Dear Friends,
There\'s no other way to put it; the apparent results of the recent elections are disappointing. We understand the implications of another 4 years of the Bush regime and we know what is at stake. This is a setback for us to be sure.
But before we start to bash ourselves over the head about our \"failure\" to defeat Bush, there are a few things we might want to remember. Young people turned out in record numbers this year and overwhelmingly voted against another 4 years of Bush and his crew. Over 20 million young people came out to the polls on November 2nd, this was an increase of over 4 million voters since the 2000 elections!
The YCL can be proud that all over the country our comrades gave their all, dedicating time and energy to organizing, educating and mobilizing young voters in our communities and on our campuses. Our midwest project sent dozens of young people to work in the battleground states and get a real hands on education about electoral politics and geting out the vote. We helped elect several local candidates, registered hundreds of young voters and built important relationships with other young people and youth organizations fighting to defeat Bush. This was no small accomplishment!
The next four years will be hard and we can expect to spend more time on defending ourselves against the right-wing attacks on young people, our schools and communities, than we will on winning national health care, access to quality education, and the expansion of our democratic and civil rights.
But we also know that Bush is vulnerable on key issues like the war and the economy. Let\'s not forget that over 55 million people registered their votes against Bush - despite their intimidation, disenfranchisement of voters and tricks on election day! We still have the power to fight back, and win!
We often say that the YCL was founded over 80 years ago and we won\'t stop until we\'ve won! Well we still got a lot of fight in us and we know that we can\'t stop now!
In Struggle,
Jessie Marshall
NOTE : This is not an official YCL statement or analysis of the 2004 election results and we will need more time, study and collective discussions to be able to interpret them and evaluate our plans and work accordingly. On November 20th and 21st the National Council of the YCL will be meeting in NYC to discuss and evaluate the elections and figure out where we go from here. This meeting will be open to all YCL members who are interested in participating.
For more on the elections and the people\'s movement to defeat Bush:
Check out the People\'s Weekly World editorial “We have our work cut out for us.�? at http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/6044/1/239/
Check out Sam Webb\'s analysis at www.cpusa.org
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