A resolution on tasks in building Leagues in the colonial and semi-colonial countries as well as the responsibilities of Leagues in the imperialist core.

‘The Colonial Question’ from Resolutions Adopted at the Fourth World Congress of the Young Communist International. 1924.

l. The Progress of the Communist Movement in the Colonies Since the Third Congress.

During the last one and a half years, the Young Communist movement has attained considerable successes in the colonial and semi-colonial countries.

In China, in spite of the crisis in the workers’ movement, the Young Communist League has consolidated itself and has greatly increased its press activities, in particular amongst the peasants and in the national revolutionary movement. In Korea, many new local communist organizations have been formed and are about to hold a congress for the formation of a unified organization. These organizations have at present a great influence on the Korean National Revolutionary Youth Federation. The Mongolian Youth League has during this period more than doubled its membership. It has now over 4,000 members. It is rapidly, becoming a mass organization of the Nomad youth and is acquiring an important role in the political life of the country. In Turkey, the amalgamation of the various young communist leagues into a United Turkish Young Communist League is about to take place. In South Africa a Young Communist League, was established which although up to the present it has consisted only of Europeans, gives us a basis for our work amongst the negro youth, and attempts are being made to win these latter into the organization.

II. The Tasks of the Young Communist League.

The tasks of the Young Communist Leagues in the colonial and half-colonial countries are particularly complicated and difficult. On the one hand it is the chief task of a young communist league to win the broad masses of the working class youth and to build up its own organisation, on the other hand the Young Communist Leagues of the colonial and half-colonial countries must support the national revolutionary movement. In these circumstances, two dangers always confront the Young Communist Leagues: on the one hand the danger of the disappearance of the Young Communist League in a united national movement, and on the other hand the danger of ignoring the revolutionary movement. Both of these dangers can cause the young communist movement in the colonies great harm.

The participation of the Young Communist Leagues in a national movement is not an end in itself, but only serves the purpose of winning an influence over the masses of the youth and leading the best revolutionary elements amongst them into the ranks of the Young Communist Leagues.

In order to be able to carry on the difficult work inside the national movement and to impregnate it with our spirit our organization must be consolidated and developed through intensive communist propaganda and educational work amongst our own members and the broad masses of the youth in the spirit of the class war.

The communist educational work amongst the members of the Leagues is particularly important as at the moment members of Young Communist Leagues are working inside non-communist youth organizations and in the national revolutionary parties. Without a systematic and energetic educational work amongst their own members the Young Communist Leagues will not be able to avert the danger of an ideological demoralisation of their members and a consequent disorganization of the Leagues.

The Young Communist Leagues must be strong, disciplined and centralized organizations. They must exercise a firm control over their members working in non-communist organizations. The connection of the Young Communist Leagues with the fractions inside other organizations must be very close. These fractions must carry on their work according to the instructions of the various leading bodies and must regularly make reports upon their work in the particular non-communist organization.

III. The Support of the National Revolutionary Youth Organizations.

It is the task of the Young Communist Leagues to line up the broad masses of the young workers, peasants, employers and intellectuals in the national revolutionary movement. This can only be obtained by the creation of nationalist revolutionary mass organizations of the youth apart from the Young Communist Leagues. These must be determined by the char acter of the economic and political stage of development of the countries, in order to win the broad masses of the young workers, peasants, employers and students for this united organization. The leadership of this organization must stay in the hands of The Young Communist Leagues, which must become the ideological leader of the national revolutionary youth. Such a mass organization of the youth serves on the other hand as a field for the spread of communist influence over this youth and to draw the advanced element of this organization into the Young Communist Leagues.

A. The Forms of the National Revolutionary Youth Organization.

The formation of national revolutionary mass organizations of the youth will take on, according to the economic and political state of development of the different countries of the East and of Africa, various concrete forms.

The capitalist process of development in a whole series of colonial and half-colonial countries is already so far forward that we find a comparatively developed action of the industrial proletariat with a growing class-consciousness, which expresses itself in the growth of the communist organizations and their influence upon the workers’ movement. China, The Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, India, Turkey, Egypt, may count as amongst these countries. It is understandable that in these countries the class tendency will preponderate in the character of the national revolutionary youth organization, which in their final results must take the form of working youth and peasant youth Leagues.

In other colonies the capitalist process has not developed so far. These are the agrarian countries which exclusively serve foreign imperialism as the sources of raw material and where almost no industry exists, and where in consequence the workers’ movement is weak, and where no native bourgeoisie with a definite class-consciousness exists. Here, the absolute majority of the population is interested in political freedom from the yoke of foreign imperialism. Such countries are: Korea, Mongolia, Tschungarei, Afghanistan, Persia, Algiers, Tunis and Morocco. In these countries the national revolutionary mass organizations will take on a typical national form.

It falls to the task of the Executive Committee of the Young Communist Leagues to determine the general directions for the national revolutionary youth movement in the colonial and half-colonial countries. Similarly the concrete forms which the movement in the various countries must take on must be determined in detail.

B. The Political Phase of the National Revolutionary Organization of the Youth.

The mass organizations of the national revolutionary youth should not only be organizationally independent, but should also protect their own political complexion. They are called upon to play an important role in the nationalist movement and the mass organizations of the revolutionary youth must stand in close contact with the revolutionary parties and support their actions in order to promote the unity of the national movement.

Though the national revolutionary organization should be regarded as a political independent organization, communist fractions inside it shall control its policy.

