Challenge (1933)

Last updated

Challenge was a tabloid-sized monthly newspaper established in Chicago in April 1933 that served as the official organ of the Young People's Socialist League, the youth section of the Socialist Party of America. The publication was subsequently renamed The Challenge of Youth and continued in existence through 1946.

Contents

Publication history

Establishment

The decision to launch a new official newspaper of the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL) was made at the 1932 National Convention of the YPSL. [1] In April 1933, this publication was launched, a 4-page tabloid called The Challenge. Throughout its first year, the publication campaigned against the threat of international war, fascism, child labor, and deficiencies in the American education system and lobbied on behalf of efforts to politically organize unemployed workers and to expand the trade union movement. [1]

The first issue of The Challenge featured a lengthy masthead, including Arthur G. McDowell as Editor, James Quick, Bob Parker, Jack Jaffe, Aaron Levenstein, and Paul Rasmussen as Associate Editors, Hy Fish as Business Manager, and a Socialist Party list including Norman Thomas, Powers Hapgood, Upton Sinclair, and Oscar Ameringer as "Contributing Editors." [2]

Editor Syd Devin later quit in order to finish his studies. [3] Devin was replaced by Melos Most, who had previously been a delegate to the executive committee meeting of the Socialist Youth International, held in Belgium in 1934. [3] Most was later named as editor of the youth page of the New York weekly, The Socialist Call. [3]

First hiatus

After shutting down for the summer of 1936, The Challenge of Youth returned in September. It was issued very irregularly, however, with an apologetic notice printed in the 4-page February 1937 issue noting that "the reason for it not appearing has been financial." [4] It was noted that the newspaper received no publication subsidy from the Socialist Party, with all its costs borne by the YPSL organization, which was holding evening festivities in Chicago in an effort to raise funds to insure the publication's survival. [4] Ernest Erber, National Secretary of the YPSL, had taken sole charge of the editorial task. [4]

List of issue dates and key contents

All articles unsigned unless otherwise noted.

The Challenge

Editor: Arthur G. McDowell. Associate Editors: James Quick, Bob Parker, Jack Jaffe, Aaron Levenstein, Paul Rasmussen. Business Manager: Hy Fish. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"US Army Plan Exposed: War Department Ready to Move Against Unemployed When Relief Breaks Down"; "Germany, A Lesson in Politics" (editorial); "The Decline of American Trade Unionism," by Andrew Biemiller; "Thugs Battle With Striking Miners" (Illinois); "Defeat Militarization of Unemployed Youth; Labor Camps Menace."

Editor: Arthur G. McDowell. Associate Editors: James Quick, Bob Parker, Jack Jaffe, Aaron Levenstein. Business Manager: Hy Fish. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Youth Meet at Congress" (Continental Congress on Reconstruction); "Red Briefs for Reds, Says Socialist Lawyer" (Darlington Hoopes bio); "Takes Action on Chicago Situation: Statement on Disciplining of Chicago City YPSL"; "Youth Platform of Young People's Socialist League of America, Proclaimed on May Day of 1933"; "Yipsels Act in Chicago School Strikes"; "Young Socialist Groups Participate in Athletics."
"Youth Spreads Strikes"; "Yipsels Help Unions Fight Sweatshops"; "YPSL Acts in Anti-Military Fight: Picket World War Picture in Bridgeport"; "Hapgood, Harvard Graduate, Forsakes Eliot's Advice" (Powers Hapgood bio); "Pick Reading for Site of Seventh Annual Convention"; "New York Yipsels Aid Bakery Strike"; "Abolish Child Labor Forevermore" (YPSL declaration).
"Abolish Child Labor Forevermore," declaration of the YPSL of A; "Needle Trades Choose Krzycki"; Leo Kryzycki biography; "Cleveland Young Socialists Organize Press Punch Operators Out on Strike"; "Yipsels Help to Organize Labor Bloc" (ACWU).
"Reading Strikes Make History"; "Yipsels Aid New Strikes in St. Louis"; "Dixie Strike Leader Jailed," by Norman Thomas; "Veteran Sarah Limbach Remains Vigilant Fighter on Labor's Battle Front" (Sarah Z. Limbach bio); "YPSL Convention, Reading, Aug. 26-27: Gathering to Make Plans for Future," by Winston "Win" Dancis; "Chicago General School Strike Looms".

Editor: Arthur G. McDowell. Associate Editors: James Quick, Bob Parker, Ben Fischer, Aaron Levenstein. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Labor Revolt Sweeps America"; "Defend the Free Public Schools"; "Young Socialist Meet Shows Unity: Upholds vote of NEC on Chicago YPSL"; "New York Yipsels Organize Vanguard; Acts as Colorful Unit in Mass Action: blue Shirts and Red Emblems Worn by Young Socialists"; "Socialist Youth International Fights War".
"NIRA Fails Youth and Farmer"; Open Letter to Bernarr Macfadden; "No Hope for Young Worker in 'New Deal'"; "YPSL Conducts Anti-Militarism Demonstration"; "Salute!" (Morris Hillquit Obituary); "Roosevelt! The Genial Jingo"; "Owners Dig in to Resist Control: NRA Strike Breaking is Boss' Hope" (Federated Press); "Anti-Fascist Student Unite to Organize" (Student League Against Fascism).

Editor: Arthur G. McDowell. Associate Editors: James Quick, Bob Parker, Ben Fischer, Aaron Levenstein. Business Manager: Sid Devin. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Nazi Propaganda Poisons US"; "Expose Civilian Conservation Corps as Military Unit: Train Youth for Future Mass Killing"; "Trace History of Labor and Socialism in US" (Historical sketch part 1, 1872-1900); "Yipsels! Help Build the Young Falcon Movement"; "Federated Press Correspondent Bids Farewell in US Labor History Article," by Laurence Todd.
"War Makers See Their Hopes in CCC: Assistant War Secretary Aspires to Enrollment of Million by Next Summer"; "Hoopes Defeats Reactionaries"; "YPSL National Committee Maps Campaign for 1934"; "Trace Growth of Socialist Movement in United States" (Historical sketch part 1, 1901-1918); "New Primer of Socialism (part 1)" by Ben Horowitz.
"Student Revolt Against Militarism Growing"; "Seven Ohio State Expulsions Call for New Protest" (refusal to participate in military drill; "To War or Not," by Henry Margulies; "Trace Growth of Socialist Movement in US Since War" (Historical sketch part 3, 1919-date); "New Primer of Socialism (part 2)" by Ben Horowitz; "German Boycott by Workers" (editorial); "St. Louis Yipsels Builds Youth's Antiwar Front".
No copy available for review. "New Primer of Socialism (part 3)" by Ben Horowitz.

Editor: Arthur G. McDowell. Associate Editors: James Quick, Ben Fischer, Aaron Levenstein. Business Manager: Sid Devin. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Students in the War Against War and War Makers"; "College Armories and Forest Camp New Youth Traps"; "Youth Can End War: A Message to the Bravest of American Youth" (manifesto of NEC of YPSL of A); "Labor Revolt Grows Despite Auto Retreat"; "New Primer of Socialism (part 4)" by Ben Horowitz; "Announce Jamboree and Camp Plans for the Summer of 1934".
"Organize Youth Against Fascism: May Day Manifesto Announces New Anti-Fascist Youth Group"; "Soviet Leningrad and Nazi Hamburg: A Study in Contrasts," by Lenora Greory (New Clarion reprint); "Young Socialist National Committee Maps New Work"; "Soviet Russia 1934" (editorial); "May Day Finds Austrian Socialists Fighting On"; "Free Press Outcry Veils Child Labor Evil: Newspaper Code's child Labor Clause OKs Crime School," by S.L. Devin.

The Challenge of Youth

Managing editor: Melos Most. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Britain, Italy Near War"; "Desertions from Anti-War Ranks Begin"; "Drive Against Hearst Films Planned"; "War Dange May Cause Union of Student Groups (Student League for Industrial Democracy and National Student League); "The Rise of an American Student Union," by Al Hamilton; "Terror in Terre Haute," by Powers Hapgood; "Do You Believe in Violent Revolution?" by Maynard Krueger; "The Russian Revolution Lives On," by Ernest Erber; "The Story of a Revolution" (Spain, part 1), by Melos Most; "Thomas Supports War Stand" (letter), by Norman Thomas.
"World War in 60 Days"; "Young Socialists Move to 'Drive Hearst from Movies'"; "Sports Internationals in United Front Pact"; "Text of Socialist Party's War Resolution"; "NEC Discusses War Question, YPSL Headway"; "Youth Gets a Handout" (forthcoming pamphlet), by Larry Brown; "William Randolph Hearst," by Labor Research Front; "Behind Mussolini's War Venture," by Vincezo Vacirca; "Two Ways to Defend the Soviet Union," by Harold Draper; "The Story of a Revolution" (Spain, part 2), by Melos Most.
"Students Vote on Union" (SLID/NSL); "300,000 Students in War Resistance 'Mobilization,'" by George Edwards; "YCL to Go Under Knife: Communist Youth International to Be Dissolved, League Depoliticized..."; "Red Falcolns 'March on Chi,' Get National Office"; "The National Youth Administration is a Danger!"; "What We Want of a Student Union"; "The Story of a Revolution" (Spain, part 3), by Melos Most; "Where We Stand" (includes Browder-Thomas Debate).
No copy available for review.

Responsible Editorial Board: Ernest Erber, Ben Fischer, Hy Fish. Managing Editor: Melos Most. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"American Youth Act Up Before Conress"; "Expect 350,000 to Strike" (April 22, 1936 action); "Socialism, Communism Debated by US Youth," articles by Leon Zitver and Florence Haikin; "Impressions of the American Class Struggle," by Maxine Miller; "An Explanation of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat," by Morris Hillquit; "The German Socialist Youth," by Karl Liebknecht; "The American Student Union," by Al Hamilton.
"Youth Act Hearing Held"; "Socialist Revolution Due Soon in Spain; Masses are Restless," by Melos Most; "The Revolutionary Position and the Immediate Problems of War," by Gus Tyler; "The Early 'Challenge'"; "The Challenge Today," by E. Ewald; "Beyong the AYA," by Ben Fischer; "Schools Empty April 22," by Eleanora Deren; "Students Protest Loyalty Oath Bill"; "High Hopes Confirmed by Growth" (American Student Union), by Joseph P. Lash; "Jim Crow in US Education," by Lyonel Florant.
No copy available for review.
"Thomas, Nelson to Run on Platform Endorsing Youth-Help Act"; "3,000 Meet at Youth Congress" (3rd American Youth Congress); "Christian Youth Throw Vote to Socialist Party"; "Build the American Youth Congress!" by Harry Fleischman; "Convention Address of Ernest Erber"; "Organize the Unemployed Union," by Milton Arons.

Responsible Editorial Board: Ernest Erber, Ben Fischer. Managing Editor: Melos Most. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"See Record Vote for Socialists"; "US Socialist Youth Leader Sent to Spain" (Erber); "American Youth Congress Upset Brings Bureau Behind Socialist Stand for Unity"; "Red Youth Battle Fascism" (Spain); "What Happened at the Third American Youth Congress?" by Ben Fischer; "Our Schools Go On Closing," by Harry Shields; "The Soviet Trial: An Editorial Statement" (Zinoviev).

Editor: Ernest Erber. Editorial Office: 549 Randolph Street, Chicago, Illinois.

"Debs Column Fighters Sail to Fight Fascists"; "Appeal to Workers Only Hope in Spain," by Ernest Erber; "New Berne Necessary to Unite Youth Against Imperialist War," by Ben Fischer; "Challenge Notes"; "The Party Convention" (editorial); "Communist Hooliganism" (editorial); "Pacifism" (letter to the Editor), by Al Hamilton.

See also

Related Research Articles

Max Shachtman 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.

The New International is a magazine of Marxist theory published first by the Socialist Workers Party of the United States (SWP) from 1934 to 1940, then by the Workers Party from 1940 to 1958, and then revived by the SWP since 1983.

The Young People's Socialist League (YPSL), founded in 1989, was the official youth arm of the Socialist Party USA. The group comprises party members under the age of 30. It shared the same name as the Young People's Socialist League which was affiliated with the Socialist Party of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gus Tyler</span>

August Tyler (1911-2011) was an American socialist activist of the 1930s, a labor union official, author, and newspaper columnist. Tyler is best remembered as a leading American labor intellectual of the post-World War II era and as the author of a history of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Weisbord</span> American political activist

Albert Weisbord (1900–1977) was an American political activist and union organizer. He is best remembered, along his wife Vera Buch, as one of the primary union organizers of the seminal 1926 Passaic Textile Strike and as the founder of a small Trotskyist political organization of the 1930s called the Communist League of Struggle.

