2026-08-03T09:00:25.944Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/politics/democratic-socialists-of-america-convention-dsa-platform-democrats-midterms
芝加哥——
在麦考密克展览中心铺着豪华地毯、悬挂着工业艺术品的场馆内，美国民主社会主义者组织（DSA）利用一个阴雨周末筹划下一步行动，目标是接管民主党并推翻资本主义制度。
“DSA周边商品”摊位上售卖着印有玫瑰图案和《绿色新政》标语的T恤（售价30美元）和运动衫（售价45美元）。当地一家社会主义书店的摊位则陈列着巴勒斯坦诗集、《黑豹党历史》、《共产党宣言》，以及一本名为《监狱必须消亡》的儿童读物。
湖畔会展中心的与会者互相以“同志”相称。一份印有手绘红色拳头图案的小册子阐述了该组织的纲领，其中包括“一个没有资本主义的未来”，在这个未来里“食品、教育、能源、医药和交通不再是营利性企业，而是公共商品和公用事业”。它鼓励支持者畅想一个不必担心支付房租或贷款的世界，可以享受“社会主义休息日”。该纲领还提议推行32小时工作制、全民医保、奴隶制赔偿，以及“逐步彻底废除警察和监狱系统”。
这份纲领还提到，DSA希望“用由国会选举产生并从属于国会的行政司法机构取代总统和最高法院”，并希望国会成为扩大后的众议院，废除参议院——这一立场在最近一段走红的福克斯新闻采访中得到了DSA联合主席梅根·罗默的坚持。
DSA采取了战略性手段来扩大其在民主党内部的影响力，今年已经成功击败两名现任众议院议员，本月还可能拿下更多席位。正如该组织在芝加哥举行的峰会所明确的那样，其成员认为这只是对抗共和党和民主党两方斗争的开始。
美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）最近的一项民调显示，三分之一的民主党人或倾向民主党的独立选民自认为是民主社会主义者。自豪的DSA成员佐赫兰·曼达尼是美国最大城市的市长；弗朗西斯卡·洪在本月威斯康星州州长初选中表现强劲；众议员亚历山德里亚·奥卡西奥-科特兹被广泛讨论为2028年总统竞选的潜在候选人。
这让许多非DSA的民主党人感到不安，既因为他们正被赶下台，也因为他们被告知必须接受极左路线的转变。共和党人急于将处于势均力敌竞选的民主党人与DSA纲领中最极端的部分绑定。
“我们不会挨家挨户敲门说，‘嘿，你今年想废除参议院吗？’”另一位DSA联合主席阿什克·西迪基告诉CNN，他今年38岁，是该组织领导层中年龄最大的成员。“我不认为我们在这里会说‘这些是我们承诺要兑现的承诺’。我们真正要做的是帮助人们设想一个不同且更美好的社会，以及实现这一目标需要付出什么。”
DSA的领导委员会禁止记者与会场内除指定发言者之外的大多数与会者交谈——据发言人普里西拉·耶韦里诺透露，此举是出于担忧，因为许多与会者并未充分了解该组织的历史和选举目标。符合良好会员资格的内容创作者则获得了自由采访权。参会名牌仅印有名字和姓氏的首字母。志愿者站在组织者接受培训的房间外。
西迪基宣布，该组织目前拥有12万名全国会员，成为美国历史上规模最大的社会主义组织，超过了尤金·德布斯时代社会主义政党11.8万名会员的峰值。西迪基补充说，在7月4日独立日当天突破这一里程碑让他感到矛盾，担心将组织的成功与独立日自豪感混为一谈会显得过于民族主义。
CNN的民调发现，自认为是民主社会主义者的民主党人更倾向于对民主党及其国会领导人持正面看法，同时也希望民主党在政策问题上向左倾斜。但DSA的核心理念不仅是坚信自己的主张正确，还认为全球数亿人早已认同他们的观点——这场运动未能获胜仅仅是因为腐败、金钱和强势利益集团，加上那些默许的人从中作梗，才压制了运动的发展。
“共和党人参与其中，民主党正昏昏欲睡、失职失责，而两方都由同一伙犯罪的亿万富翁和战争牟利者资助，”纲领中如此写道。
尽管怀揣这些宏大梦想并取得了多场引人注目的初选胜利，此次峰会仅有约600人到场，附属的青年DSA青年和学生集会另有300人参加。
“但每个人都在谈论我们，”宾夕法尼亚州议员克里斯·拉布在抵达时笑着告诉CNN，他在5月赢得了美国众议院席位的初选。11月的大选胜算在握，拉布正在为全国各地的其他民主社会主义者助选。
“我们击败了建制派候选人，”他说。“我们以令人印象深刻、具有战略性、目的性且包容性强的方式，与那些未必自认为是民主社会主义者的民众建立了联系，这一点受到了广泛关注。因为如果民主党知道如何做到这一点，情况会大不一样。”
30岁以上的与会者十分罕见，40岁以上的更是寥寥无几，黑人与会者更是屈指可数。
