The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-19
WE ARE A PARTY
OF YOUTH LENIN
eve Need Special Program for YOuth, - National
Secretary of vel. Declares

December, 1915, Lenin answers this
very question. Lenin said:
Frequently representatives of
the generation of the middle aged
and old do not know properly
how to approach the youth, who
Of necessity are compelled to ap-
proach socialism by a different
path and not in the same form
and the same conditions as their
fathers"
How important is a full under
standing of these words of Lenin
today Do We not also have rep
resentatiYes of the middle aged and
old who do not know how to ap-
proach the youth because they
come to Communism under other
conditions2
Especially d this true Of the
United States. Here, we not alone
have the general problem as stated
by Lenin, but the additional fact
that a laSge portion of the adult
working class population are for
eign born workers. These foreign
born workers, especially, find it diff
f1cult to understand the youth of
today. In most cases these adult
workers went to work at nine and
ten years of age. They did not go
through an intensive school sys-
tenn which feeds the youth the
special American brand of patriot
ie,,, ovI oI1ot,trfy,is,,, rTlLorr ,,,a-o
not influenced by the powerful
American organizations built by the
ruling class for winning the youth
the "Y," Settlement Houses, etc.
They, as youths, in the main did
not go through long period of
unemployment, ETC., etc. In other
words these workers cannot under
stand the American youth because
they grew up under entirely differ
ent conditions. It is not surprising
then that they brand youth as
frivolous and irresponsible. They
cannot or will not see the growing
rehabilitation among youth-their
tremendous revolutionary poten-
tialitieS.
Must React to Problems
This, in the main, is the reason
why often good revolutionary work
ers find it impossible or difficult
to win their own sons and daugh-
tiers for the revolutionary move
ment.
If we connect this correct obser-
Walton with the fact that our Party,
despite its progress is still greatly
a Party of foreign born workers, we
can better understand why it has
been especially difficult to win the
whole Party for q correct under
standing of youth work. But this
makes it all the more necessary for
our Party to learn how to approach
the masses of youth on their own
ground. We must react to the spe-
cial demands of the youth and
must give them such organizational
forms as will permit them to de-
velop their initiative to the fullest
extent.
Lenin, in the same article writ
ten in 1916, says on this point:
For that reason (the reason
that youth must travel to Com
munism under different condi-
tons than their parents.-G. G.,
we must Internationally support
the organizstional independence
Of the youth leagues, not merely
because the opportunists are
afraid Of this independence, but
because it is necessary in itself;
for without complete indepen-
dence the youth will be unable
to train themselves into good
socialists, or train themselves for
the purpose Of carrying socialism
further"
This is why we need Young
Communist League and a special
program for the youth. This is
why we favor the building of youth
sections in unions and mass or
CARNATIONS. We favor these, not
because we want to divide the youth
from the adult workers, as say some
comrades, but because we want the
youth who are coming to Commu-
nism mot in the same form and
the same conditions as their
fathers" to have the opportunity
to discuss their own problems,
formulate their demands, organize
their own activities and in this way
break down the artificial barriers
between the old and new genera
tons of the working class.
The enemies of our Party try to
utilize the special conditions and
problems of youth to divide them
from their class. We must utilize
these to tie them to their class.