IUSY

(photo credit: AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Statement by the IUSY Presidium

In support of all peace seeking and democratic forces in Turkey

The International Union of Socialist Youth is following the situation in Turkey with great concern. Turkey has for long had a democratic deficit and over the last years the situation has gotten worse. The ruling AKP government has in many ways limited and tried to limit freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of press. Turkey has many journalists imprisoned and imprisons more political activists than any other country.

What started out as a demonstration against turning down a green area in Gezi Park, Taksim, Istanbul, for a shopping mall has now lead to an uprising all around the country, bringing together a wide coalition of Turks, Kurds, Alevits, Sunni, women, homosexuals and elderly after an unprovoked violent attack by the police using water cannons and tear gas. People have had enough and ask for what should be obvious everywhere and all the time: Democracy, Freedom and Equality.

We as the youth of Socialist and Social Democratic parties all around the world support our member organizations CHP Youth, the youth of BDP and all other peace seeking and democratic forces in Turkey in their struggle. We therefore call for an immediate intervention by the UN to demand permanent stop to the police violence, which has led to thousands of people getting injured and at least 3 persons killed. The excessive use of water cannons, tear gas and peppers spray must be criminalized. The Turkish PM Erdogan must immediately accommodate the demonstrators' demands and at the same time work for a constitution that, unlike the current one, embraces multiculturalism, different religions and multi ethnicity.

Turkey needs to move towards more democracy and not the opposite. The changes need to encompass all people regardless of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender.

Finally, we want to express our deepest condolences to the family of Abullah Cömert, a member of CHP, and all other activists who lost their lives in the struggle against restrictions on freedom of speech and religion.

In Solidarity!

IUSY Presidium

Download the Statement:  In support of all peace seeking and democratic forces in Turkey 

IUSY is publishing a statement by Fatah Youth, our member organization from Palestine, condemning the arrest of 20 activists from the organization. Among the arrested was the General Secretary of the Fatah Youth in Palestine, Mohammad Matar, and Fatah Youth leaders in occupied Jerusalem Sami Ghalie and Thaer Anees.

These 20 activists join over 4800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

read the  Statement by the Fatah Youth about the arrests 

8-9th May 2013, Dortmund (Germany)

Around 130 people from at least 70 delegations from all around the world met in Dortmund at the IUSY Council that took place before the Youth Workers Festival 8-9th May 2013.

The Council was marked by deep political negotiations that concluded in a total of 21 Resolutions.

For the first time in the history of our organization, the Council approved by unanimity:

-       A resolution jointly prepared by UJSARIO (Western Sahara) and ITTIHAIDA Youth (USFP, Morocco) where both organizations - following UN guidelines - defend a peaceful, just, permanent and mutually-accepted solution that enables the self-determination of Western Sahara. At the same time, both organizations support in the Resolution the UN mission to organize a referendum in Western Sahara. The Resolution concludes with the agreement in the framework of IUSY for a study visit in September 2013 to all places that both organizations consider appropriate in order to strengthen the joint work of both organizations within IUSY.

Also by unanimity, the Council approved:

-       A resolution jointly drafted by Shabibeh/Fatah Youth (Palestina), Young Meretz (Israel), Young Labour (Israel) and Jusos (Alemania) “Our Vision for Peace and Justice in Israel and Palestine” in which the parts defend that only two independent, democratic and sovereign states living side by side in peace and security can bring stability and prosperity to the region. Furthermore, the Israeli government has to stop immediately their expansion of the Israeli settlements in the Palestine state – meaning all the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including in and around East Jerusalem – and to begin evacuating the existing settlements.

-       A joint resolution  “Arab Spring: effects and consequences” where  IUSY salutes the initiative of creating the Arab Union of Socialist Youth (AUSY) as a progressive network for the new socialist and social democratic organizations in the Arab world, promoting the values of International Socialism. The Resolution takes the opportunity to refer to the different conflicts in the region: Western Sahara, Israel-Palestine, the Kurdish Issue and calls for the united opposition of all Syrian people against the dictatorship

By majority vote with one abstention:

-       The joint resolution “For a Venezuela with social equality in democracy”. The International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY), reaffirms in this Resolution the need to pursue change and not expect that those changes came spontaneously, and for this is essential to assume a political position to promote our democratic values and respect for human rights and freedom of the people. At the same time, the Resolution condemns violence no matter who the perpetrator is, with the understanding that conflict is circumstantial to politics and demands democracy as the only legitimate way to settle differences.

The rest of Resolutions approved in the Council are listed below:

-       A Resolution Condemning the Use of Violence and Torture in Fiji, as Evidenced in the Recent Video Recording of the Event 

-       All over the world to change it- International Solidarity to shape a better world 

-       America

-       Calling for a Consultative Process in Resolving the Conflict in Sabah and Supporting the Right of Sabahans for Self-determination 

-       Condemning the State of War between the Two Koreas and the US and China’s. Provocation of Conflict in the Korean Peninsula 

-       Demanding Big Polluters to Make Drastic Reductions to Their Carbon Emissions and Make Their Required Contributions to the Global Climate Fund to be used for CCA and DRRM in Developing Countries 

-       Expressing Solidarity with the People of Burma 

-       Fighting Global inequalities, locally! 

-       For Public, quality and free education worldwide!

-       No to austerity!

-       Protect Fukushima Children

-       Reaffirm the French language in IUSY 

-       Regional Cooperation against China’s “Bullying” of its Asian Neighbours 

-       Resolution Calling for the Democratic and Peaceful Elections in Asia and Pacific Countries 

-       On Curuguaty massacre, parliamentarian coup d’état and human rights violation in Paraguay

-       Tibet

-       Why we have to flight against green genetic engineering – a disquisition

The following Recommendation should be added to the above-mentioned list:

-       A Recommendation for statuary change stating that transparency is a basic practice in our daily work, and also important to ensure internal and external democracy in our organizations. Therefore, IUSY – who even called on the Socialist International to improve their accountability – suggests to the Presidium to start a discussion about the ways for improving accountability, and to analyse the need for reforming the statutes, including the requirement to make public documents related to financial issues through the IUSY website, such as the budget, the Control Commission´s reports and the yearly external auditory report. It also encourages all members and fraternal organizations to work along the same line in order to affirm transparency as an important value in our practice

All documents herein referred will be updated and uploaded to our website in the next days.

 Conclusions of the IUSY World Council 2013 (english)  //  Conclusiones del Consejo Mundial de la IUSY 2013 (español) //  Conclusions du Conseil Mondial de la IUSY 2013 (français)