Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s

Front of conference brochure

The Conference on Perspectives for Democracy and Socialism in the 90s was the Committees of Correspondence's national conference held in Berkeley, California July 17-19, 1992.

Plenary Speakers

The following spoke at plenaries at the conference:

• Charlene Mitchell, national coordinator, CoC
• Jose LaLuz, trade unionist, chair, Latino Commission, DSA
• Manning Marable, member, CoC
• Elizabeth Martinez
• Mark Solomon, member, CoC
• Carl Bloice, member, CoC
• Leslie Cagan, exec. director, Cuba Information Project
• Ying Lee Kelly, legislative aide to Rep. Ron Dellums
• Herbert Aptheker

International Solidarity Evening

• Ngo Thanh Nhan (Vietnam), Association of Vietnamese in the United States
• Judy Rebick (Canada), president, National Action Commission on the Status of Women (Canada); member, New Democratic Party (Canada)
• Sigfrido Reyes (El Salvador), Political-Diplomatic Commission of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front of El Salvador; member, Communist Party of El Salvador
• Hlatshwayo Madoda (South Africa), deputy head, African National Congress mission to the United States
• Andrea Lederer (Germany), member of the German parliament; leader, Party of Democratic Socialism

Workshops

The following is a list of the workshops that were held at the conference on Saturday, July 18:

Globalization

What are the implications for labor and the left of the scientific and technological revolution and globalization of capital and labor?

• Jan Gilbrecht, Representative, California Nurses Association, Oakland
• Gerald Horne, Professor, UC Berkeley, Dept. of Geography
• Mel Pritchard, activist, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, San Francisco
• Mike Eisenscher, former Silicon Valley union organizer, SF
• Clark Everling, Professor, Empire State Labor College, NY
• Maria Pizarro, Chicago
• Carol Pittman, organizer, Local 1199, NY

Class Consciousness

How can the left help develop a revitalized, democratic, class-conscious labor movement?

• Maria Abadesco, Business Representative, SEIU Local 790, SF
• Karen Osmondson, SEIU Local Staff Trainer, Watsonville, CA
• Gail Sullivan, West Coast Organizer, Teamsters for a Democratic Union
• Terry Alaimo, Vice President, Local 1199 Healthcare Union, NY
• Kay Eisenhower, SEIU Local 616, No CA
• Carol Lambiase, Intl. Rep., UE, CT
• Ron Teninty, Intl. Rep., Teamsters, No CA
• David Shelton, president, San Francisco School Bus Drivers, UTU Local 1741

Unorganized

What should be the left's role in organizing the unorganized? Can labor's current decline be arrested?

• David Bacon, labor journalist and organizer, Berkeley
• Paul Friedman, vice president for organizing, Local 1199, NY
• Alicia Montes-Matzger, Intl. Rep., International Longshore and Warehousemen's Union
• Maria Pantolja, United Electrical Workers field organizer, No CA
• John Case, former UE organizer, Philadelphia
• Minerva Solla, Field Rep., SEIU Local 250
• Ellen Starbird, labor studies instructor, Laney College, Oakland

Standing Together - Labor

Standing together and showing support. How to respond to racism, sexism and anti-immigrant prejudice and other divisions within the labor movement? How to build labor solidarity and links with nationally oppressed communities?

• Lenore Colbert, vice president of occupational safety, Local 1199, NY
• Joan Levenson Cohen, past president, NY Coalition of Labor Union Women, UFT, NY
• Rafael Pizzaro, organizer, Local 1199, NY
• Howard Wallace, field rep., SEIU Local 250, SF

Standing Together - Community

Standing together and showing support. How to respond to racism, sexism and anti-immigrant prejudice and other divisions among our communities? How to build solidarity and links among nationally oppressed an other communities?

• Laura Head, Professor of Black Studies, SF State University
• Ray Markey, president, NY Public Library Guild Local 1930, AFSCME, NY
• Carmen Rumbaut, worker and immigrant rights attorney, San Antonio

Strategy 1

What is an effective strategy? Responding to monopoly capital in the era of the permanent replacements (strikes, in-shop actions, community alliances, internation solidarity)

• Ignacio de la Fuente, Intl. Rep., Glass, Molders and Pottery Workers Union member-elect, Oakland City council
• Betty Hughley, vice president, Local 1199, NY
• Leanna Noble, field organizer, UE, Los Angeles
• Corinne Comer, secretary-treasurer, HERE Local 28, Oakland
• Larry Daves, labor attorney, San Antonio
• Annmarie Draham, field organizer, UE, No CA
• John Reed, vice president, Local 1199, NY
• Shelley Kessler, Asst. Exec. Officer, San Mateo County Labor Council

African American

What lies behind and beyond LA? What strategy for African-American liberation? What is its place in the general struggle for democracy and social advance?

