Ingrid Goldstrom
Ingrid Goldstrom
Leaving DSA
November 9, 2023 Twenty-four longtime members of the Democratic Socialists of America published an open letter in The New Republic to explain why they’re leaving the organization.
Our hopes for a better world—more egalitarian, more just, more humane—once found expression in the Democratic Socialists of America.
Many of us have been members of DSA since its founding in 1982—some of us in leadership positions—as well as activists in the organizations and movements from which DSA emerged...
We were elated by the explosive growth of DSA that began in 2016, followed by the election of more than 100 DSA members to elective office. In such figures as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Summer Lee, and Greg Casar, we cheered a new generation of progressive political leadership in the United States. It seemed that we could finally join other nations in having a meaningful democratic socialist presence in our political mainstream.
In recent years, however, we have been deeply troubled by the emergence of isolating, purist, and self-destructive tendencies inside DSA that have undermined its promise. The very strength of the regenerated DSA is in its electoral work and its high-profile, politically astute elected officials, and yet they came under attack from within. Ocasio-Cortez was condemned for stating that Israel had a right to exist, and Bowman was subjected to a vicious campaign for his expulsion from DSA because of his refusal to endorse the boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, movement, as well as for his connections with Jewish peace organizations in the U.S. and Israel.
The campaigns against DSA members of Congress garnered high-profile, public attention, but they were only the tip of the iceberg. There were several attacks on DSA-member and DSA-endorsed state and local officials. Purist litmus tests were increasingly imposed on candidates for elected office as the price of DSA endorsements.
In our judgment, a moment of truth has arrived. The events of the last weeks in Israel and Palestine, and the responses of national DSA and many of its local chapters, bring us to the painful conclusion that today’s DSA has driven itself beyond redemption....
We are beginning discussions amongst ourselves, to which we will invite other signatories to this letter, on how to keep the true vision of democratic socialism alive and how we can work together to develop an organizational framework that supports our educational and political work.[1]
Leo Casey, Harold Meyerson, Richard Healey, Peter Dreier, Ruth Jordan, Mark Levinson, Nathan Newman, Maurice Isserman, Ingrid Goldstrom, Larry Mishel, David Kusnet, Aaron Greenberg, Randall Brink, Janette Brink, Jules Bernstein, Jeff Isaac, Tom Canel, James Berger, Robert Feldman, Jennifer Klein, Ed Collins, Raymond Barglow, John Zuraw, Bill Mosley.
DSA Members Organizing Against Trump
DSA Members Organizing Against Trump was a letter released early October 2010 to shore up Democratic Socialists of America support for Joe Biden.
Signatories included Ingrid Goldstrom, Montgomery County Democratic Socialists of America.
Metro-DC DSA steering committee
Metro-DC DSA elected a new steering committee at its May 2015 membership meeting, a roughly annual turnover with continuity. Returning were committee members Jose Gutierrez (co-chair), Andy Feeney, Ingrid Goldstrom, Bryan Kovalick and Kurt Stand. Returning also is former SC member Dr. Carolyn Byerly. New to the SC was Jonathan Phipps, a national member and activist living in suburban Baltimore who said he will spend considerable time getting a covalent Baltimore-area local under way with support from both national DSA and the Metro-DC local.[2]
Backing Bernie Sanders
Democratic Socialists of America members canvassed with fliers for the Bernie Sanders campaign at the Takoma Park Maryland Farmers Market in August 2015. They were Bill Mosley, Andy Feeney, Ingrid Goldstrom, Kameron Burt, Carlos McKnight, Woody Woodruff and Merrill Miller.[3]
Democratic Socialists of America Unity
Ingrid Goldstrom, Maryland supported the Democratic Socialists of America Unity grouping, established for the 2017 Democratic Socialists of America National Convention in Chicago.[4]
Metro DC DSA Public Facbook group
Members of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, public Facebook group, as of March 12, 2017 included Ingrid Goldstrom.[5]
Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
We Stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a 2018 letter signed by several Democratic Socialists of America members mainly from the DSA North Star in response to attacks on Ocasio-Cortez over remarks she made on Palestine.
- A recent petition circulated by some DSA members criticizes Ocasio-Cortez for supporting a two state solution to the Palestine-Israel question and not aligning with a long list of demands regarding Palestine and Israel. Should Ocasio-Cortez fail to agree with this list of demands, the petitioners are calling for DSA to revoke her endorsement. These attacks on Ocasio-Cortez have come despite the fact that she has staked out positions which will make her one of the strongest advocates of Palestinian rights and self-determination in Congress.
- We stand with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The position she has taken on Israel and Palestine are principled stances, worthy of a democratic socialist, in its recognition of both Palestinian humanity and rights and Israeli humanity and rights. On this issue, as many, she will be a voice for the voiceless in Congress.
Signatures included Ingrid Goldstrom.[6]
DSA North Star
In 2018 Ingrid Goldstrom was an original signatory of the DSA North Star founding principles statement.