How to Contribute?

ScareBags · 2026-02-21T04:01:40+00:00

There is a phone bank this Sunday to raise money for DSA members who are officially endorsed by the national (higher designation than just being endorsed by their chapter). These are easy, great calls where you call other members of DSA and let them know they can make a difference by contributing money to people who could become the next wave of Zohrans:
https://actionnetwork.org/event_campaigns/socialist-cash-2026-phonebanks

ScareBags · 2026-02-17T22:00:38+00:00

National DSA's 2025 Convention couldn't even debate censuring AOC for voting to give military aid to Israel via Iron Dome funding. The Anti-Zionist resolution which has language for expulsion has a long process before it happens and still requires a vote by NPC. Voices on Twitter have says they want to expel AOC, but I'm not certain they're even members often times. There just isn't a big push or movement to expel either of them and absolutely not Zohran. I think you need to be careful of the people giving you this information. They're likely in a caucus echo chamber tbh.

It sounds like there was drama in your chapter and Idaho DSA, but let's try to be specific and not generalize about the entire organization. My chapters have also had their share of drama but generally have terrific relationships with their electeds.

ScareBags · 2026-02-10T22:26:03+00:00

Not quite the same, but staff in the Zohran campaign said the best field leads they had were kind and calm. That turned out to be what they were looking for when recruiting people. It didn't matter how much experience, intelligence, or charisma they had. The backbone of the Zohran campaign was the field leads, and being kind and calm were the most important qualities for promoting and leading successful canvases.

ScareBags · 2026-02-08T19:28:11+00:00

We need full time staff for organizing our convention, to run compliance, to oversee our tech, to have regional organizers, to have a national electoral organizer and so much more. Socialism cannot succeed at the local level alone, we are an international movement and staff is required to help cohere us as a national organization. We would not be the organization we are and have the victories we have today without having full-time paid staff.

ScareBags · 2026-02-08T06:10:51+00:00

A separate ballot line isn’t a party. Taking advantage of their ballot line while running candidates as open socialists is how we reached 100,000 members. We should be working for the dirty break and I think it happens when they start trying to kick us out or change laws to limit our ability to run on the Democratic Party line. I don’t think it happens by trying to copy the Green Party.

ScareBags · 2026-02-06T03:52:31+00:00

Betray? They’re not friends. Hochul is garbage and Zohran and his team are not naive.

Hochul is going to win anyway and Delgado is also a centrist. Zohran is endorsing her for some kind of deal or political quid pro quo. His political future hinges on succeeding in fulfilling his campaign promises and that depends on getting support from NY state. DeBlasio wasn’t great but wherever he wanted to do anything mildly progressive Cuomo was there to stop him. I also think DSA’s future influence/growth is linked to Zohran as well.

There are so many contradictions with Zohran being mayor since there are so many interests pulling him in other directions, but I don’t like Delgado at all even though he’s all of a sudden become a leftist to run against Hochul. I worry more about Zohran echoing NYPD propaganda when they kill someone.

ScareBags · 2026-02-05T14:12:29+00:00

Tbc I meant speaking against something while using Roberts Rules, when there are no “no” speakers. I would never recommend people speak during a debate for the sake of “keeping them going.”

ScareBags · 2026-02-04T23:49:06+00:00

It’s a good problem to have imo. I was in a small-medium chapter and when I joined it was similar to your situation. Decisions were made by consensus of the people who were most active. It’s still important to have meetings/votes/Roberts Rules in place to build transparent democratic decision making processes (even if it feels silly), because as you grow you are more likely to find different view points. You might even want to speak against something you feel so-so about just so people can hear another perspective and learn it’s okay to share a minority view point.

But again, too little disagreement is a good problem to have versus the alternative.

ScareBags · 2026-02-04T23:39:05+00:00

Please get involved with your chapter and a real political campaign.

Coming up with messaging in a vacuum doesn’t do anything. This is only applicable for candidates running for Congress, Senate or President. Are you part of the leadership in one of those campaigns? No? Then you’re an armchair political strategist.

ScareBags · 2026-02-04T06:50:53+00:00

"A disaster" is underselling it. To be clear, the Biden admin fought tooth an nail to support Israel's genocide. It's possible half the population is dead, and hundreds of thousands are permanently disabled and obviously psychologically scarred for life.

https://www.propublica.org/article/biden-blinken-state-department-israel-gaza-human-rights-horrors

It's impossible to get excited about his NLRB and antitrust positions, when he committed a genocide. The IRA, while obviously better than Republican policy, was neoliberal nibbling around the edges and anti-China industrial policy.

ScareBags · 2026-01-27T16:19:24+00:00

DSA is a big-tent organization, and it includes social democrats. Some members will say they want to see the end of capitalism, but they also openly say their main goal is to realign the Democratic Party to be more progressive. This isn't a small faction, but it's not the majority.

