RAISE THE RED FLAG OF RESISTANCE! FOR A YOUTH AND STUDENT AGENDA
CALL TO ACTION BY THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF CANADA
"Bloodsuckers, pirates, cannibals, murders, psychopaths, traitors, thugs, vultures, gangsters and terrorists!"
For centuries, these labels have been placed on everyone -- aboriginal peoples, workers, youth, women, racialized communities and countless more -- who dared resist the agenda of the ruling class. But isn't the truth the opposite from what we have been sold?
These words best describe the G8 and their host -- the Harper Conservative regime, the bankers, big business men, government leaders and the imperialist system they represent, meeting behind billion-dollar iron bars.
FLASH-POINT
The G8-G20 is flash-point for the peoples resistance. We fully support all those seeking to expose, denounce, confront and overcome the plans of the G8-G20 -- and bring about an alternative agenda for the people, by the people!
The capitalists’ plans are secret. They could not even stand the heat of public, democratic review. Unprecedented costly security operations hide the proceedings. We condemn the shut-down of the University of Toronto and the use of the "sonic cannon" weapon. And there is no such thing as a "Free Speech Zone" -- other than the world itself.
Major topics of discussion and the full decisions will likely never be revealed. Yet these decisions will impact millions across Canada, and billions of people around the world. These dangerous measures show imperialism’s fear of the people.
FOR A YOUTH AND PEOPLE'S AGENDA
The G8-G20 police brutality, the lack of democracy -- this is a crime. It is only one crime in many. Consider the Harper's remarks that global warming is a 'side-show' ; or Canada's decision to exclude abortion
from its global maternal health commitment and the Conservative Senator's "shut the fuck up" response to dissent.
In our view, this meeting has a special context, 'Round two' of the economic crisis: giant transfers of wealth to the corporations are now being paid for by the people. This is the main attack on the youth and the people today. Therefore we call for a youth agenda:
1. Books not bombs!
- No more $22 billions for the war in Afghanistan
- Troops out now, cut the military budget by half
- Ban military recruitment from schools
2. Make a job a right!
- No more poverty wages and union busting
- Raise minimum wage to $16, for shorter work week
- Massive job creation for youth -- start with build affordable, green housing
3. Climate justice
- No more supporting the tar sands
- Legislate emergency action to surpass Kyoto
- Nationalize energy -- shift to conservation and renewables
4. Free Education
- Eliminate tuition fees, grants not loans
- Reverse all school privatization and cutbacks
- National public, accessible childcare
- Protect free speech on campuses
5. Full equality now!
- Strengthen employment equity for Aboriginal youth, young women, racialized youth, youth with (dis)abilities
- Enshrine a women’s right to choice, close the wage gap
- Restore and expand all funding to programmes for women and girls
- Ban neo-fascist groups
6. Sovereignty and self-determination
- Justice for Aboriginal peoples and Quebec
- For a foreign policy of peace and disarmament
7. Democracy!
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- No One Is Illegal -- democratic immigration policy
- Defend and expand the right of youth to leisure, sports and recreation
Now is the time to make a sharp break with the agenda of the Harper Conservatives and imperialism. If these meetings had even an ounce of integrity, the world ’leaders’ would redirect their energy and trillions (our trillions!) to the global crisis of unemployment, food, health care, education and childcare and ending imperialist war. They would immediately condemn the brutality of the Israeli regime and support a Palestinian state.
But capitalism is fundamentally driven by profits. Therefore all its activities will forever be morally bankrupt by any humanist measure. More and more youth will continue to reject capitalism and imperialism.
YOUTH RISE UP!
We appeal to all young people to join the mobilizations against the G8-G20. The YCL denounce Harper’s so-called 'youth-summit' of careerist children and stand with all our courageous sisters and brothers on the streets, who represent the real spirit of our generation. The fear-tactics of the Toronto police -- who have told parents "Your parenting has to be a key role" against demonstrators, "Ask your children to avoid the downtown core" -- will fail, rejected by the youth and parents together.
For inspiration, we look to Cuba and Latin America, and to the resistance in Greek workers today. The needs of the broad majority of the youth can never be divided from those of the working class and the people on the road to a better world. Provocation and other attempts to fracture the vital militancy and unity of the people can not reverse the fact that, on a global scale, the working class and progressive forces are strengthening.
These meetings are a historically developed strategy of imperialism, especially US imperialism. History, however, is not on the side of the oppressors. It is on the side of freedom, peace, ecology, and the people. We remain committed to joining with all those in the struggle on the streets, in our workplaces, schools, and communities, today while bravely championing a better future.
THE YOUTH ARE THE FUTURE, THE FUTURE IS SOCIALISM!
Central Committee, YCL-LJC
June 2010
