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By David Duhalde
According to the Chicago Tribune, 45 year-old David Abrams, a Florida-based member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), is a “baby” in the socialist movement. That’s because the reporter covered DSA’s three and half day biannual convention for only one night, before the main business of the body had even gotten underway. Had the periodical’s impatient journalist bothered to attend the next day he’d seen over twenty young people arrive. Abrams’ age would certainly been pushed back to at least adolescence.
The 2009 DSA convention was another stepping stone towards the revitalization of our organization and rising youth presence and leadership in it. Over twenty-five percent of the convention delegates were young DSA members. They represented over a dozen Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) chapters and DSA locals, a marked increase over the fifteen young people who attended in the 2007 convention in Atlanta.
But the major difference between the youth delegation in Illinois and Georgia could not be solely measured by the numbers. In 2007, young cadre represented primarily YDS chapters. Some had been elected as DSA local delegates, but no one’s activism was through the “adult” section exclusively. In Evanston, several young socialists were leaders in their locals such as Sean Monahan, who is rebuilding Philadelphia DSA with veteran John Strauss. Others, such Andrew Bowe of Denver, were looking to restart locals. Half of the New York City’s delegation was composed of members under thirty, including several on the local’s elected leadership committee.
YDS alumni had a greater role in the conference’s programming as well. Monahan, New York City DSA Chair Maria Svart, and I led a workshop on integrating young DSA members into locals. I spoke about the need to address generational difference before they become problems, Svart explained the tensions and rewards involved in integrating a group of YDSers into a DSA local, and Monahan tackled building a campus presence at Temple University around the revitalized Philadelphia local.
The YDS National Organizer Erik Rosenberg and National Co-Chair Tatiana Guerrero addressed the convention as well. They provided an overview of the current state of the YDS and our new goals around the five-year strategic plan adopted earlier this year. Rosenberg covered our recent national activity around Renegotiate NAFTA, Student Labor Week of Action, and G-20 protests in Pittsburgh, and the successful ongoing publication of the Red Letter (YDS’s internal news bulletin) and The Activist. Guerrero addressed the work of the Coordinating Committee, which is developing a regional organizing strategy to build YDS beyond its current base. She explained the need to use new technologies, such as a new and improved website, to reach student activists and bring the YDS web presence up to speed.
The convention also moved a motion pushed by YDSers entitled “Building Bridges and Locals.” The document, referred favorably to the National Political Committee (NPC, DSA’s elected leadership), outlined principles of building new locals with intergenerational participation. In addition, three young people were elected to the NPC. This marks the first time the NPC will a have under thirty-year old voice outside of the Co-Chairs in nearly a decade.
Despite wonderful and measurable organizational gains, the strongest mark of success of the convention and of YDS over the past few years was the level of camaraderie present at the event. Veteran YDS activists and first-time socialist delegates mingled with ease and spent the convention and afterhours discussing life and politics. Friendship and common purpose are two critical foundations to any group’s success. Now DSA and YDS both can confidently proclaim they have each.
Photos: (Left to Right) YDS National Organizer Erik Rosenberg and National Co-Chair Tatiana Guerrero; DSA youth section members with Bill Fletcher Jr.; and Philadelphia DSA activist and YDS Coordinating Committee member Sean Monaghan. Pictures taken by Marty Luster. More at: http://gallery.me.com/editormard1#100083
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ERIK ROSENBERG
My trip to the G20 protests was a reflection of the G20 itself: way out of whack.
The sojourn to Pittsburgh, PA began early, especially by leftist standards. I rose at 5:30 AM on Thursday, September 24, from a mattress I would soon long for. Three William Paterson Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) cadre and I made our way to their campus where we rendezvoused with five other activists from their chapter. And we were off. Well not quite…we realized that there was some miscommunication about the YDS banner and we had to turn around to get it after about half an hour of driving. My comrades and I agreed that this would be the fluke of the trip but in retrospect it was more like breaking the toilet handle on Apollo 13 before the oxygen tanks exploded.
So we were off…again! Our first stop was in Allentown, PA were we picked up a prospective and now full fledged YDSer George Cedeno. After a protracted bathroom brake at George’s house, we were back on the road driving through a beautiful and winding mountain highway. The highway might have been a little too beautiful and winding because there was no “I” on the signs marking it, but what can you do? As part of the paperless and thus mapless, generation we were at the mercy of the Global Positioning System.
In addition to the circuitous route, our progress was also hindered by the condition of one of our vehicles. This little baby was no Formula 1; at 55 Mph it started to shake, and if you dared to break 85 the car would indicate its disapproval by letting go of the road and swerving back and forth. Good thing there was not a cop to be seen. (Un)fortunately for us all the boys and girls in blue within 1000 miles were playing with playing with their Billy clubs and tear gas launchers in Pittsburgh. Needless to say, our seven hour trip lasted upwards of ten.
