For an International Revolutionary Youth Movement!

Today, we find ourselves halfway between an old order that is dying and a new, more brutal one emerging. While this shift impacts all of society, its consequences are most concentrated for young people, who are seeing their future being stripped away.

As attacks on youth intensify and they find themselves increasingly on the frontlines of social decay, there is no shortage of anger and raw energy among them, like the Gen Z uprisings. But the question is: where will it go? In fighting against their degrading situation and oppression, youth have the potential to become a new generation of revolutionary leaders. Yet as they become politically active, there is no movement that can direct their energy toward the true source of their problems in a progressive way. What does exist, however, are various forces that divert youth away from a struggle against the root of their oppression. As a result, no unified movement for youth liberation currently exists. To address this problem, the Spartacus Youth propose three essential points to build the struggle of youth today.

1. Fight U.S. Imperialism!

As our conference document motivates, the battle against U.S. imperialism is central because it is the main agent dragging the world down a spiral of misery and war. Young people are the first on the chopping block. Giving youth a future is inseparable from the broader struggle against U.S. imperialism. Yet, the left has been overwhelmingly unable to break with and fight against the U.S.-led system. This is what holds back our movement today. We must change course.

2. To Beat the Right, Ditch the Liberals!

The forces of right-wing populism exploit young people’s legitimate anger at their situation and society to promote adaptation to a reactionary system. Right populists will prop up the capitalist system on the backs of the working class at home and around the world. We need a united struggle against Wall Street and its puppets. Such a struggle cannot be waged if youth take the racist, anti-immigrant, transphobic bait of the class enemy.

In reaction to the strength of the right, many look to the “unity” of all “progressives” against it, i.e., a popular front. This won’t stop the rise of reaction. Rather, an alliance with those responsible for social decay guarantees the victory of reaction. Liberalism was always about allowing the ruling class to pursue its interests under the guise of being “progressive.” First, the Establishment leveraged the suffering of immigrants, black people, women, and trans people. Now that same Establishment is abandoning them to the right-wing backlash it fostered. Rather than making moral appeals to the Establishment, revolutionary youth must fight unflinchingly in defense of the most oppressed and link this fight to the working class.

3. Fight Together with the Working Class!

Social decay falls heavily on the shoulders of young people: the lack of jobs and housing, declining state of education, and militarization all make youth more insecure. To alleviate the growing burden on young people, significant resources will have to be torn from the hands of the capitalist ruling class. This is the basis for unity between youth and the workers against the capitalists.

Socialist youth must also join the ranks of the workers movement and fight within it for a revolutionary strategy. Only the working class has the power to fight and defeat the American Empire in a way that advances the struggles of the oppressed overall. To win a future for youth, we must link our movement to the working class and in turn bring our energy and determination to the side of the proletariat.