YCL greetings to youth conference in Cyprus

Comrade Ani Toncheva addressed the 20th national convention of EDON in Nicosia, Cyprus, in January 2022. EDON is the youth wing of AKEL, the Progressive Party of Working People, in Cyprus.  Watch a video of Ani’s remarks here.

Greetings to EDON and the progressive and revolutionary youth of Cyprus and to comrades from around the world. It is my pleasure to bring revolutionary greetings from the Young Communist League of the Communist Party USA to the working class youth of the world!

It is the working-class youth and students of today who will suffer from the disastrous effects of imperialist aggression, economic collapse, climate change, and war, and it is the youth of the working class who are  fighting like hell to change these conditions and build socialism.

With the resurgence of a broad socialist movement in the U.S., our party and our youth league are experiencing unprecedented growth, a resurgence in organizational know-how, political power, and ideological clarity.

Our Young Communists  take pride in helping  lead the fightback against the U.S. criminal justice system and its infamous racist police and prison brutality.  We take pride that our members are providing leadership to the militant upsurge of strikes and union drives, and especially our efforts to organize Amazon warehouses, which if successful will be the first Amazon organizing drive in the U.S. to win a union contract.  We take pride in leading the struggle against fascism which continues to menace our country.

At this congress I believe it is our task to reach out the hand of peace and friendship to our brothers and sisters around the world, to build peace movements, and anti-imperialist solidarity in opposition to war.

We must strengthen our resolve to oppose all forms of ethnic, religious, racial, and national chauvinism.  We must bring together all sectors of the working class, men and women, differently gendered, immigrants, ethnic minorities, to fight the imperialist racism that menaces us all.  We must not give an inch to the false promises of bourgeois nationalism whether it comes from Trump or any other source.

We must learn from each other as we seek to urgently rebuild our cadres and organizations to the fullest extent possible, so we can provide that leadership and unity which only the Communist movement is capable of.

Let me conclude by reading a lyric by a great American communist and folk singer Pete Seeger which sums up our vision:

Tomorrow is a highway broad and fair, and hate and greed shall never enter there,
but only those who’ve learned the people’s way of brotherhood. We hail that coming day!

Youth is the future of humanity and the world, and that future has a name: socialism.

Thank you.