Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
interpret the unfolding of event through this dichotomy centred on peace. This position<br />
became increasingly difficult to maintain once Chamberlain was ousted from power by<br />
Winston Churchill. Even then, the YCL asserted that Churchill could not get their full<br />
support until he removed "the Men of Munich" from his cabinet. 21<br />
Since the United States did not enter WWII in 1939, the YCLUSA did not face the<br />
same public pressures as the YCLGB. The YCL carried on similar rhetorical attacks<br />
against the Chamberlain and Daladier, attempting to interpret the "true meaning" of<br />
Soviet diplomacy:<br />
Chamberlain, the Prince of Cynics, speaks of carrying on a war to the finish against the<br />
Mad Dog of Europe, Hitler; but was it not Chamberlain who carefully and lovingly<br />
nursed Hitler from the time that he was a weak little pup to the mad dog that he is today....<br />
This war was not inevitable. This terrible conflict which menaces all humanity<br />
could have been averted. If Britain and France had accepted the proffered aid of the Soviet<br />
Union, their combined strength would have been so overwhelming as to prevent Hitler<br />
from starting war, or if he were so foolish as to do so, would have been smashed and<br />
defeated him in short order.... The very fact that they drifted consciously into war against<br />
Germany and rejected the help of the Soviet Union, arouses the suspicion that their aim<br />
is to transform the war into a war against the Soviet Union. They did not want the help<br />
of the Soviet Union because they knew that would be the guarantee of the complete destruction<br />
of fascism in Germany, in all Europe, and the complete victory of democracy....<br />
But Hitler needed war. <strong>Fascism</strong> cannot live without ceaseless expansion and conquest....<br />
Soviet diplomacy threw a monkey wrench that destroyed all the machinations of world<br />
imperialism.... A profound change has therefore come about in the world as a result of<br />
the failure to build a peace front and avert imperialist war.... The fight for democracy<br />
and peace goes on, but takes on new forms. 22<br />
The "new forms" of YCL peace activism centred on exposing the war's "imperialist<br />
nature." The YCL insisted that Chamberlain and Daladier had consciously brought this<br />
war upon the youth, not to fight fascism, but to attack the Soviet Union. <strong>Fascism</strong> was<br />
still personified as war. The YCL contended that without war and expansion the fascist<br />
regimes would quickly collapse. War would embolden fascism; peace would ultimately<br />
destroy fascism. By this logic, the YCL maintained that the struggle for peace was still<br />
an anti-fascist struggle. YCL propaganda urged youth to influence government policy<br />
from a pro-war stance into seeking a negotiated peace and entering collective security<br />
pacts with the Soviet Union. Although the YCL legitimized and interpreted world events<br />
through the rhetoric of peace, the Non-Aggression Pact ultimately destroyed the American<br />
Popular Front youth alliances.<br />
Although WWII marked the end of many Popular Front alliances, YCL propaganda<br />
reveals that a significant change occurred in communist theory concerning war and<br />
peace. The form and content of YCL peace propaganda contained serious deviations<br />
from those of the Leninist Generation. 23 In November, 1939 the YCI published an antiwar<br />
declaration to the youth framed not to instigate a revolutionary upheaval, but urging<br />
youth to defend its rights and to continue its struggle for peace:<br />
138