March with the socialists in the NYC Pride Parade!

Greetings from the Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization:

We have a contingent in tomorrow’s (sunday) LGBT pride parade in NYC. If you’d like to join us all the details are below!

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Do you think that the time for marriage equality is NOW and that we need to bring the spirit of Stonewall back into the fight for LGBT civil rights?

Do you think that single-payer health care is absolutely an LGBT issue?

Do you think that our government should end “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” – and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Then come march with the socialists in this year’s NYC Pride march!

Forty years ago, the NYPD attempted to raid the Stonewall Inn and terrorize the lesbian, gay, bi and transgender patrons inside. However, the working class and multi-racial crowd fought back. Over the next five nights 2000 LGBT New Yorker’s (and supporters) took to the streets throughout the West Village and Greenwich Village. History would be changed forever. The Stonewall Rebellion sparked a national movement for LGBT equality that allowed many to come out of the closet for the first time.

After the passage of Proposition 8 in California, banning same-sex marriage, we were reminded that full equality is still something that will have to be struggled for. Because of activism and protest, more states are granting marriage equality, but we still have a long way to go – including here in New York state! Join us in a spirited contingent demanding full equality at this year’s NYC LGBT Pride Parade. Bring a sign to express the rights or changes you want to see – or just chant with us and help get the crowd excited in the spirit of Stonewall.

Meet up for the International Socialist Organization Pride contingent:

Sunday, June 28th, 11:45am
59th st and 7th Ave (along the southern edge of Central Park)

Facebook RSVP here.

Check out a great roundtable discussion between LGBT activists about next steps in the movement for sexual and gender equality, from SocialistWorker.org

For more information, contact 631-398-4332 or email nyciso@gmail.com

Tomorrow (Thurs): Author Jeffrey Perry on Harlem Radical Hubert Harrison

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! If you’re in NYC, the ISO is hosting historian/activist Jeffrey Perry, the foremost scholar of Hubert Harrison, a turn-of-the-century black radical who was born in St. Croix but lived and organized in Harlem. Harrison was also an active member of the Socialist Party, and for much of his life represented the best aspects of the socialist tradition in the United States. An inspiring organizer who sought to involve all working class people in the fight against racism, this talk is not to be missed!

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Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism

GUEST SPEAKER: JEFFREY PERRY
Author, Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism 1883-1918

Thursday, June 4, 7pm
La Pregunta Arts Cafe
1528 Amsterdam Ave
between 135 and 136th streets {1 train to 137}

During the 1910s and 1920s Hubert Harrison was either the creator, or among the founders, of “almost every important development originating in Negro Harlem — from the Negro Manhood Movement to political representation in public office, from collecting Negro books to speaking on the streets, from demanding Federal control over lynching to agitation for Negroes on the police force.” He was also a key figure in developing Caribbean radicalism; he exhibited a rare willingness to learn from the peoples and cultures of Africa; and his (often unattributed) ideas and writings from this period significantly shaped the contours of radical Black thought on matters of race and class in the twentieth century.

Harrison joined the Socialist Party and wrote several major articles on race and class for the International Socialist Review magazine. Harrison promoted Eugene Debs’ presidential campaign on the Socialist ticket, and was aligned with the radical, pro-IWW wing of the party, which eventually led to his break with the SP.

Harrison was not only a political radical, however. He was an immensely skilled and popular orator and educator who spoke or read six languages; a highly praised journalist, critic, and book reviewer (reportedly the first regular Black book reviewer in history); a pioneer Black activist in the freethought and birth-control movements; a bibliophile, library builder, and library popularizer who helped develop the 135th Street Public Library into an international center for research in Black culture.

Come to a discussion of the hidden history of radicalism and socialism in Harlem, and the role of Hubert Harrison.

sponsored by the International Socialist Organization
Uptown Branch
http://www.nycsocialist.org/
damelio.lichi@gmail.com for more info

Tomorrow, Tues 5/26, Rally for Same-Sex Marriage!

Tuesday 5/26:

Join the fight for LGBT Equality!

Read on for information about…

1) A Rally/Protest TOMORROW, Tuesday 5/26, for SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, following the California Supreme Court’s decision on Proposition 8

2) Upcoming Public Forums in New York City on How We Can Win the Fight for LGBT Equality!

1) “Decision Day” is TOMORROW!

