Local youth movement

[Soviet Reunion]

Any tips on how I should go about starting a lefty movement in my local area? I live on the eastside of Seattle, so a fairly progressive area.

I'm currently a sophomore in high school, and there is a lot of sympathy or even what one would call support, towards Leftist and communist causes.
I'd like to capitalize, ironically, on that and really consolidate all those who are left-leaning into one movement. However, I'm really unsure on how to go about this or what will be done at said meetings.

I'm able to provide flyers and market effectively, so getting the word out would be no problem. It's being taken seriously and getting organized from the get-go that I am concerned with. The new progressive youth should organize rather than file into the political system the consumerist society has established for us to inherit.

Any/all suggestions are welcome!

[Kassad]

There's a lot of division on the left right now, as I'm sure you know. Are you totally confident that you want to start a new organization for your area? Seattle is known as a hotbed of radicalism and there's a lot of organizations that are currently active there, some of which have youth groups.

I'm an organizer with the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition. We have an active branch in Seattle that is active in a multitude of struggles, from anti-war demonstrations to the struggle for education rights. If you're interested, here's some contact information and our website: 206-568-1661
[email protected] ([email protected]) http://www.answerseattle.org/

I know that World Can't Wait is also active in Seattle. Hope some of this information helps and at the very least, it can help you get in touch with activisits in the area.

[Soviet Reunion]

Well I had meant more as a local high school sort of level, a forum for discussion of like-minded people. If at all possible, I would refer people to those organizations to get registered.
Do you guys have a central office I can travel to for information, meet some of the people there, and discussion registration? Or is it all online and by phone?

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

The International Students for Social Equality (http://intsse.com/) might be of interest to you.

[MarxSchmarx]

I would find a few like minded people, prolly between 4-7, 5 is a really good number, and arrange to meet at a coffee shop (or wherever else people in Seattle mingle) to just try to educate yourselves about the basics - e.g., the class struggle, the various leftist tendencies, and neoliberalism. Before you meet have someone look into something, like say assign Trotskyism to one person, Anarchism to another person, and Maoism to another. That way you each have something important to contribute.

Basically continue that and have each person network with a different leftist org - like one person goes to an infoshop, another to an ANSWER meeting, and still another to the ISO newspaper table at UW, collect literature and whatnot, and come back and try to explain it to each other. Hell take a trip up to Vancouver and learn from the scene (or lack thereof) there. And you can go to big marches like I imagine there will be one against the new Arizona law, or you can all go to a food not bombs gathering, just so you're not cooped up in your ivory tower.

What's important in such groups is to develop a sense of mutual collegiality so and experimentation. I can speak from experience that youth groups are very conducive to both of these, and it is frankly a great way to get your feet wet and make up your own minds. It also teaches you how to deal with other people, and to respect diverse opinions and translate them into action.

[comradesvs]

yclusa.org I think they have a club in Seattle...

[Q]

yclusa.org I think they have a club in Seattle...

Are they somewhat better than their ideologically bankrupt motherparty (assuming they are affiliated to the CPUSA)?

[Honggweilo]

Are they somewhat better than their ideologically bankrupt motherparty (assuming they are affiliated to the CPUSA)?
as someone who is highly critical of the CPUSA and much more affiliated with the PSL/WWP/FRSO (FB) i must say the YCL are much more a part of the leftwing of the CPUSA and showed critical potential at their convention

http://cpusa.org/convention-discussion-a-time-to-grow/

Part 1: THE COMMUNIST PLUS

Defining Our Value Added

As members of the Communist Party fighting the good fight on a daily basis, we have to ask ourselves, what is our value added? What am I contributing to the movement as a Communist that I would not be able to contribute if I were not a member? How is our contribution to the movement magnified by being members of the Communist Party?
If we cannot consistently define our value-added in any given struggle, we will not be able to provide a good reason for someone to join and/or to be active in the Communist Party.
OUR VALUE ADDED: Center-Left Unity

