Making a plea for a movement specific to children; to how they learn, their place in society, their schools and homes, the places that they work, to their own needs and, in part, by their own efforts. Long-time Austrian Communist Friedl Fürnberg was 26 when he became Secretary of the Young Communist International in 1928. Below is his report and adjacent resolution from the 1930 Y.C.I. Plenum to discuss the ‘Third Period and Proletarian Youth.’

‘The Position and Tasks of the Communist Children’s Movement’ by Friedl Fürnberg from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 10 No. 15. March 21, 1930.

Comrade Fürnberg’s Report.

Comrades, I think that you will agree with my proposal to deal in my report mainly with questions which are new to us. I think it is superfluous to deal once more here with matters which have already been mentioned and are generally known. But I will have, of course to touch on some fundamental questions.

SOME FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS.

Comrades, I think we all agree as to the place of the proletarian child in society. We have already laid down this in our programme. We are of the opinion that the child should be considered as part of a class. We are against the views held by the social democrats and the bourgeoisie who speak of the class of children and the class of adults. Our class division is different, namely, proletariat and bourgeoisie. The child belongs to its own class. This fundamental fact must be the starting point of our whole activity and ideology. The social democrats have expressed their views on this question in the pamphlet of one of their theorists on the question of education. I mean the pamphlet of Felix Kanitz who writes as follows:

“Thus, the attitude of adult people towards all children is not the attitude of the ruling class towards the ruled, but there are in the relation of all adults to all children numerous features of class rule. Features of a very harsh, very cruel class rule sanctioned by tradition, religion, and law.”

According to him, there is a class of children, and a class of adults, we have laid down in our programme:

“Communist education is possible only if proletarian children are included in the struggle and the work of that class.”

This must be, under all circumstances, the starting point of our whole work. The second fundamental question which should be emphasised, is our attitude to the bourgeois family. While all others who study children’s questions fully recongnise the bourgeois family this is the case among the bourgeoisie–or recognise it partially–this is the case among the social democrats–we emphatically repudiate the bourgeois family. We say emphatically that we are fighting the bourgeois family relentlessly, that we must bring about the inclusion of the proletarian child in the class struggle, regardless if the bourgeois family is destroyed or not.

The third question with which I propose to deal is that of the economic position of the proletarian child. I will deal only very briefly with this question, because it has already been thoroughly discussed on many occasions.

It is generally known that the economic position of the proletarian child is very unsatisfactory indeed, that children must be wage-earners, that the physical deterioration of the proletarian child is strongly developed, that the child suffers most from the economic pressure which weighs heavily on the whole proletariat. I will not give any examples of this, because before such a forum it is not necessary to produce a proof of this.

A few words in this connection about the forms of child-labour. Comrades, there is among us under-estimation of child labour which is to be found in the children’s organisations themselves, as well as in the Young Communist Leagues and Parties. It is a fact that millions of children are drawn into the process of production throughout the world. According to bourgeois reporters, four million children are wage-earners in America. The number is of course much greater. Child labour takes various forms. Generally speaking, there are four main forms.

1. Child labour in the industry itself.

2. Labour which children perform in the street.

3. Child labour in the home industry, and in this connection, the labour of the workers own children.

4. Child labour in agriculture.

While there is a general under-estimation of child labour, this under-estimation is very pronounced regarding child labour in factories. This applies particularly to West European countries. Our own comrades do not realise how great is the number of children employed in factories.

The greatest number of children is employed in agriculture and the home industry. In big towns the greatest number of children work in the street, as messengers, newspaper sellers, shoe-blacks, etc.

According to material collected in 1926 by the various states of the United States, child labour is distributed as follows: 42% of 14-15-year old children are employed in industry, 27% in trade, 31% as messengers, errand boys, house porters, and such like. Thus, we see that one-third of the children is employed in the street. I think that this is a too low estimate of this percentage. In practice, and especially if one excludes agriculture, the number of children employed in the street is much higher. It is perfectly clear that in our activity we have paid far too little attention to work among these children.

Comrades, these children are unable to acquire a trade or a profession, theirs are so-called blind alley-professions or occupations, namely, occupations which cease at the age of 17 or 18, because another child is again engaged, for they are occupations and professions for children and youngsters only. It is as clear as daylight that these children constitute subsequently the mass of unskilled workers, and are therefore of particular importance to us at the present juncture. That is why we shall have to pay henceforth more attention to these children.

CAPITALIST RATIONALISATION AND THE PROLETARIAN CHILD.

Comrades, I will deal now with some new questions which have cropped up lately: firstly, the question of capitalist rationalisation and its effect on children: the effect of capitalist rationalisation on children must be considered by us in three spheres: 1. Regarding child labour; 2. in the school: 3. the effect on children through the enormous effect of capitalist rationalisation on the whole proletarian class, and thereby also on the proletarian child as part of this class.

