Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In November 1919, the Young Communist International (YCI) established itself as the youth coordinating body of the Communist International (Comintern) . The YCI was neither a creation of Lenin's Bolshevik Party , nor did it originate in the young Soviet republic. The YCI grew out of the anti-war struggles of socialist youth in Western Europe, representing itself as the organizational heir of the Socialist Youth International (SYI). During World War I, the SYI led the first attempts to reestablish international socialist anti-war activities. Willi Münzenberg of the Swiss Youth League coordinated an international call to action, bringing together youth from ten nations for an International Youth Conference in Berne, Switzerland during April 1915. The Berne Conference inspired anti-war socialists to reconvene in Zimmerwald, Switzerland in September 1915. Here, Münzenberg and the youths consistently supported Lenin's revolutionary positions against the war. Zimmerwald ultimately forged a close association between youth and communism. The SYI had its first postwar meeting in Berlin during November 1919. Representatives of the newly formed Comintern sent lengthy appeals to the SYI to court their organization away from the SI. This meeting resulted in the socialist youth reforming the SYI as the Young Communist International. When the YCI affiliated to the Comintern in 1919, it considered ... log in or subscribe to read full text