YOUTH UNITE! FORWARD FOR LASTING PEACE! 

By Stephen Von Sychowski

On November 10, 1945, the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) was formed at the World Youth Conference in London. The Conference was organized by the World Youth Council, an anti-fascist organization formed during the Second World War and composed of youth from the allied countries. Among the organizations present was the Young Communist League (YCL) of Canada (then called National Federation of Labour Youth - NFLY).

     The WFDY pledged to fight for youth unity, to struggle against racism, to seek the elimination of all traces of fascism from the earth, to build friendship between the peoples of the world, to forge a just and lasting peace and to eliminate want, frustration and idleness. They declared that "We have come to confirm the unity of all youth salute our comrades who have died - and pledge our word that skilful hands, keen brains and young enthusiasm shall never more be wasted in war".

     For over 60 years the WFDY has continued this struggle for its goals. It opposed imperialist wars, most famously those in Korea and Vietnam, and fought for the interests of youth and students around the world. The WFDY and many of its member organizations were shaken by the counter-revolutions throughout much of the socialist world towards the end of the last century, but continued to fight. In this dark time for the working class movement, the YCL Canada was liquidated in the midst of an intense struggle within the movement between Leninist and revisionist forces.

     Today the WFDY is growing once again. In 2005 it held the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas, Venezuela. The WFDY also has consultative status with the United Nations and operational relations with UNESCO.

     Likewise, the YCL Canada, having been re-founded almost a year ago in Toronto, is growing and continuing the struggle. In February it again took its historical place as the Canadian member of the WFDY, when the YCL was voted in as a full member at the General Council meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. The meeting was attended by over 40 organizations from all corners of the globe, and produced a solid political document and several solidarity resolutions.

     The growth in anti-imperialist youth movements is a natural outcome of the imperialist stage of capitalist development. Youth are under attack! We are being forced to work at below-poverty level wages, given the debt sentence for trying to further our education, driven into poverty and homelessness and recruited to kill and be killed in dirty imperialist wars. We are victimized by ageism, racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. And slowly, but surely, more of us are fighting back.

     The YCL Canada continues to work alongside the rest of the WFDY to forge the international youth unity necessary to help stop and reverse the global offensive of capital. One of our most important campaigns over the next year and a half will be to help send the largest and broadest delegation of Canadian youth to the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Minsk, Belarus, in 2009. Now is an exciting time to join the movement.

     Youth unite! Forward for lasting peace! For more information on the World Federation of Democratic Youth and the World Festival of Youth and Students please visit http://www.wfdy.org.

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint14/15.%20YOUTH_UNITE!_FORWARD_FOR_LASTING_PEACE!.html