Which Party Which Country?

United States, Party for Socialism and Liberation. (In the process of completing my candidacy period.)

USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation (supporter and are in process of candidacy period.)

United states, Party of Socialism and Liberation (supporter but I will try to join as soon as I can get some info on the branch near my state.)

Germany, Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), supporter, since it's the only half-decent communist party in Germany, but sadly it's almost nonexistent.

United States; Party for Socialism and Liberation.

hugs'n'marxism, with all the reformulation of the website and everything, I feel like there's a good chance that the e-mails are not working properly. Don't take this as an omen that the party is ignoring you, but along with that, I'm sure they receive a significant amount of e-mails throughout the week. Just call your nearest branch. If all else fails, try San Francisco or Los Angeles. They have people answering the phone consistently. If you really can't get in contact with anyone, I have the phone number of the person who's overseeing my candidacy period and he could point you in the right direction. I recall you telling me you're near a newer branch, so it may just be working its way up. Regardless, it's incredible what you can do even without a branch.

Rjevan ruined the pattern.

The New Communist Party of the Netherlands (member).

Germany, Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), supporter, since it's the only half-decent communist party in Germany, but sadly it's almost nonexistent.

What's wrong with the DKP?

How many members does the PSL have?

Rjevan ruined the pattern.

You see me ashamed and in despair, forgive me, comrades!

What's wrong with the DKP?

Well, they're hopelessly overaged, Wikipedia says: "As of 2008, its membership has dropped to some 4,000, less than a tenth of its pre-Unification strength. The average party member is 60 years old."
And second, they seem to either getting reformists or they simply get confused: "Socialism can't be achieved through reforms but only through a radical reformation and a revolutionary overcoming of the capitalistic ownership and power structure." (DKP party programm). But in the next second it is: "The party condemns the efforts of leftist groups of the 70s and 80s to achive political power through violent means, the way to socialism can only be achievend trough peaceful and democratic means in line with the possibilities of the constitution." Maybe this is just to avoid being declared illegal once again, but this sounds like reformism.

But well, I guess the DKP could be much worse and as I said, the MLPD is politically very weak, they are mostly present at strikes and demonstrations but you never see any posters or flyers of them and they haven't participated in any election since 2005. Plus, they only have 2300 members. I don't want to whine but Germany is really lame when it comes to communist parties.

If somebody is interested: Wikipedia about DKP and MLPD, their websites are in German.

I see. Well, just last night, I was at a public NCPN meeting in the north-east Netherlands which had a DKP speaker, who had a very clear-cut story that fitted perfectly within communism. I can't judge the rest of the party much, but I got a good impression last night. They are a sister party of ours that is probably a better choice on the long term than any others.

The programmatic point about the supposed "peaceful road" to socialism is a shame, some other CPs also still have that. Although the role of the government in attacking (both legally and physically) parties that "threaten the constitution" should not be discounted in this. For example, in the Czech Republic, they banned the communist youth, and communist MPs were beaten up in the streets. Nobody denies that there are still remains of revisionism in the CPs, some of them are even still under its full control. But avoiding them altogether is no option, IMO.

Aging is a problem in a lot of European CPs, but complaining about this from the side is not enough. The communist youth should be united and prepared to "invest" in the party on the long term. Because nothing scares the bosses more than a strong, combative and confident CP. Also, don't forget the affiliated youth movement, SDAJ.

Oh, interesting, I didn't knew that the DKP and your party are sister parties.
But you're right, the SDAJ is totally alright, I know some SDAJ members and they are definitely no reformists.

I'm not sure if the part in question isn't just to appease the "Verfassungsschutz", the old KPD was forbidden because " class struggle, 'dictatorship of the proletariat' and violent revolution are incompatible with the constitution of the FRG". The court used a KPD document as evidence, which said that "there is no peaceful way to socialism". Maybe after their new foundation the DKP didn't want to make the same mistake twice but they generally seemd to become more and more reformist lately. But as an outstanding person I might as well have gotten the wrong impression. I'll inform myself about this further.

