NYC-DSA Convention: Building our Socialist Future
At last year’s national convention, DSA members united around a commitment to developing a more party-like structure. With over 1,500 members electing 150 delegates—the highest turnout in our chapter’s history—the 2024 NYC-DSA convention marked a pivotal moment for the organization’s largest chapter in defining the direction and vision of that party.
The political direction of the organization was up for debate, as delegates grappled with crucial questions: should we continue our broad approach towards organizing priorities, or sharpen our focus? How do we build a more disciplined, mass organization that delivers real victories for the multiracial working class? And how can we better use these victories to propagandize in ways that grow a mass, multiracial working-class base at historic scale?
Groundwork’s marquee resolutions provided a clear answer, and they passed by overwhelming margins. These resolutions represent a decisive shift toward building an independent, outward-facing socialist organization, rooted in labor organizing, multiracial working-class power, and a commitment to deepening internal democracy. Taken together, we believe the resolutions that NYC-DSA convention delegates have just approved amount to the biggest commitment towards advancing a political direction of what that party should prioritize and look like in DSA history.
Here’s a closer look at the key resolutions and what they mean for NYC-DSA’s future.
Prioritizing Labor
Orient Toward Labor defines Groundwork’s labor vision for the chapter. This resolution reaffirms the importance of unions and labor organizing as the core of our strategy. We are committing to building coalitions with labor unions and recruiting union candidates for office. The resolution emphasizes that our path to real political power lies in organizing alongside and within labor, leveraging unions’ inherent multiracial and democratic structures to confront capital directly. It creates the infrastructure for greater collaboration between labor and our SIO committees to better harness our collective power. We believe the best path forward for worker organization is building and ultimately helping to lead the U.S. labor movement. Now, we can make that the focus of our chapter.
Zohran Mamdani for Mayor: Putting it to the Test
The endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of NYC is perhaps the most exciting electoral opportunity that emerged from this convention. With 115 votes in favor (89.8% approval), this decision presents a massive opportunity for NYC-DSA to build our base, develop new leaders, and grow our political influence in the city. Zohran’s campaign offers a vehicle for mass politics that can jolt the political system to the left, while rallying NYC-DSA members around a bold, socialist platform.
Zohran has already raised more money than any other candidate in the race, and there is palpable excitement both within our chapter and across the broader DSA membership. This campaign offers NYC-DSA a chance to leverage millions in matching funds to amplify our message and organize New Yorkers around a vision of a more just, equitable, and socialist city. The entire city will be watching, making this campaign a critical moment for NYC-DSA to showcase the power and potential of our movement.
But Zohran’s candidacy is not just a race for office—it’s an organizing opportunity that will help build the infrastructure and leadership we need for future victories. By running a cadre socialist like Zohran, we are pushing our chapter’s vision of mass politics to the forefront and demonstrating that socialist values can shape the future of New York City.
Commitment to Palestinian Liberation
Organizing for Palestinian Liberation: A Socialist Strategy overwhelmingly passed, which commits the entire chapter to an unapologetically anti-Zionist political education and organizing strategy around Palestine. This resolution reaffirms our commitment to BDS and offers a vision for how NYC-DSA can lead on anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist principles. With 98% delegate approval, this resolution reflects the deep commitment within our chapter to standing in solidarity with Palestine, and it will guide our work on this issue moving forward. The chapter is overwhelmingly committed to further building out our organizing for Palestinian liberation by making the most of our unique strengths in mass membership, public reach, and the largest state block in support of Palestinian liberation in U.S. history through campaigns like Boycott Chevron and Not Another Bomb. We will not lose sight of our historic task to organize a working class majority to end American empire and genocide.
Internal Democracy: One Member, One Vote
The One Member, One Vote constitutional amendment also passed, ushering in a new era of internal democracy for NYC-DSA. This amendment allows all members to vote on key chapter decisions and steering committee positions, ensuring that DSA’s leadership and direction are shaped by the many, not the few. It expands access to the decision-making process and ensures every member has a voice in the future of our chapter.
Strategic Communications
Building a strong, consistent communications apparatus was highlighted by Build DSA First: Strengthening NYC-DSA Comms to Emphasize and Highlight the Chapter. This strategy prioritizes organizing the unorganized by developing content that makes our accomplishments, theory of change, and low barriers to entry clear to the general public. It creates guidelines to ensure DSA is proudly and prominently mentioned in all our external comms. The resolution is part of a broader effort to develop DSA into a more independent political force, with a disciplined communications strategy that can convey our victories and the power of our organizing more clearly to the general public.
