Should we be surprised that opponents of pro-Palestine activists invoke the ISO? The ISO is the only left group on campuses to have a bad reputation among *non-activist students.* I'll never remember the banner that was hung outside a dorm at George Washington University during the A26 protests two years ago. I don't remember the exact language, but it said something very unwelcome about the ISO.
I'm glad Liza bring this up in this article (which I haven't read), but the real issue here is how the ISO quietly manipulates and interferes with student activist groups. The ISO moves towards whatever protest topic is hot on campus. Of course, they do this because they are motivated by recruiting needs, which causes them to get involved with the protest du jour. They also move on quickly when an issue goes cold.
At one time, the ISO was heavily involved with the student sweatshop movement and dealth penalty activism. They were heavily involved in the anti-war movement on campus and got lots of shit when students figured out that the ISO had arranged concurrent regional conferences around the country and where coordinating everything via cellphones.
> I just happened upon Liza's article and was surprised to read the
> above paragraph. Is _anyone_ in the Committee for Justice in
> Palestine at the Ohio State University -- much less anyone who is
> doing regular organizing work for it -- a member of ISO??? If so, I
> am unaware of who it is. It's possible (though unlikely, I think)
> that someone is an ISO member and hasn't told me that s/he is, but
> even if there is one (or more) in the closet, I just don't see _any_
> evidence _at all_ that ISO "plays a strong role in Palestinian
> solidarity organizing" at OSU. I'm puzzled. Is ISO claiming credit
> for organizing the Committee for Justice in Palestine at OSU??? If
> so, the claim is false. I applaud the ISO for doing a good job at
> Berkeley and other schools, but it can't claim the credit that it
> doesn't deserve.
I don't understand why the ISO should be getting credit for anything. They pretty much fucked up the anti-war movement in southern California--the anti-war conference they organized at Berkeley resulted in over 60 people walking out of the conference, because it was so undemocratic.
The ISO in their own words:
The ISO's decision to pull out of organizing for the A16 protests: "But the ISO must shift its perspective nationally in the face of this new movement, to make a much higher priority of anti-death penalty work. This means, by necessity, scaling back somewhat on building for the April 16th IMF/World Bank demonstration in Washington, DC. This doesn’t mean we are abandoning this work–bigger districts and campuses planning buses or vans should continue to do so–but it means, especially for smaller branches with fewer resources, making a choice to prioritize building for a moratorium on the death penalty."
"The ISO’s work today
As we wrote in our second letter to the SWP leadership, we completely reject the notion that the ISO is sectarian and "isolated" on the left. In fact, the organization is more engaged with others on the left than it ever has been–both at the national and branch levels. What follows are some–but not all–major examples:
School of the Americas. As noted above, the ISO mobilized 200 members for the demonstration of 12,000 in Ft. Benning, Gal, to protest U.S. military training of Latin American death squads. ISO members worked with peace organizations, the Catholic left, student groups, held teach-ins on campuses, and worked with other groups to organize buses. (West Coast branches that were unable to make the trip organized teach-ins and speak-outs on the issue).
Marx in Soho play: Howard Zinn has endorsed, along with South End Press, a tour of the play, with proceeds going to the International Socialist Review. It has drawn hundreds of people in cities across the country, and will be featured at the upcoming Socialist Scholars Conference in New York City and Rethinking Marxism conference in Massachusetts. Zinn has attended several performances, introducing the play. He also agreed to allow our new book, Why You Should be a Socialist, by Alan Maass, to include Zinn’s afterword on Eugene Debs.
Publication of Iraq Under Siege and book tour: Two comrades, Anthony Arnove and Sharon Smith, have chapters in this book, along with Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Dennis Halliday, Howard Zinn and others. The book, edited by Arnove, will be the focus of a tour against the sanctions around the U.S. and the U.K. The book, which is favorably reviewed in the March 2000 issue of Socialist Review, grew out of a New York Times signature ad against the sanctions, which was initiated by ISO comrades and paid for out of a grassroots effort.
"No Sweats:" The ISO has been involved in the United Students Against Sweatshops since its beginning last year. ISO members make up two of the seven people in the organization’s national leadership. Over the last month, ISO comrades have been key in launching several campus sit-ins.
Campaign to End the Death Penalty: As mentioned in our previous letter, the Campaign was central to building the protests that pressured the Illinois governor into declaring a moratorium on the death penalty in late January. Since then the Campaign has been at the center of the effort for a national moratorium described above. Jesse Jackson, Jr. is helping the Campaign to organize a summit of death penalty organizations to plan a national strategy for winning a moratorium, along with a national press conference. His father, Jesse Jackson, has written to the Campaign praising its work and offering to help in any way that he can. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin contacted the Campaign in his effort to prepare legislation for a ban on the death penalty for federal crimes.
These examples show clearly that the ISO is neither dismissive of nor sectarian toward other forces fighting for change. We never have been. Years of effort and of building as broadly as possible locally have enabled ISO comrades to have a much larger impact on a variety of fronts, particularly within the last year."
http://www.angelfire.com/journal/iso/idb.html
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