BY JEANNE TUOMEY
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists, an international organization of young workers, students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more information or to join, write: Young Socialists, P.O. Box 2396, New York, NY 10009. Tel: (212) 475-6482. Fax: (212) 388-1659.
HIROSHIMA, Japan - Youth from France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States participated in anti-nuclear conferences here to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They discussed what youth around the world can do to fight nuclear testing.
"When I was 13 or 14, I saw a film on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Ulrike Dammers, 23, of Duisburg, Germany. "My interest grew and I read books and started to exchange letters with a Nagasaki hibakusha (survivor)."
"Just reading of his struggles convinced me to start a networking organization called Folded Cranes-Messengers of Peace," Dammers explained. "We help to exchange letters of hibakusha and peace organizations with youth and other organizations around the world." Dammers organized hibakusha to tour German schools and organizations in 1991. The group also traveled to Poland to visit Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi concentration camp of World War II.
Anthony Lecshenko, 19, a Russian delegate representing the Union of Nuclear Test Victims - Altai Region said in an interview that he became active in the anti-nuclear fight in response to the Soviet government carrying out atmospheric tests.
"Last year I attended the World Conference in Hiroshima and was able to bring awareness to my country about the peace movement by writing articles and giving reports of the conference at my university," Leschenko said. He returned to Japan in May to march in the "Peace Wave," a three-month long walk from Tokyo to Hiroshima.
The youth delegates held a special meeting to discuss what they could do to protest French president Jacques Chirac's decision to resume nuclear testing in the Pacific. Representing six countries, they released a youth declaration against nuclear weapons and the French testing.
French delegates representing Le Mouvement De La Paix and the French Communist Youth said that uniting youth internationally at this time was impossible and that the call for actions should be left up to activists in each country. At the end of the meeting, participants agreed to release a statement protesting French nuclear testing, suggesting that youth help organize actions targeting Chirac's decision to continue testing and urging youth to work with hibakusha to publicize their struggle.
The delegates were invited to speak at several local youth activities commemorating the anniversary of the bombings, including a Japanese Youth Council event attended by more than 100 youth.
Representatives from the Democratic Youth League and Youth Socialist Party of Japan told about their efforts to bring the experiences of the hibakusha to university students and to workers and of their work with Korean organizations fighting for compensation for Koreans who were forced to work in Japan during World War II.
Many of the youth visited the Pathfinder table, buying the Militant and various books and pamphlets on women's rights, socialism, and Cuba.
"I think it's important that young people in Japan realize that nuclear damage did not just occur in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also in Russia, Nevada, and on the Marshall Islands," Hiromi Susaki, a 19-year-old student at Tsukaba University in Japan, said as he bought a copy of the Militant. "We should see nuclear weapons as a world-wide issue."
Dammers was interested in the case of Mark Curtis, a framed-up union activist. She took a leaflet and is considering sending a letter urging Curtis's release.
Some French youth delegates were interested in the Militant's coverage of the fight to save Mumia Abu-Jamal, a framed-up journalist on Pennsylvania's death row. They reported on the French effort to save Jamal, which included several large rallies.
Leschenko, Dammers, and Karima Yamani, 15, a French high school student, participated in several discussions about socialism and the views of the Socialist Workers Party and the Young Socialists. Yamani was interested in the differences between socialism and capitalism and if youth in the United States are open to socialism. Delegates from the French Communist Youth asked what it was like to be a communist in the United States.
Jeanne Tuomey is a member of the Young Socialists in San Francisco.