YCL+criticises+ASGISA+and+launches+Defiance+Campaign




 * 19 March 2006**

YCL CRITICISES ASGISA AND LAUNCHES DEFIANCE CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EDUCATION AND QUALITY JOBS
The National Committee of the Young Communist League (YCL) adopted and launched a Defiance Campaign in order to mobilise young people, and young working class women in particular, in South Africa into a concerted programme of action to challenge and defy the capitalist South African system. The campaign was launched at a youthful, vibrant and defiant mass rally attended by more than 800 activists, members and supporters of the YCL from the working class township of Botshabelo

The capitalist South African economy ensures that millions of young people are without jobs, exposed to HIV/AIDS, high school fees and limited access to tertiary education. For example, young people below the age of 35 make 70% of the unemployed and HIV/AIDS affects young women more than any other group in our society.

For these reasons, the YCL Defiance Campaign demands:

1. Decent jobs and a living wage for all workers including young workers and learners; 2. Free education for all from pre-school to tertiary education; 3. Basic services for all; 4. The provision of good quality treatment, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS; 5. An end to the abuse of women and children; 6. Lowering the pension age to 55 for all women and men in order to create work opportunities for young people; 7. Extension of child support grants to cover young people up to the age of 18; 8. The extension of the school feeding scheme to high schools; 9. Nationalisation of all land for productive economic use by landless communities targeting jobless young people; and 10. Public ownership of all mineral wealth.

On the basis of these demands, the YCL rejects the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) announced by government earlier this year. In the view of the YCL, ASGISA is based on the same neo-liberal thrust that informed the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme which has failed to create any jobs despite a decade of growth in the economy. This is the nature of capitalist growth: increasing profits for owners of capital built on the exploitation of an increasingly smaller number of workers whilst millions more are subject to job losses, unemployment and poverty. ASGISA requires growth first without even a clear programme of how to ensure the redistribution of wealth. The YCL does not agree with this capitalist logic. The YCL argues for the redistribution of current wealth as a sustainable basis for pro-poor and pro-youth socio-economic development. ASGISA is based on the need to lower the costs of doing business which leads to lower government spending in real terms. Lowering the costs of doing business amounts to more secure profits for the bosses and greater insecurity for the workers and the poor. In such a situation, there is no hope of a better future for the young people of our country: instead, their life of poverty, HIV/AIDS, exposure to crime and joblessness will be worsened.

The YCL calls for massive state investment in social and economic expenditure for township and rural infrastructure. Publicly owned companies must be used for job creation and development rather than the enrichment of a few CEOs and consultants. The YCL calls on government to take active measures to direct and discipline all investment including private investment. This must include higher levels of corporate tax and obligations on the private sector to invest in job creation, infrastructure and social needs. It is to believe in a pie-in-the-sky to merely expect that capitalist growth will be shared and lead to job creation as ASGISA does. ASGISA is GEAR in new clothes. We will not achieve job creation and development if we merely tinker with what remains a capitalist economy. Fundamental economic restructuring is required. The YCL calls for massive state investment, higher levels of tax and state directing all investment is part of this fundamental economic restructuring.

The launch of the Defiance Campaign will be followed by mass marches of young people in Mafikeng, Polokwane, Kimberley, Cape Town, Durban, Nelspruit and Bisho to deliver these demands to government offices, private companies, parastatals and educational institutions. These marches will be held from 28 March to 02 April. Following this first phase, the Defiance Campaign will focus on ongoing mobilisation in local areas in preparation for the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of June 16 and a programme of rolling mass action. The YCL will use the Defiance Campaign to start a national debate on pro-poor and anti-capitalist alternative economic policies as an alternative to ASGISA.

The YCL congratulates young people for coming out in their large numbers to vote for the ANC including ensuring that many of the elected ANC councillors are young people including members of the YCL. We call on young councillors to be especially exemplary, reject corruption, be committed to the people who elected them and do everything in their power to deliver services to our people. This requires increased resources from the national budget and ensuring that local governments are democratised thoroughly through effective participation of all residents. Communities must also be able to recall councillors who do not perform or are corrupt. Communities must also have a more effective say in how municipalities decide on budgets. Where necessary, communities must also directly challenge municipalities through mass action and ongoing mobilisation. As part of the Defiance Campaign, the YCL will be in the midst of these struggles taking forward the SACP’s Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign. We will continue to defy capitalism and to demand that the interests and needs of young working class people are addressed by the government we have elected.
 * LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS**

In the context of the ongoing national debate of rape and abuse of women, the YCL National Committee calls on all South Africans to redouble their collective efforts, by women and men, to eradicate the scourge of rape and abuse of women in our society. The YCL is extremely concerned that the criminal justice system fails to convict rapists and thus making victims more vulnerable. In this regard, the YCL’s Defiance Campaign will also highlight the plight of young women and survivors of rape and sexual abuse. This will include YCL submissions on the passing of the Sexual Offences Act because this Act will address many of the problems that the criminal justice system subjects victims of rape to.
 * YCL FIGHTS AGAINST RAPE AND THE ABUSE OF WOMEN**

The YCL National Committee reaffirmed its defence of the principle of innocent until proven guilty and further reiterates its concern on the attacks on the integrity and person of Comrade Jacob Zuma from state institutions and large sections of the media. In respect of the rape trial that Comrade Zuma is facing, the YCL rejects any notion that the rights of the applicant and defendant to respect, fairness, justice and personal integrity should be infringed from any quarter.
 * JACOB ZUMA MATTER**

CONTACT

Mazibuko K. Jara, YCL Deputy National Secretary, Cell – 083 651 0271** ---
 * Buti Manamela, YCL National Secretary, Cell – 082 567 3557

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