Amendments and Resolutions

We don’t have a formal endorsement process, but all the resolutions and amendments listed here seek to address at least some of the issues we identify in the platform of our caucus. We invite all DSA members and chapters, regardless of their location, to look these over and strongly consider supporting them. We think there’s something for everyone here.

Advancing Local Autonomy

• Require that National Pays Stipends to Locals, otherwise known as “Pass the Hat,” is a very simple, hands-off measure of support that would be a godsend to many small, struggling chapters in meeting their basic logistic needs.
• Support the Locals & Make DSA Accessible to All combines support for local chapters with an important intervention to improve the accessibility of DSA spaces.
• Local Jurisdiction, in brief, gives branches a way to opt-out of continuing to operate under their parent chapters and instead form their own new local chapters.
• Greater Chapter Democracy Requirements is a proposal seeking to address the problem of what happens when chapters grow without strong democratic structures.
• Local Membership Dues Resolution proposes a pretty far-reaching change to how dues are collected. It is very interesting food for thought.
• At-Large Representation Amendment requires the NPC to conduct at-large delegate elections in a more fair and comprehensible way.
• Forming State and Regional Organizing Committees would create an intermediary step between “wanting to form a statewide/regional org” and “actually submitting a Constitution for a statewide/regional org” similar to the “organizing committee” phase for local chapters.
• Proposal to Create Functional State Organizations and Optional Regional Organizations is rather different from the above, with automatic creation of state orgs under a standard constitution, and is worth a look.
• Regional Socialist Convergences would provide funding to regional convergences of DSA members for educational and training purposes.

Ecosocialism

• Ecosocialism as a guiding principle of DSA would make ecosocialist principles, in all their complex local and national diversity, central to DSA’s entire political agenda.
• Energy Democracy Resolution seeks to promote better understanding of energy democracy as a concept and practice in DSA.
• Resolution on Fossil Fuel Power meanwhile promotes taking fossil fuel corporations and putting them under democratic control in order to shift their massive resources to clean energy while making their executives pay for their crimes against humanity.
• Fund to Support Local Projects does many things, but some of the projects it would explicitly earmark support for include community agriculture, energy democracy, and disaster relief.

Transportation and Housing

• Housing as a Human Right affirms that, well, housing is a human right, and supports tenant organizing as a way to secure that right.
• Strengthening the Working Class Through Tenant Organizing meanwhile seeks to prioritize tenant organizing as a project. It’s possible that it and the above may be merged, but it’s great to see so much interest in tenant organizing.
• Fund to Support Local Projects does many things, but one of the projects it would explicitly earmark support for is brake light clinics.

Always Anti-Fascist

• DSA National Legal Defense Fund would create a serious bail and legal defense fund for DSA activists and allies.
• Creating a Nationwide Security and Marshalling Program is an expansive proposal that would support marshal programs in DSA chapters nationwide to improve our security culture.
• Establishing a National Antifascist Working Group does what it says on the tin, making anti-fascist action a national working goal.
• Local Anti-Racist Action Resolution requires the NPC to prioritize opposing racism in the political institutions of our local communities through information sharing and promotion of local work.

Political Education and Outreach

• Create a Conflict Resolution training program for DSA would, as the title suggests, provide training on implementing local conflict resolution practices.
• Create a National Organizing Manual meanwhile would create a manual on best organizing practices from the field.
• Reassert our Commitment to Training and Leadership Development represents a commitment to improving the quality and variety of training and education resources available to DSA members.

A Few More Important Proposals

Though not part of the platform (yet) these are resolutions on important issues that need to be addressed.

• Fight for Abortion Access responds to the all-out assault on reproductive rights underway and makes opposing it a priority for DSA.
• Prioritizing Financial Solidarity is an important measure given the steep financial barrier to participation in DSA events.
• DSA National Pro-Decriminalization of Sex Work Resolution affirms that sex work is work, and DSA needs to be serious about supporting workers in that industry as much as any others.

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