by Spotlighting spoken contributions by R&R members and recruits at the 2024 YDSA Convention
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The 2024 YDSA Convention period was an exciting time to be a member. Issues such as the presidential election, ecosocialism and internationalism were debated with broad participation from the delegates at a high political level. Reform & Revolution submitted many resolutions and amendments for the YDSA Convention while also running a candidate for the National Coordinating Committee. Every resolution submitted by R&R was passed by the delegates, and R&R member Daniel Salup-Cid was elected to the NCC.
This would not have been possible without the R&R members and recruits who attended the YDSA Convention and worked together to productively contribute to the debates. Below are the discussion contributions they prepared and read out during the YDSA Convention, as well as brief descriptions of the resolutions being discussed with final vote percentages.
NCC Candidate Statement
This candidate statement was given by Daniel Salup-Cid during the YDSA Convention. Read his full YDSA platform here.
More than anything else, I am proud to call YDSA my political home. When I became a student at FIU and joined my YDSA chapter, we hit the ground running. I was able to join my comrades in an effort to end our university’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza, and I was architect of our class-struggle intervention into student government; I helped build strong coalitions with unions and student organizations to organize walkouts against our far-right Governor Ron DeSantis and his attacks on queer rights.
I was born and raised in Miami, and I can tell you firsthand that my hometown can be difficult terrain for socialists to organize in. But I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in a revolutionary Marxist tradition that has given me a reason to keep struggling for a better world.
From South Florida to the rest of the country, YDSA is leading the charge in fights for Palestinian solidarity, labor, the struggle for trans and abortion rights. We can be the spark that lights the socialist movement – a beacon in a world that feels so dark. Capitalism has done everything in its power to make us feel powerless and disposable. I am Chilean, the murder of Salavador Allende by reactionaries cast a shadow on the future – it still does. But look at us all in this call; together, we can do so much more than we’ve been led to believe. Collectively, the international working class can transform the world on socialist foundations.
To accomplish this, we need a socialist party. Only a party – the fighting, democratic organ of the working class – can give us the tools to meet every act of political repression blow-for-blow. Only a party can create socialist institutions which are part of people’s daily lives, reminding them of the solidarity they share. Only a party can stop the far-right from crushing us all, empowering us to change history rather than repeat it.
On the NCC, I intend to do everything in my power to help build this. By empowering chapters to run class-struggle campaigns for student government. By making YDSA a political home for all left-wing young people, not just college students. By committing ourselves to radical anti-imperialism and independence from the two capitalist parties. These are the concrete steps that bring us closer to being the youth wing of a socialist party!
R2: Bringing Class-Struggle to Student Government
This resolution was written by R&R member and NCC candidate Daniel Salup-Cid. It recharters the dormant Electoral Committee for the purpose of giving direct support to YDSA chapters running candidates for student government. Results: 75% yes, 25% no.
Leadoff by Daniel Salup-Cid
Two years ago, my chapter decided to run a candidate for FIU’s Student Government to see if we could use this usually do-nothing institution to advance our socialist project on campus. When my chapter ran me in 2023, it was at the height of FL Governor DeSantis’s crackdowns on bodily autonomy, trans rights, and academic freedom; so we ran an openly socialist campaign which attacked the state government and our own administration for being complicit in these attacks. After Israel began its genocide in Gaza, we introduced a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment, which allowed us to cohere the pro-Palestinian organizations on campus to pack Senate meetings and get over 600 students to sign a petition in support. The university president and Board of Trustees sent out emails to the whole university and went on local TV news to denounce our resolution, but that only grew the movement more.
In the end, our conservative-majority student government voted against our resolution despite overwhelming student support. But was this the end of our movement? No! We put up fliers around campus naming and shaming the Senators who voted no, elected 5 YDSA-endorsed candidates in the following election, and formed a long-term coalition for Palestine, including YDSA, SJP, and other Muslim, immigrant, and LGBTQ organizations.
FIU is hardly the only university to agitate around student government in this way. Chapters are already making forées into student government, like Furman University, Brown University, and the University of Oregon. While Student Governments may vary from campus to campus, the common denominator we can find here is clear: by putting forth a strong, class struggle campaigning approach Student Government can be a solid avenue for chapters to popularize their already existing campaigns, and fight the class war along multiple fronts, using student government as a site for agitation and amplification in service of our socialist projects. We also know that Student Government, just like any government, will be filled with pressure to moderate our politics, from other Senators, from administration, from donors, and even from the state government. We need to prepare chapters to run these campaigns and deal with the pushback.
