Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
The Leninist Generation justified their revolutionary program by focussing on themes
of war and peace. Communist propaganda did not assert that social democracy wanted
war, but that socialists had proven they were incapable of coping with imperialist war and
were facilitating new wars by subverting communist revolution. According to YCI
propaganda, revolution was the only solution for peace. In one of their first public
statements entitled No More War, the YCLGB stated:
Is it the "fate" of humanity always to be at war Will mankind always be divided into
antagonistic camps, which men call "their Country, their Fatherland" And must they
always slaughter one another with murderous weapons, murder, mutilate and burn, laying
waste to beautiful towns and cities Must the world always be one vast slaughterhouse
Must the world always be one vast arsenal with each war yet greater and more
terrible than the other.... Will war always leer at us from its horrid death-mask Yes!
Always! As long as capitalism exists! So long as capitalism exists, so long as the state
is in the hands of the capitalists, so long as the bourgeoisie hold power, then so long will
there be wars! War is the vital necessity for the capitalist class. 6
The 1922 "Manifesto and Program" of the American YWL made similar assertions about
the dire future of youth if capitalism was not overthrown:
Capitalism thrives on waste; and over the bodies of the millions of slaughtered and
maimed workers who have fought the battles for the master class, have been built up the
fabulous fortunes and the power of the bourgeoisie.... The young must bear the brunt of
all the fighting, suffering, and economic oppression that results from war.... During the
war just passed, they gave up their lives on behalf of the financiers and industrial capitalists
of this country.... The very flower of youth and manhood perished.... The basis for
wars will exist so long as capitalism remains.... The young of the working-class form the
backbone of all imperialist armies of the world. Their blood is shed so that capitalism
may expand.... The slogan of the revolutionary youth must be: Down With All Capitalist
Wars! In this struggle, the young workers must lead the way. Upon them falls the task
of crushing that mighty instrument – Militarism, and with it Capitalism. 7
Leninist Generation rhetoric unequivocally linked capitalism with war in dire, almost
apocalyptic imagery. A future of capitalist war could only be averted by revolution and
proletarian dictatorship. The Comintern's leadership and Leninist theory were the
necessary tools that would enable communist youth to hasten a "Red Dawn" of peace.
Dimitrov's defined fascism as war. This conception of fascism was the key to legitimizing
the youth Popular Front. Dimitrov insisted that his definition of fascism revealed
its "true character" as an international force for imperialist war. As previously highlighted,
fascist regimes represented "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary,
most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital." 8 In an article
appropriately entitled "Fascism is War," Dimitrov reflected on the implications of this
phenomenon:
Two years ago, in August, 1935, the Seventh Congress of the Communist International...
pointed to the indissoluble connection between the struggle against fascism and the
struggle for peace. Fascism is war, declared the Congress. Coming to power against the
will and interests of its own countrymen, fascism seeks a way out of its growing domestic
difficulties in aggression against other countries and peoples, in a new redivision of
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