YOUTH IN U.S. REPORT ENCOURAGING GROWTH
The Young Socialist Alliance held the largest national convention in its history in Chicago over the week end of March 4-6. It was the YSA's fifth national convention in the seven years since its founding in June 1960. The:political level of the reports and . discussion reflected the continuing growth and consolidation of the YSA,; the only national revolutionary-socialist youth organization in the United States.
The convention discussion focused on the antiwar movement and the continuing radicalization of American youth. This was first taken up in a report by Lew Jones on the Political Resolution. He discussed the contradictory nature of American politics today in which there is’ a radicalization among the youth in the midst of a period of relative quiescence in the working class. The: coalition of workers, Negroes and capitalists within the Democratic party . remains’“essentially intact and the new radicals have no mass. labor or socialist party to. look’ to. The thrust of the antiwar movement. on the other hand has been away from coalitionism and liberalism. Much of’ the discussién on the Political Resolution was devoted to the need for the antiwar protest and Negro movements to develop a perspective for action independent of the capitalist parties.
~The report on the antiwar movement: by Doug Jenness reviewed the’ record of the YSA as a:force in initiating and building the movement. He stressed the néed to. continue: building the antiwar movement. around the slogan,’ "Bring? the Troops’ Home-Now.." The "Bring the Troops. Home Newsletter," ‘& national biweekly anti-Vietnam war newsletter was. pointed to as the best organizer for the wing of the antiwar movement which stands for self-determination for Vietnam. The discussion on the antiwar movement reflected the many experiences of YSAers in building the antiwar movement: in all the different regions of the.
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United States.
Two minority resolutions were submitted -- one on the Negro struggle and one on the antiwar movement. The antiwar minority resolution submitted by:a YSAer from the Seattle local criticized the role of the YSA in the antiwar movement. The document asserted that "The U.S. is heading into a pre-revolutionary situation," and said that the YSA's policies in the antiwar movement flowed from the "inability of the present YSA leadership to make an adequate conjunctural analysis of the crisis of American capitalism and the coming American revolution." The minority resolution on the Negro struggle, submitted by two. Seattle YSAers, opposed the YSA's support of black nationalism. The minority resolutions were criticized by many delegates as being totally out of touch with reality and both were. unanimously rejected.
Time. was set aside for a report and discussion on a new YSA draft constitution. The new constitution corrected many of the inadequacies of the original constitution passed in 1960 which reflected the inexperience of the movement at that time.
The Organizational Report by. Elizabeth Barnes described the large-scale expansion of YSA activities. This has been reflected in more national speaking tours and public meetings, larger fund drives, increased sales of the Young Socialist and the publication of four new pamphlets. More than 20,000 copies of the two YSA pamphlets on Vietnam have been sold. Some. 1,900. copies have been sold of the YSA pamphlet, Malcolm X Talks to Young. People. The publication of more pamphlets was projected for the future and the delegates voted for a $6,700 fund drive to meet the costs of YSA activities in the com-ing months. The Organizational Report put great stress on the education of YSAers; and YSA summer schools for socialist education were projected for: all the larger locals. oe
-There were two very fruitful panel discussions at the convention, one on the: Negro struggle and another on civil liberties. Discussion on the Negro struggle centered around the organization of Afro-American Committees against the war in Vietnam and recent developments in the South, particularly the growth of the Black Panther party in Alabama which is running a slate of Negro candidates in opposition to the Democratic and Republican parties. A report. was made on.a petition sponsored by several campus. organizations to include Negro history courses in the. curriculum at Wayne State University in Detroit.
The civil-liberties panel discussed the general state of civil liberties today as well as a number of particular cases such as that of Lt. Howe, the soldier who is being persecuted for expressing his opposition to the war in Vietnam. There were special . reports “on the case of Joseph Johnson, a Socialist Workers party organizer whom the government is trying to deport, and the case of the three , YSAers under indictment in Bloomington, . Indiana.
During the convention the delegates: got ‘the news of Attorney General Katzenbach's request that the Subversive Activities Control,
Board order the DuBois Clubs to register as a Communist.front group. A telegram was immediately sent to the DuBois Clubs from the conven~— tion supporting them in their fight against the order.
John Riddell, editor of the Canadian socialist magazine,_. the. Young Socialist Forum, reported to the convention on developments in the Canadian New Democratic party and union movement.-He -also reported the growth of an antiwar movement . in Canada | inspired by the antiwar movement in the U.S. .
The .two. resolutions and the constitution were passed unanimously after good discussions. Much of the discussion was led.by new. members and activists in the antiwar movement. It is also significant that over a third of the speakers were women, with women naking up a third of the new national committee.
A number of YSAers left the Young Socialist Alliance for work in the adult revolutionary-socialist movement at the time of the con-+ vention. Among these was Jack Barnes, -former national..chairman of _. the YSA. The national committee elected Lew Jones as:.the new national chairman and Elizabeth Barnes as. } national secretary. 7
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