XXX. IUSY World Congress

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Dear Comrades,

We have the pleasure of inviting you to the forthcoming:

 15 Actions to eradicate Poverty in 15 Years

XXX. IUSY World Congress

Copenhagen, Denmark – 28th February to 2nd March 2014


“Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like Slavery and Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” — Nelson Mandela

 Although the extreme poverty rates have been cut in half since 1990, 1 in 8 people still remain hungry today. As Nelson Mandela said, poverty is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. So it is now up to us to keep on fighting against poverty and develop concrete actions to achieve a social wellbeing for all. Furthermore we can no longer neglect the link among the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development, achieving social wellbeing for all requires policy making, where social equity, economic growth and environmental protection are approached together.

 Together with you we want to develop an IUSY World Campaign promoting 15 Actions to eradicate poverty in the next 15 years. Together we can and will make a difference! We are looking forward to meet all of you again to enjoy both the fun and the politics. Our hosting organization, DSU in Denmark, is happy to welcome all of you to Copenhagen.

 

With Socialist Regards,

Viviana Piñero
IUSY President

Beatriz Talegón
IUSY Secretary General

Camilla Brejner Schwalbe
DSU President

 

IUSY World Congress 2014 – Call for Nominations

Spanish  ⁄ ⁄  French

IUSY is happy to receive nominations of candidates for the XXX IUSY World Congress! All full member organizations of IUSY – that have fulfilled the obligations to IUSY (paid their membership fee) – have the right to make nominations.

THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS ARE UP FOR ELECTIONS:
» President
» Secretary General
» Vice Presidents (18)
» Chair of Control Commission
» Members of Control Commission (4)

In accordance with the Presidium suggestion on Statutes, Working Groups Coordinators will be appointed within the Presidium and not elected. Please note that Gender balance (at least 50% women representation) must be reached within each region.

Nominations must include:
» Letter of motivation from the candidate, which should include a political project for the period.
» Letter of support from the leadership of the candidate’s organization
» Presentation with short CV and picture of the candidate
» Passport copy of the candidate

 

Deadline for nominations is the 12th of February 2014. After the deadline all nominations will be made public.

» Submit your Nomination

 

JSE declarations in favour of women’s right to choose

The past 20th of December, the Government of Spain approved in its Council of Ministers a draft of a law that threatens the right of women to choose and looks to push them towards maternity without taking their wishes into account.

» SIGN NOW «

The Draft of the “Organic Law for the Protection of the Life of the Conceived and the Rights of the Pregnant Woman” is the most serious attack on Spanish women in the last 30 years. The Popular Party looks exclusively to satisfy its most retrograde and conservative electorate, a veritable fundamentalist lobby willing to do whatever it takes to quench their sectarianism. The right to choose and sexual and reproductive rights are fundamental rights that should be defended and promoted through an egalitarian education. The Government, instead of prioritizing the general interest and coexistence within the constitutional framework, has adopted the unacceptable attitude of legislating on the basis of religious morality, undermining the decision-making capacity of women.

After many years, in 2010, Spain managed to distinguish itself in the defense of civil rights with a pioneering Law on Deadlines on a global scale. A law that managed to generate a wide consensus in Parliament, with the exception of the Popular Party, as well as among health and legal professionals for its support of sexual and reproductive education and for its advances in its treatment of women within the democratic system. This broad consensus was superseded by a draft law that the Government has only agreed upon with the Episcopal Conference.

The actual Law on Deadlines is based on basic principles like the respect for women and their life – with specific support provided by professionals specialized in the subject matter from infancy to maturity. It is a preventative law, with legal and health guarantees for women, does not discriminate on the basis of economic capacity, and the immense majority has not asked for its reform. On the contrary, the draft law segregates on account of the need to pay for travel to other countries in order to achieve what is denied at home, or provokes clandestine and unsafe abortions, and places us at a disadvantage with respect to the legislation of our European neighbourhood.

Repealing the Law on Deadlines is a social regression and a risk for us. The regulation that they want to impose not only will not reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, but will also increase the suffering of women who find themselves in this situation. The PP government wants to convert into a crime for all what is simply a sin for some. In 1995, the United Nations in its “Action Platform of Beijing” declared that the human rights of women include their right to exercise choice and decide freely and responsibly with regards to their own sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health. It called on all countries to elaborate legislation guaranteeing these rights. Contrary to this, the new “Law for the Protection of the Life of the Conceived and the Rights of the Pregnant Woman” only permits then interruption of pregnancies in two cases, rape and risk of death for the mother. Where is the power to choose if it is the correct moment to be a mother? Currently, laws specifying deadlines exist in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Portugal. Europe today looks to Spain scandalized by a counter-reform that supposes an incomprehensible restriction of liberty and a return to situations prior to the Law of 1985.

