BY VICKY MERCIER
Young Socialists Join Quebec Student Actions
MONTREAL - "I am going to the university in January, what I
am doing at Cegep, I do for others and for the future,"
explained Nicholas Boucher, a student at the Cegep du Viewux
Montréal, one of tens of thousands of college students in
Quebec who have gone on strike. At one point, as many as 23 of
the province's 47 Cegeps (community colleges in Quebec) were
closed. Participation in protest activities around the strikes
are at the center of political activity for the YS chapter here.
The students are protesting plans to cut up to $100 million from funding to college level education. The most important of their demands is a freeze in tuition fees. Students have organized a series of militant actions including a spontaneous march of hundreds of youth on Halloween night (see article on back page).
High school students have also responded. Hundreds walked out of their classes at two high schools in east Montreal November 8.
Young Socialists have participated in many of these actions, campaigning around a working-class, communist perspective in the fight for our rights. Several students have signed up for more information about the Young Socialists, picked up copies of the socialist newsweekly the Militant, or purchased pamphlets on Malcolm X and the Cuban revolution.
Another action involved hundreds of students in a twenty-four hour occupation of the offices of Quebec's education ministry on November 5. The next day, 5,000 students marched in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal. One young marcher pointed to and read aloud a sign on a table of the Young Socialists in support of Quebec independence. This incited cheers from a couple dozen other marchers.
The fight against the cuts in funding to education is totally tied to the struggle for Quebec independence. There is an overwhelming amount of support for the independence struggle among active participants in the fight. Five high school students recently attended a class on the Pathfinder pamphlet An Action Program to Confront the Economic Crisis organized by the Young Socialists here in Montreal. Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau, a student at Regina Assumpta, said, "If we win our own country, we will put forward our ideas that we want pay equity and social services available for everyone."
The Canadian constitution imposes on Quebec an undemocratic educational system with separate school boards based upon religion and language. The result is an underfunded, inferior school system for Quebecois families who are unable to send their children to private schools. Youth whose first language is English are twice as likely to graduate with a university diploma as those whose first language is French.
The Young Socialists are planning a public forum at McGill
University in solidarity with the striking Cegep students.
YS Leaders In Canada Meet, Discuss Way Forward
BY JACOB GAVIN
TORONTO - Following the Toronto Metro Days of Action, Young Socialists from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver met to discuss building the YS in Canada.
The October 22-26 Days of Action was a series of demonstrations, pickets and marches against cutbacks to education and health care and attacks on union rights by the provincial government led by Conservative premier Michael Harris. The Days of Action culminated with a rally of hundreds of thousands of working people and students in downtown Toronto October 26. Members of the Communist League in Canada, the Socialist Workers Party from the United States, the YS from both countries, and their supporters came to Toronto to take part in the actions and link-up with fighters.
The next day coordinators from the three Canadian YS chapters - Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver - met together for the first time. Tom Alter, a YS leader in the United States, and Michel Prairie, a leader of the CL in Canada, also attended.
The fact that 16 Young Socialists and three people interested in the YS participated in the Days of Action was "an example of how to build the YS," said Patricia O'Beirne, from Montreal. "It was a rare opportunity to have Young Socialists from across Canada and from the United States collaborate and build our movement through struggles."
Forty-eight young people attending the actions signed up for more information on the YS and six asked to join. Two have since joined the Toronto chapter. A high school student who previously subscribed to the Militant joined in Vancouver following a Militant Labor Forum reporting back from the actions.
Having national collaboration in struggles that have a lot of political weight, such as the Quebecois fight for independence, brings the YS closer to forming a national structure in Canada. But "we can't skip steps" in putting together the organization, Prairie said in the discussion.
The most immediate steps for the YS here involve building the chapters and working towards more collaboration between them in the future. Currently, there are 10 members in Montreal, 6 in Vancouver and 5 in Toronto.
Alter described his experiences building the YS in the United States and participating in the current effort to win 80 new members to the YS there. "Recruitment should be a key point on every chapter's agenda," he said. The YS leaders agreed to raise the possibility of local recruitment drives in all three chapters in Canada.
An effective way of responding to developments in world politics, it was agreed, is to have YS classes. These classes should approach current events from a revolutionary communist perspective, and draw on lessons from history and classical Marxist thought, applying them to current struggles. It is only a very recent development that YS classes have become a weekly norm for all three chapters.
