WASHINGTON, D.C. - After participating in the national demonstration for women's rights here April 9, the Young Socialists National Committee met to discuss taking the next steps in strengthening the communist youth organization. The meeting heard progress reports on building the Young Socialists (YS) internationally and in particular, in the United States.

Progress has been registered over the last several months in building Young Socialists groups in several countries, national steering committee member Diana Newberry reported. Newberry participated in recent national congresses of the Communist Leagues in Sweden and the United Kingdom. She also conducted a speaking tour in Iceland and Sweden last fall. On each trip, Newberry met with youth working to construct YS groups.

"Young Socialists in Sweden," Newberry reported, "traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to attend the recent United Nations World Summit on Development. Members of the YS and the Communist League worked together to talk to hundreds of youth about socialist ideas and campaigns on the day of a public meeting featuring Cuban president Fidel Castro.

"The opportunities to build the YS in Sweden were demonstrated when thousands of young people came to hear Fidel. Many visited the Young Socialists' literature table and bought books and pamphlets on the Cuban revolution, the Militant newspaper, and other literature," Newberry said. The YS in Sweden will be working with other activists there to organize a tour of a member of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) from Cuba. "Building activities in defense of the Cuban revolution will be a big campaign of the YS there," she emphasized.

In the United Kingdom, Newberry reported, the YS is planning teams to travel to Northern Ireland to discuss politics with revolutionary-minded youth and be a part of the new political developments there.

As part of their campaign to defend the Cuban revolution, the young socialists have been speaking to youth and Cuba solidarity groups about their experiences on the International Youth Brigade to Cuba last January. Five YS members and five other young fighters from the UK, Iceland, and Sweden went on the brigade.

Newberry said they are working with solidarity groups in the United Kingdom to organize a brigade to Cuba that will include one week of voluntary labor, then participants will attend the "Cuba Lives" festival, August 1-7. The international youth festival is being organized by the UJC and other youth groups in Cuba.

"The Young Socialists in Britain are really excited about their campaigns and building the group. Working with the Communist League there will add political experience the YS needs to accomplish these goals." Newberry said.

There are two chapters in the United Kingdom now, in Manchester and in London, with 13 members. There are also seven members in Stockholm, Sweden.

"The YS in both countries see the Militant newspaper as important," she said "and they are taking on goals in the international campaign to win new readers to the socialist press."

Both YS groups concluded that in order to strengthen their activities and build the organization they need to collaborate closely with the Communist Leagues in each country. The political leadership and communist heritage that the leagues provide and the new, young forces that the YS helps bring to the communist movement, make collaboration between the two essential for the advance of the movement internationally, Newberry said.

The second report, "Building the Young Socialists in the United States," was given by national steering committee member Damon Tinnon. The opportunities to link up with other fighters were evident in a number of recent protest actions and other activities, he said.

The April 9 "Rally for Women's Lives," attended by tens of thousands of defenders of women's rights, and the April 7-8 Young Feminist Summit, "showed that the political polarization in the United States is causing thousands of youth to seek out protest activity. Many of them are open to socialist ideas and proposals for action. Young Socialists met many youth who wanted to discuss political developments in the world and how to fight back against the attacks spawned by capitalism," said Tinnon.

The report also cited the response to the tour of Cuban youth leaders Rogelio Polanco and Kenia Serrano. Hundreds have turned out to hear them on college campuses across the country.

The Young Socialists place the defense of the Cuban revolution at the center of their work. "Through the Cuban youth speaking tours we have helped build and publicize other activities in solidarity with Cuba, from the August `Cuba Lives' festival to the regional demonstrations and teach-ins planned by the National Network on Cuba," Tinnon reported.

"Our goal should be to build a big U.S. delegation to Cuba and organize for large actions defending Cuba in the United States," he said

"YS members are involved in and should seek more opportunities to join in abortion clinic defense, fights against rising tuition fees, actions in solidarity with the Irish freedom struggle, and picket lines by striking workers," he said. "At these events, we will meet other young people interested in Cuba and in going to Cuba to see the revolution with their own eyes."

The meeting placed building the convention of the Socialist Workers Party in July high on the organization's priority list. "For youth interested in revolutionary politics, the convention is a way to give them the broadest idea of what socialist ideas are and what socialists do," he said. Tinnon suggested that chapters organize classes on the history of the communist movement in preparation for the convention.

In addition, Tinnon said, members of the National Committee of the Young Socialists in the New York/northern New Jersey area will be more focused on building YS chapters there.

The National Committee decided to elect a smaller Steering Committee, composed of three members, so that more leadership resources can be put into building chapters in New York, Brooklyn, and Newark.

Tinnon concluded his report stressing the importance of being a self-financing organization. Monthly dues paid by each member make it possible to carry out campaigns on a national basis - and are crucial to building an independent youth organization.

Tinnon proposed YS members take the lead to strengthen the international campaign to win justice for framed-up unionist and socialist Mark Curtis. Local chapters can take goals for winning new endorsers for Curtis's fight for parole and selling the new pamphlet, "Why is Mark Curtis Still in Prison" by Naomi Craine. The YS chapter in Salt Lake City, Utah, for example, organized a showing of a video on the Curtis fight and signed up new endorsers.

YS leaders at the meeting pointed out this case shows how the capitalist government tries to grind working-class fighters down - and how Curtis stands out as an example for fighters on both sides of prison walls.

The YS national committee members also discussed how to organize to make the "Young Socialists Around the World" column in the Militant newspaper reflect more of the activities the organization is involved in. The column can help YS chapters think out campaigns in their local areas. Many YS groups around the world begin their meetings with reading an article or editorial from the socialist news weekly.

The national committee reaffirmed the YS security policy, which states that use, possession, or being in a place where there are illegal drugs is incompatible with membership. Tinnon explained how illegal drugs have been commonly used by the ruling class to frame-up political activists. These laws, he said, are used selectively against working people, especially oppressed nationalities. "A revolutionary youth organization doesn't want to give the government the possibility of using this against our membership," Tinnon said.

The discussion by the YS in Britain and Sweden, Tinnon said "is applicable to the YS in the United States. Our political identification needs to go further than a youth organization. We need to identify with a communist workers party, the Socialist Workers Party. Working on common campaigns will politically and organizationally advance both organizations."

The National Committee elected a new Steering Committee of Diana Newberry, Damon Tinnon, and Jack Willey to help organize and lead the work of the YS.  
 
 
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