This Summer issue of Rebel Youth picks up the theme of solidarity and takes to the international level, with the call "Globalize the struggle!"
That's not because there aren't important and active struggles to write about back here. In fact, the opposite!
This winter, student protests about soaring tuition fees swept the country. In Nova Scotia, we won a tuition freeze. Vocal and visible demonstrations by thousands of people also kept the government in the hot seat over the dirty imperialist war in Afghanistan.
There is a huge debate about Kyoto and global warming in the media. More people are coming to the view that capitalism is in opposition to environmental solutions. So far, Harper hasn't budged as the "Dirty Oil Act" shows – but massive public pressure by women's activists won the restoration of funding to status of women's programmes in the last federal budget.
And in Ontario and BC, the Canadian Labour Congress has joined with the Canadian Federation of Students and launched major campaigns to raise the minimum wage – the biggest in years.
Che Guevara once said the best way to support the Cuban revolution was to build the revolution in your own country. That starts with real concrete struggles. A powerful and broad People's Coalition of the working class and its allies could begin to achieve real gains and move Canada in a new direction, taking power out of the hands of the transnational corporations.
Where's the proof? Look at Latin America.
Across Latin America, People's Coalition governments are wining major gains for sovereignty and social advance. Uruguay, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Bolivia – not just Venezuela – have all elected movements that are pushing against Uncle Sam and US imperialism. And young people are at the forefront of this resistance, together with the workers.
The FARC-EP are also putting up heroic resistance against the neo-fascist regime in Colombia, showing that US-imperialist backed-puppet governments are not invincible.
And the most inspirational anti-imperialist story in Latin America is clearly socialist Cuba. The recent declaration by the World Wildlife Fund, announcing that Cuba is the only sustainable economy in the world, is just another award that this third world country has won while under blockade by the United States.
The fight for Cuban sovereignty is connected with our struggles for Canadian sovereignty and against "Deep Integration," harmonizing Canadian and US military and trading policies. It is the same fight.
We must also stand with the anti-imperialist struggles of the Arab and South-Asian peoples against Zionism and US imperialism. This is especially important since our tax dollars are currently funding a war in Afghanistan. The cry "Bring the Troops Home," is also a movement in solidarity with the Afghani, and Iraqi, people.
Another such expression of solidarity is thorough the growing movement, lead by student activists and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, to divest from Israel, demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees, and call for an end to the Apartheid wall.
Why is international solidarity is a principle of the communists world-wide? Because no struggle of the working class can succeed without unity. The ultra-right Harper Conservatives and trans-national corporations fear international solidarity of the working people, because they know its power.
As Marx and Engles declared over a hundred years ago: Workers of the World Unite, you have nothing to loose but your chains!
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