The California Supreme Court just announced that it will release its decision on the fate of Proposition 8 on Tuesday, May 26.   This is a crucial moment in the struggle for gay marriage, in California and nation-wide.

We have won several recent victories in Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and Washington, DC.  Let’s keep the momentum going!

Come out to a rally/protest on Tuesday, regardless of how the California court rules, and let’s make it clear that we want equality for our LGBT brothers and sisters from CA to NYC!

Meet at 6pm in Sheridan Square
7th Ave and Christopher Street (near Stonewall Bar in the West Village)
March to Union Square at 6:45 where we all will rally!

Join: Marriage Equality New York, Metropolitan Community Church, Lambda Legal, Civil Rights Front, Broadway Impact, Human Rights Campaign, Empire State Pride Agenda, International Socialist Organization, Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell, Senator Thomas Duane, several couples married in California (and who want to stay married!) and many more…

2) From Stonewall to Same-Sex Marriage: How Can We Win the Fight for LGBT Equality?

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Vermont…will New York be next? With several recent victories, the same-sex marriage movement is on the move. Hundreds of thousands have protested across the country since Obama’s election and the passage of Proposition 8 that stripped Californians of their civil right to marry.

But how can we win it in New York? Why did California lose it? And what will it take to win and keep gay marriage — and full LGBT equality — in the U.S.? Come discuss the history of our struggle and help strategize how we can strengthen our fight today. Hosted by the International Socialist Organization.

Two different meeting locations:

Uptown:
Thursday, May 28
7pm
@ La Pregunta Cafe
1528 Amsterdam Avenue (between 135th & 136th Streets)
1 to 135th St

Queens:
Wednesday, June 10
7pm
@ Diversity Center of Queens
76-11 37th Ave
Jackson Heights (btwn 76th St & 77th St)
E/G/V/R/7 to Roosevelt/74th St Subway

for more upcoming ISO events in NYC, please visit: NYCSocialist.org

NYC Rally Today for Troy Davis today: Stop the execution of an innocent man!

Congrats to everyone graduating this week!

For those who are around, there is an important rally in Union Square today at 6pm for Troy Davis, an innocent man on Georgia’s death row. Because of activism and the overwhelming evidence in his favor, this past fall Troy won a stay of execution – but is now facing another possible execution date. Join us for an international day of action!

check out this rad VIDEO & and an updated article on Troy’s case in Socialist Worker

JUSTICE MATTERS!

RALLY FOR TROY DAVIS!

TUESDAY, MAY 19TH 6PM -8PM

UNION SQUARE, NYC (Middle of the Park)

(14th St btw. Broadway & Park Ave. South)
Troy Davis is on death row in Georgia even though the case against him has completely fallen apart. 7 out of 9 witnesses have recanted or contradicted their testimony, no murder weapon was found and no physical evidence links Davis to the crime.

Troy Davis’ stay of execution just expired and he could then be executed at any time. On May 19, people all around the world will be organizing events to show the state of Georgia that the execution of Troy Davis would be an unacceptable travesty of justice.

We need you to be as visible and as loud as possible to stop the execution! Join us on May 19th to raise awareness to stop the execution of an innocent man!

7 OUT OF 9 WITNESSES HAVE RECANTED THEIR TESTIMONIES. NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE.  NO MURDER WEAPON. NO COURT WILLING TO HEAR THE NEW EVIDENCE. EXECUTION DATE COULD BE SET SOON!

for more info: troyanthonydavis.org or Amnestyusa.org/troy
contact: tmcharris@aiusa.org or 212-633-4215

CO SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA, NY NAACP, NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BLACK LAWYERS, NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD – NY, CAMPAIGN TO END THE DEATH PENALTY, NEW YORKERS FOR AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE DEATH PENALTY, PEACE TASK FORCE & TASK FORCE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY OF ALL SOULS CHURCH, ETC.

Tonight: Fire the Boss! with Naomi Klein, workers from Argentina & Chicago

Are you excited to be done with finals?! Congratulations to everyone who made it, or is about to. We’d like to invite you one of best possible ways to celebrate. Haymarket Books, the press that the ISO works with, is hosting a panel tonight at Cooper Union entitled “Fire the Boss” with Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, members of lavaca, (a collective in Argentina documenting and supporting worker-run factories), and Armando Robles, one of the strikers who led a 6 day sit-in at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago in December.

