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YSA’s
Political Manifesto
1. We stand for workers' democracy
and socialism. We are active partisans in the class struggle!
As stated by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in
the Communist Manifesto of 1848, “[t]he history of all hitherto existing
society is the history of class struggle.” Our revolutionary youth
organization stands on this maxim.
Therefore, YSA represents the collective memory of lessons of these
past struggles between classes with irreconcilable interests. On that
basis, our program rests on the foundation that the potential for change
today lies within the conflict between the interests of the capitalist
class and working class. The conflict’s logical conclusion is the working
class seizing state power. However,
workers lack the socialist vision necessary to achieve that end. Only
conscious, revolutionary leadership that has won the hearts and minds of
the working class can make that revolutionary perspective possible.
In order to win the respect and trust of the
working class it is essential that YSA champion the working class’s
struggle on all levels including immediate, democratic, and transitional
demands. Thus, when the class struggle sharpens, YSA will have proven its
mettle in the eyes of the working class, standing out among all contending
socialists as a capable leadership component of the international socialist
revolution, based on the social and political power of the working class.
That revolution will, for first time in history, establish a society
democratically run by the toiling billions world-wide.
2. We fight against racism in all its
forms. We are supporters of Black and Chicano liberation, full sovereignty
for American Indians, and we defend the right of self-determination of all
oppressed nationalities.
Racism is an ideology and practice that reflects
the political, social, and economic needs of the capitalist class, based on
their exploitation of workers for profits. It has historically served to
rationalize treating oppressed nationalities as third class citizens, with
the result being the justification of relegating these groups to the worst
living conditions, the worst health care, the worst jobs, the worst
schools, and the lowest wages.
Because Blacks and Chicanos are overwhelmingly
working class, their oppression has a dual character: it is racially and
class based. Thus, the democratic and national aspirations of oppressed
nationalities in the United States (Blacks, Chicanos & Native Americans)
have a profoundly revolutionary dynamic. By supporting their right to
self-determination we unconditionally support their own solutions to
national oppression, including the formation of an independent Black or
Chicano political party, the democratic right of control by oppressed
nationalities of all institutions in their own communities, and even a
separate Black or Chicano state.
We recognize and oppose the physical and cultural
genocide that has been waged against American Indians in this country. We support reparations, full sovereignty
and the honoring of all treaty rights with Native nations.
Should oppressed nationalities find substantial
allies among white workers who support their full liberation, they may
decide that a common struggle best meets their objectives. The choice is
theirs.
Nationalist aspirations are not counter-posed to
the struggle for socialist revolution; rather, they are an integral
component of it. A consistent struggle against national oppression leads to
the struggle for socialism because the source of both national and class
oppression is the capitalist system. Therefore, the coming American
revolution will have a combined character: oppressed nationalities will
fight for full democratic rights while the working class as a whole,
including the oppressed nationalities, will fight for state power.
3. We are opposed to any and all
discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation. We support equal
rights for all!
Sexism is an ideology that reflects the
political, social, and economic needs of the capitalist class. It
rationalizes second-class citizenship and lower wages for women.
Furthermore, it serves as an ideological wedge dividing the working class.
Like other unnatural phenomena in society, sexism
did not exist until the advent of private property. Under the profit
system, women of all classes are valued almost solely for their
reproductive capabilities, unpaid domestic labor, and servitude to men.
The sexual division of labor helps to serve the
ruling minority by binding women to oppressive social roles while
justifying the inequality of pay between the sexes.
We support the women’s movement through mass
action. To loosen the stranglehold of the profit system on women, we are
involved in every struggle to win needed reforms, while still pointing out
that women will not be entirely liberated until capitalism has been
abolished.
We are in the frontlines of the struggle to
regain the right to reproductive freedom and choice. We demand a healthcare system based on
science not religion, and we struggle to gain access to affordable
reproductive and contraceptive services.
We support the ratification of the Equal Rights
Amendment and the full abolition of unfair criminal law based on
gender.
We fight to eliminate the wage gap between men
and women. We demand equal and affordable education and childcare centers
at low or no cost.
