The YCL is are part of an international movement that involves millions of young people across the world. The YCL is affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth which has affiliates from more than 100 countries across the world. You can read more about WFDY, the YCL’s international work, solidarity work carried out in Britain and all the news from our sister Communist Youth Organisations.
The 8th meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations met at the European Parliament in Brussels under the slogan ‘The struggle of young communists against the capitalist barbarism and anticommunism; for socialism’.
Delegates were welcomed by Yiorgos Toussas, MEP and member of the CC of the KKE (Greek Communist Party). He announced that within the European Union, 23 million were unemployed and 80 million lived below the poverty line, that the EU and bourgeois governments are ‘generalising their assault on Europe’s working classes’. This takes the form of flexible methods of employment, low wages and cutbacks in health and in education. The youth are particularly targeted, as education is being transformed into a mere learning of skills to provide a workforce that will make yet more profits for the monopolies. During a period where many young people are questioning the European Union’s policies, anti-communism is being accelerated, distorting history to equate communism with fascism. Yiorgos Toussas declared that ‘we need an escalation of activity to stand up against this barbarism’. ‘We need a popular economy, where the needs of workers and young people will be met’.
The YCL welcomes the legalisation of the Czech Young Communist League on Wednesday 27th January. The KSM was banned in 2007 for its support of collective ownership of the means of production – private property being enshrined in the Czech Republic’s constitution.
As we move to the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Cuba has risen up to become one of the principle beacons of hope for poor people throughout Latin America and the oppressed nations of the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Overseeing free education, health care, participative democracy and revolutionary developments in sustainable agriculture at home, Cuba has also been lauded for its unselfish internationalism. This includes providing scholarships for international students from developing countries, sending thousands of doctors the world over to help poor people such as in Pakistan following the earthquake in 2005 and helping other Latin American countries such as Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela in eradicating illiteracy.
WFDY, along with its member organisations and other international organisation such as IUS (International Union of Students) organises a World Festival of Youth and Students once every four years, to celebrate and share experiences of struggle with other young people across the globe.
The YCL plays a central role in organising the British delegations to each one of the festivals. At the 16th festival, held in Caracas, Venezuela in August 2005, more than 100 delegates from 30 organisations attended to participate as part of the British delegation. This was the largest and most broad based delegation for 20 years. For more information on the 16th World Festival go to www.wfdy.org/16festivals.htm
On November 10, 1945 the World Youth Conference, held in the Royal Albert Hall London (at which the YCL and its sister organisations against the world were present), founded the World Federation of Democratic Youth. This historic Conference convened at the initiative of the World Youth Council which was formed during World War 2, to fight against fascism, by the youth organisations in the allied countries, brought together for the first time in the history of the international youth movement representatives of more than 30 million young people of different political ideologies and religious beliefs from 63 nations. It adopted a pledge for peace.
The YCL welcomes the legalisation of the Czech Young Communist League on Wednesday 27th January. The KSM was banned in 2007 for its support of collective ownership of the means of production – private property being enshrined in the Czech Republic’s constitution. 
As we move to the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Cuba has risen up to become one of the principle beacons of hope for poor people throughout Latin America and the oppressed nations of the world following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
