Constellation, like most other DSA caucuses, seeks to build DSA into a mass, working class, socialist party. As we enter 2025, the necessity of building this party is only more urgent. 2 years of mass resistance to the genocide in Gaza has changed little, and the only solution is a DSA of a million members grounded in an organized multi-racial working class. NYC DSA’s victory in electing Zohran Kwame Mamdani as the Democratic nominee for mayor, however, shows that a working class party is possible, but only if we organize a political machine capable of incorporating tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of volunteers and transforming individuals into partisans of the working class and global humanity. 

Headed into 2025 DSA convention, Constellation has identified 3 priorities: adopting a campaigning internationalist strategy rooted in militant anti-imperialist politics, building on NYC DSA’s electoral strategy to build a nationwide political machine, and internally adopting structures that preserve party memory and facilitate decisive and meaningful political leadership in the national organization. 

Table of Contents

Mass Anti-Imperialism

Constellation advocates a revolutionary defeatist position which states that our role as socialists in the imperial core is to oppose all US international interventions and weaken the US military in any way possible. Our task is to make this focused anti-imperialist vision the vision of the entire working class through national and local campaigns. Through these campaigns, we both stand in solidarity with international forces of progress opposing US empire and we begin to free ourselves from the global systems of US-led violence that we are constantly entwined in.

Over the last 5 years, the International Committee has made tremendous progress in expanding diplomatic relations with parties and organizations across the world, but has often failed to meet the moment in coordinating chapters to run campaigns together and move DSA into collective action. This is due in-part to the organizing structures of DSA and the IC and the political priorities of DSA and IC leadership, getting bogged down in public statements that don’t build upon the vast majority of DSA’s consensus. Looking to 2025, we hope to improve the IC’s capacity to coordinate mass nationwide anti-imperialist struggle and reject attempts to confuse DSA’s anti-imperialist positions. 

Support: 

CR02: Building an Internationalist Party 

The International Committee’s consensus resolution sets DSA up to bring our diplomatic and anti-imperialist campaign infrastructure to the next level. Through the “Priority International Partners” program, the IC can build out more cohesive relationships with partners across DSA, and through limited priority campaigns and consolidating chapter infrastructure, we can coordinate national anti-imperialist campaigns with a local base. 

R36: A Unified Democratic Socialist Strategy for Palestine Solidarity

R36 orients DSA to the BDS movement and mandates that we will fulfill our socialist, anti-imperialist, and basic humanitarian commitments to the Palestinian people through building the BDS movement and strategic campaigns. Its razor sharp focus on building this movement is exactly what we need to further the movement, our organization, and the Palestine solidarity struggle.

R19: From Palestine to Mexico: Fighting Fascist Attacks on Immigrants

R19 is a great corollary to R36 in using the International Committee as the central organizing body cohering many different DSA bodies in the struggle for immigrants’ rights and power. Through labor, electoral, and YDSA, R19 expands this struggle and prefigures a larger organized working class with immigrants at the center. 

R21: Democracy For All: a NEC Subcommittee for Voting Rights

R21 is a bold rejection of immigrant exclusion and racist voting laws through expansive universal suffrage campaigns. It prioritizes expanding voting access and ability for working-class people of color, which has long been a necessary but under-examined component of electing socialists, and also opens more opportunities for DSA to live up to our historic tradition and build a radical immigrant culture and political machine. 

Oppose: 

Amendments to the IC Consensus resolution: 

Both of the proposed amendments as well as the tertiary amendment to the first amendment of the IC consensus resolution open the door for US chauvinism to enter into DSA’s international solidarity work and should be rejected. 

CR02-A01: Anti-Imperialism in the 21st Century (formerly R28)

In the first amendment, this is accomplished through the advocacy of vague commitments towards “democracy” in other countries’ political parties and trade unions against “self-serving bureaucratic layers.” This sort of vague commitment misunderstands the fact that parties and organizations need strong bureaucracies to execute democratic decisions. Worse, it fails to reflect on the long-standing strategy of U.S. empire to destroy foreign political movements under the guise of “democracy.” 

The amendment to this amendment maintains this language and should be rejected as well.

