Young Communist League of Britain

For Peace, Jobs and Socialism in our Lifetime

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What is the YCL?

We want to transform society in order to end exploitation, oppression, inequality, poverty, unemployment and war — in other words, we want to end the rule of the monopoly capitalist system and build a better socialist system.

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The League is a revolutionary youth organisation that operates on the basis of the creative application of Marxism-Leninism.

This means that we are Scientific Socialists who take a concrete approach to the struggle for working class interests and Socialism and have a democratic and disciplined organisation, based on democratic centralism.

We follow the theories and practice of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the Communist movement and socialist countries since 1917.

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We work individually, collectively and in broad alliances with others in the working class and progressive movement in order to fight for the interests of working people, social and economic progress and Socialism.

We do this in communities, trade unions, workplaces, schools, colleges and universities as well as campaigns for anti-fascism, anti-racism, international solidarity, peace, LGBT+ rights, women’s rights and more.

The YCL is organisationally independent, with its own policies, structures and finances.

Simultaneously, we are the youth organisation of the Communist Party of Britain. We follow the Communist Party programme Britain’s Road to Socialism.

For Peace, Jobs and Socialism in our Lifetime, join the YCL today!

Events:

Both nationally and locally we organise a number of events throughout the year for people to attend. These range from theoretical discussions, education sessions, to study schools and guest lectures.

The majority of them over the past year have been taking place digitally and open to both members & non-members alike.

Below we list our upcoming events, for you to register for and attend:

More events TBA

The Young Communist League of Britain was founded in 1921, meaning that this year we mark our 100th anniversary.

Throughout the year we will be celebrating our past in order to inspire new struggles in the present and the future.

YCL100 will be a year-long calendar of collective campaign work where we reach out to far more young people than ever before.

YCL100 will be a time to celebrate and fight for the dreams of youth in Britain. For updates and more information, head to our Centenary website below:

Learn Basic Marxism-Leninism

Learning is a lifelong process and the study of Marxism-Leninism is no exception. The international communist movement is unique in world history for the breadth and depth of the scientific theory which underpins it. Marxism-Leninism is a living and constantly developing theory. These however aren’t reasons to be daunted or reluctant for those setting out to read communist theory for the first time or those who want to improve their current understanding.

Our Back2Basics guide below is a series on Marxist concepts made easy, aiming to provide a starting point for those interested in learning about communist theory, and a foundation for further reading and study.

Reading List:

There are thousands of books which have been produced all around the world in relation to the theories and practice of Marxism-Leninism. Knowing where to begin with your study to correctly develop your understanding of Communism can be almost impossible. Sure, everyone knows of The Communist Manifesto, but beyond that where do you begin?

To solve this we have put together the Back2Basics guide to develop your initial concepts of Marxist-Leninist theory, which you can read here.

Beyond this, we have put together a number of the most essential and fundamental works written by Communist leaders and theorists, as well as a few Communist Party of Britain publications, available as free PDF downloads below:

The regularly updated programme of the Communist Party of Britain, to which we are constitutionally bound, explains the long-term context and strategy of the fight for working class power and Socialism in Britain.

The PDF is available here,
and a Study Guide for it is available here.

A short study pamphlet by the Communist Party of Britain on Marxism, capitalism, Socialism, Communism, and revolution.

The PDF is available here.

A short pamphlet by the Communist Party of Britain explaining the role and policies of the Party and Young Communist League.

The PDF is available here.

A few short but essential texts to begin with:

1) The Principles of Communism - Friedrich Engels

What is communism? What is the proletariat? What is the result of periodic economic crises of capitalism? What will a new, communist, social order be like and under what conditions will it be possible? Engels answers 25 simple questions on communism in The Principles of Communism (1847) in a concise and straightforward way.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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2) The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels

The Manifesto of the Communist Party (or, as it is most often called, The Communist Manifesto) contains the first and most complete summarised statement of the theoretical principles of Marxism and of the strategy and tactics of Communism. It was commissioned by the Second Congress of the Communist League in November 1847, and it was first published in February 1848.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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3) The Three Sources and Component Parts of Marxism - Vladimir Lenin

In this brief article Lenin explains how the teachings of Marx “arose as a direct and immediate continuation of the teachings of the greatest representatives of philosophy, political economy and socialism.”

PDF DOWNLOAD
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'4) 'Karl Marx' - Vladimir Lenin

This little book, which Lenin wrote in 1914 while in exile in Switzerland, contains a brief but comprehensive account of all the most essential elements of Marx’s teachings.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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5) Socialism, Utopian & Scientific - Friedrich Engels

Of all the works of Marx and Engels, this is probably the best for the beginner. Written in a very clear and easy style, it introduces the reader to the basic ideas of scientific socialism.

PDF DOWNLOAD

Further Reading:

More will be added as we go!

Wage Labour & Capital

Published as a pamphlet in 1849, its main aim is to help the worker to understand their own economic position in capitalist society.
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Value, Price & Profit

This pamphlet by Marx (which is also known as Wages, Price and Profit) contains a simple explanation of the basic ideas of political economy—value and surplus value.

Available together here:
PDF DOWNLOAD

Conditions of the Working Class in England

Published in 1845 when Engels was only 24 years old, it explores the staggering human cost of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. It was this text which impressed Marx, and which led to their eventual friendship and collaboration together.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and The State

Engels shows how the principles of historical materialism are applied in the interpretation of the development of primitive society and of the origins of civilisation.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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The Housing Question

In this book Engels deals with a secondary consequence of the economic law of development of capitalism—the housing question.

He shows how not only bad and unhealthy housing, but a housing shortage and high rents, affecting not only the working class but large sections of the middle class also, result from the rapid development of industrial capitalism.

He discusses various schemes proposed for solving the housing problem, and concludes that this problem is integrally connected with capitalism and that only by the ending of capitalism will the housing question be finally solved.

PDF DOWNLOAD

What is communism? What is the proletariat? What is the result of periodic economic crises of capitalism? What will a new, communist, social order be like and under what conditions will it be possible? Engels answers 25 simple questions on communism in The Principles of Communism (1847) in a concise and straightforward way.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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The State & Revolution

This was written by Lenin on the eve of October, 1917, and sets forth the Marxist-Leninist teachings on the state. The last chapter, which was to deal with the experiences of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and February 1917, was never written: Lenin was “interrupted” by the advent of the October Revolution.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism

Lenin’s Imperialism was written in 1916, that is, in the midst of the imperialist war. In it he sought to lay bare the essential nature of imperialism, and thereby to unmask the policies of the imperialist powers, the roots of imperialist war, the treachery of the social-democratic leaders who had gone over to the side of the imperialists, and to show the workers that the way forward was by the overthrow of imperialism.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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What Is To Be Done?

What is to be Done is a book of key importance for the Marxist conception of the tasks of the working class party. It was directed against those who in the early days after the establishment of a working class party in Russia taught that the workers should engage in economic struggle only, concentrating on bread-and-butter problems rather than political issues. Lenin shows that to confine the working class movement to economic struggle alone means to give up the political struggle and so to condemn the workers to eternal wage slavery.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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"Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder

Left Wing Communism is a handbook of Communist Party strategy and tactics, of Communist leadership, and the building of a mass party. It was written in 1920, at the time of the 2nd Congress of the Communist International, in order to correct the “leftist” mistakes being made by Communists in a number of countries. Lenin draws on the experiences of the Russian Bolsheviks as a guide for the world Communist movement.

