Young men and women,

We, 21 Communist Youth Organizations that participated in the 14th Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations in Athens, on the 23rd and 24th September of 2018, address you in an appeal to struggle for contemporary needs in education, work and life.

During the Meeting we, the Communist Youth Organisations, highlighted the enormous problems that the youth face and we informed each other on the more significant developments in each of our countries. We discussed the struggles of the youth, the essential conclusions we have drawn and we exchanged opinions on these. We acknowledge that the Communist Youth Organisations in Europe have in recent years made notable efforts to defend the rights of the youth and have waged important struggles against the capitalist system in today’s conditions. At the same time we have contributed to reinforcing and strengthening the Communist and Workers’ Parties in our countries, whilst we accumulate rich experience that can help us so that our future struggles will be more effective.

The 14^th MECYO was convened by the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) in the context of the 50^th anniversary of their foundation along with the 100^th anniversary of the foundation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). We appreciate KNE for hosting the Meeting which, since 2001, has been held in Madrid, Lisbon, Athens, Istanbul, Prague, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt and Rome. This year’s Meeting saw the largest participation of Communist Youth Organisations so far, with more organisations taking part than ever before.

Capitalism, NATO-EU and the bourgeois governments destroy our lives and our future!

Nowadays, the youth of the working class and the popular strata face the brutal consequences of anti-people policies imposed all over Europe. This has resulted in a current and future of deterioration of living conditions and of rights. We will live under worse conditions than those that our parents faced. All around us we can see huge production of commodities and wealth, technological advances and developments in science and research. At the same time we observe that all of this is not destined for the satisfaction of our needs, but on the contrary it is destined to increase of the wealth of the monopolies. The gap between the few rich and the many poor is rapidly growing.

- We experience capitalist exploitation, part-time employment, so-called “flexicurity”, low wages, high unemployment, unpaid labour - usually in the form of internships, whilst young people emigrate from our countries seeking a better future.

- We are being ideologically formatted and we study, work and live, within a framework of reactionary restructuring in education, healthcare and social-security. At the same time, access to education and social healthcare is becoming the privilege of the few.

- The obstacles that we face in satisfying our basic needs have increased. Basic needs such as free access to sports, culture and recreation, affordable housing, access to an unpolluted and high quality environment and the right to vacation.

- There is an intensification of the propaganda of the capitalist system that is promoted through the education systems, cultural activities, the mass media, the internet and social media.  We also endure campaigns financed by capitalist financial interests, who want to indoctrinate us with the decayed principles and ideals of the capitalist system; so that we believe exploitation is natural; so that we stop fighting for our rights, our interests and dreams. So that we remove ourselves from the struggle against the power of monopolies; so that we learn only the “history” that the bourgeois class and its state want to teach us, while at the same time they conceal or distort the history written with the blood of workers, peoples and youth.

The above facts are merely some of the consequences that the anti-people policies implemented all over Europe have brought to our lives, both in the context of the economic crisis of capitalism as well as nowadays in conditions of unstable, slow and anemic recovery and growth. These are the consequences of the cohesive anti-people policies that have the mark of capitalism, imperialist associations, such as NATO and the EU, bourgeois political parties and their youth organizations. These policies have the support of both the typical liberal and social-democratic parties that play a leading role in bourgeois governments, as well as the so-called Eurosceptic forces (some of which are openly far-right) they are also offered support from the supposedly “left-wing” forces of the so-called Party of the European Left, which still attempt to convince the youth and the peoples using the false ideas of the “humanisation of capitalism". In general the internal economic developments and the needs of each sector of the capital, but also and the competition between the bourgeois classes, is having an important influence in the political system because the ruling class is trying to organise the state according to new conditions each time.

Nowadays, there are a series of developments which prove that we are facing greater threats than ever before in our lifetimes.

- A fierce competition is waged, using both economic and military means, fighting for the control of wealth-producing resources and the transport routes of energy and commodities. Most of the older powerful capitalist states, including the USA, which remains the leading power, continue to lose ground in the global capitalist market, mainly to China. The competing plans of and attempts by capitalist states and monopolies trying to enhance their own “geostrategic position” for their own bourgeois class are crossed. It is exactly this competition  which has caused the intensification of imperialist intervention, and local and regional war outbreaks and clashes, as we see in the case of the Middle East. This creates new dangers for a generalised imperialist war, while proving that war is the continuation of politics by other, military, means.

