Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
leadership of a broad alliance of social forces, and maintain this leadership during a<br />
prolonged period of transition" in the struggle for a socialism born out of populist democratic<br />
movements that encapsulated a wide variety of progressive social elements. 5 This<br />
Popular Front revisionism transformed Western communism into a broad movement<br />
engaged in the mainstream of democratic politics, ending the era of the Leninist Generation.<br />
The rise of the Popular Front necessitated "a new way of thinking" for communists<br />
and socialists. 6 As we have seen, the Leninist Generation of the YCI had constructed<br />
communism in opposition to social-democratic theory and practices based on their<br />
perceptions of socialist betrayal, but after the rise of Hitler, communists began to perceive<br />
fascism as the greatest threat to peace, the Soviet Union and the working class. The<br />
Comintern amended its definition of fascism, characterizing its basis in narrow social<br />
terms that enabled the formation of broad anti-fascist alliances; hence a new Popular<br />
Front Generation undertook a complete revision of Leninism on the issues of nationalism,<br />
popular unity and democracy to effectively counter fascism. With a generation of<br />
historical animosity to overcome, GDH Cole correctly asserted that the youth "occupy today<br />
a strategic position of peculiar importance" to undertake the enormous task of<br />
constructing the Popular Front. 7<br />
The Seventh World Congress: The Working Class <strong>Against</strong> <strong>Fascism</strong><br />
Though Mussolini himself characterized fascism as "the resolute negation of… Marxian<br />
socialism" and rejected the "possibility or utility of perpetual peace," the Leninist Generation<br />
underestimated fascism's strength and did little to effectively counter it. 8 <strong>Fascism</strong><br />
was generally understood as a domestic movement of capitalist reaction; the Leninist<br />
method to fight "the specious revolutionary language of fascist demagogy" was by an<br />
"energetic and revolutionary fight against the ruling class." 9 In 1923, the year prior to<br />
Mussolini's full fascist dictatorship, the YCI defined fascism as the "deadliest enemy" of<br />
the working class. The YCI vowed to "ruthlessly smash <strong>Fascism</strong> wherever it shows its<br />
head," dedicating over twenty pages in their resolutions and theses to anti-fascism. 10 By<br />
1924, the YCI shifted the direction of its resolutions and activities to the challenges of<br />
"Bolshevization." The YCI's 1924 resolutions dedicated only one page to the struggle<br />
against fascism, advocating "open military struggle" as the strategy to "best produce<br />
decomposition in the ranks of the fascists." 11 <strong>Fascism</strong> continued to be opposed, but the<br />
YCI failed to strategically target it, characterizing it as simply another form of anticommunist<br />
reaction.<br />
The Third Period's "social-fascist" analysis linked fascism rhetorically with socialists,<br />
bourgeois democracy and anti-communism. This analysis of fascism asserted that<br />
"fascism equals reaction" and that "all capitalist regimes, whether parliamentary or<br />
dictatorial were defined as fascist;" social democrats were now "seen not merely as<br />
38