‘Keep it comradely’: Kansas City’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter grows rapidly, tops 1,000 members 

(This is part of a series on the rise of the DSA, Democratic Socialists of America)

Kansas City’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter has almost quadrupled in size over the last two years, according to members of the group who spoke at an orientation meeting last week.

Nationally, the DSA has become America’s largest socialist organization, with 120,000 members, and that number is still growing. The DSA chapter for the Kansas City metro area has been deemed the “Missouri Miracle” as its membership has increased rapidly from 245 to more than 1,000 members.

“Socialism is breeding FAST here in Missouri,” Missouri political commentator Heather Overstreet wrote in an X post. “There are socialists coming out of the woodworks, literally.”

Democratic socialists want to “tax the rich,” whom they also call the “owning class,” and replace capitalism with a sort of utopian “democracy” that might sound good on paper but, at the very least, would severely damage the economy and society as we know it, critics say.

“Every form of socialism, including democratic socialism, is completely and fundamentally incompatible with our system of liberty and a free society,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in an X post last week. “This is more important than ever to discuss with our students.

“America will never be a socialist country,” she added.

The DSA claims capitalism has failed, and “right-wing authoritarianism” is taking its place. Big businesses and politicians are focused on attacking immigrants, transgender individuals and people of color rather than fixing “real issues” such as the health care system, the DSA says.

“The Republicans are in on it, the Democratic Party is asleep at the wheel, and both are funded by the same criminal class of billionaires and war profiteers,” the DSA’s website states. …

“If we lived in a classless society and governed ourselves, we could freely build a world without war or poverty.”

Kansas City DSA hot topics

“We are a relatively big tent under the socialist ideology and so there are lots of different people who believe different things in the DSA,” Tyler Martin, a national DSA member and Kansas City DSA steering committee member, explained at the orientation meeting.

The group identifies as an organization rather than a political party and has a wide range of political beliefs, with some DSA groups, known as caucuses, touting communism.

Those caucuses include the Red Star caucus, the Communist caucus and the Marxist Unity Group.

“Our primary goal, the goal which informs all of our organizing work, is to abolish capitalism and, ultimately, to achieve communism,” the Red Star’s website states.

There appears to be unity around taxing the rich, implementing a 32-hour workweek and ending the U.S. war machine, which refers to defunding the Department of War, yet at least one Kansas City member acknowledges the DSA is still “a little tough to figure out.”

“A question I get asked a lot is … how do you have 1,000 members and get them to agree on anything?” Martin said, noting DSA meetings are typically “clunky” at first.

“If you’ve ever had three socialists in a room together, it’s a lot of arguing and a lot of debating back and forth on who’s right and who’s wrong.”

KC ICE Free

Other political ideologies with strong agreement include “Free Palestine,” Medicare for all, feminism for all and the Green New Deal.

The Kansas City chapter’s largest working group is KC ICE Free – a movement to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was voted as the chapter’s priority campaign a little over a year ago and has largely contributed to the group’s rapid growth, said DSA National Political Committee Member Andrew Thompson.

As ICE began its “invasion of the Twin Cities,” Martin writes, Kansas City DSA identified its targets, opposition and allies to find ways to keep their neighbors – meaning illegal immigrants – safe.

“We have KC ICE Free which has become a runway hit and a big success, where we are organizing to fight back against ICE in our communities, protect our immigrant neighbors, make sure people know their rights, and building a rapid response network across the entire metro area,” said Daniel, Kansas City DSA’s membership coordinator.

The Kansas City DSA calls the arrest of illegal immigrants a “white supremacist program of ethnic cleansing.” It trains its members to record if they see ICE agents.

“It is really helpful to have a large bank of recorded activity,” Kansas City DSA onboarding and orientation lead Brian Fenaughty said. “Sometimes that is even enough to convince ICE to leave without doing anything, because they know very frequently that what they’re doing is illegal.”

The chapter also offers a taillight clinic at least one Saturday every month to fix things such as broken taillights and blinkers for free. The goal is to minimize the number of people getting pulled over for minor violations such as broken taillights, which could lead to an illegal immigrant being arrested.

“We know that police interactions in and of themselves can go violent, can turn violent, and we also know that the traffic stops are oftentimes the first steps towards an ICE abduction,” Fenaughty explained.

“So, if you also hate ICE,” resist by taking the Monarch Pledge, Fenaughty prompts. Those who sign the Monarch Pledge – usually businesses or restaurants – promise to refuse service to ICE agents and anyone who cooperates with them.

Public figures in the Kansas City area, including former Jackson County Legislature candidate Justice Horn and former congressional candidate Sarah Preu, have signed the pledge.

How the group works

The DSA has a national body elected by its members, along with campus- and community-based chapters. The chapters have committees to handle their required functions, commissions organized around strategic work and working groups to handle specific, timely issues.

DSA members are required to pay Solidarity Dues, which are income-based monthly payments that amount to at least 1% of the member’s income. Someone making $50,000 per year would pay $42 per month in dues.

“Give your 1% for the 99%,” DSA’s dues page states.

The Kansas City DSA chapter has nonprofit status and maintains a bank account, which is spent as members see fit. It is primarily funded by member dues and donations.

Economic impact

The White House released an interactive dashboard last week that reveals “the real cost of socialism to your family.”

The report says that over 10 years, socialism would add about $49 trillion to federal deficits, which would cost each American household $355,000. The economy as a whole would lose $73 billion as taxes and government borrowing would drastically increase to pay for the DSA’s proposed programs.

Implementing a 32-hour workweek would cost the economy $5.2 trillion, while the Green New Deal would cost $2.2 trillion. Other factors, such as mortgage rates and income tax, would also increase significantly.

Abolishing the police, ICE and prison systems and reducing criminal sentences, as the DSA advocates, would result in higher crime rates, an increase in child poverty and more than 173 additional deaths from violent crime per 100,000 people, according to the White House.

“Make no mistake, these are the Democrats’ policies,” the White House states. “They want to destroy our great, hard-fought nation, and plummet our economy and the very fabric of our nation into the ground.”

(Background photo credit: Adobe Stock, mandritoiu)