Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

NOTES
108. "10th Annual Conference of the Young Communist League, City Halls, Glasgow, Easter, For Peace, Work, Wages," Challenge:
The Voice Of Youth 4, no.8 (February 24, 1938): 11.
109. "National Parliament of Youth: Archbishop's Good Wishes," Challenge: The Voice of Youth (October 22, 1938): 5.
110. "Youth Parliament to Discuss Bills to Change Working Conditions," Challenge: The Voice of Youth 5, no. 6 (February 11,
1939): 12.
111. "11 th National Conference of the Young Communist League," Challenge: The Voice of Youth 5, no. 3 (January 21, 1939):
5.
112. W.W., "All Change Here: For Three Days I Was an MP," Challenge: The Voice of Youth 5, no.13 (April 1, 1939): 3.
113. Ibid, 3.
114. "The BYPA," Our Youth: Discussion Magazine of the Young Communist League 2, no.4 (April, 1939): 124.
115. Waite, 95.
116. Gollan, Raise High the Banner, 14.
117. "Historic Youth Peace Assembly," Challenge: The Paper For Britain's Youth 1, no.9 (October, 1935): 1.
118. "Latest News From the Youth Peace Front," Challenge: The Paper For Britain's Youth 1, no.11 (December, 1935): 7.
119. YCLGBNC, "Young Communist League Speaks to 2,000,000 New Voters," Challenge: The Paper For Britain's Youth 1,
no.9 (October, 1935): 5.
120. "Youth Wants a Chance For a Bright and Happy Britain: Out With Baldwin!," Challenge: The Paper For Britain's Youth
1, no.10 (November, 1935): 1.
121. Unlike Britain, the socialist and communist movements of the United States emerged from WWI isolated in immigrant
communities, suffering severe state and vigilantly persecution. With the splits that occurred in the formation of the
American communist movement, Comintern directives on communist oppositional culture, especially with the "socialfascist"
line of the Third Period, had a highly disruptive and destructive impact for American socialism. For a historical
background of the tensions between socialists and communists, especially the animosities created during the Third Period
see the 1935 open debates of Norman Thomas and Earl Browder in Which Way For American Workers, Socialist or Communist
A Debate of Norman Thomas vs. Earl Browder: Madison Square Garden, New York, November 27, 1935 (New
York: Socialist Call, 1935).
122. For a historical background on the growth and development of the YPSL see Patti McGill Paterson, "The Young Socialist
Movement in America from 1905 to 1940: A Study of the Young People's Socialist League." (Unpublished PHD Dissertation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison 1974) or Todd Stewart Hutton, "Historical-Sociological Analysis Of Goal Transformation
In A Social Movement Training Organization: The Young People's Socialist League of America, 1920-1929,"
(Unpublished PHD Dissertation: Duke University, New York 1982).
123. "Young Workers League Greets Fifth Year of Communist International," The Young Worker: Official Organ of the Young
Workers League of America 3, no.6 (March 15, 1924): 1.
124. The YCI insisted that in the event of factional divisions, it was the duty of the YWL to look to the ECYCI to "solve all the
main questions" since they could be relied upon to adopt a "clear and firm policy for future work" that would maintain
ideological and organizational unity. See ECYCI, "A Letter From the YCI to the American League on the End of the Factional
Struggle," The Young Worker: Official Organ of the Young Workers League of America 4, no.19 (June 6, 1925): 3.
125. YCLUSA, Who Are the Young Communists, 15.
126. Ibid, 17.
127. Ibid., 18, 21-22. In another YCL publication of the Third Period the YCL proposed a similar critique of the YPSL centred
on a lack of action in coordinating and unifying young workers in struggle. In an article on a "toy shop" strike in the
Bronx, the YPSL was condemned for advising no "definitive action" to unite the young workers who were "all waiting for
militant leadership," whereas the YCL stepped in and "immediately called all of the workers on strike." In the same publication
the YCL asserted that its united front program was intended to unify the youth membership of as many organizations
as possible in "militant joint struggle" in order to expose the "treacherous policy of the Socialists." See Ruth P., "An
Experience With YPSL Leadership at a Strike," YCL Builder 1, no.5-6 (March-April, 1933): 9; "Study Section: The United
Front," YCL Builder 1, no.5-6 (March-April, 1933): 23.
128. During the Popular Front era many of the previous tensions preventing socialist unity still existed between the YCL and
YPSL. Certain tension existed between student's liberal flexibility in their approach and the YCL's traditional reliance on
Comintern formulas in the early thirties. Though the NSL was initially condemned for many of their unorthodox initiatives,
the YCL leadership eventually came to praising the effectiveness of their student activities.
129. Cohen, 38-41.
130. After the delegation visited Kentucky, both with the Justice Department and the White House set up meetings with the
student activists to investigate the conditions in Harlan. See Ibid.,51.
131. "Students Delegation to Kentucky," Young Worker: Weekly Publication of Young Communist League of USA (Section of
the Young Communist International) 10, no.10 (March 28, 1932): 1. In February, 1932 a 19 year old member of the YCL
National Executive Committee, William Simms, was shot by a "deputized gun thug for the Kentucky coal operators" for
his participation in organizing the young miners in the Harlan Country strike. See "Mine Thugs Kills Simms, YCL Organizer
in Kentucky Strike: American Youth Must Carry on Struggle," Young Worker: Weekly Publication of Young Communist
League of USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 10, no.6 (February 15, 1932): 1. While the YCL may
have toned down their connections with the Harlan delegation to protect the students from potential violence, it was obvious
that the liberal and non-militant composition of the delegation was out of sync with Third Period propaganda. Another
YCL article of 1932 condemned any manifestations of "rotten liberalism" within the communist youth as "the worst
form of right opportunism" that could only be cured through a "sharp struggle" internally to enforce a truly Bolshevik outlook
and practices within the YCL membership. See District Buro YCL Dist. 1, "Statement of the Boston Buro on Rotten
Liberal Toleration of Opportunism," YCL Organizer: Issued by Young Communist League 1, no.1 (September, 1932): 17.
132. Quoted in Cohen, 54.
133. "Students Unite Against Bosses War: Expose Socialist Leaders; Endorse Nat'l Youth Day," Young Worker: Weekly Publication
of Young Communist League of USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 11, no.1 (January 11, 1933):
1.
134. Quoted in Cohen, 87.
135. See "College Votes For Anti-War Strike April 6," Young Worker: Weekly Publication of Young Communist League of
USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 12, no.8 (April 10, 1934): 1.
136. "Conferences Prepare Big Youth Day," Young Worker: Weekly Publication of Young Communist League of USA (Section
of the Young Communist International) 12, no.9 (April 24, 1934): 1.
173