As of June 25, 2026, 35 candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won primary elections for federal or local government. There are now two DSA members in the US House of Representatives, nine in the New York State legislature, four on the New York City Council and, of course, the Mayor, Mamdani. Nationwide, there are 250 DSA members in office, up from 40 in 2018.1 Do you think this is why Donald Trump is now shouting that we are being taken over by evil communists? Of course it’s hard to know whether he is just relying on good old red baiting to raise peoples’ fears in aid of his fascist agenda or if he really has no idea what communism is – or both, most likely.
The problem is that DSA does think they know what communism is and they want nothing to do with it. To them communism is authoritarian and thus must be assiduously avoided, “relegated to the dustbin of history.”2 And so they indulge in anti-communism even more harmful than that of the right as they influence many who do dislike capitalism.
Communism is what capitalists fear most precisely because it is a system in which the working class holds power after it has defeated the capitalist ruling class through revolutionary struggle. Since the capitalists ultimately maintain themselves in power through force – the military and police – their overthrow will, of necessity, be violent. That means that millions of workers must be won to fighting for a new system, one where profit is outlawed; production is based on human need; racism, nationalism and sexism are outlawed; and maximizing workers’ wellbeing is the goal of society.
DSA’s most fundamental misunderstanding of capitalism is the belief that there is a separation between the interests of corporations and that of the state, although even this concept gets muddy. In the 2012 Where We Stand summary of their position, they do mention the role of nations:” The unbridled power of transnational corporations, underwritten by the major capitalist nations, has created a world economy where the wealth and power of a few is coupled with insecurity and downward mobility for the vast majority of working people… U.S. dominance of the global economy is buttressed by its political power and military might.” But then,” The resources needed to sustain U.S. dominance are a drain on the national economy… No country, even a superpower like the United States, can guarantee peace and stability.3 This year, their program states they hope to build a socialist society where “the largest corporations are put under public ownership and democratic control and peace around the world is secured.”4 In other words, they fail to see that the state and its armed might are the instruments of capitalist control, but see the US government as a force separate from capitalists, whose role is to regulate and stabilize the world rather than enforce the interests of those capitalists.
DSA thinks that workers can become such a powerful force in this government that they can then legislate that workers “collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation.” They imagine that if they get enough votes, corporate owners will simply allow workers to take over ownership of many enterprises and produce and distribute goods or services based on need. Before that vision becomes reality, they will fight to gain power in legislative bodies in order to vote for reforms, paid for by taxing the rich, such as single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, and the Green New Deal.5
DSA fails to understand that capitalism depends on, is defined by, making profits. Profits are only amassed by the owners of productive forces by paying workers less than the value of what they produce, what we call exploitation. And profits must always be made as quickly as possible and maximized because of competition. Investment only flows to those producers who make the most profit in a timely manner. Thus it is not a moral or philosophical question, can capitalists be made or won to lessening the degree of exploitation, lessening the damage they might cause the environment or the quality of life of the vast majority or humans. No, they must maximize their gain in order to survive. Whether they do so with glee or regret is irrelevant- they have no choice. And clearly, as they violently suppress strikes and protests, cut lifesaving benefits like health care and food stamps at home and militarily devour nations abroad, they have no regret over bringing hardship or an end to workers’ lives.
This does not mean that some reforms cannot be won by worker organizing. When workers unionize, strike, boycott, they can win concessions. Indeed, the eight hour day, health benefits, pensions, none of it would exist without workers’ struggles, waged at the workplace and in the street, not at the voting booth. And thus the bosses will continually try to weaken any such movements by building racist, sexist and nationalist divisions, by passing laws to bust unions, firing organizers and many other tactics. As a capitalist system as a whole becomes less profitable, less powerful, like the US today, it has no choice but to suppress workers more diligently. This may be done through the legal system, with force, or by building fascist ideology – an increase in nationalism, sexism, racism and the worship of “order.”
DSA’s Political Reality
There is no doubt that most people who join or seek office through DSA are genuine in their desire to better the lives of workers. Despite DSA’s condemnation of the Democratic Party – “The center-right Democratic Party is controlled by its elite donor class” – their candidates all run within this party.4 In an interview with the newly nominated Manhattan congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, she talks about the desperate need for affordable housing, her desire to eliminate all borders, and the belief that crime stems from social stress and would not exist in an egalitarian society, thus eliminating the need for prisons and police. And how will this come about? When the legislature votes to tax the rich, with which the rich will, of course, comply.5
Perhaps the best place to investigate this model in current reality is to examine the rule of New York City Mayor Mamdani, elected November, 2025. Most of his promises were based on his intent to tax the rich, which is not in his power, but the Governor’s. New York State Governor Hochul has made clear that she will do no such thing, so the Mayor has to work within the confines of the city budget, over which he has no control. Other promises, like changes in policing, are not so money dependent, but still haven’t been kept.
