Skip to main content
CND protest at Fairford
To live life with purpose: 100 years of the Young Communist League
General secretary JOHNNIE HUNTER says the YCL, now rapidly growing once again, will mark its centenary by deepening its commitment to the class struggle in Britain and worldwide
100 years ago youth from across Britain met in Birmingham to found an organisation of a new type that would fight for a superior form of society, free from exploitation — today the Young Communist League is fighting once again

VERY FEW political organisations in Britain can trace their story back over the course of a full century. But what does 100 years of history mean for Britain’s young communists in 2021?

For the disinterested, this might be noteworthy in a passing sense: a small seam in the tapestry of Britain’s modern social and political history.

For anti-communists, it’s another confirmation of their proclamation, as rabid as it is unconvincing, that ours is an outdated and dying ideology — the communists have limped on, merely delaying the inevitable.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
ELECTORAL TURBULENCE: View from the tower of Old Town Hall in Prague. Photo: A Savin/Creative Commons
Praxis / 22 November 2025
22 November 2025

JOHN CALLOW examines what went wrong for the Czech communist party in the recent parliamentary elections, where it failed to meet the threshold to return deputies and some now talk of the party abandoning its commitment to socialism

MARCHING FORWARDS: Communists protest against the Unite the Kingdom rally in London, September 13 2025
Features / 6 October 2025
6 October 2025

The CPB's congress aims to build the united front against monopoly capitalism, utilising the YCL’s promising new generation of militants — but our party remains far from the strength history requires of it, despite recent progress, writes JOHNNIE HUNTER 

Graffiti that reads Austerity is Failing
Features / 30 August 2025
30 August 2025

Our charter’s demands for fair pay, affordable housing and environmental security will recruit working-class youth into the political struggle for socialism, emulating the success of the Women’s Charter, writes YCL general secretary GEORGINA ANDREWS

Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
Features / 20 August 2025
20 August 2025

Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY