What Democratic Socialists Say They Want (In Their Own Words)

People keep trying to claim that Democratic Socialists don’t want to eliminate the market and nationalize most industries. Yet that’s exactly what they say they want to do.

What do Democratic Socialists want? In their own words:

I’m a staff writer at the socialist magazine Jacobin and a member of DSA, and here’s the truth: In the long run, democratic socialists want to end capitalism…

Many observers see groups like DSA pushing for policies like Medicare-for-all and decide that we must actually be something like New Deal liberals who are simply confused about the meaning of socialism. That’s not true. Our goal is not to rein in the excesses of capitalism for a few decades at a time — we want to end our society’s subservience to the market…

Democratic socialists ultimately want something more like the British National Health Service (NHS), in which everyone pays taxes to fund not just insurance but doctors and hospitals and medicine as well.

– DSA member / staff writer for DSA house organ Jacobin Megan Day, when asked what Democratic Socialists want.¹

Another DSA socialist explaining what she wants:

DSA believes in the abolition of capitalism in favor of an economy run either by ‘the workers’ or the state. … The academic debates about socialism’s ‘meaning’ are huge and arcane and rife with disagreements, but what all definitions have in common is either the elimination of the market or its strict containment.

– Frances Fox Piven, University of New York scholar and a former DSA board member. ²

What does that mean?

“In practice, that means DSA believes in ending the private ownership of a wide range of industries whose products are viewed as “necessities,” which they say should not be left to those seeking to turn a profit. According to DSA’s current mission statement, the government should ensure all citizens receive adequate food, housing, health care, child care, and education. DSA also believes that the government should “democratize” private businesses — i.e., force owners to give workers control over them — to the greatest extent possible.” ³

Abolition of the market, nationalization of broad swathes of the economy (healthcare, education, food, housing, and childcare to start), and elimination of most private businesses certainly sounds like a “socialist planned economy” to me.

And overt socialist policies are now within the Overton Window of both the left and the right.

For example, the Trump administration has partially nationalized Intel, Westinghouse, IBM, and a number of other companies (at least 10 in total). ^{4 5 6 7}

NYC Mayor Mamdani has advocated for direct public ownership in several sectors: grocery stores, banks, utilities, and housing.^{8 9 10}

#socialism #DSA

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