sponsible^or^s retu^ ^ , material is re- which it w °s withdra^° Late s t Date stamped below ° F bef ° re the T 1 " 1 " 9 - -«* « reos •He University ^ 0, "°" < "’ d «■»• mJZ^TZ Z:ZTT eph °" e c — ----- - ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA ru ^_ urban a-cham paign L161—0-1096 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates / https://archive.org/details/resolutionstheseOOcomm Published for The communist international By the Communist Party of Great Britain 16 King Street, Covent Garden, London, W. C. 2 SOLUTIONS AND [ESES of the FOURTH NGRESS OF THE MMUNIST INTER¬ NATIONAL Held in Moscow Nov. 7 to Dec. 3 1922 CL You cannot afford to miss reading THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL Official Organ of the Communist International Latest numbers in stock 1/- Communist Bookshop, 16 King Street, W.C.2, i ■ —and you must read the f REPORT of the 4th CONGRES OF THE COMMUNIST INTE! NATIONAL held in Moscow, Nov. 7thj Dec. 3rd, 1922. Here are 250 pages packed with the experic and thought of the vanguard of the working class of world. Obtainable at all Communist Party office: England, Ireland, South Africa and Australia, and from offices of the Workers’ Parties of America and Canadi —then, if you would keep abreast of the changing phases of the workers’ struggle in all lands, send your subscription for the INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORRESPONDENT to any of the following addresses: m ■ " . Vf England —Swiss Bank Corporation, London. U.S.A.—Equitable Trust Co., New York, N.Y. INDIA —Cox & Co., Bombay. Egypt —Cox & Co-, Alexandria. Make your cheque or money order payable to Bett Simon & Co., a/c Impreccor, Berlin. Hates : $-9 or 1.21- for 6 months , $6 or 24/- for one . RESOLUTIONS &- THESES of the FOURTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL HELD IN MOSCOW NOV. 7 TO DEC. 3 1 922 Published for the COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL by the Communist Party of /Great Britain, 16 King Street, Covent Garden, W.C.2 r. i TO OF THE PRISONERS CAPITALISM P RISONERS of Capitalism ! Heroes in the struggle for the freedom of the working class, the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat of all countries assembled at the Fourth World Congress of the Communist International send you greetings ! Comrades, from year to year the world Congresses of the revolutionary proletarian vanguard, pointed out the conquests of the working class, paid homage to the working class and to the victims of the struggle, who have fallen at the hands of the executioners and to- those confined in prisons. From the moment that the United Front of Capital began its onslaught, its cruelty has manifested itself in full force. Once again throughout the capitalist world where the proletariat is fighting its is also Prime 40 Minister for the Swedish bourgeoisie, viz., M. Branting, finds himself at the present time in such a position that, for securing a Parliamentary majority, he cannot be indifferent to the attitude of the Communist fraction. The Executive Committee of the Communist International believes that, under certain conditions, the Communist fraction of the Swedish Parlia¬ ment cannot refuse its support to the Menshevik ministry of Branting; just in the same way as the German Communists have already quite rightly done in certain of the provincial Governments of Germany (Thuringia and Saxony). This, however, does not mean at all that the Swedish Communists should in any respect infringe their independence or desist from exposing the character of the Menshevik Government. On the contrary, the more power the Mensheviks possess, the greater will be their betrayal of the working class, and conse¬ quently the greater the necessity for the Communists to exert themselves in exposing the Mensheviks before the widest masses of the workers. It should also be the duty of the Com¬ munist Party to attract the Syndicalist workers to join the fight against the bourgeoisie. America. 15. In America a beginning has been made in uniting all the Left elements, both of the political and Trade Union movement ; this gives the Communists the opportunity of tak¬ ing a leading part in this process of the unification of the Left to penetrate right into the great masses of the American proletariat. By forming Communist groups everywhere where there are any Communists, American Communists ought to see to it that they take the lead in the movement to unite all revolutionary elements, and should now particularly advocate the watchword of the united working-class front in the fight for the unemployed, etc. The chief accusation against the Gompers Trade Unions should be that these will not join in the formation of a united front of the workers against Capitalism in defence of the unemployed, etc. The special task of the Communist Party nevertheless remains the organ¬ isation within its ranks of the best elements of the I.W.W. Switzerland. 16. In Switzerland our Party has succeeded in achieving certain successes on the lines indicated. Thanks to the Com¬ munist agitation for a united revolutionary front, the Trade Union bureaucracy has been forced to call a special Trade Union Congress, which is soon to take place. The Communists at this conference will be able to expose before all the workers the lies of reformism, and to weld further together the revo¬ lutionary forces of the proletariat. Other Countries. 17. In a whole series of other countries the question has different aspects depending on the different local conditions. The Executive Committee of the Communist International, 4 1 in making general observations, is confident that the Com¬ munist Parties will succeed in applying them in accordance with the circumstances obtaining in the given countries. Communist Independence. 1$. The Executive Committee of the Communist Interna-' tional counts as a primary and fundamental condition, of general application to the Communist Parties of all countries, that every Communist Party which enters into any agreement with parties of the Second or Two-and-a-Half Internationals should retain absolute independence and complete autonomy for the expression of its views and for the criticism of its opponents. . Imposing on themselves a discipline of action,, it is obligatory that Communists should preserve for themselves, not only up to and after action, but if necessary even during action, the right and possibility of expressing their opinion on the policy of all working-class organisations, without excep¬ tion. The rejection ofi this condition is not permissible under any circumstances. While supporting the watchword of the maximum unity of all working-class organisations, Com¬ munists, in every practical action taken against the capitalist front, must not on any account refrain from putting forward their views, which are only the logical expression of the defence of the interests of the working class as a whole. .. Russian Experience. 19. The Communist International Executive considers it useful to remind all fraternal parties of the experience of the Russian Bolsheviks, the only party so far which has succeeded in obtaining victory over its bourgeoisie, and taking power into its hands. In the course of the fifteen years which have elapsed since the birth of Bolshevism until its victory over the bourgeoisie (1903-1917), Bolshevism carried on an incessant struggle against reformism, or (what is the same thing) against Menshevism. But, nevertheless, during this period they more than once concluded agreements with the Mensheviks.' A formal split with the Mensheviks occurred in the spring of 1905, however, under the influence of the impetuous Labour movement, the Bolsheviks had already organised a United Front with the Mensheviks. A second and final split was formally completed in January, 1912, but between 1905 and 1912 the split was replaced by unity and semi-unity in 1906-7, and again in 1910. These unifications and half-unifications were not only due to the ups and downs of fractional struggles, but also to the direct pressure of wide masses of workers who, newly awakened to active political life, demanded in essence the possibility of seeing by the light of their own experience whether the Menshevik policy was radically divergent from the path of revolution. Before the new revolutionary revival after the Lena strikes, not long before the beginning of the imperialist war, there was observed among the masses of workers in Russia a specially 42 strong impulse to unity, which the diplomatic leaders of Rus¬ sian Menshevism tried to utilise for their own ends, much in the same way as the leaders of the Second, Two-and-a-Half and Amsterdam Internationals are now doing. The Russian Bolsheviks did not answer that impulse to unity by the re¬ fusal of any and every kind of United Front. On the con¬ trary, they countered the diplomatic game of the Mensheviks with the slogan “ Unity from Below ! ”—i.e., unity of the working mass itself in the practical struggle of the workers’ demands against capitalism. Experience proved that this was the only correct reply, and as a result of these tactics, the expression of which varied according to the special conditions of the time and the place, an enormous number of the best Menshevik workers were won over to the Communist side. International Unity. 20. In issuing the watchword of the united working-class front and permitting agreements of separate sections of the Communist International with parties and groups of the Second, Two-and-a-Half and Amsterdam Internationals, the Communist International cannot naturally refuse to contract similar agreements on the international scale. The Executive Committee of the Communist International made a proposal to the Amsterdam International in connection with Famine Relief in Russia. It repeated the proposal in connection with the persecution of the workers under the White Terror in Spain and Jugo-Slavia. The Communist International is now mak¬ ing new proposals to the three other bodies in connection with the Erst results of the Washington Conference, which has shown that the working class is threatened by a new imperial¬ ist slaughter. The leaders of the Second, Two-and-a-Half and Amsterdam Internationals have shown, up to now, by their behaviour that when it comes to a question of practical action they in fact reject their own watchword of unity. In all such cases it is the duty of the Communist International as a whole, and of its constituent sections in particular to ex¬ pose to the masses the hypocrisy of these reformist leaders who prefer unity with the bourgeoisie to unity with the revo¬ lutionary workers, and who remain, for instance, a part of the International Labour Office of the League of Nations, instead of organising the struggle against the imperialism of Washington, and so on. But the refusal of the leaders of the Second, Two-and-a-Half and Amsterdam Internationals to accept one or other of our practical suggestions will not cause us to give up the policy indicated, which is deeply rooted among the masses, and which we must persistently and sys¬ tematically develop. Whenever our adversaries refuse to sup¬ port any proposition for a united stand, the masses must be made to realise this, and thus learn who is actually respon¬ sible for destroying the workers’ united front. Should our adversaries agree to the proposals, it will be our duty to inten- 43 sify the struggle gradually, and raise it to a higher level. In both instances every effort should be made to focus the atten¬ tion of the masses on every incident in the struggle for the United front, and to interest them .in the negotiations between the Communists and the other organisations. Dangers of the United Front. 21. In putting forward the plan indicated, the Executive Committee of the Communist International warns all fraternal parties of the dangers which, under certain conditions, may be involved. Not all Communist Parties are sufficiently strong and homogeneous, not all have completely broken with centrist and semi-centrist ideology. Cases are possible where the advantage would go to the other side; tendencies are possible which in fact would signify the submergence and dissolution of the Communist Parties and groups into a shapeless united bloc. In order to' carry out the indicated policy successfully for the cause of Communism, it is necessary that the Com¬ munist Parties which adopt the policy should themselves be strong and firmly welded together, and that their leadership should be distinguished by clear-cut thinking. The Communist Right Wing. 22. Within the groups of which the Communist Inter¬ national is composed, we are justified in styling certain sections right and semi-centrist; there are undoubtedly tendencies which display ideas covering two directions : (a) Certain elements have in point of fact not yet completely broken with the ideology and methods of the Second International, they still cherish veneration for the former power of that organisation, and consciously or unconsciously seek means of agreeing with many of the Second International ideas, and consequently with bour¬ geois society. (b) Other elements in combating a merely formal radical outlook, and the errors of a so-called Left ten¬ dency, etc., are aiming at giving more flexibility and scope to the tactics off the new Communist Parties, so as to assure them the possibility of more rapid access to the ranks of the working masses. The rapid pace of the development of Communist Parties has sometimes been conducive to the association of two apparently different tendencies in one camp, that is to say in one and the same group. By carrying out the methods already mentioned, which are devised to lend Communist agitation a foundation in the united ranks of the proletariat, all real reformist tendencies will be brought to light. The strict appli¬ cation of these tactics will greatly facilitate the revolutionary unity of the Communist Parties, in so far as the impatient Left Wing elements or sections will be taught by experience, and the Party will be freed from the dead weight of the reformists. Unity with the Anarcho-Syndicalists. 23. The “ united working-class front ” should be under¬ stood to include the unity off all workers imbued with the will to fight Capitalism, including those workers still belonging to the Syndicalist and Anarchist movements, etc. The number off 44 such workers is still considerable in the Latin countries. In other countries they can also help in the revolutionary struggle. From the very beginning the Communist International has adopted a friendly attitude towards these working-class elements, who are gradually discarding their prejudices and inclining towards Communism. At the present moment Com¬ munists should devote the more attention to them, just as the workers’ united front against Capitalism becomes a reality. Meeting of the Communist International, 24. For a general definition of the work to be accomplished on the lines indicated the Executive of the Communist Inter¬ national has decided to summon in the near future an extended session of the Executive of the Communist International with representation of all parties in double proportion. Reports to the Communist International. 25. The Executive of the Communist International will dili¬ gently follow each practical step taken in the indicated sphere of aption, and it asks all parties to communicate to it all details of attempts and achievements on the lines of this policy. RESOLUTION ON The Versailles Treaty The World War ended with the overthrow of these im¬ perialist powers—Germany, Austria Hungary and Russia. Four large imperialist countries came out victorious from the struggle—the United States of America, England, France and Japan. The Peace Treaties which centre around the Versailles Peace Treaty represent an attempt to consolidate the rule of these four victorious nations politically and economically by reducing the rest of the world to the state of colonial terri¬ tories for exploitation; socially, by securing the domination of the bourgeoisie over its own proletariat and against the vic¬ torious revolutionary proletariat of Soviet Russia by a union of the bourgeoisie of all countries. For that purpose they erected a barrier of small vassal States ready to strangle Soviet Russia at the first opportunity. Besides this, the burden of war costs incurred by the victorious countries was placed wholly upon the defeated nations. To-day it is clear to everybody that the assumptions on which the peace treaties were built were incorrect. The attempt to establish a new equilibrium on a capitalist basis has failed. The history of the last four years shows a continuous fluctua¬ tion of conditions, a constant uncertainty: economic crises, unemployment, increased hours of work, ministerial Partv and foreign crises follow each other. The imperialist powers attempted to conceal the disruption of the world system 45 brought about by the peace treaties and the bankruptcy of the Peace of Versailles by an endless series of conferences. The attempts to overthrow the Dictatorship of the Prole¬ tariat in Russia have failed. The proletariat of all capitalist countries appears more and more in favour of Soviet Russia. Even the leaders of the Amsterdam International must acknowledge that the fall of the proletarian rule in Russia would mean the victory of the world reaction over the whole proletariat. Turkey, as outpost of the uprising Orient, has successfully opposed the carrying out of the peace treaty by force of arms. An important part of the peace treaty is being solemnly buried at the Lausanne Conference. The continuous economic crisis in the whole world proves that the economic conceptions underlying the Versailles Treaty are without foundation. Without the restoration of Germany and Russia, England, the leading European imperialist power which is greatly de¬ pendent upon world trade, cannot consolidate its industries. The strongest imperialist power, the U.S.A., turned its back upon the peace treaty, and is attempting to erect its world imperialism independent of Europe. In this it is supported by important sections of the British Empire—Canada and Australia. The oppressed colonies of England, the basis of its world power, are rebelling; the whole Mahomedan world is in a state of open or latent revolt. All the provisions of the Peace Treaty have become void, except the one that the bourgeoisie of all countries have been able to shift the burden of the war and the Peace Treaty upon the proletariat. France. Apparently France, above all other victorious States, has increased her power. In addition to the annexation of Alsace- Lorraine, the occupation of the left bank of the Rhine, and her claim to many unpaid billions of German indemnities, France has actually become the strongest military power of the European Continent. With its vassal states, whose armies are trained and led by French generals (Poland, Czecho¬ slovakia, Rumania) with its own large army, with its fleet of submarines and its squadrons of aeroplanes, it iiiles the Continent; it is the guardian of the Versailles Peace Treaty. But the economic basis of France, its diminishing population, its ever-growing home and foreign debts, and the resultant dependence upon England and America, gives sufficient foundation for her boundless imperialist desires of expan¬ sion. Politically, she finds herself hemmed in by England’s control of the most important seaports and the Anglo-Ameri¬ can monopoly of petroleum. Economically her increased pos¬ session of iron ore is rendered worthless because the coal 46 necessary for its exploitation remains in Germany, in the Ruhr. She had hoped to bring order into her disturbed finances by means of the German reparations payments. All financial experts agree that Germany cannot pay the sums necessary to stabilise French finances. The only way that remains open to the French bourgeoisie is the reduction of the standard of living of the French proletariat to the level of that of the German. The hunger suffered by the German workers will to-morrow be suffered by the French proletariat. The deliberate depreciation of the franc by certain circles of the French heavy industry will be the means to shift the burden of the war upon the French proletariat after the Ver¬ sailles Peace Treaty has proved useless. England. Thanks to the World War, England has been able to unite its colonial empire from the Cape to Egypt, Arabia and India. The- most important entrances to the world seas have remained in her possession. By concessions to her Anglo-Saxon colonies, she is attempting to create an Anglo-Saxon world empire. - In spite of the adaptability of the British bourgeoisie, and its; determined attempts to conquer the world market, it be¬ came apparent that the conditions created by the Versailles Treaty made the further progress of England impossible. England cannot maintain its existence as long as Germany and Russia have not been economically restored. This sharpens the conflict between France and England. England wants to send her goods to Germany, but is prevented by the Versailles Treaty; France wishes to obtain from Germany greater sums for reparations, which, of course, destroys the purchasing power of Germany. This is why England demands the reduction of the reparations. France conducts a masked war against England in the Near East in order to force her to yield on the reparations question. While the proletariat of England is paying for the war in the form of unemploy¬ ment, the bourgeoisie of France and England always unite at the cost of Germany. Central Europe and Germany. The most important object of the Versailles Peace Treaty is Central Europe, the new colony of the imperialist predatory States. Broken up into a countless number of small countries incapable of independent economic existence, which, of course, cannot conduct an independent policy, they have sunk down to colonies of French and English capital. They are incited against each other according to the changing interest of the large Powers. Czecho-Slovakia, cut off from a unified eco¬ nomic territory of 60 million people, is in a state of chronic crisis. Austria has shrunk down to a dying State, which main¬ tains its political independence only on account of the con¬ flicting desires of her neighbours. Poland, which received a great number of foreign territories, has become one of the 4 7 outposts of France, a caricature of French imperialism. In all these countries the proletariat is paying for the war in the form of a lowered standard of living and great unem¬ ployment. But the most important object of the Versailles Peace Treaty is Germany. Disarmed, robbed of every possibility of self-defence, it has been delivered to the mercy of the imperialist powers. The German bourgeoisie attempt to unite her interests, now with the bourgeoisie of England, and now with other friends. By intensified exploitation of the German proletariat, it is attempting to satisfy some of the demands of France and, at the same time, to obtain foreign help to secure its rule over the German proletariat. But even the extensive exploitation of the German proletariat and its sub¬ jection tO' the role of a European colony, as a result of the Ver¬ sailles Peace Treaty, do not make it possible for Germany to pay the reparations. Germany has become the football of England and France. The French attempt to solve the ques¬ tion forcibly by the occupation of the Ruhr. England opposes this move. Only the interference of the greatest economic power of the world, the United States, will make it possible to conciliate the conflicting interests of France, England and Germany. United States of America. The United States of America has turned its back on the Versailles Treaty, and refused to ratify it. The United States which has come out of the war as the strongest indus¬ trial and political power of the world, to whom every im¬ perialist European power is deeply indebted, shows no desire to stabilise French finances by any large credit to Germany. American capital is turning away from the European chaos, and is attempting to create its own colonial empire in Central and South America and in the Far East, and to secure the exploitation of the home market for its own ruling class by means of a high protective tariff. But while it is not interest¬ ing itself in the fate of Europe, it is coming into the conflict with the interest of England and Japan in the Far East. Through its economic power, the United States forced the other imperialist powers to come to> the Washington Disarma¬ ment Conference. In this way it destroyed one of the most important bases of the Versailles Treaty—the supremacy of England on the seas—and broke up the alignment of power resulting from the Treaty. Japan and the Colonies. The youngest imperialist world power, Japan, is keeping away from the European chaos created by the Treaty of Ver¬ sailles. But her interests are greatly affected by the rise of the United States to a world power. In Washington it was forced by the United States to dissolve its alliance with England, whereby another provision of the Treaty was rendered ineffec- 4S tive. At the same time, not only are the oppressed peoples rebelling against the rule of England and Japan, but the Anglo-Saxon colonies of Britain seek to protect their interests in the coming conflict between the United States and Japan by a closer union with the United States. lhe frame of British Imperialism is being more and more shaken. The New War. The attempt of imperialist powers to create a firm basis for the domination of the world has failed on account of their conflicting interests. The great edifice lies in ruins. The large powers and their vassals are preparing for a new war. Militarism is stronger than ever. Although the bour¬ geoisie is oppressed by the fear that a new proletarian revo¬ lution might follow in the wake of another war, the laws of capitalist society are driving inevitably towards a new world conflict. The Second and Two-and-a-FIalf Internationals confine their efforts to supporting the radical wing of the bourgeoisie which represents primarily the trading and banking interests, in its weak fight for the reduction of the reparation payments. As in every other problem, they are working hand in glove with the bourgeoisie. The task of the Communist Parties, and, first of all, those of the victorious countries, is to show clearly to the masses that the Versailles Treaty shifts all the burdens of the war, in the victorious as well as the defeated countries upon the shoulders of the proletariat, that the pro¬ letariat is the real victim of this bourgeois peace treaty. On this ground, the Communist Parties, primarily those of Ger¬ many and France, should conduct a common fight against the Versailles Treaty. The German Communist Party must de¬ clare the willingness of the German proletariat to help the workers and peasants of Northern France to rebuild their destroyed homes; at the same time it should conduct an in¬ tense struggle against its own bourgeoisie, which, in agree¬ ment with the French bourgeoisie, is conducting its policy of " fulfilment ” at the cost of the German proletariat, and is willing to see Germany reduced to a French colony as long as their own class interests are insured thereby. The French Communist Party must fight against the imperialism of its bourgeoisie, against the intensified exploitation of the German proletariat to enrich the French bourgeoisie, against the occupation of the Ruhr, against the partition of Germany. To-day it is not sufficient in France to fight against the social patriots; we must combat the Versailles Treaty at every opportunity. It is the task of the Communist Party of Poland, Czecho-Slovakia and the other vassal countries of France to combine the struggle against the