As updated by the 27th Central Convention of the YCL-LJC Canada, May 2017

Youth of Canada – our future is under attack! Today, our generation confronts war and imperialist aggression, environmental crisis, poverty wages and dead-end jobs, and the burden of debt from education. Everywhere, youth and students confront racism, sexism, cis-sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism. Canada is a democracy — but for whom? Everywhere — big business, not the people, call the shots. Big businesses holds the economic power and its representatives control political power. It is urgent: we must confront and defeat the rule of powerful monopoly corporations!

Youth and students – join the fight! The history of struggle in Canada shows we are a radical and progressive force. Now is the time for youth and students to unite with the working people! Now is the time to build resistance against the corporate agenda, demanding people’s alternative. We demand democracy. We demand rights. Peace! Jobs! Climate Justice! Education! Equality!

We are rebel youth who declare solidarity and join the fight of all those who want to build a stronger youth and student movement to fight for real change leading to a better Canada, and a better world.

We come together as the YCL-LJC because we cannot build a better Canada in a capitalist system. We come together because imperialism cannot build that better world. We agree a revolutionary movement is necessary to win stronger democracy, and a socialist Canada. Socialism is our long-term agenda, and it is a Communist agenda. We proudly call ourselves Communists and stand as an autonomous organization, politically and ideologically united with the Communist Party.

Our unity is founded on the recognition of Canada as a country of many nations, unequally together, Indigenous (including First Nations, Inuit and Métis), Quebecois, Acadians and the English-speaking nation. In addition, we recognize the English-speaking nation’s role as an oppressor towards other nations in Canada. Overcoming national chauvinism and recognizing national self-determination and sovereignty must be a keystone of any truly pan-Canadian movement. Our unity is anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-transphobic, anti-homophobic and anti-ableist.  We are open to all who share our political aims, regardless of background. Our unity is founded on education and mobilization, on the need to learn to struggle, and to struggle to learn.

Our goals are clear – short term, to build the youth resistance; long term, to build socialism. We want to contribute a Marxist-Leninist and internationalist viewpoint to the youth movement, to help lead by building unity and militancy for policies that benefit the working people. Therefore we put forward these immediate 12 points of resistance:

1. Peace

The YCL-LJC opposes imperialist war and occupation and supports anti-imperialist struggles. We condemn the bloody and brutal foreign policy of Canada, the United States and other imperialist countries as they extend their military, economic and cultural talons around the world. The YCL-LJC recognizes that imperialism is a structural expression of capitalism that will exist as long as this economic system is in place.

The YCL-LJC calls for Canada’s immediate withdrawal from NATO and NORAD and the returning of all Canadian troops overseas. We fight for a foreign policy of peace, disarmament and solidarity.

2. Jobs

The vast majority of young workers in Canada are unorganized. Youth need unions in order to stand together against their bosses for better conditions and wages. Most young workers are in low-paid, non-union, part time, even unsafe jobs with no security or benefits. 1/5 of young people are unemployed while many other youth have two or more jobs just to get by because of the high cost of living and other policies of capitalism.

Employment is a right of all young workers. Sustainable, alternative economic policies are required to democratically run our economy, block deindustrialization and create better, safer work, environmentally responsible jobs with better wages for youth. Much higher minimum wages, provincially and federally, are critical in this process. A reduced work-week with no loss in pay, a minimum one-month vacation, as well as no obligations on employees to accept overtime work, will also contribute to this solution. We must make unemployment insurance and welfare payments accessible to youth and expand programs to a livable income level.

We struggle for these goals, uniting in, or working to create mass organizations dedicated to their achievement. Our aim is to bring young workers into these struggles and unite them in unions so that they can collectively struggle for their rights.

3. Free, Accessible, Quality Education

We want more and better — instead of fewer and worse — schools, colleges and universities. We want more social, cultural, scientific, and political programs in secondary education (high school and middle school), as well as more help for secondary school students with difficulties in English or French. Reduce and eliminate apprenticeship fees and tuition fees.

We need a 100% public, free, accessible, quality, emancipatory and democratic education system. Ultimately students should receive a living stipend to make education accessible to all. We demand that Canada regard the education as a right rather than a personal privilege of the rich. Educational institutions and curriculum should be democratically controlled by the communities that they are supposed to serve. We demand access to Native language education for Indigenous peoples.

We work to build the voice and power of students through the independent mass student unions and federations. The YCL-LJC stands for militancy and struggle, not only lobbying. Students must be united in a strong, active movement country wide to fight for their education and their rights. This struggle also includes students enrolled in secondary education in their fight against corporate influence in public education, school closures and for necessary public funding.

