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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THE LENINIST GENERATION<br />
By upholding their pre-war traditions of anti-militarism and internationalism, the SYI<br />
facilitated the re-emergence of the socialist anti-war movement, laying much of the vital<br />
basis for the later formation of the Comintern.<br />
Socialist youth proclaimed a poignant critique of the role and structure of the Second<br />
International. At the outset of WWI, most sections of the SYI initially followed the<br />
"national defence" positions of Socialist Party leaders. The federated structure of the<br />
Second International had prevented the anti-war factions of the international leadership<br />
from initiating any actions that were binding upon all national sections. Young communists<br />
later criticized the Second International as a "loose federation of independent<br />
national parties;" the International lacked the leadership and structure to enforce any<br />
"Congress resolutions or decisions." 23 When put to the test, the Second International<br />
failed to initiate any meaningful actions to prevent or to end the war. As a result, young<br />
socialists increasingly began to embrace Lenin's critique that for the prevention of future<br />
imperialist wars, the very structure and functions of the International needed revision;<br />
any new attempts to coordinate internationalism needed an organization "capable of<br />
shaping, rather than merely reacting to historical events." 24<br />
In the spring of 1915 the SYI reconvened itself in Switzerland to coordinate youth<br />
actions against the war. Willi Münzenberg of the Swiss <strong>Youth</strong> League coordinated this<br />
call to action, bringing together young socialists from ten nations for an International<br />
<strong>Youth</strong> Conference in Berne during April, 1915. 25 The conference opened on a note of<br />
self-criticism that also articulated a forward vision concerning the war:<br />
The Conference notes with profound regret the fact that, like the socialist organizations<br />
of the elders, the socialist youth organizations in most of the countries at the outbreak of<br />
the war were not guided by the [anti-war] decisions.... In the face of the horrible results<br />
of the present war, which callously uses for cannon fodder young people who have<br />
scarcely passed school age, the Conference stresses the necessity of making clearer than<br />
ever… the nature of the war and of militarism… of rallying them more firmly and in<br />
greater numbers to the banner of revolutionary socialism. 26<br />
A YCLGB pamphlet of 1927 reflected on the importance of this conference:<br />
This Conference was the first meeting of representatives of Socialist organisations after<br />
the outbreak of the war.... It declared itself emphatically against social-patriotism, and<br />
placed its sections under the obligations of international solidarity for revolutionary action<br />
against the war… The International <strong>Youth</strong> Days, according to the slogans of the International<br />
Bureau, were held not only in the neutral but also in the belligerent countries.<br />
They are among the few actions of an international character during the war, of which<br />
the revolutionary labour movement can boast. 27<br />
The Berne conference revitalized international youth activism and helped to radicalize<br />
and reconfigure the international socialist movement. The SYI openly criticized the<br />
positions of the Second International, urging youth to coordinate international revolutionary<br />
activities despite any hostility from adult socialists. Münzenberg later boasted that<br />
Berne represented the first time that socialist youth articulated a completely "independent<br />
position with regard to political events." 28 Young communists later boasted that the<br />
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