THE YOUTH ON THE OFFENSIVE, BUILDING THE REVOLUTION!
THE YOUTH ON THE OFFENSIVE, BUILDING THE REVOLUTION!
"The youth on the offensive, building the revolution!” is the slogan of the Seventh Congress of the Collectives of Young Communist, which will be held on 5th, 6th & 7th of December 2009 in Madrid. This Congress is quite important for our organization: it is to be held after years of political and organizational growth and it is a new step in the reconstruction of the communist youth in Spain. We will try to discuss with as much rigour as possible about the situation of the youth in the world and in our framework of struggle, Spain, so that we will adapt our policies to the daily reality of youth. Our goal is to strengthen our links with the youth and, specially, the youth movement, and to go forward in the discussion of how to achieve the unity of the youth and the leftist and communist youth in particular.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
In this context of crisis, it is very important that young workers struggle for their rights. The crisis has just begun, despite the lies that the propaganda of the government are broadcasting in order to make us believe that the crisis is ending. If the workers do not organize the response to the crisis, we will keep on paying the cost of the the crisis. Unemployment rates, provided by several national and international sources, will be at the end of the year 2009 at around 20%; this means that one in five is unemployed. But the rate is multiplied by two in the case of workers under 25 years, which could reach 42.1% in December. Furthermore, 43% of the people aged between 16 and 29 years old are working on a temporary contract -the rate is 25% for any age. This situation is combined with an increasingly high average of dropout from Educational system. At the moment, the rate is about 30%, restricting the access of the youth to well-paid jobs. At the same time, many graduates are overqualified for the jobs they get, as there are not jobs that fit their training.
These data reflect some conditions of exploitation and insecurity capitalism condemns youth to. Only through organization and struggle, the youth can find a way out of the capitalist crisis.
STUDENT'S STRUGGLE
In the new school year, the student's should be mobilized and organized against the strategy of privatization of state-owned Education. The loss of rights of the students, the degradation of high schools, dwindling financial aid, and the high tuition fees are just some examples of the daily situation of the students.
The last year, we saw some progress in coordinating the struggles, which is essential to create democratic structures. These structures are needed to coordinate the organizations and student's assemblies, once the struggles will be stabilized. Coordination is very important in order to hit jointly the system.
CARLOS: WE DON'T FORGET YOU AND WE DON'T FORGIVE THEM
We are now commemorating the second anniversary of the murder of a young antifascist: Carlos Palomino. Nowadays, the trial of his murderer is going on, and the anti-fascist demonstrations and solidarity with his family are held throughout the country.
It is important to complain against impunity and complicity of the State institutions with the fascists. The rise of racism and xenophobia and fascist attacks, is part of an organized and planned terrorist violence. The anti-fascist movement is being able to overcome their limitations and reach out to increasingly larger sectors of the working class. The anti-fascist movement is facing increasing fascism and is becoming a mass movement. The capacity of the anti-fascist movement to achieve this goal will depend on their struggle and unity with joint structures.
CRIMINALIZATION OF COMMUNISM
The European Union gave a step forward last summer in their anti-communist campaign: a new statement was adopted, taken by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). This campaign has been carried out with several statements for years, and has no other aim than the criminalization of communist ideas, our symbols and the judicial prosecution of the communist ideology and militants. They are manipulating history, distorting the memory of the socialist achievements, denying the role of the USSR in the struggle against Fascism, and trying to equate these antagonistic systems. This campaign is just a consequence of the fear of the ruling class to a response to the crisis, as they know that the communists have an alternative to this capitalist system and the most our ideas reach more and more people, the most this people will claim for the end of their privileges.
But the invalidity of the sentence against the banning of the KSM (Czech Communist Youth), shows that the struggle and global mobilization can stop these attacks. Czech bourgeois Judicial System had to yield because of the level of organization and mobilization achieved. This is a victory for the KSM but also a victory for anti-imperialist solidarity movement, headed by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, an organization that stood at the head of solidarity. The principle of international solidarity remains a fundamental ideological referent of youth.
ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE
U.S. imperialism is intensifying its imperialist attack against the processes of Latin America and the Caribbean. The new seven military bases in Colombia are another step forward in the offensive to crush the processes of national liberation and progress towards socialism in the region. The Communists defend peace and the struggle for sovereignty, denouncing imperialism and supporting the struggle of the peoples. We are solidarian with the youth and all the people that remains in Honduras heroically in the streets fighting for their rights after the coup of the fascist oligarchy. Our greatest weapon is internationalism. The Youth on the offensive. Building the Revolution!
The slogan of our next Congress is "The youth on the offensive. Building the Revolution." For us, offensive means being able to propose, promote and dynamize all the political work, both inside our organization and in several youth fronts.
We have just mentioned two different political levels: the front (movement) and the lead (vanguard) organization. It is important to distinguish between them.
