ISO allows one delegate for every 8 members or greater portion thereof to conference. So, that would amount to about 600 going strictly by the numbers from the voting you saw. Members have to be fully caught up on dues to count and maybe some delegates missed the voting. I think 7-800 is about right, but some people say much more than that. As you probably know, CWI folks rarely give exact membership figures publicly. We're about half the size of the ISO but growing very rapidly, having doubled in membership since Occupy and aiming to more-than-double this year with many new branches having already been set up. Every time Kshama speaks, we get a new wave of people applying to join.
15Now flows from the battle in Seattle to lift thousands out of extreme poverty. We had to launch the campaign quickly as the establishment was setting up an "inequality committee" that we were invited to. The Mayor said it would look into 15. We launched 15Now in the following days to show that we focused on mobilizing from below while still being willing to sit on the Mayor's committee to use it as an opportunity. So, really only sections of labor leaders were consulted at the beginning.
We set up 15Now for a few reasons. One because it is a key issue and gives our organization nationally good positioning in the class struggle. Two because the Seattle fight for 15 needed organization beyond the small action that had already taken place. Three because most of the other "fight for 15" campaigns don't allow for actual meaningful participation. Just one-off rallies. As 15Now fills out, it will develop its own structures including neighborhood, campus and workplace committees not led by SA. These are starting to take place (mostly in Seattle). We're taking responsibility for getting it off the ground and contacting others (mostly in the labor and immigrants' rights movement) as we do so. The ISO is the only left group we've talked to about it, mainly because they're the only other one that represents much of anything. THey weren't very interested.
Thread derail ended?
that's about the only sensible conclusion to be drawn from this I think, yes
