The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-02-06
THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND
TASKS OF Y.C.L.

OF lne WORKING class youth MISREPRESENTATION
of the crisis and its effects on the young
workers) minimizing of the role of the YCL
as a militant political organization Of the
working class youth (the theory that thu
League is a non-political auxiliary organize.
ton in which we set up Communist frac-
tion) the detachment of cultural work from
political Tendencies to de-politicalize the
League in Superior, Massachusetts,, etc.;
strong expressions of nationalism (refusal to
meet with Italian comrades OH the part of
Finnish comrades in District ~; strong ex-
pressions of white chauvinism New York.
Chicago, Cleveland, Boston,; individual cases
of tagging behind the struggles Of the young
workers; failure to understand the slogan Of
"sef defense" in connection with Gastonia;
sentiments of political neutrality Every small
percentage of leading comrades in the Party,
failure to be sufficiently alert to important
political questions confronting the Party; I'M
derestimation of the Importance of the new
forms for the organization of the young work
ers Failure to actually build up the youth sec
tons in the new unions); complete underesti-
nation of youth work the part Of leading
Party comrades in the new unions, (NMU,
etc.; overestimation of the strength of OPP
ponent organizations and unpotical attitude
of the League members to their tasks in the
sport organizations; opposition to the orienta-
ton of the work of the large factories and
basic industries and complete underestimaton
of the Importance of shop nuclei as basic form
of League organization Certain tendencies to
orientate the League away from basic indus
tries-Cleveland Pittsburgh, Chicago, New
York;; underestimation of the war danger,
especially of the danger of war against the
Soviet Union; failure to develop concrete anti
miltarist work, to link our partial demands
fo,, -o1J, ,,,I ,,-,fl a.
mands and the presence of strong pacifist in
fluences in some sections Of the League.
But the Right danger is not the only danger
confronting the league. There is also the So
called cleft" danger sharply expressed in the
tendency of cleft phrase mongers to substi-
tute petty bourgeois radicaism for the neces-
sary direct connection between leadership and
the masses and mass organizations. This dan
ger which finds expression in tendencies to
counter-oppose the politics to the organiza-
tional tasks" to separate the POLITICALLY de-
veloped" comrades from the practical League
workers, to draw a line between "inside'
League work and mass work, to hold back the
development of these proletarian forces who
show ability in mass work in favor Of those
comrades who can use the longest revolution
airy phrases, in various expressions of van
guardsm, ETC., exists to very great degree
in the American League due to its develop
ment as an isolated organization Of the i'm
migrant youth and its large petty-bourgeois
composition.
These tendencies lead to a negation Of mass
work in economic, sport and cultural organ
izations as seen in the actual contempt for
this work shown by many old and leading COM
rades in the League, and by the very small
number of League members in the auxiliary
organizations, L. S. U. (80); I. L. D. (60);
ETC.; to survivals of vanguardsm; and in the
failure of the League members to 60 where
the young workers are, to mix with the young
workers both at work and socially, Tin their
neighborhoods, on the recreation fields, in
mass organzatons) and their preference for
their own little closed in grouping of League
members.
1t has been a mistake of the League leader
ship that it has underestimate this cleft" dan
ger has failed to sufficiently carry on the
struggle on two fronts against the main dan
ger, the Right danger, and against these cleft"
deviations, has often cultivated "left' mis-
takes by its neutral position and therefore
made more difficult the important task Of
transforming the League from a narrow or
ganization of the immigrant youth to mass
organization of the American young workers.
The Enlarged Plenum of the YCI was correct
in emphasizing the fact that while "The Right
danger in the world Communist movement is
the greatest danger, in order to transform the
YCL's into real mass organizations, the lead
ership of the Young Communist International
must, without delay liquidate these mistakes
and enter on the path of active struggle with
the cleft" danger BY this very fact the lead
ing Young Communist members will overcome
the main hindrance which now interferes with
its entering onto the path of mass work"
Ito Be Continued)