MAY News WFDY Report from Canadian Youth Delegates

May 2009 Page 4
WFDY NEWS

The global capitalist economic crisis has dangerously accelerated the corporate
attack on the youth across Canada. Youth unemployment is the highest in a decade.
Despite sophisticated propaganda discouraging young people against alternatives, the youth and students resist.

The economic crisis is reflected in political volatility. The ultra-right Harper Conservative government survived an unusual challenge from a potential coalition government last winter. Mass outcry for Employment Insurance (EI) reforms are expected to rock the government again. Less than 40% of workers who pay into EI can collect; nor is it accessible to young workers. But no province has moved to close the wage gap between men and women, invested in affordable housing for youth, or legislate a minimum wage above the poverty line. Young workers are also demanding all migrant, foreign and immigrant workers have citizenship status. Students are voicing opposition to skyrocketing fees and living costs. Quebequois students have organized militant mass actions.

Student debt hit $13 billion in January.

Canada is a rich country, yet the working class' living standards are falling. Canadian young people are also outraged by the oppression of Aboriginal nations, including First Nations and Metis. There's a crisis of living conditions on many 'Indian' Reservations (like unsafe drinking water), racist colonial policies (from housing and employment discrimination to police brutality), and refusal of Aboriginal peoples' treaty rights and sovereignty.

Last year, over 2,000 Aboriginal students were denied university funding. Youth are opposing the 2010 Winter Olympic games in British Columbia, on unsurrendered native land and adjacent to the most impoverished neighborhood in Canada.

Canadian foreign policy appears largely drafted in Washington. Canada's government warmly welcomed the new US administration. But polls show the people oppose the recent rapid rise in military spending, active support to NATO and NORAD, Obama's extension of the imperialist war in Afghanistan, and especially Canada's participation.

April 4th saw mobilizations against the war in Afghanistan and NATO. Quebequois youth are especially vocal against military recruitment. Denouncing Israel's terrorist war on the Palestinians, demonstrators flooded the streets in the largest Palestinian solidarity actions recently. Student-driven Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions campaigns against Israel are wining support, including among unions. Canadian-launched Israeli Apartheid Week is observed in 25 cities from Caracas to Johannesburg to Jenin. However, the Harper Conservative government, with Zionist youth, University administrations and the corporate media, has harassed
these campus campaigns – illegally fining and expelling students, investigating pro-Palestinian teachers, banning the slogan “Israeli Apartheid” and Carlos Latuff's posters, and preventing British MP George Galloway from entering Canada.

More recently students have mobilized in condemnation of the genocide of the Tamil people, and protested George W Bush visiting Calgary and Toronto. Student activists continue confronting meetings of Canadian-Latin America mining corporations, and registering vocal opposition to Canada's free-trade agreement with fascistic Colombia. Solidarity campaigns with Haiti deplore Canada's police
occupation. A continued campaign demands Omar Khadr's repatriation, the young Canadian and last 'Western National' in the US Guantanamo Bay torture camp.

Environmental activists are exposing the Alberta Tar Sands, catastrophic strip-mining for energy resources. Triumphs like those of Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, and El Salvador's FMLN victory inspire Canadian youth. The Canadian Federation of Students recently demanded the Cuban Five's release, calls Quebec student unions also
support.

The Young Communist League - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste is active in these struggles and militating for socialism. The way forward is fighting – building a broad and powerful people's movement against the Harper Conservatives, and all our oppressors, and winning a bold direction centered not on corporate greed but peace, ecological sustainability and the people's needs!

The Youth are the Future, the Future is Socialism!
*Text submitted by YCL Canada