Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
Government repression and lack of domestic support made the potentials for a vibrant
American Young Communist League negligible. The first attempt to form a communist
youth movement in 1919 was unsuccessful. 167 Another attempt was made in 1920 to
form an American YCL, but the Palmer Raids drove the fledgling organization underground.
168 Finally in 1922 the Young Workers League (YWL) was formed as a legal
communist youth organization, one month after the YCL was formally established as an
illegal "underground organization." 169 This trend of splitting the socialist movement and
forming both legal and illegal organizations were not unique to the YCL, but was a
duplication of the trends followed by the adult Workers (Communist) Party to avoid
further legal persecution.
In its early relationship with the YCI, the YWL was not acknowledged as a full member,
but was described as a "sympathizing organization" that the YCI hoped would
"before long… be able to associate with us even more closely." 170 The YWL lamented of
this situation as well, openly stating that they hoped "some day that conditions may arrive
when the Young Workers League can become a section of [the] Young Communist
International." 171 American delegates to the YCI were not reported on as delegates, but
referred to as "observers" who attended YCI Congresses not to receive orders, but to
return to the US to "explain conditions over there" in Europe. 172 This cautious language
reflected the precarious legal existence of the American League.
While persecution set back the early YWL, its appeals to join a "militant vanguard…
in the daily struggle" for "the conquest of power" did not resonate greatly with American
youth. 173 An article in The Nation commented at the time that while the energies of youth
had been "tapped by the war," it was questionable that they could be "harnessed in
peacetime to a social purpose." 174 American youth of the twenties embraced cultural
expressions of rebellion through "flappers, jazz and gin," not calls for the establishment
of a "Workers' Republic." 175 Instead of actively engaging in this modern youth culture,
the early YWL condemned things like the "jazz-spirit" of youth as reactionary. The
YWL contended "jazzism is coming to be as reactionary a force in America as Fascism is
in Italy" for breeding a "carefree" attitude in the youth. 176 Along with condemning the
"carefree" culture of youth, the early YWL also condemned efforts to work with university
student youth who had formed an important basis of the Socialist Party. The YWL
stated university students could one day assist a Workers' State with their "management
skills," but that "students as a category in modern society can never become revolutionary"
since they were "mentally and morally subservient to the interest of the masters." 177
One of the major problems facing the United States communist movement was the
issue of "American exceptionalism." Though the American economy suffered some
preliminary slumps and high unemployment due to post-war economic adjustments, the
period of the twenties was a time of massive American economic growth. The potential
class tensions associated with industrial rationalization were outweighed by a hegemonic
culture of optimism linked with high employment rates and economic growth. 178 The
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