1) APRIL 15-17, NYC: 2005 LEFT FORUM
                           2) DSA REGIONAL MEETING IN NYC
                           3) NEW ITEMS ON YDS WEBSITE
                           4) SOCIALIST BLOGGERS UNITE!
                           5) WHERE YOUR TAX MONEY REALLY GOES
                           6) CALENDAR OF ACTIVIST EVENTS
                           7) SOC. SEC. QUIZ FOR YOUNG PEOPLE                              
                           8) TENT STATE U.: EDUCATION NOT WAR!

1) APRIL 15-17, NYC: 2005 LEFT FORUM!
THE U.S, THE WORLD, and THE NEXT FOUR YEARS
See www.2005LeftForum.org for details.

The 2005 Left Forum is a must-attend conference that will bring together over a thousand activists and intellectuals from around the country, and some of the biggest names on the Left (including Democratic Socialists like Barbara Ehrenreich and Bill Fletcher).

YDS is organizing a party Saturday night (April 16th) for the younger folks coming to the Left Forum.  Special guests TBA.

YDSers will also be speaking at or chairing the following panels (please check www.2005LeftForum.org for a full program, speakers bios, discount pre-registration, etc.):
-The Left in Local Government: Tuscany, Brazil, Germany, and New York State
-What's Happening in the U.S. Economy?
-The Marxist Theory of Class and Its Importance for Today
-Insurgency and the Limits of US Imperial Reach
-After the 2004 Elections: Progressive Responses
-Insurgency and the Limits of US Imperial Reach
-Youth Organizing and Politics in the US
-Why Americans Fall for Ownership Society

Contact YDS if you would like to come and/or are in need of housing. If would like to help out with the Left Forum, write us ASAP.  Volunteers can get in for free!


2) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA REGIONAL MEETING IN NYC
Help shape the Democratic Socialists of America's (DSA) Future!
Join other movement activists and thinkers at broad-based Left conference!
It's a two-for-one deal!

DSA (of which YDS is the youth section) holds regional activist conferences between conventions. This year's East Coast regional confab will be held concurrently the Left Forum conference in NYC (see above).  The DSA regional gathering, which piggybacks on the event, will be kept simple: we'll meet over two sessions of the conference, on Saturday afternoon, April 16, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm in the same building as the Left Forum. We urge DSA members (including YDSers) to attend both events.  During this time, DSA will hold two discussions: 1) What Is DSA's Vision and Mission? and 2) Best Practices for DSA Locals.

The Vision/Mission discussion has already begun on the dsamember listserve. It concerns not just political strategies but the nature of socialism and what is required to build a democratic socialist organization in the present period. For the DSA locals discussion we will hear briefly about what works well, including one recent successful Boston event, then try to analyze what made these work, and how other locals can adopt the successful elements, even when they cannot imitate the events themselves.

Please help us spread the word to other DSAers in your local and elsewhere in the East. Email Theresa Alt (talt@igc.org) and Michael Hirsch (mmh@pipeline.com) and let us know your plans and DSA conference-agenda suggestions. Or you can phone Theresa at 607-273-3009. We want to get an idea of who is coming and how to shape the discussion.


3) NEW ITEMS ON YDS WEBSITE (YDS JOB, BLOG & UPDATE ARCHIVE)
Check out the YDS homepage for the following new items: www.ydsusa.org
-Plug into our Spring Organizing Drive   
-Read about the YDS National Organizer job opening
-Check out archives of these email updates
-Read about our blog/interactive website project
-View photos from YDS' "When Bush Comes to Shove" conference


4) SOCIALIST BLOGGERS UNITE!
So YDS is getting into the blog business, you might have heard.  Yeah... yeah... that's so 3 years ago.  But ours is going to be different... a combination of an on-line magazine and an open forum for all of you to discuss politics, culture and action.  Due to launch in the next few weeks, The Activist will bring together some of the best and brightest writers, agitators and young lefty whippersnappers.

Below are two examples of blogs already produced by YDS members.  Check them out... you might get some ideas for what YOU can submit to The Activist and share with a much larger on-line community.  If you've already written something, have your own blog, or want to get more involved, let us know.  We want to compile articles and blog entries from other sites.

