BY JAMES HARRIS
Atlanta Labor Day to participate in the final rally of the
Million Youth Movement (MYM) activities, which took place here
September 4-7.
The speakers at the main event September 7 included Democratic Party politician Jesse Jackson, NAACP executive director Kweisi Mfume, Joseph Lowery, representing the Coordinating Council of Black Farm Groups, and Rev. Alfred Sharpton.
Contingents of youth participated from around the country with one of the biggest coming from Detroit. Some of the most popular slogans were against police brutality. Activist against Black land loss also participated, building a September 10 demonstration in Washington, D.C. The Atlanta Constitution noted that "the Socialist Workers Campaign handed out leaflets in front of a sign that urged people to `protest the U.S. bombings in Afghanistan and the Sudan.' "
Salam Hussein, 20, said he came to the MYM "because their needs to be a show of force of conscious young people, who know about the problems that are going on in America and around the world." Hussein is a shop steward in the Teamsters at the Frito-Lay factory here, and an engineering student at Georgia Perimeter College. "As a whole, I thought it was good," he said. "But I'm not sure how effective it is in the long run. I need to see some action after the protest."
James Harris is a member of the United Transportation Union.