IV Congress of the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Address by Marshal Josip Broz-Tito
Adress by Milovan Djilas
Report of the Central Committee of the Union of Commu-

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IV CONGRESS

UNION OF COMMUNIST YOUTH

of

YUGOSLAVIA

IVKOHEPEC

CKOJ

IV CONGRESS OF THE UNION OF COMMUNIST YOUTH OF YUGOSLAVIA

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THE IV CONGRESS OF THE UNION OF COMMUNIST YOUTH OF YUGOSLAVIA (SKOJ) TOOK PLACE IN BELGRADE IN OKTO BER, 1948. SOME OF THE MATERIALS FROM THE CONGRESS ARE PUBLISHED IN THIS PAMPHLET.

Printed by ,,Omladina“, Belgrade

Savez.

IV

CONGRESS

OF

UNION

OF

THE

COMMUNIST

YOUTH

OF YUGOSLAVIA

103

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PEOPLE'S YOUTH OF YUGOSLAVIA BELGRADE 1949

當B 3101

HQ

799

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1179 TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1. Address by Marshal Josip Broz-Tito

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.

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3. Report of the Central Committee of the Union of Commu nist Youth of Yugoslavia, Delivered by Miliyan Neorichich, Secretary of the CC ·

25

2. Adress by Milovan Djilas

133

4. Resolutions .

3672

ADDRESS BY MARSHAL JOSIP BROZ -TITO PRIME MINISTER OF YUGOSLAVIA

TO THE IV

CONGRESS OF THE

UNION OF COMMUNIST YOUTH OF YUGOSLAVIA

On the final day ofthe IV Congress of the Union of Communist Youth of Yougoslavia, Marshal Tito presented the UCYY with the Order of People's Hego and said the following:

>>Comrades, young men and women, Today your IV Congress is drawing to a close, a Con gress at which you made historic decisions on the further development of the younger generation of Yugoslavia . The Communist Youth of Yugoslavia has traversed a glorious road from its foundation . This road was marked by cons tant struggles under the leadership of the CP in pre-war Yugoslavia, by sanguinary battles in the great liberation war when the communist youth of Yugoslavia showed ex emplary heroism, when they demonstrated what communist youth should be like. This road has been marked, after the war with wonderful examples of self-sacrifice and hard work on the building up of our country. The communist youth, the Union of the Communist Youth of Yugoslavia, has developed under the leadership of the CPY from the time of its inception . The weaknesses and hardships of our party throughout its 28 years of exi stence also affected , our youth, our communist youth . I must say, however, that in the most difficult moments, when it was a question of liquidation of factionalism or struggle against various anti-party elements, our communist youth was always on the side of those forces in the party which were fighting for the purity and bolshevization of our par ty. To mention only one thing in passig, during the period of the foundation of the CP in 1919, 1920 and 1921 , our communist youth showed that they were true fighters for 9

the rights of the working people of Yugoslavia and, of course, only the situation exiting in the party at that time made it impossible for the revolutionary enthusiasm of our younger generation to develop to its fullest, to come to full expression . During the struggle for the purity of our party, for the liquidation of factionalism in our party, in 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928 and on, the communist youth of Yugoslavia fought on the side of those party forces which, regardless of sacrifices, were struggling against both left and right factions. In the period of military -fascist dictatorship , as has al ready been brought out at the V Congress, the communist youth showed exemplary heroism for, at the call of the party, not the party as a whole but the leadership — even through that call was incorrect, — they answered like dis ciplined young communists and gave their lives on the streets of Zagreb and Beograd and other towns together with the members of our party. Whenever there was a trial, the communist youth always sat on the bench of the accu sed together with their older party comrades. The commu nist youth was sentenced to long years of imprisonment to gether with the party members . The communist youth in the jails struggled, together with the party members against the cruel terrorization of the prisoners and was often in the lead. The communist youth, during the entire period up to 1941 , was always in the front ranks whenever a strug gle was being waged against non-popular regimes. The communist youth of Yugoslavia responded as one man to 'the call of the CP in 1941 to armed uprising. During the great liberation war, the young communists of Yugoslavia proved on all the battlefields of our country that they were worthy sons of our people , proved that they were worthy of marching under the banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. (Tumultuous applause) . The heroic feats of our young communists are innum erable . I shall not enumerate them here, you know them , but there are also many unknown heroes who fell in battle . The younger generation, headed by the CPY, with its nucleus, the communist youth, was able to achieve the great successes which are its today. 10

