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INVESTIGATION OF UN-AMERICAN
PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE
UNITED STATES
SPECIAL
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS "
FIRST SESSION
ON
H. Res. 282
TO INVESTIGATE (1) THE EXTENT, CHARACTER, AND OBJECTS .
OF UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED -f II H$
STATES C^) THE DIFFUSION WITHIN THE UNITED STATES OF '
SUBVERSIVE AND UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA THAT IS INSTI-
GATED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES OR OF A DOMESTIC ORIGIN
AND ATTACKS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FORM OP GOVERN-
MENT AS GUARANTEED BY OUR CONSTITUTION, AND (3) ALL
OTHER QUESTIONS IN RELATION THERETO THAT WOULD AID
CONi^tRESS IN ANY NECESSARY REMEDIAL
LEGISLATION
APPENDIX— PART I
A COMPILATION OF ORIGINAL SOURCES USED AS EXHIBITS
TO SHOW THE NATURE AND AIMS OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY, ITS CONNECTIONS WITH THE U. S. S. R.
AND ITS ADVOCACY OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE
WITH INDEX
Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities
INVESTIGATION OF UN-AMERICAN
PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE
UNITED STATES
SPECIAL
COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SEVENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
H. Res. 282
TO INVESTIGATE (1) THE EXTENT, CHARACTER, AND OBJECTS
OF UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED
STATES, (2) THE DIFFUSION VvITHIN THE UNITED STATES OF
SUBVERSIVE AND UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA THAT IS INSTI-
GATED FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES OR OF A DOMESTIC ORIGIN
AND ATTACKS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE FORM OF GOVERN-
MENT AS GUARANTEED BY OUR CONSTITUTION, AND (3) ALL
OTHER QUESTIONS IN RELATION THERETO THAT WOULD AID
CONGRESS IN ANY NECESSARY REMEDIAL
LEGISLATION
APPENDIX— PART I
A COMPILATION OF ORIGINAL SOURCES USED AS EXHIBITS
TO SHOW THE NATURE AND AIMS OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY, ITS CONNECTIONS WITH THE U. S. S. R.
AND ITS ADVOCACY OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE
WITH INDEX
Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities
> .1 1J« .
> f • ...
^i
,rC^
•n
^JS
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
*J1931 WASHINGTON : 1940
C^
^/y/v'
FEB 4 1344 :
/
SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES
WASHINGTON, D. C.
MARTIN DIES, Texas, Chairman
JOHN J. DEMPSEY, New Mexico NOAH M. MASON, Illinois
JOE STARNES, Alabama J. PARNELL THOMAS, New Jersey
JERRY VOORHIS, California
JOSEPH E. CASEY, Massachusetts
Robert E. Stripling, Secretary
J. B. Matthews, Director of Research
n
* • « V ■
I
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Description
Page
The Manifesto of the Communist Partv, bv Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels "^ "_
A discussion of the Communist manifesto, bv Otto Kuusinen,
a m.ember of the secretariat of the Communist Inter-
national, in which the manifesto is described as "the
great charter of the international Communist movement"
A continuation of exhibit No. 2
Testimony of William Z. Foster, before the" Spec iarCo'm-"
mittee on Un-American Activities, in which he, as chair-
man of the Communist Partv of the United States, de-
clared his acceptance of "The Program of the Communist
International"
The text of the "Program of the Communist international"
together with its Constitution"
The text of a pamphlet entitled "Lenin— the Great Strategist
of the Class War," by A. Lozovsky, formerlv head of the
Red International of Labor Unions, in which,' among other
things, Lozovsky described Lenin as "the father of the
Communist International"
The text of a pamphlet entitled "Lenin on the " Historic
Significance of the Third International"
The text of "A Letter to American Workers," bv V. I. Leniii
Excerpts from a book entitled "Stalin," bv Boris Souvarine,
former member of the executive committee of the Com-
munist International
Excerpts from a pamphlet entitled "Questions arid Answers
to American Trade Unionists— Stalin's Interview with
tlie First American Trade Union Delegation to Soviet
Russia," in which Stalin made statements on the control
of the Russian Government by the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union and on the question of monev sent to
the American Communist Partv bv the Communist
International and by the Communist Partv of the Soviet
Union "__
Excerpts from a book entitled "Mv Life" As" a" Rebel/' "by
Angelica Balabanoff, first secretarv of the Communist
International
Theses and statutes of tlie "fhird (Communist)" Int"e"rn"at[onal" "
adopted by the Second Congress, Julv 17 to Aug. 7, 1920
Excerpts from a book entitled "Lenin on Organization," in
which the conspiratorial character of a communist party
IS repeatedly emphasized '
Program of the World Revolution, lay X. B u char iti," former-
leader of the Communist International and of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union
Manifesto of the Second Congress of the third (Communist)
International, 1920, entitled "The Capitalist World and
the Communist International"
The constitution and program of the Communist Part"v of
America, adopted in 1921, bv the joint unity convention
of the Comnuinist Party and the United Communist
Party of America — predecessors of the present Communist
Party of the United States of America
Program and constitution of the Workers Partv of America,
adopted at the National Convention of the Party, Dec.
24-26, 1921 — one of the earlv names of the present Com-
munist Party of the United States of America
20
26
34
34
73
89
9S
107
lOS
108
110
15a
155
199
214
231
in
IV
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
Description
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Excerpts from a book entitled "Theses and Resolutions,"
adopted at the Third World Congress of the Communist
International, held in Moscow from June 22 to July 12,
1921
Excerpts from a book entitled "The Fourth Congress of the
Communist International," held in Moscow from Nov. 7
to Dec. 3, 1922
Excerpts from a booklet entitled "Resolutions and Theses of
the Fourth Congress of the Communist International,
held in Moscow Nov. 7 to Dec. 3, 1922"
The text of a pamphlet entitled "The Party Organization,"
by Jay Lovestone and C. E. Ruthenberg, and containing
a letter from the Communist International to the Workers
(Communist) Party of America, and also the Constitution
of the Workers (Communist) Party of America — pub-
lished in 1925
The text of the program of the Workers (Communist) Party
of America, published under the title "Our Immediate
Work" in 1924
The text of a pamphlet entitled "The Second Year of the
Workers Party of America — Theses. Program. Resolu-
tions," 1924
Statement in the first issue of the Daily Worker, declaring
its revolutionary character and also its connection with
the Communist International, 1924
Statement by C. E. Ruthenberg, executive secretary of the
Workers Party, calling upon the party to demonstrate its
"loyalty and support to the Communist International".
Statement from the Worker, Apr. 28, 1923, in an editorial
stating that the following May Day would be remembered
as the time when the Workers Party appeared in the
world arena of the class struggle "as the American Section
of the Communist International"
Text of a cablegram from Zinoviev, head of the Communist
International, to C. E. Ruthenberg, executive secretary
of the Workers Party of America, on the establishment of
the Daily W^orker, Sept. 8, 1923
Statement by C. E. Ruthenberg, executive secretary of the
Workers Party of America, calling for the postponement
of the convention of the technical aid "pending the final
decision of the Communist International," Mar. 24, 1923
Statement from the Worker, giving the Communist position
on the inevitability of a "resort to force," Apr. 7, 1923__
Statement from the Worker, giving the Communist position
on the inevitability of force in tTie class struggle
Excerpts from a booklet entitled "Fifth Congress of the
Commimist International, Abridged Report of Meetings
held at Moscow, June 17 to July 8, 1924"
Excerpts from a book entitled "Workers (Communist)
Partv of America, the Fourth National Convention,"
Aug.' 21-30, 1925
Excerpts from a book entitled "The Communist Inter-
national, Between the Fifth and Sixth World Con-
gresses—1924-28"
Statement from the Worker, dealing with the question of
individual acts of terrorism, 1922
Statement from the theses of the enlarged committee of
the Communist International, dealing with the Com-
munists' use of armed force, 1922
Statement by C. E. Ruthenberg in the Worker, declaring
that "without the Russian Revolution there would have
been no Communist movement in the United States." 1922.
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
Description
37 Excerpt from the manifesto of the Communist Party of
America, declaring that capitahsm cannot be abolished
without the use of force, 1922
38 Statement by J. Louis Engdahl in the Worker, Nov. 4, 1922,
declaring for the acceptance of the leadership of the Com-
mun ist International
39 Statement from the Worker, Dec. 2, 1922, on the inspiration
and leadership of the Communist International
40 Text of a cablegram from Zinoviev, head of the Communist
International, to C. E. Ruthenberg, executive secretary
of the Workers Partv of America, Dec. 16, 1922
41 An article by H. M. Wicks in the Worker, Jan. 13, 1923,
calling for the "wresting" of the Government from the
hands of the Communists' enemies and for the establish-
ment of a Soviet Government
42 Statement by the Central Executive Committee of the
United States Communist Party, appearing in the Worker,
Mar. 3, 1923, and declaring that the Central Executive
Committee "will carry out the decisions of the Communist
International not only out of discipline but because of full
conviction of their correctness"
43 Excerpt from a statement of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International on the "American Question,"
Feb. 24, 1923, published in the Worker
44 An article on The Soviet Government and the Third
International, bv H. M. Wicks, published in the Worker,
June 2, 1923 _ _ _'
45 A statement on The Communist International, the Eman-
cipator of the Whole People, published in the Worker,
Sept. 15, 1923
46 Greetings to the Communist International from the Third
National Convention of the Workers Party of America,
published in the Worker, Jan. 12, 1924
47 Excerpts from an editorial in the Worker, Jan. 5, 1924,
entitled "Greetings from the International"
48 Excerpt from an article in the Worker, Jan. 5, 1924, entitled
"Greetings from Commvmist International to Third
Convention of Workers Party"
49 Excerpt from an article in the Worker, Jan. 12, 1924, in
which the United Front is declared to be an applica-
tion of the policy of the Communist International in the
United States
50 Excerpt from an editorial in the Daily Worker, July 5, 1924,
entitled "Against Imperialist War," in which it is declared
that "the imperialist war must be turned into civil war"-_
51 Excerpts from an article in the Daily Worker, Mar. 6, 1924,
entitled "The Commimist International," by Robert
Minor, in which the Communist International is described
as "the instrument thru which the working class takes
possession of the earth"
52 A statement in the Daily Worker, Mar. 5, 1924, entitled
"Forward Under Banner of the Communist Interna-
tional," promulgated by the central executive committee
of the Workers Party of America
53 Excerpts from an article in the Daily Worker, Mar. 5, 1924,
entitled "The Communist International in America," by
C. E. Ruthenberg, in which the leadership of the Com-
munist International in the United States is acknowledged
by the executive secretary of the Workers Party of America.
54 Excerpts from an article in the Daily Worker, Feb. 28, 1924,
entitled "The Discussion Within the Russian Communist
Party," in which the Communist Party of Russia is de-
scribed as the "leading party of International Commu-
nism"
VIII
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
Description
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
Text of a letter from Maxim Litvinoff, people's commissar
for foreign affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist Repub-
lics, to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Presideiil of the United
States, dated Nov. 16, 1933
Excerpt from an article in the Communist, November 1934,
entitled "Leninism Is the Only Marxism of the Imperialist
Era," by Alex Bittelman and V. J. Jerome, in which the
authors advocate the transformation of "imperialist vi^ar
into revolution"
Text of chapter VIII from "Foundations of Leninism," by
Joseph Stalin, published bv International Publishers,
1934 1
Text of a resolution of the Sixth World Congress of the
Communist International on The Struggle Against
Imperialist War and the Tasks of the Communists,
published by Workers Library Publishers in a second
edition, July 1934
Text of chapter IV from "Foundations of Leninism," by
Joseph Stalin, published by International Publishers, 1934.
An excerpt from an article in the Communist, August 1934,
entitled "The Leninist Party as Leader of the Struggle
Against Itaperialist War," by H. M. Wicks, in which the
author advocates "armed uprising," "civil war," and
"the abolition of capitalism"
Excerpts from an article in the Communist, August 1934,
entitled "The Tasks of Revolutionary Social-Democracy in
the European War," by V. I. Lenin, in which the author
advocates civil war and declares that "the workers have no
fatherland"
Text of the Thesis of the Thirteenth Plenum of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Communist International, en-
titled "Fascism, the Danger of War and Tasks of the
Communist Parties," published in the Communist,
February 1934
Text of an article in the Communist, August 1934, entitled
"For a Bolshevik Antiwar Struggle," by Alex Bittleman
Text of an article in the Communist, September 1934,
entitled "15 Years of Our Party," by Max Bedacht
The text of the Resolutions of the Seventh World Congress
of the Communist International, including the closing
speech of Georgi Dimitroff — a pamphlet published by the
Workers Library Publishers, November 1935
The text of a speech delivered by Georgi Dimitroff on Aug.
2, 1935, at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist
International
The text of a booklet entitled "The Communist Party —
A Manual on Organization," by J. Peters, published in
July 1935
Excerpts from a pamphlet entitled "Why Communism?"
by M. J. Olgin, published in May 1935
Excerpts from a pamphlet entitled "The Negroes in a
Soviet America," by James W. Ford and James S. Allen,
published in June 1935
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Marxism vs. Liberalism —
An Interview of Joseph Stalin by H. G. Wells," published
in 1935
Excerpts from a pamphlet entitled "Youth and Fascism,"
by O. Kuusinen, published in November 1935
Excerpt from a book entitled "State and Revolution," by
V. I. Lenin, dealing with the subject of "Class Society and
the State," published in its fourth printing in 1935
LIST OF EXHIBITS
rx
Exhibit
Description
106 Excerpt from a book entitled "State and Revolution," by
V. I. Lenin, dealing with the subject of "The Destruction
of Parliamentarism," published in its fourth printing in
1935
107 Excerpt from a book entitled "State and Revolution," by
V. I. Lenin, dealing with the nature of the dictatorship of
the proletariat, published in its fourth printing in 1935_-
108 The text of a chapter entitled "Force and Violence," from a
book entitled "What Is Communism?" by Earl Browder,
published in its second edition in 1936
109 The text of a chapter entitled "What About Religion?" from
a book entitled "What Is Communism?" by Earl Browder,
published in its second edition in 1936
110 The text of a chapter entitled "A Glimpse of Soviet Amer-
ica," from a book entitled "What Is Communism?" by
Earl Browder, published in its second edition in 1936
111 The text of an article from the Party Organizer, entitled
"Work Among Professional People," bv David Armstrong,
May 1 937 _"
112 The text of a booklet entitled "Milestones in the History of
the Communist Partv," by Alex Bittelman, published in
1937 '..-^:
113 The text of a letter from Joseph Stalin in reply to one from
Ivan Philipovich Ivanov, published in the Daily Worker,
Feb. 17, 1938
114 The text of a statement of nearlj^ 150 prominent American
professional people in support of the Soviet Trial Verdict,
together with the names of the signers of the statement,
published in the Daily Worker, Apr. 28, 1938
115 Excerpt from an article in the Daily Worker, May 28, 1938,
in which it was stated that Dimitroff, Manuilsky, and
Kuusinen had been proposed for places on the honorary
presiding committee of the Communist Party's tenth
convention
116 The text of a speech delivered by Joseph Stalin on Jan. 26,
1924, 5 days after the death of Lenin, entitled "Lenin's
Heritage," published in the Daily Worker, Jan. 21, 1938.
117 The text of article XI from the constitution and bylaws of
the Communist Party of the United States of America,
setting forth its affiliation with the Communist Interna-
tional, published in August 1938
118 Excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
6, 1939, in which the general secretary of the Communist
Party declared that he would try to precipitate civil war
in the United States in the event of a war between the
Soviet Union and the United States
119 Excerpt from the sworn testimony of Alexander Trachten-
berg before the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities, Sept. 13, 1939
120 Excerpt from the sworn testimony of William Z. Foster
before the Soecial Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 29, 1939
121 Excerpt from the sworn testimony of Max Bedacht before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Oct.
16, 1939
122 Excerpt from the sworn testimony of Alexander Trachten-
berg before the Special Comnu'ttee on Un-American Activ-
ties, Sept. 13, 1939, on the subject of the distribution of
the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
123 The text of a special bulletin of the org-educational and
literature commissions of the national committee of the
Communist Party of the United States, on the subject
of the distribution of the History of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union
xn
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
Description
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-Americaa Activities, Sept.
6, 1939, on the subject of the Communist Party's distribu-
tion of publications printed in the Soviet Union
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
6, 1939, on the subject of Comintern delegates to the
United States
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Alexander Trachten-
berg before the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities, Sept. 13, 1939, on the subject of his trips to
the Soviet Union
An excerjpt from the sworn testimony of Alexander Trachten-
berg before the Special Committee on Un-American
Activities, Sept. 13, 1939, on the subject of A. A. Heller,
head of International Publishers
Text of a pamphlet entitled "The War and the Working
CUiss of the CapitaUst Countries," by Georgi Dimitroff,
published in 1939
An excerpt from an article in the Sunday Worker, Mar. 5,
1939, in which the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
is described as "a model, an example for the Communist
Parties of all countries"
Text of a leaflet published by the national committee of the
Communist Party of the United States, September 1939,
on the subject of the Second Imperialist War
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
5, 1939, on the importance of the Dimitroff's book, The
United Front
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
5, 1939, on the affiliation of the Communist Party of the
United States with the Communist International
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder be-
fore the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 5, 1939, on the subject of his reports to meetings of
the Communist International
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder be-
fore the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 5, 1939, on the subject of the Closest Harmony Be-
tween the Communist Party of the United States and the
Communist International
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder be-
fore the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 5, 1939, on the subject of the Closest Harmony
Between the Communist Party of the United States and
the Communist International
A leaflet issued by the Young Communist League of Illinois
and Lake County, Ind., on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
An excerpt from a leaflet issued by the Communist Party
of Massachusetts on the European War and the Yanks
Are Not Coming
A leaflet issued by the Young Communist League of Cali-
fornia on the JEuiopean War and the Yanks Are Not
Coming
A leaflet issued bv the Communist Party of New York on
the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Club Lincoln (New York) of the
Young Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Lincoln Club of the Young Communist
League on the European War and the Yanks Are Not
Coming
854
855
LIST OF EXHIBITS
xiir
Exhibit
Description
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party of Los Angeles on
the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the thirty-fourth ward (Philadelphia) of the
Communist Partly on the European War and the Yanks
Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Fort George Club (New York) of the
Yoiuig Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Club Herndon (New York) of the
Young Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Stuyvesant Club (New York) of the
Young Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party (third and fourth
branches) of New York on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party (Bleecker Street) of
New York on the European War and the Yanks Are Not
Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party, United States of
America, on the European War and the Yanks Are Not
Coming
Leaflet issued by the Fort George Club (New York) of the
Young Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Helen Lynch Club (New York) of the
Young Communist League on the European War and the
Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the New York State committees of the
Communist Party and the Young Communist League on
the P^uropean War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Young Communist League of Wash-
ington, D. C, on the European War and the Yanks Are
Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the national council of the Young Com-
munist League on the European War and the Yanks Are
Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Boro Park and Abraham Lincoln
branches (New York) of the Young Communist League on
the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party of Indiana on the
European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Young Communist League of New
York on the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party of Massachusetts on
the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party of Rhode Lsland on
the European War and the Yanks Are Not Coming
Leaflet issued by the Communist Party of Union County
(New Jersey) on the European War and the Yanks Are
Not Coming
Excerpt from a prepared speech by Thomas Patrick O'Dea
and identified by him at a hearing before the Special Com-
mittee on Un-American Activities, Apr. 3, 1940
Excerpts from a booklet entitled "The War Crisis — Ques-
tions and Answers," by William Z. Foster, published in
January 1940
The text of stenographic reports of speeches by Stalin,
Kuusinen, and Molotov on The American Question,
submitted in evidence by Jay Lovestone at a liearing be-
fore the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Dec. 2, 1939
Page
856
856
857
857
858
859
859
860
861
861
862
864
865
868
869
870
872
872
873
874
874
875
XIV
LIST OF EXHIBITS
Exhibit
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
Description
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
5, 1939, on the principal authoritative writings of the
Communist Party
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of Earl Browder before
the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Sept.
5, 1939, on the question of his membership an the execu-
tive committee of the Communist International
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of William Z. Foster
before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 29, 1939, on his trips to the Soviet Union
An excerpt from the sworn testimony of William Z. Foster
before the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
Sept. 29, 1939, on his official position in the Comm,unist
International
Text of an address by the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International to all members of the Communist
Partv of the United States, published in the Daily Worker,
May 20, 1929
Text of a statement of the Central Executive Committee of
the Communist Party of the United States on the address
of the Communist International, published in the Dailv
Worker, .luly 8, 1929 . 1,
Text of an editorial from the Daily Worker, June 1, 1929,
dealing with the question of an educational campaign on
the address of the Communist International
Text of an editorial from the Daily Worker, May 27, 1929,
on the subject of the address of the Communist Inter-
national
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 30, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 28, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 25, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 27, 1929
Text of a cable from the Young Communist International
to the Young Communist League of the United States,
and the statement of the Young Communist League on
the cable, published in the Daily Worker, July 11, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 24, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 22, 1929
Endorsements of the address of the Communist Interna-
tional, published in the Daily Worker, May 23, 1929
Cablegram from the Young Communist International to the
Communist Youth League of the United States of America,
and motions adopted by the Communist Youth League,
published in the Daily Worker, May 23, 1929
Text of the decision of the Tenth Plenum of the Executive
Committee of the Communist International on the appeal
of Lovestone, published in the Dailv Worker, July 29,
1929 -
An article in the Daily Worker, July 9, 1929, entitled "The
Line of American Right Opposition to the Comintern,"
by William W. Weinstone
Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the United States on the appeal of Jay Love-
stone and others to the Communist International, pub-
lished in the Daily Worker, July 25, 1929
LIST OP EXHIBITS
XV
Exhibit
Description
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Draft Resolution of the
Eighth Convention of the Communist Party, United
States of America," on turning imperialist war into civil
war, published in March 1934
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Theses and Decisions of
the Thirteenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International — 'December 1933," on turning
imperialist war into civil war, published in March 1934
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Theses and Resolutions
for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of United States of America by Central Committee
Plenum," on turning imperialist war into civil war and the
defeat of "our own" capitalist government, published in
1930
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Theses and Resolutions
for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of the United States of America by Central Com-
mittee Plenum," on the defense of the Soviet Union,
published in 1930
Excerpt from a pamphlet entitled "Theses and Resolutions
for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of the United States of America by Central Com-
mittee Plenum," on the preparation for imperialist war,
published in 1930
Excerpt from an article in the Communist, September 1933,
entitled "The Intensified Drive Toward Imperialist War,"
by William W. Weinstone, on work among the armed
forces
Excerpt from a book entitled "Communism in the United
States," by Earl Browder, on rooting the American
League Against War and Fascism in the basic and war
industries, published in 1935
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Sept. 7,
1935, on Communist work in war industries
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Aug. 31,
1935, on the work of the American Youth Congress in
war industries
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Aug. 10,
1935, on Communist work in war industries
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Aug. 3,
1935, on the work of the World Committee Against War
and Fascism (Amsterdam) in the war industries
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Apr. 20,
1935, on the work of water-transport workers against war
Excerpt from International Press Correspondence, Apr. 13,
1935, on the work of the World Committee Against War
and Fascism in war industries
Page
936
936
936
936
937
937
937
937
937
938
938
938
938
Exhibit No. 1
[Source: A pamphlet published by International Publishers, New York, 1932]
MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
AUTHORIZED ENGLISH TRANSLATION
(Edited and annotated by Friedrich Engels)
International Publishers, New York
Preface
(By Friedricii Engels)
The Manifesto was published as the platform of the Comnnuiist League, a
workingmen's association, first exclusively German, later on international, and,
under the political conditions of the Continent before 1S48, unavoidably a secret
society. At a Congress of the League, held in London in November, 1847, Marx and
Engels were commissioned to prepare for publication a complete theoretical and
practical party programme. Drawn up in Germany, in January, 1848, the manu-
script was sent to the printer in London a few weeks before the French revolution
of February 24th.' A French translation was brought out in Paris, shortly before
the insurrection of June, 1848." The first English translation, by INIiss Helen Mac-
farlane, appeared in George Julian Harney's Red Republican, London, 1850. A
Danish and a Polish edition had also been published.
