Under the slogan "Youth of Europe, rise up against imperialist war and capitalist exploitation, to achieve our future! We struggle united holding high the flag of October for the new society, for socialism!", the 18th Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations (MECYO) took place on 8-10 November 2024 in Rome, hosted by the Front of the Communist Youth (FGC).
In their joint statement, 17 Communist Youths point out:
Youth of all Europe,
The Communist Youth Organisations signing this declaration, following the 18th Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations (MECYO) that took place in Rome between 8-10 November, relaunch the slogan of the meeting and call for you: join us in rising up against war and capitalist exploitation, to conquer our future!
The 18th MECYO, hosted by the FGC of Italy amid the struggle against Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist government, showed that communist youth organisations want to strengthen our common international struggle, exchange of information, debate and exchange of ideas. It also demonstrated the continuous vitality of this meeting, that since 2001 has been hosted in Madrid, Lisbon, Athens, Istanbul, Prague, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Rome, Linz, Belgrade and Larnaca.
We, communist youth organisations from all over Europe, salute the millions of young people around the world who today are fighting for their rights, against the anti-popular policies of their governments, against the imperialist wars, against the genocide of the Palestinian people!
A few days after the anniversary of the October Revolution that brought workers to power for the first time in the history of humanity, we gathered in an international context in which all the irremediable contradictions of the capitalist system have become evident. United and organised, shoulder to shoulder in our common struggle, we want to declare forcefully:
Capitalism threatens our future!
In Europe new generations have experienced, and feel in their lives, the capitalist economic crisis of 2008 and of 2020, while all the signs point to a new one to come, with new great threats to the future of peoples and youth. The escalation of war, the generalised impoverishment of the working class and popular sectors, the reality of new generations living today in worse conditions than their parents, all have their origins in the capitalist system itself, either in crisis or in period of growth.
Today, this system based on profit and exploitation directly threatens the future and the very lives of peoples and the working class:
- The competition and compromises between the bourgeoisies for control of markets and market shares, strategic territories, spheres of influence, trade and supply routes, energy and mineral resources, generates new imperialist conflicts with tens of thousands of deaths. In the name of war economy, to which the EU openly appeals, and which escalates the pre-existing militarization, sacrifices and deprivations are imposed on the peoples to support the arms race, military competition, and imperialist interventions in war scenarios. Those who pay the price for the imperialist war are always the peoples, the working class and its children.
- On the soil of Europe, in Ukraine a bloody imperialist war has been going on for two and a half years, between the US-EU-NATO bloc and capitalist Russia. This war, in which the blood of thousands of young Ukrainians and Russians is being spilled, is a continuation of the counter-revolutionary process of 1989-91, where nationalist hatred was openly fomented and utilised by local and foreign bourgeoisies. Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine cannot erase the profound responsibilities of the US, EU and NATO, from the eastward NATO expansion to the support of fascist and neo-Nazi forces during and after the 2014 Ukrainian coup. We call on the peoples of all our countries to fight alongside us against the war and any form of involvement of our governments, against the NATO plans and against the plans of “our” bourgeoisies that are carried forward even in the face of the risk of a world war, for the exit of our countries from NATO and all imperialist alliances, for an end to hostilities, for internationalist solidarity against the poisons of nationalism and war propaganda, for workers to take their destiny into their own hands, for peace.
- In the Middle East, Israel is perpetuating the genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, while violence is escalating in the West Bank as the occupation regime tightens, and it is expanding the war against the peoples of the region, by launching a military campaign into Lebanon. The bombings, the attacks and killings of political leaders by Israel in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, risk to evolve into a wider escalation of war throughout the region. We condemn the complicity of European governments, the US, the EU and NATO with Israel’s criminal policies and its expansionist and ethnic cleansing plans. We express solidarity and support to Palestinian Communist and Workers’ organisations, as well as the ones in Israel that are facing repression from their own government, in their struggle to stop the genocidal plans of the State of Israel and for peace, equality and justice. Over the past year, we young communists have been at the forefront of large popular and student mobilisations across Europe, demanding an end to any involvement of our countries in the massacre of the Palestinian people and the illegitimate occupation of their territories. We support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and their right to resistance against occupation. We call the workers, the people, the youth in all countries to intensify the struggle to stop the genocide, for an immediate ceasefire, and to end the occupation of Palestine by Israel, to express their firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinians, to the struggle through which the peoples of Middle East can achieve their right to live in peace. Free Palestine!
