Socialism 2010

Hello kiddies! Sorry it has been such a long time since I have written anything. My life is boring in the summer. My activism goes way down and I just don't have much to talk about. However, now I do have a bunch to talk about because of last weekend and plus some other recent developments in my life. I am going to split them up into two posts because they are two entirely different topics and doesn't seem right that I should talk about them both in just one post. For this one I am going to talk about the Socialism 2010 conference that I went to this weekend.

Socialism 2010 is a big left wing conference that takes place every year in Chicago (at least I'm pretty sure that is where it has always been). The International Socialist Organization (ISO) puts on this conference to bring together fellow left wing people to talk about a number of things all centering around the over throw of the capitalist system that is holding everyone back. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go at first, but I am so glad I did!

Money was a big reason why I didn't really want to go. Just signing up for the conference was $90, money that I did not have, and that doesn't even include the hotel room and gas. Luckily the ISO always does fundraising and two of my good friends in the ISO informed me that I didn't really have to worry about the money, that the fundraising would cover me. I felt like a giant mooch most of the weekend, but people kept telling me not to worry about it because that was what the fundraising was for. Another big reason for me being a tad hesitant was that I wasn't sure the ISO and their politics was for me.

I, like most of the United States, and most of the world, have grown up with the idea that capitalism good and socialism bad. Those ideas were something that I didn't really question and seldom thought about. This made it very hard for me to see myself in any kind of socialist movement. My friends told me that the conference would help me be able to see myself. That is pretty much what made me decide to go. Since the money thing was taken care of and with my friends assurance that it would help be able to see myself in the movement, I made the commitment to go. The conference started last Thursday and went until yesterday. I didn't make it down there in time for the first and only session on Thursday, but that was OK there was still a full three days of sessions to go too. I didn't get much sleep that first night, only like four hours, and so the next day I was extremely tired, but I still made it to every session that day.

The first one I went to was Sexuality and Capitalism. The talk was good, the speakers talked about how sexuality has changed over time and how capitalism has really limited us in how we can express ourselves. My only problem with it is that it seemed to be very cisnormative, meaning that it seemed to assume that everyone was cisgender (your physical sex matches your gender identity) and that they didn't seem to realize that when you through being trans into the mix, it complicates things further. We have to deal with the fact that our genitals don't fit to how we see ourselves and we have to do deal with the fact that our genitals might not be what our partners are looking for. I felt like a broken record that day. I was basically asking, where do trans people fit in all this?/what would a socialist world mean for trans people? I honestly wasn't sure, and didn't really feel like I got that question answered. There was one session that I didn't even bring that issue up cause it wasn't appropriate and that was Is Violence Necessary to Change Society? The speaker made a very compelling argument.

She argued that while at this point in the movement violence isn't necessary it shouldn't be taken off the table completely. The ruling class, ie capitalists, already uses violence to maintain the status quo even when we are peaceful and for us to say we will NEVER use violence is a terrible idea. Now I am not a fan of a violence, not a fan of war, but I think she has a point. For me violence shouldn't be used without trying other routs first. If we absolutely have too, I think violence should be a tactic. We should do EVERYTHING we can to try to get revolution to happen without violence, but we should keep that in our back pocket, so to speak, just in case we have too. Friday ended and though I thought it was very interesting discussions and talks, I was still having a very hard time seeing myself in the this movement. I hoped Saturday would be better.

I slept through the first session on Saturday. There wasn't anything that I felt like I absolutely needed to go to that session, so I caught up on my sleep. The second session I went to was What do Marxist Mean by Class? Interesting talk, but I didn't really feel like he answered the question. Seemed more like he was say "this is what it could be" more than what it is. He had a thick accent and maybe I just wasn't understanding him. The third session I went to was The Criss in Public School Education.

Education in this country is very near and dear to my heart. I wanted to be a high school English teacher for awhile. While my career goals are more geared toward college now, public education is still something that I care about a lot. The speakers talked about how there is an idea that the reason kids are failing is because of "bad and lazy teachers" rather than say poor funding for public schools. Schools are forced to compete with each other for funding and mainly gear there education toward doing well on the standardized tests that also evaluate teachers as well in order to get that money. The education system gears us up for how to take a fucking test, rather than actually learning anything. Some schools are so poorly funded that they don't have the resources to teach their students how to do that, but no, the teachers are the lazy ones. WTF! This talk at least started to get me fired up and seeing what the fuss was about, but I still didn't see myself in the movement. The fourth session I went to was The Peoples History of the Russian Revolution.

Very interesting stuff, but didn't really help in making me see myself in the movement. The last session I went to that day was Sex Wars: From McCarthyism to Prop 8 with Sherry Wolf. This was the session that helped see myself in this movement and the connections started to be made. The session was also the one that I was really looking forward too. She talked about the history of sexuality in this country and how capitalism helped to allow for people to develop LGBT identities while at the same time allowing for homophobia and transphobia as well. How the capitalist system pits workers against each other using those two things and prevents us from working together to take down capitalism. That made a hell of a lot of sense to me and the things started to click. The discussion after the talk was amazing as well. I got up and talked about how ENDA and another bill that failed to pass in New York was always focused on the bathroom issue and this insane fear that we are going to hurt people in the bathrooms and how they couldn't give a damn about my safety when I go into the bathroom. The session ended with all of us chanting. I can't remember what the chant was, but it was uplifting! From then on the conference was just amazing. My two friends, they are a couple and pool their resources, where nice enough to buy me Sherry Wolf's book Sexuality and Socialism, in which I have to hide from my father, pretty sure he would shit a brick if he saw that, and I got it signed by Sherry. The signature reads "Madwomyn- To Love and Revolution!" ^_^ Her session also gave me the quote of the conference. She was talking about the 1950s and the witch hunts and she said "There was nothing worse than a communist, Jewish, gay person" and she pointed at herself. Fucking amazing! She is SO funny!

The conference has helped me see where I fit into the socialist movement. I am part of the working class and I must work to make homophobia and transphobia go away so that the workers can work together to take down this capitalist system. Next year there is going to be a talk specifically about transgender issues and politics. I am really excited for that one. I feel more confidant about getting into the socialist and Marxist movements and I am very eager to learn more. I have three books Sherry's and to others to help in that learning. I am really excited ^__^

Thats all for now.

Byes!

P.S. The other issue I talked about in the beginning I will post about later. Also, at least 20 of the sessions will be posted on the website: WeAreMany.org if anyone is interested ^_^