The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 6, 1934, Page 4

Y.C. L. Pre-Convention Discusison Organization of DATLY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 1934 the Youth Is the Task of the Whole Party Decision Check-up (‘American Y oung Communist League Ot New York YCL Is Still Very Loose More Work Executing Policies to Ensure YCL Must Rally Youth Necessary To Fight Chauvinist — Propaganda of Bosses By A. STERN IOMRADE STALIN in his The Y. C. L. must mobiliz report on the 17th Party all its forces, energy and initi- in ative for the struggle against Congress, C. P. S. U., brought || the chauvinist a national up very sharply the correct | re ae nee ne Recker : ~ . | @SS 1 rT ire: T n relation between Communist|| yc. 1. that it should increas- politics and organization.|| ingly propagate the Leninist revolutionary teachings among There he said, “Everything, the broadest strata of the youth including the fate of the political|| as well as intensify the strug- line itself, its execution or its fail-|] gie for the smallest economic ure, depends on the organizational|| demands of the youth and work.” This was further empha-|| against their compulsory fi sized in comrade Chemodanov’s ar- |} cization and militarization From the resolution of the Janu- ary 1934 Plenum of the Young Communist International. ticle printed in the latest issue of the “International of Youth.” We see the correctness of the points raised by comrades Stalin | and Chemodanov in the work of | demands, issuing of shop our District. We know, for instance, | formation of youth committees that there exists with us a great | This problem unquestionably exists. deal more talk about policy “in| However, the attempts of some of general” than actual work to en-| the leading comrades to solve it by sure the carrying out of our poli- | dividing up these shop units on a tieal decisions. For instance, we trade basis, must be resisted as a s@e that whereas the District Bu- reau in New York makes about 150 decisions a month, very many of them deal with internal matters and not with mass work. However, what is more important in the light of the present discus- | sion, is the fact that very seldom is any decision returned to the bu- reau’ for check-up. Recently we have instituted a system of refer- ring to the bureau decisions that remain unfulfilled at the end of the month. However, we do this in too technical a manner and so far limit our check-up to decisions affecting mainly the bureau itself. The need remains greater than ever of controlling decisions of mass work which affect the lower organs of the League. This necessitates close work and check-up of the work of the sections and units in the process of fulfilling important decisions. Question of Forces It is unquestionably necessary to select the proper forces for our work. Our League still approaches | the question of forces in a hit or miss, mechanical and lifeless fash- ion and considers & post filled if somebody occupies a chair. The approach to this problem must be a matter of finding a quali- fied comrade to fill a given post. Consideration must be given to his ability to carry on mass work. This is not only an approach to selecting our forces, but must remain a method even after the forces have been chosen. Instead, we see a lack of consultation between the com- rades in charge of a specific phase of work and the comrades in the units as a means of gauging how the directives in a particular field of work are being applied below. A good instance of this is our educational department, whose vol- uminous output does not even reach the membership in most instances, Placing of Cadres | The placement of cadres is of the greatest importance if we are to make the utmost use of those com- rades who have shown themselves capable mass workers. Too seldom do we seriously consider this, and in many cases the Y.C.L. becomes @ strait-jacket into which comrades must fit. This is due to a technical approach, disregard of ability to do mass work, disregard of inclina- tions of comrades and failure to sufficiently train and interest com- | tades on the part of our leader- ship. One of our section organ- izers, for instance, who was forced to stay at his post against his will | developed later very well as a leader in an important field of mass work | in the struggle against war and fas- cism. More care is necessary in the placing of cadres. In this connec: | tion, we have yet to go far in order | to systematically send our best | forces into the trade unions and shop coneentration. It is no ac-| cident that our concentration and | trade union work remain at a very | low state. This