HOVERBIKE > http://hoverbike.blogspot.com/
Here are some of the entries from Hoverbike, a blog written by former YDS National Organizer, Daraka Larimore-Hall:
-The Ten Most Essential Books on the American Left
-Revisionist, Republican Style
-A Very British Coup: (Socialist) Speculative Fiction
-TWPs: Touchy White People
-An Old Rebuttal to Anti-Americanism on the Left         

RAW STORY > http://www.rawstory.com
This news website (which includes a blog: http://eblog.bluelemur.com) is run by YDS member and Boston-based community organizer, Jesse Kanson-Benanov.  Newsweek magazine recently said this of his site: "Muck, raked: If you're looking for alleged GOP malfeasance, the folks at RAWSTORY.COM are frequently scooping the MSM [mainstream media]".

Jesse recently ran an exclusive story about a U.S. soldier disables by the anthrax vaccine who is now being recalled to serve.  This article and interview, which promises to get your blood boiling, can be found here: http://rawstory.com/exclusives/kanson/cordova_ordered_back_anthrax_401.htm

For more on the YDS' blog and interactive website, go to: www.ydsusa.org/activist.html


5) WHERE YOUR TAX MONEY REALLY GOES
When Tax Day comes on April 15th, taxpayers should know that 30 cents of each federal income tax dollar they paid last year supported military and defense, while four cents went to education, three cents to veterans' benefits, two cents to housing and less than a penny to job training.

Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?, the National Priorities Project's just released publication, provides a detailed breakdown of how the federal government spent the average household's 2004 tax dollars in each state and 193 towns, cities and counties.  You can find out how your state or city's tax payment was spent at www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday05.

Close to one-third of Americans' income tax dollars is spent on national security.  This money is divided into military operations, homeland security and preventive measures such as diplomacy, peacekeeping and development aid.  Military operations received 91 percent of all national security tax dollars, while homeland security received five percent and preventive measures got just three percent, or less than a penny of each tax dollar.

As the expanding military budget strips communities of vital support and the cost of war in Iraq continues to spiral upward, people can use these tax dollar breakdowns to understand and communicate to others the consequences of our national priorities. 

We encourage you to link to NPP website, forward the link to others, download and print copies for your local events related to Tax Day: www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday05.

Bloated military budget got you down?  Check out the War Resisters League's Federal Tax Pie Chart:
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm


6) CALENDAR OF ACTIVIST EVENTS
APRIL 15-17
2005 Left Forum (NYC) www.2005LeftForum.org
APRIL 16-24
"Books Not Bombs" Week of Action (nation-wide) www.nyspc.net/#call
APRIL 18-24
Tent State University (select campuses across U.S.) www.tentstateuniversity.com
MAY 1
No More Nuclear Excuses for War! March & Rally (Central Park, NYC) www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=2788
May Day: International Worker's Day (world-wide)
Socialists and union members around the world hold events and demonstrations on this day.  Contact YDS if you need ideas for May Day parties, protests, or speak outs.


7) LINK OF THE WEEK: SOCIAL SECURITY QUIZ FOR YOUNG PEOPLE       
Test you knowledge about how Social Security really works... from the National Jobs For All Coalition:
www.njfac.org/socialsecurity.php


8) TENT STATE UNIVERSITY: EDUCATION NOT WAR!
April 18th to the 24th
www.tentstateuniversity.com

Endorsed by United for Peace and Justice (of which YDS is a member).  Some of the brilliant organizers of Tent State University were present at YDS' "When Bush Comes To Shove."

Across the United States, the right to a public higher education is systematically being denied to our communities. While $150+ billion has already been spent on the war in Iraq, our state and federal governments are systematically de-funding our institutions of higher learning. Tuition continues to skyrocket as the Bush administration wages criminal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is clear evidence of a devastating shift in national spending priorities for which our younger generations are paying dearly.

During the week of April 18th through April 24th, university students, faculty, staff, as well as community activists, are building Tent State Universities (TSU) on college campuses across the country. TSU is more than just a protest. Symbolizing that fact the fact that higher education is losing its home in the U.S., TSU involves the creation of a grassroots-based alternative university that embodies the principles of equality and participatory democracy while serving as an organizing center to take back our world from the radical right minority.

During the week of April 18-24, stand in solidarity with TSU. Speak out against war and in defense of the right to an education. There are many ways you can help:

-- Send us a statement of support: andrea@tentstate.com
-- Submit our press release to your local paper/media: http://ru.tentstate.com/helpout/pressrelease
-- Send them a letter to the editor using our talking points:
http://ru.tentstate.com/helpout/editorials
-- Organize a day of action in support of education and against war
-- Visit a TSU campus near to you: http://www.tentstateuniversity.com

The history of the United States, from the women's suffragist movement to the civil rights movement, has involved the expansion of access to public higher education. We mustn't let our generation's era be marked with its destruction.



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