Resolution 2 will recharter the Electoral Committee which will conduct mass outreach and individual meetings with chapters to discuss possible interventions in Student Government. The committee will be responsible for developing training, resources, and offering hands-on strategic advice to chapters. After the period of initial outreach, the committee will develop a Student Government Resource Package for chapters to use, with guidelines, graphic design templates, and strategies from successful campaigns.
I encourage everyone on this call to vote YES on Resolution 2, so that we can empower chapters to run fighting campaigns for Palestine solidarity, support for campus labor, academic freedom, and an end to the privatization of education.
Stack by Nelson Calles
The ceasefire resolution that my comrades at Florida International University fought for in student government serves as a test run for this resolution. In universities where we see low levels of class consciousness and organization – whether it’s unions or YDSA chapters – we need to meet students where they’re at.
The youth of the Deep South care deeply about important demands like divestment from genocide and fighting undemocratic repression from the far-right. In our unique conditions, we have to use every tool at our disposal to develop YDSA’s fighting power and leverage, and to become good leaders for a free Palestine, trans rights and genuine democracy on campus.
By running class-struggle electoral campaigns for student government, we can develop socialist cadre candidates, introduce our friends and peers to the leadership and organization of YDSA, and challenge conservative university administrations as well as the careerist student representatives who collaborate with them. Using student government as a platform for socialist politics allows us to accomplish these goals.
In my university, progressive candidates have been unable to fight the dominant, right-wing party that currently runs our student government association. But our student government has the power to do so much more for students in need. With the support of experienced comrades, I believe my YDSA chapter could begin to fight back and be a voice for frustrated students on campus. This is exactly what the resolution calls for.
By pushing a socialist program in student government – fighting for a ceasefire and divestment, trans and abortion rights, academic freedom, student housing, and supporting our unions, – we give our classmates something concrete to participate in. Struggling for democracy on campus develops their commitment to YDSA and the socialist movement.
Comrades, I urge you to vote YES on Resolution 2. By chartering an Electoral Committee as this resolution, we can support chapters with the potential for running class-struggle elections such as my own, while building upon solid mass campaigns. We can develop the skills of our lifelong socialist organizers and introduce our campuses to a new worldview – one that breaks with settling for less and prioritizes the students.
Amendment to R16: Ecosocialism Beyond the Green New Deal
This amendment was written by R&R members Judith Chavarria and Joselyn Peña. It improves upon the original resolution by framing the Green New Deal as a contested battleground from which to argue for degrowth and revolutionary ecosocialism, rather than abandoning the fight for reforms like it entirely. Read this article which motivates the amendment in The Activist. Results: 67% yes, 33% no.
Leadoff by Joselyn Peña
Both the authors of the resolution and the amendment agree that degrowth is necessary to combat the climate crisis. The urgency of fighting for degrowth is not what’s being debated today; what is being debated is the role that socialists can play in the current environmental movement, and how we can channel it with an independent program to fight for revolutionary ecosocialism.
It’s important to put the Green New Deal in perspective. While remaining within the framework of capitalism, the demands contained within it weren’t any old, tired reforms. With a transition to 100% renewable, zero-emission energy sources, a just transition to millions of green union jobs, sustainable agriculture, public transportation, and even broader human needs like food security and universal healthcare, the GND challenged climate austerity and became something the environmental movement could rally around.
Capitalism is an undemocratic system, rotten to its very core. The opposition it posed to the GND is not surprising, and we have to be clear about the need for revolutionary ecosocialism to overcome this. But support for the GND wasn’t just support for a document or set of policies, it was support for engagement with the real world. It’s not enough to pose a radical alternative to popular reforms, we have to fight alongside people while trying to show in practice why only a socialist transformation of society can fully address the ecological crisis. We must expand on that positive vision, not reject it. If we pass this resolution unamended, then by next year we may put out some tweets and create a few materials, but we won’t have begun fulfilling our responsibility to convince people of degrowth and revolutionary ecosocialism.
DSA has a difficult relationship with the Green New Deal. It never really embraced the potential for a radical movement, and moderate liberal forces have attempted to co-opt the language of the GND. The best way to oppose this is by preserving its radical beauty with a uniquely socialist approach: not giving up the fight for reforms, but turning these fights into a site of struggle for revolutionary ideas by proving ourselves in action. A YDSA that organizes for the GND with an independent ecosocialist program is better prepared to stand on solid ground, and a world without the GND is one where fighting for degrowth is that much harder.
If we refuse to engage with the environmental movement as it exists, then we’re setting ourselves up for failure. The only way to move beyond reformism and co-optation is to break through them; there is no movement we can create which will avoid these pressures. There will be no moment where people realize degrowth is necessary, only we can make it happen with militant strategies that act to immediately mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.