C. Tasks and work of the National Revolutionary Organizations of the Youth.

The most important task of the mass organization is to enroll the whole revolutionary youth under its banner and to become a real mass organization. In order to reach this aim, it must fight for the economic, political and cultural interests of the youth and must carry on a cultural and political educational work.

a) The political work of the mass organizations must consist chiefly in the struggle against foreign imperialism. They must fight for national independence and the maximum of civil rights, for instance, for the complete freedom of association, speech, press and meetings. They must lead a campaign of agitation and propaganda amongst the masses of the youth for political clarity, in which they explains the problems of the national struggle and the class war. For this purpose it must, apart from the issue of special literature, arrange courses of lectures, meetings, excursions into the villages, etc.

b) The anti-militarist work must consist in revolutionary propaganda and the organization of nuclei inside the troops of the foreign and native governments. On the other hand a political and cultural enlightenment work must be carried on amongst the revolutionary troops, and particularly the slogan of the revolutionary people’s army must be propagated. The work amongst the imperialist troops must be carried on by the organization of the motherland.

c) In its economic work the mass organization must struggle for the defense of the interests of the young workers; for wage increases, for the six-hour day, for a free Sunday rest with pay, for the improvement of the hygienic conditions of work, against night work for young workers under 18 years of age, etc. A particularly energetic campaign must be carried on for the abolition of child labor, for free education for all children and for the slogan “equal wages for equal work”.

These demands of young workers and peasants must be coordinated with those of the adult workers. The mass organizations must struggle for equal rights of the young workers and peasants in the Trade Unions and Peasant organizations, and demand that these fight for the interests of the young workers and peasants.

d) The educational work of the mass organizations must consist of the struggle against illiteracy, for general free school education with modern educational methods, and for special continuation schools for young workers and peasants and that the school hours be counted in the work-time with full pay for the same. For free vocational training of young workers and agricultural courses for young peasants. The mass organization must itself establish evening classes, circles, courses, etc. to teach reading and writing etc. and it should hold lectures on natural science and upon the daily political events.

e) Particular attention must be paid to the propaganda against the religious and traditional prejudices against women which exist everywhere in the Orient. The mass organizations must fight for equal political, economical, social and cultural rights for women. Particular efforts must be made to root out the prejudices of the workers and peasants against young girls, and the entry of young girls into trade unions and associations, with equal rights must be demanded.

D. The Role of the Young Communist Leagues in the Mass Organization.

a) The task of the Young Communist Leagues in relation to these mass organizations consists of: 1. Taking the initiative for the formation of the local units of these mass organizations (for instance, clubs). 2. The local units already existing but not organized in communist organizations must be brought under their influence, 3. the organization of these local units into a unified and centralized mass organization, and 4. it is the duty of every member of the Young Communist League to be a member of the national revolutionary mass organization. b) A Young Communist League must work inside the mass organization and take over its leadership. It must be understood that the leadership of a mass organization cannot be merely obtained by capturing the Executive Committee, but the confidence and trust of the masses of the membership must be won from the bottom upwards. We shall win the trust of the masses of the membership only thru the energetic work of the communist members inside the organization, who will carry on the struggle for the conquest of a mass organization according to the concrete directions of the Y.C.I. In all local groups of the mass organization communist fractions must be built in order that the work of the young communists inside the mass organizations shall become more effective and the line of the Young Communist League more successfully carried through. These communist fractions must lead the daily struggle of the mass organization and carry on political educational work amongst the masses of the members, and in this way the class-conscious elements amongst the young workers and peasants must be drawn into the Young Communist Leagues and their work carried on in such a way that the mass organization becomes a recruiting field for the Young Communist Leagues.

IV. The Tasks of the Y.C.L.’s of the Imperialist Countries.

Despite the repeated resolutions and theses of the Second and Third Congresses of the Y.C.I. upon the necessary support by the Y.C.L.’s of the imperialist countries of the youth work in the colonies, these Leagues have up to the moment done very little in this respect. The Fourth Congress demands once again that the Y.C.L.’s of the imperialist countries pay much more attention to the youth work in the colonies. The Y.C.L.’s in close co-operative work with the Parties must do their utmost for the commencement, or the support of revolutionary or young communist organizations in the colonies.

Further, Colonial Departments are to be formed in the National Executive Committees of the Young Communist Leagues of the Imperialist countries.

Secondly, the Y.C.L.’s of the imperialist countries must take steps to carry on propaganda amongst the youth of the colonial countries in the motherland, in order to prepare them for the revolutionary work in their countries.

Thirdly, the Y.C.L.’s of the imperialist countries must carry on a persistent propaganda and enlightenment work in their own countries on the necessity for a general struggle against the common enemy and against the national prejudices. Above all they must propagate the slogan of the self-determination of the nations. Mutual information and continual contact between the working masses of the colonies and the motherland, and close co-operative work between the colonial Leagues and those of the motherland, (the taking over of patronage, the exchange of newspapers and material, the supply of articles, etc.) is indispensable for the rooting out of the still existing national prejudices (“our country”, pride of colonial possessions, a low opinion of the colonial peoples as against the whites, etc.) and the dissipation of the mistrust against the whites on the side of the population of the Orient and the colonies. Only in this way will it be possible to make the comradeship of the youth of the East and the West a fact, not merely in principle, but also in practice and to make possible a united youth movement under the banner of the Young Communist International for the struggle against world imperialism.

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