4. Against Patriarchy, for Full Equality

Women, trans and non-binary peoples are oppressed by patriarchy, a system of oppression perpetuated by the capitalist system. The gendered division of labour divides workers, relegating women to low-paid work and discriminatory wages in the same field as well as placing the burden of housework and family care on women. On the street, in workplaces and in the home women face sexist and misogynist attitudes and gendered violence. Patriarchy is reinforced by laws, the police, the corporate media and the entertainment industry, which promote an unhealthy, disempowering, unequal, and racist view of women that justifies violence against women and oppressive gender roles.

Patriarchy seeks to erase trans and non-binary people’s existence. Trans people face high medical costs, higher unemployment, less access to housing, widespread intimidation at work, and a lack of legal protections. This demonstrates the relationship between capitalism and the struggles of LGBTQI2S people. 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 profit.

The YCL-LJC fights for the liberation of all genders and peoples of all sexual orientations. We support equality seeking organizations and speak out against patriarchy and its contemporary roots in capitalism. We demand the protection of women’s rights to equal pay for equal work, free and safe abortions on demand, birth control and free, accessible public child care facilities. We fight for the rights of LGBTQI2S youth, against homophobia and transphobia, for full equality and liberation.

5. Against Racism & Xenophobia, For Full Equality

Canada remains a society deeply marked by racist systems of oppression, with capitalism relying on white supremacy to oppress racialized peoples in order to divide and further exploit large sections of the working-class.

Canada’s immigration system ensures that immigrant and migrant workers have their rights restricted. Police forces are responsible for racist murders, brutality and racial profiling. Imperialism drives racist propaganda, especially in the form of rising Islamophobia. Bourgeois politicians seek to capture and reinforce racist and xenophobic sentiment in order to scapegoat immigrants and refugees, strengthening the drive towards fascism and war. White supremacist political movements target racialized communities with violence and other acts of terror.

The YCL-LJC fights against racism in all its forms. We call for democratic immigration reform: No one is illegal! We demand the strengthening and expansion of employment equity, the ending of racial profiling, police brutality and murder. We call for the immediate strengthening and enforcement of hate crime legislation: Hate speech is not free speech! The YCL-LJC stands in solidarity with mass organizations of racialized peoples fighting back against racist forms of oppression.

6. Justice and Self-Determination for Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis)

Colonization and capitalist industrialization in Canada developed at the expense of its original inhabitants. The resistance of the Indigenous peoples to colonial encroachment was brutally crushed. A policy of genocide was adopted. Entire nations were exterminated, Indigenous peoples were infected with deadly disease, forced to relocate into impoverished reserves and their children were abducted and sent to an abusive colonial school system with the intent of eliminating their culture.

The crisis continues to this day, especially for Indigenous youth. Suicide rates for First Nation youth are 5-7 times higher than non-Indigenous rates, infant mortality is 1.5 times higher, and Indigenous youth are more likely to end up in jail than graduate high school. This Canada-wide oppression is compounded by the oppression of women under capitalism to create unliveable conditions and violence in the lives of Indigenous women.

Indigenous peoples in Canada are systematically deprived of their human rights, their equality rights, and their inherent rights to land and self-government through the settler colonialism of the Canadian state. We consider the approach of the ruling class and the Canadian state towards Indigenous nations as a continued colonial policy of genocide. Oil and gas corporations as well as mining and other industries continue to trample the rights of Indigenous nations.

The YCL-LJC recognizes that Indigenous nations (First Nations, Métis and Inuit) have an inalienable right to their land, territories and resources. In order for reconciliation to take place between nations in Canada the Canadian state’s fundamental relationship with Indigenous peoples must be changed in order to respect Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, up to and including the right to secede.

7. A Democratic Solution to the National Question

The ruling class, under the behest of the dominant English Canadian nation, currently suppresses the national rights of self-determination for the other nations in Canada. We recognize that Canada in its current form is an unequal and coercive union of nations in multi-national country.

In particular, the non-recognition of Quebec’s rights is itself an expression of the historic national oppression of Quebec – its political, economic and social oppression – since the British conquest of New France in 1763. This national oppression has in turn aroused national indignation among the Quebec people.

We demand the recognition of the national rights of all nations in Canada, including the Acadian people, Quebec, First Nations, the Métis, and the Inuit nations. Furthermore, we call for the protection and expansion of the rights of national minorities, such as French-speaking communities in English-speaking Canada.

All nations should be free to associate as sovereign nations within Canada and have the right to self-determination up to and including secession.

8. Internationalism and Solidarity

The YCL-LJC is internationalist. The future of Canada is tied both to winning peace and the success of national liberation movements and revolutions which free ever-more countries from the domination of the trans-national capital and imperialism.

We declare our solidarity with those countries building socialism despite the attacks of imperialism and our comrades fighting for the liberation of the working class and youth the world over. We work to build the World Federation of Democratic Youth and commit ourselves to the continued success of the World Festival of Youth and Students.

