"The attacks by the U.S. ruling class against the prisoners that their military forces kidnapped and took to the Guantánamo naval base in Cuba, and the killing of workers in the streets by cops in the United States, are not disconnected," said Romina Green in a report to the meeting. Green is the organizer of the Young Socialists National Leadership Council (NLC) and a garment worker in New York City.

"Our role as young revolutionaries is to convince people we meet--selling the Militant outside of a factory or in a working-class neighborhood, at plants and protests in Argentina, or at a book fair in Cuba--that the only way to fight the root cause of these attacks and win is to join and build a communist organization.

"The five Cuban revolutionaries held in U.S. jails are heroes of the working class," Green said. "They were in this country on an internationalist mission to defend the Cuban Revolution against imperialism by gathering information on right-wing organizations that have organized violent attacks against Cuba," she said. "We can use the Militant to get out the truth on this case and build support amongst students and workers in this country."  
 
Algeria youth conference
Green pointed to the importance of the participation of an international delegation of Young Socialists in the World Festival of Youth and Students in Algeria last August. Since that time, the YS in the United States has increased the amount of work it has done internationally, from participating in a Militant reporting team to Argentina to sending delegations to the conventions and conferences of communist parties and youth organizations in Australia, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

"We will continue to place central importance on building the international communist movement," she said, which is the only way to build a proletarian internationalist organization. YS leaders in the United States will travel to Cuba to join activities for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Union of Young Communists, March 30–April 5. The following week Olympia Newton will be part of a delegation together with two leaders of the Socialist Workers Party to stand in solidarity with the people of north Korea on the anniversary of the founding of the Workers Party of Korea.

Christian Schmit, a leader of the Young Socialists in Gothenberg, Sweden, told the meeting about the political importance of international collaboration for the Young Socialists. "The YS in Sweden fused with the Communist League to strengthen the communist movement and to help integrate and train the younger members of our movement in communist politics," he said. "These moves would not have been possible without the international collaboration of YS and party members from other countries."  
 
Summer schools
"Over the summer," Green reported, "the YS will organize socialist summer schools in several cities across the country. These are opportunities for YS members to participate in a concentrated program of communist education and get jobs alongside socialist workers in industrial union fractions in the garment, meatpacking, and coal mining industries. The YS will also work with others to organize a speaking tour of colleges in the United States for two Cuban youth leaders. We need to begin talking with student organizations and professors about this opportunity now, before colleges let out for the summer," she said.

Jason Alessio, an underground coal miner and member of the United Mineworkers of America in western Colorado, urged participants in the meeting to join the widows' walk for black lung benefits taking place in the Eastern coal fields.

"As communists, we help get out the word about the widows' struggle," he said. "The Militant has the most coverage of this fight, and it helps to link miners across the country. No one in Colorado would know about this struggle without the Militant and the Militant Labor Forum. In the mine where I work, we're discussing how we can build support for this fight." Alessio also urged participants to spend a few days on Militant sales teams to the coal fields of Alabama, Colorado, and Pennsylvania that the YS and SWP are organizing coming out of the conference.

Arrin Hawkins from Chicago explained the fight by workers at the meatpacking plant where she worked. The bosses suddenly closed the plant, she said, but they "underestimated the potential of working people to fight back. On Christmas Eve we held a protest to demand back wages, severance pay, and an extension of medical benefits," she said. "Since then we've had meetings of up to 100 workers to discuss how to fight the layoff. It's a small example of the resistance around the country where working people are gaining confidence in ourselves."

Mike Ellis, a YS member in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a high school student, said he looked forward to building the tour of the youth leaders from Cuba as part of building the YS.

Members of the Young Socialists also held a meeting to discuss the best way to organize the YS leadership in the months leading up to the next international gathering of the communist movement in Oberlin, Ohio, this July. An election of a new National Leadership Council brought on to the body a number of YS members who have stepped forward in the organization. Romina Green was elected as the NLC organizer, and Green and Newton were elected to a National Coordinating Committee. These shifts in the leadership structure will help the YS respond in a more effective and timely manner by drawing on the broader leadership of the organization.
 
 
Related articles:
Atlanta conference builds communist movement
Participants study 'Cuba and the Coming American Revolution'
Youth snap up Marxist classics  
 
 
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