The Program of the Youth of the Communist Abstentionist Fraction (July 1920)

1. Proletarian youth, from childhood, is caught in the fatal machinery of the capitalist system of production, which cruelly affects its physical and intellectual development. This same system, however, fosters its class consciousness, fueled and strengthened by its rebellious and generous psychology.

2. From this particular psychology arises the necessity of a specific organization: the youth organization, which unites the most vigorous and enthusiastic part of the proletariat—the heroic and combative vanguard of the Communist Party—ready for all sacrifices and self-denial, prepared to take the most dangerous positions in a relentless struggle.

3. The task of the Communist Youth Organization is the Marxist education of working-class youth and the mobilization of its energies toward the common final goal.

4. Communist youth aims to strike at the strongest bastions of the state apparatus. Therefore, a significant part of its activity is dedicated to antimilitarist propaganda—not based on vague humanitarian and pacifist theories, but on the disintegration of the bourgeois state's defense apparatus and the preparation of the proletarian state's army of defense.

5. It seeks to deepen class consciousness and elevate the cultural level of the proletariat. For this reason, it strives to free it from all superstitions, especially the petty moral and political superstitions derived from clericalism—capitalism’s faithful ally—which aims to keep the working class in complete ignorance.

6. It understands that the class struggle is a struggle of the entire bourgeoisie against the entire proletariat, and that the proletariat’s final victory can only come through the world revolution. Therefore, it belongs to an international organization whose task is to unite and coordinate the work and efforts of young communists across the world.

7. While educating itself through struggle, communist youth continuously spreads the fundamental principles of Marxist doctrine among the proletariat. It does so by both popularizing these principles and the historical phases of the class struggle, and—above all—by conducting a ruthless critique of all revisions, false interpretations, and multiple degenerations of Marxist theory.

8. It fights all petty-bourgeois distortions of Marxism, from reformism to syndicalism, while recognizing the historical role these forms have played in the genesis of the workers' emancipation movement. It also combats all forms of anarchist extremism, which have nothing to do with the theoretical basis or practical realization of the communist program.

9. It opposes all forms of parliamentary socialism—especially its more advanced and deceptive forms—which Marx rightly called parliamentary cretinism. In whatever form it appears, it ultimately serves as an attempt to prevent the inevitable crises that will hasten the collapse of the bourgeois regime.

10. In the current revolutionary period, where the proletariat in every country awaits the moment of its revolution, communist youth considers the participation of representatives of the oppressed class in the institutions of the oppressor class incompatible with the revolutionary struggle. The time for critique is over—now, proletarian energies must be concentrated on preparing for the imminent revolution.

11. It affirms that nothing is more childish than the theory that denies tendencies within the youth movement. There is no single interpretation of Marxist doctrine; rather, each political tendency represents a revision or interpretation of Marxism for which we must conduct propaganda. Propaganda itself presupposes an interpretation of the doctrine—that is, a political tendency.

12. With full awareness, communist youth declares that the social-democratic tendency is the worst revisionist degeneration of Marxism, serving as the last bulwark of the bourgeois regime. It vigorously affirms the necessity of a homogeneous Communist Party and the absolute incompatibility of non-communists (whether they belong to centrist or right-wing factions) within the Federation and the Communist Youth International.

13. In particular, given the current phase of the struggle, it announces its transformation from the Socialist Youth Federation into the Communist Youth Federation. It withdraws its affiliation from the Italian Socialist Party until the party abandons its hesitations, expels non-communists, and reorganizes itself as a Communist Party strictly aligned with the Third International in Moscow.

14. It subordinates all judgments and support for the Socialist Party's work to this fundamental action—whether in preparing for revolution, forming soviets, or any other possible initiative. It understands that none of these tasks can be effectively carried out while the Party remains trapped in its current ambiguity.