The Long March: Liberation at the 2025 DSA Convention: Resolutions And NPC Rankings
As DSA prepares to meet for our biyearly convention in Chicago in August, we stand at an important juncture in the history of the world and our organization. Fascism, which is already here in George Jackson’s (and our) analysis, continues to commit greater and greater atrocities against the people that we care about. Prices continue to rise, evictions continue, there is a war on immigrants, Iran has been bombed, Palestine continues to suffer, disasters eviscerate the working class, and the fascist in the White House and his minions continue to push us ever further towards the abyss. The time to prepare was yesterday. The task of all revolutionaries in DSA is to support that which upholds revolutionary socialist principles, and to oppose that which gives play to opportunism, rightism, and betrayal of proletarian-internationalist values. Liberation is committed to the principles of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and liberation of colonized peoples by any means necessary. These positions we believe are in accordance with our goals and we encourage delegates who share our views to vote accordingly.
ORGANIZATIONAL REFORM/OVERSIGHT:
CR7: YDSA: Building DSA For the Future: SUPPORT: YDSA is the ideological and practical vanguard of DSA, filling the barricades during the encampment struggles and remaining in the forefront of struggle through all types of adversity. These comrades deserve our continued support and their ranks must grow and be solidified.
CR8-A02: For A Member Led Grievance Process: SUPPORT
R10: Make DSA More Diverse - OPPOSE: This resolution, unamended, is a direct attack on AFROSOC, which already does and organizes the work that this resolution assigns to MROC. There is simply no need for two formations of this type in DSA. AFROSOC should be supported and defended from rightist machinations and attempts to split BIPOC comrades from each other. It is notable that AFROSOC was neither consulted regarding this resolution, nor is it mentioned in the resolution.
R10-A01: DSA For Multiracial Liberation - SUPPORT: Drafted by Black and Brown organizers within DSA who have been doing this important work for years, this amendment turns the resolution into something that is actually serious about struggling for liberation for colonized people.
R-02: No AI Images! - SUPPORT: AI steals artists’ work, relies on near-slavery labor in the Global South, and is demonstrably environmentally harmful to Black and Brown communities. The largest socialist organization in the United States has no business using it to produce propaganda or for any other reason.
R15: Taking the Fight to the Rural Front - SUPPORT
R43: Locals First DSA: Increase Share of Dues to Locals and Stabilize National Budget - SUPPORT: Our rightists often say: “Chapters are the lifeblood of DSA.” We agree, but the difference is - we believe it. As the resolution lays out clearly, the most significant organizing with the greatest impact are carried out by chapters at the local level. This is the undisputed truth. DSA as an organization survives because of chapter organizing. Instead of responding to the second so-called “Trump Bump” by hiring staff and leading to the possibility of yet another budget crisis and union standoff, DSA should direct that growth in dues back to the chapters themselves who are themselves responsible for recruiting and onboarding new members. This is a formula with a precedent for success.
R43-A01: Toward A Well Financed Federation - OPPOSE: Guts R43, eliminates dues share of yearly dues to chapters and lowers monthly dues share from 40% to 27½%.
R-45: Voting Rights For All Members - OPPOSE: See CB02.
PLATFORM/PROGRAM:
R25: DSA And the Democratic Road To Socialism - OPPOSE: Despite advocating for a lot of the correct things such as “the fight against racism, sexism, anti-queer bigotry, national chauvinism, religious discrimination, and every form of social oppression” this is ultimately not a strategy. This is a vague, watered-down caricature of a soft ‘socialism’ which does nothing to build the strategy and discipline needed to turn the organization into a truly revolutionary one, capable of making actual change. This ignores the efforts and lessons of countless revolutionary socialist movements from this country and across the world which have proven effective in actually building power. This resolution is blatantly sectarian and seeks to narrow the DSA tent to the detriment of the Left.
