BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS

"Members of the Socialist Workers Party are focusing their energies over the next two weeks in building the international socialist conference that will be held at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, July 6-9," said Joel Britton, the party's national trade union director, in an interview. Socialist industrial workers are reaching out to McDonnell Douglas strikers, as well as other working-class fighters and rebel youth, and inviting them to the gathering.

The conference is co-hosted by the SWP and the Young Socialists. Jack Willey, organizer of the YS national steering committee, spoke to the Militant from Los Angeles June 19. The YS leader is on tour in California working with Young Socialists members who are taking part in actions demanding equal rights for immigrants, opposing attacks on affirmative action, and organizing protests around these issues during the Republican Party convention scheduled for August in San Diego.

"YS chapters are on an all-out effort to bring youth attracted to revolution to the socialist conference," Willey said. Among those will be a number of activists building the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange (see page 8). The Young Socialists will hold an international meeting during the conference at Oberlin.

Hundreds are expected to attend from cities across the United States. Guests and participants are also coming from more than half a dozen countries.

The conference will open on Saturday afternoon, July 6. That evening, SWP national secretary Jack Barnes will give a feature presentation. His talk will assess the growing capitalist world disorder and sharpening competition between imperialist powers and the resistance this generates among workers and youth to the bosses' assault on wages, working conditions, and democratic rights. Barnes will also discuss the turning point for building the communist movement that the party campaign to oppose imperialist war preparations against Yugoslavia and Cuba at the beginning of this year marked.

Mary-Alice Waters, a long-time SWP leader and editor of the Marxist magazine New International, will also give a major talk. Her presentation will focus on building a proletarian party through expanding sales of revolutionary books and pamphlets distributed by Pathfinder. A conference exhibit center will feature the entire range of Pathfinder titles, which will be available for sale, many at special discounts.

James Harris, a leader of the party's trade union work and the Socialist Workers candidate for president of the United States, will give a report on behalf of the SWP's National Trade Union Committee. A representative of the Young Socialists leadership will also give one of the feature presentations.

Workshops aimed at increasing the effectiveness of political work by party members and supporters, classes on a wide range of political and historical topics, special events, as well as music, sports, and time for informal discussion and exchange of experiences are part of the program. Classes will include such topics as "Fascism: what it is and how to fight it," "Marxism and terrorism," "Politics of Chicano liberation," "The fight for Black freedom," "The rise of working-class resistance in Germany," "Fidel Castro's political strategy," and "Communist Continuity and the fight for women's liberation." The conference will conclude on Tuesday night, July 9.

All those interested in attending can contact conference organizers listed in the directory below.  
 
 
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