I attended parts of two workshops from the ISO's recent Northwest regional conference in Seattle on building a revolutionary alternative [1].
I was at the first workshop ("War & Capitalism: The Marxist theory of Imperialism") from 2:30 pm until about 3:15 and the second workshop ("Leninism: Why We Need a Revolutionary Party") from 3:15 until 4:15. The workshops were going on at the same time (I left one to go to the other) and each was attended by thirty or more people I would describe as reasonably intelligent, dedicated and focused.
There was a period after the main talk where people who attended were able to ask questions or make short comments relevant to the topic of the workshop.
I raised my hand repeatedly to speak in the session on the need for a revolutionary party--but the ISO would not allow me to speak. The ISO did allow some people from other trends (ie: FSP/RW and an anarchist) to speak. Just not me.
After the meeting was over, I asked the chair why I was not allowed the democratic right to speak at a public meeting just like everyone else. He refused to reply to me. I believe the reason is that comments I have posted in various online forums have included criticisms of the ISO and the organization was concerned that I might have made critical comments that would have cast the organization in a poor light and/or made it more difficult to recruit some of those who attended.
A genuinely mass revolutionary organization would not act like this in their public meetings. The purpose of public meetings is to deal with issues in an open way--and to give progressive activists of all trends (ie: not just selected activists from selected trends) the right to participate. This is essential in order to uncover mistakes that are inevitable for any organization.
These are the questions I was going to ask:
(1) How will we create the party of the working class?
What will be our common work that will unite
all that is best in the progressive movement?
(2) Who will be in the party -- and who will not?
(3) How will our party defeat the terrible disease of reformism ?
(4) How will our party defeat the terrible disease of sectarianism?
(5) Which tasks are most decisive in creating this party?
I have created a web page with a collection of short, readable articles and charts where I make an effort to give my own answers to these questions at:  http://struggle.net/Ben/2008/222-HowTo.htm
Comments on my articles can be posted on the ginger group blog here: http://thegingergroup.wordpress.com/2008/02/27/how-to-build-the-party-of-the-working-class
There have been a thousand attempts to build the party of the working class ... and a thousand failures. Again and again our class will undertake this task ... until we have the theoretical weapons and the humility to understand and learn from the errors of the past and to start again, refreshed, on the basis of those principles which provide an unshakeable foundation.
Ben Seattle
http://struggle.net/ben/
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Notes:
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[1] The conference organized by the International Socialist Organization (ISO) is described here:
Building a Revolutionary Alternative
The 2008 Northwest Socialist Conference
http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2008/10/269697.shtml
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