On the occasion of this congress, our correspondent Belen de los Santos interviews Sam McGill, member of the Revolutionary Communist Group, Great Britain. teleSUR
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00:00In Venezuela, the International World Antifascist Youth Congress kicked off
00:04with the participation of 500 international guests who will discuss
00:09key issues such as gender-based violence, workers' rights, climate change and youth
00:13organization to fight fascism. And in the framework of this international event we
00:18make a contact with our correspondent Belén de los Santos who is at this hour
00:21joined by Sam McGill, member of the revolutionary communist group Great
00:26Britain. Hi Bel, what details can you both share with us at this first day of
00:30debates?
00:33Hello Ale, exactly as you were saying, we are in Caracas for the opening of the World Congress, Youth
00:40Antifascism Congress and this is happening, this opening today and it's
00:46Venezuela has really become the epicenter of this struggle against
00:50fascism and this is why over 500 international guests have come here to
00:57the South American country to meet. The Congress is opening at this moment and
01:02they are set to gather around at seven working tables to discuss main topics
01:08regarding the struggle against fascism but really with one goal in mind that is
01:14to conceive the struggle as an international struggle so delegates and
01:19particularly from the youth in this instance are coming together to share
01:24their experiences, bring their struggles from their different territories and
01:30find common grounds, find common struggles that they are joining in and
01:35different alternatives also and the great challenge here is that the youth
01:41are finding their own ways to carry out the struggle and face the challenges
01:47that the current world is posing before them and to continue speaking on this we
01:53are as you mentioned just before joined by Sam McGill, she is a member of the
01:58revolutionary communist group from Great Britain so first of all welcome Sam
02:04thank you for joining us in Telling Sir English and I would like to start by
02:08asking you, you've come a very long way and so why is that? Why come to this
02:13South American country to participate in this Congress that seeks to foster
02:19an international alternative in the fight against fascism? Thank you for
02:24inviting us and first of all I think it's important to understand that we're
02:29living through a crisis of imperialism, a crisis of war, a crisis that is forcing
02:37millions of people to migrate and they're facing ever more racism wherever
02:42they go you know this is capitalism at its highest stage in imperialism and it
02:47means crisis, it means poverty, it means death and destruction for billions
02:52around the globe so we have to take action. We can see even in the so-called
03:00capitalist liberal democracies where we may have democracy to vote for one
03:06party or another there is very little alternative to the politics and these
03:10same countries that have this liberal democracy they are actively supporting
03:16and employing fascist techniques to attack the oppressed people around the
03:20world. I am from Great Britain, the oldest imperialist country on the planet, the
03:26same Great Britain that is supporting Zionism in Israel, that is supporting the
03:32genocide of Palestine, that actually played the key role in creating the
03:37Zionist occupier settler colonial state. Great Britain is sending weapons to
03:44Ukraine through NATO. Great Britain has stolen Venezuela's gold and keeps it in
03:50the Bank of England and it is supporting the extraterritorial blockade of Cuba
03:55and it's part of this economic warfare that we're seeing against any
04:00country around the world that is trying to chart its own path to find its own
04:05sovereignty and take a stand against imperialism. So it's very important for
04:09me to be here as part of our delegation to be part of this struggle and why come
04:14to Venezuela? Venezuela for the last 25 years has been a beacon of resistance, a
04:20beacon of international solidarity. The Bolivarian Revolution is so crucial to
04:26the development of an internationalist world, an anti-fascist world and it is so
04:31important that Venezuela has taken this step from the opening conference in
04:36September to the youth conference that we are now opening today to the close of
04:41the conference in a few days time and the creation of this anti-fascist,
04:46anti-imperialist internationals and we want to be part of this because for the
04:51last 25 years Venezuela has been fighting to create socialism, it's been
04:57fighting to make alliance with socialist Cuba, the revolutionary movements in
05:01Bolivia and Nicaragua so that it's created an anti-imperialist pole of
05:07resistance and socialist solidarity in America Latina and for us it is an honor
05:13to be here and to visit you know the country that is really charting this
05:17path forward. You know it's really a pleasure to have you here in the global south and we have ties of solidarity with all the working class around the world.
05:26I want to ask you specifically to carry on the struggle that you were just mentioning and you were talking about all the different challenges that the current world poses.
05:33We are definitely on a new stage in terms of imperialistic and fascist domination and as you were saying this is one of the key mechanisms that different countries and Venezuela has taken it upon itself to find alternatives, to really find a common way to face the challenges of the current world.
05:55To face that challenge, to face that push as many countries in the global south have been doing in the last years.
06:02So this conference in particular is summoning the youth, the youth from all over the world.
06:09What do you think is their role, their participation in this key struggle?
06:16We are looking at youth from everywhere around the world coming together, sharing experiences, a lot being related to the media,
06:24their relationship with social networks. What do you think they are going to do because it's their fight and it's their challenge?
06:31Yes, so the youth are on the streets. They have been on the streets for a year around the question of Palestine.
06:38You can look in any of the country, almost any country around the world and you will see the youth on the streets with Palestine flags, with their keffiyehs, taking a stand against Zionism and the genocide that is happening.
06:50So we can see the power of the youth. Yesterday we were on the streets of Caracas, we were participating in the National Day of Youth and Students in Venezuela
07:01and the streets were red, they were painted red with the t-shirts and the banners of the Venezuelan youth who are supporting the Bolivarian revolution,
07:09who are fighting for socialism, who are really involved in pushing this revolutionary process forward from the communes to the organizations of the students.
07:18And we can also see from the delegates that have come to this conference that there are people from youth organizations all over the world that are taking a lead.
07:29I have been especially excited to be able to meet some of the youth from the alliance of the Sahel states in West Africa.
07:37We have to understand this as a new pole, an emerging pole of anti-imperialist struggle, that they are struggling against colonialism,
07:45that they are struggling against imperialism and they have kicked out the French, they have kicked out the US.
07:50I hope they will continue to kick out Britain and they are creating a new revolutionary pole.
07:56And I think what I have to do here is to try and learn from these struggles, from people all over the world who are coming here and are sharing their struggles, sharing their experiences with us.
08:06And the second question that is so crucial and it's so important that so many people around here, they're constantly uploading social media, they're taking photos, they're taking videos, they are using social media.
08:18We have seen, especially since the coup in Bolivia in 2019 where Elon Musk, the head of Twitter, said we will coup who we want.
08:28Twitter and the social media, they have really been used to push a political agenda.
08:35We saw it with the elections in Venezuela where they were really pushing Machado, they were pushing the election of Trump, they were pushing for Brexit.
08:46And we have to try and take back some of this space.
08:50And I really think that the youth have a role to play in this, that they have the ability to really show the reality of their struggles and try and fight the media war.
09:00Because the media war is attacking our consciousness, it's attacking political consciousness around the world.
09:07Excellent. So thank you, Sam, for participating. That was Sam McGill from Great Britain.
09:12And we know the clock is ticking. We will continue to bring you all the information from this World Youth Congress in the anti-fascist struggle that Venezuela is leading.
09:23And we will continue to be here to learn from that youth from all over the world that gets together and continues to take on the streets in their fight against fascism for their world in the future.
09:34Back to you, Ale.
09:35Thank you. Thank you, Belle, for all the information and thank you, Sam.
09:38We will contact you in some other moment.
09:41We were listening to our correspondent in Caracas, Belén de los Santos, in the framework of the International World Anti-Fascist Youth Congress, which will take place in the Venezuelan capital until November 23rd.