Socialists Offer Six-Week Training for College Students to Unionize for Social Justice
June 13, 2022 | New York
This summer, Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) is conducting a six-week summer session that trains college students to unionize for social justice in their workplaces.
Titled “Red Hot Summer,” the training will give “give young workers the tools to organize their workplace and discuss how the labor movement can play a role in winning fights against racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change, and imperialism,” according to the YSDA website.
YDSA is also inviting “worker leaders” from Starbucks and Amazon to help train students.
The training sessions, which run through July 26, include three “Political Education” sessions.
One of the readings connected to the third Political Education Session is the article “Why Socialists Should Become Teachers,” which was collectively written by DSA teachers of West Virginia.
“[Teachers] can command respect and people look to them as moral and social guides, especially for their children,” the article states. “All these strategic factors argue for the presence of socialists within education because of the political and economic leverage teachers could exert if organized.”
The training also offers an “Optional Extended Labor History Program.” Sessions include “Early 20th Radical Unionism” and “Rank and File Rebellions of the long 1970s.”
In the spring, YDSA claimed victory in the unionization of three key campuses: Wesleyan University, Dartmouth College, and Grinnell College…. (Excerpt from the Virginia Star)
