***YDS Spring Organizing Drive***
Please contact our national office if you would like us to mail you or your group organizing materials in the mail or as email attachments (YDS chapter guides, buttons, literature, stickers, sample meeting fliers etc.). Let us know how we can help you build YDS at your high school, college, university or community. Contact us for help organizing teach-ins, trainings, or visits from YDS organizers to strengthen existing chapters and help new ones get off the ground. We can also put you in touch with democratic socialist faculty members on campuses across the country. YDS can be reached at: yds@dsausa.org or 212-727-8610

Make sure to plan ahead for the YDS summer national conference (NYC, August 11-14) and consider joining the U.S. delegation to the International Union of Socialist Youth World Festival that will bring together over 7000 young left-wing activists from over 100 countries for 6 days of sharing, debates, parties and other fun along the Mediterranean coast (Alicante, Spain, July 18-23).


1) TAKE ACTION ON ABORTION RIGHTS & THE MINIMUM WAGE    
Tell Congress:  Raise the Minimum Wage!
In the past nine years, workers making the minimum wage haven't gotten a single raise. Not one. And while the wage of $5.15 an hour has stayed the same, its value has dropped precipitously, putting workers further and further behind.

It's long past time for Congress to help the millions of workers earning the minimum wage or close to it. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

Since 1997, Congress has voted eight pay raises for itself, but not one dime for workers making the minimum wage. The annual salary for members of Congress has gone up by $31,600 in that time, while a minimum wage employee working full-time earns just $10,700 a year.  It's time for Congress to stop working for itself and start working for America's families.

The increase would have an immediate, direct impact on more than 7 million workers and an indirect impact on millions more.  Raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour would mean an additional $4,370 a year for a full-time worker, enought to pay an average of nine months of rent, pay 18 months of heat and electricity, or a full year's tuition for a community college degree.

Right now, there are 37 million Americans including 13 million children living in poverty in America, and raising the minimum wage is the easiest thing we can do to stop the rising tide of poverty.

Please take action today and sign on to become a citizen co-sponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage Act.
www.unionvoice.org/campaign/minimumwageraise/77k7s7rh7wd6ne ?

Stop the Abortion Bans!
The Christian Right and its allies are on a rampage undermining women's rights across the country.  We need to stop the anti-choice domino effect NOW. The abortion ban in South Dakota was only the beginning. In the next few days, it's expected that Gov. Haley Barbour will make Mississippi the second state to ban abortions. And 10 more states have proposed criminalizing abortion. Act now to stop the dominoes from falling. Add your voice to the outcry to protect the women of Mississippi and elsewhere from these dangerous bans.
www.plannedparenthood.org



New featured blog: The Red Special
http://theredspecial.blogspot.com

What the Next Left Won't Look Like: some notes
http://hoverbike.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-next-left-wont-look-like-some.html

The International Women's Day that Wasn't
http://pinkopostcards.blogspot.com/2006/03/international-womens-day-that-wasnt.html

Following the wave of French student/worker protests, strikes and university occupations
check out:
French Young Socialists International Secretary > http://remibazillier.blogspot.com
and Unrest in France > http://libcom.org/blog

The Black Room (on torture, impunity and U.S. imperial violence)
http://theoldmole.blogspot.com/2006/03/black-room.html


Commenting on Congress' recent decision to hike the interest rates on student loans, Nicholas von Hoffman wondered how many more people will now turn away from low-paying but vital professions because they can't earn enough to pay back their student debt. Judging from the responses elicited by von Hoffman's article, the answer is that many people will.

Read the original article here: www.thenation.com/doc/20060327/vonhoffman
Responses from other young people: www.thenation.com/blogs/question/?pid=70764
YDS handout on Higher Education & Capitalism: www.ydsusa.org/statements/capitalism_and_higher_education.pdf

New War Dangers:  Iran, the U.S. and Nukes in the Middle East
United for Peace and Justice Talking Points #39 (YDS is a member group of UFPJ)
http://ips-dc.org/comment/Bennis/tp39newwar.htm

Let's Lose Another War!
by Ian Williams (DSA member and UN correspondent for The Nation)
http://deadlinepundit.blogspot.com/

Not Your Father's Detroit: The Motor City virtually created the old era of shared prosperity. Today, the middle has fallen out of the economy. What can we do to get it back?
by Harold Meyerson (DSA Vice Chair, writer for Washington Post & American Prospect)
www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=11300

Corporate Home Wreckers (the real anti-family forces)
by Barbara Ehrenreich (DSA Honorary Co-Chair and author of Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream)
www.commondreams.org/views06/0316-27.htm


MARCH 26 - APRIL 4
Bring Down the Clown: McDonald's Truth Tour
Check local events or organize your own!
www.sfalliance.org

MARCH 31 - APRIL 4
2006 National Student Labor Week of Action
Events on campuses across the country (organize your own!)
www.jwj.org/SLAP/A4/2006.htm

APRIL 7-9
From Abortion Rights to Social Justice:
Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA
http://clpp.hampshire.edu/projects/arrc

APRIL 29 (Saturday)
March for Peace, Justice and Democracy
New York City
www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3178


7) THE NATION MAGAZINE STUDENT WRITING CONTEST
Win $500!  Contest's deadline is March 31, 2006
The Nation magazine is looking for original, thoughtful, provocative student voices about the issue is of most concern to own generation. Essays should not exceed 800 words and should be original, unpublished work that demonstrates fresh, clear thinking and superior quality of expression and craftsmanship.

The winning essay will be published in the magazine and featured on their website. The five finalists will be awarded $100 each and subscriptions, and their entries will be published online. The contest is open to students at American high schools and to undergraduates at American colleges and universities.

Please send entries to studentprize@thenation.com.
And you can find more info at the link below: www.thenation.com/about/student_writing_contest.mhtml
Send YDS a copy of your entries too!  And remember that you can request *free* copies of The Nation for your YDS events!


8) CORNEL WEST ON THE RADIO
Fire on the Prairie: Jeff Chang on the Hip-Hop Generation and Dr. Cornel West on Democracy Matters (Dr. West is the Honorary Co-Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America)
http://www.fireontheprairie.com/





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