This Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6-7, the Party for Socialism and Liberation will hold its first national public conference on the University of California, Los Angeles campus.
The two-day conference will feature speakers, workshops, and panel discussions on a wide variety of topics related to the fight against capitalist exploitation, war, racism and imperialism, and the struggle for socialism at home and around the world.
The keynote plenary on Saturday will feature PSL 2008 Presidential Candidate Gloria La Riva, Vice Presidential Candidate Eugene Puryear, and Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). The presenters will put forward the PSL’s perspective on the recent U.S. elections, the current economic situation and the struggle for socialism.
Panels on Saturday afternoon will provide an opportunity for analysis and discussion on major issues and struggles today. The panels will focus on organizing against racism, bigotry and repression; Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and the leftward shift in Latin America; global resistance to imperialist war and occupation; and socialism.
The featured speaker at the special International Solidarity Session on Saturday evening will be former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The solidarity session will also feature international guests and cultural performances. It will be followed by a reception open to registrants and guests.
Workshops on Sunday morning will be a combination of practical discussions regarding organizing work, projects and initiatives, and educational topics.
Participants will then choose from two panels. In one, union leaders and organizers will speak about building a new workers’ movement to fight the bosses’ offensive. In the second panel, progressive attorneys and community organizers will speak about the fight against the expanding police state.
The economic recession has thrown millions of workers out of their jobs and onto the streets. In the United States, the richest 400 people have as much wealth as 50 million households combined. Meanwhile, tens of millions in this country live without adequate health care, housing, and public transportation.
Working people worldwide are being squeezed for every last penny so that Wall Street can maintain its profit margins. The criminal occupation of Iraq is now in its sixth year, having cost over a million Iraqi lives, and hundreds of billions of dollars. The epidemic of police brutality, checkpoints and anti-gang injunctions are intensifying as the state seeks to protect the class it serves.
At this critical time, the National Conference on Socialism will provide an important opportunity for revolutionaries and progressives—both longtime organizers and those new to the struggle—to discuss what we are fighting for and how best to wage the struggle in the coming period.
On both Saturday and Sunday, the doors will open at 8:00 a.m. for registration.
On Saturday, the conference will take place in the De Neve Plaza auditorium on the UCLA campus. The opening plenary will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the conference will last until 5:00 p.m. The evening International Solidarity Session will take place from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.
On Sunday, the conference will take place at the Tom Bradley International Hall (directly across the street from De Neve Plaza) from 9:30 to 2:00 p.m.
There is registration, schedule, transportation and logistics information at www.pslweb.org/conference.
For more information call 323-810-3380 or email [email protected].
