‘Leninist Youth Camp in New York’ by Martha Stone from The Daily Worker. Vol. 2 No. 192. August 22, 1925.

Days Are Given to Play and Training by Martha Stone, Member of the City Executive Committee, Junior Section of N.Y., and Secretary of the Leninist Youth Camp, Group 2.

NEW YORK, Aug. 21. For the first time In America a Communist children’s camp has been established— the Leninist Youth Camp at Camp Nitgedayget. It is a camp for working class children. It is necessary that the children of the working class be brought up under proper surroundings that they should not grow up in ignorance but that they shall become class conscious fighters and leaders in building up a working class movement and finally in establishing a working class government.

For these reasons our camp has been established. It is a great aid to us in organizing the working class children. We are given mental and physical training there so that when we grow up we should be strong and trained fighters for the oppressed masses and that we should be able to carry on as we ought to the struggle of the workers children right here today.

Every year hundreds of children are sent away to the boy and girl scout camps. There they are given patriotic training so that when these ignorant children grow up they will make good soldiers and fight for the interests of the capitalists.

On the other hand, we have the Leninist Youth Camp. We, too, have exercises and drills but with one view in mind—to produce fighters for the working class and the working class children and not to protect and fight for a leisure class.

The two foundations of the camp are discipline and co-operation. We have Communist discipline that must be carried out at the camp. The discipline is not made for the good of a few comrades but for the welfare of the camp as a whole. In order to have a successful camp we must co-operate with each other. It is often necessary that one individual should sacrifice something for the good of the camp. If we co-operate and carry out discipline, the camp runs smoothly and everything is fine.

Some of our activities are council meetings, swimming, games and discussions. Every day council (Soviet) meetings are held to discuss the plans for the day which must be carried out. We also have discussions each day on topics that will give us a deeper and a clearer understanding of the class struggle existing today.

By our songs, cheers, and entertainments we have interested parents and children and in this way we have added new members to our lists. The days pass so swiftly at the camp because we are occupied all day in working and playing together with our comrades that when the time comes to leave the camp a pall of sorrow is thrown over the once merry faces of the Juniors. How we dread to leave the camp where we have enjoyed working and playing with our comrades.

During the vacation at the camp each comrade has been drawn into activity and a real fighting Communist spirit awakened in each individual. When we return to the city we begin to take our Junior work more seriously and become more active because of the deep influence the camp has had upon each comrade.

Forward all together shoulder to shoulder towards a Leninist Youth Camp!

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1925/v2n191-aug-22-1925-TDW.pdf