bourgeoisie with the fight against French imperialism. We must convince the French and German proletariat by means of joint campaigns, that the attempt to carry out the 49 9 Versailles Treaty would plunge the proletariat of both coun¬ tries, and with them the proletariat of the whole of Europe into the deepest misery. RESOLUTION ON The Geneva Treaty To the Workers of All Countries: The Austrian proletariat is at present engaged in a severe conflict against the enslaving designs of world capital and reaction, which deserves the attention of the workers of all countries. On the pretext of preparing to prop up the collaps¬ ing Austrian economy, the League of Nations—particularly England, France, Czecho-Slovakia and Italy, and also certain small states in league with the Austrian ruling class, wish to rob the Austrian proletariat of the last shreds of its liberty, and even to destroy bourgeois democracy and erect in its place an open and brutal dictatorship of native and foreign capital. Those countries which pose as the saviours of Austria, do not intend to give her any real help. They will not lend Aus¬ tria a penny. They will only allow Austria to seek out indivi¬ dual capitalists willing to lend Austria certain sums, and who will undertake to get their respective parliaments next year to guarantee these credits. In return for this Austria—without any certainty as to whether they will really get these credits, or even these guarantees—engages to fetter her parliament for two years, in a worse manner than even in Hungary, to lay the burden of more than four billions in new taxes upon her work¬ ing class, to lease her state monopolies to private capital, to discharge great numbers of workers, to lengthen the working hours, and to intensify the exploitation of the workers, to dis¬ solve the proletarian militia and organise in its place the reactionary gendarmes and police who will maintain “tran¬ quillity and order ” by brutally suppressing the masses. Aus¬ tria must permit itself to be reduced to the level of a colony of the lowest degree, without a protest. A Commissioner General of the League of Nations shall rule in Austria as absolute monarch, in whose hands the government, dictatorial in its powers over the masses, will be nothing more than a passive tool. Workers of all countries ! The fulfilment of these plans, born of the Geneva Agree¬ ment, brings the Austrian working class to utter despair. The Austrian workers could easily prevent their own bourgeoisie from carrying out these plans, but the Austrian bourgeoisie is being supported by the capitalists of other countries, especially the capitalist governments of England, France, Italy ana Czecho-Slovakia. Hence, it is your obvious duty to come to the aid of the Austrian workers and bring all possible pressure to bear upon your governments to prevent them from working ■50 together with the Austrian capitalists to enslave and exploit Austria. That which your governments are now undertaking towards Austria is really nothing more than a war of conquest in which your governments have not yet considered it neces¬ sary to use armed warfare. And just as it would be your duty not to tolerate war, so it is your duty to struggle in every possible way against this war of extortion and attrition. This is not merely in the interests of international solidar¬ ity; your own interests demand that you do all you can to oppose your government and aid the Austrian proletariat in its desperate struggle ! International capitalism attributes much importance to the enslavement of Austria, despite the smallness of the country, and this is not without cause. International reaction seeks to make of Austria an important base for action against the world proletariat and world revolution. In Austria the proletariat is still relatively very strong as compared with the bourgeoisie. The Austrian bourgeoisie has found itself compelled to pre¬ serve a certain amount of democratic freedom. Austria is also the only country in which the national armed forces are dis¬ tinctly proletarian, and are not used against the working class. International reaction is greatly interested in the substitution of brutal capitalist dictatorship for the present false democ¬ racy. They thus wish to build up a reactionary force in Ger¬ many. If the plans matured by the Geneva Conference come to fruition, the English, French, Czecho-Slovakian and Italian working classes will soon feel the increased pressure from capi¬ talistic reaction, the whole world over, which will have grown stronger and more secure, in the approaching decisive struggle between world reaction and world revolution, the former will have gained an important strategic base of support, a new and dangerous stronghold whose importance will be particularly great now after the victory of Fascism in Italy. The enslave¬ ment of the Austrian workers is only the first preparatory step towards a similar and much more dangerous oppression of the German workers which will have perilous consequences for the working class of the world. International capital understands why the bourgeoisie have become so presumptuous as to plan the cancellation of this democracy. Now the social democratic leaders claim that a struggle for the defence of democracy would expose the Austrian working class to the danger of death by starvation. But, the pressure of the working class was so strong that the social democrats had at least to make a pretence of fighting. They were compelled to launch a cam¬ paign in Austria fearing the possibility of success most of all. The Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals have called upon the workers of all countries to oppose the enslavement of Austria through the Geneva Agreement. But already the Austrian social democrats have given way and have aban¬ doned even their sham battle. They are prepared to partici¬ pate in the fulfilment of the Geneva Agreement by forming a masked coalition. 5 1 Workers of all countries ! We knew then, and now know, that the leaders of the Austrian social-democracy and of the Xwo-and-a-Half International, now breathing its last, never intended serious battle. Your task is to prevent these mock heroes from giving up the struggle which they have been forced to undertake, before it is begun, and to transform their sham fight into a real struggle. Take these gentlemen at their word, show that you are ready to carry on the struggle, the necessity of which they have themselves emphasised, with all energy. Carry on the fight, and when these leaders try to forsake it, send out the call over their heads to the working masses to join together in a common irresistible campaign. Workers of Austria! The workers of other lands can and must come to your help by hindering the capitalists of their countries in their assistance to the Austrian capitalists. It is for you, however, to carry on the decisive struggle against your bourgeoisie. You are strong enough for this, if you will only have the necessary determination. Do not let yourselves be deterred by your social democratic leaders from carrying on this fight against your complete enslavement with all pos¬ sible force. You must realise that only the Communist Party of your country can show you the right way. Struggle all together, regardless of Party distinction, against our common danger. Workers of all countries! And especially workers of France, England and Czecho-Slovakia ! Assume the duty of proletarian solidarity towards the threatened Austrian work¬ ing class. Your own interests and the interests of the world revolution depend upon this. Do not allow your governments to pursue their reactionary and predatory politics unhindered. Use all your powers to checkmate the plans of the international capitalist class. Tear the mask from the faces of the capitalist hypocrites who seek to fool you with democratic phrases while in Austria they are destroying the last remnants of democracy. Face them with your determined opposition, and let them know that you are a force to be reckoned with. The inter¬ national capitalist front must be met by the international front of the revolutonary proletariat! Form the International United Front of the Proletariat! Down with the Geneva Slave Treaty ! Down with World Reaction ! Long live International Proletarian Solidarity ! Long live the United Front of the International fighting Proletariat! Long live the victory of the World Revolution ! Theses on Eastern Question I* The Growth of the Revolutionary Movement in the East The Second Congress of the Communist International, basing itself on the work of Soviet Administration in the East and the growth of the Nationalist-Revolutionary movement in the colonies, outlined the principles of the nationalist- colonial question in the period of prolonged struggle between imperialism and the proletarian dictatorship. Since that time the struggle against imperialist oppression in the colonies and semi-colonial countries has become con¬ siderably more acute as a consequence of the deepening post¬ war political and economic crises of imperialism. Evidence of this is served by (i) the collapse of the Sevres Treaty on the partition of Turkey and the possibility of the' complete restoration of the national and political independence of the latter; (2) the stormy growth of a nationalist-revolution¬ ary movement in India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Morocco, China and Korea; (3) the hopeless internal crisis of Japanese imperial¬ ism giving rise to the rapid growth of elements of a bourgeois- democratic revolution in the country and the transition by the Japanese proletariat to independent class struggle; (4) the awakening of the labour movement in all countries of the East and the formation of Communist Parties almost in all parts of the East. The facts enumerated above, indicate a change in the social basis of the revolutionary movement in the colonies. This change leads to the anti-militarist struggle becoming more acute; this struggle is no longer being led exclusively by the feudal classes, while the national bourgeoisie are preparing to compromise with imperialism. The imperialist war of 1914-1918 and the prolonged crisis which followed it, particularly in Europe, has weakened the power of the Great Powers over the colonies. On the other hand, these same circumstances, in narrowing the economic bases and spheres of influences of world capitalism, has ren¬ dered imperialist rivalry for the colonies more acute, and in this way have disturbed the equilibrium of the whole world imperialist system (the fight for oil, Anglo-French conflict in Asia-Minor, the J apanese-American rivalry for the domination of the Pacific, etc.). It is precisely this weakening of imperialist pressure in the colonies, together with the increasing rivalry between vari¬ ous imperialist groups, that have facilitated the development of native capitalism in the colonies and semi-colonial countries which are outgrowing the narrow and hampering framework of the domination of the imperialist Great Powers. Hitherto the capitalists of the Great Powers in maintaining their mono¬ poly rights to secure excess profits from trade, industry and the taxation of backward countries, have striven to isolate 53 these from world economic intercourse. The demand for national and economic independence put forward by the nationalist movements in the colonies serves to express the needs of bourgeois development in these countries. The growth of native productive forces in these colonies, therefore, causes an irreconcilable antagonism of interests between itself and world imperialism; for the essence of imperialism consists in using the varying levels of development of productive force in various parts of the economic world for the purpose of ex¬ tracting monopoly excess profits. II, Conditions ©f the Struggle. The backwardness of the colonies is reflected in the motley character of the Nationalist Revolutionary movements against imperialism, which, in their turn, reflect the varying states of transition from feudal and feudal-patriarchal relations to capitalism. This variety of conditions makes its impression upon the ideology of these movements. > To the extent that capitalism in the colonial countries arises and develops from feudal bases in hybrid imperfect and intermediary forms, which gives predominance, above all, to merchant capitalism, the rise of bourgeois democracy from feudal-bureaucratic and feudal-agrarian elements proceeds often by devious and pro¬ tracted paths. This represents the chief obstacle for success¬ ful mass struggles against imperialist oppression as the foreign imperialists in all the backward countries convert the feudal (and partly also the semi-feudal, semi-bourgeois) upper classes of native society into agents of their domination (military governors—Tutchuns—in China, the native aristocracy and tax farmers—the Zimendars and Talugdars in India, the feudal bureaucracy in Persia, the agrarian—planter capitalist formations in Egypt, etc.). For that reason the dominant classes in the colonies and the semi-colonial countries are incapable and unwilling to lead the struggle against imperialism as this struggle is converted into a revolutionary mass movement. Only where the feudal- patriarchal system has not decayed to such an extent as to * completely separate the native aristocracy from the mass of the people, as among the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples, can those upper classes take up the active leadership of the struggle against imperialist violence (Mesopotamia, Morocco, Mongolia). In Moslem countries the nationalist movement at first ex¬ presses its ideology in religio-political watchwords of pan- Islamism, which enables diplomats and officials of the Great Powers to exploit the prejudices and ignorance of the masses of the people to combat this movement (British Imperialism’s gains of pan-Islamism and pan-Arabism, the British plan of transferring the Khaliphate to India and the gambling of French imperialism with its “Moslem sympathies”). With the growth and expansion of the national liberation movement 54 the religio-political watchwords of pan-Islamism are substi¬ tuted by concrete political demands. The struggle for the separation of the temporal power from the Khahphai, which took place in Turkey recently is evidence of this. The main task common to all national revolutionary move¬ ments is to bring about national unity and achieve political independence. The real and consistent solution of this de¬ pends on the extent to which the national movement in any particular country is capable of attracting to itself the toiling masses and break off all connection with the reactionary feudal elements, and include in its programme the social demands of' the masses. While being completely aware that the will of a nation for political independence in varying historical conditions can be expressed by the most diverse classes, the Communist Inter- ) ^ national supports all national revolutionary movements against imperialism. At the same time it does not lose sight of the fact that only a con sist ent revolutionary line of policy based on the active support of the masses, and the unreserved break with all advocates of compromise with imperialism in the interests of maintaining class domination, can lead the op¬ pressed masses to victory. The connection between the native bourgeoisie and the feudal reactionary elements enables the imperialists to make wide use of feudal anarchy, the rivalry between various leaders and tribes, the antagonism between town and country, the struggle between castes and national religious sects, etc., for the purpose of disorganising the popular movement (China, Persia, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia). III. Agrarian Question. In the majority of countries in the East (India, Persia, Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia) the agrarian question is of first- class importance in the struggle for emancipation from the domination of the despotism of the Great Powers. Exploiting and ruining the peasant majorities in the backward nations, imperialism deprives them of the elementary means of exist¬ ence while the low development of industry scattered among a few junctional points in the country renders it impossible for it to absorb the superfluous agrarian population which at the same time has not means of emigrating. The peasants remain¬ ing on the land are pauperised and converted into serfs. While in the advanced countries prior to the war, industrial crises served as regulators of social production, this function in the colonies is performed by famine. Vitally interested in securing the greatest profits with the least expenditure of capital, imperialism strives all it can to maintain in the back¬ ward countries the feudal usurer form of exploiting labour power. In some countries like India, it assumes the monopoly rights of the native feudal State to the land, and converts the land tribute into feudal dues and the Zemindars and Taluk- dars into its agents. In other countries it extracts ground rent 55 through the native organisations of large landowners, as is the case in Persia, Morocco, Egypt, etc. The struggle for the emancipation of the land from feudal dues and feudal ob¬ stacles thus assumes the character of a struggle for national emancipation against imperialism and feudal large landowner- ship. (Examples of this are the Moplah rising against the landowners and the British in India in the autumn of 1921 and the revolt of the Sikhs in 1922). Only the agrarian revolution aiming at the expropriation of the large landowners can rouse the vast peasant masses destined to have a decisive influence in the struggle against imperialism. The fear of agrarian watchwords on the part of the bourgeois nationalists (India, Persia, Egypt) is evidence of the close ties existing between the native bourgeoisie with the large feudal and feudal-bourgeois landowners and their ideological and political dependence upon the latter. The hesitation and wavering of this class must be used by the revolutionary elements for systematic criticism and exposure of the lack of resolution of the bourgeois leaders of the nationalist movement. It is precisely this lack of resolution that hinders the organisation of the toiling masses, as is proved by the bankruptcy of the tactics of non-co-operation in India. The revolutionary movement in the backward countries of the East cannot be successful unless it is based on the action of the masses of the peasantry. For that reason the revolu¬ tionary parties in all Eastern countries must define their agrarian programme, which should demand the complete aboli¬ tion of feudalism and its survivals expressed in the forms of large landownership and tax farming. In order that the peasant masses may be drawn into active participation in the struggle for national liberation, it is necessary to proclaim the radical reform of the basis of landownership. It is neces¬ sary also to compel the bourgeois nationalist parties to the greatest extent possible to adopt this revolutionary agrarian programme. IV. The Labour Movement in the East. The young labour movement in the East is a product of the development of native capitalism during the last few years. Hitherto the working class in the East, even its fundamental nucleus, has been in a state of transition, on the path from small handicraft to large capitalist industry. /In so far as the bourgeois nationalist intelligentzia draws the revolutionary movement of the working class into the struggle against im¬ perialism, this intelligentzia provides the leaders for the em¬ bryonic trade union organisations and their sections in the first stages of their development. In the first stages, these movements do not extend beyond the limits of the “ common national *’ interests of bourgeois democracy (strikes against imperialist bureaucracy and administration in China and India). Frequently, as was already shown at the Second 56 Congress of the Comintern, representatives of bourgeois nationalism, exploiting the moral and political authority of Soviet Russia, and playing to the class instincts of the workers, clothed their bourgeois democratic strivings in 11 socialist ” and “ communist ” forms, in order by these means—sometimes unconsciously to divert the embryonic prole¬ tarian organisations from the direct tasks of class organisa¬ tions (the Eshil-Ordu, in Turkey, which painted pan-Turkism in Communist colours, the “ State Socialism ” advocated by some representatives of the Kuo Min-Tan in China). In spite of this, the trade union and political movement of the working class in the backward countries has made con¬ siderable progress in recent years. The for mati on of indepen¬ dent proletarian class parties in almost all the Eastern coun¬ tries, is a remarkable fact, although the overwhelming ma¬ jority of these parties must still undergo considerable internal reorganisation in order to free themselves from amateurism and the forms of close circles and other defects. The fact that the Communist International estimated the potential im¬ portance of the labour movement in the East right from the very beginning, is a fact of colossal importance, as it is a clear expression of the real international unity of the prole- I tariat of the whole world under the banner of Communism. ' The Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals, to this very day, have not found support in a single backward country precisely because they play the part of “ servants ** to Euro¬ pean and American imperialism. V. The General Tasks of the Communist Parties in the East. While the bourgeois nationalists regard the labour move¬ ment merely from the point of view of its importance as a means for securing victory for themselves, the international proletariat regards the young labour movement of the East from the point of view of its revolutionary future. Under capitalism the backward countries cannot achieve modern technique and culture without paying enormous tribute in the form of barbarous exploitation and oppression for the advan¬ tage of the capitalists of the Great Powers. Alliance with the proletariat of advanced countries is dictated not merely by the interests of a common struggle against imperialism, but also by the fact that only by a victory of the proletariat of the advanced countries can the workers of the East obtain unselfish aid in the development of their productive forces. An alliance with the proletariat in the West will lay the path towards an International Federation of Soviet Republics. The Soviet system, for the backward nations, represents the least painful form of transition from primitive conditions of exist¬ ence to the highest culture of Communism, destined to take the place of the capitalist method of production and distri¬ bution all over the world. This is proved by the experience of the development of the Soviet system in the liberated 57 Colonies formerly comprising the Russian Empire. Only a Soviet form of administration is able to guarantee the con¬ sistent fulfilment of the agrarian peasant revolution. The specific conditions of agriculture in certain countries of the East (artificial irrigation) maintained in the past by a peculiar organisation of collective co-operation on a feudal-patriarchal basis and disrupted by predatory capitalism, demands also a State organisation of such a type as would be able system¬ atically and in an organised manner to serve public needs. As a consequence of special climatic and historical conditions, the co-opejration of small producers in the East is destined to play an important role m the transitional period. The objective tasks of colonial revolutions exceed the limit of bourgeois democracy by the very fact a decisive victory is incompatible with the domination of world imperialism. While j ithe native bourgeoisie and bourgeois intelligentsia are the pioneers of colonial revolutionary movements, with the entry pf proletarian and semi-proletarian peasant masses into these movements, the rich bourgeoisie and bourgeois land¬ lords begin to leave it as the social interests of the masses assume prominence. The young proletariat of the colonies is still contronted by a prolonged struggle over a whole historical epoch, a struggle against imperialist exploitation, and against its own ruling classes, striving to secure in its own hands the monopoly of all the advantages of industrial and cultural de¬ velopment and to maintain the masses of the toilers in their previous “ primitive ” state. The struggle to secure influence over the peasant masses should prepare the native proletariat for the role of political leader. Only after having accomplished this preparatory work on its own training and that of the social classes closely allied to itself will it be possible to advance against bourgeois democracy, which, amidst the conditions of the backward East, bears a more hypocritical character than in the West. The refusal of the Communists in the colonies to partici¬ pate against imperialist oppression on the-pretext of alleged “ defence ” of independent class interest, is opportunism of the worst kind calculated only to discredit the proletarian revo¬ lution in the East. 