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A User's Guide to DSA: 5 Debates That Define the Democratic Socialists
edited by Stephan Kimmerle, Philip Locker, Brandon Madsen; cover art by Val Ross; published by Labor Power Publications; contributions by Megan Romer, Laura Wadlin, Bryan Watson, Paul Le Blanc, Rashad X, Jesse Hagopian, Todd Chretien, Spencer Mann, Sarah Milner, David Duhalde, Neal Meyer, Eric Blanc, Sam Lewis, David Vilbert, Ty Moore, Sarah Hurd, Jane Slaughter, Joe Burns, Parker McQueeney, Dan La Botz, Sam Heft-Luthy, Paul Murphy, Ramy Khalil, Maria Franzblau, Anxel Testas, Stathis Kouvelakis, Valerio Arcary.
A decade after the Democratic Socialists of America exploded onto the stage of US politics, the organization is full of vibrant campaigns, discussion, and experimentation. How can democratic socialists build a working-class political alternative powerful enough to defeat Trump’s authoritarian agenda? How should we relate to the pro-capitalist Democratic Party? What strategy can revive the labor movement? What is our vision of democratic socialism and how do we get there?
A User's Guide to DSA tackles these questions head-on, presenting a range of conflicting perspectives from the different tendencies and caucuses on the front lines of building DSA – not as a social media flame war, but as a serious dialogue aimed at sharpening our strategy to build working-class power.
For new members and veteran militants alike, this book is an invaluable tool for navigating the complex terrain of DSA – and an open invitation to the vital debates on how we can lay the foundations to win a socialist future.
A decade after the Democratic Socialists of America exploded onto the stage of US politics, the organization is full of vibrant campaigns, discussion, and experimentation. How can democratic socialists build a working-class political alternative powerful enough to defeat Trump’s authoritarian agenda? How should we relate to the pro-capitalist Democratic Party? What strategy can revive the labor movement? What is our vision of democratic socialism and how do we get there?
A User's Guide to DSA tackles these questions head-on, presenting a range of conflicting perspectives from the different tendencies and caucuses on the front lines of building DSA – not as a social media flame war, but as a serious dialogue aimed at sharpening our strategy to build working-class power.
For new members and veteran militants alike, this book is an invaluable tool for navigating the complex terrain of DSA – and an open invitation to the vital debates on how we can lay the foundations to win a socialist future.
746 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2025
11 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 11, 2026
Preemptively writing this review before i've actually finished the book (a good number of the essays i've already read before the publication of the print book online in various scattered magazines, caucus websites, etc) because I want to pose a question: When, or if, you try to imagine an average active member of DSA, what comes to mind?
I'd not really blame anyone for imagining an AOC door-knocking, Bernie Sanders praise-mongering, bleeding heart left-progressive ... if the year was 2016. But since Bernie's first campaign nearly a decade ago (once described in Jacobin as a "war across six Aprils,"), DSA has radically transformed into the largest left formation in the United States. It has a vibrant (if imperfect) democratic culture, dozens of competing political poles, deep strategic and ideologic debates, and a big tent that holds despite the pressures of both the sectarian left and liquidationist right. And if you want to actually understand DSA as this left formation, beyond the stereotype of mere disaffected liberals, this is really the place to start. An amazing anthology that covers nearly all the bases of it's internal politics, comprised of dozens of essays from some of DSA's top thinkers, organizers, and member-leaders.
Highly recommend if you want a deeply nuanced view of DSA's internal political poles and various factions. As DSA marches into the Zohran years, anyone on the left who doesn't seriously confront it's internal nature will be left to missing a key plank of analysis. For what it's worth? While i'm unsure if DSA is "here to stay," it's certainly here right now. And there's little use hiding from it.
I'd not really blame anyone for imagining an AOC door-knocking, Bernie Sanders praise-mongering, bleeding heart left-progressive ... if the year was 2016. But since Bernie's first campaign nearly a decade ago (once described in Jacobin as a "war across six Aprils,"), DSA has radically transformed into the largest left formation in the United States. It has a vibrant (if imperfect) democratic culture, dozens of competing political poles, deep strategic and ideologic debates, and a big tent that holds despite the pressures of both the sectarian left and liquidationist right. And if you want to actually understand DSA as this left formation, beyond the stereotype of mere disaffected liberals, this is really the place to start. An amazing anthology that covers nearly all the bases of it's internal politics, comprised of dozens of essays from some of DSA's top thinkers, organizers, and member-leaders.
Highly recommend if you want a deeply nuanced view of DSA's internal political poles and various factions. As DSA marches into the Zohran years, anyone on the left who doesn't seriously confront it's internal nature will be left to missing a key plank of analysis. For what it's worth? While i'm unsure if DSA is "here to stay," it's certainly here right now. And there's little use hiding from it.
September 22, 2025
A collection of interviews and essays. Immensely useful for anyone curious about the internal factions and debates within the American socialist movement.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews