RY Exclusive: youth climate activist on Durban

Meghan McCarthy is a Newfoundland Climate Activist

The most recent fight for a legally binding global climate change agreement took place from November 28th to December 9th 2011 when world delegates, environmental ministers, monopoly capitalists, media personnel, NGO representatives, and impassioned activists collected in Durban, South Africa for the 17th annual Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Meghan McCarthy, native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, was one of the six members of the CYCC (Canadian Youth Climate Coalition) to attend the conference as a delegate to represent the voice of youth and students. Meghan was born and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador. Meghan became active in the climate movement in 2009, as one of the founders of the NL Climate Action Coalition.

Some January Cartoons

Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail

There’s still no excuse for keeping tuition fees high in B.C.

Reprinted from the Georgia Straight

Students across Canada will be mobilizing
for accessible education on Feb. 1st

Polling demonstrates with stunning reliability that most British Columbians want affordable, high-quality public education.

They think tuition fees are too high, and have considerable anxiety about the record student debt that this generation of students is carrying.

Despite the popularity of reducing tuition fees and cutting student debt, the B.C. Liberals have shown no interest in making university and college more affordable. Tax cuts and more trade with Pacific Rim countries seem to be the only policies on the radar, and it’s unclear how either issue helps average families.

Tunisian Communists condemn Qutari regime

by Sana Ajmi of Tunisia Live

Hama Hamami, leader of the POCT

Hama Hamami, leader of Communist Workers Party of Tunisia (POCT), claimed yesterday that ”The Qatari regime is an enemy to Tunisia and the Arab World,” referring to Qatar’s alleged involvement in the guiding of democratic uprisings of 2011 in North Africa and the Middle East.

Qatar’s role in the “Arab Spring” has been a source of controversy among politicians and citizens across the Arabic-speaking world.

Many have claimed that the tiny Gulf emirate has been promoting its agenda through its television channel Al Jazeera, while others have claimed that Qatar has broader motives for backing and supporting Islamist parties.

Our view: the youth and student struggle now

Main Political Resolution, 

YCL-LJC Central Committee

Jan. 15th, 2012

Since our last Central Committee, we are still being told by politicians and the corporate media that the economic crisis is over.  At the same time, the crisis is blamed for aggressive budget cut-backs.

The economic crisis of capitalism is the main fact dominating the struggle of the youth and students today The latest Euro-zone sovereign debt crisis is a continuation of that crisis.

The Eurozone crisis: more crisis of capitalism

The sovereign debt crisis forcefully imploded across the European Union over the past several months. It began with the capitalist governments of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain suddenly announcing they could not refinance their national debt to the Banks (ie. the country is bankrupt). Consequently, they experienced a major downgrading of there credit ratings by finance capital, further aggravating the situation. Even France‘s credit rating has just been downgraded.

The crisis was not simply sparked by the quantitative amount debt of these countries. Because of the domination of banking and financial capital (that is non-value producing or parasitic) and its ever-greater concentration and centralization within the interconnected Eurozone, when a country like Greece defaulted there was a qualitative change: a domino-effect of defaulting (and a resulting political crisis; for example, in Italy the Berlusconi was suddenly replaced by high level administrators or “technocrats.”)

Nobody has a crystal ball, but the future of the entire EU is being drawn into question. The EU is now in a recession that has even hit Germany.  Can it be confidently said that Canada is immune? Not at all.