As of the last few months, I've been looking into nearby Marxist orgs, and now I'm finding the most developed one in my region is affiliated directly with the IMT (Trotskyist). I'm curious as to anyone's experiences with the IMT (do not doxx yourself) and whether it is worth organizing in.
Worked for a while with a new branch in a MAJOR American city and did not have a good time.
There's also been some SA stuff in other branches that was not handled well, and caused a trans comrade of mine who had been invested in the org for YEARS to quit.
My branch lead was a shitlib with regards to China. Completely dismissed the country as a whole.
All we did was try to sell newpapers at rallies and protests.
0/10 would not bother.
Also, what are you hoping to get out of joining an org?
I wanted to be invited to contribute to something tangible. Worked with PSL for 8 months but my branch would never take me on as a member and it doesn't seem like they have any idea what the fuck they're doing internally, so I recently joined up with the American Council of Bolsheviks. Brand new org, but theyre choosing to publish an old essay I had, and im working on spearheading a podcast with them. To me, thats a good feeling - I want to contribute in some way, and for material stuff, I have my mutual aid work I do with a few other users here.
Honestly PSL is over-rated, mostly they are protest hoppers and have alot of SA scandals.
I know some people don't like this advice but you're best off in a smaller ML org like the one you've joined or the CPUSA. Even though the latter's politics are flawed theres nothing wrong with being in an org of thousands
I was really considering CPUSA, but I have comrades that were already in ACB so they were quick to interview and accept me. Honestly, it's nice to be valued, I've gotten nothing but good feedback from them and already have responsibilities.
You may see some of them on here or on Lemmygrad more often soon.
I just want to be able to help a party in a material way, and ACB offers the best avenue to that for me personally. The people in it I've talked to so far are great, I like where things are going, and my contributions are being lauded in a comradely way - not without criticisms, but plenty of positive feedback and offers to constructively work on them together. Have an editorial session tomorrow for an essay I wrote months ago and contributed to the site on a whim. Feels good.
Yeah honestly I support your decision. While I do think that people need to work within the larger groups like the DSA and CPUSA, at the same time these groups can collapse due to internal divisions so we need people to build the infrastructure for the next communist party if it's needed.
In an idea world people could be duel members but in practice who has the time for that, amirite?
Yuuup
ACB sounds interesting! what kind of work do they do?
It's a brand new party, and is composed of people all over the US. Right now, we're working on our core goals - check out the New Spark webpaper if you want a better idea! I just started getting involved, so that might be a better explanation than what I can offer. I know that sounds bad, but I've been drinking a little so I'm not going to elaborate further <3
thanks for the tip!