|
FINAL DECLARATION
The 16th World Festival of Youth and Students
(WFYS) was successfully held in Caracas, Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, from 7 to 15 August 2005,
continuing with the Festivals movement and reinforcing
it as the largest and the most significant political,
cultural, anti-imperialist event organized by world
progressive and democratic youth and student forces.
This sixteenth Festival welcomed more than 17.000
delegates of local, national, regional and international
organizations from 144 countries, representing millions
of young people and students from all over the world.
Youth gathered without differences of ages, ideological
background, gender, ethnic and social origin
participated in varied and numerous activities of the 16th
WFYS. This Youth, in the previous months, during the
preparatory process, realizing the necessities of the
political moment, they managed to stimulate a great
mobilization and ample spaces of debate in hundreds of
different cities and countries, uniting wills under the
slogan that brought us to Caracas: “For Peace and
Solidarity, We Struggle against Imperialism and War!”
Nowadays, four years after the fruitful 15th
WFYS, held in Algeria, the world’s imperialist forces,
with the United States (US) government in the frontline,
have undertaken an aggressive and despicable offensive,
indiscriminately trying to remove all obstacles on their
way to consolidate their global power. This Festival
took place at a historical moment for mankind, in a
continent that has made imperialism taste decisive
defeats, in a country that blazes a path of hope, within
the framework of the tradition of solidarity and
struggle of the Festivals movement, reaffirming its firm
position between the two main trends are confronting
each other: on the one side, imperialism with its
interventionist and war policies and, on the other, the
peoples who struggle for their inalienable rights.
The events of September 11, 2001, have been used by the
US government and its allies as a pretext to launch an
escalation of its imperialist campaign of world
domination, disguised as a supposed “war on terror” and
“struggle for freedom” against a fictitious “axis of
evil”, through which it strives to impose its social,
economical, cultural and ideological laws. Such events
and their consequences have marked imperialist tactics
during the past four years, serving the redoubling of
expansionist policies, which are characterized by
permanent contradictions and alliances among imperialist
centers – the US, European Union (EU) and Japan. This
constantly intensifying imperialist aggressiveness has
made use of all tried-and-true methods to achieve its
goals: blockades, provocation of conflicts, threats of
interventions, military intervention, wars and
occupations, undertaken against countries and movements.
This aggressiveness has also generated an escalation of
the, attacks on people’s rights and liberties. In order
to justify all this, imperialism uses the media, the
educational system, art, recreation and other mechanisms
to unfold a sophisticated ideological offensive that
provides the theoretical and moral basis for the
abovementioned measures. What is especially alarming is
that this offensive, waged on many fronts, affects - for
the most part – young people sometimes from the time of
childhood. The insolent effort to present resistance as
a form of violence and struggle as a form of terrorism
is very old, but the peoples are not confused; in spite
of the continuous distortion of reality and the howling
provocations used to achieve this end, resistance
movements have grown and have been strengthened. This
aggressiveness is by no means accidental. It stems from
imperialism’s structural inability to come up with
solutions to the needs of the vast majority of the
world’s population and at the same time to perpetuate
its existence. This aggressiveness is expressed on
different levels: At the economic level, it implies a
strategic restructuring of its function (known as
neo-liberal policies) in order to increase exploitation
and competitiveness; At the military level, in order to
secure control over markets and resources; At the
political level, in order to secure its rule over the
people; At the ideological level, in order to prevent
dispute of its perpetuity. Imperialism is not
invincible, as it presents itself; on the contrary its
continuously deepening crisis is structural, and its
aggressiveness has no way out but its complete overthrow
by the peoples.
Despite imperialism’s ideological offensive, progressive
and peace loving forces grow stronger and emerge again
with more determination. We, conscious young people and
students of the world, are aware of the historical role
we play, and we have been gathering in the World
Festivals of Youth and Students since 1947 to reaffirm
the principles of our struggle, to exchange ideas and
set down referential bases to guide our regional and
international actions, for the liberation of humanity
from all types of oppression, discrimination and
imperialistic domination, to have justice and freedom
prevail for all peoples. The organization, awareness and
mobilization of world youth and students have been on
the rise. Wherever imperialism has intervened,
encroaching on liberties and rights of the peoples, it
has met with worthy resistance. The more it tries to
encroach upon peoples’ independence, sovereignty and
right to self-determination, the more forms of
resistance the peoples find to oppose its interests.
Thus, our first commitment has been and will always be
with the people, with the young people and students that
suffer the most as a result of imperialist policies.
Every day, the resistance against imperialism and
capitalism gains more supporters before the evidence
that this system is nonviable and in light of its
inability to solve and meet the problems, necessities
and interests of young people and students. Therefore,
the local, national, regional and international,
progressive, anti-neoliberal, anti-imperialist
organizations, the youth in general, have increasingly
mobilized themselves against warmongering machineries,
against the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and
Iraq; against imperialist plans to reorder the world and
its attempts to change the geopolitical map to its own
benefit; against imperialist meddling in the internal
affairs of countries; against the alienating and
interventionist policies of G-8, NATO, the IMF, the WB,
the WTO, the EU, the FTA, the FTAA; against debts and
militarism; against military bases and intervention
plans, such as Guantanamo and “Plan Colombia”; against
the systematic use of torture and the violation of human
rights with impunity.
This year, while commemorating the 60th
anniversary of the criminal bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, imperialism continues showing its aggressive
nature. But, it comforts us the fact that among the
great experiences of the 20th century, we are
also celebrating 60 years of the anti-fascist people’s
victory and the founding of the World Federation of
Democratic Youth (WFDY), two events that are intimately
linked and which embody an unshakable commitment to
peace and solidarity and honor the memory of the
millions of lives who have upheld these principles over
the years, events that marked the beginning of profound
social transformations, the process of decolonization
and changes in the world’s balance of forces. As we
invoke the glorious victory of the Vietnamese people
over imperialism three decades ago, its subsequent
economic and social achievements, our struggles and the
experience we have accumulated, we are filled with hope
and confidence that now, as at those times, we will
overcome the difficulties and that the people shall
emerge victorious.
In various forms and throughout the world, young people
fight against exploitation, blockades, embargos,
sanctions, and all forms of discrimination and
fundamentalism. We are committed to and struggle for a
world of peace, free from nuclear weapons; for a
different socio-economic system that holds the human
being as a center and main maker, a system based on
social justice, national sovereignty, independence,
self-determination, democracy, security, international
solidarity and cooperation. We demand respect for and
call for the defense of human rights, women’s rights,
sexual and reproductive rights, sustainable development
and the environment. We demand that everyone should have
access to employment, labor rights, education, health
care, sports, culture and technology. We are optimistic
because there are reasons to be optimistic, because we
defend and we fight for just causes, because we have
managed to make progresses, because we face and surpass
difficulties with the joyful spirit and the
rebelliousness that characterizes young people.
Imperialism is attempting to impose a unilateral and
calculating view of human rights which benefits the
interests of large corporations and transnational
capital over the interests of the people, a system in
which for example even US citizens themselves endure the
repressive policies of a racist, exclusivist and
alienating order, against which they are rebelling.
Humanity’s most fundamental right is the right to life
and everything that sustains it, especially the right to
freely decide the type of society it wants to live in,
and its inalienable right to fight to build such a
society. Imperialism denies peoples these rights in many
ways, through international capitalist structures,
subverting the role of the United Nations (UN) and, if
need be, by waging wars of occupation as it did in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Imperialism wants to
build a new world totalitarian order against the youth,
the workers and the peoples.
We demand the closing down of all foreign military
bases, the abolition of all nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons and nuclear tests. We demand the
reduction of military budgets, which have been
increasing, especially in the United States of America.
Imperialist warmongering policies produce such harms as
refugees, millions of people who are compelled to leave
their homes, lands, jobs and families. Also the economic
policies of hunger produce emigrants, the majority of
them move to developed capitalist countries illegally
and are treated as slaves something that is a shame for
humanity.
We must urgently mobilize the people to exert
international pressure for a true democratization of the
United Nations, opposing the US and its allies in their
attempts to impose reforms that consolidate the use of
this multilateral organization as an international tool
to legitimize their interventionist actions, in stead of
complying with its obligation to seek a real balance
among the world’s nations, giving them equal rights and
duties, and empowering the General Assembly.
Imperialism also undermines the conditions of education
for the youth, encouraging the exclusion and desertion
of formal education. Nowadays, 113 millions of children
don’t go to school and 130 millions of young people are
illiterate. Against its commercialization, we demand
full access to public, free and quality education.
