https://x.com/votesocialist24/status/1820563500395106496
🚨UPDATE ON BALLOT ACCESS🚨
Over the last few months, volunteers around the country have been actively petitioning, talking with and collecting signatures from tens of thousands of people ready to see a socialist on the ballot in their state.
As of today, our campaign:
- 💥 Is officially on the ballot in 9 states
- 💥 Has submitted the required signatures in 7 states
- 💥 Is still pursuing ballot access in an additional 7 states
- 💥 Is pursuing official write-in status in 22 states
Our campaign has a path to over 270 electoral college votes — a majority.
The two-party system makes it incredibly difficult for third party candidates without huge financial resources to access ballots in some states. No matter what status your state is, we encourage supporters to get involved and help build the movement for a future by and for the people beyond the ballot box!
Whether you can donate your money your time, or both — we need your help! Visit 🔗http://votesocialist2024.com/volunteer to learn how you can get involved!
Good for them 
Remember, electoralism in capitalist countries is designed to keep commies out, but if you are going to vote, vote commie on principal.
But more importantly unionise and organise.
On a local level, elections can be much easier to make an impact on material conditions. Also good practice for organizing and meeting your community
Really wish they would start smaller and try to become a real alternative in even one state, not do these pointless vanity presidential tickets. Hard to take them seriously when they waste so much money on these every 4 years.
Yeah I tried joining up as people advised me to do and felt the last lingering gobbets of my enthusiasm for it shrivel into dust when they made it clear to me they don't do mutual aid or anything like that and it's entirely
bullshitGetting on the Presidential ballot for a corrupt system that's going to fall apart in less than a decade does not strike me as realistic or forward-thinking
they don't do mutual aid or anything like that and it's
entirely bullshitPSL does mutual aid but it's not in any way a focus because, the truth is, mutual aid as practiced by the US left is just small-scare charity with a big labor input. It does not in any meaningful way build revolutionary power. When we take on mutual aid, it's usually on the level of organizational cooperation and coalition building - repairing a Black community center so they can better serve their neighborhood, and we get to utilize the space. That's actual mutual.
Saying it's entirely vote bullshit is basically straight up lying, or you must have taken "obligation to participate in campaign activity" entirely the wrong way. There's also an obligation to participate in community organizing, internal political education, external political education, labor organizing and solidarity, Palestine rallies and divestment, etc. Even in an election year I doubt more than a third of our work is election focused, and the campaign primarily amplifies our non-electoral work.
I might look into it again, they were just really stressing the Presidential stuff which I'm clearly not alone in seeing as a wasteful vanity project. They should focus on local elections and build their presence as an actual political entity first.
I hear you but I think the party's goal is still sustained growth which may at some point enable state chapters to start running serious local campaigns. I'm not a member however though I plan to begin the process once I'm back in the states next year.
However some of our other comrades who do work with them have said that there is not much money spent on the campaigns, there is just the volunteer time to get the signatures and of course whatever events Claudia and Karina partake in (but these double as general socialist agit prop so I'm sure you'd agree they aren't a waste of time either). I'll agree though that the rhetoric could use a little tweaking because "we now have a path to over 270 electoral college votes" probably seems like a delusionally optimistic statement to many from the outside. But that's small change in the grand scheme of the party's goals and activities.
Let's hope that at some point we can start getting socialists on county boards of supervisors' and fuck up landlord's lives on a direct level.
It's only a "vanity ticket" if you consider winning elections to be the goal of a party. The PSL is under no illusions they're going to succeed in bourgeois democracy. Pivoting to actually trying to win state ballots is a step backwards—it would represent a slip into electoralism and they'd become effectively indistinguishable from the DSA.
The goal of participating in bourgeois elections is to draw attention, nothing more.
No I consider it a vanity ticket because they have no intention of really winning. You can't use the same strategy as every other 3rd party and expect people to not just assume that your party is exactly the same as every other grifter.
Pivoting to actually trying to win state ballots is a step backwards
Then you gotta do institution building which, as far as I'm aware, PSL does not do.
The goal of participating in bourgeois elections is to draw attention, nothing more.
I fully agree. And the best way to do that is to win seats so you can throw a wrench (or three) into the system and block any policies that would harm the working class. Then propagandize on those tangible achievements so that you can demonstrate to people that you can actually offer them something beyond just having the 'correct' opinions. All the while trying to build parallel institutions which can eventually take over the functions of the state you are trying to dismantle so people aren't afraid society will collapse if you take power, electorally or otherwise.
💯 This is why I finally got fed up with the green party. Where they ran local candidates they actually won and made real impact (I lived in Richmond, California where Gayle Mclaughlin was on city council and then a 2 term mayor!) But the focus on national elections that they could never win given fptp, and the subservience of the California GP to the national party annoyed me enough to switch to no party preference.
It's not in any way a "pointless vanity ticket". It's a specific strategic choice the party explains here: https://www.liberationschool.org/why-we-are-running-in-the-2024-presidential-race/
Working and poor people need their own class-conscious organizations where their needs are subordinate to no one. Elections allow working class parties to directly contrast their program to the capitalist parties in their entirety, demonstrating that socialism is superior to capitalism at proposing solutions that meet the scale of the problems facing the majority of people.
The general sense that a socialist program is “implausible” in the present system gives elections the further ability to expose the thing standing between the substandard status quo and a fulfilling future: the capitalist state, or, said differently, the current political system.
Elections, along with strikes, rebellions, and protests, are a rallying point, where the broad mass of those disillusioned with capitalism can gather and turn their scattered protest into a large-scale positive force for change. Furthermore, they are a unique arena to educate and organize greater numbers to work towards building a new system. Winning power is a long, complex process, but it will never happen unless we openly contend for it and explain what an alternative world could look like.
