January 2024 Newsletter
by THE SOCIALIST MAJORITY STEERING COMMITTEE
Hello comrades!
In the spirit of a few other caucuses, this is the first edition of a monthly newsletter covering everything Socialist Majority has been up to. Now that we’ve elected a new Steering Committee, we want to keep DSA members apprised of what’s happening in the caucus and across the organization.
Speaking of which…
A new Steering Committee is born
After this year’s convention, SMC members voted to update our bylaws. The biggest change was expanding the caucus’s Steering Committee from seven members to fifteen (Democratize SMC, if you will). After a competitive steering election, the new SC chose seven members to fill specific roles as part of a new Executive Committee.
Congratulations to our newest members of caucus leadership! You can read more about them and our NPC members on our website. We currently have two vacancies that we hope to fill shortly.
National Political Committee members (ex officio):
Renée P. (East Bay DSA)
Colleen J. (Denver DSA)
Executive Committee members:
Co-chair: Kristian H. (DSA North Texas)
Co-chair: Sam L. (NYC-DSA)
Secretary: Heather N. (NYC-DSA)
Treasurer: Emmett M. (St. Louis DSA)
Communications Committee Chair: Aaron F. (NYC-DSA)
Membership Committee Chair: Rael A. (NYC-DSA)
Political Committee Chair: Shane R. (East Bay DSA)
Other Steering Committee members:
Chris R. (Wichita DSA)
Daniel A. (Mid-Hudson Valley DSA)
Genevieve R. (Ithaca DSA)
Grace M. (NYC-DSA)
Jorge D. (Ithaca DSA)
Jose L. (NYC-DSA)
December NPC meeting report
The NPC’s monthly meeting was held on Sunday, December 10th. Any DSA member can join these meetings or the NPC Steering Committee’s weekly meetings as an observer. Check the DSA forums for the Zoom link to register for the next monthly meeting on Sunday, January 14th at 1pm EST.
Here are some highlights from the December NPC meeting:
The 2024 election
The first order of business was a successful motion to remove a political discussion about the 2024 election from the agenda. While we understand the desire to save time for other items, SMC members voted against this motion. A second Trump presidency is a very real possibility, and as socialists, we must be prepared and ready to organize and respond, not react.
Trump has already made clear his intentions to send in federal troops to quell protests should he win, and we anticipate even more criminalization of protest and dissent, as well as aggressive attacks on communities and our rights. Immigrant communities, trans and queer communities, and our rights to protest, bodily autonomy, and democracy itself are all on the line.
At the November NPC meeting, a Marxist Unity Group NPC member stated they didn’t think a second Trump term would translate to meaningful differences in organizing conditions for us as socialists. We firmly disagree with this assessment, and most NPC members agreed that having a comprehensive organizing plan for the 2024 elections was necessary and that we must continue having discussions to develop that plan. We hope that this discussion can happen at a future NPC meeting.
Conditioning aid to Israel
The NPC had a brief political discussion about the progress of the “No Money for Massacres” campaign. Renée framed the conversation by walking through potential scenarios of an Israel military aid package, including the possibility of amendments that set conditions for the aid. One example is a recent Senate proposal that would require foreign aid recipients to comply with international law.
In the middle of this discussion, Marxist Unity Group members put forward a motion that would have, among other things. established DSA’s position as not supportive of harm reduction measures such as conditioning Israeli aid. This motion failed by a large margin with several abstentions, and it’s not difficult to see why: The motion was out of touch with our current political moment.
Currently, a supermajority of Congress has not publicly supported a ceasefire and remains supportive of military aid to Israel. Barring a massive shift in public and congressional opinion—which DSA is working diligently to achieve—an Israel aid package likely has the necessary votes for passage.
If aid is going to pass anyway, the very least DSA and our endorsed congressmembers can do is use the vote to propagandize. For example, when the House voted on a Republican Israel aid package last month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced an amendment to bar the use of white phosphorus against civilians.
AOC was almost certainly aware that there was no chance her amendment would pass; indeed, it wasn’t even brought to a vote. That’s because it wasn’t intended to pass. Rather it was a strategic move to highlight the war crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. And if the amendment had been brought to a vote, it would have put pro-Israel Democrats on the defensive and forced them to vote down a clear rejection of war crimes.
MUG’s motion missed the point of why amendments like this are filed in the first place. The motion would have required DSA not to support amendments like AOC’s, blurring the message we are trying to send about Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
That’s why we’re pleased that the NPC recently voted to endorse Sen. Sanders’ 502B(c) resolution, which would require the U.S. State Department to issue a report on Israel’s human rights practices within thirty days and cut off all security assistance if they fail to do so. Legislation like this can expose both parties’ blatant disregard for human rights and put pro-Israel congressmembers on the defensive.
Editorial Board appointments
Following through on a convention mandate, the NPC approved a multi-tendency Editorial Board to run DSA’s Democratic Left and Socialist Forum publications. We were pleased to see the rejection of a last-minute attempt to swap out two of the candidates based on their political positions, and are committed to ensuring that national DSA bodies include representation from as many political tendencies as possible.
Rashida Tlaib multi-city tour
Over the last few months, DSA member and DSA-endorsed Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has taken an incredibly brave stand as the chamber’s only Palestinian-American. She has spoken out against Israel’s genocide and named how the United States is complicit in ethnic cleansing and apartheid, to the point of being censured by the House.
Tlaib is currently touring cities across the country, so we were incredibly excited to see a proposal to support chapters in facilitating her multi-city tour. This proposal passed unanimously, speaking to DSA’s broad support for our work to Defend Rashida from targeted pro-Israel backlash.
