A MESSAGE FROM ASHIK SIDDIQUE

I believe that we will win.

Over the first ever term as DSA National Co-Chair, I have had the privilege of traveling the country to talk to and work with countless DSA members across the country. In chapters big and small, strong and struggling, red state and blue, dense cities where members can take a train to a packed meeting and rural counties where you can only drive.

And what I have seen is that our core socialist belief is true. That there are more of us than there are of them. And that when we unite across differences and organize with the strategy, urgency, and creativity that history calls for, we can change the future of the world.

So as we prepare for a national convention that can and must transform DSA, when the stakes for our political project feel higher than ever, here is the future I can see. 

IMAGINE THIS FUTURE FOR DSA:

It’s years from now, but not as many years from now as you might think.

In this future, DSA is now clearly established as a mass party all across the United States.

We build and wield state power, strike power, and street power in tandem to build to win. We have deepened our electoral base in "blue" states and districts across the country, and are effectively building in "red" and "purple" states as well, especially in urban areas and towns with growing populations where working class formation is in flux. 

We continue to strategically double and triple down on growing our Socialists in Office all over the country, with standardized expectations for how chapters support and work with elected members, and how those electeds organize to keep growing and sustaining DSA chapters. Using everything we’ve learned since Bernie’s first run in 2016, we cultivate dozens of Zohrans nationwide, using media power to popularize our democratic socialist vision, and political power to bring it closer to reality.

In this future, a double digit number of DSA chapters across the country now have such sustained blocs of Socialists in Office able to drive agendas in local government, that they are meaningfully enacting “sewer ecosocialism” agendas. These 5- 10- and 20-year programs transform their cities into thriving working class havens that have great quality of life for growing local populations, resilience to climate shocks and massive internal migrations that are underway across the United States and around the world.

A number of major labor unions now work closely with DSA and blocs of socialist electeds in office, to agitate for and pass legislation for transformative reforms. These wins keep raising expectations for workers about what’s possible, building on efforts like the campaign for a 32-hour work week, or seven unions endorsing an arms embargo against Israel in solidarity with Palestine last year. A significant portion of these unions’ rank-and-file membership are DSA members, motivated to continue deepening internal union reform efforts and following through on collective organizing goals for worker power against their bosses , and are proud of DSA’s leadership and attuned to DSA internal politics enough to continue to strengthen our organization’s ability to grow and shape a strong labor movement.

There is a standard ratio we can expect of DSA membership to local population areas —1 in 1000 people takes us from  current membership size to over 300,000 members across the country. Our largest DSA chapters in dense metro areas tend to significantly surpass this ratio, with our current largest chapters like NYC easily punching over its weight with 20,000 members. 1 in 300 people, over a million, is in sight, and we are building to reach it.

In this future, we now have many more chapters that have achieved & surpassed the membership benchmark we’ve only seen in NYC and LA since 2017, with over 20 chapters that boast over 5,000 members. Over 50 more locals have over 1,000 members. Enough of these locals are working closely enough on shared regional goals that “chapters” are now often defined differently. In states with populations closer to those of our largest cities, statewide chapters function more like our strongest major city chapters, with regions more like branches, working together as a stronger whole.

As we do this, the threshold for being a DSA “chapter” becomes higher, with significantly standardized responsibilities and expectations — but all chapters now also receive and expect robust support from a national organization. These are no longer a too disconnected, too unsupported patchwork of heterogeneous groups left to struggle alone, but vibrant party organizations that are embedded in working class communities, developing organizers and leaders who are respected and trusted to keep agitating for and delivering results that tangibly improve people’s lives and grow their power in unions and in government.

Most of these DSA members are paying monthly solidarity dues, and our national budget is over $30 million. We continue to punch further above our weight than anyone in the country, but with significantly more weight, we fund party organs with a democratically approved mandate from members to fulfill party critical functions 24/7. 

We hold annual national and regional organizing conferences that engage thousands of DSA members to share skills and strengthen organizing strategies, and full time party staff capacity to plan and execute enough functions to support high quality member-driven experiences.

