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I. Artists for Workers' Choice
II. In The News: Rebels Routed in Sri Lanka
After 25 Years of War
III. Tell Congress: Don't Count Out Single
Payer
IV. Youth for EFCA Call-In Day Tomorrow May
20th!
V. Mizzou YCL holds speaking event with
CPUSA
I. Artists for Workers'
Choice
The fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
continues. The group Artists
for Workers' Choice made this video with many Oscar, Emmy and Tony
winning actors an actresses who support EFCA. Watch the video and pass
it along!
II. In The News: Rebels
Routed in Sri Lanka After 25 Years of War
by Somni Sengupta and Seth Mydans
The ethnic Tamil separatist rebels of Sri Lanka, one of
the world’s most feared and enduring guerrilla movements, acknowledged
Sunday that their war of more than a quarter-century for a homeland had
“reached its bitter end.”
To read the full article, visit the NY
Times and another article from the People's Weekly
World.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you think that this is the end of the civil war
between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers?
2. Should any action be taken to address the killing of
innocent civilans from both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil
Tigers? Could there be a type of national reconciliation process?
3. What steps does the Sri Lankan government need to
take in order to address the grievances that the Tamil people have such
as lack of political representation in government, second class
citizenship and discrimination based on language?
4. What role can other countries such as India, with a
large Tamil refugee population, play in the peace process in Sri Lanka?
III. Tell Congress: Don't
Cut Out Single Payer
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
has been holding hearings on health care reform, and this week House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that health care reform will come to
Congress by the middle of the summer.
Negotiations are moving forward in the House and the
Senate and the insurance industry is lobbying hard to protected their
profits and to take a single payer system off the table. Whatever
the health care reform you support, we all beneft from a full and
honest debate of the options, including single payer.
That's why we ask you to use Jobs with
Justice (JwJ) online letter to the Senate and House Leadership to
urge them to keep single payer on the table.
IV. Youth for EFCA
Call-In Day Tomorrow May 20th!
The YCL is holding a Youth for EFCA Call-In Day tomorrow
May 20th! Set up a table on your campus, in your work place or the
corner of your block and have youth and students call their Senators
and Representative to urge them to support the Employe Free Choice Act
(EFCA).
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask for
your Senators and Representative.
For more information, check out the SLAP student
organizing kit.
If you can't get a call-in going, we have a petition
that you can use to get signatures from your friends, co-workers and
fellow students. Contact Ursula at urs...@yclusa.org for more
information.
V. Mizzou YCL holds
speaking event with CPUSA
On the evening of April 23rd, at the invitation of the
Columbia, MO YCL Club, Sam Webb came to give a talk at the university
lecture hall. St. Louis Party member Tony Peckinovsky was there too.
About 80 people showed up to hear Sam talk about the current political
outlook and general agenda of the CP. It was a great oppurtunity for
people to see that the Party asn't some wingnutty fringe group. "Death
to the bourgeoisie! To arms, comrade, to arms!" was not the kind of
message people heard that evening. It was more the kind of rhetoric
you'd read in the Party's program. Sam was pretty well received; the
audience was definitely curious and supportive than dismissive or
hostile. A lot of people came to talk with Sam and us local YCL members
after the talk, we made some good contacts with progressive students
and locals. There was even a couple of Chinese communists there,
excited to get their picture taken with the Chair of the US Communist
Party. All in all it was a pretty good event.
If you would like to have a Party or YCL leader come and
speak on your campus, send us an email at y...@yclusa.org wih "Speaking
Engagement" in the subject line.
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