- NATO, is the association which has for almost 7 decades, constituted the armed hand of Euro-Atlantic imperialism, shaped by the leading role of the USA. NATO, which has already dragged dozens of peoples in blood resulting in millions of victims (deceased, injured, emmigrated), is orchestrating new imperialist interventions and wars, as described in the resolutions of the recent NATO Summit.The expenditure for NATO has significantly increased and the efforts of NATO expansion in the Western Balkans and other regions of the planet has intensified. NATO is also promoting plans, along with the EU, aiming to even change borders in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. NATO and the EU are deploying military missions all over the world and are involved in wars and interventions that they themselves have caused which have resulted in the bloodshed of many peoples.

- The EU, as an advanced form of capitalist inter-state integration, is leading in imposing anti-people measures, reinforcing the Euro-Army and the Common Security and Defense Policy. It implements measures of surveillance and restriction of people's freedom and it utilizes the “state of emergency” voted for by bourgeois parties in parliaments, whilst targeting people’s movement in countries of the EU. The imperialist EU raises walls and power fences to prohibit refugees from entering it. The EU supports criminal Nazi organizations that serve the interests of the bourgeois class and at the same time persecutes and criminalises Communist Parties and symbols, as well as young communists and other militants. As an alliance of capitalists, the EU fights against worker’s rights, and “harmonises” wage rates and health & safety conditions to the lowest common denominator. Furthermore, the European bourgeoisie uses the EU to sow exploitation, nationalism and racism to turn the peoples of Europe against each other, dividing us and obscuring our common enemy. We salute the large part of the youth in Britain and other countries, that support the struggle for leaving the EU and fight against the whole line of bourgeois political forces. We stand against the imperialist powers in Brussels and Westminster using the Irish border as a bargaining chip and support the re-unification of Ireland by the people of Ireland and at their own self-direction.

We strengthen the Communist Youth Organizations in Europe and our common struggle

Young men and women of Europe,

We encourage you to mobilise within your schools, universities, workplaces and neighbourhoods. Where the youth struggles for a life with rights, the Communist Youth Organizations will be present. We commit to offering our positions concerning the needs of the struggle, in order to sharpen its means and aims. We also encourage you to join our ranks for the struggle for the rights of the youth and socialism.

During the previous period, all our Organisationswere at the forefront in hundreds of strikes, mobilisationsand rallies that promoted demands of the youth and the workers’, especially in sectors where the youth are concentrated. Westrived for organising and politicising these mobilisations with a class perspective. We waged several struggles demanding the right to dignified work and proper rights. We contributed to the development of school-student struggles, fighting for the school that school-students deserve today and fighting against the cuts to insufficient state budgets for education and against the commercialisation of education by the monopolies. We were in the forefront of the demands of the students in universities and Technological Education Institutions, so that they could be educated, and complete their studies without restrictions. We fought and continue to fight for free and public higher education, for the abolition of tuition fees - in any country that they may exist -, and for accommodation and board that is free of charge for students. We assumed initiatives for peace and against the imperialist war, we appealed to the youth of our countries for a struggle against NATO and the EU, fighting to exit from these associations and for the associations themselves to be brought down as well as the system that they protect. We fight to close down the military bases of the US, NATO  and the EU that exist in many countries, including our own countries, and against nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction.

The militant action of our Organizations in each of our countries was the touchstone of the further development of convergent and common action of the Communist Youth Organizations at a European level. Our Organizations have promoted actions dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Antifascist Victory of the Peoples in 2015, to the refugee and immigrants issue in 2016, and to the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, in 2017, as well as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people in 2018. These were promoted through web pages and our newspapers. Some of us organised International Ideological Seminars, received and sent delegations, signed common announcements and declarations of solidarity. Through a better and deeper cooperation we will reinforce the CYOs in the countries of Europe, as the precondition for new advances in all the continents.

The slogan “Proletarians of all countries unite” guides the action of each of our Organizations and we have great battles ahead of us:

- With the events of CYOs all over Europe, we will defend even more decisively the necessity and timeliness of socialism, of the principles of socialist revolution and the scientific laws of socialist construction.

- With the ideological and political work and the continuation of the discussion, we will defend even more decisively the contribution, the history and the values of the international communist movement, against anti-communism and the slandering of socialism. from the attacks and the distortions of bourgeois and opportunist forces, we will defend its contribution to the struggles of the peoples. In the 200 years since the birth of Karl Marx, we continue the effort of study and dissemination of his brilliant works among the youth.

- With mobilizations all over Europe, we reinforce the coordinating struggle of the CYOs and the youth against the imperialist competition and wars. We welcome the sharpening of the confrontation with the bourgeois classes and governments in each country and the intensification of the struggle against NATO and the EU, against their military bases and against the fostering of nationalism and fascist ideas and organizations. CYOs stand at the forefront of the struggle of World Federation of Democratic Youth against imperialism and for the peace of the peoples.

- We will continue to express firm solidarity with the just struggle of the peoples. We will support even more decisively all the peoples that struggle and are the target of the imperialists, such as the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Ukraine, Cyprus, Iraq, Libya, Western Sahara, Yemen and of course Palestine - especially after the US administration’s provocative action to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

- To reinforce the struggle against  unemployment, precariousness work, for real wage rises, for the reduction of the working week and for the establishment of contemporary rights for young workers. To give the struggle for a public and free education through to university level. To fight for the guarantee of a better life for the youth, where rights like housing, health, culture and sports are granted.

- Before the European Parliamentary Elections of May 2019, an important political struggle for the Organizations among us that struggle within the confines of the EU. We appeal to the young men and women of the working class, the poor popular strata, to support the Communist and Workers’ Parties that struggle against the EU, in order to weaken the forces that support the EU and its policy, in order to strengthen the struggle for their contemporary rights.

Socialism is the only hopeful prospect for the youth

Young men and women of Europe rise up! Nothing is over yet!

Exploitation, unemployment, poverty, oppression, wars and forced emigration cannot and will not be our future! We have our whole lives ahead of us. The future lies within our hands. We can conquer it with our struggle! We can build a world of real freedom, based on the principles of social justice and  peace. A world where all of us will enjoy the results of our work and where we will have contemporary rights in education, work, culture and sports.This world is not historically outdated capitalism. It is Socialism, a new world.

We are taught by our history! Taking lessons from the great revolutions and uprisings, the great mobilisations and clashes of the working class against the capitalists, with advances and setbacks, we know that the history of all hitherto society, since its division into classes, is the history off class struggle. History does not have an end in this aggressive, criminal and inhumane system. The great revolutions and uprisings, the great mobilisations and clashes of the working class against the capitalists show the way for the bright future of the world. The youth can play a significant role in social and political struggles, to the extent that it supports the struggle of the working class and recognises its role as the vanguard and ascending social force, as a class that struggles for the conquest of the political power.

Because the future belongs to Socialism

We will be victorious!

The European Communist Youth Organisations that sign the announcement:

1. Communist Youth of Austria, KJOe
2. Young Communist League Britain, YCL Britain
3. Young Socialists of the Socialist Workers Party of Croatia
4. Communist Youth Union, KSM – Czech Republic
5. Communist Youth of Denmark
6. Youth of the Communist Workers’ Party of Finland
7. Socialist German Workers Youth, SDAJ
8. Communist Youth of Greece, KNE
9. Connolly Youth Movement,CYM
10. 10. Front of Communist Youth, FGC – Italy
11. 11. Youth of Socialist Workers Party of Latvia
12. 12. Movement of Young Communists, CJB – Netherlands
13. 13. Youth of Communist Party of Poland
14. 14. Union of Socialist Youth, UTS – Romania
15. 15. Leninist Communist Youth Union of Russian Federation, LKSM RF
16. 16. Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolsheviks), RKSM(b) – Russia
17. 17. Young Communist League of Yugoslavia, SKOJ – Serbia
18. 18. Collectives of Young Communists, CJC – Spain
19. 19. Communist Youth Union of Spain, UJCE
20. 20. Communist Youth of Sweden, SKU
21. 21. Communist Youth of Turkey, TKG