Democratic socialists are rising in America, but who are they? DSA stands for Democratic Socialists of America, and on their website they say that “DSA is the major organization on the American left with an all-embracing moral vision, systematic social analysis, and political praxis rooted in the quest for radical democracy, social freedom, and individual liberties.”
The party has been around since 1982, and it started as an activist organization. In the early 80`s, they had meetings and talked about Carl Marx. According to their own website they say; «….that both the economy and society should be run democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few.»
DSA is founded by two organizations from the 60s and 70
s, which is New American Movement and Students for a democratic society (SDS). SDS is the group that produced Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn and The Weather Underground terrorist group that was responsible for 25 bombings in the early 1970`s.
In 2011, the DSA joined the Anti-fa group in the Occupy Wall Street movement from day one. At that time, the DSA had only 6,500 members, but now they have more than 24,000 members. The group has mounted a national student debt campaign. The group also supported the «Black lives matter» movement.
The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement that began only six days after 9/11.
The movement started in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City`s financial district, receiving global attention and spawning a surge in the movement against economic inequality worldwide.
The OWS slogan “We are the 99%,” refers to income inequality and wealth distribution in the US between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.
Occupy London began in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, and it was a movement for social justice and real democracy in London, England. It started 15 October 2011, and it was a part of the international Occupy movement.
Some media described it as an “anti-capitalist” movement.
They also helped raise money for the national network of abortion funds. They want free universal health care and a guarantee of basic income. Their favorite president candidate was Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election.
DSA are working to legitimize socialism as a mainstream part of US politics. On their website they say; “We are socialists because we share a vision of a humane social order based on popular control of resources and production, economic planning, equitable distribution, feminism, racial equality and non-oppressive relationships. We are socialists because we are developing a concrete strategy for achieving that vision, for building a majority movement that will make democratic socialism a reality in America.”
It says “popular control of resources and production.” That sounds to me like Carl Marx. So, what is the difference between Socialism and Communism? Lenin called himself a Democratic Socialist. He said;
“We Social-Democrats always stand for democracy, not “in the name of capitalism,” but in the name of clearing the path for our movement….”
This Lenins-phrase describes the strategy of DSA.