In this future, we wage ideological warfare at the level of a national party,  cutting through the scapegoating tactics that divide the working class and pointing outrage at where it belongs: capital. Our propaganda operations include highly produced social media and video content, a quarterly DSA publication (both digtital and in print!!) celebrating our organizing efforts and wins, a media team regularly securing hits in mainstream media, and highly consistent internal e-mail/texting operations that ensure our members are well informed and proud of DSA’s exciting wins across the whole org & always motivated to make the case to coworkers, family members, and neighbors to plug in. We define DSA on our terms not just to politics-followers, but the general public we must reach.

As a party, members are increasingly engaged at every level. The entire rank-and-file membership regularly engages with and votes on major decisions for the national party, from overarching strategic questions, to specific endorsements and campaigns. You no longer have to be steeped in DSA lore or know the most connected caucus members to influence the party’s direction, but are part of a thriving democratic, ground-up culture and structure, with a healthy expectation across the board of consistent engagement of every ring of the “organizing bullseye” out to supporters, as valued members of the organization who get to participate and feel represented in in collective decision making.

Elected officers of DSA have a high degree of trust from members demonstrated through experience and effective communication around our work, and are visible leaders in public, in internal and external media, and in organizing relationships with elected officials, labor unions, and any organizations that respect DSA’s power enough to work with us.

Internationally, we have strong relations with democratic left parties and labor unions all over the world, who we can increasingly collaborate with on coherent shared messaging and organizing goals around immigration, trade deals, climate, anti-imperialism, and anti-militarist demands that have demonstrable impact on US government policies. We regularly send international delegations to meet and exchange with partner organizations that are tangibly connected to our US organizing campaigns and socialists in office. 

In this future, we’ve won significant victories at the state and municipal level of government on housing, climate, healthcare, transit, labor rights, and cost of living issues that have positioned us as the preeminent force in a growing bloc of working class power in the US. Even against a highly dysfunctional federal government and Balkanized population, millions of people have felt their lives improve as a result of our efforts, recognize DSA as the reason it happened, are raising expectations of what’s possible, and now trust and see us as a rising force prepares to govern nationally, the same way the people saw socialist parties in Latin America as the Pink Tide began.

WE CAN BUILD THIS FUTURE

If you think this future feels out of reach, it’s understandable. Doomscrolling our social media timelines, it’s hard not to feel we’re too far down the wrong timeline in reality.

But I’ve seen the best of democratic socialism in America, and I’ve seen the worst. And what you need to need to know, more than anything, is that it’s impossible to spend so much time with so many members of the Democratic Socialists of America and not believe a better world is possible. 

I see how members already do the most with the least of any political force in the country: elect hundreds of open socialists, win historic laws like the highest minimum wage in the country, build unions and win strikes, and turned socialism from an unsayable word after the Cold War to a cause with mass appeal in the 21st century.

I hear how DSA members crave a national party structure that makes it possible to do so much more than we are right now.

I know how when we finally move beyond our outdated pre-2016 structures, and change DSA into a mass party where every member has the same resources, knowledge, trainings, and support needed to succeed in changing the world—no matter where you happen to live, or who you happen to know—things are going to change more than you can imagine.

This convention, we have a chance to transform our national organization from one that too many members feel is the domain of insiders, to a genuine party that represents DSA’s rank-and-file from the ground up. From one most members must all-but-drop chapter level organizing to meaningfully participate in, to one that enhances our work on the ground. From a top-down satellite, to a foundation run by and for party members.

This week, I am proud to sponsor the first set of a series of resolutions that, by putting DSA's direction in DSA's hands, I believe would be the most transformative DSA convention agenda in our organization’s history and can start making this vision real. These proposals won’t get us there by themselves, but they will lay the groundwork for changing DSA into the party that will.

Starting tomorrow, I invite you to consider our upcoming resolutions, and this year, build a

DSA FOR ALL

Coming soon.