Leo Casey

Leo Casey

Leo E. Casey is a former National Director of Democratic Socialists of America and a contributor to DSA's Talking Union website. He blogs on Edwize, the blog of the New York AFT. He is Vice President, Academic High Schools of the United Federation of Teachers.

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.

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.

NAM

In February 1976, New American Movement Discussion Bulletin issue number 13, carried an article, The Durham Organizing Committee and the Struggle for Marxism- Leninism in NAM, Leo Casey (Member-at-Large).

In 1980 Leo Casey, Toronto, served on the National council of the New American Movement.

Between 1980 and 1981 Peg Strobel, Illinois and Leo Casey, Ontario, Canada were chairs of the Campus Commission of the New American Movement.

New American Movement 10th convention

In 1981 Leo Casey and Peg Strobel, Co-Chairs of the Commission led a meeting entitled Campus Commission at the 10th Convention of the New American Movement. The convention was held in a union headquarters in Chicago and ran from July 29 - August 2, 1981.

He also led a workshop entitled What Every NAM Activist Should Know About the Gay and Lesbian Community.

He also led a workshop entitled Gay and Lesbian Task Force alongside Christine Riddiough, Co-Chair, Socialist Feminist Commission.

"Post Marxist"

Leo Casey was a long time member and leader of the New American Movement and Democratic Socialists of America.

He characterizes himself as "post-Marxist".

I think that there are some core ideas and themes in the Marxist tradition, and at the point which one has developed one set of Marxian ideas and themes to the extent that those core ideas and themes are rejected, intellectual honesty requires that one state that clearly. That is why I identify myself as post-Marxist: I no longer hold to certain core ideas in the Marxian tradition, even while I believe that there is much to be learned from a century of its attempts to develop emancipatory theory.

DSA pamphlet

In 1991, Democratic Socialists of America was promoting a leaflet "Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Liberation and Socialism", edited by Itala Rutter and published by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of DSA's Feminist Commission. Contributors included Leo Casey, Martha Fourt, Hannah Frisch, Barry Friedman and Tom Stabnicki, Christine Riddiough, and Judy MacLean.

DSA’s Cuba Letter

Leo Casey initiated and circulated an April 2003 Statement on Cuba, calling for the lifting of trade sanctions against Cuba.

“a statement circulating among democratic left/socialist folks, largely by members of Democratic Socialists of America, condemning the recent trials and convictions of non-violent dissenters in Cuba”.

The petition criticized Cuba's poor human rights record, but shared the blame for Cuba's problems with reactionary elements of the U.S. administration...

The democratic left worldwide has opposed the U.S. embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more harmful to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to political democratization. The Cuban state's current repression of political dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most reactionary elements of the U.S. administration in their efforts to maintain sanctions and to institute even more punitive measures against Cuba.

Many of the petition's 120 odd signatories were known members of DSA.

Metro DC DSA Public Facbook group

Members of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, public Facebook group, as of October 14, 2017 included Leo Casey.

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 Leo Casey.

DSA North Star

In 2018 Leo Casey was an original signatory of the DSA North Star founding principles statement.

Toward Radical Democracy

Toward Radical Democracy was a 2018 "Proposal for Internal Voting Reform in Boston DSA".

If you would like to sign on in support of this proposal, please click here. To date, over 100 members of Boston DSA have endorsed it. We also welcome support from DSA comrades in other chapters.

Signatories also included non Boston comrades such as Leo Casey.