Seattle DSA National Convention Delegate Candidates 2019

Candidates were asked the following questions:

• In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?
• Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?
• How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

Click on a candidate’s name to expand their answers or download the PDF:

• Josh K.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – Use the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign to grow DSA’s membership into a mass organization representative of the multicultural working class

  – When Bernie wins in 2020, use our organizing momentum to help pass Medicare for All and other class wide reforms

  – Help grow support for and pass the Green New Deal, because a massive restructuring of the economy is the only way we’ll avoid climate change

  – Pursue the Rank and File strategy to help grow militant minorities within unions to help grow the support DSA and the socialist movement has from the labor movement

  – Promote political education within DSA, because a membership well versed in the principles of socialism will be better equipped to take on the fight against the capitalist class

  – Hopefully help foster an organizing culture within DSA that is much less fractured and jaded than it is now

  – Help elect more openly socialist candidates to local and national office, and work closely with them on passing legislation

  – Develop the national organization’s infrastructure more to help provide local chapters with the resources they need to run effective campaigns

  – Develop a long term political program for DSA so that the organization has set goals and a direction we want to head in

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I plan on having conversations with members of my chapter, both with the entire chapter when we’re voting on delegates, and having one on one meetings with members, to discuss what their priorities are for the convention and the future of DSA so I can best represent what the chapter wants.

• Chuck M.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – To continue building & improving on the rank-and-file strategy to help reinvigorate the American labor movement and develop more radical unions, as well as formalizing a national strategy for supporting strikes by teachers and other workers

  – To help get Bernie Sanders elected president of the United States

  – To advance and fight for our principled socialist vision for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, regardless of who becomes president

  – To advance projects of solidarity across lines of race, gender, sexuality, class, and other forms of oppression

  – To create replicable, scalable toolkits for organizing & resource sharing so that smaller chapters are better able to participate in projects that are voted on as national priorities

  -To develop a robust political education program that will help organizers new and old put theory into practice in the real world

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No           

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I’ve been organizing with Seattle DSA for about two and a half years. In that time, I’ve gotten to be a part of a lot of different approaches to socialist politics, from the mutual aid-oriented (like the 2017 community service committee) to the mass politics-oriented (like the Medicare for All committee, which I’ve been working on and since May 2018 and helping co-chair since January). I feel like this range of experiences and perspectives gives me a pretty good idea of how we can take our successful programs to the national stage and be a model for other chapters nationwide.</p>

  While there are certainly needs of our own that Seattle DSA members should advocate for at the national convention, I think more than anything Seattle DSA can and should use the national convention as a place to model our successes–our M4A project and our Socialist Night School, for example, have been good examples of how members of a variety of political tendencies can work together to accomplish important projects. Our partnership work with the SnoCo chapter (M4A work, political education, resource sharing, and Bernie work) has been an exemplary model of how a large chapter can pair with a smaller chapter in its area to help get things off the ground.

  I am a firm believer in the politics of mass movements–political projects that engage the hundreds of millions of people who comprise the American working class. As a delegate at the national convention, I would fight to prioritize those programs and projects that are by, of, and for the working class. Universal demands like Medicare for All and a socialist Green New Deal; projects of racial solidarity, gender justice, and immigrant justice; and a campaign to get a socialist elected president of the United States are all high on my agenda.

• Guy O.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  I believe that DSA is a vibrant organization ad has the potential to continue to empower the left in the US. I would like DSA nationally and locally to do a lot of work internally to lot undo aspects of its culture and structural organization which are racist, patriarchal, ableist, classist, transphobic and/or queerphobic, etc. This type of internal healing work is crucial if DSA is to become a broad-base working class movement.

  I also think that DSA should continue to do a balance of both electoral work and non-electoral community organizing work which directly improves the lives of those most impacted by many intersecting systems of oppression. Finally, I believe that knowledge is power and that focusing on educational work is crucial to empowering people to change their own material conditions.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I will plan on talking to a variety of people within the chapter to better understand their priorities. As a queer Jewish person of color, I believe I can help represent people who are generally not represented in Seattle DSA.

  As a revisionist Marxist and democratic socialist, I think I can represent multiple tendencies in Seattle DSA. I have a lot of community organizing experience across Seattle and believe that makes me a more-rounded representative for Seattle DSA.

• Douglas J.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – To build class consciousness in America by advocating for popular working class demands through a democratic socialist lens

  – To reconnect the modern socialist movement with organized labor by organizing rank-and-file workers and being involved in strategic industries of currently organized labor

  – To continue the fight for Medicare for All

  – To begin the fight for a Green New Deal

  – To begin the work towards forming a mass labor party to contest local, state, and national elections and win working class demands through mass action

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Understanding that Seattle DSA has a diversity of perspectives on what its needs and interests are, I will represent the chapter by voting for amendments and resolutions I feel will best position both the national and local organization to fight and win working class demands and build working class power. I will also network with other socialists to learn and assist them in their projects and take back what I learn at the convention to the chapter.

• Stephen C.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – Campaigning for popular class-wide demands like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, free education, and housing justice, as well as civil-rights issues like reproductive rights, immigrant rights, ending mass incarceration, and anti-imperialist foreign policy

  – Supporting a militant labor movement through the rank-and-file strategy

  – Supporting electoral campaigns that advance class struggle

  – Developing a robust national organization with clear goals, a healthy democratic culture, and adequate staff and resources

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  In Seattle DSA, lack of member engagement is an ongoing crisis. I will seek to address this by advocating well-organized national campaigns for popular demands and a strong national organization that can provide chapters like ours with resources, assistance, and training.

