Against R24: “Budget Autonomy for YDSA”

This piece argues against the passage of Resolution 24, which would initiate an exploration of YDSA being separately incorporated from DSA. 

Resolution 24, “Budget Autonomy for YDSA,” asks that DSA’s budget and finance committee, alongside the NCC and NPC, explore the possibility of YDSA being separately incorporated from DSA. However, it is clear that this proposal is shortsighted at best. According to the resolution, by separate incorporation, the writers likely mean for YDSA National to have a similar legal and financial relationship to DSA National as separately incorporated DSA chapters do. Regardless of whether the goal is to have YDSA National exist as a subsidiary to DSA National or be an entirely separate organization, being separately incorporated increases the liability of the organization and places it at greater risk.

As things stand, NCC members are not individually liable for actions undertaken by national or local YDSAs, legally or financially. If this resolution is implemented, NCC members would become board members and thus become legally and financially liable for the organization. In particular, individual NCC members could be held personally liable if the organization is charged with criminal activity, which is a historically salient threat for a socialist organization in a capitalist society. Currently a legal battle faced by YDSA would become one faced by DSA. Since DSA is a much larger organization and therefore more difficult to sue, this has shielded YDSA in the past from large-scale legal liability in dangerous organizing contexts, like the encampment movement in which many YDSA members were arrested. Additionally, the most common method for separately incorporating part of an organization is to form a “subsidiary” organization. This process requires that the parent organization’s board—in this case the NPC—retains the ability to replace members of the subsidiary’s board, the NCC. This means that separate incorporation could result in us becoming less autonomous than we are currently.

When speaking of the ways in which such a change would affect the NCC, it is necessary to highlight the role of YDSA’s treasurer. A significant number of responsibilities would be added to their plate as the organization would become tax liable as well as financially independent, which necessitates greater concerns around compliance. DSA chapters who are separately incorporated have struggled to manage their finances before, and they deal with significantly smaller incomes and expenditures. It is not feasible to have a college student be in charge of managing the finances and ensuring the compliance of a national organization. The best option would be to hire a professional, which would incur additional staff costs.

Speaking of staff costs, the resolution is vague on what DSA staff, if any, would be transferred to YDSA and what ramifications this would have on the staff union. YDSA staff are currently members of the DSA Union. The resolution does not account for how such pre-existing positions will be affected by separate incorporation. At the same time, it makes it clear that, in the case that YDSA National becomes separately incorporated, it will have its own staff. Even in an exploratory resolution, such concerns should be clearly addressed to ensure that unforeseen consequences do not cause harm to the organization in the future.

Our current framework, where YDSA national’s budget is part of DSA national’s budget, is also more politically advantageous than separate incorporation would be. This past year many different parts of DSA, including YDSA, faced significant cuts. It is easy to think that more YDSA funding would have been preserved if we had complete autonomy. In truth, the current system means that the NPC had to go through YDSA’s budget line item by line item, which allowed our co-chairs to preserve important expenditures such as the NCC stipends. If YDSA were separately incorporated and still receiving money from DSA national, there would only be one line item for the total amount of money being given to YDSA. In this situation, political arguments become harder as the NPC is only aware that the money is going to YDSA but does not know what it is being used for. This is likely to result in harsher cuts and a decrease in how much the average DSA member understands about YDSA.

It is important to remember that YDSA National is a part of the larger organization that is DSA National. We work with and within DSA and receive support in return. YDSA occupies a unique and strategic position in DSA and, due to our current level of integration with it, we are able to build DSA up using our experience. Separate incorporation would necessitate reworking our structures as well as our relationship to DSA in a way that threatens the ability for the current, mutually beneficial situation to continue.

It is for these reasons, among others, that we urge all delegates to vote no on this resolution. For the continuity of YDSA and the success of its mission, we must remain a part of DSA rather than try to strike out on our own, generating and duplicating work that we do not have the capacity to carry on our own for, at best, negligible benefits.