Obama/Democratic Socialists of America Ad

New Zeal Blog/

While connected to the US’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America, for at least 30 years, Barack Obama can only be linked, through documentary evidence, to one DSA  sponsored event .

From Buzzfeed

In this little-seen advertisement that ran in the Hyde Park Herald in 1996, Obama was listed on a panel sponsored by the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America , University of Chicago Democrats, and University of Chicago DSA.

Hyde Park Herald, Chicago, February 1996

According to a Chicago DSA report of the event;

”Barack Obama observed that Martin Luther King’s March on Washington in the 1960s wasn’t simply about civil rights but “demanded jobs as well”.
One of the themes that has emerged in Barack Obama’s campaign is “what does it take to create productive communities”, not just consumptive communities. It is an issue that joins some of the best instincts of the conservatives with the better instincts of the left.”‘
‘Obama felt the state government has three constructive roles to play.’
‘The first is “human capital development”. By this he meant public education, welfare reform, and a “workforce preparation strategy”. Public education requires equality in funding. It’s not that “money is the only solution to public education’s problems but it’s a start toward a solution… A true welfare system would provide for medical care, child care and job training. While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the “social wage” approach used by many social democratic labor parties.
‘The state government “can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs. As Barack Obama noted, when someone gets paid $10 million to eliminate 4,000 jobs, the voters in his district know this is an issue of power not economics. The government can use as tools labor law reform, public works and contracts.””
Finally, Illinois “needs an industrial strategy. How do we create more jobs for everyone? Illinois has no strategy for encouraging high wage, high productivity jobs”.”

Of the other panelists shown above, William Julius Wilson and Joseph Schwartz were both confirmed DSA members, Toni Preckwinkle, was a long time DSA affiliate, and Michael Dawson was a later founder of the Marxist lead Black Radical Congress and a supporter of Obama friend and former Weather Underground terrorist leader Bill Ayers.