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The document below was written in 1934 by Martin
Abern. At the time the Communist League of America (the main U.S.
Trotskyist group of the time) was in the process of organizing a youth
group, the Spartacus Youth Clubs.
It is reprinted here from the Militant newspaper. We've edited it for
spelling, and to correct the confusing capitalization of the word
“communist” which makes it difficult to distinguish the actual Communist
Party from the more general use of the word. We have also added a small
glossary of terms and organizations at the end of this document for
reference. –Youth for Socialist Action.
Opportunity for building a revolutionary youth movement
in the United States is at hand as never before. Nor are the difficulties
for the development of a mass communist youth organization especially
unusual. The Spartacus Youth Clubs already in existence in a number of
cities in the United States are the groundwork on which to go forward with
the task of mobilizing growing numbers of class conscious working and
student youth in the daily class struggle and for Communism.
In this task the Stalinist youth organization, the Young Communist League,
has grossly failed. The International-Communists, if there is to be
realized the much-needed mass organization of youth, will have to fill the
need.
From one source or another come confusing and false notions as to what a
young communist organization should be. Yet, if one accepts the foundations
on which the Young Communist International was founded and to which
comrades Lenin and Trotsky gave so much assistance, it is not hard to
outline what a young communist league needs to be and to do.
Like a communist party, the communist youth movement is a politically
functioning organization. It accepts the political leadership of the adult
organization, but remains organizationally independent within the spheres
of youth functions. Its relations with the adult organization are developed
on the basis of mutual exchange of representatives between the units of
both organizations and through the greatest possible degree of
collaboration in all fields of work.
The communist youth movement -Young Communist League or Spartacus Youth- is
a broad organization of all the youth, young workers or students, who
accept the principles and aims of the organization and are ready to
participate in its work. But the communist youth organization does not make
a demand upon the youth who wishes to join, that he be already a communist
before he is accepted. What is required is a readiness to learn the
principles, theory and practices of a communist organization and to carry
out the tasks assigned. Membership is, hence, for the youth who want to
learn to become communists. In this sense, together with the broader scope
of activities than is the case with the adult organization or Party, the
young communist organization is a broad movement, sufficiently so for any
youth who accepts the class struggle and the necessity to participate in
it, and who is ready to learn the problems and needs of the revolutionary
movement. But while broad in these respects, it is not a loose, amorphous
body open to consciously hostile political elements of the youth. Still, a
genuine communist youth movement -not, it must be emphasized, the
caricature of the ones the American YCL and YCI have been for so many year
-is sufficiently broad- non-sectarian, to admit of all youth forces open to
conviction. From this we have to observe that the political, industrial,
educational, social, athletic and cultural activities of the communist
youth movement have to be of a kind able to attract the completely raw,
inexperienced but ready-to-learn youth of America.
The activities of the communist youth organization are varied. Insofar as
possible, it participates in all phases of the class struggle: industrial,
trade union work, united front, etc.., independently and in conjunction
with the adult organization.
Youth and Militarism
A major task is anti-militarist activity and, self-evident, today as never
before. So far as the industrial proletarian youth particularly is
concerned (that is, the youth in industry or in proletarian families) they
are extremely unlikely to be infected with the pacifist virus or attitude
on the issues of war and capitalist militarism. Born into the era of
world-wide military conflicts, observing daily the race for huge armaments
by the capitalist powers in preparation for war, as well as noting the
necessary building of the Soviet Red Army, the proletarian youth is not
prone to kid himself with pacifist syrup about disarmament by capitalist
banditry. What the working class youth, with greater or less consciousness
of the problem of war and militarism, wants to know is what he can do about
these most menacing of all dangers - involving his very life . . . Here
lies the task of the communist youth organization to present and act upon
all phases of the communist position and program of war and militarism.
This relates itself to propaganda, attitude toward and activity within the
militarist and semi-militarist organizations of capitalism - the army,
navy, national guards, C.M.T.C., etc., etc. These matters are not gone into
here; they belong in an elaborated exposition of the communist point of
view. What is declared here is that a communist youth organization which
does no put the problem of anti-militarist propaganda and activity at all
times as a foremost task, is no communist youth organization at all. This
is a touchstone for the youth movement.
