Financial Crisis Threatens AOC-Backed Socialists

The Democratic Socialists of America, a self-proclaimed Marxist organization affiliated with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is having to make major cuts in staff and expenditures to remain solvent despite what their leaders say should be “a really favorable time for DSA.”

“We’re living in a moment when revived labor struggles and the fight for a free Palestine are galvanizing so many Americans, particularly young people. Biden’s disastrous policy of fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza has created the kind of space for an independent alternative from the Democratic Party that has not existed since Bernie,” members of the DSA National Political Committee Kristin Schall, Alex Pellitteri, and Laura Wadlin wrote on the The Call, the socialist activist website.

Among DSA’s other prominent supporters are, Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Cori Bush, D-Mo.

“For 2024, DSA is projecting $5 million in income and $7 million in expenses. That means we eventually need to come up with $2 million to break even,” the report continued.

The rift between the DSA and the mainstream of the Democratic Party appears to coincide with the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, where the DSA expressed their solidarity with Palestine and called Israel an “apartheid regime.”

“DSA long ago fell into the trap of becoming so radical in the name of ‘justice’ that they abandoned the mission of the progressive movement,” said Amanda Berman, founder and executive director of Zioness, a group representing liberal Jews who support Israel.

“After Hamas’s brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, DSA doubled down on their strategy of going deep and long on antisemitism, thinking it might get them out of the hole,” Berman told the New York Post. “Instead, this depraved idea dug them even deeper.”

The budget slashing proposal on The Call sympathized with its staff noting that even in a socialist run non-profit, “we are all still wage-earners vulnerable to exploitation.”

The Call is the official publication of Bread and Roses, which calls itself “a national caucus of Marxist organizers in the democratic socialists of America committed to helping build an effective DSA rooted in the multiracial working class.”