Red Youth and FIST with the remnants of the flag after the days events
Red Youth was proud to meet up with our comrades from the US organisation Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) during and after the opening ceremony in Quito. To huge applause from the crowd (and to the absolute horror of the US Trotskyite class traitors in Pathfinder) our comrades in FIST ceremoniously tore up the stars and stripes.
Speaking to Red Youth the FIST delegates explained that it was an act of solidarity with all those around the world standing up to US imperialism, including the workers and oppressed back home in the United States. Just like the butchers apron, the stars and stripes of the USA is a hated symbol of colonialism, flying in many occupied cities and countries around the world. After a long day at the festival our delegations spent the evening relaxing together and discussing contemporary political issues over a glass of pop.
Syrian delegation
The delegates from the Syrian Baath Party also received enthusiastic cheers as their delegation arrived carrying with them large Syrian national flags and portraits of President Assad. Other highlights for our delegation on this opening day included listening to and getting a wave from Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Here’s a new video and a few more photo’s:
Red Youth with Syrians delegationDelegations from across the America’s including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia are in attendanceComrades from the RKUDelegates from the Workers Party of KoreaCommunist Party of Cuba arrive
Opening ceremony witness to fantastic scene’s of friendship and proletarian internationalism
Russian and Swedish comrades in the dinner hall with CPGB-ML central committee member RanjeetMeeting the localsSWAPO in attendance
In glorious sunshine the 18th Festival of Youth and Students opened in Quito, Ecuador with a wonderful display of revolutionary enthusiasm for the building of a world free from imperialism and war.
Delegations from across the America’s, Asia, Africa and Europe gathered for the opening rally which went on well into the afternoon. The Red Youth comrades were pleased to meet up with the other members of the elusive British NPC, all of whom had worked wonders to attend in the face of a concerted YCL attempt to provide little or no communication from the British Preparatory Committee. The British delegation therefore comprised Red Youth and a few of the “Young Socialists” (young Trotskyite sociopaths) and members of the Robert Clough Group (RCG).
Red Youth comrades spent the day enjoying the speeches and generally soaking up the atmosphere with our comrades from the Revolutionar Kommunist Ungdom (RKU) Sweden and friends from Russia, Belgium, India, Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Argentina, Syria and Germany.
Red Youth delegates have received a warm welcome in Quito, landing at midnight local time (5AM UTC) after a marathon 24 hour journey.
Delegate Pack for the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students, Quito, Ecuador
So far, we are the only members of the British delegation to have arrived, and – although the defunct Brit National Preparatory Committee have not passed on our registration fees – Red Youth delegates have successfully registered.
Delegates who have already arrived are enjoying the buzz of the festival grounds, which are being prepared for the opening ceremony at 12:30pm (17:30 UTC) tomorrow, in the beautiful and expansive Parque Bicentenario, repurposed from the old Quito airport.
The Festival’s slogan is “Youth united against imperialism, for a world of peace, solidarity and social transformation.”
During our short time in Quito, as well as enjoying the warm hospitality of the Ecuadorian people, members of the British delegation have already had the chance to meet with and talk to many other youth delegations from across the world, including Canada, the USA, Argentina, Russia, and Germany.
While travelling to Ecuador, Red Youth delegates were much saddened to hear of the death of Nelson Mandela, former leader of the African National Congress and central committee member of the South African Communist Party, who became one of the great symbols of the South African masses in their arduous struggle against the vicious, racist, colonial-settler apartheid regime.
Nelson Mandela and People’s Hero Chris Hani
We send our condolences to the people of South Africa, who held him in such high regard as the first president of a non-racist South Africa, to his party comrades, his family, and the freedom-loving people of the world, who admired his articulate and self-sacrificing championing of the cause of equality and freedom.
We note with Mandela’s passing, that the ‘Freedom Charter’ – the document that promised the redistribution of the wealth of South Africa, including its minerals, and its land, to the hungry and impoverished South African masses – remains unfulfilled; and that the struggle which he embodied during much of his adult life, remains to be fought and won. South Africa’s workers and peasants look to their neighbour Zimbabwe as the model for solution to their poverty; one of many facts about Mandela and South Africa that all the press coverage of Madiba’s death is anxious to brush aside.
We are excited and privileged to be able to attend the festival with so many of our fellow optimistic and active youths from across the globe, all here to talk about how we can make the world a better place and achieve a future free from imperialism, exploitation, poverty, unemployment, famine, and war.
When WFDY held the world festival of youth and students in Algeria, in 1991, Libya was a model nation, and active participant. After US and UK ‘intervention’ this proud nation lies in rubble.
2 Years ago, a peaceful stable and prosperous Syria participated in the World Festival, in Pretoria, South Africa. Since imperialism has taken it upon itself to destroy the happiness and well being of the Syrian People and youth, we wonder if we’ll have the opportunity to meet.
But Vietnam, Cuba, DPRK, China, show how by standing firm, rejecting imperialism, and proclaiming their firm belief that “nothing is more precious than independence and freedom”, it is possible to build a bright future for the masses of humanity.
Long live internationalism!
Angela from Peckham and Dan from Bournemouth have left for Ecuador to join this years festival organised by the World Federation of Democratic Youth and Students. Both comrades are active in Red Youth and are candidate members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist). Unlike in previous years, the British organisers, both the revisionist YCL and their Trotskyite allies haven’t organised for the delegation to travel together, and despite our delegates paying a fee to this British gentry they’ve yet to receive any details about where exactly the festival is to be held! But undaunted we left them at Heathrow and saw them off with a cheery lal salaam!