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?
The growth of the revolution will not be linear. This is especially true when the largest formations that currently exist are heavily revisionist. It could be worth joining to learn the basic skills of a communist: how to organize, how to accept criticism, how to engage in ideological struggle. The only way to develop ideological and practically is to actually engage in struggle and not merely fence sit; “to read too many books is harmful.” Joining mindfully and validating your frustration with revisionism is going to teach you a lot more than web browsing.