Marxist Unity Group’s Proposals for the 2024 YDSA National Convention

Jun 24

The 2023 National Convention solidified YDSA’s status as the political vanguard of DSA by passing a series of bold resolutions and amendments that have placed YDSA at the leading edge of DSA’s evolution into an independent mass socialist party. Among these were Marxist Unity Group’s six priority resolutions that year: “Recommitting to Building an Independent Working-Class Socialist Party,” “Fighting the Right with Mass Action,” “For Building the Youth Wing of a Socialist Party,” “Winning the Battle for Democracy,” “Anti-Militarism on Campus,” and “Programmatic Unity for YDSA.”

At the 2024 National Convention, MUG hopes to see YDSA continue leading DSA into the future of democratic socialism. To this end, we have chosen to sponsor six proposals for national convention this year: two resolutions written by MUG members, two written jointly by MUG members and members of other caucuses, and two amendments to resolutions written by members of other caucuses.

With genocide, ecological collapse, and the threat of world war rearing their heads as the capitalist world-system plunges into crisis, now is the time to be calculating, but not conservative. The tasks facing our movement are enormous. We must stake out a space on the electoral field for a politics of opposition while developing the cadre and capacity to run tribunes of the people to fill that space and champion the cause of the oppressed. We must be willing to move beyond stagnating strategies in the ecological struggle, devising new ones rooted in the necessity of winning the battle for democracy on the political and then economic fields. We must draw hard lines in the fight against colonialism and imperialism, and revive the kind of labor militancy that will be necessary to do our part to destroy the empire from within. And to struggle constructively on all these terrains at once, we must unite around a revolutionary political program. This is the spirit Marxist Unity Group is bringing to the 2024 YDSA National Convention, and the spirit in which the following proposals are written.

R2. “Bringing Class-Struggle to Student Government”

This resolution is a collaboration between Marxist Unity Group and the Reform and Revolution caucus. It aims for YDSA to treat student government elections as a site of class struggle and assist chapters in running campaigns that will help establish YDSA’s independent political identity, win victories that advance the struggle on campuses, and develop lifelong electoral organizers with the skills required by an independent mass socialist party.

WHEREAS, as thousands of radicalizing young people have joined protest movements and taken an active role in campus politics, student government interventions provide a strategic avenue for advancing socialist principles and contributing to a movement for working-class emancipation on college campuses nationwide.

WHEREAS, YDSA chapters have had success running student government candidates in opposition to politically moderate and careerist student representatives with ties to their university’s administration and board of trustees, using these campaigns to promote their socialist politics and fight for key issues which affect the student body, and sharing the lessons learned through these chapter-level campaigns would help other YDSA members run similar campaigns in their chapters.

WHEREAS, YDSA’s national structures can play a strong supportive role in these electoral efforts by working with chapters to run bold, public-facing student government campaigns with the goal of growing the organization and winning students over to socialism, and an increased level of coordination among national bodies would allow YDSA to use every tool at its disposal towards this end.

WHEREAS, this resolution builds upon the directives outlined in the resolutions passed at the 2023 YDSA National Convention, including R8. Recommitting to Building an Independent Working-Class Socialist Party, which emphasized running chapter members in student government elections to train for off-campus electoral work. R8 stressed the importance of modeling campaigns after an independent working-class socialist party, presenting a strong socialist program tailored to campus conditions, and maximizing independence from liberal groups like the College Democrats and Young Democrats of America.

WHEREAS, this resolution also aligns with R9. Fighting the Right through Mass Action, passed at the same convention, emphasized the need for YDSA to provide national calls teaching chapters the skills necessary for organizing campaigns, such as power-mapping campuses, navigating student governments, organizing mass actions, and building power independently from establishment organizations on campus.

WHEREAS, the YDSA platform calls for transformative reforms that empower the working class, counter austerity, and advocate for education as a public good; centers struggles against oppression through a socialist analysis; aims to build independent working-class politics and organization; and strives to create just campuses and communities by combating campus capitalism, advocating for disability rights, and promoting tenant organizing and sustainability initiatives.

THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED, the 2024 YDSA Convention shall charter the Electoral Committee. It shall be responsible for developing and distributing resources, training members, and providing hands-on strategic guidance with the goal of running class struggle student government campaigns across the country.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall be responsible for conducting an initial period of mass outreach to chapter leaders to discuss possible interventions in student government, such as running YDSA candidates for student government positions, fighting for referendums, and potential strategies for running a successful class struggle electoral campaign.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall regularly meet and communicate with chapters that decide to run electoral campaigns or already have members in student government to provide political guidance and share relevant lessons from other chapters. The Electoral Committee should track student government activity to maximize its efforts and produce an electoral report for the next YDSA Convention. This direct collaboration with chapters shall be the core of the Electoral Committee.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall actively support and empower YDSA chapters to advocate for the following political issues and socialist governance initiatives within their universities:

Encourage YDSA chapters to advocate for university governance structures that promote equal representation and decision-making by students, faculty, and staff, including:

Increasing student representation on university boards and committees.
Implementing initiatives to enhance transparency, accountability, and participatory decision-making within university governance.

Fight the privatization of universities by supporting the construction and maintenance of student housing, pushing for student management wherever possible, and promoting sustainable food systems that are subsidized and accessible to all students.
Advocate for debt relief programs to address financial burdens that impede equitable access to education for poor and working class students.
Support faculty, graduate and undergraduate labor unions on campus and advocate for unionization efforts in universities.
Standing for the rights of students and faculty by defending academic freedom, especially in the face of growing political repression on university campuses.
Intervening in critical issues such as the Palestine solidarity movement and the struggle for trans and abortion rights against right wing attacks.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall provide additional support to chapters running student government campaigns by providing unified messaging and resources, including pamphlets, graphic design resources, and social media templates as needed. These materials should be designed to resonate with students and effectively communicate socialist principles and campaign objectives.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee, after an initial period of mass outreach and hands-on collaboration with chapters, shall develop and distribute a broader Student Government Campaign Resource Package for chapters to use. This will contain comprehensive guidelines, templates, and resources for organizing successful student government interventions, including:

Detailed guidelines for understanding the variations in student government structures and processes across universities. Include strategies for tailoring campaign approaches accordingly to effectively navigate different political and institutional contexts.
How to choose strategic battles and demands which connect to political issues directly involving the student body, as well as how to use student government as an agitational platform for chapter-wide priority campaigns.
Share strategies for building principled coalitions and alliances with other student organizations, labor unions, and community groups to amplify the impact of student government interventions.
Chapter guidelines on forming disciplined electoral teams such as Socialists in Office Committees which are committed to YDSA's broad-tent platform and membership participation.
Instructions on how chapters can organize a student government platform convention, ensuring a democratic process which builds buy-in from chapter members, creates a coherent program for the chapter’s electoral intervention, and applies the political issues outlined above and the content of YDSA’s national political platform to the chapter’s conditions.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall collaborate with the YDSA Communications Committee to nationally promote the electoral campaigns of chapters, with the goal of bringing attention to these local efforts as well as building YDSA’s reputation as a strong electoral presence on university campuses.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall collaborate with the Campaign Organizing Committee whenever possible to promote student government as a strategic platform for other campaigns or key national issues which YDSA is organizing around.

RESOLVED, the Electoral Committee shall run a workshop at the next YDSA Winter Conference on how to run class-struggle student government campaigns. It will also present a report at the next YDSA Summer Convention on how many chapters are running or have run student government campaigns, and on the progress it has made in building YDSA as an effective electoral force.

R15. “No Votes For Genocide”

Palestine is our red line. This resolution, written by MUG members, would have YDSA intervene in the 2024 elections by going on the offensive against the Democratic and Republican parties alike with a set of minimum anti-genocide demands and corresponding standards for electoral work on campus.

WHEREAS, on February 24th, DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC) voted to open an organization-wide period of deliberation to determine the best approach to DSA’s intervention in the 2024 election,

WHEREAS, as socialists in the United States, we have a duty to oppose the imperialist agenda of our ruling class, which has prioritized the genocide of the Palestinian people by providing effectively unlimited support to the apartheid regime of Israel in its war on Gaza, and,

WHEREAS, the Democratic Party has been an indispensable asset to the forces promoting the genocide in Palestine, supporting Israel’s unjust and criminal war by the following means:

The Democratic Biden administration’s transfer of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Israel, including by the use of emergency executive authority to ship munitions to Israel without Congressional review,
The Democratic Biden administration’s support for the defunding of the UNRWA, a political maneuver intended to induce famine in Palestine as a form of collective punishment,
The repeated U.S. veto of United Nations resolutions calling for a ceasefire, under orders from the Democratic Biden administration,
The passage of $26 billion in funding for the Israeli regime with the support of an overwhelming majority of Democratic Senators and Representatives and the Democratic Biden administration, and,

