PSL describes itself as a revolutionary socialist party, as the party believes that only a revolution can end capitalism and establish socialism.[7][8] PSL pursues this goal by participating in local protests, running candidates in elections, and conducting political education.
PSL does not release membership numbers.[9][10] In 2022, PSL claimed an "organized presence in over 100 cities".[11] In 2024, PSL was "in over 50 cities across the United States".[12]
PSL is a democratic centralist party,[13][14][15][16][17] which means that "all members, including those who disagree, are duty bound to publicly defend and carry out" all PSL decisions.[17] PSL's highest body is its Party Congress, held "every two to three years", which selects its Central Committee leadership.[17] The PSL Central Committee can appoint up to "40 percent" of Congress delegates.[17]
After PSL split from the WWP, ANSWER became more tightly tied to PSL than to WWP. ANSWER's National Coordinator is Brian Becker,[23] a PSL co-founder who said "we do a great deal of work through" ANSWER.[24]The New Republic described ANSWER as a PSL "front group",[25] and the two have significant financial overlap.[26][20]
PSL leadership are closely involved with The People's Forum, an event space in NYC, which hosts the BreakThrough News studio.[20][29] People's Forum was directed by Claudia De la Cruz[27][30] and funded by Neville Singham.[27][20][29]
Neville Singham
Many of the organizations above are funded in part by Neville Roy Singham,[27][20][29] a Shanghai-based American businessman who supports organizations and media outlets that have been noted for echoing pro-Beijing talking points.[31] Most of this funding comes from the Justice and Education Fund (JEF), to which Neville Singham has donated more than $20 million, and for which Claudia De la Cruz works as a coordinator.[27][20]
PSL was formed in June 2004[8][1] when the San Francisco branch of Sam Marcy's Workers World Party left the organization. The San Francisco branch, alongside other members, announced that "the Workers World Party leadership is no longer capable of fulfilling [the] mission" of building socialism.[3] PSL co-founders included Richard Becker,[3] Brian Becker,[27]Gloria La Riva,[3] and Eugene Puryear.[27]
In 2020, at least five PSL members were arrested during protests against the Aurora police department for the killing of Elijah McClain.[32][10]
In 2020, PSL denied an accusation that it mishandled a sexual abuse allegation in its Philadelphia branch.[41] In 2024, PSL presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz again denied these allegations, some of which she described as misinformation "doing the job of agents".[42]
PSL describes its primary goal as the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the institution of socialism, stating that "humanity today has only two choices: an increasingly destructive capitalism, or socialism".[7] PSL holds that the United States is "a dictatorship of the capitalist class" that cannot change "without a socialist revolution".[51]
PSL supports a guaranteed right to abortion,[43] equal pay regardless of gender, protection against gender-based or sexuality-based discrimination and violence,[43][57] and national self-determination and reparations for African Americans and residents of US territories in Puerto Rico, Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Mariana Islands.[43]
In 2024, the Democratic Parties of Georgia and Pennsylvania successfully sued to remove PSL from the ballot. In Georgia, some early ballots still contained De la Cruz's name.[86] In 2024, Claudia de la Cruz claimed that 6,000 volunteers helped PSL win ballot access in the 2024 United States presidential election.[58]
^2024: "Ballot access" above includes all states where Claudia de la Cruz was not a write-in; ie, where they were a listed PSL, PFP, or SCWP candidate. Claudia de la Cruz has write-in status in 22 states, with 243 possible electoral votes from write-ins.
^ abcdeKroitzsh, Aleka A. (August 2, 2019). "Local socialists see the "fog of anti-communism" lifting". Mission Local. The PSL espouses a Marxist-Leninist ideology, one intent on "fighting the war program in the U.S., fighting imperialism, and fighting for Socialism," said Gloria La Riva, a socialist presidential candidate since 1993 and a PSL founder.
^ abKhan, K.; Trottier, Tom (November 11, 2021). "USA: The end of the Biden honeymoon". Socialist Appeal. Socialist Revolution USA. The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a small 'Marxist-Leninist' organisation with limited resources, ran a candidate under its own banner for mayor of New York City.
^ abHarman, Mike (March 19, 2018). "Introduction". Where's the Winter Palace? On the Marxist-Leninist Trend in the United States. The Left Wind. In the United States today, there exists a political trend which describes itself as Marxist-Leninist. This trend is organized as a loose constellation, orbiting around organizations such as the Workers World Party (WWP) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)....
