Democratic Socialists make headway in U.S. after Trump's win
Tue Feb 21, 2017 | 11:30am EST
By Justin Mitchell | DETROIT
For David Green, head of the Detroit chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Donald Trump's victory in November was both distressing and cause for optimism in his quest to pull the Democratic Party to the left.
"We need a party that’s open to progressive forces, and that’s why we have to elect progressive leadership within the party," Green said, while attending the Michigan Democratic Party's spring convention in Detroit earlier this month.
Membership in the DSA, founded in 1982, has surged since Trump's election on Nov. 8, putting the movement in a position to make inroads on the Democratic Party's energized left. The membership gains are fueled by supporters of Bernie Sanders, the U.S. Senator from Vermont who sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year.
The DSA is not a political party, but it supports many of the same short-term policy positions as the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party: a $15 minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, free college, and opposition to free-trade deals.
more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-demsocialists-idUSKBN16014M
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