Declaration of DSA-Liberation Caucus
In late 2024, in the midst of a sloppy, genocidal, pathetic, and eventually, doomed, campaign by the Democratic Party to hold the Presidency, many DSA chapters across the country experienced internal debate over whether or not to try and paddle this sinking ship. The Democrats’ contributing to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, being silent on the rights of immigrants, and selling out grassroots movements that were foolish enough to trust them over the years were all starting to weigh on the largest socialist organization in the country. No longer could the moderate wing of the establishment expect humble, unquestioning support and free labor from progressives across the country. Years of picking up new recruits in the midst of struggle had changed DSA. The old heads from the ‘80s, the Zionists and Democratic Party lackeys, left in disgrace, issuing streams of impotent and weak statements. We are comprised of comrades who canvassed for Bernie and AOC and eventually came to see them for the opportunists they are, who marched and participated in uprisings against racist police violence, who organized against evictions in the backdrop of COVID-19, who struggled to build unions under the endless surveillance of corporations like Amazon, and who had been doing whatever they could to push back against the imperialist war machine facilitating colonial violence in Palestine. All of these eager, militant recruits are quickly changing the organization which had once opposed progressives like Jesse Jackson and eagerly supported Zionism. YDSA in particular has been in the vanguard of this struggle for the soul of our organization. It was in this climate that the Liberation Caucus came to be.
We come from different walks of life, from all across the country. We were all drawn to DSA for a variety of reasons. No longer did we see DSA as it was stereotyped in radical circles, a reformist electoral canvassing club used by up and coming Democrat careerists for free labor. Instead, we saw in DSA a resource in the various trenches of struggle of the working class. At anti-imperialist rallies, in labor organizing circles, in tenant struggles, speaking bitterness at city council meetings, in coalitions and mass organizations for various progressive causes among many other places, you could find a DSA member or two. Many of us have organizing experience prior to DSA, socialist or otherwise. While these previous projects likely either faded away or fell behind, bogged down in dogmatism and various opportunistic tendencies (mostly of the Left variety), we saw DSA grow.
A positive development many of us immediately noticed in DSA was the variety of thought in the organization. No longer was it just progressive liberals calling themselves socialists. There are now various militant socialist and Communist tendencies within DSA represented by caucuses. These comrades play an important role in helping the organization grow as a vehicle for agitation to be used by the working class. It's no doubt that the effort of these caucuses has played an important role in turning DSA into the organization it is today. We got together and decided that it is objectively time for a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus in DSA.
As we saw Communists of various traditions organizing within DSA, Liberation was brought together by a similar but distinct tradition. A tradition whose origins heavily influenced organizing in the 60s and 70s and continues to turn the tide in some of the most active and advanced communist movements today. From the Filipino, Indian, Turkish and Brazilian countryside, to more urban movements in Mexico, Ireland and even student movements here in the US and elsewhere, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the guiding principle and the highest development and organizing strategy for the communist movement. It gives us the tools to analyze situations through the lens of dialectical materialism and using this analysis to develop and put plans in motion to serve the people, and we seek to bring this organizing style to DSA.
With the Democrats out of power, serving as a loyal opposition, and the second Trump administration escalating already deep rooted American fascism to ever more brutal repression to appease its reactionary support base, it's as important as ever to develop strong grassroots organizing networks to be able to fight with and for the people, learning from and teaching them. While we wholeheartedly support the struggle for reforms, reforms are simply not enough. This entire system must go. It's our duty as Maoists and revolutionaries in DSA to push back on trends seeking to turn away from the fight and continue to align the organization with failed liberal strategies, especially in a time like this. Likewise, we must empower the organization in its on the ground organizing efforts and make DSA available as a tool and a resource for the colonized working class to use in struggle. In doing so, we seek to break with the stereotype of DSA being yet another yuppie liberal organization and make it more reflective of the proletariat in all its diversity.
As elaborated in our Points of Unity, “we believe that ideological and political struggle can not be shirked and Comrade Mao’s call to combat liberalism must be heeded and taken seriously, otherwise opportunist and revisionist trends will continue to rot the soul of the organization.” We call on all revolutionary communists working in DSA to unite with us. We are a group that is both practical and uncompromising. Disciplined, but adaptable. As conditions change, so must our approach to them. We see the potential in DSA to become a vanguard formation, but this will only come if we are willing to commit ourselves to make that happen.
Dare to struggle! Dare to win!
April 26th, 2025