There is no solution in the capitalist system, but only a proletarian revolutionary solution
Here you find some of our documents in english, spanish, czech, polish and russian.
Contact: International@FDJ.de
Programmatic Declaration of the Free German Youth in english language
Whether in Palestine, Israel or elsewhere
To the World Federation of Democratic Youth
International voices
Peoples of Europe - rise up! Europas befolkninger - rejs jer!
Everyone is talking about war -
it’s a war against YOU, worker, student, apprentice!
Down with the war! Down with inflation!
Start now – at school, at the workplace, on the street!
1.
Enough with the fairy tales of a “just war” -
Every further weapon sent to Ukraine only worsens the genocide!
When the peoples speak with each other and free themselves – only then could there be a just war!
Our answer to every teacher, who would speak of a “just war:”
Enough with the warmongering!
2.
Enough with school access for the military and the police -
The state apparatus regularly increases its presence among the youth
Because the state needs us for its war program!
We deny entrance into our classrooms to anyone in uniform and answer:
This time, stop the Bundeswehr BEFORE Stalingrad!
3.
Enough with the several 100 billions for the billionaires and the war -
Every further Euro sent to the exploiter class worsens inflation, brings us closer to
homelessness and starvation.
Instead, re-equipment of all schools:
Machining facilities according to the latest automation techniques!
Free cultural and common areas – available around the clock!
Free school lunch!
Free public transportation for every student, apprentice, and undergraduate!
4.
Enough with the decline of apprenticeships -
Every apprentice knows: the majority of what they learn is no longer required in production.
And everyone sees: limited contractor positions, temporary and menial work or simply unemployment
will become the rule.
Instead: state-guaranteed apprenticeships, up to date with the latest production methods!
This is what we advocate for in workplaces, trade schools and
in our unions!
5.
Onto the streets against the regime of the billionaires!
Abolish the VAT!
State price control for gas and electricity!
Rent reduction!
International Foreword
Militarism constitutes one of the most important and powerful constituent parts of capitalist society. In the imperialist phase of capitalist development, militarism assumes colossal and unprecedented dimensions and strives to directly or indirectly embrace the entire population by means of a wide net of organisations. Militarism does not confine itself merely to forming military organisations. It strives to militarise the entire life of the population and to subordinate it to its objects. Militarism has a twofold purpose: on the one hand it is used as a weapon against the the toilers at home, against the oppressed colonial peoples, and against the Socialist Soviet Republics; on the other hand , it is used against imperialist competitors.
(From: Programme of the Young Communist International)
Belgrade, Berlin, 2021
The Savez komunisticke omladine jugoslavije (SKOJ) and the Free German Youth (FDJ) tell you: Read a book by Karl Liebknecht that is over 100 years old. You don't agree with today's world, you see that the youth in your country has no future, learns nothing for life and the future, and their actual education and employment chances are, at best, manual labor. But what does this old book have to do with it? A short look into the German-Yugoslavian history!
Stuttgart 1907
The international working-class youth movement is beginning to organize. Unification across national borders is the proletarian answer to the war course of the imperialist countries. And it was Karl Liebknecht who pushed this first loose, still-insufficient union: "The proletarian youth must be systematically inflamed with class consciousness and hate against militarism. [...] He who has the young people has the army."
For it is as clear as daylight that the imperialist powers need the war. And that the warmongers have the perfect allies in the lip service of social democracy. The members of the workers' youth clubs know that they should hate. In the German Reich it is drilled into their heads: "Russians and Serbs, we'll smash them to pieces!" Everywhere, where the workers' youth unites, the bans hail down. And yet we know our enemies: the monopoly lords of the corporations and banks. The youth, in part, does not go along with the betrayal by the parties of the II International, but raises the banners of anti-militarism and internationalism and unites in the Communist Youth International. So did the SKOJ, founded in Yugoslavia in 1919.
But the German pickelhaube (spike helmet) marches, on October 9 Belgrade is taken, on October 31 Kragujevac. The German occupiers proceed against the population with sheer violence, looting and rape. Yet the final word had not been spoken. This is what the Russian workers do: they end the war and trigger a powerful quake that shows the whole world how liberation works. The quake also shook the German fortress and triggered the November Revolution. For the peoples of Yugoslavia, the German defeat brought the founding of their state and the temporary end of foreign domination.
London 1942
The democratic youth of the world meet in London and found the World Youth Council. They are so certain of victory over fascism that they are already developing a post-war program. Where does this certainty come from? Once again from the workers' power! For it was the Soviet workers' power that fought against fascism and implanted the certainty of victory in all partisan and regular armies. The German workers' youth movement is faced with a devastating summary: For a second time, the bourgeoisie succeeded in reducing the world to rubble with German soldiers. Minsk, Paris, Belgrade, Rotterdam, Stalingrad, Rome, Athens. At the name of Germany one blanches as if hearing about a murderer. But the struggle goes on, the German working-class youth movement resists, fights in the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition and builds up the Free German Youth.
The World Youth Council organizes the first World Youth Week from March 21 to 28, 1943, millions of young people contributed decisively to the end of the war in the armies, factories, in the countryside in the partisan groups in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, France, Norway and many other countries. The workers' power is victorious once again and cuts off the head of Hitler's Germany.
