A REPORT ON THE 16TH WFYS

United The Youth Stand Against Imperialism And War

K N Balagopal

The Indian delegation at the opening ceremony in Caracas

THE 16th World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was successfully held in Caracas, capital city of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, during August 7 -15, 2005, upholding the festival tradition and reaffirming its significance as the largest and the most meaningful political, cultural, and anti-imperialist event organised by the progressive, democratic youth and student forces of the world.

This 16th festival welcomed more than 17,000 delegates of local, national, regional and the international organisations from 144 countries, representing millions of young people and students from all over the world. Delegates representing different age groups, ideological background, gender, ethnicity and social origin participated in varied and numerous activities during the 16th WFYS.

The weeklong 16th festival concluded with the adoption of the final declaration, which carries a clear political message to the world’s youth. The final declaration is a clarion call for unity and struggle against war and imperialism.  In the light of a thorough analysis of the present world situation the declaration makes the following remarks, “Now we are in a better position to continue our struggle through our respective local, national, regional and international organisations against our common enemies – imperialism and war”. The cause of unfettered struggle against imperialism and war received special significance in the16th WFYS for the very reason that it was convened in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The Caracas WFYS has turned out to be a very vocal and bold declaration of solidarity by the world’s youth with the ongoing struggle of the Venezuelan people against US imperialism. From the point of view of the world’s youth, the festival also meant an expression of solidarity to the ongoing struggles of the Venezuelan government and the people

‘For peace and solidarity, we struggle against imperialism and war.’

This historical festival was inaugurated on August 8, by president Chavez at a specially arranged venue in the Military Academy at Fuerte Tiuna. The inaugural function was marked by a colorful rally of delegates from various countries, which was personally greeted by president Hugo Chavez. The Indian delegation presented the National flag to the president at the inaugural venue.

From August 9 to 14, the four main venues and its satellite halls witnessed hectic activities related to the festival agenda. The venue at Fuerte Tiuna was the thematical centre for ‘Peace, War and Imperialism’. The Bolivarian University Campus was earmarked for ‘Education, Culture, Science and Technology’. The third thematical centre at Parque Central discussed ‘Employment, Economy and Development’. The deliberations of the fourth venue, Teatro Teresa Carreno was on ‘Democracy and Human rights’.

Based on these general themes as many as 46 seminars and conferences and around 90 workshops were organised. There were 16 ‘Inter Exchange Social Meetings’ and ‘International Solidarity Forums’. In organising these conferences and seminars and making them successful, DYFI-SFI delegates had played an important role either as presidium members, paper presenters or by way of interventions from the floor.

THE INDIAN DELEGATION

The Indian contingent of 225 delegates was the largest since the post-Soviet days. It included delegates from DYFI-SFI, AIYF-AISF, AIYL-AISB, IYC, Yuva RJD, Nationalist Youth Congress, Telugu Yuvatha etc. There was also a special delegation of 8 members from West Bengal, deputed by the state government. 

Our delegation comprising of 73 DYFI delegates and 25 SFI delegates helped us in communicating our political message to the festival participants. We have had extensive discussions with delegations from other countries, especially with those representing Venezuela. We have also been able to spread the message of our activities and struggles in India.

The DYFI has received a prominent role in the conduct of the festival activities. It has served as one among the 25 International Organising Committee Members  of the 16th WFYS (represented by K N Balagopal). World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) has nominated DYFI to chair a special conferences on “We fight for the right to work with rights”, in which DYFI representative presented the key paper. DYFI representatives chaired many conference and seminar sessions such as those on ‘Human Rights in the Capitalist World’, ‘Refugees and Immigrants Problem’, ‘Sixty Years of Festival Movement and its Contributions’ etc. In the conference on ‘Education is a Right not a Privilege’ SFI representatives presented their views”. Tapas Sinha, K N Balagopal, A. Pradeep Kumar and Kallol Roy were part of different presidiums. Ashintango Ganguly, Abdul Hai, Tapas Dutta, Thiruvettai Arun Kumar, Apoorba Chatterjee, P K Biju, and Nayan were among those who spoke in various sessions.

