The Rochester Marxist Conference

The 2010 Rochester Marxist Conference presents
THE REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS OF KARL MARX
A serious crisis demands serious ideas

October 15th - 16th

Featuring:
Sherry Wolf - Leading LGBT rights activist and author of “Sexuality and Socialism”
Alan Maass - Editor of Socialist Worker.org and author of “The Case for Socialism”
Ashley Smith - American Marxist, Journalist and leading Voice in US Antiwar Movement

Rochester Institute of Technology
All sessions in The “Idea Factory” in the Wallace Library

Sponsored by the RIT International Socialist Organization
http://www.RochesterISO.org
iso.rochester@gmail.com

Free Admission. Donations accepted.
Recommended Parking: U-Lot. http://facilities.rit.edu/campus/maps

SCHEDULE (scroll down further for detailed descriptions of speakers and sessions)

Friday
7:00 pm - Session 1 - "Why are US politics shifting to the right and what can we do about it?"
Speaker: Sherry Wolf

Saturday
1:00 pm - Session 2 - "Marx’s Theory of Working Class Revolution"
Speaker: Alan Maass

3:00 pm - Session 3 - "Can the Working Class Unite?"
Speaker: Sherry Wolf

5:00 pm Pizza Dinner Break

6:00 pm - Session 4 - "Marxism and Political Organization"
Speaker: Ashley Smith


Ashley Smith
Ashley Smith is an American Marxist activist, journalist and editor. Ashley regularly speaks at rallies and demonstrations against the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, warning about the effects of globalization in poverty stricken nations like Haiti and Sudan, and the growing economic conflicts between the US and China.

Recent Articles:
http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/02/peace-talks-on-israeli-terms
http://socialistworker.org/2010/08/02/betrayal-of-haiti

Sherry Wolf
Sherry Wolf is best known for authoring, “Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation.” She is also associate editor of the International Socialist Review and tours the country speaking on issues of equality and social justice.

Sherry served on the executive committee of the National Equality March Oct. 11, 2009 and has written for publications including the Nation, MRZine, Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, and Socialist Worker and speaks frequently across the country on the struggle for LGBT liberation as well as a wide range of social and economic jus- tice issues.

Most recently, Sherry was featured on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” where she defended religious tolerance and the right of Muslims to practice their religion in a mosque in downtown Manhattan.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38832480/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews

Her Blog: http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com

Recent Articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/01/meet-sherry-wolf-chicagoa_n_596485.html
http://www.isreview.org/issues/72/rev-athletes.shtml

Alan Maass
Alan Maass is the editor of SocialistWorker.org, a daily Web site of left news and views, and Socialist Worker, a monthly national newspaper. He has contributed to numerous publications and Web sites, including the International Socialist Review, Chicago Reader, CounterPunch, ZNet, Dissident Voice, SleptOn.com, In These Times, Socialist Review, In- ternational Socialism Journal, Rouge, New Politics and others.

Maass is author of the book The Case for Socialism (Haymarket Books) http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/The-Case-for-Socialism
an introduction to the socialist tradition, now in its third edition and published with an afterword by How- ard Zinn. Maass also contributed to the collections Independent Politics: The Green Party Strategy Debate (Haymarket Books) and Racing in the Streets: The Bruce Springsteen Reader (Penguin).

Recent Articles:
http://socialistworker.org/2010/09/13/plot-to-steal-our-future

Session Descriptions

Friday Workshop Session 1
7:00 pm - 8:45 pm
“Why are US politics shifting to the right and what can we do about it?”
Speaker: Sherry Wolf

As the November mid-term elections approach, there is no doubt that the Republican Party, be- holden to Tea Party voters, has worked itself into a right-wing frenzy – spewing racist vitriol against Latino immigrants and more recently, against Mus- lims.

Much of their message has, remarkably, gone un- challenged and sometimes even encouraged by “moderate” Democrats. It is no wonder that this has had a disorienting effect on huge swathes of people including radicals seeking social change. Many have concluded that the majority of the US population is simply too reactionary to allow meaningful reform to take place.

However, those who only get to hear one side of the story will often accept that point of view, at least partially. Join us for a discussion on what it will take to actually shift the debate and counter the right’s scapegoating of immigrants, Muslims and workers in general.

Saturday Workshop Session 2
1:00 pm - 2:45 pm
“Marx’s Theory of Working Class Revolution”
Speaker: Alan Maass

We are usually taught that change is the prod- uct of enlightened, courageous minorities working on behalf of the grateful masses. Marx’s was a 180-degree change in approach. “All previous his- torical movements,” he wrote, “were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, inde- pendent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority.”

Unlike the anti-democratic regimes of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, Karl Marx put work- ing class at the center of his vision for a socialist so- ciety. He also explained how capitalism is prone to major crises and those very workers who make the system run are positioned to not just overthrow the capitalist system, but run society themselves, in the interests of all classes of oppressed and subju- gated people.
Join us for a discussion on Marx’s theory and its relevance for today.


Saturday Workshop Session 3
3:00 pm - 4:45 pm
“Can the Working Class Unite?”
Speaker: Sherry Wolf

Its hard to deny that workers today, are not very united. From the attacks on immigrant workers, the scapegoating of Arabs and Muslims, discrimi- nation against LGBT people, and with racial profil- ing and police brutality a common feature of city life, there are many obstacles standing in the way of bringing workers together to fight for their com- mon rights. Some have concluded that its not pos- sible at all.

However, we believe that neither human nature nor the intelligence (or lack thereof) of workers is to blame. Capitalism divides the working class, based on sexual, gender, racial, national and other distinctions. The specially oppressed groups within the working class suffer the most under cap- italism.
Glimpses of unity can be seen, from the election of the first black president in US history to the appearance of immigrant rights and LGBT rights movements in the past few years. Join us for a discussion on whether the working class can unite and how can we work now to make it a reality.

Saturday Workshop Session 4
6:00 pm - 7:45 pm
“Marxism and Political Organization?”
Speaker: Ashley Smith

When people in the United States think of political parties, they think chiefly, if not exclusively, of the Democratic and Republican Parties, and in rela- tion to these, they see politics purely as tedious electoral campaigns and vacuous mudslinging be- tween two organizations that represent a narrow band of interests.
This negative idea of political parties was at one time also reinforced by the experience of the Stalinized Communist Parties of the world--which were top-down, command-structured organiza- tions that blindly supported Stalin’s bureaucratic state capitalism, which bore little or no resem- blance to the socialism from below of Karl Marx.

Struggle changes consciousness, gives work- ers confidence in themselves and their ability to change things. In the process of fighting together with others who have not yet decided to become socialists, we are able not only to advance the struggle and win concessions, but we are able to win wider layers of people to the socialist project- -the fight for a world without exploitation or op- pression.
To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party. Join us for a discussion on what kind of organization is needed to fight for a better world.

Sponsored by the RIT International Socialist Organization
http://www.RochesterISO.org
iso.rochester@gmail.com