Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
68. ECYCI, The Fundamental Problems of the Young Communist Movement (Berlin: The Committee, 1922), 74-75.
69. Quoted in Ibid., 66
70. See ECCI, "Theses on Comintern Tactics: 5 December 1922," in The History of the Communist International Internet
Archive .
71. The United Front tactic involved several elements of activity, all of which ultimately aimed to destroy the socialist movement.
The communists would openly propagate their intent to destroy social democracy while at the same time sending
out initiatives to the socialist rank-and-file for joint activity. When socialist leaders would prohibit their membership from
joint activity, the communists would use the potential crisis to insist that socialists stood against working-class unity and
were actively splitting the movement. If socialists did participate in coalitions, the communists would blame any failures
of the activities upon the reformism of socialists, once again attempting to discredit the movement. The United Front was
intentionally formulated to limit the political mobility of the social-democratic leadership and to portray them as "class
traitors," no matter what actions they took in relation to communist initiatives.
72. ECYCI, From Third to Fourth: A Report on the Activities of the YCI Since Its Third World Congress (Stockholm: ECYCI,
1924), 6,20,74.
73. J.L. Douglas, Be Prepared For War! An Exposure of the Scout Association and Similar Attempts to Militarize the Young
Workers (London: YCLGB, 1925), 5, 22.
74. James P. Cannon, "The Bolshevization of the Party," in The James P. Cannon Internet Archive .
75. Since its founding, the Comintern had consciously reached out to previously marginalized elements in the labor movement
who were free from the ideological traditions of social democracy. Lenin argued that in forming Communist Parties that
socialists needed to form a "party of a new type;" a strictly centralized body of "professional revolutionaries." See V.I.
Lenin, "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The Crisis in Our Party" in The Lenin Anthology, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New
York: W.W. Norton, 1975), 115-119.
76. See V.I. Lenin, "Foreign Communist Parties and the Russian Spirit" in The Lenin Anthology, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New
York: W.W. Norton, 1975), 626-627.
77. After the death of Lenin in January, 1924 the Soviet and Comintern leadership increasingly began justifying their domestic
and international positions by stating that their practice reflected the true legacy of "Leninism." In a speech delivered to
the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets just days after Lenin's death, Stalin presented a moving eulogy linking Lenin's
life with various elements of Soviet and Comintern policy, justifying his positions by arguing that they represented a correct
interpretation of Leninist theory in practice. See J.V. Stalin, "On The Death Of Lenin: A Speech Delivered at the
Second All-union Congress of Soviets," in The Joseph Stalin Internet Archive .
78. Draper, 154-155.
79. Bolshevization was intended to reconfigure the leadership structure of the communist movement. Strict discipline to the
will of the International became a pre-requisite for leadership and resulted in the displacement of former intellectual leaders
with more "proletarian" elements that the Comintern felt would be more "pliant" to Bolshevism. See Albert S. Lindemann,
A History of European Socialism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 272-273.
80. ECYCI, From Third to Fourth, 18,30,36.
81. Cornell, Revolutionary Vanguard, 300.
82. Richard Cornell argues that during this period the "communist youth organizations had ceased to be independent political
organizations united by a belief in the imminence of revolutions" and instead became Comintern functionaries for exposing
and correcting disputes in the adult parties. What is neglected by Cornell's analysis is the willingness and energetic attitude
that young communists expounded in embracing this new role. See Ibid., 287, 256-257.
83. ECYCI, "Conference of the European Sections of the YCI," in The International of Youth (London: YCLGB, 1926), 7.
84. R. Gyptner, From Isolation to the Masses: An Analytical Study of Organization, A Text Book For Young Communist
Leagues (Berlin: ECYCI, 1923), 39.
85. ECYCI, The Communist Youth International: Report on Activity Between the 4 th and 5 th Congress, 1924-1928 (London:
Dorrit Press, 1928), 21-21.
86. V.I. Lenin, "The Tasks of the Youth Leagues."
87. ECYCI, Resolutions Adopted at the Fourth Congress of the Young Communist International (ECYCI, 1924), 19.
88. The "Instruction Manual" written by Gyptner for the YCI in 1923 described the "Shop Nuclei" in the following terms: "In
the labor organizations we work amongst the masses who have already the first glimmerings of truth, about the class war,
the necessary opposition to the master class etc. Our work amongst them is only a partial one with very definite limits. In
the workshops on the other hand, we approach a body of workers not necessarily organized in the unions and usually indifferent
if not actually opposed to our work… We must have our basic units, our roots in the workshops. It is here from
where our power must come. The combination of our members in a workshop is not a fraction as in a labor or other organization
it is the nucleus upon which our organization must rest. The work then of these nuclei transcends in importance
all other work. The nucleus is the unit of our new organization." Gyptner, 14-15.
89. ECYCI, Instructions of the Building up of Nuclei and the Practical Work as the Basic Units of Communist Organization
(Stockholm: ECYCI, 1924), 6.
90. ECYCI, Fundamental Problems, 31.
91. Ibid., 12, 17.
92. Communist International Executive, Principles on Party Organization: Thesis on the Organization and Structure of the
Communist Parties Adopted at the 3 rd Congress of the Communist International (Calcutta: Mass Publications, 1975), 47.
93. See Arthur McIvor and Hugh Paterson, "Combating the Left: Victimisation and Anti-Labour Activities on Clydeside,
1910-1939," in Militant Workers: Labour and Class Conflict on the Clyde 1900-1950, Essays in Honour of Harry
McShane (1891-1988), ed. Robert Duncan and Arthur McIvor (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1992), 129-154.
94. Dmytro Manuilsky, "On the End of Capitalist Stabilisation," The Communist International 9, no.17-18 (October 1, 1932):
600.
95. Earl Browder defined social fascism by analyzing the social function that socialist parties played. Browder stated, "When
we speak of the Socialists as social fascists, we are not merely abusing them, we are giving the scientific description a
name of the political role which they are performing. That socialism was to prepare the road for fascism, to prevent the
struggle of the masses against fascism, and to tolerate and support the establishment of the fascist governments. Socialists
in words, fascists in deeds! That is what social fascism means. It is an accurate, scientific, descriptive term applied to the
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