• Caitlin L.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – Work towards full compliance with federal, state and other local procedures and statuses

  – The ability to be a “mother chapter” for new or forming chapters in Washington and the PNW

  – Increase our presence and image in the community through campaigns and community engagement

  – Create a more sustainable funds request system and potential for creating a financial committee

  – Develop and cultivate leaders within the organization, of particular interest is someone with a passion for accounting who would be willing to take on institutional knowledge regarding administrative tasks of the Treasurer/LC

  – and more…

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  Yes

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  With the best of my abilities.

• Madeline H.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  Seattle has undergone a lot of changes over the past decade, to put it simply and lightly. These changes have impacted frontline communities, the unhoused, Black and Brown folks, and the working class more than anyone else. We’ve been pushed out and pushed around by monied interests that have taken power from the many and have siphoned it out to the very few. Despite important work being done by coalition and community groups/organizations, there is still an incredible opportunity for the Seattle DSA to build a broad, multi-racial poor people’s and working class movement here in Seattle. We need to continue the work we are doing around political education, while building out the next logical step of that program – organizing education, with an organizing 101, 102, etc. series for the chapter. We need to build out strong national campaigns around a Green New Deal, M4A, and Anti-War revitalization movement, in addition to both national (Bernie) and local electoral projects (like Shaun Scott) in the short term. In the long term, we need to look at building out more branches of the SDSA, while incorporating more district based organizing roles into the chapter to encourage broad member engagement across the city, which will also make it strategically easier to identify local community partners, local priorities/mutual aid projects/goals, and to ultimately build community trust where it is currently lacking. To build collective power, we need to continue rebuilding and repairing our relationships with rank and file union organizers and unions in Seattle/King County, in addition to other community groups and organizations/coalitions we may want to coalesce with for a variety of reasons.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  If elected as a delegate, I plan on reaching out to as many SDSA members as possible to ask them what their national priorities are before the convention. To do this, I would plan on going to as many meetings/socials as possible, while also making myself available via email and Slack. I think it’s important for folks to get perspective from a wide variety of members/interests prior to attending what will be a binding meeting. As an accountability measure afterward, I would plan on providing a report back to those interested either in person or written down.

• Chris W.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  First, DSA should continue to agitate and educate amongst the general public to reintroduce the ideals of democratic socialism. Second, the DSA should continue to build internal capacity to handle grievances and harassment as well as basic administrative and financial support to chapters, especially those in rural or new areas. Finally, DSA must fully transition from a mere left-wing Democratic Party pressure group and into a true party of the working class, and focus its efforts on building the power needed in every community possible to do so.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  Yes, as a delegate for Austin DSA, and used parliamentary procedure to defeat a motion that attempted to delay DSA’s joining of the BDS movement.

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I am not a member of any declared slate or tendency, as my agenda as a delegate, if elected, is to advocate for the membership who cannot travel to Atlanta and make their voices heard. I plan to make myself available to any member who wishes to share their priorities with me, and avail myself of any resources in the chapter to determine the desires of the local membership.

• Julia W.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – Continue and expand base-building efforts, especially locally

  – Ensure that Seattle DSA is a safe and accessible space

  – Build systems that enable us to resist being co-opted by establishment politics

  – Build coalitions with other leftist organizations

  – Grow our own membership, while also creating an environment in which many other leftist groups with a variety of tactics and tendencies can grow and thrive

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Besides the obvious – representing the chapter’s stated goals and values – I intend to resist efforts to centralize power in the national organization. I believe this would weaken our ability to respond to people’s material needs locally as well as make DSA more easily pulled to the right by the political establishment.

• Greg E.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  Grow DSA in size to >100k members nationally, by using popular national campaigns like Bernie 2020, M4A, and the Green New Deal (while also pushing for a socialist vision of these campaigns).

  Build robust national programs to support local organizing efforts — e.g. sending organizers to help on local election campaigns, support local priorities like the tenant organizing Iowa DSA is doing, and learning from and expanding those efforts.

  Build coalitions with the labor movement, local working class movements, and other progressive groups to fight oppression and capital everywhere.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I’d like to meet with (or at least talk via e-mail or something) the internal organizers and the leads from some subcommittees to find out what priorities they may have that should be represented. I’ll vote on resolutions according to those and the chapter interests

• Lukas K.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  Work to elect local politians that actually represent workers

  Push for Medicare 4 All support

  Help promote and foster any and all unionization efforts

  Work to expand social benefits to all Americans but especially those who need it most

  Work towards more comprehensive solutions for problems like homelessness

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Yes

• Eric D.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  * Build solidarity between workers across different industries to aid in their unionization efforts (game developers in my case)

  * Elect leaders to public office, local and federal, that represent the working class and people of all backgrounds and demographics

  * Fight tirelessly against the rise of fascism in America

  * Provide universal social services like Medicare for All and free higher education to all Americans, including immigrants

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I’m going to coordinate with fellow members of DSA to discuss and decide what the priorities for the Eastside chapter are in the coming years.

