>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
Is there anyone other than Chuck0 and Joe (and maybe DP, KW, & MPu) who see a problem in the above? -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>