Belgrade, 1999
The so-called post-war order is declared to be over. For the first time since the Second World War, a war is waged which is wanted, pushed and led by the FRG. This new set-up, made possible by the collapse of the socialist camp and the West German annexation of the GDR, shakes the delicate web of contradictions between the imperialists. Once again, a third world war and barbarism threaten.
How could this happen again, when the workers' movement has had great successes since World War II and has been able to expand its power? This time we cannot rely on workers' power. Our red third of the earth is given up. Not because of inferiority to imperialism, but because of the renewed rise to power of the bourgeoisie in our own ranks. There is no such thing as the third way: either send the capitalists packing and build a country without exploitation and war, or go down with them: there is nothing in between.
And without the workers' power, the counterpart to the world of the imperialists is missing, the mirror image is missing, which shows every worker of the capitalist countries how it can be done. With it the stop block is missing, which would slow or halt the expansionism of the monopoly lords. Thus the certainty of victory in our own ranks is missing.
But this mistake of having given up socialism was not made by us, but by generations before us. It would be our mistake only if we would not learn from it!
Belgrade, Berlin 2021
Today - it is still said that we live in times of peace - we shall go to war again for our masters against our kind. The youth of the oppressed peoples worldwide and the youth of the countries of Europe bled dry by German capital with the help of the imperialist alliance EU have long known what that means. Again we shall hate and make our kind responsible for the misery in our own country. And this is excellently made attractive to us. But we will not become the servants of capital! Whoever wants to understand what weapon the working-class youth is carrying in its hands must read Karl Liebknecht's "Militarism and Anti-Militarism", for which he was accused of high treason ¬the rulers knew about the danger of the text. And we know: The future belongs to the youth of the world. If our masters send us into the next world war, we will turn our guns around. Because fighting militarism means down with imperialism and long live international solidarity!
Proletarians of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!
Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ)
Free German Youth
&
Savez komunisticke omladine Jugoslavije (SKOJ)
League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia
More than five months have passed since brothers Oleksandr and Mykhilo Kononovich were arrested and imprisoned on baseless charges of collaborating with the secret services of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Since then, there have been several appeals for their release, all of which have gone unheeded by the Ukrainian authorities. Numerous letters sent by communist and anti-imperialist organisations around the world to the Ukrainian embassies in their countries have never been answered. This shows all the arrogance and presumption of the Ukrainian coup government.
The silence of the other side, however, is no more surprising than that: it is clear that comrades Kononovich were arrested for their involvement in the ranks of the Ukrainian Anti-Fascist Committee and the Ukrainian Communist Party, which was banned following the 2014 coup and whose assets and headquarters were recently confiscated by the Ukrainian government. This is in the context of the tremendous anti-union and anti-communist repression that has been going on in Ukraine for a good eight years, of which the massacre at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa (where even a minor comrade lost his life) and the recent banning of all opposition parties, most of which are left or centre-left, are glaring examples.
The brothers' imprisonment constitutes a serious violation of their human and political rights. That the Ukrainian government, which came to power with the help of the West and neo-nazi paramilitary troops, does not care about the rights of its citizens is not surprising, however: the oppression of the Russian-speaking minority and the extremely violent war waged in the Donbass, where countless civilians have died under Ukrainian bombs, are exemplary proof of this.
The situation of the Kononovich brothers is still precarious and it is still necessary to mobilise internationally against this flagrant violation of rights and against the fascist-style repression of the corrupt and pro-Western government of Zelensky.
For these reasons, we demand:
- The immediate release of the Kononovich brothers and a public apology to them!
- That the trials to which the Kononovich brothers are subjected be truly fair and just!
- An end to the anti-communist, anti-union and fascist repression in Ukraine!
- The lifting of the ban on the Ukrainian Communist Party, as well as all other opposition parties!
- A condemnation of the repression in Ukraine and an immediate halt to arms exports to that country by western countries!
The following organisations endorse the appeal:
Switzerland:
- Gioventù Comunista Svizzera - Swiss Communist Youth
- Partito Comunista (Svizzera) – Communist Party (Switzerland)
- Partei der Arbeit Basel
- Partito Operaio e Popolare Ticino
Spain:
- Juventud Comunista de los Pueblos de España (JCPE)
Italy:
- Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana (FGCI)
- Federazione della Gioventù Comunista
Great Britain:
- Young Communist League of Britain (YCL)
Serbia:
- Savez Komunisticke Omladine Jugoslavije (SKOJ)
United States of America:
- League of Young Communists USA
Turkey:
- Türkiye Gençlik Birliği (TGB)
Germany:
- Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ)
- Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands-KPD
DECLARATION ON MAY 8, 2022
LET IT BE REMEMBERED
THAT THE LIBERATION FROM FASCISM AND WAR
CAN ONLY BE PRESERVED BY THOSE WHO DO NOT OPPRESS OTHER PEOPLES.