Scientific and technological breakthroughs that should
be considered the property of humanity are retained and
restricted in their use by capitalism. The Internet
continues to be inaccessible to the vast majority. For
example, Sub-Saharan Africa has a mere 0, 1% of the
world’s internet connections, while it consists of 10%
of the world’s population. We demand that science and
technological breakthroughs be used to benefit of youth
and peoples, instead of being used as one more way of
profit. Access to basic services continues to be
severely limited – two billion people around the world
don’t have access to electricity.
The development of the mass media and other information
channels does not reflect a process of democratization
with respect to access to and the production of
information and culture. Most of the world’s information
centers are in the hands of transnational companies, and
the content of this information is determined by the
class interests of the dominant ideology and against the
interests of young people and students. In this global
battle, the people’s counteroffensive cannot be waged
exclusively on the economic field; it must also be
fought at the ideological level, which is being used for
the alienation and domination, especially of young
people, mainly by creating false needs and promote
individualism. Therefore, our educational and cultural
efforts must be promoted by all possible means; these
efforts have made much progress in recent years, and
allow as reach more people day by day.
Nowadays, capitalism and imperialism, in deep crisis,
are eliminating the majority of labor rights, especially
those of young workers who suffer more the effects of
unemployment. We fight for the right to jobs with
rights. We support the organized struggle of young
workers for the defense of the interests of all of the
people by strengthening the trade union movement,
against all new forms of exploitation before the
intention to create a new, dehumanized generation that
is deprived of rights of any type.
The peoples have an inalienable right to avail ourselves
of the planet’s wealth and resources and to use them -
in a rational way which does not harm the environment –
in order to cover the urgent needs of the three quarters
of the humanity. Imperialism uses wars, promotes
internal conflicts and State terrorism as tools to seize
our nations’ wealth. Currently, 40% of the world’s
population does not have access to basic sanitary
conditions. More than 1 billion people do not have
access to reliable sources of drinkable water. Among
them, five million people, mostly children, die each
year as a result of diseases closely associated to this
problem.
The gap between the richest and poorest sectors of the
population grows wider. More than one billion people in
the world live on less than one US dollar per day. Every
three and a half seconds, another person dies of
starving; the large majority of these people are
children.
Capitalism’s planetary scope also results in the uneven
distribution of the world’s economic power. The 24
richest countries held 85% of the world’s riches. An
unfair international division of work and the existence
of “foreign debts” make countries in debt dependent on
richer countries. The situation of so-called
“underdeveloped countries” is the result of the
relations of domination that capitalist centers impose
on these nations. The perpetuation of these relations of
dependency is vital to capitalism.
South-South cooperation is a strategic need for our
people that have already achieved positive results
against the monopoly interests of great powers. We have
to promote all possible ways for exchange, communication
and coordinated action among youth and student
organizations, and the people in general, in order to
collectively assume the challenge of following the path
of development, which responds to their own needs and
objectives.
Ten million young people live with AIDS, mostly in
Africa and Asia. Every year, around 3 million people die
of malaria. We demand free and universal access to
health care for the youth and the peoples, as the only
way of guaranteeing the human right to health.
These alarming figures, published in the United Nations’
World Youth Report 2005, attest even more that we must
fight against the causes of these harms. By bringing
closer the overthrow of imperialism and exploitation, we
are saving human lives.
We must strengthen links among different social sectors,
especially among young people, in which young workers,
women, students, farmers, indigenous people and popular
movements pursue their specific objectives in an ever
more concerted manner, taking in other sectors and
working with the conviction that collective achievements
and progress will benefit everyone because the national
conquests contribute to the global struggle against
imperialism. We must participate in and strengthen
local, national, regional and international anti-neoliberal,
anti-globalization, anti-capitalist or anti-imperialist
joint spaces, aiming to gather the organizations and the
vast masses of poor people, which are more directly
impacted by the current international order, having
common objectives, exchanging our experiences and
increasing our social influence.
