this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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I'm very vocal on here about my membership and participation in
so take a look through my comment history to see lots of discussions on the subject.
For me, PSL has been a fundamentally different sort of organizing experience than anything I've been involved in before. The first decade of my political activism on the left was mostly in anarchist-adjacent circles that spent their time primarily on interpersonal drama and essentially no outward facing work.
PSL on the other hand is always about doing effective political work towards a strategic end. At all levels of the party - from a unit of five people to national leadership - we implement a Marxist process of investigation, outreach, action, reflection, and planning. Cadre are trained through a year long candidacy program to develop all of those above skills and a general literacy in Marxism-Leninism. The political line and analysis are consistently excellent. Our history of principled stances on anti-imperialism is the reason we've been able to do so much to empower the Palestine movement. When Al-Aqsa flood happened, we were rallying in the streets across the country immediately. We had two decades of Palestine activism to show our seriousness, and resolutely supported the Palestinian resistance when liberals and DSA (I repeat myself) were crying about Hamas.
Right now, the party is doing a campaign to defend Venezuelan democracy and socialism. It's a much less popular position, but we know through history that parties who tail the masses can never lead them. Instead, the party proactively sent journalists and organizers down to Venezuela to observe and report on the election, to show the way working class Venezuelans support the Bolivarian project in a way that doesn't depend on imperialist media.
I have never felt more like my political work was actually achieving something that I do in PSL.
I can answer any questions and talk in plenty more detail.
What kind of time / energy commitment is involved in being a member?
The expectation is that you commit the time you have available to do so. We don't want to burn people out, but we also don't do on-paper members. In my branch, that looks like one or two meetings a week and an action or event every week or two. Some people have schedules that allow them to commit substantially more time, which is great but not a model for everyone to follow. The first year or so, you need to do biweekly candidacy classes that go through the party's platform, political positions on different struggles, stance towards various AES, etc.
Edit: I'll also note that we're super flexible and understanding. Comrades have stepped away for a few months at a time to deal with life circumstances and there is never any pushback from the org about doing so. They return when they're ready with no issues or bullshit. When someone needs to dial back a bit, we encourage that - and we also help folks who haven't found a way to engage consistently with party work to find their right balance as well. It's another strength of the party, imo.
Thanks for the info. I ask because as it is right now, with two young kids + working full time + the kids extracurriculars it leaves very little time in the week 😅.
Totally understood. I have one child and a full-time job with a flexible schedule, and it's a lot of work for me to fit it in. Certainly worth speaking to your local branch and being up front about if your time availability will work for them.
When did those trainings become policy? I worked for 9 months with my (major city) branch about 2 years ago, and my "mentorship" was just "oh yeah let's grab a drink and chat," followed by occasionally showing up to protests and food distribution. Eventually got ghosted.
Sounds like you weren't properly onboarded. The candidacy class is a nationwide requirement and has been for a very long time. Why that was the case I can't say.
Right on, thanks for answering!
I feel like I'm in a tough spot, where I'm close enough to a major city that I can potentially go to events, but far enough away that the time commitment involved means I need more advanced notice than there typically is between the announcement and the event itself. Especially since I have a kid and both my wife and I work, I can't be gone all day without prior planning.
I was trying to go through the process to join, and did a phone interview with a guy, after which he wanted to meet in person for the next step. He suggested I come to one of their events and we'd meet up there, but I never had one line up where I could make it. We were going to try and plan a meet up, but I needed to let my work schedule settle out first, and at this point my last three messages across the last several weeks haven't been replied to.
I'm not really sure where I was going with that lol, but I don't really know what to do from here
I'd try reaching out through another channel if you still want to get involved. Instagram pages are pretty active most of the time.
Is there much support for starting a chapter somewhere that doesn't have one?
I've been cursed to live in conservative states for personal reasons where there's essentially 0 presence, not even trots and maybe a small amount of DSA.
I'm assuming it takes someone of some skill to start that kind of effort, so probably even a simple reading group is better, but I'm still curious if I might be able to lend support or get involved outside their specific hotbeds.
Edit: honestly that training sounds dope too. I'd love to attend some sort of workers school if that kind of thing were still available.
I joined my branch when it was about two years old and have been in it for two years since. We are just now moving out of "pre-branch" - the period of intense direct support from national, including almost daily communication between our national contact and our local leadership. We'll now be a bit more independent, but that's because we were given so much guidance and support to build ourselves up.
I don't know what the very first steps of starting a fresh branch are like from firsthand experience, but my understanding is you first go through study as an individual member and then they help you build the branch from the ground up. The early phase is all about getting a small core of good organizers rather than building numbers.
I'm assuming that study isn't really available through the org unless you're nearby and able to attend events and such. Which would make sense with limited resources. I'll definitely be trying to re-locate somewhere closer to a branch when I can.
No, that's definitely not the case. We have a well developed system for building at-large members with no nearby branch. New branches get established through this process all the time.
Ah, that's very good news! I made that assumption since you said they don't really do on-paper members. I'd for sure be able to attend meetings, study groups, do digital tasks, etc if opportunities like that were available remotely. I'll probably fill out the interest form later this week and just see what happens. Though I have unfortunately heard of people being ghosted for months through that process.
We had more growth than we were prepared to manage and it was especially bad at the height of 2020 and the months following Al-Aqsa Flood. My understanding is it's much smoother atm, but yeah, it's a thing that happens. If you don't get a prompt response, consider other channels - the Instagram page for a branch in your state, even if it's not close, could be helpful.
Yes, I know people who have
OODA loops, but socialist
I've wanted to join PSL for a while but I'm currently engaged in some unorthodox labor organizing work that I'm very committed to following through with (we're operating along more or less the same lines as the Southern Workers Assembly if you're familiar with that).
Do you think I would be able to conduct this work relatively independently from the party? Would I be expected to try and direct it into a more orthodox line?
I can't speak to how the party would handle a specific case. Your best move is to reach out and discuss upfront (as much as you feel comfortable) what you're working on and how you think it might fit or not with Party work.
No, I can say as a member of the party that you would not be micromanaged in some way where someone would force your hand in regards to any organizing. In fact, you already being an organizer and community leader by having the strength to put something like this together would be very impressive, and they'd likely just seek to help and get in dialogue w you and other organizers.