Let it be remembered: war against war. This basic attitude - never again fascism, never again war - this basic attitude, which was laid down in the Potsdam Agreement by the anti-Hitler coalition in 1945, did not last - despite the warning the German people had received from their own "traitors to the fatherland", who paid with their lives in the concentration
camps and Gestapo cellars, despite the fighters of the Résistance and the liberators on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition or in the Red Army. Despite the fact that they spared the German people from the threatened destruction by their own German war aggressor. And on top brought salvation to the German people salvation and its liberation from fascism
and war through an international war front, the burden of which was borne by the proletariat for the sake of peace in the world. For this the people of the Soviet Union, including 27 million workers and peasants, risked their lives and accepted their deaths: That never again fascism and war would emanate from German soil. That no nation, no country will be invaded and burned down again. "Never again fascism and war", this warning became reality through the people of the Soviet Union, through the liberation of all the peoples who suffered under German barbarism, by annihilating the German war canaille, the war producers, the German war criminal of monopoly capital and his fascist hordes, on their own soil. By a working class of socialism, which freed the German people from the crime and let them leave these everlasting war crimes of its bourgeoisie, and was able to do so.
Through the working class and the German people taking the path of peace by putting a stop to their own war aggressor, German imperialism, through their own liberation in a socialism on German soil. Which the German workers' movement was prepared to do and, with the help of the workers from the Soviet Union, turned a part of Germany into that part of Germany that helped secure peace in Europe for many decades by taking the path of socialism. Where the admonition "Never again fascism - Never again war" was made true. In contrast to the FRG, where the defeated monopoly bourgeoisie together with the war criminals and all the old Nazis in government and state made the war against peace, against the proletarians of the world and socialism a "peace" preparing for war on the still existing ruins of their second world war, the war, the renewed war production together with the army - whose personnel came from the Nazi army. And never stopped
the Eastland ride against all socialist countries. Neither against the own German people in the GDR, which was annexed by the German imperialism in 1989 and since then has been under the heel of the war aggressor. Or, as in the current Easland ride against all peoples who liberated themselves and as liberated must liberate themselves again. In order to live
in peace through the socialist revolution once again in their own country without the aggressors from the war alliance NATO, or under the German military boot and its war profiteers from capital and government, which occupy their countries since the 1990s. So their people of labor, whether proletarians, other working people or peasants live in the peace and prosperity that socialism guarantees them. As the German workers' movement has to defeat its main enemy, German imperialism, to join the side of all workers and peoples "Down with capitalism".
Let it be remembered: the proletariat in each country is a true great power - of peace, a power of revolution and peace in a new world of socialism, which can defeat any war aggressor of imperialism and its "new descendants", the oligarchs of the
counterrevolution. A war aggressor who would once again rather destroy the world in the war crime against the peoples in their barbaric wars which lead to a new World War, rather than hand it over to the mankind of work as a place of peace. Not shying away from genocide, not shying away from pushing billions of people into sheer misery in order to survive as a class of exploiters and oppressors. Every war of the bourgeoisie is a war against the peace power of the proletariat. A war between socialism and capitalism. Which urges and forces the working classes nationally, as well as internationally, to unite
in an anti-war front, a proletarian front across all national borders. To finally put an end to the murder of peoples and the destruction of everything their hands have created. And then no war aggressor can find a way any more to divide us, the workers in our own country, as well as against other workers of other countries, by discord, ill-will and to draw us to the side of the aggressor - instead of seeing in each one of them an enemy of the peoples' workers movement. Because: The main enemy is in the own country. And every main enemy of the warmongering powers is the enemy of every international anti-war movement of the proletariat.
We call upon you on the day of May 8 and 9, on the 77th anniversary - the day of liberation from Hitler's fascism:
Proletarians of all countries and peoples, unite!
Together we, "United Great Power of Peace", will beat these war aggressors. Who do not wage war alone against the proletariat and working people in Ukraine + Russia. And with it: Carry the war to the old Europe, which has already been twice reduced to rubble by the war of the capital of the imperialist and the monopolist warmongers. Not a third time. Like
all acts of war of these great powers - whether in Africa, whether in Latin America, whether in Asia. Putting a stop to their game of war by each people and each working class going its way of the revolution to enable them to establish a state of peace under socialism under the dictatorship of the proletariat or in the people's democracy, and do so.
So that we redeem:
NEVER AGAIN FASCISM - NEVER AGAIN WAR
Download as PDF
Participants of FDJ – summercamp August 2021
In these times of the apparent victory of imperialism over
socialism.
In these times which in fact only show that imperialism only
brings crisis, further decline and destruction.
In these times when day by day the ruling class' way out -
fascism and war - is drawing nearer
- We - the FDJ, the JRCF, the SKOJ state -
The discussion and exchange about our positions and
struggles and the common action of the revolutionary youth
across the borders is needed more than ever.
Some days that taught us:
Cooperation must become even closer and more frequent. In
exchange, in discussion and in action. Our opponent is weak,
our strength is unity in internationalism.
Youth first, so that our generation may put into action:
What is our answer to war and fascism -
revolution and socialism!
Download as PDF
A virus cannot be denied. But, the question is: Upon what breeding ground does such a virus fall?
In Socialism, the health care system is not designed to fight against a disease, but to maintain health. In capitalism, big pharma, those who own the hospitals and those who own the factories which produce medical equipment only profit off a sick patient. The right to protection of health and labour power is constitutionally guaranteed in Socialism1. While the word “health” is not mentioned once in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany. In Socialism, all the different medical fields are bound together in the Polyclinic and work in close cooperation with kindergartens, schools and factories to ensure protection of health and work safety. Prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy stand in close connection. In capitalism, the medical profession is split up into thousands of private practitioners, who – like it or not – stand in petty-capitalistic competition with one another. Appointments with a medical specialist are fully booked for months, medical equipment is used exactly to capacity, because they wouldn’t create profits otherwise. In Berlin, only 3.5% of all hospitals are in the hands of the public sector, in Hamburg 6.8%. On the other side, companies in the hospital business like Helios, where over 100,000 doctors and nurses work, turn over 9 billion Euros yearly. Medical research is only carried out where there is profit to be made. Under the rule of the working class the seperation between research and application will be dissolved. In Socialism universal and free health care exists, which is open to everyone. And why not? All surplus value that is created in the factories, workshops, on the construction sites and fields belongs to the people. And the people decide themselves what part of it they want to use for the protection of health.
Capitalism is at its end. Its stinking foulness may not have gotten up into the nose of some in this country because they still live relatively well off the backs of the peoples of the world. One does not have to dig through all numbers on how many people die because of treatable diseases. One example of this are the 200,000 worldwide that died of measles this year. Wasn’t a look towards the burning refugee camps in Moria this year enough to realise that this system takes human lives as floating material with it down the abyss? How steep must the mass graves become in the second wave in Italy, Spain and Greece to realise that it was German Imperialism that looted their health care systems in order to pay for their debts with the Deutsche Bank, the EU and the Federal Republic of Germany? Or does the German philistine only startle when the new Italian disaster happens in the annexed GDR and when the doctors have to choose whose life to save in Zittau (a city in Saxony)? Is it not about time to cut the head off the beast called German Imperialism? The spontaneous school occupations in Greece and Italy are a call of our classmates to join in their fight. When students and teachers protest against the government in France for more money to be put into education and public transport, when students in Italy occupy abandoned buildings to hold classes our demand cannot be home-schooling instead of classroom teaching. The strikes in the factories, on the building sites and in the hospitals of Spain and France are an appeal to the German workers to finally end their strikebreaking. It is up to us.
Preventing Fascism means overthrowing Capitalism!
It is not a new insight of the year 2020 that the bourgeois-parliamentary democracy is and more appearance than substance. Pandemics come and go, but capitalism carries war and fascism like a cloud carries the rain. In all spheres of life dying capitalism destroys what it has built in bourgeois revolutions like the Great French Revolution of 1789. The right to asylum was the first basic right the parlamentarians burned in the flames of Rostock-Lichtenhagen after the annexation of the German Democratic Republic. Even if the right of assembly was already shot into pieces 2006 by fragmenting it into 16 federal state laws, it has become a ruin today. The free sale of labour-power was already attacked by the introduction of Hartz IV (German unemployment law) and temporary agency work . More and more measures of forced labour are being installed some under the veil of “volunteering” like for the “Dein Jahr für Deutschland” (“Your Year for Germany”) program and some by conscription in a so-called case of disaster. The protest against the Law on Police Duties 2018 ebbed away quickly after their enactment and when the federal police was equipped with intelligence authority this year, protests didn’t happen at all.
The German Infection Protection Act, which was enacted November 2020, therefore does not stand by itself, but it does cancel bourgeois constitutionality as a whole by contradicting and thus cancelling the majority of basic rights. If Inviolability of the Home and the Freedom of Art or Freedom of Movement, not much is left of bourgeois rights. Yes, even the Freedom of Faith, which the bourgeoisie has protected against every proletarian revolution, is worth nothing anymore in this dying capitalism. Only the AfD (far right wing party) talks of an Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz)in Parliament and unfortunately, they are right. But, they only pretend to protect democracy in order to gain influence to topple the bourgeois republic themselves. The rest of the bourgeois parties may complain about them, while they are both carrying parliament to its grave. The upcoming election between AfD on the one side and the CDU/CSU (conservative parties), the SPD (social democratic party) and the Gruenen (green party) on the other side is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. And where was the uproar of the Left Party? Are they also blending into the Volksgemeinschaft that far already? And those self-described mavericks (Querdenker - a petty bourgeois Corona-denying group) of which many were part of those who in 1989 protested for the destruction of the “unjust state” German Democratic Republic, and now hold up the Basic Law only to burn tomorrow. The state apparatus, in the form of the police or the military, infused with fascist networks, increasingly invades civilian life. Soldiers march in lockstep into health departments and hospitals, while the Federal Government, with World War-pathos propaganda-clips, calls the youth to keep still and stay home.
It is high time to stop standing still ourselves and to organize the struggle against this damned system of exploitation in the factories, where thousands of workers are still swarming every day. A system that only brings forth destruction, disease, fascism and war does not offer us any future. Let’s not give this system any future! High time that we, the youth, reconquer the streets and places to build a future without capitalism side-by-side with the workers in the factories. We can care for our health, our education and useful labour a thousand times better ourselves!
