Socialism 2024, a Short Response to Joe Allen
Last week, we ran an article by Joe Allen on his experience at Socialism 2024, which took place over Labor Day weekend in Chicago, sponsored by Haymarket Books. Joe’s piece, which addressed “The Palestine Wave” at this year’s conference, was good but missed the mark.
He writes:
Diversity of opinions is not the issue, but the lack of a concrete perspective to lead the left is, especially when it comes to the Democratic Party.
I’m unsure precisely where Joe was, but we must have attended different conference sessions.
Several talks and discussions I sat in on, including Laura Flanders’s excellent live broadcast with Nick Estes, Rachel Herzing, and Hersha Waila on “How Can the Left Respond to this Moment,” directly addressed the election debacle. It was a packed room and a lively, positive discussion.
Throughout the conference, the overarching theme was the Democrat’s overt complicity in genocide and the efforts to organize for Palestinian liberation outside of the electoral arena (where, of course, is the only place it will happen).
Overall, that was the takeaway, at least for me — the genocide in Palestine won’t end in the voting booth this November, nor will it put a stop to settler-colonialism, white supremacy, climate change, or capitalism. As Noura Erakat affirmed during her fabulous talk, all modes of resistance when it comes to Palestine, from legal to direct action, matter.
My good friends Janene Yazzie and Ray Acheson echoed the same in our CounterPunch-sponsored panel on the need to “End Sacrifice Zones.”
Ultimately, my pal Joe’s gripe seems to be that the conference was not an ISO-sponsored weekend (like it was in the past) with a singular socialist perspective.
For nearly twenty five years, the Socialism conference was organized by the International Socialist Organization (ISO), and it took clear and concise positions on the crucial question before the U.S. Left, especially on the Democratic Party. That came to an abrupt end in 2019 with the collapse of the ISO. Many of the pre-2019 workshops are still available, here. If we can combine the best of what the Socialism conference today with that of the past, I think we can build a much stronger, clearer, and resilient left in the United States.
Personally, I am relieved the conference has shed its ISOisms. As a result, today’s Socialism Conference is much larger, more diverse, more spirited, and intellectually stimulating—at least from this outsider’s perspective (I was never an ISO member but attended many conferences).
The organizers this year must be commended. Never before have so many Indigenous folks been able to share their perspectives in these types of circles, and never before have I seen such solidarity for Palestine that wasn’t in the streets.
It was indeed a wave, as Joe put it.
That alone made the conference a unique, grounded, and vital congregating place for today’s left. (Did anyone shed a tear that Jacobin wasn’t there? Asking for a friend.)
Should Socialism 2024 have been a referendum on electoral politics and the failing, grotesque, blood-thirsty Democratic Party? I think, especially when it came to Israel’s onslaught in Palestine and how we can fight to stop it — it was.
Despite our various takeaways, we all agree that much more must be done. I hope the tremendous energy generated over those few days in Chicago can carry us arm-in-arm, in the spirit of resistance, through the tumultuous months ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment