Ask Lemmygrad

I was with you more or less until the last couple paragraphs when it turns into reductionist finger-pointing. When you say in one breath that you think PSL's strategy of putting time into elections is a waste and then in another breath, excuse the worst timing possible to bring up an issue like this—one which I seem to be being told has been around for a long time now—it becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that can help ensure it is wasted time by turning people against them as an org when they'd have the most visibility. As myself and others have said, I don't understand why this is being brought up specifically on election day, instead of bringing it up at a time when people can examine it more closely. I don't actually believe people like you are "wreckers" or something myself, I think that is a weighty thing to throw around without evidence, but I do think you have terrible strategic thinking and are inadvertently helping me understand one of the reasons the "left" struggles to gain traction in the US. Side note: You are the second person in this thread I've seen compare to democrats in a dismissive way, but neither of you have been able to explain what is remotely similar about the circumstances.

I will reiterate what I said here:

But there is a tendency for people to approach this kind of thing with individualist thinking, to view it not as an “us problem” but as a “them problem” and “I’m not part of it because I condemn it and I don’t support them.”

And that's precisely the kind of mindset I see espoused in your post. "They suck at being on 'my' side, so who cares if what people say messes with their efforts because their approach is bad and they're corrupt anyway."

You know what is a bad look for us? Being so out of the loop on the organizing efforts in our country (I say "our" assuming you are US-based like myself with how you are talking about this) that we have to ask leading questions on election day about a third party org, as if we just woke up from a coma. Do you really think if we all collectively responded to this thread with, "PSL is bad and here's why, and don't vote for them," that'd make people feel better about "left" efforts in the US? No, they're going to be saying, "Why in the hell did this org manage to get enough traction to even get on the ballots if they're so bad at living the values they claim to believe in? Is this really the best they have to offer?"

I mean, you spoke vaguely of:

Native ML orgs exist that are doing the community organizing, education, and dual power building that really matters. Black defense groups and mutual aid orgs, hell anarchists feeding their communities and engaging in materially anti-imperialist actions are doing more than our American brand of protests or electoralism could ever bring.

But like, why is there not a single one under this magic good kind of communism umbrella that you're naming, that I've heard of. Am I myself out of the loop (should I know The Red Nation well? that's the only org you even named outside of ones you were criticizing). Are these orgs trying to be low profile for strategic reasons or are they just small? Why does this come out sounding so much like "it's only real communism when nobody has heard of it and it has little impact"? And continuing from that...

Lastly, who are we organizing? Are we radicalizing, connecting, and orchestrating actions among the actual proletariat of America and its imperialist tentacles? (non-citizens, indigenous, racialized hyper-exploited populations) Or are we organizing the white labor aristocracy, petite bourgeoise, or otherwise settler population and arming them with marxist rhetoric and calling them the vanguard of the hyper exploited?

Is your position that we're going to be waiting on non-white communists to do a revolution and that white communists should sit on their hands? (considering you include the term "settler population"). I'm not asking that as a gotcha, I'm seriously trying to understand here. I understand that we can't blindly have western chauvinists do a socialism and pretend we've done something, but what exactly is the picture of success here? This is a point I've been meaning to ask somebody about anyway, so might as well ask how you view it.