Time for a Change: For an Accountable NPC, Working for an Independent and Eco-Socialist Workers’ Movement

Support the Reform & Revolution NPC Candidates: Philip Locker and Jesse Dreyer

DSA is the most promising movement for socialist change in the US in decades. However, over the past two years DSA has been in a slow-motion crisis. Without a significant course correction there is a serious risk that this will get even worse. The vote of DSA Congressmembers to ban a railroad strike and Congressmember Bowman’s vote to fund the Israeli military are the most high-profile examples of a larger process where DSA Congressmembers have been less and less representative of DSA and more and more incorporated into the Democratic Party. 

The failure of the majority  of the National Political Committee (NPC) and top executive staff (Socialist Majority Caucus, Green New Deal Slate, and National Director Maria Svart) to seriously address this, along with ongoing dysfunction in the national organization, has contributed to the decline in membership and activity in chapters since Biden assumed office.

We are fighting for a serious change in direction for DSA based on our understanding of revolutionary socialist politics. This includes:

1. Political Independence from the Democratic Party: We need to provide support for DSA electeds to counter the structural pressure they face from the Democratic Party, corporate media, and class-collaborationist union leaders. This includes regular communication and coordination with DSA electeds, as well as openly addressing when our electeds violate core DSA policies.

DSA also needs a much higher public profile, promoted by our electeds, as a clear socialist opposition to liberal and conservative versions of pro-capitalist politics. We will push for taking concrete steps toward a mass working-class party that is independent of the Democratic Party. This does not preclude tactical decisions to run on a Democratic ballot line, but our strategic aim is an independent mass party that can organize the working class to carry out the socialist transformation of society.

2. Unapologetically Follow DSA’s Anti-imperialist Platform: DSA has a duty to fight imperialist parties and politicians here at home while supporting the interests of workers internationally. As NPC members we will be uncompromising voices for anti-imperialism.

  • It is unacceptable for DSA electeds to vote for US military aid to Israel. 
  • We must end DSA’s current policy of de facto silence on the Ukraine war, including ignoring the fact that all our current endorsed Congressmembers are voting to expand NATO and fund the US intervention in the war. 
  • DSA should be actively helping to build a peace movement which clearly opposes the destructive role of US imperialism while also opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

3. For a campaigning DSA rooted in the multiracial working class: DSA needs to have the confidence to read the political situation and decisively take action to fight for working people and bring them into struggle. The NPC needs to give a lead on key campaigns by offering resources for chapters (social media, public events, leaflets, petitions, staff resources, etc.) and use our most prominent representatives to promote priority campaigns. Unity in action will not happen simply because leaders declare it, but we cannot rely on it spontaneously arising from below either. We need an NPC that takes initiative, offers joint campaigns to all chapters, listens to feedback, and moves the organization forward.

Merging DSA with the labor movement needs to be at the center of our strategy. We will push for prioritizing DSA Labor, including supporting new unionizing efforts and reform movements in existing unions via a militant rank-and-file strategy. Within that, socialists have a crucial role to play by making the case for class-struggle unionism as a more effective alternative to business unionism and labor liberalism. While working together with union leaders on points of agreement, our priority is building a rank-and-file base for democratic unions that will fight for the interests of the entire working class.

4. Link our work to a clear socialist horizon: DSA should be the leading voice in US society that explains what socialism is, producing popular agitation and responding in the mass media to right-wing denunciations of socialism. While the Biden administration is organizing bank bailouts, DSA should be unapologetically promoting the nationalization of Wall Street and other major industries to be run under democratic working-class control.

Our vision of socialism includes Medicare for All, free education and childcare, climate justice, guaranteed jobs with living wages, social housing, and ending racism, misogyny, and heterosexism. But, as revolutionary socialists, we believe that securing these gains in a sustainable way will require overthrowing the system of capitalism. This means replacing private ownership of the means of production with democratic social ownership, and the domination of the private market with democratic planning; overcoming the competition between nation-states with international socialist cooperation; and replacing the hierarchy, oppression, and alienation of class society with a social order based on democracy, equality, and solidarity.

