DOCSLIB.ORG

The Young Communist League of America. Resolution Adopted by the 2Nd Convention of the United Communist Party, Kingston, NY — January 1921

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Young Communist League of America. Resolution Adopted by the 2Nd Convention of the United Communist Party, Kingston, NY — January 1921 2nd Convention UCP: Resolution on the YCLA [Jan. 1921] 1 The Young Communist League of America. Resolution Adopted by the 2nd Convention of the United Communist Party, Kingston, NY — January 1921. A document in DoJ/FBI Investigative Files, NARA M-1085, reel 940, document 679. I. General Condition is a special one, in that: of the Proletarian Youth. 1. Its particular function is the Communist train- ing of the young proletariat. Under the capitalist system of society, the prole- 2. Its organization embraces a field of education tarian youth is subject to every form of economic ex- that cannot be reached through regular party chan- ploitation and intellectual slavery to which the entire nels. working class is subjected. The lot of the young people 3. The young Communists will be the bearers of is an especially hard one on account of their defense- the Communist system of society. less position during the critical years of physical and The development of the Communist movement mental development. Because of their immaturity, capi- offers every evidence that only an independent orga- talist exploiters find among them a ready recruiting nization of the young people can work successfully. field of the various military institutions to be used in Owing to the particular psychology of young people, defense of the existing regime, and for creating White a special organization, under the general supervision Guards to throttle the coming revolution. and direction of the Party, is required. The Young Communist League can carry on training and educa- II. The Communist Movement tion among youth indifferent to our ideas, in a man- Among the Youth. ner impossible within the strict jurisdiction of the Party organization itself, and can gradually direct them to In order to free the working class youth from the Communist movement. this intolerable situation, an independent organization, to be known as the Young Communist League, Sec- IV. Duties of the Party Towards tion of the Young Communist International, shall be the Young Communist League. organized. Recognizing that the emancipation of the youthful workers is impossible without that of the The Party shall recognize the importance of a working class as a whole, this organization (YCL) is young people’s movement. It is the duty of the Party officially recognized by the Communist International to prepare them with all the means at its disposal. An as an integral part of the worldwide Communist move- intensive cooperation between both organizations is ment, for the Communist youth are a part — an es- an absolute necessity. sential party — of the revolutionary movement. A definite program of action for the Party in this respect shall be: III. Mission of the 1. Immediately to prepare for the organization Young Communist League. and furtherance of the Young Communist League of America. The mission of the Young Communist League (a) By issuing and distributing the Manifests, 1 2 2nd Convention UCP: Resolution on the YCLA [Jan. 1921] Program, and Theses of the Young Communist Inter- tion of their time to organizing and developing units national, together with decisions relating to it made of the League in their territory. by the Communist International. Also by issuing bul- (f) By directing their educational work under letins and leaflets dealing in particular with questions the immediate special supervision of the Party educa- of national and international policy of the Young Com- tional committees. munist League. 4. An organization shall be formed to carry on (b) By gaining control of the various indepen- the legal work of the Young Communist League of dent organizations or units of the Young People’s So- America. It shall provide education, recreational, and cialist League, and organizing them into Communist social facilities. groups. 5. The Party shall interchange representatives (c) By organizing Communist groups among the with the League and watch its every move and devel- independent organizations where control is not pos- opment. sible immediately, and making every effort to gain control. V. Conclusions. 2. Where no units of the League are in exist- ence, the Party shall make every effort to form them. The young elements in the Communist move- 3. The Party shall give every assistance to the ment in various countries have already proven their League by: merit; the Party, therefore, shall consider the members (a) Affording it financial assistance whenever of the Young Communist League as equals, pointing necessary. out to them that their responsibility is identical with (b) Furnishing it with lectures, speakers, and that of Party members. The United Communist Party teachers. feels confident that the young Communists of the (c) By allotting it space in the official Party or- United States will not only be part and parcel of the gans. Communist movement, but will through their activi- (d) By assisting it to issue legal and illegal leaf- ties and enthusiasm be inspiration not only to the Party lets. in this country but to the whole world. (e) By having all Party organizers devote a por- Edited by Tim Davenport. Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2006. • Non-commercial reproduction permitted. http://www.marxisthistory.org.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Birth of Communism
    Looking for a New Economic Order Tensions across Europe mounted in the 1830s and 1840s, as republican (anti-royalist) movements resisted the reigning monarchies. The monarchy in France had been restored after Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, albeit with great divisions and debate throughout the country. Italy, Germany, and Austria were likewise ruled by monarchies, but faced growing protest. In addition to tensions about forms of government and freedoms, workers were becoming more vocal and unified in protesting conditions in factories, mines, and mills. The Birth of Communism Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are regarded as the founders of Marxist ideology, more colloquially known as communism. Both were concerned about the ill effects of industrialism. Marx was an economist, historian, and philosopher. Engels was a German journalist and philosopher. After a two-year stay in Manchester, England, Engels wrote his first book, The Condition of the Working Class in England, which was published in 1845. It was in Manchester that Marx and Engels met for the first time. Although they did not like each other at first, they ended up forming a life- and world- changing partnership. Marx was the more public figure of the partnership, but Engels did much of the supporting work, including providing financial assistance to Marx and editing multiple volumes of their publications. In 1847, a group of Germans, working in England, formed a secret society and contacted Marx, asking him to join them as they developed a political platform. At Engels’s suggestion, the group was named the Communist League. Marx and Engels began writing the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto, composed between December 1847 and January 1848.
