National Preparatory Committees (NPCs) have been established in at least two dozen countries to build delegations to the festival, reported Miriam Morales, general secretary of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and a leader of the Union of Young Communists (UJC) of Cuba. The previous two world youth festivals were held in Havana, Cuba, in 1997 and in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, in 2001. More than 12,000 youth attended the gathering in Havana and nearly 7,000 went to Algiers. The gatherings were marked by the political tone and character of groups and individuals engaged in popular struggles for national liberation, union-organizing and other battles by workers resisting austerity drives by the bosses, fights by peasants for land, and actions by students against cuts in education. The youth at these meetings came together to exchange experiences and improve their understanding of how to advance their struggles.

WFDY, the main initiator of these festivals that started half a century ago, is based in Budapest, Hungary. In the past, WFDY was dominated by youth groups affiliated to Communist Parties that looked to the Stalinist regime in Moscow for political direction and sustenance. The festivals were interrupted for eight years as the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. The international gatherings resumed on the initiative of communists in Cuba.

“For peace and solidarity; We struggle against imperialism and war!” is the political theme of this year’s festival. The event will be held in Caracas, Venezuela.

David Velásquez, president of the Venezuela NPC and the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Venezuela, reported that the host organizations proposed the dates of the festival be set for August 7-15, which was approved. This is slightly later than the dates approved last year, he said, so the closing of the gathering can coincide with the first anniversary of the defeat of the so-called recall referendum aimed at unseating the country’s elected government. A national demonstration to mark that anniversary is planned in Caracas that day.

The Aug. 15, 2004, vote had been spearheaded by Coordinadora Democrática, a pro-imperialist opposition coalition that has had the backing of weighty sections of Venezuela’s capitalist class and Washington. It was the third unsuccessful attempt in two years to topple the government headed by President Hugo Chávez. The previous two included a military coup in April 2002 and a bosses’ lockout at the end of that year. The Chávez administration has earned the ire of most local capitalists and their U.S. allies after adopting a land reform and other measures that, if implemented, would undermine the prerogatives of the local bourgeoisie.  
 
Facilities for up to 20,000 delegates
Velásquez also reported that youth organizations in Venezuela are collaborating with the country’s government to organize housing, transportation, and conference facilities to accommodate as many as 20,000 delegates during the festival. He added that the Venezuelan airline CONVIASA will arrange discounted fares in Latin America and the Caribbean.

To encourage attendance, the participation fee—which covers housing, food, and transportation for delegates—was set relatively low. It will be $200 each for delegates from the imperialist countries, $150 for those from Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and $100 for other semicolonial countries. An international solidarity fund was also launched to help organizations from the semicolonial world maximize participation.

About 2,500 delegates are projected to come from the host country. Elsewhere in Latin America efforts are underway to reach out to thousands of youth. Ana María Prestes of the Union of Socialist Youth of Brazil said such outreach activities were held during the recent World Social Forum and the Congress of Latin American Students, both held in Brazil earlier this year. Another forum for such collaboration will be the Third International Conference in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution, which will be held April 10-14 in Caracas.

Julio Martínez, first secretary of the UJC of Cuba, said the Cuban NPC is organizing to send 1,500 delegates to Venezuela for the festival and is exploring the possibility of organizing travel from Havana to Caracas by boat. About 1,000 of the Cuban delegates will come from Cuba. They will include about 200 students from countries in Africa and elsewhere in the colonial world studying on scholarships in Cuba. Another 500 delegates, Martínez said, will come from the more than 20,000 Cubans volunteering in Venezuela as doctors, literacy teachers, or agricultural specialists. The UJC leader also reported that Cubana Airlines would offer discounted airfares for delegates to the festival.

Leaders of the UJC have been traveling to other countries to help build delegations. Kenia Serrano, for example, president of the Cuban NPC and head of international relations for the UJC, reported that she traveled to Malaysia for that purpose prior to Hanoi and would have a similar stopover in Peru after departing from Vietnam.

Jessica Marshall of the Young Communist League and Arrin Hawkins of the Young Socialists, as well as other delegates from the United States, reported on activities across the country to build a large delegation for the Caracas event this summer. These included the second meeting of the U.S. NPC in Chicago on February 12, which was attended by about 100 students and other youth from some 40 organizations.

Delegates from Europe reported initial plans to send up to 150 people to the festival from each of their countries. Projections from more remote areas—from Cambodia to Bahrain—ranged to smaller delegations of a few dozen. Groups from more than 100 countries are expected to send delegations.

A deadline of April 21 was set to establish National Preparatory Committees in all countries where efforts are under way to build the youth festival.

Delegates in Hanoi also discussed the initial outline of the program for the festival, presented by the Venezuela NPC.

Velásquez said the plan includes organizing up to a third of the delegates to travel to a half a dozen provinces in Venezuela, where a number of seminars will be held. This will allow delegates to get a first-hand feel for the struggles of workers and farmers in the country for land, jobs, and literacy. Delegates who stay in Caracas will also have a chance to visit working-class districts and see the new popular clinics staffed by Cuban doctors and a growing number of Venezuelan counterparts. The trips to the countryside will also give a chance to thousands of Venezuelan youth who cannot go to the festival in Caracas to meet with their peers from around the world. The workshop on young peasants, for example, will be held in Cojedes state, where Venezuelan toilers have waged land occupations and other struggles for land.

Most conferences will be held at universities and other facilities in Caracas. Their topics include “peace, war and imperialism,” “education, science, and culture, communication and technology,” “employment, economy and development,” and “democracy and human rights.” Workshops will also be held on the struggle for women’s liberation and the fight against racist discrimination.

One of the main activities will be the anti-imperialist tribunal, which will be held August 13-14. It will be held at the Caracas Exposition Center, with capacity for 15,000 people. At that meeting, delegates will conduct a mock trial of Washington and other imperialist powers, presenting evidence by fighters for national liberation—from Puerto Rico to Ireland and Western Sahara.

The third international preparatory meeting, scheduled for April 22-25 in Lisbon, Portugal, will finalize the festival’s program and activities.
 
 
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