LEFT FORUM 2010: The Center Cannot Hold

A review of one of the most important meetings of leftists in the United States, with details of workshops and speakers. A memorial to Howard Zinn, a speech by Noam Chomsky, an assessment of the event.

REPORT FROM 2010 LEFT FORUM

LEFT FORUM 2010: The Center Cannot Hold
by Ron Linville

The 2010 Left Forum was held March 19-21, at the downtown campus of Pace University in New York City. The gathering, formerly known as the “Socialist Scholars' Conference”, has long been the annual summit meeting of left intellectuals. More recently, the definition of intellectuals has been expanded to include activists without initials after their names. Although some of the workshops were definitely academic in nature, some dedicated to the work of a single theorist, most tied the subject, however scholarly, to activism. The balance was good, overall.

Some of the left luminaries, not mentioned further below, who made appearances and participated in workshops were: Cindy Milstein, Robert Meeropol, Greg Palast, Howie Hawkins, Barbara Garson, Joel Kovel, Andrej Grubacic, Gar Alperovitz, Brian Tokar, and Lydia Sargent. Stanley Aronowitz was scheduled to appear, but was ill.

The weekend featured more than 232 workshops, split into seven sessions, plus Opening and Closing Plenaries and Saturday night entertainment. The pace (no pun intended ) was exhausting
--although, given the gigantic task, the organizers deserve great credit for managing the chaos.

Fellow RIMCer and I went down, exchanging our videographic services for a fee waiver. Our raw footage will be cobbled together and shown on our Indymedia TV show [LINK], and then returned to the LF organizers, who will produce a DVD of the entire event.

At the Opening Plenary, which emphasized the subtitle of this year's Forum, “The Center Cannot Hold”, Jesse Jackson gave an opening address than I found, frankly, incoherent, both aurally and thematically. However, he did rise to his best form on some occasions, and clearly felt at home in this sympathetic crowd. I must say, though, that a keynote speaker at an opening plenary normally sets forth themes or throws 'bones of contention' out to the audience, and he did neither, leaving the person who was slated to respond to him with little to say. At least—and I had been afraid of this—he didn't make a pitch for Obama's re-election.
Workshops

The more detailed workshop descriptions below are from those that I personally attended. Other topics included: vegan/vegetarianism, LGBT rights, radical film, media analysis, 'people of color' politics, and a discussion of the recent pamphlet, “The Coming Insurrection”. [LINK TO LF PROGRAM]

I attended Radical Playwriting, Marxism vs. Anarchism, “Pranking”, Reimagining Society, and a panel on the call for a “Fifth International”. The workshop I most wanted to attend, the one on Privatization of Public Education, was canceled (or at least moved to an unannounced room); I had been looking forward to sharing our “mayoral control” saga with others and comparing notes and strategies.

After that, the next most exciting prospect for me was the Fifth International panel, which included Michael Albert, and the Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has issued a call for people to meet in Caracas this month to form this new body. This call has been taken up, although not with an urgency that would conform to an April meeting, by several people and groups on the left, here and abroad. The sentiment is that we need a counterbalance that is on the same scale as global capitalism. NOTE: Z Magazine has published a Proposal, “Searching for Democratic Alternatives: A New International?”, in its April issue . [LINK to Z]

Unfortunately, the Venezuelan guest took up 45 of the 90 minutes alloted to read a boilerplate anti-imperialist speech, and through a not-very-good interpreter, which I think had the effect of deflating the audience; certainly there was no air of excitement that such a call should have elicited. Mr Albert, frankly , did not help the mood any. His energy seemed low the entire weekend, and his tone and message restricted almost to scolding; 'if we are serious, why haven't we done this?' A good observation, but possibly not best-expressed.

The Playwriting workshop, led by Karen Malpede, was principally readings form her and others' works and works-in-progress, but that was followed by a lively discussion of the place of theater in the radical project, and of the practical difficulties of getting edgy stuff performed, even in NYC.

The Pranking session was led by one of the people from “Yes Men”, who was completely unprepared, even turning to another panelist at one point and asking them “what they should do now”. However, there were very funny videos (from The Onion) of various impersonations and scams run against industrial targets (who have, predictably, no sense of humor).

