Celebrating 50 Years of Cuba Revolution!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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!

(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.