Vol. 71/No. 29      August 6, 2007

“This convention will be marked above all by the meaning of the last two May Days,” SWP national secretary Jack Barnes said in welcoming the 400 delegates and observers to the three-day gathering. He was referring to mass proletarian actions on May Day—which brought 2 million workers into the streets in 2006 and nearly half a million in 2007—demanding legalization of undocumented immigrants.

“It will be marked by the development of the Young Socialists as an organization,” he continued. “And by the political place of the revolutionary party within a developing mass working-class vanguard. It will shed new light on the place of revolutionists in the trade unions; on the place of our program, our books. And how all of this is connected to the unique place of Cuba and its revolutionary communist leadership.”

Comprised of delegates elected by party branches in 16 cities across the United States as well as fraternal delegations from Communist Leagues in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, the convention is the highest decision-making body of the party. Delegates discussed and voted on documents and reports to chart a political course for the communist movement and elected a national leadership.

Among the observers and guests were people hailing from 10 countries, 167 organized supporters of the Socialist Workers Party, and 26 members of the Young Socialists.  
 
The Cuban Revolution in the world
Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press and a member of the SWP National Committee, presented a report titled “Politics of the ‘Our History’ Party Building Campaign.”

Since the party’s convention last year, Waters reported, 36 meetings have been held in 28 cities to discuss the Pathfinder title Our History Is Still Being Written: The Story of Three Chinese-Cuban Generals in the Cuban Revolution. Over 100 individuals have spoken on panels in these meetings, and over 2,900 have attended them.

“Many who are familiar with Pathfinder have said this book is one of the best of the series we have published on the Cuban Revolution,” Waters said. But the quality of this book is not the only reason that it has generated such interest, she said.

“Above all what it has tapped into is the transformation of the working class and the development of a working-class vanguard, and the place of immigrant workers in that vanguard,” Waters said. She pointed out that China, which did not rank in the top 10 countries of birth among the U.S. immigrant population prior to 1990, now ranks as number two.

“The growing attraction of the Cuban Revolution in the world today” has also led to increased interest in this book, Waters said. “These were overwhelmingly new forces at these meetings. We are bringing the Cuban Revolution to an audience that is totally new to it.”

There are similar opportunities to reach out broadly to work with others, she said, around events marking the 20th anniversary of the Oct. 15, 1987, assassination of Thomas Sankara, the central leader of a 1983-87 revolution in the West African country Burkina Faso.

Pathfinder plans to publish eight books of Sankara’s speeches this fall. These include new editions of the book Thomas Sankara Speaks in English and French, and new editions of the pamphlets Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle and We Are Heirs of the World’s Revolutions in English, French, and Spanish. At a closing rally July 7, Michel Paquette, a leader of the Communist League in Canada, spoke about how the books will be promoted at events to commemorate Sankara this fall in Africa, North America, and Europe.

Available at the convention for the first time was a Spanish translation of major sections of The Struggle for a Proletarian Party. The book describes a fight within the SWP on the eve of World War II to defend the party’s theoretical foundations, political principles, and organizational methods. New editions of the book in English and the full book in Spanish are being prepared.

Also slated for publication this fall is The Second American Revolution: Marx and Engels on the 1860-65 U.S. Civil War, which chronologically presents the writings of the founders of the modern communist movement about this momentous historical event.

“Slavery was overturned in a tide of blood by free farmers and workers of North America and by the northern industrial bourgeoisie in a progressive leap for all humanity,” Waters said of the upcoming title. The book will be an aid in teaching revolutionists to think historically, she said.

A conference including classes, films, and other activities took place alongside the convention.

Two classes focused on the writings of Marx and Engels on the U.S. Civil War. Others included “The 40th Anniversary of the Death in Combat and the Political Trajectory and Contributions of Che Guevara”; “The Working Class and the Evolving Fronts in Washington’s War Against Terrorism”; “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”; “Thomas Sankara: Africa and the World Twenty Years After”; “The Struggle for a Proletarian Party”; and “Immigration, Labor, and the Class Struggle in the United Kingdom and Ireland.”  
 
Developing working-class vanguard
The Political Report by Barnes and the Trade Union Report by SWP National Committee member Alyson Kennedy both focused on the place of the revolutionary party within a developing working-class vanguard—comprised in its majority of immigrant workers.

Barnes noted that these initial developments take place within the context of the continued weakening of the labor movement, which continues to be marked by setbacks and stalemates today. “You are blind to it if you’re not within it,” he said. “If you are not within this section of this working-class movement you are disqualified politically and will come crosswise with the vanguard.”

