Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
It was the proletarian youth that suffered most during the war of 1914-1919. But it was
also the proletarian youth that first raised the voice of protest against that destructive
war. When the official Socialist and Social-Democratic parties went over to the bourgeoisie
and began to praise the bandit-war as a war of "Right" and "freedom," the organizations
of the youth rose up against this treachery.... We are convinced that the
working youth can have nothing in common with this fraudulent, lying, treacherous "International."
The working youth of all the world are uniting themselves as one man with
the living International, with the Communist International… the working youth will
fight on the foremost barricade for the victory of the Soviet system. Long live the Proletarian
Youth! Long live the Youth’s Communist International! 43
Zinoviev's later appeals contended that without the revolutionary leadership of the
Comintern that the "slaughter" of WWI would inevitably be repeated:
The Third (Communist) International was formed at a moment when the imperialist
slaughter of 1914-1918, in which the imperialist bourgeoisie of the various countries
sacrificed twenty million men, had come to an end. Remember the imperialist war! This
is the first appeal of the Communist International to every toiler wherever he may live
and whatever language he may speak.... Remember that unless the capitalist system is
overthrown a repetition of this criminal war is not only possible but is inevitable. 44
Zinoviev formulated his appeals around an associational language that portrayed the
Second International as the enemy of the youth. He declared the Second International as
allies of the bourgeoisie, blaming them for the deaths of young workers during the war.
In negation to this "treacherous International," the Comintern was portrayed as the
"living" ally of youth leading to the "victory of the Soviet system" and a new era of
international peace. 45
The formation of the YCI was a unique phenomenon within the Comintern. After
considerable courting, the socialist youth transferred their political allegiance away from
the Second International en-masse. Due to the overthrow of Béla Kun's Hungarian
Soviet Republic in August, 1919, the SYI's first post-war conference was rescheduled for
Berlin in November, 1919. This meeting resulted in the "capture of the old Socialist
youth international and its transformation into the Communist Youth International." 46
Communist parties formed their initial membership through splits within the Social-
Democratic parties and the merger of small revolutionary parties, rarely winning over
larger parties in their entirety. The CPGB reflected on this phenomenon in terms of the
political psychology of youth stating, "The minds of young workers are open and receptive.
They are more able to assimilate revolutionary ideas and grasp their significance
than the adult workers whose ideas have been definitely shaped and formed." 47 As the
section of society most dramatically impacted by WWI, youth were receptive to revolutionary
appeals framed in anti-war rhetoric. The YCI later commented on the different
perceptions of generations after the war:
It is the disillusioned youth, a product of the world war and the ghastly years that have
followed in its wake, who will give the final blow to Capitalism. The older men and
women, somehow or another seem unable to get away from the outlook which they had
developed in the comparatively peaceful and stable years prior to the war.... We, the
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