"Can You Imagine Living in a Socialist USA,” – Speak
Out, Friday, October 17 - 4200 Cedar, Minneapolis, MN USA
This ecumenical event was organized by
Socialist Action, which was having a national convention in Minneapolis.
SA is a Trotskyist group loosely affiliated with what is left of the 4th
International grouped around Socialist Viewpoint. On board was a panel of speakers, live and on
Skype, talking about what it would be like to live in a socialist society in
the U.S. The event was coordinated with the 2014 book,
“Imagine Living in a Socialist USA.” Michael Smith, one of the editors, was the
first speaker from New York
via Skype. He humorously described how
he was inspired by Frances Goldin to publish the book, and how they put the arm
on Harper to publish it. 10,000 copies
have been sold so far and more printings are scheduled. It is a series of essays by more than 30
socialists about the need to move to a new kind of society. Well known contributors include: Rick Wolff, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Angela Davis,
William Ayers, Paul Le Blanc, Terry Bisson, Michael Moore, Leslie Cagan as well
as many others. It is in stock at May
Day books right now, 15% off.
Sanna Nimitz Towns, a social activist and
lecturer with a variegated family talked about bringing up children in the
context of Ferguson
and racism. She pointed out that racism
would be dealt with directly under socialism, not ignored. A Native American
activist, Chris Mato Nunpa discussed the connections between the communism
practiced by traditional native peoples and socialism. He also highlighted the fact that native
religious sites are now white property, and so even native religion cannot be
practiced thoroughly anymore. A student
from Superior, WI, Heather Bradford, discussed the ways
debt, clueless tests and high college costs crush students and education, and
why under socialism education would be free and not just job training.
Harry Magdoff, from Vermont
via Skype, writer for Monthly Review, described the different ways socialism
will change the many problems in the U.S. – ecological, democratic,
labor, military. It will enable the
country to immediately deal with ecological problems, will give workers and
employees control of the workplace, will end the warfare state, and will usher
in a period of real democracy, not fake electoral democracy.
Mick Kelly, editor of the Fight Back
newspaper and member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization thanked SA for
their defence of FRSO against the legal attacks of the FBI and U.S. government
for alleged ‘terrorism.’ He talked about
the campaign for justice for Palestinian Rasmea Odeh, who has been accused of ‘immigration
fraud’ and is on trial in Detroit. Supporters have been accused of ‘jury
tampering’ by exercising their free speech.
He urged people to defend Odeh. He stressed that under what he termed
socialism, the capitalists will have to be repressed, as they will attempt a
comeback.
In one of the most interesting speeches, a
labor activist from France
in an observer organization to the Fourth International commented on the recent
struggles of French workers against austerity. His small organization has helped influence the strikes and has brought other leftists into cooperation against
Hollande’s government. A young woman
from Guatemala, who now
lives in the U.S., portrayed
her political awakening to become a socialist revolutionary when she understood
that all the deaths and suffering in Guatemala were being caused by
capitalists, local and international.
Mel Reeves, an activist and pastor on the
north side of Minneapolis, focused on Ebola, and
the racist treatment of the first Ebola patient in the U.S., Thomas Duncan, in Texas.
Reeves made it clear in his inimitable style that Duncan was sent home
because he had no health insurance, he was black, and information about his recently
being in West Africa was ignored by doctors in this ‘world class’ Texas
hospital. Given the paltry response by
the U.S. and the WHO to
Ebola, the real plan seems to be to isolate Africa
and let people die until it endangers the North. Cuba, by contrast, immediately sent
large medical teams. He urged leftists
to show up on the North Side so that young black activists can actually see
that white radicals give a damn about issues like Ferguson and Ebola.
Linnea Sommer, a relative of one of the
1934 labor activists, Chester Johnson, who was involved in the Minneapolis
Teamster strikes during that period, commented on how her grandfather would
have appreciated Occupy and the young activists in Ferguson.
Ricardo Levins-Morales, an activist artist and educator from Minneapolis, linked
society, nature and the body when he described how we should reject poisons in
each one of these areas, poisons produced on a daily basis by capitalism. A young member of Socialist Alternative,
Chris Gray, mentioned the recent major electoral victory of their candidate,
Kshama Sawant, in Seattle. This victory indicates that the word
‘socialism’ is no longer the bourgeois bogeyman it once was under Reagan and Clinton. Among younger people, surveys show they are now
more positive towards that term than the term ‘capitalism.’
Lastly, a Canadian comrade with Socialist
Action Canada, Barry Weisleder, poked fun at his comrades in the U.S., insisting Canada
will get to socialism before the US, given it already has a partially
class-based party, the NDP, and socialized medicine.
However, no one who presented had lived or
was living in ‘actually-existing socialism,’ as the torturous term goes. Nor was there a mention that a version or
versions of ‘socialism’ have been tried or are still in existence. That would have been an improvement, and
given a bit of reality and grounding to the talks. What is needed is to incorporate the
experience of the actual past and present, both positive and negative, into any
struggle for the future of socialism, instead of turning a blind eye.
Red Frog
October 22, 2014
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