Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States. It was founded in 2004 as a breakaway faction from the Workers World Party. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is comprised of leaders and activists, workers and students, of all backgrounds. It is organized in branches across the country to link the everyday struggles of oppressed and exploited people to the fight for a new world. The PSL brings together a new generation of revolutionaries alongside veterans of the people’s movements with decades of experience.
Leninism emphasizes the need for a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries to lead the working class in overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist state. Cadres within such a party are often highly dedicated and disciplined members who undergo ideological training and are expected to carry out the party's directives and goals with loyalty and commitment. Their responsibilities may include organizing and mobilizing the working class, propagating party ideology, participating in political education and propaganda efforts, and often taking on leadership roles within the party structure. In Leninist parties, cadres play a crucial role in maintaining the party's cohesion, advancing its political objectives, and ensuring its survival and growth.
The Workers World Party (WWP) is a Marxist-Leninist political party founded in the United States in 1959. It emerged from a split within James Cannon's old Trot group, the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), with the WWP Trotskyists siding with the Soviet Union invasion of Hungary. The WWP advocates for socialism and working-class interests, focusing on issues such as labor rights, anti-imperialism, anti-racism, and anti-capitalism. The party has been involved in various social movements and protests over the years, including anti-war demonstrations, labor strikes, and civil rights campaigns. Sam Marcy was a Trotskyist who eventually used the logic of permanent revolution to basically come to the geopolitical conclusion that China, the DPRK, Cuba, etc are actually existing socialism [AES] rather than degenerated workers states.
The WWP had abandoned democratic centralism, and had the same leadership of a handful of people for a long time. PSL’s split from WWP had happened because “communication with leadership became impossible”. The San Francisco branch of the WWP, along with much of the ANSWER coalition, found that the WWP's national leadership was no longer genuinely engaged in its founding objectives and the tradition of Sam Marcy, and was therefore incapable of building socialism in the US. So that branch split off and became the PSL, taking the ANSWER coalition with it. According to the founding statement of the party in 2004 "As former leaders and members of Workers World Party, we defend that group’s historical tradition and mission, particularly that of its founder Sam Marcy. Although we believe that the Workers World Party leadership is no longer capable of fulfilling that mission, we still consider it to be a progressive organization with many honest activists."
PSL co-founders included Richard Becker, Brian Becker, Gloria La Riva [normally their presidential candidate], and Eugene Puryear [twice their candidate for VP]. Other notable members include Michael Prysner, and Claudia de la Cruz. PSL is a founding member of the ANSWER Coalition. ANSWER's National Coordinator is Brian Becker,r who said "we do a great deal of work through" ANSWER. PSL leadership are closely involved with The People's Forum and BreakThrough News. Anchors on BreakThrough News include Becker and PSL 2016 vice-presidential candidate Puryear. Becker also co-hosted a show with John Kiriakou on Radio Sputnik of the RT state media network. PSL is closely tied to the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research and its founder, Vijay Prashad, who has often appeared on BreakThrough News.
Students For Socialism is the student affiliate of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a national organization involved in a wide range of struggles, from local battles over affordable housing and racist police brutality, to global issues of imperialist war and environmental destruction. SFS continues this tradition and attempts to merge the struggles of oppressed and exploited people with the fight for socialism.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
