A Conversation with NC Triangle DSA on Reaching 1,000 Members

Image credit: NC Triangle DSA

On July 3rd, NC Triangle Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announced its chapter had reached 1,000 members in good standing. This makes Triangle DSA not only one of the largest DSA chapters in the country, but likely the largest socialist organization in Triangle-area history. The chapter’s growth comes alongside a wave of DSA successes throughout the country, which have put a spotlight on the organization.

Part of the Democratic Party has responded by tacking left, hoping to capture some of the popularity behind DSA figures like NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14). Business-oriented Democrats have met the rise of the DSA with indignation: the centrist think tank Third Way vowed to spend $15 million to fight the DSA and its candidates, while a group of establishment Democrats led by Representative Tom Suozzi (NY-3) signed an open letter calling for Democrats to reject socialism.

Fox News now runs near-daily segments on the DSA, decrying the organization and its members as un-American communists hellbent on the nation’s destruction. Republicans, unable to run on their governing record, are hoping that red-baiting will boost the party’s chances in the midterm elections.

Missing from most mainstream coverage are the voices of those within the organization. How does Triangle DSA feel about its growing strength? What do they believe is driving the organization's momentum? What do they plan on doing with this newfound notoriety? Soon after the chapter reached 1,000 members, The Bull-etin contacted Triangle DSA’s Steering Committee to discuss and reflect on this milestone in the chapter’s history, sitting down for an extended interview with Alex C, the Steering Committee’s Membership Coordinator and a co-chair of the chapter’s administrative committee. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What do they think is driving the recent growth in both the NC Triangle and National DSA? The Steering Committee answered:

“Americans are frustrated with our political and economic system. Working class people are feeling squeezed by a system that is designed to work for the owning class, and we’re tired of it. People are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet, we’re watching our planet be destroyed, people being abducted and murdered in the streets by ICE, and there is extreme repression happening abroad, all so that the ruling class can amass ever more profit.

“People are ready for an alternative, and the DSA is showing how working-class people can build a better world through organized, collective action. Our political horizon is socialism – a system where working-class people hold all political and economic power, and we use that power to meet people’s basic needs, to heal our relationship with the earth, and to bring about a world free of imperialism. People find that inspiring, and they see that we have a realistic path to victory and want to get involved.

“… North Carolina in particular is a microcosm for the ills of capitalism and its sham democracy. Our districts are gerrymandered and state government officials take brides from corporations like Duke Energy, Smithfield, and Amazon to pollute our land, water, and air. So-called “right to work” laws and bans on public sector bargaining prevent workers from improving their conditions[1]. Rent control is illegal [2], and policies that favor landlords over tenant power abound. Women, transgender, and gender non-conforming people face constant attacks on their bodily autonomy and human dignity. Our communities are increasingly impacted by climate disasters, like Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Chantal, while survivors are left on their own to rebuild.

“When people are faced with these sorts of precarious and inhumane conditions, they’re going to spontaneously rise up and resist. But what DSA is doing is trying to transform these spontaneous uprisings into organized collective action that is aimed at socialist transformation. We want to seize that energy and turn it into an opportunity. We want to lead the working class and oppressed people to winning their own liberation.”

Alex expanded on the specific conditions in the Research Triangle that have led to the DSA’s success:

“The Triangle brings in a lot of students and young professionals - people experiencing ever-increasing precarity. Students go to grad school, or undergrad, expecting a certain path laid out in front of them, and those opportunities are disappearing quickly. The kinds of opportunities that were available to college-educated Americans 20 or 30 years ago are becoming less and less common.

“In addition, the Triangle has a lot of poverty, homelessness, and gentrification [3]. That precarity isn’t only felt by young people who come here excited about their future, but by those native to the Triangle as well … When you put people in those conditions, especially as their own living standards decline, they’re not going to tolerate it. They’re going to want to act. DSA is really showing people that through organized collective struggle we can do something, that there’s a path to victory - the movement toward socialism. DSA is leading that movement, and people get excited about that.

“Finally, we also have a lot of people who aren’t from the United States who either migrate here or come here to study. The interaction between students, locals, and foreign born residents raises awareness and consciousness about the role of the American empire and the destruction it creates. I first became aware of Palestine and Israel’s occupation through someone I went to college with who was Palestinian. They inspired me to learn more.”

