Hundreds gather for meeting on socialist struggle
By John Beacham & John Catalinotto
New York
On Dec. 6-7, Workers World Party sponsored a national
conference in New York on "Reviving the Worldwide Struggle for
Socialism." Braving a two-day winter snowstorm that severely
disrupted travel, especially in the Midwest and New England,
almost 300 activists, revolutionaries and fighters for
liberation arrived from as far away as the West Coast to join
that discussion in the place it is needed most: the imperialist
USA.
With struggles against occupation, war, racism, sexism,
lesbian/gay/bi/trans oppression, capitalist bosses and more
heating up all over the world, the conference launched a
much-needed discussion about what is needed to win all these
battles: the revolutionary struggle for socialism.
Larry Holmes set the political tone for the conference with
special opening remarks. "Some people may ask, 'Do you have a
plan? Do you know something we don't know?' No, we have no
plan. But we have some serious ideas that we think serious
revolutionaries will have to consider if we're going to take
some important steps forward. ...
"Socialism has been put on the defensive by the bourgeoisie
for too long. It is time to go on the offensive."
AFSCME District Council 1707 President Brenda Stokeley got
it right: "The first thing we have to do is remind ourselves
that we are fighting for socialism."
Elias Rashmawi of the Free Palestine Alliance put it this
way: "What is needed is a vision that brings us together. A
vision of sharing. Where we fight together. Where victory is
for socialism."
Enthusiastic participants--those steeped in decades of
struggle and many younger activists eager to find
solutions--heard about a wide range of subjects. There were
talks and workshops in solidarity with the people of Palestine,
Zimbabwe, Korea, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and everywhere else
where people are struggling against U.S. imperialism. A series
of workshops over the two days took up the struggles to end
injustice--from the oppression of the state to strengthening
international solidarity to fighting against imperialist
globalization and war to why Marxism is the most effective tool
for class struggle.
The conference in turn received contributions to the
discussion and solidarity statements from: the Communist Party
of Cuba, the Workers Party of Korea, the Belgian Workers Party,
the Corriente Roja tendency of the United Left movement in
Spain, the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain, the Party
of Liberation of Argentina, the L'Ernesto tendency of the Party
of Communist Refoundation in Italy, Ben Dupuy representing
Haiti's National Popular Party, and the Anti-War Joint Action
Committees of Japan. Excerpts of all were read aloud. Cultural
performances were presented by singer Pam Parker along with
hip-hop artists Movement in Motion and Jamie Roundtree from
Primeridian.
International solidarity: the answer to militarism and
greed
Many speakers hit on the need to provide direction inside
the United States to the heartwarming and unprecedented
emergence of a truly global anti-war movement that has arisen
in response to U.S. imperialist aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Palestine.
In her talk saluting the Iraqi resistance, Sara Flounders
said: "We knew that they were bent on destroying Iraq. The
capitalist class is ruthless. It is driven to expand, to blast
open markets. And it is our Marxist analysis that gives us this
edge. We know that only profits matter to them. But we also
know that socialism and international solidarity are the only
alternative to imperialist war."
Brian Becker explained how the ANSWER coalition--Act Now To
Stop War and End Racism, founded in response to the imperialist
war frenzy that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks--continued
to support "the Iraqi struggle for self-determination and
support the U.S. troops by demanding that they be brought home
immediately." He contrasted that with those in the movement who
call for "bringing in the United Nations" to take over the U.S.
role, a move that he pointed out would "continue the brutal
occupation of Iraq."
Berta Joubert-Ceci outlined the enormous uprising against
privatization and imperialist globalization throughout Latin
America and Caribbean, as seen for instance in the struggle
against the Free Trade Area of the Americas and in defense of
the Bolivarian circles in Venezuela.
The USSR, China, Cuba
Since the collapse of the USSR, the imperialists have been
thumping their chests and claiming that socialism is in the
"dustbin of history." But the conference had a different
message.
Speaking on the historical importance of the Soviet Union
for the global struggle against racism and imperialism, Fred
Goldstein said he could only "propose a framework for what must
be a thoroughgoing discussion and analysis. So the first thing
to establish is that there is not one iota of historical
evidence that the collapse of the USSR represents the failure
of socialism as a social system.
"On the contrary," he asserted, "the extraordinary
achievements of the first victorious workers' state in history
is a living demonstration of the potential of socialism to lift
the world out of the morass and nightmare imposed by private
property once it can be built on a strong economic foundation
and be freed from the destructive influences of world
imperialism."
Deirdre Griswold explained why China owed its development
primarily to its socialist revolution, which enabled the
People's Republic to feed, clothe and educate one-fifth of the
world's population--all the while holding off the attacks and
intrigues of a U.S. imperialism bent on counter-revolution in
China. She discussed the negative side of China's market
reforms while answering the conception of some in the movement
that China has returned to capitalism. China's strong growth
today is in contrast to the former USSR, she pointed out, where
capitalist counter-revolution has imploded the economy and
devastated the workers.
Using her talk also as an introduction to a more in-depth
discussion in a workshop on Asia, Griswold placed the internal
struggle in China in the context of the worldwide ebbs and
flows in the struggle for socialism. The best way to help
China's future socialist development, she stressed, is to build
the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S.
