They have seen a meteoric rise in recent years. Their sister/front organisations like ANSWER, Codepink, People’s Forum, BTnews have all become household names. When I look at protests in the U.S., it seems so many of them are organised directly, or indirectly, by them. In comparison, organisations like the CPUSA or the DSA are lacking behind.
How and why?
I’ve attributed their success to three things. They aggressively weed out any potential cops or feds. I’ve never seen any organization take it this seriously. If they even catch a whiff of cop on you, then you’re out.
The second part of it is probably money. Party dues are very high compared to other orgs, so they have a bunch of money to work with.
Third is how willing they are to work with other groups. I know PSL and Marxist orgs in general have a reputation for being rigid and controlling, but that hasn’t been my impression at all. Branches are frequently in coalition with other local groups, like my local PSL coordinates with Mexico’s MORENA and several indigenous/latino groups.
I would be quite interested in how they approach this, but I understand that some of it may be well guarded information. I think British orgs in particular have a very rough time with it. We have evidence of reading circles with as few as 4 members being infiltrated by full blown intel agency spies, let alone cops. The approach here seems to be to get in as early as possible so that they have early-bird trust.
Sorry I meant weed out cops/feds. My observation from the outside is they try to get to know the person well and put candidates through several layers of probation before letting them assume a leadership role. lots of reading and studying.
I’m not sure what else they do but it seems to work. Part of it might be an attitude thing. Like members always have it in mind to be cautious about cops that it makes cops wary about even trying.
Even with high security culture, it is extremely likely PSL is infiltrated at some level. I’m not saying that to discourage people from joining PSL or so members stop participating, but that should always be kept in the back of our minds as a possibility with ML organizations in this country. We shouldn’t get too comfortably certain about having prevented infiltration. Even Stalin didn’t catch Khrushchev, if Furr is right. Be cautious, Comrade.