Emailed to [email protected]:
Dear Friends,
I am writing to invite you to the Freedom Socialist Party’s upcoming
National Convention, which will take place July 9-12 at the Evergreen State
College in Olympia, WA.
The FSP Convention is an opportunity to strategize on how to reach the
goal of a system that cherishes life, knowledge, solidarity, shared
abundance and the natural world. It is a time to reflect on global struggles
and to assess the effectiveness of today’s resistance movements.
Below is a column I wrote about my first experience at an FSP convention.
I hope it will inspire you to check it out for yourself!
You can get more specifics about the convention by clicking here.
Hope to see you there!
Doug Barnes
FSP National Secretary
——————————————————————
Freedom Socialist – April 2010 – Volume 31 – Issue 2
FSP convention – back to the socialist future
by Doug Barnes
In a few months, I’ll be officiating at a Freedom Socialist Party convention
for my first time as National Secretary. I especially encourage young
people to attend; a convention is where I met FSP. Just out of Evergreen
State College, I had no idea what to expect that day in 1976. Walking into
the meeting hall, I was thrilled to see a large banner proclaiming “Open
the road to the youth! Turn to the woman worker!” Russian revolutionary
Leon Trotsky wrote that in 1938. FSP Organizer Gloria Martin spoke,
stressing the importance of that slogan in charting the course ahead. I was
amazed that someone of her experience and Leon Trotsky both thought
kids my age were politically important. Sure, we’d been out protesting the
Vietnam War, but I’d never heard anyone say that we could make a
fundamental difference in our collective future.
At the convention, strong women leaders spoke passionately about radical
ideas and encouraged us young folks to participate as equals. They
expected the best of everyone, not engaging in the egotistical pissing
matches so frequent in the male-dominated New Left. What a relief! Gloria
explained that young people, unionists, women, lesbians and gays, and
especially women of color, were the motor force for the coming American
Revolution. Wow! Heady stuff. My newfound comrades were really serious
about making a better world, and had faith that our multihued working class
could pull it off. I decided then and there to commit my life to these ideas.
Fast forward 34 years, and our party is still going strong. The next FSP
convention will unfold on July 9-12 at Evergreen State College in Olympia,
Wash. You’re invited to participate in any of the public sessions. This
convention will address the life-and-death issues facing us all. It won’t be
a Broadway production, full of canned speeches and photo opportunities
among the rich and infamous. It will adopt political strategies and prepare
to act on them.
In fact, a freewheeling discussion and debate will soon be launched
among members to assess the effectiveness of today’s resistance
movements, just how bad off capitalism is, and what we need to do in the
next period. Party comrades from all over the U.S. and Australia will debate
draft political and organizational resolutions and the authors will
incorporate those discussions in their convention presentations.
FSP sees democracy as essential. Without the collective self-correction
and group gestalt provided by rich discussion, how can we find the right
way forward? The convention is the best expression of that dynamic
process; it is the FSP’s highest decision-making body. Convention
decisions will guide the leadership and the entire party in the period ahead.
We chose Evergreen College in order to open the road of revolution to
youth. In a special section of this issue, young comrades and supporters
write of their experiences. I encourage you to read their ideas — I believe
they’ll fire you up. (See links to articles below.) Our gathering will
incorporate their perspectives and help them shake things up. The whole
party needs their ideas and enthusiasm to bust out of old habits and try
new approaches. Experienced comrades need to pass on, as co-leaders
and co-thinkers, the lessons they’ve learned.
The convention will also take stock of women workers, workers of color
and union activists as the powerhouse of change in this country. We’ll
examine the world around us, and work to deepen solidarity with resistance
fights from Gaza to Copenhagen and Harlem to Los Angeles.
Comrades will critique and teach about our campaigns to stop cutbacks
on campuses, rally support for Queer rights, defend healthcare, jobs and
pensions, and end ICE raids and immigration checkpoints. We will have
eyewitness reports from Cuba, Mexico, Australia, and other struggles
near and far.
We’ll examine the socialist feminist solution to Wall Street greed, teabag
demagogues, tuition hikes, global warming, poverty and war.
These are times of challenge and change, with the capitalist system
imploding and gyrating wildly. Those on the bottom face horrendous
difficulties getting adequate food, housing, healthcare and jobs. This crisis
shows that Karl Marx was right when he said in 1848 that capitalism sows
the seeds of its own destruction. Ain’t that the truth!
Our problem today is to figure out together how best to fight back and
reach out. How to encourage the Left to work together to revive the labor
movement. What can our party, with finite resources, do to keep making
a difference? How can we help bring humanity out of capitalist purgatory
and into the feminist, liberated, sustainable future? I hope to see you at
convention discussions, workshops and actions!
Doug Barnes is FSP National Organizer and wants to hear from you.
Contact him at [email protected].
ALSO SEE:
More information about the FSP convention: Topics, agenda, estimated
costs
Profiles and perspectives of young workers and students: I’m so over it
… aren’t you?
First-time convention attendee tells of his experience: A gathering for
optimistic rebels
___________________________________________________________
Freedom Socialist Party
U.S. Section
4710 University Way NE, #100
Seattle, WA 98105
USA
Australian Section
PO Box 308
Brunswick, VIC 3056
Australia
to Liberty Lobby [Vermont] and Peace and Freedom [California] ……