Youth Challenges the Warmakers!: Report of the National Youth Anti-War Congress

New York: Youth Committee Against War, [1940]. The Youth Committee Against War (YCAW) was founded in 1938 as a federation of socialist, Protestant and student youth groups. Originally called the Youth Committee for the Oxford Pledge, it was militantly pacifist and anti-imperialist and attached itself to the equally isolationist Keep America Out of War Congress - and more controversially, the America First Committee.

This pamphlet was published after the group’s first national congress held in Columbus in 1940, and includes sections on international action against the war, the industrial mobilization plan (which the YCAW calls a “blueprint for fascism”), the U.S.’s drive for armaments, neutrality legislation, the militarization of youth, war referendum, and labor, students and cooperatives against war. The pamphlet concludes with a report on the congress, the group’s program and principles, and a list of the officers, staff, and national council. The group, along with the KAOWC, was dissolved in 1941.

Stapled, illustrated wrappers (8” x 5 ¼”), 32 p., illustrations. A few tiny nicks along the edges. Eight copies in OCLC.

Reference: Doenecke, Justus D. “Non-Interventionism of the Left: The Keep America out of the War Congress, 1938-41.” Journal of Contemporary History 12, no. 2 (1977): 221–36. Item #9826

Price: $175.00