Democratic Socialists of America

Democratic Socialists of America
Abbreviation	DSA
Governing body	National political committee
National co-chairs	Megan Romer Ashik Siddique
National director	Vacant
Founder	Michael Harrington
Founded	March 20, 1982 (1982-03-20)
Merger of	Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee New American Movement
Headquarters	New York City
Newspaper	Democratic Left Socialist Forum The Activist (youth wing publication)
Youth wing	Young Democratic Socialists of America
Membership (2025)	90,000
Ideology	Democratic socialism Socialism (Multi-tendency)
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
Regional affiliation	São Paulo Forum (associate, since 2023)
International affiliation	Progressive International (since 2023) Socialist International (1982–2017)
Colors	Red
Website
dsausa.org
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest socialist organization, with more than 90,000 members as of November 2025. A multi-tendency "big tent" on the left-wing to far-left of the political spectrum, it is primarily organized around the tenets of democratic socialism. DSA is not a political party, and has a decentralized structure in which local chapters and ideological caucuses have significant autonomy.

DSA was founded in 1982 through the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), led by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington, and the New American Movement (NAM), an organization of New Left veterans. At its founding, it supported grassroots social movements and progressives in the Democratic Party. DSA was a minor political force until the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, after which its membership swelled from about 6,000 members in 2015 to more than 90,000 in 2021. Its median membership age dropped from 68 to 33. These new, young members shifted DSA to the left, away from its historically social democratic leadership and toward democratic socialist and other socialist ideologies. The organization's platform calls for reforms such as a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and free higher education. Its stated goal is to participate in the workers' rights movement with a long-term aim of social ownership of production such as public enterprises, worker cooperatives, or decentralized planning. DSA's foreign policy is non-interventionist, strongly supporting spending cuts to the U.S. military and pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist causes.

DSA, which has a long-term goal of establishing an independent socialist party, engages in electoral politics by endorsing candidates who align with its values, including Democrats, Working Families, Greens, and independents. Notable DSA elected officials include U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In 2025, over 250 DSA members held elected public office across 40 states, with 90% elected after 2019. Some of its members in Congress have initiated various pieces of legislation central to the modern progressive movement in the United States, including the Medicare for All Act in 2003 by John Conyers and the Green New Deal in 2019 by Ocasio-Cortez. Former longtime members of the United States House of Representatives, including Conyers, Ron Dellums, House whip David Bonior, and Major Owens have been affiliated with the DSA.

History

See also: History of the socialist movement in the United States

Origins and founding (1973–1982)

The Democratic Socialists of America was formed in 1982 through the merger of two left-wing organizations: the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM).

Michael Harrington was the first chairman of DSA and its most prominent public figure until his death in 1989.

DSOC was founded in 1973 by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington. Harrington had become a prominent national figure after his book The Other America (1962) helped inspire the war on poverty, and he was a leader of a faction within the Socialist Party of America and later the Socialist Party USA. He had resigned as co-chair of the Socialist Party in 1972 in protest against the party's rightward drift and its stance on the Vietnam War. Growing from a few hundred members to nearly 5,000 in less than a decade, DSOC was a union of Old Left social democrats, trade union leaders, and progressive youth dedicated to working as a left-wing pressure group within the Democratic Party. Harrington envisioned the DSOC as the "left wing of the possible", and its main strategy was "realignment", the idea that socialists could work with labor unions and social movements to push the Democratic Party to the left, drive out its conservative Southern wing, and transform it into a social democratic party. A key project for this strategy was the Democratic Agenda, a DSOC-inspired coalition of labor and liberal activists that challenged the centrist policies of the Jimmy Carter administration from within the party during the late 1970s.

Dorothy Ray Healey, a prominent member of the New American Movement

The New American Movement (NAM) was founded in 1971 by Michael Lerner and other former members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the main campus-based organization of the New Left. Emerging from SDS and the socialist-feminist women's unions of the period, NAM was led by New Left veterans who sought to recover the early SDS's humanistic, revolutionary spirit while rejecting the Maoism and vanguardism that had led to its implosion. In 1974, the organization was bolstered by the entry of Dorothy Ray Healey, a longtime leader of the Communist Party who had broken with the party over its lack of internal democracy and its support for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. NAM developed a socialist feminist and Eurocommunist orientation, emphasizing Gramscian Marxism and building a grassroots presence through local struggles around affordable housing, utility rates, and reproductive rights.

