A letter of solidarity from the Young Communist League of Canada (YCL-LJC) to the Young Communists of Chile (JJCC)

YCL-LJC International Commission

May, 2015

Dear Comrades,

We want to express our full solidarity with all the young communists of Chile (organized in the JJCC) and all youth and student activists who are mourning Exequiel Borbarán and Diego Guzmán Farras. These two students (the latter being a member of JJCC) were shot and murdered while taking part in a student mobilization in Valparaíso.

Their fight for a universal, free and quality education is an important struggle, especially in the current period of the structural crisis of capitalism. This struggle is shared by youth all over the world. In our country, three years ago, the youth and students in Québec organized the biggest student mobilization in our history. 200,000 students were on strike, some for more than 6 months as well as 400,000 people participating in massive rallies united against the government’s proposed 75% rise in tuition fees and to block the monopolies’ austerity agenda.

We should outline that we learned a lot from the experience of the Chilean struggle. As a matter of fact, shortly before Québec students went onto the streets, we organized a meeting with comrade Camilo Ballesteros, Chilean student leader and member of the JJCC, in Montréal, which was attended by student activists and leaders from Québec.

Comrades,

This tragedy also raises a big concern about democratic rights not only in Chile, but all around the world. In the last few years we have seen several different attacks by ultra-right groups (and sometimes even by official authorities) against progressive, anti-imperialist and communist youth. We can recall here the recent disappeared students from Ayotzinapa in Mexico, the murder of the young Venezuelan leader Robert Serra, the attacks against Young Communists of Venezuela’s (JCV) headquarters and the trial of comrade Aleksander Đenić in Serbia, among others. Student strikes which took place in Québec this spring have seen more students injured by police, and students facing expulsion from school and charges from the state.

All these attacks are part of the monopolies’ plan to crush all kind of popular movements and clear the way to place the burden of the capitalist crisis on the shoulders of the people. This is linked to a global and very dangerous normalization of fascist ideology, which is even present to a certain degree in our country.

Comrades,

We would like to conclude by reiterating our full solidarity with your struggle for free education, democratic rights, against imperialism and for peace as we believe this is the best way to ensure that these murders won’t go unpunished. We also want you to be sure that we will keep struggling for the same goals in our country as the best guarantee of our international solidarity.

We can’t let murderers have the final word. Violence can’t defeat our struggle for a better future.

¡Venceremos!