EDIT: The original article I posted kinda sucked. I’ll keep it here for posterity if people want to read it, but I’ll replace it with a link @RedWizard posted with original resignation letter and the PSL internal response. If you want to read just the resignation letter with the PSL criticisms without any preamble, it is here.
EDIT 2: Here is the leaked PSL internal response.
Comment by @chana in the general thread: (Sorry to copy your comment here but it’s the only comment I’ve seen so far on this and it’s a good way to start off the discussion, along with summer discussion questions I’ll add below)
Comment text
Notable resignation and letter from PSL Central Committee member and related fomenting split in Brooklyn over PSL being run as a bureaucratic clique (which many will already be aware of from speaking with various PSL members trying to do more than participate in protests). PSL is good at specific local levels despite the national level dysfunction, and the vast majority of its membership good comrades. But the criticisms certainly ring true to me and are reasonable to cite as existential flaws. There is a bit of clown nonsense from the top on a regular basis (like the call for a general strike, cited in the resignation letter, lmao that is baby liberal idealism stuff).
If you’re currently unorganized don’t let this stop you from joining, it is more important to be active and learn locally from any non-abusive left space than to do nothing organized.
Discussion Questions:
- There’s a lot of PSL fans or members here so what do you think? Like overall on this news?
- Do the complaints have merit, or not? Do some do, and some don’t? Which ones? – If so, what does this mean for the left in the US? What are the solutions and what is the path from here? – If not, why don’t you think so? And what does it mean for the left in terms of factionalism and splitting?
- Do you still recommend the PSL as an organization to join? What about the DSA? Join the Democratic Party? FRSO?
I think the usual failures are more about having no clear understanding or commitment to the idea rather than it being inappropriate. If I had to estimate I’d say 90% of Westerners I’ve met appealing to Lenin, the vanguard, etc etc can barely describe it as anything other than “we make a good party”. I hear the term “building dual power” maybe 10X as often as anyone referencing dual power itself accurately and historically. Also most people calling themselves Leninists are actually Trotskyists thinking they’re being very clever by saying that instead of Trotskyist.
What is to be done is organizing, of course, and into parties. Understand, embed, agitate, recruit, educate, repeat. Do real things relevant to your communities, be actively present and of them, and bring them back to your org more and more often for education. Unfortunately the vast majority of Western orgs just plain don’t do half of these things. A white org (and somehow getting whiter) in a POC town alienates itself from community. A small sect decides to only be a reading group, forever. An org just tails protest months to recruit but doesn’t really organize the protests. An org binds itself closely to electoralism and fails to educate, have any standards at all. An org tries to do labor work despite having no understanding or background in it, just alienates others. An org has an understanding of labor and tries to do work in it but it’s clearly inauthentic and transactional. An org implodes because leadership protected an abuser - more about internal democracy, structure, and discipline that is usually missing.