An essential aspect of responding to world politics, said O'Beirne, is distributing Pathfinder literature and the Militant. YS chapters have all set subscription goals to contribute to the campaign for the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and the Marxist magazine New International which ends November 24. In addition, YS members in Montreal have nearly completed translating the YS principles into French.
Defense of the Cuban Revolution was reaffirmed to be a central part of the YS principles. The YS can use literature to educate workers and young people about the example of the revolution and the importance of defending it. The most decisive question in Cuba's defense, however, is the extension of revolutionary movements elsewhere in the world, which remains the fundamental goal of the YS.
Jacob Gavin is the coordinator of the YS chapter in
Vancouver, British Columbia.
Joining The GM Workers At Janesville Picket Line
BY TAMI PETERSON AND AMANDA ULMAN
JANESVILLE, Wisconsin - Two members of the Young Socialists and a member of the United Auto Workers (UAW) from Chicago visited striking workers at the General Motors (GM) plant in Janesville November 2. The strike began on October 29. Despite cold weather, spirits were high at the strikers' 10 picketing spots as many cars drove by honking and waving in support.
Strikers spoke about many different issues that they faced inside the plant, including line speed up and forced overtime, where 50 hours is the average amount worked in a week. Jerry Campbell, who is an electrician at the plant and has worked for GM twelve and a half years, said, "Workers are coming in and working 10 hours a day. They go home, go to sleep, then go to work in the morning with no time for recreation."
Another main issue at this plant is the fact that not enough new workers are being hired to make up for those who have retired. All together, team members sold three copies Militant to striking workers. YSers got to participate in political discussions with a section of the working class fighting for its rights.
Tami Peterson and Amanda Ulman are members of the Young
Socialists in Chicago.
Youth In Iceland Protest U.S. Embargo On Cuba
BY SIGURDUR JO'HANN HARALDSSON
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland - On November 1 close to 100 people, mostly high school students, marched from the city center to the U.S. embassy here protesting the U.S. embargo against Cuba. The Young Socialists initiated the planning of the action. This protest, which is the first in many years to be held in front of the U.S. embassy, was supported by several pre-university school students' councils, the Apprentice Students' Council, the Peoples Alliance in Reykjavík, the Socialist Group of the Peoples Alliance, Peoples Alliance Youth Organization, Iceland - Cuba Friendship Society, and the Young Socialists.
Two university students spoke in front of the embassy, Sigfu's Ólafsson, secretary of the Peoples Alliance, and Sylvía Magnúsdóttir, member of the Iceland-Cuba Friendship Society board. Drífa Snaedal, chairperson of the National Apprentice Students' Union, presented a resolution that was accepted by the protest meeting.
The resolution stated that the meeting condemned the U.S. embargo against Cuba and said that the Icelandic government is responsible as well.
After the protest the Young Socialists had an open house at the Pathfinder bookstore, which about 30 people attended. Ólof Andra Proppé, a member of the Young Socialists, talked about Cuba. "I often hear the idea that the embargo is a left over from the Cold War," she said. "It is not. The United States and the rulers worldwide are against Cuba because it's an example for workers and farmers, everywhere in the world, for a society where we can decide, and that's why the Young Socialists looks to the Cuban revolution."
One pre-university student bought a subscription to the Militant. Another had read a pamphlet from Pathfinder in the library at his school and wanted to read more about socialism. Eleven youth signed up to be invited to the next class or forum at the bookstore.
In Iceland it is hard to find anybody who supports the embargo against Cuba, but few people realize that the embargo is to stop the example of the Cuban revolution. The ruling class of Iceland is very servile to the United States on this question. Lára Margrét Ragnarsdóttir, conservative Independence Party member on the Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs, said that she is concerned about the increasing numbers of tourist tours from Iceland to Cuba this fall and the effect this will have on relations with Washington.
Sigurdur Jóhann Haraldsson is a YS member in Reykjavík.
YS recruitment box
54 new members in the YS!
From July 10 to November 11
City # of new members
============= ================
Athens, GA 3
Atlanta 4
Boston 1
Chicago 2
Cleveland 2
Denver 2
Detroit 1
Fresno, CA 3
Houston 3
Los Angeles 6
McAllen, TX 1
Minneapolis/St. Paul 2
Morgantown 1
Muncie, IN 1
Newark 3
New York 3
Philadelphia 1
Portland, OR 1
Salt Lake City 3
San Diego 1
San Francisco 5
Seattle 2
Washington, D.C. 3
TOTAL 54