by Jaime Schneider

The period we are living through is one of profound importance for the workers’ movement across the globe, and in particular for the American socialist movement. Over the last year, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), once near-moribund, have exploded back to life in response to the action of the American regime. 

Madison Area DSA’s number of Members in Good Standing (registered members who pay dues to DSA National) has increased from 402 in February of 2025 to 750 in February of 2026, an 86.5% increase. (Refer to the report of the Membership Committee in the 2026 MADSA Convention Compendium for details.) Ongoing political campaigns, such as the Strike Out ICE campaign, and MADSA’s participation in several electoral campaigns (most notably Francesca Hong’s gubernatorial campaign) continue to draw in more members. 

The conundrum facing the chapter at present is not how to find new members, but how to integrate and retain those who join as a result of our efforts. Historically this has been a major weakness of DSA as a national organization, as highlighted by the article State of DSA Part 2: Lessons Learned by comrades Andrew Dai and Hazel Williams, writing for Democratic Left. DSA chapters which fail to rapidly integrate new members often lose the members they gain within a year, and the authors pinpoint this as both a failure of membership work and a result of a lack of membership engagement infrastructure within chapters. Losing members almost as rapidly as one gains them is precisely how chapters lose institutional knowledge and find themselves “treading water” rather than building workers’ power.

This is an issue which affects every part of DSA’s existence as an organization and touches on every other area of work. If members do not feel engaged and “plugged into” the life of the chapter, then our chapter democracy will become a democracy in name only. If members do not participate in committee work, then the capacity of our committees to conduct party work will be dramatically reduced. If our electoral efforts cannot consistently mobilize members, then our power as a political organization and the weight of our endorsement will collapse. The general consensus of the chapter, as expressed in resolutions and debate, is that we are working towards the goal of a socialist political party. We cannot speak of being a party, let alone a mass party, unless we have an active membership which actively fights to build workers’ power. 

If we are to achieve our goals as socialists, people who believe in the power of collective action, then priority must be given to the work of membership engagement and activation. We must pull new members into the work that we are doing, give them things to do and people to befriend as part of a Madison DSA community. This is at present primarily the role of our Membership Engagement Committee, assisted closely by the work of the Communications Committee, but it is a task which must involve every member of the chapter. We must cultivate a party spirit which encourages every member to do their part.

The confused flailing of the American regime and the fecklessness of much of the opposition has created the conditions necessary to facilitate the creation of a mass American socialist movement for the first time in generations. If we are to fulfill the potential of the Democratic Socialists of America and carry out our world-historic mission as socialists, we must not only improve our membership work, but master it. 

If you are a member of Madison DSA, and you want to help the Membership Engagement Committee, check out our slack channel on the MADSA slack, and consider attending one of our meetings. We meet virtually from 7:00-8:30pm on the first and third Tuesdays of every month.