this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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askchapo

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Is joining the DSA in 2026 worthwhile? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 days ago by legaltender@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I'm finally trying to do something about not being involved in any sort of real world organizing, so I've been looking for local orgs to get involved with. The unfortunate thing is that the only socialist organization in my area is DSA, and from the looks of it this chapter seems to be not so radical. They work closely with a lot of local political groups that back the democratic party and have a pretty heavy focus on electoral politics. I know that theres quite a wide variety of socialist / communist tendencies within DSA but the chapter here is tame in comparison to the more ideologically revolutionary caucuses in the US.

What have your experiences been like with DSA if you've ever been a member or if you just worked alongside them? I want to give it a shot at least and get a feel for what its like to be involved but I'm concerned that theres going to be a lot of reformists and social democrat types. Though, maybe I'm being too judgmental before even getting started. I just wanted to gather other peoples' thoughts and opinions first before I really dedicated any time or money to the org.

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[–] ZWQbpkzl@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago

My chapter is fairly big and in a fairly radical part of the US. So there's always other working groups wanting to do something other than electoralism even if thats still the most public. We're also big enough to have a standing reading group and mobilizer group which will sometimes host different social events for new members.

If your chapter is modestly big enough there should be some way for you to find out more. DSA is going through a growth spurt nationally so your local chapter should have surplus new members. If you're intrepid enough you could meet some and make a new working group.

National caucuses are basically not mentioned/invisible at the local level. Maybe in bigger cities that's different. But afaik most DSAers aren't in a caucus or even know all the different caucuses. Internal political divisions do tend to manifest by working group affiliation. Usually Labor and Electoral vs Everyone Else.