Young Communist League

Induction, Part 7c

Young Communist League

From the YCL Web site:

“The Young Communist League of South Africa is a Marxist-Leninist youth wing of the SACP.

“The YCL stands for Non Racism, Freedom, Equality and the socialisation of the ownership and control of the means of production.”

Preamble of the YCLSA Constitution:

We, the Young Communist League of South Africa founded in 1922, banned in 1950 and re-established in 2003, are a voluntary mass organisation of the youth in South Africa.

We are devoted to the interests of all young people and dedicated to the revolutionary cause of the working class of our country and the globe.

We are committed to and struggle for the transformation of South Africa from a capitalist society to a socialist society in which there will [be] no exploitation of [one] person by another.

The YCLSA recognises the South African Communist Party as the political party of socialism in our country and hence enjoys political and ideological guidance from the SACP.

Young Communists promote the unity of progressive young people of our country with the progressive peoples and youth of all countries.

Aims and Objectives of the YCLSA according to its Constitution:

The aims and objectives of the YCLSA shall be the following:

(a)               To develop young cadres into communists

(b)               To strive for the elimination of all forms of oppression and discrimination

(c)                To be a preparatory school for the South African Communist Party (SACP)

(d)               To fight for the creation of a socialist society and ultimately a communist society

(e)               To fight capitalism wherever it exists

(f)                 To develop communist, working-class political and moral convictions in our members, and teach them to work and struggle collectively.

(g)               To reject crime, the abuse of women, children, drugs and alcohol.

(h)               To fight for the equality of all young people, against racism, and economic exploitation.

(i)                 To promote social, recreational and cultural activities among young people.

(j)                 To organise and conscientise our members to participate actively in day to day struggles of the working people and youth.

(k)                To promote the understanding among youth that the working class is the only class capable of leading the people to socialism.

Please find attached, the Constitution of the Young Communist League of South Africa.

CU comment

As a voluntary mass organisation of the youth, the YCL gives experience of how voluntary mass organisations work and how they are structured. At the same time, as an organisation that is not separate from the SACP, the YCL imparts a sense of what the vanguard party is about.

The YCL educates its members politically, and it inducts them, organisationally, to the whole movement – the National Democratic Revolutionary Alliance.

This part 7 of the CU Induction course has been about the South African mass democratic movement as an environment or field within which the communist party operates.

The next part will be about the State environment in which the Party currently operates, locally, provincially and nationally.

• The above is to introduce an original reading-text: YCLSA Constitution, 2006.