The D.C. Branch of the International Socialist Organization, that participates in struggles for justice and liberation. Capitalism must be replaced.
The International Socialist Organization has branches across the country. Our members are involved in helping to build a number of struggles: the movement to stop the war on Iraq, fights against racism and anti-immigrant scapegoating, the struggle for women's rights like the right to choose abortion, opposing anti-gay bigotry, and standing up for
workers' rights. We are committed to building a le
ft alternative to a world of war, racism and poverty. The DC Chapter is very active with a pragmatic, organized, grass roots approach. If you'd like more information, please email [email protected] . WHERE WE STAND
***Socialism, Not Capitalism***
War, poverty, exploitation, oppression and worldwide environmental destruction are products of the capitalist system, a system in which a minority ruling class profits from the labor of the majority. The alternative is socialism, a society based on workers collectively owning and controlling the wealth their labor creates. We stand in the Marxist tradition, founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, and continued by V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky.
***Workers' Power***
Workers create society's wealth, but have no control over its production and distribution. A socialist society can only be built when workers collectively take control of that wealth and democratically plan its production and distribution according to present and future human needs instead of profit. The working class is the vast majority of society and is the key to the fight for socialism. Workers' central role in production gives them a social power--by use of the strike weapon--to paralyze the system like no other social force. Socialism is working-class self-emancipation. Only mass struggles of the workers themselves can put an end to the capitalist system of oppression and exploitation. We support trade unions as essential to the fight for workers' economic and political rights. To make the unions fight for workers' interests, rank-and-file workers must organize themselves independent of the union officials.
***Revolution***
We actively support the struggle of workers and all oppressed people for economic, political and social reforms, both as a means to improve their conditions and to advance their confidence and fighting strength. But reforms within the capitalist system cannot put an end to oppression, exploitation or ecological devastation. The structures of the present government grew up under capitalism and are designed to protect capitalist rule. The working class needs an entirely different kind of state--a democratic workers' state based on councils of workers' delegates. We do not support candidates of capitalist parties like the Democrats or the Republicans. We support genuine left-wing candidates and political action that promotes independence from the corporate-dominated two-party system in the U.S.
***Internationalism***
Capitalism is an international system, so the struggle for socialism must be international, uniting workers of all countries. The international working class is the only force capable of solving global problems like war, hunger and environmental destruction. Socialists oppose imperialism--the division of the globe based on the subjugation of weaker nations by stronger ones--and support the self-determination of oppressed nations. We oppose all immigration controls. We oppose U.S. intervention in Cuba, the Middle East, and elsewhere. We are for self-determination for Puerto Rico. China and Cuba, like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, have nothing to do with socialism. They are state capitalist regimes. We support the struggles of workers in these countries against the bureaucratic ruling class.
***Full Equality and Liberation***
Capitalism divides the working class, based on sexual, gender, racial, national and other distinctions. The specially oppressed groups within the working class suffer the most under capitalism. We oppose racism in all its forms. We support the struggle for immigrant rights. We fight for real social, economic and political equality for women, and for an end to discrimination against le***an, gay, bisexual and transgender people. We support the fight for Black liberation and all the struggles of the oppressed. The liberation of the oppressed is essential to socialist revolution and impossible without it.
***The Revolutionary Party***
To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party. The ISO is committed to playing a role in laying the foundations for such a party. We aim to build an independent socialist organization, rooted in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods that, in fighting today's struggles, also wins larger numbers to socialism.
07/18/2024
The DC Tempest Discussion Group will ha w an important discussion this Saturday on the present political crisis in this country.
What does Biden’s collapsing electoral campaign mean? What will the prospect of two wildly unpopular candidates mean for trust in the mainstream political process? How will this - and the prospect of a Trump victory - affect consciousness and the prospects for organizing?
We’ll discuss these and other burning questions (using Ashley Smith’s article below) and hopefully get a better handle on what socialists can say about this mess. Hope to see you there!
Saturday July 20, 2024. 1:00pm
Mount Pleasant Library, Conference Room (downstairs)
16th and Lamont Sts, NW
Washington, DC
The U.S. hurtles toward political crisis
Ashley Smith analyzes the impact of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on the deepening political crisis in the U.S.
03/13/2024
"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."
—Antonio Gramsci
DC Tempest will be meeting this Saturday, March 16 at 1:00pm at Mt Pleasant Library Conference Room (downstairs)
Please join us (and, while you're at it, drag some friends along) for a discussion of David Renton's "What It Means to Say Trump Will Govern Like a Fascist."
We're staring down the barrel of four more years of Genocide Joe or four more years of Trump. Morbid symptoms, both. What is the Left to do?
"Meanwhile, while the NCAA splinters, the players at Dartmouth are finding a new kind of community. Caoimhín O'Donnell, the national spokesperson for SEIU, described the following scene: 'At the last game ... security workers, custodians, people who worked for the library, were cheering really loud, because... we consider [the team] part of local 560 now. In the labor movement, we say siblings—sisters and brothers—those were our brothers playing ball. It was really nice to see these union members excited. There was a real sense of what the team had done and what the local had done and what the members have done.'”
My latest piece is about Dartmouth men's basketball, the new union, and why the future of the NCAA lies with their ruin or collective bargaining. Ball's in their court.
The Future of College Sports Is Unionized
The Dartmouth basketball team just voted to join SEIU Local 560, a big step toward ending the exploitation of college athletes.
"Behind the Shield is terrifying and brilliant. After watching it, I now believe that you cannot understand this country without understanding NFL football. I will be showing this film in my classes FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE."
