This convention guide has been assembled by YDSA members of DSA’s Libertarian Socialist Caucus. It is endorsed by the caucus, and positions within are official LSC positions.

Check out our points of unity at dsa-lsc.org/lsc-pou, and if you like our positions, consider joining the caucus at dsa-lsc.org/join. You can view this guide in Google Docs here. Discuss this guide on the DSA forums here.

Resolutions and Amendments Summary

National Coordinating Committee

For the National Coordinating Committee co-chair positions, LSC is not running any candidates. However, we are recommending the following ranking for delegates at the top of the ballot:

1. Nat L, University of Michigan YDSA, Uncaucused
2. Sean B, University of Cincinnati YDSA, Constellation

For at-large, LSC is running a candidate, Bryce S from Princeton YDSA. We also recommend delegates rank the following candidates at the top of the ballot:

1. Bryce S, Princeton YDSA, Libertarian Socialist Caucus
2. Steven R, Furman University YDSA, Marxist Unity Group
3. Arjun J, Purdue University, Uncaucused
4. Nat L, University of Michigan YDSA, Uncaucused (co-chair candidates are able to drop down to at-large positions if they do not get co-chair)
5. Bobby W, Louisiana Tech University YDSA, Uncaucused

Rankings were informed by alignment on Palestinian liberation, disability justice, experience running campaigns, and visions of organizational structure. Although LSC aligns with Constellation on some points such as integration within DSA, many LSC members were upset about their vote to re-endorse AOC despite her inconsistent record on Palestine, and this impacted our rankings.

About Bryce, our NCC candidate:

As a disabled, working-class student growing up through housing instability, Bryce has acutely felt the consequences of capitalism in many areas of his life. It is this direct experience that motivated him to get involved in Pinellas DSA in 2020 in support of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, before playing a major role throughout 2021 as one of the top canvassers in support of Richie Floyd’s city council campaign in St. Pete, FL, which was the first DSA electoral victory in Florida history. Since then, he helped organize for tenant-managed social housing in Pinellas DSA and led the effort to re-establish the Princeton University chapter of YDSA. On campus, he directly engaged with local union efforts to support the burgeoning movement of campus unionism, co-organized protests for Palestinian liberation, trained new socialist organizers and provided political education opportunities, and more. More recently, he has begun engaging with the Youth Labor Committee to support other chapters’ labor organizing and registered as an Uncommitted delegate in New Jersey to pressure the Biden administration into an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, while continuing to support his YDSA chapter’s ongoing labor, immigrant rights, and ecosocialist work.

Bryce believes that YDSA is the future of the socialist movement as the most viable and comprehensive political organization in the country, training young people to build effective, independent working-class power in ways that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. On the NCC, he would ensure that YDSA continues to grow by pushing for stronger participatory democratic mechanisms and disability justice to better connect national resources to members’ local organizing work, building strong national infrastructure to ensure consistent, regular mentorship with young organizers in the undergraduate labor movement and industrialization in critical industries, and a multiracial and gender-diverse movement through our fights for Palestinian liberation with militant anti-Zionism, trans and reproductive rights, immigrant rights, and police and prison abolition.

Borda vs. STV, and a Rules Amendment

There are two voting methods which have been used at Y/DSA Conventions for electing leadership: Borda count and Single Transferable Vote (STV). Both are types of ranked choice voting.

Under STV, voters may rank however many candidates they like. If, after the first round of voting, a candidate receives a majority of first place votes, they win. If no candidate receives a majority, the last place candidate is eliminated, and their votes get reallocated to the second choice. This repeats, until a candidate reaches a majority. If there are multiple seats open, like the NCC, then instead there is a transfer threshold based on the number of voters and the number of seats. When a candidate reaches that level of support, any excess first place ballots are proportionally divided to the second choice. The process repeats until a full set of candidates are selected over the threshold. STV allows for honest, proportional elections, and there is no tactical advantage to voting dishonestly, allowing delegates to construct their ballots based solely on which candidates they prefer without worrying about whether they are using the “optimal” strategy.

