Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
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YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
ideological disputes, encouraging strict discipline to posit against any further factional<br />
splits. 124 With its internalized outlook the YWL had very little influence on youth politics<br />
in the twenties.<br />
As we have seen, the Third Period intensified the oppositional culture of YCLs, advancing<br />
an "ultra-left" condemnation of all other youth movements, especially the<br />
socialist youth. For example, in a revealing pamphlet entitled Who Are the Young<br />
Communists, the YCL attacked organizations like the YMCA, YWCA and the Boy's<br />
Club Federation. The YCL insisted that these groups intentionally split the ranks of the<br />
working-class youth, securing their allegiance to organizations that were "openly financed<br />
and controlled by the bosses" to "fool the young workers." 125 The YPSL was<br />
scorned for carrying on "no struggle against the bosses… [and] no militant fight against<br />
war" which reflected how they systematically "betray the young workers." 126 The YCL<br />
represented the "true class struggle" against the "misleaders of labor," encouraging<br />
revolutionary unity "in the common struggle against the bosses and their government." 127<br />
Though Third Period rhetoric frequently spoke of unity, the YCL contended workingclass<br />
unity should only occur under their "correct" leadership.<br />
Up to this point, the main initiatives for youth unity came from the National Student<br />
League and the Student League for Industrial Democracy. 128 Robert Cohen observed that<br />
because the NSL was created from below by students in 1931, it did not inherit either the<br />
"extreme sectarianism" or "Comintern dogma" of the YCL, enabling pragmatism in<br />
approaching socialist and liberal students. 129 The NSL facilitated student unity by initiating<br />
common activities between communist, socialist and liberal youth. In March, 1932<br />
the NSL organized a broad delegation of students to investigate a miner's strike in<br />
Harlan, Kentucky. The Harlan delegation received major national press attention and<br />
even political audience in Washington DC. 130 During this month, the Young Worker<br />
carried only one brief two-sentence article about the delegation, dedicating the majority<br />
of this issue to anti-YPSL statements in line with Third Period rhetoric. 131 Joe Lash of the<br />
YPSL later recalled that the Harlan delegation showed how "Socialist and Communist<br />
students and non-affiliated students could work together," even if it was a practice not yet<br />
officially adopted or endorsed by either the Comintern or the YCL. 132<br />
After the Harlan experience the NSL and SLID came into closer contact through joint<br />
work linked with the Student Congress <strong>Against</strong> War that took place December, 1932 in<br />
Chicago. At this conference the NSL showed a pragmatic and flexible spirit of unity<br />
towards both young socialists and pacifist youth. The NSL rephrased their resolutions<br />
that non-communist youth took issue with in order to build the largest consensus against<br />
war. Young Worker articles contended that the SLID had "tried their best to disrupt the<br />
Congress and prevent a real united front of students against imperialist war." 133 The NSL<br />
and SLID held a very different view of the events than this propagated YCL opinion.<br />
One socialist activist praised the mutually accommodating spirit of the event stating, "In<br />
Chicago the most encouraging sign at the whole affair was the honest bid the Commu-<br />
92