The World Socialist Web Site, Socialist Equality Party, and International Youth and Students for Social Equality are holding an important meeting at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan on April 14 (details below).

The WSWS has been holding meetings on the 15th Anniversary of daily publication throughout the US and internationally. These meetings have reviewed the theoretical and historical foundations of the WSWS, the critical political experiences of the past 15 years, and the perspective for building a new socialist movement of the international working class.

The meeting in Detroit is a particularly significant event. It is being held only weeks after the appointment of a “financial manager”—in reality, a financial dictator—over the city. The unelected official, Kevyn Orr, is being brought in as a direct representative of the banks and bond holders to force the most drastic cuts on the working class. He has been given unlimited powers to carry out a slash and burn policy of destroying city jobs, cutting wages, gutting social services from sanitation and firefighting to health care and education, and handing over city assets to private speculators.

There is no organized expression of the immense opposition and social anger building up among hundreds of thousand of workers and youth throughout the Detroit area. Orr has the support of both big business parties, the Democrats and Republicans. The nominal criticism from local elected officials is centered on preserving the positions of the layer of political criminals that have run Detroit for decades. The trade unions offer no resistance, functioning as labor policemen in league with management and the state.

The WSWS, SEP and IYSSE are organizing a fight back. Social struggles are inevitable—in Detroit, throughout the US and internationally. In building a leadership to guide these struggles, it is necessary to work through the lessons of history and the central problems of program and perspective.

Speakers at the Detroit meeting will include David North, SEP national chairman and chairman of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS; Joseph Kishore, SEP national secretary; Lawrence Porter, SEP assistant national secretary and chairman of the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs; Jerry White, SEP candidate for president in 2012; D’Artagnan Collier, Detroit city worker and SEP candidate for Detroit mayor in 2009; and others.

Representatives of the IYSSE and sections of workers from throughout the Detroit area are invited to speak on the significance of the WSWS, the crisis in Detroit, and the perspective for organizing a new political movement of the working class.

We call on all workers and youth throughout the Midwest region to attend this critical meeting.

Details:
Sunday, April 14, 2:00 p.m.− 6:00 p.m.
Wayne State University
General Lectures Room 150
5045 Anthony Wayne Drive
Detroit, Michigan 48202

For a map to the location, click here .

For more information or to sign up to speak, submit this webform or call (313) 409-8083 The IYSSE at Wayne State University is holding a separate meeting on Wednesday, April 3, “A financial dictator for Detroit—how to fight the emergency manager.” For information, click here .