Is the DSA on a collision course with AOC?

The Democratic Socialists of America have not censured Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … yet.

The nation’s largest socialist organization, which counts over 70,000 members (and of which I’m a former member), held its biennial national convention in Chicago last weekend.

The three-day convention ended before the 1,200 delegates had a chance to debate a censure resolution accusing Ocasio-Cortez of “tacit support for Zionism.” But the resolution is not dead, and it points to internal tensions in an organization at the height of its political power as it grapples with its most popular representative. 

Ocasio-Cortez is certainly more critical of Israel than most of her fellow House Democrats, but the DSA does not grade on a curve. According to the resolution, Ocasio-Cortez has been too supportive of the Democratic establishment, and has betrayed the Palestinian cause by, among other things, signing onto a statement affirming Israel’s right to self-defense and endorsing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Ocasio-Cortez was also criticized by the National Political Committee, the DSA’s leadership body, after she said that she only opposed sending offensive weapons to Israel but supported U.S. funding for Israel’s missile defense system.

As City & State previously reported, the DSA’s national leadership attempted to impose conditions when endorsing Ocasio-Cortez for reelection last year, requiring her to publicly endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign and vote against all U.S. aid to Israel. In response, the endorsement request was withdrawn, and Ocasio-Cortez is now no longer endorsed by the national DSA organization, though she remains endorsed by the New York City chapter.

The Democratic Socialists of America has not been a pro-Israel organization for a long time. 

When the organization was founded in 1982, it supported American aid to Israel. But over the past decade, the DSA has taken increasingly strong anti-Zionist stances and has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

The DSA recently created a series of standards for anti-Israel politics that all members must follow. Violations include: having “consistently and publicly opposed BDS and the Palestinian cause,” being “currently affiliated with the Israeli government or any Zionist lobby group” or having “knowingly provided material aid to Israel” by voting in favor of legislation to do so. 

“What this resolution … aims to do is for us to be able to indicate very clearly with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s office that this is something that we feel very strongly is unacceptable, and that for us to continue to have any sort of productive working relationship with her, we would like to see her take much stronger positions,” said Ethan Eblaghie, a co-author of the resolution. He added that he doesn’t think Ocasio-Cortez is at risk of being expelled. A representative for Ocasio-Cortez didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Like Eblaghie, other DSA members are critical of Ocasio-Cortez’s position on Israel and would like to see her adopt one closer to that of New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a DSA member who supports the BDS movement and has called for an end to all military aid to Israel.

But even those upset with Ocasio-Cortez don’t necessarily want to kick her out of the socialist organization. Sidney Carlson White, a member of the internal “Marxist Unity Group” caucus who serves on the National Political Committee, said that his caucus is generally opposed to expelling members over political disagreements.

“This is something that Lenin discovered a while back,” he said. “The idea of trying to dissolve your parliamentary faction by expulsion would do very little to heighten the contradictions around the issues that you disagreed upon.”

But there is a risk that pressuring Ocasio-Cortez to take a stronger anti-Israel position could lead her to cut ties with the DSA. Carlson White said that it would be regrettable if Ocasio-Cortez chose to leave the DSA, but that might be inevitable if she rejects the organization’s position on Israel.

“It would be sad to see her go,” he said. “But as DSA moves towards a more coherent and programmatic and unified position on these issues, where our electeds are going to be tribunes of the people and talking about what we stand for, people leaving is probably going to be a necessary consequence of that.”

“I think many people in New York City DSA see that as completely unconscionable. But in Marxist Unity Group, we see that as the development of a more coherent and mature politics,” he added.

One of the people who sees it as unconscionable is Aaron Fernando, a member of the New York City chapter who belongs to the Socialist Majority Caucus.

“She is one of the most popular politicians in the country and definitely one of the most popular politicians on the left, leading this fight against oligarchy and fascism,” Fernando said. “Even if we don’t agree with her on everything, she still works with us and we agree on 99.9% of issues, so I think it would be disastrous for us if she left DSA.”

In the coming months, the National Political Committee will consider the resolution to formally censure Ocasio-Cortez. It’s unclear whether it will pass, particularly since the body has previously criticized her publicly without formally censuring her.

“They've already de facto censured her several times now,” Fernando said, “and I think they like doing it, and I hope they don’t keep doing it, but we can't seem to stop talking about AOC.”