Central Committee of the Free German Youth, 23rd of December 2020
» Declaration of the participants of the winter school of the FDJ in Berlin
Over the past few days, we have discussed and learned about the history of the struggles of our class. We have been agitating in the city, in the trams and on the streets for the unification of revolutionary youth and the need to rebuild the Communist Party. The beacon, also for November Revolution 100 years ago in Germany, gave the Great Socialist October Revolution in Russia under the leadership of the Bolsheviki. This is precisely what the Russian working class was ahead to the German: the existence of a revolutionary leadership. From this arises for us the indispensable necessity of a communist party that leads and directs the struggles of the working class. Without its existence, no revolution can be victorious. In Germany, the KPD was founded only in the revolution, but only with it does the working class learn to lead itself, instead of following the betrayal of social democratism. It was the youth at that time who stood in the front row. "First clarity, then majority" was the urgent advice of Karl Liebknecht to them and must be our slogan today. In the class struggles of the Weimar Republic it was proven the need for Bolshevization of the Communist Party, the party Ernst Thaelmann's. The Hamburg Uprising made the bourgeoisie feel their death knell. Fled from German fascism, the antifascist youth drew the correct conclusion from Thaelmann's united front policy and, as it were, called the KJVD to unite in the FDJ. This call was followed, among others, by social democratic youth, young trade unionists, Christian, Jewish and organised youth. In the fight against war and fascism and for a socialist future, his statement "There is no solution in the capitalist system, but only a proletarian revolutionary solution" must then and now be the constant maxim for the struggles in the educational institutions, in the enterprise, in the districts and in the unions.
January 2017
» english: Declaration concerning the coming World Festival of Youth and Students 2017 in Sochi/Russia
» по-ру́сски: Декларация Союза свободной немецкой молодёжи (ССНМ) ко Всемирному фестивалю молодёжи и студентов Сочи, Россия 2017 г.
October 2017
» 100 years after the October Revolution: Forward for another Red October!
» Adress of Solidarity in case of detention of a comrade of SKOJ
International Declaration
on occasion of the anniversary of
the liberation from fascism and war
» International Declaration on occasion of the anniversary of the liberation from fascism and war
» Mezinárodní deklarace k výročí osvobození od fašismu a války Pátek, 09 květen 2014
» Međunarodna Deklaracija povodom godišnjice Oslobođenja od fašizma i Dana pobjede
» Miedzynarodowa Deklaracja z okazji rocznicy wyzwolenia od faszyzmu i wojny
» Internationale Erklärung zum Jahrestag der Befreiung von Faschismus und Krieg
» The History of the Free German Youth (see also in spanish: Historia de la Juventud Libre Alemana)
» Against the German War (see also in spanish: Contra la guerra alemana)
» International Anti-War-Campaign "Class Struggle instead of World War"
Declaration of SJD - Die Falken N/O and FDJ in english and german
The European Union was receiving this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. However, the EU is only a temporary alliance among imperialist powers: “The United States of Europe under capitalist conditions is either impossible or reactionary.” (Lenin 1915) As temporary their alliance is, as temporary is their peace. The peace is especially threatened by German imperialism. Germany has provoked two World Wars previously; they murdered, plundered, and devastated Europe. For 67 years, the Federal republic of Germany has not concluded a peace treaty yet. Up to this day, the FRG has not paid any reparation and has not acknowledged their war crimes. The victims have not been compensated and the offenders have not been punished.
» The Crimes of German Imperialism in South Africa
» The History of the Free German Youth
» The Annexation of the German Democratic Republic
» Incompetence of Capitalism and the Necessity for Socialism
» Bourgeois Democracy and the Threat of Fascism in the Federal Republic of Germany
» International Anti-War Campaign Class Struggle Against World War
Internationales
Nimm Kontakt auf: international@FDJ.de
On the so-called "World Youth Festival 2024" in Sochi
International appeal: Freedom for Comrades Kononovich!
More than five months have passed since brothers Oleksandr and Mykhilo Kononovich were arrested and imprisoned on baseless charges of collaborating with the secret services of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Since then, there have been several appeals for their release, all of which have gone unheeded by the Ukrainian authorities. Numerous letters sent by communist and anti-imperialist organisations around the world to the Ukrainian embassies in their countries have never been answered. This shows all the arrogance and presumption of the Ukrainian coup government.
The silence of the other side, however, is no more surprising than that: it is clear that comrades Kononovich were arrested for their involvement in the ranks of the Ukrainian Anti-Fascist Committee and the Ukrainian Communist Party, which was banned following the 2014 coup and whose assets and headquarters were recently confiscated by the Ukrainian government. This is in the context of the tremendous anti-union and anti-communist repression that has been going on in Ukraine for a good eight years, of which the massacre at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa (where even a minor comrade lost his life) and the recent banning of all opposition parties, most of which are left or centre-left, are glaring examples.