The defeat of the Parisian insurrection of June, 1848 — the first great battle
between proletariat and bourgeoisie — drove again into the background, for a
time, the social and political aspirations of the European working class. Thence-
forth, the struggle for supremacy was again, as it had been before the revolution
of February, solely between dilTerent sections of the propertied class ; the working
class was reduced to a tight for political elbow-room, and to the position of extreme
wing of the middle-class Radicals. Wherever independent proletarian movements
continued to show signs of life, they were ruthlessly hunted down. Thus the
Prussian police hunted out the Central Board of the Communist League, then
located in Cologne. The members were arrested, and, aftei- eighteen months'
imprisonment, they were tried in October, 1852. This celebrated "Cologne Com-
munist Trial" lasted from October 4th till November 12th ; seven of the prisoners
were sentenced to terms of imprisonment in a fortress, varying from three to six
years. Immediately after the sentence, the League was formally dissolved by the
remaining members. As to the Manifesto, it seemed thenceforth to be doomed to
oblivion.
When the European working class had recovered sufficient strength for another
attack o]i the ruling classes, the International Workingmen's Association sprang
up. But this association, formed with the express aim of welding into one body
the whole militant proletariat of PiUrope and America, could not at once proclaim
the principles laid down in the Manifesto. The International was bound to have a
progrannne broad enough to be acceptable to the Engli.sh trades unions, to the
followers of Proudhon ' in France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain, and to the Lassall-
eans^ in Germany. Marx, who drew up this programme to the satisfaction of all
parties, entirely trusted to the intellectual development of the working class, which
was sure to result from combined action and mutual discussion. The very events
and vicissitudes of the struggle against capital, the defeats even more than the
victories, could not help bringing home to men's minds the insufliciency of their
various favourite nostrums, and preiiaring the way for a more complete insight
into the true conditions of working-class emancipation. And Marx was right.
The International, on its breaking up in 1874, left the workers quite different men
See footnotes on p. 10.
1
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 2
2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
from what it had found them iu 1864. Proiidhoiiism in France, Lassalleanism in
Germany were dying out, and even the conservative Engli.sli trades unions, though
most of them had long since severed their connection with the International, were
gradually advancing towards that point at which, last year at Swansea, their
president could say in their name "continental Socialism has lost its terrors for
us." In fact, the principles of the Manifesto had made considerable headway
among the workingmen of all countries.
The Manifesto itself thus came to the front again. Since 1850 the German text
had been reprinted several times in Switzerland, England and America. In 1872,
it was translated into English in New York, where the tran.slation was published
in Woodhiill and Claflin's Weekly. From this English version, a French one was
made in Lc Soeialiste of New York. Since then at least two more English trans-
lations, more or less mutilated, have been brought out in America, and one of
them has been reprinted in England. The first Russian translation, made by
Bakunin, was published at Herzen's Kolokol office in Geneva, about 1863 ; a second
one, by the heroic Vera Zasulich, also in Geneva, in 1882.^ A new Danish edition
is to be found in Soeialdeniokrutisk Bibliothek, Copenhagen, 18S5; a fresh French
tran.slation in Le Soeialiste, Paris, 1886. From this latter, a Spanish ver.sion was
prepared and published in IMadrid, iu 1886. Not counting the German reprints
there had been at least twelve editions. An Armenian translation, which was to be
published in Con.stantinople some time ago, did not see the light, I am told, be-
cause the publisher was afraid of bringing out a book with the name of Marx on
it, while the translator declined to call it his own production. Of further trans-
lations into other languages I have heard, but have not seen. Thus the history of
the Manifesto reflects, to a great extent, the history of the modern working class
movement; at present it is undoubtedly the most widespread, the most interna-
tional producticni of all Socialist literature, the common platform acknowledged by
millions of workingmen from Siberia to California.
Yet, when it was written, we could not have called it a Soeialist manifesto.
By Socialists, in 1S47, were understood, on the one hand, the adherents of the
various Utopian systems: Owenites " in England, Fourierists ' in France, both of
them already reduced to the position of mere sects, and gradually dying out ; on
the other hand, the most multifarious social quacks, who, by all manners of
tinkering, profes.'-ed to redi'ess, without any danger to capital and profit, all sorts
of social grievances, in both cases men outside the working class movement, and
looking rather to the "educated" classes for support. Whatever portion of the
working class had become convinced of the insuflieiency of mere political revolu-
tions, and had proclaimed the necessity of a total social change, called itself i^om-
munist. It was a crude, rough-hewn, purely instinctive sort of Communism ; still,
it touched the cardinal point and was powerful enough amongst the working class
to produce the Utopian Communism of Cabet ^ in France, and of Weitling" in
Germany. Thus, in 1847, Socialism w;is a middle class movement. Communism a
working class movement. Socialism was, on the continent at least, 'respectable";
Communism was the very opposite. And as our notion, from the very beginning,
was that "the emancipation of the working class must be the act of the working
class itself," there could be no doubt as to which of the two names we must take.
Moreover, we have, ever since, been far from repudiating it.
The JSlanifesto being our joint production, I consider myself bound to state
that the fundamental proposition which forms its nucleus, belongs to Marx.
That proposition is: That in every historical epoch, the prevailing mode of eco-
nomic production and exchange, and the social organisation necessaiily following
from it, form the basis upon which is built up, and from which alone can be
explained, the political and intellectual history of that epoch ; that consequently
the whole history of mankind (since the dissolution of primitive tribal society,
holding land in common ownership) has been a history of class struggles, contests
between exploiting and exploited, ruling and oppressed classes; that the history
of these class struggles form a series of evolutions in which, nowadays, a stage
has been reached where the exploited and oppressed class — the proletariat — can-
not attain its emancipation from the sway of the exploiting and ruling class — the
bourgeoisie — without at the same time, and once and for all. emancipating society
at large from all exploitation, oppression, class distinctions and class struggles.
This proposition, which, in my opinion, is destined to do for history what
Darwin's theory has done for biology, we, both of us, had been gradually ap-
proaching for some years before 1845. How far I had independently progressed
towards it, is best shown by my Conditimt of the Working Class in Enijland}"
But when I again met Marx at Brussels, in spring, 1845, he had it alieady worked
See footnotes on p. 19.
APPENDIX, PART 1 3
out, and put it before me, in terms almost as clear as those in which I have
stated it here.
From our joint preface to the German edition of 1872, I quote :
"However much the state of things may have altered during the last 25 years,
the general principles laid down in this Manifesto are, on the whole, as correct
to-day as ever. Here and there some detail might be improved. The practical
application of the principles will dei>end, as the Manifesto itself states, everywhere
and at all times, on the historical conditions for the time being existing, and, for
that reason, no special stress is laid on the revolutionary measures proposed at
the end of Section II. That passage would, in many respects, be very differently
worded to-day. In view of the gigantic strides of modern industry since 1848,
and of the accompanying improved and extended organisation of the working
class, in view of the practical experience gained, first in the February rev(jlution,
and then, still more, in the Paris Commune, where the proletariat for the iirst
time held political power for two whole months, this programme has in some
details become anticpiated. Olie thing especially was proved by the Conmume,
viz., that 'the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state
machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.' (See The Civil War in Franee ;
Address by the General Council of the International Workingnien's Association,
1871, where this point is further developed.) Further, it is self-evident, that the
criticism of Socialist literature is deficient in relation to the present time, be-
cause it comes down only to 1847 ; also, that the remarks on the relation of the
Communists to the various opposition parties (Section IV), although in principle
still correct, yet in practice are antiquated, because the political situation has
been entirely changed, and the progress of hi.story has swept from off the earth
the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated.
"But then, the Manifesto has become a historical document which we have no
longer any right to alter."
The present translation is by Mr. Samuel Moore, the translator of the greater
portion of INIarx's Capital. We have revised it in common, and I have added a
few notes explanatory of historical allusions.
London, January 30th, 1888.
Manifesto of the Communist Party
(By Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels)
A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of Communism. All the powers of
old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre : Pope and
Czar, jMetternich and Guizot, French Radicals '^ and German police-spies.
Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by
its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not hurled back the
branding reproach of Comnmnism, against the more advanced opposition parties,
as well as against its reactionary adversaries?
Two things result from this fact :
I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself
a power.
II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole
world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery
tale of the spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
To this end. Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London,
and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, French,
German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages.
I. BorBGEOIS AND PROLETARIANS "
The history of all hitherto existing society " is the history of class struggles.
Freeman, and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master "
and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposi-
tion to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open tight,
a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society
at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated
arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold grad'ation of social rank.
In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves ; in the Middle
Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in
almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
See footnotes on p. 19.
4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIEt^
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal
society, has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established
new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the
old ones.
Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive
feature : It has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more
and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes
directly facing each other — bourgeoisie and proletariat.
From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers ^ of the
earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were
developed.
The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground
for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonisa-
tion of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange
and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an
impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the
tottering feudal society, a rapid development.
The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised
by closed guilds," now no longer sufficed, for the growing wants of the new
markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters were
pushed aside by the manufacturing middle class ; division of labour between
the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in
e'ach single workshop.
Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even
manufacture no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolution-
ised industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant,
modern industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial million-
aires— the le'aders of whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.
Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery
of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development
to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has,
in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry ; and in proportion as industry,
commerce, navigation, r'ailways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie
developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class
handed down from the Middle Ages.
We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long
course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and
of exchange.
Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a
corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the
sway f>f the feudal nobility, it became an armed and self-governing association
in the mediaeval commune ;" here independent urban republic as in Italy and
Germany), there taxable "third estate" of the monarchy ('as in France) ; after-
wards, in the period of manufacture proper, serving either the semi-feudal or
the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact,
corner-stone of the great monarchies in general — the bourgeoisie has at last,
since the establishment of modern industry and of the world market, conquered
for itself, in the modern representative state, exclusive political sway. The
executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common
affairs of the whole l)ourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie has played a most revolutionary role in history.
The bourgeoisie, wherever it h'as got the upper hand, has put an end to all
feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley
feudal ties that bound man to his "natural superiors," and has left no other
bond between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous "cash pay-
ment." It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of
chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of ego-
tistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, land
in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that
single, unconscionable freedon — Free Trade. In one woi'd, for exploitation,
veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless,
direct, lirutal exploitation.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoiired
and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer,
the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage-labourers.
The bourgeoisie has torn 'away from the family its sentimental veil, and has
reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.
See footnotes on p. 19.
APPENDIX, PART 1 5
The bourgeoisie lias disclosed how it came to iDass that the brutal display
of vigour ill the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, fouiid its
fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show
what man's activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far sur-
passing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it bus
conducted expeditious that ijut in the shade all former migrations of nations
and crusades.
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instru-
ments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the
whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in
unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all
earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted
disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation dis-
tinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen rela-
tions, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are
swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify.
All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last
compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life and his relations
with his kind.
The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the
bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere,
settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.
The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a
cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To
the great chagrin of reactionaries, it has drawn from under the feet of industry
the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries
have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new
industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised
nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw
material drawn from the remotest zones ; industries whose products are con-
sumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old
wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring
for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of
the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse
in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so
also in intellectual productions. The intellectual creations of individual nations
become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness be-
come more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local
literatures there arises a world literature.
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production,
by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all nations, even
the most barbarian, into civilisation. The cheap prices of its commodities are
the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it
forces the barbarians' intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate.
It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of
production ; it comi^els them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their
midst, i. e., to become bourgeois themselves. In a word, it creates a world after
its own image.
The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has
created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared
with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from
the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the
towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the
civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West.
More and more the bourgeoisie keeps doing away with the scattered state of
the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomer-
ated population, centralised means of production, and has concentrated property
in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralisation.
Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws,
governments and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation,
with one government, one code of laws, one national class interest, one frontier
and one customs tariff.
The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more
massive and more colossal productive forces than have all proceding generations
together. Subjection of nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chem-
istry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs,
clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole popula-
6 UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tions conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presentiment
that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?
We see then that the means of production and of exchange, which served
as the foundation for the growth of the bourgeoisie, were generated in feudal
society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production
and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and ex-
changed, the feudal organization of agriculture and manufacturing industry,
in a word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with
the already developed productive forces ; they became so many fetters. They
had to be liurst asunder ; they were burst asunder.
Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and politi-
cal constitution adapted to it, and by the economic and political sway of the
bourgeois class.
A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern bourgeois
society with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society
that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like
the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world
whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history of
industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive
forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations
that are the conditions for the existence of the boiirgeoisie and of its rule. It
is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put
the existence of the entire bourgeois society on trial, each time more threaten-
ingly. In these crises a great part not only of the existing products, but also
of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these
crises there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have
seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of over-production. Society suddeidy finds
itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism: it appears as if a famine,
a universal war of devastation had cut off the supply of every means of sub-
s^istence ; industry and conmieree seem to be destroyed. And why? Because
there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry,
too much conunerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer
tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property ; on the
contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they
are fettered, and no sooner do they overcome these fetters than they bring dis-
order into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois
property. The conditions of boui'geois society are too narrow to comprise the
wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises?
On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces : on
the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploita-
tion of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for motre extensive and
more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are
prevented.
The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are
now turned against the bourgeoisie itself.
But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself;
it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons — the
modern working class — the proletarians.
In proportion as the bourgeoisie, (". e., capital, is developed, in the same pro-
portion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of
labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work (mly so
long as their labour increases capital. Tliese labourers, who must sell them-
selves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are
consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctiiations
of the market.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery and to division of labour, the
work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently,
all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it
is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired kn;ick, that
is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted,
almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for his mainte-
nance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and
therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, there-
fore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more,
in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the
same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of
the working hours, by increase of the work exacted in a given time, or by
increased speed of the machinery, etc.
APPENDIX, PART 1 7
Modern industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master
into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of lahourers, crowded
into the factory, are organized like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army
they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and ser-
geants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois
state; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the over-looker,
and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more
openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the
more hateful and the more embittering it is.
The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labour, in other
words, the more modern industry develops, the more is the labour of men super-
seded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any dis-
tinctive social validity for the working class. AH are instruments of labour,
more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.
No sooner has the labourer received his wages in cash, for the moment escap-
ing exploitation by the manufacturer, than he is set upon by the other portions
of the liourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, shopkeepers,
and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants — all these
sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does^
not suffice for the scale on which modern industry is carried on, and is swamped
in the competition with the large capitalists, partly becau.se their specialised
skill is reiKlered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat
is recruited from all classes of the population.
The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth
begins its struggle with the boiirgeoisie. At first the contest is carried on by
individual labourers, then by the work people of a factory, then by the opera-
tives of one trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly
exploits them. Tliey direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions
of pi-oduction, but against the instruments of production themselves ; they
destroy imported wares that compete with their labour, they smash machinery
to pieces, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished
status of the workman of the Middle Ages.
At this stage the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the
whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere they
unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of their
own active union, but of the union of the bourgeoise, which class, in order to
attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the w^hole proletariat in motion,
and is moreover still able to do so for a time. At this stage, therefore, the
proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the
remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the nonindustrial bourgeois,
the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated in
the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the
bourgeoisie.
But with the development of industry the proletariat not only increases in
number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength "grows, and it
feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life witliin
the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as
machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour and nearly everywhere reduces
wages to the same low level. The growing competition among the bourgeois,
and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers ever more
fluctuating. The unceasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly
developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious ; the collisions
between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the
character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon the workers begin to
form combinations (trade unions) against the bourgeoisie; they club together
in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in
order to make provisions beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and
there the contest breaks out into riots.
Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real
fruit of their l)attles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expand-
ing union of the workers. This union is furthered by the improved means of
communication which are created by modern industry and which place the
workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this
contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the
same character, into one national struggle between classes. But every class
struggle is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers
8 UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, the
modern proletarians, thanks to railways achieve in a few years.
This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and consequently into a
political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the
workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mighter. It
compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking
advantage of (he divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. Thus the ten-hour
bill " in England was carried.
Altogether, collisions between the classes of the old society further the course
of development of the proletariat in many ways. The bourgeoisie finds itself
involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy ; later on, with those
portions of the bourgeoisie itself whose interests have become antagonistic to
the progress of industry ; at all times with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries.
In all those battles it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for
its help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. The bourgoisie itself,
therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general
education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fight-
ing the bourgeoisie.
Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling classes are,
by the advance of industry, precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least
threatened in their conditions of existence. These also supply the proletariat
with fresli elements of enlightenment and progress.
Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the process
of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range
of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of
the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class
that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a
section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the
bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the
bourgeois ideologists, v/ho have raised themselves to the level of comprehending
theoretically the historical movement as a whole.
Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the
proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and
finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special
and essential product.
The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan,
the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction
their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revo-
lutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to
roll back tlie wheel of history. If by chance they are revolutionary, they are
so only in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus
defend not their present, but their future interests ; they desert their own
standpoint to adopt that of the proletariat.
The "dangerous class," the social scum (Lympenproletariat), that passively
rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of old society, may, here and there,
be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution ; its conditions of life,
however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary
intrigue.
The social conditions of the old society no longer exists for the proletariat.
The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has
no longer anything in common with bourgeois family relations; modern in-
dustrial labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France,
in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national char-
acter. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind
which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.
All the preceding classes that got the upper hand, sought to fortify their
already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of
appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive
forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropria-
tion, and thereliy also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have
nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all
previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property.
All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the
interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, inde-
pendent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense
majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot
stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincombent strata of oflicial
society being sprung into he air.
See footnotes on p. 19.
APPENDIX, PART 1 9
Though not in substance, yet in fomi, the struggle of the proletai-iat with the
bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must,
of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie.
In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat,
we traced the more or less veiled civil war, ranging within existing society,
up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the
violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of th(j
proletariat.
Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen,
on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to
oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can,
at least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom,
raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois,
under the yoke of feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois.
The modern labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the progress
of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of
his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly
than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie
is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions
of existence upon society as an over-riding lawi It is unfit to' rule because
it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because
it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him,
instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie,
in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society.
The essential condition for the existence and sway of the bourgeois class,
is the formation and augmentation of capital ; the condition for capital is
wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the la-
bourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bour-
geoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by their
revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of modern
industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which
the b6urgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie
therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the
victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.
II. Proletarians and Communists
In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole?
The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working
class parties.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat
as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape
and mould the proletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working class parties
by tliis only : 1. In the national struggles of the iiroletarians of the different
countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the
entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages
of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie
has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of
the movement as a whole.
The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most
advanced and resolute section of the working class parties of every country,
that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically,
they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly
understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general
results of the proletarian movement.
The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all the other
proletarian parties: Formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow
of bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.
The theoretical conclusions of the Communists are in no way based on ideas
or principles that have been invented, or discovered, by this or that would-be
universal reformer.
They merely express, in general terms, actual relations springing from an
existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very
eyes. The abolition of existing property relations is not at all a distinctive
feature of Communism.
10 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
All property relations in the past have continually been subect to historical
change consequent upon the change in historical conditions.
The French Revolution, for example, abolished feudal property in favour
of bourgeois property.
The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property
generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois
private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of
producing and appropriating products that is based on class antagonisms, on
the exploitation of the many by the few.
In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single
sentence: Abolition of private property.
We Communists have been reproached vi^ith the desire of abolishing the
right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of a man's own labour,
which property is alleged to be the groundwork of all personal freedom,
activity and independence.
Hard-won, self-acquired, self -earned property ! Do you mean the property of
the petty artisan and of the small peasant, a form of property that preceded
the bourgeois formV There is no need to abolish that; the development of
industry has to a great extent already destroyed it, and is still destroying it
daily.
Or do you mean modern bourgeois private property?
But does wage-labour create any property for the labourer? Not a bit.
It creates capital, i.e., that kind of property which exploits wage-labour, and
which cannot increase except upon condition of begetting a new supply of
wage-labour for fresh exploitation. Property, in its present form, is based
on the antagonism of capital and wage-labour. Let us examine both sides of
this antagonism.
To be a capitalist, is to have not only a purely personal, but a social status
in production. Capital is a collective product, and only by the united action
of many members, nay, in the last resort, only by the united action of all
members of society, can it be set in motion.
Capital is therefore not a personal, it is a social, power.
When, therefore, capital is converted into common property, into the property
of all members of society, personal property is not thereby transformed into
social property. It is only the social character of the property that is changed.
It loses its class character).
Let us now take wage-labour.
The average price of wage-labour is the minimum wage, i.e., that quantum
of the means of subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the labourer
in bare existence as a labourer. What, therefore, the wage-labourer appro-
priates by means of his labour, merely suffices to prolong and reproduce a
bare existence. We by no means intend to abolish this personal appropria-
tion of the products of labour, an appropriation that is made for the main-
tenance and reproduction of human life, and that leaves no surplus wherewith
to command the labour of others. All that we want to do away with is the
miserable character of this appropriation, under which the labourer lives
merely to increase capital, and is allowed to live only insofar as the interest
of the ruling class require it.
In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase accumulated
labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen,
to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer.
In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present ; in Com-
munist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital
is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent
and has no individuality.
And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition
of individuality and freedom ! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois
individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly
aimed at.
By freedom is meant, under the present bourgeois conditions of production,
free trade, free soiling and buying.
But if selling and buying disappears, free selling and buying disappears
also. This talk about free selling and buying, and all the other "brave words"
of our bourgeoisie about freedom in general, have a meaning, if any, only
in contrast with restricted selling and buying, with the fettered traders of
the Middle Ages, but have no meaning when opposed to the Communist abo-
lition of buying and selling, of the bourgeois conditions of production, and
of the bourgeoisie itself.
APPENDIX, PART 1 H
You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But
in your existing society, private property is already done away with for
nine-tenths of the population ; its existence for the few is solely due to its
non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths. You reproach us, therefore,
with intending to do away with a ft)rm of property, the necessary condition
for whose existence is the non-existence of any property for the immense
majority of society.
In a word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property.
Precisely so ; that is just what w^e intend.
