Chapter Program

Who We Are

We are the Columbus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a national organization with over 100,000 members that is committed to organizing the working class and fighting for socialism. With over 500 members across the central Ohio area involved in all areas of struggle, including immigrant solidarity, electoral reform of Columbus’s city council, union organizing, housing justice, and fighting for a free Palestine, Columbus DSA came together and collectively created a program to guide our work and commit ourselves to the cause of working people!

Capitalism in the USA and Ohio

We, as members of DSA, are organizing the working class and fighting for socialism as a real alternative for working people. That real alternative is necessary because the social system that we all live under, capitalism, is failing everyday people. It fails both people who work for a wage and those who work in the home or without pay because the economy is built on the exploitation of the majority of people’s work for the profit of a minority: the owners and landlords, also known as capitalists. Profit comes from exploitation; if a capitalist paid out to their employees the full value of the work that they do, they would not ever be able to turn a profit. And because capitalism is built on the exploitation of the majority, it needs to disempower the majority politically, socially, and economically. It disempowers through war, genocide, police repression, border walls, racism, patriarchy, ecological devastation, and our own undemocratic, unrepresentative government. The few wield power over the many, so that capitalists can keep profiting off of us.

In the USA, both of the major parties protect and maintain capitalism. The Republican party is the party of American fascism, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as the president’s private army and secret police targeting immigrants and people of color. The Democratic party is complicit in the right-wing shift, throwing immigrants and trans people under the bus and presiding over police departments in Democrat-run cities like Columbus that over-police Black people. Both parties warmonger and bomb other countries to further American imperialism, and both parties work to keep our city, state, and country undemocratic, built on the USA’s undemocratic Constitution. Here in central Ohio, these issues are no different. Working people struggle with affording food, housing, and healthcare, while being disenfranchised and overly policed. The state of Ohio is controlled by the Republicans through gerrymandering and corruption, while Columbus is controlled by the Democrats with city-wide council elections and the Columbus Police Department to keep working people out of government and with their heads held down. We don’t want there to be any more victims of police brutality, but the city and state government are still knee-deep in the same racism and corruption that causes it. We want to provide a real alternative.

Fighting for Democratic Socialism

We fight for an alternative to capitalism: democratic socialism. DSA organizes working people toward that goal, because being organized is the only way to reach it. By working together for democratic socialism in an organized fashion we can win, and individually we cannot. But DSA is not the first group to organize for a real alternative. Indigenous people have resisted colonialism for hundreds of years, and enslaved people withholding their labor during the Civil War learned firsthand the power that workers have in banding together and fighting for their own freedom. Abolitionists and freed slaves during Reconstruction in the mid-1800s fought for the real democracy that this country never had, while labor unions in every industry and workplace fought and continue to fight for real change for working people, for the eight hour work day, higher wages, and workplace protections. The fight for racial justice and democracy continued through the Civil Rights Movement and Black Lives Matter through to today, and the union movement has picked back up after decades of decline. Organizing for democratic socialism builds on this long history.

Democratic socialism is a society where workers take over from the capitalists and democratically run everything, from their workplaces and homes to the government and economy. Economic production and distribution is to be owned by society as a whole, the power of bosses and landlords over their employees and tenants will end, and everyone will be empowered to not just live but thrive. This is socialism for all people, a political and social system that empowers the disempowered, works to heal the wounds of genocide, slavery, and racism, and makes justice a reality.

To further the goal of democratic socialism, Columbus DSA commits ourselves to and organizes in line with the national program of DSA. We also organize for the following demands, intended to strengthen and empower the diverse working class in central Ohio and prepare us for the fight for socialism:

Everyone Deserves Safety, Wellness, and Opportunity

1. Tax the Rich!

An increase in income taxes on the 1% at both the state and federal level, in order to 

lower income inequality, weaken the capitalists economically and politically, and fund social programs and investments in our communities.

2. Free Healthcare for All

A publicly-run and funded healthcare system with increased staffing and made accessible to all communities, providing care, medication, and illness prevention freely, including free access to reproductive, transgender, and mental health care that centers bodily autonomy for all.

3. Universal and Social Housing

An end to the pro-developer agenda pursued by City Hall, including tax abatements and other incentives that prioritize developers and landlords over working people, and a transition to free, socialized housing for all, where housing is no longer a commodity to be bought or sold.

4. A Clean, Healthy Environment

Stronger regulation to stop pollution of our waterways, natural landscape, air, and the 

environments in which we live, including reprioritizing power to our communities instead of data centers and a ban on fracking. A transition to sustainable energy away from all fossil fuels and toward a society that puts ecological needs before profit and growth.

5. Free, Universal Childcare and Education

Publicly-run quality childcare made accessible to all parents and caregivers, along with expansive family leave for all parents. A public education system that is entirely free, secular, universally accessible, and high-quality from pre-K through to university, with safe and clean facilities and sufficient staffing and support for educators.

6. Free, Quality Public Transit

A well-funded and well-staffed COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority) and the expansion of passenger rail, all made democratically responsive to the needs of community members, and kept high quality and safe for working people to be able to traverse the city and the state.

7. Public, Community-Run Utilities

Food, water, electricity, and other necessities made a fundamental right, with publicly-owned and publicly-run utilities and grocery stores to lower costs and provide an alternative to the private corporations that control working people’s access to necessities.

Everyone Deserves to Own Their Time and Labor

8.  Workers’ Right to Our Own Labor

All workers should have the right to freely form unions in solidarity with their fellow workers, and to withhold their labor in a strike as leverage against their bosses. The right to strike, unionize, and organize is not to be restricted by any means, and employees cannot be punished for organizing a strike or a labor union.

9. A Living Wage for All Workers

A living wage for all workers that is adjusted in line with inflation, to ensure that all working people can afford the cost of living, without needing two or more jobs to do so.

Everyone Deserves to be Free

10. Universal and Equal Suffrage

The right to vote for all permanent residents, regardless of citizenship status or criminal conviction. An end to gerrymandering and unequal representation weighting some votes more than others.

11. A Democratic City, State, and Country

Democracy at all levels of government: establishing a district system for Columbus city council and ensuring freedom of speech and due process for all. A new, truly democratic Constitution as the foundation for a democracy for working people.

12. Dismantle Racism for a New Reconstruction 

Fighting racism and the long history of segregation and discrimination in Ohio through monetary reparations and investment in infrastructure and resources in Black and Brown communities. A thorough recognition of indigenous sovereignty and inclusion of native peoples in democratic decisionmaking.

Everyone Deserves the Right to Live in Peace

13. Abolish the Police State

The abolition of law enforcement agencies as they now exist, to be replaced by 

community-run and democratically accountable policing, an end to qualified immunity for law enforcement and officials, and an end to the prison-industrial complex.

14. Not One Dollar More

An end to all local, state, and federal government investments in Israel, and not a single dollar to be put toward supporting any perpetrator of genocide and colonialism, including any investments in companies producing weapons of war and surveillance.

15. Fight Fascism and Defend Our Communities

Unequivocal support for the rights of immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women, disabled people, and all marginalized groups in the face of fascist repression and attacks on our rights.