The brothers' imprisonment constitutes a serious violation of their human and political rights. That the Ukrainian government, which came to power with the help of the West and neo-nazi paramilitary troops, does not care about the rights of its citizens is not surprising, however: the oppression of the Russian-speaking minority and the extremely violent war waged in the Donbass, where countless civilians have died under Ukrainian bombs, are exemplary proof of this.
The situation of the Kononovich brothers is still precarious and it is still necessary to mobilise internationally against this flagrant violation of rights and against the fascist-style repression of the corrupt and pro-Western government of Zelensky.
For these reasons, we demand:
- The immediate release of the Kononovich brothers and a public apology to them!
- That the trials to which the Kononovich brothers are subjected be truly fair and just!
- An end to the anti-communist, anti-union and fascist repression in Ukraine!
- The lifting of the ban on the Ukrainian Communist Party, as well as all other opposition parties!
- A condemnation of the repression in Ukraine and an immediate halt to arms exports to that country by western countries!
The following organisations endorse the appeal:
Switzerland:
- Gioventù Comunista Svizzera - Swiss Communist Youth
- Partito Comunista (Svizzera) – Communist Party (Switzerland)
- Partei der Arbeit Basel
- Partito Operaio e Popolare Ticino
Spain:
- Juventud Comunista de los Pueblos de España (JCPE)
Italy:
- Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana (FGCI)
- Federazione della Gioventù Comunista (FGC)
Great Britain:
- Young Communist League of Britain (YCL)
Serbia:
- Savez Komunisticke Omladine Jugoslavije (SKOJ)
United States of America:
- League of Young Communists USA
Germany:
- Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ)
Declaration of the participants
of the winter school of the FDJ in Berlin
at the turn of the year 2018/2019
Over the past few days, we have discussed and learned about the history of the struggles of our class. We have been agitating in the city, in the trams and on the streets for the unification of revolutionary youth and the need to rebuild the Communist Party.
The beacon, also for November Revolution 100 years ago in Germany, gave the Great Socialist
October Revolution in Russia under the leadership of the Bolsheviki. This is precisely what the Russian
working class was ahead to the German: the existence of a revolutionary leadership. From this arises
for us the indispensable necessity of a communist party that leads and directs the struggles of the
working class. Without its existence, no revolution can be victorious. In Germany, the KPD was founded
only in the revolution, but only with it does the working class learn to lead itself, instead of following the
betrayal of social democratism. It was the youth at that time who stood in the front row. "First clarity,
then majority" was the urgent advice of Karl Liebknecht to them and must be our slogan today.
In the class struggles of the Weimar Republic it was proven the need for Bolshevization of the
Communist Party, the party Ernst Thaelmann's. The Hamburg Uprising made the bourgeoisie feel their
death knell. Fled from German fascism, the antifascist youth drew the correct conclusion from
Thaelmann's united front policy and, as it were, called the KJVD to unite in the FDJ. This call was
followed, among others, by social democratic youth, young trade unionists, Christian, Jewish and
organised youth. In the fight against war and fascism and for a socialist future, his statement "There is
no solution in the capitalist system, but only a proletarian revolutionary solution" must then and
now be the constant maxim for the struggles in the educational institutions, in the enterprise, in the
districts and in the unions.
Not only in the FRG, but worldwide, the Communist parties were largely destroyed by modern
revisionism. Along with this, there was also the fragmentation of youth in small groups and circles. In
the Federal Republic of Germany it was alone the Arbeiterbund für den Wiederaufbau KPD (Worker's
alliance for the reconstruction of the KPD), which opposed the slogan "unification of the
revolutionary youth" and like many other organizations decidedly fought against prohibition of the
FDJ. In the GDR, with the abandonment of the class struggle, the whole country was abandoned. We
must never forget that the class struggle, even after the revolution, is not over, and in the party,
the youth organization and the state, those forces which push back to capitalism, are also active.
More than ever, our struggle today is for the unification of revolutionary youth. Either the working-class
youth will side with the revolution or it will have to follow the reactionaries into the war. "He who has the
youth has the army." Let us wrest the youth from the clutches of reaction! Them or us!
Berlin, the 31st of Dezember 2018
Today, in the 100th year of the November Revolution, that means for us:
● The unification of revolutionary youth can only occur on the basis of socialism.
● For the victorious struggle of working-class youth, as well as the whole working class for the
proletarian revolution, the fight for the reconstruction of the Communist Party is indispensable.
● German imperialism not only casts us, but many peoples under its bondage. That's why our main
enemy is in our own country. As an organization in two countries, the FRG and the annexed
GDR, our struggle for the quickest approach to the revolution, against the annexation of the
GDR, is directed as an attack on German imperialism. This is our contribution, as
internationalists, to facilitate the struggle of revolutionary youth in their countries.
100 years after the October Revolution: Forward for another Red October!
It has been proven twice the last 100 years: the socialist revolution is the only future for the youth, the youth makes the revolution and the youth needs the revolution imperatively. The revolution brought the end of war and militarism for the youth and it brought polytechnical education, the end of bourgeois spread ignorance. To the youths of the liberation movements and the peoples democracies it brought the end of colonial oppression, an end of analphabetism. The destruction of socialism by the revisionism in our own ranks, the abandoning of the proletarian dictatorship and the lack of struggle for it brought back into our world sheer misery, barbarism. Most of today’s millions of migrants worldwide are children or young people. The only future capitalism offers to the youth is death in the next great war. The double proof is shown: We need another Red October!
