The Democratic Socialists of America are red all over — with a financial situation so dire that some leaders are demanding job cuts and the layoff of staffers just like a corporate America entity, The Post has learned.
The DSA — which has led protests against Israel over the Jewish State’s retaliatory response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack — is deep in a seven-figure hole and desperately in need of a way to stanch the red ink, members acknowledge.
“We will cut $500,000 from staff-related expenses. We will first ask for volunteers from both director-level and bargaining unit staff to have their position cut and receive severance,” according to a proposal advanced by members of DSA’s National Political Committee affiliated with its Marxist Bread and Roses caucus.
“If necessary, we will then explore initiating lay-offs according to the DSA union’s contract,” the DSA officers said.
The situation appears to be a case of an organization that blindly seeks utopia and professes support of the working class clashing with reality — forcing it to have to balance a budget like the rest of America and even contemplate layoffs hated by labor unions.
“DSA is in a financial crisis and staff-related costs account for 58% of our total expenditures and 72% of our projected income,” wrote DSA members Alex Pellitteri, Kristin Schall and Laura Wadlin in the cost-cutting proposal.
“The current deficit will force us to make 7-figure budget cuts. This will require us to make painful decisions that will impact all levels of the organization. … Given our current financial state, we do not believe we can have a healthy, democratic, and effective organization while spending the amount we currently do on staff,” they said.
“If necessary, we will then explore initiating lay-offs according to the DSA union’s contract. Be it revolved: The Personnel Committee will be responsible for determining the quantity and type of positions to be eligible for buy-out or layoff, and they will assist with logistics and a staff transition plan,” the group said.
Progressive Jewish activists are blaming DSA leaders who blindly back Palestinian groups at least partly for the fiscal crisis, saying they have damaged the group’s credibility and lost support by backing the Hamas terrorists.
The DSA has long supported the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.
“DSA long ago fell into the trap of becoming so radical in the name of ‘justice’ that they abandoned the mission of the progressive movement,” said Amanda Berman, founder and executive director of Zioness, a group representing liberal Jews who support Israel.
She said an internal DSA feud in 2022 over whether it should withdraw support for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-Westchester/Bronx) for visiting Israel left members already admitting they were “bleeding activists and financial resources.
“After Hamas’s brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, DSA doubled down on their strategy of going deep and long on antisemitism, thinking it might get them out of the hole,” Berman said. “Instead, this depraved idea dug them even deeper.
“True progressives, whether in the grassroots or in political leadership, will continue rejecting this extremist group and its hateful ideas in the name of true justice and equity, including for Jewish Americans,” Berman said.
But the DSA officers recommending the job cuts said the left-wing group should be buoyed by the energy surrounding its anti-Israel protests — and seemed puzzled why their bottom line is flailing.
“But how did this decline in revenue, membership, and overall excitement happen in the first place? This should actually be a really favorable time for DSA. We’re living in a moment when revived labor struggles and the fight for a free Palestine are galvanizing so many Americans, particularly young people,” the DSA officers said in a column in the Bread and Roses’ “The Call.”
“Biden’s disastrous policy of fueling Israel’s genocide in Gaza has created the kind of space for an independent alternative from the Democratic Party that has not existed since Bernie [Sanders, Vermont senator, former presidential candidate].”
