The Socialist Youth League was the youth group affiliated with the Workers Party, a splinter Trotskyist party led by

Max Shachtman Max Shachtman (; September 10, 1904 – November 4, 1972) was an American Marxist theorist. He went from being an associate of Leon Trotsky to a social democrat and mentor of senior assistants to AFL–CIO President George Meany. Beginnings S ...

. The parent group changed its name to the Independent Socialist League in 1950. In February 1954, the Socialist Youth League merged with a faction of the Young People's Socialist League and changed its name to Young Socialist League. The YSL merged with a later incarnation of the YPSL in August 1958, around the same time that the ISL was merging into that group's parent body the Socialist Party – Social Democratic Federation.

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 strike The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

s, 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 Committee Launched in April 2013, the American Veterans Committee (AVC) is a non-profit veterans organization that promotes networking opportunities for US veterans globally. The organization was launched to make it easier for US veterans to connect with v ...

Labor Youth League The Young Communist League USA (YCLUSA) is a communist youth organization in the United States. The stated aim of the League is the development of its members into Communists, through studying Marxism–Leninism and through active participation ...

– had all been discredited as either

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

or Communist Party USA influenced. The SYL filled this void and became the most visible Leftists group on campus. In contrast to the low brow style of the CPUSA, the Shachtmanites attempted appeal to intellectuals and "elite culture". The SYL catered to a

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

milieu, the beginnings of the

Beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

movement. Writers like

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

and

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

would frequent SYL and YSL meetings. In one instance, while Shachtman was delivering a lecture on

Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

a disgruntled Dadaist threw a bowl of

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at him, an event commemorated in Ginsberg's ''

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''. 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 Edward Michael Harrington Jr. (February 24, 1928 – July 31, 1989) was an American democratic socialist. As a writer, he was perhaps best known as the author of ''The Other America''. Harrington was also a political activist, theorist, professo ...

and

Bogdan Denitch Bogdan Denitch (born Bogdan Denis Denić, sr-Cyrl, Богдан Денис Денић; August 9, 1929 – March 28, 2016) was an American sociologist of Serb origin. He was a leading authority on the political sociology of the former Yugoslavia, an ...

within the YPSL, partially on the basis of their opposition to the

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, 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 Socialist Party 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 The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, City ...

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 A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school or higher (e.g., college or university); those in primary or elementar ...

, an affiliate of

Americans for Democratic Action Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) is a liberal American political organization advocating progressive policies. ADA views itself as supporting social and economic justice through lobbying, grassroots organizing, research, and supporting prog ...

. They were only prevented from capturing the national organization when the ADA threatened to cut off the group's funding. Meanwhile, the ISL was making overtures to merge with the Socialist Party, which itself had merged with the

Social Democratic Federation The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Con ...

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 on 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,

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and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. A left group within the YSL, consisting of about a quarter of its membership led by

Tim Wohlforth Timothy Andrew Wohlforth (May 15, 1933 – August 23, 2019), was a United States Trotskyist leader. On leaving the Trotskyist movement he became a writer of crime fiction and of politically oriented non-fiction. As a student, Wohlforth joined the ...

rejected the merger and went into the Socialist Workers Party affiliate, the

Young Socialist Alliance The Young Socialist Alliance (YSA) was a Trotskyist youth group of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) 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. The ...

, where they would eventually form the germ of the Revolutionary Tendency and, from that, the

Spartacist League The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and other ...

.Isserman pp. 64,70 It published the magazine ''Anvil'', in which

Hal Draper Hal Draper (born Harold Dubinsky; September 19, 1914 – January 26, 1990) was an American socialist activist and author who played a significant role in the Berkeley, California, Free Speech Movement. He is known for his extensive scholarship on t ...

was to publish an early version of his pamphlet

The Two Souls of Socialism ''The Two Souls of Socialism'' is a socialism, socialist pamphlet by the Marxist writer Hal Draper, in which the author posits a fundamental division in socialist thought and action between those who favor "Socialism from Above" and those who favor ...

in 1960.

References

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!''
ew YorkPub. by Labor action for the Workers party and Socialist youth league, 1948
''Leon Trotsky on Zionism''
ew YorkSocialist Youth League, 1948
''Declaration against war, adopted by Socialist Youth League, Libertarian Socialist League, Young Peoples Socialist League''
os Angeles? 1950 (with YPSL and the Libertarian Socialist League) 1950
''Cold war on the campus''
by Robert Martinson ew YorkSocialist Youth League, 1950
''An open letter to Dean Acheson : "the marine corporal is right" ''
by Max Shachtman ew YorkSocialist Youth League, 1952
''Constitution of the Socialist Youth League, 1953''
ew YorkSocialist Youth League, 1953 *'' James Burnham and the managerial revolution'' by Second Thoughts on James Burnham">James Burnham and the managerial revolution'' by George Orwell [Berkeley, Calif.">George Orwell">Second Thoughts on James Burnham">James Burnham and the managerial revolution'' by George Orwell [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: 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

selected issues of the SYLs organ

A document on Tim Wohlworths opposition within the YSL {{DEFAULTSORT:Socialist Youth League (Us) Youth wings of political parties in the United States Youth wings of social democratic parties Youth organizations established in 1946