5th national convention

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Socialist Action holds 12 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1992 The fifth national convention of Socialist Action took place in San Francisco on July 29 - Aug. 2. Delegates from around the country strove to carry out a clear, patient debate in which all points of view would be considered and voted upon.

For four months, all branches of Socialist Action discussed the political positions to be adopted by the convention. Three minority currents put forward alternative platforms and received enough votes in the branches to obtain delegates at the convention. A fourth minority point of view, a tendency with no delegates, was given extended speaking time.

A majority of convention delegates were supporters of the written resolutions proposed to the convention by the outgoing national committee. Topics in the resolutions included South Africa, Cuba, the ex-Soviet Union, the African American struggle, and the women's rights struggle. A common thread throughout the majority position on these topics was revolutionary optimism in the face of the downfall of Stalinism and a willingness to clarity to the end the key tasks of socialists.

Those tasks are to build revolutionary parties in every country of the world, to recruit new members to Socialist Action, and to participate in every aspect of the class struggle-from the unions, to the feminist movement, to organizations fighting against the cutbacks of social services.

The organizational report detailed many party-building activities that Socialist Action will carry out this autumn. These include a national speaking tour of Socialist Action staffwriter Gerry Foley following his fact-finding trip to the former Soviet Union.

A public rally at the convention was held under the theme "Black Liberation from L.A. to South Africa." Two South African revolutionaries spoke. They explained why their group, the Workers Organization for Socialist Action, and Socialist Action in the United States should continue their close collaboration in supporting the South African freedom struggle.

Gulf War Marine resister Erik Larsen spoke to the rally, and actor Michael Lange gave a recreation of Malcolm X's speech, "Message to the Grass Roots."

Debate on South Africa The South Africa resolution was the first to be debated. In fact, there were three competing documents and reports put to a vote.

The report of the majority of the outgoing national committee, presented by Michael Schreiber, assessed the new situa5038 a -HESSIT tion in South Africa that has arisen since the mobilizations of the Black majority forced the goverment to wipe most of the apartheid laws off the books and enter negotiations. In particular, Schreiber analyzed the mass action campaign recently called by the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies.

Schreiber's report placed these events within the theoretical framework developed by the Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky in his theory of "Permanent Revolution.

Trotsky pointed out that in the underdeveloped world (such as South Africa) democratic demands-such as full suffrage, national rights, and agricultural revolution—will necessarily come to the fore in the struggle.

However, Trotsky argued, in the modern imperialist-dominated period, these tasks of the national democratic revolution can only be completely fulfilled when the working class has taken political power away from the capitalist class and established its own rule. In this way, the national democratic revolution and the socialist revolution are combined.

For that reason, Schreiber said, socialists in South Africa must utilize a transitional program of demands to guide the Black working class, step by step, to the understanding that they have the ability and the necessity to take power in their own name-much as the working people of Russia did in October 1917.

A counter-report was given on behalf of a resolution submitted by national committee members Barry Sheppard, Malik Miah, and Carl Finamore. This resolution stated that the socialist revolution in South Africa was a distinct stage that would only come at a later time, after the completion of the national democratic revolution. were approved overwhelmingly.

The next big debate at the convention was over the political report. Jeff Mackler, speaking for the majority of the national committee, pointed to signs of a coming fightback by the American working class in response to the ruling-class attacks on its standard of living. Evidence of this may be found in such phenomenon as the recent victory of reformer Ron Carey in the Teamster elections and the development of reform movements in the United Auto Workers and other unions.

It appears that the relative stability that world capitalism enjoyed for several decades is coming to a close. In this country, the crisis calls out for a new class-struggle leadership and a break with the Democrats and Republicans.

The minority current led by Sheppard, Miah, and Finamore (which had formed a "faction" charged that Socialist Action lacked an orientation to the unions. They chose to ignore the fact that a majority of our members are trade unionists and that the organization as a whole has done exemplary support work in several important strikes and union battles.

Barry Sheppard also voted against the oral report and summary on the Soviet Union. In contradiction to the majority, he stated that we should be part of the "regroupment" taking place in the Committees of Correspondence (CoC) the new offshoot of the Communist Party, USA. (See page 15 for more about the CoC.)

Debate on Black Struggle Counterposed reports were also given on the Black liberation movement. The Sheppard-Miah-Finamore faction challenged the majority's positive evaluation of the nationalist aspirations of African Americans as an expression of the class struggle in the United States. The majority resolution, on the other hand, reiterated the position that the Black struggle is a combined struggle for democratic rights and economic emancipation.

The reports and debates on the women's liberation movement did not present radically counterposed positions. The majority reaffirmed its commitment and activity in the women's movement and its position that the fight for an end to women's oppression is intimately bound up with the struggle to end class oppression through the struggle for socialism. The majority report presented numerous facts and statistics to show how world capitalism has fomented wars and other atrocities that are particularly brutal to women and children.

The main difference seemed to revolve around the faction's opposition to the majority's claim that feminists trained in the women's rights movement could help resolve the longstanding crisis of leadership of the working class.

Another hotly contested area had to do with a motion passed by the national committee plenum in April that attempted to ensure a democratic pre-convention discussion. The Sheppard-Miah-Finamore faction protested that the motion infringed upon their rights, but their claim was voted down by the convention.

Finally, 12 members of the SheppardMiah-Finamore faction walked out of the convention after the nominations commission failed to recommend electing more than three of them to the new national committee. Another smaller tendency based in Chicago also resigned.

Both groupings who left rejected the pleas of many delegates who called on them to remain in the party and to work together to build a strong united Socialist Action. The new national committee includes representatives of other minority positions in the organization.

For more on Socialist Action: Write to 3425 Army St., San Francisco, CA 94110. Phone (415) 821-0458.-The editors

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