Of all other tasks, some of the outstanding ones are outlined. The widest
degree of activity of the youth in the class struggles of the day is
imperative, it goes without saying. Nevertheless, it would be a decidedly
short-sighted and opportunistic approach if the communist youth movement
allowed itself to be involved, under pressure or pretexts of all sorts, ina
all kinds of routine activity, and to be made into a wagging or running
tail of other bodies, political, trade union, etc. in order to achieve a
name for ”activities”. There are some, perhaps, who believe that this very
routine work, doing some of the distasteful work for the adult comrades, is
the task of the youth. But it is in the communist youth organization that
the youth (young worker or student) must make their major opportunity to
learn thoroughly the fundamental principles and theory of the communist
movement, its history, etc. in order really to be prepared for intelligent
participation and leadership, at a later period, in the adult organization,
the Party. It has to be said plainly that in the adult organization, the
opportunities are often too limited for serious and necessary study by the
ranks. Lack of time and the need to carry through numberless concrete tasks
after working hours are the main reasons therefore. The adult members have
to place a great reliance, perhaps too much, on experience and the
theoretical background can or should to a large degree be obtained by the
youth in the years they are apart of the communist youth organization. This
knowledge, coupled with their activities otherwise, will serve as a strong
safeguard against opportunism and adventurism.
In the above sense, the slogan of Clarity and Action sums up the attitude
of the communist youth. While stressing education and class struggle
activity, a youth movement, communist or otherwise, cannot live by these
alone, especially so if the communist youth organization is to attract the
wider strata of the youth to its own banner or around its bona-fide sympathetic
auxiliary bodies. Social, sport, and cultural activities need to be
systematically developed. The youth movement needs to build its dramatic
and musical groups and like mediums which attract the youth. It can be
done; who says otherwise needlessly narrows the possibilities for rallying
youth elements to the communist cause through diverse methods. Particularly
must the communist youth foster a broad workers’ sport movement of which it
must be a guiding participant. The insidious and malevolent influence of
the bourgeois sport movements, both professional and amateur is immense,
and systematic efforts are required to counter-act this influence on the
mass of American youth. A general social and cultural life, in addition to
the basic tasks outlined before, will tend to attract young workers and
students around us. If the new forces are approached sympathetically, made
to realize our genuineness, they will either join the communist youth
organization, or at least remain sympathetic, even if not ready to accept
the entire outlook of communism. Numerous other tasks for the youth can be
posed, but space forbids.
A final, but basic point, and this in reply to the false concepts
cultivated and practiced by the Stalinists and others. There is no need of
another so-called broader or peripheral youth political organization,
whatever this organization may be called, besides the communist youth
organization itself. If the communist youth organization - Spartacus Youth -
is properly directed and functions along the path given here, it is the
organizational expression sufficient to attract to its banner the widest
possible strata of youth forces ready to participate organizationally in
the class struggle. These were the concepts of the communist youth
organization in the days of the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky; these were
the views that in the best years of the Young Workers League of America
gave it vigor, intelligence, activity and growth. There is no need to
revise these concepts for a genuine communist youth organization in the
United States and in the new international communist youth movement that
must again be built. What is needed is for the Spartacus Youth to build on
these bases.
 Young Communist League (YCL):
youth group of the American Communist Party (at one point known as and
referred to in the above article as the Young Workers League).
Young Communist International (YCI):
youth counterpart of the Communist International (also known as the Third
International), which like its adult counterpart, degenerated into a
Stalinist instrument in the late 1920s.
Spartacus Youth Clubs (SYC): youth
group of the Communist League of America, not to be confused with the youth
group affiliated with the sectarian Spartacist League/US.
Internationalist-Communists: another
term for Trotskyists emphasizing our internationalist perspective as
opposed to the Stalinist concept of “socialism in one country”.
Issues From 1996-2003:
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