BY SAMANTHA KERN
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
40393,
San Francisco, California, 94140-0393. Tel: (415) 824-1429.
E-MAIL: 105162.605@COMPUSERVE.COM
SAN FRANCISCO - Members of the Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco chapters gathered here May 9 for a California State YS meeting. The meeting was called in order to discuss the challenges in building a more proletarian youth organization, the importance in functioning as a statewide YS, and campaigns of the Young Socialists leading up to the August 5-8 Active Workers Conference sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party and YS (see ad on back page).
"Our participation in the April 24 demonstration to demand freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal here in San Francisco is a prime example of how we can function as the California YS, and not just as individual chapters. This was key in our successful propaganda work done there, and in further recruitment of contacts we brought with us," said Samantha Kern, in a report titled, "Functioning as the California Young Socialists."
Members of Los Angeles chapter came up to the demonstration on buses with other activists and members of the Santa Cruz chapter carpooled to the action with other young people interested in the fight to free Abu-Jamal, a framed-up Black journalist who is on death row in Pennsylvania.
Selling `Capitalism's World Disorder'
Participating in this action and a simultaneous action in
Philadelphia was an important part of the YS carrying out a
decision made at its convention last December to join the
fight to free Abu-Jamal and demand an end to the death
penalty. Young Socialists also discussed how we can campaign
at actions like these with the Militant, Perspectiva Mundial,
and Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the
Millennium.
By setting up tables throughout the march and rally, young socialists met fighters all day who wanted to discuss the struggle against cop brutality and Washington's war in Yugoslavia. Twelve people bought copies of Capitalism's World Disorder.
YS members also discussed the importance of participating in regional teams, and reaffirmed a past decision that none of these teams should head out on the road without at least one young socialist.
Following the meeting, a team was launched to Colorado and Utah to sell at coal mine portals that included Jason Alessio from the Santa Cruz chapter. A young person who has been working with the YS in Los Angeles also joined an ongoing team in the Central Valley of California.
Summer school centers
In her report on the "YS Summer School Perspective,"
Cecilia Ortega said, "Every footloose young socialist should
organize to move to one of the cities where the YS and SWP are
organizing socialist summer schools. These include San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Birmingham, and New
York. This will provide a great opportunity to study Marxism
and the history of the communist movement, while getting out
to strikes, demonstrations against police brutality, and
protests over the war in Yugoslavia."
Summer school participants who want to get the experience of working as part of an industrial union fraction can join the joint SWP-YS jobs committees in these cities and work collectively to find jobs in industry.
Following the California YS meeting, Manuel González from the Santa Cruz chapter and Olga Russi from the Los Angeles chapter decided to head to Atlanta for the summer school there. Jason Alessio from Santa Cruz will move to Los Angeles to participate in that summer school.
Anyone who is interested in participating in the summer schools can contact the National Office of the Young Socialists.
Samantha Kern is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers and the California state YS organizer.