For all these reasons, and on account of this latest blow, the Socialist Youth of Spain declares:

  • Our volition to defend liberty and the right of women to choose over their own body and motherhood. We will not accept that they be once more treated as citizens incapable of deciding after so many years of struggle. Women are qualified to decide in a free society and we will not permit that this right be taken away.
  • We will not give our consent to the Partido Popular continuing to interfere in the autonomy of women, looking exclusively to return them to their homes. We fight for a dignified society, living together in equality, and without part of the citizenry being submitted to the dictates and decisions of the other part.
  • We defend the right to choose of women and support the current Law on Deadlines, which is being applied with total normality. Its repeal does not respond to a social demand, but rather to sectarian and exclusionary interests.
  • We will promote our oppositin to this draft law within the international community, especially in Europe, asking our comrades, deputies, and European leaders to disseminate news of this unreasonable attack on liberties that our country is suffering.
  • Ultimately, we will exhaust all the means that are necessary to demand the justice with which Spanish women deserve to be treated and to block this frontal and direct assault on their autonomy. We will not stop until we have deterred all those operations that seek to develop a tyrannical model based on their archaic ultraconservative thought.

Mediterranean Committee 2013

The IUSY Mediterranean Committee met from the 19th to the 22nd of December 2013 in Paphos, a beautiful city in the south-east of Cyprus. The main points on the agenda were discussions about the Cyprus Issue and the Syrian Revolution. Besides this the participants of the Study Visit in Morocco and the Western Sahara territory  shared their experiences. During the Committee Meeting also an AUSY Meeting was held.

 

 #Cyprus Solution: Federal State

IMG_0677   IMG_0667   IMG_0658


#Conflict Sahara: Dialogue and Solidarity @IUSY_Global

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» Check out the pictures from the Committee Meeting

IUSY Study Visit “North Cyprus”

17 – 19 December 2013, Lefkoşa (North Cyprus)

Due to a membership application of the CTP Youth IUSY carried out a study visit to the North of Cyprus in order to explore and observe the situation of the conflict on the ground and strengthen the joint work of our organizations in Cyprus. During the visit the delegates had the chance to meet and exchange with various activists and representatives from the CTP Youth and their mother party. The study visit was hosted and coordinated by the CTP Youth of Cyprus interested in becoming a future IUSY Member Organization.

Program

The study visit started on Tuesday evening with a welcoming dinner, where our delegation had the chance to discuss the current political situation in North Cyprus with various members of the parliament from the CTP. On Wednesday morning Urun Solyali held an interesting presentation of the CTP Youth. After a typical Cypriot lunch our delegation met with the Foreign Minister from North Cyprus Özdil Nami. Main topic of the meeting was the current level of the negotiations between the North and South Cyprus. In a following round table with the former President of North Cyprus Mehmet Ali Talat the delegation got to know an historical point of view of the Cyprus conflict. Also the Thursday morning started with an interesting round table with a former member of the Assembly of North Cyprus Mustafa Yektaoglu. The main focus of the discussion was the question if petrol and gas at the Mediterranean are tools for peace or tension. After this fruitful discussion our delegation was received by the Prime Minister Özkan Yorgancioglu. This very interesting study visit was concluded by visiting the Parliament of North Cyprus and having a short coffee break with the former Prime Minister of North Cyprus Sibel Siber. Many Thanks to the CTP Youth for the invitation and this amazing study visit!

As the reception with the Prime Minister attracted media interest,
you can find some press articles (in Turkish) here:
» http://www.basbakanlik.gov.ct.tr/
» http://www.kibrishaber.com/

» Check out more pictures from the Study Visit here

In Memory of Nelson Mandela

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The International Union of Socialist Youth – IUSY – is deeply saddened and affected by the death of a man who with his struggle, values and courage managed not only to unite a nation under the flag of respect for human rights, equality and justice – in their most profound and substantial sense – but also to triumph and to become a reference to the world in achieving welfare independently of race, class or belief. This man is Nelson Mandela.

Madiba – as his people affectionately called him – is on top of that the example of what every young socialist must strive to be; a soldier at the service of the most beautiful causes that humanity should pursue, now and forever, an instrument for the permanent construction of Utopia: a world in peace, in justice, in equality and in brotherhood, with no distinction of an objective over the other.

Nelson Mandela was, ultimately, one of the best among us. A live example of struggle, conviction, coherence and humility who leaves several lessons to young socialists, social democrats and labour youth around the world. his lessons were not transmitted by mere words or good intentions but with concrete actions of struggle and leadership.

At first instance, Mandela taught us that courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. Besides, fear should never limit our convictions. Convictions should never be traded-off, not even over the most tempting offer. There is no freedom if this one is not constructed from our convictions. His example is highly required today in a world where injustice, violence, segregation, inequality express in different forms. We are in need of even more brave people than yesterday.

