Vol. 73/No. 45      November 23, 2009

The incapacity to take any steps to reverse the economic catastrophe facing working people and the inability to avoid deepening the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan mark the Obama administration, which acts as if it's completely disengaged from its responsibilities. There has never been a better time to sell the Militant newspaper and distribute revolutionary books, Barnes concluded.

Some 310 people from across the country, as well as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, attended the meeting, which was held at the Service Employees International Union 32BJ hall.

Norton Sandler, a member of the SWP National Committee, and Tom Baumann, a leader of the Young Socialists and the SWP candidate for Manhattan borough president in 2009, welcomed those attending. On either side of the stage were large blow-ups of the English and Spanish covers of the forthcoming Pathfinder book Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power. Barnes is the author.

Mary-Alice Waters, a member of the SWP National Committee and editor of the Marxist magazine New International, announced that editing work on the book has been completed. Final production is now in the hands of some 200 volunteers. "You have fought the political battles that this book is about—the course of the third American revolution," she told the audience.

The possibility of a socialist revolution in the United States and of a working class capable of leading it was a big part of political debates at the October 15-17 international conference in Monterrey, Mexico, on the relevance today of popular revolutionary democratic struggles in Mexico, the United States, and Cuba in the 19th century, she said.

At the back of the meeting hall was a display of some of the more than 130 photos and drawings that will appear in Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power. Waters singled out the photo of the 134th Militia Battalion that fought U.S.-organized invaders at Playa Girón in Cuba in 1961. She encouraged everyone to study the faces of those combatants.

"You had to earn the right to be in the militia in Cuba," she said. The militia became a giant school of revolution. It was a tool for meeting the challenge facing all revolutionary movements: how to forge disciplined cadres who know what they're fighting for and why, who believe it's an honor to be on the front lines.

Waters recommended studying The Inevitable Battle, a new book by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, who was a literacy volunteer at Playa Girón. This is the best account published of that battle, she said. The preface is by José Ramón Fernández, who commanded the revolutionary troops who defeated the invasion. Pathfinder distributes the book in English and Spanish.  
 
Defense of Cuban Five
Waters stressed the importance of work to win the release of five Cuban revolutionaries now in their 11th year of incarceration in U.S. jails. The Cuban Five, as they are known, were in Miami monitoring the activities of right-wing Cuban exiles who have launched armed attacks on Cuba with Washington's blessing. The five were framed-up and convicted on charges of “conspiracy to commit espionage” and in the case of one “conspiracy to commit murder.”

Waters was among those in the Miami courtroom October 13 for the resentencing of one of the five, Antonio Guerrero, who originally received a life term plus 10 years, later overturned by a federal appeals court as excessive.

In a major victory, Guerrero's sentence was reduced to 21 years and 10 months, meaning he will be eligible for parole in seven years. Two others of the Cuban Five, Fernando González and Ramón Labañino, will have resentencing hearings in December. Gerardo Hernández continues to serve a double-life term plus 15 years, and René González, a 15-year term.

"This is your victory," Waters told the crowd here, noting that the federal prosecutor in the case acknowledged the impact of the worldwide campaign to free the revolutionaries.

Waters noted a program with the participation of family members of the Cuban Five will take place in Tijuana, Mexico, December 4, as part of a U.S./Cuba/Venezuela/North America Labor Conference. There is also an international conference on the Cuban Five in Holguín, Cuba, November 19-23.  
 
Pathfinder in Iran, Afghanistan
Ma'mud Shirvani spoke on the ongoing demonstrations in Iran for democratic rights, noting that these are helping the workers raise their own demands. He pointed to a demonstration of 1,000 communications workers in Shiraz demanding back pay, and a successful strike by bakery workers in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj.

A colorful display showed a big increase in sales of Pathfinder titles in Iran since mid-June. Some 839 books with articles from New International have been purchased, 549 copies of Capitalism's Long Hot Winter Has Begun, 961 of The Communist Manifesto, and more than 200 copies of both Feminism and the Marxist Movement and Is Biology Woman's Destiny?

Books are also finding their way to Afghanistan, where many people can read Farsi. Bookstores in Los Angeles, which has a large Iranian population, have begun ordering more titles. Socialist workers everywhere can emulate the example of Farsi-language book distribution, Shirvani said. The same results can be achieved with titles in Chinese and other languages.

Dave Prince made an appeal for contributions to the capital fund, which is used to finance the movement's publishing projects. Contributors have donated $176,000 to the 2009-2010 fund.

"Yes we can" was the centerpiece of Democratic Party politics one year ago, said Barnes who gave the final talk.

Every serious electoral challenge to Democratic candidates in November launched by the Republican Party was successful. The Democrats lost two major gubernatorial races, in New Jersey and Virginia. Obama campaigned very visibly for Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine, governor of New Jersey, who nevertheless lost to Republican Christopher Christie. Many of those who had voted for Obama last year switched to vote for the Republican this year. Christie campaigned on the promise of jobs.

"Obama is the first socialist U.S. president," Barnes said. Obama is attempting to govern based on policies like those of the social democratic governments that have been in power in Europe, seeking social reforms on questions like health care and experimenting with limited nationalizations. The Obama administration fears deeper involvement in the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but historically social-democratic governments have led imperialist wars.

The Democratic Party is not a socialist party, however, and its base is not the labor movement, Barnes added.

On the economy, Obama has handed control over to the very same people who were the architects of the financial crisis that exploded in 2008. Under his administration there has been no retreat from protecting the bondholders at all costs, no retreat from diverting surplus value to fictitious capital. New, bigger debt balloons are being blown up that will burst.  
 
World politics shifts to East
The axis of world politics continues to shift to the East, Barnes said. He focused on the latest developments in India and Pakistan, which have repeatedly gone to war with each other for decades. The Pakistani bourgeoisie now wants to forge an alliance with India to spur capitalist economic development in Pakistan.

This region will be the axis of war and international politics for years to come, Barnes said. The stakes involve a huge portion of the world's people. India is already poised to surpass China in population within 25 years.

Israel, meanwhile, has successfully developed an anti-missile defense system integrated with U.S. systems that gives it first-strike capacity against countries like Syria and Lebanon.

The Obama administration is not equipped to be the war presidency the U.S. rulers need today. The White House paralysis over sending more troops to Afghanistan is just one indication.

The killing of 13 soldiers and wounding of 30 others at Fort Hood November 5 revealed the degree to which the administration's policy of "diversity" in the military led it to ignore the obvious signals from Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the man charged with the shootings, that he was planning an Islamist-style terrorist attack. Obama's first comment after the slaughter of defenseless workers in uniform was that no one should "jump to conclusions" about the killer's motives.

There has never been an atrocity by Cuba's revolutionary armed forces, Barnes said. He quoted from Fidel Castro's tribute to the "exemplary conduct for more than half a century" of Juan Almeida, an historic leader of the Cuban Revolution who died in September.

It is an example to be emulated by revolutionaries today, Barnes said, living your life within the trajectory of the working-class road to power.  
 
'Learning how to stand up for rights'
Participants in the meeting enjoyed a delicious meal following the talks and further discussion and dancing. More than $1,000 was sold in books distributed by Pathfinder.

Jon Gruver, 19, was one of six young people who drove here from Philadelphia to take part in the meeting. Dissatisfied with "mainstream political ideology," as he put it, he began attending a study group on Marxism at Temple University where he met the Young Socialists. One book they studied, Lenin's Imperialism, had a big impact on him. " It helped clarify for me what's happening today in the financial crisis," he said.

Nate Helfrick, who attends the Community College of Philadelphia, has also been participating in the Temple study group. He said he was surprised to learn how well Pathfinder books are selling in Iran and Afghanistan and inspired by the boldness of those distributing the books.

Helfrick, 24, had volunteered briefly for the AFL-CIO's Working America. "I quit when I found out they were not about organizing unions but about knocking on doors for the Democrats," he said.

Tiffany Pleasant, a 25-year-old African American from Rockford, Illinois, first met the Socialist Workers Party at a demonstration there against police brutality. The action demanded justice for a 23-year-old Black man shot and killed by police in August. Pleasant, 25, lives just a few houses away from the youth's family.

A laid-off Spanish teacher, Pleasant is currently taking classes at Rock Valley College. She said she came to the meeting "to learn more about socialism and capitalism, and how I can stand up for my rights."  
 
 
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