Inside Baseball for DSA. Part 1. 2022

​This is a new blog post series Our goal is to post several items on the important internal disputes related to our present vigorous discussion of DSA. Note these posts on Inside Baseball are not statements of the policy or decisions of North Star. They are posted to record the events in a manner that will assist comprehension. The editors. 
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Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies.  1776. 
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
…. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, an organization and to provide new Guards for their future security.
 
To prove these charges, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

1. Whither DSA ?  Leo Casey.  3/11/2022.

2. ​DSA Edging Toward the Sectarian Abyss.  Max Sawicky.  1/10/2022

3. The Campaign to Expel Jamaal Bowman. Steering Committee of North Star Caucus, DSA   
 
4. The Dangers of Factionalism in DSA  4/6/2021
If the Left is to succeed where past generations have failed, it can’t allow sectarian organizations to operate as “parties within a party.” ...The remarkable growth of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) over the past four years, from a group with a few thousand members to one with fifteen times that number, has made it the most significant U.S. socialist organization in nearly a century. Successful campaigns to elect open democratic socialists to public office have given the DSA real, if still embryonic, political influence. Four members -- Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib -- now sit in the House of Representatives. Together with Bernie Sanders in the Senate, this is the largest number of self-avowed democratic socialists ever to hold Congressional office simultaneously, to say nothing of the scores of DSA members who have been elected to state legislatures, county boards and city councils in recent years. 

 5. Austin Gonzalez resigns from the NPC.  March 19, 2022
Austin Gonzalez resigns from DSA, and thereby the NPC and IC. Putatively in solidarity with the BDSWG, but his letter makes clear the pressure his campist line brought on him and DSA. Also complains about the handling of grievances.
 
6.. Conflicts in Metro Atlanta DSA July 2020.
 
7.. Letter from DSA members to NPC supporting the NPC statement and action on the BDS decision.
The letter describes several views of the recent problems in DSA.- Not a policy statement by North Star.  
The actual decision of the NPC is not yet up on the website. It is described in detail on the Discussion Board. The Discussion Board is open only to registered members of DSA.

8. A New Vision for DSA.  Susan Chacin. Winter 2021. 
https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/a-new-vision-for-dsa-the-socialist-voice-in-a-progressive-united-front
​9. To Save DSA:
​ https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/to-save-democratic-socialists-of-america-you-dont-know-what-youve-got-till-its-gone

10. Background piece on the Jamaal Bowman controversy.
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/democratic-socialists-j-street-bds-israel-palestine-iron-dome-aoc
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Watch this site for a growing listing of articles on our blog on these subjects.