The economic crisis that has coincided with the pandemic has had a serious impact on women in the workforce, leading to the popularization of the portmanteau “she-cession.” The wage gap affects all members of the working class, as an artificially low wage for gender-oppressed workers drives down wages for all workers. Rising inflation is increasing the gendered wage divide. Equal pay for equal work remains an important fight in the class struggle.
Attacks by the provincial and federal governments on public social services and workers that provide them are disproportionately affecting sectors with a higher portion of women workers; healthcare, education, and civil service administration. Throughout the pandemic, inflation, and now the threatening recession, women and workers have found ways to fight back. They have organized to demand better wages, paid sick days, and well-funded hospitals and schools. As young communists we need to agitate for a public monopoly on social services, with universal not tiered or qualified access. This is our answer to the ruling class demands for austerity measures.
It is clear to us as Young Communists that the main force sustaining patriarchy and male chauvinism today is capitalism. The drive to produce new generations of working people has always fallen on women, who, in modern capitalist society, are forced to work the “double burden” of both the regular work day and unpaid domestic labour, including cleaning, child-rearing, cooking, and other household duties. The patriarchy and the capitalist system rely deeply on each other and mutually reinforce one another. Communists have always taken up the call for increased gender equality, and have continuously fought for accessible childcare, reproductive healthcare, truly equal pay rates, and higher rates of education for women and gender-oppressed people.
Today and tomorrow, the YCL-LJC remains committed to the fight against all forms of oppression. Oppression strengthens and reinforces the exploitation of one class over another.
“Solidarity among the male and female workers, a general cause, general goals, a general path to that goal — that is the solution to the ‘woman’ question in the working-class.” —Nadezhda Krupskaya
Young Communists Denounce Elections Canada Anti-Democratic Canceling of the ‘Vote on Campus’ Program
On August 25, ten days after Governor General Mary Simon approved Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request to dissolve Parliament, Elections Canada announced they would not continue the “Vote on Campus” program that provided students with both job opportunities and simplified access to register and vote. The justification from Elections Canada is that the public health measures as well as “the minority government situation” prevent them from running the program. The program was initiated during the 2015 federal election and continued in 2019, and demonstrably helped lead to a surge in youth voting.
The decision by the Liberal government and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who was appointed by the Queen on recommendation of the Liberal government, to call an election using only the legal minimum amount of time (36 days) in the midst of an ongoing global health crisis does provide Elections Canada with more difficult than necessary conditions to do their jobs. However, with the majority of post-secondary institutions coast to coast returning to in-person studies after an entire school year online, Elections Canada should continue the program. If it is supposedly safe enough for campus workers, faculty, and students to return to in-person studies, it should also be safe enough for Elections Canada to employ students on campus and continue this program, which has led to an increased number of young people becoming politically engaged and exercising their rights.
A petition calling for a reversal of this draconian measure and for the full reinstatement of the program has received over 20,000 signatures. The YCL-LJC calls on all democratic forces to mobilise to restore the “Vote on Campus” program and denounce this anti-democratic move by Elections Canada.
CEC YCL-LJC
Les jeunes communistes dénoncent l’annulation antidémocratique du programme de vote sur campus par Élections Canada
Le 25 août, dix jours après que la gouverneure générale Mary Simon eut approuvé la demande du premier ministre libéral Justin Trudeau de dissoudre le Parlement, Élections Canada a annoncé qu’elle ne poursuivrait pas le programme de vote sur campus qui offrait aux étudiant-es des possibilités d’emploi et un accès simplifié pour s’inscrire sur la liste électorale et voter. Élections Canada affirme que les mesures de santé publique ainsi que « la situation de gouvernement minoritaire » l’empêchent de gérer le programme. Le programme a été lancé lors de l’élection fédérale de 2015 et s’est poursuivi en 2019, et a contribué à une poussée du vote des jeunes.
La décision du gouvernement libéral et de la gouverneure générale Mary Simon, qui a été nommée par la Reine sur recommandation du gouvernement libéral, de déclencher une élection en utilisant seulement le minimum légal de temps (36 jours) au milieu d’une crise sanitaire mondiale en cours complique effectivement le travail d’Élections Canada. Cependant, alors que la majorité des établissements postsecondaires au pays reprennent les études en présentiel après une année scolaire entière en ligne, Élections Canada devrait poursuivre le programme. Si les conditions sont considérées assez sûres pour que les travailleur-ses sur le campus, les professeur-es et les étudiant-es retournent aux études en personne, elles devraient également être assez sûres pour qu’Élections Canada emploie des étudiant-es sur le campus et poursuive ce programme, qui a permis à un nombre accru de jeunes de s’engager politiquement et d’exercer leurs droits.
Une pétition demandant l’annulation de cette mesure draconienne et le rétablissement complet du programme a reçu plus de 20 000 signatures. La YCL-LJC appelle toutes les forces démocratiques à se mobiliser pour rétablir le programme de vote sur campus et à dénoncer cette mesure antidémocratique d’Élections Canada.
