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 />
because of their psychological make-up, are more easily won to Communist ideas and<br />
are quicker to show enthusiasm for revolutionary struggle than adult workers. Nevertheless,<br />
the youth movement relinquishes to the Communist Parties its vanguard role of organising<br />
independent activity and providing political leadership. The further existence of<br />
Young Communist organisations as politically independent and leading organisations<br />
would mean that two Communist Parties existed, in competition with one another and<br />
differing only in the age of their membership.... In this way the Communist Parties will<br />
be able to exert a permanent influence on the movement and encourage political activity,<br />
while the youth organisations, in their turn, can influence the Party. 56<br />
The Comintern subordinated the YCI to its leadership, but youth continued to play a<br />
political role. Indeed, the Comintern insisted on the practical need for deference to the<br />
"vanguard leadership" of the Communist Parties, but continued to stress the importance<br />
of youth. 57 By 1924, the YCI stated they had accepted this new pattern of relations,<br />
openly proclaiming, "As we are a section of the Communist International, we naturally<br />
accept its programme and the basis of its tactics completely." 58<br />
<strong>Youth</strong> propaganda of the First Period focussed extensively on the legacies of Karl<br />
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg as "revolutionary martyrs" after their murder in<br />
January, 1919. 59 Just prior to their deaths, Liebknecht and Luxembourg directly appealed<br />
to the youth in their propaganda, arguing that the "flower of youth" had "been mowed<br />
down" by the imperialist war; they urged young workers to join them in revolution "to<br />
complete the great work of permanent peace." 60 Communist literature personified<br />
Liebknecht and Luxembourg as vital allies of the youth and the revolutionary movement.<br />
A 1926 pamphlet on the history of the YCI invoked this theme of martyrdom stating:<br />
All these sacrifices have not been in vain. The youth and the revolutionary part of the<br />
working class will remember the courageous martyrs. They were the champions of the<br />
new International… the greatest loss to the revolutionary Socialist youth we remember<br />
first of all Karl Liebknecht, who lost his life together with Rosa Luxemburg in the German<br />
revolutionary battle.... Thousands of young comrades gave their lives for the cause<br />
of their class during those revolutionary times. 61<br />
The YCI consistently used the images of Liebknecht and Luxembourg in their appeals to<br />
the youth. An early YCI manifesto declared:<br />
At the name of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg our hearts throb.... Liebknecht<br />
was one of us! A <strong>Youth</strong>! The name Liebknecht is inseparably bound up with the proletarian<br />
<strong>Youth</strong> Movement. He was its teacher. He fought in its ranks. He was its bravest<br />
defender. Liebknecht was the very first, who with his name and person came out for the<br />
Stuttgart resolution, and went to prison for the program of the Young International… a<br />
soldier of the proletarian revolution, full of glowing passion and youthful enthusiasm to<br />
the very death. With the murder of these two comrades… the young workers lost their<br />
truest friend and staunchest supporter. 62<br />
The YCI linked the legacies of Liebknecht and Luxembourg with the causes of revolution<br />
and youth to encourage the youth's allegiance to the Comintern. A later YCI publication<br />
followed this trend, linking a "socialist future" as one built upon "avenging" the martyrdom<br />
of the past asserting, "Liebknecht shall be avenged, a new red dawn will break, and<br />
18