I had to step down last year from leadership because of a situation like this where I was extremely vulnerable, and I was asked not to discuss it with anyone. I was effectively cauterized as a threat to the party's image instead of listened to, empathized with, and brought back into the fold with understanding and respect. The issues I faced came from a leader who then went on to fail and fail and fail, but faced no penalties. I felt ashamed and I felt scared, and I begged for the person who had betrayed my trust to face some kind of consequence, but she didn't, and at great harm to the local branch.

It feels almost cathartic to see I wasn't the only one, but also numb. I wanted to build the party we need. I helped to build our local branch from almost nothing. And when it was time for me to have the support I needed, I was hung out to dry.

I don't know what the future looks like for the local branch, or for the PSL at large and the ML movement in the US; but I can only hope this is a stepping stone and a learning moment that the communist left will learn from, take seriously, and adapt to. That probably means forming a new pre-party cadre network? For better or for worse the PSL has generated and trained many wonderful cadre like myself, and we all deserve a political home with the correct political program but without this continued and genuinely systemic nonsense. Also, I worked with Chris, his shit tracks.

Whatever the fuck, I'm so disappointed, I only wish my case was a unique one. Maybe by even sharing all this I'm practically doxxing myself more than I already have, but just, DemCent can't mean keeping shit like this going.

This is not going by without issue or response internally. It highlights many long term problems with the Becker leadership clique that have been held up as criticisms by many party members for years. It was also a massive violation of trust within the party - Eugene was the face of the party and its political leadership much more than the Beckers for years, and he essentially just poofed away with a shallow lie about why. That meant the membership was broadly deceived about the real situation and went on to vote for him to the Central Committee again, which surely would not have happened if this was known.

The party is long overdue for a major clearing out of the Central Committee and comrades are working hard towards that end. The organization is extremely strong and extremely effective at producing communist cadre - it would not be difficult to raise up a new group of leaders more suited to the task and replace the old boys club (which has lots of women in this case).

This was already a year of major internal changes to improve democratization and reduce centralization in the party because of issues like this, but they now need to rise to the highest levels of the org. I'm optimistic we'll clear out where we need to and come out a more capable revolutionary vanguard, cause sure as shit no one else is up for it.

as a former member who left over something far less severe (the deeply suspect way leadership handled the split a few months back, plus a creeping feeling that rank and file - including myself - were just seen as employees to be exploited by a bunch of shitty bosses), I think PSL is very much a not-actually-democratic centralist org where dissent - even in supposedly dedicated spaces for it - is seen as a threat and is squashed and where leadership expects blind deference and obedience. 

this is the exact kind of environment that breeds horrific coverups like this one and which suffocates accountability for harmful behavior and makes it impossible to protect and genuinely care for victims. like i said in my post, this type of harm is obviously a society-wide issue under patriarchy that doesn't have an easy quick fix, but removing this ossified, corrupt leadership clique would be a necessary precondition in the specific context of PSL. 

While I'm in no way saying that the PSL has any particular claim to being "the real communists", it feels a bit weird to immediately try and retroactively discredit them as leftists in the wake of this. Yes, real leftist orgs can absolutely have predators hiding among their ranks, just like any other organization can, and instead of implying that this sort of thing could never happen to us true leftists, we should remain alert to this possibility.

I don't think we need to reach for "CIA assets" as an explanation for PSL's limitations. Its far more simply explained by: "demcent organization has ossified leadership clique". Tale as old as american communism.

Never move to the compound

NYPD has sooo many COIN operations going on i imagine

NYC was deliberately chosen as the center for organizing the party, like the party capital. It's less of a center among many and more like central, its actions tend to reflect national direction.

I regret to inform you that there's a movement within DSA to endorse AOC for president.

Age limit the primary party and run a separate youth wing like CPB does with YCL.

Oddly enough I've never heard an accusation like this in any British orgs. Either the british orgs are better at coverups (doubtful?), it's a uniquely american thing and more frequent there because of it (also doubtful?) or it's used in ops by US intelligence frequently while not used in ops by UK intelligence, which would explain the huge disparity in accusations/cases.

I do find it fairly odd that this comes up so frequently in american communist orgs. Maybe i just grossly underestimate how much more gross american men are.

"The purpose of a thing is what it does" applies to organizational actions as well. While the specifics you say are true, if it's not the organization then this long-term leadership clique will be removed via organizational revolt in short order. If not, one must accept that actually it is the organization that is doing it.

I've experienced this on a more local level with the same kind of response to our own Baumann affair from a member of the NOD assigned to my branch. The same tendencies persist outside of this specific circumstances

it's the Becker leadership clique who hold outsized undemocratic power in the organization. yes, a more accurate headline would have been "and leadership tried to cover it up" but I was hastily posting something deeply upsetting but also deeply important to spread awareness of in socialist spaces.

for as long as this cabal of corrupt, opportunistic perverts holds the amount of power they do - and until PSL takes seriously building actual structures of internal democracy and accountability around harm - this is the nature of the org, sadly. that's why my first prescription for fixing it is ousting these people; a necessary though not sufficient precondition.

this isn't just me shouting from the sidelines of the shitposting mines, either. i quit PSL a few months ago after 2.5 years as a member over something much less severe (but still fucking shitty!) that showed these fundamental failings and contradictions, and some of my dearest friends are still in the Party. its rank-and-file as well as the broader working class deserve better from the orgs that are supposed to be fighting for them and with them.