American Student Union
Encyclopedia
The American Student Union (ASU) was a national left-wing organization of college students of the 1930s, best remembered for its protest activities against militarism
. Founded by a 1935 merger of Communist
and Socialist
student organizations, the ASU was affiliated with the American Youth Congress
. The group was investigated by the Dies Committee
of the United States House of Representatives
in 1939 over its connections to the Communist Party USA
. With the group's Communist-dominated leadership consistently supportive of the twists and turns of Soviet
foreign policy, the Socialist minority split from the group in 1939. The organization was terminated in 1941.
in Germany, the party line of the world communist movement was changed from the ultra-radicalism of the so-called "Third Period
," which shrilly condemned Social Democrats as "Social Fascists
," to a new phase of broad left wing cooperation known as the Popular Front
. Efforts immediately followed on the part of the Communist Party-sponsored National Student League
(NSL) to unite with its Socialist Party
counterpart, which in the middle 1930s was effectively the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID).
Initial peace feelers extended by the Communists to the Socialists were rejected in December 1932, but with the European situation worsening two joint conferences of the rival left wing groups were held in 1933 — one in Chicago under Communist auspices and another in New York City headed by the League for Industrial Democracy
. The two groups decided to retain their separate existence but to work together on matters of common concern, which paved the way for several joint activities which took place in 1934 and the first half of 1935.
In June 1935 Joseph P. Lash
of the SLID proposed at a meeting of the organization's governing National Executive Committee that the organization should appoint a committee to negotiate a formal merger with the NSL. The NEC of SLID was divided on the matter, but after extensive debate ultimately resolved to appoint a six-member negotiating committee.
Following negotiations between the two participating groups, a Unity Convention of the NSL and SLID was held over the Christmas holidays at the YMCA building in Columbus, Ohio
. The American Student Union was thus born.
in Poughkeepsie, New York, changed the position of the organization on war. Previously a pacifist
organization which endorsed the so-called "Oxford Pledge" against conscription
and militarism
, the position of the ASU was brought into line with the foreign policy of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt
, based upon the notion of collective security
.
Some opponents of this change were livid and charged that the change was made by bloc voting by members of the Communist Party, as exemplified by the following passage from the press of Jay Lovestone's
rival Independent Communist Labor League:
The vote in favor of changing the political line of the organization on the war question was passed by a vote of 382 to 108.
in Europe. The break came the following year, however, with the November 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland
. The ASU leadership, consisting by that time of a Communist majority, dutifully supported the miliitary action of the Soviet Union, prompting the Socialist minority to split the organization.
The ASU continued forward as a more clearly-defined Communist youth organization from that date and entered a period of organizational decline. The group held its final convention in 1941.
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
. Founded by a 1935 merger of Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and Socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
student organizations, the ASU was affiliated with the American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress
American Youth Congress was an early youth voice organization composed of youth from all across the country to discuss the problems facing youth as a whole in the 1930s. It met several years in a row - one year it notably met on the lawn of the White House. The delegates are known to have caused...
. The group was investigated by the Dies Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...
of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
in 1939 over its connections to the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
. With the group's Communist-dominated leadership consistently supportive of the twists and turns of Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
foreign policy, the Socialist minority split from the group in 1939. The organization was terminated in 1941.
Establishment
Following the rise of Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in Germany, the party line of the world communist movement was changed from the ultra-radicalism of the so-called "Third Period
Third Period
The Third Period is a ideological concept adopted by the Communist International at its 6th World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928....
," which shrilly condemned Social Democrats as "Social Fascists
Social fascism
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...
," to a new phase of broad left wing cooperation known as the Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
. Efforts immediately followed on the part of the Communist Party-sponsored National Student League
National Student League
The National Student League was a Communist led organization of college and high school students in the United States.-Origins:The organizations founding came about as a result of a case of censorship on the campus of the City College of New York in 1931. The Social Problems Club had begun...
(NSL) to unite with its Socialist Party
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
counterpart, which in the middle 1930s was effectively the Student League for Industrial Democracy (SLID).
Initial peace feelers extended by the Communists to the Socialists were rejected in December 1932, but with the European situation worsening two joint conferences of the rival left wing groups were held in 1933 — one in Chicago under Communist auspices and another in New York City headed by the League for Industrial Democracy
League for Industrial Democracy
The League for Industrial Democracy , from 1960-1965 known as the Students for a Democratic Society , was founded in 1905 by a group of notable socialists including Harry W. Laidler, Jack London, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, and J.G. Phelps Stokes...