Comrades, vote YES on this amendment to make our ecosocialism as dynamic as it needs to be to make what seems impossible, possible.
Stack by Sofia Baker
I’m stacking in favor of this amendment because it gives us the best shot at winning people to degrowth and ecosocialism. By expanding on the base resolution, it strengthens our approach to the ecological crisis and commits us to doing what it takes to build our movement.
Between seeing Florida hurricanes grow stronger every year and my experiences fighting for the rights of farm laborers, I know how severe things have already gotten as the ecological crisis continues to grow. Degrowth is necessary to address this, but socialists need a way to give it solid ground. We can’t abandon the battle for strong reforms like the Green New Deal if we want to show people that it’s possible and necessary to change our destructive course.
The amendment sets the principles of ecosocialism in motion by calling on the IC-YLC or its replacement to facilitate international discussions with other youth sections about building solidarity and strategies for confronting attacks on the environment. This emphasizes the connection between imperialism and environmental destruction, while taking steps to address it with comrades across borders.
This amendment also urges YDSA to be forward facing with degrowth and ecosocialism in our messaging, aiming to connect our campaigns to the fight against the environmental crisis whenever possible. As we carry on the struggle for labor, we also have to address the climate crisis which puts working people in harm’s way; as we fight against imperialism, we have to acknowledge how it exploits the environment; and as we stand up for bodily autonomy, we can’t forget how environmental ‘sacrifice zones’ harm women and communities of color.
The update made to the resolution’s YDSA platform changes commits us not just to meeting human needs but improving the condition of humanity. This emphasizes that an ecosocialist world doesn’t have to come at the cost of people’s quality of life, which is what capitalists push as a narrative to discourage support for degrowth and ecological activism. Without the amendment, we’d be less prepared to defeat this opposition.
Finally, by expanding on the resolution’s list of demands with free, green public transportation and increased care jobs on our campuses, the amendment demonstrates the real connection between the health and safety of the working class and the ways we could begin to undermine environmental waste and growth.
I can’t stress enough how much this amendment improves upon the original resolution. I encourage comrades to vote YES on it.
R18: For a YDSA Program Committee
This resolution was written by R&R members Judith Chavarria and Sarah Milner. It creates a Program Committee which is responsible for researching historic socialist programs and drafting one to be adopted at the 2025 YDSA Convention. Results: 62% yes, 38% no.
Leadoff by Judith Chavarria
This resolution would create a multi-tendency committee which is dedicated to researching historic socialist programs such as the 10-point program of the Black Panthers, as well as drafting a program to be democratically voted on at the 2025 YDSA Convention.
I wrote this resolution because I believe that a good socialist program is the beating heart of socialist politics, and with the right approach it can transform our organization for the better. We have taken great strides over the last year with a powerful socialist message, a campaigning approach to bodily autonomy and Palestine solidarity, and strengthened bonds as comrades. Now we must unite everything we do together – from chapter organizing to national work – under a common set of socialist demands which cohere our movement and show people what we’re fighting for in the clearest possible terms.
With such a program, we’d be better prepared to build our political message from one fighting campaign to the next, rather than having to start from scratch each time; we’d be able to link all of our committees to shared goals, making the most of our organizational infrastructure; and we’d be able to give political direction to chapters which are looking for something to fight for. In short, it’s a core pillar of building a socialist party.
We often talk about having a shared theory of change as YDSA members – even having adopted programmatic unity at last year’s convention – but this has not yet been put into practice. To build YDSA and the socialist movement we should be working together to cohere shared political commitments and increased collaboration, that is: unity in action.
Students and young people across the country should be able to read our program and immediately know what we stand for, the future we fight to realize, how we plan to achieve it, and why they should join us in the struggle. At a time when things seem so hopeless for so many people, we must inspire people by consistently pushing the bounds of what seems possible.
But this won’t be easy to achieve, which is why the resolution calls for a multi-tendency committee to work alongside the members, and for the program this committee drafts to be voted on by delegates at our next convention. By passing this resolution today, we would be giving the YDSA members of tomorrow the best shot at taking our movement further than we ever could.
Comrades, we have no time to waste. If we hope to build a socialist party, then we need strong demands to act as its foundation. If we’re going to learn from the struggles which brought us here, then we must be committed to studying them. If the mass campaigns we run are going to be part of something bigger, then we must be able to show people what we’re actually fighting for. If our aim is to mount the strongest possible offense against capitalism, we need a solid plan to do it. To each and every one of these goals, a socialist program written by YDSA members is the only way forward for us.