By the early 1980s, both organizations saw a need for unity. DSOC had influential union allies and a foothold in mainstream politics but few young activists. NAM had a more youthful activist base but lacked DSOC's political influence. The merger convention, held in Detroit on March 20–21, 1982, created DSA with a combined membership of 6,000. It was a deliberate effort to heal the rift between the Old Left and the New Left. Harrington took the lead of the new organization, which adopted DSOC's strategy of realignment while incorporating NAM's commitment to socialist feminism and grassroots organizing.

Reagan and Bush years (1982–1989)

In the 1980s, DSA functioned as a home for a diverse group of activists, including democratic Marxists, Fabians, religious socialists, former Communists, and labor Zionists. All were united by opposition to Reaganism. DSA continued the DSOC strategy of working within the Democratic Party to support progressive candidates and policies. It did not endorse Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign, but was part of the Rainbow Coalition that supported his 1988 campaign. A central ambition for Harrington was to build a "conscience constituency" of educated professionals who, he argued, were predisposed to social planning and could become allies of the poor and the labor movement in a new progressive coalition.

Barbara Ehrenreich, a socialist feminist and co-chair of DSA from 1983

DSA's membership and influence during this era extended across academia, the labor movement, and politics. Its intellectual wing included Irving Howe, Michael Walzer, Frances Fox Piven, Richard Rorty, and Iris Marion Young. Cornel West became an honorary chair of DSA and developed his "prophetic pragmatism" in dialogue with the organization's multi-tendency traditions. Barbara Ehrenreich became co-chair with Harrington in 1983. The organization also had influential allies in the labor movement, including AFSCME presidents Jerry Wurf and Victor Gotbaum, UAW president Douglas Fraser, and Machinists president William Winpisinger. Its political reach extended to elected officials like Congressmen John Conyers, Bella Abzug, Ron Dellums, and Robert Kastenmeier; New York mayor David Dinkins; and feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

DSA played a significant role in Central American solidarity activism, opposing the Reagan administration's policies in El Salvador and Nicaragua in solidarity with the Sandinistas and leftist rebels. DSA was also particularly active in the anti-apartheid movement, linking struggles for social justice abroad to those at home. Despite these efforts, DSA's membership remained small, growing to 8,000 by 1983 but never surpassing that number during Harrington's lifetime. Harrington's final book, Socialism: Past and Future (1989), written as he was dying of cancer, served as a "letter to the next left", urging it to adapt socialist values to the newly globalized, post-industrial world.

Through neoliberalism (1990–2015)

2009 DSA convention banner reading "Obama Is No Socialist, But We Are"

After Harrington's death in 1989, DSA struggled for relevance in the 1990s and early 2000s. Gary Dorrien has said the organization struggled "merely to hang on" during this period. With the collapse of Communism in 1989 and the rise of Third Way neoliberalism under President Bill Clinton, the political space for democratic socialism seemed to vanish. The youth wing, the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS), was largely responsible for keeping the organization afloat. In many parts of the country, DSA chapters functioned primarily as study groups for "scattered, stubborn types holding out against the 1990s". But direct-mail campaigns in the early to mid-1990s boosted paper membership to 10,000. Despite its small size, DSA maintained a principled opposition to the Democratic Party's neoliberal turn. In 1995, DSA updated its foundational document, "Where We Stand", placing economic globalization and the power of multinational corporations at the center of its analysis. It called for a humane social order based on democratic planning and market mechanisms and for "economic democracy... from below, through a democratic transformation of the institutions of civil society." DSA participated in the 1999 Seattle WTO protests and moved the organization further to the left.

DSA members marching at an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City, 2011

DSA also initiated key campaigns during this period. In the early 1990s, it made the fight for a single-payer healthcare system a major national priority, sponsoring a multi-city tour by Canadian health advocates to promote the model. It actively campaigned against Clinton's signature policies, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the 1994 crime bill, and the gutting of welfare (AFDC). It also founded the Prison Moratorium Project in 1997 to oppose mass incarceration. In the 2000 presidential election, the organization was divided and took no official position, with prominent members like Cornel West supporting Green Party nominee Ralph Nader while others reluctantly supported Democratic nominee Al Gore. After the 9/11 attacks, DSA actively participated in the anti-war movement against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and developed an "Economic Justice Agenda" that prefigured many of the proposals of the 2016 Sanders campaign. In 2011, longtime YDS leader Maria Svart was hired as National Director. In the wake of movements like Occupy Wall Street in 2011, Fight for $15 in 2012, and Black Lives Matter in 2013, the socialist movement began to gain new steam; by 2012, membership stood at 6,500. In 2014, an internal Left Caucus formed that challenged some of DSA's assumptions and advocated a pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) position, which at the time was difficult to discuss within the organization.

