Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
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YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
student radicals. The German-American Bund asserted the Oath showed the American<br />
student movement as "Jewish inspired" and inherently "un-American." 124<br />
The Oxford Pledge came into conflict with YCL anti-fascist sentiments after the adoption<br />
of the Popular Front. Popular Front policy sought to avert fascist war, but did not<br />
rule out the use of military force to counter fascism. The Oxford Pledge specifically<br />
targeted domestic trends of militarism, not external fascist aggression. As the threat of<br />
fascist war increased, the YCLs sought to shift pacifist sentiment into support of "collective<br />
security." While young communists were willing to fight fascism in Spain and<br />
rejected pacifism, their collective security program was not intended to facilitate a<br />
"People's War" against fascism. Collective security sought to prevent a world war by<br />
cutting off material and political support for fascism in the West through economic<br />
boycotts and state legislation. YCL rhetoric argued war could be averted through active<br />
cooperation of "the democracies of the world, with the Soviet Union... taking the initiative<br />
from the hands of fascist aggressors, such action would place it in the hands of the<br />
peace forces." 125 Young communists insisted that "if worst comes to worst" they would<br />
not "fold their hands meekly, [and] be trussed up and thrown on the bonfire of triumphant<br />
savage Nazism." 126 This being said, young communists were later put to a precarious test<br />
in upholding such statements with the actual outbreak of WWII in 1939.<br />
The British <strong>Youth</strong> Parliament (BYP) and the American <strong>Youth</strong> Congress (AYC) of the<br />
thirties were utilized by the YCLs to promote active democratic citizenship. The<br />
YCLGB praised the BYP for facilitating "the broadest and most representative gathering<br />
of the British <strong>Youth</strong> to discuss common problems and to give training of the youth in<br />
democracy and citizenship." 127 The YCLGB invested most of its energy into facilitating<br />
greater youth contacts through the <strong>Youth</strong> Parliament to win youth over to anti-fascism.<br />
The main purpose of the AYC was to engage American youth in democratic politics.<br />
The AYC showed youth that "intelligence and militancy" channelled "through organized<br />
and dramatic action can win definite and concrete results" 128 The YCLUSA boasted that<br />
the AYC was "to a large extent responsible for the fact that there is today no organized<br />
center of reaction among the youth on a national scale." 129<br />
The YCLs used these youth legislative bodies to involve young people in the World<br />
<strong>Youth</strong> Congress (WYC). The Popular Front YCLs relied heavily upon the WYC, not the<br />
YCI, to facilitate youth internationalism. The Congress gained massive attention from<br />
prominent world leaders for its international promotion of anti-fascist solidarity amongst<br />
the youth. The stated goal of the World <strong>Youth</strong> Congress was to "bring young people of<br />
all nations into bonds of closer friendship, to develop mutual understanding between<br />
youth of all races… who wish to work for peace." 130 For their work in promoting "greater<br />
mutual understanding among the young people of the world," President Roosevelt<br />
expressed his deep admiration of the World <strong>Youth</strong> Congress. 131<br />
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