Six people attended the campus meeting, including students, workers, and a farmer who had lost his farm. After a 20-minute talk, the discussion lasted for two hours with questions ranging from the national-chauvinist aspects of the protests to the viability of socialism in the future. The discussion concluded with the selling of the Militant, the pamphlet Farmers Face the Crisis of the 1990s, and three names of people who are interested in discussing more politics with the Young Socialists.

Betsy McDonald, a member of the Socialist Workers Party, SWP supporter Marta DeLeon, and I participated in La Gran Marcha December 11. Sponsored by the immigrant rights coalition Derechos Humanos, La Gran Marcha is a march and rally to draw national attention to the problems Mexican workers and farmers face at the U.S./Mexico border. There were more than 500 hundred people in attendance. The three of us marched with the sign, "Stop the Deportations! Equal Rights for Immigrants!"

During the rally of speakers and music, there was a constant flow of discussions and sales at the Pathfinder literature table. The first thing we sold was the only copy of Capitalism's World Disorder we brought. The team also sold a copy of New International no. 7, featuring "The Opening Guns of World War III"; the pamphlet titled Peru's 'Shining Path': Evolution of a Stalinist Sect in Spanish; two pamphlets on Che Guevara; and five copies of the Militant newspaper. Three people said they were interested in staying in contact with the YS and the SWP.

On December 14 Betsy McDonald and I attended a rally to support the Eurofresh tomato workers at their union representation drive, two hours away in Willcox, Arizona. The rally was sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). More than 100 tomato workers came after work.

Sixteen eight-foot-long tables were stacked with clothes collected by UFCW members from around the Tucson and Phoenix areas. In solidarity with the Eurofresh workers, who went on strike for more than a week in November, UFCW members from a closing Rosarita plant donated 1,000 pounds of beans, even though they were facing unemployment. I gave a solidarity greeting in Spanish, prepared the night before. The Pathfinder literature table, which was stocked only with Spanish titles, sold State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin, Pombo: A Man of Che's guerrilla by Harry Villegas, and some issues of Perspectiva Mundial.

The next day Jason Alessio, a YS member from Santa Cruz, California, helped McDonald and I staff a Pathfinder literature table at the University of Arizona campus. Ryan Krug, who consistently participates in a weekly political discussion group, also worked at the table for several hours.

The table was slow because students were taking their final exams, but it picked up around 11:30 a.m. with some insightful discussion and sales. A new student from New York stopped by the table to say that she really enjoyed the Militant. She had been reading Lenin and was very enthusiastic about participating in a political discussion group next semester. She stayed and talked politics at the table for more than an hour. When the table closed down at 1:00 p.m., we had sold one copy of Capitalism's World Disorder and a catalog to a person from Japan who was attending a conference on campus, in addition to several Militants.

Later that same day, Alessio, Krug, and I met with Rito Gutiérrez, a leader in the Eurofresh walkout, in Willcox. The discussion revolved around the horrible working conditions that precipitated the walkout. During our meeting, a former worker at Eurofresh walked over to Gutiérrez and expressed his concerns about the union drive. For about 20 minutes Gutiérrez explained to the concerned man why they must fight for a union and how they can win.

We also talked about the importance of the strike by workers at Basic Vegetable in King City, California. Gutiérrez said he used to be a lettuce and grape field worker in California and that he was thinking of returning back to California, but now that there is an opportunity to fight for a union he will be staying longer.

Willie Cotton is a YS member and student at the University of Arizona.  
 
 
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