Ortega, 19, is a student at Essex Community College and is working as a cutter in a garment shop over the summer. He and two other Young Socialists in Newark, New Jersey—Chauncey Robinson and Tom Baumann—have been participating in a weekly class series on the two most recent issues of the Marxist magazine New International. The classes are being organized by SWP branches across the United States.
“Their Transformation and Ours,” which has been published in issue no. 12 of New International, is the main political resolution to be discussed and voted on by the delegates to the 43rd constitutional convention of the Socialist Workers Party. The lead article in that issue is “Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun,” a report presented by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes that was adopted by the party’s 2002 convention. The classes, open to those interested in learning more about the socialist movement, have been an important part of the preparations for the convention.
“The classes are giving me a more concrete understanding of what’s causing the shakiness of the economy,” Ortega told the Militant. He said that after a recent meeting of youth planning to attend the world youth festival in Venezuela this summer, one student argued that the U.S. economic problems stemmed from the collapse of “dot-coms” that proliferated during the 1990s. “I told him that’s only part of a much deeper problem for capitalism,” stated Ortega. “In New International it explains why, to see the real crisis, the debt bubble that’s growing, you have to look at what’s happening to the big banks today.”
Chauncey Robinson said, “The classes are important because you have to get to know your opponent, which is capitalism.” She said, “the article explains how they’re reshaping the military, how they’re shifting from big bases like the ‘mini-Americas’ in Germany, to the so-called lily pads they are setting up” as jumping-off points to be able to rapidly launch military assaults around the world.
Robinson, 19, who works at a department store and goes to school at Essex Community College, said that when she joins campaign teams in working-class districts, “a lot of people respond when we bring up the need for unions,” the central importance of which is discussed in “Their Transformation and Ours.”
Tom Baumann, 19, just finished his freshman year at the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University. He is currently working a summer job at a meatpacking plant.
“The classes have helped me understand better the work of the party’s industrial fractions,” he said, “why party members are in industrial jobs.” He pointed to a section of the political resolution that outlines the Socialist Workers Party’s turn to the industrial unions.
“I especially like these classes because we’re all equals,” he remarked. “We can all add to the discussions and draw the lessons together.”
“I’m also looking forward to campaigning in New York after the convention,” said Baumann. A drive to put the SWP candidates on the ballot in New York will be mounted in the last half of July (see page 3).
Ben O’Shaughnessy, 19, a student at the State University of New York in Albany, is working to organize a group of students from his area to attend the world youth festival. He took part in one of the recent Sunday morning classes in New York City.
“I found the class very helpful. We only got through three questions in the reading,” he said, because of the discussion they generated. Referring to “Their Transformation and Ours,” he said, “I like the way it’s broken up into what they [the U.S. rulers] are doing and what we need to do. I’m taking a class on U.S. foreign policy, and this reading is useful because it is more working-class oriented.”
Those interested in attending the Socialist Workers Party convention can contact the nearest party branch. They can be found in the directory in this issue.
See link for New International sales offer.