Statement on Nithya Raman and the forthcoming 10/26 NPC Meeting

by: Groundwork NPC and Steering Committee Members

In the coming weeks, the NPC will consider taking action regarding Councilmember Nithya Raman. There are currently two proposals before the NPC: one, from Springs of Revolution, to unendorse her immediately and punish the LA chapter if it does not comply, and the other, from Bread & Roses, to set a hard date for her to declare support for Palestine and BDS or else be subject to expulsion vote. Unamended, both current proposals lack crucial elements: a transparent investigation process regarding CM Raman’s positions on Palestine and personal compliance with R22, as well as, more importantly, a concrete organizing plan to wield the power of a DSA mayoralty to advance Palestinian liberation.

Our concerns about Councilmember Nithya Raman as a candidate have not changed since before DSA-LA’s endorsement vote. Many DSA members have good cause to be dissatisfied with CM Raman’s positions and actions with regard to BDS and an arms embargo against Israel. We share that disappointment, and are also disappointed by CM Raman’s orientation to DSA as an organization. At a time when support for the Palestinian cause is at record highs, we believe DSA candidates must champion the struggle for a free Palestine. CM Raman did not do so in the past and struggles to publicly do so now.

As a caucus, we seek to build a strong, coherent national organization, but we typically reject doing so by levying discipline on our chapters from the top down as anything but a last resort, after investigation. We instead favor building transparent processes in order to retain trust and legitimacy through persuasion and democratic participation. The Palestinian liberation movement is strongest in this country when mass bases can organize to demand better from those with power. This is an opportunity to demonstrate our power and commitment to organizing for democratic socialism and international solidarity in Los Angeles and across the country, by organizing to move a candidate whose principles we remain unsure of.

The NPC has determined that the Los Angeles chapter’s endorsement questionnaire lacked questions that would have allowed CM Raman to explicitly clarify her views, and that chapter leadership should have been more proactive in getting her on the record on BDS during the endorsement process. Chapter membership deserves to know with confidence where candidates stand on the issues before they are endorsed, not after. We stand with our local Groundwork comrades who argued for a wiser approach of critical support for CM Raman in the election, rather than full endorsement as a DSA-LA candidate. Despite this disagreement, the enthusiasm and energy for this campaign among DSA-LA members is undeniable. Approximately 1,500 members voted in the highest-turnout election in DSA-LA history, and 66% voted to endorse CM Raman. The NPC and Los Angeles chapter of DSA must chart a path forward that respects local endorsement decisions while ensuring CM Raman's campaign and prospective mayoralty advance the causes of socialism and Palestinian liberation.

With that in mind, we will be offering an amendment to the resolution authored by our comrades in Bread & Roses. Our amendment adds a concrete demand for CM Raman to demonstrate her alignment with DSA’s stance on Palestine, directly asking if she will support LA becoming a “War Crime Free City” by condemning and vowing to prevent (within her powers) weapons for Israel being shipped out of LAX, as passed by the 2025 DSA convention in Resolution 42. Our amendments will also provide that the NPC organize a grassroots campaign to build support from DSA-LA members, DSA endorsed candidates/socialists in office, and allied organizations, to oppose weapons destined for Israel being shipped out of LAX, with a goal of working with CM Raman’s campaign and possible mayoralty to support arms embargo demands. 

These amendments will create both a transparent process (we explicitly ask CM Raman to commit, in public, to an arms embargo) and an organizing plan (the arms embargo campaign). We are confident that by taking an organizing approach, rather than a reactive approach, we can create a stronger organization that can help DSA-LA win campaigns, build worker power in Los Angeles, develop stronger political unity in DSA, and advance the cause of Palestinian liberation. 

Expulsions and unendorsements are undesirable and disorganizing. Such actions are, in our view, only justified when it is certain there is no feasible organizing path to move an elected member and a transparent process has been undertaken to determine that. That does not mean there is never a place for them. More simply, we believe they should only be used when there is no other choice. Comrades in LA and on the NPC share the assessment that, in this case, there is still a path. To organize this path will require cooperation, investment, and understanding between all wings of DSA, National and locals, and caucuses of all stripes. The presumption of intractable division reveals a fundamental commitment to powerlessness that we do not share. It obscures that only together -- i.e. as all of DSA -- do we have the ability to wield our power and organize for Palestinian liberation here in the belly of the beast.

We wish the NPC would have been able to resolve this at the NPC Steering meeting on Monday, October 19th. Unfortunately, the question of what the national organization will do about Nithya Raman was tabled and a special meeting impromptu called for next Monday, October 26th, a date when multiple NPC members will be unavailable. The ongoing procrastination on this question is destabilizing to the LA chapter now in the home stretch of a mayoral and congressional race, as well as to the NPC and the organization as a whole, which could instead spend its meetings on the upcoming nationwide elections and ever-encroaching fascist administration. Our members need to know where their national leadership stands and be secure in their ongoing organizing. We hope to walk out of next Monday’s session with an organizing plan that furthers the shared commitments of DSA members across tendency: the fight to advance the cause of socialism, the fight to end US weapons sales to the apartheid state of Israel, and the fight to create a society that functions for the many and not the few.