For 100 years we have got to know how to make the revolution now. To use this knowledge today is more urgent than ever. The meetings between the communist parties and organisations are clearly relevant for this. Marxism-Leninism has to be defended, all the more in times shaped by the greatest defeat of the world-wide working-class movement. Now revisionism has rampaged in our communist parties and movements for decades, destroyed socialism and with it the proletarian dictatorship, and installed sheer barbarism instead. The campaigning days on 100 years October Revolution were not suitable for conferences. These days were to be used by communists and revolutionaries to reach the working-class in their respective countries, to take to the streets for the working-class in their own or other country in order to prove: The only way to liberate mankind is to do another workers’ revolution - opposing the post socialist depression in so many countries, not least the GDR. Keeping the lessons of the October Revolution in a conference hall and behind closed doors would not mean to be doing anything for the revolution. Like the October Revolution was led by the Bolschewiki but had actually to be made the working-class itself.
For 100 years we have known as well that it takes an powerful communist party to lead a revolution. But in which country this party has been built? Especially in the FRG it is still being built, in the annexed GDR it is missing completely. We find Worker’s Union for the Reconstruction of the KPD to be the only organisation in the FRG to notice the lack of this revolutionary, communist party and to organize the workers to rebuild it. In which country the revolutionary youth is united in one organisation? Who does not want to talk about rebuilding revolutionary, powerful organisations of the working-class should not speak about the October Revolution either.
Who refuses to accept that revisionism in our ranks was the cause for our defeat will repeat the same mistakes and tramples all over the October Revolution once more; and is even capable to cooperate with the counterrevolutionary gangs, who get rich by exploiting the property of the peoples of former socialist countries. All of us allowed the WFDY to lose control over the World Festival with our eyes open. Allowed it to ally with the counter revolution. Excerpt from the decleration of the FDJ from January 2017: “If the World Federation of Democratic Youth, if the members of World Federation of Democratic Youth don ́t want to say goodbye to the struggle for the new and become the old, we have to react and openly take up the fight against war and counter revolution! Instead of ‘celebrating’ our own defeats directed by the rulers in Sotschi, let ́s prepare our next victories! We owe it to ourselves, the casualties of past struggles and to future.” 1
All the red lines, which were not be crossed if the WFDY was to keep participating in the World Festival were crossed by Putin, his police and his depoliticising campaign with a smile about the headquarter’s complaints, before the first flyer was even printed, before anyone could even shout: „Long live WFDY!“ To tolerate this play any longer means to support capitalism. Because, in the name of the Democratic Youth, the gates were thrown wide open for the counter revolution here. And the goals of the World Festival movement, to fight imperialism and war, were distorted and misused. In consequence, the progressive youth could not come together at their own World Festival in their own name, with all WFDY organisations which wanted to attend, without state interference and police control.
We made suggestions on how 100 years October Revolution could be appreciated not as a thing of yesterday, but as a thing of today and a tomorrow. At the General Council in February 2016 in Moscow we insisted on a World Festival, directed by the WFDY and under its name. Faced with the tremendous interference by the Russian counter revolution, we urged the WFDY and its member organisations in January 2017 to cancel the preparations for this feast. All suggestions have been answered by silence. But this silence is the death of any progress, because we should be in constant debate on how imperialism can be fought. That is why we urge all WFDY organisations to break their silence. After Sochi is before Sochi if we do not change our course immediatedly and vehemently! The World Festival of the WFDY, which ceased to be under its control very early this time, is a question of global importance: if the WFDY does not unite and lead the democratic youth, who else would?
October 2017
Central Council of th Free German Youth (FDJ)
1 http://www.fdj.de/files/fdj-website-2015/website-inhalte/Nachrichten/2017-04_Erk
laerung-zu-Sotschi/Declaration_eng.pdf
100 years after the October Revolution: Forward for another Red October!
Declaration of the Free German Youth (FDJ)
concerning the coming World Festival of Youth and Students
2017 in Sotschi/Russia
PDF: Декларация Союза свободной немецкой молодёжи (ССНМ) ко Всемирному фестивалю молодёжи и студентов
Сочи, Россия 2017 г.
As a member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) we are forced to note that the World Festival 2017 in Sotschi is not going to be the World Festival of the WFDY. Not of the WFDY which fought the, especially for the FDJ, necessary struggle of the progressive youth against fascism and war. Which also supported the struggle of the colonized peoples against their oppressors and kept up the fight for its existence even after the temporary defeat of
socialism. A fight which we can only loose if we offer the counter revolution the opportunity for another victory with this World Festival. We cannot allow that: Instant cancellation of the participation and preparation of this „Festival“ by the WFDY and its member organizations!
