by A Movement on the March — but Serious Challenges Ahead
We are publishing a three-part series reviewing the recent National Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Below is Part One which includes an introductory overview and a review of the new platform the convention adopted. Part Two will address the main political debates on the Democratic Party and on DSA’s international policy. Part Three will assess the strength of DSA’s democracy, analyze its stalled growth so far under Biden, and draw some overall conclusions about the state of DSA.
DSA held a successful National Convention from July 30 to August 8. Running an online convention democratically with 1,240 delegates was no small feat. While at times frustrating and contentious, the convention nevertheless highlighted the huge gains made by the socialist movement in the epicenter of global capitalism.
With 94,000 dues-paying members—organized in 207 chapters, 35 Organizing Committees, and 142 chapters of Young Democratic Socialists of America—DSA’s rapid growth into a semi-mass organization represents a major step forward for the US left.
The convention exemplified the key strengths of DSA. First, the debates at the convention vividly demonstrated DSA’s democratic character. Second, the convention voted to codify DSA’s radical socialist vision in the form of a new platform — a huge advance after decades of retreat from the dreaded “s-word” on the left, and a significant step beyond Bernie Sanders’ limited portrayal of socialism. Third, the convention agenda spoke to DSA’s strength of combining electoral activity with grassroots movement-building.
At the same time, the convention showed that DSA has significant political and organizational weaknesses, as would be expected in an organization that was basically reborn only five years ago. Sharp tensions erupted throughout the convention, pointing to DSA’s instability and the political challenge of uniting its big tent in outward-facing struggles that can activate large numbers of working people, which we explore in Parts Two and Three.
The convention agreed to prioritize national campaigns for a Green New Deal, the PRO Act, voting rights, and Medicare for All. It also adopted strategic resolutions that will deepen DSA’s involvement in elections and the labor, anti-racist, immigrant rights, and housing justice movements.
The convention adopted some measures to better organize DSA and use the enormous energy of its members more effectively. This included providing stipends for members of DSA’s leadership body and matching funds for chapters to open offices and hire local staff, as well as plans for creating state-level organizational structures and more national staff.
Significant political debates took place about DSA’s approach to the Democratic Party and to internationalism. As we will explain in Part Two, in both instances we believe the convention chose the more opportunist course, in the sense of watering down an independent working-class position in order to accommodate more popular ideas in society. This is just a foretaste of the reformist pressures to come if DSA grows into a mass organization. However, the existence of a significant opposition on these issues (43% and 35% in the key votes) also showed the potential for building a strong Marxist wing of DSA.
Given the highly favorable, though complicated, political climate for building the socialist movement currently in the US, DSA is well positioned to develop further. But the challenges on display at the convention are also a warning sign that DSA could run into a crisis, especially if the objective political situation takes a turn for the worse.
Forming a larger layer of experienced activists and sinking roots in the working class will help stabilize DSA. But this is connected with the challenge of DSA charting a political course that avoids the dangers of opportunism on the one hand, and on the other hand self-marginalization (which Marxists call “ultra-leftism”).
Opportunist pressures can take various forms, from being co-opted by the Democratic party to watering down a socialist message to cheerlead the politics that often dominate mass movements these days.
On the other hand, the weakness of the US left and its isolation from the working class results in strong ultra-left impulses in DSA — radical posturing that avoids the challenge of engaging in mass work in a principled way. For example, refusing to participate in capitalist elections out of fear that socialist candidates will eventually be co-opted would cut DSA off from valuable opportunities to popularize transformative policies like the Green New Deal. Instead, DSA needs to develop the political capacity to take advantage of these opportunities while holding elected socialist representatives accountable to DSA’s new platform.
Successfully navigating the twin pitfalls of opportunism and ultra-leftism will require building up strong support for Marxist politics in DSA to ensure that the organization can engage in mass work while doing so in a principled fashion.
Platform Adopted
The most significant decision of the convention was the adoption of a political platform defining what DSA stands for, which had previously been lacking. The platform represents a political step forward for the new socialist movement in the US.
It puts forward a clear vision of socialism as a fundamentally different “social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships.” This contrasts with the most common conception of socialism—promoted by Bernie Sanders and AOC—as being a dramatic expansion of social welfare within a capitalist framework.
Another strength, given the popularity of postmodern ideas on the left, is the platform’s working-class standpoint. It identifies the multiracial working class as the historic agent to overthrow capitalism and emancipate all of humanity. The platform boldly opposes all forms of social oppression (such as racism, sexism, and heterosexism) and links tackling these issues to a socialist program with a clear class foundation.
The platform’s chief shortcoming is the strategy it suggests DSA should use to achieve a socialist transformation of society. While advancing many excellent transformational demands and a clear vision of a new socialist society, it implies these changes can be accomplished by electing a socialist government to carry them out in a step-by-step manner.
Marxists call this a “reformist” strategy. Historical experience demonstrates that a workers’ government needs to take decisive and rapid steps to break the undemocratic power of the capitalist class over the economy, the media, and the state apparatus. Otherwise it gives the ruling the time and tools to crush or tame a workers’ government.
With this in mind, delegates from our caucus, Reform & Revolution, proposed three platform amendments:
- the need for a rupture from capitalism to successfully carry out a socialist transformation of society
- while fighting for every possible democratic reform within the existing US governmental system, DSA’s horizon should be a new democratic system based on institutions of popular power
- the battle for democracy includes a struggle for democracy within working-class movements and organizations.
However, there was not enough support from delegates to include a debate on these amendments in the convention agenda. (36% to 39% of the delegates indicated in a pre-convention survey that they wanted to debate these amendments.)
The section of the platform on international solidarity was weakened by an amendment which shifted it toward a more “campist” position (explained in Part Two). Another area for concern is the section “The Abolition of the Carceral State,” which is closer to a classical anarchist position than a Marxist one in our opinion.
Unfortunately the platform did not receive enough attention or debate in the pre-convention period or at the convention itself. This is symptomatic of the dominant pragmatic mindset in DSA which fails to anchor day-to-day campaigning and organizational tasks in ideological debates about politics and theory. Too often theory and practice are decoupled in DSA.
Going forward the platform can play a very valuable role of uniting DSA members around a common political outlook and educating members about the socialist policies we should fight for. But this will require an active effort by the national leadership, chapters, and working groups to integrate the new platform into discussions and campaigns, while also debating how to strengthen it further.
Our review of the DSA National Convention is being published in three parts this week on ReformAndRevolution.org. Part Two will cover the debates on electoral strategy and internationalism. Part Three will assess DSA’s democracy, analyze its stalled growth so far under Biden, and draw some overall conclusions about the state of DSA.
The authors, Philip Locker and Ramy Khalil, were elected delegates to DSA’s National Convention, and they are members of DSA’s Reform & Revolution caucus. They were central leaders in 15 Now and Kshama Sawant’s initial election and re-election campaigns to Seattle City Council.
