BY JERRY FREIWIRTH

HOUSTON - Members of the Young Socialists were prominent in organizing the recent Texas tour of Dagoberto Rodríguez, first secretary of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. Two members of the Houston YS chapter traveled with Rodríguez to the Rio Grande Valley, along with José Aravena, a member of the Young Socialist national steering committee. Included in the YS delegation was Jennifer Ponce, a student at the University of Houston who began the school year as president of the College Democrats. After hearing Socialist Workers presidential and vice presidential candidates James Harris and Laura Garza and congressional candidate Jerry Freiwirth speak on campus, Ponce decided to resign from the College Democrats and join the Young Socialists. She has been a vigorous builder of the YS ever since.

The YS members' participation in the Rodríguez tour bore fruit at the University of Texas, Pan American, in Edinburg, Texas. The delegation of Young Socialists worked with a new member of the YS who attends Pan Am in distributing socialist literature and organizing a class on socialism on the day after Rodríguez's campus speech. Eleven people attended the class and two decided to join the Young Socialists. The Edinburg, Texas YS chapter's first meeting is planned for the last week of November.

Also joining the socialist team at Pan American and the Tejana/Tejano Student Leadership Conference the University of Houston was Laura Garza, who is traveling to selected cities after the election, building the Regional Socialist Educational Conferences slated to take place in four cities on Thanksgiving weekend.

Socialists sold 10 subscriptions to the Militant and three subscriptions to Perspectiva Mundial at speaking engagements for Dagoberto Rodríguez, including the Tejana/Tejano conference. In addition, meeting participants purchased four copies of New International no. 10, which includes the articles "Imperialism's March towards Fascism and War" and "Defending Cuba, Defending Cuba's Socialist Revolution."

Pathfinder books were also well received during the tour. At each event, well-stocked and attractive literature tables were set up. Meeting participants showed a particular interest in books on the Cuban revolution. Altogether 36 titles were sold, including 4 copies of Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara. Participants at the Chicano student conference bought seven copies of The Politics of Chicano Liberation. YS RECRUITMENT CHART
63 new members in the YS!

From July 10 to November 26 City # of new members
=============== ================

Athens, GA 3

Atlanta 4

Boston 1

Carbondale, IL 1

Chicago 2

Cleveland 2

Denver 2

Detroit 2

Fresno, CA 3

Houston 3

Los Angeles 6

McAllen, TX 3

Minneapolis/St. Paul 2

Morgantown 1

Muncie, IN 1

Newark 3

New York 3

Philadelphia 1

Portland, OR 1

Salt Lake City 3

San Diego 1

San Francisco 5

Seattle 2

Spokane, WA 5

Washington, D.C. 3

TOTAL 63  
 
 
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