Post by Ted Mujint on Mar 5, 2023 13:33:08 GMT -5
Yes I am joining PSL. I heard a lot of things for years, but my only personal experiences with them were when my previous org, Central Jersey Socialists was part of a coalition doing daily demonstrations outside a prison here in NJ that was getting like $10k per mo per person for taking in overflow migrant detainees during the height of the pandemic.
We had a mutual member who riled up the pigs and got themselves locked up, and I did jail support with one of the main organizers of the NJ pre-branch and one of their lawyers all night. They were a real pleasure to work with.
The same member we got out of jail together was the one who only had bad things to say about them, and then they also tried to re-write the constitutions of both our organizations before having read all of the foundational texts. But what I've seen so far has been very, very impressive.
The way they are doing the classes right now is incredible. There are radical spaces that host us in every city in the country. We watch a presentation in unison all across the country, and then we split off into our individual groups. Before I joined I imagined the pre-Bernie, mostly-anarchist kinds of radical spaces - the kinds that hit you in the face with the stink of the cheapest possible 2x4 construction and patchouli oil.
What I saw instead was The People's Forum, a place 3 blocks from Penn Station, meaning it was easy to get to from anywhere in NYC, NJ, PA, CT, LI, etc. and everything had a really professional, manufactured look to it. All of the class materials have strict design standards and style guides from the looks of it, and you can tell they've been doing it since the Iraq war era because they have everything taken care of: childcare for parents, DELICIOUS food for free, etc.
This month they are bringing PCC organizers from Cuba for a US-Cuba normalization summit, and they send a group of hundreds of organizers from the US down there for training every year. They are also sending a bunch of buses down from NYC to DC on the 18th for a Peace in Ukraine rally.
Everything I have seen is super, super impressive. Really changed my apinion of what is possible in the United States and I think one of the most impressive things is that it is the most diverse group I've ever seen in the movement spaces - not only in ethnicity, gender and sex, but age, and lifestyle as well. There are parents of disabled children in my discussion group, there are professors in their 70s, and there are 19 y/o zoomer tik tok kids and it is the wildest intersection of people I've ever seen. They say "if we want to see a socialist America, we better LOOK like a socialist America," and it really fits the bill.
TBH I was really burnt out on organizing for a few years. From starting a grassroots communist organization in my city during George Floyd, to the organizers from Ferguson being murdered, to DSA beginning to sheepdog people to the Democrats, to volunteering for a local progressive mayoral campaign where the 40 year incumbent Democrat pulled out every dirty trick in the book, I didn't wanna do it anymore, and was really beginning to doubt myself and my beliefs.
They had been trying to recruit me for like a good two years by the time I actually wen't to one of their general interest meetings, and for a guy that never finished his degree and is able to pay his bills using his hands more than his head, the readings and the work we do in PSL is really making me feel not only like a real revolutionary again, but also like an intellectual again. Reconciling my class position with my intellectual values has always been tough for me.
It helps that all of their assighned readings come with audio recordings as well! because I find fiction much, much more enjoyable to read than non-fiction most of the time.
We had a mutual member who riled up the pigs and got themselves locked up, and I did jail support with one of the main organizers of the NJ pre-branch and one of their lawyers all night. They were a real pleasure to work with.
The same member we got out of jail together was the one who only had bad things to say about them, and then they also tried to re-write the constitutions of both our organizations before having read all of the foundational texts. But what I've seen so far has been very, very impressive.
The way they are doing the classes right now is incredible. There are radical spaces that host us in every city in the country. We watch a presentation in unison all across the country, and then we split off into our individual groups. Before I joined I imagined the pre-Bernie, mostly-anarchist kinds of radical spaces - the kinds that hit you in the face with the stink of the cheapest possible 2x4 construction and patchouli oil.
What I saw instead was The People's Forum, a place 3 blocks from Penn Station, meaning it was easy to get to from anywhere in NYC, NJ, PA, CT, LI, etc. and everything had a really professional, manufactured look to it. All of the class materials have strict design standards and style guides from the looks of it, and you can tell they've been doing it since the Iraq war era because they have everything taken care of: childcare for parents, DELICIOUS food for free, etc.
This month they are bringing PCC organizers from Cuba for a US-Cuba normalization summit, and they send a group of hundreds of organizers from the US down there for training every year. They are also sending a bunch of buses down from NYC to DC on the 18th for a Peace in Ukraine rally.
Everything I have seen is super, super impressive. Really changed my apinion of what is possible in the United States and I think one of the most impressive things is that it is the most diverse group I've ever seen in the movement spaces - not only in ethnicity, gender and sex, but age, and lifestyle as well. There are parents of disabled children in my discussion group, there are professors in their 70s, and there are 19 y/o zoomer tik tok kids and it is the wildest intersection of people I've ever seen. They say "if we want to see a socialist America, we better LOOK like a socialist America," and it really fits the bill.
TBH I was really burnt out on organizing for a few years. From starting a grassroots communist organization in my city during George Floyd, to the organizers from Ferguson being murdered, to DSA beginning to sheepdog people to the Democrats, to volunteering for a local progressive mayoral campaign where the 40 year incumbent Democrat pulled out every dirty trick in the book, I didn't wanna do it anymore, and was really beginning to doubt myself and my beliefs.
They had been trying to recruit me for like a good two years by the time I actually wen't to one of their general interest meetings, and for a guy that never finished his degree and is able to pay his bills using his hands more than his head, the readings and the work we do in PSL is really making me feel not only like a real revolutionary again, but also like an intellectual again. Reconciling my class position with my intellectual values has always been tough for me.
It helps that all of their assighned readings come with audio recordings as well! because I find fiction much, much more enjoyable to read than non-fiction most of the time.
