Over the past few months, a situation involving the calls for expulsion of Rep. Jamaal Bowman has brought to light a series of organizational issues that we should not be distracted from, namely:
- How do we seek to build DSA as a Socialist membership organization with commitments to our democratically decided principles?
- How does our national political leadership (NPC) carry out that will?
The first issue speaks to the long-standing electoral approach that embodies much of DSA’s strategy, past and present. Electoralism alone is not a solution to our struggle, but a necessary component when applied carefully. The endorsement of Rep. Bowman has exemplified a set of problems with our electoral approach. First, the premature endorsement of candidates who are not tied to the organization in a meaningful way, and in turn their subsequent connection to the Democratic Party once elected, which places us in a precarious situation. These issues have consistently allowed for careerist and opportunistic behavior to flourish, relegating DSA to a mere mobilizing branch for vague progressives that attach us to the Democratic Party, as we attempt to horse-trade for watered-down reforms. What ought to be clear is that both the Democratic and Republican parties are our enemies. Such as here in Buffalo where the attempt to unseat a local Democratic Party leader was met with vicious reactionary politics from the Democratic Party itself, and a joining of hands with Republicans and conservatives. Moving from Local/State level to the Federal level we see these contradictions are even greater. This should give us serious pause about issuing endorsements to candidates such as Rep. Bowman who we have little to no reason to put out support behind. Vague progressive values are abundant, socialists with principles tied to our organization and a working class base less so. Second, the issue this also addresses is the nature of DSA – its size, its influence, and its relation to a fighting labor movement necessary to extract concessions from the capitalist class. As James Connolly put it:
“a socialist political party not emanating from the ranks of organized labor is, as Karl Marx phrased it, simply a socialist sect, ineffective for the final revolutionary act, but that also the attempt of craft organized unions to create political unity before they have laid the foundation of industrial unity in their own, the economic field, would be an instance of putting the cart before the horse.”
This issue has long burdened DSA since its foundation as little more than an organization to “push the Democratic Party left”. The premature – and often questionable – focus on electoralism has always been a series of contradictions that we will not overcome with candidates such as Rep. Bowman. This does not mean we should reject any electoral approach altogether, but that we must be more decisive and develop more consistency with our principles. We are happy with the NPC’s decision to develop a Socialists in Office committee, and to bolster our electoral standards at minimum. Serious thought should be put into the weaknesses of a horizontialist approach that deems any vague progressive candidacy useful to building Socialism. Though none of us are members of the Marxist Unity Group, we endorse their call for the following requirements to our electoral standards:
- The candidate must be a member of DSA.
- They must accept and pledge to promote and fight for the DSA national political platform if one is passed.
- If the campaign is successful, any staffers hired by the legislator will also be subject to the first two requirements.
- Legislators must agree to at least quarterly meetings with DSA leadership of the appropriate designation: for example congresspeople would meet with the National Political Committee, state legislators would hold meetings with leadership of all state chapter leaders (or leadership of a state/regional body if one were created), city councilors would have meetings with local chapter or branch leadership, etc.
- All DSA members in legislatures must form a caucus that votes as a block and rejects de facto discipline from any other party caucuses, regardless of which ballot line they were elected on.
To the second major issue, we are seeing a genuine problem with our national political leadership. The decisions of the NPC – the majority we should say – throughout this process have been dismaying and counterproductive. The lack of conviction to even censure Rep. Bowman illustrates as much. We also cannot help but notice that a level of secrecy in these discussions occurred that leads to reasonable doubts about the integrity of the decision making process. Additionally, the subsequent response to reign in the BDS & Palestine WG has also been an issue of concern. Though the NPC is the highest decision making body elected to carry out our political aims in-between conventions, the NPC’s disregard on our democratic commitments to Palestine, and the move to effectively censor the BDS & Palestine WG shows a vulnerability in our organizational coherence. We do not support this decision, even as we also have criticisms of BDS & Palestine WG’s decisions and level of independence, we have signed on in support of their statement of dissent. The Buffalo Chapter of DSA has voted in overwhelming support on the issue of Palestine and dissent on retaining Rep. Bowman as a representative of our organization. As leadership we see it fit that we should convey our resolve to uphold that message. The NPC has failed to act in the best interest of our organization’s democratically decided principles, and instead has demonstrated a vague strategy in supporting an elected representative who has not demonstrated the tenacity of a socialist in office. While we understand the weight and difficulties that the NPC is being presented with, we find it necessary to convey that this does not absolve the NPC of due criticism.
Furthermore, and most troubling of all, the revelation that an NPC member threatened to split and denounce DSA as a racist organization for upholding our principles of support for Palestine is particularly egregious and cannot be ignored. Whomever this NPC member is, we cannot have confidence in their leadership much less the NPC’s integrity as long as this behavior goes unanswered. We ask that this NPC member be made public to DSA membership, and that they resign from national leadership on grounds of malfeasance.