Tucson ISO: Meaning of Marxism (rescheduled)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Meaning of Marxism (rescheduled)

Join us for our next installment of the Meaning of Marxism discussion. We will be meeting at Coffee Xchange on the corner of Campbell and Grant Ave at 8pm, this Thursday October 22nd. Bring a friend and your questions.

We will be discussing Chapters 5 and 6: "No Power Greater -- The Working Class" and "Democracy, Reform, and Revolution".

Chapter Five. “No power greater – the working class”

1. What is the “working class”? Is it anyone that works?

2. What gives wage workers more potential power than slaves or peasants?

3. What did Marx learn from the Paris Commune of 1871?

4. Why do socialists support unions? Are unions enough to fight for socialism?

5. How can workers who today accept life under capitalism come to challenge it?

Chapter Six. “Democracy, Reform, and Revolution

1. We learn in school that the state balances between competing interests. What is the role of the state under capitalism?

2. How democratic is democracy under capitalism?

3. The left calls the Democratic Party the “graveyard of social movements.” What does this mean?

4. Can elections bring socialism?

5. What is the difference between a coup and a revolution?

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Where We Stand

Socialism, Not Capitalism

War, poverty, exploitation and oppression are products of the capitalist system, a system in which a minority ruling class profits from the labor of the majority. The alternative is socialism, a society based on workers collectively owning and controlling the wealth their labor creates.

Workers’ Power

Socialism is working-class self-emancipation. Only mass struggles of the workers themselves can put an end to the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation.

Revolution

We actively support the struggle of workers and all oppressed

people for economic, political and social reforms, both as a means to improve their conditions and to advance their confidence and fighting strength. But reforms within the capitalist system cannot put an end to oppression and exploitation. Capitalism must be replaced.

Internationalism

Capitalism is an international system, so the struggle for socialism must be international, uniting workers of all countries. Socialists oppose imperialism--the division of the globe based on the subjugation of weaker nations by stronger ones—and support the self-determination of oppressed nations. We oppose all immigration controls.

Full Equality and Liberation

Capitalism divides the working class, based on sexual, gender, racial, national and other distinctions. The specially oppressed groups within the working class suffer the most under capitalism. The liberation of the oppressed is essential to socialist revolution and impossible without it.

The Revolutionary Party

To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party. The ISO is committed to playing a role in laying the foundations for such a party. We aim to build an independent socialist organization, rooted in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods that, in fighting today’s struggles, also wins larger numbers to socialism.

*The ISO’s Where We Stand was first adopted at its founding convention in March, 1977. It has been amended on several occasions since, but remains a basic summary of the organization’s political outlook.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Meaning of Marxism (rescheduled)

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