2006 YDS Election Activities 

Here is a summary of what YDS chapters and members were doing for the 2006 elections.  Special thanks goes to Alex Lorch, Sam Minot, Patrick Saunders, Jason Schulman, and Chris Maisano for helping put this together.  If you have any chapter news you want put on YDS NEWS please email David at david@dsausa.org with you submission.

 

Nation-wide: YDS members played a modest role in the national effort of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Political Action Committee to raise grassroots support for Bernie Sanders’ bid for the Senate.  An avowed democratic socialist and DSA ally, Sanders will now be the first open socialist Senator in US history.  YDS members assisted his campaign by helping to organize DSA fundraising house parties and by making campaign contributions.

 

Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME): The YDS chapter, Democratic Left, was an integral part of the Bowdoin Anti-TABOR Coalition.  TABOR would have put a revenue cap of what state governments could collect with a “one-size-fits-all” formula that would have forced cut backs in social services.  TABOR was pushed by outside right-wing ideological organizations like the Heritage Foundation and Grover Norquist who wish to privatize social services no matter what the social costs.  The YDS chapter organized or helped to organize several key events and actions.  It coordinated with the League of Pissed Off Voters in Portland, made the case against TABOR to Bowdoin students through local and statewide media in editorials and interviews, and helped bring Steve Johnson (a Republican State Senator from Colorado) and Thom Watson (a Democratic State Senator from Bath, Maine) to speak to students at a teach-in against TABOR. Chapter members put anti-TABOR door knob hangers in every student dorm and made anti-TABOR t-shirts.  Maine was one of three states with TABOR ballots (all of which were rejected by voters). 

 

Meadows High School (Las Vegas, NV): The Meadows New Left membership worked hard on the Dina Titus campaign for the governorship of Nevada.  Titus stands with the Las Vegas unions that have provided a decent living for numerous casino workers, working on building a social infrastructure in Las Vegas that the right-wing refuses to expand while the city grows at a rapid rate, and supporting local schools.  New Left members picked her campaign as the most critical race in Nevada to support.  They helped with canvassing, phonebanking, and getting the word out.  While Titus was ultimately defeated, work such as this was critical in beating the far right nation-wide.

 

New York Metro YDS: New York City YDS organized a teach-in with the Working Families Party (WFP) chapter at Columbia University.  The discussion, entitled “A Post-Republican America” centered on how the left should organize in the wake of the Republican Party losing majorities.  Important YDS alumni such as Mike Rabinowitz (New York State Political Coordinator for the labor union UNITE-HERE), Jessica Shearer (Political Affairs Director for the Center for Community, Labor, and Policy Studies) and Peter Frase (former YDS Co-Chair) addressed students and community members.  They presented a political perspective that refused the either/or approach of “realigning” the Democratic Party or building a completely independent third party.  Instead, they articulated the DSA vision of building coalitions that can hold elected officials accountable, regardless of their party label, and force them to legislate social and economic gains for working-class people across the lines of gender, race, and sexual orientation.

 

New York City YDS members also volunteered their time working to defeat the conservative candidates.  Many worked with the Working Families Party (WFP), which is a local party that is primarily made up of labor unions and community groups.  Voting on the WFP line is a means of sending a pro-labor and anti-war message to the candidates that are cross-endorsed by the WFP (often Democrats).  Using cross-endorsement, also known as fusion, is a great way for minor parties to have major influences.  Efforts such as this are critical to defeating candidates who have no interest in promoting a progressive agenda and to prod the Democrats to move to the left.  If and when Democrats fail to live up to their progressive promises, YDS activists will be in the thick of the battle to make them regret their choices.

 

The BGSU Firelands YDS (OH): During the fall campaign the YDS chapter assisted in voter registration of working class students and others.  Chapter members also campaigned locally for Democratic candidates for the Congress and Senate, for Governor, and state district races for senate and the Ohio house.  Chapter members sent letters to the editors and wrote columns sympathetic to the Democratic Party candidates for local papers.

In other campaigns, one member traveled to South Dakota on Election weekend to assist the campaign for the ballot issue to repeal the draconian abortion law passed by the Legislature there earlier in the year.  BGSU Firelands YDS also organized a forum on the issues of low wage workers here in the United States in conjunction with the ballot issue
to raise the minimum wage in Ohio. The forum which was held on the 30th of October also touched on the failure of the present health care system. Angela Vassalle who is a resident of Sandusky, a BGSU Firelands student, and member of the YDS testified to the injustice of our healthcare system.  She was presently undergoing tests for Lupus, and if she is found to have it she will lose her healthcare and will not be able to get coverage for having a potentially terminal illness. The forum was covered by the regional newspaper in the area, The Sandusky Register, and was given significant coverage by it.

BGSU Firelands YDSA is now planning a series of "after the election" events by hosting a screening of the documentary by Robert Greenwald, "Iraq for Sale" on November 21st, at BGSU Firelands for the student body and the public. A discussion session will follow the screening of the film. Also two members of the Chapter are also traveling to Ft.
Benning for the annual School of the Americas Protest, with the Interreligious Task Force on Central America from Cleveland, on Thanksgiving weekend.

 

Philadelphia, PA: This election season, YDS member Chris Maisano made Rick Santorum's kids cry. That's because he and hundreds of other activists associated with the organization Philadelphians Against Santorum worked for months canvassing, phonebanking, and tabling to turn out voters against Santorum's brand of far-right politics -and they won! Philadelphians voted against Santorum (and for his Democratic challenger, Bob Casey) at almost a 90-10 ratio, taking out the 3rd highest ranking Republican in Congress! The fight isn't over, however, as Senator-elect Casey is a moderate Democrat who has taken some troubling positions in the past (he's anti-choice!). They'll have to keep his feet to the fire to make sure he's part of the emerging progressive majority.

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