Featured Events

When Workers Fight Back: Sit-Downs, Strikes & Occupations.
SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


The year 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the great sit-down strike wave of 1937. It also begins the second year of the Occupy movement, which has more than a few similarities to the time when hundreds of thousands of Americans occupied their workplaces. The Occupy movement has engaged workers around the world in activity against the ruling classes and corporations that exploit us. Join us for a discussion of the militant tactics of 1937, the role of revolutionary socialists in the struggle, and the applications to our movement, from Longview to Nigeria today.

Readings:
Remembering another Occupy movement by Don Fitz
When workers occupied by Sharon Smith

 

ACTIVIST CALENDAR

Portland District-Wide Organizing Meeting. SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland District of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

Portland State University Branch. Organizing Meeting. Smith Memorial Student Union Room 294 at 6:45pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland State University branch of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

When Workers Fight Back: Sit-Downs, Strikes & Occupations. SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


The year 2012 marks the 75th anniversary of the great sit-down strike wave of 1937. It also begins the second year of the Occupy movement, which has more than a few similarities to the time when hundreds of thousands of Americans occupied their workplaces. The Occupy movement has engaged workers around the world in activity against the ruling classes and corporations that exploit us. Join us for a discussion of the militant tactics of 1937, the role of revolutionary socialists in the struggle, and the applications to our movement, from Longview to Nigeria today.

Readings:
Remembering another Occupy movement by Don Fitz
When workers occupied by Sharon Smith

Portland State University Branch. Organizing Meeting. Smith Memorial Student Union Room 296 at 6:45pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland State University branch of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

Black Liberation and Socialism. SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


More information TBA.

Portland State University Branch. Organizing Meeting. Smith Memorial Student Union Room 101 (Parkway North) at 6:45pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland State University branch of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

City Branch. Organizing Meeting. SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland city branch of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

Portland District-Wide Organizing Meeting. Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 294 6:45pm


Organizing meeting for the Portland District of the ISO. All are invited to attend.

Why We Fight: The Socialist Case for Activism. SE Uplift Center, 3534 SE Main St. at 2pm


More info TBA.
 

Introduction to the ISO

About Us

The International Socialist Organization (ISO) is committed to building an organization that participates in the struggles for justice and liberation today— and, ultimately, for a future socialist society.

The ISO has branches across the country whose members are involved in helping to build a number of struggles.

In Portland we have two branches that meet weekly. The Portland State University branch meets on Thursdays at 6:45 pm at Smith Memorial Student Union at Portland State University. The East Side Branch meets on Sundays at 2pm at the Southeast Uplift Center (3534 SE Main St.)

Where We Stand

Socialism, Not Capitalism

War, poverty, exploitation and oppression are products of the capitalist system, a system in which a minority ruling class profits from the labor of the majority. The alternative is socialism, a society based on workers collectively owning and controlling the wealth their labor creates.

We stand in the Marxist tradition, founded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, and continued by V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky.

Workers' Power

Workers create society's wealth, but have no control over its production and distribution ... (read more)

Introductions to Socialism


War and Imperialism


Reform or Revolution



The Russian Revolution


The Fight against Stalinism


What is Leninism?

... (read more)

Meaning of Marxism

Meaning of Marxism & Where We Stand Study Group

For those that are interested in learning more about the ISO and our politics we regularly host a 6-week study group on Paul D'Amato's Where We Stand articles and his book The Meaning of Marxism.

The Revolutionary Socialist Tradition

Revolutionary Socialist Tradition Video Series

The New York City District of the ISO recently held a series of study groups on the revolutionary socialist tradition. You can watch some of the sessions online here.

From Marx to the Second International with Brian Jones

Leninism and the Impact of the Russian Revolution

 

10 Books to Get You Started

It is fashionable for pundits to declare every so often that Marxism is dead, but you can’t keep a good theory down. The poverty, class inequality, war and environmental degradation that today’s globalized capitalist system creates on an ever-expanding scale raises questions for which Marxism still offers fresh and relevant answers.

This book is a lively and accessible introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx, as well as other key Marxists, with historical and contemporary examples. The Meaning of Marxism shows that a “radical, fundamental transformation of existing society” is indeed not only possible, but urgently necessary.