One of the greatest victories of the communist youth lies in the fact that it has a mass character today, that it is in the center of a great mass organization of the younger generation of new Yugoslavia. The Communist Youth of Yugoslavia did not enter nor is it entering now, by this decision of the Congress, the People's Youth, the youth of the peoples of the Federative People's Republic of Yugo slavia. It created these conditions itself in its long struggle for the younger generation. Therein lies the greatest victory of the Communist Youth of Yugoslavia, that it has succeeded, in standing at the head of the greatest mass organization of the youth of Yugoslavia . (Tumultuous ap plause). The V Congress brought the historic decision of hav ing the communist youth merge with the People's Youth organizationally as well. When we refer to the People's Youth, then the word »people's« has an entirely different meaning today from the one it had once upon a time. This meaning has both political and ideological content. Accordingly, you are not submerging yourselves in a new organization, but are simply carrying out formally what was done in practice long ago. Today, there is no longer any place for two or three organizations . Today development in Yugoslavia has a reached , such a point that the younger generation ought to be united in one general organization of the people's youth, with the ideological basis of the Communist Youth, under the leadership of the CP, and you , young communists, must work on implanting in the hearts of all our youth what you have achieved through long struggle. (Unanimous and thunderous cheers: >>We will, we will ! «) . It is, of course, your task to continue to fight for young people. There are still elements in Yugoslavia who want to isolate the youth from our present reality. Your task, the task of young communists and the people's youth in general, is to make it impossible for all those hostile forces which want to divert the younger generation to old ways, - to isolate it from life and the present in con temporary Yugoslavia, to divert it from the road of social ism . That is why it is you , the young communists, who must lead the entire younger generation firmly along the 11

road of socialism . You must be the first in the education of our youth in the socialist spirit, in the spirit of the sci ence of Marx , Engels, Lenin and Stalin (The hall again rings . out with the cry: » > We will !« and long applause) . We are not liquidating the UCYY as such, we are not liquidating the communist youth as such, but are broaden ing it to great proportions in the formal sense, too , for actually, today, our People's Youth is worthy of being communist youth (tumultuous and long-lasting applause and cheers of » > Hear ! Hear ! « ) . Accordingly, this is not a matter of name, but of content . You have the task of per fecting the content so that our people's youth may be wor thy of going forward under the leadership of the CP, under the banner of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin in the build ing up of socialism in our country, of being internationa lists in the full sense of the word, in being like you, in being what young people of the present-day Yugoslavia should be like. (Tumultuous and long applause) . I know, comrades, that some people will say: >>There they go, deviating to a nationalist course« (laughter) . Com rades, it is not hard to answer this : why do they change the name communist into » > workers« and other such things, as was done in some countries? Of course, we know that the reason for this is not that they have renounced communist content, but because they want to broaden, to win the masses over, and that is correct . Perhaps it is not correct everywhere but where it is difficult to win the masses it is a good thing to do . Here , we have no reason to endeavor to have the young organizations called communist and people's youth: we have one organization which has one ideological basis , which is going one way, which is all com munist (enthusiastic applause and cheers : »Hear ! Hear ! « ) and no one can insinuate differently. They can only malign us but nothing else .

Comrades, Today, as I have already said , is a historic day for you. You are terminating a long epoch of development of the communist youth of Yugoslavia. At this Congress, you have gone over all the work and struggles of the younger 12

generation throughout that long period . From now on, you are formally much bigger, not an organization of three hundred thousand, but an organization which embraces a million and a half young people and now, as an organiza tion of a million and a half, and even two million, young people, you must go forward under the same flag as you did when having only three hundred and fifty or so thou sand young people. We are building socialism, we have already laid the foundations of socialism in our country. We have already solved the basic questions of the building of socialism and no obstacles, no matter from where they might come, can keep us from that road. And why? In the first place, because we have such unity, both of our younger genera tion and of our party and of our peoples. (Long applause) . I shall not, comrades, speak about resolutions and what not else (laughter) . Much is written and said about this. Really, though, much need not be said about it . We must work, we must show by our deeds what is and what is not (>>Hear ! Hear !< ) , and not defeat by phrases the various lies and slanders directed, at us. This is not characteristic of us but I should like to underline one thing here . Our younger generation must be reared to love truth, to love justice, to attain those qualities which should be typical of commu nists. It is characteristic of communists in the first place that they tell the truth. It should be characteristic of communists : to love justice, for communists are fighting for justice in the world. It should be characteristic of communists : to be persevering, to be on a high level in their personal life , to always be where the going is toughest, to show how to work and how to endure in every great effort. Thus, the most basic characteristic of young communists - love of justice and truth -you must foster among yourselves. And, therefore, since we are talking about a certain resolu tion, then we are deeply affected when we see that this is not the characteristic of many communists ( applause and tumultuous cheers : »Hear! Hear!« ) . We shall not renounce these finest of communist characteristics love of truth and love of justice - because, if we were to renounce them then we would not be communists, we would not be true communists.