Resurgence (2016–present)

See also: List of Democratic Socialists of America public officeholders

The 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders was a major catalyst for DSA's resurgence.

The 2016 presidential primary campaign of Bernie Sanders was a turning point for DSA. An independent senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist, Sanders brought the term "democratic socialism" into mainstream U.S. politics. DSA, which had been urging Sanders to run, endorsed him in December 2014, becoming one of the only major socialist organizations to do so, and its members became active volunteers in his campaign. The campaign, followed by the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, triggered a massive influx of new, mostly young, members, a phenomenon known as the "Trump bump". The organization grew from 6,500 members in the fall of 2014 to 8,500 by Election Day 2016. The day after Trump's election, 1,000 new members joined. By July 2017, DSA's membership had reached 24,000; by the end of 2018, it was 55,000; and by 2021, it peaked at 94,000 before experiencing a decline. The median age of members dropped from 68 in 2013 to 33 in 2017. The organization was transformed, in the words of one commentator, from a "musty debate club for retired social democrats into an electoral powerhouse of young, ecumenical radicals". At its 2017 national convention, the new membership officially took over, passing proposals to leave the Socialist International, formally endorse the BDS movement, and prioritize a national campaign for Medicare for All.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected in 2018

Rashida Tlaib, elected in 2018

DSA officials in various U.S. city councils, as of 2025

This resurgence was reinforced by electoral victories. In 2017, fifteen DSA members were elected to local and state offices across the country, including Lee J. Carter to the Virginia House of Delegates. In the 2018 midterm elections, DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a primary upset against incumbent Congressman Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district, becoming a national political star. The victory of Ocasio-Cortez, who had been endorsed and supported by DSA, triggered another large influx of members in July 2018. The same year, DSA member Rashida Tlaib won a primary for a congressional seat in Detroit. Both went on to win in the general election, though DSA noted that these were not "home-grown" DSA campaigns in the way that later victories were, such as Julia Salazar's 2018 win in the New York State Senate, the election of a six-member socialist slate to the Chicago City Council in 2019, a five-member slate to the New York State Legislature in 2020, and two members to the New York City Council in 2021. In 2021, a slate of DSA members was elected to Nevada Democratic Party's leadership, though some party staff resigned in protest, and a more moderate "unity" slate was elected to replace them in 2023. As of August 2025, over 250 DSA members held public office, with 90% elected after 2019; that included 96 city councilors and county commissioners and eight mayors or county executives. DSA members made up significant blocs on several major city councils, including seven of 50 seats in Chicago (where they formed an official Democratic Socialist Caucus), four of 12 seats in Portland, Oregon, four of 13 in Minneapolis, and four of 15 in Los Angeles.

DSA flag at a George Floyd protest in Austin, Texas, 2020

This growth transformed the organization's character and strategy. It moved from a system of annual mailed membership checks to monthly recurring payments tied to income, and its nonprofit arm hired communications professionals who had previously worked on mainstream Democratic campaigns. DSA shifted away from the realignment strategy of working within the party establishment, instead adopting an electoral model focused on building its own independent capacity to run openly socialist candidates accountable to DSA's political agenda, often in primaries against incumbent Democrats. This strategy has been described as a "dirty break" aiming to build a "self-standing political force" that could eventually lead to a new labor-socialist party. The 2019 national convention formally endorsed Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign and affirmed the organization's commitment to building an independent, working-class political organization. Consistent with its electoral strategy strategy, DSA did not endorse Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. In 2020, it organized their members to vote and organize against Trump after Sanders lost the Democratic nomination to Joe Biden. The strategy also created conflict with the Democratic establishment; in the 2021 Buffalo mayoral election, DSA-backed primary winner India Walton was defeated in the general election by incumbent Byron Brown, who ran as a write-in candidate and framed his victory as a "rebuke of socialism". The organization made no endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, with its National Political Committee releasing a statement that read, "This choice sucks; join DSA so we can have a good option someday." Many DSA members actively campaigned against Trump and for the Democratic party in 2024, but many were unwilling due to the Democratic Party's stance on Palestine.

