Democratic Socialists of America
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Democratic Socialists of America
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| Executive director | Maria Svart |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Merger of |
Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee New American Movement |
| Headquarters | 75 Maiden Lane, Ste 702 New York, NY |
| Newspaper | Democratic Left |
| Student wing | Young Democratic Socialists |
| Membership (2017) |
 20,000 |
| Ideology |
Democratic socialism Anti-Capitalism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| Website | |
| dsausa.org | |
Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a democratic socialist organization in the United States. DSA is a member of the Socialist International, a multi-tendency political international of democratic socialist, social democratic and labor political parties and other organizations.
According to executive director Maria Svart, the DSA has its roots in the Socialist Party of America (SPA), whose most prominent leaders include Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas, and Michael Harrington, and the New American Movement (NAM). In 1973 Harrington, the leader of the minority faction that had opposed the SPA's rightward shift and transformation into the Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) during the party's 1972 national convention, formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). The DSOC, in Harrington's words "the remnant of a remnant", soon became the largest democratic-socialist group in the United States, and in 1982 was merged with the NAM, a coalition of intellectuals with roots in the New Left movements of the 1960s and former members of Socialist and Communist parties of the Old Left, to form the DSA.
Initially the DSA consisted of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members. Upon the DSA's founding, Michael Harrington and socialist-feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected as co-chairs of the organization.
The DSA does not run its own candidates in elections, but instead "fights for reforms... that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people". These reforms include decreasing the influence of money in politics, empowering ordinary people in workplaces and within the economy, and restructuring gender and cultural relationships to be more equitable. The organization has at times endorsed electoral candidates, notably including Walter Mondale, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader (informally), John Kerry, Bernie Sanders, and Barack Obama.
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