The Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), 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 social democrats affecting the issues impacting that demographic group.

History

Foundation and early years

The youth section of the Socialist Party of America (SPA) had its roots in non-coordinated groups established at the local level by party members interested in conducting special activities to attract young people to the socialist movement.Ernest Erber, "Twenty-Five Years in the History of the Young People's Socialist League," The Challenge of Youth, "New Series" vol. 1, no. 1 (October 1937), pp. 4-6. These groups had diverse names, including the "Athenian Literary Society," "Young People's Alliance," and "Social Science Study Club."

The Young People's Socialist League (YPSL, pronounced "YIP-sell") was founded on May 17, 1907, in Chicago, Illinois, with the group containing about 30 members at the time of its formation."The Chicago YPSL," The Party Builder, whole no. 59 (December 20, 1913), pg. 6. Key individuals in the formation of the group included Charles Schuler, A.W. Mance, Merle B. Haver, and Rube Burrows. Schuler remained Secretary of the organization through 1913. Participants sought their own headquarters and held a series of money-raising entertainments and social events to that end, successful enough for the group in November 1907 to open an office in the building of the Chicago Daily Socialist.

Simultaneously in New York City, several already existing socialist youth groups united themselves in 1907 to form a "Young People's Socialist Federation."Tim Davenport, "Young People's Socialist League (1907–1946): Organizational History," Early American Marxism website. In connection with this growing New York socialist youth movement, in 1908 the publishing association responsible for producing the New Yorker Volkszeitung began to issue The Little Socialist Magazine for Boys and Girls — a publication which was renamed The Young Socialists' Magazine in June 1911 and which eventually became the official organ of the national YPSL movement.

The 1912 National Convention of the Socialist Party took note of a need to better coordinate the Socialist youth movement, placing it under the Women's Department of the National Office. This move proved to be merely cosmetic and there was still no national organization binding the numerous largely autonomous local organizations together until 1913. It was at this time the SPA's national committee was pushed into action by the efforts of the party's California State Secretary, a vociferous supporter of the socialist youth movement. While there remained support among some for the formation of a semi-autonomous organization which elected its own national secretary and executive committee, in the end the national committee of the SPA decided to form a "Young People's Department," directly attached and fully subordinate to the National Office of the adult SPA. Formal establishment of the YPSL as the official youth section of the Socialist Party began at this date.Patti McGill Peterson, The Young Socialist Movement in America from 1905 to 1940: A Study of the Young People's Socialist League. PhD dissertation. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1974; pg. 34.

By February 1914 the YPSL reported a membership total of 4,800, split into 112 circles.Peterson, The Young Socialist Movement in America from 1905 to 1940, pg. 35. An additional 18 circles were in the process of being organized at that time. Members were kept abreast of developments of the organization in the pages of a monthly journal, The Young Socialists' Magazine, with a circulation of 10,000.

World War I and the Independent YPSL

In 1915 a unified national YPSL was formally launched when various local Circles adopted a constitution by a referendum vote. Two years later, YPSL National Secretary William "Bill" Kruse reported the group had a membership of about 5,000, spread in Circles in 147 cities.

With the American entry into World War I, National Secretary Kruse was one of five top leaders of the SPA targeted for prosecution by the United States Department of Justice. Kruse was hauled into court, tried, and sentenced to 20 years in prison for violation of the wartime "Espionage Act". The sentence was finally overturned on appeal on grounds of judicial prejudice in 1920.

In 1919, the faction known as the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party exited the SPA to form two organizations which would eventually unite as the Communist Party USA. The YPSL, headed by Left Wing supporter Oliver Carlson and generally sympathetic to the perspective of the Left Wing, initially attempted to chart an independent course from the Socialist Party and the nascent Communist Labor Party of America and Communist Party of America. Without financial support from the SPA, however, the so-called Independent Young People's Socialist League essentially disintegrated, with many of the active leaders in the group enlisting in the underground communist movement, while others drifted away from political activity altogether.

1921 reorganization

The Socialist Party reorganized the YPSL with Bill Kruse reelected as its secretary, but he, too, departed the Socialist Party for the Communist movement in 1921. The league was once again relaunched at a 1922 convention, with Albert Weisbord as national secretary. Weisbord managed to rebuild a network of YPSL Circles but in 1924 he joined Carlson and Kruse in the ranks of the Workers Party of America, "legal" successor to the underground communist movement.

The YPSL organization survived the defection of its third leader and were active in the Socialist Party-endorsed campaign of Robert M. La Follette for President of the United States in 1924. An attempt was made to start a new official publication for the organization called Free Youth, but the effort failed due to lack of funds, with the membership of the Socialist Party down to about 10% of where it stood five years previously. With the rest of the Socialist Party, the YPSL entered five years of decline and malaise following the unsatisfying outcome of the 1924 campaign.

