ISO New Members Study Packet Design By Rachel Wilsey www.rachelwilseydesign.com Table of Table Contents 3 A Quick Intro to the ISO 5 Where We Stand Section One: What is Socialism Really About? 7 The Case for Socilaism 17 The Meaning of the Manifesto Section Two: Leninism, the Revolutionary Party, and the Revolutinary Newspaper 21 From Workers’ Revolt to Revolution 22 Why We Need to Build a “Vanguard” Party 23 What Kind of Party do we Need? 27 Why We Sell Socialist Worker Newspaper 29 Speaking for the Oppressed 31 Lenin and the Socialist Paper 32 In Defense of Leninism Section Three: Marxism and the Fight Against Oppression 39 Marxism and Oppression 46 The Roots of Racism 48 An Issue of Life and Death...for Women Abortion is Every Woman's Right 50 Republicans and Democrats Preach "Family Values" Hypocrisy Behind the Attack on Gay Marriage Section Four: The Russian Revolution and the Real Marxist Tradition 53 The Revolutionary Tradition 58 How the Russian Revolution Was Won 63 How Russia went from a workers’ state to state capitalism: Why did Stalin rise to power? Further Readings on War, Imperialism & Zionism 65 Dividing the Globe in the Name of Democracy and Freedom Washington’s New Imperialism 66 Why We Say: US Out of Iraq Now! 68 Howard Zinn–the Logic of Withdrawal 69 The Hiden History of Zionism page 2 A Quick Intro to the ISO The International Socialist Organization is committed to building an not only to put out an alternative perspective on the crisis in our world revolutionary organization that participates in the struggles for justice than the one we all get from the corporate media, but more impor- and liberation today—and, ultimately, for a future socialist society. The tantly to meet and talk to people about socialist politics, and to try to ISO has branches across the country whose members are involved in get them involved in activism and in the ISO. Every member should helping to build a number of struggles: the movement to stop war and sign up for two sales a week. At the branch meeting, you can find out occupation, the immigrant rights movement and other fights against when and where these sales happen and sign up. racism, the struggle for women’s rights–like the right to choose abor- tion, opposing anti-gay bigotry, and standing up for workers’ rights. Activist Work The misery that millions of people around the world face is rooted in As socialists, we think that the only way that capitalism can ultimately the society we live in—capitalism, where the few who rule profit from be overthrown is by the active revolutionary struggle of the majority of the labor of the vast majority of the population. In the U.S., a tiny pro- working people. But during most periods, the majority of workers portion of the population enjoys fantastic wealth, while millions of peo- aren’t convinced of the need to get rid of capitalism. People can occa- ple live in desperate poverty, and many more live paycheck to pay- sionally be convinced of the need for socialism through discussion check. Yet we have the resources to feed, clothe and educate every- alone, but in most cases, people’s ideas about society change through one on the planet. A world free of exploitation—socialism—is not struggle—whether it be in workplace struggles against paycuts and only possible but worth fighting for. The ISO stands in the tradition of layoffs or for unionization, or struggles to end war, against police bru- revolutionary socialists like Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and tality, and more. Through our participation in various struggles, we Leon Trotsky in the belief that workers hope not only to win victories against war, themselves—the vast majority of the pop- racism, etc., but also to convince others ulation—are the only force that can lead The ISO stands in the tradition involved in these struggles of the need to the fight to win a socialist society. fight for a different type of society altogeth- Socialism can’t be brought about from of revolutionary socialists like er—a socialist society. Many of the activists above, but has to be won by workers Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, Rosa of the 1960s and 1970s became revolution- themselves. The Democratic Party, much Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky ary socialists as their ideas changed in the like the Republicans, acts in the interests course of struggles against the Vietnam War, of Corporate America and the privileged in the belief that workers against women’s oppression, and against few at the top. Therefore, we do not sup- themselves—the vast majority racism. port their candidates. We see our task as of the population—are the building an independent socialist organi- The ISO is involved in many struggles, such zation with members organizing in our only force that can lead the as building the immigrant rights and anti-war workplaces, our schools and our neigh- fight to win a socialist society. movements, supporting workers’ struggles, borhoods to bring socialist ideas to the campaigning against the death penalty, struggles we are involved in today, and defending abortion rights, and many other the vision of a socialist world in the future. issues. Around certain areas of activism that a branch relates to every week, we have fractions set up so that those THE WAY A BRANCH WORKS: ISO members involved in a particular area of struggle can meet and Meetings collectively strategize and discuss our work in these movements. We Most branches meet once a week, these meetings will usually either also have a branch-building fraction that is more exclusively focused be: public meetings on some relevant political topic that we advertise on political educaation and how to build the ISO. Everyone in the broadly; organizing meetings that we use to have discussions of our branch should be involved in one of these fractions. different areas of work, to gain a clear political perspective on the political issues of the day, or educational meetings to discuss an issue Publications of socialist theory that we use to deepen our understanding of how we In addition to our weekly newspaper, Socialist Worker, and its bi- can change society. monthly spanish language supplement, Obrerro Socialista, the ISO has several other important publications that we use: The International Socialist Worker Sales Socialist Review, our bi-monthly magazine. The ISR features longer, The other major activity that members of the branch participate in more theoretical articles as well as interviews with important activists each week is selling our newspaper, Socialist Worker, and its bi- from struggles around the world. There are excellent archives and monthly spanish language supplement, Obrerro Socialista. We do this resources on our websites. (www.socialistworker.org and page 3 www.isreview.org) viding translation services and/or child care) or for special events or actions. But on a national level we rely on our own members’ monthly We support Haymarket Books—an independent left wing book pub- contributions to keep our organization running. That is why every lisher that has put out a number of cutting edge books in the last few member of the ISO is expected to pay dues. Without these funds, we years, ranging from Marxist theory and tradition to detailed historical could not put out any of our publications, nor could we hold meet- analysis of important events of the past two centuries. In order to arm ings—basically, dues enable us to function politically. If members ourselves for the fight for a better world, we need to take ideas seri- have a bank account and are able to, they should get on dues check- ously and learn the lessons of past victories as well as defeats. off. This simply means that your dues will automatically be deducted Haymarket books are an excellent tool for this. Check out their cata- from your bank account every month so the treasurer doesn’t have logue at haymarketbooks.org to track people down and get cash from them, and it greatly facili- tates the functioning of our branch and our organization as a whole. Dues Talk to the branch treasurer about getting on dues check-off. We live in a capitalist society where very little can be accomplished without money. The ISO is a completely self-funded organization. That means that we don’t have any funds outside of what our members themselves can raise. Often we will hold public fundraisers to pay for the weekly operation of our branch (renting meeting space and pro- Local Branch Publications Contact & meeting info: www.socialistworker.org www.isreview.org www.haymarketbooks.org Lee el número más reciente de Obrero Socialista, el suplemento en español de Socialist Worker. www.socialistworker.org/Obrero.shtml page 4 Where We Stand Socialism, Not Capitalism Internationalism War, poverty, exploitation and oppression are products of the capitalist Capitalism is an international system, so the struggle for socialism system, a system in which a minority ruling class profits from the labor must be international, uniting workers of all countries. Socialists of the majority. The alternative is socialism, a society based on work- oppose imperialism–the division of the globe based on the subjugation ers collectively owning and controlling the wealth their labor creates. of weaker nations by stronger ones–and support the self-determina- tion of oppressed nations. We oppose all immigration controls. We stand in the Marxist tradition, founded by Karl Marx and Frederick We oppose U.S. intervention in Cuba, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Engels, and continued by V.I.