The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-03-17
March ga, 1881


CINCE the Plenum OF the League we find a
growing number of struggles of the working
youth. The struggle for unemployment insur-
ance has sharpened, and with it, growing
number Of strikes against wage cuts and speed
IN A number Of these strikes were distinctly
youth strikes based on partial demands, such
as the Eagle Pencil and the Lesnow strikes.
The work of the League since the Plenum
continues to prove the correctness OF the line
and methods Of work started at the time OF the
PARTY Convention. The League has only made
the first beginning in carrying out the line Of
the YCI. Two months plan was not carried
out completely, and the tempo was entirely too
slow.
The results Of the Plan show more than 700
new members We have about 10 branches OF
the Young Liberators and about Is youth branch
es of the International Workers Order. We gain
ed % clubs for the LSU and organized some So
cial and sports clubs (not affiliated with the
ISU, The biggest weakness was the shop work.
Altfo Pittsburgh organized five shop committees,
Detroit a local union, Cleveland a shop COM
rnittee and Philadelphia two shop committees,
these are only very small gains. We have only
five shop nuclei, and these are only skeletons
The basic shortening has been the failure to
dev alop youth issues and demands based on the
ever day needs of the youth and to organize
str''~gles around these demands. This failure IS
reflected in a failure to also understand the
necessity of developing special youth forms. We
can see this especially in unemployed and trade
union work. We have not developed, as yet,
partial demands for the youth in the most i'm
portant industries and for the unemployed. This
is absolutely necessary as a means of winning
the young workers for the industrial unions
and unemployed councils Of the Trade Union
Unity League.
Due to the failure to understand the problems
of the youth to develop special youth demands
and forms of struggle we find that many OF our
leading forces have been drawn into general
work The failure to understand how to work
among the youth. leads logically to the entire
negation of the role of the youth in the class
struggle The Party and League must sharply
struggle against these tendencies with the slo-
gem "AlI League Cadres for Work Among the
Youth"
The districts started to work at the factories
too late after the Plenum. and considered this
work as secondary. The method of "stormingN
factories as outlined at our National Plenum was
not applied in all districts. The districts did not
utilize all fields and forms of work as means
of winning the youth of one given factory
In the work in the Negro field, we find that
insufficient attention was paid to recruiting
white young workers for the Young Liberators
we nave ALSO IleSleCOSU uldh4AIS III VI young
Negroes into the League and other revolution
airy organizations. We have not founght suf-
ficienty against Wi1ite-chauvinisrn in our own
ranks, and have not made the League the
leader in the struggle of the youth for Negro
rights
The LSU has not carried out the line of the
Plenun. The leadership has failed to penetrate
the opponents and to develop struggles on the
special sports issues. They have not understood
the methods of leadership and have developed
bureaucratic methods of work. Very little was
done TO mobilize the youth for the defense of
the Soviet Union. The circulation of the Young
Worker has not been increased and we face the
danger of losing our youth paper if immediate
support is not forthcoming. Nothing was done
to penetrate the opponents despite the extremely
favorable possibilities. Only in New York and
Cleveland was any work conducted against the
Young Peoples Socialist League, and only in
Connecticut we're any contacts and work started
in the YMCA.
The Plan of Action was not brought down
to the bulk of the membership. The results
gotten were only the work of few comrades.
The sectarian life of our units was not broken.
The units still live life apart from that of the
young workers.
In Pioneer work the situation basically has not
been changed. Only a few districts started work
in making the turn. The leadership Of the
department is partly responsible for the failure
to carry out the line Of the NEG.
The NEG has fought resistance to the line