The Bienfait Miners' Strike: Book Review

Peter Miller

For anyone in the labour movement, it’s good to take time to read some inspiring labour history to give you some fire to get organizing! Endicott’s book is perfect for this inspiration.

The book analyzes the Saskatchewan miners’ struggle of 1931, organized with support from the Workers Unity League. The Mine Workers’ Union of Canada, affiliated to the Worker’ Unity League, was connected with the Red International of Labour Unions. It’s main organizers were inspired by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and were militants in a labour central focused on class struggle, instead of collaboration with the bosses and their governments. The union organized workers based on industry instead of craft, and combined political demands for things like non-contributory unemployment insurance, with bread-and-butter economic demands for working members. The union was also much more democratic than other unions at the time, with regular mass meetings and democratically elected strike committees.

Class Enemy: Chuck Magro - Free Western Sahara!

Adrien Welsh

We reproduce here an article that figured in the issue 22 of Rebel Youth - Jeunesse Militante published in October, 2017. It is being reproduced while on Monday, April 30th, the Security Council of the United Nations adopted with a majority vote and 3 abstentions (Ethiopia, Russia and China) the extension of the mandate of the MINURSO (UN Mission in Western Sahara) for six months (as opposed to one year, as it was previously the case). According to M'Hamed Kheddad, Sahrawi coordinator with the Mission, this is a positive development as it shows a real committment from the Security Council to put an end to the status quo and the ongoing occupation of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco, with the complicity of France. The Security Council also called both Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to go back to the negociation table after the process was put on ice in 2012.

The vote in the UN was held under pressure by Morocco which accused in April the Polisario Front of violating the cease-fire agreement of 1991 as part of a desinformation campaign. This campaign is continuing as Morocco just cut ties with Iran because of a supposed arms deal between this country and the Polisario Front, which was immediately denied by the Sahrawi Government. 

Young Communists Gather in BC for an educational retreat

Rozhin Emadi, Adrien Welsh

The Young Communist League held an educational retreat last weekend in B.C., bringing together around 30 of our members from the region to discuss how to better interact with the youth and student movement, as well as other progressive coalitions and struggles that play an active role in the fightback against oppression, austerity, poverty, resource extraction, and war and occupation. These discussions initiated a larger theoretical and historical overview of Marxism, the purpose of a Communist Party and youth league, the dialectical relationship between reform and revolution, and the significance of Communists engaging in mass movements and organizations.

March 8th 2018: let’s celebrate women’s resistance against capitalism, patriarchy, misogyny and far-right

Special to RY

We reproduce here a statement by the Central Executive Committee for the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2018.

Proud of a revolutionary and feminist tradition of  95 years, the Young Communist League of Canada celebrates feminist struggles and mobilizations and the contribution of women to the popular resistance against the power of Big Capital, finance, warmongers, against patriarchy and all forms of oppression; in short, against capitalism.

This year, we celebrate the 107th International Women's Day in a dangerous situation for women, youth, workers and the masses. The danger of bloody imperialist wars of aggression, austerity measures, the threat of an economic crisis, the rise of the far right, and racist, xenophobic and misogynistic ideas are on the minds of women, who are among the first victims.

Solidarity and justice for Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine

Special to RY

We reproduce here a statement by the Central Executive Committee of the Young Communist League - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste Canada regarding the murders of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine and the incapacity of Canada's legal system to ensure justice for the victims of racism, genocide and oppression.

The Young Communist League of Canada (YCL-LJC) expresses outrage and anger at Robert Stanley's acquittal in the murder of Colten Boushie and in the outcome of the Tina Fontaine trial on February, 9th and 22nd respectively. We miss the words to denounce a legal system that allows a partial, all-white jury to clear an assassin of a 22-year-old Indigenous man and allows the murder of a 15-year-old Indigenous woman to be unpunished. While our first thoughts are with the victims families, we also stand in solidarity with all the individuals and groups who denounce these lawsuits, this judicial system, and who resist the oppression and genocide of Indigenous nations in Canada.

Young Communists mobilise for the Ontario Day of Action for Free Education

Special to RY

In 2017, the CFS Ontario, delegates voted in favour of an Ontario Day of Action on February 1st, 2018 with free education as one of the main demands. After the positive experience of the November 2nd, 2016 Pan-Canadian Day of Action, which mobilised 56 campuses in 38 cities, the YCL-LJC welcomed the mobilisation for an Ontario Day of Action.

"Considering the increasingly difficult situation for students in Canada and in Ontario, we thought it was important for us, young communists, to actively participate and mobilise for this Day of Action and focus on the need to organise and fight for free education, which we see as the first priority and uniting demand for the student movement", says Peter Miller, Chair of the Student Commission of the YCL-LJC.

Women and the Great October Socialist Revolution: How Bolshevik women organized for socialism and their own emancipation

Women demonstrating in Petrograd in February - March 1917

By Rozhin Emadi

One hundred years ago, on February 23rd 1917, 50,000 women poured out of factories and onto the streets, sparking the revolution in Russia that eventually led to the downfall of the Tsar. It was on International Women’s Day that textile workers organized a strike with a strong anti-war message to condemn the exploitative and oppressive conditions most people were subjected to during the Tsar era.

