Beyond Capitalism: YDS Winter Conference
Join us at our youth section’s annual winter conference Friday, February 14th through Sunday, February 16th in NYC for a weekend filled with hanging out with other young socialists, workshops on politics and major social issues, and training on how to succeed as a student activist.
Seize this last chance to register at our discount rate. The early registration deadline for the conference is this Thursday, February 6th! So don’t delay, register here!
The conference is open to all students and young activists, regardless of whether you are a member of YDS or not.
2013 was a big year for social movements. We watched and joined low-wage workers striking for a living wage, thousands marching for justice for Trayvon Martin, DREAMers fighting for education justice, and LGBTQ people and allies making major advances for marriage equality.
YDS activists were there. For example, YDS activists organized campaigns at UC Davis and Vassar College in solidarity with campus workers struggling for their rights. At Sewanee University, YDSers joined campuses across the country as they mobilized to fight against anti-immigrant hate speech. Our activists at William Paterson University trailed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and demanded he sign a bill guaranteeing in-state tuition to undocumented students. And Lindsey Wilson College activists organized a very successful discussion about the cuts to food stamps and collected food for their local food pantry.
All of these important achievements – and yet we’re still faced with all of the same big problems: the move to privatize public universities, like the University of California system, continues in full force, neoliberal economics have pushed whole cities like Detroit into bankruptcy, and more than 400,000 homes were foreclosed on last year. So what are the root causes of these problems? And what’s the solution?
It’s time to go beyond capitalism, to put forward an economic alternative and to fight back against racism, patriarchy, and heteronormativity. At YDS’s Winter Conference we’ll be talking about our structural analysis of oppression and an economic system that protects and enriches the powerful.
But having a stronger analysis of the problems we face is only half the struggle. We need strategies and solutions too. That’s why we’re also focusing our attention on these important questions: How do we build a stronger student movement? What’s the role of the left in politics today? What does our vision of democratic socialism – a society free of oppression and exploitation – look like?
We’re meeting in New York City this February to ask tough questions and to start making a plan. You’ll learn more about pressing issues like student debt and workers’ rights, hear from speakers like social movement theorist Frances Fox Piven, feminist Mikki Kendall and Jacobin Magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara, attend activist trainings and anti-oppression caucuses, and meet other YDSers engaged in campaigns across the nation! Representatives from our sister socialist organizations in the Phillipines, Mexico, and Germany will also be attending.
Download the conference posters to put up on your community.