So01cialist Action WHY I BECAME A SOCIALIST: “Concentration of resources in the hands of the few is just wrong!” – Rose H. [Duluth, MN] “Mr. Man has to be shut down, we’ve got bust up his imperial crown!” – Mark O. [San Francisco, CA] “We need to work together, so that we can make a more fair & just world.” – Monica B. [Carborro Hill, NC] “We deserve better than what we’re getting. It’s as simple as that. With socialism we’ve got a shot at a better world.” – Rob W. [Chapel Hill, NC] “The more I learned about the world, and its problems, the less I was able to believe in capitalism.” – Heather B. [Superior, WI] “Because everyone deserves the same chance to live, love, be happy and prosper.” – Carl S. [Ashland, WI] “There’s a lot of problems in the world, and socialism is the most logical solution – people coming together to collectively solve their problems.” - Jeni J. [Crivitz, WI]

GET INVOLVED I ORGANIZE I EDUCATE LINK: Click here to check out Youth for Socialist Action’s Blog! INTRODUCTION: Welcome to the online home of Youth for Socialist Action. YSA is a national network of young socialists.  By socialism we mean a world where human needs come before profits - a truly democratic world that is free of exploitation, racism, sexism and homophobia. We are confident in the power of our ideas, and our ability to change the world! We are committed to the emancipation of working and oppressed people everywhere. We are active in the student, labor, anti-war, student, feminist, anti-racist, immigrant rights, queer and other social movements that challenge the injustices of capitalism, and organize people to stand up and fight in their own interests. WHAT WE DO: We seek to build progressive social movements, and to build them in a manner in which workers and young people gain the experience that will enable them to successfully challenge the status quo. We believe in building movements that are independent of the misleaders of the Republican and Democratic parties. We are active builders of coalitions in all of the issues that we are involved in. We also have the goal of recruiting and educating young revolutionaries. We don't feel it's enough to simply be an activist. Nor is it enough to simply read a lot of books and study political theory.  You need both - and being both educated in political theory, and active in the struggles against capitalism, is what being a revolutionary is all about! What does all of this translate into on a day-to-day basis? It means we do a lot of coalition building. It means we try to organize mass action demonstrations to lead people towards collective, instead of individual types of activism. It means we organize forums and study groups where we talk about Marxism and the lessons of the past.  And it means that we try to build a group that in many other ways facilitates our members gaining the confidence, experience & support they need to become revolutionary leaders. JOIN US: Membership in Youth for Socialist Action is open to any young person who is in general agreement with our 10 Point Program. There are YSA clubs in a number of communities and campuses across the country. If there is a YSA chapter in your area, we urge you to become active in it. For those comrades who live in areas where there isn’t currently a YSA chapter, we encourage you to plug into the organization through our email list, myspace.com, facebook.com, and by doing what you can to start something in your town. We also encourage our members and supporters to read and help distribute Socialist Action newspaper, as well as to read, write for, and help spread the word about the Socialist Action website and news blog. CONTACT US: You can contact Youth for Socialist Action by writing to P.O. Box 16853, Duluth MN 55816, or by sending an email to wainosunrise [at] yahoo [dot] com. "The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in parliament." - V.I. Lenin "Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg "Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness." - Leon Trotsky “If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.” - Che Guevara "I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action." - Malcolm X "You're just another step on the boss man's ladder, but you've got dreams he can never take away!" - Dolly Parton “There are two Americas - and millions of the people already distinguish between them. One is the America of the imperialists - of the little clique of capitalists, landlords and militarists, who are threatening and terrifying the world. This is the America the people of the world hate and fear. There is the other America - the America of the workers and farmers and the 'little people.” – James P. Cannon “The capitalists speculate on the two following factors: the female worker must be paid as poorly as possible and the competition of female labor must be employed to lower the wages of male workers as much as possible.” – Clara Zetkin “Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!” - Karl Marx “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.” – Frederick Douglas “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” - Helen Keller “A political prisoner is someone who is out fighting for his or her people's rights and freedom and is imprisoned for that alone.” - Leonard Peliter “While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” - Eugene Debs “I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.” - Mother Jones "Down with this contemptible fraud! There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be “equality” between the oppressed and the oppressors, between the exploited and the exploiters. There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be real “freedom” as long as there is no freedom for women from the privileges which the law grants to men, as long as there is no freedom for the workers from the yoke of capital, and no freedom for the toiling peasants from the yoke of the capitalists, landlords and merchants." - V.I. Lenin Human Needs, Not Profits!

SOCIALISM F.A.Q. what is socialism? how do you make a revolution? what will a socialist america look like? what exactly do socialists stand for? what do socialists think about elections? marxism or anarchism? why do we need a revolutionary party?