5.  For a democratic DSA run by the members, not a staff-driven NGO: We have seen an alarming slide towards a staff-driven NGO model in DSA. Senior staff need to be under the direction of our democratically elected leadership, rather than obstructing NPC decisions. The work of the NPC and national staff needs to be far more transparent and open to membership input. As NPC members we will write regular reports to make the membership aware of key discussions, and we will push for the NPC to actively solicit feedback from chapters. We need stronger structures for membership engagement and decision-making, including strengthening DSA’s media, holding the DSA activist conference, and forming a larger national leadership body that can connect chapters and hold the NPC and senior national staff accountable.

Meet our Candidates:

Philip Locker

He/him, Seattle, @PhilipLocker

“I served as Co-chair of Seattle DSA from 2022 to 2023, and I was also on the chapter’s leadership from 2020 to 2021. I am a member of the Seattle Education Association and have helped build a socialist educator caucus regionally.

As a Seattle DSA leader, I was actively involved in several chapter efforts: getting our chapter energetically and visibly involved in the George Floyd uprising, helping kick the Seattle Police Officers Guild out of the MLK County Labor Council, hiring two part-time DSA staff, raising our local membership dues by 125%, and launching a chapter podcast (Socialist Sound). Recently we have spearheaded a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage in Renton, a city just outside of Seattle. 

I was part of the leadership of 15 Now, a grassroots campaign that played a decisive role in winning the first $15 minimum wage in a major city in 2014. Today, due to the annual inflation adjustment we won, the minimum wage in Seattle is $18.69. 

I was the Political Director of Kshama Sawant’s 2013 and 2015 election campaigns. Sawant’s shocking Seattle City Council victory was a breakthrough for the socialist movement at the time, pioneering a whole wave of socialist electoral campaigns and the resurgence of socialist politics on the Left. 

Since the mid 1990s I’ve been active in the socialist movement in the US and internationally. Before joining DSA in 2018 I was a member of Socialist Alternative (SAlt). I was actively involved in the “Battle of Wisconsin” in 2011 and I am proud of the role that SAlt played in supporting Bernie Sanders in 2015 and 2016. However, following the explosive growth of DSA I increasingly felt that SAlt was adopting a sectarian approach. I joined DSA to be an active part of building a mass socialist organization. At the same time I am convinced that revolutionary socialists need to form an organized wing of DSA to help make sure it operates on a principled basis and avoids reformist or dogmatic pitfalls.”

Check out some of Philip’s articles: 

Jesse Dreyer

He/him, Portland (OR) DSA, @Bolshetrick

“I have been a DSA member since 2020. I have been in Portland DSA leadership since 2021 and am currently serving my second term as chapter Co-Chair. 

I helped build up the Portland DSA Labor Working Group into a national model of industrialization through our socialist job fairs and strike support. Our local DSA Teamster caucus is one of the largest in the country, with over 15 active members currently.

We have helped intervene in dozens of labor struggles in the past three years, putting on hundreds of events in support of Portland workers. Due to our labor work, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals for the last two years has donated $30,000 to our chapter that they would normally donate to the Democratic Party.

I helped lead our solidarity work at the Nabisco strike for BCTGM (Bakers, Confectioners, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers) local 364 workers. This strike drew nationwide attention and was a precursor to “Striketober” in 2021. This positive outward-facing work helped unite our chapter and brought us back together after a difficult, fractious period. I helped organize seven rallies for workers at the job site and brought in several organic workplace leaders from the strike into DSA, where they are active members.

I have also been passionate about struggles against oppression, and participated in the Black Lives Matter protests for over 100 nights. I have also supported our chapters’ efforts in fighting for reproductive justice and trans rights. Socialists have a critical role to play in the fight against all types of oppression, and on the NPC I would support national campaigns that would help DSA support broader movements against oppression as well as build socialist wings of those movements. 

I have been a rank and file activist in the Teamsters for the past 6 years and have previously served as an elected shop steward in local 305 at the Safeway Clackamas Dairy Processing Facility. I have been active in the socialist and labor movements for almost a decade.”

Check out some of Jesse’s articles: