BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS AND ROMAN KANE
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - "Our struggle is global. Because racism and exploitation exist throughout the world. And youth have a particular place in the struggle for a just world order alongside the working class. That has been the case with the ANC Youth League, which was at the center of the battle against apartheid since its founding in 1944."
With these words, Walter Sisulu welcomed participants at the meeting of the General Council of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), which took place here October 1-4. Sisulu, a long-time leader of the African National Congress, made a particular point of thanking Ibis Alvisa González, representative of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) of Cuba, for attending the meeting. "The bonds between the people of Cuba and South Africa have been forged in blood and are unbreakable," the ANC leader said.
The meeting, which was hosted by the ANC Youth League, agreed to a proposal by the UJC that Cuban youth organizations issue a call for a world festival of students and youth to take place in Cuba, most likely in the summer of 1997. The idea was first raised by Cuban president Fidel Castro and leaders of the UJC during the Cuba Lives International Youth Festival that took place in Havana and other Cuban provinces August 1-7.
"We aim to organize 10,000 young people to come to Cuba," Alvisa González said. "Such a festival can unite all the progressive and anti-imperialist youth forces around the world." The event will be open to all international, national, and local youth organizations interested to participate.
WFDY has organized 13 world youth festivals since it was founded in 1945. The last one was in Pyongyang, Korea, in 1989. Participants at the General Council meeting agreed that WFDY views the 1997 world gathering as a continuation of previous festivals.
Thirty-five people attended the meeting here, representing 26 youth organizations from 25 countries. In addition to the UJC of Cuba and the ANC Youth League, these included the Movement of Communist Youth of France (MJCF), Young Communists of Portugal, Communist Youth of Greece, General Union of Palestinian Students, All India Youth Federation, Socialist Youth League of Japan, Socialist Working Youth League of Korea, Sudanese Youth Union, Polisario Youth of Western Sahara, South West African People's Organization Youth League of Namibia, October 8 Revolutionary Youth of Brazil, and Young Socialists of the United States.
The meeting decided to launch a worldwide campaign in solidarity with Cuba, which will include efforts by member organizations to collect and send school supplies to Cuba, and a WFDY work brigade to the Caribbean island next year with representatives of as many member organizations as possible.
The program of activities adopted by the federation council includes organizing mobilizations against unemployment, and actions condemning the NATO bombing in Bosnia and demanding a halt to the nuclear testing by French imperialism in the Pacific.
The meeting approved a proposal by the representatives of the MJCF of France to urge affiliates to campaign for the freedom for Mumia Abu Jamal and Mark Curtis, both of whom have been framed up by the police in the United States.
The General Council also voted to ask member groups to organize meetings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of WFDY in as many countries as possible.