The Mamdani Tracker keeps a tab on what has happened or not.6 While stabilized rents have been frozen for about one million tenants, this cost comes out of the landlords’ pockets. Meanwhile, the Mayor has broken his promise to help shelter residents find housing through expanding the CityFHEPS program, has not increased funding for drastically needed repairs in public housing (NYCHA) and has not taken action on many other promised tenant protections, like the city directly making emergency repairs. He has promised to create 200,000 (sometimes 400,000) affordable housing units in ten years, but the actual plan is 14,000 units in 2027. Even this requires financing via taxation and private sector help, likely not forthcoming, as the cost is double the City’s available funding.7
Although Mamdani promised to disband the notorious police Rapid Response Group that aggressively attacks protestors, he has not done so, nor has he kept his pledge to eliminate the police gang database, a loosely collected and racist list of poor young men of color. A proposal to build up a special unit to deal with mental health crises has been dramatically pared down, and he has hired 580 new cops, all still under the leadership of the old billionaire Commissioner Tisch. Even DSA has criticized him on these issues.8
No health care initiatives to increase mental and maternal health care have begun. Universal free child care has meant slots for only 2,000 two year olds around the city. Nor have promises to renovate 500 public schools, make CUNY tuition free, raise childcare wages or encourage teacher support begun.
It may well be true that the Mayor wishes he could accomplish all the things he promised, but he is bumping up against the reality that the rich are not just going to give him the funds to do so, nor does he have the power to make them. Nonetheless, in his July 4 address to the city, he stated ” What a privilege each of us has, to live in a nation that every one of its inhabitants can shape.” He also described the Declaration of Independence as a document signed by ” a small group of newspaper editors, farmers, and soldiers… declaring truths that feel self-evident now but were revolutionary then.”9 This document, actually written by elite white male landowners, 86% of whom were slave holders or profited from slavery, dared to declare that all men were created equal.10 In fact, as historian Gerald Horne says, they ” in effect–[created] the first apartheid state.”11
DSA Reduces Understanding and Struggle
So no matter how genuine the concern of DSA candidates for the good of workers, their actual role is to deceive them about the source of their exploitation and to lead them away from the mass organizing that is actually necessary to threaten capitalism. Tens of thousands of mostly young people have joined this organization, inspired by its electoral victories and espousal of socialism, but this is dangerous in two ways. First, these critics of capitalism are being fed a false analysis of capitalism, one that says it can be reformed by voting, reformed in such a way that owners will give up their capitalist entities and allow benefits to flow to workers. From this follows the misconception that the force that keeps capitalists in power, the state and its armed might, will be not be used to protect capitalist enterprises against workers’ wish to take over, whether they’ve only voted for it or are actually engaged in workplace actions.
Secondly, DSA is dangerous because it has taken the energy of thousands of its adherents and directed it into electoral campaigns instead of directly organizing for actual demands. As the US hurtles towards larger war with Iran and then possibly with China, as climate change accelerates, as unemployment rises and social benefits decrease, workers, students and soldiers will need a mass, multiracial, militant and overtly anti-capitalist movement to fight back. Such a movement can only grow out of struggles at worksites, schools, and military bases that are organized by the rank and file who do not harbor illusions that liberals or bosses or elected officials will fight with them for systemic change. In the course of such struggles, it is essential that participants not only gain confidence in their own leadership, but come to understand the dynamics of capitalism and the need to build a mass class-conscious movement to ultimately attack capitalism itself and establish a worker run society, a communist society.
This does not mean the we do not analyze the mistakes and achievements of previous communist revolutions, as in the USSR and China. Clearly, despite many early advances, they ultimately failed and reverted to authoritarian capitalism, but this was because of identifiable errors which are evident in retrospect. They believed the transition to communism would be very prolonged and must be preceded by a period of a mixed economy, they believed in promoting nationalism instead of class based loyalty, they believed in making alliances with internal and international liberal capitalists, all of whom turned on them. We must learn from these errors and do better, but we must not conclude that communism is hopeless and thus we should keep capitalism around. For it is capitalism that is destroying the world at an accelerating pace.
It also does not mean that we should not befriend members of DSA or participate in the organization as a way to meet many who are eager for change. We can raise ideas in meetings and campaigns and even influence tactics, perhaps, as we try to clarify how capitalism actually works and raise revolutionary communism. Many are ready to listen.
For further discussion, see our previous articles on democratic socialism:
1. https://www.city-journal.org/article/democratic-socialists-of-america-george-soros-local-elections
2. https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/what-is-democratic-socialism/
3. https://www.dsausa.org/strategy/where_we_stand/
4. https://platform.dsausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSA_WDM2025Program_v2.pdf
5. https://nyeditorialboard.substack.com/p/darializa-avila-chevalier-on-housing
6. https://mamdanitracker.nyc/promises
8. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/nyregion/dsa-mamdani-pushback.html
11. Gerald Horne, The Counterrevolution of 1776:Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America, p3