Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
Communist hostility stemmed from the premise that other organizations simply "bred
illusions" within the minds of young workers. Opponent groups represented a perceived
conscious effort by "the bourgeoisie to dominate the youth intellectually" in order to
distort the true nature of capitalist society. 20 All other youth organizations were deemed
class traitors for distracting youth from the revolutionary class struggle. Constructive
coordination and unity was considered opportunist and undesirable by the YCI leadership.
21 Socialist youth were specifically targeted for retarding the revolutionary development
of young workers. The YCI insisted socialist youth stood for "class collaboration
in place of the class struggle, and seeks therefore to train the working youth too in the
spirit of class peace." 22 In 1922 the YCI stated:
Your enemies, however, are not only the capitalists; they often stand right in your midst.
They call themselves your friends, but they are much worse than your open enemies, because
they see to confuse you in the struggle for your vital interests. What would you
say to the friend, who, before you enter the battle against a deadly enemy would give
you a gun without munition, or one that does not shoot You would despise him and
thrust him from you. Take heed! There are such doubtful friends at work.... They are
the leaders of the Young Socialist movement. 23
Socialist youth leaders were not simply political opponents. YCI propaganda emphatically
declared that socialists were "despicable" enemies of the working-class youth.
The "social-fascist" rhetoric of the Third Period (1928-1933) intensified splits within
the working-class youth, in the end, enabling the rise of Nazi fascism. The Comintern
significantly underestimated the ability of fascism to mobilize disillusioned youth. With
the rise of the Third Reich, the YCI was forced to seriously revise its conceptions of
fascism and youth unity. The Popular Front Generation abandoned most its traditional
Leninist positions, attempting to build broad youth unity around a program of antifascism
and collective security.
Youth of the World Unite: The Popular Front Generation
Dimitrov insisted the continuation of traditional Leninist practices served to strengthen
the position of fascism, leaving the entire young generation defenceless. Fascism had
succeeded in establishing and securing power by making broad appeals to the entire
youth of the nation to struggle against the perceived decadence and corruption of adults.
Dimitrov urged the Comintern to reconsider its positions on youth and fascism to counter
fascism's appeals to the youth:
Fascism also triumphed for the reason that it was able to penetrate the ranks of the
youth… while the revolutionary proletariat did not develop the necessary educational
work among the youth and did not pay enough attention to the struggle for its specific
interests and demands. Fascism grasped the very acute need of the youth for militant activity,
and enticed a considerable section of the youth into its fighting detachments…
seeing no prospects for the future, large sections of the youth proved to be particularly
receptive to fascist demagogy. 24
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