NYC-DSA Needs A Strong Youth Wing and It Needed One Yesterday

“The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed.”

Hunter S. Thompson, September 18, 2001

Zoomers are the most socialist generation in America since the heyday of American leftism. A recent CBS poll found that out of all age groups, those under 30 had the most favorable ratings of socialism and the most unfavorable ratings of capitalism, and for good reason. We grew up in a post-9/11 world, were raised in the economic uncertainties of the 2008 economic crisis, and came of age in a political atmosphere post-Trump and post-COVID. We have not been afforded any room to breathe growing up, and the future promised by the neoliberal capitalist establishment only signals a tightening of the noose. Our generation stands with two paths before us, both considered radical by the establishment, but both growing in acceptance by the generation who has been promised so much and received so little.

Socialism or barbarism, as they say.

On the barbarism side of the Zoomer political sphere, there are the TERFs, the manosphere types, Turning Point USA, and whatever vile AI slop the Young Republicans are cooking up.

And on the socialism side, there is us. YDSA, the Young Democratic Socialists of America. Traditionally, YDSA has existed solely as a campus-based organization and was effectively completely independent from the local DSA chapter. This division between the two has discouraged many potential lifelong organizers from becoming active in DSA post-graduation. As co-chairs of the New York City chapter of YDSA, we believe that NYC-YDSA is in a particularly unique position right now to cement itself as the youth wing of the ascendant socialist left, and must take action to do so now.  By integrating YDSA into DSA, we will be able to grow the next generation of members who will fight to win a socialist future.

NYC-YDSA has existed as an organization in various forms and various stages of activity since 2017. However, there has been little in the means of formal integration and formal creation of pipelines between NYC-YDSA and NYC-DSA, and there has been, in fact, much conflict and animosity between the two bodies. Take NYC-YDSA in 2024; issues had long been brewing between us and NYC-DSA, which boiled over when members of NYC-YDSA voted to censure AOC, putting us directly at odds with our local chapter.  Our semi-autonomous structure and ill-defined relationship with DSA set us up for a conflict with our parent chapter that would cause a significant rift we are only beginning to resolve today.

YDSA can win where DSA cannot. We have so many opportunities before us to build a true base of support that can last generations, and we cannot squander this opportunity to do so. CUNY has been forced to admit it has invested over a million dollars in companies that sell the tools of genocide to the rogue apartheid state, while at the same time they refuse to reinstate a professor for their pro-Palestine views. As ICE continues to trawl our streets, we have proven that we will stand up for our immigrant classmates, neighbors, and family members. We have organized labor unions of graduate workers at our schools, and mobilized in solidarity with Starbucks workers and nurses, many of whom went or were going to the same schools as us. Furthermore, we helped elect the most popular politician in America, a DSA member who commands margins among Zoomers even greater than the average Bushwick precinct. What we require is the institutional backing of NYC-DSA to fully supercharge our organizing and give us the capacity and the support to become the youth wing of a truly working-class movement.

Our amendment would transform NYC-YDSA from its current form, an amorphous collective of YDSA chapters with no official connection to NYC-DSA other than a singular Steering representative and a singular CLC representative, to a well and proper youth wing, something no other DSA chapter currently has. It would grant us permanent campaign status on the level of the Electoral Working Group and the Labor Working Group, providing us a funding floor, a direct line to Socialists in Office, greater representation on Steering and CLC through both our co-chairs and a YDSA Coordinator, and greater ability to work both within the chapter and outside the chapter as the youth representative of the largest local socialist organization in American history.

It would be remiss of us not to mention another amendment focusing on YDSA’s relationship with Citywide. While we welcome this proposal, we disagree with the means by which YDSA would be represented on Citywide Steering, wherein YDSA is represented by just one member, the YDSA Coordinator. Furthermore, by allowing dual representation on Steering, this amendment would not only create a more democratic system but also create many different channels of communication between the two bodies, preventing further division and giving more YDSAers direct connections to the parent chapter. We are not the same as Labor or Electoral. NYC-DSA can do those things on their own, and can do them quite well, but NYC-YDSA is different. We are not merely a working group, we are a youth wing!

NYC-YDSA has recently accelerated our organizing efforts among CUNYs and High Schools, all of which are dominated by non-white, non-affluent native New Yorkers, the same groups who DSA purportedly struggles with. We think differently; we do not struggle with these groups, especially not the young among them. We would wager to say around half of our members are non-white, non-affluent native New Yorkers, and we know that there are many more who support us. However, we can turn them from passive supporters to tried and true organizers. We have a unique opportunity at this convention to cement YDSA as a space for organizers to develop the skills and political education necessary to go on to lead DSA. Many of our members have in fact done so, with NYC-YDSAers running for prominent positions not just citywide, but nationwide. This amendment would only help widen the door and allow the red flood to come pouring in. We cannot allow YDSA to act simply as another activist organization; we must be the youth wing of the party!

We urge you to sign on to our amendment. The youth are the hope of the future!