Update from the Young Democratic Socialists
www.ydsusa.orgpost far and wide
January 16th, 2006
In this YDS EMAIL UPDATE you will find:
1) HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY!
2) FEB 17-19 CONFERENCE UPDATE
3) YDS STATEMENT OPPOSING ALITO
5) HOUSE PARTIES FOR BUSH SPEECH
6) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST VIEWS
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1) HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY!
YDS has produced a special poster for this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, highlighting his commitment to racial justice, his critique of capitalism and his desire for a democratic socialist alternative. We encourage our activists and chapters to use this flyer to continue MLK Jr.'s radical legacy while attracting new youth and students to YDS.
VIEW / PRINT / DISTRIBUTE: www.ydsusa.org/flyers/mlk.pdf
Working-Class Hero
William P. Jones evokes Martin Luther King Jr.'s bracing challenges to racism, war and free-market exploitation, recalling a leader who believed civil rights and labor rights were tightly intertwined.
William P. Jones (author of The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South)
www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/jones
2) YDS CONF: SPREADING THE WORD & PLANNING YOUR TRIPYDS has produced a special poster for this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, highlighting his commitment to racial justice, his critique of capitalism and his desire for a democratic socialist alternative. We encourage our activists and chapters to use this flyer to continue MLK Jr.'s radical legacy while attracting new youth and students to YDS.
VIEW / PRINT / DISTRIBUTE: www.ydsusa.org/flyers/mlk.pdf
Working-Class Hero
William P. Jones evokes Martin Luther King Jr.'s bracing challenges to racism, war and free-market exploitation, recalling a leader who believed civil rights and labor rights were tightly intertwined.
William P. Jones (author of The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South)
www.thenation.com/doc/20060130/jones
TURNING THE TIDE TOWARDS FREEDOM:
Building the Youth and Student Movement for Justice
February 17-19, 2006 - New York City
[PDF conference flyer] print and distribute to publicize locally
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. While we're offering limited travel scholarships, we highly recommend that you fundraise to help cover costs. Click here for great tips on travel planning, economizing and fundraising, from getting cheap plane tickets, hosting events to raise money, to hitting up your student government for funds. Please remember that plane tickets are typically cheaper the further in advance you purchase them and that Student Government Associations often require plenty of advance notice if you are requesting special funds from them. Do plan ahead!
REGISTER TODAY / MORE INFO HERE: WWW.YDSUSA.ORG
3) YDS STATEMENT OPPOSING ALITO TO SUPREME COURT
The following is an introduction to a statement recently passed by YDS' Coordinating Committee. Read the full statement for an overview of our socialist feminist stance on reproductive rights:
On October 31st President Bush nominated Samuel A. Alito Jr. to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the United States Supreme Court. The Young Democratic Socialists of America are opposed to this nomination on the grounds that judge Alito's pernicious conservative ideology poses a threat to both civil rights and civil liberties. If we don't stop Alito from joining the bench we risk decades of suffering from his reactionary legal stances on workplace protections, affirmative action, church-state separation, executive power, voting rights and more. Each of these issues warrant careful attention. However, for the sake of this statement, we will focus on the serious threat we believe Judge Alito poses to women's reproductive rights. As young people fighting for democracy, human rights, and collective liberation, we cannot support any nomination that could diminish the reproductive freedoms of our sisters. While the commitment to uphold Roe v. Wade is but the tip of the iceberg, it is an important minimum standard for a Supreme Court nominee's commitment to women's rights. We reject all barriers to women's liberation, as we reject all oppression based on race, class, sexual orientation and age.
READ FULL STATEMENT HERE: www.ydsusa.org/statements/alito.html4) JAN. 22: ROE v WADE ANNIVERSARY
January 22nd marks the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. With the Supreme Court in the balance and the continued right-wing assault on reproductive rights, YDS encouraged its activists and chapters to:
-contact feminist groups on campus to co-sponsor or support what they're doing
-show a documentary or film addressing the struggle to keep abortion safe and legal
-host a discussion on the erosion of reproductive freedom
5) JAN. 31: HOUSE PARTIES FOR BUSH SPEECH!
Bush is scheduled to deliver his next State of the Union Address on January 31st.
United for Peace and Justice (of which YDS is a member organization) has produced a kit for activists to host house parties for the speech. Because this is just around the corner, we are asking you to go to the UFPJ site and download the party kit today, and start planning! VIEW/DOWNLOAD PARTY KIT: www.unitedforpeace.org
We hope that you will find this kit useful, and that it will help you to develop the financial resources to support your local organizing work, help you draw newcomers into the peace and justice movement, and help raise money for UFPJ and/or for YDS. (And did we mention, have fun?). House parties are also a great way for YDS chapters and organizing committees to reach out to new people. Contact us for more ideas!
6) DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST VIEWS
The winter 2006 edition of Dissent is now available on-line: www.dissentmagazine.org, with articles from democratic socialists, including:
Jack Metzgar on the Cold War, labor and the Left; Peter Drier on Rosa Parks and community organizing; and Iris Young on Katrina and accountability.
Filibuster Bush, Impeach Alito
by Paul Rogat Loeb (DSA member and author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While)
www.commondreams.org/views06/0115-23.htm
Resurgent Capitalism
[R]esurgent capitalism has been able to reverse the democratic gains made by the labor movement and by the social democratic forces which created the welfare state during the early decades of the twentieth-century. It has been able to break the back of organized labor, commodify culture and construct a culture of consent which has accepted passively many of the most important capitalist institutions and organizations.
by Michael J. Thompson (DSA member and founder and editor of Logos)
www.stateofnature.org/capitalismResurgent.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
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
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