Well, large for a US communist party is tiny is what I meant. They’re largely limited to major cities and have a hard time even getting ballot access in a lot of states. Pretty sure the post-2016 swell in DSA membership dwarfed them even though PSL is a much more ideologically coherent org that practices democratic centralism.
It’s a pretty great way to get an excuse to talk to average people in terms they are prepared to understand, ie electoral politics. The goal isn’t, like, to build socialism by becoming president lol
The PSL’s strategy is not electoralism, though. It’s a tactic for demonstrating the bankruptcy of USAmerican “democracy”. I promise you, every conversation is about outreach and teaching, not about trying to win office.
If the PSL and the Claudia de la Cruz campaign are brought up in conversations about third party voting, even if the narrative is about “throwing a vote away” or whatever, I don’t think that’s devaluing the position and coopting a narrative. The alternative was having the same conversation without the PSL being brought up at all. However, now once we are in the conversation, we get the chance to educate about alternative methods of political organizing and engagement.
Well, large for a US communist party is tiny is what I meant. They’re largely limited to major cities and have a hard time even getting ballot access in a lot of states. Pretty sure the post-2016 swell in DSA membership dwarfed them even though PSL is a much more ideologically coherent org that practices democratic centralism.
We’re getting ballot pretty much everywhere we targeted and have a presence in at least 60 cities
“Socialism is on the ballot!!” cringe
It’s a pretty great way to get an excuse to talk to average people in terms they are prepared to understand, ie electoral politics. The goal isn’t, like, to build socialism by becoming president lol
the average american does not give a ratfuck about electoral politics and is already convinced the system is broken and against them.
Ok, yeah? But it’s an icebreaker to start talking about how and why the system is broken and against them.
I think electoralism inherently devalues our position while allowing easy narrative cooptation by the system.
The PSL’s strategy is not electoralism, though. It’s a tactic for demonstrating the bankruptcy of USAmerican “democracy”. I promise you, every conversation is about outreach and teaching, not about trying to win office.
If the PSL and the Claudia de la Cruz campaign are brought up in conversations about third party voting, even if the narrative is about “throwing a vote away” or whatever, I don’t think that’s devaluing the position and coopting a narrative. The alternative was having the same conversation without the PSL being brought up at all. However, now once we are in the conversation, we get the chance to educate about alternative methods of political organizing and engagement.
I have tried to try a response to this and it always ends up being about 4 paragraphs too many. We’ll just have to agree to disagree.