Statement on DSA Budget Priorities
Ending the Deficit
DSA is in a serious financial crisis, and we have incredibly difficult decisions ahead of us. Without question, there will be cuts, and all of us will lose funding for important things. On the NPC, MUG will work to put members first, make decisions as transparent and participatory as possible, and make decisive choices about where we need to cut.
We do not have time to waste fighting about items that will not meaningfully impact the budget, like quarterly reports and earmarked fundraising for the Labor Solidarity Fund. We need to work together to make the decisions to keep the organization from insolvency. We have faith that all of our comrades on the National Political Committee can come to the table to make those decisions with us rather than getting lost in piecemeal debates about the responsibilities of chapters or bureaucratic limitations on fundraising, neither of which will save us from the crisis.
DSA is in this position because of financial mismanagement by past terms of the NPC while membership dues were known to be declining. Our situation is not a surprise. DSA hired more people than our dues could sustain. The decisions made and why are important for membership to discuss, but in this moment we must look for solutions that ensure DSA will continue to exist at all. $3.6 million of the budget goes to personnel, by far the largest expense of our $5 million in income. Nothing else comes close. It is exceedingly unlikely we will balance the budget—and be able to stay in operation—without some kind of cut to personnel. The idea that we will fundraise ourselves out of the hole or run a deficit while our cash on hand dwindles is more of the same magical thinking that got us here.
We must find savings everywhere we can while preserving the member-led organizing that gives people a reason to be DSA members. We support ending the national office lease and the NHGO contract as soon as possible. The NPC should start talking to chapters to ask if they are able to voluntarily reduce or pause dues share for a set period of time. None of this does enough to ensure that DSA survives.
Our comrades in Bread and Roses have put forward a proposal to eliminate $500,000 from the Personnel budget. MUG will be supporting this as we think it is the best chance to keep DSA alive. To our other comrades on the NPC, we ask that if you cannot vote for this proposal as written, put forward an amendment that would earn your support. It is irresponsible to wait until the brink of shutdown forces our hand in the span of weeks rather than months. Moving forward, we also support investigation into staff responsibilities and use of time, toward the end of reorganizing staff to support membership better.
Member-Led Organizing
Socialist Majority Caucus suggests we reduce dues share to chapters to balance the budget. Putting aside that even eliminating dues share completely would fail to wipe out the deficit, dues share is the lifeblood of our organization. It provides a material link between chapters and national, and allows us to build member investment in nationwide struggle through organizing projects they can engage with and shape directly. It funds meeting spaces for chapters, printing costs, web hosting costs for chapter websites, and a very modest budget for organizing. A top-down cut would lead to a localism spiral, where members who primarily interface with DSA disinvest from national and send their dues directly to their chapters, worsening the deficit and ultimately crashing our national organization.
Other suggested reductions include suspending stipends for leadership of both DSA and YDSA. MUG supports paid political leadership because it is critical to being a democratic, member-led working class organization. Since the elected leadership of the organization are not employed full-time, they need to dedicate time outside of DSA to work that can fund their livelihood and political activity. The more time our elected leadership needs to work, the more political decisions fall to director-level staff who do not have a mandate from membership.
In the long run, we should move toward paying all of our leadership, giving them oversight of the entire national organization. NPC Steering Committee stipends are budgeted to be $130,000, or 2.6% of our projected income. The stipends help SC members free up time for leadership by covering childcare, food, etc., or by reducing their hours at work and giving more to DSA. Leadership in DSA must be possible for working class people, regardless of their employment, income, or life circumstances.
Cutting YDSA leadership stipends would be an incredibly shortsighted mistake. YDSA stipends are only 1% of our $5 million in revenue at $52,150. The extremely modest stipends let YDSA’s elected leadership give up campus jobs to focus on leading and working to develop the socialist cadre of tomorrow. They have made a night and day difference in the capacity of the National Coordinating Committee and should be protected. Hailey, our YDSA NCC member, wrote that “this stipend has created a more inclusive space on the NCC where disabled organizers [such as myself] are able to participate. Cutting stipends means cutting capacity and that is not something that should be sacrificed in future NCC terms.” It is imperative for both the NPC and the NCC that we ensure that the leadership elected by members are the bodies making the important decisions between conventions. YDSA is very literally the future of the socialist movement and should be one of our highest priorities for funding.
MUG will fight to preserve, as much as financially possible, those line items that fund member-led organizing, internal democracy and debate, and work in mass movements. Some cuts in these areas will be made no matter what, but we need to prioritize member organizing when we triage. DSA members join (and stay) because of the organizing that puts us in charge of making a better world. If we starve the political work that gives DSA life, we will make our collapse a certainty. We can either emerge from this crisis on the path to becoming a democratic mass party or a staff-driven NGO, and we know which we will be fighting for.
In summary, two of our highest priorities following critical functions for DSA’s continued existence will be:
Dues share, to support chapters and prevent an existential rise in quits.
Paid elected leadership, including YDSA, to empower our internal democracy.
Our Path is Solidarity
On a final note, every hard decision we make becomes easier the more income we bring in. Without private capitalist or state funding, DSA is kept alive by its membership dues. If you feel invested in any aspect of the budget—dues share, electoral grants, paid elected leadership, staffing—please switch to income-based solidarity dues today, and ask your comrades to do the same.
