Julius Jacobson Archive | ETOL Main Page
From Labor Action, Vol. 11 No. 2, 13 January 1947, p. 7.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
While the status of the Socialist Youth League today doesn’t warrant an ambitious newspaper project, it is nonetheless vitally necessary for our organization to have a respectable pamphlet which will present the program and aims of the SYL. As yet we do not have a single printed publication of our own.
An SYL pamphlet can accomplish two things:
Number of young people have recently requested of our national office literature presenting the SYL program. Just think how much more effective it would be if in reply we could not only send Labor Action and other Workers Party publications, but supplement them with a pamphlet published by the SYL, emphasizing such youth problems as conscription, inadequate education, lack of job training, etc., etc.
At the last meeting of our Buro, it was decided that every effort must be made in the next month to secure the finances from members and friends to overcome this sorely felt lack of educational and agitational material. Quotas for our various youth units have not yet been made. But it is certain that the cost of a 16 or 32 page pamphlet cannot be met by the SYL without the help of friends. Our comrades are young people from working class families without independent means. We are therefore asking readers and sympathizers to send in contributions, no matter how small, to help raise the $200 required to finance this limited but necessary project.
In terms of recruiting at least, the Chicago SYL unit is setting the pace. A month ago we didn’t have a real unit in that city – only a fraction and an ineffective one at that. Today, largely through the efforts of Comrades Waller and Martin we have a relatively large, functioning unit there. Seven young comrades were recruited in recent weeks and in a letter from Comrade Waller, we are assured that in six months we will have a flourishing unit in Chicago “of between 30 and 50 members.”
The Chicago unit has embarked on an intensive educational campaign. Well publicized educationals are held each week and in addition, a new class on Shachtman’s pamphlet Fight for Socialism will begin shortly.
Julius Jacobson Archive | ETOL Main Page
Last updated: 27 November 2020