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Spring 2008 Red Letter - The Newsletter of YDS’s Activism

The Spring 2008 Red Letter is here!  This is the newsletter of YDS’s activism; it includes our recent work on immigrant rights, participation in the Student Labor Week of Action, work against the war in Iraq, full coverage of our winter conference, and over a dozen highlights from YDS groups around the country.  For a color PDF version with photos click here.

YDS and the Fight for Student Rights

This school year many YDS chapters engaged in activism fighting for student rights and access to education. As part of our national Activist Agenda, much of our work centered around the “Education is a Right - Not a Privilege: Campaign Against Student Debt.” The following pictures showcase the hard work of three chapters: University of Central Arkansas’ third annual Tent State, William Paterson’s rally for higher education, and Michigan State University’s panel on how to end the student debt crisis. Read a full report about Tent State here and click here to watch a local news report on William Paterson rally on YouTube.

Photos Clockwise: MSU YDSer Gina Romes giving opening remarks to “The Student Debt Crisis” panel featuring David Hecker (DSA member and President of AFT-Michigan), Darrell Tennis (liberal lobbyist), and David Duhalde (YDS organizer); Tent State workshop “What Does Feminism Have to Do with Men?”; Student signing William Paterson petition to push the New Jersey legislature to protect education; Christine Kelly (scholar on student movements) speaking at William Paterson rally; Tim Varro (WPU YDS Co-Chair) addressing the crowd; YDSers Vickens Moscova at rally; Tent State workshop on student unionism.

THE ACTIVIST - YDS’s Online Magazine

Check out the latest from The Activist, YDS’s online magazine. New articles cover University of Central Arkansas’ third annual Tent State, the YDS organizer’s personal account of traveling for immigrant rights during the Student Labor Week of Action, how a new YDS high school chapter beat a conservative administration to get recognition, and a speech against the privatization of the conflict in Iraq from Wichita State YDS president and veteran during an anti-war 5th anniversary protest.

National Student Labor Week of Action

The Young Democratic Socialists joined in the Ninth Annual Student Labor Week of Action. Around the country our chapters planned events, many centered around our National Immigrant Rights Project. The week of action celebrated campus labor activism and the legacies of farmer worker organizer Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Beyond the 5th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq: YDS and the Anti-War Movement

As the American troop death tool passed 4,000 - and we can guess how many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis slain - the recent protests were critical to voicing our opposition to the Iraq War. YDS members joined many actions across the country protesting imperialism and demanding a withdrawal. We believe in building a mass anti-war movement that not only has public support, but also has the ability to influence power structures that will ultimately end the war. DSA members Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher Jr., and Stephen Eric Bronner addressed their thoughts on ending war during the “2013 Isn’t Soon Enough: The Anti-War Movement Post-Bush” Iraq Moratorium event (pictured top left) during the 2008 YDS winter conference. For a highlight video for the event, click here.

For a report and analysis of events in Washington D.C. on March 19th, click here for articles on The Activist (YDS’s Online Magazine).

(Clockwise: Wichita State YDSers with hundreds of signatures for peace, three photos from Michigan State YDS and coalition partners rally, YDSers in DC for Funk the War, and Wichita State YDS and Campus Progress watching “Baghdad ER”)

Michigan State University Young Democratic Socialists

YDS Winter-to-Spring Organizing Drive

If you are involved in a YDS chapter or organizing committee, please draft an overview of how your group is doing, what you’ve accomplished, any problems you might have run into, what you hope to do the rest of the semester, and how national YDS can support your efforts. Contact the YDS National Organizer (david@dsausa.org) if you are interested in starting a new YDS group at your high school, college, university or community. As always, please contact our national office if you would like us to mail you or your group organizing materials in the mail or as email attachments (YDS chapter guides, buttons, literature, stickers, sample meeting fliers etc.). These are very useful when setting up a table at important events like your campus activities fair. Contact us for help organizing teach-ins, trainings, or visits from YDS organizers to strengthen existing chapters and help new ones get off the ground. We can also put you in touch with democratic socialist faculty members on campuses across the country. YDS can be reached at: yds@dsausa.org or 212-727-8610

Summer Internship with YDS!

Click here on our Idealist site for our summer internships. We have two new positions: a writing and researching internship for our “Hip-Hop and Socialism” reader & an office support/organizing internship based in the YDS office.

A VISION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

YDS is the youth section of the Democratic Socialists of America. We are the only US members of the International Union of Socialist Youth, the largest political youth coalition in the world. With members and local chapters across the US, YDS works to transform our society - on the job, in the streets, in the classroom. We are a broad, diverse network of young activists who share a vision of a more humane future. Instead of waiting for some final, magical instant when a utopia appears, we organize and struggle every day to redistribute power. Building democratic socialism is a long struggle, and we take it one step at a time.

DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM

Socialism is one of the most misused words in the American political vocabulary. Contrary to misrepresentations by both conservatives and liberals, socialism is not about breadlines, fur hats, or police states. Rather, we fight for the extension of democracy into all aspects of social life, including the economy. We are proud of the relative democratic freedoms enjoyed by US citizens. But without economic democracy, this political liberty is weak and incomplete. People must have a voice in the economic decisions which affect their lives. Democratic socialism also means fighting non-economic inequalities of power- including racism, sexism and heterosexism in all their forms. A radical democracy is the only way to ensure a world in which class, race, and gender do not decide our futures.

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