March, 22 2019, 12:00am EDT
Democratic Socialists of America Endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for President
DSA's National Political Committee (NPC) voted to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president at a special meeting on Thursday.
WASHINGTON
DSA's National Political Committee (NPC) voted to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for president at a special meeting on Thursday.
The endorsement vote is a culmination of a process that has unfolded in the 56,000-member organization over the last three months, from debates at the local chapter and regional level, to an advisory poll in which over 75% of eligible members voted to support an endorsement. The NPC is the DSA's highest elected body between national conventions, and with its vote to endorse Thursday night, the DSA is officially moving forward with an independent campaign to elect Bernie Sanders and advance a class-struggle agenda.
Sanders is the only democratic socialist running for president in 2020, and the only socialist in American history with a serious chance of winning the presidency. Sanders's platform -- Green New Deal, Medicare for All, College for All, ending cash bail, strengthening unions, and a living wage -- would transform American society by ending the worst forms of poverty and inequality while empowering workers to fight for even more.
"Bernie Sanders is part of an incredible revival of resistance to billionaires and their corporations," said DSA National Director Maria Svart. "Democratic socialists are proud to join with Sanders, his millions of supporters, teachers and other workers on strike across the US, and students protesting climate change across the world in fighting for a society that puts people over profit. But even as we endorse Sanders, we know that no single president can do this alone: only by building a massive, multi-racial working-class movement for the long term can we fight back against the capitalist class. We just have to remember: we have the power if we stand together."
As Sanders himself said at a rally in Iowa this month, the billionaires and corporations who control US politics "are so powerful, they have so much money, that no one person, not the best president in the world, can take them on alone. The only way we transform America is when millions of people together stand up and fight back."
Since Sanders and his program are popular among a diverse base of millions of workers, his run for president offers unprecedented opportunities to build that movement. This week at the UCLA picket lines in California, Sanders made clear that his campaign will be helping to build the working-class movement in this country: "What we are seeing all across this country is a war being waged against the working people of America. And the time is long overdue for the American people to stand up, to say enough is enough."
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has over 55,000 members and 200 local groups (as of November 2018) building working class power while establishing an openly democratic socialist presence in American communities and politics.
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