The Democratic Socialists of America is in crisis. Despite a brief increase thanks to working class radicalization over the genocide in Gaza, our membership is shrinking (a trend since 2021). We have few active campaigns nationally, and increased factionalism has led to comrades viewing each other more as enemies than as necessary poles of the big tent.
Why is this happening? There are many conditions outside of our control, so I will focus on what we can do within our own capacity to solve some of these problems. I believe our organization lurches between internal crises — our national budget, political endorsements, relationships with other organizations, and our orientation towards national politics — because we do not have a coherent national platform, and because neither “Left” nor “Right” wing (an inaccurate but common shorthand to refer to our political divide) factions prioritize organizing new members into DSA.
Most every caucus asserts, in one way or another, that they are Marxists who believe we must organize the working class to win socialism; that regardless of the political conditions, we must organize a powerful independent multi-racial working class mass movement. I think this is correct, and I’m disappointed that so few projects in DSA seem designed to do this. There are many ways to be “organized,” such as in a labor or tenant union. In this article I am thinking of organization in terms of membership in DSA, the vehicle best suited for our mass movement.
The “Right” and “Left” wings both engage, to different degrees, in election and reform campaigns, in issuing principled political statements and sharpening our internal democracy. These are all critical things to do, and they all attract people to our organization, but none of them directly organize people into DSA.
This is reflected in the way most members joined DSA in the last decade: passively. People come to DSA after learning about us through some of the above activities. Winning elections and legislative reforms and having robust and principled political positions attracts people to DSA, but without a direct ask to join. Beyond occasional membership drives, there is no operation between any of our caucuses or chapters or the national body to use the work we are doing to get people to join.
A passive recruitment model only pulls in people who are already paying attention and motivated to join a political organization. These people are more likely to be white, college-educated, young, and male. If we hope to expand our base to the millions of sympathetic people who do not fall into these categories, we need to ask them to join.
To reverse this trend, we should do what we say we believe in: organize the working class to win socialism. Inducting new members into DSA must be our absolute top priority. Everything we do must flow from the question “does this organize new members into DSA?” Whenever we run an electoral race, we must run it through the lens of organizing and accompany it with a concrete plan containing the strategy and tactics we will undertake to organize new comrades. If we run a legislative campaign, or endorse a reform effort, or organize a new labor union, or release a new political statement, we must use it to organize people into DSA.
It’s been heartening to see reactions on Twitter to our revamped DSA 101s in New York, oriented now to getting non-members to join DSA. The 101s pull in a diverse crowd by age, gender, race and economic background, and many people join DSA after the event. I’m happy about this, but am also shocked that it is a new concept for DSA. How is it that an event focused on organizing new members to DSA is so alien to our national organization?
Millions of Americans have engaged with DSA in some form, whether voting for our candidates and ballot initiatives, supporting our legislative campaigns, engaging in our union reform efforts or attending our rallies, protests and marches, joining tenant and labor unions we organize, and following us on social media. There are millions more in this country who support our politics, who say capitalism is bad and socialism is good. Why are they not all DSA members? What is our plan to build their class consciousness and organize them into DSA?
I’ll try to lay out some thoughts on what should be done that I hope are insightful and spark discussion and action.
I think our organizing efforts must be fully integrated in everything we do, and not operate as separate campaigns. Organizing new people to DSA cannot be relegated to separate membership or growth committees. Membership, recommitment, and solidarity dues drives have been effective but ultimately fleeting.
Organizing must belong to the DNA of DSA. It should be a central facet of every campaign, it should be something current members talk to their friends and family about, it should happen at the chapter level and nationally, it should be an automatic reflex. Every new endeavor must come with an organizing plan. Every DSA member should publicly and proudly identify as such, and talk about the organization positively.
We should create messaging nationwide that attracts people to DSA. All our communications should boil down to organizing people to DSA, where every news event and campaign and political flashpoint motivates someone to organize to make change. Whenever we are in the news, we should find ways to shape stories so readers want to join. Whenever people look us up online, we should make sure search results and social media flood them with reasons to join. Every chapter should be equipped with best practices on messaging, uniform messaging for their websites, social media and press guides, and regular content from our national organization for messaging on national events.
We should also consider running ads to ask people to join. We routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to ask people to vote for DSA-endorsed candidates. Why not direct a fraction of these funds toward asking people to join DSA?
In order to attract new members, we must also engage with existing ones. Right now there are tons of exciting political education opportunities in DSA, but few that orient towards the new or potential member. We should run political education events that are open to non-members and help people understand what it means to be a socialist, what it means to be a DSA member, and the importance of organization. Our political education should clarify that joining DSA is not a 20 hours a week obligation, but something any and everyone can do at whatever level of engagement they prefer.
If someone joins DSA but doesn’t understand our vocabulary, the ideas we are discussing, or even how a meeting is run, they cannot participate in our democracy; they will disengage or leave altogether. It’s critical that people engage, as our organizing isn’t meant to only add dues-paying members, but to broaden our political knowledge and reinforce multi-racial working class leadership.
This means that our internal functions must be recast towards the new member and our vision of a mass party. If our monthly meetings are inscrutable, use complicated rules or are boring and without stakes, then people will not want to come. If our structures are too complicated and not conducive to easy participation, then people will not participate. If our meetings run too long, don’t have childcare or aren’t accessible, then working people won’t show up.
It should feel good to participate in DSA. I don’t mean that DSA should focus on making people feel good, but it should be an empowering and positive experience, even when you lose a vote. We can achieve this by being more welcoming and inclusive of new members, by talking positively about DSA publicly and by being comradely to each other. When we are not comradely, especially over social media with no real life contact, we create a toxic culture that breeds negativity and keeps people out of the organization. We cannot attract people to a hostile and cruel organization.
DSA is vital. It’s the largest and best socialist organization in the United States. Our big tent is an incredible asset that brings together so many different kinds of people and houses valuable work across the Left spectrum. Our democracy makes us powerful, with different perspectives competing and combining to lead to the best possible results. Sometimes we make mistakes, and sometimes our many great obstacles stumble us, but we do not give up.
I love being in DSA. Before I joined I felt angry because I was so frustrated at the world forcing a boot on my neck with nothing I could do about it. I drifted from one bad housing experience to another, from one exploitative job to another, from financial crisis to financial crisis, and I felt like I could never do anything about it because I was alone and unorganized. Now that I’m in DSA I feel powerful. My comrades and I kicked one of the largest fossil fuel corporations out of my neighborhood, increased taxes on the rich by $7 billion, organized unions and supported world-changing strikes and passed this country’s first Green New Deal legislation. We are currently fighting to stop a genocide overseas.
If you are reading this and you’re not already in DSA, I hope you join so you can have the same power I found in collective organization.
There are so many more victories we’ve won, and victories we still fight for, that give me hope for our future. I believe DSA is the vehicle for the world we deserve. We will build this world together, but “together” needs to mean millions of brilliant, caring people. I know they are out there, and they are looking for the sense of power that we can only feel together, so I know what must be done. We must organize the working class to win socialism – a better world depends on it.
Join DSA today. New York City DSA’ has DSA 101 events scheduled for August 31, September 9 and September 28.