DSA's growth was accompanied by internal controversies that reflected its strategic debates, particularly on foreign policy. In 2021, an internal crisis was sparked when Representative Jamaal Bowman, a DSA member, voted to provide funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, a vote which many members saw as a betrayal of the organization's pro-Palestinian stance. After the NPC declined to expel Bowman, its BDS Working Group continued a campaign against him, leading the NPC to de-charter the working group for violating the organization's code of conduct. In the weeks before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, DSA's International Committee (IC) released a statement condemning NATO expansion but not Russia's military buildup, drawing condemnation from other progressives. Although DSA's NPC later released a second statement condemning the invasion, the IC's initial response was criticized as a liability for the organization and its elected officials. DSA organizations later called for Ukraine's national debt to be canceled, supported material aid to Ukraine, and described the invasion as imperialistic, while still calling for demilitarization.

After the October 7 attacks on Israel and the start of the Gaza war in 2023, DSA condemned the violence against all civilians and the subsequent Gaza genocide. In 2024, DSA's National Political Committee withdrew its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez over her support for a House resolution stating that "denying Israel's right to exist is a form of antisemitism"; her local chapter, NYC-DSA, maintained its endorsement. The NPC argued that a national endorsement required a "serious commitment to the movement for Palestine" but the NYC chapter defended its decision, citing a "fruitful partnership" with Ocasio-Cortez on local issues. The dispute continued into 2025, with resolutions submitted for the DSA national convention to formally censure Ocasio-Cortez and review her membership over her vote against cutting funding for Israel's Iron Dome system. In contrast, DSA stood by Representatives Bowman, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib after they adopted strong pro-Palestinian positions. All faced primary challenges in 2024 from centrist Democrats heavily funded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); Bowman lost his primary after AIPAC spent a record $14.5 million against him, and Bush was also defeated. DSA members such as Harrington biographer Maurice Isserman left after 41 years, calling the organization's response to the Gaza War "morally bankrupt." Others have left to form separate pro-Palestine groups, arguing DSA was not progressive enough.

Since its 2021 peak, the organization's membership has declined, dropping to 64,000 by October 2024, leading to a budget crisis and National Director Svart's resignation in January 2024. In January 2025, DSA laid off more staff amid a seven-figure budget shortfall and "ugly internal bickering". At the contentious 2025 national convention in Chicago, delegates passed a resolution called "For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA", which called for the expulsion of members and endorsed elected officials who provide "material support to Israel" or related lobbying groups or make statements such as "Israel has a right to defend itself". An amendment to remove the expulsion clause was defeated, but 40% of delegates opposed the final resolution. The convention also passed a resolution to run a socialist presidential candidate in 2028, likely on the Democratic ballot line, after a debate in which a push for a third-party run was defeated. DSA members' alienation from the Democratic Party during the Gaza War led many left-wing voters, especially young voters, not to support Kamala Harris in 2024.

Zohran Mamdani

Despite these challenges, DSA saw a surge in membership after the 2024 presidential election, growing to over 80,000 members by October 2025. In November 2025, NYC-DSA, the country's largest chapter, secured what was called the biggest electoral victory in DSA history with the election of member Zohran Mamdani as mayor, despite tens of millions of dollars in super PAC donations to Andrew Cuomo during the primary and general election. Mamdani's victory over Cuomo in the Democratic primary was energized by a massive grassroots canvassing effort organized by NYC-DSA, which provided an early endorsement and a legion of volunteers. Mamdani won on a progressive platform that included free bus service, frozen rents, universal childcare, and a higher minimum wage, though he noted during his campaign that his platform differed from that of DSA, taking a more moderate stance on issues like eliminating misdemeanor offenses and defunding the police.

Ideology and political positions

DSA is a multi-tendency organization, encompassing a wide range of socialist and left-wing viewpoints. The organization's core commitment is to democratic socialism, which it distinguishes from both bureacratic forms of socialism and capitalist social democracy, arguing that democratic socialism goes further than the latter's model of a strong welfare state operating under capitalism. This has sometimes led to internal semantic debates; some longtime members have argued for emphasizing the word "democratic" to distinguish the movement from authoritarian states, while others have argued the term is redundant, as true socialism's interest in equity "encompasses democracy."

Economic policy

DSA's economic vision calls for a "democratic transformation of the institutions of civil society, particularly those in the economic sphere". The organization defines this as wanting "to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation". This involves a mixture of public ownership, worker ownership, and market mechanisms. The organization's 2016 "Resistance Rising" strategy document advocated that large, strategically important sectors like housing, utilities, and heavy industry be subject to democratic planning, while market-driven worker-owned firms would produce and distribute consumer goods.