It's fundamentally about utilizing the massive attention driven towards the presidential circus to promote a socialist platform in contrast to the bourgeois parties, extends the reach of the organization, and builds the revolutionary party.
Our campaign is explicitly pitched for power. What does this mean? First, it means that focusing a campaign on proving the capitalist ideology of the major parties (and some minor ones) is totally bankrupt. Instead, we must go further to show how socialism is the best solution for the problems of the working class. It becomes clear that real power for workers can’t be achieved within the current system, something made apparent by the very “implausibility” of our sound solutions. Finally, in this campaign, we are raising the key issue of how to make deep social change: the need for a Party.
Running a presidential campaign gives access to places and people who might otherwise be unreachable. It is not about winning the presidency or promoting our candidates. It's about leveraging every opportunity to demonstrate the necessity of a Marxist-Leninist communist party and making that organization bigger and more formidable.
It's fundamentally about utilizing the massive attention driven towards the presidential circus to promote a socialist platform
This "massive attention" is fleeting and far more likely to produce a negative impression than a positive one. I understand they think they're being clever. I'm saying its dumb and is counterproductive and makes them look just like every other bourgeois 3rd party and does in no way
demonstrate the necessity of a Marxist-Leninist communist party
Getting even just one measly school board position to fuck with conservatives to demonstrate that they're actually serious about defending the principles they espouse and not just shouting foreign policy positions people find cringe would generate far more public goodwill than a presidential bid that can't get full 50 ballot access (and even where they do get it they can't even get their party name on the ballot) ever could.
one measly school board position to fuck with conservatives to demonstrate that they're actually serious about defending the principles they espouse and not just shouting foreign policy positions people find cringe
wen ur a srs anti-imperialist
Maybe take one second to actually read about the rationale and tactics of the campaign. One example. We raise a platform position - nationalize the 100 largest corporations, for example - and libs say "that will never happen even if you win, which you won't because the system is stacked against you". We say, "correct - we need a socialist revolution and the only historically proven way to do it is a Marxist-Leninist party".
If you could demonstrate in what way it's "dumb and counterproductive" then you may have a point.
wen ur a srs anti-imperialist
Oh please. A school board member has absolutely no bearing on foreign policy, sacrificing your political capital on performative displays of anti-imperialism will only alienate the people you are trying to get to join and make other potentially sympathetic board members not want to be associated with you or your policies (even if you're just voting in the negative). The people you are trying to reach do not engage with party literature, they hear about PSL from twitter or some local news article which regurgitates whatever the party's take is in the least flattering way possible. Playing into that by using the platform a (very) minor presidential bid gives you is just ... naive at best.
Maybe take one second to actually read about the rationale and tactics of the campaign.
I did. I just disagree.
One example. We raise a platform position - nationalize the 100 largest corporations, for example - and libs say "that will never happen even if you win, which you won't because the system is stacked against you". We say, "correct - we need a socialist revolution and the only historically proven way to do it is a Marxist-Leninist party".
Why would anyone believe that? Genuinely. Not to mention nationalization isn't even a uniquely socialist policy. The only even nominally socialist state of any significance is China and, at the very least, their economy is as capitalist as apple pie. Promises are cheap. Change people's material conditions for the better and then they will believe you, not before. I understand its hard work and doesn't have the glamour of a protest or a presidential bid, but if we actually want things to change for the better then it must be done.
Change people's material conditions for the better and then they will believe you, not before.
Are you an anarchist? Wield power before you win it is not a real world plan
Are you an anarchist?
You actually made me laugh, thanks. This isn't productive anymore though.
i gave the psl my presidential vote in 2020 and i'm probably doing it again assuming they get ballot access.
I applied to join as well, because i have a lot of free time right now and I'm sick of not doing anything for what i believe in
i'm glad the ballot access map is decent, i hope it grows!
also it was the only time i ever had my ballot challenged lol. I had to affirm my signature and vote was for gloria la riva. Because Washington state mails out ballots, it's easy to vote and i'd done it a little bit (especially on ballot initiatives) and i was taken aback that the one time I vote how I want, i get my vote taken off the official tallies for a time to mail in the challenge response
How are official write-ins counted? Do they only count someone writing exactly "Claudia de la Riva"? Or maybe the require the VP name too, "Claudia de la Riva / Karina Garcia"? Sounds like there's plenty of room for "official" write-ins to be ignored.
Cool to see socialists getting more representation. Hopefully this will make a few people curious, and maybe make some positive change.
I believe it mean that they are getting signatures and doing the necesary paperwork to be on the ballot
It means they're still working on getting the necessary signatures.
I'm in a branch in Ohio, most states require a lot of signatures to get someone on the ballot. I don't know how big the Florida branches are or how many signatures they require, but they probably wouldn't be pursuing ballot access unless they were sure they would get it by November.
Anything I can do as a u.s. citizen living outside the country to help them get on the ballot?
Move to Russia and hack the US voting systems. Spread endless communist propaganda on Reddit using thousands of Russian and Chinese bots.
Otherwise, agitprop. Idk how hard it is to get in contact with those working on this part of the campaign, but you could send people their way. From what I've seen and heard, getting in contact can be difficult.
get involved with your own local communist party and build the international movement tbh
I think sending money is illegal so there's not a ton you can do unless you can travel to the US and volunteer with the campaign
I saw an interview with Karina Garcia last week where she said they were / hoped to be on the ballot in 22 states. Pretty exciting they have that many people active to do that.
glad to see they made some progress from when I checked on this about 2 months ago, still good room for improvement though
