Recently, a debate opened up between two DSA caucuses – Socialist Majority and Bread & Roses – over a few strategic questions. Among other things, it shows an emerging split within the national org’s majority coalition. I don’t want to review the entire debate, especially since I’ve looked at parts of it in other posts. Rather, I want to look at a new part of the debate: the issue of who the DSA should target in its recruiting efforts. Should the DSA try to be a youth movement?
As a start, I’ll note that in some ways, the DSA is already a youth movement. It grew from 2015 to 2020, often rapidly. And it did so in large part on the strength of new members under the age of 30. Nearly everyone who joined was under the age of 40. But is all this the goal of a good recruiting effort? Should DSA keep focusing its efforts on finding new members among young people?
I think the answer is more complicated than the simple “yes” given by the Bread & Roses faction.
