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p From 1917 onwards young workers became increasingly revolutionary, and important changes were made in the youth movement in various countries.

p Young workers’ revolutionary organisations took a very active part in the workers’ mass actions in Germany from 1917 to 1919. Nothing could destroy the young people’s revolutionary ardour, neither enlistment into the army nor the arrest of those who were most active. Youth organisations carried on illegal work under very difficult conditions. They continued to publish newspapers and leaflets, strengthened ties between individual groups in various parts of Germany, and planned joint actions.

p Youth organisations made preparations to hold an all-empire conference shortly before revolution broke out in Germany in November 1918. The conference, held in Berlin on October 26 and 27, was attended by 57 delegates from 17 districts of Germany, from Berlin as well, and represented 4,000 league members. The conference reaffirmed the young people’s adherence to the resolutions adopted at the conference in Jena in 1916, and strongly supported the revolutionary struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat. It also adopted a resolution to rename the German youth organisation the Free Socialist Youth of Germany.

p The conference decisions had a strong impact on the development of the revolutionary activities of the young workers, who adopted the Spartacus League’s stand. The young people began to set up their own Young Guard detachments, which 103 were sent to the most important areas of battle during the revolution in November 1918. The young German workers showed themselves to be among the best contingents of the working class, which fought courageously and selflessly for the power of the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils in Germany.

p The young people were inspired by their first taste of success. Besides taking part in the armed struggle, youth organisations vigorously began to carry on agitational and propaganda activities among the civilian population and the army. In late November the Free Socialist Youth of Germany started to publish its own paper, Die junge Garde (Young Guard). In assessing youth participation in the revolution of November 1918, Karl Liebknecht wrote in the paper’s first issue: “The young revolutionary workers have been the hottest and purest flame of the German revolution up to now; they will be the hottest, most sacred and inextinguishable flame of the new revolution which must and will come, the social revolution of the German and world proletariat."  [103•1 

p The young people also took an active part in the battles of January 1919, when the revolution reached its height. Along with the progressive workers youth organisations began to fight against the overt counter-revolution. During this fighting the Central Committee of the Free Socialist Youth set up its own headquarters for the struggle in Berlin jointly with the youth leaders in the Berlin-Brandenburg district to defend the Communist Party’s publishing house and other strategic points. Although they had no training and were 104 poorly equipped, the Young Guard detachments fought courageously and carried out their task.

p Youth organisations adopted a firm revolutionary stand by taking an active part in the workers’ struggle, but they made several grave errors on theoretical matters. Among the most important was their refusal to adhere to the political platform elaborated by the Communist Party of Germany in late December 1918.

p Although the Free Socialist Youth of Germany recognised that its tasks were the same as those of the Communist Party of Germany, it nevertheless demanded that the youth movement should be independent politically and organisationally. Thus, the resolution adopted by the young Berlin workers’ general meeting said: “The Free Socialist Youth recognises that its aims run parallel to those of the Communist Party of Germany. It expresses its warmest sympathy towards this party as the sole revolutionary party. . . . However, with the view of maintaining its independence, it refuses to join the Communist Party organisationally."  [104•1 

p The main reason why the young people took this stand appears to be because they were afraid of losing their independence. One need only recall the conditions with which the young German workers had been faced ever since youth organisations were set up. The Social-Democratic Party of Germany did its best to shackle the activities of youth organisations by carefully controlling their work and even by depriving young people of the right to elect their own leaders, who were appointed by the party.

