Summary of the December 2024 State Council Meeting

On Saturday, December 14th, the California DSA State Council had our last meeting of 2024. We reflected on our campaigns this electoral cycle and discussed our “Vision for California”—a new program that will guide our ongoing campaigns. 

In November, ten DSA-endorsed candidates across the state won their races. Notably, in Los Angeles, four out of the fifteen city councilmembers are DSA-endorsed. Sacramento DSA got one point away from electing their endorsed candidate Flo Cofer for mayor. Our California DSA voter guide got over 200,000 visits, showing that Californian voters are interested in, if not aligned with, socialist politics. We are continuing to prove that DSA is an electoral force and will only become stronger in the years to come.

We saw major defeat in the progressive statewide propositions, including Propositions 5 and 33. Those two propositions, which, if passed, would have been major victories for renters, were part of our first official statewide coordinated campaign since the founding of California, Affordable Rent Controlled Housing (ARCH). (California chapters worked together on other ballot measures in 2018 and 2020, prior to California DSA’s formation in 2022.) Despite the loss, we learned a lot and will be stronger and more organized in campaigns to come.

A new platform

In the last part of the meeting, the State Committee introduced a new platform: a Vision for California. We in California DSA have focused much of our energy on electoral campaigns. However, we are doing little campaign work of other types as a statewide body during non-election years.  In light of that reflection, we want to build out a program where we have clear goals and campaigns that will get us closer to our socialist vision of California. We engaged in fruitful discussion across chapters, discussing priorities like Medicare for All, striking Prop 13 from the state constitution, and initiatives for climate justice. We will continue to hone this vision, setting clear objectives and goals for the next five to ten years. 

Our next State Council meeting is this Saturday, February 1st. All DSA members in good standing are welcome to join.