Call to Convention 2005

The National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of America calls on all members to participate in DSA's 2005 Convention this November 11-13, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.

We meet in Los Angeles, a city that has just elected Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union staff member, its first Latino mayor in a tremendous victory for that city's vibrant progressive movement (in which the labor movement plays a leading role). Los Angeles is representative of the emerging workforce, the cultural divide and the globalized economy that the corporations wish to impose on us; as such it is a particularly appropriate location for the DSA convention.

Bush's 2004 victory came at a cost to working families. An administration that enacts tax cuts for the rich and a bankruptcy bill that penalizes persons of modest income while orchestrating a pro-corporate CAFTA and an energy bill that fails to curtail fossil fuel consumption is an administration that needs a political beating. Yet the left's ability to administer that beating, let alone effectively counter the continuing occupation of Iraq, will be further challenged in the next two years of Republican rule by the split in the labor movement.

The fight to defend Social Security as a publicly funded, defined-benefit social insurance program is being won. Can we take advantage of the crisis in costs and coverage in health care and growing disenchantment with the Bush domestic agenda to revitalize a mass movement in favor of a truly universal publicly financed health care system in the United States? And can we help develop a robust wing of the Democratic Party on the national, state and local levels that can propose real solutions to growing inequality and economic insecurity and speak to the progressive values of equity, equality of opportunity, and fairness?

We meet at a time when we are heartened by the membership growth (of nearly thirteen per cent) that DSA has achieved since the last convention. But we also know that we have to do much more to turn membership growth into increases in organizational activism, strategic interventions and public socialist education.

This 13th convention is mandated to review and begin to update DSA's general perspective statement, last formulated ten years ago. We also intend to re-draft our immediate mission statement with an eye to examining our relations with progressive electoral movements and the new progressive formations that have emerged since the 2004 election. Finally, we will be examining our efforts to renew our organization and further develop a program and perspective that advances a bold political alternative to right-wing Republican "free market" mantras, to status-quo Democratic centrism, and to the neo-liberal ideology and policies that form the core of mainstream political discourse.

This call is issued in the spirit of optimism and solidarity. The absence of a coherent ideological and political critique of the easy assumption that "there is no alternative" to market mania constrains the constructing of a more just America. Only vibrant social movements and a clear-headed democratic socialist organization can mount such a political critique and help initiate campaigns to defend and expand democratic public programs at home and just trade and diplomatic policies abroad.

Please join us at a working convention where the membership will chart our future. We welcome all DSA members to attend as delegates or observers. We also welcome the attendance of our friends throughout the progressive movement.