YCL-ljc Blog

Help grow Rebel Youth magazine

2009-10-31T22:39:00.003-04:00

Dear friends and comrades,

By now many of you will have seen a copy of the new issue of Rebel Youth magazine. Lot's of positive feedback has been streaming in from around the country as Clubs begin the important work of distribution. This is the eighth issue of Rebel Youth that we have published, and we are proud to say that our magazine is continuing to improve as is the level of participation from YCL members and friends in the process of producing the magazine. This issue carries lots of really great content including coverage of the coup in Honduras, socialist democracy in Cuba, the struggles of young workers and students around Canada, and more.

Rebel Youth is starting to become more and more well known amongst progressive youth. With our goal of new issue to be released in January, and a fast approaching December 1st submission deadline, we have a two-fold task in front of us in the coming month.

First of all, it's time to distribute and aggressively promote Rebel Youth. YCL Clubs around the country will be busily ensuring that Rebel Youth gets into the hands of rebel youths. This issue should also be the issue that really starts to build our subscription base in a significant way, an absolute necessity in the process to building Rebel Youth into a regular and self-sustaining publication. You can help too!

We ask our members, friends, and supporters to purchase a subscription to Rebel Youth. It's only $12 for one year and every cent helps us to ensure the continued and improved publication of the magazine. Please consider how you, or your Club, can help. Do you have a subscription? Have you sold any subscriptions?

Fundraisers are another great way to raise money for Rebel Youth. You might
be surprised how many people will help us publish Rebel Youth if given the opportunity. It doesn't have to mean renting a hall and holding a huge event, even small events and small amounts raised make a difference.

Secondly, there is no time to lose in preparing content for the next issue. The YCL is in the process of creating and seeking out content for issue number nine. The deadline for content submissions is December 1st which will leave just over one month for proofreading, editing, layout and printing. All of these can be time consuming so it is very important that content is submitted on time in order for us to stay on track!

Content can include articles on local, provincial, federal, national or international issues. You can submit cultural content or reviews of music, movies, books etc. as well as art, poetry, letters to the editor, you name it. Write while you fight! YCL Clubs should discussion what they can do to make this coming issue an success. But it's not limited to members, we welcome the submissions of all our readers. Send your submissions to rebelyouth@ycl-ljc.ca

With issues eight and nine we are building on the frequency of the magazines publication. It's up to all of us to continue to drive this process forward by distributing and raising the profile of the magazine, raising the funds, collecting the subscriptions and contributing to the collective process of creating and publishing the magazine.

Another way to help Rebel Youth magazine is to read and promote the Rebel Youth blog, which contains a wealth of great, frequently updated content. The blog's readership is growing and you can help! It can be as simple as posting a story on the blog to your Facebook profile. Check out the Rebel Youth blog at http://www.rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/

Rebel Youth is Canada's only Marxist-Leninist, pan-Canadian, bi-lingual,
youth and student magazine. Whether you are a YCL member, a subscriber or frequent reader, or a fellow activist, we look forward to hearing from you and invite you to help us build the magazine that fights for peace, jobs, education, and socialism on every page and in every issue!

In solidarity,

Stephen Von Sychowski
Rebel Youth Content Editor

Demand Climate Action

2009-10-31T22:37:00.001-04:00

1. IN THE NEWS: Activists demand climate action
2. YCL IN MOTION
3. INTERNATIONAL
4. RY BLOG: Highlights

ACTIVISTS DEMAND CLIMATE ACTION
Al Jazeera English
Oct. 25, 2009

Thousands of people have gathered for protests in more than 180
countries, calling for international action to curb the emissions
causing global warming. The International Day of Climate Action
focused on the number 350, referring to 350 parts per million (ppm) of
CO2 in the atmosphere which some scientists say must not be exceeded
to avoid runaway global warming.

Access to education is our right

2009-10-20T11:31:00.001-04:00

DROP FEES, RAISE WAGES
UNITE AND FIGHT!

YCL Toronto, Oct. 09

Maybe you are a student in high school worried about the cost of college or a trade. Perhaps you’re a young single parent anxious about rising student debt and the future for your child. You could be a second-year university student, angered by your loans disappearing into ridiculously over-priced books, a recent grad getting collection agency calls, or a young worker blocked from education by low wages or layoffs.

We live in a very rich country. But tens of millions of people are struggling against an economic crisis we didn’t make, while our right of access to post-secondary education is stolen.

Fewer and fewer people can afford post-secondary education -- and unless we rise up in a bold, united campaign we'll get a dangerously worsening deal. A major think tank recently said universities should raise fees by 25%, under the pretext of the recession. Some University Presidents (like at UofT) openly call for fee deregulation, mass privatization and reduced access, reflecting big business’ view, provincial governments, and the Harper Conservatives: US-style education, for rich kids only.

Despite the economic crisis, most corporations are posting huge profits. Meanwhile, prices keep rising -- tuition 4x faster than inflation. Wages don't keep up. Not one penny of bail-out money has been called back, but government wages a dirty campaign demanding industrial and unionized workers surrender hard-fought pension and wage gains.

The growing gap between the rich and the poor exposes a class system, rotten with racism and sexism, where tuition fees are yet another user fee on a service that should be free.

MYTHS & FACTS

"Students can afford to pay more."

Fewer youth are going to school because of rising fees. A Sept 09 report described "pools" of working class high school students who can't go to college. Money is the main barrier to access.

"We can't afford to reduce fees."

It is a question of priorities. The imperialist and war in Afghanistan, rejected by Canadians, has a 20 bil. price tag. Cut military spending in half! Troops out now! Reverse the steady reduction of corporate taxes and raise business tax (students in BC will soon pay more in tuition than corporations pay in tax). And nationalizing Canada's energy industry could eliminate all fees and pay for accessible public child care.

"Education is a privilege"

This is a snobs argument. The UN Declaration of Human Rights says education is a right and should be free where countries can afford it (and it is in capitalist Norway and socialist Cuba). That right cannot be denied us.

"Let the market decide"

That means putting the decision into the hands of big business. The economic crisis shows the market has failed. Corporations need an educated workforce but they don't want to pay for it. Nor do they need everyone to be educated: for example all this talk of "cheapening" or "inflation" of degrees is the capitalist class talking about their agenda. Education is not a commodity.

"Campaigning won't do anything"
Students in Quebec blocked an aggressive attack on access in 2005 through mass action united with labour. The history of tuition fee reductions (like in Newfoundland today) is a tale of protests and petitions. Struggle is the only way forward and it needs *you* to be strong, broad, diverse, and militant enough to win.

DROP FEES – RAISE WAGES

The YCL supports the CFS reduce or Drop-Fees campaigns. Today, over a million are unemployed. Youth unemployment is a record 20 per cent. Few can get Employment Insurance. Comprehensive policies based on people’s needs not corporate greed are urgent: raising minimum wage (we say to $16!), EI access (eliminating all barriers, covering everyone for the full duration of unemployment at 90% of former earnings) and jobs (ie. a green industrial plan & plant closure legislation with teeth, massive affordable housing and infrastructure construction). Access to education from cradle to grave is a universal fight, a fight for equity and anti-racist campaigners, for the women's movement, and for our class, the working class. We can't limit the battleground to campus.

Across the country students are fighting with allies to reduce tuition. These are serious and genuine efforts. It needs you to grow, to make our sentiment for lower fees resonate with government. We can't just lobby. There must be an expanding and broadening fight back and tactics moving the most people forward – assemblies, more demos, sit ins, or walk outs.

LIFT THE CAP NOW!

Racist policies against Aboriginal students hurt the entire movement. Education is a human right – and for First Nations a treaty right. But in ‘96 the Federal government imposed a 2% cap on all basic core services funding increases breaking the Treaties. Rising numbers of Aboriginal youth seek degrees. 50%+ of the aboriginal population is under 25. There are long waiting lists for First Nations youth to attend post-secondary; non-status and Metis people don’t get any funding, while facing the same racism. We must lift the cap (and take emergency action to improve Aboriginal peoples social & economic conditions; full recognition of sovereignty and self-determination for aboriginal nations.)

ELIMINATE FEES: THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE’S CAMPAIGN

To really win advances in favour of students and all the working people, we need to drop fees altogether, create a system of grants, and abolish loans and all student debt. This international fight has seen encouraging developments in Germany, South Africa, and across Latin America just this year.

We must also expel corporate profiteers and the military from our campuses -- directing research towards benefit of peace and people’s needs, not profit.

And we need to guarantee the right of students to organize without interference -- contrary to the escalating dangerous attack on student unions, the Canadian Federation of Students, the Public Interest Research Groups, and Palestinian solidarity groups orchestrated by the Harper Conservatives, in collusion with top various university administrators, and the police, sometimes bringing in unwarranted and heavy-handed disciplinary and legal charges against activists.)

Lobbying and November’s mass demo can and should grow into a bold, broad, united mass struggle brining the pressure of all youth, parents, trade unionists against the government, and powerful big business. Through united, militant struggle, bigger demands can be won.

ABOUT THE YCL

As capitalism enters another dangerous time of crisis the demand for a better alternative that puts people and the environment before profits is echoing around the world. Now is the time to join the fight back!

The Young Communist League – la Ligue de la Jeunesse Communiste is Canada’s oldest organization of revolutionary youth. Formed in 1923, we struggled against the Great Depression, sent brigades to the Spanish civil war, resisted the cold war, and rallied for peace and nuclear disarmament. We fought racism, sexism, homophobia. We helped build today’s student movement.

Today, the YCL-LJC is made up of school and community clubs across the country, including Quebec, campaigning for immediate anti-war and pro-youth policies. We publish Rebel Youth Magazine three-times a year, and members of the Canadian Peace Congress, Canadian Network on Cuba, and the World Federation of Democratic Youth. We fight for real change and for socialism.

Economic Recovery? LOL!

2009-10-05T20:17:00.001-04:00

1. IN THE NEWS: ECONOMIC RECOVERY?
2. YCL IN ACTION
3. INTERNATIONAL
4. RY BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

Please note that we have recently had a virus hit our email list. This
has been a one-time problem and we are investigating it with google
groups. Please disregard messages not sent from the YCL-LJC.

1. ECONOMIC RECOVERY? FOR WHOM?

Sam Hammond, Peoples Voice

It used to be in earlier society that a cobbler made shoes. After the
rise of capitalism with its class exploitation, relations of
production and market competition, the manufacture of shoes occupies
thousands of people. This is because capital, in its drive to cheapen
production costs and dominate markets, accelerates a division of
labour into smaller and smaller units, each with lesser but more
specialized skills. In turn, this accelerates the competition of
labour, the competition between workers, especially in an environment
where there are large pools of surplus labour (the unemployed) banging
at the doors of workplaces and offering cheaper rates than those
already inside. It is precisely this phenomenon that drives capital to
cheapen labour and create unemployment.

Read more: tinyurl.com/y9ecyah

For discussion:

1. Do you think the economy is getting better? How is the "recovery"
impacting you and your friends?
2. What do you think of the claim that rising unemployment and
recovery can co-exist? Does it make sense? why or why not?
3. The article ends: "As a class, what do we need to resist and
maintain ourselves? Competition or co-operation? Cannibalism, raiding
and exclusion, or unity and inclusion" That is the question that begs
for a debate. What do you think?"

2. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers in British Columbia have been joining the protests against the
HST - Harmonized Sales Tax - which will unfairly make working people
pay more for goods and services. The YCL has issued a statement which
is on the ycl-ljc.blogspot.com site.

The LJC-Q is now out on the streets selling copies of Jeuness
Militante, which has now published its second issue. Check out a copy
online: http://yclljc-magazine.blogspot.com/

Members of the YCL Ontario are getting ready for the 2nd Tri-lateral
peace conference, bringing together delegates from Mexico, Canada,
Cuba and the United States. The conference is taking place Oct. 2-4th
in Toronto. The slogan is Unity for Peace, solidarity, sovereignty,
and the rights of working people. Because of the important speakers
and travel costs, the conference fee is quite high -- but join the YCL
delegation, help out in the kitchen, and get in for the price of a
donation! All progressive youth welcome. For more details see:
http://www.canadianpeacecongress.ca/upload/Trilateral%20Registration.pdf
Last week Rebel Youth magazine went to the printers. The plates were
burnt this week and by next week copies will have arrived in Vancouver
and Toronto for cross-Canada distribution!

3. INTERNATIONAL

Read three statements by the World Federation of Democratic Youth
about the situation of the young communists in Jordan, the Philippines
and Bahrain: http://ycl-ljc.blogspot.com/

4. RY BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

- Fast way to pressure the Canadian government on Honduras
- Free Mohamed Now! (Palestine prisoner solidarity)
- Remembering Antonio Agostinho Neto, Angolan Patriot

Three statements by WFDY

2009-09-30T20:54:00.001-04:00

For the immediate release of Noriel Rodriguez!

The World Federation of Democratic Youth strongly condemns the abduction of Noriel Rodriguez in Cagayan by the suspected extra-orbiter elements of the deceitful Arroyo regime. We think it is severe attack against the freedom of progressive individual that he gets for his decent opinion for justice, equity and people’s welfare.

The whereabouts of Mr. Norial is not yet confirmed since a week. According to the ANAKBAYAN confirmation a gang of four armed men in civilian clothes abducted him on 7th of September, 2009 are the suspected of Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army stationed at San Jose, Gonzalo.
We demand the government in our strongest term the immediate release of Mr. Noriel and to bear the accountability to punish the culprits behind this atrocity.

We strongly denounce such extra judicial act of the regime that flagrantly violates the human rights and it own law. We appeal to all youth and student organizations around the globe to support the cause raised by our member organization ANAKBAYAN, Philippines by extending the solidarity campaign for immediate release of Mr. Noriel.

Democratic rights for Bahraini students and youth!

Last week witnessed a sad moment for the Bahraini youth and students as the University of Bahrain took an aggressive decision against a student activist Noor Hussain, member of Shabeeba Society of Bahrain, our member organization of WFDY.Comrade Noor Hussain was leading the Student List inside the university and working for the rights of the students for public free education. Continuous Harassments from the administration lead to escalating confrontation that resulted in the expulsion of comrade Noor from her course of study and considering her failing in her classes.

Once again we witness an aggression against the basic rights of public action and student activism in a country that has declared previously that it guarantees the rights of expression of its entire people since the reconciliation in the mid nineties. This aggressive decision is a critical drawback in the countries record and is one more form of oppression and exploitation of the Bahraini people.
We call the University of Bahrain to immediately restore the rights of comrade Noor and letting her back successfully to her classes.

We also call the authorities in Bahrain to take their responsibilities in guaranteeing the basic democratic rights of their youth and students.

WFDY asks all its member organizations to express their solidarity with the democratic rights in Bahrain and around the world

Solidarity towards the Jordanian communists!

In the month of Ramadan, celebrated now by Muslims around the world, the clerics of several mosques in Jordan oriented their speeches against communism and against the struggles of our comrades in Jordan. A campaign of hatred and illusion was launched by the clerics against the secular and democratic forces in Jordan, particularly the communists there in an organized aggression.

The role of the authorities remains suspicious especially that it prevents the clerics from saying any political comment when it comes to criticizing the government policies and loyal parties, while it remains silent despite strong statements and calls of division, sectarian intolerance and hatred against the progressive forces.

WFDY expresses its solidarity with the democratic movement in Jordan and with the Jordanian communists who face now an aggression to destroy their image as a progressive and democratic secular party struggling for the interests of all the Jordanian people.

WFDY calls the Jordanian government to take action and prevent the clerics from interfering in politics, particularly stopping the waves of aggression and hatred against the democratic movement.

WFDY asks its members to show support and condemn the sectarian practices against the democratic movement in Jordan and the Arab world, and also condemn the suspicious silence of the Jordanian government towards those attacks.

Labour Day

2009-09-18T19:48:00.000-04:00

On the occasion of Labour Day the Young Communist League of Canada greets the young workers with solidarity and militancy. Canada is one of the few countries in the world that does not celebrate the workers holiday on May 1, but every holiday we have fought for and deserve.

On Labour Day 2009 we view the situation of the young workers as very dire. Across our country minimum wages are poverty wages, youth unemployment is the highest since figures began to be recorded, tuition is on the rise, and social services and union contracts are under attack. This is taking place in the context of the sellout of our jobs and our countries sovereignty through de-industrialization, free trade pacts, and deep integration with the United States.

All of this is part of the offensive of capital aimed at making the working people, including young workers, pay for the deepening global economic crisis that they created. This economic crash, which is the worst of its kind since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, is merely a symptom of a system in crisis.

Today the ruling class and its governments and political parties in Canada and around the world are scrambling to find new ways to patch up their crisis ridden system. This Labour Day, while we celebrate the struggles and the victories of Canada’s working class movement, we should do so with a consciousness of the need to continue that movement in a united and militant way today.

Together, the working class, youth, and students, could defeat the anti-worker Harper Tories. Together, we could put an end to this capitalist system and to the exploitation, poverty and misery that is breeds.

We won’t pay for their crisis! Let’s unite a fight back!

Central Executive Cmte, YCL-LJC
September 2009

YCL-LJC Newsletter

2009-09-17T02:02:00.000-04:00

1. IN THE NEWS
2. ELECTION… OR NOT?
3. YCL IN ACTION

Our activist list has been quite for two weeks but that doesn’t mean the movement has! To catch-up we’ll be issuing a double edition of our weekly email, with more next week.

1. IN THE NEWS

Gender Attack on South African Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federation: Daylight Racism

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has been deeply angered, saddened and astonished following the racist and imperialistic attack on South Africa’s 800m World Champion Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federation recently in Berlin, German. Such attacks on African people have persisted over the years, and we strongly condemn such a racist tendency by the organizers of this athletics federation.

Read more: tinyurl.com/ld9ovd
RY Blog commentary by Canadian trans-activist: tinyurl.com/m2mars

2. ELECTION … OR NOT?

Will Canada be going to the polls in a few weeks? What does all this mean for youth and students? The Canadian website “Cut me slice: for a people’s response to the economic crisis” is currently running a poll. It asks “Which summer movie title do you think best describes Canadian politics?”

Perhaps it’s “Land of the Lost.”

As Parliament returns, Harper’s government is on wobbly legs. But now the New Democratic Party has indicated it would support the ruling Harper Conservative’s ‘thin gruel offer’ on Employment Insurance. The thin gruel is to provide temporary, additional EI benefits to workers who have worked and paid into EI for seven of the past ten years and who collected no more than 35 weeks of benefits in the last five years.

Read more: tinyurl.com/nvjhd8

3. YCL IN ACTION

- La Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec recently held a joint school with the Communist Party. Over fifteen people came, with about half from the League. Discussions took place from morning to night about the economic crisis, the state and revolution, and feminism and the women’s movement.

- La Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec has also published it’s second French-language magazine, Jeunesse Militante. This issue features articles on: the attack on Quebec student aid, police brutality, the Cuban missile crisis, global warming and the Inuit nation, and cultural reviews. Check out a copy online: http://yclljc-magazine.blogspot.com/

- The YCL Central Cmte met this past week and discussed campaign action, the youth and student movement, as well as Rebel Youth. Next week a full issue of the email newsletter will focus on the CC report.

- By the end of the month we hope to launch our fully re-designed website integrating content such as Youtubes, our blogs, as well as extra resource material and other information. We’ve had the current one for about three years, this will be the next step in a several year process of getting a better site.

Gender Attack on South African Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federation: Daylight Racism

2009-08-25T17:39:00.001-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has been deeply angered, saddened and astonished following the racist and imperialistic attack on South Africa’s 800m World Champion Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federation recently in Berlin, German. Such attacks on African people have persisted over the years, and we strongly condemn such a racist tendency by the organizers of this athletics federation.

It was not only racist or sexist attack to the South African and African citizens; but it was also a direct vilification of heavy magnitude to Caster Semenya’s parents and herself as an individual thus grossly and intensively undermining her God given talent.

Today, the African people will proudly join fellow South African’s and will rise to the occasion in celebrating the success of Caster who is a proud African daughter. It surprises that up to now, neo-colonialist interests still gatecrash and continue to be dragged into the sporting world.

Gender identification doesn’t require super-powered-technology, but gender can be determined within a mere blink of the eye. So does it need a rocket scientist to determine the gender of a human being? We wonder.

Unrepentant imperialist organizations must desist from racism and treating Africans (Black) as if they came to this earth through the back door or through an abnormal and non-existent labour process. Africa is not a laboratory for experimenting racist and imperialistic attitudes; it is a continent with united and peace loving citizens who always strive for one hundred percent economic empowerment and development through total control and ownership of their God given resources.

We call upon all progressive youth organizations to echo their voices in denouncing this racist, un-African, un-human, dubious and uncultured daylight attack on Semenya which proves beyond reasonable doubt that whims of darkness and racists still operate in this so called “ Global World”

WFDY HQ - CC
Budapest
25 August 2009

L’Attaque de Genre Menée par l’Association Internationale de la Fédération d’Athlétiques Contre la Sud Africaine Championne Caster Semenya: un Racisme

2009-08-25T17:35:00.001-04:00

La Fédération Mondiale de la Jeunesse Démocratique (FMJD) a été gravement irritée, attristée, et étonnée par l’attaque raciste et impérialiste menée par l'Association internationale de Fédération d'Athlétisme récemment à Berlin, Allemagne contre la Championne du monde de 800 m de l'Afrique du Sud Caster Semenya. Plusieurs attaques de ce genre contre le peuple africain ont persisté au cours des années et nous condamnons fortement une tendance si raciste menée par les organisateurs de cette fédération d'athlétisme.

Cette attaque n’est pas seulement raciste et sexiste guidée contre l’Afrique du Sud et son peuple mais en plus elle représente une médisance directe aux parents de la championne et à Caster Semanya même, puisqu’elle mine grossièrement de son inné talent.

Aujourd’hui, le peuple Africain joindra fièrement le peuple de l’Afrique du Sud pour saisir l’occasion et célébrer le succès de Caster, la fière championne Africaine. Ce qui nous surprend c’est que, jusqu’à nos jours là, les intérêts néo-colonialistes s’introduisent encore subitement et s’impliquent même au monde sportif.

En plus, l’identification du genre d’une personne n’a pas besoin d’une technologie énorme, au contraire ça peut être déterminé en un clin d’œil. Alors a-t-on besoin d’un géni pour déterminer le genre d’un être humain? On se demande.

Les organisations impérialistes, qui poursuivent leur assaut sans remord, doivent cesser de traiter le peuple Africain (la race Noire) comme s’ils étaient d’une race inférieure et comme s’ils ne méritaient pas les mêmes droits que les leurs. L’Afrique n’est pas un laboratoire qui sert bien à expérimenter l’attitude raciste et impérialiste de ces organisations ; c’est un continent unissant un peuple paisible et affectueux qui lutte toujours pour gagner un control total sur ses ressources, qui garantira un cent pour cent de progrès économique.

Ainsi on hâte toutes les organisations progressives à transmettre leur protestation contre la raciste, inafricaine, inhumaine, et non cultivée flagrante attaque contre Semenya. Tout cela ne fait que prouver que les caprices du racisme sont toujours incarné dans ce soi-disant Monde Global.

FMJD HQ-CC

Budapest
25 Août 2009

Stop the BC Harmonized Sales Tax

2009-08-25T13:53:00.001-04:00

As the economic crisis continues to endanger jobs and force down wages British Columbians are faced with another attack. On July 23th, 2009 the right-wing B.C. Liberal government announced its intention to implement a Harmonized Sales Tax by July 1st, 2010. Despite explicit promises not to introduce such a tax during the last provincial election in May, the Liberal government persists in forcing working class British Columbians to pay for the failing capitalist economy.

The Harmonized Sales Tax combines two taxes, the Provincial Sales Tax and the federal Goods and Services Tax, into one federally administered sales tax. When this takes place, almost everything which PST does not apply to will see a 7% increase in cost. Among these are some of the most important parts a working class family's budget such as: residential fuels (electricity, natural gas) and heating, food products, non-prescription medication, work-related safety equipment, smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, and household maintenance such as renovations and painting. Even grieving families will now pay 7% more at a funeral home.

The Harmonized Tax system puts a massive weight on working people in British Columbia. Northern B.C.ers who are seeing forestry jobs lost and already pay far more for many essential products will now see home heating costs increase dramatically. Commuters in urban areas will see bicycles and bicycle repairs jump in price, which continues the B.C. Liberal policy of profits before people and the environment.

Youth will be affected drastically by the new system. Movies and theatre tickets, repairs for home appliances, and other costs often born by young people will increase substantially. Even school supplies will see a 7% increase in cost when students already pay a criminal tuition fee to attend college or university. While the Liberals refuse to raise minimum wage or legislate a living wage system they continue to increase taxes on those who fall below the poverty line.

To add insult to injury the B.C. Liberal government will receive a 1.6 billion dollar payout from the federal Conservative government to implement this system. As working people try to balance meager budgets the provincial sellout continues. If it was not clear before, British Columbians now know exactly how much they sell for in the capitalist market.

BC Provincial Committee, August 2009

WFDY Statement Against anti-communism and all kind of anti-democratic measures

2009-08-25T12:41:00.001-04:00

Monday, August 24, 2009

On the day of today, the European Union is calling upon all European people to celebrate the so called “Europe- wide Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism”, following the anti-communist and anti- democratic
resolutions approved by the European Parliament.

This measure is, once again, a step towards the criminalization of the communist ideal and an attempt to make equivalent the fascist ideology to the ideology of peace, freedom and democracy, the communist ideology.

Furthermore, it is a complete hypocrisy for a structure as European Union to
raise the “flag of democracy”, when itself is imposing for the third time now an European Constitution that has already been rejected two times by the peoples; a structure as European Union that supports the role of NATO and aims to strengthen bounds with this international killing and destroying machine that over the last 60 years has supported all fascist regimes of Europe; a structure as European Union that has everyday stronger economical and political bounds with the Zionist state of Israel, that slaughters and humiliates the Palestinian people in their own land; a structure as European Union, that lets that in its inside there is a youth, democratic, peace loving organization be banned just because of their communist ideology (namely, the Communist Youth Union of Czech Republic).

To the Members of the European Parliament who approved this resolution and to all those who decide to join this dark celebration we remind that it was the Western European countries and USA (the so called “democratic countries”), who took no hesitation to bring back to power the high ranking officers of the former fascist armies.

Moreover, it is important to remind that two thirds of all battle fronts that
allowed the world to defeat Hitler’s army were on Eastern Europe and, most of them, conducted by the Soviet Union.

Such processes of comparing Fascist regimes to the socialist oriented societies, namely Soviet Union, are manoeuvres of deceiving and distraction from the agonizing imperialist powers.

Today, as in the past, imperialism is creating means, strategies and subjective conditions to persecute communist, progressive and anti-imperialist forces, particularly in the moment lived now, when the international financial crisis has brought up even more clearly the unsolvable contradictions of imperialism as an upper stage of the capitalist system. Imperialism knows that its survival, or the delay of its end, depends on confusing the youth and people of the world, preventing them to realize that only by struggling and rallying under the anti-imperialist organizations they can hope for a truly and long lasting peaceful and fair future.

WFDY draws the attention to the ongoing crimes and massacres against mankind that deserve not only analysis but concrete action from all possible democratic means, such as the massacre of the Palestinian and Saharan
people, the constant persecutions to all democrats in Colombia, Burma, Swaziland, Philippines and others as well as the completely outraging situation of coup d’état in Honduras.

WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations to denounce the anti-communist attack being launched and to continue their struggle for democracy and freedom, alongside with all elements that a constitute a truly democratic state, as universal access to education, employment, health, food, culture and sports, which is very far from being the reality inside the European Union member states and many others in the world.

Budapest, August 23, 2009
The CC/HQ of WFDY

Greetings to the Young New Democrats Convention

2009-08-13T18:28:00.002-04:00

August 13, 2009

Dear New Democratic Youth of Canada Executive,

Greetings from the Young Communist Leauge – Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada, on the occasion of your HFX09 YOUTH, the NDP Federal Youth convention starting today!

We write to you in the spirit of cooperation and dialogue. In our view, your convention comes at a critical time for the youth and student movement across Canada. Our world’s environment is seriously threatened, our generation is undergoing the most intense and dangerous economic crisis we’ve ever seen, and an aggressively pro-big business government – the Harper Conservatives – is in power.

Tens of thousands of young people are unemployed. Many haven’t found a job this summer. Fewer still will obtain well-paying, meaningful, and safe full-time work. In Toronto, youth unemployment is pushing 20 per cent. Aboriginal youth, young women, youth of colour (especially Afro-Canadian youth) and non-status youth are severely hit. Employment Insurance denies most young applicants, including farm-worker youth, and is meagre at best.

