The US history that Settlers covers is really useful especially when paired with Gerald Horne's books and can help you build that material conception of whiteness and settlerism. I also appreciate that it breaks the orthodox view on the white American proletariat that they're simply "tricked by racist lies" with no material interest in siding with the bourgeoisie. Labor aristocracy is a very useful concept in the Marxist conception of classes.

Honestly for white communists especially in America it's a topic severly undereducated on despite how important it is for them to learn, so the more the better. I see that a lot of people aren't aware of their settler colonial biases and it obfuscates praxis, tricks people into joining deeply settler orgs (ACP, CPUSA), and infects the platforms of more advanced orgs but with large settler bases like PSL and FRSO's platform which includes Chicano Nationalism.

On top of Fanon and Settlers I would also suggest Marx at the Margins and EFF theorist Lwazi Lushaba's decolonial lectures on youtube (his book too) on top of the aformentioned Gerald Horne's books and just generally being more open to this applying settler colonialism as the principle contradiction -- starting with native/black liberation and using dialectical materialism as the mode towards achieving it, reading texts even marxist critical texts from these perspectives, and seeing the failures of euro-american marxist theory and practice that have allowed it to be co-opted, declawed, and even perpetuate the "civilizing mission of progressive society" such as the case of the labor Zionists that carried out the nakba and the LaRouchites/MAGAcom grifters.

Red often makes content surrounding Maoist groups like the CPI or anti-China videos about how their trade with Africa is exploitative. That said while more than often their anti-China rhetoric and videos have bad information in them I do find their covering of actual maoist groups very interesting and being critical of China can sometimes land a good point

Absolutely bonkers shit. I feel like we're doing America in reverse with this and JD Vance trying to bring back Irish-Scottish inferiority. Latinidad needs to die and is a settler identity (which explains the affinity for Trump) but apparently only Anglo-Saxons are safe from criticism when they vote for Trump because "That's just how they are" or whatever these dumbass liberals internalize when they know their whole ass families are voting for the god damned cheetto

This shit was so predictable lmao at least the victory lap will be less violent than the "stolen election" protests, America now has a more fitting face

Essentially I believe PSL is not the vanguard because leadership and cadre are largely not proletarian. I don't believe the settler population ought to be twiddling their thumbs, but they need to be led by the proletarian vanguard and PSL is largely led by fellow labor aristocracy and petite bourgeoisie.

I spoke vaguely of orgs because many are localized and focus on their specific communities because they simply do not have mass appeal under settler colonialism. The Black Panthers studied Juche for good reason as they were made up of the community they were trying to liberate. These orgs like Chunka Luta Network are housing and organizing the proletariat, having an active impact in their communities that PSL cannot say the same for.

The "left" in America has problems gaining traction for material reasons. To me it says a lot that this "left" we're referring to when it comes to PSL is not rooted in the communities its saying they are the vanguard of. I can think of a few orgs that are focused on protecting and aiding sensitive hyper exploited communities that have cut ties with PSL over anti-blackness, misogyny, and anti-indigineity (I am not listing them because of the orgs opsec but for my own, as they are local to me). These orgs and communities don't need a labor aristocracy to guide them on action, they're already doing more effective work even among the less theoretically advanced populace due to their material conditions.

There are settlers in these organizations, but they are guided by those with that material interest in liberation. What strikes me as particularly "labor zionist" about PSL is that they say they're speaking for people that have their own organizations, have their own communities, that they are not a part of and don't want them involved in. The theoretically objective analysis of material conditions is used to put the leadership above the people and disconnected from the actual struggling masses, of which the leadership should actively be a part of and not simply "speaking for".

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I mean, I'm pretty sure theres a ton of empire challenging parties that are beyond help and arent worth advocating for. Trotskyist parties obviously. A big lesson people have been learning recently in the CPUSA is that trying to change the org from the inside just has not been working. The complete declawing of the anti-zionist DSA proposal shows that the right will assume power whenever something radical comes along. I'd argue both organizations are controlled resistance simply through the futility in engaging in liberalism and settler politics, CIA inflitration or not.

