4/27/11

4/27: City Branch Meeting

Wed 7pm
Seattle Central Community College room 4115

1707 Broadway on Capitol Hill

1) SEIU work (40 min)
We'll discuss the union work in SEIU Local 925 at the University of Washington.

2) Kickoff meeting (20 min)
We'll discuss next week's meeting "Everything you ever wanted to know about Socialism but were afraid to ask!" We'll discuss our new Q&A format for this meeting, and how we can build it this weekend at May day.

3) May Day plans (20 min)
We'll discuss the politics and logistics of sunday, also discuss possibility of doing an extended pre-meeting/political discussion

4/22/11

4/21-23 Common Spaces NW

Join us at UW's own "Left Forum" Common Spaces Northwest
April 21-23rd at UW


Common Spaces Northwest began from an idea: what sort of incredible fusion of prowess and flowering of community can happen if we just got people together to talk? What kind of concepts or changes can we inspire? So often the barriers between activism, theory, and feeling are so high–Common Spaces Northwest seeks to bring them down and open this conversation to everyone who wants to participate, everyone who’s concerned with these problems. Join us this weekend at Common Spaces NW and get this conversation started!

The ISO is sponsoring three workshops:
  • Capitalism in Crisis; The Case for Socialism, Friday 3:30-5:30PM, Gould 440 Facebook Event
  • How Capitalism Works & How it Doesn't: A Marxist Primer on the Great Recession, Friday 5:30-7:30 Gould 440  Facebook Event
  • The 1919 Seattle General Strike: Lessons for Today, Saturday 3-5PM, Gould 440  Facebook Event
Check out the full schedule at www.commonspacesnw.org

4/19/11

4/20: City Branch Meeting

Wed 7pm
Seattle Central Community College room 4115

1707 Broadway on Capitol Hill

1) UFCW work (40 min)
Jorge and/or Darrin will present on the contract negotiation at Madison Market coop and general work they've been a part of in the UFCW

2) May Day! we'll discuss our plans for the May Day March

3)Fundraising
We'll brainstorm a plan to raise funds to help bring people to Socialism 2011 conference in Chicago, IL. Come with your ideas!

4/13/11

UW 4/13: The Case for Socialism

Are you fed up with Endless War? Budget Cuts?
Racism? Homophobia? Sexism?
Environmental destruction?
Islamophobia? Corporate greed?



All of the above?
Then come to the UW branch's Case for Socialism meeting
Wednesday, April 13th 6pm
UW, Savery Hall 157



With revolution sweeping the middle east and the labor struggle in Wisconsin building steam, discussing and organizing around socialist politics is imperative for building a radical alternative to Capitalism and all the problems born from it.

Socialism is based on the idea that we should use the vast resources of society to meet people's needs. If people are hungry, they should be fed; if people are homeless, we should build homes for them; if people are sick, the best medical care should be available to them. Socialism would take the wealth of the rich which was gained through the exploitation of the workers and use it to meet the basic needs of all society. Instead of a society based on meeting the needs of the people, we have been through years of war for oil and empire, decades of rollbacks on worker's wages and living-standards, attacks on civil rights and women's rights, cuts in health-care, and more. On top of this, the most recent economic crisis has ushered in a new age of austerity where the collapse caused by the wealthy is being shoveled off onto the backs of the working class.

Come to this forum to participate in a discussion on how we can organize society without war and racism, a society based on human need instead of corporate greed.

4/11/11

4/12: Support the Contract Struggle of Workers at Central Co-op/Madison Market!


4/4/11

4/6: City Branch Meeting: Spring of the Egyptian Revolution

The city branch is still finalizing a permanent meeting location (hopefully on capitol hill), so we'll be at UW again this week

Wed 4/6 7pm
UW, Parrington Hall Room 106


1. Spring of the Egyptian Revolution - 50 mins

The downfall of Hosni Mubarak was an historic achievement, but the revolutionary process in Egypt is ongoing. We'll watch a speech from the Left Forum given by Mostafa Omar, an Egyptian-American activist who reported from Cairo during February's revolutionary upheavals.


Join us to watch the speech and then for a discussion about what's unfolding in Egypt, the dynamics of revolutions in general and the role of revolutionaries as well as the implications and lessons for the struggles unfolding across the middle east right now.


After our political discussion we'll have time for organizing
2. Organizing - 50 mins
We've just achieved one of our long-term goals, splitting into two branches (a city and a UW student branch)! Join us the new City branch as we discusses new goals and vote on the priorities for our organizing. 

4/1/11

SocialistWorker.org Weekend Edition





Weekend focus: Middle East
Speech: Mostafa Omar
THE SPRING OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION 
Egypt's process of social and human transformation that began with the uprising against Hosni Mubarak is continuing and taking up new questions.


Analysis: David Whitehouse
ANOTHER TYRANT AT THE BRINK 
A youth revolt in Yemen has spearheaded a nationwide movement that is on the verge of bringing down yet another U.S.-backed strongman.


Analysis
SYRIA REACHES THE BOILING POINT The Syrian regime is using repression and promises of reform to try to contain mass demonstrations spreading across the country.


Weekend focus: Libya

Comment: Lance Selfa
IS U.S. INTERVENTION JUSTIFIED? 
Several important figures on the left have mistakenly joined the chorus of support for Western military intervention in Libya.

Comment: Kevin Ovenden
ARAB REVOLUTION IN ARAB HANDS  
Left-wing voices like Gilbert Achcar's are badly mistaken to give their support to Western intervention against the Qaddafi regime in Libya.


Comment: Mike Marqusee
CRUISE MISSILE LIBERATION? 
The hypocrisy and double standards of NATO's Libya campaign flow directly from the West's overarching agenda.


Top articles of the week

Analysis: Elizabeth Schulte
NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE USA 
Japan's disaster should prove there's no such thing as "safe" nuclear power--but it's a lesson U.S. politicians and business leaders haven't learned.


Editorials
THE ANTI-ABORTION ONSLAUGHT More than 350 anti-abortion-related bills are moving through state legislatures this year, as the right attempts to further restrict the right to choose.


Analysis: Lee Sustar
LABOR AFTER WISCONSIN  
After the greatest labor mobilization in decades, unions have showed their power to fight. So why are union leaders still retreating?


Comment: Alan Maass
WHY DO WE NEED ORGANIZATION? 
Socialist organizations have played an important role in the great revolutionary struggles of the past. But they can't be formed out of nothing overnight.


From the archives
Interview: Mike Davis

THE REBELLION IN LOS ANGELES The eruption of protest and rioting in Los Angeles in 1992 was an expression of the decades of accumulated anger at racism and class inequality.

History of our movement

Comment: Brian Erway
THE SOCIALIST PARTY AND THE WAR 
Even as it was experiencing electoral successes, the Socialist Party was deeply divided--the First World War would be a crucial turning point.



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