In this crisis, have any of the municipal, provincial and federal governments moved to close the wage gap between women and men, massively build affordable housing, legislate a minimum wage above poverty, or make car insurance and public transit more accessible to youth? Student debt hit $13 billion this January. With the exception of Newfoundland, most provinces are increasing tuition and ancillary fees, while commercializing education. (Sadly that includes Gary Doer’s Manitoba, and Darrell Dexter’s provincial platform astoundingly called for tax cuts to students, not reduced tuition).

We are interested in your reflections; our experience is that the young workers and students across Canada genuinely resent being forced to pay for a crisis that we didn’t create – a crisis caused by capitalism. The also youth disagree with the billions of dollars wasted on the imperialist war in Afghanistan, and even the general direction of our largely US-written foreign policy (currently tacitly supporting the illegal Honduran coup).

For our part, we stand with all those who envision a new future without hunger, misery, ignorance, exploitation and suffering, without capitalism and imperialism. We know that we are not alone. Our organization’s perspective is for a socialist Canada, where the people own the economy and society is based on ecology and human need, not corporate greed. For us, this goal is urgently linked with the efforts of young people, with the labour and all people’s movements, to strive for a much better deal – not just in the Parliament but especially on the streets, in the schools, in workplaces. We think you would agree that way forward includes struggle and protests, requiring bold and energetic unity.

The YCL has great respect for the countless honest, good-hearted NDY’ers who are outstanding activists. Although occasionally – like the battle to de-federate Simon Fraser University from the Canadian Federation of Students – we find young NDPers are sadly both sides of the fight, the big picture of the NDP youth is an organization with many progressive militants working hard in the fight-back as individuals. It is our hope that the New Democratic Youth will deepen its participation as an organization in the many campaigns of English-speaking Canadian, Québécois, Aboriginal and Acadian youth.

We know many others agree that the movement would be made stronger if, with all the radical and spirited enthusiasm that burns within youth, the NDY consciously brought its membership into campaigns. Could the NDY dauntlessly and publicly support progressive causes like the immediate call for the restoration of democratically elected Honduran President Zelaya, or actions like the Troops Out of Afghanistan Now, against military recruitment, solidarity with Palestine and Haiti, to raise the minimum wage above the poverty line, expand and transform EI, for universal, public, quality childcare, or to immediately reduce and then eliminate tuition fees, and close the scandalous gap in Aboriginal education funding? This is not the place for a complete list of the youth struggles, but what possibilities exist for the NDY consciously helping movements, as an organization, to mobilize in unions and on campus?

The call for united action is all the more imperative give the renewed gross and anti-democratic attempts at manipulating student politics engendered by the Conservative Party youth.

Our local clubs are open to working with any youth organization, including the NDY, towards a progressive agenda. We warmly welcome any discussions, debate and joint action that builds a broader, more powerful youth and student movement. These debates and actions are not sufficiently comprehensive and pan-Canadian, but they are vigorous and on-going among the English-speaking Canadian, Québécois, Aboriginal and Acadian youth. In the face of such serious threats to our generation, to take a different approach than unity and struggle, we think, would be disastrous for the youth.

Again, on behalf of the Central Executive Committee of the Young Communist League of Canada – Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada, we wish your delegates and new executive best luck for a successful convention that is militant, dynamic, and committed to building a Canada of peace, democracy, ecology, employment, and full sovereignty – and a better world.

Yours in friendship and struggle,

Johan Boyden
General Secretary, YCL-LJC

Cc:

YND Co-Chair Rachel Gotthilf
YND Co-Chair Marie-Pier René
Secretary Meghan Mitchell
Treasurer Anand Sharma
Policy Director Erica Martin
Communications Director Bryan Young,
Outreach Director John Tzupa,
Francophone Director Jean-Francois Paradis,
Labour Director Erin Sikora,
Disability Rights Director Nathan Hauch,
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgendered and Queer Director Andrew Brett,
Women’s Director Fiona Shiells,
Aboriginal Director Mitchell Anderson

YCL Newsletter

2009-08-13T18:26:00.001-04:00

YCL BC School a big hit!

The Sunshine Coast was a little more Red than usual this BC Day long
weekend as the Young Communist League (YCL) held their annual Summer
Camp in Sechelt. Over 20 youth from across the province attended the
camp this year where they learned, discussed, and had fun. It was the
largest event of its kind held since the YCL began to re-organize in
BC over five years ago.

“It can be hard to get young people out to a four day long event,”
said YCL BC Organizer Stephen Von Sychowski. “I think the growth can
be attributed to the increase in size and activity of the League in BC
as well as to the radicalization of youth in the face of war, student
debt and the capitalist economic crisis. Capitalism is again producing
its own gravediggers.” At least years Summer Camp, Trail was the
newest addition to the list of YCL Clubs being built up across Canada.
This year it was Kamloops. Both Clubs sent delegations to this years
Summer Camp.

Under the scorching hot sun the attendees studied a variety of topics
including the economic crisis and the fightback, the environmental
crisis, what socialism is and why it is necessary, current events in
Latin America, and more. But it wasn’t all study, there was also lots
of time for fun. After educational sessions were finished it was off
to the beach to relax, swim, and enjoy the rest of the day.
“I came here to learn about Marxism,” said one camp attendee, “but I
left not just with new knowledge but also with new friends and
memories of an awesome weekend.”

The East Coast camp in Antigonish has been postponed. Next week the
YCL Ontario will be holding its summer school, for more info:
ycl_ontario@ycl-ljc.ca

On 64 years of the USA nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan)

2009-08-10T14:24:00.000-04:00

Today is the 64th complete year of the launching of the first nuclear bomb in the History of mankind, in Nagasaki, Japan. This crime, which was soon after repeated in Nagasaki, demonstrated the inhuman and brutal character of imperialism, and its main interpreter over the last 64 years: the United States of America.

The launching of nuclear bombs over the already surrendered state of Japan was no more than a political and military sign of USA’s imperialist wish for worldwide domination.

Both the sign and the attempts of domination caused millions of wounded and dead, brought starvation, destruction and misery to many people, destroyed the right of millions of young people to have a school, a hospital, a job, a cultural centre or a sports pitch.

During this time the only thing that allowed mankind to stop the imperialist greed of USA, and later European Union and Japan (the main imperialist poles), was its organized struggle and resistance.

Only the resistance and struggle of the people have avoided even more brutal wars and even more militarization. Only the organized struggle of the people have made it possible for so many countries and peoples to be free, independent and sovereign, despite the continuous threats, blackmail and interventions of imperialism.

Today, more than ever, it is crucial a shift in the world’s policies. WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations to rally their efforts and unite their strengths to, with their struggle, make a real change possible for mankind, for a world where demilitarization is a fact and not rhetoric, where peace is a reality and not slogan, and where friendship and cooperation are honest between peoples and states, unlike the exploiting policies conducted by USA, European Union and Japan in its manipulation and despise of the United Nations and the International Law.

The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, August 6, 2009

City of Guelph: put Nature and People before Profit!

2009-08-09T19:10:00.003-04:00

STOP CRIMINALIZING ENVIRONMENTALISTS!
YCL-Guelph

On Monday July 27th at 6:30am, a group of protesters set up camp on the proposed Hanlon Creek Business Park development (HCBP), successfully shutting down construction on the site. This development has been subject to heated community debate since 1993 however, the City of Guelph has recently pushed ahead with the first phase of the construction.

Despite the broad public outcry, the City has not properly addressed warnings by environmentalists and community members. The land in question is home to one of Southern Ontario's last surviving Old Growth Forests and situated on the Paris-Galt Moraine which is essential to the integrity of the surrounding area's drinking water. The HCBP site contains provincially significant wetlands as well as protected species. Environmentalists, scientists and community members agree that the supposed precautions taken by the City are not stringent enough to ensure that significant damage is not done to the land, its resources and ecosystems. THE FAILURE OF THE CITY TO PROPERLY ADDRESS THESE CONCERNS WAS THE REAL CAUSE OF THE WORK STOPPAGE. Direct action was the only way to ensure that work was stopped and democratic debate about the development was continued.

The City and its corporate friends have continued to frame the opposition to the Business Park as opposition to providing jobs to the community. Guelph is facing a jobs crisis. We have lost over 2 000 manufacturing jobs in Guelph since the capitalist crisis hit last year. Guelph is a university town and the recession has also hit students hard and making secondary education even less accessible to working-class youth. This past Friday, Statistics Canada released figures showing that student unemployment hit 20.9 per cent in July — the highest jobless rate since the agency began collecting comparable data in 1977.

So does this mean that ecological destruction is necessary in order to pull us out of the recession/depression? THE HCBP IS NOT A SOLUTION FOR GUELPH'S WORKING CLASS, YOUTH AND STUDENTS. The tenants that the HCBP hopes to attract are biotechnology, agri-science firms, and other corporate evil-doers. It is unlikely that any of Guelph's recently unemployed manufacturing workers would be eligible for a research position in these offices and its industrial section will not be built up for years, if ever. Furthermore, Guelph has 175 brownfields that can be cleaned up and re-developed (former industrial/commercial sites that may be toxified and are now unused).

Unfortunately, Capital sees brownfields as less profitable than new development on a 'greenfield'. The municipality and other levels of government need to stand up to unrestrained capitalist greed and demand that development is done in a responsible way. YCL-Guelph affirms its support in the struggle for meaningful, decent paying jobs as well as for environmental sustainability and conservation.

PUT PEOPLE AND NATURE BEFORE PROFIT!

YCL-GUELPH STANDS IN FULL SOLIDARITY WITH THE LAND DEFENDERS AT THE HCBP SITE AND DEMANDS THAT THE CITY STOP IT'S EFFORTS AT INTIMIDATION AND CRIMINALIZATION. The City's attitude towards the protesters on the site has not been to negotiate towards a resolution but to use the threats of a 5 million dollar lawsuit, and charges of 'Nuisance', the ‘Criminal Offence of Mischief,’ the ‘Criminal Offence of Intimidation,’ the ‘Criminal Offence of Extortion,’ and ‘Inducing Breach of Contract’, to intimidate the peaceful protesters. These brave people have put themselves on the line in the struggle against anarchic and destructive capitalist development. Many of the people who have been singled out by the City and now face the 5 million dollar law-suit are friends and allies of the YCL.

Please join the friends of the "Land Defenders", community supporters and YCL-Guelph tomorrow, Monday August 10th.

@10 am - Superior Court (74 Woolwich St).
@ 6pm - Rally at city hall (1 Carden st.)

Celebrating 50 Years of Cuba Revolution!

2009-07-29T16:18:00.000-04:00

This July 26, the Young Communist League of Canada - la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada, sends its greetings and stands in solidarity with the people of Cuba. This "Moncada Day" has special meaning for Cubans and friends of Cuba everywhere, as it is the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution. The movement that grew into the triumphant Revolution was born on the 26th of July, 1953 when Fidel and Raul Castro and around 160 other brave revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. This was the first armed resistance to the corrupt and brutal, US-backed, Batista regime, carried out by the "Movimiento 26 Julio".

The YCL-LJC Canada wishes to send a special greeting to the Youth of Cuba and to the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas. We acknowledge the vanguard role the youth play in the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people's struggle for socialism and against imperialism. This was no different 56 years ago when the attack on the Moncada barracks was carried out. The revolutionaries that participated were overwhelmingly young farmers, workers and students and in unity with the working-class. The average age was 26, the same age as their leader Fidel Castro. Today we salute the example set by those brave revolutionaries.

The Moncada attack was not an immediate victory for the Movimiento 26 Julio, but it was the first battle in a long people's struggle against the strangle-hold of imperialism. After Fidel was arrested and imprisoned, he published his famous defence speech entitled "History will Absolve Me". With 50 years of history written about the heroic Cuban Revolution, Castro and his Moncada comrades have been absolved one-thousand times over. By continuing to maintain friendly relations with Cuba, Canada affirms its sovereignty in foreign policy (which in all other areas is authored by Washington -- like Palestine, Colombia or Canada’s imperialist war in Afghanistan).

The bravery and heroism of their people continues, symbolized by the Cuba Five – five men unjustly imprisoned in US jails for fighting CIA-backed terrorism on their Island. We salute the Five, reaffirm our demand to free them, and cheer-on Cuba's achievements in education, health care and international solidarity which have shown the world that socialism is both possible and necessary to end war, environmental destruction and economic injustice.

The Young Communist League of Canada joins the friends of Cuba from around the world in saying:

"VIVA LA REVOLUCION CUBANA Y EL MOVIMIENTO DEL 26!"

YCL-LJC CEC

July WFDY News

2009-07-29T16:15:00.003-04:00

Dear Comrades and friends,

We are pleased to circulate the July 2009 newsletter of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, which can be downloaded at:

http://www.wfdy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/wfdy-news-july-2009-digital.pdf

The newsletters main editorial follows.

- YCL-LJC

EDITORIAL - JULY 2009 - WFDY NEWS

July, the hot weather month is also a hot month for antiimperialist struggle. Around the world WFDY organizations started their summer plans including camps, festivals and youth events. In Cyprus EDON celebrated its festival with a new taste this time,
especially after the winning of presidency last year. New challenges face the movement now after being in power, but till now it proves to be fruitful with AKEL and the left forces taking more than 35 % of the votes in the European elections, thus improving their share of votes, and this only happened to a single party in power, that party is AKEL.

In Africa, this month celebrated the birth of the symbol of the liberation struggle Nilson Mandela, and our organizations across the continent continue their struggle with the same spirit of struggle towards complete independence from imperialist implications after getting liberated of its direct occupation in the past century.

WFDY also visited Asia, participating in an international forum of All China Youth Federation in Beijing and meeting many officials of the organization. WFDY also visited Vietnam, DPRK Korea and Japan in a series of meetings with our member organizations in this important region in the world. We expect this visit to come out with important results in the near future and further strengthen the relations and the anti-imperialist struggle in the region.

In the Middle East, the political situation is always tense and delicate, but this month carried a shameful declaration of the Kingdom of Bahrain expressing the will to open the relations with the Zionist state of Israel.

This is a very bad move that neglects the right of the Palestinian people to have an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of return of the refugees to their lands. Any compromise with Israel that doesn't include those rights of the Palestinian people is a betrayal that we condemn and refuse.

Elections in Lebanon was another form of political fraud, where the campaign of both coalitions, March8 and March

14, the pro-Syrian and pro-American groups did cost about 700 million dollars, almost the same amount of the campaign of the US elections knowing that Lebanon is 100 times less populated than US!! With huge funding from abroad, especially from Saudi Arabia, the March 14 coalition managed to get about 60,000 immigrants fully paid for travel and hotel for a full week to vote in the delicate and balanced regions and this led to their victory in the overall results. Lebanon will go again into 4 years of a pro-American government and a crippled “opposition” that only seeks compromises and shares in the government.

On the other hand, during the same month, the campaign to free Ahmad Saadat, General Secretary of PFLP detained in Israel, presented a statement in front of the UN General Secretary and asked the UN to take its responsibilities for the freedom of the Palestinian detainees. WFDY joined this campaign and issued a statement of solidarity earlier this month.

In Latin America, the movement against the illegal coup in Honduras is still rising and everyday there are more pressures on the military to quit and let the democratically elected leader to come back to power. WFDY continues its solidarity and close look for the situation and studies possible moves in solidarity with the Honduran people in the next months

Happy Pride '09 Canada!

2009-07-29T16:11:00.002-04:00

Joint Statement of the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League

The Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League
proudly salute LGBTQ workers and activists, Egale and other community
advocates throughout Canada and in Quebec, safer queer-positive
schools, and corporate-free space on Pride Day!
We say: No Pride in the international criminalizing of sexual
orientation, sexual expression and gender identity! No Pride in War or
Corporate Plunder!

Pride events this summer are celebrating welcome progress towards
greater equality and social justice. Communists are active players in
Canada's various LGBTQ and queer* identified communities. Together we
stand proudly in solidarity with all LGBTQ allies and activists
marking Pride 2009.

Globally celebrations are marking the anniversary of the
"Stonewall Riots" in Manhattan. A show of working class resistance,
the first scuffles were reported to be initiated by local homeless and
unemployed queer youth - patrons of the Stonewall Inn. 40 years on we
are bombarded with both encouraging and alarming headlines:

* Many more queer-positive environments are available to us in the public realm.
* Initial but promising signs on the left to re-integrate the fight
for justice and the fight against homophobia.
* Increasing numbers of trade unions now have active Pride and LGBTQ caucuses.
* High schools are launching gay-straight alliances, safe school
spaces and "Pride proms".
* Sex-reassignment surgery is at least partially covered under some
provincial health insurance plans.

These legal, political and cultural victories are the hard-won
results of decades of efforts by the LGBTQ community and allies.

However,

* California has overturned the same-sex marriage ruling, despite
equality gains in other states and in Canada.
* The Harper Tories still hope to reverse queer rights if they win a
majority government.
* The Right continue to scapegoat the LGBTQ community and racialised
groups, to divide working class resistance against finance capital,
corporate bailouts and global environmental plunder.
* The politics of Pride events are skewed by corporate sponsorship,
and with a handful of notable exceptions, military opportunism
And there's more. Despite Canada's welcoming image,
* queer youth in Toronto and Montreal seeking asylum from persecution
in other countries are being extradited.
* HIV-positive men still face barriers to travel across the Canada-US border
* LGBTQ secondary students, (over two-thirds in a recent survey)
report feeling unsafe at school, (compared to 1 in 5 straight
students).
* Prosecutors are unwilling to prosecute vicious gay-bashings in
Vancouver as hate crimes.

Globally,

* violent public expressions of homophobia are on the rise.
* the struggle to end the decriminalization of sexual orientation and
sexual expression faces stubborn resistance.
* working class queer people suffer especially vicious discrimination,
and as women and racialized communities bear the severe brunt of
neoliberal economic and social policies.
* ILGA, the association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersexed
peoples reports that 90 United Nations member states still criminalize
consensual same-sex acts among adults.
* In seven countries, legal punishment for homosexuality still
includes the death penalty.
* In many countries, such laws drive women, men and youth underground
to hide from fear of exposure and censure.

But important progress for LGBTQ equality is being achieved in
countries such as Cuba, South Africa and Nicaragua. The myth that
queer rights can only be won in wealthy capitalist countries is
shattered by these advances, and by the reality that homophobic and
racist concepts are exported from North America and Europe.

Despite the cultural and legal shift in favour of equality and
diversity, homophobia and transphobia remain tenaciously powerful
within the Canadian state. Behind his mask and 50s sweaters, Stephen
Harper's anti-equality positions are clear. The Tory leader:

* voted against same-sex marriage.
* has left his options open on abortion if he wins a majority.
* snubbed the 2007 international AIDS conference in Toronto.
* has appointed anti-choice, anti-gay judges to provincial courts.
* includes "Focus on the Family" zealots among top Tory advisors.
* pushes through regressive tax changes to promote the patriarchal family model.
* has gutted Status of Women Canada and bars the use of government
funding to promote equality.
* criminalized youth by raising the age of consent to 16 and limited
young people's access to condoms and abortions.
* allows Canada Customs to seize literature ordered by bookstores
which serve the LGBT community.

At a time when the so-called "war on terror" is used to remove
civil liberties for racialized communities, we need to remind each
other that "an injury to one is an injury to all." Just like racism,
sexism, and national chauvinism, homophobia and transphobia are
weapons to divide working people. Despite this effort, most Canadians
support equality and human rights. These must now be expanded to
include full legal and political protections for sexual orientation
and expression, and gender identity.

This demand is a vital part of the wider movement to drive the
Harper Tories out of power. Today the ruling class is using the
economic meltdown to carry out a vicious assault on working class and
unemployed queers and the entire labour movement. A cover as well to
reverse hard-won social equality gains. A broad democratic and social
resistance is going to be needed to block and reverse this corporate
agenda. Together, we must build a powerful coalition around a genuine
people's alternative to this crisis - a common front of Aboriginal
peoples, youth and students, women, seniors, immigrant and racialized
communities, environmentalists, labour, peace activists, the LGBTQ
community, farmers, and many other allies.

Ultimately, this struggle in our communities and workplaces, and
at the ballot box, will defeat the right and open the door to a
people's coalition government. The goal of the Communist Party is to
win fuller social freedom and genuine people's power in a socialist
Canada, where our economy will be owned by all and democratically
controlled. It will then become possible to eradicate the intersecting
forms of exploitation and oppression which we face today, while
defending our sovereignty and protecting our common environment.

(* a note on "queer": Queer is a term widely used by lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgendered, inter-sex, queer, questioning and
two-spirited communities to describe the richly diverse community as a
whole. The word unifies all the identities into one inclusive term. It
was meant to "take back" an otherwise derogatory, and formerly
spiteful word.)

FÊTE NATIONALE DU QUÉBEC

2009-07-29T16:08:00.002-04:00

GREETINGS TO THE QUEBEC WORKING CLASS
[For English scroll down]

FÊTE NATIONALE DU QUÉBEC:
BONNE FÊTE À LA CLASSE OUVRIÈRE DU QUÉBEC
24 juin 2009

Déclaration conjointe du parti communiste du Québec (section du PCC)
et de la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada

Le Parti communiste du Québec et la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du
Canada tiennent à offrir leurs vœux de solidarité les plus chaleureux
aux travailleuses et aux travailleurs du Québec à l’occasion de leur
fête nationale.

Cette année, les Québécoises et les Québécois vont célébrer leur fête
nationale dans le contexte de la plus grave crise économique mondiale
du capitalisme depuis les années 1930. L’OCDE composé d’une trentaine
de pays les plus riches sur la planète prévoit que d’ici 2010, 57
millions de personnes auront perdus leurs emplois dans ses
pays-membres et que la crise risque de s’approfondir et de perdurer
encore quelques années. On évalue que présentement, plus d’un milliard
de personnes dans le monde sont sous-alimentées à cause de cette
crise.

Au Québec aussi des dizaines de milliers de travailleuses et de
travailleurs perdent leurs emplois et sont réduits au chômage. Des
régions entières sont dévastées. Le gouvernement refuse malgré tout de
rendre plus accessible l’assurance-emploi. Les salaires et les
conditions de travail de celles et ceux qui ont encore un emploi sont
lourdement attaqués par les capitalistes voraces qui cherchent à
profiter de cette situation pour augmenter leurs taux de profit. La
jeunesse ouvrière est particulièrement victime de ces attaques
subissant historiquement des taux de chômage plus élevés et une plus
grande précarité en emploi.

La nécessité d’en finir avec le système capitaliste responsable de
tant de malheurs s’impose de plus en plus comme une évidence. Mais en
même temps, il se pose aussi au Québec, la question nationale.
Le peuple du Québec constitue une nation dont les droits sont niés
depuis la conquête de la Nouvelle-France par l’Angleterre en 1763,
d’abord par les colonialistes britanniques et ensuite par la
bourgeoisie canadienne.

La reconnaissance formelle l’année dernière du statut de nation par le
gouvernement conservateur de Harper ne fut qu’une manœuvre
électoraliste qui n’a rien réglé. Les Conservateurs l’ont d’ailleurs
prouvé eux-mêmes à l’automne 2008 lorsqu’ils se sont lancés dans une
campagne chauvine anti-Québec à travers le Canada pour attaquer la
coalition des partis d’opposition qui menaçaient de les renverser. Le
gouvernement canadien ne reconnaît toujours pas les droits nationaux
du Québec, dont celui de constituer un État indépendant et souverain.
À ses yeux, le Québec doit demeurer une province comme les autres.
Aujourd’hui, cette négation du droit du Québec à l’autodétermination
est l’essence de l’oppression nationale qu’il subi. Cette oppression
nationale soulève l’indignation du peuple québécois et a engendré
depuis les années 60 le mouvement souverainiste ou indépendantiste
dirigé par la bourgeoisie et la petite-bourgeoisie québécoise.
Cette bourgeoisie représentée politiquement principalement par le
Parti Québécois souhaite entraîner tout le peuple du Québec derrière
elle, en appui à sa solution de la question qui se résume à la
constitution d’un nouvel état capitaliste et impérialiste qu’elle
contrôlerait entièrement et qui maintiendrait, pour son plus grand
bénéfice, l’essentiel des manifestations d’oppression et
d’exploitation que subit la classe ouvrière québécoise.

Les communistes considèrent qu’embarquer dans la lutte de la
bourgeoisie québécoise pour faire un État séparé implique
nécessairement de reléguer au second plan et de laisser sur la glace
la lutte qui correspond véritablement aux intérêts de la classe
ouvrière, la lutte pour le socialisme c’est-à-dire une société dirigée
directement par la classe ouvrière pour le bénéfice de la grande
majorité du peuple travailleur.

La lutte pour le socialisme exige que la classe ouvrière, composée de
diverses nationalités au Canada, soit unie face à son ennemie, la
classe des capitalistes, canadiens, québécois et étrangers, pour lui
arracher le pouvoir d’État à la grandeur du pays. L’indépendance du
Québec non seulement affaiblirait cette lutte pour le socialisme mais
risquerait de renforcer la domination de l’impérialisme américain sur
le Québec et le reste du Canada.

C’est pour promouvoir cette unité nécessaire que les communistes
militent activement au sein de la classe ouvrière multinationale du
Canada en proposant un programme de réformes démocratiques et
constitutionnelles qui garantiraient la pleine égalité de toutes les
nations au Canada, notamment, une nouvelle constitution basée sur un
partenariat égal et volontaire du Québec et du Canada anglophone, et
garantissant les droits nationaux des peuples autochtones.

VIVE LA CLASSE OUVRIÈRE DU QUÉBEC !
VIVE LA LUTTE POUR LE SOCIALISME !
GREETINGS TO THE QUEBEC WORKING CLASS

Fête nationale du Québec

The Communist Party of Quebec and the League of Communist Youth of
Canada would like to extend their wishes of warm solidarity to the
workers in Quebec on the occasion of their National Day.

This year, Quebecers will celebrate their national holiday in the
context of the most serious economic crisis of global capitalism since
the 1930s. The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development consisting of thirty richest countries on the planet)
projects that by 2010, 57 million people will have lost their jobs in
its member countries and that the crisis could deepen and endure a few
more years. It is estimated that currently over one billion people
worldwide are malnourished because of this crisis.

In Quebec tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs or have
reduced employment. Entire regions have been devastated. The federal
Harper Conservative government still refuses to make it more
accessible Employment Insurance. Wages and working conditions of those
who still have jobs are heavily attacked by greedy capitalists who
seek to take advantage of this situation to increase their rate of
profit. Young workers are a particular victim of these attacks
undergoing historically higher unemployment and greater job
insecurity.

The need to end the capitalist system which is responsible for this
misfortune is becoming very clear. But at the same time, the nation
question also arises in Quebec.

The people of Quebec are a nation whose rights have been denied since
the conquest of New France by England in 1763, first by the British
colonialists and later by the Canadian bourgeoisie.

The formal recognition last year of nationhood by the Harper
Conservative government was only an election manoeuvre that did not
settle anything. The Conservatives have also proven themselves in the
fall of 2008 when they embarked on a campaign chauvinistic anti-Quebec
in Canada to attack the coalition of opposition parties that
threatened to topple them. The Canadian government still does not
recognize the national rights of Quebec, including that of being a
sovereign and independent state. In their eyes, Quebec should remain a
province like the others.

Today, this denial of the right of Quebec to self-determination is the
essence of national oppression Quebec has suffered. This national
oppression raises the indignation of the people of Quebec; for 60
years the movement for independence or sovereignty has been led by the
Québécoise bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie politically represented, mainly, by the Parti
Québécois wants to lead all the people of Quebec behind it, to support
the solution of the question that boils down to building a new state –
capitalist and imperialist – they control and to continue, to its
greatest benefit, most of the manifestations of oppression and
exploitation suffered by the working class in Quebec.

The Communists considers that to embark on the fight of the
bourgeoisie to make Quebec a separate country necessarily relegates to
second place and leaves “on ice” the fight that truly interests of the
working class, the struggle for socialism – a society directed by the
working class for the benefit of the vast majority of working people.

The struggle for socialism requires that the working class, composed
of various nationalities in Canada, united against the enemy, the
capitalist class, Canadian, Quebec and abroad, for state power across
the country. The independence of Quebec not only weakens the struggle
for socialism, but could strengthen the dominance of U.S. imperialism
on Quebec and the rest of Canada.

To promote this necessary unity that the Communists are active in the
multinational working class in Canada offering a program of democratic
and constitutional reforms that would guarantee full equality of all
nations in Canada, including a new constitution based on an equal and
voluntary union Quebec and English Canada, including the right to
separate, and guaranteeing the national rights of Aborignal nations.

Long live the working class of Quebec!
LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM!

