by We need to collect 250 signatures from DSA members by July 15 to bring the following DSA Platform amendments to the floor of the DSA National Convention. Add your signature here.
In our view, these amendments are needed to overcome some of the weaknesses of the much-improved second draft of the DSA Platform. Our amendments concern:
1) The need for a democratic, socialist rupture with capitalism
2) While fighting for every possible democratic reform within the existing US government, our horizon is for a new, socialist, democratic system based on institutions of popular power
3) The importance of democracy and transparency in working class movements and organizations
You can find the second draft for a DSA Platform and more information here.
In a little bit more detail, here is our reasoning for each of the platform amendments:
1) The draft platform does not mention any need for a democratic socialist rupture with capitalism, the power of the capitalist class and its state. We are a big tent organization–and we do appreciate that. However, it seems that the need for such a fundamental transformation of society is widely shared in DSA.
2) The draft frontloads democracy (in the order of the planks), but only in the framework of a capitalist state. It should include the idea of workers’ democracy (workplace and neighborhood assemblies, workers’ councils or an equivalent term, direct democracy) to raise the horizon beyond the current framework that treats politics only in parliamentary terms of the existing legal (capitalist) democratic system.
3) Fighting for democracy is not just an “external” problem (external = in the capitalist state, congress, party system), but a significant question of the workers’ movement including our own organizations (DSA, labor, …). The platform should include the idea of accountability, highlighting the danger of elected socialists using their prestige and positions to derail more radical struggles, and pointing to what leaders and bureaucracies have done to workers’ organizations historically and the need to fight for fuller democratic checks on movement leaders.
Again, please sign onto these proposed amendments to the draft DSA Platform here.
We’re looking forward to a great discussion at our DSA National Convention on the Platform.
Stephan is an elected delegate from Seattle DSA to the National Convention. He’s a co-convener of the Seattle DSA District 2 group and a member of the Reform & Revolution caucus in DSA.
