Young Communist International
Encyclopedia
International socialist youth organization before World War I
After failed efforts to form an international association of socialist youth organizations in 1889 and 1904, in May 1907 a conference in StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
convened to form the International Union of Socialist Youth Organisations (the Internationale Verbindung Sozialistischer Jugendorganisationen, abbreviated IVSJO). IVSJO maintained its headquarters in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and functioned as the youth section of the Second International
Second International
The Second International , the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
.
At its foundation the International Secretary of IVSJO was Hendrik de Man. De Man was succeeded by Robert Danneberg
Robert Danneberg
Robert Danneberg was an Austrian Jewish politician, a member of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria and a prominent Austro-Marxist theoretician...
, who held the post from 1908 to 1915. The first Chairman of the IVSJO was the German anti-militarist radical
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
. Liebknecht served as an inspiration and "elder statesman" for radical youth throughout Europe.
The coming of the first World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
brought an end to the work of the IVSJO. The organization was founded on the premise that its task was primarily educational, rather than political, and that participation of the young socialists of all countries and all political tendencies was necessary for its continued ability to function. The coming of the European war and the support of the various national socialist parties for their governments in the conflict effectively ended the possibility of international cooperation and the official IVSJO effectively ceased to exist.
The radical youth movement based in the neutral nation of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
attempted to unite the various national sections of the socialist movement on a new basis, however. With the charismatic head of the Swiss socialist youth movement, Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg was a communist political activist. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919-20 and established the famine-relief and propaganda organization Workers International Relief in 1921...
, playing the leading part, an anti-militaristic conference of international youth sections was called. On April 4, 1915, nine delegates from various neutral countries assembled in Bern to attempt to establish a center for a revitalized IVSJO organization. While the conference did not endorse Lenin's call for revolutionary civil war to end the European bloodbath, the conference did endorse "revolutionary socialism" and the recreation of the socialist youth movement independent of the various (chauvinistic
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
) national socialist parties. As historian Richard Cornell notes, "This marked a critical turning point in the history of the socialist youth movement."
The Bern conference decided to start a publication called Die Jugendinternationale (The Youth International) and an International Youth Bureau was established. Headquarters were established in Zurich, with Willi Münzenberg elected by the conference to fill the role of International Secretary of the reconstituted IVSJO.
Formation of the YCI
By 1918, all the official socialist youth organizations of Europe — with the exception of the German, the Dutch, and the French — had affiliated themselves with the reconstituted IVSJO. While the organization was anti-militarist, severe divisions remained as to how to bring an end to the war. The pacifist Center faction sought the establishment of binding arbitration and measures for the active limitation of armaments, while the revolutionary Left, inspired by events in Soviet RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, increasingly came to see international revolution as the only possible solution to the inevitability of capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
war.This division roughly paralleled the split in the adult movement of the Zimmerwald movement
Zimmerwald Conference
The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.-...
between pacifist Majority and revolutionary Left factions.
The decisive break came in March 1919 with the establishment of the Communist International in Moscow. Splits began to take place in socialist parties around the world between electorally-oriented socialist and revolutonary-oriented communist tendencies. As Richard Cornell notes, "The young socialists were now pitched headlong into party debates. Neutrality was no longer possible."
On November 20, 1919 the IVSJO held its first conference after the war. In secret conditions in a beer-hall in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
delegates representing many of the socialist youth organizations of Europe assembled, called together by International Secretary Willi Münzenberg. The conference decided to change the name to "Young Communist International" and was subsequently known as the First Congress of YCI. Some 19 delegates were in attendance, representing the socialist youth organizations of Russia, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Spain, as well as an opposition faction from Czechoslovakia.
The First Congress established headquarters for the YCI organization in Berlin. Decisions of the organization were to be made by a five member Executive Committee of the Communist Youth International (ECCYI), and a program for the organization was adopted.
The Question of Party Control
Perhaps the most important issue determined during the first years of the Young Communist International dealt with the relationship of the youth movement with the emerging communist parties of various countries. This matter had been tenaciously discussed at the 1919 Berlin Conference, with the Russian delegate, L. Shatskin, advancing the position that the various national youth groups should be under the immediate direction and control of the corresponding adult parties. This position was opposed by others from the Western European socialist tradition, which envisioned an independent vanguard role for the communist youth movement. At Berlin a compromise was reached, in which it was agreed that the YCI would not be considered a "sister" organization to the Communist International, but rather a "part" of the Comintern. National youth organizations were obligated to follow either the political program of "that party or faction in their country which is a member of the Third International" or the program of the Comintern itself.The YCI remained divided between adherents of an independent line, concentrated in Germany and headed by Willi Münzenberg, and those desiring to follow a close Russian lead through the close direction of the youth movement by the Comintern.
Historian of the early Communist youth movement Richard Cornell notes the thinking of the Berlin-centric group:
Münzenberg at this time gave expression to what was clearly the underlying sense of frustration of the young communist activists. Acknowledging the necessity for centralism in the Communist movement so as to concentrate "the greatest striking power," he pleaded almost despairingly not to so overcentalize the movement that the "revolutionary initiative" of all true communists was bound and stifled. Having struggled for so long toget out from under the bureaucracy of the German social democrats (SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
), Münzenberg and the young German communists had no desire to substitute a new communist bureaucracy for the old social democratic one.
