Political Report of the 27th YCL-LJC Central Convention

As the YCL-LJC assembles for its 27th Convention, after 94 years of struggle, the world is increasingly desperate and dangerous. Continued global economic, environmental and social crises are fuelling imperialist war and reaction. Youth and the working class are amongst the hardest hit, but we are also playing an important role in the fightback which is developing globally.

The YCL-LJC, as a pan-Canadian organization that seeks to unite all revolutionary youth in order to build socialism, takes this occasion to analyze the current situation in order to play a decisive role in building a united and militant youth and student movement.

 

1) International context and imperialism

Global Economy

The global crisis of capitalism, encompassing economic, environmental and social crises, which interact with each other, has only worsened since our last Convention three years ago. Economic growth in North America and Europe has remained very slow and unstable since the meltdown of 2008. At that point and continuing until today, the capitalist response to the economic crisis was to make the working class pay for a crisis they were not responsible for. There was an acceleration of neoliberal policies coupled with increased corporate rights under the banner of austerity and free trade.

Austerity policies have led to a partial recovery for an even more concentrated and centralized capital, but not for the vast majority. Inequality has never been greater. Eight individuals now own as much wealth as half the world. According to a report from 2016, wealth of the world’s richest 62 people increased by 44% from 2010 to 2015, to $1.76 trillion, while the 3.6 billion people in the bottom half of humanity lost a total of $1 trillion in the same period. The picture could not be any clearer: global capital has used the crisis to plunder working people.

The general capitalist offensive against working people has come down even more sharply on young people. Global youth employment rates are down and stagnating at 53.9 per cent for men and 37.3 per cent for women, which also shows the gendered nature of poverty and unemployment. The number of young people who live in extreme or moderate poverty despite being employed makes up 37.7 per cent of young workers, compared to 26 per cent of adult workers. Moreover, the racialization of poverty is also prevalent within Canadian society. Poverty becomes disproportionately concentrated and reproduced among racialized group members, in some cases intergenerationally. The emergence of precarious work as a major feature of Canadian labour markets is an important explanation for the racialization of poverty. The precarious work economy has also targeted Single parents (often women), racialized workers and recent immigrants, as they are most likely to find themselves in part-time, temporary work. 

The wealth in the imperialist centres continues to be built upon the back of oppressed nations. In 2012, the US-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) and the Centre for Applied Research at the Norwegian School of Economics found that developing countries received a total of $1.3 trillion from abroad while $3.3 trillion flowed out of them, including including all aid, investment, and income. This figure itself is an underestimate, as it does not take into account the wealth extracted from oppressed nations within imperialist countries. While professing lofty humanitarian intentions, imperialist nations continue to plunder the rest of the world.   

The situation is increasingly desperate with young people being offered lives of poverty, precarious employment, unemployment, migration, criminalization, imperialist war and no access to education. Youth around the world demand their right to a present and a future worth living. This right is being denied by the global capitalist system, which concentrates all society’s resources in the hands of a few to be used only to extract greater profits. It is a right that will be won through struggle and solidarity against imperialism by the world’s youth.

Canadian Imperialism

Imperialism’s escalating militarism and drive to war represent an immediate danger for working people around the world. The United States, NATO and their allies are the main causes of rising militarism and war, and there now exists the re-emergence the real possibility of a global war between nuclear powers.

As a key member of NATO, the Canadian state and its ruling class share a large responsibility for ongoing geopolitical strife, for the current bloodshed and leading the world to the brink. Despite the Liberal government’s election in 2015, there has been no substantial shift in a foreign policy promoting imperialist war and intervention. The YCL-LJC sees all of the major bourgeois parties as functionally pro-imperialist in their orientations. 

The war against Syria, which began five years ago and has led to the deaths of almost half a million people, has been a proxy war from the outset, sponsored and financed by NATO imperialism and its regional allies of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Gulf States and Israel. Its aim has been to impose regime change in order to fulfill imperialism’s broader plan for the region, the carving up of Syria and Iraq into the “New Middle East” made up of weakened compliant states. Containing the armed, mostly foreign, reactionary groups in Syria, including ISIS, has not been the main objective of NATO’s campaign. The vitriolic “humanitarian intervention” propaganda campaign against the Syrian government and its allies is being used to promote direct US/NATO war against a sovereign country under the “responsibility to protect” justification. Syria has asked for and received military support from the Russian federation, Iran and Hezbollah, which they have the right to do under international law. Because of this, Syria has become a flashpoint in a broader “new Cold War” against Russia, which is being aggressively pursued by the United States.

The war in Libya, which the Harper Conservatives helped to lead, receiving universal support from the capitalist parties including the NDP under the leadership of Jack Layton, accomplished the goal of regime change and the dismantlement of a sovereign state in that country at great human cost. Prior to NATO-led regime change of the nationalist, anti-imperialist government, the Libyan people enjoyed Africa’s highest standard of living. Libya is now in ruins, without a functioning state, where the enslavement and trade of Black Africans is taking place. The devastation of Libya makes clear the “humanitarianism” the US, Canada, and NATO wish to bring to Syria and everywhere else they target for intervention. This contributed to increase instability in the sahelo-saharian region and justified the deployment of troops in Mali and in Central African Republic. Canada joined the regional war in Iraq and Syria formally in 2014, and has continued to play an important role in different capacities. The Harper government began illegally bombing Syria in 2015. The Liberals, who had campaigned on a promise to stop bombing Syria, intensified the bombing until February of 2016, when Canada changed its role by stopping bombing, while tripling the military deployment in Iraq, increasing the budget for the war, and sending helicopters. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion had campaigned at the UN against Syria and Russia on behalf of NATO imperialism, and Canada’s continued military support in Iraq is part of the same regional war. The “War on Terror” in the region has led to the deaths of 1-2 million people since 2001. The US, Canada and NATO have no moral authority to offer further “assistance”.

The imperialists have been stopped in their tracks by the heroic resistance of the Syrian people, the Syrian Arab Army and their allies. However, the imperialists continue to pursue their aims to enact regime change and/or the partitioning of Syria and have escalated their aggression and demonization of the Syrian government. In this time it is crucial to combat “humanitarian intervention” propaganda and uphold Syria’s right to self-determination. The YCL-LJC continues to demand the Canadian government cease all foreign intervention from the region and end its obstruction of a peaceful, negotiated way out of the crisis, one which respects the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, with the full involvement of the elected Syrian government. 

The imperialist war in Afghanistan is still ongoing with the US and Canada continuing to invest in Afghan security forces. Canada plans to spend $330 million to Afghan Security forces in 2017 alone. As in Syria, Canada and the United States have no moral authority for further “assistance” in Afghanistan 

Canada’s hypocrisy can be seen in its regional allies of Saudi Arabia and Israel. Saudi Arabia, a reactionary monarchy, has waged a brutal war on Yemen with the support of the United States and bolstered by Canada’s largest ever $15 billion dollar arms deal with the country. Furthermore, we demand that Canada halt its arms sales, trades and distribution to all reactionary states, including Saudi Arabia.

Israel has continued its occupation and annexation of the West Bank, the blockade of Gaza, and its Apartheid system within its own borders. When democratic forces in Canada, especially students, organized behind the growing BDS movement, speak out against the ongoing genocide and colonialism of Israel, the Canadian government condemn us for “racism” and “anti-Semitism” in attempts to silence and suppress pro-Palestinian activism. Also, the conflation of Judaism and Zionism has allowed for the criticism of Israel’s apartheid regime to be deemed as “anti-semitic” in effort to avoid all criticism of the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. This is also offensive to the Jewish community that have their religion tied to a racist, settler-colonial ideology. This stands the situation on its head and gives a blank cheque to Zionism to continue its crimes. This hypocrisy is motivated by the fact that Israel is a key ally of the US imperialism in the region. The YCL-LJC demands the withdrawal of the conservative motion adopted in Feburary 2016 with the unconditionned support of the Liberals condemning all promotion of BDS movement, which impedes the formation of BDS committees on campuses.

The YCL-LJC continues to support the demands of the Palestinian people: for the complete withdrawal of Israel from all occupied territories, dismantlement of the settlements and the Apartheid wall, lifting the siege on Gaza, the full right of return for refugees, the release of all Palestinian prisoners, and Palestinian self-determination. It is for the Palestinian people to decide what kind state and borders they demand. However, the most pressing task is to maintain and build unity in action of the solidarity movement and not allow debates to weaken the current momentum in the movement. We also demand a de-nuclearized Israel guaranteeing peace and security with neighbouring Arab states. We continue to support the demands of the Palestinian people, its leadership, and our Palestinian sister organizations in the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The YCL-LJC will continue to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement until Palestinians achieve their full liberation.

Another target of imperialism in the Middle East is Iran. After a few years of seemingly more conciliatory policy, the US has returned to threats against Iran, with a number of figures in the Trump administration known to be particularly hostile. Iran has played an important role in supporting Syria in its struggle to maintain its independence and integrity, and supports the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance. We condemn the new imperialist threats to Iran and oppose all sanctions imposed to this country as well as any future war or imperialist aggression. We also respect Iran’s sovereignty and its right of defense in the face of any imperialist intervention.

We demand an end to Canada’s increasingly belligerent role in the “new Cold War” against the Russian federation. Since the 2014 coup in Ukraine, Canada has continued to support a far-right government with fascist elements in that country. The support of Harper and now Trudeau for this government strengthens fascism in Europe, supports the criminalization of the Communist Party and the left in Ukraine, denies self-determination to the Crimea, and supports Western imperialism’s drive to privatize resources and further exploit the people of Ukraine. This as well as the Trudeau government’s decision to send troops as part of a NATO force in the Baltic states is part of a dangerous escalation against Russia.

The government’s and corporate media’s propaganda campaign against the Russian Federation must be responded to forcefully by the anti-war movement in Canada. We condemn the Russophobia prevalent in the bourgeois media, which contributes to the demonization of this country. The objective of the Cold War-like response is to justify US-NATO aggression and this must be exposed. With the threat of globalized war emerging, this is not something peace forces can ignore. It must also be noted that Russia is far from the ‘principal threat to peace’ that the United States has claimed it to be. For example, annual Russian military expenditures are roughly 10% of those of the United States’, and Russia’s economy measured by its GDP is smaller than Italy’s or Canada’s. While recognizing Russia’s recent contributions to halting imperialist aggression in Eastern Europe and Syria, at the same time we do not harbour illusions that Russia is playing a consistently anti-imperialist, internationalist role in the world today, ever since the counter-revolution against the USSR. Russia has acted in its own self-interest in blocking US-NATO plans in Syria, Donbass and Crimea.

Another country in the rising “BRICS” group is China, which is becoming a target of imperialism once again which could become a central feature of world conflict. The proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, along with the general attack to sovereignty and democracy in the member countries, is an attempt to isolate China and limit the ability of Chinese publicly controlled companies to compete with US capitalist monopolies. The US’s “Pivot to Asia” under the Obama administration, complete with increased naval and military presence in the region and an expansion of military bases, is an attempt to encircle and intimidate China. President Trump has been very clear about his priority to launch a trade war on China.

Tens of thousands of US troops, along with nuclear weapons, continue to be stationed on the Korean peninsula on the border of DPR Korea. The US client state of South Korea participates in joint military exercises with the United States, which has refused to sign a peace treaty with DPR Korea since the Korean War. Despite these neglected facts, it is DPR Korea, which is demonized as a “rogue state” with often false and racist propaganda. It must be noted that US imperialist aggression on the Korean peninsula also targets China. The US has rushed to deploy US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in South Korea, following the impeachment of former South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. Deployment of THAAD is part of the “pivot to Asia” and expands the network of “missile defense” systems encircling China and Russia. The YCL-LJC opposes any attempts to undermine Chinese, Korean and other countries’ sovereignty and condemns these acts of intimidation. We also oppose the economic sanctions that have been placed on DPR Korea. The YCL-LJC also strongly condemns the renewed imperialist sabre-rattling that the US and their allies have recently begun to engage in. 

 In India, under hostile conditions since the election of the fascistic BJP government in 2014, communists are fighting back. For example, in September 2016, they organised a general strike that was followed by 150 – 180 million workers who struck and rallied against the government’s austerity policies. Communist youth also played an important role during the 2016 protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University against the arrestation and charges of sedition faced by the Student Union’s President, Kanhaiya Kumar. 

In Latin America US imperialism is trying to recapture its “back yard” that has pursued a course of independence and sovereignty under the leadership of countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia in recent years. The United States and sections of the domestic ruling classes have been successful in some areas in rolling back the political, social and economic gains in some Latin American countries. One of the preferred strategy at the moment appears to be “soft-coups” which are often semi-legal, but nonetheless continue the long history of US intervention and domination over the region, which has resulted in mass poverty, fascist dictatorships and invasions since the 19th century. Brazil, now controlled by the Temer regime after the coup against the Rousseff government, is suffering under extreme austerity measures. The right-wing Macri government in Argentina has now become a regional favourite of Canada and the United States. As an imperialist power, Canada has also been particularly focused on the exploitation of Latin America, especially in the resource extraction industries. 

Venezuela, which has faced repeated coup attempts and is now suffering under a campaign of economic sabotage similar to that launched against the Allende government in Chile of the 1970s, is continuing its resistance. The Canadian government has participated recent coup attempts, as they did in Haiti in 2004. We must recall that RCMP agent, Nancy Birbeck, employed by the Canadian Embassy in Caracas, was ‘inspecting’ airports for the creation of contingency plans, which the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela linked to the failed February 2015 coup attempt.

But there have been positive developments in Latin America too and the region continues to give hope to young people around the world fighting for a social transformation. In Colombia, the FARC-EP, with the support of Cuba, achieved a negotiated peace treaty with the Santos government that promises an end to decades of war, assassinations and crimes. There remain serious challenges in the struggle for peace as FARC-EP, social movement, and Indigenous activists continue to face state repression, threats, and attacks from neo-paramilitary groups. Canada established a free trade agreement with Colombia in 2011, a country which has killed over 3000 labour activists in the last 25 years, and has 50 mining companies active in Colombia which have displaced thousands of people. Free trade agreements of this sort have directly contributed to and exacerbated anti-labour policies and violence, as well as the general immiseration of the Colombian people. The YCL-LJC continues to support the peace process in Colombia, which will need to live up to its promised social and political reforms that were the ongoing cause of the conflict.

Cuba has continued to update and defend its socialist system, continuing to offer internationalist inspiration and material aid to the struggle for a better world. Since our last Convention a great victory was won with the liberation of the Cuban Five heroes, the majority of whom spent more than 15 years in US jails as political prisoners and as symbols of resistance to imperialism. Along with their freedom, Cuba, its allies and solidarity movements won negotiations with the United States after more than five decades. However the Obama administration has made it clear that the goals of the United States have not changed, only the means. Cuba has been equally clear: normalization of relations can only occur on an equal basis between the two countries. The US must end the blockade of Cuba and compensate Cuba for this ongoing crime. Guantanamo Bay, currently occupied by a US torture and illegal detention facility, must be returned to the people of Cuba after the 103 year presence of the US Navy. All forms of support for acts of terror and intervention in the political life of Cuba must end. As the new Trump administration threatens to roll-back the concessions that the United States has made towards Cuba, it is vital to push forward on these fronts. The YCL-LJC supports these just demands and commit to building the Cuba solidarity movement in Canada through our membership in the Canadian Network on Cuba and in la Table de concertation et de solidarité Québec-Cuba.

In November, 2016, Cuba and the world lost a revolutionary leader with the death of Fidel. While young revolutionaries around the globe declared, “Yo soy Fidel” promising to continue the example he had set, the corporate media and bourgeois politicians in the West used the occasion to renew a campaign of slander against Fidel and Cuba itself. In Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau issued condolences that respected the sovereignty of Cuba and recognized the undeniable, that Fidel’s role in leadership had led Cuba forward. The Conservative party, the corporate media and even the CBC led a demonization campaign and criticized the Liberal party, leading to Trudeau’s shameful decision to not attend the funeral, where heads of state from around the world gathered. The YCL-LJC spoke out forcefully with the truth at that time and will continue to do so. Fidel was not a tyrant but a liberator. Cuba is not a dictatorship but a vibrant democracy where the workers and farmers rule without a capitalist class in control. The YCL-LJC will continue to build the Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade which is celebrating its 25th year,  and the brigade Madeleine-Parent as important tools to advance friendship and solidarity with Cuba in Canada and in Québec.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, Canadian imperialism continues to very active especially in resource extraction and finance capital. This is especially visible in Haiti where Canada organised the overthrow of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Canada has continued to be involved in the occupation of Haiti, through the multi-national United Nations force there. The occupation of Haiti claiming to bring “peace”, “stability”, and “development”, exists in fact to protect the political and economic interests of Canada, the United States, and France. The UN occupation is responsible for innumerable abuses committed against Haitians, including repression and murder of social activists, mass sexual abuse, including against children, and the importation of Cholera responsible for killing nearly 10,000 and sickening nearly 800,000 more. Imperialists have also continually interfered in Haiti’s political process and elections. We salute Haiti’s proud history of resistance, including the Haitian revolution which was an important advance against colonialism and slavery in the Americas, led by self-liberated slaves. We condemn any intervention in the homeland of Toussaint Louverture by Canada, US or any other imperialist countries and demand the immediate end of Haiti’s occupation. 

Nearly 75% of the world’s mining and exploration companies are based in Canada. Operating in Latin America, Africa and Asia, Canadian mining companies are responsible for the displacement, repression and murder of Indigenous peoples, ecological destruction, as well as the exploitation and theft of land and resources. 

Africa continues to be a growing focal point for imperialist intervention especially the US, France and also Canada. In fall 2016, the Trudeau government announced its intention to send 600 soldiers and 150 police officers to somewhere in Africa on a “peace” mission. Defence Minister Sajjan has gone on two tours of several African countries seeking a place for deployment. This absurd shopping for a military mission has nothing to do with the stated goal of combating the “radicalization” of African youth, and everything to do with Canada’s increasing imperialist interests in the region. Canada has major mining operations in Zambia, Mauritania, South Africa, Madagascar, the DRC, Ghana, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal and Eritrea. As in Central and South America, Canadian mining corporations are responsible for environmental destruction and often bloody abuses of labour and human rights. “Responsibility to protect” rhetoric, often similar to the old racist doctrine of the “white man’s burden”, cannot hide the fact that the Canadian government is participating in a renewed plunder of Africa and is in fact contributing to the political instability and poverty that it pretends to want to fight. The YCL-LJC condemns any military deployment in Africa and supports the demands of the mining justice movement for robust regulation of the mining industry and full compensation to the victims of the industry.

