The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-17
Party Life
Youth Movement
And Problems
In Farm Regions


In Farm Regions
IN SOUTH DAKOTA the Party has
1 led successful struggles for the
| burning needs Of the farmers. The
Party led the struggle against evic-
tons which climaxed in the well
known Sisseton trial to the victory
of the farmers. In the course of
these struggles the Party has grown
to about 200 members and built
functioning section committees and
functioning District Committee.
There is a mass farm movement
with as many as 300 members in
the u. F. L. In one county. In
other words the Party has already
a mass base.
Last spring there were 200 mem
bers in the Youth Sections of the
q. F. L., a regularly appearing
mimeographed farm youth paper
with a circulation of as much as
800 We had two functioning units
Of the Y. G. L. with a membership
Of Is. Here we thought the farm
youth movement was going to grow
and with it we would build the Y.
G. L. into the political leader of
the farm youth.
Today there is not a functioning
Youth Section in South Dakota.
These youth take part in the regu-
lar meetings of the U. F. L., but
there Is no youth activity. The
youth paper has not come out for
four months. We have not got a
single paid-up member or q func-
tioning unit of the Y. C. l..
What are the reasons for the de-
cline? First we must remember that
the Y. G. L. as a whole is very weak
and that the District office is too
far from most of the units to give
the personal guidance that it should.
Therefore the League needs more
attention from the Party for it's day
to day political guidance. At this
time the Party draws a young COM
rade 10 years old, who has ability
of leadership, into Party work.
When the League protests against
such actions what are the answers
Of the Party comrades? First we
have to build the Party before we
can build the League" "The Party
needs forces badly" ut is better
to have every Party member respon-
Sible for building the League than
one or two young comrades" There
is no need for comrade to be full
time on League work when there is
no League"
The last words of a leading COM
rade of the Party Buro were as
follows: I'm outlining your youth
work be careful that no RESPONSE
bility is placed on these two CY. C.
L.ers) comrades who are needed in
Party work"
Will the comrades read Comrade
providers Report to the 9th Ma
tional Convention of the G. P" in
which he says, THE winning of the
working class youth is the problem
not of our youth organizations alone.
but the problem of the entire Party.
In the past this has not only been
forgotten, but there has been al
lowed to develop sort of organi-
rational rivalry between the youth
and adult organizations. a rivalry
not in the sense of socialist COM
petition, but of the adult trying to
grab away as quickly as possible
from the youth organizations every
rising young leader who shows
special organizational or political
capacity. The idea has been that
as soon as the youth movement pro-
duces leader who is good enough
for Party work that this means he
is wasting his time if he remains
any longer in what is looked on as
a sort of probationary kindergarten.
This frivolous attitude toward youth
work must be eliminated from our
movement"
The comrades In South Dakota
seem to be developing a line in re-
gard to youth work which is diff
ferent from that laid down at the
9th Convention of the Party. On
that basis the League will not be
built.
On youth work what should the
tasks of the Party be in South
Dakota? First, these young comrades
must be released from Party activity
and be assigned to no other than
building the youth movement. A
couple of other Party members be
assigned to the sole task of build
ing the League.
Get these comrades together and
work out plan of how we are 60
ing to develop a broad youth sec
ton into the Farmers Drouth Re.
lief Conference. We must have al
this conference a broad representa-
ton of the youth and organize 9
mass movement of the farm youth
Together with this struggle Of
the youth for relief we must built
the Youth Section of the U. F. L.
revive our youth organ 1.-THE Youth
Leader" and at the same time builc
the Y. G. L. Then we will see the
League grow into a mass League
that will be the political leader o.
the farming youth, drawing then
into the campaigns and struggles O,
the Party. The Party will then ii
short period of time be able t.
draw its members and cadres from