CR02-A02: Democratic Socialist Internationalism

In the second amendment, “democratic rights” is substituted for democracy as a pretext to avoid international solidarity. These “democratic rights” include the right to form “independent trade unions.” We have repeatedly seen U.S. backed independent trade unions weaken the power of socialist movements in other countries and contribute to the destabilization of socialist state-building projects. 

This amendment further promotes an incorrect understanding of the world where the “rights of workers and peoples” are detached from “geopolitical power.” Working class power and the sovereignty of working people across the world, especially the third world, are  structured  in part by geopolitical contests. There is no way to split them apart: we support the interests and sovereignty of workers and people across the world, and to do so we recognize and orient strategically to the current balance of power in the world-system. 

R22: For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA

R22 presents a quite sweeping vision for DSA’s role in the Palestine Solidarity movement that includes strong campaign commitments, but also creates a confused mandate to endorse al-Thawabit, the red lines passed by the Palestinian National Council in 1977 for all Palestinian factions. As diligent anti-imperialists we stand with the Palestinian consensus where it exists today in the BDS Movement, not in 1977. 

R42-A01: For a Strike Ready Labor for an Arms Embargo

Constellation has mixed opinions on R42: Labor for an Arms Embargo. We strongly agree with the limited focus on winning an arms embargo alongside our somewhat broader commitment to the BDS movement as outlined in R36. However, we disagree with the focus on DSA members organizing solely as “workers” as civil society organizations, particularly religious organizations, have historically played essential roles in winning internationalist struggles in the US. 

The amendment to R42 further entrenches the viewpoint of labor as the be-all end-all of the movement. R42’s focus on organizing unions and the labor movement against political targets is a winning orientation to organize a majority of society in support of Palestine.

Electoral strategy: 

DSA’s electoral project is the most successful the US left has seen in almost a century. This was true before Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory or Omar Fateh’s DFL endorsement. Building the bench of socialist electeds in local and especially state office has yielded and will continue to yield fruit. These successes have been characterized by a few commonalities: 1) running on the Democratic Party ballot line, 2) prioritizing massive field and door knocking operations, and 3) running candidates who both within and outside of DSA have been part of working class struggles. 

Looking towards convention, we see many threats to this project. The National Electoral Commission’s consensus resolution is a mixed bag, with positive elements like a nationally coordinated Socialists-In-Office network and more harmful and distracting elements like the “independent” slate for Congress. We are currently trapped in the Democratic Party, and the only way out of that is through an expanded base that we win over in Democratic primaries, not preemptively running self-marginalizing campaigns. 

Support: 

CR05-A03: Towards Deliberative Federal Endorsements

For a long time, Constellation was hesitant to prioritize races for federal seats. We assumed the capacity to knock the necessary amount of doors wasn’t there, and that somewhat aligned left-liberal groups could take this responsibility while we built our local bench. Trump 2.0 has proven us wrong. Only DSA has the organization and principles necessary to successfully take on the right, and it must do so on a national scale by endorsing candidates for federal office. This amendment is a step towards engaging in this effort with healthy dialogue and clear analysis regarding our federal endorsements.

CR05-A05: Invest in Cadre Candidates and Political Independence

While the unity across DSA behind Zohran Mamdani was tremendous, his lack of a national endorsement was less than optimal. This raises the question of why we should have a national endorsement. This amendment solidly answers that question: because national endorsement comes with experienced staff support and fundraising infrastructure. 

R33: Unite Labor & the Left to Run a Socialist For President and Build the Party

The Democratic party failed our class in 2024 by running two deeply unpopular and unfit candidates to meet the moment of a resurgent Trumpism.  We must act on that disappointment and be bold, creating our own alliances and agenda razor-focused on the economic and social disparities in this country. We will do this by uniting with the labor movement and running a campaign that coheres a working class political subject.

Oppose:

CR05-A01: Red Lines for DSA Endorsements (formerly R16)

Red lines without context and membership decision-making are not useful to the project of building DSA into a mass party. Our task in office includes the task to govern and change policy in favor of our class, and this is often in tension with our socialist commitments. In these circumstances, we must acknowledge this tension and organize our base further so that these tensions no longer exist. Further, stripping the ability of the NPC to support candidates in difficult circumstances limits the NPC’s ability to make political decisions and intervene in DSA's best interest. We discover red lines through active class struggle, not resolutions. 

