BY ERNEST OLEINIK AND JOHAN NILSSON
This column is written and edited by the Young Socialists (YS), an international organization of young workers, students, and other youth fighting for socialism. For more information about the YS write to: Young Socialists, P.O. Box 14392, St. Paul, MN 55114. Tel: (612) 644-0051. Compuserve: 105162,605

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Members of the Young Socialists in Sweden are now participating in the international effort to sell Pathfinder books by selling to students in different Stockholm schools.

This is the latest move by the YS chapter to bring socialism to a potential new generation of fighters, who will, in the coming struggles, unite together with workers and begin to chart a way forward from capitalist depression and war. Youth have especially suffered in Sweden from the economic crisis that hit the country in the beginning of the 1990s.

The YS, together with the Communist League, have been involved in the last three months in organizing several activities, such as selling Pathfinder books at the 12 annual Gothenburg book fair at the end of October. Also at the end of October and on November 26 we participated in demonstrations against rising unemployment in Sweden -now 8.7 percent. Altogether, about 9,000 came people to the two demonstrations.

On November 9, the YS chapter participated in a rally of about 200 people honoring the 58th anniversary of the night when the Nazi regime in Germany instigated the killing of several Jews in Berlin. The event has become known as "The Crystal Night."

Three weeks later, the YS together with the Communist League sent five of its members to an annual demonstration against racism and fascism in central Stockholm. This year the police restricted the demonstrators from marching because, as they put it, "they would be disturbing the Christmas shopping."

One of the most important steps for the YS chapter in Sweden has been the discussion on the functioning of a proletarian youth organization. This discussion began after two of the YS members came back from the Washington D.C. regional socialist educational conference. After the discussion at the December 13 YS meeting, we took a vote in which the YS chapter decided with overwhelming majority to have an executive committee, with organizers that have the responsibility of implementing the decisions that the weekly YS chapter meeting makes.

Since we made the decision on our organizational form, we decided on having regular study classes on Marxist books like the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Socialism on Trial by James P. Cannon and Socialism and Man in Cuba by Ernesto Che Guevara.

The Young Socialists have participated with the Communist League in organizing classes on The Changing Face of U.S. Politics by Jack Barnes. We also had a member speak at a Militant Labor Forum on "Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement."

And on January 15 a YS member helped to print the new Swedish edition of the Action Program to Confront the Coming Economic Crisis.  
 
 
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