Communist Party of Quebec (section of the CPC-PCC)
Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Quebec
Young Communist Leauge of Canada - Central Executive

On World Environment Day

2009-07-29T16:06:00.001-04:00

Central Executive Committee of the YCL-LJC

The Young Communist League of Canada - La Ligue de la Jeunesse communiste du
Canada draws attention to World Environment Day, organized by the United
Nations since 1972 and celebrated on June 5 in more than 100 countries.
As the youth realize, there is now no doubt we are experiencing a grave
ecological crisis characterized by climate change. In fifty years, the
capitalist system has managed to load the air with gas emissions because of
an economy dependent on oil, clear-cut forests, pollute almost all water
systems with pesticides because of agro-industry, and transformer large
territories into garbage dumps because of the wasteful market. Imperialist
war has caused ecocide.

The first victims of the global ecological crisis are the poor, women,
Indigenous peoples, and the labouring masses. The poor suffer more from
this crisis because their livelihoods are linked more closely to local
ecosystems. Women and indigenous peoples often live under very precarious
conditions which makes them even more vulnerable.

Also for workers. According to a 2001 World Bank report "Among the direct
effects (climate change) is the increase in diseases and deaths related to
temperature. Waves of intense heat and long duration, associated with
moisture, could raise the rates of morbidity and mortality, particularly
among the urban poor and the elderly. Another direct effect is the increase
in the number of deaths and injuries caused by extreme events such as
floods, landslides or storms. In recent years, over 96% of deaths caused by
disasters occurred in developing countries."

We reject the idea that "everyone is to blame also for the environmental
crisis,” which obscures the class-essence of the problem. Canadian companies
and their state are complicit in the destruction of the environment; ie.,
Canadian mining companies in Latin America. As Naomi Klein and others have
documented, imperialism has transformed these ecological disasters into a
source of profits.

The ecosystems now under threat are at the base of all economies. Capitalism
has only one watchword: the maximum profit. Demanding the preservation of
our environment, youth today combat the serious consequences of this rotten
system. Increasing numbers of young people support "green jobs,” public
transport, strict regulations against corporate pollution, nationalization
of energy, and peace. But the capitalist system can not be reformed enough
to integrate environmental sustainability into its production and
administration. We need the democratic planning of society for the benefit
of the people. This is a mass struggle requiring unity among those who fight
for the environment and the working class, which leads inevitably to
socialism!

------------------------------------

À propos de la journée mondiale de l'environnement
Comité exécutif central de la YCL-LJC

The Young Communist League of Canada - La Ligue de la Jeunesse communiste du
Canada souligne la journée mondiale de l'environnement organisée par les
Nations unies depuis 1972 et célébrée le 5 juin chaque année dans plus de
100 pays.

Comme les jeunes le réalise, il n'y a aujourd'hui plus de doute pour
personne, nous traversons une grave crise écologique caractérisée par les
changements climatiques. En cinquante ans, le système capitaliste a réussi à
charger l'air de gaz a effet de serre avec une économie dépendante du
pétrole, à raser une grande partie de nos forêts, à polluer quasiment la
totalité des cours d'eau avec des pesticides pour une agriculture de masse
plus productive et a transformer de larges territoires en dépotoir au nom
d'une consommation toujours plus grande. De plus, les guerres imprérialiste
ont causé un véritable écocide.

Les premières victimes de la crise écologique globale sont les masses
pauvres, les femmes, les ouvriers et les peuples autochtones. Les plus
pauvres souffrent davantage de cette crise car leurs moyens de subsistances
sont liés de façon plus étroite aux écosystèmes locaux. Les femmes et les
peuples autochtones vivent souvent sous des conditions déjà très précaires
ce qui les rend encore plus vulnérables.

Selon un rapport de la Banque mondiale en 2001 «Parmi les effets directs
(des changements climatiques) figure la hausse des maladies et des décès
liés à la température. Des vagues de chaleur intenses et de longue durée,
associées à l'humidité, pourraient faire monter les taux de morbidité et de
mortalité, particulièrement parmi les pauvres des villes et les personnes
âgées. Un autre effet direct est l'augmentation du nombre de décès et de
blessures causés par des événements extrêmes tels que des inondations, des
glissements de terrain ou des tempêtes. Au cours des dernières années, plus
de 96 % des décès dus à des catastrophes naturelles ont eu lieu dans des
pays en développement . »

Nous rejetons l'idée qui veut que « chacun est à blâmer également » pour la
crise environnemental, ce qui voile le fond du problème, la question de
classe. Les compagnies canadiennes et l'État canadien sont complices dans la
destruction de l'environnement, comme par exemple, les compagnies
d'extraction minière canadiennes en Amérique latine. Ainsi que Naomi Klein
et d'autres l'ont documenté, l'impérialisme a transformé ces désastres
écologiques en source de profits.

Ces écosystèmes aujourd'hui en danger sont à la base de toutes économies.
Mais le système capitalisme n'a qu'un seul mot d'ordre : le profit maximum.
En exigeant la sauvegarde de notre environnement, la jeunesse d'aujourd'hui
combat les conséquences graves de ce système pourri. De plus en plus de
jeunes supporte l'idée d'avoir plus «d'emplois verts», plus de transports
collectifs, une règlementation sévère contre la pollution des compagnies, la
paix et la nationalisation des ressources énergétique. Mais jamais le
système capitaliste ne se reformera suffisamment pour intégrer la pérennité
de l'environnement dans sa façon de produire et d'exploiter. Il faut
maintenant que la société prennent démocratiquement en main l'économie
mondiale et qu'elle la planifie pour le bénéfice du peuple. C'est une lutte
de masse exigeant l'unité entre ceux et celles qui luttent pour
l'environnement et la classe ouvrière, et qui mènera inévitablement au
socialisme.

July YCL Newsletter

2009-07-29T16:02:00.000-04:00

1. IN THE NEWS: TORIES ATTACK CFS
2. YCL IN ACTION
3. SUMMER CAMPS & SCHOOLS
4. LATEST FROM RY BLOG
1. STUDENTS TO TORIES: HANDS OFF OUR ELECTIONS

The Harper Conservatives are at it again! Foreign Affairs Minister
Peter Kent (who this weekend made news announcing that “time is not
right” for the return of democratically elected Honduran President
Zelaya who was ousted in a CIA-sponsored coup) has been continuing the
Conservative Party’s campaign of screwing around in students politics.

Shame!

Emails secured through a recent Freedom of Information request
revealed that Conservative MP Peter Kent, MPP Peter Shurman, and
senior York University administrators were interfering in this year's
general elections of the York Federation of Students (YFS). […] MP
Peter Kent was later found to have assigned a key staff member to
intervene in the election on behalf of a team of candidates.

Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/lu3ep4
More: http://tinyurl.com/mlvofg
Previous RY coverage: http://tinyurl.com/cv7upc ; http://tinyurl.com/nugh29

** For discussion:
1. Why do you think the Conservative Party is trying to undermine
student unions in this manner? Do you think they would win the
support of students for their agenda in an open debate?
2. What kind of response is necessary by the youth and student
movement to these blatant anti-democratic acts?

2. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers in Toronto recently marched in the Pride Parade, joining Queers
Against Israeli Apartheid and No Pride In War, opposing the Canada
Military trying to recruit through Pride. The club brought in friends
and distributed hundreds of flyer with the joint YCL-CPC Pride
statements.

3. YCL 2009 SUMMER CAMPS & SCHOOLS

The YCL-LJC is launching a series of political and ideological summer
camps, retreats and schools discussing Marxism and youth activism in
Canada and internationally today. Topics range from the fight for
socialism to the economic crisis. Good discussion and food is
promised.

Detailed School programmes and topics by region to follow.

British Columbia: July 31 to Aug. 3 – Sechelt, Camp at Farm by Pacific
ocean

Nova Scotia: Aug. 7-9 – Antigonish, beach cabin on Atlantic ocean

Ontario: Aug. 15-16 – Toronto, Cultural hall in Canada’s busy
metropolis.

Quebec – TBC.

4. HIGHLIGHTS FROM RY BLOG

** Open Letter to the BC Minister of Education

“I am a survivor of the Nakba (the Palestinian Catastrophe). My
parents were forced out of Jaffa, Palestine in 1948 by Zionist
terrorist gangs while my mother was still pregnant with me. … I was
shocked, hurt and outraged by your action of removing an exam question
relating to the dispossession of my people.

Read the full letter: http://tinyurl.com/mb3xtx

June 2009 WFDY News

2009-07-02T15:25:00.002-04:00

WFDY News
June 2009
Click here & download the full magazine

EDITORIAL

The month of June was, as usual, a busy month for the anti-imperialist young people of the world.

In Europe the month started with the elections for the European Parliament. Despite the need to analyze the results in each country, the election of several openly fascist European Parliament members is a sign that the [landscape] of the international capitalist crisis won't bring, just automatically, the victory of the people and, in fact, it has the potential to bring even worst and strong[er] attacks to the rights of the people.

Nevertheless, some progressive forces have achieved important results that reinforce our hope and our struggle for a future of peace and sovereignty.

[Confirming] the anti-democratic character of the European Union, soon after the elections, the European Council started the manoeuvres to force the Irish people to repeat the referendum of the already rejected European Reform Treaty.

In Iran the situation also grew tense after the last elections, in which the opposition and the Government forces clashed. WFDY believes that the current Government of Iran is disrespectful towards the social and human basic rights, as the persecution to our member organization Tudeh Party Youth shows. However we do not share the idea that it is with tactical manoeuvres [such] as the ones now being promoted by the imperialist forces, that Iran will achieve the change that it needs and deserves.

Furthermore, this was a month in which USA reinforced the interferences on the possibility for the reunification of the Korean peninsula challenging once again DPRK and in a hypocritical way demanding the nuclear disarmament of the country, whereas USA is the country that has alone done more than 90% of the nuclear tests and the only one that used the nuclear weapon.

For the next month the struggle will continue and we can hardly to wait to meet the hundreds of youngsters that with WFDY will celebrate the 50 years of the Cuban Revolution and denounce the 60 years of imperialist crimes of NATO, showing…

“WE WILL DEFEAT IMPERIALISM!”

2009 Nova Scotia Election Results: What’s at stake for youth?

2009-06-30T14:45:00.001-04:00

On June 9, 2009, Nova Scotians headed to the polls amidst the worst capitalist crisis in 70 years. The election of Darrell Dexter’s New Democrats was perhaps the best possible outcome from the existing balance of forces, yet far from guarantees a victory against the dangerous big-business assault our province has been enduring for generations.

The time now is for the youth and students, together with the labour movement and all other progressives, to mobilize and demand an alternative agenda based on people’s needs not corporate greed.

Young people should not assume that the NDP’s election will automatically lead to significant gains for working people without massive public pressure. First, the NDP’s election platform was milquetoast. For example: not addressing the need for expanding public ownership and reversing privatization, from health care to the energy sector; proposing tax cuts for students instead of dramatically reducing and eliminating fees; and even dropping their demand for a $10 minimum wage.

Secondly, social democracy’s history across Canada confirms that NDP is extremely venerable to corporate pressure. That record includes Gary Doer’s Manitoba NDP government, where the minimum wage is well below the poverty line, tuition fees are rising, and the government is working with Wal-Mart, Sears and Rona to carry out a yellow ribbon “support the troops” in Afghanistan campaign. Finally, social democracy is in crisis internationally; at a time when neo-liberalism is intensifying its sustained attack on the people social democracy’s general response is to adopt a line of concession rather than resistance. The recent European elections also suggest that when the people reject that approach it doesn’t not automatically lead to a shift to the left.

All this is good reason to the build the fight-back, not least among youth. While the NDP and the bourgeois parties have spent the last weeks bickering over fiscal responsibility, the Nova Scotian youth and students are struggling to make ends meet, burdened by capitalist policies that protect the rich and starve the poor. The Young Communist League believes reinforcing the struggles of youth and students is urgent, necessary and possible! We propose demands that fight for our rights and needs:

Free, accessible, quality education

We want more and better – instead of fewer and worse – schools, colleges and universities. Reduce and eliminate apprenticeship fees and tuition fees. We need a 100% public, democratic, accessible, quality, portable education system. Ultimately students should receive a living stipend to make education accessible to all. We demand that Nova Scotia regard the education of youth as a right rather than a personal privilege of the rich, not the highest fees in the country.

Jobs

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, with better wages for youth. The provincial minimum wage of $8.60 keeps thousands of people living in poverty and must be raised to a level that allows people to live in dignity; we need a $16/h minimum wage. We must stop and reverse the de-industrialization of the Atlantic region, beginning with cancelling the anti-democratic Atlantica deals, and create better work with better wages for youth. If the private sector won’t do it, the government should.

An end to privatization and the expansion of social services

The Nova Scotia government is systematically giving away our energy, healthcare system and natural resources to giant monopolies whose only concern is profit, not the well being of youth. Privatization is nothing more than a theft of services that citizens fought for, own and depend on! Privatization must be stopped and reversed. This includes handing over to the people through public ownership and control, public services and resources. Nationalize Irving! Existing social services and infrastructure, including health care, education, affordable housing, social assistance, transportation and child care, must be expanded.

Energy and food security

The future of our planet is in danger. Capitalism continues to lead to the destruction of the natural environment at an unprecedented pace in its ruthless quest for increased profits. There now exists the very real danger of our world becoming unliveable for the next generation. In Nova Scotia, we need cleaner energy that is produced and distributed through worker-owned, democratically run organizations. We also must seek alternative, local sources of food and stop supporting multinational food corporations that exploit workers, harm nature and jeapordize our health.

Equality

Real social progress requires solidarity with the struggles for the liberation of all nations, peoples and genders of the Atlantic region. We must demand the reversal of racist policies affecting Mi’kmaq First Nations, Metis, African Nova Scotians, immigrants and migrants, as well as Anglo-centric policies that discriminate against Acadian nation. We must recognize the value of all labour, both at home and in the paid workforce, and end the economic exploitation of women. Violence against women and children, sexism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia must be abolished.

Real democracy

We must push for Proportional Representation in Nova Scotia and struggle to create the economic and social conditions for real democracy, including our democratic right to control the economy. Ultimately, capitalism is inherently in contradiction with the freedom and democracy of the working class, the people and youth. It denies the vast majority of citizen’s ownership and control over their work places, natural resources, in fact, their lives.

Youth in Nova Scotia – let’s fight for a future that liberates us all. The future is socialism!

Against the coup d’état in Honduras!

2009-06-29T14:13:00.000-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, has received with concern reports about the coup d’état that has occurred in Honduras, by the armed forces of that country, with the support of the imperialist oligarchy and the transnational companies, who do not accept the processes of change that has occurred.

The Honduran government member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas has been making positive changes for its people, joining the processes of social integration that are being proposed and make an inquiry to approve a constitutional assembly that would give more power to the poor. In a country where 72% of the population lives in poverty.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth strongly condemns and rejects the coup to steal the power from President Manuel Zelaya, and calls on the international Organizations, to play their role at this time and call all its members, friends and the progressive youth of this world to express our solidarity with the Honduran people and the processes of change that were taking place.

Freedom for the General Secretary of PFLP Palestine - Now!

2009-06-29T14:00:00.000-04:00

(Translated from Arabic, original at www.wfdy.org)

A statement of solidarity with the great national fighter Ahmed Saadat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian Legislative Council member and all prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons

In the context of the meeting of the Arab region for the World Federation of Democratic Youth delegation in Jbeil - Lebanon, June 19-21 2009, hosted by the Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth, [we express] solidarity with the struggling national comrade Ahmed Saadat and all prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.

The participating organizations all expressed their support for the steadfastness of comrade Saadat, struggling in the face of the suppression of a prison administration that has taken the Zionists about 3 months to transfer, with a number of his fellow activists in the prisons of the enemy, to the isolation cells in Ashkelon after a heroic struggle, refusing to orange wear uniforms, which the prison administration tried to impose on the militants in the prisons and detention centers of Aldahionep just like criminal detainees, including those the so-called terrorists in Guantanamo, advertising the application of laws concerning the prisoners of war and as an expression and embodiment of their resistance against the Palestinian people, which is guaranteed by all international laws and regulations.

[…] Comrade Saadat, with heroic and epic courage in the face of the executioner, declared a hunger strike lasting nine days in an expression of rejection of the status and number of his fellow prisoners in isolation in prison under harsh conditions contrary to international law where it is placed in solitary confinement and a narrow exit to prevent [air] only one hour every 24 hours in spite of the suffering experienced by the health of comrade Saadat, which threatens his life.

Under these circumstances and the suffering […] the prison administration made the decision to extend the period of segregation of activist Saadat until next July 18. Accordingly, we have assembled in a number of appeals to the concerned authorities to act quickly to demand:

1. Work to end the isolation of Rafik al-Saadat Rvaqa and activists for the continuation of their role in the leadership of the struggles of the Palestinian prisoner movement;

2. Demand that the Palestinian Authority to move quickly against the Zionist enemy responsible for the tragedies of all prisoners and detainees and to assume their responsibilities towards the arrest of comrade Saadat;

3. Claim all the international bodies assume their responsibilities towards the comrade Saadat and his comrades;

4. Require all organizations and frameworks youth of Arab and international friend to the broadest campaign of solidarity with comrade Saadat and his comrades;

At the end, the meeting hailed the steadfastness of comrade Saadat and his comrades in the prisons and detention centers in the forefront of the enemy fighter Marwan Barghouti - Aziz Dweik (newly divorced) - Ibrahim Abu Hajla and all Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the Lebanese and the Syrians in the prisons of the enemy.

Salute to the victory of the Peruvian indigenous movement!

2009-06-22T22:00:00.002-04:00

WFDY has received the news about the historical victory achieved by the indigenous movement of Peru, after an intense struggle against the national Government, who is a close ally of the USA imperialim. This victory was achieved after several months of protests that have cost the life to at least 34 people and produced more than 60 missing people, whereas the main leaders were being intensively persecuted by the Peruvian authorities.

The struggle of the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazonia, is an example to follow by all those who claim the right to their land, to their natural environment, against the neoliberal policies and against all those who want to five away the natural resources of Amazonia to the big transnational groups for its destruction, disregard the people who have lived in that land for millions of years.

WFDY expresses its solidarity towards the indegenous movements in Peru and calls upon all its member and friend organizations, as well as all the progressive youth of the world, to express its support to all the indigenous people of the world, who are struggling to survive and save their cultures.

Not a token day: National Aboriginal Day, June 21st, summer solstice

2009-06-22T21:38:00.002-04:00

The Young Communist League of Canada, Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada stands in support of struggles by all of Canada's First Peoples on this day, National Aboriginal Day, and every other day in the year. National Aboriginal Day should never be a token day, and First Nations reservations should never be token lands. This day we take the time to recognize that a war has and continues to be waged against all aboriginal peoples. A slow and steady genocide has been committed against First Nations, the Metis and Inuit peoples.

We are all on Aboriginal land, and the idea of the treaties was to share and share alike what this land has to offer. Now it is time for the state and corporations to pay the rent! The concept of land ownership was unheard of, until colonial governments forced it upon Aboriginal peoples. Sharing and co-operation were trampled by capitalist values of exploitation of land, profit from misery and feelings of superiority. Such attitudes set the foundation for racism and the cultural genocide of the residential school system.

What are the legacies of a government policy to control the Aboriginal population? One of many legacies is a suicide rate that is of epidemic proportions in many communities. Aboriginals have a high rate of suicide. Aboriginal youth in particular have the highest suicide rates. According to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, young aboriginals living on a reserve kill themselves at rates five to seven times higher than other young people. Put in another way, that's 500% to 700% more. A University of Manitoba report stated that aboriginal youth suicide rates were highest in urban areas. Manitoba has the highest suicide rate in the country. [1]

Young Aboriginal women face racialized and sexualized violence. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has compiled a database of over 520 missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls since 1970. Of the women and girls whose age at the time of their disappearance or death is known, two thirds were under the age of 30; eighteen per cent were under nineteen years old.[2]

Racism against Aboriginal peoples is spawned by capitalism from the colonial courts and prisons to the 2010 Olympics and also among youth. Recently, a Facebook group appeared claiming “Native Americans are ruining Canada.” One post said: “Native Americans are substantially increasing Canada’s suicide rate to enormous proportions and embarrasses us as a country [sic]” The group description said “Anyone from Upper Canada College can join and invite others from Upper Canada College to join.” (UCC is the most elite private boys school in Canada, with the Duke of Edinburgh on its Board) The facebook group has been closed down, but this was not random – national oppression of aboriginal peoples is part of the ideology of the ruling class.[3]

Can we compare UCC with the learning conditions for many aboriginal youth on reserve or in off-reserve urban aboriginal communities? Many schools have students learning in overcrowded and sub standard school buildings, with meagre school supplies. Now the federal government is withholding much of its funding for a First Nations University. Although access to education is both a human right and a treaty right for First Nations, basic core service funding including post-secondary, is capped; And the federal Conservatives want to off-load it's responsibility for post-secondary education, switching from grants to student loans, for an already disadvantaged group of people.

Over 50% of Aboriginal people are under 23. Canadian youth justified by being deep enraged by treatment of Aboriginal peoples by the Canadian ruling class; the attack on Aboriginal youth is an attack on all youth.

Aboriginal youth need a future. A future free from racism, a future with a good paying job, a future with land or proper compensation for land use. A future with rights to universal education right up to and including post-secondary education. A future with good housing. A future without racist police brutality and racial profiling. A future with a dream. A future that is a reality.

Central Executive Commiteee

YCL-LJC

1. www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2006/08/31/suicide-study.html; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7834596

2. Native Women’s Association of Canada, www.nwac-hq.org

3. www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2214290884

Regarding the situation in Iran

2009-06-19T01:04:00.001-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is following with concern the current developments in Iran following the 12th June Presidential election.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth is seriously alarmed to receive reports about ttacks, arrests and murders in student dormitories in a number of universities inside Iran.

At the same time, USA and imperialist media is trying to create that by changing leader Iran would completely change, promoting the atmosphere of external intervention in Iran or for a coup d’état that would bring the imperialist promoted forces to power.

WFDY believes that the way out of this situation must be political, peaceful and sovereign, therefore we support the struggle of all the people who claim political and social rights and we reject any solution that leads to an administrative, violent or external overthrow of the power to handle it to the any imperialist supported person or force.

Furthermore, WFDY extends its solidarity with Tudeh Party and its Youth, member of WFDY, who are in exile fighting for their political rights within Iran.

The CC/HQ of WFDY

Budapest, 18th June 2009

YCL-LJC CONDEMNS URIBE VISIT TO CANADA

2009-06-18T17:38:00.001-04:00

June 12, 2009

The warm reception of Fascist Colombian President Alvaro Uribe by the Canadian government has been strongly condemned by the Young Communist Leauge of Canada - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada (YCL-LJC).

“That our government would welcome Uribe, just days after the news that Colombia again ‘leads’ the world in murders of trade unionists, with 48 deaths in 2008 alone, is appalling,” said Johan Boyden, General Secretary of the YCL-LJC. The YCL-LJC joined with the numerous organizations from labour, faith communities, students, NGOs and human rights groups, as well as political parties condemning the Canada-Colombia Free Trade deal, which was the main topic of the meeting.

“The free trade deal will be written in the blood of Colombia workers, peasants, religious leaders, union organizers, and Communists” Boyden said. “It serves only the interests of US and Canadian imperialism in the region.”

Boyden pointed to the disappearance announced this Thursday of Cindy Johana Barrero, an activist with the Colombian Communist Youth (JUCO), as just another case of the violent oppression conducted by state-sponsored paramilitaries against Colombian civil society. Uribe’s campaign of lies, persecution and murder against JUCO has also been condemned by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, he noted.

ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

2009-06-18T14:53:00.001-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth joins the African region in commemorating the Day of the African Child on June 16 2009. In 1991, the African Union the then Organization of African Unity declared that June 16 be the Day of the African Child in remembrance of the June 16 1976 when hundreds of black school children in Soweto, South Africa were massacred in cold blood and thousands injured by the racist and imperialist regime when they took to the streets to protest against the inferior quality of their education, and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Thus therefore June 16th of every year has been commemorated across the African continent as the Day of the African Child.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth hereby calls all progressive youth movements from across the continent to continue exposing such brutal, barbaric and uncouth acts by imperialists. We also note with great concern that in the current global political setup the intervention of imperialists is derailing the progress towards empowering the young people of African nations. We encourage governments to provide local resources for empowerment and shun the conditional meager donations of imperialists.

We therefore urge Governments of African Nations to effectively deal with issues which hinder the progress of child development especially in education, culture, religious, health, child abuse, ending the issue of child soldiers, enabling youths to participate in the economic issues of their nations amongst other issues.

The leadership must also engage in robust educational campaigns on the dangers of HIV and AIDS. We call for an end to the use of children as soldiers in countries, which are currently under war, an end to child trafficking.

The African Commission must encourage some African states that have not ratified African Youth Charter to do so and to enable child representatives to air out their views and concerns on how they expect to be done regarding their needs.

However we strongly encourage governments and concerned youth organizations to educate children the history of their nations as this helps them build a concrete historical background as well as preserving African values and culture.

We wish all Africans living in Africa and the Diaspora a strong commemoration of the Day of African Child 2009 under the Theme “Africa Fit for Children: Call for accelerated action towards their survival”

WFDY CC/HQ
Budapest, June 16 2009
www.wfdy.org

Free the Cuban Five!

2009-06-18T14:52:00.000-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has received the news about the decision of the Supreme Court of the USA of not accepting to review the case of the Five Cuban Heroes that remain unfairly imprisoned in the USA prisons.

Despite having received the important support of many personalities of the world and all the progressive youth that struggles to build a better world, it is known that the imperialist government of Obama has put an action in a court for it not accept the case, which shows once again its hypocrisy towards Cuba.

The heroic struggle of the Cuban people, that has cost the life to more than 3000 of its children, victims of the terrorism supported by the USA, over more than 50 years of heroic struggles driven by the Cuban people to protect itself from the terrorist actions is the essence of this case, which is once again created by the imperialist Government of USA, who keeps trying to overthrow the heroic people of Cuba by condemning the Five Cuban Heroes, proving the deep political content of all decisions regarding Cuba.

WFDY condemns this unfair decision taken by the Supreme Court of USA, that has been under pressure of the imperialist government of that country and considers this decision a complete hypocrisy to the American justice, and demands to the Government of USA to stop the pressures
over this case that became political, because it has put over the Cuban Five Heroes all the hate of the challenge that Cuba represented over the last 50 years and that will never be destroyed.

WFDY calls upon its member and friend organizations to demonstrate in front of all American embassies and take action to denounce this injustice.

The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, June 16, 2009

Solidarity towards Colombia!

2009-06-12T11:20:00.003-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, has been following the regretable happenings in Colombia against JUCO, which is being directly related with FARC, making use of its excelent relations with the Socialist Youth of Norway. This is another demonstration of the cowardly actions of the imperialist Colombian government, trying to criminalize JUCO, alongside with a major campaing of persecution and murder of its members.

As part of its rights, the Communist Youth of Colombia (JUCO) has developped bounds of cooperation with several organizations around the world and has developped an excelent role as Regional Coordinator of WFDY for Latin America and Caribbean, which has allowed it to increase its international recognition and prestige at the same time as it has actively denounced in all possible places the criminal actions that the Colombian government has taken against all those who struggle to build a better future for Colombia. This is in fact why the government of president Uribe is so keen on taking this campaign against JUCO forward.

WFDY, condemns once again the unfair and criminal campaing of lies, persecution and murder against JUCO, demanging that its rights are all respected. Furthermore, WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations to join the solidarity campaigns towards JUCO and condemn the actions of the criminal government of the imperialist administration of Colombia against its own people.
Budapest, June 12, 2009

The CC/HQ of WFDY

YCL-LJC CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING

2009-06-09T15:11:00.002-04:00

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE YOUTH AND STUDENTS IN CANADA
MAIN POLITICAL REPORT, PRESENTED BY J. BOYDEN, YCL-LJC GENERAL SECRETARY
JUNE 2009

Our meeting comes at an extraordinary and critical period for labour, the people’s movements, and the youth movement. A lot has happened in just the eight months since we last met. As the Central Executive said this May Day, “With the current economic crisis, the mask of imperialism has been ripped off with the full explosive force of its own internal contradictions. Youth and students and the working peoples of the world are being forced to pay for a crisis we did not create.”

We agree that, while neo-liberalism has intensified the outcomes of the current crisis, the crisis “is not the result of the implementation of neoliberal policies such as free trade, deregulation, privatization, and anti-labour employment policies, etc.; rather, it is the inevitable outcome of the systemic crisis of capitalism itself.”

It’s all the more important for young people to empower their critical thinking with though study of Marxism. But if we kept our response at the level of analysis, we’d be making a terrible mistake. We’re in a juncture that is importunately calling out for action.

In the opinion of the CEC, it is imperative for the youth movement, including the YCL, to catch this wave, and do our best to funnel it into constructive, united mass struggle. We must come out of this meeting with a commitment to a focused discussion on this question, grounded in local work, across our league.

With the economy in a tail-spin, suddenly our generation is asking ‘what kind of future does the system offer us’? It is our evaluation that young people are very quickly becoming more open to different and bolder ideas.

