On November 15, the People’s Democracy Party (PDP) Youth Student Committee held the “21st Century Che Guevara Defense Brigade” Youth Student Resolution Rally in Seoul, South Korea. It was ahead of the formation of the defense brigade “21st Century Che Guevara” organized by the PDP on November 23.
It began with a lecture by charge d’affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in South Korea. She demanded an end to the blockade against the Venezuelan people, the US military threats, and the immediate cessation of US attacks. She said “The truth about Venezuela is not a mere slogan. These threats, which have persisted for the past 26 years, are now being minimized and concealed within the blockade that the US and its satellite states are imposing in the Caribbean under the pretext of the ‘war on drugs.’”
She added, “The US is escalating military threats and turning matters that belong to the realm of international judicial and law-enforcement cooperation into military issues. By massing excessive military forces in the Caribbean near Venezuela’s coast, the United States is endangering not only Venezuela but the peace of all Latin America—a region CELAC has declared a “zone of peace.” The US has violated international law by carrying out extrajudicial killings against civilian fishing vessels on the high seas. Venezuela has called for “an immediate end to the attacks,” for “the defense of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and peace,” and for “full adherence to the principles of the UN Charter.
Subsequently, at the resolution rally event, the PDP Youth and Student Committee criticized US imperialist aggression, shared the situation in Venezuela, and emphasized international solidarity with Venezuela in the significant situation.
Participants chanted slogans and delivered resolutions expressing their support for the Venezuelan people and the Maduro government, vowing to stand firm in the struggle against imperialism. They chanted “Down with U.S. imperialist aggression against Venezuela!” “International solidarity of anti-imperialist forces—crush imperialist aggression!” “We actively support the Venezuelan people’s government!” “Youth and students, take the lead in bringing down imperialism!” “¡Viva Maduro, viva Venezuela!” “¡Victoria siempre!” “¡Venceremos!”
Speakers highlighted the severe labor and economic hardships facing Korean youth—job insecurity, precarious working conditions, and deepening inequalities in education and housing—arguing that these crises are rooted in the imperialist and neoliberal system. They noted that Venezuela’s social policies in housing, education, and healthcare can offer a source of hope for young people seeking alternatives.
They also referenced the Spanish Civil War as a historical example of international brigades, emphasizing the need to carry forward the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle today. They assessed that South Korea, facing US military power and intensifying economic crisis, is in a similar situation to Venezuela.
In conclusion, they affirmed that youth and students should join the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist front through the 21st-Century Che Guevara Defense Brigade. They adopted a resolution titled “Down with Imperialism” and brought the event to a close. Participants recited “Down with Imperialism!” and then sang “The Internationale.”
Meanwhile, the Workers’ Committee also held its own resolution rally that day, expressing its united commitment to participate in the Defense Brigade “21st-Century Che Guevara”.
The following is the full text of the speeches and the resolution:
Youth Speech 1
The lives of the youth of this land differ little from those of the people pushed to the edge of the cliff. In this “Republic of Precarious Labor,” where 4 out of 10 workers are irregular, the number of young irregular workers surged last year to the highest level ever recorded, and over the past decade, the real income growth rate of the youth has been the lowest among all age groups. Although the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’ boasts the highest higher-education attainment rate among OECD member states—71%—the youth employment rate stands at only 45%, marking the worst level since the global financial crisis. The quality of youth employment continues to deteriorate, and even among those who manage to secure jobs as irregular workers, only 30% are employed as regular workers after three years. Young workers who sustain the country’s manufacturing sectors toil under harsh conditions—long hours, low wages, and insecure employment—and all too often become yet another “Kim Yong-gyun,” losing their lives on the job.
The future of the youth is under threat. Since the IMF crisis of 1997, which amounted to an assault on the economy by transnational capital, young people absorbed into the neoliberal market economy have been reduced to a socio-economic underclass—subjected to low-wage, low-skill, precarious labor. Standing only at the threshold society with low income and no assets, the youth have borne the concentrated shock of economic crises and have been forced to make unilateral sacrifices simply for being young. Income inequality has shut down all avenues of social mobility; the era when “dragons could rise from the stream (to rise from rags to riches)” has long since been replaced by an era where only “dragons are used up in the stream.” A society governed by cut-throat competition accelerates the right-ward drift of the youth and makes them easy prey for imperialist propaganda. In several Asian countries, the United States’ imperialist interference has been confirmed behind the so-called “Generation Z,” which led anti-government protests, and the same holds true in the ‘ROK.’
Today, the greatest enemy violating the youth’s right to live is imperialism. Historically, imperialism has been the root of every war of aggression and the main culprit of plunder and atrocity. Imperialist forces have turned Ukrainian youth into neo-Nazi forces and thrown them onto the front lines as cannon fodder in the war in Ukraine, while in West Asia they have brutally massacred the Palestinian people. It is an open fact that enormous funds from US and Western imperialists are devoted worldwide to shielding and fostering pro-US forces while suppressing and eliminating anti-US forces. The youth have always been objects of imperialist exploitation, manipulated as the assault troops of imperialist aggression and sacrificed in its wars. In today’s conjuncture of World War 3 as US imperialism’s invasion of Venezuela draws near, we youth standing on the anti-imperialist front recognize more clearly than ever that imperialism is the common enemy of the youth of the world.
