth@gmail.com if you want to participate in anything.

Our table at Pride Fest from a few years ago. Chapter member and congressional candidate Skip Sandman has sadly passed away since then.

Strike Ready DSA: An Instrument of Solidarity

By Sean Orr

On August 22, Teamsters ratified their tentative agreement with UPS overwhelmingly– 86.3% yes with over 58% turnout. As their contract struggle recedes (but does not disappear), it is an ideal time to reflect on DSA’s solidarity campaign with these workers and what it has meant for our organization.

UPS Teamsters did not strike, but DSA’s Strike Ready campaign was a success. It strengthened our chapters and their relationships with the labor movement in preparation for upcoming labor struggles. Building support for UPS Teamsters was DSA’s largest national project since Bernie Sanders’s campaign in 2020. It involved chapters across the breadth of DSA in a new kind of political work, and, I would argue, changed much of DSA for the better.

What Strike Ready Looked Like

Launched by the National Labor Commission (NLC), Strike Ready had a single goal: to get DSA, on all levels, ready to provide solidarity to UPS Teamsters as their contract expired on August 1. As the campaign gained momentum, building solidarity with the Big Three auto workers was folded in. Combined, these two struggles raised the potential of over half a million workers on strike. 

To join Strike Ready, chapters had to deliberate and approve a campaign resolution, which included benchmarks and a basic timeline. There was ownership from the beginning, and a level of intention involved that encourages active participation. At the heart of this democratic process was the designation of at least two Solidarity Captains. These comrades were charged with advancing the campaign on a daily basis and getting their chapter strike ready. At a time when the organization was gearing up for a national convention starting August 4, this was no small task. At the time of writing, there are 256 Solidarity Captains carrying out Strike Ready in their local areas. When we talk about cadre, we are talking about our Solidarity Captains. Their dedication, creativity, and energy made this campaign happen. 

Our chapters first focused on internal organizing. A member pledge, signed by over 5,000 comrades, gave Solidarity Captains a tool for having a conversation with paper and lapsed members. Chapters are built through these types of organizing discussions, and Strike Ready enabled this to happen. Chapters also held fundraisers for the Labor Solidarity Fund, a NLC fund to support labor solidarity work by DSA chapters. If DSA was going to be ready to hit the picket lines, we would need financial resources to pull it off. Over $25,000 were raised by our chapters via a variety of creative public activities: picnics, film screenings and benefit concerts to name a few. 

While chapters got Strike Ready, the NLC prepared the rest of DSA to support UPS Teamsters. The National Political Committee (NPC) unanimously endorsed Strike Ready as DSA’s national priority campaign. Comrades in multiple chapters helped the NLC get DSA members in elected office to sign on to a solidarity statement that included clear asks that yield measurable results: demonstrations of public support, holding constituent meetings, and so on. More than 90 DSA members in elected office signed on, including three members of Congress (Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

Once DSA was internally organized, we turned outward. Solidarity Captains got in touch with rank-and-file Teamsters and their locals. They attended meetings and rallies organized by the locals. They joined rank-and-file militants at the gates of UPS hubs for  parking lot meetings. Many of those same militants came to speak at DSA meetings about the contract. Quite a few joined DSA. Some chapters organized community canvasses alongside rank-and-file Teamsters to build public support for the UPS fight. We let the nature of our work surprise us. Around the country, rank-and-file Teamsters learned  that socialists are on their side.

On July 5, talks between the Teamsters and UPS broke down. Over the next two weeks, union locals organized practice picket lines across the country. It was the largest demonstration of strike readiness by a workforce in recent memory. And in dozens of locations, DSA was there. In many cases we were not strangers to the militants leading the action on the ground; they were the ones who invited us. Solidarity Captains brought comrades, picket signs, and bull horns. 

When a tentative agreement was announced on July 25, the same day that negotiations resumed, we–along with UPS rank-and-filers–were caught off guard. We were prepared for a strike. Socialists know that when workers are ready, strike action is always favored. Workers who are ready will win more through a strike, not just in terms of wages or benefits, but in terms of nerves of steel and self-awareness of our strength as workers. 

Teamster negotiators made a decision to accept a deal. DSA’s role in that moment was not to pass judgment on that tentative agreement or to harp on the missed possibilities. We announced our solidarity with the rank-and-file as they determined whether this deal was acceptable or not. Solidarity Captains reached out to their friends at UPS and asked, “What do you and your coworkers think of the TA?” DSA comrades at UPS took to the task of building the rank-and-file movement through the TA and into the coming period. 

