Communists Belong in DSA

Too often, DSA is dismissed as a purely social democratic organization, and outsiders discount the communist organizing within it. As a Marxist-Leninist DSA caucus, we reject this narrative. DSA is our political home! We in Red Star are communists who believe that DSA is the most effective place to serve the socialist movement; only through our active participation in DSA can the party we need take shape. We call on all communists in the United States to join us in the democratic struggle within DSA.

DSA’s ever-evolving nature demonstrates that it is the best place for communists to organize. Revolutionary movements are not born “ideologically pure.” The Bolsheviks were born from the pluralist RSDLP; the 26th of July Movement was born from the Orthodox Party. The big-tent nature of these organizations allowed organized and disciplined communists to decisively shape the trajectory of their respective revolutions. DSA is the same: as we continue to improve the democratic structures of DSA, and as communists contest for and win hegemony within the organization, we continue to move toward a revolutionary horizon.

DSA’s Past and Present

For decades, DSA was an anti-communist^[1], Labor Zionist, social democratic organization. However, in 2016, a massive wave of new members completely overran its existing membership, and DSA was unable to draw them into its existing ideology. Due to the ideological diversity of this wave of new members, that old alignment was not replaced by any fully developed ideology. DSA’s new politics came to be defined by a strong electoral orientation, as many people saw the rapid rise in DSA’s membership between 2016 and 2019 as the direct result of the Bernie, Trump, and AOC campaigns. Many of the new members were initially inspired by Bernie and AOC’s brand of social democracy, and DSA’s success was often framed, accurately or not, via electoral success, securing that social democratic tendency a presence in the new DSA.

Around 2021, that rapid growth stopped, and our membership numbers started to slowly decline. This was influenced by various external factors, including Bernie Sanders’ second primary defeat, the COVID-19 pandemic, and depoliticization during Biden’s presidency. At the same time, it also suggested that our strategy of latching ourselves to high-profile electoral campaigns was flawed.

The organization had failed to live up to increasing expectations among DSA members about structure and member control in its electoral program, and had frustrated members with a lack of transparency and unclear decision-making processes. This created the conditions for productive conflict about changing our approach, primarily centered on our orientation towards Palestine and our relationship with our elected officials.

The 2023 convention was a defeat for committed social democrats, a step forward for DSA’s left overall, and a significant success for Red Star specifically. It was our first attempt to run candidates for the NPC (National Political Committee, DSA’s highest leadership body between conventions) as a caucus project. All three of our candidates were elected, with one of them becoming one of DSA’s two Co-Chairs (a paid leadership role, newly created at that same convention). Red Star ran our campaign for NPC on a platform of good governance, aiming to reform the national organization toward more functional procedures that would better facilitate our democratic process and develop DSA’s internal infrastructure. Our victory in the election was won not by committing to sectarianism or pursuing a strategy of ridding the organization of our ideological opponents, but rather by enabling members to participate more fully in organizational governance.

Democracy in DSA

What is it about DSA’s democratic structures that have enabled the left to win victories within the organization?

DSA is a big-tent organization, meaning its membership includes anyone willing to self-identify as a socialist. This big-tent nature has its drawbacks – for example, it has made DSA resistant to discipline and expectations of its members in ways that have driven some of its largest conflicts over elected members. Many in DSA, including Red Star, understand the serious contradictions to be struggled through in this model. However, at the current stage of US socialist development, this model is the most advantageous for continuing to develop and grow the communist movement. 

Prior to the left's resurgence in the mid-2010s, many of the US’s socialist organizations had decayed into vaguely left-liberal organizations, thoroughly moderated and de-fanged of their radical edges. As energy began to coalesce around socialism again some ten years ago, these organizations all saw an influx in membership. This reinvigoration led to conflicts between a new generation of radicals and an entrenched moderate force that had held power over the socialist name in the US for decades.

This political conflict played out differently across different organizations. DSA suddenly became favorable terrain for an ascendant communist left vying for power and influence against an entrenched social democratic leadership. DSA had a number of structures and processes baked into it that allowed communists to challenge DSA’s old guard: open elections, open resolutions, and member-to-member communication platforms, to name a few. The presence of many co-existing and often competing tendencies within DSA’s big tent raised the prominence of democratic struggle in the organization, enabling communists to form powerful factions that could quickly win major victories. DSA was now a contested space, and communists were ready, willing, and able to contest it.

