Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
During the period of 1935-36 important transitions occurred in the British and American
YCL press reflecting the shift to Popular Front nationalist rhetoric. The newspapers
of the Leninist Generation had been primarily internationalist in their form and content.
From their inception up until the Popular Front period, both YCLs published a newspaper
entitled The Young Worker. Almost every issue of The Young Worker was published
with a subtitle declaring each YCL as the national section of the Young Communist
International. The Young Worker ceased publication in both Britain and the United States
with the adoption of the Popular Front. In the beginning of 1935, prior to the Popular
Front, the British YCL dropped The Young Worker and began publishing a newspaper
entitled Challenge. With their first official issue in March, 1935 the YCL dropped all
references to the YCI in their headlines and instead embraced a subtitle stating that
Challenge was "A Call to the Youth." 36 Further issues addressed working-class issues,
but began framing debates around a broader national and generational based anti-fascist
outlook. In June, 1935 Challenge adopted a new subtitle stating it stood "For Defense Of
The Young Generation." 37 In September, 1935 Challenge broadened its appeal even
more, changing its "Defense" subtitle into the more subtle slogan of "The Paper For
Britain's Youth." 38
Though main headlines dealt international politics, the content of Challenge articles
took a distinctive shift towards national appeals. In a statement on the Italian war campaign
in Abyssinia, the YCL made an appeal specifically to British youth stating, "Youth
of Britain! Show the youth of the world where we stand. Stand firm for World Peace!
Against the Fascist War! Against a New World Blood Bath!" 39 YCL rhetoric began
asserting that the interests of British workers represented the interests and morality of the
nation as a whole, while the bourgeoisie represented narrow and selfish class interests. A
YCL article on class morality posited its argument in this framework stating, "The falsity
of bourgeois morality is to be found at every step.... In words – for the motherland; in
practice, betrayal of national interests in favour of their own selfish class interests." 40
Though a continuity of themes existed in the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist content of
their media, direct national appeals to the whole of British youth without reference to the
YCI gave YCL literature of the Popular Front a distinctly new national form.
Challenge began setting the tone of their rhetoric in appeals to British national traditions.
In December, 1935 Challenge began advocating Parliament's passage of a "Youth
Charter" designed to cope with unemployment and the precarious future of British youth.
YCL rhetoric played upon the national traditions of the Chartist Movement of the nineteenth
century. The YCL asserted it was the youth organization that best represented this
well respected populist British tradition. In its first article dealing with the Youth Charter
campaign, the YCL made an appeal to the British nation as a whole:
Youth demands its rights and heritage.... The whole nation – father and mother, professor,
minister of religion, artists and humanitarians, all youth organizations --- could be
roused by the greatest campaign this country had seen since the days of Chartism, for
support if Youth's Charter before Parliament. The fight must go on inside and outside
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