April 28 2007
Socialism Conference in Chicago Draws Militant Workers, Youth & Students
Chicago Branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL is a member of the ANSWER Coalition)

Over 70 people attended an April 28 Socialism Conference in Chicago. The conference, entitled, “The Struggle for Revolutionary Change” was the first of its kind held by the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Chicago.

Participants were young and old and came from every community. The conference was held in Albany Park, a working class community on the Northwest side of Chicago. The highly multi-national community is made up of Latino, Arab, Filipino, Korean, African-American, white workers and others.

The day was filled with lots of discussion, passion and resolutions to struggle for change. The conference opened with a rousing solidarity statement with May 1 immigrant rights marches.

Over the day there were two plenary sessions and two sets of workshops.

Discussion focuses on Ending War, Changing System

“If the War on Iraq is a bad idea in 2008, why should our friends and family be sent to kill and die there in 2007?”  “Is Socialist revolution possible in the United States?” “What lessons can we learn from the experience of revolution in Cuba and the Soviet Union?” These were just a few of the many questions that speakers and participants addressed at the conference.

Stefanie Fisher, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Chicago, chaired the opening panel and led off the conference with an overview of current social problems for workers and their roots in Capitalism.

Yenica Cortes, a PSL member from New York then analyzed the struggles of immigrant communities in the U.S. She talked about how the growth in immigration is caused by an increasingly aggressive U.S. imperialism. She affirmed that the struggle of immigrant workers is central to the struggle of workers against capitalist exploitation here and abroad.

Eugene Puryear, a Howard University student leader, discussed the relationship between Black Liberation and Socialism. He explained that the liberation of workers in the U.S. is impossible without militant support for the African-American struggle against institutionalized racist violence of the capitalist system.

Ken Lurch, National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 3825 talked about the war on workers and how it is directly related to the war on the Iraqi people

Brian Becker, the National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, was the keynote speaker of the event. He spoke of the need for Socialism and building a revolutionary Party that can lead the struggle of the U.S. multi-national working class for emancipation in a time of crisis for the Capitalist system.

Following the opening panel and discussion, the Conference broke into workshops. Party members and friends presented workshops on such issues as U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East and East Africa; the importance of the Cuban and Venezuelan experience to socialism; how capitalism promotes racism, sexism, and homophobia; and a historical analysis of socialist development in the Soviet Union. Each workshop was structured around discussion. Participants engaged in the workshops with extensive questions and comments.

The Conference concluded with a closing panel of speakers. Speakers included Preston Wood, Los Angeles member of the PSL, discussing recent events concerning Cuba and how they impact the workers’ struggle in the U.S.; John Beacham, ANSWER Chicago Coordinator, on why a Socialist Revolution is possible in the U.S.; and Heather Beneno, PSL member in Chicago, addressing why the workers’ struggle requires a Marxist-Leninst Party. Yoani Mendoza, a member of the PSL in Chicago, chaired the closing plenary.

Mass Outreach to Workers in the Name of Socialism Key to Conference Success

The Socialism Conference in Chicago reflected over a month of intense preparation and outreach. PSL members in Chicago organized themselves into outreach teams, and distributed tens of thousands of stickers, flyers and posters all over the city. Party members also attended many local functions to promote the event.

The PSL organizes conferences like the one in Chicago to reach out to people who want to fight against Capitalism. We want to reach out to people and promote the struggle for revolutionary change and Socialism as the only alternative to the unending battles of the working class for justice and equality.

The Albany Park neighborhood was literally covered in outreach materials for the conference. Many people, far beyond the number of people who were able to attend, responded favorably to literature promoting Socialism.

The conference was aided by the Leftist Lounge Chicago, which loaned the Conference paintings to display as part of an exhibit of revolutionary women of color.

One attendee described feeling “incredibly powerful” as she left the Conference after having participated in the panel discussions and the workshops. The Party for Socialism and Liberation plans to follow-up the conference with an intensive educational series on Lenin’s “State and Revolution” on May 19, 20 and 23. For more information call 773-920-7590.

