Young Communists offer hope for rising generation

If you are a young person under the age of 30 you probably know more about the elimination and under-funding of social services and programs for youth than your parents’ generation ever did.

Vocational education, which once offered job training and preparation, has been defunded or eliminated. Pell grants, which at one time allowed working-class youth a way to pay for college, are nonexistent. Comprehensive sex education and access to birth control and reproductive health services have been replaced with abstinence-only programs and elimination of funding for women’s health clinics that provide abortions. Affirmative action programs, which were fought for to challenge institutionalized inequality and open opportunities for people of color and women, have been watered down or terminated. After-school programs, extracurricular activities and community centers that once provided recreational and cultural space for youth are being shut down.

To “solve” the lack of educational and employment opportunities for youth, Bush and his Republican allies in Congress cut another $14 billion from student loan programs, then offer youth up to $20,000 to sign up for the military. The Bush administration’s answer for the young generation as it faces staggering credit card debt and increasing unemployment? Buy, buy, buy and buy some more!

This cynical, callous disregard for young people has led many to get involved and fight back. From campaigns to kick military recruiters out of our schools to lobbying against the disastrous budget reconciliation which cut billions in programs for youth, young people are taking a more active role in the political scene.

On campuses around the country students are kicking out Taco Bell, Coca-Cola and other corporations that benefit from the often violent exploitation of working people.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, young people reacted to the Bush administration’s inept and racist response by organizing their own fundraising drives and work brigades.

And this year, as in 2004, young people will be forming their own voter education and registration drives to mobilize against Bush’s soul-mates in Congress.

As the movement of young people who reject the extreme right policies of the Bush administration grows, so too will the search for an alternative to capitalism. Capitalism offers no solutions to the problems of racism, sexism, exploitation and war that our generation faces. The fact that we, young Communists, have the drive and creative energy to imagine another world is a powerful inspiration for a generation that has grown up during the rise of the ultra-right.