From Middle East war to immigrant rights
Conference offers a Marxist world view
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
Disillusioned with capitalist war, racism and
deepening economic problems for workers, many people new to
Marxism attended a Workers World Party conference here on Jan.
31. The event focused on the situation in the Middle East but
covered many other topics within the framework of the worldwide
struggle for socialism.
The conference, which had been built regionally, was a
follow-up to a national meeting hosted by WWP in December that
drew nearly 300 people. That one had coincided with a major
blizzard in the Northeast, which kept many from the surrounding
area at home. They got a second chance on Jan. 31 and more than
150 came, some driving many hours from surrounding states.
Most of the day was spent in workshops. There was ample time
for questions and discussion on topics ranging from labor and
the immigrant-rights movement to an analysis of "The USSR--Its
Achievements & Its Collapse."
Between workshops in the morning and afternoon, the whole
conference assembled in a school auditorium to hear a panel
discussion on "Imperialism and Self-Determination in the Middle
East."
Workers World Party, having weathered the storm of reaction
and demoralization that swept much of the left movement after
the collapse of the USSR, has played a central role in
inspiring resistance to the Bush administration's war moves.
Many people at the conference had heard of the party because of
its work in the anti-war movement, and came to check out how
the party's political theory has nourished its militancy and
activism.
Larry Holmes opened the Middle East panel with an overview
of why it's important to raise the struggle for socialism at
this time of war and deepening economic instability for the
workers. "Socialism is not merely a nice idea," he said. "The
capitalist system poses a threat to the planet. Revolutionaries
can have a healthy effect on the entire movement."
Holmes talked about the role of revolutionaries in expanding
the consciousness of the anti-war movement to supporting
self-determination for Iraq, Palestine and all oppressed
nations resisting imperialism. He showed how important it is
for this movement to pay attention to the struggle at home,
too, like the fight of 70,000 grocery workers on the West Coast
against two-tier wages and cuts in health care.
The workers have been out for three months. Union strike
funds are running low. The AFL-CIO nationally has recently
begun to pay more attention to the strike/lockout. But, said
Holmes, the unions' treasuries are being depleted by big
contributions to the Democratic primaries. "The unions spent
millions in Iowa," he pointed out. "And what did they get for
it? Wouldn't it have been better for them to put those funds
into winning this struggle? But instead of a movement for
health care, we had the election."
Sara Flounders reviewed how the resistance struggles of the
Iraqis and Palestinians have created a crisis in the U.S.
ruling class. "It was mass demonstrations in Iraq," she
reminded people, "that overturned the U.S. plan for an
appointed government. Every level of Iraqi society is enraged
by the arrogance of the occupation."
But she cautioned that many of the criticisms being
expressed of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, like a
recent report by the U.S. Air War College, are meant to make
imperialism and its military more effective. This report even
called for a "friendly autocracy" in Iraq if a hand-picked
"democracy" doesn't work. (See the article by Flounders in this
issue of WW.)
The final plenary speaker, Fred Goldstein, followed up on
the theme of the political problems facing the Bush
administration, such as the admissions by David Kay, the
recently resigned chief U.S. wea pons inspector in Iraq. "Bush
is under attack from left and right," said Goldstein, but the
attacks publicized by the media are "all aimed at improving
U.S. intelligence, the CIA and so on. There is no opposition
from within the political establishment on Israel, or on the
aims of the war in Iraq."
Goldstein also took up the discussion on the elections,
pointing out how strongly many workers and progressives feel
about electing "anybody but Bush." In answering this, it's
important not to gloss over the differences between the two
main capitalist parties. They are both parties of finance
capital, he said, but "one is reactionary, the other is more
reactionary."
To find a way out, however, the workers "must establish
their class independence from the ruling class." Unless they
establish "a working-class pole of politics, all other roads
lead to captivity."
In the workshops, there were discussions on "The Basics of
Marxism & Social ism," how to apply these ideas in
"Fighting Racism & National Oppression," "Immi grant Rights
& the Labor Struggle," and in building "Revolutionary
Internationalism vs. Capitalist Globalization." Also discus sed
was "The Dual Character of China's Economy Today," where
significant elements of capitalism exist alongside socialized
state industry but power remains in the hands of the workers'
state.
The discussions were also geared to mobilizing for concrete
events, like the upcoming March 20 demonstrations against the
occupation of Iraq and Palestine.
Reprinted from the Feb. 12, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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