The organization supports a broad range of what democratic socialist writer André Gorz termed "non-reformist reforms" or "structural reforms". Acknowledging that an immediate end to capitalism is unlikely, this strategy involves fighting for reforms that weaken corporate power, increase the power of working people, and point toward a world beyond capitalism. At the local level, this has included campaigns for government-run grocery stores, free public transportation, and universal rent freezes. Key platform planks include:

• Medicare for All: A single-payer, universal healthcare system with no premiums, co-pays, or deductibles, and with guarantees for reproductive and gender-affirming care.
• Green New Deal: A massive mobilization to transition the economy to renewable energy, create millions of high-wage jobs, and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through public investment and public ownership of major energy and transportation infrastructure. The term was popularized in part by DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose Green New Deal Resolution had a significant influence on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. Within DSA's ecosocialist framework, some tendencies also advocate for degrowth, which seeks to intentionally reduce wasteful economic production and consumption to prevent climate catastrophe.
• Worker and public ownership: DSA advocates various forms of social ownership, including worker-controlled investment funds financed by taxing corporate profits.
• Universal social provisions: Free public education from pre-kindergarten through college, including tuition-free higher education with no out-of-pocket costs for room and board and cancellation of all student loan debt; universal childcare; and expansive paid family leave for all workers. These universal programs are seen as "engines of solidarity" that build a broad constituency for social rights, in contrast to means-tested programs that can create division.
• Labor rights: Strengthening protections for workers' rights to strike and form a union, and implementing a 32-hour work week with no reduction in pay or benefits.
• Taxing the wealthy: Raising taxes on the highest earners, for-profit corporations, and large inheritances, and establishing a wealth tax.

Electoral strategy

For much of its history, DSA followed Michael Harrington's strategy of political realignment, working to elect progressives within the Democratic Party in the hope of transforming it from within. Following its post-2016 growth, DSA's strategy shifted significantly. The organization now prioritizes building its own independent electoral capacity to run socialist candidates who are accountable to DSA's agenda, often in primaries against incumbent Democrats. This strategy is often called a "dirty break" from the Democratic Party, an approach influenced by a 2016 article in the socialist magazine Jacobin, "A Blueprint for a New Party". The goal is not to immediately form a third party, which is seen as "suicidal in America's two-party tyranny", but to "bore from within in guerrilla insurgency fashion" by using the Democratic ballot line to build an independent political force. The New York City chapter, DSA's largest and most electorally successful, developed a blueprint that became a model for the national organization. This involves a democratic process to select races and candidates, a massive volunteer-led field organizing program, and a coordinated fundraising arm called "DSA For The Many". Other strategic orientations within the organization include the "realignment" strategy of shifting the Democratic Party leftward and the "clean break" strategy of immediately forming a third party.

The dirty break approach involves building a national movement organization with strong local chapters that can contest elections on a case-by-case basis, sometimes in Democratic primaries and sometimes independently, with the long-term goal of a "mass socialist political formation". This approach was formalized at the organization's 2023 national convention, which passed a resolution to "Act Like an Independent Party" by developing its own fundraising, candidate schools, and voter lists. This strategy has also produced internal debate about the proper role of socialist legislators. One view is that their primary role is agitational—to "fight people who are against our policies" and politicize the obstacles to socialist reform. Another view is that socialists must also participate in the legislative process, working with progressives and even centrists to pass reforms that benefit the working class. The strategy also includes holding its endorsed candidates accountable to the organization's platform; candidates endorsed by the NYC chapter, for instance, are expected to function as a bloc and attend weekly "Socialists in Office Committee" meetings to coordinate strategy. In 2018, the New York City chapter criticized Ocasio-Cortez for suggesting she would rally behind all Democratic nominees, including Governor Andrew Cuomo, whom the chapter considered a political enemy. This strategy was reaffirmed at the 2025 national convention, where delegates voted to encourage running a socialist presidential candidate in 2028 on the Democratic ballot line, rejecting an amendment that would have pushed for an independent third-party run.

