Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

THE LENINIST GENERATION
young, who have grown up in the very midst of wars, revolutions and counterrevolutions
– we do not suffer from the same ideas as our fathers. 48
Adults expressed greater reluctance in breaking with their traditional ideologies and
organizational affiliations. Since adult socialist politics centred on industrial struggles,
the organizational links that the trade unions had with the Second International made
potential splits more difficult. 49 Anti-militarism and the revolutionary optimism of the
post-war period made the Comintern appealing to socialist youth.
When the YCI affiliated itself to the Comintern in 1919, it considered its organization
to be politically independent; the Comintern Executive, who demanded complete subordination
to their leadership, promptly squelched this proposition. 50 The YCI had envisioned
itself as the "true vanguard" leading the communist movement while regarding the
Bolsheviks simply as an inspiration to follow. 51 This new generational outlook was
reinforced by the fact that in many places it was the youth who formed the primary basis
of newly formed communist movements. Lazitch and Drachkovitch commented on this
phenomenon of generational conflict stating:
Nearly everywhere the "old" and the "young" no longer spoke the same language. When
the young revolted against the war and its consequences, and thereby against the policies
of the official Social-Democratic parties during the war, their attitudes were not shared
by the Social-Democratic leaders. And when those "elders" repudiated Russian Communism
and were loath to join the Communist International, their arguments had little
influence on the young. 52
The YCI envisioned itself as the leading revolutionary force, setting the example for
adults to follow. 53
Communist leadership increasingly flowed east from Berlin to Moscow as revolution
subsided in Central and Eastern Europe. This eastern shift of power undercut the ability
of Willi Münzenberg to direct an independent YCI Executive based out of Germany. 54
When the Comintern adopted its "Twenty-One Points of Admission" in July, 1920, strict
discipline and submission to democratic centralism became central tenants of their
movement. 55 By the summer of 1921, the Comintern increased the centralization of its
organization, securing ultimate hegemony over the YCI and its national sections. The
Comintern shifted its focus from extensive youth recruitment to enforcing the subservience
of the International to the Comintern Executive.
At its Third Congress in July, 1921, the Comintern dealt specifically with its leadership
over the youth, passing an "eight point" resolution detailing the new dynamics of
this relationship. The Comintern condemned youth vanguardism and clarified what the
"correct relationship" between youth and adults should entail:
In their struggle against the war, the young socialist organisations were supported by the
most dedicated revolutionary groups and became an important focus for the revolutionary
forces. In most countries no revolutionary parties existed and the youth organisations
took over their role; they became independent political organisations and acted as the
vanguard in the revolutionary struggle. With the establishment of the Communist International
and, in some countries, of Communist Parties, the role of the revolutionary
youth organisations changes. Young workers, because of their economic position and
17