Letter to all sections and all Bolshevik-Leninist youth organizations, October 6, 1933

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On the Projected Youth Conference

To all sections and all Bolshevik-Leninist youth organizations

Dear Comrades:

We enclose herewith a copy of the circular-letter sent by the Socialist Youth League (SJV), the youth group of our friends, the OSP. It concerns the call in two months’ time for an international conference of revolutionary socialist and communist youth. We attach exceptional importance to this initiative. The collapse of' the two Internationals is most seriously reflected in the youth movement, which is the weakest link in the proletarian army. The regeneration of the international workers’ movement and the creation of a new International are inconceivable without the awakening, assembling, international unification, and education of the proletarian youth in revolutionary theory and struggle. The Amsterdam conference can and must become an important step along this road.

It appears from the attached circular-letter that organizations and groups of revolutionary youth quite different in their political physiognomy will be taking part in the conference. We think that a composition of this kind at the present stage is not only inevitable, but also politically correct. It is not as if they were organized parties, with an entrenched bureaucracy. All the youth organizations listed in the circular, or at least the overwhelming majority, are in the process of formation, evolving towards communism, and seeking only to define their theory and politics. At a youth conference of this kind, the young Bolshevik-Leninists can do work of tremendous importance.

Two months is very short notice. So it is necessary now to undertake an intervention into the conference worthy of our sections. To this end the International Secretariat has established a special Central Commission, presided over by a member of the Secretariat, with the participation of representatives of the communist youth of three national sections: in the hands of this commission will be concentrated all the preparatory work, under the general direction of the IS.

We recommend that the national leaderships create National Commissions of this type in their countries, and that they start work immediately.

The first task is to work seriously on the agenda proposed by the Dutch comrades, to prepare draft resolutions, to complete the agenda with new questions, to work out political and organizational theses, etc. … Any draft theses of this kind, no matter how small, should be sent immediately to the Central Commission at the address given below. At the same time it is hoped, in view of the shortage of time, that each section will send its draft theses to the other sections, which of course will not remove from the commission the task of sending out the necessary materials.

It is to be hoped that the greatest possible number of our sections and groups will send their own representatives to the conference. However, we want to forewarn each section that it must cover its own travel expenses. Some sections may join their forces to send a common delegate. It is absolutely permissible, obviously, to mandate [as a delegate] a comrade living in another country, if he is closely familiar with the life of the section in question and can express its point of view.

In a case where material difficulties prevent sending a delegate, it is necessary for the section to prepare its own greetings to the conference, along with a brief report on youth work and a brief explanation of its general principled positions.

We do not doubt that in several countries youth organizations, groups, and fractions exist that have not yet been placed on the Dutch comrades’ list, but that could successfully be invited to participate in the conference. We propose that you search them out immediately in your country, and advise the Dutch organization, in order to have them officially invited, and at the same time that you immediately begin preliminary negotiations on their participation in the conference.

When the first preparatory steps have been taken and the Central Commission has enough information, it would be very desirable, wherever possible, to hold public meetings of the revolutionary youth on the topic, “The Amsterdam Conference of Revolutionary Youth.” At such meetings it would be desirable to hold a vote on short resolutions that express the necessity of organizing the proletarian youth on the basis of revolutionary Marxism.

The most important point on the agenda is the fourth: “Fundamental principles and forms of international collaboration.” On this question we must elaborate a programmatic declaration that must in its later development become the charter of the new youth International. We invite all sections, without exception, to submit any proposals on this question. For our part, we think it is absolutely necessary to submit a special resolution on the following question: “The Revolutionary Youth and Marxist Theory.” The most important task of Bolshevik-Leninists in the present primitive stage of regeneration of the international youth movement will be to pose in all its sharpness the proposition that the Fourth International must be constructed upon the granite foundations of Marxist theory if it is to be equal to the tasks of our epoch. It is precisely the youth who must be inoculated with the understanding of the inestimable importance of Marxist theory as a weapon of revolutionary practice. In response to the underestimation of the importance of theory, and even more to the disdain for theory in the ranks of the youth (such sentiments are very characteristic of the organizations of the Two-and-a-Half International), we must offer a resistance that is friendly in form, but fundamentally intransigent.

The question of the struggle against fascism and war will necessarily have an important place in the work of the conference. Here we must be especially precise in putting forward the Leninist principles of revolutionary strategy, in opposition to the spirit of reformist and Austro-Marxist capitulation, to centrist indecision of all kinds, and to the masquerade “politics” of Barbusse-Münzenberg, who, because of their lies and their deceit, because of their outward appearance and inner emptiness, are particularly deadly for the revolutionary youth movement.

These are the most important considerations and suggestions that we can give you at present. We are relying firmly on your initiative and firmness in the preparatory work. It is a matter — we may say without exaggeration — of historic importance! The Bolshevik-Leninists can and therefore must play a great role in the creation of a new youth International.

We hope that within three days of receiving this letter you will send us a brief communication on your plans, your opportunities, and the practical steps you have already taken to prepare for the conference.