Growing Up Communist in the Netherlands and Britain

Elke Weesjes is a visiting research fellow at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, and an adjunct assistant professor at the City University of New York in Brooklyn, where she teaches courses in modern European and U.S. history, and women’s and gender studies.

Acknowledgements

1 Introduction: Cradle Communists and Oral History

Part I

2 Under the Party’s Wing: Communist Youth Organisations 1920-1956
Foundation years

Class Against Class and Popular Front
The Spanish Civil War
The Second World War
Promising years: 1945-1948
Isolation: 1948-1956

3 Out of the Shadows: Communist Youth Organisations 1957-1968
The ban-the-bomb movement
The politicisation of youth
The student movement
The anti-Vietnam War movement
Old guard vs. new guard

4 Fragmentation and Demise: Communist Youth Organisations 1969-1991
Gender roles, sexuality and the feminist movement
The anti-racist movement
The gay rights movement
The final years

Part II

5 From Heroes to Villains: The Second World War and '1956'
Resistance and war trauma
'1956'

6 Private Spheres: Communist Home Life
Politics at home
Cultural upbringing
Child-rearing mores

7 Public Spheres: Neighbourhood, School and Work
School and education
Work and careers
Anti-communism – MI5 and the BVD
Working mothers
Money and poverty
Summer camps and holidays
Friendships and relationships

8 Epilogue: Looking Back

9 Afterword


List of Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index