• Carolyn D.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  •               Commit nationally to an anti-imperialist platform, consistently express solidarity with liberation struggles around the world, and (when possible) pressure the U.S. government to cease imperialist actions

  •               Organize robust political education for all DSA members, including assistance from National in the form of reading lists that cover various socialist tendencies/historical movements and subsidies for the cost of literature

  •               National emphasis on anti-oppression training, including training materials and stipends from National, especially for chapters with majority white and/or male membership

  •               Majority of chapters develop relationships with local labor organizing efforts and support those campaigns, as well as encourage chapter members to organize their workplaces and offer them support throughout their campaigns

  •               Train chapter members in militant labor organizing, whether that be union-based or otherwise

  •               Use our larger membership to support other socialist organizations in the US through event turnout, social media promotion, and funding

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  First and foremost, I plan to focus on the areas that currently have the most active organizing campaigns in Seattle DSA. Namely, Medicare for All, Immigrant Justice, and Labor. This means that my priorities will be voting for resolutions, candidates, etc. that will further those struggles.

  Second, I hope to learn from other DSA members around the country how Seattle DSA can better engage our members who are not currently active. We need as much help as possible to build socialism locally!

• Chris N.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  -Build a logistics network for working class actions that increases

  the strength of wage laborers relative to capital. We accomplish this,

  among other ways, by aiding the organization of a radicalized and

  enlarged labor movement.

  -That we contribute to the creation of a true working class political

  party in the United States.

  -We continue and expand efforts to practice an intersectional

  socialism that unites many different struggles.

  -We are a key player in pushing politicians to adopt Medicare for All

  nationally.

  -Build stronger international socialist coalitions.

  -Lead a drive for the decommodification of housing; housing for all based on use value instead of exchange value.

   

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  -Support resolutions that advocate national mobilization around housing and transportation justice, in order to help with acute crises we deal with locally.

  -Support resolutions for a Green New Deal/climate socialism to limit the damage from climate change to Seattle and the world.

  -Argue for increased radical and intersectional labor agitation in order to win gains for the working class.

  -Argue for the strongest possible national line in support/defense of abortion rights.

  -I look forward to forging relationships with other DSA members nationally in order to find mutual points of struggle.

• Stuart S.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  * Build a socialist campaign for Bernie Sanders helps elect the first self described socialist president of the US and links it socialist ideas and organization to act as an independent base to build worker’s power.

  * For members to become deeply integrated into neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities as confident organizers who can apply movement building tactics to daily struggles worker’s and oppressed people face.

  * Help build a militant labor movement with rank and file caucuses that can organize class struggle, strikes, and challenge and win leadership of worker’s organization away from class collaborationist business union leaders.

  * Build a multi-racial working class party, or a semi-mass precursor, with DSA candidates developed and selected from the ranks and elected to strategic local, state, and national positions.

  * Develop a DSA platform or program as well as social and political cohesion necessary to hold DSA candidates to principled, class consciousness raising methods, not back room dealing.

  * This platform should include both popular mass demands like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal as well as fights against mass encarceration, immigrant detention, abortion bans, and sexual violence.

  *  To grow at least linearly, preferably geometricly, as we successfully engage, organize and recruit from the massive movements that develop during this crisis of capitalist legitimacy.

  * DSA should be at nearly 500,000 engaged members in 5 years.

  * In order to build the unity and capacity of the working class to fight, the movements and campaigns we engage in should be both long term and strategic but we also need to be flexible and alive to where the moving contradictions of capitalism generate fightbacks of working class and oppressed.

  * We should link slogans, demands, and campaigns to our universal demand for the self-emancipation of the working class, the abolition of private property, and the democratic organization of society: socialism.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Fully reading and understanding the multitude of resolutions submited to the convention is the minimum. I plan to both collaborate with multiple tendencies and groupings in the chapter groupings to pass resolutions that would help build the unity, political clarity, and fighting stength of the chapter.

  Personally I would like to see a resolution for the national organization to prioritize the Green New Deal with calls for taking the fossil fuel and downstream industries into democratic worker control so they can be retooled for producing cheap renewable energy, transportation, and products. Local campaigns for free transit could be linked to a national GND, highlighting how democratic public ownership can provide free services that combat climate change and racist policing.

• Dave B.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  We are at the beginning of the biggest truly left-wing resurgence in this country in decades.  With its big tent philosophy, low barrier to entry, and as the largest socialist organization in the country currently, DSA has the opportunity to be the base of that movement.  Our actions both locally in Seattle and across the country in the labor as well as political spaces fills me with cautious optimism.  DSA can be the vehicle to spread class consciousness and build real working class solidarity with the ultimate goal of building a better world.  I’d like to see DSA quadruple its membership in the next 5 years and build the sorts of alternative institutions we’ll need to take on capital and win power.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  As an Internal Organizer, and being an active member of Seattle DSA for two years prior, I’ve had many one-on-one conversations with our members and have heard the different thoughts and concerns of different people.  We still have a lot of work to do to make DSA a more generally welcoming and safe space for everyone.  People join DSA because they’re sick of complaining and want to finally do something, and as an organization we need to do more to make our various campaigns more transparent and more accessible.  I believe as a big tent organization that we need to create a space where anybody can advocate for their anti-capitalist beliefs regardless of whether me or other members of leadership agree with them or not.  These are all values I plan to have front of mind as we debate and discuss the future of DSA at the convention.

• Philip L.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  * The Bernie campaign offers an unprecedented opportunity for DSA to grow to 150,000 members and become a much stronger pole of attraction on the left and within the multi-racial working class.

  * This would represent, in my opinion, the beginnings of a mass socialist party, which I am committed to seeing DSA build in the next period.