Red Falcons was the name of various socialist children's organizations, popular in Europe and the United States which emerged during the First and Second World Wars. The first such group was founded in the early 20th century by Anton Tesarek, a socialist educator from Austria, under the name "Rote Falken." The origin of the name is unclear; one possible explanation is that the Falcon is a bird of prey with no imperial links It is red to symbolise socialism.

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 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William F. Kruse</span> American socialist politician (1894–1979)

William F. Kruse (1894–1979) was an important head of the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL) in the 1910s. He was a member of the Socialist Party of America until 1921, acting as a leader of the party's Left Wing faction, loyal to the Third International (Comintern). Thereafter he joined the Workers Party of America, serving as assistant executive secretary of the WPA from the time of its foundation in December 1921.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lovestoneites</span> Political party in United States

The Lovestoneites, led by former General Secretary of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Jay Lovestone, were a small American oppositionist communist movement of the 1930s. The organization emerged from a factional fight in the CPUSA in 1929 and unsuccessfully sought to reintegrate with that organization for several years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William F. Dunne</span> American politician (1887–1953)

William Francis Dunne was an American Marxist political activist, newspaper editor and trade unionist. He is best remembered as the editor of the radical Butte Bulletin around the turn of the 1920s and as an editor of the daily newspaper of the Communist Party USA from the middle-1920s through the 1930s. Dunne was founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America, but was removed from the national leadership of the party in 1934 and expelled in 1946 on charges of factionalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English-language press of the Communist Party USA</span> Press

During the ten decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in the English language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George A. Nelson</span> American politician

George A. Nelson was a dairy farmer, a farm organization leader, and an American socialist politician. He is best remembered as the 1936 candidate of the Socialist Party of America for Vice President of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy E. Burt</span>

Roy Everett Burt was a Methodist clergyman and an American socialist politician and functionary. Burt is best remembered as the Executive Secretary of the Socialist Party of America from 1936 to 1939.

During the nine decades since its establishment in 1919, the Communist Party USA produced or inspired a vast array of newspapers and magazines in at least 25 different languages. This list of the Non-English press of the Communist Party USA provides basic information on each title, along with links to pages dealing with specific publications in greater depth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young People's Socialist League (1907)</span> Youth arm of the Socialist Party of America

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kahn</span> U.S. social democrat

Tom David Kahn was an American social democrat known for his leadership in several organizations. He was an activist and influential strategist in the Civil Rights Movement. He was a senior adviser and leader in the U.S. labor movement.

Hal Draper 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 the history and meaning of the thought of Karl Marx.

The Workers Party (WP) was a Third Camp Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in April 1940 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who opposed the Soviet invasion of Finland and Leon Trotsky's belief that the USSR under Joseph Stalin was still innately proletarian, a "degenerated workers' state." They included Max Shachtman, who became the new group's leader, Hal Draper, C. L. R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, Martin Abern, Joseph Carter, Julius Jacobson, Phyllis Jacobson, Albert Glotzer, Stan Weir, B. J. Widick, James Robertson, and Irving Howe. The party's politics are often referred to as "Shachtmanite."

The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a communist party in the United States. Originally a group in the Communist Party USA that supported Leon Trotsky against Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, it places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba. The SWP publishes The Militant, a weekly newspaper that dates back to 1928. It also maintains Pathfinder Press.

Ny Tid, initially known as Svenska Socialisten was a Scandinavian newspaper published in the United States between 1905 and July 1936. Initially issued from Rockford, Illinois, it later shifted to Chicago and New York City. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish languages were used in the newspaper. The circulation of the newspaper varied between 2,000-5,000 copies.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Early 'Challenge,'" The Challenge of Youth, vol. 4, no. 1 (April 1936), pg. 5.
  2. "The Challenge," The Challenge, vol. 1, no. 1 (April 1933), pg. 2.
  3. 1 2 3 E. Ewald, "The Challenge Today," The Challenge of Youth, vol. 4, no. 1 (April 1936), pg. 5.
  4. 1 2 3 "Challenge Notes," The Challenge of Youth, vol. 5, no. 1 (February 1937), pg. 3.