BY JACK WILLEY
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 about the YS, write P.O. Box 2396, New York, NY 10009. Tel: (212) 475-6482, Fax: (212) 388- 1659.
NEW YORK - The Young Socialists kicked off our national fund drive with a smashing success at the regional socialist educational conferences held in four cities over the New Year's weekend. We raised more than $3,713 in cash donations and through raffles, and $6,318 in pledges toward our goal of $10,000. This puts us in an excellent position for each chapter and area to lay out the battle plans to reach and surpass our goal.
The New York YS met directly after the regional conference in Boston to get the ball rolling on going over our local $1,500 goal.
On January 12, we are kicking off the fund drive locally with a reportback from the worker and student revolt in France. As part of the evening's events, there will be a dinner and party to raise money, talk politics, and get more contributions toward our goal.
Five YSers visited some of the picket lines of over 30,000 office building workers on January 4, the day they began their strike here. We came to offer our solidarity and talk about the strike wave in France and NATO's war drive against the workers of Yugoslavia. This is how we began building our fund event.
The next evening, we went back to the pickets until about 1 a.m., talking to strikers around Penn Station and the Rockefeller Center. This time we had the opportunity to talk to a group of about 10 strikers blocking an entrance for garbage trucks trying to pick up the building's trash.
While we were there, more than 30 cops arrived, with their billy clubs drawn, to break up the line and allow the trucks through. After standing their ground for another 15 minutes, the pickets reluctantly moved over to the sidewalk.
This spurred a great deal of discussion on the role of the police and on what needs to be done to strengthen the strike. One striker was very interested in the reportback from France.
Our chapter is also linking up with fighters against police brutality at an upcoming protest against the murder of Marķa Rivas by a cop and at a speakout against police brutality. We are producing a YS T-shirt against police brutality as part of our work to raise funds and recruit to the YS. Our goal is to reach out as broadly as possible in our fund drive and draw other fighters into our organization.
We have begun to put up YS tables with our communist literature every week, in addition to the joint literature tables we set up on the streets with members of the Socialist Workers Party. Our chapter set a goal of asking at least 30 new people for contributions toward our fund drive.
We are eager to hear what YS members are doing across the country to reach and go over the $10,000 mark. YSers should e-mail, fax, or write in to the YS office by the Sunday of each week to have their contributions included in the next week's issue of the Militant.
As a reminder, membership dues for January should be sent in as well.
Come to the Young Socialists national conference April 6-7, 1996 Minneapolis For more information, call (212) 475- 6482
Jack Willey is a member of the Young Socialists in New York, Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 6232, and the YS national steering committee.