Free German Youth
Member of World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) since 1948

Racism, chauvinism, and nationalism have become the predominant ideologies of the monopolies and of finance capital of the biggest and most powerful imperialist states. With the huge factories, imperialism at the same time created a highly organized army of millions of workers; imperialism daily dispossessed and dispossesses thousands of petty bourgeois, and it produces massive pauperism. Imperialism is the highest and final stage of capitalism, it has itself brought on the eve of the socialist revolution. The monopoly bourgeoisie does not keep down the working class and the people with state power alone. It is forced to set one portion of the people, one part of the nation against the other. The monopoly bourgeoisie turns class struggles into racial conflicts.

"The governments which only survive by the power of bajonets, which are always forced to contain or suppress the peoples' outrage, have long recognized that nothing can eliminate the people's dissatisfaction; one has to try to divert this dissatisfaction from being aimed at the government onto somebody else ... You have to stir up national discord, racial discord." (Lenin)

Imperialism disseminates the medieval ideology of racism by means of the most modern technology. Through film, radio, TV, and the internet imperialism appeals to the lowest motivations of the masses day by day. Entire government staffs and the parties of monopoly capital are always occupied with the dissemination of racism.

The bourgeois press, in a lot of varieties, is full of venom against national minorities, against people of a different skin color, against Jews.

Fascist organizations are legally protected and are financed for their atrocious attacks. Imperialism spends billions in order to turn class struggles into race struggles. With the expenditure of such enormous means imperialism finds its parrots of and accomplices in racism and nationalism among the most backward sections of the workers and the people. Through a temporary repression of class struggle demoralization and a toleration of racism emerge within sections of the people. However, racism does not originate from the people, no matter how often, how freely and insolently the propagandists of race hatred propagate this. The ruling ideas are always the ideas of the ruling classes, the still young, rising bourgeoisie said knowingly. Perishing capitalism has long torn its birth certificate bearing the name freedom and equality and has issued its death certificate, on which you read inequality, racism, nationalism, and barbarity. All of these are means to prolong capitalism's a gony and to bring ruin to millions. Racism is not a product of decaying capitalism; without racism capitalism could manage a lot better and more decently. No, racism being applied in a variety of methods, going as far as the open pogrom, is necessary in order to preserve imperialism itself.

Racism is not inherent in humans. It's learned and can be unlearned. This is obvious in the case of Cuba where, contrary to capitalist societies, racism does not exist.

In the so-called democratic states imperialism makes illegal a portion of the people in their countries, as in the FRG where 7 million people belonging to ethnic minorities are subjugated to racist special laws.

From time to time imperialism organizes pogroms as in the U.S.; it protects the pogroms' heroes and prevents their prosecution, as in the FRG.

Or racism becomes a permanent institution of rule, as in former South Africa where the white minority of the owners of means of production were able to rule over the vast majority of the people of a different skin color through the system of racist Apartheid.

The imperialist core countries export their inherent racism into all the countries of the earth; they divide the oppressed classes' struggle there too; they want to prevent the popular masses' from rising up for their national liberation.

The FRG's government called into being the Schengen Agreement with which it imposes racist laws upon other European states and with which it forces them to employ their state machinery against refugees and national minorities. This, then renders the class struggle for workers in those countries even more difficult.

Since the disintegration of social systems in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europes, the contradictions between imperialists have intensified; the struggle for a reorganization of the world has begun.

In Europe, the most obvious example is the FRG's annexation of the GDR, the total dismemberment of all structures as well as of social and political achievements in the GDR, and the complete subjugation of 16 million citizens of the GDR to the FRG's system. Rascist laws which encourage the fascist mob to burn, kill and make illegal human beings of a different nationality and which cover the fascist mob have since increasingly been normal in Greater Germany.

After the disintegration of social systems in the Soviet Union and Easten Europe, the imperialist competitors argue over the distribution of these regions among themselves. Within this dispute, the different imperialists support matrialistic and intentionally different parties and groups which suit their respective interests. That way nationalism and racism are stirred up, which leads as far as the crushing of sovereign, independant states. The same is true for Middle Eastern and African states where different imperialist interests also clash, and where it is attempted to set the people who live in these regions against each other by way of racism and nationalism.

Only where imperialism does not recognize the small nations of countries that are kept on an underdeveloped level, only where the struggle for national liberation is necessary does the nation have a significance for promoting class struggle.

Racism aims to prevent the uniting of the workers of all nations and the oppressed peoples. Racism is used to first set the population against "foreigners" to then set it against the "foreign" countries

Again, the imperialists are preparing the working-class youth to go to war to butcher each other for the interest of capital. The imperialist states and their governments shamelessly use the degradation, the ignorance, the inexperience of the working-class youth in order to numb their class consciousness through racism and nationalism, in order to poison their minds to make them march against one another.

Only internationalism, the combined struggle of all the oppressed ethnic groups and nationalities - internationalism - will help.

To overcome the division of the working-class youth and of the peoples of the world revolutionary youth organizations and theirs integration into the WFDY are absolutely necessary.

The WFDY originated in the peoples' fight against racism, fascism, and war, for which Germany had been responsible. The WFDY would not be able to still carry its name today if it did not permanently continue the fight against racism.

The WFDY incorporates the different ethnic groups, unites the different languages, and, in the fight against racism and chauvinism, uses one language, which makes it strong and powerful.

The WFDY considers the fight against racism in every country as inevitable. South Africa's oppressed youth demonstrated to the whole world how this fight can be led victoriously.

The WFDY considers the fight against racism especially in the European states as a central task which must in no way be underrated by the working-class and democratic youth.

The WFDY is equally necessary for the organization of the fight against racism as is the fight if WFDY member organizations against state racism in order to win young people for our socialist organizations.

Knowing that a people which oppresses other peoples cannot be free itself,

our motto is: Proletariate of all countries and oppressed people unite!

Proposal for the XV. General Assembly

presented by Free German Youth / FDJ, Germany