cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6116584

  • Cutecity [he/him]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Can anyone explain the revisionist thing for a non american who's not familiar with revisionism in socialist parties?

    • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      In this context they're saying the philosophy of PSL is a revised form of Marxism(-Leninism, probably). With negative implications.

      • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        S4A is anti-China, they are an Ultra. In the video they elaborate on their statement here (that I watched out of morbid curiosity) and they accuse PSL of being revisionists for being Dengists.

        • Imnecomrade [none/use name]
          ·
          2 months ago

          If PSL is anything, it's Maoist, and they seemed to have leaned a bit on the ultra side when they first started the party, but I believe they have improved since then.

          One of their old articles on China is somewhat ultra and idealist: https://www.liberationschool.org/what-do-socialists-defend-in-china-today/

          I mentioned this article here where I was able to get outside perspectives.

          • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
            ·
            2 months ago

            I hear you, I was relaying what S4A accused them of. Perhaps I worded it a bit wrong.

            Either way, I thought that PSL was officially Marcyist?

            • Babs [she/her]
              ·
              2 months ago

              Is Marcyist when you're a Trot but you Trot yourself into supporting AES? I've mostly heard it in reference to Workers World Party and those guys seemed like very nice MLs with maybe a weird party history that I never fully understood.

              • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                2 months ago

                That's my understanding as well, which is why PSL has many MLs, probably more than trots at this point. Just an interesting history, though with great comrades to my knowledge.

                • Imnecomrade [none/use name]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  From my experience, if a member is a trot in PSL and become problematic, they are kicked out or drop themselves out. However, we are working with people coming from early stages of radicalizing. You'll notice the kind of people we work with from the questions they ask on some of The People's Forum's classes on YouTube. Many people are still developing, and I believe PSL does pretty well with educating them.

                  • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
                    ·
                    2 months ago

                    That's good to hear! I'm personally going to apply for FRSO membership soon, but it's good to hear that PSL is more principled than I thought as a Party, as I know PSL and FRSO frequently work together.

            • Imnecomrade [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 months ago
              Sorry I meant to post with my hexbear account.

              I like to keep separate accounts for tidiness purposes as well as to make switching to different instances on Jerboa easier, plus I believe some communities are locked to users registered to the instance they are on. I posted on a web browser, but Jerboa gives the link to the post based on the instance the OP is on and not the community the post is on. I like to post on a web browser because I like to ensure I set the language to my posts, which is still not a feature on Jerboa.

              Tbh, Idk. I believe PSL usually educates and follows ML principles but may make mistakes from time to time. I'm not sure if they have trot-like tendencies from my experience so far, but I know there are other issues that I believe they need to improve on. However, one theme of ML is that the material conditions in different nations have an impact on which methods of organization are needed for a successful revolution, and we have yet to see an advanced capitalist society turn socialist. Even if PSL isn't perfect or may or may not be the vanguard party of America in the future, I believe the actions they are taking are helping build class consciousness, which is absolutely necessary right now. We're having to build from scratch after COINTELPRO, which means we are still in the very early stages of organizing despite growing exponentially. I don't think PSL is necessarily trot as we have to build class consciousness and develop a centralized party under the belly of the beast, which means we have to learn and adapt to the conditions of America and use the elections as a tool.

              • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]
                ·
                2 months ago

                Oh don't get me wrong, PSL are great comrades and has tons of MLs to my knowledge, I'm not knocking on PSL.

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      It basically means "they are impure and have made too many concessions/strayed from the true path" and is something ultras, especially Hoxhaists who can get up to like a third of a given text just being the word "revisionist" prefixed to every single noun, like to use as a catch-all term for why they're unhappy with an ML party or AES state. Sometimes it's actually cogent, like the Hoxhaist critique of China's foreign policy after Mao, other times it's just sectarian whining from people who want to feel like the most pure and clever special lads with the best theory untainted by praxis.

      It's full/literal meaning as used by leftists is just something like "going backwards" either in theory or praxis, but like I said in its normal use is just calling a policy, tendency, party, or state impure.