Social issues

DSA members at a pro-choice demonstration at the Minnesota State Capitol, 2022

DSA's platform describes itself as "deeply feminist and antiracist". According to the organization's 2016 strategy document, democratic socialism "connects antiracist, feminist, LGBTQ, labor, anti-ableist, and anti-ageist movements to each other" because each struggle's success depends on the success of the others. Its platform includes calls to abolish mandatory minimums and cash bail, demilitarize police departments, treat drug addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one, and establish universal rent control and a right to counsel for all tenants. At its 2019 national convention, DSA passed a resolution calling for the full decriminalization of sex work.

Foreign policy and immigration

DSA members holding an "Abolish ICE" banner at a protest in San Francisco, 2018

DSA advocates a non-interventionist foreign policy based on international working-class solidarity. Its platform calls for a significant reduction in the U.S. military budget, closing overseas military bases, bringing troops home, and ending economic sanctions on countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran. DSA supports Palestinian rights, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. military and economic aid to Israel. The organization's anti-Zionist position was further defined at its 2025 national convention. Delegates passed a resolution that established "red lines" for members and endorsed officials, threatening expulsion for providing "material support to Israel or related lobbying groups like AIPAC or J Street" or affirming that "Israel has a right to defend itself". An amendment to remove the expulsion clause was defeated, though 40% of delegates opposed the final resolution. The resolution's passage followed years of internal debate over the actions of endorsed representatives like Jamaal Bowman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concerning Israel.

Over the months after the Gaza war began, various DSA chapters and DSA rank-and-file members and public officials organized and participated in protests and vigils alongside Jewish and Palestinian advocacy groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Students for Justice in Palestine, in support of a ceasefire and Palestine.

DSA supports open borders and freedom of movement for all people. Its platform calls for allowing workers to freely migrate, demilitarizing the U.S. border, ending all immigrant detention and deportations, and providing immediate amnesty and access to social services for all immigrants.

Democratic reform

The organization's platform calls for fundamental reforms to the U.S. political system. These include:

• Universal suffrage: Extending full voting rights to all residents, including noncitizens and people with criminal convictions, and establishing statehood for Washington, D.C.
• Electoral reform: Replacing the Electoral College with a national popular vote for president, and replacing the two-party system with a multi-party democracy through proportional representation elections.
• Legislative reform: Expanding the number of seats in the House of Representatives and ending the Senate filibuster.
• Judicial reform: Limiting the Supreme Court's power of judicial review.

Labor strategy

After its post-2016 resurgence, DSA embraced a "rank-and-file strategy" for the labor movement, influenced by Kim Moody's writings. This approach involves socialist organizers taking jobs in key industries to become active shop-floor union members in order to agitate against bosses and concessionary union bureaucracies, democratize unions, and develop organic leaders from the rank and file. This strategy holds that change must come from the bottom up by building a "militant minority" of rank-and-file unionists. At its 2019 national convention, DSA passed a resolution formally adopting the rank-and-file strategy as part of its labor work. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, DSA and the United Electrical Workers founded the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) to provide training and resources to non-union workers. Despite the formal adoption of the rank-and-file strategy, some members have argued that electoral campaigns receive disproportionate attention and resources compared to labor and tenant organizing. In 2021, YDSA began the Rank-and-File Pipeline Project to place young organizers in strategic industries. DSA members were active in the reform movement in the Teamsters union that elected Sean O'Brien as president and have been involved in organizing drives at Starbucks and Amazon. This work has faced setbacks; the YDSA pipeline project was narrowly voted down at a convention, and internal divisions have arisen among DSA members within the Teamsters and United Auto Workers reform movements.

Structure and organization

States which have held DSA conventions

DSA is a membership-based organization with a national structure and local chapters across the United States. Its highest decision-making body is its national convention, held every two years. Between conventions, the organization is led by the 17-seat National Political Committee (NPC), which is elected by delegates at the convention. The post-2016 membership is significantly younger than the pre-2016 organization. But the new membership's demographics are "primarily white and largely made up of college-educated members" and DSA has undertaken campaigns to root itself more deeply in the multiracial working class. Since its rebirth, the organization has also focused on developing a layer of "cadre"—militant, politically developed, and dedicated organizers—in numbers not seen on the American left in decades. The rapid influx of young, digitally native members has also created challenges, with some critics inside and outside the organization pointing to an "insular culture of debate, primarily online, in which disagreement can take on toxic, personal dimensions". Public disputes on social media have sometimes become a liability, complicating relationships with allies and elected officials.