^ ab"About the Party for Socialism and Liberation". Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. The Party for Socialism and Liberation believes that the only solution to the deepening crisis of capitalism is the socialist transformation of society. [....] The idea that the capitalists' grip on society and their increasingly repressive state can be abolished through any means other than a revolutionary overturn is an illusion. Equally unrealistic are reformist hopes for a "kinder, gentler" capitalism, or solutions based on economic decentralization or small group autonomy. [....] There are really only two choices for humanity today—an increasingly destructive capitalism, or socialism.
^ abcdefCorn, David (September 28, 2023). "As a presidential candidate, Cornel West aligns himself with far-left radicals". Mother Jones (magazine). Archived from the original on August 1, 2024. The PSL split from the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party in 2004, and one of its founders has declared, "We are communists." The party calls for the "revolutionary" overthrow of capitalism and denounces "reformist hopes" for a "kinder, gentler" capitalism. The PSL has supported the North Korean regime and its pursuit of nuclear weapons and also hailed the Chinese Communist Party, defending it against various charges of human rights violations. Brian Becker, a co-founder of the PSL, used to co-host a show on Radio Sputnik, a Moscow-created propaganda network.
^ abKaplan, Noah (November 10, 2020). "The Election May Be Over, but Their Fight Has Just Begun". Denver Westword. Archived from the original on November 10, 2020. The Denver branch of the PSL continues to participate in direct action and encourage support for House, Northam, Lucero and Ruch, as well as Roberts and Howard; although it doesn't reveal membership numbers, it's grown exponentially, Northam says. While local DSA officials lead the charge for radical socialist reforms and fresh blood in office, that group reports a 30 percent increase in membership over the past several months; on November 7, the DSA's national membership grew by 1,000 people in a single day; it added 10,000 in October and now numbers around 80,000 members.
^"We need your help to build the movement for socialism". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. August 15, 2022. We have an organized presence in over 100 cities and towns, and have expanded our presence substantially throughout the South in recent years.
^"End Capitalism Before It Ends Us". Claudia & Karina 2024. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on November 11, 2024. Get involved in the Party for Socialism & Liberation. We are in over 50 cities across the United States and are made up of leaders, activists, workers and students of all backgrounds in key social movements engaged in the daily fight against exploitation and oppression and for the socialist reorganization of society.
^ abBecker, Brian (November 17, 2016). "The Leninist party in history and present". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. The Party for Socialism and Liberation was formed in 2004 by a small group of cadres who adhered to the organizational principles of the Bolsheviks that were codified in the original documents of the Third International. We explicitly recognized that the construction of a Leninist-type party was taking shape on a political and social landscape that could not have been more unlike that which existed in Russia but also in the other countries during the 1917-1923 period during which the Third International took shape.
^ abBecker, Ben (November 7, 2018). "Social Media and Democratic Centralism: Opportunities and Challenges". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. The following is an edited version of an internal document initially written in late 2015 and formed part of the basis for party-wide discussions in the Party for Socialism and Liberation in early 2016. The document examines the new possibilities and difficulties posed by the proliferation of social media from the perspective of the Leninist party.
^"PSL Statements: Building democratic centralism: stages of Party growth and internal development". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. July 31, 2014. Archived from the original on April 25, 2015. Since its inception 10 years ago, the PSL leadership and membership have focused considerable thought, effort and time on creating a revolutionary organization based on the organizational principles known as Democratic Centralism.
^ abcde"Party For Socialism And Liberation PSL Constitution 2022". Party for Socialism and Liberation. November 29, 2023 – via Internet Archive. 4. Decision-making procedures 4.1 After a thorough discussion in any branch or Party body, at the Party Congress, or at a national internal conference, decisions are arrived at by majority vote of all full members present, except when otherwise noted herein. All members, including those who disagree, are duty bound to publicly defend and carry out these decisions. [....] The Party Congress may also have voting delegates nominated directly by the Central Committee, the maximum number of which shall not exceed 40 percent of the total elected delegates. Such delegates shall be elected by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Central Committee (for two-thirds votes, round up when the outcome is a fraction). [....] During this discussion, all Party members have the right to express their views and propose changes, including amendments to the Constitution, to propose resolutions on all questions of policy and tactics, and on the work of leading bodies for consideration by the Congress. All existing policies and decisions remain in full force during the pre-Congress discussion, which is a completely internal discussion.
