Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

NATIONALISM
put them to the test in 1914. After the war, young socialists perceived their generation
had been betrayed by the nationalism of the SI, switching their political allegiance to the
Comintern in 1919 which asserted that its strict internationalist organization was the only
strategy that could combat nationalism in order to prevent future imperialist warfare
through the advancement of socialism.
In condemning nationalism outright in Europe and America, young communists of the
inter-war era at first dismissed a powerful tool of political mobilization that was utilized
by their opponents. Communists believed their internationalist and class appeals could
undermine the strength of bourgeois nationalism. The Comintern's blanket condemnation
of nationalism ultimately proved counterproductive because, in part, it was inflexible and
based on a narrow class analysis. The internationalist nature of the Comintern allowed
opponents of communism to portray national parties as alien elements, foreign to their
national political culture. On the other hand, fascism capitalized upon nationalist sentiment,
forming broad mass movements to smash working-class radicalism in the West.
The Nazis utilized the bruised national sentiment of Germans rooted in the Versailles
Treaty to gain power in 1933, crushing both the KPD and the SPD within months. Then,
as we have seen, with the threat of impending war and fascist advance hanging over
Europe, Dimitrov's definition of fascism revised traditional Leninist positions against
nationalism while at the same time, Popular Front YCI rhetoric propagated a progressive
nationalist programme to mobilize youth and isolate fascism both culturally and politically.
Youth Against Patriotism: The Leninist Generation
How did youth of the inter-war period come to define and redefine nationalism When
the Socialist Youth International reconvened itself in Berne during WWI, "it declared
itself emphatically against social-patriotism" placing its "sections under the obligations of
international solidarity for revolutionary action against the war." 3 Socialist youth became
attracted to the strict internationalism of the Comintern out of their revulsion against the
war. Lenin personified Marxism as the negation of all forms of nationalism. Lenin
posited an inflexible position arguing, "Marxism cannot be reconciled with nationalism,
be it even of the "most just," "purest," most refined and civilised brand. In place of all
forms of nationalism Marxism advances internationalism." 4 Lenin's stern position against
nationalism proved attractive to socialist youth who blamed national chauvinism for
enabling WWI.
Nationalism in Russia and East European was predominately defined by racial and
imperial conceptions while nationalism in Western Europe and the United States increasingly
became associated with republican conceptions of democratic citizenship. This
trend was intensified by the form and volume of WWI "democratic" propaganda. 5
Republican nationalism proved to be an effective strategy for mass mobilization that
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