YDS Political Platform

At a time in which the world is rapidly integrating its economic and financial systems with little regard to the human impact, the world needs a viable, compelling and radically different alternative. Helping to build this new vision is the task of democratic socialism. We won't get anywhere by just sitting around and thinking, or by waiting for the revolution. The Next Left will be built only through activism informed by our larger commitment to a more just and humane society. Out of this struggle will be formed a diverse, unified movement for social change- a movement in which socialists will play a large part.

The costs of the last two decades of right wing assault are clear: Despite huge growth in corporate profits, inequality of wealth and income has grown worse in the last 15 years: one percent of America now owns 60 percent of our wealth, up from 50 percent before Ronald Reagan became president. This trend can be seen world wide, particularly in those nations in which "free trade" and "globalization" have had the largest impact. Of course, the problem is not purely economic- conservatives have rolled back important reforms in gender and racial justice as well. The fight for civil rights for gays and lesbians has suffered. The "War on Drugs" has proven to be a war on young people and the poor. Without a united, visible left fighting for all these causes, and arguing for thier inter-connetedness, we struggle in isolation, and often at cross-purposes.

There are many signs of resistance, reasons for hope, and new opportunities: The re-energized labor movement, student mobilizations to save affirmative action, community efforts to decentralize political power, the formation of a Progressive Caucus in congress, and increasing cooperation accross national borders. These efforts need to be connected by cooperation, and united by common vision.

It was with this in mind that the YDS adopted this political program, in the form of 11 key points, at the 1998 National Conference in Harvard, Massachusetts to clarify and publicize our ideas about how to make the world a more democratic, just, and fair place to live. Though our work is not limited to these points, this document is a statement of our national priorities and general political perspective. We have always rejected the false dichotomy between radical goals and every day struggle for reform. We believe that building a socialist society is a long, difficult process, and every day we create new institutions, or transform old ones, to bring us closer to a better world. The every day is the revolution. The revolution is every day.

PRISONS

The Youth Democratic Socialists oppose the continued increase in prison construction on the State and Federal levels. We demand a five year moratorium on prison building, and the transfer of all earmarked prison funds into education and community investment. We reaffirm our commitment to the decriminalization of drug users and to reverse the trend of mass criminalization of people of color and youth. Crime and criminality have political and economic causes, and cannot be solved by herding people into inhumane prisons while simultaneously destroying the welfare system and pushing wages down. Jobs, education and decent, affordable housing will cut crime, not prisons or harsher sentencing. Behnid the expansion of the prison industry lies corporate power. The spate of prison privatizations has had an adverse effects on prisoners rights and the justice system in general. We identify the prison industry as the self-perpetuating defense industry of the nineties, and, as a result, we will continue our work to build a coalition of progressive, anti-prison activists in communities and on campuses stop this destructive trend.

LABOR SUPPORT

Social transformation is impossible without a strong labor movement. We understand that many recent progressive victories in Congress and in politics in general were due primarily to strong activism by unions and union members. Our local work includes an emphasis on supporting strikes, organizing drives, and anti-sweatshop campaigns as well as bringing general information about the need for a strong labor movement to the public. In harmony with the DSA's general principles of coalition-building, we work to include labor activists in our chapters' political work on the local level. Furthermore, we oppose all efforts, in the name of campaign finance reform, to weaken the political influence of organized labor, and oppose all such state and local initiatives. We support and encourage the new progressive leadership of the AFL-CIO, and their efforts to bring youth, women and people of color into the labor movement. We encourage our members to take part in Union Summer and to join the labor movement professionally.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Neither protectionism nor neoliberalism serve socialist aims. Trade and investment are incredibly important for the economic future of the developing world. But the ability for developing nations to invest soundly, and to take control over their own resources must be part of the deal. Otherwise, the rhetoric of free trade and globalization is just a new vocabulary for neocolonialism. Furthermore, workers in the first world must not be forced to compete with their counterparts in the "south" by sacrificing economic security and workplace rights. In the course of our labor support work and our campaigning for economic justice, we emphasize the need for cross-border labor organizing, and highlight the fact that globalization has made international solidarity into a bread and butter issue. For our part, we will continue our cooperation with socialists and trade unionists abroad. The interests of workers in the US and Canada are connected to those in Mexico and Brazil. Only democratic, grassroots organizing can affect long term change, backed up by strong national and international enforcement and respect of trade union rights, environmental standards and safe working conditions. We support continued cross-border labor organizing, and the addition of social clauses to NAFTA, GATT, ITO and other trade agreements.

SOCIAL PROVISION AND EDUCATION

Of all the attacks on working people by the Contract With America, the radical downsizng of an already meager system of social welfare programs and public goods has had the most immediate impact on our lives. We call for the immediate creation a single-payer national healthcare system, a guarantee for child care, as well as the improvement of already existing programs such as AFDC, public education, unemployment insurance, and social security. The Young Democratic Socialists reject the neoliberal argument that there is no other option but to submit to cuts in these programs at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high and the economy is booming. We work on campuses and in the media to bring this issue up for public debate. Of special focus for us as young people is the attack on free, accessible and democratic education. We oppose attacks on bilingualism, multiculturalism and student aid. We support free, quality education based on high standards and democratic participation by students, parents and teachers. On the university and college level, we fight for a renewed commitment by State and Federal government to direct support, and oppose the new corporatization of our education system.