A front is each organized movement of the young students or workers. Generally, each front is focused on a specific problem and has a mass character, looking for the participation of as many people as possible. Therefore, its structure must be flexible, like an assembly. Some examples of fronts are the students movement, the anti-fascist movement or the Republican movement. All these fronts give alternatives which, by themselves, do not change the essence of the system of domination: they struggle for reforms.
The vanguard organization, unlike the front, does not only respond to an specific problem, but to the social system from which they originate. The vanguard organization considers that the problems of the students, women, working-class... are not isolated incidents, but consequences of the capitalist system. Therefore, it poses a global alternative to capitalism, a completely new system that provides solutions in all areas to the problems created by capitalism. The vanguard organization organizes the most consious people, it has not a mass character, but a cadre one. CJC is an organization that aspires to be the vanguard of the revolutionary process in Spain.
The relationship between CJC and the fronts is dialectical. Firstly, CJC must work energycally on the fronts. Only through our work we can become a revolutionary reference. On the other hand, we hope that the most consious people of each front will become part of our organization.
The work on the fronts is a priority and, in this new era, we must increase our participation. The Seventh Congress will mark the priority fronts for CJC. Thus, all our collectives in the country will have a common policy that will let them, while taking advantage of the experiences of other areas, strike together against the system of domination. This unitary conception of the work of the organization is essential to Communist organizations.
This, of course, is not inconsistent with the fact that each regional organization must also face local realities.
The documents of the Seventh Congress proposes six priority fronts of work:
- The student movement. - The labor movement and trade unions. - The anti-fascist movement. - The republican movement. - The movement of international solidarity, anti-imperialism and peace. - The feminist movement.
The Seventh Congress will not only approve the priority fronts of struggle, but also the main claims of the CJC in each front.
All collectives of the country received during the month of August the documents adopted by the Central Committee and, since then, they have begun discussing the 4 thesis. The political and organizational maturity of CJC allows that during four months, all our collectives in the country organize discussions of ideas, that will determine how to continue building a Marxist-Leninist project for Spain. Brief notes on History of CJC
Julio Diaz (Head of Organization Committee of the PCPE)
A committee was appointed to work on the construction of CJC inmediately after the founding of PCPE, in 1984. This Committee was established as a coordinator of several collectives that -since the Communist Unity Congress of January 1984- have been formed as a initiative of some regional party committees. Initially, the main task was to organise with Leninist political leadership the collectives that had emerged in an spontaneous and decentralized way. Spontaneity was a consequence of the enthusiasm of party members, who tried to involve in the political militancy their children, family, friends... The goal was to link many young workers and students in a youth organization that offered something very different to everything on the youth political panorama at the time.
CJC: a post of organization and revolutionary struggle.
Our aim was to recover the militant pride of belonging to a revolutionary youth organization. We were not always succesfull. Our model were the heroic JSU (United Socialist Youth) and we tried to get away from the shadows of the reformist youth organizations to which, having abandoned all principles, the market system -and its voracity- did not allow even the last resort of a seemingly radical aesthetic (punk clothing were sold in Gallerias, as was said in a song of "La Polla Records” in 1985).
In the high schools, universities, in workplaces and trade unions, CJC offered the only project to unite the students and the young workers of the peoples of Spain, with a program of struggling against the capitalist system.
We felt -as we feel nowadays- that CJC was a Communist school and the seedbed of the Spanish Socialist Revolution, in the same way that the JSU did, in the defense of Madrid and the Battle of Ebro, during our Civil War.
The sincere political will to unite the youth to fight for their rights, led us to do our best efforts in the establishment of assemblies in universities and middle school, with a territorial coordination, as well as youth secretaries in several companies, through CC.OO. trade union. Despite the difficulties that we had to develop these initiatives, both played an important role in the ongoing student protests in 86/87 and the General Strike of December 14th 1988.
An internationalist and Republican Youth
In the World Festival of the Youth and Students held in Moscow in 1985, CJC came, invited by the Leninist Komsomol of the USSR, out of the Spanish delegation. CJC and Jarrai were vetoed by UJCE and JSE , but our international relations made us possible to attend the Festival. Jarrai was invited by us. Our task was to explain that there was again a communist youth in Spain which, among other things, was not ashamed, as did UJCE, to show the Republican flag in Moscow's Lenin Stadium, on the day of the Festival ending ceremony.
But apart from our internationalism with the USSR and the countries which were building socialism in Eastern Europe, CJC was also very active in solidarity with the revolutionary processes in Latin American, supporting the Chilean Communist Youth, the Communist Youth of Colombia and the Sandinista July 19 Youth. For us it was an internationalist duty which, at the same time, was a dynamic pool of new militants. Prospects for the student struggle against Bologna Process
Last academic year was characterized by large student demonstrations in universities, and also in the high schools, but with a lesser extent. Now, it is time to evaluate the demonstrations and explore the new perspectives that will have the student struggle in the next year.