- In these conditions, governments across Europe are introducing new anti-popular measures that attack workers’ rights, reduce wages, and erase the achievements of the labour movement. At the same time, State and police repression are intensifying in many countries; bourgeois “democracy” is taking on increasingly reactionary characteristics, while the spaces for real popular participation and democratic rights are being increasingly reduced. In EU countries, the “Next Generation EU” recovery plan demonstrates that, for the owners, the way out of the crisis is always to offload the costs onto the people’s shoulders, who are asked to make sacrifices to continue supporting corporate profits. Similarly, the so-called “European Green Deal” demonstrates that capitalism sees climate crisis and environmental devastation as a new arena of profitability for monopolies.
At the forefront of youth struggles for our rights!
The youth of Europe today live in a difficult condition. Capitalism’s false promises of prosperity are shattered in the face of the reality of everyday life:
- We experience capitalist exploitation, high levels of youth unemployment, low wages, part-time employment, unpaid work disguised as “internship”, in the name of the slogans of “market competitiveness” and “flexibility”.
- We live in a situation of constant insecurity in our lives and with respect to our future. Ever greater obstacles limit the fulfilment of basic needs, such as the right to healthcare, to affordable housing, free access to sport, culture, recreation and leisure. Many choose emigration in the hope of a different future, while millions of young people who cannot find a “way out” end up in the abyss of depression, alcohol abuse, drug addiction.
- The right to education is increasingly threatened by economic obstacles, privatisation and a more general commodification, while in all countries, schools and universities, and their curriculum are reformed in a reactionary direction, to shape them to the interests and needs of the large capitalist monopolies.
- The slogans about “freedom” conceal the increasingly oppressive reality of repression, as well as the propaganda and indoctrination that take place today with the use of old and new media, as well as educational systems, to present capitalist reality and imperialist policies as a ‘normality’ and remove among the new generations the idea that they can fight for a different future.
These developments, albeit in different forms and to different degrees, are common to all our countries and are the result of the policies of bourgeois governments, both right-wing and “left-wing”. The facts show that regardless of whether Liberal, Conservative or Social-democratic forces govern, the substance of capitalist reality does not change. We fight the illusion that it is possible “to manage” this system and its institutions in favour of the people, because this illusion turns into a cage for the struggles and legitimate aspirations of youth.
We, the communist youth, support the struggle of youth throughout Europe in defence of their rights. We have been, we are, and we will be in the forefront of all the struggles of youth, students, the working class and class-oriented trade unions, for free and public education and healthcare, according to the contemporary needs and potential, for rights in the workplace, for employment against precarity and insecurity, for the right to housing, culture, rest, sport, to live in a healthy, safe, and unpolluted environment.
History has shown that it is only through the struggle of peoples and under certain conditions, that it is possible to attain better living conditions, although – ultimately – the dead ends of capitalism can only be overcome by challenging the foundations of this system.
The youth of Europe must raise the flag of internationalism
Internationalist brotherhood between the peoples and workers of all countries, our proletarian internationalism, are the real alternative to the propaganda that aims to ensnare the youth with false ideas of “traditional values”, as well as the one of “European values”, identified with the defence of the EU of capital, its policies, its inseparable link with the interests of the big monopolies. Today, as imperialist conflicts develop, the EU confirms itself as an imperialist alliance at the service of the powerful, strengthening the Common Security and Defence Policy and arms spending.
The imperialist wars and interventions, as well as the exploitation by monopolies, generate dramatic migratory flows, with millions of refugees and displaced persons, who see their basic rights and dignity brutally trampled upon in the host countries. In this context, the political forces who defend the interests of big capital, including the nationalist right, which are in government in many countries, use racism and xenophobia to build and maintain their consensus, sowing hatred and divisions between peoples and the working class.
Nationalism and reactionary forces are promoted all around Europe. In numerous Eastern European countries, nationalist governments have initiated the persecution of communists. The EU is also an active participant in this. Anti-communism is now adopted as the official ideology of the EU, while the anti-historical equation with Nazi-fascism is promoted through the ideological construction of “totalitarianism” and the theory of “opposing extremes”. These policies today are objectively paving the way for nationalist and reactionary forces.
In this context, we reiterate that the alternative to these forces is not appeals by liberal or social-democratic parties to build “anti-fascist alliances”. Fascism is born from the capitalist system; it is its long arm against the workers’-people’s movement. The real alternative to these forces can only be built by the people, by the unity of all the exploited in the name of internationalist solidarity and brotherhood, with the communists at the forefront of this struggle.
