Write for Rebel Youth! A Call for Submissions

How should you kill time under quarantine? Write for RY-JM!

With the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, almost all of Canada is idling under quarantine. As of now, numerous cities, provinces, territories, and First Nations have declared a public health state of emergency. Several schools and universities in the country have closed; restaurants, cafés, stores and other businesses have either closed their doors or reduced their activity and staff, if they are not temporarily laid off, are forced to work from home. All public political and cultural events, demonstrations, rallies, and meetings are cancelled or postponed, thus a large portion of the population are confined to their homes.

Why not take advantage of these days in confinement to write an article for Rebel Youth or Jeunesse militante? The Press Commission is currently preparing the 25th print edition of our magazine! If you would like to contribute, please send your articles to us by April 10th.

Toronto tenants organize “Keep Your Rent” campaign during pandemic

By Ivan Byard

This article was originally published in the April 1-15, 2020 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper

Workers, especially low-income tenants, are being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite social distancing, they’re organizing to put their rights and needs ahead of landlords’ profits. Parkdale Organize, a membership-based group of working class people who organize to build neighbourhood power in Toronto’s Parkdale area, has called for tenants to “Keep Your Rent on April 1.” The campaign comes on the heels of the Ontario Superior Court March 19 decision to place a hold on the enforcement of residential evictions, and the subsequent decision of the Toronto the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) to suspend hearings.

For a People’s Recovery, NOT A Corporate Plunder!

YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee, March 2020

This statement was originally published on the Young Communist League of Canada - La Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada homepage


We salute the immense efforts of healthcare workers to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide their essential services in a state of emergency. For over 30 years public sector unions and community organisations have struggled against privatisation, job loss, and closures in the healthcare sector. Our public healthcare system was overwhelmed before the outbreak of the global pandemic. Decades of cuts and austerity will leave working people, Indigenous peoples, the unemployed, the elderly, and the poor severely exposed unless emergency action is taken. 

Don't Demonize China! A Report from Chongqing

by Peter Miller, Correspondent in China

Peter Miller also gave an interview for the show "Loud and Clear". You can listen to it here. 

I’m in China during the pandemic and it’s pained me to see anti-Chinese propaganda gaining ground in the West, including Canada.

Instead of blaming China for a virus that knows no borders, we should be looking to China for lessons on how Canada should respond to the COVID-19 crisis. During the height of the crisis in China, both in Chongqing where I live and all over China, residents followed rules on how often they could go out. For me, I could only leave my apartment complex once every two days to go shopping for groceries. This was labelled as "authoritarian" by writers in the Western press, but instead of being authoritarian, it was clearly a measure needed to quell the spread of the virus.

Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec salutes the struggle of Francophones across Canada

Special to RY

We reproduce here a statement produced by the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Québec (LJC-Q) in which it salutes the struggle of Francophones across Canada for the occasion of the International Day of the Francophonie. In the statement, LJC-Q outlines the need for Francophones to struggle to have their linguistic, cultural and political rights recognised albeit Canada being a bilingual country. They also clarify that celebrating Francophones across Canada does not mean to celebrate the neocolonialist Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, and make it clear that the main danger of Francophone culture is not immigration, but corporate power that benefits from the national oppression that millions across Canada are fighting on a daily basis. They also outline the fact that Francophone struggles should not be put in competition with those of Indigenous peoples and nations, both targeting the same enemy. 

The Economics of Austerity: How the USMCA is Disastrous for Windsor & All Canadian Workers

By J.G. Markham


On February 11th, 2020, the Windsor chapter of the Young Communist League - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste invited Communist Party of Canada - Parti communiste du Canada leader Liz Rowley to the University of Windsor Alumni Hall for a speaking event titled ‘The Economics of Austerity and the Politics of Militarism and Regime Change’. Rowley’s first point of discussion was talking about austerity, particularly the trade deal negotiated by the Liberal government known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and its effects on the manufacturing sector in Canada, which is deeply felt within the Windsor-Essex region.

From RCMP Raids to NATO Wars: Capitalist Crisis and Oil

By Ryan Abbott

This article was originally published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. 

Despite having some of the largest energy reserves in the world, despite an almost universal support for pipeline projects among its major political parties, and despite a bloated lobby of energy executives who dictate its domestic energy policy, the petro-state of Canada is in a deep crisis.

Three pipeline proposals have already been shot down. Two others remain deeply unpopular and face a long list of challenges. The Trans-Mountain Pipeline extension (TMX) would allow the Alberta tar-sands operations to increase by up to 600%. Despite this, Kinder Morgan ultimately pulled out of the project, citing low investor confidence in the face of strong opposition from Indigenous groups as well as enormous legal and environmental challenges. Tar-sands bitumen is notoriously hard to produce, requiring massive amounts of energy to process, and comes at enormous environmental costs. Most damning is the fact that bitumen produced from tar-sands cannot compete in the global oil market; it only barely squeaks out a profit due to heavy government subsidies and handouts.

