Canadian Youth Leftist Movements?

[fstick]

Hi,

I live in Toronto, Ontario in Canada and I am interested in joining a group local to the area or perhaps start one. If anyone who lives in this region knows of such a group (except the YCL <_< ) please tell me now. I am a Libertarian Marxist myself but I would rather enjoy working with any other left wing comrades.

Thanks

[RNK]

http://www.frontrouge.org/

It is a Quebec-based organization but is available for all Canadians. If you want more info, say so.

[Janus]

Look in the political contacts list on this forum for more details.

[buller]

Is front rouge active in parts other than Quebec? What&#39;s wrong with the Young Communist League? They seem to be a good group, if youre communist.

[Guest1]

Fightback (http://www.marxist.ca/)

They&#39;re doing well in ontario I hear.

[Janus]

What&#39;s wrong with the Young Communist League? They seem to be a good group, if youre communist.
The YCL is the youth branch of the CPC, which is reformist just like the CPUSA. If you don&#39;t find that wrong, then there&#39;s nothing stopping you from joining it.

[buller]

Originally posted by [email protected] 1 2006, 09:02 PM

What&#39;s wrong with the Young Communist League? They seem to be a good group, if youre communist.
The YCL is the youth branch of the CPC, which is reformist just like the CPUSA. If you don&#39;t find that wrong, then there&#39;s nothing stopping you from joining it.
&#39;Reformist&#39; might be a misleading description, but I wouldn&#39;t be against an explanation of why that is.

P.S. It&#39;s not a youth branch of the party.

[emma_goldman]

Infoshop will probably help.

Not from Canada myself. ;)

[Janus]

but I wouldn&#39;t be against an explanation of why that is
It engages in parliamentary elections like the CPUSA.


It&#39;s not a youth branch of the party.
Then what is it?

[buller]

It engages in parliamentary elections like the CPUSA.
Correct, the CPUSA helps the Democrats, we run our own party which is a very successful way to agitate. Running in parlimentary elections is a leninist line, here is a chapter out of Left Wing Communism: An Infintile Disorder called Should we Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments? (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc/ch07.htm). You will find that he was totally game for parliamentary battles as a tactic. Then, was Lenin reformist?

On a side note, your organization (Communist League) in Canada also runs in elections...


Then what is it? [if not a youth branch]
It&#39;s its own tree. A youth branch is what they have in every other major political party in Canada (including the CP-ML) where the youth organization is made up entirely of party youth and therefore not organizationally independent. We have our own conventions, separate from the party&#39;s and being in the YCL does not make you a member of the party. Even though we pick eachother up when we&#39;re down, both see eachother as necessary organizations and have a good relationship the the Communist Party, it&#39;s important to distinguish this independence because the main political parties have youth wings to get in new voters and recruits. Our youth organization is based on the need for uniting marxist-leninist youth into a forceful mass movement.

Hope these explanations help.

[JC1]

The CP here and the US CP are quite diffrent. The CPC is not a revisionist party.

[Janus]

On a side note, your organization (Communist League) in Canada also runs in elections...
You may want to recheck it to see if you have the right org. cause the CL does not run in elections. Besides, I don&#39;t think we even have a branch in Canada.


It&#39;s its own tree
That sounds like the US YCL as well and they are also considered to be a youth branch of the party.

[buller]

You may want to recheck it to see if you have the right org. cause the CL does not run in elections. Besides, I don&#39;t think we even have a branch in Canada.We ran against a guy in the Communist League in Canada during elections. Here&#39;s info on them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_League_%28Canada%29). Since then I&#39;ve realized that you are not related to these guys and just have the same name. (Confusing&#33;) Nonetheless, that doesn&#39;t undermine the fact that participating in elections is not at all what makes a party reformist. You seem to have dodged the Lenin reference.


That sounds like the US YCL as well and they are also considered to be a youth branch of the party.By who?

[Janus]

Nonetheless, that doesn&#39;t undermine the fact that participating in elections is not at all what makes a party reformist.
Call it what you like; the original thread starter simply stated that he was not interested in it.


By who?
YCL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Communist_League_of_Canada)

[buller]

By who? YCL
Here is a source which is more valid. We had a discussion about this, the central convention prep. committee of the YCL when some questions over the relationship between the party and ycl arose. It is a general consensus in the YCL Canada that we are not a youth wing of the party, for the reasons I previously stated.

I think we can all agree that the YCL Canada is an independent youth organization, with its own conventions, that supports the party. If you term that a youth wing, then go right ahead. The definition is more important than the term.


Call it what you like; the original thread starter simply stated that he was not interested in it.
And I simply asked why ;)

[Janus]

It is a general consensus in the YCL Canada that we are not a youth wing of the party, for the reasons I previously stated.
OK, I see though the situation is different in the US.

[Morag]

I&#39;m not a member, but I back buller when s/he says that the YCL is not reformist, because it isn&#39;t, nor is it technically a part of the CPC. They&#39;ve had some massive problems, recently, though, so who knows what&#39;s going to happen there.

On the other hand, I can fully recommend the Toronto group of Fightback as being totally welcoming and very good organisers. If nothing else, you&#39;ll learn a lot and make good contacts.

[fstick]

Right now Fightback is what I will join if I will not make my own organisation.

I am interested in some rather radical things. ;)