In addition to support for “neo-colonialism”, the Canadian government continues to support the oppression of Africa’s last true colony: Western Sahara. Western Sahara remains the Kingdom of Morocco’s prisoner with an occupation supported by the US, France and Spain that has forced tens of thousands of Saharawis into refugee camps. Canada started negotiating towards a free trade agreement with Morocco under the Harper government and has now become the largest importer of potash from Western Sahara’s territory after other corporations withdrew because of concerns of breaching international law. The YCL-LJC, along with the World Federation of Democratic Youth, continues to demand an end to the occupation of Western Sahara with full rights of self-determination and sovereignty, and the recognition of the Sahrawi people’s leadership of the POLISARIO Front, as recognised by the United Nations since 1991. We also demand the immediate liberation of the Gdeim Izik political prisoners and denounce torture as well as inhuman condition detentions in which they are maintained. Along with Polisario Front, we demand the organisation in the shortest term of a referendum on Western Sahara’s auto-determination without any Moroccan intervention. 

Imperialism’s aggressiveness has intensified with the economic crisis. The relationship between imperialist war and ideologies of racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, which support the rise of ultra-right and fascist forces, has become more apparent in the recent period. We recognize that Islamophobia as a racist ideology for legitimizing imperialist war abroad also contributes to the racialization, and subsequent demonization, of Middle Eastern, black people and people of colour in Canada, the United States, and Europe. With the election of Donald Trump administration in the US, there will be no breathing space, despite some declarations of support for detente with Russia. The new US administration is an open proponent of continued US imperialist interventions. Last budget proposed by the Trump administration, which proposes an increase in military spendings by 54 billions $, makes a big step towards the promise to double military expenditures and add to the US’ already obscene nuclear weapons arsenal. It promises an even more aggressive line on Iran and China, and has included the most hawkish representatives of the military establishment in its leading circles. This will put additional pressure on Canada’s government to increase its own military expenditures and ‘do their fair share’ when it comes to participating in NATO wars and interventions.

Rebuilding the anti-imperialist movement as an essential part of the broader anti-war movement in Canada is an immediate necessity. The doctrines and ideologies of “responsibility to protect” and “humanitarian intervention” as well as a “new cold war” rhetoric have been a serious block on anti-war activism since the mid 2000’s. The anti-imperialist movement must be rebuilt on a correct analysis of the current drive to war and US-NATO imperialism as the principal enemy of peace and progress around the world. To the corporate media and politicians who promote “responsibility to protect” style interventions, the anti-war movement must answer with the principles of the non-intervention of our own government, respect for sovereignty and self-determination and the promotion of solidarity with people’s struggles internationally. The YCL-LJC is committed to redoubling its efforts to build the Canadian Peace Congress as the main anti-imperialist organization in English-speaking Canada, and a member of the World Peace Council. In Québec, the LJC-Q commits to play a great role in the constitution and promotion of the Mouvement québécois pour la paix. Strengthening the Canadian Peace Congress and the Mouvement québécois pour la paix will help to strengthen the anti-imperialist pole inside the peace movement and as such help to build the broader anti-war movement, which is also necessary.

The YCL-LJC’s membership in the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and our new role on its General Council, provides important links to the international struggles of youth. We need to build awareness of WFDY and use our link to the Federation to build solidarity in Canada for these international struggles. The 19th World Festival of Youth and Students, being held in Sochi Russia in October 2017, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, will be an important opportunity to build the anti-imperialist movement in Canada among the youth and student movement.

 

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Canadian troops out of Iraq – Hands off Syria;
  2. Towards a negotiated peace in Syria – one which respects the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, with the full involvement of the elected Syrian government;
  3. End the arms deal with Saudi Arabia;
  4. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel – freedom for Palestine;
  5. End Canada’s role in the “new Cold War” against Russia – Canada out of Ukraine and Eastern Europe;
  6. No to the undermining of Chinese and Korean sovereignty – stop the “Pivot to Asia”;
  7. Hands off Latin America – No to coups and intervention against progressive Latin American governments;
  8. End the blockade of Socialist Cuba – Return Guantanamo to Cuba;
  9. No Canadian military deployment in Africa;
  10. No imperialist interventions under the guise of “responsibility to protect” propaganda;
  11. Canada out of NATO and NORAD – for a foreign policy of peace and disarmament.

Climate Crisis

The climate crisis is already causing devastation around the world and what’s at stake is the livability of the planet. Millions each year are already displaced due to drought, flooding and extreme weather exacerbated by climate change. The 2 degree Celsius warming ‘red line’ currently being discussed internationally does not mean that catastrophic events will be entirely avoided (such as the total loss of some island nations), but the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predictions that warming will reach 3.7 to 4.8 degrees Celsius, means that global capitalism is on track to plunge humankind and the environment into chaos.

What is immediately needed is a call for bold action and a binding agreement with teeth. This would include a hard cap on climate emissions and a recognition that 80% of current fossil fuel reserves need to be left in the ground in order to meet the 2 degree commitment and avoid the full brunt of the crisis. Only voluntary targets were approved at the COP21 meeting in Paris in 2015.

A solution to the climate crisis cannot replicate the current imperialist balance of forces, which is itself to blame. Western imperialist powers have historically contributed a disproportionately high level of greenhouse gas emissions, while at the same time exploiting the Global South. The YCL-LJC supports the demand for climate reparations in order to allow sustainable development for the people in exploited countries and to stop the United States, Canada and other imperialist powers from avoiding their historic responsibilities in regards to the current climate crisis.

After five centuries of ongoing colonialism and genocide, Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Americas and elsewhere around the world, are facing the further theft of oil, gas and hydro power from their traditional lands and waters. Environmental racism, where the racialized working class and especially Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by climate change and pollution caused by climate criminal corporations, is alive and well. A key struggle to combat environmental racism is the struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, which includes the demand that any development on Indigenous lands, both surface and sub-surface, should proceed only with the full knowledge and consent of Indigenous peoples, on fairly negotiated terms. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is a step forward in this respect and we support its enforcement as international law.

Pollution beyond carbon emissions is also a growing threat to ecosystems. Take for example the Flint Michigan water crisis, which is also an example of environmental racism, or the Great Pacific garbage patch and the North Atlantic garbage patch made up of accumulated plastic pollution, which poison marine life and the food chain. To the plastics industry pollution like this is an “externality”, an external cost that has no effect on their bottom line. The existence of “externalities” is due to the fact that the production of goods is private. Waste, the destruction of the environment, the deaths of workers, and the fish stocks of the oceans – are seen only in relation to individual and disembodied profit. Production is social, the consequences are social, and the recipient of production is society as a collective, but the direction of production is private. We also see environmental racism targeted directly at indigenous communities. The health implications of the Athabasca Oil Sands on First Nations communities includes environmental contaminants including heavy metal and chemicals. We also see nations in the Global South have their communities threatened by climate change due to intensive capitalist production.   

The reality has never been more apparent: capitalism is incompatible with an environmentally sustainable global economy, just as it is incompatible with peace and a world without the exploitation of labour. As the World Federation of Democratic Youth said in a statement on the COP21 meetings:

“It is doubtless that the solutions for environmental issues will never come from imperialism, with its complete irrationality and predatory nature, and its goal of accumulation and maximizing profit will always seek the depletion of nature at a pace that overcomes its ability to regenerate, risking, in short, the sovereignty and quality of life of the peoples and, in the long term, risking the human species’ survival itself.”

It is no wonder that imperialist leaders have no real answers to the climate crisis. They are trying to save the planet but without upsetting the system that is destroying it. There is no such thing as ‘green capitalism’, and socialism is a prerequisite for building a truly environmentally sustainable economy. Perhaps now more than ever before Rosa Luxemburg’s call of “socialism or barbarism” rings true with the twin dangers of global imperialist war and climate collapse.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Binding international climate agreements with teeth and a hard cap on climate emissions;
  2. Keep it in the ground – 80% of current fossil fuel reserves must be left alone
  3. Climate reparations for sustainable development of over-exploited countries;
  4. Uphold the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – End environmental racism.
  5. Immediately stop the exploitation of tar sands and reconvert jobs linked to this industry into sustainable sectors without altering working conditions of workers.
  6. Put energetical resources under public and democratic control.

Growth of Reaction

Increasing economic insecurity combined with Islamophobic, pro-war propaganda promoted by the corporate media, has created a situation where large sections of people have become susceptible to reactionary ideologies. The backdrop to this development is the capitalist crisis which has caused sections of the ruling class to abandon liberal bourgeois ideas and embrace ultra-right and fascist movements.

The growth of ultra-right ideology and movements take on different characteristics in different countries and movements, but what is common is their promotion of various forms of chauvinist, oppressive and supremacist ideologies as weapons of imperialism used to weaken and divide working people.

Internationally the rise of ultra-right and fascist forces are apparent in movements, parties and governments from the National Front in France, the FPO in Austria, Pegida in Germany, Golden Dawn in Greece, UKIP the Britain, to Modi’s BJP in India and Al-Nusra, Al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria and Iraq. In Canada and the US racist and Islamophobic organizations such as Pegida and Soldiers of Odin have been imported from Europe, along with a resurgence of the traditional fascist organizations in North America, the KKK and other white supremacist organizations as well as new groups such as Toronto’s neo-Nazi New Constitution Party. Reactionary anti-feminist and anti-women movements such as the “Gamergate” movement and the “Men’s Rights” movement, which is largely organized on Canadian campuses by “Men’s Issues Awareness” groups and the “Canadian Association For Equality”, have gained strength and joined with white supremacist and transphobic individuals and groups against “political correctness” and for “free speech”. The “alt-right” movement is an internet based movement that has cobbled together a repackaged neo-Nazi ideology and has gained some traction amongst some younger people looking to reinforce white supremacy and patriarchy and by extension imperialism and capitalism.

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States was both helped by the rise of the ultra-right and also emboldened these movements. Trump is a de facto leader of a fascist movement as evidenced by what the fascist groups have declared themselves: that they see the new US administration as being a big help to their movements and that they see the new US President as a leader. This does not mean that the United States is now a fascist country, as this is not the first time that individual fascists have had cabinet positions in US history, but it would be a grave mistake to write off the growth of the ultra-right and fascist forces in the US as just a continuation of the dictatorship of the imperialist bourgeois in the US. It is that, but the dictatorship of capital can get much more brutal, especially for Muslim, Latin American and racialised immigrants, Black people, Latin-Americans, women, LGBTQIA2S peoples, and Indigenous peoples. Labour and people’s movements as well as Left and revolutionary voices can be repressed more heavily than they are being already. Working people can be worse off. We offer our full solidarity with all those struggling in the United States against the ultra-right and against the Trump agenda.

The fertile ground of declining economic and social conditions that allows these groups to grow also has an expression in the established bourgeois parties as evidenced by the Conservative Party’s current debate about what level of xenophobia they want to promote which surrounds the leadership campaign of Kellie Leitch. The candidacy of right-wing, reality TV star/businessman Kevin O’Leary for the Conservative Party’s leadership also promises more key battles against the ultra-right within “mainstream” bourgeois politics.

In order to effectively fight against the rise of ultra-right reaction and fascism we need to have a clear understanding of the nature of fascism. The YCL-LJC understands fascism as comrade Dimitrov and the Communist International defined it in 1935 when he wrote that fascism in power is “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” It is not a form of government that is distinct from capitalist rule: “the accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one bourgeois government by another, but a substitution of one state form of class domination of the bourgeoisie — bourgeois democracy — by another form — open terrorist dictatorship.”

The YCL-LJC calls on all progressive and democratic minded youth to fight the rise of reactionary and fascist movements and the rise of the ultra-right in the Conservative Party. The need for broad unity in action against the ultra-right, and our key role in organizing and building that unity, does not mean that we can abandon our struggle against the heart of the system that gives rise to fascism, war and reaction: capitalism.

“Democratic Socialism” and Social Democracy

As neoliberalism’s hegemony is shaken by capitalism’s deepening crises, the rise of the ultra-right and fascism is only one false answer that the system tries to offer the people. The crisis has also exacerbated an existing split in social democracy. There has been a resurgence of “left” social democracy or “democratic socialism”. This is apparent in the Sanders Presidential campaign, the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party in Britain, the election of the Syriza led government in Greece, as well as gains in the polls of Podemos in Spain. In Canada this is less developed but still has a reflection in discussions around the leadership of the NDP (as a reaction to that social democratic party’s rightward drift), the publication of the “Leap Manifesto” during the last Federal election, in the attention that many Quebec Solidaire militants give to new international left social democratic formations, and in low-level talk among activists and academics outside of the NDP about forming a new “broad left” party in English Canada.

The Sanders campaign has shown both the positive side of this development as well as the very real limitations of this “new” social democracy. Many young people were exposed to left and progressive ideas through the Bernie campaign, such as the fight for $15/hr, free university and college education, progressive tax reform, a public single payer health care system, and of course the use of the word “socialism” to mean these and other advances for working people. It is clear that these ideas got traction because of working people’s’ search for a political alternative to capitalist neoliberalism, and some of those who were exposed to the arguments for these important reforms have looked to our movement as a way to continue to fight and win. On the other hand, the campaign offered many illusions. The usual pitfall of social democratic electoralism was clearly shown in Sanders’ reliance on the corporate controlled Democratic Party, which ended up being a losing battle despite his popular appeal. Bernie was tossed aside by his party, the corporate media and the bourgeois political class, but it was his campaign’s social democratic strategy that charted a path towards this failure.

The “Leap Manifesto” was hailed by many activists in the labour and people’s movements as a new, radical version of “democratic socialism”. The manifesto advocates many things the YCL-LJC has demanded: military spending cuts, Indigenous sovereignty, higher wages with a shorter workweek, replacing the tar sands with renewable energy programs, massive investment in housing, and an end to “corporate trade deals” like the NAFTA, the TPP and CETA. We will continue organize for these reforms with as broad coalitions as possible, including signatories and supporters of the Leap Manifesto. However what the document leaves out is illustrative of the dangerous limitations of “democratic socialism” or left social democracy. There is no condemnation of imperialist wars, no focus on repressive measures of the state, and it does not advocate for public ownership of energy and natural resources, but instead calls for “collective community control of new energy systems”. This is again a major flaw in social democratic thought: a tendency to ignore or gloss over public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, the class nature of the state and the need for working class control over the state.

We must also be aware of the anti-communism of social democracy and even its left-wing expression: “democratic socialism”. In Canada, the CCF and the NDP have a long track record of anti-communism, including the splitting and purging of the labour movement. From its inception in the 1930s, the CCF/NDP has always positioned itself as a “pro-democratic” alternative form of socialism to the scientific socialism advocated by the Communist movement which understood the establishment of a socialist system as the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system. What is really meant by “pro-democratic” is a rejection of internationalist solidarity with revolutionary nations and movements and a reformist “third way” for a socialism that does not fundamentally threaten the capitalist system. The goal of social democracy around the world remains “capitalism with a human face” and not the replacement of capitalism with socialism. As such, the right-wing of social democracy tends towards class collaborationism and “more responsible” management of the capitalist system while the left can lean towards utopian strategies that underestimate class struggle and overestimate electoralism on a path to a vaguely defined socialism. Only the Communist movement, the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League of Canada, offer a scientific socialist path to the necessary revolutionary break with capitalism.

Our clear headed understanding of the relation between reform and revolution does not mean that we refuse to fight with all those who are willing to fight for the immediate interests of working people. In the labour and student movement in particular, and also in other people’s movements we find left social democrats, both inside and increasingly outside of the NDP, as close allies that can often help to build militancy and unity. The current weakness of our movement in particular and the left more broadly means that it is even more important to build the broadest unity possible through struggle. Working people are surrounded by capitalist education and media and most do not have the same interpretation of the world as we do. But this does not mean we can abandon our scientific socialist analysis and the ideological tools of Marxism-Leninism in order to demonstrate the historical necessity of socialism the next rung on the ladder of human development. It is also necessary to use our Marxist-Leninist analysis in order to chart an immediate path forward for the broader youth and student movement that avoids some of the pitfalls of social democratic thinking such as electoralism, an underestimation of mass action, or acquiescence to imperialism.

2) Canada & the Fightback

Canada

At our last Convention, the YCL-LJC called young people to mobilize a broad fightback to defeat the Tory agenda inside and outside parliament. In 2015, after almost ten years of Conservative rule, people recognized that the Stephen Harper government represented the biggest danger to working people. They had been the most right-wing, pro-war, anti-environment government in Canadian history, at least since the 1930s. Over 11 million people voted against the Harper government, with the highest turnout in a Federal election since 1997, including a large increase in Indigenous people voting. The Tories were electorally defeated, but they held onto their base of votes from 2011, they retained their majority in the Senate, and still hold a sizable portion of support from the bourgeois establishment, as demonstrated by the corporate media’s endorsement of them during the campaign. The Conservatives were defeated at the polls in 2015, but their ideas were not, and the Liberal government that replaced them, while perhaps less aggressive, is more in keeping with continuity than “real change”. Bay Street is still driving the steamroller.

There were some positive changes won with the new Liberal government. A deal was negotiated with the provinces to expand the Canada Pension Plan, although not enough, and financial support from the state to families was increased with reforms to the Canada Child Benefit program. The government canceled some of Harper’s reforms to employment insurance, it established an inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and it reduced the eligibility age for full old-age security back down to sixty-five. But the Harper agenda remains in all key area. It remains, because this was not only the agenda of the Tories, but the agenda for Canada of the bourgeoisie, and Trudeau is another government in the service of the same bourgeoisie. Thankfully, since the 2015 election, many illusions about the Trudeau government have faded. The honeymoon is over. 

The YCL-LJC recognizes the failure of liberal democracy as a system that perpetuates bourgeois class rule disguised as representative democracy. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada have demonstrated their character by highlighting to Canadians the undemocratic nature of our first-past-the-post voting system only to display their unwillingness to change it. During the 2015 election, Justin Trudeau made the statement on several occasions that “We are committed to ensuring that the 2015 election will be the last federal election using first-past-the-post.” However, on February 1st of 2017, the Liberal Party of Canada reversed its decision on electoral reform. During a stop on a so-called “listening tour” in Yellowknife, Justin Trudeau stated,   “If we were to make a change or risk a change that would augment individual voices, that would augment extremist voices and activist voices … I think we’d be entering an era of instability and uncertainty”. The YCL-LJC condemns the Liberal Party of Canada for blatantly lying to the Canadian public about electoral reform. The YCL-LJC however should not reject electoral politics, but work with social movements like Fair Vote Canada to continue the fight for proportional representation

The Liberal government is a government against civil liberties, beginning with its support for Bill C-51 which it voted for in while opposition in May 2015. This bill imposes sweeping new powers to further criminalize dissent. Raising the spectre of Islamic terrorism, C-51 in reality targets the critics of austerity, capitalism, colonialism, environmental destruction and imperialist war. Trudeau had made an election promise to amend this law. There was a semblance of openness with consultations in the summer of 2016, but the discussion was rigged. The Liberal government has focused on requests for new powers from police and intelligence agencies, rather than privacy and human rights issues. To date, this anti-terrorism law has provided unprecedented powers of intervention to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and remains intact. The Privacy Commissioner has warned that state forces are already happily using these new powers.