The workshop on the USSR and the one on Asia attracted many
conference participants. This reflects people's great interest
in explaining the course of development of these two great
social revolutions and how they influence the struggle for
socialism today.
Gloria La Riva expressed the great solidarity of those
present with the Cuban Revolution: "Cuba is our hope. This
small country besieged by the greatest power in the history of
the world has shown how a leadership guided by Marxist
principles can bring vast changes to the people of the world,
people who desperately need a better world. Cuba has created a
country free of landlords, where the rent can be no more than
10 percent of a person's wages. Cuba sent 300,000 volunteers to
Angola to help defeat racist South Africa. Cuba has sent
doctors all over the world, and so much more."
Fighting the state and the bosses
Imperialism doesn't just use divide-and-conquer techniques
in the rest of the world. It uses these same techniques within
the United States. In her talk Teresa Gutierrez railed against
the racist war on immigrants, the round-ups, the detentions,
the deportations. But she also hailed the increasing solidarity
of the working class in the United States, with the AFL-CIO
supporting the 100,000-strong immigrant-rights march in
October.
Noting the increase of multinational labor struggles in the
United States, Gutierrez asked, "How can we elevate struggles
like the immigrants' struggle for civil rights to the level of
class struggle?"
Monica Moorehead spoke on some of the divisions that
capitalism fosters in the working class, emphasizing the police
and courts: "So in the United States, if you want to forge
class unity in words and especially in practice, fighting
racism and reaching out to people of color has to be a top
priority because you can't fight class oppression without
equally fighting national oppression."
John Parker added to Moorehead's call for increasing class
solidarity by informing the conference about the solidarity
work that Los Angeles ANSWER is doing with the striking and
locked-out members of the Food and Commercial Workers union. He
said: "It really shows in our work on the picket lines, in our
talks with the workers, the food drive that we've been very
successful at, the rallies that we've held with the union and
all the solidarity work that we've done. These diverse workers,
mostly women, have really responded to the anti-war movement in
a positive way."
Parker then introduced one of the strikers, Ely Orozco, who
gave special greetings to the conference attendees. Sharon
Black spoke about the need to broaden support for this
important strike among other unions.
Imani Henry addressed the two fronts of the class struggle:
"Though the progressive movement has had to go on the defensive
in this period ... we are seeing a resurgence in the
working-class movement in the forms of strikes, the immigrants'
march on Oct. 4, or uprisings against police brutality like in
Benton Harbor, Mich."
A workshop titled "The Repressive State: Linking the
Struggles Against Racism, Sexism, and Lesbian/Gay/Bi/
Transgender Oppression" covered affirmative action,
reparations, the prisons, police brutality, the death penalty
and much more.
Another workshop on GI and anti-military recruitment
organizing drew 30 activists from a dozen U.S. cities. They
went over experiences like the Nov. 15 trip to Camp Lejeune to
visit Marine resister Stephen Funk to review ways of helping
GIs realize their rights to discuss, organize and refuse to be
turned into war criminals.
Part of a message of solidarity from Jesse Heiwa, a leader
of Queers for Peace and Justice, read: "With so much productive
capacity available, there is no reason why hundreds of millions
of people go without enough food, housing, health care,
education, jobs. But there's reason for hope; millions of
people around the globe are in the streets against war, against
corporate exploitation, against all forms of oppression."
The role of a revolutionary party
Both Leslie Feinberg and Richard Becker argued for a
vanguard party steeled in, disciplined by and committed to
leading the struggle for socialism. Becker commented: "As
revolutionaries we can't control everything. What we do have
control over is building a revolutionary party. Revolutionary
Marxism requires a party that can polemicize against all other
ideologies."
Preston Wood spoke on the need for the anti-war movement to
stay independent of the elections and the pro-imperialist
Democratic Party. Wood said, "We need grassroots resistance,
more participation from organized labor, work stoppages,
students shutting down schools, more resistance from GIs and so
on class-wide."
Assessing the anti-war movement's development over the last
four years, Sarah Sloan argued that the time is right for
directly appealing to workers to join the anti-war movement
with the call to "bring the troops home now!" Sloan said:
"People agree with our message. Our experience in Washington,
D.C., is that somewhere between 80 and 95 percent are for
it."
A significant number of attendees attended a discussion
called "Learning More about Workers World Party" to hear about
the Party's rich history in the revolutionary struggle for
socialism.
During this workshop, Larry Holmes remarked: "We need
revolutionary soldiers. It's never too early to build a party
of revolutionaries. If you're ready, really ready, join us.
Let's--all of us--Black, Latino and Latina, Asian, bi, gay,
women, trans, lesbian, straight, white, whatever--let's
struggle together."
In closing remarks, Feinberg said: "No, capitalism is not
the end of history. Socialism is the dawn of human history.
Everything that has gone before will be recalled as human
prehistory.
"Together, when the workers and oppressed peoples of the
world unite, then we will be the plow that turns up fresh
earth. We will unleash the storm of our righteous fury--our
thunder and our lightning. And those who exploit and oppress us
will be swept away in the awesome roar of our many waters. To
quote Che Guevara: 'The present is struggle. The future is
ours.'"
Reprinted from the Dec. 18, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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