The PSL leaders who’ve directed ANSWER to hold a Palestine march on the same day as the November 4 Uhuru march; and to have it in a place with close physical proximity to Uhuru’s event; can only claim to be in the right by cultivating a sense of plausible deniability. By making it looks like their actions are totally benign, and like the folks at the African People’s Socialist Party are unreasonable for viewing these actions as dishonorable.
Part of how PSL’s leadership is trying to maintain control over the narrative; to manipulate people into ignoring the damaging impacts of ANSWER’s activities; is by claiming to support Uhuru against the DOJ. PSL put out a statement objecting to the charges against Uhuru when the indictments happened half a year ago, so PSL must be acting in good faith; or at least that’s what Brian Becker and PSL’s other leaders want us to think. They want us to ignore all the signs that behind their talk of supporting Uhuru, there’s a fundamental lack of concern for which actions are strategically optimal in the fight to defend the org.
That ANSWER had denounced the Rage Against the War Machine coalition, which Uhuru works in proximity to; that PSL opposes Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, placing it in sharp ideological opposition towards Uhuru; that PSL cultivates a base of supporters who are hostile towards Uhuru’s organizing partner the Center for Political Innovation; these are red flags for an underlying dynamic of inter-organizational tension. Tension which, when one of these orgs is fighting off state persecution, held risk of bringing about a disastrous scenario. A scenario where the party responsible for creating this tension—the PSL—would do something that seriously damaged the movement.
When the integrity of Becker and the others was tested; and they got invited to assist Uhuru in mobilizing against the state’s repressive campaign; they failed this test. They prioritized their goal of fundraising over what’s best for the cause, and didn’t bother to take the Uhuru march into consideration while scheduling their Palestine event. Even if this wasn’t a deliberate attempt to distract from Uhuru, it absolutely shows a lack of care on PSL’s part.
PSL, and the leftists who defend its negligent actions regarding Uhuru, have a limited amount of relevance; they’re only capable of influencing minds within a small “leftist” niche, because this niche is the only place they’re interested in operating within. It’s important to hold them accountable on this action, which Uhuru sees as an attack upon the Black liberation cause. The encouraging thing, though, is that the compatible left’s efforts to impede the struggle are happening in the context of an unprecedented opportunity for growing the anti-imperialist movement. And to take advantage of this opportunity, we don’t need to change the minds of everyone within leftist spaces. We only need to recognize Becker’s tendency as a strategic failure, then build a movement beyond the small realm in which PSL operates.
The reason why the state is trying to criminalize the authentic tendency of dissident organizing which Uhuru represents; as well as putting forth PSL as a “respectable” substitute for that tendency after the crackdown happens; is because the state desperately wants to keep the American people detached from revolutionary politics. The failure of Biden’s Ukraine proxy war, and the additional proxy war which the empire is waging against Palestine, have further alienated the working class from our socioeconomic system. The workers can see that their hope is not in more wars, but in what Dr. King Jr. called a “radical redistribution of economic power.” They’re looking for a means to advance their interests, and the compatible left isn’t interested in providing them with those means; orgs like PSL are satisfied as long as they can keep managing their little space. As soon as the people get exposed to a type of workers movement that’s not controlled by the Democratic Party, there’s going to be a mass mobilization towards aiding the anti-imperialist cause.
And that’s exactly the scenario the compatible left seeks to avoid. The reason why Becker has in effect abandoned whatever revolutionary principles he may have had; and responded to the intensification of state repression by disregarding the interests of that repression’s targets; is because if PSL were to start acting principled then its present form of operation would become untenable. The state has shown itself to be willing to tolerate the existence of a “socialist” org, so long as that org doesn’t act seriously threatening and can instead have a role as controlled opposition. As soon as socialists start doing the most strategically beneficial things for the class struggle, such as consistently acting in solidarity with victims of persecution, the state classifies those socialists as incompatible with liberal “democracy.”
That’s why PCUSA has been targeted with a massive COINTELPRO attack; and why CPI and its ideological leader Caleb Maupin have been getting smeared by the major media for years. These two orgs represent an element that’s genuinely unified with Uhuru, rather than merely claiming to support Uhuru like PSL does. So they’ve become bigger targets of the state than PSL could ever be.
If this element succeeds in its goals; and creates momentum for the communist movement which has an impact on the broader masses; then the conditions that allow for PSL to function will cease to exist. The brand-builders within modern American “leftism” depend on being able to hold a monopoly over a realm of organizing that’s too small and ineffectual to have a serious impact on history; yet can give these brand-builders great power precisely because of how marginal this realm is. If the struggle were to expand beyond the “left,” PSL would no longer be able to perpetuate the illusion that it represents the best avenue for advancing the class struggle. Becker and the other left opportunists are dominating a tiny space, and making themselves look gigantic because this space is the only one in today’s activism circles.
Or rather, this space was the only one until recently, when many of those who are dissatisfied with PSL’s way of operating came together to build an alternative. PCUSA’s founders have used their lessons from having been part of the opportunistic CPUSA to create an org that’s highly effective at ideologically training anti-imperialists, and that’s attained a considerable union presence. Caleb Maupin has used his lessons from having been part of the similarly shallow World Workers Party to create CPI, which is providing the antiwar movement with the means to regularly hold major events. The elements of libertarians who recognize fighting U.S. hegemony as the moment’s most important goal are assisting these organizations in advancing the struggle, which will soon have a potentially great source of mass exposure with the December 2nd anti-imperialist convention in Portland.
The best way we can respond to the actions of the left opportunists is by assisting these efforts to build something new; something truly capable of defeating the empire.
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