CEC LJC
With students heading back to school, young communists ask what happened to the Liberals’ Student Service Grant?
The $900 million Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) was announced as part of the $9 billion emergency benefit package for students announced in May. As of yet, not a single student has received a single dollar from the CSSG.
The CSSG has been critiqued by the bourgeois press and bourgeois political parties for being a crony deal for Prime Minister Trudeau and former Finance Minister Morneau’s families and political allies. Little has been written about the actual content of the program, however, the CSSG offered students a maximum grant of $5000 in exchange for 500 hours of service. This amount is below the minimum wage and cost of living, and less than the amount for full-time tuition for the majority of post secondary students. The CSSG program was announced when young workers and students were in desperate positions and potentially willing to take below minimum wage, as the unemployment rate for people under 25 was nearly 30% and the rate for returning students was nearing 40%. We reject the proposal by NDP whip Rachel Blaney which would turn over the $900 million to private businesses as part of the Liberals wage subsidy program that has failed the working class and lined the pockets of the ruling class. This failed Liberal exploitation project is proof as to why young workers need a federal Workers’ Bill of Rights and students need a federal Right to Education Act akin to the Canada Health Act to enforce gains made by students and workers and guarantee decent work and quality education for all.
The Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) program is now coming to a close just as post-secondary instruction begins in the fall semester. We have made our position as students and young workers clear: the CESB was not enough to cover the cost of living or full-time tuition for the vast majority of students. Furthermore, this $9 billion program proves that the long-standing narrative of federal governments that education funding is an exclusively provincial matter is false. The total amount of grants from this benefit could have easily been distributed in a more just and effective way through the establishment of universal programs. This $9 billion in short term emergency benefits was only $1 billion short of the annual cost of completely removing tuition fees and fully funding a public post-secondary education system for all post-secondary students in Canada, and enforcing crown education treaty obligations to First Nations.
It is necessary for students to take a leadership role in the fight for universal public social services. Many workers in the post-secondary industry have been laid off or furloughed, and this loss of employment for workers is also a loss of services for students. Too many students will be forced to withdraw from their studies this fall for purely financial reasons. Thus, it is now more than ever time to fight for universal, completely publicly-funded quality education.
Central Executive Committee , September 2020
Pierre Fontaine: une inspiration pour la jeunesse en lutte pour le socialisme
La YCL-LJC salue la mémoire d’un camarade, mentor et ami de la YCL-LJC: Pierre Fontaine. Chef du Parti communiste du Québec depuis 15 ans, puis membre du Comité exécutif central du Parti communiste du Canada, Pierre est décédé le 27 mai dernier des suites d’une crise cardiaque.
Pierre Fontaine: an inspiration for the youth in the struggle for socialism
The YCL-LJC salutes the memory of a comrade, mentor and friend of the YCL-LJC: Pierre Fontaine. Leader of the Communist Party of Québec for 15 years, member of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada, Pierre died on May 27 of a heart attack.
Webinar: the youth won’t pay for capitalism’s crisis
Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmdKnKX2TLVLuRwaFDJ7_ZaJ31u12lhlSLD1pU–YDByrmmg/viewform?usp=sf_link
The YCL-LJC and the Federal Elections 2019
Now that the Federal Election campaign is over, the YCL-LJC wishes to salute the work of the 30 candidates – with a notable amount of young people – who, throughout the country, held in difficult conditions the revolutionary flag of the Communist Party of Canada. We also salute the contribution of the YCL-LJC as a whole as a key element in the different CPC campaigns, helping providing better visibility within the youth and students.
Pour la justice environnementale: changeons le système, pas le climat!
Alors que 2017 a été l’année la plus chaude de l’humanité, cette année des records de chaleur ont été battus, causant plusieurs décès ici même et dans le monde. Les catastrophes naturelles s’enchaînent à un rythme effréné. En conséquence, on calcule que d’ici 2050, la Terre comptera plus de 250 millions de réfugiés climatiques. Ceux-ci seraient aujourd’hui déjà plus nombreux que les réfugiés fuyant guerres et conflits. Ainsi, la limitation de la hausse des températures globales « bien en-deçà de 2 degrés », tel que conclu lors de la COP21 en 2015, est un impératif des plus importants. Or, pour ce faire, il faudrait réduire les émissions de gaz à effets de serre provenant des énergies fossiles à un niveau de 40 à 70% inférieur à celui de 2010 avant 2050. Si nous continuons au rythme actuel, en 2100, la température globale de la planète aura augmenté à un niveau situé entre 3 et 6 degrés par rapport à aujourd’hui.
May 1st 2018: Money for our salary, not for the military!
Central Executive Committee
On the occasion of May 1st, the Young Communist League salutes the struggle of the working class and celebrates the victories we have won against the ruling class throughout years of fighting and mobilizing for better wages, better working conditions and for quality social and public services.