Vol. 74/No. 38      October 11, 2010

Sponsored internationally by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, the local organization hosting this year’s festival is the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL).

Organizations from more than 40 countries met in Cyprus September 11-14 to build and organize the event.

The main political themes of the upcoming festival will be opposition to the expansion of U.S. military forces in Africa through the African Command; support to the struggle of the Sahrawi people to end the occupation of Western Sahara by the Moroccan regime; the international campaign to win freedom for the Cuban Five; and activities dedicated to educating participants on the history of the battle to end white-minority rule in South Africa and Cuba’s role in aiding liberation struggles in Southern Africa.

Weighty participation will come from the countries of Southern Africa. Organizations in Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe have pledged to send large delegations.

In previous decades, the majority of festivals took place in the former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe. The last four festivals, however, took place in Venezuela (2005), Algeria (2001), Cuba (1997), and North Korea (1989). Hamdi Salek, a leader of the Ujsario, the youth wing of the Polisario Front from Western Sahara, addressed delegates at the meeting in Cyprus.

“We hope to bring a large delegation of Sahrawis, both those living in the refugee camps and in the occupied zone,” Salek said.

The Polisario Front led the struggle to liberate Western Sahara from Spanish colonial rule in 1975 and then fought a 15-year war against the Moroccan regime, which invaded and sought to carve up Western Sahara with the backing of Madrid. Morocco still occupies two-thirds of the northwest African nation. Many Sahrawis fled and today remain in refugee camps in Algeria.

Leira Sánchez of the Union of Young Communists of Cuba urged delegates to step up the international campaign to win freedom for the Cuban Five.

While the Cyprus meeting was taking place, these five Cuban revolutionaries marked their 12th year behind bars in U.S. federal prisons. The Cuban Five—Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González—were arrested by the U.S. government in 1998 while living in the United States monitoring the activities of counterrevolutionary groups in Miami that have a long history of armed assaults and sabotage against Cuba.

Their trial and sentencing were textbook examples of how U.S. courts are often used to conduct political frame-ups against working-class militants and others who oppose policies of the U.S. government. The five are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to double life in five separate federal prisons.

Sánchez said the festival will serve to spread the international campaign to win their freedom. She also invited delegates to come to Havana in April 2011 for the Third International Youth Congress in Solidarity with the Five Heroes.  
 
Africom and imperialism in Africa
One of the central themes of the festival will be the debate unfolding in Africa around the increasing efforts by Washington to build a larger U.S. military presence on the continent. In 2007 Washington established a military command to oversee the Pentagon’s operations on the African continent. The command, known as Africom, is currently headquartered in Germany, after difficulty finding an African nation willing to let Washington establish a headquarters on African soil.

While the proposed focus is on the growing U.S. military footprint in Africa, the continuing role of the former European colonial powers in Africa was also underscored at the Cyprus meeting.

The failed 2004 coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea, instigated by British mercenaries, among whom the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was instrumental, was singled out by delegates as an example.

The nine-day event will begin with an opening ceremony in a stadium in Soweto, the township outside Johannesburg that became an organizing center for the battle to topple the apartheid regime. Each of the following five days will be dedicated to one of five regions of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Day seven is organized under the theme of the struggle against racism, xenophobia, and discrimination.

Throughout the festival workshops and other events will highlight key questions facing those fighting against imperialism today—among them the struggle against the spreading wars in Central Asia and the Middle East, battles for national liberation, struggles for land, student movements, the struggle against unemployment, and the impact of the world economic crisis on workers and youth.

Mbali Hlophe, of the South African Students Congress, gave a report to the Cyprus meeting on the plans for the eighth day of the festival, which is dedicated to South Africa.

Two conferences will be held in the morning for all festival participants, Hlophe said. One will be a conference sponsored by the ANCYL on the debate in South Africa over efforts to nationalize the mining industry.

The second conference will focus on the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, an historic turning point in the struggle against apartheid and for the independence of Angola and Namibia. In March 1988 tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers and Angolan freedom fighters imposed a crushing defeat on the military forces of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The battle was the culmination of 15 years of fighting against repeated efforts by the South African forces to extend Pretoria’s domination throughout Southern Africa.

Following the two conferences, delegates will visit sites where important milestones in the struggle against apartheid were marked.

In the United States a National Preparatory Committee for the youth festival will be established in the coming weeks and will begin accepting applications for those interested in participating. Anyone interested in taking part can contact youngsocialists@mac.com for more information.  
 
 
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