Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

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