— Robin D.G. Kelley | Professor and Chair of History, UCLA
Activists around the world have been organizing for a cease-fire in Gaza, an end to the genocide and a free Palestine. Activists have linked their struggles against imperialism and racial and gender oppression with the struggle against Zionism. But they have also faced a backlash from authorities and a suppression of their free speech rights.
Join us for a discussion of these issues. Here are some related (short) articles to prepare:
Since Tempest is preparing for an upcoming convention, we would also like to discuss (whether you're a member of Tempest or not) what form people think socialist organization should take in the next few years.
We will meet in the (downstairs) Conference Room, Mt Pleasant LIbrary, 16th and Lamont Streets, NW DC on Saturday, January 27 at 1:00pm.
We are fighting for Palestinian liberation
Denée Jackson draws connections among Jewish, Black, and Palestinian experience and liberation, arguing for solidarity among them.
01/12/2024
I hope everyone who can will make it out to the Palestine demo tomorrow (Saturday). It promises to be huge and the urgency of stopping the genocide could not be greater as the war expands to Yemen. Here's the demo announcement https://march4gaza.org/
DC Tempest will be meeting with the Jewish Voices for Peace contingent at Franklin Park at the corner of 14th and I Sts, NW (1332 I St NW for GPS) at 12:15. They should be marching over to the main rally at 1:00.
We'll have some flyers for our next discussion session next week but it would also be great to meet up and touch base with people. See you there!
March on Washington for Gaza
On January 13th, 2024, the American Muslim Task Force for Palestine* in partnership with the ANSWER Coalition, will host the March On Washington for Gaza. We call on all our supporters to join us for this monumental event and make sure their demands for justice are met.
I hope everybody who can is coming out to this march tomorrow. I don't think I need to tell anyone why it's important.
DC Tempest comrades will be meeting up (along with Tempest comrades from out of town) at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave (Old Post Office Bldg) at 1:30. We will have poster-making material as well as flyers of Tempest Palestine articles and a flyer for our discussion next week.
Hope to see you all there!
10/14/2023
Re-sending as a reminder. Hope to see people there tomorrow.
People in the DC Area, come and join us Saturday:
The recent violence in the Middle East has launched a contentious debate on the Left. How do we look at the latest attacks by Hamas and the subsequent assault by the State of Israel on the people of Gaza? Should we condemn both sides? What is our view of Hamas? What is the role of violence in struggles for national liberation?
The Tempest Collective will have a discussion around this issue this Saturday, October 14 at 11am at the Mt Pleasant Library Conference Room (16th and Lamont Sts, downstairs).
The Tempest Collective is a group of socialist revolutionaries that seeks to coalesce people on the socialist left to better organize and make an impact on movements – whether it be struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia or the recent wave of strikes and union activity. In the DC area, we are starting to make tentative steps in this direction.
We will be discussing this article from Brian Bean appearing in Tempest’s online magazine https://www.tempestmag.org/2023/10/the-breakout-from-gaza/
We also plan on having a report back from the Socialism Conference and a discussion of local activism and avenues for activity.
All are welcome. I hope you can come.
Breakout from Gaza
Gazan strikes into Zionist-occupied Palestine is a daring attempt to push back against escalating settler violence and oppression.
10/11/2023
People in the DC Area, come and join us Saturday:
The recent violence in the Middle East has launched a contentious debate on the Left. How do we look at the latest attacks by Hamas and the subsequent assault by the State of Israel on the people of Gaza? Should we condemn both sides? What is our view of Hamas? What is the role of violence in struggles for national liberation?
The Tempest Collective will have a discussion around this issue this Saturday, October 14 at 11am at the Mt Pleasant Library Conference Room (16th and Lamont Sts, downstairs).
The Tempest Collective is a group of socialist revolutionaries that seeks to coalesce people on the socialist left to better organize and make an impact on movements – whether it be struggles against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia or the recent wave of strikes and union activity. In the DC area, we are starting to make tentative steps in this direction.
We also plan on having a report back from the Socialism Conference and a discussion of local activism and avenues for activity.
All are welcome. I hope you can come.
Breakout from Gaza
Gazan strikes into Zionist-occupied Palestine is a daring attempt to push back against escalating settler violence and oppression.
10/12/2021
Mark your calendars for an afternoon of discussion with Lars Lih, author of Lenin Rediscovered, and many other important works on the history of Marxism. Register here: https://bit.ly/3u5xd0y
04/08/2019
Our comrade, Kenny Collins has been in prison for 32 years for a murder he did not commit. His conviction was itself a systematic hate crime that almost resulted in his death. While Kenny is no longer on death row, he is still in prison and he has worsening health. Despite blatant racism and gross legal errors at trial, the appeals process cannot free Kenny because the judges cannot consider new evidence, such as evidence that witnesses had motives to lie and one officially admits to lying (that is just one example.) Kenny's only chance to breathe free is to prove his innocence. We need $4,000 to properly investigate Kenny's case, gather evidence, and present the evidence to the clemency board and governor of Maryland. Please give on this Go Fund Me page, even if you can only afford $5 or $10, to show your solidarity with Kenny, and please share the link with your friends. https://youtu.be/QudOWwxT6Mk
Click here to support Free Kenny Collins Campaign Fund organized by Laura Lising
Kenny Collins is an innocent man who has been in prison in Maryland for 32 years, including 17 years on death row. The facts in his case are shocking and make it clear an injustice was done that must be righted. The facts about the case are below. We are organizing a clemency campaign for Kenny...
07/18/2024
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04/08/2019