International Youth And Students For Social Equality

The International Youth Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) is the youth and student organization of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Committee of the Fourth International, an international Trotskyist organization. Launched in 2006, the IYSSE aims to build an international socialist movement of students and workers opposing militarist violence, social inequality and attacks on democratic rights. The IYSSE continues the work of its predecessor the Students for Social Equality and the International Students for Social Equality, with student clubs at Universities and High Schools worldwide.

Chapters of the IYSSE hold regular meetings to educate students on Marxism and Socialism and to debate and discuss contemporary political issues. In February 2007 a German chapter of the IYSSE held a meeting at Technische Universität Berlin to discuss the US war plans against Iran, and an Australian chapter of the IYSSE intervened in meeting held at the University of New South Wales.

On March 31 and April 1, 2007, the IYSSE and the SEP held an international conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan opposing the war in Iraq and a potential war with Iran. Those attending the conference voted unanimously for the conference resolution. The resolution adopted connects the expansion of US militarism, attacks on democratic rights, and the growth of social inequality within the US with the declining economic position of the US internationally. The resolution points to the capitalist nation-state system as the root cause of war and outlines the need for an international socialist movement to oppose war.

IYSSE members have been invited as representatives of third party, independent or socialist perspectives on political panels, with IYSSE members reaching news headlines during the recent " Occupy protests" in which students have been attacked or maced by police. The IYSSE has also hosted academic or intellectual events that have received broader attention; in November 2010, the Berlin branch of the German IYSSE hosted a public lecture by historian Alexander Rabinowitch, on the subject of The Russian Revolution suggesting renewed interest in the historical event.

In 2014, the IYSSE around the world hosted the first online International May Day Rally, where over 2000 people attended online from over 96 countries. The speeches focused on the global drive to war, the history of working class struggles, permanent revolution, and called for the development of socialist conscious workers and youth across the world.

The Sri Lankan IYSSE has received attention from major papers in Sri Lanka for its organization of students, workers, and contributions to election campaigns. The Sri Lankan IYSSE has sought to defend students' and workers' rights, and in so doing has opposed Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic divisions within the country. A planned meeting for January 2025 at Peradeniya University entitled “How to fight against the IMF austerity program?” was cancelled by the Vice Chancellor of the university despite the event being sponsored by the university’s Political Science Students Association and having received permission from the Head of the Political Science Department. The Vice Chancellor's office had demanded that the subject of the meeting be changed, “so as not to appear that the meeting challenges the government policies or else consider hereby that the above meeting be suspended immediately” which led the IYSSE to accuse the university's leadership of caving to pressure from the National People's Power government of President of Sri Lanka Anura Kumara Dissanayake to infringe upon academic freedom on campus.

The German IYSSE, particularly the chapter in Humboldt University, have had public controversy with Humboldt professor Jörg Baberowski who lost a 2017 defamation lawsuit against their parent party the Socialist Equality Party (Germany) (SGP): the Hamburg district court ruled that the party's right to freedom of speech allowed them to accuse Baberowski of a "distortion of history". The court also ruled that the SGP was able to defend their characterization of Baberowski as a "right-wing extremist" by referencing his statements about Adolf Hitler with a specific example being him saying, "Hitler was not cruel. He did not want people to talk about the extermination of the Jews at his table”.

Further conflict with Baberowski took place on 30 January 2020 when he was recorded tearing down posters that the IYSSE put up for the student parliament elections at Humboldt University, violating the automony of the student government in the process, before striking the hand of the IYSSE member holding the phone recording him and saying, "Should I punch you in the face?" to the student. Baberowski was issued criminal charges of causing bodily harm and the destruction of property in June 2021 with the main public hearing scheduled to start 27 April 2022 in the Tiergarten District Court in Berlin. However, two days before the proceedings were scheduled to begin Baberowski agreed to make a €4,000 payment to the non-profit organization KINDerLEBEN in return for the case being dismissed.

As of May 2025 the IYSSE has held seats in Humboldt University’s student parliament for ten years consecutively. In the last elections in 2024 they won the 5th most votes out of any group, beating out the youth groups of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and Free Democratic Party (Germany). In those elections the IYSSE saw the biggest increase in their share of the vote compared to 2023 out of any group and they won every single vote cast from the Institute of Islamic Theology. They have authored multiple resolutions that have been passed by the student parliament including condemnations of threatened deportations of political activists and attacks on freedom of expression.https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/11/29/c6a3-n29.html

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{{DEFAULTSORT:International Students For Social Equality
Student political organizations
International Committee of the Fourth International
Student wings of political parties
Student wings of communist parties