[7][8] PSL pursues this goal by participating in local protests, running candidates in elections, and conducting political education.

[17] PSL's highest body is its Party Congress, held "every two to three years", which selects its Central Committee leadership.

[27] PSL leadership are closely involved with The People's Forum, an event space in NYC, which hosts the BreakThrough News studio.

[27][20] PSL was formed in June 2004[8][1] when the San Francisco branch of Sam Marcy's Workers World Party left the organization.

The San Francisco branch, alongside other members, announced that "the Workers World Party leadership is no longer capable of fulfilling [the] mission" of building socialism.

[32][10] On October 8, 2023, after the Hamas-led attack on Israel, PSL Central Committee member Eugene Puryear helped organize a rally in support of Palestine in Times Square,[33][34] in which he stated: "[T]here was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters, and I'm sure they're doing very fine despite what the New York Post says.

In 2024, PSL presidential candidate Claudia De la Cruz again denied these allegations, some of which she described as misinformation "doing the job of agents".

[50] PSL's program demands nationalization of the largest 100 domestic corporations,[51][52][53][54] prohibition on "exploitation of labor for private profit", guaranteed employment, "guaranteed living income", comprehensive social benefits, a 30-hour workweek, and public healthcare including childcare,[42] universal public housing capped at 10% of income,[42] abolition of private rental housing,[55] expanded public transit,[55][53] "ending all fossil fuel and nuclear energy use", and nationalization of the energy industry to create a national electricity grid based on renewable energy.

[51][55] PSL supports a guaranteed right to abortion,[42] equal pay regardless of gender, protection against gender-based or sexuality-based discrimination and violence,[42][56] and national self-determination and reparations for African Americans and residents of US territories in Puerto Rico, Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Mariana Islands.

[8][61][58][62] PSL supports the Communist Party of China,[8][56][61] criticizing only Chinese economic reforms into a "market socialist economy".

[63][64] PSL argues that "militant political defense of the Chinese government" is necessary to stave off "counterrevolution, imperialist intervention and dismemberment".

[85] In 2024, Claudia de la Cruz claimed that 6,000 volunteers helped PSL win ballot access in the 2024 United States presidential election.