Why is worker control important? How can it be organized? What does it mean to ‘Fire the Boss’? What are the connections that can be built between workers across the globe? This is an important conversation to be having as the economy continues to squeeze working class people everywhere.

All the info is below, it’s at 7pm tonight! (Friday, 5/15). If you’re around campus and would like to take the train down together, just let us know: columbia.iso@gmail.com

thanks,  Barnard-Columbia ISO
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Haymarket Books presents:

FIRE THE BOSS
The Worker Control Solution from Buenos Aires to Chicago

with the authors and editors of

Sin Patrón: Stories from Argentina’s Worker-Run Factories: lavaca collective, foreword by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis (Haymarket Books)

7 pm * Friday, May 15, 2009
The Great Hall at Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
6 train to Astor Place * R, W to 8th Street – NYU
New York City, New York
FREE (seating is first come, first served)

with:

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, writer of The Take

Avi Lewis, director of The Take and host, Al Jazeera English “Fault Lines”

Claudia Acuña and Sergio Ciancaglini of lavaca collective in Argentina

Armando Robles, Republic Windows and Doors striker, President of UE Local 1110

Leah Fried, UE organizer

Brendan Martin, The Working World/La Base

Including a discussion, with clips of The Take by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis and selections from a documentary about The Republic workers’ struggle

Translation provided for Spanish speakers * Followed by a book signing

Co-sponsored by The Cooper Union, The Indypendent, UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America), Nation Institute, The Nation magazine, The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Global Exchange, and Labor Notes.

To find out more about the event, please visit
http://www.haymarketbooks.org/

Thurs, 5/7, 7pm: Party with the socialists for the Socialism 2009 conference

Greetings from the Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization:
This summer, in Chicago and San Francisco, we are hosting two huge conferences for progressive activists, radicals, socialists, and lefties of all stripes and types. Go to talks by socialists from Venezuela, Amy Goodman from Democracy Now!, discussions of the history of LGBT liberation struggles and a lot more. just check out the speakers and the schedule here: socialismconference.org

The ISO here at Barnard and Columbia will all be going, and we encourage others to come too…To celebrate, we’re having a party at La Pregunta cafe, Amsterdam and 136th (it’s two stops on the 1 train from Columbia) tomorrow night at 7pm. Would anyone like to join us in going up there – music, poetry, raffles and lots of people who have been to the conference before, so if you’re interested you can learn a lot more about it.

Let us know if you’re intereste: columbia.iso@gmail.com

Here’s all the info for tomorrow night – hope you can join us:

PARTY WITH THE SOCIALISTS

Get on the bus to Socialism 2009 Conference

Find out more information about the most exciting political conference of the year!

Thursday May 7^{th *} 7 PM

La Pregunta Arts Café *136^th & Amsterdam

Featuring: Video clips of previous Socialism Conference talks / Radical games /Raffle for political art and books! /Red-hot music! /Poetry reading!

There has never been a better time for those who want to see fundamental change to get together to debate, discuss and organize for a new society.

Check out more info on the conference:

Building a New Left for a New Era
Revolutionary politics, debate and entertainment

You are invited to…
Socialism 2009
http://socialismconference.org/

In two locations
Chicago June 18-21
San Francisco July 2-5

Register online today
http://socialismconference.org/register.php

A few of the speakers who will be coming to Socialism: Journalist and filmmaker John Pilger | Paul D’Amato, author of Meaning of Marxism | sportswriter Dave Zirin, author of A People’s History of Sports | Sharon Smith, author of Subterranean Fire: A History of Working Class Radicalism in the United States and Women and Socialism | Jeffrey St. Clair, editor of CounterPunch and author of Born Under a Bad Sky: Notes from the Dark Side of the Earth | Ahmed Shawki, editor of International Socialist Review and author of Black Liberation and Socialism | Sherry Wolf, author of Sexuality and Socialism | Laura Flanders, host of GRITtv | Alan Maass, editor ofSocialist Worker | Lance Selfa, author of The Democrats: A Critical History |David Bacon, author of Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Immigration and Criminalizes Immigrants | Cindy Sheehan, member of Gold Star Families for Peace | Anthony Arnove, author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal and editor of Voices of a People’s History of the U.S. | Dahr Jamail, author ofBeyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq | South African anti-apartheid and globalization activist and poet Dennis Brutus

The world economic crisis has shattered the free-market consensus that has dominated politics for the last generation. Meanwhile, the end of the conservative era and the election of the first African American president have raised expectations among working people that long overdue change is at hand. With capitalism in crisis, even some in the mainstream media are admitting that Karl Marx was right.

