A radical left-wing group in Los Angeles has published what can only be described as a governing manifesto for a city they intend to fundamentally remake, and not subtly. The Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has released a roughly 40-page, more than 9,000-word roadmap laying out a vision that would transform the nation’s second-largest city into an explicit socialist experiment, enforced through local elections, aggressive government intervention, and sweeping seizures of private property.
At the center of the document is an unapologetic embrace of state power. The group calls for what it describes as a “creative use of eminent domain” to seize privately owned housing and convert it into public or “social” housing. Grocery stores, restaurants, and even internet service are listed as “essential industries” that should be taken over or expropriated by the city. Golf courses, both private and public, are singled out for reclamation through zoning and legislation so they can be repurposed for housing or parks.
Public safety, as traditionally understood, is also on the chopping block. The manifesto demands the decommissioning of Men’s Central Jail with no replacement carceral facilities, the replacement of armed police with unarmed social workers for traffic enforcement and mental health crises, and the permanent decertification of police officers who kill. Drug use would be fully decriminalized, with city-funded safe injection sites normalized as public health infrastructure.
The document goes far beyond policing and housing. It calls for banning all unhosted short-term rentals like Airbnb, imposing vacancy taxes on empty housing units, enacting universal rent control statewide, and triggering automatic rent freezes and eviction moratoriums whenever a state of emergency is declared.
Noncitizens would be allowed to vote in all local elections, voting rights would be restored for all former felons, and all means-testing for child development programs would be eliminated.
Energy and climate policy are framed in absolutist terms. The group demands a full public takeover of utilities, the elimination of all fossil fuel use by 2035, and a shift to 100 percent renewable energy within roughly a decade. Public pensions would be divested from defense contractors, fossil fuel companies, and so-called “war profiteers,” while all public agencies would be barred from contracting with companies tied to those industries.
What makes this document notable is not just its ambition, but its proximity to power. The DSA’s Los Angeles chapter claims roughly 3,500 members and has already helped elect multiple candidates to local office. It previously backed Nithya Raman, a DSA member now running for mayor, and the manifesto offers a revealing look at the ideological framework its authors expect sympathetic officials to pursue.
The group openly attacks the Democratic Party establishment as a coalition of developers, billionaires, nonprofits, and compromised union leaders, arguing that only a disciplined “socialist mass organization” can build true working-class power.
The authors insist this transformation is achievable within six to eight years through local elections and organizing. They frame the moment in apocalyptic language, warning of economic, climate, and moral collapse and concluding with a stark ultimatum: “The choice remains socialism or barbarism.”