Continuing the same militarist policies, the Liberals have maybe withdrawn CF-18 fighter jets from the war in Iraq and Syria, but they have also tripled the number of Canadian military troops sent to Northern Iraq and mobilized more military advisors for this war.

Instead of opposing pipelines, fracking, and other resource extraction projects, the Liberals have lobbied hard for the Keystone XL pipeline, again possible with the Trump election. They have indicated their strong support for the Energy East, and Line 9 in Ontario and Quebec. The Liberals have just approved the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline that facing massive opposition, including by the Coast Salish nations, whose lands surround the pipeline’s terminus in Burnaby, B.C. The Trudeau government is helping to increase the pipeline capacity in Canada by 30%, or more than one million barrels per day, which will allow the industry to increase its output from the tar sands. In the case of Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled in June 2016 that the Federal government failed to meet even a basic standard of First Nations consultation whose territory and rights are affected by the project. This judgment overturned the Harper government’s approval of the project. But this only obliges the new Liberal government to consult First Nations, it does not stop them ultimately approving the project. This pipeline is a serious environmental threat to the Great Bear rainforest, one of the largest intact temperate rainforests in the world. Canada is continuing its reliance on the fossil fuel industry, as we are headed for a major environmental crisis.

The Liberals have approved the Site C Dam hydro project on the Peace River in BC, which will run through environmentally sensitive and unique Treaty 8 lands, as well as prime agricultural lands. Trudeau is pursuing the same extractivist vision as Harper did, focusing his economic policies on the export of energy and natural resources. Like Harper, Trudeau is willing to sacrifice environmental and Indigenous concerns to insure capitalist interests.

Harper boasted that he lead the most pro-free trade government in history. Indeed, free trade agreements multiplied under his government, with 46 treaties of which 10 are currently in force. The Liberals are following the same strategy, as demonstrated by the recent signing of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union despite popular opposition in Europe and Canada. This massive and undemocratic agreement will restrict the power of governments to regulate, among other things, intellectual property, food safety, the environment, finances, labor standards and public services. This new agreement reinforces once again the powers of the big companies. Like the NAFTA, which currently has allowed the US company Lone Pine Resources to sue Quebec for $ 250 million in damages for its moratorium on shale gas, CETA is putting in place a system of “dispute settlement” that advantages big capital.

Capitalism and homelessness kills in the Canadian winter. While there are at least 250,000 homeless people in Canada, the majority of shelters are at their maximum capacity. Food insecurity is increasing. Since the economic crisis of 2008, the usage of food banks has increased by 25%. Children and youth represent more than 30% of users. There are more people who do not go to food banks but are still considered food insecure. According to Statistics Canada in 2012, 8.3% of Canadian households did not meet their minimum food needs because of lack of funds. Nunavut had the highest food insecurity rate at 36.7%! Depending on the source of the report, child poverty in Canada is between 14% and 19%, placing us in the 24th position out of 35 industrialized countries. Among Indigenous peoples, more than twice as many children, or 40% of children, are living in poverty. Faced with the horror of poverty, capitalism offers us the obscenity of wealth: David Thomson and Galen Weston, the two richest Canadians, who have as much wealth as the poorest 30%. These two men alone possess more wealth than 11 million people living in Canada.

General Strategy of the YCL-LJC & our Relation with Mass Movements

The YCL-LJC is a unique organization within the broader youth and student movement in Canada. It cannot be compared to mass organizations, such as labour unions, student unions, anti-war groups, women’s groups, anti-racist organizations, etc. Our basis of unity is young people struggling for a socialist future. However, this basis is not sufficient to get from where we are now to socialist revolution. For this purpose the YCL-LJC has a revolutionary strategy to build the broader youth and student movement in a united and militant direction. This raises questions on how young Communists should interact with the mass organizations and movements. It raises questions on the dialectical relationship between reform and revolution.

In the Spring of 2016, the outgoing Central Executive Committee wrote the following:

“There is always a need for building an organization of young Communists that struggles for immediate reforms to improve the conditions of young people under capitalism, which seeks unity with all other forces who will fight for this or that advancement, while at the same time never losing sight of the necessity of winning socialism. We have the clear perspective that there can be no other road to socialism other than through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. This is our main contribution to the youth movement in Canada, and if we don’t bring this perspective to the front lines of the struggle, who will do it?

We are not currently living a revolutionary moment in Canada, but it is absolutely necessary to build youth organizations with a revolutionary perspective in order to overcome subjective weaknesses in the immediate struggles of the youth movement, in order to build the unity and militancy necessary to open the door to socialist revolution in the (hopefully near) future.”

The YCL-LJC sees the struggle for immediate reforms as necessary not only to alleviate exploitation and oppression in the short term, but also as a process of building the popular power necessary for the overthrow of capitalism. What differentiates Communists from reformists is not that the latter struggles for reforms and the former struggles for revolution, but that reformists see reforms as ends in themselves. In actuality, Communists are the hardest, most dedicated fighters for reforms, as we promote reforms that are not just “realistic” concessions from this or that bourgeois government, but we put forward what is necessary for our class and demands that will unite young people against monopoly capitalism. We have a strategy to win meaningful reforms on the path to socialism.

Socialism will not be won by the Communist movement on its own, but by the working class and its allies. Even immediate reforms will not be won by our movement on its own. This is why it is absolutely necessary to strengthen and build united and militant mass movements. The YCL-LJC is involved in dozens of local and Pan-Canadian mass movements across the country, either through direct involvement and leadership as the YCL-LJC or by individual members of our organization.

What has proven most successful, and what is our long held strategy, is that movements are built around concrete political demands that require and inspire mass action against corporations and their governments. It is not a case of seeking out the most revolutionary/radical/anti-capitalist movements or organizations that builds the broader struggle. Nor should we be voices from the sidelines that simply remind movements that capitalism is the ultimate enemy. We should not confuse the YCL-LJC’s pro-socialist basis of unity for the basis of unity for this or that movement. Seemingly “radical” positioning inside movements can actually confuse, divide and weaken mass movements. This understanding is something that separates the YCL-LJC from sectarian and ultra-left groups that claim to be on the revolutionary left in Canada.

That does not mean that we as the YCL-LJC should not be open with our revolutionary viewpoint and build our own organization inside and outside movements, just that we cannot confuse the YCL-LJC and the mass movements we work in, which we need to strengthen based on their own reason for existing. We’re not them and they’re not us, but both a revolutionary youth vanguard organization, and mass youth organizations are necessary to build the struggle, and win socialism. Movement unity also cannot simply be a “bottom line unity” of the lowest common denominator of consciousness in a movement. Bases of unity and demands need to project where we want to go, while recognizing where we are.

Some sectarian groups have misunderstood these questions and have attempted to label the YCL-LJC as “reformist”, as well as attacking mass movements. It is unfortunately not always the case that our closest allies in the youth and student movement are those that self-identify as “Marxist” or “revolutionary”. The YCL-LJC seeks to build the broadest possible unity in any immediate struggle for jobs, education, equality, the environment and democracy. In doing this we seek to work with as many different individuals and groups as possible. We see building unity as necessary, and should be approached without losing our political independence through a political process of participating in practical work, through “unity of action”. It is not the case that a pure “revolutionary line” can be developed through discussions on social media and that it will be correct and will overcome subjective weaknesses in movements. It is in the struggle where different left ideas are tested, not through polemics with advocates of reformist or ultra left ideas.

Reformist thinking is an even bigger problem in mass movements today than sectarianism, especially in the labour and student movement. For example, there are many labour led campaigns across the country that call for reforms or defensive struggles we support, such as protecting public utilities and services, but that have a very limited strategic focus on campaigning in a Tory or Liberal riding in order to elect an NDPer the next election. The idea that you can only raise “realistic” demands that right-wing governments may accept is also very damaging. Often the demands are so tepid that it is impossible to mobilize people behind them. These kinds of campaigns and movements often rely on, or overemphasize, lobbying as their principal tactic. The YCL-LJC counterposes this kind of cap-in-hand reformist strategy with strategies of struggle and mass action, which are the only way forward for mass movements.

As we said at our 26th Central Convention:

“Ultimately, the strategy of mass action is truly the most dangerous to the ruling class because of the unity of the people’s forces. Massive political action outside parliament. Massive campaigning to eliminate tuition fees, to withdraw from imperialist war plans, to prevent global warming, to win childcare, to save Medicare, to save our resources and create jobs. A social dynamic that will swell the ranks of movement, bring in thousands of new activists and raise the level of social consciousness of the entire non-corporate population, while recognizing the central importance of labour.”

The Communist Party & the YCL-LJC

We also must be clear headed in our understanding of what the YCL-LJC is in relation to the working-class and political parties. We are not a Communist Party for young people. Our role is not to be the political party of the working class in Canada. As the YCL-LJC we recognize the Communist Party of Canada as fulfilling that role since its foundation in 1921. The YCL-LJC has a different mission, but a very vital one.

We are politically united with the Communist Party of Canada (CPC), but organizationally independent. Many of our members hold dual membership, but approximately an equal number do not. It is necessary to work towards political unity with the CPC because as young Communists we recognize the need for a revolutionary political party of the whole working class. But we maintain organizational independence in order to more effectively fight in the youth and student movement by not limiting ourselves to young members of the CPC and having a closer relationship with the masses of youth through having a membership which is entirely made up of young people. It allows the particularities of the youth movement to be better expressed in the Communist movement as a whole. As Lenin argued, each generation will find its way to socialism in a different way and this needs to be reflected in a Communist youth organization.

Our organizational independence also allows for us to grow as Communists in different ways and develop as cadre in the Communist movement as a whole. As Lenin said when advocating the independence of the Communist youth leagues: “…unless they have complete independence, the youth will be unable either to train good socialists from their midst or prepare themselves to lead socialism forward.”

An Intersectional Struggle against Capitalism

Many Marxist writers have looked deep into the question of oppression, particularly regarding how colonialism, patriarchy, racism and ableism have contributed to and are inextricably bound up in the growth and reproduction of capitalism. Firstly, in Das Kapital, Marx himself discussed how colonialism and slavery contributed to the development and advancement of capitalism, as he stated, “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal populations, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for commercial hunting of black-skin, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.” Despite many critics arguing that Marxism is supposedly “eurocentric”, Marx clearly understood the role of racism and colonial oppression within the capitalist system, and the central importance of anti-racism and national liberation to class struggle. Regarding the United States, Marx observed: “every independent movement of the workers was paralysed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin when in the black it is branded.” Rosa Luxemburg and Lenin both expanded on these thoughts—with Luxemburg discussing how the accumulation of capital relies on colonialism, while Lenin assessed the exploitative nature of white European imperialism, and its development as an advanced stage of global capitalism.

Engels also touched on the role of patriarchy and the family in the capitalist system, particularly how it was used to pass down inheritance. Throughout history, there were many influential women within the Communist movement that made significant contributions to the question of oppression. There was Clara Zetkin, the founder of international Women’s Day, and Claudia Jones, an active member of the CPUSA who fought for the rights of women and black peoples in the US and the UK. Alexandra Kollontai, a well known Russian Communist revolutionary, wrote many pieces on the struggle of women and the role of family in the Soviet Union. Many Marxist Feminists wrote on the question of women and household labour. Angela Davis, former member of the CPUSA, highlighted the important role of Communist women, as well as assessing how racism and sexism have historically been intertwined with capitalism. More recently, there are Marxist writers, such as Lise Vogel who discuss how patriarchy is a crucial component of the capitalist system as the oppression of women became essential to the development of the socio-economic system of capitalist societies. Moreover, Leslie Feinberg, a prominent Marxist Leninist from the USA, wrote extensively on trans struggles and their relation to the struggle against capitalism.

Therefore, it would be incorrect to assume that Marxists have not focused on the question of oppression. This also demonstrates how class reductionist tendencies within the field of Marxism are severely limited in their analysis of the history and growth of capitalism, as they lack an analysis of why the oppression of women, racialized peoples, and the LGBTQI2AS community became crucial to the functioning of the capitalist system. Essentially, racism was and continues to be used under capitalism to create a segment of the working class that can be hyper-exploited, while pushing down wages across the board. In addition, the rise of racism was a crucial component of colonialism and imperialism as it justified national oppression and imperialist control. This idea of a supposed racial difference marked non-European peoples as “inferior and pre-modern others” that benefited from Western imperialism. Essentially, white supremacy became an oppressive structure during the early history of capitalism in order to justify the expropriation of the land, labour and resources of non-European peoples. Meanwhile, the oppression of women, particularly through the nuclear family structure, is crucial to ensuring that women’s role in society remains in the reproduction of labour, especially in raising children, who would either attain inheritance or constantly supply a new source of labour for the ruling class.

This is not to say that only working class women and racialized peoples experience sexism or racism, but that white supremacy and patriarchy are fundamental components to the maintenance of class-based systems. However, it is important to note that the sexism and racism working class peoples face is in fact different than the oppression women and racialized segments of the bourgeois experience. Working class peoples are further materially disenfranchised as a result of their exploitation and oppression, while the bourgeois are the exploiters. This is not to say that socialism alone is enough to liberate those from marginalized and oppressed groups, but that it does contribute to bettering their conditions and opens the door for liberation. This can be seen through the accomplishment of socialist countries.

For instance, since the revolution in Cuba, women’s equality has been guaranteed by law. The Federation of Cuban Women (FCW), trade unions and organisations provide equal opportunities for women, develop community services, draw women out of the home and mobilize women to engage in political and governmental work. At the grassroots level the FCW mounts campaigns relating to women’s issues, such as community health and education programmes, civic rights campaigns and programmes promoting equality in different aspects of the lives of women. Also, all women are guaranteed maternity leave and the state provides high quality childcare at a low cost from three months until children reach school age. While women had limited opportunities prior to the revolution, today over 50% of doctors are women. Similarly, studies have shown that women in the USSR and East Germany had much more sexual freedom than women did in capitalist countries. The USSR was the first country in the world to guarantee reproductive rights to women more than 60 years before Canada. Like Cuba, women in the USSR and Eastern Europe also had access to child care services that lifted them from the intensive household labour they were confined to prior to socialism. This demonstrates some of the advances and rights women have received as a result of socialism. Although misogyny and sexism were still present, the material conditions of women had changed significantly for the better.

Some still claim that Marxism does not pay enough attention to oppression. By the 1980s, the term “Intersectionality” was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw as an attempt to examine different forms of oppression and inequalities that overlap, intersect and reinforce one another. The term was initially developed to better analyze the oppression of women of colour—shaped by the relationship between race, gender, class, and sexuality. Some Intersectionality theorists have critiqued Marxism on the basis that it reduces all forms of oppression to class. They often claim that Marxism’s limitation lies in its lack of accurately assessing the role of race, gender and sexuality within society. Although Marxist Feminists have attempted to challenge class reductionism within the field of Marxism, many Intersectionality scholars claim that Marxist Feminists “essentialize” and “homogenize” the position of women in society by limiting their analysis of womanhood to housework, reproduction and heterosexual marriages. As such, they argue that this assessment often focuses on the experiences of white, working class women, rather than the experiences of women of colour, who have been subjected to exploitative working conditions since the dawn of slavery and colonization. It is true that an analysis of the oppression of women should not be limited to household labour, and that greater focus should be given to racialized women that have worked in the “public sphere” for centuries, yet one does not need to go outside of the realm of Marxism to further develop this analysis.

In addition, Intersectionality theorists have rejected the so-called “hierarchy of oppressions mindset,” arguing that neither gender-first nor class-first analysis of oppression is the correct approach to assessing injustices in society. However, Marxists have argued that those within the field of Intersectionality have forgotten to properly address how capitalism is central to oppression. As such, Marxists have critiqued liberal based analysis of individualized identity by arguing that it doesn’t contain a historical and structural explanation of oppression. On a fundamental level, Marxists do not see class and “classism” as simply a form of oppression, but a set of exploitative relations between workers and the bourgeois within the capitalist mode of production.

As such, rather than sexism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, ableism and racism being separate forms of oppressions, Marxists have studied how their origins are rooted in the development of class based societies, making it particularly essential to the development of capitalism. It is important to understand the role of oppression within the capitalist system, rather than assuming it is entirely irrelevant to it. For instance, an intersectional approach of capitalism can help address why women of colour face higher rates of violence— an area of study scholars like Angela Davis have worked on. Today, there are parallels between the violence committed against women of colour and the historic use of violence by white European men against colonized peoples. Missing and murdered Indigenous women, high rates of violence against black women, and the sexual violence and war crimes committed against women by Western militaries in war torn regions of the world, particularly the Middle East, are all phenomenon that can be better assessed by addressing and understanding how the use of gendered-violence helped to maintain colonial and capitalist systems. There is in fact a relationship between this historic and structural use of violence and the violence women of colour are disproportionately subjected to today.

Because liberal academics claim that different forms of oppression are separate and unrelated entities, which can sometimes overlap when a person belongs to more than one marginalized group, the larger movement for change and equality tends to focus too extensively on individualized forms of struggle, while leaving out the struggle against the structural forces that are enforcing oppression, such as capitalism. For instance, some of today’s anti-racist movements that promote self-appreciation, loving your body and ‘self-love’ are good ways to fight internalized racism and discriminatory conceptions of “beauty”, this approach has a limited analysis as to how racism and sexism is strongly related to the economic system and do not provide a way forward towards collective liberation and an end to racism. This view unfortunately provides us with a dark future, where oppressions are not systemic and historical structures, but rather perpetual cultures attached to human nature.