From the moment when labour can no longer be converted into capital,
money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monoiwlised, L e., from
the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into
bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality
vanishes.
You must, therefore, confess that by "individual" you mean no other person
than the bourgeois, than the middle class owner of property. This person
must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible.
Communism deiirives no man of the power to appropriate the products of
society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the
labour of .others by means of such appropriation.
It has been objected, that upon the abolition of private property all work
will cea.«e, and universal laziness will overtake us.
According to this, bourgeois society ought long ago to have gone to the
dogs through sheer idleness ; for those of its members wlio work, acquire
nothing, and those who acquire anything, do not work. The whole of this
objection is but another expression of the tautology : There can no longer be any
wage-labour when there is no longer any capital.
All objections urged against the Communist mode of producing and appro-
priating material porducts, have, in the same way, been urged against the
Communits modes of producing and appropriating intellectual products. Just
as, to the bourgeois, the disappearance of class property is the disappearance
of production itself, so the disappearance of class culture is to him identical
with the disappearance of all culture.
That culture, the loss of which he laments, is, for the enormous majority,
a mere training to act as a machine.
But don't wrangle with us so long as you apply, to our intended abolition
of bourgeois property, the standard of your bourgeois notions of freedom,
culture, law, etc. Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions
of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurispru-
dence is but tlie will of your class made into a law for all, a will whose
essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions
of existence of your class.
Tlie selfish misconception that induces you to transform into eternal laws
of nature and of reason, the social forms springing from your present mode
of production and form of property — historical relations that rise and dis-
appear in the progress of production — this misconception you share with
every ruling class that has preceded you. What .you see clearly in the case
of ancient property, what you admit in the case of feudal property, you are
of course forbidden to admit in the case of your own bourgeois form of
property.
Abolition of the family ! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous
proposal of the Ccnnmunists.
On what foundation is the present family, the bourgeois family based?
On capital, on private gain. In its comnletely developed form this family
exists only among the bourgeoisie. But this state of things finds its comple-
ment in the practical absence of the family among the proletarians, and in
public prostitution.
The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course when its complement
vanishes, and both will vanish with the vanishing of capital.
Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by
their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.
But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of I'elations, when we
replace home education by social.
And your education ! Is not that also social, and determined by the social
condifions under which you educate, bv the intervention of society, direct or
indirect, by means of schools, etc.? The Communists have not invented the
intervention of society in education ; they do but seek to alter the character
12 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of that intervention, and to rescue education from the influence of tlie ruling
class.
The bourgeoise claptrap about the family and education, about the hallowed
co-relation of parent and child, becomes all the more disgusting, the more, by
the action of modern industry, all family ties among the proletarians are
torn asunder, and their children transformed into simple articles of commerce
and instruments of labour.
But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the
whole bourgeoisie in chorus.
The bourgeois sees in his wife a mere instrument of production. He hears
that the instruments of production are to be exploited in common, and,
natiirally, can come to no other conclusion than that the lot of being common
to all will likewise fall to the women.
He has not even a suspicion that the real point aimed at is to do awjay
with the status of women as more instruments of production.
Foi" the rest, notliing is more ridiculous than the virtuous indignation of
our bourgeois at the community of women which, they pretend, is to be openly
and officially established by the Communists. The Communists have no need
to introduce community of women; it has existed almost from time immemorial.
Our bourgeois, not content with having the wives and daughters of their
proletarians at their disposal, not to speak of common prostitutes, take the
greatest pleasure in seducing each other's wives.
Bourgeois marriage is in reality a system of wives in common and thus, at
the most, what the Communists might possibly be reproached with is that
they desire to introduce, in substitution for a hypocritically concealed, an
openly legalised community of women. For the rest, it is self-evident, that the
abolition of the present system of production must bring with it the abolition
of the community of women springing from that system, i. e., of prostitution
both public and private.
The Comnmnists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries
and nationality.
Tlie workingmen have no country. We cannot take from them what they
have not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political supremacy,
must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must constitute itself the
nation, it is, so far, itself national though not in the bourgeois sense of the
word.
National differences and antagonisms between peoples are vanishing gradually
from day to day. owing to the development of the bourgeoisie, to freedom of
commerce, to the world market, to uniformity in the mode of production and
in the conditions of life corresponding thereto.
The supremacy of the proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster.
United action, of the leading civilised countries at least, is one of the first
conditions f<u" the emancipation of the proletariat.
In proportion as the exploitation of one individaal by another is put an
end to, the exploitation of one nation by another will also be put an end to.
In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nation vanishes,
the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.
The charges against Communism made from a religious, a pliilosophical,
and, generally, from an ideoligical standpoint, are not deserving of serious
examination.
Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that man's ideas, views, and
conceptions, in one word, man's cousciousnoss, changes with every change in
the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his
social life?
What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production
changes its character in proportion as material production is changed? The
ruling ideas of each ngr- have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.
When people speak of ideas that revolutionise society, they do biit express
the fact that within the old society the elements of a new one have been created,
and that the dissolution of the old ideas keeps even pace with the dissolution
of the old conditions of existence.
When the ancient world was in its last throes, the ancient religions were over-
come by Christianity. When Christian ideas succumbed in the 18th century
to rationalist ideas, feudal society fought its death-battle with the then revo-
lutionary bourgeoisie. The ideas of religious liberty and freedom of conscience,
merely gave expression to the sway of free competition within the domain of
knowledge.
APPENDIX, PART 1 13
"Undoubtedly," it will be said, "religion, moral, philosophical and juridical
ideas have been modified in the course of historical development. But reli-
jiion. morality, philosophy, political science, and law, constantly survived this
change."
"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc., that are
common to all states of society. But Communism abolishes eternal truths,
it abolishes all religion, and all moi'ality, instead of constituting them on a
new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience."
What does this accusation reduce itself to? The history of all past society
has consisted in the development of class antagonisms, antagonisms that as-
sumed different forms at different epochs.
But whatever form they may have taken, one fact is common to all past ages,
vie, the exploitation of one part of society by the other. No wonder, then, that
the social con.sciousness of past ages, despite all the multiplicity and variety
it displays, moves within certain common forms, or general ideas, which
cannot completely vanish except with the total disappearance of class
antagonisms.
The Connnunist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional prop-
erty relations ; no wonder that its development involves the most radical rup-
ture with traditional ideas.
But let us have done with the bourgeois objections to Communism.
We have seen above, that the first step in the revolution by the working
class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to establish
democracy.
The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all
capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the
hands of the state, i. e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class ; and to
increase the total of productive forces as rapidly as possible.
Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of des-
potic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois
production ; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically in-
sufficient and untenable, but which. In the course of the movement, outstrip
themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are
unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production.
These measures will of course be different in different countries.
Nevertheless in the most advanced countries, the following will be pretty
generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public
purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national
bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands
of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state;
the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil
generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies,
especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual aboli-
tion "of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribu-
tion of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of child fac-
tory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial
production, etc.
When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared,
and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association
of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. Political
power, properly so called, is merely the organised power of one class for
oppressing another. If the proletariat during its contest with the bourgeoisie
is compelled, by the force of circumstances, to organise itself as a class ; if, by
means of a revolution, it makes itself the ruling cla.ss, and, as such sweeps
away by force the old conditions of production, then it will, along with these
conditions, have swept away the conditions for the existence of class antago-
nisms, and of classes generally, and will thereby have abolished its own suprem-
acy as a class.
14 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms,
we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the
condition for the free development of all.
III. Socialist and Communist Literatuee
1. REACTIONARY SOCIALISM
a. Feudal Socialism
Owing to their historical position, it became the vocation of the aristocracies
of France and England to write pamphlets against modern bourgeois society.
In the French revolution of July, 1830,'" and in the English reform agitation,
these aristocracies again succumbed to the hateful upstart. Thenceforth, a
serious political struggle was altogether out of the question. A literary battle
alone remained possible. But even in the domain of literature the old cries
of the restoration period -" had become impossible.
In order to arouse sympathy, the aristocracy was obliged to lose sight, ap-
parently, of its own interests, and to formulate its indictment against the
bourgeoisie in the interest of the exjiloited working class alone. Thus the
aristocracy took its revenge by singing lampoons against its new master, and
whispering in his ears sinister prophecies of coming catastrophe.
In this way arose Feudal Socialism : Half lamentation, half lampoon ; half
echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty and
incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart's core, but always
ludicrous in its effect through total incapacity to comprehend the march of
modern history.
The aristocracy, in order to rally the people to them, waved the proletarian
alms-bag in front for a banner. Bvit the people, as often as it joined them,
saw on their hindquarters the old feudal coats of arms, and deserted with
loud and irreverent laughter.
One section of the French Legitimists," and "Young England," '^ exhibited this
spectacle.
In pointing out that their mode of exploitation was different from that of
the bourgeoisie, the feudalists forget that they exploited under circumstances
and conditions that were quite different, and that are now antiquated. In
showing that, under their rule, the modern proletariat never existed, they forget
that the modern bourgeoisie is the necessary offspring of their own form of
society.
For the rest, so little do they conceal the reactionary character of their criti-
cism, that their chief accusation against the bourgeoisie amounts to this, that
under the bourgeois regime a class is being developed, which is destined to cut
up root and branch the old order of society.
What they upbraid the bourgeoisie with is not so much that it creates a
proletariat, as that it creates a rcvolutiouanj i)rolctariat.
In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive measures against
the working class ; and in ordinary life, despite their high-falutin phrases,
' they stoop to pick up the golden apples dropped froiu the tree of industry, and
to barter truth, love, and honour for trafiic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato
spirits.^
As the parson has ever gone hand in hand with the landlord, so has Clerical
Socialism with Feudal Socialism.
Nothing is easier than to give Christian asceticism a Socialist tinge. Has
not Christianity declaimed against private property, against marriage, against
the state? Has it not preached in the place of these, charity and poverty,
celibacy and mortification of the flesh, monastic life and Mother Church?
Christian Socialism is but the holy water with which the priest consecrates
(he heartburnings of the aristocrat.
6. Petty Boiirgcoif: Socialism
The feudal aristocracy was not the only class that was ruined by the bour-
geoisie, not the only class whose conditions of existence pined and perished in
the atmosphere of modern bourgeois society. The mediaeval burgesses and the
small peasant proprietors were the precursors of the modern bourgeoisie. In
those countries which are but little developed, industrially and commercially,
these two classes still vegetate side by side with the rising bourgeoisie.
See footnotes on p. 19.
APPENDIX, PART 1 15
In countries where modern civilisntion has become fully developed, a new
class of petty bourgeois has been formed, fluctnatiu!;- b»>tvveen proletariat and
bourgeoisie, and ever renewing itself as a supplementary part of bourgeois
society The individual members of this class, however, are being constantly
liurled down into the proletariat by the action of competition, and, as modern
industry develops, they even see the moment approaching when they will com-
pletely disappear as an independent section of modern society, to be replaced,
in manufactures, agriculture and commerce, by overlookers, bailifl's and shopmen.
In countries, like France, where the peasants constitute far more than half
of the population, it was natural that writers who sided with the proletariat
against the bourgeoisie, should use, in their criticism of the bourgeois regime,
the standard of the peasant and petty bourgeois, and from the standpoint of
these intermediate classes should take up the cudgels for the working class.
Thus arose petty bourgeois Socialism. Sismondi "* was the head of this school,
not onlv in France but also in England.
This 'school of Socialism dissected with great acuteness the contradictions in
the conditions of modern production. It laid bare the hypocritical apologies
of economists. It proved, incontiovertibly, the disastrous effects of machinery
and division of labour; the concentration of capital and land in a few hands;
overproduction and crises ; it pointed out the inevitable ruin of the petty bour-
geois and peasant, the misery of the proletariat, the anarchy in production, the
crying inequalities in the distribution of wealth, the industrial war of extermi-
nation between nations, the dissolution of old moral bonds, of the old family
relations, of the old nationalities.
In its positive aims, however, this form of Socialism aspires either to restoring
the old means of production and of exchange, and with them the old property
relations, and the old society, or to cramping the modern means of production
and of exchange within the framework of the old property relations that have
been, and were bound to be, exploded by those means. In either case, it i.*
both I'eactionary and Utopian.
Its last words are : Corporate guilds for manufacture ; patriarchal relations
in agriculture.
Ultimately, when stubborn historical facts had dispersed all intoxicating effects.
of self-deception, this form of Socialism ended in a miserable fit of the blues.
c. Gernwn or ''True'" Socialism
The Socialist and Communist literature of France, a literature that originated
under the pressure of a bourgeoisie in power, and that was the expression of
the struggle against this power, was introduced into Germany at a time when the
bourgeoisie, in that country, had just begun its contest with feudal absolutism.
German philosophers, would-be philosophers, and men of letters eagerly seized
on this literature, only forgetting that when these writings immigrated from
France into Germany, French social conditions had not immigrated along with
them. In contact with German social conditions, this French literature lost all
its immediate practical significance, and assumed a purely literary aspect.
Thus, to the German philosophers of the 18th century, the demands of the
first French Revolution were nothing more than the demands of "Practical
Reason" in general, and the utterance of the will of the revolutionary French
bourgeoisie signified in their eyes the laws of pure will, of will as it was bound
to be, of true human will generallJ^
The work of the German literati consisted solely in bringing the new French
ideas into liarmony with their ancient philosophical conscience, or rather, in
annexing the French ideas without deserting their own philosophic point of
view.
This annexation took place in the same way in which a foreign language iS'
oppjfopriated, namely by translation.
It is well known how the monks wrote silly lives of Catholic saints orer the
manuscripts on which the classical works of ancient heathendom had been
written. The German literati reversed tliis process with the profane French
literature. They wrote their philosophical nonsense beneath the French origi-
nal. For instance, beneath the French criticism of the economic functions of
money, they wrote "alienation of humanity," and beneath the French criticism
of the bourgeois state, they wrote, "dethronement of the category of the general,"
and so forth.
The introduction of these philosophical phrases at the back of the French
historical criticisms they dubbed "Philosophy of Action," "True Socialism,"
See footnotes on p. 19.
IQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
"German Science of Socialism," "Pliilosopliical Foundation of Socialism,"
and so on.
The Frencli Socialist and Conimnnist literature was thus completely emascu-
lated. And, since it ceased in the hands of the German to expi-ess the struggle
of one class with the other, he felt conscious of having overcome "French one-
sidedness" and of representing, not true requirements, but the requirements
of truth ; not the interests of the proletariat, but the interests of human nature,
of man in general, who belongs to no class, has no reality, who exists only
in the misty realm of philosophical phantasy.
This German Socialism, which took its school-boy task so seriously and
solemnly, and extolled its poor stock-in-trade in such mountebank fashion,
meanwhile gradually lo.st its pedantic innocence.
The tight of the German and especially of the Prussian bourgeoisie against
feudal aristocracy and absolute monarchy, in other words, the liberal movement,
became more earnest.
By this, the long-wished-for opportunity was offered to "True" Socialism of
confronting the political movement with the Socialist demands, of hurling the
traditional anathemas against liberalism, against representative government,
against bourgeois competition, bourgeois freedom of the press, bourgeois legis-
lation, bourgeois liberty and equality, and of preaching to the masses that they
had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by this bourgeois movement.
German Socialism forgot, in the nick of time, that the French criticism, whose
silly echo it was, presupposed the existence of modern bourgeois society, with
its corresponding economic conditions of existence, and the political constitution
adapted thereto, the very things whose attainment was the object of the pending
struggle in Germany.
To the absolute governments, with their following of parsons, professors,
country squires and officials, it served as a welcome scarecrow against the
threatening bourgeoisie.
It was a sweet finish after the bitter pills of floggings and bullets, with which
these same governments, just at that time, dosed the risings of the German
working class.
While this "True" Socialism thus served the governments as a weapon for
fighting the German bourgeoisie, it, at the same time, directly represented a
leactionary interest, the interest of the German Philistines. In Germany the
petty bourgeois class, a relic of the 16th century, and .since then constantly crop-
ping up again under various forms, is the real social basis of the existing state
of things.
To preserve this class, is to preserve the existing state of things in Germany.
The industrial and political supremacy of the bourgeoisie threatens it with
certain destriiction — on the one hand, from the concentration of capital; on the
other, from the rise of a revolutionary proletariat. "True" Socialism appeared
to kill these two birds with one stone. It spread like an epidemic.
The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with fiowers of rhetoric, steeped
in the dew of sickly sentiment, this transcendental robe in which the German
Socialists wrapped their sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to
increase wonderfully the sale of their goods amongst such a public.
And on its part, German Socialism recognised, more and more, its own calling
as the bomba.stic representative of the petty bourgeois Philistine.
It proclaimed the German nation to be the model nation, and the German
petty Philistine to be the typical man. To every villainous meanne.ss of this
model man it gave a hidden, higher, socialistic interpretation, the exact contrary
of his real character. It went to the extreme length of directly opposing the
"brutally destructive" tendency of Communism, and of proclaiming its supreme
and impartial contempt of all class struggles. AVith very few exceptions, all
the so-called Socialist and Communist publications that now (1847) circulate
in Germany belong to the domain of this foul and enervating literature.
2. CONSEEVATIVE OR BOURGEOIS SOCIALISM
A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances, in order
to secure the continued existence of bourgeois society.
To this section belong economists, philanthropists, humanitarians, improvers
of the condition of the working class, organi.sers of charity, members of societies
for the prevention of cruelty to animals, temperance fanatics, hole-and-corner
APPENDIX, PART 1 17
reformers of every imaginable kind. This form of Socialism has, moreover, been
vv-orked out into complete systems.
We may cite Proudhon's Philosophy of Poverty as an example of this form.
The socialistic bourgeois want all the advantages of modern social conditions
without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom. They desire
the existing state of society minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements.
Tliey wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat. The bourgeoisie naturally
conceives the world in which it is supreme to be the best ; and bourgeois
Socialism develops this comfortable conception into various more or less com-
plete systems. In requiring the proletariat to carry out such a system, and
thereby to march straightway into the social New Jerusalem, it but requires in
reality, that the proletariat should remain within the bounds of existing society,
but should cast away all its hateful ideas concerning the bourgeoisie.
A second and more practical, but less systematic, form of this Socialism
sought to depreciate every revolutionary movement in the eyes of the working
class, by showing that no mere political reform, but only a change in the ma-
terial conditions of existence, in economic relations, could be of any advantage
to them. By changes in the material conditions of existence, this form of
Socialism, however, by no means understands abolition of the bourgeois rela-
tions of production, an abolition that can be effected only be a revolution, but
administrative reforms, based on the continued existence of these relations ;
reforms, therefore, that in no respect affect the relations between capital and
labour, but, at the best, lessen the cost, and simplify the administrative work
of bourgeois government.
Bourgeois Socialism attains adequate expression, when, and only when, it
becomes a mere figure of speech.
Free trade : For the benefit of the working class. Protective duties : For the
benefit of the working class. Prison reform : For the benefit of the working
class. These are the last words and the only seriously meant words of bourgeois
Socialism.
It is summed up in the phrase : the bourgeois are bourgeois — for the benefit
of the working class.
3. CRITICAL-UTOPIAN SOCIALISM AND COMMUNISM
We do not here refer to that literature which, in every great modern revolu-
tion, has always given voice to the demands of the proletariat, such as the
writings of Babeuf ^ and others.
The first direct attempts of the proletariat to attain its own ends — made iu
times of universal excitement, when feudal society was being overthrown —
necessarily failed, owing to the then undeveloped state of the proletariat, as
well as to the absence of the economic conditions for its emancipation, condi-
tions that had yet to be produced, and could be produced by the impending
bourgeois epoch alone. The revolutionary literature that accompanied these
first movements of the proletariat had necessarily a reactionary character.
It inculcated universal asceticism and social levelling in its crudest form.
The Socialist and Communist systems properly so called, those of St. Simon,'"
Fourier, Owen and others, spring into existence in the early undeveloped period,
described above, of the struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie (see Section
1. Bourgeois and Proletarians).
The founders of these systems see, indeed, the class antagonisms, as well as
the action of the decomposing elements in the prevailing form of society. But the
proletariat, as yet in its infancy, offers to them the spectacle of a class without
any historical initiative or-any indei^endent political movement.
Since the development of class antagonism keeps even pace with the develop-
ment of industry, the economic situation, as such Socialists find it. does not
as yet offer to them the material conditions for the emancipation of the pro-
letariat. They therefore search after a new social science, after new social
laws, that are to create these conditions.
Historical action is to yield to their personal inventive actions ; historically
created conditions of emancipation to phantastic ones ; and the gradual, spon-
taneous class organisation of the proletariat to an oi'ganisation of society
specially contrived by these inventors. Future history, resolves itself, in their
eyes, into the propaganda and the practical carrying out of their social plans.
In the formation of their plans they are conscious of caring chiefiy for the
See footnotes on p. 19.
04931 — 40— app., pt. 1 3
Ig UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
interests of the working class, as being the most suffering class. Only from
the point of view of being the most suffering class does the proletariat exist
for them.
The undeveloped state of the class struggle, as well as their own surroundings,
causes Socialists of this kind to consider themselves far superior to all class
antagonisms. They want to improve the condition of every member of society,
even that of the most favoured. Hence, they habitually appeal to society at
large, without distinction of class ; nay, by preference, to the ruling class. For
how can people, when once they understand their system, fail to see in it the
best possible plan of the best possible state of society?
Hence, they reject all political, and especially all revolutionary action ; they
wish to attain their ends by peaceful means, and endeavour, by small experi-
ments, necessarily doomed to failure, and by the force of example, to pave the
way for the new social gospel.
Such phantastic pictures of future society, painted at a time when the prole-
tariat is still in a very undeveloped state and has but a phantastic conception
of its own position, correspond with the first instinctive yeai'nings of that class
for a general reconstruction of society.
But these Socialist and Communist writings contain also a critical element.
They attack every principle of existing society. Hence they are full of the most
valuable materials for the enlightenment of the working class. The practical
measures proposed in them— such as the abolition of the distinction between town
and country ; abolition of the family, of private gain and of the wage-systems; the
proclamation of social harmony ; the conversion of the functions of the state into a
mere superintendence of production— all these proposals point solely to the disap-
pearance of class antagonisms which were, at that time, only just cropping up,
and which, in these publications, are recognised in their earliest, indistinct and
undefined forms only. These proposals, therefore, are of a purely Utopian
character.
The signficance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism bears an inverse
relation to historical development. In proportion as the modern class struggle
develops and takes definite shape, this phantastic standing apart from the contest,
these phantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all theoretical justi-
fication. Therefore, although the originators of these systems were, in many
respects, revolutionary, their disciples have, in every case, formed mere reaction-
ary sects. They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in opposition
to the progressive historical development of the proletariat. They, therefore,
endeavour, and that consistently, to deaden the class straggle and to reconcile the
class antagonisms. They still dream of experimental realisation of their .social
Utopias, of founding isolated phalanst^res, of establishing "Home Colonies," or
setting up a "Little Icaria" ^ — pocket editions of the New Jerusalem — and to
realise all these castles in the air, they are compelled to appeal to the feelings
and purses of the bourgeois. By degrees they sink into the category of the
reactionary conservative Socialists depicted above, differing from these only by
more systematic pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the
miraculous effects of their social science.
