cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6501985
I have been considering the obvious organizations such as FRSO or PSL. However, an article really made some points that stood out to me:
https://cosmonautmag.com/2018/10/from-workers-party-to-workers-republic-2/
“What made the “Leninist party of a new type” different was not democratic centralism. Rather than simple centralism, Comintern parties had a form of ‘monolithism’ to use the phrase of Fernando Claudin.14 In other words, Comintern parties emphasized centralism over democracy or often just disregarded democratic norms entirely. While this wasn’t absent in the Second International, the Third was born as a sort of militarized civil war organization rather than a political party in the sense of a mass workers association as envisioned by Marx. While this may have been justified at a time when an actual global civil war against capitalism was on the table, this is not the case right now – we are not living in the same era of ‘Wars and Revolutions’ as the leaders of the Comintern were. When modern Leninists claim the secret of their parties’ road to success is ‘democratic centralism’, it tends to mean an overly bureaucratized group that puts heavy workloads on individual members to make them more ‘disciplined’, and a lack of actual democracy in favor of a more militarized party structure. Factions are forbidden, ideological centralism (rather than programmatic centralism) is imposed from above, and groups aim to build an ‘elite’ cadre that tails existing mass struggles, hoping to bank in on them to recruit members. The Comintern model is simply a recipe for failure in today’s conditions, just another guide to building yet another sect that will compete for the latest batch of recruits. How this actually works in practice is exemplified by the state of actually existing contemporary Leninism in the USA.
Take PSL, FRSO-FB and the ISO as case studies. Alongside schemes to take over union bureaucracy, these organizations essentially form front groups that hide affiliation to any kind of communist goals and aim to mobilize students around the latest liberal social justice issues and work in alliance with NGOs to throw rallies of mostly symbolic value. Through these activities, the cadre (or inner group) of the Leninist organization hopes to recruit parts of the liberal activist community in order to grow their base of support and garner more influence in these social movements. The organizations themselves proclaim democratic centralism, but in reality, there is no public debate about party positions allowed between congresses. At the congresses debate, takes place as little as possible and is usually led by an unelected central committee that composed of full-time staffer careerists. By using their “militant minority” tactics to act as the “spark that lights the prairie fire” in popular struggles, the modern Leninists (with some exceptions of course) tend to tail these struggles instead of fight for a class-conscious approach to issues of civil and democratic rights. One tactic often used is to hand out as many of their signs as possible to appear larger in number, when in reality this is often protesting street theater backed by NGOs connected to the Democrats who are simply using leftists as useful idiots for “direct actions” against the Republicans. Usually, the rationale for this activism is to raise consciousness among liberals. Theoretically, by ‘riding the wave’ of spontaneous activism, the militant minority group will build up enough influence to launch an insurrection. This is a delusional hope. It leads to chronic involvement in activism that takes up time and energy but doesn’t build working class institutions that can actually offer concrete gains for working people through collective action. One could describe this general strategy of tailing social movements as ‘movementism’.”
I have definitely observed this within FRSO's seeding of cadre in "front" "mass" organizations such as New SDS, anti-war groups, or various NAARPR chapters to recruit other cadre.
There is also a strange divide and turf war between otherwise similar programmatic unity between PSL, FRSO, and WWP. Like, UNITE!
Open to feedback and thoughts, need to talk it out with other comrades.
This hit me kind of hard, I've long felt that a left unity position was an important part of engaging with other leftists, especially in the face of what we're up against, but in my own organizing I've run into a clique of people in the group that have taken an increasingly sectarian turn as they attempt to "read theory" and seem to have mainlined whatever fed psyops were on reddit.
I want to work with anyone I can, and we had worked together for years. However when I put my foot down about working with transphobes and antimaskers, that was enough for the clique to withdraw their own participation in our work entirely. That left a bitter taste in my mouth and they've only become more sectarian since. I even made the effort to point out the dude they were doing a reading group of was on record as a Zionist, they act like that's something that can just get ignored because the rest of his work is just sooo good.
I'm just tired.
yeah I organized in "big tent" spaces for over 5 years and saw this happen over and over again. I am lucky to live in a place with enough ML's to organize with but I don't think most cities in the US have that option. I have had many good comrades attacked by people from "left" tendencies I won't name due to rules around sectarianism. this includes death threats, doxxing attempts, character assassinations/rumor mongering, and more. some reasons for the attacks: suggesting that a coalition have a rule around not doing drugs/alcohol during organizing meetings; not wanting an org to join a coalition because they were actively being boycotted by over a dozen Palestinian orgs for zionism; not wanting a known abuser to be allowed to constantly derail organizing work; and more totally benign and reasonable requests.
and literally every time after these coalitions push out the MLs, within a few months the whole project has fallen apart and never accomplished anything. absolute wrecker shit and always from the same types of people who adhere to the same "left" tendencies, despite being different people in different groups every time. it's almost like certain "left" tendencies are actually historically anti-communists who exist entirely to sheepdog revolutionary energy into a pit which destroys all progress and growth of class consciousness. not a conversation most people are ready to have
It really is just wrecker behavior. I don't understand how trying to maintain an orthodoxy of accepted narratives/political positions on events on the other side of the planet is somehow more anti-authoritarian than the groups they demagogue against.
I don't even consider myself any particular tendency, what I value is internationalism and treating all narratives and dogmas critically. That has not meshed well with so-called anti-authoritarians who are dead set on pushing an overwhelmingly liberal line (or something dressed up as radical but compatible with capitalism).
Being that concerned about who's going to betray you 'after the rev' just looks like counting your eggs before they hatch.