The Young Communist League (YCL) is an essential tool in the class struggle for socialism in Britain. Yet, within and outside of our own ranks, persistent challenge remains over the fundamental role and character of the YCL, regarding whether it is a mass organisation or a vanguard organisation. Disagreements over this question directly stunts our growth, strategy and our ability to relate to the masses of working-class youth and students in Britain because we are unable to target our recruitment, retention, and education.
Joseph Stalin in his speech On the Contradictions in the Young Communist League delivered in 1924, described the Young Communist League as a “reserve…from which the Party augments its ranks…at the same time, an instrument…in the hands of the Party, bringing the masses of the youth under its influence…the active League membership is an instrument of the Party for influencing the youth not organised in the League.” Thus, the YCL is an organisation that can extend the Communist Party’s ability to influence youth in Britain and help it accomplish Britain’s Road to Socialism.
Around 1941, the Communist Party of Great Britain released a statement on The Role and Character of the Young Communist League, in which it defined: “The Communist Party arises from and is based upon the working class. There is only one working class (young workers are part of this class), therefore there can only be one party of the working class, and only one Marxist-Leninist theory and science. The YCL, therefore, is not a “youth party.””
Thus, the Communist Party is the vanguard of the working class and its youth wing, the YCL is its reserve and instrument, necessarily capturing a wider membership than the Party due to differences in function. The YCL is not a mini Communist Party. The Party is the highest form of working-class organisation and should consist of the most advanced, politically conscious sections of the working class. It is a united, centralised organisation to provide strategic leadership to the working class movement, thus there can only be one vanguard for the working class. Working-class youth are part of this working class and some make up the membership of the Party, hence there is no need for a separate youth ‘vanguard’.
The Party is the vanguard, therefore the YCL is a mass organisation “spiritually bound” to the Party. The primary goal of the YCL is educational. It is, at its crux, “a mass school of communism” for youth, particularly working-class youth, where they can learn communism theoretically and practically, and begin their political development. Most, if not all, applicants will not be fully-fledged communists; it is their duty to learn communism as members of the YCL.
The role of the Party is complex, hence the YCL provides the space where young people can learn the ropes of democratic centralism and other concepts. It is unrealistic to expect young people to come fresh into Party life and know what is going on otherwise we struggle to retain members, who could feel overwhelmed and excluded.
On the anniversary of the Young Communist League of Cuba (UJC) in 1962, Che Guevara delivered his address What a Young Communist Should Be, in which he said, “The Young Communist League must define itself with a single word: vanguard. You, comrades, must be the vanguard of all movements. The first to be ready to make the sacrifices that the Revolution demands, whatever the nature of these sacrifices. The first in work. The first in study. The first in the defence of the country…” The notion of vanguard in his speech is related to the role young people played in the Revolution and in the Defence of the Revolution. The risk of foreign aggression from the US against Cuba meant that the entire population had to be trained in guerrilla strategy and revolutionary spirit as a whole-of-society approach to the Defence of the Revolution. Cadre development can happen outside of the Party in Cuba because they draw cadres from the masses and endless supply of the working class, and therefore “transmission of political orientation” from the Party to the masses is required. This obviously differs from the CPGB’s formulation due to different material conditions of two different Parties at two different times, but the CPGB identified the YCL as the “transmission belt from the Party to the masses of youth.” All types of cadre should come from the YCL and be given every opportunity to develop through study programmes and practical work in political, theoretical and economic issues and struggles, side by side with the masses.
The watchword of the UJC being “Study, Work and the Rifle” indicates the material reality of Cuba at the time in developing a socialist nation able to defend the Revolution through education, development and defence. Youth are especially important because they are the “malleable clay from which the new person can be built,” highlighting the importance of educating youth. Reflecting the CPGB’s assessment that the YCL is “spiritually bound” to the Party, Che also described the UJC as the “younger brother of the Integrated Revolutionary Organisation (ORI),” meaning it was tied to and subservient to the ORI.
