Miller, who studies at the University of Pittsburgh, spoke to the Militant on July 27 during the Socialist Workers Party convention in Ohio. He was one of 25 people attending their first national gathering of the communist movement. Hailing from Australia, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, they included several members and contacts of the Young Socialists.

The 20-year-old student is now looking for ways to take up the political sword against capitalist injustice. "I’m in the process of deciding whether or not I want to be a communist," he said. "This is the only group I’ve seen so far that is engaging in struggle."

Bill, a 24-year-old meat packer from West Africa, has also rejected the capitalist system and its propaganda. "Because of capitalism there are a lot of problems in Africa, a lot of problems in my country," he said.

The young worker, who was invited to the convention by SWP members he works alongside at a Minneapolis packing plant, has read books by Patrice Lumumba and other revolutionary leaders in Africa, along with a number of Pathfinder titles. "The more informed you are, the more confident you are to act," he said.

Emily Paul, 19, who joined the YS in Los Angeles four months ago, also spoke to Militant reporters. A student at California State University (CSU), she was impressed by the conduct of the convention and how members of the SWP "function in a way that gives everyone a chance to voice their opinion. It was cool seeing people from around the world trying to do the same thing--really supporting what we’re saying: ‘workers of the world, unite,’" she said.

Stephanie Taylor, 21, a college student in Brownsville, Texas, and a YS member for six months, commented that "we will see more interest in our movement as the crisis deepens." She stepped up her own political reading and activity with the accelerated war drive and attacks on workers’ rights by Washington that followed the September 11 events. "After that, politics was really unavoidable," she said.  
 
Need to recruit to YS
For Alasdair MacDonald, 21, a YS member in Sydney, Australia, the convention discussions provided confirmation of "the need to recruit to the YS." The growth of the youth organization will make the communist movement more attractive to older workers, too, he said. "They see the lifeblood of humanity at work."

Like MacDonald and several others, Seamus Sheridan from London commented that the intensive reading and discussion involved in the Socialist Summer School provided invaluable preparation for the convention. Referring to one of the titles studied in the six-week, 13-class school, he said, "Reading Their Trotsky and Ours was great. I had read it before, but this time it made more sense, once you go through discussion with others."

For Robert Meyer, 23, the classes drove home the historic continuity of the communist movement with revolutionary struggles of the past. A member of the YS in Omaha, Nebraska, Meyer works as a nurse aid in a hospital for the long-term care of critically ill patients, and sees at close quarters the "messed-up health system. You have to pay to stay alive," he said.

"My expectations of the convention were to broaden and deepen my understanding of imperialism and the current world disorder," wrote Jon Tirsén from Stockholm, Sweden, in a July 31 note to the Militant. "Instead, I received something more important. At the SWP convention I learned that there is a solution to the built-in faults and injustices of our current social system. The working class must overthrow its oppressors and rebuild society according to more rational and human principles.

"I learned that this revolution is not just possible and desired. It is inevitable and required."

Maurice Williams contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
Socialist Workers Party convention turns party outward to new opportunities
Socialists step up sales, political work on job, in unions  
 
 
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