On Thursday at 7pm, Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists, CORS, will have their first launch meeting. The event title is, “Revolution in our Lifetime: CORS Launch Meeting” and it will be held in St. Stephens Episcopal Church. CORS will host two launch meetings to discuss their points of unity, their code of conduct, and their membership requirements to let leftists in the city know about their revolutionary project.
CORS is not a replication of the International Socialist Organization, ISO, which dissolved earlier this year. For a deeper background on ISO’s dissolution, Coco Smyth, an organizer with CORS who was a member of ISO for five years, has written an article in Left Voice magazine about leaving behind the toxic organizational practices of ISO while forming the new group.
Dylan Vanover, an organizer with CORS, said that CORS is open to being ideologically diverse. He used to organize with ISO in Athens and he organized with Ellie Hamrick, who is now running as an independent socialist for city council.
“We don’t want to be dogmatic in our intellectualism,” said Vanover. “We want to be open to different activist and intellectual traditions, particularly Black feminism, anarchism, critical race theory, and queer theory”
Viviana Smith, an organizer with CORS, designed political artwork like stickers and flyers for the organization. They were not a member of ISO. Both Vanover and Smith discussed the political work that went into creating a new organization and code of conduct.
“With our code of conduct, we wanted to focus on primarily supporting and being for survivors of sexual assault, people of color, and LGBT people,” said Smith.
Vanover said that revolution is the centerpiece of the organization and that is reflected in the event title.
“Especially when I think of such things as climate change and imperialist wars, revolution is necessary to attain a better world for all,” said Vanover.
Smith said that CORS is not democratic socialists and not liberals. They are interested in immigrants’ rights organizing because part of their family is immigrants from Peru. CORS is interested in direct action and collectively decided to protest at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement correctional facility on July 12th for the national day of action.
“There was a vigil at Morrow County Jail. That’s one of the places where immigrants are being held right now,” said Smith. “We chose to go to the jail because it felt more direct. It feels more real to me.”
CORS is seeking to recruit more members who are dedicated to the project of building socialism from below. CORS wants social workers and leftist community members to join in and give input on their accountability processes and code of conduct. Vanover and Smith said that CORS is still developing and is open to comradely criticism and debates.