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Is it true that our country fought as one man ? (All the delegates cry : » > It is ! «) Accordingly, what they say is not true ―――― that our country did not fight. (Answer in unison : >>It is not !left right < tried to place their trusted factionaries in leading positions in the UCYY. In that way, from 1926 to 1938 the police succeeded in introdu cing their agents into the UCYY leadership , agents such as the notorious Petković ( Seljak) , Matović and others. These agents of the police were the main stronghold of factions in the UCYY and fought among themselves . Of course, this gave rise to very serious consequences for the UCYY and the development of its leading cadre. Many good UCYY members, infected by factional struggle, were then lost for the party." (Tito ,,Struggle for the Young er Generation") .

At that time, comrade Tito, heading the party orga nization in Zagreb, waged a resolute struggle against the factions, also helping the UCYY organizations to wrench themselves from under their influence and thus made the greatest contribution to the further development of the Party and the UCYY. One of the leaders in the Beograd UCYY organization then ( in 1928) was comrade Alexander Ranković who also waged a resolute struggle against factionalism. 41

Up to the time of the IV Congress of the CP in 1928 the activities of the UCYY organization, as a result of fac tional struggles in the party and the entanglement of various leading UCYY comrades in them, were not satis factory as far as being on the line of organization and waging of a struggle by the youth masses against the reigning order was concerned . Efforts were not made to strengthen the UCYY, to broaden it and activate it to a greater degree, but its activity was manifested more

" along lines of propaganda and agitation. Nevertheless , there were some big actions during that time, such as the general strike of the students of Zagreb University orga nized by the UCYY ( 1928 ) , the big protest meeting of the progressive students of Beograd against the imprison ment of the leaders of the students' movement and demon strations by the working youth in Beograd against the terror of the ruling borgeoisie.

The UCYY in the Period of Monarcho -fascist Dictatorship The monarcho- fascist dictatorship, proclaimed in 1929, dealt a hard blow both to the party and to the UCYY. The dictatorship took the lives of over a hundred of the most valuable members of the CPY and the UCYY while thousands of fighters were thrown into prisons. This pe riod also marked, the murder of Djura Djaković and six secretaries of the UCYY (Mijo Oreški, Janko Mišić , Paja Marganović, Josip Debeljak, Pero Popović-Aga, Josip Ko lumbo) whose bearing showed the young communists and the entire youth how to fight and die heroically for the cause of the working class and its party. Referring to the mass persecution of the progressive youth and members of the UCYY during the dictatorship , and especially after the issuance of the slogan for an armed struggle, comrade Tito wrote : „, One of the main mistakes of the political line of the leadership headed 'by Martinović was that it did not know at all how to eva luate the situation and relationaship of forces but with 42

a still unconsolidated party, a party isolated from the masses, it embarked upon a course of armed uprising against the monarcho -fascist dictatorship . This was, to put it mildly, an ordinary adventure and criminal behaviour with the small number of party and youth members", and further, that ,,their stupid and irresponsible decisions caused the decimation of the small party and youth mem bership which heroically went to meet death or imprison ment, spilling blood for the honor of being called a mem ber of the party and a member of the communist youth, that is, submitting to party discipline". With the first impact of the dictatorship, large num bers of leaders and members of the UCYY were rounded up, imprisoned, sentenced and murdered . Under the blows of the dictatorship , many UCYY organizations were broken up and the movement beheaded. In the whole country only small groups of UCYY mem bers were left who went deeper and deeper underground ; working in secret and isolation , they broke off their ties with the wide masses of the youth . During the dictator ship, the UCYY became a small organization of young revolutionaries, cut off from the masses of youth and in some organizations, various terroristic tendencies were manifested (Slovenia) . However, despite all persecutions, various organizations carried through successful actions. In 1930, 1931 and 1932 the organizations were left to themselves and on their own initiative attempted to carry out various actions. The period from 1932 to 1934 was one of work on the revival and institution of organiza tions, the establishment of contacts and, formation of lead erships. That is the time when the regional committees of the UCYY were formed. The CC UCYY was then abroad and was not acquainted with the situation in the youth movement in the country. Comrade Tito , speaking of the work and bearing of the UCYY during the dictatorship, wrote: „ Regardless of the difficult and, slow development of the UCYY, its basic cadre was sound, faithful to the party and the working class, it showed this by spilling its young blood during the January 6th dictatorship when its ranks were decimated, when five secretaries of the 43