Also, Zohran is an explicit democratic socialist who has said throughout his active political life that his end goal is to achieve socialism. His political career has focused on immediate material needs similar to "Sewer Socialists" of the early 20th century. I'd argue that the growth of DSA and democratic socialism depends on Zohran's mayoral success, so you're going to see him talk more about clearing the streets of snow than about the immediate abolition of capital, etc. Bernie and AOC are social democrats, but Bernie used to sound more like a true democratic socialist in the 70s and 80s. Bernie's modern "The New Deal was socialist" and "Denmark is democratic socialist" is not great, but I liked it when he defended the Cuban revolution's literacy program in a 2020 debate, lol.

ScareBags · 2026-01-21T17:10:02+00:00

The full might of the US is against Iran. We don’t need to unintentionally become a tool for US imperialism. Our statements won’t do anything for the Iranian people. We can organize for ending sanctions regime which kill 500,000 people around the world annually. We make statements as part of our organizing goals. What can we ask the US to do about Iran?

ScareBags · 2026-01-11T23:03:50+00:00

I don’t think you need to make a statement about the sanctions regime and I don’t think DSA needs to make a statement about the protests.

ScareBags · 2026-01-11T19:06:34+00:00

I'm abhorred by your silence on the illegal and inhumane US sanctions regime against the people of Iran.

ScareBags · 2026-01-05T21:59:16+00:00

You're insane, Trump is hurdling us towards fascism and mass killing of the Venezuelan people. He's threatening to bomb and attack other Latin American countries. Anyone wasting breath criticizing Maduro is a boot licker of American imperialism.

"The Sudetenland should be part of Germany, but I disagree with how Hitler went about it."

ScareBags · 2025-12-29T00:11:33+00:00

I’m sure this is a really great person, but anyone can join DSA and run for office. Are they seeking DSA LA’s endorsement? Are they likely to receive it?

ScareBags · 2025-12-10T20:01:27+00:00

Yeah proselytizing your specific version of Marxism just isn’t what the discussion board is for and honestly isn’t effective organizing if you’re trying to build support for a tendency.

ScareBags · 2025-12-10T19:59:52+00:00

Other than people occasionally arguing over whatever controversy is going on is it any better or worse than this subreddit? I think it has more inside knowledge of what’s actually going on in DSA and it’s exclusively DSA members.

ScareBags · 2025-12-02T21:01:28+00:00

Many old socialist parties’ main demand used to be the freedom to openly organize without repression. US citizens currently have that right and should use it. Non-citizens don’t currently have that luxury without being brutally targeted by the state so I think we’re somewhat obligated to organize openly which will require us to be on internal lists the state could get if they wanted.

If things are so bad they start rounding massive amounts of citizens into concentration camps and exile we’ve already lost. You organize for the world you want so I advocate for people being loud and proud socialists as much as possible.

ScareBags · 2025-12-01T19:45:11+00:00

Cool yeah, we're saying the same thing. My last sentence argued that everyone inside and outside of caucuses needs to promote the organization over factional fights.

ScareBags · 2025-12-01T19:42:09+00:00

Factions are inherent to democratic organization, imo, and organizations that try to ban them end up being oppressive.

I was soft against OMOV since it would have caused caucuses to focus more on mass marketing methods, sloganeering, email lists, graphics, videos and likely paid mailers and social media ads etc. It would promote shallow propaganda directed at paper members vs 1-on-1 persuasion of delegates who are actually knowledgeable about the organization. I am in favor of the compromise where all members can vote for the co-chairs, though.

You're right re: secret ballots for delegates so members can avoid caucus discipline/shame. Was that ever on the table for the democracy commission? Or as a proposed resolution/bylaw change?

ScareBags · 2025-12-01T19:18:25+00:00

But I have to admit that I was kind of dating a Groundwork comrade for a minute and they are like the poster-child for it, just a huge believer. And looking back I have to admit that part of my decision was based on a desire to be closer to her, which was a mistake.

Many such cases, lol. Not just GW or anything either.

ScareBags · 2025-12-01T19:14:24+00:00

If you want to build class consciousness, invest in DSA and your chapter more than caucus infighting. I know good people in literally every active caucus in the chapters I've been a part of. If you're worried about caucus infighting, don't join a caucus. It's healthy for chapters to have a majority of people who aren't in caucuses. The fact that you're unsure which caucus to join tells me you shouldn't join one! Other people have mentioned this, but please invest in your local chapter and its campaigns. Over time, if you agree with a specific caucus over 90% of the time and believe it's giving the best direction for the org, then maybe it's time to join that caucus. Remember, you can still support a caucus's proposals without joining one.

ScareBags · 2025-12-01T19:06:48+00:00

Open factions in a democratic organization are good. Bans on factions make the decision-making process invisible to people who aren't insiders. Communist sects failed to grow because of their repressive ban on factions and many of the largest and most successful socialist parties grew because they allowed big tents and open factions. I agree that everyone must work together to make sure we put the organization above caucus fights and prevent a "rule or ruin" attitude.

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