ISSUE #3

Denver DSA Convention Delegates were asked to write a paragraph on their experience at the 2023 DSA National Convention. This is what they wrote.

Alejandra Beatty

As someone who hadn’t been heavily involved in DSA work I hesitated getting involved with convention, but also knew that while I still had some free time (due to getting laid off) it would be a great way to make a contribution to helping move the organization forward. I had also been involved just enough over the past year to know there were some concerns with decisions made by the NPC, and struggles for the organization as a whole, that it was important to be sure our local voices were heard at convention. Overall, I’m glad I did it, although for next time I’ll be much more aware of the amount of time to commit. 

I had thought my preparation work was pretty solid, I watched videos for the NPC candidates, and ended up doing it in odd spaces, like the gym, just to get through it all. I judiciously read through all the resolutions, and at least attempted to keep up with discussions in Slack. In retrospect, I wish we had taken a more divide-n-conquer approach early on. Even despite my attempts to understand the full set of issues, I ended up relying on others for advice and recommendations because I knew they understood the political space better than I did. Although I would admit that by taking time to try to understand ALL of the issues I felt slightly more confident in my vote, even when I ended up relying heavily on input from others. 

Would I recommend attending a convention for someone like me? Only if it was someone who could make a big commitment to consuming all of the information and attempting a good analysis. And knowing you need to do all that before you step foot into the convention hall. The convention itself was actually a lot of fun, for those who like to argue politics and see decisions made with such a large body attempting to use Robert’s Rules. I walked away feeling that DSA was a stronger organization based on the discourse I saw happening. It was obvious people cared a lot, and wanted to really build our power to make positive change.

Does what happens at the National level affect us locally, so was it worth our time & costs? Yes. It’s actually a great thing, in my honest opinion, that chapters are able to operate so independently. I also believe firmly that if you are part of a national organization, for anything, you must do the due diligence that the organizational structure is reflecting your values and your priorities. Not only because they are receiving a portion of our funds, but also because they (i.e. the NPC) represent all of us, and that alignment and accountability must be strong if we’re going to claim ourselves as a national group.      

Ahmed

Democracy and debate are muscles we have to exercise. We often tout how democratic our DSA is, but it is as democratic as we make it. Convention was the culmination of several years of work, conflict, and relationship building — and we have to intentionally continue to cultivate it going forward if we wish to have a say in this organisation. It was a delight to see comrades from across the country to discuss and compare our shared organising experiences. While several factions and formations preceded convention, the convention floor was fluid, caucuses were receptive, and a majority of delegates were unfactioned. As part of a team leading the charge on a few resolutions, I was eager to talk to delegates from all corners of the country and win their support in good faith discussion and conversation. There was a massive information disadvantage facing delegates from smaller chapters as well as uncaucused delegates that was at-times difficult to overcome over just three days. That said, we managed to swing lots of votes the good ole way — debate and discussion. I was dismayed by obstructionism on the floor, we should always aim to win on the merits of our positions rather than procedure and chair rulings. We should always aim to reach compromise and fair resolution amongst the membership, even at ideological odds, and we reach this via discussion. We owe each other this as part of our mandate and must do our part to not demoralise our comrades. Mandates are earned. I look forward to this coming NPC term. Good leadership must answer to membership and organise all throughout their term to maintain that buy-in.

Andrew Thompson

Convention for me was overall a good experience. I wasn’t necessarily sure what to expect, having not participated in convention previously or being very apprised of many national campaigns or issues apart from the issues surrounding the punishment of the Boycott Divest and Sanctions (BDS) working group and the appearance of our wavering commitment to Palestinian liberation. As someone who has been active in our local chapters organizing efforts related to Palestine I was looking forward to the debate regarding these issues and hopeful the convention would have created a potentially more clear answer to whether or not we (DSA) as the largest socialist organization in the US will stand firmly in solidarity against continued imperialism and advance Palestinian liberation. However, convention did not provide these answers as we did not debate on the resolution (MSR-12) affirming our anti-zionist principles. Instead this debate was filtered through a recommendation of the past National Political Committee (NPC) to disband the BDS WG and make it a subunit of the larger national internationalism working group, a structural solution to what I feel is an important political question that we left convention without the answers to, as the NPC recommendation passed on a very narrow margin.

However, with the aforementioned aside, I enjoyed talking with organizers around the county on their current organizing projects, how they approach electoral organizing, and just generally being in a room of 1000+ people trying to advance the goal of socialism in a country long too hostile towards the working class. Convention also provided the opportunity to bond more with our chapter’s delegates, other Colorado chapters, and discuss how we plan to organize in Colorado in the future to advance the goals of socialism. While convention was a lot of work and many long days prior to the lead up to convention and during convention I was happy to serve as the delegate chair for our delegates ensuring we could all be present and debate on pressing issues that shape the future of our movement. I look forward to continuing to work within our chapter, with national working groups and committees, and with our newly elected NPC to chart a path forward for a strong internationalist socialist movement in America!    

