1) JOBS & SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
                           2) BERNIE SANDERS: SOCIALIST FOR SENATE
                           3) BARBARA EHRENREICH ON HEALTH CARE
                           4) TAKING ON WAL-MART
                           5) ALBERT EINSTEIN REDUX
                           6) THE YOUNG & THE JOBLESS
                           7) DSA STATEMENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY
                          
1) JOBS & SUMMER INTERNSHIPS
The summer is practically here and many of you are invariably looking for work and organizing opportunities.  YDS has several internships open that you might want to consider applying for.  Positions with YDS include:
*Activist Website/Blog Contributor
*Grassroots Organizer & Program Assistant
*Tech/Content Support for Activist Website
Click here to learn more about these positions with YDS: www.idealist.org/en/ip/idealist/SiteIndex::AssetViewer/default?SID=7af992f937388f2f7bf04f8dca385e64&1.4.1.5=1&asset=Org&asset-id=17280%3A170

We've also been cataloguing other full and part-time activist jobs that other organizations are hiring for.  If you would like YDS to forward you information about these employment opportunities, please respond to this email with details on what you are looking for.  YDS members often find careers in the labor movement, with community organizations, progressive policy makers and other left-wing institutions.


2) BERNIE SANDERS: DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST FOR SENATE?
Bernie Sanders, Vermont’s eight-term member of the House of Representatives, is likely going to run for the seat that Senator Jeffords is vacating in 2006.  With polls indicating popular support, could Sanders be the fist socialist ever elected to the Senate?

A Socialist in the Senate?
by Matthew Rothschild (editor of The Progressive)
http://www.progressive.org/webex05/wx051105.php

Rep. Bernie Sanders on the Importance of Media Reform As A Political Issue
Listen/Watch/Read: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/12/1426211


3) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS IN THE NEWS
A Society That Throws the Sick Away
Most countries are proud to have a healthcare system. It's an organized way of helping the sick and infirm -- a mark of genuine civilization. Not so here, alas, where the health system is rapidly becoming a health hazard. After decades of privatizing, profiteering and insurance company-driven bureaucratization, Florence Nightingale has morphed into Vampira.
by Barbara Ehrenreich (author of Nickeled and Dimed and Honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America-DSA)
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0428-26.htm

The Good News About Bolton
Even if he's ultimately confirmed, those who spoke out against him have signaled to the world that he doesn't represent all Americans -- and ensured he won't wield a big stick.
by Ian Williams (DSA member, U.N. correspondent for The Nation magazine, author of Deserter: George Bush's War on Military Families, Veterans, and His Past and The U.N. for Beginners)
http://www.salon.com/opinion/2005/05/13/bolton_un/print.html


4) TAKING ON WAL-MART
DSA has made a campaign against Wal-Mart's business model and practices one of its major priorities.  DSA's Wal-Mart web site: www.dsausa.org\lowwage\walmart is now updated every 15 minutes (during the day) with the latest news stories on Wal-Mart. This new feature is the result of a partnership with Labour Start the premier web site providing information on labor struggles around the world.

This new feature comes at a particularly important time as anti-Wal-Mart organizing has increased dramatically in the last month. The UFCW promoted last week's Mothers Day Shopping Campaign that tied a pledge to refuse to shop at Wal-Mart for Mothers Day gifts to the company's treatment of women workers. A national advertising campaign designed to educate consumers about Wal-Mart has been launched by the newly formed Center for Corporate and Community Ethics.


5) ALBERT EINSTEIN REDUX
YDS received several responses to our last email blast about the legacy of scientist and socialist, Albert Einstein.  Despite Einstein's many achievements and contributions to social justice struggles, there's some evidence suggesting that he mistreated his wife and may have denied her proper credit in developing his landmark scientific theories.
Einstein's Wife: The Life of Mileva Maric Einstein: www.pbs.org/opb/einsteinswife/

There's also a new article in the latest issue of Monthly Review that goes into further detail about Albert Eintein's political life, including his early anti-war activism, his campaigning against fascism, his support for racial equality in the U.S. and his commitment to civil liberties in the face of right-wing repression.
Albert Einstein, Radical: A Political Profile: www.monthlyreview.org/0505jjs.htm


6) NEW REPORT SHOWS YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT GROWING
A recently released study documents the growth of unemployment among teenagers and twenty-somethings.  These disturbing findings, coupled with other economic trends, illustrate the need to fight back against the corporate race to the bottom that is denying our generation meaningful life opportunities.

The Young and the Jobless
by Bob Herbert (guest columnist for The New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/opinion/12herbert.html?


7) DSA RELEASES NEW STATEMENT ON SOCIAL SECURITY
Democratic Socialists of America has issued a new statement opposing the Republican attempt to privatize the Social Security System. The complete text of the statement is available on DSA's web site (www.dsausa.org) and is included below. Other resources on Social Security including a power point presentation are also available on the web site. The new issue of Democratic Left also features a significant article on social security.

DSA Statement on Social Security
George W. Bush's massive campaign to privatize social security must be turned back. His proposed new system would not provide "security" for its participants and would eliminate the "social" character from its structure. This right-wing attack on a cornerstone of New Deal legislation is not motivated by fiduciary concerns with an allegedly distressed federal program but by partisan politics and right-wing ideology. Gutting Social Security will be a giant step toward dismantling the entire structure of progressive U.S. government that was won over the past 100 years.

Even before the New Deal, measures to temper the dominance of corporate power were in play. Antitrust legislation, the progressive income tax, food safety regulations, protection and conservation of public lands were all valuable gains. We can be proud that even within corporate dominated U.S. capitalism, popular struggles have resulted in programs and institutions that work for the welfare and dignity of all people. The crowning achievement of these struggles, and the lynch pin of these institutions, is the Social Security System.

Those of us who know that government has a positive role to play in the well-being of the people have been dismayed at the wasting away of progressive government during the current conservative era. But the Bush assault on Social Security represents an all-out ideological assault on the very idea of a government operating for the public good. For this reason alone it is incumbent to draw the line and defend Social Security with all the resources and energy that we can muster.

Social Security represents a family pact between generations. It enables the parent to continue supporting the child even if the parent dies young; it helps the younger generation to share the burden of supporting their elderly parents. This pact must be honored.

Democratic Socialists of America therefore resolves to integrate the defense of Social Security into its national and local activities. We resolve to be part of the effort to educate the public about the success of the Social Security System, its still untapped potential as a model for other broad-based social welfare efforts, and the threat posed by the Bush privatization scheme. We will communicate with allies around the country and urge them to engage in educational activities, demonstrations, letter writing campaigns, and use all other feasible means to defend Social Security. In our activities we will be guided by the following basic principles:

1. Funding for the Social Security system is not in crisis. Predictions of the finances of the system 40 years in the future are inherently uncertain. Under some assumptions for growth in the economy, demographic changes, etc. modest additional financing may be needed in the far future. Under other assumptions, the current financing arrangements are adequate into the indefinite future. Claims of an impending crisis or bankruptcy are either overstatements or lies made to generate public acceptance for dismantling a valuable and valued system.

2. The character of Social Security as a defined-benefit pension and insurance plan must not be changed. It has provided generations of Americans with security in their old age, has made possible a productive life for countless people with disabilities, and provided income to survivors of prematurely deceased breadwinners.

3. Proposed changes in the financing of Social Security should lessen the unfair, regressive character of the existing payroll tax.  Such changes could include: increasing the wage cap; including unearned income in the tax; expanding coverage to sectors left out; and allowing greater flexibility in investing the Social Security trust fund to provide a higher rate of return.



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