This context also shows the validity of our priority areas of struggle – jobs, education, and peace.

Literally millions of young people will soon be looking for summer jobs. Over the next week, 300 youth employment outlets will open across the country for youth. Yet youth unemployment is skyrocketing to the highest levels in over a decade. First it was Quebec and Ontario, where youth unemployment is almost 20%. Now BC and Alberta have seen a spike – 80 and 112% -- respectively in EI collection. The situation is no better in the Prairies. And in the East Coast, most young people have to leave the region just to make a living.

Not one CEO has been asked to return a penny of the $3 billion slush-fund Prime Minister Harper’s 2009 budget created, but the government dares to demand workers and retirees return pension benefits and slash wages!

Clearly, youth and students’ stakes are on the same side of the table as the industrial workers, and diametrically opposed to the CEOs. The Central Committee should instruct the Executive to move the League into this fight back with renewed energy and audacity:

• Convene a cross-Canada English-language conference call of youth workers;
• Asses the situation and foster comrades deep engagement in local activities such as Employment Insurance petitions, or minimum wage;
• Support the proposal of the joint meeting with the Communist Party to publish a youth-oriented leaflet;
• Ensure Rebel Youth and Jeunesse Militante are tools in this fight.

Students will return to school with either stagnant public funding in the case of secondary education, or higher fees in the case of post-secondary. Ontario is pushing towards the highest tuition in Canada. Charest’s Liberal’s are fighting hard to raise Quebec’s fees astronomically. The re-election of Campbell’s Liberals in BC will not correct the sky rocketing tuition in that province – in fact, the opposite. In some universities, the complete failure of the market has reaped a devastating harvest, as for example at the University of Toronto $1.3 billion has been lost in endowment funds.

In this context the YCL must not stand on the side-lines:

• Convene a conference call of all university student activists including Quebec;
• Convene a conference call of all high-school activists including Quebec;
• Experiment with an online email-based YCL student newsletter aimed at student activists across the country, especially around meetings of the CFS
• Experiment with tools like YCL high school newsletters, such as deepening the struggle for access to post-secondary, or generating protest around reactionary and anti-socialist curriculum in high schools;
• We should discuss especially the choices facing student activists

If young people needed to see demonstrated willingness by youth and students to voice loud and noisy opposition, just look at the anti-imperialist efforts of our generation. Responding to Israel’s terrorist war on the Palestinians in January, demonstrators flooded the streets – the largest Palestinian solidarity actions recently.

Canadian-launched Israeli Apartheid Week actions are now held across the country and internationally; but the Harper Conservative government, with Zionist youth, University administrations and a major Canadian newspaper, has harassed these campus efforts – illegally fining and expelling students, investigating pro-Palestinian teachers, banning a poster by cartoonist Carlos Latuff, and baring British MP George Galloway.

The youth have also mobilized and protested George W. Bush visiting Calgary and Toronto, and in strong condemnation of the genocide of the Tamil people, and meeting should add our voice in deploration.

These developments, and the continued need to focus on the war Afghanistan and military recruitment, mean that the Central Committee should instruct the Executive to re-convene the YCL Peace conference call, which has been largely inactive for a year.

Comrades,

We can’t be tired now, as campaigners, as activists, and as an organization – from the club level to our central YCL leadership meeting at today. As we did at our last CC, I think the starting point for discussion about local action needs to be our role, which derives from a reading of the young people’s consciousness and militancy.

I think that while most young people recognize the basic roots of this crisis, it’s a whole different question if they see a way forward. It is not an easy question!

Those who orient, correctly, towards Harper’s Tories as being the main vehicle of the corporate agenda seem confused by how to combat his superman-like rebound with the passage of the 2009 budget. “There are so many issues, how do we get young people engaged?” But we’re not going to find a magic glowing green jar of kryptonite that will stop the Conservatives or the forces behind them.

Consider the immediate struggle that is going on around Employment Insurance today. The main openings lie in such agitation, education and engagement where young people are in struggle. Left and progressive youth organizations, not least the YCL, can make very constructive interventions both on the level of ideas, and in mobilizing more people into the fightback.

As one commentator said recently, “the relationship between the ideas and the muscle to enforce them is a dialectical one” like, as the saying goes, being able to fart and chew gum.

Can we do this as an organization?

We’ve seen the crisis already have severe repercussions in Parliament. First, the coalition government skirmish against the Harper Conservative’s last winter. Now, an impending clash over Employment Insurance.

No vehicle exists inside parliament that can defeat Harper and bring the kind of bold new direction that’s needed. Opposition will likely grow from the existing resistance and form something new. The YCL needs to support and foster alliances within and beyond the youth movement, including with labour, that can shift the power of big business by uniting all students and young people who are suffering the consequences.
Today’s meeting will also discuss the next YCL convention. In my opinion the ensuing months and the convention discussion are a seminal opportunity to examine and debate fresh and original proposals about such alliances.

To conclude, comrades – in the Executive’s view, the stakes are high. We fully concur with the sentiments expressed at last winter’s international meeting of Communist and Worker’s parties:

Humankind is passing through one of the most difficult and complex moments in history; an economic global crisis that simultaneously coincides with an energy and food crisis and a serious environmental crisis; a world of deep injustices and inequalities, wars and conflicts. The scene is of an historic crossroads, in which two contradictory tendencies are being manifested. On one side lie great dangers to peace, to sovereignty, democracy, to peoples and workers' rights, and on the other side lie immense potential for struggles and the advance of the cause of emancipation of workers and peoples, the cause of social progress and peace, the cause of socialism and communism.

The only road forward is fighting for our rights and our needs.

Thank you.

WFDY News

2009-06-02T16:13:00.004-04:00

We are pleased to provide the link to a recent World Federation of Democratic Youth publication, World Youth, magazine of WFDY:

http://www.wfdy.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/world_youth_site.pdf

We enclose below the editorial of World Youth Magazine.

-YCL-LJC CEC

EDITORIAL

World Youth is back!! The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) resumes the publishing of its magazine after several years of stopping due to past financial and logistic problems. Now World Youth is back as one more element of the antiimperialist struggle.

In this historical moment when imperialism escalates its aggressions militarily and ideologically, and at the same time faces crisis of its own creation, it becomes more and more necessary to enforce our struggles and diversify its tools. World Youth is here to express and reveal some of the actions and plans of WFDY and its member organizations so that more young people get introduced to WFDY and to the anti-imperialist movement, and also to thousands of people around the world understand the contexts of different struggles and different situations in other countries.

Palestine remains as one of the most important issues to discuss and to struggle for, thus WFDY dedicates many of its solidarity events and mission as well as statements to this cause. The last war on Gaza was another crime against humanity by all legal and humanitarian measures, yet Israel remains protected and sponsored by the imperialist countries that control our present world.

Our member organizations organized numerous events of protest and solidarity around the world in support of the Palestinian people. World Youth covers some of those events. Also Burma witnessed a popular uprising few months ago, and WFDY organized a campaign of solidarity that spread worldwide and was more influential on the regional level in Asia.

Columbia also had important political moments and WFDY was always near to its member organization JUCO against the new fascist policies of the government that spreads horror and division among the people. The broad movement in Latin America, in Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and others was an important feature of our struggles in 2008.

In the Middle East, in addition to Palestine, Iraq is still under occupation and all the rhetoric about withdrawal of the troops wouldn't have been raised without the resistance and the international solidarity movement against the war and the occupation there.

In Europe, more anti-progressive and anticommunist actions were consolidated y the right wing governments. Its most disgraceful expression was the disbanding and the illegalization of KSM in Czech Republic. Those are few of the many important events in the world during the last year, and this issue will present them in addition to many other actions and events that we conducted.

We hope that all anti-imperialist youth will find many answers and many interesting information in this magazine and that we can contribute to add more force to the growing progressive movement.

World Youth is issued to stay, and we hope that through serious and organized collective work, it will be maintained and developed further in the next years, along with more struggles of the anti-imperialist movement.

Youth Struggle in Canada

2009-06-02T16:07:00.001-04:00

Submission to WFDY NEWS, June 2009

The global capitalist economic crisis has dangerously accelerated the corporate attack on the youth across Canada. Youth unemployment is the highest in a decade. Despite sophisticated propaganda discouraging young people against alternatives, the youth and students resist.

The economic crisis is reflected in political volatility. The ultra-right Harper Conservative government survived an unusual challenge from a potential coalition government last winter. Mass outcry for Employment Insurance (EI) reforms are expected to rock the government again.

Less than 40% of workers who pay into EI can collect; nor is it accessible to young workers. But no province has moved to close the wage gap between men and women, invested in affordable housing for youth, or legislate a minimum wage above the poverty line. Young workers are also demanding all migrant, foreign and immigrant workers have citizenship status. Students are voicing opposition to skyrocketing fees and living costs. Quebequois students have organized militant mass actions. Student debt hit $13 billion in January.

Canada is a rich country, yet the working class' living standards are falling.

Canadian young people are also outraged by the oppression of Aboriginal nations, including First Nations and Metis. There's a crisis of living conditions on many 'Indian' Reservations (like unsafe drinking water), racist colonial policies (from housing and employment discrimination to police brutality), and refusal of Aboriginal peoples' treaty rights and sovereignty. Last year, over 2,000 Aboriginal students were denied university funding. Youth are opposing the 2010 Winter Olympic games in British Columbia, on unsurrendered native land and adjacent to the most impoverished neighborhood in Canada.

Canadian foreign policy appears largely drafted in Washington. Canada's government warmly welcomed the new US administration. But polls show the people oppose the recent rapid rise in military spending, active support to NATO and NORAD, Obama's extension of the imperialist war in Afghanistan, and especially Canada's participation.

April 4th saw mobilizations against the war in Afghanistan and NATO. Quebequois youth are especially vocal against military recruitment. Denouncing Israel's terrorist war on the Palestinians, demonstrators flooded the streets in the largest Palestinian solidarity actions recently. Student-driven Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns against Israel are wining support, including among unions. Canadian-launched Israeli Apartheid Week is observed in 25 cities from Caracas to Johannesburg to Jenin. However, the Harper Conservative government, with Zionist youth, University administrations and the corporate media, has harassed these campus campaigns - illegally fining and expelling students, investigating pro-Palestinian teachers, banning the slogan “Israeli Apartheid” and Carlos Latuff's posters, and preventing British MP George Galloway from entering Canada.

More recently students have mobilized in condemnation of the genocide of the Tamil people, and protested George W Bush visiting Calgary and Toronto. Student activists continue confronting meetings of Canadian-Latin America mining corporations, and registering vocal opposition to Canada's free-trade agreement with fascistic Colombia. Solidarity campaigns with Haiti deplore Canada's police occupation. A continued campaign demands Omar Khadr's repatriation, the young Canadian and last 'Western National' in the US Guantanamo Bay torture camp. Environmental activists are exposing the Alberta Tar Sands, catastrophic strip-mining for energy resources.
Triumphs like those of Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador's FMLN victory inspire Canadian youth. The Canadian Federation of Students recently demanded the Cuban Five's release, calls Quebec student unions also support.

The Young Communist League - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste is active in these struggles and militating for socialism. The way forward is fighting - building a broad and powerful people's movement against the Harper Conservatives, and all our oppressors, and winning a bold direction centered not on corporate greed but peace, ecological sustainability and the people's needs!
The Youth are the Future, the Future is Socialism!

On the new French military base in UAE

2009-06-02T16:05:00.001-04:00

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened a new military bases for France in the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf region. This is the first base for France in that region, in a signal for its imperialist intentions as a country looking for domination and more exploitation through military means.

USA and the UK also have several bases in that region with tens of thousands of troops spread across the region in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and United Arab Emirates. This huge military presence has one and only one goal: control over those oil rich countries and guaranteeing the easy and cheap reach for their resources.

WFDY condemns this new move by France, and asks for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the countries of the Gulf and the dismantling of all imperialist military in the world.

WFDY believes in world peace, where the people determine their destiny and have their basic rights without the interventions of foreign troops and the implications of the policies of the imperialist countries. The resources of the region should be controlled by its people, and its benefits should be used for the development of those countries, for their education and health systems, and not to fund the military industries of USA, UK, France and other countries.

WFDY expresses its solidarity with the people of the region and calls for the continuation of the struggle for a peaceful democratic Gulf region free of military bases and foreign troops.

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

2009-05-28T13:32:00.000-04:00

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

2009-05-26T01:07:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-26T01:06:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-26T01:05:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-05-20T21:02:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-20T01:28:00.001-04:00

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!

2009-05-19T23:30:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-12T21:07:00.001-04:00

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

2009-05-06T13:24:00.000-04:00

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!

Warm militant greetings on May Day 2009

2009-04-30T23:16:00.002-04:00

Ligue de la Jeunesse communiste du Canada
Young Communist League of Canada,
Central Executive Comittee,

With the current economic crisis, the mask of imperialism has been ripped off with the full explosive force of its own internal contradictions. Youth and students and the working peoples of the world are being forced to pay for a crisis we did not create. On May Day 2009, the YCL-LJC joins in solidarity with the wave of young people across Canada and internationally resisting the effects of the crisis, and calling for an end to imperialist war and aggression.

If young people in Canada needed a reason to fight-back, look at this March’s youth unemployment figures: 14.8%, the highest in eleven years and the fastest rate of job decline among all age groups with 122,000 jobs lost since October 2008.

In this context, nowhere in Canada has Employment Insurance been made more accessible to youth. Nowhere has the extreme crisis of Aboriginal peoples’ national oppression been addressed. Not one province has moved to close the wage gap between men and women, or announced a substantial tuition reduction (in fact, the opposite), or invested in affordable housing for youth, or even legislated a minimum wage above the poverty line. Instead, some governments are reducing the discriminatory youth or student minimum wage rates!

The billion-dollar federal military budget is increasing – fueling Canada’s imperialist foreign policy in Afghanistan, as well as Sudan, Haiti, and Yugoslavia (supporting reactionary regimes like Colombia and Israel). On all levels – federal, provincial, municipal – the state has demanded lower wages, workers’ pensions and savings, while rewarding CEOs with billions of worker’s money in slush funds and more credit. Our stakes are on the same side as the industrial workers fighting concessions, and diametrically opposed to the bosses.

This global crisis is a crisis of capitalism. The way forward is to fight – to build and strengthen a broad and powerful people’s movement, overcome all divisions of racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, turn the tables on the Harper Conservatives, and all our oppressors in their executive suits, and to win a bold new direction centered on ecological sustainability and the people’s needs – not corporate greed.

In this sharpening struggle on May Day 2009, we raise the red flag of socialism as urgent, necessary and possible! We extend our warm militant greetings of fraternal solidarity and stand with all those who are struggling for justice and dignity across Canada and around the world.

Reinforce the struggles of youth and students!
Our Future, Our Fight!

YCL: National Post, Stop Red-Baiting

2009-04-21T22:22:00.001-04:00

Editor, National Post
April 21st 2009

The continued slanderous disinformation campaign labeling anti-Semitic all those who condemn Zionism and Israeli’s occupation of Palestine is wearing thin.

Last week, the National Post newspaper targeted the brave students and educators at Toronto’s alternative Student School who have launched High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. The Post even steeped to red-baiting, saying that school coordinator Mr John Morton “refused interview requests from the National Post, but he outlined the school's continued support for such programs in a letter to the Web site Rebel Youth Magazine, a blog published by the Young Communist League of Canada.” (National Post, April 6th)

If The Post had done its homework, writer Dave Bowden would have found Mr. Morton’s supposed letter was simply an email widely circulated among the broad progressive majority in solidarity with the sovereign people of Palestine and outraged by Israel’s racist and brutal occupation, backed by US and Canadian foreign policy.

But then lack of fact-checking has never stopped The National Post from zealously churning-out Harper Tory capitalist drivel – attacking workers, women, youth and students, Aboriginal peoples, Quebequois, people of colour, Muslims and Arabs, people with disabilities, artists, you name it. The Post continually worships the market, while failing to make a profit from its own sales.

The Post’s inflammatory articles against the Student School have prompted an investigation into its coordinator. Youth today are widely condemned for not voting, and then publicly chastised when we do engage in politics. Teachers who try to encourage discussion in class rooms are singled out for special scrutiny. This does not foster an educational environment, it deliberately creates an atmosphere of fear aimed at stifling free speech.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. The shrill claims to the contrary do not cut ice in Canada, nor around the world. The Young Communist League of Canada warmly applauds and expresses our full solidarity with the Student School, which has also recently banned police from its corridors, and High School Students Against Israeli Apartheid. Justice is on your side, as it is on the side of the Palestinian people.

Johan Boyden,
General Secretary,
Young Communist League of Canada
290A Danforth Ave.
Toronto, ON M4K 1N6
416-964-3894
www.ycl-ljc.ca

Three World Federation of Democratic Youth Statements

2009-04-19T16:49:00.004-04:00

**For democracy and freedom, against anti-communism!
April 13

In the last months the attack against the democratic rights and freedoms of the peoples and youth of the world has been deepened by the imperialist Governments and its international, regional and national structures.

The criminalization of those who struggle against the imperialist world order and to overthrow imperialism itself is a common line of action, which is focusing particularly the communist forces. Nevertheless, WFDY believes that the attack to the communist forces has a much deeper meaning than only these forces (which would be unacceptable anyway), but it aims to destroy all resistance against imperialism.

The presidency of the European Union (now run by the Czech Government), and its political line of supporting the so called “researches against the dictatorships in Europe” is a clear attempt to rewrite History, comparing the hideous crimes of Nazism with the so called “Stalinism”, a period that the imperialist writers of history want to criminalize to confuse the people. In this same frame, the holding of a conference about “the resistance against communism in Czechoslovakia” is a new opportunity to try to, once again, rewrite History.

However, this is not a question of the past and only that. In fact, it is very much connected to the daily situation of the world today and for its future. In a moment when the capitalist crisis is clearly showing the dead ends and the self-destructive character of the capitalist system and the impossibility for a future of peace, sovereignty and with social and political rights for all mankind, it is necessary for imperialism to survive to chase those who can bury it! That is why now imperialism is developing a new “witch hunt”, trying that the people and youth of the world do not believe that it is possible to struggle and win, that it is possible to defeat imperialism.

WFDY denounces that all these worries with “democracy” coming from the European Union is nothing but a way to impose the imperialism world order. Let us remind that: it is the very same Czech Government that now is the presidency of EU that criminalized and banned KSM (the Czech Communist Youth Union) for its political program, as well as it happens in several other former socialist countries (as Hungary, or in the Baltic area), where communists, their organizations and political elements are forbidden and chased, this very same European Union is deepening bounds with the state of Israel, supporting (directly and indirectly) the daily massacre and humiliation of the Palestinian people, the same EU that keeps cooperating everyday more and more with NATO, a war instrument that has brought death to thousands of peoples over the last years, the same EU that cooperates with USA in its strategy to promote interferences inside the Cuban policies, creating NGO’s openly for that purpose, and the same EU that cooperates with the dictatorial regimes of Colombia and Egypt, where everyday people are killed, chased or wounded by their political options only

Furthermore WFDY denounces the situation of the countries inside EU itself has a clear demonstration on how dishonest this worry about the democracy is. The still to explain death of a person in a demonstration (London, UK), the prohibition for communists to be teachers (Germany), the arresting and interferences inside the students unions conducted by the police (Portugal), the prohibition of a cultural festival because of one of the bands invited having lyrics about the resistance (Spain) the inhuman expelling of the immigrants and way they are exploited and chased (Italy), among many other measures, explain by themselves how empty the word “democracy” is for imperialism.

To all this only one answer can be given by the youth and the people of the world: the struggle! WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organization to denounce as much as possible the ongoing attempt to criminalize the struggle we develop, particularly the communist organizations, during the days of the conference about Czechoslovakia (15 and 16 of April).

Moreover, WFDY states that despite the rough times that come ahead of us this a sign that imperialism knows we can win, so let us reinforce our daily struggle in the schools, places of work and neighborhoods, never being afraid of what we are and we struggle for, as it is the only way for mankind to achieve the long waited lasting peace and social development that imperialism keeps trying to postpone.

We will defeat imperialism!

** Solidarity towards Bolivia!
April 13

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has heard the news of the decision of President Evo Morales and an important group of members of its party and member of the trade unions of Bolivia to start a hunger strike, against the manoeuvres that the Bolivian oligarchy is making in the Congress, which would mean the implementation of a law that would block the implementation of the Constitution and the elections that are to be held near the end of this year.

The deep transformations that the Government of Evo Morales has achieved, which allowed the country to be free of illiteracy, to provide medical care for the poorest and has had excellent results in the economy, has always had the opposition of the imperialist oligarchy of Bolivia who keeps not accepting what the people has decided to change for ever.

WFDY expresses its full support the President Evo Morales, and to the youth and people of Bolivia, that are struggling to build a better future, and calls upon all its member and friend organizations as well as to all the young people of the world to express the support to the process of changes that has been occurring in Bolivia and to condemn all actions of the Bolivian oligarchy, which is the same oligarchy of all the world, capitalist and imperialist.

** Solidarity towards the Colombia youth
April 7

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, is following with much attention the serious situation of the human rights lived in Colombia and particularly the continuous attacks against the youth and students leaders, which are chased, murdered and force do leave the country, without any guarantee by the fascist government of Colombia.

The Government of Alvaro Uribe has continued it policies of hostilities against the young people in the last weeks, with the support of the paramilitary groups (who are said not exist anymore), murdering four students and wounding other three, distributing propaganda to create fear among the population.

WFDY, condemns these actions that have been held against the Colombian young people and students, by the fascist government of Alvaro Uribe Velez, and calls upon all its member and friend organizations as well as all the progressive youth of the world to express its condemnation of the colombian government and the support to the demand of the youth organizations of Colombia so that justice is made and that the material and intelectual responsible for everything that happened are investigated and punished.

The YCL-LJC Canada is the Canadian member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth

Students should not pay for this crisis

2009-04-15T19:17:00.001-04:00

Statement by YCL Ontario
April 6, 2009

The elimination of the Women’s Studies programme by the University of Guelph’s senate is a lightning flash, warning students about a sharpening struggle on campuses. We’re heading into the worst economic crisis our generation has seen. Already the rumbling thunder of opposition has been heard as Guelph students flooded the senate chambers. Solidarity rallies were organized on several campuses across the country.

This is a deliberate, ideologically-motivated attack on small programs as well as women’s and student’s rights. It will save the University less than 0.17 percent of its deficit!

At the same time, the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Sciences has swept in ‘flat fees’ requiring incoming students to pay a set, five-course fee rather than per-course. This will restrict access to education for part-time students who are working and going to school. Does the university think our wages have suddenly increased? Just weeks ago, mass outcry stopped Premier McGuinty from halting an increase in minimum wage (and even with the increase, full time workers are at least $3,000 below the poverty line).

These decisions can be reversed by the pressure of students, faculty and staff together with labour and other peoples’ movements. Everyone should know that the Guelph mobilization did prevent the elimination of Organic Agriculture, a program dedicated to solving desperate environmental problems in a framework free of the usual corporate-financed research on campus.

Behind closed doors Guelph’s administrators might think they can get away with an attack on feminism. But this fight is not over. Half the world is women, women students are the growing majority on campuses, and Women’s Studies is perhaps the only academic forum on campus dedicated to the issues of sexism, racism, homophobia and patriarchy. These days, Women’s Studies is being introduced into High School curricula. Having Women’s Studies is in everyone’s interest.

The funding crunch and broader economic crisis facing post-secondary institutions across Ontario was not caused by students or workers. We shouldn’t have to pay for it. In fact, at this time it is all the more necessary to increase access to education by reducing then eliminating tuition fees, creating jobs by hiring more faculty – increasing the number of people of colour and women faculty – expanding accessible childcare on campus, and expanding democratic student participation in the university.

McGuinty’s latest budget gives Ontario’s corporations one of the lowest tax rates in North America. It provides students, however, with only $780 million in capital funding. It continues the dangerous trend away from public funding and towards reliance on tuition fees, illegal ancillary fees, and endowment funds that was begun under the Mike Harris Tories. The U of T just announced it has lost $1.3 billion in endowment money because of the casino capitalist market (the manager of those funds, by the way, makes $170, 000 per semester).

All students must get organized with our allies and fight-back to make the capitalists pay for this crisis – not the youth, workers, women, Aboriginal peoples, people of colour, and the poor. Reactionary forces are already working to mislead students in this battle. Alternative campus media and CBC news recently exposed that the Conservative Party is holding Canada-wide skills training sessions, with sitting MPs present, about infiltrating and liquidating student unions, the Canadian Federation of Students, and the Ontario Public Interest Research Groups.

The Young Communist League (Ontario) expresses our full solidarity with the struggles of students to preserve their courses and make access to post-secondary education a right. The attack on Women’s Studies is part of the general attack on women, today spear-headed by the Harper Conservatives. We call upon all democratic-minded people to join with this fight. We demand emergency anti-crisis measures for students, including:

• Freezing, reducing and eliminating tuition fees

• Grants not loans

• Massive expansion of affordable housing on campus

• Quality, accessible childcare

• Free books

• Increasing student’s and worker’s representation in University administration

• Raising the minimum wage to $15

• Jobs not bombs; troops out now!

The fight-back of peoples’ movements necessary to win such measures could lead to more substantial demands, like nationalization of Canada’s energy and automotive industries, and banking. And that could open the door to a profound struggle to eliminate this sick and dangerous capitalist system of oppression and exploitation, which must ultimately be replaced by something radically better – guaranteeing people’s rights, livelihoods, and environmental sustainability – called socialism.

LET GEORGE GALLOWAY SPEAK IN CANADA!

2009-03-25T17:23:00.002-04:00

March 25, 2009
YCL-Ljc CEC

The Harper Conservative government has again brought down its heel on freedom of speech.

Democratic Canadians have to reverse this decision. By banning British MP George Galloway, minister Jason Kenney and the Harper Conservatives are attacking the very liberties they hypocritically claim to defend in Afghanistan. Even the corporate media has condemned this (although they are really saying to Harper ‘don’t silence him, trust us to do that job’).

Since when has terrorism meant donating a fire engine, twelve ambulances, a fishing boat, trucks full of medicine, blankets, shoes and children’s toys? Who is next – the Red Cross (or Red Crescent)?

The Palestinians live under a state of siege and occupation. (Last week, Israel simply drove into the West Bank and arrested several elected Hamas parliamentarians!) This announcement comes in a period of intensifying clamp-downs against broad public discussion of Canada’s bloody imperialist foreign policy, especially the dirty, racist war in Afghanistan and the Canada’s support of the Israeli apartheid government’s occupation in Palestine.

Take the deportation of the US Iraq war resisters – this week Kimberly Rivera; or the cut backs to public funding for the Canadian Arab Federation’s immigrant community services not because of any policy violation, but a political statement by an unfunded part of the organization. High school and university communities have been under attack for Palestinian solidarity work. Immigrant workers without full documentation have been targeted through Immigration Enforcement raids, harassment outside women’s shelters, and rising deportations (and today the Minister equates the UN’s announcement of a 30% increase in refugee claims with abuse of the system! The nerve!).

In all of these heavy-handed measures Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, comes forward as the government’s un-muzzled pit bull terrier.

The Young Communist League expresses our condemnation of the Harper Conservative government and minister Kenney: reverse the decision, apologize, and drop the “Terrorist lists” which criminalize legitimate peoples movements. We stand with all democratic Canadians who are outraged by this development, and call upon the youth to join the rapidly growing vocal opposition to this attack on freedom of speech.

Mr. Harper – your attempt to silence the Canadian people will fail.

Young Communist League of Canada - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada.
290A Danforth Ave,
Toronto ON M4K 1N6
CANADA
Office: 416-469-2446

CELEBRATE EL SALVADOR!

2009-03-16T21:14:00.002-04:00

1. FMLN VICTORY!
2. LEFT TRIUMPHANT IN EL SALVADOR

1. FMLN VICTORY

YCLers joined members of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) at socials and party's across Canada last night, celebrating the victory of President-Elect Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, the party of the heroic Communist and guerialla fighter Schafik Handal. Funes got 51.26 percent, against 48.74 percent from the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance candidate. The results are considered irreversible.

A delegation of YCLers and other youth from Guelph-Kitchener is currently in El Salvador, observing the election proceedings and we will circulate a report-back from this delegation.

This is very welcome development, marking the latest of a series of progressive shifts across the political landscape of Latin America. It is a victory of a people that deserves to have the necessary change to fulfill their dream of liberation, and elimination of poverty and inequalities. The YCL will be sending greetings to the Youth of the Front and the FMLN on the occasion of this long, hard and historic victory!

2. LEFT TRIUMPHANT IN EL SALVADOR ELECTION

Morning Star (UK)
Monday 16 March 2009

SALVADOREAN left-winger Mauricio Funes vowed to crack down on tax-evading corporate chiefs on Monday after he won presidential elections.

