Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
student radicals. The German-American Bund asserted the Oath showed the American
student movement as "Jewish inspired" and inherently "un-American." 124
The Oxford Pledge came into conflict with YCL anti-fascist sentiments after the adoption
of the Popular Front. Popular Front policy sought to avert fascist war, but did not
rule out the use of military force to counter fascism. The Oxford Pledge specifically
targeted domestic trends of militarism, not external fascist aggression. As the threat of
fascist war increased, the YCLs sought to shift pacifist sentiment into support of "collective
security." While young communists were willing to fight fascism in Spain and
rejected pacifism, their collective security program was not intended to facilitate a
"People's War" against fascism. Collective security sought to prevent a world war by
cutting off material and political support for fascism in the West through economic
boycotts and state legislation. YCL rhetoric argued war could be averted through active
cooperation of "the democracies of the world, with the Soviet Union... taking the initiative
from the hands of fascist aggressors, such action would place it in the hands of the
peace forces." 125 Young communists insisted that "if worst comes to worst" they would
not "fold their hands meekly, [and] be trussed up and thrown on the bonfire of triumphant
savage Nazism." 126 This being said, young communists were later put to a precarious test
in upholding such statements with the actual outbreak of WWII in 1939.
The British Youth Parliament (BYP) and the American Youth Congress (AYC) of the
thirties were utilized by the YCLs to promote active democratic citizenship. The
YCLGB praised the BYP for facilitating "the broadest and most representative gathering
of the British Youth to discuss common problems and to give training of the youth in
democracy and citizenship." 127 The YCLGB invested most of its energy into facilitating
greater youth contacts through the Youth Parliament to win youth over to anti-fascism.
The main purpose of the AYC was to engage American youth in democratic politics.
The AYC showed youth that "intelligence and militancy" channelled "through organized
and dramatic action can win definite and concrete results" 128 The YCLUSA boasted that
the AYC was "to a large extent responsible for the fact that there is today no organized
center of reaction among the youth on a national scale." 129
The YCLs used these youth legislative bodies to involve young people in the World
Youth Congress (WYC). The Popular Front YCLs relied heavily upon the WYC, not the
YCI, to facilitate youth internationalism. The Congress gained massive attention from
prominent world leaders for its international promotion of anti-fascist solidarity amongst
the youth. The stated goal of the World Youth Congress was to "bring young people of
all nations into bonds of closer friendship, to develop mutual understanding between
youth of all races… who wish to work for peace." 130 For their work in promoting "greater
mutual understanding among the young people of the world," President Roosevelt
expressed his deep admiration of the World Youth Congress. 131
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