Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

DEMOCRACY
The Leninist Generation embraced the Soviet experience as a definitive model for
socialist revolution. Conversely, the Popular Front Generation asserted that the path to
socialism in the United States was intimately linked with American democratic traditions.
The YCL utilized American history and traditions in their rhetoric to link American
"democratic culture" and socialism. YCL history articles used an associational rhetoric,
drawing parallels between modern youth struggles and traditional American democratic
struggles. In a statement to the World Youth Congress, the YCL urged delegates to
embrace "the memory of American youth… struggling for the fulfilment of democracy in
that country which gave democracy to the world, one hundred and seventy five years
ago." 199 The YCL articulated the communist position on American democracy, history
and the struggle for socialism by stating:
The Communist Party of the United States is an American Party. It is carrying on the
struggle for Socialism under American conditions. Foremost in this struggle for Socialism
is the extension and maintenance of all existing democratic institutions....Our program
for socialism is organically linked up with, is a necessary outgrowth from, the
traditional American democracy as founded by Thomas Jefferson, whose political descendants
we are. 200
Other YCL statements on American history reiterated these assertions, arguing that "the
road to socialism in our own country… lies through the growth and development of the
People's Front," and that socialism would be "determined by the histories" of the United
States which demanded the extension of American democracy, not its destruction. 201 In
contrast to their traditional Leninist rhetoric, the YCL propagated, "We believe in American
democracy" and that socialist transformation "will be solved against the background
of the specific American historical conditions." 202
Nevertheless, the Popular Front Generation did not abandon all aspects of their revolutionary
rhetoric. The YCL attempted to integrate American revolutionary and democratic
traditions with their vision of socialism and democracy. One article on the Fourth of July
stated that the study of American history was vital to show how "the traditions of revolutionary
America exposes that… the struggle for democracy today is a natural stage in the
great American revolutionary tradition." 203 Earlier Popular Front rhetoric stressed the
parallels between the sentiments of George Washington and Thomas Paine with the
revolutionary internationalism of the communist movement. (See Appendix) 204 Such
rhetorical statements about American history were an integral part of the larger American
communist Americanization and democracy campaigns that boldly stated that "Communism
is the Americanism of the Twentieth Century." 205
Campaigns for "people's culture" were one of the most vital and enduring legacies of
the American Popular Front. 206 The YCL recognized that cultural initiatives were an
effective method for appealing to the youth. The Popular Front Generation contrasted
their cultural initiatives with the "drab and colorless" tactics of the Leninist Generation:
At the very outset of all our appeals to young people, we must show them a hope, something
to live for; the movement which is rectifying evils.... I mean that our words themselves
must paint pictures. How drab and colorless at times seem the words of our
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