[Via... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . ----- Original Message ----- From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2001 5:41 PM Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Australian youth flock to communism The Age. 29 April 2001. Communists' website a hit with youth [AUSTRALIA] Perched at their Internet-connected computers, an army of apparatchiks-in-waiting has flocked to the Communist Party of Australia's website, bombarding it with more than 95,000 hits in the past two months. CPA general secretary Peter Symon, 78, says it's the strongest wave of youth interest he has seen in his 60 years as a card-carrying communist and almost three decades as general secretary. And at its ninth National Congress recently, the CPA voted unanimously to convene in September a foundation congress of the Communist Youth of Australia for those aged 14-29. Waiting in the wings is a small but dedicated number of wannabe reds, who have been meeting as a loose network since October. Mr Symon said that most of the hits came from young Australians curious about the party that former prime minister Robert Menzies tried unsuccessfully to declare unconstitutional in the early 1950s. Youth interest in the CPA is not new. The Eureka Youth League - formed in 1941 from the remnants of the Young Communist League, deemed illegal early in World War II - was one of the main rallying points for protests against the Vietnam War in Sydney and Melbourne. By 1972, however, many young firebrands of the left had broken ties with the Eureka Youth League, outraged by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia four years earlier. Ray Berbling, CPA Victorian state president, said that youth interest in the party was "a cyclical thing" and interest was high now because "young people are suffering more under the governments that have been running Australia for the past 20 years". Organiser and youth spokesman Jules Andrews, 26, said the stimulus for forming a youth branch of the CPA was a trip to Melbourne last September for the S11 protests outside Crown Casino, which he hailed as "a triumph of left parties working together". Mr Andrews said aspiring members of the Communist Youth of Australia met at party headquarters in Sydney once a fortnight for a formal meeting. Another activity - such as meeting at a protest rally, or a party function where they can set up a youth table - is also held once every two weeks. Raised in Townsville, Mr Andrews did not go to university ("it's too expensive") and does not come from a long line of communists ("my older sister, two younger brothers and I had a conservative, Christian upbringing"). He said his siblings had adopted his ideas. To Mr Symon, such support is "indicative of a certain sort of milieu that's developing in a society that is discontented and disillusioned" with the major political parties. "They (young people) want to make life better, which is very commendable and understandable, and that need is being facilitated by the Internet. And in the 60 years I have been involved with the CPA, I can say without fear of contradiction that the ideas that we stand for have never let us down," Mr Symon said. SPAM TO FOLLOW Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