WHEREAS, the Israeli-American genocide of Palestine has provoked historic acts of resistance within the United States, including mass demonstrations, port and highway occupations, and the recent wave of campus rebellions known as the “Student Intifada,” creating a movement of millions of workers, youth, and the oppressed which correctly identifies Biden and the Democrats as its enemies and sees the connections between imperialist war and genocide abroad and racist police terror, border policy, and other forms of oppression domestically, and,

WHEREAS, the Democratic Party has played a key role in the repression of this movement by the following means:

Condemnation of criticism of Israel by Democratic politicians at all levels of government in the wake of October 7th, including condemnations of DSA members in public office and DSA itself,
Overwhelming support by Democrats in Congress for the federal adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which defines opposition to the existence of the state of Israel and comparison of Israeli policy to the policy of Nazi Germany as antisemitic hate speech,
The Democratic Biden administration’s attempts to use the President’s national platform to slander the students involved in the Student Intifada as violent antisemites,
The brutal police violence against students protesting the genocide in cities governed by Democratic city councils, mayors, state legislatures, and governors, and represented by Democrats in both houses of Congress, including but not limited to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston, all with the implicit endorsement of a Democratic President, and,

WHEREAS, the aforementioned conditions have effectively accomplished a “dirty break” between DSA and the Democratic Party in practice, yet DSA has not officially recognized this reality or reflected it in our electoral policy, and,

WHEREAS, DSA’s most advanced electoral intervention against Biden thus far has taken the form of various “Uncommitted” campaigns in the Democratic primaries, and the logical continuation of this strategy which most adequately addresses the reality of the de facto “dirty break” already underway is to continue the threat of withholding support from Biden and the pro-genocide Democrats from the primaries into the general election,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, YDSA’s political communications strategy for the 2024 elections will be to signal that DSA is the political home for organized and unorganized workers looking for a political alternative to the Democratic Party as a result of their support for the occupation’s genocide in Palestine.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, YDSA’s political communications strategy for the 2024 federal elections will tactically prioritize and center the slogan No Votes for Genocide.

RESOLVED, YDSA will encourage all chapters to adopt the following anti-genocide minimum demands as conditions for the endorsement of candidates for student government:

Support the disclosure and termination of all school investments in Israel,
Support the termination of all school contracts with corporations on the BDS list,
Support a complete commercial and academic boycott of Israel and its universities.

Freedom of expression

Support student-worker resistance to the genocide, including but not limited to spoken or written criticism, rallies, encampments, occupations, and strikes,
Oppose repression of student-worker resistance, including but not limited to student conduct charges, academic sanctions, suspensions, use of the police or national guard, and arrests,
Support unconditional amnesty for all students and workers facing repression for resistance to the genocide.

RESOLVED, YDSA will encourage members and supporters to exclusively vote for federal candidates who meet the following anti-genocide minimum demands, withholding support of any kind from candidates who do not:

On US intervention:

Support a permanent ceasefire,
Oppose all military aid to Israel, and oppose cutting aid to Palestine.
Oppose expanding US intervention into a wider war with Yemen, Iran, or any other actor in the region.

On immigration:

Oppose immigration restrictions including, but not limited to, the militarization of the US-Mexico border.

On state repression:

Oppose restricting the self-activity of the working class and oppressed, like the punishment of the Palestinian solidarity movement, including, but not limited to, the rights to strike, freely assemble, protest, or criticize.

RESOLVED, YDSA will endorse and promote planned demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August, and will encourage chapters with the means to participate in those demonstrations to do so using the slogan No Votes for Genocide and the minimum demands listed above.

RESOLVED, during the 2024-2025 school year YDSA will encourage chapters to run members for student government, or where practical, local office, stressing the minimum demands listed above and drawing attention to the Israeli-American genocide in Palestine and the role of both capitalist parties in orchestrating it, and will further encourage chapters to disrupt local campaign events for candidates of either major party who do not meet the anti-genocide minimum demands.

RESOLVED, YDSA urges the NPC to adopt the No Votes For Genocide proposal motivated by NPC members Rashad X and Amy W, applying the spirit of this resolution to DSA as a whole.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, by convention mandate, YDSA binds the incoming YDSA national co-chairs to use their shared vote on the NPC to vote in favor of the aforementioned No Votes For Genocide proposal.