This is not to say that this democratic struggle has been easy. Due to DSA’s history as a social democratic organization and the current pressures of the progressive and liberal mainstream to DSA’s right, DSA’s moderate wing still holds plenty of institutional power within the organization. But Red Star has been hard at work bolstering DSA’s democratic structures and, in the process, winning increasing power, influence, and prominence for communists within the organization.

The formalization of DSA’s democracy has been mutually reinforcing with the ascendance of DSA’s left wing. As DSA becomes more openly democratic, left tendencies can increasingly challenge the right-wing tendencies that use their institutional power to keep control of the organization. As left-wing factions gain more power, we make more gains for democratizing DSA and making it more representative of its active membership.

Today’s DSA stands in stark contrast to other socialist and communist organizations in the US, many of which suffer from a lack of internal democracy. Several Red Star members have also been in CPUSA and can attest that the charges of “bureaucratic centralism” in the organization are, regrettably, not without basis. Leadership elections are usually rubber stamps for appointed successors. Steering committees and working groups (or their equivalents) rarely seek a democratic mandate from club members. National conventions take place once every four to five years. Democratic deliberation, member critique, and input on questions of strategy are actively suppressed by leadership through appeals to “unity of action.”

Because of its defective democratic practice, CPUSA is now firmly to the right of DSA on Palestine and orientation towards the Democratic Party. While the politics of its membership, especially new membership, should be pushing it in the correct direction, those members have limited access to the levers necessary to move the party as a whole.

Democracy within DSA is comparatively vigorous. Debate is frequent and spirited and often changes minds and policies. Members across the country are encouraged to communicate with one another through our national discussion forum. Elections are open and contested, and leadership constantly rotates. Proposals for structural and programmatic changes can be brought by anyone and be adopted. And, most definitively, members have materially changed and transformed the direction of the organization from the pre-2015 era to today.

The Rise of DSA’s Left

The effect of DSA’s ascendent left wing can perhaps most obviously be seen on the NPC. In addition to Red Star’s three out of sixteen seats and one of two national Co-Chairs, nearly half of the current NPC members openly identify as communists.

Red Star has made good on our promises for better national governance that enables and supports member democracy. For example, we worked to normalize the use of Robert’s Rules, a formal deliberative procedure designed to make decisions transparently and democratically. Red Star itself offers training courses on Robert’s Rules, requiring all caucus members to gain basic proficiency. We are preparing members to engage in our democracy. We’ve also committed to increasing transparency and openness at the national level, opening up internal national communications, creating more open and participatory national bodies, and making NPC decisions and decision-making processes more available to members.

We’ve also done significant work pushing DSA toward more principled political positions. For example, in our orientation toward the presidential election, DSA has long since defeated the position that we must always campaign for the Democratic nominee as a “lesser evil”, and has more recently rejected a negative campaign against Trump from DSA’s moderate wing that would serve as an implicit endorsement of Biden (and now Harris). The left of DSA has instead pushed to take an agitational stance, cementing a position independent of the two capitalist parties.

We have also seen dramatic steps forward in DSA’s internationalism and anti-imperialism. Red Star has long engaged with DSA’s International Committee and views international solidarity work as a foundation of our organizing. DSA has also taken significant strides away from its Labor Zionist history. Nationally, we have begun the process of setting clear expectations for electeds to support Palestinian liberation, while locally, many Red Star members have helped to pass resolutions that enshrine anti-Zionism as a core tenet of DSA.

While these are just a few of the ways the DSA left has been affecting the organization, they are emblematic of DSA as an organization that can be contested for and won over.

Why Communists Should Organize in DSA

DSA currently has the most potential to be the groundwork for a future party. As Marxist-Leninists in DSA, we must commit to working within the organization to build a unified and disciplined plan to move the organization forward. At this stage, DSA’s big tent is a good thing; engaging in struggle with competing tendencies enables us to improve our ideas through social practice and advance the socialist movement by improving DSA. This conflict is necessary for change and improvement, and shouldn’t be feared or avoided. Many of us in Red Star joined DSA as social democrats, liberals, or anarchists, but became disciplined Marxist-Leninists through our participation in DSA’s democratic structures.

