Dear Comrades
September – National Recruitment Month Begins
The YCL’s first National Recruitment Month commenced today. The YCL’s General Secretary, Johnnie Hunter, issued the following statement to mark the beginning of the campaign.
Throughout September 2019 the Young Communist League is conducting a National Recruitment Month.
We are calling on young workers and students across Britain to join us and join the struggle against, austerity, imperialism and war – to join the struggle for socialism in our lifetime.
Over the next 30 days we’ll be giving you thirty reasons why you should join Britain’s communist youth.
We live in dangerous and confusing times. Britain and the capitalist countries have failed to recover from the 2008 Financial Crisis. The next recession is already on the horizon. Over the last decade the banks, transnational companies and privateers have increased their profits by attacking working class living standards and ransacking public services.
Over the same period the European Union has strengthened its control over elected governments and led the enforcement of austerity across the continent. What little democracy we have in Britain faces a greater threat than at any point in our lifetimes. Tories subvert parliamentary norms to desperately cling to power, while a hard remain opposition is fighting tooth and nail to cancel the result of the biggest democratic referendum in this country’s history.
All the while our planet is dying. Capitalism has proven itself unable and unwilling to prevent irreversible and catastrophic climate change. Bolsonaro, with the support of Trump, lets the Amazon burn so agricultural corporations can turn a quick profit.
In times like these it would be easy to despair. But if we, the youth, are to have a dignified future, a life worth living for – or any future at all – we have to organise. Capitalist crisis demands a socialist solution.
Attacks on working class living standards can only be reversed by a left-led government. A new green economy, that provides jobs and public services for the benefit of all, can only be based on public ownership and democratic control. Only the socialist countries have shown real dedication and the way forward in tackling climate change. These are the changes our class and humanity need and we need them now.
All of this will be impossible however without a strong Communist Party and YCL in Britain, fighting as part of the international communist movement. The left and trade union movement in Britain have always been strongest when the communist movement has been strongest, from the General Strike and the Battle of Cable Street to the UCS Work In. As we approach the Party’s Centenary in 2020 you can play your part in rebuilding the movement in Britain.
Apathy is one of capitalism’s biggest tools for maintaining power and control. People who don’t know there’s a fight or aren’t prepared to join it are already beat. Capitalism can’t be mended. We have to end it. Revolution, not reform.
The YCL is a democratic organisation of young workers and students fighting to achieve peace and socialism in our lifetime. Our challenge to Britain’s youth is to join us in this struggle. Live your life with a purpose – join the YCL today.
Yours in comradeship
Johnnie Hunter
General Secretary
1 September 2019