UCYY lost their lives, when the flower of communist youth was murdered or thrown into prison, when the san guinary reaction of the January 6th dictatorship strove completely to destroy not only the CP but the Commu nist Youth of Yugoslavia as well... in that difficult hour the UCYY also showed that the firing squad, murders, dungeons and long years of imprisonment could not des troy it. The blood of the dead youth bore three times more fruit." In 1931 and 1932, the student movement began to form. The first leadership ― the faculty council ――――― was set up in 1932 and was followed by the Central Council as the university leadership . During the same year, a uni versity, student fraction of communists (Costufra ) was created, rallying progressive students around itself. One of the organizers of the student movement at that time was comrade Milovan Djilas. In 1932 began the formation of the UCYY organization which in 1934 numbered a hun dred members (Beograd) . But , despite the successes in the struggle to rally progressive students and to carry out actions at the university, the UCYY had a sectarian cha racter and was limited to a small number of young people. The work of the UCYY at that time developed under the sign of struggle against the January 6th dictatorship and reaction, struggle for autonomy, democratic elec tions, etc. The years 1932, 1933 and 1934 were characterized by constant struggle for taking over and activating the tech nical associations at the university. The student youth was among the first to raise its voice against the monarcho fascist dictatorship (the demonstrations in 1931 in Beograd during the elections for the Assembly followed by mass jailing and banishment of students) . The IV Party Conference held in 1934 set the follow ing before the UCYY as its most important task: the establishment of closer ties between and the continued revival and expansion of UCYY organizations and the in clusion of working class and office employee youth in trade union membership ; inclusion of entire groups and cells of the UCYY in various civil organizations, social 44

fascist, reformist and neutral (in order to gain influence on various elements) . On their part, the party organiza tions posed the question of aid to the UCYY organizations and struggle against social -democratic attitudes toward the youth which were expressed in underestimation of the sig nificance and role of the working youth and its UCYY organizations. The VI Congress of the CYI was held in September 1935. It had great significance for the development of the progressive youth movement in the world and in parti cular for the youth movement in Yugoslavia. The Con gress set two main tasks : work on the strengthening of the UCYY (on organizational expansion and political acti vation) and broad rallying of the masses along the line of creation of an anti-fascist youth movement and mobili zation of the youth for the struggle against imperialist war. The decisions of the Congress were to become the point of departure for a broad organizational struggle, for liquidation of sectarianism in the work of the UCYY, for mass legal work and unification of all non- fascist youth organizations in the struggle against fascism . Owing to the fact that the Congress decisions were not properly implemented, the development of a wide youth movement and liquidation of sectarianism in the UCYY went along very slowly. In the spirit of implementation of the decisions of the VI Congress of the CYI, the IV National Conference of the UCYY was held in 1935 with the task of applying the decisions of the Congress concretely and discussing their implementation through the UCYY organizations. The Conference set the task of organizational expansion and strengthening of the UCYY which was to embark upon a more determined course of work in the mass organiza tions for the creation of a united youth front. Instead of implementing the line of the VI Congress of the CYI, anti -party elements headed by Gorkić brought a decision in April 1936 on dissolution of the UCYY as an independent organization . The liquidation of the UCYY was altogether contradictory to the line of the VI Con 45

gress of the CYI and this caused great confusion in the ranks of the UCYY for quite some time. But, in spite of the criminal directive on dissolution of the UCYY, the youth movement continued to fight. At that time, the student movement appeared as a power ful political factor in the youth movement (Beograd Uni versity) . The struggle for taking over the technical associ ations was finally ended at Beograd University in 1936 and this opened up wide possibilities for legal work. This period also witnessed the famous genèral strike lasting 26 days which began simultaneously at the Zagreb and Lju bljana Universities, too . In regard to the significance of this strike , Ivo - Lola Ribar wrote : ,,The student strike of April 1936 meant the end of an epoch of efforts by the student movement as such , the end of those spontaneous student actions, the end of the struggle of the student vanguard and the beginning of the struggle of all students." It was then that our progressive student movement established, contact with the international youth movement on the line of defense of peace . Our delegations partici pated in the World Youth Congress in Geneva in 1936 and the World Student Congress in Brussels in 1935. On this occasion, we should stress the great response of our youth, the student youth above all, a great number of whom, at the call of the party, voluntarily went to Spain to fight for the cause of the international proletariat. Among them were many young communists who gave their lives in the struggle against fascism while others, returning home, became prominent leaders in the national liberation war.

