DSA (Budget) Crisis: Downsizing DSA?

Opinion: The NPC left majority needs to organize a political U-turn, not manage DSA’s decline

By Stephan Kimmerle and Ramy Khalil

A rigorous debate has been raging in DSA about how to solve our organization’s budget crisis. This article from Reform & Revolution authors Stephan Kimmerle and Ramy Khalil contributes one perspective to the discussion. A different perspective by R&R authors Ruy Martinez and Judith Chavarria can be found here.

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DSA’s significant budget deficit is the latest expression of an ongoing political crisis in our organization. Despite major opportunities to build the Palestine solidarity movement and for DSA to grow as part of this, the largest socialist organization in the US is actually shrinking. Rather than focusing on how DSA can contribute to this vital struggle, our national work is largely bogged down by inward-looking discussions. 

While DSA chapters and YDSA have played a key role in anti-war organizing, the same unfortunately cannot be said of the national leadership of DSA. This represents a failure not only of the previous moderate national DSA leadership who led us down this path; it is also unfortunately a significant mistake by the new left majority leadership, which has not broken decisively from the old approach which led to the current budget crisis.

DSA’s Financial Troubles

The decline of membership has reached a point where ignoring the growing budget deficit would have been seriously damaging. Action was unavoidable for DSA’s elected leadership – the National Political Committee (NPC). However, the new left majority on the NPC appears, in essence, to accept the decline of DSA as a given, and are therefore downsizing our staff and our ambitions accordingly. We disagree with this assumption. By framing the question in this way, the comrades are missing the opportunities to build DSA and increase DSA’s income that currently exist. 

To the extent that cuts are needed in the short-term, we support reducing the number of staff positions, and instead prioritizing democratic in-person conventions for DSA and in-person YDSA conventions and conferences, stipends for democratically elected positions (for example, stipends for the NPC Steering Committee, YDSA leadership, and Labor Committee Co-Chairs), chapter dues-share, and mailing the Democratic Left to all members. In short, we broadly agree that the proposals made by the left-wing majority of the NPC (Bread & Roses, Red Star, and Marxist Unity Group) were politically better cuts than what the moderate wing of DSA (Groundwork and Socialist Majority) argued for.

The moderate forces, who got DSA into this crisis with their political leadership of DSA before the 2023 National Convention, unfortunately presented the attempt to balance the budget by laying off some staff as an attack on the staff’s union rights. (After this article was finished the NPC and the staff union reached agreement on a compromise of laying off five unit staff).

While we fully support DSA staff being unionized and treated with respect, we fundamentally disagree that a staff union should have a veto over DSA’s democratic decision-making about how to prioritize its budget. A democratic, member-run, socialist organization has every right to prioritize spending on its national conventions and keeping stipends for elected leaders rather than staff (who are unionized but not elected).

This is not “union-busting” as some have claimed; it is a basic expression of DSA’s internal democracy. DSA is not an NGO run by and for staff, but rather a tool to fight democratically for the self-emancipation of the entire working class.

However, the main question should be: How can we mobilize our members and excite people around us to get involved in our campaigns, join DSA, sign up for solidarity dues, and chip in financially? Even if we have to cut expenses back temporarily, how can we empower the membership and develop a new political strategy to build DSA?

The Political Roots of the Crisis

Since Democratic President Biden took office in 2021, DSA has experienced a steady decline in its membership, with a corresponding decline in our financial ability to afford a growing national staff. This decline in membership, and the resulting strains it placed on our budget, was a result of two things. 

First, under Biden there has been a general lull in mass movements and social struggle, as many progressive leaders and DSA members in Congress unfortunately held back from criticizing and clashing with the Democratic leaders in power. Second, DSA’s incoherent response to this new political situation meant its appeal was diminished among the most politically conscious young and working-class people.

DSA’s leadership did not fulfill its responsibility to explicitly offer our organization an analysis of this new situation and a strategy for this new political period. The 2021 and 2023 National Conventions were notable for their failure to seriously discuss the change in the political situation and the new tasks facing DSA, despite the efforts of Reform & Revolution and a few others to warn that this “pragmatic” a-political approach was actually totally impractical.

