At its founding, DSA was said to have about 5,000 members from DSOC and 1,000 from NAM.[36]Dorothy Ray Healey served as vice chair in 1982.[37] The DSA inherited both Old Left and New Left heritage. NAM was a successor to the disintegrated Students for a Democratic Society. DSOC was founded in 1973 from a minority anti-Vietnam War caucus in the Socialist Party of America (SPA)—which had been renamed Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA). DSOC started with 840 members, of whom 2% had served on its national board, and about 200 of whom came from SDUSA or its predecessors (the Socialist Party–Social Democratic Federation, formerly part of the SPA) in 1973, when the SDUSA's membership was about 1,800, according to a 1973 profile of Harrington.[38]
The red rose is part of DSA's logo,[39] having been a symbol of socialism since the 1886 Haymarket Affair and resulting May Day marches. It was drawn from the logo of DSOC, its precursor organization, and previously of the Socialist International, which shows a stylized fist clenching a red rose, the fist replaced by a biracial handshake pertaining to DSA's anti-racism.[40] The fist and rose logo was originally designed for the French Socialist Party in 1969[41] and later shared by socialist and labor political organizations worldwide.
At the 2023 DSA National Convention, Marxist factions won a majority of National Political Committee (NPC) seats for the first time, marking a further shift left.[42][44][25][26] In 2024, founding member Maurice Isserman left the group, citing Marxist-Leninist entryism and the DSA's refusal to condemn Hamas after the October 7 attacks.[42][23] Alongside Isserman, 24 longtime prominent members published a resignation letter in The New Republic articulating their frustration with the new DSA and the October 7 attacks. The letter's signatories include Harold Meyerson, Peter Dreier, and Lawrence Mishel.[45] DSA released a statement condemning all violence against civilians in the October 7 attacks, and has been active in bringing attention to the Gaza genocide.[46]
Organization
States which have held DSA conventions
DSA has a decentralized structure, where chapters and ideological caucuses have high autonomy. DSA elects its national leadership, the National Political Committee (NPC), every two years at a National Convention of elected chapter delegates.
Local chapters operate with considerable independence, developing their own priorities, endorsements, and campaigns while adhering to national platform principles.[47] Ideological caucuses within DSA, such as the anarchist Libertarian Socialist Caucus[24] and the Marxist caucus Bread and Roses,[48] compete for influence and promote their particular approaches to socialist organizing.[23]
Membership
Two founding Idahoan DSA members at a big tent event in late September 2018
DSOC started with 840 members in 1973, of whom 2% had served on its national board, and about 200 of whom came from SDUSA or its predecessors (the Socialist Party–Social Democratic Federation, formerly part of the SPA).[38] In the early 1980s, DSOC's membership was estimated at 5,000.[49]
When DSOC and NAM merged into DSA, it had approximately 5,000 members from the DSOC plus 1,000 from the NAM.[36] By 1987, the new organization's membership grew to an estimated 7,000.[50]
DSA's membership greatly increased following Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, the presidential victory of Donald Trump, the 2018 election of DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the COVID-19 pandemic.[51][52][53] In July 2018, DSA had 43,000 members.[54] In May 2020, organizers said DSA had attracted about 10,000 new members since March of that year. According to DSA leaders, after Sanders dropped out of the 2020 presidential race in April, many supporters previously aligned with his campaign joined DSA.[53] Membership peaked at 95,000 in 2021, when DSA had 239 local chapters,[55][56] before declining to 77,575 by August 2023, largely from lapsed dues.[57] DSA has gained at least 2,400 new dues-paying members since October 2023 due to its pro-Palestinian stance during the Gaza war.[58] In June 2025, before the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, DSA claimed 80,000 members.[59][1]
Between 2013 and 2019, the average age of its membership decreased from 68 to 33.[60]
Publications
DSA publishes Democratic Left and Socialist Forum, quarterly magazines of news, analysis, and internal debate.[61][62]Democratic Left continues in an uninterrupted run from the original Newsletter of the Democratic Left published by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, a DSA predecessor, since its establishment in 1973.[63] Caucuses within DSA often have their own publications to spread their particular views within and outside the organization, such as The Call,[64] Reform and Revolution,[65] Partisan Magazine,[66] and Light and Air.[67]
