The Young Socialists have also decided to organize a southern regional conference in Atlanta, Georgia, October 23–24 in collaboration with the Socialist Workers Party in the region. (See ad on page 12) The weekend includes a plan to kickoff a raffle as part of reaching the local fund drive quotas in Birmingham and Atlanta. This conference will bring together young people interested in the Young Socialists, as well as fighting workers and farmers from the region. To build the conference weekly Pathfinder literature tables are organized at various campuses as well as working-class communities and factory gates. These literature tables are an important vehicle to meet and bring young fighters closer to the communist movement.

The Young Socialists in Birmingham have been actively involved in labor and other struggles. These include solidarity activities such as the one-year anniversary of locked-out steelworkers at Titan Tire in Natchez, Mississippi; meetings around the recent contract vote by strikers at Continental General Tire in Charlotte, North Carolina; and defense of abortion clinics against Operation Rescue goons. Through the course of its work this summer, the YS here is politically stronger and has a deeper working-class orientation. We will focus on recruitment through consistent political work to guide our activities throughout the duration of the fall fund drive.

Between September 17 and September 20, for example, YS members helped defend abortion clinics against Operation Rescue, a right-wing organization with religious overtones known for its opposition to a woman's right to chose abortion and its thuggish attempts to shut down clinics. One of the clinics defended was the site of a 1998 bombing that resulted in the injury of a nurse and the death of an off-duty police officer, who was working as the security guard.

The YS has also been actively involved in the election campaign of Ardella Blandford, Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Birmingham. Working with the Socialist Workers Party, the YS has been able to successfully promote the campaign.

We have also helped build clinic-defense actions through Pathfinder literature tables on university and high school campuses. Police forced us to close down such a table at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The same day, however, we set up another table across the street from Ramsey High School. There, once more, those staffing the table were harassed by the cops who told volunteers they could not distribute clinic-defense leaflets to minors in a school zone. Many young women who go to school there came over to defend our right to distribute the flyers, and stayed until it was clear we could do that. These students explained that anti-choice forces had recently distributed their literature and stood on school grounds with disturbing photographs of fetuses. Students appreciated our presence and many took flyers to distribute to their friends.

The YS and other Blandford campaign supporters came back days later to retake and safeguard our political space at UAB and Ramsey High School. Paul, a UAB student who had witnessed previous harassment by campus cops stayed at the table for the duration and had political discussions with YS and SWP members. Paul later showed up at the Militant Labor Forum and said he was interested in helping with the moving of the Pathfinder Bookstore to its new location.

On September 29, YS member Romina Green spoke to an audience of 800 high school students, on behalf of the Ardella Blandford campaign, in a meeting with seven mayoral candidates present. "What we need to do is build a working-class movement capable of overthrowing capitalism and establishing a workers and farmers government," Green said. During the question-and-answer period Green drew supportive cheers while expressing her opinion on school uniforms and the Blandford campaign's opposition to youth curfews.

Afterwards many students approached supporters of Blandford's campaign and discussed harassment by administrators and what needs to be done to safeguard the democratic rights of young people. "To understand these attacks you must understand capitalism's need to control the working class and youth," YS member Roberto Guerrero said in the discussion. "To maintain its system during its deepening economic crises, these moves are necessary. This is the world we face today until we build a working-class movement strong enough to overturn it and begin building a society based on human solidarity." Other students described their experiences with police harassment. The students encouraged the Young Socialists to come back as school administrators forced them out of the halls and into the classrooms after the meeting.

This kind of outreach can net new recruits and badly needed money for the fund drive. The Birmingham YS is following the political line of the YS Manifesto — published in New International no. 11 — and YS Organizer and having a thorough discussion on these documents to reconquer proletarian norms of functioning on a weekly basis. This is essential for building the YS. We came out of this summer politically stronger as a nationwide and international organization. In order to advance our work and recruit, however, we must regain the norms outlined in these documents. Youth coming into politics today will be won over to the proletarian discipline and collective work the Young Socialists provide.

Romina Green contributed to this article.

 
 
YS joins protest of 2,000 against cop brutality in Sweden

BY MAXI ORTIZ 
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — About 2,000 people gathered here September 25 to protest a brutal police attack on a demonstration and street party one week earlier.

Several hundred people, mainly youth, had gathered September 18 for a "Reclaim the City" protest and party, occupying one of the city streets. The protest was against "zero tolerance" police programs, racism, and massive car traffic.

At one point some 100 cops in riot gear sealed off the street at both ends, stopping people from getting to or from the gathering. Without warning, the cops attacked with clubs, shields, police dogs, and horses.

The cops charged several times from around 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. Plainclothes police arbitrarily pointed out people who were to be arrested. These were dragged into buses and taken to police stations all around Stockholm county. By 10 p.m. all the detention cells had been filled. A total 243 people were held for questioning, some of whom were charged with violent rioting and sedition. Several people were injured, some seriously. The national news media covered the event with interviews of people who had been brutalized by the cops. A prosecutor subsequently started an investigation of criminal charges against the police. The leader of the left party and member of parliament Gudrun Schyman condemned the police attack. The assault caused widespread anger, especially among youth, which was reflected in the number of participants at the September 25 protest, one of the largest recent demonstrations in Stockholm.

YSers and members of the Communist League staffed a book table at the demonstration selling 10 copies of the Militant, 2 copies of Ernesto Che Guevara´s Socialism and Man in Cuba, and one copy each of Feminism and the Marxist Movement and Che Guevara and the Imperialist Reality, both by Mary-Alice Waters.  
 
 
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