In 1982, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM) merged to form Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Chapters (or locals, as the organization calls them) of the two organizations in the Washington area merged as well. At the beginning, DSA members in the Washington region were grouped into two locals. In the District and Maryland they were members of the DC/MD local, with a separate chapter representing Northern Virginia (NOVA). The majority of local members came out of DSOC but there were substantial numbers of former NAM members as well.
Just prior to the DC-NAM merger, six local DSOC members served as delegates to the DC Statehood Constitutional Convention, which ran from January 31 to May 27 and adopted a constitution for the State of New Columbia. The DSOC delegation was the second-largest contingent at the convention behind only the DC Democratic State Committee. At its October 5 meeting, the DC/MD DSA local voted to endorse the proposed constitution, and DC voters approved the constitution in the November 2 election.
With the merger finalized, the December meeting of the DC/MD local adopted a number of changes to its constitution, including changing the name of the organization from DSOC to DSA, establishing that voting membership in the local would be open to all who pay dues to and are members of National DSA, and establishing the structure of the local leadership.
One of the earliest activities of the DC/MD local was its involvement in the 1982 DC Council elections. One focus was the race for the Ward 1 seat, an open position due to that ward’s councilmember, Dave Clarke, running for council chair. The two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for the seat, Frank Smith and Marie Nahikian, both sought DSA’s endorsement, and were so eager to get it that they both joined DSA. The local ultimately endorsed Smith, who won the election. Neither Smith nor Nahikian remained members for long. DSA also played a visible role in Clarke’s successful campaign for council chair.
The DC/MD local continued to publish the Washington Socialist, which also had been the name of the newsletter under DSOC. The newsletter from the early years shows the local’s calendar packed with activities, including monthly membership meetings as well as separate meetings of the executive board and officers. The local also sponsored regular public events and worked in coalition with allied organizations and coalitions.
That year an election for local chair between Tim Sears and Susan Palmer ended in a disputed result. Eventually both stepped down and Suzanne Crowell became local chair.
DSA’s visibility as a local organization earned it a profile in the December 16, 1982 issue of the now-defunct weekly The Washington Tribune, which wrote that “the 400 members of DSA . . .make up a decidedly unstrident socialist organization that works within the Democratic party – and within the capitalist system – to bring about what members call progressive change.” The article included interviews with DSA members Hilda Mason, Howard Croft, Frank Smith, Steve Ramirez and Rick Rybeck.
On January 25, DC/MD held its annual Debs-Thomas fundraising dinner – a tradition started by DSOC – featuring Cushing Dolbeare, an expert on federal housing policy and low-income housing. Two DSA members – Ruth Jordan and Marjorie Phyfe – opened and closed the evening, respectively, and Congressman Parren Mitchell (D-Md.) introduced the speakers and made remarks of his own. Speaking about Dolbeare’s life and work was a long roster of her friends, associates and family members, including Barbara Moffett of the American Friends Service Committee; Ann Shull of Americans for Democratic Action; and Kate Crawford of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. DC Council Chair Dave Clark and Councilmembers Hilda Mason and Frank Smith were in attendance. The event took place at the Washington Hotel.
DC/MD’s March membership meeting featured Georgetown Law Center professor Norman Birnbaum speaking on recent trends in European politics, including the defeat of the SPD and the rise of the Greens in West Germany. The meeting was organized by a revived local International Affairs Committee.
The DC/MD local held its local convention on April 23 at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan. The opening speaker was Richard Healey, longtime NAM activist and director of the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy; and Takoma Park Mayor Sammie Abbott gave the closing address. Other speakers were Leo Casey, Hilda Mason, Ruth Jordan and Marc Elrich. The convention included small group meetings to plan activities for the coming year. In his remarks, Healey, as reported in the Socialist, listed three things DSA could do to encourage more attendance at meetings and participation in the local: “First, we can participate in fights for reforms that make sense to people, where they would have a sense that working with us would make a difference in their daily lives . . .The second thing is analysis and education about what is going on, so that people feel that they understand better what they are facing, perhaps even how to deal with it. And third, we can provide a vision of socialism, a glimpse of possibilities of living by a new set of social relations.” The convention elected the local’s leadership for the coming year: Jim Wallace, Chair; Clare Feinson, Vice-Chair, Rich Bruning, Membership Secretary; Anne McCormick, Recording Secretary; Pleasant Mann, Treasurer; and at-large board members Suzanne Crowell, Arne Anderson, Jane Pinsky, Steve Ramirez, Gail Stevenson and Rick Rybeck. Committee chairs were Wally Malakoff, Labor; Horst Brand, Education/Cultural (with Anne McCormick and Lucy Comstock as committee contacts); Stu Gay and Lucy Comstock, Washington Socialist; Norman Gleichman, Takoma Park branch; Suzanne Crowell and Arne Anderson, Public Policy; and Gail Stevenson, International Affairs.
