by Sign the open letter to reinstate DSA’s BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group
We, Reform & Revolution, a Marxist caucus in DSA, have signed onto the open letter “For An Internationalist DSA.” We agree with and want to highlight these parts of the statement:
“We demand the NPC reinstate BDS WG with its previous leadership, and lift the ban on national leadership placed on them.
We demand the NPC affirm the right of lower bodies—including all chapters, working groups, standing committees and caucuses—to publicly criticize higher bodies, up to and including the NPC. Without open criticism, our democracy will wither and die.”
In a 9 to 8 vote, DSA National Political Committee (NPC) members decided recently to take administrative action against the Working Group. It is impossible not to see this in the context of the debates around DSA Congressmember Jamaal Bowman’s vote in favor of $1 billion of military aid to the Israeli state (Iron Dome vote), in addition to his earlier vote for over $3 billion in US aid to Israel.
This is not a minor difference in opinion on how to liberate Palestine or this or that tactical question about BDS. This is a vote in favor of military aid to the Israeli state to carry out brutal repression of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, the siege against Gaza, the racism within Israel, and the ongoing refusal of a right to return for all refugees. This is the key issue we should not lose sight of.
We can only understand this as bureaucratic crackdown on comrades in dissent.
No Accountability of DSA’s Elected Officials
DSA needs to establish a clear, transparent process of open debate and methods for holding elected officials of DSA like Jamaal Bowman accountable to DSA’s democratically agreed platform and policies. Instead, the NPC engaged in backroom discussions with Bowman about his votes to fund US imperialism and the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. The DSA membership was not informed of the full content of these discussions nor the details of what specific concessions the NPC had supposedly gotten Bowman to agree to. The NPC made no effort to engage the general membership in determining a way forward, which is one of our strongest tools DSA has to make sure DSA electeds act in accordance with DSA’s agreed policies on opposing military aid to Israel and other issues, despite the push from many chapters to expel Bowman.
It seems to us that DSA Observer published a fair account on March 20 of the various actions and statements throughout the course of this debate.
We think the NPC missed numerous opportunities to publicly debate Bowman and his actions, which would have helped bring this issue out into the public and possibly into the media, for example, by organizing a townhall and educating people about DSA’s stance on Palestinian liberation. A public town hall that invited Bowman and other DSA Congressmembers to dialogue with DSA activists and Palestinian activists could have gotten some media coverage and helped educate and win over more of the public to DSA’s stance on Palestinian liberation.
Having missed these opportunities, the NPC should have at least stated clearly on behalf of DSA that Bowman’s vote was in substantial disagreement with our principles, such votes in Congress are not compatible with membership in DSA, and that failure to correct them would result in his expulsion (not merely losing our endorsement).
After the NPC failed to draw this line, the BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group, together with many others in DSA, campaigned for the NPC to reverse course. We supported, and still support, this demand.
We sign the appeal “For An Internationalist DSA” in attempt to make this opposition loud and clear.
While opposing the NPC’s political approach on Bowman and other DSA electeds, and their undemocratic disbanding of the BDS Working Group, we do have disagreements with how the BDS Working Group acted. We believe they too often raised things in an unnecessarily unconstructive way.
Twitter is not a good forum to have constructive or clarifying political debates. From what we know, it appears that the BDS Working Group should have been more measured and comradely in their communications. We call on all comrades to refrain from personalized attacks and uncomradely behavior, especially on social media where things are easily misunderstood.
However, it was the responsibility of the NPC, first and foremost, to organize a better debate. They had the knowledge of all the (backroom) discussions and they had the opportunity to bring the political questions out into the open, organize one or more open panel discussions, and allow comrades to listen carefully and participate in the discussions. Unfortunately, none of these steps were taken.
Instead, the NPC on March 18 dissolved the BDS Working group. We can only understand this as an attempt to bureaucratically suppress political dissent within DSA.
There are allegations that the BDS Working Group misrepresented facts, and the NPC demanded that such tweets be taken down. Even if all of those allegations are 100 percent true, they do not justify the actions taken by the NPC which will have a chilling effect on DSA’s culture of internal democracy if they are not reversed.
We are not questioning the right of the NPC to speak on behalf of DSA. The NPC is the leadership body elected by DSA’s highest decision-making body, the national convention. Therefore, the NPC retains the right to act and issue statements on behalf of DSA. But this does not mean that the NPC should shut down working groups, caucuses, or chapters it politically disagrees with. Rather than resorting to bureaucratic or administrative punishments, the socialist movement will grow much stronger if we cultivate an atmosphere where all comrades are encouraged to explore various socialist ideas and strategies in a welcoming and supportive atmosphere. Through debates around disagreements like this about how to hold DSA members in Congress accountable, everyone stands to gain from hearing the various points of view under debate.
One of the central strengths of DSA has been its culture of open debate and democracy, in contrast to the undemocratic and bureaucratic regimes that are all too common in the labor movement and among sectarian organizations. Preserving a culture of open discussion, vigorous debate, and the rights of members, chapters, and working groups to publicly dissent with the NPC, is far more important for DSA and the socialist movement’s future than any organizational “efficiency” that will be gained by shutting down working groups that act irresponsibly at times. In order to educate comrades, chapters, and working groups to act responsibly and constructively, the NPC should lead by example and patiently work to politically convince members.
For An Internationalist and Democratic DSA
We signed onto the appeal “For An Internationalist DSA” in the attempt to make this opposition loud and clear. At the same time, we also want to clarify that we still have differences with some of the comrades leading this opposition about one point the open letter mentions, “the merger of socialism and anti-imperialist movements across the world.”
We agree with standing clearly “against collaboration with the ruling class” (a quote from the open letter), and our priority here in the US is to fight the US ruling class. But we would also add that our opposition to the US ruling class should not lead socialists to be selectively silent about, or in a camp with, any other capitalist class in another part of the world. There are capitalist elites in other countries that are in conflict with the US ruling class, for example, Russia, and while we vigorously oppose our own ruling class here in the US, we think it’s important that the socialist movement take an independent working-class position and not ally itself with ruling classes that are in conflict with the US ruling class.
There are competing visions of how to achieve a democratic socialist society within DSA’s big tent, and we look forward to more interesting, educational debates in DSA as we all work in solidarity together to chart a course ahead. However, a foundational requirement of a healthy big tent organization is that we all stand up for democratic rights, up to and including the right of working groups, chapters, and caucuses to raise their voice to clarify issues and help work out the best way forward for the socialist movement.