Regarding child labour, it is perfectly clear that capitalist rationalisation means an increase of child labour. There is a consensus of opinion on this subject. Capitalist rationalisation means increase of child labour and exploitation of the proletarian child. Capitalist rationalisation simplifies labour, it encourages child labour, and in many cases makes it absolutely necessary.

There are certain machines which make child labour necessary, because only small hands can manipulate them. We have had reports on such cases from China, the textile industry there. But there are such cases also in other countries.

I am coming now to the second sphere where capitalist rationalisation makes itself felt: The School. We had already a discussion on this question at the leader conference of the Comrade Hörnle laid draft theses before this conference in Communist Children’s Leagues which took place here recently, which he says that a contradiction exists between the requirements of the rationalised industry on the one hand, and the necessity of the class rule of the bourgeoisie, on the other hand. According to him, the development of capitalism compels the bourgeoisie to give children a better education and training, because greater demands are made on the mass of the workers. We have repudiated such a conception. We do not think that such compulsion exists. On the contrary, the development of capitalism brings with it worse education and training of the masses who are taught less and less. There is no contradiction between the interests of the bourgeoisie which wants to keep the proletariat on as low a level as possible, and the tendencies of capitalist rationalisation. That wrong views are widely spread, or at least that confusion of ideas exists also in our ranks, is shown by Comrade Wiesner’s pamphlet published six months ago, which does not deal clearly with this question. In the interest of increased and improved production, in the interest of capitalist rationalisation, the education and training of the toiling masses must be reduced to a lower standard. Comrades, this does not mean that small sections of workers are not singled out for better training, for this is the case more than ever before. Here we have the new roots for a labour aristocracy. But to say that improved production means necessarily improved education an training of the masses, is a mistake.

What is the real effect of rationalisation on education, on the schools? In his pamphlet, Comrade Wiesner, raises this question correctly: he says that the effect consists in the introduction of economy, several classes are combined, in order to reduce the number of teachers. This is certainly one of the effects of capitalist rationalisation but it is only a minor effect, and not a very important one, I think. More important is the fact that attempts are made to establish a close connection between the schools and the rationalised industry, that we witness attempts at specialised training of children for the various branches of industry already in the schools, that we witness an adaptation of the school curriculum to the requirements of the rationalised industry. It happens, for instance, in Germany that the choice of an occupation or profession is already made in school, namely, through the industry itself.

The third effect of capitalist rationalisation on children, we witness in the struggles of the proletarian class against such rationalisation, into which proletarian children are also drawn. When, for instance, as a result of capitalist rationalisation, serious struggles break out in various occupations or factories, or throughout the country, it goes without saying that the children of the strikers are drawn into the struggle and are affected by it.

MILITARIST EDUCATION.

This brings me to the second question which is confronting us in a new form, the Question of Military Training of Children Accompanied by Pacifist Propaganda, One cannot separate these two questions, one must take the two together.

Re military and pacifist education in the schools: comrades, it is obvious that a well-worked out system of military training of children in the schools exists in nearly all capitalist countries. In a number of countries, military training is compulsory, for instance, in France Italy and Poland. In countries such as Germany, where, owing to the peace treaty, the question of military training cannot be raised openly, such training appears in the garb of gymnastics and in various other forms. But one can say that everywhere military training is one of the most important parts of children’s education in bourgeois schools. But side by side with it, we see pacifist education and a hostile attitude to the Soviet Union. I have found in this respect several interesting paragraphs in a manual, or rather guide for elementary teachers. It contains various advice to teachers, how lessons should be conducted  with regard to pacifist education of children, and with regard to arousing their sympathy for the League of Nations. One of these paragraphs is:

“The organisation of the League of Nations should, therefore, be brought to the notice of the youth not methodically, for this would be resented, but casually, in a free and easy manner (there is opportunity for this in every lesson, the book gives examples in this respect). The teacher is to bring up the subject of the necessary cooperation of peoples, and if convenient, should also speak of the League of Nations. On some other occasion some daily incident will perhaps give the desired opportunity, but the teacher should, as much as possible, avoid abstractions and give the children facts. They will like this, will always remember it and be grateful to their teacher.”

In another place, struggle against the Soviet Union in connection with the pacifist education of children is mentioned cautiously in a cleverly disguised form:

“It frequently happens that a state does wrong, and for the sake of this wrong, makes war on another State. Is not such a war also an infringement of law and order? Why do not the States decide once and for all that whoever among us does wrong, will be punished by us all in the name of justice, that we will all make war on him.”

It is said then that this has already been decided and that there is even such a paragraph in the Covenant in the League of Nations. Our good League of Nations will make war on the State which will perhaps some time break the peace. Then comes the following statement:

“Of course, the war which the States will carry on against the breaker of the peace, is also war.

“But this war assumes then a different character, it means infliction of punishment, just as the gendarme has frequently to make use of arms in the name of justice for the upkeep of law and order. But every other war is a breach of the peace.