Growth in the early 1930s

The Great Depression beginning in 1929, combined with a new and energetic Socialist Party leadership around 1928 Presidential Candidate Norman Thomas and party Executive Secretary Clarence Senior lead to a revitalization of the Socialist Party's youth wing, as the YPSL grew along with the adult party. According to National Secretary Emanuel Switkes, at the end of 1930 the national YPSL organization had about 1500 members, divided into 65 branches in 25 cities of 9 states.Nathan Fine (ed.), The American Labor Year Book, 1931. New York: Rand School Press, 1931; pg. 153.

The for a time the YPSL was subdivided into two divisions, a "junior" group including boys and girls from the ages 13 to 16 and a "senior" group of young women and men aged 16 to 30. The organization raised funds and collected clothing for strikes in Danville, Virginia and Ward, West Virginia, and assisted in picketing on behalf of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union, the Furriers Union, the Retail Clerks Union, and others. The group also held a jamboree in Reading, Pennsylvania, the national headquarters of the YPSL organization.

The official organ of the YPSL during the depression decade was a monthly tabloid newspaper launched in April 1933 initially called The Challenge, the name later being changed to The Challenge of Youth.The best available run of the publication is available on film with the master negative held by the Tamiment Library of New York University as Microfilm A-7412, "Miscellaneous Student Newspapers." Although photographed somewhat out of sequence, the run seems to be complete from 1933 to 1937, except for 7 missing issues. The YPSL also produced a theoretical magazine and discussion bulletin called Young Socialist Review, which was available for 10 cents a copy."'Young Socialist Review' Just Out," The Socialist Call, vol. 1, no. 3 (April 6, 1935), pg. 10. The magazine seems to have appeared irregularly. National chairman of the YPSL in 1935 was Arthur G. McDowell and national secretary was Winston Dancis.

Red Falcons

In 1933 the party established a children's organization known as the Red Falcons of America, targeted at children who might otherwise be swept up by the Boy Scouts (perceived to be a quasi-military training organization) or the Sunday schools (believed to be aimed at fostering passivity and fatalism through inculcation of religious dogma). Boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 15 were eligible for membership in the group, of which it was said that it "trains them for service in the class struggle and membership in the Young People's Socialist League.""Red Falcons: By This Sign You Will Know Them," The Challenge, vol. 1, no. 2 (May 1933), pg. 3.

Yipsel Circles were called up on to "make Falcon work a part of their regular activity" and volunteers from the YPSL ranks were sought to serve as leaders and advisors of the new Junior youth organization. The group seems to have been started on YPSL initiative as the initial report of the group in the YPSL's official newspaper indicated that "the Yipsel National Executive will take up with the National Office of the Socialist Party and sympathetic labor organizations the matter of aid to the [Red Falcon] movement."

Red Falcon headquarters was located at the Rand School of Social Science, located at 7 East 15th Street in New York City."The Red Falcons of America," The Challenge [Chicago], vol. 1, no. 5 (August–September 1933), pg. 7. There organization published its own monthly magazine, The Falcon Call, for its members, with the first issue having come off the press in January 1933. Activities of one branch of the group included early morning distribution of trade union leaflets at a non-union handkerchief factory and visits to a New York museum "to see visual portrayal of the story of evolution.""Red Falcons Launch Organization Drive," The Socialist Call, vol. 1, no. 1 (March 23, 1935), pg. 7.

The Red Falcons were accorded independent status and a full-time national office at Socialist Party headquarters late in 1935, when National Secretary Clarence Senior preemptively acceded to the group's demand for the same, staving off a planned "March on Chicago." Sam Schwimer, editor of The Falcon Call, was chosen as the national secretary of the group."Red Falcolns 'March on Chi,' Get National Office," The Challenge of Youth [Chicago], vol. 3, no. 9 (December 1935), pg. 4.

The Red Falcons held a "Guides' Convention" in association with the July 1936 national convention of the Socialist Party in Cleveland, with Secretary Elizabeth Most stepping down from her position."Red Falcons Hold Guides' Convention," The Challenge of Youth, vol. 4, no. 3 (July 1936), pg. 11. Harry Fleischman was named by National Secretary Senior as the new head of the children's group, which claimed an organized membership of "approximately 2500."

Socialist Vanguard

Influenced no doubt by the so-called "shirts movement" of Europe, in which party youth and adult organizations of the political right and left identified themselves with common uniforms, in 1933 the New York Young People's Socialist League launched a new sub-organization called the "Socialist Vanguard.""New York Yipsels Organize Vanguard; Acts As Colorful Unit in Mass Action," The Challenge, vol. 1, no. 6 (Oct. 1933), pg. 2. This group was organized into "squads" of 8 members each, about 40 of which were established at the time of the group's launch. The Socialist Vanguard was marked by royal blue shirts with a red logo, the emblem being a circle with three arrows, as used by the by then annihilated Iron Front in Germany.