There has never been a better time for those who want to see fundamental change to get together to debate, discuss and organize for a new society—a society based on the needs of the many instead of the whims of a few. We need to organize a new left to meet the challenge of this new era.

That’s the purpose that Socialism 2009—expanded to two sites this year—has set for itself. Gather with activists from around the world to take part in dozens of discussions about changing the world: How can we end racism? What kind of organization do we need? What would a future socialist society look like?

Yes we can organize for socialism in the 21st century! ¡Sí se puede!

Sponsored by Center for Economic Research and Social Change, publisher ofInternational Socialist Review and Haymarket Books, and the International Socialist Organization, publisher of Socialist Worker and Obrero Socialista.

Join us at Socialism 2009
http://socialismconference.org/

Saturday 5/2: Rally at Columbia + Meeting on Student Struggles and Socialism

This Saturday, the International Socialist Organization is having a meeting on “Student Struggle and the Fight for Socialism” – bringing together student from across the city who are thinking about their activism not simply as individual movements – for Palestine, for LGBT Rights, against Budget Cuts, to stop Columbia’s gentrification -  but also as a fight for a different kind of world entirely. Conor Tomás  Reed from City College will be speaking about some of the history that student activism has played in socialist and radical movements of the past, was well as its potential today. It’s Saturday at 4pm at NYU – please come down and meet socialist students from around the city! (Info below)

Also, before the meeting, we’re going to be participating in a rally on Columbia’s campus against the university’s plan to expand and thereby evict residents and business owners from a large part of the area north of campus. All the info is also below -

see you there!
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/iso/
http://barnardcolumbiaiso.wordpress.com/

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Saturday, May 2, 12-3pm:
STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY RALLY FOR MANHATTANVILLE!
At the sundial, center of Columbia’s campus * Join the Coalition to Preserve Community and the Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification as we demonstrate to show Columbia
University our opposition to their flagrant disregard of justice for the Manhattanville community. Info: http://scegblog.wordpress.com/ ——————

Saturday, May 2, 4-6pm:

STUDENT STRUGGLE AND THE FIGHT FOR SOCIALISM

Students have faced immense difficulties over the past decade. Tuition is up, books are more expensive, jobs are scarcer, loan sharks are fiercer, and military recruiters are more desperate.
In response, student activism has been heating up across the country over the past few months. Protests, speak-outs, and victorious occupations have established a base of radical students that an build a truly mass movement, taking as inspiration the movements of the 1960s in the US, but also the recent student rebellions in Chile, France, Greece…

But students are also realizing that the fight is much bigger than expected. How much power do we have to change our campuses? And if we change our campuses, will that be enough?
Come to a meeting to discuss the history of student movements, how we can build effective student movements today, and how that fits into the fight for a completely different society, a socialist one, that could bring true liberation for people around the world.

Featuring CONOR TOMÁS REED of City College

Saturday
May 2
4pm
Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street
southeast corner of Houston and Lafayette

B,D,F,V to Broadway/Lafayette
6 to Bleecker Street

nycsocialist.org
sponsored by the International Socialist Organization

Tues, 4/28: Special meeting of the Columbia Palestine Forum

Come to the last spring meeting of the COLUMBIA PALESTINE FORUM
Tuesday, 4/28, 8pm, Hamilton Hall 613
Facebook RSVP here

Special Guest: Jess Chilton McConnell

Jess McConnell is a student from the University of Edinburgh (UK), who organized a successful occupation of her school, to demand that it divest from companies complicit in Israel’s occupation of Palestine – and provide material support to Palestinian students and universities. In January, after Israel’s assault on Gaza began, over two dozen universities in the UK were occupied by students making similar demands. We have a lot to learn from their activism and their organizing. This meeting is part of a  larger aspiration to forge strong connections within the international student movement for Palestine.

