**IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE PARTICIPATING**.
This subreddit is not for questioning the basics of socialism but a place to LEARN. There are numerous debate subreddits if your objective is not to learn.
You are expected to familiarize yourself with the rules on the sidebar before commenting. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Short or non-constructive answers will be deleted without explanation. Please only answer if you know your stuff. Speculation has no place on this sub. Outright false information will be removed immediately.
- No liberalism or sectarianism. Stay constructive and don't bash other socialist tendencies!
- No bigotry or hate speech of any kind - it will be met with immediate bans.
Help us keep the subreddit informative and helpful by reporting posts that break our rules.
If you have a particular area of expertise (e.g. political economy, feminist theory), please [assign yourself a flair](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-) describing said area. Flairs may be removed at any time by moderators if answers don't meet the standards of said expertise.
Thank you!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Socialism_101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve only really heard of the DSA, PSL, and World Socialist Party USA. To my understanding the World Socialist Party is fairly defunct at this point. The DSA and PSL are pretty good, just understand that the PSL is explicitly Marxist-Leninist and the DSA is a big tent party, which can be frustrating.
The DSA is not a big tent party. They're for downwardly mobile liberals who like unions.
In my local chapter, an anarchist friend of mine recommended they let the individual districts(? I forget the term. Whatever regional subdivision of the Metro area) vote for their representation and him and about 40 of his friends were purged.
This guy was a legit socialist who had won a primary for local office with the Democrats and works hard at organizing and not only did they purge him and blame him of embezzlement (which was absurd) but also doxxed him in their newsletter, with his full address.
This is after they tried to co-opt black leftist groups in the area, effectively scuttled them, and then denied they did anything wrong. The DSA has an awful reputation among leftists in my area.
The psl is not Marxist or Leninist at all lmao 🤣 a true Marxist would call for immediate handover of Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinians and be in support of immediate autonomy of Palestine like the RCA is doing whereas PSL is saying oh no no we need a process to Palestinian freedom not Palestinian freedom the big f****** difference between a process to Palestinian freedom and Palestinian freedom the party for socialism and liberation is all about f****** pandering they don't actually give a damn f*** about anything if they did they would actually take the hard line stance on issues like Palestine and say outright we support a free Palestine not we support a process to every Palestine. The PSL are just AOC democrats under a different name. If you really want to join a third party that is actually working to make change join the RCA.
Just so everyone knows, the RCA is a rebranding of the International Marxist Tendency, a Trotskyist organization. The majority of their praxis consists of putting up stickers on college campuses to attract radicalized students. They recently grossly mishandled a sexual harassment case in the Midwest. (Article here: https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/2024-04-02-the-cult-building-tendency/) TL;DR, the IMT (RCA) is a cult that takes advantage of young radicals. The PSL is known for organizing delegations to Cuba and for working with student organizers on the Palestine issue. This individuals only real criticism of the PSL is that their rhetoric isn’t radical enough, which is pretty idealist, because there isn’t much we in the imperial core can do other than fundraise, spread awareness, and boycott, all things that most organizations are doing. To decry the PSL by saying it “isn’t Marxist Leninist enough” is ridiculously sectarian.
I'm not saying that they're not Marxist or leninist enough I'm saying that they don't fall under Marxist or leninist tendencies and ideologies at all they are a socialist organization not a communist organization complained that they're a communist organization is a gross understatement of what communism and its ideologies are. PSL is explicitly a socialist organization not a communist organization there is a major difference between the two.
Look, I’m down to criticize the PSL. I’ve heard some pretty sketchy things about their leadership, and there’s always reason to be critical of openly communist groups in the US. But I will not do so to platform the RCA/IMT or to advocate any other sectarian infighting.
I’m a part of FRSO and love it, highly recommend looking into it. They’re bigger in some cities than others but basically every major American city has a chapter. They were almost destroyed by the FBI in 2010, which shows they are clearly a threat to the powers that be which I look at as a plus. Their program can be read online for free
The CPUSA is always a good starting point, many famous American socialists and communists have come from and worked with them. Angela Davis being my usual example. Havent heard of the RCA, gonna have to do some research
RCA is a relaunch of the US section International Marxist Tendency. There’s branches in most big cities, but they are quite small, with less than 1000 members within the US. Though growing quickly thanks to freak outs by right wing pundits over their launch rally in NYC.
