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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YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
137. See American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress Continuations Committee, Program Of American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress, Adopted By Delegates<br />
From 79 Organizations With Total Membership Of 1,700,000 (New York: American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress, 1934).<br />
138. James Lerner, "United Front Defeats Fascist <strong>Youth</strong> Group: Nation-Wide <strong>Youth</strong> Meet in January," Young Worker: Official<br />
Organ, Young Communist League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 12, no.18 (August 28, 1934): 1.<br />
139. Eagan, 119. At the Sixth World Congress of the Young Communist International, Comintern representatives made constant<br />
reference to the American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress as one of the first and most important Popular Front initiatives.<br />
140. The program of the American Congress <strong>Against</strong> War and <strong>Fascism</strong> embodied a traditional communist outlook asserting that<br />
capitalism was the cause of war and that the role of anti-war activists was to defend the Soviet Union where "the basic<br />
causes for war… have been abolished." Though the AYC shared a similar anti-war and anti-fascist perspective, its program<br />
attempted to embrace the larger American values of the youth movement and to fuse these values to the anti-fascist<br />
cause. For an interesting view of the political outlook of the <strong>Youth</strong> Section of the American League <strong>Against</strong> War and <strong>Fascism</strong><br />
see "Call to <strong>Youth</strong> Congress <strong>Against</strong> War and <strong>Fascism</strong>," Young Worker: Official Organ, Young Communist League,<br />
USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 12, no.18 (August 28, 1934): 12. Prior to putting their main organizational<br />
efforts into the AYC, the YCL attempted to use the YCAWF as a coordinating body representing a "true cross<br />
section of the American <strong>Youth</strong>," helping to promote a national committee in Oct. 1934 composed not just of young socialists<br />
and communists, but also representatives of such non-traditional allies as the YMCA, YWCA, Methodist <strong>Youth</strong> and<br />
the Boy Scouts. See "<strong>Youth</strong> Anti-War Congress Broadest Ever Held: Cement Unity in Fight on War and <strong>Fascism</strong>," Young<br />
Worker: Official Organ, Young Communist League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 12, no.21 (October<br />
9, 1934): 1.<br />
141. "Into Action for the Second American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist<br />
League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.20 (June 4, 1935): 3.<br />
142. Gil Green, "Adding Another Page to American History," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist<br />
League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.23 (June 25, 1935): 12.<br />
143. "<strong>Youth</strong> of US Achieve Unity: 1,350,000 Represented at Detroit Congress," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the,<br />
Young Communist League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.26 (July 16, 1935): 1.<br />
144. Gil Green, "Gil Green Appeals to YPSL for United Front," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist<br />
League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.27 (July 23, 1935): 7.<br />
145. "Executives of SLID, and NSL Agree on Merger," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League,<br />
USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.35 (September 24, 1935): 3.<br />
146. "Student Unity Aids Fight on <strong>Fascism</strong>." Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA (Section<br />
of the Young Communist International) 13, no.36 (October 1, 1935): 3.<br />
147. Gil Green, "World Congress Points Way to Unity for American <strong>Youth</strong>," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young<br />
Communist League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.39 (November 12, 1935): 6.<br />
148. "The Students of America Unite For Peace," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA<br />
(Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.40 (November 19, 1935): 9.<br />
149. "The Significance of Student Unity," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA (Section of<br />
the Young Communist International) 14, no.2 (January 14, 1936): 5.<br />
150. Gil Green. "Building a United <strong>Youth</strong> League," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA<br />
(Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.41 (November 26, 1935): 5.<br />
151. Otto Kuusinen, "We Are Building a United <strong>Youth</strong> League," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist<br />
League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International) 13, no.43 (December 3, 1935): 5. *Typo on page, has date<br />
listed as November 26, 1935.<br />
152. "YCI Policy Criticized by YPSL," Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA (Section of<br />
the Young Communist International) 13, no.46 (December 24, 1935): 5.<br />
153. In many ways the YPSL rejection of YCL unity represented an historical irony since previous critiques of the YCL had<br />
traditionally been centred on its exclusive revolutionary and working-class character. See Edith Cohen, "Dear Gil Green,"<br />
Young Worker: Published Weekly by the, Young Communist League, USA (Section of the Young Communist International)<br />
13, no.44 (December 10, 1935): 5.<br />
154. Mac Weiss, "Proletarian Unity and the American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress" Young Communist Review 1, no.1 (September, 1936):<br />
7, 12.<br />
155. Gil Green, "Which Way for American <strong>Youth</strong> in the Struggle <strong>Against</strong> War: <strong>Youth</strong> Leaders at Debate," YCL Builder 2, no.3<br />
(1936): 41-42.<br />
156. The Trotskyists did not hide their actions or their intent in enacting their policy of entryism into the YPSL which was<br />
designed to counter the Popular Front and to split the YPSL into contending allegiances between the Second and Fourth<br />
Internationals. While the YCL was not justified in declaring that the Trotskyists were openly conscious agents of fascism,<br />
Trotskyist ideology and practice did run completely counter to the goals and tactics of the Popular Front. See "1936 Trotskyist<br />
Resolution on <strong>Youth</strong>" in The Trotsky Encyclopedia: An On-Line Resource Center for the Study of the International Trotskyist Movement<br />
.<br />
157. "Notes of the Month," Young Communist Review 1, no.1 (September, 1936): 4.<br />
158. Morris Childs, "Traitors to the Working Class," Young Communist Review 2, no.2 (February, 1937): 10.<br />
159. See "1938 Socialist Workers Party Resolution on the Young People’s Socialist League (Fourth Internationalist)," in The<br />
Trotsky Encyclopedia: An On-Line Resource Center for the Study of the International Trotskyist Movement<br />
.<br />
160. Wolf Michael, "Our Power Lies in Unity," Young Communist Review 2, no.3 (March, 1937): 13.<br />
161. "Clippings of the Day," Young Communist Review 3, no.4 (June, 1938): 30.<br />
162. "Editorials," Young Communist Review 3, no.3 (May, 1938): 3.<br />
163. Ross, "Events of the Month," 20.<br />
164. Santiago Carrillo, "To the <strong>Youth</strong> of the World," Young Communist Review 3, no.4 (June, 1938): 9.<br />
165. West, "The YCL Speaks," 24.<br />
166. "Editorials," Young Communist Review 3, no.8 (October, 1938): 6.<br />
167. Throughout the speeches of the World Congress, YCI leaders continually praised the Spanish socialist youth for attending<br />
their conference. Although the YCLs in France and the United States were the main targets of praise, the Spanish youth<br />
were acknowledged for their initiative in achieving youth unity. Spanish youth unity became a key factor in rallying international<br />
youth sentiment to the Spanish Republic.<br />
174