身为黑人的拉布表示，他对DSA缺乏多样性感到担忧，但相信随着更多外联工作，这种情况会改变，因为“这场运动在美国的力量和遗产本身就源自黑人进步运动、黑人激进传统，任何组织都应该理解其重要性”。
西迪基告诉CNN，他也对该组织的种族构成感到担忧，他将此部分归因于美国的结构性种族主义，部分归因于该组织1982年成立，直到最近才开始成为主流力量。
大多数时候，DSA成员都会泛泛地谈论建设社区和工人阶级。这不仅是刻意为之，还被反复强调：在一场关于媒体沟通的研讨会上，发言人耶韦里诺鼓励活动家学会避开棘手问题，转而给出他们想要传达的答案。
“这可能就是你们对许多政客感到失望的原因，但这招管用！”她告诉他们。（她还敦促成员在新闻稿中做到简洁准确，以增加吸引力：“我们纪律严明、斗志昂扬——在语法和事实准确性方面亦是如此。”）
该组织对全国各地那些担心DSA将民主党拉得过于左倾、使赢得选举更加困难的民主党人既无兴趣也无耐心。
“许多评论员、许多媒体喜欢谈论独立选民、摇摆选民，仿佛他们处于中间立场，”作为经批准的发言人之一的佐治亚州议员加布里埃尔·桑切斯说。“‘独立选民’这个词的全部含义就是他们不认同其他民主党人或共和党人。”
尽管有大量印刷版的DSA纲领，成员们在纲领的具体践行程度上仍存在分歧。
“我会拼尽全力让它成为现实，”俄勒冈州波特兰市议员米奇·格林说。“我的意思是，我认为这一切都不容易。这些都是重大的转变。我认为像我们这样的组织，胸怀大志至关重要。”
今年早些时候赢得纽约州议会席位特别选举的戴安娜·莫雷诺（曼达尼为就任市长职位而辞去了该席位）表示，非DSA的民主党人应该关注该组织是如何动员支持力量的。她认为，民主党人“脱离群众，在初选中接连失利，而他们的选民基础对其无力或不愿对抗极右翼深感愤怒”。
在莫雷诺看来，民主社会主义“意味着医疗保健、住房、儿童保育。这是政府必须切实为公民保障的责任，因为这些是我们生存所需的东西”。
除了普遍呼吁结束战争，讨论最详细的外交政策议题是反对以色列。
“我们组织的立场已经明确了反犹太复国主义立场，即肯定‘从河到海’，在当前的以色列和巴勒斯坦地区，人民应该享有平等权利，”西迪基说。“我们尚未就一国方案还是两国方案达成立场。”
切断所有武器供应是一项基本要求。“犹太复国主义者”与“亿万富翁阶层”被交替使用。现场随处可见各色各样的凯菲耶赫围巾——有人系成了各种样式的结，有人将其当作露背装上衣，有人做成了纱笼裙，还有人将其改造成手提袋，一些人用它来抵御麦考密克展览中心中央空调的寒气，还有人搭配热裤穿着。
“古巴裔美国人更难接受社会主义宣传，因为他们有自己版本的犹太复国主义，”一名与会者被听到对另一名与会者说。
在其中一场小组讨论中，莫雷斯夸她在纽约州议会采纳了曼达尼提出的一项法案，该法案将剥夺那些被认定损害巴勒斯坦人利益的组织的免税地位。
另有一次，当一名纽约州伊萨卡市议员回忆起2023年10月7日哈马斯袭击以色列后，因参加巴勒斯坦声援集会而受到警告时，一名观众大声笑了多次。
对于不将加沙战争称为种族灭绝的候选人，莫雷斯告诉CNN：“我不知道我是否会信任他们在其他问题上的判断，因为在我看来，巴勒斯坦发生的、多年来一直在发生的事情显然就是种族灭绝。”
以色列否认其在10月7日袭击后对加沙发动的战争构成种族灭绝。
许多人心中都清楚DSA的下一步计划。这就是为什么该组织在用于小组讨论的房间椅子上放了一场活动的邀请函：“为AOC而战的DSA”。
奥卡西奥-科特兹是DSA在2018年赢得初选后的首个重大胜利——她的政治教父伯尼·桑德斯是民主社会主义者，但并非DSA成员。2024年，DSA全国政治委员会威胁要撤回对奥卡西奥-科特兹的支持，原因是指控她没有为反对以色列采取足够行动。
如今，DSA成员将她视为下一个重大希望。
“这个世界上唯一能够真正对抗法西斯主义、真正对抗气候灾难的职位，就是美国总统职位，所以请举手吧，如果你准备好在未来两年投入这场战斗，直奔最高职位而去，”纽约市DSA分会指导委员会成员杰里米·科恩在酒吧里向人群呼吁道。
科恩告诉听众，他们需要一位全力支持“全民医保”、25美元最低工资、免费大学教育、《绿色新政》、终止向以色列出售武器并称以色列在加沙的战争为种族灭绝的候选人。
正如CNN此前报道的那样，奥卡西奥-科特兹正在考虑参选，但她坚称只有在认为自己能够获胜的情况下才会参选，而非发起抗议性竞选。当晚和周末期间，多名成员表示不确定是否有第二选择的候选人，但无论谁参选，都必须至少认同他们纲领的大部分内容，他们预计在明年举行的全员代表大会上，纲领会进一步扩充。
