Greece – KKE (m-l): The Youth of this World do not Fit into the Future that is Being Prepared for Them
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a recent statement by the Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) [KKE(ml)] on the recent wave of demonstrations around the world, and the role of the youth in these developments.
The events of the recent days reveal the period that humanity has entered. On the one hand, there are bombings in Kiev, drones intercepted in Poland/Romania, consultations about NATO Articles 4 and 5, and the beginning of a new, bloodier cycle of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. On the other hand, thousands of people are taking to the streets, trying to find answers to the dark reality that the system has created. From the poor and destitute in Asian countries to the imperialist metropolises of the West, it is clear that the system no longer has anything to offer the people. In these mass mobilizations—which sometimes take on the character of uprisings—the youth are not only present, but they manage to leave their mark.
In Nepal, thousands of young people flooded Kathmandu and other cities in response to the government’s decision to ban a number of social media platforms, and faced extreme repression that led to more than 70 deaths. Attempts to approach the uprising as an expression of the indignation of the “online Gen Z generation”, obscure the class conditions that led a youth with a 22% unemployment rate, and where 1 in 5 citizens live below the poverty line, to set fire to parliament and politicians’ homes, set up roadblocks, and refuse to back down.
In Bangladesh, in the summer of 2024, suffocated youth (over 40% live on less than $1.25 a day) organized student protests against the government’s decision to change the quotas for public sector jobs, and sparked a mass uprising that forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee by helicopter to India.
In France, 200,000 protesters flooded the streets against the policies of French imperialism. The “Block Everything” movement, unlike the “Yellow Vests,” is mainly supported by school and university students. The 80,000 police officers who were mobilized showed the scale of the protests. “Young people are the future. The older generation left us a rotten world, a rotten government. It is up to us to fight to change things and dance on the ruins of the old world,” said a French student at the protests.
In Italy, the largest demonstration since the G8 era took place in Genoa. 50,000 people, including youth, flooded the streets to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people. Students warned that they will proceed with occupations if “the Global Sumud Flotilla is attacked by Israel,” while at the University of Pisa, they occupied a classroom where a pro-Zionist professor taught.
In England, thousands of youth are participating in the recent demonstrations called by the organization Palestine Action, which has been declared illegal as a “terrorist” organization by the British government. Recent research revealed the difficulties caused by the demonstrations for Palestine at universities, where institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College London have been forced to coordinate with the police and private security companies to deal with students. So far, 28 institutions have initiated disciplinary proceedings against at least 113 students.
In United States, student occupations at universities in support of Palestine showed that even at the heart of imperialism there is potential for resistance to flourish. The brutal repression, threats to expel students, mobilization of all the mass media, and even Trump’s “personal obsession” revealed not only efforts to support genocide, but also concerns about the form that the dissent of the youth takes.
In our country, the participation of schoolchildren, students, and youth in the protests in Tempi and for Palestine are similar examples of the effort to express the existing struggles.
All of the above is only a small glimpse into the youth’s effort to find alternative paths. A search that, with the lack of a communist movement, forces them to stray onto the wrong paths. However, they never cease to seek a better and fairer future. They are not “only” looking for answers to the issues raised by poverty, war, and the erosion of their democratic rights. They are looking for a vision of a society in which they will have a role to play. A society in which they can live, work, enjoy themselves, and build relationships on different terms. The conditions of defeat and disintegration at the ideological-political-organizational level brought about by the defeat of the communist-labor-revolutionary movement at this stage define the “limits” of the current situation. These limits, however, are not enough to make young people “sit on their hands.”
Rage, anger, and indignation led the youth to take to the streets on the “pretext” of a simple internet mobilization, to sacrifice their jobs and their university education. To take the spark and turn it into a fire, they have to move closer to communist ideas. This will highlight the need to connect with the working class and the people, it will put forward the need for organization and politicization, and it will be able to give form and content to the search for “another society.”
“Why should we call the waters of a river violent and not the banks that confine them?”
Bertolt Brecht
