The organization played a significant role in the 1980s in the movements against apartheid in South Africa and United States intervention in Central America.

"[2] In the late 1990s, YDS chapters, most notably the ones at Ithaca College and Arizona State University, became heavily involved in the national movement against the prison-industrial complex.

[6] In 2017, members once again voted to change their name to the Young Democratic Socialists of America, signaling a closer relationship with their parent organization.

As YDSA continued to grow throughout the late 2010s, members wished to cohere the work of the organization around national campaigns and priorities.

[11][12] YDSA chapters and members are encouraged to pursue and promote a democratic socialist political education and participate in social justice activism, often taking part in anti-war, labor and student-issue marches and rallies.

[15] In the past, outreach conferences have featured keynote speakers such as Noam Chomsky, Cornel West, journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation correspondent Christian Parenti and Columbia University professor Gayatri Spivak.

[16] Other speakers include Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party, author and journalist Liza Featherstone, Temple University professor Joseph Schwartz, long-time activist Steve Max and sociologist Frances Fox Piven.

[30] YDSA also has numerous members-at-large without chapters who usually work through other progressive groups to articulate an active democratic socialist presence in campus and community politics.

YDS (renamed YDSA in 2017 to identify with the more prominent DSA name) expanded following youth support for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential candidacy.