Until last summer’s National Convention, DSA’s moderate forces (now grouped around Groundwork and the Socialist Majority Caucus) dominated the NPC’s Steering Committee. Under their direction, DSA trailed its elected officials as they became increasingly loyal to the Democratic Party. 

DSA members in Congress voted for bills that blatantly contradict DSA’s politics, including Israeli military funding and a ban on a railroad strike. Unfortunately, DSA leaders resisted clearly speaking out against this and building political pressure on our electeds to change course. DSA’s leadership also lacked imagination about building fighting national campaigns, had a reformist outlook instead of a revolutionary one, and increasingly relied on a staff-driven, NGO-style approach. 

The leading national staff running DSA on a daily basis at that time, such as the National Director Maria Svart, were also aligned with the politics of these moderate forces in DSA.

We disagree with the framing of this debate by both sides of the NPC. If the NPC would mobilize all of DSA to build the Palestine solidarity movement with a high-profile DSA presence politically and organizationally, we could attract thousands of new members and raise significant funds to reduce the budget deficit.

In our view, the 32 to 35 national staff that DSA has had since 2021 have achieved less than should have been possible. The staff have not been very visible in campaigning efforts of DSA nationally, for example, in the Palestine movement (except for the “No Money for Massacres” phone-banks). We do not place the responsibility for this on the rank-and-file staff themselves, who are dedicated hard-working DSA members. Accountability starts at the top – the National Director and the previous and current NPCs who appointed the National Director and accepted how they organized the work of the staff. 

A majority of delegates at the August 2023 Convention elected a new national leadership with a left-wing majority, putting the moderate forces in a minority. Delegates left the convention energized and inspired to build DSA in a new direction. However, in our view, the new NPC needed to act quickly to use this momentum to make bold changes to turn DSA’s decline around. R&R argued that the new NPC should move toward a more party-like electoral strategy, demand electeds be more accountable, and organize public-facing national campaigns like the Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign. 

The new NPC has been more transparent and communicative and has attempted to solve a backlog of problems that had accumulated under the previous leadership. The new left majority also faced vigorous opposition from the moderate minority on the NPC, as well as from the staff leadership who have often politically agreed with the DSA’s moderate wing. However, the fact remains that eight months after the election of this new NPC, one third into the term of the new left majority, there has been no fundamental change in DSA’s direction or policies. 

Once elected, the new NPC majority argued that the staff leadership made change difficult, denied them crucial financial information, and made it hard to lead the organization. But this was entirely foreseeable, given the reports from members of previous NPCs of the staff leadership acting independently from the NPC and being aligned with DSA’s moderate wing. 

In the run-up to the 2023 Convention, Reform & Revolution openly argued that the new NPC needed to appoint a new National Director (who is quite influential because they are responsible for managing the day-to-day work of national staff).  Unfortunately, the other left caucuses (Bread & Roses, Red Star, and Marxist Unity Group) did not do this during their NPC election campaigns. While they all agreed a new National Director was needed, they failed to secure a clear mandate from the Convention for this.

Nevertheless, the NPC is the body empowered to appoint the National Director. Following the Convention, R&R members spoke with leaders of Bread & Roses, Red Star, and Marxist Unity Group, urging them to quickly replace the National Director (Maria Svart), since her political strategy had helped lead DSA into a crisis, despite her best efforts and intentions. 

In the view of the authors of this article, the new left NPC majority made a significant mistake by prevaricating on this question when they had momentum from their recent election. Instead, the National Director and other senior staff were left in place. When Maria resigned on her own terms in January, just as the huge budget crisis was being fully revealed, the left majority on the NPC was left in a far weaker position to respond. 

NPC Failure on Palestine

In October, the political situation changed sharply with the war on Gaza. For the first time since Biden took office a significant, radical movement swept the country. DSA members in Congress were the most prominent public figures in the nation calling for a ceasefire. This presented a crucial opportunity to unite DSA’s national membership in a major outward-facing campaign and to re-claim DSA’s role as an outspoken national opposition to Biden and the Democrats. 