  * While supporting Bernie, we need to have our own independent, critical, political approach which can help to build support within Bernie’s base for an anti-imperialist foreign policy, independent organizing separate from the Democratic Party, bold socialist feminist and anti-racist demands, and the idea of taking the big energy companies and other giant capitalist firms into democratic public ownership.

  * The huge growth of interest in socialism in the US is extremely exciting. However, what is meant by socialism varies a lot. I believe DSA can play a critical role of educating this new pro-socialist audience in a deeper, radical conception of socialism that entails a fundamental transformation of society where the big corporations are taken into democratic public ownership, democracy is radically extended into our workplaces, schools, and communities, and a new social order based on internationalism, solidarity, and egalitarianism can begin to develop.

  * To carry out these tasks, I think we need to prioritize having a through and democratic discussion within DSA around developing a common DSA program or platform (something that the 2017 National Convention agreed would a feature of our 2019 National Convention but unfortunately is not happening).

  * I am a member of the newly formed Reform & Revolution Caucus, which is committed to help build a strong Marxist wing of DSA.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  * I have been quite active in re-starting the Seattle DSA Labor Council. We are discussing focusing on building a Labor for Bernie campaign to build support for Bernie and develop a vibrant DSA lead socialist pole of attraction in the Seattle area labor movement. We are working to activate existing DSA union members and to recruit new union members to DSA. Coming from this perspective and area of Seattle DSA work, I will support efforts by the National Convention to increase our focus on a rank and file labor strategy and developing a strong base in the multi-racial working class.

  * I hope to use my extensive experience in socialist electoral politics to contribute to the Bernie Committee and in the future to the electoral committee, and will argue for DSA to nationally make its independent socialist campaign for Bernie its top priority and develop a clearly distinct, independent socialist political message for that campaign.

  * Seattle DSA (and DSA nationally) is currently punching below our weight – we could have a much bigger impact on Seattle (and national) politics in my opinion. I am excited to help develop a strategic focus for our work, bolder and more organized campaigns and recruitment, and more political and inspiring meetings that can keep far more of our members engaged and involved. I will support resolutions and decisions that will empower our chapter to move forward along these lines.

• Stan S.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  -Build Democratic Socialists of America and grow a socialist movement with the goal to end all exploitation and oppression in the world.

  -Have a strong, independent, socialist campaign to support the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. We can be a left-wing of the Bernie campaign that brings socialist demands and can grow DSA into a political force whether Bernie wins or loses.

  -Build an organization that more reflects the multiracial working class. An organization that fights against racism, sexism, and all oppressions that divide working people.

  -Build a rank and file labor movement and help give workers a voice independent of the Democratic Party.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I’m the co-chair of the Labor Committee in Seattle DSA. My focus in the chapter has been to build a council of union members who are active in their unions and work together to organize a left-wing of the labor movement in Seattle. I’m also focused on developing ways that socialists can support workers moving into struggle. Socialists will learn lessons of labor organizing through the No Shortcuts study group or get active with local labor actions like supporting educators resisting cuts in Seattle. A Labor for Bernie campaign presents an outstanding opportunity to unite the diverse labor movement around a working class political vision. I hope to bring the lessons learned from engagement with Seattle labor to the National Convention and learn lessons from other union activists who attend the convention.

• Roy Z.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  -Grow paper members to ~150K

  -Grow active members to ~50K

  – Better regional collaboration from the bottom up, not just coordination at the leadership level. (I don’t know what this would look like, but I hate not knowing what Tacoma is up to)

  -Organize into a stronger relationship with the Religious Left.

  -Organize more closely with the Poor People’s Campaign!

  -Foster a “big brother/little brother” relationship (for lack of a better term) between large established chapters and smaller chapters nearby. Perhaps regionally fund allocations?

  -Hold elected officials at every level possible. Within ~5 years, could we see a US Senate seat challenged or won by a DSA member? Perhaps it’s my naivete, but that should be possible.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Since I’ve joined SDSA, my approach has been to make myself useful wherever I could be useful. I feel that I can safely estimate that I’ve had at least one or two conversations with about half of the members that have come to a meeting in the last year and a half, and I feel that I’ve got a pretty good read on why members join and understand we need to do more to turn people out and get them active immediately.

  Seattle boasts the richest people on the planet, the richest corporations, the desire to fight back to demand power is there. Whether its M4A, a growing anti-war & anti-imperialist movement, a growing ecosocialist movement, Seattle has members that wants to get involved if only they knew how.

  I’d talk to as many people as possible about the announced resolutions, amendments, and NPC candidates to determine a stance that reflects the chapter as much as possible.

• Bobby (Robert) L.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  -DSA has grown immensely and a top priority is to politically develop all new members and their conception of what socialism is and how we should get it. We get there by having political discussions, reading/education meetings, and by getting people involved on a regular basis with the running of the organization.

  -I specifically would like to see the national development of a strong Marxist wing of the DSA. The newly formed Reform & Revolution caucus, which I am a member of, can play a leading role in that development, but I welcome collaboration with socialists of all tendencies.

  -The working class is extraordinarily diverse, and our organization should reflect that. We should work more closely with organizations and activists that are struggling for racial justice, against police brutality, for abortion access, for healthcare for trans and non-binary people, and more.

  -We should have a national platform, with the basic tenets of our vision of socialism that act as a beacon for our members. This is one of the most basic functions of national leadership and should be an extremely high priority.

