Our shared principles
1. Capitalism is killing us, and we deserve Democratic Socialism
Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.
We believe there are many avenues that feed into the democratic road to socialism. Our vision pushes further than historic social democracy and leaves behind authoritarian visions of socialism in the dustbin of history.
We want a democracy that creates space for us all to flourish not just survive and answers the fundamental questions of our lives with the input of all. We want to collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation. We want the multiracial working class united in solidarity instead of divided by fear. We want to win “radical” reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.
We want a democracy powered by everyday people. The capitalist class tells us we are powerless, but together we can take back control.
2. Organizing the working class around immediate and radical demands is our path to power.
Policies once viewed as radical, like a $15 minimum wage, have become overwhelmingly popular because millions of working people have advocated for themselves through campaigns that speak to their conditions and aspirations. Socialists should advance these issues, connect them to a long-term vision of democratic socialism, and build in coalition with other left and progressive forces in the process.
3. Effective, well-targeted campaigns around specific demands are at the heart of DSA’s political work.
Campaigns that win specific concessions from particular power centers, using tactics that large numbers of people can participate in, build confidence, skills, and power for the working class.
4. We must connects local struggles with broader movements.
The same problems we see in Lawrence are occurring in communities all over the United States, and in many cases, all over the world. We want to build connections with organizations, movements and groups inside Kansas and everywhere else who want to work against capitalism, patriarchy, imperialism and white supremacy.
7) DSA works most effectively in coalition with organized progressive and working-class groups.
Millions of working people across the country are fighting for their own interests by organizing themselves in groups like labor unions, tenant and neighborhood associations, and other community organizations. DSA should build strategic and sustainable relationships with these organizations by campaigning for working-class demands and should also foreground the structural analysis that connects disparate issues to a democratic socialist program.
10) We will strive to practice solidarity with each other, even in disagreement, in a way that transforms us as individuals and strengthens us as a collective.
Comradely conversation and debate over ideas, tactics, and strategies is the lifeblood of a democratic organization like DSA. Toxic or factionalized disagreement fails to change minds and fails to move our work forward. We want to uphold norms of debate, of democratic governance, and of communication that prioritize treating one another as comrades in mutual struggle rather than adversaries to be torn down.
5. Dismantling racist and oppressive institutions is central to our fight.
The working class, both in the U.S. and internationally, is multiracial. We will not be able to build a socialist majority without tackling white supremacy, imperialism, and other forms of oppression head on, in society, in our coalitions, and in DSA.
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8) Socialists should engage the labor movement at all levels to build a united, fighting working-class movement.
Building a militant, progressive and democratic labor movement is a central task for socialists. DSA members have a wide variety of roles to play, including organizing as members of the rank-and-file, as union staff or officers, in our own non-union workplaces, and in targeted strategic industries. All labor movement work that advances our class struggle is important to building a socialist majority.
6. Socialist feminist praxis informs our organizing and organizational culture.
Our organizing practice should recognize that all members of the working class have multiple identities, including gender, sexual attraction, race, ability, and others, that shape their experience of oppression. Building a socialist majority will require consciously building bridges across the divisions that various forms of oppression have created.
9) Elections matter, and we should run democratic socialists and progressive at every level of office.
The electoral campaigns of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other democratic socialists at all levels of government have engaged millions of working people in discussion of socialist demands, and have played an important role in the left’s growth. In Douglas County, the election of leaders like Shannon Reid and Shannon Portillo have been transformative. We will work together to run organizers and activists as candidates for office, and work with elected officials to win gains for working class Kansans.