Building a new left in a new era

MORE THAN 900 activists gathered in Chicago June 18-21 for the first stage of Socialism 2009--which continues in San Francisco July 2-5. The conference brought together people from across the U.S. and from all walks of life--teachers, students, bus drivers, military veterans, civil rights movement participants, independent journalists and activists from the U.S. and internationally.

There were panel discussions on the fight against the death penalty, building a movement to defend public education, and rebuilding the labor movement in a time of economic crisis.

Sponsored annually by the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, publisher of Haymarket Books and the International Socialist Review, and the International Socialist Organization (ISO), publisher of Socialist Worker and SocialistWorker.org, Socialism 2009 was full of discussion of both the widespread hope and enthusiasm about change after eight long years living under the Bush-Cheney regime, as well as the dire conditions facing workers internationally as the global economy enters its most protracted crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Among the highlights of the conference, Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal called in via speakerphone, along with Illinois prisoner Stanley Howard, to be part of a session on fighting the death penalty--which also featured Martina Correia (the sister of death row prisoner Troy Davis), exonerated death row prisoner Darby Tillis and Campaign to End the Death Penalty National Director Marlene Martin.

The meeting stood out for Garry Spitzer, who organizes with the CEDP in Austin. This was his first Socialism conference, and he also really enjoyed the talks on history and theory. "These ideas are pretty new to me," he said, "and I feel like I learned a lot at the conference."

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and independent journalist Jeremy Scahill spoke about the rebranding of U.S. foreign policy in the Obama era. GRITtv host Laura Flanders, Arun Gupta and Anand Gopal also led discussions about U.S. politics under Obama, the antiwar movement and Afghanistan. Author and activist Anthony Arnove gave a talk on "How Marx Became a Marxist."

Sportswriter Dave Zirin joined with local activists to talk about the effort to keep the 2016 Olympics from coming to Chicago. Chris Shaw, author of Five Ring Circus, explained what it really means when the Olympics comes to your city, and Bob Quellos talked about the organizing being done by No Games Chicago. At the end, Zirin asked the audience if they were ready to shut the Olympics out of their city--to a resounding: "Hell, yes!"

At the meeting on "Abortion Rights: Why We Need a New Movement," Jen Roesch described the anti-women politics of the religious right, and participants discussed how to begin building a movement that makes an unapologetic case for abortion rights.

International Longshoremen Association Local 1422 President Ken Riley joined New York City rank-and-file teacher Megan Behrent and Republic Window & Doors sit-down striker Armando Robles for a panel discussion about the labor movement today.

There was also an array of international guests, including Rafael Feliciano Hernández, president of the Teachers Federation of Puerto Rico; Marxist economist Claudio Katz; Neil Davidson of the British Socialist Workers Party; Australian socialist Max Lane; Sébastien Budgen of Historical Materialism; Katherine Adames of the Organización Socialista Internacional; and Canadian socialists Ian Angus, John Riddell and David McNally.

SOCIALISM 2009 also served as a release party for the new book Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation by Sherry Wolf, a longstanding activist and socialist. There was standing-room-only during her meeting on the opening night of the conference, and the room buzzed with excitement that a mass struggle for equal-marriage rights is emerging.

Workers' Republic, a documentary by videographer Andrew Freund about the inspiring factory occupation by workers at Republic Windows in Chicago, also debuted at the conference. The film features interviews with Republic workers as well as immigrant rights activists, union organizers and labor experts.

"The conference reinvigorated me about activism," said Robynn Murray, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "I have been thinking for a while about the need for a stronger anti-imperialist current within the antiwar movement, and this conference really gave me a better understanding of that project. I think there is a growing opportunity to educate soldiers about the deeper reasons to oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Luisa, from New York City, said she was at her fourth Socialism conference. "This was the best so far," she explained. "In past years, there was always an openness to new people and an excitement about ideas, but I feel like this year, because of the political period we're in, people want to do more, people want to talk about really fighting back."

Asked about which discussions she found particularly important, she explained, "The talk on Darwin and Marx really impressed me. Connecting the dialectical processes in the natural world with dialectical processes in history really demonstrated that this idea of dialectical change isn't just made up--it's the way the world works."

Amanda from Boston was attending her first Socialism conference. "I thought it was great," she said. "I learned a lot. I started going to socialist meetings a couple months ago, but I've worked a lot of jobs and been exposed to socialist ideas in other contexts as well, and this conference really brought a lot of those things together. It was great to learn history and theory in these sessions, and as a working-class person and as an activist, I leave feeling inspired and energized, and that I've found a community of like-minded people to struggle with."

Australian socialist Max Lane said he was "really impressed by the energy, the youth, the size and the range of topics." "It's been a really good experience," he continued. "I thought the discussion about the New Anti-capitalist Party in France was very interesting as well as the talk on Marxism, nationalism and Third Worldism. I came away with a few more liters of adrenaline for the next period of political activity."