    [Show full text]
  • The American Communist Movement Underwent Several Splits in Its Early Years
    Index Note: The American Communist movement underwent several splits in its early years. When uni- fied in the early 1920s, it was first called the Workers’ Party and then the Workers’ (Communist) Party; in 1929 it became the Communist Party, USA. This work uses the term Communist Party (CP) to describe the party from 1922 on, and references are indexed in a single category here. [However there were other, distinct organizations with similar names; there are separate index entries for the Communist Party of America (1919–21), the Communist Labor Party (1919–20), the United Communist Party (1920–1) and the Communist League of America (Opposition) (1928–34).] ABB See African Blood Brotherhood American Federation of Labor (AFL) Abd el-Krim 325 and FFLP 124, 126 Abern, Martin 138n2, 139n1, 156, 169–170, and immigrant workers 76, 107, 193 209n2, 212n, 220n2, 252n, 259–260, 262 and IWW 88, 92 ACWA See Amalgamated Clothing Workers and Passaic strike 190–193, 195–197 AFL See American Federation of Labor and Profintern 87, 91–92 Africa 296, , 298–299, 304–308, 313–317, 323, and TUEL 106–108, 118 325–327, 331–332, 342–346, 355, 357, 361, and women workers 193 363n2 anti-Communism 21, 83, 91, 112, 125–126, French colonies 313, 325 148, 191, 193, 196, 210, 284, 324, 326 See also pan-Africanism; South Africa anti-strike activity 193 African Americans See blacks, American bureaucracy 75n2, 106, 118, 211, 215, 284 African Blood Brotherhood (ABB) 23, bureaucracy, racism of 102, 306, 324, 298–304, 306, 312, 317, 322–324, 343 326–327, 330 See also Briggs Comintern on 21, 83–84, 87, 91–92, 109, African sailors, Communist work among 317 210, 256, 285 agricultural workers, Communist work Communist work in 14, 21, 75–76, 83, 85, among 95, 287, 323, 326, 340, 348, 360n3 115, 215 Alabama 5, 11, 348, 360n3, 362, 363n1 dissent within 75, 100, 108, 113 See also Scottsboro Boys expulsion of Communists 110, 125–126, All-American Anti-Imperialist League 187, 149, 196–197 331–332 Foster in 98, 100–102, 106–107, 109, Allen, James S.
    [Show full text]
  • History of the American Socialist Youth Movement to 1929. by Shirley Waller
    Waller: History of the American Socialist Youth Movement [c. 1946] 1 History of the American Socialist Youth Movement to 1929. by Shirley Waller This material was irst published as part of two bulletins prepared circa 1946 for the Provisional National Committee for a Socialist Youth League [Youth Section of the Workers Party]. Subsequently reprinted with additional introductory and summary material by Tim Wohlforth as History of the International Socialist Youth Movement to 1929, published as a mimeographed “Educational Bulletin No. 3” by The Young Socialist [Socialist Workers Party], New York, n.d. [1959]. * * * Department organized Socialist Sunday Schools for the purpose of training children from the ages of 6 to The Socialist Party of America. 14, at which time they were ready to enter the YPSL. A book published by David Greenberg, Socialist Sun- In 1907 young people’s groups were organized day School Curriculum, is particularly interesting in on a local scale by the Socialist Party which started out showing the methods employed in the training of as purely educational groups studying the elements of younger children. In the primary class, children of 6 socialist theory. The 1912 convention of the Socialist and 7 studied economics. The purpose was “to get the Party recognized the fact that the spontaneous and children to see that the source of all things is the earth uncoordinated growth of the Socialist youth move- which belongs to everybody and that it is labor that ment was in itself sufficient proof of the need of such takes everything from the earth and turns it (1) into a movement on an organized basis.
