You envision a party as a massive coalition akin to the Bolshevisks in 1915.
You do realize that it started decades before then with a handful of people meeting in someone’s basement, local library, or a park, and discussing ways as to how they could support their local community while building socialist awareness and class consciousness, right? In a country so hopeless that Lenin himself stated that he never even considered a revolution being possible.
Get your hands out from under your butt and do something, anything, instead of whining about how horrible and pointless doing anything is.
I’m sure the homeless man you give a bowl of food to won’t think the actions you take with a local party were useless. I’m sure the poor tenet who you showed up to defend from eviction wouldn’t think the same as you now.
Join the PSL preferably, but if they don’t exist near you, join literally any group near you dedicated to bringing positive social change from a Marxist perspective.
If not, then start your own branch of a party, or set up a club to do community projects with. Even if the only people who bothered to show up were you, an old man, and two skater anarchists. Because I promise you that if you keep building, and avoiding doomer mindsets. Then your group won’t stay that small for long.
Every little bit helps.
PSL and FRSO are good parties to look for or start in your area.
The Party will not emerge fully formed from some Great Man’s mind on day one. The Party must be built, and by all of us.
No. You should join a party even if they are imperfect.
How “imperfect” does a party have to be before that becomes a waste of time though? My local org disagreed with me on every important issue last time I spoke to them, and joining them would do nothing but have me get into pointless arguments with “Weekend Communists”
I’m not saying I’m holding out for a “perfect” party here, but I feel like the line should be drawn with this: “Can I do more good work within this organisation than I can outside of it?” Having access to a properly organised group, even an imperfect one, enables an individual to do a lot more good in the world than if they were acting alone, but spending time in a party that does nothing of value will only waste your own time.
spending time in a party that does nothing of value will only waste your own time
Of course. I assumed we were talking about a real party that does real work, not some do-nothing larp and debate group. The question that was originally asked was whether it’s worth joining a communist party in the US, and my impression is that there are at least one or two out there that are not completely useless.
Yeah, just wanted to throw that out there that joining an org, any org, isn’t always a good use of time. Though for a charismatic or knowledgeable enough individual, they could probably turn a LARPing group around into a decent org. Unfortunately I am not that person.
Just join the PSL
No. This amounts to throwing your hands in the air and giving up. Work needs to be put in to build something of value. And not all of them are revisionist or whatever. PSL and FRSO are both good options.
No. Join a party wherever you can, as long as they are communists or have large-ish socialist caucuses on them. Connect with communists even if they are not your type for the sake of making connections and seeing the status of the movement for yourself.
Build your own party or reclaim the CPUSA.
The CPUSA are revionist garbage. The entire policy position is just “vote blue”, and it has historically been a party with more feds in it then members.