Thursday, Feb. 3 | 7-9pm | La Casa Community Church
3166 Mt. Pleasant St, NW
Columbia Heights metro
As rebellion has spread from Tunisia to Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, understanding these events is critical for the Left here in the U.S. Please bring questions and comments to an exciting discussion this Thursday.
Discussion will be kicked off by presentations from:
Dr. Sami Al Banna, Lifelong Arab Activist for Democracy, Liberation, and Social Justice
Jon Van Camp, long time antiwar and Palestine solidarity activist, ISO member
We also hope to have Egyptian activists skyping into the meeting!
Sponsored by the DC Branch of the International Socialist Organization; email iso_district@yahoo.com for more info.
WHAT HAPPENED TO HOPE & CHANGE? Building Struggle in the Obama Era
One year ago, millions of people arrived in Washington DC to celebrate the election of Barack Obama. Hope and "change we can believe in" was on the agenda. But fast forward one year, and the situation feels very different. Amidst war, poverty, and unemployment, have many asking what happened to "change." It's time to ask the questions:
Why hasn't the Obama administration delivered on any of its promises? Why does Obama try to "reach out" to a vocal right wing gets more confident by the day?How can we build movements to fight for the change we need? Join us for a discussion to debate and discuss how we can build struggle in the age of Obama.
Thursday, February 4, 2010 7:00pm - 9:00pm La Casa Community Center, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St (Mt. Pleasant & Kilbourne), Washington, DC (Columbia Heights/Greenline Metro Stop)
Please join the ISO for an educational meeting on Friedrich Engels' 1880 pamphlet "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific"
Thursday, July 9, 2009, 7pm 3166 Mt. Pleasant St, NW (La Casa Community Church)
The presentation will focus on this excellent, introductory text to Marxism that grapples with the Utopian Socialist writers of the 1800s. While their visions of future societies were made with the best of intentions, these fantastical blueprints failed to end the inequalities of the day. Engels argues that we must use Scientific Socialism, based on an understanding of the working class's position in struggle against the ruling class, to free all humankind from the slavery of Capitalism.
Join us for a discussion of these theories and how we can apply them in our work to end oppression and win justice for the people of the world today.
Readings:
The full text of "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" can be found at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm
You can also find a briefer article about the book by Phil Gasper at http://socialistworker.org/2008/04/11/socialism-utopian-scientific
The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.
The decision Tuesday rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval.
The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.
"This is a video done by a D.C. blogger/vlogger that was done after the D.C. for Marriage meeting on Wednesday of Black people who stand against D.C. Council Member Marion Berry's anti-gay comments and who stand for Marriage Equality in Washington, D.C.! I am included twice in this video, once in the middle and again towards the end. Please share this video; just another way to dispel the myth that not all Black people are homophobic and that there wouldn't be this civil war that Berry speaks of!!!"
Featuring PAUL LeBLANC, author of Revolution, Democracy, Socialism: Selected Writings of Lenin (Pluto Press, 2008)
Saturday, May 16 at 3:00 pm Sankofa Books, 2714 Georgia Ave., NW, Washington, DC
Sponsored by the DC branch of the ISO. For more info, contact us at (202) 903-6906 or iso_district@yahoo.com
The theoretical and practical contributions of Russian socialist Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) to generations of revolutionary working-class struggles have been among the most decisive and significant—and also among the most misunderstood and maligned.
Paul LeBlanc, activist and author, has played an important role in examining Lenin’s thought in the context of his historical role both in Russia and internationally in the lead up to and following the Russian Revolution of 1917. What are the key ideas in Lenin’s thought? Why and how do Lenin’s ideas matter today? What is the relationship of Lenin to the larger Marxist tradition? How has Lenin’s work shaped successive generations of radicals?
Featuring: Sonia Umanzor, FMLN-DC (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional)* Brian Tierney, International Socialist Organization
When: Thurs., May 7 at 7pm
Where: La Casa Church, 3166 Mt. Pleasant St NW, Washington, DC (Columbia Heights metro-Green line)
Contact: 202 903 6906 or iso_district@ yahoo.com
Sponsored by: the DC branch of the International Socialist Organization | www.isodc.blogspot. com | www.socialistworker .org
After years of severely repressive rule in El Salvador, Mauricio Funes of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) won the country's presidency in March. This is a huge victory for the people of El Salvador and their decades-long, hard-fought struggle against the violent, right-wing ARENA party and their US-dictated neoliberal economic policies.
The FMLN's victory in El Salvador mirrors the leftward shift in Latin America as a whole over the past few years -- in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, Evo Morales' Bolivia, and so on. But the leftward tide has been met with major challenges in the form of right wing reaction and the severe repercussions of the global economic crisis. And while the election of Barack Obama has left many hopeful for a new era in US-Latin America relations, many questions remain. What are the implications of the change in El Salvador? Where is US imperialism in Latin America headed? What is next for the left in Latin America? How can activists, progressives and socialists organize in solidarity with struggles for liberation in Latin America?
Join the ISO for a panel discussion that will take on these questions and more.
*For identification purposes only
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*Crisis y cambio: Resistencia en América Latina Hoy*
Con: Sonia Umanzor, Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN)* Brian Tierney, International Socialist Organization (ISO)
Jueves, 7 de Mayo a las 7pm
La Casa Church-3166 Mt. Pleasant St NW (Columbia Heights metro-linea verde)
Building a New Left for a New Era Socialism 2009 Revolutionary politics, debate and entertainment June 18-21, Chicago July 2-5, San Francisco http://www.socialismconference.org
The world economic crisis has shattered the free-market consensus that has dominated politics for the last generation. Meanwhile, the end of the conservative era and the election of the first African American president have raised expectations among working people that long overdue change is coming. With capitalism in crisis, even some in the corporate media are admitting that Karl Marx was right.
