Get organised, get active!

International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students are holding their annual conference on 4 March 2006. We are aiming to get hundreds of young people and activists to it, to discuss and debate the way forward for our campaigns, to share experiences and to discuss the international situation.

Ben Robinson

There will be a line-up of speakers giving reports of the roles that young people are playing in the trade unions, including Eleisha Mullane, the youth forum convenor of the PCS (speaking in a personal capacity). There will also be a speaker from the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign and an eyewitness from Venezuela and the revolutionary events that are taking place there.

It will be an excellent event, inspiring everyone there, particularly if we manage to pack the hall out. We are planning a week of activity from 15-22 February to make sure that we do. Local branches should discuss going out to the schools, colleges, universities and workplaces and selling tickets to young people and students. We can hold public meetings and leaflet areas, including lunchtime and Saturday stalls, as well as planning stunts and other attention-grabbing events.

In Leicester we have already had meetings where young people have joined ISR and bought tickets to the conference. In Reading they are planning to campaign in the town centre during half-term, as well as having a discussion on how to take the work forwards in that area.

In Cardiff, Swansea, Tunbridge Wells, and across England and Wales we are building in the local trade union branches, talking to young activists about the importance of getting politically organised and joining ISR.

In Manchester we have very well organised plans of how to get people to the conference, including emails, meetings, college and university stalls, and the picture is similar in many places across the country.

There is the potential for this conference to be an event that will be a big step forwards for ISR and Socialist Students and a step forward to getting young people organised and active in the struggle for socialism.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.