The country's election commission released figures on Sunday which showed that Mr Funes of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) garnered 51.27 per cent of the vote against 48.73 per cent for Rodrigo Avila of the ruling Arena party, ending two decades of right-wing rule in El Salvador.

Jubilant, red-clad FMLN supporters poured into the streets of San Salvador on Monday, singing, clapping, blowing whistles and waving large party flags as fireworks lit up the night sky.

Addressing the rally, Mr Funes said that "the time has come for the excluded, the opportunity has arrived for genuine democrats, for men and women who believe in social justice and solidarity."

He vowed to boost public spending on education, health and poverty alleviation.

And Mr Funes gave notice to big-business bosses who exploit government complacency to evade taxes, pledging to bring the full force of law to bear on them.

The former freelance television reporter harnessed a wave of discontent with two decades of Arena party rule that have brought economic growth at the cost of growing social inequality.

Fuel and food prices have soared, while powerful gangs extort businesses and fight for drug-dealing turf, resulting in one of Latin America's highest murder rates.

Mr Avila, a former police chief, had warned that an FMLN victory would send El Salvador "down the communist path" and threaten the country's warm relations with the United States.

On Sunday, he vowed to lead "a vigilant opposition that would ensure that the country does not lose its liberties."

The FMLN was formed in 1980 as an umbrella group to unite progressive guerilla groups struggling against the US-backed military regime and its notorious death squads.

After signing the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992 which ended the bloody civil war, it became a legal political party.

In January's legislative elections, the FMLN won 42.6 per cent of the vote and 35 seats, making it the largest party in parliament, though it does not have a governing majority.

In Washington, the Obama administration has assured Salvadoreans that it will work with Mr Funes - a marked departure from the approach of former president George W Bush who indicated that an FMLN victory would hurt ties.

Solidarity with Sudanese peoples

2009-03-15T02:58:00.001-04:00

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. MIGUEL FIGUEROA TOUR IN BC
3. SUDAN SOLIDARITY

1. YCL IN ACTION

Six YCL Toronto members met on Wednesday 11th March to distribute and sell copies of People's Voice and Rebel Youth around the campuses of Ryerson and University of Toronto. The action was only about 45 minutes, but raised $5.60 despite this and the cold weather. It was decided that sales inside were more effective; future actions of this sort would benefit from a pre-distribution meeting in order to go over the contents of the literature being sold; and that this type of distribution activity should be taken up more regularly. (Report from Philip F, YCL Toronto)

2. MIGUEL FIGUEROA TOUR

YCLers across BC will be coming out to hear Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party, speak on his tour across the province. Miguel will be speaking about the root causes of the financial crisis, and the urgent need to change direction, create jobs and reform Employment Insurance (EI).

Among the Federal Budget's worst features is the almost complete government inaction on EI. Instead of extending coverage to all of the unemployed, and increasing benefit levels and claim periods, the budget keeps virtually all of the current miserly and exclusionary regulations firmly in place. The $2 billion for retraining jobless workers is a tiny fraction of the $54 billion stolen from the unemployed over the years through Liberal and Tory cuts. The federalminimum wage remains unchanged and the budget does nothin to protect and raise pensions or to improve social assistance. Read more:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/Pv01mr09.html#14_FIGUEROA_TOUR_TO_LAUNCH_C...

We will forward out all tour dates in a separate email.

2. SOLIDARITY WITH SUDAN

With the kidnapping of a Canadian nurse in Sudan, and the news that an "International court has issued an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan," the fact that Canada has been quietly increasing its military role in Sudan with Operation Safarri and Operation Saturn, has come into public scrutiny. There has also been a supposed solidarity campaign with Darfur, incorporating many honest and good activists but being led by anti-Palestinian and pro-Zionist students who have advocated for an "Afghanistan-style military intervention" into Sudan.

Canada's Talisman Oil has significant investments in Sudan.

This comes just months after one a horrifying scandal around one of Canada's last significant 'Peacekeeping' operations in north-eastern Africa was again slipped under the carpet by the military.

In September chargers were dropped against a former Canadian soldier who was accused of helping beat, burn and suffocate to death a sixteen year-old Somali teen, Shidane Abukar Arone. (Other soldiers later posed and snapped photos with Arone's bludgeoned and limp body). The charges were officially dropped because the soldier had a permanent brain injury -- inflicted days after the crime when he attempted to hang himself.

We re-print here the statement of the World Federation of Democratic Youth on Sudan.

WFDY ON SUDAN

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President for conviction in mass murder in Darfur region. As other international organizations manipulated by the imperialist powers, WFDY considers the ICC decision a political decision and another form of intervention in the internal issues of independent countries to cause more instability and to divide them in order to conquer them.

WFDY asserts its condemnation of those provocative decisions that will only lead to more wars and instabilities in the region.

WFDY also stresses the fact that it supports the democratic rights of the Sudanese people, the rights of the inhabitants in Darfur in a stable and better life and the rights of the residents of Southern Sudan in stability and progress. WFDY also supports the democratic forces struggling for the rights of the Sudanese people in democracy and social transformation.

However, all forms of international intervention in internal issues of sovereign countries like Sudan will only lead to more problems and tensions. Those policies form the legal cover for the domination and hegemony of USA and its imperialist allies over the world resources and sources of energy. The problems in Darfur and Sudan only rose after the discovery of oil, gas and uranium in its lands; therefore we understand those interventions as preliminaries for more exploitation of the resources of this country by the imperialist powers lead by USA.

WFDY expresses its solidarity with the Sudanese people against imperialist plans in their country, and with their right in independent progressive state that controls its resources for the well being of its people.

Viva International Women's Day

2009-03-09T01:03:00.003-04:00

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. IWD 2009
3. STUDENTS AGAINST WAR

1. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers across the country are marching and participating in
International Women's Day this weekend. March 8th will mark the 93rd
anniversary of IWD. Read down for more...

Save the date! YCLers across Souther Ontario and elsewhere are being
urged to attend Student Assembly Against War and Racism, A
pan-Canadian student conference to end the war in Afghanistan, Friday,
March 20 to Sunday, March 22, 2009. The CFS has a travel budget for
this event, contact the YCL CEC at johan@ycl-ljc.ca or for more info
read down to item three...

LJCers in Quebec will be joining members of the PCQ next week in a
joint educational talk about the National Question in Quebec and the
current economic situation. They are working to bring in new contacts
and interested young people.

There have been several new contacts for the YCL across the East Coast
recently. Next week, YCLers in different locations in Nova Scotia will
be holding a conference call next week planning to discuss the next
steps with organizing, including the posibility of another East-Coast
YCL school.

2. IWD 2009

The YCL endorses the following statement of the Communist Party and
urges all members to read it!

IWD 2009: A Statement

from the Communist Party of Canada

“The Communist Party of Canada stands in solidarity with all those who
struggle for peace, equality, democracy and social progress. A better
world is both possible and necessary – the world of socialism, the
only system which can guarantee full equality and a future for
humanity!”

March 8: a day to honour women’s struggles

For 98 years, March 8 has been a day to honour women’s struggles, take
stock of hard-won gains, and put forward demands to promote full
equality. Communists have played a leading role since the inception of
International Women’s Day, which was unanimously adopted by a
Socialist International women’s conference in Copenhagen in 1910 and
observed for the first time in 1911. The Communist Party of Canada is
part of this historic tradition. We salute women who are struggling
throughout the world for peace, justice and equality, whose full
participation is essential for the success of all working class and
democratic movements.

This year on IWD, the United Nations has chosen the slogan “Women and
Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls.” Violence takes
many forms, from family abuse to rape to human trafficking to war. To
truly address these issues requires a major commitment to both legal
remedies and social development.

In Canada, we must reverse the under-funding of emergency shelters and
support services for victims of family violence. We must address the
shameful economic and social conditions of Aboriginal women and girls,
who have been particularly vulnerable to racism and inequality –
hundreds have been murdered or disappeared. Internationally, trillions
of dollars are wasted on war instead of development efforts to provide
women and girls with education and economic opportunities, clean
water, adequate health care, and more human rights protection,
including personal security, choice in marriage, and reproductive
choice. Changing material conditions goes hand in hand with changing
social attitudes.

Today it is more obvious than ever that war is the most terrible crime
against humanity. In many countries, from the Middle East to
Afghanistan to Congo to Colombia, wars increasingly target civilian
populations. Women and children are casualties of bombardment from the
air and atrocities on the ground, and also the most frequent victims
of public health catastrophes arising from the destruction of power
plants, water supply systems and hospitals.
The Communist Party expresses our full solidarity for the women who
are involved in the struggle for survival under difficult conditions
and for peaceful resolution of conflicts. Particularly, we single out
the women of Gaza, subject to inhuman attack following a long period
of economic blockade. We call on all governments to embargo arms to
the state of Israel until it abandons its policy of territorial
expansion, violence and economic strangulation of Palestinian
communities.

International Women’s Day 2009 takes place during the most serious
global economic crisis in decades. Fifty million layoffs are expected
this year, destroying the livelihood of countless families around the
world, and threatening much of the social infrastructure which has
improved women’s lives.

In response to the crisis, the corporations, and the governments which
serve them, are increasing economic disparity by cutting social
programs and giving unconditional bailouts to wealthy shareholders and
CEOs. Rather than pay for the crisis which their system created, the
capitalists want to roll back workers’ gains and set the stage for
ever-deepening exploitation.

Here in Canada, unemployment is rising quickly, and the corporations
are pushing for wage cuts. The demand for a country-wide child care
system, a key issue in election after election, has again been
abandoned by the minority Harper government. Incredibly, pay equity is
actually under attack, with plans to reduce the opportunity for
complaints through the courts. The Tories have ignored calls to
improve the Employment Insurance system paid for by all workers. As
the majority of part-time and minimum wage workers, women are
disproportionately under-protected; only three women out of ten in the
workforce are eligible to collect EI. Even those who do meet the
requirements can’t survive on benefit rates set at 55% of their low
previous earnings.
Needed: a working class response to the crisis

The response to the economic crisis by working people, women and men,
must be a massive campaign to build a People’s Coalition for a genuine
alternative to corporate greed. Such a campaign, led by the labour
movement and its allies, should fight to restructure the economy, to
provide sustainable jobs and to improve social services such as
health, education and universal child care, to provide increased
opportunities for women in the work force. To protect jobless workers
and their families, EI payments must be set at 90% of previous
earnings for the full duration of unemployment. Evictions and utility
cutoffs against all families affected by unemployment must be banned.

But as long as capitalism continues, it will continue to generate
poverty, inequality, exploitation, environmental degradation and war.
These are not accidental side-effects, they are necessary ingredients
of a system designed to maximize profit in private hands. Under
capitalism, the women of the world face tremendous struggles to win
new progress, or to hold on to gains already won. Every step forward
will be threatened by the next economic downturn, and the danger of
war is never absent.

Only socialism, based on democratic, collective ownership and working
class power, can permit the enormous creative and productive potential
of the world’s workers to be used constructively for human needs. On
IWD 2009, the Communist Party of Canada stands in solidarity with all
those who struggle for peace, equality, democracy and social progress.
A better world is both possible and necessary - the world of
socialism, the only system which can guarantee full equality and a
future for humanity!

3. STUDENTS AGAINST WAR

Student Assembly Against War and Racism
A pan-Canadian student conference to end the war in Afghanistan

Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22, 2009
Ryerson Student Centre, 55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
Toronto ON

The Student Assembly Against War and Racism is a pan-Canadian student
conference to end the war in Afghanistan. We invite all students and
youth from across Canada and Quebec to join us in building a mass
student movement against war and racism, and in calling for Canadian
troops to come home from Afghanistan.

The assembly will focus on Canada's war in Afghanistan, where over
2,600 Canadian troops are currently deployed. Thousands more have been
cycled through in the largest Canadian combat operation since the
Korean War. The assembly will also address a broad range of topics
including racism, Islamophobia, civil liberties, counter-recruitment,
the militarization of campus, global solidarity, and more.

The assembly will feature a series of workshops that discuss anti-war
issues and build organizing skills. It will also feature high-profile
guest speakers, two evening panels, two anti-war socials, open
organizing space, and a closing strategizing plenary.

We hope you can be a part of it!

You can register online at http://www.unitedagainstwar.ca. Registration is FREE.

Organized by
Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario: www.cfsontario.ca
Canadian Peace Alliance: www.acp-cpa.ca

Kick-ass Ontario YCL School

2009-02-24T15:18:00.002-05:00

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE
3. REBEL YOUTH - DELAY
4. ALERT: IWD
5. DEMONSTRATE FOR PEACE

1. YCL IN ACTION: KICK-ASS ONTARIO YCL SCHOOL

About twenty students and young workers, employed and unemployed, came to Hamilton's Solidarity house from Oshawa, Toronto, Guelph, Kitchener, Burlington, Hamilton, and Niagara to spent a day and a half reading, discussing and debating ideas about youth and revolutionary struggle today.

Highlights:

- Sessions on: the financial crisis, dialectics, revolution, and racism/sexism/homophobia
- Good debates and discussions about politics and the youth movement
- Great food, good movies!
- at the end of the school, the YCL had six new members!

An article will appear in the next issue of PV. Read more and see photos:

http://ycl-ljc-activists.googlegroups.com/web/YCL%20School%20a%20succ...

2. WFDY SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE

In the coming week, between February 22 and March 1, the World Federation of Democratic Youth and several of its member organizations will once again be visiting Palestine. At the same time WFDY will visit Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, with the purpose of meeting the Palestinian people that live in Refugee Camps. The visit aims to contact with the suffering youth of the occupied lands of Palestine, in Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus, expressing the anti-imperialist youth’s solidarity towards the brave struggle that the Palestinian youth faces everyday, not only in the sieged, bombed and destroyed Gaza, but all over the Palestinian territories.

3. REBEL YOUTH – DELAY

Because of a number of politically important events happening at the same time with the YCL (and some delay in getting final edits from writers) RY magazine publication has been delayed. Our original goal was December-January. We are currently looking at late Feburary-March as we plan to get the magazine out of the printers within the next two weeks. Thank you again to all the writers who have contributed to the magazine. The challenge is on to start your distribution motors locally and get ready for the issues arriving in the mail by mid-March.

4. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

International Women’s Day is coming up soon! The YCL will be sending greetings of solidarity to the women’s movement and all who resist exploitation, oppression, violence and war. This will be a significant date of political importance.

Now is the time to google “International Women’s Day + [your community]” and see what actions you and your YCL club can join!

For almost a century, IWD has been a day to unite and mobilize for the right to vote, reproductive choice, labour rights, protections against violence, improved social programs, and opposition to homophobia, racism and xenophobia. But today, decades of hard-won gains are under
fire from profit-hungry corporations, reactionary fundamentalist groups, and right-wing governments. The defense of women's equality rights is an essential part of the struggle to stop the Harper Tory/corporate attack on working people and to defeat the Harper government at the polls.

5. APRIL 4: DEMONSTRATE FOR PEACE!

Canada and NATO out of Afghanistan

Worldwide demonstrations during the NATO Summit

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will mark its 60th anniversary on April 4 and 5, 2009. At the same time, demonstrations will take place all over the world calling for an end to NATO’s war in Afghanistan. The Canadian Peace Alliance and the Collectif Échec à la
guerre are calling for pan-Canadian demonstrations on April 4 to demand an end to the NATO-led occupation that has already killed thousands of Afghan civilians and threatens to bring war to the entire region.

A time of sharpening struggles

2009-02-24T15:17:00.002-05:00

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. NEW WFDY SITE
3. CC OF CP: A TIME OF SHARP STRUGGLES

1. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers in Ontario are planning a school in Hamilton this Friday-Saturday, Jan. 20-21 covering topics including an introduction to Marxism, youth struggles and the Financial Crisis. For more information, email ycl.onta...@gmail.com

YCLers in Winnipeg recently interviewed student activists about the fight for lower tuition fees in Manitoba. Read their story here:

http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2009/02/student-action-federa...

Several YCL members of the Trail BC club are also members of a Death Metal Band (!!) called Domination Obliteration. They have been fundraising for the YCL by selling Rebel Youth and donating $1 of every CD sold to the YCL! Even if you don't like death metal, support them by joining there facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Domination-Obliteration/23381027342?ref=mf

2. NEW WFDY SITE

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, of which the YCL-LJC is a member, has released a new and flashy site, includes statements, a map of all member organizations, and the October, November, and December WFDY newsletters featuring short updates from revolutionary, anti-imperialist youth in southern Africa, Egypt, India, China, Bolivia, Venzuela, Nepal, Greece, Jordan and Palestine. Check it out at www.WFDY.org

3. CP ON FINANCIAL CRISIS

For the first time since the financial crisis broke, the Central Committee of the Communist Party gathered in Toronto recently. A wide-ranging political report was adopted which is now available on the site our Google group. Highlights include:

(*) The coming year will be a time of sharp challenges for the working class, and tremendous new opportunities to build the Communist movement.

(*) The present downturn is not "just another cyclical crisis." "What
distinguishes the current crisis from previous [is the] the role of speculative capital."

(*) "What unites the ruling class is the desire to overcome the crisis at the expense of the working class."

(*) This is happening directly through lowering the cost (price) of labour, the principal target of which is the organized labour movement...

(*) …And indirectly, through the use of public revenues (the bulk of which come from the pockets of working people) to insulate investors from losses and prop up sagging profits.

(*) For the working class, "neither prescription is acceptable. With respect to so-called `stimulation' financed by public revenues and/or deficits, the issue is not `stimulation' as such, but rather what types of stimulation, whose interests they serve."

(*) The report was sharply critical of the tendency by some labour and social democratic leaders to yield concessions rather than to mobilize for a stronger fight-back:

(*) For example, NDP leader Jack Layton, speaking to the Toronto Board of Trade in January said "It's that courage of the Canadian people which makes our country strong... It's that kind of courage workers will need to take a pay cut so your friends at the plant can keep their job."

(*) On the contrary, said CPC Leader Miguel Figueroa, "Canadian workers need to replicate the examples set recently in Europe where millions have taken to the streets across Greece, France, Germany and elsewhere with one unifying message: `We did not create this economic crisis, and we're not going to pay for it!'"

For more, check out:

http://groups.google.ca/group/ycl-ljc-activists/files
and download "CC Report - 2009-02.pdf"

YCL Statement on Gaza

2009-01-10T22:00:00.001-05:00

The YCL condemns the complicity of the Harper Conservative government in the current genocidal war taking place in the Gaza strip which has so far lasted 11 days and cost over 550 lives.

On January 6th, in one of the most bloody incidents of the war so far, Israeli forces shelled a U.N. school, killing over 40 Palestinian civilians who were seeking shelter inside. The Israeli military has cynically blamed Hamas for the deaths, claiming that militants were hiding in the school, using the civilians as human shields.

On Wednesday, January 7th, Junior Foreign Minister Peter Kent was quoted stating "Hamas bears a terrible responsibility for this and for the wider deepening humanitarian tragedy." This view blames the victim while hailing the victimizer. Moreover, the Israeli military admitted today that no ordinance came from that school.

But it is not the Palestinian people, Hamas or otherwise, who are responsible for this war. It was Israel that broke the truce with Hamas. This is a war aimed at smashing the resistance of the Palestinian people to the Israeli apartheid state. It is part and parcel of the intensified campaign against the Palestinian people over the past few years and over the broader "war on terror" which is really aimed at securing the Middle East and its resources for
exploitation by imperialist powers.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, has echoed the voices of progressives worldwide, and said Gaza is a essentially a concentration camp.

Like those governments which stood with the racist South African regime before the victory of the national liberation movement in that country, Stephen Harper and his government are complicit with a racist, apartheid regime. And now, as the Harper government rallies around Israel's murderous war, it has become complicit in genocide.

The YCL endorses's CUPE Ontario's call for a boycott of all Israeli professors visiting Canadian campuses who do not condem this war. We stand with all youth and students of Canada mobilizing across the country and urge everyone to join these actions denouncing the war, and calling upon Israel to immediately stop the war and end the
occupation. We demand that the Harper government reverse their position in support of the war.

The Canadian people are right to draw the connection between the Harper government's attack on working people and equity seeking groups here at home and their support for the attacks of the reactionary Israeli government against the sovereign state of Palestine. These domestic and foreign policies favour the wealthy elite and attack the

Canadian young and students and the working class.

The ultra-right Harper Tories must go!

Solidarity with the people of Gaza

2008-12-30T18:14:00.003-05:00

The Young Communist League of Canada - Ligue de la Jeunesse Communiste du Canada stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza. We join with all youth and student organizations expressing outrage and call upon Prime Minister Steven Harper's government to immediately denounce Israel's brutal and illegal war.

Canada must demand at the UN level an immediate and just ceasefire, an end to the inhumane blockade, and an implementation of the numerous UN resolutions taken on behalf of the Palestinian people. To do otherwise is complicity in genocide.

We express our full support for the rallies being held in cities across Canada. The bombing of al-Azhar University in Gaza, killing students and professors, has brought into sharp relief the need for all Canadian youth and students to demonstrate. The vast majority of Gaza's population is under twenty-five and unemployed. It is the most densely populated centre in the world. Over a thousand civilians -- mainly women, youth and children -- are now dead or wounded. This attack is an extension of an ongoing siege that has malformed Gaza into a concentration camp, and a legacy of colonial injustice by Israel since 1948.

Mass global protest by all those who love justice is needed to stop the apartheid Israeli state from closing all doors for dialogue towards peace. Justice must include the national right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, to build their own independent state, and for refugees to return home.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact the Prime Minister

2. Contact your Member of Parliament

3. Join one of the many local actions protesting the assault on Gaza.

MORE INFO:

Short movies with latest news and background on the siege
http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2008/12/informational-videos-on-situation-in.html

Workers, Communist, Anit-imperialist and National Liberation Fronts on the war in Gaza:
http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2008/12/workers-communist-anit-imperialist-and.html

Statement by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2008/12/statement-by-popular-front-for.html

Two Statements by the Palestinian People's Party
http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2008/12/two-statements-by-palestinian-peoples.html

The Communist Party of Israel Condemns Deadly Attacks on Gaza and Calls for International Mobilization
http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com/2008/12/communist-party-of-israel-condemns.html

New Years Greetings

2008-12-30T18:08:00.001-05:00

50 YEARS OF REVOLUTION! 50 YEARS OF DIGNITY!

2008-12-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Statement by Canadian Network On Cuba on the Occasion of the 50th
Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, January 1st, 2009

(The YCL is a proud member of the CNC)

The Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC) extends to the Cuban people our
deepest and warmest greetings and sentiments of solidarity and
friendship as they celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the triumph of
the Cuban Revolution. Across Canada and though-out 2009 many events
are planned to mark the significance of the Cuban Revolution. On
January 1st, 1959, after a century long struggle for national
affirmation, liberation and independence, Cuba embarked on the path
that established authentic self-determination, placing the Cuban
nation firmly in the hands of the people of Cuba. In the fifty years
that have passed, the Cuban people have resisted all attempts to take
away their independence and freedom, and re-impose foreign domination.
They have repelled the unceasing all-sided assault, military,
economic, financial and propagandistic by Washington, which has never
accepted the verdict of the Cuban people.

The significance of the Cuban revolution extends beyond the
geographical boundaries of Cuba. Since its inception, the Cuban
Revolution has made an invaluable contribution to the global struggle
for justice, social development and human dignity. Cuba has
established an unparalleled legacy of internationalism and
humanitarianism, embodying the immortal words of Jose Marti: "Homeland
is Humanity. Humanity is Homeland." In southern Africa, for example,
more than 2,000 Cubans gave their lives to defeat the racist apartheid
regime in South Africa. Today this Cuban commitment to humanity is
mirrored in the tens of thousands of medical personnel and educators
who have served and continue to serve across the world, battling in
the trenches against disease and illiteracy.

The CNC affirms that Cuba can continue to count on the solidarity and
friendship of the Canadian people, as underscored by the success of
the CNC's Hurricane Relief & Reconstruction Campaign, which has raised
hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial and material assistance
from numerous individuals and organizations. This outpouring of
support and empathy for Cuba is indicative of the sentiment of the
vast majority of Canadians. Having traveled to Cuba in the hundreds of
thousands and having witnessed Cuban reality for themselves, Canadians
have come away with a profound respect and admiration for the Cuban
people and their efforts to build a society centered on independence,
justice and human dignity. Irrespective of their political or
ideological positions, Canadian stand for the building of genuine
friendship with the island nation: relations based on mutual respect
and equality and recognition of Cuba's right to self-determination and
sovereignty.

On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, the
CNC commits itself to strengthening Canadian solidarity and friendship
with Cuba by stepping up the work to free the five Cuban Heroes
unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. for defending their country from
terrorism, and ensuring that Canada-Cuba relations remain based on
equality and respect for the right of Cuba to self-determination.

No words can adequately convey the transcendent and singular meaning
of the Cuban Revolution. By holding aloft the banners of Justice,
Peace, Internationalism and Human Dignity, Cuba demonstrates that
another better world is possible! In a world fraught with intense and
significant challenges, in the spirit of the 50th Anniversary of the
Cuban Revolution we declare:

Another Better World Is Possible!

LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!

Solidarity with the Greek youth and workers

2008-12-15T14:14:00.002-05:00

The CEC of the YCL-LJC issued the following statement today:

Solidarity with the Greek youth and workers

The Young Communist League of Canada expresses our strong support to the working people and youth of Greece, and the magnificent effort that they are building. We join with the youth and people of Greece, our comrades in the Communist Party (KKE) and our fraternal organization the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), in condemning the murder of 15-year old Andreas Grigoropoulos by a police officer in Exarcheia-Athens.

On Wednesday, Dec. 9th, Greece saw its most massive general strike in recent years. Thousands of school students and university students along with the working class, defying a climate of fear and intimidation, shut down universities and high schools and marched for justice.

We also stand with those across Canada condemning the murders of Aboriginal and racialized youth, killed at the hands of the police. There are too many to name -- like Alwy Al-Nadhir, a high-school student, shot last Halloween at age 18 by Toronto Police; Michael Langan, a 17-year-old Métis who died shortly after being tasered by Winnipeg police this July; and African-Canadian Freddy Villanueva shot by Montreal police this August.

Civilian control over police, prisons and CSIS!
Abolish racial profiling!
www.ycl-ljc.ca

SOLIDARITY WITH GREECE

2008-12-15T14:09:00.002-05:00

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. RY UPDATE
3. SOLIDARITY WITH GREECE -- MORE INFO

1. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers across the country joined in pro-coalition rallies two weekends ago, baring rain, snow or hail and distributing hundreds of statements. Despite small media coverage, thousands of people came together at these rallies. Whatever government is standing at the end of January, there is stronger and renewed opposition and pressure on the Harper Conservatives heading into 2009.

This weekend YCLers from the Hamilton-Niagara joined members and friends of the Communist Party in a seasonal social at Solidarity House in Hamilton, a labour-community centre run by Peoples Voice, with the FMLN Hamilton and other friends; there was also an event at the Center for Socialist Education in Vancouver. Next weekend will be the open house in Toronto, write johan@ycl-ljc.ca for details.

2. RY UPDATE

Both Rebel Youth and Dynamic Magazine (our sister publication in the YCL USA) have recently produced You Tube video's about the magazines -- and by some seriously ill spontaneity we would up released them the same day!

Dynamic's is really classy featuring old covers, a history of their mag, and some retro tunes. Ours is totally basic, we're just testing out of this new medium. We want to release some other You Tubes over the holiday break. If you are interested in helping with this project, and are willing to take an assignment to produce a video on a certain theme, please write to rebelyouth@ycl-ljc.ca

RY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq9Pkvr5VJU

Dynamic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Mrc0uYk-o

The deadline for RY submissions was this Sunday - if you wrote asking for an extension the countdown is now! If you have already submitted your article and are in the process of doing edits, that is cool. But we're counting down for the next issue!

PPS: It should have been noted before, but the statement of the YCL in Durham region on the attacks on the Lesbian sisters is up on the blog. This case has recently -- and outrageously -- been ruled NOT to be a Hate Crime. We will have a special update in the next issue of RY!

3. INFO ON SITUATION IN GREECE

For news and photos we recommend:

KNE – Greek Communist Youth (English): http://www.kne.gr/english.html

KKE – Greek Communist Party (English): http://inter.kke.gr/

There is also a facebook group with discussion:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?ref=mb#/group.php?gid=52915067712

This is not democracy!

2008-12-05T11:34:00.001-05:00

This is not what democracy looks like, this is what hypocrisy looks like!

The Young Communist League - la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada joins with the condemnations of the Harper Conservatives for creating a Parliamentary crisis and now anti-democratically proroguing Parliament. We will not surrender! Locking Parliament’s doors is a cowardly response to loosing the confidence of the House, and the Canadian people. Such desperation and arrogance underscores the urgent need for broad, powerful public mobilization to dump the Tories now.