The YCL-LJC sees all oppressions as essential components of capitalism, rather than being individual and separate from capitalism and class relations in society. In her latest interview, Angela Davis makes a strong point regarding the changes happening under capitalism as she states:

The left, as we have known it, as important as it has been, cannot remain the same force until it adequately counters these developments. Therefore it is important for the left to recognise that the constitution of the global working classes is very different now. In many ways the left is still dealing with this notion of the working classes as male, or white male, as in the case of the US. I think feminism, radical feminism, radical anti-racist and anti-capitalist feminism helps us to do the reconceptualisation that is necessary in order to produce a left that is more in line with the vast changes that have occurred in the era of global capitalism, recognising the feminisation of the working class, the structural shifts in the global economy, of the fact that some industries are largely populated by women, industries that rely on reproductive labour, of care industries, domestic service, health care, etc. It seems to me that in many ways, unions around the world are not willing to recognise those changes. To organise the unorganised, at this moment, is to organise women.

This intersectional analysis addresses how the struggle of women including racialized and immigrant women as well as other gender oppressed identities, and capitalism are not separate from one another but intertwined as more women are working in harsher and precarious conditions—women that are not yet organized.

The YCL-LJC aims to contribute to an intersectional analysis of capitalism by further promoting a Marxist-Leninist examination of the relationship between capitalism and oppression. The YCL-LJC recognizes the limitations of class reductionist interpretations of Marxism. This tendency ignores democratic struggles, such as those against oppression or organized along identity lines, simply because they don’t seem to be “revolutionary enough,” or they supposedly “divert” the attention away from class struggle and socialism. This runs the risk of being sectarian and limited in its analysis. As Lenin stated:

The socialist revolution is not one single act, not one single battle on a single front; but a whole epoch of intensified class conflicts, a long series of battles on all fronts, i.e., battles around all the problems of economics and politics, which can culminate only in the expropriation of the bourgeoisie. It would be a fundamental mistake to suppose that the struggle for democracy can divert the proletariat from the socialist revolution, or obscure, or overshadow it, etc. On the contrary, just as socialism cannot be victorious unless it introduces complete democracy, so the proletariat will be unable to prepare for victory over the bourgeoisie unless it wages a many-sided, consistent and revolutionary struggle for democracy….

Therefore, the YCL-LJC, its clubs and members engage in mass anti-racist, LGBTQIA2S, and women’s struggles to both play a role in reforms that better the lives of marginalized communities, and also contribute in strengthening these movements by providing an anti-capitalist analysis which is necessary for the long-term goal of full liberation from oppression.

To take this intersectional approach into action, the YCL-LJC aims to provide solidarity with Indigenous struggles that fight gendered-violence against women in their communities, and their struggles against corporate expansion and pipeline developments on their lands. We stand in solidarity with the growing Black Lives Matter movement that fights against racist police brutality. We stand in solidarity with women’s movements that fight against misogyny and violence. We encourage clubs and members to participate in Pride events and other LGBTQI2AS struggles. We stand with the struggles of working class women, who are often subjected to precarious working conditions. We stand in solidarity with workers struggling within the service industries – workers, who are predominantly women of colour. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with migrant workers, who have consistently tried to find ways to fight their harsh working conditions while in fear of being deported. As such, the YCL-LJC not only puts forward this intersectional analysis of capitalism in theory but in the on-the-ground work we do in all struggles.

 

The Struggle against Ableism

Capitalism reinforces ableism because it is incapable of organizing society in such a way that recognizes people’s different needs before the accumulation of capital. Physical or mental differences only become ‘disabilities’ when societies operate in ways that prevent people with disabilities from participating in them. Capitalism requires human bodies and minds that function in particular ways, shaped by the requirements of production and accumulation. Capitalism values output volume over the meaningfulness of the contribution to the lives around them. Disability is defined by capitalism as a state of body or mind that has a tendency to resist the “averaging” or “flattening” of the capitalist labour process.

Those who do not fit this system’s needs are marked out for stigma, harassment, discrimination and violence; in the most reactionary capitalist regimes they have been massacred. As such, the struggle against ableism and for the rights of persons with disabilities is a democratic struggle under capitalism, which advances the struggle for socialism. 

In Canada, 49% of disabled people are unemployed and living in poverty, especially considering the woefully inadequate state of welfare in many provinces. While some disabled people cannot work, there are many who are kept out of work due to ableist bias in employment. Thus, we advocate for both providing clear legal requirements for employers on how to treat disabled employees with respect, and setting mandatory quotas for employment of disabled people in medium and large businesses. This is a strategy that has been implemented with massive success in countries such as Ecuador, and there is no reason that we cannot do this in Canada.

The rights of people with disabilities in Canada today are under attack. In early 2017 an Angus Reid survey showed that only half of respondents living with a disability have a full or part-time job. Workplaces remain inaccessible and discriminatory and education and training leave people with disabilities behind. Youth with disabilities are more likely to have left high school early, and/or be unemployed.

In general, people with disabilities who cannot work are subject to some of the worst conditions of poverty of any group, forming the largest number of people in Canada on social assistance. Currently the only Federal income program for workers in this situation is the Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit, which maxes out at $15,000 annually; with the average payment being closer to $11,000 annually in 2016. Privatization and defunding programmes makes the situation worse, like in Ontario the freezing of the Ontario Disability Support Payment. Federal and provincial austerity policies have had a crushing impact on people with disabilities.

At a Federal level there still exists no legislation protecting the rights of Canadians with disabilities. The Trudeau government has now indicated the intention to bring in a “National Disabilities Act”, sometime in the near future. This is a step in the right direction, but similar provincial legislations across the country have been lacking in scope and lack of funding of accessibility programs and enforcement of provisions continues to block progress. 

Mental illness continues to be criminalized. This reinforces the stigma of mental illness and addiction as an issue of criminality, rather than of public health. In addition to racist police violence, we see a disproportionate number of police murders targeting people with disabilities, especially among racialized groups, such as Sammy Yatim, Abdirahman Abdi, Soleiman Faqiri and many more.

People with disabilities continue to speak out and organize for their rights, especially on issues of physical accessibility and against ableist stigma towards mental health. The YCL-LJC is in solidarity with these important struggles.

 

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1.       Increased funding to supports in education for children with disabilities;
  2.       Fight unemployment for people with disabilities;
  3.       Raise the Canada Pension Plan Disability Benefit and provincial support payments to a livable income;
  4.       For the development of a robust National Disabilities Act, in consultation with people with disabilities, with meaningful enforcement mechanisms;
  5.       Expand funding for mental health resources at all levels, including campuses.
  6.       Make public transit accessible.
  7.       Accessible services for Indigenous peoples to combat and prevent increase of suicide rates

Far from Equality, Women are still Fighting

While the “men’s rights movement” has grown, claiming that we have heard enough from Feminists and it is time to hear men’s voices, the reality is that we are still very far from equality. Women and girls face sexist and male chauvinist attitudes every day at work, school, on the street, and in the family. This sexism is reinforced by laws, the police, and the corporate media and the entertainment industry, which promotes an unhealthy, disempowering, unequal, and racist view of women that justifies violence against women and oppressive gender roles. Large sectors of the economy and jobs are still closed to women, while other sectors have a very high concentration of women workers and are more often precarious and low paid. In addition, racialized women experience higher rates of domestic violence and poverty.

Returning from paid work, women continue work by doing the majority of domestic labour, caring for children and the elderly. When they retire or are unemployed, they continue to work for free, often serving as guardians, supporters for the family or the community. Capitalist society relies on this free feminine work to continue its existence. As the population in Canada ages, capitalists do not want to pay for socialized care for the elderly or sick. Social services are being cut or are non-existent. Therefore, this care work falls mostly on the shoulders of women. These same capitalists do not want to pay more for the care and education of children. For example, school funding is in decline and there is still no universal and accessible program for childcare after 40 year of struggle by feminists and labour unions. In Quebec, the Couillard government put an end to the universality of the public daycare program, the only one that existed in Canada. This program was won by a long struggle by women’s groups, community organizations and trade unions in the 1970s. 80% of single-parent families are women, and 21% of them raise their children in poverty. In comparison, 7% of lone-parent fathers are in an equivalent situation of poverty. Poverty is unacceptable for both women and men. Free labour of women is essential to maintain the rate of profits of the capitalists and this system keeps the majority of them in poverty or precariousness.

Poverty for a women can also mean dependency on a partner, putting her in a situation of vulnerability. For that reason, employment status has a major impact on the ability of women to free themselves from abusive relationships. For immigrant women sponsored by their spouses, dependency is economic and related to legal status. In 2012, the Harper government introduced a new rule requiring spousal sponsored immigrant women to remain in relationships for at least two years, failing which they risk deportation to their country of origin. They remain trapped in their conjugal relationship, no matter how violent they may be. Fortunately, some legislative changes seem to be taking shape for sponsored women.

Half of all women in Canada have experienced physical or sexual violence. Each week a woman is killed by her current or former partner. A Statistics Canada study found that on any given night, about 3300 women across the country are sleeping in shelters to escape abuse. At the same time, shelters for women survivors of violence continue to see their funding cut. There is currently not enough space in shelters to protect women, particularly on reserves and among Inuit communities. As a consequence, the same study found that about 200 women are turned away each day because there are no beds for them in the shelters they try to access.

Gendered violence follows women from work and school to home, from public spaces to the private space, real or virtual. 10% of women aged between 18 to 24 report having experienced sexual harassment at work within the previous 12 months. Online, women are the targets of an alarming number of threatening messages, harassment and insults. Young women are the most at risk from violence. They are killed at nearly three times the rate of all victims of domestic homicide. Two out of three survivors of sexual assault are under 24.

The uncovering of misogynist songs, chants, Facebook postings and cases of sexual aggression in recent years have revealed a deep-seeded rape culture on campuses, where policies on harassment and equity lack strong enforcement. On the night of October 15th, 2016, a wave of sexual assaults occurred at Laval University, with men entering the rooms of student residences. Some right-wing voices held the women victims responsible for their assault because they had not locked their doors, even comparing their assault to car theft. The Sexual Violence in University in Quebec report (Enquête ESSIMU) released in January 2017 shows that 37% of people working or studying at a Quebec university have already experienced at least one form of sexual violence and that 90% of them have never reported the assault. Among a hundred universities in Canada, only a handful have developed a specific policy against harassment and sexual assault. University administrations must stop covering up harassment of women, LGTQI2S and racialized students.

Rape culture is not just a scourge on our campuses. It is a widespread culture embedded in patriarchy and capitalism that makes women responsible for aggressions directed at them and excuses the aggressors. The case of Sklavounos, a Liberal member of parliament, who raped Alice Paquet and Jian Ghomeshi, a CBC host who assaulted several women, are striking examples of this impunity.

This gendered violence interacts with racism. Indigenous women and girls suffer the racist burden of higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and incarceration, and dramatically shorter life spans. According to Walk 4 Justice, over 4000 Indigenous women have been murdered or disappeared since 1980. After much silence, the Government of Canada launched an inquiry in 2015. Its methods and aims are already being criticised by activists and families of victims, who report poor (and often non-existent) communication and indefinitely postponed advisory meetings. 20% of Canadian women live with a disability, and 60% of them will experience violence in their lifetime.

After the Bedford case, the Harper government responded with Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Person’s Act. The YCL-LJC rejects this law as an insufficient and misguided attempt to deal with the problems inherent in prostitution and sex work. Like we said in our last convention:

“The YCL recognizes the limitations of the existing models that are used around the world that deal with prostitution and sex work; models of decriminalization, legalization, abolition or variants in between, all exhibit weaknesses in meeting the needs and safety of sex workers. Fundamental to any successful model dealing with this issue must be extensive and comprehensive social services. A priority must be placed on the facilitation of easy exit from prostitution and sex work, and also the development of support systems that economically and socially protect sex workers.” Harassment and criminalization by our legal and police system is not the solution.

In 1988, abortion was finally decriminalized following a major decision by the Supreme Court. Since then, the right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy without having to consult a father or a doctor seems to have been acquired. Yet this right is constantly in danger from the introduction of new pernicious bills. Anti-choice organizations that spread false information have received millions of public funds over the past five years, while family planning clinics are largely underfunded. Normally, provincial governments have an obligation to pay for abortion clinics. Unfortunately, some do not, like Nova Scotia whose government is stubborn on this issue, they prefer to pay $130,000 a year in penalties to the Federal government. Access to family planning is still limited for many who live in Northern Canada and areas far from major urban centers. Until a few months ago, Prince Edward Islanders had to travel to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia to access safe abortion services. Only about a third of hospitals actually perform abortions, forcing many, especially in rural areas, to travel long distances to an abortion provider. In addition, if someone wishes to access abortion or works in clinics, they are likely to be targets of violence and constant harassment by anti-choice groups.

 

The Women’s Movement and Struggle

The Harper government dismantled and attacked women’s programs, closed 12 of 16 offices of Status of Women Canada, eliminated the funding of any women’s organization involved in advocacy, amended the Act on Equitable Compensation to prevent the use of courts to advance pay equity, ignored Aboriginal women’s suffering and demands, attacked the right to choose and a pushed forward a violent discourse against Muslim women. In contrast, Trudeau declared at the UN: “I’m going to keep saying, loud and clear, that I am a Feminist.” We are not fooled. Neither these hollow phrases, nor the gender parity introduced by the Trudeau government in his cabinet, indicate a radical change in Canada. These changes serve above all the image of the Liberals who seek to stand apart from the Conservatives, without actually changing the political agenda. Feminist change will not come from the capitalist class in power, they will be the result of our struggles, as history has shown. Trudeau is neither a Feminist nor an ally.

The Fédération des femmes du Québec and the Canadian Labour Congress Women’s Conferences have helped keep the fight for equality alive. But the women’s movement has been deeply wounded by the lack of a truly pan-Canadian voice. Both Liberal and Conservative governments were responsible for the loss of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, which fought for decent jobs, education, child care, and employment insurance. The re-establishment of a pan-Canadian organization to bring together women from labour, youth and students, and Aboriginal and racialized women, and from organizations that fight for legal rights, reproductive rights, disability rights, and child care, would be an important advancement.

The Rebelle movement was a good step forward. It tried to unite young feminists across Canada and organized two large conferences in which the YCL-LJC participated, one in Montreal in 2008, and one in Winnipeg in 2011. Unfortunately, it did not succeed to transform into a real platform to launch mass action or coordinate Feminists activists from different milieu ; two things we deeply need today. Since the conference in 2011, the network seems to have been put to sleep.

In this time of growing reaction and sexism, it is crucial that we bring our struggle and feminist ideas outside of the elitist academic sphere. We need to bring the struggle into the streets and our workplaces. Action such as Take Back the Night, the student campaign «Ni viande ni objet»,  and the many demonstration against rape culture after the Dalhousie University scandal have been successful in bringing awareness and policy changes. International Women’s Day continues to be an important moment for our movement to organize our struggles. This was demonstrated in Hamilton last year when the YCL-LJC helped to organize the first IWD march in a long-time with the Revolutionary Women’s League, a Feminist organization broader than the YCL-LJC. The YCL-LJC also organized strong contingents in IWD events in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto. In January 2017, the YCL-LJC also mobilized across Canada in solidarity with the Women’s March in Washington against Trump’s new war on women.

Many women’s groups exist on campuses and do essential and incredible work to fight for equality and women’s rights. Groups such as la collective at UQAM in Montreal, or the newly formed Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective in Toronto. The YCL-LJC continues to support these groups and their actions and supports the creation of such committees on campuses where there are none.  

The YCL-LJC will continue to fight MRAs on campus. These groups are hate groups that hide their anti-women stance under the pretense of defending the living conditions of men. That suicide rates or dropout rates are higher among men demonstrate distress with the system. But this distress is not caused by the advancement of women’s equality, rather it is the result of a toxic masculinity promoted by patriarchy. The same patriarchy fought by Feminists.

All throughout the history of the working class movement in Canada and the world, Communist women like Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Annie Buller, Becky Buhay, Vilma Espin, and Angela Davis  have been fighting for the emancipation of women. The YCL-LJC fights for a socialist Canada where patriarchy will be ended and true equality will be possible, and for immediate changes for women’s rights.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1.       Restore funding for women’s equality programs and fund equality-seeking women’s groups;
  2.       Equality and security for immigrant women;
  3.       End the wage gap – legislate full pay and employment equity;
  4.       Guarantee accessible and publicly funded abortion and reproductive rights services in every province and territory;
  5.       Establish universal, quality, affordable childcare with Canada-wide standards and union wages for child care workers;
  6.       Protect women’s right to EI maternity coverage; expand parental benefits to 52 weeks;
  7.       End all forms of violence against women and provide adequate funding for crisis centres and transition houses;
  8.       Legislative change to provide paid leave for someone experiencing domestic violence;
  9.       Support survivors of gendered violence – funding to be used toward counselling, moving, legal costs and more;
  10.       Repeal Bill C-36 – harassment and criminalization of sex work is not the solution to exploitation;
  11.       Implement progressive, LGBTQIA2S-positive sex education in school, including education on consent.

The LGBTQIA2S Struggle

The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with the LGBTQIA2S struggles for equity, liberation and justice. We encourage participation in Pride parades that continue to challenge homophobia and transphobia that are ingrained in our society with their basis in capitalism’s patriarchal division of labour. The movement in Canada to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender expression/identity has made important progress since the last Convention, especially around support for transgender rights. For example, growing numbers of School Boards are finally taking real action to make schools safer and more welcoming for trans students. The expansion of LGBTQIA2S positive expressions in the popular media, pro sports, the labour movement and other areas of society continues to break down barriers.

Nonetheless, there are also signs of a pushback by highly-organized reactionary forces, particularly with the rise of the so called “alt right” in Canada, Europe and the United States. The “alt right” is a brand created by fascists and white supremacists to disguise their politics of hate and violence. The “alt right” has emboldened reactionary figures like Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto professor, who publicly denies the rights and existence of trans people. Peterson, like other neo-nazi figures and groups, utilizes the guise of “free speech” and the defence of “traditional values” to promote transphobia and bigotry. These tactics divide our communities and scapegoat marginalized groups for the systemic economic and social problems caused by Capitalism. In many countries, LGBTQIA2S people still face threats, violence, imprisonment or even death. Homophobic and racist views are deliberately exported from North America and Europe, despite the stereotyped claim that equality rights are “gifts” from the “enlightened” capitalist west. The West has resorted to forms of “pinkwashing,” which have depoliticized the annual pride parades by allowing the police, banks and large corporations to engage within these movements — hiding the ways in which capitalism and racism further deprive marginalized communities, such as LGBTQIA2S people.