Led by a contingent of Iraq war veterans, active-duty service-members, Gold Star families, and veterans from other past and present wars, the demonstration received a large amount of media coverage. CNN has featured the demonstration, which the report described as a march of tens of thousands, in its rotation since yesterday. The major French newspaper, Le Monde, ran a significant article under the headline, "More than 50,000 People Protest Against the War in Iraq," about the March on the Pentagon as the U.S. component of the world-wide protests marking the beginning of the fifth year of the war against Iraq. The rally was broadcast live on C-span and Al-Jazeera and received wide-spread media coverage. C-span will be replaying the rally, check http://www.cspan.org/ for times.

The March on the Pentagon was not a solitary action but one of more than 1,000 protests that will take place in the U.S. between March 17 and March 20. In Los Angeles , the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition called a demonstration that drew 50,000. Maxine Waters was one of many speakers and music was provided by renowned Ozomatli, Jackson Browne and Ben Harper.

The ANSWER demonstration on March 18 in San Francisco drew 40,000 protesters and filled 15 blocks of Market Street, a six-lane avenue.

The March on the Pentagon took place the day after a severe winter snow and sleet storm suddenly hit northeastern states that prevented many buses from traveling, 700 fights from taking off, and thousands of cars from reaching the March. Motorists were advised throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic region to stay off the road. The large turnout at the demonstration was all the more significant given the hardships people had to endure to participate in the activity. People marched to the Pentagon and stayed as long as they could braving 20 mile-an-hour winds and a windchill factor into the teens.

A great thank you is owed to the committed volunteers who endured a torrential downpour of freezing rain though Friday night to help set up the assembly and rally sites. People stayed overnight with the equipment and then began working again at 5:00 am in complete darkness. The assembly area had become a lake on March 16 and filled with mud by the time the march stepped off. The windchill in the early 

The front banner for the March on the Pentagon

hours was not far above zero.  At the rally site the large tents and canopies blew down. Volunteers continued to work long hours after the rally ended to take-down, pack, clean the entire area and unload trucks. The anti-war movement is growing both numerically and its organizational capability and the tireless work of volunteers forms the core of this success.

The lead banner of the march demanding US Out of Iraq Now was carried by Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney, Jonathan Hutto co-founder of Appeal for Redress, Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and youth and students in the anti-war movement.

Pentagon Prevents Immortal Technique and Others from Joining the Rally

The Pentagon and Virginia State Police, many clad in riot gear, wearing gas masks and wielding batons, blocked people coming from the subway/metro who wanted to attend the demonstration. They also blocked buses from accessing the Pentagon in contravention of the agreements reached in the permit. This required people to walk nearly two miles to get to their buses following the rally.

Many people who came to the rally after it had begun - some who had seen the huge march at a distance as it crossed over the Memorial Bridge across the roadways and wanted to then join the activity - were blocked by the Pentagon and the police from entering the rally site through a maze of misdirection, road closures and threats of arrest at multiple different locations. The ANSWER Coalition worked to get people in, and ANSWER organizers and our attorneys went to the site of sudden police confrontations and shutdowns, but many people were still unable to get in including the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique who was scheduled to perform. 

Like so many other people, the hip-hop artist Immortal Technique's travel plans to get to the demonstration, seemed so daunting as to be virtually impossible. But due to his determination and his resourcefulness, he found a way to overcome cancelled flights and frozen roads. Although he rebooked flights in order to land in North Carolina, personally rented a car and drove it to Washington D.C., the Pentagon and law enforcement blocked him from coming into the rally where he was going to perform. We urge everyone to read Immortal Technique's compelling account -- which is both a narrative and a political commentary. Immortal Technique's message below should be read and circulated to your e-mail address book and to e-mail lists everywhere.

Message from Immortal Technique:

"First and foremost I would like to congratulate the organizers of ANSWER and in specific Brian, Amelia, Peta, and Sarah and the many others who reached out to me and who I saw make a powerful statement today. I am not a big fan of marches and rallies because I have always believed that the system must be attacked economically above all. But, if coordinated well, they can effect change and remind people that this war is still costing lives and no matter who the father of Anna Nicole's Baby is or who wins the next season of American Idoll or what new song is on the radio, people are dying, both from this country and in massive numbers in the Iraqi Civil War. March 17th, even with all the problems we faced, was a success in reminding people of the insurmountable evidence of corruption, self righteous moral depravity, and dishonesty present within our government... Because we have issue with the administration we should not be painted as people who despise their country. If I am not pleased with a book I read or a movie I watch that doesn't mean I hate the concept of film in general or that I take issue with printed literature on a whole. The administration presently tries to attach itself to the idea of America as if they were the far right standard by which all should be judged by as Americans. This White House after all just concerns itself with the well being of its stock holders, make-shift praetorian guard of politicians and political contributors. Click to see the rest of Immortal Technique's message.

