On Nov. 21, around 200 people attended the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Socialism Conference in Los Angeles. Held at Los Angeles City College, one of L.A.’s most working-class and multinational community college campuses, the conference drew people locally from Long Beach, Orange County, the Inland Empire, San Diego, and San Francisco, and nationally from Texas, Nevada, Florida, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.
 |
While many seasoned activists attended the conference, most participants were new to socialism and came to explore an alternative to the current system. The current capitalist economic crisis—complete with outrageous bank bailouts, expanding wars, immigrant bashing, sweeping budget cuts to education and social services, and attacks on LGBT civil rights—has sparked questions among working-class people. The LA conference reflected the growing curiosity in socialism and the interest in a Marxist analysis of the current period.
The conference was titled “We need socialism: Capitalism must go!” It included a slate of speakers in an opening and closing plenary, with six different break-out workshops offered in two sessions.
In the opening plenary, PSL leader Brian Becker highlighted the stark contradictions under capitalism in the United States. Just prior to the conference, University of California Regents voted to raise tuition by 32 percent to make up for a $550 million budget deficit. Becker pointed out that the money spent on just one day of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, or a fraction of the bonuses handed out to executives of bailed-out banks, could make up the entire budget deficit.
Iraq war veteran and PSL member Michael Prysner discussed imperialism as a specific stage of capitalist development, pointing out that the struggle against the ongoing wars is inextricably linked to the struggle against capitalism. “We live in the era where capitalism has outgrown exploitation in this country, and must expand into a global system of colonial oppression. If it did anything else, it simply would not be capitalism.”
The opening plenary also featured Suyapa Portillo, a leader of the Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras. She had just returned from Honduras for a U.S. speaking tour with several members of the Honduran resistance movement. Portillo reported on the current struggle against the coup regime, and the independent people’s movement that has emerged and solidified since the coup—a united front against the right-wing and the ruling class in Honduras. She called on all progressives to reject the Nov. 29 elections as illegitimate, and pledged that the resistance would continue no matter what.
 PSL member Peta Lindsay speak on the need to fight against racism in order to advance the working-class struggle, Los Angeles, Nov. 21, 2009. |
PSL member Peta Lindsay made the case that the fight against racism is one of the most crucial struggles to harness our power as a class. Carlos Alvarez, the PSL’s 2010 candidate for Governor of California (seeking the Peace and Freedom Party nomination), outlined a program for struggle, demanding free health care, free education through college, union wages and more.
“What can the capitalists expect from this full scale attack on workers and students? They can expect a fight back to match every cut back. They can expect a rise in class consciousness as workers realize their common interests as well as their common enemies,” Alvarez said.
Solidarity statements were given be leaders in the Alliance for Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines and the FMLN-Los Angeles, thanking the PSL for their steadfast commitment to the struggle.
Focus on working-class struggle
Two separate workshop sessions were held, giving everyone at the conference the chance to take part in more focused discussion on a variety of issues.
The workshop titled “Socialism: What it is and why we need it” dispelled many of the common myths and misconceptions about socialism.
One workshop was conducted entirely in Spanish, titled “Revolution in Latin America.” Led by Gloria La Riva, Jacqueline Villagomez and Marcial Guerra, this workshop gave Spanish speakers a greater opportunity to learn and participate in addition to the translation offered during the rest of the conference. This was the first all-Spanish language workshop held by the PSL in Los Angeles.
March Forward!, a veterans’ organization affiliated with the ANSWER Coalition, hosted a workshop titled “Veterans and the struggle against U.S. imperialism,” featuring four March Forward! members. Attendees heard first-hand accounts of what it is like to serve in an imperialist war, and learned about the factors that push working-class people to join the military, the history of GI rebellions, and the potential for resistance in the military today.
In response to the recent wave of student protests against the California budget cuts, the student group Students Fight Back led a workshop titled “Education is a right!” Panelists included both teachers and students who reiterated the demand that high quality education should be free and accessible to all, a right that would be guaranteed under socialism. The workshop allowed students and school employees to connect and discuss strategies to continue the growing fight-back movement.
To address the rise in immigrant bashing and racist attacks, and to discuss the struggle against women’s oppression, a workshop featured Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement USA and Jollene Levid of GABRIELA Network.
Another workshop was dedicated to the struggle against Proposition 8. The workshop stressed the need for a genuine people’s movement independent of the Democratic Party to win equal rights. The struggle for same-sex marriage rights was discussed as a fight for democratic reform under capitalism. Participants recognized the fight against homophobia as a larger battle for class unity, and an essential fight to bring about a truly democratic society where the rights of any oppressed sector will never be up for a vote.
Socialism is possible
In the closing plenary, the PSL’s 2008 candidate for president, Gloria La Riva, talked about the amazing achievements under Cuba’s socialist government. She compared life in the United States, the richest country in history, to life in Cuba, a poor island under the stranglehold of a merciless U.S. blockade.
La Riva pointed out that in the United States construction workers can end up homeless after building massive skyscrapers, and nurses and health care workers can be denied access to medical treatment by their insurance companies. But in Cuba, where society is structured to meet the needs of working-class people, not a single person is homeless, evictions are non-existent, and not a single person is without free, high quality health care. La Riva’s talk revealed that these achievements, and much more, are possible in the United States as well—but only under socialism.
PSL member Ian Thompson tied together all the pressing demands of the working class, pointing to the need for a revolutionary party to achieve victory. The conference made clear that socialism is the only alternative to the bankrupt and criminal capitalist system. The struggle for socialism requires a revolutionary party like the PSL.
“As Lenin said, our main task is to build a revolutionary party. If we wait, it will be too late. Preparing for the revolution is what a revolutionary party does. That’s what we are doing today and in everything we do,” Thompson said.
Other speakers included Tamara Khoury and Victor Quintero. Muna Coobtee summarized the conference.
For all those fed up with injustice on top of injustice under capitalism, the Socialism Conference not only offered an alternative, but a plan of action to win: building a revolutionary Marxist party.
The conference brought together a diverse, broad spectrum of workers and students who were ready to fight, or who are already fighting, against the crimes of capitalism. It was yet another step in the growing movement for justice, equality, and a new society that puts human needs first. In Los Angeles and all over the country, the PSL is leading this struggle.
Get involved today!
Check PSLweb.org regularly for updates and current news from a revolutionary Marxist perspective.
The next PSL sponsored event in Los Angeles is a public forum on the struggle for socialism. There will also be an update on the new attempts to execute political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and a report on the socialism conference. Join us on Friday, Dec. 4, 7:30 p.m., at 137 N. Virgil Ave in Los Angeles.
There is an alternative to capitalist exploitation. Join us in the struggle for socialism!