Left-wing quarterly magazine Jacobin often aligns with DSA, although they are not affiliated.[68] In 2014, Jacobin's founder and then-editor Bhaskar Sunkara, a DSA member, praised DSA founder Michael Harrington, calling him "very underrated as a popularizer of Marxist thought".[69]
DSA's long-term goal is to end capitalism and replace it with democratic socialism, creating "a more free, democratic and humane society" that achieves "equitable distribution of resources, meaningful work, a healthy environment, sustainable growth, gender and racial equality, and non-oppressive relationships". DSA's short-term goal is to "fight for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people".[77][78][79]
Until 2021, DSA lacked a political program or platform to represent the organization's positions and relied on press releases and strategy documents published by the organization's leaders at its founding.[84] At its 2021 convention, DSA adopted its first platform, which was not binding on members or electeds. The platform had a number of wide-ranging demands organized into ten planks: Deepening and Strengthening Democracy, Abolition of the Carceral State, Abolition of White Supremacy, A Powerful Labor Movement, Economic Justice, Gender and Sexuality Justice, Green New Deal, Health Justice, Housing for All, and International Solidarity, Anti-Imperialism, and Anti-Militarism.[85] At its 2025 convention[86] DSA adopted Workers Deserve More as its sole public program, replacing the 2021 platform and superseding all previous policy position documents.[87]
The dominant position in DSA regards the abolition of capitalism and the realization of socialism as a long-term goal. Therefore, DSA focuses its immediate political energies on policy reforms, labor organizing, and tenant organizing that empower working people while decreasing the power of corporations, to approach more comprehensive societal change.[77][88][89][90]
Labor
DSA has been involved in a variety of labor organizing campaigns. In 2020, DSA and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America founded the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC) to "help workers organize" by developing training programs and connecting labor organizers with appropriate resources.[91][92][93]Jacobin attributed various labor organizing drive and union election victories to the assistance of EWOC organizers.[91] DSA has frequently adopted the strategy of getting socialists hired in key occupations to establish new unions or reform caucuses within existing unions.[94]
In October 2023, the University of Oregon's YDSA chapter led a campaign to form the nation's largest wall-to-wall undergraduate labor union, and successfully unionized 4,900 student workers.[97][98][99][100]
DSA supports the implementation of a Green New Deal, including "Massive public investment to transition away from fossil fuels toward a green and sustainable economy. Guaranteed support for workers in the fossil fuel industry, massive infrastructure and jobs programs, and public ownership over major transportation and energy infrastructure and natural resources."[101]
In May 2023, DSA claimed that the four-year organizing campaign led by New York state chapters enabled the BPRA to pass.[106][102] DSA and progressive media called it "the biggest Green New Deal victory in U.S. history" due to its provisions for public renewable energy, unionized public jobs, electricity price discounts, and closing natural gas plants.[105][106][107][108][3]
Some have criticized the New York Power Authority for lack of transparency around progress toward the goals of the BPRA, and for hiring McKinsey & Company to implement the plan, which advocates have criticized for corruption and alleged bias for private development.[109]
Prisons and police
In the 1990s, the DSA Fund directed resources to the Prison Moratorium Project led by the youth section of DSA, which aimed to divest from private prisons and contributed to Sodexo partially divesting from them.[110]
DSA originally supported Israel and Zionism. When the United Nations passed Resolution 3379 in 1975, which called Zionism a form of racism, Harrington called it a "preposterous charge" that "drain[ed] the concept of racism of any serious meaning."[114] Former DSA vice-chair Jo-Ann Mort has said the group was formerly "the place to go on the left if you were a socialist and you were pro-Israel".[43] The New American Movement, which merged into DSA, was ideologically anti-Zionist.[115]
In 2021, DSA attracted criticism from the socialist left due to a vote by U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, an elected member of DSA at the time, in favor of providing $1 billion in additional annual aid to Israel, in violation of DSA's anti-Zionist and pro-BDS platform.[117][118][119][120][3] Bowman was also criticized for meeting with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett on a trip to Israel organized by the liberal Zionist lobby group J Street.[117][120][119]
