André Vasquez, who was elected to Chicago’s City Council last year as a socialist, has voted in favor of the mayor’s budget. The Chicago DSA has censured him. This raises a big question: How can a socialist organization make its elected representatives accountable?
Im not a fan of Left Voice, its a trot rag and they always try to start this dumb drama. This for example is just not true, there is a process to expel a member and its been used before. Literally the second he voted yes DSA moved to censure and start the process to expel him.
Vasquez, although censured, remains a DSA member. This highlights that the DSA has absolutely no mechanisms to hold elected officials accountable, even if they clearly vote against the interests of oppressed people.
Also something I learned is that Vasquez wasnt even the CDSA endorsed candidate, Ugo was in the primary but he lost and Vasquez was also running as a socialist and he was going on to the runoff so they gave him the nod for the general, but he didnt have his campaign run entirely by dsa as some candidates like the nyc dsa slate did.
DSA has some serious problems with telling people to fuck off. The bylaws are meant to make it hard to expel people as their goal is to grow as much as possible. This leads to all sorts of weird issues like people accused of sexual assault not being expelled until it's called to a vote in a general meeting and there's an official vote with a 2/3rds chapter majority with the offender present.
If they pay their dues, you can't really do much without active vocal outcry for their expulsion.
how else other than a chapter basically holding a trial and voting on it would you kick someone out? there was a guy recently in nyc dsa that was doing shady shit and promoting things he shouldn't have that got kicked and hes like suing dsa now lol. idk much about the process but its not much more complicated than leadership holding a vote to kick them out. theres a specific process to expel anyone accused of anything like sexual harassment or something like that too. i mean i suppose basically anyone can join dsa and then purposefully be a wrecker, idk how we keep that from happening actually, tho new members cant really do much other than show up to meetings and help with campaigns
I wasn't saying there's really a better way to do it, I think DSA handles it pretty well especially considering how large the org is. Chapters have a lot of power to just suspend members and basically cut them out of any leadership positions immediately, but actual removal from the org takes a bit more. For us, the sexual harassment stuff was horrifyingly ingrained in the chapter. 2 years of a couple members in leadership basically using their elevated privileges to delete emails about their behavior and silence victims. When it all came out, they were pulled from their positions and took about 1 week to get to the vote and another week to have them expelled.
There are definitely situations where I think certain actions should immediately nullify your DSA membership, like being a representative and going against your chapter's interests or stuff like sexual harassment. Where reinstatement should be contingent upon a chapter meeting rather than the other way around.
DSA has some serious problems with telling people to fuck off.
I wasn’t saying there’s really a better way to do it, I think DSA handles it pretty well especially considering how large the org is.
Wait, which is it?
When it all came out, they were pulled from their positions and took about 1 week to get to the vote and another week to have them expelled.
There are definitely situations where I think certain actions should immediately nullify your DSA membership, like being a representative and going against your chapter’s interests or stuff like sexual harassment. Where reinstatement should be contingent upon a chapter meeting rather than the other way around.
A one-week turnaround is as close as you can get to immediate if you're a large group and you do even basic fact finding about the issue. And a "guilty until proven innocent" rule is far too easy for wreckers and feds to exploit.
for those who missed it
https://www.chicagodsa.org/2020/11/24/chicago-democratic-socialists-censures-alderman-andre-vasquez/
Im not a fan of Left Voice, its a trot rag and they always try to start this dumb drama. This for example is just not true, there is a process to expel a member and its been used before. Literally the second he voted yes DSA moved to censure and start the process to expel him.
Also something I learned is that Vasquez wasnt even the CDSA endorsed candidate, Ugo was in the primary but he lost and Vasquez was also running as a socialist and he was going on to the runoff so they gave him the nod for the general, but he didnt have his campaign run entirely by dsa as some candidates like the nyc dsa slate did.
Thanks for this response. Its way more useful than my comment. :af-heart:
DSA has some serious problems with telling people to fuck off. The bylaws are meant to make it hard to expel people as their goal is to grow as much as possible. This leads to all sorts of weird issues like people accused of sexual assault not being expelled until it's called to a vote in a general meeting and there's an official vote with a 2/3rds chapter majority with the offender present.
If they pay their dues, you can't really do much without active vocal outcry for their expulsion.
how else other than a chapter basically holding a trial and voting on it would you kick someone out? there was a guy recently in nyc dsa that was doing shady shit and promoting things he shouldn't have that got kicked and hes like suing dsa now lol. idk much about the process but its not much more complicated than leadership holding a vote to kick them out. theres a specific process to expel anyone accused of anything like sexual harassment or something like that too. i mean i suppose basically anyone can join dsa and then purposefully be a wrecker, idk how we keep that from happening actually, tho new members cant really do much other than show up to meetings and help with campaigns
I wasn't saying there's really a better way to do it, I think DSA handles it pretty well especially considering how large the org is. Chapters have a lot of power to just suspend members and basically cut them out of any leadership positions immediately, but actual removal from the org takes a bit more. For us, the sexual harassment stuff was horrifyingly ingrained in the chapter. 2 years of a couple members in leadership basically using their elevated privileges to delete emails about their behavior and silence victims. When it all came out, they were pulled from their positions and took about 1 week to get to the vote and another week to have them expelled.
There are definitely situations where I think certain actions should immediately nullify your DSA membership, like being a representative and going against your chapter's interests or stuff like sexual harassment. Where reinstatement should be contingent upon a chapter meeting rather than the other way around.
Wait, which is it?
A one-week turnaround is as close as you can get to immediate if you're a large group and you do even basic fact finding about the issue. And a "guilty until proven innocent" rule is far too easy for wreckers and feds to exploit.
Let me live in my contradictions damn it!
(You're totally right)