“The States need not dissolve their armies, but the character of these armies is to be different, they are not to be peacebreakers and law breakers, but guardians of law and order gendarmes.”

Everyone understands who can be the peace-breaker, and everyone also understands that this war, which is not a war but infliction of punishment, is the war against the Soviet Union. This shows in what spirit and sense it is intended to educate proletarian children in bourgeois schools. On the one hand, military training, and on the other hand, pacifist education with a strong bias against the Soviet Union.

There is also another form of military training of children: bourgeois military youth organisations, fascist children’s organisations, which frequently embrace enormous numbers of youngsters. In Italy, for instance, the fascist children’s organisation has no less than 789,937 boy and 365,781 girl members. A gigantic number for a country of 42 million inhabitants. Apart from them, there is a whole series of so-called sport organisations etc.: Boy Scout and Girl Guide organisations, the chief aim of which is military training of children.

In this connection, we cannot help mentioning the social democratic children’s organisations, the object of which is to provide the pacifist phraseology, the pacifist cloak for the military training of children. One can say that these organisations serve the bourgeoisie fairly well, that the social democratic children’s leagues know how to parade in pacifist colours and prevent that the mass, of proletarian children be made to take up the correct proletarian class standpoint.

THE BOURGEOIS SCHOOL REFORM.

It is unfortunately a fact that our whole Communist movement has hitherto failed to take up a clear attitude to the bourgeois school reform. I must quote again Comrade Hörnle, At the conference which I have already mentioned, Comrade Hörnle made in his theses on the question of the school reform the following statement: We have not at present an ascending curve of school reform, but a differentiation in the bourgeois school. I think that we have here a misconstruction of the question of school reform, and of our attitude to it. What is the school reform in the bourgeois State? It must be clear to every Communist that school reform in the bourgeois State is and cannot be anything but an attempt to improve the methods of educating slaves, to strengthen the class domination of the bourgeoisie. Every bourgeois school reform must lead in the end to such a result, and we must therefore repudiate on principle every bourgeois school reform. Comrades, this does not mean that we must repudiate all the methods which are used. The bourgeois school reforms itself, naturally, throughout the whole development of capitalism. The school of today is different to the school 80 years ago. But it is nevertheless, in principle, a school for the education of the oppressed just as at that time, and not only just as at that time, for it is better equipped now than before, to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois school reform means nothing but adaptation of the bourgeois school to the development of capitalism. That is why Comrade Hörnle’s proposition is wrong. The bourgeois school reform is precisely the differentiation which we see now in the bourgeois school. One cannot say that there is no ascending curve of school reform now, but only a differentiation. This would mean that we look upon school reform as something desirable. This is a false standpoint in principle. That is why it is also wrong to speak of a “genuine” school reform, as this is also done by Comrade Wiesner, who raises the question of reform correctly (on the whole in his pamphlet). There is no “genuine” school reform. To us the only question is: bourgeois school or proletarian school.

If we repudiate the bourgeois school on principle, this does not mean that we repudiate all the methods applied in the bourgeois school. In this respect, one could perhaps draw a comparison with capitalist rationalisation. We repudiate capitalist rationalisation and oppose it, but we will make use for ourselves and in the proletarian State of the machinery, the inventions which rationalisation brings with it. We repudiate the bourgeois school reform on principle, and bourgeois schools in general. But we will, of course, make use of various methods applied in the bourgeois school–we are making use of them already in the Soviet Union.

Neither are we averse to fighting for small improvements in the school, we bring forward the question of partial demands in the school, and lead the struggle for these partial demands. But we must simultaneously raise the question of principle, and in this connection there are still many short-comings in the various Communist Parties.

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE PROLETARIAN CHILD.

Just as the struggle for the mass of the proletarian youth has become sharper, the struggle for the mass of the proletarian children is, of course, also sharper. We witness also radicalisation among the mass of workers’ children. This is not a mechanical transference of phenomena among adult and young workers to the mass of workers’ children. There is a series of facts which show that such radicalisation exists. Of course in different forms, but radicalisation for all that. For instance, a Catholic periodical complains that many children take up a negative attitude to religion. Figures are given to bear this out:

“The question if the church and religion are still of any value, was answered in the negative by 22% of the people questioned, 18 % are undecided or are contradicting themselves. Only 50% attach a positive value to religion. The reasons for repudiation are in many cases, worded very drastically, on the model of Communist slogans: “The Church is only business”, “religion does not feed us”, etc.

Comrades, these figures are very important. Just imagine what answers would have been received if such a questionnaire had been sent out 20 years ago. At least 95% of the children would have given a positive answer.