What Strike Ready means for DSA

For decades, different formations on the Left have tried to solve the same problem: how do we bridge the divide between the socialist movement and the labor movement? 

Most of us know the history. For nearly a century, the socialist movement in the United States was indistinguishable from the labor movement. The Left and the unions belonged to the same mass movement of workers. They expressed a self-aware class that was conscious of its exploitation and wanted to do something about it. 

Due to a number of factors, the workers’ movement was broken apart after the Second World War, although that was a time of relatively high union density compared to today. The Left collapsed as a mass political force and was mainly confined to academia. 

When there was a mass resurgence of the Left as a result of the Vietnam War, groups like the International Socialists (IS) and the Revolutionary Union (RU) had their comrades “industrialize” by taking jobs in unionized workplaces across the country. Their biggest legacy is the movement for union democracy, embodied still in organizations like Labor Notes and Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). If there is a pulse in the labor movement today, it is because of the work done by these comrades.

Today’s DSA comes out of another resurgence of the Left: a conjuncture beginning with Occupy, carrying through Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, Donald Trump’s election, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s election, and reaching its peak in 2020 with the Bernie Sanders campaign, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the George Floyd uprising.  DSA is now the largest socialist organization in the United States in a century.

At our 2019 convention, we adopted the rank-and-file strategy as our guide to the labor movement. Comrades were encouraged to get unionized jobs, learn from our coworkers, and build DSA among the working class. Quite a few got jobs at UPS and joined the ranks of a militant movement. 

The following year, DSA launched a joint project with the United Electrical Workers (UE) to organize the unorganized, wherever they worked: the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC). We were beginning to do the work that the Left had dreamed about for decades. But we still had a long way to go.

Strike Ready is qualitatively different from past campaigns on the Left. We did not come to workers with a program. We did not come to tell them how to win their fight,  although we never shied away from our enthusiasm for a strike. Our Solidarity Captains learned from the rank-and-file and provided support for their struggle. DSA was directed to expand the UPS workers’ struggle by amplifying their demands and building as large  a movement around the Teamsters as possible. The Left has long tried to get workers to learn from it; this time, the Left wanted to learn from workers.

To put it bluntly: We did not try to have DSA direct the working-class struggle. We let the working class struggle direct DSA. 

Strike Ready put our entire organization at the disposal of workers in struggle. Our chapters, national leadership structures, staff, and elected officials became an instrument for workers to expand their fight against the boss beyond their workplace. For Teamsters and auto workers, we are making solidarity real. We can canvass neighborhoods for them. We can organize solidarity events for them. We can bring community supporters to their actions. We can raise their demands by all means available to us. We can rally our elected officials to back them. 

The Strike Ready campaign is led by the workers directly affected: UPS Teamsters in the first case, auto workers in the second. DSA counts among its ranks dozens of UPS Teamsters and UAW auto workers, and these comrades gave direction to Strike Ready. It is tricky, and it is messy, but there can be no other way if we are to do this right.

The Left in this country has long had a representation fetish. One group after another claimed the mantle of “vanguard” because, they figured, their ideas mattered more than their authority among working people. They see workers in a fight, and they go to them as the self-declared experts ready to lead the way to total victory. 

We should not adopt approaches that have not and cannot work. Leadership is never proclaimed. It is always earned. And among our coworkers, nothing matters more than trust. Trust is earned by putting solidarity into practice, and that is what DSA has done with Strike Ready.

The Strike Ready campaign was a qualitative advance in bringing socialism and labor together,  uniting the greatest number of comrades with the greatest number of workers possible, amid the largest labor fight of the year. Relationships have been formed that can be the foundation for even more solidarity.

Strike Ready opens the possibility for a two-pronged approach to joining the socialist movement  and the working class. On one flank there is the rank-and-file strategy. Comrades with union jobs bring us into the ranks and build a left pole in the unions from the bottom up. It will make our unions stronger, more militant and more democratic. At another flank is the “DSA as an instrument” strategy. Our chapters are ready to support and expand any labor struggle that they can. We have the tools, the skill, and the dedication. Let each chapter of DSA serve as a House of Solidarity. There is no ambivalence when it comes to where we stand with workers in struggle. We will not tell them which direction to vote on the agreement they will have to work under, and we will not promise them a predetermined path to the promised land. But we will jump into the trench next to them and let them know, “You are not alone in this fight, and we will be here by your side until victory is won.”

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