For these reasons and more, I ask that you vote “YES” on R18.
R19: For Protest Democracy
This resolution was written by R&R member Judith Chavarria. It commits YDSA to standing for democracy in protest movements through democratic structures, accountable representatives and participatory mass meetings. Results: 86% yes, 14% no.
Leadoff by Eli Knier
After October 7th, YDSA has bravely involved itself at the forefront of many coalitions and protest efforts across the country for a Free Palestine. Despite intense police repression, bureaucratic control over the rights of students, and nonstop media scrutiny, we’ve continued to fight back against those funding and support a genocide. It’s hard to overstate how incredible this is.
But our responsibility isn’t just to begin the struggle, it’s also to finish it. In our Palestine work we have achieved victories on our college campuses in the form of statements condemning the IDF occupation, achieving demands for our universities to disclose and divest, and more. With these experiences in mind, it’s vitally important that we step back and consider the lessons we’ve learned, how these efforts can be strengthened, and what it means to put our socialist principles into practice.
I believe that if we want to build an effective, democratic and fighting movement against genocide, we need protest democracy. It’s only through participatory democracy that the young and radicalizing people who are joining in protests and encampments can feel empowered to commit themselves to the ongoing struggle for liberation. Without direct but-in from the masses themselves, our movements will crumble. Likewise, we need democratic structures that allow socialist ideas to be heard. Mass movements need a democratic space for a revolutionary socialist minority to agitate and become a majority. This can’t happen if democracy isn’t at the forefront of everything we do.
Reflecting on my own experiences in the encampment at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, my YDSA chapter’s early participation helped show why protest democracy was so important. At the time we were a small YDSA chapter, and we had little say in the decisions that were made. We were sidelined by larger student and coalition organizations when starting our student encampment, and this made it hard for us to build a sustainable movement. It was only after asserting ourselves as YDSA, insisting on our socialist politics, actively working within the encampment, and making strong connections with the community that we began to gain a voice. As YDSA chapters across the country attempt to lead, students need to know that now more than ever, they can be part of the political process.
With these experiences we learned indispensable lessons on how to approach coalition work in the future, as well as ways we could turn encampments into sites of mass democracy. There’s no getting around it – without democracy, there is no movement. Only a mass democratic structure that is accountable to the participants can build collective power. I think Fred Hampton said it best: “The people have to have the power – it belongs to the people.”
This means elected, accountable leadership and voting representatives from all participating organizations, and that is exactly what the resolution is bringing forward. Arming our comrades everywhere with the tools, structures and knowledge they need to further the struggle against imperialism is critical. Additionally, in movement coalitions we can then put forward demands and goals that target imperialism and capitalism, reflecting the needs of the movement and the democratic will of participants. Without democratic structures, and without socialists participating in them with an independent program, mass movements won’t be able to commit to long term demands or strategies. This is what makes a socialist approach so special – together, history can be ours to make.
Comrades, join me in voting YES on this resolution and help strengthen the amazing anti-imperialist work we have and will continue to do.
R20: Building the Socialist Movement Through YDSA
This resolution was written by Judith Chavarria and Daniel Salup-Cid. It affirms a member-run, campaigning approach as the best way to grow YDSA and as what should be prioritized in the DSA budget, while also committing the NCC to advocating for an in-person 2025 YDSA Convention. Results: 68% yes, 32% no.
Leadoff by Daniel Salup-Cid
This resolution was written for two reasons. First, because YDSA is the fastest growing and most vibrant section of DSA. And second, because YDSA is fully a part of DSA. So when our budget got cut earlier this year, preventing us from having an in-person YDSA Convention and harming our long term organizing, it didn’t just hurt YDSA – it hurt all of DSA.
I believe that budget decisions are not just financial decisions, but political decisions too. How we allocate our money, what we choose to prioritize, what we choose to cut – those are all deeply political choices that members deserve to have input on.
We’re a member-run organization. From chapters to national, people are doing their best to build our socialist project and collectively decide on its future. Time and time again, we’ve seen that empowering the members is the best way to strengthen YDSA. Our dues are how we keep ourselves solvent, but they have to be used to continue building the socialist movement. And so our budget really only works if DSA makes itself an inspiring political home for young, radicalizing people to join.
This is why it was such a mistake for the DSA National Political Committee to cut YDSA’s budget. Politically and financially, YDSA is bringing through lifelong socialist leaders and committed members who will build DSA not just for the next few months, but for the years and decades to come. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m sure everyone on this call will go on to be an amazing socialist organizer, and that needs to be fully supported and fully funded.