As to the new methods of the bourgeois organisations to keep the proletarian children under their control: Firstly, the military and fascist organisations: these organisations try to win over the children by their military character and I think that in regard to these organisations, one cannot say that they have been applying new methods lately. I mean the decidedly military-fascist organisations. But if we go a little further, to the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and sport organisations, we see a series of new methods by which the children are drawn into the work, self-government is encouraged among them and efforts are made to increase their activity, the attitude of the children to the struggles of the working class is taken into consideration, and various other matters.

These new methods have even bewildered Comrades such as Hörnle, to such an extent that he makes the following statement about the Boy Scouts in his book “Fundamental Questions of Communist Education”:

“The bourgeois Boy-scout movement is involved in inextricable contradictions. It cannot possibly apply for any length of time the revolutionary educational methods which it has adopted and is advocating.”

Here bewilderment and confusion of ideas have reached their climax. Revolutionary educational methods and Boy Scouts!! New methods are certainly applied in this movement, but we must emphatically repudiate the idea that these methods have anything to do with revolutionary methods, they are, of course not revolutionary at all, either regarding their object, or even as a method.

Comrades, not only these Boy Scouts, but even christian organisations who preach humility and want to educate the children into subservient lackeys, even the Catholic children’s organisations speak today of the necessity of self-government among children and such like matters.

There are, finally, the social democratic children’s organisations. Is it mere chance that the social-democratic children’s organisations have so developed in the last years that in a number of countries where no social-democratic children’s organisations existed, such organisations are being formed now? One cannot of course ascribe this to chance. This is nothing but an expression of the accentuation of the struggle for the proletarian child.

Matters have progressed even further, we have not only social-democratic children’s organisations, but there is already within these organisations the Red Falcon Group. One might say that the Red Falcons have come into being because a renegade of the Communist children’s movement has taken our methods to the social-democrats and has established Red Falcons there. I think that such an explanation of the establishment of Red Falcons and their activity would be beside the mark. The Red Falcons, too, do not owe their existence just to mere chance. They, too, are an expression of the accentuation of the struggle for the proletarian child, of the radicalisation of masses of children, and these new methods which are applied there and which approximate to the methods of our Communist children’s organisations, show only that the bourgeoisie finds it necessary to apply them.

Comrades, this determines our attitude to the social-democratic children’s organisations and Red Falcons.

I think it necessary to make this question quite clear here, for though in regard to the Party and the Y.C.L., there is a consensus of opinion that, in principle, our standpoint differs from that of all other organisations, this cannot yet be said of the children’s organisation. A considerable number of our Party members are not yet aware that regarding the education of proletarian children our standpoint differs from that of all other organisations, that we are, in principle, setting ourselves against all other children’s organisations from the fascist to the red falcons. This confusion of ideas is to be found also in Comrade Hörnle’s book which we have frequently quoted. Comrade Hörnle writes about the struggle for the youth as follows:

“In this struggle, the proletariat, too, is beginning to set against the class education of the bourgeoisie a revolutionary class education of its own in the form of the youth and children’s movement.”

Then comes a bracket in which the following organisations are enumerated as class organisations of the proletariat.

“Socialist Sunday schools in Great Britain and America. Socialist and Communist children’s groups in Germany, “Red Falcons” in Austria, proletarian Boy Scouts in Norway, and as the most developed, consciously revolutionary form of the proletarian children’s movement, the young pioneers in the Soviet Union and in all the stronger Sections of the Communist International.”

According to this, the initial stage is the social-democratic organisation out of which develops the Communist, the highest form being the Pioneers in the Soviet Union. This viewpoint is altogether wrong, and wrong in principle. We must make it perfectly clear that we differ in principle from the social-democratic children’s organisation. The social democratic children’s organisation is part of the system of bourgeois children’s organisations which must be fought with the utmost energy. In some respects, the social-democratic children’s organisations must be fought more energetically than the bourgeois children’s organisations, because they appeal more to the proletarian children, to the children to whom we also appeal.”

THE POSITION OF THE COMMUNIST CHILDREN’S MOVEMENT.

It has already been said in Comrade Khitarov’s report that the situation in the Communist children’s movement is very unsatisfactory.

We said already at the V, World Congress, in the resolution on the children’s question, that the children’s movement is in a state of stagnation. We must, however, say that a little later, in March, our Presidium discussed again the children’s question and made the following statement in its decision:

“While at the time of the World Congress the children’s movement was in a state of stagnation, a revival has set in lately. It seems that work is improving in Germany.” At that time, we suffered losses in Germany and Czecho-Slovakia. Thus, such an appraisal of the children’s movement was not justified. In this respect, our Presidium made a serious mistake. But this mistake is mainly due to the mistake made by our Children’s Bureau. This one must frankly admit. Comrades, who should protest against such a statement? Of course the comrades familiar with the matter, the comrades who work in this domain. But just the opposite happened.

