DSA's newly revised Program: Workers Deserve More (program.dsausa.org)

submitted 2 weeks ago by RedWizard@hexbear.net to c/politics@hexbear.net

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/50315633

Imagine taking a day off from work in a future without capitalism.

Fox News, The Washington Times, Manhattan Institute, and Sinclair broadcasting have all covered DSA's new program: Workers Deserve More. But have you read it?

DSA's new political program for 2026 includes a forward looking statement, A Day Without Capitalism, a current asessment of the political terrain in 2026, and the organizations new political planks:

Thriving Working Class Communities featuring the Freedom to Flourish; Feminism, Healthcare, Housing for All; Finishing Reconstruction; Ending Mass Incarceration; and a Green New Deal

Working Class Foreign Policy by ending the US War Machine; fighting for a Free Palestine; and abolishing & prosecuting ICE

Working Class Democracy featuring Proportional representation; expanding voting rights; ranked choice voting; abolishing the electoral college and replacing the President and SCOTUS; along with fighting democratic unions for all

What's notable for me in this is the organization will now require elected DSA members to embrace and uphold the party's new program while in office. Kentucky State House Rep. Robert LeVertis Bell outlined how he plans to use Workers Deserve More as his guide while in office for policies to fight for on DSA's Workers Deserve More launch call

Check out the program at https://program.dsausa.org/ And watch the full Workers Deserve More launch call here

It’s been said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. But just because it isn’t easy to imagine now doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to make it happen.

Workers deserve more.

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[-] GeckoChamber@hexbear.net 29 points 2 weeks ago

A much more radical program than I would have expected, especially with that slogan sounding like a parody of big tent compromise

[-] RedWizard@hexbear.net 24 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I would have gone with "Workers deserve everything!"

[-] duderium@hexbear.net 32 points 2 weeks ago

[-] RedWizard@hexbear.net 13 points 2 weeks ago

Hell yeah! That looks like some Teanage Stepdad art.

[-] casskaydee@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm pretty sure it is. He has done art (and a pretty cool show) for Means

[-] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 15 points 2 weeks ago

we only want the earth

[-] MeetMeAtTheMovies@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago

Every worker…

[-] Hohsia@hexbear.net 26 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Even something as lukewarm as “workers deserve more” is too extreme for DNC loyalists trying to wrangle the moderate vote

every time I’ve joined the dsa, I’ve run into an older man who constantly reminds us that the dsa was formed to work within the Democratic Party

At this point though, it’s hard for me to understand why we even bother. It’s basically a parent/child relationship where the child gets an allowance as long as they behave (doesn’t go full socialist).

[-] americanwaste@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

every time I’ve joined the dsa, I’ve run into an older man who constantly reminds us that the dsa was formed to work within the Democratic Party

The strategy here is called Realignment and was advocated for by Michael Harrington in the post-Socialist Party DSOC years into DSA. It was successful in that it allowed DSOC members to have minority say and input into the 1976 Democratic Party platform which was then disregarded entirely by Carter, so it really has nothing more to show despite decades of attempts with it into the Reagan and Clinton years. Since the org's rebirth post-2016, DSA's long since moved on, our current trajectory is that of a proto-party and we're aiming to act more and more like an independent party despite using their ballot line and primary process, to prepare ourselves for an eventual break from the Democratic Party.

There's few people left in the org that argue for realignment, it's a dead end.

[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

every time I’ve joined the dsa, I’ve run into an older man who constantly reminds us that the dsa was formed to work within the Democratic Party

This is interesting, because there aren't a lot of reformists in my local chapter, and the older folks are all hardline 60s New Left types

[-] Chana@hexbear.net 12 points 2 weeks ago

How did this originate? Did DSA have one of their summer org delegate convention things?

[-] americanwaste@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 weeks ago

DSA passed a resolution at the 2025 Convention to create a program committee to retire old strategy and program documents and work on writing a new program for 2026 and beyond, this is the result! The members on the mass call I linked mention this in the middle of the video, but it was a big-tent approach to writing a program with DSA members from across the political and organizing spectrum contributing to this document.

[-] Chana@hexbear.net 10 points 2 weeks ago

Ah interesting and thank you for explaining. I was partly trying to understand how much this is a synthesis of the major factions vs. something put together by just a few heavily aligned ones.

[-] RedWizard@hexbear.net 11 points 2 weeks ago

Fox News is going to run WILD with this one.

[-] HandsHeartEyes@hexbear.net 16 points 2 weeks ago

Nice, more free advertising for the winning left.

[-] americanwaste@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

They've been featuring this on their show for over a week, including asking Karl Rove to comment on it!

[-] SevenSkalls@hexbear.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's hilarious. They've been commenting on it, sometimes reading out the program verbatim and it just sounds like banger after banger if you ignore the silly or scary tone they use when talking about it.

[-] Athena5898@hexbear.net 9 points 2 weeks ago

but not too much!

[-] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 weeks ago

Tbh, this was way more radical of a program than what I was expecting. I thought the original Workers Deserve More program left a lot to be desired, and was disappointed that it was renewed at convention, in lieu of the more radical proposal.

So, seeing the new program be so much more fleshed out and radical than the original WDM has been a nice surprise

[-] americanwaste@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm very proud of it, it's a great example of the strengths of a big tent org like DSA where factions and ideologies actually work together on synthesizing something together, rather than have it be an arena of struggle to win. Can't wait to table with physical copies of it.

[-] muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

Not a fan of this slogan. Deserve more from who, is the question.

Socdems like Sanders and AOC answer that US workers should get a bigger cut of the imperial pie, out of US capitalists share, and that US imperialism and super-exploitation of the global south should continue and be extended to fund more social services.

Ending that super-exploitation is only possible by nationalizing most of the US's private industries currently carrying that out, and who hold power over its political system. I don't see that at all in this program.

[-] americanwaste@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

To achieve this future, our class must organize. The Democratic Socialists of America is building a party whose goal is a democratic society of the working class. Our enemies are not just individual bosses, but the entire global system of capital; not just this or that cop, judge, or president, but the entire anti-democratic structure of our society. We are workers fighting to transform society: to win the battle for democracy, draft a new constitution, and create a democratic socialist republic.

...

Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people.

Curious, this isn't enough to meet that critique? I don't see them advocating continued imperialism in this quotation, nor them not mentioning nationalization of industry.