    [Show full text]
  • Karl Marx and the Iwma Revisited 299 Jürgen Herres
    “Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth” <UN> Studies in Global Social History Editor Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Editorial Board Sven Beckert (Harvard University, Cambridge, ma, usa) Dirk Hoerder (University of Arizona, Phoenix, ar, usa) Chitra Joshi (Indraprastha College, Delhi University, India) Amarjit Kaur (University of New England, Armidale, Australia) Barbara Weinstein (New York University, New York, ny, usa) volume 29 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sgsh <UN> “Arise Ye Wretched of the Earth” The First International in a Global Perspective Edited by Fabrice Bensimon Quentin Deluermoz Jeanne Moisand leiden | boston <UN> This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc License at the time of publication, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Cover illustration: Bannière de la Solidarité de Fayt (cover and back). Sources: Cornet Fidèle and Massart Théophile entries in Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier en Belgique en ligne : maitron-en -ligne.univ-paris1.fr. Copyright : Bibliothèque et Archives de l’IEV – Brussels. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Bensimon, Fabrice, editor. | Deluermoz, Quentin, editor. | Moisand, Jeanne, 1978- editor. Title: “Arise ye wretched of the earth” : the First International in a global perspective / edited by Fabrice Bensimon, Quentin Deluermoz, Jeanne Moisand. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2018] | Series: Studies in global social history, issn 1874-6705 ; volume 29 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018002194 (print) | LCCN 2018004158 (ebook) | isbn 9789004335462 (E-book) | isbn 9789004335455 (hardback : alk.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sino-Soviet Split and the New Communist Movement
    The AlexAndriAn X, no. 1 (2021) The Sino-Soviet Split and the New Communist Movement Sofia Rivera The Sino-Soviet Split – the antagonization and breaking down of relations between China and the Soviet Union in the 1960s – had major reverberations throughout the global communist movement. While most of the effects of the Split were found in Asia and Europe, the United States’ communist movement also was profoundly impacted by these ideological trends as they trickled into the dying mass movements of the 1960s. The Sino-Soviet Split revitalized a nascent Marxist Left in the United States under the banner of the New Communist Movement – however, it ultimately killed the very trends it enlivened via increasing sectarianism within the movement. The Sino-Soviet Split has its roots pre-dating the Chinese Civil War but was catalyzed in Nikita Khrushchev’s speech to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in February 1956. In this document, First Secretary Khrushchev denounced the crimes and cult of personality attributed to his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. Quoting Marx, Engels, and Lenin, Khrushchev provided examples and precedent of the Marxist-Leninist tradition rejecting such individualist authority. He also used historical examples to showcase the evident ineptitude of Stalin’s leadership and policies regarding foreign intervention and the purging of CPSU members.1 This speech shocked the international communist movement and caused a great deal of unrest and instability throughout the socialist sphere as well as within the USSR itself. As Andrew M. Smith’s thesis, Which East Is Red?, indicates, a number of Soviet and Eastern Bloc radicals opposed what Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization stood for: Small gatherings of protest began in Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad, albeit with no major unrest.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels
    University of Central Florida STARS PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements 1-1-1938 The history of the Communist manifesto of Marx and Engels Vladimir Viktorovich Adoratsky Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Book is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Adoratsky, Vladimir Viktorovich, "The history of the Communist manifesto of Marx and Engels" (1938). PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements. 491. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/491 The History of the . COMMUNIST MANI FESTO of MARXand ENGELS The History of the COMMUNIST MANIFESTO of MARX and ENGELS By V. ADORATSKY Director, Marx- Engels - Lenin Institute INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHERS NEW YORK CONTENTS Ii. HI~RICALBACKGROUND ......... g The League of the Just; Criticism of Kriege's ~cntalSocialism; The Struggle Against Karl Gh; Events Leading to the Manifem. IV. SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCEAND MEANINGTODAY ... 27 1938 All Rightz Reserved PRINTED-- IN THE usa. THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO OF MARX AND ENGELS THEManifesto of #he Communist Parry (the Cornmimid Mrmif*) saw the light of day shortly More the February Revolution of 1848. In this brilliant work written ninety years ago-seventy years More the victory won in 19x7 by the great socialist revolution-Marx and Engels announced the oncoming proletarian revolution, gave strictly scientific pun& for its historic necessity, and foretold the inevitable downfall of the bourgeoisie and the viaory of the proletariat.