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A divisive figure, one cannot deny the historical role Stalin played in saving the world from fascism and presiding over the first nation to attempt the construction of socialism. It is crucial, as Marxists, that we study all he did.
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Dialectical and Historical Materialism

Defining dialectical materialism as “the world outlook of the Marxist-Leninist party,” Stalin explains that it is dialectical in its method, materialist in its theory Historical materialism is the extension of the principles of dialectical materialism to the study of social life. This book contains a brilliant exposition of the principal features of (1) the Marxist dialectical method, (2) Marxist philosophical materialism and (3) the Marxist science of society. In it are summarised the fruits of the whole experience of the application and development of Marxist theory in the course of the working class struggle for socialism.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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Foundations of Leninism

Stalin’s Foundations of Leninism consists of a series of lectures delivered at Sverdlov University, Moscow, for new Party members recruited during the Lenin enrolment which took place in 1924 after the death of Lenin. The lectures explained to the new members how Lenin had developed further the most important points of Marxism, the theory and practice of the working-class struggle.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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Marxism and the National Question

Stalin’s article Marxism and the National Question, published in 1913, develops the Marxist teachings on the national question on the basis of the entire experience of national movements to that date, and constituted the point of departure for the solution of the national question in the Russian Revolution.

PDF DOWNLOAD
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Anarchism or Socialism

This little book was written by Stalin as a young man of twenty-six, when he was leading the party in Transcaucasia. At that time a group of anarchists was disrupting the Transcaucasian workers’ organisations, and Stalin set out to explain the ideas of Marxism in opposition to those of the anarchists.

The book was addressed to the ordinary rank and file workers, and contains a very simple and popular exposition of the fundamentals of Marxist theory; it is a model of how profound questions of theory should be linked with the immediate tasks of the working class struggle.

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Rosa Luxemburg (1871 - 1919) was a Polish-born German revolutionary and agitator who played a key role in the founding of the Polish Social Democratic Party and the Spartacus League, which grew into the Communist Party of Germany.

As a political theoretician, Luxemburg developed a humanitarian theory of Marxism, stressing democracy and revolutionary mass action to achieve international socialism.

In 1898, after marrying Gustav Lübeck to obtain German citizenship, she settled in Berlin to work with the largest and most powerful constituent party of the Second International, the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Almost at once, she jumped into the revisionist controversy that divided the party. In 1898 the German revisionist Eduard Bernstein argued that Marxist theory was essentially outdated and that socialism in highly industrialized nations could best be achieved through a gradualist approach, using trade-union activity and parliamentary politics.

This Luxemburg denied categorically in Sozialreform oder Revolution? (1899; Reform or Revolution), in which she defended Marxist orthodoxy and the necessity of revolution, arguing that parliament was nothing more than a bourgeois sham. Karl Kautsky, the leading theoretician of the Second International, agreed with her, and revisionism consequently became a socialist heresy both in Germany and abroad, though it continued to make headway, especially in the labour movement.
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Reform or Revolution?

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Clara Zetkin (1857 - 1933) was a German feminist, Socialist, and Communist leader, who after World War I played a leading role in the new Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands; KPD) and the Comintern (Third International).

A personal friend of Lenin and of the revolutionary writer and activist Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin organized the first international women’s conference against World War I (Bern, 1915), was a cofounder in 1916 of the radical Spartacus League (Spartakusbund), and joined the new Communist Party of Germany in 1919, becoming a member of the party’s central committee and serving in the Reichstag (federal lower house) from 1920.

Her work 'The Struggle Against Fascism' was given as a report on June 20, 1923, to the Third Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International.

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The Struggle Against Fascism

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Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869 – 1939) has been overshadowed as a revolutionary and essayist in the popular perception by the figure of Lenin and unfortunately became known by many simply as ‘Lenin’s wife’.
Despite her outstanding record as an educationalist, Krupskaya’s writing remains neglected in English. She served from the first days of the revolution, firstly from November 1917 as deputy to Anatoli Lunacharsky, People’s Commissar of Education and Enlightenment, where she took responsibility for Adult Education and developed the Soviet library classification system.

From 1920 she became chair of the education committee and was Deputy Minister of Education of the USSR from 1929 until her death in 1939. She also played a leading role in founding the Communist Youth movements Komsomol and the Pioneers.

The Woman Worker, Krupskaya’s first pamphlet, was written in Siberian exile where she had joined Lenin, following their arrest in 1896 and sentencing to three years internal exile in Shushenskoye. Krupskaya and Lenin married in July 1898.

The Woman Worker was originally published and circulated in 1901 before being banned following suppression of the 1905 revolution. It was republished in 1925 with a new preface by the author (included in this translation).

Its significance stems from being the first Marxist work on the situation of women in Russia. The author analyses in some depth the causes of women’s lack of rights under tsarism. She calls on women to join the ranks of fighters for a better life, as equals and alongside men workers. “The woman worker is a member of the working class” she writes “and all her interests are closely tied to the interests of that class.”

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The Woman Worker

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Eleanor Marx (1855 - 1898) was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, was born in London on 16th January 1855.

A very intelligent child, she was mainly taught by her father and by the age of three she could recite passages by Shakespeare. Marx, who treated his daughter as a "friend and companion" could converse with her as a child in German and French as well as English.

By the time Eleanor was sixteen (1871) she acted as her father's secretary, accompanying him to international conferences on socialism.

Before his death, Karl Marx had given Eleanor the task of preparing his unfinished manuscripts for publication. Eleanor also had the task of dealing with the English publication of Das Kapital.

Eleanor wrote many articles and books, including the following article in two parts shortly after her fathers death. Firstly as a short biography of him, and secondly exploring his Theory of Value.

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Karl Marx I & II

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Youth Charter

• PDF Document

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed Britain, from any perspective the outlook for young people under capitalism was grim.

We face a looming economic crisis, ten years in the making, accelerated and made more acute by the economic shock resulting from the pandemic. A climate crisis is unfolding before our eyes that threatens to destroy the world during our lifetimes and leave it unable to sustain human society as we know it.

The lives of young people in Britain are characterised by insecurity, uncertainty and poverty, regardless of the path we choose or are forced into. A decade of austerity has left our public services, the education system and our NHS stripped to the bone. There is no longer even a pretence of providing access to quality public education and cultural and leisure facilities for working class youth.

The options for most of those in work are low-paid, precarious and unfulfilling jobs with little chance of progression, poverty-pay apprenticeships or complete uncertainty in the gig economy. College and university students are forced to place additional financial pressure on their already strained families and jeopardise their studies by working long hours to support themselves. Education has been reduced to a product to be bought and sold for a questionable financial gain.

We are living through an epidemic in mental health problems among young people. Violent crime and anti-social behaviour are escalating across our society, with a disproportionate impact on the youth.

Capitalism in Britain has presented us with two options: accept the system as it is and a life without dignity, or to fight back and live life with a purpose. Britain’s young communists are clear on our choice. Where working people are prepared to struggle there is always hope and the youth have always led from the front.

The YCL’s Youth Charter is a set of policies to combat the immediate crisis faced by Britain’s youth and to offer some relief. The Charter isn’t a recipe for socialism. These policies can’t cure the underlying problems of capitalism but these demands and the struggle to achieve them ask the fundamental questions about economic ownership and democratic control in our country. They would make a massive difference to the lives of the millions of young people in Britain today.

These aren’t just policies for the YCL, these are demands for the broad working class and student movements which can be translated into the thousands of struggles taking place every day in our schools, campuses, communities and workplaces.
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Read and download our Youth Charter here!

