Young Democratic Socialists
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Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) is a democratic socialist youth organization in the United States. It is the youth section of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose political outlook it shares, and the American affiliate of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). As such, YDS members, notably the international secretary, are regularly invited to international conferences by their sister organizations.
Formerly known as the Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section, the organization played a significant role in the 1980s in the movements against apartheid in South Africa and U.S. intervention in Central America. It helped introduce many student activists to trade union struggles, with many of the organization's alums going on to become labor organizers and union staff members. In the late 1990s YDS chapters, most notably the ones at Ithaca College and the University of Arizona, became heavily involved in the national movement against the prison-industrial complex. Chapters tried to force colleges to cancel their contracts with food service provider Sodexho Marriott because its parent company, Sodexho Alliance, owned stock in Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit prison company.
The group's most visible current national activities are its participation in the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), the national immigrants rights project, and organizing various national conferences, usually held in New York City. YDS had a contingent march in the NYSPC section of the United For Peace and Justice march against the Iraq war in Washington, DC on January 27th, 2007. [1] YDS coordinates its participation in electoral activities through a committee called the Young Democratic Left. The organization has not had an official publication since The Activist ceased publication in 2004. As of 2006 the group is seeking to replace it with a blog-style online publication.[2]
From February 16th to 18th, 2007, YDS held its largest youth conference in several years at Bayard Rustin High School in New York City. Called "Justice Beyond Borders: Democracy and Socialism in the 21st Century," the conference featured key-note speeches by Professor Noam Chomsky, journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich, The Nation correspondent Christian Parenti, author and journalist Liza Featherstone, Columbia University Professor Gayatri Spivak, and Temple University Political Science Chair Professor Joe Schwartz.[3]
The group is currently headed by national organizer David Duhalde, and is run by a coordinating committee consisting of two co-chairs, an International Secretary, anti-Racism Coordinator, Feminist Issues Coordinator, and several at-large members. The group has a number of current chapters and organizing committees across the country. The strongest are Bowdoin College Democratic Left and the University of Central Arkansas United Leftist Front. Other strong chapters include those at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, the New York City Metro Chapter, and New Meadows High School in Las Vegas. YDS also has organizing committees and chapters at Wichita State University in Kansas, the College of Wooster in Ohio, Bowling Green State University in Ohio, MIT, Edison High School in Alexandria, Virginia, University of Virginia-Wise, and Michigan State University. Previous well-known chapters have included those at University of Chicago, James Madison University, the University of Central Oklahoma, and Bryn Mawr College.
The Bowdoin chapter has garnered the most attention in recent years through its work getting the college to sign onto the Worker Rights Consortium, supporting gay rights through Maine ballot initiatives, and protesting the war in Iraq. The Bowdoin Democratic Left, formerly known as Bowdoin Students For Democratic Socialism, has been featured in the media on several occasions. In April 2005, Ben Kreider of Bowdoin YDS led a small protest on campus outside of a talk by Ambassador Paul Bremer.[4] In September 2006, Bowdoin YDS members Alex Lorch and Sam Minot led other students and community members in a protest against the war in Iraq, receiving coverage in the Brunswick Times Record. The UCA United Leftist Front has received attention for coalition work again Wal-Mart, supporting queer rights in Arkansas, participating in the Tent State University campaign, and putting on 2 "Mid-South Conferences of the Left."
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
- Democratic Socialists of America
- Young People's Socialist League
- Worker Rights Consortium
- United Students Against Sweatshops
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ydsusa.org/news/yds-nyspc-events.html, accessed 2/24/07
- ^ http://www.ydsusa.org/activist.html, accessed 3/24/06.
- ^ http://www.ydsusa.org/news/justice-beyond-borders, accessed 2/24/07.
- ^ http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2005-04-15§ion=1&id=4, accessed 2/24/0I.
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