For instance, corporate-driven “austerity” cuts, and the attacks on unions, heavily impact women, Indigenous peoples, and racialized groups, are undercutting equality gains. The most marginalized members of the LGBTQIA2S community, including Trans, two-spirited, racialized LGBTQIA2S folks and young people, are those hardest-hit by the social program cutbacks.  Trans people are 10% of the LGBTQIA2S population, and face huge medical costs, higher unemployment, less access to housing, widespread intimidation at work, and lack of legal protections. This demonstrates the relationship between capitalism and the struggles of the LGBTQIA2S population. Homophobia and transphobia seek to entrench the heterosexual, patriarchal family which is necessary for capitalism to police and maintain the gendered division of labour, and increase the rate of profits. The YCL-LJC reject any argument which aims to restrict the legal definition of family to those based on male-female biological parental relationships.

The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with trans people and their struggles. Trans women are subjected to some of the highest rates of violence, including hate crimes. In Ontario, one in five trans people have been sexually or physically assaulted because they are trans. One in three people from the trans community will be rejected by a shelter on account of their gender identity/expression. On average, five hundred LGBTQIA2S youth (ages 10-24) die by suicide in Canada every year. Across all demographic divisions, suicide attempt rates of trans people is exceptionally high, and in fact it its highest among Indigenous trans people. 

Capitalism relies on patriarchal oppression to maintain and perpetuate a gendered division of labour in order to maximize profits. This division of labour secures the continuation of the nuclear family structure. Identities outside of the gender binary are not valuable to capitalism because they threaten the patriarchal organization of the family and society, resulting in the oppression of LGBTQIA2S people. Heterosexism and cissexism therefore function as tools to reproduce these capitalist social relations. Trans struggle is therefore inseparable from women’s struggle against patriarchy, whose compulsory nuclear family structure oppresses all LGBTQIA2S people. 

Some Feminists disregard the struggle of trans people, especially trans women by taking biological determinist views. Trans women are women. Some are so focused on a strong gender binary division, they often disregard the real and material struggles of trans people. The gender binary has been constructed and strongly enforced throughout history, but is not biologically determined. Sex itself is not a binary nor black and white. Patriarcal culture is deeply committed to sexual binarity and therefore ereases intersex body. There are three major subgroups within the category “intersex” that possess some mixture of “male” and “female” characteristics. While some presume that this phenomenon is an anomaly, it is more frequent than accounted for. The YCL-LJC continues to demand the protection of Intersex minors from non-consensual surgery, respecting bodily diversity and autonomy.

One of the cornerstones of the oppression of trans people is the social and medical practice of coercively assigning genders upon children at birth. In ending this practice, we will open the door to children having agency over their own genders, and furthermore, end another aspect of the rigid regimentation of gender in society, which is used to bolster transphobia, but also homophobia and biphobia, and sexism and misogyny.

At the 2016 Pride Parade in Toronto, Black Lives Matter – Toronto made a strong statement that police officers should no longer be allowed to have floats in the parade or booths at Pride festivities. This resulted in conflicts with Pride organizations and BLM regarding the role of the police, but ultimately resulted in Pride Toronto agreeing to stop the police from participating in Pride. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with BLM’s attempt to challenge some of the pink-washing tactics used by the police, which hides police violence against both black and the LGBTQIA2S community.

Meanwhile, the rise in Islamophobia and the continued “War on Terror” in the Middle East have attempted to frame homophobia as an intrinsic part of Islam—justifying western intervention in an effort to “civilize” these supposedly “backwards” cultures. As such, LGBTQIA2S struggles have been co-opted in an effort to reinforce projects that justify imperialist intervention on the basis of humanitarianism. Essentially, as long as the people in the LGBTQIA2S community do not fundamentally challenge capitalism, gender relations and the “nuclear family” itself, they are used to contrast the West’s “civilized” and “modern” cultures to those that are marked as “violent” and “pre-modern”. These same homophobic policies that are cited as a reason for coopting LGBTQIA2S struggles into imperialism were initially imposed by the exact same empires which seek to use them as an excuse to exert more violence against these countries.

For instance, those on the far right, including Trump, have attempted to frame the massacre in Orlando at the Pulse Gay Night Bar as another tragedy brought on by the problem of “Islamic extremism.” This ignores the fact that North America has a history of mass shootings and terrorist acts committed by those that grow up here in a racist, patriarchal, homophobic and transphobic culture that breeds these acts of extreme violence, which are most often committed by non-Muslims. The corporate media’s drive to use this homophobic hate crime to fuel the “War on Terror” also fails to seriously address the root causes of homophobia and transphobia here at home.

Similarly, the Israeli government uses pink-washing methods in an attempt to vilify Islam and the Palestinian struggle, while also hiding Israeli apartheid, illegal settlements and war crimes under a facade of “democracy” and “equality,” presenting itself as the most “civilized” country in the Middle East. Just the past year, Halifax pride attempted to challenge Israel’s pink-washing by voting to remove the “Size Doesn’t Matter” campaign materials from a fair booth hosted by the Atlantic Jewish Council. The motion was brought forward by the group Queer Arabs of Halifax, and is supported by the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, a group that advocates for LGBTQIA2S people across the province. This led to backlash by pro-Israel groups. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with efforts to stop Israeli apartheid and war crime.

Opposing homophobia and Islamophobia are part of the same struggle. Today, the economic crisis, the “ISIS threat”, and anti-communism are all invoked by the ruling class to justify their assault on workers’ rights and social equality. Among the most poisonous ideologies are homophobia and transphobia. Just like racism, sexism, and national chauvinism, these are intended to divide and undermine resistance to the corporate agenda of “trade deals,” raw materials extraction and exports, and militarism. Conversely, US and Canadian imperialism back the right-wing forces that are intent on reversing the gains made by progressive governments in Latin America – often leaders in the global struggle against homophobia. For instance, Prime Minister Trudeau says he is Feminist and pro-LGBTQIA2S, yet his government, alongside the US, is destabilizing the Middle East, and secular Arab states such as Syria in particular, by supporting and arming reactionary and homophobic forces like the Saudi regime and some of the anti-government militias in Syria.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1.       Strengthen and enforce hate crime legislation, no to all forms of transphobia, homophobia, sexism, Islamophobia, racism, and xenophobia;
  2.       Strengthen solidarity with trans people in North Carolina and elsewhere in North America against new transphobic legislation;
  3.       Struggle to expand trans rights including the explicit protection from discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in all Provincial and Territorial laws and human rights codes;
  4.       Ban “conversion therapy”, a pseudo-psychiatric or religious practice that tries to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, in all provinces;
  5.       Expand the rights of LGBTQIA2S youth: end the two-tiered age of consent laws for queer youth;
  6. Struggle to increase public funding for researches on HIV/AIDS and all other STBBI, to ensure that screen testing is free and accessible and to make sure that medicine and treatments for all STBBI is universally accessible;
  7.       Protect Intersex minors from non-consensual surgery respecting bodily diversity;
  8.       End the homophobic and unscientific blood ban for gay men donating blood;
  9.       Increase social services and housing support to meet the needs of the 25-40% of homeless youth that identify as LGBTQIA2S

Against Racism and Xenophobia

Although the right-wing Harper government has been defeated in the 2015 election, racism and xenophobia are on the rise, particularly with the growth of the “alt-right” since the election of Donald Trump as president. In B.C., the KKK have been organizing and distributing xenophobic leaflets to white families. In Richmond, alt-right posters have been distributed claiming that Chinese communities are “taking over.” Alt-right posters have been distributed at McMaster University. At McGill, leaflets with anti-communist, anti-Muslim and anti-homosexual imagery, along with a call to “make Canada great again,” demonstrate how Trumps racist and far-right rhetoric have influenced reactionary groups on Canadian campuses. Public activity from the far right has grown in recent months, including rallies in cities across Canada against the mild, symbolic Motion 103 against Islamophobia. This has been met with mobilization from anti-fascist and progressive forces. The YCL-LJC strongly opposes the rise of these alt-right, fascist groups and strives to create mass, anti-fascist united fronts to counter the rise of these movements.

Despite increasing efforts by Black Lives Matter to fight police violence against Black communities, racialized peoples continue to face severe police repression and police brutality. Just this past year, the Toronto police passed an anti-Black, carding policy, which BLM-Toronto fought hard against. Police killings are still a reality for many in the black community: of the 51 people killed by Toronto police since 1990, at least 18 were Black (35%, whereas the Toronto Black population is 9%). On Tuesday, July 5, Alton Sterling was killed by police in the USA. A mere day after, Philando Castile’s murder by police was live streamed. On July 24th, 2016, Ottawa police shot Abdirahman Abdi, a Somali-Canadian. On April 4, 2016, Jean-Pierre Bony died after a Montreal police officer shot him in the head while fleeing a scene in a mundane drug transaction. Mr. Bony was a 46-year-old Black man from North Montreal. This majority-Black neighborhood is one of the poorest in Canada. North Montreal is one of the neighbourhoods with the highest dropout rates. It is number one in unemployment as well as poverty, with an average family income of about $22,000, well below the Montreal average.

Anti-black racism is systemic in Canada and includes restricted access to housing, overrepresentation in the child welfare system, discrimination in employment opportunities, and disproportionate levels of extreme poverty. While African-Canadians make up three per cent of the general population, they account for 10 per cent of the federal prison population. Black Canadians now represent the fastest growing group in federal prison.

The YCL-LJC strongly opposes police brutality and racist carding. When murder does occur and the perpetrator wears a uniform, the system fails to press charges in almost all cases, especially if the victim is a racialized person. Violence by police, including extreme violence and murder, continues to be a regular occurrence, especially against Black, Indigenous and trans communities across Ontario. The immoral lack of support for those struggling with mental health also claims many lives when desperate people are shot by police instead of receiving the help they need. Institutionalized police practices of racist harassment in Ontario, especially through “carding” or “street checks”, which Queen’s Park has decided to regulate instead of eliminate, making the Premier complicit in racial profiling and ongoing systemic racism. The YCL-LJC demands an end to carding and racial profiling. The YCL-LJC is also in favour of the disarmament of the regular police as an immediate reform (which is already a reality in many other countries), for training in social interventions of police, and for full civilian oversight of the police.

We salute the victories that were a result of a Black Lives Matter-Toronto’s Tent City outside Police Headquarters in downtown Toronto in Spring 2016. This bold and necessary action resulted in the reinstatement of the full length of Afrofest, which was previously cut in length due to anti-Black racism, and some commitments from Toronto City Hall and the Premier to review the Special Investigation Unit which is supposed to investigate murders, sexual assaults, and assault resulting in serious injuries perpetrated by the police. Emphasizing the need to connect with other struggles, Black Lives Matter Toronto has consistently expressed a systemic critique of capitalism, imperialism (including Canadian Imperialism) , and colonialism, and has emphasized solidarity with Indigenous and Muslim peoples. As such, BLM-TO has shown that unity and militancy can win, even in the face of police repression, cold weather, racist media reports, and intimidation from the racist far-right. This struggle, initiated by young Black organizers, predominantly led by gender-oppressed and LGBTQIA2S people, involving broad sections of the Black community in Toronto, and also allies, including the labour movement and students, promises to continue.

In Quebec, the episode of the Charter of Values is not yet finished, although the legislation itself fell with the defeat of the PQ in 2014. The Coalition Avenir Québec and the Parti Québécois continue to push this reactionary form of identity politics. Under cover of the defense of secularism, the Liberal government is preparing to pass Bill 62. This regressive project is in fact only a newer version of the Charter of Values. It primarily targets Muslim communities and the debate surrounding it confuses immigration with terrorism and religious fundamentalism.

Despite the sense of relief many Canadians feel with Trudeau’s administration replacing Harper’s, the fact is that Trudeau’s policies have not departed far from Harper’s. Trudeau promised to allow more refugees into Canada, but the Trudeau government has not done much to support refugees when they arrive in Canada. For instance, the Government of Canada requires refugees and their dependants admitted into Canada to repay the costs of their transportation through the Immigration Loan Program (ILP). Canada is the only country in the world that charges interest on its loans to refugees. This ignores the many difficulties and challenges that refugees face. There is currently a petition being circulated to demand the government to “1) Waive travel loans for all refugees admitted into Canada, 2) View all refugees of any nationality fleeing conflict equally with regards to how they are assisted via the ILP or other government assisted programs; and 3) Increase funding for mental health, language, child care and other integration supports for all refugees who arrive in Canada going forward.” The YCL-LJC supports this petition and urges the government to not only preach their support for refugees, but ensure that they are welcomed with decent living standards rather than burdened with financial difficulties.

The Federal government continues to allow for the indefinite detention of migrants, one of the only Western countries to do so. Between 2006-2014, almost 90,000 migrants were jailed without charge. They are the only population in Canada who can be jailed without specific criminal charges. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has argued that “The State party [Canada] should refrain from detaining irregular migrants for an indefinite period of time and should ensure that detention is used as a measure of last resort, that a reasonable time limit for detention is set…”. In Canada, some immigration detainees have been jailed for over ten years without charges or trial, including South African anti-apartheid icon Mbuyisa Makhubu. The YCL-LJC demands an end to indefinite detention and migrant detention in general.

Islamophobia has been on the rise and often used to rationalize wars abroad. The YCL-LJC condemns the intensification of Islamophobia, xenophobia and pro-war sentiment being perpetuated by the corporate media, imperialist politicians and racist groups. The rise of mass shootings in Western countries  are being used by imperialism to fuel a cycle of war that has led to the death of between 1 and 2 million people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan alone, since 2001. In Canada, refugees have been labeled as terrorists by political figures, mosques have been destroyed, murder threats have been made against Muslim communities, there has been an increase in attacks against Muslim women wearing hijabs, and anti-Muslim legislation have passed singling out Islamic attire. 

These attacks reached the point of murder in January, when six people were killed in a mosque in Quebec City by the white supremacist Alexandre Bissonnette. This massacre was not the action of a deranged individual but the product of the long promotion of racism and Islamophobia by the ruling class. 

Another part of the growth in racist reaction has been a startling resurgence of antisemitism, including vandalism of synagogues in Ottawa and threats towards Jewish schools in Toronto and London. While bourgeois parties and Zionist organizations target supporters of Palestinian liberation with false accusations of antisemitism, the real threat from the fascist right is growing. We stand with Jewish communities against this threat.

Racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia are convenient tools of the capitalist class. Racism is reproduced under capitalism to divide labour so racialized sections of the working class can be further exploited.  For these reasons the struggle against racism and xenophobia are inseparably linked to the struggle against monopoly capitalism.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Strengthen and enforce hate crime legislation – Hate speech is not free speech;
  2. Against new transphobic legislation, oppose patriarchy everywhere;
  3. End “carding” and racial profiling by police;
  4. Disarm the police – stop the militarization of police forces;
  5. For full civilian oversight and control over all police – Send killer cops to jail;
  6. No to racist and Islamophobic legislation – Stop Quebec’s Bill 62, a new “Charter of Values” and repeal the Barbaric Cultural Practices Act;
  7. Refugees welcome – Fully fund transportation and resettlement and end the Immigrant Loan Program and provide legal and employment protection and rights for live-in caregivers, agricultural workers and other migrant labourers;
  8. End indefinite detention;
  9. No One is Illegal – Status for all: block the passing of the “preclearance act”, repeal the ‘Safe 3rd Country Agreement’, protest and condemn the US government’s ban on Muslim and Latin American immigration and refugees, open Canada’s borders to immigrants and refugees being refused entry to the US as a result of the ban, and provide immediate asylum to those crossing the Canadian border on foot, Eliminate the Designated Country of Origin list
  10. Strengthen and expand employment equity.

Indigenous Fightback

Indigenous peoples have been fighting settler-colonialism since European settlers arrived on the shores of Turtle Island. The genocide of indigenous peoples, the theft of their lands, and the extraction of resources were ways Europeans began to establish the settler-colonial state, which still exists today.  Canada’s elite continues to particularly profit from oil and gas, mining and commercial development on indigenous lands, which reinforces the displacement and devastation of indigenous communities. This practices extends abroad through Canada’s neocolonialism and imperialism, dislocating and dispossessing indigenous communities worldwide. Since 1980, thousands of Indigenous women have gone missing or were found brutally murdered in Canada. Canada remained silent for years as more Indigenous women disappeared or died from gendered violence. After more than thirty years of grassroots and community-organized resistance, the Trudeau government launched a National Inquiry in 2015 to look into the case of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Prior to this, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted that the violence against indigenous women was not a “sociological phenomenon,” but rather, based on individual cases in which select criminals are to blame, not the system that historically used sexual and physical violence to suppress and steal from Indigenous peoples; not the system that continues to criminalize, displace and impoverish Indigenous communities.

The National Inquiry is meant to be a reconciliation effort that finds concrete ways to prevent this violence. While it is positive that the government now recognizes the injustices done to Indigenous communities as an outcome of larger societal inequalities, many First Nations organizations have noted limitations, particularly regarding the fact that it does not adequately hold the court system and police accountable—providing little space to discuss how larger systemic inequalities are the underlying factor to the disappearance and murder of Indigenous women. As a result, many are worried that the inquiry is more of a symbolic policy than one that will initiate committed action to stop this violence.

A Coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, consisting of 41 different organizations, formed in British Columbia in August 2016. They wrote a letter to the government and the public declaring that the National Inquiry is “too vague.” Essentially, they want the inquiry to mention allegations of police misconduct in order to move forward and ensure that these mistakes do not continue to take place. They want the Federal government to ensure a proper show of commitment and agreement of steps to take in different provinces. They want the Inquiry to properly examine the failures of the criminal justice system, while also addressing how it lacks representation from Indigenous peoples. They want Canada to highlight how the legacy of colonialism and racist policies still continues to result in the displacement and disadvantages faced by Indigenous communities, particularly women. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with these demands and supports actions that continue to challenge the government on these points. We demand that the Trudeau government not only identifies the existence of systemic gendered-violence against Indigenous women, but takes proper measures to ensure this violence does not take place.

In Val d’Or, Quebec, a shocking report on multiple cases of rape and the sexual abuse of Indigenous women by police officers was release in 2015. Many police officers abused their authority for oral sex and other sexual favors, threatened, raped and beat up Indigenous women, while ignoring the families of Indigenous women who went missing. Until today there have been no criminal charges brought against these officers. Indigenous women and the community are now demanding an independent inquiry into this systemic violence by police forces in Val d’Or. Their demand was eventually agreed to by the Liberal government after originally denying it on the pretext that the Federal government is putting forward a similar inquiry. Shamefully, a white movement of solidarity with police forces is now organising marches in Val d’Or’s streets. 

The Canadian government enforced its genocidal policies through the establishment of Residential Schools, forcibly removing indigenous children from their communities and families. Many children did not survive the abuse, starvation and deprivation that intentionally occurred. Many survivors lost their language, culture and connection to their lands and communities. The effects are ever present today as the last residential school only closed two decades ago. 

