BY TOM ALTER

This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists (YS), an international organization of young workers, students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more information about the YS write to: Young Socialists, P.O. Box 14392, St. Paul, MN 55104. Tel: (612) 644-0051. Compuserve: 105162,605

ATHENS, Georgia - Recently two 17-year-old high school students, André Gallant and Emily Aland, joined the Young Socialists in Athens, Georgia. I had the chance to interview them after a YS meeting in Athens where the chapter there voted to meet weekly and carry out a regular class series.

Tom: How did you meet the Young Socialists?

André: I ran into a book table with books by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro on it. I've read books by Guevara and Marx. Revolutionary ideas and change have been on my mind. This is what I was looking for.

Emily: I ran into the book table as well and went to a YS event on immigrant rights where a YS member from San Francisco spoke. Karolina, a YS member here in Athens, convinced me to come to the next meeting.

Tom: Were you involved in politics before joining the YS?

André: I've wanted to be involved in politics. I tried to get involved in school politics but it was all BS. Students have no rights. I wanted change.

Emily: I've been involved in human rights protests, women's rights, and gay rights.

Tom: What made you decide to join the YS?

Emily: I decided to join because it deals with many things I believe in. Something must be done. A lot of issues need to be brought out that people need to know about. I want to learn more as well. We have a class assignment to report on current events. I did one on the General Motors strike in Canada.

Tom: Why the GM strike?

Emily: It was two days after my first YS meeting, workers' struggle interests me.

André: Joining the YS seems the only way for young people to get involved, to get out and protest. It's not just about a single issue. The future seems bleak, I want to turn it around. The politics of the YS attracted me.

Tom: What do you think the prospects for building the YS are?

André: I think they're super. For my peers, they really dug the ideas. They're scared of the word communism, though, because they think of Russia.

Emily: That's something we're trying to change.

André: Young people need to learn about the proletariat. We're starting a drive to get young people involved. We're putting YS flyers up in our school and trying to get a book table up during lunch.

Emily: The YS is going to grow if we get out.

André: People are getting fed-up.

Tom: What would you say to young people who are fed-up with the direction society is heading?

André: Get involved, get educated, most importantly open your eyes to what's going on like our rights being stripped away by the government, like the same-sex marriage law, the anti- immigrant law.

Emily: Educate yourself by reading and talking to people about issues having to do with what's going on like rights being taken away and interfered with.

Tom: What are the plans for the YS in Athens in the weeks to come?

André: We are making a flyer and signs to protest police brutality, especially the Anthony Báez case, to hand out at school and around town.

Emily: We are going to start meeting as a chapter and study the Communist Manifesto.  
 
 
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