While YDSA and DSA chapters have been heavily involved in Palestinian solidarity and DSA organized the nationwide “No Money for Massacres” phone-banks, the national organization overall failed to fully seize the moment. Despite the hard work of thousands of members, DSA has not had a high enough profile in the Palestine solidarity movement as a distinct organization with its own socialist political message. 

This would have required creating the necessary political tools for chapters and members, and actively campaigning within the organization for chapters to use them to create a visible DSA presence within the movement. 

Basic yet crucial tools for this include producing periodically updated DSA leaflets, picket signs, posters, banners to march with, and political forums organized by the NPC (and the 30+ national staff working under its direction). It would have required national days of action, for example, sit-ins at Congressmembers offices like this one which R&R members helped lead.

Crucially, DSA should organize a major national online town hall on the socialist case for Palestinian liberation with prominent speakers like Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, student encampment leaders from the US and other countries, and labor leaders. This town hall should be used to kick off a mobilization of as many protestors as possible to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. 

DSA should organize a major online town hall on Palestine with Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, student encampment leaders from the US and other countries, and labor leaders, and use the event to mobilize protestors to the Democratic National Convention.

Essential to rapidly responding to this crisis would have been for the NPC to immediately re-organize the work of the national staff to quickly put together these tools and events (along with member leaders). While DSA did take on some of these tasks, such as publishing a basic toolkit with various materials, the national organization did not accomplish any of these larger tasks at scale.

The top political priority of DSA’s national leadership should have been making sure the budget crisis did not obstruct DSA from going all out on Palestine. We believe a dynamic, nationally-led contribution to the Palestine movement could have led to significant growth (in the range of 5,000 to 15,000 new DSA members) and re-activated many inactive members, whose membership dues, in turn, would have reduced the budget deficit.

Reform & Revolution raised many of these ideas in a December 1st statement on DSA’s role in the new movement. In early January, R&R comrades brought a draft resolution for a robust DSA national campaign on Palestine to a number of members of the NPC. Unfortunately, none of this was carried out systematically. Instead, DSA nationally got more and more focused on its internal battles. 

Politicized Financial Appeal

When the full extent of the budget crisis was revealed, the NPC would have been in a far stronger position if it had already been leading DSA as a high-profile campaigning antiwar opposition to Biden and the Democrats. The new left majority on the NPC could have financially appealed to the membership (and the broader left public) to minimize budget cuts and layoffs to make sure the organization had the resources to play the largest role possible at such a crucial time. 

This should have started with the NPC rapidly convening (with the assistance of national staff) an organizing call and political discussion among DSA chapter-leaders to discuss DSA’s role in the Palestine solidarity movement and the national budget crisis. This should have been followed up with a request to every chapter to put the budget crisis on their agenda, with talking points for financial appeals linked to DSA’s crucial role in movements for Palestine solidarity, abortion and trans rights, and fulfilling the Convention’s call to re-imagine DSA as a party-like opposition amid the politicization around the 2024 elections.

DSA leadership also should have reached out to the 200 DSA elected officials across the country. DSA has played a critical role in electing them, and the electeds need to start actively contributing to building DSA. The NPC could have formally asked all DSA elected officials to send an appeal to their supporters asking them to donate to DSA and join DSA. The NPC should also ask each elected official to organize a fundraiser in their district. It would be very informative politically for the NPC to report back to the membership which DSA electeds fulfilled this basic request, and which ones did not.

On the basis of the approach above, the authors believe DSA could have launched an emergency financial appeal to its members and the wider left, with the aim of raising one to two million dollars, in direct donations and crucially more members signing up for Solidarity Dues. 

Unfortunately, political initiatives on this scale were not attempted. Instead, the debate on the NPC focused on the issue of what expenses to cut. While this is a necessary question, focusing the debate narrowly on this rather than the wider political direction of DSA – linked to a bold financial appeal to be able to carry out this vital work – has resulted in a demoralizing discussion for members.

This choice has led to a situation where, unfortunately, it appears the moderate wing of DSA has gained momentum in recent months. The narrow focus of the left NPC majority on cutting staff opened up the space for SMC and Groundwork to be the main force fighting for a more positive solution to the budget crisis through the solidarity dues campaign. 