CR05-A02: One DSA, Toward a Unified Endorsement Process (formerly R41)

We sympathize with the goal of a unified endorsement process, and believe that any DSA electoral campaign should aim to reflect the national organization. However, we do not believe that all DSA chapters have the electoral experience necessary to campaigns that positively reflect on DSA. These are campaigns that model our clear class politics and mass organizing approach, which we can see in many campaigns like those of Phara Souffrant Forest, Richie Floyd, and Mitch Green. These types of campaigns include large canvassing operations and primarily operate on the Democratic Party ballot line. As chapters often stray from this model of electoral campaigning, this resolution will not prevent conflict but exacerbate it, requiring the national organization to endorse or disavow many chapter campaigns.

R33-A02: Building a United Front Toward 2028 (formerly R37)

DSA’s electoral success over the last eight years has been premised on the use of the Democratic Party ballot line while building our own organization. This resolution’s insistence on an independent ballot line orients us away from the base we seek to represent and this successful strategy. Currently, the two most essential pillars of a successful socialist movement, the civil rights movement and the labor movement, are housed well within the Democratic establishment. The path to dislodging this relationship runs through DSA candidates contesting Democratic primaries and building DSA’s base. A rupture from the Democratic Party would isolate us from this base.

Structures for a Mass Party: 

Constellation argues that DSA must create robust bureaucratic structures in order to operate with the cohesion and discipline required of a party. Over the past few years we have built out the party-like apparatus in YDSA through strong organizing and political leadership in the National Coordinating Committee (YDSA’s version of the NPC) and robust, stable bureaucratic infrastructure like the yGDC. This orientation has led to consistent YDSA growth, vibrant local chapters, and a strong culture of leadership development.

Looking towards Convention, the Democracy Commission’s success in drafting a reform proposal to standardize DSA's structures and establish official linkages with chapters is incredibly exciting. We do, however, see efforts to gut national organizing capacity through limiting the number and costs of DSA staff while simultaneously increasing chapters’ dues shares. We also see many shifts to the structures of member decision-making and democracy in the organization. While the authors of these proposals intend to expand democracy, we see these reforms as shortcuts to building the sort of cadre intermediate layer that is essential to making decisions meaningful. 

Support: 

CB01/CR01: Democracy Commission Structural Reform Proposal

Constellation is in favor of passing the Democracy Commission “Omnibus”, the conclusions of 2 years of research, drafting and debate. As a caucus we are most passionate about proposal 11, DSA National-Chapter Affiliation Agreement. It provides much needed cohesion in the form of universal standards and expectations. Beyond logistical needs, as a condition of their charter, chapters should be expected to operate democratically, including respecting the democratic mandate of DSA convention. This proposal also provides much needed standardization for the investigation of violations, and if needed trusteeship/revocation with their charter. Constellation firmly believes these measures are necessary for DSA to operate as a mass party with discipline and respect for democratic mandate. 

R11-A01: Administrative over Political

This amendment makes R11 into a more effective plan for administrating DSA chapters, supporting the mergers of chapters, and statewide organizations where they can be effective. DSA drastically needs a middle layer between chapters and national but this should not be a decision making layer; it should look like a single field organizer with deep relationships among 5-10 chapters able to offer national advice and coordinate cross-chapter campaigns. Constellation will support R11 if this amendment passes, removing the idea of a duplicative decision-making structure.

R13: For a Robust & Centralized National Resource Library

Constellation supports R13 and we believe it will be a vital part of preserving institutional memory and preventing DSA chapters from falling into an all too common cycle of “reinventing the wheel.” Centralizing resources also develops the organization’s collective knowledge, promoting the transfer of skills and experience. 

