Activist Updates: 2024 YDSA Convention Day 1

The Activist Editorial Board summarizes the first day of the 2024 YDSA national convention.

“Turbulence,” was the word keynote speaker Sumaya Awad used to describe the current political climate as she addressed an audience of 136 members of YDSA for the organization’s online convention. 

Awad’s words reference the volatility and uncertainty that have been defining features of 2024. YDSA’s convention takes place in the middle of a presidential election which has included an assassination attempt against Republican nominee Donald Trump, widespread calls for President Joe Biden to end his reelection campaign, and protests against U.S support for Israel on college campuses, resulting in more than 3,000 students being arrested. 

The convention is a three day conference where delegates from YDSA chapters across the United States vote on resolutions and amendments that will impact the organization’s political direction.  

Resolutions and amendments at the 2024 convention tackle a variety of subjects, from student government campaigns to recruiting in red states, rebuilding YDSA’s communications  infrastructure to labor organizing. 

Delegates also have the opportunity to vote on candidates for the National Coordinating Committee (NCC), the governing body of YDSA. Five people are running for co-chair this year, with eleven campaigning for at-large. 

Awad, a member of NYC DSA and author of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, spoke about the role of Palestinian liberation in the socialist movement, and how college campuses are uniquely spaces for radicalization. 

“What happens on college campuses matters so much to them. Because when you discuss on campuses, when you’re politicizing and radicalizing students, that has an impact on the workers of the future,” Awad said. “That’s one of the many reasons that students have such a powerful role, and why when they organize, and when they disrupt, there is a very intense and violent backlash.”

As previously written in The Activist, YDSA has been at the forefront of Palestine solidarity movements on campuses, with many members facing expulsion, suspension, and imprisonment for their activity. 

“There’s this very intimate relationship between the administrators—presidents, the board of trustees—and the interests of US empire and US imperialism, and how that is upheld on college campuses,” Awad said. Speaking about the work of students on Palestine, Awad praised them for implementing new and innovative strategies to advance their cause. “It’s a reminder to all of us of the power we have in disrupting society, and disrupting the ability of things to go on as normal as a genocide is happening.” 

Awad also warned about the importance of knowing your audience, saying “we really need to remember, and really need to ask ourselves constantly ‘who is our audience? And are the strategies and tools that we are using, are they expanding our audience? Are they making our movement smaller?’” While radical language and tactics can be appealing, Awad argued it can also lead to alienating people and making the movement less effective. 

“Ultimately what will stop what is happening in Gaza, what will stop the genocide, what will build our movement…what will get us to where we want to be as socialists, which is a world where workers are running everything, where we have power as the workers and the oppressed, is if we have the many on our side, and not if we’re constantly isolating ourselves.”

Before day one of the convention came to an end, delegates voted on three things. The first was an amendment, introduced by Bryce Springfield from Princeton YDSA, to change convention rules and have the co-chair election be conducted using single transferable vote, rather than using the Borda voting system. The amendment passed with 99 in favor, 11 against, and 14 abstaining. 

The second motion asked delegates to vote on adopting the amended YDSA convention rules. It passed with 118 in favor, 1 against, and 3 abstensions. 

Finally, delegates voted on the convention agenda, with 118 in favor, 0 against, and 2 abstensions. 
The 2024 YDSA Convention agenda can be found here.