Under Borda, voters are required to rank full ballots. If a candidate is ranked first on a ballot, they receive a number of points equal to one less than the number of candidates running. The second place candidate receives one less point than that, and so on, with the final candidate ranked receiving zero points. Candidates that receive the most points overall win. Proponents of Borda claim that Borda allows for the election of candidates who have more support among an electorate overall, even if they aren’t anyone’s first choice. However, there are some issues with Borda. First, a candidate who wins an outright majority of first ranked votes isn’t guaranteed a seat. Second, Borda is highly vulnerable to strategic voting, where voters or groups of voters lie about their preferences in order to produce a more favorable election outcome. The two main tactics for doing this in Borda are “compromising” (voting a candidate you somewhat approve of over your favorite, because you believe your favorite will win anyway) and “burying” (ranking the most credible opponent of your favorite candidates below your least favorite candidates in order to deny them as many points as possible). Bizarrely, Borda also rewards factions for running as many candidates as possible, with factions fielding larger numbers of candidates able to garner more points than a single candidate with similar support. In a Borda election where every voter is exploiting these techniques, the results will, on average, be statistically equivalent to a tie or a random coin flip.

We believe that elections in DSA should be proportional, and the NCC co-chairs should represent the diverse viewpoints within DSA, like the at-large seats do. Therefore, LSC plans on bringing an amendment to the convention rules calling for the NCC co chairs to be elected via Single Transferable Vote, instead of the undemocratic, easily manipulated Borda. We call on delegates to vote in favor of this amendment for National Coordinating Committee Co-chairs that represent the will of the membership and the diverse ideologies of YDSA.

Resolutions and Amendments

R1. Make YDSA an Anti-Zionist Organization in Principle and Praxis

R1 establishes that members may be expelled if they are found to be affiliated with the Zionist entity in occupied Palestine or a Zionist lobby group, if they have provided material aid to the so-called “state of Israel”, or if they have publicly and consistently opposed the Palestine liberation movement. R1 also creates a process for education to avoid Zionism, and by which former Zionists could be readmitted to the organization upon improvement. This resolution is similar to MSR 12 from the DSA 2023 Convention, which LSC also supported. We understand Zionism to be a form of white supremacy, and it has no place in YDSA. We also appreciate the restorative justice approach of this resolution, which is absent from YDSA’s current expulsion process. This resolution is an important element of restoring relations with pro-Palestine organizations. LSC members have both contributed to and cosponsored this resolution. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R1.

R2. Bringing Class Struggle to Student Government

R2 establishes a committee to assist chapters with running student government campaigns, and encourages chapters to run student government campaigns. Some within the caucus have concerns that this would lead to nonstrategic campaigns for student government positions, which frequently lack any meaningful recognition from students or influence on campus affairs, while other LSC members believe student government represents a meaningful point of agitation against university administrations. We were unable to reach consensus on the unamended resolution. LSC makes no recommendation on R2 unamended.

Amendment R2 - 1

R2-1 adds caveats regarding how YDSA chapters should run student government campaigns, and when such a campaign would be strategic, emphasizes the need for a focus on agitation rather than mere adjacency to power. R2-1 narrows the scope of R2 and addresses many of our concerns with the base resolution. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R2-1, and in favor of R2 if amended by R2-1 alone.

Amendment R2 - 2

R2-2 expands the scope of the committee established by R2 to include campaigning around the 2024 presidential election. We feel there is little apparent connection between the initial function of R2 and the work laid out by R2-2, and that if R2-2 were to pass, it would render the base resolution unfocused and ineffective. We are opposed to centering YDSA’s work on the presidential election over the next year. As we argued in our statement Socialism is Not Presidential, DSA does not stand to gain from a focus on the presidential election, regardless of which position we take. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R2-2, and against R2 if amended by R2-2, regardless of whether R2-1 passes.

