Jaime Lupercio, 19, of Detroit is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. He first met socialist workers at the meatpacking plant were he works. He explained that one day at work a supervisor was attempting to punish a worker who was unable to do a job properly since the instructions were only in English and the worker only read Spanish.

Lupercio recalls that a woman co-worker was standing up for this worker's rights. He says he wanted to get to know her right away, since he admired what she had done. The worker, Rosa Garmendia, began talking to him about the fight for solidarity on the job and socialist politics. "I went to the Pathfinder bookstore to look at the books and began attending Militant Labor Forums," Lupercio said. "I think this is a party that doesn't have borders or languages."

Lupercio decided to join the Young Socialists at the conference. "I am going to return to work to explain what I have learned here and show other workers Pathfinder books," he remarked.

Heather Wood, 24, met members of the Young Socialists and Socialist Workers Party in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, through work they had been doing together on building a delegation to the 14th World Festival of Students and Youth, which will be taking place in Havana, Cuba this summer. She especially liked the opening report by SWP national secretary Jack Barnes. She explained, "These are all things I had been thinking about. I had been looking for someone to say them." When asked if she had thought about joining the Young Socialists, she responded, "That's what I came here for. I'm not a member yet, but I want to join."

Emily Jewson, a 23 year-old student at West Virginia University, said she had just attended the class on the origins of women's oppression. "I've been encouraged to read more. I went to the Young Feminist Summit in Washington D.C.; it was my first activity like that. Now I'm going to read the Communist Manifesto. I bought that and Cuba for Beginners. I'm interested in learning more about Che, Fidel, and Marx. I think that's a good start."

As a member of the Young Socialists in Spokane, Washington, Alaric Dirmeyer has regularly set up tables to sell the Militant newspaper and Pathfinder books, as well as helped organize regular Militant Labor Forums. Attending the convention and conference helped him to get a better understanding of the fact that U.S. imperialism's efforts to expand NATO are in fact war moves against the Russian workers state. Dirmeyer said "I liked listening to the discussion on the political resolution. It was a real honest appraisal of some successes, as well as big challenges ahead. But there was no falsification or blaming each other." Dirmeyer, 19, recently decided to move to Seattle to join the Socialist Workers Party. "I want to be involved in decision making and the every day life of the SWP," he said, "I think there is nothing better to do with your life."  
 
 
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