Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

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