Since re-foundation, the YCL has continually struggled with its small size. Most of our organisational deficiencies and political weaknesses would be more easily overcome by a much larger YCL. In the past insufficient attention has been paid to how to re-build the communist movement in Britain after the defeats of the 80s & 90s. Whilst there have been some successes in the recent period in developing a new generation of communist cadres, these individual initiatives and practices have not been as part of a targeted, co-ordinated and articulated strategy.  As a YCL generation is counted in 3 or 5 years, cadre development is and always been recognised as one of the key functions of the league. As comrade Lenin said “it is the task of the Youth League to organise its practical activities in such a way that by learning, organising, uniting, and fighting, its members shall train both themselves and all those who look to it for leadership, to be Communists.”

The Young Communist League has a long and proud history of engagement in industrial work within the British labour movement. Nevertheless, the pressure of other areas of campaigning and activity and the small number of YCL cadres has meant that the in the recent period we have failed to mobilise the millions of young workers in Britain, on whose political development the Communist, labour and trade union movement depends. Trade unionism is once again a growing force within British society and therefore an historic opportunity lies before Britain’s young communists and our allies, to rebuild the British labour movement as a progressive and increasingly socialist force within society.

Over the past few years, the NUS has degenerated significantly in terms of its potential as a democratic campaigning union.  Dominance by the right has led to a series of proposals which seek to undermine the democracy of NUS.  This has built upon years of the NUS lacking any effective strength and a period in which it failed to mobilise effectively around the issue of tuition fees, in spite of massive national support and a national campaign run by the left.  However, it is worth noting that, although some of these proposals have been passed, several were defeated at the most recent NUS conference.  This shows that the dominance of the right within the NUS nationally is not yet complete.  Opposition to the current attacks on NUS democracy from the right is dominated by a small number of ultra-left groups.  Over the years, these have failed to successfully oppose right domination of the union.  Clearly, a major vacuum exists between the right-wing leadership of the union and the ultra-left opposition.

Young people today have seen a succession of attacks on their education system under new labour. The process of marketisation and privatisation initiated by the Tories has been accelerated in recent years with the introduction of Academies, which has seen the education system shift out of democratic control into the hands of private business.

The possibility of an imperialist attack on Iran seems increasingly likely. American training exercises simulating a possible invasion, a request to use Turkish airbases for bombing raids and increased clandestine activities within Iran itself, suggest this. The USA may also allow Israel to carry out bombing raids on Iranian nuclear facilities. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has stated he would be prepared to take military action against Iran and that “My goal is to remove this threat”.