Youth Festival Condemns NATO, USA

The president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), Nikolus Papademetriou, read the final statement of the forum

A request to eliminate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a condemnation of US aggressions resounded today at the headquarters of the Anti-imperialist Court of the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students.

The president of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), Nikolus Papademetriou, read the final statement of the forum, held in this southern Russian resort, which expresses a clear rejection of the policy of aggressions and invasions of Washington.

Papademetriou highlighted, first of all, the meaning of celebrating the centenary of the Great Socialist Revolution of October, a fact that, among other things, accelerated the collapse of the colonial system and was a boost for new social conquests in the world. We confirm that 100 years after the triumph of the Revolution in Russia, the anti-imperialist fight is more current than ever, underlined the youth leader at presenting the text of the final statement of the forum.

Here we pay tribute to young people willing to give their lives for social justice in different parts of the world or those who perish in defense of just causes, stated the leader of the FMJD, referring to the case of young Argentine Santiago Maldonado.

In the room, crowded with foreign delegations (over 180 countries) and organizations of Russian left, a representation of the South American country interrupted the section with a sign in demand of justice for the case of Maldonado’s assassination.

‘I knew, I knew,Gendarmeria killed Santiago Maldonado, who is present, now and always’ was the slogan that was heard to denounce the case of the disappearance of the young defender of the rights of the Indian community of Mapuche.

The final statement, moreover, stresses that the movement of the festival retains its anti-imperialist, anti-fascist, anticolonialist and rejection of the aggressions of the western powers, he pointed out.

Recalling that among the figures that the youth forum was dedicated was Fidel Castro, the room, which was the seat of the Anti-imperialist Court, responded with shouts of ‘Fidel, Fidel what Fidel has, that the imperialists can not defeat him’.

The Cypriot leader called for rejecting the Western military blocs as the Atlantic alliance and urged the progressive youth of its member countries to dismantle the militarist structure from within.

The statement further denounces the suffering of the Syrian people, the provocation of sectarian conflict in that country as part of a foreign agenda for the redistribution of water and other wealth, as well as the case of Israeli aggression against the people of Palestine.

In Latin America, the imposition of blockades, such as that of the US against Cuba, and the destabilization of governments, as Washington is now attempting to do with Venezuela, the document pinpoints.

African peoples still suffer from colonialism, extreme poverty and racism, while there is the only case of colonialism on the so-called black continent: the occupation by Morocco of the territory of the Saharawi people, the read statement highlights here.

Papademetriou pointed out that the festival rejects wars and the promotion of unemployment, while supporting the independence, sovereignty and justice of peoples, when a handful of wealthy people in the world controls 50 percent of all their wealth in the world.

The final statement was also read by Aleida Guevara, daughter of Ernesto Ché Guevara, and forensic doctor Jorge González Pérez, who directed the search for the remains of the Heroic Guerrilla, among other leaders of Cuba and the world.