“…it was plain that D.S.A. constitutes a true movement.”

— Mark Tracy, the New York Times

More than a thousand delegates from 139 chapters met in Atlanta this month to set our course for the next two years and elect our new National Political Committee (NPC), which functions as DSA’s highest decision-making body between conventions. At-large delegates came from as far as Taiwan.

Hear from Sara Nelson, Linda Sarsour, Cecily Myart-Cruz and More!

“We’re here to win. And at a grand scale we want to transform society.”

— Maria Svart, DSA National Director, in the Guardian

“Let me tell you this. We’re going to run candidates and we’re going to win.”

— khalid kamau, DSAer and South Fulton, GA council member, in the Atlanta Journal Constitution

Keynote and plenary speakers Sara Nelson, Cecily Myart-Cruz, Linda Sarsour, khalid kamau, Erika Alvarez and Thea Riofrancos electrified us with their words and reminded us of our duty to win.

Sara Nelson is the International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO.

During the government shutdown, Nelson released a video calling on flight attendants to stop working and support air traffic controllers sickouts. Hours later, Trump cut a deal to end the shutdown. Now she’s standing up against climate change, supporting the Green New Deal, and calling on airlines to stop enabling deportations.

Check out her speech here! And you can read a transcript here.

Cecily Myart-Cruz, Vice President of United Teachers Los Angeles/NEA, helped lead over 30,000 teachers on strike earlier this year when collectively they won improved conditions for themselves as well as groundbreaking racial justice improvements for their students. A teacher for 23 years at both the elementary and middle school levels, she brought the house down at this year’s YDSA conference and again at the DSA National Convention!

Linda Sarsour is a DSA member, Palestinian-American Brooklyn community organizer and former executive director of the Arab American Association of New York.

And check out plenary speakers khalid kamau, Erika Alvarez and Thea Riofrancos!

International Guests brought us perspectives from Sudan, the Philippines, Palestine, Germany, Venezuela, Brussels, Peru, Quebec and Japan, and will return home with reports of DSA’s rise so we can build concrete international working class solidarity.

DSA Going Forward: Building our Democratic Socialist Movement

“When I am with DSA members, I feel as if I am part of something humane and powerful and useful. Attending their meetings and protests fills me with a sense of optimism and uplift.”

— Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs

Delegates approved dozens of resolutions setting DSA priorities and policies. Here are a few highlights:

NATIONAL PRIORITIES Delegates established DSA’s priorities for the next two years: Ecosocialist Green New Deal, Medicare For All, our National Electoral Strategy, Labor, Childcare, Housing, Decarceration, Political Education, Grassroots Fundraising, and National Growth and Development.

BERNIE DSA will urge Bernie Sanders to support expanded public housing and renters’ rights, and will create an online petition urging him to commit to a multi-point People’s Foreign Policy Platform. If Bernie Sanders doesn’t get the Democratic nomination, DSA won’t endorse another Democratic Party presidential candidate, but we’re doing the door knocking, phonebanking, and local coalition building to build working class power and make sure he wins the primary!

OPEN BORDERS DSA supports the uninhibited transnational free movement of people, demilitarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, abolition of the agencies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, decriminalization of immigration, and a pathway to citizenship for all non-citizen residents. We will not allow Trump to scapegoat immigrants for the results of neoliberal austerity nor use ICE to bust our unions.

SEX WORK DSA supports the full decriminalization of sex work.

CLASS-STRUGGLE ELECTIONS National DSA will only endorse candidates who lift up a class-struggle perspective.

REPARATIONS DSA calls on all candidates for President to develop a Comprehensive Platform for African American descendants of Slavery & Jim Crow, from 1619-1965.

NEW WORKING GROUPS National work groups will be formed to work on BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), ending cash bail, police and prison abolition, anti-fascism, and decolonization (self-determination for indigenous nations and overseas territories).

You can find a full list of resolutions and Constitution and Bylaws amendments passed here.

Meet the New National Political Committee (NPC)

“We have a world to win — and save.”

— Maikiko James, newly-elected NPC member

Every two years, DSA National Convention delegates elect sixteen DSA members to serve on the National Political Committee (NPC), which functions as DSA’s highest decision-making body between conventions.

At its first meeting, the new NPC will elect a five-member Steering Committee (SC). The SC is responsible for decision-making between meetings of the NPC and for planning NPC meetings.

The new NPC members are

Hannah Allison (Lawrence, KS)

Jennifer Bolen (San Francisco, CA)

Marianela D’Aprile (Chicago, IL)

Sean Estelle (Chicago, IL)

Blanca Estevez (NW Arkansas)

Austin Gonzalez (Richmond, VA)

Kristian Hernandez (North Texas)

Maikiko James (Los Angeles, CA)

Jen McKinney (Eugene, OR)

Natalie Midiri (Philadelphia, PA)

Erika Paschold (Lincoln, NE)

Dave Pinkham (Austin, TX)

Sauce (North Bay, CA)

Megan Svoboda (East Bay, CA, moving to NYC)

Tawny Tidwell (New York, NY)

Abdullah Younus (New York, NY)

Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) co-chairs

DSA’s constitution reserves an NPC seat for a representative of DSA’s youth division, YDSA. YDSA held its convention immediately prior to the DSA convention and elected two co-chairs, who will share the YDSA vote on the NPC.