The people’s government of Venezuela offers hope to the youth of the 21st century. As the political and economic masters of their society, the Venezuelan people are forging their own future through 5,388 comunas established nationwide. Through the Gran Misión Vivienda, approximately 5.26 million homes have been constructed and provided free of charge as of April, and the country’s food self-sufficiency rate has reached 90%. Venezuela’s advances in eliminating inequalities in education, healthcare, and housing at the national level serve as a new driving force of struggle for the ‘ROK’ youth who suffer under severe social inequality. It is the very reason youth exist—throwing themselves into the struggle to shatter the entrenched system of capitalist exploitation, becoming pioneers of their era, and creating miracles and transformations for their homeland.
We, the youth, have a historic duty to inherit the fighting spirit and the shining legacy of youth movements of preceding generations, and to wage the struggle while holding high the banner of anti-imperialism. The sharpened front drawn in Venezuela against imperialism is present here as well; we fully know that the place where we stand is another front of the anti-imperialist struggle. Drawing on the historical experiences of the International Brigades who fought valiantly in the Spanish Civil War and the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist struggles during World War 2, including the youth resistance fighters, we will struggle as the “21st-Century Che Guevara” alongside anti-imperialist youth across the globe. As long as the pure conscience and indomitable spirit of youth live on, we will never bow to imperialism. Youth of the ‘ROK’ will sweep away the fascist and traitorous forces in league with US imperialism and comprador capital, and will advance the dawn of a new world prioritizing youth while placing the people at the center.
Youth Speech 2
The present era demands that youth and students stand at the vanguard of the antiimperialist and antifascist struggle. As the storm of World War 3, unleashed by imperialism, sweeps toward East Asia, the war of aggression against Venezuela accelerates the war in East Asia too and will inevitably bring World War 3 into its full-scale escalation. Today, more than at any other moment in history, the antiimperialist camp is uniting, consolidating the world antiimperialist front, and transforming World War 3 into an antiimperialist war. Historically, wars have served as decisive moments that propel the revolutionary awakening of the people, pushing forward revolution in each county and across the world. The first workers’ and people’s government that emerged after World War 1 turned humanity’s ideals into reality, and the worldwide nationalliberation and classliberation movements that surged in the aftermath of World War 2 opened a new world of national independence and people’s democracy. Standing before a new period of great upheaval, youth and students shoulder the political duty to unite firmly within the world antiimperialist front and fight as one.
In the history of the antifascist struggle, the International Brigades that participated in the Spanish Civil War occupy a place of great significance. More than 35,000 workers, youth, and intellectuals from 53 countries were organized under the leadership of the Comintern and fought against fascism. For the youth, the Spanish Civil War was akin to the struggle to defend their own homelands from fascist forces. As the slogan “All the youth of the world stood on one antifascist front” proclaimed, the International Brigades were both the embodiment of proletarian internationalism and the realization of a world antifascist front. Recently, President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela announced the formation of the “Simón Bolívar International Brigade,” and PSUV General Secretary Diosdado Cabello publicly called on the people of the world to organize it. In Venezuela today, eight million militia are preparing an antiUS resistance struggle under the banner of defending the fatherland against the heinous acts of imperialist US aggression. Just as we once stood with the Spanish people, we must now stand as one front with the Venezuelan people in response to the peaceful appeal of the Maduro government.
The conditions of Venezuela, threatened by US imperialism, differ in no essential way from those of the “Republic of Korea.” The ‘ROK’ already hosts 28,500 US troops and the world’s largest US foreign military base, while nonstop war exercises aimed at aggression against the DPRK are conducted every year. Under these conditions—where economic crisis and war crisis overlap, where sovereignty has been forfeited, and where even the basic right to live is trampled by US imperialism and its proUS lackeys—what are we to do? Like the Venezuelan people, together with the Venezuelan people, we have no choice but to take up our own weapons and confront imperialism for our survival and development. Our weapons are the power of our awakened and united people including youth and students. The Defense Brigade “21st Century Che Guevara” is the only path through which we ourselves can safeguard the peace of our homeland and protect the lives and security of the people.
What, then, is the reality faced by youth and students today? Universities have degenerated from “ivory towers of truth” into mere platforms for accumulating qualifications for employment. The spread of AI has only heightened fears of job displacement, yet society subjects young people to “false hope” and buries them in endless competition for employment. The primary cause of suicide among people in their twenties is economic distress. Even so, society foments “political aversion” arguing that “youth are indifferent to politics,” severing young people from critical consciousness and practices, and reducing them to consumers or followers of extreme agitation. We can no longer find hope within the “ROK.” As a social force capable of solving their own problems and transforming society, we the youth seek to build a new world through the “21st Century Che Guevara.”
