impetus to the movements for public health care, education, unemployment insurance and other social safety-net reforms. In the same period, a Pioneers movement of young children with Communist or sympathetic parents was organized with membership numbering around 6,000. Under the leadership of the YCL, the Pioneers published its own magazine with a circulation of roughly 4,000. The YCL's mandate was not limited to the plight of unemployed youth. In 1935, an official Communist club was established at the University of Toronto. As British Columbia YCL leader Maurice Rush noted, "The members realized that the struggle for a decent life for the young generation of the Thirties required broad, united public action by all sections of young people. We worked tirelessly to build that unity, with considerable success. Together with changing conditions domestically and internationally with the rise of fascism, this led to a new conception of the YCL and its role in the struggle. Rise of fascism and the Canadian Youth Congress As the 1930s progressed, Fascism was growing in Europe, Asia, and in North America itself. With the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and Fascist Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, Canadian Communists joined those sounding a warning against the growing threat fascism presented. Some right-wing students at the University of Montreal organized demonstrations against the League, which became violent, involving bricks being hurled.At the same time, "the Mayor of Montreal banned protest meetings supported by labour organizations." Together with the Communist Party, the YCL began reaching out to youth organizations across the country. A joint youth council sprang up in Winnipeg, followed by others around the country. In May 1936, the Canadian Youth Congress was founded at a national conference in Ottawa and prepared delegates for the World Youth Congress held in Geneva later that summer. Among the Congress's aims was the intention to act as a lobby group on issues of peace, education and unemployment. To that end, the Ottawa conference produced the Declaration of Rights of Canadian Youth, resolutions on Canadian youth and world peace, and the proposed Canadian Youth Act. RCMP security bulletins show leading members of the YCL to have been enthusiastic proponents of the Congress and among its key organizers. As the likelihood of war increased, efforts to mobilize Canadian youth for peace took center stage alongside efforts to pass the "Youth Bill", a document which sought economic protection for youth and the repeal