STILL TIME to Register for the 3/24 LCIP National Conference … And Why You Should Register

Dear readers of The Organizer Newspaper

Each day we ask ourselves: What more can we do to stop the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people? This has been our immediate concern.

Our demand directed to the U.S. government has been loud and clear: Stop Arming Israel. We rally in the streets and in the halls of government. We organize in our communities and in our workplaces. Longshore unions have refused to handle military cargo headed to Israel. Unions and labor organizations representing 9 million workers came together to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Now we call upon all of them to transform their words into actions and to demand, with one voice: Stop Arming Israel!

At the same time, we call for galvanizing the energy and experience from our mass organizing and union struggles towards creating an independent working-class party in the United States rooted in labor and communities of the oppressed. 

Labor and Community for an Independent Party (LCIP) is holding a conference this coming Sunday, March 24, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Pacific via zoom, with panels and discussion on• Palestinian Self-Determination and Ending the Gaza Genocide• Black Liberation and the Fight for Independent Black Working-Class Politics• The War at Home and• Moving Forward to Independent Working-Class Political Action. (Link to registration and agenda below.

What message does it send to the Palestinian people when Shawn Fain, the leader of the UAW, puts the might of the union behind Genocide Joe and his unwavering support for the Zionist state? 

To the rank-and-file UAW members who think otherwise and are mobilizing in the streets and in their locals, we ask you to join the discussion at the LCIP conference.Some of the main organizations that have steadfastly mobilized to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, are telling us that the next step for the antiwar movement is to support “progressive” Democrats in November.

To those who think that “progressive” Democrats can make a difference within the parties of capital, we ask you to look at history. “Progressive” Democrats, or Independents such as Bernie Sanders, who caucus with them, become subsumed within the apparatus, are marginalized, or are ousted by the party itself time and time again.

Recently, we have the example of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY and a DSA member. AOC, in October 2023 stated that she would vote for funding Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system and, more recently, in February, as a loyal member of the Democratic Party caucus, she supported the discharge petition that would bring the Senate’s “national security bill” to the House floor — even though it contains over $14 billion of military funding to Israel as well as billions more for the anti-immigrant “border security” measures and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

To members of Jewish Voice for Peace and other organizations who question this strategy, we ask you to join the discussion at the LCIP conference.

To our readers of The Organizer newspaper. Our masthead from our first issue in March 1991 has read: For a Labor Party, For a Workers’ International. Our efforts have always been towards that end.

Working-class and communities of the oppressed need a political party of our own if we are to build political power.  We know it cannot happen overnight but it will never happen if we don’t begin the process.

LCIP proposes a two-prong strategy based upon the building blocks of local community-labor assemblies as well as creating labor party caucuses in our unions.

Register today for the conference. Tell others with whom you organize about it, too. 

Yours in struggle,

Mya Shone

Member, LCIP Advisory Board

Member, Editorial Board, The Organizer Newspaper