The Young Communist League of Canada (YCL-LJC) is a Canadian Marxist–Leninist youth organization founded in 1922. The organization is ideologically aligned with, but organizationally independent from, the Communist Party of Canada. The organization's members played a leading role in the On-to-Ottawa Trek and made up a significant portion of the Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion, which fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Modern description According to their website, The YCL-LJC is made up of school and community clubs across the country. We are a mass-based organization of young workers, employed and unemployed, high school and post-secondary students, young women and men, queer and straight – all classes and strata of the population who are exploited and oppressed by Canada’s monopoly capitalist system. We mix culture with political activism, debate, discussion and education. History 1920s The Young Communist League of Canada first organized on July 22, 1922, under the direction of the Communist Party of Canada. It was formally established as the youth wing of the Communist Party of Canada in 1923, at a convention in Toronto. The YCL later became affiliated with the Young Communist International. Originally known as the Young Workers League (YWL) due to the War Measures Act proscription of communist and other radical organizations in Canada, the lifting of the act in late 1923 saw the name change to its current form. Leslie Morris was the League's first General Secretary (serving from 1923 to 1924.) The League soon became a member of the Young Communist International (YCI), an international association of similar bodies from around the world. Notably, the YCI included the USSR's Komsomol which served as the model for all other member organizations. According to early organizer Dave Kashtan, the YCL "served as an educational organization for young workers and students, educating young people 'in the spirit of socialism'." Some of the League's earliest organized efforts took place in major cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver, finding notable success among the youth of immigrant communities. The interest of young people in the YCL reflected the times. The recent success of the October Revolution (which established the USSR) and the Western response to it had great impact on some Canadian workers. Although Canada's economy was in a boom, some youth could still remember the post-war unemployment and misery which abounded immediately after the First World War. The YCL's stated purpose was to organize young