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The
Michigan Socialist | News | Party
Notes
SPUSA National
Convention
THE SOCIALIST PARTY USA
held its 2003 National Convention on October 17-19.
Delegates from across the country met for
three days at the Omni Ambassador hotel in Chicago, Ill.
The main issue on the agenda was the 2004
election. Altogether, six candidates ran for the nomination
throughout the pre-Convention period, with two of them
dropping out before the balloting.
In the end, former Democratic State Senator
Walt Brown of Oregon was narrowly chosen to be the national
Party's candidate for president, after he won the support of
those who initially opposed running a candidate at all.
Mary-Alice Herbert of Vermont, a member of the
Liberty Union Party (a Vermont party that has close relations
with the SP), was elected as the vice-presidential candidate.
A handful of the resolutions submitted to the
Convention were considered; most proposals sent to the
Convention never made it past the commissions chosen on the
first day.
The Socialist Party of Michigan sent a full,
gender-balanced delegation to the National Convention. The
delegation included Lisa Weltman, one of the candidates for
the Socialist nomination for president.
In the months prior to the Convention, the
SPMI approved a series of amendments to the platform and
constitution of the Party, as well as a number of resolutions
aimed at moving the SP nationally in a more activist
direction.
Only the SPMI's resolution on the United Left
Front was adopted.
Debate at the Convention was heated and
sometimes quite sharp. Because of comments and statements made
by some delegates attending, working class members of the
Party announced the formation of the Workers Unity Caucus.
The incoming National Committee of the SP was
charged by the Convention to compile the amendments to the
platform submitted into a final document to be voted on by the
Party membership in a national referendum.
The SPMI's proposed platform amendments, as
well as our other submissions to the National Convention, are
available publicly at the SPMI's website -- http://www.michigansocialist.net/ -- or can
be requested by writing to us.
Martin
Schreader | 
