58
What is the PSL's plan for revolution?
(hexbear.net)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
58 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
23272 readers
165 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Both the USSR and PRC inherited the ashes of empire. They didn't cause revolution, they were just there when there was no option but something different. The Bolsheviks and Maoists had the most disciplined power structures to replace it with something that promised/met the basic needs of the people.
I think PSL has the best chance at succeeding for the same reason I think the 1960s/70s Black Panthers had the clearest path to revolution. Their Marxist-Leninist framework means they can build coherent dual structures. When nobody can afford soup, they can run an organised soup kitchen while my local Food Not Bombs is a clusterfuck full of clique drama. They're the org that encourages reading the most books and they have the most formal processes to avoid the pitfalls of non-hierarchical mass movements like Occupy or BLM. In their absence I think DSA has the same basic role, but their ideological murkiness creates a lot more internal tension and their entryist membership is a big security risk.
i guess im being too idealistic probably. this does seem like a very realistic goal, even though it isnt exactly what i want, i do see that it can lead to that.
Keep in mind that even Lenin didn't think he would see revolution in his lifetime and there really isn't another person who has been or perhaps ever will be a more effective revolutionary.
To add to the example. In the early days of the CPC’s struggle, signing up to be a Communist was a death sentence. Whether it was Japanese or Nationalist bullets, or torture, or starvation, or freezing to death. They knew this.
And yet they struggled. Against impossible odds, they fought and sacrificed and died so that their comrades might see the light of a better nation. They marched until 10,000 were left, against the most advanced and powerful nations in the world, and turned that into the People’s Republic of China. For 50 years they struggled and planned before even getting a glimpse of the top of the hill of poverty.
I see this potential in the American left. Not the online left, not the Hexbears or TrueAnons or Hasan viewers. But 10,000 real American revolutionaries, I could see.
To be honest the online left doomer-pills me. Nobody in the online left spaces will be a revolutionary, including me. Too labor-averse and struggle-averse and unable to see past the infinite personal offenses they take to ever call a comrade a comrade.
But 10,000… I could see.
They also have to deal with being in the heart of the most technologically advanced police state in history. If the PSL was agitating for armed revolution, they'd be targeted by every possible arm of the law.
It's also not a realistic objective at this stage. Building the party and gaining political legitimacy is a much more pressing priority and leaves more diplomatic options on the table.
Unfortunately we can't choose history. It's just continuity and rupture. The empire's contradictions will mount until something breaks, and when it does we need to be the most informed people with the most intersectional critique and the numbers to act on it. Those numbers aren't growing PSL itself- vanguardists are professionals- but expanding the number of community things PSL is involved in. In my DSA chapter I'm a communist by organising around the stewardship of urban greenspace and the labour organising of city employees. The result is more neighbours seeing leftists as something other than scary radicals coming for their toothbrush. We're the group that steps up to do community work which builds real democratic community beyond what the state offers, like Black Panthers putting up stop signs where the city wouldn't. Being a communist is just reading as much as you can about everything and then applying it in your praxis wherever you see weak points in the current system. More than anything else, class consciousness comes from people seeing the new stop sign and seeing that fellow workers put it up themselves to protect their neighbours.