US Left Parties List (Link dump)

I'm curious what experience folks have with some of these groups? I'm particularly interested in some of the medium sized leftist groups that have a geographic presence beyond the key leftist hotspots (like the bay area, New York orChicago) but aren't as big as, say the ISO or SPUSA. Groups like Socialist Alternative, PLP, the FRSOs or PSL and WWP.

I was unfortunate enough to have contact with these folks when I lived in the States, didn't see'em on the list:

http://www.workers.org/

Definitely my favorite part about them is their mysterious split into politically identical organizations.

My favorite part is their youth wing...

FIST: Fight Imperialism, Stand Together

That and the support of North Korea, of course.

I just wrote an article about Marcyism (from a leftcom perspective) for my new website project due to their presence noted during the Wal-Mart strikes a couple weeks ago. Mainly outlining the history of Marcy, the degeneration of the Third International which formed the basis of his 'orthodox Trotskyism' and 'lets be first and bigger' in support for tankies than the tankies themselves (and the importance of not deviated from revolutionary positions even if a future revolutionary wave recedes, or if the opportunity to take state power arises, or so-called 'friendlies' in the form of state power cliques like the Kemalists and KMT in the 20's were to the RSFSR want an alliance against 'imperialism' or 'bourgeoisie', etc.).

From what I read they are larger than (WWP+PSL) other leftist groups aside from the DSA in the US... DSA appears to be the largest by a factor of 2x or 3x compared to the medium sized groups.

I'd like to see the Marcyism piece.

One of my first teenage recollections of WWP/YAWF (youth against war & facism) was at a NYC anti-viewnam war rally many years ago. I would grap every paper and leaflet I could and at 14/15 was very eager to read stuff.....Anywho.... I look at the back page of their paper ("Workers World") and there's a big blazing bold headline on "Building Socialism in Siberia" .....remember, Siberia back then was the home of many prison camps/gulags. Well, that helped to turn this then teenager into away from authoritarian socialism in search for something better.

is there a link yet?

I have worked with the PSL/ANSWER folks in my town. They have participated in some Solidarity Network stuff, and were part of a short-lived Occupy Anti-Capitalist working group.

They seem to have good traction with working class people. They host discussions about a wide range of topics: Indigenous struggles, Israel/Palestine, Cuba, etc. And they have also mobilized some anti-police brutality things here. They always bring a ton of their yellow signs to protests, so unassociated folks end up holding them up, and makes it seem like their presence is huge.

I try to avoid engaging in historical or theoretical discussions about things like Stalinism, Maoism, etc. Those don't end up well, typically speaking.

Hmm... I'm surprised to hear that the WWP/PSL are so large. When I lived in DC I used to see PSL fliers everywhere, but I just assumed that was because they had a headquarters there. Honestly, I never thought they had much of a reach outside of the Bay, New York and DC.

Even still, I'm somewhat skeptical of this claim:

I would be shocked if they had a larger membership than the ISO. I think knotwho is on to something by pointing out that their support probably seems larger than it actually is due to the seeming ubiquity of their yellow (and horrifically ugly) signs.

Has anybody ever run into non-Fight Back FRSO? Are they even active still? I remember when the new-SDS started, both FRSOs were competing for dominance (Fight Back actually succeeded, unfortunately) which resulted in both organizations tabling at conferences staring daggers at each other from across the room. Watching them try to manipulate shit basically ruined any chance at my ever being interested in the socialist left (though I was already pretty into anarchism at the time) and, unfortunately, fueled a distaste for marxists and marxism that would take me several years to get over.

edit: I'd be really interested in reading the Marcyism piece too.

They should form an umbrella party for victory

Printing a whole bunch of your signs and handing them out at demos is usual Trot manipulation for trying to big up your membership and influence. Fuck that.

If all the commie parties United as one they might get 1% of the vote

Now that you mention it I can't recall where I read the numbers estimates, but it put SPUSA at 1,000, CPUSA at 2,000, ISO at either 1,200 or 1,500, WWP/PSL at over 2,000-3k, DSA at 6,000- as of this year. Maybe it was the NYT?

PM's sent.

Naw, I don't think so. I doubt many people who aren't anarchists are just going to pick up and wave a red and black flag around. On the other hand, the signs that trot and other socialist groups often print tend to have purposely safe slogans that just about anybody who shows up would be willing to hold, not realizing that they're being used to make the ISO/SLP/SWP/whoever look more influential than they actually are.

