PHOTO/DAYMON HARTLEY, DAYMONJHARTLEY.COM
“I knew from being homeless that I had to get politically involved,” Jordan said when I asked how he came to be a delegate at the 2019 Convention of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). He tried Democratic Party work, but it was Bernie Sanders’ calls for Medicare for All, free college, and a political revolution that drew him to DSA.
DSA has grown from 5,000 “pre-Bernie” to 56,000 today, and from a median age of 68 in 2013 to 33 years in 2017. The average age of the delegates this year was 27. Twenty-eight DSA members holding elected offices around the country attended the convention, where delegates voted to make local electoral work one of the organization’s three top priorities. (Medicare for All and the Green New Deal are the others.)
We’re Gen Z. We’re radical,” Jordan said, anticipating a long struggle. As another delegate said, “Our purpose is to build class consciousness and struggle.” Many delegates hope Bernie will win the nomination, for example, but they committed themselves to continue organizing for economic and climate justice no matter what. As another delegate said, “Bernie’s already won. Every candidate now must talk about health care.”
The DSA delegates’ resolutions and plans reflected their desperate struggles around housing, contingent jobs, medical bills, and protecting water and other public resources for all.
