We can not have another World War.

Contribution to the Lisbon meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth's Commission of Europe and North America by the Young Communist League of Canada.

Dear comrades,

We would like to thank the World Federation of Democratic Youth and our hosts, the Juventude Comunista Portuguesa, for organizing this important meeting. We meet on the eve of the JCP's 10th Congress to which we send warm fraternal greetings. We are confident our work today will strengthen the efforts of the WFDY in the European and North American region.

This year, 2014, marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of a social nightmare -- the First World War.

The Canadian government is launching a campaign to re-write history. To use this anniversary to celebrate militarism.

This is a horrible lie. The First World War saw close to 40 million civilian and military casualties.

Those who survived said: No! Never again!

The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia helped end that war. The Soviet Union began to build a socialist society, based on peaceful cooperation.

Such history may seem dusty and old to some in our generation. But 100 years later it still frames our struggle, as the progressive youth grow more determined in our fight for the future, and we in WFDY advance the slogan of revolutionary social transformation.

A letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen

By Nicolas Lopez,
Hugo Chavez People's Defence Fund

A Venezuelan citizen living in Canada corrects lies in Ottawa Citizen published on March 25, 2014: Venezuela and the Canadian Left

As a Venezuelan who recently returned from visiting family and friends in Venezuela, I’m taken aback by the extent to which this article doesn’t reflect the reality in Venezuela. In most of the country, people are going about their business with absolute normalcy. In almost all of Caracas you don’t see protests. This is with the exception of the affluent neighbourhoods in the east of the City where violent protestors only make things difficult for people living in those areas.

Hence, I was bewildered as to why I couldn’t take Air Canada to come back home from Caracas, but I could if I were travelling back from Cairo or Kiev.

Violent protests and police restraint characterizes street battles in Venezuela writes first-hand observer

By Antoine SteMarie, from Caracas
Special to Rebel Youth

This is the second article we have run from Antoine SteMarie, who is currently on the ground in Venezuela. Antoine wanted to also share this article by Venezuela Analysis about the violence of the anti-government protesters. Antoine believes the corporate media is spreading considerable mis-information about Venezuela today, especially when it says the anti-government protests peaceful and being violently repressed by the state. Last month the Harper Conservatives, Liberals, Bloc and Green Members of Parliament all supported a motion of support to the "peaceful protesters" in Venezuela, condemning the government. You can read Antoine's first article here, where he talks about the situation in Venezuela outside of the capital region.  

Venezuela -- the only country in the world where the rich are barricading their own communities and obstructing traffic!

Venezuelanalysis.com has said that protests are occurring in no more than just 18 municipalities of the country, out of well over three hundred municipalities. From my experience in Caracas and Valencia it is also true that they are almost only happening in rich and middle-class neighborhoods -- but certainly not in the poorer areas.

A first-hand account from Venezuela

A pro-government counter-demo. Venezuela has been
hit by many anti-Chavez actions recently

By Antoine St. Marie
Special to Rebel Youth

I am currently in a remote area of Venezuela and have been for the last week and a half. It is somewhat difficult to imagine all these events going on outside of the towns of San Simon and Pregonero, where I am based. Here people say these are the biggest protests since the 2002 CIA-backed coup against the government of then leader Hugo Chavez.

Originally the centers of the protests were San Cristobal (Tachira state) and Merida (Merida state). I was in San Cristobal when they started and I rather unexpectedly happened to stumble (almost literally) across what may have been the very first of these protests.  A group of opposition members were throwing rocks at the house of the state Governor, who is with the PSUV (or Socialist Party founded by Chavez). There was a small security force inside the walls of the house which was not responding to the attack; so unprovoked violence played a part right from the beginning.