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THE YCL IN CONVENTION

A bill of rights for youth

The Young Communist
League’s 19th Convention in To-
ronto, Sept. 30, Oct. 1-2 brought
together 61 delegates from across
Canada, almost evenly divided
between men and women. About
half were from French Canda.
With responsibility these young
workers, university and high
school students, unemployed and

~ others, laid out a plan f action for

coming to grips with the agonizing
problems of Canadian youth to-
day. Our article by David Gutnick
offers a few glimpses of the way
the YCL analyzes and challenges
youth’s real problems.
ek *
By DAVID GUTNICK

‘*The resolutions which we will
be dealing with in this convention,
our call for youth rights: for the
right to a job, for the right to a full
and democratic education, for the
right to sports, leisure and cul-
ture, for the right to live in a
peaceful world — these are all
rights which the socialist coun-
tries guarantee their young
citizens.”

SS
#

General Secretary of the Com-
munist Party, William Kashtan ad-
dresses convention delegates.

It was with these words that
Mike Gidora, general secretary of
the Young Communist League of
Canada opened that organiza-
tion’s 19th Convention in Toron-
to, September 30. The three day
convention, the fourth since the
League’s refounding in 1970,
gathered young people from all
parts of Canada to decide upon
and map out YCL policy for the
next three years. :

‘*In Canada we can note the be-
ginning of a new spirit in the
young people of our country, ina
rejection of the policies of gov-
ernments,”’ said Gidora in his
opening remarks.

*“On one hand, this new at-
titude is manifested by a rejec-
tion, pure and simple, of the gov-
ernments and political institutions
in Canada. It takes the form of a
development of cynicism, in dis-
trust and disbelief in authority and
institutions. On the other hand it
is reflected in a certain growth of
the organized youth movement,
in an upsurge of sorts in the ac-
tivities of youth groups, student
organizations, on the part of im-
migrant youth, groups of ethnic
and religious young people.

‘‘In these conditions (of
economic and social depres-
sion),’’ said Gidora, ‘““there are a
number of tasks before us as an

organization and before us as a
convention. During the next three
days we will reaffirm our com-

‘mitment of support to the youth

and people struggling against im-
perialism, fascism, colonialism
and apartheid. We will come out
of this convention firmer than
ever in our determination to help
defeat the imperialism per-
petuated against other peoples by
forces within Canada.”

Gidora emphasized the need
for delegates to fully explore and
debate the convention documents
which, he noted ‘‘detail the major
problems facing youth today.”

The need for a strong and un-
ited youth movement was recog-
nized and emphasized in the key-
note speech, in the debate of the
delegates and was implicit in the
Charter of Youth Demands ap-
proved by the convention.

‘‘When we speak of a united
youth movement, we do not
speak of an abstract notion....”
said Gidora, ‘‘but of an alliance
based on agreement on a number
of fundamental questions, based
on agreement to fight for our basic
rights as young people ...””

The convention recognized the
increased militancy among youth
since the last (18th) convention
and delegates pledged to working
with a youth that ‘‘has shifted to
the left politically.”’

‘**More and more,”’ the conven-
tion delegates noted, ‘‘the or-
ganized youth movement is seek-
ing ways of cooperating in and
supporting the struggles of the
working class.’’ The. National
Union of Students (NUS) in En-
glish Canada and L’ Association
National des Etudiants du
Québec (ANEQ) have consoli-

€ dated themselves into organiza-

:
¥,

tions capable of moving students
towards political action.

‘*All in all,’’ read convention
documents ‘‘the student move-
ment has made great advances in
the past three years, and though it
still has a long way to go before it
becomes a real force in the politi-
cal life of Canada, as long as its
maintains its present orientation
of political action and of seeking
alliances with the trade union
movement and -other forces, it
should be possible to overcome
most difficulties.”

William Kashtan, general sec-
retary of the Communist Party of
Canada, greeted delegates and
noted the reasons for the increas-
ing political consciousness of
youth in a speech on the opening
day of the convention.

‘*They (the bourgoisie) are be-
reft of any coherent, sensible, ra-
tional approach as to how to come
to grips with the problem of the
unemployed young people be-
cause they are unable to come to
grips with the problem of the un-
employed generally. Because you
can’t solve the problem of the
youth without solving the prob-
lem of unemployment and capital-
ism, young people are bound to
increasingly come to the conclu-
sion that. capitalism is unable to
give them a future and a perspec-
tive of development and ad-
vance.” -

Kashtan approved the YCL’s
call for a united youth movement
and said it is “‘tied in with the
whole perspective of how the

world is to move forward and 3

whether the drive of imperialism

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCTOBER 14, 1977—Page 8

OTO — FRED WEIR

can be checked and defeated... .”’
He hoped, Kashtan said, that the
YCL would ‘‘associate itself’
with the work for peace and ‘‘do

all that it can to help to unite the qi
young people of this country fora §
policy of peace, for a policy of §

détente, and for policies of dis-
armament... leading toward nuc-
lear disarmament.”

