Statement on the NPC's Amendments and the 2021 Convention

On July 19, 2021 the National Political Committee of DSA released a slate of recommended resolutions and amendments to the national organization’s constitution and bylaws. Our current constitution and bylaws state that they can only be amended if “written notice of such amendments has been given to members one month prior to the Convention.” The merits of the NPC’s recommendations aside, the constitution and bylaws amendments were released with only two weeks before the convention and are therefore out of order and should be withdrawn from consideration.

In addition to the lack of prior notification, in 2019 the constitution and bylaws were amended to specifically limit the NPC’s ability to get amendments to the floor of convention without following normal procedure or voting requirements. While the current situation may be different, we think that NPC introducing amendments that did not go through the same process as those proposed by other members of the organization violates the spirit of the 2019 amendment.