Colleen Johnston

The 2023 Convention process demonstrated our organizational development and maturity since our incredible new era kicked off just 7 years ago. This year’s convention saw some changes in process, such as a requirement to collect 300 signatures to get resolutions and amendments considered at Convention and a consensus resolution development process for major national  bodies and priority committees, which ultimately helped lead to more consensus and unity.

This  year’s Convention also showed the ongoing newness of our org and membership. During opening remarks, delegates learned that many, if not most delegates were attending their first DSA Convention. The  number of 2023 convention delegates who were in DSA pre-2016 were in the low double digits. One of the things that gives me so much hope about DSA is how many people come to DSA as their first home for political organizing, having never gotten involved in organizing or activism until joining our org. It also means that the ongoing work of cohering and rooting ourselves in shared foundations of organizing, of building and wielding power, are central to the longevity and effectiveness of our org.

Speaking of longevity – DSA faces a major financial deficit for the upcoming year, from at least 1.5 million dollars to over 4 million, if we were to fully fund and enact everything passed at Convention. This is a serious constraint we must grapple with as we navigate the months ahead, and why I’ve been working through the National Growth and Development Committee (GDC) to organize Solidarity Income-Based Dues. Our organization is unique in that we are truly democratic, and our financial power comes almost exclusively from members’ dues contributions. This is why switching your dues to monthly dues, and, if you can, doing like union members do and contributing 1% of your income to our working-class organization is crucial. To make sure our organization is sustainable and able to fight for the long haul, switch your dues to Solidarity Dues here. I also encourage DDSA members to plug into the retention and Solidarity Dues work happening through the national GDC and in our chapter.

Jennifer Dillon

I attended the virtual DSA National Convention in 2021 when the COVID Delta variant was rising. It was a draining, frustrating, demoralizing experience: a week of long Zoom sessions, Shakespearean political maneuverings I did not understand, and a handful of the most annoying people you’ve ever encountered leveraging their extensive knowledge of Robert’s Rules to hijack sessions with tedious, bad faith procedural motions. The only thing that pulled me through was the gallows humor of my fellow Denver delegates. I was happy when it ended and I could go back to organizing with my hometown comrades — people who didn’t behave like childish assholes — and forget national DSA even existed. 

I am happy to report that this year was a radically different experience. In retrospect, it’s very likely the stress of the pandemic in 2021 that drove everyone, myself included, over the edge. But convening in person, being in rooms full of socialists talking about socialism, excited about socialism, and doing socialism was the opposite of draining — it was a thrilling, energizing experience, and one I highly recommend. I’m very proud of the work that our delegation did, and the direction our organization is heading. That’s not to say there wasn’t some heartbreak: I was personally deeply saddened that DSA delegates voted to move the BDS Working Group under the International Committee against the wishes of both groups (a maneuver designed to curtail their work), and I wish we had gotten the opportunity to have a long overdue formal discussion about DSA’s positioning vis-a-vis Palestinian liberation. But I’m hopeful that the newly elected, more left-leaning NPC will help us change course by taking a firm and clear stance against Zionism, aligning DSA with the Left’s rich history of internationalism and solidarity with the oppressed.

Matthew Rambles

DSA convention was a learning experience for me. Despite my presence on steering I have spent little time engaging with the structure, activity, and membership of our national body. Fortunately for those looking to learn, the weekend was a whirlwind tour offering an introduction to these very things. I was impressed by convention — my time with our bi-annual decision making process was overwhelmingly positive despite it’s flaws. I returned home with a enhanced understanding of my role in the chapter, a greater appreciation for our organizers here in Denver, and a strong sense of affirmation for our collective project of building a better world.

Max Soo

What did I think of convention? I thought it was bullshit.

I love Denver DSA. They helped me unionize my workplace. They helped me sue my landlord. They sharpened my class analysis. They developed me as an organizer. I love Denver DSA.

But I’ve always been skeptical of DSA as a national organization — not just National DSA, but other chapters — and convention confirmed my cynicism.

I knew that there were liberals in DSA. The fact that we caveat our socialism with “democratic” is in itself a perpetuation of anti-communist liberal propaganda. But it was disheartening to see just how many there were; and not just fringe members, but active, committed ones. This was apparent in how the delegation voted on resolutions and NPC candidates.

I also felt DSA had a colonial conception of democracy and that was also confirmed by the inaccessibility in language and time-requirement of the compendium, fetishization of Robert’s Rules, and superficial debate format.

And don’t even get me started on the half-assed COVID protocols and reckless, ableist behavior of participants that, paired with the pandemic justice resolution not making the agenda, felt more like we were cosplaying caution than actually protecting ourselves and our communities.

The only redeemable quality of convention was the time I got to spend deepenng my relationships with my Denver DSA comrades and a few other DSA delegates. But at that end of the day, that made it worth it.

Mitch

There was a thrumming energy to being in a room with 1000+ other socialists, hearing the first cheers roll across the crowd as we kicked off the first day of convention. That energy spilled off of the convention floor into foyers, hallways, and the hotel bar, as I met delegates eager to share their work and to hear about Denver’s. To me, DSA convention’s best aspect was the generative conversations when you get that mass of organizers together from across the country. Talking to NYC comrades about how their tenant organizing is structured, hearing about East Bay’s transit rider canvasses, or how Ferguson continues to shape the terrain for left politics in St. Louis. 