R16. “Ecosocialism Beyond the Green New Deal”

This resolution was written by MUG members. Its goal is for YDSA to devise new kinds of ecosocialist work that break out of tired reformist patterns. Our organizing in this area must take into account the fact that averting extinction cannot be done without challenging the logic of capitalism itself, something for which the antidemocratic capitalist state cannot serve as a vehicle.

WHEREAS, capitalism has brought humanity to the point of annihilation by creating the conditions for a sixth mass extinction and catastrophic climate change, and,

WHEREAS, the primary way DSA and YDSA have thus far engaged with this existential threat has been through the framework of the Green New Deal, which has served as a locus of popular mobilization against the neoliberal status quo, yet,

WHEREAS, the Green New Deal has been stalled indefinitely by the undemocratic structures of the United States government, including the Senate and Presidency, proving the underlying strategic assumptions faulty, and,

WHEREAS, even if fully realized, the program of the Green New Deal would fail to adequately address the scope of the ecological crisis, because the ecological crisis is rooted in the fundamental tendency of capitalism towards infinite growth on a finite planet, and the Green New Deal does not aim to lay the foundations for a society beyond the fundamental laws of capitalism, and,

WHEREAS, the Green New Deal, furthermore, is unequipped to address ecocidal capitalism as a world-system, because its vision of supplanting fossil fuel energy with renewable energy in a growing economy would necessarily lead to unprecedented levels of imperial extraction from the global periphery, and,

WHEREAS, overcoming the ecological crisis will require reducing material and energy throughput in the imperial core countries whose economies are the engine of climate catastrophe and mass extinction at the expense of the entire world, which will in turn require the restructuring of society to meet human needs without endless economic growth, a process known as degrowth, and,

WHEREAS, revolutionizing society at the scale and scope necessary to begin rationally governing the relationship between humanity and nature, i.e., to guarantee the survival of the human species, is an immense, long-term project which necessitates a fundamentally different political strategy than what DSA has thus far pursued through the Green New Deal, and,

WHEREAS, given the gravity of the crisis we face, and our belief that DSA is and should strive to continue to be the vanguard of the socialist movement, it is our responsibility as an organization to intervene decisively in the ongoing debate around both long-term and short-term ecosocialist strategy,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, YDSA’s platform shall be amended as follows:

(additions in bold italics)

Socialism means the democratization of all of society in order to end oppression, exploitation, and domination of people and the planet. We fight for a world without classes, with an economy democratically planned to meet human needs within ecological limits. The working class is the only social force capable of carrying out this fight, saving humanity from extinction, and ultimately creating a more free, equal, and democratic society. The working class means everyone who is forced to sell their labor, people who work for a wage or a salary and the people who depend on them — children, the elderly, the poor, the sick, the jobless, the homeless, the incarcerated — regardless of borders or citizenship.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, YDSA calls on the Youth Political Education Committee to take the following steps to help develop socialist consciousness about the strict necessity of revolutionary degrowth in the path towards ecosocialism:

To draft and collect educational materials on this subject to be included in YDSA’s Socialism 101 syllabus, replacing the existing content of the Ecosocialism module.
To draft a sample political education curriculum on this subject to be distributed to all YDSA chapters, which are to be encouraged to hold topical political education meetings.
To consult with representatives of YDSA chapters and organizing committees upon request, assisting them in the formulation of political education curricula and campaign action items relating to the struggle for ecosocialism.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, a committee tasked with providing trainings to chapters on campaign issue selection, such as the Youth Growth and Development Committee of the 2024-2025 term, will include potential ecosocialist campaign issues in those trainings which will emphasize political mobilization and which will include messaging and rhetoric connecting campus-level action to long-term strategy in the struggle for political power and a revolutionary overthrow of the current order. These issues may include:

Divestment from environmentally and socially destructive industries that fuel the growth-oriented, imperialist regime of global capitalism, including but not limited to fossil fuels and arms manufacturing;
Organizing workplaces for reduced working-hours in order to fight the domination of both labor and the natural world by reducing exploitation in the workplace and curtailing destructive and unnecessary economic output;
Protection of natural spaces on and off campus from the expansion of both capital and the police state, understanding that their expansion reproduces the political and economic structures which prevent both self-government of the working class and rational planning of the economy made possible only through self governance;
Democratizing campus administrative structures, especially those related to the management of investments and campus environmental policy, to win lasting student-worker power and model the kinds of transformations necessary in society at large to win the battle for working-class sovereignty and a livable environment.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, YDSA urges DSA writ large to adopt analogous measures, and to meet the demands of the moment by taking practical steps to move beyond the Green New Deal paradigm of ecosocialism in favor of one grounded in the necessity of revolutionary degrowth.