We call on all young people to hit the streets, and unite without hesitation in support the coalition, for it will create better terrain to fight for new policies that put the people first. Unity requires joining the battle of ideas and overcoming slanders. Regardless what you think of the NDP’s policies, Harper’s red-baiting is crass fear mongering. Likewise, we resolutely oppose the vicious chauvinism directed against the people of Quebec, and their democratic right as a nation to determine their own future (up to and including separation, just as a marriage can not be equal if there is no right to divorce).

Harper’s false and hypocritical claims bring into sharp relieve the tenuousness of this so-called democracy and the need for deep change beginning with proportional representation.

Harper, Harper, Harper! Out, Out, Out!

Dec. 5th 2008 statement by the Young Communist League, Central Executive Cmte.

Greetings to YCL USA

2008-12-05T11:33:00.000-05:00

Young Communist League of Canada –
la Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada
290A Danforth Ave,
Toronto ON M4K 1N6

Friday, December 8th 2008

Young Communist League, USA
235 West 23rd Street
New York NY 10011

Dear Comrade Smiley,

On behalf of the Central Executive Committee of the YCL-LJC, we would like to warmly extend our congratulations to the National Committee of the YCLUSA on your important work in helping with the historic victory against the US ultra-right and the election of President Barack Obama.

The election of your first African American as President has inspired many Canadian youth and is a monumental achievement. For left and progressive youth forces here in the north, we see new challenges and openings not least around Afghanistan and Iraq. We have no illusions that Obama’s foreign policy will meet the expectations presented in Canada’s corporate media. But the hopes of Canadian youth and students have been raised, hopes that we may see a shift away from the imperialist wars and aggressions that in so many ways defined the USA to our generation.

Well done for your enormous efforts in the Youth Voter Coalition, and for the efforts of young voters and the American working class in kicking Bush good riddance!

In Canada too we see sudden changes, with a political crisis in Ottawa which may release Canada from the grip of the dangerously reactionary Harper Conservatives. Just yesterday, the Prime Minister anti-democratically maneuvered to stop an emerging coalition between the big business Liberal Party and the social democratic New Democrats by closing the doors of Parliament until late January. The Conservatives are unscrupulously ‘red-baiting’ the New Democrats and encouraging a vile current anti-Quebequois Anglo chauvinism not seen here for over a decade.

Like the Communist Party of Canada, we do not view this coalition as a centre-left formation (since the New Democrats, while progressive on most social issues, now generally abandon working class families when confronted with tough economic questions). But that is not the main point. Nor is it the main issue to present a list of conditions for youth to support this coalition. The main point is the great potential and possibilities that a coalition would have in terms of extra-parliamentary struggle, for it would be much more vulnerable to public pressure, and that it would get rid of the Conservatives.

We’ve attached our two statements for your information and will be publishing more detailed commentary in our January issue of Rebel Youth.

As always, we wish you much success and salute your difficult struggle in the very heart of the world's greatest imperialist power.

Good luck and warm fraternal communist greetings from Canada!

CEC
YCL-LJC Canada

YCL-LJC CEC ON THE COALITION

2008-12-02T10:01:00.001-05:00

The political crisis and youth
Statement by the YCL-LJC CEC
Tuesday, December 2nd

The coalition emerging between the Liberals and the New Democratic
Party, supported by the Bloc Quebecois, is a very important democratic
development for all young people. It could stop the Bush-style
Conservative government that blocks any possibility of advance for a
youth and student agenda. It will shape our struggles against
militarism and the war in Afghanistan, bad jobs and poverty wages, and
skyrocketing tuition fees.

The 1985 Ontario Liberal-NDP accord government showed the parties
internally struggling for public support, creating better terrain for
extra-parliamentary struggle. Without any illusions about either
parties, lets act on the greater potential for pushing forward a youth
and student agenda!

The Conservative's defeat could set-back neo-liberalism. Youth have
suffered greatly from cutbacks, deregulation, privatization, as well
as environmental destruction and the drive to war. These same policies
helped incubate the current structural crisis of capitalism, and made
the crisis's effect on youth and students much worse.

The real victory will be shaped outside of parliament. Now is the time
to creatively, broadly and boldly set-up the fight-back, projecting an
immediate alternative agenda to ensure the big corporations – and not
our generation – bear the costs of the financial crisis: create
hundreds of thousands of good quality jobs for youth; raise minimum
wages; get Canada out of Afghanistan and NATO; cut-back the bloated
military budget; establish a national childcare system; expand public
school funding and universal, accessible public post-secondary
education.

Youth and students are right to demand that any back-room deals to
maintain Conservative rule be exposed and stopped, and to join the
cross-Canada actions demanding an end to the Harper Conservative's
power. The YCL calls on all youth and students to join with that
growing movement, and demand a pro-people, pro-youth and student
agenda!

YCL Update

2008-11-30T21:47:00.002-05:00

1. POLITICAL CRISIS

Canadians have seen a dramatic development in Otttawa over the past three days, with open discussion of a coalition between the Liberals and the New Democrats. Read labour's response here: http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/November2008/28/c5448.html

The CEC of the YCL will be discussing our response to these developments and making a release shortly.

2. YCL IN ACTION

YCL clubs are getting out and proving that selling RY on campuses is achievable. In less than an hour, YCLers in St Catharines made $13.00 of Rebel Youth last week at Brock University Campus, before being illegally kicked-off by campus security. YCLers at Guelph University made $6 in sales in ten minutes before a YCL meeting, plus a subscription by the Guelph OPIRG. YCLers in Toronto made over $20 in about an hour of sales at the U of T.

From Tuesday to Sunday this week, a number of YCLers were at the CFS annual general convention in Ottawa this past week. We will be circulating a report on the meeting and political developments. One of the main topics of discussion was a statement in response to the financial crisis. The CFS is the Canadian Federation of Students, representing one half-million Canadian students. According to new data published in October by Statistics Canada, average undergraduate tuition fees increased by 3.6% in fall 2008 despite $800 million in new federal funding to the provinces for post-secondary education.

It should have been reported before, but YCLers in Manitoba joined in a demonstrations at the Conservative Party convention reciently, which was organized by peace, student, and labour forces. The Conservative's convention, among other things, expressed their support for the private members bill attacking abortion which is in second reading in the House.

YCL IN ACTION

2008-11-30T00:43:00.001-05:00

The Central Executive Committee congradulates LJC(Q) organizer

Marianne Breton Fontiane for her successful nomination as a candidate for Quebec Solidare in the Quebec elections. Quebec Solidare is a left-wing political party that the Communist Party, together with other progressive forces, helped found. An article about the election will be in the next issue of Rebel Youth.

YCL Durham helped mobilize high school students into an large demonstration just over a week ago. The next issue of Rebel Youth will carry a story about how two young lesbian mothers were physically assaulted outside an elementary school when they were picking up their son. Oshawa responded with a mass community rally. Hundreds came, despite cold rain, showing support for the couple and gay rights.

YCLers in Vancouver held a movie showing of the film Persopolis recently. The movie is about a young woman in Iran who is inspired by her Communist Uncle. As she grows up and discovered sex, drugs and punk, she is caught up in a storm not of her own making as forces within Iran's anti-imperialist revolution turn against trade unionists, socialists, Communists, and other progressives -- while the whole country is constantly under pressure from the United States.

Vancouver YCL is celebrating the election of Jane Bouey, a former YCLer and activist in Vancouver being elected as a school trustee. We congradulate Jane, who has made a reputation fighting for students' rights, including in battles for queer student's. Stay tuned for more information about this victory for our movement in the People's Voice.

The Edmonton YCL reciently organized a movie night for friends and supporters. They showed the classic film, SALT OF THE EARTH, which was effectively banned by the US government during the McCarthy years of the cold war, because of its unabashed support of the workers and links to black-listed Communist film makers in holywood.

Members of YCL Guelph helped organize high school students into the major Drop Fees actions a few weeks ago. Over 30 high school students walked out of class and joined the protests, organized by the University of Guelph Student Union. This is tremendous achievement which students are building upon for next semester.

Youth struggles in the current period

2008-11-30T00:42:00.000-05:00

Youth struggles in the current period
YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee
November 24, 2008

The 2008 October Federal election and the waves of the global financial crisis crashing into Canada’s economy may seem like separate developments, but they are actually deeply inter-related and will significantly shape the struggles of youth and students ahead.

Blocking the Conservatives

For several decades neo-liberal governments across Canada have committed a sustained attack of social blood-letting. This has occurred at a time of record corporate profits by Canadian transnational corporations – but at the same time a globally declining rate of profit. Although largely camouflaged until it is exposed by events like today, capitalism is gripped by a general, deep crisis.

Intensified exploitation through racism, privatization, and union-busting are just a few examples of the tactics capitalism employs to overcome its profound crisis. So too is aggression and war. (As advanced capitalist economies like Canada historically developed into monopoly capitalism, an economic basis for imperialism was also rapidly spawned).

For salvation, finance capital has increasingly expanded flows of international capital and speculation. Colossal amounts of debt – corporate, state and personal debt, including student debt, as well as speculative excesses and bubbles – have become essential to the functioning of capitalism.

Neo-liberal “financialization” and the current panic that was sparked by the credit crunch is an expression of the structural crisis of capitalism.

At the same time, youth have suffered greatly from neo-liberal cutbacks, deregulation, privatization, as well as the drive to war and environmental destruction.

Deindustrialization, and the racialized “growing gap” between rich and poor has hurt and alarmed Canadians. The policies that have brewed the financial crisis also created the environment for Harper’s Conservatives. The governments orchestrating these assaults are now widely unpopular. Neither of the two federal big business parties have recently won a majority.

Facing an economy rapidly killing hundreds of thousands of manufacturing and forestry jobs, scandal (and a potential November Obama victory) the Bush-style Harper Conservatives threw Canada into an October election. They claimed Parliament had reached a log-jam-style impasse, even though Parliament was not actually in session.

By gambling for a majority, the Conservatives strove to satisfy big business. Corporate power desires a majority government because it is least vulnerable to public pressure and therefore best positioned to implement their agenda.

Blocking a Conservative majority was the main achievement of the Canadian people in this election. Most Canadians, especially the working class concentrated in cities, and the people of Quebec, correctly concluded that a Conservative majority would be tremendously destructive. The financial crisis and collapse of the stock markets including the TSX sharpened this debate.

Youth vote

For the youth, the election could have been a critical arena of struggle to curb the vicious neo-liberal offensive. Most young people did not response by voting however. In fact, in an election with the lowest voter turn-out in Canadian history at less than sixty percent, fewer youth appear to have cast a ballot than ever before. Over a million youth in Canada didn't vote.

Many youth were effectively disenfranchised. Door-to-door voter enumeration is no longer done before elections (surveys suggest that not knowing where and how to vote is the main reason youth don't vote). New regulations on ID meant students living away from home, young workers who have recently moved, renters who don't pay utility bills, and youth without a drivers license or passport identification were cut out of this limited expression of democracy.

For example, CBC reported that two-thirds of Dalhousie students in Halifax were turned away from polling stations and could not vote, as were some people from oppressed Aboriginal communities in the north, like Nunavut.

Politically, however, the failure of the mainstream parties to put forward real alternatives (not the least addressing young people's concerns) was also recognized by the youth and students. But by not voting, the young people often unwittingly voted for the incumbent.

Had the youth voted en-masse, it would be unlikely that Harper's Conservatives would be returning to power with sixteen new seats while gaining less than a two percent increase in the popular vote.

Communist campaign

The Party most engaging the issues of youth and students in our opinion was the Communist Party, advocating a platform based on "peoples need not corporate greed" and "Peace, Jobs, Democracy, and Sovereignty," to dump Harper, stop the Right, and elect a large progressive block of MPs.

Six of the Communist Party's twenty four candidates were youth and students. Four were leading members of the YCL. YCLers helped as activists, coordinators and assistant campaign managers, fighting for the Communists to be seen, heard and read.

University and college students were interested in the Communist platform and demands such as eliminating tuition fees, a $15 minimum wage, and cutting the military budget by half. In many campuses, student newspapers reported on the Communist campaign. In high schools, the Communist candidates won an average of five percent in Student Vote, despite many schools not presenting Communist Party literature. Where they had the opportunity to speak to students, Communist candidates often won over a hundred votes, rivaling other parties.

Youth issues

Election debates included many "youth issues" – youth crime, the arts, and climate change. The Conservative's racist proposals against "young thugs" (which would increase the already disproportionate numbers of youth of colour and aboriginal youth in jail) drew public anger. The roots of this issue – such as underfunding of education and public services, unemployment, and racism – was avoided by the opposition, however.

Harper's criticisms of the arts also exposed their anti-people agenda. However, funding for physical culture, especially women's sports, as well as support for emerging young artists was absent from the discourse of all big parties. Likewise, only market-based solutions were presented on global warming.

While the NDP put forward generally progressive but tepid policies, the scope of the discussion by all the big parties was narrow. On many issues important for young people, the corporate media's silence was not broken. The exception was in Quebec, where a Harper Conservative majority was blocked. Youth hit the streets and hounded Harper. They were joined by unions and people's movements, especially artists, women's groups, peace forces, and aboriginal people.

Jobs

In English Canada, the Canadian Labour Congress noticeably did not endorse the NDP. Nor did Labour put forward an independent united voice. Many unions campaigned for the NDP or, in Quebec, the Bloc.

Despite laws frustrating union participation, individual unions like CUPE and the CAW launched their own campaigns. The CAW effectively attacked the Conservatives, but largely advocated voting for the Liberals, Canada's second main big-business party.

Most union youth in unions were drafted into the front-lines of specific NDP campaigns, or simply sat the election out, as business as usual. In BC, for example, the $10 Now minimum wage campaign was dropped until after the election. The missed opportunity was to force forward an agenda for young workers and their class – like raising the minimum wage, stopping two-tier contracts, organizing young workers, pay equity, workplace safety, affordable housing, childcare, and the million jobs lost from NAFTA.

Peace

On the eve of the federal election, opinion polls showed the strongest ever public opposition to the war in Afghanistan. Later, a government study revealed the war had a $1,500 price tag for every Canadian family. This also scandalized the Canadian people, not least the youth.

Cunningly, the Conservatives announced the withdrawal of Canadian troops in 2010. While peace forces denounced this as too little too late, and an unlikely promise to keep, the major parties largely ignored debate on the war, as well as youth questions on peace such as military research and recruitment.

The Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) mobilized for an important post-election rally under the slogan, "Vote for Peace, then March for Peace." Deepening Canadian's anti-war sentiments is a major challenge as the CPA heads into its convention in December. The post-election re-establishment of the Canadian Peace Congress, as an anti-imperialist force within the broader movement is also a positive sign.

Education

The Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) ran a "Vote Education" campaign with a website and report-card on the political parity’s positions. Most of their fire was aimed at the Conservatives, all but endorsing the NDP. (The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, CASA, publicly endorsed the Liberals). For the first time, the CFS graded the Green Party, but it remarkably gave them almost as poor a grade as the Conservatives. Despite the Green's pro-market emphasis on many questions, it seems difficult to justify this criticism, especially given the Green’s laudable demand to abolish half of all student debt.

All the small parties, including the Communist Party which had the closest policies of any party to those of the students, were censured from the site, receiving not even a web-link reference. Attempting to put blinders on students, when they will nevertheless see these choices on their ballots, is anti-democratic. Excluding radical and alternative perspectives is more typical of corporate associations than people's movements; in fact including the Communists would strengthen the student's cause.

What's ahead

The immediate period ahead will likely be characterized by two features in the people's struggle.

First, the main opposition parties will be immobilized with the Liberals entering into a protracted leadership race and the other opposition parties fearing being labeled for provoking another election.

Secondly, the financial crisis will continue to dominate political discourse and the reality facing our class. The Harper Conservatives are likely to drive through a sharp neo-liberal reform package dropping the burden of the financial crisis incubated by the capitalists squarely on the backs of the people. Monopoly is moving to wipe-out more small businesses and attack its main enemy, the organized working class. Harper has a stronger minority and will continue to govern as if they have a majority.

Should we celebrate that there is a global capitalist crisis? No, we should never celebrate people's suffering. Crisis is also a feature of capitalism. If there is an accompanied sustained working class offensive against the system, and progressive forces world-wide are able to grasp the moment and force through major change – that would be cause to celebrate.

The foremost need is for the labour and peoples movements in Canada to advance a bold "people's alternative agenda," trying to shield and block as much as possible from this renewed attack. The time is right for a pan-Canadian meeting of all labour and progressive forces, like the Canadian labour movement initiated during the 1980s.

For the youth movement, in our view, such an alternative direction might draw from the Youth Charter that the broad and powerful Canadian Youth Congress proposed, following the On To Ottawa Trek of the Great Depression.

This is no dusty idea. American youth and students are currently mobilizing around a "youth agenda" platform, as have youth students in Europe, and also in Africa. Whatever the case, in the end this resistance has to be shaped by today's conditions and the requirements for social advance for the all exploited people and oppressed nations
of Canada.

This is not the same as replacing the Conservatives with the Liberals, in short. It will require dynamic, broad, and visible opposition in the streets in the coming months. It is likely the Tories will move on a budget bill before the budget in the spring. Time is of the essence.

The YCL-LJC's role

We too must get active. We must help where we can in building that opposition, starting from the cardinal points of unity and militancy and centering on our key areas of struggle – peace, jobs, and education. The following points draw from the YCL-LJC's summer 2008 Central Committee meeting:

1. Harper is likely to break his 2011 promise for Afghanistan withdrawal despite sharpening public criticism. Still, as we noted in the fall Central Committee, across the country the peace and anti-war forces often have too narrow a support-base, including on campuses while visible opposition to military recruitment also urgently needs to grow. Many others share this analysis. The addition of the CFS to the Canadian Peace Alliance and the upcoming student conference against War and Racism in Toronto are very positive.

2. Largely spontaneous student demonstrations demanding Omar Khadr's return across the country reflects the willingness of youth to mobilize around solidarity issues, as does the growing movement against the 2010 BC Olympics. The Native Youth Movement speaking tour has also already led to many Cross-Canada actions slowing or blocking the Olympics promotional "Spirit" train.

3. Young trade unionists have just seen some of the most militant declarations in recent years come forward from the Canadian Labour Congress in response to the financial crisis. Working people's first reaction to the crisis is likely to just try to survive, to look after families. But we can't ride out this storm. It is necessary to fight. Even in the darkest hours we can win. The labour movement needs youth willing to fight for a militant agenda in their unions, to put good resolutions into motion, and to build a militant, people-first response to the financial crisis. Weak, reformist leaders, combined with strong attacks by the class enemy, have threatened the labour movement’s very existence. Young workers are desperately needed precisely now to revitalize and help turn the tide.

4. Labour's position in this struggle is special, and the connections young workers can build with community and students activists has great potential. Poverty, minimum wage issues, and the manufacturing jobs crisis are all very weak points for Harper's Conservatives.

5. Whatever the outcome of the elections to the National Assembly in Quebec, there is urgent need for the Federations, ASSE, and the independent student unions to come together around a common platform of action. The financial crisis is all the more reason to shift spending towards social programmes, like education.

6. But what about in English Canada? CASA has, in the past, advocated for moderate tuition increases (!) but recent statements may suggest a shift. Are there any temporary openings here for limited, joint action with the CFS? It is also likely that many in the CFS will view this crisis as a potential opening to raid campuses from CASA. The Drop Fees campaign also urgently needs to deepen, strengthen and expand beyond Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and into BC, Alberta and the East Coast.

7. High schools also have underestimated militant potential, especially for mobilizing working class youth. Organic networks of student activists, working with progressive teachers and teacher's unions, informal meetings of high school activists, and city-wide conferences organized by progressive youth organizations all have potential to build resistance.

The Young Communist League also has a role to play not just in sharpening the critique against the policies of Harper but also in sharpening our critique of capitalism itself. A life with a future is a modest and just demand. We need to condemn the financial crisis and expose the deep failures of capitalism to even maintain living-standards and provide any sustainable direction for the future of the Canadian peoples and our environment.

Our best tools to engage in this battle of ideas are Rebel Youth Magazine, and Jeunnesse Militante. They need to be read by more youth today. They engage youth struggles from a creative, Marxist perspective -- saying something different and important. Capitalism will not suddenly implode. A sustained courageous struggle against the capitalist class is necessary for the working people and their allies to win a socialist Canada, based on solidarity, equality and emancipation. That is our long-term goal.

It’s time to fight. It’s time to change. It’s time for a stronger YCL-LJC, and a stronger fightback!

The Youth are the Future! The Future is Socialism!

CONVENE A PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE

2008-11-13T02:02:00.003-05:00

People's Voice Editorial, Nov. 16-30, 2008

The initial responses of the labour movement to the deepening economic
and financial crisis are to be welcomed. In recent weeks, the Canadian
Labour Congress has forcefully condemned the "age of deregulated
neo-liberal global capitalism," and called for measures to discourage
financial speculation, restrict capital flight, increase government
revenues, create jobs, and invest in social programs.

Heading into the BC Federation of Labour convention this month,
the Vancouver and District Labour Council called for more education of
workers and the public on the crisis, and to "fight any attempt to put
the burden of this crisis onto workers' shoulders."

A combination of these and other approaches is urgently necessary
to raise the struggle for more advanced reforms: a shorter work week,
public ownership of the banks and the energy sector, withdrawal from
NAFTA, a $15 minimum wage, an end to Canada's part in the dirty
imperialist war in Afghanistan.

Just as important, the labour movement must swing into action. We
urge the CLC to take the lead in convening an emergency peoples'
conference, bringing together Aboriginal peoples, women, students,
seniors, immigrants, social justice movements and all other democratic
forces to debate our united response to the crisis and to fight the
Harper government's neo-con agenda. Such a powerful gathering would
have the political and organizational strength to mobilize millions
for people's needs, against corporate greed. As the old advertising
jingle asked: why wait for spring? Do it now!

STUDENT ANTI-FEE PROTESTS DRAW THOUSANDS

2008-11-13T02:02:00.001-05:00

PV November 16-30, 2008

Students across Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan sent a loud message
against sky-rocketing tuition fees on November 5, taking to the
streets in thousands.

"Although most Canadians voted against the Harper Conservatives,
especially among youth and students, the new government is poised to
strike hard at social programmes like post-secondary education, using
the capitalist economic crisis as a pretext," the Young Communist
League warned in a statement, demanding complete elimination of
tuition fees and student debt, and a living stipend for students.
"Now's the time to say `education is a right, not a privilege.'"

"Since [the McGuinty Liberals] took office, tuition fees in
Ontario have gone from fourth place to second highest in Canada," said
Shelley Melanson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of
Students-Ontario. "At a time when McGuinty is announcing an economic
downturn in Ontario, he is allowing tuition fee increases to outpace
inflation."

In Manitoba, the Communist Party condemned Canada's only social
democratic NDP government for hiking tuition. "The hikes are even more
reprehensible because [Premier Gary] Doer broke his election campaign
promise to keep tuition frozen," they said. This strategy will keep
Manitoba "a low-wage racist backwater," where "Aboriginal peoples are
being shut out of higher education by tuition fees and racist policies
such as the two per cent federal cap on treaty First Nation education
funding and the non-recognition of the Métis as an Aboriginal people."

Recently, People's Voice spoke with Jen Hassum, past chairperson
of the Canadian Federation of Students (Ontario), who helped build the
November 5th rallies.

PV: Were the actions successful?

Hassum: Yes. The demonstrations had really high energy, and it was
great in Toronto, where we occupied an intersection [at College and
University streets] stopping traffic. Outside of Toronto there were
there were rallies in 13 cities - in Ottawa, Sudbury, Thunder Bay,

Mississauga, Orillia, London, Guelph, Sault Ste. Marie, Peterborough,
Hamilton, Scarborough, Kingston and Windsor. And it was done by
members and non-members of the Federation. London for example saw
support from the undergraduates at Western, as well as Fanshaw
College.

PV: Why was there such a good turn-out?

Hassum: I think the turn-out reflects the pressures students are
feeling with tuition and ancillary fees rising. We collected tens of
thousands of signatures as well from campuses, an unprecedented
amount, and we had great organizers on the ground. We collected over
60,000 signatures. So it's no surprise to see high turnouts.

The Action Assembly [a weekend training meeting of over 400
student activists from across Ontario] helped build for the day of
action, creating a fighting movement that will continue, I think. We
are also now publishing a newspaper, Campus Action, which is produced
by a collective of students with some members of the CFS Ontario
executive and other students. We wanted to create a paper that offered
an alternative perspective, created for and by students, and I think
it is a good outreach tool.

PV: Why mobilize now?

Hassum: I think there are good reasons. It is really a good time to be
organized, tuition fees are increasing as part of the provincial
government's four-year plan called "reaching higher" - and because the
government is drafting a new framework, which opens the door to
proposals for real alternatives to increases, including dropping fees.
PV: I heard the International Union of Students issued a statement in support.

Hassum: Yes, it is actually better than that, we called the action and
there was also a province-wide day of action in Manitoba, and they had
an activist assembly also. I understand that from this call-out there
were student protests in London England, France, Germany, and the
Philippines - all took action to fight what the IUS called the
"corportization of education."

Here in Ontario, we are fighting fees, because we still have them
here! But tuition fees are really user fees for a public service. It
forces students and their families to finance education through
institutionalized private, personal debt. We see a retraction of
public funding to education, making it less accessible. So this is how
the system is becoming "corprotized here," it is privatization really,
from the ground up.

PV: What's next?

Hassum: This is a good question for students. Especially because our
first meeting of representatives with the ministry did not go as well
as we had hoped. We need to escalate and pressure the government,
creating forces no politicians can ignore.

Drop Fees Now!

2008-11-06T02:00:00.001-05:00

Drop Fees Now!
For universal, quality, public accessible post-secondary education!
Statement of the YCL-LJC CEC, Nov. 5th 08

When students hit the streets on November 5th demanding "Drop Tuition
Fees," they will again receive 110% support from the Young Communist
League (YCL) and the Communist Party of Canada.

Tuition fees are soaring. Students face a heavier debt burden. This
debt load stops increasing numbers of working class youth from
obtaining post-secondary education. But it doesn't have to be this
way.

Access to post-secondary education should be based on academic
qualifications, not the size of your wallet. Every person should have
the right to equal access to universal, quality, public post-secondary
education!

Now is the time to mobilize and make the call 'education is a right,
not a privilege.' Although most Canadians voted against the Harper
Conservatives, especially among youth and students, the new government
is poised to strike hard at social programmes like post-secondary
education, using the capitalist economic crisis as a pretext.

Attack on students

The government has billions for the disastrous war in Afghanistan. But
our public education system, won through years of struggle by the
working class, faces unprecedented dangers. Access to education is
under attack:

· More mature students and women are on campus, but accessible campus
childcare spaces are stagnating and dwindling;

· The almost decade-old recommendations of the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal peoples regarding education are ignored. Colonial policies
continue to be orchestrated by the Canadian state and ruling class,
offering aboriginal youth a choice of poverty, racism, assimilation,
or suicide. Inadequate funding remains caped for treaty First
Nations;

· International students have become cash-cows who can be disposed-of
at will. Saad Alam's recent deportation (a third-year U of T student
who worked with his family at minimum wage jobs and couldn't even
obtain a temporary permit to stay and finish his degree after their
study and work permits were withdrawn) shows the brazen disregard for
immigrant rights;

· Governments are continuing a two decade-long blitzkrieg of
mass-privatization of services and core programme funding. Cuts
continue to the Liberal Arts, Women's Studies, and Science research.
The result: more Dr. Nancy Oliveri's, whose courageous case exposed
the smear campaigns, reprisals, and academic censorship scholars face
when their research findings conflict with business sponsors. The
price of corporate funding is control over curriculum, orientation of
research, recruitment of talent, and free labour in trade and
technology schools;

· The drive to corporatize education has been coupled with other
direct attacks on academic free speech. Last semester, disturbing
heavy-handed police responses at UQAM, UBC, and UofT met with loud
protest, as did McMaster's failed attempt to ban the phrase "Israeli
apartheid." This has raised the need to democratize school
administration, including abolishing repressive student codes of
conduct;

· Militarization of our campuses is growing, with the Canadian
military – and the Pentagon – funding research. Campus military
recruitment must be banned, and research devoted to peace and social
justice, not war and destruction.

The basic issue is who pays for education. Corporations depend on
trained workers to make profits. But big business doesn't want to pay
the bill, and drops the burden on the people. The goal is education,
US-style, for the rich only.
The way forward

Lobbying is not enough to win accessible education. What is needed is
unity of all students and progressive allies including in the labour
movement, like we are beginning to see with the Drop Fees campaign on
many campuses. We need to make our struggle visible, support
occupations, continue education with more teach-ins, more action, and
broad organizing committees on every campus.

