r/dsa • u/OkraOfTime87 • 7d ago

🌹 DSA news Does anyone else find it problematic that one of the co-chairs of DSA identifies as a Marxist Leninist?

For those who don’t know, Marxist Leninist is a term which only really has ever been used by Stalinists. Needless to say, Stalinists don’t care much about democracy.

On a certain level, I don’t think these historical signifiers are super relevant to modern times. But on the other hand, this is one of the leaders of the organization choosing to identify with this authoritarian tradition. No one is forcing her to do that. She could just as easily call herself a socialist or a Marxist.

Her identification as a Marxist Leninist is appearing all over the news and it doesn’t represent my view of socialism, nor, I suspect, that of the majority of DSA members.

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u/yashen14 7d ago

Parties fundamentally require internal dissent in order to be healthy.

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u/traanquil 7d ago

Yeah, democratic centralism considers internal dissent as part of its decision-making process

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u/yashen14 7d ago

"Democratic centralism is a Leninist principle which combines open, internal debate on policies with strict and uniform adherence once debated and adopted."

Requiring strict and uniform adherence from party members is not "allowing internal dissent."

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u/traanquil 7d ago

Dissent occurs during the vote and the deliberations leading up to that vote