BY JASON VERGARA AND PATRICIA GUTIÉRREZ
LOS ANGELES - The California Young Socialists and the
California Socialist Workers Party sponsored a two-day
Socialist Educational Conference over Labor Day Weekend. The
conference included three classes, a Saturday night forum,
dinner and party, and a meeting of the California YS.
The class on Farrell Dobbs's Teamster Rebellion gave a clear example for present day workers and fighting youth of how rank-and-file workers organized a massive strike, which successfully defeated the bosses, their thugs, the state, and the U.S. government.
At the center of discussion in the class on Puerto Rico: Independence is a Necessity was the question: Why is independence for Puerto Rico central to the working class here in the U.S.? Marx's writing on the independence of Ireland from England helped explain the answer. Marx said that workers at home would never be free as long as others abroad are still in chains under imperialist rule.
The third class, on V.I. Lenin's pamphlet To the Rural Poor, focused on the workers and farmers alliance and how communists must recognize the important role of the rural poor in revolutionary struggle.
The evening forum was a report from the International Seminar of Youth and Students on Neoliberalism in Havana, Cuba. YS leader Carol Villagomez and Danielle Lafeyette, a student from Cal-State Los Angeles, described how they had the chance to meet and interact with other youth from Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere around the world.
Around 75 people attended the Saturday night forum. Rebecca Williamson, a high school student from Seattle, said she enjoyed the report because she had considered going to the conference herself. She said that the Saturday night event "was one of the main reasons I came." Asked what she thought about the overall conference, she said, "The conference was like mental ammunition for the fighters."
The weekend ended with a meeting of the California Young Socialists. Eight members of the California YS participated, with two members of the Young Socialists from Vancouver and one from Seattle participating as invited guests. Three young people interested in joining the YS were invited to hear the report as well.
Samantha Kern, organizer of the California Young Socialists, gave a report on the fall perspectives for building the Young Socialists in California. YS members discussed how the California YS needed to help lead the YS national fund drive (see below). The California YS decided to take a fund drive goal of $2,000. In the discussion there was a collective effort to construct viable ways for each chapter to contribute to making the California goal. Ideas ranged from garage sales to campus movies, raffles, pre-forum dinners, and pledges. At the Saturday night party we kicked off the national fund drive with an auction that raised $350.
The Seattle YS announced their goal of $400 and the members of YS in Vancouver said that the discussion was very helpful because they will soon be launching their own national fund- drive in Canada.
The California Young Socialists also discussed how we can help organize and lead the participation of supporters of Pathfinder Press at the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico in November. The meeting also discussed how the YS can make the Capitalism's World Disorder sales campaign our own, as well as the importance of having a Young Socialist on every political team in our region.
Two teams were planned immediately following the conference. One is going to King City, California, to meet food processing workers on strike at Basic Vegetable, and the second will carry out the campaign to get Capitalism's World Disorder into outlets where workers buy books, and to meet with students in Tucson, Arizona, who are interested in the Young Socialists.
By participating in these national campaigns, the California YS can reach its central goal: to recruit and build chapters. Members of the Los Angeles chapter who attend UC Santa Cruz will head up a week early to take advantage of the first week of school, where we can meet new revolutionary- minded youth, and kick the fall off to a successful start.
CHICAGO - The Young Socialists launched their fall fund drive at two regional Socialist Educational Conferences this weekend. In Chicago, a fund pitch was given and a total of $962 was pledged from conference participants from the Midwest. In Los Angeles $350 was raised in an auction.
YS members have committed themselves to an $8,000 dollar fund drive that aims to reach out to the broadest layer of support possible. YS members are gearing up to use the fund drive at plant gate sales, coalition meetings, literature tables, and other opportunities. YS chapters based on or around college campuses are looking to organize events on campuses that take advantage of recent YS assignments in Cuba and Puerto Rico.
The drive will last 10 weeks, through November 14 and will be a central campaign of the YS nationally.
To make a contribution to the YS national fund drive, call or visit the YS chapter nearest you listed on page 12, or contact the YS National Office listed at the beginning of this column.