the thing is quitting an org doesn't have to be final, and it also certainly doesn't mean you have to burn all the relationships and connections you made there which could reformulate into something new. sometimes membership bleeding rapidly is the only way rank and file can actually concretely communicate and enforce that there's a serious problem. with leadership that have conveyed a disinterest in internal democracy and a misogynistic, callous disregard for cadre safety any of the more acceptable forms of internal struggle are just way too easy to write off and misdirect from.

your perspective is a legit one, just offering a countervailing POV from my own experiences with PSL.

And many people seem to both believe that there is an identifiable leadership clique responsible- and that there is no possibility of holding any of them accountable… But why not? Hundreds of thousands of human hours cadre have spent building the party and bringing people in- all just to throw it away over the unjust actions of a few people.

I agree honestly, I really don't think the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater on these things. A party is an incredibly difficult thing to cultivate, not to mention the recruitment that's been necessary. I know how hard it has been for me at least, especially. However the impossibility to address this has been enforced by the central committee.

Discussion on this matter has been closed by the central committee. They're enforcing that there'll be no further discussion on this. They're enforcing that there'll be no Congress or recall of leadership over this. In fact, I know it's for operational security; but nobody has a list of who's on the central committee except for them, our party branches work with national via liaisons. So even if we wanted to trigger a recall of leadership over this; we have no mechanism or ability to do so. There is, as far as I understand, no mechanism except local leadership demanding it (and even then leadership has only been given promises AFAIK).

I'm really not a fool nor am I a wrecker. I understand how it's taken a herculean effort to build all this, I had my own part of it, but the central committee has made the explicit decision to leave this as something which can not be struggled through in any way other than acquiescing.

Edit: I think one mistake in all this is thinking that those who no longer believe the PSL is an avenue for struggle are simply burned. When I first joined the party I was aware of Steven Powers and what had occurred in Philadelphia, however, I'd been told that the party had evolved internally as well as cadre' understanding of these things. Its not that there was an initial incident, or a poor response immediately after the initial incident, or even the first years after the incident; however now the party's national bodies still affirm that they don't believe there is a need to evolve and struggle past this. There has been no consultation of cadre, and cadre have been told to suck it up and deal with it. If this had occurred but the party's response had been instead to evolve itself, I would not be here, I would be back in my branch. However, the central committee made the choice to say that this is not a point in which the party will evolve. That, I think, reflects extremely poor decision-making as well as a failure for internal democratic processes and consultation of cadre that altogether means the party is cooked and anybody with principles will be forced to work on something new and to then hopefully refederate and constitute a new national body

This shit is all pretty mind blowing to me too though, because my experience of local dealings with SA and abusers who have been exposed has basically been unceremonious removal and a focus on protecting our cadres and other organizers from them, without exception. and any involvement with national has also been incredibly principled and clear headed

Same. That's kind of why it feels like wrecker behavior to me. Even if they made a mistake 6 years ago with one case, everyone is painting every local branch in every city across the country with this brush, when it's not the experience of any comrade I've met in the org who has to deal with the NDC or their processes on SA.

It sounds like OP had a bad experience with her local branch, and I get you can only work off your own experiences, but that's not what I've seen or heard from other local comrades in the party.

I agree, but the structure to be able to struggle has to be there and there have to be other people willing to engage in that struggle. I live on the other side of the world so have no idea what is taking place on the ground but this whole story sounds extremely weird to me. Either no one knows how a centralised democracy should work (which would be a fault of PSL onboarding process, which should teach people), no is willing to struggle for the party or the party does not have a true democratic structure.