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Charleston Chapter

Join Charleston DSA as we trace the Roots of the Socialist Program.

Interested in classic Marxist texts and how we can apply them to our current conditions? This study group is for you!

We’ll begin with the intellectual roots of socialist programs, moving from Marx and the development of socialist political programs toward the contemporary demands and strategy outlined in DSA’s Workers Deserve More. Along the way, we’ll explore questions of capitalism, the working class, labor, social reproduction, imperialism, democracy, and socialist strategy.

Some of the readings may be challenging, but you don't need to be an expert in Marxism to participate!

Even if you don't have time to complete all the reading, the discussions will be accessible and engaging for all. 

Session 5: Ecosocialism - Wed, October 14th @ 6:30pm

Workers must lead our democratic transition to a green future. Pass a federal jobs guarantee. Implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair our earth's resources for all.

- DSA Platform: Workers Deserve More

DSA’s political program, WDM advocates for a Green New Deal. This is a program which can help reform and reduce our ecological burden while providing for the general needs of the people through a jobs guarantee and investment in sustainable energy and public transit.

While its last line reads: “Reclaim and Repair our Earth’s resources for all”, DSA is not committed to any particular revolutionary line on Ecology, Degrowth, or any post-capitalist strategy for the climate crisis. These are questions being asked by the modern socialist movement, and they hope to address more than just our domestic economy and the US contributions to Climate Change. 

At the front of this debate are terms like ‘De-Growth’, ‘Eco-Leninism’, and ‘Eco-Modernism’. 

Our reading this week will take Marxist analysis and dialectic beyond our minimal program planks to what an ecologically sustainable future might look like under socialism. 

Foundational Readings

Contemporary Reading

Session 4 - Economy, Class, & Labor - (passed)

The readings will address Marxist political economy in general, the working day & conditions of labor, as well as touching on the labor movement as a way to answer this question. 

Meeting four will build off the brief political economy detailed in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. We’ll explore three texts spanning more than 180 years of socialist thought and contemporary debate. Starting with Frederick Engels’ Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, an early attempt to examine the foundations and contradictions of capitalist political economy. Next the readings turn to two contemporary interventions that ask what those contradictions mean for socialist organization today: Jason R. Webb’s “May Day 2028 is Our Confrontation to Make” and Parker McQueeney’s “Principled Partyist Strategy.”

Together, these readings raise questions about the relationship between capitalism and class struggle, the role of political organization, the possibilities and limits of electoral politics, and how socialists can build durable working-class power. Webb’s piece looks toward May Day 2028 as a potential focal point for coordinated labor action while emphasizing the longer-term task of developing workers’ organizations and capacity for collective action. McQueeney’s essay approaches the question from a more explicitly partyist perspective, using debates within the U.S. socialist and labor movement to argue for greater political independence and organization.

Foundational Readings:

Contemporary Readings:

Bonus Readings! (if interested)

Each is only a few paragraphs long newspaper entry published by Engels in The Labor Standard 1881.

Join us for a discussion of capitalism, class formation, socialist organization, and strategy.

Session 3 - Scientific Socialism (passed)

Session 3 will be our final introductory reading, after which we will explore specific elements of the platform!

How does the socialist party make decisions? How can we feel confident in our analysis and our long term goals? Scientific socialism is the element of the socialist moment that distinguished it from the past so-called 'utopian' socialism - religious and otherwise.

We will primarily cover the classic text Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. This covers the origins of socialism as Marx and Engels saw it, and how modern socialism is a distinct departure from these 'utopian' strains. It gives great insight into how we can make scientific decisions in our party strategy based on a foundation of historical and economic analysis, while addressing real current material and social conditions. We will also take a look at Lenin's brief work on the intellectual and organizational sources of Marxism. Both texts were addressed briefly in last week's Lih reading.

Foundational Reading (primary)

Session 2 - The Party (passed)

Per 2025 convention’s successful resolution R07: Principles of Party Building, DSA explicitly sets out to build a socialist party. As of now, DSA often uses the democratic ballot line. This contradiction brings up hot topics in DSA: the dirty break (we grow in power & make ourselves so unpalatable to the establishment that they ‘kick DSA out’), the clean break (we exit the party on our own volition). What are the reasons for using the ballot line? What are the real risks? What shape does the DSA’s party need to take in order to win and wield power effectively?

Marx didn’t clearly define a party structure. Members of the first International in Germany and France had singular figureheads like Ferdinand Lasalle who held more of a dictatorial power. The SPD that formed through the merger of Bebel & Liebknecht’s SDAP and Lasalle’s ADAV led to a ‘Party of a New Type’ in the SPD at the Gotha congress of 1875. The SPD became the model for all socialist parties up until the Russian revolution of 1917.

We include some current readings in order to make the connections between our current ‘party’ and the party of the 2nd international. These will be ideologically ‘biased’, since there’s no consensus of these topics yet within DSA, and some caucuses don’t engage with the party question as directly.

Teacher’s note:
Lenin rediscovered reading will require a strong effort from most attendees. If you feel you won’t make it, don’t be ashamed to skim.

Audiobook is available on spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2RSPVDY08SL3fkZ7v3PEns?si=1e72ba81ed1441c4

Required Reading

Recommended Reading

Session 1 - The Program (passed)

For our first meeting, we’ll be looking at the history and purpose of socialist political programs.

Please Read (or skim) the following 

  1. “Programme: Lessons of Erfurt” ( ~20-30 min)
    A discussion of the lessons socialist organizers can draw from the development of the Erfurt Program.
    Read “Programme: Lessons of Erfurt”
  2. “The Erfurt Program” (German SPD, 1891) ( ~20 min)
    One of the most influential examples of a socialist political program, developed by the German Social Democratic Party.
    Read “The Erfurt Program”
  3. “Workers Deserve More: The DSA Program” ( ~10 min)
    DSA's current national program, which lays out a vision for thriving working-class communities, a working-class foreign policy, and working-class democracy.
    Read “Workers Deserve More”


We'll use these readings as a starting point for thinking about what makes a socialist program different from a list of policy demands and what it means to develop a program capable of building working-class power.

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