1)  LABOR STRUGGLE UPDATES FROM IRAQ & THE U.S.
            2)  SEPT. 24TH & THE FUTURE OF THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
            3)  BLOGGER BATTLE: WAR, IMPERIALISM, CAPITALISM, OH MY!
            4)  OCT. 15TH: YDS REGIONAL ACTIVIST CONF. IN ARKANSAS
            5)  LAUNCH OF NEW STUDENT ANTI-SWEATSHOP CAMPAIGN

LABOR STRUGGLE UPDATES FROM IRAQ & THE U.S.
Iraqi Unions Defy Privatization
By David Bacon (DSA member, journalist and photographer)
http://progressive.org/?q=mag_bacon1005

The Second Front: Change to Win's plans come into focus
by Harold Meyerson (DSA Vice Chair, writer for Washington Post & American Prospect)
ST. LOUIS -- I have seen the future, and who knows? It may just work.
America’s second labor federation had its founding convention here on Tuesday, and it has definitely not created itself in the image of the AFL-CIO. The Change To Win Federation (CTW), as the new kid on the block calls itself, exists solely to foster organizing. The legislative, international-affairs, and political departments for which the AFL-CIO has been justly famed -- none of that stuff for the CTW folks.
www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10357


SEPT. 24TH & THE FUTURE OF THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
Speaking Truth to Power in Washington, DC
by Bob Fitrakis (DSA member and editor of freepress.org)
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0926-23.htm

DOWNLOAD & DISTRIBUTE: New DSA leaflet available on-line
Being the Troops Home Now - No to Empire & Privatization
A Democratic Socialist Perspective for the Anti-war Movement
www.dsausa.org/pdf/Sept%2024%20Anti-%20War%20Leaflet.pdf


YDS BLOGGER BATTLE: WAR, IMPERIALISM, CAPITALISM, OH MY!
Read a series of critical discussions on the anti-war movement (and the demonstrations in D.C. this past weekend), definitions of imperialism, the limits of capitalism, and other assorted topics all your theory-heads and political junkies should enjoy.

Big Red Blog: A (Groucho) Marxist-tinged take on current events
http://theoldmole.blogspot.com/  (blog of YDSer, Peter Frase)

Looking at the City: Half-germinated ruminations about political theory 
http://lookingatthecity.blogspot.com/  (blog of YDSer Geoff Kurtz)

Have your own blog?!?  Written any articles/essays recently?  Let us know, and maybe we'll add your piece to the next YDS email blast!


YDS REGIONAL ACTIVIST CONFERENCE IN ARKANSAS
**************************************************
MID-SOUTH CONFERENCE OF THE LEFT
University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas.
OCTOBER, 15TH (Saturday)
**************************************************
The Young Democratic Socialists are hosting a one-day conference that focuses on the struggle for justice and equality in the American South. The conference will feature panel discussions, interactive workshops and grassroots trainings from groups such as Planned Parenthood, Not With Our Money, the AFL-CIO, the Democratic Party, and various local progressive organizations dealing with the issues facing southern activists.

TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED INCLUDE:
*The South's ongoing legacy of racism              *The politics & aftermath of Katrina
*Workers' rights & anti-union legislation            *The growing prison industry
*Widespread rural poverty                                *Anti-gay ballot initiatives & queer rights
*Working with the media                                   *Feminist organizing
*Counter military recruitment                            *Iraq & the anti-war movement
*Religious progressives & the Christian Right    *Living wage campaigns
*Challenging the GOP in "Red State" America
*Wal-Mart & the low-wage economy (Wal-Mart's HQ is in Arkansas)

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: CHRISTIAN PARENTI
Parenti is the author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq. His articles and ground-breaking reporting regularly appear in The Nation magazine. Parenti is the author of numerous other books including, The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror and Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis.

There will also be a presentation on Democratic Socialism & Progressive Politics on Friday evening (Oct. 14) with former YDS National Organizer, Lucas Shapiro.  Join us for the friday night social event and a BBQ and party on Saturday.  The Mid-South Conference of the Left is an excellent opportunity for progressive youth and students from the surrounding region to network and have fun with each other.

Limited housing and transportation available.
REGISTER ON-LINE: www.dsausa.org/yds/confreg-ar.html
For more information email UCA YDS at red_riot83@yahoo.com.
Or check out: www.campusactivism.org/displayevent-1028.htm


LAUNCH OF NEW STUDENT ANTI-SWEATSHOP CAMPAIGN
Students on 40 campuses demand that collegiate apparel brands source from "sweatfree" factories and pay enough for living wages

YDS is a proud organizational endorser of this important new direction in the student-labor solidarity movement.  We encourage all our activists and chapters to get involved with USAS' campaign and to take the fight against sweatshops to the next level. 

FOR MORE CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) ­ an international network of student-labor activists -- has developed a new plan for colleges and universities to require licensees such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Champion to exclusively produce collegiate apparel at “sweat-free” factories. USAS defines “sweat-free” as those factories in which workers’ right to organize is respected, and workers earn a living wage.

Student activists have found that sweatshop production of collegiate apparel is still rampant worldwide, from El Salvador and Haiti, to Lesotho and Kenya, Indonesia, Thailand, and China, as well as in the United States and elsewhere. In factories where workers have struggled to protect their basic rights through union representation and collective bargaining­as in the Kukdong factory in Mexico, and the Just Garments facility in El Salvador­there has been tremendous success. However, students have found that university policies and independent monitoring have not been sufficient to support these workers’ gains. Apparel brands consistently shift orders out of good factories, shutting them down in the face of workers organizing for their rights.

The students’ plan would put an end to the squeeze on garment supplier factories to drive down wages and working conditions, and would create a guaranteed market for factories which live up to internationally recognized worker rights standards. The New Sweat-Free Campus Campaign is a bold step in students’ seven-year struggle to bring justice to the global garment industry­and was created collaboratively with worker organizations, NGOs, unions and other anti-sweatshop groups worldwide. Students are uniquely positioned to create such change, as they have already won tremendous victories forcing colleges and universities to adopt codes of conduct; winning full disclosure of factory locations from collegiate-apparel producing brands; and creating the Worker Rights Consortium ­ the only independent monitoring agency conducting factory investigations on behalf of affiliated colleges and universities.

According to the demands, universities would be required to source apparel from factories who’ve demonstrated respect for workers’ associational rights, as evidenced by the presence of a legitimate, active representative body. The brands would additionally be required to pay increased price to supplier factories in order to enable workers to negotiate a living wage. The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) -- an independent monitoring organization with 144 college and university affiliates in the United States and Canada -- will enforce and monitor this policy.

“By requiring Nike, Adidas, and Champion to source their products from factories where workers have representation and pay more to their factories, USAS will help end the race to the bottom by forcing universities to require higher standards in factories­this means better wages, improved health and safety conditions, and representation in the workplace,” said Liana Dalton, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jessica Rutter, a national organizer for USAS states, “We know that we’ll face resistance­but we firmly believe that the rights of people must take precedence over the drive for university licensing fees and corporate profits. Despite tremendous opposition, student power has already won major changes in the global garment industry, and this is the next step in our fight for worker justice.”

Please contact YDS for more info on the above campaign and how your chapter can get involved.
Check out the YDS 2005-6 Activist Agenda for more campaign ideas: www.ydsusa.org/aboutyds.html#do



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