Comrades , From the above, it can be seen that the UCYY orga nization, from its inception up to 1937 , traversed a hard road in its development . In that period , the UCYY achieved great successes in the struggle against non-people's re gimes, for the rights of the working youth of Yugoslavia. During that period, the members of the UCYY displayed much heroism and self- sacrifice . But apart from its suc cesses, the UCYY had serious weaknesses which made it impossible for it to completely fulfil its task. It did not 46

succeed in becoming a mass organization during that time . It did not have ties with the wide masses of the youth but waged its struggle isolated from those masses, it did not comprehend the day-to -day needs of the youth nor did it know how to engage the wide masses of the youth in the struggle for its political and economic de mands . Ideological weakness, and especially sectarianism were illnesses which prevented the UCYY from developing its work in wide proportions, made it impossible for it to achieve still greater successes in rallying and engaging the masses of the youth in the struggle led by the work ing class of our country under the direction of the CPY.

III.

Reorganization of the UCYY and Struggle for Youth Unity The coming of comrade Tito to the head of the CC CPY marked a new era in the history of the UCYY , Re lying on the sound nucleus of young communists and assign ing a certain number of party members to work in the UCYY, the CC of the party began to reconstruct the UCYY. Towards the end of 1937 , a youth commission head ed by Ivo Lola Ribar was formed in the CC CPY. It later evolved into the CC UCYY. Youth commissions were also set up within the framework of competent party bodies. These youth commissions, with the comprehensive and direct help of the party and comrade Tito, began to po pularize and to put into concrete terms the party line in work with the youth. In 1937 , comrade Tito set these tasks before the UCYY: "",The UCYY must undergo a fundamental reorganization not according to some stereotype but gradually and accord ing to conditions in every individual locality and region . The fine past of our UCYY places an obligation upon every UCYY member to take courageously to a new road, to a road of drawing closer to and rallying in the mass youth organizations. The tasks of our Union are : 1. Work on the 47

development and strengthening of all democratic, progres sive and cultural organizations ; 2. Activity aimed at coope ration among all youth organizations ; 3. Rearing of the youth in the spirit of struggle against fascism and for democracy, progress and peace ; 4. Preservation of the legality of all youth organizations". The implementation of these tasks meant the creation. of a mass unified youth movement whose platform of action and policy was struggle against fascism . And that meant: maximum utilization of all existing organizations of youth for legal work with the aim of re -educating the youth in a spirit of anti-fascism, the creation of a broad youth movement in the various countries of Yugoslavia, the sitting up of broad mass organizations by categories of youth, comprehensive development of various sectors of youth activity through sports, cultural-educational ac tivities, entertainment, arts clubs and other forms. A strug gle had to be waged for the unity of the youth of various strata on the basis of their common interests and day to day needs and for the consolidation, in a unified move ment, of the youth against fascism and war, for democracy and peace, for better living conditions, work and schooling. Such tasks required a fundamental change in the me thods of work used by the UCYY organization up to that time, a most determined course of liquidation of secta rianism . The majority of the young communists correctly grasped these tasks, began to rally around the party leader ships and, to establish contact with the higher UCYY lead erships. Links were formed among the UCYY organi zation from top to bottom and the first organizational conditions for the reorganization of the UCYY were created. In that respect, the CC UCYY had to pay special ⚫ attention to the raising of new cadres which were emerg ing in the process of mass struggle and to full utilization of the old UCYY cadres which had gone through the fire of monarcho -fascist dictatorship, coordinating and utilizing the features of both one and the other. In reorienting to mass work, the UCYY organization had to wage a struggle against many of its weaknesses, 48

in the first place against sectarianism and the attempts to destroy the legality of the youth organizations, then against neglect of various youth needs and demands, awkwardness and inflexibility in putting into concrete terms the line of the party and the CYI, as well as against lack of vigilance toward Trotskyism and other agents of fascism . But, in spite of all this, the UCYY organization took big strides forward. As early as the end of 1937 , and espe cially in 1938, the basic UCYY organizations ,, actives" ―― (as they were called) plus a nucleus began to form everywhere, in enterprises, schools, universities and mass youth organizations. In the mass youth organizations, edu cational groups for the study of Marxist literature were formed, made up of progressively inclined youth . Popula rization of Marxism-Leninism among the youth was be gun. To that end, the CC UCYY took over ,,Voice of the Youth", began publishing the legal newspaper „,New Life " and later ,,Youth" ,,,Young Culture", and others. Through the most varied forms, excursions, entertainment, cultural artistic and sports activities - the broadest strata of work ing youth began to rally and to be educated in an anti fascist, anti-war spirit. The UCYY organization penetrated ever deeper into the youth masses and strengthened its ranks. As a result of its mass growth in 1938 , UCYY lead erships were formed in towns and counties, while in Serbia, in some district centers, district UCYY committees were set up. Such a development of the organization also conditioned the growth of regional commissions into re gional committees of the UCYY which were formed in 1938 in Serbia, and in Montenegro . As an expression of the organizational strengthening of the UCYY and its ever growing political influence on the broadest youth masses, the united youth movement began to take deep root among all strata of the youth; it began to broaden its proportions. In laying the foundations for the united youth movement, the UCYY had to take into account that this was not a matter of a uniform ideology but of a uni ted program , of a united platform on the basis of which the younger generation would wage a struggle for com 49

