Conference will take up: What’s next after elections?

The U.S. presidential elections — which the bourgeois media promote 24/7 on behalf of the predatory 1% — will come and then go after the final vote is taken on Nov. 6. What won’t come and go are the worsening conditions that face working and oppressed peoples inside the U.S. and worldwide. No amount of wishing and hoping will take away the fact that whether the pro-1% Democrats or the pro-1% Republicans win the White House, neither outcome will prevent the bloodletting of more economic austerity, political repression and desperation hoisted on the backs of the 99% — part and parcel of this intractable global capitalist economic crisis.

The elections won’t stop the insatiable greed of the banks and transnational corporations to make more and more profits by any way possible, including cutbacks in health, education and nutrition; massive layoffs; debt payments to the banks that destroy social services; foreclosures and evictions; union busting; slave wages; and increased militarism and wars for occupation.

They also won’t stop increased police brutality, mass incarcerations, stop and frisks and other forms of racism and national oppression, along with attacks on the rights of immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, the youth, the elderly and the disabled.

The role of the president and Congress is to willingly implement the anti-worker and anti-poor program of the billionaire and multimillionaire ruling class as smoothly as possible but not stop at enforcing by brute suppression if necessary.

That is why the annual national conference of Workers World Party could not come at a more opportune time. With the theme, “Beyond the 2012 elections: How to get back to the struggle vs the 1%,” the conference will take place on the weekend of Nov. 17 and 18 at the Native American community center at 124 W. 29th St. in Manhattan, New York City.

Assessing conditions, planning fightback

Along with taking up conditions inside the U.S., this conference will also assess this economic crisis from a global perspective in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America and parts of Europe, where the struggle against austerity has intensified over the past several years, especially in Greece and Spain.

The WWP conference will not only review these conditions but also assess the growing fightback response inside the belly of the imperialist beast, including the Occupy movements, the heroic Chicago teachers’ strike, the Wisconsin Capitol takeover, the March on Wall Street South, the growing national campaign to unionize Walmart and more.

With the aid of plenaries and break-out groups, the conference will also deliberate on various perspectives for fightback, including People’s Power Assemblies to help build a united, independent movement of important struggles led by workers, youth and the oppressed.

The conference will include a special discussion session led by Workers World Party youth organizers to reach out to youth and young workers interested in an anti-capitalist and pro-socialist ­orientation.

The 2012 Workers World Party conference will confirm what so many class-conscious fighters already know — that capitalism is at a dead end. Capitalism cannot meet human needs, now or in the future. Capitalism is innately driven to conquer lands and their peoples with wars for occupation in order to intensify superexploitation and plunder. The Pentagon right now is setting its sights on Syria and Iran. What does hold a bright future for all humanity is a society free from racism, oppression and poverty, a society run by workers of all nationalities and skills to meet human needs. Such a society is socialism.

Workers World Party will take up at the conference how this perspective is achievable both in theory and practice.

Go to workers.org and click on the “WWP conference Nov. 17-18” tab in the right-hand corner to register, get the schedule and request information about housing, and to download conference fliers in English and Spanish. You can also call 212-627-2994 for more information.