When we finally reached the City of Bridges there was little rest for the weary. We were stretching our legs in the parking lot for no more than 30 seconds when an attractive “good cop” rolled up and asked us if we needed any help. Being naïve youngsters, we informed our new matron that we wanted to go downtown and asked which buses would take us there. The officer politely responded she wasn’t sure and about one sun salutation later we looked up to notice we were being surrounded by six police cruisers and a paddy wagon.
At first the group was calm. We weren’t doing anything wrong; therefore the cops couldn’t do anything to us. Then we remembered what country we were in and we were gripped by a small panic. After some accelerated democracy, plans to go downtown were scrapped and we agreed to go to “The People’s Tribunal,” a mock trial of the G-20, located across town. Eager to make sure we arrived at our destination safely, our new police friends escorted/followed us for over 20 minutes. Boy did I feel safe!
“The People’s Tribunal” convened at Calvary United Methodist Church, where YDSers enjoyed a free hot vegan meal and relaxed out of sight of big brother. We were joined by comrades from Jobs With Justice, Coordinating Committee at-large member, Sean Monahan of Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America and Maria Spadaro, currently organizing a YDS group at the University of Pittsburgh. The tribunal was filled with other young activists and we began to distribute around 800 pieces of YDS literature to new friends and allies.
The mock court was charged with determining if the G-20 was responsible for violating the human rights of the people. We heard the testimony of over half a dozen witnesses including representatives from Domestic Workers United, United Students Against Sweatshops, and the American Friends Service Committee. One speaker astutely asked “What is our measure of development?” The speaker from the AFSC noted that capitalism and war are both dehumanizing forces and that the G-20 has worked hard to militarize and capitalize the world. The speakers mentioned the ills of the earth, ranging from child soldiers in Africa to abused workers on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the “Wild West” world of domestic workers.
“The People’s Tribunal” was definitely more consciousness-raising than a brick thrown through a Starbucks window. The speakers were articulate and informative, and the judges represented organizations like Hemisphere Social Alliance and Africa Action, Unsurprisingly, the court found the G20 guilty of violating all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Nevertheless, the event could have been improved if the speakers cited specific actions taken by G20 that led to the violation of human rights.
After the court adjourned, the William Paterson delegation and I drove to Maria Spadaro’s apartment for some drinks but we didn’t stay long as we were exhausted by the day’s adventures. We got back in our vehicles and made a short drive to the housing that we had arranged.
As we arrived our hostess came out to greet us. She looked a bit strange but that isn’t unusual for the left (though it turned out she was a libertarian). Right before we walked in the door she exclaimed that she had four cats and a dog. Being the cat lover I am I thought, “Yeah! Kitties!” But my yeah soon turned into a gag. To say that the house reeked of cat piss would be like saying George W. Bush was not a great president, i.e. a gross understatement. A more accurate description would be that the house was characterized by a cat piss atmosphere. You might even say that it had a cat piss weather system since the floor and carpeting were wet with the feline excrement. An unfortunate few, who will remain unnamed out of courtesy to their families, were “rained” on in their sleep. Needless to say, at least six socks were abandoned on that foul planet.
Waking up the next morning was easy and we kept goodbyes to a minimum. We ate breakfast at a diner with a broken window. Bystanders automatically assumed the “darn protesters” were behind the vandalism. But employing the analytical tools developed by discussing socialist theory for hours in the car ride over, we determined that it was unlikely that protesters were behind the shattering since the McDonalds and the Starbucks across the street were untouched. It was later announced that a group of frat boys were behind the destruction.
After providing the most economic stimulation Pittsburgh enjoyed since the invention of the Bessemer Process, we walked over to the main event, “The People’s March.”
The People’s March was organized by the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh antiwar group. At the intersection of Craft Street and Fifth Avenue we rendezvoused with other YDS activists from Michigan State University, Philadelphia, and Wooster College of Ohio. There were over twenty YDS activist marching.
We were also joined by just about every other leftist group ever established. From Free Tibet, to Free Palestine, to Legalize Marijuana, they were all there. This is unsurprising considering that the march was co-sponsored by seventy organizations. The group of about 10,000 marched into downtown. Once the buildings were over five stories tall, the sidewalks were lined by police officers spaced five feet apart, dressed in full riot gear, with batons in hand. If you looked up you could see cops on top of and inside buildings, and they stood in ranks five or six deep where space permitted. Some carried tear gas launchers and some carried automatic shotguns. All were really scary.
The march paused in front of a county building and speeches were given. Some of the speeches we heard last night and all spoke of the sad state of the world.
The march continued across the Seventh Street Bridge out of down town where it ended with a rally and more speeches including one by Cindy Sheehan. Realizing the scope of the drive ahead of us, the William Paterson group decided to leave as soon as possible. Unfortunately, that wasn’t so soon.