While local conditions may have laid the foundation for the Triangle DSA’s growth, national and international events are often cited as the cause of increased recruitment. This was true for Alex, who credits the chapter's response to the Israeli genocide of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip for bringing him into the organization:

“A lot of people were energized to join the DSA by Bernie in 2016, but I was jaded by that point. It was really seeing DSA, and especially Triangle DSA, come out boldly in favor of Palestine and really distinguishing themselves from the Democrats that inspired me to check DSA out.”

The Steering Committee agreed that national events can cause large spikes in chapter membership. However, they pointed out that there is a difference between spikes and sustained, dedicated membership. They credited this more durable, prolonged growth to their success:

“Triangle DSA's membership spikes, like with most DSA chapters, are mainly driven by earned national media cycles and significant events that motivate people to get involved. The most significant ones that stand out in recent memory are the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign, the general uprising after the murder of George Floyd, Trump's re-election, the waves of solidarity with the Palestinian people since October 7, and the recent DSA electoral victories.

“However, while these events have driven the greatest formal numerical growth, in our experience, the greatest sustained increases in activity have actually come after major internal debates, through direct recruitment into our external-facing work, and through our Member-Leader program, which is a peer-operated leadership course of organizing skills and political fundamentals. 

“For many people, DSA is the first time they have had a truly democratic stake in the direction of anything in their lives, let alone a political organization. The first time they have seen for themselves that ordinary people, when organized, can exercise real power and influence, and the first time they have experienced an organization that invests proactive institutional effort into demystifying the skills and knowledge that more experienced members have. Experiences like those transform people who come to DSA into long-term fighters for a democratic world.”

Alex talked about the experience of new members participating in a democratic organization:

“We live in a society that calls itself a democracy, but really money dictates outcomes. The candidate with the largest backing from corporate funders is often the one who wins. Not always, as DSA is showing … Working-class and oppressed people, when they’re organized and have socialism as their common horizon, can defeat those corporate interests, can defeat the ruling class. In DSA, money doesn’t rule what we do. We’re a member-led, member-funded organization. Everything we do is determined by our members. That’s an experience most people aren’t familiar with.

“DSA gives people the opportunity to organize around an idea, build buy-in with their comrades, craft and work together on a campaign, and execute it. It doesn’t always work. But even when it fails, you work together to debrief what worked, what didn’t, and determine how you could improve. You develop skills and you develop political understanding. I’m a big believer that participation in DSA, when it goes well, is a transformative experience.”

DSA is not the first left-wing organization in the US to utilize grassroots democracy, but it has surpassed the size and scope of its predecessors. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the organization often credited with sparking the “New Left” in America, and a direct predecessor to the DSA, reached roughly 350 chapters and 40,000 members before the organization splintered due to irreconcilable political infighting. By contrast, DSA has managed to contain most of the infighting within the bounds of official procedures. That pressure valve has given the organization a comparatively long life and allowed its chapters to harness collective action to punch above their weight.

Triangle DSA has seen impressive success in recent years. Since 2021, the chapter has helped elect three endorsed candidates to political office: Danny Nowell to the Carrboro Town Council in 2021, Nate Baker was to Durham City Council in 2023, and Natalie Bent-Kitaif to the Durham Public Schools Board of Education in 2026. Baker and Nowell are DSA members, while Bent-Kitaif is not. Bent-Kitaif won only recently, but Baker and Nowell have been building impressive resumes since taking office. The Steering Committee highlighted some of their accomplishments:

“Nowell authored the state’s first Gaza ceasefire resolution in 2023 and supported the chapter in successfully organizing for a 2023 expansion of the Bolin Creek Greenway in Carrboro. Baker organized with the chapter to launch the Duke Respect Durham campaign calling on Duke to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to Durham, and in office has won funding for Durham’s Name Change Fund, fare-free buses, and city worker raises.”

The Steering Committee highlighted three of the chapter’s most important campaigns: Abort Fake Clinics (AFC), the Data Center Moratorium, and No Appetite 4 Apartheid (NA4A).

