4 must-haves for being bloody Marxist (for me at least):

• Anti-capitalism (Marxists being anticaps is like the morning sky being blue)
• Anti-imperialism (kinda cringe invading other nations and taking over established societies)
• Anti-discrimination (Workers of the world unite and all that shit. Kinda contradictory if you start excluding workers not being white or straight)
• Pro-workng class (If you aren't, what the shit are you doing as a Marxist)

being genuinely anti-imperialist, and not focusing on electoralism

Anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism are a must. You can be either without being Marxist but you can't be Marxist without being both. In addition the world view of a Marxist must be informed by dialectical materialism.

I know that as an American there isn't going to be a political party that'll come close to what I'd want to fully see in a party. In the end if a party is Marxist in foundation, progressive in values, and is active in protests, I'd absolutely join.

In addition to what others have said, no chauvinism of any kind. No transphobia, no American flag waving, etc.

• No focusing on electoralism and bourgeois democracy. If a party that calls itself "marxist" tells people to vote that's a huge red flag.

• Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Capitalism are an absolute must. If a "marxist" party doesn't recognize that capital is our common enemy and must be destroyed then they're a lost cause.

• Revolutionary. A marxist party has to recognize that socialism can only be achieved via overthrowing the capitalist ruling class and implementing a dictatorship of the proletariat.

• No Anti-AES propaganda (examples: siding with the Anti-China narrative on Xinjiang or Africa, saying the DPRK is a monarchy where people have no "freedoms", etc.). A marxist party should recognize AES countries for what they are, as any marxist should.

• No Imperialist/CIA propaganda (examples: Putin is richest man and has a mansion the size of a village, Putin suddenly invaded a peaceful nation for no reason, Stalin was a gruesome tyrant/dictator who caused a famine, Lenin was a mass murderer, etc. )

As well as what others have said, it needs to practice criticism and self-criticism and apply class analysis properly. This is, I admit, essentially rewording what others have said, so not really an addition.

I think you're right to go with the party that has some chance of making change. So long as/especially if they accept you as an ML. So many 'broad church' organisations keep the MLs in the tool shed next to the cemetery.

The left in most of the west is basically nonexistent. If you read Lenin you see him talking about this party or that paper and this politician and that idea. Even though he had lots to criticise, at least there was something to criticise. Not every organisation will get it right. But we need a selection of groups trying to do it right. The ones that get it wrong can be praised for the attempt and one will eventually breakthrough. Instead there are lots of community groups and several 'Marxist' parties that don't seem to do much.

Ideally, if course, we'd learn from history and everyone would start from the most advanced point we know of – an ML vanguard. But right now that seems a bit of a fantasy as the self-proclaimed ML parties are weak and keep doing weird shit. MLs can still bring class consciousness to other welcoming orgs.

Anti-imperialist, decolonial, and driven by solidarity with third and fourth world peoples.