Furthermore, Mandela taught us that no battle could be won alone. Only the people united for one cause can change the world. Solidarity and international pressure could be the key to profound transformations; transformations that the most needed people in our towns and nations can no longer wait for. We want to tell you Mandela, and tell the world, that this is one of the reasons why IUSY exists. Symbols like you confirm, ultimately, that en equal world is really possible and that it is worth fighting for!

For this reason, today in IUSY we firmly believe that the best homage we can pay to Mandela is to keep up with his cause, his fight and his example. Unity is the only thing that will make us invincible. Today, young socialists around the world are called to take the torch that he once ignited and to continue every day, in every corner of our planet, doing our own revolution.

Young socialists all around the world will not let Mandela die. He will live on in our memory, our values, our principles and in our actions.

 

Because we are IUSY, we are all around the world, to change it!

Forever Madiba!

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La unión Internacional de Juventudes Socialistas –IUSY- desea expresar su más profunda tristeza y conmoción ante el fallecimiento de un hombre, que con su lucha, con su valor y su valentía, no solo logró unir a una nación bajo las banderas del respeto a los Derechos Humanos, de la igualdad, de la justicia en su sentido más profundo y  sustancial, si no que además triunfó, y se transformó en un símbolo del camino que un mundo entero debe recorrer para lograr el bienestar para todas las personas sin distinción alguna de raza, clase o creencia. Ese hombre es Nelson Mandela.

Madiba, como afectuosamente le llamaba su pueblo, es además el ejemplo de lo que todo joven socialista debe trabajar por ser, un soldado al servicio de las más bellas causas que puede perseguir la humanidad, hoy y siempre, un instrumento de la construcción permanente de la utopía, de un mundo en paz, en justicia, en igualdad y en fraternidad, sin distinción de un objetivo sobre el otro.

Nelson Mandela fue, en definitiva, uno de los mejores entre los nuestros, por su ejemplo vivo de lucha, convicción, consecuencia y humildad, pero además por las enseñanzas que nos deja a todos los jóvenes socialistas, socialdemócratas y laboristas alrededor del mundo. Enseñanzas que no fueron transmitidas con palabras ni buenas intenciones, sino que con acciones concretas de lucha y liderazgo.

Mandela nos enseñó, en primer lugar, que la valentía no es la ausencia del temor, sino que la capacidad de conquistar y dominar ese temor. Además, que el temor no puede nunca limitar nuestras convicciones, y que las convicciones no se transan ni ante la más tentadora oferta. No hay libertad si esta no es construida desde nuestras convicciones. Y que falta nos hace hoy su ejemplo, en un mundo donde la injusticia, la violencia, la segregación, la desigualdad se expresa de diversas formas, y necesitamos muchos más valientes que ayer.

Además, Mandela nos enseñó que ninguna batalla se gana de forma aislada, que solo la unidad de todos los pueblos bajo una sola causa puede cambiar el mundo, que la solidaridad y la presión internacional pueden ser la llave de las más profundas transformaciones, aquellas que los más necesitados de nuestros pueblos y naciones no pueden seguir esperando. Queremos contarte a ti Mandela, y al mundo, que esta es una de las razones de existir para IUSY, y que símbolos como el tuyo son la confirmación, en definitiva, de que un mundo en igualdad es realmente posible, ¡y vale la pena luchar por él!

Por esto, es que desde IUSY hoy estamos convencidos de que el mejor homenaje que podemos rendir a Mandela es continuar con su causa, con su lucha, con su ejemplo. Que solo la unidad nos hará invencibles, y que hoy los jóvenes socialistas de todo el mundo estamos llamados a tomar la antorcha que alguna vez encendiera, y continuar cada día, en cada rincón de nuestro planeta haciendo nuestra propia revolución.

Las y los jóvenes socialistas del mundo no permitiremos que Mandela muera, pues vivirá en nuestra memoria, en nuestros valores, en nuestros principios y en nuestras acciones.

            ¡Porque somos IUSY, y estamos en todo el mundo, para cambiarlo!

¡Hasta siempre Madiba!

 

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In Memory of Bob Molenaar

The Hague, 5th May 2013

Dear Comrades,

Now 90 years old, your co-founder and first IUSY president in 1946, is no more able to travel. It is therefore via my computer and internet that I have to send to the Dortmund Festival my fraternal greetings and best wishes.

You are having an impressive, and in the selection of themes widespread, agenda. Perhaps I might add another item that throughout the world asks young socialists to take, both collectively and personally, effective action. We have to fight and condemn discrimination, Treaties, constitutions and laws ban discrimination. In spite of that, it is still alive. Not only in some countries still having xenophobe laws or practices, but also nearby.

