<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">The I.S.S.E. will be forming a new Cadre at City College in the fall, this is a Socialist Club, allied with the Social Equality Party, interested students or faculty, please email me off list.<br>The state of world affairs as mankind enters the second decade of the
21st Century shatters any hope that the new millennium would put an end
to the wars, violence, and poverty of the 20th Century. Despite the
integration of world economy and great advances in technolo<span class="text_exposed_hide">...</span><span class="text_exposed_show">gy
and communications, billions live in hunger and humanity is beset by
unending wars. The decade began with an earthquake in Haiti, the Western
Hemisphere’s poorest country, whose death toll shows the horrible
effects of social inequality. In the United States, millions have been
thrust into poverty, while more jobs have been lost than at any time
since the Great Depression. After handing out trillions to the banks,
the US government—at both the state and federal level—is pushing through
unprecedented cuts in education and other social programs. The
financial elite, with the arrogance and sense of entitlement of an
aristocracy, has exploited the crisis of its own making to vastly enrich
itself, inflating new speculative bubbles that will lead inevitably to
another financial crisis. The war against the working class
domestically is coupled with war abroad. Continuing on Bush's "wars of
the Twenty-First Century," Obama has launched a “surge” in Afghanistan,
quickly followed by the addition of a new potential target in the
unending “war on terror”—Yemen. At the same time, the US is increasing
threats against Iran and China. Without the independent intervention by
the working class, deepening world conflicts are leading to a world war
bloodier than those of the 20th Century. *A SOCIALIST PROGRAM* The
ISSE is an organization of students around the world that insists that
the great problems of our epoch can only be solved through a socialist
movement of the international working class. Human progress is blocked
by the capitalist system, which subordinates all considerations to the
drive for corporate profit and the accumulation of personal wealth. The
ISSE demands: • End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! The ISSE calls
for the immediate withdrawal of all US troops and private mercenaries
from Iraq, Afghanistan and every other country the US seeks to
subjugate. The American war machine must be dismantled, and the vast
sums expended upon it used to pay reparations to the societies
devastated by American bombs and to help meet pressing social needs at
home. • Billions for education and social programs! The ISSE demands a
massive reallocation of resources worldwide to provide employment for
all those who need it. There is plenty of work to be done, including
meeting the basic needs of the population for food and shelter,
rebuilding schools, expanding access to health care, and providing
cultural institutions accessible to workers and young people. •
Nationalize the banks and major corporations! The financial aristocracy
is the principal block to any solution to the crisis facing billions of
people. To break its stranglehold over the world economy, the ISSE calls
for the nationalization of the banks and all large corporations under
the democratic control of the working population. • For social
equality! Democracy is incompatible with the immense levels of social
inequality that prevail in the US and throughout the world. The ISSE
calls for a program of wealth redistribution, including a sharp increase
in taxes on the rich and the expropriation of all sums amassed through
speculation and fraud. For the political independence of the working
class The issues students face—including rising tuition, massive debts,
the starving of resources for public education—are inseparable from the
broader questions confronting the working class. None of these problems
can be solved on the campuses alone. Students seeking to oppose war and
inequality must reach out to workers throughout the country and
internationally. A turn to the working class does not mean an alliance
with the trade unions. These organizations, supposedly defenders of the
working class, are in fact dominated by well-heeled executives and
partners of corporate management. They have collaborated in pushing
through concessions while seeking to keep workers tied to the political
establishment. The ISSE calls for the building of independent
rank-and-file education, workplace, and neighborhood committees to unify
all sections of workers and youth. Above all, however, the working
class needs its own political party, in opposition to the Democrats and
Republicans, the parties of the corporate elite. The ISSE completely
rejects the position that these parties of the corporate elite can be
pushed to the left through protests and demonstrations. Many young
people voted for Obama hoping for “change” from the Bush administration.
These hopes have very rapidly turned to disillusionment and anger as
the new administration has only deepened the right-wing policies of its
predecessor. The author of the Audacity of Hope has turned out to be the
most audacious of liars. The experience of the Obama Administration
demonstrates that there can be no change through the existing
institutions. The US is a democracy in name only; behind the façade of
elections lies a completely corrupt political system beholden to the
financial aristocracy. The ISSE seeks to build a mass political
movement of the working class that will fight for power, establish a
workers' government, and reorganize society on a democratic, egalitarian
and rational basis. For socialism and internationalism The two basic
features of capitalism—private ownership of the means of production and
the division of the world economy along national lines—block the
rational use and development of man's productive forces. None of the
problems humanity confronts can be dealt with on a national level. The
problems faced by working people and youth of every country are
fundamentally the same. In all countries, the ISSE opposes nationalism,
chauvinism, racism and protectionism, which are simply means to divide
and weaken the working class. Working people of all countries must join
together in a common struggle. Socialism—the rational and democratic
control of the economy to meet social need, not private profit—arises as
a historical necessity from the breakdown of capitalism. The ISSE has
unshakable confidence in the development of an international socialist
movement because socialism corresponds to the objective interests of the
working class, the vast majority of humanity. Socialism can only be
achieved by conscious effort. A movement must be built and a struggle
waged. We call on students and young people to carry forth this fight
and build the ISSE. Join the fight for socialism! Join the ISSE!</span><br><br>Kurt A. Wellman EFA<br>
<br>
http://www.educationforallcoalition.com/<br>
http://www.meetup.com/San-Diegans-Fighting-For-Educational-Justice/<br>
http://www.witches.meetup.com/1369/<br>
<br>
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in periods of moral crisis maintain their neutrality" Dante</td></tr></table><br>