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Marching in St. Louis with John Bowman, who won his campaign for state representative
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On the Fourth of July YCLers from across the country gathered in St. Louis, Missouri to start working to defeat Bush and the Bush agenda in the battleground states. During the whole month of July in Missouri and one week in Ohio, almost 50 YCLers hit the streets of these key swing states as a part of the YCL Midwest Summer Project.
Central to our work in Missouri was helping elect progressive, pro labor, pro-choice candidates. The key issues in Missouri are the same as everywhere else in this country: health care, jobs, education, and a womanís right to choose. Electing candidates on the local level who truly represent our needs is key to defeating the ultra-right agenda. Local electoral activism is also one way to hold politicians accountable to their constituency. Contributions the YCL has made in local primaries help to broaden grassroots coalitions and build the YCL. Our work in Missouri did just that. Not only did we play a large part in the election of three progressive candidates in St Louis, we also engaged and turned out anti Bush voters.
We spent a week in three Ohio cities working with many different groups: the AFL-CIO, Working America, NAACP, Article 12, and Vote Mob. In Cleveland we focused on mobilizing the youth vote, working primarily with Vote Mob (a project of the 21st Century Democrats). In Cincinnati we campaigned to retract Article 12, an article in the Ohio constitution that bans any anti-discriminatory legislation protecting gay and lesbian couples. but also worked with the NAACP and Working America on voter registration. In Ashtabula, where a few YCLers spent some time, we worked on a campaign to take out a Republican incumbent of 10 years. In all of these cities we spent our evenings talking with union members door-to-door about voting against Bush and their primary concerns and issues in this election.
In both states we held a weekend ideological school that helped us understand the work we were doing, the work that needs to be done, and where we will go from here. In both schools we defined our issues as youth, our position as YCLers, and our understanding of coalition building and mass struggle. Through workshops and discussions we made clear our place within the broad movement against Bush, and how that position, along with our work within that mass movement to defeat Bush, is revolutionary. Both the YCL schools and the work done in both states helped to strengthen the YCLers that came and the people we came in contact with. One person who joined the YCL after working with us for a week in Cincinnati wrote later, "I was not only impressed by the motivation and work ethic of the YCL, but how thoughtfully the YCL vision was implemented into our work. There was an understanding among all the YCLers, that the goals of these organizations are deeply connected to each other and to the long-term goals of a socialist movement. The approach was organic and integral."
Many YCLers and YCL clubs across the country have also done work in their own communities to help swing this election. However, this is only the beginning. Battling the Bush agenda will continue on past the elections. Winning in November is the first step in pushing that fight forward. The relationships we have built and the broad coalition that has come together to fight for the issues that affect us all will help us win many future fights.
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Dynamic Magazine
