Red Star condemns the NPC’s betrayal of DSA’s principles and democracy by refusing to enforce R22, which is binding on the entire organization. We hold that the DSA-LA endorsement ought to have been revoked and Nithya Raman herself ought to be expelled.

At the 2025 Convention, DSA correctly chose to make our commitment to anti-Zionism explicit, to institutionalize it as a firm red line, to operationalize it as part of a broader political strategy, and to make this position binding on the organization, its candidates, and its chapters, by adopting R22: For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA.

On Monday, an opportunist majority on the NPC overturned this resolution by refusing to enforce it, leaving DSA-LA’s endorsement of Nithya Raman in place. This is a betrayal of the struggle for Palestinian liberation and our organization’s democratically chosen commitment to anti-Zionism. This opportunism fundamentally damages our integrity as an organization, and will have far-reaching consequences.

With the NPC unwilling to enforce our standards for electeds, it is all but certain that opportunistic liberal camps across the country will feel emboldened to move to capture DSA’s rising tide. Their success is a real possibility. Each instance would further damage an organization that has already suffered significant damage to our political credibility due to the DSA-LA endorsement of Nithya Raman.

Nithya Raman is a clear example of why DSA needed to pass R22, and many delegates had her in mind when casting their votes for that resolution. On October 4, the NPC itself agreed that DSA-LA’s endorsement of Nithya Raman was in violation of R22, providing the chapter a final opportunity to demonstrate that she unambiguously supports BDS. This requirement for clarity, unsurprisingly, was met with strategic ambiguity, and no statement that she personally supports BDS.

The reformist majority purposely delayed an obvious decision to invalidate DSA-LA’s erroneous endorsement until the day before the election, attempting to present her endorsement as a fait accompli. Bread and Roses, like the Democratic Party in Congress, then split its vote perfectly, ensuring the opportunist bloc would be able to prevent DSA’s commitment to anti-Zionism from being enforced.

What led the reformist majority here?

The political orientation of the reformist majority is the prioritization of short-term tactical goals over broader political struggle. Some members among its constituent caucuses hold that capitalist dictatorship can be democratically reformed into socialism piecemeal, as though prior generations walking the exact same road were simply not clever enough to do so, and believe that if we prove our loyalty to Nithya Raman, she might implement our suggested reforms.

Some believe that naming progressive liberals like Nithya Raman as DSA public representatives will induce people to join DSA, and accordingly prioritize this tactic above all else, though she has kept DSA at a distance. Others believe that electing Nithya Raman will, regardless of her nonalignment, make it easier to struggle for other reforms that will somehow facilitate electing the next Nithya Raman.

These fixations on short-term tactical goals all have the effect of unmooring DSA from a broader strategic political horizon. In one way or another, the tactic has become the entire goal. Because DSA-LA does not have the organizational strength to put forward a genuine representative, they and the reformist majority have conspired to endorse and name an opportunist liberal as our representative.

Were it pursuing a strategy to win socialism, DSA-LA and the reformist majority would realize that, lacking strength, our real task in LA at the moment is to cohere a revolutionary bloc that is decisive enough to be able to act with real independence. The farce they have chosen instead is captured in a clause put forward by Groundwork last week, adopted by the reformist majority, that encouraged DSA-LA to “assemble a coalition of pro-Palestine organizations backing CM Raman”, alongside a petition from a minimum of three NPC members “and [socialists in office] across the country”, all to convince her to simply state she is opposed to weapons being shipped to Israel from LAX.

Across the organization, chapter leaders are now observing how dedicated organizers who joined DSA because they thought we had truly committed ourselves to Anti-Zionism are now dismayed and demoralized. Rather than organize those with anti-imperialist revolutionary instincts into a genuine political opposition that can wield its own strength, form coalitions on its own terms that advance the struggle, and inspire public imagination, the reformist majority would have DSA divert those revolutionaries onto a bridge to nowhere.

Our Position

We believe Nithya Raman was ineligible for endorsement from the start, that the erroneous DSA-LA endorsement ought to have been invalidated, and that she ought to be expelled for substantial disagreement with the principles and policies of DSA under the DSA Constitution and Bylaws. R22, as approved by the 2025 DSA convention, is mandatory and binding on chapters, and this should be applied consistently across the organization.

Our position is not only because of her noncompliance with R22, which is itself part of a pattern stretching back several years, but also her broader disavowal of our political platform and affirmation of her support for capitalism. Red Star holds that DSA’s public representatives, including our electeds, must defend our entire political program, and not selectively support some planks and oppose others.

These events have shown that the struggle to make DSA an anti-Zionist organization is not complete. Red Star is committed to renewing that struggle alongside likeminded DSA members to reassert a binding commitment to anti-Zionism and enforce it in practice.

When casting ballots for DSA convention delegates and when those delegates cast their votes for the next NPC, all who share our aspirations for a socialist party and a fighting anti-Zionist DSA will remember these events, and will know that our principles and policies are only as enforceable as the leaders we elect to implement them. When push came to shove, Bread and Roses, Carnation, Groundwork, Reform and Revolution, and Socialist Majority Caucus betrayed DSA’s principles and our organizational democracy, and their representatives should be rejected by members and convention delegates.

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