Letter from the New YDS National Organizer: Erik Rosenberg
By YDS • Jul 31st, 2008 • Category: UncategorizedTo the Young Democratic Socialists and the Democratic Socialists of America,
I am pleased and excited to begin my tenure as Youth Organizer of the Young Democratic Socialists. Thanks to all of you for giving me this opportunity. As Youth Organizer, I hope to strengthen and expand YDS as an organization, a community, and a movement.
My past political activism has centered primarily on peace. As a high school student at the Walworth Barbour American International School in Israel, I co-organized a conflict resolution committee that brought together Palestinians, Israelis, Israeli-Arabs, and Americans to discuss the conflict in the Holy Land. After graduating, I returned to the United States to attend Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where I earned my B.A. in Government, graduating in 2008. Throughout college I continued my work as a peace activist. I co-founded Students for Ending the War in Iraq (SEWI) which I helped develop into one of the most prominent activist organizations on campus. I also connected SEWI with larger networks such as Connecticut Opposes the War (COW) and the Campus Anti-War Network (CAN). I have interned with Brooklyn For Peace (formerly Brooklyn Parents For Peace), United For Peace and Justice, and served on the Steering Committee of United For Peace and Justice.
Outside of the political realm I enjoy playing the guitar and the piano, gardening, squash, and yoga. I look forward to returning to New York, the city of my birth, to begin my work as Youth Organizer.
Please feel free to contact me with any ideas, comments, or concerns. I look forward to meeting you (hopefully at the Summer Conference, if not sooner) and working to build an even better YDS.
Sincerely,
Erik Rosenberg
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Welcome, Brother Rosenberg! I’ve heard nothing but good things about you and I look forward to working with you.
Welcome on board! Look forward to meeting you!
As a son of a true American hero, I feel the need to argue the whole idea of socialism taking roots in the USA. Now, my Father fought and eventually died to uphold the US Constitution and all the freedoms and rights contained therein. I am humbled by what he accomplished in his life; so who am I to say that you are wrong in your beliefs? I have my own…I know others will differ. That’s a fact. Freedom of speech is an honored right here in the USA. (Most socialist countries would imprison you (or worse) for this simple freedom that you enjoy here in the US) Now…My three questions: I must ask…If socialism in your life runs so true and strong, why not simply remove yourself from the limitations you will face because of what this great country was based upon? Why attempt to force obvious anti-American beliefs on the people of the USA when this country was constructed without socialism? And finally, Are you not able to obtain an international passport to relocate yourself or are you just a spoiled and angry suburbanite who has yet to walk (without a protest sign)outside of a protected environment and see the real world?
Your comment on our blog, The Activist, misrepresented our position on the constitution and freedom and speech. I welcome you to find in our writings anything critical of the US constitution. Instead, you are more likely to find criticism of the the current administration violating the onstitution. Members of the Young Democratic Socialists value freedom and are extremely critical of countries that prevent inalienable rights such as a speech. From our own piece “What is Democratic Socialism” were explicitly criticize the countries you call “socialist” (which we call “Communist” or “bureaucratic collectivist” to distinguish them from Social Democratic countries and democratic socialist movements):
Socialists have been among the harshest critics of the anti-democratic, highly centralized societies and economies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Just because the bureaucratic elites called their systems “socialist” did not make it so; they also called their regimes “democratic.” We applaud the authentic democratic revolutions that have transformed the former communist bloc. We also expect that the social democratic parties that are reemerging in Eastern Europe will be essential in the struggle to protect workers rights, to ensure equality for women, and to promote social justice for all. The improvement of people’s lives requires economic growth and real democracy, without ethnic rivalries and/or new forms of authoritarianism. Democratic socialists will continue to play a key role in that struggle throughout the world.
I see no reason to leave this country because I love it and this is where my life, friends, and family are. Should abolitionists, trade unionists, and civil rights advocates all emigrated because there was a country that had better conditions on slavery, unions, and human rights at one point than the US? No - they, like me and anyone else who politically and socially minded, worked to make their country better. That’s what political freedom is all bout. The majority of Americans aren’t socialists, but the majority aren’t Democrats and Republicans, either.