The World Federation of Democratic Youth would like to extend its greeting message to global youth on the occasion of 93rd birth Day of Nelson Mandela- to uphold his sprit to fight against the social and political injustices, hatred and subordination.

The icon of anti-apartheid struggle aspired globally not only being a revolutionary fighter from his young age to fight for justice, equality and human liberty- but also due to proving himself as a symbol of peace and harmony to bring his nation into reconciliation with ‘forget and forgiveness’ despite all his suffering from apartheid regime backed by imperialist forces that caged him into prison for 27 years of life.

His untiring struggle against apartheid, way of handling peace and reconciliation- and his vision of humanism, global equity and justice are not only the assets of South African people- but also the sources of inspiration to the people of third world and the globe. We think the decision of UN General Assembly in 2009 to celebrate ‘Nelson Mandela International Day’ is appreciative step that recognizes a 67 years of heroic fight of an African leader. It is also inspirational to uphold the path of justice and freedom for new generations.

WFDY had been actively supporting the cause of anti-apartheid struggle and had organized ranges of programs demanding to release Nelson Mandela during 70ties and 80ties. Many world youth festivals had committed to extend the solidarity and support programs for anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. We feel really proud that the clarion call of WFDY to global youth to protest apartheid regime and its series campaigns had helped a lot to internationalize the issue at the greater extend.

After two decades of freedom from apartheid, WFDY had the opportunity to convene its 17th World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa in 2010 dedicating it to the name of Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro. It was really a cheerful movement for global youth that they had the chance to visit the country of Mandela for the cause that they had been supporting and extending solidarity for decades and to echo solidarity voice for others from platform of 17th WFYS.

We wish for his good health on this occasion that we could still feel him in person to inspire the anti -imperialist, progressive and democratic young people in the world- to fight for freedom, peace, harmony, equity and justice in the world.

Over the last weekend, the Regional Commission of WFDY for Europe and North America (CENA) gathered in Berlin (Germany), hosted by WFDY member SDAJ - Socialist German Workers’ Youth. The meeting gathered 16 organizations from all the region and was an important moment of preparation for the coming 18th Assembly of WFDY.

This meeting was also a moment for exchange of experiences of the struggles for the rights of the youth developed in each country. In the context of the crisis of the capitalist system, it was clear how in practical all countries the situation is similar: under the excuse of the “lack of money” or “deficit reduction”, workers and young people are having their rights destroyed, facing the privatization of education, the increase of unemployment and the generalization of precarious, temporary and flexible forms of work.

It was also confirmed, as a general trend, the main contradiction of this moment to be the increasing benefits and profits of big economic groups and monopolies, whose interests have remained untouched while the general population has seen their taxes raised, their salaries decreased and the public services privatized, in a clear evidence that sacrifices are not for all, as most of the governments like to advocate when imposing the growing austerity measures that affected both Europe and North America.

It was also noted how, in this context, the large majority of the governments of the region and of the entire world, continue to spend vast amounts of money in the militarization of the globe and continuous and new wars. The example of the war against Libya, shows how imperialist forces are hypocrit and, while they support undemocratic regimes as Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, they invoke human rights to slaughter the people of a sovereign country to steal its resources and takeover the country geostrategic position for future military compounds to sustain future military interventions.

As a decisive element of the present situation, the European Union and its measures against the sovereignty of its member-states (like the Eurogovernance or the EuroPact) were pointed out as instruments of the imperialist agenda to deepen the exploitation of the peoples, workers and youth of most of the countries.

In this context, the organizations present at this CENA decided that on the next September 21 (International Day of Peace) all the organizations would do a common action under the motto “There can’t be peace without rights” to underline the direct connection between the struggle for peace and for social rights and the need to defeat imperialism as whole. The meeting decided also to have a common day of action on October 15, to enhance the solidarity with the struggle of youth of the region for their rights and against the austerity measures.

As always, in a good atmosphere, the weekend in Berlin was concluded with a visit to important sights of the city, where in the 1930’s the communist and democratic forces bravely struggled against the growing fascist German forces.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth on behalf of member, friendly organizations and the youth of the world express our deepest sympathy with the suffering people of Somalia. This suffering is a result of both hunger and war in the country, in this regard we call upon the United Nations, Africa Union the Arab League and all the progressive youth of the world to play a leading role and ensuring that the livelihood of the Somali people is back to normal as the matter of urgency.

We believe that Somalia as a country in the Horn of Africa has been subjected to imperialism for long time and humanitarian crisis is more artificial other than being natural. All and above the world has failed dismally to help establish a properly functioning government in Somalia, and we have witnessed that the economically and militarily powerful nations are are on the forefront supporting chaos taking advantage to advance their interests in this country.

It is regrettable to note that the United Nations has now recognized that there is humanitarian crises in Somalia, whilst this a vulnerability has been persisted for a long time and the Mission has failed to halt the war.

We applaud the assistance being given by some countries in the horn Africa particularly Kenya, and other progressive governments and organisations which are receiving and hosting the affected families and providing aid. We also challenge the government of Djibouti, to dismantle the USA military base and transform it into a disaster recovery station, at the same time we challenge imperialist governments, particularly USA, UK, France, Italy and Qatar to stop unnecessary wastage of their citizen’s tax money in waging unnecessary wars and it can even be recommendable if they could use such resources to save the lives of millions of Somali citizens and other affected countries in the Horn of Africa.

In conclusion, as the World Democratic Youth Federation we believe that the best solution to prevent such crises to reach such unprecedented levels there is great need to ensure that there is peace and a formally functioning government in Somalia and stability in other parts of the Horn of Africa.