They, therefore, violently oppose all political action on the part of the working
class; such action, according to them, can only result from blind unbelief in the
new gospel.
The Owenites in England, and the Fourierists in France, respectively, oppose
the Chartists '" and the Udformistes.
IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing
Opposition Parties
Section II has made clear the relations of the Communists to the existing
working class parties, such as the Chartists in England and the Agrarian
Reformers in America. ""
The Conununists fight for the attainment of the immediate aims, for the
enforcement of the momentary interests of the working class ; but in the move-
ment of the present, they also represent and take care of the future of that move-
ment. In France the Communist ally themselves with the Social-Democrats,'*
against the conservative and radical bourgeoisie, reserving, however, the right to
take up a critical position in regard to phrases and illusions traditionally handed
down from the great Revolution.
See footnotes on p. 19.
J
APPENDIX, PART 1 19
In Switzerland they support the Radicals, without losing sight of the fact that
this party consists of antagonistic elements, partly of Democratic Socialists, in
the French sense, partly of radical bourgeois.
In Poland (hey support the party that insists on an agrarian revolution as the
prime condition for national emancipation, that party which formented the
insurrection of Cracow in 1846.
In Germany they fight with the bourgeoisie whenever it acts in a revolutionary
way, against the absolutely monarchy, the feudal squirearchy, and the petty
bourgeoisie.
But they never cease, for a single instant, to instil into the working class the
clearest possible recognition of the hostile antagonism between bourgeoisie and
proletariat, in order that the German workers may straightway use, as so many
weapons against the bourgeoisie, the social and political conditions that the
bourgeoisie must necessarily introduce along with its supremacy, and in order
that, after the fall of the reactionary classes in Germaiiy, the fight against the
bourgeoisie itself may immediately begin.
The Communists turn their attention chiefly to Germany, because that country
is on the eve of a bourgeois revolution that is bound to be carried out under more
advanced conditions of European civilisation and with a much more developed
proletariat than what exisited in England in the 17th and in France in the 18th
century, and because the bourgeois revolution in Germany will be but the prelude
to an immediately following proletarian revolution.
In short, the Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement
against the existing social and political order of things.
In all these movements they bring to the front, as the leading question in each
case, the property question, no matter what its degree of development at the time.
Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic
parties of all countries.
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare
that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing;
social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Workingmen of all countries, unite !
Notes
(All unsigned notes are these made by Engcls to the English edition of 1888 ; all others were
prepared by the editor and are so marked. Where it was found necessary to enlarge upon
Engels' notes, the additions appear in brackets.)
1. King Louis Philippe was deposed and a republic proclaimed as result of the revolution
in Paris, February 22-24, 1S4S. — Ed.
2. The rising of the Parisian workers. June 2.3-27, 1848. The insurrection was suppressed
by General Cavaignac with great slaughter. — Ed.
.3. Pierre .Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865). — French publicist and political economist ; leading
exponent of petty-bourgeois Socialism. — Ed.
4. Lassalle [Ferdinand Lassalle, 1825-1864] always acknowledged himself to us personally
to be a disciple of Marx and, as such, stood on the ground of the Manifesto. But in his public
agitation, 1862-64, he did not go beyond demanding co-operative workshops supported by
state credit.
5. The Russian version published at Geneva in 1882 was made by Plekhanov, not by Vera
Zasulich. Bakuuin's translation appeared in 1870. — Ed.
6. The followers of Robert Owen (177] -1858), leading English Utopian Socialist. He
envisioned a collective economic and social life organised in small communist communes, where
property would be owned in commou. — Ed.
7. The followers of Francois Charles Fourier (1772-18.37), leading French Utopian Socialist,
Who urged a system of colonies on a socialist plan. His criticism of bourgeois society was
recognised as basic both by Marx and Engels. — Ed.
8. Etienne Cabet (1788-1856). — A French Utopian, exiled to England for his participation
in the July Revolution of 18.30. In his book, Voyage en Icarie, he pictures life in a Communist
society.- — Ed.
9. Wilhelm Weitling (1808-1871). — A German Utopian Socialist who took part in the
revolutionary movement of 1848 and exerted great influence among the German worker.s. He
came to America where he carried on socialist agitation among German worker.s. — Ed.
10. The Co7idition of the Workinff Class in England in Wi/i/hy Friedrich Engels, translated
by Florence K. Wischnewetsky, who later assumed her maiden name of Florence Kelley and wag
a well-known social worker in America. — Ed.
11. Metternich (1773-18.59). — Chancellor of the Austrian empire and acknowledged leader
of the European reaction. Guizot (1787-1874) was the French intellectual protagonist of high
finance and of the industrial bourgeoisie and the irreconcilable foe of the proletariat. The
French Radicals, Marrast (1802-1852), Carnot (1801-1888), and Marie (1795-1870) waged
polemic warfare against the Socialists and Communists. — Ed.
12. By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social
production and emploj'ers of wage-labour ; by proletariat, the class of modern wage-labourers
who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power
m order to live.
13. That is, aU written history. In 1837, the pre-history of society, the social organisation
existing previous to recorded history, was all but unknown. Since then Haxthausen [August
Footnotes continued on p. 20.
20
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
von, 1792-1866] discovered common ownership of land in Russia, Maurer [Georg Ludwig vonj
proved it to be tlie social foundation from which all Teutonic races started in history, and,
by and by, village communities were found to be, or to have been, the primitive form of society
everywhere from India to Ireland. The inner organisation of this primitive communistic
society was laid bare, in its typical form, by Morgan's [Lewis H., 1818-1881] crowning dis-
covery of the true nature of the gens and its relation to the tribe. With the dissolution of
these primaeval communities, society begins to be differentiated into separate and finally
antagonistic classes. I have attempted to retrace this process of dissolution in The Origin
of the Family, Private ProjKrtii and the State.
14. Guild-master, that is a full member of a guild, a master within, not a head of a guild.
15. Chartered burghers were freemen who had been admitted to the privileges of a chartered
borough thus possessing full political rights. — Ed.
16. Craft guilds, made up of exclusive and privileged groups of artisans were, during the
feudal period, granted monopoly rights to markets by municipal authorities. The guilds
imposed minute regulations on their members controlling such matters as working hours,
wages, prices, tools and the hiring of workers. — Ed.
17. "Commune" was the name taken in France by the nascent towns even before they had
conyuered from their feudal lords and masters local self-government and political rights as
the 'Third Estate." Generally speaking, for the economic development of t'le bourgeoisie,
England is here taken as the typical country, for its political development. Prance.
18. The lO-IIour Bill, for which the English workers had beeu fighting for 30 years, was
made a law in 1847. — Ed
19. In July, 1830, the Parisians rose in revolt against Charles X. The elder branch of the
Bourbiin faniily was driven out, and Louis Philippe, of the younger or Orleans branch, became
••King of the French." — Ed.
20. Not the English Restoration, 1660 to 1689, but the French Restoration. 1814 to 1830.
21. The French legitimists favoured the claims of the elder branch of the Bourbon family,
fts against the Orlcanists, the younger branch. — Ed.
22. "Young England" included a group of philanthropic tories and youthful sprigs of the
British and Irish aristocracy, who strongly opposed industrial capitalism and wished to restore
feudalism. — Ed.
23. This applies chiefly to Germany where the landed aristocracy and squirearchy have large
portions of their estates cultivated for their own account by stewards, aiid are, moreover,
extensive beetroot-sugar manufacturers and distillers of potato spirits. The wealthier British
aristocrats are. as yet, rather above that : but they, too, know how to make up for declining
rents by hnding their names to floaters of more or less shady joint-stock companies.
24. Jean Tharles Leonard (Simonde) Sismondi (1773-1842). — French historian and
economist.- — Ed.
25. Francois Noel Babeuf (1764-1797). — A radical republican (Jacobin) in the Great French
Revolution who was guillotined for plotting a revolution aiming at the overthrow of the
bourgeois state and the creation of a Communist state. — Ed.
26. Claude Henri de Rouvroy Saint-Simon (1760-1825). — French Utopian Socialist who saw
the labour question as the prime social question of the future and proposed as a solution the
organisation of production by "association." — Ed.
27. Phalan.sicres were socialist colonies on the plan of Charles Fourier ; Icaria was the
name given by Cabet to his Utopia and, later on, to his American Communist colony.
28. Chartism lasted as a more or less organised radical political movement of the British
workers from 1837 to 1848. The People's Charier, for which the Chartists fought, demanded
an immediate improvement in the workers' conditions as well as legislative reforms. — Ed.
29. Reference is made to the leaders of "Young America" who, during the struggle of the
New York farmers against high rents, demanded the nationalisation of the land and limitation
of farms to 160 acres. After a few paltry reforms had been obtained in the field of agrarian
legislation, tl e movement petered out. — Ed.
HO. The party then represented in Parliament by Ledru-Rollin, in literature by Louis Blanc
[1811-1882], in the daily press by the Reforms. The name of Social-Democracy signifies, with
these its inventors, a section of the Democratic or Republican Party more or less tinged with
Socialism.
Exhibit No. 2
[Source : The Communist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism,
published monthly by the Communist Party of the United States of America. Decem-
ber, 1933, Vol. XII, No. 12, pages 1169-1178]
The Communist Manifesto — A Programmatic Document of the Dictatorship
OF the Proletarlvt ^
By O. Kuusinen
The Communist Manifesto is the great charter of the international Communist
movement.
Eight.y-five years ago the Communist Manifesto enunciated for the first time
in the form of a complete theoretical and practical program, the Marxian world
outlook — dialectic materialism, the teaching on the class struggle, on the world-
wide historical role of the proletariat and of its Communist vanguard. It pointed
the way to the victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie and the transition
from capitalism to a Communist society. It charted the basic programmatic
demands and the main lines of strategy and tactics of the Communist Party.
^ Translated from The Bolshevik (Politico-Economic Fortnightlv Organ of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union), Issue No. 6 of March 31st, 1933.
APPENDIX, PART 1 21
This was a mighty revolutionary call to struggle, which has lost none of its
compelling rcYOlutionary force even today. Millions of woikers of all countries
derived from this Manifesto the very force which awakened in them the revolu-
tionary class consciousness. New millions will read it and study it in order
that they may unite, pursuant to its call, for revolutionary class struggle. His-
tory from the time of the appearance of the Communist Manifesto has brilliantly
confirmed the firm theses of ]\Iarx. And even now the Manifesto stands im-
mutably, like an unfailing beacon, as a living, and in its main lines actual, pro-
gram of the international Communist movement. Its historical sequel is the
program of the Communist International.
THE BIRTH OF SCIENTIFIC COMMUNISM
Wherein lies the inexhaustible revolutionary strength of the Communist
Manifesto?
We quote from the Manifesto itself :
"The theories of the Communists are not in any way based upon ideas
or principles discovered or established by this or that universal reformer.
"They serve merely to express in general terms the concrete circumstances
of an actually existing class struggle, of a historical movement that is going
on under our very eyes. The abolition of pre-existent property relations is
not a process exclusively characteristic of Communism."
We quote further :
"It is customary to speak of ideas which revolutionize a whole society.
This is only another way of saying that the elements of a new society have
formed within the old one ; that the break-up of the old ideas has kept pace
with the break-up of the old social relations."
These words reveal the secret of the birth and vitality of the Communist
Manifesto itself. The teaching of Marx, already revealed in the Manifesto in
its main lines, was itself a product of the antagonistic productive relations of
capitalist society ; was a realization of the position of the proletariat and its his-
toric mission and "a general expression of actual relations within the existing
class struggle''.
The flaming words of each and every line of the Communist Manifesto clearly
indicate that the system of ideas contained in the Mayiifesto was born in the
fire of revolutionary struggle. It was growing up, in the first place, in the
incandescent atmosphere of the European revolutionary class battles of the
forties of last century and, in the second place, directly out of the ideological
and practical struggle which Marx and Engels led in the years 1843-1847.
In their ideological struggle Marx and Engels based themselves on the best
that the nineteenth century had created. As Lenin and Engels pointed out, the
three sources and component parts of Marxism were: Classical German philoso-
phy, classical English political economy, and French socialism along with the
French revolutionary teachings in general.
The greatest exponents of these three ideological currents were Hegel, Ricardo
and the great Utopians. In his own realm each of them built up a complete
thoretical system, which Vv^as not capable of further development along the lines
of its original basic principles. Meanwhile Marx actually continued, completed
and merged into one solid system these ideological currents. That was possible
only by means of a critical recreation of their underlying principles. Marx
carried furtlier Hegel's dialectics, first having turned it upside down, tliat is
formulating the dialetic development of material reality in place of the eternal
self-propulsion of a mystical "idea." Marx carried further Adam Smith's and
Ricardo's theory of value, revealing at the same time the fetishism of economic
categories, and thus bringing them down from the realm of "eternal laws of
nature", as they were pictured by the bourgeois economists, to a mere expression
of social production relations, which are historically conditioned and transitory.
In the same manner Marx carried further the socialism of St. Simon, Fourier,
and Robert Owen, first taking it down from the sphere of Utopian ideas and
'''brain product" projects of a new society, to the solid ground of historic reality
as an expression and program of the class struggle of the proletariat.
Thus were demolished the "eternal ideas" of all these three basic domains
of ideology, behind which were incarcerated as behind bars, the living elements
of a new world outlook.
Along with this struggle it was necessary to carry on another ideological
struggle in all the three domains. There was a "criticism of criticism", /. e..
22 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in the first place a criticism of the left Hegelians, who were the critics of
Hegel, such as Bruno Bauer, Max Stirner, etc., and also a criticism of the
major shortcomings of Feuerbachian materialism; in the second place it was
a critism of the petty bourgeois critics of classic political economy, of the
economic theories of Proudhon, Sismondi, and others; and in the third place
it was a criticism of the petty socialist critics of the great Utopians, the English
and the Germnu ("true") socialists.
Only now are we in a position to restore the full picture of that fierce
ideological struggle, which jMarx and Engels waged during the decisive period
of the formation of the Marxian system. This became po.ssible after such
precious manuscripts as the Philosophical Economic Essays by Marx and the
full edition of the German Idcoloyji by Marx and Engels, hitherto concealed by
the leaders of the German Social-Democracy, became public property once again.
What were the results of the ideological stri;ggle of Marx and Engels?
The Marxian critique of philosophy and of historiography gave rise to dia-
lectical materialism and particularly to the materialist conception of the history
of mankind.
The critique of political economy gave rise to the Marxian theory of surplus
value and to all the ensuing laws of the development of contradictions within
capitalism and of its resulting breakdown. All these laws are treated sys-
tematically and in detail in Capital.
The critique of Utopian socialism gave rise to Marxian Communism, which
firmly links up the scientific conception of the dialectic transition from capital-
ism to socialism and Communism with the class struggle and with the consequent
revolutionary practice of "'changing the face of the world". From Utopian
socialism there emerged INIarxian Communism, which changes science into revolu-
tionary politics, and that politics into science.
Lenin, who miderstood the theory of Marx more deeply than anyone else,
emphasized with particular vigor that that theory combines strict scientific
properties of the highest type (it being the culmination of social science)
with revolutionary properties ; that their synthesis is not accidental ; that it is
not a result of the author's combining in his personality . the qualities of a
scientist and a revolutionary ; but that this synthesis is contained within the
theory innately and indivisibly.
In concise form the Communist Manifesto dwells upon many vast domains
of the teachings of Marx. First of all the Manifesto affords a brilliantly
clear miderstanding of the materialistic conception of history. The entire history
of maidvind from the inception of class society till the appearance of the
socialist society unfolds before the reader from a uniform scientific ix)int of
view, as a history of the struggle of classes which develops on the basis of
changing modes of production and of inner contradictions inherent in the pro-
duction relations which are based on exploitation.
Two important component parts of the Marxian teachings find little expres-
sion in the Communist Manifesto.
First — his philosophical theory of cognition (gnoseology). Of course, the
materialistic-philosophical conception of the sources and principles of knowledge
forms the very base of all the theses of the Manifesto, but that conception is
not treated in the Manifesto in a direct manner. It is formi;lated in part in
the earlier philosophical works of INIarx and Engels {The Hohi Family, The
Oerman Ideology) partly in the later works of Engels {Anti-Duehring, The
Dialectics of Nature, and Ludivig FeuerMch) and also in Lenin's Materialism,
and Enipirio-Criticism.
Second — the mature form of the Marxian theory of surplus value is not yet
contained in the Communist Manifesto. However, the most important postu-
lates which he used in subsequently developing his theory of surplus value are
already to be found in there. They are :
1. That the capitalist system is a system of wage slavery ; the workers "are
the slaves of the bourgeois class", "who can exist only as long as they find
work, and who can find work only as long as their labor increases capital".
2. " . . . These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a com-
modity, like every other article of commerce ..." is stated in the Cotnynnnist
Manifesto. According to a later formulation of Marx, workers sell their labor
power as a commodity, but it also means that they sell "their own skin". For
the commodity labor power exists only "in the person of the laborer", "only
as the faculty of a living individual" (Capital).
3. According to the Communist Manifesto "the cost of production of a worker
amounts to little more than the cost of the means of subsistence he requires for
his upkeep and for the propagation of his race".
APPENDIX, PART 1 23
4. The gituation of the workers luirter capitalism is becoming increasingly
worse, as the productivity of their labor increases ; this worsening manifests itself
partly in a lowered wage or a lengthened working day, partly in an increased
intensification of labor, oppression at work, etc.
Marx, it is true, still employs in the Communist Manifesto the old and incorrect
terra, "the price of labor" (in place of, "value and price of labor pov.'er") not at
all, however, in the bourgeois meaning, according to which the term implies that
the worker receives full payment (is fully compensated) for the labor he per-
forms. No. according to the Communist Manifesto, the workers selling them-
selves piecemeal, get in the form of wages much less than the sum total of values
Avliich their labor creat-es. The growth of capital is accomplished in no other
way than by exploitation. But the Manifesto does not contain the clear explana-
tion, subsequently developed by Marx, of this exploitation, by way of distinction
l,etween "necessary labor" and "surplus labor" (or "unpaid labor"), which creates
surplus value. Only these theoretically highly important definitions made pos-
sible a clear and consistent analysis of the capitalist process of production, but
they changed in no way the basic conception formulated in the Communist Mani-
festo. On the contrary, that conception was only strengthened and deepened
in all its essential parts.
Afterwards, in a number of other basic questions, Marx fundamentally com-
pleted and developed the theses expounded in the Communist Manifesto, particu-
larlv the problem of the dietatorship of tlie proletariat. Aside from that, the
remarks contained in Section IV of the Communist Manifesto about the position
of the Communists in relation to the various existing opposition parties, as it was
pointed out by Marx and Engels themselves already in 1872, are, of course, histori-
cally antiquated in their concrete form, although "fundamentally they are correct
to this day".
The subsequent development of the ideas proclaimed for the first time in the
Communist Manifesto and the evolution of Marxism into Mar.Tism-Leninism
cannot be understood without taking into consideration the basic character of
the new epoch in particular and especially the greatest triumph of these ideals :
their aceomplislihnient in practice, the building of socialism on one-sixth of the
face of the earth.
A new edition of the Communist Manifesto entitles the reader to expect at
lea.st a most elementary characterization of the main phases of this development
and of the actual realization of ^larxism in our own time. Therefore, we will
discuss the matter briefly in the following lines, starting with the basic postulates
of the Communist Manifesto and. alongside with it, subjecting to a critical
analysis the main principles of social-democracy.
THE EPOCH OF IMPERIALISM ANI> THE BEX5INNING OF THE STRUGGT-E OF BOLSHEVISM
AGAINST THE OPPORTUNISM OF THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL
The Communist Manifesto states that "the bourgeoisie has centralized the
means of production and has concentrated property in few hands". However,
this capitalist centralization and concentration, as well a.^ the "constant changes
of modes of production" were destined to attain truly gigantic proportions. Sub-
sequently Marx gave in his main work a thorough analysis of the accumulation
of capital and of the general law governing the same.
But neither Marx nor Engels lived to the time of the last phase of capitalism,
during which the concentration of production and the centralization of capital
assumed the form of cartels and of trustification of entire ma.ior branches of pro-
duction; when the .sway of free competition and of industrial capital turned into
the domination of the monopolistie finance capital, which domination, however,
Is imable to eliminate free competition.
In the past, according to the Comniuni.9t 'Manifesto, "the cheap prices of com-
modities were the heavy artillery with which the bourgeoisie battered down all
Chinese walls". At present, however, monopoly prices are becoming the heavy
artillery of the large scale bourgeoisie in its fight for surplus value the world
over.
In the past "the need of a constantly expanding market for its products drove
the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe". At present the decisive
role in this chase is relegated to finance capital. There has begun the division of
the world among the international trusts into spheres of influence.
While in the past the bourgeoisie of the most developed countries already ex-
ploited many a "barbarian nation", pushing them on at the same time along the
path of "so-called civilization", now, however, the entire territory of the globe is
24 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
divided up among the great powers and the practice of pitiless exploitation and
enslavement of colonial and semi-colonial peoples has assumed the form of a
system. There has been launched a fierce struggle for the redivisiou of the
already divided world.
This very division of the whole world, which ended on the threshold of the
new century, is, along with the stormy development of monopolistic capital,
a turning point to a new epoch — the epoch of imperialism.
As a whole, capitalism, which developed until then along an ascending line
of progress, began to show signs of decay. Lenin defined this last phase of
capitalism as the phase of decayvng and dying capitalism : not, however, in the
sense that capitalism is dying off automatically but in the sense of "a transition
of capitalism into socialism". "Monopoly, growing out of capitalism, already
represents the dying of capitalism — the beginning of its transition into social-
ism. In the first place — the gigantic socialization of labor by imperialism
. . . denotes the very same thing. In the second place — imperialism intensifies
the contradictions of capitalism to the highest degree and carries them to a
limit beyond which revolution begin.s". (Stalin)
But the Second International did not see the matter in this light. It
embarked in theory, as well as in practice, on the path of opportunistic adap-
tation to the conditions and requirements of decaying capitalism, of imperi-
alism.
Marx and Engels waged a constant straggle against opportunism, which
already began to raise its head during their lifetime not only among the
socialists of the Anglo-Saxon countries, but even among the leaders of the
German Social-Democracy. The latter were "farsighted" enough to conceal
from the public (up till 1932!) the letters of Marx and Engels, in which their
opportunistic tendencies were subjected to criticism.^
Engels, full of indignation at the opportunism of the German Social-
Democracy, wrote to Wilhelm Liebknecht the following, as early as 1885 :
"Is it possible that the chapter [in the Communist Manifesto — K.] on
German or true socialism is destined to become the burning question again
now after 40 years?"
And that is exactly what happened. To the extent that the development of
a privileged aristocracy of labor in the epocli of imperialism tended to create
a considerable social base for opportunism, to that extent the process of social
democracy turning bourgeois continued in full swing.
Then began the reckless revision of Marxism, and of the basic theses of
the CotuDiunist Manifesto in particular.
