• Through anarchist movements, these young forces are drawn by ruling powers, not to serve purposeful social change, but as instruments for global powers and military juntas.

Shafi Burfat | Germany

Social justice, political freedom, unrestricted participation in economic activities, and the struggle of oppressed nations for national liberation have always been fundamental and essential needs of human society. History shows that behind every successful movement and struggle for national freedom stands a well-organized political party, a clear revolutionary national objective, and an experienced, mature political leadership. In contrast, without clear goals and organization, the emotional impulses of youth often serve the interests of global imperialist powers, military juntas, or hereditary political groups.

In today’s world, religious fanaticism and right-wing populist phenomena incite youth emotionally and aggressively. Through anarchist movements, these young forces are drawn by ruling powers, not to serve purposeful social change, but as instruments for global powers and military juntas. Unfortunately, in the modern world, we see a dangerous trend in which youth movements, instead of leading principled revolutionary change, often get caught in waves of populism and political anarchy. Both are systematically encouraged by global hegemonic powers and local ruling elites or military juntas for their own interests. Such political agitation may temporarily remove rulers from power, but it more dangerously places societies under the control of other global-interest-protecting groups, military juntas, and imperialist intermediaries. These movements, instead of achieving positive social change, ultimately strengthen the existing structures of oppression rather than dismantle them.

Populism: A Diversion from Real Political Struggle

Rather than building movements on strong ideological and political foundations, populist leaders of the right and representatives of global powers have learned to exploit the emotions, anger, and frustration of young people and students in every society. In this way, youth are mobilized as tools to remove unpopular governments, but the outcome rarely delivers real freedom, democracy, or justice. In many cases, power simply shifts from one reactionary elite to another, often resulting in new crises supported by the military or international imperialist interests, leaving society and the nation more vulnerable.

The lesson for any nation or oppressed people is clear: revolutionary change cannot succeed without strong political organization, principled leadership, and strategic goals

Political experience worldwide shows repeated cycles: from Tiananmen Square in China to the Arab Spring in the Middle East, from anarchist student movements in Bangladesh and Nepal to recent youth-led protests in France, we observe the same pattern: youth are mobilized, existing governments toppled, but the resulting void is quickly filled by authoritarian rulers, comprador elites, or military juntas. Youth revolutionary energy is thus hijacked, and instead of advancing national freedom or social change, these movements strengthen pro-imperialist intermediaries and weaken societies.

Negative Use of Youth in Political Change

• Tiananmen Square (1989): The large protest led by students demanding democratic reforms was brutally suppressed, allowing the Chinese state to consolidate authoritarian capitalism rather than ushering in a new era of freedom.
• Arab Spring (2011): In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Syria, youth overthrew dictators, but the lack of organized revolutionary leadership and clear objectives resulted in chaos, military rule, or foreign imperialist intervention, destroying the political freedoms that social change could have delivered.
• Bangladesh and Nepal: Anarchist youth movements caused political instability but failed to establish lasting political institutions. Opportunist elites, military juntas, and global powers exploited the resulting vacuum to pave the way for new pro-imperialist rulers.
• France (2023–2024): Youth anger over inequality and climate injustice mobilized mass protests, but without solid political leadership, these movements remained limited to partial governmental concessions and failed to bring systemic social change.

Global Strategy against Revolutionary Politics

Repeated experiences reveal a global strategy: to separate serious political leadership and experienced revolutionary parties from genuine national and social struggles, youth movements are instigated in every country. This keeps them distant from the true goals of social change and national liberation. As a result, spontaneous movements led by young students emerge repeatedly, producing no substantial societal outcomes. These spontaneous youth-led movements become sources of political anarchy, desired by global powers, military juntas, and local elite intermediaries. Emotional public surges succeed temporarily in shaking society, but their real fruits benefit reactionary governments, international powers, and imperialist interests rather than genuine social revolution.

For national freedom and social justice, a serious political party, leadership, and goal are required, based on ideology, discipline, and long-term strategy

Youth are skillfully manipulated emotionally, repeatedly misled in the name of revolution by global cunning forces and political elites to remove their opponents, while experienced political leadership is sidelined. This traps the world in a situation where movements, lacking ideology and leadership, become tools for forces that real revolutionary actors should be confronting. This trend is not accidental; it is a calculated strategy by global powers and local elite intermediaries to prevent the success of national liberation movements and genuine social change, using youth and students as pawns.

Examples: Iran, France, and Nepal

• Iran (2022): Following the death of Mahsa Amini, youth and women protested against religious extremism, but the lack of political leadership and a clear program meant the movement could not progress beyond temporary pressure. It was widely publicized in global media, but the true goal was to weaken Iran, not to provide real freedom.
• France (2023–2024): Protests against pension reforms and rising costs of living, influenced by right-wing political currents in the U.S. and Europe, as well as emotional protests in Nepal, demonstrate how youth movements without clear leadership, parties, and objectives are exploited for global political interests.

From all these examples, it becomes evident that global imperialist powers and military juntas:

1. Use youth movements to replace rulers but not systems.
2. Increase uncertainty and weakness in society.
3. Promote military, technocratic, or right-wing elites who serve imperialist interests.
4. Weaken genuine political leadership, preventing long-term change.

The Example of Sindh Lawyers’ Movement

Even in Sindh, movements initiated by lawyers and youth, but without clear political programs and organized leadership, they remained an emotional surge. This led to public disappointment and political distrust.

The Need for Genuine Political Leadership

Global and local experiences make it clear that:

• Youth movements are essential, but emotional waves alone can never achieve genuine revolution.
• National liberation and social justice require serious political leadership, organized structures, and clear ideological programs.
• Conscious political training and strong organization are essential to protect society from global imperialist strategies.