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p Another important reason for this stand was that during the First World War youth organisations, now no longer under the Social-Democratic Party’s guardianship, took an active part in the workers’ revolutionary actions and were often successful in their struggle virtually without party guidance. The young people began to believe in their “infallibility” and revolutionary commitment, and some of them gravitated towards vanguardism in the working-class movement. This was true not only of German youth.

p The national congress, held in Berlin on February 22 and 23, 1919, settled the dispute among German youth organisations concerning the course of their further activities. The resolutions which it adopted stressed that the young workers strongly believed in the need to destroy the capitalist system, to establish a classless socialist republic and to transfer all power to the revolutionary workers’ and soldiers’ deputies. Moreover, they stated that the young people would readily defend the gains of the revolution by taking up arms and fighting against all counterrevolutionary actions. The congress also stressed that youth organisations must unite further and factory youth committees must step up their work.

p Youth organisations soon changed their attitude to Party guidance as reaction mounted its offensive after the defeat of the revolution and as the young people began to take part in all the actions by the working class, which followed the Communist Party. The young workers grew increasingly sympathetic to the Communist Party, which stoutly defended working-class interests.

p The young workers held their Third Congress in Weimar from October 18 to 20, 106 1919. It was the most important one to be held since the establishment of the youth organisation and was attended by almost 200 delegates representing 35,000 persons. It adopted a resolution which clearly showed that a radical change had taken place in favour of the communist movement. The youth organisations supported the idea of joining the Third International and of disassociating themselves from the supporters of neutralism and political uncommitment.

p At its second and third national conferences, the Free Socialist Youth of Germany declared its support of the political programme adopted by the Communist Party of Germany. The leaders of the Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany (ISDPG) tried to prevent the Free Socialist Youth organisation from taking the Communist Party’s stand, and when they failed, set up their own youth organisation called the Young Socialist Workers.

p As revolutionary feeling grew in the ISDPG and its members who supported a union with the Communists consolidated their stand, a change also took place within the Young Socialist Workers organisation. At its congress in Leipzig on November 7, 1920, the organisation adopted a resolution by 145 votes to 141 in favour of joining the Young Communist International and establishing a single communist youth organisation in Germany. Shortly afterwards the Left-wing of the Young Socialist Workers united with the Communist Youth of Germany.

p It was then that the communist youth movement came into being in Germany. In September 1920 the Free Socialist Youth organisation was renamed the Communist Youth of Germany, which reflected the youth organisation’s shift to 107 the Left and its adoption of the stand taken by the Third International.

p Important changes were also made in the youth movement in France. As early as the First World War, when social-chauvinist sentiments prevailed in most of the young workers’ official organisations, there was mounting opposition to the central leadership of the party and league. After the war several local youth organisations took the initiative in setting up a Provisional Committee, which began to re-establish the disintegrated organisations and reorganise the entire league. It also resumed the publication of the Voice of Youth newspaper and began to make preparations for a national congress.

p The congress convened on June 23, 1918. After approving the Provisional Committee’s work, several delegates stressed that a more efficient class organisation of youth must be established and that the young people must be more active in the workers’ revolutionary actions.

p After the congress local organisations began to encourage young workers to join the league. The Young Socialists’ Federation of France made distinct headway in developing and consolidating local organisations, but it could not ensure their concerted action, which greatly reduced the effectiveness of its work. The main obstacle hampering youth organisations in their work at this time was the absence of a clearly defined attitude towards the Socialist Party, whose Right-wing leaders betrayed the interests of the working class during the world war. Another national youth congress was held on April 20, 1919, at which relations between the youth league and the Socialist Party were the main item of discussion.

p The delegates held different views about the 108 Socialist Party. Some supported continuing relations with the party, while others favoured the Federation’s independence. The latter maintained that the Socialist Party continued to pursue a treacherous policy towards the French working class.

p The question was not settled at the congress. The workers’ revolutionary actions and the establishment of the Communist International in March 1919 brought about a new upswing in the activities of young people, who launched a campaign for joining the Communist International.

p The ranks of the Federation swelled owing to the fact that most youth organisations adopted a revolutionary position. In June 1918 there were only 37 youth organisations with 1,321 members, but by the summer of 1919 there were about 150 with over 10,000 members.