The new executive board held its first meeting on May 17. It established six specific areas of focus: financial; recruitment and membership development; the local DC political program; local/executive board/branch/ward structure; the Washington Socialist; and office maintenance.
On June 12 the Takoma Park branch met to discuss local electoral politics. The DC/MD local’s June 14 membership meeting featured a talk by DC Councilmember Frank Smith on issues facing the Council.
On June 22, DC/MD member Rick Rybeck was a guest on WPFW-FM’s 10:00 program on the topic of economic development in the District.
During the summer the DC/MD local presented a lecture and discussion series entitled “Public Policies in Socialist Perspective.” July 7 featured “The Catholic Left on Peace and Labor” with Joe Holland of the Center of Concern; July 14 featured “Social Impacts of Changing Technology” with Jim Wallace, DSA local chair and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland; July 21, “Worker Participation or Worker Control: The Struggle for Democracy in the Workplace: Recent Developments” with Michael Urquhart, economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and July 28, “Nationalism or Internationalism: Protection or Free Trade” with Horst Brand, economist and Dissent editorial board member. All of the discussions were held in the conference room of the Dupont Circle Building.
During the year the DC/MD local worked on its “Economic Development Project” directed by Arne Anderson and Suzanne Crowell, producing a report aimed at discrediting “indiscriminate business tax cuts, deregulation, and enterprise zones as fair or even effective tools for promoting economic development.” It also called for the decoupling of DC taxes from the federal income tax, the latter having been cut by Reagan leading to reduce revenues for the District. As described in the Socialist, the report was termed “an attack on Reaganomics at the local level.”
The local’s Labor Committee met regularly during this period, with meetings featuring speakers such as economist Gar Alperovitz, activist Staughton Lynd, Machinist Union official Dick Greenwood, labor educator Larry Rogin and a panel of local women unionists leading a discussion of “why unions do not take feminism seriously.”
The local helped publicize an August 25 benefit concert for the DSA Youth Section featuring folksingers Toshi Reagon and Fred Small. The concert was in conjunction with the Youth Section national conference held at First Congregational Church in in DC. Speakers at the conference included DSA Chair Michael Harrington, feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich, and fellow DSA notables Manning Marable, Hulbert James, Jose LaLuz, Dorothy Healey and Victor Reuther.
Local and national DSA members, including many members attending the youth conference, participated in the August 27 March for Jobs, Peace and Freedom, marking the 20th anniversary of the historic 1963 march. DSA hosted a reception after the march at First Congregational Church featuring DSA National Co-Chair Michael Harrington, author and DSA National Racial Minorities Coordinating Committees Chair Manning Marable, and DSA Councilmember and DSA National Vice-Chair Hilda Mason.
The local operated a booth at Adams Morgan Day on September 11.
The local continued its lecture and discussion series into the fall, with four sessions on “Industrial Policy, Labor and the Left” at the Dupont Circle Building. September 22 featured DSA member Brian Doherty speaking on “What Does Industrial Policy Mean? A Survey of Views, Analyses and Proposals;” September 29, “For a Socialist Industrial Policy” featuring Michael Urquhart, economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics; October 13, “The Crisis of the U.S. Economy: Policies to Overcome It” (a discussion of Michael Harrington’s Decade of Decision and A Path for America) with Dissent editorial board member Horst Brand; and October 19, “British Labor and Industrial Policy” with John Willoughby, Professor of Economics at American University.
