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 />
of the whole world and its youth will unite its forces for struggle against the fascist inciters<br />
to war. 10<br />
YCL rhetoric did not accept the inevitability of war, but warned of the increased "danger<br />
of war" associated with Chamberlain's "pro-fascist" policies. If Chamberlain's government<br />
were replaced, a new government could resist fascist aggression by supporting<br />
"international law." Working-class youth could help "the sun of peace" to "rise over<br />
Europe" by uniting in struggle against Chamberlain. <strong>Youth</strong> could not be passive observers<br />
of history while fascism threatened world war.<br />
The YCLUSA used a broader rhetoric of youth to encourage peace activism. American<br />
young communists focussed on the common interests that all youth had in the<br />
maintenance of peace. Instead of challenging the values of youth, Popular Front rhetoric<br />
utilized an inclusive language of common principles that would resonate with American<br />
youth. For example, in appealing to Catholic youth Gil Green spoke of the youth's<br />
"crusade for peace:"<br />
We are both crusaders for the well-being, happiness and perpetuation of mankind. You<br />
believe in the brotherhood of man, we in the international solidarity of peoples of every<br />
nationality and race. For this, we have both incurred the hatred of fascism. We both abhor<br />
war and detest the war makers; we both crusade for peace. And for this too, have we<br />
both incurred the hatred of fascism... But while the world is a family of nations, like any<br />
other family, it has its freak, the black sheep who is a disgrace to the family record. That<br />
freak today is to be seen in the fascist dictatorships and their war-making policies.... It is<br />
no accident that war has been precipitated by the Fascist countries— they are the aggressors.<br />
11<br />
<strong>Fascism</strong> was personified as an aggressive movement for war that stood against the<br />
common values of all mankind. <strong>Youth</strong> had the ability to find a common ground for<br />
struggle in their "crusade for peace." Anti-fascism and peace were the common values<br />
that linked all American youth.<br />
Communist leaders during the Popular Front often compared the experiences of the<br />
Leninist and Popular Front Generations by utilizing the theme of peace. In a 1939 article<br />
entitled "Your Generation and Mine," Earl Browder reflected on the experiences of the<br />
Leninist and Popular Front Generations. Browder's analysis centred on the intimate<br />
connections between youth, peace activism and the Soviet Union:<br />
Never before in all history was there such an opportunity for the people, and especially<br />
the younger generation, to transform the world fully and completely into the sort of place<br />
which the best minds have dreamed about over the centuries. Your generation, it is true,<br />
is threatened with the brutal and senseless slaughter of a new world war. My generation<br />
was similarly threatened. But there are tremendous differences, and most of them are in<br />
favor of your generation. My generation had only the most confused ideas of how to<br />
fight against the war-makers, and understood very little about the world in which we<br />
lived. Your generation has a fairly clear understanding of the world, and knows much<br />
better who are the warmakers and how to fight them. And your generation has powerful<br />
forces consciously working with it – the Soviet Union, and the labor and peoples' democratic<br />
movements all over the world. 12<br />
134