Hey, is anyone familiar with Revolutionary Communists of America? (https://communistusa.org/) It is separate than Revolutionary Communist USA which was confusing to me. Anyway they are organizing more and I’m sure if you live in a bigger city you have seen their posters or seen them organizing.
A while back I saw them organizing in my areas. I went to three meetings as well as a small demonstration in my city. The last time I went they discussed joining the party and that they asked for a days wage. Although I had already mentioned my disability in passing I felt a little embarrassed and decided to text my contact later about it. A days wage for me is about 5 dollars as I make about 200 dollars a month in gig work in addition to my state disability benefits. I told them I was happy to pay that much and continue coming to the meetings and join the party but that I wanted to be clear upfront that my disability would restrict my participation in some of the more public facing things, agitation, etc.
My contact who had been texting me weekly about these meetings for a few months completely ghosted me after texting them about this. While I felt bad about it it’s not exactly shocking as I know well enough now that I can and will encounter ableism in all sorts of communities which seem like I shouldn’t.
After doing some research it looks like they do have a history of some organizational stuff that doesn’t sound great like sexual abuse claims in the Canadian branch. What is weird to me is that they don’t seem to have a way to contact anyone centrally if issues like this come up. Maybe this is by design?
I am not interested in joining this group anymore but I felt like I wanted to let the party know that this is what goes on in the local cells. Or maybe just put this out to the internet in case anyone encounters something similar. Anyone had any similar experiences with these guys? I didn’t notice any red flags until this happened.
I don’t remember what it was but I have heard more sus shit about that org so don’t feel too bad. Good on you for trying to get into organizing anyway though.
Honestly as all over the place as they can be look up your local DSA, their chapters run a broad range of the spectrum but I at least know the one in my area is pretty rad and has actually got some shit done (like helping get the whole starbucks union off the ground to begin with), and at least from my experience don’t have any baggage I am aware of. They are relatively open about not being a revolutionary party by any means but it can be a good place to start looking for more radical comrades.
I just seem to have terrible luck with orgs in general. My local DSA had a problem that it could never resolve because my address is part of the state’s domestic violence confidentiality program. They could only connect me to the DSA chapter that was on the confidential address and not my local one…