Forming a grassroots Communist Party

[RedMarxist]

How hard would it be to form your own independent, grassroots communist party(esp. where I live, in America)? Would you just get a group of core people together and build it from the ground up, recruiting new people through pamphleteering and advertising(such as your own website) until you had a solid enough base to work with? How would you get recognition from mainstream political circles? Would it be illegal to work towards overthrowing the current capitalist system(through peaceful means, such as publishing revolutionary newspapers and online articles demanding change, organizing national or regional strikes/protests to disrupt the economy/gain momentum)

Could you, and I know this is probally an awful way to do it, put a member up for presidential elections? Could you even win if you tried?

[StalinFanboy]

the real question is why.

[The Douche]

Do you realise how many parties exist? There is, without a doubt, an organization you can agree with allready in existence.

[Rusty Shackleford]

what we dont need is another party, or a social democratic(in the modern sense) labor party led by ex democrat leaders and the same old union leaders.

[Tjis]

Could you, and I know this is probally an awful way to do it, put a member up for presidential elections? Could you even win if you tried?

Though you can always try, the chances of getting elected are 0. Presidential elections are not won with good intentions, but with huge amounts of money, which you need for your campaign. Though you could have volunteers doing leaflet work and going door to door, you'd still need to print propaganda material and buy advertizing in order to be able to compete with other candidates. And those other candidates are backed by either the republicans or the democrats, which both have a large part of capital and the mainstream media behind them. If you had even the slightest chance to win, an ongoing smear campaign by said media would completely eliminate your chances.

[RedMarxist]

shit, I guess your right.

[Dumb]

It might be worth a try to contest local elections for school board and whatnot. Turnout for those elections tends to be tiny, so a small, devout core can take you far under the right circumstances (and in the right locale).

[Sixiang]

How hard would it be to form your own independent, grassroots communist party(esp. where I live, in America)?
There are enough communist parties and organizations in America as it is.


Would you just get a group of core people together and build it from the ground up, recruiting new people through pamphleteering and advertising(such as your own website) until you had a solid enough base to work with?
A fair amount of the communist parties in America came from offshoots of other parties. The earliest parties in America seemed to come from the labor movement.


How would you get recognition from mainstream political circles?
You wouldn't.


Would it be illegal to work towards overthrowing the current capitalist system(through peaceful means, such as publishing revolutionary newspapers and online articles demanding change, organizing national or regional strikes/protests to disrupt the economy/gain momentum)
No. The U.S. Constitution and the way the U.S. government is set up would in no way, shape, or form allow for the legal destruction of capitalism.


Could you, and I know this is probally an awful way to do it, put a member up for presidential elections? Could you even win if you tried?
Sure, the SPUSA and the CPUSA put up candidates for elections, but they never win. And even if they did win, they wouldn't be able to bring about communism that way. Maybe a social-democratic welfare state would come up with hints of capitalism, but never communism or real dictatorship of the proletariat.

[Red_Struggle]

There's no need for another party. The most grassroots party out there is the American Party of Labor. http://americanpartyoflabor.org/

They're still forming and all, seeing as they didn't form from a split or anything. They're totally bottom up, containing more inner party democracy than non other.

[The Idler]

A peaceful strategy doesn't necessarily mean reformist ideology. And yes a peaceful strategy is easier than building up a rival military. But why form your own party? The WSPUS (http://wspus.org/) already use this peaceful strategy.

[SacRedMan]

Unite all parties

[RedMarxist]

thanks for the advice.