Left Forum 2015 - Empire in Crisis: Uniting the Struggles to Defeat Racist State Terror, Austerity, and Endless War

 

This is a panel from Session 4 of the 2015 Left Forum, held May 29 -31 at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The conference theme was "No Justice, No Peace: Confronting the Crises of Capitalism & Democracy."

Note: The lights in the room (and the entire building) went out shortly after the one hour mark.

From the Organizers:

The global system of capitalism has created an endless crisis for working class people. For people of color, this crisis is even greater, as racist police brutality terrorizes communities across the US. Combined with cuts in education and basic services, mounting state violence has reached genocidal proportions for communities of color and poor people. Meanwhile, the US has fought wars in seven countries since 2008, bringing a crisis of endless wars by direct bombing or proxy. All for the purpose of profits for an increasing desperate system.  This panel will connect these major issues as the symptoms of one system in crisis, imperialism. We will discuss how we can practically unite these struggles to fight back and win a world of social justice and peace.

Panel Chair:

Ramiro Funez is an organizer with the revolutionary socialist young people's organization FIST (Fight Imperialism Stand Together) as well as the Honduran Resistance (FNRP).

Panelists:

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire and Workers World Newspaper. He is a long-time activist in Detroit and been active in struggles against racist austerity, bankruptcy, and the ongoing effort to put a moratorium on housing foreclosures.

Sara Flounders is the Co-Coordinator of International Action Center

Teresa Gutierrez is a Workers World Party Secretariat Member as well as an organizer of the May 1st Coalition for Workers and Immigrants Rights.

Download the audio at the a-Infos Radio Project.