can be traced direct- | ly to the lack of qualified forees | in these fields of work up to the'| present. Our sections today occupy key | positions, and are a decisive link | |Concentration Policy Is technical approach to the problem. Fight Against Fascism Further, our section committees in line with the speech of comrade Chemodanov, must learn not only how to work capably in the econo- mic field, but how to strengthen this by determined struggle against fascism in their territory. When we ask a section commit- tee at the present time “Is there @ growth of Fascism in your ter- ritory? Are there any fascist or semi-fascist organizations in your territory? And what are you doing to combat this?” we get very loose and uncertain answers. The strug- gle against war and fascism has, with few exceptions, not left the paper stage. As an example of good work in this field, we can point out Browns- ville, where our comrades have brought the line of the ¥.C.L. into such an organization as the Blue Shirts, and through correct work with the rank and file is deepening the gap between the fascist lead- ers and the anti-Nazi workers, Steadily working to liquidate this organization, which is a potential enemy of the workers. An example of paper struggle against fascism, is the extremely poor attention given to our student comrades. Perhaps in one case out of a hundred, will the section com- mittee call a student fraction to report on its activities, This reflects and emphasizes the fact that we have not made our section committees leaders in their territory, developing their initiative and their ability to cope with their numerous local problems that arise in each territory. It is necessary to emphasize that the worst form of bureaucracy lies in not being connected vitally with the prob- lems of the membership. The development of direct per- sonal guidance to comrades involved in mass work must be carried out. We have to put an end to the mass of general material and directives | that go out, which are meaningless to the bulk of our membership in the form in which we write. It is further necessary that we give directives so as to make these directives the property of all com- rades and make them feel that they have helped concretize them and therefore they must carry them out Serious steps to orientate our work along these lines will result in a stronger Y.C.L., with infinitely greater daily contact with the masses of working class youth. What Is This Th Not Always Baséd on Intimate Contact By JACK PARKER HE draft resolution for the Y. C. L. National Con- for a strong Y.C.L. organization. This is realized insufficiently. It is no accident that we have lost vention has the following to say about the work of the ¥. twelve shop units in the last five|/C, L. amongst the Negro months. Whereas some of these | outh: were lost through unsuccessful |’ : struggle, too many of these were lost through carélessness and a non- | Political approach to the necessity of maintaining our nuclei at any cost. Where this was realized (T— | shop unit), the shop unit is in ex- istence long after the strike was lost, is fighting hard to be rein- stated, and is at the same time growing roots inside the shop again. | On the other hand, shop units, like the G—, W—, and others, | ceased work almost immediately after leaving the plant. With this, the writer is in perfect The sections at the present time, | agreement. However, it is necessary having grown in some cases to 200 to point out that in one section of members, are faced with organiza-| the Y.C.L. of District 2, at least, our tional problems and it is on the| task of mobilizing the Negro youth! order of the day, in almost all sec- | in their struggles together with the tions to strengthen our organiza-| white young workers is not based tional work. In sections 1, 2 and 7,| upon the correct approach indicated Specific attention must be given to | above. the improvement and maintenance | What Is Concentration? | of our shop units, with the view) Crown Heights in Brooklyn is} of establishing the closest control, the concentration point of section! over their work. of strengthening | 8 of the Y.C.L. and Party. The con- the mass connections of these units | centration of the Y. C. L, so far. through the formulation of youth | has consisted of the organization of | é + Any underestimation or neglect of the struggles for the aid of the Negro people objectively gives aid to the white chauvinists. The League must lead the fight for full political and social equality for the Negro youth and against every act of discrimination. .. The League must help build up the broadest movement of Negro