Socialist conference will connect the dots

Immigrant workers on the march! Justice for Katrina and Rita evacuees! Organizing to stop imperialist war! Youth and students fighting for a brighter future!

What do all these issues have in common? They are just some of the important developments and struggles that will be major topics for discussion at the upcoming national conference entitled, “Preparing for the rebirth of the world struggle for socialism.”

This event, sponsored by Workers World Party, will be held on May 13 and 14 in New York.

This conference could not have been called at a more significant time, for many political reasons. A new movement for immigrant rights has seemingly sprung up overnight from a grassroots level and has shaken the entire political establishment to its core. How will this unprecedented development, emanating from one of the most oppressed sectors, impact on the entire U.S. labor movement—which has been on the defensive since the early 1980s? How can the rest of the progressive movement maximize class solidarity with immigrant workers?

The aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has helped to expose the ugly realities of racism, national and class oppression that millions of poor African Americans face on a daily basis. How can class unity be forged in the struggle to support the right to self-determination of the Black nation and for the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast?

The heinous, military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan continues while the Bush regime is losing its grip. While the people in the U.S. want to bring the troops home and spend their tax dollars to fund human needs, not war, the White House and the Pentagon are now threatening to attack Iran. What can be done to strengthen the anti-war and anti-imperialist movement here and worldwide? What is the impact of the revolutionary uprisings in Latin America, the Caribbean, Middle East, Asia and Africa on the world struggle for liberation and sovereignty?

Students and youth of all nationalities are facing a bleak future with an onslaught of cutbacks in education, job programs and recreation. Black, Latin@ and Indigenous youth face all forms of racist repression in disproportionate numbers, from police brutality to incarceration. Women and lesbian, gay, bi and trans people continue to face sexist and homophobic attitudes and bigotry non-stop.

Working people in general are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet due to massive layoffs, wage cuts, no health care, outsourcing and much more.

What these struggles and so many more have in common is the necessity to revive the struggle for socialism against capitalist inequality, not just in the poorer, developing countries but in the rich capitalist ones, starting with the most powerful one of all—the U.S.

Contrary to the bourgeois pundits who have declared socialism to be dead and gone, the May 13-14 conference will be exploring why socialism is as relevant today as it was when the 1917 Russian Revolution gave such hope and inspiration to workers and oppressed on every continent.

For any socialist or activist who is thirsting for real social change, no matter what your political background, this particular conference will present a great opportunity to share a meaningful exchange of views and information with leaders and organizers in the anti-imperialist, working class struggles.

To pre-register and for more information, go to workersworld.net.