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 />
could be utilized by both reactionary and progressive movements. 6 The Bolshevik<br />
perspective on nationalism, formed primarily out of the Russian experience, was overtly<br />
reductionist in its analysis on mass perceptions of the nation. Like many other "bourgeois<br />
values," nationalism was simply dismissed as an inherently poisonous ideology that<br />
could not be reconciled with revolutionary Marxism. Nationalist sentiment was to be<br />
exposed and condemned by communist youth in the West, not mobilized for the socialist<br />
cause. 7<br />
On the other hand, Lenin's perspectives on nationalism in the colonial nations diverged<br />
significantly from his denunciations of Western nationalism. Nationalist mobilization<br />
proved effective in colonial and oppressed nations as a method to weaken<br />
imperialism. Lenin asserted that colonial nationalist movements could potentially be<br />
progressive due to its anti-feudal class basis:<br />
Nationalism that is more feudal than bourgeois is the principal obstacle to democracy<br />
and to the proletarian struggle. The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has a<br />
general democratic content that is directed against oppression, and it is this content that<br />
we unconditionally support. At the same time we strictly distinguish it from the tendency<br />
towards national exclusiveness; we fight against the tendency of the Polish bourgeois to<br />
oppress the Jews, etc., etc. This is "unpractical" from the standpoint of the bourgeois and<br />
the philistine, but it is the only policy in the national question that is practical, based on<br />
principles, and really promotes democracy, liberty and proletarian unity. 8<br />
Lenin's analysis of the "class forces" behind democratic nationalism in the colonies<br />
enabled Popular Front communists to legitimize their revision of Lenin's anti-nationalist<br />
positions. Dimitrov asserted fascism represented a reactionary feudal nationalism that<br />
impeded the advancement of democracy and the class struggle in the bourgeois democracies.<br />
Lenin's anti-nationalist positions attracted many socialist youth. The SYI mobilized<br />
youth sentiment during WWI by positing a militant internationalist perspective against<br />
the war. After the war, youth propaganda continued this strategy, appealing to young<br />
workers explicitly in international class terms:<br />
We stand, as it were, at the cross-roads of the ages. The old order of things is passing<br />
away, and a new world, a new regime, is looming in the horizons. Kings and crowns<br />
have been thrown on to the old rubbish heap. The lowly rise into power, and the downtrodden,<br />
the long disinherited part of humanity is coming into its own... As one of the<br />
poor and disinherited you cannot afford to stand aloof. The destiny of your class is being<br />
weighed in the balance. Forward, young rebels! Join hands! At this great hour of<br />
world-reconstruction do your duty. 9<br />
Communist propaganda insinuated that if young people united in international revolution,<br />
the "old order" would soon be swept away. Internationalism was posited as the prime<br />
duty of working-class youth. Another youth article articulated a vehement attack against<br />
nationalist sentiment and patriotism stating:<br />
How can one love a thing that is wrong Indeed, there is something wrong with a country<br />
that starves its workers and feeds its idlers... I cannot love England as it is to-day and<br />
I cannot love Englishmen as such; neither can I love Germans as such. I cannot love any<br />
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