Organizing the youth is one of the most important questions of every
age, especially in the 20th century. The 20th century ushered in
unprecedented large-scale socialization of the process of production and
a massive involvement of youth in different social affairs. Of particular
significance has been the organization of the youth in standing
armies all across the world on an unprecedented scale. There have
been continuous wars throughout the century for which youth have
been fully mobilized. The First World War opened the century and
set the tone as far as the imperialists were concerned and the
carnage of that inter-imperialist war, especially of the youth,
should never be forgotten.
In the same way, the 20th century has seen an unprecedented
development of huge bureaucracies, both within the governments and
large monopolies, incorporating large numbers of youth. Since the
Second World War and in particular from the 60s on, there has been
a massive growth of state financed institutions for the training of
the youth for bureaucracies as well as for the army and the police
forces. Parallel with this has been the mobilization of the youth
for those political parties which are committed to the preservation
of the status quo. For the youth to join a political party was made
a career opportunity. It is not exceptional to see university and
trade union youth join a political party as a career move so as to
become a professional politician.
Within these circumstances, when the youth are organized by
the bourgeoisie in so many ways, the need to organize the youth for
something which is entirely or radically different, even opposite,
becomes one of the most important and difficult tasks.
Many people forget that violence remains the greatest cause of
death amongst the youth. At certain times and places this violence
may be the result of war or repressive fascist violence. At other
times it may have social or other causes. In the U.S. alone some
6000 youths die annually from gunshot wounds. One of the forms of
violence against the youth which is very prevalent in Canada is
suicide.
It is very important to appreciate the extent of the problem
the progressive people face. In the last 20 years or so, the youth
have been the main target for the anti-human
factor/anti-consciousness. Literally billions of dollars are spent
annually, much of it coming from the United States, to undermine
the youth. The youth have acquired values that are in direct
contradiction with their general interests. Such values act
violently against the youth. There are very few serious young
people who can clearly say what is going to happen to them down the
road, say ten or twenty years from now. Many will attempt to
articulate some plan, but very few, if any, have any scientific
grasp of what imperialism has in store for them.
The twentieth century began with retrogression in the wake of
the 1905 defeat of the revolution in Russia. For almost ten years
the most deadening reaction, capitulation by the social democrats
and economic crisis prevailed only to be resolved by the
imperialists with the most horrible bloody war. This crisis ushered
in the Bolshevik revolution and started a revolutionary surge that
continued with ups and downs throughout the century. The world is
now living a stultifying period of retrogression. Nonetheless,
everything is done to blind the youth to the horrors that the
bourgeoisie is going to unleash on them unless they rebel, unless
they begin to challenge the ideological basis of capitalist
society. Within the next ten years, soon after the turn of the
century, the bourgeoisie is going to organize the youth into its
standing armies; they will become the cannon fodder for a new world
war. That is the reality the youth are facing, the real prospect,
something that is not presented as possible or, if it is, it is not
for purposes to get prepared but only so as to give rise to angst
and nihilism. But mostly other things are presented as the future
for the youth. According to the gurus of culture, a peaceful
idyllic world of romance lies ahead, full of light comedy and
action movies that are far from believable.
The attitude the official circles have towards the youth can
be seen by the kind of music and movies that are propagated. It is
a culture of personal gratification, escapism and nihilism. Within
these circumstances, nihilism plays a very important role. For
example, instead of taking responsibility to create a society fit
for human beings, the youth are taught to say, "I don't care."
Whether they really mean it or not is debatable, but the official
message given to them is not to care about anything, especially
social issues or if they care, they are not presented with a viable
means of dealing with them.
Within these circumstances, organizing the youth for a very
definite aim, that is to create a brand new society that opens up
a future for themselves is presented as a far out idea, as an aim
that does not really emerge from the lives of the people at this
time.
One of the lessons which the imperialists countries have
learned over the past 50 years or so, is that in order to remain in
power it is extremely important to attack the youth in various ways.
Lowering the culture of the youth to the point where only
sentimentality counts is one of the gravest attacks on the youth.
