Socialist Youth League (US)
Encyclopedia
The Socialist Youth League was the youth group affiliated with the Workers Party, a splinter Trotskyist party led by Max Shachtman
. The parent group changed its name to the Independent Socialist League in 1950. In February 1954, the Socialist Youth League merged with the a faction of the Young People's Socialist League
and changed its name to Young Socialist League. The YSL merged with the rest of the YPSL in August 1958, around the same time that the ISL was merging into that groups parent body the Socialist Party - Social Democratic Federation
.
, Labor Youth League - had all been discredited as either Communist or Communist influenced. The SYL filled this void and became the most visible Leftists group on campus.
In contrast to the low brow style of the communists, the Shachtmanites carried on the Trotskyist appeal to intellectuals and "elite culture". The SYL catered to a Bohemian milieu, the beginnings of the Beat
movement. Writers like Norman Mailer
, Allan Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
would frequent SYL and YSL meetings. In one instance, while Shachtman was delivering a lecture on Dadaism a disgruntled Dadaist threw a bowl of potato salad
at him, an event commemorated in Ginsbergs Howl
The SYL made attempts to infiltrate and take over other groups in the 1940s and 1950s. It was most successful within the YPSL. The SYL recruited Michael Harrington
and Bogdan Denitch
within the YPSL, partially on the basis of their opposition to the Korean War, which the Socialist Party supported. In 1954, as noted above, they were able to merge the YPSL with the SYL to form the Young Socialist League. (The socialists subsequently reformed the YPSL) The new organization had a total of 83 members. Nevertheless it was still one of the most visible leftist groups on campus in the mid-1950s. They also attempted infiltration of the Student League for Industrial Democracy
where they organized a "Red Caucus" which took over the CCNY
Evening Session chapter and attempted to steer the group in a more "disciplined" direction. After a two year upheaval which strained the resources of the SLID they were eventually kicked out.. In 1955 they succeeded in taking over the New York regional office of Students for Democratic Action, an affiliate of Americans for Democratic Action
. They were only prevented from capturing the national organization when the ADA threatened to cut off the groups funding.
Meanwhile, the ISL was making overtures to merge with the Socialist Party, which itself had merged with the Social Democratic Federation to form the Socialist Party - Social Democratic Federation in January 1956. Proponents of the merger in both groups cited the youth groups as an important selling point. The revived YPSL had fewer than 100 members, while the YSL, by the late 1950s, had three times as many. A merger would give the party an appreciable youth section for the first time in a decade. While the merger was hotly debated at the SP-SDFs convention in May 30 -June 1, 1958 and then voted upon by the membership that summer, the YPSL and YSL merged in convention in late August. The ISL itself however was dissolved, its properties bequeathed to the SP-SDF and its members requested to join as individuals..
At the time of its dissolution the Young Socialist League had approximately 250 members in 15 chapters, including at Columbia, Oberlin, Antioch, Boston University and the University of Washington. A left group within the YSL, consisting of about a quarter of its membership led by Tim Wohlforth
rejected the merger and went into the Socialist Workers Party
affiliate, the Young Socialist Alliance
, where they would eventually form the germ of the Revolutionary Tendency
and, from that, the Spartacist League
..
It published the magazine Anvil, in which Hal Draper
was to publish an early version of his pamphlet The Two Souls of Socialism
in 1960.
Max Shachtman
Max Shachtman was an American Marxist theorist. He evolved from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL-CIO President George Meany.-Beginnings:...
. The parent group changed its name to the Independent Socialist League in 1950. In February 1954, the Socialist Youth League merged with the a faction of the Young People's Socialist League
Young People's Socialist League (1907)
The Young People's Socialist League , founded in 1907, was the official youth arm of the Socialist Party of America. Its political activities tend to concentrate on increasing the voter turnout of young democratic socialists and affecting the issues impacting that demographic group.- Foundation and...
and changed its name to Young Socialist League. The YSL merged with the rest of the YPSL in August 1958, around the same time that the ISL was merging into that groups parent body the Socialist Party - Social Democratic Federation
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
.
History
The SYL was established in 1946, just after World War II ended. During the war the Workers Party had concentrated mostly on colonizing basic industries and organizing wildcat strikes, but after the war ended this strategy foundered, as the expected post-war wave of labor radicalism failed to materialize. The groups press began to concentrate more on campus activism in the late 1940s. and 1950s. By the early 1950s the SYL represented one of the few viable left-wing groups on Americas campuses. The other organizations that had briefly become popular on campus in the late 1940s - Young Progressives of America, American Veterans CommitteeAmerican Veterans Committee
The American Veterans Committee was founded in 1943 as a liberal veterans organization and an alternative to groups such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which supported a conservative political and social agenda. The organization's roots were planted in 1942 when Sgt...
, Labor Youth League - had all been discredited as either Communist or Communist influenced. The SYL filled this void and became the most visible Leftists group on campus.
In contrast to the low brow style of the communists, the Shachtmanites carried on the Trotskyist appeal to intellectuals and "elite culture". The SYL catered to a Bohemian milieu, the beginnings of the Beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
movement. Writers like Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, Allan Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
would frequent SYL and YSL meetings. In one instance, while Shachtman was delivering a lecture on Dadaism a disgruntled Dadaist threw a bowl of potato salad
Potato salad
Potato salad is a dish made from boiled potatoes, the versions of which vary throughout different regions and countries of the world. Although called a salad, it is generally considered a side dish, as it generally accompanies the main course....
at him, an event commemorated in Ginsbergs Howl
Howl
"Howl" is a poem written by Allen Ginsberg in 1955 and published as part of his 1956 collection of poetry titled Howl and Other Poems. The poem is considered to be one of the great works of the Beat Generation, along with Jack Kerouac's On the Road and William S. Burroughs's Naked Lunch...
