On January 1st of this year the President of Turkey made an unprecedented intervention into Boğaziçi University. He blatantly violated the democratic rights of students and workers by installing a militant from his far-right Justice and Development Party (AKP) as head of the University in lieu of the scheduled elections. The provocative move was met with organized demonstrations of protest from students. The state security forces moved quickly, locking down the campus; sending in waves of armoured riot police to assault students and workers; infiltrating plain clothes agent provocateurs inside the locked down campus; and raiding the homes of students in the middle of the night to take them to jail, labelling the students as ‘terrorists’ as the police detain more and more each day.
YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, November 10, 2020
November 10th, 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY). Taking place in Budapest, Hungary among the still-burning embers of the Second World War, the 1945 World Youth Conference sought to unite youth against the forces of fascism and war, and to fight for a brighter future for the young people of the world. This initial conference, just a small taste of what was to come, included representatives across ethnicities, nations, religions, and backgrounds from 63 different countries. Pledging to fight for peace and international solidarity, WFDY quickly expanded, earning itself consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council, being presented with the Peace Messenger Award by the UN General Secretary in 1987, and soon representing youth and students from nearly 100 different countries.
WFDY has also organized the World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) since its inauguration in 1947. Held regularly since its debut in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Festival has historically served as a meeting place for progressive youth from around the world, hosting participants from all corners of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia and organizing large cross-cultural actions against imperialism and for peace. WFYS, like the World Federation of Democratic Youth, was built from young peoples’ commitment to peace and class-conscious solidarity following the global devastation of WWII, and has always sought to reject war, fascism, and racism, and to forge strong connections across the world. The most recent WFYS took place in Sochi, Russia, in 2017 and included 30,000 participants from 185 countries; it carried the slogan “For peace, solidarity and social justice, we struggle against imperialism. Honouring our past, we build the future!” Before 2017, the biggest Festival by countries participating was the 13th, which took place in Pyongyang, DPR Korea in 1989, and included 22,000 participants from 177 different countries, including a large delegation headed by the YCL-LJC.
YCLers at the 2017 World Festival of Youth and Students in Sochi, Russia
As a long-time member of WFDY, the YCL-LJC has been responsible for organizing a Pan-Canadian delegation to the World Festival of Youth and Students. These Pan-Canadian delegations are, crucially, representative not only of Anglo-Canada, but of the numerous national minorities within Canada: from Indigenous and First Nations to Franco-Canadian minorities and Quebec. These broad delegations have sought to unite youth from all nations across Canada who strive for peace, international solidarity, and justice, and to exchange knowledge with other international delegations at the Festival. This long-standing YCL-LJC tradition has, at each Festival, made its impact: in the Rebel Youth report-back from the 1989 WFYS in Pyongyang, one Canadian delegate noted that, of the 20,000 delegates to the Festival, the largest, loudest, and most visible centre of Indigenous participation was the Pan-Canadian delegation. Of course, YCL-LJC participation extends far outside the scope of the WFYS: most recently, at WFDY’s 20th Assembly in Cyprus (2019), the YCL-LJC was elected as sole representative from North America on the Federation’s General Council, joining 35 other progressive youth organizations from across the world.
Member organizations of the World Federation of Democratic Youth have been making great strides in the realm of peace and solidarity. Over the past few months, youth in Bangladesh, India, and elsewhere have been securing and distributing food and PPE to those affected by COVID-19, and have even been working in healthcare. Recently, comrades in Lebanon, Turkey, Britain, and elsewhere have been fundraising and participating in on-the-ground relief work following the explosion in Beirut and the earthquake that shook Greece and Turkey. These actions are in addition to the regular schools, local actions, and solidarity efforts undertaken by young comrades worldwide.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth continues to be an essential force in today’s international political landscape. As the forces of imperialism, racism, and capitalism grow stronger, WFDY youth band together to strengthen the call for peace. The YCL-LJC is proud to be a WFDY member, and to work with a diverse, unified, and bellicose group of youth carrying the banner of peace, justice, and solidarity. We, along with the progressive youth of the world, affirm our commitment to anti-imperialism and peace on this 75th anniversary of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and look forward to a future of further WFDY work, more militant and joyous meetings at the World Festival of Youth and Students, and many more years of fighting for a better future for young people. Youth unite for lasting peace!
To celebrate their 75th anniversary, the World Federation of Democratic Youth hosted an online panel and webinar. It can be watched in full here.
Le Comité central de la YCL-LJC exprime sa plus grande solidarité avec les jeunes manifestant-e-s au Centre d’accueil et d’identification (CAI) sur l’île de Lesbos. Le récent incendie du camp du CAI a dévasté à la fois les résident-e-s de Lesbos et les réfugié-e-s et immigrant-e-s détenu-e-s. Le projet de l’Union européenne (UE) visant à reloger les détenu-e-s dans un autre CAI inhumain et dangereux doit être rejeté.
The Central Committee of the YCL-LJC expresses utmost solidarity with the youth protesters at the Reception and Identification Centre (RIC) on the island of Lesbos. The recent fire at the RIC camp has devastated both the residents of Lesbos and the detained refugees and immigrants. The plan of the EU to relocate the detainees to another dangerous and inhumane RIC must be rejected.
The reactionary plan of the European Union (EU) to turn the islands in the Aegean Sea into permanent concentration camps for refugees and immigrants must be exposed to young people and students. In the struggle for democratic immigration reform in Canada, we need to confront the Canadian states military and diplomatic role in the humanitarian crisis and their violations of the 1951 Refugee Convention, 1967 Protocol, and the fundamental tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The YCL-LJC takes up the demands of our comrades, the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) for the immediate safe release of all refugees and immigrants from Lesbos. The camp must be closed and no other RIC, closed or open, must be created.