  -DSA has grown, but it also has a lot of members who are on paper but don’t participate, or who participate infrequently. We should have regular events which explicitly include space for members to socialize and discuss political issues, which will help in all of our development and political education. DSA meetings around the nation should be one of the highlights of the week/month for members and we should focus explicitly on reaching out to inactive members to get them more involved.

  -In addition to reactivating existing members, there is massive potential to grow the DSA. The independent expenditure campaign for Bernie will likely raise our profile and bring tens of thousands of new members who are frustrated by the unfair treatment will is and will undoubtedly continue to receive. Branches around the country should follow Seattle’s lead in launching these campaigns, organizing independent doorknocking and public events, and building the kind of movement Sanders himself is calling for in his campaign, so that we may overcome capitalist hand-wringing and actually win Medicare For All and a Green New Deal.

  – In the next two years DSA could reach the critical mass necessary to run candidates on a regular and widespread basis along the lines of the fantastic Shaun Scott campaign. These campaigns will drive up interest in DSA, creating a feedback loop for further growth.

  -The above points culminate, in my mind, in the official formation of a broad-based American socialist party. As the Republicans and Democrats fall into further bickering over how best to represent the capitalist class, a socialist party could create a crisis that seriously challenges the political duopoly of our country.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I have laid out a clear set of ideas on how to develop DSA both nationally and locally. We need to get our paper members active and all of our members excited to be involved with DSA, and we do that with bold action, interesting political discussion, and frequent lively events. I have been working with the Ecosocialist Caucus on proposals for what we can do to combat climate change. I have started the District 2 Reading Group which will be moving to a twice-monthly format. I’m excited to see both of those groups growing. If elected as a delegate, I look forward to having open political discussions with rank-and-file members and with leadership to learn more about what our branch needs from the national DSA so that we can come out of this convention with a branch that is best situated to grow, educate, and agitate against our broken capitalist system.

• Harris L.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  -There is an enormous opening for socialist ideas right now, and the country is at a tipping point. DSA could really use its weight to have a serious impact on politics and begin building towards a socialist party in the U.S. that could be a left-wing alternative to both business-as-usual politics and right-wing populism. We are in a huge historical moment right now, and we need to meet that moment by thinking and acting huge.

  -We can build DSA to have its own program, which it should use to weigh in on the 2020 elections and Bernie’s campaign, continuing to pull him to the left, and begin raising the idea of democratic public ownership as part of the Green New Deal

  -DSA can grow massively in numbers to two or three times its current size. At this point DSA isn’t just larger, but a different kind of organization, that can have a much larger influence.

  -By focusing more on outward campaigns, such as filling the political vacuum that currently exists in the feminist movement (MeToo, reproductive rights), making the socialist case for reparations, and fighting to take public ownership of the major energy companies as well as the big banks, DSA could recruit huge numbers of people, especially people of color, womxn and non-binary people, and working class people. This is the best way we have to address gender, race, and other disparities in our organization.

  -I am part of the newly launched Reform & Revolution caucus, which aims to put Marxist ideas into practice.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I have three goals for our chapter:

  1) Activate our paper members and recruit new members, especially womxn, non-binary people, people of color, and people in unions. We can best do this by organizing exciting and imaginative events, actions, and meetings that connect with people’s desire to take concrete action, and also politically raise consciousness of what is possible. I’ve been working with other comrades to start up a South Seattle (District 2) happy hour, with the goal of hosting regular political public meetings that capture the energy for organizing that exists in South Seattle, especially around Bernie 2020, anti-displacement, and a racially-just worker-centered Green New Deal.

  2) Democratize and politicize our work and our meetings so that each member feels politically confident to weigh in on important conversations. We have lots to decide: What is our program and how do we keep politicians accountable (or oust them if they aren’t)? How do we have the biggest impact on Bernie’s campaign? How do we build for socialism beyond electoral politics, while recognizing that’s how most working class people engage with politics? Democracy happens not just through procedures, but people having the knowledge, confidence, and space to engage and the discussions being uesful and lively.

  3) Take up more space. Seems counter-intuitive, but socialists need to take up more space and fill the political vacuum which is currently left to establishment Democrats and NGOism! If we utilize all our resources, we can change this city from the ground up. I’ve been working with others to restart the Queer and Feminist Caucus, and we are planning to host a public meeting that points the way forward for the MeToo and reproductive justice movements by linking up the workplace walkouts, building up rank-and-file union power, and fighting for legislative action. We can point the way forward, and through that bring thousands of new people into the organization and its activity.

• Hannah A.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  * I want DSA to continue fight for (and win) broad universal demands like Medicare for All

  * Campaign for Bernie Sanders and other socialist candidates

  * Develop a wide base of support for class struggle

  * Support labor organizing

  * Improved grievance processes and support for widespread anti-oppression training in DSA chapters

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I will vote for measures that align with the goals I mentioned above because I feel that they will benefit our chapter. However, if the chapter votes to endorse a particular resolution, I will vote in line with the chapter’s position regardless of my particular personal opinions about the matter.

• Melanie A.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  I would like DSA to become not just an organization of thousands, but of millions of working class Americans.

  I would like DSA to develop its relationship to organized labor, which is the foundation of worker power.

  I would like the DSA to continue to focus on broad, universal campaigns that challenge capital and build class consciousness. Campaigns like Medicare for All, universal childcare, and a Green New Deal.

  I would like DSA to focus more on political education and foster an environment of growth through discussion, moving away from the factionalism and toxicity that characterizes the online left.

