DSA chair sounds like a cursed job NGL. They have basically no enforcement power over most of what the org does since chapters are so independent. You want DSA to be associated with social democracy well too bad the Liberation caucus just posted about how based shooting Israeli government officials is and is calling for a DSA red guard. You want a proper revolutionary party? Well too bad New York has decided one more elected will get the job done.

[–] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 8 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm starting to see the advantages of a Democratic Centralist party structure like PSL's. I'm surprised there isn't a more democratic centralist Dem Soc org. I don't see the contradiction between a reformist path to socialism and democratic centralism, but maybe there is one I'm too ML to see. But I guess they're trying to be a big tent socialist thing. It's certainly got them numbers and some officials they can say they've elected, but that's about it.

Maybe we should just turn the DSA into the US version of the International or whatever that USSR organization of different socialist parties was lol. Just split it up into a bunch of more local parties all over the US. I guess it would probably lose some of the power it still has, though.

[–] MizuTama@hexbear.net 6 points 4 weeks ago

I'm surprised there isn't a more democratic centralist Dem Soc org

Missed the fun debacle like 2 months ago where NYCDSA tried this and enforcing a support Zohran no matter what line that was overwhelming rejected by its membership.

Maybe we should just turn the DSA into the US version of the International

In my head its essentially taking the role of the reactionary trade union in context of the evaporation unions with undermined US labor power and its complete non-existence in swathes of the country and the fact with the membership numbers it has and broad access and associations with different organizations and activists it can serve as an agitational space for MLs while also giving people experience working in democratic bodies and organizing. Now too much of this is in electoral work imo, but I digress. I've seen people call it or allude to it being a party and that take is kinda delusion if they've taken a minute looking at its current internal operations. If DSA is a party as is, the word has no meaning.

I do see either a split of the DSA happening at some point from either its left or right depending on how the national level power struggle goes, or a full folding into the dems in a particular lose scenario for the DSA's left, however even that would server as either a split or fracturing as it would also likely hemorrhage most of those people, the difference being at that point they fracture into a bunch of micro-orgs instead of a coherent org/party.

[–] Dimmer06@hexbear.net 4 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe we should just turn the DSA into the US version of the International or whatever that USSR organization of different socialist parties was lol.

Functionally this is how DSA actually works. Most members are uncaucused but the caucuses run things and are quite rigid with their discipline, functioning like small parties in their own right in much the same way there were multiple factions of the RSDLP.