In the framework of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students, 36 communist youth organisations from all across the world gathered in the « Lenin » Conference Hall to honour the 100th aniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution and its achievements in favour of the working class, the youth and popular masses everywhere, in socialist countries, but also in capitalist countries. From India to Guatemala, from Colombia to Austria, the room was heavy packed by hundreds of young people who commit to follow the path opened by the October Revolution one hundred years ago.
In a common resolution, the communist youth organisations who attended this event recall that the October Revolution "proved that the peoples, through their struggle, can overthrow capitalism and construct a superior society, socialism." It further states that all the problems the youth are facing in capitalist countries "can be resolved with the seizure of power by the working class, with the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. In the countries where socialism was built, the youth had important achievements that even today seem a distant dream for the youth of our countries such as the access to all levels of education, granted and stable work, sports and culture."
Taking part to this event, the YCL-LJC Canada made an intervention outlining the influence of the October Revolution on the working class, the youth and progressive movements in Canada either through their struggles, as illustrated by the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, or through their massive support of the Soviet revolutions (the October Revolution in Russia, but also the short-lived attempts to build socialist republics in Hungary and in Germany through the Spartakist Revolution) in a context where Canada, along with 15 countries, invaded the newly created Soviet Republic in order to overthrow socialism.
The YCL-LJC Canada also stressed that the importance of the Socialist Revolution in Canada is attested by the creation of the Communist Party of Canada in 1921 and, two years later, by the creation of what would become the Young Communist League, both organisations who have been part of all the struggles that contributed to increase the life quality of the working class and the youth in our country, starting with the ‘On to Ottawa Treck’ that led to the first system of employment insurance and Norman Bethune’s call for socialised medicine that paved the way, long time before Tommy Douglas and the CCF, to health insurance.
All organisations were invited to make short remarks on the October Revolution and the impact this event had and still has throughout the world. The common conclusion, despite different conditions in all these countries, is that the first Socialist Revolution that happened in 1917 is not an event of the past, but rather an event of the future. We know that today, new socialist revolutions are not only possible, but necessary. The aggressiveness of capitalism and imperialism, the rise of the ultra-right in many countries all show to the youth of the world that the need to build socialism is more urgent than ever. Capitalism cannot have a human face. In all its form, it is a system aimed to suit the interests of the bourgeoisie, of the minority over the ones of the toiling majority. We know that as long as capitalism will prevail, the dangers of war, environmental destruction and fascism will always be on the horizon, but we also know now, thanks to the Bolshevik Revolution, that capitalism is not undefeatable and it is ours to take on the challenge of our generation, of our class but also of the whole humanity and strengthen our common struggle until the victory of socialism-communism.
Footage of the speech delivered by Adrien Welsh at the event honouring the October Revolution
The speech can be read here
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