We are proud to announce the final draft of our Resolution for the 2023 National Convention. Please see the full text below, and share with your comrades!
Whereas the existential threat of the global ecological crisis we face, unlike any in human history, requires socialists to make climate and environmental action a central field in the struggle by the working class for a better world and against a racialized capitalist system that is profiting from extraction, exploitation, and domination.
Whereas DSA is in a position to play a vital role in the process of class formation in relation to this struggle because of its size, democratic structure, capacity for mass political mobilization, and member-funded financial independence.
Whereas it is not enough to articulate the Green New Deal (GND) as a vision of racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice; a socialist GND contests the ongoing green capitalist transition by vying for democratic control over key economic sectors.
Whereas while recent, “historic” climate legislation is too little, too slow, and too tailored to the interests of capital, DSA is uniquely situated to contest this significant shift in the flow of public spending and private investment.
Whereas the green infrastructure and industries of the 21st century must be shaped by and for an organized working class.
Whereas DSA adopted resolutions in 2019 and 2021 to prioritize fighting for a socialist GND as defined by DSA’s democratically adopted GND Principles, pursued in campaigns informed by our Theory of Power and coordinated by the GND Campaign Commission (GNDCC).
Whereas our proposals are rooted in a concrete analysis of ruling class power, which is located in control over investment and production.
Whereas capitalist responses to climate change and other environmental crises attempt to use this control to initiate technological transitions which further exploit and immiserate the working class, and are insufficient solutions to the crises at hand.
Whereas the GND as we see it aims to rebuild the public sector and the labor movement as both a means and an end, and we can accomplish this by fighting for projects that secure and expand the public and ecologically-sustainable provision of social rights.
Whereas the Building for Power campaign aims to contribute to the development of a mass working-class proto-party in the United States by bringing together elements of the organized working class—construction workers, public sector workers, public service users, and environmental justice communities—in durable partnership at the local level,
Whereas the GNDCC has launched the Building For Power campaign to bring socialist politics to bear on a policy process dominated by capital by training and supporting DSA chapters to fight for state and local GND-style legislation in coalition with labor unions, tenant unions, transit rider groups, environmental justice groups, and other mass working class organizations behind a common vision of an emancipated, democratic, and ecologically sustainable society.
Whereas Building for Power internally brings together forms of organizing that DSA has consistently emphasized and excelled at—including legislative, electoral, labor, housing, direct action, and mutual aid—and prioritizes chapter outreach, training, and development—all essential to DSA’s stability and growth.
Be it therefore resolved that DSA authorizes and endorses the GND Campaign as one of its highest national priorities and charges the GNDCC with organizing and overseeing this work via the Building for Power Campaign.
Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to train and organize DSA chapters to run and win legislative campaigns for reforms that shift structural power to the working class by synergistically building public sector capacity and the labor movement—like expanded mass transit, democratized and decarbonized public energy, green social housing, and green public spaces and facilities.
Resolved that the scope of Building for Power will expand to include labor and ballot demands, where identified as appropriate by chapters and where the demands align with the overall purpose of B4P to rebuild the public sector and the labor movement through the expansion of green public goods and services.
Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to support the development of chapter capacity by providing campaign-oriented training, coaching, resources, and educational materials and facilitating cross-chapter coordination as part of a larger unified strategy.
Resolved that chapter capacity-building related to B4P will include but is not limited to:
- Internal organizing that allows chapters to come to clear, well-informed decisions on B4P campaign planning, structure, and strategy,
- Strategic mass recruitment from the working-class social bases identified by B4P,
- The formation of coalitions which meet the following goals:
- Messaging that draws a clear line between the working class and a common local ruling class enemy
- Tactics that antagonize the target through an appropriate course of escalatory action and allow for the development of durable organizing relationships between DSA chapter members and between DSA chapter membership and the membership of coalitional partners
- Structures that
- Prioritize mass working class organizations and their auxiliaries in coalitional leadership,
- Engage and empower the membership (not just leadership) of DSA and coalitional partners on an ongoing basis to shape the direction of the campaign through clear and democratic decision-making rules,
- Endure beyond the conclusion of the B4P campaign to take on new campaigns—labor, electoral, and legislative—and form durable organizational partnerships on the road to a proto-party on the local level
Resolved that the GNDCC will continue to collaborate with other DSA national bodies on overlapping campaign and policy areas.
Resolved that the GNDCC will expand from 11 to 15 members in order to increase capacity. The new GNDCC will be appointed by the NPC within 60 days of the start of the NPC term, to serve a term of two years until the 2025 National Convention. The NPC will solicit applications and appoint candidates based on the capacity, skills, and knowledge needed for carrying out this campaign.
Resolved that the GNDCC will maintain such subcommittees and processes as are needed to fulfill the campaign’s objectives.
Resolved that the NPC will ensure that major resources are committed to the work of the campaign, particularly coaching, training and growing DSA chapters engaged in work within its umbrella. Such resources shall include, at least, the following:
- One dedicated full-time staff legislative campaigns organizer to coordinate with the GNDCC;
- Staff, technical, and other support for campaign fundraising and merchandise, as reasonably needed and requested by the GNDCC;
- Budget funds necessary to support digital tools and resources for campaign organizing; and
- Access to DSA member data and other resources as reasonably needed and requested by GNDCC.