Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
the YCLs] in accordance with the change in the surrounding conditions." 94 The
Comintern instructed its Parties and YCLs to lead a militant attack against all elements of
the social-democratic movement, denouncing them with the slogan of "social-fascists." 95
The YCI's political identity was historically rooted in militant denunciations of social
democracy. This factor led the communist youth to embrace the new Comintern line with
great energy and enthusiasm. 96 Although fascism was rising in its prominence, the YCLs
focussed their political attacks on their perceived adversaries on the left. 97
For communist youth, the Class Against Class period did not create a profound shift in
their politics. The Third Period represented an affirmation of militant anti-socialist trends
that existed since the birth of the communist youth movement. McDermott and Agnew
highlight the "endemic hostility of the Comintern leadership towards social democracy"
and the anti-socialist roots of Leninist ideology, countering historians who have focussed
on the rapid and divergent shifts of the Third Period. 98 YCI rhetoric of this period, while
expressing greater urgency for revolutionary actions, continued to highlight elements of
continuity in their policies.
A central element of the YCI's outlook on the youth was insisting on the necessity of
the political role that youth should embrace, unlike the social-democratic emphasis on
cultural activities. During the discussions leading up to the youth's Fifth World Congress,
the YCI insisted it was their role to counter these traditions of social democracy:
Incorrect are the proposals for the giving of a non-political character to the YCL organizations,
i.e., reconstruct them in such a way, that the cultural side should be given the
most important place. In such a way we could not win the broad masses (take as an example
the social-democratic youth organisations), and we will only lose all our revolutionary
traditions, and instead of raising a new revolutionary generation, which should
take the place of the old, we will raise "cultural people," opportunists. 99
The Third Period did not change the YCI's conception of their movement. By increasing
the intensity of their attacks on social democratic tactics, the YCI simply reinforced their
own highly militant political identity.
The main divergence of Class Against Class politics was a shift to focussing attacks
on the left-wing of the socialist movement. The YCI's 1929 Programme reflected this
shift in communist strategy and perceptions of their political opponents:
A particularly dangerous shading of Social-Democratic reformism is the so-called "Left"
(Centrist) Social-Democracy, which conceals by means of ostensibly revolutionary
"Left" phrases, its complete and actual agreement with the most reactionary Social-
Democratic reformism, and, its hostility to revolution. The "Left" wing of Social-
Democracy thus serves only as an instrument of more subtle deception of the working
masses; its special role is to deceive and keep under the influence of Social-Democracy
(i.e., of the bourgeoisie) those workers who are already on the road towards Communism.
Therefore, this brand of Social-Democratic reformism is an even more dangerous
enemy than an open opponent of Communism, or the open supporters of socialimperialism.
100
During previous eras "left socialists," while heavily critiqued, were considered potential
allies in countering conservative trends of social democracy. The YCI contended that
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