Is there any veracity to the claim that “the PSL covered up SA allegations”? I hear it a lot in discussions surrounding the PSL. I wanna know if this is a valid concern
don’t know why anyone is shocked about this it’s a problem in every national communist party I’ve ever heard of. urge reckoning with reality instead of hand waving violence against women!
I know the entire PSL party went out of their way to discredit of SA victim, bring all their media people to destroy her. No wait that was the democratic party and Tara Reade.
I know the entire PSL party went out of their way to discredit of SA victim,
I know you’re trying to make a joke, but isn’t this a little uncomfortably close to what happened in Philadelphia?
https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Party_for_Socialism_and_Liberation
Is it only “believe women” when it’s politically convenient?
What he said was “the entire PSL”, not a branch, and that’s kind of the thing about these accusations, that they are raised to try to claim that the entire Party participated or even had any awareness of the reality of the situation in whichever specific chapter, which is not true. Maupin is a real example of what is being insinuated here, with the central leadership being aware of and covering up his actions, among other complicit acts.
I’m not batting for the branch here, cut it off and burn it for all I care, but we need to be clear about the real scope of what happened, and the implicit meaning of “PSL shields predators” is that a Maupin-like situation is happening or something else (like the Catholic Church method) where the PSL has any involvement. No such accusation has been made concretely that I have ever seen, even though insinuations to that effect get made all the time.
The national Twitter account, pslweb, publicly doxed the alleged victim in Philadelphia. The current VP pick signed the letter denying the alleged victim’s claim of SA ( https://www.gnvinfo.com/psl-president-candidate-claudia-de-la-cruz-responds-to-infamous-steven-powers-case/ ).
There are something like 5 cities with issues named in the prolewiki article, a source that’s pretty friendly to PSL.
I don’t hate PSL, but it’s super gross to act like there isn’t a kernel of truth here. Maybe it’s an issue with organizing in the U$ as a whole, I don’t know, but it’s fucked up to ignore it.
I can not believe u just made me read several long ass articles about a woman who was salty she got cheated on and decided to take revenge by having her ex kicked from psl. Like even IF literally everything she said was true i dont think he even did anything illegal (tho certainly enough to get kicked from an org) but there is no evidence at all that anything is true, u and every article makes it sound like this guy is beyond any doubt a rapists, like its just like any other scandal of a rape coverup we have heard about, but its literally just her voice against his and there is no reason at all to believe either, and i (and i hope everyone else) am not inclined to treat someone as one of the worst kinds of people there are just because someone said so.
Considering how long it took me to work thru this one i dont really feel like looking at all the other incidents in other branches listed in the source for the article u linked but the Philadelphia story is just a nothing burger, it bothers me so much that someone can just be like “actually PSL sucks they cover for rapists” and then im worried cuz i dont want to vote for or be part of the so called “Predator Support League” so i want to look into it and like an hour of reading later its just nothing like literally nothing and im kinda upset.
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.
Accusations to discredit leftist organisations are so severe that you should only believe it if there’s hard proof. Let those accusers give some actual evidence then
I saw two relevant links there.
This one is an account of someone who helped someone else accuse a PSL member of misogyny and sexual misconduct. The author later accuses the PSL of trying to cover this up. The accusation appears to be:
She told me that she had just caught S* cheating the night before and was kicking him out. She detailed to me the past events, of him cheating on her with M*, of coercing her into unprotected sex, constantly leaving in the middle of the night to go “patrol M*’s house” but coming back drunk, etc.
Taking all of this at face value, it’s one accusation that rises to the level of something the PSL would want to investigate (one member coercing another into unprotected sex) and a mix of things I’m not sure an organization needs to investigate at all (cheating, being drunk at night).
I haven’t read the entire post, but I did read the text screenshots the author provided of conversations they had with the PSL. It looks like the PSL investigators kept asking for documentation relevant to the accusations (additional screenshots) that didn’t seem to be provided, and aren’t included in this tell-all post. If you start an investigation, ask for corroboration the accuser says exists, and they don’t provide it, I don’t think it’s a cover up if you close the investigation.
This is the second link, but it’s not working well enough for me to read it.
This whole thing reeks of anarchist-style wrecking, and ppl elevating a relationship breakup to try to take down a nationwide party.
the burden of proof is on the people claiming that, not on us or the psl.
https://archive.is/yT5vp#selection-42.0-42.1
Just saw this from the other link shared…