and white youth for Negro liberation through the building of the LSNR and the Young Liberator clubs as youth sections. . .” mecanaare Ce | tration, | How Has the Y.C.L. of the U.S.A. Shouldered Its Responsibility? (EDITOR'S NOT The fol- lowing article in which the gen- eral secretary of the Young Com- munist League of Cuba discusses a vital question confronting Y. ©. L, U. 8. A, is not 1” of great importance because of the problems raised by it but is also especially timely in view of the recently concluded and highly successful convention of the Y, C. L. of Cuba.) By ALEJANDRO Gen. Sec., ¥. C. L. of Cuba UP TO the present the rela- | ) tions between the Y. CG: L. of the U. S. A. and the Y. C. L. of Cuba have been very poor. This was especially so because the Y. C. L. of the U .S. A. has given very little help to the revolutionary youth movement of Cuba. Many comrades are well ac-| quainted with the responsibility | which comrade Lenin and the Com- munist International have placed | upon the shoulders of Communists | of the imperialist countries in rela-| tion with the liberation movements of the oppressed colonies. Many | comrades have made, still make and| probably will make, very excellent| speeches about this, but when we] get down to business, things are] quite different. | Our two Leagues have been talk- ing over the question of relations for a long time. But we did not get much ahead of that; there were! some letters now and then, a weak exchange of materials and that’s about all. Lately there was an im- provement in this situation but it| is still far from wha it should be. N. Y. District Has Failed in its Task We ought to give the New York) District a chance to say something | about these relations, for it has patronage over Cuba. Tell us, comrades of the D. E. C. of New York, how many times have you discussed the Cuban events and how have you popularized our move- ment and mobilized the youth in its support? Tell us, do you really un-} derstand what patronage is? Does| the rank and file of the New York| District know of this patronage?) Finally, are you really satisfied with | your own work in this respect? Unfortunately the answers can be| foretold. It would be wrong of us,| however, to say that nothing has been done. We have seen your ex cellent work in connection with the| Woolworth strike in Cuba and other| examples, we have received some! financial help from you; you have helped sell our paper. All this was well received by the toiling youth of Cuba. But this is still far too] little. | Part of the responsibility for such | a situation is to be charged to the National Committee, which, it seems, did not really place this question seriously, had it done so, it| would have demanded much more work from the New York District. | With more attention on the part of | the N. E. C., there could not have | occured the situation when while! the “Times,” and the Party daily| press gave entire columns to the Cuban General Strike, the Young Worker did not have a word on it. If the N. E. C. would give more attention, been really established long ago. We might add, that from our con- tact with the leading comrades of the Y. C, L. of the U. S. A. we have gathered that most of them do not know very much about the Cuban |; events. This really explains the ‘cold response of the Y. C. L, mem- Has Obligations to the Youth of Cuba | exploiters. | Cuba a massacre like it | Patronage would = of the Y. C. L., calls upon all mem- Cuban revolutionary students over the dead body of one of their comrades who was murdered by the Mendieta-Batista dictator~ ship, which is being spurred on to won vengeance greater attacks ‘on the workers, students and peasants by U. S. | imperialism. The murdered boy was shot down and killed by Mendieta’s soldiers just after May First, 7 ~~ | bership to the needs of the Cuban ‘evolutionary movement. | Present Relations Must Be Changed Such a situation can not continue any longer. The Y. C. L. and the whole youth revolutionary move- ment of Cuba needs the most deci- sive help of the Y. C, L. and of the toiling youth of the U. S. A. The working class and the op- pressed Cuban masses, are valiantly fighting under the leadership of the Party and the Y. C. L. against the They direct their struggles towards the only way out} of oppression and misery, Soviet Power, the Workers and Peasants Government.. The present Cuban government known as the “govern ment of reactionary concentration’ personifies the extreme bloody re- action of the Cuban bosses and landlords, Caffery, in Roosevelt's name is leading the massacre of the Cuban workers and peasants. Hos- pitals are filled with dying workers, more than 2,000 fill the jails. Yankee Imperialism is trying to carry out in| did in| Colombia, in Honduras and in Santo| Domingo. The Cuban toiling} masses have replied to this, intensi- fying their struggles, redoubling their efforts to drive towards the] final struggle for the taking of| power. This increases the responsibility | and the obligations of the Y. C. L.