Join the YCL today!

Our generation have only known austerity and deprivation, indignity and war, years of Tory rule and a right-wing media that whips up propaganda and discrimination in order to keep working people as divided and powerless as possible.

Our school system is crumbling. Further and higher education are becoming the preserve of the wealthy. Poverty pay, insecurity and precariousness are the reality for increasing numbers of the youth.

It is no wonder that mental health problems seem to be increasing exponentially among our generation. Hopelessness is bound to be the result when every aspect of our lives are filled with difficulty and doubt. Finding a decent job, a home to live in and building towards a fulfilling and meaningful future are impossible under this present system.

In the struggle for progress and Socialism, we each play our part in something bigger than ourselves, we play our part in the realisation of not only our dreams, but the dreams of our class and the whole of humanity.

We invite you to join us and play your part.

Join us for as little as £1, £2.50, or £5 per month.
Our members stand in elections within our organisation, organise activities and help to decide upon our policies and priorities.

Membership of the YCL is open to anyone between 12 and 30 years old who lives in Britain and agrees with our rules and policies.

Before joining please make sure you read and agree with the following:

1) Our programme: Britain’s Road to Socialism, which explains the long-term context and strategy of the fight for working class power and Socialism in Britain.
PDF DOWNLOAD

2) Our Constitution, which explains our organisation’s rules and expectations of members.
PDF DOWNLOAD

3) The YCL’s 49th Congress Political Resolution, which is a medium-term summary of what we think and what we are going to do, agreed by members at Congress every two years.
PDF DOWNLOAD

As well as actively working through our Marxist-Leninist Back2Basics guide & our Reading List, although each member will be invited to participate in YCL educational sessions throughout the year.
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Once you have done the above, then head here for more details and to submit your application:

30 Reasons to Join The Communists:

Reason 1:
Democracy

Communists are democrats in the fullest sense of the word. We believe in a truly democratic society. A society controlled by working people. A society which operates not only in the interests of the working class in Britain but also our planet and all humanity.

We reject the deception and cleverly constructed edifice that is bourgeois democracy in Britain in 2020. A democracy in name only where all political power is wielded by bankers, financiers and their servants in the interests of big business. A country where the voice of the youth, working people and our communities are drowned and smothered by greed and the power that money can so easily buy.

We struggle to develop the democratic traditions of Britain’s working people. We call for the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords and clean break with the anti-democratic European Union. We fight for a new era of working class state power and real people’s democracy based in our communities, workplaces, schools, universities and colleges.

Reason 2:
Taking Action

The policies and priorities of the YCL are democratically decided by our own membership. Unlike the youth wings of most parties in Britain, we are organisationally independent and genuinely run by young people. We reject careerism and inward looking politics. We’re organised for the struggle for socialism, and geared towards unified action.

Political debate and discussion occur and are encouraged at every level of the organisation, from local branches and districts up to a national level. Our programme, Britain's Road to Socialism, is approved and regularly updated by our membership. Policies are formulated by our Congress, the highest democratic body of the YCL which must be held at least once every two years.

Decisions of the Congress are carried out by an elected Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is at all times accountable to a Central Committee with representatives from all branches and the next Congress. Elected representatives at every level of the organisation remain accountable to the membership at all times.

Following the fullest possible debate and discussion democratically taken decisions are binding across the organisation. Unity of purpose and unity of action are the strength of working people. Local branches, districts and organisations decide how best to implement decisions and YCL policy strategically in their area. National and District Congresses democratically formulate policy for Scotland, Wales and the regions of England based on local conditions.

If you want to be part of a fighting organisation ran by its members, join the YCL today.

Reason 3:
Communist

Communism is the ideology of human liberation. Drawing on the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other thinkers from across the planet, communists understand that capitalism is an exploitative and ultimately doomed economic system.

Capitalism depends on the relentless exploitation of the working class. Without workers selling their labour power for less than it’s worth, the system wouldn’t last a week.

For big capitalists, banks and transnational companies the capitalism means unimaginable wealth, power and control. For working people it means poverty and exploitation. For the peoples of the so-called third world, capitalism means imperialism, subjugation and ruthless oppression. For our planet, capitalism is a death sentence.

But Communists also know that capitalism is only a passing phase in human development. It can and must be abolished and replaced by socialism, common ownership and democratic control - working class state power. In time developing into communist society, a society completely “free from the exploitation of man by man”. History and the experience of the socialist countries since 1917 have proven this to be the case. While capitalism continues to decay, at times turning to fascism, socialism has delivered stunning gains for working people, women and minorities.

Socialism is the only future that can work. Today more than ever capitalism means extinction.
If you’re serious about socialism in our lifetime, join the YCL today!

Reason 4:
Revolutionary

We don’t aim to mend capitalism. We’re fighting to end it.
Capitalism is an exploitative and decaying system. It has to be swept away and a new socialist system constructed in its place. Fighting for short term gains like wage increases and improved public services deliver important gains for working people but even more importantly they build class consciousness and the organisations that will be able to dismantle capitalism.

Social democrats, such as the Labour Party in Britain, attempt to reform capitalism to soften its edges. But capitalism is vicious and unreformable. Any short term gains are always in danger and can always be rolled back when the ruling class regains its strength. Look at the gains of the post WWII Labour Government – many are already gone and the Tories are working hard to do away with the rest.

The YCL calls for socialist revolution, not dead end reform. Only a fundamental and irreversible shift in power from the capitalist ruling class to the working people, working class state power, can guarantee democratic rights and social progress.

This doesn’t mean that the YCL calls for an armed uprising in Britain tomorrow, although we defend the right of the oppressed to take up arms for their liberation. A socialist revolution in Britain can and should be achieved through mass struggle, with communists as its vanguard. However history has shown that it is the right wing and the ruling class which will attempt to use police, the army and the tools of the state to strangle socialist change. But history has also shown that the power of a united working class is unconquerable.

Reason 5:
Mass Movement

In Britain, the YCL and the Communist Party are helping to build a mass working class and trade union movement.

We never put our own interests as an organisation above those of the working class as a whole. We seek to build and mobilise the widest possible section of society behind left and progressive policies.

The YCL recognises the central importance of trade unions as the broadest mass organisations of the working class. We’re committed to the fighting against all anti-trade union laws.

As communists, we recognise the vital role we must play at the forefront of any mass movement. We aim to be at the front of any progressive struggle backed by the working people, making sure there is asocialist presence in all areas of the fight for liberation.

We also work within our communities to improve everyday life for those around us, providing food banks for the needy and helping local tenants organisations fight for the rights of renters around Britain.

We fight to be the leading force for working people with clear, class conscious, anti-imperialist politics. A strong YCL and Communist Party means a strong left and trade union movement in Britain.

Join us now and play your part!

Reason 6:
Internationalist

Communism is, and always has been, a truly global movement spanning every country and continent.

In 2020 millions of communists the world over lead the struggle tor peace and socialism, carrying forward the legacy of the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917.

While we fight for socialism in Britain, a major imperialist centre, solidarity with oppressed peoples and the socialist countries is one of our foremost duties.

We are part of an international movement that is growing around Europe and the world. In Britain, many see internationalism in the form of supranational trading blocs such as the European Union. We unambiguously reject this notion and reject the idea that the EU is a bloc designed with workers in mind. Communist internationalism unites our class, across borders, through unions and other organisations.

