Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
because of their psychological make-up, are more easily won to Communist ideas and
are quicker to show enthusiasm for revolutionary struggle than adult workers. Nevertheless,
the youth movement relinquishes to the Communist Parties its vanguard role of organising
independent activity and providing political leadership. The further existence of
Young Communist organisations as politically independent and leading organisations
would mean that two Communist Parties existed, in competition with one another and
differing only in the age of their membership.... In this way the Communist Parties will
be able to exert a permanent influence on the movement and encourage political activity,
while the youth organisations, in their turn, can influence the Party. 56
The Comintern subordinated the YCI to its leadership, but youth continued to play a
political role. Indeed, the Comintern insisted on the practical need for deference to the
"vanguard leadership" of the Communist Parties, but continued to stress the importance
of youth. 57 By 1924, the YCI stated they had accepted this new pattern of relations,
openly proclaiming, "As we are a section of the Communist International, we naturally
accept its programme and the basis of its tactics completely." 58
Youth propaganda of the First Period focussed extensively on the legacies of Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg as "revolutionary martyrs" after their murder in
January, 1919. 59 Just prior to their deaths, Liebknecht and Luxembourg directly appealed
to the youth in their propaganda, arguing that the "flower of youth" had "been mowed
down" by the imperialist war; they urged young workers to join them in revolution "to
complete the great work of permanent peace." 60 Communist literature personified
Liebknecht and Luxembourg as vital allies of the youth and the revolutionary movement.
A 1926 pamphlet on the history of the YCI invoked this theme of martyrdom stating:
All these sacrifices have not been in vain. The youth and the revolutionary part of the
working class will remember the courageous martyrs. They were the champions of the
new International… the greatest loss to the revolutionary Socialist youth we remember
first of all Karl Liebknecht, who lost his life together with Rosa Luxemburg in the German
revolutionary battle.... Thousands of young comrades gave their lives for the cause
of their class during those revolutionary times. 61
The YCI consistently used the images of Liebknecht and Luxembourg in their appeals to
the youth. An early YCI manifesto declared:
At the name of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg our hearts throb.... Liebknecht
was one of us! A Youth! The name Liebknecht is inseparably bound up with the proletarian
Youth Movement. He was its teacher. He fought in its ranks. He was its bravest
defender. Liebknecht was the very first, who with his name and person came out for the
Stuttgart resolution, and went to prison for the program of the Young International… a
soldier of the proletarian revolution, full of glowing passion and youthful enthusiasm to
the very death. With the murder of these two comrades… the young workers lost their
truest friend and staunchest supporter. 62
The YCI linked the legacies of Liebknecht and Luxembourg with the causes of revolution
and youth to encourage the youth's allegiance to the Comintern. A later YCI publication
followed this trend, linking a "socialist future" as one built upon "avenging" the martyrdom
of the past asserting, "Liebknecht shall be avenged, a new red dawn will break, and
18