"...something is happening here..."

 “United States: Lessons From the DSA Convention”by Paul Le Blanc, 8/16/25

Paul Le Blanc attended the recent Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) convention in Chicago, August 8-10 and wrote a report on it.  I’ve attended some joint meetings involving DSA as one component, and attended a DSA study group for a while, but their orientation towards the Democrats has always put me off.  That is a class compromise I cannot make.  On the other hand the whole Republican Party and the leaders of the Democratic Party (DP) consider it ‘Communist’ or ultra-left, and seek to blunt, diminish or stop it.  Trump has even threatened to invade NYC if Mamdani is elected.

DSA Convention in Chicago in August 2025

As Le Blanc points out, DSA is growing again, it has a democratic internal life involving a number of caucuses and it is moving to the left.  At one point they had 100K members during the Sanders’ years, then shrunk to 50K, now are back up to 80K given the Trump police state and the Mamdani win in the Democrat primary in NYC.  They see 100K in the near future.  As Le Blanc points out, this is dues-paying members, and not all those are paid up.  1,229 of the conference attendees were delegates at the Convention, with the rest of the 1,500 attendees observers of some kind.  Nationally, actual active members of DSA are a smaller minority. He estimates that around 8-10K are active members, which still makes DSA the largest group on the Left by far.   

Le Blanc considered the overly-procedural convention to still be democratic.  He divides the groupings into 3 main caucuses, with overlap and political fluidity quite obvious, while some groups are outside the 3.  In the process he names the caucuses.  As he notes in his own Pittsburgh branch, most people are not in a caucus.  The general groupings are: 1) a ‘moderate’ wing, taking after Michael Harrington’s legacy, very inclined to ‘progressives’ and liberals in the DP.  2) A ‘far-left’ wing made up of Palestinian activists and ‘campists’ who cheer for anyone opposed to the U.S.  3) A Marxist center-left wing oriented to the eventual establishment of an independent socialist party, while being presently oriented towards labor movements.  

Le Blanc names the various explicit caucuses, so if you want a roadmap, read his article in the link down below.  All 3 groupings have one-third of the national committee, and he contends they do not want a split.

Le Blanc lists the main resolutions passed, including one for an ‘anti-Zionist DSA’ and for BDS, along with various pro-labor plans.  The form of ‘anti-fascism’ that passed is limited to actively opposing ICE and Trump.  Tenant organizing was also a key resolution.  He notes that convention discussions focused heavily on class views, not identity politics, so a general ‘Marxist’ tone was kept.  A key resolution was that DSA electoral endorsements had to be on the basis of open ‘democratic-socialism,’ not just some mealy-mouthed progressive claim.

However the class view stopped at the borders of the U.S., with a resolution opposing ‘campism’ being voted down by 43% to 56%. This reformist perspective basically obliterates internationalist working-class organizing, reflected a nationalist blindness. It represents a kind of classless ‘anti-imperialism.’  It jibes with reformist groupings outside DSA like various Maoid / Stalinist / ‘third world’ tacks.  There were some international speakers, but as you can see two of these parties are running capitalist states.  Speeches by the Brazilian PT (running Brazil) and PSOL, Belgium’s Workers Party, La France Insoumise, the Mexican Morena (running Mexico), Puerto Rico’s Socialista and Japan’s Socialists were given, along with some unions, rank-and-file orgs in unions, the Sunrise Movement, BDS, the Palestinian Youth Movement and Democrat office-holder Rashida Tailib.

DSA is heavily oriented towards 2028 according to Le Blanc, which coincides with the next national electoral cycle.

Le Blanc ends by saying he is convinced that now is the time for more orthodox Marxists like himself to be involved in DSA, given its left-ward trajectory, democratic functioning and sizeable impact. I’ve been a supporter of a united front of the Left for a long time, and certainly within DSA there is a ‘united front’ of various tendencies, proving it can be done.  But given that front extends to bourgeois elements that have not broken with capital, it is really a popular front.  Certainly DSA’s efforts dwarf those of the pro-China, Trotskyist, neo-Marcyite or Mao / Stalin groups outside DSA, which is inevitable in the U.S. as young generations partly break from bourgeois thinking in various areas once again.

Le Blanc had expected the moderate wing of DSA to lord it over the Convention, but that was not the case.  He was encouraged by the youth, the diverse proletarian jobs and ethnic backgrounds, the left-ward trajectory, the size of the organization and perhaps, its ‘prospects.’  I see DSA as playing a role in the socialist movement similar to the 1960s SDS.  The best outcome out of DSA is the birth of a new, mass socialist front or party based on the trade unions, taking the best of working-class Democrats and working-class Republicans with it.  Whether that will happen also depends on the activity of left forces outside DSA, internal union activity and the historical ‘conjuncture’ – which is sharpening everywhere in the world.  The endgame of capital seems to be playing out once again, and this is reflected by the growth of DSA. 

Le Blanc’s essay is on the International Journal of Socialist Renewal LINKS:  Le Blanc on DSA Convention.   

To all those 'educated' DP liberals still chattering about how some mainstream Democrat will save them and oblivious to DSA, I have this lyric from "Ballad of a Thin Man:"  

"Because something is happening here,  But you don't know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?"

Prior blogspot reviews on this topic, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 19 year archive, using these terms: “DSA,” “Le Blanc,” ‘social-democracy.’

Red Frog / August 16, 2025