I received this letter from Maria Svart, Democratic Socialists of America National Director. There are some students at Wichita State University (WSU), who are members of DSA and they are in the process of forming a Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) Chapter. The city-wide DSA chapter has been very active in local elections and other political activities for the last few years. Usually a local DSA chapter starts out as a campus student group, and then they branch out into the community around the campus. It is only logical that a strong DSA group will have a student chapter. There are a lot of advantages to being a student organization. YDSA will be a good opportunity for DSA members to make use of WSU’s facilities. –SJ Otto
From Maria Svart,
DSA National Director:
Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), DSA’s youth and student section, had a great convention this month. I’m happy to tell you about their organizing plans for the fall semester. We’re fighting for education for everyone!
If you’re a high school or college student, read on for more about how you can start a YDSA chapter in your school during our Fall Drive. If you’re already a YDSAer, you can use the Fall Drive resources to start your semester strong. And if you’re not a student, but know someone on campus, please share these resources with them.
The 2018 YDSA Fall Drive is underway now! The 2017 Drive made us the largest youth socialist organization in the United States. But we’re not done yet. We want to build a mass movement to enact our democratic socialist priorities at a national level. So we need to be the largest and most powerful student organization in the country, period.
We can do that through the 2018 Fall Drive. You can sign up here. If you ran a Fall Drive last year, this year’s drive is an opportunity to develop new leaders and expand your chapter’s capacity even more.
Get started with our Fall Drive Campus Kits! The kits include buttons, stickers, organizing how-to pamphlets, and a YDSA banner. And you can order YDSA t-shirts here, including bulk orders. They’re perfect for tabling and rallies!
And YDSAers overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on YDSA to lead a nationwide College for All campaign. YDSA chapters will run local campaigns for education justice, from demanding tuition freezes, to pressuring local politicians to stop education funding cuts, to registering students to vote for free college for all.
We will be having a national College for All kickoff call Sunday, 9/9 at 9PM ET/ 8PM CT/ 7PM MT/ 6PM PT. If you are interested in running a College for All campaign, or if you’re already running one, please register for the call now!
I’m excited to tell you about YDSA’s great work. And there’s more to come. I’ll keep you posted!