R03: For a Politicized and Member-Driven Growth & Development in DSA

R03 represents a strong mandate for an expanded Growth and Development Commission. For Constellation, the strongest piece of this resolution is the clear focus on chapter support through training. One of the key reasons DSA has been able to absorb the 2024 member bump better than previous bumps, is the work of a handful of chapters who have built large-scale recruitment, onboarding, retainment, and general membership structures. This is, in short, listwork and organizing conversations. 

In YDSA, Constellation spearheaded the development of the YGDC which has contributed immensely to growth in membership, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The successful implementation of R03 would lead to similar success. 

R32: Towards a Multilingual DSA / Hacia un DSA Multilingüe

Building a strong, internationalist, inclusive, and accessible DSA means that we must make great strides towards building multilingualism in our organizing. Constellation’s belief that we must build a vibrant socialist culture includes a vision of building deep inroads with immigrant communities, many of which don’t speak English as their primary language. We hope this resolution helps bridge the gap between a disproportionately white DSA we see now, and a DSA that represents the diverse working class and poor of the United States.

Oppose: 

CB02: One Member One Vote

Constellation believes that 1M1V for National Leadership Elections fundamentally misunderstands the reasons for members' disinterest in (and sometimes hostility to) National. Currently, DSA lacks any cohesive cadre layer able to act upon national decisions and provide a tether from the base of the party to our leadership. This is not the result of how the National Political Committee is elected, but the general immaturity of our membership and the decentralized structures of the organization. We need to build the bureaucracy necessary to make National decisions meaningful, and then members will care about national voting.

Secondly, 1M1V misunderstands the relationship between convention and national leadership. The NPC is elected to execute the mandates of convention and steward the organization forward with the vision of convention. We need coherence between the mandate of convention and the leadership elected. The same group of people should be selecting the leadership of DSA and the organizing strategy we take. Without that, we won’t have the unity necessary to execute decisions made. 

Thirdly, DSA is not the state and is not a union. We are proud Democratic Socialists who are building a party around a shared ideological core. Those deciding who should be in the leadership of our organization should be organizers entrusted by members of their chapters through winning their votes. Members entrusted by their comrades to make decisions at convention are also entrusted to elect the leadership to execute those decisions. 

Finally, we believe this reform will encourage internal organizing practices detrimental to the organization's health. For example, “open letter statement” strategy to pressure the organization's leadership and serve as list building tools for factions and caucuses. We also fear a shift towards electing NPC members based on name recognition rather than organizing prowess. Instead, we believe that the highest democratic decision making bodies of DSA, the Convention and the NPC, should continue to operate with deliberative and synchronous voting, where those participating are all engaged with the political debate at hand.

Staff Perspectives 

Constellation believes that DSA staff play an essential role in the development of DSA into a mass party and that we need to drastically expand the number of staff we employ in order to successfully function as a national organization. Unelected, full-time staff are essential for power—they do the gruntwork and build the long-term organizing knowledge and skills of volunteer leadership and membership. They should be a primary expense of the national organization.

R44: Resolution on Staff, Contractors, and Budgeting

The 40% limit budgeted to full-time national staff is far too low. Staff should be a long-term priority in our budget and our organization. They play the essential role interfacing with chapters, developing leaders, and organizing national campaigns. Without more staff, we will not have a functional national organization. 

R43: Locals-First DSA: Increase Dues Income for Locals and Stabilize National Budget

This resolution guts National DSA funding by sending money to chapters. This will weaken the national organization and chapters alike. In survey after survey, chapters say they need more staff support and training, not more money. In many chapters, bank accounts are full as chapters lack the experience and support in running meaningful campaigns that the money could be spent on. If chapters need more money, they should develop fundraising infrastructure to raise it!

R43-A01: Towards a Well-Financed Federation

Statewide and regional organizations in DSA (outside of DSA state chapters) have consistently proven to be poorly organized and duplicative structures without member buy-in. Offering dues to these organizations promises to be a waste of money that could be spent on staff and other initiatives that provide direct support to national campaigns and local chapters. Constellation would, however, support statewide grants for specific campaigns and initiatives that include concrete goals and established chapter buy-in.

