September NPC Report
by THE SOCIALIST MAJORITY STEERING COMMITTEE
On Sunday, the 2023–25 National Political Committee held its first meeting. Here are some main takeaways from the SMC Steering Committee and our two NPC members, Colleen J. and Renée P:
Resolution Regarding DSA Budget Priorities: The “Avoid Staff Layoffs” Proposal
DSA would not be the force it is today without the tireless work of our staff. That’s why SMC NPC member Renée Paradis, along with Cara Tobe of the Groundwork Slate, submitted a resolution that calls on the Budget and Finance Committee and the NPC to make its highest priority avoiding laying off existing staff members to the greatest extent possible in our upcoming budget process.
Our objective was to have an early conversation about what we should prioritize as we look to balance our $1.6 million annual budget shortfall—a running annual deficit that doesn’t include the additional $2.2 million in new annual spending approved at the Convention. We had hoped that the NPC would be willing to commit to protecting our existing workers as we try to balance the books. SMC firmly believes in protecting DSA’s essential staff positions that provide chapters with data for campaigns, fundraising tools, organizing training, and so much more. In particular, while we support implementing new paid political leadership positions in the medium-to-long-term, adding new positions at this point in time would almost inevitably come at the cost of laying off existing staff.
These difficult trade-offs were largely ignored at convention. Many argued that discussion of the budget shortfall was tantamount to public sector austerity. Quite the contrary, SMC members are key leaders in our new Solidarity Income-Based Dues Campaign that has already successfully raised over $300,000 in annual revenue, with over 660 members switching their dues. SMC formally supported “Give Our 1% for the 99 Percent,” the Groundwork amendment to the GDC consensus resolution that made Solidarity Dues a priority, and our NPC members voted for the amendment at Convention. We encourage all members to participate in the phone banks and other campaign efforts and to personally switch to Solidarity Income Based Dues, as it is our absolute best chance to avoid cuts. We believe in a DSA that is flourishing and growing.
However, the increase in dues required to cover the budget shortfall far exceeds any increase in membership that was not driven by external political factors we can’t anticipate, like Trump’s election in 2016, or AOC’s primary victory in 2018—still our largest single day of membership growth. Of course, AOC’s primary victory was only a growth factor because of our work on the campaign, just as our work on both Bernie campaigns helped us grow out of those campaigns.
We did not expect this resolution to be as controversial as it turned out to be. Our top priority was to a) ensure we have this important conversation now, as we are quickly running low on cash reserves and the new budget year starts in less than three and a half months; and b) keep up staff morale by signaling that our organization takes their work seriously. We are deeply disappointed that the resolution failed by a vote of 6.5–9, with two abstentions.
We were further disappointed that the resolution was unfairly painted as a political stunt. To be clear, this was an earnest attempt to have a difficult conversation. We take our budget and its consequences for our staff very seriously, and we stand by our decision to introduce a resolution that grapples with some of the decisions we will have to make. Every comrade should be thinking about the ramifications of our current financial position sooner rather than later, and we are grateful that our resolution was able to start some of those discussions in public.
Staff are essential to the success of any large political organization—especially one that seeks to act independently of existing party structures—and preserving as much of DSA’s day-to-day operational capacity as possible during budget shortfalls is an important priority. DSA’s budget issues this year are part of a larger trend in left-wing political finances, where the demobilization from COVID, Bernie’s 2020 loss, and Biden’s victory have driven down grassroots donations and left political activity across the board. Many ostensibly progressive organizations that lack democratic leadership structures have responded to these trends by placing low-level workers first on the chopping block.
While SMC recognizes that there is no getting around the need to address our deficit, and indeed some layoffs may ultimately be necessary, we maintain that determining our budget priorities is an important political decision and a necessary task for elected leaders. Prioritizing protecting staff versus other spending is a political question, not simply an administrative one.
We also recognize that the conversation on social media regarding this resolution was sometimes counter-productive. We certainly don’t support personal attacks towards comrades. We believe members can reasonably disagree about how to best move forward on the budget, and that disagreeing with our approach does not make any NPC or DSA member “anti-worker.” We look forward to breaking down divisive barriers between factions in the future to come to a broad consensus on our annual budget.
Resolution to Suspend NPC SC Stipends
Given the budget shortfall, we also supported a resolution to suspend the NPC Steering Committee stipends, with an option for individual Steering Committee members to be exempted for financial need. While we think these stipends do have benefits, it would save the organization up to $120,000/year, which could support a full-time position.
Given our precarious financial position, and the desire to implement full-time paid political leadership, we believe this is one of the better places to cut that would minimally disrupt our organizing efforts. The resolution ultimately failed 8–9, with many comrades arguing that stipends were necessary for NPC SC members to fully participate in their roles.