^Albert, Michael; Stephen Shalom (October 24, 2002). "Ten Q&A On Antiwar Organizing". Z. Archived from the original on November 14, 2002. One extremely energetic antiwar group is the International Action Center (IAC). It is the leading force in the coalition ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) which is calling the October 26 demonstrations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. (IAC and ANSWER share a New York City phone number and the latter's website features many materials from IAC.) IAC is officially led by Ramsey Clark and is largely the creation of the Workers World Party; many key IAC figures are prominent writers for WWP.
^Hull, Dana (January 16, 2003). "As big anti-war protests loom, some political rifts surface". San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the original on February 23, 2004. Many of ANSWER's lead organizers have close ties to the International Action Center, formed by former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, and to the Workers World Party, a socialist sect whose politics often are criticized as too left, too doctrinaire, even for Bay Area liberals. Some of the WWP's more controversial positions are its support for the governments of Iraq and North Korea; its backing of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic; its claims that reports of Serb atrocities against Muslims and Croats were overblown; its defense as recently as 2000 of the Chinese government's deadly crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
^ abcdefghStarr, Michael (May 15, 2024). "China-linked network funding key anti-Israel protest groups in US". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on May 15, 2024. The Singham network amplified anti-Israel activism not just through the NGOs' social media accounts, but through pro-CCP media outlets like BreakThrough News. [....] The Answer Coalition and PUF site often serves as a venue for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) which has also been a notable actor in the anti-Israel protests. Becker is also a leader in PSL, as is Answer co-founder Claudia De la Cruz, who is the PSL's 2024 presidential candidate. [....] BT News editor-in-chief Ben Becker was previously an ANSWER organizer, and host and producer Eugene Puryear is alleged by the Daily Beast to be a PSL founder. ANSWER director Brian Becker is a contributor to the outlet. BT News operated out of the same address as the People's Forum, which provided grants to the outlet in 2021 and 2022 according to NCRI.
^Van Dyke, Nella; McCammon, Holly (2010). Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements. University of Minnesota Press. p. 281. ISBN9781452914497. Activists affiliated with Workers' World Party, and later the Party for Liberation and Socialism, founded ANSWER; activists affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party helped to found Not in Our Name, and members of the Committees of Correspondence for Democ- racy and Socialism, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Solidarity helped to found United for Peace and Justice.
^"American socialists' ANSWER to Trump". International Communist Press. January 23, 2017. Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. On Jan 20, thousands gathered at the Navy Memorial Plaza for a rally called by the ANSWER Coalition, of which the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is one of the founding members, to inaugurate the resistance to Trump's ultra-right wing, pro-Wall Street agenda.
^"Brian Becker". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on October 2, 2023. Brian Becker is the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition. He is a founder of and a central organizer for the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
^Becker, Brian (October 1, 2018). "No separate destiny for US workers apart from the workers of the world". International Communist Press. Archived from the original on August 7, 2023. We are a communist party. We have existed for 14 years with the idea of building a communist party in the United States once again. This is a complicated and long-term project. It is perhaps the most of the difficult of all projects. But it's the imperative need because you cannot have revolutionary change without a revolutionary communist party leading that change. Absent a communist party, victory is impossible.
^ abcdeCasey, Leo (August 8, 2024). "The American Left's Problem With Antisemitism". The New Republic. Archived from the original on November 13, 2024. Dean is a prominent member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, or PSL, a Marxist and Leninist sect of Trotskyist origins. The PSL has a long, dishonorable record of offering apologies and making excuses for bloody dictatorships worldwide: Syria's Assad, Russia's Putin, Zimbabwe's Mugabe, North Korea's Kim Jung Un, and China's Communist Party during the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests. Through its front group, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or ANSWER, the PSL has been deeply involved in the organizing of pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the United States. It was PSL member Eugene Puryear who, speaking at an October 8 Times Square demonstration, gleefully announced before the hundreds of dead from the Re'im music festival massacre had even been buried that "there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took out at least several dozen hipsters."
