Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
NOTES<br />
44. "Minutes of the Second Congress of the Communist International: The Statutes of the Communist International," in The<br />
History of the Communist International Internet Archive .<br />
45. The Comintern avoided ideological debates on Leninism by using an associational language centred on betrayal, playing<br />
on the disillusionment and fears of the youth. Zinoviev portrayed youth's association with the Comintern as a natural phenomenon<br />
for those who felt betrayed by the actions of the Second International. Denunciations of the Second International<br />
and appeals to the martyrdom of Liebknecht became a standard formula in the formation of political culture for the<br />
Leninist Generation. Comintern literature continually stated that if youth did not take part in a revolutionary "war against<br />
war" under their "correct leadership" that their generation would be plagued with further imperialist war in the future.<br />
Throughout the war Lenin published articles dealing with the slogan of "war against war," insisting that such slogans were<br />
simply empty phrases unless such a struggle was led under a "correct revolutionary leadership." One article in 1915 on the<br />
subject of "defeatism" stated, "A "revolutionary struggle against the war" is merely an empty and meaning less exclamation,<br />
something at which the heroes of the Second International excel, unless it means revolutionary action against one’s<br />
own government even in wartime. One has only to do some thinking in order to understand this. Wartime revolutionary<br />
action against one’s own government indubitably means, not only desiring its defeat, but really facilitating such a defeat.<br />
("Discerning reader": note that this does not mean "blowing up bridges," organising unsuccessful strikes in the war industries,<br />
and in general helping the government defeat the revolutionaries.)… A revolution in wartime means civil war; the<br />
conversion of a war between governments into a civil war is, on the one hand, facilitated by military reverses ("defeats")<br />
of governments; on the other hand, one cannot actually strive for such a conversion without thereby facilitating defeat…<br />
Without such action, millions of ultra-revolutionary phrases such as a war against "the war and the conditions, etc." are not<br />
worth a brass farthing. See V.I. Lenin, "The Defeat of One's Own Government in the Imperialist War," in The V.I. Lenin<br />
Internet Archive .<br />
46. Cornell, <strong>Youth</strong> and Communism, 21.<br />
47. CPGB, The Role and Tasks of the Young Communist League (London: CPGB, 1927), 5.<br />
48. O. Carlson, "Our Martyrs," in Manuals For Proletarian Anniversaries, No. 1: January Fifteenth, The Murder of Karl<br />
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, ed. ECYCI (London: YCLGB, 1923), 7,8.<br />
49. For commentary on the importance of the formation of the Comintern sponsored Red International of Labor Unions<br />
(RILU) in 1921 in winning over working-class adults see William Z. Foster, History of the Three International: The World<br />
Socialist and Communist Movements From 1848 to the Present (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 318-326.<br />
50. Witold S. Sworakowski, "The Communist <strong>Youth</strong> International," in World Communism: A Handbook 1918-1965, ed. Witold<br />
S. Sworakowski (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1973), 93.<br />
51. Cornell, Revolutionary Vanguard, 27.<br />
52. Lazitch and Drachkovitch, 221.<br />
53. The Program adopted by the YCI at its first meeting in November, 1919 boldly stated, "The working class youth is the<br />
most active and revolutionary part of the proletariat." Though later statements by the YCI invoked a greater degree of deference<br />
to the leadership of the Comintern, especially to the Russian Bolshevik Party, the early public statements of the<br />
communist youth asserted that they were the most revolutionary elements of the communist movement, leading the adults<br />
away from reformism and the influences of the Second International. See ECYCI, "The Program of the Young Communist<br />
International as Adopted at the Berlin Congress of the YCI, November 1919," in The Programs of the Young Communist<br />
International (Berlin: Publishing House of the Young International, 1923), 23.<br />
54. Sworakowski, 93.<br />
55. The "Twenty-One Points of Admission" were consciously designed to exclude all reformist elements from the Comintern<br />
and to show an organizational break with the federated structure of the Second International. See L.J. Macfarlane, The<br />
British Communist Party: Its Origin and Development Until 1929 (London: MacGibbon and Key, 1966), 63.<br />
56. ECCI, "The Communist International and the Communist <strong>Youth</strong> Movement," in The History of the Communist International<br />
Internet Archive .<br />
57. Since the Comintern posited they were a "World Communist Party," references to the "vanguard" role of the Communist<br />
Party can also be understood as a suggestion of the Comintern's leadership since it was the role of the Communist Parties<br />
to apply the "correct decisions" of the Comintern within their national context.<br />
58. ECYCI, The Draft Programme of the Young Communist International (London: Publishing House of the YCI, 1924), 22.<br />
59. After Lenin's death in Jaunary, 1924 the YCI linked together memorials of Lenin with Rosa Luxemburg and Karl<br />
Liebknecht. The month of January was utilized in communist youth propaganda to highlight the teachings and legacies of<br />
these leaders and their importance to the youth movement.<br />
60. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, "A Call to the Workers of the World," in the Rosa Luxemburg Internet Archive<br />
.<br />
61. Arvid Vretling, <strong>Youth</strong> in the Class Struggle: Being a Short History of the Young Communist Movement (ECYCI, 1926),<br />
15.<br />
62. "International Liebknecht Day," <strong>Youth</strong>: Official Organ of the Young Workers League 1, no.1 (February, 1922): 3.<br />
63. O. Carlson, "Karl Liebknecht," in Manuals For Proletarian Anniversaries, No. 1: January Fifteenth, The Murder of Karl<br />
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, ed. ECYCI (London: YCLGB, 1923), 15.<br />
64. The Comintern directed its critiques not only against the Second International, but also internally stating that communists<br />
were "incorrectly" applying Comintern directives or too mechanically attempting to apply directives "based on Russian<br />
conditions." The Comintern was receptive to internal and external critiques, but their early public statements never critiqued<br />
the "revolutionary potential" of the masses. See V.I. Lenin, "Five Years Of The Russian Revolution And The Prospects<br />
Of The World Revolution Report To The Fourth Congress Of The Communist International, November 13, 1922," in<br />
The History of the Communist International Internet Archive .<br />
65. F.L. Carsten, Revolution in Central Europe, 1918-1919 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 325-326.<br />
66. D. Kirby, War, Peace and Revolution: International Socialism at the Crossroads 1914-1918 (New York: St. Martin's<br />
Press, 1986), 151.<br />
67. In 1921, after loosing their youth leagues to the Comintern, the Socialist International and the Amsterdam International<br />
(2.5 International) each set up new international youth organizations, the Young Workers International and the International<br />
Working Union of Socialist <strong>Youth</strong> Organizations respectively. With the amalgamation of the Amsterdam International<br />
back into the Socialist International in 1923, the IWUSYO followed suit and joined the Young Worker's<br />
International.<br />
157