In this spirit, the communist youths of Europe are committed to strengthening their joint struggle and to empower the Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations (MECYO) as an important space to strengthen the discussion, exchange analysis, for coordination and fraternal relations between our organisations. Likewise, we strive to strengthen the struggle of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and its anti-imperialist character.
Communism is the youth of the world: let’s rise up!
Youth of Europe let’s rise up: the future is not written yet. Capitalism will not be the end of history. Exploitation, war, poverty, oppression, emigration will not be our future!
The explosions of popular anger throughout the world, the great workers’ struggles that in so many European countries demonstrate the combativity of the working class, are proof that there is a space for strengthening the impact of communist ideas and for the revolutionary movement in the 21st century.
The ideas of the Great October Socialist Revolution, whose anniversary we commemorate in these days, have for decades represented the alternative to imperialist war and the injustice of this system. Today, those ideas point the way forward to new conquests and victories. We defend and claim the great history of the communist movement in the 20th century, against all attempts to falsify it. Today, our task as communists in the 21st century is to assess our history, the experience of the revolutions of the last century and the failure of those who chose to renounce those ideas. We need to study, draw the appropriate lessons and conclusions, to strengthen our common struggle and our ability to truly be a vanguard force on the side of the Communist Parties in each of our countries.
By holding high the red flag of revolution, the communist youth today can ensure that more young forces join the struggle for the workers’ seizure of political power as they are the next shift of communist parties in all countries; to strengthen them ideologically and politically and intensify the attack.
Communism is the youth of the world; capitalism is historically obsolete and destined to give way to the new world. Today, we have a duty to fight to build a world of true freedom, democracy, peace, social justice. A society governed by workers, which abolishes the exploitation of man by man, in which technical and scientific progress can truly be put at the service of the well-being of all, in which we can enjoy rights in education, work, leisure, free access to culture and sport.
We are confident that, within our lifetimes, we will be the protagonists of a new revolutionary workers’ march towards a bright future. The future will belong to socialism!
In unison, we declare: Youth of Europe, rise up against imperialist war and capitalist exploitation, to achieve our future! We struggle united holding high the flag of October for the new society, for socialism!
The 18th MECYO, hosted by the FGC of Italy amid the struggle against Giorgia Meloni’s nationalist government, showed that communist youth organisations want to strengthen our common international struggle, exchange of information, debate and exchange of ideas. It also demonstrated the continuous vitality of this meeting, that since 2001 has been hosted in Madrid, Lisbon, Athens, Istanbul, Prague, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Rome, Linz, Belgrade and Larnaca.
We, communist youth organisations from all over Europe, salute the millions of young people around the world who today are fighting for their rights, against the anti-popular policies of their governments, against the imperialist wars, against the genocide of the Palestinian people!
A few days after the anniversary of the October Revolution that brought workers to power for the first time in the history of humanity, we gathered in an international context in which all the irremediable contradictions of the capitalist system have become evident. United and organised, shoulder to shoulder in our common struggle, we want to declare forcefully:
Capitalism threatens our future!
In Europe new generations have experienced, and feel in their lives, the capitalist economic crisis of 2008 and of 2020, while all the signs point to a new one to come, with new great threats to the future of peoples and youth. The escalation of war, the generalised impoverishment of the working class and popular sectors, the reality of new generations living today in worse conditions than their parents, all have their origins in the capitalist system itself, either in crisis or in period of growth.
Today, this system based on profit and exploitation directly threatens the future and the very lives of peoples and the working class:
- The competition and compromises between the bourgeoisies for control of markets and market shares, strategic territories, spheres of influence, trade and supply routes, energy and mineral resources, generates new imperialist conflicts with tens of thousands of deaths. In the name of war economy, to which the EU openly appeals, and which escalates the pre-existing militarization, sacrifices and deprivations are imposed on the peoples to support the arms race, military competition, and imperialist interventions in war scenarios. Those who pay the price for the imperialist war are always the peoples, the working class and its children.
- On the soil of Europe, in Ukraine a bloody imperialist war has been going on for two and a half years, between the US-EU-NATO bloc and capitalist Russia. This war, in which the blood of thousands of young Ukrainians and Russians is being spilled, is a continuation of the counter-revolutionary process of 1989-91, where nationalist hatred was openly fomented and utilised by local and foreign bourgeoisies. Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine cannot erase the profound responsibilities of the US, EU and NATO, from the eastward NATO expansion to the support of fascist and neo-Nazi forces during and after the 2014 Ukrainian coup. We call on the peoples of all our countries to fight alongside us against the war and any form of involvement of our governments, against the NATO plans and against the plans of “our” bourgeoisies that are carried forward even in the face of the risk of a world war, for the exit of our countries from NATO and all imperialist alliances, for an end to hostilities, for internationalist solidarity against the poisons of nationalism and war propaganda, for workers to take their destiny into their own hands, for peace.
