The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are reportedly encountering a drastic financial situation that puts them in a seven-figure debt. Mismanagement from top directors- including withholding information from elected leaders- led to decreased external support and the organization’s shaky non-profit structure hampered its growth.
As a result of this financial setback, DSA has announced that they regrettably will be reducing staff costs and numbers.
“We will cut $500,000 from staff-related expenses. We will first ask for volunteers from director-level and bargaining unit staff to have their positions cut and receive severance,” a proposal released by members of DSA’s National Public Political Committee stated, “No one would be considering layoffs if the deficit weren’t so extreme. But now that we are in this crisis, we can’t fix it by hollowing out the organization. If we don’t reduce staff costs, DSA won’t be a place where anyone wants to work- or organize.”
According to DSA members Alex Pellitteri, Kristin Schall, and Laura Wadlin, “staff-related costs account for 58% of our total expenditures and 72% of our projected income,” a significant contributor to their financial crisis.
The DSA has continuously supported Free-Palestine boycotts and protests.
“Biden’s disastrous policy of fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza has created the kind of space for an independent alternative from the Democratic Party that has not existed since [Vermont senator and former presidential candidate] Bernie [Sanders],” the proposal read in addressing DSA’s stance on the political conflict.
In response to the fiscal crisis, some Pro-Israel activists are blaming DSA leaders who “blindly” back Palestine for their monetary struggles, claiming they’ve damaged the group’s credibility and “lost support by backing the Hamas terrorists.”
Amanda Berman, the founder and executive director of Zioness, a pro-Israel, Zionist group, asserted that an internal DSA feud in 2022 over whether they should withdraw support for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), who represents Westchester and the Bronx, for visiting Israel left members admitting that they were “bleeding activists and financial resources.”
“After Hamas’s brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, DSA doubled down on their strategy of going deep and long on antisemitism, thinking it might get them out of the hole,” Berman reported. “Instead, this depraved idea dug them even deeper.”
The DSA did not reference this alleged internal conflict in their published statements.
Despite outlining various financial strifes and structural hurdles, the DSA proposal ended on a more positive note in which they expressed optimism in their ability to handle future struggles: “There will be many crises ahead of us that DSA needs to be prepared to leverage for cause of the working class. If we can do that, we are hopeful that this change in staffing levels will just be a bump in the road on our way to future political victories.”