'Not less harmful must be recognised the attempt to isolate oneself from the immediate and everyday interests of the working class for the sake of “ national unity ** or “ civil peace ” with bourgeois democracy. The Communist and working-class parties in the colonies and semi-colonial countries are confronted by a two-fold task: on the one hand, to fight for the most radical solutions of the problems of bourgeois democratic revolution, directed to the conquest of political independence, and, on the other, to organise the workers and peasants to fight for their special class interest, during which they must take advantage of the antagonism existing in the nationalist bourgeois democratic camp. In put¬ ting forward special demands, these parties stimulate and 53 release revolutionary energy which finds no< outlet in bourgeois ' liberal demands. The working class in the colonies and semi¬ colonial countries must know that only by deepening and ex¬ tending the struggle against the imperialism of the Great Powers can its role as revolutionary leader be fulfilled. On the other ‘hand, the economic and political organisation and the political training of the working class and the semi-proletarian classes will facilitate and extend the revolutionary scope of the struggle against imperialism. The Communist Parties in the colonies and semi-colonial countries in the East, which are still in a more or less embryonic stage must take part in every movement that gives them access to the masses. At the same time, however, they must conduct an energetic campaign against the patriarchal and craft pre¬ judices and bourgeois influences in the labour unions, in order to protect these embryonic organisations from reformist ten¬ dencies, and in order to convert them into mass fighting organi¬ sations. They must exert all their efforts to organise the numer¬ ous agricultural labourers and artisans of both sexes on the basis of defending their immediate everyday interests. VI. The United Anti-Imperialist Front. While in the West amidst the conditions of the transition period, which is a period of organised accumulation of strength, the watchword 1 of the United Labour Front was put forward, in the colonial East it is at present necessary to put forward the watchword of a United Anti-Imperialist Front. The expediency of these tactics is dictated by the prospects of a prolonged struggle against world imperialism demanding the mobilisation of all revolutionary elements. This mobilisation becomes all the more necessary from the fact that the native ruling classes are inclined to make compromises with the foreign capitalists directed against the fundamental interests of the masses of the people. Just as the watchword of the United Labour Front in the West facilitates the exposure of the social- democratic betrayal of the interests of the proletariat, so the watchword of the United Anti-Imperialist Front will facilitate the exposure of the wavering and hesitation of certain bourgeois nationalist groups in the East. This watchword will also help to develop the revolutionary will and to make more definite the class consciousness of the masses of the toilers and bring them into the front ranks of the struggle, not only against imperial¬ ism, but against all survivals of feudalism. The labour movement in the colonies and semi-colonial countries must first of all s ecure for itself the position of an independent factor in the common Anti-Imperialist Front. Only on the basis of recognition of this independence and the maintenance of complete independence is a temporary agree¬ ment with bourgeois democracy permissible and necessary. The proletariat must support and put forward partial demands, such as independent democratic republic, abolition of all feudal 59 / rights and prejudices, and the enfranchisement of women, etc., in view of the fact that the present correlation of forces does not permit it to carry out its Soviet programme. At the same time, it must strive to put forward such demands as will assist in establishing the closest possible contact between the peasantry and semi-proletarian masses and the labour movement. To ex¬ plain to the masses of the toilers the necessity for an alliance with the international proletariat and the Soviet Republics is one of the most important tasks of the tactics of the Anti- Imperialist Front. The colonial revolution! can be victorious and defend its gains only in conjunction with the proletarian ^revolution in the advanced countries. The danger of an agreement being arrived at between the bourgeois nationalists and one or several of the rival imperialist powers in the semi-colonial countries (China, Persia), or in coun¬ tries striving to secure political independence by exploiting the rivalry between the imperialists (Turkey), is greater than in the colonies. Such an agreement would signify an irrational divi- of power between the native ruling classes and the sion imperialists, and, under the cloak of a formal independence, will leave the country in the same position of a buffer semi¬ colonial state subordinate to world imperialism. Recognising the permissibility and inevitability of partial and temporary compromises for the purpose of securing a re¬ spite jn the revolutionary struggle against imperialism, the working class must, however, irreconcilably resist every attempt at avowed or tacit division of power between the imperialists and the native ruling classes, aiming at the preservation by the latter of their class privileges. The demand for a close alliance between the proletariat and Soviet Republics serves as the ban¬ ner of the United Anti-Imperialist Front. Simultaneously with the advocacy of this demand, a most determined struggle must be conducted for a most democratic political regime, in order to undermine the power of the most politi¬ cally and socially reactionary elements and preserve the freedom of organisation for the toilers in their struggle for their class interests (the demand for democratic republics, agrarian reforms, reforms of taxation, the basis of wide self- government, labour legislation, the protection of child labour, { the protection of mothers and infants, etc.). Even in inde¬ pendent Turkey the working class does not enjoy the freedom of organisation, and this may serve as a typical example of the attitude of the bourgeois nationalists towards the proletariat. VII. The Tasks of the Proletariat on the Pacific Coast. The necessity for the establishment of an Anti-Imperialist Front is dictated also by the constant growth of imperialist rivalry. This rivalry has assumed to-day such acute forms that a fresh world war, the arena of which will be the Pacific Ocean, is inevitable unless an international revolution forestalls Tt. 6o The Washington Conference was an attempt to obviate this danger, but, as a matter of fact, it succeeded only in rendering the antagonisms between the imperialists more profound and acute. The recent conflict between Wu-Pai-Fu and Chang- Tso-Lin in China was a direct consequence of the failure of Japanese and Anglo-American capitalism to harmonise their interests at Washington. The new world war, which menaces the world will affect not only Japan, America and England, but also other capitalist Powers (France, Holland, etc.) and threatens to be even more destructive than the war of 1914-1918. The task of the Communist Parties in the colonial and semi¬ colonial countries on the Pacific Coast is to conduct an exten¬ sive propaganda to explain to the masses the oncoming danger, to call upon them to take up an active struggle for national liberation and Ao teach them to regard Soviet Russia as the bulwark of all the oppressed and exploited masses. The Communist Parties in the imperialist countries, Ameri¬ ca, Japan, England, Australia and Canada, in view of the threatening danger, must not limit themselves merely to a pro¬ paganda against war, but must exert all their efforts to remove all the disrupted factors from the labour movement in their respective countries and to prevent the capitalists taking advan¬ tage of national and racial antagonisms. This factor is the immigration question and cheap coloured labour. The system of indentured labour, to this very day is the main system of recruiting coloured workers for the sugar plan¬ tations of the Southern Pacific, to which workers are transported from China and India. This fact has compelled the workers in the imperialist countries to demand anti-immigration laws against coloured workers, as is the case in America and Aus¬ tralia. These prohibition laws deepen the antagonism between white and coloured workers and breaks and weakens the unity of the labour movement. The Communist Parties of America, Canada and Australia must conduct an energetic campaign against anti-immigration laws, and must explain to the masses of the proletariat in these countries that these laws, by arousing national hatreds in the last resource damages them. On the other hand, the capitalists desire to repeal the anti- immigration laws in order to maintain the free import of cheap labour, and thus force down the wages of the white workers. This attempted offensive of the capitalists can be successfully everted only by the immigrant workers being absorbed in the existing white labour unions.. At the same time, the demand must be put forward for raising the wages of coloured workers to the level of white workers. Such tactics will expose the plans of the capitalists and, at the same time, clearly show to the coloured workers that the international proletariat has no racial prejudices. In order to carry out these tactics, the representatives of $1 the revolutionary proletariat of the countries on the Pacific should gather at a Pan-Pacific Conference in order to work out correct lines of action and to decide on the proper forms of organisation for the purpose of uniting all the proletarians in the races of the Pacific. VIII. The Task of the Communist Parties in the Home Countries. The first class importance of the colonial revolutionary movements for the cause of the international proletarian revo¬ lution makes necessary an intensification of the work in the colonies, particularly by the Communist Parties, in the imperialist countries. French imperialism is basing all its calculations on the sup¬ pression of the proletarian revolutionary struggle in France and Europe by using its colonial slaves as the fighting reserve of the counter-revolution. British and American imperialism continues to divide the labour movement by maintaining on its side the aristocracy of labour by promises of a share in its excess profits obtained by the exploitation of the colonies. Every Communist Party in the countries possessing colonies must undertake the task of organising systematic ideological and material assistance to the labour and revolutionary move¬ ment in the colonies. They must carry out a persistent and determined struggle against the quasi-socialist colonising ten¬ dencies prevailing among certain categories of well-paid Euro¬ pean workers in the colonies. European Communist workers in the colonies must strive to rally around themselves the native proletariat and gam its confidence by concrete economic demands (equal pay for white and native workers, protection of labour, labour insurance, etc.). The formation of exclusive European Communist Organi¬ sations in the colonies (Egypt, Algiers) is a concealed form of colonialism, and is an aid to imperialist interests. The forma¬ tion of Communist organisations on national lines is a contra¬ diction of the principle of proletarian nationalism. All parties belonging to> the Communist International must unceasingly explain to the masses of toilers the importance of the struggle against imperialist domination in the backward countries. The Communist Parties working in the imperialist countries should set up a special colonial committee of their E.C.’s for this pur¬ pose. The aid rendered by the Communist International to the Communist Parties of the East must be expressed in the first place by helping to establish a press, and the publication of journals and periodicals in the native languages. Special attention must be given to work among the European labour organisation and among occupational troops in the colonies. The Communist Parties in the imperialist countries must not allow a single opportunity to slip by to expose the predatory policy of their imperialist governments and their bourgeois and opportunist parties. 62 Resolution on Co-operation (On the report of N. Meshteriskoff). During the last years preceding the world war and es¬ pecially during the war, the co-operative movement developed extensively in all countries, and drew into its ranks the vast masses of workers and peasants. The present capitalist offensive the world over compels the workers, and especially the women, to appreciate still more highly the aid rendered by Consumers’ Co-operatives. The old social compromisers have long understood the great value of the co-operative movement for the attainment of their aims. They entrenched themselves firmly in the co-operative organisations, whence they indefatigably directed their efforts towards poisoning the minds of the toil¬ ing masses, and created a duality of consciousness and of conduct, even among the revolutionary elements of the pro¬ letariat. In certain countries the social-democratic parties, through having the leadership of the co-operative movement in their hands, derived funds from the co-operatives for the support of their parties, while under the flag of political neu¬ trality they actually carried on a policy of supporting the bourgeoisie and its imperialist aims. Retaining in their hands the leadership of the co-operative movement, some of the old leaders are unable, and others un¬ willing, to understand the changes in social conditions that have taken place, and the new tasks of the co-operative movement, and the necessity for adopting new methods of work. Obstin¬ ately refusing to renounce their time-honoured, co-operative principles, they disorganise even the purely economic work and undermine the existence of the co-operatives and consequently destroy the co-operative movement. Finally, they do nothing to prepare the co-operatives for the immensely important tasks which will devolve upon them after the capture of power by the proletariat. The foregoing compels the Communists to direct the most serious efforts towards wresting the cooperatives from the hands of the social compromisers, and the conversion of the co-operatives from instruments of the bourgeoisie into the weapon of the revolutionary proletariat. The Third Congress of the Comintern studied and ap¬ proved the theses on the work of the Communists in the co¬ operatives. The experience of a year and a-half has shown that these theses were based on a proper estimation of facts. The Fourth Congress of the Comintern reaffirms these theses, and urges all the Communist Parties, groups and organisa¬ tions to take an active part in the co-operative movement, and instructs the press of the Party to devote sufficient space for the discussion of the questions of co-operation. For the furtherance of these theses, the Fourth Congress of the Comintern points out especially:— (1) The imperative necessity for all the Communist Parties carrying out the instruction that all the members of the Party shall be members of the consumers’ co-operatives and take an active part in their work. In every co-operative organisation the Communist members should organise openly or secretly—a Communist nucleus. These nuclei should be united into district organisations, which, in their turn, should be organised into a national organisation, headed by a special co-operative section controlled by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the country. The entire work of the Communists in the co-operatives should be carried through on the basis of the most rigid discipline under the control of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The task of these nuclei consists in establishing the closest connection with the broad masses of the working-class co-operators, in criticising not only the principles, but also the practice of the old co-operatives and in organising the discontented masses in order to create, in the co-operatives, a united front against capitalism and the capitalist State. All the national organisa¬ tions of the Communist co-operators should be closely allied with the Comintern through its co-operative section. The Communist co-operatives should under no circum¬ stances strive to separate the revolutionary or the opposition elements from the co-operatives or to split them, because such tactics would only lead to the undermining of power of the co-operatives and to the weakening of the contact of the revolutionary co-operators with the broad masses of the work¬ ing class. For identical reasons we should not endeavour to separate the national co-operative unions from the Inter¬ national Co-operative Union. On the contrary, Communists should demand the admission into this Union of all the national unions in which the Communists constitute a ma¬ jority or a strong minority, and which do not as yet belong to the International Co-operative Union. (2) The Central Committees of the Communist Parties as well as the Communist co-operators should initiate an ener¬ getic campaign against the co-operative illusions, that the co-operatives are able, by themselves, to achieve the social¬ ist order by means of a gradual transition into socialism without the capture of political power by the proletariat, or that by employing the old methods, they will achieve a consider¬ able improvement in the conditions of the working class. A similarly energetic campaign should be carried on against the principle of the political neutrality of the co-operatives. This so-called neutrality is indeed only a screen for open or secret support of the interests of the bourgeoisie and its hangers-on. This campaign should be carried on, not only in the form of a theoretical propaganda, but also by attracting the co-opera¬ tives to the economic and political struggle now being con- ducted by the political parties and the Red Trade Unions for the defence of the interests of the working class. Co-opera¬ tives should participate in combating the increases of taxa¬ tion—especially of indirect taxes affecting the consumers— exorbitant taxes on co-operatives or on their business opera¬ tions, and the rise in prices. The co-operatives should de¬ mand the transfer of distribution of commodities of prime necessity to the hands of the workers’ consumers’ co-opera¬ tives. They should participate in the struggle against mili¬ tarism which is the cause of the growth of state expenditure, and consequently of the increase of taxation, against the mad financial policy of the imperialist governments, which causes the depreciation of the currency. The co-operatives should fight against the Versailles Treaty and against Fascism, which is raising its head everywhere and subjecting the co¬ operatives to cruel repressions. The co-operatives must com¬ bat the menace of a new war, and intervention, and demand the establishment of relations with Soviet Russia, etc. The Communist co-operators should endeavour to draw their organisations into this struggle alongside with the Commun¬ ist Parties and Red Trade Unions, thus creating a united pro¬ letarian front. The Communist co-operators should demand that their organisations extend aid to the victims of capitalist terror, to the workers on strike or lockout, etc. The Com¬ munist co-operators should insist that the co-operatives de¬ velop revolutionary cultural and educational work on an ex¬ tensive scale, and take this work into their own hands. {3) Apart from energetically participating in, the political and economic struggle of the revolutionary proletariat, the Communist co-operators should also carry on purely co-opera¬ tive work in order to imbue the co-operatives with those prin¬ ciples which the new conditions and tasks of the proletariat demand. The amalgamation of the small consumers’ societies into large organisations, the repudiation of the old principle of dividends and the employment of all profits made for strengthening the power of the co-operatives, the establishment of a special strikers’ aid fund out of profits, the defence of the interests of co-operative employees to oppose such forms of bank credits as may jeopardise the co-operatives: such are the tasks which the Communist co-operators should perform. In the event of it being necessary to raise the price of shares in the co-operatives, the Communists should demand that such increases do not lead to the expulsion from the co-operatives of those workers unable to pay the increase, and that certain exemptions be made for such category of workers. The Communist nuclei in the co-operative should also con¬ nect their work most closely with the work of the women trade union organisations and with the Communist Young People’s League, in order to facilitate, by common effort, the work of co-operative propaganda among the working women and the youth. It is-also necessary to initiate am energetic struggle '65 E against the co-operative bureaucracy which, shielding itself under the slogan of democracy, has reduced this principle to a hollow phrase, while in reality they arbitrarily do whatever they please in the cooperatives, refusing to call general meet¬ ings and entirely ignore the will of the working masses. • Finally, it is necessary that the Communist nuclei in the co¬ operatives must secure the election of their members, including women, to the management and the control organs of the co¬ operative societies, and take the necessary measures to provide the Communists with the knowledge and training requisite for directing the co-operatives. Resolution on Communist work amongst Women T HE Fourth World Congress of the Communist Inter¬ national expresses its approval of the activity of the International Communist Women’s Secretariat in Ber¬ lin, as an auxiliary organ of the Executive during the period covered by the report. The International Communist Women’s Secretariat has concentrated its activity on bringing the women Communists as members into the sections of the Communist International in all the countries with a revo¬ lutionary movement, and to train them for Party work and struggles. It has also contributed a great deal towards spreading the Communist propaganda and organisation work among the widest possible female masses, in order to draw them into the movement and struggle for the interests of the working class and for Communism. The International Communist Women’s Secretariat has made it its business to co-ordinate the work of the organised Communist women on an international scale, viz., to estab¬ lish connection between their work and that of the Com¬ munist Parties and of the Communist International. In the International Women’s Secretariat we have succeeded in conjunction with the Communist Parties of the various coun¬ tries, in extending and consolidating the international rela¬ tions between the Communist women organised within these Parties. Its entire activity has been carried on in complete harmony with the Executive and under the guidance of the latter according to the fundamental and technical directives and decisions of the World Congress of the Communist Inter¬ national and of the Second International Communist Women’s Conference in Moscow. The special bodies (Women’s Secretariats, Women’s Sec¬ tions, etc.), established in accordance with these directives and decisions, and the special methods applied in Communist Party work among women, have not only proved useful, but 56 indispensable for the task of permeating the masses of work¬ ing women with Communist ideas and watchwords. In the countries with a bourgeois class regime, the chief task of systematic Communist activity among the female proletariat, the women in industry, consists in the struggle for the defence of the most pressing needs of life against the exploiting capitalists, in the struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and for the establishment of proletarian dictatorship. On the other hand, in the Soviet States, the chief task of the Women’s Secretariat consisted in draw¬ ing the working and peasant women into active participa¬ tion on all the fields of the economic and social life of their respective countries, and in training them for the con¬ structive work of the proletarian State and the tasks which the latter has to fulfil. The International significance of Soviet Russia as the first workers’ State produced by the world revolution, gives a special meaning to the Communist activity of the working women of these countries, as it serves* as an example to all the sections of the Communist Inter¬ national in the countries where the proletariat has not yet acquired power, the indispensable pre-requisite for the re¬ construction of society on a Communist basis. That it is indispensable to have special organisations for the conduct¬ ing of Communist work among women, has also been shown by the activity of the Women’s Secretariat for the East, which has done valuable and successful work on a perfectly new and rather difficult field. The Fourth World Congress of the Communist Inter¬ national is, however, compelled to admit that some sections have either not carried out their tasks at all, or have done so in a very unsatisfactory manner. Up to the present they have either failed to take the necessary measures for the organisation of the women Communists within the party, or to establish party organs which are indispensable for work¬ ing and keeping in contact with the masses of working women. The Fourth Congress enjoins these sections with the least possible delay to make good their failure to comply with the decisions of the last Congress. At the same time, it reminds all sections of the Communist International to concentrate their attention on work among women in view of the great importance of women’s collaboration for the movement as a whole. The proletarian united front can only be realised if the women take a rational and energetic part in it in perfect equality with men. Given a proper and close alliance be¬ tween the Communist Parties and the working women, the latter can become under certain circumstances the pioneers of the proletarian united front and of the revolutionary mass movements. The Communist International must unite, without any differentiation, all the forces of the proletariat and of the 67 working masses for a class conscious revolutionary struggle for the establishment of Communism and for the overthrow of the bourgeois class regime. Resolution on the Young Communist International i. In accordance with the decisions of the Third Con¬ gress of the Comintern, the Second World Congress of the Y.C.I. resolved to make the Communist organisations politi¬ cally subordinate to the Communist Parties. The Young Communists, instead of being a self-contained political or¬ ganisation, shall become a broad mass organisation for the young workers representing the interests of the young workers in all respects, within the limits of the activities of the working class and under the political guidance of the Communist Parties. Nevertheless, the Young Communist organisations shall remain political organisations, and the participation in the political struggles shall continue to be the basis of their activity. The struggle for the daily economic demands of the young workers, and against bourgeois militarism furnish the most important immediate means to arouse and to win the large masses of young workers. It is desirable to transform the organisational methods of activity in conformity with the new tasks. At is particularly desirable to introduce a systematised plan of Communist educational activity within the organisation, and educational work on a mass scale for the young workers that are outside the organisation. The carrying out of the decisions of the Second World Congress can be achieved only by long and strenuous work. There were great obstacles in the way, which made it diffi¬ cult for most of the organisations to carry out their task. Some organisations had to curtail their activities owing to the economic crisis (impoverishment, unemployment), also owing to the reactionary offensive which has forced many organisations into illegality. In consequence of the tem¬ porary subsidence of the revolutionary wave, and the weaken¬ ing of the revolutionary mood of the workers at large, the young workers’ movement experienced a corresponding de¬ crease of interest in politics. At the same time, the bour¬ geoisie and the Social Democrats increased their efforts to influence and organise the young workers. The Y.C.I., since its Second World Congress, has carried out its subordination to the Communist Parties everywhere, although on the whole the mutual relations between the Party and the Youth have not yet been fully brought into accord with the decisions of the International Congresses. The particularly necessary? aid to the activity of the Youth organisation on the part of the Party is frequently quite inadequate. The Y.C.I., thanks to its efforts during the last fifteen months, has succeeded in carrying out the important practical steps for the trans¬ formation of the organisation in the spirit of the decisions of the Second World Congress, thus laying the foundation for transforming it into a mass organisation. By its propaganda for economic and political militant demands, the Y.C.I, in many countries gained the adherence of the young workers, and a number of campaigns and concrete militant actions were undertaken and carried out. The Y.C.I., either from the point of view of numbers or of organic contact with the masses and permanent influence over them, cannot yet be said to have completely become a mass organisation. Thus the organisation has still many tasks ahead. 