That said, it is at the root of our strategic policy to build unity between the "Center" and the "Left" against the Ultra-right and, as we progress, monopoly capital as a whole. In order to successfully build and strengthen Center-Left unity, we must have strong relationships with the "Center" and the "Left" in any given campaign or issue. It is our belief that the Communist Party USA is best positioned to do this, given our historic relationships within both Left and Center forces.
After the presidential elections, Sam Webb alerted us to a survey that claims over 20% of those polled prefer some form of socialism to capitalism, and a similar percentage were not sure. If we did a sub-experiment we would probably note that as the age of those polled decreased the percentage of those preferring socialism to capitalism would be even higher.
But it is not enough to revel in the poll results. We need to discuss what we are doing to reach out to that 20 plus percent, so many of whom are from our generation and younger. How are we making ourselves visible, available and accessible to that new and growing socialist minority? What are our clubs doing to attract them? ...to let them know that there is an organization where they can learn more, discuss more and be a part of a collective vision for a socialist USA? Undoubtedly, few of those polled identify as particularly "Left". But they are a part of the progressive movement we are trying to unite in order to defeat the last clinging remnants of the Ultra-Right, and we must be accessible to them.
We have implemented our strategic policy in a way that has not allowed our clubs to pay much attention or find points of collaboration with the broader "Left". This is not to say that we should not struggle to build unity at the Center. But there are tons of people who are actively looking to be a part of an anti-capitalist, and in the best cases a socialist, movement.
The question before us is where/how are we plugging them in? How are we turning their interest in our online publications into active participation in person? How are we reaching out to younger or simply newly radicalized individuals who attend their first rally for healthcare or jobs creation? When these people do not find a way to become active in or with the Communist Party, they look to other forums that may not have the most unifying outlooks. Likewise, we cannot brush off every group that has a varying viewpoint as Ultraleftist.
We have to make more of an effort to be in conversation with these groups in productive spaces-such as at the Left Forum or the other various conferences that are organized by different groups on the "Left". We have isolated ourselves, often unconsciously, from many on the "Left" and we cannot afford to do this anymore. If for no other reason we are simply too small.
We applaud the recent attempts by Party leaders to reach out to various Left allies such as the Committees of Correspondence and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. We also support ideas to host a seminar with Parties of the western hemisphere or joint conferences with some of our friends on the Left. These are excellent developments that can compliment our work with the Center and build our own ranks at the same time.
A bigger Party requires more openness to different tendencies and ideas...so long as unity in the final decision is held above all else. In our current culture, there is not a lot of room for that. Disagreeing on anything from small organizational matters to large political questions gets a person easily marginalized.
One of the most unattractive elements of our Party to the younger generations is the lingering paranoia many carry post the 1991, and earlier, splits. While a certain level of precaution is always justified, it cannot limit us from growing and moving forward. As we build the Party, we must shift our culture to embrace a higher level of discussion and viewpoints.


OUR VALUE-ADDED: Building Electoral Power

Last, consider our approach to elections in general. Currently, the conditions rarely if ever allow us to run open Communists for office. When members do run for office, it is within the auspices of the Democratic Party. Otherwise, we find ourselves supporting progressive (and in some instances not-so-progressive) Democratic candidates. Despite how much many of us would love to run comrades for office as Communists, we all agree that this is how we currently have to function in this political climate.
However, there is one thing missing. How do we get from here to running as open progressives or as a coalition labor party or even as explicitly Left in an election? And how do we get from there to running as Communists? What changes need to be made to the electoral system to get us closer to holding real power? What is our long-term plan?
If we do not have a basic vision and a plan for strengthening independent, left political organization around our electoral approach, then we are not only failing ourselves, but the working class in general.
So how do we do this? Consider 2 examples.
A former YCLer, ran and won elected office in California. The campaign organization that helped her win has little to no relationship to the Communist Party (or YCL), and as an elected she rarely communicates back to the California District and/or the YCL. Through her election, those in the Santa Barbara suburb gained a progressive ally in their city council, and what the Party gained remains unclear.
Thousands of miles away in Chicago, another younger comrade is running for a similar position. The organization pushing his election, the IPO (Independent Political Organization) shares many of our values and has many of our members (and ex-members) among its ranks. It is a leadership development body for future candidates like our comrade, whose affiliations with the Communist Party are well-known throughout the city even though he is running as a Democrat.
We could argue that his election would be a huge value-added for the visibility and viability of the Communist Party in Chicago and the Midwest. Further, having more comrades in decision-making roles under the Democratic Party opens the door to increasing our effectiveness and influences within that party. Is this not what the radical and religious right-wing did within the umbrella of the Republican Party?
Some will argue our electoral system is not set up this way. How will we ever win? But instead of being defeatist about it, why not ask what changes need to be made to the electoral culture and system in the United States to get us closer to holding real power? Should comrades begin fighting for the fusion voting models that made the Working Families Party successful in New York, a model that got Ben Davies elected? Should we struggle for some form of proportional representation? Recognizing that electoral reform is obviously not the only struggle we should engage in, what parts of it can we prioritize to strengthen our participation in this arena of struggle right now?
We have a handful of younger and older comrades wanting to run for office. Why not give them a way to do so that simultaneously helps to build the Communist Party, regardless of if they run as open Communists or not. If we are going to build a real movement for socialism we have to have concrete plans for these transitions. We have to struggle more with how we apply our strategic policy to the current electoral possibilities while anticipating next steps. And we have to have a vision for how our current approach sets us up for engaging in a period of increased opportunities. The upcoming mid-term and on-going municipal elections give us plenty of room to practice.