Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a democratic socialist and social-democratic organization in the United States and the U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International, an international federation of social-democratic, democratic socialist and labor political parties and organizations.
DSA was formed in 1982 by a merger of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) and the New American Movement (NAM). Under the leadership of Michael Harrington, DSOC had become America's largest democratic socialist organization, despite having started, in Harrington's words, as "the remnant of a remnant"—with Harrington having been the leader of a minority caucus of the Socialist Party of America in 1972. At that time the SPA split three ways, The left group remained with the Socialist Party, the center group would become the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and the right group would become the Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA).. NAM was a coalition of writers and intellectuals with roots in both the New Left movements of the 1960s and the former members of socialist and communist parties of the Old Left.
Initially the DSA consisted of approximately 5,000 ex-DSOC members and 1,000 ex-NAM members. Upon the DSA's founding, Michael Harrington and socialist-feminist author Barbara Ehrenreich were elected as co-chairs of the organization.
According to Maria Svart, then national director of the DSA, the group has its roots in the Socialist Party of Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas. However, others argue that the DSA's strategy of primarily working within the Democratic Party has been unsuccessful.
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