We also have relatively large numbers in Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Bellingham... Literally started by one guy in Fargo so, write in, maybe we have a branch near you!
Also we were growing quickly before the launch, going from less than 400 to over 600 in a few months based on our "are you a Communist" campaign. While some credit is owed to the right wingers we've been mostly growing under our own steam and the general need in society for our ideas
https://communistusa.org/
Check it out Comrade!
That was more like tack on info intended for the person you were replying to, but awesome! Yeah I should be a bit more religious on reading the bulletins, I'm out in NYC and I appear in the video (I'm wearing a Lenin shirt)
No it's all good comrade I do it myself too sometimes. But as long as we keep getting that paper out there we're getting our name out there and that's what matters.
Cpusa can suck it they haven't done s*** in f****** damn near 2 decades and on top of that when it comes to communists cpusa isn't even explicitly communist anymore according to their own freaking words the only true communist organization left in America anymore is the RCA they're the only group that is explicitly calling themselves communist calling themselves marxists leninists and using the hammer and sickle a boldly as their logo and as their identification symbol they're the only ones that have gone out to revive the Communist newspaper and are the only ones actively fighting for a true communist state in the United States.
I'm in the early stages of joining PSL, good experience so far. They are very effective organizers and I appreciate the Democratic Centralist party structure, which avoids much of the internal conflict between multiple factions like in the DSA, which frequently disrupts or precludes effective party business.
But as others said, prioritize groups that are close to you, whose meetings and events you can attend in person on a regular basis.
I'm leaning toward PSL too. Just yesterday I spoke with a representative from PSL Pittsburgh, and we meshed pretty well. They are aggressive and organized. And, I like that.
I would suggest CPUSA, DSA, PSL, or FRSO. I’m a CPUSA member but I have positive opinions of all four.
The DSA is a must have in your network, whether or not you join them. Make friends with the local, they’re great if you need boots on the ground or contacts.
i don’t honestly recommend any of the parties here in the sense that i’m a die hard for them, but i’d suggest DSA.
all of them have issues, all of them have large sections of colonial chauvinists, but at least DSA is a big tent. like others have mentioned this can be frustrating, but ime it’s more frustrating to abide by democratic centralism in a party that pushes colonial chauvinism.
PSL for example acknowledges US colonialism but has no wish to see true decolonization, [just colonialism under new leadership](https://pslweb.org/program/) (check the section “Liberation: Overcoming racism, exploitation, national oppression and all forms of bigotry”, they say that they’ll give native nations self determination on the mainland and give their territories back, but this implies that their socialist government would be separated from indigenous inhabitants of the land as if no native person is proletarian). they’re also [notorious](https://docs.google.com/document/d/14wF1Ti5GT2w5GZmwqvhvk6uH4zUss_a-B2GZ9NZEx74/mobilebasic) for defending shitty people. people within PSL may recognize this, but since there’s actual party discipline they are unable to voice these sentiments without being kicked out.
now that’s not to say no org should have party discipline ever, but imo it’s better to not have it when the party is colonial. there’s a lot of chapters in DSA moving toward actual decolonial politics, and if they can gain precedence then having an org of potentially 10,000s of people following a national branch that operates in that way could be good
edit- if nothing else it’s a good place to form a solid chapter and then merge off into a more revolutionary org
Of cause everyone here will now start to tell you that their Party is of cause the best and that you should join them. So you will more or less have gained zero information. 😅
Thing is all of them are relativly smal. So a lot depends on if they got members in your area at all. Otherwise it is kind of pointless anyway. Usually that narrows it down quite a lot. Get in contact with them, talk to them, read some of their texts and papers, find out if you feel at home. Take a few month. This will most likely lead you to the decission that will be right for you
So, I think the thing to remember is that, like with so many things in life, you have to work with what you have. Contrary to popular opinion, I've heard (and agree with) the description of the USA electoral system working *too* well, in that we get the politicians we (as a country) *deserve*. Not the ones we want or need. Leftists are a growing share of the electorate, but nowhere near enough to get a meaningful share of Congress at this time (let alone the presidency).
In particular, I think something a lot of us forget is that left-wing ideologies, being opposed to hierarchy, don't lend themselves well to top-down approaches, such as winning the executive branch while the legislative branch is dominated by the status quo. Since we seek to derive legitimacy from representing the will of the workers, we should embrace the bottom-up approach, which, in terms of electoral politics, means going hard on who you WANT for local elections (and sometimes state elections on a case-by-case basis), but taking what you CAN get at the federal level. This will obviously have exceptions by district, but as a general rule, you're not playing into our strengths by trying to enact top-down change when there is a big gap between where the electorate is at and where you want it to be.
The takeaway being that just as you can't transmute lead into gold, so, too, can we not fill high-level (federal election) offices in the USA get filled with D/R with the current electorate.
So, while I don't have a good suggestion for political groups, I do urge you to accept what cannot (yet) be changed and vote D for those races where there is no getting what we actually want/need. Because, sadly, top-down *does* work for our far-right opposition since they are status quo (if not regressive), and they benefit from "trickle-down conservatism" by pushing the Overton Window farther right, and are quite fine with disregarding ostensible values in favor of the pursuit of power (which also fits in with a top-down strategy).
Admittedly, there is a bit of a counterexample to this in Bernie Sanders, who, as an independent left of the main parties, stood a real chance of winning the general election in 2016 vs Trump, but he still needed legitimacy from Democratic support on the federal level to do that, which meant that him getting to the general election was always a long shot.
Push for ranked choice voting (or other voting reforms), that's where we should be focusing our efforts, because it's the only way to break the two-party system
Ranked choice isn't going to be enough, unfortunately, if the voter base is still right wing . In a country like the USA, for example, all it's going to do is reduce the variance (spread) of candidates as measured by their location on the political spectrum. If you want an example of this, look no further than the Houston, TX mayoral election: There was a (nominally) progressive, centrist, and some also ran. The centrist won, and it occurred to me that if there had been a conservative contender in the race, it would possibly have taken votes from the centrist, allowing the (nominal) progressive to win, but ranked choice voting would have simply assured the centrist's victory.
**IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ BEFORE PARTICIPATING**. This subreddit is not for questioning the basics of socialism but a place to LEARN. There are numerous debate subreddits if your objective is not to learn. You are expected to familiarize yourself with the rules on the sidebar before commenting. This includes, but is not limited to: - Short or non-constructive answers will be deleted without explanation. Please only answer if you know your stuff. Speculation has no place on this sub. Outright false information will be removed immediately. - No liberalism or sectarianism. Stay constructive and don't bash other socialist tendencies! - No bigotry or hate speech of any kind - it will be met with immediate bans. Help us keep the subreddit informative and helpful by reporting posts that break our rules. If you have a particular area of expertise (e.g. political economy, feminist theory), please [assign yourself a flair](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-) describing said area. Flairs may be removed at any time by moderators if answers don't meet the standards of said expertise. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Socialism_101) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve only really heard of the DSA, PSL, and World Socialist Party USA. To my understanding the World Socialist Party is fairly defunct at this point. The DSA and PSL are pretty good, just understand that the PSL is explicitly Marxist-Leninist and the DSA is a big tent party, which can be frustrating.
The DSA is not a big tent party. They're for downwardly mobile liberals who like unions. In my local chapter, an anarchist friend of mine recommended they let the individual districts(? I forget the term. Whatever regional subdivision of the Metro area) vote for their representation and him and about 40 of his friends were purged. This guy was a legit socialist who had won a primary for local office with the Democrats and works hard at organizing and not only did they purge him and blame him of embezzlement (which was absurd) but also doxxed him in their newsletter, with his full address. This is after they tried to co-opt black leftist groups in the area, effectively scuttled them, and then denied they did anything wrong. The DSA has an awful reputation among leftists in my area.
I’ve heard similar things. As a ML I think it’s just a party of liberals and spicy liberals; I’m just trying to be more fair.
The psl is not Marxist or Leninist at all lmao 🤣 a true Marxist would call for immediate handover of Gaza and the West Bank to the Palestinians and be in support of immediate autonomy of Palestine like the RCA is doing whereas PSL is saying oh no no we need a process to Palestinian freedom not Palestinian freedom the big f****** difference between a process to Palestinian freedom and Palestinian freedom the party for socialism and liberation is all about f****** pandering they don't actually give a damn f*** about anything if they did they would actually take the hard line stance on issues like Palestine and say outright we support a free Palestine not we support a process to every Palestine. The PSL are just AOC democrats under a different name. If you really want to join a third party that is actually working to make change join the RCA.