We needed to get back to our cars but the buses were barely running and when they did they were completely full. After about an hour of waiting we decided we might as well just walk back, but just as soon we started we bumped into a young man we met at “The People’s Tribunal” Thursday night. He had flown in from California so he rented a car. Our new savior offered to take the drivers to the cars so we wouldn’t have to walk all the way back. This was great news since we were all tired from the four hour march. The non-drivers sat down on a curb and waited. And we waited and waited some more.
During our wait we noticed that some police cars were marked Palm Beach County. Palm Beach, Florida? No way! We asked the cops and they confirmed that they came all the way from the Sunshine State just to keep us out of trouble. We later met some cops from Milwaukee, WI who told us that they were making lots of money being in Pittsburgh and beseeched us to hold even more protests in the future so they could all buy second homes. Yeah big government!
After about two hours of waiting to be picked up, the drivers finally called us and said the police had closed all the bridges and had split the city in half with a barricade. So after all that waiting we had to walk back anyway. Finally, reunited in our vehicles, we began our long trek back east. The ride back was relatively uneventful if you don’t count stumbling upon a Nazi book store and being hit by change thrown by a bunch of thugs in Allentown. It’s safe to say that I’ve never been happier to cross the Delaware River and enter the great state of New Jersey.
Overall, the G20 protests were a mixed bag. The protestors performed the important task of visibly criticizing the undemocratic G20 for facilitating the sad state of the world. On the other hand, there was no central organization of the protests and the demands were unclear. The speakers, while they vividly described the world’s many problems, failed to provide the smoking gun needed to garner a mainstream indictment of the G20 for its crimes against humanity.
Nevertheless, the YDS expedition was a great success. Despite my sarcastic tone, we had a good time and strengthened the social bonds that are the mortar of our movement and socialist organization. Like I said before, well over 20 YDSers from New Jersey, Philadelphia, Ohio, and Michigan were united at the demonstrations. Our membership is normally separated by distance, but here we were able to meet, catch up, and trade organizing wisdom. The trip was also an organizing opportunity and will hopefully yield new groups in Pittsburgh and Allentown. With any luck, we will soon be reunited at another large demonstration against the capitalist system and provide the cops from Milwaukee the dough they need to finally purchase that dream house on the shore of Lake Michigan.
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By David Duhalde
Grassroots support is critical to the success of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That’s why the the Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) has mobilized for EFCA with local and national activism. YDS has collaborated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) (our parent organization), Jobs with Justice, and the Student Economic Justice Action Coalition (SEJAC) in this effort. The labor movement needs outside allies like these organizations to push reforms like Employee Free Choice. Otherwise, organized labor will continue to be viewed as a “special interest,” not a social movement creating good beyond its membership.
Together with DSA, YDS has produced two fliers on the bill (here and here). The literature articulates that trade unions — at their best — bring democracy to the workplace. Our belief in economic and workplace democracy coincides with our support of this legislation. We favor unions to increase the power of workers against capital.
This spring, YDS National Organizer Erik Rosenberg spoke to seven chapters about Employee Free Choice and how it can help mitigate this economic crisis. Stops on the tour included Colorado, with its undecided senators, and Michigan and Ohio with their deep union history. In Boulder, Erik spoke on a panel with a worker who’d been fired for attempting to form a union. The nonprofit he worked for was convicted for twelve unfair labor practices. The punishment: an apology posted in the form of a flyer. With EFCA, the employer would have been fined up to $25,000 per violation and the worker would have been entitled to up to triple back pay.
Rosenberg also visited chapters at Oak Park River Forest High School in Oak Park, IL, the Meadows School in Las Vegas, NV, Indiana University at Bloomington, and University of California at Berkeley. In a separate event, the University of Colorado at Boulder YDS chapter teamed with Jobs with Justice to bring AFL-CIO organizing director Stuart Acuff for a talk. Acuff jazzed up the crowd of forty, saying EFCA might return labor to the strength it once enjoyed. The group also worked with the nation’s biggest union SEIU to canvass and letter write to pressure US senators Udall and Bennett. Their worked pushed Sen. Udall into supporting the bill.
The Wooster College YDS chapter of Ohio, in alliance with Jobs With Justice, also pressured their senators. They sent 130 pro-EFCA letters to GOP Senator George Voinovich. While their hopes to push Sen. Voinovich came up short, chapter president Dan Buckler said their action was an excellent way to move beyond the “converted” and reach a wider audience to talk about labor law reform.
Unions are under constant attack in “right-to-work” Kansas. Wichita State YDS played a critical role in building community support for EFCA. Wichita State YDS Vice-President Jackie Sewell said “outside of YDS, only the unions were pushing EFCA” in Wichita. She added they came up against a “lack of knowledge about the good unions do for the economy and people’s lives.” YDS members also successfully lobbied their student government to endorse a statement in support of campus workers’ right to organize.
