Socialist workers, Young Socialists, and other working people and youth interested in learning more about the party and attending its convention are taking part in this class series. The study program focuses on two recently published issues of New International, a magazine of Marxist politics and theory.

The SWP National Committee has submitted a draft resolution, “Their Transformation and Ours,” that the delegates to the convention will be discussing and voting on. The party’s National Committee decided to make it publicly available in issue no. 12 of New International as part of the political preparations for the convention.

Those participating in the weekly classes have been discussing this draft resolution together with readings from “Capitalism's Long Hot Winter Has Begun,” the lead article in New International no. 12. The latter is the political report, presented by the party’s national secretary, Jack Barnes, that was discussed and adopted by the 2002 SWP convention.

“Their Transformation and Ours” analyzes the sharpening conflicts between the world’s imperialist powers fueled both by the opening stages of a world depression and by the most far-reaching shift in Washington’s military policy and organization since the U.S. rulers’ preparations for World War II.

Noting that labor remains at center stage of U.S. politics, the resolution also “weighs the importance of the beginning political transformation of militant workers who, impelled by these momentous changes, are taking the lead to reach for, organize, and use union power,” Barnes explains in the introduction to New International no. 12. “As the social consequences of capitalist crises grow, as inevitable political conflicts sharpen between and within classes, and as probes to restrict political and democratic rights used by working people increase, these vanguard militants will join with other workers to resist accelerated employing-class assaults in the plants and the political arena, at home and abroad.”

These resolutions serve to help revolutionists internalize this changing world reality and to act today on its implications for building a party of communist workers.

The class series also includes readings from “Our Politics Start with the World,” the feature article in New International no. 13, and other materials from that issue. In New York and some other cities the classes are being organized with simultaneous translation for Spanish-speaking participants. This is facilitated by the publication of both issues of the Marxist magazine in Spanish in Nueva Internacional. The syllabus for the classes, including the readings in both English and Spanish, is available in a special International Education Bulletin.

Concurrent with the classes, branches of the Socialist Workers Party are organizing preconvention discussion sessions on the resolution and other documents submitted by the party leadership as well as written contributions to the Discussion Bulletin, which is open to all SWP members. The preconvention discussion will culminate with every branch electing delegates to the national convention.

Most sessions of the delegated convention will be open to invited observers. Those attending will include Socialist Workers Party members, Young Socialists, supporters and friends of the party, and workers and youth who want to get more involved in the activities of the socialist movement. Over the last year, the party and Young Socialists have reached out with “Socialist Workers election campaigns, Militant and New International sales campaigns, work to build the U.S. delegation to the world youth festival in Caracas this summer, and work in the trade unions and other mass work,” said SWP National Committee member Róger Calero. “All this has resulted in a significant number of individuals becoming interested in or more involved with our movement. We are inviting all of them to the convention.”

Among those attending the convention will be a number of students and young workers who are planning to go to Caracas, Venezuela, in August for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students. Taking part in the SWP convention will be the best political preparation for revolutionary-minded youth to join more effectively the discussions and debates on the big political questions in world politics that will take place at the youth festival, said Argiris Malapanis, who has been centrally involved in organizing the U.S. delegation to the Caracas festival.

Socialists are organizing the class series and preconvention discussion as they join in working-class struggles and campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and the twin new issues of New International in workers districts, on union picket lines, at campuses, and among co-workers. In many cities they are running Socialist Workers Party candidates for state and local office, presenting a platform in the interests of working people, and organizing petition drives to get the socialist slates on the ballot (see article in this issue.)

At the same time, SWP supporters have been active in an effort to get the two new issues of New International, as well as the full range of Pathfinder titles, into retail bookstores and libraries.

At the convention, the deliberations of the delegates will be complemented by activities for all participants. These will include classes, meal-time discussions on questions under discussion, and film showings, as well as other social and recreational activities.

Those interested in attending the Socialist Workers Party convention can contact the nearest branch of the party.

See link for New International sales offer.