WHO WE ARE:

*Are you in support of Palestinian rights?
*Appalled by Israel’s destruction of Gaza – and the ongoing siege?
*Mad that the US government provides the bombs and military aid used to kill Palestinians?
*Frustrated by the witch-hunts against professors or students who speak up for Palestine?
WE ARE TOO!

The Columbia Palestine Forum formed this semester with the intention of defending the academic and human rights of Palestinians. We see this as a campaign for equality and as a stand against racism. On Thursday, 3/5 we delivered a set of demands to the Columbia administration, asking our university to support academic freedom in Palestine – as well as begin taking steps to divest from companies that support or profit from the occupation. We encourage anyone who supports these basic demands to come to our last organizing meeting of the semester, Tuesday 4/28, to help plan for the summer and next semester!

You can view and register your support for our demands at: www.columbiapalestineforum.org
We can be contacted at: ColumbiaPalestineForum@gmail.com

Wed 4/22, 2pm: Walkout against the budget cuts at City College!

*SAVE City College of New York!*

Join students in opposing imminent budget cuts and up to $300-per-semester tuition increases at CCNY. At a time of the unraveling economic crisis when our educations should be funded more, we’re being threatened with these attacks. In response, students, faculty, and community labor have joined forces to say that cuts on anyone is a detriment to everyone. Striking
workers from Stella D’Oro, as well as students from around CUNY and other
NYC schools, will be showing support in our struggle to save an affordable
CCNY. Let’s get together for these upcoming events and show that students
and the city united can win educational rights!

*TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 12-2pm*
Morales/Shakur Center NAC rm 3/201*
Campus Teach-In to Stop the Budget Cuts:
Why You Should Walk Out on April 22nd*

–Join a discussion explaining the current potential budget cuts and tuition
hikes, the history of student struggle at CCNY, and why it must be renewed.

**Sponsored by Students for Educational Rights, International Socialist
Organization, Spoke ‘n’ Heard Poetry Club, Campus Antiwar Network, CCNY Radical Women, Students in Media

*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22
CITY COLLEGE MASS STUDENT / FACULTY WALK-OUT*

RAIN OR SHINE!

*2pm: *students and faculty walk out of classes and immediately converge
outside in (NAC) North Academic Center’s Plaza (138th and Convent Ave)
(confirmed speakers: Bill Crain of the Psychology Department and the PSC
Faculty Union, Spoke ‘n’ Heard Poetry Club Readings, two Stella D’Oro
strikers, one Transit Workers employee… students, faculty, clubs, and
departments, please speak up if you want to take the mic!)

*3pm:* everyone marches over to the CCNY Administration Building across the street to present the Walk-Out’s demands and continue the rally

*4pm*: all interested can take the 1 train together at 137th/Broadway (which
we’ll make a “protest train”) up to 237th st. to join the Stella D’Oro picket line… students and labor unite!

Please also see an article entitled “Why I’m Walking Out of Class” for more info about the history of CCNY and the call for students to walk ut on the 22nd!

Fri 4/17: Why We Need Socialist Organization, with Paul D’Amato

A PARTY FOR OUR SIDE:
WHY WE NEED SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION

Guest Speaker: Paul D’Amato
Paul D’Amato is the managing editor of the International Socialist Review and author of The Meaning of Marxism, a lively and accessible introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx and the tradition he founded.

From the workers’ occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory, to the rise of campus occupations by students at the New School, NYU and beyond, to the movement for same-sex marriage rights, to protests against municipal budget cuts, police brutality and racism, a new mood of struggle is growing. But the Left is coming out of a period of weakness and there is little in the way of organization that can generalize these struggles and put forward an alternative. Now, as the need for fundamental change becomes clearer every day, the need for a socialist organization is also more urgent.

Such an organization can become a place to compare lessons, not only to advance the struggle and win concessions, but to win wider layers of people to the socialist project – the fight for a world without exploitation and oppression. Come to a discussion about the need for socialist organization, and the prospects for building on in the United States today.

Friday, April 17th, 7pm
Columbia University
116th & Broadway (1 train to 116th street)
Pupin Hall, 329 * Signs will be posted directed people to Pupin Hall
RSVP at the facebook event page here.

Related Articles:
Paul D’Amato, “A party to organize our side” from SocialistWorker.org
Todd Chretien, “Lenin’s Theory of the Party” from the International Socialist Review

Sponsored by the Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization
email: columbia.iso@gmail.com