Forging closer ties and meeting new comrades
In our first appearance as Firebrand, we brought a contingent of ten, five Denver Communists, two Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, one Greensboro Revolutionary Socialist, and two contacts to the 2023 Socialism Conference. We tabled with flyers, pamphlets, t-shirts, and pins.
We attended a whirlwind of meetings and gained much from the presentations and discussions. We forged closer ties — and deepened debates — with our comrades in Left Voice, Greensboro Revolutionary Socialists, and Tempest Collective. We got to hear from Marxist authors from whom we have learned so much, including Paul Le Blanc on “Lenin: Catastrophe and Revolution” and Sophie Lewis on “Family Abolition Today: Care Beyond Capitalism.”
Firebrand members spoke from the floor in several sessions, mostly to raise the need for revolutionary socialist organization, an ingredient often missing in the talks themselves. All weekend, we fought against the demoralization and the lack of confidence in Marxist and Leninist politics that have continued in the wake of the ISO’s dissolution four years ago.
Organizing for a revolutionary party
At “Debating the Path to the Party,” a debate between Left Voice and Tempest, we spoke against broad parties, movementism, vague politics, and revolutionary pessimism on one hand, and sectarianism and programmatic fetishism on the other. One of our members commented, “We agree with Tempest’s rejection of the worst caricatures of ‘the micro-sect,’ but such caricatures have led many to abandon Leninism itself.”
Firebrand members spoke from the floor in several sessions, mostly to raise the need for revolutionary socialist organization, an ingredient often missing in the talks themselves. All weekend, we fought against the demoralization and the lack of confidence in Marxist and Leninist politics that have continued in the wake of the ISO’s dissolution four years ago.
At “Global Crises and Global Revolts,” we raised objections to the spontaneism of the speakers, our former org-mates with Spectre Journal. This included confronting their hang-up with “micro-sects” and explicit opposition to recruitment to Marxist organization. “It’s absolutely true that people will revolt,” one of our members said during an intervention from the floor “The question is how do we win the revolt? In all these revolts, there is not uniform consciousness. We need to organize the people who recognize the need for revolutionary transformation and getting rid of capitalism into organizations that can convince the rest of the movement in that direction.”
Confronting racism and imperialism
At “Confronting the Backlash: Socialists and the Anti-Racist Struggle for Liberation,” we argued for avoiding both class-reductionist and separatist politics, and for — you guessed it — explicitly Marxist organization. “Marxism is the thing that is going to illuminate these issues and teach us how to fight them.”
At “Neither Washington, Nor Beijing: International Solidarity Against Inter-Imperial Rivalry,” we spoke out against US imperialist intervention, which raised the hackles of those who support (or don’t oppose) US military aid to Ukraine.
How the politics of the Socialism Conference have changed
The Socialism Conference has been held annually since 1977, with the exception of 2020 and 2021, when it was canceled due to Covid. It was started as a way to educate members and contacts of the ISO and recruit to the organization. The first conference had only 100 participants, while more recent ones were attended by over 2000.
The ISO always included speakers from outside the group, including celebrity left-liberals like Amy Goodman and Naomi Klein. Since the ISO’s dissolution in 2019, the politics of the conference have broadened and many speakers have had less connection to revolutionary socialism. The Democratic Socialists of America, academics, and various NGOs have had more influence on the conference, resulting in explicitly reformist sessions, such as this year’s “The Fight for Municipal Socialism,” “The Longer Road to a Green New Deal,” and “How Did Chicago Beat Back the Neoliberal Machine?” A panel on Venezuela uncritically lauded the Maduro regime. Two Maoist groups were even given a session — something unheard of before the ISO’s dissolution.
Every Socialism Conference has had sessions on movement organizing. When the ISO ran the conference, the goal of even these sessions was to win people to revolutionary socialism and revolutionary organization. Since 2019, the goal is to win people to socialism as broadly defined. There have been revolutionary Marxist presentations too of course, but the conference has become a venue for the mixing of revolutionaries, centrists, and reformists. As such, it is a good place for revolutionaries to meet people open to Marxism.
