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Dynamic Magazine
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The quarterly magazine of the YCL
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YCL 8th National Convention May 2006
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Our Future, Our Fight: Youth Beat Back the Ultra-Right!
Young Communist League, USA
Eighth National Convention
May 27-29, 2006 * New York City
Our Future, Our Fight: Youth Beat Back the Ultra-Right
On Memorial Day Weekend members of the Young Communist League, USA refused to sit back while ultra-right attempts to destroy our future by holding our 8th National Convention in Brooklyn, New York. During the weekend, over 250 delegates and guests from Oakland, Chicago, Maine, Providence, Florida, St. Louis, New York and many other communities came together to celebrate the successes of the YCL in the last 4 years and to plan how to move the YCL forward in the struggle for peace, jobs and education for young people.
Convention highlights include:
Convention-goers attended “War and Peace”, an art exhibit and hip-hop performance co-sponsored by Dynamic Magazine, World Up and Upper Playground
Convention-goers demonstrated outside of a Brooklyn military recruitment center demanding money for schools, jobs and not for war
Convention adopted a national Action Plan, a document that provides a foundation for our work over the next 4 years
Convention approved resolutions covering our approach to the struggle of immigrants, the struggle for peace, and aid to survivors of Hurricane Katrina
Convention elected of new National Council and National Coordinator, Erica Smiley
The convention opened with a rousing speech from out-going National Coordinator Jessica Marshall, setting the tone for the rest of the weekend by noting “This country needs a radical youth organization, a strong and vibrant multi-racial organization. The YCL knows that unity is not a secondary vision. We are not victims, we are fighters!” Also addressing the convention were Congressman Major Owens (D-NY) who welcomed us to Brooklyn “on behalf of all the progressive forces of the nation and world”, Jarvis Tyner, executive Vice Chair of the Communist Party USA who reminded us that “Tomorrow is Yours”, and international guests from the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), YCL of Canada, YCL of Greece, YCL of Israel and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) of El Salvador.
Throughout the weekend YCL members and guests participated in workshops on topics ranging from issues such as “Youth and the Poverty Draft”, skills-building sessions on how to get involved in the upcoming elections to ideological workshops highlighting the YCL’s approach to fighting racism, the struggle women’s equality and the fight for democracy.
As we all return home, pumped from the Convention and ready to hit the streets in the upcoming elections, we invite you to join us in the fight for the rights of young people and for a better future for all youth. You can do this in many ways, signing up for the upcoming YCL School where you can dive deeper into the many ideological questions raised at the convention, you can participate in our elections work, and be a part of implementing our Action Plan in so many ways.
But before you do anything, consider joining the YCLUSA.
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Upcoming Events
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2008 Elections
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Check back soon for more information!
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Generation Vote, a national coalition of different youth and student organizations, has created a Youth Agenda for the 2008 elections. Read it, endorse it, download it and distributed it today!
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More Summer 2008, Issue 19
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At the beginning of June, celebrations took place in West Jerusalem to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the “Unification of Jerusalem.”
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In the 1970s, there was the “Great White Flight,” when wealthy white people left the inner cities for suburbia. They took their money with them, leaving the cities to decline. Now the opposite of the white flight is occurring: poor people of color are being pushed out in favor of wealthy whites.
With gas prices at five dollars a gallon; you can’t help but ask how much better off are we than previous generations?
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Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to hear people say that socialism will never work because it “goes against human nature.”
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Listening to Baghdad radio stations, you would mostly hear traditional mellow Iraqi music. While this does not match the nation’s current situation, it does drown out the harsh sounds of war.
But just like everywhere, there is a small subculture of underground music, the only release for some people.
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More Dynamic Magazine
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More Upcoming Events
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LIFT THE TRAVEL BAN ON CUBA!
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World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) supports Irish Youth in their Struggle Against the European Union Lisbon Treaty
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YCL Election Pamphlets
Download and pass out the new YCL election pamphlets on the impact of the 2008 elections on fight for peace, jobs and education!
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More Upcoming Events
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More Upcoming Events
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More Issues & Ideas
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No Child Left Behind Club Educational
New club educational on No Child Left Behind. Download it and use it at your next club meeting!
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Updated Elections Club Educational
New Club Educational on electoral struggle to get your club ready and engaged in the 2008 elections! Download it and use it your next meeting.
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As of this writing, the Republicans have settled on their nominee, and the U.S. is still in the midst of a Democratic primary race that has energized and mobilized millions of people, especially youth, across the country. In state primary after state primary, record numbers of people have come out to vote, or caucus, to add their voice to the millions debating the question: Who will be the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)?
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During the fall of 2007, the United Autoworkers’ (UAW) contract negotiations with the “Big 3,” General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, were big news, including strikes at both GM and Chrysler. The resulting contracts were the epitome of the attacks on the broader labor movement, and included concessions of both a VEBA (Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Associations) to fund the health care benefits and a two-tier wage system that allows for non-core (non-assembly) jobs and, in the case of Ford, a percentage of all new hires, to be filled by workers making less than half the pay and benefits of current workers.
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New Issue of Dynamic Magazine Out Now
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"America, America" by Zach Johnsen
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When Affirmative Action was first created in 1961, under President John F Kennedy, the focus was on the labor workforce. Higher education was, at the time, only available to the elite, which made colleges and universities a very privileged space. However, during the social upheavals of the 1960s, more people became aware of the power higher education holds.
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