Why youth should attend WWP conference

On Saturday, Nov. 14 and Sunday, Nov. 15, Workers World Party will hold its annual party conference in the public school at 127 E. 22nd St. in New York City. The theme of this year’s conference will be “Preparing and Organizing for the Future.”

As part of the conference, the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) will host a workshop on Saturday in the school cafeteria. The workshop will focus on the importance of young people fighting for a better world and the obstacles they face.

Also, as part of the workshop, FIST will highlight much of the work it has accomplished in the last six months, including the first edition of the organization’s new quarterly newsletter, a blog radio show and a new edition of a WWP pamphlet originally published in 1971, “What Is Marxism All About: a street guide for young revolutionaries,” which has been updated by FIST members.

When a crisis such as the one that exists today comes along, people, both young and old, begin to question the viability of the capitalist system. Though economists are claiming the worst to be over, jobs continue to be bled at an alarming rate to the tune of at least 200,000 a month. Obviously this so-called recovery is no recovery for the masses, who continue to suffer.

And, even for the bosses, the hits keep on coming, as the CIT Group recently declared bankruptcy, becoming the fifth-largest U.S. bank in history to collapse.

Certainly working and oppressed people should not deign to shed tears for the collapse of a financial institution, but what this latest failure illustrates is the shaky ground that capitalism finds itself standing on.

The economic tremors continue. Capitalism is nothing but a world of tremors punctuated by massive calamities, and only more of the same can be expected.

A very basic definition of capital, according to dictionary.com, is, “any form of wealth employed or capable of being employed in the production of more wealth.” Capitalism is a system that is perpetuated through exploitation and oppression, they should add.

The wealth of the U.S., of the earliest rich and super-rich ruling elites, was won through the most naked exploitation—slavery, genocide and theft of land.

The Mellons, Carnegies, Rockefellers and DuPonts of yesterday, who used armed gangs such as the Pinkertons and other outfits to put down striking and enraged workers trying to survive and win their dignity through better working conditions and higher pay, may have been replaced by the Waltons, Buffets and Gateses, but it is the same old capitalism.

It will continue to be the same old capitalism until it is overthrown for something more humane—that is socialism, a world of working people in solidarity with one another instead of in competition with one another.

Join FIST, as we take part in this important conference, which will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Workers World Party. Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite!

Hales is a national organizer of FIST. Go to www.workersworld.net to preregister and find more information on the WWP conference.