The Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is the youth section of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing Democratic Socialists of America#Tendencies within the DSA, multi-tendency Socialism, socialist and Labour movement, labor-oriented political organization. Its roots ...

. The organization was known as Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) until 2017.

History

Formerly known as the Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section, the organization played a significant role in the 1980s in the movements against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

in South Africa and United States intervention in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

. It helped introduce many student activists to trade union struggles, with many of the organization's alums going on to become labor organizers and union staff members. In the late 1990s, YDS chapters, most notably the ones at

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

and Arizona State University, became heavily involved in the national movement against the prison-industrial complex. Chapters tried to force colleges to cancel their contracts with food service provider Sodexho Marriott because its parent company Sodexho Alliance owned stock in

Corrections Corporation of America CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasle ...

, a for-profit prison company. More recently, the YDS had a contingent march in the NYSPC section of the

United for Peace and Justice United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is a coalition of more than 1,300
,

march against the

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in Washington, D.C. on January 27, 2007. In September 2009, YDS members participated in a march against the G20 in Pittsburgh. In October 2010, dozens of YDS members joined the union-sponsored One Nation Working Together march in Washington, D.C.

Activities

YDSA chapters and members are encouraged to pursue and promote a

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

political education and participate in social justice activism, often taking part in anti-war, labor and student-issue marches and rallies. Each year, YDSA members vote on an agenda for the chapters to adopt. The organization published an internal newsletter called ''The Red Letter''. Its members run and contribute to ''The Activist'', their official publication. The organization's most visible current national activities revolve around supporting initiatives for

(their parent organization) and organizing various national conferences, usually held in

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. The organization runs two annual conferences: an outreach conference in the winter that includes plenaries and workshops, and a convention during the summer that focuses on debating political direction and electing the national leadership for the following year. In the past, outreach conferences have featured keynote speakers such as

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society an ...

, journalist and author

Barbara Ehrenreich Barbara Ehrenreich (, ; ; August 26, 1941 – September 1, 2022) was an American author and political activist. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America. She was a widely read and awar ...

, ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' correspondent

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and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

professor

Gayatri Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Lite ...

. Other speakers include Dan Cantor of the

Working Families Party The Working Families Party (WFP) is a minor political party in the United States, founded in New York in 1998. There are active chapters in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Ne ...

, author and journalist Liza Featherstone,

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

professor Joseph Schwartz, long-time activist Steve Max and sociologist

Frances Fox Piven Frances Fox Piven (born October 10, 1932) is an American professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, where she has taught since 1982.

. National conferences have taken place in February 2016 in

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, August 2016 in

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, and February 2019 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

Organization

The organization is run by a coordinating committee consisting of two co-chairs and seven at-large members, previously two co-chairs and four at-large members. The group has a number of current chapters across the country. YDSA also has numerous members-at-large without chapters who usually work through other progressive groups to articulate an active democratic socialist presence in campus and community politics. YDS (renamed YDSA in 2017) expanded following youth support for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential candidacy. According to a YDSA organizer, the group expanded from 25 to 84 registered chapters between 2016 and 2019. As of January 2021, YDSA now claims 130 chapters.

References

External links

* {{authority control Democratic socialist organizations in the United States Youth politics in the United States Democratic Socialists of America, YDSA

History

Activities

Organization

See also

References

External links