Author: Ary C
(These opinions reflect the author’s and are not necessarily representative of those of DSA Cleveland or the National DSA)
This summer I had the honor and privilege of attending the 2025 DSA National Convention as an alternate of the Cleveland delegation alongside 11 of my comrades. As the member of our delegation with the shortest tenure in the chapter, this experience was invaluable in learning more about DSA at the national level and how our chapter fits into the broader context of the national organization. Due to my role as an alternate and not a voting delegate, I felt more able to observe and reflect on the events of Convention broadly. Below are some of my thoughts and observations.
An unavoidable aspect of Convention is the presence of caucuses, whose power and influence is undeniable. While our own chapter is largely uncaucused and rarely does the topic come up (outside of the lead-up to Convention), they are one of the primary lenses delegates view and participate in Convention, right down to the post-deliberation parties. Several comrades have made the comment/joke ‘caucuses exist for Convention’. This conception partly motivated me to join a caucus myself, about a week before Convention. Members of the biggest caucuses mark themselves with branded swag like hats, bandanas, and shirts, as well as hold official socials and unofficial parties. More importantly, they are whipping votes and distributing literature as much as possible to influence delegates’ positions on resolutions and on National Political Committee candidates. Walking into the deliberation hall, the Convention tables (and chairs!) were fully covered in flyers, handbills, and zines from various caucuses. Some, like Marxist Unity Group (MUG) and Reform & Revolution (RnR) even printed daily bulletins in response to the events of the day before. To me, it honestly seemed a bit wasteful and excessive, like junk mail. However, I know many delegates had not developed strong positions on resolutions or candidates, like the bulk of our delegation had, and I suppose I have to respect the game.
While there is some understandable pushback to characterizing caucuses as left or right due to the connotation and aversion of being categorized as ‘right-wing’, from my experience it is plain that there is a split within the organization. Caucuses that are typically characterized as ‘left-wing’ such as MUG, Red Star, and Libertarian Socialist Caucus (LSC, my own caucus) tend to self-partition politically and socially away from ‘right-wing’ caucuses Groundwork and Socialist Majority Caucus (SMC) (see also LSC’s A Guide to DSA Politics). There are also ‘center’ caucuses like RnR and Bread and Roses (BnR), although based on my impressions during Convention they lean slightly left and right respectively.
Going into Convention, I expected all of my comrades to engage in principled debate and was honestly open to being swayed on many resolutions. In general, I strongly value including a diversity of thought and perspectives in our collective struggle for socialism; in my mind this is critical to developing a democratic and just movement. Therefore, I do my best to operate under an assumption of good faith in my comrades. That being said, I was somewhat disappointed by the arguments put forward by some comrades, often belonging to the ‘right-wing’ caucuses. The first example of this occurred during what might have been the most contentious resolution heard at Convention, Groundwork’s CB02: One Member One Vote for National Leadership Elections. One memorable supporting argument compared not allowing asynchronous NPC elections to historical examples of restricting suffrage for oppressed peoples and asserted comrades opposed to the resolution were ‘scared to let disenfranchised members vote’. It is hard to view this as anything other than an assertion of bad faith towards the opposition, who reasonably brought up examples of how online asynchronous voting reduced deliberation and participation in their own chapters and the concern of turning national leadership elections into a listserv competition. Other examples include opposition arguments on R20 A01: Democratic Socialists and the Labor Movement Need Each Other, which would require endorsed candidates for elected office from the labor movement to identify as democratic socialists and assert DSA’s political independence. SMC delegates argued against the amendment by claiming ‘we shouldn’t tell workers to do socialism even if we think it is the correct path’ and falsely claimed Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign didn’t center or promote DSA very much, concluding it was unimportant for endorsed elected officials to identify as socialists and promote DSA. Finally and most upsetting to me was the support for R22 A01: Align with the BDS Movement, which removed clauses from the original resolution that would require endorsed electoral candidates to uphold DSA’s support for Palestinian liberation and provide a mechanism to hold members accountable for violating DSA’s policies and principles with respect to Palestine solidarity. Fortunately, this amendment failed. Overall, these examples show how the right faction of DSA concerningly tend to view winning electoral campaigns as more important than holding ideological or even ethical/moral lines.
An additional disappointment I cannot directly attribute to factionalism occurred at the start of convention. A rule was proposed by an immunocompromised comrade to require masks on the debate floor who also cited a confirmed case of COVID at Convention had already been reported. Oppositional arguments heard included the claim that while there was enough masks purchased for all delegates, there was not time to distribute masks (which were available at the registration desk and could be distributed easily by Convention staff and volunteers) and that certain delegates were hard of hearing (live captions were displayed on screens with reserved seating nearby). The pushback to such a simple request, especially one with important health and safety implications, was deeply troubling to me. The failure to adopt this rule was is testament to the work DSA still needs to do to in the realm of disability justice. I am at least proud of my fellow Cleveland comrades who did voluntarily mask on the Convention floor from then on.
