YCLSA June 16 statement
15 June 2011 Remember June 16: Unity in Action of our Movement in Creating Jobs for Youth The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] joins millions of our people in celebrating 35th Anniversary of the Soweto uprising. On the 16th of June 1976 young people challenged the tyrant's might and dismissed a notion that the apartheid regime was invincible. Young people of our country demonstrated their outmost knack to fight for freedom and total emancipation of black people in general and Africans in particular. Today we are celebrating the heroic youth of 1976, the generation, which fought with everything in its power, for a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. These are young people who refused to be taught in the language of the oppressor, these are young people, who demanded more investment by the state in education. They demanded more teacher-student support material. They demanded to be taught by qualified teachers, but most importantly, they demanded a democratic South Africa. In their cause of fighting for a just society they faced the barrel of the guns with one determination: to have equal rights for all the people of South Africa irrespective of colour or creed. They laid down their lives so that today we live in a democratic country, for that we shall forever remain indebted to them, indebted to their sacrifices and most importantly indebted to their cause and the ideas they died for. Celebrating June 16 today affords us the opportunity to analyze the state of young people in our country as we continue to guide them towards a society free of exploitation of one man by another, a post-capitalist society in which the means of production are socially owned, democratically controlled and used for the benefit of all. State of the Youth Today Young people of our country continue to be in servitude of a brutal and inhumane capitalist system. In the discussion paper titled “confronting Youth unemployment: policy option for South Africa” the National Treasury observed that in South Africa about 4.1 million people are unemployed; one in four of those available to work do not have a job. About 2.8 million are long-term unemployed and a further 2.2 million are discouraged. South Africa’s unemployment rate of 24 per cent is among the highest in the world and rises to 32.4 per cent if discouraged workers are included. Despite making up just 0.5 per cent of the global labour force, South Africa accounts for 2 per cent of global unemployment. Capitalism has deliberately created an army of unemployed Youth: the total numbers of unemployed people in South Africa are young people constituting 70% and 80% of them are black youth. This reflects the crises of capitalist social relations and its determination to further push young people in the abyss of poverty, unemployment and inequality. Despite the efforts and policy interventions by our government, although we have remained critical of some of these, we remain convinced that it is the private sector whom in their question for profits have daily created this crises of unemployment. As the youth of ’76 fought to the bitter end and rendered apartheid ungovernable, our challenge is to fight the system of capitalism which has created all these socio-economic ills amongst our youth. As it relates to access to education more than 3 million young people between the ages of 14 to 25 are neither in an educational institution nor skills development centre. This is a serious indictment on the part of our government and the private sector. This year, we have seen more and more young people turning up to universities and FET Colleges but were turned back because there was no space for learning. If we managed to build stadiums, roads, shopping malls and even inaugurated Gautrain for the FIFA 2010 World Cup, there is no reason why our public and private works cannot build better and decent universities and colleges for our young people to study in. Furthermore, the closure by capitalists of training institutions which in the past produced artisans who were skilled in the economy is a further dent on the future of young people. We supported the workers and youth of Lephalale against the seniors of Medupi Power Station earlier in the month when they protested against the importing of welders and other artisans from Asia, instead of training locals. We will not hesitate to do the same in the current period to ensure that the private sector contributes towards Skills Development not only through funds but through practical action. On health status, young people are the most affected and infected by HIV and AIDS. As per HSRC, young woman affected with the HIV constitutes 32.7% between the ages of 25 and 29, and at 29.1% between 30 and 34. Further more about 15.7% of males aged 25 to 29 and 25.8% of females aged between 30 and 34 are affected. We remain committed to our conviction that the former President of the ANC and the Republic, Thabo Mbeki, together with many who served in that administration, remain responsible for their negligence in their denial of HIV/AIDS and the role of drugs. Today our country has to play catch-up in ensuring that we maintain a healthy nation and thus, the cost of such “curative” healthcare and anti-retrovirals remain a burden to our national fiscus. Something we should have stopped a long time ago. We applaud President Jacob Zuma and Minister Motsoaledi for their statesmanship and exemplary leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We call on all young people to abstain, or be faithful or condomise in order to deepen our fight against AIDS. We further call on them to ensure that they know their status in order to ensure that they change their lifestyle. Amongst other challenges that young people face include: · abuse of drugs and alcohol, · high levels of crime, · corruption, · lack of proper co-ordination between rural and urban development (which have led to amongst, other things, emergence of informal settlements despite government building 3.1 million houses against 3 million housing backlog in the 1994 RDP estimate) lack of amenities in black townships, such as sport facilities, and · teenage pregnancy and backyard abortion, Although there are young people who, given their social location and position in society, may not be affected by this and may regard them as non-existant, the majority of our youth remain victims and will forever be desolate of the democratic system. All of these challenges have resulted in many young people losing confidence in the democratic state and the capitalist system to be able to change their lives for the better. The political system, democratic institutions and the constitution that the many liberals defends will forever remain under threat from our youth, especially working class youth, if they are unable to change the status quo. Youth unemployment, poverty and inequality is the biggest threat in our democracy For us as the YCL, whilst we note all the challenges confronting young people, which must be addressed, of the most painful and dangerous challenge is Youth unemployment. The employment of young people will provide them with the opportunity to contribute productively in the economy. It is a waste for our country to continue having a large army of economically active people excluded from the production point. Employment will give the youth a chance to earn income, it will provide a sense of belonging, independence, dignity, achievement, innovation, skills and experience. Unemployment is also associated with most social-ills such as · poverty, · crime, -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
