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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NOTES<br />
35. Leninist state theory had posited that the "dictatorship of the proletariat" was a temporary transitional period for the securing<br />
the class rule of the proletariat and initiating the transition to a socialist economy. With the economic growth<br />
unleashed by the "Five Year Plans," the collectivization of agriculture and the purging of all oppositional class elements,<br />
communists argued that the necessary period of the proletarian dictatorship had ceased. Although this period is often remembered<br />
historically as one of the greatest period of Stalinist domestic oppression, communists at the time dismissed<br />
such reports as "propaganda" and "slander."<br />
36. Joseph Starobin, "21 Years of Soviet Power," Young Communist Review 3, no. 9 (November, 1938): 34.<br />
37. Louis Fischer, "Louis Fischer," in The God That Failed: Why Six Great Writers Rejected Communism, ed. Richard<br />
Crossman (New York: Bantam Books, 1959), 195.<br />
38. Central Committee of the CPSU (B), History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Short Course (New<br />
York: International Publishers, 1939),342.<br />
39. Quoted in George Rawick, "The New Deal and <strong>Youth</strong>: The Civilian Conservation Crops, The National <strong>Youth</strong> Administration<br />
and the American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress"(PHD diss., University of Wisconsin, 1957), 355.<br />
40. Georgi Dimitrov, "The Working Class <strong>Against</strong> <strong>Fascism</strong>: Speech in Reply to Discussion," in Report of the Seventh World<br />
Congress of the Communist International (London: Modern Books, 1936), 19.<br />
41. Postmodern linguistic theory emphasizes that political discourse is a vital element in the construction of political identity;<br />
an intricate process where "language does not just mirror or reflect reality" but increasingly shapes new outlook on political<br />
realities. See Joseph Natoli, A Primer to Postmodernity (Malden: Blackwell, 1998), 68-71.<br />
42. Wolf Michal, <strong>Youth</strong> Marches Towards Socialism: Report Made Sept. 26, 1935, to the Sixth World Congress of the Young<br />
Communist International (New York: Workers Library Publishers, 1936), 10.<br />
43. Raymond Guyot, "Unity of <strong>Youth</strong> Throughout the World," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1, no. 1 (January, 1939): 2.<br />
44. ECYCI, Fundamental Problems, 17,19.<br />
45. Michal, 13.<br />
46. In this way, the Popular Front should not just be understood as simply an outside imposition from adults in the Comintern,<br />
but was personified as a process where adult communists were learning new methods and political outlooks from young<br />
communists in the West.<br />
47. Kuusinen, <strong>Youth</strong> and <strong>Fascism</strong>, 8-9.<br />
48. Ibid., 13.<br />
49. Otto Kuusinen, "The Movement of the <strong>Youth</strong> and the Struggle <strong>Against</strong> <strong>Fascism</strong> and the Danger of War," in Report of the<br />
Seventh World Congress of the Communist International (London: Modern Books, 1936),5.<br />
50. Michal, 24.<br />
51. Alec Massie, "Anniversary of the Sixth World Congress, YCI," Our <strong>Youth</strong>: Discussion Magazine of the Young Communist<br />
League 1, no.6 (September, 1938): 9,12,13.<br />
52. "Conference of European Young Communist Leagues," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1, no. 7 (July, 1939): 140. The uniformity of<br />
the "form" of youth methods during the Popular Front had less to do with YCI directives and was more closely associated<br />
with the greater international contacts communist youth developed during the Popular Front. Communist international<br />
youth contacts were facilitated by massive participation in the International Brigades and the annual World <strong>Youth</strong> Congress<br />
where communist youth developed their international methods in coordination and unity with other anti-fascist youth<br />
from throughout the world.<br />
53. Harvey Klehr, The Heyday, 307-308.<br />
54. Kuusinen, <strong>Youth</strong> and <strong>Fascism</strong>, 28.<br />
55. In his most recent publications on the British communism, Kevin Morgan has commented on the importance of a generational<br />
analysis, arguing that "no concept is therefore more important in making sense of the attitudes and alignments of"<br />
communists. See Morgan, "Communists and British Society," 2.<br />
56. Earl Browder, "Your Generation," 4-5.<br />
57. Quoted in Ibid., 27.<br />
58. Al Steele, "Education in the YCL," Young Communist Review 1, no.1 (September, 1936): 11.<br />
59. Michal, 17.<br />
60. Ibid., 17.<br />
61. Ibid., 41.<br />
62. Prior to the adoption of the Popular Front, the British and American sections of the YCI were considered important sections<br />
of the International, but their small sizes and sectarian practices also made them some of the most disappointing national<br />
sections. Though the YCLUSA was praised as an exemplary organization at the Seventh World Congress, delegates<br />
also noted that the youth Popular Front of the Americans was still a rather new trend and represented a distinct break from<br />
their past experiences of isolation.<br />
63. Keith Laybourn, Britain on the Breadline: A Social and Political History of Britain Between the Wars (Gloucester: Alan<br />
Sutton, 1990), 1.<br />
64. Ibid., 37.<br />
65. C.E.M. Joad, The Case For the New Party (Norfolk: J.C. Bird, 1931), 13.<br />
66. Sir Oswald Mosley, Why We Left the Old Parties (London: David Allen, 1931), 4.<br />
67. Sellick Davies, Why I Joined the New Party (London: New Party, 1931), 6.<br />
68. W.E.D. Allen, <strong>Fascism</strong> in Relation to British History and Character (London: BUF Publications, 1933), 2.<br />
69. Lucifer, "<strong>Youth</strong> in Flames: What Did You Do For Us in the Great War Daddies!" in The Letters of Lucifer and Leading<br />
Articles From "The "Blackshirt," ed. British Union of Fascists (London: British Union of Fascists, 1934), 3.<br />
70. Sir Oswald Mosley, Blackshirt Policy (Chelsea: BUF Publications, 1933), 7.<br />
71. YCLGB, Ten Points <strong>Against</strong> <strong>Fascism</strong> (London: YCLGB, 1934), 13.<br />
72. Ibid., 13.<br />
73. The primary source of anti-fascist activities during the rise of Hitler was directed by the Rote Jungfront, the KPD youth<br />
organization. See Eve Rosenhaft, Beating the Fascists The German Communists and Political Violence 1929-1933<br />
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).<br />
74. This replication of elements of German anti-fascism was due primarily to the fact that after "its foundation in October<br />
1932 the British Union of Fascists adopted all the main techniques of the German Nazis" including mass public rallies designed<br />
to increase the visibility of their movement. See Martin Pugh, "The British Union of Fascists and the Olympia Debate,"<br />
The Historical Journal 41, no. 2 (June, 1998): 529.<br />
163