Organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continue to gain prominence, growing from 24,000 members in 2017 to 92,000 members today. So, what is Democratic Socialism? Democratic socialism is fairly easy to define based on the two components of its name: “democratic,” meaning rule by the people, and “socialism,” meaning that the workers own the means of production.
The first principle seeks to mend the source of many criticisms of forms of socialism, putting the direct will of the people above all else and fully subjecting any structures of power to the desires of the people — not those holding office. This focus on democracy is enshrined in the national DSA Constitution and the constitutions of every local DSA chapter.
The second — workers owning the means of production — is the central end goal of the labor movement, which democratic socialists wholeheartedly support. Whether from in-depth economic analyses like Capital or through observing historical and modern material conditions, socialists agree on one central principle: the liberation of the masses at large — the working masses — can only come from those masses owning the means of production. These two principles are agreed upon by all members of DSA, even those who do not consider themselves “democratic socialists.”
As an organization, DSA does not form an ideological hegemony; a wide variety of political views are represented throughout chapters around the country. Instead, members are committed to one shared goal: to progress society however they can. Thanks to their popularity as members of Congress, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are commonly cited as examples of “democratic socialists.” Most socialists would not consider them such. Instead, they are considered “social democrats” – a capitalist designation developing out of a regression from the principles of prior socialist organizations like the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Likewise, countries often regarded as “socialist,” like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, are also social democracies; they are still capitalist states but have a greater focus on providing services to the people than more laissez-faire capitalist nations like the United States.
Due to its organization’s diversity and the desire to recruit all who want to change the world, regardless of age, DSA involves high school and college students through the Young Democratic Socialists of America or YDSA. Here in Fullerton, a YDSA chapter is currently being organized at CSUF to organize the city’s youth and work to improve Fullerton and CSUF. So far, this has included advocacy against crippling tuition hikes, calls for the demilitarization of Fullerton PD, and efforts to protect free speech on campus.
If you have any questions about democratic socialism or want to make change happen, contact Titan YDSA at csufydsa@gmail.com. If you want to join DSA but are not a current student, contact Orange County DSA at https://ocdsa.org to learn more.
(Note for transparency/clarification: while this post generally conveys the original ideas as submitted, it has been edited to some degree)
Share this:
Discover more from Fullerton Observer
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
Categories: Education, Local News
I Think Woke movement Is a Despicable
I Think Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is a Insane
What joy or prosperity has Marxism ever rendered humanity? Zero!
Think the Observer has just jumped the shark.
No – just able to print and try to understand different points of view even those that aren’t agreed with by everyone.
If you want to understand what this group is REALLY pushing on your kids take a look at their website (https://www.dsausa.org). They support AOC, Bernie Sanders, Hamas protesters and the global warming hoax. They can dance around it all they want but they’re pushing for Marxism to be imposed on all of us.
If you want to know what this group is REALLY pushing on you kids, look at their website at https://www.dsausa.org. They are supporting AOC, Bernie Sanders, the pro-Hamas protesters and the global climate change hoax. They are promoting Marxism wrapped up in a cute “we love everyone” package.
If you want to understand what this group is really pushing, look up their website at http://www.dsausa.org. Support for AOC, Bernie Sanders, GAZA protestors and the global climate hoax. They can sugarcoat all they want but this is a group pushing Marxism.
How funny. Marxism with a cute name.
Democratic socialism itself is not Marxism – it’s not a revolutionary political belief, to begin with. Many DSAers/YDSAers are Marxists, myself included, but democratic socialism (and thus DSA as a whole) is not.
“workers owning the means of production”
The basic Marxist economic credo. The dictatorship of the proletariat is how you get there. Lenin and Stalin just kept the dictatorship part. Seriously?
A Marxist living in a country that allows you to claim you’re a Marxist and to be a self-absorbed, self-centered egomaniac who thinks they know everything when you know very little. Despite what you think, you are not a Marxist at all. You are a poser and a parasite living off the blood, toil, suffering, and sacrifice of millions who came before you!
I believe Troy HS also had a YDSA a year ago.
I’m looking on the list and don’t see them – wondering if they either went inactive, are still in the incorporation process, or were just only ever an organizing committee. (For the record, we aren’t 100% incorporated yet either – just finally wrapping up that process)
(Note for transparency/clarification: while this post generally conveys the original ideas as submitted, it has been edited to some degree)
Amy – can you tell us was left out of the article. I would like to know.
The main issues I had were some slight changes to verbiage and changing of the line spacing, which causes the separation of ideas to be slightly off. The general message still gets across though.
The title too – I did not write the title as published. My original title wasn’t great, I’ll give that though