Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
thirties, the YCL complained of the lack of internal democracy within the ILP Guild of
Youth, contending its leadership was not following the political opinions of its membership.
In 1933 the Guild membership passed a resolution to establish organizational unity
with the YCL. The YCL pointed out that the "Guild National Committee did not carry
out their own decision" and failed to meet with YCI representatives. 52 The YCL continually
asserted that Socialist Parties had an undemocratic influence on the youth. In a 1934
pamphlet the YCL expressed, "The question of the autonomy of the Socialist Youth
organizations in relation to the parties is a burning one in Britain today." 53 The YCL
selectively quoted Lenin on the issue of the youth stating, "Without complete independence
the youth can neither make themselves into good Socialists nor make preparations to
carry Socialism forward." 54 The YCL propagated that the Comintern offered youth the
ability to "move and express itself," offering "comradely Bolshevik support" and "assistance."
55 They downplayed the phenomenon of democratic centralism, asserting the
precarious notion that the YCL had direct democratic control over their organization,
unlike socialist youth groups. 56 In reality, little democratic autonomy existed within the
YCL prior to the Popular Front.
Popular Front propaganda urged the maximum democratic youth participation in national
political life by contrasting British conditions with the state of youth in other
nations. Fascism was characterized by the maximum exclusion of youth input into
politics; the British youth movement needed to forged as an antithesis to these exclusionary
features of fascism. 57 In their campaign for the Youth Charter, the YCL insisted that
the Charter could not "be the property of any one youth organisation" but needed to "be
worked out in and through the widest joint discussion of all youth." 58 Challenge ran a
statement column entitled "We Stand For" on page two of each issue in 1935 that supported
decreasing Britain's voting age to 18 to give youth greater input into national
politics. 59 The YCL contrasted British conditions where "you are not allowed to vote
until you are 21 and… your vote does not give you much say in the running of the
country" with conditions in the Soviet Union. Under the Stalin Constitution, youth could
vote at age 18 and were regularly elected to the Soviet government. 60 Challenge articles
emphasized the "youthfulness of the members" of the Soviet government, contending its
inclusive democratic character deterred apathy within Soviet youth. 61 The YCL contrasted
this with British elections dominated by an "atmosphere of pressure brought to
bear on the electors by the capitalists, landlords, bankers and other capitalist sharks."
The YCL propagated that the 1938 Soviet elections were "the freest election… in the
history of the world" in the "most democratic of any country of the world." 62
The YCL promoted extra-parliamentary actions by giving regular coverage to activities
of other youth movements. 63 The Leninist Generation neglected giving positive
coverage to other youth groups. In stark contrast, the Popular Front Generation regularly
used Challenge to advertise for the activities of other youth groups. Democracy necessitated
coalition building and cooperation to defend and expand democratic rights. Chal-
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