star (she)

thank you for your writing, very insightful

i would disagree. progressive movements in Spain have a very different history and the population is much more aware of socialism, worker organising etc.

Spain I would say is one of the more progressive EU states. You probably saw Sanchez making statements against Israel’s genocide or US war in Iran. There has a been waves of social movements in the recent past too, especially around the issue of housing. However I think the communist left has had a hard time capturing this energy. Anything on the left of PSOE is very fractured, but also I think people are afraid of rocking the boat too much, since the far right is on the rise. So a lot of potential, but the future is very uncertain. No idea what will unite the communist left.

there are a ton of socialist orgs in spain. if i were you i would look at whats in your area, attend some marches, see who is there / where you feel more connected to the people

yes, so is Izquierda Unida, but i know less about them

For veganism, I found that when you start it’s a don’t hesitate to eat more volumes of food. Beans are protein dense, but for other vegetables you often just need to eat more to have a proper caloric intake.

For communist orgs, PCE (communist party of Spain) is very solid.

The answer is: underground organising and cells

the problem is that this strategy is counter to building a mass working class movement, which is what PSLs strategy is right now. they need to popularize socialism and anti-imperialism to get the masses on board with their project.

this is also done to solve the main issue in US, that labour is not organised at all. you cannot build up unions as an underground cell. i dont think the socialist movement is at a stage where they can actively confront the government right now, which is what i understand you are proposing.

All the original BLM leaders were killed off with the quickness but the PSL still stands because they are not a threat,

i dont necessarily disagree with your arguments, but i feel like you are putting impossible standards on PSL. by your logic, any communist org that exists in the US is useless because it exists. so the only good org is one that doesnt exist. a bit unreasonable, no?

What are the limits of PSL?

The most recent blowback season is all about Angola.

They are not supporting her. And she’s not a candidate anymore

Very disingenuous take on people’s forum and the PSL

this is how i would describe it too

what aspect are you struggling with specifically? ownership is almost always used in the colloquial sense: ability to decide what happens to a certain object. so owning the means of production would be (for example) the ability to decide what happens to a factory, to whom the products of the factory go to, how the profits of the factory are distributed.

This is why the goal of communists is also actively building an alternative to physically show what’s possible. Not only theorize on paper. To tie it back to your question, my communist party organizes a festival every year that’s fully run by volunteers. People cook, clean up, build big tents. It doesn’t pay, but it rewarding nonetheless to participate in a community and work towards something concrete. In a way this is a little communist production model.

As a P.S. - some people might find this answer unsatisfactory because their whole lives are built around capitalism and the exchange of money for labour. Imagining communism also requires us to imagine a completely new and different logic of human relations. Sort of like proposing to a medieval serf to imagine a world without kings. It might be tricky to wrap your head around at first.

The question “how would communism look like / function” (which is what your question boils down to) is the most difficult one because the correct Marxist answer is “we don’t know”. We cannot predict the future.

However, we can theorize based on current conditions. To answer “why would people work for free” we can look at volunteer work, of which there are so many! People volunteer to write wiki pages, make mods for games, but also to work at soup kitchens or community gardens. There are several aspects to why people volunteer. It might be fulfilling creatively, or they might be community expectation around this work. If you lived with others im sure you had to do a round of chores.

So this is how I see work in a communist society. People do it because it is either fulfilling or there are certain community expectations around it.

DSA is very decentralized. There are solid branches in some areas, so it really depends what’s closest available to you. PSL is also really solid. I won’t know the details of how an org works before you join. That kind of information is not public. And if you don’t like it you can just leave. It’s not like you are giving your life to it.

what is the worst that could happen if you join an org?

capitalism. most of the money goes to execs. investing into shitty expensive toys to funnel more money to execs etc.