Good leftist organizations on east coast US?

iww

Are they in Ganada? Vancouber?

That's as trot as it gets lad

iww.org/content/pennsylvania

Socialist Alternative OP

^
SA in a nutshell

In NYC the largest socialist organization is DSA. They are worth joining if you want to hang out with other socialists and work with local communities. They mostly do work regarding immigration, homelessness, mass incarceration, and local electoral politics. Their biggest weakness is their populairity and recent growth. They have low political education.

Besides DSA, I know that the ISO, PSL, and IMT exist. The IMT are indeed the most educated because they're Trots who want to be the vanguard.

I am learning about the New Economy Policy and Five Year Plans right now.
Which one was better?
Was the NEP even socialist? Was it wise for Stalin to end it? It seemed to be doing so well for Russian society in the 20s.

Where you live in PA?

We have a presence in like 30-40 countries IIRC. I don't remember them all ofc but some of the bigger branches are in Canada, the US, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil.

Here's a list of US cities with branches: socialistappeal.org/join-the-imt.html

Huge presence in Toronto and Montreal. Sadly none in Vancouver yet. I'm possibly helping start a branch in Northern Washington, if you're interested. Still in the theoretical stages though.

Ha I did play down the Trot-ness since we're on Holla Forums, but in all honesty the negative practices associated with Trotskyism - opportunism, borderline liberalism, identity politics, etc. - are absent from the IMT. I didn't really understand the Trot hate on here until I came into contact with groups like Socialist Alternative because my only experience was with the IMT.

I'm not qualified enough to give a great answer to all of this, but the NEP was temporary and circumstantial, and necessary. The situation in Russia was dire following the revolution, would have been pretty much impossible to build socialism at that level of development. NEP wasn't "socialist" per se, but it was Marxist. Lenin already went hugely against orthodox Marxist thought at the time by calling for a socialist revolution in 1917 before Russia had completely gone through capitalist revolution. He had to make that development happen somehow.

I just signed up with the IMT but I'm concerned about this photo from their 2014 world congress. They look old and fat and comfortable.

They have no actual praxis besides selling newspaper like most Trotsky group. At least they don't go around fighting every other sect.

Are there any sects with praxis *and* violence?

Trots aren't smashies.

So is there anything else besides trot paperboys and the DSA in the region?

Do you want them to look like factory workers from the 1920s?

I want them to look young and poor, user, or failing that at least awake. Every single face in this photo screams "After this I'm going to Olive Garden."

That said I will check it out, I'll report back with findings

Most IMT members are on the younger side in my experience. Average age of the branch I was in before I moved was like 24.

The Trot paper jokes etc. all show a misunderstanding of what the intentions behind paper sales are, and the Trot-groups-do-nothing comments show misunderstanding of dialectics. Right now, the Left is small and has little voice or influence on mass politics. We can't just magically grow or start a mass movement immediately or whatever. Capitalist crisis naturally causes workers movements - and we can and should intervene in those -, but we can't create them on our own. In the mean time, the best and most reasonable use of resources is to focus on political education and organization. We're preparing in advance so that when things really do pick up, we already have
leadership ready to go. No one thinks the papers are going to spark the revolution or become the new primary leftist publication, it's just a useful tool for developing analysis and demonstrating our organization and seriousness to the masses.

Taking to the streets and running campaigns i.e. "actually​ DOING something" is opportunist and premature at this point.

You won't find too much in the US. The most vulnerable workers are usually working two daily shifts to survive. They don't have time to read Das Kapital or make memes about Bordiga.

DSA endorsed Sanders and was one of the organizations encouraging him to run initially. During the first few months of the campaign every single Trot group made fun of DSA for wasting their time.
Reading books but refusing to agitate over ideology is cancer.
Working with local activist organizations that directly deal with the working class and spreading ideology to allies is more useful than creepily selling newspaper at competing leftist events.

So are the Baltimore and new york city DSA chapters full of liberal succdems by a majority then?

Here's what you get when you sign up for their mailing list- there is no other contact info