R17. “There Is Only One Solution! Intifada! Revolution!”

This resolution is a collaboration between Marxist Unity Group and the Constellation caucus. It firmly establishes YDSA’s support for the Palestinian people’s struggle for a free Palestine from the river to the sea and provides for a coordinated national movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions that builds on the militancy of the Spring 2024 phase of the Student Intifada.

WHEREAS, since October 7th, 2023, over 35,000 Palestinians have been martyred as of the primary deadline for resolutions (May 26th, 2024), constituting an act of genocide and ethnic cleansing which above all is a continuation of the 1948 Nakba, committed the imperial, settler-colonial project of Israel, hereafter referred to as the Zionist Entity,

WHEREAS, since the 1948 Nakba, the U.S. Empire has fully funded the military activities, including genocide, of the settler colonial Zionist Entity, up to 2024 sending $158,000,000,000 ($158 billion), including an additional $17,000,000,000 ($17 billion) passed through Congress in April 2024,

WHEREAS, the U.S. Empire treats the Zionist Entity as an imperial project, historically partnering with it to resist self-determination in the Middle East and North Africa,

WHEREAS, the Zionist genocide has been supported by the establishment of both major parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, since 1948, and is currently actively defended by Democrats from both houses of Congress and President ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden,

WHEREAS, the U.S. military-industrial complex is sustained by the recruitment of academics, specialists, and other degree-holding individuals from colleges and universities in the heart of empire to sustain research, development, and manufacturing of weapons, including those which have and continue to be sent to the Zionist Entity for use in their genocide of Palestinians,

WHEREAS, many colleges and universities directly or indirectly invest part of their sometimes multi-billion dollar endowments in companies such as weapons manufacturers which are directly complicit in the Zionist genocide,

WHEREAS, following months of post-10/7 escalation and pressure, in April 2024, hundreds of campuses across the country rose up with encampments, rallies, sit-ins, and other direct actions to demand disclosure of financial investments and divestment from genocide, among other demands, mirroring the anti-apartheid movement directed at South Africa in the 1980s,

WHEREAS, the Young Democratic Socialists of America was a leader in the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s and is a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in the 2020s,

BE IT RESOLVED, the Young Democratic Socialists of America fully support the people of Palestine in their historic struggle for liberation against the Zionist Entity, a puppet of the U.S. Empire, mourning the martyrs who have lost their lives as a result of the genocide in Gaza,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Young Democratic Socialists of America will continue to be a firmly anti-Zionist organization, committed to decolonial and anti-imperialist principles not just in the case of Palestinian struggle, but struggle wherever it may occur,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the Young Democratic Socialists of America supports the establishment of one free, sovereign, and democratic Palestinian state, and the dismantling of the Zionist Entity in totality,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, YDSA makes the continuation of the “Student Intifada” the main priority of the organization through the establishment of a national campaign,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the main demands of this campaign will be that our universities:

DISCLOSE all university investments both direct and indirect,
DIVEST from all companies and which actively participate in the colonization and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and
BOYCOTT any and all partnerships with the Israeli educational military-industrial complex.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that to achieve these demands, as many YDSA chapters as possible should run long term divestment campaigns on their campuses. These campaigns may include tactics such as:

Petitions
Email Blasts
Teach-ins
Banner Drops
Career Fair Disruptions
Birddogging University Administrators
Sit-ins and Die-ins
Protests
Encampments
Building Occupations

BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that YDSA encourages chapters to participate in coalition with other organizations on their campuses which are committed to fighting for divestment and Palestinian Liberation; especially chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), and other grassroots Palestinian organizations. When entering these coalitions YDSA chapters should strive to be leading coalition partners, avoid liquidating into the coalition, and still maintain a distinct and identifiable presence within the coalition and the movement for Palestinian Liberation without co-opting the movement.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that YDSA members are encouraged to organize members of the faculty, graduate, and undergraduate unions to support the demands of their campaign. This organizing should not be done by “shouting from outside the house” but by identifying amenable leaders within the unions, having one on one conversations with them, developing strong organic connections between the rank & file members of the union and the campaign, and where there are Y/DSA members present within the union, participating directly in the union’s politics as a contingent of rank-and-file membership.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that during times of mass escalation, such as encampments, YDSA commits itself to pushing for mass protest democracy. This mass democracy should at a minimum include:

Electing leaders of negotiating and/or bargaining committees, a commitment to open bargaining, and otherwise practicing complete transparency in the bargaining process
Holding mass assemblies to vote on escalations, agreements with university administration, or other tactical decisions about the movement
Establishing open and democratic committees for the operations of encampments

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the main national tasks for this campaign will be providing training and direct mentorship to chapters running divestment campaigns on their campuses as well as coordinating the national communications strategy for divestment campaigns around the country:

These trainings will revolve around building a sustainable and long term mass movement for divestment and Palestinian Liberation. Topics for these trainings should include but are not limited to:

The Organizing Cycle
The “Labor Notes Bullseye”
Listwork
Campaign Escalation
Effective Comms Strategies
Press Relations
Info Security
Protest Safety
Relationships with Organized Labor

These trainings should be put on both in the form of national calls as well as via one on one mentorship with the leaders of chapters running divestment campaigns.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the NCC and the International Committee’s Youth Leadership Committee (IC-YLC) or its successor shall be the main committee tasked with the execution of this national campaign. They shall coordinate the activities of this national campaign with DSA’s Palestine work occurring within the IC’s Palestine sub-committee such as this committee's work on the national Chevron BDS campaign. In coordination with this work, campuses with academic or financial ties to Chevron shall be identified and the YDSA chapters there -- if one exists already -- shall be encouraged to focus their campaign on getting their university to sever ties with Chevron.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the IC-YLC or its successor shall be additionally tasked with establishing relationships with grassroots Palestinian political organizations in the diaspora, Gaza, and the West Bank.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, in coordination with YDSA’s national Communications Committee this national campaign shall attempt to coordinate the announcement and escalation of actions on campuses across the country. To better facilitate this work, the co-chairs of the national communications committee will attend the planning meetings for this campaign.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Youth Labor Committee (YLC) will assist the campaign in providing trainings to chapters on how to best establish relationships with organized labor on their campuses and to members on how to organize their own unions to support Palestinian Liberation.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NCC will continue to reestablish and repair YDSA’s relationship with grassroots Palestinian organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Additionally, the NCC will also work to repair DSA’s relationship with these organizations and if applicable YDSA’s Co-Chairs, as members of the NPC, will, within reason, submit and vote for NPC proposals which would work towards this goal.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NCC will investigate how best to get DSA to support this national campaign and the YDSA Co-chairs will then submit a proposal to the National Political Committee (NPC).

Amendment to R4. “Towards a Workers Party”

This amendment was written by MUG members based on a resolution written by uncaucused members of YDSA. While MUG supports the transformation of DSA into an independent party, the conception of a workers’ party based on direct union affiliation is flawed. The amended resolution would instead call for YDSA to foster the creation of distinctly socialist rank-and-file caucuses in labor unions.

Additions in red, removals struck through.

Whereas, socialist and labor parties around the world and throughout history have built deep connections to strong footholds in the labor movement and created strong institutional ties to a distinct socialist presence in labor unions. In many such parties, unions are directly affiliated with parties and are thus entitled to send representatives to the decision making bodies of the parties. These powerful institutional ties interventions give keep socialist and labor parties the ability accountable directly to unite the working class in their struggles against the capitalist class while uniting unions behind a socialist class struggle and a coherent policy program. In many such countries, socialist and labor parties and unions organized together, being connected from their inception. In the US, this did not occur. Without ties to a working class party, unions in the country have been vulnerable to attacks by employers, leaving the US with one of the lowest rates of unionization among industrialized countries. Instead, at the historical peak of the US socialist movement, the Socialist Party had to develop strategies to organize within a labor movement that was roughly half as large as it is today, but still much larger than the socialist movement. The “boring-from-within” strategy, which entailed intervening in labor unions on an openly socialist basis to build a working-class majority for the Socialist Party’s programmatic demands, was highly successful, enabling socialists to credibly challenge the labor bureaucracy for control of the American Federation of Labor, and even win socialist majorities in unions like the United Mine Workers. However, with the collapse of the Socialist Party and later the purge of Communists from the Congress of Industrial Organizations, for decades the US labor movement has lacked a distinctly socialist presence, and as a result has largely aligned itself with capitalist political parties and US imperialism. Rebuilding the militant labor movement in the US means moving beyond narrow trade unionism and towards industrial, class-class struggle unionism linked to socialist political organizations.

Whereas, many chapters’ connections to labor on campus are based on personal connections which depend on individuals who will eventually leave the academic institution, as well as campus-specific coalitions. Chapters could benefit greatly from lasting institutional connections, recognized and fostered by national YDSA.