The red rose is part of DSA's logo, having been a symbol of socialism since the 1886 Haymarket Affair and resulting May Day marches. It was drawn from the logo of DSOC, its precursor organization, and previously of the Socialist International, which shows a stylized fist clenching a red rose, the fist replaced by a biracial handshake symbolizing DSA's antiracism. The fist and rose logo was originally designed for the French Socialist Party in 1969 and later shared by socialist and labor political organizations worldwide.

Caucuses and factions

Following its rapid growth after 2016, DSA developed a number of internal caucuses organized around specific ideological tendencies or strategic priorities. These factions are often broadly grouped into a "left wing", which advocates revolutionary socialist politics and a clear break from the Democratic Party, and a "right wing", which advocates reformist socialist politics and a more flexible electoral strategy. The caucuses are a visible presence at DSA's national conventions, where members often display their affiliation through distinct clothing and accessories. While this has raised some concerns about sectarianism, many members view the open disagreement and debate as an intentional and healthy feature of the organization's political life.

• Bread and Roses: A caucus formed in 2019 that espouses a Marxist understanding of capitalism, a "democratic road to socialism", and a third camp internationalist position. It prioritizes the rank-and-file labor strategy, which encourages socialists to take rank-and-file positions within unions to push unions to become more militant. Electorally, the caucus emphasizes a dirty break from the Democratic Party and that elected officials in their caucus publicly identify as members of the caucus.
• Groundwork: A caucus formed in 2023 that advocates for a "democratic road to socialism" through gradual accumulation of reforms and the creation of working-class outposts within the capitalist state. Considered part of DSA's moderate wing, it was formed as a slate of candidates for the National Political Committee and strives for more aggressive and experimental tactics to grow the organization.
• Libertarian Socialist Caucus: Founded in 2017, the LSC unites anarchists, communalists, and libertarian Marxists. It emphasizes a "dual power" or "base building" framework, prioritizing militant labor and tenant unions, mutual aid, and direct action over electoral politics. LSC has emphasized red lines and strict discipline in electoral politics.
• Marxist Unity Group: Founded in 2021, MUG is an orthodox Marxist caucus inspired by the early ideas of Karl Kautsky and the Second International. Its platform centers on overthrowing the U.S. constitutional order to found a democratic socialist republic and building a disciplined socialist party. The caucus has become more friendly to electoral campaigns since 2021 and moved away from its previous clean-break position toward the dirty break. MUG also takes significant theoretical inspiration from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) and its publication Weekly Worker.
• North Star: A caucus created in 2018 that descends from the pre-2016 Harringtonite consensus. It strongly advocates a realignment strategy and building popular fronts with social democratic or progressive liberal organizations.
• Red Star: A Marxist–Leninist caucus formed in 2019. It advocates a big-tent socialist organization with a central pole of revolutionary Marxism, supports punitive discipline for elected officials under a "party surrogate" model, and explicitly opposes third-campism. It was a leading voice in calling for DSA to withdraw its endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2024, and for DSA to lay off staff, in opposition to the staff union, during the 2024 budget crisis.
• Reform & Revolution: A Trotskyist caucus formed in 2019 by former members of Socialist Alternative. It emphasizes a dirty break from the Democratic Party, a rank-and-file labor strategy, democratic central planning, and some third-campist positions.
• Socialist Majority Caucus: An electoral- and labor-focused caucus founded in 2019 that supports a democratic road to socialist revolution and a broad popular front against the right. It supports a strategy of co-governance between DSA chapters and DSA-endorsed elected officials over publicly oppositional forms of electoral discipline. It argued against rescinding DSA's endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez, viewing her as vital for maintaining a broad coalition.

At the 2023 DSA National Convention, elections for the National Political Committee resulted in what observers called a "leftward shift" in leadership. A coalition of caucuses on the organization's revolutionary left, including Red Star, Marxist Unity Group, and Bread and Roses, won a majority of seats, displacing the previous governing coalition led by the more moderate Socialist Majority and Groundwork caucuses. The new NPC has been described as having matured into a "multi-caucus parliament", where building majority blocs requires negotiation and persuasion among the different tendencies.

Publications

DSA publishes Democratic Left and Socialist Forum, quarterly magazines of news, analysis, and internal debate. Democratic Left continues in an uninterrupted run from the Newsletter of the Democratic Left published by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, a DSA predecessor, since its establishment in 1973. Caucuses within DSA often have their own publications to spread their views within and outside the organization, such as The Call, Reform and Revolution, Partisan Magazine, The Agitator, and Light and Air.

