Bedouby Nobert | Jenerasyon Ogou Feray (Haiti)
We are living through an era of profound upheaval. Imperialist wars are multiplying, economic crises follow one another, ecological disasters are intensifying, and inequalities have reached unprecedented levels. Far from being accidents of history, these phenomena reflect the structural contradictions of the capitalist mode of production. In this context, the question of youth assumes strategic importance.
However, the youth referred to here is not merely a biological category or a matter of age. It is, above all, a political and historical category. One may be young in age while defending the interests of the bourgeoisie, imperialism, or conservative forces. Conversely, socialist and communist youth are defined by their conscious commitment to the emancipation of peoples, the liberation of exploited classes, and the revolutionary transformation of society. Revolutionary youth is therefore determined not by age, but by political consciousness, militant commitment, and one’s position within the class struggle.
It is evident that we live within a capitalist world-system in which every country occupies a position determined by the international division of labor. This division opposes the countries of the core (the United States, France, and Great Britain) to those of the periphery (Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Venezuela), whose resources are continuously plundered by the dominant powers. This dynamic lies at the heart of numerous contemporary conflicts. Iran, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo stand today as striking examples.
The imperialist powers also compete for control over raw materials, markets, and strategic maritime routes in order to preserve their global hegemony. This logic generates hunger, unemployment, war, and misery in all their forms.
Capitalism inherently produces war, forced migration, ecological destruction, the super-exploitation of labor, and recurring crises. These are not accidental deviations but the normal manifestations of a system founded on the limitless accumulation of capital and the pursuit of maximum profit. The system has not failed; it is in crisis, and it is precisely through this crisis that it continues to reproduce itself.
Fascism is not an anomaly external to capitalism. During periods of profound crisis, when the ruling classes perceive their interests to be under threat, they may resort to authoritarian forms of domination in order to preserve their economic and political power. Anti-fascism, therefore, cannot be reduced to the mere defense of liberal institutions; it must be part of a broader struggle against the social relations that produce fascism that is, against capitalism itself.
From this perspective, socialist and communist youth cannot regard themselves merely as victims. Within the Marxist tradition, they represent a historical force destined to play a decisive role in overturning the logic of capitalist domination. The suffering they endure is not accidental but the direct product of a system that places profit above human life and destroys the environment in the relentless pursuit of wealth accumulation.
It is this concrete experience of exploitation that should lead youth toward commitment to a radical political movement. Every economic, climatic, or political crisis strengthens their capacity to question the legitimacy of the existing system and to seek alternatives.
The question of organization and autonomy is of strategic importance. In the Leninist tradition, youth must organize independently in order to develop their analytical and political capacities. Such autonomy, however, does not imply isolation; on the contrary, it requires an organic connection with the workers’ and peasants’ movements. It is within this dialectical relationship that youth can avoid both manipulation by the system and political errors capable of weakening the struggle.
At the same time, the development of class consciousness becomes essential. Socialist and communist youth are an integral part of the working class and the peasantry, both subjected to the same logic of exploitation. Ideological education therefore becomes an indispensable instrument for understanding social reality and for building a collective strategy capable of overthrowing bourgeois domination. As Lenin famously declared: “Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement.”
Youth must also undertake a profound cultural break. It cannot be satisfied with merely criticizing the system; it must reject the very values upon which that system is built. Against the logic of competition, individualism, and the pursuit of profit, it must promote solidarity, equality, and social justice. Because it experiences the contradictions of capitalism most acutely, socialist and communist youth are called upon to become the vanguard of the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle. Their historical mission is not to administer the existing system but to contribute to its revolutionary transcendence.
Within this dynamic, they play the role of a vanguard not as an elite separated from the masses, but as a mobilizing force capable of leading the popular classes toward a process of radical social transformation.
History never waits for peoples who hesitate. Every generation faces a historical responsibility. The responsibility of our time is clear: to choose between perpetuating a system founded upon war, exploitation, and destruction, or participating in the construction of a socialist project capable of placing human beings, labor, and dignity back at the center of society. For socialist and communist youth, this is not merely a political commitment it is a historical mission.