The YCL is a founder member of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, which represents millions of progressive young people in around 100 countries from communist and anti-imperialist movements. We campaign in solidarity with sister young communist organisations around the World and defends existing socialist countries.

We support the right to self determination and oppose any attempt by imperialist states such as Britain, the US and the EU to impose their will on the peoples of the world or to exploit or to exploit the world's resources for capitalist profit.

The YCL is a member of the Meeting of European Communist Youth Organisations, which brings together communist youth organisations from across Europe. This is the kind of internationalism that we support, not the bourgeois faux-internationalism of big business, represented by the EU. We stand with millions of communists in Europe and around the world who reject the EU's neoliberal agenda.

Join us now and be part of a global movement!

Reason 7:
Feminist

"There is no true social revolution without the liberation of women.”

Women’s liberation should be central to any Communist movement, and it is here in Britain. We reject the notion that women’s issues should be treated as distinct or separate from the wider class struggle. Women cadres in the YCL take to the fore in campaigning through their trade unions, as all cadres should and take a leading role in all areas of the YCL.
Whilst social democrats and liberals may argue that the fight for women’s liberation has largely been won, we recognise that in Britain’s society, women face structural and systemic oppression. Working class women face exploitation and injustice in all facets of their lives. The YCL recognises that only a socialist society, free from the exploitation of one person by another, can deliver true, meaningful equality and women’s liberation.

The objectification and sexualisation of women is also a key area in which both the young men and women of the YCL argue the need for socialism. The mass media and advertising present women as a means for the gratification of men, and in recent years, the endemic normalisation of pornography and prostitution has seen us take a step backwards in terms of equality. The YCL fights against this.

Britain’s Communists argue for a feminist politics that is integral to the fight for socialism. Even under capitalism gains can be made, better rights and a more dignified life can be won for women in Britain, but the oppression of working class women can only end under Socialism.

Join the fight for socialism. Join the fight for women’s liberation. Join the YCL!

Reason 8:
LGBT+ Rights

Much like the struggle for gender equality, the struggle for liberation and equality for the LGBT+ community remains an incomplete one.

While significant gains have been made in recent decades, the LGBT+ community in Britain continues to face deep and pervasive discrimination across the social, political and economic spheres. Marginalisation, harassment and violence remain a constant feature of the lives of the LGBT+ community. Internationally, persecution and murder are the reality faced by the LGBT+ community in many countries.

Under capitalism discrimination and prejudice are tools of the ruling class to divide and distract working people. Oppression and capitalism are inseparable and intrinsically linked. True LGBT+ equality and liberation have been and will always be impossible under capitalism. But capitalism, in pursuit of its own survival, can be pragmatic and adaptable. Hence we have seen the rise of so called ‘rainbow capitalism’, the co-option and accommodation of certain elements of the

LGBT+ community where it is economically useful to do so. Massive banks and companies – who a decade ago would have nothing to do with the struggle for LGBT+ liberation – are now the main sponsors of LGBT+ marches and happily drape themselves in the rainbow flag. Sponsorship by the ruling class and this opportunistic and selective approach to the struggle can never deliver real and meaningful equality for the LGBT+ community.

The YCL opposes anti-LGBT+ discrimination in all its forms. Hatred against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and trans people must be combatted wherever it is found. Anti-LGBT+ discrimination and violence remain a bitter stain on our society. An end to discrimination, in all its forms, goes hand in hand with the struggle for socialism – a truly humane, democratic and inclusive society.

Working people have been and must continue to be at the forefront of the struggle for LGBT+ liberation, it is essential that the fight for LGBT+ equality remains a class issue. Former YCL General Secretary Mark Ashton fought for this key principle and the YCL commends him for it, and continues his struggle today.

Join the struggle for LGBT+ liberation today!

Reason 9:
Disability Rights

Disabled people face acute discrimination and marginalisation in capitalist society. Under a system which puts private profit and short term greed above all else, the needs of disabled people and the requirements for equality rank low.

Disabled youth often find themselves alienated from most aspects of social, economic and political life. Facing barriers to education, much higher rates of unemployment and being denied the resources necessary to lead a full life.

The austerity measures imposed on working people and the youth since 2010, have particularly targeted disabled people. Over one in five disabled people live below the poverty line. Tens of thousands have died as a result of these cuts. Millions have had essential support cut.

Many suggest they have the answer to help disabled people; empowering disabled people, being aware of the problems. They sound positive, but never address the core issues. Disabled people want rights not charity. We must fight for equal treatment and the rights and resources needed to live a full and dignified life.

Under capitalism this will never happen because there is no profit in it for the massive monopolies which dominate our society. Instead disabled people are constantly scapegoated as a drain on society, unvalued, unempowered.

As communists we know the answer is fighting for socialism. Capitalism only cares about your ability to make profit. Communism cares about your humanity.

Join the YCL today!

Reason 10:
Ending Austerity

In 2010, the disastrous coalition government began to implement an austerity program that has ravaged our economy and public services. The Tories and Lib Dems relentlessly cut our NHS, education and welfare system in an attempt to cover up the damage caused by capitalism.

This austerity was nothing less than a planned attack on working class rights and living standards to make workers pay for the Financial Crisis. Britain’s ruling class and their political parties told us cuts were necessary to pay for the £1,300 billion bailout handed to the banks in 2008.

Johnson and the Tories, who have devastated our country and our communities for the last decade, now claim that austerity is over, but working people know this simply isn’t the case. There has been no reversal of cuts and no new investment in our communities and our public services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how dangerously underprepared our NHS and other public services have been left by Tory cuts. The same essential workers who have been relentlessly attacked over the last decade are now called heroes by the government - but apparently all they deserve is clapping.

Another economic crisis is coming which was already in the making long before the pandemic. The Tories will try to use it as a pretext to force another decade of austerity on us and to finish privatising our NHS

The YCL utterly rejects austerity. Working people didn’t cause the crisis and cuts and job losses won’t solve it. The YCL stands in unity with working class communities to call for an immediate end to austerity.

Britain's Communists fight for an increase in public spending, an immediate reversal on NHS privatisation, and more accessible education. In a socialist society, free from exploitation, this would never occur as the so-called "market forces" that ravaged the global economy would not hold the power they do now. The economy would be ran according to needs of the people, not the banks and big business.

Join the YCL today!

Reason 11:
Trade Unionism

Class struggle dominates our society. As communists, our task is a simple one, to patiently explain that our society, from top to bottom, is geared towards making profits, that profit comes from oppressing workers - making them work longer for less - and that Capitalism utterly depends on this.

Our society is dominated by consumerism, individualism and selfishness. To be working class, means to have to sell your labour power each day in order to live. The YCL believe the left have lost sight of the industrial struggle, and that this has allowed apathy, low class consciousness and low trade union membership to creep under our noses.

The YCL believes we must take part in the rebuilding of the industrial struggle in our workplaces; link it to the wider movement, to struggles in the community over tenants and housing rights, over climate change, over the resulting mass unemployment that the fourth industrial revolution is currently preparing, and over the democratic deficit.

We as workers should and must unite in their trade unions to fight against exploitation; only by fighting the bosses collectively can we protect our rights and future at work.

For power in the workplace!

Join the YCL today!

Reason 12:
For an education system that works!

Every level of Britain’s education system is in crisis. Another generation of young workers and students are being thrown on the scrapheap.

Our nurseries and primary schools are understaffed and underfunded. Britain’s youth are being failed in their earliest and most important years.