The local sent five delegates to the October 14-16 DSA national convention in New York, the first convention since the DSOC-NAM merger. Delegates were Dorothy Healey, Richard Healey, Marjorie Phyfe, Chris Riddiough and Jim Wallace, all of whom were also elected to DSA’s National Executive Committee. In the November Socialist, Wallace noted two organizational milestones coming out of the convention; DSA had grown to 7000 members since the merger, and feminist author and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich was elected national co-chair of DSA along with Michael Harrington.
The November Socialist announced that in order to increase participation in membership meetings, the dates would switch from the second Tuesday of each month to the second Friday. In addition, a social event would be added to the traditional political program.
The local’s November 8 membership meeting featured of a discussion and vote on a DC/MD DSA project for the coming year. It decided to launch a campaign to halt a proposed Metro fare increase.
On November 12 the local participated in the March to Stop U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Caribbean.
The Takoma Park DSA branch played a major role in helping to re-elect Mayor Sammie Abbott in November. At the victory party Abbott publicly thanked DSA for its support.
The DC/MD local held its final membership meeting of the year on December 8, focusing on the U.S. invasion of Grenada.
Following its decision at the previous November’s membership meeting, DC/MD DSA initiated the Coalition for Fair Transit Finance (CFTF) to challenge the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s plans for a fare increase, the most recent in a series of hikes over the previous several years. At its founding meeting on January 19, the coalition adopted “Freeze the Fares!” as its signature demand. As Rick Rybeck, who conceived the campaign, wrote in the Socialist, CFTF could “provide leadership on a crucial local issue; educate the public about socialism, particularly public equity; activate inactive members; build an effective coalition with groups and individuals outside DSA; develop a metropolitan perspective on an issue; and test organizational discipline.” CFTF encouraged public turnout at Metro’s hearings on the increase, the first taking place in late February at Metro headquarters with nearly 100 people in attendance and DSA/CFTF members delivering testimony. CFTF representatives also testified against the hikes at other hearings around the metro area. In addition, the coalition undertook a petition drive against the hikes, gathering nearly 2,000 signatures. While Metro ultimately approved a fare increase, it was smaller than originally proposed, and WMATA General Manager Carmen Turner adopted CFTF’s “Freeze the Fares” slogan while promising no hikes in the near future – and Metro kept that promise for several years. On the day the increases took effect, CFTF held a protest at Metro Center which featured Rybeck dressed as a Farecard machine; the event received attention from the public and press including a story in the Washington Post.
On January 13, about 125 people attended DC/MD DSA’s monthly meeting at the Machinists Building featuring a discussion on technology in the workplace with City University of New York professor Stanley Aronowitz and MIT professor David Noble.
DC/MD sponsored a three-part lecture-discussion series on the Fundamentals of Socialism. Brian Doherty led “Socialism – An Overview” on January 19; Ruth Jordan discussed “Socialist Movements and Ideas Since World War II” on January 26; and Jim Wallace led a discussion of “The Democratic Socialists: Their Roots, Ideas and Programs” on February 2.
In activity outside the District, NOVA DSA – a member of Northern Virginians for a Just Policy Toward Central America – sponsored a February 5 discussion on “The Continuing Crisis in Central America.” Also during this time there was an active Prince George’s County branch which was focusing on the CFTF campaign and working with the Maryland Citizen Action Coalition. Following its work on the Sammie Abbott re-election campaign, the Takoma Park branch campaigned in support of Montgomery County public school teachers’ contract demands.
On March 20, DC/MD DSA held its annual Debs-Thomas dinner honoring Congressman Henry Reuss of Wisconsin and his wife Margaret Reuss, attended by over 200 DSA members and friends. The event was held in the Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building. The dinner netted the local over $1,500.
March 30 featured a DC/MD-sponsored event at the Machinist Auditorium: “The U.S. Left and the Soviet Union: A Debate” with DSA Vice-Chair Dorothy Healey and Michael Parenti, associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.