R3. For Rechartering the Youth Labor Committee, Student Worker Unions, and the Rank-and-File Strategy

R3 recharters YDSA’s Youth Labor Committee and establishes labor organizing as a priority for YDSA for the next year. The resolution incorporates both the rank-and-file pipeline and the campus labor cohort from prior years’ labor resolutions. We support both of these approaches. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R3.

R4 and A2. Towards a Workers Party

R4 and its companion constitutional amendment A2 establish a process for union locals to affiliate organizationally with YDSA and create exploratory processes for closer integration. We believe there is no meaningful reason for union locals to affiliate organizationally with YDSA. YDSA lacks the resources a union local would typically seek via affiliation with a broader organization, which actual union federations can and do provide. These proposals seem uninformed in their understanding of YDSA’s existing labor strategy and of the present relationship between student labor unions and the socialist movement. Student workers are already able to join YDSA as individuals, so any union members who wish to affiliate with YDSA may already do so. To suggest that a union itself might affiliate without us organizing the mass of its members around such a decision implies an attempt to impose socialist politics on the union from above, which contradicts YDSA’s labor strategy as well as LSC’s own commitment to bottom-up organizing. Additionally, if a union were to affiliate while its members were also YDSA members, those members would in effect receive a double share of votes to the YDSA convention, which we oppose on basic democratic grounds. Overall, LSC believes these proposals to be ill-informed and an attempted shortcut to integration with institutional labor. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R4 unamended, and against A2 regardless of amendment.

Amendment R4 - 1

R4-1 is a wholesale revision of R4 which encourages the formation of socialist rank-and-file caucuses in unions containing YDSA members. We believe this bottom-up approach to popularizing socialist politics within the labor movement is a substantial improvement on the brute force approach taken by the base resolution. Socialists’ participation in rank-and-file reform caucuses is a proven strategy for building a more democratic labor movement, and we believe the formation of openly socialist caucuses represents a potentially productive elaboration on that approach. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R4-1, and in favor of R4 if amended.

R5. Towards a National Student Strike for Palestine

R5 prioritizes planning and enacting a student strike for Palestine through YDSA. We believe that student strikes, while valuable, are a tool that is not applicable everywhere. Student strikes require a high degree of organization among students that very few campuses in the United States have achieved. We fear this resolution will amount to little more than another empty call for a general strike that never occurs. If this was the only resolution offering a strategy for YDSA’s work in the Palestinian liberation movement, our stance might be different, but we find there are much more holistic, stronger pro-Palestinian resolutions on the agenda, with more detailed plans of action. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R5.

R6. Recommitting to the Activist

R6 reauthorizes YDSA’s publication, The Activist, outlines its activities over the next year, and specifies the structure of its editorial board. We have no objections to the workshop, print editions of The Activist, and budget called for by R6, and we recognize the utility of The Activist for YDSA’s internal political debate and development. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R6.

R7. Prioritizing Red/Rural Area Recruitment and Trainings

R7 requires that the NCC create a plan to encourage the establishment of new chapters in rural areas and areas controlled by the Republican Party. We believe the attacks on labor and human rights in red states create ample opportunities for socialist organizers to seize on dissatisfaction with traditional political institutions and the spinelessness of the Democratic Party. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R7.

R8. Recommitting to Socialist Political Education

R8 recharters the Youth Political Education Committee and outlines its responsibilities over the next year. Providing ready-made political education materials is a particularly important task for national YDSA, as chapters are responsible for training new members who may have only a passing familiarity with socialist theory and political strategy into the next generation of core DSA organizers. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R8.

R9. Cohering a National YDSA

R9 establishes a set of practices meant to unify national YDSA’s structure and grease the wheels of its administrative work. In prior years, resolutions that LSC supported, such as the disability justice resolution R1 from 2023 YDSA Convention, were not fully implemented, in part due to a diffuse national structure. We believe R9 will make the resolutions passed by YDSA’s highest body more meaningful by making the body tasked with implementing them more effective. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R9.

