Another potential option would be the FRSO. It's a smaller organization than PSL, I believe, but I've struggled to find PSL organizers in the rural area where I live. When I decided to look into the FRSO, there were people already organizing in my area.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2020
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Resident PSL member here who obviously recs PSL.
PCUSA is fine enough. Their split from CPUSA seems justified due to the massive revisionism and anecdotally don't seem at all the serious party they once were. But PCUSA really isn't that either and I can't see them as a potential vanguard party. Can't complain much about their line as they specifically call themselves anti-revisionist, but that also seems to be their biggest downfall, typical of most staunch "anti-revisionists" (at least in the West).
I won't make shots against their size as they're still very small, but they come off as LARPers for the most part; they're looked on as Hoxhaists for a reason. As cool as it is to be unabashedly ML in their image, it does nothing to meet the needs of the people in any way. They seem more preoccupied with that "pure" revolution idea than with relating to the masses and being with the people. Now is not the time to be waving around ☭ flags when the vast majority of America is still so staunchly anti-communist in any way. You have to meet people with how you will help them materially first and foremost while following a Leninist line, not throw Stalin at people (as fun as it is) and be more preoccupied with shitting on "leftbook" than you are with being a professional Marxist revolutionary party (regarding the leftbook article, a few of my comrades know her IRL and she was literally a Nazi until like a year ago. Like why does that article even need to exist? It's not like the substance is bad but just what's the point of making an article bashing leftbook as something that needs to be said by a communist party striving to be the vanguard?).
Edit: Also their most recent line on BLM is absolutely awful. They spend more time buying into the bourgeois story of "anarchists" having caused the riots than they do supporting an anti-police rebellion. No matter how imperfect the whole of the recent BLM protests have been, it 100% deserves our support
What are your thoughts on these two claims I see variations of pop up from time to time?
"[Redacted] knows more on this, given they use to be a member, but based on their info, the Becker clique is the founders, face, and words of the PSL. Becker writes their literature and his son runs a branch. They also control the steering committee. So essentially there is not much democracy in this group."
"PSL doesn't mention their ideology as Marxist-Leninist, not even in their constitution (which is a private document, abnormal of ML orgs). They instead prefer "revolutionary socialists.""
"So essentially there is not much democracy in this group."
The critiques on Becker end up in dead ends, whether it be on PSL being a "Becker party" or this that somehow always gets brought up despite it always being debunked.
Becker has been a member and has held a role in national leadership for a while, that's really all there is. He isn't some overarching leader consolidating power, and it seems anti-PSL rhetoric just ends up getting pointed to him from other communist tendencies. It's like saying Lenin or Stalin had some iron-rule over the party and everyone had to listen to them.
“PSL doesn’t mention their ideology as Marxist-Leninist, not even in their constitution (which is a private document, abnormal of ML orgs). They instead prefer “revolutionary socialists.””
I'll admit that I was confused about this when I first got in contact with the party, but the reasoning is sound. Outwardly we don't present ourselves as communists or MLs, which I touched on above, for the reason that doing so in the US at this time would pretty much end PSL becoming in touch with the masses. Communism has been the US boogeyman for over a century at this point, not going mask off was a decision made by the party specifically in order to be more approachable. Outside of the internet, it really isn't a good idea to approach strangers by shoving Lenin in their face.
I don't have the exact quote, but Lenin did say to judge a party not by its slogans and names but by its actions. And even if you're not in the party, reading the more in-depth analysis and party-line statements on Liberation School and even the usually shorter articles on Liberation News will show we keep to a strictly ML line. Internally we view ourselves entirely as ML and party discussions etc. show that, although every once in a while we'll let it slip in an article or something that yes, we are Leninists :smirking face:
Ah okay, thanks for the reply. Also, does PSL accept applications from people who don't live in large cities?
They do! Applications right now may be quite slow depending on your nearest branch's resources and/or priorities - huge influx of interest due to BLM and the pandemic - but it all depends. If there's no branch in your city or nearby, you can apply as an at-large member and the party will support you in creating a new branch. As far as I know, the focus then will be on recruitment.
So definitely try and get in contact with your closest branch, and if it isn't difficult, attending different PSL demos (online or off) will always help as the party will get to know you better.
I don't have the exact quote, but Lenin did say to judge a party not by its slogans and names but by its actions.
"In order to understand the real significance of parties one must examine, not their labels, but their class character and the historical conditions of each separate country."
—- Lenin, "The Labor Government in Australia"