The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-26
Most Delegates speak

problems confronting the youth in
the various basic industries.
Most Delegates Speak
In the afternoon Claude Lightfoot,
young Negro leader from Chicago.
who in last years election received
$4,000 votes. reported on the Negro
question.
The maiority Of the delegates to
the Seventh National Convention
thus far have participated in the
discussion. Tt appears now that be-
fore the close Of the convention,
with very few exceptions, all Of the
delegates will have participated ac-
lively on the floor in the conven-
ton proceedings.
Discussing the growth of the
League from three to six thousand
members in three years, John Marks
said that this gain is entirely in
sufficient in view of the extremely
favorable situation which confronted
the Y c. L. leadership in the past
year Of the great strike wave.
The comrades were impressed by
Gil Green's report, and from the
coal and steel industry they tell us
they are making progress. That is
good. But we cannot forget that
in Pittsburgh, the steel center Of
the country, there is not one Y. G.
L. nucleus in steel. In the Mime
spolis strike, though our comrades
were active they did little recruiting.
The same is true in many other
strike situations"
Dealing with the central task of
work in the shops, and the building
of shop nuclei, Marks said: I'VE
have number of nuclei in Cleve-
land. in Chevrolet in Detroit. and in
Baltimore, but the overwhelming
number of shop nuclei did very
little recruiting. We tell the
comrades here that we have Sc shop
nuclei. This is correct and is an
improvement over the period before
the Party Extraordinary Conference.
But lot Of water has passed under
the bridge in this period
Il want to give picture in New
York for instance. In a period of
three or four months we built 20
shop nuclei. We lost 10. In Boston
they had two nuclei about a year
ago and they have two now but
the hitch is that they are in diff
ferent places. A few have reached
the age of one year"
Fluctuating Membership
Marks specially made sharp at
tack on the heavy and increasing
fluctuation of the League member
ship, saying that though $4,000
members were recruited since the
last convention only 5000 are still
in the League. I'VE have slogans
and resolutions about fluctuation.
but we don't take steps to overcome
it,"
In closing, Marks said: Let us
not regard the question of recruiting
and fluctustion as technical mat
tiers. 1t is of the highest political
Importance, bound UP with the
whole question of building a mass
Young Communist League in the
United States"
In reporting on the Negro ques-
ton, Claude Lightfoot said that the
activities Of the bosses and their
agents among the Negro youth are
becoming sharp, especially on two
fronts. On the one hand, he said,
we have increased terror, lynchings,
and all manifestations of white
chauvinism, and, on the other hand,
greater evidences of Negro petty
bourgeois nationalisnn, both of which
are bound up with every measure
of the New Deal program.
This worsening of the conditions
for the Negro youth in the factor
les among the unemployed, farm
ing and student youth is closely
linked up with the greatest terror
wave against the Negro masses
since the period of Civil War and
Reconstruction. Nineteen thirty
three was record year of lynch
ingS-49 known victims W er e
claimed; scores were lost, many of
whom were Negro youth. Hundreds
of Negro youth in the so-called lib
eral North have been victims Of the