The assertion that PSL is a “high-control group” adopts an idealist view of democracy, rooted in liberal individualism rather than Marxist organizational principles. The bourgeois conception of “democracy” — focused on abstract freedoms divorced from material conditions — ignores the dictatorship of capital. Revolutionary organizations shouldn’t be judged by procedural openness or electoral visibility, but by their ability to centralize working-class needs, resist co-optation, and maintain strategic clarity in a hostile capitalist environment.
Calling PSL “ineffective” is just as shallow. It reflects a voluntarist, idealist view of political success: one that expects quick, visible results without accounting for the immense power of the U.S. empire. But socialism isn’t built overnight; It takes years of study, organization, and mass work. PSL has survived surveillance, media hostility, and sectarian attacks yet is still organizing in unions, tenant movements, anti-police brutality protests, and anti-war campaigns. That’s not failure.
These critiques also ignore PSL’s principled anti-imperialism, its support for the Global South, and its practical organizing around police violence, evictions, and mutual aid which cannot be seen with the same emphasis from other organizations.
None of this means PSL is beyond critique, it would be anti-marxist for me to say differently. But many attacks fail to grapple with the material realities of organizing in an imperial core, relying instead on assumptions shaped by liberal NGO or western academia.
If we want to build socialism in the U.S. (something I believe we can agree on) we have to seriously engage with disciplined revolutionary organizations. That means judging them not by surface-level impressions, but by the class interests they serve, their role in struggle, and the contradictions they navigate in the real world.
I wouldn't support the DSA either to be quite honest with you. I'm just pointing out how PSL sucks in this instance. ML's have single handedly defaced the name of communism world wide. Tell me, how many more nationalist movements will socialists need to support until the revolution?
“The American Left” is the DSA? We really are screwed then.
I cackled at this!
The assertion that PSL is a “high-control group” adopts an idealist view of democracy, rooted in liberal individualism rather than Marxist organizational principles. The bourgeois conception of “democracy” — focused on abstract freedoms divorced from material conditions — ignores the dictatorship of capital. Revolutionary organizations shouldn’t be judged by procedural openness or electoral visibility, but by their ability to centralize working-class needs, resist co-optation, and maintain strategic clarity in a hostile capitalist environment.
Calling PSL “ineffective” is just as shallow. It reflects a voluntarist, idealist view of political success: one that expects quick, visible results without accounting for the immense power of the U.S. empire. But socialism isn’t built overnight; It takes years of study, organization, and mass work. PSL has survived surveillance, media hostility, and sectarian attacks yet is still organizing in unions, tenant movements, anti-police brutality protests, and anti-war campaigns. That’s not failure.
These critiques also ignore PSL’s principled anti-imperialism, its support for the Global South, and its practical organizing around police violence, evictions, and mutual aid which cannot be seen with the same emphasis from other organizations.
None of this means PSL is beyond critique, it would be anti-marxist for me to say differently. But many attacks fail to grapple with the material realities of organizing in an imperial core, relying instead on assumptions shaped by liberal NGO or western academia.
If we want to build socialism in the U.S. (something I believe we can agree on) we have to seriously engage with disciplined revolutionary organizations. That means judging them not by surface-level impressions, but by the class interests they serve, their role in struggle, and the contradictions they navigate in the real world.
Tell us more about how a true proletarian organisation is one that coordinates with the cops and covers up sexual assaults.
couldn’t have put it better myself. DSA is soft
PSL is ML trash. This was a well put and detailed analysis of the organization.
MLs have done more to push for socialism and communism across the world than any DSA liberal org
I wouldn't support the DSA either to be quite honest with you. I'm just pointing out how PSL sucks in this instance. ML's have single handedly defaced the name of communism world wide. Tell me, how many more nationalist movements will socialists need to support until the revolution?
I think you're confusing MLs with the CIA.
They monitor members social media? Who puts up with that, for heaven's sake?
Reforming vs Revolutionary per usual. It's a long road for people to decolonize
their emotions,
their intellect,
their imaginations
and their perception of what is possible.
I think it's interesting that Roy Singham went to an HBCU. Also I want to know more about his ties with the Chinese Communist Party?