In Arkansas, former YDS Coordinating Committee member and current Working America staffer Kenny Grand, facilitated the coming together of community and labor. In the home state of Wal-Mart, Grand organized town hall meetings and canvassing, uniting unions with groups such as ACORN and people of faith. Grand’s efforts have elevated the nascent Conway, Arkansas DSA local into a serious force for EFCA. New members have gone door-to-door and phone banked for the legislation. They also distributed the Economic Justice Agenda, DSA’s topical political vision for short-term economic change, to connect EFCA with broader social justice issues.
Boston DSA’s work has focused on intergenerational activity to build local support for the Employee Free Choice Act. I organized a panel with Jobs With Justice and United for a Fair Economy in February. The discussion featured speakers Elaine Bernard, who stressed the importance of unions to democracy, and Steve Schnapp, who addressed the correlation between unions and social equality. After the event, DSA recruited several young activists. Our group has gotten dozens of signatures for the EFCA petition and participated in rallies for the bill with labor. This success has increased DSA’s profile with the labor movement and community groups. This major battle for worker rights is far from over. We’ll keep you posted on further efforts by YDS on the legislation.
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When:
Where:
“What now?” is the question facing many young activists who have just dedicated a good portion of their political time and energy to electing Barack Obama. Even for those on the left who did not support him, the Democrats’ new electoral dominance changes the conditions in which we all fight. As radicals, we understand that power concedes nothing without a demand. Please come and take part in this dialogue about how we can capitalize on these new opportunities.
Among the speakers featured at the conference will be journalist Greg Palast, New York Times bestselling author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse; and John Perkins, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman.
Conference topics include: left-wing analysis of the election, immigration, education, militarism and foreign policy, democratic socialism, racial justice, feminist rights, LGBT issues, environmental sustainability, and more. Click here for a flier with the conference program.
The event is sponsored by YDS, Brothers for Awareness, Organization of Latin American Students, and Feminist Collective of William Paterson University. For more information please e-mail wpu-yds@hotmail.com.
William Paterson University
Registration w/ light breakfast starts at 8:30am
Student Center
Conference: 9:30am - 6:00pm
300 Pompton Road, Wayne NJ 07040
10:00am - Panel I- Leftist Critique of the Republican and Democratic parties - Shea Auditorium
Chair, Department of Political Science, Temple University and Chair, author of The Permanence of the Political, and The Future of Democratic Equality, also a member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America;
Dr. Joseph Schwartz, professor political science at Temple University, author The Permanence of the Political and The Future of Democratic Equality. Member of National Political Committee of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA; YDS’s parent organization)
Dr. Michael Thompson, professor of political science at William Paterson University, author of Confronting the New Conservatism: The Rise of the Right in America and The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America, and Founder and Editor of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture. Member of DSA.
11:45am – Workshops
Racial Issues, Feminist Rights, LGBT Issues, Environmental Sustainability
Lunch
2:30pm – Panel II - US foreign military and economic policy – Shea Auditorium
Greg Palast, investigative journalist who broke the story of how Gov. Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black Florida citizens from voter roles before the 2000 election and New York Times bestselling author of Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
John Perkins, author of the New York Times bestseller Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which has been published in 25 languages. His new New York Times bestseller, The Secret History of the American Empire, details the clandestine operations that created the world’s first truly global empire and provides a compassionate plan for crafting a world that future generations will be proud to inherit.
4:15pm – Workshops
Immigration, Education, Militarism and Foreign Policy, Democratic Socialism
5:00pm – Closing – Multipurpose Room
Dr. Christine Kelly, professor of Political Science at WilliamPaterson University and serves on the Editorial Boards of two
peer-reviewed journals — New Political Science: A Journal of Politics and Culture and Labor and Social Policy. She is an Editorial Board member of the book series Contemporary Issues and American Political Theory with the University Press of Kentucky.
*Moderators for the workshops include:
Madeline Hoffman, Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action; DaveWatson-Hallowell, President of Sustainable West Milford; PresidentStafford X
To RSVP or for any questions including directions please email
wpu-yds@hotmail.com
*NJ Transit Available to Campus
Sponsored by:
*Young Democratic Socialists (YDS)
*Brothers For Awareness (BFA)
*Feminist Collective
*Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS)
Funded by the William Paterson University Student Government Association
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The NYC Young Democratic Socialists chapter co-sponsored with NYC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA; YDS’s parent organization) a panel discussion entitled “Crisis in Capitalism: Money, Power, and the Economy.” The event was held at the Local 1199 Service Employees International Union in mid-town
Click here to listen to the coverage by WBAI radio of coverage of recent Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) event: “Crisis in Capitalism: Money, Power, and the Economy.”
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