2. The capitalist offensive has hit the working youth with greatest severity. Low wages, long hours, unemployment and exploitation hit the young workers much harder than the adults, and are accompanied by greater misery and op¬ pression. At the same time, the young workers are exploited as a weapon against the adults to cut down wages, to take the place of strikers, "and to increase the unemployment among the adult workers. This policy, calculated to do great harm to the working class as a whole, is supported and pro¬ moted by the treacherous attitude of the reformist trade union bureaucracy, which gives no heed to the young workers or sacrifices them entirely, while doing everything possible to keep the young workers away from the struggles of-the adults. Quite frequently they are even denied admission to the unions. The rise of bourgeois militarism causes the fur¬ ther intensification of the sufferings, of the young workers and peasants who are recruited into the capitalist armies, as the cannon fodder for the future militarist wars. / The European reaction makes the youth its particular prey, and in some places the young workers are not allowed to form Their Young Communist organisations, even though the Com¬ munist Parties are toleratetd. The two social-democratic Youth Internationals hitherto have been inactive in the face of the misery of the young workers, and attempted to prevent the masses of the young workers from joining in the common struggle of the working class. For this purpose they formed a bloc, which, in addi¬ tion to preventing the suffering masses of young workers from forming a united front and joining the common struggle, was also directed against the Communist International, and brought about the amalgamation of the social-democratic Youth International. The Communist International declares the absolute neces¬ sity for a united front between the young workers and the adults, and calls upon the Communist Parties and upon 69 all the workers of the world to support the demands of the young workers in the struggle against the capitalist offen¬ sive, against bourgeois militarism and reaction. The Communist International welcomes and fully supports the fight that is waged by the Y.C.I. for the vital demands of the young workers, and for the united front between the young and the adult workers. The capitalist attacks which threaten to inflict the deepest misery on the young workers, and to make them the helpless victims of militarism and re¬ action, should meet with the iron resistance of the entire working class. 3. The Young Communist movement should receive the careful understanding and active support of the Communist Parties in carrying out the tasks incumbent upon them of educating and winning the masses. By close co-operation between the Party and the Youth and by the constant attraction of the Young Communist or¬ ganisations to the political activities of the Party, the politi¬ cal interest and the political forces of the young movement will be sustained. Only in this way will the Communist Parties carry out the decisions of the Communist International, and lay the foundation for a healthy Young Communist movement. The Communist Parties must give organisational aid to the Young Communist organisations. Young comrades should be appointed to take part in the Young Communist movement, and special propaganda should be organised for the young workers in places where party organisations exist. Since the principal task of the Young Communist organisations is to direct their activity to the masses of the young workers, the Communist Parties should render particular aid in forming and carrying on the organs of the Comintern (nuclei and fac¬ tions) in the trade unions and in the factories. Mutual repre¬ sentation should be carried out in all the organs of the Party and the youth organisation (nuclei, local groups, district com¬ mittees, central committees, congresses, factions, etc.). The Young Communist organisations must establish their roots in the masses of the young workers by increasing their economic propaganda and by constant attention to the ques¬ tions affecting the lives of the young workers, and by cham¬ pioning their everyday interests. The Communist Parties must therefore give the utmost support to the economic activity of the Young Communists in the nuclei and factions of the factories, schools and trade unions, and carry out the closest co-operation between the members of the Young Com¬ munist International and the Communist Parties in the trade Unions. The Communists in the trade unions should insist on equal rights for the young workers and apprentices, on making their membership contributions moderate, on having their interests properly represented in the trade union struggle, and on securing participation in signing wage agree¬ ments, etc. The Communist Parties should further promote 70 the economic work of the Young Communists in the trade unions by propaganda and active support of their actions, and- by supporting their daily demands in the general trade union struggle. In view of the increased menace of imperialist war and the growth of reaction, the Communist Parties must give their utmost support to the anti-militarist campaign of the Young Communist organisations. The Young Communists should be the most ardent fighters in the defence of the work¬ ing class against the reaction. The Communist educational activity becomes of particular importance in the desire of the Young Communist organisa¬ tions to become wide mass organisations. The winning of the masses entails the duty to give these masses a Com¬ munist education. The educational work of the Young Com¬ munist organisations must be carried on systematically and as an independent organisation. The necessary support should be given by the Communist Parties in the shape of furnishing men and materials for the organisation of schools and training courses, and also by arranging for vacancies for Young Communists in the party schools, as well as by including the Young Communists’ reviews in the publication problem of the Party. The Congress deems it necessary for the Party Press to aid the struggle of the Young Communist organisations, by devoting regular columns and supplements to the youth, and by giving prominence to the life and struggle of the young workers in all the papers published by the Party. The bourgeois world, whose efforts meet with stout re¬ sistance in the class consciousness of the adult workers, and in the revolutionary fervour of the young workers, seeks par¬ ticularly to poison the mind of the children of the working class. This makes the organisation and maintenance of Communist children’s groups a matter of paramount import¬ ance. These should be put under the organisational charge and guidance of the young workers, and the Party should aid this work by active participation in the central committee of the children’s groups. The Party should give every assist¬ ance to the Communist Children’s Press, which has been started by the Young Communist organisations of the various countries. Particularly close co-operation between the Young Com¬ munists and the Party is necessary in those countries where the Communist movement has been forced by the reaction to go underground. The Fourth Congress of the Communist International, emphasising the particular importance of the Communist work in the direction of winning the masses of the young workers, extends its hearty greetings to the ardent fellow- fighters of the Young Communist International in the pre¬ sent, and to its reserves in the future. 71 Theses on Communist Work in the Trade Unions I. The State of the Labour Union Movement. 1. During the last two years, which were characterised by the capitalist offensive throughout the world, the labour move¬ ment has lost considerable strength in all countries. With a few exceptions (such as Germany, Austria,, and Australia), the labour unions were shrinking everywhere and losing many of their members. This loss of membership is due to the powerful offensive actions of the capitalist class, as well as to the fact that the reformist unions are not able to offer serious resistance, and to protect the elementary interests of the masses of workers. 2. Due to the offensive of capital and to the maintenance of the policy of co-operation of classes, disappointment has spread among the working masses, and it found its expression not only in attempts to establish new organisations, but also in the scattering of quite a large number of the least conscious part of the workers. For many workers the labour unions have ceased to be the centre of attraction in the measure as these unions were showing themselves as incapable—and in many cases as having no intention—to stop the advancing offensive of capital and to retain the positions previously con¬ quered. The barrenness of reformism was strikingly demon¬ strated by experience. _ „ . ... . 3. Thus the world’s labour union movement is characterised by the inner lack of stability, by desertion of large numbers of the workers from the unions, and by the persistent policy of co-operation of classes “ for the purpose of making use of capital in the interests of labour.” In reality it was capital that continued to make use of the reformist organisa¬ tions in its own interests by manoeuvring them into participa¬ tion in the lowering of the standard of living of the masses. The period just closing is thus characterised by more intimate relations between the capitalist governments and the reformist leaders, and by a greater subjection of the interests of the working class to those of the ruling groups than was.the case before. IL The Offensive of Amsterdam against the Revolutionary Unions. 4. Simultaneously with the retreat of the reformist leaders before the attack of the capitalist class all along the line, these leaders were executing an attack upon the revolutionary workers. The unwillingness to organise resistance to capital was spreading serious discontent in the masses of the workers, and therefore the reformist leaders, in order to drive the revo¬ lutionary ideas from the labour organisations, have started an organised campaign against the revolutionary labour union movement, aiming at disorganising the revolutionary minori¬ ties by all means at their disposal, and a.t making easier thereby 72 the strengthening of the shaken class rule of the capitalist class. 5. In order to maintain their rule, the leaders of the Am¬ sterdam International do not hesitate to expel, not only indi¬ vidual or isolated groups, but whole organisations. Besides, the Amsterdam leaders have firmly resolved, as far as they are concerned, never to remain in a minority, and in case of impending danger from the revolutionary elements, the ad¬ herents of the Comintern and Prohntern—to rather split the organisations than allow the control of the machinery and material resources to pass from their hands. That is the way the leaders of the French Confederation of Labour have acted; the same policy is being followed by the reformists in Czecho¬ slovakia, and in their footsteps are following the leaders of the All-German Federation of Labour Unions. The interests of the capitalist class requires the splitting of the labour union movement. 6. Simultaneously with the attack of the Amsterdam leaders against the revolutionary workers of their respective countries, the same attack was taking place on the international held. The international organisations of workers of various industries adhering to the Amsterdam International, were systematically expelling and rejecting revolutionary unions of their respective industries. Thus the Russian and other revo¬ lutionary unions, merely because they belonged to the Red International of Labour Unions, were rejected by the Inter¬ national Congresses of Miners, Textile Workers, Public Em¬ ployees, Leather Workers, Woodworkers, Builders, and Workers of Communication Lines. 7. This campaign of the Amsterdam leaders against the revolutionary unions is the reflex of the campaign of inter¬ national capital against the working class, and it has the same purpose, i.e., to establish stable capitalistic relations upon the bodies of the toiling masses. Reformism, scenting its down¬ fall, aims by means of splits and expulsions of the most mili¬ tant elements, to as much as possible weaken the working class in order to thus render it incapable of taking into its hands the public powers and the means of production and exchange. III. The Anarchists and the Communists. 8. Together with the offensive of the Amsterdam leaders against the Communist labour union movement, there was also taking place an “ offensive ” of the Anarchists against the Comintern, against the Communist Parties, and the Com¬ munist nuclei in the labour unions. Several Anarcho-Syndi¬ calist organisations have come out openly as determined enemies of the Communist International and of the Russian Revolution, despite the fact that in 1920 these organisations had solemnly joined the Comintern, and declared their devo¬ tion to the Russian proletariat and to the October Revolution. Such attacks came from the Italian Syndicalist Union, from the German Localists, the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalists, and 73 from the various Anarcho-Syndicalist groups in France, Hol¬ land, Sweden and America. 9. Under the slogan of independence of the labour union movement from Communist Parties, a number of Syndicalist organisations (National Labour Secretariat of Holland, Indus¬ trial Workers of the World, Italian Syndicalist Union, etc.), proceed to expel from their organisation the adherents of the Profmtern in general, and the Communists in particular. Thus the slogan of independence of the labour union movement was transformed into an anti-Communist counter-revolutionary slogan, coinciding with the slogan of the Amsterdam leaders, who are conducting the same policy under the banner of inde¬ pendence, though everybody knows that they are dependent on the national and international capitalist class. 10. The campaign of the Anarchists against the Comintern, against the Profmtern, and against the Russian Revolution, has caused disintegration and splits in their own ranks. The best elements of the workers have taken up the light against this ideology. The camp of the Anarchists and the Anarcho- Syndicalists is broken up into several groups and currents engaged in a fierce struggle for and against the Profmtern, for and against the dictatorship of the Proletariat, for and against the Russian Revolution. IV. Neutrality and Independence. 11. The influence of the capitalist class upon the prole¬ tariat has found its expression in the theory of neutrality of the labour unions, which is made to mean that the labour unions must have purely trade aims of a narrow economic character without pursuing any general working-class aims. Neutrality was ever a purely bourgeois theory, against which revolutionary Marxism was conducting an uncompromising struggle. The labour unions, which have no general working-class aim, i.e., the aim of the overthrow of the capitalist social order, are, in spite of their proletarian make-up, the best bulwark of the bourgeois order and the bourgeois system. 12 . In defence of the theory of neutrality, the argument was always made that the labour unions must deal exclusively with economic issues, and should under no> circumstances mix in politics. The capitalist class was ever striving to separate politics from economics, realising quite well that in the measure as it will succeed in driving the working class into the stalls of craft unionism, no serious danger will threaten its rule. 13. The line separating economics from politics is drawn also by the Anarchist elements engaged in the labour union movement, which are striving to detach the labour union movement from its political tasks under the pretext that all politics are aimed against the workers. This basically purely bourgeois theory is presented under the flag of neutrality, whereby the labour unions are set up against the proletarian Communist Parties, and war is declared upon the Communist 74 labour movement always in the name of the same notorious independence and autonomy. 14. This struggle against “ politics ” and political parties has for its result the limiting of the scope of the labour move¬ ment and of labour organisations, and is directed against Communism, which is the concentrated consciousness of the working class. Independence, in all its forms, whether purely Anarchistic or Anarcho-Synd realistic, is an anti-Communist theory, and must be met with most decisive resistance, for at best it leads to independence from Communism, and to the setting up of labour unions against Communist Parties, and, in the worst case, it leads to bitter struggles of labour union organisations against Communist Parties, against Communism, and against social revolution. 15. The theory of independence as it. is advocated by the French, Italian, and Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalists, is essen¬ tially the battle-cry of Anarchism against Communism. The Communists in the labour union movement must engage in decisive debate and polemics against this attempt to smuggle in Anarchist merchandise under cover of the flag of inde¬ pendence, and to split the united Labour movement into' an¬ tagonistic forms which cannot but hinder and retard the triumph of the working class. V. Syndicalism and Communism. 16. The Anarcho-Syndicalists are confounding Syndicates (unions) with Syndicalism, presenting their Anarcho-Syndi¬ calist Party for the only revolutionary organisation which will attain the general class goal of the proletariat. A labour union is a non-partisan organisation of the masses which unites the workers of all tendencies, while Syndicalism is one of the political currents within such an organisation. Syndi¬ calism, being a great step forward in comparison with the trade unionist conception, has nevertheless a number of ex¬ tremely harmful features and tendencies, which must be most decisively combated in point of principle. 17. The Communists cannot and must not, in the name of abstract Anarcho-Syndicalist principles, surrender their right to organise their nuclei and groups within all labour union organisations, whatever their tendencies. This is the right of the Communists, and nobody can take it away from them. It goes without saying that the Communists working within Syndicalist organisations must co-ordinate their activity, and work with that part of the Syndicalists who have learned the lesson of the war and revolution. 1,8. The Communists must take upon themselves the initia¬ tive of forming in labour unions a bloc with revolutionary workers of other tendencies. The nearest to Communists in the labour union movement are the Communist Syndicalists, who recognise the necessity for the dictatorship of the Pro¬ letariat, and who are on the defensive against Anarcho- 75 Syndicalists. But co-ordination of activities presupposes organisation of Communists. When scattered and acting indi¬ vidually, the Communists cannot co-ordinate their activities with anybody, for they do not represent any serious force. 19. Advancing in a most decisive and consistent manner, their Communist principles, conducting the struggle against the anti-Communist theory of independence and against the opposing of politics to economics—this Anarchist concep¬ tion so harmful to the working class—the Communists must strive within the labour unions of all directions and tendencies to co-ordinate their work in the practical struggle against Reformism and Anarcho-Syndicalist verbalism, with all revo¬ lutionary elements who stand for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. 20. In countries where there are serious revolutionarv Syndi¬ calist labour union organisations (as in France), and where, under the influence of various historical causes a distrust with regard to political parties continues to dominate the minds of certain strata of workers, the Communists, in agreement with the Syndicalists, must work out, in accordance with the peculiarities of the country and of the labour movement, the forms and methods of joint struggle and co-operation in all offensive and defensive actions against capitalism. VI. The Struggle for Unity in the Trade Union Movement. 21. The slogan of the Communist International in rela¬ tion to this matter of the splitting of the labour unions must be carried out in the future as heretofore with unrelent¬ ing energy, regardless of the fierce persecutions of the Communists by the reformists of all lands. The reformists resort to expulsions in order to provoke a split. Their hope is by the systematic expulsion of the best elements of the labour unions, to make the Communists lose their self-control and to drive the latter to give up their well-thought-out plan for the conquest of the labour unions from within, to get out of the unions, to declare themselves in favour of a split. But the reformists will not succeed in their scheme. ” 22 . A split in the labour union movement .. will gravely im¬ peril the working-class movement as a whole, especially under the present circumstances. A split in the labour unions will throw The working class back by many years, for it would be easy in that case for the bourgeoisie to deprive the workers of the most elementary of their gains. The Communists must do their utmost to hinder a split in the labour union move¬ ment; they must use the entire strength of their organisation to defeat the criminal plan conceived by the reformists for the breaking up of the united labour union movement. 23. In those countries where there are two parallel general labour union centres, as in Spain, France, Czecho-Slovakia, etc., the Communists'must conduct a systematic fight for the reuniting of the parallel organisations. For this reuniting 76 of the split-up labour unions it would be utterly irrational to detach individual Communists and revolutionary workers from the reformist unions, and to transfer them to the revolutionary unions. Not a single reformist union should remain without the Communist ferment. Increasingly vigorous Communist activity both in the reformist and the revolutionary organisa¬ tions is the pre-requisite of the re-establishment of unity. 24. The unity of the labour union organisations can only be preserved, and likewise the disturbed unity can be re¬ established only in case the Communists will put forward a practical programme of action in each country and in relation to each branch of industry. Only on the basis of practical work, or practical struggle, is it possible to unite the scattered elements of the working-class movement, and, in case of a split in the labour unions, to establish the prerequisite for their reuniting in point of organisation. Every Communist must bear in mind that a split in the trade union movement does not merely imperil the actual gains of the working class, but endangers-the- social revolution itself. The attempt of the reformists to split the labour union movement must be crushed at the very outset. This can be achieved by increased strenu¬ ous organisational and political work among the working masses. - VII. The Struggle against the Expulsion of Communists. 25. The expulsion of the Communists has for its purpose disorganisation of the revolutionary movement by isolating the leaders from the mass of workers. The Communists cannot therefore reduce their efforts to the forms and methods of struggle which they were using heretofore. The most critical moment has now been reached in the history of the world’s labour movement. The wish for a split has become extremely accentuated with the reformists. Our will for unity of the labour union movement is demonstrated by numerous facts. The Communists must prove in practice, in the future, as well as in the past, how much importance they attach to the unity of the labour union movement. 26. The more plainly our enemies display their disruptive tactics, the more vigorously does it behove us to advance the cause of unity in the labour union movement. In every factory, in every workshop, in every workers’ meeting, all possible opportunities must be seized for protests against the Amsterdam tactics. It is necessary to put the question of the split in the labour union movement before every rank and file member of a labour union, and to put it not only when the split has taken place, but also when it is only being prepared. The question of expulsions must be put on the order of business of the entire labour union movement of a given country. The Communists are strong enough to resist being choked in silence. The working class must know who is for the split and . who is for unity. - The expulsions of Communists who 77 have been duly elected by the local organisations must be met, not only by protests against the violation of the will of the electors, but also by definite organised counter-action. The expelled members must not remain scattered. The most important task of the Communist Parties is to prevent the scattering of the expelled elements. They must organise into unions of victims of expulsions, and must formulate a con¬ crete programme, making their demand for reinstatement the central feature of their entire political work. 218. In actual fact, the struggle against expulsion is -the struggle for the unity of the labour union movement. Here all measures are good which lead to the restoration of the least unity. The expelled members must not remain isolated from the rest of the opposition camp or from the independent revolutionary organisations existing in the country. The groups of the expelled must promptly enter into a close alli¬ ance with the revolutionary organisations existing in the country for the organisation of a combined struggle against expulsions and for the co-ordination of activities in the struggle against reaction. 29. The practical measures may and should be supple¬ mented or varied in accordance with local conditions and peculiarities. It is most important that the Communist groups should adopt a clear-cut militant attitude against the policy of splits, and should do everything in their power to coun¬ teract the policy of expulsions, which has been considerably intensified in consequence of the process of amalgamation of the Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals. There is no definite and universally applicable method of combating the expulsions. In this respect all Communist Parties are entirely free to avail themselves of all the means which they find expedient in order to attain the goal set, namely, the re-estab¬ lishment of the disturbed unity of the labour union movement. 30. The Communists must carry on a vigorous struggle against the expulsion of the revolutionary unions from the international organisations by industries. The Communist Parties cannot and must not remain passive spectators of the systematic expulsion of the revolutionary unions simply be¬ cause they are revolutionary. The mterantional industrial propaganda committees, founded by the R.LL.U. must re¬ ceive the most active support of the Communist Parties,* in order to unite the available revolutionary forces in the inter¬ ests of the struggle for a Single International in each industry. The whole campaign must be conducted under the banner of uniting all unions, whatever be their political tendencies, into a single international industrial organisation IX. Conclusion- The Fourth Congress of the Communist International, advancing steadfastly along the path of conquest of the labour unions, and of the struggle against the disruptive policy of the reformists, solemnly declares that whenever the Amster- damers will not resort to expulsions, wherever they will make it possible for the Communists to carry on an ideological struggle for their principles within the labour unions, the Communists will fight in a disciplined manner in the ranks of the united organisation, always placing themselves in the forefront of battle against the bourgeoisie. The Task of Communist Parties. The Fourth Congress of the Communist International declares it to be the duty of all Communist parties to make use of all their strength in order to prevent the disruption of labour unions. They must do all they can in order to re¬ establish the unity of the Labour Union movement in those countries where it has been broken and to induce the Labour Union movement of their countries to join the Red Inter national of Labour Unions. THE AGRARIAN QUESTION Instructions on the Application of the Theses of the Second Congress on the Agrarian Question. T HE basis of our attitude to the agricultural working masses was already laid down in the agrarian thesis of the Second Congress. The Fourth Congress calls upon all the parties to do their utmost to win over the rural working masses, in accordance with the following instructions: — i. The mass of the rural proletarians and the poor peasants, who do not possess enough land and must work part of the time for wages, or are exploited in any other way by the big landlords or capitalists, can be freed from their present servitude and from want which are inevitable under capitalism only by a proletarian revolution. This revolution will confis-,* cate the land of the big landowners and all the means of production without compensation, putting them at the disposal of the workers, who will establish the Soviet State of proletarians and working peasants in lieu of the government of big landowners and capitalists, thus paving the way to Communism. 