Can anyone give me the lowdown on these folks? I like that they’re a Marxist-Leninist org, in theory.
What’s their vibe, what’s the leadership like, local chapters etc.
i was a member of my local chapter for a brief period before i learned that one of the leaders was a horrible person and the rest of the leaders were covering it up for him, so i left. thats chapter specific, but just a reminder that these problems still exist in some chapters. despite it being significantly smaller than PSL, i liked the people more. it seemed like more people actually had read theory. however it was a very white, cis, and straight group from what i could tell. there were also very few women and fem-presenting folks in general, at their social events i was one of maybe three. this did lead to a kinda dude-bro-y environment that wasn’t incredibly toxic, but i just don’t enjoy that kind of atmosphere myself and if you don’t, be warned. their events are great though. sorry i can’t say more, it was a really brief stint. there just isnt a lot to say about them in general though because they’re really small. they do have some really cool members though, i met some who participated in the chicano movement of the 60s-70s.
i joined under the guise of what you talked about, the “less problematic than PSL” thing. now it seems like its much too small to have any significant drama or discourse that would produce problematic takes, and also that it seems to be less centralized in general so its very chapter-dependent for problematic-ness (?). maybe it is very centralized though and i just didn’t know it, they’ve got their cadre members that do the actual stuff and their general members that just kinda fill seats and i was only a general member despite the cadre people frequently inviting me to also become cadre but it’s a massive time commitment apparently.