High schools across the country are in an equally dismal state. Only 5% of children who receive free school meals go on to further or higher education.

Budgets for further education colleges have been slashed with course numbers declining in many areas. Apprenticeship new starts are also steeply declining. It’s no surprise when apprentices are being paid a £4.15 per hour poverty wage. Hundreds of thousands in England alone aren’t even being paid that.

Since the introduction of tuition fees in 1998 university education has no longer been a right but a privilege. Tuition fees are now over £9,000 a year. This has been accompanied by cuts and restrictions on bursaries, grants and state funding. The average student completing a 3 year degree will leave university with around £50,000 of debt.

While tuition is still free in Scotland, this has been at the expense of other aspects of education and hundreds of thousands of college places, a stepping stone for working class young people to further education or skilled work.

Who is to blame for this? Capitalism, the Tory and SNP governments, austerity and privatisation. For them education is not a right or a virtue, but a commodity. The government has simultaneously cut budgets while carving off profitable sectors of the education system for the benefit of private companies. School students are having their futures undermined. Apprentices and young workers are there to be exploited. Students are simply customers.

We call for a well funded and publicly owned education system. We call for the abolition of private and religious schools and academies. We believe that everyone has the right to free and inclusive secular education including nursery care, schools, universities, community colleges and adult education centres.

To maximise participation at all levels, we’re fighting for free college and university education for all courses. We’re also calling for student loans to be replaced with guaranteed bursaries for all students and the reintroduction and extension of Education Maintenance Allowance for students across Britain.

Britain’s Communists fight for these goals within the mass movement, locally and within the national student unions and trade unions organising in the education sector.

In socialist society lifelong learning of the highest quality is a human right. We can make this a reality in Britain too.

For an education system that works for workers, join the YCL!

Reason 13:
For working class history and culture!

The role and lives of working people throughout history have been marginalised and ignored.

The history we learn in school is the history of ‘great men’. Textbooks don’t talk about the heroic role of Britain’s working class in winning the great antifascist struggle of WWII, focusing on bourgeois politicians instead.

When the BBC was first established it was, and would remain for decades, exclusively staffed by Etonian accents. The culture made available through mass media has always fit the ideology and political objectives of Britain’s ruling class.
Communists know that the ‘culture’ broadcast by corporate monopoly media is another tool by which the ruling class attempt to control and exploit Britain’s working class.

The YCL believes in celebrating and developing the centuries old culture of Britain’s working people and the generations that have made Britain their home. Our songs, stories, sports, traditions and celebrations, passed from generation to generation, are a product of our class, a class that continues to struggle today to assert itself in the face of exploitative and oppressive capitalism.

We stand on the shoulders of giants. The history of our class, the struggles, the victories and the defeats must be cherished, honoured and shared. Their struggles are our struggles, their lives and passions are our own, and we fight today to build the society that they yearned for. We pay tribute to their sacrifices, to build a world fit for our heroes, the working class.

We believe it is necessary to re-examine and constantly assert the unique history and culture of our class and the respective nations and regions of Britain.

If you’re working class and proud, join the YCL!

Honour the dead! Fight for the living!

Reason 14:
For a democratic and federal Britain!

Britain is a deeply undemocratic and fractured country.

Capitalism is the oppression and exploitation of the working class by the ruling class. All the institutions of the British state are geared to protect the capitalist system. The development of the British state has led an unequal relationship between the nations of Britain.

True democracy, national sovereignty and self determination can only be achieved under socialism. But we can and must fight to defend and advance our democratic and national rights now, in the struggle to achieve socialism.

The YCL calls for the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords. These unelected hangovers from centuries gone past have no place in modern Britain.

We are fighting for a clean break with the European Union. The EU is an anti democratic, neoliberal bloc designed only to serve big business. Boris Johnson and the Tories want a fake Brexit which protects the privileges of the City of London at the expense of the interests of working people and the youth.

We need to break free from EU rules which make austerity and privatisation permanent. Removing restrictive EU rules on state aid and public procurement will allow independence and scope for Britain to rebuild publicly owned utilities and a manufacturing industry.

All the nations of Britain – Wales, Scotland, England and Cornwall have the right of self determination. Our working classes share a proud history of joint struggle resisting capitalism and fighting for progressive change.

This tradition is the foundation of the Communist approach to the national question in Britain. Only by organising at a British level will workers in Britain be able to resist the power of international finance capital.

We fight for a new progressive federal structure, as the most effective way of advancing the democratic powers of the peoples of Britain while also achieving a radical redistribution of wealth to the regions and nations of the country.

We call for strengthening the powers of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh assembly to allow them to intervene decisively in the economy. The House of Commons should be able to reconstitute itself as an English Parliament where English-only measures are considered.

Directly-elected regional government in England should proceed where there is clear demand. The distinctive cultural and social characteristics of Cornwall should be expressed through a directly elected Cornish Assembly.

We cannot abandon national identity to the right wing. The fight for democracy and national sovereignty go hand in hand with the struggle for socialism. We must celebrate the progressive history embodied in each of our constituent nations.

We must fight to make socialist patriotism central to national identity.

Reason 15:
For a Socialist Student Movement!

The rise of individualism and neoliberalism has resulted in a near collapse of our once proud student movement in Britain.

The Tory government’s continued program of austerity has further pushed the commercialisation and privatisation of the education sector as a whole. This coupled with their irresponsible and dangerous decisions to put both students and teachers at risk by re-opening schools while the Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, and with university students continuing to have to pay their yearly £9000 tuition for video lectures at home. They are able to get away with all this in part due to the weakness in our trade union and student movements alike.

We must look to our allies across Europe for inspiration at what a militant and explicitly socialist student movement can achieve. The student politics of Lisbon and Athens are a world away from the radical liberalism and identity-politics ridden campus politics found in Britain. A socialist student movement in Britain is capable of recapturing the democratic institutions and progressive spirit of young people.

Campus politics cannot be left to liberalism. The Communist Party has a proud history of organising students and the YCL are determined to rekindle this struggle. Our universities, schools and colleges are filled with some of the brightest minds of our generation. We have to ensure their place in our movement.

The YCL believes that a socialist student movement is key to rekindling the class consciousness of the millions of young people across Britain. Look out for us organising around your schools, colleges and universities, and get involved. Join the YCL and build a socialist student movement.

Reason 16:
Peace and nuclear disarmament

War is an inevitable product of the capitalist system. Even today humankind stands at constant threat of nuclear annihilation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The ruling classes and transnational companies of the most powerful countries, the USA, EU and Britain are ever ready to use war, invasion and bombings to open up markets, seize resources and ensure compliant regimes and governments.

War itself is lucrative business under capitalism. The USA paid private companies billions of dollars while they destroyed and occupied Iraq. Progress in Korean peace talks in April 2018 saw the five biggest US defence contractors lose $10.2 billion in their stock value in a single day.

While the EU was enforcing harsh austerity across Europe, one of the only protected budget areas was military expenditure. Poverty stricken Greece was compelled to spend billions on French fighter jets. The EU itself is becoming increasing militarised with plans for an EU army as part of NATO well underway.

NATO, the nuclear first strike alliance, remains the greatest threat to world peace. The bombing of Yugoslavia, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the suffering in the Middle East today show that far from guaranteeing peace in Europe or the world, NATO is a tool of US-UK-EU imperialism.

This isn’t even to mention the existential threat posed by nuclear war. Deliberately or by accident, the human race could be wiped out in minutes.