p Youth leaders included such brilliant organisers and propagandists as Francois Billoux, Raymond Guyot, Georges Cogniot and Gabriel Peri, who later became prominent leaders of the Communist Party of France.

p In Italy the ranks of the youth organisation were reduced considerably owing to mobilisation and the arrest of active members during the war. The government began brutal persecution of youth organisations when the young people took part in the workers’ revolutionary activities. Youth leaders Italo Toscani, Giuseppe Sardelli, Luigi Morara and Federico Marinozzi were imprisoned on a charge of treason for trying to publish in Italian the manifesto of the International Bureau of Socialist Youth.

p Youth organisations stepped up their activities when the war ended. Italian socialist youth organisations took an active part in all the 109 Italian workers’ actions and initiated the movement for the defence of Soviet Russia and Hungary.

p Italian youth enjoyed a very advantageous position compared with youth organisations in other countries. The Socialist Party of Italy gave the young people great freedom of action and did not impose its decisions on them, which produced excellent relations between the two and helped them to co-ordinate their revolutionary activities. The ties between the youth organisation and the party, and mutual representation on the central committees, made the youth organisation the party’s helpmate in its revolutionary actions.

p The young workers responded warmly to the young people’s courageous and consistent struggle in support of the Italian workers’ revolutionary demands and the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. The ranks of the Italian youth organisation swelled steadily and by mid-1919 it had about 27,000 members.

p The young Italian workers supported the Communists and split with the Socialist Party when they saw that it was incapable of waging a decisive struggle for the workers’ cause. On January 29, 1921, a week after the establishment of the Communist Party of Italy, the young people held a congress in Livorno, at which they agreed almost unanimously to rename their organisation the Communist Youth Federation and to join the Young Communist International.

p The revolutionary developments in Russia had their first reverberations in Finland, where a revolution broke out in which the young people were very active. They helped to set up the Red Guard detachments which fought courageously against the Schutzkorps bands. Hundreds of young 110 fighters died in battle and in concentration camps after the revolution was defeated.

p The young people held a congress in Moscow in August 1918 at the same time as the Communist Party of Finland was holding its constituent congress. This youth congress, which played an important part in the youth movement’s development, adopted a decision to call it a “communist” congress. Faced with brutal persecution, Finnish youth organisations went underground to continue their struggle.

p Soviet Russia, Finland’s neighbour, furthered the growth of revolutionary feeling among Finnish workers and roused them to struggle in spite of government persecution. The ranks of the underground youth organisation swelled considerably.

p In mid-1919 the Finnish Government was obliged to allow youth organisations to take part in trade union work. They thus became legal and could now gain strength more easily for the struggle.

p News of the establishment of the Young Communist International and the resolutions it adopted were long in reaching Finland. A group emerged opposing adherence to the Young Communist International’s decisions, which brought about a split in the youth organisation. Many members of the organisation followed the Bureau of the Young Socialist League, which passed a decision to join the Young Communist League. It was resolved to put out a new organ for the organisation, the Young Worker newspaper, since the opposition rallied round the old paper. The organisation retained its old name, the Social-Democratic Union of Youth, to remain legal. It began to play a very active part in the 111 struggle for uniting young workers on a revolutionary basis.

p The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the revolution in neighbouring Finland gave a strong impetus to the youth movement in Sweden. The brutal suppression of the revolution in Finland, and the open preparations by the Swedish Government and bourgeois leaders for an armed intervention in Finland, produced a strong wave of protests throughout the country, forcing the Swedish militarists and bourgeoisie to render unofficial instead of open assistance to the Finnish bourgeoisie.

p Swedish youth, who sided with the Left Socialist Party formed when the Social-Democratic Party split in 1917, took part in the movement for the establishment of Councils of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

p The Socialist Youth of Sweden, an organisation which had for some time pursued an incorrect policy towards the imperialist war by supporting disarmament, began to wage a resolute revolutionary struggle under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution. In 1918 the organisation’s central committee issued an appeal to young workers in which it stressed that the upswing of the working-class movement had to be used for achieving socialism’s revolutionary demands. The appeal ended with the words: “Down with Civil Peace, Long Live the Revolutionary Unity of the Swedish Working Class! Long Live World Revolution!".

