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From cocktail-party pragmatists to Constitution-abolishing ‘theory bros,’ these groups are steering America’s largest socialist organization in its breakout year

Democratic socialists are having a breakout year, including a win in a mayoral primary in Providence, R.I., on Wednesday. Though many of the group’s contenders have fallen short, candidates recommended or endorsed by a chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America have tallied several high-profile congressional primary victories and about 100 state and local primary wins, according to an August Brookings Institution analysis.

Yet the public is still trying to learn what the movement believes, how it is organized and the level of its followers’ involvement.

For many on the left, aligning with the DSA will be the culmination of their ideological journey. But for a certain subset, that is just the start. Once inside the DSA tent, they can go deeper and sign up for one of its many competing caucuses.

There are caucuses for those who yearn to make New York City more like Stockholm and others for Marxist-Leninists seeking permanent revolution. And many more.

The caucuses account for much of the DSA’s chaotic and cacophonous reputation. Their ranks are small—no more than a few thousand members, according to most estimates. But they are the movement’s most active and committed members. They are the thinkers and leaders setting its course. All 27 members of the DSA’s National Political Committee, the party’s leadership board, belong to a caucus.

Here’s an informal directory:

Founded: 2019 | What they read: The Agitator | NPC Seats: 4

This may be the DSA’s most pragmatic, middle-of-the-road caucus—and its most popular. It includes stars from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s team, including Tascha Van Auken, who led the campaign’s field operation, and Cea Weaver, his housing guru. They regard themselves as the DSA’s adults, with cocktail parties that feature elected officials and networking.

In political terms, the SMC is more reformist than revolutionary. They attribute the DSA’s rise to the success of socialist candidates like Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in Democratic Party primaries, and want more of it. (Neither is a member, but Claire Valdez, who recently won the Democratic primary for a House seat representing parts of Queens and Brooklyn, is). “It’s not always a purity test there,” one observer said of the caucus. Indeed, the SMC call themselves “materialists”—more interested in changing real-world policies and conditions than ideological perfection. They are eager for an AOC presidential campaign.

Founded: 2023 | What they read: Building Up | NPC Seats: 5

Groundwork is often linked with the SMC. Perhaps the biggest difference is that it is more focused on climate issues. It led the movement’s charge on the Green New Deal.

Groundwork wants to transform the DSA from a patchwork of chapters into a socialist political party with mass appeal—one that can influence future presidential elections. Heavyweight members include Gustavo Gordillo, the New York City DSA’s co-chair and Ashik Siddique, the NPC’s co-chair. Also a big AOC supporter. Its Atlanta chapter was active in the “Cop City” protests.

Founded: 2018 | What they read: Dissent | NPC Seats: 0

The antifascist old guard. Their overriding priority is defeating President Trump—and Trumpism—and ending Republican control of Congress. They are, therefore, willing to support mainstream Democratic Party candidates if need be. “DSA and the broader left must join forces to confront the international rise of authoritarianism,” a North Star strategy paper states, urging the movement to jettison the DSA’s “go it alone” approach.

The heirs to DSA co-founder Michael Harrington’s vision of striving for “the left wing of the possible,” North Star has struggled to attract a younger crowd that detests the Democratic Party and is animated by Palestine and anti-Zionism.

Founded: 2019 | What they read: The Call | NPC Seats: 5

The name is a nod to the women’s suffrage movement and was popularized by a 1912 textile industry strike in Lawrence, Mass.

This Marxist caucus was instrumental in the DSA’s backing of Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign. Devoted to rank-and-file labor organizing, it wants to put its people into key industries—logistics and public education, for example—and then embolden their unions. “Our goal is to create a mass movement that can force elites to make concessions—and eventually remove them from power,” it states.

B&R doesn’t display the electoral pragmatism of SCM and Groundwork. But it supports so-called class struggle elections—that is, running socialist candidates as a means to boost class consciousness and promote the cause. It imagines a future in which the movement jettisons the Democratic Party to build its own rival.

Founded: 2019 | What they read: Spadework | NPC Seats: 0

The “Commie Caucus” grew out of the Bay Area DSA chapter, with particular emphasis on housing and tenant organizing. Members tend to be “small-c” communists with a younger, down-and-dirty vibe. “We have nothing but our bodies and minds, and we are forced to put them to work. We are compelled to carry out unfulfilling jobs, work long hours, piece together dangerous hustles, or else suffer precarity and deprivation. In short, our lives are dominated by capitalism,” they state.

The Commies eschew the ballot box for grassroots organizing, convinced the revolution will be built from below. They have their own educational curriculum with an extensive reading list. Membership isn’t guaranteed; the Commies practice what they call “selective recruitment.”

They tend to avoid the DSA’s internal politicking, but are reputed to throw its most raucous parties.

Founded: 2022 |What they read: Cosmonaut and Light & Air | NPC Seats: 3

The MUGs are known for being more into academic theory and Marxist orthodoxy than others. They have required reading and a special fondness for theorist Karl Kautsky. MUG wants to begin the DSA’s break with the Democratic Party yesterday.

Members skew white and male—the “theory bros,” in one observer’s words. They have made their mark by leading the DSA debate on rewriting the Constitution and abolishing American institutions like the Senate and presidency. As with others in this revolutionary category, members are skeptical of AOC. They want a presidential candidate who is a “socialist tribune,” not a mere progressive.

Founded: 2025 | What they read: Cosmonaut | NPC Seats: 4

SoR is an expression of the DSA’s anti-Israel rage. Its leaders were active in the student encampments that sprang up after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and pushed earlier DSA campaigns against Zionism.

Their high mark was winning passage at last year’s national convention of a controversial measure that makes it an expellable offense for members to support Zionism—or even criticize the BDS movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.

Their stock has risen alongside Israel’s war in Gaza. The anti-imperialist SoR has also protested the Trump administration’s intervention in Venezuela.

Founded: 2019 | What they read: Zenith | NPC Seats: 3

The Marxist-Leninist Red Star emerged from the San Francisco DSA, where it had a tetchy relationship with Bread & Roses. Even some close observers struggle to define what seems like a caucus in search of a mission. Red Star has had various relaunches over the years and periods of “critical self-reflection.”

The caucus talks a lot about organizational structure and theory. It wants a more disciplined DSA that can eventually become a vanguard party to lead a revolution. Red Star’s anti-imperialist streak has translated to an embrace of authoritarian, anti-American regimes in Havana and Caracas and support for Hamas. Megan Romer, the DSA’s national co-chair, is a member.

Founded: 2025 | What they read: BlackRedGuard’s Substack | NPC Seats: 0

This up-and-coming caucus is Maoist and openly hostile to AOC, whom it derides as an opportunist and figurehead of the DSA’s right wing. A section of their website is devoted to “common misconceptions about Maoism.” Their reading list ranges from the Communist Party of the Philippines to the Black Panthers.

Founded: 2023 | What they read: Monthly Review | NPC Seats: 0

Eco-Marxist champions of “de-growth” to save the planet and heal society. The snail is their mascot. Caracol members believe the Green New Deal championed by AOC doesn’t go far enough and that the very notion of “green” or “sustainable” growth is mistaken.