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Yesterday was International Youth Day. We as young people continue to suffer from the international system of racial capitalism, and the imperialist forces that defend it as we have recently seen in Bolivia.

The youth have been hit hard by COVID 19, especially in the African continent. Whether young people are in the urban areas or rural areas they are faced with poverty as chances of getting employment are minimal. In South Africa millions of young people are without work.

Across the globe parliaments contain not even 20% of youth leaders. This makes it very hard to make decisions that addresses the challenges face youth. The system excludes young people with fresh minds who are still hungry. In Africa the youth are the majority and so no society or organisation can say that it is really democratic if the youth are structurally excluded.

We are proud that in our movement young people have always held leadership positions. We note that in the popular uprisings around the world since 2011 young people have often been in the forefront.

As an organised formation of young people, we are clear that young people should be on the front line in terms of protecting and advancing the gains we have attained so far on women’s rights. 

The national liberation movements in Southern Africa are all corrupt and authoritarian, they have all failed to provide the people with decent lives. Across Africa the youth should be the custodians of democracy for future generations because of our numerical strength. We need to build democracy in our communities and struggles, and then put pressure to the elites to democratise society as a whole.

It is very important to combine our struggles across the globe. We need to start a new international struggle to build democracy and autonomy, replace racial capitalism with democratic socialism and resist imperialism. The capitalist system represents itself in different forms, so we need to come together to analyse it tactics across the whole world. The combination of struggles will give us chance to analyse the root cause of our challenges.

How can the youth advance if parliamentarians and government officials are deciding and doing everything for us? 

We cannot build economies in which everyone can flourish if there is no investment in the youth. An investment in education, and in training in new technologies, is an investment in the future.

We will not win this fight separately. We can’t solve different problems with uniform solutions because our country is blindfolded with a so called ‘democracy’ which does not talk to reality of our problems of our lives and in which we are ruled with state violence.

The youth in South Africa need to be centrally involved in discussion around the economy, education and land. We need to be centrally involved in the struggles against sexism, racism and xenophobia.

It is very important to promote international struggle to fight the challenges and oppression facing youth. International Youth Day must be brought in the official country calendar as a day focusing on the youth struggle in the context of internationalism.

We would also like to express our solidarity with our comrades in the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil who are, like us, facing violent evictions.

Cities, land, wealth and political power must be shared fairly.
 

Issued by Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League