YDSA Convention 2022 R15: For An Independent Working Class Socialist Party

YDSA is holding its national convention from July 22 to 24. Reform & Revolution comrades in YDSA support resolution #15 and consider it a priority. 

You can find all the resolutions put forward to the convention here. R&R comrades in YDSA have also put together this voters guide.  

In the 2020 elections, President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party were elected to office with the support of millions of working-class people, in a clear rejection of the bigoted, discriminatory, anti-worker policies of Donald Trump and the GOP.  While in office, however, the Democrats have failed to accomplish nearly all of their campaign promises: raising the minimum wage to $15, addressing climate change, canceling student debt, codifying abortion rights, and more. As we approach the 2022 Midterm elections, the far-right GOP is enjoying a resurgence while Democrats approach an electoral disaster of their own making.  This is just the latest betrayal by the Democratic Party of its voters, following Barack Obama’s bailout of the big banks during his term and Bill Clinton’s vicious austerity and expansion of the police state during his.

For years, the socialist movement has worked within the Democratic Party, and in the process won dozens of elections and gained tens of thousands of new members. But these actions within the Democratic Party must recognize a fundamental contradiction—a contradiction which will eventually render that cooperation unsustainable. Twice, national DSA conventions have affirmed support for the dirty break, but few concrete actions have been taken towards it. The organization was thrown into crisis by the actions of DSA endorsed Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and a clash which highlighted the essential compromises forced by working within a capitalist party. 

R&R YDSA put forward this resolution because a party cannot represent both the interests of corporations and the interests of workers, as many Democrats claim they do. The Democratic Party is not fit to the task of preserving democracy, protecting the environment, or improving the lives of the working class, and socialists should not expend resources or capacity on trying to reform the party from within. Instead, it is the task of YDSA and DSA to work toward the formation of an independent, mass socialist party through the “dirty break” strategy. DSA candidates should be cadre members of our organization, openly socialist, and willing to agitate against the Democrats. Further, while it may be strategic and acceptable in many instances for socialists to run on the Democratic Party line, we should begin identifying races where socialists can win as independents, like Robin Wonsley-Worlobah on the Minneapolis City Council.

It is true that YDSA does not typically lead on electoral work, and often endorses candidates supported by our main DSA chapters. But we should be clear: YDSA members are full, dues-paying members of DSA and often devote our time and labor to the campaigns of DSA candidates. We are entirely within our rights to express this opinion and to endorse and promote the dirty break to our members. This resolution calls on YDSA to take modest, but concrete steps which can bridge the gap between our current organization and this ambitious goal. It calls on the NOC to measure interest for electoral campaign cohorts, develop a pamphlet on the dirty break, organize quarterly meetings to provide political education on the dirty break, and to propose this issue for discussion by DSA’s National Political Committee. 

Resolution 15:

Sponsor: Wallace Milner, Portland State University 

Co-sponsors: Spencer Mann, Reed College Alex Franzblau, Florida International University Ruy Martinez, Harvard College Antthany Allred, Portland State University 

Whereas, millions of votes were cast for Biden and other Democratic Party candidates in order to oppose Trump, the Republican Party, and their bigoted, discriminatory, and anti-working class politics. 

Whereas, despite this, Biden and the Democratic Party have failed their voters and supporters on all key issues, including the $15 minimum wage, passing the PRO Act, meaningfully addressing climate change, canceling student debt, and many others. 

Whereas, Biden and the Democratic Party will likely face major losses in the upcoming midterm elections, paving the way for the return of the politics of Trumpism and the right-wing Republican Party. 

Whereas, the nation as a whole is facing a dire political situation, and such a reality is cause for a response from DSA and YDSA that is proportional to the severity of the situation. 

Whereas, despite the short term strategic advantage of running candidates within the Democratic Party, it is not enough for us to be satisfied with such an orientation for the indefinite future. The Democratic Party is a fundamentally regressive and capitalist organization, and in order to build a socialist future, an independent, working class, socialist party is necessary, and engaging in the work required to build that party is essential and urgent. 

Whereas, as socialists, we cannot leave it to the Republican Party to be the sole visible opposition to Biden and the failed liberal capitalist politics of the Democratic Party. We need a bold, visible, socialist opposition that is building mass movements to protect reproductive rights, queer and trans rights, workers rights, immigrant rights, and to fight against all forms of racism, sexism, and bigotry. 

Whereas, as the youth section of the largest socialist organization in the United States, it falls upon us to blaze the path forward for the socialist movement, respond to the crisis that we face, carve out a space for explicitly socialist politics in the mainstream, build the power of DSA and YDSA, and prove that a better world is possible for us all. 

Therefore, be it resolved that YDSA calls on DSA’s elected representatives to form a highly visible socialist caucus in the United States House to promote democratic socialist ideas and draw a clear contrast to the failed politics of Biden and moderate Democrats as well as the insufficient, weak approach of the so called “Progressive Caucus” within the Democratic Party. 

Therefore, be it also resolved that YDSA is committed to, within DSA and on the left in general, a bold and transformative “dirty break” approach to elections and electoralism, which is outlined by the following… 

1. Under concrete circumstances, it can still make sense for DSA endorsed candidates to run on the ticket of the Democratic Party and/or in Democratic Party primaries. However, the target of our electoral efforts needs to be to build the independent, working class power necessary to forge an independent, working class, socialist party through class struggle elections and candidates.

2. We expect all DSA endorsed candidates to use their campaigns (and offices should they attain them) to promote mass movements of working-class and oppressed people. We expect such candidates to promote the organization of working-class and oppressed people into labor unions, tenant unions, and community organizations to build the working class’s power. 

3. We expect all DSA endorsed candidates to outwardly and openly identify as socialists, to promote the campaigns, policies, initiatives, and events of DSA and YDSA, and to urge their constituents and the public to join and to organize with DSA and YDSA. We further expect DSA candidates to actively support left wing primary challenges to corporate Democrats. 

4. We expect all DSA endorsed candidates, including those running on the ticket of the Democratic Party, to openly and publicly speak out about the failed politics of the leadership of the Democratic Party as well as the need to build toward an independent, working-class, socialist party that is independent from the Democratic Party. 

5. We call on chapters of DSA and YDSA to identify races where DSA endorsed candidates can and should run as independent socialists. Namely, urban areas with large Democratic majorities where working class politics and third party campaigns have had previous success. 

6. We call on DSA to establish that candidates will be expected to promote DSA by sharing events to their campaign lists when practical to do so, calling themselves a “democratic socialist” or “socialist” and acknowledging their DSA membership during public events and in campaign publications, using their campaign to recruit to DSA, and generally seeking to utilize the campaign to foster growth and participation in the organization. 

7. YDSA members will be encouraged to use these principles to guide their local work when considering who to endorse in local races. 

8. The NOC will create a pamphlet detailing how a “dirty break” approach should function to include in chapter Google Drive materials, including the expectations towards candidates asking for endorsements, along with other information, such as how to identify serious and unserious electoral campaigns. 

9. Once every quarter, the NOC will organize a meeting open to YDSA members and leaders to discuss the history of electoral efforts to build a working class party in the United States and other nations with similarly difficult electoral systems, along with reviewing the dirty break as formulated in this resolution. 

10. The NCC will propose the passage of this item for a discussion in DSA’s NPC meetings at least one time within the next six months after its passage to discuss why YDSA members voted for this policy, and how DSA can help YDSA implement aspects of this resolution where the two intersect.