Despite these disappointments, there were also many occasions to celebrate. Of course, many moments and aspects I consider particularly exciting corroborate my own political tendencies falling well within DSA’s left faction. That being said, I know I am not the only member of the Cleveland chapter relieved to see 1M1V defeated and single transferable voting mandated for Convention delegate elections. These decisions are important for upholding the authority of deliberative democracy via proportionally representative delegates at Convention. I was also heartened to see our organization commit to clear standards regarding endorsement of elected officials by passing the amended CR05 (A03, A04, and A05): National Electoral Commission Consensus Resolution and the unamended R22: For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA.
Outside of the resolutions, I have to commend the professionalism and expertise of our convention chairs. Despite ongoing technological frustrations and occasional failures of delegates to maintain decorum, all of our chairs did a fantastic job of maintaining objectivity and facilitating deliberation. I highly encourage folks from our chapter to seek out and attend national chair trainings and will probably sign up for one myself in the future.
Beyond caucuses and the debate floor, I found Convention rewarding in other aspects. I attended as much programming as possible. Admittedly, I think programming is one of the weakest parts of Convention and that at least some of that time would have been better spent getting through more of the agendized resolutions. Even so, I attended a couple sessions I really enjoyed. The presentation I thought was the most interesting and useful was the Growth & Development Committee’s State of DSA Report, which involved quantitative and qualitative analysis of trends in membership over the past decade. Major findings included that large membership swells occur in response to major national events that are followed by large member exodus exactly a year later, and that this phenomenon generally affects all chapters equally, meaning no chapters are particularly good at recruiting members outside of major political events. Even though many of the results are unsurprising, I was impressed by the analysis nonetheless and hope the GDC is able to explore membership data with more depth in the future. The second programming session I really enjoyed was titled ‘Lessons from the Lean Years’, a panel discussion including three comrades who had been involved in DSA prior to the 2016 explosion in membership. Panelists highlighted the past organization’s willingness to participate in coalitions as a strength, the need to build a united front of organizations in the future, and a call for more rigorous and locally focused political education. They also encouraged DSA to be humble, reflective, and flexible. However, the most sobering piece of advice was that we should keep in mind that whether the revolution happens in our lifetimes or not, we still have to live and enjoy our lives fully. As someone who often falls into puritanical thinking, maintaining a balance of work, DSA, rest, and familial obligations is something I rarely if ever achieve. Especially as I begin to mature as an organizer, I struggle with the idea of delegating without also directly participating in the work and the feeling that doing is superior to planning the work. I will certainly at least try to keep in mind the advice of my older comrades as I continue to navigate these challenges.
By far the best part of Convention was the ability to connect with comrades across the organization, especially my fellow Ohioans inside and outside of our chapter. A big reason my partner and I joined DSA in the first place was to join a community of people with shared values, and there’s really nothing like three days of intense political debate interspersed with very little sleep without the luxury of complimentary coffee to bond folks together. I appreciate that our chapter chose to sit together on the debate floor throughout Convention, despite political disagreements and the pull to spend time with their caucuses and friends. I also enjoyed getting to know delegates from other Ohio chapters and learning more about their individual strengths. Special shoutout to Joe from Mahoning Valley, who was somewhat adopted by our delegation. Although my feelings about a statewide formation have changed somewhat, I still believe it is important to connect and learn from our sister chapters as often as possible and hope that the Ohio chapters will prioritize regular in-person meetups in the future. Finally, I was delighted to run into a comrade from my original DSA chapter, Coulee DSA in La Crosse, Wisconsin at the GDC table. In fact, David was the first member who invited Joe and I to join DSA from our weekly Palestine protests. Although we were only in the chapter a few months, it obviously made a big impact and led us to get active in Cleveland once we moved home.
At the close of Convention, I was struck by how impactful each of the ~1200 delegates were, regardless of their caucus status or chapter. Several resolutions passed or failed within 50 votes. One, R44: Resolution on Staff, Contractors, and Budgeting, came within 11 votes, well within the margin of abstentions. Delegates came from all over the country, from very small chapters like Ohio’s Mahoning Valley to the extremely influential megachapters like NYC. Through a show of hands, there appeared to be a relatively even split in the room in terms of the number of Conventions attended, although most folks I talked to were attending for the first time. Even as a non-voting member of our delegation, I felt I had an impact through conversations with my comrades on the debate floor. The idea that people so new to the movement could have so much power in the leadership of the national organization was deeply moving. I hope we are able to send more comrades to Convention in the future as delegates and observers to share in this experience.
When running for a spot on the delegation, I declared my motivation to run for convention delegate was to continue growing as a DSA member and socialist to better serve the chapter. Although it is certainly too soon to tell – I’m drafting this the day after convention – I feel confident that I will achieve those goals. Attending Convention has been an overwhelmingly energizing and positive experience from the delegate election process to reading each resolution to the Spotify jam session on the drive home. I am deeply grateful to my comrades who had the confidence in me to represent them and am excited to continue sharing lessons learned with my comrades and to become more involved in national bodies like the Growth & Development Committee. I look forward to the future of DSA both in Cleveland and at the national level over the next two years, after which I do hope to return to Convention as a full delegate.
Solidarity forever,
Ary C