Education is not a business venture. The Communist Party and the YCL
demand a 100% public post-secondary system for all, from cradle to
grave:

- eliminate tuition. Socialist Cuba does this, and capitalist Norway.
- clear all student debt, free books, affordable housing
- universal, accessible and affordable quality child-care system
- full-funding for aboriginal education;
- no differential fees for international students;
- protect the right to study by granting immunity from deportation to
students. Status for all.
- expand apprenticeships and guarantee the rights of youth to training;
- military off our campuses, troops out now!
- guarantee free speech on campus
- curb corporate power on campus, strengthen the integrity of research
with expanded public funding and protecting whistleblowers
- ultimately students should receive a living stipend

Make education a right, not a privilege!

On Nov. 5th – Drop Fees Now!

CONVENTION OF THE CANADIAN NETWORK ON CUBA

2008-10-24T19:06:00.001-04:00

4th BIENNIAL CONVENTION OF THE CANADIAN NETWORK ON CUBA: BUILDING & DEEPENING CANADA-CUBA SOLIDARITY

Dear Friends,

From August 30th to September 1st, 2008, twenty Canada-Cuba solidarity organizations, from across the country, gathered in Toronto at the 4th Biennial Convention of the Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC). The Convention re-affirmed the CNC's commitment to continue to build bridges of solidarity and friendship between the Canadian and Cuban peoples. Toward this end, steps were taken to strengthen and professionalize the CNC's work. Several resolutions and initiatives were adopted and endorsed that established the priorities for the next two-years. Under this mandate a new seven member executive was elected: David Bleakney, Rolf Gerstenberger, Tamara Hansen, Isaac Saney, Sharon Skup, David Thomas and Ray Viaud. For the first time the executive has representation from organized labour in the persons of David Bleakney (National Union Representative - Education (English), Canadian Union of Postal Workers) and Rolf Gerstenberger (President, United Steel Workers Local 1005). Tamara Hansen, from Vancouver, and Isaac Saney, from Halifax, were elected as the co-chairs of the new executive. Subsequently, Isaac Saney was appointed national Spokesperson and Tamara Hansen liaison with La Table de Concertation de Solidarite Quebec-Cuba.

The Convention was addressed by Basilio Gutiérrez, Vice-President of ICAP (Cuban Institute of Friendship With the Peoples), who emphasized the importance of the Canada-Cuba solidarity movement in ensuring that Canada-Cuba relations remain based on the international norms of mutual respect and equality between nations. Appreciations and support were brought to the Convention by Arnold August on behalf of La Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba, highlighting the joint work on the campaign to free the Five Cuban Heroes unjustly imprisoned in the United States that culminated in the letter of support signed by fifty-six members of parliament. Laureano Cardoso, the Consul General of Cuba, delivered greetings on behalf of the Cuban diplomatic staff in Canada, highlighting the long historical ties of friendship between Canada and Cuba and the role of the solidarity movement in maintaining and deepening those ties.

These ties were poignantly demonstrated by the Convention's adoption of a communiqué that affirmed the CNC's commitment to organize a campaign to aid and to contribute to Cuba's recovery in response to the devastating effects of the hurricanes that struck the island. "Today, like in the past, the Cuban people and their leaders can count on the support of the Cuba-Canada Solidarity Movement," affirmed the CNC. The CNC expressed its deep confidence that the Cuban people will overcome this new challenge, the same way it has triumphed over many others, whether natural disasters or challenges of other types. "Hurricanes may destroy properties and other material items, but they will never be able to destroy the indomitable Cuban people," concluded the communiqué.

For more information, please contact Isaac Saney, CNC National Spokesperson at

isaney@hotmail.com or (902)449-4967.

Greetings to Colombia Communist Youth

2008-10-22T14:25:00.000-04:00

Dear comrades,

The Young Communist League of Canada regrets that we will be unable to send a participant to your upcoming seminar. This is due to financial restraints as well as current Federal elections where we are engaged in a struggle to defeat the ultra-right Conservative Party which aims to win a majority government; this would be the most negative political event for Canadian workers, youth and students since the election of the Mulroney Conservative government which signed NAFTA.

We have been following some of the events in Colombia and the region of Latin America with great interest. The attention of the worlds progressive people is on Latin America where exciting gains are being made. We wish JUCO a very successful Congress and Seminar and send our continued solidarity and support to the struggles of Colombian youth and students for a Colombia free of Uribe and of U.S. imperialist meddling.

Long live international solidarity!

Stephen Von Sychowski
Central Organizer
Young Communist League of Canada

About the Referendum in Ecuador

2008-10-22T14:24:00.001-04:00

About the Referendum in Ecuador

The World Federation of Democratic Youth has received with much happiness the news about the historical triumph of “Yes” with 70% of support to the new Constitution of Republic of Ecuador, which as President Correa said, expresses the wish of Ecuadorians to achieve a new nation: sovereign, fair, without misery, with production, with employment and without discrimination.

This progressive constitution has once again defeated the neoliberal model, which has lead to poverty thousands of Ecuadorians, and includes the firm decision to not allow the keeping of foreign military bases, defending the nature, the food security, the recognition of intercultural and plurinationality, which makes it one of the most progressives of the World.

WFDY expresses its recognition towards the effort that has been being done by the Government and youth of Ecuador, which are committed to create a “citizenship revolution: a radical process of change, deep and fast”. As President Correa, WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations and to the youth of the World to join this recognition an express its total solidarity towards the process of change lived in Ecuador.

The CC/HQ of WFDY

Budapest, September 29, 2008

WFDY, Statement on the International Financial Crisis

2008-10-22T14:20:00.000-04:00

WFDY - World Federation of Democratic Youth

WFDY is an International NGO. It has consultative status with United Nations (ECOSOC) and operational relation with UNESCO. Presented a Peace Messenger award by UN Secretary General in 1987.

========================

WFDY statement on the International Financial Crisis

Over the last weeks there has been a growing public debate on the so called “economical crisis” that has started in the USA and had impacts in Europe and that is supposed to threaten the economy of the whole world.

This crisis, which the economists promoted by imperialism don’t seem able to explain, is in fact due to the accumulation of years of financial speculation that never produced any concrete thing, being only useful to a bunch owners of multi-national companies’ owners, who have increased even more their stupendous fortunes.

Being so, this crisis comes as natural fact of the contradictions of imperialism and can only be completely understood if analyzed in the framework of the economical functioning of the imperialist globalized economy imposed by USA, European Union and Japan to the rest of the world.

However, the “solutions” found by imperialists to solve this crisis are an offense to the people of the world, making once again the poorest pay for the crisis created by the imperialist administration and its economical allies. Moreover, they are even a contradiction with the so intensive disseminated imperialist philosophy of dismantling of the States.

The billions transferred to the bank accounts of this companies and the nationalization of banks or companies that will only bring debs to the public finances of each country are unacceptable and unfair. How many thousands of public hospitals, universities, schools, nurseries, sports centers, and culture infrastructures could have been built and kept in excellent shape with this money? How many millions of doctors and teachers could have been graduated? How many years of food and drink could have provided to mankind if that money was invested in sustainable development processes of production, especially in Africa and in Southeast Asia?

Therefore, the World Federation of Democratic Youth denounces this hideous situation and calls upon all its member and friend organizations to unite their voices to let all the youngsters of the world understand and struggle against this new face of the offense against the rights of the youth and people of the world.

With our solidarity bounds and our common struggle we will be able to defeat the imperialism intents of preserving the inequalities in which it is grounded and, therefore, we will defeat imperialism itself, building a world of peace, justice and social development.

The CC/HQ of WFDY

Budapest, October 1, 2008

Register your highschool: Student Vote

2008-09-22T18:37:00.001-04:00

Register your highschool into student vote! This is an excellant way
to get into the debate and raise issues in your high school like jobs,
tuition fees, the war in Afghanistan which won't get talked about
otherwise.

Elections Canada and Student Vote
Partner to Engage Young Canadians in the Electoral Process

OTTAWA, Tuesday, September 16, 2008 — Marc Mayrand, the Chief
Electoral Officer of Canada, and Taylor Gunn, Chief Election Officer
of Student Vote, announced today that Elections Canada and Student
Vote are once again working together to engage young Canadians in the
federal electoral process.

Building on the success of previous projects, including for the 2004
and 2006 federal elections, Student Vote helps students who have not
yet reached voting age to learn about Canada's democracy, and lets
them cast practice ballots on official candidates running in the
federal election. Students in elementary and secondary schools across
Canada will vote in parallel elections for candidates in their
schools' electoral districts and act out roles as deputy returning
officers and poll clerks.

"Research has shown that voting habits are established early in life,"
said Mr. Mayrand. "This initiative offers young people a chance to
experience the electoral process first-hand and to better understand
the importance of participating in the democratic life of their
country. Elections Canada is proud to be a partner with Student Vote."

Participating schools will receive free, non-partisan educational
resources, including maps of electoral districts, posters,
instructional guides and a campaign DVD. Elections Canada will also
provide ballot boxes and voting screens to every participating school.
In addition to studying Canada's democratic processes, students are
encouraged to discuss election issues with their friends and families.

"This is our seventh parallel election, and the response from
students, teachers and parents has been phenomenal," said Mr. Gunn.
"More than 1,500 schools registered through our Web site last week � a
record-breaking tally for the start of the campaign. It is a privilege
to receive the support of Elections Canada and our team looks forward
to helping teachers make the best learning experience out of this
election."

Participating students will be responsible for tabulating and
reporting the voting results for their respective schools. National
and regional results are shared with media after the close of polls on
election night (October 14); regional daily newspapers publish the
results on the following day.

Schools are invited to register for this free program through the
Student Vote Web site at www.studentvote.ca or by calling toll-free at
1-866-488-8775.

YCL ALBERTA BLOG

2008-09-22T16:37:00.001-04:00

The Young Communist League (Alberta) has launched a blog:

Check it out --

http://ycl-ljc-alberta.blogspot.com

Campaign for Peace in Federal Election!

2008-09-18T14:20:00.002-04:00

Update from the Canadian Peace Alliance

Federal election materials are ready to be distributed. Please contact
the CPA at cpa@web.ca or 416-588-5555 to order election postcards. We
do ask for a donation to help cover the costs of the printing and
distribution. If you have already called and requested materials
please resend your request. (we had a bit of computer glitch and have
lost a few e-mails). Window signs and postcards are also available for
download from the CPA website at:
http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/Election2008Main.html

October 18 - Pan Canadian Day of Action Against the War in Afghanistan

The October 18 day of action will be a great opportunity to let the
newly elected government know that the anti-war movement will continue
to campaign for an immediate end to Canada's participation in the war
in Afghanistan. Events are being planned in cities and towns
throughout the country. Please send any events listings to cpa@web.ca.

The Call to action for the October 18 demonstrations can be found at
http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/OCT18.html

Call Stephen Harper and Diane Finley
STOP THE DEPORTATION OF JEREMY HINZMAN AND HIS FAMILY

US Iraq war resister Jeremy Hinzman, his wife Nga Nguyen and their two
children face deportation from Canada to the United States. If
deported, Jeremy faces a court-martial and imprisonment for his
refusal to participate in the illegal and immoral Iraq war.

On July 15th, another US war resister – Robin Long – was deported by
the Harper government to the US where he was sentenced to 15 months in
jail. He also received a dishonourable discharge, the equivalent of a
felony conviction.

Canadians have repeatedly expressed their support for Iraq war
resisters. On June 3rd, a motion was adopted in the House of Commons
in favour of allowing resisters to stay in Canada, and calling on the
federal government to cease deportation proceedings. A recent poll by
Angus Reid found that two-thirds of Canadians support letting US war
resisters stay.

URGENT ACTION REQUEST:

Call Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Immigration Diane
Finley to demand:
• that they stop the deportation of Jeremy Hinzman and his family;
• that they respect the democratic will of Parliament and implement
the War Resisters motion.

Stephen Harper:
Campaign office: 1-403-266-4451
Constituency office: 1-403-253-7990

Diane Finley:
Campaign office: 1-519-429-3382
Constituency office: 1-519-426-3400

Election time!

2008-09-15T17:17:00.001-04:00

1. YCL in Action - Election
2. What will be coming...
3. End the war in Afghanistan, NOW!

1. YCL IN ACTION

The Federal election is on us! YCL clubs across the country are
mobilizing into campaigns. Already, we are working to register four
YCL candidates who will be running under the banner of the Communist
Party in this election:

Ontario - Drew Garvie
Ontario - Johan Boyden
Quebec - Marianne Breton Fontaine
Quebec - Samie Archambault

2. COMING UP...

The YCL will be circulating a series of statements about what is at
stake this election, our message, and our politics. Stay tuned!

3. END THE WAR

Not in 2009, not in 2011
End the war in Afghanistan, NOW!

Stephen Harper said today that Canadian soldiers will be withdrawn
from Afghanistan by 2011. This contradicts previous statements by the
Harper government that have alluded to another possible extension past
2011. Harper claims that Canadians will have lost the appetite for war
in three years from now. The reality is that Canadians lost the
appetite for war a long time ago. Just weeks after Harper last
extended Canada's mission on March 13, 2008, an Angus Reid poll showed
that 58 per cent of Canadians believed it was the wrong decision.

That sentiment is still growing. A clear majority of Canadians want
the war to end, now – not in three years. At current rates, thousands
more Afghan civilians will be killed, and many more will be detained
and tortured. Nearly 100 Canadian soldiers have been killed in combat
so far. That number could more than double if we wait three more years
to leave Afghanistan.

How many more Afghan detainees will be transferred to torture? How
many more massacres – like the recent air strike at Azizabad – must
Afghan civilians suffer? And how many more Canadian families will bury
their sons and daughters before Stephen Harper stops playing politics
with other people's lives?

Harper's claim to withdraw troops in 2011 is an attempt to stifle
debate about the war during the election campaign. The Conservatives
and the Liberals are worried about the growing death toll of Canadian
troops in Afghanistan, and the growing anger among Canadians. Neither
party wants to take responsibility for sending troops into harm's way,
in a war that we cannot win.

Stephen Harper promised a "fixed date" for federal elections – then
abandoned this commitment at his convenience. How can Canadians
believe his promise of a fixed date to bring our troops home. Harper
has now twice extended the Canadian mission in Afghanistan past
so-called "fixed dates". He has committed to spend a $490 billion on
the military budget over the next 20 years - a huge financial burden
Canadian taxpayers will shoulder long after Harpers "guaranteed"
withdrawal date.

On October 14, cast your ballot for candidates that will end the war
in Afghanistan, and bring the troops home now – not in another three
years. And on October 18, join us in the streets to send the same
message to whichever party forms the government.

We can't afford another three years of war. Tell that to Stephen
Harper: end the war in Afghanistan, and bring the troops home now!

YCL-LJC ACTION ALERT

2008-09-15T17:16:00.001-04:00

SEPTEMBER 2ND 2008

In this issue:

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. ELECTION ALERT
3. CUBA RESISTS HURRICANE

1. YCL IN ACTION

Way to go Durham YCL, who distributed over 200 Peoples Voice newspapers and
Rebel Youth magazines at their Labour Day parade yesterday. Comrades were
able to sell seven $2.00 subscriptions to marchers. They also were asked by
OPSEU Local 311 to cover in People's Voice a struggle they are fighting
about nurses shortages and closing down a mental health hospital.

YCLers in Toronto joined student leaders in staging an action outside a
military recruitment center this weekend. Protesters dropped to the ground
in the hot sun, in front of a recruitment table, shouting "Support our
Troops, Bring them Home!" The demo lasted for about ten minutes until they
were ordered to leave. The campaign "Operation Objection" has released a new
color flyer about counter-recruitment. Write jo...@ycl-ljc.ca to order some
for your club.

Members of the Central Committee of the YCL met last weekend to discuss the
way forward for the YCL in the current conditions, and with the prospect of
an looming federal election. A full report will follow. After the CC
meeting, seven YCLers from Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec joined in
a week-long Central School organized by the Communist Party. The school
covered Marxist Philosophy, Political Economy, the National Question, and
Strategy and Tactics. Participants had a great week!

Two delegates from the YCL attended the Canadian Network on Cuba convention
on Saturday and Sunday. The convention presented a new approach for the Che
Guevara work brigade, including discussion about the length, prices, and
organization of the brigade. An action report will follow up in October.

YCL BC helped organize a public forum on organizing young workers last week.
Two members of the YCL BC spoke at the forum, which was held by the
Vancouver Labour Council youth committee. A good crowd of young workers
attended and the discussion got out a message about the importance of
organizing the unorganized.

2. ELECTION ALERT

... the count-down is on! It look like the Federal election will be held in
FORTY TWO DAYS! Stay tuned for more information, as the situation
develops...

3. CUBA RESISTS HURRICANE

THE HURRICANE

In my last reflection of Tuesday afternoon, August 29, when hurricane Gustav
unexpectedly formed and started to threaten our country on the same day when
our Olympic delegation returned, I wrote: "We are lucky to have a
Revolution! It is a fact that nobody will be neglected…Our strong, forceful
and farsighted Civil Defense protects our people…The growing frequency and
intensity of these natural phenomena show that the climate is changing due
to the action of man. The current times demand ever increasing dedication,
steadiness and conscience. We don't mind if the opportunists and traitors
also benefit even if they do not make any contribution to the safety and
wellbeing of our people."

I know of the colossal efforts that the Revolution has to make after the
national territory is hit by a hurricane. I could add that Cuba counts with
keen and persevering scientists such as José Rubiera.

Hundreds of millions of working hours are lost in a brief period of time
when the wind gusts beat directly against economic and social centers in
broad areas of the national territory. Endless rains accompany these
natural phenomena. Rivers overflow and sweep away with anything they find
in their path and flood extensive areas. Thousands of facilities that
produce vegetables, milk, eggs, poultry meat and pork, as well as
sophisticated irrigation systems, are seriously damaged; tens of thousands
of hectares of sugarcane, food grains, cereals and fruit trees ready for
harvest are lost; schools, polyclinics, entertainment and cultural centers,
private housing, roofs, factories, warehouses, highways and bridges are all
damaged by the winds and the rain. This time those winds and rains affected
all provinces in a greater or lesser degree, since the hurricane made its
way through the seas nearby the southern part of the country and moved
across the westernmost province. Its eye's radius was 30 kilometers in
length, and strong winds blew over a diameter of more than 450 kilometers.

Nothing is as devastating as the damage and destruction left behind by a
hurricane. Hundreds of thousands of compatriots mobilize and work very hard
during the passing of the hurricane and afterwards during the recovery
stage. Reserves are reduced or depleted. Today, more than ever, the
damages caused on food supplies are costly and significant. But this is our
country; this is our rightful place in this planet, and we have to develop
and defend it.

The task we have ahead requires time and expertise. The true Cuba and its
noble people, which have been ready to share with others its knowledge and
even part of its resources including its own blood, were not built
overnight. That is why it has been an invincible adversary in confronting
the powerful empire that has tried all of its weapons against our country.

But there is hardly any information to the world about Cuba's merits and its
extraordinary struggle.

Two days ago, on Friday 29, none of the eleven cables published by the
international press on Cuba referred to the hurricane that was approaching
our island or the intensive efforts made by our Civil Defense, with the
generous support of millions of Cuban families led by a courageous political
vanguard.

One of the cables published by the German news agency DPA read:

"Popular Cuban Actor Arrives in Miami: 'I left because I grew tired.'"

Then it adds that a well-known Cuban television actor, Yamil Jaled, had left
Cuba for Miami to reunite with his Cuban American wife, according to a local
newspaper.

It also adds that Jaled featured in very popular TV series, theatre plays
and movies, including some blockbusters produced in France and Italy. Jaled
graduated as a performing actor at the Highest Art Institute (ISA) in 1997
and started to work as a professional actor in the Rita Montaner theatre
group, but one year later he started to work in television.

Afterwards the cable goes on to explain that he is 31 years old and
profusely describes his artistic qualities and his triumphant journey
through television, thus echoing a Yankee newspaper destined to launch a
media warfare and campaigns against Cuba. We, Cubans, could add: What
patriot! What democratic! What brilliant example is this prototype that they
presenting to us! This is the way in which they disseminate throughout the
world information about a guy far less known and important than hurricane
Gustav.

They want to turn him into a sacred cow. The deepest convictions, which
have successfully resisted the trials of time and the upheavals of life, can
not be acquired on a single day. Before that, it is necessary to surmount
many trends that we all bear in our inner self.

I do not hate other human beings, but I hate vanity, egocentricity,
selfishness, arrogance, smugness, the absence of ethics and other tendencies
human beings are born with. Only education and the example set by those who
excel in their battle to be better, will succeed and influence all of us. It
is necessary to make a minimal philosophical approach on the need to be
modest.

There are sacred cows who intend to put our Five Heroes, who were brutally
separated from their homeland and their closest relatives, on a level with
the mercenaries who have been justly punished for committing treachery and
were never submitted to personal and inhuman outrage.

What I explain in this reflection reaffirms one conviction that I would like
to convey to my compatriots, that only the just ideas defended with courage,
dignity and firmness will prevail.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 31, 2008

7:32 p.m.

Imperialism Meddling in Caucasus

2008-08-17T18:11:00.001-04:00

On the US/NATO aggression in the Caucasus

The outbreak of a deadly armed conflict in the Caucasus is not only a
humanitarian disaster which has already cost some 2,000 lives, but
poses a very real threat of wider wars in the region. Imperialism's
preparations and aggressions in Georgia are sparks that can eventually
ignite a much larger conflagration, demanding the sharpest
condemnation of the international labour movement and all peace and
anti-imperialist forces.

Unhindered by a strong socialist bloc of countries, imperialist
countries led by the US in the NATO military alliance are using
Georgia to prepare future aggressions, in violation of the basic
principles of international law such as those in the United Nations
Charter.

The Communist Party of Canada condemns the Georgian invasion on August
7, including bombing raids on residential areas, hospitals, and
schools in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, as an unprovoked
assault which plunged the Caucasus into war. We give full support to
calls from many countries for the complete withdrawal of Georgian
forces from South Ossetia as a first step towards a peaceful solution
to this conflict, which must not be allowed to expand into all-out
confrontation in the Middle East and Central Asia.

We also note that contrary to claims by much of the western media and
by the Bush regime, this is not a case of "Russian aggression." The
source of rising tensions in the Caucasus is not the presence of
Russian troops, which entered South Ossetia in the early 1990s as
peacekeepers after Georgia attempted to forcibly annex the area,
driving much of the population across the border into North Ossetia,
which remained within Russia.

The real origin of this conflict lies in the US/NATO imperialist
policies of expansionism. For decades, starting with the Cold War, the
US has sought to place a military ring around its rival, undermining
allies of the Soviet Union and later Russia, and imposing so-called
"pro-Western" regimes which allow US bases on their soil and rely
heavily on US military cooperation and support. Recalling the Nazi
invasion which cost their country over twenty million lives, Russia
strongly opposes such imperialist encirclement.

This is the case with Georgia, which became a U.S. client state at the
time of the illegal NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999. Israel, the
main U.S. ally in the region, has also forged close political and
economic links with the Georgian government. The high level of
US/NATO/Israeli/Georgian military integration makes it clear that the
August 7 aggression must have been known in advance and approved by
the Bush and Olmert governments. Bolstering this view is the decision
on August 9 by the United States to provide military transport
aircraft to fly many of Georgia's 2,000-strong troop contingent out of
Iraq to join the fighting at home.

The imperialist drive to plunder oil and other vital resources is a
key factor in destabilization of the region. Notably, the
Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline brings oil and gas through Georgia to the
Eastern Mediterranean, including a large part of Israel's oil imports
from Azerbaijan. Controlled by British Petroleum and built with US
support, the BTC pipeline is a vital piece of the military-political
bloc including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Israel, which the US
considers a vital counter-balance against the influence of Russia and
China in the region.

In the wake of the US/UK war against Iraq and the continuing efforts
by the occupation forces to turn over Iraq's vast oil wealth to the
transnational corporations, nobody should underestimate the desire of
the ultra-right clique around Bush, Cheney and other Republican hawks
to use events in the Middle East and Central Asia to further this
strategic push. Seen in this context, Georgia's aggression against
South Ossetia, which quickly met powerful Russian resistance, may have
been a provocation to create better conditions for expansion of the
US/ NATO military presence in the area.

The Caucasus war could also influence the US presidential election, by
tilting voter support towards Republican candidate John McCain. It is
not a stretch to wonder if these events may be intended to help lay
the groundwork for a US strike against Iran, with the long-range goal
of imperialist seizure of that country's oil reserves. Such an attack
would unleash a war of unforeseeable dimensions, costing millions of
lives and spreading far beyond the borders of the Middle East.

In pursuit of its aim of global hegemony, imperialism is playing with
fire, and Georgia's latest aggression is part of this wider pattern.
The Communist Party of Canada urges full support for international
attempts to contain and extinguish this conflict, and for an end to
all imperialist meddling in the Caucasus.

Issued by the Central Executive Committee

Communist Party of Canada

August 14, 2008

YCL-LJC Action Update "Give me $2.7 mill" - T18 informant

2008-08-16T20:38:00.001-04:00

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. FESTIVAL UPDATE
3. TORONTO 18 - "I WANT 2.7 MILL"

YCL IN ACTION

The YCL BC successfully held a weekend summer camp at a beautiful lake
near Merritt. Comrades discussed Reform and Revolution, and action for
the BC YCL over the next year. Comrades came from Vancouver, Burnaby,
the Lower Mainland, and Trail BC. See the facebook group for photos!

The YCL-LJC is in the process of getting a new website. In a few
months we will launch our new site, which will allow for more regular
updates of the main page and other cool features! If you have comments
or suggestions for the new site, please send them to the Central
Executive, c/o johan@ycl-ljc.ca

YCL Ontario is organizing a fall school for early September for new
members. The school is planned to be held in Hamilton, at Solidarity
House, a hall run by the Communist Party, working with the FMLN and
friends in the local labour movement and other peoples groups.

This summer Marianne Breton Fontaine, Quebec Organizer, together with
Johan Boyden, General Secretary of the YCL, traveled across the
country visiting most clubs of the league. Marianne gave a short talk
about developments in Quebec student politics since the last issue of
Rebel Youth, when an article appeared discussing this issue.

YOUTH FESTIVAL UPDATE

The World Festival of Youth and students is moving forward -- but it
is a little uncertain where the next festival will be and when the
date is. This is the news from a summer meeting of the International
Union of Students and the World Federation of Democratic Youth. Due to
financial reasons, the youth festival committee in Belarus was forced
to withdraw their application, leaving India as a possible host. Stay
posted! More information will follow.

TORONTO 18 - I WANT MORE SAYS POLICE INFORMANT

'Toronto 18' informant Mubin Shaikh ups his price

MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI | July 23, 2008 |

Original Source:
http://www.macleans.ca/canada/national/article.jsp?content=20080723_115512_115512&page=1

Two years ago, when Mubin Shaikh first went public with his tale of
anti-terror espionage, he was candid about his compensation. He told
Canadians the RCMP paid him a cool $300,000 to spy on the "Toronto
18," a group of young, tough-talking Muslims who liked to camp in the
snow (and allegedly plot jihad). But Shaikh insisted, over and over,
that cash was not his motivation. He went undercover to protect his
country and his religion, not to line his pockets. "I didn't do it for
the money," he said shortly after the arrests. "I'm not going to
negotiate with the lives of Canadians."

Today, Mubin Shaikh is ready to negotiate. Canada's most famous
informant — the public face of the nation's largest-ever terrorism
trial — is asking for a $2.4-million raise.

In a two-page letter addressed to the Mounties, Shaikh vows to abide
by a long list of conditions in exchange for the hefty, "no tax"
payment ($2.7 million, minus the $300,000 he's already received). His
promises include no more media interviews, no more drug use, and no
book or movie deals. The 32-year-old also pledges to "aggressively
defend the evidence and vocally support the role of the agencies
involved" in the case, including the RCMP and CSIS, Canada's spy
agency. "This document is intended to be a formal request for further
compensation that is 'deserved and proportional' to my involvement" in
the investigation, Shaikh writes.

The note contains no explicit threats. Shaikh, a married father of
five, does not go so far as to say he will abandon the case if the
cops don't cave. However, one of his proposed conditions is a promise
not to "bring any legal action against the RCMP/CSIS."

The authorities have yet to respond to Shaikh's letter, but this much
appears certain: police and prosecutors are growing increasingly
impatient with their prized informant. The timing of his extravagant
demand was especially bold. Shaikh sent his note to the Mounties on
June 9, just days before his widely publicized testimony at the trial
of a teenager charged in connection with the bust. "It certainly makes
a mockery of his 'I'm not doing this for the money' line," says lawyer
Michael Moon, who represents Steven Chand, one of 10 adults still
facing charges. "The Crown's devout, patriotic witness keeps on upping
his price, depending on what trial he's at."