    [Show full text]
  • Life with a Purpose
    000222 PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEACliE BOX 28, STATION D, NEW YORK, N. Y. ..... 209 LIFE WITH A PURPOSE WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? What am I going to be? There isn't a young man or woman in these United States who hasn't asked these questions. Sometimes many of us wish it were possible to foretell the future by glancing into a globe of crystal. After all, you will probably say, "I'm not asking for much, I want a job." And even if you have a job you will probably say that you want a chance to marry and raise a family. The girl­ friend's sofa is worn out; you want to marry the girl and live in your own home. And you, who had to quit school just as you got into the 7th term of your high school career. You say you are interested in chemistry. Poking around in a laboratory, working with test tubes is the nearest thing to heaven as far as you are concerned. But you had to quit school. You couldn't study as you planned to 'do for so many years. And you, well, you finally passed the teacher's license exam­ ination. You're a teacher. "Yea," you will say, and perhaps even forget all about correct pronunciation, one of the 200,000 licensed teachers who don't have jobs. You, working in a steel mill and making $3.70 a day. You want a chance to learn a, skilled trade; you want a vocation; and chances are slim for getting into school where you could learn to become a mechanic.
    [Show full text]
  • “Speaking a Mutual Language” the Negro People’S Theatre in Chicago Melissa Barton
    “Speaking a Mutual Language” The Negro People’s Theatre in Chicago Melissa Barton On 5 November 1938, just under a week before Chicago’s Negro People’s Theatre was to open its first production, the theatre’s executive director, Fanny McConnell, wrote two letters. In one she petitioned Claude Lightfoot, the chairman of the Young Communist League of Illinois, to organize a “theatre party” to attend the upcoming show, Langston Hughes’s Don’t You Want to Be Free? “We would be very pleased to have you attend — particularly en masse,” she wrote. “We feel that the play we are doing speaks a mutual language” (Ellison Papers, Box 6). The other let- ter was to Reverend Harold M. Kingsley of the South Side’s Congregationalist Church of the Good Shepherd, whose congregation comprised mainly middle-class and professional South Siders (Drake and Cayton 1945:537, 670; Best 2005:78–79). McConnell thanked Kingsley for the use of Good Shepherd’s basement as a rehearsal space for the show (Ellison Papers, Box 6).1 The two letters illustrate how McConnell positioned Chicago’s Negro People’s Theatre (NPT) between competing interests among its membership and its audience: On the one hand, her request that the Young Communist League attend “en masse” suggests that she hoped the group would — understanding the “mutual language” of the play — participate in its ending, when the audience stands up and joins in a rent-strike-cum-dance-party; on the other hand, McConnell relied equally on the participation and patronage of the South Side’s more center- left, liberal leadership, benefitting from the aid of not only Good Shepherd, but also the Chicago Defender and the Chicago Urban League.
    [Show full text]
  • Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970S: a Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography
    FJHP Volume 23 (2006) Industrial Militancy, Reform and the 1970s: A Review of Recent Contributions to CPGB Historiography Evan Smith Flinders University The historiography of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) has grown rapidly since its demise in 1991 and has created much debate for a Party seen as only of marginal interest during its actual existence. Since 1991, there have been four single volume histories of the Party, alongside the completion of the ‘official’ history published by Lawrence & Wishart and several other specialist studies, adding to a number of works that existed before the Party’s collapse. In recent years, much of the debate on Communist Party historiography has centred on the Party and its relationship with the Soviet Union. This is an important area of research and debate as throughout the period from the Party’s inception in 1920 to the dissolution of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1943 (and even beyond), the shadow of the Soviet Union stood over the CPGB. However an area that has been overlooked in comparison with the Party in the inter-war era is the transitional period when the CPGB went from being an influential part of the trade union movement to a Party that had been wrought by internal divisions, declining membership and a lowering industrial support base as well as threatened, alongside the entire left, by the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. This period of CPGB history, roughly from 1973 to 1979, was heavily influenced by the rise of Gramscism and Eurocommunism, in which a significant portion of the Party openly advocated reforms and a shift away from an emphasis of industrial militancy.