March 10
Benefit for Students Scholarships to March 17 March on Pentagon
Heather Beneno, ANSWER Chicago

On March 10, a crowd of fifty people attended a rousing ANSWER benefit entitled “Why I am Marching on the Pentagon.”  The proceeds raised at the benefit went to fund student scholarships to attend the March 17^th March on the Pentagon.

The agenda was filled with speakers, musicians and other performers.  Speakers presented on why they were marching on the Pentagon.  Speakers included:

• Yoani Me ndoza, ANSWER Organizer

• Riko Rosete, Committee on Pilipino Issues

• Liz Lazdins, World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime

• Andy Thayer, Gay Liberation Network, M20 Coalition Against the War

• John Beacham, ANSWER Coordinator

• Stephanie Mitchell, Chicago State Student

Heather Beneno, an ANSWER organizer, chaired the benefit and spoke on why people from the Middle East are marching on the Pentagon to stop the War on Iraq . 

The benefit was a lively display of solidarity against war, occupation and imperialism.  A.J. Viola, a local poet and photographer, presented a poem on why she was marching on the Pentagon.  Agents of Change also performed a musical set.

The evening concluded with an open mike session.  Attendees used the open mike to show their solidarity with the anti-war effort.

February 22
International Women’s Forum
packs ANSWER Chicago office
Report by Heather Beneno
Fight Sexism and Racism!

On Thursday, February 22, 2007, ANSWER Chicago hosted a Forum entitled “Women in Struggle: Fight Sexism and Racism!” The event featured a diverse array of speakers and concluded with lively discussion. A main theme of the meeting was solidarity with the struggle of immigrant women.

The Women’s Forum was chaired by Jacqui Scott, an ANSWER organizer. She started the evening by recounting the history of International Women’s Day, March 8. The first speaker was Stephanie Mitchell who gave an update on the U.S. government’s attacks on African-American revolutionary Assata Shakur.

Heather Beneno of the Party for Socialism and Liberation spoke on the struggles of Iraqi and Palestinian women. Mathilda De Dios, an activist with the Committee on Pilipino Issues, followed with a talk on the struggles of Pilipino women who immigrate from the Philippines to the U.S. Finally, Chicago organizer of the March on the Pentagon Stefanie Beacham related the struggle of women to the importance of the upcoming March in Washington DC.

The talks provoked a lively discussion. Comments ranged from stories of Palestinian resistance in Gaza, to expressions of solidarity with women all over the world who are fighting occupation. Participants vowed to unite the struggle for women’s liberation with the anti-war struggle and all other people’s struggle on the steps of the Pentagon on March 17 in Washington DC.

Report from January 27, 2007 March on Congress
Stephanie Mitchell and Stefanie Beacham, ANSWER Chicago

ANSWER Coalition activists from Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, New Haven, Conn., Reno, NV and San Francisco participated in the January 27 March on Congress to end the War in Iraq . Estimates vary, but well over 100,000 people marched in the demonstration. It was a strong and broad outpouring of opposition to the war. Thousands of young people traveled from all over the country to flood the streets of the Capitol and build resistance to the war.

Starting in the early morning and going into the late afternoon, ANSWER activists formed outreach teams to spread the word about the upcoming March 17 March on the Pentagon on the 4th Anniversary of the Iraq War. Volunteers worked all week to prepare thousands of placards and banners. Tens of thousands of flyers, stickers and buttons were distributed for the Pentagon protest by over a hundred experienced and new volunteers. Feelings about ending the war were so deep that dozens of people volunteered, on the spot, to help pass out stickers and other materials. Enthusiasm for the March on the Pentagon was widespread with many people wanting more information on how to organize in their cities and communities for the upcoming march.