Last weekend, DSA’s National Political Committee (NPC) sparked a controversy when they considered the implementation of Resolution 33, passed at the 2025 national convention, regarding who DSA could endorse in the 2028 presidential election. The controversy hinges on a nonbinding member poll and a ‘left-labor’ coalition which has not, as of yet, come into existence. It has also become part of an ongoing debate on the merits of a presidential campaign by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a campaign that is purely hypothetical at this point. Additionally, it has inspired debate on the relationship between the national organization and New York City DSA, its largest chapter, which has garnered the national media spotlight based on a recent string of electoral victories, from the election of DSA member Zohran Mamdani as Mayor last year to multiple congressional primary victories on June 23rd.
Red Star has serious doubts about throwing our weight behind an AOC presidential run. A significant factor in this is her lack of political and practical alignment with DSA, which Red Star has both criticized and sought to rectify. This political struggle over alignment is necessary, as demonstrated by the complete discrediting suffered by Democrats in 2024 over Gaza, in contrast to the wave of DSA members elected in part on their comparatively strong position on Palestine.
Additionally, the actions of ‘right’ factions in DSA during this dust-up – particularly Groundwork – reveal fault lines in DSA that need to be addressed. These actions include instigating an email pressure campaign directed at the NPC, which on its own would be frustrating but not out-of-bounds; more seriously, NYC-DSA leaders posted barely-concealed threats to split the chapter off from DSA over ludicrous claims of ‘disenfranchisement.’ This behavior undermines our collective ability to take on a project as ambitious as a presidential campaign. We hope we can use this incident as an opportunity to reflect on these issues and our path forward as DSA rather than remain embroiled in high-handed, bad-faith, and accusatory argumentation.
AOC: Relationship to DSA and Potential 2028 Candidacy
At this moment, AOC’s presidential candidacy in 2028 is little more than speculation. Groundwork is using their position as leaders of the largest DSA chapters to push DSA to ‘draft’ AOC for the 2028 election. It is true that DSA pushed for Senator Bernie Sanders to run in 2016, and DSA’s impressive recent electoral victories have many raring for another chance at the presidency. However, AOC’s position on the issues and her positioning within the Democratic party cast serious doubts on her ability to approach this hypothetical contest with the dedication to DSA’s radical political project that this moment requires.
This tension between DSA and AOC on political strategy has come up numerous times since her initial election to Congress in 2018, particularly vis-à-vis the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Red Star, on numerous occasions, has criticized the degree to which Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez has been cast as the standard-bearer of our movement while simultaneously kept at arms-length from the questions of political discipline that this ought to entail. We have been pushing for DSA to support Palestinian liberation during crucial moments, along with allies on the NPC. As part of our campaign for NPC in 2023, Red Star wrote the Leadership Pledge. One of the points of the pledge was an identification of the relationship between Socialists in Office and DSA as something in need of development.
[Still a bridge to nowhere: Imperialism, electoralism, and AOC
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), darling DSA Socialist in Office (SIO), has received her fifth consecutive endorsement from NYC-DSA. She is sailing towards what is almost assuredly a safe re-election and will start her fifth term as a representative in Congress in 2027. NYC-DSA’s endorsement has opened
Red StarNasser A
](https://redstarcaucus.org/still-a-bridge-to-nowhere-imperialism-electoralism-and-aoc/)[We Do Not Condemn Hamas, and Neither Should You
Let us begin at the end: The fight for Palestinian liberation will, without question, succeed. Palestine will be free! When, on that long-awaited day, the people of Palestine look around at who stands by their side, where will socialists find ourselves? Will we find ourselves by their side, having
Red StarHazel F
](https://redstarcaucus.org/we-do-not-condemn-hamas/)[Red Star-Marxist Unity Group Joint Statement on the Palestinian Uprising
For a Free Palestine Red Star and Marxist Unity Group stand in solidarity with Palestine and its ongoing struggle against colonization. Palestine will only be free when there is no territory held under Israeli apartheid, ending 75 years of occupation and oppression by the Zionist entity. We support the right
Red StarRed Star
](https://redstarcaucus.org/free-palestine/)[Leadership Pledge - Red Star
Red Star is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist caucus in the Democratic Socialists of America.
