League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ, Serbia)
When gunshots echoed in Sarajevo 111 years ago, it took exactly one month for Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. That declaration marked the beginning of a conflict that, at the time, became the largest war in both Europe and the world. Millions of soldiers lost their lives in a war sparked by the colonial powers’ elite, driven by a race for profit. The Great War, as it was then called, was supposed to be “the war to end all wars.” It didn’t take long for the truth behind that phrase to become clear. Fascism rose, followed by another war.
In that second war—where humanity fought for its survival against the greatest evil in history—a new weapon was born: the nuclear bomb. Although many wars have been fought since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that weapon of destruction has not been used again.
Today, “the war to end all wars” is entirely possible. But it would come in the form of a new world war that would likely involve the use of the same weapon that turned two Japanese cities into ash. Such use would indeed end all wars—by ending the existence of humanity on Earth.
Many countries today possess nuclear weapons, with Russia holding the largest arsenal. China and the DPRK are rapidly advancing their nuclear programs. Since February 2022, the global geopolitical landscape has been shifting quickly, and with that comes increasingly frequent mentions of nuclear weapon use. The primary culprit behind this scenario is the imperialists of Western countries, with their war-mongering agenda. In February 2022, with the beginning of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the citizens of NATO countries became hostages of their own governments’ policies. These policies—above all, the military support of the fascist regime in Ukraine—have directly pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war with a nation that possesses thousands of nuclear warheads.
However, this is not the only hotspot where such a conflict is being provoked. On the Korean Peninsula, the DPRK has developed nuclear weapons solely for self-defense. This country, which has been a thorn in the side of imperialist powers since the end of the Korean War, recognized the importance of nuclear capability after witnessing the fate of Libya, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and many other nations that lacked such a deterrent. Still, this has not stopped NATO member states from continuing their attempts to subjugate the Korean people.
In the Middle East, the Zionist entity of Israel is doing everything in its power to maintain its nuclear monopoly. This state, which for decades has carried out aggression not only against the Palestinian people but also toward its neighbors, has sabotaged every attempt by any country in the region to develop means of self-defense. This is most evident today in the case of Iran, where Israel is actively lobbying for aggression—backed by its imperialist allies, particularly the United States.
This strongly echoes what happened back in 2003. Iraq was accused of developing nuclear weapons—without a shred of evidence. That accusation was used as a pretext for a brutal military intervention, from which Iraq has never recovered and which plunged the entire region into chaos. The very same pattern we see today was used then—by the very same aggressors.
Considering all this, it becomes clear that the world is sliding toward a new conflict. This time, however, it is more dangerous than any previous war due to the very real possibility that such a large-scale conflict could mark the end of humanity. What drives us toward that brink is the greed of capitalist and imperialist elites—unable to accept that they cannot dominate the entire world.
US imperialism and its imperialist alliances, that grow both in number of them and in territory, relentlessly push humanity toward a catastrophic new world war, a conflict that could end all life through nuclear annihilation. Their reckless policies, particularly the unreserved military backing of the Banderite regime in Ukraine, and Zionist regime in Isreal, have brought us perilously close to a nuclear conflagration with a heavily armed nation.
Today, in this new global context, it is the youth who are under the greatest pressure. Those whose future and youth are at stake. From the past of my country, we can see examples of what happens when imperialists interfere in the fate of a people. The war ignited in Yugoslavia pushed thousands upon thousands of young men into the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of World War II. Some of them fought on the side of the seceding republics, believing they were fighting for the freedom of their people—only for their countries, three decades later, to fall under the control of the EU and NATO. Others fought on the side of Yugoslavia, in an unequal struggle against the world’s most powerful force, while their country was suffering under sanctions. What united the soldiers on both sides was the fact that, just a few years earlier, they had visited each other, befriended one another, and even received military training side by side. Turning rifles and tank barrels against their former comrades was a direct consequence of imperialist intervention.
We, the generation born to parents who spent their youth in war, under sanctions, and in bomb shelters, understand how important it is that such horrors never be repeated anywhere again. We understand the pain, the trauma, and the suffering that a people can endure at the hands of those who are willing to trample over all of it in the name of profit and interests. To them, thousands of dead and displaced people—then and now—are nothing but statistics on paper, bargaining chips in geopolitical games.
Today, young people all over the world must be aware of this. From Ukraine to the Middle East, countless young men fear for their lives in trenches, while countless women and children live in fear of war. It is up to us, the youth, to stop this. That is why we are here today—to express our protest and discontent with the summit of mass murderers in The Hague, where agreements will be made not only to continue existing conflicts, but to ignite new ones across the globe.
Youth must show that we do not want war, that we do not want destruction, but that we want to build a world where we can live in peace, fulfill our potential, and shape our own lives. We must show that we want to gather, like we are doing here, to exchange ideas and create opportunities—not to look at each other through the crosshairs. Let us show that our factories should not produce tanks and bullets, but tools for coexistence and peace.
But we must also be aware that those very factories—whose assembly lines produce tanks—are our greatest enemies. Because those who sell tanks are the same ones who buy the politicians now meeting in The Hague, so that those tanks can be put to use.
Today, young people around the world must rise up—against both the owners of the factories and those who buy from them. We must show that youth should be spent learning, working, and building a new world—not in the trenches.