CONSTITUTION/BYLAWS
CB02 - One Member, One Vote For National Leadership Elections: OPPOSE: This resolution, in practice, serves to turn NPC elections into demonstrations of caucuses’ ability to whip lists of paper members to carry out their will and introduces liberalism ever further into the life of DSA. Elections should be conducted after a thorough process of struggle and education and be taken seriously. This process would be incredibly easy to rig if this resolution is allowed to pass.
ELECTORAL:
R16: Red Lines for DSA National Endorsements - SUPPORT: DSA has earned the reputation of being a source of free labor on the campaigns of the so-called ‘progressive’ section of the Democratic party. Electeds who have received the DSA endorsement in the past have used it only to advance their opportunist, careerist, liberal and imperialist aims. This has stained the validity of DSA to many in the socialist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist and anti-colonial movements across the country and region. In order to correct this and have DSA seen as a proper, principled and disciplined socialist organization which struggles for the working class, it is important we set standards and expectations.
R8: Democratic Discipline: A Unified Process for Electoral Censure Across DSA - SUPPORT: DSA has a notable problem with refusal to hold electeds accountable after allowing them to use our time and labor. Part of being in a revolutionary socialist organization is subordinating oneself to discipline and the will of the masses of members. Electeds serve the people, and the organization to which they belong. The organization and the people do not serve the electeds. It is critical that bad behavior that embarrasses the organization be publicly punished, and censure is one of the ways in which that is done.
R18: Seize the Moment: Defeat Corporate Democrats and Elect More Socialists - OPPOSE: This is a tired tactic which has gotten DSA nowhere over the years and has only done more to give the appearance of affiliation with the Democratic party. Furthermore, this strategy does nothing to address the problem of DSA electeds betraying socialist principles and abandoning the organization in office. A measure like this is looking to throw away valuable energy and resources to run candidates in a billionaire's race and tail behind labor unions whose current politics are intertwined with the Democratic party and barely represent ten percent of the working class. We cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes.
R20: Workers Will Lead the Way: OPPOSE: Despite recent actions on part of organized labor by way of strikes and resolutions, labor union leadership continues to be broadly pro-establishment. This strategy puts too much emphasis on, at best, one-tenth of the working class in the country. There is more work to be done to turn these unions into fighting democratic vehicles of the working class, throwing our time and energy into push them into elections and tailing along behind them is not the way to do so.
INTERNATIONAL:
CR2-A02: Democratic Socialist Anti-Imperialism - OPPOSE: Continues to place the International Committee and its autonomy under the auspices of the NPC, which as we have seen has been used to strangle and defang statements, such as that issued after the murder of martyr Ismail Haniyah and, most egregiously, insulted values of proletarian internationalism by removing language stipulating Iran’s right to defend itself after the United States bombed it.
R01-A01: DSA For Palestinian Self Determination - SUPPORT: This is a stalwart defense of the right of self-determination of all colonized peoples. DSA has been lukewarm on full self-determination rights for colonized people for too long. Passing this will demonstrate where we stand once and for all, and begin to repair the damage that rightism and centrism have done to our standing in the Palestinian solidarity movement.
R19: From Palestine to Mexico: Fighting Fascist Attacks on Immigrants - OPPOSE: This resolution is far too vague and relies too much on policy/legislative tools which historically have been demonstrated to be insufficient and fickle. Direct action gets the goods. We must prepare to fight on all fronts and not allow ourselves to be restricted.
R22: For A Fighting, Anti-Zionist DSA - SUPPORT: Palestinian liberation is the central issue. US taxpayer dollars and more are used to carry out a genocide against a people who have been forced into a conflict against a murderous occupying force. Both in the recent and distant past, DSA has an embarrassing track record in either supporting or looking for nuance in a situation of brutal settler colonialism. Affirming Anti-Zionism as a core principle of the organization and dedicating ourselves to working in service of Palestinian liberation, especially as it comes under increasing repression, is our duty as socialists in the imperialist metropole. Only by taking steps like these can we begin to build ties with the broader Palestine liberation movement and turn DSA into a proper anti-imperialist organization.
