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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Hungary
Index
The Communist Youth League (Kommunista Ifjúsagi
Szovetseg--
KISZ) catered to young people. KISZ was the HSWP's
official youth
organization
(see Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party
, ch.
4). It
claimed to represent all the country's youth and sought to
educate young people politically and to supervise
political as
well as some social activities for them. KISZ was the most
important source of new members for the party. Its
organizational
framework paralleled that of the HSWP and included a
congress,
central committee, secretariat, and regional and local
committees. Membership was open to youth from the ages of
fourteen to twenty-six years, but most of the full-time
leaders
of the organization were well over the age limit. In the
1980s,
KISZ had about 800,000 members. Membership was common, if
rather
pro forma, among university students (96 percent of whom
were
members) but was lower among young people already working
(31
percent).
In the late 1980s, KISZ undertook sweeping reforms of
its own
organizational structure. In April 1989 delegates to the
organization's national congress voted to change the name
of the
organization to the Democratic Youth Federation. According
to
declarations adopted by the congress, the newly
refashioned
federation would be a voluntary league of independent
youth
organizations and would not accept direction from any
single
party, including the HSWP.
A separate organization within KISZ, the Association of
Young
Pioneers, was formed for youngsters in elementary school.
Membership was open to children from six to fourteen years
of
age. The Young Pioneers served many of the same functions
as the
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the West. The organization
also
attempted to explain to children the basic tenets of the
MarxistLeninist worldview. Joining the Young Pioneers was a
matter of
course for most youngsters in elementary school. Most
meetings
took place in classrooms of primary schools. Bands of
Young
Pioneers could be seen on many ceremonial occasions,
dressed in
the organization's characteristic white shirts and red
ties. The
summer camps sponsored by the organization were a
highlight of
the year for many children.
Data as of September 1989
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