Socialism Conference 2009: is this their time?

Capitalism has collapsed; major banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies needed a bailout; unemployment is over 9.5%; food banks are overwhelmed. Congress doesn't seem hurrried to act on pressing matters such as health care reform, which in a New York Times survey said that 72% of the population favors. Is it time to try Socialism?

Pundits and financial experts are now breathing a sigh of relief because the fear of total collapse seems to have been extinguished for now. But most people are not aware of the true extent of the bailout: the Federal Reserve kicked in nearly $12 trillion dollars via loans and guarantees, in addition to the bailout that President Bush passed in 2008.

President Obama's proposed economic stimulus has not kicked in for the majority of people and the pace of housing foreclosures is still high. But there is still no talk of a New Deal type proposal to help the average person who is struggling. Teachers are still being laid off; automotive workers have already been told not to expect production and employment to continue at past levels. Even that most resilient of professions, soap opera actors, are now seeing huge cuts to their wages. Yes fans, Erika Kane, aka Susan Lucci, from the show All My Children, had to accept lower wages as well!

In the 1930's, even despite talk of a New Deal, there was plenty of labor agitation along  with the pain the masses suffered from economic dislocation. It looks like those anti-globalization demonstrators in the Battle of Seattle were right after all.

In the midst of this, Socialists  gathered in two locations this year, Chicago (June 18th-21st) and San Francisco (July 2nd-5th) for their conference, which was co-sponsored by  Research and Social Change and the International Socialist Organization. Many of the topics addressed in San Francisco are precisely the ones you would normally expect: "How capitalism works--and how it doesn't: The ABC's of Marxist Economics" or "How Eugene Debs became a socialist." But there are others which seem at first surprising: "Women in Sports: fighting for equality on and off the field" or "The roots of racial oppression: why didn't racism vanish after slavery was abolished?"

There were 38 Washingtonians who made it down to San Francisco last week. All of them were effusive in their praise of the event, which had been added as an second and closer location this year to provide more access. The result was astounding: attendance was roughly twice what it was last year and the group's largest gathering in decades.

One member estimated that attendance was comprised 50% of members and the rest were either walk-ins from advertisements or friends of members. Comments from members of the Seattle Banch of the International Socialist organization were uniformly positive, including: "I felt it was positive, had good content-knowledge you can use;" "practical and theoretical--inspired and emotional;" "speakers knew their stuff--there were tears for many of the presentations;" "[Given the] seriousness of the situation today, the economic crisis [gives us] the chance to be meaningful--it is our biggest opening in years;" "Some of the presentations made me not want to bring kids into the world."

At the same time there was enthusiam about the conference, there wasn't any talk about an actual revolution plan. Why not? These are not socialists who advocate a "command" system of government, like the former Soviet Union had or that Cuba still has today, but one inspired by historical figures like Trotsky, who believed strongly in democracy and revolution from the masses, not one imposed by a few leaders by force. The thinking is that there is a certain point after which people will no longer accept having their measure of the economy continually shrink. At some point, enough is enough; the people can't be pressed any further.

In the midst of economic collapse and suffering, why then are socialists offering seminars on topics like sexism? I asked Rachel Wilsey from the Seattle Branch of the International Socialist Organization to comment, she said:

"We had meetings at the conference on LGBT liberation, woman's liberation, fighting racism, and standing up for immigrant rights, ettc., for a number of reasons. First of all we  see these types of oppression (racism, sexism, and homophobia) as being created by capitalism; they are not just some bad ideas in people's heads but you can trace the rise of these ideas to the rise of class society and the productive needs of capitalism. So some of the meetings actually laid out that history."

 After a successful conference--you registered twice as many attendees as last year. Are you gaining new members?

"In terms of growth nationally and locally, I think people are drawn to our politics because they can see that capitalism isn't working, the crisis has shown that and it has also discredited the dominant ideology of neo-liberalism. People don't need us to tell them things are messed up and don't work, they can see it with their own eyes and they are looking for answers-why did this happen in the first place? How can we fix it? Can we create something better? People are actively looking for alternatives right now. But the growth we are seeing is more than just that--I think people are attracted to ISO not just because we have something to say about the shortcomings of capitalism and what a better socialist alternative could be, but also because our members are at the center of some of the biggest struggles nationally striving to move each movement forward (and to the left) we demonstrate the relevance of our politics in practice in the movements."

Photo credits: Jakub Mamczak (1st and 3rd) and the Seattle Branch of the International Socialist Organization

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