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About Us: Youth for Socialist Action is a national network of
young revolutionaries. We are committed
to the emancipation of working and oppressed people everywhere. We are
active in the student, labor, anti-war, human rights, youth rights,
feminist, Black and Chicano liberation, queer and all other social
movements that challenge the injustices of capitalism and organize people
to stand up and fight in their own interests.
YSA was founded in 1997 in Ashland, WI.
Since then we’ve grown in size, experience and geographic
reach. We seek to build progressive
social movements, and to build them in a manner in which workers and young
people gain the experience and political direction that will enable them to
successfully challenge the status quo without relying on the misleaders of
the Republican and Democratic parties. Related to that, we are also active
in spreading the ideas of revolutionary Marxism, and winning workers and
young people over to the idea that at the end of the day only the
revolutionary self-emancipation of the working class will end the suffering
and injustices produced by capitalism.
We have the goal of recruiting and educating young revolutionaries. We
don't feel it's enough to simply be an activist, any more than we feel it's
enough to read a lot of books and educate yourself. You need both - and
being both educated about 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 work with other groups who agree with us on particular
issues. 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 past social movements.
And it means that we try to build a group that in many other ways
facilitates budding young revolutionaries gain the confidence, experience
& support they need to become revolutionary leaders.
If you are interested in socialist politics, and getting involved with an
optimistic, energetic and determined group of young activists, we encourage
you to consider joining
Youth for Socialist Action!
 The History of Youth for Socialist Action
YSA’s Constitution
What We Stand For: YSA has a 10 Point
Program that serves are our points of unity, and a basic summary of our
politics:
[1] We stand for workers'
democracy & socialism. We are active partisans in the class struggle!
[2] We fight against racism in all its forms. We are supporters of Black
and Chicano liberation, full sovereignty for American Indians, and we
defend the right of self-determination of all oppressed nationalities.
[3] We are opposed to any and all discrimination based on gender or sexual
orientation. We support equal rights for all!
[4] We fight to protect the environment from the ravages of capitalism.
[5] We fight to empower young people, on campus, in the community, and in
the workplace.
[6] We fight against police brutality, and any measures by the state to
take away or restrict our democratic rights.
[7] We stand for free quality education for all, from pre-school to
graduate school.
[8] We denounce imperialism, and oppose all U.S. foreign interventions,
regardless of the given justification.
[9] We denounce the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and stand in solidarity with
the Cuban people & their revolution.
[10] We advocate independent working class political action. Break from
pro-business politics!
An
Elaboration on Our 10 Point Program:
[1] We stand for workers' democracy and
socialism. We are active partisans in the class struggle!
As stated by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in the
Communist Manifesto of 1848, “[t]he history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggle.” Our revolutionary youth
organization stands on this maxim.
Therefore, YSA represents the collective memory of lessons of these
past struggles between classes with irreconcilable interests. On that
basis, our program rests on the foundation that the potential for change
today lies within the conflict between the interests of the capitalist
class and working class. The conflict’s logical conclusion is the working
class seizing state power. However,
workers lack the socialist vision necessary to achieve that end. Only
conscious, revolutionary leadership that has won the hearts and minds of
the working class can make that revolutionary perspective possible.
In order to win the respect and trust of the working
class it is essential that YSA champion the working class’s struggle on all
levels including immediate, democratic, and transitional demands. Thus,
when the class struggle sharpens, YSA will have proven its mettle in the
eyes of the working class, standing out among all contending socialists as
a capable leadership component of the international socialist revolution,
based on the social and political power of the working class. That
revolution will, for first time in history, establish a society
democratically run by the toiling billions world-wide.
[2] We fight against racism in all its forms. We
are supporters of Black and Chicano liberation, full sovereignty for
American Indians, and we defend the right of self-determination of all
oppressed nationalities.
Racism is an ideology and practice that reflects the
political, social, and economic needs of the capitalist class, based on
their exploitation of workers for profits. It has historically served to
rationalize treating oppressed nationalities as third class citizens, with
the result being the justification of relegating these groups to the worst
living conditions, the worst health care, the worst jobs, the worst
schools, and the lowest wages.
Because Blacks and Chicanos are overwhelmingly working
class, their oppression has a dual character: it is racially and class
based. Thus, the democratic and national aspirations of oppressed nationalities
in the United States (Blacks and Chicanos) have a profoundly revolutionary
dynamic. By supporting their right to self-determination we unconditionally
support their own solutions to national oppression, including the formation
of an independent Black or Chicano political party, the democratic right of
control by oppressed nationalities of all institutions in their own
communities, and even a separate Black or Chicano state.
We
recognize and oppose the physical and cultural genocide that has been waged
against American Indians in this country.
We support reparations, full sovereignty and the honoring of all
treaty rights with Native nations.
Should oppressed nationalities find substantial allies
among white workers who support their full liberation, they may decide that
a common struggle best meets their objectives. The choice is theirs.