p Swedish workers increased their revolutionary activity when a revolution broke out in Germany in November 1918. Youth organisations took a very active part in protest demonstrations against Carl Mannerheim, a traitor to the Finnish people, 112 and called for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia.

p Daunted by the enormous scale of the workingclass movement, the bourgeoisie hastened to reform the electoral system and reduce the working day. These miserable concessions appeased the Socialist Party leaders, and their bertayal destroyed the united front of the working class.

p In Norway youth organisations took an active part in all the workers’ protests from 1917 to 1919, the young socialists actually initiating a general strike. In 1917 and 1918 there was an attempt to establish Councils of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies in Norway. However since there was no revolutionary party to head the movement, the Councils did not become genuine organisations of the working people’s power and existed for a few months only. Youth organisations joined the Left wing of the Labour Party of Norway in its activities and disseminated ideas of social change. In July 1918 youth organisations helped organise a general strike of about 300,000 workers at all the industrial enterprises to express solidarity with Soviet Russia.

p Norwegian youth followed the developments in Soviet Russia with great sympathy. During the difficult period of the Civil War and intervention in Russia, they collected medical supplies and money for the starving. Norwegian youth protested to their government against the food blockade of Russia, and demanded that Norway take no part in it.

p There was a similar situation in Denmark. In the absence of a revolutionary party, the bourgeoisie was able to suppress all workers’ actions very rapidly. The only organisations which 113 consistently fought for social change in the country were those of the young people.

p On April 17 and IS, 1919, the Young League held its annual congress in Slagelse, at which it reaffirmed its loyalty to the Youth International in the class struggle. The congress protested against the severing of relations with Soviet Russia by the Danish Government, and adopted demands for reducing the age qualification in elections to 21, for disbanding the Landsting (the upper house in the Danish parliament), and for establishing a republic and turning factories over to the working people.

p When the Right-wing leaders of the SocialDemocratic Party of Denmark responded coolly to the young people’s revolutionary demands, the youth organisations withdrew from the party and joined the Socialist Party instead. The first unity conference, held on November 9, 1919, was attended by 55 representatives from 23 towns and cities delegated mainly by the Social-Democratic Youth League. The conference proclaimed the establishment of the Left Socialist Party.

p In 1919 youth organisations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which had been in close touch with one another during the First World War, adopted a decision to hold an all-Scandinavia congress.

p The congress opened in the Danish town of Hilleroed on August 17, 1919, and was attended by 80 delegates (30 from Denmark, 30 from Sweden and 20 from Norway) representing 50,000 members of youth organisations which had joined the Third International.

p In addition to other problems, the congress discussed the youth movement in the Scandinavian countries and the league’s educational work. It also raised the question of the need for the Youth 114 International to join the Communist International. The resolution which the congress adopted by 66 votes to 5 read in part as follows: “The congress is of the opinion that the Youth International must adopt the platform of the Third International, and that intensified agitational work must be carried out to acquaint the young workers with the use of the means and forms of organisation indicated in the fundamental and practical theses of the Third International.”

p In Hungary the young people provided loyal assistance to the Communist Party in its struggle against the internal and external forces of counter-revolution. The Communist Party of the new Soviet State of Hungary showed great concern for the young workers. The newspaper Voros ujsag (Red Gazette), the organ of the Hungarian Communist Party, wrote at the time: “The young people want to learn, work and agitate; we must love them from the bottom of our hearts and help them in every way possible. Let us write on their banner on which they themselves inscribed the words ‘We will no longer be oppressed workers’ that they are the children of the workers’ country.”

