Socialist Majority Statement on Accountability

What brings together the Socialist Majority Caucus with the overwhelming number of DSA members is a desire for a mass and democratic multi-racial organization. Making this vision a reality requires healthy internal dynamics at all levels from chapter to national leadership. This means holding each other accountable in fair and equitable ways. 

Today, the socialist movement and other progressive forces lack the unity of the past few years. Standing in opposition to Donald Trump’s administration, electing Bernie Sanders, and the popular uprisings for racial justice and COVID relief in 2020 provided the socialist movement with a shared external purpose. Today, even without these unifying forces, throughout DSA you find chapters and activists doing excellent work to advance transformative reforms and revolutionary praxis every day. In order to make that a success, we need to build a culture that facilitates and prioritizes this mass movement action.

In times of crisis and malaise, it can feel easier to turn on one another and elevate differences that once seemed minor when momentum was in our favor. The increasing inward-facing and toxic nature of debates cause us to stray from our purpose of building a mass socialist organization. In a national organization of tens of thousands of members, hundreds of chapters, and dozens of staff and elected national leaders, we must remember that we as a collective represent DSA to the outside. When we attack one another, share private information, and undermine democratic mandates, we undercut the socialist movement and open our organization to right-wing infiltration. 

DSA is an organization run by members fighting for the working class. Through our democratic structure, we vote on projects to prioritize, and volunteer leaders at all ranks see them through. Turmoil undermines the democratic process. Volunteers can only give so much time; when they are unable to prioritize campaigns over internal debates, our organizing - which is what actually builds DSA - suffers. 

Abusive behavior is not the same as conflict, which arises from political struggle over the priorities and direction of DSA. In order to build an internally democratic organization, members and leaders can - and must - engage in respectful debate. That’s why DSA has guidelines for respectful debate and a code of conduct.

The way forward is for DSA members to take a stand against toxic and undemocratic behavior. This should include holding members, especially leaders, accountable for actions that undermine our internal democracy. When we ignore patterns of undemocratic behavior, it doesn’t just stay but gets more powerful. Together, we can build a better world. But it starts with modeling comradeship and equity in how we enforce our codes of conduct.

We support the decision of the National Political Committee to unanimously pass the NPC Accountability Proposal, coauthored by Kristian Hernandez, at the February 2022 NPC meeting.