How many members does the PSL have?

Around 350 is the estimate I hear, excluding candidate (people who are applying) members. This is growing very quickly and is higher than most estimates I hear for other parties; with Workers World around 250-300; Revolutionary Communist Party USA at around 300.

Around 350 is the estimate I hear, excluding candidate (people who are applying) members.

How works the system of applying to your party? You mentioned a candidacy period earlier, isn't it just that you contact them, fill in a form and that's it then?

How works the system of applying to your party? You mentioned a candidacy period earlier, isn't it just that you contact them, fill in a form and that's it then?

When a person applies to join, they are contacted by a party representative. Whoever this representative is will work with the applicant to help understand their ideology, how it fits in with the party and so on. During the candidacy period, potential members must show their commitment to revolution and a sizeable comprehension of Marxism-Leninism. After this period, the party's committees decide the status of the applicant and they either become a member, are rejected or have their candidacy period extended based on necessity.

If you think your situation sucks...
Me - Slovakia , member of Socialist Union of Youth (ideologicly totally random , some members ultraleft , some trotskyist , some stalinist , some undecide) our member base - crap i doubt its even 500 ; in future maybe Communist Party of Slovakia (there is no other option , 9000 members out of 5 million ppl in Slovakia , quite revisionist and full of seniors , i must try to entry it and convert atleast the young to the "true path"!)

I've been wondering about their situation. I only noticed that the KSS (Communist Party of Slovakia) used to have 6% in parliament, but they lost all their seats in 2006 (I guess there's a treshold there). But I don't know much about them outside of parliament. I only read that they support the Fico government, which is apparently some kind of social-democrat/populist coalition. Do you have any general info on the situation? I've been in Slovakia for a week once, on an exchange trip, but that was a long time ago, back in high school. The family where I stayed lived in Svit, near Poprad. The Tatra mountains are a beautiful sight, we don't have anything like that in the Netherlands. We also visited Kosice.

The candidacy system of the PSL sounds interesting. In the youth group of our party, applicants are contacted by a regional rep ASAP, who then meet with them to see where they stand, what they expect, and in what way they want to engage themselves. Which also works pretty well. IMO, paper membership should be avoided, even active fellow travellers are much more useful than "members" who never do anything.

I know a lot of us here are young people. So to everyone who isn't active yet, I would advise to get active, join the communist youth in your country, and see what you can do. There is a list of all the groups affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFDY

The U.S. affiliate to the WFDY is the Young Communist League, which is tied to the Communist Party USA and unfortunately engages in the same Democratic Party tail-ism as the CPUSA. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, while it does not have an official youth auxiliary, has many members who are youth. (I'm 18 myself, but there are others too.)

The U.S. affiliate to the WFDY is the Young Communist League, which is tied to the Communist Party USA and unfortunately engages in the same Democratic Party tail-ism as the CPUSA. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, while it does not have an official youth auxiliary, has many members who are youth. (I'm 18 myself, but there are others too.)

Definitely. I'm 17. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is recruiting a lot of youth members right now and I'm confident in saying that somewhere around 65%-70% of the party membership is under 30 years of age. At the current time, there really isn't much need for a youth bridage, as ANSWER is successfully leading the movement for most revolutionary issues in the country.

When a person applies to join, they are contacted by a party representative. Whoever this representative is will work with the applicant to help understand their ideology, how it fits in with the party and so on. During the candidacy period, potential members must show their commitment to revolution and a sizeable comprehension of Marxism-Leninism. After this period, the party's committees decide the status of the applicant and they either become a member, are rejected or have their candidacy period extended based on necessity.

Very interesting, I never heard of a party using such an in-depth system for their candidates. Though I imagine it's pretty time-consuming for the party I think this is a great system, ensuring, that first, new members know what they talk about and have at least a good basic knowledge regarding Marxism-Leninism, second, avoids that "wrong" persons get into the party and last but not least I totally agree with TCM, members who just exist on the paper but contribute nothing at all to the party, are no help, better few active and dedicated members than hundreds of members 20 of whom are active! The more I hear about it the more I like the PSL.

