Statement of the YCL-LJC Central Executive Committee

The Young Communist League of Canada sends warm greetings and solidarity to the labour movement and to all young working people. Labour Day presents the opportunity to celebrate the working class movement and its struggles, but also to look at the situation that we find ourselves in today and the way forward.

The rights and interests of all working people are severely threatened by the new Harper Conservative majority in Parliament. At present, the difficult situation presented to working people, young trade unionists and their unions by the continued economic crisis internationally is compounded many times by an outright attack perpetrated by big business and its governments. Since the election of the Tory majority, we have seen open and blatant intervention on behalf of the bosses becoming the norm as in the Air Canada and Canada Post disputes. There is a concerted ongoing effort to force down wages and benefits, mandate multi-tier contracts, and weaken the power of organized labour. Harper's eagerness to use legislation to violate the rights of workers to collectively bargain and to strike is merely an eagerness to serve the corporate powers he represents, and is linked with the broader assault on Aboriginal peoples, women, youth, students, immigrants, farmers, and the environment. These anti-democratic, anti-people tendencies are shared by many provincial governments around the country as well.

For young workers, the danger to our future is very real. What is taking place is the reversal of the gains made through decades of struggle – public services, social security, basic rights, a good union job – even living wages. But young workers and trade unionists can be, and have increasingly been, an important part of the resistance to these attacks. Through young workers committees, labour councils, and Action Caucuses, youth have been in the forefront of struggles for higher minimum wages, organizing the unorganized, winning better employment standards, and improving workplace safety. They can be found on picket lines, protests, and in community rallies. Young workers have energy and militancy; they are ready to fight and to build a better future.

What that future will look is a pressing topic of debate. But it is becoming increasingly clear to just about everyone is that the slogan "fight back" is not enough. As has been pointed out by many progressive voices, people are engaged in perhaps the fiercest and urgent battle we have faced in generations.  We cannot wait for the next federal election to reach out as the youth, to organize, to help unite the threads of resistance and to fight to win real social progress based on the people’s needs not corporate greed. Trade unions can and must be at the core of a much bigger, broader and visible and united resistance.

This is the only way forward. As the defeat of the HST in BC shows, we can block the ultra-right agenda. But this means defining not only what we are against, but also what we are for. The YCL proposes the unity of youth and student organizations around a basic programme of key demands on which we can all agree. We call this proposal the Charter of Youth Rights.

Youth have been at the forefront of the revolts which have spread across the Arab world like wildfire in recent months. We can learn from that experience, we can fight and we can win here, too.  Ultimately, socialism is the only system which can rid humanity of unemployment, racism, war, environmental destruction and exploitation. This Labour Day let’s unite and fight for jobs, workers rights, public services, and a better future!