  I would like DSA to get socialists elected into office, and find a way to hold those socialists who benefit from our endorsements accountable to us.

  I would like larger DSA chapters to operate less in isolation from one another, and to deepen their connections to the chapters around them.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Our chapter has an impressive membership on paper, but our engagement is very low. As a delegate, I would advocate for a national leadership that would provide support for chapters like ours in the form of organizer trainings, printed materials, etc that will help us reactivate our paper membership as well as bring in new members.

  Seattle also shares particular struggles with other large cities that are strongholds of corporate capital. As a delegate, I would be very interested to learn from members in these other chapters about what they’ve found effective in their organizing, learn which coalitions have been productive for them, discuss how they encourage a diverse and representative membership, and how they help build the smaller chapters in their orbits.

• Lucas S.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  •Continue to center M4A and labor union organizing as national priorities

  •Expand the organization to 150,000-200,00 dues paying members by focusing on mass politics

  • Strategically organize for the Bernie 2020 campaign and (hopefully) in support if policies from the Bernie administration

  •Center organizing for a Green New Deal as a national priority

  • Center political education for new and existing members as a national priority

  •Encourage members to strategically enter into key sectors of the work force to raise the consciousness of the working class

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I plan on supporting a mass politics agenda that will help both Seattle DSA and National continue grow and capture the momentum of the current moment. It is my view that the time is now for DSA to help raise the consciousness of the multiracial working class in the United States to effectively challenge capital and secure non-reformist reforms, in the form of Medicare For All, a Bernie Presidency and the Green New Deal, to help transform the political and economic landscape  of this country. I also believe a strong national organization will be better suited to provide funding, educational materials, and training to Seattle DSA to help us better accomplish our goals.

• Aram F.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  1. Helping elect Bernie Sanders president of the United States

  2. Electing a DSA member to Seattle City Council

  3. Helping to get Medicare for All approved at the national level

  4. Pressuring President Bernie Sanders to implement a more just and progressive foreign policy

  5. Recruiting and supporting a strong challenger to Adam Smith, the Congressman from Boeing

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  As an immigrant from a “Muslim ban” country, and as godfather to two beautiful Mexican-American children, I can speak to some of the ways that Trump’s racisms and xenophobia is affecting people right here in the Seattle area.

  I am co-author of a resolution on a just foreign policy, which will be voted on at the convention.

  Finally, I was a member of the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States for two years, one of two representatives from Washington State. So I am familiar with conventions, Roberts Rules of Order, and the importance of building coalitions within large and diverse national committees.

• Manuel C.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  – Cement the role of DSA and SDSA as a serious political force in Seattle and across the country.

  – We should develop a serious electoral program to run candidates for city and state office in order to popularize socialist ideas and fight for the interest of ordinary working people, not those of corporations and the wealthy few.

  – DSA should take an active and leading role in the fight for Medicare 4 All, a Green New Deal, and fight to take the banks into public ownership to invest in meeting the needs of ordinary working people, rather than for profit.

  – The potential exists for DSA to grow tremendously over the next 5 years into an organization of well over 100,000+ members.

  -We should take a serious approach to working alongside/within communities of color and the LGBTQ community to make DSA even more organization where all working people feel they can come fight for our collective liberation.

  – DSA should continue working to develop strong links with the labor movement.  DSA should encourage and help our members develop the skills to organize our workplaces and participate in our unions.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  As a shop steward in my union I strive every day to help arm my co-workers with fighting tactics to defend our rights on the job. I believe that it is the role of socialists in the labor movement to help the members of our union family understand the connections that exist between the fight for economic justice and the struggles for racial justice, women’s rights, trans rights, and immigrant rights – and the need to link them together. As a delegate to the national convention I will work to develop strong links with DSA members working in unions across the country to share tactics and develop programs which we can use back home so that we can have a stronger impact on Seattle labor movement and recruit more union members into our organization.

• Mark R.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  1. Recruit tens of thousands of new people across the country who are getting interested in Socialism.

  2. Make DSA an accessible and welcoming organizing space for people from all backgrounds.

  3. Grow DSA members’ presence as dedicated political organizers in unions and local community organizations, fighting campaigns against sexism, racism, xenophobia, and all kinds of oppression.4. Run dozens more DSA candidates who run as proud Socialists, building grassroots movements and challenging ruling class politicians.

  5. Build structures to hold DSA candidates accountable to our political ideas and the communities they serve while running and while they serve in office.

  6. Develop the DSA’s Socialist political platform to make coherent our approach to building the struggle to overthrow capitalism, educate ourselves and all our members with it, and use it as a scaffold to develop our publications and our campaigns.

  7. Build campaigns like those for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and use them to popularize the idea of nationalizing the industries we need to live, developing workplace democracy, and taking the economy under the democratic control of working people.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  SDSA a growing chapter in a growing city, and we have a lot of exciting work ahead of us! Shaun Scott will hopefully be the first of many candidates we get into office in Seattle, and in the coming years we can play a big role in the fights against gentrification, racist policing, immigrant deportations, and labor exploitation here in the city. When we help build these struggles, SDSA can make an even bigger contribution if we help bring these struggles together with a Marxist analysis of Capitalist oppression and we offer a Socialist way forward. The more we hone our politics at the national level, the more we have to offer our struggles at the local level. We can also develop our strategy for running more candidates who will put the class struggle front and center, which can inform our future electoral work in the city. As a union organizer and member of the Reform & Revolution Caucus who fights every day in the workplace against exploitation, harassment, and discrimination, I want to build SDSA’s presence on the ground in Seattle working in similar campaigns. Together with that, I want to help DSA develop ideas and build popular support for a Socialist struggle against Capitalism, so that these struggles become a distant memory.