100 years after the Great Socialist October Revolution we live in a today in which, after the defeat of the Socialist October Revolution, the workers of a third of the world have been thrown back into capitalist exploitation, the peoples` property has been robbed; in which the world is owned by imperialism, millions of people all around the world struggle to survive, millions of people who are forced to emigrate in search for a better life; in which the imperialists decide thoroughly over war and peace, life and death. A today in which we stand on the edge of the 3rd world war, in which we, the youth, are thought to be the first to die for the rulers.
100 years ago the Great Socialist October Revolution proved that only a soviet power can built a new world without exploitation of men by men, offers a way out of crisis, war and barbarism. The October Revolution was the basis for the peoples´ victory against German fascism and our liberation and for the liberation of the oppressed peoples. The October Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USSR showed most obviously the class
struggle between old and new, between the bourgeois consciousness and the defenders of the capitalist way on the one side and the life needs of the exploited and oppressed in the world on the other side.
The 100th anniversary of the October Revolution dictates us this main question: What led to the destruction of the great achievements of the October Revolution? That we don´t live in the new, but instead in the old society and have to regain the new? The reason is that modern Revisionism was allowed to spread in our organizations, that the soviet power, the dictatorship of the proletariat was liquidated step by step in the 1960s and finally, born out of revisionism, a new bourgeoisie of robbery and open counter revolution came into power.
Especially in our country, we allowed that the German Democratic Republic (GDR) could take the revisionist path back to capitalism and the German imperialism, by annexation of the GDR, could re-establish itself as one of the most aggressive war-mongers. This is the cause why today the world can be in possession by imperialism again, why millions of people are faced with barbarism.
Keeping this cause secret, not naming these facts, this crime of the counter revolution, would mean that we don´t fight for a new Red October for a re-building of the socialist world, but take the side of the counter revolutionaries and leave the revolutionary path – the path of the revolutionary exit from war, the path of the liberation of mankind, the path to socialism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, the path taken by the October Revolutionaries.
Yes! The 100th anniversary of the October Revolution is worth being honored and celebrated. The World Federation of Democratic Youth has decided to be faithful to its history and goals – born out of the experiences of two world wars and the class struggles against fascism and war, for the unity of the world youth against the imperialist robbers and warmongers – and therefore chose to take the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution as an occasion for the
19th World Festival.
We betray our history, our goals and ourselves, though if we think this World Festival could be prepared and carried out hand in hand with the counter revolution, if we walk hand in hand with the same counter revolution which calls the October Revolution civil war and Lenin a criminal, although it is itself which leads a war against the people, if we dance and eat in Sotschi´s hotels, while the people don´t have anything to eat, because they were robbed
everything by those who pay us our dance and dinner. If the World Federation of Democratic Youth, if the members of World Federation of Democratic Youth don´t want to say goodbye to the struggle for the new and become the old, we have to react and openly take up the fight against war and counter revolution! Instead of „celebrating“ our own defeats directed by the rulers in Sotschi, let´s prepare our next victories! We owe it to ourselves, the casualties of past struggles and to future.
With this in mind we will do anything possible to fight for a new October. Let´s join forces in practical unity against war and counter revolution! Let´s do this by bringing this struggle onto the streets of Leningrad – with the international unity of action „Revolution instead of war“!* Join us! The October Revolution has proven: The days of imperialism are counted, a new world will be born!
Let us speak soviet to the reaction!
Central Council of the Free German Youth
27. January 2017
Contact: international@FDJ.de
* Aktionsbüro „Das Begräbnis oder DIE HIMMLISCHEN VIER“ in Aktionseinheit mit Arbeiterbund für den Wiederaufbau der KPD, Arbeits- und Koordinationsausschuss der Vierten Arbeiter- und Gewerkschafter-Konferenz gegen den Notstand der Republik, Freie Deutsche Jugend, 25 IG Metall Vertrauensleute und Betriebsräte von Mercedes Werk Bremen, IG Metall Vertrauensleute Jungheinrich Norderstedt, IG Metall Vertrauensleute manroland Offenbach, IG Metall Kollegen Mercedes Benz, Werk Wörth - GLC Germersheim, Jugendaktionsausschuss – Notstand der Republik, Sozialistische Jugend Deutschlands - Die Falken, Bezirk Niederbayern/Oberpfalz, Agitproptruppe Roter Pfeffer und Mitglieder des Bertolt Brecht Jugendprojekts Bremen, Revolutionärer Freundschaftsbund e.V. (annektierte DDR) und weitere
Republik Polen: Komunistyczna Partia Polski (Kommunistische Partei Polens) usw.
Russische Föderation: Всесоюзная партия «Союз коммунистов» (Allunionspartei „Union der Kommunisten“), Объединенная Коммунистическая партия (Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei), Российская Коммунистическая Рабочая Партия (РКРП-КПСС) (Russische Kommunistische Arbeiterpartei, RKRP-KPSS) usw.
Tschechische Republik: Klub českého pohraničí (Klub des tschechischen Grenzlandes), Komunistický svaz mládeže (Kommunistischer Jugendverband), Vojácí proti válce (Soldaten gegen den Krieg).
Aktionsbüro „Das Begräbnis oder die HIMMLISCHEN VIER“, Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, Weydingerstr. 14-16, 10178
Berlin. Aktionsbuero@himmlischevier.de, www. HimmlischeVier.de