In February 2022, Bowman removed his sponsorship of the Israeli Relations Normalization Act, which some DSA members considered a win from engaging with Bowman's office.[121] In April 2023, Bowman co-led a letter to President Joe Biden with Senator Bernie Sanders urging a probe into the use of U.S. weapons to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians.[122][123] The letter called for restricting $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel and "immediate action to prevent the further loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives".[122]
In July 2023, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, 412–9, declaring that "The State of Israel is not a racist or apartheid state, Congress rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia, and the United States will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."[124] Among those voting against the resolution were DSA members Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Bush, and Bowman, who each cited the Israeli government's human rights abuses against Palestinians.[124]
In July 2025, Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed an amendment in the House of Representatives to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026, that would cut $500 million in funding for the Israeli Cooperative Program. The amendment failed by a vote of 6-422.[125]Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a DSA member endorsed by the New York City chapter, voted against the amendment, saying that it cut off the Iron Dome's defensive capabilities without stopping U.S. munitions from being used in Gaza.[126]Rashida Tlaib, a DSA member who is endorsed nationally, voted for the amendment.[125] DSA released a statement saying, "An arms embargo means keeping all arms out of the hands of a genocidal military, no exceptions. This is why we oppose Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's vote against an amendment that would have blocked $500 million in funding for the Israeli military's Iron Dome program" and "We are proud that DSA member and congresswoman Rep. Rashida Tlaib—as well as allies Reps. Ilhan Omar, Summer Lee, and Al Green—voted to cut this military money to Israel, in opposition to 422 members of Congress, before voting no on the overall package."[127]
Gaza war
Protestors at a New York City DSA-led protest marches in Manhattan to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza war, and an end to Israeli apartheid.
On October 7, 2023, DSA published a statement that "unequivocally condemn[ed]" all civilian casualties, reaffirmed its opposition to occupation of Palestinian territory and support for Palestinian statehood, called for an end to U.S. financial support to the State of Israel, said Hamas's attack that day was the result of "Israel's apartheid regime", and spotlighted an initiative by DSA-endorsed New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani that would end nonprofit status for organizations funding Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.[128] The same day, Cori Bush released a statement mourning "the over 250 Israeli and 230 Palestinian lives that have been lost today",[129] criticizing Israel's military response to the attack,[130] and calling for "ending U.S. government support for Israeli military occupation and apartheid".[131] On October 8, Rashida Tlaib released a statement that likewise grieved "the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day", called for lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip and ending Israeli occupation and apartheid, and cited U.S. government support for Israel as part of the problem.[132] DSA-endorsed members of Congress—Bush, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez—have all called the State of Israel an apartheid regime, citing human rights abuses against Palestinians.[124]
Over the months following the start of the Gaza war, various DSA chapters and DSA rank-and-file members and public officials organized and participated in numerous protests and vigils alongside Jewish and Palestinian advocacy groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and Students for Justice in Palestine, in support of a ceasefire and Palestinian liberation.[133][134][135][136][137]
On October 8, the New York City DSA chapter promoted a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square.[138] Several New York politicians condemned the rally for statements at the event by Party for Socialism and Liberation member Eugene Puryear mocking the victims of the Re'im music festival massacre and for an unidentified attendee displaying a swastika on a cellphone.[139][140][141] DSA later distanced itself from the rally,[141][142] as did Ocasio-Cortez.[143] Representative Jamaal Bowman confirmed in light of the rally that he had let his DSA membership expire in 2022.[144] In the days after the rally, some socialist magazines such as Jacobin published editorials disputing negative characterizations of DSA, arguing that mainstream media outlets had falsely accused it of supporting Hamas and organizing the rally.[145] Some Jewish members of DSA denounced Mayor Eric Adams for falsely[141][146] accusing DSA of "carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people", calling the accusation "horrific defamation".[147] Both progressives outside DSA and opponents of DSA argued that Adams's comments were inappropriate and false.[141][146] In addition to denouncing Adams's comments, Abby Stein wrote disapprovingly in the New York Daily News about other New York politicians, such as Ritchie Torres and Nicole Malliotakis.[146]