Communists have always been at the forefront of the struggle for peace and nuclear disarmament in Britain and internationally. It’s at the heart of our programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, and we wholeheartedly support CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

The socialist countries have always acted to restrain the reckless aggression of imperialism and preserve peace. Only by ending capitalism can we end the scourge of war.

If you want peace in our lifetime – join the YCL!

Reason 17:
Solidarity with socialist countries

Communism is the only truly global political movement in human history. Britain’s communists have always believed that solidarity with countries already on the socialist path is one of our key tasks.

British schools and the capitalist media would have us believe that socialism ended in the 1990’s, before we were born, with the counterrevolutions in Eastern Europe. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

The reality is that hundreds of millions of people across the world live in socialist countries today including Cuba, China and Vietnam. Millions more are members of communist and workers’ parties fighting to win socialism in their own countries.

The ongoing Coronavirus crisis has further exposed the need to support the socialist bloc as NATO and its allies gear up for a new Cold War. The People’s Republic of China has shown the power of a centrally planned economy able to secure the rights of its people.

Similarly, Vietnam has prioritised the safety of its people over the needs of the economy. In comparison with Britain, where the death rate continues to rise, it is clear that the socialist bloc are delivering gains for working people.

As with nearly every health crisis prior to this, Socialist Cuba is a democratic and humanitarian beacon to the world. Despite the illegal US blockade Cuba has delivered stunning gains for its people – full employment, free healthcare, public housing, free education and rights for women and minorities.

The YCL works to build a better understanding of these countries among Britain’s workers and enduring friendship through our own links and through broad solidarity campaigns here in Britain.

The socialist camp is on the march again and growing in strength. We’re fighting to make Britain a member. Building solidarity and opposing US-UK-EU imperialist attacks are a key part of this.

If you want to build solidarity with the world’s socialist countries – join the YCL today!

Reason 18:
Build the struggle against imperialism

We live in the imperialist stage of capitalism, it’s final stage. Imperialism is the domination and exploitation of weaker capitalist states, colonial and former colonial countries by the major imperialist powers, the US-EU-UK.

All of this is done in the service of massive transnational companies - Unilever, Shell and BP to name a few. NATO, and their puppets in the EU act on their behalf in the interest of multinational capitalism.

Britain’s ruling class has a shameful legacy, dominating the biggest empire in history. Killing millions, oppressing and exploiting a quarter of the planet and engineering famine in Ireland and Bengal are just some of its crimes. British imperialism continues today - the partition of Ireland, bases spread across the planet, bombings and invasions.

Today the USA is the world’s foremost imperialist power. It’s bloody history is well known in Korea and Vietnam. It’s reckless aggression has cut a bloody swathe across the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Today Venezuela is in the crosshairs.

Since the destruction of the Soviet Union the USA has become increasingly erratic. Trump is a symptom, not the cause - the cause is globalist imperialism seeking to force open new markets to exploit, and arms companies forever needing to sell more and more astronomical quantities of death dealing products.

Britain’s communists have a proud history resisting imperialism. We uphold the rights of sovereignty and self determination of all peoples. Globally communists have always led the anti-imperialist struggle.

If you believe in resisting imperialism and solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world - join the YCL!

Reason 19:
Black Lives Matter

Despite many successful struggles led by working people against racism and racial inequality, they remain a cancer in our society, with many working people seeing or experiencing it on a daily basis. Under capitalism, racism and prejudice are essential tools for the ruling class to divide working people and to super exploit black and minority workers.

The inspiring Black Lives Matter protests in Britain, the USA and around the world we have seen in 2020 show us that this struggle is far from over. These movements have not just highlighted the racial inequality that still exists in our society. They have also shown the power of working people and the youth when they stand up to fight for radical change.

In Britain, black and minority ethnic workers face significantly higher rates of poverty and unemployment and face discrimination and oppression in housing and education. In Britain, ethnic minorities face disproportionately high rates of imprisonment as well as institutionalised police violence.

We must fight for equal rights, treatment and inclusion of black, Asian and minority ethnic descent. We must learn and teach our history – a shared history of class struggle by “workers of all lands”, whether English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Caribbean or Asian, for freedom against the capitalist class and the British Empire.

The bourgeois media would have you believe that the working class is inherently racist. The reality is that workers and Communists have always been at the forefront of the struggle against racism and oppression, all the way back to the Lancashire weavers who refused to work cotton from the slave-owning Southern USA in the 1860s and even further.

Communists have struggled against racism and fascism at every turn, at Cable Street, in the trade union movement, in the Connolly Association for Irish workers in Britain, in the Movement for Colonial Freedom that raised the cry for freedom of the British Empire’s colonies and ex-colonies, alongside their brothers and sisters from India, Africa and elsewhere.

But the battle is not yet won. Since 2010 the Tories have turned immigrants into a scapegoat for the failings of British capitalism. Some have died in detention centres. Many are sent back, trapped on European borders, harassed and trafficked, including asylum seekers who run from wars that we helped to create.

In the past year Britain and the European Union have allowed tens of thousands of men, women and children to drown in the Mediterranean to maintain ‘Fortress Europe’. Recent weeks have seen right wingers engage in stunts targeting asylum seekers at the English Channel, egged on by sensationalists media coverage. We need real humanitarian polices and an end to attacks on migrants for the failings of capitalism.

Racism is a product of the capitalist system itself. Modern Britain needs a new generation of communists to rebuild the unity of our working class, to fight racism and fascism and to win the struggle for socialism.

Together, we can and will win. Join the YCL!

Reason 20:
Fight the climate crisis!

In days like these the youth need deeds not words. This year's climate strikes have been inspirational.

2020 has seen the continuation of some of the most destructive and unpredictable weather and climate events in generations. New temperature records continue to be set. Capitalist industrialisation is warming the planet. This is beyond dispute.

The events of this year herald the potential onset of an irrevocable change in the Earth’s climate which could spell the end of humanity. This crisis has been decades in the making and despite years of warnings and irrefutable evidence, capitalism and our ruling class have proven themselves unwilling and unable to solve it.

While there is money to be made in burning fossil fuels and while the massive monopolies which profit from it control our political establishment, this is unsurprising.
We are told that climate change is a problem equally attributable to everyone everywhere regardless of their class. Ignoring the fact that the world’s richest 10% account for 50% of fossil fuel emissions, while the poorest 50% produce just 10%. Just 100 companies have been responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.

Time is running out. In a few decades we may already be too late. The story of the human race might end, almost as soon as it started, here on a planet which has been made uninhabitable by greed.

But it doesn’t have to end like this. Britain’s Communists and the socialist countries have offered radical solutions to save our planet, the cradle of humanity. Cuba is ranked world number 1 for sustainable development by the World Wildlife Federation. China is re-orientating itself as the world’s biggest economy towards renewable energy, building two new wind farms every hour along with the biggest solar farms in the world.

This crisis was created by capitalist greed but it can be solved by human cooperation. The choice we have to make is socialism or extinction.

Join the Communists and fight for an economic system based on human need and sustainability.

Reason 21:
Real jobs for young workers!

Communists have always played a leading role in the struggle not only for workers’ rights, but for better jobs with better pay, a productive industrial strategy that benefits our people and an end to the anarchy that the capitalist system creates for workers and their livelihoods on a daily basis.

From the General Strike to the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in that saved thousands of jobs of from Tory deindustrialisation, from teachers to train drivers, organisation made it possible to achieve laws like the Equal Pay Act and more.

