The International Socialist Organization held their first West Coast conference in San Francisco July 2nd through 5th. The "Socialism 2009: Building a New Left for a New Era" conference was split between the Women's Building on 18th and the ISO offices on Capp. Close to 800 people attended attended at least one session over the four-day conference, with most attending numerous. A similar conference has been held annually in Chicago for years. Chicago's 2009 conference was held in June.

This post features audio from six sessions, a small sample of the approximately fifty sessions total held over four days. Included are the open comments, questions, and discussions at the end of each session. Audio from more sessions will be posted to Indybay at a future date.

The first recording here is from the session titled "Three Strikes, the Death Penalty, 'Tough on crime' - Is It Time to Abolish Prisons?" featuring Cameron Sturdevant and Crystal Bybee, moderated by Gillian R. on Friday, July 3rd. (Scheduled speaker Barbara Becnel did not make it.)

Listen now: Embed code:	Download audio: socialismsf2009a_prisons-isoconf_070309.mp3 30.9MB