By Allen Myers
CLEVELAND — Nearly 200 members and guests of the US socialist organisation Solidarity attended a week-long school and convention here August 15-21. Participants came from across the United States and from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, France, Germany and Australia.
The convention voted to produce a new publication and launch a campaign to recruit young people to the struggle for socialism. The convention also marked the completion of a process in which a smaller group based primarily in San Francisco, Activists for Independent Socialist Politics (AISP), joined Solidarity.
Throughout the week, simultaneous translation was provided for the benefit of guests from the Puerto Rican socialist organisation Taller, and for comrades from Solidarity's Spanish-language branch in New York City.
The first four days of the gathering were devoted to education. Three three-part classes were available to choose from: the history of US capitalism, Marxist political economy, liberatory socialism and democracy. Readings were assigned for these series, and time was set aside each afternoon so that participants could read the material for the next morning's class.
Also in the afternoon were one- and two-part classes on a range of topics, including the First International, the prospects for third parties in the US today, Gramsci, the situation in Nicaragua, the politics of vocational education, the history of the National Organisation of Women and Latin American Marxism.
Each evening there was a feature talk or panel: the European Union; Women, Work and Economy in the Caribbean; Rebellion in Mexico; and the current economic situation and the rolling back of the "welfare state" in the US.
The final three days constituted a decision-making convention. Throughout the year, Solidarity publishes a monthly bulletin in which members can discuss the organisation's activities and positions on current issues. In the four months before the convention, eight thick issues of an expanded discussion bulletin were published. Articles ranged over such topics as Haiti solidarity work, the role of culture in class struggle, third-party movements, the observations of a recent visitor to Cuba, labour-management cooperation schemes in the US union movement, the war in Bosnia, solidarity with the Brazilian Workers Party and much more.
Solidarity was founded in 1986 by the regrouping of three national organisations. The International Socialists and Workers Power both originated in expulsions from the International Socialist Organisation; politically they differed with the ISO, among other things, in regarding the Soviet Union and similar states as "bureaucratic collectivist" rather than "state capitalist". Socialist Unity consisted primarily of people expelled from the Socialist Workers Party in the late 1970s and early '80s. Also participating in the foundation of Solidarity was a local socialist and feminist collective from Madison, Wisconsin.
Originating in tendencies which had experienced undemocratic, overcentralised and dogmatic leadership, Solidarity places great emphasis on open discussion and local initiatives. Its aim of regrouping socialists who come from varied traditions has also continued. Two years ago, it was joined by comrades from the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, another trend expelled from the Socialist Workers Party in the early '80s.
The comrades from AISP who joined Solidarity at this convention have been involved in publishing the quarterly journal Independent Politics. The convention voted to merge this magazine with Left Turn, an irregular Solidarity paper aimed at youth. The aim is for the new Independent Politics to quickly become a lively monthly of news and discussion.
Solidarity members have been heavily involved in organising support for locked-out Staley workers in Decatur, Illinois [see accompanying article], and a highlight of the convention was the attendance of four Staley "road warriors" who presented a workshop on their struggle and addressed a plenary session.
Other major areas of political involvement for Solidarity members include building independent political action, defence of women's reproductive rights, support for government-funded health insurance and solidarity with Haiti and with progressive struggles in other countries.