this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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On joining a non-ML marxist party as a ML (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by DankZedong@lemmygrad.ml to c/comradeship@lemmygrad.ml
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So as some of you might know, I'm a member of a marxist party, maybe one of the biggest of Western Europe currently.

The party is not ML. It takes part in electoral politics, though its main focus is building class consciousness at the work places and in the local communities. Getting into parliament is beneficial because 1) money and 2) raising awareness.

The party gets criticized by groups on the margin. They sometimes specifically criticize the MLs in our party for joining, because we are not part of what Lenin described as a Vanguard Party. I guess they are not entirely wrong, I'm not going to call my party ML even though there is (increasing) room for ML sentiment.

My problem is, I don't really know what to do with these critics. Leaving the current party, with tens of thousands of active members and actual political influence, for a 'true ML party' with several dozen people who struggle to organize a book club, does not sound like the way to go. Stop calling myself a ML? That would seem weird as well.

How do you guys look at this?

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[โ€“] proletarian_girlboss@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If a large marxist-leninist party does not exist, this may be the next best option given your cirumstances. You are also in the imperial core, so I think it would be very difficult to find a party that does not have at least some large issues in this regard.. If we do not have the means to have our own organization yet, it would seem somewhat reductive to try to create one, given how much time and energy that requires.

I tend to think of what Lenin said regarding reactionary trade unions. They need to be worked with as they are the main proletarian organizations. Trying to create your own "pure" union often serves the risk of just removing potential connections you could have made otherwise.

It really depends on the social conditions what path regarding these kinds of less ideologically coherent parties should be taken I think.