Organizing in Layer 8 – Building Tech in Democratic Socialists of America

# Organizing in Layer 8: Building Tech in Democratic Socialists of America **TL;DR:** The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a large member-led socialist organization, leverages a volunteer-driven National Technology Committee (NTC) to build a "socialist tech stack," combating reliance on corporate tools and addressing scalability, sustainability, and onboarding challenges with limited resources. ## Overview of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) The speaker, Colin Mans, a steering committee member of the DSA's National Technology Committee, introduces the organization's history and structure. * **History & Scale:** DSA is the largest and historically largest socialist organization in the U.S., with over 120,000 members across all 50 states. It was formed from a merger in 1982. Membership grew significantly from 2016 onwards, driven by events like Bernie Sanders' campaigns, Trump's elections, and social movements. * **Non-Party Structure:** DSA operates like a political party but is not one. It runs candidates in Democratic primaries and non-partisan races. * **Core Priorities:** Key national priorities include: * Electing socialists at local, state, and federal levels. * Rebuilding the labor movement through grassroots strategies, solidarity in strikes, and "salting" (getting jobs to organize workplaces). * Advancing the Green New Deal. * Solidarity with Palestine, tenant organizing, queer and trans rights, and more. * **Governance & Funding:** DSA is entirely member-funded through dues, like a labor union, with no grants. It is largely volunteer-run. Major priorities and leadership are set every two years at a National Convention with over 1,300 delegates. A 27-member National Political Committee provides direction. ## Challenges in DSA's Technical Organizing The organization operates with an enterprise-like scale but a minuscule budget, creating unique technological hurdles. * **Scale vs. Resources:** DSA has a vast membership but only three full-time tech staff. Local chapters vary in size and technical expertise, often relying on nearby tech workers or members' self-taught knowledge, hindering the scaling of both national and local tools. Chapter funding from member dues is minimal. * **Dependency on Corporate Tools:** A 2022 assessment revealed heavy reliance on paid tools like Google Drive and Airtable. This creates vulnerabilities: * **Enshittification:** Free tiers are often rolled back or made worse (e.g., Slack becoming less useful for chapters, Google Drive's AI features degrading user experience). "These are other people's computers." * **Instability:** Threats to the relationship with Democratic Party consultants, who provide some tools, pose a risk of losing access. * **Abuse Reporting Attacks:** Organized right-wing campaigns have reported DSA content as abusive, leading to takedowns and downtime on platforms like Google and GitHub. * **Operational Inefficiencies:** The membership scale makes it hard to track member roles and skills beyond local chapters. Onboarding for campaigns and working groups is often manual and repetitive, slowing down work. * **Volunteer Burden:** Development happens in members' spare time, competing with jobs, family, and personal life. Any implemented technology must reduce, not increase, the workload for organizers. ## The National Technology Committee (NTC) Founded around 2017 and restructured in 2021, the NTC is a member-led IT department aiming to build a "socialist tech stack." ### Guiding Principle The NTC operates under the Marxist principle from the *Gotha Program*: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!" It seeks to centralize technology to serve the entire organization, eliminating redundant, siloed efforts. ### Goals from the Five-Year Plan 1. **Home for Socialist Tech Workers:** To be a place for building, deploying, and sharing tools for DSA. 2. **Reliable Project Delivery:** To deliver projects that advance DSA's mission. 3. **Leadership in DSA Tech:** To lead all technical work across the organization. These goals translate into two focus areas: * **Tech for Members:** Enhancing transparency, improving cross-DSA communication, and simplifying access to training and tools. * **Tech for Building the Organization:** Reducing operational overhead (e.g., automating email, meeting updates), lowering the "key person risk" (bus factor) by cultivating new leaders, and reducing dependency on capitalist technology by building and implementing alternatives. ### Current Approach and Work The NTC holds quarterly meetings and runs ongoing projects. It actively works to build tools that are tested, reduce friction, and are organically adopted and expanded by chapters. Examples of work done across DSA include campaigns against Flock surveillance cameras and ICE, workplace organizing through the "Worker Organized Workers" (WOW) salting program, and local tech action groups like NYC DSA Tech Action organizing around public internet access. The core mission is "for fun, not profit," driven by a fundamental belief in changing society and fostering more socialist-minded technologists within the movement. **Source:** [Organizing in Layer 8 – Building Tech in Democratic Socialists of America](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-koLM6yT5FY)