8/31: Jim Crow in Palestine

Wed 8/31 7pm
Eyewitness report from Palestine
UW, Parrington Hall 106

Jesse Hagopian recently returned from the West Bank, Sderot (bordering Gaza), Tel Aviv, and occupied East Jerusalem, where he was part of the first African Heritage delegation to Palestine. The delegation, sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB), brought African Americans--including several who grew up under Jim Crow segregation--with firsthand experiences of racism in the U.S. to Palestine in order to express solidarity with the struggle for liberation there.  As Israel has again begun bombing Gaza, debates arise about the nature of the mass public housing movement among Israelis, and mass movements in the Middle East continue to reshape the Arab World, come join the International Socialist Organization for this eyewitness account and slide show of apartheid in the holy land--and help organize opposition an alternative. 

Jesse Hagopian, a member of theInternational Socialist Organization, is a public high school teacher in Seattle and a founding member Social EqualityEducators (SEE, a rank-and-file organization of teachers in the Seattle teacher's union). Hagopian serves on the Board of Directors of Maha-Lilo—“Many Hands, Light Load”—a Haiti solidarity organization.  Hiswritings on Palestine, Haiti and in defense of public education have appeared in, The Seattle Times, socialistworker.org, Real Change, Truth Out, TheProgessive.org, Common Dreams, Counter Punch, and BlackAgenda Report.

Summer Study Series: Party & Class

This week we begin Part Two of our Summer Study Series -- Lenin & the Revolutionary Party.

Given the new era of class struggle and fight back against austerity and oppression, the question of how to best organize our side has a new urgency. Come discuss the role of the revolutionary party and learn from the history of the Bolsheviks, who carried out the first successful socialist revolution.

WED August 24: Party & Class

7-9 pm Room 106

UW, Parrington Hall

Intro/overview:
Lenin's Theory of the Party by Todd Chretien

Main Reading:
Party & Class (collected essays)

Supplementary Readings:
Marxism and political organization by Elizabeth Schulte
Lenin's Return by Helen Scott, Paul LeBlanc & Lars Lih
Marxism & the Party by John Molynieux

8/17: Recession 2.0 & Veterans, bus riders and womens rights organizing reports

Wed 7-9pm
UW Campus
Parrington Hall, Room 106

1) Recession 2.0?
(30 mins)
Stock prices are once again in freefall following Standard & Poor's downgrade of the US credit rating last week, triggering fears of a double dip recession. Coming on the heels of a "recovery" which has brought nothing but skyrocketing unemployment, foreclosures and budget cuts for ordinary people, what will this latest crisis mean for the working class and US politics in general?

Check out these articles:
What's causing the market mayhem?
Killing off the welfare state
Euro saved at workers' expense

2) Organizing Reports and Discussion
(30 mins each)

Iraq Veterans Against the War convention report-back
Jorge G attended the annual IVAW convention in Portland this last weekend, and he'll give us a report on how it went, plans for IVAW organizing locally, and potentially a discussion on possibilities for antiwar organizing in Seattle

Save Our Metro
The newly-formed Save Our Metro is hitting the streets organizing in opposition to proposed cuts to bus services activists with the campaign will will report on how the organizing's been going, next steps after the car-tab and future plans.

Seattle Clinic Defense
Seattle Clinic Defense has been taking on the Knights of Columbus, supporting planned parenthood and holding book discussion groups. Liz will tell us all about how it's been going.


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And Next Week We Continue our Summer Study Series, moving on to discuss Lenin and the Revolutionary Party

WED August 24: Party & Class

Intro/overview:
Lenin's Theory of the Party by Todd Chretien

Main Reading:
Party & Class (collected essays)

Supplementary Readings:
Marxism and political organization by Elizabeth Schulte
Lenin's Return by Helen Scott, Paul LeBlanc & Lars Lih
Marxism & the Party by John Molynieux

Video-Revolt against Austerity in Britain

British Socialist Donny Gluckstein spoke last week at the UW about the revolt against the austerity budget in Britain. Very timely due to recent events.

8/10: The Paris Commune: A Revolutionary Democracy

Special presentation by the author Donny Gluckstein (visiting from London!)

Wednesday, August 10, 7pm
UW Parrington Hall room 106

For two months in 1871, the workers of Paris took control of Europe’s most celebrated capital city. When they established the world’s first workers’ democracy—the Paris Commune—they found no ready-made blueprints, and no precedents to study for how to run their city without princes, prison wardens, or professional politicians. All they had was the boundless revolutionary enthusiasm of Paris’s socialists, communists, anarchists, and radical Jacobins, all of whom threw their energies into creating a new society.

As the city’s bakers, industrial workers, and other “ruffians” built new institutions of collective political power to overturn social and economic inequality, their former rulers sought to thwart their efforts by any means necessary—ultimately deciding to drown the Communards in blood.

By paying particular attention to the historic problems of the Commune, critical debates over its implications, and the glimpse of a better world the Commune provided, Gluckstein reveals its enduring lessons and inspiration for today’s struggles.

About the author

Donny Gluckstein’s previous books include The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class (Bookmarks, 1999) and The Tragedy of Bukharin (Pluto, 1994). Gluckstein is a lecturer in history in Edinburgh and is a member of the Socialist Workers' Party (UK).

Learn more

Intro/overview:
The Civil War in France (Review) by Elizabeth Lalasz

Main reading:
The Paris Commune: A Revolutionary Democracy by Donny Gluckstein

Supplementary readings:
The Civil War in France by Marx
The Women Incendiaries by Edith Thomas

8/3: Donny Gluckstein: Revolt Against Austerity in the UK

750,000 Public Sector workers struck across Britain on June 30th against austerity and cuts imposed by the ruling Conservative Party. In December over 50,000 students demonstrated in London against increased education fees and stormed the ‘Tory’ Party headquarters. Don’t miss this chance to discuss the growing fightback against austerity with one of Britain’s leading Socialists!

Donny Gluckstein is a veteran member of the British Socialist Workers Party, a lecturer in history in Edinburgh, and and author of many books including Marxism and the Trade Union Struggle with Tony Cliff, The Paris Commune: A Revolutionary Democracy, The Nazis, Capitalism and the Working Class, The Tragedy of Bukharin, and The Western Soviets: Workers’ Councils Versus Parliament in 1915-20.