Are there any Social Democrats or Democratic Socialists here? How did you decide which

[Critters2]

of these to join?


I like the idea of a further-left party working within the Democratic Party. I used to be a member of the Socialist Party, USA, but left when I realized Socialists were never going to get elected to public office in this country. I recently discovered these Socialist movements within the Dem Party, and would like to join. But which one?

My main question is...which of these is most effective at making an impact within the party?

Thanks for any help.

Oh, and for reference, these are the websites I looked at: http://www.socialdemocratsusa.org /

http://www.dsausa.org/dsa.html
I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space.

[Oak2004]

1. I'm DSA

I'm DSA chiefly because they're a well-established group with strong ties to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. They hosted the CPC website until the Republicans threw a fit and screamed "commie!!" long and hard. Bernie Sanders is a member, and I suspect that the crazy talk from one of the Republicans about "18 socialists in Congress", or whatever the number was, was actually a reference to genuine, deliberately less well publicized, DSA memberships in Congress. Furthermore the DSA has an active, not merely potential, Socialist International affiliation.

That said I have no negative feelings about Social Democrats USA. I'm not big on any of the "my party is more vanguard than your party" crap. In my book, the more socialists, the merrier.

[inna]

2. thank you for the info.

kr

[dgibby]

3. I'm definitely leaning in their direction.n/t

[Critters2]

4. Thanks. After some more research, and your post, I just joined the DSA. nt

[readmoreoften]

10. I agree.

The vanguard is just whose there out front doing the organizing work. Sectarian fights between (non-Stalinist) socialists is pointless. We all need a broadly based movement to achieve our goals.

[kestrel91316]

5. I'm leaning lefter the older I get and the more injustice I see in the

pursuit of the almighty dollar.

We DO need to reform the Democratic Party from with - basically take it back to it's pro-worker and pro-Little People past. The corporations have stolen way too big a piece of the pie.

[ArnoldLayne]

6. Yes, I am

[Critters2]

8. I am, too. As of a couple of hours ago.

Glad I found it!

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. DSA from....

...its Michael Harrington and Irving Howe days. We were made to read his The Other America freshman Religion class -- one of those life-changing books -- and I followed him into the party.

[readmoreoften]

9. I'm a revolutionary socialist, but I do lots of movement work with democratic socialists.

What that really means is that I don't think capitalism can be overthrown at the ballot box without a revolution to back it up anyhow. I don't believe elections are useless, I just don't see them as having the power to fight the Halliburtons and Carlyle Groups. I do think that organizing towards mass strikes and organizing within the military so that rank and file would stand on the side of working class strikers is the best way forward. I would of course vote socialist on any ticket if it were available to me.

These are my peeps:
socialistworker.org