From The Archives-The Struggle To Win The Youth To The Fight For Our Communist Future-

Organization Rules of theYoung Communist League of America

 

Logo Of The Communist Youth International

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Markin comment on this series:

One of the declared purposes of this space is to draw the lessons of our left-wing past here in America and internationally, especially from the pro-communist wing. To that end I have made commentaries and provided archival works in order to help draw those lessons for today’s left-wing activists to learn, or at least ponder over. More importantly, for the long haul, to help educate today’s youth in the struggle for our common communist future. That is no small task or easy task given the differences of generations; differences of political milieus worked in; differences of social structure to work around; and, increasingly more important, the differences in appreciation of technological advances, and their uses.

There is no question that back in my youth I could have used, desperately used, many of the archival materials available today. When I developed political consciousness very early on, albeit liberal political consciousness, I could have used this material as I knew, I knew deep inside my heart and mind, that a junior Cold War liberal of the American For Democratic Action (ADA) stripe was not the end of my leftward political trajectory. More importantly, I could have used a socialist or communist youth organization to help me articulate the doubts I had about the virtues of liberal capitalism and be recruited to a more left-wing world view. As it was I spent far too long in the throes of the left-liberal/soft social-democratic milieu where I was dying politically. A group like the Young Communist League (W.E.B. Dubois Clubs in those days), the Young People’s Socialist League, or the Young Socialist Alliance representing the youth organizations of the American Communist Party, American Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S.) respectively would have saved much wasted time and energy. I knew they were around but not in my area.

The archival material to be used in this series is weighted heavily toward the youth movements of the early American Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party (U.S). For more recent material I have relied on material from the Spartacus Youth Clubs, the youth group of the Spartacist League (U.S.), both because they are more readily available to me and because, and this should give cause for pause, there are not many other non-CP, non-SWP youth groups around. As I gather more material from other youth sources I will place them in this series.

Finally I would like to finish up with the preamble to the Spartacist Youth Club’s What We Fight For statement of purpose:

"The Spartacus Youth Clubs intervene into social struggles armed with the revolutionary internationalist program of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. We work to mobilize youth in struggle as partisans of the working class, championing the liberation of black people, women and all the oppressed. The SYCs fight to win youth to the perspective of building the Leninist vanguard party that will lead the working class in socialist revolution, laying the basis for a world free of capitalist exploitation and imperialist slaughter."

This seems to me be somewhere in the right direction for what a Bolshevik youth group should be doing these days; a proving ground to become professional revolutionaries with enough wiggle room to learn from their mistakes, and successes. More later.

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Organization Rules of theYoung Communist League of America

(Adopted by the National Committee of the YCL)

[circa March 1921]

1

A document in the Comintern Archive, f. 515, op. 1, d. 79, l. 3.

The organization of a permanent Young

Communist League in this country has been

definitely begun. The United communist Party

decided at its recent convention [2nd: January

1921, Kingston, NY] to take the initiative in this

matter. It is making all arrangements and carrying

out all the preliminary organization work, preparatory

to calling the first national convention

of the YCL.

While the convention will elect its own

officials, determine all matters of policy, etc., the

basic organization form will have to remain unaltered

since the affiliation with the Communist

International and cooperation with its party in

this country remains, according to capitalist law,

a crime punishable by long prison terms. This is

why the YCL is likewise being organized illegally.

1. The name of the organization shall be the

Young Communist League of America — Section

of the Young Communist International.

2. The purpose of the organization shall be:

The communist education of the young workers;

active participation in the struggle to overthrow

capitalism; (defense of the proletarian dictatorship

and the workers soviets after the seizure of power);

reorganization of labor; and the cultural development

of the working youth along the lines of communist

principles.

3. The organization units shall be the group,

consisting of no more than ten members. The

group shall elect its own group organizer, who

serves as the medium between the group and the

next higher body, namely, the city central unit.

The city central unit shall consist of all the group

organizers in the city. Together with the city organizer

and the Party advisor it shall have complete

jurisdiction over the city organization, being responsible

only to the National Committee of the

Young Communist League.

4. Each city unit shall elect a delegate to act

as fraternal delegate to the United Communist

Party city unit in its vicinity. The United Communist

Party shall likewise send a fraternal delegate

to the YCL city unit.

5. The dues of the organization shall be 25¢

per month. An organization stamp costing 50¢

must be purchased by every person joining the

organization. All dues and other payments must

be made to the respective group organizer, who

shall turn over same to the city organizer, who in

turn will forward them to the National Committee

of the YCL.

6. Every group shall function (1) as a study

class; (2) as a propaganda body. In its first aspect,

it must study (a) the Theses and Statutes of the

Communist International (including theses on the

Young Communist organizations adopted by the

Executive Committee of the Communist International);

(b) Program of the UCP; (c) special lessons

sent to it by the National Educational Committee

of the UCP. As a propaganda body, it must

distribute all literature sent to it (legal and ille2

Organizational Rules of the YCLA [circa March 1921]

gal); it must win over the best elements from the

Young Socialist Leagues, by showing them the futility

of their present position; it must organize

meetings and study classes of all kinds where it

can spread the ideas of Communism to young and

old; it must assist the UCP in its propaganda work.

7. Every individual and unit of the organization

must abide by the decisions of the higher

units. Breach of discipline will lead to expulsion

from the organization.

8. Every member should purchase the official

Party organ of the UCP [The Communist].

9. All members are urged to join the UCP

as soon as they are eligible.

10. All units shall immediately begin discussing

matters which they consider necessary to be

taken up by the First National Convention of the

YCL, which will be held in the near future.

11. Other rules necessary for the welfare of

the organization will be submitted to the membership

from time to time by the National Committee

of the YCL.

National Committee of the

Young Communist League of America.

Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2006. • Non-commercial reproduction permitted.

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