BY LAURA GARZA
Hundreds of unionists and youth gathered for socialist
educational conferences in four cities over New Year's
weekend to discuss "Organizing a Working-Class Campaign to
Oppose Imperialism's War Drive against Yugoslavia." The
conferences were cosponsored by the Socialist Workers
Party and the Young Socialists.
In Atlanta 85 activists from cities throughout the south joined in the discussions and classes. Two people there asked to join the Young Socialists and more than $625 in socialist literature was sold.
Participants in the Boston educational event kicked off their weekend by joining hundreds of others in a mobilization to defend abortion rights. The action marked the first anniversary of the murder of two clinic workers by a rightist thug and opponent of women's rights.
Some 175 people attended the conference. The main talk there on "Stop NATO's War Drive against Yugoslavia
- Emulate the Cuban Revolution" was given by Socialist Workers Party National Committee member Thabo Ntweng. Conference participants also heard a presentation on "Building the Communist Movement Today: Recruiting Dangerous Men and Women," by Angel Lariscy, a member of the United Auto Workers union from Peoria, Illinois. Two people asked to join the Young Socialists, and two others asked to become members of the Socialist Workers Party at the Boston gathering.
Many of the 141 people who registered at the conference in Detroit said a highlight of the weekend was the presentation by a member of the Communist League in Canada titled "Reportback from the Revolt in France and the Fight for Quebec Independence." The three other socialist conferences heard similar reports from socialist workers and youth who had just returned from France, where they helped sell the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Internationale (New International). Two youth asked to join the Young Socialists and two people also asked to become members of the SWP. In both Boston and Detroit the conferences heard from unionists on strike against the Detroit News and Free Press.
In Seattle 159 socialist workers and other activists from Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada to Salt Lake City, Utah, to California heard a presentation by Paul Mailhot, a member of the SWP National Committee, titled "Mining Our Communist Continuity." Complete with a slide presentation run from a computer disk, Mailhot explained the project currently under way to scan and make available on CD-ROM the rich lessons contained in the magazines New International, Fourth International, and International Socialist Review.
Further coverage about these successful socialist educational conferences will appear in upcoming issues.