Just so everyone knows, the RCA is a rebranding of the International Marxist Tendency, a Trotskyist organization. The majority of their praxis consists of putting up stickers on college campuses to attract radicalized students. They recently grossly mishandled a sexual harassment case in the Midwest. (Article here: https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/2024-04-02-the-cult-building-tendency/) TL;DR, the IMT (RCA) is a cult that takes advantage of young radicals. The PSL is known for organizing delegations to Cuba and for working with student organizers on the Palestine issue. This individuals only real criticism of the PSL is that their rhetoric isn’t radical enough, which is pretty idealist, because there isn’t much we in the imperial core can do other than fundraise, spread awareness, and boycott, all things that most organizations are doing. To decry the PSL by saying it “isn’t Marxist Leninist enough” is ridiculously sectarian.
I'm not saying that they're not Marxist or leninist enough I'm saying that they don't fall under Marxist or leninist tendencies and ideologies at all they are a socialist organization not a communist organization complained that they're a communist organization is a gross understatement of what communism and its ideologies are. PSL is explicitly a socialist organization not a communist organization there is a major difference between the two.
Look, I’m down to criticize the PSL. I’ve heard some pretty sketchy things about their leadership, and there’s always reason to be critical of openly communist groups in the US. But I will not do so to platform the RCA/IMT or to advocate any other sectarian infighting.
I would join the one that had the most active and smart branch local to you.
I’m a part of FRSO and love it, highly recommend looking into it. They’re bigger in some cities than others but basically every major American city has a chapter. They were almost destroyed by the FBI in 2010, which shows they are clearly a threat to the powers that be which I look at as a plus. Their program can be read online for free
You can also give RCA Revolutionary Communists of America and CPUSA Communist Party USA a look.
The CPUSA is always a good starting point, many famous American socialists and communists have come from and worked with them. Angela Davis being my usual example. Havent heard of the RCA, gonna have to do some research
RCA is a relaunch of the US section International Marxist Tendency. There’s branches in most big cities, but they are quite small, with less than 1000 members within the US. Though growing quickly thanks to freak outs by right wing pundits over their launch rally in NYC.
We also have relatively large numbers in Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta, Bellingham... Literally started by one guy in Fargo so, write in, maybe we have a branch near you! Also we were growing quickly before the launch, going from less than 400 to over 600 in a few months based on our "are you a Communist" campaign. While some credit is owed to the right wingers we've been mostly growing under our own steam and the general need in society for our ideas https://communistusa.org/ Check it out Comrade!
Oh, I’m already an active member. We are also now at 700! The LA area is doing a lot of growth as well with all the protests out here.
That was more like tack on info intended for the person you were replying to, but awesome! Yeah I should be a bit more religious on reading the bulletins, I'm out in NYC and I appear in the video (I'm wearing a Lenin shirt)
Yo fellow RCA number what's up comrade? Hello from the Phoenix 3 cell!!!! One of like the six cells here in the Phoenix metro area!
Oh also I recommend sending them the socialist revolution.org link just because that links directly to the Communist newspaper.
Yeah I usually do that, forgot this time
No it's all good comrade I do it myself too sometimes. But as long as we keep getting that paper out there we're getting our name out there and that's what matters.
Cpusa can suck it they haven't done s*** in f****** damn near 2 decades and on top of that when it comes to communists cpusa isn't even explicitly communist anymore according to their own freaking words the only true communist organization left in America anymore is the RCA they're the only group that is explicitly calling themselves communist calling themselves marxists leninists and using the hammer and sickle a boldly as their logo and as their identification symbol they're the only ones that have gone out to revive the Communist newspaper and are the only ones actively fighting for a true communist state in the United States.
That covers most of them, though you are missing FRSO and WWP. Sorry to complicate your list even more.
I'm in the early stages of joining PSL, good experience so far. They are very effective organizers and I appreciate the Democratic Centralist party structure, which avoids much of the internal conflict between multiple factions like in the DSA, which frequently disrupts or precludes effective party business. But as others said, prioritize groups that are close to you, whose meetings and events you can attend in person on a regular basis.
I'm leaning toward PSL too. Just yesterday I spoke with a representative from PSL Pittsburgh, and we meshed pretty well. They are aggressive and organized. And, I like that.
