2 - Under the Party’s Wing: Communist Youth Organisations 1920-1956

Summary

Abstract

This chapter examines and compares the social and political history of the communist youth movement in Britain and the Netherlands between 1920 and 1956. It looks primarily at the histories of the British Young Communist League (YCL) and the Dutch Communistische Jeugdbond (CJB; ‘Communist Youth League’) and its post-Second World War successor the Algemeen Nederlands Jeugdverbond (ANJV; ‘General Dutch Youth League’). The chapter details these organisations’ relationships with their respective communist parties and explores the impact of the Class Against Class phase, the Popular Front strategy, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the entry of the Soviet Union into the war on the Allied side, and finally the Cold War on the popularity of these communist youth organisations.

Keywords: Young Communist League, Communistische Jeugdbond, Algemeen Nederlands Jeugdverbond, anti-fascism, Cold War

Maybe our political activities were not that important, but we felt we were part of the international revolutionary movement, who strived for a new society. We would march through Amsterdam, singing The March of Millions. And even though we were marching with only 50 members, it felt like we were with millions.

Against the backdrop of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, humanitarian concerns about children, especially working-class children, increased in momentum. Reformers introduced new laws that improved children's access to health care and education. In most industrialised countries, schooling became compulsory and the age allowable to leave school was slowly increased. In the Netherlands, the latter was set at twelve in 1900, and in England and Wales it was raised from ten to fourteen in 1918. Reformers were influenced by new theories about adolescence, such as those by American psychologist G. Stanley Hall. In his 1904 work, Adolescence. Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion and Education, Hall suggests that adolescence, a time of ‘storm and stress’, yet rich with potential, lasted from the ages of fourteen to 24. The way these years were spent would determine the success or failure of the adult-to-be. As such, youth organisations, such as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Guides, and a number of religious and secular youth groups sprung into existence around the turn of the twentieth century to provide children with guidance, protection, and structure during this period of turmoil and difficulty.