2010 YDS Summer Conference Report
August 2010 marked the third time Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) held its Socialist Summer Retreat in bucolic Wurtsboro, NY. This gathering of 40 YDS members included new members from South Carolina, Florida, and California and veterans from established chapters at the College of Wooster (Ohio), William Paterson University (New Jersey), and Wichita State University (Kansas).
The conference began with a presentation called “Radical Feminism: Past and Future” by New American Movement and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) veteran Peg Strobel and Liza Featherstone, contributing editor for The Nation. In her remarks, Strobel focused on the activities of the remarkable Chicago Women’s Liberation Union (CWLU), a socialist-feminist organization active in the 1970s. From fighting for abortion rights to fight of black women janitors for better conditions at work, the activities of CWLU showed YDS members the historical importance and contemporary relevance of socialist feminism. Featherstone spoke about the recurring trend of writing off feminism as dead and how patriarchy (yes, even in the radical left) undermines the continued need for the advancement of women’s liberation. She also reminded young activists to make their groups comfortable environments for people of all genders.
After the plenary, YDS Feminist Issues Coordinator Kat Brausch handed out newly minted “Proud Socialist Feminist” buttons to the crowd and speakers. The buttons, a small step in YDS’s new emphasis on socialist feminist politics, were worn during small group discussions with Strobel and Featherstone. New recruit Elizabeth Charpentier of Boston mentioned her own mother’s struggles with sexism and patriarchy in the corporate workforce. Coming into contact with socialist feminism helped her understand how capitalism exacerbates forms of social oppression.
YDS continued its tradition of holding caucus meetings for historically oppressed identity groups like women, people of color, and LGBTQ activists. This year, the organization added meetings of auxiliary groups are composed of their respective allies: men, whites, and heterosexuals. The caucus groups reported back that they felt YDS is making strong progress in diversity, but needs to keep up pressure on chapters to be welcoming spaces for everybody. Auxiliaries addressed how they could be better allies in respect to supporting platforms and issues the caucuses propose. Newly elected Anti-Racism Coordinator Richard Hutchinson of William Paterson University suggested YDS chapters initiate public conversations on race with people of color organizations on their campuses.
Finally, the conference concluded with a discussion of the 2010-2011 Activist Agenda, the organization’s national priorites for the upcoming academic year. Members proposed two campaigns – one for free public higher education and one for a “Blue-Green Action” campaign to enlist students in the fight for green jobs and energy creation. By a margin of one vote, the members decided to devote the national organization’s resources to working on both of them instead of just one. For further information regarding the Activist Agenda, see latest edition of The Red Letter, the internal YDS newsletter.
At last year’s summer conference, YDS unanimously adopted a five-year strategic plan to guide the organization’s growth. In a plenary session and three small groups, the members identified a number of ways in which the organization lived up to the demands of the plan. We succeed in creating a new website and producing more YDS apparel. This year’s conference was more diverse in terms of race and gender than previous conferences. Areas for growth and improvement remain, however. YDS needs to do more organizing and ideological training at future conferences, such as trainings in phone banking and canvassing.
At every summer conference YDS elects its volunteer leadership, the Coordinating Committee (CC). This year, elections for positions on the CC were very competitive. The Anti-Racism Coordinator, Feminist Issues Coordinator, Corresponding Secretary, and At-Large positions all had two or more candidates. The newly elected CC will be headed by Sean Monahan of Philadelphia DSA and Amber Frost of Indiana-Bloomington YDS as the new Co-Chairs. The body will also experiment with at-larges serving as regional organizers working with the Co-Chairs and national organizer to build YDS in their surrounding areas. Sadly absent was Erik Rosenberg, the National Organizer from 2008 to 2010. Rosenberg could not attend because of a family trip. Incoming National Organizer Andrew Porter, one of the founders of the College of Wooster YDS chapter, was in attendance. Porter will begin his tenure after Labor Day.
Great conference! Peg Strobel’s and Liza Featherstone’s presentations were terrific, and all the other speakers/moderators were great as well. I can’t wait to do it again!
Haha, is the previous poster Chris M.?
Sounds like a great retreat – sad I had to miss it again. I’m very happy about the 5-year plan, which I think was one of the better ideas the leadership has had in recent years. Ditto with regional organizers; I’ve long thought that the job of organizing chapters and staying in touch with existing ones was far too large for one person, especially when NYC is a day’s journey from many campuses where we have activists.
Good work, everyone!
Speaking as a former vice-chair of the DSA Youth Section (YDS’s predecessor):
YOU GUYS ROCK!!!
Oh so happy. We’re gonna have a Hendrix group rolling soon enough.
Sorry, not Chris M.