Whereas, the previous national convention affirmed its support for the Rank and File Strategy, prioritizing the goals of

“Rebuilding the labor movement through shop-floor organization, advancing democracy and a class-struggle orientation in our unions, and challenging conservative union bureaucracies, and “Merging socialism with this rank-and-file movement.”

Through this strategy, YDSA has led efforts to organize student workers around the country, building student worker power and influence on campuses, reducing job insecurity and increasing pay at a time when college is notoriously unaffordable.

Whereas, democratic socialism is built upon working class power, and the multiracial working class is the only agent that has the ability to create democratic socialism, a direct accountability to and representation for unions will make YDSA’s connection to the working class stronger. intervention in the labor movement to build a multiracial working-class majority for a democratic socialist program is essential to the struggle for a new society beyond capitalism.

Therefore, be it resolved, YDSA intends to create a structure for direct, chapter-to-local institutional ties between YDSA and socialist interventions in unions representing student workers YDSA members.

Therefore, be it resolved, the National Coordinating Committee will be tasked with holding at least one public forum on creating institutional ties between YDSA and student worker socialist rank-and-file caucuses in labor unions per year, in addition to facilitating discussion on this question at the YDSA Winter Conference.

Therefore, be it resolved, if constitutional amendment __ (the sister amendment proposed by myself) R3. For Rechartering the Youth Labor Committee, Student Worker Unions, and the Rank-and-File Strategy passes, the National Coordinating Youth Labor Committee will create guidelines and provide direct support to chapters with student worker established cohorts of YDSA members involved in unions on their campus to encourage chapter-to-local affiliation the formation of openly socialist rank-and-file caucuses.

Therefore, be it resolved, if constitutional amendment __ (the sister amendment proposed by myself) R8. Recommitting to Socialist Political Education passes, the National Coordinating Youth Political Education Committee will, for one year semester, study the historical implementation of the chapter-to-local affiliation process “boring-from-within” strategy. The National Coordinating Youth Political Education Committee will collaborate with the Youth Labor Committee to draft a report detailing the successes and failures of the chapter-to-local affiliation process. Based on its findings, the National Coordinating Committee will draft a plan of action for making the process of chapter-to-local affiliation more effective. The National Coordinating Committee will also draft a plan for making national-to-national ties/affiliation possible between entire unions and YDSA, not only locals. educational resources on the process of forming an explicitly socialist caucus within a labor union, including:

A module for the Socialism 101 curriculum;
A national training call;
A module for the 2025 Red Hot Labor Summer curriculum.

Therefore, be it resolved, all efforts by the NCC, YLC, and YPEC regarding the formation of socialist caucuses in labor unions will prioritize chapters where an established cohort of YDSA members already exists within a local labor union, and where there is a clear degree of difference between the organizing practices, objectives, and political alignments of the local’s leadership and the principles espoused in YDSA’s political platform and convention mandates, for example, union locals which prioritize collaboration with employers over militant class solidarity, union locals which protect their sectional interests at the expense of other sections of the working class, union locals which represent police or correctional officers, and union locals which are deeply embedded in the machinery of capitalist political parties.

Therefore, be it resolved, if constitutional amendment, A2. Towards a Workers Party, does not pass, the National Coordinating Committee will draft a plan of action for creating a process of chapter-to-local affiliation between student worker unions and YDSA chapters. The National Coordinating Committee will meet with student workers and chapter leaders on campuses with student worker unions, studying how unions and chapters cooperate and seeking consensus on how to best create a chapter-to-local union affiliation process.

Therefore be it resolved, The Activist’s editorial board will be tasked with soliciting and facilitating interviews and debates on labor union affiliation to socialist and labor parties, as well as on the strategy for building these affiliations within YDSA. YDSA’s strategy for building a distinctly socialist presence within labor unions and building a socialist majority within the labor movement generally.

Amendment to R18. “For a YDSA Program Committee”

This proposal would amend a resolution written by Reform and Revolution. MUG agrees substantially with R&R about the need for a revolutionary political program to unify YDSA and guide its work. The changes proposed below clarify the role of a program and would make the proposed Program Committee more dynamic while requiring that the democratic mandates of the 2023 and 2024 conventions be reflected in the initial draft of the new YDSA platform.

Additions in red, removals struck through

WHEREAS, the 2023 Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) National Convention adopted the DSA and YDSA platforms as the basis for its organizational aims.

