Comrades,
We have all heard the news now that Comrade Fidel Castro has stepped down and the 7th legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power has elected Comrade Raul in his place. What the bourgeois media does not say, however, is that this is the culmination of a process of elections that involved literally millions of Cubans and the CEC has issued a release to that effect to our members, friends and allies in Cuban solidarity.
Fidel's decision above all shows great reason for confidence in the current leadership and government of Cuba, and their capability to direct the Cuban people and their revolution towards more social gains. One of the resolutions we are brining forward to this meeting is to build the Che Brigade to Cuba for 2008. The bourgeoisie bombardment of propaganda against Cuba around Fidel’s resignation makes that task all the more pressing.
There is more positive news internationally. In Venezuela, it appears Chavez has retreated from his rather adventurous position that all progressives must unite in one political party, and is now calling for a “patriotic coalition” including the Communists for the 2008 elections, to defeat US imperialist interference and forge ahead with a new socialist-oriented future.
In the United States, the Bush agenda is now a dirty word amongst most youth. As the YCLUSA has noted, young people are heading to primary elections in record numbers. Whatever quantitative and qualitative changes occur in US policy, they will be of grave significance to Canada.
Also since our last meeting, the people of Cyprus have elected a Communist as President. This is important for progressive forces in the region, especially considering imperialism’s meddling in the recent separation of Kosovo – which led the Serbia people to burn the US embassy in Belgrade.
Also important for European anti-imperialist and peace-loving forces, especially the youth, is the announcement that the next World Festival of Youth and Students will be held in Belarus, one of the countries Bush noted along with North Korea and Iran as in need of “democratizing.” The 2009 festival will be a topic we must return to, very soon, and by accepting this report, the CC should instruct the CEC to begin this work in earnest.
We note with pride that the YCL-LJC is now a full member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, accepted at the February meeting of WFDY in Portugal, and soon we will be paying our dues.
Turning now to the situation in Canada.
It is clear that crisis in the American economy which was just emerging at the time of our last meeting has had drastic impacts on Canada. The People’s Voice has had good coverage of these developments over its past few issues. The majority of economic indicators point to an impending recession, making the continued struggle by youth for better jobs and higher minimum wages all the more relevant, which Comrade Stephen will be commenting on.
These demands starkly contrast with the new Tory budget and its much touted tax shelter. “In reality, only the well-to-do will be able to seriously take advantage of this new program.”[1] On Wednesday Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said we must reduce business taxes if it wants to avoid the fallout from a downturn in the U.S. economy.
It is likely the budget will pass, and an election will be averted. But an election is coming and we should, as Canada’s Young Pioneers used to say, be “Always Ready.” We repeat the comments made by the Fall 2007 Central Committee: “As Communists, our job is to help deepen and broaden the fight-back, and help sharpen up the critique of the Tories, so that all the opposition parties are emboldened and/or pressured to pull the plug, and bring down the Harper Tories.”
One of the key fight backs against the Harper Tories is over the war in Afghanistan. In January, Manley report essentially rubber-stamped the extension of the Afghan mission to 2011. Yet public opinion remains staunchly opposed to this dirty conflict. For this reason we are think now is the critical time to begin mobilizing youth and students into the March 15th anti-war actions, and have prepared a statement to help mobilize our membership, friends and allies for this important event.
I am reminded of the founding Manifesto of the YCL from the 1920s, which stated that “in any war the youth suffer the most, bear the brunt and are the first called upon.” These words are still true today. This Feb. 25th marked the 85th anniversary of the founding of our League and I personally hope the CC, in accepting this report, will agree to re-issue a new updated version of our fighting history in pamphlet form.
By June of 1924, the YCL was publishing an independent magazine, saying in its first issue that it pledged “to support the decisions that are made [in the Communist International] to the fullest extent… with no race hatred and nationalist feeling but with a truly working class sprit.”
This is a challenge today: to defend and expand the democratic rights of youth – a struggle dialectically connected to the class struggle for socialism. We need to reflect this in all of our tactics and strategies in mass work, and in this meeting we will be introducing three documents that will both outline our policy and guide our action: on the International Day for the Elimination of Racism which talks about Islamophobia, the Toronto 18, and black-focused schools; on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, which talks about the need to oppose sexism in all its forms; and a resolution in solidarity with the struggle of students across Canada.
