Comrades and friends
It brings me great pleasure to welcome you with this editorial to the new website of Challenge, the magazine of the Young Communist League of Britain (YCL). In particular I would like to greet first time readers of Challenge and those aren’t members of the YCL (yet!).
The YCL is a democratic organisation of young workers and students, fighting for the rights and future of Britain’s youth. The YCL’s purpose is “To fight for peace, democracy and socialism in accordance with the strategy set out in the Communist Party’s programme Britain’s Road to Socialism, and to build mass support for this strategy among young people” (Constitution of the YCL). Challenge is key in this task.
Challenge is the voice of Britain’s young communists and it has a proud history stretching all the way back to 1935. For all the key struggles of our class over the last century, the YCL and Challenge have been there.
It would be wrong however to think of Challenge simply a bulletin from and for the YCL. It is, and will become increasingly, so much more. It is a forum for discussion, the exchange of views and experiences, in the spirit of Marxism – question everything.
Challenge is not just for YCLers. It is for the millions of young people in Britain oppressed and exploited under capitalism. It is for the united and democratic broad movement which will be necessary to sweep working people to power in Britain.
The many thousands of struggles of working people taking place across Britain do not occur in isolation. Challenge works to report on and unite these struggles and to strengthen the broad campaigns and movements leading them. Nor does the struggle for socialism in Britain take place apart from the world. Challenge provides news from our sister communist youth organisations on every continent and peoples movements across the planet.
Challenge aims to represent and celebrate the full spectrum of Britain’s working class youth, our culture and our history. Communists are determined to take the offensive in the battle of ideas which is occurring around us today on every front. It is part of the daily struggle against capitalism. For there must be no mistake – Britain’s ruling class does not neglect the weapon of propaganda.
Challenge has always been an educational tool for the youth working to develop their understanding of society today and to change it for the better. We work to provide these tools and to provide a class and anti-imperialist analysis of domestic and international developments. Marxism Leninism is humanity’s scientific method in this essential task.
Comrades, the task of the youth is to learn. The task of young communists is to combine it with action. You can do both with Challenge.
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Johnnie Hunter
General Secretary
Young Communist League