We stand on the shoulders of the martyrcomrades who devoted themselves to the antiimperialist and antifascist front. We draw strength from our people who fought fiercely on the streets in the uprising. Today, youth and students resolve to succeed the noble spirit of the martyrs and the radiant people’s uprisings, and to wage the struggle with even greater boldness and unwavering determination. Together with antiimperialist youth throughout the world, we shall strengthen the world antiimperialist front through the “21st Century Che Guevara,” overthrow imperialism, and hasten the final victory of the world antiimperialist camp. With all our strength, we fight until the day of victory!
[Youth Resolution]
Down with Imperialism!
We, the youth and students, have a proud history—a history of standing at the forefront of the frontlines against imperialism and fascism, and for the liberation of our nations and peoples. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the prelude to World War 2, more than 35,000 people from over 50 countries joined the International Brigades on the side of the Spanish people’s government. The majority of them were youth, and it was also the youth who defended the capital, Madrid, with indomitable resolve. The youth and students of Korea rose up against Japanese imperialism in the March 1st People’s Uprising and the Gwangju Student Anti-Japanese Movement, leading the armed and underground struggles for national liberation. They stood up against military fascist regimes and, by setting fire to and occupying US cultural centers in the 1980s, transformed the ‘Republic of Korea (ROK)’ from what had been a “zone where anti-US sentiment could not take root” into a “storm center of anti-US sentiment.” The anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggles of the youth and students of the world—and of Korea—are engraved in golden letters in the annals of world history and our own national history.
The present era demands that the youth and students take their place at the forefront of the anti-imperialist front. In the ‘ROK’ and across East Asia, the crisis of an impending war is continuously intensifying. The militarist clique in Japan, exploiting the Taiwan Strait crisis as a pretext, is pushing for the early revision of the three key national security-related documents, an increase in defense spending, and the introduction of state-run weapons manufacturing plants—once again driving Japan, the war criminal state of World War 2, onto the path of new war crimes. Imperialist USA has given its full support to the invasive military forces of militarist Japan. Even in the latter half of this year, military exercises provoking wars in the ‘ROK’ and East Asia have been carried out with growing ferocity. The multi-domain exercise “Freedom Edge”—an aggressive military drill of the “East Asian NATO” formed in August 2023—was conducted again in September. During the same period, the “Iron Mace” exercise, integrating the US nuclear forces with the conventional forces of the ‘ROK’ in preparation for aggression against the DPRK, was also carried out. And from the 3rd to the 7th of this month, the combined airpower exercise “Freedom Flag” took place.
The aggressive atrocities of US imperialism, unfolding in real time on the other side of the globe, are placing our destiny in ever greater peril. Trump is now pursuing an aggressive plan of invasion against Venezuela—one that far surpasses the Caribbean Crisis. The USA is concentrating its aggressive military forces in the Caribbean and conducting fierce military exercises with the aim of overthrowing the people’s government of Venezuela, plundering its oil resources, and once again reducing Latin America to its “backyard”—to a colony. The pro-US fascist clique in Venezuela has willingly become the hunting dog of US imperialism, plotting right-wing coups, terrorism, and sabotage. Many of the rioters and terrorists have been trained in the USA, and the imperialists are even awarding their ringleader a so-called “Nobel War Prize.” The imperialist forces are slandering President Nicolás Maduro as a “drug lord,” and under the pretext of a “war on drugs,” they are promoting the collapse of the Venezuelan people’s government by putting forward Machado—who is in fact tied to the real drug cartels.
The formation of the Defense Brigade “21st Century Che Guevara” is the most active form of struggle to reject wars of aggression and to realize genuine peace. To defend the sovereignty and peace of Venezuela is, in truth, to defend our own rights and our own peace. The people’s government and the people of Venezuela are preparing for a resolute resistance, and Venezuela is calling upon the world to unite on the anti-imperialist front. After Venezuela comes all of Latin America—and beyond that, the full-scale escalation of World War 3. The fact that the imperialist warmongers manipulated the fascist puppet Yoon Suk-yeol to provoke a war in the ‘ROK’ in the latter half of last year shows clearly that the ‘ROK’ cannot be an exception to the catastrophe of a world war. The slogan of the world progressive youth of the 20th century—“Unite the youth of the world in a single anti-fascist front!”—stirs the hearts of today’s youth and students, who have risen in the anti-imperialist struggle, with renewed vigor. Lifting high the banner of anti-imperialism, we, as members of the “21st Century Che Guevara,” will rise up in the struggle to overthrow imperialism and will win world independence and genuine peace.
Let the youth and students stand at the forefront—down with imperialism!
A people united will never be defeated!
¡Viva Maduro! ¡Viva Venezuela!
¡Hasta la victoria siempre!
November 15, 2025
Seoul
Youth and Student “21st Century Che Guevara” Defense Brigade