mon aims and interests. This did not mean that the orga nizations taking part in it would lose their independence but that they would cooperate on the basis of a program decided upon jointly. The youth movement at Beograd University began to develop especially quickly . As early as 1937 , during the elections for the executive council of the law association , the united student youth came out for the first time with a program of action : the struggle for the freedom and autonomy of the university, against its fascization, against the imprisonment and maltreatment of students, for full freedom of science and political conviction, for improve ment of the economic position of students. In April, 1938, the United Student Youth emerged from the Congress of 30 student associations . On that occasion, Lola Ribar, se cretary of the CC UCYY wrote : ,,The present student move ment, a movement of cooperation and harmony among student associations which realized many student demands, a movement of complete unity of democratic students in the United Student Youth, is no longer simply an expres sion of spontaneous rebellion and, general political striv ings of a student vanguard. Today, in April 1938, two years after the great strike, the first all - student action, we have a student movement as a truly youth and cultural movement a movement through which one generation is facing life and is moving toward its goal, toward con scious service to the people, the social task of a genera tion, the people's intelligentsia which we want to create". The ,,Student" began to be issued at Beograd University at that time and played an important role in the struggle of student youth. Although with a certain delay, the pro gressive student movement began to penetrate to the Za greb and Ljubljana universities, too , and to the Skoplje and Subotica faculties. The struggle for the unity of the working class youth met with bitter resistance from the social- democratic ele ments of the group of Topalović, Belić, and others. Thanks, however, to the correct policy and organizational forms of work, the widest masses of the working class youth and apprentices were activated in the struggle for unity,

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for improvement of their economic position, for higher wages, shorter work days, schooling during work time, cultural -educational advancement, against abuse and mal treatment by employers. During 1938, the young workers and 'apprentices, led by the UCYY, carried out a number of big actions. Mention should be made of a very success ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ the general apprentices' strike in Split in ful action 1938 which embraced 90 % of the apprentices. In all party organized strikes ――― the strike of metal and garment work ers in Zagreb, the strike in the First Beograd Textile Cor poration, the strike of the textile workers in Leskovac, the miners in Sisevac and ,,Morava" , in the hosiery works » Ključ« in Sarajevo, in the strikes of the carpenters, foot wear workers, painters and garment workers in Beo grad, Zagreb, Split, Vršac, Petrovgrad, Banja Luka, Mos - the working youth took part en masse . In the tar, etc. workers' trade unions, semi -legal youth commissions were formed which rallied the young workers in the struggle for the unity of the working class, for better living and working conditions. In Slovenia, the UCYY organization made headway in the workers' cultural association ,,Uza jamnost" . The movement of the progressive secondary-school youth expanded rapidly, especially under the influence of the student communists. Widespread educational work de veloped, Marxist literature was studied. The UCYY orga nizations took over literary societies, organizations of ,,Sober Youth" , „ Vacation Alliance", the Boy Scouts, etc. Progressive secondary school magazines and newspapers were issued, including: ,,The New High School Pupil" in Vršac, later ,,Dawn" in Beograd,,,Slovene Youth" in Lju bljana” , „ Elan" in Zagreb, and others. The wave of strikes embraced the school youth as well ; through them they brought out their economic demands, fighting for freedom of school associations, against the fascization of schools. The following stand out in the mass of pupils ' strikes the general three-day strike of pupils in Split, the strike of pe dagogical school pupils in Cetinje, the high school in Pod gorica, the secondary technical and apprentice schools in

4*

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Zagreb, the one -month strike of pupils of the agricultural school in Negotina and Valjevo and many others. With the help of the party, the UCYY took over the leadership in the Cooperative Youth of Yugoslavia which widely embraced the peasant youth, especially in Serbia, Voivodina and Montenegro . Through their local organiza tions, by founding reading rooms and bookshops , and organizing cultural-educational work in the village, the Cooperative Youth played an important role in the poli tical and social awakening of the peasant youth. Through the >>Union of Peasant Boys and Girls « in Slovenia, »> Pea sant Cart>The mass participation of the wide masses of the youth in the struggle against joining the Tri -Partite Pact, for a people's government, for the democratization of the country, for alliance with the USSR; the volunteering of thousands and thousands of members of the UCYY and other progressive youth, at the call of the CPY, to go to the front in the critical April days of 1941 ― all this confirmed the immeasureable force and unity of the youth movement in Yugoslavia«.

