Talk:Young Democratic Socialists of America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proposed updates to lead, infobox, and early history
 | This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered. Set |answered=no to reactivate the request if necessary. |
I am an active YDSA member, so I am requesting review rather than editing the article directly.
I would like to propose a first set of limited changes to the article’s lead, infobox, and early history section. The article currently has citation and primary-source tags, and some claims in the early history section are either unsourced or broadly phrased. These changes add clearer citations and narrow some wording that is currently unsourced or broadly phrased.
The main changes are:
- Update the lead to state that the organization was founded in 1982 as the Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section, changed its name to Young Democratic Socialists in 1997, and adopted its current name in 2017.
- Update the infobox with leadership and citations.
- Revise the 1980–2000 section to better source the organization’s early anti-apartheid, Central America, labor, anti-sweatshop, and prison-divestment activity.
- Replace the unsourced or under-sourced “citation needed” language with citations to Joseph Schwartz’s DSA history, the DSA Fund’s YDSA history, NYU archival records, Phoenix New Times, The Temple News, and Prison Legal News.
I have tried to keep the language neutral and to avoid adding any promotional claims. I am posting this in parts so editors can review each proposed change separately.
Proposed infobox update:
Please add the following leadership lines and update the membership line:
| membership = {{increase}} 2,735<ref name="2026-apportionment">{{Cite web |title=[PUBLIC] 2026 YDSA Convention Apportionment |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NkkFlBIuWVri3X-IfCAyMyVagEUZQZdE2DURDF80eHE/edit |access-date=April 16, 2026 |website=Google Docs |language=en-US}}</ref>
| leader title = Co-chairs
| leader = Daniel Salup-Cid<ref name="DSA-structure">{{Cite web |title=Leadership and Structure |url=https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/structure/ |website=Democratic Socialists of America |access-date=May 28, 2026}}</ref><br />Sara Almosawi<ref name="DSA-structure" />
Proposed replacement text for lead:
The '''Young Democratic Socialists of America''' ('''YDSA''') is the youth section of the [[Democratic Socialists of America]] (DSA). Founded in 1982 as the '''Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section''', the organization changed its name to '''Young Democratic Socialists''' ('''YDS''') in 1997 and adopted its current name in 2017.<ref name="Schwartz-DSA-history">{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Joseph M. |date=July 2017 |title=A History of Democratic Socialists of America 1971–2017 |url=https://www.dsausa.org/about-us/history/ |access-date=May 28, 2026 |website=Democratic Socialists of America}}</ref><ref name="YDSA-history">{{cite web |last1=Duhalde |first1=David |last2=Kreider |first2=Ben |title=History of Young Democratic Socialists of America |url=https://dsafund.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/History-Of-YDSA-8.5-%C3%97-11-in-August-2022.pdf |publisher=DSA Fund |access-date=May 28, 2026}}</ref> As of April 2026, YDSA had 2,735 members.<ref name="2026-apportionment" />
Proposed replacement text for 1980-2000 section:
In 1980, ''Democratic Left'' reported that the Youth Section of the [[Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee]] (DSOC) had grown from 600 to nearly 1,200 members and from 15 to more than 30 chapters over the previous year.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=October 1980 |title=Youth Parley |url=https://dlarchive.dsausa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DL_1980_V008_08_final.pdf |magazine=Democratic Left |publisher=Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee |page=12 |access-date=May 28, 2026}}</ref> Following the merger of DSOC and the [[New American Movement]] in 1982, DSOC's youth section continued as the '''Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section'''.<ref name="Schwartz-DSA-history" /> In the 1980s, the Youth Section organized against [[apartheid]] in South Africa and United States intervention in [[Central America]].<ref name="Schwartz-DSA-history" /> [[New York University]] archival records list DSA Youth Section and YDS files concerning South Africa initiatives, Nicaraguan student tours and exchanges, and Central America/Southern Africa solidarity work.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Series IV. Youth Section/Young Democratic Socialists of America: Democratic Socialists of America Records |url=https://findingaids.library.nyu.edu/tamwag/tam_105/contents/aspace_42e24784fa039770fac85d6910e2dcbf/ |access-date=May 28, 2026 |website=NYU Special Collections Finding Aids}}</ref>
During the 1990s, as DSA community chapters declined in activity, the Youth Section became one of the organization's main areas of activity.<ref name="YDSA-history" /> Youth Section chapters focused on labor organizing, opposition to the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]], protests against the [[World Trade Organization]], and involvement in the [[AFL-CIO]]'s Union Summer in 1996.<ref name="YDSA-history" /> During this period, tensions between DSA and the Youth Section contributed to the Youth Section adopting the name '''Young Democratic Socialists''' ('''YDS''') and developing a more distinct identity.<ref name="YDSA-history" /> Some YDS chapters also took part in student anti-sweatshop organizing; at [[Arizona State University]], YDS members campaigned against the university's Adidas apparel contract and pushed the university to join the [[Worker Rights Consortium]].<ref name="Phoenix-New-Times-ASU" />{{Cite web |last=Hibberd |first=James |date=March 8, 2001 |title=Big Mac on Campus |url=https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/big-mac-on-campus-6418285/ |access-date=May 28, 2026 |website=Phoenix New Times}}</ref> Around 2000 and 2001, student activists opposed campus contracts with [[Sodexo|Sodexho Marriott]] because of parent company Sodexho Alliance's investments in private prison companies.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 3, 2001 |title=Colleges Across the U.S. Protest Sodexho Marriot |url=https://temple-news.com/colleges-across-the-us-protest-sodexho-marriot/ |access-date=May 28, 2026 |website=The Temple News}}</ref> YDS members were involved in related campus campaigns, including a campaign against Sodexho Marriott's food-service contract at [[Arizona State University]] and support for a December 2000 student occupation at [[Ithaca College]].<ref name="Phoenix-New-Times-ASU" /><ref>{{Cite magazine |title=New York Students Stage Private Prison Protest |magazine=Prison Legal News |volume=12 |issue=5 |date=May 2001 |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/prison_legal_news_2001 |access-date=May 28, 2026 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
FromTheRiver0713 (talk) 19:02, 2 June 2026 (UTC)
so I am requesting review rather than editing the article directly.
- It appears you then went ahead and edited the article directly. Please don't do that. Packrat3860 (talk) 02:42, 11 September 2026 (UTC)
- I think what you've added broadly improves the article, but it also relies a lot on DSA and YDSA's own blogs and histories. I've marked the page as needing independent sources. Packrat3860 (talk) 02:59, 11 September 2026 (UTC)