[SDCPJ] - Socialist Salon - Sunday, November 16, 4:30 - 7 pm, What Now For The Left?

Socialist Unity Network
In collaboration with other socialist organizations and individuals to present this Socialist Salon.


- Socialist Salon -
Discussions with Lefties
on Burning Issues
Sunday, November 16, 4:30 - 7 pm

Location: 6142 Romany Drive, SD 92120 Home of Herb Shore & Virginia Franco 619-287-5535

Exit Fwy. 8 at College Ave. North on College, left on Del Cerro Blvd, right on Theta Place, left on Romany Drive. 6142 is third house on the right. (Bring light, potluck snacks if you wish)

San Diego Socialist Unity Network is holding a series of forums to encourage deeper political discussions, which look strategically at our movement, the path to social transformation & a new social order. We use this opportunity to tackle many major issues of our times from a non-sectarian, left perspective in a challenging yet relaxed setting.

What Now For The Left?

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States is a dramatic development that will change the political environment of the U.S. Many of us campaigned in the election and feel great joy in the result. The new situation will create new opportunities but also new dangers for the left. Will Obama govern as another FDR or as another Bill Clinton? A mass progressive movement helped to elect Obama. Will that movement be able to influence the new administration on the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, civil liberties, etc., or will that movement be demobilized and dissipated once Obama takes office? The names being discussed so far as participants in an Obama administration are not a good sign.

In this Salon we will discuss the possibilities of a renewed left in an environment so different from the Bush years, and what we can do now. In preparation for the discussion, we suggest the following materials:

The web site of Progressives For Obama, initiated by Bill Fletcher, Barbara Ehrenreich, Danny Glover and Tom Hayden: http://progressivesforobama.net/ . In particular, they have an initial Call that puts forth a platform that is worth discussing: http://progressivesforobama.net/our-call-initial-text/ .

Bill Fletcher's post-election editorial in the Black Commentator: http://www.blackcommentator.com/298/298_aw_obama_history_possibilities.html .

Katrina Vanden Heuvel's editorial in The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/381701/the_first_100_days?rel=hpbox .

We hope to see you on Sunday.

San Diego Socialist Unity Network regular meetings alternate with Socialist Salons on the 3rd Sunday of each month. The regular meetings are at the Activist Center, 4246 Wightman St., from 4:30-7 pm. You are invited to attend.

Each Salon will focus on a topic with a short presentation from a socialist perspective. After that, an informal discussion will open to all who attend. With most topics, we will send out a reading or two as background.