The Work of Comrade Hardial Bains with
the Youth of the '90s

An afternoon with the youth, Toronto, August 30, 1992

The work of Hardial Bains, founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), with the youth of the '90s generation was considerable. He always made it a priority to speak with the youth, mobilize them and provide them with the kind of education which helped them cope with their reality.

As part of the generation of youth of the 1990s who had the honour of joining the work to organize youth and students under the leadership of Hardial, I have many fond memories. One of them is the work we did when Comrade Bains led us on how to organize an important conference on the theme: The Future Belongs to the Youth. A preparatory meeting was held in the Party offices in Gatineau. Youth attended from different parts of Canada and Quebec. That meeting which set the organizing work for the conference was a turning point in my own life and the lives of many others who attended or who joined the work it set. Comrade Bains inspired us to be in the forefront of the struggle to open the door for the progress of society.

Comrade Bains addressed the Preparatory Meeting to organize the Conference: The Future Belongs to the Youth  December 1996.

He made it clear that the problems we faced as youth were not ours or of our own making, but were inherent to the existing society. Therefore, to address these problems, he pointed out that we had to address the society itself. It is in the changing of the society that these problems can be solved, Comrade Bains explained. This, he said, would give rise to new problems. Without problems to solve there is no life, he used to say, but make sure the problems are of your own making, not those which are dumped on you and stifle you.

Putting things in this way it was clear to us that it was vital that we put our energies towards changing the society itself rather than just railing against this or that person or bad policy and the practice of those who govern over us which we didn't agree with. This meant that as youth we had to take up building a bright future for ourselves by empowering ourselves in the present.

Looking back, the title of that conference we organized was very important: The Future Belongs to the Youth -- and it is up to us to make it a future of our own making. It is not a matter of just taking over what already exists and trying to tweak it or just fit in to a status quo that we know is unjust. This is huge when one considers what we were taught in school -- that the youth are the future which means they have to make the right choices in high school or else their future will suck and they only have themselves to blame. It might be the right courses, the right career, the right sports, volunteering activities, etc., but the aim is to fit in and find a place within the structures which exist "if you want to amount to anything."

Comrade Bains and the Party set us straight -- we are not the problem and it's not a matter of fixing ourselves so our future is good. We must change the society itself so that our future is ours.

At that meeting, we set out with Comrade Bains and the Party on a path to hold a National Conference of Youth and Students the following year by establishing a preparatory committee which would take charge of the organizing. All kinds of things arose out of that decision such as how do we popularize the conference, what will its agenda be, who should be invited, who will speak, and so on. It was in the solving of these problems in the course of being in the forefront of the political battles at that time that we learned together. Comrade Bains gave us the framework so that we could work as a collective, learn together and take up our social responsibility. These are the principles of the Youth Organizing Project (YOP) adopted by Youth for Democratic Renewal which are inscribed on their banner today.

When Comrade Bains passed away a year later it was a tremendous loss to us the youth, to the Party, to the country and for the revolutionary movement. However, he gave us this Party, these principles and an outlook which has as its central aim the flourishing of the human person to its fullest potential under all conditions and circumstances, no matter how difficult or bleak they may seem at the time.

We held the national conference as decided, bringing together youth from all over Canada and Quebec and even internationally. From there the Youth Organizing Project started organizing YOP camps, many in the Gatineau Hills, as regular convergences of youth and students from across Canada and with contingents of youth from countries with which we had established bonds of friendship and common work. Today we have many projects and even important infrastructure to build on. We are now defining new projects consistent with the needs of the youth and students today as they strive to build a bright future for themselves by humanizing the natural and social environment.

Youth camps were organized in the Gatineau hills by the Youth Organizing Project.

I would like to end with a quote from that meeting held to establish the preparatory committee for the National Conference, from the keynote speech that Comrade Bains delivered. He said:

The past only has beauty if it exists in the form of the present, and the revolution only has relevance if it finds its adherents from one generation to the next. Our getting together here today is the coming together of the generation of the nineties along the sure footsteps of the generation of the sixties, on the basis of the great exploits of the peoples who rose against imperialism, fascism and all reaction and on the road of the Great October Revolution. We have gathered here today to make one decision, a decision which seems so ordinary and simple. Yet, this decision to establish the Preparatory Committee for the National Youth and Students' Conference will have far-reaching consequences for decades to come. This decision will have in its fold all the decisions which will be made to pave the road of revolution for the next generation.

To the new generation of youth who are taking up this work on their own terms under today's conditions, we trust that our experiences inspired by Comrade Bains and the Party can assist you as together we take up the cause of creating a new society where you don't have to "fit in" but, instead, it is the society which is made fit for all human beings without exception.

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This article was published in

Volume 52 Number 7 - August 25, 2022

Article Link:
  The Work of Comrade Hardial Bains with
the Youth of the '90s

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