The PSL just released two documents related to the recent Marissa Sanchez post detailing her experiences at the national level of the PSL. I’m going to be posting both of them as well as their full text for archival purposes.
I should note a couple things before I link these things:
- At multiple points, the report mentions that Marissa was reportedly fine and thankful during and after the immediate events of this incident and it’s cover up. This is shown to be an example of proof that she was fine at the time, and leads into building the case that this is a factional decision. However, I am not convinced that this means she is cynically using this to split the party for her own ends. Betrayal Blindness is a collection of responses and symptoms broadly related to a person being betrayed by someone whom they rely on for financial, personal, romantic, or political needs. In order to come to terms with my experience of the same exact tendencies on a local level I read the book “Betrayal Blindness” by Jennifer Freyd, and I implore everyone to read it as well.
- Repeatedly they claim this is the result of a factional dispute. That might even be true in some ways, perhaps Marissa saw that there was a different way to organize going forward and it gave her the ability to be able to accept the abuse she faced. This, however, doesn’t have to only come from a sense of macabre cynicism, being able to finally use her trauma as a loaded gun to split the party for her own selfish ends as described in the article. For myself, when I stepped away from the party for my Leave of Absence, I was able to begin to be engaged in mass organizing work that I wasn’t in prior, that I didn’t have the time for. This has given me the courage to be able to stand up and say that I don’t think is acceptable at all.
- I am not in a faction, have not been in communication with anyone in a faction, and my disgust is only colored by my own similar experiences and emotional waves being thrown right back in my face as someone who’s faced the exact same tactics myself. I’m genuinely just a trans woman by myself, I have some friends and comrades, but our local branch is still up in the air
The party routinely expects things like this to be leaked, so they prepare for the possibility. Given they already know we’re going to do this, I’m just going to share the documents here for you and others here, and I leave it up to you and your comrades to decide how you feel about the party and it’s current leadership. For me, the emphasis on how this fits into factional warfare is not only not convincing, but honestly disgusting.
Comprehensive Report from the Central Committee in Response to Marissa Sanchez’s Letter
NDC Statement (Sept. 2026), the password is ndcstatement
c\main so main
character assassination painting the victim as an irrational, cynical bad actor & the leadership clique playing the victim of a sinister factional clique (rich coming from an org born out of a split), revolted but wish i could say i was surprised.
@gayspacemarxist@hexbear.net re: the faction/split, i can guarantee firsthand that many, many members quit after the actual factional split who had nothing to do with it because of the A) noxious, accountability-dodging, character assassinating, and deflecting way leadership handled it in what should have been a moment of collective reflection and improvement and B) because the complaints outlined across multiple different documents (not just Walter’s letter) showed a pattern and gave voice to exploitation, mistreatment, & an undemocratic posture many of us had experienced from Party leadership.
i have mixed feelings about how those comrades handled things myself, but that’s not the point. it’s completely cynical and ugly of PSL leadership to use as a smokescreen in what should be a moment of reckoning with how the Party navigates SA (even if it’s true that Marissa sympathizes with the folks who left! beside the point and completely tone deaf of them to bring up in this context).
i’d also just add that, across all of these different complaints, there are milder-but-still-fucked harmful, consistent patterns of behavior outlined: bunch of times you’ll see accusations of Brian openly reprimanding, yelling at, and demeaning comrades beneath him in spaces supposedly dedicated to dissent and internal democracy for the crime of…expressing a dissenting opinion. Not to mention Walter’s charges that he was called into three on one screaming meetings with other Party leaders about strategic disagreements, which given my much more limited firsthand experience I do believe happened.
that’s my take & firsthand experience with all that, you can take it or leave it. i also don’t intend to call you out, it’s just that you were the main person i saw to mention the issue around the faction and i didn’t want my own firsthand experiences as a former member to get buried in the thread (and i know you and i both have skin in the game). PSL’s leadership structures and its central leaders create the exact kind of domineering, high control environment that breeds coverups over more grievous harms like this one. probably gonna tap out for a bit after this cuz this shit is making me feel sick.
I feel exactly the same. Locally we had no kind of faction or factional behavior as far as I was aware of at the current moment, but this is outrageous and indicates that this isn’t a tent to healthily stay under any more. It’s been something that feels really raw considering how much of my life and myself I’ve put into this party and movement, but it’s also kind of cathartic to know I wasn’t alone. Wish you peace comrade
right back at ya comrade
on one hand i feel almost ashamed that this was an org i was once proud to be a part of. but on the other hand, i think we should both be proud of ourselves for taking a leap of faith into trying to be part of the struggle. and at the end of the day, the organizations/organs/specific forms are just means to an end, just bridges to the end goal of a better, more just, more humane, and more loving world. the struggle for that world will always be there for us, when we’re ready and should the right circumstance/opportunity come knocking
Locally, as someone in another org? Fuck those Stalinist-positioned, Trot-tactic douchebags.
My local DSA was doing good work among community direct service, and the PSL came in to EAT the DSA at the expense of the work. When we all quit instead of following orders nobody discussed first, we’re all “factionalists”.
Oh wait, they split from their previous org to adopt the Stalinist positions, but changed little else. Who themselves split from Trots. Who themselves split from Trots. The “central committee” at the core of a “central committee” probably has a secret third, deeper “central committee” that’s just a clique of yes-comrades.
And we wonder why the membership knows nothing, but the leadership is this foul.
The fact that any of this backs up your wild assumptions about ML parties and gives you fuel to talk like this only furthers my disappointment
deleted by creator
i appreciate your perspective comrade. im not anti-centralized leadership either, i just think there needs to be coherent & robust mechanisms of internal democracy to keep them accountable (whether this would be more direct say in how representatives are chosen or something else, i don’t know for sure, figuring out the shape of things like that would be a collective process). i think we’re both in agreement that PSL rank and file deserve much better than the current crop of leaders, though, and i hope changes are made there.
don’t blame you at all for seeing something worth fixing and fighting for, even if i came to different conclusions (at least with the org as it exists right now), particularly considering the existential threats you face in this hellscape by simple virtue of existing as the person you are. while i feel demoralized by what a deeply sorry situation this is, i hope something good can come of all this and that our institutions can improve.