The main task at hand in this meeting is to come up with solutions for the production of our magazine. As a political tool, since 1924 the YCL has always had “press” in some form – be it the Young Worker, Advance, New Advance, Beacon, Champion, Jeunnesse, SYL News, Young Communist, Le Revolutionnaire, New Horizons, Jeunesse Militante, and now Rebel Youth.
Many of these magazines were produced under very difficult conditions.
But the YCL-LJC’s magazine has never been a static effort. It has always been something experimental, creative, and militant. We’ve tried to make into an organizing tool for the YCL, and also a ideological weapon that gets involved in the debates among left and progressive youth forces, talks about what real youth are doing, and makes a contribution.
For all these reasons, we hope our discussions today will help build a magazine that is exciting, important, necessary, and worth fighting for!
[1] Thomas Walkom. “Artfully clever scheme achieves Tories' goal” Feb 27, 2008. Toronto Star. I recommend reading this short article http://www.thestar.com/article/307325
ers B l p8t so that we the YCL with the Party on an organization-to-organization basis in selecting teachers from their ranks, not just grabbing whomever we can.
Schools are exciting, social activities also. People get to know each other in a much more direct and political way than in other settings. However, we can’t forget that schools are only a preparatory stage. Cadre’s receive their real steeling in actual work, in fighting difficulties, in overcoming difficulties.
Perhaps it seems obvious, but for this reason leaders can not be Houdinis. We have a little problem with some comrades disappearing from the YCL for periods of time and then, hopefully, reappearing. I think being a member of the Central Committee means making a commitment to raise the standards of our organization on all levels. Sadly some comrades do not raise the standards but lower them.
Often this is a political question. It is also an expression of the precariousness and uncertainty of many young worker’s and student’s lives, and the pressures placed on our best activists. It is very difficult to make a clean cut between the personal challenges people face and the political decision a leader makes not to prioritize YCL work.
However, remember, comrades, that the only cadres that are really first rate are those who do not fear difficulties, do not hide from difficulties, but who, on the contrary, go out to meet difficulties, in order to overcome them and eliminate them. It is only in combating difficulties that real cadres are forged. We can see this process at work from the club level to the Central Committee and in our work outside the League.
Combating difficulties is not the same as simply holding positions within a given movement, like a certain title. I personally think this is very important. Combating difficulties means struggling to bring to life the policies of the league, in the most highly visible way possible for the league. To truly be effective, that requires a base of support among youth who can, in turn, be a source of pressure for advanced demands.
Its not that we don’t think that leadership is important. But do we place our perspective around breaking into the “inner circles” of the youth movement and whispering into people’s ears, getting them to read the right books? Certainly not. We are revolutionaries. Our outlook is as fighters – and it is better to be known as a rank and file militant who is prepared to take a principled stand, despite the costs, than someone who feathers their nest.
This purpose or mission of young revolutionaries requires political and ideological skill, and steadfastness: recognition of the main tasks and which way forward; ability to understand and utilize fundamentals in daily work; and being able to take and follow-up on assignments.
At the most basic level what we are talking about is the ability to shift young people’s thinking and actions around new parameters. To recognize: I must convince people. We must change people’s perspective.
People do rise to the occasion, especially when our membership has good morale. We can’t build an organization if we think we have lost the battle or already tried everything and done everything that can be done.
None of this requires that the form of our clubs or local leadership committees replicate the Communist Party. YCL club meetings have a different dynamic than Party club meetings. Sometimes I think when we reach the level of a provincial center we lean towards a more serious approach, however, which may exclude younger leaders as being overly formal. It is very difficult to do this on a Central level. There is a real benefit to in person meetings because they can include this essential social component.
After all, strict discipline is not something imposed on members from above. It is not something that comes down contrary to members will and desire.
Joining a Marxist-Leninist organization everyone voluntarily undertakes obligations and duties stipulated in the League’s Declaration and rules or constitution, which stress that discipline, equally obligatory for both leaders and rank-and-file members must be observed to maintain the unity of the League’s ranks.
In closing, I’d like to add that in my view we should put particular emphasis on YCL cadre building as part of the “cultural identity” of the League – meaning YCLers need to check with the leadership of the League before taking on assignments that the Party, or a mass movement, asks them to.
We are the YCL, that we are not the youth wing of the Communist Party, nor a mini-Communist Party. YCLers pride should be supported, projecting a “team spirit” as members of the League.
If we don’t build new leadership we’ll stall. On the other hand, success in this area will lead to an organization that is much greater than just the sum of its parts.
Cadre, in this sense, are a living framework.
Thank you.