WHEREAS, the 2023 YDSA National Convention resolved to become “an organization which seeks to build power on and beyond campus, and in the workplace, building the struggles of young people where they're located, recruiting them to socialism, and building up their political and organizing skills and leadership.”

WHEREAS, the 2023 YDSA National Convention passed “Amendment 5: Programmatic Unity For YDSA,” making acceptance of “the aims of the platform of the organization” a requirement for membership in YDSA.

WHEREAS, becoming such an organization requires a clear articulation of the political and organizational goals of YDSA.

WHEREAS, historically successful revolutionary movements have operated from the basis of a clear political program.

WHEREAS, a clear program is the basis of principled recruitment and the effective articulation of the organization’s politics.

WHEREAS, drafting a program and arriving at unity on one will require extensive debate which will cohere the politics and develop the analysis of YDSA.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, YDSA recommits to the project of building a socialist party.

RESOLVED, an ad hoc Program Committee will be created, which is composed of 10 current or former YDSA members appointed by the National Coordinating Committee (NCC) in general proportion to the results of the 2024 YDSA Convention. a national Program Committee is hereby chartered for the purpose of drafting a revised national political platform for YDSA.

RESOLVED, the Program Committee will consist of at least two members of the NCC, no more than two members from any one caucus, and at least two non-caucused members, but will otherwise be open to all members of YDSA and will not be restricted in its total membership.

RESOLVED, the Program Committee will be tasked with drafting a short program for YDSA to be voted on at the 2025 YDSA Convention with a program being defined as the clear articulation of the organization’s immediate demands, the goal of a socialist society, and how these two are connected. This program will be used to unify the organization’s politics, express its ideas through chapters across the country, give coherence to campaigns, and provide the basis for literature, graphics, and messaging. to replace the current YDSA national political platform.

RESOLVED, the draft platform will be presented to the 2025 YDSA National Convention in the form of a resolution, amendable according to normal convention rules, and will be adopted with the approval of the majority of delegates voting. The Program Committee will be tasked with holding at least one YDSA membership forum on its draft program proposal before the 2025 YDSA Convention, leaving enough time to facilitate discussion, receive feedback, and incorporate edits on the proposal from YDSA members prior to the 2025 YDSA Convention.

RESOLVED, the Program Committee will hold an initial research period of at least three months to read and discuss historical programs, and these meetings will be open to all YDSA members to observe. will compile and study a list of historical and contemporary socialist political platforms and auxiliary resources, and submit regular reports on their findings during a period of research prior to the drafting of a revised YDSA platform.

RESOLVED, the regular reports of the Program Committee will be made publicly available to all members of YDSA through national membership emails, which will also encourage members to write articles for The Activist and hold discussions in their chapters about the development of the new platform.

RESOLVED, this draft program will be based on the platforms which have been adopted as the basis of the organization’s unity, the demands which have been adopted in campaigns, and the committee’s analysis of historical socialist programs. must meet the following criteria, although these will not be binding towards the content of amendments submitted after the document is presented as a resolution for the 2025 National Convention:

It must contain a section clearly explaining YDSA’s strategy for the conquest of power by the working class and the abolition of capitalism;
It must contain a section or sections clearly and concisely listing a set of demands for YDSA as a national organization and its constituent chapters to organize towards as an extension of the stated political strategy

RESOLVED, in keeping with the democratic mandates of YDSA’s national convention, the highest governing body of the organization, the draft platform must contain the following:

Demand(s) regarding freedom of speech, assembly, and inquiry in schools, in the spirit of 2023’s “R6: Platform Amendment: The Struggle for Free Expression and Inquiry”
Demand(s) related to queer liberation, reproductive freedoms, and other forms of bodily autonomy, in the spirit of 2023’s “R19: For a Mass Socialist Campaign for Trans Rights and Bodily Autonomy”
Demand(s) related to political democracy and the need for a new Constitution, in the spirit of 2023’s “R21: Winning the Battle for Democracy”
Demand(s) related to anti-imperialism and the demilitarization of campuses, in the spirit of 2023’s “R22: Anti-Militarism on Campus”
Language codifying the political content of any other platform amendments or major national campaigns passed at the 2024 National Convention

RESOLVED, this program will be designed to briefly convey the organization’s politics, in the vein of the Demands of The Communist Party of Germany, the program of the Black Panther Party, and other historical programs.

RESOLVED, this program and its demands will be targeted specifically towards an audience of students and young people, and will not attempt to replace or supplant the messaging of DSA.

Marxist Unity