The division between independent and Moscow-centric young communists came to a head in 1921 over the scheduling of a 2nd World Congress of the Young Communist International. The Russo-centric contingent of the YCI had sought a gathering in Moscow in the summer of 1921, in conjunction with the previously scheduled 3rd World Congress of the Communist International. Head of the Comintern Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
had been prevailed upon to send a letter to the ECCYI in November 1920 supporting such a venue. Nevertheless — and over the strong objections of its Russian contingent — the Executive Committee of the YCI independently decided to convene the 2nd World Congress of the organization's deliberative body on April 6 in Jena
Jena
Jena is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. It has a population of approx. 103,000 and is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia, after Erfurt.-History:Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document...
. The Russians refused to attend this gathering, which had to be held in secrecy due to its "illegal" status in the eyes of the police. Four days after its convocation, the meeting place of the secret gathering was shifted to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, due to security considerations. The session was abruptly terminated at the Comintern's behest on instructions from the Executive Committee of the Communist International.
A so-called "Real Second Congress" was convened in Moscow between June 9 and June 23, immediately prior to the 3rd World Congress of the Comintern.Historian E.H. Carr remarked:
"That resistance and criticism was experienced is suggested by the fact that Lenin intervened in person in order to reconcile divergent opinions, and that Trotsky appeared at the congress to defend Comintern against the charge of subordinating the interests of world revolution to those of Soviet Russia. But difficulties were overcome, compliance registered, and the headquarters of the Communist Youth International transferred to Moscow. Subsequent congresses of the Communist Youth International were held in Moscow simultaneously with the congresses of the Comintern. Once more, a step had been taken which favoured the centralized discipline of Comintern at the expense of that degree of independence which was necessary for the encouragement of mass movements. It may have been a coincidence that Münzenberg was transferred after the congress to other work."
For its part, the 3rd Congress of Comintern addressed the question of the communist youth movement. The YCI organization was streamlined along the structure of the Comintern and YCI member organization were obliged to adopt the name "Young Communist League" followed by their national denomination.
National sections of the YCI
- CanadaCanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
- Young Communist League of CanadaYoung Communist League of CanadaThe Young Communist League of Canada is a Marxist-Leninist youth organization which fights to build a powerful youth and student movement across Canada and for socialism.According to their website,- History :... - ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
- Communist Youth League of China - CubaCubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
- Young Communist LeagueYoung Communist League (Cuba, 1929)The Young Communist League was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Cuba. The LJC was founded in 1928. As of 1933, LJC was estimated to have around 5,000 members.... - EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
- Young Communist League of EstoniaYoung Communist League of EstoniaYoung Communist League of Estonia was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Estonia during the interbellum period.- Activities & Organization :... - FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- Young Communist League of FinlandYoung Communist League of FinlandThe Young Communist League of Finland was the youth organization of the Communist Party of Finland 1925-1936. The organization was clandestine, but had a significant impact in Finnish society... - GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- Young Communist League of GermanyYoung Communist League of GermanyThe Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925... - IcelandIcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
- Young Communist League of Iceland - NorwayNorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
- Young Communist League of NorwayYoung Communist League of NorwayYoung Communist League of Norway was until April 2006 the youth league of Norges Kommunistiske Parti . April 1st 2006 NKP declared that NKU was no longer its youth organization, and that all youths interested in joining the movement should contact the party directly... - RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
- Union of Communist YouthUnion of Communist YouthThe Union of Communist Youth was the Romanian Communist Party's youth organisation, modelled after the Soviet Komsomol. It aimed to cultivate young cadres into the party, as well as to help create the "new man" envisioned by communist ideologues.-History:Founded in 1922, the UTC went underground... - Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
- Communist Union of Youth (Komsomol)KomsomolThe Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of... - SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- Young Communist League of SwedenYoung Left (Sweden)Young Left is the youth organization of the Swedish Left Party.-Ideology:It is an organization that organizes the youth of today to fight for socialist and feminist social change. Young Left is a youth organization developed out of the labour movement, with influences from environmentalism, the... - BritainUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
- Young Communist League of Great BritainYoung Communist League (Britain)The Young Communist League is the name of both the youth wing of the former Communist Party of Great Britain and the current youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain ; an organisation that sees itself as the successor to the Communist Party of Great Britain.-Original Young Communist League... - U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
- Young Communist League, USAYoung Communist League, USAThe Young Communist League USA is the fraternal youth organization of the Communist Party USA. Although the name of the group has changed a number of times over the years, it dates its lineage back to 1920, shortly after the establishment of the first communist parties in America.-Early years:The... - Western UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
- Young Communist League of Western UkraineYoung Communist League of Western UkraineYoung Communist League of Western Ukraine was the youth league of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine.-Membership of KZMZU:... - YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
- Young Communist League of YugoslaviaYoung Communist League of YugoslaviaYoung Communist League of Yugoslavia, commonly known by its abbreviation SKOJ was the youth wing of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia from 1919 to 1948...
External links
- YCI history page Early American Marxism website
- The Communist International and the Communist Youth Movement, resolution of the 3rd Congress of the Communist International