In essence if you're not going to meetings you're not in a party. The candidate of a party for an election is also determined by the membership of the party through some form of democracy. If you're not a member you don't get to have a say. A party is a political institution that's there to advocate for the political goals of its members, who have responsibilities to that organization.
That's just your standard bourgeois party, a workers party is even more of an all encompassing institution. It should be the organization where the proletariat becomes a class onto itself. It's here where workers make their own parallel institutions. Like, the historic German and Austrian Social Democratic Parties (before they killed Rosa) had their own bicycle clubs and cooking clubs and stuff. Being a member in a communist party is also more of a burden than in other parties because you had more responsibilities than normal. If you were a member of the CPSU you had less free time because you also worked for the party and gave up some privileges. If you didn't meet the criteria you were also expelled from the CPSU. Another example is the CPC. Becoming a member is really hard, it's like becoming a doctor and there's an entrance exam. And only like 10% of applicants get accepted.
Now compare that to the US parties where the only actual organization is the National Committee and the two Hill committees that are only about elections and funding whose membership is determined by the elected officials who day they are a member of that party. A normal person can't become a member of one of the big US parties.
I don't want to imply all Americans are dumb only that their political structures are so beyond fucked and they are so immersed in them that they have no idea that they are completely alien for any other person on the planet. I always feel guilty when someone like you sincerely goes "please help me the dumb American, I'm just so lost" because I'm clearly the asshole here lol.
Edit: the US analog to members of political parties can be what the US media calls "activists".
In other countries, normal national level political parties (like say, the Labour/Labor Party) aren't things that you register for and are then funded by corporate political donations.
You join as a member, there are rules and responsibilities you have to follow, and you usually pay an annual due to support the party. It's much more closely knit, you have much more input into policy and political actions. Sometimes you even directly vote for the candidates as members. Other times it's a combination of the rank and file, the parliamentary party, and other groups like affiliated unions.
The Australian Labor Party, for instance, practices a weak form of Dem Cent. Parliamentary members and Party Staff must publicly follow the party line and vote down that line.
.... what is an actual party, per se? Asking for a dumb American... friend
@Mardoniush nailed it.
In essence if you're not going to meetings you're not in a party. The candidate of a party for an election is also determined by the membership of the party through some form of democracy. If you're not a member you don't get to have a say. A party is a political institution that's there to advocate for the political goals of its members, who have responsibilities to that organization.
That's just your standard bourgeois party, a workers party is even more of an all encompassing institution. It should be the organization where the proletariat becomes a class onto itself. It's here where workers make their own parallel institutions. Like, the historic German and Austrian Social Democratic Parties (before they killed Rosa) had their own bicycle clubs and cooking clubs and stuff. Being a member in a communist party is also more of a burden than in other parties because you had more responsibilities than normal. If you were a member of the CPSU you had less free time because you also worked for the party and gave up some privileges. If you didn't meet the criteria you were also expelled from the CPSU. Another example is the CPC. Becoming a member is really hard, it's like becoming a doctor and there's an entrance exam. And only like 10% of applicants get accepted.
Now compare that to the US parties where the only actual organization is the National Committee and the two Hill committees that are only about elections and funding whose membership is determined by the elected officials who day they are a member of that party. A normal person can't become a member of one of the big US parties.
I don't want to imply all Americans are dumb only that their political structures are so beyond fucked and they are so immersed in them that they have no idea that they are completely alien for any other person on the planet. I always feel guilty when someone like you sincerely goes "please help me the dumb American, I'm just so lost" because I'm clearly the asshole here lol.
Edit: the US analog to members of political parties can be what the US media calls "activists".
In other countries, normal national level political parties (like say, the Labour/Labor Party) aren't things that you register for and are then funded by corporate political donations.
You join as a member, there are rules and responsibilities you have to follow, and you usually pay an annual due to support the party. It's much more closely knit, you have much more input into policy and political actions. Sometimes you even directly vote for the candidates as members. Other times it's a combination of the rank and file, the parliamentary party, and other groups like affiliated unions.
The Australian Labor Party, for instance, practices a weak form of Dem Cent. Parliamentary members and Party Staff must publicly follow the party line and vote down that line.