RESOLUTION OF THE 25TH YCL-LJC CENTRAL CONVENTION ON THE G20
Sept 26th 2010
Whereas, on June 26-27, 2010, demonstrators, journalists and passers-by were victims of a police riot, including physical assault, illegal searches, harassment, sexual harassment and assault and 1,090 detentions in subhuman conditions where civil liberties were systematically denied to detainees; and
Whereas, youth and students were the vast majority of the victims of the police riot, with special police targeting of Quebecois youth;
Whereas, the G20 meeting resulted in the leading capitalist criminals of the world signing on to halve deficits by 2013, which will have the effect of placing an unmanageable burden on the youth and working-class of the world, who are being forced to pay for an economic crisis that they did not create; and
Whereas, the Integrated Security Unit was commanded by the RCMP and must have received direction from the Prime Minister’s Office, which sought to gain from intimidating a growing opposition to the it’s ultra-right agenda and their corporate backers; and
Whereas, the Ontario McGuinty government also had a role to play by invoking and deliberately misrepresenting the powers of the “Public Works Protection Act” which lead to mass infringements of civil liberties and democratic rights; and
Whereas, many victims of the repression still face charges, debilitating bail conditions with bail of over $100 000 in some cases, and Alex Hundert was rearrested last week for breach of his bail conditions disallowing him from taking part in public demonstrations by simply speaking on a panel at a public meeting; therefore
Be it resolved, the 25th Central Convention of the YCL-LJC join the call for full public inquiries at the provincial and federal levels with full powers of subpoena;
Be it therefore resolved, the 25th Central Convention of the YCL-LJC demand that all charges are immediately dropped against those still facing charges;
Be it therefore resolved, the 25th Central Convention of the YCL-LJC direct the incoming leadership of the league to continue to issue statements on this subject when new events develop;
Be it therefore resolved, delegates return to their clubs and encourage clubs to take local action working with and trying to unite other political groups campaigning as a part of the “inquiry movement”.
WFDY CONDEMNS G20!
The World Federation of Democratic Youth joins the international and cross-Canada condemnation of the recent G8-G20 meetings, and the sinister agenda of these imperialist, billion-dollar extravaganzas.
The WFDY calls upon the Canadian government and appropriate local authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arrested, drop all charges, and for a full, independent public inquiry into the events.The G-summits, which have placed the city of Toronto under siege with billion-dollar security, will deliver further austerity measures against the workers, the youth and the people in the name of ‘balanced budgets.’ However, was not the youth or the workers who created the economic crisis but rather the imperialists themselves. We ask the governments and world leaders — what should the billions of youth and students, women, aboriginal people and workers’ families should do, when they will not be able to pay the bills, fees, taxes, when they will not be able buy the necessary food for their families. What will the government do, will it send them all to prison?
Unrepresented in the corporate media, the majority of the demonstrations were peaceful. The week was characterized by lively, creative and democratic resistance, culminating in a mass rally of 25 to 30 thousand. However, we condemn the ‘police riot’ and repression tactics used at the protests such as use of police agents, political police or intelligence forces, deliberate provocation, tear gas and rubber bullets, and the historic violent arrest and detention under bad conditions of over 1,000 of demonstrators — including youth activists, random bystanders, and Québécois.
This police repression was not random but no doubt orchestrated in advance by all levels of the Canadian state. The goal was clearly to intimidate dissent and divert public attention from the real issues of the G-summits. However, youth should take heart for the economic crisis which also shows imperialism’s weakness. As long as the problems of imperialism remain unsolved — war, unemployment, genocide, misery, environmental injustice and climate change, oppression of women, racism, hunger, and other scourges — there will be resistance. We call on all the young people to grasp the depth of the global attack against them, and to boldly rally their forces in a united battle. The young people are at the front, united with the workers, of the resistance in Greece and Europe today, in Latin America, and around the world. The power of people’s forces is rising.
The world and mankind don’t need any sort of G’s (G8, G20, etc), but a policy of cooperation and solidarity among all peoples of the world, with no external interferences, guided by an economic model that is in favor of the peoples and not of the dominant classes, in other words, a world free of imperialism!
The young workers’ and students’ global resistance to economic crisis will be a major theme of the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students, to be held in Pretoria, South Africa, this December. At 30,000 young people, it will be the largest anti-imperialist gathering in the world. We welcome all progressive youth and students of Canada, Quebec and Aboriginal Nations to join us at this historic event!
Budapest, July 3rd
WFDY - World Federation of Democratic Youth
Fédération Mondiale de la Jeunesse Démocratique
Federación Mundial de la Juventud Democrática
WFDY is an International NGO with consultative status with UN (ECOSOC) and operational relation with UNESCO. Peace Messenger award by UN Secretary General in 1987 for solidarity with Palestine.
Young Communist League of Canada Statement on the G20 Demonstrations and Police Riots
On the weekend of June 26-27, 2010, the leaders of the top 20 capitalist economies met to devise an agenda for the interests of “private demand” (i.e. the very rich and major transnational corporations) including halving deficits by 2013. This translates into increasing the burden on, and cutting public services to, working people -- since neither will corporate profits be taxed more, nor will the military spending on wars be cut.
Over 30,000 people from across Canada (particularly from Quebec and Southern Ontario) and the world -- involved in the labour, womens', aboriginal, youth and student, migrant, environmental, international solidarity, socialist, and many other movements -- peacefully demonstrated against this criminal agenda. Most were able to participate from start to finish united, without any incident or attacks.
This democratic right and necessity to protest should have been enjoyed by all demonstrators. However in the last few days peaceful protesters as well as journalists, legal observers, and by-standers who had no involvement in the protests have been subjected to a police riot.
The mainstream media has endlessly played images of isolated incidences of mayhem, where the police were absent, occurring not because of insufficient security budgets but in spite of the $1 billion that should have gone for education, health care, and public services at a time when many are suffering from the economic crisis that is not over.
Police had refused to provide assurances that they would not use provocateurs, despite being pressed on this point by Ontario Federation of Labour President Sid Ryan after such agents had been exposed in the 2007 demonstrations in Quebec against the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).
What has been ignored is not only the main peaceful demonstration organized by the Canadian Labour Congress and Ontario Federation of Labour, but also the orgy of police violence with rubber bullets, indiscriminate mass arrests, acts of physical assault and intimidation, and night-time arrests of people simply sleeping in student residences.
Even corporate media personalities such as Steve Paikin have tweeted that the police assaults were more frightening than war zone reporting from “Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Lebanon, and Israel (Palestine)”. Youth and students, Québécois, as well as people of colour are being disproportionately targeted and need our support at this crucial time.
The Young Communist League stands in solidarity with and calls for on-going mobilizations against the G20 agenda and to support the rights of those who continue to be subjected to police harassment.
We support the Communist Party of Canada’s call for an full and independent inquiry into the police repression and the development of these operations by the Harper Tories, McGuinty Liberals and Toronto police chief Blair.
The unleashing of the police on protesters and by-standards alike is an attack on our democratic rights, an attempt to demobilize us while we continue to be robbed by the G20's capitalist agenda.
Witness statements show that it is sufficient just to be young to be arrested and beaten, regardless of having no connection to the demonstrations. Baseless arrests have occurred not just in Toronto but as far as Vancouver. We demand an immediate end to police violence and a full public inquiry into police brutality, infringement on our human rights and where these repressive orders came from.
For many youth this is a time of new and renewed radicalization which demands leadership that will challenge the capitalist ruling class's assaults with a movement for socialism.
Read the YCL-LJC statement on the G8-G20
Read the Communist Party statement on the G8-G20
Read the Communist Party's call for an inquiry.
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