Left-wing quarterly magazine Jacobin often aligns with DSA, although they are not affiliated. In 2014, Jacobin's founder and then-editor, Bhaskar Sunkara, a DSA member, praised DSA founder Michael Harrington, calling him "very underrated as a popularizer of Marxist thought".

International affiliations

DSA was a member of the Socialist International from 1982 to 2017. A majority of delegates at the 2017 DSA National Convention voted to leave the International due to its alleged support for neoliberal economic policies.

Delegates at the 2021 DSA National Convention voted to apply to join the São Paulo Forum, and DSA became an Associate Member organization in 2023. In August 2023, the DSA National Convention voted to join the Progressive International, and DSA became an official member in October 2023.

See also

• Category:Members of the Democratic Socialists of America
• American Left – Left politics in the United States
• The Squad (United States Congress) – Group of progressive U.S. representativesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

References

Works cited

• Adler-Bell, Sam (Fall 2022). "Can DSA Go the Distance?". Dissent. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
• Bellafante, Ginia (November 7, 2025). "The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of American Socialism". The New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Cathell, Mia (November 10, 2025). "Democratic socialists quietly capture city councils across America". Washington Examiner.
• Democratic Socialists of America (2025). Workers Deserve More! 2025–2026 Program (PDF). Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Day, Meagan; Uetricht, Micah (2020). Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-78873-838-5.
• Dorrien, Gary (2021). American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-25376-4.
• Hagan, Patrick (May 19, 2025). "The Left-Wing Activists Who Want to Change American Politics". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Janssen, Emma (August 14, 2025). "DSA Convenes, Argues, and Celebrates". The American Prospect.
• Kimmerle, Stephan; Locker, Philip; Madsen, Brandon (2025). A User's Guide to DSA: 5 Debates That Define the Democratic Socialists. Seattle, WA: Labor Power Publications. ISBN 979-8-9996239-2-8.
  • Wadlin, Laura (2025). "A Political History of DSA, 1982-2025". In Kimmerle, Stephan; Locker, Philip; Madsen, Brandon (eds.). A User's Guide to DSA: 5 Debates That Define the Democratic Socialists. Labor Power Publications. pp. 45–54. ISBN 979-8-9996239-2-8.
• Schwartz, Joseph M. (July 2017). "A History of Democratic Socialists of America 1971–2017". Democratic Socialists of America. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Springfield, Bryce (November 23, 2023). "An Introduction to the Internal Politics of DSA". The Prog. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Springfield, Bryce (January 31, 2025). "A Guide to DSA Politics". Libertarian Socialist Caucus. Retrieved November 10, 2025.
• Stuart, Tessa (August 7, 2025). "Dem Socialists Convene in Chicago to Chart Future After Mamdani's Win". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 8, 2025.
• Treisman, Rachel (November 5, 2025). "NYC's next mayor is a democratic socialist. What does that mean?". NPR.

Further reading

• Kate Aronoff (August 7, 2017). "Are the Democratic Socialists of America for Real?". The New Republic. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
• Joel Freedman (November–December 1981). "No Enemies on the Left as DSOC and NAM Merge". New America. New York. vol. 18. no. 6. p. 5.
• Lauren Gambino (August 6, 2019) 'We're here to win': US democratic socialists move to center stage. The Guardian. Retrieved August 7, 2019
• Joel Meyerson, "What the Socialists Just Did — And Why", The American Prospect, August 9, 2019.
• Jennifer Swann (February 8, 2017). "How Democratic Socialists Are Building on Bernie's Momentum". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
• Marc Tracy, "Is 'Bernie or Bust' the Future of the Left?" New York Times, August 6, 2019. Print version: "Party on the Left Gets Bigger, Stronger and Declares 'Bernie or Bust.'" August 6, 2019, section A, pg. 11.
• "DSA Members Comment on Their 2017 Convention". Portside.org. August 24, 2017. Retrieved June 30, 2018.

External links

• Official website
• Constitution. Dsausa.org. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
• Young Democratic Socialists official website (youth affiliate of DSA).
• January 2018 National Public Radio segment on the burgeoning interest in DSA.
• July 2018 National Public Radio segment on the political impact of DSA.
• Maria Svart's editorial in the New York Daily News following Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's primary win.
• What We're Building. A methodological survey of DSA chapters.
• Pinkos Have More Fun : Socialism is AOC's calling card, Trump's latest rhetorical bludgeon, and a new way to date in Brooklyn New York article by Simon van Zuylen-Wood about socialism's sudden popularity, with a focus on DSA. (March 3, 2019)