In the months leading up to the march, the Organization of Icelandic Nationalists, an ultrarightist group, had been given media airtime for their racist and anti-immigrant views.

Members of the Young Socialists joined with other young people to highlight antiracism at the march and to be on alert to defend it against the possibility of the Nationalists intervening in or trying to disrupt the march. The Nationalists did not show up.

After the march YS members and other supporters of the Militant organized an open house at the Pathfinder bookstore to celebrate the publication of the Icelandic edition of The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning by Jack Barnes. Twenty-five participants in the march attended the event.

One participant said he was impressed when he saw people selling the Militant on the street, and asked what else was done to help distribute the socialist paper and literature. "We set up weekly sales at the high schools, at factories, and in front of supermarkets," explained YS member Hildur Magnúsdóttir. Participants in the march purchased 21 copies of the new Icelandic pamphlet, 9 single copies of the Militant, and a Militant subscription.

Since the mobilization participants in the action have formed a new antiracist group called Global Village--An Organization Against Racist Prejudice in Iceland. Some 200 people attended the founding meeting. Several YS members joined the discussion, explaining how racism is a product of capitalist society. The YS set up a literature table, selling Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It by Leon Trotsky and two copies of the Militant.

At a recent Militant Labor Forum YS member Hallbjörn Thór Gudmundsson and Militant supporter Gylfi Páll Hersir spoke on the recent imperialist military provocations against China.

"The U.S. ruling class's aggressive foreign policy towards China is reflected in its domestic policy," Gudmundsson said, "such as the frame up of Wen Ho Lee. In Iceland you see the same pattern. The Icelandic government is rapidly increasing its participation in 'peace keeping missions' around the world and at the same time strengthening the police force at home. The number of policemen has increased by 10 percent in the last five years. Now there is one policeman for every 830 people in the country," he said.

Andri Bjarnason, one of the 13 participants at the forum, had met the YS at a high school literature table. In response to one participant who said Taiwan has the right to arm itself, he responded that it was the United States that was using Taiwan in its assault against China, something Washington did not have the right to do.

The YS and supporters of the Militant have stepped up sales of revolutionary and communist literature. Recently they participated in a team to Selfoss, a town in a farming area in the south of Iceland. The team sold every copy of the Militant it had with them and three copies of the pamphlet The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning.

The YS is also visiting high schools to raise the idea of taking part in the August World Festival of Youth and Students in Algiers.
 

"The Cuban government seems like the antithesis of the American government," said Alex Porsen, a student at Masterman High School, at the first meeting on May 2. "This conference seems like a great opportunity for people to see Cuba for themselves." Porsen and other Masterman students have been building the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange at their school.

Jessica Work, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, decided she wanted to go to Cuba after hearing Oscar Redondo, of the Cuban Interests Section, and Jorge González, from the Cuban Ministry of Culture speak at her school in April. "I want to witness firsthand the situation there, instead of blindly accepting what teachers and textbooks have told me," she said.

So far about a dozen people are participating in the meetings of the committee, which is organizing to find affordable airfare, raise funds, and publicize the Youth Exchange. To raise money the committee is asking university department heads, churches, and other organizations for grants. Committee members are offering to speak on their experiences in Cuba to churches and organizations that make a contribution. So far a grant of $1,500 has been received from the Philadelphia Cuba Support Coalition toward the effort. One fund-raising plan is to make and sell T-shirts featuring Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Members of the local group are also reaching out to youth by setting up weekly tables at campuses and political events to build the conference and use the opportunity to raise funds at the same time.
 

Over the Easter weekend, an educational conference was organized by the Communist League and the YS to celebrate publication of the Pathfinder title Playa Girón/Bay of Pigs: Washington's First Military Defeat in the Americas. Anton Halldin, 22, who first met the YS at the Gothenburg Book Fair in 1999, attended the three-day event.

As part of our political preparation for the WFYS, a class was held on the 1954–65 Algerian revolution. The readings described the workers and farmers government that was brought to power in March 1963 and overthrown by a counterrevolutionary coup in June 1965. The Education for Socialists bulletins The Workers and Farmers Government by Joseph Hansen and Workers and Farmers Governments Since the Second World War by Robert Chester, both published by Pathfinder Press, were pointed to in the discussion as invaluable reading material.

René Gonzales Gles, a leader of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) in Cuba, spoke at a meeting April 28 hosted by the YS at the Pathfinder Bookstore and attended by 25 people. Gonzales, who is responsible for the UJC relations in Scandinavian countries, visited Stockholm as part of a month-long tour to meet with political and solidarity organizations in the region.

"Culture is our primary weapon" in Cuba, Gonzales said, "and right now our struggle is an ideological one. We are confident that we can defend ourselves militarily, we have proven that. But we need to work politically and broaden our culture to defend the values of our socialist revolution." Gonzales, who was active in organizing the 14th World Festival for Youth and Students held in Havana in 1997, said that the UJC is planning to send a delegation of 300 to the festival in Algiers.

On May Day the YS and Communist League set up three Pathfinder book tables at a rally sponsored by the Left Party, which attracted some 7,000 people, and a fourth table at a rally organized by the Social Democratic Party. Workers and youth at the rallies bought 2,000 kronor ($200) worth of Pathfinder literature, five subscriptions to the Militant, four to Perspectiva Mundial. and 27 single issues of the Militant.
 
 
Related article:
Colorado students report on Cuba trip  
 
 
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