Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

DEMOCRACY
by fighting "to defend and extend our democracy" through active participation, American
youth were "building a new kind of world—free of oppression." 158
The YCL's analysis posited that the Roosevelt administration was a key factor in retarding
the development of American fascism. The YCL refashioned Leninist analysis in
their rhetoric to justify their approach to the New Deal and democracy. In a theoretical
article on democracy and dictatorship, the YCL addressed the issue of the class forces
that opposed the New Deal and democracy:
Under Roosevelt democracy exists, flourishes, and is being extended. The masses of the
people, under Roosevelt, are making unprecedented use of their democratic liberties to
better their lot. That explains the rage of the reactionary Tories, the economic royalists,
their hatred of Roosevelt… therefore the menace to democracy, whether under capitalism
or under socialism, comes from the biggest capitalists and financiers who are either
already fascist, or fast becoming so... Socialist democracy and capitalist democracy
therefore are seen to have a common enemy, to be menaced by the same reactionaries,
economic royalists, and fascists... the capitalist countries and the USSR are traveling in
parallel directions—namely the preservation and extension of democracy. 159
The YCL concluded that the class forces of fascism threatened both socialist and capitalist
democracy with dictatorship. By supporting Roosevelt and the New Deal, the YCL
attempted to "convince young people that they are sincere allies of democracy… [and]
represent the best defenders of democracy – that the fascists rather than the Communist
represent the true menace of dictatorship." 160
The YCLUSA critiqued how other socialist youth movements addressed the issue of
democracy. 161 The American YCL stressed that Trotskyism prevented the YPSL from
embracing Popular Front positions on democracy. The YCL argued that when Trotskyists
assert that the struggle "in America [was] between Socialism and Capitalism [that]
they play into the hands of the fascists who are trying to split the Peoples' Front;" the
youth struggle in this era was instead "the issue of Democracy against Fascism." 162 Other
articles asserted that such "pseudo-revolutionary" positions "exposed them [the Trotskyists]
in their real light" by distracting socialist youth from investing "every ounce of
energy into the campaign to save democracy." 163 To "guarantee the healthy and progressive
growth" of other youth organizations, especially the YPSL, the YCL insisted that
"Trotskyism and its influence must be eliminated." 164 The YCL posited that the Trotskyists
were "enemies of every honest, democratic, non-Communist movement." 165 Although
YCL accusations were often unfounded, Trotskyist critiques of democracy were
generally incompatible with the Popular Front.
The YCL urged maximum youth inclusion into American political life. The YCL
lamented "that during the years when youth are growing into voting age there is very
little participation by them… in community, state and national affairs." 166 In a unity
appeal to young Catholics, the YCL asserted the "democratic process in action, the
exercise of democracy by the people, is the only means of preserving democracy." 167
Institutions like the American Youth Congress were praised for increasing youth participation
in democracy, allowing youth to "speak in the name of the best interests of the
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