1) NEW YEAR SOCIALIST GREETINGS & 2005 IN REVIEW
2) FEB 17-19: YDS NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NYC!
3) ACTION ITEMS ON ALITO & CENSURING BUSH/CHENEY
4) ORGANIZE FOR MLK JR. DAY: JANUARY 16TH
5) LEFT VIEWS ON STRIKES, IMMIGRATION & RACISM
6) LATEST FROM DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA
_________________________________________________________________
1) NEW YEAR SOCIALIST GREETINGS & 2005 IN REVIEW
The Young Democratic Socialists wish all of you the best for the new year. We hope that you will resolve to stay active in the struggle for social and economic justice. We have a lot of exciting plans for the upcoming semester and for 2006. Check out our ongoing Winter Organizing Drive to connect activists and YDS members around the country with the resources, training, and support needed to build chapters, work on activist campaigns, and plug-into our national work. We´re busy planning our annual winter outreach conference that will take place in New York City from Feb. 17-19th. You will be getting a more detailed YDS conference email in a few days that we hope you can forward to others. In the meantime, we encourage our supporters to get in touch with other activists in their area to plan their first back-to-school (or back-to-work) organizing meetings. We´re developing resources for our chapters to organize events on Jan. 16th for MLK Jr. Day, but event planning should begin ASAP. Please contact our national office (contact info at bottom of email) for ideas and to update us on what you´re organizing. United for a 2006 of peace and solidarity! Check out the YDS homepage for a new year poster from the International Union of Socialist Youth.
2005 In Review: Power, Politics & Resistance
A Democracy Now! two part special looking back at 2005, including George W. Bush's inauguration and protests against election fraud, the occupation of Iraq, the appointment of John Bolton to the UN, the revelation of Deep Throat, the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen for killing the three civil rights workers in 1964, the devastating Katrina hurricane, Cindy Sheehan & Camp Casey, the 50th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the political crackdown in Haiti, the Sept. 24 anti-war protest in Washington D.C., the genocide in Sudan, the death of Rosa Parks, the Israeli pullout of Gaza and much more.
Listen/Watch/Read: www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/30/1521218
2) FEB 17-19: YDS NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NYC!
Mark your calendars! Start planning your trip today!
TURNING THE TIDE TOWARDS FREEDOM:
Building the Youth and Student Movement for Justice
[PDF color conference flyer] print and distribute to publicize locally
FEATURED SPEAKERS: Conference workshops and panels will feature organizers and trainers from the anti-racist, feminist, youth, queer, trade union, and anti-war movements, as well as noted activist scholars from the democratic left. We are still developing the program, but the preliminary list of featured speakers includes:
- Bill Fletcher Jr. - President of TransAfrica Forum, former co-chair of United for Peace and Justice, founder of the Black Radical Congress, as well as longtime trade union activist, and former Education Director of the AFL-CIO;
- Frances Fox Piven - Distinguished sociologist at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, author of The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush's Militarism, Poor People's Movements, Why Americans Don't Vote, and The New Class War, and Honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America;
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak - Director of the Center for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, author of Can the Subaltern Speak?, noted post-colonial theorist, and longtime activist in the international women's movement;
- Steve Max - Former leader of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), longtime activist in civil rights, labor and community movements and Midwest Academy trainer and designer of its economic education program;
- Stephen Eric Bronner - Professor of Political Science and Comparative Literature at Rutgers University and author of the new book: Blood in the Sand: Imperial Fantasies, Right-Wing Ambitions, and the Erosion of American Democracy, and Socialism Unbound;
- Clark Herndon and Tessa Garcia - Campus anti-oppression activists, Program Director and Associate Program Director of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue;
- Joseph Schwartz - Chair, Department of Political Science, Temple University and Chair, author of The Permanence of the Political, and The Future of Democratic Equality, also a member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America;
- Hector Soto - Director of Policy and Advocacy, Children's Defense Fund;
- Corey D. B. Walker - Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and African American Studies at the University of Virginia, author of the forthcoming study, The Freemasonry of the Race, now working on a book project entitled Between Transcendence and History, and also a member of the National Political Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America.
People come to YDS conferences from all over the country. If you are coming from out of town, it is important to plan your trip as early as possible. Check out the conference website for tips on fundraising and getting to NYC.
