Yesterday the Young Communist League joined thousands of protestors in opposing the sham COP26 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. As has been noted in the national media and by many online, we were surrounded by a police line that engaged in arbitrary confrontations with us throughout the day. They opposed our right to march with no reason given to us or legal observers, clearly seeing us as a credible threat.
We would like to reiterate that we are neither intimidated nor surprised: as the state begins to see communist youth as a threat once again, as they see large numbers of young people actively confronting capitalism, we expect them to do everything they can to defend the wealth and privilege of the ruling class they serve.
While the planet burns and the custodians of power pay lip service to the problem by setting arbitrary targets for the future at COP26, the police maintain the status quo and preserve ideal market conditions for the parasites to continue killing our planet and all life on it. Inside the conference bought and paid for by the polluters themselves, the solutions proposed fail to entertain the idea that these market conditions are in fact the source of the problem.
An economy built on overproduction, on boom and bust, driven by irrational ‘market forces’ cannot rise to the vast economic challenge that climate change presents. Only a planned economy that makes real use of new technology can. Only a socialist revolution can deliver that economy and stop the ecocidal corporate machine from clinging on to power through bloody repression — and the young people who are now living through climate change are coming to the same conclusion.
People are sick of empty promises and open corruption, they are ready for confrontational and direct resistance to the death of our planet and the degradation of our communities. The people of Glasgow clapped and cheered for us as we marched through the city hours after everyone else, with heads held high.
Our members had come out for Glasgow on the GMBs picket lines with Living Rent that morning, and Glasgow returned the favour. We would like to thank the groups that stood in solidarity with us yesterday — Living Rent, ACORN, Not One Rogue Cop, the GMB and more that we didn’t recognise from across political divides. We also thank all those which have sent messages of support online, from Communist Party’s in Cyprus & Ireland, as well as from the Communist Party of Britain’s 56th Congress.
The Young Communist League will continue to grow and continue to confront capitalism as part of the resistance of everyday, working-class people against the super-rich parasites who poison our skies and seas with private jets and luxury yachts. The working class will defeat capitalism and turn the planet back into a common treasury for all life on it.
Our message is simple and stark — Socialism or Extinction.