It has been discussed whether we have a crisis in the international children’s movement or not. I think that our children’s organisation is very unsatisfactory in a number of countries, it is not a children’s organisation at all, but only the beginning of it. However, I do not think there is any occasion to speak of an international crisis, firstly, because the Pioneer League of the Soviet Union does not only belong to the international children’s movement, but is also its most important section, and in this Pioneer League of the Soviet Union we have no crisis. Secondly, the general political leadership of the children’s movement through the young Communist Leagues has been correct. If we were to speak of a crisis of the international children’s movement, we would have to raise the question also in the political sense. I think that for these two reasons alone, it would be wrong to speak of an international crisis of the children’s movement.

But why this retrogression? Comrades, I think that there are four main reasons for the retrogression:

1. Our children’s organisations are not militant enough, they do not fight energetically enough for the interests of child-workers, they do not link up their activity with the struggle of the adult workers to a sufficient extent, they are isolated from the mass of proletarian children, as well as from the struggles of the workers and even the Communist Party.

2. Generally speaking, we do not know how to apply attractive methods, we do not know how to arouse and develop the activity of the Pioneers themselves. To put the question relatively, the application of interesting methods is much worse in children’s than in Y.C.L. organisations, though such interesting methods should be much more applied in the children’s movement. In this movement, we have merely a mechanical transference of Y.C.L. methods.

3. The third reasons is an utterly erroneous organisational system. Our organisations are not based on school nuclei, they are built up on a residential basis. As to the most important capitalist countries, we cannot do satisfactory work there unless we work in the schools, because we can get hold there of masses of proletarian children. Owing to this, we have not yet been able to form auxiliary organisation.

4. The fourth reason is that we have not paid enough attention to the Leader Question in the children’s Movement. The leader question is one of the most decisive questions. If we are unable to train good leaders, nothing will avail us. Even if we fulfil all the other three conditions, without good leaders we cannot become a mass organisation. Of course, a good leader alone is also nothing, a good leader is one who can fulfil the other three conditions.

Comrades, we have, of course also satisfactory examples of the militant activity of our children’s organisations; in the recent miners’ strike in Brüx (Czechoslovakia) our children’s organisation has been very active.

But as long as they remain isolated examples, they will not have much practical effect.

Comrades, I would like to say in this connection some-thing about recruiting and economic auxiliary organisations. There are two examples which I will set against each other, so to speak, two extremes both of which are wrong. In a miner’s strike in America, some comrades set up the theory that the strike was all that mattered now and that agitation for the Communist children’s League was impossible. On the other hand, the mistake was made in Czechoslovakia on the occasion of an agricultural labourers’ strike that the representative sent there did nothing but form 3 or 4 new children’s organisations, ignoring the strike altogether. Both these extremes are wrong. We must be able to form children’s organisations in the midst of struggles without neglecting the latter. It is in this sense that we must participate in the various struggles, then it will be our duty to form auxiliary organisations in the course of these struggles. The auxiliary organisations of the children’s league must differ from those of the YCL Children’s auxiliary organisations should not be big national, but local and temporary organisations, they will spring up today, will perhaps exist 6 months, and then their members will come into our organisations. The auxiliary organisation will be dissolved, will perhaps dissolve itself, and new auxiliary organisations will spring up. Life itself will determine the form of such organisations.

Comrades, I am coming now to the question of methods. We have now nothing but transference of Y.C.L. methods to the children’s League. Even in the German League where efforts are made to apply interesting methods, these methods have not yet been applied as they should have been. What is going on in the German League is dissociated from the life of the child and from the struggle of proletarian children in general. What is the use of artificial methods which have no connection with life itself and its struggles? They will only increase our isolation and will not bring about what we want–connection with the masses. I will give a few examples of unsatisfactory methods. I have here an open letter to the Pioneers of the Wasserkante district. This letter is written in a style which Y.C.L. members will perhaps appreciate, but I cannot believe that pioneers can get anything out of this letter, that it can serve as an impressive call to them. If we were to ask the German leaders who are certainly the best, what the life of proletarian children is in school and at home, 80% will not be able to give us a concrete answer. We do not have the necessary connections with the proletarian children, and without them we cannot speak their language.

I will give another example of mechanical transference of Y.C.L. methods to children in the German League: Hardly had one discovered in the Y.C.L. the famous formula of the three points, in less than 10 minutes it was already transferred to the children’s League without alteration. This is after all a little bit too mechanical. Three conditions in the Y.C.L., and immediately three conditions in the children’s league. The question of the turn concerns of course, also the children’s leagues, and must be linked up with the turn in the Young Communist League. But it is not right to simply transfer these three points mechanically to the children’s organisations. Conditions there are in certain respects different in this connection. I would like to say a few words about the Press. Comrades, our children’s press is, in general, better than the children’s organisations, which is shown by its editions. The edition is higher than the membership of the organisation in nearly all the countries. But nevertheless, our newspapers have a good many defects. Our German paper is certainly the best, it has several very good pages in which true ability is shown in linking up with children’s interests. Children have also their own column in the German organ where they express their views, but even the German newspaper has defects. I think that the two first pages of this newspaper make the impression of having been written for the youth, and not for children. We must, of course have a leading article, also in the children’s newspaper, which deals with political questions. But we must be able to find new forms of expression, we must not cling to the dry forms of an ordinary leading article, because children will not read such an article.