Our YCL’s constitutional task is to render the Party’s strategy set out in Britain’s Road to Socialism into activity and propaganda that resonates with the material reality of young people, to build mass support for our programme to fight for peace, jobs and socialism in our lifetime. This is vital during a time when the ruling capitalist class’s drive to war escalates to satisfy its imperialist interests over market and resource dominance, and increase profits from the war machine. The Labour government is destituting the working class through austerity and cuts to public services, which are in crisis, to fund its militarism. On top of this, youth unemployment is at 15.3% and young workers are more likely to be in precarious, temporary and part-time work with age discrimination enshrined in law, in terms of the differences in the national minimum wage for different age groups. Therefore, the YCL must fulfil its purpose to be an instrument of the Party to extend influence over youth, especially working-class youth, to inspire them to join and train them up in the class struggle.
Reinforced by our 51st Congress Resolution, our mission should be to win over the majority of the working youth. Youth are exploited in specific ways and are largely out of touch with the labour movement; however, Lenin observed that they are often “seething, turbulent and enquiring,” often more willing to participate in the class struggle because they have only experienced crisis rather than reformism. Take Generation Z for example, who the vast majority have only ever known life under austerity. Generation Z have not lived during a period of a strong, organised trade union movement winning concessions for the working class, nor the concessions experienced in the post-war period, which saw mass council housing developments and the introduction of the NHS. Successive governments have only offered them managed decline and crisis, therefore young people are not tempted by reformism because attempting to work for capitalist reforms rings hollow and any previous reforms have been built with sand, easily degraded or snatched away in the interests of the ruling capitalist class.
Young people’s lived reality is crisis. The drive to war and austerity that is all-consuming in our society doesn’t promise youth anything better under capitalism, thus youth are in a position to reject capitalism more. The climate crisis, war, and precarious work leads many young people to feel hopeless about their lack of a secure future, meaning they have nothing to lose to revolt against capitalism. This doesn’t mean that young people will automatically be revolutionary, but it presents plenty of opportunities for the YCL to build upon. The YCL offers material analysis of the material reality of youth in Britain, to win over masses of youth and raise their political consciousness in our workplaces, campuses and communities.
All of youth’s interests, political, economic and social, should be fought for to increase political exposures for youth in Britain. This means that our members and branches should be leading campaigns against war and austerity, for peace and fully funded services as well as other working-class issues to raise the political consciousness of youth, relate communism to youth and draw young people into the struggle for socialism. The branch is the centre for this activity. Branches must not only study the material reality in their given area but also organise and campaign to improve the material conditions for working-class youth in the struggle for socialism. For example, young communists are leading the Toothless in Yorkshire campaign, linking this to austerity and cuts to public services, whilst fighting for fully funded dental care. Many young communists are leaders in the trade union movement, which is a focal area of developing and training workers in the class struggle, and is positive for the League in that it has increased particularly in the last two years.
Viewing the YCL as a vanguard is a mistake because it sets the bar for membership unrealistically and unnecessarily high for youth who intend to learn communism. A consequence of this view is that we turn away potential before we nurture and develop future cadre, cutting ourselves off from the masses of youth. Furthermore, it muddies the role of the Communist Party as the vanguard party, which leads the entire working class, including working-class youth.
To intensify our work, we must refocus our efforts to train, educate and raise the political consciousness of young people in communism to win them over to achieve Britain’s Road to Socialism. We must constantly recruit those who want to struggle against war and austerity and support the cause of socialism. Every member is tasked with bringing more youth into struggle and training themselves and others to be the future generation of communists.
Stalin’s vision from 1925 that, “The time is not far distant when the League will embrace no less than nine-tenths of the entire working-class youth,” is impossible if we do not set out to organise the masses of working-class youth. This is because the Communist Party is the vanguard, and its youth wing, the school of communism, the Young Communist League, is its reserve and instrument amongst the youth.
Comrades are welcome to contribute to the discussion in future Challenge articles and strongly encouraged to read the texts below.
Georgina Andrews, is General Secretary of the Young Communist League
Read more here:
- YCL Constitution
- YCL 51st Congress Resolution
- The Role and Character of the Young Communist League – CPGB
- Where to Begin? How to Build a Mass Young Communist League – F. Fuernberg
- On the Contradictions in the Young Communist League – Stalin
- The Active of the Young Communist League in the Countryside – Stalin
- The Tasks of the Young Communist League – Stalin
- The Tasks of the Youth Leagues – Lenin
- To the Third Congress of the Young Communist International, Moscow – Lenin
- The Youth International: A Review – Lenin
- What a Young Communist Should Be – Che Guevara
- The Cadres: Backbone of the Revolution – Che Guevara
- Socialism and Man in Cuba – Che Guevara
