 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
| Young Left Ung Vänster | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairperson | Ava Rudberg[1] |
| Secretary General | Mika Brovall[2] |
| Founded | 1903; 122 years ago (1903) 1970; 55 years ago (1970) |
| Headquarters | Kungsgatan 84,Stockholm |
| Membership | 1,739 (2020) |
| Ideology | Communism[3] Revolutionary socialism[4] Feminism[5] Marxism[5] |
| Mother party | Left Party(formally independent) |
| International affiliation | None; former member of theYCI,WFDY andENDYL |
| Nordic affiliation | Socialistisk Ungdom i Norden (SUN) |
| Website | www.ungvanster.se |
Young Left (Swedish:Ung Vänster[ˈɵŋːˈvɛ̌nːstɛr]ⓘ) is asocialist,Marxist, andfeminist youth organisation. It is the official youth wing of theSwedishLeft Party. The organisation calls themselves a "revolutionary youth organisation with roots in thecommunist part of thelabour movement, anchored in the women's movement and influenced by the environmental- and peace movement."[6]
Young Left is asocialist,Marxist, andfeminist political youth organisation committed to organising young people to work for social change that evolved out of thelabour movement, with influences fromenvironmentalism, thepeace movement, and thefeminist movement. Young Left works for social justice and a society characterised by equality, secularism, generous welfare provisions for all citizens, generous immigration policies, and respect for the environment. As its mother party, the Left Party, as well as the Social Democratic Party, Young Left is a strong supporter of the Swedish labour unions and the Swedish model, with conditions of work such as wages being regulated in branch-level collective agreements between the unions and the employers, rather than on individual basis. Ung Vänster has had various names and political alignments over the years, but is continuously characterised by the issues that have been at the centre of its history, such asantifascism, social justice, equality, and justice. During the past years, the main focus of the organisation has been the struggle against growing xenophobia in Sweden (as they mean been witnessed by the electoral success of theSweden Democrats during the national elections of 2010) and criticism of theright government, and in particular on its privatisations of welfare services and priorities of tax reductions, rather than increased public spending on welfare and investments in infrastructure and renewable energy.
The Young Left, unlike the Left Party, are arevolutionary socialist organisation, which differentiates them from the morereformist Left Party in that they want to implement societal changes by revolution, and not reform.[6]
Young Left works together with and supports the Left Party andVänsterns Studentförbund, but makes, on the basis of its own analyses, independent decisions regarding organisational and political issues.
Young Left was founded in 1903 as Socialdemokratiska Ungdomsförbundet (SDUF, Social Democratic Youth League). However, the youth league has clearly attached itself to the left-wing within theSocial Democratic Party. At the outbreak of the First World War, the tensions within the party aggravated. In May 1917, the youth league together with the left-wing faction within the party took the initiative to form a new party,Sveriges socialdemokratiska vänsterparti (Social Democratic Left Party of Sweden). SDUF became the youth wing of the new party. SSV joined theCommunist International in 1919, and was renamed to Sveriges kommunistiska parti (Communist Party of Sweden). Following that, SDUF was renamed to Sveriges Kommunistiska Ungdomförbund (Young Communist League of Sweden), and became the Swedish section of theCommunist Youth International.
In 1952,Democratic Youth was founded on the initiative of the party, in order to be a broader youth movement. Until 1958, SKU and DU existed as parallel organisations. In 1958, the two organisations merged and took the name DU.
In 1967, ultra-left elements took over the organisation, and broke away to formMarxist-leninistiska kampförbundet (Marxist–Leninist Struggle League). Reconstruction work started rapidly. In 1970, the organisation was re-baptised as Kommunistisk Ungdom (Communist Youth). By 1973, there was a national organisation in function, and, by 1975, an ordinary congress was held.
Young Left have published the youth magazineRöd Press since 1982, when Young Left lost the rights of its magazineStormklockan to the MaoistMLK in a trial.
In Sweden, Young Left was one of the many forces behind the large15 February 2003 anti-war protest.
Under the later years of the 2010s, different members of the Young Left have been excluded because of strong couplings to the Revolutionary Front and the AFA. The national executive board have been doing both official exclusions and cut-offs in these cases. This is because these groups are not deemed compatible with thedemocratic socialism andanti-racism fight that the Young Left are driving. The party board of the Left Party has also been strongly advising for hard consequences in these situations.[7]
After having had a stable membership of between 1,500 – 2,800 for a number of years, the membership of the youth organisation had declined to 964 in 2016 according to theSwedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society.[8]
 | This section contains numerous links to pages onforeign language Wikipedias. They are shown asred links with the language codes in [small blue letters] in brackets. Click on the language code to see the page in that language. |