2. In the struggle against the government of the big landowners and the capitalists, the poor peasants and small holders are the natural allies of the agricultural and industrial proletariat. By joining in the struggle of the proletariat in the cities and in the rural districts, they will contribute to a great extent to the overthrow of the bourgeois State. While the urban proletariat seizes political power and confiscates the means of production of the bourgeoisie, the rural proletariat and the poor peasantry take possession of the land, drive away the big landowners and put an end to the domination of the agrarians and bourgeoisie in the country. 79 3. In order to win over the poor peasants (petty farmers, small tenants and a part of the small peasantry) for the revolution, in addition to the agricultural labourers, and in order to insure the benevolent neutrality of the middle peasantry, they must be freed from the influence and the leadership of the big peasantry allied to the big landowners. They must be made to realise that their interests are identical, not with those of the big peasants, but with those of the proletariat, and that, therefore, only the revolutionary party of the proletariat, the Communist party, can be their leader in their struggle. In order to accelerate the alienation of the poor peasants from the leadership of the big landlords and the big peasants, it is not sufficient to draw up a programme or carry on propaganda. The Communist Party must, through continued action in the interests of these peasants, prove that it is actually the party of all the workers and of all the oppressed. Therefore, the Communist Party must be at the head of every struggle of the agricultural masses against the ruling classes. Linking up with the every-day demands of these workers under the capitalist system, the Communist Party brings together the scattered forces of the rural working class, stimulates its will to fight, supports the struggle by bringing into it the forces of the industrial proletariat and indicates new ways and methods leading to the revolution. The common struggle with industrial workers, and the fact that the latter, under the leadership of the Communist Party, are fighting for the interests of the rural workers and poor peasants, will convince the latter that (i) only the Communist Party mean honestly by them, while all the other, agrarian as well as social democratic parties (in spite of their high- sounding phrases) are intent only on deceiving them, while serving in reality the big landlords and capitalists, and (2) that a radical betterment of the conditions of the workers and poor peasants is impossible within the capitalist system. 5. Our practical militant demands must be adapted to the various forms of dependence and oppression of the workers, the poor and the middle peasants by big landlords and capitalists, as well as to the interests of the various separate groups. In the colonial countries, with an oppressed native peasant population, the national liberation struggle is conducted either by the entire population, as for instance in Turkey (in such a case the struggle of the oppressed peasantry against the big landlords will inevitably begin after the victorious solution of the liberation struggle) or the feudal landlords are allied with the imperialist robbers, as for instance in India, where the social struggle of the oppressed peasants coincides with the national liberation struggle. Territories with strong survivals of feudalism, where the bourgeois revolution has not fully accomplished its task apd 86 where the big landlords still enjoy feudal rights and privileges, these rights and privileges must be brushed aside in the course of the struggle for the land which in this case is of paramount importance. 6. In all countries with a real agricultural proletariat, this part of the population is destined to be the most important factor of the rural revolutionary movement. Contrary to the social democrats, who attack the rural proletariat from the back, the Communist Party supports, organises and furthers all the struggles of the agricultural proletariat for the better¬ ment of its economic, social and political conditions. In order to accelerate the revolutionising of the rural proletariat, and in order to train it for the struggle for proletarian dictator¬ ship, which alone can definitely free them from exploitation, the Communist Party supports the rural proletariat in its struggle for a higher real wage and a betterment of the labour, housing and cultural conditions of the entire working class, freedom of assembly, of organisation, of trade union move¬ ment, of strikes, of the press, etc.—for at least the same rights and privileges as are enjoyed by the industrial working class—an average yearly eight-hour day, insurance against accidents and old age, prohibition of child labour, professional education, social legislation, at least to the same extent as it exists now for the city proletariat, 7. The Communist Party carries on its struggle for the liberation of the peasants from their servitude through the social revolution. It struggles against all forms of capitalist exploitation of the poor and middle peasantry and especially against the exploitation by means of the loan and usurers’ capital which makes the poor peasants the slaves of their creditors, also against the exploitation by commercial and speculative capital which buys up the surplus agricultural products of the poor peasants at low prices, selling it at high prices to the town proletariat. The Communist Party works for the elimination of this parasitic speculative capital, and for an alliance between the co-operatives of small peasants and the consumers’ co-opera¬ tives of the urban proletariat It struggles against the ex¬ ploitation of industrial capital, which uses its monopoly rights for artificially raising the prices of manufactured goods. It strives for the supply of means of production (artificial fer¬ tilisers, machinery, etc.) to the poor peasantry at low prices. The factory councils are to help in this work by controlling prices. It also strives against the exploitation of the peasants through the private monopoly of the transportation system, as particularly in the Anglo-Saxon countries, and finally, against the exploitation by the capitalist state, which puts the chief burden of taxation on the shoulders of the poor peasantry m . - St T the interests of the big landowners. We demand that the poor peasantry be freed of all taxation. 8. But the greatest exploitation of the landless peasantry in the non-colonial countries is caused by the private ownership of the land by the big landowners. In order to be able to exist, and to "make full use of their labour power, the poor peasants are compelled to work for the big landowners at starvation wages, or to purchase or lease the lands at such high costs that a considerable part of the wages becomes a booty of the landowners. Lack of land compels the poor peasants to put up with mediaeval servitude in modern form. Therefore the Communist Party strives for the expropriation of the land including agricultural implements, and the distri¬ bution of same among those who work on the land. Until the proletarian revolution has achieved this, the Communist Party will support the poor peasants in the struggle for the following immediate demands: — (a) The betterment of the conditions of the small tenants by decreasing the share of the owner. (b) Lower rent for small farms, unconditional compensa¬ tion for the improvements made by the holder at the expiration of the lease, etc. The Agricultural Labourers’ Union, under the leadership of the Communist Party, will support the small tenants in the struggle, by refusing to work on the fields of the landowner who has deprived the small tenant of his land owing to lease disputes, etc. (c) The distribution of land, cattle and means of pro¬ duction among all the poor peasants on terms which insure their existence, the plots of land to be large enough to emanci¬ pate the peasants from the overlordship of the big landowners. At the distribution of land, special attention must be paid to the interests of the agricultural labourers. 9. The ruling classes are endeavouring to rob the move¬ ment in the rural districts of its revolutionary character by introducing bourgeois agrarian reforms, and allotting land to the influential peasantry. They have succeeded in bringing about a temporary lull in the revolutionary movement. But every bourgeois agrarian reform is hampered by the capitalist system. Under capitalism land can only be given at a price to those who are already in possession of means enabling them to carry on their agricultural work. Bourgeois agrarian reforms can give absolutely nothing to the proletarian and semi-proletarian elements. The hard conditions imposed on those who receive land under a bourgeois plan of land distri¬ bution, cannot lead to a betterment of their conditions, but only to further servitude under the system of mortgages. These form the basis for the further extension of the revolu¬ tionary movement, accentuating the contrasts between the rich and the poor peasants and agricultural labourers who do not get any land, and whom the partition of the big estates only deprives of their former means of earning a livelihood. 82 ro. The complete emancipation of all the rural workers can be brought about only by a proletarian revolution which confiscates without compensation the land and implements of the big landowners, while leaving intact the land of the working peasants, freeing it of rent, mortgages, taxes, etc., and all other feudal liabilities. The workers are to decide themselves about the method and manner in which the confiscated land shall be worked. In connection with this question, the Theses of the Second Congress set forth the following: — “ The Communist International is of the opinion that the big agricultural estates in the advanced capitalist countries should be to a great extent maintained and that they should be carried on on the model of the Soviet agricultural farms in Russia. Support should also be given to collective farming (co¬ operatives, communes, etc.). The maintenance of the big farms is in the interest of the revolutionary rural population, of the landless agricultural labourer and of the semi-proletarian small holders who earn their living partly as hired labourers on these farms. More¬ over, the nationalisation of the big agricultural estates ensures to a certain extent the independence of the food supply of the urban population from the peasantry. On the other hand, it might be necessary under certain circumstances to hand over to the peasants part of the big estates. This applies to the countries with survivals of the mediaeval social order, of indentured labour or of a motayer system, which lead to various forms of exploitation. In countries and territories where big agricultural estates do not play an important part, but which have a large number of small land-hungry peasant proprietors, the distribution of the big landowners’ land will be the best means for winning the peasantry for the revolution, while to maintain the big farms out of consideration of food supply of the cities is of no great importance in countries like these. In any case, wherever a partitioning of the big estates takes place, the interests of the rural proletariat should be of prime consideration. From the organisational viewpoint, all Communists engaged in agriculture and in the industrial concerns connected with it, must join the organisations of the agricultural labourers in order to rally and lead the revolutionary elements within them, with the purpose of turning these organisations into effective weapons for the revolutionary struggle. Wherever trade unions do not exist, the Communists must endeavour to bring them into being. They must carry on an energetic educational campaign in the yellow, Fascist and Christian counter-revolu¬ tionary organisations, in order to disintegrate them. Estate workers’ councils must be formed in all the big agricultural estates for the defence of working-class interests, for control over production, and for the prevention of the extension of these estates. They must call upon the industrial proletariat to support the struggles of the agricultural labourers, and, on the other hand they must endeavour to bring the latter into the industrial councils movement. In view of the enormous importance of the poor peasants for the revolutionary movement, communists must make it their business to join the organisations of the small peasants (agricultural, consumers’ and credit co-operatives) in order to revolutionise them and to do away with the apparent conflict of interests between the hired labourers and the poor peasants, which are being exaggerated and put to the fore by the big landowners. The Communists must also concentrate on effect¬ ing a close co-operation between the movement and actions of the rural organisations and those of the urban proletariat. Only by uniting all the revolutionary forces of city and village, the capitalist offensive will be successfully resisted, and, passing from the defensive to the offensive, the final vic¬ tory will be won. RESOLUTION on the NEGRO QUESTION D URING and after the war there developed among colonial and semi-colonial peoples a movement of revolt, which is still making successful progress against the power of world capital. The penetration and intensive colonisation of regions inhabited by black races is becoming the last great problem on the solution of which the further development of capitalism itself depends. French capitalism clearly recognises that the power of French post-war imperialism will be able to maintain itself only through the creation of a French-African Empire, linked up by a Trans-Sahara Railway, whilst America’s finan¬ cial magnates (who are exploiting 12,000,000 negroes at home) are now entering upon a peaceful penetration of Africa. How Britain, for her part, dreads the menace to her position in Africa is shown by the extreme measures taken to crush the Rand Strike. Just as in the Pacific the danger of another world war has become acute owing to the competition of im¬ perialist powers there, so Africa looms ominously as the object of their rival ambitions. Moreover, the war, the Russian revo¬ lution, and the great movements of revolt against imperialism on the part of the Asiatic and Mussulman nationalities have roused the consciousness of millions of the negro race, whom capitalism has oppressed and degraded beyond ail others for hundreds of years, not only in Africa, but perhaps even more in America. 2. The history of the negro in America fits him for an f inaport^nt roie an the liberation struggle of the entire African race. Three hundred years ago the American negro was torn from his native African soil, brought in slave ships under the most cruel and indescribable conditions, and sold into slavery. For two hundred and fifty years he toiled a chattel slave under the lash of the American overseer. ( H’is labour cleared the forests, built the roads, raised the cotton, laid the railroad tracks, and supported the Southern aristocracy. His reward was poverty, illiteracy, degradation and misery. The negro was no docile slave; his history is rich in rebellion, insurrection, underground methods of securing liberty; but his struggles were barbarously crushed. He was tortured into submission, and the bourgeois press and religion justified his slavery. When chattel slavery became an obstacle to the full and free developments of America on the basis of capitalism, when chattel-slavery clashed with wage-slavery, chattel-slavery had to go. The Civil War, which was not a war to free the negro, but a war to maintain the industrial capitalist supremacy of the' North, left the negro the choice of peonage in the South or wage-slavery in the North. The sinews, blood and tears of the “ freed ” negro* helped to build American capitalism, and when, having become a world power, America was inevitably dragged into the world war, the American negro* was declared the equal of the white man to kill, and to* be killed for “ de¬ mocracy.” Four hundred thousand coloured workers were drafted into the American Army, and segregated into “Jim Crow” regiments. Fresh from the terrible sacri¬ fices of war, the returned negro soldier was met with race persecutions, lynchings, murders, disfranchisement, dis¬ crimination and segregation. He fought back, but for assert¬ ing his manhood he paid dearly. Persecution of the negro became more widespread and intense than before the war, until he had “learned to keep his place.” The past-war indus¬ trialisation of the negro in the North and the spirit of revolt engendered by post-war persecutions and brutalities, caused a spirit, which, though suppressed, flames into action when a Tulsa or other inhuman outrage cries aloud for protest, and places the American negro, especially of the North, in the vanguard of the African struggle against oppression. 3. It is with intense pride that the Communist International sees the exploited negro workers resist the attacks of the ex¬ ploiter, for the enemy of his race and the enemy of the white workers is one and the same—Capitalism and Imperialism. The international struggle of the negro race is a struggle against Capitalism and Imperialism. It is on the basis of this struggle that the world negro movement must be organ¬ ised. In America, as the centre of negro culture and the crystallisation of negro protest; in Africa, the reservoir of human labour for the further development of capitalism; in Central America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicar¬ agua and other “ independent ” republics), where American imperialism dominates in Porto Rico, Haiti, Santo Domingo 85 and other islands washed by the waters of the Caribbean, where the brutal treatment of our black fellow-men by the American occupation has aroused the protest of the conscious negro and the revolutionary white workers everywhere; in South Africa and the Congo, where the growing industrialisa¬ tion of the negro population has resulted in various forms of uprisings; in East Africa, where the recent penetration of world capital is stirring the native populations into an active opposition to imperialism, in all these centres T .he negro movement must be organised. (4) It is the task of the Communist International to point out to the negro people that they are not the only people suffering from oppression of capitalism and imperialism; that the workers and peasants of Europe and Asia *and of the America are also the victims of imperialism; that the struggle against imperialism is not the struggle of any one people, but of all the peoples of the world; that in India and China, in Persia and Turkey, in Egypt and Morocco, the oppressed coloured colonial peoples are struggling heroically against their imperialist exploiters; that these people are rising against the same evils that the negroes are rising—racial op¬ pression and discrimination, and intensified industrial ex¬ ploitation—that these people strive for political, industrial and social liberation and equality. The Communist International, which represents the revolu¬ tionary workers and peasants of the whole world in the struggle to break the power of imperialism, is not simply the organisation of the enslaved white workers of Europe and America, but equally the organisation of the oppressed col¬ oured peoples of the world, and feels it to be its duty to encourage and support the international organisation of the negro people in their struggle against the common enemy. (5) The negro problem has become a vital question of the world revolution, and the Third International, which has already recognised what valuable aid can be rendered to the Proletarian Revolution by coloured Asiatic peoples in semi- capitalist countries likewise regards the co-operation of our oppressed black fellow-men as essential to the Proletarian Revolution and the destruction of capitalist power. The Fourth Congress accordingly declares it to be a special duty of Communists to apply the “ Theses on Colonial Questions' * to the negro problem. (6) 1. The Fourth Congress recognises the necessity of supporting every form of negro movement which tends to undermine or weaken capitalism or imperialism or to impede its further penetration. 2. The Communist International will fight for race equality of the negro with the white people, as well as for equal wages and political and social rights. 3. The Communist International will use every instru¬ ment within its control to compel the trade unions to admit 86 negro workers to membership or, where the nominal right to join exists, to agitate for a special campaign to draw them into the unions. Failing in this, it will organise the negroes into unions of their own and specially apply the United Front tactic to compel admission to the unions of the white men. 4. The Communist International will take immediate steps to hold a general Negro Conference or Congress in Moscow. RESOLUTION ON THE ORGANISATION OF CL ASS-WAR PRISONERS' AID “ Under the capitalist offensive, in all the capitalist countries, there is a steady : increase of the numbers of com¬ munist and non-party workers thrown into prison for taking part in the struggle against capitalism. The Fourth Congress instructs all the Communist Parties to establish an organisation to render material and moral aid to the imprisoned victims of capitalism, and welcomes the initiative of the Russian “ Union of Veteran Bolsheviks ” to establish an international association of relief for the poli¬ tical class prisoners.” (Applause.) RESOLUTION ON EDUCA' TIONAL QUESTION T HE development of Marxist educational activity is one of the very necessary tasks of all Communist Parties. The aim of this educational work is to improve our propaganda organisations and increase the strength of our members. Besides the general Marxian education, the mem¬ bers of the Party should also be trained for special work. The Communist work of education which should be an integral part of the general activity of the Party, must be directly subordinated to the Central Committee of the Party. In the countries where the revolutionary education of the workers is carried on by special organisations outside the Communist Party, this goal is to be achieved by the system¬ atic activity of the Communists in these organisations. It is desirable that the Party educational committees be created in the Central Executives of the Parties to conduct this educational activity. All members of the Party who be¬ long to educational institutions which are not controlled directly by the Party, such as the proletarian culture organisations, workers’ educational clubs, proletarian universities, proletcult, labour colleges, etc., fall under the control of the Party and must follow its directives. To carry on this Communist work of education, the Parties must organise Central and local Party schools, evening and 87 day courses, form a. corps of teachers and lecturers, organise libraries, etc., as the circumstances demand. It is the duty of the Party to render the independent educational work of the Communist Youth material and intellectual support. The Youth should be admitted to all the educational activities of the Party. The revolutionary bringing up of the proletarian children should be conducted in common with the Communist Youth. The policy for these activities will be issued by the educational sections of the Executive of the Comintern. An international educational section should be erected in the E.C. Its principal tasks are the solution of the educational problem of the Communist Parties, the conduct of the whole educational activity of the Parties, the unification of the prole- (tanan educational institutions outside the Party. To these tasks belong the collection and spread of international exper¬ iences, the estimation of the forms and methods of work required by every country, the preparation and publication of manuals, text-books and other material, and the solution of all educational problems, which may come up in any country. In order to deal with the problem of school policies of the Communist Parties and the Communist International, international courses should be organised in the Socialist Academy and other similar institutions in Soviet Russia for higher Marxist training and practical Communist education. Tasks of Agitation. 1. Every member of the Communist International must consider himself an agitator among the masses. This can always take place wherever and whenever workers usually gather, in the workshops, in the trade unions, at mass meetings in workers’ clubs, in sport clubs, musical societies, tenants’ and consumers’ organisations, in people’s houses, in workers’ restaurants, in the trains, in the villages, etc., and even in the homes of the workers (house-to-house agitation). 2. The agitation shall always take as its starting point the concrete conditions and needs of the worker in order to lead them on the path of organised, revolutionary class war. One should not expound Communist Doctrines which would not be understood by the audience; one should always urge them to rise and fight for the immediate demands of the proletariat against capitalist and bourgeois class rule wherever it appears. 3. In all the struggles of the workers against the capitalists and bourgeois regime, the Communists should always energeti¬ cally defend the interests of the workers, fight in the front ranks for the interests of the whole working class, sacrifice their own personal interests and let their example serve as the best means of propaganda. 4. I he leading Party organs should issue practical instruc¬ tions to all local groups on the regular propaganda work of all members of the Party, as well as the activity in special campaigns (electoral, high cost of living, and tax campaigns, 88 Shops' Councils, and unemployment movement), as well as all actions conducted by the Party. (A copy of all these instruc¬ tions is to be sent to the Executive Committee of the Comintern.) 5. Every member of the Party has the right to demand from leaders of his organisation concrete and exact informa¬ tion on the agitation he should conduct. It is especially the tasks of the leaders of Communist nuclei, workers’ groups, groups of tens, and factions to issue such directives and con¬ trol their execution. Groups which possess no> leaders should at once be provided with an agitation leader to carry out this policy. 