BY NAOMI CRAINE
LOS ANGELES - The third national convention of the Young
Socialists and socialist conference held here December 4-6,
registered the growing possibility for fighting workers and
farmers to forge links with each others' struggles and with the
activity of a revolutionary proletarian youth organization.
Eighteen delegates elected by YS chapters, and YS members in cities where no chapter exists yet, had voice and vote in the proceedings of the convention, which is the highest decision- making body of the Young Socialists. Members of the National Committee elected at the previous convention in 1997 participated as fraternal delegates with voice and consultative vote, as did delegates from Young Socialists groups in Canada, France, Iceland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
These delegates discussed and adopted reports on building a proletarian youth organization and on the tasks and perspectives of the Young Socialists. They adopted the "Young Socialists Manifesto" and "Aims of the Young Socialists," published in the Marxist magazine New International no. 11, as a guide to the organization, and elected a new National Committee.
Discussion on the main convention reports was open for all YS members and invited youth to observe. The convention reports were open to all participants in a broader socialist conference held in conjunction with the YS convention.
Of the 345 people who attended the conference, 91 were under the age of 27. Many were members and supporters of the Socialist Workers Party and sister communist leagues. Other participants included guests involved in labor struggles, the fight by Black farmers for their land and against government discrimination, and the Irish freedom struggle.
Mary-Alice Waters, editor of the Marxist magazine New International, gave the first major conference presentation, titled, "Cuba as part of the world: Confronting global capitalism's assault on the toilers and winning a new generation to communism." Waters, who recently returned from a Militant reporting trip to Cuba, conveyed greetings to the Young Socialists convention from the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution and from combatants who fought with Che Guevara in Bolivia.
Socialist Workers Party national secretary Jack Barnes spoke on "Bonapartism and polarization: contradictions and instability of the leftward shift in bourgeois politics." His talk took up the question, "What do the voters for AMFA and Jesse Ventura have in common," and the underestimated social weight of Young Socialists activism.
Six members of the Young Socialists led a panel discussion about their experiences and activities, titled, "Bringing alive The Changing Face of U.S. Politics," referring to the book by Jack Barnes, published by Pathfinder.
A broad range of classes helped round out the discussion at the conference. These included, "The response of merchant seamen to the expansion of U.S. imperialism during and after World War II"; "New rise in the fight for Chicano liberation"; "Teamster Rebellion: the fight for a class-struggle left wing"; "The fight for Black freedom: from `40 acres and a mulé to the fight for a workers and farmers government"; "150 years of the Communist Manifesto: its relevance for today's struggles"; "The Russian revolution: how the Bolsheviks led workers and peasants to power"; "Dynamics of the Cuban revolution: Key turning points"; "The origins of U.S. imperialism: from the defeat of Radical Reconstruction to the Spanish-American War"; "U.S. imperialism lost the cold war: Imperialism's march toward fascism and war; encirclement of the Russian workers state, from Eastern Europe to the Silk Road"; "Why the Canadian ruling class fears Quebec independence"; and "The origin of women's oppression and the fight for socialism."
One set of classes were presentations by fighters involved in labor and farm battles today. Dean Cook, a locked-out member of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) Local 4-227, spoke on "Three years of struggle to defend the union at Crown Central Petroleum in Pasadena, Texas: Lockout of 252 members of the OCAW; frame-up charges of sabotage; racism and sexism at Crown refinery." Gary Grant and Eddie Slaughter, the president and vice president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, spoke on, "Black farmers fight for survival." David Yard, a striking member of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) Local 1969, gave a class on "Challenges facing striking coal miners in central Illinois: UMWA stands up to FBI and Freeman United Coal." Displays from all three fights, with photos, T-shirts, and information, were a center for informal discussion during breaks.
The Pathfinder book tables were also crowded. Conference participants bought more than $1,400 worth of books and pamphlets. The Marxist magazine New International was the top seller, including nine copies of the new issue no. 11. The Communist Manifesto, Teamster Rebellion, and books on the Cuban revolution were also popular.
John Fogarty, the Bay Area regional vice president for human rights of the Irish American Unity Conference, read greetings to the YS convention from two of the "H-Block Three," Irish freedom fighters who escaped from Long Kesh prison in Belfast in 1983 and have been fighting extradition from the United States to Northern Ireland since the early 1990s. Dean Cook, Gary Grant, and David Yard also gave greetings to the gathering.
The final conference session heard reports from Young Socialists leader Samantha Kern and SWP leader Jack Barnes on the accomplishments of the YS convention and preparing the 1999 Socialist Workers Party convention, which will be held in April in San Francisco.
Kern introduced the newly elected Young Socialists National Committee, and announced that for the next period, leading up to the SWP national convention, the YS National Office will move to San Francisco. The new National Committee had just met and elected a National Executive Committee of Kern, Ryan Kelly, and Cecilia Ortega.
Barnes introduced the members of the SWP's Trade Union Committee, who were seated on stage along with the YS National Committee, as the party leaders who would be responsible for working most closely with the Young Socialists over the next four months. Barnes stressed the party's obligation to organize to read and study this issue of New International along with Young Socialists units.
Pointing to the openings that communists and other vanguard workers must respond to today, Barnes cited the article "Ours is the Epoch of World Revolution," published in New International no. 11. "The evidence continues to accumulate that the working class in the United States and most other imperialist countries has emerged from the period of political retreat that followed the short, brutal - and demoralizing, because largely uncontested - imperial assault on the people of Iraq in 1990-91," the article reads. "Signs of renewed defensive action are all around us - more numerous strike actions reflecting the tenacity and resistance of the embattled ranks; a noticeable growth in the confidence and determination of women in industry; the increased weight of Black leadership in labor battles and struggles of working farmers; an upswing in the Puerto Rican independence movement; more actions in defense of immigrants' rights. Such developments prepare the strengthening of working-class leadership in these struggles and increase the potential of the unions `to act deliberately as organizing centers of the working class in the broad interests of its complete emancipation.' "
Next week's Militant will carry further coverage of the gathering.