Now a few words about the “Proletarian Child”. I think that this periodical of ours is very unsatisfactory. It does not pay enough attention to problems confronting the children’s movement. This is of course one more proof of the inadequacy of our leader cadre, but it is also the fault of the Central Committee, and we must see this and admit it.

Re the system of work: we have already said that school nuclei must be formed under any circumstances whatever, but it is not enough to simply form school nuclei mechanically by taking, may be, five or ten children and telling them that they are now a school nucleus, and then let everything remain as before. There must be a change in our activity, we must penetrate into schools. Connected with this is the question of school delegates, a very important question, and also the question of our mass work in general. We must under all circumstances be able to create, through the school nuclei, a whole system of school delegates, for they will be the tenacles which connect us with the mass of proletarian children. This will also compel the leaders to get in touch with proletarian children. We must organise children’s conferences. Something has already been done in this direction by the German League, and also by a few other Leagues.

I have already delt with the question of leaders. I will deal later on concretely with our future work in this respect, also with auxiliary organisations. But I must say in this connection a few words about children’s trade unions and about certain wrong tendencies among American comrades. It must be made perfectly clear that we repudiate children’s trade unions in countries such as China, because 50-60, and even 80% of the total number of workers in industry are children, and it is not at all out of the question that children’s trade unions will have to be established there.

As to the American proposal, we must emphatically repudiate the idea of coordinating the children of trade union members. What kind of a organisation is this to be, what is to be its meaning? Comrades, it can only be an organisation built up on the model of the Children’s Friends, namely, an organisation of parents who coordinate their children in a definite organisational form. What other meaning can it have? It is not an organisation which life itself produces, not one of the parallel organisations which we really want. It can only become a rival organisation, because it will not have to carry on a practical struggle.

Why should we particularly coordinate children whose parents belong to trade unions? Why should not children whose parents are not trade unionists be in such an organisation? No proper organisational principle underlies this proposal, and I think that we must reject it.

HOW MUST THE COMMUNIST CHILDREN’S ORGANISATION WORK?

Comrades, after this critical part, I would like to say briefly how, in my opinion, the children’s organisation must carry on its work:

Firstly, the children’s organisation must be able to organise and lead the struggles of child workers for their interests. It must be able to organise the children’s participation in the struggle of the whole proletarian class. It must be able to organise the linking up of the struggle of the children’s organisation with the struggle of the Communist movement in general. This is the foremost and the main question.

Secondly, we must be able to produce new interesting methods out of the practical work, and to arouse the self-activity of the Pioneers.

Thirdly, we must be able to change completely the organisational structure of our organisation. Our organisation must be built up on a school or factory nucleus basis. We must be able to form a whole series of auxiliary organisations, to organise children’s conferences. to create a school-delegate movement, to have in fact an organisational system resting on our school and factory nuclei. There must be a whole network of delegates and auxiliary organisations around us, which will enable us to draw the mass of the children into our own organisation.

In conclusion, the fourth question. We must be able to produce and educate leaders who can speak the language of the children, who are able to live and work among proletarian children. We must prevent fluctuation among leaders, our line must be such that they should be able to do practical work in the children’s movement, not only for a few months, but for a much longer period, so as to accumulate experience, in order to be able to pass it on to the Children’s League. Comrades, this is my view of the question of our Communist children’s organisation at the present juncture.

THE WORK OF THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE.

Comrades, with regard to self-criticism, our Executive has certainly not paid sufficient attention to the children’s movement, and has also made mistakes. I have already enumerated such mistakes: our resolution of March 1929 was certainly a mistake: our appraisal of the children’s movement at the V. World Congress was not a quite correct appraisal. The practical help we gave to the international children’s movement, was very inadequate, one can hardly call it help.

The chief mistake of our International Children’s Bureau consists, in my opinion, in not being able to examine the position of the children’s organisation and familiarise itself with it.

It the unsatisfactory situation in the children’s movement had been brought to our notice sooner, better support could have been obtained. But this is not the only mistake. Another mistake made not only by the Children’s Bureau, but by the whole Executive, consists in the failure to carry on our work concretely. In view of the position of the children’s organisation, this is very necessary. We must tell the organisations of the various countries concretely what they have to do. These are the main questions which I wanted to raise in this connection.

Our Central Committees in the various countries have shamefully neglected the children’s movement. Even the German League has not done enough. The German League should, of course, do much more than other Leagues, because the organisation is bigger and its requirements are greater. It cannot limit itself to passing pious resolutions in the Central Committee, it must be able to help even the lower organisations to form Executives, etc. This was not done also in the German League.

