Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
History was an integral element of Popular Front nationalist rhetoric. Fascists portrayed
their movement as "defenders of the nation," revising history in their propaganda
to show a common heritage between fascism and the nation. Now, communists were
directed to reclaim and reinterpret the history of their nation to counter this trend.
Popular Front rhetoric sought to reclaim the progressive traditions of the nation to
mobilize public sentiment that identified with these traditions. Dimitrov challenged the
Seventh Congress to actively engage in this national historical struggle:
The fascists are rummaging through the entire history of every nation so as to be able to
pose as the heirs and continuators of all that was exalted and heroic in its past, while all
that was degrading or offensive to the national sentiments of the people they make use of
as weapons against the enemies of fascism. Hundreds of books are being published in
Germany with only one aim -- to falsify the history of the German people and give it a
fascist complexion.... In these books the greatest figures of the German people of the
past are represented as having been fascists, while the great peasant movements are set
down as the direct precursors of the fascist movement.... Communists who suppose that
all this has nothing to do with the cause of the working class, who do nothing to
enlighten the masses on the past of their people, in an historically correct fashion, in a
genuinely Marxist, a Leninist-Marxist, a Leninist-Stalinist spirit, who do nothing to link
up the present struggle with the people's revolutionary traditions and past -- voluntarily
hand over to the fascist falsifiers all that is valuable in the historical past of the nation,
that the fascists may bamboozle the masses. No, Comrades, we are concerned with
every important question, not only of the present and the future, but also of the past of
our own peoples. 25
National histories were vital to utilize in successful anti-fascist campaigns, transforming
both the form and content of communist propaganda. History articles had previously
dealt primarily with WWI and the Russian Revolution. Popular Front communists
consciously began to highlight the progressive and radical traditions of their own national
histories. History was utilized in a cultural struggle to negate the influence of fascism.
Communists sought to portray themselves as integral allies of progressive national
traditions instead of an alien force foreign to those traditions.
The divergence of Popular Front positions on nationalism were particularly accentuated
for the Young Communist International. The YCI was the segment of the
Comintern traditionally associated with staunch internationalism. This attitude to the
national question had been motivated by the fierce anti-militarism of the youth. 26 Fascism
was described to young communists as an extreme form of reactionary nationalism
bent upon imperialist war. The threat of a fascist world war led the YCI to embrace the
necessary tactical changes to combat this trend. YCI Popular Front pamphlets accentuated
this point stating, "We are prompted by one thought, one desire – to save the
younger generation of the whole mankind from fascism and war." 27 It was the duty of
young communists to engage in the most effective forms of national mobilization to
counter fascism's nationalist appeals. Otto Kuusinen described fascism and the role of
communist youth to YCI delegates in such terms stating, "Fascism has been commissioned
by the bourgeoisie to infect the neglected youth with its demagogy, and especially
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