NPC Leadership: 

Constellation believes wholeheartedly in the importance of hierarchy and decisive socialist leadership. The political moment and the balance of forces are constantly shifting, and sometimes we must respond to these shifts. This is the duty of our leadership: they must be able to interpret the political moment, evaluate the balance of forces, and move our organization into collective action in response. 

With a handful of notable exceptions, we believe that the NPC over the past eight years has been unable to accomplish this task. This is certainly in part due to DSA’s structural weakness—our highly federalized system of chapters and national committees lacks both a strong bureaucracy and a cadre layer (the “intermediate element” Gramsci referred to) that can link our base to our leadership. 

The NPC’s inaction has also been caused in part by sectarianism, a tendency to focus on areas of disagreement in the organization rather than focusing on the vast areas of agreement, and a seemingly complete disinterest in making compromises. We must elect leaders that reject this sectarianism and put the project of Democratic Socialism above caucus interests. They must remain level-headed, avoid manufacturing crises and acting rashly, and also focus intensely on identifying opportunities for DSA to make an impact. Finally, these leaders must be capable of building the relationships and engaging in the gruntwork necessary to execute the decisions they make and to organize with people they disagree with. 

Co-Chair: Alex Pelliteri #1

We believe that Alex Pellitteri fulfills the qualities we named above as a leader. In the “budget crisis,” of 2024, caucuses proposed maximalist solutions attempting to gut staff capacity on the one hand or act as if we could fundraise our way out of it unrealistically on the other. Neither of these proposals were realistic attempts to unite DSA behind a resolution to this situation. To our surprise, Bread and Roses stepped up in this situation and made a plan that a majority of the organization could get behind. In our view this wasn’t the ideal solution: there were too many cuts to staff that weren’t completely necessary. Still, in complete gridlock Bread and Roses stepped up and acted in the interest of preserving and strengthening DSA. 

We’ve also seen Alex’s individual ability to act rationally in moments of tension. During the NPC in-person retreat in New York City, debate over a GDC restructuring proposal became heated and personal. In this environment, Alex emerged as a natural, steady leader to chair during the debate. This exemplifies a pattern of strong and level-headed leadership by Alex across this NPC term.

Finally, we’ve organized with Alex in YDSA and beyond and seen his immense organizing skillset. Alex has led chapters, mentored leaders, and organized our class both inside and outside of DSA. He is a leader who can organize to execute the NPC’s decisions.

Our endorsement of Alex Pellitteri does not flatten the many differences between Constellation and Bread and Roses. For comrades familiar with the political dynamics of YDSA, a Constellation endorsement of a Bread and Roses candidate might seem fantastical. Much of the past three years of YDSA’s political debates can be summed up in the differences in approach by Constellation and Bread and Roses, on everything from the 2023 YDSA Consensus Resolution and budget to the role of national committees, integration with DSA, and internationalism. In YDSA, where the breadth of political questions are quite different from those in DSA, our differences with Bread and Roses are far more pronounced. 

This being said, we still do have our critiques of, and political differences with, Bread and Roses (and thus Alex P.) at the DSA level. Constellation continues to disagree with Bread and Roses’ stances on internationalism, and the way that caucus members engage in international work outside of the DSA International Committee. Additionally, we are critical of Bread and Roses-led projects like the Rank and File Project which we believe third-party's DSA and sidelines member democracy. Additionally, we continue to stand by strategic decisions made to preserve NCC stipends within the YDSA budget in the 2025 budget process, despite sharp criticism from Bread and Roses over these compromises. Although we respect the immense amount of labor work by these comrades, we disagree on strategy, including the Rank and File Strategy’s focus on “strategic sectors”. With our endorsement of Alex P., these differences with Bread and Roses have not, and will not, disappear. We make this endorsement cognizant of those differences, and we do not believe it represents a deviation from our political approach. 

Alex Pellitteri would be a terrific co-chair for all of DSA and we encourage you all to rank him #1!

At-large: 

Viewing the pool of candidates for the NPC at-large positions, Constellation recognized that our preferences were largely defined by the candidate's organizing experience, their willingness to work with people they disagree with, and their ability to stay calm and focused during crises. We do not feel it would be helpful to make recommendations on this basis and thus will not make public recommendations for the race this year.