A leftist group facing financial struggles has been taken to court in New York over whether it has a claim to a deceased professor’s $4.7 million retirement fund.
The estate of late sociology professor New York University (NYU) professor David Greenberg sued NYU and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on Friday, saying NYU cannot proceed with plans to give funds to DSA, court records show. While the group, which is in part influenced by Marxist ideology, has claimed several Democrats in Congress as members and hosts more than 180 chapters around the country, it has faced financial and membership struggles in recent months.
The lawsuit alleges that NYU is trying to divert funds that Greenberg originally meant for New American Moment, “a now-defunct political organization” that primarily existed to protest the Vietnam War. Greenberg, who died in 2024 at 82, had once named New American Moment as a contingent beneficiary for his retirement, according to the lawsuit. The organization supposedly merged with DSA in 1982, though the lawsuit claims the merger did not follow legal processes and the DSA is not a legitimate successor.
Greenberg’s estate said he underwrote New American Moment due to “furtherance of his sincerely held political beliefs, which were closely aligned with the ideological principles and objectives” of the original group.
NYU and DSA’s media teams did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
DSA has reportedly struggled to retain members and manage its finances since at least January 2024, when leaders asked members to step down and take severance payments. The group admitted publicly in August 2024 to being “in a crisis” and that its membership had been “shrinking” since 2021.
DSA also came under widespread criticism, even from Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, for aggressively working to delegitimize Israel after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks. DSA later pressured Ocasio-Cortez in July 2024 by withdrawing an endorsement over claims that she wasn’t anti-Israel enough.
DSA’s August statement on membership said “working class radicalization” over Israel had helped, rather than hindered the organization’s growth.
An attorney for Greenberg’s estate did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It’s unclear how much of the $4.7 million retirement fund NYU allegedly planned to pay out to the leftist organization.
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