For the progressive forces, for communists, it is very important to
mobilize the youth, to organize the youth. Youth and students
cannot be organized unless they actually participate in very
vigorous fights, very vigorous struggle. These days, we find that
struggle is seriously lacking. Opinions are advanced according to
which the youth and students can be mobilized by talking to them
about some fancy ideas. Such a thing is not going to happen.
Generally it is true that action comes first and not words; in the
same way, if the youth are not in action, then, by painting a
picture of an ideal world, is it possible that the youth will join?
This is not the case.
It is fair to ask on which question the youth must fight.
Always, when a society is pregnant with a new one, the first
struggle that erupts is in the sphere of ideas. For the youth of
the 60s for example, the period when a number of Marxist-Leninists
emerged, the most important battles were to reject the ideas, views
and opinions that were prevalent in the society in support of the
status quo. At this time, across the country and internationally,
it is difficult to come across any youth who are seriously
interested in rejecting any of the prevailing ideas. The main
reason for this is that the big powers are working against such a
possibility, and a massive amount of pressure is put on the youth
to not have any ideas at all. Are there examples where youth today
are actually waging a fundamental battle with imperialism in the
realm of ideas, or any realm for that matter?
The current struggle against the cutbacks is interesting in
the sense that many of those who are fighting against the cutbacks
today were doing the same thing on the basis of similar slogans in
the 60s. It is also a fact that not a few of those who are
instituting the cutbacks today are the same people who opposed them
in the 60s and 70s. In other words, they were not serious at that
time and they are not serious now. Their declarations that they are
against the cutbacks means nothing. For some it was a career move
at the time, which is why the same people later appear as members
of the government or in one of their agencies including the media
and in the university administrations. They never challenge the
premises that underlie the cutbacks or the ideological basis of the
anti-social offensive. No, just as they did in the 60s, they look
for answers within the realm of the capitalist system; they look
for a crib within the system of ideas that is presented by the
ruling class.
Not to have youth who can reject these charlatans; not to have
a movement of youth that is capable and willing to see through
them, who can then mobilize other people, shows that the revolution
is in ebb. Many who are against the cutbacks do not want to
challenge the backward ideas which prevail. They are content to
play out their struggle within the confines of what is offered to
them by the bourgeoisie, possibly winning some concession for
themselves or a new accommodation.
The youth are organized in the form of young Liberals, young
Conservatives, young Socialists, and even "young Communists," but
they are fundamentally the same. Those who adamantly refuse to wage
ideological struggle against the bourgeoisie, against the ruling
ideas cannot play a progressive role. How can action amount to
anything when "revolutionary politics" are so tightly bound up
with bourgeois culture, especially in ideological form?
This is not a problem facing the youth alone. There are no
adults waging ideological struggle either in the sense of those who
could be termed as seriously fighting for very definite aims and
objectives that set them apart from the bourgeoisie. In the
official circles, the debate has sunk to a very low level. In the
progressive circles, various people are trying to raise the level
of debate and discussion but up to now retrogression has quite
seriously diverted most of their efforts. This is precisely why the
Marxist-Leninists have to work that much harder, struggle that much
more tenaciously, more straightforwardly calling a spade a spade.
Progressive people are extremely concerned and interested to
organize the youth, but if the gravitation is not there at the moment,
if the youth are captivated and naive about the dangers of imperialism,
progressive people have to be very patient and clearheaded. The youth are
refusing to look at the world as it is. A concern has to emerge
amongst the youth for the slaughter of the youth that is
taking place in country after country; in the Balkans, Rwanda,
Burundi, Somalia, Liberia, South Asia, the Middle East, etc.
However, today it is not uncommon to see the youth stare blankly
and say "Where?" while the ruling circles feed them stories about
America being the "best country in the world." The United States is
throwing its youth into prisons and slaughtering them on the streets.
Even in the face of all this the bourgeoisie is throwing the anti-social
offensive at the people with its nonsense of eliminating the debts and
deficits as if this will somehow solve the basic contradictions of the
capitalist system.
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
