Resignation letter from Keeanga T.

Dear Comrades,
It is with great regret and profound sadness that I submit my resignation to the ISO. When I
decided to run for the SC at the Convention in February, I did so with the belief that the
organization was finally breaking with its isolation over the last two years. I was excited by the
commitment to re-tooling and even though it was unclear to me what “struggle organization”
meant, I was intrigued by the possibility of the organization reclaiming its position as a dynamic
and influential leader among the developing Left in the US.

The decision of the organization to prioritize its internal reckoning has raised existential
questions for me about how to participate. I certainly do not believe these are issues that should
or even could be glossed over. I just disagree about the methods necessary to overcome
isolation, irrelevance, and a punitive political culture—all of which I think are connected.

Comrades, I wish you all the best. I joined the ISO on March 8, 1988. It was the best decision
I’ve ever made. To quote Debs in his Canton speech:

I have regretted a thousand times that I can do so little for the movement that has done so much
for me. The little that I am, the little that I am hoping to be, I owe to the Socialist movement. It
has given me my ideas and ideals; my principles and convictions, and I would not exchange one
of them for all of Rockefeller’s bloodstained dollars. It has taught me how to serve—a lesson to
me of priceless value. It has taught me the ecstasy in the handclasp of a comrade. It has
enabled me to hold high communion with you, and made it possible for me to take my place
side by side with you in the great struggle for the better day; to multiply myself over and over
again, to thrill with a fresh-born personhood; to feel life truly worthwhile; to open new avenues of
vision; to spread out glorious vistas; to know that I am kin to all that throbs; to be class-
conscious, and to realize that, regardless of nationality, race, creed, color or sex, every man,
every woman who toils, who renders useful service, every member of the working class without
an exception, is my comrade, my brother and sister—and that to serve them and their cause is
the highest duty of my life.

I will never leave the socialist movement and I look forward to being in the same organization
with you all in the future.

My best,
Keeanga