Red Star
](https://redstarcaucus.org/tag/leadership-pledge/)
In 2024, Red Star declared its opposition to another national endorsement of AOC, reasoning that her position on Palestine was untenable relative to DSA’s and that she was politically unaligned with the organization. She not only endorsed Biden in the midst of his genocide of Palestinians and defended Biden from calls to drop out even after his disastrous debate performance, but she also actively leveraged her position as a major “left” figure in this country to attempt to change the minds of those refusing to support the Democratic ticket due to the Biden/Harris administration’s policy of genocide. At the Democratic National Convention, AOC had claimed that Kamala Harris was working for a ceasefire – a claim now known to be completely false – while the Harris campaign denied any space for Palestinian Americans to be heard on the main floor of the convention.
[Endorsing AOC is a Bridge to Nowhere
Over the past several weeks, DSA has been rife with discussions about the National Political Committee (NPC) considering re-endorsement of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), the congresswoman for NY-14. The question arose suddenly; after receiving her endorsement request, the National Electoral Committee (NEC) declined to follow the normal process
Red StarGrayson L.
](https://redstarcaucus.org/endorsing-aoc-is-a-bridge-to-nowhere/)
That same year, Red Star provided reasonable conditions for reconsideration of the position if AOC were to collaborate with the NPC and rectify her prior support of the Biden campaign. These conditions were the basis for a conditional re-endorsement of AOC. In response to this, NYC-DSA’s leadership attempted to withdraw AOC’s endorsement request from the national organization. The NPC ultimately withdrew its conditional endorsement, with AOC remaining locally endorsed, but unacknowledged by the national organization.
[National DSA Endorsements Belong to National DSA
After the conclusion of a month-long debate period in DSA, the National Political Committee (NPC) broached the issue of whether to endorse United States Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). In response to AOC’s move towards the Democratic Party’s core and her growing disconnect with the general sentiment
Red StarRobert N
](https://redstarcaucus.org/national-dsa-endorsements-belong-to-national-dsa/)
Similarly, we have discussed how a revolutionary electoral program needs to build and leverage the transformative power of the working class. Without this, DSA is doomed to tailing, and therefore, adopting all of our elected officials’ priorities, as well as their defending their capitulations, when they reach office without a clear plan to govern in this time of extreme capitalist crisis. A DSA-backed AOC campaign would bring these issues to the fore on the largest stage possible. These questions pose fundamental challenges to socialists in the U.S. that we cannot paper over with campaigns, wins, or momentum.
[Elections, not electoralism: A tactic in a revolutionary movement
[T]he working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes. - Marx [R]evolutionaries who are incapable of combining illegal forms of struggle with every form of legal struggle are poor revolutionaries indeed. - Lenin For Marxists in the U.S.
Red StarBob M
](https://redstarcaucus.org/elections-not-electoralism/)[Misreading Mamdani’s Victory: Zohran and the Contradictions of Electoralism
As Red Star’s 2025 convention platform argues, organization is the principal task of electoralism in DSA. The primary role of elections is not to win reforms for their own sake, but to strengthen DSA, deepen working class political consciousness, align DSA with radical sections of the working class, and
Red StarHazel W
](https://redstarcaucus.org/misreading-mamdani/)
NYC-DSA Leadership’s Disorganizing Conduct
This is not the first time that NYC-DSA leadership has demonstrated disregard for the national organization or attempted to flout its authority. In addition to attempting to withdraw their recommendation for AOC’s national endorsement after the NPC did it conditionally, in the run-up to the 2025 DSA National Convention, NYC-DSA leadership organized a recruitment campaign[1] encouraging prospective members to complete dues waivers, days before delegates would be apportioned for the convention. That same year, NYC-DSA leadership did not seek national endorsement for then-State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral campaign, feeding the false narrative that national DSA did not want to support Zohran. Later that year, NYC-DSA leadership attempted to defend a provision in their bylaws that would have granted membership status to people who had not yet become members of the national organization, a direct contravention of existing DSA membership guidelines which requires one to be a member of the national organization to be a voting member of a chapter.
- DSA members can see more about this incident on the DSA member forum. ↩︎
Most recently, in response to the NPC’s amendments of the proposed plan to carry out R33, NYC-DSA co-chair and Groundwork member Gustavo G. alleged that the NPC was “overturning our convention” – a misleading representation at best – and noted the amount of dues revenue NYC-DSA provides to the national organization while criticizing the NPC’s actions as somehow disenfranchising of NYC-DSA’s membership. Those who suspected NYC-DSA’s leadership were threatening a “split” were given proof when it was publicized that NYC-DSA’s treasurer had emailed the NPC on Sunday, July 12th, with an explicit threat of a split, demonstrating (in our estimation, extremely optimistic) projections of NYC-DSA’s ability to weather one.
Screenshot of an email sent to the NPC by the NYC-DSA Treasurer.
Unity, Camaraderie, and Commitment to DSA
NYC-DSA has been an indispensable part of DSA’s recent growth. The chapter has developed sophisticated electoral operations, trained organizers whose experience has benefited the organization as a whole, and helped demonstrate that socialist campaigns can compete and win at a high level. These accomplishments provide DSA with an opportunity to build on that hard-won technical capacity in service of the broader project of transforming DSA into a cohesive party that recruits and develops cadres, embeds elected officials within the organization, and treats elections as a means of strengthening socialist organization rather than an end in themselves.
However, this behavior by NYC-DSA’s leadership is unacceptable. While Red Star has our political disagreements with the reformist factions within DSA, we have sought to manage those conflicts in a straightforward way, and believe that the process of maintaining unity through struggle makes us a better organization. We may struggle over the political direction of the organization, but we are committed to building it together, side by side.
[Democracy, Togetherness, Building Power
At an Intro to DSA meeting recently, a Red Star member who was leading the event was asked by a participant what the most important thing they’d learned during their years in the organization. Our member thought about it, and replied “It’s more powerful to be together than
Red StarEugene H.
](https://redstarcaucus.org/zenithv3-together/)
DSA is in a historic and uncharted situation. We have become the largest socialist organization by membership in the United States’ history. We are recognized as a force across the political spectrum, as evidenced by the panic our success elicits from both major political parties. The attacks on us and our work are only beginning, and we will have many more treacherous roads to go. To achieve our goals, and build on the collective lessons we have learned both in victory and defeat, we must remain united, knitting together the diverse experiences, strengths, and lessons from every region and terrain of struggle.
We recognize that unity is an ongoing process, and that discipline is a collective practice. It will take more than resolutions and reprimands to make DSA a durable organization. However, we believe this outburst deserves a collective response. As part of this commitment to unity, we call on DSA members and chapters to sign the unity letter drafted by Bread and Roses and cosigned by Red Star. We also feel that it would be prudent, now more than ever, for NYC-DSA to sign the Chapter Affiliation Agreement passed overwhelmingly at the 2025 National Convention. This agreement is necessary to reinforce the reciprocal relationship between local chapters and the national organization. Our largest chapter cannot continue exempting themselves from signing this agreement, and their leadership should reaffirm their commitment to DSA.
DSA has developed to the point it has today through the combined efforts of thousands upon thousands of dedicated socialists. A commitment to unity is a commitment to the political struggle to answer the questions of the day, be it the 2028 presidential election, the continuing struggle for Palestine’s freedom, or the world-defining struggles that are sure to come.
Further Discussion
If you’re interested in discussing this piece with other DSA members, head on over to the DSA Discussion Board.
The forums are open to all DSA members in good standing. If you’re not a DSA member in good standing, sign up or renew your dues here.
From Red Star via This RSS Feed.