CPUSA was fine but suffered from acute management issues on the lower, middle, and upper levels of the organization, imho
I loved learning the history and I highly recommend others learn more about their history and politics (beyond just Settlers and Black Bolshevik, which everyone seems to read before calling it a day, and which are biased against the org, not that bias is necessarily a strike against either; but do get the other side of the story sometime). Honestly, I've never seen an org quite like it. It's so... different, but in a very interesting and fascinating way.
We were also the prime target, or one of the prime targets, of the PatSoc / MAGA communist threat that started around 2019 - 2020, around the time of the pandemic, and incurred a big wave of proto-ACP freaks trying to do mass entryism and sabotage the org. We combated them. I don't regret that. Feds get the wall and I don't mind fending them off, even from a controversial org like CPUSA. The threat lasted until, say, 2024. As the ACP came into being, the entryists seemed to abate and disappear, but not before harassing and attacking trans members, stealing items, and being all-around racist and doing wrecker behavior all the while.
I would highly recommend joining, though I would warn of certain things before you join. Also, whatever one thinks of Nat'l Committee, they are the last of the old guard, and once they're gone, they're gone. So learn what you can from them about the history and tactics and victories gained through them. So yeah, I've seen the obituaries in People's World and cpusa.org and it isn't pretty. Despite disagreements here and there, I do wish them the best, and hope an exchange of ideas between the Nat'l Committee and the new rank-and-file can continue. I'm not sure what to think about their recent comments of self-criticism castigating themselves as "tailist" regarding the Democratic Party as, in general, I've seen how things can get topsy-turvy with people like Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in charge (compared to the previous Dems). Joe Sims' recent comments also gave me pause, though Joe Sims was ever the leftist of the organization (compared to, say, John Bachtell, who is more right deviationist, I feel).
We grew a lot in the last 5 years, though whether we can maintain that growth, and retain the new members (however many we retain) is another matter.
I'm thinking of starting a club for Southern Workers Assembly here in upper region of Virginia (I'm just above the central area of Virginia, or maybe I should consider myself to be in the central area, from the looks of things, but often have access and go around NoVa, or northern Virginia).
If anyone lives in NoVa, the DMV area, or the metro area of D.C., please, PLEASE tell me so we can maybe meet-up and jumpstart the club or Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) org here in NoVa (we
already have one in Richmond and I believe other places in Virginia).
Lastly, I have a YouTube/TikTok video about the CPC (the one in China, that is) coming up soon. Does anyone want to be pinged for when I upload it? It's been a while since I posted one. The TikTok version will, of course, be broken into several parts.
Also, I'm in a book club for the AFL-CIO in this state, but it's open to other people outside of Virginia.
Let me know if you want to join and I'll send you the link.
If anyone has recommendations on which org to join next, please tell me, but also, I'm practicing "self-care" and that means not going back to the same activism that gave me stress all the while, even if I encountered good things as well. FRSO seems interesting. But I'm not interested in another political party org. What else is there?
Cheers, everyone! Just had to get some of this off my chest and reflect on what has happened these past 5 years since the start of the pandemic. I hope nobody was offended by some of the negative comments about CPUSA. There were a... lot of internal issues, it seemed to me. And my mental health took a toll in the last year. I don't think I'm going back. But I wish to maintain my friendships with several CPUSA members in the org as I really respected them.
Anyway, I was noticeably vague about my time in there and so I'll leave it at that.
Oh yeah, and join the Southern Workers Assembly if you're in the South or Mid-west! Let me know if you're around central or northern Virginia and hit me up through DM.
