Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
leadership of a broad alliance of social forces, and maintain this leadership during a
prolonged period of transition" in the struggle for a socialism born out of populist democratic
movements that encapsulated a wide variety of progressive social elements. 5 This
Popular Front revisionism transformed Western communism into a broad movement
engaged in the mainstream of democratic politics, ending the era of the Leninist Generation.
The rise of the Popular Front necessitated "a new way of thinking" for communists
and socialists. 6 As we have seen, the Leninist Generation of the YCI had constructed
communism in opposition to social-democratic theory and practices based on their
perceptions of socialist betrayal, but after the rise of Hitler, communists began to perceive
fascism as the greatest threat to peace, the Soviet Union and the working class. The
Comintern amended its definition of fascism, characterizing its basis in narrow social
terms that enabled the formation of broad anti-fascist alliances; hence a new Popular
Front Generation undertook a complete revision of Leninism on the issues of nationalism,
popular unity and democracy to effectively counter fascism. With a generation of
historical animosity to overcome, GDH Cole correctly asserted that the youth "occupy today
a strategic position of peculiar importance" to undertake the enormous task of
constructing the Popular Front. 7
The Seventh World Congress: The Working Class Against Fascism
Though Mussolini himself characterized fascism as "the resolute negation of… Marxian
socialism" and rejected the "possibility or utility of perpetual peace," the Leninist Generation
underestimated fascism's strength and did little to effectively counter it. 8 Fascism
was generally understood as a domestic movement of capitalist reaction; the Leninist
method to fight "the specious revolutionary language of fascist demagogy" was by an
"energetic and revolutionary fight against the ruling class." 9 In 1923, the year prior to
Mussolini's full fascist dictatorship, the YCI defined fascism as the "deadliest enemy" of
the working class. The YCI vowed to "ruthlessly smash Fascism wherever it shows its
head," dedicating over twenty pages in their resolutions and theses to anti-fascism. 10 By
1924, the YCI shifted the direction of its resolutions and activities to the challenges of
"Bolshevization." The YCI's 1924 resolutions dedicated only one page to the struggle
against fascism, advocating "open military struggle" as the strategy to "best produce
decomposition in the ranks of the fascists." 11 Fascism continued to be opposed, but the
YCI failed to strategically target it, characterizing it as simply another form of anticommunist
reaction.
The Third Period's "social-fascist" analysis linked fascism rhetorically with socialists,
bourgeois democracy and anti-communism. This analysis of fascism asserted that
"fascism equals reaction" and that "all capitalist regimes, whether parliamentary or
dictatorial were defined as fascist;" social democrats were now "seen not merely as
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