Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

THE POPULAR FRONT GENERATION
energy and enthusiasm, being the segment of society most dramatically impacted by the
outbreak of a new world war. The YCI had a greater degree of success than the adult
sections of the Comintern in adopting the Popular Front. The YCI framed Dimitrov's
concepts of fascism in emotionally charged metaphors to increase the appeal of antifascism
to the youth. The Popular Front YCI described fascism as "a movement of the
moribund old world" that "parades hypocritically behind the mask of the youth." 42
Raymond Guyot, the French leader of the YCI, described Hitler as "the enemy of humanity
as a whole, the incendiary of the world war, the provocateur who drives the younger
generation to their death." 43 Communist youth insisted their entire generation needed to
unite to defeat this deadly "enemy of the youth."
YCI propaganda defined fascism in opposition to the broad values that the entire
youth held in common, insisting youth unity was the key to anti-fascism. Unlike previous
calls for unity, the Popular Front was directed not just at socialist unity, but a wider
unification of the entire "young generation." The Leninist Generation previously rejected
such notions as "petty bourgeois sentimental dreams." 44 The Popular Front YCI contended,
"The younger generation of all nations, want peace. Fascism wants war. Fascism
is the deadly enemy of the overwhelming majority of the younger generation." 45 Fascists
mobilized young people by making broad appeals to youth of their nation. Communists
identified this methodology of fascist discourse and consciously mimicked fascist propaganda
techniques in order to counter them. Popular Front rhetoric used the broad form of
fascist propaganda while transforming its content into a progressive discourse intended to
mobilize broad segments of youth.
Speeches given at the YCI World Congress of 1935 indicated that the Popular Front
was based on the concrete experiences already initiated by the French and American
YCLs. 46 Past YCI rhetoric consistently praised the activities of the Soviet YCL and
scorned the failures of leagues in the West. The YCI now contended Popular Front
practices originated in the unorthodox anti-fascist activities of YCLs in the West. In his
report to the Comintern Congress, Otto Kuusinen insisted that the unorthodox experiences
of the French and American YCLs had helped to give birth to the Popular Front.
When domestic fascist movements proposed creating a broad "front of the younger
generation," the French and American YCLs made similar broad counter-initiatives that
exposed the fascists as "the enemies of the youth." 47 Kuusinen pointed out the effectiveness
of such non-traditional actions that "politically defeated fascism in the eyes of the
youth," praising the "great political courage and independence" the French and American
youth had expressed. 48 While the Comintern had previously condemned their tactics as
"opportunist deviations," Kuusinen argued that their new methods were something to be
emulated, not denounced. 49 Part of the success of the youth Popular Front in the West
can be attributed to these factors. Communist youth perceived that their anti-fascist
activities helped to initiate the Popular Front transition in Comintern policy.
43