This movement not only brought women together, but also masses of people who simply called for bread and peace. It became the catalyst for one of most historical revolutions in the impact it had on changing the world. However, the role of women during the Russian Revolution, and the years following, is often erased by bourgeois historians who tend to frame the revolution as a ‘masculine’ movement. Some historians, such as Richard Piper, even go so far as to argue that the revolution was “a coup” by a small number of radical, male intellectuals, rather than it being a mass working class movement. This is because bourgeois historians do not focus and emphasize that the working class had been organizing for many years, demanding that they have basic rights.

36 Communist Youth Organisations Celebrate the October Socialist Revolution

Special to RY 

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.

GATE: The Beginnings of Gay Liberation in British Columbia

By Tim Pelzer 

Just two years after the Liberal party government of Pierre Trudeau
decriminalized homosexuality in 1969, a small band of brave gay men came
together to launch the Gay Alliance Towards Equality (GATE) in Vancouver.
From 1971 to 1980, the group campaigned to foster understanding and
acceptance of gays and lesbians during a period of universal hatred for sexual
minorities.  Don Hann, a former GATE activist from that period, talked to Rebel Youth  recently about the struggle for gay rights during the 1970s. 

Wonder Woman Ban

S.L.

On the 31st of May, 2017, it was announced that the upcoming (now in theatres) Wonder Woman would be banned in Lebanon. Headlines such as “'Wonder Woman' banned in Lebanon because lead actress is Israeli”, “Lebanon Bans ‘Wonder Woman’ Because Its Star Is From Israel”, “Lebanon bans Wonder Woman film over Israeli lead actress” were run by outlets such as CNN, NYT and CBC. Much like virtually all reporting which is done on issues abroad, particularly the Arab-Israeli conflict, Western corporate media has obfuscated and muddled the truth, reducing the story to the one-dimensional narrative of blind Arab hatred towards Israel and therefore enticing support for the practically uncritical pro-Zionist foreign policy of the West. However, despite the seemingly trivial nature of superhero movies, the story is not so simple and cannot be explained through rudimentary cultural tropes about the Arab world.

Pride London Directors Decide to Include Armed, Uniformed Police

Clara Sorrenti, Organizer of the YCL-LJC in London

On July 28th, 2017, members of London's Black LGBTQ2SIA community announced they would not be marching in Pride London this year due to safety concerns over Pride London’s policy of the inclusion of armed and uniformed police officers in the parade.

Last year, Ryan Robinson marched alongside the Pride Men's Chorus when he was approached by an armed police officer. "It was a friendly greeting but I was on edge," he said. "Most times, when officers approach me it's not a friendly situation." Rowa Mohamed, a previous member of Pride London’s organizing committee, has also pulled out for these reasons. Mohamed said it is time for London to take an active approach toward solidarity by excluding uniformed police, who have a history of oppressive behaviour toward racialized communities. "When we accept police into Pride, we accept the history of violence of police oppression and we compromise the safety of already marginalized people," she said. "I feel that we don't belong at Pride and that our suffering is never going to be prioritized over the symbolic presence and empty solidarity of police being present at Pride.”

Young Communist candidate fighting for fundamental change in BC Election

Special to RY

Tyson Strandlund is the Communist Party of BC’s candidate in the upcoming election in Esquimalt-Metchosin, British Columbia. The riding is located close to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Tyson is also the organizer of the Young Communist League – Victoria club. He is a student at University of Victoria and a musician. He has organised students around the demand for free universal post-secondary education, such as during last November's pan-Canadian student rallies. Tyson is Métis, and is a fierce advocate of decolonisation and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

Big Corporations Win the French Presidential Elections

Adrien Welsh

On April 23rd, the French people were called to chose two out of the eleven candidates running for the Presidential elections who would make their way to the second round and aspire to be the next tenant of the Élysée palace.

In France, the first round for Presidential elections has never been a moment of great suspense. For decades, the two main political parties, the Socialists (PS) and the right (Les républicains and, formerly, the UMP or RPR) usually get to the second round with a comfortable margin. Polling institutions have an easy job in predicting who the two aspiring presidents will be. However, this year, until the last minute, four candidates  were polling at around 20% in the first round, namely Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen, François Fillion and Emmanuel Macron.

Lenin Moreno's victory in Ecuador: Solidarity with the Citizen's Revolution

Clara Sorrenti

On April 2nd 2017 the political landscape of Ecuador was shaken as Lenín Moreno was named President-Elect of Ecuador. Moreno garnered 51.16 percent of valid votes while opposition and ex-banker Guillermo Lasso garnered 48.84 percent, with 99.65 percent of votes counted, National Electoral Council President Juan Pablo Pozo said at a press conference. Due to Moreno’s victory, right-wing reactionary groups rioted in the streets. Lasso made fraudulent claims that the election was rigged and asked his supporters to riot in the streets demanding a recount. All this, despite the fact that Organization of American States election observers found "no discrepancies between the observed records and the official data" from the National Electoral Council.

Hands Off Syria!: a call to mobilize from Vancouver

Signs at Hands Off Syria Rally, Toronto, April 8, 2017

Ismail A. Askin

On Tuesday, April 11th, at 5:00pm, Stop War Coalition – Vancouver Coalition for Justice and Peace will gather in front of the US Consulate, on the traditional, unceded, occupied territories of the səlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations to host an emergency rally denouncing the US bombing of Syria as well as Canada’s “full support” to Trump’s open ended escalation.