BY SARAH KATZ
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

CHICAGO - During a rally in Boston of 400 people protesting the U.S. war threats against Iraq, Elena Tate asked to join the Young Socialists. Bill Schmidt, who has recently joined with socialist workers in Detroit campaigning against imperialism and war at factory plant gates and in working- class communities, also asked to join. After attending the January 17 - 18 West Coast Socialist Conference in Seattle, JP Crysdale decided he should be a member in San Francisco. They are the newest members of the communist movement.

When asked why she wanted to join the YS, Tate responded, "I want to build an organization of people who are working to change this society and through that process, change themselves."

Together with socialist workers, Tate has been part of organizing for the Northeast Young Feminist Summit sponsored by the National Organization for Women, which will take place February 27-March 1. Now, with Washington moving closer to bombing Iraq, she is most interested in opposing Washington's war moves. She explained that the Young Socialists are participating in classes on New International no. 7, which contains the articles "The Opening Guns of World War III" and "The Working-Class Campaign Against Imperialism and War."

Schmidt has been going to Militant Labor Forums regularly since last September. Since returning from the regional socialist conference and convention of the Communist League in Toronto over New Year's weekend, he has jumped into political activity with other socialists in Detroit. This includes protesting the release from prison of the two cops sentenced in the murder of Malice Green in 1993 and selling revolutionary literature in Highland Park, a predominantly Black area inside Detroit.

Crysdale, who was involved in the YS for a short time last year in Philadelphia, ran into the organization again at a literature table at City College in San Francisco. Now he helps set up tables at the University of California Santa Cruz and other campuses. When asked how people respond to our literature tables, Crysdale said, "On campus a lot of young people who used to back the Democratic Party are glad to see us. They say, `You're the only political group that's against the war drive.' "

Crysdale decided to join the YS because he "got a better taste of how the YS organizes itself - in action" by going through the Seattle conference and then participating with other YS members in actions, like a recent protest against the coming U.S. military strikes and a rally of 20 people at the Federal building opposing the abortion clinic bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.

The latest Militant Labor Forum in San Francisco took up recent attempts to gut bilingual education in California. Ten youth, including several UC Santa Cruz and Mills College students, attended.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - On February 14 more than 100 people turned out to a protest at the U.S. embassy against the impending bombing campaign by Washington and London against Iraq. The protest was called by the Young Socialists.

YS member Johan Nilsson spoke about the so-called neutral role played by the Swedish government on the United Nations Security Council. "Swedish imperialism is no nicer than any other imperialist power. It does not take the side of working people in this country or the working people in Iraq," Nilsson said. A speaker from the Iraqi Women's Association took up the bourgeois press propaganda about the 1991 slaughter being a "clinical war," stating, "those bombings weren't clean. They were the dirtiest in history."

This came on the heels of another YS-initiated demonstration of about eighty people February 4. A large number of those attending the protests were immigrants from Iraq.  
 
 
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