International Socialist Organization: Difference between revisions
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==Matt Sanchez Incident and Accusations of Racism/Anti-Military== |
==Matt Sanchez Incident and Accusations of Racism/Anti-Military== |
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=== Political activism at Columbia University=== |
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[[Image:Wall of shame.jpg|thumb|300px|right|ISO flyer from January 2006, showing image of Matt Sanchez next to images of a dead child and a homeless vet. This image ran in the campus newspaper, the ''Columbia Spectator''<ref name=WPHT>{{cite web|url=http://thebigtalker1210.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=485516 |title=David Smerconish Interview|date=March 8, 2007|publisher=The Big Talker 1210|accessdate=2007-05-05|format=audio}}</ref>]] |
[[Image:Wall of shame.jpg|thumb|300px|right|ISO flyer from January 2006, showing image of Matt Sanchez next to images of a dead child and a homeless vet. This image ran in the campus newspaper, the ''Columbia Spectator''<ref name=WPHT>{{cite web|url=http://thebigtalker1210.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=485516 |title=David Smerconish Interview|date=March 8, 2007|publisher=The Big Talker 1210|accessdate=2007-05-05|format=audio}}</ref>]] |
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Revision as of 13:17, 31 July 2007
- This article is about the International Socialist Organization in the United States. There is also the International Socialist Organisation (Australia), the International Socialist Organization (New Zealand), and the International Socialist Organization (Zimbabwe).
The International Socialist Organization (ISO) is a socialist organization in the United States. The group identifies with the politics of International Socialism and the Marxist political tradition that American socialist writer and activist Hal Draper called "socialism from below".[1]
The organization publishes a weekly online and print newspaper, Socialist Worker with a bi-monthly Spanish language supplement, Obrero Socialista, and a bi-monthly magazine, the International Socialist Review. The ISO also has a publishing house, Haymarket Books started in the year 2000, which publishes both new titles and classics from the socialist tradition. Haymarket Books collaborates with many other independent publishers on common publishing projects and events.[2]
The ISO has branches across the United States, which hold regular public meetings. ISO members are involved in building a range of local and national political struggles.[3]
Activities
The ISO has involved itself in a number of local and national activist efforts. These include the anti-military movement, the anti-recruiting movement, the anti-capital punishment movement, the anti-traditional marriage movement and the pro-abortion movement; the struggle for rights for illegal immigrants; and others.
As an anti-capitalist organization, the ISO does not support an American political party, which it views as representatives of corporate power and empire. The group has however, actively campaigned for the Green Party in various races and enthusiastically helped to build Ralph Nader's presidential campaign in 2000 and 2004. In 2006, one of the ISO's leading members in California, Todd Chretien, challenged Diane Feinstein for Senator on the Green Party ticket. (He received less than two percent of the vote).[4]
National coalitions with which the ISO is presently involved include the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the Campus Antiwar Network, and the National Alliance for Immigrants' Rights. which support illegal immigration. The ISO is formally a member group of United for Peace and Justice,[5] but its involvement is limited and the ISO has been critical of UFPJ's election-oriented focus.
Matt Sanchez Incident and Accusations of Racism/Anti-Military
In 2005, Matt Sanchez filed a formal complaint against the ISO. According to Sanchez, he was at the Hamilton Society table during the Fall 2005 "Activities Day," when he was approached by members of the Columbia University ISO. Sanchez said that they called him various epithets such as "baby-killer," and also accused him of being a "stupid" minority.[7] In a January 27, 2006 opinion piece for the Columbia Daily Spectator, "The Conservative Witch Hunt", one of the accused students, Monique Dols, later disputed Sanchez's allegations, saying that though she did approach him to state that she found on-campus military recruitment offensive, that she had not referred to him with the claimed epithets.[8]
Columbia University Controversy
On October 4, 2006, approximately forty students and demonstrators, including many members of the ISO stormed the stage of Alfred Lerner Hall during a Minuteman presentation at Columbia University in New York City, where Board Members Marvin Stewart and Gilchrist had been invited to speak by the Columbia University Republicans. The student protesters rushed onto the stage with a yellow banner stating "No one is Illegal" in English and Spanish. The protesters then gathered outside the Columbia University gates and continued chanting. The protest was broken up by security. The event spawned a public discussion at Columbia over freedom of speech and transparency regarding the process through which controversial speakers are invited to speak. Columbia University president Lee Bollinger stated in a campus-wide email that "No one … shall have the right or the power to use the cover of protest to silence speakers."[1]
The event was monitored by several media organizations, and notable commentator Bill O'Reilly stated that the ISO protesters, such as Monique Dols, had crossed the line by infringing on Marvin Stewart's and Gilchrist's constitutional rights to freedom of speech. The Daily Show did a segment on the incident, and Neil Cavuto of Fox News interviewed Marvin Stewart, an African American, to announce a "Hate Crime" lawsuit against Columbia University for the racial insults that Board Member Marvin Stewart endured during his 55 minute speech.
See also
- Socialism
- Marxism
- Trotskyism
- List of Trotskyist internationals
- Workers' Councils
- International Socialists
References
- ^ http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/contemp/pamsetc/twosouls/twosouls.htm
- ^ http://www.cbsd.com/pubdetail.aspx?id=330
- ^ http://www.internationalsocialist.org/
- ^ http://www.internationalsocialist.org/what_we_stand_for.html
- ^ http://plaza.ufl.edu/mtheaney/AntiwarMovement.pdf
- ^ "David Smerconish Interview" (audio). The Big Talker 1210. March 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-05.
- ^ Brunts, Laura (2006-01-25). "A Firm Stance: CU Marine Reservist Targeted In Angry Confrontation; No Disciplinary Action Taken". Columbia Daily Spectator: News. Columbia Spectator. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Zill, Zach (2006-01-27). "The Conservative Witch Hunt". Columbia Daily Spectator: Opinion. Columbia Spectator. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link)