The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.32           September 14, 1998 
 
 
Seattle Youth Rally For Affirmative Action  

BY ALARIC DIRMEYER
SEATTLE - Chanting "When you say rollback, we say fight back," close to 300 people gathered at Garfield High School August 29 for a march and rally in support of affirmative action. The demonstrators were speaking out against Initiative 200 (I-200), a proposal on the ballot in Washington state that seeks to eliminate affirmative action programs in higher education and government jobs and contracts.

The action, the first in several months after a lull in activity, was organized by various political and community groups to rally support for voting down I-200. Organizers included the African American Coalition for Equity and the Martin Luther King Committee. Youth, especially Black youth, comprised a sizable portion of the crowd.

The march and rally provided a good opportunity for supporters of the Socialist Workers campaign to introduce the slate of candidates to workers, professionals, and youth in attendance. Members of the Communist League from Vancouver, as well as Young Socialists and other youth, helped staff the literature table and talk to students and young workers about the need for a fighting campaign by labor to overcome the divisions in the working class by race.

Cornelius Pope, a junior at Pacific Lutheran University and organizer of the college's Black Student Union (BSU), was particularly interested in bringing the socialist campaign to his campus and BSU meetings when school resumes.

As part of the discussion around defeating I-200, the campaign issued a statement calling for the defeat of that legislation and for an extension of affirmative action, particularly quotas, through actions by the working class.

This opinion was not shared by many of the speakers at the rally who called for "fairness" and "equity." The closeness of the election, with the primaries coming up in September, and awareness by many demonstrators of the racist measures carried out in California and Texas under the authority of similar initiatives, provided for a rich discussion.

Members of the Young Socialists from Seattle, Vancouver, and San Francisco distributed information about the upcoming Young Socialists Regional Conference to be held September 5-6 in the Bay Area and encouraged fighters to attend.

 
 
 
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