The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-05-19
For One United Youth Day March!
Failure to Get Unity
Will Lie With
YPSL Heads
BY ]. MARKS
DF % IA1hAo
II TIE militant ,-n,,4h II

If THE militant youth of
New York are not united in
4 single demonstration against
war and fascism on May 80.
the occasion of the bosses
Memorial Day, the response
bility for this crime against
the working class will rest with the
leaders Of the Young Peoples So
cialist League.
At the mass youth conference
against war held on May 18th, the
YP.SL. leaders came as observers.
They refused to join the conference
as active participants. They pre-
ferred unity with the Trotzky anti
Soviet youth sect to unity with the
youth from VS., Boys Clubs. Settle
ment Houses, unions, church clubs.
etc. That in itself was enough to
show the most inexperienced dele
gate that here was a group that dis
united the ranks of the youth. But
the conference ignored this fact in
the interest OF National Youth Day
the day which had been endorsed
by the mass US. Congress Against
War and which has become the
traditional fighting day of all honest
anti-war fighters since the first Ma
tionsl Youth Day in 1881. The dele
gates of the Y.P.S.L. renegade group
voiced only one objection to the pro-
posals of the conference through
their spokesman, Ben Fisher of the
Y.P.SL. This objection in reference
to slogans for the parade was with
drawn few minutes later.
The terms were clear. There was
to be one arrangements committee
for the parade. The nature of the
slogans was agreed upon. It was
also agreed that each organization
would have the right to carry its
own banners. The joint committee
was instructed TO work out only the
details of route and preparations.
But at the first meeting of the
committee the so-called desire of
the YP.SL. leaders for 2 united
front began to reveal itself. They
objected to the term National Youth
Day. TT is Communist term and
unacceptable to us. The arrange
ments committee of 10 should re-
woke the decisions of the conference
of 253 delegates they said
They ignored the fact that the
conference which approved of Ma
tional Youth Day was the largest
and most representative in New
York City, in which the young Com
munists were a small minority. They
ignored the fact that National
Youth Day is fast becoming A tradi-
tional youth anti-wsr day Of wide
section Of youth Of all opinions.
Their action was pre-arranged to
produce a split, to destroy any at
tempt to unite the youth in one
demonstration.
How else can we explain their
absolute silence at the conference
which decided upon the National
Youth Day anti-war demonstration
and their bombastic disapproval
two days later at the meeting of
the committee?
The Young Communist League
has no Illusions regarding the ma
chinations of the Y,P.SL. leaders
and their renegade friends. 1t be-
lieves that no mention of National
Youth Day was made by them at
the conference in front of the mass
of delegates, because it was reserved
as a means for creating a split. The
recent action of the YPS.L. leaders
is the old resistance to any united
front activity under new guise. In
the past these leaders expelled
dozens of their members because of
their support for one united strug-