Progressive Labor Party

[The Red Next Door]

Do anyone know about them, are they maoist?

[Zeus the Moose]

Do anyone know about them, are they maoist?


Anarcho-Stalinists.

Srsly. See this thread: http://www.revleft.com/vb/opinions-progressive-labor-t131559/index.html?t=131559

[Tablo]

Not quite as strange a they sound. I think they mainly do anti-racist organizing.

[graymouser]

Progressive Labor was a left split from the Communist Party USA in the early 60s, orienting originally around China in the Sino-Soviet split although the party was never formally "Maoist" as such. During the late 60s, they took up a strict anti-nationalism stance that alienated a lot of the forces that would become the New Communist Movement that were around PL before that. They also successfully took over Students for a Democratic Society, although the PL-run SDS would not last more than a couple of years. Since then PLP has taken up the stance of "Fight Directly for Communism" which would skip any socialist transitional step, their argument is basically that this has gotten side-tracked every time it was tried.

A comrade got their paper, Challenge, in New York yesterday during the demo supporting Park51. They're pretty active in the NYC scene where they are known for being extremely ultra-left, particularly in their labor work. Their paper is fairly extreme in that regard, I thought this article was a good demonstration of their, ah, tone:

http://www.plp.org/challenge/2010/9/10/traitor-go-home-gm-workers-kick-out-uaw-hacks.html

[AK]

• 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.Wow. It mentions nothing about implementing workers' control of the economy or seizing the means of production. Rather, this party seems to be full violence fetishists.

And I know it's typical of me, being an ultr4-l3eft1st!!!!11! and all, but it's just ultra-vanguardism at its worst:

• 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!

[bailey_187]

it mentions nothing about implementing workers' control of the economy or seizing the means of production.

how many times a day do you repeat this?

[AK]

how many times a day do you repeat this?
Well, it is necessary for the liberation of the working class and all that. So I'd say the answer to that question would be "however often I have to".

[28350]

Oh man the PLP are awesome.
Nowadays they don't do much except May Day marches.
However, they sometimes do crazy shit like infiltrate the Klan to punch Grand Dragons in the face at rallies (http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/10/24/1999-10-24_kkk_takes_it_on_the_chin.html).
They were also very courageous during the witch hunts. They were proud to proclaim they were communist.

[Tablo]

Oh man the PLP are awesome.
Nowadays they don't do much except May Day marches.
However, they sometimes do crazy shit like infiltrate the Klan to punch Grand Dragons in the face at rallies (http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/1999/10/24/1999-10-24_kkk_takes_it_on_the_chin.html).
They were also very courageous during the witch hunts. They were proud to proclaim they were communist.
That article misidentifies Derek Pearl as Harvey mason.

[Zanthorus]

And I know it's typical of me, being an ultr4-l3eft1st!!!!11! and all, but it's just ultra-vanguardism at its worst:

I thought the first point was pretty solid.

[Uppercut]

Despite their anarcho-marxist line, they still punch Klansmen in the face, which alone, deserves recognition.

[Bad Grrrl Agro]

Despite their anarcho-marxist line, they still punch Klansmen in the face, which alone, deserves recognition.
I spit on a neo-nazi and got him right on his shining head once a long time ago.

[Tablo]

I spit on a neo-nazi and got him right on his shining head once a long time ago.
Lol, and that's why anarchists are still better than pseudo- anarchists. :thumbup1:

[AK]

I thought the first point was pretty solid.
Seems the party's concept of revolution is that it will incorporate bloody and unnecessary war. Hell, they plan to turn imperialist war itself into revolution with the use of a Red Army. That's a revolution I don't want to be a part of.
EDIT: Oops, you were talking about this:

• Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One International working class, one world, one Party.
What I was opposing was the general self-righteous and somewhat elitist attitude of it.

[Zanthorus]

What I was opposing was the general self-righteous and somewhat elitist attitude of it.

Yeah, the absolute rejection of nationalism is a step up from most Stalinist parties, some of whom even reject the creation of another federated socialist international. But their conception of Communism as one-party rule is absurd. If they were really 'anti-revisionist' maybe they would've realised that prior to 1917 the Bolshevik party were fighters for political freedom, universal suffrage, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech and the overthrow of the Tsarist autocracy, and that the one-party system was a historical abberation brought on partly by the ceding of the other political parties to the counter-revolution and the de-classing of the Russian proletariat due to the Civil War which allowed a beuracratic strata to take power.

[RedTrackWorker]

They're pretty active in the NYC scene where they are known for being extremely ultra-left, particularly in their labor work.

What I know them for in their labor work is actually gross opportunism covered over with sporadic bits of extreme ultra-leftism. In the fight to defend the Stella D'oro workers for instance, PLers attended the strike solidarity meetings and argued politics as "nobody here but us nice unionists" and did not fight for a strategy that could mobilize the NYC working class in action to defend the Stella workers and support their struggle. But then at the rallies..."Communism Now!" and red flags everywhere. Their main reasoning I could find out from them for not fighting for a class-struggle approach was that "we need" the union bureaucrats support and have to go soft to not scare them (it's widely "known"--but only a rumor to me--that they have top but undercover supports in UFT and especially PSC union posts, that's the teachers and professors' unions)--so we fight for communism today but we fight against the union bureaucracy's politics...tomorrow or the day after?

[graymouser]

What I know them for in their labor work is actually gross opportunism covered over with sporadic bits of extreme ultra-leftism. In the fight to defend the Stella D'oro workers for instance, PLers attended the strike solidarity meetings and argued politics as "nobody here but us nice unionists" and did not fight for a strategy that could mobilize the NYC working class in action to defend the Stella workers and support their struggle. But then at the rallies..."Communism Now!" and red flags everywhere. Their main reasoning I could find out from them for not fighting for a class-struggle approach was that "we need" the union bureaucrats support and have to go soft to not scare them (it's widely "known"--but only a rumor to me--that they have top but undercover supports in UFT and especially PSC union posts, that's the teachers and professors' unions)--so we fight for communism today but we fight against the union bureaucracy's politics...tomorrow or the day after?
That's really interesting, all I heard about was the ultra-left antics during the Stella d'Oro fight, which lined up with all the other stories I've ever heard about the PLP in action. Thanks for sharing that.

[RedTrackWorker]

That's really interesting, all I heard about was the ultra-left antics during the Stella d'Oro fight, which lined up with all the other stories I've ever heard about the PLP in action. Thanks for sharing that.

Makes sense as that's their "public" face. The ones at the meeting didn't identify at the meeting or distribute literature. I didn't even realize who they were until someone told me and then later saw them at demos. Trotsky always said that ultra-leftism and opportunism, contrary to formal logic, are related, not opposed (the transition from the third period to the popular front comes to mind) and the PLP is the group that takes that particular formal contradiction to the absolute limit.

[Red Rebel]

RCP got a lot of their members and is now the main Maoist party in the USA. They're a small party now but they do have a rich history.