当CNN就是否想对希望她参选的DSA成员发表讲话一事向奥卡西奥-科特兹的发言人置评时，该发言人周末并未回应。
“不仅仅是‘是否支持AOC’、‘我们如何支持她’的问题，我们该如何利用这一点来继续壮大我们自己的组织？”西迪基说。
另一名DSA组织者在他发言完毕后站了起来。“没有人能空着手离开这里，大家都要参与到实实在在的行动中来，”她边说边拍手。
“在座有人知道如何赢得总统竞选吗？”她说。
没有人举手。人群中准备就绪的组织者开始举起手机上的二维码供其他人扫描。他们表示，这场竞选将从这里开始。
雨又下了起来。他们为即将到来的行动欢呼，然后冲进了室内。
‘The Democratic Party is asleep at the wheel’: Democratic socialists are strategizing for their biggest moment yet
2026-08-03T09:00:25.944Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/politics/democratic-socialists-of-america-convention-dsa-platform-democrats-midterms
Chicago—
Amid the corporate carpeting and industrial artwork of McCormick Place, the Democratic Socialists of America spent a rainy weekend preparing their next steps for taking over the Democratic Party and taking down capitalism.
The “DSA Merch” table had $30 T-shirts and $45 sweatshirts with roses and Green New Deal slogans. A table from a local socialist bookstore stocked Palestinian poetry collections, Black Panthers histories, “The Communist Manifesto” and a children’s book called “Prisons Must Fall.”
The attendees at the lakefront convention center called one another comrades. A pamphlet with a sketched red fist laid out the group’s program, including “a future without capitalism,” where “food, education, energy, medicine and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities.” It encouraged supporters to dream of a world where they don’t have to worry about paying rent or loans and can embrace “a socialist day off.” It pitched a 32-hour workweek, universal healthcare, reparations for slavery, and “steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system.”
It said the DSA wants to “replace the president and Supreme Court with an executive judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress,” and it wants that Congress to be an expanded House of Representatives with an abolished Senate — a position DSA co-chair Megan Romer stuck by in a recent Fox News interview that went viral.