Between April 5 and May 3, DC/MD sponsored a series of five discussions on “The History of Socialist Thought” and “A Survey of Developments in Recent Decades” at the Dupont Circle Building. Discussion leaders were Bruce Douglass, associate professor of government at Georgetown University; and Richard Healey.
DC/MD’s April 13 membership meeting featured the topic “Unilateral Initiatives for Bilateral Arms Control: Is There a Contradiction?” with Howard Morland, Disarmament Coordinator of the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy; and Chris Paine, director of the Washington office of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
The April-May Socialist congratulated DSA member Mike Urquhart, elected president of AFGE Local 12 at the Labor Department. That issue also announced endorsements for DC Democratic Committee: Steve Ramirez (Ward 2), Howard Croft (Ward 6), and Alexa Freeman, Ruth Jordan and Joslyn Williams (At-Large). In the election for delegates to the Democratic National Convention, it urged members to vote for Bernard Demczuk if they were voting for Walter Mondale, and Marie Nahikian if voting for Jesse Jackson. The same issue of the Socialist reported that the local Labor Committee was publishing the DSA Labor Memo for DSA labor members across the country.
On May 5, DC/MD DSA held its annual meeting and picnic at Rock Creek Park. The convention elected an executive board consisting of at-large members Lucy Duff, Debbie Goldman, Bill Mosley, Barbara Pequet, Rick Rybeck and Kurt Stand, as well as Rich Bruning as membership secretary, Pleasant Mann as treasurer, an Anne McCormick as recording secretary. Committee representatives on the board were Stu Gay for the Washington Socialist, Wally Malakoff for the Labor Committee, and Gail Stevenson for the International Committee. Outgoing local chair Jim Wallace noted in the Washington Socialist that the local had at that time about 400 members, of whom about 100 paid local dues and 25 participated in a monthly pledge plan. Wallace also made note of the creation of the new Cultural/Education Committee, an expansion of the old Education Committee and which had already sponsored public outreach events for the local. The convention also committed to a regular schedule for the previously sporadic Washington Socialist and to switch from a photocopied format to newsprint in tabloid format.
On June 1, the DC/MD local sponsored a talk on feminism and the public sector featuring DSA National Co-Chair Barbara Ehrenreich, Sharon Parker of the National Institute of Women of Color, and Diana May Pearce of the Center for National Policy Review at Catholic University.
On June 15 the local membership meeting featured a talk by noted Israeli Marxist Shlomo Avineri on the political debate in his country. Its July 10 membership meeting featured the topic “Setting priorities of 1984-85.”
On September 24, DC/MD DSA hosted the Washington-area premiere of the film Seeing Red, described by Vanity magazine as “an absorbing and enlightening docu [sic] on American citizens who chose Karl Marx over capitalism.” Nearly 500 people attended the showing at the Takoma Theater which including a discussion afterwards with co-director Julia Reichert and two of the film’s interview subjects: DSA National Vice-Chair Dorothy Healey and educator and former “Harlem hoofer” Howard “Stretch” Johnson.
Outside of the District, NOVA DSA co-sponsored an October 2 fundraiser for John Flannery, who was running for the 10th congressional district seat in Virginia (he was ultimately unsuccessful). In Maryland, members of Prince George’s DSA made up a majority of the participants in the Maryland Citizen Action Coalition’s September 15 and 29 voter registration drive in the county, which added nearly 1,000 new voters to the rolls. The Prince George’s DSA branch was a charter member of the coalition.
In the November election, DSA endorsed and worked for the ultimately unsuccessful candidacy of Josephine Butler, the Statehood Party candidate for an at-large seat on the DC Council.
In late 1984, DSA organized a wide variety of events and actions across the DMV. On September 11, the DC/MD local’s membership meeting featured a discussion on the role of socialists in the 1984 election led by DSA National Executive Committee Member Chris Riddiough, Howard Croft of the DC Democratic State Committee, and AFGE Political Director Bernard Demczuk. The DC/MD Labor Committee sponsored an October 1 analysis of the Democratic National Convention with Joslyn Williams, president of the Washington Central Labor Council; and a November 12 discussion on collective bargaining developments with representatives of the UAW and UMW. The November 13 DC/MD local meeting featured an analysis of the national election led by Richard Healey. Several local DSA members participated in the November 30 DSA National Board meeting in Philadelphia. The DC/MD local, which had been without a chair or co-chairs since May, in October elected Bill Mosley and Kurt Stand as co-chairs, as well as Debbie Goldman to fill a vacancy as treasurer. On October 31, DC/MD DSA members Woody Woodruff and Lucy Duff were arrested at the White House as part of the Community for Creative Non-Violence’s “Harvest of Shame” protest against hunger and homelessness. DSA’s December 14 holiday party featured a performance and discussion of The Mother with actress Sarah Walton.
