by Blair Goodman Purpose and Use This is a training and reference guide (or maybe just a vision) for developing cadres—members who form the committed core of an organization.  It helps partici…

by Blair Goodman

Purpose and Use

This is a training and reference guide (or maybe just a vision) for developing cadres—members who form the committed core of an organization. It helps participants understand both the skills and the culture needed to sustain effective socialist organizing.

What is a Cadre?

“I liked doing it, Mac. I don’t know why. It seemed a good thing to be doing. It seemed to have meaning. Nothing I ever did before had any meaning.” — John Steinbeck, In Dubious Battle

In political organizing, cadre refers to the trained, committed core of activists who form an organization’s backbone. The term comes from the French for “framework”—the people who provide structure and continuity to movements. While it has formal connotations from Leninist party-building, the functional distinction is simple: every organization has general members, active participants, and a reliable core that holds it together.

In DSA, we rarely use the term “cadre,” but the role exists. These are the members who show up consistently, train others, and keep chapters functioning between the exciting moments. They provide continuity, institutional memory, and capacity for growth.

How Cadres Develop

There’s no application or credentialing process to become a cadre. You don’t need a degree or professional experience—these skills are learnable through practice, mentorship, and reflection. Most members remain active participants, but a smaller number become reliable organizers who hold things together. Their development combines three dimensions: practical skill, political understanding, and emotional sustainability.

Core Organizing Skills

These are the foundational abilities that connect people, ideas, and action. They interrelate and reinforce one another.

  • Relationship Building & Recruitment: Conducting meaningful political conversations, identifying people’s interests, and moving them along a ladder of engagement. Cadres can assess someone’s political position and help them take the next step.
  • Meeting Facilitation: Running meetings with clear goals, time management, and inclusivity; encouraging participation while moving toward decisions.
  • Campaign Planning: Designing strategic campaigns with clear goals, timelines, and escalation strategies. Understanding power mapping and leverage points.
  • Political Education: Leading study groups, connecting theory to practice, and explaining Marxist or socialist concepts in accessible ways.
  • Communication: Writing leaflets, press releases, and social media content; public speaking; and internal communications that build unity and motivation.

Operational Skills

Operational skills turn plans into effective, coordinated action. They complement the core organizing skills by focusing on logistics, implementation, and management.

  • Direct Action Planning: Organizing pickets, rallies, and protests with attention to logistics, safety, legal needs, and media coordination.
  • Labor Organizing: Understanding workplace mapping, union drives, contract campaigns, and how to connect labor struggles to broader socialist politics.
  • Electoral Organizing: Managing canvassing and GOTV operations, supporting endorsed campaigns while maintaining DSA’s independence.
  • Coalition Building: Working across organizations with different traditions, balancing principled positions and practical collaboration.
  • Administrative & Digital Competence: Maintaining data (Action Network, VAN), budgeting, fundraising, and using communication tools effectively (Slack, Signal, Zoom, Canva).

Political and Theoretical Knowledge

Political grounding keeps cadres oriented and principled through complex or demoralizing conditions. Theory clarifies purpose and prevents burnout or disorientation.

  • Ideological Literacy: Understanding different left traditions (Marxism, democratic socialism, anarchism, etc.) and how to navigate a multi-tendency space.
  • Historical Awareness: Drawing lessons from labor, civil rights, and socialist movements—successes and failures alike.
  • Current Analysis: Following political developments, class composition shifts, and right-wing organizing, connecting analysis to action.
  • Organizational Theory: Understanding democratic structures, accountability, and how to balance democracy with effectiveness.

Distinguishing Features of Cadre

  • Skill Integration: Deploying multiple skills in combination—facilitating, teaching, and advancing campaigns simultaneously.
  • Consistency & Reliability: Following through on commitments and maintaining presence through highs and lows.
  • Strategic Thinking: Seeing how immediate campaigns fit into long-term power-building.
  • Political Maturity: Managing conflict and setbacks without demoralization; keeping eyes on shared goals.
  • Initiative & Ownership: Acting without waiting for direction—identifying needs, organizing others, and taking responsibility.
  • Reproduction Capacity: Training others, sharing knowledge, and building sustainable organizational capacity.

Mentorship and Reproduction Practices

The mark of a mature cadre is the ability to reproduce leadership. This happens through structured mentorship and intentional knowledge transfer:

  • Apprenticeship: Pairing new members with experienced organizers to learn through observation and shared work.
  • Delegation: Giving others real responsibility, not just tasks, and trusting them to learn through doing.
  • Documentation: Writing guides, maintaining notes, and passing down institutional memory.
  • Feedback: Offering constructive criticism and praise as part of a regular organizational culture.

Example: A chapter organizer pairs a new comrade to co-facilitate a meeting, then debriefs afterward about what worked and what didn’t. This transforms experience into shared learning.

Political Discipline and Collective Accountability

Cadres balance initiative with collective discipline. They understand that personal autonomy operates within democratic decisions. Once a group makes a decision, cadres help implement it faithfully while ensuring dissent remains principled and productive. They maintain message discipline, coordinate action, and avoid freelancing that undermines organizational trust.

Internal Democracy and Conflict Navigation

A healthy cadre culture depends on internal democracy and transparency. Cadres:

  • Model democratic behavior by encouraging participation and accountability.
  • Address conflict directly but constructively, seeing it as part of growth.
  • Uphold decisions once made while ensuring open, honest debate before decisions.

Sustaining Ourselves and Each Other

Organizing is emotionally demanding. Sustainability is a collective practice that allows us to endure and grow.

  • Emotional Regulation: Staying calm under stress and managing interpersonal challenges productively.
  • Boundaries and Burnout Awareness: Recognizing limits and respecting others’ capacity.
  • Collective Care: Normalizing check-ins, rest, and mutual support. Rest is part of revolutionary practice.
  • Maintaining Perspective: Seeing our work as part of a longer historical struggle; neither despairing nor romanticizing.
  • Reflection and Assessment: Building feedback loops—evaluating campaigns, identifying lessons, and celebrating victories.

Inclusion and Equity in Cadre Development

Cadre work must be inclusive. Historically marginalized comrades often face additional barriers to leadership. A healthy cadre culture:

  • Ensures access and participation across lines of race, gender, class, and ability.
  • Confronts gatekeeping and informal hierarchies.
  • Uses practices such as rotating facilitation, accessible meeting times, and multilingual materials.
  • Centers mentorship that lifts comrades from underrepresented groups.