Since 2016 the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has participated in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) Operation Sea Guardian in coordination with the EU’s Frontex border patrol. Refugees and immigrants have been placed into concentration camps on islands in the Aegean sea. Thousands of people have been stripped of their rights and forced into inhumane conditions, only exacerbated by the pandemic.
The Canadian government and the CAF’s criminal involvement in the devastation of Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere has greatly contributed to the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean region. Canadian businesses, in particular mining corporations and the resource extraction industry, have contributed greatly to the global warming crisis which between 2008 and 2014, displaced an average of 26.4 million people per year by disasters brought on by natural hazards. This is the equivalent to one person being displaced every second. Since 2014 the Mediterranean sea has tragically become Imperialism’s graveyard for refugees and immigrants as more than 20 000 people have perished.
The entire region has been under the shadow of an escalation in competition over hydrocarbons by NATO members. Nationalist governments in Ankara and Athens are both rattling their sabres over long standing maritime disputes now renewed in the fight for gas reservoirs. As the title of the joint statement from TKP and KKE says, The people of the two countries can and must claim their right to live in peace! In a visit to Cyprus this month, US secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted a 33- year arms embargo on the Republic in order to ‘deepen security co-operation’ between the two states. The heightening of tensions in the region brings urgency to de-escalation efforts in Cyprus. International law and the resolutions of the United Nations provide the framework for dialogue on a solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of bi-communal, bi-zonal federation.
Like the European Union, Canada Border Services Agency arbitrarily detains thousands of permanent residents and foreign nationals, including children, every year at Immigration Holding Centres and provincial jails. We call on the Federal Government to scrap the ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’ and all other xenophobic and racist immigration policies such as the temporary foreign workers program.
In Canada as in the EU, there is a growing danger of racist and xenophobic reactionary groups. These groups and their dangerous ideas must be denounced and rejected at our places of work and study and anywhere else. Racism is a poison of the mind that divides young people and only benefits the bourgeoisie. Our basis of unity is always against prejudice and bigotry; we are united by our common interests.
Peace and solidarity are needed now more than ever. As young communists we need to bring young people into the struggle against imperialist conflict that only benefits the ruling class and bring a proletarian internationalist vantage point to the struggles of young people.
The YCL-LJC expresses full and unwavering support for those fighting for justice for George Floyd, Regis Korchinsky-Paquet, and all others murdered by police in white-supremacist violence. Alongside their communities, we mourn the lives of George Floyd, a black man murdered by police in Minneapolis and Regis Korchinsky-Paquet, an Afro-Indigenous woman murdered by police in Toronto. Solidarity actions continue to take place across North America, with thousands taking to the streets to demand justice. The corporate media continues to call it looting, violence and disorder, however those who fight on the side of justice call it an uprising, a rebellion, and class-struggle.
La YCL-LJC célèbre en ce jour la capitulation de l’Allemagne nazie en tant que coup de grâce du fascisme en Europe. Les soldats soviétiques ont avancé sur Berlin après avoir libéré les camps nazis, ce qui a donné lieu à la fin de la Guerre le 8 mai 1945. En reconnaissant que l’Allemagne nazie ne constitue pas seulement une menace pour ses citoyens mais pour la liberté de l’Humanité entière, l’Union soviétique s’est battue sans relâche contre la plus vile des créations humaines: le fascisme.
The YCL-LJC marks today as a day of great importance to celebrate the surrender of Nazi Germany, signaling the defeat of fascist forces in Europe. Soviet soldiers liberated the Nazi death camps and advanced to Berlin, sparking the official end of the war days later on May 8, 1945. Recognizing that Nazi Germany was a threat to not only its own citizens but to human freedom everywhere on the planet, the Soviet Union was relentless in this fight against one of the most violent and hideous evils of human creation: fascism.
Nous saluons les efforts des travailleur-euses de la santé qui, dans la lutte contre la pandémie de COVID-19, continuent d’assurer les services essentiels pour répondre à cet état d’urgence. Depuis plus de 30 ans, les syndicats du service public et les organisations populaires et démocratiques n’ont cessé de lutter contre la privatisation, la perte d’emplois et les fermetures dans le domaine de la santé. Notre système de santé public arrivait à saturation avant même l’éclosion de la pandémie. Des décennies de coupes et d’austérité exposent à la maladie en particulier les travailleur-euses, les Autochtones, les personnes privées d’emploi, les personnes âgées et les moins nantis si aucune action d’urgence n’est prise.
We salute the immense efforts of healthcare workers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide their essential services in a state of emergency. For over 30 years public sector unions and community organisations have struggled against privatisation, job loss, and closures in the healthcare sector. Our public healthcare system was overwhelmed before the outbreak of the global pandemic. Decades of cuts and austerity will leave working people, Indigenous peoples, the unemployed, the elderly, and the poor severely exposed unless emergency action is taken.
YCL-LJC Canada expresses its full solidarity with the Chilean people and youth who have been resisting the Piñera government for weeks. We stand in solidarity with the millions of peaceful demonstrators initially mobilized against a 30 pesos increase in public transport fees and call for active solidarity with their struggles. We also call on our comrades, friends and allies, the student movement, the trade unions and the progressive and democratic forces to show their solidarity with the people of Chile. Their struggle is ours, because their enemy is the same as ours: capitalism.