As the year opened, members of the DC/MD and NOVA locals were in talks aimed at increasing cooperation between the chapters. Meanwhile, both locals continued a regular schedule of activities on their own.
DC/MD’s January 11 membership meeting featured a discussion of the widening gap between black and white radicals, with speakers Howard “Stretch” Johnson (featured at the Seeing Red event) and Hulbert James, who had recently served as director of the voter-registration campaign Project Human SERVE.
A delegation of the local’s members joined the regular anti-apartheid protest at the South African Embassy on February 7.
DC/MD’s February 12 membership meeting included a discussion of Michael Harrington’s proposed DSA economic policy. Then on February 21, the local sponsored a showing at Foggy Bottom’s Inner Circle Theater of the film The Good Fight, a documentary on veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. At the showing, DSAers and others contributed $290.60 to help Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade buy an ambulance to send to Nicaragua. Local DSA member and Lincoln Brigade veteran Saul Wellman spoke at the event. The following month, DC/MD DSA’s general meeting focused on the movement to stop US intervention in Central America.
On March 22, DC/MD hosted Christopher Hitchens, Washington correspondent for The Nation, on the topic “Religion: Opiate of the People or Force for Progressive Change?” Michael Harrington had been scheduled to also speak but pulled out due to a conflict.
A number of NOVA members participated in Virginia Democratic Party mass meetings on March 30 as part of the nomination process for statewide offices in that year’s state elections. Also south of the Potomac, in March a group of members at the University of Virginia held an initial organizing meeting for a campus Youth Section chapter.
The DC/MD local held two notable meetings in April. On April 1 it hosted Jim Shoch, DSA National Political Director, for a discussion on the future of the organization. And on April 9, the topic of the general membership meeting was “Geostrategy and US Intervention in Central America” with discussion led by DSA member Doug Green and a member of the anti-intervention organization NICA.
Some 100 DSA members from around the country joined local members for a visible organizational presence at the April 19-22 “Spring Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice” mobilization in Washington. The centerpiece of the event was an April 20 march from the Ellipse to the Capitol. The four days of action also included picketing, congressional lobbying and civil disobedience.
On May 5, after a series of discussions between the DC/MD and NOVA locals, the two chapters held an “affiliation party” at Arlington Unitarian Church to finalize a federation between them. While this did not constitute a full merger, NOVA agreed to contribute toward pay for a staff member and rent on the DSA office at the Dupont Circle Building, and the local newsletter, whose name would be changed to the Democratic Socialist, would serve both locals. A four-member oversight panel would propose and plan joint projects. DSA National Co-Chair Barbara Ehrenreich was featured speaker at the affiliation party and folksinger Saul Schneiderman led a sing-along to “Solidarity Forever” and other tunes. One of the earliest joint events was a trip to Wolf Trap for a Pete Seeger/Arlo Guthrie concert.
DC/MD DSA held its annual meeting on June 1 at American University with the theme “Cultural Barriers to Building a Socialist Movement: Overcoming Capitalist Mythology.” Officers and board members for the year were elected. A picnic at Battery Kemble Park followed.
NOVA’s June 9 membership meeting included a discussion of DSA involvement in the fall election as well as DSA’s economic program. An Arlington DSA study group discussed the history of postwar Virginia on June 19. Meanwhile, a DC-MD study group on the “Economics of Feasible Socialism” began weekly meetings on June 13.
DC/MD’s Cultural/Educational Committee sponsored a June 28 forum on a socialist perspective on the Vietnam War led by Richard Healey and others. Shortly afterward, the local’s July 9 membership meeting discussed DC statehood and concluded that it should be a priority for the chapter.
