As its national influence has risen, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has simultaneously grown more extreme. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the group’s “Red Rabbits” initiative.
The Red Rabbits Security Commission, a subgroup within the DSA focused on “community defense” efforts, is, according to its authorizing resolution, preparing for a “national uprising against federal agents and police brutality.”
In practice, that means training cadres in tactics like armed and unarmed self-defense, blocking intersections, and fighting “fascists” with umbrellas.
A recent panel offered an unprecedented window into what the project looks like. Organizers from Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Tucson, Austin, and Portland compared notes.
As the discussion made clear, the DSA is trying to construct a nationwide security apparatus to support its expanding role in street protests and direct-action organizing. And in so doing, it fears drawing the attention of the Internal Revenue Service — likely with good reason.
Safe name
The DSA launched the Red Rabbits Security Commission at its 2025 national convention.
Organizers chose the deliberately innocuous name as a nod to the novel “Watership Down,” in which anthropomorphized rabbits are outnumbered and beset by enemies. Earlier branding proposals, including “National Vigilance Committee,” were deemed too politically stark, with some members concerned that they could be interpreted as an endorsement of vigilantism.
The Red Rabbits claim their focus is on five core security skills: de-escalation, Stop the Bleed (a first aid training on bleeding control), firearm safety, unarmed self-defense and protest marshaling (crowd management during demonstrations). The commission has set a goal of having at least five members in 40% of DSA chapters complete these trainings.
Since its inauguration, the committee has been a source of internal controversy. That includes an unsuccessful effort by members of the DSA’s governing National Political Committee to remove a Maoist organizer whose past public comments included praise for revolutionary violence. The committee ultimately voted to retain him.
Still, the Red Rabbits have mostly kept a low profile. The recent panel, an introduction to the Red Rabbits’ nationally approved training, marked the commission’s first major public-facing appearance.
The panel was organized by Hazel Williams, a National Political Committee member and former co-chair of California DSA, and was meant to provide “lessons learned, best practices, and practical guidance for building security committees in local chapters.”
Self-defense squad
During the event, local chapters described a range of security preparations broader than that envisioned by the national commission. These included martial-arts sparring, evacuation planning, wound-packing, radio communications, the use of umbrellas and signs to shield participants from and block “fascists,” and even chemical-exposure training, in which participants practiced being pepper-sprayed.
Some chapters already conduct in-house trainings or are working to expand them, such as the Philadelphia chapter’s plan to develop what one member called “sick” firearm-safety trainings. The DSA’s Oklahoma City Queer Fight Club has evidently become a local training hub, teaching self defense and broader “community defense” skills. Portland DSA has organized trainings on blocking intersections with bicycles, a practice known as “corking.”
Panelists also explained that, as the Red Rabbits initiative has grown, other activist groups have come to depend on it for “self-defense” purposes.
In New Jersey, DSA’s immigrant justice working group has become a go-to security resource for immigrant organizations and Palestine affinity groups. In Philadelphia, the Red Rabbits started with abortion clinic “defense” efforts, then expanded to helping groups focused on everything from “immigrant justice” to “Palestinian solidarity.”
Philly DSA’s Red Rabbits team apparently functions as a “movement incubator” due to its many community relationships. Those include the Philly Palestine Coalition, where the Red Rabbits team led the “direct action contingent.”
That work has also drawn the DSA into closer alliance with even more radical groups. Tucson’s Red Rabbits, for example, work with the Party for Socialism and Liberation — a would-be revolutionary political party with close ties to the Communist Party of China. Portland DSA cited its work with the National Lawyers Guild — a left-wing legal group with historic ties to the Soviet Union — to provide know-your-rights trainings.
Legal scrutiny
Because they may be outside DSA’s mandate as a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization, the Red Rabbits trainings could invite legal scrutiny and jeopardize the tax-exempt status of its sister group, the DSA Fund.
As a 501(c)(4), the DSA must, according to the IRS, “operate primarily to further the common good and general welfare of the people of the community.”
Some Red Rabbits activities, like know-your-rights education and de-escalation training, probably meet that threshold. But it’s hard to argue that a street-level security force geared toward disruption, confrontation, and resistance to law enforcement exists primarily to “further the common good.”
Tactics such as blocking traffic with bicycles, training activists to escape physical holds, forming umbrella phalanxes to confront “fascists” and conducting “takedowns on intersections” bear little resemblance to traditional social-welfare activities.
Instead, they suggest preparation for a broader “national uprising” — one of the organization’s stated directives.
The DSA has largely avoided scrutiny, despite its increasingly extreme rhetoric and practices. As the organization grows in influence and increasingly aligns itself with radical activists and hostile regimes abroad, elected officials and government institutions have continued to look the other way.
If Republicans, Democrats and state and federal authorities keep ignoring these red flags, they may eventually find themselves living under one.
