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Democratic Socialists of America
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest socialist organization, with more than 90,000 members as of 2025. DSA is a big tent of socialists on the left-wing to far-left of the political spectrum, primarily organized around the tenets of democratic socialism. DSA, which is not a political party with a ballot line, has a decentralized structure in which local chapters and ideological caucuses have high autonomy.
DSA's stated goal is to participate in the workers' rights movement with a long-term aim of social ownership of production such as public enterprises, worker cooperatives, or decentralized planning. At its founding, it supported grassroots social movements and progressives in the Democratic Party. The organization was founded in 1982 through the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), led by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington, and the New American Movement (NAM), led by Dorothy Ray Healey, an organization of New Left veterans. DSA was a minor political force until the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, after which its membership swelled from about 6,000 members in 2015 to more than 90,000 in 2021. Its median membership age dropped from 68 to 33. These new, young members shifted DSA to the left, away from its historically social democratic leadership and toward democratic socialist and other socialist ideologies. The organization's foreign policy is non-interventionist and strongly supports pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist causes. It also supports spending cuts to the United States Military.
DSA, which has a long-term goal of establishing an independent socialist party, engages in electoral politics by endorsing candidates who align with its values, including Democrats, Working Families, Greens, and independents. Particularly notable DSA elected officials include U.S. representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York State Assembly member and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In 2025, over 250 DSA members held elected public office across 40 states, with 90% elected after 2019. Some of its members in Congress have initiated various pieces of legislation central to the modern progressive movement in the United States, including the Medicare for All Act in 2003 by John Conyers and the Green New Deal in 2019 by Ocasio-Cortez. Former longtime members of the United States House of Representatives, including Conyers, Ron Dellums, House whip David Bonior, and Major Owens have been affiliated with the DSA.
The Democratic Socialists of America was formed in 1982 through the merger of two left-wing organizations: the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM).
DSOC was founded in 1973 by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington. Harrington had become a prominent national figure after his book The Other America (1962) helped inspire the war on poverty, and he was a leader of a faction within the Socialist Party of America and later the Socialist Party USA. He had resigned as co-chair of the Socialist Party in 1972 in protest against the party's rightward drift and its stance on the Vietnam War. Growing from a few hundred members to nearly 5,000 in less than a decade, DSOC was a union of Old Left social democrats, trade union leaders, and progressive youth dedicated to working as a left-wing pressure group within the Democratic Party. Harrington envisioned the DSOC as the "left wing of the possible", and its main strategy was "realignment", the idea that socialists could work with labor unions and social movements to push the Democratic Party to the left, drive out its conservative Southern wing, and transform it into a social democratic party. A key project for this strategy was the Democratic Agenda, a DSOC-inspired coalition of labor and liberal activists that challenged the centrist policies of the Jimmy Carter administration from within the party during the late 1970s.
The New American Movement (NAM) was founded in 1971 by Michael Lerner and other former members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the main campus-based organization of the New Left. Emerging from SDS and the socialist-feminist women's unions of the period, NAM was led by New Left veterans who sought to recover the early SDS's humanistic, revolutionary spirit while rejecting the Maoism and vanguardism that had led to its implosion. In 1974, the organization was bolstered by the entry of Dorothy Ray Healey, a longtime leader of the Communist Party who had broken with the party over its lack of internal democracy and its support for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. NAM developed a socialist feminist and Eurocommunist orientation, emphasizing Gramscian Marxism and building a grassroots presence through local struggles around affordable housing, utility rates, and reproductive rights.
By the early 1980s, both organizations saw a need for unity. DSOC had influential union allies and a foothold in mainstream politics but few young activists. NAM had a more youthful activist base but lacked DSOC's political influence. The merger convention, held in Detroit on March 20–21, 1982, created DSA with a combined membership of 6,000. It was a deliberate effort to heal the rift between the Old Left and the New Left. Harrington took the lead of the new organization, which adopted DSOC's strategy of realignment while incorporating NAM's commitment to socialist feminism and grassroots organizing.
In the 1980s, DSA functioned as a home for a diverse group of activists, including democratic Marxists, Fabians, religious socialists, former Communists, and labor Zionists. All were united by opposition to Reaganism. DSA continued the DSOC strategy of working within the Democratic Party to support progressive candidates and policies. It did not endorse Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign, but was part of the Rainbow Coalition that supported his 1988 campaign. A central ambition for Harrington was to build a "conscience constituency" of educated professionals who, he argued, were predisposed to social planning and could become allies of the poor and the labor movement in a new progressive coalition.
