‘Make no mistake, as has been the case in nearly every failed socialist experiment over more than a century, the middle- and working-classes do not flourish, they become slaves to the state.’
SCHAUMBURG, IL (July 15, 2026) – The Democratic Socialists of America, “the largest socialist organization in the United States,” released its 2026 platform, the “Workers Deserve More” program, on July 14 as it seeks to build a “future without capitalism.”
“The political and economic system under which we live is built on private ownership and profit at all costs,” the DSA contends. “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.”
Thus, to achieve a “classless society” and “a world without war or poverty,” the “DSA has written this program [outlined below] for ending capitalist oligarchy and creating a real democracy.”
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The DSA platform contains three main pillars: “Thriving Working Class Communities,” “Working-Class Foreign Policy,” and “Working-Class Democracy.”
To create “thriving working class communities,” the DSA supports:
- Freedom to Flourish: Expand public resources to support recreation, learning, and social spaces accessible to all. Establish paid family leave for all workers, a 32-hour work week with full pay and benefits, and a living minimum wage. Provide free, quality public education from pre-K to college and cancel all student debt.
- Healthcare for All: Guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals, including complete access to reproductive and gender-affirming care. Expand healthcare access and quality by investing in new public hospitals and clinics. Make all medical education and training public and free.
- Housing for All: Housing is a human right. Build new, publicly-owned social housing, strictly regulate investment properties, establish universal rent control, and guarantee right to counsel for all tenants.
- Finish Reconstruction: End the legacies of slavery and colonialism. Reinforce anti-discrimination laws. Honor all treaties and tribal sovereignty. Enact reparations and massively invest in good jobs, quality housing and infrastructure in neglected minority communities.
- End Mass Incarceration and Policy Immunity: Demilitarize police departments, disempower police unions, and redirect funding to public services as steps towards fully abolishing the police and prison system which protects the rich and jails the poor. Treat drug addiction and mental illness as health issues, not crimes. End qualified immunity and empower civilian oversight bodies with real authority over the police.
- Feminism for All: Socialist feminism fights for queer liberation and the freedoms of all working-class women. Stop gender violence and end policies that oppress bodily autonomy and intimate life, including patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and child raising, gender expression and transition, marriage, and divorce. Ban sex discrimination and ensure fair compensation and support for all forms of labor, including care work.
- Green New Deal: 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.
On foreign affairs, the DSA will fight to:
- End the U.S. War Machine: Defund the Department of War. End all foreign wars and close overseas military bases. Support and fully employ veterans. End immunity for U.S. war criminals and support the International Criminal Court’s mandate to prosecute war crimes.
- Free Palestine: Recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right of return, the right to resist military occupation, and the right to self-determination in a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. End all military and economic aid to Israel. Prosecute U.S. and Israeli leaders responsible for the genocide in Gaza.
- End Blockades, Embargoes, and Sanctions: People around the world deserve to live their lives without U.S. interference. End economic warfare against countries whose governments act independently of the United States, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran.
- Abolish ICE: End ICE detention and deportations and punish federal agents’ brutality. Legalize migration, grant amnesty for all immigrants regardless of status, provide a path to citizenship for all permanent residents, and end visa caps and quotas.
And to enact “working-class democracy,” the DSA advocates:
- Democracy for All: Extend full voting rights to all permanent U.S. residents and restore the right to vote for incarcerated people and people with criminal convictions. Establish statehood for Washington D.C. and recognize the right to self-determination for all U.S. territories and colonies. Expand and protect voting rights and end voter suppression.
- A Real Democracy: For the working class to govern, we need a new political system. End political corruption and legalized bribery: get rid of lobbyists, dark money, and Citizens United, and publicly finance all elections. Abolish the Electoral College. Replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to Congress.
- A Democratic Congress: Replace the two-party system with a multi-party democracy. Expand the House of Representatives, implement proportional representation and ranked choice voting in all elections, and abolish the Senate.
- Economic Democracy: Establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people. Enact aggressive wealth taxes on the richest individuals and corporations to spend on public goods and infrastructure.
- Democracy at Work: Empower workers to come together and fight the boss. Protect, expand, and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join, and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions, and take political action.
The Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center at The Heartland Institute serves as the “tip of the spear” in identifying and confronting the underreported challenges that threaten American sovereignty, individual liberty, and free-market capitalism. The EIC brings these emerging threats to the forefront of public and political awareness, empowering citizens and policymakers alike to act in defense of freedom and a thriving free-market society.
The following quote can be used for attribution:
“The DSA is correct that American workers deserve more. However, they surely do not deserve the economic and social catastrophe that would result from the DSA’s tyrannical, anti-freedom, anti-capitalism agenda. Make no mistake, as has been the case in nearly every failed socialist experiment over more than a century, the middle- and working-classes do not flourish, they become slaves to the state.
“The American working class does not want free stuff; they want the freedom to choose their own destiny in a free-enterprise economy guided by the magical invisible hand rather than the heavy hand of power-mad central planners who seek to micromanage everything they can.”
Chris Talgo
Editorial Director, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
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Chris Talgo is the Editorial Director for The Heartland Institute and a fellow for Heartland’s Glenn C. Haskins Emerging Issues Center.
