In today’s political climate, it’s easy to mistake the virulent anti-Zionism of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as representative of the entire democratic socialist tradition. High-profile DSA-endorsed figures like New York Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani back boycotts of Israel and deny its right to exist as a Jewish state.
But this has not always been the case. Many of the most important voices in America’s democratic socialist movement were not only supporters of Israel; they saw in the Zionist movement and Israel’s founding a profound expression of the values they held most dear.
Figures such as Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights leader and architect of the 1963 March on Washington; Michael Harrington, author of the landmark book The Other America and founder of the DSA; Irving Howe, literary critic, political thinker and founding editor of Dissent magazine; Tom Kahn, a key strategist for the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and an influential personality in the Civil Rights Movement; Max Shachtman, a prominent intellectual and fierce anti-Communist who reshaped the American left; and Penn Kemble, a democracy activist and foreign policy thinker, represented generations of democratic socialists who believed passionately in human rights, liberal democracy and the Jewish people’s right to self-determination.
They were equally unwavering in their opposition to both Communism – which they saw as a betrayal of the socialist ideal – and the reflexive anti-Westernism of the far left.
Support for Israel and democratic values was rooted in the organizational lineage of the movement itself. Before Harrington founded the DSA in 1982, he led the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which emerged from the Social Democrats, USA – a faction of the old Socialist Party led by people like Rustin, Shachtman and Kahn.
These groups worked closely with the AFL-CIO under the leadership of George Meany, a staunch supporter of Israel. They emphasized the centrality of trade unions in achieving meaningful social and economic progress for ordinary Americans, seeing organized labor as an indispensable pillar of both democracy and social justice. Many members went on to play major roles in promoting democracy worldwide.
From the 1950s through the 1970s, through its International Affairs Department and the Free Trade Union Institute – in which democratic socialists were actively involved – the AFL-CIO worked closely with the Histadrut, Israel’s national trade union federation, on labor exchange programs and training and support for Israeli workers.
Harrington moved the democratic socialist movement slightly to the left when he merged the DSOC with the New American Movement, a New Left-influenced organization of activists and intellectuals that emerged from the ferment of the late 1960s, to create the DSA; but its core commitments of anti-totalitarianism, pro-labor activism and support for Israel remained intact during his lifetime. He ardently defended Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.
Rustin was one of Israel’s most eloquent defenders. After the 1967 Six-Day War, he helped organize rallies and statements supporting Israel, calling out the Soviet Union’s antisemitic propaganda and arms shipments to Arab dictatorships.
In 1975, as the United Nations prepared its infamous resolution condemning Zionism as a “form of racism,” Rustin organized the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee, bringing together prominent African-American leaders such as A. Philip Randolph, Arthur Ashe and Ralph Ellison.
“Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction,” he declared, “those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel’s existence.”
Howe, founding editor of Dissent magazine, was equally committed to Israel’s legitimacy. He believed that a democratic Jewish state reflected the universalist ideals of socialism.
Kahn and Shachtman, both major intellectual forces in the democratic socialist movement, were resolute in their support for Israel. Shachtman argued that democratic socialism must always stand in defense of freedom. Kahn likewise saw support for Israel as a moral imperative rooted in the defense of democratic values.
Kemble, who was associated with AFL-CIO and U.S. Government efforts to strengthen free trade unions in Latin America as a bulwark against Communist influence, believed that supporting Israel was part of the broader global struggle against tyranny.
That entire tradition has been erased by today’s democratic socialists. Judging by the rhetoric and positions of today’s DSA, one might conclude that many of its members would feel more at home in the Communist Party – or even in a cell of the 1970s Weather Underground terrorist group – than in the pro-Israel democratic socialist movement of yesteryear. The DSA’s platform marks a sharp break from the principled democratic socialism of the past – one that was staunchly anti-Communist, committed to liberal democracy, and steadfast in its support of Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.
The organization’s rhetoric and views – especially regarding American foreign policy and Israel’s existential struggle – echo positions long associated with the antidemocratic, radical left. Instead of upholding the democratic values they claim to champion, today’s democratic socialists embrace a worldview that portrays America as the aggressor and Israel as a colonial oppressor, mirroring Cold War–era Soviet propaganda used to delegitimize Western alliances and liberal democracies.
Some might argue that the old democratic socialists were comfortable with an Israel governed by the Labor Party – then a proud member of the Socialist International – during an era when the kibbutz movement still loomed large, and that they would have felt far less affinity for today’s capitalist “Startup Nation.” Perhaps. No one can know exactly what they’d say if they were alive today. But this much is beyond doubt: they would stand for Israel’s right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people. They would stand for Israel’s right to thrive. And they would stand against those – Hamas, Iran, or anyone else – who seek its destruction.
The transformation of the DSA is one of the most striking ideological shifts in modern American politics. But recent developments point to something even bigger – the transformation of the Democratic Party itself. Will the day come when its decades-long support for Israel also becomes nothing more than forgotten history?