But since the late 1970s, we are the first generation of young people to have less hope and opportunities in work, housing, health and education than their parents expected when they were younger.

If today’s young workers and the generations ahead are to prosper then the balance of class forces must be upset, and the defeats of the 1980s and onwards avenged with new, stronger, militant organisation of workers in Britain that fights for a society where jobs are meaningful and the system of production serves our needs and not the other way around.

We need an end to age discrimination in pay and a new system of quality mass apprenticeships and other training routes, opportunities to study without crushing debt, jobs that develop our skills and abilities and take us somewhere in life, and time to live outside of work, see friends and family, and live and eat decently.

That is where the Communist Party and the YCL come in.

Join the YCL and join a new generation of young workers who will turn the tide against a Britain where good jobs and a bright future are a right only for the rich. We’re fighting for an end to age discrimination in pay and for many of the other pressing issues affecting young workers and working people.

Join the fight for decent lives for the youth and for the replacement of a rigged system with a system that works for us, with decent work for us: Socialism!

Reason 22:
Against racism and fascism!

Communists have a long and proud history of opposing all forms of racism and fascism.

In Britain the Communist Party led opposition to Oswald Mosley culminating in the famous Battle of Cable Street. Hundreds of YCLers and CP members fought and died in Spain resisting Franco. Communists across Europe led resistance movements against Nazi occupiers. Over 26 million Soviet citizens died to defeat and smash Nazi fascism.

Communists look beyond race, ethnicity and nationality. The Communist Manifesto famously declares “Workers of all lands, unite!”

By contrast, history has shown that capitalism is dependent on and encourages division along lines of race. From the Atlantic Slave Trade to the exploitation and abuse of migrant labour in 2020, racism has always been good for business under capitalism.

We face a dangerous situation today. Britain has an openly racist prime minister in the form of Boris Johnson. Donald Trump detains migrants, including young children, on the US-Mexico Border. Across Europe right wing and fascist movements have gained popularity, in part as a result of the policies of the European Union.

Socialism and communism are the antithesis of fascism. Whilst communists fight for the liberation of all, fascism is the end of democracy and oppression in the interests of big business.

Capitalism fosters racism in order to divide and rule, to preserve the system. While we live under a capitalist system the resurgence of fascism is an ever present risk where progressive forces make advances.

Fascist politics in whatever form must be met with total and direct opposition. Alongside the Communist Party we are proud to be part of Britain’s broad anti-fascist movement.

Communists across the planet have always been on the frontline in the struggle against racism and fascism. If you want to play your part – join the YCL today!

Reason 23:
Build the struggle in your community!

The YCL fights to ground the struggle for socialism in working class communities up and down the country.

Communists know that political struggle isn’t restricted to Parliament and the corridors of power. Working people are engaged in daily struggles in their communities against exploitative landlords, negligent councils, government cuts and big business.

These daily struggles, along with trade union struggles, can and must be the basis of a future mass movement that can win major gains at a local and national level. A mass movement of working people that can one day take and hold state power and put Britain on the socialist path.

Communists never put our own interests as an organisation above those of the movement as a whole and we seek to build the widest possible coalition behind progressive policies. Working people have an earth shattering ability to unite and organise.

Communists don’t parachute into neighbourhoods and dictate. We work in the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, trade unions and tenants’ organisations which lead broad struggles in communities across the country.

The role of the YCL and the Party is to contribute organisationally to these local struggles and inject socialist politics. We are organically part of the working class. We work to relate the local struggles to the national and the national to the global. The cuts to local libraries to government austerity, government austerity to the European Union and the global capitalist crisis.

In this way real gains are won for working people. More and more working people join the fight for socialism. The organisations of a socialist mass movement are built and strengthened.

If you want to build the struggle in your community, join the YCL today!

Reason 24:
Deliver a People's Brexit

The European Union is anti-democratic, anti-worker and neoliberal to its core. Its powerless Parliament is a sideshow. The work of the EU in the last year has further highlighted its disdain for the views of ordinary working people. All power is held by the unelected Commission ran by right wing politicians and executives.

Far from being an internationalist union, the EU is designed to subjugate the peoples of Europe to the interests of big business and transnational companies. Over the past decade it has ruthlessly enforced austerity and privatisation across the continent inflicting misery, especially in the Mediterranean countries.

These EU policies have contributed to the resurgence of the far right across Europe. The EU-US-NATO have funded and armed openly neo-Nazi forces in Ukraine. Many governments and parties represented in the EU are made up of rabid right wingers, racists and xenophobes.

If you want to see a truly racist immigration policy look no further than ‘Fortress Europe’. Priority is given to migration from only white European countries. Barriers are thrown up for non-European nationals. The EU-US-NATO powers engineered the crises in Libya and Syria, destabilising the surrounding regions creating millions of refugees. The EU has been happy to let tens of thousands drown in the Mediterranean.

While Covid-19 continues to dominate the headlines, Brexit appears to have become a sideshow. However, if we are to break with the Neoliberal boss’s club that the EU represent, we have to ensure that Brexit is fully delivered upon. EU rules on state aid, procurement and competition will prevent even the most ordinary promises of social democracy. As an economic crisis looms, we have to have access to these powers in the interests of working people.

The YCL believes we need to renationalise our rail, energy, and mail services and invest in rebuilding industry. All impossible within the EU. It was policies promoted by the EU and enthusiastically implemented by our ruling class and their Tory Party which destroyed industry in Britain and privatised our public services.

The YCL knows that working people voted to leave the EU in 2016. This mandate has to be honoured if we are to protect what little democracy has been won under capitalism and pave the way for a better future.

For democracy!
For popular sovereignty!
For a workers Brexit now!
Join the YCL today!

Reason 25:
Against NATO and a new Cold War!

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) remains the biggest threat to world peace and to humanity’s future in 2020.

In our schools, colleges and universities, and in the mainstream media we are told that NATO was established to resist the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. This is despite the fact that NATO was established in 1949, 6 years before the formation of the Warsaw Pact.

Since then NATO has been a vehicle for US imperialism and its European partners, especially Britain. The alliance has been used to attack countries which threaten the interests of transnational companies and to stifle socialist advance.

During the so-called Cold War against the USSR, People’s Democracies of Eastern Europe and national liberation in the third world, NATO led and coordinated nuclear proliferation, sabre rattling and war games aimed at the ultimate destruction of the socialist camp.

Since the 1990s, NATO more and more chooses outright intervention in the interests of US imperialism and big business. It has unleashed bloody conflicts in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya.

Today NATO is one of the biggest threats to the youth of Britain, Europe, the world, and all humanity. NATO continues to be a vehicle for imperialist intervention globally. NATO is, and always has been, a nuclear first strike alliance, not a defensive one. NATO stands ready at all times to unleash a nuclear armageddon that would end life on our planet.

In 2020, Britain’s ruling class, the USA and the European Union through NATO are seeking to stoke up a new Cold War against their rival, Putin’s Russia, on the one hand and China’s peaceful model of development on the other.

Working people have nothing to gain from their cloak and dagger games and everything to lose. The only winners in that fight will be Trump, Johnson and the international arms manufacturers.

Communists call for a foreign policy which is based on peace, cooperation and international development, not war and extortion. This will only be possible outside of NATO and the web of US imperialism.

No to NATO war and imperialism!

Join the struggle for lasting peace!
Join the YCL today!

Reason 26:
A militant youth organisation

The YCL prides itself on being an organisation made up of young workers and students.

