The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.32           September 20, 1999 
 
 
Youth Conference: `We Must Fight To Change World Capitalism Offers'  

BY MANUEL GONZÁLEZ AND CAROL VILLANUEVA
HAVANA - "The century is closing, and humanity views the future with greater uncertainty and concern than ever," read the call for the August 15-19 International Seminar of Youth and Students on Neoliberalism, which drew more than 500 students and young workers from 62 countries.

"The crisis of the financial markets, growth of corruption, unemployment, poverty, child prostitution, and juvenile crime, among other evils... are the great challenges humanity confronts. Changing those prospects, requires, above all, the active participation of youth - those to whom the 21st century belongs."

The gathering was sponsored and organized by several Cuban youth organizations, including the Union of Young Communists (UJC), the Federation of University Students, the federation of High School Students, and the Center of Studies on Youth. The Continental Organization of Latin American and Caribbean Students (OCLAE), and the regional coordinating committee for Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Federation of Democratic Youth also sponsored the event.

Much of the political discussion during the conference took place in workshops on the themes of youth participation, employment, environment and development, culture and identity, social exclusion, and student movements.

Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, addressed the Youth and Participation workshop. Alarcón described neoliberalism as one variant of the "policy of capitalism, which is imposed on the world beneath that deceitful name." He pointed to the lack of access to education and employment, and other effects of these policies on youth, as examples of what capitalism has to offer humanity today.

The Cuban leader condemned the rapacious imperialist attacks on working people the world over - from the U.S.-NATO assault on the working people of Yugoslavia, to the U.S. bombings of Iraq and Sudan, to Washington's economic war against Cuba, and the denial by the imperialist powers of nations' rights to self-determination.

Alarcón concluded his presentation by stressing the necessity for youth and students to become involved in the struggles of the working class, stating, "We have to reclaim our role in social change, reclaim our duty to act together with others fighting for social change - primarily the working class."

Delegations from the Americas, Africa
Seminar participants came from almost every country of Latin America and the Caribbean. Those from Africa included representatives from the African National Congress Youth League of South Africa, the South West African Peoples' Organization (SWAPO) from Namibia, and others from Burkina Faso and the Congo.

The largest delegation came from Mexico, numbering almost 100 participants. The majority of them were affiliated with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), one of the main bourgeois liberal parties in Mexico. Some of the delegates were students active in the student strike at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), protesting the government's attempt to impose tuition fees and cut access to public education.

There were also large delegations from Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican delegation included members of a number of political organizations, including the Federation of Pro- Independence University Students (FUPI), Socialist Front, and the New Independence Movement.

Twenty-three participants came from the United States. Many of them learned about the conference through the tour of two Cuban youth leaders, Luis Ernesto Morejón and Itamys García, who spoke at university campuses in several U.S. cities earlier this year. The delegation from the United States included students and workers involved in a range of activity, including a Puerto Rican independentista from San Francisco and a number of activists in fights against police brutality and for immigrants' rights.

Other delegations came from China, Vietnam, Italy, Russia, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Basque Country. The Young Socialists sent a delegation of two from the U.S. There were also representatives from the Young Socialists in Canada and Sweden.

Education is a right
The right to education, and how to achieve that right, was discussed in practically all the workshops. One of the student strikers from Mexico commented that education is becoming more privatized and accessible only to those who can afford it. That's what their fight is about.

A youth from Guinea who is the president of the foreign exchange students organization at his university spoke about Cuba's exemplary education system, saying it was a model for fighting youth to emulate. Education in Cuba is free and accessible to all Cubans-one of the conquests of the 1959 revolution when workers and farmers took power in this country.

Conference participants had the opportunity to see for themselves an aspect of the Cuban education system, and an example of the international solidarity that has been at the heart of the Cuban revolution for 40 years. On the last day of the seminar, participants visited the Latin American School of Medicine, where 1,658 students from 15 countries throughout Latin America are currently enrolled, all with full scholarships. Like all Cuban students, these international youth pay no tuition and receive books, educational materials, housing, food, and health care free of charge.

