Last Sunday, November 15, WFDY organized an international seminar in Paris, France, under the slogan: “The crisis of capitalism and the attacks to the rights of youth will be defeated by the anti-imperialist struggle!”

Below you can read the final declaration of this event:

Final declaration

The 37 national and international organizations that took part in WFDY seminar “The crisis of capitalism and the attacks to the rights of the youth will be defeated by the anti-imperialist struggle!”, in the Headquarters of the French Communist Party, on November 15, 2009, deeply analyzed the current situation of the youth of the world.

The diverse and rich contributions of the participants lead to the common conclusion that, despite local and regional differences, the threats of imperialism are, today, more than ever, alive and having its impact on the everyday life of the young people.

Particularly under the umbrella of the international capitalist crisis, the imperialist blackmail upon the youth and workers has deeply increased, which has deepened the already exisiting social phenomena as: narrowing of the access to education (due to its parcial or full privatization), precariousness, unemployment, poverty, misery (both hidden and explicit) and starvation. The plans elaborated by imperialists and the forces of capital within the international organizations (IMF, EU, OECD, etc.) aims to protect their profits by loading the crisis and its consequences on the peoples. We reject the ideas of the “humanization”, “better administration” of imperialism, since these ideas have only one target: to mislead the peoples frustration and struggle from the need to imperialism to be overthrown.

Furthermore, the imperialist order, lead by USA, European Union and Japan, has continued its manouvers of militarization and threat, creating the political and military field for new military operations. The increasing number of soldiers and extension of NATO mission in Afghanistan (country where other forces before promoted by imperialism are contributing to the current situation lived by the people), the constant blackmailing operations against Iran and DPRK, the expansion of NATO and the new military concept of the EU present in the recently revived Reform Treaty, the new seven military bases to be implemented in Colombia together with the reactivation of the USA 4th Fleet and deploy of more soldiers in the French Guyana, the reinforcement of the USA military bases in Botswana and the steps to implement the AFRICOM project by USA are just some few evidences of many possible that leave not doubt about the present moment and militaristic strategy of USA, which is continuing by the new Obama administration and whatever cosmetic manoeuvres the imperialist media and other tools may attempt to create confusion among the peoples of the world.

The imperialist agenda extends to the eastern shores of Africa in the Indian Ocean where several countries deployed their troops to protect the commercial ships from the alleged attacks of the pirates coming from Somalia. US, France, Britain and others have deployed their fleet their in addition to surveillance planes and troops. Also in the Mediterranean Israel continues its piracy over civil and commercial ships under the pretext of fighting smuggling of arms to neighbouring countries and organizations. Its navy is spreading throughout the eastern Mediterranean and also reaches the Red Sea on several occasions.

At the same time the intra-imperialist rivalries for the control of markets, natural resources and their routes, are evolving. Huge areas all over the world such as Eastern Europe, Balkans, Middle East, Africa and Latin America have become the field of such rivalries between the ruler imperialist forces USA and EU and new rising powers such as Russia. It is a proof that the so called “multi polar” world is a world of sharpened intra-imperialist contradictions far from peoples’ needs.

As part of our common analysis, the participants of this seminar observe the increasing of restrictions to democratic rights, particularly by anti-communist action and propaganda. The myths created by imperialism that aim to make the young generations to believe that the communist ideology is the same as the racist, anti-democratic and militaristic ideology of fascism (which is, in fact, supported by imperialism), are a sign that what imperialism fears the most is the capability of people to think for themselves and to create the conditions for organizing the struggle for their liberation. An example of this is the continuous shameful campaign of distortion of the History and the role of the communist and progressive forces conquering youth rights, namely by the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall of Berlin.

This international seminar has also focused on several concrete cases of important struggles developped by the young people of those countries, as Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, DPRK and Cyrpus, which demand the full solidarity of all the anti-imperialist young people of the world.

The capitalist crisis is a proof of the system’s weakness. Young people should take advantage and courage at this weakness by strengthening their anti-imperialist struggle.

Finally, the participants in this seminar of WFDY agreed that, despite the adverse context, there are also signs of hope, and the reinforcement of the anti-imperialist forces, disregard whether they are ruling forces in their countries or not, are a demonstration that it is worth to keep struggling. In this frame, the implementation of WFDY campaing “Against military bases and occupation armies, the struggle is the way for victory!” is valuable tool that should be used in favor of the reinforcement of the struggle of each organization, both at national and international level.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth celebrates this November 10 the 64 years of its Anniversary, in the middle of the international struggle for a better world in which young people can live in Peace, Happiness, Democracy, with full rights and which we are sure that we can reach.
The current crisis of capitalism and the rise of the Military race worldwide, has generated a structural crisis that had severely beaten the poor, a crisis that has been imposed by the dominant classes and shows us that we cannot expect anything from capitalism, in its imperialist level, except devastation, inequality, poverty, hunger, misery and possible disappearance of our species.
Young people around the world who face daily injustice, who fight for the right to an education and free health and with full access for everyone, who continue to condemn the aggression on Iraq, Afghanistan, who defend the cause of the Palestinian people and their right in order to create their own state, which also claim the right of the people of Western Sahara for self-determination, who condemn brutal coup against the Honduran people that had the complicity of the U.S. government, who condemn the unjust and criminal Block imposed to Cuba, who fought against the Lisbon treaty, the Treaty of Bologna, who struggle against the narco paramilitary Colombian government, which murders the youth leaders, student and just accepted on its territory 7 military bases for the only purpose of provoking war against all progressive governments in the region and particularly against the Bolivarian Revolution. We must understand more than ever, that the struggle today is in order to defend the human species, for a better future, against world imperialism, particularly the United States government and the European Union, who have a criminal imperial policy throughout the world.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth in our 64 anniversary invites all its member organizations, friends and all progressive youth to celebrate this important date, inspired by the example of struggle against imperialism, given by many young people around the world all this time and increasing our struggle every day in our countries, increasing our international solidarity, in order to build a better world together, a world that we need to change, if we like that the human species survive.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth is deeply concerned about the detention and suppression going on in Sri Lanka against the student leaders of Universities.
It is noteworthy that the leaders of Inter University Student Union elected from university students of Sri Lanka has been arrested and put twice into detention for 44 days in last three months. In both time he was taken into custody while he was leading peaceful students’ protests against privatization and lack of institutional facilities. Along with Premaratne Mr. Gihan Seneviratne, president of the Visual Art Faculty Students Union of the Visual and Performing Arts University was also arrested in charge of defaming Mahendra Rajapakse as a triumphant monarch after defeating LTTE in last May. Further 14 undergraduate students had been arrested on September 17 with the fake charge of damaging property of a medical college. In addition to that, 13 student leaders of Peradeniya University (the largest university in Sri Lanka) were also imprisoned. Nearly 25 student leaders from different universities have been suspended. The situation is becoming more worsened day by day.
This series suppression against peaceful student movement & decent opinion is sole violation of human right and democratic norms in the country.
The World Federation of Democratic Youth demands to Rajapakse Government to release all the student leaders unconditionally and address their genuine demands related with educational infrastructure and facilities.
We urge all youth and student organizations affiliated with WFDY to support the cause led by our member organizations- the Socialist Student Union and Socialist Youth Union in this very time of student movement.
The WFDY HQ warns against Rajapakse Government to carry more solidarity campaigns in solidarity with Sri-Lankan student if such blatant suppression is not stopped now.