The place to be Nov. 16-17: Workers World Party conference

When a revolutionary workers’ party is engaged in so many important struggles — locally, nationally and internationally, all tied to combating the global capitalist crisis — it is crucial to take stock by analyzing those struggles and collectively strategizing on how to move forward with building future campaigns. This is one of the major goals of the upcoming Workers World Party national conference, set for Nov. 16-17 at the Community Center, 134 W. 29th Street in Manhattan.

This year’s conference theme is appropriately phrased, “What will it take to defeat dead-end capitalism?” Why so? Worldwide capitalism has reached the point of no return in its final phase of development, wreaking havoc for untold millions with massive unemployment, underemployment, low wages and a generally lower standard of living.

These super exploitative conditions are nothing new in the developing neocolonial countries. This deadly trend has now deepened its reach to the more developed capitalist countries over the past 30 years, where a sector of workers once viewed as privileged and more susceptible to backward ideas, especially towards the most oppressed, is being brought closer to the abyss.

One only has to look at the devastation of a once-industrial giant like Detroit, which is now totally enslaved to the banks via bankruptcy similar to what is happening in Greece and Spain. But as the timeless Marxist saying goes, being determines consciousness. And to take it further, a higher stage of political consciousness inevitably leads to revolutionary activism for workers across the globe.

Listed in an Oct. 27 WWP conference invitation, the following general observations show that the masses, both in the developing and developed countries, are becoming more open to anti-capitalist ideas:

• A growing resentment of the very rich, the only ones to benefit from the so-called recovery.
• A feeling that the capitalist, profit-driven system has run up against a brick wall and will not — cannot — provide a real, lasting solution to the growing poverty felt by more and more people. A disgust with the politicians of both wings of the capitalist parties — Republican and Democratic alike. They are seen as part of the problem, not part of the solution.
• A distrust of the state apparatus — the police, the prisons, the courts — that brings repression and abets corruption; and of the Pentagon’s military adventurism, like in Syria, that sows death, destruction and occupations abroad and wastes the wealth created by the multinational working class.
• A growing conviction that only by resisting can the unions reverse the decline of the standard of living of working people and union memberships.

The WWP conference will also put its 53-year Marxist theoretical views to the test by examining its support for and involvement in some of the most important living struggles of the day, such as:

• Mobilizing to fight for a $15-per-hour minimum wage for underpaid workers.
• Supporting an international people’s assembly in Detroit to fight the banks and to defend Detroit assets and city workers’ pensions, jobs, homes, schools and benefits.
• Defending the Boston school bus drivers, whose militant and anti-racist union leadership is under vicious attack from the global monopoly Veolia, the city administration’s red-baiting and the big-business media.
• Mobilizing against the racist war by police and vigilante killings targeting youth of color: Trayvon Martin, and so many others. Promoting self-determination for all oppressed peoples and nations.
• Condemning the unjust incarcerations of Marissa Alexander and CeCe McDonald, who defended themselves against domestic violence and anti-LGBTQ attacks, respectively.
• Demanding freedom for political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lynne Stewart, the Cuban Five, Oscar López Rivera, Leonard Peltier and many others.
• Building People’s Power/Workers’ Assemblies to give an independent, fightback expression to all struggles.
• Playing a key role in the demonstrations denouncing a new war against Syria, while upholding a strong anti-imperialist view.

In plenaries, breakouts, discussion groups and workshops, the WWP conference will also demonstrate that a Leninist party is the highest form of organization in combining revolutionary, pro-worker ideology with a fightback program of struggle to help achieve the ultimate goal of creating a socialist society based on meeting all human needs for the 99%, not profits for the 1%.

There will be small group discussions on building workers’/people’s assemblies, organizing a campaign against the union-busting Veolia corporation, discussing the basics of Marxist ideas and more. There will also be an exciting assembly/open mike session on Sunday. Two special workshops will take place — one organized by the revolutionary youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together and the other for people with disabilities. Cultural performances will interject a creative, political energy throughout the conference.

So if you have questions or comments on why the capitalist system is not working for you, your family, your community and the world, and you want to work with like-minded activists to see a revolutionary transformation of the world, the WWP conference is the place for you to be.

Go to workers.org/wwp to download the conference flyer in English and Spanish, register, contribute, and get a schedule and updates.

Donations are needed to help with the conference expenses such as hall rental, a sound system, child care, food, transportation and other necessities.