Carlos Flores, a representative of the students, expressed their gratitude to the Cuban revolution on behalf of all the students at the Latin American School of Medicine. He urged participants in the conference to get out the facts about Cuba when they return home, to break through the distorted image that is perpetuated by Washington and other opponents of the revolution.

Another thread of discussion was on culture and development, which was the theme of a presentation by Cuban minister of culture Abel Prieto at the closing ceremony of the conference. Prieto's speech addressed the negative effects of the capitalist media in the United States on the various cultures through out Latin America. He pointed out that the means of mass communication are essential in forming consciousness, and contrasted the situation in Cuba, where the means of communication are in the hands of a socialist government that defends the interests of workers, farmers, and youth. This fact, Prieto said, greatly contributes to the political and cultural education of all society.

Prieto welcomed questions and comments following his talk. One of the advocates of Puerto Rican independence from the island asked how national identity can be preserved without falling into nationalism. How can revolutionaries keep an internationalist perspective?

Prieto answered by saying that Cubans have learned more about their identity and cultural history. The rich culture and traditions of Cuban society have been strengthened through international missions and internationalist perspective, Prieto added. These missions range from the 300,000 volunteer soldiers who fought against the South African invasion of Angola and the forces backed by imperialism in the 1970s and 80s, to the hundreds of Cuban doctors volunteering in post- apartheid South Africa and in Central America today.

Involvement in working-class struggles
The workshop on Youth and Employment addressed the challenges faced by the working class, in particular young workers. The discussion focused on the concentration of capital in the hands of a few, the slashing of jobs and working conditions that is one of the goals of the sell-off of state-owned companies to private owners and imperialist investors, lack of employment opportunities, and cutbacks in social programs. Many participants gave concrete examples of the fights that have broken out in their countries as companies push to increase work loads, speed up production lines, and cut wages.

A number of students who have recently been a part of student and working-class struggles spoke at the Student Movement workshop. Student strikers from Mexico spoke not only about their fight but about joint picket lines they have organized with electrical workers from Mexico City, who are resisting government attempts to privatize the electrical company. A number of students from around the word cited examples of similar struggles to push back the rulers' attempts to privatize public education and transfer the costs of education onto the backs of individual students and their families.

Delegates also discussed the role of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in deepening the imperialist plunder of the nations of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. A very popular demand that was raised in each workshop was to cancel the Third World debt.

Some of the independentistas from Puerto Rico spoke about the telephone workers' strike last year and the general strike that swept the island in support of their fight against the sale of the phone company to the U.S. communications giant GTE.

At the workshop on the environment Zulma Oliveras, a supporter of Puerto Rican independence from San Francisco, spoke about the environmental devastation caused by the U.S. Navy occupation of the island of Vieques. Washington uses the Puerto Rican island for live ammunition and bombing practice, as well as the testing of napalm, she explained. The demand for the U.S. Navy to leave Vieques was one of the main themes of a 50,000-strong demonstration in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, August 29.

Some delegates spoke of the protest campaigns that have been waged worldwide against Washington's bombing of Yugoslavia earlier this year, and against the continued attacks against Iraq. One of the delegates from Iraq made an appeal to the conference participants to continue protesting the U.S. rulers' campaign to further violate the sovereignty of Iraq and the economic sanctions imposed on his country.

Addressing the closing session, Cuban president Fidel Castro returned to the need to put an end to the capitalist market system and the devastation it breeds. He pointed to the growing instability of world capitalism, a system that "turns the world into a casino with ever new problems, each time more uncontrollable. It's like a game of roulette, but Russian roulette.... The system has its laws, and no one controls them. Even less so in a globalized world where everything that happens, for example in Southeast Asia, immediately effects every part of the globe."

Castro called for the "globalization of solidarity," to fight for a more just world capable of harnessing the advances in science and technology to serve the needs of humanity.

The conference closed with an announcement by OCLEA calling an international youth conference April 1-4, 2000, which will be hosted by the UJC of Cuba. Conference delegates pledged to work throughout the rest of the year to build the conference in their respective countries and to join again in Cuba in the year 2000.

 
 
 
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