Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
We want to win over not only the adult workers, but also the children of the proletariat,
the working-class youth. For the working-class youth is the working class-to-be, he is
the future of the proletariat. He who has the youth, has the future.... The proletarian
youth must be systematically inflamed with class consciousness and hate against militarism.
Youthful enthusiasm will take hold of the hearts of the young workers inspired by
such agitation. These young workers belong to Social-Democracy, to Social-Democratic
anti-militarism. If everyone carries out his task, they must and will be won. He who has
the young people has the army. 17
Liebknecht believed that militarism represented the ultimate "brutalization of youth."
Active anti-militarist campaigns could attract the youth to socialism while subverting
bourgeois power. 18
The SYI attempted to stake out an independent course for youth politics centred on
revolutionary anti-militarism. However, the reformists of the Second International urged
youth groups to remain predominately educational and cultural organizations, leaving
politics to the adults. In the end, the anti-militarist outlook of the SYI helped to forge a
unique socialist youth culture. This outlook in turn had a profound impact on the development
of the movement with the outbreak of WWI:
Being strongly against war, and hostile to imperialist rivalries among the European powers,
the proponents of an independent, political youth international were united by the
emotionally charged issue of anti-militarism. They wanted the youth international to be
free to carry out a vigorous anti-militarist, anti-war, and anti-capitalist campaign. 19
Young socialists made anti-militarism and sustainable international peace the central
tenants of their ideological outlook. Anti-militarism provided young socialists with a
distinct experience during WWI, laying many of the foundations of the Communist
International. During WWI the SYI found itself in close alliance with the Russian
Bolsheviks; alliance forged in reaction to the savagery of modern warfare and the perceived
martyrdom of a generation of youth betrayed to war by the Second International.
World War, Betrayal and the New Youth Activism
The experiences of WWI radicalized socialist youth, drawing them into close association
with the burgeoning communist movement. History has paid little attention to the
leading role of socialist youth during this period. 20 While Lenin became the hegemonic
voice of the revolutionary anti-war movement, this was due primarily to the prestige he
gained with the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. 21 During WWI, the SYI led the first
attempts to re-establish international socialist actions. Gil Green, National Secretary of
the YCLUSA, reflected upon the role of socialist youth during the war stating:
The YCL was born in a period of great social upheaval. It was conceived upon the turbulent
background of the World War and the great Russian Revolution. Its main task
became that of educating youth in the lessons of these two world shaking events.... It
was necessary to brand these shameful betrayals [of the Second International].... Our
League owes its existence to the militant struggle conducted against the last world war. 22
12