Left Forum to attract record level of panels & speakers

The annual Left Forum in New York City is expected to attract hundreds of panel speakers and thousands of attendees, more than were scheduled in earlier years. This year’s forum will take place March 18-20 at Pace University near City Hall.

Titled “Toward a Politics of Solidarity,” the Forum will include participants from across North America and around the world. A broad spectrum of left groups from this country and abroad are participating.

The panels for the largest single U.S. event where socialist ideas are discussed were planned before the tumultuous events in Egypt and Tunisia and currently sweeping North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as before domestic resistance to austerity programs — like that in Wisconsin. Participants will undoubtedly adjust their discussions to take these events into account.

It will be interesting to see if a new layer of activists, stimulated by these massive movements, come looking for a socialist perspective.

Panel on ‘Gaza: Symbol of Resistance’

Two panels will be of special interest to Workers World readers and supporters. “Breaking the Siege on Gaza: How Solidarity Is Overcoming State Terror” will serve as an introduction to the new book, “Gaza: Symbol of Resistance.” This book’s contributing editor Joyce Chediac will be joined by Charles Barron of the Freedom Party, who participated in the 2009 Viva Palestina caravan, and Bill Doares of Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition, who was a key organizer of that caravan. Chediac has contributed to WW coverage of the revolt in Egypt.

“Breaking the Siege of Gaza” will focus on the resistance inside Gaza and the massive solidarity movement it inspired — especially the Viva Palestina Caravans from both Europe and North America, which in turn stimulated a virtually permanent caravan of continuous support for Gaza. The panel will also look at the brutal Israeli attack on the Turkish aid flotilla which killed nine people on the Mavi Marmara ship, which became a global turning point unmasking Israel´s self-defense posture and intensifying pressure to end the siege of Gaza.

Joyce Chediac witnessed the first Palestinian Intifada in 1988 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She also traveled to Libya in 1987 following the U.S. bombing of that country, and in 2009 she visited Lebanon to observe conditions of Palestinian refugees and the reconstruction of Lebanon. She writes on events in the Arab world for WW.

Doares was New York City coordinator of the Viva Palestina USA-Lifeline II convoy that brought medical aid to Gaza in July 2009. He works with the International Action Center and Al-Awda NY, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Most recently, he was coordinator of the Sept. 11, 2010, Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry, which defended the Islamic community center in lower Manhattan.

Panel on Jobless Recovery and Prospects for Fightback

In another panel, “Jobless Recovery, the Intractability of the Capitalist Crisis, and Prospects for Fightback,” Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March Movement and Gary Labao of BAYAN USA will share the podium with Fred Goldstein, author of “Low-Wage Capitalism: Colossus with Feet of Clay.” Goldstein is a contributing editor to Workers World newspaper. They will dissect the “jobless recovery,” with its “austerity” programs, budget cuts, wholesale attacks on unions, and increasing anti-immigrant bashing and repression.

The panelists will discuss how to defend workers’ immediate interests and past gains, while also fighting for a real solution: socialism. They will discuss how this perspective can be woven into the struggles of undocumented and other immigrant workers; the growing movement of students and public workers against “austerity” programs and budget cuts; and international solidarity and transnational labor organizing.

Brenda Stokely is co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement and former president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 215 in New York City. A leader and board member of the Katrina-Rita Survivors Network, Stokely also served as chairperson of the Freedom Party’s program committee.

Gary Labao is a founding member of BAYAN USA and, until recently, served as its political education officer. BAYAN USA defends the rights and welfare of Filipinos in the U.S., and coordinates solidarity and support for national liberation and democracy in the Philippines.

Among the many other panels, two stand out. One is “The Betrayal of Haiti,” with Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberté; union organizer Ray Laforest; and Roger Leduc of KAKOLA: the Haitian Coalition to Support the Struggle. The other is “U.S. Imperialist Wars, Political Prisoners, Past and Present, and the Anti-War Struggle.” Featured speakers include Pam Africa and Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia Coalition and Ralph Poynter of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.

More information is available at www.leftforum.org.