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HARTFORD,
Conn.—The recent general strikes in Bolivia, the increased involvement
of the masses in the Venezuelan process, and the startling theoretical
response to these developments by Cuban journalist Celia Hart were the
subject of a large public forum here on July 23.
Over
50 people crowded into a room at the Charter Oak Cultural Center to
hear Socialist Action International Editor Gerry Foley report on his
recent fact-finding trip to Latin America and to hear SA National
Secretary Jeff Mackler explain recent Cuban contributions to the
theoretical arsenal of
revolutionists.
The
audience had assembled at the same time that the U.S. government was
seizing computers from the Pastors for Peace caravan bound for Cuba
with goods prohibited by the U.S. embargo. It was thus especially eager
to hear
of the mounting resistance to U.S. attempts to maintain imperialist
control over the economies of Latin America.
Simultaneous
translation was provided for those recent immigrants in the audience
whose 12-hour workdays had thus far prevented them from mastering
English. The frequent admonitions to the speakers to slow their delivery for the
interpreters became an exciting reminder that the internationalism
proclaimed from the podium was being enacted in Hartford in new and
exciting ways.
This
fact was dramatized when the chair interrupted the question and answer
period to bring to the microphone a group of young Mexican workers who
were activists in the Hartford-based Latinos Contra La Guerra and the
Ad Hoc Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
The spokesperson for the group explained that they had just been
fired by their Hartford employer for refusing, after only 24
hours notice, to get on a bus for a two-week job in North Carolina.
In
order to force their compliance, the employer had withheld two-weeks
back pay and then locked them out of the two-bedroom apartment that he
rented to six of them. A quick collection for the legal and political
fight to secure their back wages produced over $400, and numerous
people in the audience indicated their interest in becoming involved in
such a campaign.
The
“Cuba! Bolivia! Venezuela!” forum was part of a two-day socialist
educational conference hosted by the Connecticut Friends of Socialist
Action and co-sponsored by Socialist Action and Labor Standard.
The
joint sponsorship was a recognition of the growing collaboration
between the latter two organizations on several fronts—including the
fight to end the occupation of Iraq, the need for a socialist analysis
of the split in the AFL-CIO, and the desire to popularize Cuban writer
Celia Hart's thinking on the road forward in Cuba, Bolivia, and
Venezuela.
Panels
with speakers from the three organizations focused on these topics, as
well as on the interest of growing numbers of youth in socialist ideas.
The
conference opened with a panel on the fight against the U.S. war on
Iraq. A speaker from Labor Standard presented a short summary of the
socialist tradition in the fight against war. She described
the efforts of the World War II era "Bring the Troops Home
Now!" movement—a series of protests organized by U.S. soldiers
unwilling to remain mobilized as a weapon against the anti-colonial
revolution emerging in Asia.
Christine
Gauvreau, a leader of Connecticut United for Peace and Connecticut
Friends of Socialist Action, focused on the contradiction between the
growing antiwar sentiment and the unwillingness of the leaderships of United for
Peace and Justice and International ANSWER to unite and to develop a
mass-action perspective that can mobilize millions
independently
of the Democratic and Republican parties.
As
a cause for optimism, Gauvreau pointed to the increasing number of
Arab-American, Muslim, and Palestinian organizations demanding a seat
in the leadership bodies of the antiwar movement.
That
the most vulnerable sector of post-9/11 U.S. society was showing a
willingness to come into the streets to defend their civil rights and
to strengthen the antiwar movement with their analyses of Middle East
politics "is something to celebrate," she said.
Gauvreau
concluded by reviewing the ways in which the Call for a Unified Antiwar
Movement campaign (see the statement on page 5) has opened up a deep
discussion among the ranks of the antiwar movement about the kind of democratic decision-making
bodies that the movement deserves.
All
the participants reiterated their determination to make the Sept. 24
mobilization in Washington, D.C., and other cities the largest yet to
occur.
Maria
Herrera and Jason Cain of Connecticut Friends of Socialist Action led a
discussion about the fight for immigrant rights. Herrera opened by
reviewing a series of emergency demonstrations held in Connecticut to push back the organizing
attempts of the racist anti-immigrant group, the Committee for
Immigration Reform, and the decision of immigrant rights leaders to
establish a network for repeated mass actions. Activists were
especially enthusiastic, she reported, because the last demonstration,
in Waterbury, CT, was sponsored by the Central Labor Council and built enthusiastically by the
Carpenter's union.
Pending
immigration legislation, such as the Kennedy-Lieberman-McCain Senate
bill, she argued, tempts immigration activists with provisions for reuniting a limited number
of families. But, in the main, it aims at beefing up border security
and establishing exploitative guest worker programs.
Cain
explained that the U.S. government used 9/11 to reshape immigration
procedures in dangerous ways and to propagandistically conflate fear of
Mexican immigrants with the fears of inadequate border security and
terrorism. The secret detentions and registrations of Arab and Muslim
immigrants initiated after the 9/11 bombings are now available for use
against
all immigrants.
It
is no surprise, he said, that Connecticut is seeing Latino and Arab and
Muslim immigrants coming together in meetings and demonstrations under
the banner, "No Human Being is Illegal!" He concluded that
the fight for immigrant rights will increasingly be a central component
of the struggles to defend civil liberties and to rebuild the unions.
The
challenges activists will face in the fight to rebuild the labor
movement was the topic of a panel led by David Jones of Labor Standard.
Jones is the author of the recent pamphlet, “Where is the AFL-CIO
Going: The Leadership Debate and the Underlying Issues," which
characterizes the recent split of the Services Employees International
Union and the Teamsters union from the AFL as the product of an
inter-bureaucratic rivalry.
Neither
faction, he said, has a real strategy to mobilize militant workers in a
battle against corporate rule.
Nonetheless,
Jones projected confidence about the inevitability of a fightback,
recounting numerous anecdotes about the ways in which local officers
and members come to learn that the fight is international, that
chauvinism is a dead end, and eventually take steps to engage in real
labor solidarity with the victims of U.S. imperialism abroad.
A
panel on the growing numbers of young people interested in socialist
ideas concluded the official conference. Mark Ostopiak from San
Francisco recounted the role played by Youth for Socialist Action in
abortion clinic defense. Milly Guzman-Young of Latinos Contra La Guerra
and Connecticut Friends of Socialist Action inspired the audience with
her stories of working as a counter-recruiter in high schools in the
Hartford area.
Christine
McNeal from Youth for Socialist Action and the Militant Madonnas in
Duluth, Minn., explained their approach to organizing young working
women into discussion groups on feminism and socialism.
Aaron
Donny-Clarke spoke about the Canadian student strikes against tuition
increases. Youth for Socialist Action member Lucas Dietsche told of
winning a socialist campaign for student senate at the University of
Wisconsin in Superior.
Mike
Rogge described the fight that YSAers are conducting with the farmers
of Douglas County, Wis., to stop an environmentally disastrous power transmission line.
The
breath of activity and sophisticated analysis of these young socialist
activists was a powerful combination, and at the conclusion of the
conference, 11 activists decided to join Socialist Action and to found
an SA branch in Hartford.
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