R10. Fighting for Victory in the Heart of Empire

R10 charters the Youth International Committee as a component of the DSA International Committee, which houses YDSA’s existing international work. We see no reason to alter this structure and have no objections to the attached platform amendment. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R10.

R11. Strong Foundations for a Growing YDSA

R11 recharters the Youth Growth and Development Committee, which is responsible for YDSA recruitment drives in the fall and spring and providing trainings to YDSA members and chapters. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R11.

R12. Responsibilities for National Coordinating Committee Members

R12 requires that NCC members hold bi-weekly one-on-one meetings for every individual YDSA chapter in the country. Some members of the NCC already fall short of existing commitments to chapter outreach, so we do not believe that an increase to member outreach will be implemented, even if convention passes this resolution. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R12.

R13. Towards Intersectional and Diverse Organizing in YDSA

R13 contains a collection of policies intended to promote the recruitment and development of YDSA members of color and the growth of new chapters at HBCUs, commuter schools, community colleges, and public universities. We believe there must be a clear and unambiguous effort to foster diversity in YDSA’s membership. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R13.

R14. Building YDSA Communications for the Future

R14 recharters the Youth Communications Committee. We believe YDSA’s participatory comms structure has enabled YDSA to take a vigorous and proactive approach to external messaging, and we hope that DSA will follow YDSA’s lead. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R14.

R15. No Votes For Genocide

R15 endorses the No Votes For Genocide DSA NPC proposal and adopts similar demands for YDSA. Although we are apprehensive about the stances laid out in the No Votes for Genocide proposal around orientation to the presidential election, as we discuss above, we believe the rest of the resolution is excellent. LSC has been outspoken against federal candidates and elected officials who continue to defend a genocidal administration, and as YDSA has led the charge for Palestine and set an example for DSA to follow, we hope that the organization continues to do so through this resolution. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R15, with or without amendments.

Amendment R15 - 1

This amendment written by Bryce S, LSC’s candidate for the NCC, highlights how the DSA-LA endorsed elected, Nithya Raman, has harmed the Palestine liberation work that YDSA and DSA chapters on the ground are doing. Other chapters’ endorsed socialists look at how other electeds act, and we must set the proper example for them to follow. Several YDSA chapters near DSA-LA have supported the call for her disendorsement and expulsion. LSC also signed on to the letter calling for Nithya Raman’s expulsion and disendorsement; it was authored by an LSC member. We believe that call is still warranted. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R15-1.

Amendment R15 - 2

This amendment, similar in tenor to R15-1, highlights how Ocasio-Cortez’s actions have also harmed the Palestine liberation work that YDSA and DSA chapters are doing. The resolution urges the National Political Committee, the highest body of DSA between national conventions, to have strong stances on Palestine, such as opposing government spending on the Zionist entity, refusing to affirm the Zionist entity has a right to exist, amongst others. It also specifies communication to AOC’s office on these conditions. This resolution was written prior to the vote on AOC’s endorsement, but we believe it is still salient. LSC has opposed AOC’s endorsement for the upcoming election from the very beginning. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R15-2.

R16. Ecosocialism Beyond the Green New Deal

LSC believes that Green New Deal politics are at a dead end. R16 affirms this, stating that GND politics have been stalled and are inadequate to solve the environmental crisis even if implemented, as they do not address the core contradictions of ecocidal capitalism. The resolution calls for an amendment to the YDSA platform supporting degrowth, an overhaul of YDSA’s ecosocialism political education materials, new trainings created about degrowth campaigns, and support for a stronger ecosocialist platform in DSA that goes beyond the tired politics of five years ago. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R16 unamended.

Amendment R16 - 1

R16-1 takes a centrist stance on the debate between Green New Deal politics and more radical degrowth ecosocialism by reaffirming support for the Green New Deal, while also supporting degrowth. We find this approach essentially contradictory and incoherent. The Build Public Renewables Act’s sabotaged implementation in New York serves as unambiguous evidence of the hostility of the state toward the Green New Deal’s objectives, even following electoral success. If amended, R16 would further entrench GND politics within YDSA, rather than ease YDSA into support for degrowth. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R16-1, and against R16 if amended.

