Marxist Unity Group’s 2024 YDSA National Convention Voting Guide
This guide is a list of all of the Youth section of Marxist Unity Group’s voting recommendations for delegates at YDSA’s 2024 National Convention. To read Marxist Unity Group’s overarching vision for YDSA, our priority proposals for this year’s convention, or our guide to the caucuses of YDSA, follow these links:
National Coordinating Committee
MUG member Steven Raney is running for a seat on the NCC at-large. Steven is a YDSA chapter co-founder and longtime chapter leader, a member of the Youth Political Education Committee, and a committed organizer for Palestine solidarity, reproductive freedom, and democratic socialism. We recommend all delegates rank Steven #1 on their NCC at-large ballots.
Resolutions and Bylaws Amendments
The following resolutions are not included below because they were included in this year’s consent agenda:
R6. Recommitting to the Activist
R7. Prioritizing Red/Rural Area Recruitment and Trainings
R8. Recommitting to Socialist Political Education
R13. Towards Intersectional and Diverse Organizing in YDSA
R14. Building YDSA Communications for the Future
R1. Make YDSA An Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Practice
This resolution reaffirms that support for Zionism is at odds with the principles and aims of YDSA, and therefore an offense eligible for expulsion from the organization. It also outlines a process of restorative justice, allowing any member expelled on these grounds to reverse their expulsion through education. MUG is typically skeptical of expulsion as a tool for solving political problems in the socialist movement, but as we interpret this resolution, it does not seek to expel anyone who is not already have in breach of YDSA’s existing membership conditions, and it is unlikely that anyone will in fact be expelled as a result of it being passed. In this respect, it is largely a propaganda resolution, and propaganda making it clear YDSA is not a political home for Zionism is worthwhile. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
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. We recommend a YES vote on the base version of this resolution.
Amendment R2-1
This amendment makes some changes which improve R2, such as clarifying which student government struggles are strategic, as well as some which do not, such as refocusing the Electoral Committee’s work from producing materials for chapters to hosting a training call. We have no recommendation at this time—vote your conscience.
Amendment R2-2
This amendment’s additions concerning the Fall Drive and political independence-focused messaging during the 2024 election are constructive, and broadly in line with MUG’s approach to electoral work. We recommend a YES vote on this amendment and a YES vote on R2 if amended.
R3. For Rechartering the Youth Labor Committee, Student Worker Unions, and the Rank-and-File Strategy
This resolution calls to recharter the Youth Labor Committee and recommit to the Rank-and-File Strategy approach to labor organizing. MUG has some theoretical differences with the authors of this resolution on the nature and role of labor union work, but we agree broadly with the need for an active socialist presence in shop-floor struggles, and hope to see YDSA build on its recent victories in the labor movement in the coming year. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R4. Towards a Workers Party
The resolution proposes “create[ing] a structure for direct, chapter-to-local institutional ties between YDSA and unions representing student workers,” allowing student unions to affiliate with YDSA chapters. Logistical issues aside, MUG disagrees with this vision of a workers’ party. While it is an ambitious answer to the party question, in practice it would tend to bring the party under the direct influence of trade union leadership, which has historically been a conservative force in the socialist movement. We need a mass socialist party, not a nonsocialist labor party like Labour in the UK. It is questionable whether this resolution could be implemented, but if it were, it would be a step in the wrong direction. We recommend a NO vote on this resolution.
Amendment R4-1
This amendment was written by MUG members. It alters R4 to instead call for YDSA to foster the creation of distinctly socialist rank-and-file caucuses in labor unions, based on the historic socialist strategy of “boring from within” trade unions to build a working-class majority for a socialist program. We recommend a YES vote on this amendment, and a YES vote on R4 if amended.
R5. Towards a National Student Strike for Palestine
This resolution calls on YDSA to make laying the ground for a nationwide student strike our top priority in our Palestine solidarity work for the coming year. A student strike would be a watershed moment for the movement, and if the opportunity for one arises, YDSA must be ready to meet the moment and demonstrate its ability to lead. However, upheavals of this nature are not voted into existence at conventions. Just as YDSA could not have predicted the Spring 2024 Student Intifada at the 2023 National Convention, we cannot predict how the movement will develop in the coming year. We should therefore avoid being overly prescriptive about the form resistance will take in the future, or overcommitting ourselves to certain tactics. We recommend a NO vote on this resolution.
R9. Cohering a National YDSA
This resolution provides meaningful structure within our national organization; NCC members that organize committee co-chairs that can turn around and more effectively organize committee members through regular 1-1s and intentional listwork. Committee co chairs attending NCC meetings streamlines the distribution of action items, which has been a common problem this NCC has faced. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R10. Fighting for Victory in the Heart of Empire
This resolution recharters the Youth Leadership Committee of the DSA International Committee, while proposing to open it up by removing the ten-person membership cap. The limited membership, when combined with the unique situation of the IC-YLC as a YDSA body contained within a larger DSA body, has proven to be an obstacle to dynamic internationalism work in YDSA. R10 preserves much of what is good about YDSA’s internationalism work, while identifying and reforming one of the main flaws it has suffered from. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R11. Strong Foundations for a Growing YDSA
This resolution recharters the Youth Growth and Development Committee (YGDC). Tasked with in-depth leadership development and guiding organizing committees through the transition to new YDSA chapters, the YGDC is a crucial resource. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R12. Responsibilities for National Coordinating Committee Members
This resolution creates a convention mandate for a practice already put in place during this year’s NCC term regarding consistent one-on-ones with YDSA chapters. This connection between national YDSA and chapter leaders has been instrumental in building a stronger YDSA, and should be continued. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
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. It calls for us to present YDSA as an alternative to the two genocidal capitalist parties, using the slogan “No Votes For Genocide” and similar messaging to appeal to members of the working class who have been irreparably alienated from the Democratic Party and are ready for an alternative. We recommend a YES vote on the base version of this resolution.