You could say the same thing about the green party as well. Hell, theyre not even self described socialist, following the party as a guide towards anti-imperial work leads you to doing electoralism without any kind of dual power building or smashing tentacles of imperialism beyond toothless protests.

PSL is largely funded by a few people who have a large say in the party, there's a tendency to burnout, abuse of power, a distinct lack of dual power building, transperancy, and settler cadre and policies to the extent that some native orgs (The Red Nation) see them a lost cause and do not work with them.

Where does that leave us? What's the point of condemning, to say that these parties aren't worth engaging in? In my opinion, "Something else" is a good enough answer. Native ML orgs exist that are doing the community organizing, education, and dual power building that really matters. Black defense groups and mutual aid orgs, hell anarchists feeding their communities and engaging in materially anti-imperialist actions are doing more than our American brand of protests or electoralism could ever bring.

Lastly, who are we organizing? Are we radicalizing, connecting, and orchestrating actions among the actual proletariat of America and its imperialist tentacles? (non-citizens, indigenous, racialized hyper-exploited populations) Or are we organizing the white labor aristocracy, petite bourgeoise, or otherwise settler population and arming them with marxist rhetoric and calling them the vanguard of the hyper exploited?

The fact is, this is America. In America, as long as imperialism produces a labor aristocracy, as long as coputulating to whiteness is in the material interest to the vast majority of this population, the revolution is not coming with just organizing, and certainly not in parties or power structures overwhelming controlled by settlers. The material conditions need to be created. The guide to action is cutting the tentacles of imperialism, building dual power to help the hyper exploited before and after the revolution, and bringing our number one export, suffering, home.

If PSL would rather care about the election of all things more than people feeling unsafe in their org, that's on them. I see the entire effort put towards getting them on the ballot to be fruitless and a waste of cadre time and money, and the wrecker allegations happen no matter what day the SA cases get brought up. Why do so many of you online sound like democrats upset you're not getting the marxist vote you're apparently owed, despite the fact there's literally nothing to gain but a symbolic number go up?

I'm sorry if I sound mad but Marxists should know that this election and this party does not matter as much as having the frank discussion and self-crit on what has happened in the PSL and what good can come from being in the org. What worries me is that not a single response has been "They recognized power abuse in the organization and addressed it and try and prevent it from happening in the future" but instead sweeping it under the rug, handwaving the issue, or saying that these many people were simply lying. If there's anything the election should be it should be an advertisement for the party and its policies, and the reactions to this post is capitalizing on that to say that even just asking if the party is an unsafe place for women and other vulnerable groups you are a "wrecker", it's a bad look for PSL and the Marxism-Leninism they claim to follow.

This is how you get people to see through your party and NOT want to vote for them. Bourgeois democracy is literally not ever that serious, it is a symbolic protest vote and matters so SO much less than SA allegations true or not. Calling someone who wants to make sure they aren't supporting SA protectors a "wrecker" (again, whether the allegations are true or not and there are certainly true ones) is a misogynist reaction to real concerns that only shows that women are unsafe in the PSL. One more vote for Claudia is not worth that.

To be fair, PSL isn't a monolith, and the US is filled with misogynists and horrible men in general. Awful that people in power in the org covered it up, even for a single branch it should be all that we're against. Here's a mega link with criticisms and accounts of SA

Will note I disagree with a good portion of the public criticisms section as some are Maoist/Trotskyist takes but the first hand accounts here are worth listening to. I think a big problem here is the lack of transperancy and purposefully hindered communication (cadre in branches are told not to talk to each other except through leadership) and overall too much centralization without the democratic part. Considering the anti-indigenity found in their socialist reconstruction program as well as by other indigenous groups interactions with them (I would suggest reading the Red Nation link in the drive), you could also tie this in with their settler politics as a whole.