^ abcdefghijkBredderman, William (May 29, 2023). "U.S Tech Mogul Bankrolls Pro-Russia, Pro-China News Network". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on November 10, 2024. Sitting on the People's Forum's board is Claudia De La Cruz, who pulls triple duty as BreakThrough's secretary and as a "co-coordinator/educator" for the Justice and Education Fund. An auditor's report filed in New York shows that more of Singham's money trickled down to BreakThrough from the Forum in the form of $80,575 in donated rent in 2021, the most recent year for which filings are available. But when The Daily Beast visited the People's Forum address, it found a bookstore hawking tomes by Prashad and titles from his Leftword imprint, as well as a coffee shop and an event space—but no evidence of a studio. What's more, none of BreakThrough's hosts appear among the staff listed in the outlet's filings. Rather, the underlying nonprofit's leadership consists of figures like De La Cruz who donate an hour a week to the organization, and who like De La Cruz are affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a small far-left sect that does not appear to receive substantial donations from Singham or from anybody else. The PSL does, however, appear as an allied group to the International People's Media Network on its webpage. Puryear and Becker, two of the BreakThrough anchors, are co-founders of the party.
^ abc"Meet the Team". BreakThrough News. Archived from the original on October 1, 2024. EUGENE PURYEAR Host & Producer [....] RANIA KHALEK Host & Producer [....] BEN BECKER Editor-in-Chief
^ abcRoss, Alexander Reid; Dobson, Courtney (January 18, 2022). "The Big Business of Uyghur Genocide Denial". New Lines Magazine. The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy. Housed within The People's Forum New York office is yet another media organization called Breakthrough News. Also pressing Uyghur genocide denial, this project is spearheaded by Rania Khalek, an apologist for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose previous media ventures, Redfish and Soapbox, were both exposed by journalists as cutouts of Russian state-funded media. Soapbox's parent group, Maffick, sued Facebook for libel in the U.S. District Court in California after the social media company labeled its subsidiaries "Russia state-controlled media." But the case was dismissed, because the court agreed that Facebook "tendered a substantial amount of evidence in support of its view that Maffick is linked to the Russian government." [....] Just as this investigation was winding down, the Twitter account for The People's Forum published a thread in which it confirmed receiving money from Singham.
^Texcucano, Emmely Eli (October 7, 2024). "CT Interviews: PSL presidential candidate Claudia De La Cruz". Campus Times. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is the party that is running the ballot of the Vote Socialist 2024 campaign, is a completely different entity than the entity that I co-founded and co-directed, which is the People's Forum. The Party for Socialism and Liberation is an organization that is member-funded.
^Beeferman, Jason (October 8, 2023). "NYC pro-Palestine rally splits Democrats over Israel". Politico. Eugene Puryear, who helped organize the event in behalf of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, said the absence of the NY-DSA politicians at the event was telling.
^Stephens, Bret (October 10, 2023). "Opinion | The Anti-Israel Left Needs to Take a Hard Look at Itself". The New York Times. "As you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters," a speaker said. "But I'm sure they're doing very fine despite what The New York Post says." He was met with cheers.
^Nazaryan, Alexander (October 9, 2023). "Socialist rally in Times Square praising Hamas terror attack draws widespread condemnation". Yahoo News. "And as you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters," one speaker joked about the Hamas assault on a desert rave, where horrific scenes of murder and rape took place.
^Weigel, David (October 13, 2023). "A rift over Israel threatens the left's fragile gains". Semafor. Activists whose response to the Hamas attacks have divided the left aren't walking it back. At the Times Square rally, Eugene Puryear, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation — not DSA — became infamous for joking about a Hamas attack on a music festival that killed at least 260 people. "The resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters," he said. Asked if he'd say the same thing again today, Puryear said he would.
^"A response to false charges against a PSL member and our Philadelphia branch"(PDF). Medium. Party for Socialism and Liberation. December 20, 2020. Archived from the original on June 9, 2024. The PSL has a proud history of dealing firmly, fairly and decisively with allegations of misconduct in our ranks, including expulsions of those with violations of a serious nature. [....] Based on the evidence, we did not find Steven guilty of the more serious allegations against him. We found that Steven showed poor judgment during their breakup, handling it with disregard for political implications. Pending the completion of the terms of his suspension, Steven will resume political activity.