"The theory of pauperization is not true", was the cry of the social-democrats
identifying the position of the broad masses of proletarians with that of its
privileged strata. The Communist Manifesto if. wrong when it states that the
worker is only "an appendage of the machine", who is "daily and hourly
enslaved by the machine, by the overseer, and, above all, by the individual
bourgeois manufacturer himself". No, the worker of today is rather a free
partner of the industrialist. It is not true that "the worker has nothing to lose
but his chains", for the contemporary worker may even acquire a few shares of
stock, etc.
The imperialist bourgeoisie was interested in concocting petty-bourgeois illu-
sions to befuddle the workers and the social-democratic criers from the top
of the labor aristocracy were zealously carrying out the order. At first a
frontal attack against the Marxian theory was launched by the Bernsteinians
and by other revisionists ; then Kautsky and other "opponents of revisionism"
continued the attack in roundabout hidden ways by means of distorting, weak-
ening and emasculating Marxism in the name of its "orthodox interpretation".
The aristocracy of labor, bribed and corrupted by the imperialistic bour-
geoisie, was interested, not in preparing for the revolution, but in the
prosperity of capitalist production.
That is why the social-democratic theoreticians got busy first of all to
undermine the Marxian theory of the collapse of capitalism, and in particular
the basic thesis, as stated in the Communist Manifesto about "the revolt of
modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the
^Tvvo volumes of these letters, hitherto concealed by the social-democratic leaders, are
now published by the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute.
APPENDIX, PART 1 25
property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie
and of its rule".
The revolutionary theory of the unavoidable sharpening of the basic contra-
diction of capitalism was transformed into its direct antithesis, into an
apology for capitalism and for every step of the bourgeoisie, as long as it
could be interpreted as promoting the development of productive forces.
To impede the development of productive forces is, according to social-
democratic sophists, a reactionary step from the Marxian point of view, therefore,
the labor movement must refrain from any form of struggle which would be
likely to hamper the capitalistic industrial development. The fact that produc-
tion in certain industries is still capable of development within the framework
of capitalism, is supposed to prove according to Marx, that the time for social-
ism is still far off, etc. There was systematically spread the fatalistic viewpoint,
that the development of productive forces will bring about socialism of itself
some time in the distant future, not, of course, as a result of the breakdown
of capitalism, and of a violent revolution, but as a result of a gradual and
peaceful "growing into" socialism.
Thus was Marxism turned into labor liberalism under cover of pseudo-Marxian
phraseology. The upper crust of the Second International remained socialist
in words, bourgeois in deeds.
The practice of social-democracy was adapting itself even more fully and more
rapidly than its theory to the requirements of the imperialistic bourgeoisie.
The dominant political line of class collaboration of the pre-war social-democ-
racy in the leading capitalist countries manifested itself in the dullest parlia-
mentary cretinism and trade-union reformism (mainly in negotiations with
employers regardng wage scales). Parliament was to them the center of the
universe. Legal parliamentary democracy — their road to bliss. Parliamentary
diplomacy — their wisdom and virtue.
Everything said in the Communist Manifesto about the "conservative or
bourgeois socialism" and most of what is said there about the "German or 'true'
socialism"— all that strikes squarely in the face of the leading spirits of the
Second International, particularly during the period immediately preceding the
World War.
A consistent struggle against this opportunism and bourgeois socialism be-
came now the burning issue for all true Marxists within the international labor
movement and in every individual country. The task of solving this problem
was undertaken by Lenin — by Bolshevism. The struggle of Bolshevism against
Menshevism and against the Second International was from its very beginning a
struggle for the restoration of the true revolutionary Marxism both in theory
and in practice. It was a constant battle against various and sundry falsifiers
of Marxism. At the same time it signified a further development of Marxism
in accordance with the conditions of the new epoch.
While the ringleaders of the Second International were covering up the con-
tradictions of imperialism, Lenin was exposing those contradictions. He proved
the inevitable sharpening of the three basic contradictions of capitalsm in the
epoch of imperialism, namely: (a) between capital and labor, (b) between a
handful of exploiting nations and an overwhelming majority of exploited popu-
lations of colonial and dependent countries, (c) between various imperialist
powers and financial groups.
While the ringleaders of the Second International were busy painting the per-
spective of a uniform evolution of capitalism, Lenin demonstrated the accelera-
tion of its uneven development in the epoch of imperialism.
This uneven development is not an increase of differences in the level of
development of various capitalist countries. No, this inequality tends to di-
minish on the basis of such an eqtialization, as was shown by Comrade Stalin,
and the intensification of the action of such an unevenness of development in
the period of imperialism is quite possible. This unevenness does not consist
in "some countries overtaking others and then surpassing them economically
in due course, in an evolutionary way, so to say" as was the rule in the period
of pre-monopoly capital. No,
". . . the law of the unevenness of development in the period of imperial-
ism denotes a spasmodic development of some countries with relation to
others ; a rapid displacement from the world markets of some countries by
others; periodic redivisions of the already divided world by means of mili-
tary clashes and military catastrophies ; a. deepening and sharpening of
26 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
conflicts in the camp of imperialism ; a weakening of the front of the world
capitalism with a consequent possibility of breaking through that front
by proletarians of individnal countries and the possibility of the victory of
socialism in individtial countries." (Stalin)
(To be continued)
Exhibit No. 3
[Somce : The Communist, a magazine of the tlieory and practice of Marxism-Leninism,
published monthly by the Communist Party of the United States of America. February,
1934, Vol. XIII, No. 2, pages 193-206]
The Communist Manifesto — A Progeammatic Docxtment of the Dictatorship
OF the Peoletakiat
(By O. Kuusinen)
(Continued from December issue)
The problem of the attitude to imperialism, with the steadily growing tenseness
of the international situation, forced itself with ever greater persistence as the
burning question of the day before every workers' party. Lenin gave a very
clear diagnosis of the positions of the social classes in relation to this question :
"The proletariat is struggling for the revolutionary overthrow of the im-
perialist bourgeoisie, while the petty bourgeoisie is struggling for a reformistie
'perfection' of imperialism, for adapting itself to it, while being subservient
to it."
The right social-democrats, such as Cunow, acted as open social-imperialists,
but, of course, they too made use of pseudo-Marxian sophistry to justify their
policy. '"Cunow", writes Lenin, "argues clumsily and cynically: Imperialism is
contemporary capitalism ; but the development of capitalism is both inevitable and
progressive ; hence imperialism is progressive ; hence, we must cringe before
imperialism and glorify it."
Centrists, such as Kautsky, strove particularly to cover up the contradictions
of imperialism. Imperialism, generally speaking, is not a new phase of capitalism,
according to Kautsky, but an unreasonable policy of expansion on the part of
industrial nations. Instead of this imp'jrialistic policy the bourgeoisie could
carry through with equal and even greater success a different and much wiser
policy of expansion, "The tendencies of capital to expand," wrote Kaut.sky literally,
"can be realized best of all not by the violent methods of imperialism, but by
peaceful democracy."
And he was deceiving the workers with illusions of permanently peaceful "ultra-
imperialism".
''There tmll he no more crises T, announced the professors of economics, them-
selves hirelings of the cartels ; and the chorus of social-democratic theoreticians
would joyously take up the refrain: "Yes, no more; the cartels are in a position
to eliminate crises". And only the crises themselves were rudely destroying the
harmony of the soloists and the chorus : the crisis of 1000 in Germany and in
Russia ; the crisis of 1903 in the United States ; the crisis of 19()7 again in the
United Stales, and in some other countries.
Each crisis confirmed the theory of crises of Marx and Lenin. Each crisis was
a reminder of what had been foretold in the Communist Manifesto:
"How does the bourgeoisie overcome these crises? On the one hand by the
compulsory annihilation of a quantity of the productive forces ; on the other,
by the conquest of new markets and the more thorough exploitation of old
ones. With what results? The results are that the way is paved for more
wide-spread and more disastrous crises and that tlie capacity for averting
such crises is lessened."
"There will be no more wars!", proclaimed the cabinet ministers who managed
the affairs of the financial oligarchy; and a chorus of petty bourgeois Kautskyists
would take up the tune : "Yes, no more ! Finance capital together with the wise
governments will somehow eliminate the war danger through the 'Peaceful
Democracy' of a perfected imperialism."
APPENDIX, PART 1 27
But wars themselves were destroying without any ceremony this delightful
harmony: the Spanish-American war of 1898; the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902;
the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905; the Balkan wars of 1912-1913; and finally
the imperialist World War of 1914-1918.
Each war loudly proclaimed that Kautsky's theory of harmony is nothing more
than a delusion of the masses, that Lenin is perfectly correct in insisting that
imperialism leads unavoidably to bandit wars for the purpose of a new redivision
of colonies and of other spheres of exploitation, to violent clashes among the
biggest imperialist powers for world hegemony; and that peace agreements be-
tween imperialist powers are merely respites between wars and preparations for
new ones.
The struggle of Bolshevism against international Menshevisra was concentrated
primarily around three great problems of the international movement, which
remain to this day in the center of daily struggles : 1. The question of the party.
2. The attitude towards imperialist war. 8. The dictatorship of the proletariat.
In the solution of each of these problems Lenin was able to find much direct
support in the Communist Manifesto.
THE PROBLEM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
The epoch of imperialism is an epoch of open clashes between classes, of
direct preparations by the working class for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie,
and of proletarian revolutions. Such an epoch places the working class face to
face with historic problems of great importance, with problem.s which it cannot
solve without the leadership of a truly revolutionary Communist party.
The CmummriHt Manifesto came to life in a period already fraught with revo-
lutionary class struggles. Already at that time Marx and Engels understood
the urgent need for a highly class-conscious party, in order that "the proletariat
may be sufficiently strong to win during the decisive days". They wrote the
Communist Manifesto as a theoretical and practical "party program". It was
actually named Tho Manifesto of the Communist Party {Comnmnist Manifesto
is merely an abbreviation).
At the same time Marx and Engels were busy organizing the Communist
Party. For several years they were busy recruiting adherents in France, Bel-
gium. Germany, and" England, uniting them into party groups, educating and
instructing them in accordance with the unfolding of events. In 1847, they
reorganized the international "League of the Just", originally founded by
German emigres, into the "League of Communists", and took upon themselves
the task of its political leadership.
The conscious Conimunists of that time constituted a small group, while
major revolutionary battles were in the offing. Could the Comnuuiists then
hope to be able to organize the working class In that short period and to rally
them around their program to such an extent that the Communist Party should
be able to supplant major proletarian mass organizations, such as the Chartist
movement in England? No. The political development of the masses of
workers was inadequate for such a task. Had the Communists taken such a
course, they would have merely isolated themselves without having aided the
development of the revolutionary movement.
Marx and Engels were absolutely against such a sectarian approach. Their
line of action consisted of the following: To start by building a unified Com-
munist Party, led by a single Central Committee, out of these Communist groups
already organized by them in a few co\ui tries, and out of the local organizations
of the "Union". The reorganized "League of Communists" was to become that
Communist Party, which was to be an international party. Each country was
to be divided into a certain number of districts and all districts of a given
country were 1o be subordinated to its national center. This party, which
under the prevailing coiiditlons could everywhere maintain but an illegal exist-
ence, and which was as yet numerically very weak, was not to endeavor arti-
ficially to shape in accordance with academically worked out "special prin-
ciples" those labor mass organizations which were being formed in different
counti'ies. This v/as the way Marx and Engels approached the problem in 1847:
the "League of Communists" will not put itself in opposition to other working
class parties, v.iiich may arise in various forms depending upon the concrete
circumstances, but will rather direct them forward along the road of revolu-
tionary class struggle through the work of its members within these parties.
This first bold attempt to build a Communist Party failed as a result of the
defeat of the revolutionary movement of 1848-9 and of the ensuing reaction.
28 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and was pushed to the background for a long time. With the founding of the
First International (1864) the task was not to organize actual Communist
parties, but rather "to unite into one great army all the fighting forces of
Europe and America". This International, therefore, could not base itself
upon the principles expounded in the Manifesto. It had "to adopt a program
that v/ould leave the door open to the English trade-iinionists ; to the French,
Belgian, Italian, Spanish Proudhonists ; and the German Lassalleans" (Engels).
But during the period of the First International, as well as later, Marx and
Engels were doing everything possible to educate the socialist parties of the
various countries in the spirit of uncompromising class struggle as well as in
the spirit of the Con.nnunist program. Thus, the First International was
organizationally the great forerunner and prototype of the Communist
International.
However, the objective conditions immediately after the collapse of the First
International did not favor the building of Communist parties. On the con-
trary, there followed a prolonged period of more or less peaceful development,
when the immediate task called for rather slow organizational and propaganda
efforts. It is well known that during all these stages of the lai^or movement,
Marx and Engels conducted a systematic struggle against bourgeois and petty-
bourgeois influences upon the labor movement, both against the so-called "con-
servative socialism" and anarchism. But the development of the Western
European movement, particularly since the founding of the Second Interna-
tional, while growing broadly, was directed ever more one-sidedly along the
path of social-democratic parliamentarism.
With the advent of the epoch of imperialism, problems quite different from
parliamentary ones began pressing for solution. Large scale revolutionary
struggles were looming once again, the same as at the end of the forties, hence
again the possibility and necessity of a genxTine Communist Party.
The new epoch placed before the proletariat new tasks, namely:
"The rebuilding of the entire Party work along new revolutionary lines;
the education of the workers in tlie spirit of revolutionary struggle for
power ; preparation and consolidation of reserves ; union with proletarians
of neighboring countries ; establishing of solid and enduring contacts with
the movements for liberation in the colonies and dependent countries ; etc.,
etc. To think that the forces of the old social-democratic parties, trained in
the peaceful ways of parliamentarism, will be able to solve all these prob-
lems is to doom oneself to hopeless despair and to an unavoidable defeat."
(Stalin)
The typical parties of the Second International, of the character of which
we have already spoken, were poles apart from that type of party which would
correspond to the revolutionary workers' party conceived by Marx.
In the first place, they were not the conscious vanguard of the working class.
The Communist Manifesto, speaking of Communists, presents them as the
actual vanguard of the proletariat :
"Thus, in actual practice. Communists form the most resolute and per-
sistently progressive section of the working class parties of all lands
whilst, as fur as theory is concerned, being in advance of the general
mass of the proletariat, they have come to understand the determinants
of the proletarian movement and how to forsee its course and its gen-
eral results."
But the social-democratic parties enjoyed neither of these two advantages.
There were no lines of demarcation between the party and the class and fre-
quently not even between the party and the mass movement of the petty
bourgeoisie. In general, it was not even considered necessary to raise the
question about these dividing lines, until Lenin raised that issue in the Russian
movement.
The attitude of social-democratic parties to the masses at that time was
one of "tailism". Even the left social-democrats were completely off the track in
this respect with their theory of spontaneity, by failing to understand the leading
role of the party. The entire structure of the Communist Manifesto cannot
be reconciled with either tailism or sectarianism. Communists must not iso-
late themselves from the masses, neither must they reduce tliemselves to the
level of the non-class-conscious masses ; they must rather educate the masses
and lift them to the level of the vanguard. They must not place themselves
APPENDIX, PART 1 29
in opposition to mass movements of the workers; on the contrary, they must
participate in all these movements, they mnst fight in the front line and must
guide the movement towards the historical aims of the working class.
"Communists fight on behalf of the immediate aims and interests of the
working class, but in the present movement they are also defending the
future of the movement."
Such is the setting of the Communist Manifesto.
In the second place, social-democratic parties v»-ere not the organized van-
guard of the working class. INIany of these parties were a conglomerate, based
not on an individual membership, but on a collective one. Instead of a con-
stant centralized leadership of the party organization by its higher and lower
organs, there appeared in these parties, just as in a bourgeois state, a deep-
seated duality ; a rift between the bureaucracy and a passive membership.
Their main political organization was not the party but its parliamentary
fraction. Party discipline counted for nothing.
The "League of Communists", after its reorganization by Marx and Engels,
was a totally different type of party. In accordance with' the statutes of the
"League of Communists", signed by Engels in the capacity of secretary, each
member of the League had to subscribe to the following conditions : "faith in
the tenents of Communism" ; adherence to the rules and regulations of the
"League" ; admission by unanimous vote to a lower party unit ; and, aside from
that, "a revolutionary energy and zeal in propaganda work". And it was
underscored that, "He who ceases to conform to these conditions is to be ex-
pelled." In general, on the one hand, these statutes are a prototype of the stat-
utes of a present-day undergroimd Communist Party, and, on the other hand, the
prototype of the Statutes of the Communist International.
In the third place, a typical social-democratic party was not a leading organi-
zation with respect to trade unions and other proletarian mass organizations.
Even where the trade unions were collectively afiiliated with the party, they
were considered independent of it. Neither the party nor the trade unions
entertained any desire that the party members inside the trade unions should
make an effort, under the direction of the party, to insure unity of political
line in the decisions of the trade unions. On the contrary, there prevailed the
conception of "independence" and "neutrality" of the non-parti.san organizations,
a conception — "breeding independent parliamentarians and activists of the
press, torn away from the party ; breeding narrow-minded professionals and
petty-bourgeoisified co-operators" (Stalin).
The Commitnist Manifesto contains no directives that might be applied
straight to the problem of the i-elationship between the party and the trade
unions, which, as mass organizations, were as yet non-existent at that time.
There was, howevei-, a mass labor party in England, the Charist movement,
and Marx assumed then, that similar revolutionary movements of parties may
appear in other countries, too. To such labor parties are applied the following
words of the Communist Manifesto:
"The Communists do not form a separate party conflicting with other
working-class parties."
This, however, did not mean that in general the Communists must not form
their own party. No, this phrase may be correctly understood taking in con-
sideration the conditions under which the "League of Communists" was working,
and of which we already spoke at the beginning of this article. This phrase
means that, in individual countries, the Communists were not suppo.sed to put
their pai-ty in opposition to such revolutionary working-class parties as the
Chartist movement, but to enter such mass organizations and to work in their
ranks as "the most resolute section of the working-class parties, that section
which pushes forward all others."
In 1920 Lenin recommended similar tactics, though in different circum-
stances, to the English Communists with regard to the Labor Party of England,
at the time when the latter did not yet forliid the Communists to conduct unre-
strained agitational work in its ranks. It is, however, much more important
that Lenin insisted from the very beginning of the imperialist epoch upon the
work of Party members in the ranks of non-Party mass organizations along
directives from Party organizations in order to bring about the realization
of a political guidance by the Party of all other forms of organizations of the
proletariat. Lenin taught that the Party is the highest form of class unity of
proletarians.
30 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIP^S
In the fourth place, the social-democratic parties were not the means for
attaining the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
It is stated in the Manifesto that the "immediate ohjective" of a Communist,
as well as of "all other proletarian parties" (i. e., parties similar to the Chartist
organization in England) is:
"Organization of the proletariat on a class basis ; destruction of bourgeois
supremacy ; conquest of political power by the proletariat."
The epoch of imperialism made this basic problem a burning issue of the
day. It was necessary to proceed immediately with the task of training the
working class for struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. But the
social-democratic parties had turned into a tool for the preservation of the
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
"Hence the urgent need for a new party, a fighting party, a revolutionary
party; a party sufficiently daring to lead the proletarians into struggle for
l^ower ; a party experienced enough to oi'ieutate itself under the complex
conditions of a revolutionary situation and flexible eno\igh to avoid all
and sundry pitfalls on the road to its goal." (Stalin)
Marx took into consideration the lessons of the Paris Commune in dealing
with the problems of the Party. This found a clear expression in the resolu-
tion of the London Conference of delegates of the First International (Septem-
ber, 1871) where it was emphasized that it was necessary "to form the prole-
tariat into a political party in order to insure the victory of the social revolu-
tion and of its highest goal — the abolition of classes". Here the idea is
already given for the teachings of Lenin on the Party as a weapon in the
hands of the proletariat for consolidating and broadening the dictatorship after
having wrested power.
In the fifth place, the parties of the Second International of that period
did not represent a unity of will. Their doors were wide open for all sorts
of ideological quacks, priests and political careerists. The very name of the
party ("Social-Democratic") was utilized for that purpose, a name first adopted
in Germany despite Marx's strongest objections to it. The program of the
party and the resolutions of congresses were looked upon as mere propaganda
literature implying no obligations upon either the leadership or the membership
of the party. The example afforded by the "League of Communists" was wholly
forgotten. In line with the traditions of bourgeois liberalism, there prevailed
in the ranks of the social-democratic party a free competition of the most
diversified currents of thought, of groups, and of fractions. And they never
even imagined that it ought to be otherwise until I^enin demanded some-
thing entirely different — a monolithic party, which "knows how to conduct its
affairs and is not afraid of difficulties" (Stalin) ; which sets a firm line of
action in accordance with the changes of the situation and then actually carries
out that line ; which fights everywhere as an entity for an identical platform ;
which is capable of mass struggles, is trained for such struggles and can, there-
fore, maintain an iron discipline within its ranks.
Was there a practical possibility of creating such a truly revolutionary
Marxian party under the conditions of the labor movement of those (the pre-
war) days? Yes, there was, but only along one road. Engels expressed it
back in 188.5, when he wrote to Wilhelm Liebknecht about the social-democratic
party of Germany :
"The petty-bourgeois element within the party is gaining the upper hand
ever more and more. If this will continue, you may rest assured that there
will be a split in the ranks of the party."
A split of the social-democracy — such is the road. There was actually no
other way ahead under the conditions of those days. The Bolsheivks, under the
leadersship of Lenin, were not afraid to proceed along that road (in 1903).
Without its struggle against Menshevism, the Party could not have been trained
for the solution of the impending historical tasks. And that became possible
only because Lenin put the question of that struggle squarely without retreat-
ing even before an imminent split.
In many countries there were left elements in the ranks of the social-demo-
cratic parties. Almost nowhere did they follow the example of the P>olsheviks
during the pre-war days. Their struggles against opportunism were half-
hearted. They themselves were partly infected with opportunism which bios-
APPENDIX, PART 1 31
somed out Inxnriantly within the Second International. The German Lefts
were also guilty of the same fault.
The Centrists were the main champions of unity within the old social-
democratic parties, resolutely fighting against tendencies toward a split.
Therein lies one of the greatest evils of centrism.
Even the lefts failed to understand that ''the party is strengthened by cleans-
inn itself from opportunistic elements'' (Stalin). This premise is also one of
the very basic features of the Leninist Party. The Centrists viewed the
strengthening of the Party exclusively from the point of view of electoral
chances. Nor were the lefts free from that one-sidedness.
We have formulated the problem of the Party in the above discussion from
the viewpoint of Comrade Stalin's six basic points, which he formulated, in
his lectures on the foundations of Leninism, as features peculiar to the Party
of Lenin : and with respect to almost every one of these points we were able
to establish the presence, both in the Communist Manifesto as well as in the
"League of Communists", of definite roots of Lenin's teachings on the Party.
Exactly because of its loyalty to the principles of Marxism did the party of
Lenin, the C. P. S. U., become not merely a model for the revolutionary labor
parties of all countries, but also the leading vanguard of the international labor
movement.
The Bolsheviks are true internationalists. Theirs has always been the policy
of true Communists, as expressed in the Communist Manifesto.
"On the one hand, in the various national struggles of the proletarians,
they emphasize and champion the interests of the proletariat as a whole,
those proletarian interests that are independent of nationality ; and, on
the other hand, in the various pliases of evolution through which the strug-
gle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie passes, they always advo-
cate the interests of the movement as a whole."