I am not going to speak here in detail about the elation to the Party. If the Y.C.L. has done very little, the Party has done still less, though the children’s movement is very important also to the Party.

I am coming to the end of my speech. What is just now the most important and decisive point, where must we step in first of all? I think that the leader question is where we must step in immediately.

We must have energetic people capable of doing practical work and changing the system The leader question is paramount, we must give, from the Young Communist League, new leaders. We have not enough forces in our own ranks, but we must find a sufficient number of young people whom we can put in charge of child-work. We do not want culture-enthusiasts, we want young people capable of working among the masses and producing in the course of practical work new forms for our children’s movement. It is in this way that we will be able to do justice to all the tasks confronting now the children’s movement. We will achieve the aim which faces us more forcibly than ever before, capture of the mass of proletarian children. It is of decisive importance to us, as the Young Communist League, to organise a large number of children. We want a reservoir from which we can draw new forces. If we had today such a reservoir, it would be much easier to solve the questions which confront us now. Then we would be able to place the pyramid really on its feet, namely, a broad communist children’s organisation. then the Young Communist organisation, then the Party. This will be a great stride on the road to the capture of the majority of the workers.

***

The Situation in the Communist Children’s Movement and its Immediate Tasks.

Resolution on Comrade Fürnberg’s Report.

1. The fact that the change decided upon at the V. World Congress of the Y.C.I. was not effected, has had a detrimental effect on the children’s movement. The most important countries (Germany, France and Britain) are going through a crisis. The situation is very unsatisfactory also in most of the other Leagues, though very favourable premises for our work exist. A characteristic feature of the situation in our children’s League is the disproportion of the numerical strength of the Pioneer organisations as compared with the Y.C.I. and Party organisations, which instead of being broader than the Party and youth organisations, are much weaker than the latter. Further their activity is not adapted to the children’s mind, they underestimate the increased political activity of the children, they have not been the organisers of the activity of the worker’s children. Only a decisive turn towards mass work, a complete departure from sectarianism and isolatedness, a fundamental change in the erroneous system of work can clear the road for the further development of our children’s movement into mass organisations.

2. Capitalist rationalisation is making the position of worker’s children worse than ever before and constitutes a basis for increased drawing in of proletarian children in the process of production. Bourgeois schools are adapting themselves more and more to capitalist rationalisation and to preparations for imperialist wars. The fascist, social-fascist and clerical organisations are being put to an ever-increasing extent at the service of imperialist education both in and outside of school. They are centrally organized and subsidised, receiving much support from the State, the municipalities and from individuals. The social-fascists work especially under the cloak of pacifist and League of Nations propaganda and lately the Boy Scouts are using the same mask in order to conceal their physiognomy as reactionary organisations for the preparation of war. The Communist children’s movement is now confronted with an enemy who is becoming increasingly dangerous.

3. The determined course of the Y.C.I. towards development of Bolshevist mass organisations requires that the Y.C.I. devotes the greatest attention to the children’s movement and that it proceeds with the organisation of children’s mass Leagues in effecting the necessary change. That the militancy of the proletarian children is increasing could be seen not only in the growing participation of the working class children in strikes and in mass demonstrations of adults, but also in a whole series of school strikes in various countries, some of which have for the first time been organised and conducted by Pioneers. The fact that along with the radicalisation and revolutionisation of the masses of workers broad sections of proletarian children are becoming active and interested in politics brings forward this question as a most urgent task of all Sections of the Y.C.I.

4. The new tactics of the Party and the Young Communist League must find expression also in the children’s movement. This must first of all be accomplished by transforming the Children’s Leagues into organisations engaged in struggles and in mass work instead of having as their chief object the education of the children, such as is still largely the case now. The children’s organisations must, however, under all circumstances refrain from automatically copying the forms and methods used by the Party and the Young Communist League which lend the Children’s Leagues the character of children’s political parties.

Considering that the Communist children’s movement is supposed to train the proletarian children on the basis of struggle, that it must be wider than the youth movement and must meet the interests and requirements of the children the Y.C.I. rejects all Right and Left deviations, especially the Social Democratic outlook which stands exclusively for educational work which greatly hampers the activities of our organisation These deviations are expressed first of all in the under-estimation of the importance of the social fascist children’s organisations and in a wrong attitude of the proletarian children’s organisations towards them. Then there is the wrong estimation of the Boy Scouts as well as the disbelief in the possibility of influencing and embracing the majority of proletarian children, sectarian isolation and slavish imitation of the methods used by the Party and by the Young Communist League.

