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The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has experienced explosive growth, especially among millennials—a generation characterized by more debt and less wealth than their parents, notably large income disparities, and an inclination to the left in their political affiliation. Membership grew from 6,500 in June 2016 to over 50,000 in nearly 200 local chapters in 2018, and many chapters are in small cities and rural areas.
Although DSA has been around for a quarter century (since 1982), its older core workers are being displaced by young activists. Members’ median age in December 2016 was 33, compared to 68 in 2013. In Y-DSA, the youth-oriented section of DSA, there is a strong presence in community and four-year colleges. This is the first generation to grow up in—and try to survive in and shape—the post-industrial, electronic/digital age.
In August, about 1,000 elected chapter representatives will converge in Atlanta to decide on leadership and DSA priorities for the next two years. Recent interviews with the co-chairs and delegates from the small-city (pop. 180,000) Chattanooga, TN Chapter revealed the energy, hopes, and challenges felt by many in an organization experiencing growing pains but committed, as Delegate Jefferson Hodge says, “to fight like hell for a bright socialist future.”
Exactly what that future looks like to members of this emphatically “multi-tendency” organization is varied, but includes programs to meet the “felt needs” of its members in the areas of health care, labor and employment, and the environment. Chapter co-chair and delegate Kaitti Johnson says she is “solidly middle-class” but, having two daughters, is “involved in all this organizing [because] our current political system and political choices are not working for a world that I feel safe sending them into.”
Members, through their delegates, will make decisions that range from the health of the organization to the health of the planet as well as strategy and tactics to achieve them. Kaitti’s co-chair, Geoffrey Meldahl, is an active member of Ironworkers Local 704. He considers priorities with urgency and optimism: “We’ve got to develop a more vigorous presence IN labor, not just showing up as supporters, restructure our organization without fracturing, stop climate change, and many other things, but there are many astonishingly competent people involved in this organization, and I believe, as we say, that we will win.”
Winning in the electoral arena has been a major focus of DSA activity since its national electoral strategy committee made a major shift two years ago from “assisting the campaign” of candidates espousing progressive positions to “building a sustainable socialist political organization.” Preparing for Atlanta, Delegate Hodge says, “DSA was once an organization of hundreds and is now a powerful force of tens of thousands. … I think the serious issue facing comrades at this convention will be assembling this growth into a more organized machine up to the tasks of 2020 and beyond.”