Russian Bolshevism, thanks to its correct tactics and organization, which
were justified by the greatest successes and victories
". . . became a world-wide Bolshevism ; it brought forth the idea, the
theory, the program and the tactics which distinguish it concretely and
practically from social-chauvinism and social-pacifism. Bolshevism killed
the old, rotten International of the Scheidemanns and the Kautsky.s, of the
Renaudels and the Longuets, of the Hendersons and the MacDoualds. . . .
Bolshevism created the ideological and tactical bases of the Third Inter-
national— the truly proletarian and Communist International, which takes
into consideration both the conquests of the peaceful epoch and the expe-
riences of the revolutionary epoch into which we are entering."
Lenin wrote those words a few months before the constituent congress of the
Communist International. Ever since then the Communist International, under
the guidance of the C.P.S.U., grew up into a sturdy world Party of the revo-
lutionary proletariat. There is no country in the world without an organiza-
tion of the Communist International. The Comintern has already been tried
and tempered in countless fierce battles. To it belongs the future.
THE IMPERIALIST WAR AND THE STRUGGLE FOR TURNING IT
INTO A PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION
When the imperialist war broke out in August, 1914, all social-democratic
parties betrayed socialism openly. The Second International suffered an igno-
minious crash. Tlie majority of social-democratic leaders, parliamentarists, and
newspapers went over openly to the side of their respective governments. "The
Fatherland is in danger — all out to protect the Fatherland!" — such was the
slogan of the Russian. German, French, English and other social-chauvinists.
Such was the slogan in numerous fatherlands.
And what was proclaimed in the Communist Manifesto?
"The workers have no country. No one can take from them what they
they have not got.'"
The socialists have been repeating this truth from the Communist Mani-
festo thousands of times as their principle. And now? Today, when the
social-democratic parties find themselves face to face with the acid test of
history to determine whether or not they will practice what they preach, today
— a complete betrayal.
32 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
OhIij one party — ihe party of Lenin — fnZ/y passed this historiG test. In
other countries only left-wing groups conducted struggles against their respective
imperialist governments. The heroic struggle of Karl Liebknecht in Germany-
was particularly outstanding.
The Kautskyists in Germany, the Longuetists in France, the '-Independents"
in England, the Mensheviks — "internationalists"^ — in Russia, and other centrists
were playing the role of pacifists. In words they were not for war, and, just
like the right social-democrats, they were for universal peace. But in fact this
meant only one thing : the maintenance of peace with one's own government
engaged in war and wnth the openly chauvinistic social-democrats.
It is important even in these days not to forget the particular pacifistiG
sophistry of the n-artime eentrists (because history is sure to repeat itself in
one form or another). They were swearing and vowing, as Lenin said, that
they are Marxists and Internationalists, that they are for exerting every pnsible
"pressure" upon their governments for the cause of peace. They "condenuied"
the attack on Belgium by Germany, the war Russia was waging upon German
soil, the tendencies for annexation of territory exhibited by this or that gov-
ernment, the "start" of the war by this or that government, but they would not
hear or know of one thing: the class character of the imperialist irar.
They knew perfectly well that according to the Communist Manifesto, the
abolition of "exploitation of one nation by the other" is connected with the
abolition of "exploitation of one individual by the other" ; but they were loth
to derive therefrom the conclusion that is given in the Communist Manifesto:
"In proportion as the exploitation of one individual by another comes to
an end, the exploitation of one nation by another will come to an end.
"The ending of class oppositions within tlie nations will end the mutual
hostility of the nations."
The centrist sopliists turned the question upside down : first, remove the
hostility between nations and then it will be possible to start thinking wliat is
to be done to remove class antagonisms.
Lenin explained to the workers that :
. ". . . the character of a war (be it a revolutionary or a reactionary one)
does not depend upon who was the aggressor nor upon tlie question of
whose territory is occupied by the 'enemy', but it depends upon the class
of society which wages that war and what policy is being promulgated
by that war. If that war is a reactionary, imperialistic one, waged by
two sets of imperialistic, oppressing, predatory and reactionary bourgeoisie
then every bourgeoisie (even of a small country) is turned into a partic-
ipant in this looting and it is my task, the task of a representative of the
revolutionary proletariat, to prepare the world proletarian revolution,
as the only salvation from the horrors of the world war."
And that was the true internationalism with respect to the war.
The Leninist party did not forget in this case what was so strongly empha-
sized by Marx in the Communist Manifesto:
"The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle
matters with its own boiu'geoisie."
The Bolsheviks were not afraid to come out for the defeat of their own
governments in the war. That is true of Karl Liebknecht. '"The m<iin enemy
is within one's own country," such is the correct principle for action by a
revolutionary workers' party. "Turning the imperialist tvar into a civil tofir,"
such is the correct slogan.
"Imperialism is the epoch of wars, but at the same time it is also the epoch
of proletarian revolutions," declared Lenin. The imperialist war showed that
the world bourgeoisie in this epoch can only hasten its downfall even with its
own monstrous crimes. Millions upon millions of men were sent by the imperi-
al!.«t boui'geoisie to the front to fight for its piratical policy, to figlit, to shed
their blood and to die. And what was the outcome? Was it merely senseless
destruction, as the pacifists claim? No. Was it merely rich spoils and
conquest for which the imperialists hoped? No. Only a few of the imperialists
have amassed a booty of other peoples' goods and lands. RussianCzarism broke
its neck. Austria-Hungary followed suit and German imperialism came out of
the Avar very much crippled. Such results were of doubtful benefit for the
APPENDIX, PART 1 33
cause of the world bourgeoisie. Ratlier the contrary — it was an acceleration
of the world proletarian revolution.
The war gathered all the contradictions of imperialism into one knot, wiMtes
Comrade Stalin, and "threw them imto the scales, thus hastening and facili-
tating the revolutionary battles of the proletariat. In other words, imperialism
brought about a situation which made the revolution not only a practical
necessity, but also created favorable conditions for a frontal attack upon the
very strongholds of capitalism."
A revolutionary situation was created on a European scale. The Bolsheviks
drew from it the true Marxian conclusion : since we are faced with a revolu-
tionary situation, we have to take up the question of revolution as a practical
problem. And they did. They did not wait for the revolution to break out
everywhere. Lenin said :
"To wait until the working class will accomplish the revolution on a
world scale iiuplies that we all congeal while waiting.
Russia was the focal point of imperialist contradictions.
". . . not only because these contradictions were particularly apparant in
Russia due to their particularly stupid and unbearable character; not only
because Russia was the most important mainstay of Western imperialism,
serving as the connecting link between the finance capital of the West and
the colonies of the East, but also due to the fact that only in Russia there
existed that particular and real power, which was able to solve the contra-
dictions of capitalism in a revolutionary way." (Stalin)
That power was the most revolutionary proletariat in the world, headed by the
party of Lenin, and having at its disposal such an important ally as the revolu-
tionary peasantry of Russia.
Objective conditions for a proletarian revolution were ripe and favorable in
many other European countries at the end of the imperialist war. But the
Centrist "also-Marxists" did not want a revolution against their governments.
They were afraid of a revolution. That is the crux of the matter. And because
of that did they embark upon inventing all sorts of "Marxist" sounding excuses
to justify their evasion of the revolution.
The Bolsheviks, however, with an eye to the final objective, were busily pre-
paring the proletariat of Russia for the revolution, and they led the proletariat
to victory and to power.
The great October Revolution has given the working class a fatherland, for
the first time in the history of mankind. It freed the workers and all the
oppressed nations of the former Russian Empire. It started a new era in the
world history — the era of world proletarian rerolution.
Soon after that, proletarian revolutions broke out in a number of countries,
where the proletariat seized power temporarily, but was unable to retain it.
And why? Because the labor parties at the head of the revolution were not
Bolshevist parties. This was the main reason for the defeat of the revolution
in Finland, for instance, and, some time later, in Bavaria and Hungary. Another
reason was that in 1918 the German bourgeoisie sent troops into Finland, into
the Baltic countries and into the Ukraine in order to strangle the revolution.
Not without reason did Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacides accuse the German
Social-Democracy of betrayal. In full agreement with this accvisation, Lenin
wrote :
"This accusation expresses a clear cognizance of the fact that the German
proletariat betrayed the Russian (and the international) revolution in
strangling Finland, the Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. But this accusation is
directed first and foremost not against the masses, which are downtrodden
everywhere, but against those leaders, who, like Scheidemann and Kautsky,
failed in their duty of revolutionary agitation, revolutionary propaganda,
and revolutionary work among the masses to counteract their backwardness ;
who, as a matter of fact, acted contrary to the revolutionary instincts and
aspirations which are ever smoldering in the depths of the masses of an
oppressed class."
The revolution broke out in Germany in November, 1918. The German bour-
geoisie admitted the social-democratic parties to power. And it knew what it was
doing. The "Socialist" rulers— Ebert, Scheidemann, Noske, Haase, and Com-
pany— saved their bourgeoisie. Very skillfully they deceived, disorganized,
and broke up the revolutionary movement of the German working class. At
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 4
34 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
that time the Communist Party of Germany was only in the process of formation.
In the same manner and in many other countries, the social-democracy was busy
saving its bourgeoisie from ruin.
It is possible that those exploits of the social-democratic leaders are merely
a record of days gone by? He is mistaken who thinks so. Is it possible that the
social-democratic politicians have given up befogging the minds with their pacifist
sophistry? Not at all. As recently as February, 1932, the Second International
burst forth again into one of its typical appeals for peace. In what respect is
this any worse than the Basel Manifesto of 1912. What is to hinder the Second
International from declaring itself as an "instrument of peace" in case of war,
true to its sharp practices?
Or did the social-democratic leaders perchance turn left? Oh, no ! They
were very much "left" in 1919-1920 when It was necessary to charm the masses
with radical phrases. At that time the French Socialist Party, the German
National Socialist Party, the English independents and others were even passing
resolutions in favor of joining the Comintern ! Many leaders of these parties,
including Ramsay MacDonald, suddenly declared themselves adherents of the
slogan of the dictatorship of the proletariat ! In Germany, however, Ebert,
Scheidemann, Noske, Haase, and Company first played the role of "i^eople's
plenipotentiaries," elected by the councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies (in
November 1918), and nine months later — that of the happy fathers of the Weimar
Constitution. In the meantime Noske succeeded, in the course of six days, in
shooting down workers on the streets of Berlin and in organizing the treacherous
murder of the best leaders of the German proletariat — Karl LieV)knecht and Rosa
Luxemburg.
Do you realize now, you social-democratic workers, why Lenin demanded a
change in the name of the Russian labor party, which up to 1917 also was called
"social-democratic"? And why he uttered the words, which we, Communists,
repeat to you today :
"It is high time to cast oft the dirty shirt, it is time to put mi clean
clothes."
It is high time to throw the social-democartic party off your shoulders !
Exhibit No. 4
[Sourca: Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, page 5356.
Testimony of Willinm Z. Foster, Cliairman of the Communist Party of the United
States, September 29, 1939]
*******
Mr. Matthews. Mr. Foster has already stated that he accepts the Program
of the Communist International; that is correct, is it not?
Mr. Foster. That is right.
Mr. Matthews. And in your book you have quoted extensively from the
Program of the Communist International; that is also correct, is it not?
Mr. Foster. That is right.
Exhibit No. 5
[Source: A pamphlet published by Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1936]
PROGRAM OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL TOGETHER WITH
ITS CONSTITUTION
Worljers Library Publishers : New York, 1936
The Program of the Communist Interyiational, together with the
Constitution., vas adopted at the forty-sixth session of the Sixth
World Congress of the Communist International, September 1,
1928.
Introduction
The epoch of imperialism is the epoch of moribund capitalism. The World
War of 1914-1918 and the general crisis of capitalism which it unleashed, being
APPENDIX, PART 1 35
the direct result of the sharp contradictions between the growth of the pro-
ductive forces of world economy and the national state barriers, have shown
and proved that the material prerequisites for socialism have already ripened
in the worab of capitalist society, that the shell of capitalism has become aa
intolerable hindrance to the further development of mankind and that history
has brought to the forefront the task of the revolutionary overthrow of the yoke
of capitalism.
Imperialism subjects large masses of the proletariat of all countries — from
the centers of capitalist might to the most remote corners of the colonial
world — to the dictatorship of the finance-capitalist plutocracy. With elemental
force, imperialism exposes and accentuates all the contradictions of capitalist
society : it carries class oppression to the utmost limits, intensifies to an
•extraordinary degree the struggle between capitalist states, inevitably gives
rise to world-wide imperialist wars that shake the whole prevailing system of
relationships to the foundations and inexorably leads to the ivorld proletarian
revolution.
Binding the whole world in chains of finance-capital, forcing its yoke, by blood-
letting, by the mailed fist and starvation, upon the proletariat of all countries,
of all nations and races, sharpening to an immeasurable degree the exploitation,
oppression and enslavement of the proletariat and confronting it with the
immediate task of conquering power — imperialism creates the necessity for
closely uniting the workers of all countries, irrespective of state boundaries and
of differences of nationality, culture, laugiaage, race, sex or occupation, in a single
international army of the proletariat. Thus, while imperialism develops and
completes the process of creating the material prerequisites for socialism, it
at the same time musters the army of its own grave-diggers, compelling the
proletariat to organize into a militnnt international workers' association.
On the other hand, imperialism splits off the best provided for section of the
working class from the main mass of the workers. Bribed and corrupted by
imperialism, this upper stratum of the working class, which constitutes the
leading element in the Social-Democratic parties, which has a stake in the
imperialist plunder of the colonies and is loyal to "its own" bourgeoisie and
■"its own" imperialist state, has lined up in the decisive class battles with
the class enemy of the proletariat. The split that occurred in the socialist
movement in 1914 as a result of this treachery, and the subsequent treachery of
the Social-Democratic parties, which in reality have become bourgeois labor
parties, have demonstrated that the international proletariat will be able to
fulfill its historical mission — to throw off the .yoke of imperialism and establish
the proletarian dictatorship — o)ily by ruthless struggle against Social-Democracy.
Hence, the organization of the forces of the international revolution becomes
possible only on the platform of communism. In opposition to the opportunist
Second International of Social-Democracy — which has become the agency of
imperialism in the ranks of the working class — inevitably rises the Third,
Communist. International, the international organization of the working class,
which embodies the real unity of the revolutionary workers of the whole world.
The war of 1914-1918 gave rise to the first attempts to establish a new,
revolutionai-y International, as a counterpoise to the Second, social-chauvinist
Internati inal, and as a weapon of resistance to bellicose imperialism (Zimmer-
wald and Kienthal). The victorious proletarian revolution in Russia gave an
imiietus to the formation of Communist Parties in the centers of capitalism
and in the colonies. In 1919. the Communist International was formed, and for
the first time in world history the most advanced strata of the European and
American proletariat were really united in the pi'ocess of practical revolutionary
struggle with the proletariat of China and India and with the Negro toilers of
Africa and America.
As the united and centralized international Party of the proletariat, the
Communist International is the only heir to the prininples of the First Inter-
national, carrying them forward upon the new, mass foundation of the revolu-
tionary proletarian movement. The experience gathered from the first im]>e-
riaiist war, from the subsequent period of the revolutionary crisis of capitalism,
from the series of revolutions in Europe and in the colonial countries ; the
experience gathered from the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialist
construction in the U. S. S. R. and from the work of all the Sections of the
■Communist International as recorded in the decisions of its Congres.ses : finally,
the fact that the struggle between the imperialist bourgeoisie and the proletariat
is more and more assuming an international character — all this creates the
36 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
need for a program of the Communist International, a uniform and common
program for all Sections of the Communist International. This program of the
Communist International, as the supreme critical generalization of the whole
body of historical exiierience of the international revolutionary proletarian
movement, becomes tlie program of struggle for the world proletarian dictator-
sliip, ihe program of struggle for world eommunism.
Uniting as it does, the revolutionary workers, who lead the millions of
oppressed and exploited against the bourgeoisie and its "socialist'' agents, the
Communist International regards itself as the historical successor to the "Com-
munist League" and the First International led by Marx, and as the inheritor
of the best of the pre-war traditions of the Second International. The First
International laid the ideological foundation for the International proletarian
strxiggle for socialism. The tiecond International, in the best period of its ex-
istence, prepared the ground for the expansion of the labor movement among
the masses. The Third, Communist International, in continuing the work of
the First International, and in accepting the fruits of the work of the Second In-
ternational, has resolutely lopped off the latter's opportunism, social-chauvinism,
and bourgeois distortion of socialism and has commenced to realize the dictator-
ship of the proletariat. In this manner the Communist International continues
the glorious and heroic traditions of the International labor movement ; of the
English Chartists and the French insurrectionists of 1831 ; of tlie French and
German working class revolutionaries of 1848; of the immortal fighters and
martyrs of the Paris Commune; of the valiant soldiers of the German, Hungar-
ian and Finnish revolutions; of the workers under the former tsarist despotism — -
the victorious bearers of the proletarian dictatorship; of the Chinese pro-
letarians— the heroes of Canton and Shanghai.
Basing Itself on the experience of the revokitionary labor movement on all
continents and of all peoples, the Communist International, in its theoretical and
practical work, stands wholly and unreservedly upon the ground of revolutionary
Marxism and its further development, Leninism, which is nothing else but
Marxism of the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution.
Advocating and propagating the dialetical materialism, of Marx and Engels
and employing it as the revolutionary method of the cognition of reality, with
the view to the revolutionary transformation of this reality, the Communist In-
ternational wages an active struggle against all forms of bourgeois philosophy
and against all forms of theoretical and practical opportunism. Standing
on the ground of consistent proletarian class struggle and subordinating the
temporary, partial, group and national Interests of the proletariat to its lasting,
general, international interests, the Communist International mercilessly exposes
all forms of the doctrine of "class peace" that the reformists have accepted
from the bourgeoisie. Expressing the historical need for an international
organization of revolutionary proletarian.s — -the grave-diggers of the capitalist
order — the Communist International is the only international force that has
for its program the dictatorship of the proletariat and communism, and that
openly comes out as the organizer of the international proletarian revolution.
chapter one
The World S"s»3tem of Capitalism, Its Development and Inevitable Downfall
1. The General Laxos of the Development of Capitalism and the Epoch of
Industrial Capital
The characteristic features of capitalist society which arose on the basis of
commodity production are the monopoly of the most important and vital means
of production by the capitalist class and big landlords; the exploitation of the
wage labor of the proletariat, which, being deprived of the means of produc-
tion, is compelled to sell its labor power ; the production of commodities for
profit; and these, linked up with all the planless and anarchic character of the
process of ])roduction as a whole ; exploitation relationships and the economic
domination of the bourgeoisie and their political expression in the organized
capitalist state — the instrument for the suppression of the proletariat.
The history of capitalism has entirely confirmed the Marxian theory con-
cerning the laws of development of capitalist society and the contradiction of
this development which ineA'itably lead to the downfall of the whole capitalist
system.
APPENDIX, PART 1 37
lu its quest for profits the bourgeoisie was compelled to develop the productive
forces oa an ever-increasing scale and to strengthen and expand the domination
of capitalist relationships of production. Thus, the develoimient of capitalism
constantly reproduces on a wider scale all the inherent contradictious of the capi-
talist system, primarily, the decisive contradiction betvi-een the social character
of labor and private appropriation, between the growth of the productive forces
and the property i-elations of capitalism. The predominance of private prop-
erty in the means ot production and the anarchy prevailing in the process of
produi-tion have disturlied the equilibrium between the various branches of
production ; for a growing contradiction developed between the tendency towards
unlimited expansion of production and the restricted consumption of the masses
of the proletariat (general over-production), and this resulted in periodical
devasraring crises and mass unemployment among the proletariat. The pre-
dominance of private property also found expression in the competition that
prevailed in each separate capitalist couutry as well as on the constantly ex-
panding world market. This latter form of capitalist rivalry resulted in a
numl)er of wars, which are the inevitable accompaniment of capitalist
development.
On the other hand, the technical and economic advantages of large-scale pro-
duction have resulted in the squeezing out and destruction in the competitive
struggle of the pre-capitalist economic forms and in the ever-increasing concen-
tration! ami centralization of capital. In the sphere of industry this hiw of con-
centration and centralization of capital manifested itself primarily in the direct
ruin of small enterprises and partly in their being reduced to the position of
auxiliary units of large enterprises. In the domain of agriculture which, owing
to the existence of the monopoly in land and absolute rent, must inevitably lag
behind the general rate of development, this law not only found expression in
the process of differentiation that took place among the peasantry and in the
proletarianization of broad strata of the latter, but also and mainly in the open
and concealed subordination of small peasant economy to the domination of
big capital ; small farming has been able to maintain a nominal independence
only at the price of extreme intensification of labor and systematic under-
consiunprion.
Tlie e\er-growing application of machinery, the constant improvements in
technique and the resultant uninterrupted rise in the organic composition of
capital, accompanied by still further division, increased productivity and inten-
sity of labor, meant also increased employment of female and child labor, the
formation of enormous industrial reserve armies which are constantly replen-
ished by the proletarianized peasantry who are forced to leave their villages as
well as by the ruined urban small and middle bourgeoisie. The collection of a
handful of capitalist ntagnates at one pole of social relationships and of a
gigantic mass of the proletariat at the other ; the constantly increasing rate
of exploitation of the working class, the reproduction on a wider scale of the
deepest contradictions of capitalism and their consequences (crises, wars, etc.) ;
the constant growth of .social inequality, the rising discontent of the proletariat
united and schooled by the mechanism of capitalist production itself — all this
was inevitably undermining the foundations of capitalism, bringing nearer the
day of its collapse.
Simultaneously, a profound change has taken place in the social and cultural
life of capitalist society ; the parasitical decadence of the rentier group of the
bourgeoisie : the break-up of the family, which expresses the growing contradic-
tion between the mass participation of women in social production and the
forms of family and domestic life largely inherited from previous economic
epochs; the growing shallowness and degeneracy of cultural and ideological
life resulting from the minute specialization of labor, the monstrous forms of ur-
ban life and the restrictedness of rural life ; the incapability of the bourgeoisie,
notwithstanding the enormous achievements of the natural sciences, to create
a .\vnthetically scientific philosophy, and the growth of idealogical, mystical and
religious superstition, are all plienomena signalizing the approach of the
historical end of the capitalist system.
2. The Era of Finance Capital (Imperialism)
The period of induntrial capitalism was, in the main, a period of "free com-
petition" : a period of a relatively smooth evolution and expansion of capitalism
throughou.t the whole world, when the as yet unoccupied colonies were being
di',ided up and conquered by armed force ; a period of continuous growth of the
38 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
inner contradictions of capitalism, tlie burden of wtiich fell mainly upon the
systematically plundered, crushed and oppressed colonial periphery.
Towards the beginning of the twentieth century, this period was replaced by
the period of imperialism, during which capitalism developed spasmodically
and conflictingly ; free competition raindly gave way to monopoly, the previously
"available" colonial lands had already been divided up, and the struggle for
a redistribution of colonies and spheres of influence inevitably began to assume
primarily the form of a struggle by force of arms.
