Greetings on the Occasion of the 88th Anniversary of the Communist

Central Committee,
Communist Party of Canada

May 28, 2009

Dear comrades,

On behalf of the Young Communist League of Canada, we would like to
extend our warmest comradely greetings, congratulations and solidarity
on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of the Communist Party of
Canada.

Throughout the history of the Communist movement in Canada, the
relationship between the Communist Party and the Young Communist
League, including its various predecessors, has taken on a variety of
forms. But this relationship has always been characterized by a strong
sense of unity of purpose and ideology, solidarity and friendship.

On this day we are reminded that many of those comrades formed our
beloved party so many years ago in a barn near Guelph, Ontario, were
young workers inspired by the triumph of the Russian workers and
peasants revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1917.

Throughout history ever since young people have played an important
role in each of the most significant struggles taken on by the
Communist Party. Some examples include the famous On-to-Ottawa Trek,
the heroic Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, solidarity with the struggles
of the Vietnamese people, and the fightback against the NAFTA sellout.

Today the Young Communist League continues to stand with the Communist
Party in our struggles for peace, jobs, education, democratic rights,
Canadian sovereignty, a democratic solution to the national question,
and, of course, socialism.

We look forward to continuing to strengthen the relationship between
our two organizations and working collectively to build a strong,
united pan-Canadian Communist movement.

In solidarity,

Central Executive Committee, Young Communist League of Canada

On the occasion of the African Day

The World Federation of Democratic Youth would like to congratulate the African people on the occasion of the Africa day on Monday 25, 2009. On Monday people across the continent celebrate the 46th anniversary of the African Union, the then Organization of African Unity formed mainly to liberate the continent from colonization.


We would not forget to applaud the leaders of the then Organization of African Union who lead the struggles, fought and suffered to ensure that Africa becomes sovereign continent.


We applaud the leadership of the African continent for realizing the need for the involvement of youth as seen by the formation of The African Youth Charter that enables youth empowerment, provision of educational skills for development poverty eradication and economic emancipation among other needs. The challenge now for the current Heads of state of African Nations and the African peoples is to continue with the struggle of economically empowering the young generations, resisting and fighting all forms of imperialism.


We stand in solidarity towards and support of the people and youth of Western Sahara in their struggle for the establishment of a free and independent state. We salute the youth and people of Malawi and South Africa for successfully holding their elections and the will of the people was peacefully respected without interventions from the imperialists who normally intervene to determine the result of the elections. We will continually stand behind the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to economically empower themselves through the land reform program which must be irreversible. The reform provides a means of production for the indigenous people to fully control their own economy, against imperialistic sanctions and interventions. We have witnessed with great concern how our brothers and our sisters in the Democratic republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Ivory Coast and Benin have wrestled with internal conflicts and war, promoted by the imperialist interest to divide the peoples of Africa. We also highlight the need to provide relevant institutional and political support for the attainment of peace and development in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea and call for the African Union and the peoples and youth of Africa to resist and denounce the creation of the U.S Military base in Africa (AFRICOM).


WFDY therefore calls upon our African brothers and sisters to continually denounce all imperialistic tactics and ensure that the gains of the political struggles are non-reversible.


We wish all the African youth a strong commemoration of the Africa Day and the struggle against imperialism continues.

Solidarity with the Arab youth

We, the international students and youth organizations, who are participating in the General Council of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, and in the International Solidarity Event with the Cuban Five Heroes in the American Prisons, unit and support all the just causes for all the peoples of the world and we express our solidarity with the Syrian students, youth and people and we work together to achieve:

1- Supporting the right of the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese people in liberating occupied lands (Palestine, Syrian Golan, Lebanese Shaba’a Farms) by the Zionist Israel, supporting the immediate Israeli withdrawal to before the boundaries of the fourth of June 1967, establishing the independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem, the return of all refugees to their homes without any condition, the elimination of the apartheid wall, the immediate removal of the unjust blockade imposed on Gaza by the Zionist occupation. We also support the right of Iraqi people in their struggle to eliminate the American Imperialist occupation. We also support the Moroccan people right in liberating Serta and Mille from the Spanish occupation.

2- The solidarity with the Arab prisoners and detainees who were arrested unjustly in the prisons of the American and Israeli occupation and we ask to release them instantly.

3- We condemn what is called the penalty law against Syria which was issued by the American Congress, and we condemn the American, Zionist and Western interference in the Lebanese internal affairs.

4- Strengthening the struggle against all kinds of the Imperialist, American and Zionist projects and plans in the Arab Region and to support solidarity with their peoples to achieve freedom, sovereignty, independence and peace.