The DSA has taken a strategic approach to growing its power within the Democratic Party, picking off two House incumbents already this year and potentially more this month. As the group’s summit in Chicago made clear, its members see this as only the beginning of a fight against both Republicans and Democrats alike.
A recent CNN poll found that one-third of Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents identify as democratic socialists. Zohran Mamdani, a proud DSA member, is mayor of the nation’s largest city; Francesca Hong is running strong in this month’s primary for governor in Wisconsin; and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is widely discussed as a potential candidate for president in 2028.
That’s left many non-DSA Democrats uncomfortable, both for how they’re being chased from power and for being told they need to accept a hard-left swing. Republicans are eager to tie Democrats in close races to the most maximalist parts of the DSA agenda.
“We’re not knocking doors and saying, ‘Hey, would you like to abolish the Senate this year?’” said Ashik Siddique, another DSA co-chair who noted to CNN that at 38, he’s the oldest member of the group’s leadership. “I don’t think we say anywhere here, ‘These are the promises we’re making that we’re going to do.’ It really is about helping people envision what a different and better society would be, and then what it would take to get there.”
The DSA’s leadership committees barred reporters from speaking to most attendees inside the convention hall beyond a selected group of speakers — out of concern, according to spokesperson Priscilla Yeverino, that many attendees are not fully briefed on the group’s history and electoral goals. Content creators who were members of the DSA in good standing were given free rein. Name badges were printed with just first names and initials of last names. Volunteers stood outside rooms where organizers were being trained.
Siddique announced that the group is now the largest socialist organization in American history, at 120,000 members nationwide, past the Eugene Debs-era high of 118,000 Socialist Party members. Siddique added he was conflicted about the symbolism of happening to pass that mark on July Fourth, worried about seeming too nationalistic by mixing their success with Independence Day pride.
CNN’s poll found that Democrats identifying as democratic socialists are more likely to hold favorable views of the Democratic Party and its congressional leaders, while also wanting the party to move left on policy issues. But at the core of DSA thinking is the conviction not only that its members are right, but that hundreds of millions of people around the world already agree with them — and that the movement has failed to prevail only because corruption, money and powerful interests, abetted by those who acquiesce, have kept it down.
“The Republicans are in on it, the Democratic Party is asleep at the wheel, and both are funded by the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers,” the program declared.
For all these big dreams and high-profile primary wins, only about 600 people came to the summit, with another 300 for the attached Young DSA gathering for youth and students.
“And yet everybody’s talking about us,” Chris Rabb, a Pennsylvania state legislator who won a primary for a US House seat in May, told CNN with a smile as he arrived. With a safe general election in November, Rabb is campaigning for other democratic socialists around the country.
“We’re beating establishment candidates,” he said. “We are connecting with folks who don’t necessarily identify as democratic socialists in ways that are very impressive and strategic and intentional and inclusive that a lot of people are paying attention to. Because if the Democratic Party knew how to do this, things would be a lot different.”
Rare was the attendee over 30. Even rarer was the attendee over 40. Rarer still was the attendee spotted who was Black.
Rabb, who is Black, said he is concerned about the lack of diversity in the DSA but believes that will change with more outreach, since “the very power and legacy of this movement in this country is born out of Black progressive movements, Black radical traditions of any organization will have an understanding for its importance.”
Siddique told CNN that he shares concerns about the racial makeup of the group, which he attributed in part to structural racism in America and in part to an organization that was founded in 1982 but has only recently started to grow as a mainstream force.
Most of the time, DSA members speak in generalities about building community and the working class. This is not just deliberate but stressed: Leading a session on speaking to the media, Yeverino, the spokesperson, encouraged activists to learn to pivot from uncomfortable questions and give the answers they wanted.
“This is probably why you’re frustrated with a lot of politicians. But it works!” she told them. (She also urged members to be concise and exact in their press releases for added appeal: “We are disciplined and militant — also when it comes to grammar and getting facts right.”)
The group has neither interest nor patience for Democrats across the country who worry the DSA is pulling the party so far left that it makes winning elections harder.
“A lot of the pundits, a lot of the media, likes to say about these independent voters, swing voters, as if they’re in the middle,” said Gabriel Sanchez, a Georgia state representative who was one of the group’s approved speakers. “‘Independent voters,’ all that means is that they don’t identify with other Democrats or Republicans.”
