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I. In The News: 'Pirates' Strike a U.S.
Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media Telling the Whole
Story?
II. Mass Action: Tell Congress to put
Education Before Profits
III. YCL College Call
IV. Montana YCLers hold House Parties for
EFCA
I. In The News: 'Pirates'
Strike a U.S. Ship Owned by a Pentagon Contractor, But Is the Media
Telling the Whole Story?
By Jeremy Scahill
"Coverage of the pirates is similar to the false
narrative about "tribalism" being the cause of all of Africa's
problems. Of course, there are straight-up gangsters and criminals
engaged in these hijackings. Perhaps the pirates who hijacked the
Alabama on Wednesday fall into that category. We do not yet know. But
that is hardly the whole "pirate" story."
To read the whole story visit Alternet's
website.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Do you think the pirates were justified in taking
over the ship?
2. Do you think the pirates that took over the ship were
interested in addressing the larger issues of unregulated fishing and
the dumping of toxic waste?
3. What actions could Obama take to address the issue of
piracy off the coast of Somalia?
II. Mass Action: Tell
Congress to put Education Before Profits
Over a month ago President Obama addressed the nation
and proposed some of the firmest commitments to education we've seen in
a generations. His bold plan promised all of us that the government
would permanently fund the Pell Grant programs so that anyone who
wanted to go to college and needed help paying for it would be able to
get the support they needed without taking out bad loans that would put
them into decades of debt.
Today the private loan companies came out of the shadows
to tell Congress they must choose between investing in America's future
or funding the private loan companies.
Our country shouldn't be forced to choose between the
Pell Grant and funding the private loan companies- WE NEED TO
INVEST IN EDUCATION in order to rebuild America's economy and our
future.
Sign
the petition from the United States Student Association (USSA) and
Studetnt Labor Action Project (SLAP) telling your Congressperson and
Senators to invest to put our education before the profits of private
loan companies.
III. YCL College Call
Our next YCL College Call will be next Thursday April
23rd. Get updates from the Unites States Student Association (USSA) on
upcoming legislative and national actions impacting students, discuss
what is happening on campuses across the country with other YCLers, and
get new ideas to build a club on your campus.
If you are interested in attending the call, email
Ursula at urs...@yclusa.org
IV. Montana YCLers hold
House Parties for EFCA
The YCL in Butte, Montana held an EFCA letter-writing
house party (complete with red-frosted communist sugar cookies with
hammer and sickles, and course, Lenin-lime punch!) this week that
brought youth and students together to urge their Senators to support
EFCA. After writing personal letters at the party, they drafted an open
letter and spent the day tabling at Montana Tech and gather over 40
signatures from students on campus.
At 4 o'clock they took their packets of letters to the
Senators' local offices. The United Students Against Sweatshops club at
the University of Montana in Missoula coordinated with them and took
theirs in at the same time. The Senators weren't in but their staff at
the offices were really stoked to see and hear from young people
getting active for the Employee Free Choice Act.
"I'm really excited about how things turned out. It
seemed like just about everyone we approached was really cool with what
we were doing, and we made a few new friends that are down with the
what our YCL Club is doing. I don't know if they'll turn out to be
YCLers, but I know I can count on them to help us out and come to our
future events. I'm still really stoked, I feel like we might have
really made an impact and at the same time got our YCL club into the
public and made some new connections," said club member Jesse Jack.
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