| in respect to the Cuban revolution-| ary youth movement. This demands | the immediate liquidation of the passivity existing till now. Recently the National Bureau and the New York District Committee in| conjunction with the C. C. of the Y. C. L. of Cuba have made a series! of decisions to change the present situation. Now what is most im- portant is to carry these decisions out. The Y. C. L. of Cuba, together with the National Committee and the New York District Committee bers of the Y. C. L. to carry these) decisions into practice, rapidly and completely. Forward to Real Assistance’ to Cuban Masses As to the New York District, here we hope that in the nearest future it will conquer a position of honor Enthusiastic Crowd Cheers Schmidt on Moscow Arrival By VERN SMITH Special to the Daily Work MOSCOW, June 5 (by radio) — Professor Otto Schmidt, head of the rescued Chelyuskin arctic ex- pedition, arrived here today. Long before the arrival of the train, the whole square facing the station and also adjoining streets were filled with delegations of workers from Moscow factories, works and scien- tific institutions. Banners and placards waved while upon them, flickering in the bright sunshine were inscriptions of welcome — ‘Three cheers for our heroes of the arctic!” “Greetings to the indefatigable fighter, friend, teacher!” The drone of innumerable air- planes sound overhead as_ the planes symbolizing the rescue of the Chelyuskinites mix with the joyful shouts of the hundreds of thou- sands of people assembled to meet single family of Soviet workers. Members of the government are present on the platform. A girl pioneer stands with a bunch of red roses in her hand, her face blush- ing. They disappear almost com- | pletely behind a huge baskets of fresh flowers brought by delegates of Moscow factories. The train slows into the station, and Professor Schmidt is seen | standing on the platform of the jlast car with the door open. A | storm of applause and cries of, \“Hurrah! Long live Schmidt, hero of the Arctic!” resounds from the crowd. They all rush to him, greet- ing and embracing him. The sound of the orchestra mingles with the |cries of joy. | Professor Schmidt, slightly pale, | jin the world revolutionary youth movement for concrete assistance | of a district of the Y. C. L. in the | strongest imperialist country to the Professor Schmidt, a member of the | with the signs of his endurance still upon his face, surrounded by flowers, passes by the honorary guard. He is accompanied by Com- rades Kuibishey and Unschlicht. Together they come into the square. A storm of greetings comes from the masses. Throughout the square quivers with shouts and manifesta- tion of enthusiasm. Stooping somewhat and greatly moved by the proceedings, Professor Schmidt smilingly ascends the tribune, holding a bunch of roses in his hands, Comrade Unschlicht delivered the greeting speech. He pointed out that thanks to the courageous heroism and firmness of the head of the _ expedition, Schmidt, and the whole collective body of all persons, all the valuable scientific equipment was saved. He declares Schmidt will once more, together with the whole working masses of the Soviet Union, enter the first ranks for the conquest of socialism. “Long Live the Hero of the Arctic, the Bolshevik Scientist, Schmidt!” Schmidt, weakned by his illness the amazingly warm reception shown workers of Red Moscow, him by and is unable to reply. He merely looks upon the crowd and smiles his inimitable smile. for home. Long after, the Moscow prole- tarians refuse to disperse. Their cries of jow still resound around the Square facing the station. He then leaves SOUTH AFRICAN ALLIANCE PRETORIA, South Africa, June 5.—J. B. M. Hertzog, Nationalist Party Leader, today concluded an alliance with Jan Smuts of the South African Party, thus ending a long feud between the Dutch and English in the interest of a | landlord-capitalist class alliance | ¥. ©. L. of a (small) semi-colonial | oppressed land, against the growing threat of mass revolt, Shall the YCL Carry| On Activity Among Workers’ Children? ee es Children’s Work Is Wide | category, but can beneficially y | connected up with every phase ¢ Avenue of Approach | ¥.'