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From June 6-9, delegates from 30 countries representing 50 organizations converged in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia to launch the preparatory process for the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS). The 16th WFYS will take place in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 5-13, 2005, under the slogan "for peace and solidarity - we struggle against imperialism and war."

Dynamic recently spoke with Bob Libal, an activist with the Not With Our Money campaign in Austin, Texas. On Tuesday, August 31, Bob was protesting the Republican National Convention in New York City when he was arrested and detained for several days.

On the Fourth of July YCLers from across the country gathered in St. Louis, Missouri to start working to defeat Bush and the Bush agenda in the battleground states. During the whole month of July in Missouri and one week in Ohio, almost 50 YCLers hit the streets of these key swing states as a part of the YCL Midwest Summer Project.

The protests at the Republican National Convention in New York City have certainly busted one prominent myth - that youth in the U.S. are apathetic about politics or indifferent to the Bush policies. On Aug. 28, over 500 young people gathered at St. Markís Church in New York City to kick off the Books Not Bombs Youth Convergence. The event was organized by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition (NYSPC), the largest youth-led antiwar group in the country.

During my first year of teaching, I saw first-hand how our schools and our government work together to produce students who are under-educated and unable to fully participate in our society.

How many of you have faced tuition hikes in your universities and not received more financial aid?

What do we want the next four years to look like?

If you haven’t already considered this question, this is exactly what you should be asking yourself as the November 2nd election draws near. Will we spend the next four years fighting to defend what rights and social programs remain after four years of right-wing attacks from the Republican-controlled Congress and White House? Or will we begin to hold politicians accountable and advance a people’s agenda - an agenda that will expand opportunities and rights in the US?

On campuses around the country this fall young people will be gathering to learn about and discuss the reality of the war on Iraq and its connection to the struggles of youth and students in our high schools, colleges and communities.

The punk rock tradition was—for a very long time—closely tied to a cynical anarchism and go-it-alone individualism. Voting was seen as “selling out�? to the system, just like signing your band to a major label would be. But Bush has been so bad for the world that the punk constituency can longer afford the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. The punks have even started a website to mobilize for the election: www.punkvoter.com!

Fat Mike, of NOFX, explains in his introduction that the bands on Rock Against Bush Vol. 1 “have come together for one reason, and that’s to express our outrage at—and form a united front against—the dangerous, destructive, and deadly policies of George W. Bush and his administration.�? The intro, as well as two inserts entitled “20 Reasons to Hate Bush Jr.�? and “20 More Reasons to Hate Bush Jr.�? make strong and occasionally funny arguments for voting against Bush this November. For example:

How in the hell did a 24-year-old progressive black woman win a seat in the state legislature in the heart of Newt Gingrich country? How did University of Michigan students change the tide in the national debate on affirmative action? How did a 25-year-old Green become mayor of a city in New York? How—and I kid you not—did a young Latina help topple the mighty Daley political machine in Chicago?

“The murder of Emmett Till must be the beginning of the end of segregation and lynching!�?

This is what people are saying in memorial meetings and protest rallies throughout the US.

But so far, the administration in Washington hasn’t said a word about the murder of Emmett Till, and this is an administration which doesn’t spare words when it claims a violation of freedom—thousands of miles from our shores!

Clearly the unpunished murder of Emmett Till and the force and violence used against would-be Negro voters in Mississippi show a plot to subvert the Constitution.

Behind the murder of Emmett Till lies a campaign of terror against Southern Negroes—and whites. Its aim—to halt the growing movement to apply the Supreme Court no-school-segregation decision.

Race hatred was whipped to a fever pitch following the widely-hailed high court ruling. Southern governors and congressmen openly called for flouting it. They were afraid—afraid of the new militancy and courage of Southern Negroes. And they were afraid of the new, but little-publicized, democratic feelings of many whites.

On April 28, 1954, a six month federal government investigation of the Labor Youth League (LYL), the US Communist Party’s youth and student group, came to an end. The Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB), a quasi-judicial government agency founded under the Internal Security Act of 1950 (the McCarran Act) and amended in later legislation during what is called the McCarthy era, concluded its case against the LYL, which had been charged with being an agent of a foreign power—the Soviet Union.

Hoy, 16 de Septiembre, día de independencia para a gente de México, declaró mi independencia del Sistema de Servicio Selectivo.

Acuso al gobierno de los Estado Unidos de genocidio contra la gente de Mexico. Acuso específicamente al sistema de servicio militar, y en su totalidad al sistema social, político y económico de los Estados Unidos de crear un embudo que se encarga de mandar a la juventud Mexicana a Vietnam a ser asesinados o a asesinar a hombres, mujeres y niños inocentes.

Today, the sixteenth of September, the day of independence for all Mexican peoples, I declare my independence of the Selective Service System.

I accuse the government of the United States of America of genocide against the Mexican people. Specifically, I accuse the draft, the entire social, political, and economic system of the United States of America of creating a funnel which shoots Mexican youth into Viet Nam to be killed and to kill innocent men, women and children.

The Youth of the Communist Party of Turkey (Türkiye Komünist Partisi-TKP) have recently made some big steps and reached important goals in their struggle in universities and high schools. For instance, communist youth have opposed policies imposing education fees or similarly those which create widespread lack of education. We wanted to tell the story of a successful campaign from a couple years ago, and alert readers to what we’re working on right now.

The Campaign Againt McDonald’s

In 1998 McDonalds opened a new restaurant in the Middle East Technical University (METU), which is renowned for anti-imperialist struggle in the 60’s and 70’s. Its stadium is even called “Revolution Stadium.�?

On March 21st, Schafik Handal, the candidate for the left-wing party FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional/Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front), lost the presidential election to the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). In what was only the fourth presidential election in El Salvador’s history, the rightist ARENA won by a wide margin, enjoying victories in most regions of the country.

The victory of pro-American ARENA candidate Tony Saca was not rendered simply by the will of the Salvadoran people. The party’s votes were secured through a campaign of fear and intimidation. These scare tactics came from party activists, right-wing political interest groups, and the corporate elite. But they also had the support—both tacit and spoken—of the Bush administration. Many critics attribute ARENA’s dominating victory to this American involvement.