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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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Beautiful Struggle - Talib Kweli – (Geffen Records, 2004)) &
New Danger – (Universal Music, 2004)
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Love + Revolution is the second full-length album from New York-based ‘Puerto Punx’ Ricanstruction. (Uprising Records, 2004)
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A delegation of military family members whose sons died while fighting in the Iraq war traveled to Jordan from December 27, 2004 to January 4, 2005. The Families for Peace Humanitarian Aid Delegation delivered $600,000 worth of humanitarian supplies for refugees from the U.S. attack on Falluja. Dynamic speaks with Hany Khalil of United for Peace and Justice, who participated in the delegation.
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Photo: Dahr Jamail
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More 2005 - March
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Imagine a show about seven strangers picked to live together in a house. Their challenge? Find a real job (not one given to them by MTV) that provides a living wage, health insurance, and a career path. There’s no way out - not finding a job means the contestants on this show fail to support themselves or their families. That’s the real challenge facing us—young people in the US—and it’s rarely shown on TV.
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Prisons are unnecessary, yet we continue to fund them. They are supposed to change the criminals that are sent there into contributing citizens – yet everyone in a cell is just getting a kick in the ass from society.
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On a Saturday afternoon in La Vega, classrooms are packed with women of all ages returning to school, seeking higher degrees thanks to Mission Ribas. Photo: Noah Friedsky
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The host country for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students has seen amazing changes over the past few years. Recently, the US has started to indirectly threaten intervention with Venezuela’s internal affairs, claiming that the state ‘supports terrorism.’ Omar Sierra, a founding member of the Bolivarian Circles, talks to Dynamic about people power at work in Venezuela:
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Photo: Noah Friedsky
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“For peace and solidarity, we struggle against war and imperialism?
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Take Action! on the issues!
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A movement is on the horizon. Since the late nineties, the work of organizations like the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), and Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) has created a resurgence in the alliance between students and labor.
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Ten years ago, few people knew of Immokalee, and even fewer could find it on a map. Today, this severely impoverished town in rural southwest Florida, the heart of the state’s colossal agriculture industry, is the base of a movement whose shockwaves are reverberating throughout the country.
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More 2005 - March
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The All Burma Students League (ABSL) was formed on 30th July 1994 in New Delhi when student organizations of the India-based democratic forces of Burma came together for the first time.
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More 2005 - March
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Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who talked to Dynamic for our summer issue is now free!
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Letters from Dynamic readers
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Do young people coming up right now have a future? And do we care enough to fight for it? That’s the big question behind this issue of Dynamic.
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Click here to find all about the festival. Also on this page: download a NEW pamphlet that you can use to tell everyone you know what the festival is and how to get involved. You can also download the application to apply to attend the festival (PDF versions available).
Check out the official US Festival website at http://usnpc.net
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Building a YCL Club is a huge step in the struggle for social justice. Chartering your club is the first step!
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Illustration: Michael McNeal
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How many of you have faced tuition hikes in your universities and not received more financial aid? Have you had to take time off from school to save money to pay higher tuition? Given up extracurricular activities to take on more work hours? How many of you are taking on unmanageable debt or are going through college without any health insurance? How many of you are graduating high school and beginning to think that maybe college is just not worth the price? How many know friends or siblings that are facing these issues? Unfortunately, like so many other essential services, higher education is becoming less and less accessible to working class, poor, and immigrant youth.
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