Opinions of the Progressive Labor Party

[ZombieGrits]

What do you guys think of this party? Specifically, what do you think of their advocacy of direct transition from capitalism to stateless communism?

Also, does anyone know how active they are?

[Chimurenga.]

I can't really say if they are active or not because I am not in an area where they have an office or anything. I do know that a few months ago, I tried to get more information about the party and no one ever got back to me.

[RED DAVE]

PL was the boss honcho maoists in the US in the 60s. They actually took over SDS at one point. The response of the Weatherman faction was to liquidate the organization. They had a physical presence in the antiwar movement but little influence as they deciined to participate in the various national antiwar groups. They actually made some attempts to do union work, but by the mid-70s they had pretty much shot their bolt.

This wikipedia article seems both fair and knowledgeable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Labor_Party_%28United_States%29

RED DAVE

[redasheville]

There are PLers in San Francisco and their (his? her?) activity consists of dropping off copies of their paper on the free racks at two coffee shops (that are within two blocks of each other).

[Die Rote Fahne]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Labor_Party_%28United_States%29#Presen t-day_activities

As far as any North American communist parties go, they have my support.

[RED DAVE]

From the PLP website


What We Fight For

• Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to smash capitalism -- wage slavery. While the bosses and their mouthpieces claim "communism is dead:" capitalism is the real failure for billions all over the world. Capitalism returned to the Soviet Union and China because socialism failed to wipe out many aspects of the profit system, like wages and division of labor.

• Capitalism inevitably leads to wars. PLP organizes workers, students and soldiers to turn these wars into a revolution for communism -- the dictatorship of the proletariat. This fight requires a mass Red Army led by the communist PLP.

• Communism means working collectively to build a society where sharing is based on need. We will abolish work for wages, money and profits. Everyone will share in society's benefits and burdens.

• Communism means abolishing racism and the concept of race.

• Communism means abolishing the special oppression of women workers.

• Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One International working class, one world, one Party.

• Communism means the Party leads every aspect of society. For this to work, millions of workers -- eventually everyone -- must become communist organizers. Join Us!
(format edited)

http://www.plp.org/

RED DAVE

[chegitz guevara]

I haven't seen or heard of PLP since I left Chicago.

[RED DAVE]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Labor_Party_%28United_States%29#Presen t-day_activities

As far as any North American communist parties go, they have my support.Why, especially if you're a Luxemburgist?

RED DAVE

[which doctor]

They're a cultish and paranoid Stalinist organization that dates back from the SDS splits with a weird focus on the family as the unit of the party.

[KurtFF8]

Well it seems that they're still pretty active according to the Wiki article.

I'm not sure what I think about their line on a few things, so I guess I'd say I critically support them.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Why, especially if you're a Luxemburgist?

RED DAVE

The only socialist and communist parties I know of are either Leninist or social democrats.

These guys seem non-sectarian.

I may be wrong.

[RED DAVE]

Well it seems that they're still pretty active according to the Wiki article.

I'm not sure what I think about their line on a few things, so I guess I'd say I critically support them.What actions of theirs do you support?

RED DAVE

[which doctor]

The only socialist and communist parties I know of are either Leninist or social democrats.

These guys seem non-sectarian.

I may be wrong.
You are. What I've heard of this organization IRL, bears little resemblance to what's on the wikipedia article.

[Zeus the Moose]

The only socialist and communist parties I know of are either Leninist or social democrats.

These guys seem non-sectarian.

I may be wrong.

Most people on the left would think that "anarcho-Stalinism" is some sort of joke.

Then they meet the PLP.

[ZombieGrits]

Most people on the left would think that "anarcho-Stalinism" is some sort of joke.

Then they meet the PLP.

lol okay, but what do you mean by that? :lol:

[Tablo]

lol okay, but what do you mean by that? :lol:
They reject the idea of a workers state and want to directly achieve Communism in a fashion more similar to Anarchists.. but they sure as hell are not Anarchists. They feel this is the most logical approach after the failing of the various "Socialist" states.

Anarcho-Stalinists seems to identify them well, lol.

[Zeus the Moose]

They reject the idea of a workers state and want to directly achieve Communism in a fashion more similar to Anarchists.. but they sure as hell are not Anarchists. They feel this is the most logical approach after the failing of the various "Socialist" states.

Anarcho-Stalinists seems to identify them well, lol.

That's a big part of it. Their programme (as posted earlier by RED DAVE) calls for the immediate transition to a wageless (though it's unclear whether it would be stateless or not) communist society, something with I associate more with the SPGB/WSM and the fringes of the anarchist movement than Maoist or ex-Maoist groups. But their history puts them in the broad anti-revisionist camp, and other bits of their theory still falls in that vein (such as their perspective on Stalin, though they seem more critical than most anti-revision groups, following their "direct to communism" line.)

On a different note, the PLP apparently suffered a split, recently. Thus presenting to the world in all it's internet grandeur: the International Communist Workers Party (http://icwpredflag.org/AboutICWP.html)!

[Tablo]

Wow. They seem pretty small and irrelevant at this point.. :P

[Devrim]

The only socialist and communist parties I know of are either Leninist or social democrats.
Although we don't claim to be a party, the ICC is neither 'Leninist' or social democratic. Actually, it is pretty 'Luxemborgist' too.

Devrim