Youth Convention opens 'youth bill of rights' drive

Special to the World

This article was reprinted from the June 13, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

PHILADELPHIA - From high schools and colleges all across the country, delegates to the 6th National Convention of the Young Communist League (YCL) gathered on the campus of Temple University June 5-7 to approve a "Youth and Student Bill of Rights." They elected a new YCL National Council. They staged a militant demonstration.

Aisha Anderson, a YCL leader at the University of Pittsburgh, emceed a cultural evening Saturday night, with a dozen delegates reciting their poetry. A hip-hop band, The Silhouettes, performed and two young women from Baltimore danced - all to appreciative applause.

It was a reunion for the many delegates who became fast friends at the Youth Festival in Havana, Cuba last summer. But others were new, attracted by the YCL's "street heat" on a dozen different fronts of the class struggle. Some joined over the Internet after visiting the YCL website.

The delegates lined up in the Temple Student Center conference room to report on YCL actions in their communities and on their campuses. No matter how brief, the reports were greeted with warm applause. The greetings from fraternal delegates from the Communist youth of Canada and Greece brought home the fact that the YCL is part of a global youth movement.

Temple University Student Body President Shontae White welcomed the delegates Saturday morning. He presented YCL National Coordinator Noel Rabinowitz with a handsome Temple University plaque greeting the convention.

The hall was bedecked with banners including the YCL's clenched fists emblem depicting the multiracial unity of the young Communist movement. There was also a display of photos of the great Communist freedom fighter, Paul Robeson.

In his opening report, Rabinowitz told the gathering, "We're here because youth demand a future and we don't see that a future is being prepared for us.

We have many streams that are forming the river that will be the mass YCL," he added. "We will speak truth to power. Our job is to organize the YCL to enable youth to fight. We need a working class kind of organization to fight the battles ahead."

He hailed the role of YCL clubs in spearheading struggles - in California, helping the labor movement defeat anti-union Proposition 226 and working against anti-bilingual Prop 227; in Chicago, staging militant protests against sweatshops and child labor; at Temple University, spearheading the defense of open admissions.

He urged the delegates to go home and help build a nationwide movement in support of the Youth and Student Bill of Rights, already warmly embraced by the United States Student Association. "We want the youth and student movement to have a common set of demands," he said. "The Youth and Student Bill of Rights could take off, comrades. It's up to us to spread this movement. We have to fight for it."

Candidates in this year's congressional elections should be asked to endorse the bill of rights, he said. "We can use it to help mobilize the youth vote next November. It is something to be 'for,' instead of just being against what's happening."

As the crowd applauded, Rabinowitz thanked the Communist Party USA. Without the Party, he said, there would be no YCL.

We are heirs to a long history of struggle," he said. That's why we are dedicating this convention to Paul Robeson. Stolen people built this country on stolen land. But together, we will turn this country around. Our goal is socialism.

Anita, Wheeler, a Baltimore high school student, told the convention of the Baltimore YCL's work in support of the $250 billion Martinez jobs bill. "It would set aside $45 billion to build and repair our public schools," she said. We got the Baltimore City Council to endorse it.

Brad, a delegate from the University of Oklahoma, got a big round of applause when he pledged to organize a YCL club on his campus when he returns home.

Temple student, Seth Oberman, said the Temple YCL's battle on campus in defense of open admissions, gained strength when the Progressive Unity slate was overwhelmingly elected, despite red baiting by right-wing fraternities. Most members of the slate were active participants in the convention, including several who are not yet YCL members.

Eve, a delegate from Georgia, told the convention the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has decimated many communities in the south. A lot of damage has been done by NAFTA, she said. Textile workers have lost their jobs." She reported that she has received a favorable response when she informs jobless workers about the Martinez bill. I'm trying. I'm here to learn, she said.

Jessie, a student at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, told of her shock when the Dartmouth Review published a scurrilous attack on affirmative action. She organized a protest meeting and was dismayed when no other white students showed up.

We have to convince people that everybody will gain from equality," she said. "That's the way we can fight and win ... The fight for affirmative action is a fight to win jobs for all.

Judith LeBlanc brought greetings from CPUSA National Chair Gus Hall and the entire Communist Party. "You've got to go to the people and organize them in the streets to demand jobs at a living wage," she said. "If you believe the Youth and Student Bill of Rights should be a law, you've got to organize. The 1998 elections are the most important arena of struggle. Are you going to let Newt Gingrich take over the Congress?" In unison the crowd shouted, "No!"

Treston Faulkner, speaker of the Temple Student General Assembly, drew a thunderous ovation with his rap: "Fighting for a peaceful future is like loving your mother, your brother, loving your sis. It's like that, y'all. It's like that. The YCL is on the front lines ... It's only through struggle you can truly be free. It's like that y'all. It's like that."

Faulkner told the World that once he starts rapping, he makes the lines up as he rolls along. The Young Communist League is rolling along.

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