Our theory of change is relational – building personal connections and moving that power. That’s fundamentally a two-way street: as organizers our understanding of the world is changed by practice, the conversations we have with others. And sharpening our analysis of our own conditions is made only more effective when talking to other organizers who have done similar work and taken time for reflection. However, for me the most important aspect of building relationships at convention was emotional. Some call it “vibes,” but there’s nothing to deepen your engagement to the work like being reminded of the thousands of DSA members nationwide who also share in the struggle, to hear the first cheers roll across a crowd of comrades fighting for another world. 

Skye O’Toole

As a first time convention delegate, I wasn’t sure what to expect in Chicago. I had heard stories about past conventions, both from chapter comrades and online figureheads who had been delegates in the past. Their recountings had been mostly negative, with many recalling stories of drawn out procedural fights, name-calling, and exhausting marathon sessions on the convention floor. So when this convention was, in large part, civil, collaborative and empowering, I was pleasantly surprised.

Overall, being in a room with 1000 socialists, hailing from San Diego to Maine, was an inspiring experience. It truly instilled in me the gravity of DSA, the potential we have, and the strength we have already built nationwide. It was an incredible experience to get to converse with comrades from hundreds of other chapters, all of whom have a different conception of socialism and the path we need to take to build it. I learned so much and received so much inspiration for programs to develop in our own chapter from the chats I had with others at convention. And many a night I stayed up late, having hours-long conversations with comrades from across the country about our life stories, delving deep into the many experiences in our lives which had led us there, to Chicago. 

As for the actual substance of convention, I was excited to see the passage of several resolutions which I believe will materially strengthen our org; such as MSR-3, which creates two, full-time, national co-chairs tasked with building up DSA’s public image, CR-4, which funded and emboldened the International Committee to continue it’s exceptional work in building connections with the global left and CR-8 which strengthened financial and logistical support to YDSA in order to ensure a strong socialist youth movement on campuses across the US. Decisions like these make me excited to watch the future of DSA and see what we can do when we build the external and internal supports needed to build a strong, consistent organization.

But there were also some major disappointments; most of all, the incredibly slim passage of NPC-8, which folded the BDS working group — one of the most successful arms of National DSA, which has done incredible work building and aiding the movement against Zionism in the United States — into the International Committee, without the consent of either. Knowing that its passage means that DSA will be delegitimized in the eyes of the grassroots Palestinian solidarity movement, the results are a gut punch, jeopardizing the pro-Palestinian stance of our organization that hardworking comrades in the BDS working group (including members of our own chapter) helped to foster.

But despite these big wins and losses, a lot of the other floor discussion felt pretty divorced from the realities of our organizing at the chapter level, concerned with national level disagreements and (all too often) personal animosities between National’s most involved members. While there were no shortage of delegates who were incredible organizers – strike captains, union salts, tenant unionists, grassroots elected officials, ride-or-die abolitionists, all of whom were there in there in a genuine commitment to building a stronger DSA – there were others who seemingly spent their time at convention pulling Robert’s Rules maneuvers for less noble agendas. To a certain extent, it felt like some delegates were there not because they wanted to put in the hard word deliberating on the key organizational questions facing DSA but rather because they wanted to defend their organizing turf from rival caucuses, keeping one working group or another as little fiefdoms for their particular tendency. While I don’t doubt that most of those delegates believe in the socialist mission, it felt like they often treated their own comrades like enemies, demonizing rival caucuses, not the capitalist class, as the primary enemy. I’m not, by any means, saying that caucusing is bad when it’s based on principled differences over organizational strategy. But I do think some delegates had a warped view, seeing “their side” — not DSA — as the thing they came to Chicago to fight for.

Despite my disillusionment with some of the factional divides and debates which dominated sections of the floor debate, I ended the convention feeling empowered that our organization, finding our bearings in a post-Bernie world, came together to chart a relatively healthy course for the next two years. I left with a feeling of hope in my heart, a hope that despite some of the mistakes that I believe occurred at this convention, our organization can learn, grow, and correct course. But most of all a hope that, by next convention, we will be that much closer to achieving socialism in our lifetime.

Stephanie Caulk

Overall, I’m really grateful for the opportunity to attend the national convention. One of my favorite parts of the convention was meeting DSAers from all over the country and making connections with comrades who are organizing in different states. I also appreciated the opportunity to make connections with the members of the other Colorado DSA chapters. I think it is essential that we continue these relationships with other DSA chapters, especially in Colorado. I also think that a benefit of attending the national convention was learning more about how national works. Until I went to the convention, I had no clue how national operated. Knowing how national works will allow me to help influence the national direction of DSA, and has emboldened me to take advantage of the national resources that we have at our disposal. One thing that I disliked about the convention was how inaccessible the parliamentary procedure was. In the future, I think we should make sure that our delegates are prepared to navigate the aspects of parliamentary procedure that typically are not used in Denver general meetings.