Young Companions of the Union

Young Companions of the Union همراهان جوان اتحادیه Hamdamân-e Javân-ye Ettehâd الصحابة الشباب من الاتحاد Al-Aṣḥāb al-Šabāb min al-Ittiḥād
Logo of the Young Companions
Flag of the Young Companions
Secretary General	Haidar Nassar
Political Affairs Director	Mukhtar Khadarivar
Honorary President	Vahid Isfandiar
Founded	28 November 1950 (1950-11-28)
Headquarters	Zarâdkâne Complex, Zahedan
Membership	62,807,409 (2020)
Ideology	Sattarist National Renovationism
Mother party	National Renovation Front
Newspaper	Javân

The Young Companions of the Union, (YCU) (Pasdani: همراهان جوان اتحادیه; Hamdamân-e Javân-ye Ettehâd, HJE; Rahelian: الصحابة الشباب من الاتحاد; Al-Aṣḥāb al-Šabāb min al-Ittiḥād, ASI), is the sole political youth movement in Zorasan and the youth division of the ruling National Renovation Front. It is the largest youth movement in the world, with an estimated 77.54 million members as of 2020, membership is mandatory for all children aged between 4 and 16. It's sister organisation, the Young Thinkers of the Union is dedicated to university students.

It was established in November 1950 following the Sattarist victory in the Pardarian Civil War and expanded in 1953 to include the youth of Khazestan and Ninevah following the unification of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran. Between 1953 and 1980, its primary duty was to prepare its male members for national service and its female members for supporting any future war effort, while also engaging in political education and propagation of National Renovationism. Following the success of Zorasani Unification in 1980, the YCU was again expanded to an all-Union organisation, with mandatory membership sustained at its 1981 General Congress.

Today, the YCU provides numerous extra-ciriculuar activities that go toward securing university places or being fast-tracked into select government services. It still provides its male members access to military style training and regularly operates events designed to prepare them for national service or volunteering for the armed forces. The YCU also operates social services for young members from poorer backgrounds, including tutoring, housing and electronic devices. The YCU's structure and inherently political nature has led many to describe the YCU as a "training school" for NRF politicians or career officials.

Organisation

Structure

As an all-Union movement, the YCU operates a federalised structure, parallel to the political divisions of Zorasan, with a powerful overarching executive at the centre, directly subordinate to the ruling National Renovation Front. The Central Executive Committee of the Young Companions (CEC) is led by a Secretary-General, who is appointed by the Revolutionary Command Congress, the primary decision making body of the Party. The Secretary-General is deputised by a Deputy Secretary-General, whom he or she selects from the movement itself. The third senior executive officer is the Political Affairs Director, who is also selected by the RCC and is usually drawn from the State Commission for Revolutionary Propagation and Information, though it has been known that the Central Command Council has interceded and appointed its own candidate. Beyond these three executive officers, the CEC is comprised of the Secretary-Generals of all nine Regional Divisions (state-level movements) among others.

The YCU itself is divided into nine Regional Divisions, which correspond to the nine Union Republics of Zorasan, each Regional Division is in turn led by a Regional Executive Committee and its chairpersons are appointed by the CEC every five years. As the YCU covers the age groups 4-16, it is further divided into two components; the Children of the Union (Kudakân-ye Ettehâd) and the Future of the Union (Âyande-ye Ettehâd); the CU covers ages 4-9 and the FU covers 9-16. The primary grouping of the YCU since 1982 has been the "School Cadre" (Kâdr Maktab), which is comprised of all members at the same primary and secondary school, the HJK is the primary grouping for administration, activities and organisation in relation to the wider Regional Division. Below the HJK is the "Class Squad" (Juxe Kelâs) which is consists of students from the same class in school. As membership is mandatory for all children in Zorasan, there were an estimated 203,500 School Cadres in 2020.

Students who turn 17 and secure placement at university are mandated to join the Young Thinkers of the Union which covers the ages 17-24.

Goals and responsibilities

According to the original charter of the YCU as establed in 1950, the movement is dedicated to the "spiritual and physical mobilisation of the youth, so that they may be imbued with the necessary revolutionary and Sattarist National Renovationist ideals necessary to lift the nation up and carry it toward the final victory. Further to this end, the Young Companions will mobilise the youth in good works for their local communities and the nation, to foster Ettehâd, for the movement, like the nation, shall be free of the antiquated notions of class and social station." Generally, the charter mission of the YCU has remained unchanged since its founding, however, further expansions have been made since the 1980s to include tasking the Movement to provide support for its members, be it educational, emotional and financial.

Young male members of the YCU conducting military style training in 2019.

The activites assigned to the YCU differ for the genders, with female members directed toward academic study with the assistance of YCU tutors and volunteer teachers. Female members also form the bulk of the YCU's "public assistance programs", such as running soup kitchens, fund raising events and cleaning public spaces. Male members have consistently since the 1950s, be directed toward what is essentially military training. Male groups take part in assault courses, firearms training, self-defence classes and regularly find themselves hosted by career soldiers or officers. However, several Regional Divisions have been known to use male units for public works such as harvesting, road building and repairing damaged infrastructure. Both male and female units share common events focused entirely on instilling support and loyalty to the one-party state and being educated on the virtues of Sattarist National Renovationism. The "political seminars" often take the form of propaganda films or interactive lectures by National Renovation Front officials, while members are also educated at "state defence seminars", to identity the "characteristics of an enemy of the nation."

Since 2008, the YCU has become one of the largest providers of extracurricular support for secondary school students. The movement is known to provide extra hours of tutoring to students from poorer backgrounds and girls particularly, who are provided support for the aim of increasing the percentage of females working in STEM. In 2016, it was reported that the YCU is "raising a generation of highly politicised, loyal workers of the 21st century economy."

Links to the Zorasani military

Since its inception in 1950, the YCU has been subject to claims that is the youth movement of the military, rather than the National Renovation Front. A number of dissidents who were members of the YCU during their youth remarked consistently that the movement exists to perpetuate the "military's rule behind the curtain", and to further perpetuate its dominating position within society by preparing generation after generation for the "ultimate sacrifice." The highly militaristic culture and activities for the male half of the movement is consistent with claims that the YCU exists for male members to be "mentally, emotionally nad pyhsically prepared" for national service or careers within the armed forces.

Membership

Membership of the YCU is mandatory under federal law for all children aged between 4 and 16, this is enforced through schools where upon enrolment in primary school, the child is also registered with the YCU and assigned to their respective "Squad." Attendance to YCU events at school and externally is closely monitored by local authorities, persistent absence can lead to formal investigation by the security services, particularly into the parents. Families that have stopped children attending events have been fined, sacked from their jobs or denied social services, including access to certain types of healthcare, pensions and prescriptions. While membership is mandatory, notably ethnic-Chanwanese children have been excluded from the movement, on grounds that they "are insufficiently capable of upholding the ideals and virtues of the Sattarist National Renovationist way of life."

As of 2020, the YCU had 62,807,409 members.

Customs, rituals and oath

The YCU organises the Youth Mass Games held every summer, in which YCU Regional Divisions pit against each other in a viarety of sports.