A major result to come out of a

the convention was A Charter of
Youth Demands, enthusiastically
hailed by the delegates. The
Charter’s first concern is full em-
ployment.

Recognizing that one identi-
fiable section hit hardest by un-
employment is young people —
one in five is unemployed — and
realizing that economic penalties
imposed on these young people
are greater the YCL emphasized
the need for all progressive
forces, including the trade union
movement to work together on a
common program in the fight for
jobs. The YCL proposes the fol-
lowing points of unity.

e a massive coordinated pro-
gram of federal and provincial
public works programs to provide
jobs for youth and students at in-
dustrial rates of pay.

e the adaption by the federal
government of policies of full em-
ployment. Such policies would
include the immediate withdrawal
of any form of wage controls, a
commitment to the shortening of

‘the work, week to 30 hours with-

out loss in pay, the nationalization
of the major resource industries
and the independent development
of Canadian resources under pub-
lic ownership and democratic
control, the nationalization of the
major credit and banking sys-
tems, the construction of 400,000
new housing units under govern-
ment sponsorship each year for
the next two years, and the
development of a government
capital investment program to
build secondary industry espe-

cially in economically depressed -

areas.

ea massive expansion in
Canada Manpower training pro-
grams to provide vocational re-
training for all those who wish to
learn a trade, with the guarantee
of a job at the end of the training
period.

e The guarantee of adequate
unemployment insurance for the
full period of unemployment.

Resolutions concerning the
Charter of Youth Demands on

bigceas

Anna Larsen reports to the co

Mike Gidora general secretary of the Young Commun

livers opening address to the convention. :

such topics as sports, culture, lei-
sure (which emphasized the need
for much increased government

subsidization and an increase in.

the number of available facilities)
and education (the need for demo-
cratic access, democratic control:
and democratic content within the
education system) were also dis-
cussed and approved.

In a resolution entitled “‘For a
Bi-National Canada — United
and Democratic,’’ the YCL rec-
ognized the right to democratic
participation of all peoples as a
major part of the Charter of Youth
Demands.

’ **The ‘crisis in confederation’,

‘that is the refusal of the Canadian

state to acknowledge the bi-
national character of this country,
can only be solved by the intro-
duction of a new constitution
based on the principles of a volun-
tary and equal partnership be-
tween the two nations of Canada,

the English-speaking and the |

French, with the right to self

‘ determination, up to and includ-

ing the right to separation guaran-
teed to each nation.””’

As well, the convention voi-
ced the need for a Canadian Bill of
Rights which will ‘‘outlaw racism
and discrimination in any form.”
and guarantee the full democratic

rights of all Canadians, including .

full labor rights.

Editor of the Young Worker,
Fred Weir, presented a report
which emphasized the need for a
strong and vibrant ‘“‘communist
paper for youth. The problems of
inconsistency, both in the cover-
age, financing and distribution
must be overcome if the YCL is
going to improve its position
among young Canadians’, Weir
said. ‘‘The importance of media
cannot be underestimated.”

Convention delegates sup-
ported Weir’s recommendations

and pledged to work for the estab-_

lishment of a regular Young
Worker.

to them.

nvention for the central council o'

Greetings from fraternal youth
organizations from around the
world punctuated the discussion
and pointed to the bonds of inter-
nationalism which the YCL has
with other youth organizations.
Greetings were received from
more than 20 organizations of
communist youth from all around
the world. Representatives from
the World Federation of Demo-
cratic Youth (WFDY), the Union
of Young Communists of Cuba,
and the Young Workers’ Libera-
tion League (YWLL) from the
United States, brought greetings
from their respective or-
ganizations.

‘The youth in North America

all benefit from organizations of
communist youth,’’ said Daniel
Rosenberg, ‘‘because the youth
of both Canada and the United
States are suffering through the
ills of a capitalist crisis that can
only be answered by Marxist-
Leninists. If youth are to truly

have an opportunity to enjoy all.

the fruits of life they are going to
be put in the position of having to
fight for them. And only the
policies of a youth movement
with clearly defined goals and
priorities such as those of the
Young Communist League of
Canada is able to lead them in
such a direction so as to make
those aims achievable.”

Other guest speakers at the
convention represented progres-
sive organizations of varying na-
tures. Speakers representing the

African National Congress, the

Canadian Peace Congress, the
Progressive Youth of Chile, the
People’s Patriotic Front of Zim-
babwe were all welcomed by
delegates.

In his closing remarks to the
convention, Mike Gidora noted
the enthusiasm with which dele-
gates had performed their work
and hoped that delegates realized
the responsibility that now belong

ist League de-