While we are committed to moving towards more paid political leadership roles, these stipends have not allowed NPC SC members to quit their full-time jobs. We believe that establishing an expectation of stipends only for those who need them was a reasonable solution.
National Tech Committee SC Appointments - We Need A Fair Appointment Process
SMC was concerned by the process used to select and appoint the National Tech Committee Steering Committee. We have long advocated for a larger national elected leadership body, in part to make the members of national committees more tethered to the democratic processes of the organization.
In the absence of that kind of reform, we think it is important that national committees reflect the ideological diversity of the organization and are selected through transparent, fair, and careful processes. In this instance, the NTC announced in its Slack on August 6th and via both Twitter and Bluesky on August 18th that applications were open. The Slack announcement (but not the social media posts or the form itself) indicated that applications were due by the end of August. Although last year the SC application was publicized in the NPC newsletter, there wasn’t an email announcement to all members this year.
Eleven members applied for seven positions on the NTC SC. The current NTC SC discussed the question of appointments at their September 7th meeting, and agreed to all make recommendations on who to appoint. In the NTC SC slack channel, the outgoing NPC liaison to the NTC recommended a list of eight members, including themself, to be appointed to the new SC. Three outgoing SC members and one non-SC member responded in Slack. No further discussion on the issue was had in steering channels, but a list of proposed applicants that largely mirrored that original list was presented to the NPC for an up or down vote.
Our NPC members supported a motion to postpone consideration of these appointments until the next NPC meeting, because we do not believe this is the kind of process adequate to the appointment of a national committee, especially one that has recently been granted control of the DSA forums. In particular, we believe it’s important that applications are well publicized via both all-member emails and forum posts, with clear deadlines for completion; that whatever body is recommending the list of applicants take the time to consider the merits of each applicant; that we develop norms around when members of an existing body should recuse themselves from voting on their own applications to be reappointed; and that when a committee appointment comes before the NPC, the NPC has the ability to consider each applicant separately.
The rushed process for the NTC SC appointment meant that serious concerns about particular members and the process itself were not fully considered by the NPC.
Additionally, of the only four applicants who weren’t seated, three had supported the Groundwork Slate at convention: one had previously served on the NTC SC and as a moderator of the DSA forums, another has eight years of experience as a software coder, and the third is knowledgeable in full stack development and multiple tech platforms. One of the applicants who was seated described himself as “not hav[ing] advanced tech skills.”
There have been complaints about past NPCs “playing politics” with national committee appointments, including by people now sitting on the new NPC. We’re disappointed, in light of those complaints, to see the new NPC majority acting in a partisan manner. It’s perfectly legitimate to want to see national committees in overall control by people who share the political views of the governing majority, but that must be tempered by open processes, some minority representation, and in the case of working committees, some prioritizing of skills over politics. We hope we can work together with the rest of the NPC to come up with standard procedures that will leave all sides feeling as though the process was fair.
The motion to postpone consideration of the appointment for one month, to the NPC’s October meeting, failed 7–10. The appointment was made over our objections by a vote of 10–6, with both YDSA co-chairs (who share one vote) abstaining.
Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign Commission (TRBACC) and For Our Rights Campaign Commission (FORCC)
The NPC unanimously approved resolutions outlining two new national priority campaigns to execute resolutions passed at this year’s convention: the For Our Rights Campaign (passed through the “Defend Democracy Through Political Independence” resolution) and the Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy Campaign. We were pleased to see our Amendment 1 to expand the FORCC Steering Committee to include three additional NPC members pass unanimously.
These campaigns offer us an opportunity to engage in mass organizing against right wing forces seeking to further erode working class power and scapegoat minorities for the problems of capitalism. The selection of the NPC steering committee members for these campaigns happened immediately after passing these resolutions, with SMC member Renée Paradis serving on both, and the rank and file steering committee members will be selected via an application process for FORCC and TRBACC that closes next week September 26th, so get those applications in! We encourage all DSA members to apply to be part of this outward-facing work that will grow our power.
Other Items
SMC NPC Member Renée Paradis, along with Rose Dubois, brought a resolution to form a State Organizations Working Group that will use their experiences in forming California DSA and Maine DSA to help chapters that want to form statewide organizations access resources and assistance in doing so; the resolution was adopted unanimously as part of the consent agenda
Also passed via consent agenda was SMC NPC Member Colleen Johnston’s Resolution to Continue Solidarity Dues Drive & First NPC Mass Member Call, making the Solidarity Dues Drive the fundraising priority of the GDC and calling for a mass member call in the next month; this continues Colleen’s great leadership on the GDC and we’re excited to see what the Solidarity Dues Drive can do!
SMC supported the Resolution to Implement a Press Relations Protocol, brought by Cara Tobe, to ensure that we have a cohesive press strategy. We’re disappointed it failed but hope the NPC majority will come to see the value of speaking to the press with a unified voice.