Indeed, this is the second time Shaikh has requested a pay hike. In
the early stages of the investigation, he happily accepted $77,000 to
infiltrate the group. He bugged his minivan, befriended one of the
alleged leaders, and famously joined the suspects on a two-week winter
camping trip that prosecutors now believe was the genesis of a
sophisticated plot to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto. But in
June 2006, days after the high-profile raids, Shaikh went back to the
RCMP and asked them to boost his reward to an even $300,000. They
agreed.

Two years later, it's hard to imagine a repeat outcome. Despite his
undeniable charm and outspoken disdain for aspiring terrorists, Shaikh
is proving to be as much of a Crown liability as an asset. As star
witnesses go, he has become more star than witness. Since the arrests,
he has outed himself on national TV, proclaimed the innocence of some
of the accused, snorted cocaine on the taxpayers' dime, and pleaded
guilty to threatening two 12-year-old girls. During his recent
testimony at the youth trial, he also sparred with prosecutor John
Neander, who took the rare step of declaring Shaikh a hostile witness
and grilling him on some alleged inconsistencies in his statements.
Simply put, the Crown accused its own hired mole of fudging facts to
protect the defendant. A few days later, Shaikh went one step further,
telling reporters the teenage suspect deserves to be acquitted.

And now, after all that, Mubin Shaikh wants more cash — more than 30
times the dollar figure he originally agreed to. "You have to be
concerned about the motives of an informant whose sole source of
income has been taxpayer money," says defence lawyer Dennis Edney,
whose client, Fahim Ahmad, faces more charges than any of the accused.
"And if Mr. Shaikh is asking for more money, then it causes further
concern that his sole motivation in giving evidence is financial
rewards."

This case, of course, already has a controversial history of financial
rewards. A second informant, an unidentified businessman who is now
hiding in the witness protection program, was paid at least $4.1
million for his covert assistance — and only after the Mounties talked
him down from his original offer of $15 million. At the time, Shaikh
had no idea the other spy existed, let alone the fact he was being
paid millions of dollars. After the raids, when he did find out,
Shaikh claimed to have no regrets. "I've got no complaints," he said
in February 2007. "I'm not thinking: 'Oh damn, I should have asked
them for more.' Nope. I'm happy with everything."

So what changed? Why is he suddenly so anxious to fatten his bank
account by $2.4 million? His answer is typical Shaikh: self-assured,
unequivocal, and rife with references to the Quran. "My response is
simple," he said, when contacted by Maclean's. "This case is huge. It
is history being made — legal history, Canadian history and Islamic
history — and the burden it has on a person is great."

Shaikh insists — again — that money had nothing to do with his
original decision to become a police agent. "A person who does things
for money, money is the number one thing right from the beginning," he
says. "But when I went into the first negotiation I didn't go anywhere
near a lot of a money. At the time, I had no idea what this was going
to entail." Only now, Shaikh says, does he realize the full
ramifications of his co-operation. "This has shaped the rest of my
life. The next 10 years are going to revolve around this stuff. It has
become a full-time job, and I would like to know who in the courtroom
is there free of charge. I'm sure the judge is not there because of
his love for justice. I'm sure the media isn't there because of the
right for the public to know. And the lawyers aren't there because
they're crusading for justice. Everybody is there for a dollar."

Shaikh wants to be clear: he is not giving the RCMP an ultimatum. If
the force doesn't pay him another dime, he'll still show up to testify
whenever the adult suspects reach trial (or trials). "That will never
change," he says. "I am ordered by Allah to do the right thing, to
tell the truth." He still believes in the evidence, and he still
believes that most of the accused deserve to spend many more years
behind bars. But he also believes that his own time and effort — just
not his opinions — should come at a fair price. "I do feel that I
deserve more," he says. "Basically, the money is for me because I
didn't go into witness protection. What if I need to relocate the rest
of my family because my house is known? The cops wouldn't even put a
deadbolt lock in my apartment. What makes you think they're going to
do anything?"

Though he is careful with his words, Shaikh is clearly frustrated with
the RCMP. "I don't think the police take me as seriously as they
should," he says. "I don't think they realize the resource that I am.
I'm only interested in increasing their intelligence-gathering and
crime-prosecuting abilities. That is my goal, because the last thing I
want is for them to not do it properly, get to court, and have it
fizzle out." In fact, Shaikh says he's no longer angry that Neander
attacked him on the stand; if anything, the episode proved he is
committed to telling the truth, not following the government's script.
"I work with the police, not for the police."
Still, Shaikh knows what's coming. He has no doubt that many in the
Muslim community, including some of the suspects' families, will curse
him yet again. The money-hungry traitor needs to buy more coke to
snort up his nose. He smiles at the thought. "Those people are
terrorist cheerleaders," he says. "Frankly, I don't give a rodent's
buttocks what the community thinks — or anybody else. People who do
the right thing should not be swayed by what people say or what people
think, because the right thing is the right thing. And if the whole
community says it's not the right thing, then the whole community is
wrong."

World Federation of Democratic Youth News

2008-04-21T13:29:00.002-04:00

Against the ban of the Czech Communist Youth Union (KSM)

This is our first issue of WFDY NEWS since many years. It is intended to be a news bulletin that reflects the struggles, activities and news of WFDYas well as its member organizations around the world. It will be published in hard copy and electronically on our website and through the email. We hope that it constitutes one more step in the development of the action of our organization and gives a tribune for the progressive and democratic struggles around the world. However, it is a sad moment to publish our first issue under the recent decisions of the Czech government to ban KSM.

Some people think that they can ban the future! At least this is what the Czech government believes. The Czech government decided to ban the Czech Communist Youth (KSM), with the approval of the juridical authorities, on the pretext that the Czech

Communist Youth is spreading forbidden communist ideas.

We tell the Czech government that ideas cannot be banned; they just spread like the breeze among the people. Youth action will never be illegal as long as it is oriented for the development and protection of youth rights for a different world. Youth have the right to have their beliefs in social justice and in a world free of exploitation. They have the right and they also have the duty to fight for their beliefs on the ideological and the political level. No government shall ban the progressive youth because no government can prevent the future.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) expresses its solidarity with KSM and strongly condemns the actions of the Czech government against it. WFDY will launch an international campaign to protest this decision around the world, and to make the Czech government hear the voice of a great number of people refusing its decision and supporting KSM. Petitions, demonstrations at the Czech embassies and other forms of protest will be launched against this undemocratic decision.

This is a part of an ideological offensive conducted by imperialism against the youth and their dreams in a better world. Ideological offensives are the complimentary of the military offensives practiced by imperialism around the world. Silencing the people is one more step for hegemony, but the youth will fight back.

We will struggle for our rights and our freedom of action is a basic right. We shall never stop our struggles for a better world, and we shall never accept any decision criminalizing our legal peaceful actions. We will struggle. We call the youth around the world to protest this decision and support the right of KSM in acting as a communist youth organization struggling for the rights of the Czech youth.

WFDY Solidarity Action in Balkans

Between 3 and 6 April, the Commission of Europe and North America of WFDY held a solidarity action with Balkans region. Alongside with a NATO Summit going on in Bucharest and a visit of the President of United States to the region, this event had an important impact both for the international delegates from several countries and for the youth of Serbia, Croatia and Romania.

This action, held under the slogan “For Peace in Balkans, we struggle against NATO, bases and imperialism”, was successfully hosted by SKOJ (Serbia), Youth Association SOS (Croatia) and UTS (Romania), and gave a great contribution for the international solidarity with youth struggle in all ex-Yugoslavia republics.

The denouncement of NATO crimes, the discussion about ways to improve solidarity and the direct contact with the destruction of the youth's social rights in these countries, led the delegates to the conclusion that only peace and sovereignty are the way for friendship and social justice. The delegates also acknowledged that the promotion of militarization and ethic or religious conflicts was a weapon of imperialism to break down the resistance of the peoples, as well as the offence against democratic rights, clearly felt by the delegates as they acknowledged that the police was pursuing the comrades from Croatia during the preparatory process of the event, and in Croatia and Romania, where the border’s police demanded to check, during several hours, the contents of all books and posters brought by the delegates, in an unacceptable demonstration of the imperialist wish to break down all those who struggle against it.

The expansion of NATO and the imperialist wars can only be stopped with struggle in each country, in each town, in each school or place of work and are closely connected with the struggles for social rights, that is why so many delegates brought up this issue during the panels of discussion as what is going on in the ex-Yugoslavia countries clearly shows that imperialist order is not compatible with social justice and peace.

WFDY April 2008

Correction

2008-04-05T14:28:00.002-04:00

Please note that a correction has been made to the YCL-LJC anti-racism statement. Grassy Narrows was incorrectly listed as in Manitoba, it is in Ontario. The statement can be viewed here:

http://ycl-ljc.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html#6684743723717602641

WE STRUGGLE FOR A PUBLIC, FREE AND HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

2008-04-04T02:50:00.001-04:00

The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) calls upon all member
and friendly organizations to rise up and join the international
campaign for having public, free and high quality education in all our
countries, as an essential human right in the struggle to build a
better world where full and free access to universal education and
liberty of human beings prevail.

When 150 millions children nowadays in the world do not have full
access to education, 90 millions people are illiterate – two thirds of
them are women- and the basic schooling completion rate is over 100
millions people, when the globalize neoliberalism seeks to obtain
profits from all sectors including education and health, WFDY calls
upon all progressive youth organizations to demand our educational
rights.

Expenses on education at the, so called "first world countries" exceed
all from the Sub-Saharan African countries, four days of the military
cost and 9 minutes of financial speculation are over 8 thousand
millions dollars, just the same global price that would be enough to
carry out full and free education for all.

Young people from all the world have the right to defend education as
a mean of freedom, of obtaining worthy and wide knowledge that respect
our legacy and true history where moral values prevail, of achieving
the total emancipation of human being and of avoiding to be submissive
slaves of the world market.

Let's struggle for coming true the right to a full and free education
to save our world, for creating basic learning conditions, for
encouraging each government to wide the resources on the education
field and to fulfill its obligation to provide full access to
education as the most important human investment ever done, so as to
eradicate poverty and inequality. Let's struggle to make our young
people study and not let them work and beg to survive, to make women,
ethnic minorities, indigenous people, immigrants, refugees, and all
young people have the right to learn how to read and write as a way of
a genuine development of the human being and the societies we live in.

The CC/HQ of WFDY

Budapest,
April 1, 2008

FREE MUMIA

2008-03-30T06:09:00.001-04:00

The Young Communist League of Canada joins with the Free Mumia
Committee in denouncing the recent ruling of the injustice against
Mumia Abu-Jamal whose case exposes the racist death penalty, the
brutality of the police, and the unjust imprisoning of political
activists in the United States.

At this important time, we join with all those demanding his immediate
release. We call upon all democratic and progressive youth in Canada
to join with the Free Mumia campaign.

(YCL-LJC CEC, March 28)

ELIMINATION OF RACISM: A DIRE NECESSITY

2008-03-24T03:59:00.005-04:00

YCL-LJC
March 21, 2008

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racism
on March 21 2008, the YCL joins with all those demanding an end to
racist wars, environmental destruction, inequality, and attacks on
civil and democratic rights.

March 21 marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, when
police used low-flying jet fighters and armored vehicles to attack a
non-violent demonstration of over 7,000 South Africans against
Apartheid's passbook laws. The attack killed 67 people and wounded 186
protestors.

Racism in Canada

Being born non-white is not a crime. But in Canada, it usually means
you are sentenced to a lifetime of systemic racial oppression.

This cannot be understood as simply a matter of individual prejudice.
In the grand sweep of our country's history, genocide, colonization,
national oppression, racism, sexual assault and sexism, discrimination
against immigrants, homophobia and other forms of oppression have and
continue to play a major role in the functioning of Canadian
capitalism.

The ideology of sexism and racism are also used as a rationale and
enforcer of the most brutal polices of our government – including
Canada's participation in coup and occupation of Haiti, the war in
Afghanistan, and Canada's support of for the ongoing Israeli
occupation and oppression of Palestine.

Equality and youth

There can be no peaceful co-existence with racism and with the
violence it invariably spawns. The ideology racism is not abstract. It
is used to divide and defeat the working class.

We demand respect for and call for the defense of civil and democratic
rights, including the elimination of racial profiling by the police
and the civilian and community control of police and prisons; reform
to immigration and refuge laws; strengthening and enforcement of hate
laws; support of black-focused schools; and the enacting and enforcing
equality in education, employment, healthcare and housing as a
priority.

We express our solidarity with the young anti-racist activists, one of
who was a Communist Party election candidate, whose home was recently
fire-bombed by neo-Nazis during the Alberta election.

We note with alarm the growing racism campaign against immigrants and
racialized communities including 'anti-Islamic racism' or
'islamophobia,' a new label for an old form of racism that is today
viciously used to justify oppression and imperialist policy.

We demand an end to the national oppression and racism Aboriginal
peoples (including First Nations Inuit, and Metis peoples) face;
immediate action for just and early settlement of Aboriginal land
claims; Treaty implementation; solidarity with Aboriginal struggles
including Sun Peaks BC, Grassy Narrows and Caledonia,
Ontario; recognition of self-determination and self-government;
implementation of the Kelowna accord at a minimum and the signing of
the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by Canada;
support of the Native Youth Movement and their opposition to the 2010
BC Olympic games profiteering; removing the current federal cap on
core funding to First Nations; and an end to the Canadian government's
policies of suicide, genocide and assimilation.

We demand that everyone should have the right to dignity, life and
justice, and access to employment, labour rights, education, health
care, sports, culture, and technology.

Anti-racist struggles

To push back racism and sexism will take a mighty and united struggle.
Together we can beat it by uniting all races, ages, and genders.

The capitalists will never end racism on their own because it serves
their economic self-interest. For youth & students, the working class
and the people as a whole, racism holds back our demands for a better
future. Racism is not an advantage to white youth. There are only
setbacks when there is no unity.

Sexism, racism, and class exploitation are inseparably linked and
impact all our lives, but through unity and militancy we can defeat
this system of oppression. In the longer term, socialism is a historic
necessity if humanity is to win that battle and reach the stage of
real democracy. The struggle to defeat racism not a distraction from
the struggle for socialism, it is part of that struggle, and continues
after socialism has been won. Socialism creates conditions to
profoundly deepen the anti-racist struggle.

It is not only possible to bring an end to racial oppression and
inequality in our country, it is a dire necessity.

CONDEMN ATTACKS ON RIGHTS TO DEMONSTRATE

2008-03-24T03:59:00.004-04:00

Young Communist League
March, 2008

The Young Communist League condemns recent rough-handling of peaceful
student protestors by the campus police of the University of Toronto
this past week, and stands with all those condemning this shameful
violence on campus. We view this as a grave and serious attack on the
civil and democratic rights of the students, and an outrageous
silencing of free speech and academic freedom on campus.

We call upon the University of Toronto President's office to recognize
and implement the students demands, publicly investigate these
actions, drop the motion to increase students' fees from the
Universities upcoming board meeting, and allow dissent on campus!

We also join with Quebec students in condemning the injunction issued
last week by the University of Quebec At Montreal administration,
banning all political protests and leafleting from within 100 meters
of campus, threatening $50,000 fines and jail. This follows the
November 2007 police attack on a peaceful student occupation of Cégep
du Vieux-Montréal (declaring a 'People's University') that left over 50
students wounded and 102 students in prison. Student occupations in
Quebec have not been terrorized like this for over a decade. This
dangerous anti-democratic trend shows the fear of ruling-class circles
about student protest.

Police forces regularly engage in brutal assaults against Aboriginal
peoples, people of colour, immigrants, demonstrators, trade unionists,
and so‑called "troublemakers." Across Canada, "investigations" of such
abuse are often sham. But a growing chorus of demands is calling to
end this impunity. The Young Communist League supports these demands,
as part of a wider range of measures to establish full civilian
oversight and control of police forces.

It is particularly alarming that these assaults are being increasingly
carried into our campuses. Freedom of expression and action by
students and faculty members must be a cardinal principle of
democratic, quality education – as is accessibility. Paternalistic and
hostile attitudes towards students by administrators and governments
must be replaced with full recognition of the right of youth and
students, including organizing free from administration and outside
restrictions, interference and any form of police harassment.

International Womens Day!

2008-03-24T03:58:00.003-04:00

March 8, 2008

Young Communist League joins with all those celebrating International
Women's Day 2008, and saying that much more must be done in the fight
for real equality.

Imperialist policies of war and ecological crisis hit women and girls
hardest. The Harper Tories claim Canada fights in Afghanistan to help
women, but as suspended young parliamentarian Malalai Joya says,
"under the nose of NATO and Canadian troops, the situation of women is
getting worse."

Millions of Canadian women are caught in part-time, temporary, or
home-based jobs difficult for union organizing. Women working full
time make 70.5% of men. This is worse for women of colour, and
Aboriginal women. The Federal government refuses to establish
universal, public child care (yet Quebec has a $7 a day system).
Harper instead gives tax breaks to the wealthy, deepening inequality.

Rape, sexual harassment, psychological and emotional abuse, and the
regular disappearances of women (especially aboriginal women) is a
cross-Canada crisis. Because of the murders of young women along road
in northern Canada, it has been re-named the "Highway of Tears."

Only capitalists 'win big' from systematic oppression of women. Sexism
is a tool of capital to divide working people, thereby
weakening it. Some men think they benefit, but their wages, working
conditions, civil and democratic rights are also dragged down. Yet an
alarming and sophisticated ideological offensive by big business and
the capitalist state tries to convince young women and girls to accept
this 'double burden' of patriarchy and capitalism as normal, and tells
young men and boys that they benefit.

Despite these attacks on women – often affecting youth from childhood
– unity and struggle for women's equality gains supporters everyday.
Peace and disarmament, pay equity, higher minimum wages, increased
funding for women' programmes, affordable childcare and housing, and
the elimination of violence against women, are now demanded with
continued determination by women, youth, labour and other progressive
movements.

The racism in schools, work places, and sports against young Canadian
Muslim women who wear head scarves is increasing, but there is also
resistance – including by the young women team mates who've stood with
Muslim athletes ejected from competitions by referees promoting
hatred. Canadian movies like "Juno" discourage abortion, and women's
right to control their bodies. But as we celebrate the 20th
anniversary of abortion's decriminalization, anti-abortion groups are
being confronted on campuses. More young people reject our
anti-choice, anti-queer, and anti-women school curriculum. Students
join with teachers, demanding more women faculty, and eliminating all
barriers to public education.

Mobilization, awareness and organization must strengthen on many
fronts in the struggle for women's equality – essential in the
revolutionary process for peace, democracy and a socialist Canada. It
is in the interests of all youth to unite on these issues: a better
future is to be gained by all. Let's make sure that the future for
every woman and girl is bright!

RESTORE FREE SPEECH!

2008-03-24T03:58:00.001-04:00

Young Communist League
March, 2008

The heavy hand of administration at McMaster University has displayed
an outrageous disregard for freedom of speech and academic freedom
alike.

Will McMaster University Provost, Busch-Vishniac, ban Nelson Mandel or
Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, who compare Israeli oppression of
Palestinians with that of South African blacks under apartheid, or US
ex-president Jimmy Carter, who wrote Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid?

The gross inequality experienced daily by Palestinians in Israel and
the occupied territories has appalled the world, – but not Provost
Busch-Vishniac.

Israel has two government-appointed Chief Rabbis. One proposes moving
Palestinian citizens of Israel to the Sinai Desert. The other has
called them rats. In Gaza, a territory smaller than the city of
Toronto, with 1.4 million living in an open-air prison under siege,
Israel controls the boarders, airspace and even how much UN food aid
is allowed in.

The occupied West Bank is divided into sections reachable from each
other only through Israeli check-points and dotted with extremist
settlements of gun toting racist thugs. About half of West Bank is
effectively annexed by a several hundred mile-long and 25 foot high
wall, fortified with razor wire and electric fencing.

Since Wednesday, 14 Palestinian civilians, among them eight children,
have been killed by Israeli missile strikes.

Just as whites and blacks came together to oppose South African
Apartheid, so too have Jews and Arabs united to appose the genocide in
Palestine. Equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is false.

That an attempt to silence debate on this question, in of all places a
University campus, is an glaring attack on the democratic rights of
students, freedom of speech, and the principle of academic freedom.
Schools should give us both facts and analytical skills. Freedom of
inquiry by students and faculty members must be a cardinal principle
of democratic, quality education – as is accessibility. Paternalistic
and hostile attitudes towards students by administrators and
governments must be replaced with full recognition of the right of
youth and students, including organizing free from administration and
outside restrictions and interference.

The YCL joins other decent young Canadians in demanding McMaster
Provost Busch-Vishniac restore free speech!

Police Taser Use: Communists Demand Full Federal Inquiry, and Immediate Moratorium!

2008-03-24T03:57:00.001-04:00

Joint statement by the Communist Party and the Young Communist League
November 22, 2007

The rising number of deaths involving Taser assaults by police has led
a wide range of organizations to call for a full federal public
inquiry into the widespread use of this weapon, and a moratorium on
its use by police. The Communist Party of Canada and Young Communist
League supports these de-mands, as part of a wider range of measures
to establish full civilian oversight and control of police forces.

On Oct. 15, Robert Dziekanski died within seconds of a brutal and
unprovoked Taser attack and take-down by four RCMP officers at
Vancouver airport. His death was the 18th involving police use of
Tasers in Canada since July 2003; an estimated 280 similar deaths have
occurred in the United States since 2001.
The Dziekanski case is a tragic illustration of the misuse of this
deadly weapon. The RCMP and airport au-
thorities initially tried to downplay the key role of the police in
Mr. Dziekanski's tragic death, but the attack was carried out in full
view of witnesses, one of whom filmed the entire episode.

The video footage shows that the officers used their Taser as the
first option to deal with the Polish immigrant, who had become
emotionally distressed after being stuck for many hours in the
airport. After Tasering Mr. Dziekanski, the police held him down with
extreme force and used the weapon a second time, a tactic which ended
in his death within seconds.

Some expert observers have correctly stated that the RCMP officers
involved in this badly botched opera
tion did not follow proper procedures for dealing with a disturbed
individual, particularly since Robert Dziekanski threatened no one.
The list of police errors is horrifying: they took no time to assess
the situation or to speak with bystanders who tried to tell them that
he did not speak English; instead of beginning with less forceful
measures, the police immediately used the most violent tool available;
instead of helping their helpless victim to sit upright after the
first Taser attack, the police continued their physical assault. The
officers who committed this assault must face serious criminal charges
for their utterly reckless actions.
There should also be a full investigation of the role of privatised
airport operations in this case.

But this incident is much more than one case of police misconduct or
inadequate training. In the name of "law and order" and worshipped by
the corporate media, police forces in reality are a powerful tool of
the state, imposing the discriminatory prejudices of the ruling class
with impunity. Limited inquiries into the circumstances of
Dziekanski's death will never reveal the full scope of the problem.

Police forces regularly engage in brutal assaults against Aboriginal
peoples, people of colour, immigrants, demonstrators, and so-called
"troublemakers". Right across Canada, "investigations" of such abuse
are con-
ducted internally or by other police forces, with the unsurprising
result that such criminal actions are almost always whitewashed.

It is little wonder that many police officers assume that they can use
extreme force in virtually any
situation without facing consequences. There is now a growing chorus
of demands to end this impunity. Police officers who commit crimes
must not get a free pass after farcical internal "reviews"; they must
face the same legal standards and processes of investigation as the
rest of society. The consistent pattern of
racism which underlies much police brutality must be ended, with the
swift removal of any officers who commit racist acts or statements.

Not least, there must be a full federal inquiry into the use of
Tasers. Instead of relying on company "reports"
which deny the deadly effect of this weapon, there must be a complete,
unbiased scientific study of Taser deaths, and swift implementation of
the necessary recommendations. In the interim, Parliament should order
an immediate moratorium on the use of Tasers.

Congratulations on the 85th Anniversary of the YCLSA!

2008-03-24T03:56:00.001-04:00

Congratulations on the 85th Anniversary of the YCLSA!
May, 2007

Dear the Young Communist League of South Africa:

The Young Communist League of Canada - la Ligue de la jeunesse
communiste du Canada salutes the Young Communist League of South
Africa, the League of Joe Slovo and Chris Hani, on the occasion of
your 85th Anniversary!

The YCLSA's dedication to the struggle is know by many. Your work is
impressive and important in the campaigns Education for All, the fight
against HIV and AIDS, combating unemployment and poverty, overcoming
illiteracy, speaking out against human rights abuses as well as
corruption and, together with the ANC Youth league, uniting youth
organizations, articulating the views and interests of the youth.

The YCL-LJC joins with others in condemning the recent attack and
attempt to murder your National Secretary, Comrade Buti Manamela.
Imperialism and reaction may try by cowardly terrorist methods, but
they can not stop the future!

The mass democratic movement of the peoples, including the youth, of
South Africa has inspired the world with your overthrow of the
Apartheid regime. The destruction of Apartheid is especially important
for the peoples of Canada. Many years ago, a delegation from the South
African ruling class visited our country to study the Canadian "Indian
Act" and "Reserve system" and national oppression of the Aboriginal
peoples, in order to develop the special type of racist and national
oppression of the Black people of South Africa that became Apartheid.
In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, across Canada, people rallied against that
system, demanding in solidarity the end of Apartheid.

The YCL-LJC was founded in the same year as the YCLSA, 1922. We also
began our re-organization in the same year as well, 2003. This year we
celebrated our 24th Central Convention, and our 85th anniversary.

We stand with you in your struggle to consolidate and take the
victories of your democratic revolution further, fighting for a better
life for all, and to smash capitalism and win a socialist South
Africa!

Warm Revolutionary Greetings!

Amandla Ngawethu!

Long live International Solidarity!

YCL Central Executive Committee

YCL-ljc Blog

Help grow Rebel Youth magazine

Demand Climate Action

Access to education is our right

Economic Recovery? LOL!

Three statements by WFDY

Labour Day

YCL-LJC Newsletter

Gender Attack on South African Caster Semenya by the International Association of Athletics Federation: Daylight Racism

L’Attaque de Genre Menée par l’Association Internationale de la Fédération d’Athlétiques Contre la Sud Africaine Championne Caster Semenya: un Racisme

Stop the BC Harmonized Sales Tax

WFDY Statement Against anti-communism and all kind of anti-democratic measures

Greetings to the Young New Democrats Convention

YCL Newsletter

On 64 years of the USA nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan)

City of Guelph: put Nature and People before Profit!

Celebrating 50 Years of Cuba Revolution!

July WFDY News

Happy Pride '09 Canada!

FÊTE NATIONALE DU QUÉBEC

On World Environment Day

July YCL Newsletter

June 2009 WFDY News

2009 Nova Scotia Election Results: What’s at stake for youth?

Against the coup d’état in Honduras!

Freedom for the General Secretary of PFLP Palestine - Now!

Salute to the victory of the Peruvian indigenous movement!

Not a token day: National Aboriginal Day, June 21st, summer solstice

Regarding the situation in Iran

YCL-LJC CONDEMNS URIBE VISIT TO CANADA

ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF THE AFRICAN CHILD

Free the Cuban Five!

Solidarity towards Colombia!

YCL-LJC CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING

WFDY News

Youth Struggle in Canada

On the new French military base in UAE

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

On the occasion of the African Day

Solidarity with the Arab youth

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

BUSH, WAR CRIMINAL: GO HOME!

AFTER THE ELECTION THE FIGHT BACK CONTINUES

Solidarity towards Burmese youth and students!

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

Young communists arrested by the Croatian police

WFDY - May 3rd

On the last 1st 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!”

Warm militant greetings on May Day 2009

YCL: National Post, Stop Red-Baiting

Three World Federation of Democratic Youth Statements

Students should not pay for this crisis

LET GEORGE GALLOWAY SPEAK IN CANADA!

CELEBRATE EL SALVADOR!

Solidarity with Sudanese peoples

Viva International Women's Day

Kick-ass Ontario YCL School

A time of sharpening struggles

YCL Statement on Gaza

Solidarity with the people of Gaza

New Years Greetings

50 YEARS OF REVOLUTION! 50 YEARS OF DIGNITY!

Solidarity with the Greek youth and workers

SOLIDARITY WITH GREECE

This is not democracy!

Greetings to YCL USA

YCL-LJC CEC ON THE COALITION

YCL Update

YCL IN ACTION

Youth struggles in the current period

CONVENE A PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE

STUDENT ANTI-FEE PROTESTS DRAW THOUSANDS

Drop Fees Now!

CONVENTION OF THE CANADIAN NETWORK ON CUBA

Greetings to Colombia Communist Youth

About the Referendum in Ecuador

WFDY, Statement on the International Financial Crisis

Register your highschool: Student Vote

YCL ALBERTA BLOG

Campaign for Peace in Federal Election!

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!”