Connolly Youth Movement


The Connolly Youth Movement is an all-Ireland Marxist-Leninist youth organisation. It is affiliated to but operationally independent of the Communist Party of Ireland. Internationally, the Connolly Youth Movement is affiliated to the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The CYM includes young activists from many different political backgrounds who are in opposition to imperialism and to the capitalist system in Ireland and throughout the world. It takes its name from the revolutionary socialist James Connolly.

History and current status

The CYM was founded in 1963 by young republicans who were influenced by the Communist Party during the Dublin Housing Action struggle. In 1970 with the merger of the Irish Workers' Party and Communist Party of Northern Ireland, to form the Communist Party of Ireland, the Northern Ireland Young Communist League joined the CYM, with Madge Davison as its general secretary. The CYM disbanded in 1991 due to a reduction in membership following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and eastern and central European bloc and the resulting political crisis in the World Communist Movement. However, following the resurgence of the left and anti-capitalist movement in Ireland, the CYM re-formed in 2002, grouped mainly around young members of the Dublin Branch of the CPI and student activists in NUI, Galway. The Connolly Youth Movement has relations with a number of young communist organisations around the world. The Connolly Youth Movement attends the :Meeting of European Communist Youth Organizations.

Activities

In 2017, members of the Cork branch of the Connolly Youth Movement occupied and re-purposed three derelict buildings near UCC as part of an initiative to highlight rising levels of homelessness. In 2018, two of these buildings were repossessed by the Garda Emergency Response Unit acting in conjunction with a contractor for the O'Dwyer Asset Management Company that owned the vacant properties. The first occupation, still ongoing as of 2020, is referred to as Connolly Barracks by the organisation.
The Connolly Youth Movement was involved in highly publicised instances of direct action in 2018 and 2019 when members of the movement disrupted Fine Gael public meetings in Cork in protest of government policy in relation to homelessness and wealth inequality. One such action was branded as "profoundly undemocratic" by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The organisation responded that it had a right to challenge and question the government on policy issues.

Publications

CYM publishes a magazine titled Forward quarterly.

Affiliations