Just curious and getting a feel, but why?
I am not in a party myself, because I can’t see any active in my area that I like and those I tried getting in touch with never replied.
For now I’ve settled with joining the IWW and hope to organize my workplace at a later date when I am more settled in, but as of now I am a newbie to my industry and to my company.
Maybe once I learn organizing techniques and get a network of people I can trust in my area, I’ve considered organizing a new party locally, but as of now that is more of a interesting thought than something I can actually accomplish in my current situation with my current knowledge base and current network.
What about you? What challenges have held you up so far?
First I was just a “leftist” and I tried to join local SRA, they never got back to me.
Then, I was a Trot for a few months and was in the middle of reading the member manual for the IMT and finalizing my membership with my recruiter when I realized I wasn’t a Trot anymore.
Then I was an ML and was trying to decide between the CPUSA, the PSL, or trying to infiltrate the DSA, when a sudden drastic life change occurred and I had to leave my home indefinitely. The places I am staying at all have no such parties whatsoever, and I don’t know where I’m going to be living 6-12 months from now, and that’s where I’m at right now.
I get that if nobody else has done it that I should start a party, but I don’t know if I have that much spare time and energy right now–I don’t even have a reliable income right now–and the fact that my time here is indefinitely limited is not an encouraging factor to try and start something that will require heavy investment.
I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what made you realise you aren’t a Trot?
Not at all!
It just didn’t feel like a complete picture to me. They gave me Marx, they gave me Lenin, they gave me Trotsky, and I’m grateful for that. But the little I had heard already about the USSR, Stalin and China ended up being more compelling at the end of the day than what they had to say. Some of it sounded compelling for a time…that Trotsky was the true heir to Lenin, that Lenin wanted Trotsky not Stalin. Talking about the USSR under Lenin, the withering of the state, the high level of democracy, etc. But I’m above everything else a pragmatist and a realist. And they could never erase all the good that the aforementioned did.
What’s more is specifically the IMT didn’t really sell me very well. Their methods and mindset seemed a little out of touch with the current reality of things. Their membership manual was a little sloppy too. Of course not everything comes perfect in a neat package with a bow, and I’d love to help turn something fledgling into something developed and masterful, but call it a vibe but I just wasn’t seeing a lot of potential. I’m here to take the victories and the failures of the past and let it inspire me to make something new, not cherrypick the failures outside of context and just wish for how things “should be.” Trotskyism for me was a last hurrah in the realm of “trying to be even-handed and sensible” before I just simple accepted that I was a total Holodomor-nuance-seeing Stalin/Deng enjoying piece of shit. It had a momentary appeal as “okay do yeah yeah yeah I’m communist but I’m not like THOSE tankies” before I was just like “But wait…they’re right. They’re so right.”
Great, so I just saw this. Just tried reading Trotsky and it does read very vaguely to me. The lack of adequate interaction with this tendency made me curious, I think.
I hope we find the solution to your life problem sooner comrade, we all suffer under different circumstaces here, but its all rooted to the capitalism. Keep moving forward comrade.
Absolutely. Thank you so much comrade. I look forward to building a better world when my life can settle down for a moment and I can get my head straight. TOGETHER! 🌍🌏🌎