p The Communist Youth Organisation followed the example set by its elders and united with the Young Socialist League in March 1919. The leaders of the Young Socialist League were obliged to accept the conditions laid down by the Communist Youth Organisation, the most important of which were: “1. The young workers’ movement shall be exclusively in the hands of the Communists, and those who have compromised themselves in the Social-Democratic movement shall not take part in its guidance. 2. The young communist workers’ newspaper, Az Ifju Proletdr 115 (Young Worker), shall remain the official organ of the united young workers. The editorial office shall remain in the hands of the Communists.”

p The unification of youth organisations played an important part in the development of the movement. Az Ifju Proletdr, whose publication began on January 7, 1919, contributed greatly to the struggle for the establishment of workers’ power.

p The young workers held their first national congress on June 20 and 21, 1919, where they discussed the youth movement and the league’s programme. After bitter disputes with SocialDemocrats and anarchists, the congress adopted a resolution to rename the league the Hungarian League of Communist Youth. In his welcoming speech at the congress Bela Kun laid down the tasks to be performed by the young people during the revolution.

p After the congress the young people fought even more resolutely for the consolidation of the Soviet Republic. When reaction mounted its offensive, they Actively defended the republic. The collapse of Soviet Hungary forced the communist youth organisation to go underground.

p It was at this time that the communist youth movement came into being in Austria. The young workers’ organisation there ceased to be under the Social-Democratic Party’s influence during the First World War. The Young Revolutionary Workers’ League, an underground organisation, was set up in 1917. This organisation joined the Communist Party of Austria when it was established in November 1918, and took part in all the workers’ activities.

p The young league put out the Young Revolutionary Worker weekly newspaper and the 116 Kommunistischa Jngand (Communist Youth) fortnightly magazine.

p The young workers held their first congress in late August 1919, at which they adopted the league’s Rules and Programme and announced that they were joining the Young Communist International.

p Under the impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the wave of revolutionary activity in the West European countries, the youth movement and the working class swung sharply to the Left in the United Stales of America. The young people took part in all the American workers’ mass actions.

p The young American league held its congress in May 1919, at which it condemned socialists in various countries for trying to re-establish the Second International, and called for the immediate setting up of a new, workers’ International and trade unions at enterprises. The congress unanimously adopted a resolution demanding the withdrawal of American forces from Soviet Russia. The delegates also discussed a number of organisational questions and adopted a decision on future agitational work.

p Most league members successfully opposed the Right-wing elements’ efforts to direct the youth movement along an educational, non-political course.

p The German occupation in Belgium during the First World War led to the complete cessation of the once powerful movement of young workers. The Belgian youth organisation, Young Guards, which Lenin held in high esteem, had been active in spreading anti-militarist propaganda before the outbreak of the war.

p After the country was liberated from German 117 occupation, the newly established youth organisations that were members of the Young Guards joined the Workers’ Party, then predominantly reformist in spirit. The Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the revolutionary activity in the West European countries, produced a revolutionary upswing in Belgium, and youth organisations began to oppose the leaders of the Workers’ Party with growing resolve. The first communist youth group in Belgium was set up in Brussels in January 1920 on the basis of the most oppositionally-minded organisation, the Brussels League of Socialist Youth Organisations. It published a manifesto announcing its support of all the decisions adopted by the First Congress of the Communist International with the exception of the question of parliamentarism and participation in the parliamentary struggle.

p The communist youth group of the Walloon Federation held a congress in May 1920, at which it worked out the communist federation’s Programme and Rules.

p The communist federation began publication of the newspaper Ouvrier Communiste (Communist Worker). The growing influence of the communist youth group and its active fight against the reformists in the Workers’ Party, led it to assume the name of Communist Party of Belgium.

p In Spain socialist youth organisations, which had been brutally persecuted by the government for their vigorous anti-militarist activities before and especially during the war, adopted an extreme Left-wing oppositional stand in the Socialist Party.