¢.b. work. We have ponte te the Masses | amples—too rare unfortunately—o, | ¥. C. L. shop units utilizing Pionee: By VERA SAUNDERS | troops in the distribution of leaf lets in factories where the terror canta 7 jt; ad made it impossible for the i VIEW of the fact that it] workers themselves to do this. The is so important to concen-| result was that not only were the trate the activities of the Y.|Kids involved in the day-to-day = | struggles of the Y. C. L., but an Cc. L on shop work and trade | appreciation was brought to the union work, is it necessary at! workers in the factory of the im- this time to make any efforts | Portance of organizing .their chile : : : * ’ dren, in the direction of children’s | We are confident that if every Work? Is it necessary to assign| yor, organizer were to look over valuable forces for bse work? |the tasks of his unit—be it shop Judging from the attitude of the | or neighborhood—he could work out ¥. C. L. in general, very obviously | plans whereby the Pioneer troop the answer is No! But this is not} in his territory can join in the ac- @ correct answer, | tivities of some phases of work, to The general task of the Y.'C. L.| the benefit of both the unit and is to root itself among the youth) the troop. of America, and, to do this, every! We must remember that there are avenue leading toward the youth! a vast number of issues: which afe must be utilized. And the path of | fect both the youth and the chil« children’s work is by no means a) dren equally—the closing down of backyard alley, but rather a wide! pranch lib) raries, the fight for open avenue of approach. It is true that | playgrounds, ball fields, the fight trade union work and shop work! against Jim-Crow polls, the fight must be the major activities of the | Y. C. L., but this by no means im- plies that it is to be the only ac- tivity. This is a narrow, and one- track approach, and therefore we | have such impermissible sentiments | as the following: In one of the} sections, Harlem, to be precise, | where it is of the utmost importance | that a broad children’s movement | be developed, an organizer of a) college unit wrote in protesting | most vigorously against assigning one of the members of his unit to | such “secondary and extraneous tasks as Pioneer work.” Children’s work is not an isolated | YCL in U.S. Will Aid || Berlin YCL in Fight Against German Nazis NEW YORK. — The Young Communist League of America | will undertake to finance the |) revolutionary struggles of the Young Communist League of Berlin, Germany, it was an- || nounced yesterday. At a meeting in Yorkville where Gil Green, national secre- tary, spoke recently, $52.93 was collected and sent to Germany. || The money was raised by auc- || tioning off illegal German litera- ture including the Rote Fahne, Junge Garde, Gegen-Angriff and others. A member of the Young People’s Socialist League received tremendous applause when he brought greetings from || members in his organization and pledged solidarity in the struggle for-a workers’ and farmers’ gov- | ernment. The Y. P. S. L. member was presented with a copy of the Junge Garde, illegal central or- gan of the German Y. C. L. | The national office of the Y. || | C. L. has urged units through- out the country to come to the support of their German com- rades by raising money through sale of literature, dances, outings or in any other way. Stop depending for news and information on the capitalist press that favors the bosses and is against the workers. Subscribe to the Daily Worker, America’s only working-class daily news- paper. a number of “actions” in the Negro! | territory. Some of these actions—| | a Scottsboro march, an open hunger | | hearing, an election symposium, | etc.—have been successful; others | have not. In my opinion our concentration | | and *hese evidences of our concen- tration, have not been based upon | an intimate contact with the masses | of young Negro workers in our sec- | tion. It has not been based on a knowledge of the real and vital de- mands and needs of the young | Negroes. They have been, for the most part, actions foisted upon the | Negro population of Crown Heights! | practically without their knowledge | or consent. In view of this, it is not at all surprising that the influence of the Y. C. L. over the Negro youth of Crown Heights is scarcely more than it was when we started our! work there two years ago. Concentration, to be really effec- tive, should seize upon the most | strategic issue which affects the | most decisive section of the youth in any given shop or neighborhood. The concentrators should organize | struggles around these issues to- gether with the young workers. This is the only known method of win-| ning any large