On July 27th, a meeting of Central IN DSA’s general body voted to revoke our endorsement of City-County Councilor Jesse Brown and censured him following repeated violations of our code of conduct, harassment and grievance process, and doxing against members of the chapter. Furthermore, as of July 12, Councilor Brown has informed us that he has ceased paying dues and should no longer be considered a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Central IN DSA believes in the power of winning elections and holding office as a part of a wide-ranging strategy to empower the working class.
To us, an endorsement is a continuing relationship of co-governance and party-building with any endorsed elected official, particularly cadre electeds. Thus, our organization stakes its reputation and organizational capacity on the behavior of its endorsed electeds.
Socialism is democracy. Accordingly, our movement is built on respectful debate and collective deliberation, with decisions selected by the membership through voting to advance the cause of socialism.
These discussions can be fraught, and so collegial conduct and adherence to our standards of conduct are critical. The conduct at issue represented a fundamental departure from those expectations.
When a candidate no longer upholds the values of our chapter, we have the responsibility to hold them to account. After months of trying to bridge the gap, we felt it was no longer possible to maintain a healthy relationship and have voted to end it.
For media inquiries please email contact@centralindsa.org.
Per our bylaws, only the co-chairs or other officially delegated members are the official spokespeople of the chapter. While as a democratic body, any member may freely express themselves, only the chairs, speaking in their capacity as chairs, should be taken as official messaging from the organization.