Democratic Socialists of America

Democratic Socialists of America

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a democratic socialist organization in the United States and the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, a federation of social democratic, democratic socialist, social progressive and labor parties and organizations.

DSA was formed in 1982 by a merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). DSOC was the largest group to emerge from the splintering of the Socialist Party of America in 1973; two other Socialist Party factions went on to form Social Democrats USA and the Socialist Party USA. NAM was a coalition of writers and intellectuals with roots in both the New Left movements of the 1960s and the more traditional parties of the Old Left. Initially the DSA consisted of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members. Upon the DSA's founding, Michael Harrington and socialist-feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected as the organization's co-chairs.