For me, an infrequent visitor to NYC, the most shocking adjustment was to the (existence!) the number of Stalinists in attendance. The Revolutionary Communist Party (“homosexuality is a bourgeois deviation”), whose ;politics could be summarized as: 'nothing's been good since Mao croaked'”, set their book kiosk up outside the main building and aggressively leafleted the entire weekend. In their view, all of the Soviet leaders since Stalin were softies and sellouts.

So when I read of a workshop on Marxism vs. Anarchism, whereon the “Marxist” position was to be defended by RCPers, I wished I had brought along my street-fighting gear. I need not have worried; all the panelists were very gentlemanly with each other.

And, yes, all four were guys. On the whole, the LF did an OK job of making sure women were represented well, although the gender imbalance in the left generally was unfortunately in evidence as regards the attendance. At this session, however, not only were no women on the panel, but speaker after speaker—including the anarchists!--used male pronouns as the universal. I finally spoke to this, and speakers avoided pronouns thereafter, but I was surprised and disappointed that none of the women or men in the room seconded my comment. ( Is this a generational thing? Have younger radical women decided invisibility is OK?)

At any rate, the Stalinist (what are they doing at a Left Forum anyway? Is there nothing you can do that will cost you fellowship?) and the anarchists got along civilly, even after the words “Makhno” and “Kronstadt were uttered. [LINK to these names]

Re-Imagining Society was billed as a workshop, but it was far too large, and was held in the auditorium . A panel consisting of Chris Spanos, Ms._____ Epstein of Socialist Review, Bill Fletcher, Jr (Black Communicator) and Michael Albert (Z) discussed “vision”, although they produced little detail. Albert was the most compelling speaker, exhorting then audience to follow through on “what we say our politics are”.
Entertainment & Memorial
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The Saturday entertainment promised to be rare and wonderful, and it was. If you ever get the chance to see any of the following, take it: Liz Winstead, Baratunde Thurston, John Fugelsang, and Victor Varnado. Their stand-ups were all great (there's usually one bomb on a card, and political humor is especially hard to pull off), and they were set off by videos from The Onion and Barely Political.com.

The Closing Plenary was, in large part, given over to an appreciation of the just-passed Howard Zinn [LINK], led by Frances Fox-Piven and accompanied by a slide presentation. It was followed by a scene from Zinn's play “Marx in Soho”, performed by the man (apologies: I do not have the name) who is currently doing it in NYC.

The highlight of the night was the speech by Noam Chomsky. This event was the 'must-see' of the weekend, and admission was so tight that, officially, only Forum attendees were allowed in. (Some comrades that had come up from the antiwar doings in DC made it in, however). He was introduced by an unexpected attendee, Arundhati Roy, whose own extemporaneous speech, while much longer than usual for an introduction, was very well received. Chomsky then entered, to huge applause. He seemed to walk less firmly than I remembered, and his voice was perhaps a touch more gravelly now, but his points were, as always, sharp and forceful.

Assessment
This was my first Left Forum, but it will not be my last; the atmosphere of concentrated thought and discussion is something that very activist owes it to themselves to experience, if they have not already. The organizers, as I said above, are to be congratulated; as always though, there were some difficulties to work on for next year. The biggest criticism, by far, and the only one worth yelling about, was the timing; the Forum conflicted with the May 19 anniversary (and attendant protests) of the war. I suggest that the 2011 Forum avoid this date, as is it unfortunately extremely unlikely that all imperial stormtroopers will be out of Iraq or Afghanistan by then, so we'll want people to go to DC and cause trouble. I have already sent an email to the organizers suggesting the weekend of May Day, and adding that a revived May Day Parade down Broadway might be a great event to co-sponsor, organize, and participate in as a part of the Forum.

Other, far less important problems involved a lack of a guide to walking-distance eateries/other sites, as some of the regular Pace facilities were actually closed during this weekend, unclear, inadequate, or absent signage in the hallways (although the general map provided was useful), and the completely unavoidable issue of 'too many workshop conflicts. I look forward to next year!