We express our solidarity towards the people and youth
of Iraq in their struggle and resistance against
imperialist occupation forces. We demand the immediate
withdrawal of these forces and the preservation of Iraqi
sovereignty and unity. We denounce imperialism’s and its
agents’ repressive policies in the region and demand the
immediate release of all political prisoners. We
denounce imperialist attempts at changing the
geopolitical map through the “Great Middle East
Project”, which uses discretionary criteria to select
the countries that, according to its interests, are
proclaimed to be ruled by dictatorships and,
therefore, require “democratic” change. To achieve its
aims, US interventionist efforts rely on the servile
support of Israel’s Zionist government, which plays a
destabilizing role in the region and acts as an agent
which indiscriminately eliminates resistance movements
in the region. We therefore express our solidarity with
the Palestinian people and youth in their struggle for
the right to have an independent State with Jerusalem as
its capital city and their right to stand up to the
forces of occupation; we demand the return of refugees
as per relevant UN resolutions and call upon the
international community to support the struggle for the
immediate dismantling of the apartheid wall which Israel
is constructing in occupied territories of Palestine. We
express our solidarity with the Syrian youth and people
in their struggle and right to stand up against Israeli
occupation, and demand its urgently and immediately
withdraw from the “Syrian Golan”. We repudiate the US
Congress’ extraterritorial decisions against Syria. We
condemn imperialism’s meddling in Lebanese internal
affairs and its attempts to provoke instability in the
county and the region; we support the struggle of
Lebanese youth and people that stand up and fight for
the liberation of Lebanese “Cheeba Farms” occupied by
Israel, and we demand the immediate withdrawal of these
forces from the region. We express our solidarity with
the people and youth of Morocco in their struggle for
the liberation of Sebta y Melilla, occupied by Spain.
The people and youth of Europe, affected by the growing
hegemony of the European Union, have a day by day
strongly feel in their lives its true imperialist
character, which also affects all young people around
the world. We express our solidarity: towards the
peoples of the Balkans, who for years have endured the
consequences of war and the constant intervention of
NATO and the EU; towards Cypriots, Greeks and Turkish
Cypriots, in their struggle for reunification and we
underline the urgent need to end the Turkish occupation
and find a peaceful, viable and functional solution to
the Cyprus problem, based on International Law and all
relevant UN resolutions, acceptable to both communities;
towards the struggle of the Irish people for the
withdrawal of the British army, and for a united,
independent Ireland; towards the parties, movements and
militants that are facing persecution and restrictions,
especially in Eastern Europe; towards the children,
youth and people of former socialist countries, who, in
recent years, have endured an alarming situation
characterized by hunger, misery, unemployment,
illiteracy, drug abuse, lack of essential medical
services and the absence of democratic rights, all as a
result of capitalist restoration; towards the millions
of refugees and immigrants living in European Fortress
who are constantly overexploited, treated as lowlifes
and used as a pretext for the implementation of
reactionary measures, to the detriment of all people and
youth; towards all the peoples and the youth in the
continent that work and fight against imperialist
domination and exploitation.
We call upon the young people of the world to express
their solidarity towards Korean youth for the
reunification of its country under the principles of
independence, peace, national unity and the June 15
North-South Joint Declaration, and denounce the presence
of US troops under parallel 38 in addition to its
permanent policy of destabilization in the region. We
express our solidarity towards the people and youth of
Nepal in their struggle for democracy and human rights.
We demand the return of all Bhutanese refuges to their
country with respect and dignity. We express our
solidarity towards the struggle of student, youth, and
democratic movements in Myanmar, for democracy and
against the military junta and the repressive actions
undertaken against its people. We express support for
Sri Lanka’s progressive movements struggle for national
unity and against imperialist attempts at dividing the
country and destabilizing the region. We salute the
Vietnamese youth and people in their struggle for
national independence and socialism, at a time when the
60th anniversary of the birth of their
sovereign republic is celebrated, and we express our
solidarity towards the Vietnamese victims of the US’
Agent Orange / Dioxin in their struggle for justice.