R17. There Is Only One Solution! Intifada! Revolution!

R17 creates a detailed priority campaign for YDSA’s Palestine liberation work. The campaign's main demands are disclosure of university investments, divestment from companies which participate in the colonization and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and boycotting of partnerships with the Zionist entity’s educational-military-industrial complex. The campaign created by the resolution would be multi-tactical, covering a wide breadth of different strategies depending on the local conditions of the YDSA chapter. The resolution also calls for the NCC to repair YDSA’s relations with grassroots Palestinian organizations. R17 also calls for the NCC to find avenues for DSA to support the YDSA campaign. LSC believes this campaign is strategic and detailed, and we view it as the best path forward for YDSA for the following year. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R17.

R18. For a YDSA Program Committee

This resolution sets out to create a Program Committee to create a short program to be voted on at the 2025 YDSA convention, designed to briefly convey the organization's politics. Some LSC members liked the idea of a short program document, but LSC members also expressed concern about non-YDSA members being on the body. We believe there isn’t an urgent need for a new platform or program. LSC makes no recommendation on R18.

Amendment R18 - 1

This amendment uncaps the size of the committee, sets the goal of the committee to create a new longer platform instead of a short program, and removes the ability for former YDSA members to serve on the committee. We believe that a body with an uncapped size is ill-suited to drafting a detailed program, but we also like how this amendment ensures that the program of YDSA is set by YDSA members. As stated previously, we believe there isn’t an urgent need for a new platform or program. LSC makes no recommendation on R18-1 or R18 amended.

R19. For Protest Democracy

R19 commits YDSA to promoting formal democratic structures in protest movements, in particular the Palestinian liberation movement. LSC wholeheartedly endorses direct democratic structures and the accountability of elected leadership to the participants of a movement. LSC encourages delegates to vote in favor of R19.

R20. Building the Socialist Movement Through YDSA

R20 is a response to the cuts to YDSA made during the DSA budget crisis, which saw YDSA interns, subcommittee stipends, in-person events, and other areas of spending cut. The resolution states that YDSA believes those cuts are a serious error. It also calls for the YDSA 2025 convention to be in-person, instead of online. LSC agrees that the cuts to YDSA were too steep, in particular the elimination of YDSA’s interns. We believe the NPC should restore those funds immediately, and reverse the rest of the cuts as soon as  financially feasible. However, we do not agree that all of the cuts were a serious error. Every aspect of DSA’s work faced cuts. If DSA were to become insolvent, as it almost did, then YDSA would quickly cease to function as a result. Further, we believe it is unrealistic to request an in-person 2025 YDSA Convention when DSA’s convention will likely also be held online due to cost. The primary function of a convention is as YDSA’s highest decision-making body, a function which is sufficiently served by a virtual format. LSC has written extensively about the budget crisis in DSA, and we believe that overall, R20 is out of touch with the broader context of the crisis DSA faced. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R20.

R21. Building Militant and Democratic Student Unions on College Campuses

This resolution commits YDSA to build student unions on college campuses. Notably, the student unions mentioned in the resolution are not student labor unions, but bodies more akin to alternative student government associations. R21 tasks the NCC with identifying five campuses that have the ability to establish a student union, and then supporting the chapters in doing so. The body that is best equipped to determine whether a student union is viable is not the NCC, but the individual YDSA chapters. Although student unions in specific instances can be strategic as dual power institutions, we think this is a poor implementation of that strategy. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R21.

R22. Class Struggle Internationalism

There is substantial disagreement within LSC around positions on the political content of DSA’s international work. LSC makes no recommendation on R22.

R23. For an Independent Youth International Committee

R23 dissolves the IC Youth Leadership Committee and establishes a Youth International Committee within YDSA, separate from the IC. We believe that international work is best done in tandem with the IC, not separately. We see no reason to alter the structure of YDSA’s existing international work. LSC encourages delegates to vote against R23.

Acronym Glossary