^Walden, Jack (July 18, 2024). "PSL President Candidate Claudia De la Cruz Responds to Infamous Steven Powers Case". Gainesville Public Information Services. [Claudia de la Cruz:] "We are an organization that has an internal process and I think that people reading on Medium rather than talking and asking like you are; are not necessarily helping the movement and are doing the job of agents." [....] All of the documents relating to PSL that are referenced in this article are held within an even larger document which contains over a dozen first-hand accounts and criticisms against various PSL chapters around the U.S. for their handling of alleged misconduct, whether it be physical, emotional, sexual, financial, or racial. [....] One of the prominent accusations in the overarching document containing the Powers case accuses PSL of engaging in "cult-like activity at the institutional level."
^"Revolution Manifesto". Liberation School. August 28, 2016. Archived from the original on September 5, 2016. Moreover, the course is designed to facilitate new ways of understanding how the Marxist-Leninist theory of the state relates to the struggles of our contemporary moment.
^Powell, Nicholas (April 19, 2010). "Why I joined the PSL". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. This Marxism Class is held in seminar-style, and it is great opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the Marxist-Leninist view of socialism.
^"Community celebrates 14th annual Enero Zapatista event". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. February 4, 2018. The Party for Socialism and Liberation has been involved in the planning of Enero Zapatista for the past several years and looks forward to continued involvement. As a Marxist-Leninist party we strive to uphold the tradition of the right to self-determination for oppressed nations.
^Sculos, Bryant William (Summer 2020). ""Campism" and the "New" (Anti-) Imperialisms". New Politics. XVIII (1). Campism originated in the earliest period of the Cold War among supporters of the USSR and other ostensibly "communist" regimes. By way of example, three contemporary sources of overtly campist arguments include editorials from Telesur, the pseudo-journalism site Grayzone, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation in the United States (though there are many, many other sources in the United States and around the world).
^Afinogenov, Greg (Spring 2022). "Breaking Camp: The US Left and Foreign Policy after the War in Ukraine". Socialist Forum. Yet, paradoxically, it was only in the post-1991 period that the WWP and its offshoot the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) became a visible force on the left. What made the two-camp doctrine uniquely appealing was the emergence of the unipolar era.
^Blankenhorn, Chris; Reiman, John; Hawkins, Howie (February 9, 2023). "2/9/23: Oakland Socialist Interview with Howie Hawkins". Howie Hawkins For Our Future. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. I think what we're dealing with is a legacy of the old campist left, you know, derived from the Communist Party, the Stalinists, and their position during the Cold War of supporting the so called socialist camp, which were hardly socialist countries, they weren't democratic at all. And then in this country, we have the legacy of, you know, the Marcyite groups. You know, Sam Marcy was a member of the Socialist Workers Party, the Trotskyist group. And in the 50s, he wanted to support the Russian invasion of Hungary, to suppress the workers pro democracy movement. And so we ended up forming the workers world party, which is still with us, very tiny group, but it and its derivative, the Party for Socialism, liberation, have disproportionate influence in anti war activities.
^Flakin, Nathaniel (November 3, 2024). "The PSL Is Not A Vote for Class Independence". Left Voice. Archived from the original on November 4, 2024. Yet the PSL's politics can best be described as "campist": they offer their support to just about any government that is in conflict with U.S. imperialism. They align with the "camp" opposed to U.S. hegemony. [....] While Marcy's WWP originally considered itself to be the real Trotskyists, both the WWP and the PSL can better be described as Stalinist parties. Rather than representing the interests of one particular Stalinist bureaucracy, however, the PSL is a sui generis American form of Stalinism that tries to support all Stalinist regimes, and many bourgeois regimes as well.
^ abcde"Our Program". Claudia & Karina 2024. Party for Socialism and Liberation.
^ abChen, Allyson (October 27, 2024). "Socialist presidential candidate Claudia De La Cruz visits Rhode Island". The Brown Daily Herald. PSL has nominated candidates for president, congress and various state- and local-level offices since 2008. No PSL candidate has won an election. De la Cruz's platform includes seizing large corporations, ending all U.S. aid to Israel and reducing the military budget. She also advocates for policies that prioritizes the needs of Black Americans, women, LGBTQ+ people and undocumented immigrants. De la Cruz also advocates for fighting climate change through socialist economic planning.
^ abcWashington, John (July 26, 2024). "Growing socialist party hosts event in Tucson to pitch Arizona's independent, discontented voters". Arizona Luminaria. She also mentioned that massive investment in public transportation, including high speed rail, could create millions of jobs. More of the party's policy priorities, listed on their website, include seizing the country's 100 largest corporations and turning them public, ending corporate lobbying and cutting the military budget by 90%.