6. The primary aim of the organisation to which a member of the Party belongs should provide a centre with the following information on its membership during the coming winter: — A. —Whether he is conducting any agitation among the non-Party masses— (a) Regularly ? (b) Casually ? (c) Or not at all ? B. —Whether he takes part in any other Party work— (a) Regularly ? (b) Casually ? (c) Or not at all ? The Party Central Executive, after consultation with the Executive Committee of the Comintern, shall issue a circular letter to all its organisations to explain clearly how the above questionnaire is to be answered. The district Executives and the local groups are responsible for the strict execution of this order. The results should be sent to the E.C.C.I. through the Party Central Executive. Knowledge of the Most Important Resolutions of the Party and the Comintern. 1. Every member of the Communist International must be acquainted not only with the most important decisions of his own Party, but also with the most important decisions of the Communist International. 2. All organisations of the affiliated sections must see to it that every member of the Party knows at least the programme of its own Party and the 21 conditions of the International, as well as the decisions of the Comintern regarding his own Party. The members should be tested as to their knowledge. 3. Every, responsible member shall be acquainted with every important tactical and organisatory resolution of the World Congress, and shall be submitted to a test on these topics. This is also desirable for the other members of the Party, but not obligatory. 4. The Party Central Executive in every section must issue the proper instructions to its organisations to carry out this decision, and report to the E.C.C.I. on the results during the coming spring. 89 RESOLUTION on INTERNA' TIONAL WORKERS' RELIEF for SOVIET RUSSIA (1) The workers of all countries, without distinction of political or trade union views, are interested in the preservation arid strengthening of Soviet Russia. Besides the deep-rooted feeling of proletarian solidarity, it was the consciousness of this fact which led the working class parties to support the relief work and moved the working class to make the greatest sacrifices on its behalf. The support of the proletarian relief, which grew to one of the mightiest actions of International solidarity enabled Soviet Russia to pull through the blackest days of famine and finally to conquer it. But already during the time in which the work of the f amine relief was being conducted, large sections of the working-class organisations .engaged in this activity, recognised that this relief in form of food alone would not be of great help to Soviet Russia. The economic war of the capitalist countries against Soviet Russia continues. The blockade continues in the form of refusal of credits and in every case where capitalist groups take up business relations with Soviet Russia they do this in order to< make profits and exploit Soviet Russia. Just as in every other conflict between Soviet Russia and its imperialist enemies, it is the duty of workers of all countries to take Russia’s side against its enemies in this economic war and to help it with all the means in their power, including that of the industrial relief. (2) The best way for the workers to support Russia in the economic war is the political revolutionary struggle, and the increasing pressure upon their government to recognise Soviet Russia, and resume business relations with her on favourable terms. But if we take into consideration Russia’s importance for all workers we must in addition to political activity, strive also for the maximum of economic help from the world pro¬ letariat. Every factory, every workshop, which Russia can start going without capitalist credits, and with the support of the working class, is an effective support to Soviet Russia in its struggle against the imperialist robbers, and every improvement of the conditions within Russia, the first working-class state in the world, strengthens the International proletariat in its struggle against its class enemy, the bourgeoisie. The Fourth Congress of the Communist International there¬ fore, regards it as the duty of every workers’ party and organ¬ isation, and especially of the Communist Parties, to render 90 practical support to Soviet Russia through economic relief action for the reconstruction of her industry in addition to the political revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie. (3) The most important task of the proletarian economic relief outside of Russia consists in the gathering of means to purchase machines, war materials, etc., for Soviet Russia. Besides the old methods of collections, gifts, entertainments, etc., consideration should be given to subscription to workers’ loan for Soviet Russia by Party groups, trade unions, co¬ operatives, and other organisations of the working class. The propaganda for proletarian economic relief at the same time furnishes the best opportunity for agitation in favour of Soviet Russia. It is therefore to be carried out in close con¬ nection with the national sections in the various countries. Since this problem of the economic support of Soviet Russia is of great importance to the working class as a whole, it is necessary to create committees consisting of delegates from the various working class organisations similar to the workers’ Committees for Russian Famine Relief, to organise and lead this action. The task of these committees or corporations is to interest the largest possible masses of the workers in economic relief. These committees are subordinated to the Communist International. (4) The employment of funds collected by these committees or corporations must take place in close co-operation with the existing Russian economic bodies, be it those of the State or of the workers’ organisations. (5) A mass immigration of foreign workers in Russia at the present time does not aid, but renders more difficult the re¬ construction of Russia, and must not be advocated in any case. The importation of foreign workers into Russia must be limited to individual specialists which are especially necessary in certain enterprises. But even in such individual cases, this should take -place only with the understanding and agreement of the Russian Trade Unions. (6) The proletarian economic relief must combine harmon¬ iously our aspirations towards the ideal aim of concentrating the International solidarity of the workers upon the relief for the first proletarian country in the world, and the desire to produce concrete economic results. (7) In accordance with the principles of socialist co-oper¬ ation, and industrial management, the surplus produce must be used only to enlarge the field of activity of the economic relief. 91 Resolution on the Programme of the Communist International 1. All programme proposals are to be handed in to the Executive of the Communist International or to a Commission appointed by the latter, for detailed study and elaboration. The Executive of the Communist International is to publish with the least possible delay all programme proposals submitted to it. 2. The Congress endorses the decision that all the national sections of the Communist International, which are as yet with¬ out a national programme, must at once take in hand the elaboration of such a programme which must be submitted to the Executive not later than three months before the Fifth Congress for endorsement by the next Congress. 3. The necessity of the struggle for the transition demands must be emphasised in the programmes of the national sections, with the reservation that such demands are dependent on the concrete conditions of time and place. 4. The theoretic basis for all transition and partial demands must be definitely laid down in the general programme, the Fourth Congress strongly condemning all attempts to repre¬ sent the inclusion of the transition demands into the programme as opportunism, and also all attempts to gloss over or to replace the basic revolutionary task by partial demands. 3. The basic historic types of the transition demands of the national sections must be clearly embodied in the general programme, due account being taken of the basic differences in the economic and political structure of the various countries, as, for instance, Great Britain on the one hand, India on the other. Resolution on Re-organisation of the Communist International towards an International Com¬ munist Party The World Congress. The World Congress will continue to take place annually. The date will be fixed by the Enlarged Executives. All the affiliated sections must send their delegates, the number of which will be determined by the Executives. The cost is borne by the parties. The number of votes for the respective sections will be determined by Congress in accordance with the member¬ ship and political importance of the respective countries. No binding mandates are permitted, and such will be declared 92 invalid, because such mandates contradict the spirit of an inter¬ national, centralised, proletarian world party. The Executive. The Executive is to be elected by the Congress. It shall consist of the President, 24 members and 10 substitutes. No less than 15 members of the Executive must be permanently domiciled in Moscow. The Enlarged Executive. Regularly every four months meetings of an Enlarged Exe¬ cutive shall take place. These sessions are to be composed in the following manner: — (1) Of 25 members of the Executive. (2) Of additional three representatives from each of the following parties: Germany, France, Russia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Italy; also the Young Communist International and the Profintem. (3) Of two representatives from England, Poland, America, Bulgaria and Norway. (4) Of one representative from each of the other countries that are entitled to votes. It is the duty of the Presidium to submit to the meetings of the Enlarged Executive all the more important fundamental questions that permit of delay. The first Enlarged Executive must take place immediately after the World Congress. The Presidium. The elected Executive, at its first meeting shall choose a Presidium, which is to' include one representative each from the Y.C.L. and the Profintern, with consultative votes, and is to comprise the following departments: — (1) An Oriental Department, to whose activities the Execu¬ tive must devote special attention during the coming year; \ the Director of the Oriental Department must be a member of the Presidium. In its political activity this department is subordinate to the Presidium; its relations with the Organisation Bureau are regulated by the Presidium. (2) A Department of Organisation (Org. Bureau), contain¬ ing no less than two members of the Presidium. The Org. Bureau is subordinated to the Presidium. (3) A Department of Agitation and Propaganda, under the gtndance of one member of the Executive, Also this depart- : ment is directly subordinated to the Presidium. (4) A Department of Statistics and Information, subordin¬ ated to the Org. Bureau. (5) The Executive has the right of establishing additional departments. Division of Work among the Members of the Executive. An exact division of work is to be made among the mem¬ bers of the Executive as well as of the Presidium,- For the 93 purpose of preparing the work for the individual sections, the Presidium appoints a responsible reporter for every one of the more important countries. As a rule, this reporter should be a member of the Executive, or, when possible, of the Presidium. Such reporters as are not members either of the Executive or of the Presidium shall work under the control of a member of the Presidium. The Presidium shall organise a General Secre¬ tariat, under the management of a General Secretary. The Executive shall appoint two assistants to the General Secre¬ tary. The Secretariat shall not have the function of an inde¬ pendent political organisation, but shall be only the adminis¬ trative organ of the Presidium. It is the duty of the Executive to influence all the parties to adopt a similar distribution of work, with due regard to the circumstances and the situation in every individual country. The Representatives- In exceptional cases the Executive may send representatives to the individual countries, who shall be appointed from among the competent comrades of the sections. These representatives shall be furnished by the Executive with the widest powers. The functions of these representatives, the rights and duties, as well as their relations to the respective parties shall be defi¬ nitely laid down in special instructions. It is the duty of the Executive to take particular care and to see to it that the conditions and the decision of the World Congress shall be really carried out. The representatives of the Executive must give all attention to the proper carrying out of these conditions. The representatives must report on the results of their work not less than once a month. The International Controlling Commission. The International Controlling Commission remains in force. Its functions are the same as were formulated by the Third World Congress. The World Congress appoints every year two neighbouring sections, whose central committees shall send three members each, to the Controlling Commission, whose members are to be endorsed by the Executive, for the ensuing year. The Executive entrusts this function to the German and French sections. The Technical Information Bureau. The Technical Information Bureau remains. Their function is to supply technical information, and their work is sub¬ ordinated to the Executive. “ The Communist International.” The “ Communist International ” is the organ of the Exe¬ cutive: the editorial board is chosen by, and subordinated to the Executive. The Congress declares that all Communist publications are obliged as hitherto to print all documents from the Executive 94 (appeals, letters, resolutions, etc.) when the Executive so demands. Minutes of National Parties. It is the duty of the central committees of all sections to furnish regularly to the Executive the minutes of all their meetings. Exchange of Representatives. It is desirable, for the purpose of mutual information and for the co-ordinated work, that the more important sections of neighbouring countries shall mutually exchange representa¬ tives. The reports of these representatives shall be simul¬ taneously furnished to the Executive. It is further desirable that the appointment of such repre¬ sentatives should take place with the consent of the Executive. Conference of Sections. As a rule, prior to the World Congress of the Communist International, party conferences or enlarged national execu¬ tives shall meet to make preparations for the World Congress and to elect delegates to the Congress. The party conferences of the individual sections shall take place after the World Congress. Exceptions can be made only with the consent of the Exe¬ cutive. Such procedure ensures the best protection of the interests of the individual sections, and, at the same time, creates the possibility of taking advantage of the entire experiences of the international movement, from the bottom upwards. At the same time, this procedure affords the possibility of constructing the Communist International as a centralised world party, “ from the bottom upwards,” by a system of democratic centralism which bases its directives on the sum total of international experiences. Resignations. The Congress in the most decisive manner condemns all cases of resignations tendered by individual comrades of the various central committees and by entire groups of such mem¬ bers. The Congress considers such resignations as the greatest disorganisation of the Communist movement. Every leading post in a Communist party belongs not to the bearer of the mandate, but to the Communist International as a whole. The Congress resolves: Elected members of central bodies of a section can resign their mandate only with the consent of the Executive. Resignations accepted by a Party Central Committee without the consent of the Executive Committee are invalid- 95 Illegal Activity. In accordance with the decision of the Congress, in which it is pointed out that a number of important parties in all probability will be compelled for a time to adopt illegality, it is the duty of the Presidium to give its utmost attention to the training of the respective parties for their illegal work. Immediately after the close of the Congress the Presidium shall commence negotiations with the parties in question. International Women’s Secretariat. The International Women’s Secretariat remains. The Exe¬ cutive appoints a women’s secretary, and, in consultation with the latter, carries out all the further organisational work. Representation in the Young Communist Executive. The Congress instructs the Executive to arrange for regular representation of the Comintern in the Young Comintern. The Congress considers it to be one of the most important tasks of the Executive to promote the work of the Youth movement. Representation in the Profintem, The Congress instructs the Executive, in conjunction with the Executive of the Profintem, to work out the form of mutual relations of the Comintern and Profintem. The Con¬ gress further points out that now more than ever is the eco¬ nomic struggle closely bound up with the political campaign, and consequently a special internal co-ordination of forces of all the revolutionary organisations of the working class must be effected. Revision of the Statutes. The Congress confirms the Statutes as adopted by the Second Congress, and instructs the Executive, on the basis of the newly-adopted resolutions, to revise and to perfect these statutes. This work must be carried out in proper time, dis¬ tributed for preliminary consideration to all the parties, and finally endorsed by the Fifth World Congress. Programme of Action for French Communist Party i. The most pressing task of the Party is to organise the resistance of the proletariat against the capitalist offensive which is developing in France as in every other large industrial country The defence of the eight-hour day, the maintenance .and increase of the present salaries, the struggle for the imme¬ diate economic demands of the proletariat, this is the best platform to reunite the disorganised proletariat, and give it confidence in its strength and its future. The Party must immediately take the initiative in every mass action capable ,96 of opposing the offensive of capital and instilling the working class with the sense of its unity. 2. The Party must undertake a campaign to' show the workers the interdependence of the eight-hour day and of wages, and the inevitable effect of one of these demands upon the other. It must use as a weapon of agitation, not only the activities of the employers, but also’ the attacks of the State against the immediate interests of the workers, as, for instance, the tax on wages, and every economic ques¬ tion which interests the working class, such as the increase in rents, the tax on consumption, social insurance, etc. The Party must undertake an active propaganda campaign among the workers for the creation of factory councils, uniting all the workers in each enterprise, irrespective of whether they are already organised economically and politically or not, in order to exercise workers’ control on the conditions of work and production. 3. The slogans for the immediate economic demands of the proletariat must serve as means to realise the United Front against the economic and political reaction. The United Work¬ ing Class Front must be our governing rule for every mass action. The Party must create the favourable conditions for the success of this policy by undertaking seriously the educa¬ tion of its own members and of sympathetic elements by every means of propaganda at its disposal. The Press, the pam¬ phlets, the books, meetings of all sorts, everything must be used in this work of education which the Party must carry on in every proletarian group where there are Communists. The Party must appeal to the important rival political and economic organisations of the workers; it must always pub¬ licly state its proposals and those of the reformists, and give the reasons for its acceptance of some proposals and the rejec¬ tion of others. In no case must it renounce its complete inde¬ pendence, its right to criticise all the participants in the action. It must always seek to take and maintain the initiative of those movements, in the sense of this programme. 4. To be able to take part in the action of the workers in all its forms, to help in the orientation of this action or in certain circumstances, to fulfil a decisive role in them, the Party must immediately create its organisation for activity among the unions. The formation of Trade Union committees in the federations and the sections (decided upon at the Paris Congress) and of Communist nuclei in every factory and large capitalist or state enterprise will permit the Party to penetrate right into the masses of workers, and enable it to spread its slogans and increase Communist influence in the proletarian movement. The trade union committee, whatever the degree of organisation of the Party of the trade union may be, will maintain connections with the Communists who, with the per¬ mission of the Party, have remained in the reformist C.G.T., and will guide their opposition to the policy of the official 97 0 leaders; they will register every trade union member of the Party, control his activities and transmit to him the directives of the Party. 5. Communist agitation in all trade unions without excep¬ tion shall consist primarily in agitating re-establishment of trade union unity, indispensable for the victory of the prole¬ tariat. The Communists must make use of every opportunity to show the harmful effects of the present division, and advocate fusion. The Party must combat every tendency to dispersed action to decentralised organisation, to local or craft exclusive¬ ness and to anarchistic ideology. It must propagate the necessity of a centralised movement, of the formation of large organisations by industry, of co-ordination of strikes in order to substitute mass actions which will instil the workers with confidence in their strength, for localised actions which are doomed to failure. In the C:G.T.U. the Communists must combat every tendency opposing the adhesion of the French trade unions to the Red International of Labour Unions. In the reformist C.G.T. they must denounce the Amsterdam International and the leaders’ policy of class collaboration. In both federations they must advocate joint action, demon¬ strations and strikes, the United Front, organic unity, and the integral programme of the R.I.L.U. 6. The Party must take advantage of every large move¬ ment, spontaneous or organised, to show the political character of every class conflict, and use them as favourable conditions for the propagation of its political slogans, such as political amnesty, the annulment of the Versailles Treaty, the evacua¬ tion of the left bank of the Rhine, etc. 7. The struggle against the Treaty of Versailles and its results must be the first task. We must effect the union of the proletariat of France and Germany against the bourgeoisie of the two countries which profit by the war and the peace treaty. It is the urgent duty of the French Party to inform the workers and the soldiers of the tragic situation of their German brothers, crushed by the burden of the economic difficulties resulting directly from the Peace Treaty. The German govern¬ ment can satisfy the demands of the Allies only by increasing the burdens of the German working class. The French bour¬ geoisie spares the German bourgeoisie, treats with it to the detriment of the working class, helps them to take possession of the public utilities, and guarantees them aid and protec¬ tion against the revolutionary movement. The two bour¬ geoisies are ready to accomplish the alliance of French iron and German coal; they are coming to an understanding on the question of the occupation of the Ruhr, which signifies the enslavement of the German miners. But the German workers are not the only ones menaced; the French workers will be made to feel the competition of German labour, reduced to such cheapness by the depreciation of the currency. The French Party must explain this situation to the French working class and warn it against the danger which menaces it. The Com¬ munist press must constantly describe the sufferings of the German proletariat, the victim of the Versailles Treaty, and show the impossibility of carrying out the Treaty. Special propaganda must be carried on in the devastated regions to denounce the two bourgeois classes as responsible for the suffer¬ ings of both countries, and to develop the spirit of solidarity among the workers of the two countries. The Communist slogan must be, “ Fraternisation of the French and German soldiers and workers on the left bank of the Rhine! ” The Party must maintain close ties with its brother party in Ger¬ many in order successfully to conduct this struggle against the Treaty of Versailles and its results. The French Party must combat French Imperialism, not only in Germany, but all over the world, especially as it appears in the St. Germain, Neuilly, Trianon, and Sevres Peace Treaties. 8. The Party must undertake systematic permeation of the army. Our anti-militarist propaganda must differ radically from the hypocritical pacifism of the bourgeoisie, and must be based on the disarmament of the bourgeoisie and the arm¬ ing of the proletariat. In their press, in parliament, on all favourable occasions, the Communists must defend the interests of the soldiers, advocate the recognition of their political rights, etc. Our revolutionary anti-militarist propa¬ ganda must be intensified everywhere when there is a menace of war. This propaganda must be placed in the hands of a special organ of the Party, in which the Communist Youth must participate. g. The Party must take in hand the interests of the ex¬ ploited colonial people oppressed by French Imperialism, sup¬ port the nationalist demands which constitute a step towards the liberation from the yoke of the foreign capitalists, and defend unreservedly their right to autonomy and indepen¬ dence. The immediate task of the Party is to fight for the political and trade union liberties of the natives, and against native levies. The Party must combat ruthlessly every reac¬ tionary tendency existing even among certain working class elements in the form of a prejudice against the natives. It must create a special organ within the Central Executive to carry on Communist agitation in the colonies. io. Our propaganda among the peasantry to wm over the majority of the agricultural workers, tenant farmers and poor peasants to the revolution and gain the sympathies of the small landowners must be accompanied by action for the ameliora¬ tion of the conditions of life and work of the peasant workers and of the tenants dependent upon the large landowners. Such action demands that the district organisations of the Party establish and propagate programmes of immediate de¬ mands corresponding to the peculiar conditions in each dis¬ trict. The Party must favour the agricultural associations and co-operatives wnich help to destroy, the individualism of. the 99 peasants. More especially, it must exert its efforts to create and develop trade unions among the agricultural workers. 