Look at the Sports section of your newspaper. Somewhere a club, because of the attitude of its fans or of a player, is criticized or gets to pay. But are you sure that in your own club there is no discrimination? It not only exists because the colour of a skin is different, or because another member is known to be homosexual. It can exist simply because someone is considered to be a bit different. Why? Often nobody knows, but he or she is felt to differ from the average figure in the crowd.

Discrimination occurs because he or she is considered not to fit into the general pattern. In school, in the university, in the club, or also at work, amongst the colleagues. And bullying is being found, and felt, too often, sometimes even nearby. In this little country on the North Sea coast last year twice youngsters committed suicide as they were continuously plagued. They felt never to be safe from the attitude of other pupils. They could have been saved if other youngsters would have gone against the general trend and had taken their side. Are you sure there is no bullying in your school class, in your club, in your university faculty, in your job?

Sometimes social democracy demands not only action against authorities, against employers, against exploitation throughout the world, but in your own little world. Do not hesitate to go against discrimination nearby!

So far another theme for your Festival, and afterwards back at home. But have now a good time at Dortmund and celebrate the jubilee!

Just as at the end of our first international IUSY camp, in 1948 at Ebensee in Austria, I end this greeting with

FREUNDSCHAFT !

BOB MOLENAAR
The Hague, Netherlands

9048617368_1dec4417ca_bIUSY sorrows for its deceased friend and comrade Bob Molenaar, who died on the 17th of November 2013 at the age of 90. He was our first IUSY President after the Second World War and the first one for the re-established International Union of Socialist Youth between 1946-1948.

We will always remember him as a leading light fighting for social justice, human rights and international solidarity for a lifetime.

In September 1946 Bob Molenaar became our first president in our founding congress in Paris, the first congress of the International Union of Socialist Youth, which he participated as a representative of the New Course, the former organisation of the Young Socialists in the PvdA. Ever since he had played a major part in the history of international socialism, and he has influenced the lives of young socialists all over the world.

Besides from his work for the IUSY, Bob Molenaar had always been a very active member of The Hague’s Labour Party (PvdA) and the European Movement Netherlands. He had been president of the European Movement Netherlands for more than twelve years and held various positions in the International European Movement, from 1987 to 1992 as Secretary General.

For a lifetime he abhorred parochialism and stood up for international solidarity. “Solidarity does not stop at the border. It is shocking that politicians turn their backs on worldwide poverty and oppression.” On the question of whether there is a difference in the way young people used to be politically active then and now, Molenaar said: “The flags and banners have been replaced by T-shirts and caps, but the atmosphere of being critical towards the party has still remained.”

For us, he will remain forever a model of a true young socialist. A man who, in a time when it didn’t seem obvious, saw that international cooperation between youths is vital for the development for a social and democratic world. A real inspiration for many young socialists, and someone we owe a huge debt of gratitude.

With him, we will always remember: over a century, all around the world to change it!

Call to host the IUSY World Festival 2014

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IUSY is looking ahead to 2014!
Next year IUSY is aiming organizing its World Festival.

In case your organization is interested in hosting the IUSY World Festival, please look into the organizational needs for the event listed in this call, so you can discuss them with your leadership and party. We are looking forward to receiving your proposal as an official letter from the leadership of your organization, addressed to the IUSY President and Secretary General by December 2013.

We are looking forward to hearing from you in the near future. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the IUSY Secretary General Beatriz Talegón at iusy@iusy.org or beatriz.talegon@iusy.org.

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¡IUSY tiene ya la vista puesta en 2014!
El año que viene nos gustaría organizar el Festival Mundial de IUSY.

Si vuestra organización está interesada en acoger el Festival Mundial de la IUSY, os pedimos que por favor estudiéis las necesidades de organización del evento junto con el ejecutivo de vuestra organización y con vuestro partido. Las necesidad están descritas en esta convocatoria. Esperaremos una carta oficial del ejecutivo de vuestra organización que vaya dirigida a la Presidenta y la Secretaria General de la IUSY antes de que termine diciembre de 2013.

!Esperamos vuestras propuestas! Si tenéis cualquier pregunta o duda no tardéis en poneros en contacto con la Secretaria General Beatriz Talegón: iusy@iusy.org o beatriz.talegon@iusy.org.

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IUSY a déjà la vue mise en 2014!
L’année qui vient nous plairait organiser le Festival Mondial.

Si votre organisation voudra accueillir le Festival Mondial de la IUSY, prenez en considération les exigences d’organisation de l’événement décrit en continuation de cet appel, pour en discuter avec l’exécutif de votre organisation et avec votre parti. Nous nous réjouissons de recevoir la proposition officielle de votre organisation, dirigé à la Présidente et la Secrétaire Général de la IUSY avant décembre 2013.

Nous sommes impatients de recevoir vos réponses. Si vous avez des questions n’hésitez pas à contacter la Secrétaire Général de la IUSY Beatriz Talegón au iusy@iusy.org ou beatriz.talegon@iusy.org.