I am posting this conference announcement for a friend. Anyone interested in speaking or attending should contact Daraka Larimore-Hall directly. _________________________________________ >From Chicago to Chiapas A Conference to Build A Progressive Student Movement August 17-20, 1995 The US Left faces some hard questions in the coming months. With the Contract with America rapidly losing salience as a political topic, many of us will lose and important target for our activism. The challenge for activists across the country will be to go beyond the defensive posture of "anti-Contract" organizing and begin to forge our movement on the basis of genuine and meaningful alternatives. Urgent issues like health care education, employment policy, civil rights, and ecological sanity demand a common language from students and young people working toward real social change. And throughout the Democratic Left -- in unions, community organizations, and households -- activists face that same challenge. Question around race, gender, class, and sexuality only begin to map the dramatic changes at work on the face of our nation. The Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section announces this call to conference for August 17-21 at the University of Chicago. The DSA Youth Section is a network of over two hundred campus activists committed to a democratic politics of equality, pluralism, and freedom. Our socialism links us to a broad tradition of movements for solidarity and emancipation, while also emphasizing our commitment to the interdependence of contemporary struggles for global justice. We are in harmony with the current openness to debate and re- thinking within the Left, and we look forward to the upcoming possibilities for cooperation, coalition, and collective action among progressive students and youth. With the current wave of progressive student and youth activists searching for strategies to embody our hopes, the DSA Youth Section extends this invitation for dialogue and coalition. We look forward to building upon the spectacular possibilities for a renewed movement towards justice, equality, and diversity. DATE: August 17-20 PLACE: University of Chicago SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Joe Schwartz, Ron Blackwell, Eric Vega, Michael Dyson, Lauren Berlant, Stanley Aronowitz, David Moberg, David Belkin, Alan Charney, Paul Loeb, Kay Pranis, Dana Seitler, JoAnn Landy, Adolf Reid, and many more. INVITED ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE: National Organization of Women, Student Environmental Action Coalition, United States Student Association, Center for Third World Organizing, The NATION magazine, PRD Youth, University Conversion Project, NAACP, ACT UP, College Democrats of America, US/Guatemala Labor Education Project, National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, DISSENT magazine, Physicians for Social Responsibility Chicago, LIBIDO magazine, Coalition for New Priorities Chicago. The three day conference will include both skills-building and political discussion. Much time will be devoted to interaction between represented student organizations, hopefully leading towards eventual coordinated strategies. We all have a lot to learn from one another, and our strength is bolstered by our unity. For more information contact: Daraka Larimore-Hall DSA-YS 180 Varick Street New York, NY 10014 (212) 727-8610 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>