Comrades, We can draw the following basic conclusions from the: exposition of the most important factors in the develop 62

ment of our youth movement in the period from 1937 to the attack of the fascist marauders on our country:

1. From the end of 1937 to 1941 the UCYY organiza tion for the most part overcame the weaknesses that had existed in its work up to 1937, and especially the results of its dissolution . In that period , the UCYY ceased being a narrow, sectarian organization , a »party of youth< and developed into a mass revolutionary organization of work ing youth whose basic nucleus was made up of working class youth with deep roots in and powerful influence on peasant and school youth. The working class youth defi nitively began to play the leading role in the entire acti vity of the youth movement . The UCYY became a sure pillar of the CPY, its aid and reserve , the contact of the party with the broadest youth masses. The UCYY organi zations, although unevenly developed in certain countries of Yugoslavia, with relatively young members and leaders, represented a firm , monolithic, centralized organization. 2. The UCYY fully carried through the line of the Communist Youth International and, the party in the struggle for youth unity, for the creation of a progres sive , unified youth movement in Yugoslavia. The progres sive unified movement of Yugoslavia embraced the broad est masses of the working class, peasant , student, school and other youth , steeled itself in the fire of struggle against war and the fifth-column regimes of old Yugoslavia. became firm in action and unified with already clearly laid organizational foundations but with its organizational development unfinished ― this was to be achieved in the process of the national liberation struggle. By its revo lutionary spirit, its activity, its consciousness and its influ ence on the youth , the UCYY became the leading nucleus of the youth movement, loved and recognized as a front line fighter by the youth. 3. With the political and organizational help of the party, the UCYY continually educated the broadest strata of working youth in the spirit of love and devotion to the working class and the CP, love and devotion to the USSR, the international working class movement, in the spirit of socialism and internationalism . 63

4. Thanks to the work of the party and the UCYY all bourgeois parties and social- democratic leaders were unmasked and shown up as deadly enemies of the work ing youth. The leaderships of bourgeois youth organi zations , with honorable exceptions, showed themselves to be irresolute and finally hostile toward the interests of the people and the working youth; these traitorous leaderships lost all significant political influence on the broadest youth masses. The broadest strata of the working youth of Yugoslavia already in 1941 saw in the CP and the UCYY the only consistent fighter for the rights and future of the youth, having firm ties with them.

IV. The UCYY in the Period of the National Liberation Struggle After only a few day of struggle, the old Yugoslavia capitulated to the fascist troops owing to the treason of the reactionary ruling bourgeoisie . Our youth was ready at that time, too , to defend the independence and interests of its country with arms in hand at the call of the CPY, but the traitorous military clique gave the country over to the fascist marauders. The occupation of the country meant new slavery with the greatest hardships for our youth. The beastly fascist occupiers , with whose crimes and misdeeds our youth had already been acquainted, had now enslaved our country and were sowing death and destruction everywhere. In spite of all its horrors, the fascist occupation did not break nor could it break the UCYY organization . It did not even interrupt the continuity of its work and it needed only a few days to again establish contact between the basic organizations and leaderships . It is necessary to stress that the influence of the CPY

on the youth in those first days of occupation had grown extraordinarily while the youth, on the other hand, had been fully convinced of the shameful betrayal by the old

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administration and the leaders of the bourgeois youth organizations. The connections of the UCYY with the broad patri otic and anti -fascist masses of youth not only did not slacken but strengthened a great deal and its ranks , grew steadily. The UCYY was and remained the only firm and united organization consistently struggling for the interests of youth . In the period from the beginning of the occupation of the country until the armed insurrection of our people broke out, the UCYY extended full help to the party in preparation for the uprising . While retreating or coming from the camps of the old Yugoslav Army, the young communists , under the direct leadership of the party, collected and hid a great quantity of war material. Especially adept at this were the UCYY organizations in Montenegro, Serbia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia . The UCYY members of the town of Mostar hid about 600 rifles and 30 machineguns in the town alone while the UCYY members of Split collected all the war material from an entire garrison . This material was later taken to our partisan detachments. At the same time, the party organized the military drill of young communists ―――― through military groups (squads, platoons) . Young girls, members of the UCYY, in many places attended short sanitation and hygiene courses to acquire training for army sanitation service . Similarly, poli tical- educational work as intensified in all UCYY actives and among the entire youth ; study was made of the CC CPY materials on the reasons for the downfall of the old Yugoslavia and the further tasks of the party, the base maneuvers of the fascist occupiers and their hire lings ―― Pavelić, Nedić, Aćimović, Rupnik, and the others ――――――――― enemies of the peoples of Yugoslavia , were exposed. The Armed Uprising of the Peoples of Yugoslavia and the Participation of the Youth in It The historic decision of the CC CPY on an armed uprising of the peoples of Yugoslavia was received by