p Spain experienced a revolutionary upswing as well. Strikes at industrial and communal enterprises, and stoppages by railway workers, became 118 common between 1918 and 1920. They were headed by young socialists, who urged the workers to fight resolutely and called for the use of revolutionary methods. The youth organisations enjoyed exceptionally high prestige and won over the Left wing of the Socialist Party to their side.

p The Socialist Party held an extraordinary congress in December 1919, at which the question of joining the Communist International was discussed at the opposition’s request. The party leaders, however, managed to have the proposal rejected by a small majority.

p The young socialists held their fifth congress in late December 1919, where they reaffirmed their loyalty to the cause of proletarian internationalism and resolved to join the Young Communist International. A few days later the National Committee of the Socialist Youth League addressed the following letter to local organisations: “Dear Comrades! Our league of young socialists has now held its fifth congress, at which we adopted a resolution of great importance to us that clearly expresses our views and stand on the most important question of concern to the whole world: the dictatorship of the working class in Russia and the Bolshevik Socialists’ exercise of political power! Having unanimously supported the Third International, as has already been reported to the Moscow secretariat, we have declared what our programme, our attitude and dearest aims are."  [118•1 

p For the next three months the Socialist Youth League hoped that there would be a split in the Socialist Party, which would lead to the establishment of the Communist Party. The Socialist 119 Party, however, continued to vacillate between the position of the Second and Third Internationals. The young socialists’ congress then took the initiative in setting up the Communist Party. In its manifesto of April 15, 1920, it informed the Spanish workers of the establishment of the Communist Party of Spain. The manifesto briefly formulated the party’s programme as follows: “1) Recognition of the Third International; 2) struggle against the reconstructors; 3) struggle against national militarism; 4) advocation of the socialist revolution; 5) struggle against minimum demands and opportunism; 6) the use of parliament for revolutionary agitation only; 7) renunciation of any joint struggle with bourgeois parties and groups; 8) struggle against reformism in the Spanish Socialist Party; 9) establishment of a communist trade union which would include the radicals of the General Workers’ Union and the All-Spain Labour Union; 10) recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Councils as its executive bodies."  [119•1 

p The newly established party had a comparatively large membership, since by the time of its proclamation the Socialist Youth League had about 10,000 members and over 140 sections in various parts of the country.

p There were no youth organisations in Spain for several months after the Communist Party was established, but in the autumn of 1920 a group of young Communists took the initiative in reviving the youth movement and setting up the Communist Party’s reserve, the Young Communist League, for all the young workers.

p That autumn harsh repressive measures were 120 taken by the government, forcing the Communist Party and the Young Communist League to go underground, but they did not abandon their courageous struggle against the capitalist system.

p The part which the Young Communist League of Soviet Russia played in youth organisations’ activities during 1918 and 1919, can scarcely be exaggerated. Ever since it was set up, the league supported the young workers’ international unity and the establishment of close ties between youth organisations in various countries. In 1918 and 1919 the young Soviet people’s newspapers and the special leaflets Yuny Kommunist (Young Communist) and Krasnaya Molodyozh (Red Youth), issued by central and local newspaper offices, appealed ardently for the establishment of an international youth organisation. The Young Communist League organisations in Soviet Russia admired the young workers’ participation in the workers’ actions in Western Europe during the First World War and particularly during the revolutions in Finland, Germany, Hungary and other countries. Young people in Soviet Russia saw that they had to make use of the long years of experience gained by the West European youth organisations in their work, and that at the same time they had to take account of the errors which these organisations had made on several important organisational and tactical questions, such as the absence of centralisation, the establishment of organisations on a territorial basis and the denial of the leading role of the Communist parties.

The Russian Young Communist League was among the first youth leagues to propose that a world congress of young workers should be held to discuss the urgent tasks facing the youth movement at a time when there was a powerful 121 revolutionary upsurge among the workers, with a view to setting up a world league of young workers on a new communist basis.