However, this genocidal practice still continues through the racist foster-care system. Although Indigenous children make up seven percent of the population in Canada, they represent 48 percent of all children in foster care. In Manitoba Indigenous children make up 90 per cent of those in foster care. There are three times more Indigenous children in care today than there were during the height of the residential school. It is clear that the practice of removing Indigenous children from their families has continued and grown despite official apologies for the genocide committed by previous forms of removing children from their community and culture, which caused mass abuse, depression, suicide and collective trauma among Indigenous peoples. There is also a direct link today between children going into care and later having their names added to those of missing and murdered Indigenous women. To justify this, the State uses abuse, addiction and neglect as reasons for the removal of indigenous children from their families, while conveniently ignoring and refusing accountability for the history and current effects of colonialism. Essentially, Indigenous families are racially targeted as unfit caregivers. The institutions surrounding the Canadian State uphold structural racism, such as the judiciary enforcing these practices, as it is foundational to the continued existence of the settler-colonial state.

Indigenous peoples are increasingly criminalized. Although First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples make up about 4% of the population in Canada, they make up almost one quarter of the incarcerated population. In the US, Black men are six times more likely to be imprisoned than white men. In Canada, the Indigenous incarceration rate is 10 times higher than the non-Indigenous population—higher even than South Africa at the height of apartheid. It has been stated that Canada’s expanding prisons are “the new residential schools”. Racist discrimination has been documented at every level of Canada’s justice system, from rampant police racial profiling, to sentencing in the courtroom and at parole boards.

While Trudeau agreed that his government would work to better the conditions of Indigenous communities, the lack of clean drinking water and decent housing, high unemployment and incarceration rates, and inadequate access to health care and education demonstrate how the government’s attention to these concerns have been inadequate thus far. The suicide crisis among youth in the Northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat is a scathing indictment of centuries of capitalist colonialism imposed on Indigenous peoples within the Canadian state, from the theft of the traditional territories of Indigenous peoples, to the residential schools and other forms of assimilation which followed. Despite the Federal government’s commitment to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and its recent endorsement of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, there was very little in the 2016-17 Federal budget for concrete action to seriously address this situation of ongoing genocide.

This was the backdrop for the occupations of Indigenous and Northern Affairs (INAC) offices including Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg and one in Regina that lasted more than four months. Other grassroots actions to demand immediate measures to improve the lives of all Indigenous peoples, such as (to name just a few) the protests to demand clean drinking water at Shoal Lake, the call for a full inquiry into state repression during the Gustafsen Lake standoff, and resistance against resource extraction projects being rammed through over the objections of Indigenous peoples across the country. Shamefully, the level of government financial support to address the problems in Attawapiskat and elsewhere has remained abysmally inadequate. We also condemn the cynical racist statements by some such as former PM Jean Chrétien, who arrogantly advised the people of Attawapiskat to simply move to a new location. Such racist statements deny the real history of Indigenous communities.

The problem in Attawapiskat is not simply a lack of government attention to Indigenous communities. Rather, it is a clear example of the impacts of corporate development and its continuous disregard for the right to sovereignty and self-determination. Attawapiskat is near the open-pit Victor Diamond Mine, operated by the multinational diamond company De Beers, founded by the British imperialist and white supremacist Cecil Rhodes. The mine itself is on lands taken from Attawapiskat First Nation through an extension of Treaty 9 in 1930. In 2015, the CBC reported out that De Beer’s had pulled $2.5 billion worth of diamonds from the Victor mine since opening, while paying almost nothing in royalties to the province or to Attawapiskat. Other news reports indicate that in March 2005, De Beers secretly dumped a load of sewage into Attawapiskat’s pumping station, causing a sewage backup and damage to local houses, but the company denies any responsibility. Such information exposes the racist lie that Indigenous peoples themselves are responsible for their impoverished situation.

Since the Idle No More Movement, Indigenous communities and activists have been struggling against pipeline and corporate developments on their lands—initiating direct action to stop the violation of treaty rights. They have been leading growing environmental movements throughout North America.  In 2013, Elsipogtog First Nation members in the New Brunswick region protested against fracking projects on their lands, leading to a violent retaliation by the RCMP. This led to a series of protests across Canada in solidarity with the Elsipogtog protesters, as well as sparking other local protests that are related to pipeline and fracking development on Indigenous lands. Furthermore, Indigenous resisters from the Talbits Kwah formed what is known as the Unist’ot’en Camp. Many from the community and volunteers around BC got together to stop the proposed pipelines from the Enbridge Northern Gateway and Pacific Trails at the shore of the Wedzin Kwah and mouth of the Gosnell Creek. These are all tributary to the the Skeena, Bulkley, and Babine rivers. Indigenous land defenders are “occupying” and using their traditional territory to physically prevent the development of pipelines.  In 2014, Indigenous peoples and allies led a movement in Burnaby mountain to stop Kinder Morgan’s plan to expand their trans-mountain pipeline. Protests are continuing. In May 2015, the Lax Kw’alaams community votes no unanimously against an LNG facility and marine terminal on Lelu Island. More recently, protesters have fought against the Muskrat Falls hydro project, with Labrador’s Indigenous Inuit and Innu at the forefront of this struggle. Dozens of people from around Labrador have participated in protests to block access at the Muskrat Falls site. Nine people were arrested by the RCMP on Oct. 17 for defying a court order to vacate the site. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with these actions and encourages the dissent to continue so that the provincial government does not subvert the movement.

Indigenous nations have the national right to self-determination up to and including the right to secede. They have the right to be able to develop their lands and communities in ways they see best, rather than always being put in a position of constantly fighting and negotiating with the government for this right.

Similarly, Indigenous communities of Standing Rock, in North Dakota began a movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, particularly after it made its decision to cross the Standing Rock Reservation—threatening the region’s clean water and ancient burial grounds. The success of Standing Rock protectors in halting the DAPL project demonstrates how the use of direct action, involving a broad and militant mass movement, can pressure the state enough to halt some of these developments.

The violation of Indigenous treaty rights and corporate development on reservations or unceded land have not been isolated incidents. It has continued to occur propelled by capitalism’s search to extract profit from Indigenous territories. The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with these movements against colonialism, as they are direct challenges to capitalism by halting the development of corporations and their exploitation of the environment and natural resources. The YCL-LJC aims to build solidarity efforts with these struggles.

We urge the labour and democratic movements to mobilize full support around struggles to compel the government to act immediately to fulfil its election promises of genuine nation-to-nation reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. The government needs to respect First Nations’ right to free and informed prior consent to any development of their lands; a right that is currently being denied by the Trudeau government despite the signing of UNDRIP. If the government does not honour this basic right, how can there be genuine nation-to-nation relations. The government has continued to prioritize colonial expansion and the growth of capitalism because it represents the interest of the capitalist class, not the rights of Indigenous and working class communities. As such, the YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with Indigenous struggles their fight for their right to full self-determination.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  • End violence against Indigenous women – Expand the MMIW inquiry to hold police and the justice system accountable and address systemic inequality;
  • Justice for the Indigenous women of Val d’Or;
  • Implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission;
  • Take emergency action to improve living conditions, employment, health and housing of Indigenous peoples on and off reserves;
  • Water is life – End the new wave of colonialism driven by the oil and gas corporations;
  • Respect the rights of Indigenous nations to free and informed prior consent to all developments that affect their territories;
  • Recognize the national rights of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, up to and including secession.

Quebec and National Oppression

The people of Quebec constitute a nation whose rights have been denied in Canada since the conquest of New France by England in 1763, first by the British colonialists and then by the Canadian capitalist class. Like the Acadian nation, the French Canadian minorities in other provinces, as well as the Métis Nation, First Nations and Inuit, the Quebec nation suffer national oppression in this country. National oppression is intimately tied to the development of capitalism in Canada. The Canadian capitalist class is the only beneficiary of this oppression. This denial of Quebec’s right to self-determination is the essence of its national oppression. This raises the indignation of the Quebec people and has given rise, since the 1960s, to the sovereigntist movement led by Quebec’s capitalist class.

The Quebec nation already has a certain degree of political autonomy through the provincial powers vested in it under the current federal framework. Historically, the Quebec bourgeoisie, that is to say, the capitalist and dominant class of Quebec, has relied on these powers to develop itself. Today, it controls most of the province’s capital and some of its representatives have significant investments and labour elsewhere in Canada and abroad. Quebec has a developed economy and would be part of the restricted circle of imperialist powers in the world if it were an independent state. Despite this, the Quebec bourgeoisie is divided as to the future of its relationship with the rest of Canada, part of which is satisfied with the current provincial autonomy, with the other wishing to enjoy the full powers of an independent state.

The Liberal Party of Quebec and the Coalition Avenir Québec are the political expressions of the federalist-autonomist part of this bourgeoisie and the Parti Québécois is that of the sovereigntist-independentist party. The Parti Québécois tries instrumentalise sentiments of injustice linked to Québec’s national oppression to stir up nationalist resentments in order to gain the support of the working class and the popular strata of Quebec in its plan to build a new capitalist state in which the oppression and exploitation of the working class is maintained. But until now, it has not managed to win this support from the majority of the population.

The 2012 student strike paved the way for the election of the PQ which had made several progressive reform promises, all of which were quickly betrayed. Trying to win a parliamentary majority in the next elections, the PQ decided to place its bets on the issue of identity by proposing Bill 60 on “secularism”, better known as the Quebec Charter of Values. Far from promoting secularism, this charter effectively targeted Muslim women, despite supposed neutrality, and amended the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This wedge issue tactic failed in 2014, but reinforced and legitimized increasingly violent Islamophobic and xenophobic speeches.

Following the electoral defeat of the PQ, a new leader was elected to head this party: Pierre Karl Péladeau. His election was not innocent. PKP is an exploiter of the worst kind. This businessman is the majority shareholder of the Québécor group, a media giant that controls almost 40% of Quebec’s media. Known for its right-wing positions and its anti-unionism, PKP has locked out its employees no less than 14 times. Several nationalists on the left had completely abandoned their principles and embraced this enemy of the working class, claiming that the national cause demanded the unity of all classes and that this project came before all other struggles. They even defended this capitalist in his refusal to get rid of his media empire as he sought to be elected as the head of the Quebec state. This election was intended to stimulate the “yes” option for Quebec independence, which is eroding not because of a sudden acceptance of English Canadian domination, but because the majority of Quebecers are currently worried about their economic situation before all else. By May 2016, however, PKP resigned from his post as leader of the PQ for personal reasons. A new leadership race was launched. This time it was Jean-François Lisée who won by exploiting the identity current within the PQ. Indeed, Lisée was one of the defendants of the charter, although he made a hypocritical mea culpa following the defeat of 2014. Today, he openly affirms that the separation of Quebec must be put on the ice for some time. Today, the PQ focuses its national project on identity issues, to the detriment of the political independence project.  

The lack of adherence today to the independence project of the Parti Quebecois by referendum does not mean that the national question in Quebec is settled or perceived as such. Nor does it mean that the sovereignist aspirations of Quebecers (including the youth) are a thing of the past, as recent debates amongst the left and progressive forces have shown. If it is true that the new generation has not known the darkest moments of national oppression in Quebec nor is it one of the great struggles for the emancipation of the Quebec nation (French McGill, the application of the Law 101 , both referendums, constitutional debates, etc.), it remains that many feel concerned by the different examples of national inequality between Quebec and the rest of Canada. Many, for example, equate the status quo with the dominance of Quebec by the Bay Street and Calgary monopolies and believe that they are responsible for some of the dismantling of the “Quebec model”.

Independence is an important class issue. It is true that it implies an alliance between the bourgeois class and the working class. Objectively, it means the working class abandons its political demands to allow the Quebec bourgeoisie to assert its political independence from the Canadian state. However, the right to self-determination up to and including separation remains an unavoidable necessity in the face of Canadian chauvinism. The fundamentally reactionary position, and the first to be opposed, is the dominance of English Canada, which oppresses many nations in Canada to different degrees.

In British Columbia, many Francophone parents find themselves having to go through very long legal battles to have access to French-language education equivalent to that of English-speaking children. For example, parents at the Rose-des-vents school in Vancouver, the Conseil scolaire francophone in Victoria and the Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon, have all been involved in lengthy battles. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that Alberta could remain a unilingual Anglophone province and deny all services in French to the Francophone communities in the province. Except for Quebec, Canadian bilingualism is a complete myth, whereas this policy has especially favored the Anglophone minority in Quebec.

Our opposition to the Québec separation project in the current context has nothing to do with support for the status quo or so-called “national unity” in Canada. We believe that the current Canadian Constitution is the worst possible framework to carry our struggles for advanced democracy and socialism. Québec’s aspirations for national sovereignty and self-determination can be based on progressive sentiments in the sense that it is an attempt to end a form of oppression. On the opposite, maintaining the status quo can only be reactionary. It is therefore the duty of progressives and communists in English Canada to oppose and mobilize against Canadian federalism and to defend the right to self-determination of all the nations that make up Canada, including Québec. In the event that Québec independence is decided by the majority of Québecers, Anglophone Canadians will have to support their sovereign choice.

On the other hand, the Québec progressives – primarily communists – must fight Québec chauvinism with the same ardor. Without being committed to the unity of Canada as a “nation”, we support the unity of the working class. In this sense, we do not favor the idea of Québec independence, because this project, in addition to dividing the working class, would not offer a solution to the oppressed Indigenous peoples in Québec. In this sense, should Québec become independent, Communists will have to campaign for the right of self-determination, including and until separation, to be guaranteed to the Indigenous nations by Québec.

Thus, in both nations, Communists must mobilize for a new Constitution that would ensure an equal and voluntary partnership of all Canadian nations in a new Confederation. Only this outcome would guarantee the unity of the working class, the youth and popular masses at the same time as it would guarantee the right to self-determination of all the nations constituting Canada.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Respect for Quebec’s right to self-determination;
  2. A new constitution based on an equal and voluntary partnership between Quebec, English-speaking Canada,
  3. Indigenous nations and Acadians, and guaranteeing the national rights of all national minorities.
  4. Recognition and defense of linguistic and national minorities in English-Speaking Canada

 

Young Workers still Facing a Worse Future than their Parents

Since our last Convention the situation has only gotten worse for young workers, with even Finance Minister Bill Morneau now saying that precariousness and poverty is the new normal for our generation. We are more and more educated, yet our wages, our working conditions and our employment rate continues to deteriorate. A study by the Canada 2020 group states: “today, some 18 per cent of male and female university graduates aged 25 to 34 were in jobs requiring only a high school education or less, and About 40 per cent were in positions requiring only one or more college education.” Statistics Canada reports that part-time work among youth is increasingly common. Following the general trend, our jobs are becoming more precarious. According to Statistics Canada, the percentage of unionized workers as fallen by 15%, disproportionately affecting women and people of colour. There is an over representation of precarious work among youth, women, racialized persons, immigrants, Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities and the elderly.

Full-time young workers have seen their real salaries decline since 1981 according to Statistics Canada, despite massive growth in the economy over the last four decades. This means workers are taking home a smaller share of the wealth they produce in today’s economy.  Real hourly wages dropped by 15% for men and 10% for women from the early 80s to the early 90s.  

This does not mean that the gendered wage gap in Canada is closing. This means that young male full-time workers had farther to fall. In fact, the overall wage gap has increased in the recent period. Earlier this year a report showed that in 2009, women in Canada earned on average 74.4 per cent of what men earned. In 2010, it was 73.6 per cent, and in 2011, it was 72 per cent, roughly where it remains today. Young women have a 10% lower full-time employment rate than young men and hold proportionally higher temporary full-time jobs as opposed to permanent. This partially explains the widening wage gap. This is a wage gap is also as racialized as it is gendered. Racialized women earn only 64 cents, and Indigenous women 46 cents, for every dollar earned by men of all age groups.

The unemployment rate among young people was 13% in October 2016, double the cross-Canada average. Unemployment statistics do not tell the whole story. Firstly, it does not include those who are discouraged, who have stopped looking, or who are studying full-time, but who would still like to find a job. People who are employed in a job that does not satisfy them, who are overqualified for their position, who work part-time, and who are looking for a job are not considered either. The situation of immigrant youth is further deteriorating. The gap between the unemployment rates of recent immigrants and those of Canadian-born people has only increased since 2011. In addition to higher unemployment, immigrant youth suffer disproportionately from underemployment.

Although young workers make up 15% of Canada’s workforce, we make up over 25% of Canada’s unemployed. The government is planning on spending $219 million this year on the Youth Employment Strategy (YES). This consists of increased help for youth accessing jobs and training and incentives to business to create jobs. Social services and grants to help youth can have an impact, but spending here remains low. Subsidies to business to create youth jobs and summer employment are essentially hand outs of public money to the private sector that do not create a long-term change in the economy towards permanent, full-time employment.

 

The Young Workers Fightback

We know that this forty year trend of declining wages, high unemployment and increasing part-time and temporary work is reversible if the accompanying trend of declining unionization and class struggle is also turned around. The key question for the YCL-LJC is how best to deepen our work in leading young workers towards an offensive in these difficult conditions.

The labour movement, the organized section of the working class in Canada, which often contains the most class conscious elements of our class, is in crisis. Division, class collaboration, outsourcing political action to the NDP and strategies of lobbying government and business (tri-partism) are much of what today’s labour movement “leadership” has to offer. But that is not the whole story. The defeat of Ken Georgetti as CLC President in 2014 showed a dissatisfaction in the labour movement that is looking for a way out of this decline. When the Unifor merger took place, creating Canada’s largest private sector union in 2013, there was a lot of appetite to organize the unorganized and promote a new dawn of ‘social unionism’ in collaboration with other social movements. Unfortunately both the CLC and Unifor have been unable to break away from acquiescence and tri-partism. In Ontario, the defeat of the Sid Ryan leadership and the election of Chris Buckley marked a turn away from the strategy of the Common Front, a coalition of community, activist and labour organizations, and towards a narrower approach on lobbying.

The election of the new Liberal government has only confused things further as the Liberals have adopted a strategy of photo-ops and “dialogue” with many union leaderships. But despite Trudeau showing up at labour conventions and events, the Liberal government remains firmly behind Bay Street’s free trade agenda of imperialism abroad and austerity at home. There has been resistance to this cozy relationship between the Liberals and some labour leaders, including at the CLC’s Young Workers Summit last year where much of audience made up of young trade unionists turned their back on Justin Trudeau’s address to young workers. Unfortunately some of the opposition to the Liberals inside the labour movement has promoted an even closer relationship with the NDP as a solution. The response to tri-partism cannot be further outsourcing political action to the NDP. Only mass independent political action is the way forward for labour. These developments demonstrate the immediate need to build the left inside the trade union movement. The YCL-LJC will redouble its efforts in supporting the Action Caucus as an important vehicle to rebuild class struggle unionism.