• Fran Beal, CrossRoads National Board, freelance writer, Oakland
• Charles Brown, CoC Coordinating Committee, Detroit
• Ishmael Flory, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Chicago
• Franklin Alexander, co-chair, African Americans for Peace and Justice

Latino/Caribbean

A powerful and growing political force: The Latino/Caribbean people's struggle for equality and justice. What are the new perspectives in the Chicano/Mexicano, Puerto Rican and Caribbean communities?

• Linda Coronado, Director, Volunteer Services, Cook County Hospital, Chicago
• William Gerena-Rochet, National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, NY
• Edith Moise, Asst. Principal, Bilingual School, NY
• Joe Navarro, Chicano community activist, Denver
• Nelson Valdez, Vice Pres., Local 1199, NY
• Marshall Garcia, Exec. VP, Local 1199, NY

Asian Pacific

What are the dynamics of the role of the Asian-Pacific community within the working class and the nation? What is the relationship between the anti-discrimination struggle of the Asian/Pacific peoples and the general movement for social emancipation and democracy?

• Sumi Cho, founding member, Korean American for Progressive Action
• Daz Zio Paras, labor activist, No CA
• Masao Suzuki, Nihonmachi Outreach Committee, San Jose
• Nellie Wong, poet
• Dan Nishijima, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance

Women

The women's movement: a critical factor in the economic, political and social life of the U.S. today. What should be the theoretical and practical response of the left?

• Angela Davis, Professor of History of Consciousness, UC Santa Cruz
• Roma Guy, Director, San Francisco Women's Building
• Sandy Patrinos, Women for Racial and Economic Equality, Chicago
• Cathy Tashiro, health care worker and designer of programs on workplace diversity

Multiracial Left

How can we build a multi-racial, multi-national left movement? A critical question for the survival and effectiveness of the left.

• Jose Cervantes, Chicano political activist, Seattle
• Karega Hart, Socialist Organizing Network
• Carol Ann Robins, factory worker, Philadelphia
• Leslie Shaheen, organizer, Local 1199, NY
• Jim Brough, political action coordinator, California School Employees Association, Santa Cruz

Quincentennial

Five hundred years of resistance. The quincentennial: racist distortions and myths

• Robert Chacanaca, community activist, Watsonville, CA
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, prof., California State Hayward, SF
• David Muga, Ethnic Student Center, Western Washington State University, Bellingham, WA
• Roberta Goodman, initiator, United Against Genocide, 1992

Strategy 2

Where to from here? What next in the struggle for democracy in the United States?

• Ann Ginger, Director, Meiklejohn Library, Berkeley
• Atiba Mbiwan, youth service worker, Providence, RI
• Michael Myerson, writer, NY
• Mike Welch, admin. assistant, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, NY
• Tom Edminster, exec. board, United Educators of San Francisco

Electoral

What should be the place of electoral activity on the left's agenda? What would be an effective strategy for this year, the 90s and beyond?

• Yolanda Alaniz, candidate for Seattle City Council
• Bill Collins, a founder of Citizens for Proportional Representation, Cincinnati, Ohio
• James Vann, national co-chair, National Committee for Independent Political Action, Oakland
• Victoria Missick, teacher & multi-cultural movement, NY
• Dr. Margie Akin, Peace and Freedom candidate, 40th CD, Riverside, CA
• Keith Carson, Legal Aide to Rep. Ronald Dellums, Oakland
• Arthur Kinoy, National co-chair, NCIPA, Montclair, NJ
• Sam Perez, Puerto Rican political activist, NY
• Mark Allen, legislative aide, John George, Alameda County Supervisor

New World Order

Confronting the "New World Order". The multinational corporation, inter-imperialist rivalry, anti-imperialism and the struggle for peace, disarmament and non-intervention.

