Rebel Youth () is the bilingual magazine of the Young Communist League of Canada (YCL), published beginning in the late 1980s and relaunched in 2005. It seeks to "[offer] weekly pan-Canadian socialist perspectives on the youth and student movement across Canada and internationally."

History

The earliest publication by the YCL and predecessor of Rebel Youth was The Young Worker, founded in 1923. The magazine specialized in youth issues and operated despite being declared illegal by the Government of Canada under the War Measures Act. Beginning in the late 1920s, the Young Worker also published a supplementary magazine aimed at children which achieved a circulation of over 4,000 readers. Early contributors to the magazine include journalist and Communist Party of Canada leader Leslie Morris. By 1932, the Young Worker had become a bi-weekly publication under editor Stanley Ryerson.

Due to the illegality of the magazine and of the Young Communist League of Canada, the YCL's offices were raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, distributors jailed or harassed, and issues of the magazine seized. Many university libraries and archives, such as the University of Toronto's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, carry microfilm archives of The Young Worker compiled by the intelligence division of the Ministry of Labour. In 2020, the Rebel Youth and Jeunesse militante websites were relaunched together in a bilingual format, and the magazine was redesigned with a new logo.

References

  • Rebel Youth blog (archive)
  • Jeunesse Militante blog (archive)
  • Young Communist League of Canada website