Democratic Socialists Of America Call For ‘Dismantling Of The Nuclear Family’

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) recently called for the “dismantling” of the traditional nuclear family and traditional family structure in a panel discussion published by the party.

The panel, titled “The Left and the Family: A Roundtable,” took place during the DSA’s Socialism Conference in Chicago, which took place over the July 4 holiday weekend. In a video uploaded to YouTube this past Friday, the party’s official account wrote that “the nuclear family is “an inherently repressive, racist, and hetero-sexist institution that functionally reinforces and reproduces capitalism.”

Speakers included Emily Janakiram of New York City for Abortion Rights, University of Chicago sociologist Eman Abdelhadi, Katie Gibson of the University of Chicago, and BDS activist and Portland DSA member Olivia Katbi, according to a report from The Post Millennial. Throughout the discussion, panelists railed against the links between capitalism and the traditional nuclear family, arguing that both systems are “oppressive” and in need of transformation.

Gibson claimed that children born into low-income families are “treated as if they have committed a crime,” before arguing that parents have no legal authority of their children. “If you are born into a home headed by a Christian fundamentalist tyrant, for instance, you have the rights that that Christian fundamentalist tyrant gives you,” she said.

Janakiram quoted former Burkina Faso leader Thomas Sankara, a popular figure in the pan-African movement. “The only real difference between marriage and prostitution is the price and duration of the contract,” she said before to the institution of marriage to prostitution. “The institution of marriage can only exist alongside the criminalization of sex workers,” and added, “Women lead the fight against capitalism and imperialism, period.”

Abdelhadi, who claimed she was taking the more “moderate” refused to even utter the word family, instead referring to it as “the F word.”

“I’m ambivalent about whether we use the F word [family] or not,” Abdelhadi said. “But I think for me it’s about focusing on policies, right, and being really clear about what material benefits we are gonna give people.”

A number of prominent Democrats, including New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and a number of additional lawmakers have longstanding ties with the party.