Even with the many printed copies of the DSA program, members were divided over how much to stand by it.
“I’m going to fight like hell to make it happen,” said Mitch Green, a Portland, Oregon, city councilman. “I mean, I think none of this is easy. And these are big swings. And I think it’s important for an organization like ours to aspire to do big things.”
Diana Moreno, who earlier this year won the special election for the New York State Assembly seat Mamdani vacated to move to Gracie Mansion, said non-DSA Democrats should pay attention to how the group is whipping up support. Democrats, she argued, are “out of touch and losing primaries, and with a base that’s deeply angry at their inability or unwillingness to fight against the far right.”
To Moreno, democratic socialism “means healthcare, that means housing, that means childcare. That is the responsibility of government to actually guarantee for its citizens because it’s something that we need to live.”
Beyond a general push to end wars, the foreign policy issue discussed in most detail was opposition to Israel.
“The weight of our organization now has affirmed an anti-Zionist position, that affirms that ‘from the river to the sea’ in present-day Israel and Palestine, people should have equal rights,” Siddique said. “We haven’t affirmed a position on one state vs. two states.”
Cutting off all arms was a baseline demand. “Zionists” was used interchangeably with “billionaire class.” There were keffiyehs in many colors and sizes — a variety of scarf knots, one turned into a halter, one turned into a sarong, another repurposed into a tote bag, some used as shawls to protect against McCormick Place’s central air-conditioning, some paired with cut-off shorts.
“Cuban Americans are harder to appeal to with socialism because they have their own version of Zionism,” one attendee was overheard telling another.
At one of the panels, Morales touted working on a bill she picked up from Mamdani in the New York State Assembly that would strip tax-exempt status from groups that do work deemed detrimental to Palestinians.
At another point, when an Ithaca, New York, council member was recalling being warned about participating in Palestinian solidarity rallies the day after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, an audience member loudly giggled multiple times.
Regarding a candidate who doesn’t describe the war in Gaza as genocide, Morales told CNN, “I don’t know if I would trust their judgment in other issues, because I think to me it’s blatant and clear that what’s happening in Palestine and has been happening for now years is considered a genocide.”
Israel denies that its war in Gaza following the October 7 attack constitutes a genocide.
What’s next for the DSA is obvious in the minds of many. That’s why the group placed invitations for an event at a funky bar on the chairs of the rooms being used for panels: “DSA for AOC.”
Ocasio-Cortez was DSA’s first big victory when she won her primary in 2018 — Bernie Sanders, her political godfather, is a democratic socialist but not a DSA member. In 2024, DSA’s national political committee threatened to pull its endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez because it accused her of not doing enough to oppose Israel.
Now, DSA members are looking for her to be their next big hope.
“The only position, the only position in the fking world that can actually fight fascism, that can actually fight the climate catastrophe, is the presidency of the United States, and so raise your hand if you are ready to take on that fight these next two years, to go to the fking top,” said Jeremy Cohan, a member of the New York City DSA chapter’s steering committee, exhorting the crowd at the bar.
Cohan told those listening they need a candidate who was all in for “Medicare for All,” a $25 minimum wage, free college, a Green New Deal, ending arms sales to Israel and calling Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide.
As CNN has previously reported, Ocasio-Cortez is looking at running, but is adamant she will do so only if she thinks she can win rather than to stage a protest candidacy. Multiple members that night and over the weekend said they’re not sure anyone could be a second choice, but whoever it is would have to sign on to at least most of their program, which they expect to expand by the time they meet for a full convention next year.
A spokeswoman for Ocasio-Cortez did not respond over the weekend when asked by CNN whether she would have anything to say to DSA members who want her to run.
“Beyond just the question of yes or no, do we endorse AOC, how do we do it, how do we use it to keep building our own organization?” Siddique said.
Another DSA organizer stood up when he finished. “Nobody’s getting out of here without some good ol’ fashioned calls to action,” she said, clapping her hands between words.
“Anybody here know how to win a presidential campaign?” she said.
No one raised a hand. Prepared organizers in the crowd started holding up QR codes on their phones for others to scan. This, they said, was how it’s going to start.
Rain started falling. They cheered for the end and rushed inside.