Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf
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YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM<br />
Civil War have also commented on phenomenon of the International Brigades as a "generational youth struggle," positing<br />
the experiences of young people's generational experiences with WWI and the Spanish Civil War. The primary data on<br />
the Brigades in YCL propaganda dealt specifically with deaths, often revealing little about the numbers and identities of<br />
YCLers fighting in Spain since international "non-intervention" regulations prohibited "outside" interference in Spain.<br />
Many volunteers commented after their return, especially in the United States, about the intense state persecution that they<br />
experienced, which may have been a factor in the YCL's discreteness of revealing information about members volunteering<br />
in Spain. See John Gerassi, The Premature Antifascists: North American Volunteers In The Spanish Civil War, 1936-<br />
39: An Oral History (New York: Praeger, 1986.).<br />
136. John Gollan, "British <strong>Youth</strong> and the Struggle <strong>Against</strong> Chamberlain," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1. no. 1 (January, 1939): 4.<br />
137. See Joe Cohen, "In Review – War Our Heritage," 6.<br />
138. "Long Live Republican Spain!," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1, no. 3 (March, 1939): 45.<br />
139. "The Situation in Spain and the Tasks of the <strong>Youth</strong>," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1, no. 3 (March, 1939): 47.<br />
140. Raymond Guyot, "International <strong>Youth</strong> Day – Anti-War Day," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1, no. 9 (September, 1939): 170.<br />
141. Bob Cooney, "The British Volunteers," The Volunteer for Liberty: Organ of the International Brigades 2, no.35 (November<br />
7, 1938): 8.<br />
142. See Edward Bennett, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Search for Security: American-Soviet Relations, 1933-1939 (Wilmington:<br />
Scholarly Resources, 1985).<br />
143. Ottanelli, 178.<br />
144. Carl Ross, "<strong>Youth</strong> in the United States," World <strong>Youth</strong> Review 1. no. 1 (January, 1939): 10.<br />
145. Rudy Ward, "Why We Want the War to Stop," Young Communist Review 4, no.9 (December, 1939): 23.<br />
146. Renton, <strong>Fascism</strong>: Theory, 112.<br />
NATIONALISM: FROM POISON TO PATRIOTISM<br />
1. Jim West, "The YCL Speaks to the Catholics," Young Communist Review 3 no.5 (July 1938): 25.<br />
2. YCLGB, Constitution and Principles of the YCL (London: YCLGB, 1943), 7.<br />
3. YCLGB, A Short History of the Young Communist International, 9.<br />
4. VI Lenin, "Critical Remarks on the National Question," in VI Lenin Internet Archive .<br />
5. While initial British WWI propaganda imagery centered on nationalist appeals to traditional Imperial values, the tone and<br />
visual rhetoric became transformed as the war dragged on, especially after the entrance of the USA. Later visual appeals<br />
centered around concepts of citizenship with appeals like "The Nation Needs You!" Perhaps the most infamous appeals<br />
centered on citizenship and nationalism was Lloyd George's appeal that when British troops returned, they would come<br />
back to "A Land Fit For Heroes." For a lengthy discussion and visual reproduction of the US and British propaganda<br />
campaigns during WWI see Martin Hardie and Arthur Sabin, War Posters (London: A & C Black, 1920) and Maurice<br />
Rickards, Posters of the First World War (New York: Walker, 1968).<br />
6. US entry into WWI was largely facilitated by an intense propaganda campaign by President Wilson asserting that the war<br />
was one to "Save Democracy" and that this would be "The War to End All Wars."<br />
7. Though Lenin's strict analysis ultimately forged Comintern policy, not all contemporary revolutionary socialists shared<br />
Lenin's condemnation of nationalist movements in the West. For these socialists who based their conception of nationalism<br />
within republican conceptions of citizenship, there was no inherit internal contradiction between their socialist internationalism<br />
and nationalist aspirations. Identifying that the socialist movement first had to be advanced within its national<br />
context, these revolutionaries expressed a socialist form of nationalism that was tempered by a greater internationalist perspective.<br />
James Connolly and John MacLean were two of the most influential and articulate contemporaries of Lenin who<br />
espoused this divergent perspective on nationalism. Although it was unlikely that Connolly and MacLean could have won<br />
over the hard-headed Lenin to their positions on nationalism, the exclusion of their important voices within the initial<br />
Comintern meetings limited the scope of debates on the nationalist question in the West. Though Ireland was a unique<br />
case in Western Europe that theoretically fit within Lenin's criteria of an "oppressed nation," Connolly's conceptions of nationalism<br />
and internationalism were divergent to Lenin's. For Connolly and other Irish socialists, the struggle for the Irish<br />
Republic was always set in the rhetoric of a socialist nationalism that was in turn developed into an internationalist view:<br />
"Always presupposing that the rapprochement is desired between Sinn Feiners who sympathise with Socialism… Socialists<br />
who realise that a Socialist movement must rest upon and draw its inspiration from the historical and actual conditions<br />
of the country in which it functions and not merely lose themselves in an abstract ‘internationalism’ (which has no<br />
relation to the real internationalism of the Socialist movement), on the other." (James Connolly, "Sinn Fein, Socialism and<br />
the Nation," in the James Connolly Internet Archive .)<br />
The main criterion that Connolly used to conceptualize nationalism was the class content of the movement and the ultimate<br />
socialist goal of the nationalist movement. Connolly contended that Irish nationalism could "not merely a morbid<br />
idealising of the past," but needed to assert a concrete socialist "political and economic creed capable of adjustment to the<br />
wants of the future." The advent of the Irish Socialist Republic would not just serve the needs of the Irish, but would act in<br />
an internationalist role. Connolly contended that such an Irish Republic would "be of such a character that the mere mention<br />
of its name would at all times serve as a beacon-light to the oppressed of every land." (James Connolly, "Socialism<br />
and Nationalism," in the James Connolly Internet Archive .) While the form of nationalist agitation would have similar characteristics to bourgeois nationalism,<br />
the content and the ultimate goal of Irish Socialist Nationalism would be inherently different. Connolly consistently<br />
warned Irish socialists that their nationalism could not be "imbued with national or racial hatred," but needed to be directed<br />
towards preserving an "alliance and the friendship of those hearts who, loving liberty for its own sake, are not afraid<br />
to follow its banner when it is uplifted by the hands of the working class." (James Connolly, "Socialism and Irish Nationalism,"<br />
in the James Connolly Internet Archive .) For<br />
Connolly, Irish revolutionary socialism was naturally "reconciled with nationalism" and served to facilitate an internationalist<br />
perspective. To cement together the Irish nationalist and socialist movements, Connolly was prepared to "seal the<br />
bond of union with his own blood if necessary," which was his eventual martyred fate during the Easter Uprising of 1916.<br />
John MacLean posited a similar analysis to Connolly on the issue of Scottish nationalism and socialism that was divergent<br />
to the opinions of Lenin and the Comintern. The consistent anti-war activity of MacLean and his unyielding commitment<br />
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