I will also note the organization has a history of calling people who disagree with their line or mention the cases of SA as "adventurists" "wreckers" or the like. This is where the danger steps in, PSL is a deeply imperfect org and even an org as revolutionary and worthy of praise and support as the black panthers should and would take SA seriously.

Honestly, does it matter? It simply wouldn't of occurred without US imperialism, and was used as a pretext for the continuation of the circumstances that caused it. Bush is to blame whether he knew it was gonna happen or not.

Leaders, sometimes democratically elected committee members and sometimes established cadre with connections to the party's founder and source of funds the Becker family, often make decisions without informing cadres publicly or privately and they are expected to follow without discussion.

This has been very evident and unfortunate in times when people are accused of abuse within the organization (https://commiewife.medium.com/a-brief-criticism-of-the-party-for-socialism-and-liberation-95923b8cae6)

Or when they take unpopular stances like the Covid ad for the campaign they had to take down that heavily downplayed masking (with Claudia still not wearing masks at events) unfortunately I cannot find a re-upload of this.

The prohibiting of communications between branches except through leadership, the fed/badjacketing of people who don't accept decisions made by leadership, the history of shutting ppl down when questioning national leadership in general, leading to more of a just centralism rather than any kind of democratic centralism

Contrast this with the PSL’s own publications, for example, this one regarding “Social media and democratic centralism” from an internal document circulated first in 2015, which has since been substantially rewritten and appears on the Liberation School website: “Communication between members in different branches that does not first go through the leadership bodies of the respective branches — which can be called ‘horizontal communications’ — is generally prohibited.”

Sources and more in-depth explanations:

https://web.archive.org/web/20191207211353/https://medium.com/@newdialectician/women-and-the-vanguard-party-why-im-resigning-from-the-psl-30453e819147

https://web.archive.org/web/20230216163459/https://peoples-voice.org/2021/01/04/psl-proletarian-feminism-weapon/

Makes sense. Seems to depend on who you talk to it seems. Also tons of people attack them for being ML at all or blame their problems on the inherent issues of Stalinism or some bullshit like that so I get you

Separating exclusionary and assimilationist racists serves no one but the assimilationists that want to feel morally superior -- while being just as essential (in fact more so) than their more direct counterpart to the global system of racism and "nations as classes". There's some good tips in here too for talking with these people, but this separation confuses praxis and leaves room for thinking certain assimilationist views are at least not as bad as exclusionary ones.

I hardly find myself in the position this article is asking of me because, especially in our current day climate, associating any pro-Israel sentiment with the same kind of social taboo as exclusionary racism and giving a more "What the fuck bro" approach to the topic is easier and in my experience genuinely more effective. They may not think they're "dyed-in-the-wool racists" but they are and they need to know it.

The way I see it is that they use correct revolutionary rhetoric but funnel it into ineffective American protest culture, and while the national org may call themselves the vanguard or even Marxist-Leninist from time to time they don't do these things in action (I personally don't understand why a group would call themselves ML but not conform to a Leninist party structure) to that point where I've heard cadres say they aren't either of these things

Regardless of what they'll say as well, the real vanguard for the true American revolution will be the native and hyper exploited black/"illegal" populations, and in the era of imperialism the proletarian nations subjected to US rule and their movements. Something that Claudia and the Beckers are verifiably not a part of despite having oversized control over the party (thus not conforming to democratic centralism), and neither is their largely settler base.

IMO their worth is in the support they throw towards these vanguards which is legitimate and good but things like their plan for socialist reconstruction as detailed in their book are far too eurocommunist/"imperial marxist" to consider them a vanguard, even if they're trying to place themselves in that place. A lot of this is informed by when the Red Nation split ties with them and the accusations of "adventurism" members have thrown around towards ppl that try and escalate the more toothless actions they have a large presence in as well

The one thing that gets me is, is PSL trying to be a vanguard party? I've had conversations with recruiters before and been told they aren't looking to be the vanguard party. They could be better and more direct advertising for socialism if they get enough votes to be a known name but from what I've been told they lack ambition and preparedness for anything past electoralism.

