Vol. 71/No. 6      February 12, 2007

Marching behind a banner that said, “Not one penny, not one person for Washington’s wars. Bring the troops home now!” about 50 people from six countries made up the contingent. Among them were students from Albany, New York, and New York City; Amherst and Lowell, Massachusetts; Chicago; Ontario, Canada; Washington, DC; and elsewhere. Three young grocery store workers of Guatemalan origin, who came in a van from Atlanta, marched in the contingent, as did older workers from Boston, Houston, New York, and other cities.

A group of high school students from New Jersey calling themselves the Student Socialist Coalition hooked up with the YS contingent as it went by. Two students from the University of Maryland College Park joined the contingent as it marched past with youth chanting in English and Spanish, “Hands off Cuba and Venezuela!” Others joined in after meeting YSers and reading the Militant on buses to the action or during the rally.

“U.S. troops out now: Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Korea;” and “U.S. Hands off Iran” were among the most prominent signs Young Socialists and others in the contingent carried.

After the march, 30 people attended an open house, said Ross Hogan, a member of the Young Socialists national steering committee and a student at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Youth from Cleveland, Philadelphia, Albany, Boston, and Atlanta, some of whom met the YS for the first time here, were among 15 people who came to learn more about the communist youth organization.

Hogan and Gabriela Moreano, a Young Socialist and a worker in St. Paul, Minnesota, spoke on Washington’s wars, working-class resistance, and the need for a revolutionary youth organization. Moreano described how the YS responded to immigration raids at Swift packing plants in the Midwest in December by reaching out to meat packers and other workers with the Militant and engaging them in discussions on how to fight back.

“Washington and its ‘coalition of the willing’ are carrying out the largest escalation of their war in Iraq since the invasion three years ago,” said Hogan.

“The only way to end imperialist war is to put an end to the system that perpetuates it, capitalism, and replace it with a government run by and in the interests of workers and farmers,” Hogan said. “That’s why we encourage all youth who are serious about ending the U.S. rulers’ wars to join the Young Socialists.” After the program, a student at York University in Toronto asked to do just that.

“I want to help change things, not just here in the U.S.,” said Ben Patterson, 19, an unemployed worker from Milwaukee who met the YS for the first time at the rally. “I think the war in Iraq is about money. We live in a capitalist world.”

“Liberals may do things for the working class,” said Molly Thomas, 20, a student at American University here, explaining why she was interested in the Young Socialists. “But the Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialists isn’t about ‘helping’ workers but about struggling alongside them.”

Thomas was one of dozens of young people who went on to a meeting in New York City the next day. That event, titled “Imperialism’s Spreading Wars and Financial Disorder In Face of the Irreversible Strengthening of the U.S. Working Class,” featured Mary-Alice Waters, editor of New International magazine, and SWP national secretary Jack Barnes.

For more information, contact the YS at 306 W. 37th St., 10th floor, New York, NY 10018; Tel: (212) 629-6649; E-mail: youngsocialists@mac.com

David Argüello from San Diego contributed to this article.
 
 
Related articles:
‘Bring troops home!’
Tens of thousands march against war in Iraq
‘Ethnic cleansing,’ new U.S. gov’t rationalization for war in Iraq
Washington enlists Sunni Arab regimes to squeeze Tehran
U.S. Special Forces carry out new bombing raids in Somalia
Washington may send 2,300 more troops to Afghanistan
No peace party in Congress  
 
 
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