Western MA ISO by ???

The Western MA ISO, formerly known as the UMass ISO, began in 2010 as a political, social, and economic organization that engages in direct action and solidarity work around UMass Amherst and Western Massachusetts, while simultaneously advocating for socialism as an alternative to capitalism. The Western MA ISO creates a space for workers, community members and students to educate themselves on current issues in hopes to raise the political consciousness of the working class and incite a revolution to overthrow capitalism. The ISO’s national organization is based in Chicago and has branches in major cities and college campuses all over the United States.

Unlike other campus organizations, the WMA ISO doesn’t have one specific campaign, but rather strategizes on both a short-term and long-term scale. While the WMA ISO is involved in direct-action work depending on the immediate needs of the community, they view socialism as a long-term political project and the ultimate end goal. In other words, while the ISO mobilizes its members when urgent issues arise, they fundamentally view abolishing the capitalist state through uniting the working class as the solution to ending inequality, oppression and exploitation.

In this way, the ISO envisions a world based on democracy, collective ownership, and mutual care, where the workers control the means of production, the surplus they generate, and their livelihood. This new understanding becomes important because it transforms the way individuals relate to themselves and others, while opening up the possibility of creating an economy based on solidarity, rather than competition and greed.

The WMA ISO focuses on education as a necessary factor in not only understanding the history of capitalism, but also in establishing the rhetoric and arguments in support of socialism. They do this through holding study groups for all their members and allowing each member to give short lectures during ISO meetings on a relevant topic or issue. On both a national and local level, the membership of the ISO continues to grow rapidly. The WMA ISO plans to continue to expand its organization as it fights for a better and more ethical world for all.