• Susan Borenstein, former exec. director, National Chile Center, NY
• Conn Hallinan, prof. of journalism, UC Santa Cruz
• Erik Larsen, Marine conscientious objector recently released from prison for refusing orders for Gulf War
• Shantika Emker, student of Marxist philosophy
• Roger Burback, Center for the Study of the Americas
• April Knutson, Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, Univ. of Minnesotta, Minneapolis
• Gus Newport, former mayor, Berkeley

Environment

The left, ecology and the environmental movement. What are elements of an effective strategy? Labor & community concerns, confronting environmental racism and forging unity in struggle

• Henry Clark, exec. director, West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond (CA)
• Adrian Price, SF Green Party
• David Schwartzman, prof. of zoology, Howard Univ., Washington, D.C.
• Ruben Solis, Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, TX
• Sheila Sexton, environmental and community activist

Socialist U.S.

Toward a Socialist United States? Reshaping the vision and charting a path. Is it possible? On what basis?

• Dr. Keith Baird, DSA
• Barry Cohen, CoC Implementation Committee, NY
• Matthew Hallinan, DSA, No CA
• David McReynolds, national co-chair, Socialist Party USA, NY
• Denise Young, Rochester CoC, NY
• Anne Mitchell, organizer, Writer's Union, NY

Gay/Lesbian Movement

Building the left in the gay/lesbian movement and strengthening alliances in all the people's movements

• Tom Boot, Black gay socialist activist, No CA
• Harry Hay, Radical Faerie Political Network
• Pat Norman, exec. director, California AIDS Intervention Center
• Dr. Maggie Rubenstein, bisexual activist
• Sushawn Robb, Harvey Milk Lesbian Gay Democratic Club
• Pam David, lesbian/gay activist, SF

Left Unity

Getting it together: How should broad left unity be built? Speaking freely of differences and defining the basis for united action

• Peter Camejo, CrossRoads Advisory Council, Oakland
• Gil Green, author, NY
• Vivian Stromberg, exec. director, MADRE, NY
• Pat Harris, VP, Local 1199, NY
• Kendra Alexander, CA CoC
• Judith Pasternak, managing editor, National Guardian, NY
• Carla Wallace, steering committee, Kentucky Rainbow Coalition, Louisville
• Ethan Young, Cuba Update, NY
• Ron Johnson, housing activist, San Jose

Health

The challenge to our health. What next in the struggle for national health care? The fight against aids and infant mortality and for a rational system of preventative medicine for all

• Marilyn Albert, R.N., New York State Nurses Association
• David Cohen, Intl. Rep., UE, Springfield, MA
• Dr. Tolburt Small, Harriet Tubman Medical Center, Oakland
• Mildred Williamson, AIDS health worker, Chicago
• Dr. Peter Orris, Governing Council, American Public Health Association, Chicago

Youth Movement

The role of the new youth movement on the left. The voices and instruments for struggle of young people devestated by the current crisis.

• Hatem Bazian, former student body pres., SF State Univ.
• Dominique di Prima, host, KRON TV's "Home Turf", SF
• Leonard McNeil, Youth and Militarism program coordinator, American Friends Service Committee, Oakland
• Zhenya Spake, youth activist and construction worker, No CA

Youth Exchange

An exchange of experiences among progressive youth activists. Helping to define the issues, methods and aims of the new movement among young people

• Lateef Daumont, raptivist, Cenceremito, Oakland
• Eric Quezada, youth service worker, East Palo Also, CA
• Raahi Reddy, student activist, Rutgers Univ., NJ
• Kim Davis, elementary school counselor, SF

Economic Crisis

Homelessness, joblessness, poverty & the enduring economic crisis. What should be the role of the left in shaping strategy and building an effective fightback.

• Max Anderson, health rights activist, Berkeley
• Bill Sorro, housing activist, SF
• Billie Wachter, housing activist, San Jose
• Martha Bragin, Children's Aid Society, NY

Socialist Crisis

What is the meaning of the crisis of socialism in the World today? Recent events in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and their implications for the left in the West. Looking at China, Vietnam and Korea. The threat to Cuba: How to respond?

• Carl Bloice, former Moscow correspondent, PWW
• David Englestein, Marxist scholar and teacher, SF
• Daniel Rubin, CoC Implementation Committee, NY
• Leon Wofsy, UC Berkeley faculty, retired
• Carol Esteves, Berkeley community activist
• Max Elbaum, managing editor, CrossRoads, SF
• Erwin Marquit, prof., Univ. of Minnesotta, Minneapolis
• Margrit Pittman, journalist, NY
• Yvonne Golden, retired principal, Alamo Park HS, SF

Battle of Ideas 1

Culture and the Battle of Ideas. How are the arts and entertainment being used by the ruling class to propagate racism, violence, sexism and hopelessness? What is the role of artists and the arts in advancing a progressive agenda?

