The 6th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) was a great step forward for our organization. Since our last Congress in 2007, we have undergone a period of dramatic growth, in the course of building some important struggles. We are now in the process of consolidating those gains, and are well positioned to expand further in the years to come. Delegates to the 6th Congress hailed from Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Wisconsin.
The call for the 6th Congress stated:
We go into this Congress in a far more favorable political context compared with the past fifteen years. Left politics in general and revolutionary politics in particular are experiencing something of a resurgence, which we are already benefiting from. We have experienced strong growth geographically and reestablished a Student Commission based on comrades’ excellent work. We have also begun to recruit out of our economic fight back work.
Our Political Secretary, Steff Yorek, opened the Congress with a speech welcoming the delegates. She stated:
“We are advancing in the struggle, and building the people’s fight backs. We helped to lead the historic protests at the Republican National Convention. When the workers at Republic Windows and Doors occupied their factory, we did everything in our power to build support. We are making real contributions to the fight for immigrants rights. We went all out for the March 4 education rights protests. We are active in the unions, the movements of the oppressed nationalities, the student, poor people’s and anti-war movements. We have grown dramatically and I welcome the many delegates who are here for your very first Congress. This is a Congress of victory.”
The Congress adopted a Main Political Report, which makes a materialist evaluation of the international situation, the domestic political situation and the state of the economy in the United States.
We reaffirmed that our central task is building a new communist party and discussed how we could accelerate that process. One of the specifics we decided on was that activists leaving student work will get jobs in factories and offices, where they can play a role in the trade unions.
We also continued our work on developing the political program of our organization and elected our national leadership. The Congress also passed resolutions on domestic and international political issues.
Messages of greetings from communist parties other counties were read to the delegates, including messages from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina, the Workers Party of Belgium, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist- Leninist), the New Communist Party of Britain, the Danish Communist Party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Communist Party of Sweden.
The message from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated in part, “The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) salutes each and every comrade present at this, the 6th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization! You are the embodiment of the best in the International Communist Movement, we are proud of our longstanding relationship with your leadership, and we pledge our internationalist solidarity to you all.”
