Right, that's what I said. The only way they reach people is by door knocking and meeting people personally to tell them about a presidential campaign that has no intention of winning. The campaign otherwise doesn't get to most people.
So if the solution to growing PSL membership is just knocking on doors and talking to people, why not have an organizing project that actually impacts the person you are talking to instead of one that will immediately be disregarded by 99% of the people you talk to? If you have to go knock on every door anyway, it seems like offering something of substance is a better way to get people on your side.
Getting a few fringe people in your county to vote for the campaign that won't win is something I guess, but how does that translate into those same people organizing locally to do anything? Membership growth doesn't really mean anything, DSA is huge and has actually got people elected all across the country, but having large paper membership of an org with a bad strategy and bad use of funds isn't compelling.
I don't expect you or anyone else here to really have an answer or anything, no pressure to say more if you don't know what else to say.
In the end, these are the strategies being pursued and they are a part of the moment, but I can't imagine why PSL rank and file members would be putting so much into an organization with these kind of strategies unless their education about socialism came directly from PSL. A bunch of newly radicalized people getting into politics through a specific org end up just mindlessly agreeing with that org's strategies because that's what they were told to think. Referencing Lenin's position on running candidates in parliamentary elections in Russia a century ago is not an analysis to base organizing strategy off of, and no one has been able to explain any other reasoning for PSL to do these campaigns other than "it is what the leadership who has been in power since the beginning says to do," which to me is a pretty glaring issue that PSL members will try and bully you about for bringing up.
Right, that's what I said. The only way they reach people is by door knocking and meeting people personally to tell them about a presidential campaign that has no intention of winning. The campaign otherwise doesn't get to most people.
So if the solution to growing PSL membership is just knocking on doors and talking to people, why not have an organizing project that actually impacts the person you are talking to instead of one that will immediately be disregarded by 99% of the people you talk to? If you have to go knock on every door anyway, it seems like offering something of substance is a better way to get people on your side.
Getting a few fringe people in your county to vote for the campaign that won't win is something I guess, but how does that translate into those same people organizing locally to do anything? Membership growth doesn't really mean anything, DSA is huge and has actually got people elected all across the country, but having large paper membership of an org with a bad strategy and bad use of funds isn't compelling.
I don't expect you or anyone else here to really have an answer or anything, no pressure to say more if you don't know what else to say.
In the end, these are the strategies being pursued and they are a part of the moment, but I can't imagine why PSL rank and file members would be putting so much into an organization with these kind of strategies unless their education about socialism came directly from PSL. A bunch of newly radicalized people getting into politics through a specific org end up just mindlessly agreeing with that org's strategies because that's what they were told to think. Referencing Lenin's position on running candidates in parliamentary elections in Russia a century ago is not an analysis to base organizing strategy off of, and no one has been able to explain any other reasoning for PSL to do these campaigns other than "it is what the leadership who has been in power since the beginning says to do," which to me is a pretty glaring issue that PSL members will try and bully you about for bringing up.