The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) takes more criticism than almost any group on the U.S. left. People likewise criticize those who join the DSA.
They criticize the DSA for good and bad reasons. It’s had several prominent sexual harassment and assault scandals, including coverups from Los Angeles to Lawrence. Progress against harassment remains uneven, but the DSA did pass a new policy and grievance process. Misogyny remains an issue. Others criticize the DSA for its lack of diversity. My impression is that the DSA doesn’t have enough black members and members without a college degree. But it fares much better among Asian, Latinx, LGBTQ, and non-binary people. I also suspect the DSA has very few middle income people – for better or for worse. It seems to draw its members from extremes – low income, precariat workers and wealthier people.
I’m afraid criticism of the DSA quickly goes downhill from there. Plenty of Twitter-based leftists hate the group. They’re likely worried they might have to organize rather than grandstand if they join the DSA. It simply doesn’t fit their vision of ‘politics by voguing.’ Others find the DSA at odds with their brand of leftist politics. And the DSA is also enmeshed within a broader dispute over the role of identity politics and identitarianism. These remain difficult issues, and sometimes DSA people shove their foot in their mouth on it.
But back to the main topic: why you should join the DSA. Most of you should. Not all of you. Some of you can’t get past its problems. And that’s fine. But for most of you, the benefits greatly outweigh the problems.
DSA History and Ideology
I won’t spend too much time giving a history lesson. The DSA emerged from the wreckage of the Socialist Party of America in the early 1980s. It did so together with the New American Movement. Ideologically, it stood somewhere near the center of the old SPA. Members at the left of the SPA joined various anarchist or communist groups. And the SPA’s right wing moved to the Social Democrats, USA or even to the Democratic or Republican Party. The DSA combined the New Left of the 1960s with the attempts of Michael Harrington and others to push the Democratic Party to the left.
In truth, the DSA floundered for many years. It didn’t push the Democrats much of anywhere. Nor did it build more than a few thousand members in its first 2+ decades. It appeared to have little in the way of infrastructure or sustained campaigns. Ideologically, it often stood out as one of the worst socialist groups in the U.S. The DSA repeatedly did things like endorse John Kerry.
In good news, the DSA has improved on all these fronts since 2015. Often exponentially so. And it did so as it grew its member base. That’s impressive. It now offers a diverse array of internal caucuses, some of them as ideologically solid as other leftist groups.
DSA, Diversity, and Misogyny
People commonly criticize the DSA for its lack of diversity. Does the DSA lack diversity?
In some respects, yes, and in other respects, no. ‘Diversity’ is contested space. In fact, we have many diversities. We can talk about diversity in terms of gender, race, sexual orientation, ideology, age, disability, and many other axes. I think the DSA has a lot of diversity on some of these and very little on others. In this, it resembles the Bernie Sanders coalition.
As many point out, the org has a lot of cisgender men. I also think the org has a lot of non-binary and trans people. If we’re talking about gender, I think cisgender men, non-binary people, and trans people make up a large part of the org compared to their numbers in the general population. In the case of non-binary and trans people, that’s a good thing. And in the case of cisgender men, it’s a bad thing. So, who’s missing from the DSA? Cisgender women. Especially non-white cisgender women.
I think the lack of cisgender women enters into a feedback loop with misogyny. Including more women – cisgender and transgender alike – will help stamp out harassment. Furthermore, the new policies and grievance processes show the DSA takes these issues more seriously than many other political groups. Including, of course, the Democratic Party. But also including more than a few ‘rival’ leftist groups.
The DSA’s Role
The DSA already plays a few roles in U.S. politics. Mostly, I’d argue, it plays the role of primary advocate for social democracy on the political stage. But there are more roles it could play with more members.
One great advantage the DSA holds over, for example, the Green Party is that the DSA is not a political party. And so, it’s difficult for the DSA to run candidates for office. Far from a negative, this is a great benefit. It forces the DSA to work on practical, base-building campaigns aimed at building working class power. It doesn’t waste as much time on electoral campaigns.
Organizing For Popular Power
What can the DSA do? First, it can create power in ways that go beyond groups like the Justice Democrats or Iowa CCI. How? By educating and organizing. These other groups use the language of ‘organizing.’ But they function primarily as electoral mobilization groups. To use Jane McAlevey’s distinction.
The DSA also offers advantages over groups like Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Campaign, et al. Advocacy groups like these are even further disconnected from organizing work. These groups do perfectly fine work. But they can’t function as a central node of leftist organizing. That’s just not what they do. The DSA can do it.
Second, the DSA can effectively organize on a wide range of issues. It can go from housing to labor to political education. It can do so on the strength of its mass membership model and potential to build even more members. People who join the DSA will only add to this strength.
DSA locals can start unions, encourage their members to organize at the job site, and offer resources and support. They can organize tenants, start tenants unions, push housing policy, et al. The DSA also has the resources and numbers to put together educational programs for members and the public.
Third – and deeply related to the first two – it can function as a party surrogate. This has long been a goal of much of the socialist left. The DSA is not a political party, and so there’s little worry about it directly functioning as an electoral group. But it has the resources to function like a political party in some ways. It can educate its members, support their campaigns, and provide a central node for socialist politics.
Join the DSA
I’d invite most leftists to join the DSA. Yes, it has ideological problems and other problems. It leans too heavily on national electoral campaigns to build members. Some of its chapters suck. In some ways, it’s still not one of better U.S. leftist groups in terms of ideology.
But the DSA has many things other U.S. leftist groups lack. We can start with a base of 70,000 members – many of them eager to do something. I know people who refuse to join the DSA on ideological grounds. And while I respect many of those people – sometimes more than any other leftists I know – most of them aren’t getting anything done outside of the DSA.
The U.S. desperately needs the things the DSA can do. It needs a mass member based socialist group. And no other group comes close to filling that role.
Give the DSA a shot.
