The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.20           May 25, 1998 
 
 
YS Leader Speaks At California Campuses  

BY SAMANTHA KERN AND JACOB PERASSO
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, 1573 N. Milwaukee, P.O. Box #478, Chicago, Ill. 60622 Tel: (773) 772-0551 Compuserve: 105162,605

SAN FRANCISCO - Members of the Young Socialists in San Francisco held a meeting at Mills College on "Building an Anti-Imperialist Youth Movement Worldwide" on April 28. The meeting was part of a West Coast tour by Jack Willey, organizer of the National Executive Committee of the YS. Willey took part in a Militant reporting trip to Egypt and the Balkans in March.

Young Socialists publicized the meeting by setting up tables on campus the day before and day of the event. Willey helped staff the table, giving students a chance to meet him and ask questions about his trip. Over the course of the two days, Young Socialists sold four issues of the Militant and the Pathfinder title Cuba for Beginners.

Five students attended the Mills meeting, and one met with Young Socialists later to continue the discussion. At the meeting, Young Socialists members encouraged participants to attend their weekly class series on the book, Leon Trotsky on Black Nationalism and Self- Determination.

Willey also spoke about his recent Militant reporting trip at a meeting on "Russia and NATO expansion," organized by the YS at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). This meeting was attended by five UCSC students. Nefta Pereda, who was among the students attending the discussion, explained that it helped clarify and give a working-class perspective on the imperialist interests underlying the expansion of NATO. The discussion moved from topics in Eastern Europe to questions about Patrick Buchanan and ended with a discussion on defending bilingual education.

A raffle and dinner were held to finance Willey's tour. The events raised $200.

*****

The following is a report from the Seattle chapter of the Young Socialists on their efforts to raise money for the Young Socialists National Fund Drive. It was sent on May 10, 1998

The chapter here raised nearly $260 through honoraria from the University of Washington, when it sponsored a speaking engagement on campus for Jack Willey as a part of his West Coast speaking tour.

At the last two Militant Labor Forums, and at a recent barbecue sponsored by supporters of the Militant, the chapter set up tables displaying items to be raffled at an event May 16, featuring a video showing of Cuba and Angola. The film chronicles the defeat of the South African apartheid army in Angola, and highlights the central role of more than 300,000 Cuban, internationalist volunteers who fought and gave aid in that struggle. The YS will also be organizing a book sale with books donated by supporters of the communist movement in Seattle.

Raffle items will include a Che Guevara T-shirt from Cuba and a poster of fighters from the 1910 Mexican revolution. So far, sales of raffle tickets have raised $97 towards our fund drive goal of $400.

N.Y. Forum Discusses Puerto Rican Struggle {photo box{
Speakers at the May 8 Militant Labor Forum in Brooklyn called for Puerto Rican independence and the release of independentista Antonio Camacho. Celest Ulloa, a Dominican activist, spoke for the family of Camacho. She told of Camacho's rearrest two months after he was released from a U.S. prison. "They said he was treated with respect.... [He] was given no sheets in jail, then put in solitary confinement for using towels," she said. Other speakers were Evelyn Morales (speaking) and Eduardo Sánchez of the National Committee to Free Puerto Rican Prisoners of War and Political Prisoners; and Wendy Lyons (left), the Socialist Workers candidate for New York attorney general, who recently attended the conference of the Federation of Pro- Independence University Students.

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home