• Ramy K.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  Capitalism is in crisis.  Inequality has reached unprecedented levels, and the climate crisis is politicizing millions of people.  As most workers’ living standards have been declining for 40 years, tens of millions of workers are looking for new political ideas.  Given that most working people currently look to elections to address their problems, especially the presidential election, I believe the Bernie campaign offers DSA the biggest opportunity to build the socialist movement in decades.

  My goal is to use the Bernie campaign to triple the size of the membership of Seattle DSA chapter and DSA nationally, and to sink roots in communities of color.  But DSA should not limit our messaging to Bernie’s messaging.  We can urge people to join our independent socialists for Bernie movement where we not only campaign for Bernie but also promote a truly anti-imperialist foreign policy, boldly fight racism, sexism, and all forms of oppression, and strengthen grassroots social movements.

  As the Democratic Party leadership moves to sabotage Bernie’s campaign, DSA is the organization best positioned to build the left wing of the Bernie campaign and push back against the Democratic Party sabotage.  This could help pave the way for what we really need — a mass socialist party that is 100% on the side of working people.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I dedicated the last 24 years of my life to building the socialist movement.  I was Kshama Sawant’s Campaign Manager when we elected her as an independent socialist to Seattle City Council in 2013.  I look forward to using the experience I’ve acquired to help support Shaun Scott’s campaign, assist with political education, and help DSA in every way I can.

  I participated in the regional DSA pre-National Convention weekend conference a few months ago.  I co-hosted a Bernie campaign kick-off event on April 27, 2019.  I will keep participating in Medicare 4 All canvases and promoting DSA at protests as well as the educators union I’m a member of, the Seattle Education Association.  As I engage in political discussions with co-workers and friends, I recruit everyone I can to DSA. I plan to help organize DSA watch parties for the Democratic presidential debates where we host lively post-debate discussions that help us recruit new members to DSA.

  I’m helping produce the Reform and Revolution magazine in order to provide a revolutionary democratic perspective on key questions that DSA activists are grappling with.  At the same time, I will do everything I can to create a culture in DSA where we engage in healthy, comradely debate and mutual collaboration, even if we do not agree on everything.  I will help develop a mature, democratic culture and welcoming, interesting membership meetings that discuss more political topics and fewer organizational logistics.  All this will help our chapter grow and sink roots in the multi-racial working class so DSA can help build a mass socialist force with real influence.

• Joanna M.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  The main goal for DSA in the next 5 years is to help create a class-conscious, mass movement that is based in the multiracial working class. Workers have the power, but only if we are organized and work together in solidarity. In order to achieve this goal, there are several areas where I believe DSA should focus its efforts. We need to reconnect socialist politics with organized labor and revitalize unions. DSA should continue to support the DSLC, to develop the rank-and-file strategy, and to support labor struggles such as the teachers’ strikes. DSA should also work to advance popular working class demands, such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. Part of that support should be supporting class struggle candidates, and in the short term that means building a robust campaign for Bernie Sanders. While Bernie is not perfect he has catapulted class politics back into the popular discourse, and we should seize the opportunity to use excitement for his campaign to build a mass movement and to promote socialist ideas. Political education will be an important component in all of this. DSA should create a robust political education program to help members not only develop their politics, but also to more effectively put their politics into motion. Putting politics into motion can be everything from working on a local city council election to national campaigns for M4A, reproductive rights, and other demands that benefit the many.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  Yes. I was a delegate for Seattle DSA at the 2017 National Convention.

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  The National Convention is not only important because delegates will be voting on resolutions and electing the next NPC. It’s also important because it connects hundreds of DSA members from around the country together, and creates an opportunity to share and learn from each other. I will connect with members from other chapters to learn from their successes and failures, bring back new ideas for work we could do here in Seattle (or how we could be more effective in our current work), and I will share the lessons that we have learned here in Seattle. I am especially interested in sharing what we’ve learned from starting and running our Socialist Night School. I would like to collaborate with other chapters’ night school organizers to develop resources and materials that could be shared with smaller or less active chapters that want to start their own political education programs. I’m also interested in learning from DSA members who are also active in their unions, and learning how we can better connect our chapter with organized labor in the Pacific Northwest. We have a lot of members on paper, but have struggled to get many of them to come to chapter events or work on chapter campaigns. Other chapters have been more successful at engaging their members and supporting large campaigns, so I’d like to ask delegates from those chapters for advice and resources that would help us become a more active political force in Seattle.

• Whitney K.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  In the next 5 years, the DSA could:

  1) Democratic Socialists for Bernie | We can have a major effect on the 2020 presidential election campaign with an independent campaign that puts forward our explicitly socialist ideas that go beyond Sanders, and gets people involved in DSA and social movements beyond door knocking.

  2) Platform | DSA should create a platform that we can hold political candidates accountable to, and which will inform our work in social movements and unions.

  3) Grow | We can grow the DSA to an organization of 200,000 members with an activist core of 50,000

  4) Union opposition | We should link up DSA union activists across the country and groups of left-wing unionists who Fight to restore democracy, implement combative tactics like strikes, and take up the issues of the wider community.