WORK FOR RACIAL AND GENDER JUSTICE

We recognize that the exploitation of racial and ethnic minorities and women are integrally tied to economic inequality and the weakening of communities across the globe. We reject the scapegoting of immigrants, women, queer people, and other marginalized communities as a response to economic instability, recognizing their positive role in our society. We are committed to an immigration policy which ties the free movement of capital to free movement of people, bold policies to expose and counter glass ceilings for women and people of color, and legislated protection from hate crimes for traditionally targeted communities including the addition of sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act. We recognize Affirmative Action's role, though flawed, in this process. The traditional Left, labor, and new progressive movements must incorporate an inclusive agenda which defends immigrant and minority rights. YDS will, internally and in all of its coalition work, argue for the inclusion of this aspect of the struggle for real democracy.

ELECTORAL POLITICS AND LEGISLATIVE ACTION

The YDS supports the work of the Progressive Caucus in the US Congress and encourages higher profile and more politically cohesive activity by this new and exciting formation. We call on progressives in Congress to behave and vote as progressives first, and Democratic Party functionaries second. Though we believe strongly in the need for Left opposition to Clintonism both within and without the Democratic Party, we see the mainly Democratic Progressive Caucus as an important and effective vehicle for majoritarian social-democratic politics in the United States today. YDS believes that eliminating the Republican Congressional majority is the primary goal for electoral activism. Other important projects are the building of a grassroots progressive electoral organization, as championed by the New Party, and fighting not only for canidates, but worthy legislation, as well. The YDS supports any initiatives that work to lessen the overwhelming influence of big business in politics through Campaign Finance Reform. We are also hopeful that the AFL-CIO will be successful in their bid to present 2000 labor candidates for office by the year 2000. The works to support these and like initiatives keeping in mind the best strategies for each district.

LEFT COOPERATION

The Youth Section believes that the United States needs a large, visible Left voice. Towards this end, the YDS supports the efforts by members of the DSA leadership to initiate dialog between the organizations in the US democratic Left. In order to build a united progressive movement for the next generation, youth activists and organizations need to unite their voices. The Progressive Challenge, a network of progressive organizations across America which works with the Progressive Caucus in Congress, is trying to expand its network to youth organizations and activists. YDS works for the development of a Youth Progressive Challenge network as a vehicle to facilitate the cooperation of progressive youth activists and organizations and thus, further strengthen the democratic Left in the US.

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF SOCIALIST YOUTH

The Youth Section is proud to be a member of the largest political youth organization in the world, IUSY. We are excited especially by the new proactive, campaign oriented focus by our international. We have played a remarkably important role in the recent history of IUSY, especially given our small size in comparison with our sister organizations abroad. We believe that an international network of activist-oriented youth organizations is an important goal, and will continue to develop anti-sweatshop, labor support and human rights campaigns in cooperation with our comrades across the globe. Our labor and economic justice campaigns will include joint projects with our IUSY partners, particularly the PRD-CJ in Mexico and the NDYC in Canada.

CULTURAL ACTIVISM

Young people have the right to participate in their own culture uncontrolled by cynical market forces. The Youth Section supports independent, democratic and small-scale youth cultural projects, such as independent record labels, youth-run clubs, and self-published magazines, as well as the creative use of mass media by cultural activists. We oppose the homogeneous nature of mainstream media which censors viewpoints necessary for progress. In understanding the link between a diverse marketplace of ideas and a healthy democracy, we promote non-profit sources of information, independent of dominant media conglomerates. The internet should be defended as a public resource for expression, information and communication rather than privatized. We will continue to include cultural strategies in our political work, and to make arguments about the political nature of the music, television and film industries.

THE THIRD WAY

We regret that many politicians and political parties have accepted Margaret Thatcher's assertion that "there is no alternative" to neoliberal policies. It is especially disheartening to see the US Left, along with the socialist and social democratic parties of Europe and Latin America accept the dogma of the right and abandon key commitments to public sector spending, progressive taxation, trade union power and access to education. Though we favor new and innovative solutions to economic and social problems, we are alarmed by the Clinton-Blair project of replacing the Left with an opportunistic political centrism. The so-called "third way", along with the general rightward trend among political parties, is trumpeted in the media as a final blow to socialism, which further marginalizes us here in the US. We will oppose this "third way" by offering progressive alternatives to Clintonism domestically, and by helping to facilitate cooperation and dialog between the authentic US Left- labor, feminism, civil rights movements- and the traditional social democratic Left abroad. We have seen much interest in this exchange from our partners in the Socialist International, who fear that their only partner in so important a country as this one is Clinton. We are glad that the US Left may finally have a serious dialog with the Left abroad, but we want to make sure that this dialog is led on this side by progressives and not by the forces of NAFTA and Welfare Reform.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

The Young Democratic Socialists are aware of the local and global significance of environmental issues such as global warming, air, and water pollution, the deforestation/desertification of the natural environment, as well as the loss of wildlife and stable ecological systems. The ill effects of these problems are often suffered the most in poor minority communities where the people do not have the political power to advocate for their environment. These local pollution problems deflate the value of surrounding land and further depress economic development. YDS advocates strong environmental protection legislation which will prevent the otherwise ensuing expenses of increased health care needs and clean-ups which often fail to undo irreparable damage. YDS also favors exploring alternative sources of energy and the new methods of energy conservation that would reduce environmental damage as well as the costs for consumers.

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