As the title says, I want to know what you think about parties like Die Linke in Germany, Vänsterpartiet in Sweden, or the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (I do not mean the DSA). Each of them came into existence as a union of various socialist movements, but many communists as well. We certainly support the USPV and their fight against imperialism in Venezuela, would you support a party like this in your own country? Why or why not? Should we work to build if not a party then something like this, or would that compromise the integrity of our organizations? I’m sure this is different for every country, of course, but I’m still curious to hear your thoughts.
I have worked a lot with DSA here in the Pacific Northwest, only because I don’t live in Seattle and I don’t have a car and they happen to be the only major Leftist org with a chapter in my city besides the IWW. It’s interesting because at least in my chapter almost everyone is a tankie in the same situation as me, only a small minority of anarchists and and SocDems. So being a big tent isn’t so bad, but I sure hope a major ML org spreads here soon. BUT i do notice that we get many new members, particularly younger ones through who we got through Bernie work, quickly get radicalized once will tell them how cool Lenin is. Seriously one of the first DSA things a went to here was someone did a slideshow about Mao. I am under the impression that most DSA chapters aren’t this based tho. Big tent has it’s place, at least for the moment.