But we have also seen sections of the labour movement adopt a class struggle orientation. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers stood up to Harper’s campaign of lies used to end door-to-door mail delivery and privatize Canada Post. It stopped the attack on its members’ defined benefit pension plan and won a significant pay equity victory under the Trudeau government. While doing this the union has put forward an offensive strategy for postal banking and other reforms to expand Canada Post’s public reach. Education workers at University of Toronto and York University in Ontario fought long strikes in the Spring of 2015 and won significant victories while shining a light on the precariousness of teaching staff in the neoliberal university. These are examples of fighting unions that won, despite difficult conditions. Both were important victories for young workers. The postal workers were fighting for decent pensions for future workers, most of them young. Education workers were also made up of many precarious young workers, graduate and post-graduate students. Negotiations that have a strong campaign component and strikes that fight against concessions and for the needs of members that are also the needs of broader sections of workers allows for solidarity to be built within and beyond the union. It also allows for the broader community, including the YCL-LJC to offer strike support and help organize this solidarity that is essential for victories. As the YCL-LJC we will strengthen our efforts in labour solidarity during strikes, lock-outs and negotiations, especially in areas that are important for young workers.

Inside the labour movement, there is increasing attention given to young workers, as shown in the creation of young workers committees and young workers representatives in many unions that did not previously organize themselves in this way. This is positive. However, when these initiatives are limited to “mentoring”, “training” or “skill building” among young workers it is at best inadequate in fighting for the broader mass of young workers’ issues, and at worst it is a way to reproduce a social democratic trade union leadership that is on a road to nowhere. As the YCL-LJC we must politicize these spaces and bring forward the struggles of young people and move towards mass action involving union and non-union workers, and not allow them to be led by careerism. Part of this is bringing forward other demands of the youth and student movement into the labour movement, such as campaigns against climate change, against fascism, racism, patriarchy, imperialism and war. These are all struggles that labour can and must be more active in. Labour councils are of special interest because of their role as a hub of a community’s labour movement. Wherever possible we should get involved at this level beyond where we are already. We must also strengthen our work in union locals where we have members. 

In building a broader coalition across the working class, we must give as much attention to those outside of unions as those within. To this end, it is imperative that we work on two fronts: making connections with non-union labour organisations, such as migrant worker organisations, and, as well, building bridges to workers who are not organised at all. As for the latter, we must introduce today’s young workers to the role that the labour movement has played in creating all of the protections that they currently enjoy, and we must also inform them of the necessity of organised struggle to maintain what they have, and, for many, take back what they lost.

Organizing young workers into political action also means overcoming prejudices against the labour movement from the anti-labour left, and also fighting against sexism, racism, transphobia, ableism and homophobia inside the labour movement. The labour movement has always been among the forefront in fighting against oppression, however there is still a long way to go in terms of strengthening this work and having a labour leadership and movement that reflect the actual composition of the working class as a whole. 

Our fight for the rights and dignity of the working class must also fight for the rights of those who cannot be exploited by the capitalist system to the same degree as fully able bodied people. The same precarity and poverty that brutalises the working class applies just as severely, if not even more so, to those who, due to disability, lack of legal ability, unfavourable economic conditions, or other such factors, cannot obtain employment that meets their needs. As such, we must take into account the presence of people in the working class who cannot produce profit for employers in a capitalist system, and take a line of fighting for the right of all people to a comfortable, safe life, regardless of their ability to work.

In Canada, the composition of the working class is largely young, educated, precariously employed, increasingly female and based in racialized communities. Young workers are the most diverse generation of workers in Canada. 10% are newcomers, 5% are Indigenous, and 20% are racialized, and 10% identify as LGBTQIA2S (although this is probably higher). The idea of the “white working class”, manufacturing-based labour movement is a mischaracterization and holds back the organizing efforts of the lowest paid, most vulnerable sections of the class as well as the class as a whole. There is no such thing as a ‘white working class’ whose interests are separate from the rest of their class. After both the Brexit and Trump victory, the losing liberal sections of the ruling class and the corporate media sought to blame “the white working class”, which had been left behind by globalization and were the source of backward ideas. This ignores that the racist and xenophobic aspects of both campaigns came from sections of the ruling class and asserts that white workers have interests separate from racialized, migrant and immigrant workers. Some on the “left” argue that the left itself is to blame for Trump’s victory because of too much focus on equality struggles like Black Lives Matter, as opposed to class struggle, as if BLM has distracted organizing efforts instead of inspiring a variety of struggles including labour.

It is true that white workers in white supremacist societies such as North America benefit in an immediate way from white supremacy with relatively higher wages, but it is a long established fact that the deeper the racist oppression in the work force, the lower the rates of pay, and unionization across the board. To combat this, what is needed is a united and militant labour movement with strong solidarity across racist and sexist divisions in labour imposed by the capitalists to better accumulate profits. In fact, white-skin privilege does not exempt white workers from exploitation, it reconciles them to their own exploitation, it reconciles them to the entire system of capitalism – imperialism.

The working class in Canada also includes migrant workers. In fact, many migrant workers are young workers as imperialism displaces especially young people around the world. They are subjected to hyper-exploitation by Canadian capitalists, face terrible working conditions, and make lower wages than workers with permanent status or citizenship. The Caregiver Program, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program all contain the fundamental flaw of creating a two-tiered labour and immigration system where workers under these programs have their mobility restricted and their right to organize violated. Most are tied to one employer, unable to take other jobs, allowing employers to further take advantage of them. They also are more at risk of workplace injuries and many live in terrible housing conditions. Migrant workers recruited by the Caregiver program face extreme isolation from communities and little protections, resulting in high rates of physical and sexual abuse. Migrant workers pay into programs like Employment Insurance but are not eligible to receive the program.

Recent Federal changes such as the ability for caregivers to live outside employers homes and a removal of the Harper’s four year limit on workers ability to stay in Canada under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program are a step forward. However, the root of the problem with these programs remain as long as there is no Permanent Residency granted to all migrant workers. This would remove the insecure temporary status of these workers that expose them to harsher exploitation. The YCL-LJC supports this demand as well as the right to unionize for agricultural workers, most of whom are migrant workers, and an immediate transition from tied work permits to open work permits under all programs. Migrant workers are part of the working class in Canada and have helped to build the communities that we all live in. The YCL-LJC will continue its solidarity work with migrant worker organizations, the labour movement and campaigns for justice for migrants.

Unpaid and low-pay internships are a growing drain on paid jobs. The “unpaid economy” is converting the cost of job training from employers to workers, and worse still converting jobs to unpaid labour with the promise of a potential job. It is estimated that Ontario alone has 300,000 unpaid interns.

Montreal university students in education are currently organizing around the campaign – CRAIES-moi CRAIES-moi pas, je mène une double vie – to demand payment for their internships. After having organized a boycott of their internships for four months demanding pay for 1600 hours of work, the PhD students in psychology, represented by the FIDEP, were finally successful last November 8th. However, it is outlined in a government report that their internships will not be remunerated as employees because the Quebec Liberal government fears the risk of further organizing. They will be paid through a form of scholarship. Student committees under the name of the United Committee on Student Work (CUTE) are organizing a campaign for payment for all internships. It is important to emphasize that not all internships arranged through schools are unpaid. On the contrary, remuneration follows a gendered demarcation where the highly feminized professions are often paid little or no money (in education, health and social work for example) and traditionally male professions (engineering and medicine) are relatively well paid. In Ontario, interns are demanding better enforcement of laws that disallow unpaid internships, except through schools, and making sure that interns are covered under labour standards legislation.

Young workers do not need to accept working in internships, for temp agencies, or working for poverty wages. We do not need to accept unemployment or underemployment. The YCL-LJC recognizes the right to quality, safe, unionized employment with a living wage. While unemployment is produced as a necessary part of the capitalist system, there are immediate policies that can be enacted to move towards eliminating youth unemployment. We demand governments at all levels carry out massive green job creation in the public sector by building affordable social housing, expanding infrastructure, social services and arts and culture. There is an immediate need to expand apprenticeships and trades education, ensuring employers cover all costs, make all unpaid internships illegal and paid internships pay at least the minimum wage with no exceptions, and create a new Labour Bill of Rights expanding the right to organize, strike and collectively bargain in order to encourage the unionization of young workers.

There is a new awareness growing that young workers are faced with insurmountable obstacles to achieve the same standard of living as their parents’ generation. The corporate media and governments have admitted that there is a “new economic reality” for young workers, but there is no will to tackle the systemic causes. The “precariat”, disproportionately made up of young workers, appears in research and lobby documents of the labour movement and their allies, but so far campaigns and mass action have been harder to find. Some exceptions are the $15 and fairness campaign in Ontario, which highlights various reforms to the Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act, and in Quebec where sections of the student movement have started to organize actions against unpaid internships.

The Fight for a $15 minimum wage movement is a campaign that continues to gain momentum across North America. The labour movement in the United States has won some significant victories here with employers and with city and state referendums to increase the legal minimum wage. In Canada, the campaign started organizing over the last two or three years and has now expanded to most provinces, although the campaign looks different in different places. In Ontario it is led by a coalition of workers, anti-poverty and community groups. In BC and Quebec labour federations are taking a more active role. Spring 2016 saw the first Pan-Canadian Day of Action with over twenty cities participating in diverse actions. The YCL-LJC participated in organizing and attending actions in almost all cities where we have clubs.

This campaign has already proven that it has the potential to unite labour and social movements behind a demand that will create meaningful change for millions of the lowest paid workers across the country.

The current poverty minimum wage rates are a weapon directed at precarious workers and marginalized communities.  It is a tool that reproduces the inequalities of racialized and gendered labour, disproportionately affecting women, immigrants, youth and workers of colour. This attack on the most marginalized sections of the working-class has a depreciating effect on the whole working-class. The struggle for increased minimum wage rates are an important reform that has the power to redirect value from profits towards the lowest paid workers. This reform weakens capital and strengthens the consciousness and collective power of labour.

All rights workers have today have been the product of struggle, which includes even today’s minimum wage rates. The first Canadian minimum wage laws were won for non-union workers around 1920 by trade unionism and political action.  Until the 1970s there were different rates for men and women. This wage discrimination was eliminated by the women’s and labour movements. This shows that these victories have been won in the past and can continue to be won today.

The surprise election of the NDP in Alberta, after the collapse of the Conservative Party in the polls, brought with it the promise to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2018. It is inadequate that it will take three years from that government’s election, but this is a major victory of the campaign in Canada and puts pressure on other provinces to follow suit. In Ontario, where a very active $14/hr campaign existed prior to 2014, the minimum wage was increased to $11 and then indexed to inflation. This keeps the minimum wage frozen below the poverty line, but it was still a partial victory brought on by mass organizing. Across the country the campaigns need to continue to build mass unity and militancy, including in Alberta where it is very possible that the Notley government may concede to corporate pressure to delay or cancel planned increases.

Where the campaign has been most active and successful, a coalition structure with local committees focused on on-the-ground organizing has been used. Labour needs to play a central role but not push non-union workers and social movement organizations out of decision making. The YCL-LJC has an important role to play in many areas in building these kinds of committees and pushing their focus towards mass campaigning and action against governments that have legalized poverty wages and the corporations that pay them. In Quebec, some unions are putting forward the demand of $15/hr in negotiations in coalition with a diversity of other community organizations. This is an important tactic to build the campaign that will also help build the labour movement in low-wage sectors such as accommodation and food service, which is only 3.5% unionized across Canada.

The YCL-LJC’s own demand is for a minimum wage of $20/hr as a living wage that puts all workers in Canada above the poverty line. However we do not counterpose the League’s demand against the movement’s. We unconditionally support the demand of $15/hr as a step towards a living wage. We also recognize that some living wage campaigns across the country have had a narrow focus on lobbying and on getting municipalities to pay public sector workers a living wage. While we support a living wage for all workers, these campaigns do not have the strategy of mass organizing and action necessary to win wage increases for all workers. While their demands are sometimes closer to ours, they are actually less militant and united in the strategies that they have adopted.

The YCL-LJC recognizes the necessity of building on our past work in the Fight for $15 and in developing the Pan-Canadian movement in this important struggle, bringing together union and non-union young workers to build unity in action.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Justice for migrant workers – Grant Permanent Residency rights to all migrant workers;
  2. For massive green job creation in the public sector by building affordable social housing, expanding infrastructure, social services and arts and culture;
  3. Expand apprenticeships and trades education;
  4. Make all unpaid internships illegal and make sure internships are regulated by employment and labour law;
  5. Enact a new Labour Bill of Rights expanding the right to organize, strike and collectively bargain;
  6. For a living minimum wage of $20/hr across Canada.

The Attack on Students

The capitalist class, on the offensive globally, has decided that it is no longer willing to pay for public education in Canada. This explains why governments of all stripes have let public funding to PSE in Canada slide from 80% thirty years ago, to under 50% today. Big business, which controls most of government policy, has made it clear that they are not concerned with expanding access to quality education in Canada. In fact, they are lobbying hard to limit access and take direct control over universities and colleges.

Since 1990, the average undergraduate tuition fees across Canada have quadrupled. Governments across the country, led by Conservatives, Liberals, the NDP and the Parti Quebecois have all had a hand in implementing big business’ plan for university and college education: privatization through the expansion of user fees and corporate control over research and curriculum. Public funding accounts for less than 49 percent of university and college operating budgets, compared to 77 percent just 20 years ago.

For students the attack on post-secondary education has resulted in astronomical student debt levels, which has contributed greatly to the increase in poverty and precariousness of young people. An education system which relies on debt means that working class students, who are disproportionately racialized, have to pay more for their education in the long-term because of larger debts and interest payments. The same is true for women students who face a steep gendered pay gap upon graduation.

The Federal government continues to deny Indigenous peoples their treaty right to free post-secondary education because of a funding cap that was in place for 20 years. In 2016 there were 10,000 Indigenous students on the waiting list to access the Post-Secondary Student Support Program (PSSP) which was created to help Indigenous Nations fund students’ education. International students are often paying triple the fees for the same education and are being used as cash cows to fund post-secondary institutions. 

The education system in Canada, like those in the rest of the West, is steeped deeply in colonialist and capitalist ideology, which is why people with reactionary politics are not simply “dying off” — our whole society is built to maintain these reactionary ideologies, and the school system plays a large role in this. It is imperative that we push for curricula in our public schools that, instead of promoting ideologies of oppression, takes a line which is fair to the indigenous people on this stolen land, and promotes the rights of workers, instead of normalising and glorifying the violence of capitalism. Furthermore, it is vital that, instead of condemning indigenous people to the past in our curricula, we teach our youth that indigenous people still are here, that their culture still exists today, and that this still is their land.

After almost three decades of skyrocketing tuition fees, raising the demand of free education has never been so important. Education without user-fees is a necessary precondition for an accessible system where the right to education can be realized. The student movement’s demand for free education should not be confused with the “free tuition” grants announced this year by the governments of New Brunswick and Ontario. These are merely restructured grants that have been promised to low-income students. It is unclear who will receive them and most importantly they can act as a smoke screen to increase tuition fees and student debt across the board.

High school students are also facing attacks in the form of the provincial underfunding of school boards. This results in large classes with poor resources. It means that more and more students fall through the cracks. Where teachers’ unions across the country have been fighting cuts during bargaining provincial governments have tried to break them or impose agreements. School boards are asked to implement the cuts that are necessitated by funding policies which are not based on the needs of our education systems. Ontario and BC have not been content with just underfunding school boards but have placed major boards under receivership attacking local autonomy and democracy. In Montreal, where the school board was threatened with receivership if they refused to implement cuts, the board gave in. After this they set up a fundraising foundation and asked the teachers to contribute in order to fund schools. 

Governments across the country are privatizing sections of elementary and secondary education. In British Columbia, teachers and students within the public-school system have been particularly under-attack, leading to organized movements by High School and Elementary school students across the province. Just last year, in 2016, the Vancouver School Board was facing a $25-27 million budget deficit, the worst in over two decades. The root causes of these cuts is class conflict in society, because it is another way the capitalist class imposes austerity measures on the working class. 

In fact, the Canadian government continues to prioritize private schools over public resources. The Canadian Revenue Agency offers numerous tax write offs for parents of children in private schools. In one of the many write offs parents are able to deduct time children spend in lunch, recess, or after school  activities as childcare. This is just one of the many federal tax deductibles that make private schools into tax havens for the wealthy. Provincially the BC Liberal government has been increasing the funding to private schools at a much faster rate than for public schools, which shows us that the cry by BC liberals that “there is no money” for schools is not true. Over the last decade, funding for private schools has increased by 61.1%, three times the percentage increase for public schools. The budget for the next couple years show a 33.4% funding increase for private schools and only 3.3% for public schools. Essentially, by funding private schools while impoverishing public schools, the government attempts to pressure families to get their children out of the public school system and into the private sector. The government needs to manufacture these problems in our public education system in order to work towards the process of privatization. Today, 24% of BC students go to private schools, demonstrating how education is becoming less and less accessible for the youth of this province.

Schools and boards have tried to fill the widening funding cracks by charging user-fees (e.g. student activity fees, team fees, course fees) and fundraising. These band-aid solutions have created a two-tiered education system where communities with access to wealth can provide better funding to schools than lower-income schools. The YCL-LJC demands needs-based funding formulas be put in place across the country and that the attacks on teachers unions and school boards are ended.

 

Student struggle

The student movement as a whole is still stuck in defensive position with the ongoing assault on education coming from governments and corporations. But there have been pockets of resistance across the country since our last Convention. Students at Guelph, Carleton, UOIT, Ryerson and UBC rallied against administrations and Boards of Governors who imposed tuition fee increases at different times in the last three years. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against apartheid Israel and its occupation continues to be a dynamic force on many campuses with BDS motions being passed by referendums and membership meetings. A wave of anti-rape culture and anti-sexual assault organizing has developed with strong actions taking place in Eastern Canada and Quebec. Fossil fuel divestment campaigns have sprung up on many campuses to fight institutional financial links with climate criminal corporations. 