NOVA’s annual meeting and picnic took place on August 11, with the meeting featuring election of the local’s leadership.
Both DC/MD and NOVA entered the fall with a full slate of activities. DC/MD held a swimming party on September 9 at a member’s home. The following day its membership meeting featured a discussion of the topic “Do You Want a Soviet Base in Nicaragua? How to Answer Your Neighbor” led by AU professor Phil Brenner, as well as elections to the November 8-11 national DSA Convention in Berkeley, Calif.
NOVA held its delegate election and membership meeting on September 15, which also featured an election of local officers and Bobbe Robbins’ showing slides of her trip to South Africa. Delegates to the national convention elected from DC/MD were Stu Comstock-Gay, Suzanne Crowell, Don Driscoll, Doug Green, Richard Healey, Pleasant Mann, Anne McCormick, Joe McLaughlin, Bill Mosley, Barb Pequet, Ben Ross, Tim Sears, Kurt Stand and Gail Stevenson. Delegates elected from NOVA were Bobbe Robbins and Ray Allen.
NOVA’s September 15 membership meeting also elected officers for the local: Bobbe Robbins, Chair; Chris Mihm and Allan Matthews, 10th District Reps.; Charlie Jewall and John Smucker, 8th District Reps.; Ray Allen, Organizing Secretary; Peter Hickman, Treasurer; and Alice Leonard, Political Action Coordinator.
NOVA continued its busy fall by taking part in regular anti-apartheid protests at Control Data Corporation in Alexandria over the company’s sale of computer technology to South Africa’s regime.
In September and October, DC/MD kept up a busy calendar of member events. On September 21 it sponsored a bus trip to Baltimore to watch the Orioles, and on September 27 it held a forum entitled “The Road from Nairobi – Arab/Jewish Dialogue: Two Women’s Perspectives” with Reena Bernards of New Jewish Agenda and Yervat Hatem of Howard University. On October 5 the local’s membership meeting featured a discussion of issues to arise at the upcoming national DSA convention.
On October 17, DC/MD’s annual Debs-Thomas fundraising dinner, held at the National Press Club, honored Victor Reuther, one of the pioneering early leaders of the United Auto Workers union and brother of the late UAW President Walter Reuther. A roster of speakers paid tribute to Reuther, including longtime labor activists Carl Shier, Joe Glazer and Harold Snell, civil rights leader James Farmer, Swedish Labor Attache Henry Perssons and labor attorney Joe Rauh. The dinners were discontinued after this event.
In November, NOVA members stumped for Douglas Wilder in his successful campaign for Virginia lieutenant governor, while DC/MD activists joined proponents of an initiative to save rent control in the District that was ultimately successful. Meanwhile, the Takoma Park/Silver Spring branch of DC/MD made endorsements in two Takoma Park races: incumbent Sammie Abbott for mayor and Sharon Levy for councilperson. Levy won her seat but Abbott was narrowly defeated for re-election.
On November 13, NOVA held its annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser in Arlington. The featured speaker was Dr. Jean Sinbad, executive director of the Washington Office on Africa, speaking on the topic “The Struggle for Freedom in South Africa.”
On November 15, DC/MD and the Institute for Policy Studies sponsored a talk by Cornel West: “The Black Political Agenda for the 80s: A Black Socialist View.” Soon afterward, on November 19, the local’s membership meeting featured economic Van Cook speaking about black unemployment in the District.
On November 20, DSA member Jehane Dyllan performed in “Silkwood,” a one-woman play, at the Sheraton Park Hotel, depicting the woman who blew the whistle against the nuclear power industry. Also on the cultural calendar was a solo performance by noted DC actress Sarah Walton in the play “The Mother,” presented at DC/MD’s December 14 holiday party.
The November issue of the Democratic Socialist announced the formation of a Metro DC Area DSA Youth Section, consisting largely of activists from the established DSA chapters at George Washington University and the University of Maryland.
Also in late November, NOVA held its annual planning meeting and decided to continue its ongoing coalition work on South Africa and Central America and become involved in issues of homeless and low-income housing.