YOUNG DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS

OF JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY

Past Events

1997

The Prison Moratorium Project in which we built a cardboard prison and held a rally as well as had a petition.

We have also worked on our first political Campaign for Dale Diaz, Green Party Candidate for Delegate (26th Dist). We canvassed neighborhoods, put up signs, passed out information in the Mailroom, and will be at the polls to pass out sample ballots.

We have helped to organize a forum on the Death Penalty. The President of Virginians for the Alternatives to the Death Penalty spoke, as did Sunshine Richards, a member of Victim's Families for Reconciliation.

We hosted a speaker on Animal Rights. Sherry Stanley, co-clerk of the Green Party of Virginia, spoke and facilitated a member-led discussion.

We went to UVA to see Michael Moore speak at the Virginia Film Festival, and viewed his new film, "The Big One".

We attended the 1997 D.S.A. National Convention in Columbus, Ohio.

We held a forum on Religion and Socialism with guest speakers from the International League of Religious Socialists and Habonim Dror.

1998

We had an "Ice Cream Social(ist)" where we had ice-cream and a political discussion.

Dr. Nikita Imani spoke on the Economic Implications of White Supremacy in a forum on Race and Class in America.

We participated in a peace protest in downtown Harrisonburg that attracted over 300 people! [see article]

We went to D.C. to a peace protest that attracted thousands and thousands of people in front of the White House.

We went to the Bryn Mawr National Youth Section Conference and met with other young Socialists around the nation.

1998-1999

We had a large rally with a cardboard sweatshop on the Commons with our own "Vote for Mr. and Mrs. Sweatshop" contest. By the way, out of the hundreds of votes cast, Phil Knight of Nike and Minnie Mouse of Disney won. We disrupted the Disney recruitment meeting for the second year in a row (though they were more prepared for us this year), and plastered the campus with chalk stating "Disney uses sweatshops in Haiti".

In the Spring semester of 1999, we put on our own YDS Activism conference. There we gave participants civil disobediance / non-violence training, participated in some "revolutionary" community service, and had workshops on how to make your activist cause known to your campus.

In the last part of the Spring semester, we managed to get all of the progressive leaders on campus into one room to discuss working together. With around 50 in attendance, we were able to begin our work in the Progressive Coalition.

1999-2000

1999 was an explosive year for activism. With the "Battle in Seattle" over the World Trade Organization, the progressive anti-corporate movement got a much-needed boost. Locally, we organized (with our new friends in the more formal Progressive Coalition) a rally on campus complete with some street theatre, a cool-ass "Wall of Oppression", booths, pamphlets, costumes, loud-speakers, and so on. We also participated in the anti-WTO rally in D.C.

Another major accomplishment of the year was our march for Martin Luther King, Jr. You see, our school didn't recognize MLK day at all. It has been a big battle for years. It was time to show some muscle. As we were all off for the day for Dr. Lynwood Rose's induction as President of JMU, we decided that we would host a greeting for our venerable leader. We marched silently around the mass of people at the ceremony with large signs. Amongst all of the hullabulloo and press, the University finally recognized MLK day. So, JMU students, the day was hard won... so take the time to reflect on MLK day on all that the civil rights movement has done for us and how much more there is to do!