I'd be kind of shocked if either CP and DSA were bigger than ISO. At least, based on real influence in US leftist scenes over paper membership.

but both membership criteria and and the dedication of members very pretty much, DSA and CPUSA are, as far as I know, not really activism-based orgs

I would think DSA is prolly larger then ISO. ISO is more visible because they make an attempt at being visible. Doesn't mean they have any deep roots in worker or non-university laden social movements.

No clue on CPUSA these days. Years ago, they were the largest, with then then Trot. (US) SWP. The CP had deeper roots in trade unions and in all the old ethnic societies...with a fair number of African-American and Hispanic members.

Personally, I'not politically opposed to certain forms of "populism" as part of mass work and with some sort of goal or strategy attached. "Populism" can become self-perpetuating and campaign to campaign without any sense of direction or fall into a left liberalism. By the same token, I'm not very favorable to ultra-left sloganeering, because I find very little practical content or alternatives offered,. So, like everything, mass work is always a tight-rope walk. One between being wishy-washy and one between sloganeering.

Indeed- it looks like the CPUSA is trying to dissolve itself into a kind of social-democratic, progressive Democrat, single-issue, trade unionist umbrella 'Association'- Webb's article about what a 'party of socialism in the 21st century looks like' is a kind of neo-Browderism. The decision to allow internet membership rather than being cadre based awhile back is kind of a new 'Lenin Levy', filling the group with any and everyone a hair to the left of center who are not interested in a typical KKE style M-L Party; making it easier to make that transition. The open letter to the CPUSA from a bunch of unreformed CP's (Mexico, Canada, Greece) shows they know the CPUSA is likely to go the way of the Italian CP.

Are the CPUSA split Committee's of Correspondence for Socialism and Democracy activist at all? I read they have roots in a few trade unions.

Indeed- it looks like the CPUSA is trying to dissolve itself into a kind of social-democratic, progressive Democrat, single-issue, trade unionist umbrella 'Association'- Webb's article about what a 'party of socialism in the 21st century looks like' is a kind of neo-Browderism. The decision to allow internet membership rather than being cadre based awhile back is kind of a new 'Lenin Levy', filling the group with any and everyone a hair to the left of center who are not interested in a typical KKE style M-L Party; making it easier to make that transition. The open letter to the CPUSA from a bunch of unreformed CP's (Mexico, Canada, Greece) shows they know the CPUSA is likely to go the way of the Italian CP.

Are the CPUSA split Committee's of Correspondence for Socialism and Democracy activist at all? I read they have roots in a few trade unions.

the CPUSA's ML opposition is quite weird: http://ideologicalfightback.com/home-3/ & http://www.savethecpusa.blogspot.co.uk/

I thought I remember reading that a lot of the UE's officers are CCDS.

Funny enough, the only left group in my town beside the IWW is a small CCDS reading group that's been going for like 25 years. They don't really do much although, as Entdinglichung pointed out, they're not really an activism based groups. Their main guy is a city councilor with the green party and president of the NAACP and two or three other organizations, it's kind of weird.

I think this is a good point. The ISO gets a lot of recruitment because of their high visibility and presence on campuses which makes them the first point of call for lots of young people who have an interest but no experience in socialism. But from what I've read, they have really high turnover.

Edited comments.

Said and meant without ill will....

Relics....that have put years of work into on-going projects that you find interesting.

Dude, you'll be a relic on day yourself. And it comes faster then you'll ever expect.
You can trust me on this one. And I hope Robosyndicalist is around to see it play out.

FRSO-Fight Back has a pretty chunky "cadre" in Tampa. They get jobs with the local Consumer Action Network, the Teamsters, and pose as students and run SDS. The just parasitically take over left/liberal groups and then have big "coalitions" to fight rape on campus, the war in Syria/Libya/Palestine, replete with National Flags, fight against tuition hikes. They're pretty hip cats, all young 20's, partying, and they use the fuck out of social pressure to kick people around, and then shit on folks like the ISO/IWW. I mean, they're in action about as militant as the ISO (or democratic party). It's just that when you sit in a room with them you get to hear them defend North Korea. Which is a treat.

Essentially they're irrelevant, but they do capture some well-meaning folks up in their weekly rallies to posture against the latest outrage.