We are involved in the struggle to end the
special oppression of women of color and we support the right to
self-determination of minority women.
We understand that women need to organize and
work within women’s groups before the socialist revolution so that they can
be leaders in the revolutionary movement and assure that their needs will
no longer be denied by society.
Discrimination of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and
trans under capitalism expresses itself in both ideological and economic forms.
However, the ruling class has not historically used sexual-orientation
based discrimination like that of sexism, to justify paying the G/L/B/T
community lower wages or relegating them to inferior working conditions.
Though, when class based repression converges with sexual orientation
discrimination toward working-class queers and trans, the result is a
special situation. It is one in which the former strengthens the latter and
vice-versa.
For example, limitations of material conditions
keep one from coming out at the work place for fear of reprisals, on the
one hand, from the boss, and on the other hand, from co-workers. In the
case of homophobic bosses it may lead to a firing. In the case of
homophobic co-workers it can result in ridicule and violence, which can
force one to quit.
Therefore, we fight against discrimination based
on sexual orientation in all its forms including anti-gay referendums and
constitutional amendments as well as limited access to medical care,
housing, and jobs.
We support the struggle for the full democratic
right of marriage to queer and trans couples and demand the economic
benefits and protections of marriages that cannot be realized through civil
unions.
We work to create a society in which women and
the G/L/B/T community live free from the fear of violence, abuse and
discrimination.
Only within a socialist society can all forms of
sexual orientation be able to develop fully, freely and openly. Likewise,
only under socialism can the full democratic rights of women, queers and
trans be met.
4. We fight to protect the
environment from the ravages of capitalism.
The unplanned and rapacious nature of the
capitalist mode of production has resulted in a myriad of dire consequences
for our life-giving planet.
Vast tracts of forests have been cut. Aquatic
diversity has been greatly reduced by the over-harvesting (in both oceans
and freshwater) of commercial fisheries. Farmlands are increasingly sapped
of nutrients by monoculture-based factory farms. Genetically modified foods
threaten biodiversity. Regular oil spills and other types of pollution have
created “dead zones” in oceans and the Great Lakes, which are devoid of
life. Non-point and direct pollution sources further add to both oceanic
and freshwater pollution. The unplanned use of water has rapidly lowered
the water table. Environmental racism has resulted in impoverished and
working people having to bear the brunt of environmental pollution and
degradation.
Capitalist production’s reliance on fossil fuels
has led to rapid deterioration in air quality and the increase in
greenhouse gases that cause global warming. In order to gain a competitive
edge on their rivals in world market, capitalist corporations have
introduced nearly 70,000 carcinogens in their daily production.
We place no faith in a handful of “green
corporations,” organic farms or individual consumer solutions to stop
further environmental deterioration. The real solutions are social and
political. Thus, we seek to mobilize mass numbers to demand broad
incorporation of clean, renewable energy sources and implementation of
farmer controlled, sustainable agriculture. While we oppose every deadly
insult to the environment engineered to maximize profits, our ultimate goal
is a planned, socialist economy, the only system that can stop further
environmental destruction.
5. We fight to empower young people
-- on campus, in the community, and in the workplace.
We struggle to establish democratic decision-making
bodies of young people to give them some control over the functioning of
the campuses, the community, the workplace and their own lives. Youth are
the victims of capitalist cutbacks in the schools and at the jobsite. They
are made to bear the costs of increased tuition and decreased quality of
education, of two-tier wage systems and of an economic draft that targets
the poor and oppressed.
History has demonstrated that youth are among the
first to challenge the fundamental injustices of society. They have been
the driving force of new social movements that seek to empower the
oppressed and exploited and challenge the policies of the war makers. On
the campus, in the community and at the workplace youth will stand at the
forefront of the coming struggles that challenge the boss class's
ideologies and practice.
6. We fight against police brutality
and any measures by the state power to take away or restrict our democratic
rights.
Police are the armed guards of capitalism, who
work to uphold the social and political dominance of the capitalist class.
Police and their political counterparts in the FBI and CIA exist to
suppress the expression of democratic rights, especially of youth, workers,
and oppressed nationalities. We support mass actions in the streets to
defend and organize against police attacks on our democratic rights. These
are qualitatively more effective than lawsuits in the capitalist courts or
reliance on capitalist politicians (both organs of the state).
