By Trish Corcoran and Chris Spindler
CHICAGO — Solidarity, a socialist and feminist organisation, held its summer school and convention here August 5-11. With members centrally involved in unions and other social and political campaigns throughout the US, the meeting provided an opportunity for the 120 conference participants to discuss the state of these movements and to decide on which campaigns to support.
The convention discussions and decisions related to the emergence of the newly formed Labor Party, the Greens' Ralph Nader presidential campaign, a reaffirmation of Solidarity's labour orientation and the proposal to launch a new Solidarity publication.
The Labor Party launched itself earlier this year. Approximately 50 Solidarity members were among the 1600 delegates at this convention. Five major unions have given impetus to the Labor Party by refusing to support Clinton's presidential campaign. The Labor Party, though, has decided not to contest elections for two years in order to build itself through grassroots campaigns.
Solidarity believes that socialists should participate in the Labor Party, which it says is a positive break from the two-party political system.
The convention also voted to endorse the Ralph Nader campaign, despite some reservations regarding Nader's refusal to comment on a variety of social issues. However, the decision to support the campaign was based on Nader's highly critical approach to the major parties and his campaigning against corporate greed.
A major part of Solidarity's campaign work is within the labour movement. Examples of this include: support for the Staley workers, who were locked out in a three-year battle; supporting the continuing Detroit newspaper strike; leading rank and file activists in New York's transport and teaching unions; and cross-border organising between Mexican and US workers. Included in this work has been the formation of Student Labor Action Coalition, a student network that campaigns in solidarity with labour struggles and is involved in the production of Labor Notes.
Solidarity noted the change in the leadership of the trade union federation, the AFL-CIO, which has resulted in an increase in support for some labour struggles. The convention assessed the change in the federation's leadership as a reflection of growing working-class anger. However, Solidarity also recognised that the bureaucratic techniques of the AFL-CIO still limit any significant change in its political work.
A sober assessment of the current political period led to the view that a growth in membership for Solidarity is possible but would not be substantial. Involvement in activist campaigns was seen as the best way to attract new members. The discussion emphasised training, skill sharing and study groups.
There was also discussion about relaunching a Solidarity publication. Independent Politics, Solidarity's journal, ceased publication because of the difficulty of organising its distribution. However, the usefulness of Independent Politics for education and for building a public profile was noted and prompted the decision to embark on a new publication along with the projection to commit to distribute it.
The final day of the convention featured a panel of international guests who spoke about Brazil, Puerto Rico, the Sao Paulo forum, the recent international Zapatista conference, Canada, Australia and Indonesia.