Formation and Founding

PSWG started in 2019 as the BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group (BDS WG) of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In the beginning, we saw DSA as a site of struggle for anti-Zionism on the broad left, during a time when Palestine was still a third rail issue. From the outset, we publicly resisted DSA's opportunism and foundational politics of loyalty to the Democratic Party, liberal Zionism, and anti-communism. Throughout our time with DSA, we persisted in modeling anti-imperialist socialist praxis from within by advancing our campaigns in partnership with principled local chapters.

In 2021, these chapters and the BDS WG launched an org-wide campaign to hold one of DSA's member-politicians, Jamaal Bowman, accountable for his unshakeable loyalty to elements of the Zionist lobby and his votes in favor of funding the IOF. Ultimately, after months of attempted accountability processes with Bowman and his staff, we called in good faith for his expulsion from DSA. By March of 2022, more than 50 chapters would come to do the same.

In an unprecedented and unconscionable attempt to curb our intraorganizational movement, in March 2022, our leadership was banned from national leadership positions in DSA for the “crimes” of exposing DSA leadership's commitment to maintaining space for Zionism in their big tent, which sparked a boycott of DSA by the Palestinian grassroots. In the face of this internal repression, the BDS WG tried to transform DSA into an Anti-Zionist organization, in principle and praxis, at the August 2023 convention.

At that convention, the BDS WG put forward an Anti-Zionist resolution, establishing political lines and expectations of Anti-Zionist praxis across DSA. The resolution received a full statement of support from the Palestinian Youth Movement and 26 other Palestinian grassroots formations from around the world. Despite the explicitly stated desires of Palestinians and its overwhelming popularity among DSA membership, the National Political Committee (NPC) of DSA used multiple bureaucratic maneuvers to suppress all discussion of the Anti-Zionist resolution on the floor of the convention. Further, the NPC endorsed and brought forward an opaque, opposing resolution that dissolved the BDS Working Group into another, more controlled national body.

On November 5th, 2023, the Palestine Solidarity Working Group cut ties with DSA and established itself as an independent cadre organization committed to centering Palestine as our compass and expanding the scope of our work beyond the shadows of DSA. Since then, PSWG has developed a network of solidarity organizers across turtle island, with a focus on building the capacity and revolutionary edge of the solidarity movement through coordinated campaigns and actions at local, regional and national levels.