^ abcdeWolf, Sherry (2017). Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation. Haymarket Books. p. 106. ISBN978-1-60846-076-2. The Workers World Party (WWP)-one current group is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) been quite active and vocal in LGBT struggles from the seventies to the current day. Award-winning novelist and trans- gender activist Leslie Feinberg is one of WWP's most prominent members. But WWP/PSL's uncompromising defense of virtually every country claiming to be socialist-from Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Kim il-Sung's North Korea to modern China (including a hearty defense of the Tiananmen Square massacre) and Castro's Cuba-leads to a bafflingly simplistic gauge of these societies' sexual policies and attitudes. To raise criticisms in any way of these bureaucratic and often tyrannical regimes, in WWP/PSL's philosophically dualistic view, is to place oneself at the service of empire. This has left them in the curious position of promoting countries as workers' states that would imprison or torment some of the very members organizing within the United States to defend them!
^ abChatelain, Ryan (November 1, 2024). "Third-party presidential candidates have eye on long game". NY1. De la Cruz argues that the U.S. can invest trillions of dollars into health care, housing, infrastructure, free education, student debt relief, climate change action and other causes by cutting the military budget by 90% and eliminating funding to support foreign wars. She appears on the ballot in 19 states and is a write-in option in 24 others. A team of more than 6,000 volunteers nationwide helped her gain ballot access by collecting petition signatures.
^ abGowans, Stephan (February 23, 2013). "Why North Korea is developing nuclear weapons". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. A North Korean nuclear arsenal does not increase the chances of war—it reduces the likelihood that the United States and its South Korean marionette will attempt to bring down the communist government in Pyongyang by force. This is to be welcomed by anyone who opposes imperialist military interventions; supports the right of a people to organize its affairs free from foreign domination; and has an interest in the survival of one of the few top-to-bottom, actually-existing, alternatives to the global capitalist system of oppression, exploitation and foreign domination.
^ abWang, Mike (March 26, 2014). "UN hypocrisy and human rights in North Korea". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Like the great majority of accusations hurled at North Korea in the past, the UNHRC Report rings hollow as a thinly veiled justification for U.S. aggression toward North Korea. [....] In fact, previous UN specialist agencies' reports show the UNHRC's accusations are pure fantasy: no UN specialist agency has identified the North Korean government's food and health policy in terms even vaguely similar to the UNHRC's report. To the contrary, conditions in North Korea are vastly better than those in other developing countries.
^Kim, Crystal (December 22, 2011). "North Koreans mourn death of leader Kim Jong Il". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Washington, with the help of the capitalist media, has consistently portrayed Kim Jong Il's tenure as dictatorial and oppressive—even insinuating that the massive outpouring of sorrow over Kim Jong Il's death is orchestrated and proof of a bizarre, brainwashed citizenry. This accusation is highly offensive. It is paternalistic, and ignores traditional mourning rituals deeply rooted in Korean culture. By delegitimizing and demonizing the North Korean government, U.S. imperialism is hoping to make the idea of military intervention against North Korea palatable to the people of the United States. This is precisely the strategy used to gather popular support for the invasion of Iraq and military intervention in Libya.
^ abcMasciotra, David (December 29, 2023). "Cornel West Is the Charlatan of the Year". The New Republic. ISSN0028-6583. West has praised and appeared at events with the likes of Claudia De La Cruz, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation. As David Corn reported for Mother Jones, the PSL supports Kim Jong Un's pursuit of nuclear weapons and defends the Chinese government against accusations of human rights abuses. Among West's other allies are former Radio Sputnik hosts who revere Putin and compliment the Chinese Communist Party as an "inspiration."
^"North Korea has the right to possess nuclear weapons". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. October 11, 2006. Archived(PDF) from the original on February 8, 2008. If one side possesses 16,000 nuclear weapons and maintains the largest military machine in human history and then endlessly threatens a small country, it is only rational that the threatened country would seek a military deterrent of its own. [....] As long as the United States, Britain, France and other powers possess nuclear weapons, the former colonial countries that are now targeted for "regime change" may well seek to develop these and any other weapons necessary for their own defense.
