Greater St. Louis' Left Wing School builds Solidarity

Saturday, December 11, 2010
Greater St. Louis' Left Wing School builds Solidarity
Second Annual Left-Wing School builds Solidarity in St. Louis

written by Paul Joseph Poposky

Sunday
December 5, 2010

Over 60 local activists and organizers from dozens of Leftist and progressive organizations, political parties and coalitions came together at Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville for the second annual Left Wing School (LWS). This year’s Left Wing School was organized by the Greater St. Louis United Front (GSLUF), a coalition of Left-leaning organizations founded in the wake of the 2009 LWS.

As promised in GSLUF’s promotional literature, the second annual Left Wing School presented participants an opportunity to learn about a variety of ideas, presented by a diverse gathering of organizations and individuals on the political and social Left, and offered a unique opportunity for organizations to come together, exchange their ideas and learn from one another.

The free, all-day event featured tabling displays, workshops, and open discussion in a safe and supportive environment. Autonomy Alliance, organizers of the first Left Wing School, provided a healthy breakfast and lunch – free of charge – featuring artisan bread donated by Black Bear Bakery; a restaurant in the historic Cherokee neighborhood of South St. Louis run as a workers co-operative.

The Left Wing School was co-endorsed by over a dozen local organizations, an improvement over last year’s event. This increased participation was reflected in the diversity of views represented. The Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor (CMPL), new to the LWS this year, explained why CMPL calls for the Left and Labor to break away from the Democrats and found their own mass-party. Gary Gaines of the Southern Illinois Committee on Occupational Health and Safety explained “Your Rights in the Workplace”. Darrin Gilley and Glenn Kage, local labor leaders and former United Auto Workers, offered a course on why we should all be “Buying American”.

Nick Gilliam and Jim Hamilton of the Socialist Organizer (SO) and Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC) discussed “Fighting Downsizing in the Public Sector” and explained why it is so important for organized labor and the Left to protect public sector jobs and benefits as an anchor for the labor movement and to preserve the public services they provide. The afternoon workshop sponsored by SO presented immigration from the perspective of the Mexican people in “Immigrant Workers and the Fight for a Socialist USA”, in which Dr. Deborah Cohen of the University of Missouri – St. Louis History Dept. showed the film “Cosecha Triste” and lead a discussion of the highly exploitative Bracero “guest worker” program.

Autonomy Alliance (AA) presented two workshops; David Feldman of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and Andy Lucker of AA showed us what an example of a Left-alternative economic model might look like in “Participatory Economics”, while Lucker and E.J. Rollins sought to tie together multiple social theories in a comprehensive and coherent manner in “Complementary Holism”.

Don Fitz and Angelika Mueller of the Gateway Green Alliance asserted that we need less (stuff) to have more (happiness) in “De-Growth: Left Wing Myths and the Environment”. The Instead of War coalition explored the roots of war today in “War and Capitalism”, and the Workers International League explained the crisis of the Cuban Revolution and sought to explain “Where is Cuba Going?” During the lunch hour, an impromptu circle discussion of anarchism also occurred. The Palestine Solidarity Committee helped close the school by showing ways everyday Americans can do their part to change public policy in Israel and respect the rights of Palestinians to live in “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”, a workshop consistently described by participants as “excellent!”

But two presentations in particular stood out ahead of the pack in terms of content, audience participation and enthusiasm. Steve Fusch’s show-stealing workshop “The Big Gay Breakout” chronicled the trials and tribulations of organizers in the LGBT movement in the 1970’s from Fusch’s own personal experiences. Fusch discussed the modern challenges for LGBT people, concluding with the question: “what way forward for the movement?”

Stephen Houldsworth of Saint Louis Effort for AIDS answered that question in his workshop “Radically Queer”, which concluded the Left Wing School. Houldsworth delved deep into the hidden history of radicalism in LGBT history, and sought to educate LGBT folks and Lefties alike on the foundational role radicals have played in the LGBT movement and the movement on the Left as a whole. Houldsworth showed how time and again the LGBT movement has become dominated by centrist, reformist and assimilationist activists, and how the shift from radical to assimilationist and back again is, in fact, a cyclical process endemic within progressive movements; understanding the historic roots of this process and how the Left is often co-opted by reformist elements is essential to moving the Left forward and back on the offensive.

The closing session of the second annual Left Wing School saw organizers celebrate the general improvement of this year’s effort over the first LWS in 2009 and offer constructive criticism aimed toward building upon the success of this year’s event, expanding and improving it for 2011, and continuing this fine tradition of building solidarity on the Left in St. Louis.

Paul Poposky is a St. Louis area Labor activist and member of CWA local 6653, the Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor (CMPL) and citizen member of the Greater-St. Louis United Front (GSLUF)