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our youth, educated by the party and led by the UCYY, with full readiness to participate in the struggle with all its young forces and to make the greatest sacrifices sought of them by our peoples and their struggle, for the cause of the liberty of their country and their peo • ples, for a happier future .

In the proclamation of the CC CPY regarding Ger many's attack on the Soviet Union, the CPY addressed the following words to our youth : >>The last battle is being fought with your greatest enemy, with a slaughterer of the younger generation, with the fascist criminals against whom you were always ready to fight when called upon to do so by the CP . The youth of the Soviet Union is already waging a hard and sanguinary struggle against these same nefarious ene mies of yours. That same Soviet youth that is spilling its life's blood for your happier future was building so cialism with a song on its lips - it had everything that you, youth of Yugoslavia, are striving for. Can you, the youth, stand aside ? You cannot , you must also be in the front ranks of the struggle against the fascist criminals Rally your forces in the UCYY to take a place, under the leadership of the CPY, in the fighting ranks of the libe rating national struggle. >Youth of our villages, do not let the fruits of your land serve to feed the fascist hordes ! Give all your help to the victims of fascist persecution, join the great army of young friends of the Soviet Union ! Preserve and deep en your accord, and militant unity, younger generation of all the Yugoslav peoples ! Do not let the fascist inva ders and their flunkeys deceive you and cause dissension among you ! The guarantee of our victory lies only in our accord and common struggle !>My last wish is to see gallows stretching from Mostar to Berlin with Germans and trait.. ors swinging from them«. The German-Italian invaders thought that they would silence our towns and occupied territory where they had entrenched themselves, that they would transform our youth there into obedient slaves, that they would have peace. But there was no peace. There was never any peace anywhere in Yugoslavia for the invaders and their hirelings. There was only constant and unsparing strug gle and the entire country was the battlefield on which it was waged . After the I Offensive , the Germans thought that Ser bia would quiet down and embarked upon the destruc tion of the partisan and UCYY organizations with espe cial fury. In February, 1942, many members of the UCYY organization in Beograd were caught owing especially to the traitorous behavior of Branko Mišković. The Germans and Nedić thought that they had buried the organization but soon after that a Beograd youth group, carrying out a task given to them by the party, killed the notorious agent George Kosmajac. In the town itself, many armed actions were carried out in which the shock group of the UCYY member Momčilo Momčilo Mitrović distinguished itself especially. It killed a well -known German spy and White Guardist in broad daylight on one of the busiest Beograd streets. On June 28th, 1942, the Serbian Government or dered a review of Beograd secondary- school youth to be attended by Nedić, Jonić and other traitors . The UCYY organized a boycott of this review which succeeded fully. In connection with this, Nedić's Minister of Education Velibor Jonić, ordered the directors of the schools to undertake ruthless measures against all pupils whom they considered communists . No one could ever alienate the youth of Mostar from our national liberation struggle . Especially heroic was the Moslem youth which showed in deed that it was not for 73%

the ustashi or the Germans as boasted by Nedić but for the National Liberation Struggle. After the V Enemy Offensive this youth hid, and guarded over 150 fighters from the Mostar battalion, who were wounded and ex hausted. In vain were the threats of the fascist general Roatta that he would shoot every one who was found sheltering a partisan . In the Zagreb district, as well as in Zagreb itself, youth shock group operated throughout the entire period of the war. Here is what one of the organizers of these groups in Croatian Zagorje , Josip Kolar , related : >>Our groups have 5,6 and also 10-15 young people . They carried out various kinds of actions. For instance, one of our shock groups comprising 5 youths cleverly disarmed 40 domobrans. In the evening , one of our fel lows, wearing our uniform , surprised the domobrans and said to them: Domobrans, surrender, you are surrounded ! And five young fellows disarmed all the domobrans... » How Steel Was Tempered«. It must be emphasized that the ideological educational and political work in the UCYY organizations and in the army were developed in an especially successful way. Apart from the large number of circulars, proclamations, smaller publica tions, newspapers and other periodicals, the »Youth Strug gle> actives critics