On November 15, JVP, DSA, and IfNotNow held a candlelight vigil and protested at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in Washington, DC to call for a ceasefire in Gaza during a fundraiser attended by members of Congress.[155][156][157] The vigil and protest ended in U.S. Capitol Police clashing with protestors who were "illegally and violently protesting" at the building, according to police, injuring 90 protestors and 6 police officers.[155][157] Congressmen Representative Brad Sherman and Senator Marco Rubio claimed the protestors were violent and "pro-Hamas."[158]
From November 29 to December 2, DSA officially joined a coalition led by the Adalah Justice Project to carry out a five-day hunger strike outside the White House, with DSA members including New York State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Michigan State Representative Abraham Aiyash, Palestinian writer Sumaya Awad, actress Cynthia Nixon, and then-interim DSA chair Ashik Siddique participating in the strike.[159][160][161][162][163][164] Five members of Congress joined the strikers to speak in support on November 29, including Bush and Tlaib.[162][163][164][165][166]
Throughout 2024, DSA led or endorsed several state-level Uncommitted campaigns, and YDSA chapters led or supported encampment organizing on university campuses. On July 11, 2024, DSA pulled its endorsement of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she hosted an online panel discussion about antisemitism with Jewish leaders. During the discussion, Ocasio-Cortez said that some criticism of Israel was antisemitic. DSA called the panel "a deep betrayal to all those who've risked their welfare to fight Israeli apartheid and genocide through political and direct action in recent months and in decades past".[167][168]
On February 26, 2022, DSA issued a statement condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine while arguing that the U.S. and NATO provoked Russia.[169] The statement called for "diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis" and for the U.S. to withdraw from NATO and "end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict".[170][171] Many Democratic members of Congress, including politicians affiliated with DSA, criticized this statement,[170][169] with some calling it "tone-deaf".[171] Others defended the statement and criticized the responses from mainstream media and politicians attacking DSA.[172][173] According to New York, "The suggestion that the U.S. was somehow to blame for Vladimir Putin's war of aggression was seized on by DSA's critics across the ideological spectrum—from the New York Post to Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose—while setting off a round of recriminations and counterstatements among American leftists."[170]
Affiliations
DSA was a member of the Socialist International from 1982 to 2017. A majority of delegates at the 2017 DSA National Convention voted to leave the International due to its alleged support for neoliberal economic policies.[18]
Delegates at the 2021 DSA National Convention voted to apply to join the São Paulo Forum,[174] and DSA became an Associate Member organization in 2023.[175] In August 2023, the DSA National Convention voted to join the Progressive International,[176] and DSA became an official member in October 2023.[177]
Historically, DSA was associated with Michael Harrington's position that "the left wing of realism is found today in the Democratic Party". In its early years, DSA opposed Republican presidential candidates by giving critical support to Democratic nominees like Walter Mondale in 1984.[178] In 1988, DSA enthusiastically supported Jesse Jackson's second presidential campaign.[179] Since 1995, DSA's position on American electoral politics has been that "democratic socialists reject an either-or approach to electoral coalition building, focused solely on a new party or on realignment within the Democratic Party".[180] During the 1990s, DSA gave the Clinton administration an overall rating of C−, "less than satisfactory".[181]
Since the early 2000s, DSA has been critical of the Democratic Party leadership, which it argues is corporate-funded.[182] In 2008, DSA stated:[183]
Much of progressive, independent political action will continue to occur in Democratic Party primaries in support of candidates who represent a broad progressive coalition. In such instances, democratic socialists will support coalitional campaigns based on labor, women, people of color and other potentially anti-corporate elements. Electoral tactics are only a means for democratic socialists; the building of a powerful anti-corporate coalition is the end.