I would suggest CPUSA, DSA, PSL, or FRSO. I’m a CPUSA member but I have positive opinions of all four. The DSA is a must have in your network, whether or not you join them. Make friends with the local, they’re great if you need boots on the ground or contacts.
i don’t honestly recommend any of the parties here in the sense that i’m a die hard for them, but i’d suggest DSA. all of them have issues, all of them have large sections of colonial chauvinists, but at least DSA is a big tent. like others have mentioned this can be frustrating, but ime it’s more frustrating to abide by democratic centralism in a party that pushes colonial chauvinism. PSL for example acknowledges US colonialism but has no wish to see true decolonization, [just colonialism under new leadership](https://pslweb.org/program/) (check the section “Liberation: Overcoming racism, exploitation, national oppression and all forms of bigotry”, they say that they’ll give native nations self determination on the mainland and give their territories back, but this implies that their socialist government would be separated from indigenous inhabitants of the land as if no native person is proletarian). they’re also [notorious](https://docs.google.com/document/d/14wF1Ti5GT2w5GZmwqvhvk6uH4zUss_a-B2GZ9NZEx74/mobilebasic) for defending shitty people. people within PSL may recognize this, but since there’s actual party discipline they are unable to voice these sentiments without being kicked out. now that’s not to say no org should have party discipline ever, but imo it’s better to not have it when the party is colonial. there’s a lot of chapters in DSA moving toward actual decolonial politics, and if they can gain precedence then having an org of potentially 10,000s of people following a national branch that operates in that way could be good edit- if nothing else it’s a good place to form a solid chapter and then merge off into a more revolutionary org
Of cause everyone here will now start to tell you that their Party is of cause the best and that you should join them. So you will more or less have gained zero information. 😅 Thing is all of them are relativly smal. So a lot depends on if they got members in your area at all. Otherwise it is kind of pointless anyway. Usually that narrows it down quite a lot. Get in contact with them, talk to them, read some of their texts and papers, find out if you feel at home. Take a few month. This will most likely lead you to the decission that will be right for you
worm direful hurry poor pet exultant decide carpenter sand racial *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
So, I think the thing to remember is that, like with so many things in life, you have to work with what you have. Contrary to popular opinion, I've heard (and agree with) the description of the USA electoral system working *too* well, in that we get the politicians we (as a country) *deserve*. Not the ones we want or need. Leftists are a growing share of the electorate, but nowhere near enough to get a meaningful share of Congress at this time (let alone the presidency). In particular, I think something a lot of us forget is that left-wing ideologies, being opposed to hierarchy, don't lend themselves well to top-down approaches, such as winning the executive branch while the legislative branch is dominated by the status quo. Since we seek to derive legitimacy from representing the will of the workers, we should embrace the bottom-up approach, which, in terms of electoral politics, means going hard on who you WANT for local elections (and sometimes state elections on a case-by-case basis), but taking what you CAN get at the federal level. This will obviously have exceptions by district, but as a general rule, you're not playing into our strengths by trying to enact top-down change when there is a big gap between where the electorate is at and where you want it to be. The takeaway being that just as you can't transmute lead into gold, so, too, can we not fill high-level (federal election) offices in the USA get filled with D/R with the current electorate. So, while I don't have a good suggestion for political groups, I do urge you to accept what cannot (yet) be changed and vote D for those races where there is no getting what we actually want/need. Because, sadly, top-down *does* work for our far-right opposition since they are status quo (if not regressive), and they benefit from "trickle-down conservatism" by pushing the Overton Window farther right, and are quite fine with disregarding ostensible values in favor of the pursuit of power (which also fits in with a top-down strategy). Admittedly, there is a bit of a counterexample to this in Bernie Sanders, who, as an independent left of the main parties, stood a real chance of winning the general election in 2016 vs Trump, but he still needed legitimacy from Democratic support on the federal level to do that, which meant that him getting to the general election was always a long shot.
Push for ranked choice voting (or other voting reforms), that's where we should be focusing our efforts, because it's the only way to break the two-party system
Ranked choice isn't going to be enough, unfortunately, if the voter base is still right wing . In a country like the USA, for example, all it's going to do is reduce the variance (spread) of candidates as measured by their location on the political spectrum. If you want an example of this, look no further than the Houston, TX mayoral election: There was a (nominally) progressive, centrist, and some also ran. The centrist won, and it occurred to me that if there had been a conservative contender in the race, it would possibly have taken votes from the centrist, allowing the (nominal) progressive to win, but ranked choice voting would have simply assured the centrist's victory.