  5) Invest in YDSA | Students are moving into action. A well supported YDSA should call days of action around such issues as the Green New Deal, sexual harassment, discrimination, and student debt.

  6) Small branches | the USA is the size of a continent. Since socialism can cut across the Red-Blue divide, we must help build our branches in Republican-controlled territory.

  7) Sink Roots | the DSA can and must sink Roots into working class communities and workplaces generally, and working class communities of color specifically.

  8) Marxism | I’m a part of Reform and Revolution caucus to help build a Marxist wing of DSA.

  9) Politicize meetings | chapters around the country should discuss the biggest political issues that come up, and the fruits of these discussions should be communicated back to the NPC and inform their decisions

  10) Socialist Feminism | Liberal feminism is failing to confront Republican attacks on even the basic right to abortion. DSA should continue to develop combative direct action feminist campaigns of mass direct action to defend and expand womxn’s rights with democratic socialist demands like free childcare, free abortion, ending the wage gap, and connecting it to the fight against racism, lgbtqphobia, and capitalism.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  – I want to link up the educator work here with DSA educators across the country

  – I feel like Seattle as a chapter doesn’t have many special “interests and needs” as a big chapter, but that we should help support other chapters, help build a stronger DSA national core, and bring back hard-won lessons from comrades from other chapters, such as those fighting back the far-right, supporting strikes and social movements, and winning elections to national offices.

• Bryan W.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  Capitalism is in crisis.  Six of the richest human beings on the planet own more wealth than 3 billion people. The planet is burning as Trump and the Republican Party, at the behest of big business, gut environmental regulations. Police run rampant in black communities, gunning down people of color. Right wing zealots have laid siege to Roe vs Wade and have unleashed a storm of attacks on women’s rights. A fully blossomed crisis has enveloped the border as people of color flee endemic violence, wrought by the US ruling elite, in Latin American countries only to be greeted by for profit prisons and a remorseless Trump administration determined to use their plight as a political tool to unfurl increasingly authoritarian policies. And a constitutional crisis has broken across the US political system peeling back the illusion of democracy and exposing the feckless Democratic Party establishment.

  Meanwhile, there has been an explosion in interest and openness to socialist ideas. This is evidenced by the spectacular growth of DSA and the support for Bernie.  I think that DSA could go from 56,000 to 150,000 through a bold, independent campaign to support Bernie.  An independent campaign, organizing separate from the Democratic Party can put forward socialist, pro women, multi racial demands that can compel Sanders and his base to move in a more socialist direction. Similar to how the BLM movement compelled Saders to improve his platform on racial issues in 2016.

  Additionally, I will work to politically engage and activate our current membership and work to assist in the political development of the membership.  One key way to do this is for DSA to develop a political program that puts forward, after democratic discussion and debate throughout DSA, our vision for the immediate future and beyond.  I also believe a robust turn toward more political discussion in general membership meetings, more debates, and more engagement in movements will greatly build and develop our capacity to engage in and lead movements.  I would also like to work toward DSA taking a more leading role in initiating movements and mass action that draws more people into struggle, for example fighting the attacks on womens rights.

  I am a member of a newly formed Reform and Revolution caucus.

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  I have been a socialist activist for 16 years.  I was a staff member of Kshama Sawant’s historic victory in 2013 and was the Finance Director for Kshama Sawant’s 2015 re-election campaign and lead the team that raised nearly $500,000, without taking any donations from big business or the super rich.  I am excited to bring forth my experience to continue building DSA.  I have been active in our Bernie work, organizing a Bernie launch party and attending and participating in the Bernie committee.  I, with others, have been involved in a housing struggle in D3 and have recently joined and taken on organizing D3 meetups. I think we have the potential to be a true political force that can shake up local politics and be a model for other chapters.  I look forward to working to elect more socialists to Seattle City Council and to establish a Socialist/Progress electoral alliance that can be the forerunner of a new socialist party.

• Matthew F.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  + Create a highly functional national organization that is able to facilitate and enhance the work of local chapters

  + Create an effective training apparatus at the national and chapter levels built on a foundation of experience to get people swiftly moved into organizing positions

  + Expand on our recruitment efforts across the country to become a independent political force built on working class power

  + Create and develop and effect labor contingent that influences union policy, supports organizing, and coordinates worker militarism

  + Develop and enhance our campaign strategy; so that we’re effective players in work around our goals like Medicaid for All

  + Ensure that we develop a long-term plan around strategy, and move away from reactive decision making

  + Full Socialism

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  Yes

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Having dealt with the national organization on issues like tax status and electoral work, I am well aware of the deficiencies inherent in the structure and processes that the national employs. Mostly, it’s hard to get answers and the process and decision making structure can seem opaque.

  The goal of our chapter at the convention should be twofold

  1) Ensure that processes and structures are put in place that allow large chapters like ours to continue to grow and develop, this means more accountability for the national.

  2) Ensure that new chapters, like Snohomish County, don’t get left behind and have to fend for themselves.

  Institutionally, we have the resources to become a national force, but we have to be strategic. That’s our role as delegates.

• Walé O.

  In 10 bullet-points/sentences, or less, what are your goals for DSA in the next 5 years?

  500%+ growth in membership

  More work w/ communities of color

  More chapters in rural areas

  More international scope

  Did you attend the 2017 National DSA Convention?

  No

  How do you plan on representing the interests and needs of the chapter?

  Having time for discussion at the next chapter general meeting

  Being accessible via Slack, email, and Signal