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
Because Marissa released a public statement. They obviously have to release a statement giving PSL's side.
Marissa's statement also included factional language so that's obviously going to be part of the conversation.
Why? No matured organisation does this. It goes into the organisational processes and follows the pipelines then out comes a brief professional public statement while the rest remains among those that need it.
Big public airing of this stuff in this way is just indicative of an org that has not matured past the point of feeling threatened by what is fundamentally social drama. Not to make light of the nature of the social drama, but it is fundamentally a social drama. There is no social drama threatening the existence of matured parties, so no matured parties feel the need to make big huge statements about it and stick to their rigid processes and professional PR statements.
For me it's an indication of weakness and a lack of confidence in party structures or procedures that these issues should be sent into. A lack of confidence that's probably held by both the membership and the leadership. That lack of confidence in the structures to handle the issue is what needs addressing to build a party that takes these things on the chin and keeps marching forwards. They're not going to stop as the party gets bigger, they will increase as numbers increase.
I don't think they can wait for something like this. You can tell by the response on hexbear alone this is a big deal, and the faction has used it as an opportunity to poach people as well. Hell, I received a message from one of the former PSL members trying to poach me with a link to this statement.
Whether you think they suck or not, PSL has to respond to this quickly or risk losing a sizable chunk of people to this newly developed faction, which seems to be targeting them as they're growing in popularity and getting a bigger target on them as well.