• Geoffrey Jacques, asst. editor, Local 1199 News, NY
• Michael Parenti, lecturer and author, Berkeley
• Alice Sunshine, National Writers Union, SF
• Bonnie Castillo, La Raza Bookstore, Sacramento

Battle of Ideas 2

Strategies for influencing and creating inroads in the news and information media.

• Steve Rhodes, Bay Area Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
• Pat Scott, general manager, KPFA Radio, Berkeley
• Jim Smith, Newspaper Guild, LA
• John Trinkl, writer, National Guardian, SF

People's Art

How to combat defunding, denial of access and cooptation?

• John Crawford, publisher, West End Press, NM
• John Fromer, Freedom Song Network and TV producer, SF
• Rinda Frye, actor and professor of drama, Louisville, KT
• Peggy Lipschutz, artist, Chicago
• Marty Price, writer and community activist, Oakland

Social Crisis

The growing social crisis - Urban and rural. How should the left view the problem of crime, delinquency and drugs? Is there a way to halt the destruction of communities?

• Millie Cleveland, youth advocate, Oakland
• John Talbutt, asst. to the Pres., AFSCME Local 371, NY
• Jim Schmidt, Rochester, CoC, NY
• Coraminita Mahr, VP, Local 1199

Education

The crisis of public education. What is needed to create a school system which is free, universally accessible, multi-cultural, integrated and which truly prepares young people for adult life?

• Alva Buxenbaum, AFT Local 2, NY
• Jack Kurzweil, VP, California Faculty Association, San Jose
• Pedro Noguera, Berkeley School Board
• Richard Hoyen, Caribbean activist, NY

Peace and Solidarity

Taking apart the military behemoth. How can we win disarmament agreements, end military interventions, and convert our militarized economy to a peacetime orientation?

• Al Fishman, co-chair, Michigan SANE-Freeze, Detroit
• Libby Frank, Peace Information Project, Philadelphia
• David Reed, SF Anti-Apartheid Committee
• Marti Schmidt, National Lawyers Guild, Seattle
• Merle Ratner, co-coordinator, National Network of Indochina Activists

Religion

Religion and the churches as a force for radical social change

• Rev. Ben Fraticelli, exec. director, Northern California Ecumenical Council
• Louisa Lavulo, Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies
• James Treat, Bay Area Native American Ministry
• Rev. Jack Zylman, NAARPR, Birmingham
• Rev. Dorsey Blake, director, Center for Urban-Black Studies

Left Organization

The culture and organization of grassroots empowerment

• Michael Dover, Bertha Capen Reynolds Society, Ann Arbor, MI
• Lee Schore, director, Center for Working Life, No CA
• Daniel Solnit, Green Party USA, No CA
• Daniel Walker, Mothers Against Police Harassment, Seattle

Communications

Telecommunications in the '90s: A tool for left organizations. A demonstration/discussion of telecommunication tools and resources available to the left.

• Geoff Sears, exec. director, Institute of Global Communication
• Steve Willett, sysop of the Initiative BBS

Seniors

Seniors and the struggle for radical social reform. What role for the left in their movement for health care, economic security and racial equality?

• Ida Kinney, president, Pacoima Interfaith Senior Club, So CA
• Helen Lima, Oakland Non-Partisan Legislative Club of Seniors
• George Sandy, past president, Congress of California Seniors

Spiritual Values

Progressive politics, social values, spiritual traditions

• Rev. Daniel Buford, minister, teacher, wood sculptor
• Fania Davis, attorney, artist, Oakland
• Dennis Jennings, Berkeley Indigenous Peoples' Day Coordinator
• Rachel Richman, political activist, Berkeley

International Greetings

The following representatives from international organizations were sent to the conference:

• Franz Muhri, secretary for international affairs, Communist Party of Austria
• George Hewison, Communist Party of Canada
• John Haylett, international secretary, Communist Party of Britain
• Gyula Thurmer, president, Hungarian Socialist Workers Party
• Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Italy)
• Alexander Buzgalin, Russian Organizing Committee of the Party of Labor
• Federal Committee, Communist Party of Spain
• Chris Hani, General Secretary, South African Communist Party

Other Notes

• Buddy Clark translated the address of Sigfrido Reyes which was published in the booklet.

External links

• Brochure