Ryerson University's Attack on Student Democracy

By Ivan Byard

This article was initially published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper

On January 24 Ryerson University in Toronto broke its 1986 operating agreement with the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU). The university’s justification was that a new operating agreement had not been finalized, following allegations of improper use of RSU funds by members of the 2018-2019 Executive. This is a thinly veiled excuse to attack the democratic rights of students. The RSU remained actively engaged in negotiations with the university to enter into a new operating agreement and remains willing to make concessions, but not at the risk of jeopardizing their autonomy and ability to effectively advocate for students. The union was in fact hours away from sending over a new draft of the agreement when they received the university’s statement terminating the agreement and derecognizing the RSU as representing students on campus. The RSU nonetheless provided the university with a draft agreement the same day.

Cyprus: a country still divided by Imperialism

Special to RY

This piece was originally published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. 

A small island in the eastern Mediterranean, at the crossroads of the Middle East and Europe, Cyprus is victim to imperialist antagonisms in the region. It is a situation that has led to 37% of its territory being occupied by Turkey since 1974.

This division contributes to making Cyprus an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” as shown by the occupation of 4% of the territory by more than 4000 British forces which are stationed there. To add to the complexity of the case, oil deposits have been discovered recently off the coasts of Lebanon and Israel and Cyprus, which reinforces the geostrategic interest of the island.

Anti-Imperialist Youth of the World hold a successful Meeting in Cyprus

Iakovos Tofari, outgoing President of WFDY addresses the Assembly

Adrien Welsh 

This article was originally published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. 

From December 3-6, anti-imperialist youth from around the world gathered in Cyprus for the 20th General Assembly of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY). More than 100 young people participated, representing about 95 organizations from all over the world, including Cuba, Venezuela, Palestine, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Western Sahara. The Young Communist League of Canada (YCL-LJC) was also present.

This assembly was the largest in the last 30 years, proving the vitality and the relevance of the fight against imperialism, particularly among youth, since the counter-revolution in Eastern Europe.

Reform and Class Struggle

Although reformist and social democrat,
Communists in Venezuela support Nicolas Maduro

By Sam Hammond

This piece was written by Sam Hammond, former Labour secretary of the Communist Party of Canada in 2016. Although some examples are dated (for example, references are made to the Harper Tories) or very specific to Ontario Labour movement, they are still useful in understanding the relation between reform and revolution from a concrete perspective. A lot of the references to business unionism also apply to the student movement and are, as such, a good starting point for a reflexion on how to strengthen the student movement on the basis of unity, militancy and struggle. 
Communists are generally the most determined fighters for reforms, because they know only an organized and combative working class can ever push beyond reforms. Liberals and many social democrats want to “balance” things.

Organisation, politics and theory

By Adrien Welsh 

Can one be a good organiser without understanding theoretical elements of Marxism-Leninism, and vice-versa? This is an interesting question that touches different topics. In other words, the question refers to consider what is a political cadre or, to use more contemporary words, a political organiser in the way we, communists, understand it and this, no matter what their responsibility is.

Can we organise a club without knowing the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism? Can we be a good unionist, a good student leader without having read What is to be done or any other classic? Or, to the opposite, can we have read all classics without having recruited one person to the organisation and identify as a « cadre »? Can we identify as a « communist theorist » without having distributed one leaflet only once? Or can we be a revolutionary simply because of vibrant speeches without being so vibrant when it comes to send an e-mail or to achieve administrative tasks?

“All Power to the People” : Meeting with Ajamu Baraka

Report by Igor Sadikov

On November 15, national organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace, former U.S. Green Party vice-presidential candidate and longtime peace activist Ajamu Baraka addressed a full room gathered at the Greek Workers Association hall in Montreal, as part of a tour of Eastern Canada organized by the Canadian Peace Congress and the Mouvement québécois pour la paix. Baraka provided an analysis of imperialism as the material basis for war and spoke of a “global de-colonial imperative” – the need for an international anti-imperialist front in order to directly confront white supremacy and neoliberal ideology.

Two Degrees between Me and Fidel

By Abram Lutes 

History is not made by individuals, but sometimes history places individuals at the heart of momentous events. The leadership and moral character of these individuals can thus, sometimes, change the world.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is one such individual, also known simply as “Castro”, or affectionately just “Fidel” in much of Latin America. Having spent some time in Latin America, I too think of him as Fidel.

A history for student sturggle for unity (2)

Divisions and current challenges

by Drew Garvie
To oppose the militancy of the CFS, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) was founded in June of 1995 with help from mainly the Liberal Party, but also from the Conservatives. Its tactics do not include any member mobilization and instead focus entirely on lobbying and photo opportunities with politicians. CASA and its provincial affiliates have distinguished themselves by frequently supporting rises in tuition fees over the last 25 years. Its capture by governments and the Liberal party remains and students cannot call it a truly independent student federation.