The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-05-29
THREE GATHERINGS

Three mighty gatherings will take
place in August 1929: the Jamboree
| (world review of the boy scout for
ces in England, the social democratic
Youth Day in Vienna and the ALL
Union gathering of the pioneers in
Moscow. That these three powerful
organizations are simultaneously
measuring their forces on a world
scale, is not entirely due to chance,
it is rather due to the ever growing
struggle for the children, for the
growing young generation.
The Boy Scout Invasion.
"Next summer England will be
flooded by thousands of boy scouts,
$4,000 from all parts of the British
Empire, and $4,000 from AZ foreign
states where boy scout organiza-
tons exist" thus the Boy Scouts
newspapers talk of the COM
ing of the Boy Scout invasion in
England. There is no doubt what
ever that the 10000 Boy Scouts will
meet in England because all the
financial means of the Boy Scout
movement which is lavishly subsi-
died by the capitalist class and its
governments are being modified al
ready to ensure the success of this
mighty demonstration.
One must admit that the Boy
Scout leaders are past masters in
the art of gauging the psychology
of the children and the youth. Camps,
gymnastics, bridge building and
cabin building games, cinema per-
formances, exhibitions, sword dane
ing, tableaux vivants, such is their
program. The leaders of the Boy
Scout movement are much too crafty
and cautious to organize military
drill openly. The army and navy
officers who are at the head of the
movement prove every day that
they are carrying on systematic
militarist propaganda and educa-
tional activity without saying so
openly. The intended visit of the
heir to the British throne, the
Prince of Wales, to the Jamboree, is
eloquent testimony of its monarchist
character. Religious ceremonies will
be special feature and the highest
dignitary of the church of England,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, will
even officiate at the opening of the
camp.
What then is the real object of
this big Jamboree? We are not
going to be misled by hypocritical
phrases about internationalism and
fraternity among men. Facts show
that the main object of the JAM
boree is-to prepare the Boy Scout
movement for the coming war.
BaderP Powell, the general of the
Boy Scouts, is particularly proud of
the fact that Boy Scout organiza-
tons are developing also in the
British colonies, above all in India.
The British bourgeoisie is fully
aware that in the person of the
scouts it has an excellent means of
Disgusting imperialism and mislead-
ing the young generation. Just now,
when the British bourgeoisie is
faced with a recrudescence of
colonial revolts, the help of the Boy
Scouts, especially in colonial coun-
tries, is all the more valuable.
1t is fact that the leaders of the
Boy Scouts who modified their or
ganization in the last war, are once
more preparing the organization for
the next war. Moreover, Baden
Powell himself had to admit that the
scouts did openly strike breaking
work during the general strike in
England. There have also been hun
dreds of cases in America when the
scouts fought the strikers side by
side with the police and employers
and even participated in the murder
of strikers during the.coal strike in
Colorado. 1t is perfectly true that
Baden-Powell could not face the
leader of the British youth move
ment when the latter charged him
publicly with the fact that the Boy
Scouts are connected with the politi-
cal Intelligence Service of Britain in
the Soviet Union, that the Boy,