[Capitalism has shown itself completely incapable of meeting…]

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Capitalism has shown itself completely incapable of meeting even the most basic needs of our class. Fantastic wealth was built up over centuries of rule by the bosses on the backs of the working class and oppressed people throughout the world, yet in the 1980s we are faced with unemployment on a huge scale, a decaying system of health and social security, an education system cut more than it has been since medieval times, and a Tory government viciously intent on making us the scapegoats for the crisis of their system.

We do not even have the right to work. The majority of school leavers have no chance of getting a job. We are destined by the Tories to rot on the dole queues after a short spell on government training schemes.

The driving force of their system is their insatiable thirst for profit. If they can't make a profit, then we're thrown out of work, we have our living standards cut and they'll shackle our unions and mutilate the health and education system the working class has fought for over past decades.

Thatcher and Reagan then have the gall to demand that we become their sacrificial victims in a nuclear war. In their drive for profit and maintaining their system they're prepared to blow the entire planet to smithereens. This is the madness of capitalism.

Our class - the working class - is the only class that can stop this lunacy. It is the only force capable of overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with a system based on workers' needs, not profit. As Marx put it, we've nothing to lose but our chains! And we've a world to gain.

Working class youth have a vital role to play in this struggle. Youth are usually the most militant, the least cynical, the most willing to take on the system. We've seen the huge numbers of youth forming the backbone of the anti-war movement and CND. There are huge numbers of youth on the dole, who could be the backbone of a labour movement fight against unemployment but who, unless we act quickly could be lost to the fascist gangs of thugs in the National Front, the British National Party and the British Movement. The riots of 1981 were an expression of anger and frustration against a system that offers us nothing and shows that youth are ready and willing to fight back.

What we need is a revolutionary socialist youth movement and that is what we aim to do in the National Left Wing Youth Movement. We are part of the Labour Party Young Socialists, and are fighting to change it into a revolutionary youth organisation.

Our immediate task is to win working class youth to our banner and to provide the political training and experience necessary to take on the system and win.

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than £40, a week to youth