East Bay DSA Bernie Campaign Statement

by the 2020 Committee Co-Chairs

The Bernie Sanders campaign raised the expectations of the American working-class and pointed out the absurdity and horror of our racist, capitalist system. It demonstrated the broad and expansive popularity of programs deemed “too radical” for working-class voters, like Medicare For All, free college, an end to deportations and mass incarceration, and a Green New Deal. Millions of working-class people across the country donated to the campaign and spent countless hours volunteering to fight side by side in solidarity with people they do not know and will never meet.

Just like in 2016, Bernie Sanders’ campaign has led to an explosive growth of the Democratic Socialists of America. Over 50 DSA chapters, representing thousands of socialist organizers, across the country knocked over half a million doors, expanding their membership numbers and training new organizers in the process. 

Locally, East Bay DSA ran a massive independent campaign that bolstered Bernie’s performance in the Bay Area and grew and developed hundreds of new organizers. Over 730 volunteers and new members stepped up to help develop and run a vibrant campaign of canvasses, phonebanks, fundraisers, debate watch parties and more that resulted in countless conversations with Bay Area residents about issues affecting them and their families, such as crushing medical debt, astronomical rents, and the most extreme income inequality in American history. East Bay DSA volunteers knocked over 30k doors and met and spoke with over 5,000 of our Bay Area neighbors and community members who committed to voting for Bernie Sanders. It’s time to welcome them into our democratic socialist movement.

Though Bernie’s presidential campaign is over, our work in fighting for the issues that his campaign centered around continue, both on a national and local scale.

With the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the incipient economic devastation it will bring, we again see the inability of capitalism, and the governments it controls, to defend the lives and livelihoods of the global, multi-racial working-class. Like Bernie says, only a mass movement of the working-class can bring about the change we need. As we organize side-by-side with workers and renters, unions and communities, in this unprecedented crisis, brought on by a capitalist system, we ask you to join us.

Join DSA. We have a world to win!