. The two groups decided to retain their separate existence but to work together on matters of common concern, which paved the way for several joint activities which took place in 1934 and the first half of 1935.
In June 1935 Joseph P. Lash
Joseph P. Lash
Joseph P. Lash was an American radical political activist, journalist, and author. A close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, Lash won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the National Book Award in 1972 for Eleanor and Franklin, the first of two volumes he wrote about the former First Lady.-Early...
of the SLID proposed at a meeting of the organization's governing National Executive Committee that the organization should appoint a committee to negotiate a formal merger with the NSL. The NEC of SLID was divided on the matter, but after extensive debate ultimately resolved to appoint a six-member negotiating committee.
Following negotiations between the two participating groups, a Unity Convention of the NSL and SLID was held over the Christmas holidays at the YMCA building in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. The American Student Union was thus born.
Change of line on pacifism
In January 1938 the third annual convention of the ASU, held at Vassar CollegeVassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
in Poughkeepsie, New York, changed the position of the organization on war. Previously a pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
organization which endorsed the so-called "Oxford Pledge" against conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
, the position of the ASU was brought into line with the foreign policy of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, based upon the notion of collective security
Collective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
.
Some opponents of this change were livid and charged that the change was made by bloc voting by members of the Communist Party, as exemplified by the following passage from the press of Jay Lovestone's
Jay Lovestone
Jay Lovestone was at various times a member of the Socialist Party of America, a leader of the Communist Party USA, leader of a small oppositionist party, an anti-Communist and Central Intelligence Agency helper, and foreign policy advisor to the leadership of the AFL-CIO and various unions...
rival Independent Communist Labor League:
"At the outset, it was apparent to all that the Young Communist League controlled the convention in the form of a well-disciplined group, docile, responding to the guidance of the Stalinist wire-pullers. Every attempt on the part of the various advocates of the Oxford Pledge to introduce substitute motions or amendments, as is done in all parliamentary procedureParliamentary procedureParliamentary procedure is the body of rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings and other operations of clubs, organizations, legislative bodies, and other deliberative assemblies...
, was efficiently squelched by the Stalinist chairman, with the help of his gloating compatriots on the floor."
The vote in favor of changing the political line of the organization on the war question was passed by a vote of 382 to 108.
Atrophy and dissolution
There was discord in the ASU over the organization's changing position to European armament after 1938, with the Socialist-oriented members generally favoring continuation of the organization's historic opposition to militarism and Communist-oriented members arguing in favor of rearmament and collective securityCollective security
Collective security can be understood as a security arrangement, regional or global, in which each state in the system accepts that the security of one is the concern of all, and agrees to join in a collective response to threats to, and breaches of, the peace...
in Europe. The break came the following year, however, with the November 1939 Soviet invasion of Finland
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
. The ASU leadership, consisting by that time of a Communist majority, dutifully supported the miliitary action of the Soviet Union, prompting the Socialist minority to split the organization.
The ASU continued forward as a more clearly-defined Communist youth organization from that date and entered a period of organizational decline. The group held its final convention in 1941.
Further reading
- Robert Cohen, When the Old Left was Young:Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Which Road Shall the ASU Take? New York: Independent Communist Labor League, November 1937.
Publications
- Toward a "Closed Shop" on the Campus. New York: American Student Union, 1936.
- The Campus: A Fortress of Democracy. New York: American Student Union, 1937.
- The Dismissal of Bob Burke: Heidelberg comes to Columbia. New York: American Student Union, 1938.
- Keep Democracy Working by Making It Serve Human Needs: Report of Proceedings of Fourth National Convention, American student Union, College of the City of New York, New York City, December 27-30, 1938. New YorK: American Student Union, 1939.
- The Student in the Post-Munich World. New York: American Student Union, 1939.
- Oberlin: The War Years. New York: American Student Union, 1940.
- "Twaddle," A Story in Pictures. New York American Student Union, 1940.
- ASU: Now We Are 6. New York: American Student Union, 1940.
External links
- American Student Union Memoirs, newdeal.feri.org/ —Twelve memoirs by leading participants collected in 1986.