In recent years, DSA's stated long-term goal has become to form an independent workers' party, while in the meantime it adopts a "proto-party" strategy called the "dirty break".[184] DSA's elected leadership has often seen running in Democratic Party primary elections, rather than immediately forming a third party, as necessary for socialist visibility and electoral victories while DSA builds the resources for a viable workers' party.[184] DSA has also developed a stricter endorsement policy since 2016, endorsing only democratic socialists.[185]
Presidential elections
DSA banner reading: "Obama Is No Socialist But We Are"
In 2004, most DSA members backed John Kerry after he won the Democratic nomination. DSA's PAC urged DSA members to vote for Kerry, arguing that a Kerry loss "would be taken not as a defeat of the US political center, which Kerry represents, but of the mainstream Left", while a Kerry win would a small step "toward reversing nearly four decades of conservative dominance".[189]
The only resolution on upcoming elections at DSA's 2005 convention focused on Bernie Sanders's independent campaign for the U.S. Senate in Vermont.[190] DSA's 2007 convention in Atlanta featured record-breaking attendance and more participation by the youth wing. Sanders gave the keynote address.[191]
In 2008, DSA supported Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in his race against Republican nominee John McCain. In an article in the March 24 edition of The Nation, DSA members Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher Jr., along with Tom Hayden and Danny Glover, announced the formation of Progressives for Obama, arguing that Obama was the most progressive viable Democratic presidential candidate since Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.[192] Following Obama's election, many on the political right began to allege that his administration's policies were "socialistic",[193] a claim that DSA and the Obama administration both rejected. The claim led DSA National Director Frank Llewellyn to declare that "over the past 12 months, the Democratic Socialists of America has received more media attention than it has over the past 12 years".[194]
In the 2016 presidential election, DSA endorsed Sanders for president. Sanders's candidacy prompted a surge in DSA membership among young voters, which also brought a major shift in DSA's federal endorsements toward a stricter line.[195] After Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries, DSA called for Republican nominee Donald Trump's defeat, but did not officially endorse Clinton.[196]
In 2020, DSA endorsed Sanders for president again after an advisory poll reported 76% of the participating membership approved his endorsement,[197] despite objections from part of the membership about Sanders's statements on, among other topics, slavery reparations.[198] No other candidates were included in the poll. After Sanders dropped out in April 2020, DSA explicitly did not endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden.[199] Two DSA chapters (Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City) voted to endorse Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins.[200] In May 2020, 91 "founders, officers and activists" of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in the 1960s criticized DSA's failure to endorse Biden in an open letter "to the New New Left From the Old New Left" published in The Nation.[201] Daniel Finn of Jacobin responded that in invoking the specter of fascism under a second-term Trump, the former SDSers were engaging in "melodramatic hyperbole", and that climate change was not an issue that could wait until 2024 or 2028. "No socialist", he argued, "who campaigned for Bernie Sanders should feel guilty about abandoning [the Democrats] and concentrating on building a movement that is the only real hope for the planet's future".[202]
Ocasio-Cortez's victory led more than 1,000 new members to join DSA the next day, approximately 35 times the daily average.[215] These signups helped boost the organization to 42,000 members nationally in June 2018.[216] That number increased to 50,000 by September 1, 2018.
