Vol. 72/No. 9      March 3, 2008

BY ROBERT SILVER  
SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minnesota—The air inside the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 789 hall was thick with excitement January 25. Workers there had just defeated a drive by the bosses at Dakota Premium Foods, a beef slaughterhouse here, to decertify the union at their plant.

Dozens of Dakota workers, union officials, and their supporters, including members of the Young Socialists, went to the hall for an impromptu celebration. Since a company-backed effort to decertify the union began, members of the Young Socialists have been active in the fight both as workers in the plant and as supporters outside.

For the past several weeks, Young Socialists have been selling the Militant at Dakota Premium Foods as workers finish their shift. YS members have learned first-hand about the conditions on the job and the latest skirmishes with bosses. Workers also stop to discuss recent articles in the paper, the importance of keeping the union, and world politics in general. Workers pick up the Militant for its coverage of their fight for a contract, and many relate their struggle to struggles by workers elsewhere covered in the paper.

The Young Socialists have also gotten word out about the Dakota victory on college campuses, and through campaigning for Socialist Workers candidates, led by a national ticket of Róger Calero for president and Alyson Kennedy for vice president. When Calero, who was part of the initial fight that won the union at Dakota, was in Minnesota, the Young Socialists sponsored a meeting for him at the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. The presidential candidate explained that workers, through their own struggles, can fight against their declining standard of living in the face of unending attacks by the bosses and their government.

Speaking with Calero at a January 26 Militant Labor Forum in Minneapolis, Rebecca Williamson, SWP candidate for Congress in the 5th Congressional District and a worker in the boning department at Dakota, invited those present to campaign with the Young Socialists for Calero and Kennedy. “In the next 10 months we will continue talking with working people, youth, farmers, and anyone else who is interested in revolutionary politics. This includes going door to door in the working-class neighborhoods and setting up campaign tables on campuses and elsewhere,” she said.

Williamson said the Young Socialists for Calero and Kennedy will continue to support and join fights like those at Dakota Premium Foods and continue to reach out to youth and others interested in the working-class alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. Get involved! E-mail us at ys4calerokennedy@mac.com or contact the nearest Militant distributor, listed on page 10.
 
 
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