It is quite frequent a general slowdown of the student movement during the summer, but with prospects of being picked up in October by the assemblies, so that giving continuity to the struggle against the EHEA (European High Education Area). Despite it, it will be necessary to rethink strategies to struggle in this new stage and base our propaganda and proposals in the current and actual content of the new modules and realities that have already appeared in the University.
Despite the creation of assemblies in the majority of universities and despite the high level of mobilization and coordination, despite the occupation, closures, referendums,... despite everything, Bologna is being implemented, against the negative opinion of the students and professors.
A large number of new degrees have been aprooved by the National Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation, despite its saturation, for the next academic year. The strategy of the student movement must keep on opossing radically the EHEA; however, we must also adapt the struggle strategy to the current situation. The present moment also requires a concrete struggle against the effects that Bologna Process begins to reveal in universities, such as increasing tuiton fees, the reduction of places in state-owned universities, dissapearence of modules which are unprofitable in number of students and future possibilities in the market, excessive workload, and so on.
Another effect of Bologna is the changes in the CAP (teaching certificate): an expensive post-graduate course in teacher training has been created, and has already been applied in some universities. This change includes a price increase in enrollment of new post-graduate courses compared to the former CAP, and a reduction of seats available for enrollment. This case is particularly worrying, since it is a post-graduate course which is compulsory for becoming a teacher in high schools and universities.
CJC will continue supporting the student struggle against Bologna, and a different model of university, which will not serve any private interest. State coordination is needed, through the creation and consolidation of structures of organization for the student movement of the whole country, with the assembly as its grass-roots unit. On the capitalist crisis
Diego H. (Head of the Labor Movement)
It's difficult for the managers and analysts of capitalism to hide the Economical uncertainity. The slight decline in unemployment rates in the summer months, affecting mostly to young people, is normal in the season. The most part of the new jobs are unstable with low wages in proportion to work hours, which in September -once the season is over- have dissappeared again, increasing back the already high unemployment lists.
Green shoots for economists, rotten fruit for the working class
The recent aid package that the Zapatero government has announced in August, is just a logical reaction to the forecast. The aid is 420€ for the unemployed workers who have lost their benefits. This aid has started to be dealt at the begining of September. This aid is a consequence of the apparent optimism based on the government and financial institutions of the EU in the so-called "green shoots”. However, contrasting indicators portend a worse future.
The sweetened news which have appeared in different media of the bourgeoisie are the only possible answer to a collapse of the economic system, where working families can not consume the current production rate, and where the imposition of market criteria to the future of the youth obstruct them as a replacement of the indebted families.
No more security, enter the "flexicurity"
But despite such optimism, the Government itself and the trade unions have recognized that "structural adjustment" of employment is expected in autumn, which indicates the falsity of the information which is being published.
The employers union of Temporary Work Agettes has already warned that the share of temporary contracts which have been eliminated is over, and that it is necessary to make some "adjustments" in permanent contracts in order to maintain the pace of earnings. The latest aid is no basis for a better future for the economy of the working class, but is a way to mitigate the consequences of adjustment imposed by employers and the Government, and to disable social mobilization.
In addition, we must take into account the makeup of figures. The financial daily "El Economista” pointed that 670,000 unemployed have been excluded from the official figures, despite being enrolled in the employment records. There is another element that has been a crucial factor in all this and that has affected especially the youth: private Temporary Work employment agencies have been used for abolishing the employment system of thousands of young people. This has meant that hundreds of thousands of young people disappear as jobseekers. Adding all this, the unemployment rate will exceed 20% at the end of the year.
The fear of the middle class
Several factors of the capitalist crisis are affecting especially those social sectors that under this economic model had got a higher level of consumption. Professional, commercial and business employees or officials have seen how a economic reality that seemed to be immutable, is disappearing.
We used to have the idea that, in times of capitalist crisis, deterioration of living standards automatically imply an increased level of general struggle. This idea is not working completely now. The lack of political force of the revolutionary left is resulting in the strengthen of reactionary parties that tend to take cuts in wages and social rights. Big business is managing skillfully the panic of the middle classes in order to create a climate of opinion favorable to economic adjustment measures that involve greater political and economic repression.
The youth, the most affected and impoverished
Despite this management of fear among the middle class, the youth, whether native or foreign, is the most fighting spirit, compared with the overall look of conservatism. We have the least to lose in this battle. The latest episode occurred last June in the general strike of metal in Vigo, where the old generation from the struggle against Franco and a younger one, put on check to the employer's industry and the security forces during 17-day of indefinitely strike. The average age of the strikers did not exceed 35 years.
Inevitably, we are also having reactionarization foci within the youth. The fascist forces of capitalism are using scapegoats (whether "immigrants" or "separatist") that are seeing in the streets, but they'll be faced exclusively in the streets too. The only useful tool against racism among workers and the repression against those affected by the crisis is to take the lead in the struggles against the capital, in a context of widespread repression coming from both the Spanish government and the European Union.
