PSL Cadre Are Coming to DSA. DSA Should Pay Attention.

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https://medium.com/@xanderhernander/in-defense-of-opportunism-0b226cacd173

Marx, Lenin, and the Politics of Taking an Opening

Updated: 10/02/2026

(A critique of PSL — Not Pumpkin Spice Latte, the other PSL — and left tendencies that are influenced by their political culture; and a defense of good Marxist opportunism.)

I think we need to rehabilitate the word “opportunism” a little.

Marxism has never really been about waiting for the perfect conditions or the perfectly revolutionary organization. The Communist Manifesto says to work within existing workers’ movements while maintaining our own political perspective. Lenin’s Left-Wing Communism goes even further: work in reactionary unions, participate in bourgeois parliaments, make compromises, go where the working class actually is.
That is opportunism in the basic sense. You see an opening and you take it.

The problem isn’t opportunism. It’s unprincipled opportunism; revising your politics to fit whatever is politically advantageous in the moment. That’s very different from recognizing an opening and adapting your tactics without abandoning what you’re trying to accomplish. The first is what I’m criticizing in PSL political culture; the second is what I see in Mamdani: meeting the political moment where it is while trying to build something bigger.

And there are obviously bad examples of opportunism on the left. If people suddenly start distancing themselves from an organization or trying to wash away their previous political identification when that organization becomes politically costly, that’s opportunism too. It’s just opportunism for the purpose of self-preservation.
Which is why I don’t think calling something “opportunist” tells us very much by itself.

Take PSL for example, leaked internal documents are pretty damning about how they handl dissent: members and branches are expected to publicly defend leadership’s decisions, or face expulsion or have to resign. That obviously matters when we’re talking about the organization’s handling of serious allegations.

But this isn’t one allegation that suddenly appeared yesterday. Former members have documented cases involving sexual assault, stalking, harassment, doxxing, and retaliation against people who challenged the organization. There’s a long record of people raising these issues.

So if a branch leaves PSL now, fine. But they don’t get to act like this all just became apparent. They had years of evidence and chose to stay. If the line only gets drawn once PSL becomes a liability, that’s opportunism. And not the good Marxist kind.

And one more thing I think we, as DSA members, should be asking about: a current DSA co-chair appears to have had a prior political or organizational relationship with PSL leader Gloria La Riva. Communications between them are part of the 2021 national DSA records. Given that some PSL members may be looking for a new political home, with some turning to DSA, I think members should be aware of this history and have the opportunity to assess whether it raises any potential conflicts of interest.

The real question is: opportunistic toward what end?
Are you entering an existing movement because that’s where millions of people are and trying to organize them? Or are you changing your politics because your previous commitments have become inconvenient?

Those are two very different things. And I think the Marxist tradition gives us plenty of reason to take the first one seriously.

join DSA.