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GET INVOLVED I ORGANIZE I EDUCATE
Organize!
Organize! Organize!
Below is a guide for starting
a chapter of Youth for Socialist Action, as well as some recommended
guidelines for leaders of existing YSA chapters.
In addition to working to
build YSA, we also encourage our members and supporters to get involved in
local activist coalitions, or if need be, to help initiate them. We feel it’s important for socialists to
work with other activists around the various issues where we have common
agreement. Here is an incomplete
list of awesome activist projects that we endorse and encourage YSAers to
get involved in:
 National Assembly to End the Iraq War &
Occupation
Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Stop the ICE Raids
Climate Crisis Coalition
Labor Party
Labor and Sustainability
Northland Anti-War Coalition
Free Kevin Cooper
Connecticut United for Peace
Northwoods for Mumia
Starting a
YSA Chapter
Below is a brief guide to starting up a YSA
chapter.
Most members join YSA through
existing chapters, but since we're still a small organization, if there
isn't a YSA chapter in your area you'll have to join as an at-large member.
As an at-larger we will try to work with you to come up with a personalized
reading list and education plan, and help you in any way we can to pull
together a new YSA chapter around you.
Here is a check-list we’ve put together of some of the things you can do to
start a YSA chapter in your area:
1. Get in touch with the nearest YSA branch or
the YSA National Office. We can help you in setting up a local group by
doing things such as:
Putting you in touch with other YSA
members and contacts who may live in your area.
Helping answer any questions you may
have.
Letting you know what actions are coming
up and what campaigns YSA is currently engaged in for you to help organize
around and promote.
And, we can send you out an organizers’
package of bulletins from YSA, and our predecessor, the Young Socialist
Alliance, that contain lots of useful information about organizing and our
politics.
2. Find some people who are willing to help
you:
You may already know some people who are
interested in getting active in with a group like YSA. That's a start.
Call them up, ask them if they're
interested in helping, organize a chance to meet them.
Put up a flier saying you’re interested
in starting up a YSA chapter with an email address or phone number for
people to contact you.
Set up a literature table with a banner,
some YSA & Socialist Action literature (contact the N.O. for some brochures,
etc.) and a clipboard.
Order a bundle of Socialist Action newspaper to hawk
on campus or at a demonstration. It can be a great way to meet people as
well as introduce them to socialist politics.
Organize a study group on socialism with
some friends.
Call a meeting and see who shows up.
3. How to organize a meeting:
At your school/college, pick a convenient
time to call a YSA meeting.
Reserve a room or pick a quiet spot where
people can sit and talk. Some schools let students reserve rooms
themselves, others require a teacher. If nothing else meet in a lounge or a
part of the cafeteria. You might even try holding it at someone's house.
Get the word out: tell people that you
know and ask them to tell others; put out a leaflet to post up and hand
around. Use every medium you can, phone, email, bulletin boards, fliers,
word of mouth, the U.S. Post Office, anything and everything.
4. The first meeting:
Tell people why you've called the meeting
and a little bit about YSA and the kind of things we do. Talk about ongoing
campaigns or local activist issues.
Allow time for people to ask questions or
raise their own ideas. Discussion is a good thing.
From there, you can discuss what the
group should do and work out how it can be done. A good collective
discussion will leave everyone excited and with something to do.
If you like, we might be able to send a
speaker to come out and answer questions.
Get everyone’s name and phone number. Set
a time and place for the next meeting.
5. Putting the “action” into Youth for
Socialist Action:
There are all sorts of ways to plug your new group into activism. The
best way is to focus your attention on a particular issue or upcoming action.
Pick something that is of concern to people. Here are some general tips for
promoting an issue or publicizing an event.
Put up posters everywhere you can.
Hand out leaflets or fact sheets to other
people at your school/college, at other nearby schools/colleges, and at
public places.
Organize a coalition around specific
demands and slogans if one doesn’t already exist, or plug into the existing
coalition.
Try to get a broad array of speakers for
any event.
Organize a YSA or school contingent for
the action with its own banner and picket signs.
6. Learning about the “socialism” of Youth for
Socialist Action:
We believe there can be no revolutionary action without revolution
theory, therefore YSA places a great deal of emphasis on education. Each
chapter should try to organize study groups and presentations to educate
its members.
Make sure everyone has a subscription to Socialist Action newspaper.
Print out the “ABCs of Socialism” essays
from the Theory page on the Socialist Action
website and distribute to all new YSA members.
Find out what issues people are most
interested and organize a study group or class. Materials are available
from the Theory page, and from the YSA
National Office.
Encourage members to use the YSA
Recommended Reading lists.