REGISTER ON-LINE TODAY / MORE INFO HERE: WWW.YDSUSA.ORG
3) ACTION ITEMS ON ALITO AND CENSURING BUSH/CHENEY
From Progressive Democrats of America:
On January 9th we ask that you call your member of congress in their home district (click here to find the number) and ask to speak to your member of congress. Urge your Representative to cosponsor Rep. John Conyers' bill to create an investigation and make recommendations on impeachment, a second bill to censure Bush, and a third to censure Cheney. For more about our efforts see our press release. [read more about the bills]
From Planned Parenthood:
Join the Emergency Campaign to Stop Alito. Senators may be home for the holidays, but their offices are open for business. Make sure their staff knows that constituents are still holding them accountable Alito is wrong for America and we need them to vote NO on his confirmation. Senate Judiciary Committee questioning is set to begin on January 9th.
Extraordinary Circumstances Indeed (why we must oppose Alito)
by Paul R. Loeb (DSA member and author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While )
www.commondreams.org/views06/0103-26.htm
4) ORGANIZE FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY: JANUARY 16TH
YDS encourages all our activists and chapters to organize teach-ins, tabling, or other public events to celebrate the legacy and continue the work of the great American democratic socialist, Martin Luther King, Jr.
We´re in the process of designing flyers and resource material that we can send you if requested. Please contact YDS to let us know what you are planning and if you need assistance. Since Monday, January 16th is less than 2 weeks away, we recommend planning arragenments ASAP, especially if you need to reserve a room for your event. As King radically opposed racism, militarism and exploitation, there are a number of contemporary realities you can connect your MLK event to. The impact of Katrina, the war in Iraq or any local social justice struggle can be tied in.
- "You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
5) LEFT VIEWS ON IMMIGRATION, THE NYC TRANSIT STRIKE & RACISM ON CAMPUS
The War on Immigrants: Get ready for a Republican assault--their opportunity for election-year demagogy
by Harold Meyerson (DSA Vice Chair, writer for Washington Post & American Prospect)
www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10789
Racism, Free Speech and the College Campus
by Tim Wise (prominent anti-racist activist, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son)
www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/freespeech2.html
My Vote Goes to the NYC Transit Workers!
by Bill Fletcher Jr. (DSA member, former AFL-CIO leader, president of TransAfrica Forum) http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/fletche211205.html
YDS is proud to announce that Bill Fletcher Jr. will be a keynote speaker at our conference in NYC from Feb. 17-19!
6) LATEST FROM THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA (DSA)
The latest issue of DSA´s magazine, Democratic Left, is now available online with articles on Wal-Mart, Iraq, Katrina, and more.
VIEW/PRINT AS PDF: www.dsausa.org/dl/Fall_2005.pdf
Reports from DSA National Convention
The 2005 DSA National Convention adopted the following resolutions as official policy of the organization: Priorities Resolution, Health Care, the Apollo Alliance , Building Labor Solidarity, Statement on Iraq
For a full report click here: www.dsausa.org/convention2005/report/convention.html
Young Democratic Socialists
c/o DSA 198 Broadway, Suite 700
New York, NY, 10038
office: (212) 727-8610
cell: (917) 662-0276
fax: (212) 608-6955
yds@dsausa.org
www.ydsusa.org
GET UPDATE FROM YOUNG DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS BY EMAIL
Send a request to yds@dsausa.org and you will be added to the list.
SPAM/JUNK MAIL REMINDER:
To make sure that our updates are not erroneously transferred into a junk mail folder by your anti-spam program, you should add the following email to your address book or approved contact list: yds@dsausa.org
GOT NEW CONTACT INFO?
Using a new email account? Got a new mailing address? Have a new phone number? Send us your latest contact info. and we'll keep you in the loop.
WANT TO JOIN THE YDS DISCUSSION LISTSERV?
Debate, strategize, and get your learn on with young democratic socialists around the country. Click here for instructions: http://lists.topica.com/lists/yds-discuss/
KNOW OTHERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO GET OUR EMAIL UPDATES?
Send in the email addresses of YDSers and sympathetic contacts on your campus or in your community and we'll add them to our weekly blast list.