The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is an international youth organization, and has historically characterized itself as left-wing and anti-imperialist. WFDY was founded in London, United Kingdom, in 1945 as a broad international youth movement, organized in the context of the end of World War II with the aim of uniting youth from the Allies behind an anti-fascist platform that was broadly pro-peace, anti-nuclear war, expressing friendship between youth of the capitalist and socialist nations. The Federation was mostly sponsored and influenced by the Soviet Union and the organization mostly united youths from the Eastern Bloc and Non-Aligned nations. The WFDY Headquarters are in Budapest, Hungary. The main event of WFDY is the World Festival of Youth and Students. The last festival was held in Sochi, Russia, in October 2017. It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
History On 10 November 1945, the World Youth Conference, organized in London, founded the World Federation of Democratic Youth. This historic conference was convened at the initiative of the World Youth Council which was formed during the Second World War to bring together the youth movements of the allied nations in an anti-fascist front. The conference was attended by over 600 delegates from 63 nations, it was at the time the largest and most diverse gathering of international youth. The conference adopted a pledge for peace. The WFDY was an indirect successor of the World Youth Congress Movement of the 1930s, a popular front of youth of a broad range of political tendencies, from religious to secular, liberal, socialist, and communist, which attempted to advocate a progressive programme and promote world peace.Kotek, J., Blumenau, t. R. (2015). Students and the Cold War. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Shortly after the 1945 World Youth Conference, with the onset of the Cold War and Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech, the organization was accused by the US State Department of being a "Moscow front". Many of the founding organizations quit, leaving mostly youth from socialist nations, national liberation movements, and communist youth.Richard Felix Staar, Foreign policies of the Soviet Union, Hoover Press, 1991, , p.84 Like the International Union of Students (IUS) and other pro-Soviet organizations, the WFDY became a target and victim of CIA espionage as well as part of active measures conducted by the Soviet state security.The cultural Cold War in Western Europe, 1945-1960. Giles Scott-Smith, Hans Krabbendam. p. 169A century of spies: intelligence in the twentieth century. Jeffrey T. Richelson. p. 252Soviet foreign policy in a changing world, Volume 1986. Robbin Frederick Laird, Erik P. Hoffmann. p. 211Europe since 1945: an encyclopedia, Volume 1. Bernard A. Cook. p. 212
The WFDY's first General Secretary, Alexander Shelepin, was a former leader of the Young Communist International which had been dissolved in 1943. Shelepin had been a guerilla fighter during World War II (after his work with the WFDY, he was appointed head of Soviet State Security). Both the WFDY and IUS vocally criticized the Marshall Plan, supported the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948 and the new people's republics in eastern Europe. They opposed the Korean War.
The main event of the WFDY became the World Festival of Youth and Students, a large-scale political and cultural celebration which aimed to promote peace and friendship between the youth of the world. Most, but not all, of the early festivals were held in socialist nations in Europe. During the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s the WFDY's festivals were one of the few places where young people from the western bloc could meet youth involved in the campaign against apartheid from South Africa, or militant youth from Vietnam, Palestine, Cuba and other nations. Famous people who participated in festivals included Angela Davis, Yuri Gagarin, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Vladimir Putin, Ruth First, Jan Myrdal and Nelson Mandela.
When the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc collapsed, the WFDY entered a crisis. With the power vacuum left by the collapse of the most important member organization, the Soviet Komsomol, there were conflicting views of the future character of the organization. Some wanted a more apolitical structure, whereas others were more inclined to an openly leftist federation. The WFDY, however, survived this crisis, and is today an active international youth organization that holds regular activities.
Pledge
General Assembly The WFDY conducts a General Assembly every four years, the last taking place in Nicosia in 2019. During the Assembly, leadership and a General Council are elected and an organizational declaration is approved.