Thus, the entire scope and truly world-wide scale of the contradictions of
capitalism become most glaringly revealed in the epoch of iinperialism (finance
capitalism), which, from the historical standpoint, signifies a new form of
capitalism, a new system of relationship between the various parts of world
capitalist economy and a change in the relationship between the principal
classes of capitalist society.
This new historical period set in as a result of the operation of the principal
dynamic laws of capitalist society. It grew out of the development of indus-
trial capitalism, and is the historical continuation of the latter. It sharpened
the manifestations of all the fundamental tendencies and laws of capitalist
development, of all its fundamental contradictions and antagonisms. The law
of the concentration and centralization of capital led to the formation of power-
ful combines (cartels, syndicates, trusts), to a new form of gigantic combina-
tions of enterprises linked up into one system by the banks. The merging of
industrial capital with banking capital, the absorption of big land ownership
into the gent>ral system of capitalist organization, and the monopolistic charac-
ter of this form of capitalism transformed the epoch of industrial capital into
the epoch of finance capital. "Free competition" of the period of industrial capi-
talism, which replaced feudal monopoly and the monopoly of merchant capital,
became itself transformed into ftnmice-capUal mouopoly. At the same time, the
capitalist monopolies which grow out of free competition do not eliminate com-
petition, but exist side by side with and hover over it, and thus give rise to a
series of exceptionally great and acute contradictions, frictions and conflicts.
The growing application of complex machinery, of chemical processes and of
electric energy ; the resulting higher organic composition of capital and, con-
sequently, decline in the rate of profit, which only the biggest monopolistic
combines are able to counteract for a time by their policy of high monopoly
prices, still further stimulate the quest for colonial super-profits and the strug-
gle for a new division of the world. Standardized mass production creates the
demand for new foreign markets. The growing demand for raw materials and
fuel intensifies the race for their sources. Lastly, the system of high protection,
which hinders the export of merchandise and secures additional ])rortt for ex-
ported capital, creates additional stimuli for the export of capital. Export of
capital becomes, therefore, the decisive and specific form of economic contact
between the various parts of world capitali.st economy. The total effect of all
this is that the monopolist ownership of colonial markets, of sources of raw
materials, and of spheres of investment of capital extremely accentuates the
general uneveuness of capitalist developm.ent and sharpens the conflicts between
the "great powers" of finance capital over the redistribution of the colonies and
spheres of infiuence.
The growth of the productive forces of world economy thus leads to the further
internationalism of economic life and simultaneously leads to a struggle for re-
distribution of the world, already divided up among the biggest finance capital
states, to a change in and sharpening of the forms of tliis struggle, to stiperseding
to an increasing degree the method of lower prices which the method of forcible
pressure (boycott, high protection, tariff wars, wars proper, etc.). Consequently,
the monopolistic form of capitalism is inevitably accompanied by imperialist wars,
which, by the area they embrace and the destructiveness of their technique, have
no parallel in world history.
3. The Forces of Imperialism and the Forces of Revolution
Expressing the tendency for unification of the various sections of the dominant
class, the imperialist form of capitalism places the broad masses of the proletariat
in opposition, not to a single employer, but, to an increasing degree, to the capitalist
class as a whole and to the capitalist state. On the other hand, this form of
capitalism breaks down the national barriers that have become too restricted for
it, widens the scope of the capitalist state power of the dominant Great Power
and brings it in opposition to the vast masses of the nationality oppressed peoples
APPENDIX, PART 1 39
in the so-called small nations and in the colonies. Finally, this form of capitalism
brings the imperialist states most sharply in opposition to each other.
This being the case, state power, whicli is becoming the dictatorship of the
finance-capitalist oligarchy and the expression of its concentrated might, acquires
special significance for the bourgeoise. The functions of this multi-national im-
perialist state grow in all directions. The development of state capitalist forms
which facilitate the struggle in foreign jnarkets (mobilization of industry for war
purposes) as well as the struggle against the working class ; the monstrous growtii
of militarism (armies, naval and air fleets, and the employment of chemistry and
bacteriology) ; the increasing pressure of the imperialist state upon the Avorkiiig
class (the growth of exploitation and direct suppression of the workers on the
one hand and the systematic policy of bribing the bureaucratic reformist leader-
ship on the other), all this expresses the enormous growth of the power of the
state. Under these circumstances, every more or less important action of tlie
proletariat becomes transformed into an action against the state power, i. c,
into political action.
Thus the development of capitalism, and particularly the imperialist epoch of
its develoinnent, reproduces the fundamental contradictions of capitalism on an
increasingly magnified scale. Competition among small capitalists ceases, only to
make way for competition among big capitalists ; where competition among big
capitalists subsides, it flares up between gigantic combinations of capitalist mag-
nates and their states ; local and national crises become transformed into crises
affecting a number of countries and, subsequently, into world crises ; local wars
give way to wars between coalitions of states and to world wars ; the class strug-
gles change from isolated actions of single groups of workers into nation-wide
conflicts and subsequently, into an international struggle of the world proletariat
against the world bourgeoisie. Finally, two main revolutionary forces are or-
ganising against the organized might of finance capital — on the one hand, the
workers in the capitalist states, on the other, the victims of the oppression of
foreign capital, the masses of the people in the eolonies, marching under the lead-
ership and the hegemony of the international revolutionary proletarian move-
ment.
However, this fundamental revolutionary tendency is temporarily paralyzed
by the fact that certain sections of the European, North American and Japanese
proletariat are bribed by the imperialist bourgeoisie, and by the treachery of the
national bourgeoisie in the semi-colonial and colonial countries which is fright-
ened by the revolutionary mass movement. The bourgeoisie of imperialist
countries, which is able to secure additional surplus profits from the position it
holds in the world market (more developed technique, export of capital to
countries with a higher rate of profit, etc.), and from the proceeds of its plunder
of the colonies and semi-colonies — was able to raise the wages of its "own"'
workers out of the surplus profits, thus giving the.se workers an interest in the
development of "their" capitalism, in the plunder of the colonies and in being
loyal to the imperialist state.
This systematic bribery was and is being widely practised in the most powerful
imperialist countries and finds most striking expression in the ideology and prac-
tice of tlie labor aristocracy and the bureaucratic strata of the working class,
i. e., the Social-Democratic and trade union leaders, who proved to be the direct
agencies of bourgeois influence among the proletariat and stalwart pillars of
the capitalistist system.
However, while it has stimulated the growth of the corrupt upper stratum of
the working class, imperialism in the end destroys their influence upon the work-
ing class, because the growing contradictions of imperialism, the worsening of the
conditions of the broad masses of the workers, the mass unemijloyment among
the proletariat, the enormous cost of military conflicts and the "burdens they
entail, the fact that certain powers have lost their monopolistic position in the
world market, the break-away of the colonies, etc., serve to undermine the basis
of Social-Democracy among the masses. Similarly, the systematic bribery of
the various sections of the bourgeoisie in the colonies and semi-colonies, their
betrayal of the national-revolutionary movement and their rapprochement with
the imperialist powers can paralyze the development of the revolutionary crisis
only for a time. In the final analysis, this leads to the intensification of imperial-
ist oppression, to the decline of the influence of the national bourgeoisie upon
the masses of the people, to the .sharpening of the revolutionary crisis, to the
unleashing of the agrarian revolution of the broad masses of the pea.santry and to
the creation of conditions favorable for the establishment of the hegemony of the
proletariat in the colonies and dependencies in the popular mass struggle for in-
dependence and complete national liberation.
40 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
4. Imperialism and the Doumfall of Capitalism
Imperialism has greatly developed the productive forces of world capitalism.
It has completed the preparation of all the material prerequisites for the socialist
organization of society. By its vi'ars it has demonstrated that the productive
forces of world economy, which have outgrown the restricted boundaries of
imperialist states, demand the organization of economy on a world, or inter-
national, scale. Imperialism tries to remove this contradiction by hacking a road
with fire and sword towards a single world state-capital trust, which is to organize
the whole world economy. This sanguinary utopia is being extolled by the
Social-Democratic ideologist as a peaceful method of a new, "organized", capital-
ism. In reality, this utopia encounters insurmountable objective obstacles of such
magnitude that capitalism must inevitably fall beneath the weight of its own
contradictions. The law of the uneven development of capitalism, accentuated
in the epoch of imperialism, renders firm and durable international combinations
of imperialist powers impossible. On the other hand, imperialist wars, which are
developing into world wars, and by which the law of centralization of capitalism
strives to reach its world limit — a single world trust — are accompanied by so
much destruction and j)lace such burdens upon the shoulders of the working class
and of the millions of colonial proletarians and peasants, that capitalism nnist
inevitabl.v perish beneath the blows of the proletarian revolution long before this
goal is reached.
Being the highest phase of capitalist development, developing the productive
forces of world economy to enormous dimensions, refashioning the whole
world after its own image, imperialism draws into the orbit of finance-capitalist
exploitation all colonies, all races and all nations. At the same time, however,
the monopolistic form of capital increasingly develops the elements of parasitical
degeneration, decay and decline of capitalism. By destroying, to some extent,
the driving force of competition, by conducting a policy of monopoly prices, and
having undivided mastery of the market, monopoly capital tends to retard the
further develojmient of the forces of production. In squeezing enormous sums
of surplus profits out of the millions of colonial workers and peasants and in
accumulating colossal incomes from this exploitation, imperialism is creating
a type of decaying and parasitically degenerate rentier-states as well as whole
strata of parasites who live by clipping coupons. Wliile completing the process
of creating the material prerequisites for socialism (the concentration of means
of production, the enormous socialization of labor, the growth of labor organi-
zations), the epoch of imperialism intensifies the antagonisms among the Great
Powers and gives rise to wars which cause the break-up of unified world
economy. Imperiali.sm is therefore moribund and decayimj capitalism. It is the
final stage of development of the capitalist system. It is the threshold of world
social revolvtion.
Thus, international proletarian revolution emerges out of the conditions of
development of capitalism generally, and out of its imperialist phase in par-
ticular. The capitalist system as a whole is approaching its final collapse. The
dictatorship of finance capital is perishing to give way to the dictatorship of
the proletariat.
chapter two
The General Crisis of Capitalism and the First Phase of World Revolution
1. The World War and the Progress of the Revolutionary Crisis
The imperialist struggle among the largest capitalist states for the redistribu-
tion of tbe globe led to the first imiierialist world war (1914-1918). This war
shook the whole system of world capitalism and marked the beginning of the
period of its general crisis. It bent to its service the entire national economy
of the belligerent countries, thus creating the mailed fist of state capitalism;
it increased unproductive expenditures to enormous dimensions, destroyed enor-
mous quantities of the means of production and human labor power, ruined
large masses of the population and imposed incalculable burdens upon the in-
dustrial workers, the peasants and the colonial peoples. It inevitably led to
the intensification of the class struggle, which grows into open revolutionary
mass action and civil ivar. The imperialist front was broken at its weakest
link, in tsarist Russia. Tlie Felyrnarij revolution of 1017 overthrew the domina-
APPENDIX, PART 1 41
lion of the autocracy of the big land-owning class. The Ortobcr revolution
overthrew the rule of the bourgeoisie. This victorious proletjirian revolution
expropriated the expropriators, took the means of production from the laud-
lords and the capitalists, and for the first time in human history set up and
consolidated the dictatorship of the proletariat in an enormous country, brought
into b«'ing a new, Soviet type of state and initiated the international proletarian
revolution.
The powerful shock to which the whole of world capitalism was subjected,
the sharpening of the class struggle and the direct influence of the October
proletarian revolution gave rise to a series of revolutions and revolutionary
actions on the continent of Europe as well as in the colonial and semi-colonial
countries : January, 191S, the proletarian revolution in Finland ; August, 191S,
the so-called "rice-riots" in Japan ; November, 1918, the revolutions in Austria
and Germany, which overthrew the semi-feudal mon.archies ; March, 1919, the
proletarian revolution in Hungary and the uprising in Korea ; April, 1919, the
Soviet government in Bavaria ; January, 1920, the bourgeois-national revolution
in Turkey : September, 1920, the seizure of the factories by the workers in Italy ;
March, 1921, the rising of the advanced workers of Germany ; September, 1923,
the uprising in Bulgaria; autumn, 1923, the revolutionary crisis in Germany;
December, 1924, the uprising in Estonia ; April, 1925, the uprising in Morocco ;
August, 1925, uprising in Syria ; May, 1926, the general strike in England ; July,
1927, the proletarian uprising in Vienna. These events, as well as events like
the uprising in Indonesia, the deep ferment in India, the great Chinese revolution
which shook the whole Asiatic continent, are links in one and the same inter-
national revolutionary chain, constituent parts of the profound general crisis
of capitalism. This international revolutionary process embi'aced the direct
struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, as well as national wars of
liberation and colonial uprisings against imperialism which are inseparably
linked with the agrarian mass mo"S'ement of millions of peasants. Thus, an
enormous mass of humanity was swept into the revolutionary torrent. World
history entered a new phase of development — a phase of prolonged general crisis
of the capitalist system. In this process, the unity of world economy found
expression in the international character of the revolution, while the uneven
develoi)ment of its separate parts was expressed in the absence of simultaneity
in the outbreak of revolution in the different countries.
The first attempts at revolutionary overthrow, which sprang from the acute
crisis of capitalism (1918-1921), ended in the victory and consolidation of the
dictatorship of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. and in the defeat of the pro-
letariat in a number of other countries. These defeats were primarily due to
the treacherous tactics of the Social-Democratic and reformist trade union
leaders, but they were also due to the fact that the majority of the working
class had not yet accepted the lead of the Communists and that in a number of
important countries Communist Parties had not yet come into existence at all.
As a result of these defeats, which created the opportunity for intensifying the
exploitation of the mass of the proletariat and the colonial peoples, and for
severely depres.sing their standard of living, the bourgeoisie was able to achieve
a partial stabilization of capitalist relations.
2. The Revolutionary Crisis and Counter-Revolutionary Social-Democracy
During the progress of the international revolution, the leading cadres of the
Social-Democratic parties and of the reformist trade unions on the one hand,
and the militant capitalist organizations of the fascist type on the other, ac-
quired special significance as a powerful counter-revolutionary force actively
fighting against the revolution and actively supporting the partial stabilization
of capitalism.
The war crisis of 1914-1918 was accompanied by the disgraceful collapse of
the Social-Democratic Second International. Acting in complete violation of the
thesis of the Commmiist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels that the prole-
tariat has no fatherland under capitalism, and in complete violation of the
anti-war resolutions passed by the Stuttgart and Basle Congresses, the leaders
of the Social-Democratic parties in the various countries, with a few exceptions,
voted for the war credits, came out definitely in defense of the imperialist
''fatherland" (i. e., the state organizations of the imperialist bouregeoisie) and
instead of combatting the imperialist v/ar, became its loyal soldiers, bards and
propagandists (social-patriotism, which grew into social-imperialism). In the
subsequent period, Social-Democracy supported the predatory treaties (Brest-
42 UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Litovsk, Versailles) ; it actively aligned itself with the militarists in the oloody
snppression of proletarian nprisiugs (Noske) ; it conducted armed warfare
against the first proletarian republic (Soviet Russia) ; it despicably betrayed the
victorious proletariat (Hungary) ; it joined the imperialist League of Nations
(Albert Thomas, Paul Boncour, Vanden-elde) ; it openly supported the imperial-
ist slave-owners against the colonial slaves (the British Labor Party) ; it actively
supported the most reactionary executioners of the working class (Bulgaria,
Poland) ; it took upon itself the initiative in securing the passage of imperialist
"military laws" (France) ; it betrayed the general strike of the British prole-
tariat ; it helped and is still helping to strangle China and India (the MacDonald
government) ; it acts as tlie propagandist for the imperialist League of Nations;
it is capital's herald and organizer of the strujrgle against the dictatorship of
the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. (Kautsky, Hilferding).
In its systematic conduct of this counter-revolutionary policy, Social-Democ-
racy operates on two flanks: the Right wing of Social-Democracy, avowedly
counter-revolutionary, is essential for negotiating and maintaining direct con-
tact with the bourgeoisie ; the ''Left" wing is essential for the subtle deception
of the workers. While playing with pacifist and at times even with revolu-
tionary phrases, "Left wing" Social-Democracy in practice acts against the
workers, particularly in acute and critical situations (the British I. L. P. and
the "Left" leaders of the General Council during the general strike in 1926;
Otto Bauer and Co., at the time of the Vienna uprising), and is, therefore, the
most dangerous faction in the Social-Democratic parties. While serving the
interests of the bourgeoisie in the ranks of the working class and being wholly
in favor of class cooperation and coalition with the bourgeoisie, Social-Democ-
racy, at certain periods, is compelled to play the part of an opposition party
and even to act as if it were defending the class interests of the proletariat in
its economic struggles, in order thereby to win the confidence of a section of
the working class and thus be in a position the more shamefully to betray the
lasting interests of the working class, particularly in the midst of decisive class
battles.
The principal function of Social-Democracy at the present time is to disrupt
the essential fighting unity of the proletariat in its struggle against imperialism.
In splitting and disrupting the united front of the proletarian struggle against
capital, Social-Democracy serves as the mainstay of imperialism in the working
class. International Social-Democracy of all shades, the Second International
and its trade union branch, the Amsterdam Federation of Trade Unions, have
thus become the last reserve of bourgeois society, its most reliable pillar of
support.
3. The Crisis of Capitalism and Fascism
Along with Social-Democracy, with whose aid the bourgeoisie suppresses the
workers or lulls their class vigilance, fascism comes into the scene.
The epoch of imperialism, the sharpening of the class struggle and the
growth of the elements of civil war — particularly after the imperialist war —
led to the bankruptcy of parliamentarism. Hence, the adoption of "new"
methods and forms of administration (for example, the system of inner cab-
inets, the formation of oligarchical groups acting behind the scenes, the dete-
rioration and falsification of the function of the "popular representative"
institutions, the restriction and annulment of "democratic liberties," etc.).
Under certain special historical conditions, the progress of this bourgeois,
reactionary offensive assumes the form of fascism. These conditions are:
instability of capitalist relationships ; the existence of a considerable declassed
social element, the pauperization of broad strata of the urban petty bourgeoise
and of the intelligentsia ; discontent among the rural petty bourgeoisie and,
finally, the constant menace of mass proletarian action. In order to stabilize
and perpetuate its rule, the bourgeoisie is compelled to an increasing degree
to abandon the parliamentary system in favor of the fascist system, which is
independent of inter-party arrangements and combinations. The fascist system
is a system of direct dictatorship, ideologically masked by the "national idea"
and representation of "occupations" (in reality, representation of the various
groups of the ruling class). It is a system that resorts to a peculiar form of
social demagogy (anti-Semitism, occasional sorties against usui'ers' capital and
gestures of impatience with the parliamentary "talking shop") in order to
utilize the discontent of the petty bourgeoisie, the intellectuals and other strata
of society, and to corruption — the creation of a compact and well-paid hier-
archy of fascist units, a party apparatiis and a bureaucracy. At the same time.
APPENDIX, PART 1 43
fascism strives to permeate the working class bj' recruiting the most bacliward
strata of worljers to its ranks by phiying upon their discontent, by talving
advantage of the inaction of Social-Democracy, etc. The principal aim of
fascism is to destroy the revolutionary vanguard of the working class, i. e., the
Communist sections of the proletariat and their leading forces. The combina-
tion of social demagogy, corruption and active white terror, in conjunction with
extreme imperialist aggressiveness in the sphere of foreign politics, are the
characteristic features of fascism. In periods of acute crisis for the bour-
geoisie, fascism resorts to anti-capitalist phraseology, but after it has estab-
lished itself at the helm of state, it casts aside its anti-caiiitalist rattle and
discloses itself as the terrorist dictatorship of big capital.
The bourgeoisie resorts either to the method of fascism or to the method of
coalition with Social-Democracy according to the changes in the political situa-
tion ; while Social-Democracy itself often plays a fascist role in periods when
the situation is critical for capitalism.
In the iirocess of development Social-Democracy manifests fascist tendencies
which, however, does not prevent it, in other political situations, from posing
as an opposition party against the bourgeois government. The fascist method
and the method of coalition with Social-Democracy are hot the methods
employed in "normal" capitalist conditions ; they are symptoms of the general
capitalist crisis, and are employed by the bourgeoisie in order to stem the
advance of the revolution.
4. The Contradictions of Capitalist Stabilization aaid the Inevitability of the
Revolutionary Collapse of Capitalism
Experience throughout the post-war historical period has shown that the
stabilization achieved by the repression of the working class and the systematic
depression of its standard of living can be only a partial, transient, and
decaying stabilization.
The spasmodic and feverish development of technique bordering in some
countries on a new technical revolution, the accelerated process of concentration
and centralization of capital, the formation of giant trusts and of "national"
and "international" monopolies, the merging of trusts with the state power and
the growth of world capitalist economy cannot, however, eliminate the general
crisis of the capitalist system. The break-up of world economy into a capitalist
and a socialist sector, the shrinking of markets and the anti-imperialist move-
ment in the colonies intensify all the contradictions of capitalism, which is
developing on a new, post-war basis. This very technical progress and ration-
alization of industry, the reverse side of which is the closing down and
liquidation of numerous enterprises, the restriction of production, and the
ruthless and destructive exploitation of labor power, lead to chronic unemploy-
ment on a scale never before experienced. The absolute deterioration of the
condition of the working class becomes a fact even in certain highly developed
capitalist countries. The growing competition between imperialist countries,
the constant menace of war and the growing intensity of class conflicts prepare
the ground for a new and higher stage of development of the general crisis of
capitali.sm and of the world proletarian revolution.
As a result of the first round of imperialist wars (the World War of 1914-
1918) and of the October victory of the working class in the former Russian
tsarist empire, world economy has been split into two fundamentally hostile
camps; the camp of the imperialist states and the camp of the dictatorship
of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. The difference in class structure and in
the class character of the government in the two camps, the fundamental
differences in the aims each pursues in internal, foreign, economic, and cultural
policy, the fundamentally different courses of their development, bring the
capitalist world into sharp conflict with the state of the victorious proletariat.
Within the framework of a formerly uniform world economy, two antagonistic
systems are now contesting against each other: the system of capitisli.sm and
the system of socialism. The class struggle, which hitherto was conducted in
forms determined by the fact that the proletariat was not in possession of
state power, is now being conducted on an enormous and really world scale;
the working class of the world has now its own state — the one and only father-
land of the international proletariat. The existence of the Soviet Union and
the Influence it exercises upon the toiling and oppressed masses all over the
world is in itself a most striking expression of the profound crisis of the world
capitalist system and of the expansion and intensification of the cla.ss struggle
to a degree hitherto without parallel in history.
44 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The capitalist world, powerless to eliminate its inherent contradictions, strives
to establish interuatioual associations (the League of Nations) the main purpose
of which is to retard the irresistible growth of the revolutionary crisis and to
strangle the union of proletarian republics by war or blockade. At the same
time, all the forces of the revolutionary proletariat and of the oppressed colonial
masses are rallying around the U. S. S. R. The world coalition of Capiialr
unstable, internally corroded, but armed to the teeth, is confronted by a single
world coalition of lahor. Thus, as a result of the first round of imperialist wars
a new, fundamental antagonism has arisen of world historical scope and signifi-
cance— the antagonism between the TJ. S. S. R. and the capitalist world.
