Clark, the managing editor of New International and a member of the National Committee of the Socialist Workers Party, was quoting from “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun,” by Jack Barnes, the lead article in issue no. 12 of New International. NI no. 12, along with New International no. 13, which includes “Our Politics Start with the World,” also by Barnes, are two new issues of the Marxist journal. The Spanish-language Nueva Internacional nos. 6 and 7, with the same material, were prepared simultaneously.

Clark was speaking at a program to celebrate the four new magazines, and politically arm the workers and youth who will be using them. It was the first of a several events to discuss the political themes that supporters of the communist movement will be campaigning around in the drive this spring to sell the magazine, along with subscriptions to the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial.

Participants in the program came from Newark; New York; Boston; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The public meeting was part of a two-day regional educational weekend sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists in Newark. The educational weekend, titled “Imperialism and the Fight for Socialism Today,” included three classes on Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism by V.I. Lenin. Nearly 70 people participated in the classes, having read the material beforehand.

The world that Lenin was writing about in Imperialism is the world we live in, Clark noted. He held up the back cover of New International no. 13. The cover includes the composite photo Earth at Night, which shows the large parts of the world that have no access to electrical power, as well as those where it is concentrated. “Much of the world is already living in depression conditions,” Clark said. “Our Politics Start with the World” explains why the activity of vanguard workers must be guided by a strategy to close the economic and cultural inequalities between imperialist and semicolonial countries and among classes within almost every country.

The public meeting was opened by Angel Lariscy, on behalf of the Newark branch of the SWP. Michael Ortega, a member of the YS in Newark, chaired the meeting.

Ólöf Andra Proppé, a leader of the communist movement in Iceland, explained how supporters of New International in that country, Sweden, Canada, and France are beginning work on the translation of New International nos. 12 and 13 into Icelandic, Swedish, and French. She noted that the upcoming drive would be the first time that younger members of the communist movement had been able to campaign around a couple of new issues of New International. The last issue was published in 1998.

Pete Musser, a member of the YS and SWP from New York, reported on the construction of the new Pathfinder book center in London. Musser had just returned from participating in the international effort. Ved Dookhun reported on efforts to build the World Festival of Youth and Students scheduled for this summer in Venezuela.

The public meeting provided an essential political framework to the two days of intensive study of Imperialism. Each of the three classes began with a presentation. Then participants divided into six smaller groups to work through the material together. The discussions addressed questions such as: why the free competition of the early years of capitalism inevitably lead to monopolies; why the rise of monopolies leads to more violent competition and deeper economic crisis; how the capitalists of the different imperialist nations are forced—not as a matter of policy, but by the workings of their own system—to divide and redivide the world among themselves through military and economic means; the connection between the rise of imperialism and the rise of opportunism as a current within the workers movement; and why imperialism leads not only to increased national oppression, but also increased resistance among the toilers of the world.

Among those participating in the regional educational weekend were veteran communists and trade unionists with many decades of experience as well as college students and young workers just recently attracted to the communist movement.

“When I was just reading Imperialism by myself on the bus, there were parts I didn’t really understand,” said Chauncey Robinson, a first-year student at Essex County College in New Jersey who participated in the weekend. “But when we all talked about it together, it really began to make sense.”

“Going through the classes, listening to Steve Clark’s presentation, and just getting to meet and talk about politics informally with so many people has give me much more clarity,” said Tom Baumann, a member of the Young Socialists and a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the close of the weekend.

Conference participants bought $160 of books on revolutionary struggles from the extensive display and another $120 from a special sale of used and damaged titles.  
 
 
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