Teenage communists! ☭

[sethg_prime]

(Northeastern United States1, upper-middle-class neighborhood, present day

Comments

[reconditarmonia]

This doesn't really answer anything substantive, but I did want to point out that the "belong to an organized political party" is not recent and that in fact, in the modern-day USA, it's much less a part of one's life than in other places and times. A present-day American might be a registered voter for a party and might even volunteer/canvass/etc., but in other places and times, political parties run sports, social clubs, etc.

[sethg_prime]

The two mainstream parties in the US are indeed, compared to mainstream European parties, pretty loose.

However, in my youth, the various communist parties seemed to be more structured, demanded more of their adherents, and generally acted in a more disciplined fashion. (In the run-up to the Iraq war, International ANSWER, a front for the Workers World Party, was sufficiently well-organized that they got all the necessary permits for mass antiwar rallies before the more moderate antiwar organizations got their acts together.)

What I was wondering was, do far-left folks today still weigh the differences between (say) the PLP and RCP platforms and then choose to join one and reject the other?

[suitablyemoname]

The decision concerning which of the myriad communist splinter-groups to join essentially boils down to two key items:
- Personal preference
- Who got to you first

[okaasan59]

I'm a good bit older than your target group but my kids were recently in high school and I might be able to answer a few questions.

The most left-leaning of the students I heard of were more supportive of socialism rather than communism and then it was mostly for practical rather than political or ideological reasons. (I heard discussions on health care and same-sex rights quite often.) Of course it could be that because we live in a suburban town in the southern U.S. and the surrounding political environment is decidedly conservative that socialism is about as "far-left" as it gets around here.

[sethg_prime]

Of course it could be that because we live in a suburban town in the southern U.S. and the surrounding political environment is decidedly conservative that socialism is about as "far-left" as it gets around here.

By way of comparison, a certain city across the river from Boston is nicknamed “the People’s Republic of Cambridge”. :-)

[naked_runner]

This.

[ffutures]

You might want to take a look at web sites for Britain's Socialist Worker's Party which is still going strong.

[squidger]

I graduated high school in 2006, so a bit earlier then your timeline, but I'm trying to think and I don't remember any of my classmates ever talking about any political party ever. I was in eleventh grade during the 2004 election, too. There were some kids who cared about certain causes, like environmentalism, but no hardcore politics. It wasn't until I got to college that I saw people begin to get really involved with in political identity. So, I kinda think your character would be so unusual that you could have him go anyway with his behavior. And most kids would probably just think he was weird for caring so much.

(I went to school before the Internet was popular amongst everyone, before general social media, so that might change things.)

[dioschorium]

*cracks knuckles