Why are American communist parties so weird.

  • QuillQuote [they/them]
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    That has more to do with their inability to get anything done than with the reason for their current state, but damn is it why they suck.

    That's Socialist Alternative's main criticism of many left groups (at least in my area), the whole point is to meet the working class where they are and help them get to where they need to be, build them a bridge don't just wish they were already across! That's why SAlt accomplishes WAY more than you'd expect, given our size, we're just now passing 1,000 members internationally again.

    • Nagarjuna [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Sometimes y'all swoop into things other socialists have already organized, acting like it's an unorganized worker action or whatever and try to channel it and it's like, dude we're already here we're just not wearing red scarves.

      • QuillQuote [they/them]
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        can't speak to any experience with that, but in my area since I've joined it's been grassroots events, protests, stuff we organized, or stuff we were cooperating on.

        We do be coopting lib organized shit tho 'oops your friendship huddle with police became a defund the police rally with people chanting ACAB :soviet-bashful: '

        • Nagarjuna [he/him]
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 years ago

          I would like to ask you guys to be a little more careful with what you identify as "grassroots."

          • QuillQuote [they/them]
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            4 years ago

            My branch/ other local branches are for sure. I'm one of the loudest people on here about left unity, I'm aggressively against infighting and trying to steal members or anything like that o7

                • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
                  hexagon
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  There's no real problem as infighting has in no way prevented any sort of mass action from happening or anything close to that. It's mostly just mild annoyances and DSA types don't like that they aren't in the driver's seat.

        • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
          hexagon
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          Nah SAlt coopts BLM rally's to make it about taxing Amazon, something that everyone there already agrees on.

          I still generally believe SA is the most accomplished dem centralist org in the US, but there's a lot of real criticism there. Also like other trot orgs, there's splits over tedious bullshit.

          • QuillQuote [they/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            When we went to blm actions it was just to participate in solidarity or to talk to people about how fed up with the system they were and help point out contradictions as we talked, to raise consciousness not to talk about tax amazon

            • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
              hexagon
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              4 years ago

              Well Sawant literally took over a BLM march into city hall only to turn it into a tax amazon event that featured almost exclusively white speakers. And that fuck up is now being used by the WA state supreme court (for covid related reasons) to allow her recall petition to gather signatures.

              Like I definitely think SAlt is an incredibly effective organization that definitely does far more meaningful work than DSA, but they do sometimes come across as out of touch.

              • QuillQuote [they/them]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Ahh gotcha, I was just talking about locally. And I agree, I share those criticisms at large

    • the_river_cass [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      my only complaint with SAlt after working with the local chapter on a bunch of stuff is the emphasis on panels... like dammit, we don't need another panel on international antifascism, we just did one. come on, y'all... ISO was worse on this front though.

      • QuillQuote [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        tbf that only really sucks if you're pretty well read or exposed to the ideas and discussions. For a lot of people, especially newer members, they have a lot of groundwork to lay out. Even then, for those who do know, its also about learning and practicing discussion, not rehearsing, but practicing organic discussion with sharp analysis. Because you can't just go to a protest and walk up to working class people and hit them with boring shit or long speeches, you gotta give them what you want them to hear in the way they need to hear it, and to do that takes practice and confidence

        It's also why getting into big fights with other leftists online isn't really helpful, because you don't need practice for arguing with socialists, you need practice for talking to and working with working class people

        • the_river_cass [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I know, I know, it was just the repetition. the original plan had been to do 3 separate events on each topic but somehow we kept skipping everything but the panels and I was getting annoyed. I'm mostly just teasing.

      • QuillQuote [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        We're quite critical of china and others, but I don't know too much of the extent, it's not been something that's come up much with local conditions as they are so I can't really say as I don't know where I personally stand on it yet, haven't had the brainspace to investigate it