I’m a candidate member of the PSL and I am reading through it currently. I absolutely think it’s worth every (American) comrade’s time and will likely be writing a review and synopsis of the highlights once I’m done (similar to what I did for Marx’s Wage Labour & Capital, Marx’s Value, Price, & Profit, and Parenti’s Inventing Reality).

The introduction writes at length to explain why the PSL is departing, at least partially, from the Marxist tradition of avoiding detailed “blueprints” about what comes after the revolution. Namely, the specific material conditions mentioned below (points (1), (5), and (8)), the priorities deriving from those conditions (points (2), (6), and (9), respectively), and the specific actions to execute on those priorities (points (3)/(4), (7), and (10), respectively):

1. Material Condition - The US is at the heart of the imperial core, and as such, its people are so deeply propagandized against communism --anti-communism effectively being the state’s unofficial religion-- that mere class struggle alone will not be sufficient to gather sufficient support for a revolution. I.e., “it just keeps getting worse under capitalism” will not be enough, on its own, for the US working class to accept socialism as an alternative. Without accomplishing (2), the contradictions of capitalism in the US will instead decay into fascism.
2. Resulting Priority - From (1), it follows that breaking Capitalist Realism is a first-order priority for any revolutionary party within the US, including the PSL. A revolution will not succeed so long as Capitalist Realism is the peoples’ dominant understanding of political economy.
3. Resulting Action Item - In order to achieve (2), and under cognizance of the state’s near-total control over discourse from (1), it becomes crucial that any revolutionary party does not fall into class reductionism, and instead launches simultaneous assaults on all fronts of oppression: class, race, sex, gender, nationality (citizens vs “illegals”), etc (“The answer to institutional and structural oppression is to uproot all those institutions and structures.” (emphasis mine)). The book Socialist Reconstruction is itself part of that effort, along with a robust battery of national alternative media and local chapter/branch community enmeshment (“Political education and exposure to socialism cannot be confined to study groups alone.”).
4. Resulting Action Item - In order to achieve (2), it is also necessary to reject the broad strokes of anti-communism wholeheartedly within the minds of the people. Namely, that socialism “is great in theory but poor in practice,” and that socialism compares disfavorably with capitalism --by, conveniently, comparing imperial core countries like the US to oppressed, colonized, and encircled countries like Cuba. These are the foundational pillars of Capitalist Realism, and they must be smashed by a ruthless campaign of documenting the successes of our international brethren, and joining in solidarity with them.
5. Material Condition - Climate change poses an existential threat not just to socialist projects, but to humanity as a whole. And, crucially, the US people are demanding specific, actionable policy that will guarantee themselves and their descendants a livable planet. On this matter, they want to see the math.
6. Resulting Priority - From (5), it follows that we must “do the math” on climate change and how it is interspersed with several aspects of statecraft: energy generation/transmission/distribution, debt/finance capital, agricultural/housing/transportation configuration. In the absence of such specifics, the human species, and the US working class, falls into apathy and cynicism. (“Specific plans to reorganize the economy are necessary to make clear that the climate crisis is indeed solvable, a necessary antidote to overcome cynicism and apathy.”)
7. Resulting Action Item - In order to achieve (6), demonstrate not just alternatives to market-based, neo-liberal conceptions of those aspects of statecraft, but how those alternatives function in a superior fashion for meeting human needs. Beyond general research and mass media communications in (3), and beyond the contents of Socialist Reconstruction itself, I can also speak to my own local chapter/branch of the PSL here in Austin on this matter. We are currently engaged in a campaign to reject our so-called public utility’s proposal to raise energy consumption rate schedules on the poorest while also giving breaks to wasteful corporate energy users. Austin Energy’s stated justification is the so-called “cost causation” framework, and we are in our community reminding ourselves that we have the power to allocate responsibility for costs outside of such a narrow and neoliberal framework.
8. Material Condition - After having accomplished (2) and (6), we must recognize that the work is still not entirely done. Having the right answers, and doing the right work, is not, by itself, sufficient. Power must be seized.
9. Resulting Priority - From (8), we must prime the people for the acceptance of the seizure of power. This is crucial in revolutionary success. In short, we can only show people the door of revolution. We cannot force them through it. And so it becomes crucial that we are as influential and convincing as possible in our efforts to legitimize the seizure of power by the people at all, and by us, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, specifically.
10. Resulting Action Item - In order to achieve (9), legitimize the concept of revolution in the eyes of the people and demonstrate that a socialist democracy is far more democratic for the people than a capitalist democracy. At all times, serve the people in all of the ways that an eventual socialist government will have to serve them in order to be successful. The book Socialist Reconstruction dives into what such a government might look like in its first decade of work.

Of course it’s worth it. PSL is the among the most promising left orgs in America right now and whether you’re sympathetic to their ideology/praxis or not, it’s good for every American comrade to familiarize themselves with it.

IMO We need new theory, especially in the imperial core. Marxists in imperial core countries can’t necessarily translate all of the Soviet Union’s or China’s theory to their own country and the dogmatic belief that they can do so is a major thing holding back factions of the Western left.

Only way to know is to read it. But thanks for posting this because it reminds me I need to read this book myself!

Who’s the PSL in this context?

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