^ abcdCornish, Megan (February 2013). "A political critique of the Party for Socialism and Liberation". Freedom Socialist Party. Meanwhile, also in 2006, PSL in a resolution on China reaffirmed Workers World opposition to the Tiananmen Square student democracy movement in 1989. Numerous witnesses indicate that hundreds or thousands were killed and injured when the bureaucracy smashed this movement, but PSL denies it. The resolution also concludes that the CP is restoring capitalist economic relations in China, yet contradictorily maintains that as long as the Chinese CP stays in power, "there is a possibility, however great or small, that this trend can still be reversed." So it opposes any challenge to CP rule as counterrevolutionary. Finally, today, PSL backs the repressive regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad against the Syrian democracy movement.
^ abBecker, Brian (May 31, 2007). "What do socialists defend in China today?". Liberation School. Party for Socialism and Liberation. In the face of this threat, it is the responsibility of all revolutionaries and progressive people to resist the imperialist offensive and offer militant political defense of the Chinese government—de-spite profound differences with the theory and practice of so-called "market socialism."
^Becker, Brian (June 13, 2014). "Tiananmen: The Massacre that Wasn't". Liberation School. Party for Socialism and Liberation. What happened in China, what took the lives of government opponents and of soldiers on June 4, was not a massacre of peaceful students but a battle between PLA soldiers and armed detachments from the so-called pro-democracy movement.
^ abcdeBrown, George Martin Fell (April 4, 2022). "Socialists and the War in Ukraine: A Response to the Party for Socialism and Liberation". Socialist Alternative. In the United States one of the biggest purveyors of this sort of vulgar anti-imperialism is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). The PSL has a long history of championing any figure, no matter how rotten, who comes into conflict with U.S. imperialism, including Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Muammar al-Qaddafi, and Bashar al-Assad. They've championed the Chinese state violently crushing the Hong Kong democracy struggle in 2019. Their current attitude towards the war in Ukraine represents a continuation of this wrong approach. They present the conflict in Ukraine as solely the responsibility of the U.S. and NATO. What criticisms they have of Putin are presented as mistakes of an ally, rather than the actions of a reactionary imperialist.
^Puryear, Eugene (June 12, 2019). "What is happening in Hong Kong". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. The proposed amendment dealing with extradition is being presented across Western media as part of a tightening "totalitarian noose" around the "free and democratic" people of Hong Kong. The new bill, a fairly limited legal change, is facing almost universal condemnation by the most powerful Western nations in an effort to justify subjecting China to a new Cold War-style atmosphere.
^Becker, Brian (March 17, 2014). "Crimea Referendum: the hidden truth behind the U.S.-Russia rivalry". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. The people of Crimea have voted in overwhelming numbers and by an overwhelming margin to leave Ukraine and to federate with Russia. [....] They thought they were on the road of absorbing the second largest former Soviet Republic into NATO — lock, stock and barrel. They did not anticipate that the Crimea would hold a popular referendum and declare its independence. [....] So even though the Soviet Union is no more, there remains a continuing struggle between the club of imperialist countries, led since 1945 by the United States, and Russia.
^Smith, Ashley (June 3, 2022). "Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance". Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. The faux anti-imperialist Left has made the polar opposite mistake of supporting or legitimizing Russian imperialism. Groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Workers World Party, as well as publications like Monthly Review, recycle verbatim Putin's propaganda—Ukraine is headed by an unpopular Nazi regime, Russia is intervening in the country's civil war to de-Nazify the country and liberate oppressed Russians, and Russia is defending its sphere of influence against U.S. and NATO aggression.
^Majidi, Mazda (September 6, 2013). "12 myths and facts about Syria". Liberation News. Party for Socialism and Liberation. Archived from the original on July 14, 2019. Myth: There is evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons. Fact: Despite vague claims of having proof, not only does the U.S. government have no evidence, it has worked hard to suppress any real investigation into what actually happened in suburban Damascus on Aug. 21...The Syrian government had no incentive to use chemical weapons and every reason not to.
^"A Different Kind of Campaign/Una Campaña en apoyo al pueblo". Indybay. May 23, 2014. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. The Party for Socialism & Liberation and the Peace and Freedom Party are running socialist candidates Frank Lara in the 12th Congressional district against Nancy Pelosi, and Nathalie Hrizi for state Insurance Commissioner.
^"Leininger for State Rep 90". Noah R. Leininger for State Representative Committee. Archived from the original on September 18, 2022. [Party for Socialism and Liberation logo]
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