ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WYDF) is considered by the United Nations as a non-governmental organization.

Its current secretary-general is Dimitris Palmyris of EDON. The FMJD was created at the end of World War II on the initiative of Stalin and Churchill to foster ties between youth organizations around the world and formally promote peace. But as early as 1947, with the beginning of the Cold War, many Western youth organizations withdrew, leaving the FMJD to a predominantly Marxist and anti-imperialist majority. In addition, most of the States emerging from decolonization had as their representatives anti-imperialist organizations that had strengthened that focus. The FMJD was long financed mainly by communist countries, and was often considered a "mass communist organization". After a severe crisis following the fall of the USSR, which deprived it of much of its resources, it regained its importance by redeploying itself through donations from its member or government organizations engaged in the anti-imperialist struggle (South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador, etc.).

Background

After the Second World War, the victors gathered in London a "World Youth Conference". It leads to the creation of the World Federation of Democratic Youth. Its seat is in Paris, and its president, a Frenchman, Guy de Boysson, from UJRF and also a member of the French Communist Party and future leader of the Soviet bank in France.

The FMJD has been an anti-imperialist organization since its inception, but not infused with a state or bloc. The FMJD is a broad international youth movement. But the domination of communist movements makes certain conservative analysts say that its neutrality is, from the beginning, only a facade. After the Prague coup and the worsening of the Cold War, many pro-American organizations withdrew from the FMJD.

In 1947, the FMJD and the International Union of Students were at the initiative of the first "World Youth and Student Festival" in Prague. The festival then took place approximately every four years until the fall of the USSR. The World Youth and Student Festival was relaunched in 1997 in Havana. FMJE was held in Algiers in 2001, Venezuela in 2005, Pretoria in 2010 and Quito in Ecuador.

When the USSR and the Eastern bloc collapsed, the FMJD went into crisis. Following the major vacuum created by the disappearance of the largest organization, the Soviet Komsomol, conflicts arose over the character of the federation. Some wanted a less political structure, while others were more inclined to a federation oriented to . However, the FMJD