The World Federation of Democratic Youth in its quest to fight imperialism, and on behalf of member and friendly organizations hereby joins the youth and people of Eritrea in denouncing the unjust sanctions unilaterally imposed by the United States of America and the European Union through the United Nations Security Council.

The imperialists masquerade as the god-fathers of democracy and the rule of law are on the forefront of drafting some draconian laws to further impoverish the peace loving people of Eritrea. It’s mindboggling to note that the some militarily powerful nations are on the driving seat of the United Nations Security Council.
Peace may never prevail in the Horn of Africa if the imperialists continue to meddle under unjust disguise.
The United States of America and the European Union must put off their hands in the Eritrea- Ethiopia border dispute and we fully encourage the African Union to swiftly move and ensure the full implementation of the agreed resolutions on this border dispute.

On this day, 22 February 2010, we stand side by side with the youth and people of Eritrea to denounce in its strongest terms these unholy, unjust, inhuman sanctions imposed by imperialists to further their colonial dominance over the “militarily weak nations”. In this frame we also denounce malicious, uncouth and cheap media propaganda used to justify this barbaric act with hardly any shame thus further seeking the re-colonization of Africa using unjust elements.

Furthermore, we appeal to other peace loving progressive youth from around the globe to join the international campaign to vilify these sanctions against Eritrea and demand the urgent and unconditional lifting of these sanctions by the United Nations Security Council. In fact we expect the United Nations to prioritize assisting the youth of Eritrea in education, health and shelter and many other needs whose list is endless, instead of slapping them with sanctions.

The opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games has been met with a wide-range of protest in the streets of Vancouver, Canada. The World Federation of Democratic Youth expresses its solidarity with the popular opposition to this corporate circus.

The Olympic Games are supposed to be about peace and friendship. The Canadian government has no mandate to host the Games. It is implicated in operations to destabilize African countries like of the coast of Somalia. It has deployed thousands of police and troops into Haiti. It is providing vocal diplomatic support to the Apartheid regime of Israeli. It is engaged in an imperialist war in Afghanistan. In a reactionary affront to democracy, Canada’s Conservative government dissolved the current parliamentary session because of the Olympics - although in reality parliament was shut down to avoid a growing torture scandal involving Canadian troops in Afghanistan.

The 2010 Olympics are racist and dishonorable towards Aboriginal nations. For example, the symbol of the games is an Inuit sculpture, a people whose territory is thousands of kilometers away. But “branding” can not hide the long genocidal history of the Canadian state and ruling class towards the Aboriginal nations. Despite public pressure, the Canadian state refuses to sign the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Games will be held on unsurrendered Aboriginal land where no treaties have been signed and resistance continues. Today, one-in-two Aboriginal children, including First Nations and Metis people, live in poverty. On many Indian Reserves there is no clean drinking water. The opening of the Games coincides with a Canada-wide day of action for the over 3000 Aboriginal women who have gone missing or been murdered since 1980. As aboriginal peoples and their allies have said, big business and the government have no respect for aboriginal sovereignty and self-determination, no money to ‘pay the rent.’ But there are billions of dollars to spend on Olympics.

In fact, just the ‘security’ bill for the Olympics - involving US and Canadian military, as well as thousands of para-military police - is $1 billion. This is an attempt to prevent people’s democratic right to protest, free speech and association. Striking workers have been legislated back to work for the Olympics. Thousands of poor people made homeless and criminalized. Environments and ecosystems have been destroyed. The recent border interrogation of progressive US radio host Amy Goodman has brought into the public spotlight the aggressive police harassment and repression of anti-Olympic activists.

The Olympic Games have transferred billions of dollars from the working people to corporate coffers. The immense public debt generated by the Olympics represents money that should have been spent on people’s needs, like job creation, more accessible education, housing, health care, libraries, child care, and affordable transit. The WFDY salutes those who opposed this injustice, particularly sister Harriet Nahannee who died from pneumonia afflicted while unjustly jailed for protesting. WFDY calls for sports to cherish fair-play and cooperation and promote peace, internationalism and solidarity - not militarism, elitism and consumerism.

No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!
Sports for people, not profit!

Over the last months, particularly the last weeks, a growing international awareness has been raised around the situation of the Greek economy, as if this country was “bankrupt” and could not survive without exterior intervention.
This campaign of international proportions, promoted by the EU together with the Greek Government, with wide coverage and highlight of the international imperialist media, aims to create the conditions to justify an even stronger attack to the Greek people and youth. If accomplished the goals established by the EU, it will only mean more privatizations of public sectors and less rights for the Greek people and youth. They hide that the big capital, which was supported with billions by state budgets, is responsible for the deficits and the debts in Greece and other European Countries.
Furthermore, WFDY considers that this manoeuver deepens even more the anti-democratic and anti-popular character of the EU, confirming that its construction, action and goals are against the peoples and against the youth of its member states towards the construction of a consolidated imperialist block.
The so called “EU solidarity” towards Greece is followed by terms which serve the interests of Greek capital and are against peoples’ rights. It is a help for the capitalist profit and not for the people. Once again it is proved that imperialism and its organizations and governments focus their trials in loading the crisis and its consequences to the people’s backs. The rescue of the banks and other big monopolies is the only thing they care about.
WFDY stands by the youth and people of Greece in their struggle against the ongoing measures taken against their rights such as freezing of salaries, wage and pension reduction, increase of retirement age etc. Together with the Greek youth and people, WFDY considers that the only way for overcoming the social and economic problems that exist is to struggle for a different way of development and to guarantee the rights of the people, orienting society and economy towards social justice and general welfare, against the dictatorship of monopolies and capitalist single purpose of profit.
WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations, particularly those in European Union member states, to denounce the situation in Greece relating it to its own country and by that reinforce their own struggle against imperialism!