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Democratic Socialists of America
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest socialist organization, with more than 90,000 members as of 2025. DSA is a big tent of socialists on the left-wing to far-left of the political spectrum, primarily organized around the tenets of democratic socialism. DSA, which is not a political party with a ballot line, has a decentralized structure in which local chapters and ideological caucuses have high autonomy.
DSA's stated goal is to participate in the workers' rights movement with a long-term aim of social ownership of production such as public enterprises, worker cooperatives, or decentralized planning. At its founding, it supported grassroots social movements and progressives in the Democratic Party. The organization was founded in 1982 through the merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), led by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington, and the New American Movement (NAM), led by Dorothy Ray Healey, an organization of New Left veterans. DSA was a minor political force until the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-identified democratic socialist, after which its membership swelled from about 6,000 members in 2015 to more than 90,000 in 2021. Its median membership age dropped from 68 to 33. These new, young members shifted DSA to the left, away from its historically social democratic leadership and toward democratic socialist and other socialist ideologies. The organization's foreign policy is non-interventionist and strongly supports pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist causes. It also supports spending cuts to the United States Military.
DSA, which has a long-term goal of establishing an independent socialist party, engages in electoral politics by endorsing candidates who align with its values, including Democrats, Working Families, Greens, and independents. Particularly notable DSA elected officials include U.S. representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York State Assembly member and New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In 2025, over 250 DSA members held elected public office across 40 states, with 90% elected after 2019. Some of its members in Congress have initiated various pieces of legislation central to the modern progressive movement in the United States, including the Medicare for All Act in 2003 by John Conyers and the Green New Deal in 2019 by Ocasio-Cortez. Former longtime members of the United States House of Representatives, including Conyers, Ron Dellums, House whip David Bonior, and Major Owens have been affiliated with the DSA.
The Democratic Socialists of America was formed in 1982 through the merger of two left-wing organizations: the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM).
DSOC was founded in 1973 by the socialist intellectual Michael Harrington. Harrington had become a prominent national figure after his book The Other America (1962) helped inspire the war on poverty, and he was a leader of a faction within the Socialist Party of America and later the Socialist Party USA. He had resigned as co-chair of the Socialist Party in 1972 in protest against the party's rightward drift and its stance on the Vietnam War. Growing from a few hundred members to nearly 5,000 in less than a decade, DSOC was a union of Old Left social democrats, trade union leaders, and progressive youth dedicated to working as a left-wing pressure group within the Democratic Party. Harrington envisioned the DSOC as the "left wing of the possible", and its main strategy was "realignment", the idea that socialists could work with labor unions and social movements to push the Democratic Party to the left, drive out its conservative Southern wing, and transform it into a social democratic party. A key project for this strategy was the Democratic Agenda, a DSOC-inspired coalition of labor and liberal activists that challenged the centrist policies of the Jimmy Carter administration from within the party during the late 1970s.
The New American Movement (NAM) was founded in 1971 by Michael Lerner and other former members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the main campus-based organization of the New Left. Emerging from SDS and the socialist-feminist women's unions of the period, NAM was led by New Left veterans who sought to recover the early SDS's humanistic, revolutionary spirit while rejecting the Maoism and vanguardism that had led to its implosion. In 1974, the organization was bolstered by the entry of Dorothy Ray Healey, a longtime leader of the Communist Party who had broken with the party over its lack of internal democracy and its support for the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. NAM developed a socialist feminist and Eurocommunist orientation, emphasizing Gramscian Marxism and building a grassroots presence through local struggles around affordable housing, utility rates, and reproductive rights.
By the early 1980s, both organizations saw a need for unity. DSOC had influential union allies and a foothold in mainstream politics but few young activists. NAM had a more youthful activist base but lacked DSOC's political influence. The merger convention, held in Detroit on March 20–21, 1982, created DSA with a combined membership of 6,000. It was a deliberate effort to heal the rift between the Old Left and the New Left. Harrington took the lead of the new organization, which adopted DSOC's strategy of realignment while incorporating NAM's commitment to socialist feminism and grassroots organizing.
In the 1980s, DSA functioned as a home for a diverse group of activists, including democratic Marxists, Fabians, religious socialists, former Communists, and labor Zionists. All were united by opposition to Reaganism. DSA continued the DSOC strategy of working within the Democratic Party to support progressive candidates and policies. It did not endorse Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign, but was part of the Rainbow Coalition that supported his 1988 campaign. A central ambition for Harrington was to build a "conscience constituency" of educated professionals who, he argued, were predisposed to social planning and could become allies of the poor and the labor movement in a new progressive coalition.