Perasso reported to the forum on the preparatory meeting for the festival that took place May 26–28 in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, where the festival will be held. This will be the first Youth Festival to take place on the African continent, he said. Youth organizations across Africa and the Middle East are planning to send sizable delegations to the August 8–16 gathering.

Perasso said YS members are reaching out to workers and youth in a number of struggles across the country, such as the unionists at Hollander Home Fashions in California and Pennsylvania who struck the company to demand increased wages, a pension, and dignity on the job. YS members joined the rally of 5,000 in Columbia, South Carolina, June 9 to demand the state drop its frame-up charges against the Charleston Five. In the midst of building these and similar fights, noted Perasso, YS members are introducing people to the Youth Festival as well as the July 22-30 Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange.

The youth exchange, to be held in Havana at the invitation of student and youth organizations in the Caribbean country, will be an opportunity to have a dialogue with Cuban youth and a firsthand chance to talk with working people of a country that defeated U.S. imperialism for the first time in the Americas. A student from Hostos College who attended the forum said he is planning to help publicize the youth exchange at his campus, including bringing a speaker on Cuba to build up interest among students in the exchange.

Members of the Young Socialists participated in the Vieques contingent at the Puerto Rican Day Parade here June 10. Joining the contingent were workers and youth from the Vieques Support Group; a delegation from the San Romero church; the Palestinian solidarity organization Al-Awda; and many other groups. Al-Awda backs the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland and has linked up with the anti-imperialist struggle of the Puerto Rican people.

Among the contingent’s energetic chants in English and Spanish were, "Free, free Puerto Rico! Free, free Palestine!" Tinesha Mayers, a 17-year-old high school student from the group Urban Mindz, is organizing to attend a United Nations conference in South Africa on racism later this year in order "to unite with different groups and different people to make change all over the world." Mayers, other members of Urban Mindz, and members of Al-Awda expressed interest in attending the Youth Festival and the Youth Exchange and asked the YS to send a speaker to an upcoming meeting to describe the events.  
 
 
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