https://socialistworker.org/2019/04/02/the-isos-vote-to-dissolve-and-what-comes-next
The ISO???s vote to dissolve and what comes next
April 2, 2019
SocialistWorker.org reports on the results of an organization-wide
online poll to determine what???s next in the wake of the ISO???s
organizational crisis.
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MEMBERS AND recent ex-members of the International Socialist
Organization (ISO) have decided to dissolve the organization and end
publication of SocialistWorker.org over the coming weeks, but also to
support several working groups and initiatives going forward, and to
work toward continued collaboration in rebuilding independent
revolutionary socialist organization.
These decisions followed a week of online voting that ended March 29 on
nearly two-dozen proposals put forward ahead of an all-member conference
call on March 24. Nearly 500 members, participants in disaffiliated
branches and recently resigned members took part in the vote.
The decisions came in the wake of a severe crisis in the ISO after
information surfaced about a horribly mishandled sexual assault
accusation in 2013. An independent disciplinary committee at the time
came to the conclusion that an ISO member had clearly violated the
organization???s code of conduct and should be expelled, but the 2013
Steering Committee interfered with the committee???s work, overturned its
decision and effectively silenced anyone who dissented from the course
it chose.
A message from Socialist Worker
This report is meant for our comrades and friends on the left, in the
U.S. and around the world to explain what the ISO has decided in its
voting and what comes next for us. There will be a few more reflections
on the crisis in our organization and what it means for all of us in the
socialist movement going forward in the coming days before we cease
publication ??? though we intend to keep our work archived at this website
into the future.
AROUND ONE-third of the active proposals that ISO members voted on
concerned the future of the organization itself.
Around 70 percent of those who voted chose proposals that dissolved the
ISO in some fashion, versus proposals that delayed the decision or
favored the group???s continuation, though with major changes.
The proposal that won an outright majority of votes put forward a plan
for a period of transition before disbanding. A Crisis Leadership Team ???
made up of members of the recently elected Steering Committee and
National Committee, plus representatives from the ISO???s National Branch
Council, Survivors??? Justice Working Group and #MeToo Commission ??? is
empowered to oversee the process.
One important task in this period will be to provide support for working
groups and initiatives that will continue after the ISO disbands.
Many of the ISO???s working groups and newly formed caucuses ??? ranging
from the Survivors??? Justice Working Group and other working groups to
the trans caucus ??? plan to continue to draw together socialists on a
local basis and around the country.
Proposals that directly and indirectly spoke to the future of these
formations won strong support. In particular, there was a clear mandate
for proposals that center survivors and fight sexual assault. The vote
also supported a process for continuing to investigate the 2013 sexual
assault case and how a decision then was derailed, and to report the
findings publicly.
As for SocialistWorker.org, we will to continue to publish for a brief
period of a week or two. After SW ends publication, a new blog or
website is being established to function, as SW has for the past several
weeks, as a public-facing continuation of the internal discussion among
ISO members and former members.
Many members passionately supported trying to keep SW going in different
forms, but this website and SW???s paper edition have always been bound up
with the ISO, so our future can???t be separated from the organization
behind it. We do, however, plan to keep SW online into the future as an
archive of the ISO???s activism and analysis going back several decades.
IN THE same spirit, the proposal for the planned dissolution of the ISO
set out a course to keep soon-to-be-former members of the ISO connected,
with a goal of contributing to the rebuilding of a revolutionary
socialist current on the left into the future.
Many, though not all, branches of the ISO, including those that voted to
disaffiliate from the group in recent weeks, are committed to staying
together on a local basis. And, of course, the things that brought
people around the ISO in the first place ??? being active in struggles and
organizing work, as well as projecting socialist politics ??? will
continue to motivate those who participated in the ISO.
Another proposal with strong support will keep the coordinating
committee of the ISO National Branch Council together to be a means to
connect local formations during the coming months at least.
This matches the sentiment expressed in the proposal for dissolution for
members and groups of members to participate in future discussions that
draw out the lessons of the ISO???s experience and take up the challenge
of revolutionary socialist organization in the future:
We are not proposing that we could simply rebuild a new ISO. After a
sufficient national break that allows us time to take care of our bodies
and minds, we should do a deep dive into the political lessons
collectively. We will develop a listserv for those committed to
reclaiming our politics, and we will convene monthly Zoom calls to read,
argue and debate the politics that can take us forward and figure out
what kind of publication and organization comes out of this process.
There are some specific plans already for advancing this discussion. A
proposal for former ISO members to organize regional meet-ups and
conferences in the coming months won support.
So did another suggestion for members and groups of former ISO members
to continue building the Socialism conference as an important space for
the whole left. The conference will take place in Chicago on July 4-7
with an expanded alliance of sponsors, led by Haymarket Books and the
Center for Economic Research and Social Change.
All of us who were part of the ISO have been through a wrenching and
soul-searching process. As the organization???s leadership team pointed
out when releasing the vote totals, it will take time for all of us to
process, rebuild trust and move ahead.
But for everyone who participated, the ISO???s vote to dissolve was the
outcome of an honest and passionate discussion about how we could lay
the basis for the collective hope we all share: to put forward the
politics of socialism from below in the struggles of the future.
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