number of youth into our“ranks. The writer must say| that the Y. C. L. of section 8 is to-| day following a line diametrically | opposed to this method of concen- | How Not to Prepare a Parade We organized a parade through the streets of Crown Heights, on May 28, as a preparatory action for National Youth Day, The writer ing Called Concentr has no objection, on principle, to parades. No objection, that is, when the parade comes as the culmination of intensive work among Negro clubs, shops, etc., around issues that these youth feel sharply and keenly. Or when the parade is a reflection of a spontaneous mass protest, as the Scottsboro parade of last De- will get nowheres. Consider how essentially unrealistic our approach to the young Negro workers is when we are staking weeks of work on an | action that, if it should happen to | vain on that day, will immediately | nullify all our work. The writer is opposed to this sort of concentration. It amounts to re- cember in Harlem. A parade or-| taining our sectarian attitude to- ganized on such a basis has a poli- | wards the masses of young workers. tical significance that the parade we | Our section committee must wake are arranging at present will lack| up to the fact that they will not completely. I think the Y. C. L.| succeed in permanently rousing the should think more than once when Negro youth with such an approach an idea pops into its head to or-| to them. ganize a parade. There are dozens of issues in Granted that we have a parade| which the Negro youth are vitally on May 28—what then? Nothing! interested; there are dozens of We will have gained no contact with youth clubs where we can reach the Negro youth. We may succeed in| great majority of Negro youth in raising sharply the issues of Hern-| the section. But we do not place don and Scottsboro, but without| our emphasis on finding out these linking these up with local issues we! issu: we do not care very much E oviet Power Is Impossible Without Winning the Youth” “Without a decisive turn of the Party to work among the masses of young workers, a successful struggle against the attacks of the capitalist class, against fascism, the intensive preparations for war and for the establishment of a revolutionary workers’ government— Soviet power is impossible. Any talk of winning the majority of the working class for the revolution without the most serious work among the broad masses of young workers, is an empty phrase,”—From the resolution of the 8th Party Convention on “The Winning of the Working Class Youth,” about working within these clubs. When a leading comrade misses a meeting of a club where he is as- signed to work, he may perhaps ex- cuse himself on the ground of other work elsewhere, but the fact re- mains that the club is being ne- glected by our leading comrades. The writer thinks that the ten- dency of our Section Committee of the Y. C. L. to indulge in spectacular actions which do not involve the | Negro youth, which bears no rela- tionship to their everyday needs,| which is something that is thrust upon them from the outside, so to speak, is injurious to the Y. C. L. and its great tasks. The writer would not, of course, call these ac- tions white chauvinist; but they |certainly are a sort of in-law) | relative to this filthy stranger in our house, The following, in my opinion, are} our next steps in Crown Heights. ! | Unless we succeed in reaching the | Negro youth on some such basis, we | will find the Negro youth inevitably | falling into the hands of the Negro reformist leaders, of whom there are plenty, far too many, in our section. | 1, The assignment of a corps of | | comrades who will work within the large Negro clubs. Our comrades must see that without a foothold in these clubs, we will have no contact with any appreciable number of Negro youth. 2. The concentration of the un-; | employed section of the Brownsville | | ¥.C.L. on Crown Heights, to mobil- ize unemployed Negro youth to’de- mand relief from the Home Relief Buros. Relief for a single youth has ation? -* Must Utilize Strategic Issues in Shop or Neighborhood been obtained in other sections of the city; there is no reason why. with a struggle, we cannot do the same here. Our club comrades can raise these issues in their clubs. 