Midwest gears up for YCL Convention

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/midwest-gears-up-for-ycl-convention/

ST. LOUIS — On March 25-26 the Young Communist League hosted its first Midwest Regional Conference at Teamsters Hall here. YCL members and friends, old and new, came from all over the Midwest to discuss a draft action plan to be voted on at the group’s national convention on May 27-29 in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Quincy Boyd, president of AFSCME Local 2730, greeted the audience. “This is a revolution we are all in,” he said. “If there is anything I can do, just let me know.”

The conference heard panel presentations on the three main points of the action plan: peace, jobs and education. Presenters included a number of the YCL’s friends and allies, such as a member of Veterans for Peace.

Discussion revolved around how these issues affect youth, the different ways their voices can be heard, and how to take action on specific struggles. Student-labor solidarity was an important theme.

Skill-building sessions focused on how to counter military recruitment, build coalitions, raise funds and conduct orientation programs for new members. On the first evening, conference-goers attended a fundraising concert for the People’s Weekly World.

Another important theme of the conference was the 2006 elections and how the YCL can mobilize the youth vote and otherwise participate in electoral politics. At the meeting’s conclusion, many were eager to put their words into practice and help canvass for progressive candidates, like state Rep. John Bowman, who closed the meeting. The YCL helped Bowman get elected in 2004 during its Midwest elections project.

This directly related back to discussions on how to build the YCL and bring a strong delegation from the Midwest to the May convention.

One participant, Kristen Gann, 19, is a student at the University of Missouri–Columbia studying film and journalism. “I think you learn the most by meeting people, different clubs, and sharing ideas and experiences that people bring to it,” she told the World.

Asad Ali, 28, came all the way from western Pennsylvania and was excited to take part in the conference. “I look forward to taking this all back to my club,” he said. “It’s great to meet national staff, PWW writers and people to help build strong relationships.”

About the draft action plan, Ali said, “You can’t really disagree with it.” He said he is interested in how “different groups will utilize the action plan in their communities, to make changes in their part of the country.”

Konrad Cukla is a high school student and a leader of the Milwaukee YCL club.

Pepe Lozano contributed to this story. For more information, visit www.yclusa.org/convention.

Why and How to Work With the Muslim Community: YCLUSA Midwest Conference Workshop Proposal

(Workshop proposal for 2006 YCLUSA Midwest Conference in St. Louis, Missouri)

A. why work with the Muslim community

1. show how targetted domestically and internationally by the ultra-right and so are a reliable ally because of their national and class interests

2. show rise in working class resistance among Muslim communities in the US (e.g. factory protests by Muslims for religious rights)

3. show how current participation within coalitions is severely limited (e.g. short of turnout potential, working class and rank-and-file being excluded)

B. who is the Muslim community: nations, classes, history in the US

1. national composition: South Asian, African American, Arab

2. converts: majority African-American, female

3. multi-class composition, significant low-income/working class segment

4. surveys of geographic destribution

5. history in the US

- Muslims in US before independence, participation in revolutionary war and civil war

- 14% African-Americans from slave trade were Muslim including Muslim ruling class, continuity to today

- South Asian revolutionaries established communist

organization in West Coast in early 1900s, targetted by Palmer raids, working-class leadership

- formative role in 60s civil rights movement

- closet Arab-Americans, closet American Muslims

C. approaching national and local organizations for coalition work

1. description of major national organizations and international affiliations

2. implications for decison-making structure of local mosques

3. using a national mosque directory to figure out pros and cons of coalition partners

4. key committees and staff/officers to approach without violating process

5. mosque as a mass institution: rank and file relationship to staff/leadership, composition, working with mass events: friday prayers, holidays, community festivals

6. approaches of non-Muslim national organizations in the environment: ACLU, NLG, Gamileal Foundation

D. practical issues of sensitivity

1. male/female interpersonal relations, implications for organizing meetings

2. norms of mosque behavior: dress, shoe removal, prayer time behavior, month-of-fasting behavior

3. addressing GLBTQI equality, women's equality, coalition work outside Muslim community

4. community policies on media relations

E. practical examples from Pittsburgh

1. Free Getu Coalition (www.freegetu.org)

2. immigration cases: special registration, deportation, documentation problems, freeing people secretely detained by the federal government

3. housing discrimination

4. labor rights: women workers' right to wear hijab, on-the-job discrimination

5. ensuring a rank-and-file, working-class, oppressed nationalities approach to community organizing