ISO Pittsburgh: April 2014

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

MARXISM AND NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION

A 3-part discussion on national self-determination from a Marxist perspective, Thursday nights, 7:30pm at: The Thomas Merton Center, 5129 Penn Avenue

Readings:

April 24: Lenin, “The Right to Self-Determination” and “The Question of Nationalities”

May 1: Trotsky, “The Question of Ukraine”

May 8: Paul D’Amato, “What Do We Say About the National Question” and excerpts from Ghassan Kanafani’s “Strategy for the Liberation of Palestine”

All of the readings can be found on SocialistWorker.org

Who We Are

We are the Pittsburgh branch of the International Socialist Organization. Our members are involved in helping to build a number of struggles: the movement to stop American wars abroad, fights against racism and anti-immigrant scapegoating, the struggle for women's rights like the right to choose abortion, opposing anti-gay bigotry, pushing for environmental justice, and standing up for workers' rights. We are committed to building a left alternative to a world of war, racism and poverty.

Read our "Where We Stand" pamphlet for more information.

Why Socialism?

The misery that millions of people around the world face is rooted in the society we live in--capitalism, where the few who rule profit from the labor of the vast majority of the population.

In the U.S., a tiny proportion of the population enjoys fantastic wealth, while millions of people live in desperate poverty, and many more live paycheck to paycheck. Yet we have the resources to feed, clothe and educate everyone on the planet.

A world free of exploitation--socialism--is not only possible but worth fighting for. The ISO stands in the tradition of revolutionary socialists Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the belief that workers themselves--the vast majority of the population--are the only force that can lead the fight to win a socialist society. Socialism can't be brought about from above, but has to be won by workers themselves.