3. The formation of a baseball/ Pioneer troops. The necessity of © league. This is an urgent necessity. The L. S. U,, I. W. O,, ¥. C. L. of Brownsville should take the initia- tive in this and reach the Megro clubs with our plans for a league. There is no doubt as to the response. to the Crown Heights section to build a children’s movement. Today there are practically no Crown Heights children in the Pioneers. Any concentration of youth that neglects the children is only half concentration. These suggestions are but the first steps of a whole perspective of work that can be drawn up. But these, or similar plans, should be our immediate points of concen- tration. Unless we really activize our white Y. C. L, members in day to day, real concentration with the Negro youth, we will never isolate the remnants of white chauvinism which today are in our ranks; and only then will we be able to forge that unity of Negro and white youth which alone can point the way to the overthrow of this system of dis- crimination, exploitation, war and fascism which now enyelops us all. the demonstration. 4. The assignment of capable| Used in t de Pioneer leaders and older children, |; against war propaganda in the | Schools, and many others, The Y, |C..L, must take the lead in this | fight, and carry through struggles for these demands together with the children. Children’s work must not and cannot be counterposed to trade union work or shop work. It is necessary to carry on all these at- tivities simultaneously, giving, of | course, the major emphasis to the | latter tasks, How to Meet the Problem When the Y. C. L. takes the proper approach to children’s work, some of the major ptoblems facing it will be near solution. Take, for instance, the problem of cadres— the problem of trained forces to carry on trade union work and shop work. This is a formidable task confronting every Y. C. L. or- ganizer. But because of the neglect | of children’s work, the vast reser- voir presented by the Pioneer movement is completely ignored. Here we have children . being trained for years in organization, in the principles of the working- class movement. Here are the |forces from which to draw the | leaders from the Y. C. L. move- ment. But because the Y. C. L, units are so far removed from the Pioneer troops, we have a situa- tion where the 16-year-old Pio- neers are reluctant to enter the Y¥. C. L. units, and the Y. C. L. are not particularly anxious to have them. We have had one or two cases of | older boys and girls of 15 and 16 years of age getting together to form clubs. Here is the immediate training ground for the Y. ©. L. Yet the clubs disintegrated because the Y. C. L. would not provide lead- ership for them. There is no reason whatsoever why the Y. C. L. should not receive | from the Pioneer movement hun- dreds of new cadres. To accom- plish this, it is necessary for the Y. C. L. to establish and maintain | the closest contact with the Pio- | neers. In the past two years—especially since the Polburo resélution, which placed the major political respon- sibility of children’s. work on the Party—the Y. C. L. has adopted the attitude that it has been absolved from the leadership of children’s work. And because of this abso- lutely incorrect interpretation of the Polburo resolution, we have in New York only 24 Y. C. L. mem- bers in children’s work, in a district where we have 85 troops and over 5,000 children organized. This situ- ation must and can be corrected immediately by the assignment of a member from each section com- mittee for the responsibility of carrying on children’s work. A thorough discussion of children’s work must be held in every unit | and section, and due organizational steps taken, Children and National Youth Day The atitude today of the Y. C. L. toward children’s ‘work can be best seen in the National Youth Day campaign. In making the plans for this campaign, not one section or unit made provisions for bringing N. ¥. D. propaganda down to the the Y. C. L. taking the lead in the educational mobilization of the Pio- neers, and other children, against war never occurred to the League. However, the League did remember | that the kids could be effectively So re- quests poured into the Pioneer troops that they come down to the demonstrations, that they get up hands, that they make placards, etc, By all means the Pioneers should participate in National Youth Day, but when the Y. C. L, does not carry through the necessary educa- tional mobilization, the approach to the kids is only that of a Barnum and Bailey show. There must be a fundamental change in the Y. C. L. in its atti- tude toward children’s work. When the correct approach is made, the Y. C. L. will be made to root itself in the Pioneer movement, and by so doing the Y. ©. L. will be better prepared also to carry through its basic concentration task—work in the TRADE ONS and SHOPS, We urge every member of the Y, C. L., whether in children's work or not, to participate in the discussion on children’s work during the pre= convention and convention pericd