The PSL does far more than simply be “anti-war” or “anti-capitalist”. Being a Marxist-Leninist requires a dialectical lens and a knowledge of your audience, in this case the reactionary imperial core. The party pushes for nothing less than the socialist transformation of society.
If you can, please read through the PSL’s program. All of the points you brought up are satisfactorily answered in that document in a way that aligns with a non-utopian Marxist view of the main points to be addressed following a socialist revolution in the US.
1: land reform
Snippet from the subheading "Liberation: Overcoming racism, exploitation, national oppression and all forms of bigotry:
The new government will seek to codify the goals of eradicating racism, national oppression and all forms of exploitation and bigotry. The following issues will be addressed by the new government.
With the goal of the unity of the multinational U.S. working class on the basis of class solidarity, the new government will work to eliminate white supremacy, racism and privilege as an immediate task, recognizing that this goal will not be achieved automatically or by decree. It will be prohibited to advocate any form of racism, xenophobia, national hatred or discrimination based on ability.
The socialist government will recognize the inviolable right of all oppressed nations to self-determination with regard to their means of gaining and maintaining their liberation. In the United States, this includes the right of self-determination for African American, Native, Puerto Rican and other Latino national minorities, the Hawai’ian nation, Asian, Pacific Islander, Arab and other oppressed peoples that have experienced oppression as a whole people under capitalism.
The socialist government will institute a program of reparations for the African American community to address the centuries of unpaid slave labor and super-exploitation.
The existing colonial relationships of the United States will be dissolved. Independence will be immediately granted to Puerto Rico with full reparations for colonial exploitation, and the right of free travel between the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Mariana Islands will be free to exercise their right to self-determination, up to and including independence, with reparations and the right to free travel between the former colonies and the U.S. mainland. Restitution, including the return of land stolen, will be provided for Native Nations. Further, the socialist government will reaffirm the right of Native Nations to self-determination, up to and including independence.
- capitalism
Declaring that capitalism cannot be abolished in the US is an outright misjudgment and disbelief in the oppressed peoples in this country. A Marxist-Leninist party is designed to lead the masses towards revolution, not fall in line or concede to the most backwards sections of society who believe capitalism can be “reformed”.
Snippet from the subheading “The right of revolution”:
The capitalist system has proven to be incapable of meeting the needs of the people — even in the richest capitalist country in history. Every year, millions more people are forced into abject poverty, many while working full time, and many are denied the right to a job.
Simply reforming the capitalist system is not enough.
For the capitalists, reforms are a threat to the status quo. Reforms for the working class mean something different. They ease the burdens of living under capitalism through the extension of civil rights or other beneficial social or economic policies.
While reforms must be fought for, and can be won, they are under constant attack by the ruling class. Capitalism itself cannot be reformed. Its supreme law and driving force is the maximization of profit. The only force capable of putting an end to this criminal system is the organized working class. Capitalism cannot be voted out of power—it will take a revolution.
The capitalist class will stop at nothing to prevent or overturn reforms by repressing, misdirecting or quelling any form of popular rebellion. Without a complete uprooting of the system that causes all the problems workers and oppressed peoples face, exploitation and oppression will still exist. The capitalist state will continue to rule.
Capitalism is a failed system that, in its insatiable appetite for ever greater profits, threatens global ecological destruction on an unprecedented scale, with workers and oppressed people bearing the disproportionate burden of the environmental disaster.
More than at any other time, it is the working class that holds the future for humanity. For the people and planet to live, capitalism must go.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is dedicated to building a revolutionary workers’ party in the United States. A party that can unite the multinational U.S. working class is an essential and irreplaceable element in the struggle for socialism. The PSL participates in the labor, anti-war, anti-racist, immigrant rights, women’s, lesbian/gay/bi/transgender/queer, environmental, student and other movements. A revolutionary party can be built only by engaging in all issues affecting the working class.
For the working class, revolution is a necessity and a right. The most brutal aspects of capitalism will not go away unless there is a socialist revolution. Only a revolution can do away with the rule of the capitalists once and for all.
3: Right to work
Snippet from the subheading “Socialism: Addressing the interests of working and poor people”:
It will be a right of every person in the United States to have a job with guaranteed union representation and full social benefits provided by the socialist government, including a pension, health care, workers’ compensation, paid parental and family leave for up to two years, paid sick and disability leave, a minimum of one month’s paid vacation, and at least 12 paid holidays.
Poverty will be eradicated by providing a guaranteed living income for any worker who is not able to find or hold a job. Priority in addressing the legacy of capitalism will be granted to communities that have suffered disproportionately in the past.
4: Immigration
See the response to your point 1 and that subheading.
Conjecture on the future is not a Marxist way of thinking. There’s a reason Marx & Engels didn’t come up with fabulous ideas of what communism would be. Dialectical materialism looks at the ebb and flow of history and its effects. Just as Marx didn’t expand on what the future could hold in store in riveting detail, the same is for the PSL. The focus is on the current oppression of the masses and the means of achieving working class unity to strike down our oppressors.
Nowhere does the PSL abscribe to the utopian ideal of “now that we won the revolution, socialism is enacted”. The party is premised on the actuality of socialist revolution in the US and the program hits the high points of what will be important to tackle in the next step, not that revolution will create some socialist utopia and capitalism is forever abolished. There is plenty of detailed analyses straight from the education organ of the party that further breaks down Marxist theory in the frame of a Leninist party organizing in the imperial core.
The program isn’t vague, it’s not up to a Marxist party to dictate what an oppressed nations reparations will be, nor how a post-revolution society will look like. It is not a material analysis, and dictating exact descriptions of how a socialist US will be is utopian, just as Marx and Lenin never gave concrete details that “socialism means X and therefore Y”. There is also no existing example of what reparations would look like, it would have to be discussed at that point between the party and the oppressed nations themselves speaking for themselves. Enabling “what ifs” and conjecture is immaterial analysis and does nothing but give armchair “communists” talking points to bicker over.
There are infinite explanations of what could happen, how things can be implemented, and what to avoid. Organizing is difficult, made even more so with now powerful bourgeois hegemony is in the imperial core. Learning how to organize, how to talk to the masses, how to radicalize our fellow workers, is of vital importance to build our power.
In my years of organizing, not once has someone asked for detailed implementation instructions for how a socialist government will work in detail. We are not at the point of detailing policy, we’re at the point of reaching out to the masses and radicalizing. The why and how of bourgeois class oppression is what we need to focus on and it’s what the people need to realize and how to fight back.
In-depth analysis and discussion on policies and the future socialist government is meant for in-party discussion. If you’re outreaching in your community and someone wants to know details on the future, it’d be up to you as a dedicated communist and knowledgeable party member to answer based off discussion and organizing within the party. But our job is to radicalize and get people to realize that capitalism is the disease and socialism is the future!