Connolly Youth Movement

The Connolly Youth Movement (CYM) is an all-Ireland youth organisation affiliated to the Communist Party of Ireland but which is also strongly independent and organises separately from the CPI. 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 united in their opposition to imperialism and to the inequalities that the capitalist system creates in Ireland and throughout the world. The CYM takes its name from the revolutionary socialist James Connolly and continues his traditions of militant working-class opposition to the injustices of the world.

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. Unlike many of the radical youth organisations which emerged in the 1960s, the CYM recruited mainly working class youth. The CYM later amalgamated with the Northern Ireland Young Communist League to become an all-Ireland group. Its membership came from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds in Northern Ireland.

However, the CYM disbanded in 1991 because of 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...
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