Congratulatory Message to the New Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal

The World Federation of Democratic Youth would like to congratulate Comrade Madhav Kumar Nepal, ex- General Secretary and senior leader of Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist and Leninist, for being appointed to the Prime Minister of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. He is going to be a third communist Prime Minister of Nepal in confidence with the elected parliament.


This situation was promulgated after the dispute between the then government and army row to sack army chief without political consensus taken by the then Prime Minister. It seems that the new sworn prime minister is supported by 360 legislators of 22 political parties of Constituent Assembly of Nepal to lead the very volatile transitional situation of the country.


Nepal has achieved in recent years a tremendous magnitude of political changes by the strength of Great People’s Movement 2006 in a greater consensus and understanding among political parties. We do believe that those achievements can only be consolidated after a more upgraded understating among all political parties to put the peace process in a logical end and by carrying out the agendas to a progressive restructure of the state.


As the leader of mediation and experiences, we do believe comrade Madhav Kumar Nepal will successfully carryout those tasks to move the transition of Nepal so swiftly.


We remember this time the visit of comrade Nepal to WFDY HQ in December 2008 that we had a chance to listen him on Nepal situation and his party stance in current world order.


At this time we think that this is a part and parcel of what Nepali young people have been playing the greater role to bring about changes in Nepal, a more moderate change to a progressive polity in the country. This new situation led by Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist and Leninist will further materialize the hopes and aspirations of youth community in Nepal.


We congratulate him again for his successful tenure. We share this congratulation with DNYF Nepal, ANNFSU and all the youth and student community in particular, and people of Nepal in general.

BUSH, WAR CRIMINAL: GO HOME!

YCL Toronto
May 20, 2009

On the 29th of May 2009 the Metro Toronto Convention Centre is set to play host to 'W'. We of the Young Communist League in Toronto urge all progressive youth and students to mobilize with the opponents of imperialist war, bigotry and chauvinism, and unite in condemnation of war criminal Bush’s presence in Toronto.

Our generation is right to condemn George W. Bush as a personification of US imperialism. In eight years as President, his administration committed some of the worst crimes since the Second World War.

If you are a tireless advocate of international peace and solidarity, like British Member of Parliament George Galloway who expressed friendship with the oppressed Palestinians, you are to be denied entry to Harper’s Canada on 'national security' grounds (March of this year). But if you are a failed oil businessman, convicted drunk driver and spectacularly privileged son of one of America's most vile plutocratic families, with a penchant for illegal wars and bankrupting your country while serving as its President – then the gates are wide open.

This man is no fool who fell from the sky to become President of the USA; he represents specific ultra-right social and class forces that also have their expressions in Canada. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was prosecuted in 1943 under the 'Trading with the Enemy Act' for continuing to develop his friendly corporate relations with Hitler's Germany (although, incredibly, this didn't stop him getting elected to the Senate just nine years later). Bush's father, while serving as a Texas Republican in the House of Representatives in the 1960s, was a notorious opponent of the Civil Rights movement of that decade.

Brazenly stealing the 2000 Presidential elections through outright fraud (and a little help from Fox ‘News’), Bush is the figurehead of a big business agenda which has brought us murderous wars, including Iraq and Afghanistan; Abu-Ghraib and countess other prison torture scandals; the Guantanamo concentration camp, with young Canadian Omar Khadr still incarcerated; a fundamentalist religious crusade against
science in schools and in government policy; unprecedented domestic surveillance of US citizens; and a scandalous profiteering and racist response to hurricane Katrina. Into the poisonous cauldron of unrestrained capitalism, the Bush administration threw policies that helped brew the current economic storm now blowing across Canada, causing close to 20% youth unemployment in Toronto.

That he is no longer in Office does not mean Bush deserves to be “welcomed” with any less militancy and unity. The YCL condemns the Harper Tories for welcoming Bush, and notes that this gesture fits with their pro-corporate attacks on gender equality, aboriginal peoples, students, workers, queer people, immigrants, people of colour, and youth. Allowing this war criminal into our country is an affront to the democratic sovereignty of all nations and peoples in Canada. We call for Bush’s
immediate arrest, and for an independent Canadian foreign policy based on peace and disarmament.

It is our hope that when Bush comes to Toronto he will witness such scenes of outrage at his presence he'll wish he stayed in Texas, and his shame will be a warning to any others that our outrage will never let war criminals rest. We demand that a legal precedent be set in the conviction of Mr. Bush for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Never again! The people will not tolerate imperialism any longer.

Bush out, troops out, Harper out – Now!

AFTER THE ELECTION THE FIGHT BACK CONTINUES

Young Communist League (British Columbia)
May 13, 2009

The re-election of the Campbell Liberals is very dangerous news – for youth, students, the working class and the people of British Columbia. Can we wait four more years for another election to fight back? Can we rely on defensive struggles? No! The only effective response is for the youth to stand together with labour and the people’s movements and go on a serious offensive for jobs, accessible education, the environment, rights and services!

Were it for the students, there would be an anti-Liberal majority in the Legislature today composed of 44 NDPers and 10 Greens. Student Vote also gave the Communist Party a significant percentage – 17% in Kootenay West, 3% in Surrey Newton, and 4% in Vancouver Mount-Pleasant. Young people want new ideas and a new direction. The challenge of youth and student activists is to turn that sentiment into powerful united action.

The election results also marked an increase in both the NDP and Communist Party’s popularity. While an anti-Liberal majority is not in Victoria, the majority of voters cast their ballots against the Liberals. Condemning the voters as ‘stupid’ blames the victim and misses that point. The complete bankruptcy of the Campbell Liberal’s policies was temporarily obscured by a false economic boom of the scandalous Olympics. On the other hand, voters were faced with tepid alternatives from the NDP. Voter turnout was at a record low.

The second attempt to win the support of British Columbians for the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral system went down in flames. The YCL renews its demand for a Mixed Member Proportional voting system, much more closely reflecting the people’s choice than the current, un-democratic, “First Past the Post” system.

Some are already beginning to talk about what needs to be done next election to defeat the Liberals, but the real question is: what happens in the meantime? With the Liberals at the steering wheel, the corporations will try to leave our generation and the working class holding the bag for a worsening economic crisis – which we didn’t make.

If young people needed another reason to mobilize and resist, just look at the Liberal’s disastrous record. The energy and creativity of all the youth and students can contribute tremendously to expanding existing campaigns for higher minimum wages, accessible education, child care, peace, ecological sustainability, democracy and sovereignty, including that of aboriginal peoples.

The Young Communist League calls upon youth to join with labour and the people of British Columbia in a militant, united fight back to stop and reverse the agenda of the Campbell Liberals and win a better BC, and a better world. For us, that means socialism!

It’s our future, and our fight!

Solidarity towards Burmese youth and students!

The Word Federation of Democratic Youth is deeply concerned with the recent development in Burma to put into a trial an opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, with a charge of avoiding terms of Prison.

As Aung San Suu Kyi’s six-year term of house arrest is going to expire at the end of the month, the entry of a mysterious American man crossing the lake besides the prison has provided to the military ruler a benefit of doubt not to release her. The military ruler was afraid of her presence in public that they were hard pressed to hold the general election next year. With this charge they can extend her prison terms for three years more.

The military government has allowed very little reporting to media about the trial. The suppressed calm of Rangoon [Yangon] can burst again and brutality of the military could over power to crush it.

We think that the home imprisonment of Aung san Suu Kyi is already illegal and the avoid[ing] of terms and conditions, by getting entry of a stranger, is his unilateral act. We do believe there is no need to be loyal towards military rule, their brutal suppression towards innocent people and cease of democratic rights and parliament, and imprisonment of its leader and followers.

WFDY reaffirms its commitment and solidarity with Burmese youth and students along with our member organization All Burma Student League. Further, we strongly demand to the military Junta in Burma to restore multiparty democracy by ending their military rule, and for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

We urge to all youth and student organizations around the globe to stand by the voice of Burmese students and strongly denounce the trial, recently orchestrated by [the] Military Junta in Burma.

A Message to BC’s Youth and Students for the May 12th Provincial Election

On May 12th B.C.'s young workers and students will go to the polls and vote for the candidate of their choice in a provincial election. After eight years of Gordon Campbell’s Liberals, and facing perhaps the biggest economic down-turn since the great depression, the stakes are high.  The youth of B.C. can’t afford to sit back and watch another four years go by with sky rocketing tuition fees, devastating attacks to workers and tenants, a decaying education system, worsening child poverty and a minimum wage kept deep under the poverty line. 

 

These policies aren’t just the result of bad government, or a mean-spirited Premier.

 

They’re policies of capitalism, serving big business at the expense of the working class, youth and the people. This is the record of the Campbell Liberals. 

 

We join with the trade union movement, the student movement and other people’s movements which are fighting the big-business agenda.

 

The Communist Party is campaigning on a pro-youth agenda including eliminating tuition and increasing the minimum wage. We are running a number of candidates including a young worker, Zachary Crispin, in Kootenay West. 

 

Youth and students have an opportunity to help oust the Campbell Liberals on May 12th but a change in the Legislature isn’t enough. The NDP has a chance to win this election. Unfortunately, the NDP program calls only for timid reforms to the existing system at a time when it is increasingly clear that the only solution is the replacement of this rotten system with something new which empowers workers, youth and students to build a province and a country that works for them.

 

Our long-term goal is a socialist Canada in which the working class will hold political and economic power and youth and students have better work and better wages, health care, education, a healthy environment, and a life with a future!

 

1. Stop the 2010 Olympics

 

2. Raise minimum wage to $16/h, index to inflation, abolish “training wage”

 

3. Eliminate tuition fees, grants not loans, enact living stipend for students, restore and expand public and post-secondary school funding

 

4. Make BC a voice for peace and disarmament, close US nuclear submarine base at Nanoose Bay

 

5. Create good quality, union jobs in manufacturing, sustainable fisheries, and in the protection and clean-up of the environment

 

6. Nationalize oil and gas. Cancel Accenture contract. Keep BC Hydro public

 

7. Build affordable housing; strengthen Tenancy Act to protect tenants, including from eviction due to renovation. Enshrine right of pet ownership

 

8. Restore public sector contracts; establish a provincial bill of Labour rights including the right to organize a union and collective bargaining, ensure enforcement of Grants Law, enact further legislation to protect young workers on the job

 

9. Self-determination and self-government for Aboriginal Peoples, just settlement of Treaty process, reparations for residential schools

 

11.  Massively expand public transit, free transit for students and the unemployed, make Translink board elected and accountable

 

12. Get out of NAFTA, ban raw log exports, cancel TILMA [Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between BC and Alberta]

 

13. Safe, healthy environment for BC. Impose heavy fines and jail terms against polluters and destructive corporate practices, such as clear-cutting and over-fishing. Put strict controls on “factory” farms, and ban in-ocean fish farming and deep-sea draggers, expand public parks, ban industrial developments in parks.

 

14. Restore and expand funding to health care system

 

15. Community control of police and prisons, end racial profiling, end all street camera projects. Stop provincial enforcement of federal immigration laws against migrant workers: status for all.

 

16. Pay MLAs and government officials the average industrial wage

 

17. Enact a Proportional Representation voting system, lower the voting age to 16

 

18. Make schools and all public spaces LGBITQ safe spaces.

 

19. Legislate a 32-hour work week with no loss in take-home pay and no loss in service to the public.

 

20. Close the wage gap – legislate full pay and employment equity. Guarantee accessible and publicly funded abortion and reproductive rights services in remote communities. Fund equality-seeking women’s groups. End violence against women and provide adequate funding for crisis centres and transition houses. Take immediate action on the crisis of missing women from BCs communities.

 

The Youth are the Future; The Future is Socialism!

We fight for socialism in our lifetime!

 

CPC BC

706 Clark Drive

Vancouver, V5L 3J1

Phone:  604 254 9836

Young communists arrested by the Croatian police

WFDY - May 3rd

On the last 1^st of May, International Day of Worker, two young people members of the Socialist Youth of Croatia were arrested, for carrying a communist flag, with a hammer and sickle and the sentence “Workers of the entire world unite!”

The arrestment of these two youngsters was justified by the Croatian authorities for a so called “disruption of public order and peace.” After they were indentified by the authorities they were released and they will now face a procedure in the Croatian courts.

This happening is not disconnected from the events that, one year ago, took place also in Croatia, when the local police invaded an office to confiscate posters of WFDY that referred to an activity of WFDY against NATO and military bases in the Balkans area.

WFDY denounces this situation, as it considers it a new element in the long anti-communist and anti-democratic strategy of the European Union, NATO and its allies, such as Croatia. We also take the opportunity to denounce the attacks that, in several countries of the world, prevented or tried do disrupt demonstrations of the International Day of Worker.

These attacks are a sign of the contradiction between the imperialist order and a truly democratic world. As the crisis of imperialism deepens, more and more it is clear its anti-democratic, reactionary and militaristic character.

WFDY vehemently condemns all these attacks, and particularly what happened in Croatia, and it calls upon all its member and friend organizations to openly denounce this happening as well as others that interfere with the any democratic rights or freedoms.

WFDY will continue the struggle against imperialism and will never be stopped by any unfair restriction or interference to its ideas, methods and goals. We are right to struggle against imperialism and we are positive that we will win: We will defeat imperialism!