The U.S. affiliate to the WFDY is the Young Communist League, which is tied to the Communist Party USA and unfortunately engages in the same Democratic Party tail-ism as the CPUSA. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, while it does not have an official youth auxiliary, has many members who are youth. (I'm 18 myself, but there are others too.)

Oh aye, that's right. Not all groups are made equal, revisionism exists and runs the show in many movements. This should be kept in mind when getting active. If I were in the USA, I would also sooner join the PSL.

In Russia, I support and plan to join AKM (about 5000 members) and RCYL(b) youth groups. As for general parties, I guess I support the Russian Communist Workers Party- Revolutionary Party of Communists (RCWP-RPC), of which RCYL(b) is the unofficial youth group. I mention it quite often in the articles that I post. Now, judging from everything that I have read about RCWP-RPC so far, they are very decent and are probably the only anti-nationalist, a real Marxist-Leninist workers party in Russia right now. However, they are not as progressive socially as they could be in some fields (like homophobia, which is common in Russia, but still anti-nationalist, anti-racist, anti-religion, anti-KPRF, anti-reformist/revisionist, very democratic, etc.) so that is why I am looking more at youth groups. In Germany, I agree with Rjevan.

Wiki about all of them: AKM, RCYL(b), RCWP-RPC

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Workers World Party.
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USA. Workers World Party (membership candidacy period)

Who?

USA. Workers World Party (membership candidacy period)

Dude!!! Halt there, join Party for Socialism and Liberation instead! Contact the nearest branch and they will sure help you on anything.

I live in the United States. A long time ago, I joined the APL, along with the rest of the Hoxhaists who rarely post here anymore. I still consider myself a Hoxhaist, but I kind of got sidetracked with schoolwork and haven't spoken with them in a while, and feel pretty bad about it.

Now that I'm done with school (at least for a while), I contacted Kassad and he suggested the PSL, so I'm considering working with them, just to have something to do. I know they're a Marcyite Trot splinter group, but meh, being in the belly of the imperialist beast is so bleak and disheartening, it would be nice to work with someone I agree with, at least on some things.

I really don't know... I'm probably going to be called a revisionist no matter what I do. It's quite depressing. Honestly, I just want to create progressive art, as even if I make some theoretical mistakes, I'll at least know that in the grand scheme of things, I advanced class struggle rather than retarded it.

I live in the United States. A long time ago, I joined the APL, along with the rest of the Hoxhaists who rarely post here anymore. I still consider myself a Hoxhaist, but I kind of got sidetracked with schoolwork and haven't spoken with them in a while, and feel pretty bad about it.

Now that I'm done with school (at least for a while), I contacted Kassad and he suggested the PSL, so I'm considering working with them, just to have something to do. I know they're a Marcyite Trot splinter group, but meh, being in the belly of the imperialist beast is so bleak and disheartening, it would be nice to work with someone I agree with, at least on some things.

I really don't know... I'm probably going to be called a revisionist no matter what I do. It's quite depressing. Honestly, I just want to create progressive art, as even if I make some theoretical mistakes, I'll at least know that in the grand scheme of things, I advanced class struggle rather than retarded it.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation does not subscribe to the Trotskyist line of thought. We acknowledge its theoretical contributions, but we realize that it cannot be applied in the current historical context. We also recognize Stalin's contributions, though not uncritically. I'd love to answer any questions you might have and I guarantee that it's the right to decision to work with us.

I really don't know... I'm probably going to be called a revisionist no matter what I do. It's quite depressing.

No worrying, I also consider myself Hoxhaist, but we both understand that we have to apply different tactics in different nation. Party for Socialism and Liberation is certainly a revolutionary socialism and are a future vanguard. However, I do wonder if PSL done the discussion on Hoxha's Imperialism and the Revolution. I would consider to avoid the Mao Zedong as revisionist as many Maoists recognize this and now are different from Hoxha's era.