The main root cause of the problems of young people in
Africa has been the imperialist forces that parade
themselves as saviors and lovers of this continent but
have in fact plunged Africa into never ending warfare
and internal conflict in attempts at retaining its rich
natural resources. We support the New Partnership for
African Development (NEPAD) as a tool and plan that
might contribute to promoting common understanding,
peace, political stability and development among African
nations and solve common problems faced by their
peoples. We urge young people around the world to step
up their fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism,
placing special emphasis on respect for the sovereign
States and their right to decide and straighten out on
their internal issues. We denounce imperialist
intervention in Zimbabwe, a sovereign State capable of
addressing its own internal issues and demand the
lifting of unjustified sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and
its people. We extend our solidarity towards and support
for the people and youth of Western Sahara in their
struggle for the right to freedom and self-determination
of the Saharawi people, as per UN resolutions, and
demand the release of Saharawi political prisoners. We
have witnessed with great concern how our brothers and
sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda,
Burundi, Ivory Coast, and Benin have wrestled with
internal conflicts and war. We denounce the dictatorship
and autocratic monarchy in Swaziland and support its
people and their right to choose the kind of government
they want to live under. We must strengthen efforts for
peace and human rights in Sudan and support the current
peace process. We must continue to support initiatives
which seek to fight and eradicate poverty and hunger in
Africa. We highlight the need to provide relevant
institutional and political support for the attainment
of peace and development in the Horn of Africa (Somalia,
Ethiopia, and Eritrea). We congratulate the people of
Angola for their efforts to establish and maintain peace
in their country and call on people to make an active
contribution to the reconstruction of Angola. We
vigorously demand the total eradication and
unconditional cancellation of the African debt.
Winds of change and revolution are blowing in Latin
America again, proving that there are true alternatives
for the people and that the firmness of principles, the
people’s organization and the proper interpretation of
this time of offensive can deal a harsh blow to
imperialism and its lackeys. This is demonstrated by the
defeat of US attempts at imposing the Free Trade
Agreement for the Americas (FTAA) on Latin America and
the powerful emergence of an alternative proposal for
Latin American unity (ALBA), based on principles of
political, economical, social and cultural integration.
Similarly, we support initiatives like the Community of
South American Nations. Cuba continues to be an example
of resistance and the upholding of principles, where the
blockade and
acts of aggressions crash against
a dignified people, with which the new generations of
young people and students around the world close
ranks, demanding also the release of the 5 Cubans
unjustly imprisoned by the US government.
The peoples of the countries that share the
territory of Amazonia and the Andean mountain range
rebel against poverty and injustices; indigenous people
struggle for their right to self-determination and for
respect of their cultures; Colombia demonstrates that it
is not the name of a plan for imperialist domination but
rather represents an essential road towards peace, to
which young people and students are committed; Central
America and the Caribbean endure the betrayal of corrupt
governments, the implementation of neo-colonial policies
and armed interventions, as Puerto Rico and Haiti have
witnessed; in the South Cone, imperialism does not
resign itself to the strides of peoples, who are
seeking and finding their own paths based on the central
participation of the masses, in spite of the exception
of a few governments which bow to imperialism.
The peoples and young people
of the world express their solidarity towards all of
them.
In this context we have gathered for this Festival, full
of joy and driven by a combative spirit, to express our
unwavering solidarity towards the youth and people of
Venezuela,
with special reference to the Venezuelan delegates and
volunteers, towards their
Bolivarian Revolution, which welcomed us with open arms.
We have seen what a united people
can do when it decides commit itself fully freedom and
to attaining national progress. We have also witnessed
how Venezuela joins its brothers and sisters in their
struggles across the continent and the world. Venezuela
can count on the willingness of the young people and
students of the world to step forward should imperialism
attempt to thwart its efforts.
The 16th WFYS broke through the censorship
and lifted the blockade on information imposed by
imperialism, which could not prevent us from sharing
experiences, strengthening our bonds, reaching
agreements, getting to know each other better, having a
clearer and more global understanding of our problems
and their causes, and assuming the collective commitment
of uniting all of our efforts to eliminate those
problems; defending and fighting for the rights of the
people, youth and students wherever they are at risk,
improving the organization and mobilization of the youth
and student movement, and raising its political and
social consciousness through concerted actions.
We come to the end of a process which has spanned
several months. Now we are in a better position to
continue our struggle — through our respective local,
national, regional and international organizations and
structures — against our common enemies: imperialism,
exploitation and war.
In coming years, prior to next Festival, we will
continue to struggle and to expand the scope of our
actions on many occasions, with ever greater strength
and determination. This is, more than anything, what
guarantees the success of the 17th WFYS and
the continuation of its glorious history in this century
that begins and that shall become the century of the
peoples and the youth, the century of the people’s
victory over imperialism.
For Peace and Solidarity, We Struggle against
Imperialism and War!
Delegates to the 16th World Festival of Youth
and Students
Caracas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 15th
August 2005
p
TOP
t
BACK |