R22-A01: Align with the BDS Movement - OPPOSE: This resolution removes the mandate for DSA to support the successful No Appetite for Genocide campaign in a sectarian way, and also guts requirements for membership and electoral standards.
R26: Fight Fascist State Repression and ICE - SUPPORT
ICE perpetuates family separation, fear, and violence against immigrants. The campaign seeks to dismantle this institution, recognizing that immigrant justice is inseparable from the fight against fascism and racial capitalism. Abolishing ICE is a step toward ending state violence rooted in xenophobia and imperialism. Building on past success and mass mobilization such as DACA activism and the George Floyd uprisings, the campaign established by this resolution will prioritize coalitional work with movements for racial justice, labor rights, and Palestinian solidarity, recognizing interconnected struggles. It goes beyond symbolic gestures and lays out a breadth of concrete action and goals for the campaign as well as accountability measures.
R31: Rejecting the Normalization of Zionism and Occupation - SUPPORT: For some, this may seem like nothing more than a hollow gesture, a type of virtue signaling or language policing. We see this resolution and its adoption as a vital, mandatory and simple change that will not only bring our organization in line with the broader Palestinian solidarity movement for liberation but strike a blow to the credibility of the Zionist entity for members of DSA and the broader working class public who are already in their hearts anti-Zionists. It is also the simple truth that the Zionist entity is and always has been an illegitimate occupying force having been born in blood, mass murder and displacement and should never have been recognized as a state by any other nation on the planet.
R39: Organizing Against The IHRA Working Definition - OPPOSE: This resolution commits DSA to the JDA (Jerusalem Definition on AntiSemitism), which has been criticized by Anti-Zionist Jewish activists such as JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) and Palestinian revolutionaries as being insufficient in criticizing settler-colonialism.
LABOR:
R32: Toward a Multilingual DSA - SUPPORT: DSA as an organization both locally and nationally has historically communicated primarily in the English language and left open the possibility of organizing more working class people whose primary or only known language is Spanish. A vast number of currently active members speak Spanish and, if they are known at all, are being underutilized to communicate, recruit and organize those who only speak Spanish. This resolution works to remedy that and also spread the Spanish language and other languages throughout the organization both locally and nationally.
R33: Unite Labor and the Left to Run A Socialist For President And Build the Party - OPPOSE: This is wish-casting and playing with the masses - a genuine socialist will never be elected President of the bloodiest empire in human history. We will not support wasting inordinate amounts of labor and money for another Bernie Sanders campaign or for the aggrandizement of the opportunist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
R37: Building A United Front Toward 2028: SUPPORT - One of the most important resolutions that will be debated and voted on at convention and a centerpiece of the Springs of Revolution platform, which we endorse. 2028 is likely to be a year that makes or breaks not only the left movement nationally but DSA as an organization. Because of the potential for a mass strike coinciding with May Day, a coherent strategy is needed to coordinate a united front approach to what could potentially be an earthshaking year of resistance and shift away from fascism and towards a socialist future.
R42-A01: Labor For An Arms Embargo - SUPPORT - In Liberation Caucus we understand that the genocidal Zionist entity will not be stopped by politicians handwringing or politely asking the entity to genocide more discreetly and with less public bragging, but by a full scale policy of total isolation. As the resolution lays out, the genocidal project is only possible through the direct funding and transference of arms to the entity. This amendment resolution commits DSA as an organization to the arms embargo strategy that is required and places a demand on any potential elected officials to actively vote against any further armament and at the state and local level, a willingness to pursue “War Crime Free Cities.” This is one crucial step towards eliminating the Zionist scourge entirely.
R46: Resolution to Censure LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman - SUPPORT:
R47: Resolution to Censure US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - SUPPORT
NPC RANKINGS
Co-Chair: Rank Megan R. (Red Star) #1.
NPC At-Large:
Rank:
#1: Red Star
#2: Marxist Unity Group
#3: Springs of Revolution
#4: Libertarian Socialist Caucus
DO NOT RANK:
Socialist Majority Caucus
Groundwork
