BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
The Young Socialists National Committee together with the
Atlanta, Birmingham, Houston, Miami, and Pittsburgh branches of
the Socialist Workers Party have scheduled a regional
educational conference in Birmingham, Alabama, December 20-21.
Originally planned for December 6-7, "the new dates will give additional time to organize students, fellow unionists, and other workers to come to the event," said conference organizer Meg Novak, a member of the United Steelworkers of America in Birmingham and a leader of the YS.
Socialists are inviting, among others, youth they are meeting at actions protesting the U.S. war moves against Iraq and activities marking the 30th anniversary of Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara's combat in Bolivia.
SWP and YS members in Pittsburgh, for example, were among those who helped organize such an event on Che Guevara at the University of Pittsburgh November 13, attended by 150 people.
In Miami, socialists are inviting to the conference Haitian and other activists they recently met protesting deportations, said Rollande Girard.
The conference is being advertised on the job, at picket lines and other labor actions, during sales of the socialist press at mine portals and factory gates, and on campuses.
Jack Willey, organizer of the YS National Executive Committee, just completed a week-long speaking tour in Alabama, Georgia, and northern Florida.
He spoke on campuses in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and in Gainesville, Florida, inviting students interested in revolutionary action to participate in the regional event. He also addressed Militant Labor Forums in Birmingham and Atlanta.
SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes and New International editor Mary-Alice Waters will give the main presentations (see ad on this page).
The conference program includes time for participants to visit the Civil Rights Institute, a museum with exhibits on the Battle of Birmingham, one of the most important milestones of the mass civil rights movement in the 1960s that overturned the Jim Crow system of racist segregation.
Socialist workers and young socialists from around the country who belong to the International Association of Machinists will also hold a meeting that weekend in Birmingham while participating in the conference.