PSL's pro china stance is probably the big stinker for him which is lol, thinking Greens is going to be a mass worker's party is lol (especially since they 100% would be co opted and deradicalized if they had a chance to win), but that first point is where I'm at with, what I see, as different social democrat parties that need rn to disrupt votes to stop people from only considering red and blue as the extent of politics and clearly showing that this is because of their vocal opposition to genocide.

That said, it's American bourgeoise electoralism so it's hard to care any which way, imo just matters we don't sell our souls to don or harris and do politics outside of these structures, best organizers I know just aren't voting this year

I've seen self described Maoists just be pro-Khmer Rouge and you could tie this with the fetishization of violence in the movement because it's often not a critical support either that takes into account their awful situation but just saying the genocide was deserved and shit (often playing into anti-communist exaggerations of the already horrible events too). Western Maoists are a different breed tho than the CPI (Maoist) so I'm not sure about the latter's thoughts on the matter or any of the other third world Maoist parties.

Some Hoxhaist anti-revisionists that don't take the whole Maoist line also cite Hoxha's "Can the Chinese revolution be considered a proletariat revolution?" to discount the project as communist/marxist and paint it as revisionist from the beginning, laying this to blame for their tactical moves with the US

Leninists were, at a time, what trotskyists called themselves in opposition to "Stalinists", where as Stalin outlined the philosophy of "Marxism-Leninism" so it's defined in that old polemic I believe. Don't hear Leninism too often anymore though. I think Marxism is emphasized mostly because of how he able to outline dialectical materialism as opposed to his other socialist/communist contemporaries, and even if we say Marx was more incorrect than those who came after him he's still foundational or at least inspirational to a lot of the work that came after him. Mao built on Lenin's theories in incredibly important ways as well but calling myself a Maoist has different connotations like Leninist might have, and ppl generally accept MZT as part of ML so it's been an effective way of communicating the contemporary communist position (siding with Stalin over Trotsky, Sino over Soviet, MZT over Maoism).

Considering the many great communists that have existed, even those who never took inspiration from Marx, or who saw his work as accurate and useful but not central to their communist thought (Frantz Fanon comes to mind, never feeling a need to call himself a Marxist) I generally prefer a simple "communist" as it gives a bit less eurocentrism and doesn't pay special attention to anyone in a movement that belongs to the masses. However, "Marxism" as a name for the eternal science of dialectical materialism and it's application is very effective as a means of communicating this school of thought and valuable contribution he made in outlining it, where as terms like "Leninism" "Maoist" "Hoxhaist" "Marxism-Leninism" "Dengist" often refer to a specific polemic outlined by an influencial figure in the overall movement as opposed to the quality of the named people's contributions to this science or its application.

Yeah it's horrible. Everyone I know that was in it had parents that adopted them because they got gov money and/or to take care of them while they themselves are unable to take care of children. Adopting can get kids out of this horrible system and be good if you're ready for it but the industry and specifically picking out an Asian child trafficked from South Korea or smth is alllll too common and fucked af

You couldn't possibly be weird for such a thing, there's no "normal" to begin with aside from the exploitative and patriarchal relationships encouraged by capital. Feel yourself, enjoy yourself, don't worry about labels and being a "real asexual", whatever that means. You valid! These labels are here to find community with people with similar experiences and often include a wide variety of ppl with seperate interpretations of what it means to be asexual, trans, queer or otherwise, sometimes in contradiction with each other. But they're just words to describe ourselves, when the only truth is the experiences you've had that have led you to describe yourself as such and the usefulness you find within.

We all wish we were as based as the Chinese, alas 😔. One more rec for the road for a perspective on Canada, Prison of Grass: Canada from the Native Point of View. Okay I'm done lol best of luck! Hope you enjoy and are able to spread this consciousness around as if you were karl ilyich zedong himself 🫡