11. The Communist propaganda among the working-class women is of the greatest importance, and requires a special organisation. A central committee within the Executive, with a permanent secretariat, more and more numerous local com¬ missions and a journal devoted to propaganda among the women are necessary. The Party must demand the unifica¬ tion of the economic demands of the men and workers, equal pay for equal work without distinction of sex, the participation of the exploited women in the campaigns and the struggles of the workers. 12. We must make more efforts than in the past in the development of the Communist Youth. In every branch of both organisations reciprocal relations must be established between the Party and the Youth. The Youth must be repre¬ sented on every Commission formed in the Central Executive. The federations, sections and propagandists of the Party must help the existing groups of young Communists, and help to create new ones. The Central Committee must take an interest in the Press of the Youth, and assure to that organisa¬ tion a forum in the Party Press. In accordance with this pro¬ gramme, the Party must represent the demands of the young workers in the trade unions. 13. In the co-operatives, the Communists must defend the principle of unified national organisation, and create national groups attached to the co-operative section of the Comintern through a commission formed in the Executive. In every federation a special commission must be created for propa¬ ganda among the co-operatives. The Communists must trans¬ form the co-operatives into a branch of the working-class movement. 14. Our members in the Chamber, in the municipal coun¬ cils, etc., must conduct an energetic struggle in connection with the struggles of the working-class and the campaigns conducted by the Party and the trade unions outside of Par¬ liament. In accordance with the theses of the Second Con¬ gress of the Comintern, the Communist representatives must be controlled and directed by the Executive of the Party, the municipal, general, and district councillors, controlled and directed by the sections and the federations, and must serve the Party as agents of propaganda and agitation. 15. To be able to accomplish the tasks developed in its programme and the national and International Congresses, the Party must perfect and strengthen its organisation follow¬ ing the example of the large Communist Parties of other countries, and the rules of the Comintern. We require a strict centralisation, an inflexible discipline, the subordination of every member of the Party to his branch, of each branch to the organisation immediately above it. Furthermore, we must develop the Marxism education of our militants by a ICO systematic increase of theoretical courses in the sections, by the opening of Party schools. These courses and these schools must be placed under the direction of a Central Commission of the Executive. Resolution of the French Commission (a) Executive Committee.—As an exception, under the circumstances of the acute crisis provoked by the Paris Con¬ gress, the Executive Committee shall be constituted on a pro¬ portional basis, taking, as a basis the voting of the Congress for members of central bodies. The proportions of the different factions will be as follows: Centre: io members and 3 substitutes. Left: 9 members and 2 substitutes. Renoult Faction: 4 members and 1 substitute. Renaud-Jean Minority : 1 member. Communist Youth: 2 representatives with an advisory vote. The political bureau will be formed on the same basis, the various tendencies being represented as follows: Centre, 3; Left, 3; Renoult Faction, 1. The members of the Executive Committee, as well as those of the Political Bureau and other important central bodies, will be nominated by the French members of the various fac¬ tions now in Moscow, in order to avoid all personal disagree¬ ments which might tend to aggravate the crisis. The list of candidates is to be submitted by the Delegation to the Fourth World Congress, and the delegation will undertake to defend it before the Party. The Fourth Congress makes this declara¬ tion in the conviction that this method is the only possible one for solving the Party crisis. The list of the new Executive elected by the various fac¬ tions now follows: — THE CENTRE. Members: — Frossard, General Secretary of the Party and delegate on the Executive. Louis Sellier, temporary secretary. Marseil Cachin. Jacob, secretary of the Textile Federation. Garchery, municipal councillor of Paris. Lucis Leiciague, stenographer. Marrane, mechanic, secretary of the Federation of the Seine. Ocurdeaux, employee in the Paris Post Office. Laguesse, discharged teacher, secretary of the Federation of the Seine-et-Marne. 101 Paquereaux, turner, secretary of the Federation of Seine- et-Oise. Substitutes: — Peirpont, textile worker. Dupillot, treasurer of the United Federation of Miners (reserved for confirmation in Paris). Plais, telephone worker. THE LEFT. Members: — Rosmer, employee. Treint, discharged teacher. VaillarDCouturier, deputy. Souvarine, journalist. Tomasi, aviation construction worker. Christen, mechanic. Amedee Dunois, journalist. Cordier, hairdresser. Bouchez, mechanic. Substitutes: — Salles, metal worker. Departer, filer. RENOULT FACTION. Members: — Barbatet, metal worker. Fromont, carriage builder. Dubus, miner from Pas-de-Calais. Werth (usually called Rogen Gerald), metal worker. Substitute: — Lespagnol, employee. A National Conference with the power of the Party Con¬ gress, shall ratify this list not later than the last fortnight in January. Until that time the provisional Executive Committee nominated by the Party Congress will remain in power. (b) The Press.—The Congress confirms the rule for the Press which has already been decided: (i) The management of the papers shall be turned over to the Political Bureau; (2) there shall be a daily unsigned editorial giving the readers the opinion of the party; (3) prohibition of Party journalists contributing to the bourgeois press. Editor of VHumanite \ Marcel Cachin. General Secretary: Amedee Dunois. Both of these have equal powers, and any disagreement between them must be brought before the Political Bureau and settled by them. Editorial Secretariat: One from the Centre and one from the Left. The editorshop of the Bulletin Communiste will be given to a comrade of the Left. 1.02 The resigned editors will reassume their positions. In order to prepare for the National Conference, the Party page will be re-established, in which each tendency will have the right to express its point of view. (c) General Secretariat.—This position will be occupied on a party basis by one comrade from the Centre and one from the Left; all disagreements to be settled by the Political Bureau. Member, Frossard. Substitutes, Louis Sellier and Treint. (d) Delegates of the Executive.—This Congress considers it absolutely necessary, in order to establish normal and cor¬ dial relations between the Executive Committee of the Com¬ munist International and the French Party, that the two most important tendencies be represented in Moscow by those com¬ rades best qualified and authorised by their respective fac¬ tions. That is to say, that they shall be represented by Com¬ rades Frossard and Souvarine for at least three months, until the end of the crisis within the French Party. The fact that the French Party will be represented at Moscow by Frossard and Souvarine, will give complete cer¬ tainty that every suggestion of the International Executive, arrived at in agreement with these two comrades will receive the support of the whole party. (e) Appointment of Party Officials.—With regard to the appointment of Party officials, editors, etc., the Party will set up a special commission composed of comrades possessing the complete confidence of the Party, in order to regulate this question from two points of view: (i) The elimination of all possibility of one comrade filling two or more paid posts, which provokes legitimate indignation among the members of the Party; (2) Those comrades whose work is absolutely necessary for the Party, shall be given appointments which will permit them to give their whole time to the service of the Party. (f) Committees.—(1) Administrative Committee of VHunianite , 6. Centre, 5. Left, 2. Renoult Faction. The French Commission states that proportional representa¬ tion is used here also purely as an exceptional measure for the important committees. (2) Trade Union Secretariat.— There shall be a secretary from the Centre and one from the Left; all misunderstandings to be settled by the Political Bureau. (g Cases in Litigation.—Those cases which came out of the decisions taken in Moscow, and their application, will have to be regulated by a special committee composed of one representative of the Centre, one representative of the Left, and the delegate of the Executive as President. (h) Positions forbidden to former Masons.—By this we understand those posts where the holders have the power of representing more or less independently, on their own re- 103 Sponsibility, the ideas of the party before the working masses, by voice or by pen. If there is any uncertainty with regard to the allocation of these posts, between the two factions, it must be submitted to the Committee above mentioned. In case of technical difficulties for the reinstatement of those editors who have resigned, the Committee above described will settle these difficulties. All resolutions that do not concern the constitution of the Executive Committee are immediately applicable. Besides those provisions mentioned in the resolutions, the Renoult Faction has asked to have a substitute at the Executive with Comrades Frossard and Souvarine, during a period of three months. The Commission has unanimously granted this request of the Renoult Faction. The motion is adopted, with two votes against, namely: — Brancon (France). Antonio B. Caneiian (Brazil). There is one abstention. Resolution of Italian Commission The second and Third World Congresses of the Communist International had to devote much time to the Italian problem. The Fourth Congress is now able to summarise the whole matter. At the end of the Imperialist World War, the situation in Italy was objectively revolutionary. The reins of govern¬ ment had fallen from the hands of the bourgeoisie. The apparatus of the bourgeois state had become disrupted. The ruling class felt insecure, the whole of the working class was aroused against the war, and in many parts of the country was in a state of open insurrection. Considerable numbers of the peasantry were rising against the large landowners and the government, they were willing to support the working class in its revolutionary struggle. The soldiers were against the war and ready to fraternise with the workers. The objective conditions for a victorious revolution were at hand. But the most important subjective factor was lacking,—namely, a determined, trained, prepared, alert, re¬ volutionary working-class party, i.e., a real Communist Party ready to take over the leadership of the masses. Such was the situation in almost all belligerent countries at the end of the war. That the workers did not accomplish the revolution in the years 1919-20 was due to the lack of a revolutionary working-class party. This was demonstrated with particular clearness in Italy, a country where the 104 revolution seemed nearest, and which has now been plunged into the most fearful horrors of the counter-revolution. The occupation of the factories by the Italian workers in autumn, 1920, was a most decisive moment in the develop¬ ment of the class struggle in Italy. Instinctively, the Italian workers sought for a revolutionary solution of the crisis. But the absence of a revolutionary proletarian party decided the fate of the working class, sealed their defeat, and prepared the present victory of the Fascists. The working class owing to this lack of revolutionary leadership, did not find the necessary strength to take the power into its own hands. And so it happened that after a short time, the bourgeoisie con¬ quered the proletariat and established the dictatorship of its most radical wing, the Fascists. The example of Italy is of great importance. Nowhere is the proof of the importance of the historical mission of the Communist Party so evident as in Italy, where, as a result of the absence of such a party, events were turned to the advantage of the bourgeoisie. It is not that there were no working-class parties in Italy in this decisive hour. The old Socialist Party had a large membership, and to all appearances exercised a great influence. But it contained in its ranks the reformist elements that para¬ lysed every revolutionary action. In spite of the first split in 1912 (expulsion of the extreme Right) and of the second secession in 1914, there were still a great number of reformists and Centrists in the Socialist Party of Italy. These reform¬ ists and Centrists acted as a dead weight upon the Party at every decisive moment. Nowhere did it become so clear as in Italy that the Reformists were the most dangerous agents of the bourgeoisie amongst the working class. They did not leave any means untried to betray the working class to the bourgeoisie. Such treachery as that of the reformists during the occupation of the factories has often been demonstrated in the history of reformism, which is in reality nothing but a long unbroken chain of betrayals. The real forerunner of Fascism was Reformism. The treachery of the reformists is primarily responsible for the great sufferings of the Italian proletariat. If the Italian working class has to begin over again the difficult road which leads to revolution, it is be¬ cause the reformists have been tolerated so long in the Italian Party. At the beginning of 1921 the breach of the majority of the Socialist Party with the Communist International took place. In Livorno, the centre showed itself willing to split away from the Comintern and from 58,000 Italian Commun¬ ists formed an independent organisation with 16,000 mem¬ bers. Two parties were created. The young Communist Party was resolute in its struggle against the bourgeoisie and its reformist accomplices, but in spite of all its courage, too weak to lead the working class to victory; and the old Social¬ ist Party, where, after Livorno, the influence of the reformists 105 1 became ever more pronounced. The working class stood divided and helpless. The bourgeoisie kept the upper hand with the help of the reformists. It was then that the political and economic offensive of capital really began. It took two full years of defeats and of the blackest betrayals on the part of the reformists to convince the leaders of the Centre, under the pressure of the masses, of their irreparable error, and in¬ duce them to draw the consequence of their actions. It was not until October, 1921, at the Congress of Rome, that the reformists were expelled from the Socialist Party. It had come so far that the most prominent leaders of the re¬ formists were boasting openly that they had been able to sabotage the revolution by remaining in the Socialist Party of Italy, and forcing it to inactivity at every decisive moment. The reformists went openly from the ranks of the S.P.I. into the camp of the counter-revolution. They left the masses powerless, discouraged, and greatly weakened the Socialist Party, both numerically and politically. These sorry, but instinctive examples of Italian history must convince the class-conscious workers of every country that—(1) reformism is their chief enemy; that (2) the oscilla¬ tions and hesitations of the Centrists are dangerous to the existence of a working-class party; and that (3) the existence of a determined and alert Communist Party is the first con¬ dition for the victorious struggle of the proletariat. These are the lessons of the Italian tragedy. Considering the resolutions of the S.P.I. in Rome (Octo¬ ber, 1922), expelling the reformists from the Party, and de¬ claring itself ready to adhere unconditionally to the Com¬ munist International, the Fourth World Congress of the Comintern resolves: — (1) The general situation of Italy, especially since the vic¬ tory of the Fascist reaction, requires imperiously the rapid union of all revolutionary forces of the proletariat. The Italian worker will come to his feet again when, after the many defeats and splits, a new rallying of all revolutionary forces is started. (2) The Communist International sends its brotherly greet¬ ing to the hard-pressed working class of Italy. It is thoroughly convinced of the honest revolutionary spirit of the Socialist Party of Italy, now it is freed from its reformist elements, and resolves to admit the S.P.I. to the Communist Inter¬ national. (3) The Fourth World Congress regards the fulfilment of the 21 conditions as something which is self-understood, and in view of events in Italy, charges the Executive Committee to insist upon their being carried out with the utmost rigour and with all resulting consequences. (4) The Fourth World Congress resolves that, after his speech at the Congress of Rome, the representative Vella and 106 his followers have no place in the communist Party of Italy. The Fourth World Congress demands from the Central Exe¬ cutive of the Socialist Party of Italy, to expel all those who do not accept the 21 conditions unconditionally. (5) Since, according to the Statutes of the Communist International, there can be only one section of the Comintern in one country, the Fourth World Congress decides upon the immediate union of the Communist Party with the Socialist Party of Italy. The united Party to be known as “ The United Communist Party (Section of the Communist Inter¬ national) ”. (6) To get this union carried into life the Fourth Con¬ gress nominates a special Organisation Committee consisting of three members from each party under the chairmanship of a member of the Executive. This Committee is to consist of Comrades Tasca, Gransci, and Sesscimdro' from the Com¬ munist Party ; from the Socialist Party, Comrades Serrati, Maffi, and Tonetti, and from the Executive, Comrade Zino¬ viev. The Executive reserves the right to replace Comrade Zinoviev by any other member. This committee is to pre¬ pare in Moscow a detailed statement of the conditions for the reunion, and direct the carrying out of this union in Italy. The Executive is to be considered as the court of last resort in all conflicting issues. The Central Executives of both parties are to conduct the general business of their parties until the unification con¬ gress. They are, however, subordinated in their whole politi¬ cal activity as well as in their work of preparing the unification to the Organisation Committee. (7) Such Organisation Committee shall also be created in the large factories and in the cities, consisting of two members from each party, the chairman to be appointed by the repre¬ sentative of the Executive. (8) The task of these Organisation Committees, central as well as local, will be not only to prepare the unification, but to conduct the common political activity of both organisa¬ tions from that time on. (9) There is also to be created a common trade union com¬ mittee, whose task it should be to agitate in the Confederation of 'Labour against the Amsterdamers, and to win over the majority of the trade unions to the Profintern. This com¬ mittee should also consist of two representatives from each party, presided over by a comrade appointed by the Executive of the Comintern or the Organisation Committee. The trade union committee works according to the instructions and under the control of the Organisation Committee. (10) In every city where a Communist and a Socialist news¬ paper exist, these must be consolidated by January 1st, 1923, at the latest. The editorship of the central organ for the coming year to be named by the Executive of the Comin¬ tern. (i.i) The unification congress should take place not later than the 15th of March, 1923. The Executive is to decide when and under what conditions separate conferences of both parties should take place before the unification congress, for the purpose of preparation and information of the working class. (12) Illegal activity has become an absolute necessity in Italy at the present day. The comrades of the Socialist Party of Italy must make good now what they have neglected to do. It would be most dangerous to entertain any illusions as to the nature of Fascism and its probable development. We must reckon with the possibility that the revolutionary working-class movement of Italy will be forced underground for a certain period of time. The near Tuture will bring the acid test for every revolutionary proletarian organisation and for every individual revolutionist. The Congress leaves it to the Central Committee of Five to formulate a detailed plan of illegal activity, and to do its utmost to put this plan into operation. (13) The Fourth Congress resolves that a manifesto shall be published on the question of unity to be signed by the Presidium of the Fourth World Congress and the delegation of both parties, to be distributed at once. (14) The Congress reminds all the Italian comrades of the necessity of strict discipline. It is the duty of all com¬ rades without exception to do their utmost to help bring about the unification without any delay, and without any dis¬ turbance. Every breach of discipline in the present situation becomes a crime against the Italian proletariat and the Com¬ munist International. Resolution of Egyptian Commission After several sessions the Commission has reached the fol¬ lowing conclusion: — 1. The report of the S.P.E. delegate, made available to the Commission, is satisfactory evidence that the S.P.E. represents a substantial revolutionary movement in conformity with the Communist International. 2. The Commission considers, however, that the affiliation of the S.P.E. must be postponed until— (a) The Party has expelled certain undesirable elements. (b) The Party has convoked a Congress at which an at¬ tempt shall be made to unite with the S.P.E. any Communist element in Egypt that may at present exist outside the S.P.E., and will accept the 21 demands of the C.I. (c) The Party has changed its name to “ The Communist Party of Egypt.’* 108 3. The S.P.E. is therefore instructed to summon a con¬ gress for the above purposes at an early date, and not later than January 15, I923* Resolution of Danish Commission (1) This Congress declares that the present Communist Party of Denmark, which was formed under the directions of the Executive of the Communist International, by a union of the Communist “ Enhatsparti ” and a part of the so-called old Party, one which has loyally carried out all decisions of the Communist International, is recognised as the only sec¬ tion of the Communist International in Denmark. The Party’s chief publication, “ Arbeiderbladet,” and other recognised organs of the Party, shall be issued as Communist Party pub¬ lications. (2) The Congress demands that all Communist organisa¬ tions at present outside of the United Party shall join the United Party. Such organisations and members of the so-called old Party, who, within the next three months, decide in favour of this United Communist Party and declare themselves as prepared loyally to execute all directions of this Party and its central organs, and of the Communist International, shall be received into the United Party without further conditions. Resolution of Spanish Commission 1. The Spanish Communist Party, which, together with France and Italy had voted against the tactics of the United Front at the Session of the Enlarged Executive in February, soon recognised its error, and on the occasion of the great Asturian strike in May, declared itself for the United Front tactics, as a result of conviction and not of mere formal party discipline. This showed the Spanish working class that the Party was ready to fight for its every-day demands, and was capable of leading the workers in this struggle. In persevering in this attitude and in taking advantage of all the opportunities for action by drawing the working class organisations and the entire proletariat into action by co-ordin¬ ating their revolutionary effort, the Spanish Communist Party will gain the confidence of the masses, and will fulfil its his¬ toric mission. 2. The Fourth World Congress expresses its pleasure at the satisfactory solution of the crisis which had convulsed the Party at the beginning of the year, and which ended in the 109 reinforcement of discipline within the Party ranks. The Con¬ gress calls upon the Party to persevere in this attitude, and calls especially upon the Young Communists to' do their ut¬ most in strengthening Party discipline within their ranks. 3. A characteristic feature of the present Spanish working- class movement is the decline of the anarcho-syndicalist ideo¬ logy and movement. This movement, which a few years ago had succeeded in drawing in large masses of workers, has failed to fulfil the expectations and the revolutionary will of the latter by making use not of Marxist and Communist tac¬ tics of mass action and of centralised struggle, but of anar¬ chist tactics of individual actions and of federalism and ter¬ rorism, which is tantamount to scattering the proletarian forces. To-day the deceived working masses are leaving the organ¬ isations, and their leaders are rapidly moving towards re¬ formism. One of the chief tasks of the Communist Party is to win and educate the deceived working masses, to denounce the neo-reformism of the syndicalist leaders, and to attract the anarcho-syndicalist elements that have recognised the error of their doctrines. But in its efforts to win the confidence of the anarcho- syndicalist elements, the Communist Party must take care not to make concessions in principle or tactics to the ideology condemned by the experience of the Spanish proletariat itself. It must combat and condemn within its ranks the tendency to concessions intended to enlist more rapidly the sympathies of the syndicalists, and thus direct the Party towards a policy of concessions. It is preferable to take longer time with the assimilation of the syndicalist elements, making them con¬ vinced Communists, than to win them over rapidly, by sacri¬ ficing party principle, which would lead to more painful crises in the near future. The Spanish Party will do its utmost to explain to the anarcho-syndicalists the revolutionary tactics of parliamentarism, as defined by the Second World Congress. For the Communist Party, electoral action is a means of propa¬ ganda and of working-class struggle, and not a refuge for aspiring reformist and petty bourgeois politicians. Consistent application of United Front tactics will win the confidence of the masses, which are still under the influence of anarcho-syndicalist ideology, and will show them that the Communist Party is a political organisation for the revolu¬ tionary struggles of the proletariat. 