Although this appeal was not presented in the most inspiring manner (often on the basis of avoiding staff layoffs rather than a more exciting vision of empowering DSA to go all out on Palestine), it showed the potential to increase DSA’s income. The solidarity dues campaign has so far brought in an additional $620,000 in projected dues.

At the end of April SMC reported that the deficit for this year was below the previously agreed target of half a million, which they used to attack the left majority on the NPC for still proposing staff layoffs (although the new deficit number didn’t take into account ongoing expirations of inactive memberships). 

The authors of this article believe some staff layoffs are still necessary to balance the budget, to ensure we have in-person national conventions in 2025, can work to restore the NPC and YDSA leadership stipends (approximately $180,000/year), and mail Democratic Left to the membership (approximately $100,000/year).

Challenges the New NPC Majority Faced

Admittedly, the new majority of the NPC was immediately faced with a mess after its election: a steady decline in membership, a major budget crisis, and strong opposition from the moderate minority on the NPC. While the Convention provided a mandate for change, the three caucuses making up the largest part of the new left majority – while sharing some common criticisms – had limited experience working together and did not enter their term with a unified idea of what to do. 

Further, they inherited a staff apparatus built by the previous moderate leadership that had established a problematic tradition of operating in many ways independently from democratic NPC control. When the new left NPC majority proposed reducing the financial deficit by laying off some staff, they faced an aggressive opposition from staff who denounced this in hyperbolic terms.

NPC members are also overwhelmingly volunteers, not paid, which was exacerbated by the termination of stipends for NPC Steering Committee members in February 2024 due to the budget crisis. NPC members do not have as much time to spend on DSA work in contrast with staff.

Acknowledging these challenges and limitations of the new left majority does not mean that DSA members must accept them as insurmountable. DSA members have a right – and a duty – to expect more, given the profound crisis facing the working class and the possibilities to build the socialist movement. We can be understanding and sympathetic about the difficulties faced by our NPC comrades, but by no means should that hold us back from demanding more. We need an NPC that meets the moment. 

After all, if we hold back from robust debate and criticism out of personal concern for our NPC comrades; if we hold back from clearly pointing to the alternative political strategy needed, we do a disservice to DSA and the working class that desperately needs a growing, powerful, socialist opposition in this country.

Opportunities in 2024

Looking ahead to the rest of 2024 there are a number of key opportunities for DSA, specifically:

1. The Palestine solidarity movement
2. Increased discussions about the 2024 elections, including high-stakes abortion battles, and 
3. Looming labor conflicts

Activists and Marxist caucuses in DSA need to organize from below to urge the left majority on the NPC to take action on all three of these fronts.

While it is necessary to reduce the number of staff at this time, this is a necessary evil, not a virtue. Ultimately, DSA needs more members, more money, and more staff to build the socialist movement. The NPC majority needs to take the lead on serious fundraising in addition to the existing Solidarity Dues drive, and above all, carry out a fundamental political course correction.

Members need to be empowered in a political way through discussions and debates, the production of more flyers, pamphlets, and campaigning initiatives.

The recently established editorial board is an important tool that should facilitate all these tasks by overseeing robust and dynamic publications and social media. A stronger editorial board and mass communications from DSA can help inform and educate our members and spread our message and campaigns to the broader public. For this reason, we believe it was short-sighted for the NPC to cut the funding to mail the print edition of Democratic Left to the membership. The printed newsletter keeps members engaged and connected with DSA, especially less active members.

Regular reports and updates must be provided to the membership. If there is a danger of further cuts, members must be informed with enough advance notice to allow chapters and members to increase fundraising to avoid the cuts, or at least mitigate the impact. Members need to be empowered to make the case to the public to join our campaigns, to join DSA or donate to DSA, and step up our game. That’s what members are here for in the first place. 

DSA needs a national leadership that puts politics at the center of all its work and provides a strong lead that can lift the horizons of our members and supporters. If the NPC takes audacious initiatives that meet the political moment, they could win the political confidence of the membership, solve the budget crisis, and build the kind of fighting socialist organization that the working class so urgently needs.