Member organizations
Africa Country Name NotesJuventude do Movimento Popular da Libertação de AngolaYouth wing of MPLAOrganization of Revolutionary Youth (OJRB)Independent Socialist Youth Union (USJIB)JRR BurundiYouth of PAICVYouth wing of PAICVFront of Socialist Youth (FSY)UJS CongoPPRD Youth LeagueYouth wing of the People's Party for Reconstruction and DemocracyNational Union of Eritrean Youth and StudentsEthiopian Youth LeagueDemocratic Youth League of GhanaAfrican Youth CommandAfrican Youth Amílcar CabralYouth wing of PAICGLYF LesothoKDTM MadagascarLYM MalawiYASED MalawiMozambican Youth OrganisationYouth wing of FRELIMOSWAPO Party Youth LeagueYouth wing of SWAPONamibia National Students Organisation (NANSO) National Youth Council of NigeriaNational Youth Council of the Ogoni People (NYCOP)JML São Tomé and PríncipeMouvement de la Jeunesse DémocratiqueYouth wing of the Democratic League/Movement for the Labour PartyDemocratic Youth Union Alboury NdiayeYouth wing of the Party of Independence and WorkSFYO Sierra LeoneAfrican National Congress Youth LeagueYouth wing of the African National CongressSouth African Students CongressYoung Communist League of South AfricaYouth wing of the South African Communist PartySudanese Youth UnionYouth wing of the Sudanese Communist PartyUmoja Wa VijanaYouth wing of Chama Cha MapinduziUnited National Independence Party Youth LeagueYouth wing of the United National Independence PartyZANU-PF Youth LeagueYouth wing of ZANU-PFZimbabwe Congress of Students Union (ZICOSU)
Asia and the Pacific Country Name NotesYoung Communist League ArmeniaYouth wing of the Armenian Communist PartyResistance: Young Socialist AllianceYouth wing of the Socialist AllianceYoung Communist League AzerbaijanYouth wing of the Azerbaijan Communist PartySocialist Students' FrontStudent wing of the Socialist Party of BangladeshBangladesh Students UnionMass organization of Communist Party of BangladeshBangladesh Youth UnionYouth wing of the Communist Party of BangladeshDemocratic Youth of BhutanYouth wing of the Bhutan National Democratic PartyStudents Union of BhutanYouth Association of CambodiaYoung Communist League of GeorgiaAll India Students FederationStudent wing of the Communist Party of IndiaAll India Youth FederationYouth wing of the Communist Party of IndiaTudeh YouthYouth wing of the Tudeh Party of Iran Japan League of Socialist YouthYouth wing of ChongryonSocialist Patriotic Youth LeagueYouth wing of the Workers' Party of Korea7th-term HanchongryunLao People's Revolutionary Youth UnionYouth wing of the Lao People's Revolutionary PartyMongolian Youth FederationAll Burma Students' Democratic FrontAll Burma Students LeagueAll Nepal National Free Students UnionStudent wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist)Youth Federation NepalYouth wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist)Nepal National Federation of StudentsStudent wing of the Nepal Communist Party (United)Nepal National Youth FederationYouth wing of the Nepal Communist Party (United)Democratic Students Federationstudent wing of the Communist Party of PakistanAnakbayanBukluran sa Ikauunlad ng Sosyalistang Isip at Gawa (BISIG)SIKAP PhilippinesYDM PhilippinesCommunist Youth FederationYouth wing of the Communist Party of Sri LankaSri Lanka National Union Of StudentsStudent wing of the Communist Party of Sri LankaFederation of All Lanka (Ceylon) Youth LeagueYouth wing of Mahajana Eksath PeramunaSocialist Students UnionStudent wing of Janatha Vimukthi PeramunaSocialist Youth UnionYouth wing of Janatha Vimukthi PeramunaHo Chi Minh Communist Youth UnionYouth wing of the Communist Party of VietnamVietnam Youth Federation
Europe and North America Country Name NotesCommunist Youth of AustriaCOMACYouth wing of the Workers' Party of BelgiumBulgarian Socialist Youth UnionYoung Communist League of CanadaAffiliated with the Communist Party of CanadaYoung Socialists of CroatiaYouth wing of the Socialist Labour Party of CroatiaCommunist Youth UnionUnited Democratic Youth OrganisationYouth wing of the Progressive Party of Working PeopleCommunist Youth of DenmarkCommunist Youth LeagueMouvement Jeunes Communistes de FranceFree German YouthSocialist German Workers YouthYouth wing of the German Communist PartyCommunist Youth of GreeceYouth wing of the Communist Party of GreeceBaloldali FrontYouth wing of the Hungarian Workers' PartyConnolly Youth Movement Workers' Party YouthYouth wing of the Workers' PartyFront of the Communist YouthYouth wing of the Communist FrontGiovani Comuniste e ComunistiYouth wing of the Communist Refoundation PartyYoung Communist League of the Republic of MoldovaYouth wing of the Party of Communists of the Republic of MoldovaCommunist Youth Movement of the NetherlandsYouth wing of the New Communist Party of the NetherlandsYoung Communists in NorwayYouth wing of the Communist Party of NorwayYoung Communist League of NorwayPortuguese Communist YouthYouth wing of the Portuguese Communist PartyUnion of Socialist YouthYouth wing of the Romanian Socialist PartyLeninist Communist Youth Union of the Russian FederationYouth wing of the Communist Party of the Russian FederationRevolutionary Communist Youth League (b)Youth wing of the Russian Communist Workers' Party of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionRussian Young Communist LeagueYoung Communist League of YugoslaviaYouth wing of the New Communist Party of YugoslaviaSocialistický Zväz MladýchYouth wing of the Communist Party of SlovakiaCollectives of Communist YouthYouth wing of the Communist Party of the Workers of SpainCommunist Youth Union of SpainYouth wing of the Communist Party of SpainCommunist Youth of CataloniaYouth wing of the Communists of CataloniaCommunist Youth of SwedenYouth wing of the Communist Party of SwedenCommunist Youth of SwitzerlandYouth wing of the Swiss Party of LabourYoung Communist LeagueYouth wing of the Communist Party of BritainYoung Communist LeagueYouth wing of the Communist Party USAYoung SocialistsYouth wing of the Socialist Workers Party (United States)
Latin America and Caribbean