In November 2022, Greg Casar[a] was the fifth DSA member jointly elected to the House, though he was not endorsed due to his stances on Palestine.[227] The next year, Bowman announced that he had stopped paying his membership dues,[228] and Shri Thanedar, who had quietly joined DSA, was expelled for supporting the governments of Israel and India.[229][230] But in May 2024, Bowman rejoined DSA and was endorsed by its New York City chapter.[231][232] This came as he faced a strong primary challenge from George Latimer, who was endorsed by many pro-Israel lobby groups.[233][234] In June 2024, Bowman lost the primary to Latimer.[235] In July 2024, DSA's National Political Committee (NPC)'s endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez was revoked due to her stances on Palestine, though the New York City DSA chapter rejected the NPC's conditions for her endorsement; Ocasio-Cortez is endorsed locally by the NYC-DSA chapter, but does not have the national endorsement.[236] In August 2024, Cori Bush lost the Democratic primary election for her seat to Wesley Bell.[237]
In the United States elections of 2017, DSA endorsed 15 candidates for office, with the highest position gained being that of Lee J. Carter in the Virginia House of Delegates.[239] DSA members won 15 electoral offices in 13 states, bringing the total to 35 (having changed its electoral strategy at its national convention, DSA had anticipated picking up approximately five seats)[240][241] 56% of DSA members who ran in this election cycle won, compared to 20% in 2016.[241] These results encouraged dozens more DSA members to run for office in the 2018 elections.[242]
In March 2021, an all-DSA leadership of a state Democratic party was elected for the first time in its history, sweeping the leadership of the Nevada Democratic Party.[279][280] After the elections, the entire Nevada Democratic Party staff resigned.[281] On March 4, 2023, a "unity" slate of candidates was elected, ending DSA leadership of the party.[282] In February 2023, DSA's Las Vegas chapter said that communication between the slate and the chapter had faltered and the slate had become increasingly moderate over its term despite initial statements in favor of democratic socialist causes. From this experience, the chapter wrote in opposition to both entryism in the Democratic Party and solely focusing on electoral organizing as formidable strategies for socialist organizers:[283]
This is our lesson, and we hope socialists everywhere will pay close attention: the Democratic Party is a dead end. It is a "party" in name only; truly, it is simply a tangled web of dark money and mega-donors, cynical consultants, and lapdog politicians. ... We don't want milquetoast progressive reformist-reforms; we want socialism. We won't get it by playing the DNC's games, and we won't get it by being a mildly obnoxious thorn in their side, either. Our task is to out-organize them entirely, and not merely within the confines of the voting booth.
In the 2023 Chicago aldermanic elections, all five incumbent DSA members were reelected, as was Andre Vasquez, whom DSA endorsed in 2019 but censured in 2020 for supporting a neoliberal budget.[287] After James Cappleman retired, DSA member Angela Clay was elected in the 46th Ward, bringing the total membership of the Democratic Socialist Caucus back up to six.[288][289]
At the 2023 DSA National Convention, delegates declared school board elections to be an electoral priority.[3][290]Jacobin and the New York Post both noted the success of DSA candidates in school board elections in at least 15 states since 2021 from left- and right-wing perspectives, respectively, including that such candidates ran on supporting transgender rights, fighting systemic racism, and supporting teachers' unions and funding for public education.[290][291]
In June 2025, the New York City chapter-endorsed candidate, Zohran Mamdani, won the Democratic Party primary election for mayor, defeating former governor Andrew Cuomo. If elected, he will become the second DSA mayor of New York City after David Dinkins left office in 1993.
1 2 Kim, Catherine (July 11, 2023). "The left goes to war with itself". The Politico. Infighting within DSA chapters is making headlines across the country — a sign that the far-left faction of the progressive wing may be fracturing as the result of its success.
1 2 3 4 Weaver, Adam (August 5, 2017). "A Turning Point on the Left? Libertarian Caucus Debuts at Democratic Socialist Conference". Truthout. Retrieved July 17, 2023. In addition, many are viewing the DSA convention this week in Chicago as a key turning point within the organization. Coming out of the DSA is a new caucus called the Libertarian Socialist Caucus. The LSC promotes a vision of 'libertarian socialism' ...
