The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-18
Convention of
Y.C.L. Marked
By Enthusiasm
Delegates Report New
Struggles; Membership
Is Growing

NEW YORK New York
District of the Young Communist
League is holding its Seventh Con-
vention in a hall at the spartacus
Club on 18th st.
Up front. fastened to the deep
wine-colored curtain is the bright
red and gold banner Of the Y.C.L.
Gil Green, the National Secre-
tary of the League, opens the meet
ing. Of middle height, slightly
built, dark, he talks clearly and en-
phatically.
He explains the rising feeling Of
the struggle among young workers
all over the country. Some in the
audience nod their heads. Up front
two tow-headed Yankee boys,
brothers, from up state, are listen
ing with rapt attention. One can
look over the 125 regular delegates
and see upon all their faces the
same eager interest.
Gil Green continues. He tells of
the greatest influx during the past
year of working youth into the
unions, in the history of the Ameri-
can Labor movement. OF the
growth of the A. F. of L., which the
Roosevelt MIRA. regime is using to
hold the workers back from struggle
and deliver them into the hands of
the ruling class.
Of the frantic preparations which
the New Deal administration is
making through the CCC. to fasten
the unemployed youth to the war
machine, and make of them a fas-
cist reserve.
Membership Doubled
OF the considerable, though still
inadequate growth of the Y.CL.
from 5000 at the last National
Convention to 5000 now.
Of the problems of the Negro
youth of whom over IS per cent are
unemployed in Harlem, and of our
unceasing struggle against white
chauvinism. Of the increased eff
forts which must be made for pen
etrating the shops and building
shop units. Of the growth of Y.C.L.
shop units from four at the last
National Convention to 60 at
present.
Little Reports Struggles
John Little, the next speaker, is
announced. The District Organizer
of New York, a machinist by trade,
tall, straightforward, he begins the
report of the New York District.
He analyses the work in the main
district concentration, Harlem, the
Harlem campaign for the freedom
of Angelo Herndon and the Scots
boro boys and the task of fighting
for unemployment relief.
He draws lessons from the Tele-
radio strike, the metal strikes, Spic
and Span laundry strike, the de-
velopment of opposition groups in
the New York A. F. of L. unions.
Comrade Little concludes simply
and without any oratorical flour
ishes, After a period of recess, the
discussion period opens. A comSade
speaks from the Labor Sports Union.
Fight in C. C. C.. Camps
The speaker after him, mem
Der of the newly formed G. G. c.
Boys Protective League, talks of
the demands of the organization,
its slow growth in the camps and
the problem of building posts in the
city of exc. G. G. boys of which
one has already been launched.
The next worker on the floor
brings the greetings of the Ship
ping Clerks Union. He tells of the
united front of renegades and Y. P.
S. L. leaders, who pack meetings to
carry through the expulsion of mill
tants; of the successful organiza-
ton by the Y. G. L. fraction of an
opposition which has isolated the
bureaucrats.
A girl from an I. L. G. w. U. local
speaks of the successful formation
Of an opposition group to the bu-
reaucracy, of the youth section of
the union. After her comes func-
tionary in the Downtown Unem-
ployed Council, "Mooch," his nick
name, is a short husky fellow with
a bronze face and tawny hair. He
describes the work of organizing
the unemployed of the Gold Dust
Lodge: of the beginning of the
youth section in the downtown
unemployed councils.
Negro Liberation
Spencer, a Negro comrade, out
lines our tasks in the fight for the
liberation of the Negro people, and
work in Harlem. 1--WE have two
fold fight, comrades, against white
chauvinism and against petty bour-
geois reformism." Spencer goes on
to expose the Father Divine move
ment, the Sufy movement, and
others which utilize the sentiment
of the Negro people against the
white ruling class to turn it into
| channels of reactionary fight
against the white workers thereby
aiding the ruling class in its policy
of divide and rule.
Taylor, a Negro worker, in the
league one month, speaks. He is
the organizer of a five week old
Harlem unit. They are doing work
within the local Salvation Army
Taylor tells of the rotten and stale
food which they are forced to eat
We went to sleep with our clothes
on to keep warm" g.. The Y. c. L.
unit there is drawing many of the
workers at this Salvation Army flop
4 iyofn ov1d