Organize presentations at chapter
meetings on the positions that YSA holds (the 10 Point Program or What Socialists Stand For essay
would be good source material).
7. Co-ordinate with the YSA National Office:
Keep the National Office up to date about
your progress.
Find out what YSA & Socialist Action
literature is available.
Plug into any national YSA meetings,
conferences or campaigns.
Write for and help distribute Socialist Action newspaper, and the
YSA website.
Don't hesitate to contact us with any
questions.
Guide for
YSA Chapter Leaders
Chapter
Organizer: Every chapter of Youth for Socialist Action is required to
elect a chapter Organizer. The
Organizer is responsible for overseeing the work of the chapter. They also serve as the chapter’s voting
representative on YSA’s National Committee (our national decision making
body in between conventions).
Chapters have the option of electing more than one Organizer if they
feel it is beneficial to have Co-Organizers. Be sure that elections are fair and democratic.
Other
Officers: YSA’s National Committee only requires that chapters elect an
Organizer. It is up the individual
chapters if they want to have any other officers. For example, some chapters elect treasures, secretaries (to
keep meeting minutes), forum directors, sales director (to supervise the
selling and distribution of Socialist Action newspaper) or assign comrades
to head up particular campaigns.
Newspaper: Youth for
Socialist Action politically endorses and supports Socialist Action
newspaper. Organizers should make
sure that their chapter gets a monthly bundle of the paper to sell at
public meetings, demonstrations and to contacts. Comrades should always be on the lookout for ways to get SA
into more hands. Comrades should
also take it upon themselves to write articles for the newspaper about
local issues and national current events.
Bundles of SA are available from the Socialist Action Newspaper
Office for $1 a copy. Chapter
Organizers should make sure that money collected from paper sales get sent
in to the Newspaper Office.
Public
Meetings: Every chapter is expected to host a regular series of public
meetings that YSA is the listed sponsor of, and that are open to the
public. Whether they are weekly,
bi-weekly, monthly or even quarterly is up to the chapter, but it is
important that YSA have a public face where people interested in our group
and ideas can come to. Public
meetings can consist of a presentation or an open discussion format,
depending on what comrades feel is most beneficial. YSA public meetings should generally
follow current events, since this is one of the main ways we get our ideas
out to the general public, but feel free to spice things up with
presentations on historical figures and events, cultural events, etc.
Planning
Meetings: In addition to public meetings each chapter is expected to
hold planning meetings. This is
where chapter members come together to discuss the group’s work and to vote
on any proposals comrades have on education or organizing projects. Planning meetings can be held at the end
of public meetings (in which case non-members present can’t vote), or held
separately at a different time and place.
Whichever format comrades decide to do it is important that all
members of the chapter know well in advance when and where all meetings
will be. Organizers should also
consider holding study groups (like on the Communist Manifesto) for chapter
members from time to time as well.
These can be incorporated into planning meetings, or held separately
and open to the public.
Chapter
Members: All YSA members in a city or rural area have to join the
chapter if there is one in their area.
Organizers are expected to keep an up to date list of all YSA
members in their chapter, as well as any at-large YSA members in their
surrounding geographic area that the National Office assigns to them. The name and contact info of all new
chapter members should be passed on to the YSA National Coordinator. Organizers are also responsible for
explaining to new members and potential members what the membership
requirements to YSA are (general agreement with our 10 Point Program and a
commitment to try and be active within the organization).
Reports: Organizers are
expected to write up and send in an activity report to the YSA National
Office at least quarterly (spring, summer, winter, fall). Activity reports should contain a
summary of how the chapters public meetings and campaigns have gone, number
of members, and any other info comrades think the National Office should be
aware of.
National
Campaigns: Any proposals for campaigns or projects for Youth for
Socialist Action as a whole should be sent to the YSA National
Committee. Once a YSA National
Committee member (every Organizer is automatically a YSA NC members) has
emailed a proposal to the rest of the Committee, other NC members have one
week to vote for it. If the
majority of votes cast is for the proposal, it passes. Chapters are expected to participate and
build all national YSA campaigns and projects as best they can, unless they
get special exemption from the YSA National Committee.
Local
Campaigns: In addition to national campaigns, chapters are free to
engage in local campaigns and projects – perhaps in support of a local
strike or community issue. Local
campaign proposals should be made and voted on at chapter planning
meetings, with a majority of votes cast needed for it to pass. It is recommended that chapters elect a
comrade to head up specific campaigns and projects, and for them to notify
the YSA National Office of local campaigns. Comrades are also encouraged to write articles about local
campaigns and political developments for Socialist Action newspaper.
Issues From 1996-2003:
Click here for info on how to subscribe to Socialist Action
newspaper.
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