Please note, this is a proposal, not a passed resolution. And I have no idea how many members it would take to submit a resolution, so it could be two weirdos or have huge internal chapter support.
Edit: It appears I have started a struggle session. I apologise.
For the record, my own view on this is that it is well intentioned, but extremely poorly designed and (likely) to be poorly implemented as well. In one of my comments below, I say "I don’t think DSA, a predominantly white and PMC organization, is at all equipped to handle this in a way that doesn’t create more problems. To me, it would make more sense to have a Black socialist org be given the $ to do as they see fit, if this is a path the chapter votes on. It screams of white guilt rather than building power, and individual charity rather than mutual aid.". AFROSOC is an internal DSA org, as I understand it.
And I feel this is a textbook example of "charity vs mutual aid", with this decidedly being charity.
Diverting 10% of local branch funding to black members isn’t actually a step on the path to remedying racism and historical injustice, and will probably create some animosity/obstacles/divisions that will get in the way of the organization functioning as a socialist group, socialism being the only way something like reparations will even be possible.
Ten percent of a local chapter is shit, sure, but why would it create animosity unless you are upset at black people getting money. Which, deal with that on your own time.
Acknowledging the material differences in which our comrades operate and running a small financial assistance program for members of AFROSOC or DSA is a step in the right direction; I'd probably make it slightly meanstested like "attend more than 1 meeting" but that's it. I've always thought that a revolutionary party should have professionally paid members, not do everything on a volunteer basis - that's how you get PMC logic and only rich people getting ahead in the party structure.
It’s not even that it’s not a lot of money, it’s not scalable towards anything resembling reparations for slavery, it’s not even on a path where you could begin making steps in the right direction. We’re not going to be able to mutual aid ourselves into reparations with the leftover scraps of the capitalists’ profits, we’re going to have to seize and control the commanding heights of the economy. The profits stolen by slave owners are probably best represented in the amalgamations of capital owned by the ruling class and not the wages that white workers earn.
And yea, I agree that you need professional revolutionaries, but I don’t really see how making payouts to members based solely on their race is a way to build a professional cadre, it’s just a way to build in some financial support for members who are POC.
And yes, I do think it builds in a division into the group. It’s literally taking dues paid by members from the entire branch and giving them to a specific subset of members. Like I personally would be paid despite having a full time job and enough money, while my much more senior comrade who lives off disability, and puts in objectively more work than I do, would not.
It doesn't have to be a lot of money, I don't think it is meant to replace government reparations. And you do not know for sure that it is a step in the wrong direction. Getting a small payout from AFROSOC that meets the bus fare to the meetings, or the bus fare to the protest, or the gas to drive my comrades from jail, could make the difference between a Black comrade showing up or falling through the cracks. Making rent could be the difference between having a housed comrade in good mental health or a houseless comrade you can no longer reach, or they are now in jail, or killed by cops. Money makes this world go around. A small amount can be the thing that puts people above a mental-breakdown that week. You don't know for sure.
I mean a financial assistance program sounds good but why limit it to race instead of just whoever is in need of financial assistance?