9. Freedom and Democracy

Democratic rights, civil liberties, social and equality rights are under attack by the capitalist class, the state and right-wing political movements. While recognizing that freedom and democracy are unattainable within a capitalist society where power and privilege is largely determined by class and wealth, the YCL-LJC fights for immediate democratic advances.

Police and state security agencies use undemocratic laws and operate outside the law to repress labour, Indigenous and popular movements. The ongoing “war on terror” has led to xenophobic state policies and the creation of an even more repressive state apparatus. The YCL-LJC opposes these policies, which in fact lay the basis for fascism. We call for the scrapping of CSIS and full civilian control and the disarmament of all police forces, prison reform and an end to the criminalization of youth.

The YCL-LJC fights for immediate electoral reforms like Proportional Representation, the right-to-recall Members of Parliament, and the elimination of mechanisms that facilitate corporate control over government.

10. Stop Privatization! Protect and Expand Social Services!

The Canadian government systematically giving away our water, energy, healthcare system, transit and other services to giant monopolies whose only concern is profit, not the well being of youth. These companies do not care if people die because they can’t afford treatment or if people have no access to clean water. People and the environment must be placed before profits.

The YCL-LJC says privatization is nothing more than a theft of services that the people fought for, own and depend on! Privatization must be stopped and reversed. This includes handing over to the people through public ownership and control, services and resources.

11. Defend  Sovereignty of the Peoples in Canada

Over the last decade and a half the activities of the ruling class and their ruling parties have quietly robbed the people in Canada of their legal, political and social independence. The most well known of these activities has been the signing of the NAFTA.

We confront those who would sell out and betray the interests of working-people to U.S. imperialism just to make a profit as part of the share of the global plunder. We must restore the sovereignty of the peoples of Canada. Such struggle is necessary to curb the interests of monopoly capital and advance the short and long term interests of the working class and youth. The YCL-LJC dedicates itself to this fight!

12. Culture and Leisure

Corporate ownership and control over art, culture and sport is inherently undemocratic. As imperialism, especially American imperialism, increasingly assaults on Canadian sovereignty US corporate culture also comes to dominate our culture. In Canada, the oppression of all nations by the English Canadian nation impedes the development of other nations’ cultures. Yet everywhere, youth and students are vigorously creating our own grass-roots art, music and sports.

Oppressed youth are also joining global struggles through art, sometimes turning it into a voice of resistance. We have a fundamental right to our own democratic culture of which we as people are the creators, not the dominant for-profit media. This is a class issue, for artists are also workers whose contribution must be recognized, funded and elevated. The YCL-LJC recognizes the right of young people to democratic culture and leisure time. To enjoy arts and culture youth must have leisure time, we must have paid holidays and the freedom of job security and education without debt burden.

13. Environmental Sustainability

An urgent environmental crisis threatens not just our planet but humanity itself. The exploitation of workers and nature are linked – by the ruthless quest for increased profits, which is increasing environmental destruction at an unprecedented pace. Young people have a right to a clean, sustainable and safe environment.

The YCL-LJC opposes the reactionary forces of imperialism, and the havoc and destruction capitalists bring upon the environment. We call for immediate binding international climate agreements, hard caps on climate emissions and climate reparations for sustainable development of over-exploited countries.

Destruction of the environment is inherent to capitalism because it must keep expanding its profits and control in order to survive. Market solutions cannot address this catastrophe; only socialism can solve the environmental crisis.

Socialism!

These are the struggles and demands uniting young workers and students across this land into a revolutionary youth organization — the Young Communist League of Canada. The root cause of all these crisis’ facing youth lie in the capitalist system itself, and winning these gains would throw imperialism back. The advancement of a working peoples agenda is part of a revolutionary process leading to a socialist Canada

Capitalism is inherently in contradiction with the freedom and democracy of the working class. It denies the vast majority of people ownership and control over their work places, natural resources, in fact, their lives. Under socialism the economy, the environment and society as a whole are under the collective ownership and control of the working class and its allies.

Imperialism claimed there would be no socialism in the 21st century, but globally the masses are showing otherwise. This future will be written by the working people across Canada, including youth and students.

The first General Secretary of the YCL-LJC, Leslie Morris, said “Look on Canada, now, and see history anew. An epoch past and a new life fashioning under your hands. Communism, to which all roads lead”. Today we carry on the vision and the struggles of comrade Morris and others before us for a new, socialist, society.

The YCL-LJC, accepts as its own, the task of working unceasingly for the establishment of a socialist society, where exploitation, want, poverty, and insecurity shall be ended forever. This is not an easy task, but a goal which will be won through struggle. The task is ours as young workers and students.

Now is the time to organize!

Youth are the future, the future is socialism!