Amendments R15-1 and R15-2
MUG believes in the importance of programmatic unity in all aspects of DSA’s work, including electoralism. We see the fight to enforce standards over Zionism at both the local level (R15-1, concerning Nithya Raman) and the federal level (R15-2) as crucial to DSA’s transformation into an independent mass party. We recommend a YES vote on both amendments and a YES vote on R15 if either or both pass.
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. R16 would direct YDSA to produce political education on revolutionary degrowth and help chapters develop ecosocialist campaigns that go beyond Green New Deal-style reformism. We recommend a YES vote on the base version of this resolution.
Amendment R16-1
This amendment would change R16 from being critical of the Green New Deal to being broadly supportive of it, calling for political education and YGDC trainings that “build on,” rather than depart from, what MUG sees as a dead-end strategy for ecosocialism. We recommend a NO vote on this amendment, but still recommend a YES vote on R16 if amended.
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. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R18. For a YDSA Program Committee
This resolution would establish a committee to rewrite YDSA’s political platform. MUG agrees substantially with R&R about the need for a revolutionary political program to unite YDSA and guide its work. We recommend a YES vote on the base version of this resolution.
Amendment R18-1
This proposal would amend R18 to clarify the role of a program, make the proposed Program Committee more dynamic by uncapping its membership, and require that the democratic mandates of the 2023 and 2024 conventions be reflected in the initial draft of the new YDSA platform. We recommend a YES vote on this amendment and a YES vote on R18 if amended.
R19. For Protest Democracy
This resolution calls on YDSA to push for democratic structures within protest movements like the encampments which shook the country this spring. MUG believes that internal democracy is an essential ingredient for the creation of a mass democratic socialist party. Extending the principles of democratic, participatory, rank-and-file power to all areas of our political activity can only aid our struggles, making them more durable, reproducible, and responsive to changing conditions. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R20. Building the Socialist Movement Through YDSA
YDSA received major budget cuts earlier this year. We lost one of our two staff positions and both of our interns, all committee chair stipends, $10,000 in committee funding, and most notably, our in-person convention. MUG agrees with the authors of this resolution that defunding YDSA in this way was a strategic error for DSA. While we believe winning back an in-person winter conference should be a higher priority than an in-person convention, this resolution does not prevent our NCC co-chairs from also advocating for an in-person YDSA conference, and the reality is that an adequate YDSA budget would provide for both. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R21. Building Militant and Democratic Student Unions on College Campuses
This resolution sets the creation of mass-membership organizations of students, or student unions (note: NOT student worker unions, which are labor unions made up primarily of student workers), as an organizing priority for YDSA. Our disagreements with B&R on the issue of explicitly socialist intervention in labor unions may apply to the issue of YDSA’s role within nonsocialist mass organizations of this type as well, but this resolution nevertheless speaks to a felt need to supercharge new organizing on college campuses. We recommend a YES vote on this resolution.
R22. Class Struggle Internationalism
This is a symbolic resolution advocating for a specific approach to internationalism that sees it as YDSA’s primary task to “critically evaluate and exchange lessons with” left organizations in other countries instead of offering them “uncritical diplomatic support” or wading into “geopolitical bargains and rivalries.” MUG believes that the essential task of internationalism is to defeat the enemy at home, the antidemocratic state and military-industrial complex at the heart of the US empire. Principles like democracy and rank-and-file power are important, but R22 is overfocused on litigating disputes within the international left and not enough on the task of dismantling the empire from within. We recommend a NO vote on this resolution.
R23. For an Independent Youth International Committee
In contrast to R10, this resolution seeks to dissolve the IC-YLC and replace it with a Youth International Committee entirely housed under YDSA. MUG believes that YDSA’s internationalism work is most effective when done in active collaboration with DSA, which is best served by some version of the current IC-YLC arrangement. We recommend a NO vote on this resolution.
R24. Budget Autonomy for YDSA
This resolution tasks an exploratory committee with researching the feasibility of legally incorporating YDSA separately from DSA. At the tail end of DSA’s budget crisis, a separately incorporated YDSA would only hurt our organizing by putting us at needless risk for legal liability and draining valuable capacity that NCC members could be using to build stronger YDSA chapters. We recommend a NO vote on this resolution.
A1. Priority Campaigns for YDSA National
Every year, the National Convention creates more mandates than can be fulfilled in the following NCC term. This resolution would create a special category of “priority campaigns” which call for long-term, high-level investment from YDSA national, and require that only one be adopted per year. It additionally stipulates that priority campaigns would only be adopted by a two-thirds vote at convention. A1 is a creative solution to a problem which has diluted the power of a convention mandate, and therefore the political stakes of convention. We recommend a YES vote on this amendment.
A2. Towards a Workers Party
This amendment is associated with the resolution of the same name. In addition to sharing the same political problems as R4, it would allow for union locals with large numbers of non-student members to affiliate directly with YDSA, and it raises unsolved questions about the political influence of the unions on the organization and the mechanics of representation and disaffiliation. We recommend a NO vote on this amendment.