Robin Deb chief whip of the West Bengal government addressed the solidarity meeting on Nepal, and attended parliamentarian’s and ministers meeting organised by the Mayor of Caracas.  M A Baby, former DYFI president and a veteran of the festival movement, participated in the festival and addressed the gathering on the eve of Asia Pacific day as the chief guest.

ANTI- IMPERIALIST TRIBUNAL 

The Anti-Imperialist Tribunal may be considered as one of the most inspiring events of the festival. On August 13 and 14, the specially arranged venue at Poliadre de Caracas, which can accommodate 15,000 delegates, witnessed many lively episodes in which the bloodthirsty chapters of imperialism were exposed. The Tribunal heard a three and half hour deposition of president Hugo Chavez as a witness against the imperialist onslaughts. In his speech, he named US imperialism as Mr Danger and the US state as a savage state.  Beginning with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he described many past crimes of imperialism, which it resorted to destabilise independence and sovereignty of Latin America, especially Venezuela.

The Tribunal was chaired by Jose Vincente Reugel, vice president of Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with specialist personalities from different areas of social life. A total of 39 countries came before the tribunal with proper evidence and witnesses. The description about the damages from the criminal usage of ‘agent orange’ the dangerous chemical which even today continue to cause genetical problems to the newborn children, was a touching one. The narration about the loss of three million people and the dismemberment of five million people in Vietnam at the time of US aggression revealed the real criminals before the world. Imperialist criminal plots related to Cuba, Palestine, Iraq, Western Sahara, Mexico, Korea, Peru etc. were brought before the Tribunal with telling and conclusive evidences.

The criminal exploitation by Multinational Corporations, the looting of environment etc. was also discussed in various sessions. The human rights activists from USA who faced arbitrary arrest while protesting against the savage war revealed their experience. The father of a deceased US solider in Iraq war came out with his case against US rulers. The Tribunal has turned out into a self-explanatory theatre revealing the criminal and gruesome activities of imperialism.

ARE YOU FROM KOLKATA?

Are you from Kolkata? Chavez asked this writer while speaking after my speech. I was on the presidium with him, representing Asia. While I spoke, I mentioned about his recent visit to India, and the solidarity movement we had in India with Venezuela. It was an interactive session on August 13, with the leaders of the delegations and guests with president Chavez. I replied that I was from Kerala. Then he asked the guests “is any one from Kolkata?”. Robin Deb and Tapas Sinha were happy and they raised their hands.

Then Chavez told about his visit to India, which revealed his seriousness as a politician and about his understanding on each country. He told the guests - “ I visited India recently. Now after the new government in India, Venezuela has got good relationship with India, and we made some agreements also. I visited Kolkata, the state has a population around 90 million and it is under a communist government for the last 28 years. I visited a deep village, and the rural government and co-operative system is quite good there.”

In fact, the interactive session which continued for nearly four hours has turned out be an important event in which serious questions were raised and discussed. Many questions about the Venezuelan system were raised by the participants. All of them greeted Chavez and Bolivarian revolution. In his reply, Chavez offered a helping hand to the WFDY, promising to help its regional headquarter in coordinating its activities in Latin America.

THE COLORFUL FARE WELL

The festival activities were officially concluded on August 15, evening at Poliadro de Caracas indoor stadium. Prior to this the Indian delegation had the opportunity to celebrate the Indian Independence day at the venue in Hilton Caracas. All the Indian delegates assembled there and we hoisted Indian Tricolor flag, which was followed by a meeting in which leaders of different organisations spoke. In the evening, the venue of the concluding event had become a place for cultural exchange. The final declaration of the 16th WFYS was read out in the venue. The different musical troupes and dance troupes from different parts of the world displayed magnificent performances. The atmosphere laudably reminded us about the great sense of hospitality, love and affection that the Venezuelan people had given us in plenty during the days of the festival.

The delegates from different countries, left Venezuela after the 16th WFYS with added vigor and confidence for their struggle against imperialism and war. The collective thinking and brainstorming interactions revealed the unity among the younger generation to resist the imperialist game plans. The dream for a world without war and a world free from exploitation became clearer for the participants. The discussions and exchanges of experiences at WFYS surely enriched the ideological armory of the participants in their resistance against destructive forces. The host country, Venezuela, which is the land of anti-imperialist struggles, had instilled a great measure of confidence and optimism in the minds of all the participants.