Nationalist aspirations are not counter-posed to the
struggle for socialist revolution; rather, they are an integral component
of it. A consistent struggle against national oppression leads to the
struggle for socialism because the source of both national and class
oppression is the capitalist system. Therefore, the coming American
revolution will have a combined character: oppressed nationalities will
fight for full democratic rights while the working class as a whole,
including the oppressed nationalities, will fight for state power.
[3] We are opposed to any and all discrimination
based on gender or sexual orientation. We support equal rights for all!
Sexism is an ideology that reflects the political,
social, and economic needs of the capitalist class. It rationalizes
second-class citizenship and lower wages for women. Furthermore, it serves
as an ideological wedge dividing the working class.
Like other unnatural phenomena in society, sexism did
not exist until the advent of private property. Under the profit system,
women of all classes are valued almost solely for their reproductive
capabilities, unpaid domestic labor, and servitude to men.
The sexual division of labor helps to serve the ruling
minority by binding women to oppressive social roles while justifying the
inequality of pay between the sexes.
We support the women’s movement through mass action. To
loosen the stranglehold of the profit system on women, we are involved in
every struggle to win needed reforms, while still pointing out that women
will not be entirely liberated until capitalism has been abolished.
We are in the frontlines of the struggle to regain the
right to reproductive freedom and choice.
We demand a healthcare system based on science not religion, and we
struggle to gain access to affordable reproductive and contraceptive
services.
We support the ratification of the Equal Rights
Amendment and the full abolition of unfair criminal law based on
gender.
We fight to eliminate the wage gap between men and
women. We demand equal and affordable education and childcare centers at
low or no cost.
We are involved in the struggle to end the special oppression
of women of color and we support the right to self-determination of
minority women.
We understand that women need to organize and work
within women’s groups before the socialist revolution so that they can be
leaders in the revolutionary movement and assure that their needs will no
longer be denied by society.
Discrimination of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans
under capitalism expresses itself in both ideological and economic forms.
However, the ruling class has not historically used sexual-orientation
based discrimination like that of sexism, to justify paying the G/L/B/T
community lower wages or relegating them to inferior working conditions.
Though, when class based repression converges with sexual orientation
discrimination toward working-class queers and trans, the result is a
special situation. It is one in which the former strengthens the latter and
vice-versa.
For example, limitations of material conditions keep one
from coming out at the work place for fear of reprisals, on the one hand,
from the boss, and on the other hand, from co-workers. In the case of
homophobic bosses it may lead to a firing. In the case of homophobic
co-workers it can result in ridicule and potentially violence which can
force one to quit.
Therefore, we fight against discrimination based on
sexual orientation in all its forms including anti-gay referendums and
constitutional amendments as well as limited access to medical care,
housing, and jobs.
We support the struggle for the full democratic right of
marriage to queer and trans couples and demand the economic benefits and
protections of marriages that cannot be realized through civil unions.
We work to create a society in which women and the
G/L/B/T community live free from the fear of violence, abuse and
discrimination.
Only within a socialist society can all forms of sexual
orientation be able to develop fully, freely and openly. Likewise, only
under socialism can the full democratic rights of women, queers and trans
be met.
[4] We fight to protect the environment from the
ravages of capitalism.
The unplanned and rapacious nature of the capitalist
mode of production has resulted in a myriad of dire consequences for our
life-giving planet.
Vast tracts of forests have been cut. Aquatic diversity
has been greatly reduced by the over-harvesting (in both oceans and
freshwater) of commercial fisheries. Farmlands are increasingly sapped of
nutrients by monoculture-based factory farms. Genetically modified foods
threaten biodiversity. Regular oil spills and other types of pollution have
created “dead zones” in oceans and the Great Lakes, which are devoid of
life. Non-point and direct pollution sources further add to both oceanic
and freshwater pollution. The unplanned use of water has rapidly lowered the
water table. Environmental racism has resulted in impoverished and working
people having to bear the brunt of environmental pollution and degradation.
Capitalist production’s reliance on fossil fuels has led
to rapid deterioration in air quality and the increase in greenhouse gases
that cause global warming. In order to gain a competitive edge on their
rivals in world market, capitalist corporations have introduced nearly
70,000 carcinogens in their daily production.
We place no faith in a handful of “green corporations,”
organic farms or individual consumer solutions to stop further
environmental deterioration. The real solutions are social and political.
Thus, we seek to mobilize mass numbers to demand broad incorporation of
clean, renewable energy sources and implementation of farmer controlled,
sustainable agriculture. While we oppose every deadly insult to the
environment engineered to maximize profits, our ultimate goal is a planned,
socialist economy, the only system that can stop further environmental
destruction.
[5] We fight to empower young people -- on
campus, in the community, and in the workplace.
We struggle to establish democratic decision-making
bodies of young people to give them some control over the functioning of the
campuses, the community, the workplace and their own lives. Youth are the
victims of capitalist cutbacks in the schools and at the jobsite. They are
made to bear the costs of increased tuition and decreased quality of
education, of two-tier wage systems and of an economic draft that targets
the poor and oppressed.
