Call for Submissions: 2021 YDSA Convention

This year’s YDSA convention will once again be online. Luckily — hopefully — it seems like most people will soon enough be vaccinated, meaning we can go back to in-person, face-to-face meetings. Democracy doesn’t require physically being together but it is much enriched by it. The conversations that go on before and after formal debate are often the most meaningful: without time limits or an upcoming vote, we better understand each other’s views.

YDSA, our organization, your organization, is a tool. At conventions, we decide what sort of tool it should be, how to use it, and toward what end. But to make those decisions, we need to reflect on and sum up the last year’s organizing. What were we hammering away at? And how much progress did we make? What did we find ourselves reaching for?

In order to turn our experiences into lessons for YDSA members across the country to learn from, we need to write. Writing is the best way to take something you spent hours and hours of your life on and figure out if it was worth it. Taking the time to explain our views makes them more precise and more convincing.

We welcome all articles arguing for or against specific resolutions. We also invite articles presenting a broader vision of what YDSA should be and do as the campus-oriented section of the largest nationwide socialist organization in the United States (which will be the subject of our Summer 2021 print issue). The Activist will not publish announcements or endorsements of candidates or slates.

Get writing, comrades!

All submissions or questions can be sent to [email protected]. Editors will happily work with you to turn your ideas into an article, even if you don’t yet have a first draft. Join YDSA if you’re not a member already!