The program offers nine days of discussion and debate on wide ranging political topics, including the struggles for self-determination in Palestine, Western Sahara, and Puerto Rico; the U.S. military buildup in Latin America; and U.S. imperialism’s drive to expand NATO eastward.

The preparations for the gathering take place amidst sustained street actions by hundreds of thousands of working people and youth in Algeria protesting the brutal actions by national police forces, who have killed dozens of antigovernment demonstrators. Led by Berbers, an oppressed nationality in Algeria and other North African countries, the demonstrations have also championed the demand that the Berber people have the right to be taught in their native language in school.

Harchand Singh, general secretary of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), the sponsor of the event, reported that numerous individuals and groups that are not affiliated to WFDY, and that the international organization has not had contact with in the past, have expressed interest in participating in this year’s world youth festival. This poses a welcome challenge for WFDY to broaden participation beyond that of most previous festivals, Singh indicated.

Leaders of youth organizations in Algeria reported at the preparatory meeting here that some 1,100 people from this country are expected to attend the festival. Leonidas Mushokolura from the Pan-African Youth Movement reported that 200 youth are expected to come from South Africa, 150 each from Eritrea and Tanzania, and substantial contingents from Western Sahara and other countries in Africa.

More than 100 are coming from Lebanon and hundreds are taking chartered flights from Cuba, north Korea, and Venezuela, organizers reported.  
 
Building Algiers festival in U.S.
Jacob Perasso, from the Young Socialists in the United States, spoke at the meeting about the growing opportunities in that country to bring young workers and students to the festival. He pointed to protests in several U.S. cities, led by immigrant workers, to demand the right to a driver’s license without having to present a Social Security card, which constitutes a fight against the government’s broader attempts to impose a national identification card on all U.S. residents.

Perasso noted that some of the militant youth involved in these as well as other social protest actions, such as the protests in Cincinnati, Miami, and elsewhere against police brutality, are looking for broader solutions. Some of them will be participating in the July 22-30 Cuba-U.S. Youth Exchange to meet with Cuban youth and learn more about the socialist revolution there and recent initiatives by working people and their leadership to strengthen the revolution. Many of these youth will also want to go to Algiers to meet and share experiences with other revolutionary-minded youth, Perasso said.

During the international planning meeting, the National Union of Algerian Youth, one of the groups hosting the Algiers gathering, organized trips to the university campuses where festival participants will be housed and to the stadium where some of the main events will be held.

They also reported on efforts to arrange discounted tickets for airfare and marine travel to Algiers from several meeting points around the world, in order to lower the cost of the trip and encourage greater participation.

Delegates from Western Sahara invited those attending the meeting to the fifth national congress of UJSARIO, the youth organization of the Polisario Front, which has been leading the decades-long independence struggle of the Saharaui people, first against imperialist Spain and now against the Moroccan regime’s occupation. The June 9 congress will take place in one of the main refugee camps in Western Sahara.

A National Preparatory Committee (NPC) has been established in the United States. It is endorsed by Just Act, U.S. Students Association, United Students Against Sweatshops, Young Communist League, Young Socialists, and Youth Action. The NPC’s next meeting is scheduled for June 9.

The expenses for the Algiers festival include $250 for housing, food, and transportation in Algeria, a $200 administrative fee that will help to provide some scholarship funds, and the cost of the round-trip flight to Algiers. Those interested in participating can contact the U.S. NPC by calling (212) 741-2033, or at its web page: www.usnpc.org. They can also contact the Young Socialists National Office by calling (212) 695-1809; or by e-mail at youngsocialists@attglobal.net
 

Other Pathfinder titles purchased included Cuba and the Coming American Revolution, Capitalism’s World Disorder in both English and French, and The Working Class and the Transformation of Learning in Spanish, French, and English, as well as a range of issues of the Marxist magazine New International and its sister French-language publication Nouvelle Internationale.

--J.W.
 
 
Related article:
Build Havana, Algiers events  
 
 
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