A New Electoral Strategy
The chapter also passed Advancing Our Electoral Work by Streamlining the Working Group, which establishes clear leadership structures for our electoral project, including the addition of Branch Representatives and an Electoral Coordinator on the Steering Committee. With this, we created an infrastructure that empowers members to directly participate in these electoral decisions, uniting the chapter under a common strategic framework. This is a critical step in refining our electoral strategy and ensuring the chapter is prepared to run disciplined, coordinated campaigns.
In tandem, A Mass Action Electoral Strategy for NYC-DSA—an update to our 2017 electoral strategy resolution—passed with a key amendment authored by Groundwork members. By adding language that emphasizes cross-endorsement requirements, the Green New Deal, and labor solidarity, we’ve sharpened the resolution to better reflect our commitment to building a left-labor party. This updated resolution not only bolsters our strategic alignment but also integrates the principles of climate justice and labor solidarity into our political campaigns. Together, these changes lay the groundwork for an electoral strategy that’s truly rooted in building a multiracial working class majority that can wield transformative power.
Confronting Fascism
Another significant resolution was the NYC-DSA Stands Against Fascism resolution, which emphasizes the importance of defeating Trump and other fascist candidates in 2024. It calls for tactical voting in swing states while continuing to build DSA’s independent electoral power. Importantly, this resolution does not endorse establishment candidates like Kamala Harris; rather, it underscores our commitment to defeating the far-right while maintaining our focus on building a multiracial, working-class socialist movement.
Administrative Committee Elections
With several Groundwork members elected to the Administrative Committee (AC), NYC-DSA is oriented toward a bold, labor-centered strategy. The path forward is clear: build power through labor, run cadre socialists in key electoral races, and deepen the chapter’s commitment to mass politics. By endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor, we have an opportunity to reshape New York’s political landscape, using the campaign to energize membership and build socialist power citywide.
Socialists must lead with a clear political agenda, and that means reorienting our chapter’s focus toward organizing within labor unions and embedding ourselves deeper in the working class. The AC will also push to integrate labor into our electoral strategy through initiatives like the Federal Socialists in Office committee, ensuring that our elected officials remain accountable to working people.
Socialism is the People
While Groundwork opposed Socialism is the People as the strategic direction for the chapter, we are committed to working with comrades to ensure its implementation is as effective as possible. We believe in building unity within the chapter and making sure that all resolutions passed at convention are executed with care and collaboration. While our focus remains on labor organizing and mass politics, we recognize the importance of connecting labor and community struggles. By aligning our work in labor with the needs of local communities, we can create stronger, more cohesive movements that build working-class power from the ground up. We are ready to engage with initiatives that help integrate these efforts, strengthening NYC-DSA’s power and impact.
Looking Ahead
These resolutions collectively reflect a decisive commitment to labor, democratic internal processes, and independent political power. Emerging from this convention, we have a clear, unapologetic strategic direction: to build multiracial working-class power through labor organizing and a robust electoral strategy. The overwhelming support for resolutions like Orient Toward Labor (98.5%) and Organizing for Palestinian Liberation (97.1%) show a unified mandate for a bold, independent, labor-centered vision.
For a long time, we’ve had a “let 1,000 flowers bloom” approach—experimenting with many ideas without clear priorities. That approach worked well for our organization during our resurgence in the Bernie/Trump years. But flowers, as beautiful as they are, are seasonal and fleeting. Now, we are choosing to focus on growing trees with strong roots—sustainable, long-term strategies like labor organizing and mass politics that will endure and expand over time. Our future lies in building a movement grounded in institutions that can grow deep roots and withstand the test of time.
Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign will be a central piece of this strategy, giving us the opportunity to leverage millions in matching funds to grow NYC-DSA and rally around a candidate who unapologetically represents the socialist values we need in leadership. His race will allow us to expand our reach, engage in the political fights that matter, and build the tools and leadership needed to advance the broader struggle. Zohran's campaign isn't just a race for office—it's a chance to build the infrastructure and momentum for future victories across the city and beyond.
As anyone who has taken part in DSA conventions knows, it is not a given that the text of a resolution will become reality. It takes immense work at every level of DSA to flesh resolutions out into more comprehensive policies, and even more to organize the nitty-gritty “therefores” and “resolveds” into actions matching the more visionary goals found in their titles. With the majority on the Administrative Committee, we now have the leadership in place to ensure that our chapter can carry out the vision that DSA members have democratically decided on with discipline and focus worthy of the record numbers who chose it. This will allow us to drive a more coordinated, strategic direction, ensuring our internal democracy empowers all members to shape our path forward.
Our task for the year ahead is clear: to build a disciplined, independent socialist party that leads unapologetically, fights for working people, and delivers real, material victories for the multiracial working class. We have the tools, the strategy, and the momentum. Now it's time to get to work.