As a part of DSA, it’s our job to do what’s best for DSA. And right now, what’s best for DSA is YDSA standing up for itself. We’re holding our convention over Zoom, and we don’t know the next time we’ll be able to meet again in-person. It breaks my heart to know that the experience of getting to see so many socialists in front of you is one that many of us won’t get to have this year. But we know what YDSA has to offer DSA. Our powerful campaigning approach, our orientation to young, radicalizing layers of society, our partyist vision for DSA, our amazing mass work for Palestine, principled labor and trans rights organizing – all of these things point to how investing in YDSA is investing in the long term health and development of DSA. We can’t afford to let that go.
It was a mistake to cut YDSA’s budget so harshly. To cut our in-person convention, to get rid of our full time staffer, and to cut NCC support – all of this hurts our organizing and weakens the socialist movement. It hurt our ability to help DSA, and it disempowered the members.
So with this resolution let’s present a united voice from YDSA: we are ready to help DSA, we are ready to fight for DSA, we are ready to grow DSA, and if the NPC will invest in us, we will repay that trust and investment with the continued success of YDSA’s organizing.
Comrades, I ask that you vote YES on this resolution for a powerful, member-run YDSA.
R22: Class-Struggle Internationalism
This resolution was written by members of Bread & Roses, with an amendment having been written by Daniel Salup-Cid, Judith Chavarria, and Sarah Milner which was accepted as friendly. It affirms that socialist internationalism must go beyond diplomacy by building strong relationships with youth sections across the globe, while also criticizing federal DSA representatives for voting to expand NATO. Results: 49% yes, 51% no.
Stack by Eli Castellano
As members of YDSA, we must stand in solidarity with the workers of the world and continue to expand our knowledge, engagement, and understanding of international politics. Just like most of you listening, I am not an expert; I’m a developing socialist and I’m speaking as someone who deeply values the international socialist movement.
My university is located in Miami, Florida, its majority Hispanic and Latino, and many of the members of my chapter, and people we are trying to win over have families that come from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. We have come under attack several times from right-wing student groups, far-right Cuban exile politicians, and even a state representative for our openly socialist, anti-imperialist politics.
My chapters’ task is to convince our peers, many of whom have been exposed to anti-communist rhetoric their whole lives, to identify as socialists and support an end to the blockade on Cuba, an end to sanctions on Venezuela, and abolishing NATO. A lot of these students have both legitimate criticisms of these governments and also criticisms based in propaganda that they need to unlearn. So I must ask, what approach best suits us to win them over?
This resolution argues that our support should be for the international working class, and that we should be willing to hear both support and criticism for socialist movements and governments. This would prepare me and my chapter to have a fuller perspective on international politics and be able to state an honest, well-developed position. But if we view our solidarity as needing to be directed towards states and parties in a completely uncritical way, that forces me to disregard the perspective of so many winnable students and workers at my university, rather than being able to honestly struggle with them.
Some comrades may dismiss a critical analysis as being “purity politics,” but I disagree. I think that the critical perspective outlined in this resolution prepares us for concrete organizing against imperialism. It’s not acceptable for us to hide our anti-imperialist politics when it’s politically inconvenient, nor is it acceptable for us to alienate ourselves from the masses. We need a radical position which we can defend in public.
We must stand in solidarity with the international working class and learn from these global movements. Voting in support of Class-Struggle Internationalism will better every one of us as organizers and strengthen our movement as a whole.
Daniel Salup-Cid
Daniel Salup-Cid (he/him) is a member of the YDSA chapter at Florida International University and DSA’s Reform & Revolution Caucus. He also sits on YDSA’s National Coordinating Committee as an At-Large member.
Nelson Calles
Nelson Calles (he/they) is an internal organizer at University of Florida YDSA, a member of Reform & Revolution, and a member of the editorial board of YDSA's The Activist newsletter.
Joselyn Peña
Joselyn Peña (they/them) is the President of the YDSA chapter at Florida International University and Communications Co-chair for DSA's Reform & Revolution caucus.
Sofia Baker
Sofia Baker (any/all) is co-chair of Rollins College YDSA and an applicant to Reform & Revolution. She is a member of the YDSA National Communications Committee.
Judith Chavarria
Judith Chavarria (they/she) is a Steering Committee member of DSA’s Reform & Revolution caucus. She is a member of Centre County DSA and of DSA’s Democracy Commission.
Eli Knier
Elijah Knier (they/she) is co-chair of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee YDSA and a member of Reform & Revolution’s Youth Committee.
Eli Castellano
Eli Castellano (they/he) is the Communications Chair of YDSA at Florida International University and a member of Miami DSA. They are also an applicant to Reform & Revolution.