There has never been a better time for those who want to see fundamental change to get together to debate, to discuss and organize for a new society—a society based on the needs of the many instead of the whims of a few. In other words, there has never been a better time to organize a new socialist left to meet the challenge of this new era.
That’s the purpose that Socialism 2009—expanded to two sites this year—has set for itself. Gather with activists from all over to take part in dozens of discussions about changing the world: How can we stop the economic madness? Can we end racism? What kind of organization do we need? What would a future socialist society look like?
Yes we can organize for socialism in the 21st century! Si se puede!
Featured Speakers:
MICK ARMSTRONG, Socialist Alternative, Australia; ROSE AGUILAR, host, Your Call, KALW,91.7FM; IAN ANGUS, editor, Climate and Capitalism; DAVID BACON, author, Illegal People; NORA BARROWS-FRIEDMAN, co-host, Flashpoints Radio, KPFA; BARBARA BECNEL,director of Stan Tookie Williams Legacy Network; ROBERT BRENNER, author, The Economics of Global Turbulence; DENNIS BRUTUS, longtime anti-apartheid and global justice activist; PAUL D’AMATO, author of The Meaning of Marxism; NEIL DAVIDSON, University of Strathclyde, Scotland; MIKE DAVIS, author, In Praise of Barbarians; SAM FARBER, author, Origins of the Cuban Revolution; LAURA FLANDERS, host, GRITtv; JOEL GEIER, associate editor, International Socialist Review; TIKVA HONIG-PARNASS, co-author, Between the Lines; DR. JESS GHANNAM, Al-Awda Right of Return Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance; ANAND GOPAL, Kabul correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor; JAMES GREEN, author, Death in the Haymarket; DAHR JAMAIL, author, Beyond the Green Zone; BRIAN JONES, performing Howard Zinn’s play Marx in Soho; CLAUDIO KATZ, author, Las disyuntinvas de la izquierda en America Latina (the challenges of the Latin American Left); NATIVO LOPEZ, president, Mexican American Political Association; ALAN MAASS, editor, Socialist Worker; DAVID McNALLY, New Socialist Group, Canada; MARLENE MARTIN, Campaign to End the Death Penalty; ANURADHA MITTAL, director, the Oakland Institute; CHINA MIEVILLE, author, Un Lun Dun and Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law; DERREL MYERS, Campaign to End the Death Penalty and Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation; CHRISTIAN PARENTI, The Nation, on Afghanistan; JOHN RIDDELL, co-editor, Socialist Voice (Canada); HEATHER ROGERS, author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage; JEFFREY ST. CLAIR, co-editor of CounterPunch.org and author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Green to Me: The Politics of Nature; MARTIN SANCHEZ, consul general of Venezuela, San Francisco; LANCE SELFA, author, The Democrats: A Critical History; AHMED SHAWKI, editor, International Socialist Review; CINDY SHEEHAN, founder, Gold Star Families for Peace; BARRY SHEPPARD, author of The Party: the Socialist Workers Party, 1960-1968; SHARON SMITH, author of Subterranean Fire and Women and Socialism; LEE SUSTAR, labor editor, Socialist Worker; SHERRY WOLF, author, Sexuality and Socialism; KEEANGA-YAMAHTTA TAYLOR, editorial board of International Socialist Review; DAVE ZIRIN, author, A People’s History of Sports; SOCIALISTS from France, Greece, Venezuela, Brazil, and many more!
What you’ll find at Socialism 2009: More than 100 meetings, a bookfair, films, entertainment, and parties.
Check out http://www.socialismconference.org to register and for more information about schedule, housing, and childcare.
Sponsored by: The Center for Economic Research and Social Change Publisher of the International Socialist Review and Haymarket Books.
Co-sponsored by: The International Socialist Organization Publisher of Socialist Worker
Marx is back: Socialist ideas for changing the world!
A day-long conference of revolutionary politics, debate and discussion Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization
Saturday, April 18, 2009 All Soul's Church, 2835 16th Street, NW (16th & Harvard Sts, NW: Columbia Heights metro - Green line)
$5 | $10 solidarity | No one turned away for lack of funds
To secure a ticket and register, email dcsocialistconference@gmail.com or call 202 903 6906.
Schedule:
10am - Registration
11am-12:30pm - Opening Session: Marx is Back! Socialist ideas for changing the world Featuring Sherry Wolf, author of the forthcoming Sexuality and Socialism (Haymarket Books, 2009) and member of the editorial board of the International Socialist Review
12:30pm-1:30pm - Lunch Break
1:30pm-3pm Workshops Session 1
* Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine: Occupation and resistance today * A world without racism, sexism and homophobia?: Marxism and oppression
3pm-3:15pm Break
3:15-4:45pm Workshops Session 2
* Workers Fighting Back: Lessons from the 'Labor Wars' * Why we need a revolutionary party
7pm - Closing plenary: Haymarket Books presents: "Obama and the Left"
Featuring Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies; John Nichols of The Nation magazine; writer and activist Laila Al-Arian; radical sports journalist Dave Zirin
Venue: 1525 Newton St., NW (Closest metro-Columbia Heights metro-Green line)
The DC branch of the ISO will be meeting at Sankofa tomorrow (2714 Georgia Ave NW) at 7 pm for our weekly meeting to discuss The Communist Manifesto and Kim Moody's article on the prospects for a new labor movement, from the latest issue of International Socialist Review.
Be sure to bookmark the events calender for Sankofa to keep up with other activities at this important DC institution.
The DC branch includes activists involved in a wide range of struggles. The overall perspective governing our work is found in the statement Where We Stand.
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