Democratic Socialists of America

[BayCityProgressive]

anyone else into them? They are a cool organization with about 6,000 members. They used to host the website for the Progressive Caucus and some of the Caucus members are/were members. They work within the Democratic Party and support independants and third party candidates when viable...such as Senator Sanders. Some notable members are Gloria Steinam, Cornel West, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noam Chomsky, Senator Sanders, Major Owens, Ron Dellums, Ed Asner, and many other notables in the progressive movement. They are part of the committee that runs United For Peace and Justice.

http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html

Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.

They are also the US member of the Socialist International:
http://www.socialistinternational.org/main.html

DSA is the largest US affiliate of the Socialist International (SI), the worldwide organization of 140 socialist, social democratic and labor parties. The SI has the distinction of being the largest political organization in the world.



We actively work to maintain our relationship with our sister organisations in the Socialist International. On this page you will find information on DSA’s international positions and events.

[Cascadian]

1. Card carrying member right here. n/t

I like them and I wished the Democratic Party were more like them. We need more of a pro-labor, anti-war voice in American politics. It has been so muddled in globalization, sound bites, focus groups, and other crap like that. We need more people to listen to the working people of this land. This is why I back them though I admit I have to pay my dues. I am overdue for that.

John

[BayCityProgressive]

2. cool

I really like that they are a socialist group that takes realistic measures to effect change in our country. They aren't dogmatic and are always supporting progressive legislation and innovative ways to give people more control over economic and social life. This is the Socialist International's view on socialism:





V. Shaping the Twenty- First Century
Political and Economic Democracy

56. Recent events have made the achievement of political, economic and social democracy on a world scale more feasible than ever before. Democracy represents the prime means for popular control and humanisation of the otherwise uncontrolled forces which are re-shaping our planet without regard for its survival.

57. Human rights include economic and social rights; the right to form trade unions and to strike; the right to social security and welfare for all, including the protection of mothers and children; the right to education, training and leisure; the right to decent housing in a liveable environment, and the right to economic security. Crucially, there is the right to both full and useful employment in an adequately rewarded job. Unemployment undermines human dignity, threatens social stability and wastes the world's most valuable resource.

58. Economic rights must not be considered as benefits paid to passive individuals lacking in initiative, but as a necessary base from which to secure the active participation of all citizens in a project for society. This is not a matter of subsidising those on the fringe of society, but of creating the conditions for an integrated society with social welfare for all people.

59. Democratic socialism today is based on the same values on which it was founded. But they must be formulated critically, both assimilating past experience and looking ahead to the future. For instance, experience has shown that while nationalisation in some circumstances may be necessary, it is not by itself a sovereign remedy for social ills. Likewise, economic growth can often be destructive and divisive, especially where private interests evade their social and ecological responsibility. Neither private nor State ownership by themselves guarantee either economic efficiency or social justice.

60. The democratic socialist movement continues to advocate both socialisation and public property within the framework of a mixed economy. It is clear that the internationalisation of the economy and the global technological revolution make democratic control more important than ever. But social control of the economy is a goal that can be achieved through a wide range of economic means according to time and place, including:

- democratic, participative and decentralised production policies; public supervision of investment; protection of the public and social interest; and socialisation of the costs and benefits of economic change;

- worker participation and joint decision-making at company and workplace level as well as union involvement in the determination of national economic policy;

- self-managed cooperatives of workers and farmers;

- public enterprises, with democratic forms of control and decision-making where this is necessary to enable governments to realise social and economic priorities;

- democratisation of the institutions of the world financial and economic system to allow full participation by all countries;

- international control and monitoring of the activities of transnational corporations, including cross-frontier trade union rights within such corporations.

61. There is no single or fixed model for economic democracy and there is room for bold experimentation in different countries. But the underlying principle is clear - not simply formal, legal control by the State, but substantial involvement by workers themselves and by their communities in economic decision-making. This principle must apply both nationally and internationally.

62. In societies structured in this fashion, and committed to genuine economic and social equality, markets can and must function as a dynamic way of promoting innovation and signalling the desires of consumers through the economy as a whole. Markets should not be dominated by big business power, and manipulated by misinformation.

63. The concentration of economic power in few private hands must be replaced by a different order in which each person is entitled - as citizen, consumer or wage-earner - to influence the direction and distribution of production, the shaping of the means of production, and the conditions of working life. This will come about by involvement of the citizen in economic policies, by guaranteeing wage earners an influence in their workplace, by fostering open and accountable competition both domestically and internationally and by strengthening the position of consumers relative to producers.

64. A democratic society must compensate for the defects of even the most responsible market systems. Government must not function simply as the repair shop for the damage brought about by market inadequacies or the uncontrolled application of new technologies. Rather the State must regulate the market in the interests of the people and obtain for all workers the benefits of technology, both in work experience and through the growth of leisure time and meaningful possibilities for individual development.

[BayCityProgressive]

3. The Founder was Michael Harrington

He was a popular socialist in the US and on Nixon's blacklist. He is famous for writing the book "The Other America". In the book he laid out many of the policies Kennedy and Johnson later enacted in the "Great Society". They were very influenced by him. in the 60s-70s he was called "the only responsible radical".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Harrington
Edward Michael Harrington (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist, writer, and political activist.

Harrington was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended St. Louis University High School, College of the Holy Cross, University of Chicago (MA in English Literature), and Yale Law School. As a young man, he was interested in both leftwing politics and Catholicism. Fittingly, he joined Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker movement, a pacifist group that advocated a radical interpretation of the Gospel. Above all else, Harrington was an intellectual. He loved arguing about culture and politics, preferably over beer, and his Jesuit education made him a fine debater and rhetorician. Harrington was an editor of The Catholic Worker from 1951 to 1953. However, Harrington became disillusioned with religion and, although he would always retain a certain affection for Catholic culture, he ultimately became an atheist.

This estrangement from religion was accompanied by a growing interest in Marxism and a drift toward secular socialism. After leaving The Catholic Worker Harrington became a member of the Independent Socialist League, a small organization associated with the former Trotskyist leader Max Shachtman. Harrington and Shachtman believed that socialism, the promise of a just and fully democratic society, could not be realized under authoritarian Communism and they were both fiercely critical of the "bureaucratic collectivist" states in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

The Other America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Michael Harrington’s book The Other America (ISBN 0-684-82678-X) was a groundbreaking study of poverty in the United States, published in 1962. Harrington described a "new American poverty" in his work. Read by President John F. Kennedy, it was probably the driving force behind the "war on poverty." The Boston Globe editorialized that Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps and expanded social security benefits were traceable to Harrington’s ideas. Harrington became the pre-eminent spokesman for socialism in America.


Great Society (How I wish a Democrat would put forth an agressive agenda like this again!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society

The Great Society was a set of domestic programs proposed or enacted in the United States on the initiative of President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969). Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice. New major spending programs that addressed education, medical care, urban problems, and transportation were launched during this period. The Great Society in scope and sweep resembled the New Deal domestic agenda of Franklin Roosevelt, but differed sharply in types of programs. Some Great Society proposals were stalled initiatives from John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. Johnson's success depended on his own remarkable skills at persuasion, coupled with the Democratic landslide in 1964 that brought in many new liberals. Anti-war Democrats complained that spending on the Vietnam War choked off the Great Society. Richard Nixon continued many of the spending programs. While Ronald Reagan reduced funding or ended some of them, many of the these programs including Medicare, Medicaid, and federal education funding continue to the present.

[Madspirit]

4. It costs money

It costs money to join or I would. So it's on my list for when I get some money.
Lee