“Launched by Triangle DSA in 2022, AFC grew out of the chapter’s Socialist Feminist Working Group and is dedicated to removing crisis pregnancy centers, evangelical-funded anti-abortion centers, from the Triangle. Gateway Women’s Care, an anti-abortion center in Raleigh, closed last year after protests against the center’s landlord led by AFC and NC State Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA). Triangle DSA immediately moved on to the Gateway Women’s Care in Durham, which it has picketed repeatedly.

“A pillar of the AFC campaign is to disrupt the demand for these centers, that is rooted in this country’s lack of free healthcare, by supplying material aid to support reproductive health and bodily autonomy in the Triangle community. AFC has hosted several successful events mobilizing community members to prepare post-abortion care bags for local women’s shelters and mutual aid hubs, with the most recent event seeing donations of nearly 2,000 pads and other self-care items.

“Our chapter Eco-socialism Association is fighting back against the expansion of data centers. We don’t want technology that’s sucking up water and energy, fueling mass surveillance, and being used to suppress wages forced down our throat. We are going to keep organizing for a long-term ban on new data centers and for the democratic, transparent, and ecologically sane use of technology.

“Finally, Triangle DSA’s NA4A campaign was launched in 2024 as part of the national NA4A movement to boycott products that are produced in Israel or by companies that support the Zionist occupation of Palestine. NA4A’s efforts led to Bean Traders Coffee Roasters in Durham removing Sabra hummus from their menu. The campaign has also organized several sold-out hummus making nights led by a Palestinian community member to build solidarity and community in the Triangle around anti-apartheid organizing.”

In early August, Durham County Commissioners voted in favor of a 9-month moratorium on data center expansions. Alex noted that the moratorium passed, but was seriously flawed:

“It passed, but not the version we wanted. We wanted a data center moratorium with no carve-outs. The one that passed did have carve-outs, and it was watered-down … it made an exception for data centers 100,000 square feet or less. Data centers that size can still be very resource-intensive. We were really pushing for a moratorium with no exemptions, and that didn’t pass. A county commissioner brought an amendment to eliminate the carve-outs, and none of the other commissioners supported it. It was very frustrating.

“Only two people spoke against our position. One spoke against the moratorium altogether, some RTP-linked lobbyist, and another was with the NC Chamber of Commerce, speaking in favor of the moratorium with the carve-out. The vast majority of people there were speaking against it from all different angles. Yet, the county commissioners chose to prioritize corporate interests over the people of Durham.”

The final results of the data center moratorium vote highlights both the current extent and limits of the grassroots influence in the triangle. While the combined effort of multiple grassroots organizations, community members, and advocates was able to apply enough pressure to pass a weak moratorium, it will take a longer effort to force the Durham County Commission to overcome the influence of the local business establishment. Only one commissioner, Nida Allam, voted against the weakened moratorium, arguing that the 100,000-square-foot loophole should be closed. 

Although there is clearly a long way to go before a socialist transformation in the United States, the Triangle DSA representatives showed a great deal of optimism for the future. It was clear in both interviews that the chapter sees its success tied to the hostility both political parties show toward the interests of working-class Americans. Since Democratic Party leadership is slow to change, and the Trumpist right wing continues to wreak havoc, DSA's mission remains clear.

Alex summarized this feeling with a call to action:

“I’d just encourage people, if you’re frustrated with the status quo in which corporate profits and the ruling class dictate what goes on in society; if you’re frustrated by investment in data centers; shocked that our leaders are destroying our planet, leading to increasingly severe and frequent climate disasters like Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Chantal; horrified by increasing imperialist aggression, whether it’s attacks on Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, or Palestine; if you’re frustrated with the way the world is, I’d encourage you to join DSA.

“Go to a meeting, talk to people, learn what DSA is about. Because ultimately, it’s through working-class and oppressed people coming together, getting involved, and fighting for something better that we’re going to win and change the world. I want to encourage people to take that step and get activated. That’s how we’re going to win, and we are going to win. I want people to be part of that.”

[1] According to a 2024 report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, North Carolina has the lowest rate of union participation in the country, with only 2.4% of its workforce represented by a union.

[2] Rent control has been banned in North Carolina since 1987, with no carve outs for cities to enact any form of rent stabilization, even if their local populations vote for it.

[3] The rate of homelessness in the Research Triangle, like in much of the country, has continued to climb since 2020. As of 2025, the estimated number of unhoused residents in the Triangle was 1,788, 15% higher than in 2024.