↑ Dorothy Healey and Maurice Isserman, Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 245–249.
1 2 O'Rourke, William (1993). "L: Michael Harrington". Signs of the literary times: Essays, reviews, profiles, 1970–1992. The Margins of Literature (SUNY Series). SUNY Press. pp.195–196. ISBN0-7914-1681-X.
↑ (in French) Michel Noblecourt, "Mort de Didier Motchane, cofondateur du Ceres", Le Monde, November 2, 2017.
1 2 3 Isserman, Maurice (June 17, 2024). "The Cause That Turned Idealists Into Authoritarian Zealots". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 7, 2025. ...Leninist temptation was emerging within the organization. By the fall of 2023, a coalition of hard-left caucuses had gained control of many big-city DSA chapters and had assembled a majority on the group's ruling National Political Committee.
1 2 Springfield, Bryce; Lewis, John (January 31, 2025). "A Guide to DSA Politics". Democratic Socialists of America's Libertarian Socialist Caucus. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
↑ "Who's afraid of the Democratic Socialists?". The Economist. Archived from the original on September 13, 2025. Retrieved September 13, 2025. What he is not saying, oddly, is that even the DSA no longer officially holds those positions. Last month it replaced its old platform—the fevered to-do list of a Utopian with OCD and a PhD in jargon—with a compact statement of still radical, but less radical, proposals, neither so grandiose nor so weirdly particular.
↑ "Workers Deserve More". DSA 2024 Program. Democratic Socialists of America. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
↑ "Rise of the democratic socialists". The Week. July 30, 2018. Archived from the original on April 28, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2019. DSA's national platform calls for abolishing capitalism
1 2 Woodward, Alex (October 21, 2023). "More than 100 arrested at protest calling for ceasefire, aid for Gaza". The Independent. Retrieved October 22, 2023. More than 3,000 people marched in heavy rain from Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan to the office of US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, where they condemned the killings of Palestinians and Israelis and demanded she and other members of Congress support a ceasefire resolution. ... New York State Senator Jabari Brisport was among those arrested. In a video he shared on social media, the senator chants "free Palestine" as he stands in a handcuffed group behind a line of NYPD officers.
↑ Burke, Kerry; Quigley, Liam (October 21, 2023). "Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters gather in Midtown Manhattan". New York Daily News. Retrieved October 22, 2023. Democratic Socialists of America's New York City chapter helped organize the demonstration, calling on New York Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to demand a ceasefire in the conflict.
↑ Democratic Left Editorial Team (Winter 2020). "Chapter and Verse: DSA specialty: Toppling incumbents". Democratic Left. Retrieved January 5, 2021. At least 48 DSA members were on the ballot this November, and at least 36 won office, earning more than 3.1 million votes for socialist candidates altogether.
↑ "Meg Gorman for Congress". www.facebook.com. Retrieved October 13, 2020. I'm beyond proud to receive the endorsement of Chattanooga Democratic Socialists of America.
↑ Bohannon, Molly. "Congressman Leaves Democratic Socialists Of America For Promoting Pro-Palestinian Rally After Hamas Attack". Forbes. Retrieved October 17, 2023. A spokesperson for the Detroit chapter of DSA told Forbes in a statement that Thanedar's "views are not—and have never been—representative of Detroit DSA." Thanedar was expelled from the chapter last month "due to his support of the far right, violent, Islamophobic Modi regime in India," the spokesperson said.
↑ Neavling, Steve. "Thanedar was a harsh critic of Israel before becoming an outspoken defender". Detroit Metro Times. Retrieved October 17, 2023. The Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America fired back at Thanedar, saying he can't renounce his membership because he was removed from the local group on Sept. 17.
↑ "Spring 2020 Voter Guide". Madison Area Dsa – Democratic Socialists of America. March 31, 2020. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
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80,000 [1] 