History has demonstrated that youth are among the first
to challenge the fundamental injustices of society. They have been the
driving force of new social movements that seek to empower the oppressed
and exploited and challenge the policies of the war makers. On the campus,
in the community and at the workplace youth will stand at the forefront of
the coming struggles that challenge the boss class's ideologies and
practice.
[6] We fight against police brutality and any
measures by the state power to take away or restrict our democratic rights.
Police are the armed guards of capitalism, who work to
uphold the social and political dominance of the capitalist class. Police
and their political counterparts in the FBI and CIA exist to suppress the
expression of democratic rights, especially of youth, workers, and
oppressed nationalities. We support mass actions in the streets to defend
and organize against police attacks on our democratic rights. These are
qualitatively more effective than lawsuits in the capitalist courts or
reliance on capitalist politicians (both organs of the state).
In communities of oppressed nationalities we support
efforts to organize defense guards or patrols controlled by residents of
that community aimed at thwarting police violence and all other forms of
violence. We demand no police
presence in schools and on campuses.
[7] We stand for free quality education for all,
from pre-school to graduate school.
Education is not a privilege, but a fundamental
democratic right. We demand a massive overhaul of the United States
education system, fully funded by the federal government. This would
include replacing dilapidated school buildings with the most modern
facilities, raising teachers’ pay, bilingual education programs in schools
where students don’t speak English as their primary language, day-care
facilities for students with children, free breakfast and lunch programs,
job placement programs, the banning from schools of military recruiters and
ROTC programs, and all other reforms deemed necessary by students, teachers
and the community. Billions for
education not war!
[8] We denounce imperialism and oppose all U.S.
interventions, regardless of the justification.
We stand against all wars waged by the
capitalist/imperialist system. These are organized for profit and
domination and have nothing to do with the needs or aspirations of the U.S.
or the world's people. We say, “U.S. Out Now!” from Iraq to Afghanistan to
Yugoslavia to Latin America. We are opposed to the ongoing threats of war
against people anywhere. We are opposed to the U.S. backed Israeli
occupation of Palestine.
The U.S. war drive is a product of a failing social
system, incapable of functioning without exploitation and war. We demand
money for social programs, not war!
Furthermore, as a matter of principle, we denounce
imperialist military aggression under the guise of any international
imperialist agency including the United Nations and the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (N.A.T.O.).
Self determination of all peoples!
[9] We denounce the U.S. embargo/blockade and
threats of war against Cuba and stand in solidarity with the Cuban people
and their socialist revolution.
We stand in solidarity with the 1959 and ongoing Cuban
Revolution that toppled capitalism and embarked on the road to socialism.
The revolution's replacement of private ownership of the means of
production with a collectively owned and planned economy organized for the
satisfaction of human needs serves as an example to the people of the
world. We denounce the 1961 U.S.-organized invasion of Cuba, the 43-year
old U.S. instituted embargo/blockade and the illegal economic, commercial,
travel and trade measures instituted by U.S. imperialism to defeat the
revolution and reinstate capitalist exploitation.
We reject any characterization of Cuba as a Stalinist
degenerated worker’s state or state capitalist society. The leaders of the
revolution are revolutionists of action, dedicated to socialism and
advancing the interests of the Cuban and world's people. We are
nevertheless critical of Cuba’s lack of formal institutions of democratic
proletarian rule, without which the revolution's strength and capacity to endure
is undermined.
We demand an end to the U.S. embargo/blockade and all
other U.S. actions to crush the revolution including terrorist attacks and
military intervention.
We support the courageous actions of the Cuban Five to ensure
the safety of their country from future U.S. led terrorist attacks. We
demand their immediate release from U.S. federal prisons.
We demand the immediate release of all U.S. prisoners
from Guantanamo Bay and the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from
Cuba.
[10] We advocate independent working class
political action. Break from pro-business politics!
YSA supports all forms of progressive working class
political and economic action, from the formation of a labor party based on
reinvigorated and fighting unions allied with the oppressed, to political
and economic strikes to advance the cause of working people.
We reject support to the capitalist Democratic and
Republican Parties and to any other capitalist electoral formation. We
support and seek to participate in building independent mass actions in the
streets to advance all social movements that challenge capitalist plunder,
cutbacks, oppression, racism and war. Only the independent mobilization of
workers and their allies can fight
the scourges of unemployment, poverty, homelessness and related capitalist
horrors. We support independent mobilizations demanding and fighting for
jobs for all and a 30-hour work week for 40 hours pay to spread out all
available work to those who need it.
We reject support to middle class, pro-capitalist
"third parties" like the Greens as well as to so-called
independent pro-capitalist candidates like Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo.
For socialism! For worker's
power! For working class
internationalism! Youth to the vanguard of all struggles! Build YSA!
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