This, Barnes explained, is the entire meaning of the party’s 1998 decision to focus its trade union work on the industries where the bosses’ assaults have been the fiercest and the potential for resistance, the greatest—specifically in packinghouses, garment shops, textile mills, and coal mines.

With increased possibilities to recruit vanguard workers, Barnes said, the party will “let no forms stand in the way” of going through experiences with those attracted to the communist movement and building a party together with them.

“The bosses can’t live without immigrant workers, and at the same time they can’t live with a rising confidence and militancy in a large section of the working class,” said Kennedy. Washington’s position in the world capitalist order depends on continuing to incorporate massive amounts of immigrant labor to drive down wages, intensify labor, and increase profit rates, she noted. That’s why the U.S. rulers cannot agree on an immigration “reform” bill, and why they will increasingly lash out with violence in immigration raids, at the border, and through probes such as the cop riot in Los Angeles on May Day.

During the discussion on Kennedy’s report, Ellie García, a delegate from Atlanta, described common work she is involved in with her coworkers at a large garment factory in Georgia. Together they are using the Militant to reach out more broadly inside and outside the plant and in political activity, from introducing the paper to workers in other industries in the region, to participating in an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. They bring these experiences back to the workplace to extend the political discussions there.

SWP members in Atlanta have also begun to get jobs with workers in different plants and industries where such collaboration is open to them, she said.  
 
Young Socialists strengthened
“The communist movement scored a victory at the first-ever U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta June 27-July 1,” said Ben O’Shaughnessy, organizer of the YS National Steering Committee. O’Shaughnessy reported that some 50 young socialists, party members, supporters, and contacts of the communist movement effectively joined in the wide-ranging discussions and debates there.

They met young people, workers, and farmers from across the United States attracted to the ideas they presented. Nearly 250 participants in the Social Forum subscribed to the Militant, and close to 100 bought copies of the latest issues of the Marxist magazine New International. “In the coming weeks, we will be getting back to these people, getting to know them, and recruiting those we can to the communist movement,” he said.

“The YS is more confident and homogeneous coming out of last year’s summer schools,” Ben Joyce, a YS leader from Albany, New York, told the audience at the closing rally. Joyce, who spent the month prior to the convention building the YS in Atlanta, described how the YS has consolidated itself into an organization over the last year and its plans to continue systematic study and political activity throughout the summer.  
 
Looking forward
At that rally, a panel of speakers presented the next steps the communist movement will be taking coming out of the convention.

Róger Calero, a member of the SWP National Committee, co-chaired the rally along with O’Shaughnessy. Calero introduced the members of the newly elected National Committee. He also introduced the new editor of the Militant, Olympia Newton, and the paper’s new managing editor, Paul Pederson.

Jim Altenberg, a member of the steering committee of the Print Project that produces and upgrades Pathfinder books, spoke about the accelerating pace of the transformation of the Pathfinder arsenal. Through this project party supporters ensure that the lessons, history, and program of the communist movement remain in print and accessible.

“The last time we gathered in Oberlin, we had upgraded 4 titles. Between then and now, we have completed 19,” he said. The upgrades include larger type, indexes, and glossaries that make the books more accessible to workers and youth coming into political activity today. “Our goal is to produce 50 between now and the next time we gather,” he said. “And we are confident we can do it.” Print Project volunteers participated in workshops coming out of the convention to help organize this effort.

Emily Paul, organizer of the New York YS chapter, spoke about how young socialists are putting the books to use through systematic Marxist education. She described summer education programs in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, and the Twin Cities focusing on basic works of Marxism and the history of the communist movement.

“The first meeting on Our History Is Still Being Written in Australia opened new possibilities for building the communist movement in Asia and the Pacific,” said Alaric MacDenny, a leader of the Young Socialists and the Communist League in Australia. MacDenny reviewed openings for communists in Australia and New Zealand to work with professors, students, and Asian community organizations in the coming months.

Paul Clifton, a leader of the Communist League in the United Kingdom, described how the massive influx of immigrant workers from Eastern Europe is opening up new possibilities for the communist movement not only in England and Scotland, but also in other parts of Europe. “This opens up possibilities in new places,” said Clifton. “For example a coworker at a meat plant subscribes to the Militant. When he went back to his farm in Poland for several months, he had his subscription transferred there.”

Over $22,000 was collected and pledged at the rally towards a travel fund appeal. In addition, Dave Prince, announced at the rally that donations of $1,000 or more to a special Capital Fund dedicated to long-term publishing and other needs had exceeded the year’s goal of $500,000. By the end of the convention, $512,500 had been pledged.
 
 
Related articles:
Young Socialists map out plans at national meeting
Socialist Workers Party National Committee Elected at 45th Constitutional Convention  
 
 
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