- In the Middle East, Israel is perpetuating the genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, while violence is escalating in the West Bank as the occupation regime tightens, and it is expanding the war against the peoples of the region, by launching a military campaign into Lebanon. The bombings, the attacks and killings of political leaders by Israel in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, risk to evolve into a wider escalation of war throughout the region. We condemn the complicity of European governments, the US, the EU and NATO with Israel’s criminal policies and its expansionist and ethnic cleansing plans. We express solidarity and support to Palestinian Communist and Workers’ organisations, as well as the ones in Israel that are facing repression from their own government, in their struggle to stop the genocidal plans of the State of Israel and for peace, equality and justice. Over the past year, we young communists have been at the forefront of large popular and student mobilisations across Europe, demanding an end to any involvement of our countries in the massacre of the Palestinian people and the illegitimate occupation of their territories. We support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and their right to resistance against occupation. We call the workers, the people, the youth in all countries to intensify the struggle to stop the genocide, for an immediate ceasefire, and to end the occupation of Palestine by Israel, to express their firm solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinians, to the struggle through which the peoples of Middle East can achieve their right to live in peace. Free Palestine!
- In these conditions, governments across Europe are introducing new anti-popular measures that attack workers’ rights, reduce wages, and erase the achievements of the labour movement. At the same time, State and police repression are intensifying in many countries; bourgeois “democracy” is taking on increasingly reactionary characteristics, while the spaces for real popular participation and democratic rights are being increasingly reduced. In EU countries, the “Next Generation EU” recovery plan demonstrates that, for the owners, the way out of the crisis is always to offload the costs onto the people’s shoulders, who are asked to make sacrifices to continue supporting corporate profits. Similarly, the so-called “European Green Deal” demonstrates that capitalism sees climate crisis and environmental devastation as a new arena of profitability for monopolies.
At the forefront of youth struggles for our rights!
The youth of Europe today live in a difficult condition. Capitalism’s false promises of prosperity are shattered in the face of the reality of everyday life:
- We experience capitalist exploitation, high levels of youth unemployment, low wages, part-time employment, unpaid work disguised as “internship”, in the name of the slogans of “market competitiveness” and “flexibility”.
- We live in a situation of constant insecurity in our lives and with respect to our future. Ever greater obstacles limit the fulfilment of basic needs, such as the right to healthcare, to affordable housing, free access to sport, culture, recreation and leisure. Many choose emigration in the hope of a different future, while millions of young people who cannot find a “way out” end up in the abyss of depression, alcohol abuse, drug addiction.
- The right to education is increasingly threatened by economic obstacles, privatisation and a more general commodification, while in all countries, schools and universities, and their curriculum are reformed in a reactionary direction, to shape them to the interests and needs of the large capitalist monopolies.
- The slogans about “freedom” conceal the increasingly oppressive reality of repression, as well as the propaganda and indoctrination that take place today with the use of old and new media, as well as educational systems, to present capitalist reality and imperialist policies as a ‘normality’ and remove among the new generations the idea that they can fight for a different future.
These developments, albeit in different forms and to different degrees, are common to all our countries and are the result of the policies of bourgeois governments, both right-wing and “left-wing”. The facts show that regardless of whether Liberal, Conservative or Social-democratic forces govern, the substance of capitalist reality does not change. We fight the illusion that it is possible “to manage” this system and its institutions in favour of the people, because this illusion turns into a cage for the struggles and legitimate aspirations of youth.
We, the communist youth, support the struggle of youth throughout Europe in defence of their rights. We have been, we are, and we will be in the forefront of all the struggles of youth, students, the working class and class-oriented trade unions, for free and public education and healthcare, according to the contemporary needs and potential, for rights in the workplace, for employment against precarity and insecurity, for the right to housing, culture, rest, sport, to live in a healthy, safe, and unpolluted environment.
History has shown that it is only through the struggle of peoples and under certain conditions, that it is possible to attain better living conditions, although – ultimately – the dead ends of capitalism can only be overcome by challenging the foundations of this system.