Therefore, if a society wants genuine change and national freedom, youth must be organized, given clear objectives, and led by experienced leadership. Any national movement without leadership and a clear goal, no matter how large, can lead to political anarchy rather than national liberation or real social change.

Final Outcome

The lesson for any nation or oppressed people is clear: revolutionary change cannot succeed without strong political organization, principled leadership, and strategic goals. Youth are the lifeblood of every political action and national movement, but without mature guidance, their energy risks being wasted, their struggles and sacrifices exploited, or even turned against their own people.

For national freedom and social justice, a serious political party, leadership, and goal are required, based on ideology, discipline, and long-term strategy. Without these, rebellions and movements serve enemy interests rather than producing the outcomes of change.

If history is to move forward, and oppressed nations, as well as subjugated people, farmers, workers, and the poor, are to achieve true freedom, youth energy must be organized, united, and mobilized under experienced revolutionary leadership. Only then can societies be freed from imperialist exploitation, authoritarian domination, and elite oligarchy, and nations liberated from oppressive occupation and slavery.

Read: Food, Humanity, and Moral Accountability Urgency

_______________

Shafi Burfat, Chairman, Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, is based in Frankfurt Germany

The post Youth Leadership in Shadow of Globalism first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Montreal, Canada

Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday denounced the existing global financial system as “morally bankrupt” and called on youth leaders gathered for a UN summit in Montreal, Canada, to push for justice so that all countries, especially in the developing world, have the tools needed to curb biodiversity loss and restore the balance between humans and nature.

“Beyond biodiversity, beyond climate, there is a central question in the world today and that is justice. We live in a system in which both the economic rules and the financial architecture are morally bankrupt,” the UN chief told a side event organized by the Global Youth Biodiversity Network and other youth groups, ahead of the official opening of COP15, the latest edition of the UN Biodiversity Conference.

This COP, the Fifteenth Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), runs through 19 December and is expected to see the adoption of a post-2020 roadmap for the conservation, protection, restoration and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems for the next decade.

“Your leadership [in tackling], the war against nature” the Secretary-General told the youth representatives, “is the best signal of hope that this battle is worth fighting and that we have a chance to win. The youth are on the frontline of the battle to rescue humankind… mobilizing even when governments are reluctant to take the situation seriously.”

The world’s young people are making civil society and the business community understand that this is the moment to reverse course, he stated, adding: “This is the moment to make peace with nature. This is the moment to consider that biodiversity and climate are the two defining issues of our time and these are two battles we cannot afford to lose.”

Huge reforms needed

The Secretary-General said that the world we live in is very unfair: “For instance [during the COVID-19 pandemic], vaccines were distributed in a very unfair and unjust way. In a city like New York, people had two vaccines, and some had three boosters. But in the African continent there is still a large number of people that have not had access to even the first vaccine.”

He added that at the same time, because developed countries had solid economies, they had “printed money… trillions of dollars to help recover from the pandemic. Developing countries cannot print money because if they did, their currencies would go down the drain. So, [they] have had enormous difficulties recovering from the pandemic [which has] impacted education, health sectors, jobs and many other aspects of life, even as those countries accrued more debt.

“We need to be able to say that huge reforms are needed in order to establish a more equitable economic and financial system in which developing countries also have a chance to guarantee for their citizens the [benefits that technology provides those in developed countries],” said the UN chief.

“If there is one issue that is important for this COP, it is ensuring support to developing countries, namely in Africa,” he said, adding along with this, that one of the crucial aspects being discussed is financing.

“We need to make sure there is adequate financing, especially for Africa and developing countries, in relation to the protection of biodiversity. But it’s also important to have funding for the kind of transformational activities and transformational movements that are essential for us to win this battle,” he said, urging that priority be given boosting the “capacity of young people to transform society – technologies, behaviors, and all other aspects of our common life.”

Vote, participate, mobilize

In a written question, a representative wondered what the youth could do to push governments to take the biodiversity crisis more seriously: “We are out in the streets… doing everything we can, but the governments are not moving fast enough.”

“I used to be in government, and I can tell you this: one thing governments are very concerned about is votes,” responded the UN chief, telling the youth representatives to be very active in telling people not to vote for those that are involved in destroying nature; to not work for companies that are destroying nature; and not to work with civil society organizations that are not engaged in protecting biodiversity.

“The most important thing is to multiply the mechanisms of citizenship that will make governments feel that if they do not correct course, they will lose elections,” he explained.

The big banks must change

To a question from a young African representative about what actions could be taken to ensure the continent is able to take full advantage of the financial mechanisms and schemes to protect their biodiversity, Mr. Guterres stressed that the UN and the international community have been fighting for several innovative ways to address that issue.

“Some are farther along than others [but] it’s very important not to reduce official development assistance (ODA). Some developed countries are now doing this in their budgets and its very important to denounce that.”

He said there was also a need to make sure that when the World Bank and other international development banks operate, they provide guarantees, and assume the first risk in coalitions, in order to mobilize massive private finance at reasonable cost to countries like yours, “because private finance will only go to a country like yours with very high interest rates which will not help you to do what needs to be done.”

“So, the international financial institutions must change their business models [and] assume more risk. Some other instruments that we have been fighting for, for example, include [mechanisms] to swap debt for investments in climate action and biodiversity preservation or other areas of sustainable development,” he noted.

____________________

Courtesy: UN News (Published on Dec 6, 2022)

The post UN Secretary General denounces existing global financial system as ‘morally bankrupt first appeared on Sindh Courier.