The SYL made attempts to infiltrate and take over other groups in the 1940s and 1950s. It was most successful within the YPSL. The SYL recruited Michael Harrington
Michael Harrington
Edward Michael "Mike" Harrington was an American democratic socialist, writer, political activist, professor of political science, radio commentator and founder of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Personal life:...
and Bogdan Denitch
Bogdan Denitch
Bogdan Denitch is an American sociologist of Yugoslav origin who is an emeritus professor at the City University of New York . He is a leading authority on the political sociology of the former Yugoslavia...
within the YPSL, partially on the basis of their opposition to the Korean War, which the Socialist Party supported. In 1954, as noted above, they were able to merge the YPSL with the SYL to form the Young Socialist League. (The socialists subsequently reformed the YPSL) The new organization had a total of 83 members. Nevertheless it was still one of the most visible leftist groups on campus in the mid-1950s. They also attempted infiltration of the Student League for Industrial Democracy
Student League for Industrial Democracy (1946-1959)
The Student League for Industrial Democracy of 1946 to 1959 was the second incarnation of the League for Industrial Democracy's student group. It changed its name to the Students for a Democratic Society on January 1, 1960, and severed its connection to the LID in 1965.- Origins :After the...
where they organized a "Red Caucus" which took over the CCNY
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
Evening Session chapter and attempted to steer the group in a more "disciplined" direction. After a two year upheaval which strained the resources of the SLID they were eventually kicked out.. In 1955 they succeeded in taking over the New York regional office of Students for Democratic Action, an affiliate of Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Democratic Action
Americans for Democratic Action is an American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA works for social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research and supporting progressive candidates.-History:...
. They were only prevented from capturing the national organization when the ADA threatened to cut off the groups funding.
Meanwhile, the ISL was making overtures to merge with the Socialist Party, which itself had merged with the Social Democratic Federation to form the Socialist Party - Social Democratic Federation in January 1956. Proponents of the merger in both groups cited the youth groups as an important selling point. The revived YPSL had fewer than 100 members, while the YSL, by the late 1950s, had three times as many. A merger would give the party an appreciable youth section for the first time in a decade. While the merger was hotly debated at the SP-SDFs convention in May 30 -June 1, 1958 and then voted upon by the membership that summer, the YPSL and YSL merged in convention in late August. The ISL itself however was dissolved, its properties bequeathed to the SP-SDF and its members requested to join as individuals..
At the time of its dissolution the Young Socialist League had approximately 250 members in 15 chapters, including at Columbia, Oberlin, Antioch, Boston University and the University of Washington. A left group within the YSL, consisting of about a quarter of its membership led by Tim Wohlforth
Tim Wohlforth
Timothy Andrew Wohlforth , is a United States former Trotskyist leader. Since leaving the Trotskyist movement he has become a writer of crime fiction and of politically oriented non-fiction....
rejected the merger and went into the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
affiliate, the Young Socialist Alliance
Young Socialist Alliance
The Young Socialist Alliance was a Trotskyist youth group of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States of America. It was founded in 1960, although it had roots going back several years earlier. It was dissolved in 1992...
, where they would eventually form the germ of the Revolutionary Tendency
Revolutionary Tendency
Revolutionary Tendency was the name of at least two internal factions within Trotskyist organizations in the United States.*Revolutionary Tendency which developed within the Socialist Workers Party in the early 1960s....
and, from that, the Spartacist League
Spartacist League (US)
The Spartacist League/ US is a Trotskyist organization in the United States. It was the original Spartacist group that helped to inspire and organize similarly oriented groups around the world...
..
It published the magazine Anvil, in which Hal Draper
Hal Draper
Hal Draper was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement and is perhaps best known for his extensive scholarship on the history and meaning of the thought of Karl Marx.Draper was a lifelong advocate of what he called...
was to publish an early version of his pamphlet The Two Souls of Socialism
The Two Souls of Socialism
The Two Souls of Socialism by Hal Draper is a socialist pamphlet that posits a fundamental division in socialist thought and action between those who favor "Socialism from Above" and those who favor "Socialism from Below."...
in 1960.
Pamphlets
- History of the international marxist youth movement pt. 1. From its origin to 1919. New York, N.Y. : Provisional National Committee for a Socialist Youth League, 1946
- Next -- a labor party! [New York] Pub. by Labor action for the Workers party and Socialist youth league, 1948
- Leon Trotsky on Zionism [New York] Socialist Youth League, 1948
- Declaration against war, adopted by Socialist Youth League, Libertarian Socialist League, Young Peoples Socialist League [Los Angeles? 1950 (with YPSL and the Libertarian Socialist League) 1950
- Cold war on the campus by Robert Martinson [New York] Socialist Youth League, 1950
- An open letter to Dean Acheson : "the marine corporal is right" by Max Shachtman [New York] Socialist Youth League, 1952
- Constitution of the Socialist Youth League, 1953 [New York] Socialist Youth League, 1953
- James Burnham and the managerial revolution by George OrwellGeorge OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
[Berkeley, Calif.]: Berkeley Young Socialist League, 1955 - Draft statement on work in the Stalinist arena by Art Lowe [United States? : s.n., 1956
- What is the Young Socialist League? Chicago, Ill.: Chicago YSL, 1957
- Which road for Socialist youth -- reformism or revolutionary socialism?; writings of the left wing of the Young Socialist League. Berkeley, Calif., Young Socialist Forum, 1959
External links
- Socialist Youth Review selected issues of the SYLs organ
- Left Wing Caucus of the Young Socialist League A document on Tim Wohlworths opposition within the YSL