Taking these principles as a foundation the Communist children’s Leagues must effect a determined change in the sphere of mass work along the following lines:

a) Wide masses of proletarian children should be mobilised for concrete slogans and watchwords understandable to children in connection with the economic and political struggles of the adults. The interests of the exploited children should be defended above all. Special children’s Sections should be formed in the Red trade unions; other organisational forms can only be applied in order to get hold of these circles of children. Struggles of the exploited children are to be started and organised and at the same time a sharp course must be taken against the bourgeois school and against social-fascism in the schools, for school strikes and school fights. Participation in strikes must not be only a solidarity action, the children of the strikers must be got hold of the mass of the children must be mobilised in support of them, the struggle must be carried right into the schools. In the struggle for the masses of proletarian children the Communist children’s organisations must set up a united front of all proletarian children against the reactionary and social-fascist children’s organisations. At the same time, a struggle is to be carried on against imperialist training and war preparations not merely by issuing opposition slogans as has been the case hitherto but in conjunction with training for red defence.

b) These militant tasks can be carried out only with the application of live methods and forms of work suitable for children. Instead of the work hitherto done which suppresses the activity of the individual pioneer, a system must be instituted to give scope to the activity of the children, to be attractive to the various sections of the children representing their various interests, and making each pioneer responsible for the work and the struggle. Greatest attention must be paid to the training of a body of officials, to be in charge of the organisation. Only if a strong kernel of active pioneers will be organised can systematic and successful work among the masses of children be carried out. It is an urgent task to institute a system of school delegates (of exploited children). The holding of delegate and children’s conferences provides forms suitable for all organisations and are an immediate task. Side by side with school, factory or special sections of children’s papers, mass children’s papers should be issued. Revolutionary competitions must become an important means in our children’s movement in raising the activity of the whole organisation.

c) Systematic work among the masses of children presupposes that the basis of the organisation is laid where most of the children are to be found. First of all there must be nuclei in schools and factories where the children study and work. In this connection it is also necessary to have organisations embracing children on a residential or a tenement basis. The Pioneer organisations have as their object to cater for the interests and requirements of the children. The Pioneer organisations should be surrounded with a network of various auxiliary organisations. The organisation of children’s sections in the Red sport organisations, in Free thinkers societies, and other revolutionary organisations, is essential. Efforts must also be made to have the cooperation of all these organisations with the pioneer organisation.

d) A particularly urgent task of the Y.C.I. is the creation of groups of leaders and the raising of their qualifications. Among the measures to be taken are the renewal and enlargement of the number of leaders in the children’s movement by drawing in proletarian elements and mass workers. The creation of competent leading organs in the national and local organisations of the League. Systematic schooling of the leaders.

5. Another very urgent task is capture of the influence among workers and peasants children in the colonies. With the help of the trade unions, the Anti-imperialist League, the revolutionary peasant organisations and the auxiliary organisations of the Young Communist League, legal auxiliary organisations of an economic and cultural character should be formed. Work must also be started among children in the white terror countries, especially in the Balkans and in fascist Italy.

In spite of repression and persecution, which is bound to increase owing to the development of mass and militant work, the children’s leagues must endeavour to conduct with all the means at their disposal the struggle for legality, through the mobilisation of wide sections of children and workers. In case of the Pioneer organisations being suppressed, legal forms of the children’s movement must be developed. If that is impossible, attempts should be made to work illegally.

6. More effective guidance and leadership of the children’s Leagues is certainly one of the most important premises regarding the taking up of mass work by the children’s Leagues. In this respect some Young Communist Leagues have made serious mistakes and have not done justice to their tasks as leaders of the children’s Leagues. The work of the children’s Leagues must not be divorced and isolated from all other youth work. The leading committees of the Y.C.I.’s must conduct the children’s movement in their daily activity, constantly control it, point out regularly definite tasks, and undertake investigations as to their work.

Neither has the work of the International Children’s Bureau been satisfactory. The importance of carrying through the decisions of the V. World Congress was not brought forcibly enough to the notice of the Leagues, and the change which had been decided upon was mentioned for the first time in a concrete form only at the IV. International Leader Conference. One must also admit that political leadership in the International Children’s Bureau through the E.C.Y.C.I. hardly exists.

7. Generally speaking, the C.P.’s have not yet realised the importance and role of the revolutionary children’s movement. The Parties which give the Children’s League ideological and material support, are exceptions. It is incumbent on the Y.C.L.’s to place forcibly before the Party organisations the question of practical support to the children’s movement. This support should not only be given to the executive organs, but above all to the lower organisations, in the form of patronage of Party factory nuclei over school nuclei, children’s factory nuclei or Pioneer groups, etc. It is of great importance that the Parties should include in their plan the activity of the children’s movement, assigning to it definite tasks within the framework of the general tasks of the Communist movement as a whole. Another urgent necessity is adequate space to the children’s movement in the Party press, and regular special children’s corners in its columns. The revolutionary mass organisations should also be induced to give practical help to the children’s movement.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. Inprecorr is an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/young-communist-international/v10n15-mar-21-1930.pdf