    [Show full text]
  • CALIFORNIA RED a Life in the American Communist Party
    alifornia e California Red CALIFORNIA RED A Life in the American Communist Party Dorothy Ray Healey and Maurice Isserman UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Urbana and Chicago Illini Books edition, 1993 © 1990 by Oxford University Press, Inc., under the title Dorothy Healey Remembers: A Life in the American Communist Party Reprinted by arrangement with Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, New York Manufactured in the United States of America P54321 This book is printed on acidjree paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Healey, Dorothy. California Red : a life in the American Communist Party I Dorothy Ray Healey, Maurice Isserman. p. em. Originally published: Dorothy Healey remembers: a life in the American Communist Party: New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Includes index. ISBN 0-252-06278-7 (pbk.) 1. Healey, Dorothy. 2. Communists-United States-Biography. I. Isserman, Maurice. II. Title. HX84.H43A3 1993 324.273'75'092-dc20 [B] 92-38430 CIP For Dorothy's mother, Barbara Nestor and for her son, Richard Healey And for Maurice's uncle, Abraham Isserman ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is based substantially on a series of interviews conducted by the UCLA Oral History Program from 1972 to 1974. These interviews appear in a three-volume work titled Tradition's Chains Have Bound Us(© 1982 The Regents of The University of California. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission). Less formally, let me say that I am grateful to Joel Gardner, whom I never met but whose skillful interviewing of Dorothy for Tradition's Chains Have Bound Us inspired this work and saved me endless hours of duplicated effort a decade later, and to Dale E.
    [Show full text]
  • Albert Glotzer Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1t1n989d No online items Register of the Albert Glotzer papers Finding aid prepared by Dale Reed Hoover Institution Library and Archives © 2010 434 Galvez Mall Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305-6003 [email protected] URL: http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Register of the Albert Glotzer 91006 1 papers Title: Albert Glotzer papers Date (inclusive): 1919-1994 Collection Number: 91006 Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives Language of Material: English Physical Description: 67 manuscript boxes, 6 envelopes(27.7 Linear Feet) Abstract: Correspondence, writings, minutes, internal bulletins and other internal party documents, legal documents, and printed matter, relating to Leon Trotsky, the development of American Trotskyism from 1928 until the split in the Socialist Workers Party in 1940, the development of the Workers Party and its successor, the Independent Socialist League, from that time until its merger with the Socialist Party in 1958, Trotskyism abroad, the Dewey Commission hearings of 1937, legal efforts of the Independent Socialist League to secure its removal from the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations, and the political development of the Socialist Party and its successor, Social Democrats, U.S.A., after 1958. Creator: Glotzer, Albert, 1908-1999 Hoover Institution Library & Archives Access The collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Publication Rights For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. Acquisition Information Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1991. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Albert Glotzer papers, [Box no., Folder no.
    [Show full text]
  • Young Marx Young Marx Writings from Karl Marx Before Rheinsche Zeitung
    Young Marx Young Marx Writings from Karl Marx before Rheinsche Zeitung Collections: Book of Verse Documents: 1835: Reflections of a young man on the choice of a profession 1836: Jenny 1836: Feelings 1836: My world 1837: Wild Songs 1837: Transformation Marx/Engels Works Archive http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/index.htm [23/08/2000 18:12:44] Book of verse--Karl Marx A Book of Verse Written: prior to April 12, 1837 Source: Marx Engels Collected Works Vol 1, pg 683-685. Publisher: International Publishers (1975) First Published: Marx/Engels, Gesamtausgabe, Abt. 1, Hb. 2, 1929 Translated: Clemens Dutt Transcribed: S. Ryan HTML Markup: S. Ryan of the year 1837 dedicated to my dear father on the occasion of his birthday as a feeble token of everlasting love K. H. Marx, Berlin Contents: To My Father The Magic Harp, A Ballad Yearning. A Romance Nocturnal Love. A Romance (note: also published as Wild Songs) Siren Song, A Ballad The Little Old Man of the Water. A Ballad The First Elegy of Ovid's Tristia Freely Rendered The Madwoman. A Ballad Flower King. A Fantastic Ballad The Awakening Invocation of One in Despair Lucinda, A Ballad The Last Judgment. A Jest Two Singers Accompanying Themselves on the Harp. A Ballad Epigram on Hegel Epigrams on the Germans and on Pustkuchen On a Certain Bald-head Harmony Distraught, A Ballad Human Pride http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/verse/index.htm (1 of 2) [23/08/2000 18:12:47] Book of verse--Karl Marx Oulanem.
    [Show full text]