Indigenous students working with student unions at the University of Winnipeg and Lakehead University were successful in advocating for an expansion of Indigenous studies, and today, every undergraduate student in both institutions must take at least one Indigenous studies course before graduation. The fight for the expansion of indigenous studies programs and curriculum for working class and oppressed peoples is essential to the struggle for emancipatory education.

It would be wrong to say that the majority of students are apathetic or “bourgeois”. Students are fighting. What is missing is the kind of united and militant Pan-Canadian student movement capable rolling back the privatization of education and winning major victories.

The November 2nd Day of Action for Free Education, initiated by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), was the first cross-Canada action called in the last 4 years taking place last Fall. It was an important step towards re-mobilizing the student movement especially in English Canada. YCL-LJCers contributed to this action by mobilizing students on the ground and adding 5 cities to the Day of Action, including in major centres such as Vancouver and Montreal, which included participation from 40 cities across Canada. The success of the Day of Action shows the student movement is capable of mobilizing students and taking part in offensive struggles, like the demand for free education, instead of purely defensive struggles. It showed that the student movement can organize together beyond just the membership of the Canadian Federation of Students and that it is possible to hold united actions in English Canada and Quebec.

The CFS, English-speaking Canada’s only independent student union federation, had adopted a defensive position after many attacks from right-wing students backed by the Liberal and Conservative parties and university administrations across the country designed to divide and weaken the student movement. There continues to be a debate on the direction of the federation, even amongst those students that see its existence as necessary. At the root of this are some of the same debates apparent in the labour movement. Those on the right recognize the attacks from governments, University administrations and right-wing students as necessitating a duck-and-cover approach. Student unions should remain quiet, though progressive, inward-looking islands in a sea of reactionary students. The student federations should take progressive stances, but there is no hope of building a real mass movement, so lobbying for “realistic” change is the only option. These are dead end ideas and a strategy that leads towards failure. It will result first in the total demobilization of the student movement, and then the takeover of any remaining independent student unions by student representatives of university and college administrations. This story has already played out on many campuses and is a serious danger at the federation level in English Canada.

Administrations, as well as Young Liberals and Young Conservatives have been organizers of right-wing attacks on student unions. Their goal is to turn them into service providers and extensions of schools’ student life departments. These unions become a kind of farm team for school staff and bourgeois political parties. This has nothing in common with student unions as mass organizations that fight for the interests of students. The YCL-LJC supports the struggles of all students to fight for independent student unions, which are necessary democratic organizations to build the student movement.

There is also an attack which is similar in nature occurring against the  Canadian Federation of Students. The right-wing has gained a foothold in some campuses across Canada and are preparing another wave of decertification referendums against the CFS. In 2009, the YCL-LJC helped to organize a public letter signed by “Progressive Students for CFS”. It states:

Certainly there are criticisms to be made of the CFS – it is an imperfect organization. In writing this letter we don’t want to close any doors to discussion. But let’s get real, sisters and brother. After smashing the CFS, what’s next? We would wake up with a horrible hangover and have to rebuild. At best, the defederation campaigns are an incredible waste of time and distraction; at worst they make all students, well beyond the CFS members and including Quebec’s student unions, incredibly vulnerable to the right’s agenda.

Defunding drives have not been limited to the CFS. Similar right wing campus forces, mainly Zionists and students connected to the Conservative Party, have tried to attack Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) on several campuses historically and recently. These are student organizations on many campuses across Canada that have become activist centres supporting a variety of environmental and social justice organizing. The attack in Waterloo was successful in passing a referendum to defund the PIRG there, but similar campaigns for referendums failed in Victoria and Hamilton. These all occurred during the 2016-2017 school year demonstrating some level of organization of the rightwing between campuses. The YCL-LJC supports the funding of Public Interest Research Groups and opposes attempts by reactionary forces to defund them, usually on dishonest grounds such as “transparency” as opposed to exposing their actual political agenda.

It can’t be forgotten that in English speaking Canada a large number of university campuses, and most college campuses, do not have independent student unions or an affiliation to the Canadian Federation of Students. But it is rarely the case that there is not some form of student action and organization taking place. The goal of the student movement should be to build on this organizing and unite across campuses on the basis of action. There also needs to be more communication about student action between campuses. A narrow focus on reforming the student union runs the risk of eating up a lot of activist time and ignoring on the ground work with students. On the other hand, ignoring student unions as part of a campus struggle ends up weakening the possibilities of mobilization in the long run. When there is a low level of student action, the immediate strategy should be to build on it. An independent and active student union is not an end in itself but need to be part of the broader strategy.

In Quebec, where students stopped a drastic hike in tuition fees through the longest student strike in its history in 2012, students are finding their footing against the Quebec Liberal austerity government. In Quebec, where the most conscious elements of the student movement are organized by the ASSÉ, there exists an expressed willingness to mobilize in a militant direction. However, the student movement has been weakened by ultra-left mistakes during the Spring 2015 strikes. Spring 2015 was a failed general unlimited student strike organized by decentralized affinity groups outside of the usual student union structure. The organizers believed that this strike initiated by the student movement would transform itself into a general strike including the labour movement that was in the middle of its negotiations in the public sector at the time. This strike was seen as an end in itself, and organizers refused to push for economic demands, focusing on a general rejection of large problems caused by capitalism, especially austerity and environmental degradation. Despite large demonstrations and actions, the strike did not maintain itself and did not expand to other social sectors. Many students and activists were arrested, injured and expelled from their school in a political witch hunt. Following this failure, tension inside student unions and organizations at the local and the national level built up in a context of exhaustion and discouragement. The student movement in Quebec is still in a stage of recomposition as attested by the creation of a new student association, AVEQ, and by the subsidence of ASSE, one of the main components of the 2012 student strike and the most militant student union. 

In addition, a general sentiment of depreciation towards the student unions leads more and more students to be involved in political, community and sectorial activism. Despite the positive role that all these organisations can play, the role of student unions, as genuine mass organisations that help form young activists to the struggle, cannot be replaced. The LJC-Q will develop its analysis of these new developments, but reiterates its commitment to build a strong, united and militant student movement.

November 2nd also illuminated the need to unite the Pan-Canadian student movement on the basis of equality between nations and self-determination. The Canadian Federation of Students had in previous years ignored the national question and had member locals at a few Anglo schools without much connection to the Quebec student movement. These schools have since decertified in ugly battles where the old CFS leadership relied on legalistic manoeuvring. There exists a political divide between English Canada and Quebec, with much of the leadership in English Canada coming from social democratic tendencies and the ASSÉ including many anarchist elements. The English Canadian student movement must build solidarity with Quebec on an equal and voluntary basis. Now that the CFS has agreed to not organize in Quebec this makes things easier. The fact that both student movements are now organizing for Free Education also lays a political basis of unity. The YCL-LJC will continue to work on building solidarity and unity in action between the student movement in Quebec and English Canada.

Because of Canada’s Constitution, which gives control over postsecondary education to provinces, there is a strong pull away from recognizing the need for Pan-Canadian unity. But this ignores the fact that the Federal government funds postsecondary through transfer payments, that it is supposed to cover education costs for Indigenous peoples, and that there are large Federal research and loan programs. It also ignores that Canada needs a Post-Secondary Education Act, similar to the Canada Health Act, and a large increase in federal transfer payments for post-secondary education in order to ensure free, accessible, quality and democratic education from coast-to-coast.

There are competing political strategies being discussed in the student movement after November 2nd. On the right, there are ideas that further mobilizations should be stopped in preference for concentrating on local student union elections, or even provincial elections in the case of BC. The right also argues that lobbying efforts are what’s needed, as they’ve now been successful in showing some mass support after the Day of Action, and no more is necessary. On the left, some ultra-left groups are focused on fetishizing the student strike taken out of the context of the current level of mobilization and putting it as the immediate one-size-fits-all way forward. There is also a continued discussion on restructuring student unions around General Assemblies.

In Quebec, November 2nd did not spark these discussions, but similar positions are put forward in the student movement. The ultra-left focuses on the tactics of the struggle and the structure of student organizations, while the right wing of the student movement wants to abandon larger political struggle to concentrate on local student unions. In both cases, these tendencies abandon mass action and coalition work.  

In contrast to both left and right, we should continue to put the politics first, focusing on the attack against PSE and the demand for free education. Building a culture of democratic and militant student unionism and structural reforms are inseparable from outwardly focused political action. In terms of strategy we need to continue to put forward flexible strategies based on the local circumstances that build towards mass action. With this in mind we should seek out action oriented allies that hold the principle that education is a right and build student mobilization committees with their involvement.

Only a mass struggle against the corporate attack on postsecondary can build unity and put the student movement in a position to win the goal of free and accessible post-secondary education.

The YCL-LJC demands:

  1. Massively increase public funding for universal, quality public education at all levels;
  2. Free education now – Eliminate tuition fees;
  3. Grants not loans – Forgive all student loan debt and expand grants;
  4. Roll-back privatization and corporatization through a Federal Post-Secondary Education Act;
  5. No to corporate controlled Board of Governors – For student, worker and community control over institutions;
  6. Honour the treaties – Expand Indigenous studies programs in Postsecondary education that are developed, led and controlled by Indigenous peoples;
  7. Eliminate differential fees for international students – international students are not cash cows;
  8. For free, accessible, emancipatory and democratic education at all levels.

 

3) Building the YCL, Rebel Youth and Jeunesse Militante

In the preceding sections of this political report we have outlined the growing economic, environmental, social and political crises of capitalism. The danger for working people, especially youth is clear. With the stakes so high the YCL-LJC needs to live up to its mission to be the organization of revolutionary youth fighting for socialism. Socialism is a necessity and the YCL-LJC is a necessary organization in order to lead the broader youth and student movement towards helping to build a socialist Canada. We fight not just on our behalf as young Communists but for all working class and oppressed youth across the country.

It has been one decade since the 24th Convention of the YCL-LJC, which refounded the League after a long period of rebuilding following the supposed end of history hit with the overthrow of socialism in Eastern Europe and the USSR. We celebrate this milestone as we approach our 95th anniversary next year.

The period we are in now as an organization opens up new and exciting possibilities. We have a larger and more solid collective leadership with more than one generation of activists. We have several longstanding clubs across the country that have stable bases in their communities, including in most of the largest centres in the country. Our connections to allies in the youth and student movement have been slowly built up. We now have the collective strength to organize simultaneous campaigns and actions in most major cities in Canada. This can be seen by various days of action (e.g., Nov 2nd, Minimum Wage, IWD) across the country that several clubs across the League have participated in and organized for. Now that this is possible the Central leadership can pivot more towards supporting YCL-wide campaigns and mobilization. We have a long way to go and we are still a small organization in an advanced imperialist country where working people are on the defensive. However, we can say that we have passed the stage of reorganization and building basic political unity and are now in a position to shake things up in the youth movement if we are able to enact a determined united action plan across the League. Now is the time to organize the YCL, our press, our workplaces, schools and communities!

Towards a democratic centralist, inclusive and collective League

 Another key consideration of the incoming Central leadership and the whole League needs to ensure healthy club collectives. A club that struggles together stays together! It is essential that clubs base themselves on the principles of democratic centralism and act as hubs of activist activity giving support to their members and helping everyone grow collectively. Divisions between the “theoreticians” and the “activists” should not happen in the YCL-LJC if the whole of our organization has collective mass movement experience as well as collective study that is rewarding and related to the work of the League. The YCL-LJC is not a network of individual Communist youth that like to get together and discuss history and the state of the world in order to create some propaganda here and there. That might be rewarding for some of us personally, but useless for our class. We are a united Marxist-Leninist organization on the front lines of the youth and student movement.

 Democratic centralism is the glue that holds our organization together and strengthens it with each struggle we participate in. We have had problems with supplanting the club collective with “friend groups” within a club. Friendships within YCL-LJC clubs are inevitable and part of the rewarding experience of being in the YCL-LJC. But when it comes to questions of the League, discussions and especially decisions must be made by the League collectives. In general, clubs have been able to overcome this if there is a conscious effort to bring all discussions about the YCL-LJC work back to the club. Criticism and self-criticism should not be carried out by a few members but by the full club. Toxic cultures and disunity can develop quickly if problems are not addressed in a fully collective way. Friendship is one thing, but political comradeship is much deeper and should be shared by everyone.

 The club leadership has an important role to play here. In between meetings they are the “hub” of the club. It is their assignment to sort through the work of the club and lead it, through such things as collecting reports from members and creating agendas. We must allow our leaders to lead, especially when there are sharp political, behavioural or personal problems, or a fragmentation of collectivity develops.

 Finally, we must ensure that clubs and the whole of the YCL-LJC has an inclusive and anti-oppressive culture in order to create a strong united and democratic organization. We need to fight oppression in our own organization, as it will allow us to strengthen membership among women, LGBTQIA2S people, Indigenous people, people of colour, etc. The struggle for socialism requires the unity of the working-class, and equality is a prerequisite for unity. We must be individually and collectively conscious of the baggage of capitalist society that inevitably seeps into our organization consciously or unconsciously. We cannot afford to replicate chauvinist dynamics and must address specific problems and dynamics as soon as they arise. Understanding the limits of narrow or right-wing forms of “identity politics” cannot be used as an excuse to ignore or dismiss this baggage and it must be addressed through criticism and self-criticism in a comradely way with an eye towards correcting behavior. There needs to be the space to have these difficult though necessary conversations in a collective way in our clubs and committees in order to correct any behavior that reproduces sexist, racist, transphobic, ableist or homophobic dynamics and behavior. Sharp political discussions are going to arise in the YCL-LJC, especially as we enter bigger battles with higher stakes, however oppressive behavior is fundamentally different as it undermines the ability of members to participate on an equal basis and is therefore undemocratic.

 Some ways to improve in this area would be more comprehensive education on democratic struggles against oppression and how specifically they are inseparable from the struggle for socialism. In order to be conscious of the reproduction of oppressive behavior, comrades must all have anti-oppression education and there must be more conversations on how to deal with problems as they arise. Comrades need to feel confident in raising any problems to the club or leadership so they can be dealt with in an organized and collective way through the tools provided by the constitution, which outlines discipline and the rights and responsibilities of members. This includes seriously dangerous behaviour for individuals and the League like harassment and gendered violence. A review of the constitution for this Convention should take into consideration if changes should be made in order to improve these tools. Other tools we already have are things like gendered speakers lists in order to stop male dominated discussion. We should also look into other ideas such as the possibility of adopting a “code of conduct”.

Online and social media work

 The YCL-LJC’s social media and website work has continued to develop in a positive direction in the last period. All clubs now have active facebook pages and the central page has doubled in likes. Some clubs use twitter as well as the central account with a reach that has grown considerably. Due to a problem with the old site, there was a new website developed in 2015 which continues to suit our needs. It has been recently updated with a French component, but the French language side of the site needs to be developed more fully.

 As more and more young people look for answers to the oppression and exploitation they and their class face, the first place they often look is on social media and online. It is essential that we maintain and strengthen our work in this area, although it is important that we keep clear guidelines for our action as YCL-LJC members on social media. There is an increase in online debate with a Marxist orientation and many of our members and friends follow and participate in these discussions. However, we must stress that online activity is no substitute for on-the-ground engagement in struggles. The first reason is that social media “bubbles” can give a distorted view of real debates taking place in movements and with the majority of conscious young people. Social media does have a tendency to remove discussion from active participation in struggle and reproduce ultra-leftist ideas. It also lacks any focus on local and community struggles because of the international scope of these discussions. There are many ultra-left groups that wish to debate the YCL-LJC. They wish to sideline us from our actual work in the youth and student movement, including in the realm of the “battle of ideas”. Our ideological work must be focused not on small “revolutionary” groups but putting forward a revolutionary perspective to working class youth generally. Our own members take to social media for education and theoretical development. While participation in online discussion can be rewarding (while sometimes infuriating), individual study online cannot replace collective study that raises the level of the whole of the YCL-LJC.

 

Educational and theoretical work

 Increased growth with new clubs and members has highlighted the need for education and theoretical work in the League. Schools have continued to help the League develop and recruit. Since the last Convention there have been two schools in BC, one school in Ontario and Québec, two in Alberta and two Central women’s schools located in Ontario. We should make every effort to make schools annual events not only because of the need for educational work, but because of the boost in energy and organizing that are a result of them.

 There is a need to increase and centralize educational and theoretical work in the YCL-LJC. Clubs and members produce educational work regularly, but it needs to be improved and shared across the League. The Central education commission has started working on resources, however this is still an area that needs immediate attention. Educational areas that need work and have a big impact on our day-to-day organizing include a Marxist understanding of fighting oppression, why and how we participate in reform struggles and the connection to building a revolutionary movement, and the national question in Canada. The “basics” are also an area where we need to consolidate resources for club and individual study. In all cases study must relate back to questions relevant for our work as the YCL-LJC and in movements today in order to be useful to all members and the organization as a whole.

 

Our Press: Rebel Youth and Jeunesse Militante

 Since the last Convention, the YCL-LJC has continued its online journal “Rebel Youth” with four print publications. The print issue continues to play an important part in our work across the country as it is a window onto the youth and student movement, through the frame of the YCL-LJC, that can be distributed to interested young people. Similarly, the LJC-Q has continued with print publications of Jeunesse Militante, whenever possible and has a regularly updated online component.

 Subscriptions have increased a fair amount over the last three years, however they were starting from a low figure and there is still a lot of work to do to encourage our members, friends and allies to subscribe. Subscriptions are a stable way to fund the printing of out magazine and are a necessary part of building our press. More regular issues will only help institutionalize the distribution of the magazine across the League.

 Our web presence and Rebel Youth website needs more regular content. We need to encourage writing for Rebel Youth as a part of our political work. We cannot see our membership as divided into the “writers” and the rest of us. When your club is engaged in an event or struggle, discuss who is going to write a short article. This shows the activity of the League and lets each other know how active we are. Our press continues to be our principal agitator, organizer and educator. Building it builds our voice as the League!

 

Now is the time to organize!

 It is the responsibility of the 27th Central Convention of the YCL-LJC to chart an immediate path forward for the YCL-LJC. As such a draft Plan of Action will be circulated before the Convention for further discussion and adoption. All clubs, Commissions and individuals are invited and encouraged to discuss your current experiences in building the YCL-LJC across the country. What are lessons you have learned? What has been successful? What are the barriers? What policies are resonating and where do we need to strengthen our analysis? The Convention process is discussion for the whole organization to better ourselves.

 The Convention cannot just be seen as the direction and election of a new Central YCL-LJC. We are one organization that is politically united and united in action. We are confident that the 27th Convention of the YCL-LJC will mark a historic advancement in the work of the League, and as such an important occasion in the struggle for socialism in Canada!