In communities of oppressed nationalities we
support efforts to organize defense guards or patrols controlled by
residents of that community aimed at thwarting police violence and all
other forms of violence. We demand
no police presence in schools and on campuses.
7. We stand for free quality
education for all, from pre-school to graduate school.
Education is not a privilege, but a fundamental
democratic right. We demand a massive overhaul of the United States
education system, fully funded by the federal government. This would
include replacing dilapidated school buildings with the most modern
facilities, raising teachers’ pay, bilingual education programs in schools
where students don’t speak English as their primary language, day-care
facilities for students with children, free breakfast and lunch programs,
job placement programs, the banning from schools of military recruiters and
ROTC programs, and all other reforms deemed necessary by students, teachers
and the community. Billions for
education not war!
8. We denounce imperialism and oppose
all U.S. interventions, regardless of the justification.
We stand against all wars waged by the
capitalist/imperialist system. These are organized for profit and
domination and have nothing to do with the needs or aspirations of the U.S.
or the world's people. We say, “U.S. Out Now!” from Iraq to Afghanistan to
Yugoslavia to Latin America. We are opposed to the ongoing threats of war
against people anywhere. We are opposed to the U.S. backed Israeli
occupation of Palestine.
The U.S. war drive is a product of a failing
social system, incapable of functioning without exploitation and war. We
demand money for social programs, not war!
Furthermore, as a matter of principle, we
denounce imperialist military aggression under the guise of any
international imperialist agency including the United Nations and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (N.A.T.O.).
Self determination of all peoples!
9. We denounce the U.S.
embargo/blockade and threats of war against Cuba and stand in solidarity
with the Cuban people and their socialist revolution.
We stand in solidarity with the 1959 and ongoing
Cuban Revolution that toppled capitalism and embarked on the road to
socialism. The revolution's replacement of private ownership of the means
of production with a collectively owned and planned economy organized for
the satisfaction of human needs serves as an example to the people of the
world. We denounce the 1961 U.S.-organized invasion of Cuba, the 43-year
old U.S. instituted embargo/blockade and the illegal economic, commercial,
travel and trade measures instituted by U.S. imperialism to defeat the
revolution and reinstate capitalist exploitation.
We reject any characterization of Cuba as a
Stalinist degenerated worker’s state or state capitalist society. The
leaders of the revolution are revolutionists of action, dedicated to
socialism and advancing the interests of the Cuban and world's people. We
are nevertheless critical of Cuba’s lack of formal institutions of
democratic proletarian rule, without which the revolution's strength and
capacity to endure is undermined.
We demand an end to the U.S. embargo/blockade and
all other U.S. actions to crush the revolution including terrorist attacks
and military intervention.
We support the courageous actions of the Cuban
Five to ensure the safety of their country from future U.S. led terrorist
attacks. We demand their immediate release from U.S. federal prisons.
We demand the immediate release of all U.S.
prisoners from Guantanamo Bay and the withdrawal of all U.S. military
forces from Cuba.
10. We advocate independent working
class political action. Break from pro-business politics!
YSA supports all forms of progressive working class
political and economic action, from the formation of a labor party based on
reinvigorated and fighting unions allied with the oppressed, to political
and economic strikes to advance the cause of working people.
We reject support to the capitalist Democratic
and Republican Parties and to any other capitalist electoral formation. We
support and seek to participate in building independent mass actions in the
streets to advance all social movements that challenge capitalist plunder,
cutbacks, oppression, racism and war. Only the independent mobilization of
workers and their allies can fight
the scourges of unemployment, poverty, homelessness and related capitalist
horrors. We support independent mobilizations demanding and fighting for
jobs for all and a 30-hour work week for 40 hours pay to spread out all
available work to those who need it.
We reject support to middle class, pro-capitalist
"third parties" like the Greens as well as to so-called
independent pro-capitalist candidates like Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo.
For socialism! For worker's power! For working class internationalism!
Youth to the vanguard of all struggles! Build YSA!
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