Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

THE LENINIST GENERATION
organizations was a risky venture for young workers and could easily lead to dismissal,
blacklisting and potential legal persecution. 93 Nevertheless, communists insisted such
factory organizations could help avert future wars and advance socialist revolution
through the utilization of a general strike. If war broke out, production could be sabotaged
or redirected to transform the war into a revolutionary civil war. In either case,
communists insisted their presence within industrial organizations was vital to offset the
influence of reformism, raise the class-consciousness of young workers and to ferment
revolution in periods of working-class advance. The YCL's goal of using militant
unionism to unleash a revolutionary civil war often held little resonation with a generation
of war-weary youth.
Bolshevization intended to form mass revolutionary organizations of youth, but instead
resulted in constructing largely sectarian and isolated YCLs in the West. Bolshevization
facilitated opportunities for youth advancement within the communist movement,
but did little to create the mass youth leagues that the Comintern sought. Communist
youth directed their primary energies internally into correcting ideological disputes and
training their members in Leninism. YCL tactics simply mimicked adult and Russian
strategies, neglecting the formulation of distinct youthful tactics. Instead of actively
engaging youth to reject the rising influences of fascism, the YCI spent the Second
Period simply denouncing all other movements and directing their membership's attention
inward of their own "correct" development.
The Third Period (1928-1933): Class Against Class and Youth Militancy
During the summer of 1928 the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern endorsed a new
"ultra-left" political line referred to as "Class Against Class." This era is commonly
referred to as the "Third Period," lasting approximately from 1928-1933. By this time,
Joseph Stalin was the dominant figure of Soviet politics, and in turn, he was able to
exercise extensive influence upon the Comintern. Indeed, the Third Period witnessed the
shift from "Bolshevization" to "Stalinization" of the Comintern. Many historians,
especially after 1956, have blamed the disastrous failures of this era upon the "corruptive"
influence Stalin exerted within the International. Though Stalin dominated
Comintern politics, at times directly intervening in the internal affairs of other parties,
many communists actively identified with and supported Stalin's policies; the Comintern
maintained its leadership through both coercion and consent. Dispositions towards
Stalinist policies were particularly accentuated within the youth movement.
At its Fifth World Congress in 1929, the YCI officially endorsed the Comintern's political
"left turn." Class Against Class theory and practice was centred on the premise
that a new revolutionary period had arisen; the world would soon be overwhelmed by a
new era of wars and revolutions. The Comintern characterized this era as "the end of
capitalist stabilisation," facilitating a dire need to "reorientate the Communist Parties [and
23