Today’s media would have us believe that young people in Britain are selfish, lazy and uninterested in politics. We know that this is a myth aimed to deter young people from getting involved.

Capitalism works to create despair and apathy, a belief that things can never change, especially among the youth. Despite this, over the last year alone and despite the pandemic, in an inspirational showing, hundreds of thousands of young people across Britain have taken to the streets to fight against systemic racism and climate change.

Young people have always been at the forefront of revolutionary politics and the struggle for socialism. From the Great October Socialist Revolution and the fight against fascism to the millions of young communists across the planet today.

Britain’s communists don’t try and temper the revolutionary spirit of the youth. The YCL aims to harness this potential and direct it into the organised struggle.

Unlike many other political youth organisations, we’re genuinely ran by our young members. We support the Communist Party’s programme, Britain’s Road to Socialism, but we decide our own policies and priorities and how they are to be implemented every two years at an all-Britain Congress.

Most political youth organisations are a shallow and cynical tool for careerists. We’re an organisation for activists engaged in their schools, campuses, communities and workplaces. We aim to unite these struggles and inject socialist politics.

Britain’s youth deserve a dignified life but it won’t be given to us. We have to organise. We have to fight for it. Join the YCL today!

Reason 27:
Learn the science of Marxism Leninism!

“The tasks of the Young Communist Leagues might be summed up in a single word: To learn” — Lenin, The Tasks of the Youth Leagues, 2 October 1920.

Marxism-Leninism combines the scientific understanding of human society, how it is now, how it came about and how it will develop with the theoretical roadmap to change human society for the better, advance to Socialism and bring the working class to power, replacing the capitalist system where a handful of people control all of society's power and wealth with a proletarian state ran for the good of all.

From the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the experiences of countless Communists and many Communist countries, Marxism-Leninism has been developed by some of the greatest minds of the last century on every continent. It is the only ideology uniting billions of people in every country on the planet in the struggle for real social justice, equality and progress for humankind.

The science of revolution demands a strategy that is concrete, practical and realistic. Marxism-Leninism was never intended to be a dogma, each Communist Party must develop a revolutionary strategy according to their unique conditions with the principle goal being the sweeping of the working people to power and the defeat of the capitalist state. Britain’s Communists, through decades of debate and discussion, developed our theory and practice into our programme Britain’s Road to Socialism.

The YCL places great emphasis on educating our own members and other young people in the science of Marxism-Leninism. We want the youth to be equipped to bring the struggle into their schools, campuses, workplaces and communities and win others to the fight for social and economic progress, Socialism and people power.

Marx famously declared that “practice without theory is blind, theory without practice is sterile”.

If you want to learn more about Marxism-Leninism, the science of human liberation, working class power and Socialism, and put words into actions – the YCL is the organisation for you.

Reason 28:
A proud history

Communism is often presented as a foreign idea, but Socialism and Communism and working class struggle have a long and proud history in Britain.

Marx and Engels spent much of their lives in England, studying the conditions of the working class under capitalism and Britain’s emerging labour movement.

The formation of the Communist Party in 1920 marked the creation of the Party "of a new type" in Britain, the disciplined Party of the working class. The Party ranks were made up of the brightest trade union militants and socialists with members playing a leading role in the 1926 General Strike.

From then on into the 1930s the Party threw itself into organising tenants against slum conditions and organising at workplaces. The first Communist MPs and councillors were elected while the Party focused on building struggle at the grassroots.

The fight against fascism culminated in the heroic Battle of Cable Street where British fascism was defeated. Hundreds of YCLers volunteered to defend democracy in Spain, three-quarters of the International Brigades were CP or YCL members.

During WWII Communists called for a second front in Europe to aid the Soviet Union and smash fascism. We led the fight for civilian air raid protection, including direct action such as Communist MP Phil Piratin leading East Enders in the break-in of London Tube stations to use them as bomb shelters. Communists on the Channel Islands organised resistance to Nazi occupation.

In the post-war era Communists led countless successful trade union and community struggles, with major influence in the labour movement. We were instrumental in building opposition to British imperialism abroad, for peace and freedom for people in British colonies, and against racism at home, and in the fights for decency and dignity for Britain's working people.

Later the Party would play a leading role in the LGBT+ and disability rights movements. Mark Ashton, former general secretary of the YCL whose story is featured in the film "Pride", founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners in 1984.

Like the entirety of the working class movement, the Party and YCL underwent a difficult period in the 1980s and 1990s marked by intensified attack from the British capitalist class and dissolution of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

But we have re-emerged more determined, stronger and ready to rebuild the labour and progressive movement in Britain.

The Communist Party and the YCL inherit the finest traditions of Britain's working class and radical history, from the Peasants Revolt, to the Levellers and the Chartists.

August 2021 will mark 100 years of the Young Communist League. What better time to join an organisation for young workers, by young workers, that honours our past and places the current interests and future of Britain's young workers first.

Play your part in the next proud chapter of Britain's history of working class struggle and that of the Communist movement. Join the YCL today!

Reason 29:
A bright future

In Britain and across the planet, communists are on the march.

After the defeats and counterrevolutions of the 1990s we were told that capitalism had triumphed. The world would enter a new period of peace and prosperity. It was the ‘End of History’. The end of class struggle.

For the ruling class this was wishful thinking and propaganda. Capitalism is incapable of solving its own inherent contradictions or their effects.

Crisis, poverty, war, oppression and environmental destruction are increasing across the planet. It would be easy to become depressed or apathetic. But there is hope.

Capitalist crisis demands a socialist solution. For the first time since the 90s, momentum is shifting back towards the socialist camp. Communist parties are rebuilding, growing and reinforcing.

Here in Britain a new generation is rallying under the red flag. The YCL is establishing new branches up and down the country. Our members are engaging in new struggles for our class.

Next year, the YCL will celebrate its centenary year. 100 years of struggle inspiring the cadres of tomorrow to build and fight for a better world.

While there is a will to fight, a will to win, humanity has hope. If you want to play your part, join the YCL.

Reason 30:
For life with a purpose

Young people in Britain face a grim future under capitalism. Britain’s Communists are working hard to change that.

Our generation have only known austerity and deprivation, indignity and war, years of Tory rule and a right-wing media that whips up propaganda and discrimination in order to keep working people as divided and powerless as possible.

Our school system is crumbling. Further and higher education are becoming the preserve of the wealthy. Poverty pay, insecurity and precariousness are the reality for increasing numbers of the youth.

It is no wonder that mental health problems seem to be increasing exponentially among our generation. Hopelessness is bound to be the result when every aspect of our lives are filled with difficulty and doubt. Finding a decent job, a home to live in and building towards a fulfilling and meaningful future are impossible under this present system.

The YCL says to the young workers and students of Britain that we cannot give in. Apathy and disorganisation are two of capitalism’s biggest tools in maintaining the present order of things.

But we cannot give up on our dreams, and we will not. We say the youth deserve a dignified life. We have to give up on capitalism.

The only solution is to organise and to struggle like the many generations of working people that came before us. That is what we ask of each and every one of our members – and that is what we ask of everyone who joins our ranks.

“Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: All my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Mankind!” - Nikolai Ostrovsky, How the Steel Was Tempered.

In the struggle for progress and Socialism, we each play our part in something bigger than ourselves, we play our part in the realisation of not only our dreams, but the dreams of our class and the whole of humanity. This October, we invite you to join us and play your part.

Live your life with a purpose and join the YCL today!