The youth of Europe must raise the flag of internationalism
Internationalist brotherhood between the peoples and workers of all countries, our proletarian internationalism, are the real alternative to the propaganda that aims to ensnare the youth with false ideas of “traditional values”, as well as the one of “European values”, identified with the defence of the EU of capital, its policies, its inseparable link with the interests of the big monopolies. Today, as imperialist conflicts develop, the EU confirms itself as an imperialist alliance at the service of the powerful, strengthening the Common Security and Defence Policy and arms spending.
The imperialist wars and interventions, as well as the exploitation by monopolies, generate dramatic migratory flows, with millions of refugees and displaced persons, who see their basic rights and dignity brutally trampled upon in the host countries. In this context, the political forces who defend the interests of big capital, including the nationalist right, which are in government in many countries, use racism and xenophobia to build and maintain their consensus, sowing hatred and divisions between peoples and the working class.
Nationalism and reactionary forces are promoted all around Europe. In numerous Eastern European countries, nationalist governments have initiated the persecution of communists. The EU is also an active participant in this. Anti-communism is now adopted as the official ideology of the EU, while the anti-historical equation with Nazi-fascism is promoted through the ideological construction of “totalitarianism” and the theory of “opposing extremes”. These policies today are objectively paving the way for nationalist and reactionary forces.
In this context, we reiterate that the alternative to these forces is not appeals by liberal or social-democratic parties to build “anti-fascist alliances”. Fascism is born from the capitalist system; it is its long arm against the workers’-people’s movement. The real alternative to these forces can only be built by the people, by the unity of all the exploited in the name of internationalist solidarity and brotherhood, with the communists at the forefront of this struggle.
In this spirit, the communist youths of Europe are committed to strengthening their joint struggle and to empower the Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations (MECYO) as an important space to strengthen the discussion, exchange analysis, for coordination and fraternal relations between our organisations. Likewise, we strive to strengthen the struggle of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and its anti-imperialist character.
Communism is the youth of the world: let’s rise up!
Youth of Europe let’s rise up: the future is not written yet. Capitalism will not be the end of history. Exploitation, war, poverty, oppression, emigration will not be our future!
The explosions of popular anger throughout the world, the great workers’ struggles that in so many European countries demonstrate the combativity of the working class, are proof that there is a space for strengthening the impact of communist ideas and for the revolutionary movement in the 21st century.
The ideas of the Great October Socialist Revolution, whose anniversary we commemorate in these days, have for decades represented the alternative to imperialist war and the injustice of this system. Today, those ideas point the way forward to new conquests and victories. We defend and claim the great history of the communist movement in the 20th century, against all attempts to falsify it. Today, our task as communists in the 21st century is to assess our history, the experience of the revolutions of the last century and the failure of those who chose to renounce those ideas. We need to study, draw the appropriate lessons and conclusions, to strengthen our common struggle and our ability to truly be a vanguard force on the side of the Communist Parties in each of our countries.
By holding high the red flag of revolution, the communist youth today can ensure that more young forces join the struggle for the workers’ seizure of political power as they are the next shift of communist parties in all countries; to strengthen them ideologically and politically and intensify the attack.
Communism is the youth of the world; capitalism is historically obsolete and destined to give way to the new world. Today, we have a duty to fight to build a world of true freedom, democracy, peace, social justice. A society governed by workers, which abolishes the exploitation of man by man, in which technical and scientific progress can truly be put at the service of the well-being of all, in which we can enjoy rights in education, work, leisure, free access to culture and sport.
We are confident that, within our lifetimes, we will be the protagonists of a new revolutionary workers’ march towards a bright future. The future will belong to socialism!
In unison, we declare: Youth of Europe, rise up against imperialist war and capitalist exploitation, to achieve our future! We struggle united holding high the flag of October for the new society, for socialism!
Rome, 19 November 2024
The Organisations signing the statement:
- Communist Youth of Austria (KJÖ), Austria
- Young Communist League (YCL), Britain
- Young Socialists of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Croatia (MS), Croatia
- United Democratic Youth Organization (EDON), Cyprus
- Communist Youth of Denmark (DKU), Denmark
- Union of the Communist Youth (UJC), France
- Socialist German Workers’ Youth (SDAJ), Germany
- Communist Youth of Greece (KNE), Greece
- Connolly Youth Movement (CYM), Ireland
- Workers’ Party Youth (WPY), Ireland
- Front of the Communist Youth (FGC), Italy
- Communist Youth Movement (CJB), Netherlands
- Young Communists in Norway (UngKom), Norway
- Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolsheviks), RKSM(b), Russia
- Collectives of Young Communists (CJC), Spain
- Communist Youth of Sweden (SKU), Sweden
- Communist Youth of Turkey (TKG), Turkey