4. Our Party must pay more attention to the Spanish trade union movement. It must initiate an energetic and systematic propaganda in all the trade union organisations for the uni¬ fication of the trade union movement in Spam. In order to achieve success in this direction, it must have the support of a network of Communist nuclei in all the trade unions adhering to the National Confederation and to the 110 General Confederation, as well as in all the autonomous trade unions. Therefore, it must oppose and combat every idea or tendency advocating resignations from the reformist trade union. In the event of trade unions or Communist groups being expelled from reformist trade unions, the Communists must take care not to satisfy the wish of the Amsterdam secessionists by coming out of the unions as a matter of solidarity. On the contrary, they must express their solidarity for the expelled comrades by remaining within the General Confederation and by carrying on an energetic agitation for the reinstatement of the expelled comrades or unions. If, in spite of their efforts, trade unions and groups fail to be rein¬ stated, the Communist Party must encourage them to join the National Workers’ Confederation (C.N.T.). The Com¬ munist members of the C.N.T. must establish their nuclei within this organisation which must be attached to the trade union commission of the Party. They will no doubt colla¬ borate harmoniously with the trade unionists adhering to the Red Trade Union International without being members of our Party. But they must preserve their own organisation intact, and, without relinquishing their Communist viewpoint, they must have fraternal discussion with the trade unionists on all controversial matters. In order to ensure the success of the struggle for trade union unity, the Communist Party must establish a mixed committee for the unity of the Spanish trade union move¬ ment, which will be the centre of propaganda, and at the same time a rallying point for the trade unions of both confedera¬ tions and of the autonomous trade unions adhering to the principle of unity. The Party must endeavour to explain to the Spanish working masses that the ambitions and the local interests of the reformist and anarcho-reformist leaders are the only obstacles to trade union unity which is a vital neces¬ sity if the working class is to be freed from the capitalist yoke. Resolution on the Opposition in the Czecho-Slovakian Party I. The Opposition. The expulsion of Comrades Jilek, Bolen, etc., was the result of repeated violation of discipline, committed by these comrades against the Party. After the representative of this group, Comrade Jilek, in common with the representative of the Committee of the Party, Comrade Smeral in Moscow, had given his consent to the resolution which stated that in the Czecho-Slovakian Communist Party there are no basic dif¬ ferences, but at the same time pointed out that there were certain shortcomings in the practice of the Party, it was the duty of all the comrades to rectify the errors which they admitted. Instead of this, the opposition demanded the continued existence of a factional organ, “ Ko*mmunista, ,> which was a contradiction to the resolution of the Third Con¬ gress, which forbade the formation of factions. In the fight for its factional organ, the Opposition committed a gross violation of discipline when, a few days before the meeting of the Council of the Party and of the Party Conference, it circulated an appeal containing the gravest accusations against the Central Committee. The Opposition, by hesitating to withdraw these accusations, caused extreme irritation to> the Party Council and to the Party Conference, and thus unwisely provoked their own expulsion. In the forum of the International, the Opposition preferred a charge against the majority of the Central Committee and against Comrade Smeral, that the latter were working for a governmental coalition with the Left elements of the bour¬ geoisie. This charge is in direct contradiction to the known facts of the activity of the Party, and must be rejected as totally unsubstantiated. The programme demands of the Opposition as expressed in the draft programme of Vajtauer, contain syndicalist and anarchist, but no Marxian and no Communist conceptions. The fact that such demands were advanced by the Oppo¬ sition demonstrates an anarcho-syndicalist deviation on their part from the basic principles of the Communist International. Nevertheless, the Fourth Congress is of the opinion that the expulsion of the Opposition was inexpedient. The Con¬ gress substitutes for this expulsion a stern rebuke and their suspension until the next Conference of the Czecho-Slovakian Communist Party. The decision to revoke expulsion as inex¬ pedient should by no< means be interpreted as an expression of consent to the programme of the Opposition, but it was prompted by the following considerations : —The Council of the Party had failed to make it clear to the Opposition at the outset that the formation of factions would not be tolerated; the Opposition therefore deemed itself justified in fighting for the existence of its factional organ. Furthermore, a number of previous breaches of discipline had been tolerated, which caused a weakening of respect for discipline and responsibility on the part of the Opposition. The Fourth Congress leaves the expelled comrades within the Party, but it emphasises the imperative duty of the Opposition implicitly to submit itself to the discipline of the Party and to strictly discharge all its obligations. This subordination to the discipline of the Party makes it incumbent upon the Opposition to withdraw the assertions and charges which are damaging to the unity of the Party, which were found to be unsubstantiated and untrue on in¬ vestigation by the Commission. 'Henceforth they must obey all the orders of the Central Committee. If any member should feel convinced that an injustice has been done to him, he ought to appeal to the nearest competent organ of the Party (Enlarged National Council, National Conference), and in the last instance to the Controlling Organ of the Com¬ munist International. Until a decision is rendered by the highest instance, every member must absolutely and uncon¬ ditionally submit to the decisions adopted by the Party organisations. II* The Press. The Press of the Party must be placed under the uniform leadership of the Central Committee. It is impermissible that the central organ of the Party should venture not only to conduct its own separate policy, but even to consider itself entitled to conduct such a policy. Even if the Editorial Board be of opinion that the responsible leadership of the Party was wrong on a certain concrete question, it is their duty to abide by that decision. The editorial position should not be regarded as a higher instance, but on a line with the other organs of the Party and should be subordinated to the Central Committee. This does not mean to say that the Party editors are not free to express their own opinion in discussions and in signed articles. The discussions on Party questions should be conducted in the general Party Press, but these discussions should in no case be conducted in a manner detrimental to Party discipline. It is the duty of all the parties and of all the organisations to prepare their actions by thorough discussion in the Party organisations. III. The Shortcomings of the Party. The Fourth Congress fully endorses the July Theses of the Enlarged Executive, in which we find that the shortcomings of the Czecho-Slovakian Communist Party may be explained by their transition from a social-democratic to a Communist Party. The fact that these shortcomings were recognised by the Central Committee no less than by the Opposition makes it even more the imperative duty of all the comrades to do their utmost to remove them. The Congress asserts that the Party is making but slow progress in removing these short¬ comings. Thus, for instance, the Party was not sufficiently active in arranging for the propaganda of Communist ideas in the Czecho-Slovakian army, although the legality of the Party and the franchise of the soldiers furnished a good opportunity. The Fourth Congress instructs the Communist Party to give more attention than hitherto to the question of unem¬ ployment. In view of the magnitude of unemployment in Czecho-Slovakia and the precarious position of the unem¬ ployed, it is the duty of the Party not to content itself with Hi * \ this- or- that demonstration, but to carry on systematic agita¬ tion and demonstration among the unemployed throughout the country, in parliament and in municipal councils, and to combine parliamentary action on behalf of the unemployed with action in the trade unions and in street demonstrations. The parliamentary action of the Party must be of a much more demonstrative character. It must completely reveal to the masses the attitude of the Communist Party towards the policies of the ruling class, and awaken the desire of the masses to capture the power of the State. In view of the great economic struggles raging in Czecho¬ slovakia, which may turn into political struggles any day, the Central Committee should be so reorganised as to be able to take quick decision upon every question. The Party or¬ ganisation and the Party membership must strictly maintain the discipline of the Party, permitting m> wavering or hesi¬ tation. The question of the United Front and of the Workers’ Government was properly carried out by the Party as a whole. The Party Council acted quite properly in repudiating indi¬ vidual misconceptions, like the conception of Comrade Votava, who thought that the question of a workers’ government was one of a purely parliamentary combination. The Party must be aware of the fact that the workers’ government will be pos¬ sible in Czecho-Slovakia only if it will convince by its agi¬ tation the large masses of the National-Socialist, Social-Demo¬ cratic and indifferent workers, of the necessity to break with the bourgeoisie, if it will succeed in detaching parts of the peasantry and of the petit-bourgeoisie of the city—suffering under the burden of the high cost of living—from the bour¬ geoisie and in attracting them to the ranks of the Anti-Capi¬ talist Front. In order to achieve this, the Party must take part in. all the conflicts, and by its determined leadership and expansion of the conflicts, bring home to the masses that the Czecho-Slovakian. Communist Party is the centre of the United Front of all the anti-capitalist elements, that it is willing to turn the correlation of forces in Czecho-Slovakia into the mass struggle in favour of the toiling elements. In order that the workers’ government shall be formed as well as maintained, the Party must exert all efforts to bring together all the workers expelled by the Amsterdam Trade Unions and to organise them into powerful unions. It should at least win support of the workers and peasants to the struggle for the defence of the interests of the working class, and thus obviate, the danger of pacifism and of oppression of the working class by the armed violence of the bourgeoisie. Hence the propaganda and the campaign for the workers’ government must always be conducted in connection with the propaganda and campaign for proletarian mass organs (De¬ fence Councils, Control Committees, Factory Councils, and the like). It is also necessary to hold prominently before the 114 masses the programme of the workers’ government (shifting the burden of State expenditures on to the possessing classes, control of production by the workers’ organs, arming of the working class), in order to emphasise the difference between a bourgeois social-democratic coalition and a workers’ govern¬ ment relying upon the organs of the working class. This work should have the co-operation of all the members of the Party. There should be no vain grumblings, no spread¬ ing of false accusations, no sowing of distrust against the leaders of the Party, but pointed criticism of their short¬ comings, daily positive work to remove the shortcomings. Only in this way will the Party become a militant Communist organisation equal to the great tasks imposed upon it by the development of events in Czecho-Slovakia. RESOLUTION ON THE Norwegian Communist Party A ! I f After having heard the report of the Norwegian Com¬ mission, the Congress resolves : — (1) It is necessary to inform the Executive of the Nor¬ wegian Party of the necessity of a more exact fulfilment of all decisions of the International and its Congress, as well as of its executive organs. In the Party organs, as well as in the decisions and resolutions of the directing committees of the Party, there should be no doubt whatever expressed of the possibility of their application to all eventualities which may occur in the life of the Party. (2) The Congress orders the carrying out of Party reorgan¬ isation on the basis of individual membership within one year at most after the next national conference of the Party. The Executive must report, not less than once every two months, on the practical measures taken in the carrying out of this work, and their results. (3) With regard to the contents of the Party Press, the Party is obliged to comply immediately with the decisions of the previous World Congress as well as those contained in the letter from the International Executive of 23rd of last September. The social democratic names of the Party papers must be altered within three months,from the date of closing of this International Congress. (4) The Congress supports the standpoint of the Executive in its references to the parliamentary mistakes of the repre¬ sentatives of the Norwegian Party. The Congress is of the opinion that the Communist parliamentary representatives must submit to the control of the Party and the criticism of the Party Press. This criticism must, however, always be well founded and of a comradely nature. . (5) The Congress believes it to be quite admissible,, and even .necessary, to-use-the antagonism between various sections ns of the bourgeoisie in the struggle against the whole bour¬ geoisie. This refers especially to the antagonism between the representatives of large-scale industry and the landed pro¬ prietors on the one hand, and the peasants on the other hand. The struggle to win the peasantry must be one of the special tasks of the Norwegian Party. (6) The Congress states once again that the parliamentary group, as well as the Party Press, must unconditionally submit to the control of the Central Committee in every detail. (7) The group, “Not Dag,” which is an independent or¬ ganisation, must be dissolved. We must by all means en¬ courage the formation of a Communist student group, which shall be open to every Communist and under the full control of the Party Executive. The review “ Not Dag ” may be¬ come a Party organ on condition that its editor be chosen by the Central Committee of the Norwegian Party, in agree¬ ment with the Executive of the Communist International. (8) The Congress sustains the appeal of Comrade H. Olsen, and as he is an old and faithful comrade, and was a most active worker and official in the Party, the Congress rein¬ states him in his rights as a Party member. At the same time the Congress definitely states that his conduct at the Congress of the Metal Workers’ Union was incorrect. (9) This Congress resolves to expel Karl Johannsen from the Communist International and the Norwegian Party. (10) With the object of bringing about a closer co-opera¬ tion between the Norwegian Party and the International Exe¬ cutive, and to help overcome the present conflicts with as little friction as possible, this Congress instructs the future Executive to send its plenipotentiary representative to the next National Conference of the Norwegian Party. (11) This Congress entrusts the Executive with the task of drawing up a letter to the Norwegian Party elucidating this resolution. (12) The above resolution and the letter of the Executive shall be published in all Party organs, and shall be com¬ municated to all branch organisations of the Party, before the delegates to the next Party Conference are elected. RESOLUTION ON Communist Party of Jugo-Slavia The Communist Party of Jugo-Slavia was formed out of the organisations of the former Social-Democratic Party in those provinces which now constitute Jugo-Slavia. It came about by expelling the Right, and later also the Centrist ele¬ ments, and by affiliating the Party with the Communist Inter¬ national (the Vukovara Congress of 1920). The growth of the Communist Party was greatly promoted by the general revolutionary ferment which spread over Central Europe at H t I i i I \ i that time (the Red Army’s march on Warsaw, the seizure of the metallurgical factories in Italy, the strike wave in Jugo¬ slavia). In a short space of time the Party grew into a mass organisation (wielding tremendous influence over the large masses of workers and peasants. This was demonstrated by the municipal elections results, in which the Party captured many municipalities, including Belgrade, as well as by the subsequent elections for the Constituent Assembly, in which the Party secured 59 deputies. This momentous growth of the influence of the Communist Party caused alarm among the dominant military and financial oligarchy, forcing the latter to start a systematic campaign for the purpose of destroying the Communist movement. After the violent suppression of the railwaymen’s general strike in April, 1920, the militant oligarchy dissolved by force the municipal councils at Agaram (in June of the same year), and on the 29th of September a decree was published dissolving all the Communist and trade union organisations; the Communist newspaper was suppressed, and the Communist clubs were handed over to the social patriots. In the month of June the Defence of the Realm de¬ cree was promulgated, which outlawed the Communist Party and drove it out of its last refuge—the parliament and the municipalities. In addition to the objective reasons arising out of the general situation in the country, the destruction of the Com¬ munist Party of Jugo-Slavia is greatly due to its own internal weakness. Its outward growth did not correspond either with the development and the consolidation of the organisation, or to the level of the Communist consciousness of the party members. The party had not time to complete its evolution towards Communism. It is perfectly clear now that the lead¬ ing organ of the Party committed a number of serious errors and blunders owing to a wrong interpretation of the methods of struggle laid down by the Comintern. These blunders made the task of the counter-revolutionary government easy. While the working masses showed energy and revolutionary will in a series of strikes, the Party revealed no revolutionary initiative. Thus, when in 1920 the police prohibited the May- day demonstrations in Belgrade, the Central Committee of the Party made not the slightest attempt to arouse the masses to protest. The same thing happened in the following year. Neither did the Party organise any mass action in defence of the municipal councillors, who were forcibly ejected from the Belgrade municipality, which was wrested from the Commun¬ ists. The passivity of the Party encouraged the government to go to the very extreme. In fact, the government, taking advantage of the miners’ strike which broke out at the end of December, dissolved the Party, which at the elections had returned 59 members to parliament. Even then the Party did not organise any mass action. • This passivity of the Party, in the face of the fierce attacks i' 117 of the reactionaries, was the result of the Party not being firm in its Communist convictions. The Party was still bur¬ dened with the old social-democratic conceptions. Although the Party had enthusiastically joined the Com¬ munist International, which showed the readiness of the masses for struggle, the leading organ was not yet quite familiar with the new path. Thus, for instance, it did not dare to publish the 21 conditions adopted by the Second Con¬ gress; nor did it publish the “ Theses on the Question of Revolutionary Parliamentarianism.” Thus it left the Party and the masses which were following it in complete ignorance of the demands which the Communist International had put before the parties which wanted to be real Communist parties. At the same time, the leading organ of the Party did not take any serious steps for the education of the Party and of the masses for the struggle on all fields against the reaction which was threatening them. It concentrated its attention chiefly on its electoral victories, and took care not to alarm the petty bourgeois elements by showing them what the Communist Party meant and what its methods of struggle were. At a time when the financial and military oligarchy in Belgrade was getting ready to conduct a savage and decisive struggle against the revolutionary working-class movement, the Central Com¬ mittee of the J ugo-Slavian Communist Party was concentrating its attention and spending its energies on such secondary ques¬ tions as parliamentarianism, leaving the rear of the Party un¬ defended and unorganised. This was its fundamental mis¬ take. The Jugo-Slavian Party proved itself absolutely powerless and incapable of protecting itself against the White Terror. It had no underground organisation which could have enabled it to act under the new conditions and to remain in contact with the masses. Until the dissolution of the parliamentary group the Communist deputies were the only link between the Centre and the provinces. This link was severed with the dis¬ solution. The arrest of the leading comrades in the Centre and in the provinces left the movement without a lead. Owing to these arrests the Party almost ceased to exist. The same fate overtook the local organisations of the Party, and the danger arose of the workers' organisations, which were left entirely to themselves, becoming completely disrupted. The social-demo¬ crats, with the assistance of the police, endeavoured to make use of these circumstances which were favourable to them, but the) failed. Under the reign of terror the central organ of the Party only very slowly acquired the organisational forms and methods of struggle dictated by the new conditions. For a long time it remained passive, hoping that as a consequence of the inter¬ nal differences within the ruling class, this regime would soon pass away without the active intervention of the mass of_the workers, . It was only, when all hopes of an amnesty for the 118 Communists who were being tried before the tribunal, were dashed to the ground that the Central Committee of the Party began the work of reorganisation, in order to call the Party again into life. It was only in July, 1922, that the first Enlarged Plenum of the Party Committee took place in Vienna. The Vienna Conference deserves warm commendation as the first attempt to re-establish the Party, notwithstanding the defects of its composition and of the viewpoint of the Party statutes. The conditions of the country at that time, the changes in the composition of the Party as a result of arrests and of the treachery of some of the Party members, and of the passivity of the Party for eighteen months, precluded all possibility of convening a legal plenum which could really represent the Party. The Executive of the Communist Inter¬ national did right, therefore, in declaring the Enlarged Plenum a sufficiently competent representative of the Jugo¬ slavian Communist Party, and in endorsing its resolution with some extremely rational amendments concerning the com¬ position of the newly-elected Central Committee. For the same reason, the attempt of several Jugo-Slavian comrades to sabotage the Conference by leaving the session on the six¬ teenth day, regardless of their good intentions, must be con¬ demned as objectively injurious to the Party. The resolution of the Vienna Conference on the question of the general situation in Jugo-Slavia and the immediate task of the Communist Party, on the trade union movement and reorganisation of the Party, and the resolutions on the Third Balkan Communist Conference, endorsed as they stand by the Comintern Executive, did not arouse any differences of opinion among the representatives of the majority and the minority within the Party. This unanimity on questions which are of the greatest importance to the Party in the present period, is the best proof that there is no justification whatever for dividing the Jugo-Slavian Party into majority and minority factions, and that the split among the leaders which occurred at the Vienna Conference was entirely due to reasons of a personal character. At the moment of its revival, Jugo- Slavian Party must represent a united whole. This unity must be also preserved in the future. In the face of the capitalist and social-democratic reaction, which is now raging, nothing would be more damaging for the Party and revolutionary movement for Jugo-Slavia than factionism. Therefore, it is the duty of the new Central Committee of the Party to do its utmost, and to take all the necessary steps, in order to set the minds within the Party at rest, to remove all suspicions, to re-establish mutual confidence within the Party and to rally under its banner all the active workers who have remained at their post throughout the counter-revolutionary terror. In order to achieve this aim, it is essential on the one hand, to carry out the decisions of the Vienna Conference, on the 119 purging of the Party from the compromised element, and on the other hand, to bring into the responsible work of the Party comrades from the ranks of the Vienna Conference minority. The Jugo-Slavian Party can receive valuable assistance in this respect from the Balkan Communist Federation. In order to do this, Jugo-Slavian Party must follow the example of the other Balkan Communist Parties, and must send without delay its representative into the Executive Committee of the Balkan Federation. The Comintern must give substantial assistance in the matter of the re-establishment and the inner consolida¬ tion of the Jugo-Slavian Party. The Executive must maintain a closer connection with the C.C. of the Party than formerly. However, the future of the Party depends chiefly on those party comrades who are active and politically and morally sound. The Comintern depends on these comrades, and calls upon them to do their duty. The resuscitated party, having profited by the harsh lessons of the recent past, and animated by the faith in the ultimate triumph of the world revolution, will be able to rally to its banner the proletarian elements, which were left without a lead, and to organise and consolidate the Jugo-Slavian section of the Balkan Communist Federation. The Congress authorises the Executive of the Comintern to take any organic measures which circumstances might demand. 120 INDEX Resolutions on — page Class-War Prisoners’ Aid .... .... 87 Communist Party of Jugo-Slavia .... 116 Communist Work amongst Women .... 66 Co-operation .... .... .... .... 63 E.C. Report .... .... .... .... 19 Educational Question .... .... .... 87 Geneva Treaty .... .... .... .... 50 Irish Executions .... .... .... .... 17 Jugo-Slav Terror .... .... .... .... 16 « Negro Question .... .... .... .... 84 Norwegian Communist Party .... .... 115 Opposition in the Czecho-Slovakian Party 111 Programme of the Comintern .... .... 92 Re-organisation of the Comintern .... 92 Russian Revolution .... .... .... 20 South African Executions .... .... 17 Tactics of the Comintern .... .... 23 Versailles Treaty .... .... .... .... 45 Workers’ Relief for Soviet Russia .... 90 Young Communist.International .... 68 Resolutions of Commissions— Danish .... .... .... .... .... 109 Egyptian .... .... .... .... .... 108 French .... .... .... •••• .... 101 Italian .... .... .... .... .... 104 Spanish ... 109 page Theses on— Communist Work in Trade Unions .... 72 Eastern Question .... .... .... .... 53 United Front .... .... .... .... 35 Various— From Vladivostock .... .... .... 9 Letter to Factory Councils’ Congress .... 18 Programme of Action for French Com¬ munist Party.... .... .... .... 96 Protest against Japanese Occupation .... 15 Telegram to All-Indian Trade Union Congress .... .... .... .... 15 The Agrarian Question .... .... 79 To Italian Workers ... .... .... 11 To the Prisoners of Capitalism .... .... 3 To Red Petrograd .... .... .... 8 To the Red Army and Navy .... .... 7 To the Toilers of Russia.... .... .... 5 To the Working Masses of Turkey .... 13 The Communist Bookshop 16 King Street, Covent Garden, W.C. 2 OUR OWN PUBLICATIONS Written by Communists—Issued by Communists—Dedicated to the service of the International Working Class BETWEEN RED AND WHITE By L. 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