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The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) joins millions of the exploited workers, particularly young workers across the globe in commemorating and celebrating 124th Anniversary of May Day, tomorrow 1st May 2010. This is the important day in the political calendar of our ongoing revolution to build a humane and just world order for the workers and the poor.

This May Day coincides with other important political events in our country that should be observed and celebrated:

The 88th Anniversary of the formation of the YCLSA
The 85th Birthday of the former National Secretary of YCLSA Cde. Ruth First
The 25th Anniversary of the death of former YCLSA member Cde. Alex la Guma
The 100th Birthday of Comrade Govan Mbeki
The 160th arrival of Indians in South Africa

This May Day should be about Banning Labour Brokers

Our central message as uFasimba is a call to young workers to intensify the struggle against the banning of Labour Brokers through their Unions and working class formations. This year 2010 marks the beginning of a decade where challenges are much more complex, though almost the same, with the working class and the poor youth affected by the socio-economic pitfalls of the capitalist system.
This May Day celebrations comes in the midst of sharpening class inequalities and deepening crisis of Capitalism as a result of the great depression and collapse of the imperialist United States economy. We are also celebrating this May Day within the context of the continued exploitation of young workers in capitalist orientated factory floors, retail stores, call centres, restaurants and farms.


This May should be about Decent Jobs for the Youth
The unemployment queue for young Black working class youth continues to climb to the rate of 70%. The working class and the poor youth continue to bear the brunt of outsourcing, casualisation and labour brokering spurred on our society by the neo-liberal mantra. Young workers are the hardest hit by hunger, retrenchments, casualisation, labour brokering, HIV/AIDS pandemic and crime. It is these young people that join en masse the ranks of security guards, gardeners, waiters, cleaners, prostitutes, child-minders, packers and cashiers in luxurious and bourgeois hotels, restaurants and retail shops frequented by the rich.

We are using this May Day to send a loaded and strong message to the people's government and the Capitalist bosses that the unemployment queue has been growing for too long, and we have ran out of patience as we continue to witness the massive wealth concentrated in the hands of a few and the big temptations of repossessing that wealth for the benefit of all.

This May Day is a Call to Young Workers to Join Trade Unions

Young people continue to work under hazardous conditions, subjected to working practices that do not meet the legislative requirements. Young people are yearning for decent and quality working conditions. Young people working under the labour brokering system are thirsty to enjoy the benefits enjoyed by all workers as promulgated by the new democratic government.

These working ambivalences convince us that the struggle to organize the unorganized workers continues. On this occasion we commit ourselves in working with the Trade Unions on the Labour Brokering struggles as part mobilizing young workers to join the trade union in their industries. "Every YCLSA / ANCYL members! A member of a Trade Union".

The struggle to recruit young workers in the structures of the Trade Unions is dialectically linked to the struggle to our anti-capitalist programme - Defiance Campaign - which mobilizes young people around the following demands as part of undermining the hegemony of capital;


Decent jobs and a living wage for all workers including young workers;
Nationalization of all land for productive economic use by the landless communities targeting jobless young people;
Public ownership of all mineral wealth;
Lowering of pension age to 55 years for
Lowering of pension age to 55 years for all women and men in order to create work opportunities for young people

These demands are consistent with the broader objectives of the Freedom Charter as encapsulated in the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

Corruption is the biggest threat and has the potential to erode the gains we have registered under the new dispensation. Therefore this May Day should be about us blowing the whistle on corruption in the workplace, the State and within our formations. This will go a long way towards building a society that cares. This struggle should be linked to the struggle to overthrow the capitalist system, because capitalism is inherently a corrupt system.

This May Day should be about Youth of Palestine

We use this May Day to send a powered and loaded message to the apartheid Israel regime that the continued suffering of the youth and people of Palestine cannot be accepted. The working class and the poor youth of Palestine continue to suffer as a result of the imperialist terror unleashed by Israelites against the Palestinians. The people of Palestine should be allowed to live in peace and sovereignty.

The Young Communist League is calling upon the Introduction of Six-Hour-Day work-shifts. This will subsequently lead to:
- Immediate 30% new jobs;
- More workers will be employed and as a result the number of income earners will increase, consequently leading to an increase of our tax base;
- More time for leisure for the working class, which, for now, is merely reserved for the capitalist class who use it to play golf etc
- More time for family responsibility for workers and also overall time for civic duty responsibilities such as participation within community forums etc.
The reason why workers are not active politically is because they spend more than 12 hours at work and this results in very little time reserved for any other participation within community structures. The workers are the key drivers of our revolution and it's imperative that their political understanding is continuously enhanced. This will also help cushion the ramifications of the global crisis

2. State should fill up the 30% vacancies in government department. This will assist in accelerating service delivery and moreover placing people in quality permanent jobs. It unjustifiable that we still have vacancies, whilst a lot of young people particularly those that have graduated from institutions of higher learning remain unemployed.
3. Complete abolition of Labour Brokers and their replacement with Dept of Labour Employment Centres which will connect workers with their ideal jobs, inform them of job availability, train them to write CV's and conducting interviews; helping them cope with new jobs etc;


4. Deal with the culture of consumerism:
The culture of opulence and crass materialism continues to broaden the ideological decay faced by young people today. It's our duty and responsibility as the YCLSA to ensure that young people are re-directed back to the principle and values of the mass democratic movement.,particularly in understanding the struggle of the poor and the working class Capitalism is an enemy to humanity and thrives on the culture of consumerism; Capitalism does not promote sharing, collectivism and unity. It thrives on divisions, exploitation and perpetual unnecessary consumption. Young people have idolised the opulent lifestyles illustrated on American TV. It has become an iconic status quo to be seen wearing ridiculously expensive gear as opposed to getting a degree. Such tendencies should be fought at all cost for the sake of our Revolution.

Workers have nothing to lose but their chains!