DSA has by far the most members of any socialist organization in the US. The membership size is core to one of DSA’s most critical strategic assets: its ability to test its ideas against reality. This is borne out in DSA’s many experiments in contesting political power. For example, Las Vegas DSA attempted to take over its county and state Democratic Party and succeeded at winning a majority of the executive board seats. Ultimately, this was proven ineffective, which we now know definitively because we tried it. Scientific socialists believe knowledge comes from a cycle of deliberation, decision-making, implementation, and then review to inform further decision-making. DSA’s size allows its use of this cycle to be much more effective than any other currently existing socialist organization because it’s large enough to try ideas other organizations can only discuss.

DSA’s size also makes it a valuable terrain to contest. DSA’s visibility and low barrier to entry mean many people across the country get their understanding of what socialism is from DSA. As described previously, DSA’s history is one of social democracy. Those elements are still here, and will continue to reach people first if we don’t contest them, but we are contesting them. We are not passive spectators of this struggle. We can and should influence its result by participating in it.

But it’s not only a battle for influence over individual members. The fight for DSA itself is winnable, and we see that transition to a more developed and ideologically coherent organization happening through two processes. First, DSA’s imperfect but functional democratic practices lead people towards correct conclusions through shared struggle. Many of Red Star’s members were radicalized through this exact process, and we know that new comrades continue to develop their politics through social practice every day in DSA. Second, the organization will be improved by external revolutionary Marxists joining DSA. In the process, they will change DSA by helping offset and combat the influence of social democratic dogma on the organization; in turn, DSA will change them by providing them with invaluable experience in organizing and ideological struggle, which is impossible to develop through isolation or participation in dysfunctional organizations.

In our present conditions, the value of this process of conditioning members through democratic struggle outweighs the benefits of ideological homogeneity. As a Marxist-Leninist caucus within DSA, Red Star derives the benefits of sharpening our politics and acting in unity alongside other communists, without the drawbacks of isolating ourselves from the broader socialist movement and less experienced masses that will comprise our future party – while still enabling us to participate in and learn from a vibrant and necessarily heterogenous democracy.

What to Expect

We want to be clear that we suggest joining DSA and actively participating in its activities, not agitating against DSA from inside it. ^[2] So, if you agree with us and join DSA, what should you do?

• Participate in chapter work. Ask other active members what needs to be done and do that. If you make yourself useful, people will trust you and value your opinions, and participating in the work will improve your own understanding. 
• Model good behavior. Be reliable, respectful, and handle disagreements in a healthy way.
• Promote democratic practices in your chapter. (Adherence to formal meeting rules, voting on things instead of using loose consensus, subordinating chapter activities to decisions made by the general meeting, etc.)
• Participate in political discussions in your chapter, or if your chapter doesn’t regularly have political discussions, organize to implement them. Prioritize developing your communication skills and ability to convince people who disagree with you.
• Participate in your chapter’s political education program, or organize to form one if your chapter doesn’t have one.
• Help DSA cohere into a nationally unified organization by building connections between your chapter and national DSA.
• Once you've gotten a good feel for your chapter and its workings, run for chapter leadership. Leadership positions in DSA are open to any member who runs. You will be well-positioned if you’ve made yourself useful, shown that you’re dependable, and earned people’s trust and respect.
• Find other communists and fellow travelers within your chapter, and join DSA’s national forum to meet members nationwide. Communists in DSA need to find each other and struggle together.

DSA is malleable and in flux, and communists joining DSA have the opportunity to fight alongside comrades for the foundations of a more revolutionary position. We mustn’t sit on the sidelines and bicker as we wait for the perfect organization to form around us. Our line requires democracy and practice, two things in which DSA is already well versed. Red Star urges communists to organize within their local communities and join their local DSA chapter.

Further Discussion

If you're interested in discussing this piece with other DSA members, head on over to the DSA Discussion Forum at discussion.dsausa.org.

The forums are open to all DSA members in good standing. If you're not a DSA member in good standing, sign up or renew your dues at act.dsausa.org/donate/membership.

Footnotes

1. As a relic of its anti-communist roots and its foundation under threat of entryist disruptions, DSA’s bylaws do contain a provision for expulsion of members “under the discipline of any self-defined democratic-centralist organization”. However, in practice, this ban is infrequently used and has not restricted communists organizing inside DSA as DSA members. (back)
2. Joining DSA should also not be treated solely as a path to joining Red Star. Red Star only admits members with a history of activity in DSA. (back)