Solidarity (Dues) forever
Solidarity Income-Based Dues were rolled out at the 2023 Convention as a way to further shape DSA into a democratic, strong, sustainable organization that is member-run, member-led, and member-funded. We now have over 1,200 DSA members who have made the switch to Solidarity Dues!
Ready to do the dues? Make the change here! All members who switched before December 31st will receive a custom bandana. There are still some bandanas left, so make the switch now and you still might get one!
You can also share your Solidarity Dues Story here and get resources for your chapter to run a Solidarity Dues Drive or sign up for future national phonebanks here.
Many, many leadership elections
This year’s convention created several new paid positions and commissions. To fill these seats, DSA held elections throughout December. We’re pleased to report that after a whirlwind month of candidate recruitment and campaigning, we’ve elected some fantastic SMC members and allies to join DSA’s national structures.
Here’s a quick summary:
NPC and NLC co-chairs
Convention delegates voted to create four paid, full-time positions: Two co-chairs of the National Political Committee and two co-chairs of the National Labor Commission. These positions were to be filled after the convention by delegates.
For NPC co-chair, SMC endorsed Groundwork member Ashik Siddique. He won his election with a plurality of the vote (41%) and will serve alongside Megan Romer.
For NLC co-chair, we endorsed SMC member Ryan Andrews, a public school teacher who organizes with United Teachers Los Angeles and DSA-LA. He was uncontested in his election and will be serving alongside Sarah Hurd. Ryan joins SMC member and CWA Local 6400 president Hannah A. on the NLC Steering Committee.
Democracy Commission
Convention delegates also voted to create a national Democracy Commission to recommend reforms to DSA’s structure. The new body’s twenty-one slots were also to be filled after the convention by delegates.
SMC ran a slate of five candidates, of which three won: Kristian H., Nalisa B., and Leslie C.! We’d like to thank our members Vincent L. and Shane R. for also throwing their hats into the ring and running great campaigns.
We’re looking forward to working with other caucuses to build consensus and refresh DSA’s internal democratic structures. We’ll keep you updated on our progress!
The National Electoral Commission’s Steering Committee
The NEC is transitioning into a commission-like structure. This will be similar to the NLC, where future steering committees will be elected by membership instead of appointed by the NPC. But in the interim, the outgoing NEC steering committee decided to elect a new SC via an electoral college-like process.
Chapters with recent nationally endorsed candidates were invited to select two to five electors to vote for an incoming NEC SC. Each elector’s vote was weighted to adjust for population size and ensure proportionality. Electors attended a forum to hear directly from SC candidates before the voting process began.
We’re excited to see four SMC members—each one an outstanding electoral organizer in their own right—elected to the NEC SC. Wamiq C. and Sam R. were re-elected for another term in leadership, and are joined by Grace M. and Katie S. We’re thankful for all the SMC members who ran and can’t wait for all the electoral victories next year will bring.
What’s SMC up to this month?
The Steering Committee
This weekend, Kristian H. is virtually attending Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Emergency Summit for Gaza in Chicago.
We’re planning an all-caucus meeting for Saturday, January 27th at 2pm EST. We’ll be having political discussions on Palestine and the democratic road to socialism. Caucus members should check their inboxes for more information.
We’re also working to build out our Communications, Membership, and Political Committees. We’ve voted to create subcommittees to formalize how we screen caucus applicants, write social media content, and approve articles for our publication, The Agitator. If you’re a caucus member interested in contributing, reach out to the committee chair!
An SMC reading list and reading group are in the works; stay tuned for more details!
Our NPC members
Colleen has been anchoring both the national No Money for Massacres weekly phonebanks and the Solidarity Income Based Dues Drive. They were recently elected to co-chair the national Growth & Development Committee along with Shane K., and strongly encourage SMC members with chapter leadership or internal organizing experience to apply to the GDC. They authored a proposal approved by the NPC SC to help keep costs low for semi-regular in-person NPC meetings until the budget improves.
Renée has continued her work on DSA’s Palestine response, including with the ad hoc federal Socialists in Office committee (which met with representatives from all three DSA-endorsed Congressional offices in November and December) and the Gaza Response Coordinating Committee. As one of the liaisons to the Democracy Commission, she’s been helping to get the Commission’s first meeting off the ground, and as part of the Statewide Organizations Working Group, responding to questions from chapters navigating the formation of state DSAs.
And finally: Each month, we’ll be featuring a short item from one of our caucus leaders to close off our newsletter on a lighter note. This month, SMC co-chair Kristian H. brings you socialist beauty tips!
Kristian’s Beauty Corner
The beauty industry is conscious of the demand for clean, affordable, and effective beauty products. And as we step into a new year, there’s an increasingly loud call for ethically sourced beauty brands, particularly in light of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. While I’m not saying you should throw away anything that’s not part of a (sadly) small list of brands whose values align with our politics, I do think it’s important that you’re intentional if and when you replace products.
I’m here to recommend checking out Huda Beauty, especially if you want some killer eye looks. Its owner, Huda Kattan, has been incredibly vocal about the atrocities being committed by the Israeli government and persistent in her pro-Palestine posts. She’s stated she’s willing to risk her business in the name of humanity (and has done this since she condemned the evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah back in 2021).
So while the Discourse may be concerned about where they fall on the right-wing or left-wing, make sure your own eyeliner wings stay sharp and keep you ready to take on our task of building a better world. I’d recommend getting yourself a brown eyeliner for an everyday look as you hit some doors for DSA candidates, or if you’re looking to rock a classic black wing at your next DSA social event, getting this mini version. Both items are available for under $21.