Socialist Action /September 2002
Socialist Action National Convention:
Build the Party!
SAN FRANCISCO-The Aug. 2-4 Tenth National Convention of Socialist Action
attracted revolutionary fighters, antiwar activists, trade unionists, and
youth from across the country.
After four months of pre-convention discussion, Socialist Action members
debated and approved three major resolutions that set the political and
organizational framework for the party's activities in the coming year.
The adopted Political Resolution presented to the convention by Socialist
Action National Secretary Jeff Mackler, begins: "The U.S. ruling class
has seized the opportunity presented by the Sept. 11 terrorist bombings
of New York and Washington, D.C. to ratchet up its attacks on American workers
and the oppressed. It has expanded its subsidies to corporations that find
it increasingly difficult to compete in world markets and is expanding its
military hegemony in pursuit of new imperialist objectives across the globe."
The resolution continues: "The world's single superpower is driven
by its weakness, not strength. Its flagging economy and the associated need
to divert attention from domestic policies that take an increasing toll
on U.S. workers has taken center stage in its calculations. Its 'war on
terrorism' and base appeal to chauvinism and race prejudice serve as a convenient
pretext for a massive increase in military spending."
In the course of the three-day convention delegates joined in spirited
discussion covering every major arena of party work while at the same time
focusing on winning the next layer of revolutionary youth to Socialist Action.
Gerry Foley, International Editor of Socialist Action newspaper,
presented the International and World Movement Report, in which he reviewed
the party's relations with the Fourth International (FI), the world socialist
movement with which Socialist Action maintains fraternal relations.
Foley reported that the French FI section, the Revolutionary Communist
League (LCR), recruited almost 1000 members in the course of its participation
in the recent national elections. The LCR's youthful presidential candidate,
Olivier Besancenot, won 4.3 percent of the vote (1.3 million votes).
While critical of the LCR's decision to call for a "vote against
Le Pen" (meaning a vote in favor of the rightist capitalist candidate
Jacques Chirac) Foley concluded that this decision, though flawed in principle,
did not in fact signify a turn toward rejecting working class independence.
The LCR's election program and its capacity to mobilize people in the
streets against the fascist policies of Le Pen represented an important
gain despite its error.
The convention approved a special SA national conference to prepare for
Socialist Action's participation in the FI World Congress, set for 2003.
Foley's report also focused on revolutionary developments in Latin America,
where the working-class character of the mass mobilizations and the pent-up
hatred of the capitalist order have opened up new possibilities for building
the revolutionary party.
Greetings to the convention and a detailed report on the political situation
in France were presented by LCR Central Committee member Xavier Moreau.
International greetings were also received from the United Socialist League
of Mexico, Socialist Action Canada, and from the Socialist Workers Movement
(MST) of Argentina.
The convention heard a special report on the national and international
struggle to win the freedom of one of the world's most well-known innocent
political prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Presented by Jeff Mackler, who is
a national coordinator of Mumia's defense and who had recently returned
from a six-hour visit with Mumia in Waynesburg prison, the report stressed
that Mumia's freedom rested in the further development of a broad and powerful
mass movement capable of making the price for Mumia's legal lynching too
costly for the government to pay.
Special guest Pam Africa, leader of the International Concerned Family
and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, updated convention participants on the most
recent legal developments in Mumia's case. Africa called particular attention
to the unique role of Socialist Action newspaper in presenting the
most comprehensive and accurate coverage of the case.
Michael Schreiber, Socialist Action's Editor, presented the Organizational
Report. He reported that recent fund-raising projects, including contributions
from new friends and supporters, have enabled SA to maintain operations
without any serious cutbacks. A $7000 three-month party-building fund drive
goal was adopted as well as a campaign to win many new subscribers to Socialist
Action newspaper.
SA youth organizer Adam Ritscher reported that in the Duluth/Ashland
area 19 young people had joined Youth for Socialist Action, the new youth
group in political solidarity with Socialist Action. Following the convention
five people joined Socialist Action.
Socialist Action /September 2002 |