Meanwhile, the inherent antagonisms within the capitalist sector of world
economy itself have become intensified. The shifting of the economic center of
the world to the United States of America and the fact of the "Dollar Repub-
lic" having become a world exploiter have caused the relations between United
States and European capitalism, particularly British capitalism, to become
strained. The conflict between Great Britain — the most powerful of the old,
conservative imperialist states — and the United States — the greatest of the
young imperialist 'States, which has already won world hegemony for itself — is
becoming the pivot of the world conflicts among the finance capitalist states.
Germany, though plundered by the Versailles peace, is now economically re-
covered ; she is resuming the path of imperialist politics, and once again she
stands out as a serious competitor in the world market. The Pacific is becoming-
involved in a tangle of contradictious which center mainly around the antag-
onism between America and Japan. Along with these main antogonisms, the
conflict of interests among the unstable and constantly changing groupings
of powers is increasing, while the minor powers serve as the auxiliary instru-
ments in the hands of the imperialist giants and their coalitions.
The growth of the productive capacity of the industrial apparatus of world
capitnlism, at a time when the European home markets have shnmk as a result
of the war, and in face of the Soviet Union's dropping out of the system of
purely capitalist intercourse and of the close monopoly of the most important
sources of raw material and fuel, leads to ever-widening conflicts between
the capitalist states. The "peaceful" struggle for oil, rubber, cotton, coal and
metals and for a redistribution of markets and spheres for the export of
capital is inexorably leading to (mother irorld war, the destructiveness of which
will increase in proiwrtion to the progress achieved in the furiously developing-
technique of war.
Simultaneously, the antagonisms between the imperialist home countries and
the colonial and semi-colonial countries are yroioing. The relative weakening
of European imperialism as a result of the war, the development of capitalism
in the colonies, the influence of the Soviet revolution, and the centrifugal
tendencies within the premier maritime and colonial empire — Great Britain
(Canada, Australia, South Africa), have stimulated rebellions in the colonies
and semi-colonies. The great Chinese revolution, which roused hundreds of
millions of the Chinese people to action, caused an enormous breach in the
imperialist system. The unceasing revolutionary ferment among hundreds
of miliions of Indian workers and peasants is threatening to break the domina-
tion of the world citadel of imperialism, Great Britain. The growth of ten-
dencies directed against the powerful imperialism of the United States in the
Latin-American countries threatens to undermine the expansion of North
American Capital. Thus, the revolutionary process in the colonies, which is
drawing into the struggle against imperialism the overwhelming ma.iority of the
world's population that is subjected to the rule of the finance-capital oligarchy
of a few "great powers" of imperialism, also expresses the profound general
crisis of capitalism. Even in Europe itself, where imperialism has put a
number of small nations under its heel, the national question is a factor that
intensifies the inherent contradictions of capitalism.
Finally, the revolutionary crisis is inexoi'ably maturing in the very centers of
impeiialism : the capitalist offensive against the working clasts. the attack
upon the workers' standard of living, upon their organizations and their political
rights, and the growth of white terror, rouse increasing resistance on tlie part
of the broad masses of the proletariat and intensify the class struggle between
the working class and trustified capital. The great battles fought between labor
and capital, the accelerated swing of the masses to the Left, the growth in
the influence and authority of the Communist Parties ; the enormous growth
of sympathy of the broad masses of workers for the land of the proletarian
dictatorship — all this is a clear symptom of the maturing of a new revolu-
tionary upsurge in the centers of imperialism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 45
Thus, the sj^stem of world imperialism, and with it the partial stabilization
of capitalism, is being corroded from various causes; by the antagonisms and
conflicts between the imperialist states ; by the rising of the vast masses in the
colonial countries; by the action of the revolutionary proletariat in the im-
perialist home countries; finally, by the le.'iding force in the vi^orld revolutionary
movement— the proletarian dictatorship in the U. S. S. R. The international
revolution is developing.
Against this revolution, imperialism is gathering its forces. Expeditions
against the colonies, a new world war. a campaign against the U. S. S. R. are
matters which now figure prominently in the politics of imperialism. This
musr lead to the release of all the forces of international revolution and to the
inevitable doom of capitalism.
chapter three
The Ui.timate Aim of the Communist International^ — World Communism
The ultimate aim of the Communist International is to replace world capital-
ist economy by a world system of communism. Communist society, the basis
for which has" been prepared by the whole course of historical development, is
mankind's only way out, for it alone can abolish the contradictions of the
capitalist system which threaten to degrade and destroy the human race.
Communist society will abolish the class division of society, /. c, simultaneously
with the abolition of anarchy of production, it will abolish all forms of exploita-
tion and oppression of man by man. Society will no longer consist of antago-
nistic classes in conflict with each other, but will represent a united common-
wealth of labor. For the first time in its history mankind will take its fate into
its own hands. Instead of destroying innumerable human lives and incalculable
wealth in struggles between classes and nations, mankind will devote all its
energy to the struggle against the forces of nature, to the development and
strengthening of its own collective might.
After abolishing private ownership in the means of production and converting
them into social property, the world system of communism will replace the
elemental forces of the world market, of competition and the blind process of
social production, by consciously organized and planned production for the pur-
pose of satisfying rapidly growing social needs. With the abolition of competi-
tion and anarchy in production, the devastating crises and still more devastating
wars will disappear. Instead of colossal waste of productive forces and spas-
modic development of society there will be planned utilization of all material
resources and painless economic development on the basis of the unlimited,
harmonious and rapid development of the productive forces.
The abolition of private property and the disappearance of classes will do
avray with the exploitation of man by man. Work Vtill cease to be toiling for
the benefit of a class enemy. Instead of being merely a means of livelihood
it will become a necessity of life. Want and economic inequality, the misery
of enslaved classes, and a wretched standard of life genei'ally will disappear;
the hierarchy created in the division of labor sy.stem will be abolished together
with the antagonism between mental and manual labor, and the last vestige of
the social inequality of sexes will be removed. At the same time, the organs of
class domination, and the state in the first place, will disappear also. The state,
being the embodiment of class domination, will wither away insofar as classes
disappear, and with it all measures of coercion will expire.
With the disappearance of classes the monopoly of education in every form
will be abolished. Culture will become the acquirement of all and the class
ideologies of the past will give place to scientific materialist philosophy. Under
such circumstances, the domination of man over man, in any form, becomes
Impossible, and a great field will be opened for the social selection and the
harmonious development of all the talents inherent in humanity.
In communist society no social restrictions will be imposed upon the growth
of the forces of production. Private ownership in the means of production, the
selfish lust for profits, the artificial retention of the masses in a state of ignor-
ance, poverty — which retards technical progress in capitalist society— and unpro-
ductive expenditures will have no place in a communist society. Tlie most
expedient utilization of the forces of nature and of the natural conditions of
production in the various parts of the world; the removal of the antagonism
between town and country that under capitalism results fi-om the low technical
level of agriculture and its systematic lagging behind indu.stry ; the closesC
possible cooperation between science and technics, the utmost encouragement of
4g UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
research work and the practical application of its results on the widest possible
social scale, planned organization of scientific work ; the application of the most
perfect methods of statistical accounting and planned regulation of economy.
the rapidly growing social needs, which is the most powerful internal driving
force of the whole system — all these will secure the maximum productivity of
social labor, which in turn will release human energy for the powerful develop-
ment of science and art.
The development of the productive forces of world communist society will
make it possible to raise the well-being of the whole of humanity and to reduce
to a minimum the time devoted to material production and, consequently, will
enable culture to flourish as never before in history. This new culture of a
humanity that is united for the first time in history, and has abolished all
state boundaries, will, unlike capitalist culture, be based upon clear and trans-
parent human relationships. Hence, it will bury forever all mysticism, religion,
prejudice and superstition and will give a powerful impetus to the development
of all-conquering scientific knowledge.
This higher stage of communism, the stage in which communist society has
already developed on its own foundation, in which an enormous growth of
social productive forces has accompanied the manifold development of mail, in
which humanity has already inscribed on its banner: "From each according
to his abilities ; to each according to his needs !" — presupposes, as a preliminary
iiistorical condition, a lower stage of development, the stage of socialism. At
this lower stage, communist society only just emerges from capitalist society
and bears all the economic, ethical and intellectual birthmarks it has inherited
from the society from whose womb it is just emerging. The productive forces
of socialism are not yet sufficiently developed to assure a distribution of the
produces of labor according to needs; these are distributed according to the
amount of labor expended. Division of labor, i.e., the system whereby certain
groups perform certain labor functions, and especially the distinction between
mental and manual labor, still exists Although classes are abolished, traces
of the old class division of society, and, consequently, remnants of the pro-
letarian state power, coercion, laws, still exist. Consequently, certain traces
of inequality, which have not yet managed to die out altogether, still remain.
The antagonism between town and country has not yet been entirely removed.
But none of these survivals of former society is protected or defended by an.y
social force. Being the product of a definite level of development of produc-
tive forces, they will disappear as rapidly as mankind, freed from the fetters
of the capitalist system, subjugates the forces of nature, re-educates itself in
the spirit of communism, and passes from socialism to complete communism.
chapter four
The Period of Transition From Capitalism to Socialism and the; Dictator-
ship OF the Proletariat
1. The Transition Period and the Conquest of Potver by the Proletariat
Between capitalist society and communist society a period of revolutionary
transformation intervenes, during which the one changes into the other. Cor-
respondingly, there is also an intervening period of political transition, in whi-'-h
the essential state form is the revolutionary dictatorship of the pi-oletariat.
The transition from the world dictatorship of imperialism to the world dictator-
ship of the proletariat extends over a long period of proletarian struggles with
defeats as well as victories; a period of continuous general crisis in capitalist
relationships and the maturing of socialist revolutions, i.e., of proletarian civil
wars against the bonrgeoisie; a period of national wars and colonial rebellions
which, although not in themselves revolutionary proletarian socialist move-
ments, are nevertheless, objectively, insofar as the,y undermine the domination
of imperialism, constituent parts of the world proletarian revolution; a period
in which capitalist and socialist economic and social systems exist side by side
in "peaceful" relationship as well as in armed conflict ; a period of formation of
a Union of Soviet Republics ; a period of wars of imperialist states against Soviet
states ; a period in which the ties between the Soviet states and colonial peoples
become more and more closely established, etc.
Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism.
This uneveiiness is still n)ore pronounced and acute in the epoch of imperialism.
Hence, it follows that the international proletarian revolution cannot be con-
ceived as a single event occuring simultaneously all over the world ; at first
APPENDIX, PART 1 47
.socialism may be victorious in a few, or even in one single capitalist country.
Every such proletarian victory, however, broadens the basis of the world revo-
lution and, conse(iuently, still further intensifies the general crisis of capitalism.
Thus, the capitalist system as a wh<ile reaches the point of its final collapse; the
dictatorship of finance capital perishes and gives place to the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
Bourgeois revolutions brought about the political liberation of a system of
productive relationships that had already established itself and become economi-
cally dominant, and transferred political power from the hands of one class of
exploiters to the hands of another. Proletarian revolution, however, signifies
the forcible invasion of the proletariat into the domain of property relationships
of bourgeoise society, the expropriation of the expropriating classes, and the trans-
ference of power to a class that aims at the radical reconstruction of the eco-
nomic foundations of society and the abolition of all exploitation of man by man.
The political domination of the feudal barons was broken all over the world as
the result of a series of separate bourgeois revolutions that extended over a
period of centuries. The international proletarian revolution, however, although
it will not be a single simultaneous act, but on.e extending over a whole epoch,
nevertheless — -thanks to the closer ties that now exist between the countries of
the world — will accomplish its mission in a much shorter period of time. Only
after the proletariat has achieved victory and consolidated its power all over the
world will a prolonged period of intensive construction of world socialist econ-
omy set in.
The conquest of power by the proletariat is a necessary condition precedent to
the growth of socialist forms of economy and to the cultural growth of the prole-
tariat, which transforms its own nature, perfects itself for the leadership of
society in all spheres of life, draws into this process of transformation all other
classes and thus prepares the ground for the abolition of classes altogether.
In the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and later for the trans-
formation of the .social system, as against the alliance of capitalists and land-
lords, an alliance of workers and peasants is formed, under the intellectual and
political hegemony of the former, an alliance which serves as the basis for the
dictatorship of the proletariat.
The characteristic feature of the transition period as a w'hole, is the ruthless
suppression of the resistance of the exploiters, the organization of socialist con-
struction, the mass training of men and women in the spirit of .socialism and the
gradual disappearance of classes. Only to the extent that these great historical
tasks are fulfilled will .society of the transition period become transformed into
communist society.
Thus, the dictatorship of the world proletariat is an essential and vital con-
dition precedent to the transition of world capitalist economy to socialist economy.
This world dictatorship can be established only when the victory of socialism
has been achieved in certain countries or groups of coiuitries, when the newly
established proletarian republics enter into a federative union with the already
existing proletarian republics, when the number of such federations lias grown
and extended also to the colonies which have emancipated themselves from the
yoke of imperialism ; when these federations of republics have finally grown into
a World Union of Soviet Socialist Republics uniting the whole of mankind under
the hegemony of the international proletariat organized as a state.
The conquest of power by the proletariat does not mean peacefully "capturing"
the ready-made bourgeois state machinery by means of a parliamentary majority.
The bourgeoisie resorts to every means of violence and terror to safeguard and
strengthen its predatory property and its political domination. Like the feudal
nobility of the past, the bourgeoisie cannot abandon its historical position to
the new class without a desperate and frantic struggle. Hence, the violence of
the bourgeoisie can be suppressed only by the stern violence of the proletariat.
The conquest of power by the proletariat is the violent overthrow of bourgeois
power, the destriiction of the capitalist state apparatus (bourgeois armies, police,
bureaucratic hierarchy, the .iudiciary, parliaments, etc.). and sub.stituting in its
place new organs of proletarian power, to serve primarily as instruments for the
suppression of the exploiters.
2. The Dictafnrship of the Proletariat and It.i Soviet Form
As has been shown by the experience of the October revolution of 1917 and by
the Hungarian revolution, which immeasurably e))larged the experience of the
Paris Commune of 1871, the most suitable form of the proletarian state is the
4S UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Soviet state — a new type of State, which differs in principle from the bourgeois
state, not only in its class content, but also in its internal structure. This is
precisely the type of State which, emerging as it does directly out of the broadest
possible mass movement of the toilers, secures the maximum of mass activity and
is, consequently, the surest guarantee of final victory.
The Soviet form of state, being the highest form of democracy, namely, prole-
tarian democracy, is the very opposite of bourgeois democracy, which is bourgeois
dictatorship in a masked form. The Soviet state is the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat, the rule of a single class — the proletariat. Unlike bourgeois democracy,
proletarian democracy openly admits its class character and aims avowedly at
the suppression of the exploiters in the interests of the overwhelming majority of
the population. It deprives its class enemies of political rights and, under special
historical conditions, may grant the proletariat a number of temporary advan-
tages over the diffused petty-bourgeois peasantry in order to strengthen its role
of leader. While disarming and suppressing its class enemies, the proletarian
state at the same time regards this deprivation of political rights and partial
restriction of liberty as temporary measures in the struggle against the attempts
on the part of the exploiters to defend or restore their privileges. It inscribes
on its banner the motto : the proletariat holds power not for the purpose of
perijetuat.ing it, not for the purpose of protecting narrow craft and professional
interests, but for the purpose of uniting the backward and scattered rural prole-
tariat, the semi-proletariat and the toiling peasants still more closely with the
most progressive strata of the workers, for the purpose of gradually and sys-
tematically overcoming class divisions altogether. Being an all-embracing form
of the unity and organization of the masses under the leadership of the prole-
tariat, the Soviets, in actual fact, draw the broad masses of the proletariat, the
peasants and all toilers into the struggle for socialism, into the work of building
up socialism, and into the pi-actical administration of the state: in the whole of
their work they rely upon the working-class organizations and practice the prin-
ciples of broad democracy among the toilers to a far gi'eater extent and im-
measurably closer to the masses than any other form of government. The right
of electing and recalling delegates, the combination of the- executive with the
legislative power, the electoral system based on a production and not on a resi-
dential qualification (election by workshops, factories, etc.) — all this secures
for the working class and for the broad masses of the toilers who march under
Its hegemony systematic, continuous and active pafticipation in all public
affairs — economic, social, political, military and cultural — and marks the sharp
difference that exists between the bourgeois-parliamentary republic and the Soviet
dictatorship of the proletariat.
Bourgeois democracy, with its formal equality of all citizens before the law,
is in reality based on a glaring material and economic inequality of classes. By
leaving inviolable, defending and strengthening the monopoly of the capitalist
and landlord classes in the vital means of production, bourgeois democracy, as
far as the exploited classes and especially the proletariat is concerned, converts
this formal equality before the law and these democratic rights and liberties,
vrhich in practice are systematically curtailed, into a juridical fiction and, conse-
quently, into a means for deceiving and enslaving the masses. Being the ex-
pression of the political domination of the bourgeoisie, so-called democracy is
therefore capitalist democracy. By depriving the exploiting classes of the means
of production, by placing the monopoly of these means of production in the hands
of the proletariat as the dominant class in society, the Soviet state first foremost
guarantees to the working class and to the toilers generally the material condi-
tions for the exercise of their rights by providing them with premises, public
buildings, printing plants, traveling facilities, etc.
In the domain of general political rights the Soviet state, while depriving the
exploiters and the enemies of the people of political rights, completely abolishes
for the first time all inequality of citizenship, which under systems of exploita-
tion is based on distinctions of sex, religion and nationality; in this sphere it
establishes an equality that is not to be found in any bourgeois country. In
this respect, also, the dictatorship of the proletariat steadily lays down the
material basis upoii which this equality may be truly exercised by introducing
measures for the emancipation of women, the industrialization of former colonies,
etc.
Soviet democracy, therefore, is proletarian democracy, democracy of the toiling
mafiscs, democracy directed agaii^^f the exploiters.
The Soviet state completely disarms the bourgeoise and concentrates all arms
in the hands of the proletariat ; it is the armed proletarian state. The armed
APPENDIX, PART 1 49
toroes under the Soviet state are organized on a class basis, which corresponds
to the general structure of the proletarian dictatorship, and guarantees the
role of leadership to the industrial proletariat. This organization, while main-
taining revolutionary discipline, ensures to the warriors of the Red Army and
Navy close and constant contacts with the masses of the toilers, participation
in the administration of the country and in the work of biiilding up socialism.
d. The Dictatorsli i I) of the J'roletariut and the Expropriation of the Expropriators
The victorious proletariat utilizes the conquest of power as a lever of economic
revolution, /. e., of the revolutionary transformation of the property relations of
capitalism into relationships of the socialist mode of production. The starting
point of this great economic revohition is the expropriation of the landlords and
capitalists, i. c, the conversion of the monopolistic property/ of the bouriieoisie
into the property of the proletarian state.
In this sphere the Conuuunist International advances the following funda-
mental tasks of the proletarian dictatorship:
.1. Indiisfii/, Transport and Conitniinication Services:
A. The conliscation and proletarian nationalization of all large private capitalist
luidertakings (factories, plants, mines, electric power stations) and the trans-
ference of all state and municipal enterprises to the Soviet.
B. The confiscation and proletarian nationalization of private capitalist rail-
way, waterway, automobile and air transport services (commercial and passen-
ger air fleet) and the transference of all state and municipal transport services
to the Soviets.
c. The confiscation and proletarian nationalization of private capitalist com-
munication services (telegraphs, teleiihones and wireless) and the transference
of state and nninicii)al communication services to the Soviets.
D. The organization of workers' management of industry. The establishment
of state organs for the management of industry with provision for the close
participati(m of the trade unions in this work of management. Appropriate func-
tions to be guaranteed for the factory and plant committees.
E. Industrial activity to be directed towards the satisfaction of the needs of
the broad masses of the toilers. The reorganization of the branches of industry
that formerly served the needs of the ruling class (luxury trades, etc.). The
strengthening of the branches of industry that will facilitate the development of
agriculture, with the object of strengthening the ties between industry and peas-
ant economy, of facilitating the development of State farms, and of accelerating
the rate of development of national economy as a whole.
B. Agriculture:
A. The confiscation and pi'oletarian nationalization of all large landed estates
in town and country (private, church, monastery and other lands) and the trans-
ference of State and municipal landed property including forests, minerals, lakes,
rivers, etc., to the Soviets with subseqtient nationalization of the whole of the
land.
B. The confiscation of all property utilized in production belonging to large
landed estates, sitch as buildings, machinery and other inventory, cattle, enter-
prises for the manufacture of agricultural products (large Hour mills, cheese
plants, dairy farms, frtiit and vegetable drying plants, etc.).
c. The transfer of large estates, particularly model estates and those of con-
siderable economic importance, to the management of the organs of the proletarian
dictatorship and of the Soviet farm organizations.
D. Part of the land confiscated from the landlords and others, particularly
where the land was cultivat(Hl liy the peasants on a tenant basis and served as
a means of holding the peasantry in economic bondage, to be transferred to the
use of the i>easantry (to the poor and partly also the middle peasantry). The
amount of land to be so transferred to be determined by economic expediency as
well as by the degree of necessity to neutralize the peasantry and to win them
over the side of the proletariat: this amount nuist necessarily vary according to
the different circumstances.
E. Prohibition of buying and selling of land, as a means of preserving the land
for the peasantry and preventing its passing into the bands of capitalists, land
speculators, etc. Violations of this law to be energetically combatted.
F. To combat usury. All transactions entailing terms of bondage to l)e an-
nulled. All debts of the exploited strata of the peasantry to be aimulled. The
poorest stratum of the peasantry to be relieved from taxation, etc.
!»40r!l--40— .Tpp.. pt. 1 n
50 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
G. Comprehensive state measures for developing tlie productive forces of agri-
culture, the development of rural electrification : the manufacture of tractors, the
production of artificial fertilizers ; the production of pure quality seeds and raising
thoroughbred stock on Soviet farms; the extensive organization of agricultural
credits for land reclamation, etc.
H. Financial and other support for agricultural co-operatives and for all forms
of collective production in the rural districts (co-operative societies, communes,
etc.). Systematic propaganda in favor of peasant co-operation (selling, credit
and supply co-operative societies) to be based on the mass activity of the peasants
themselves ; propaganda in favor of the transition to large-scale agricultural pro-
duction which — owing to the indubitable technical and economic advantages of
large-scale production — provide the greatest immediate economic gain and also
a method of transition to socialism most accessible to the broad masses of the
toiling peasants.
C. Trade and Credit:
A. The proletarian nationalization of private banks (the entire gold reserve,
all securities, deposits, etc., to be transferred to the proletarian state) ; the pro-
letarian state to take over state, municipal, etc.. banks.
B. The centralization of banking : all nationalized big banks to be subordinated
to the central state bank.
c. The nationalization of wholesale trade and large retail trading enterprises
(warehouses, elevators, stores, stocks of goods, etc.), and their transfer to the
organs of the Soviet state.
D. Every encouragement to be given to consumers' co-operatives as representing
an integral part of the distribiiting apparatus, while maintaining uniformity in
their system of work and securing the active participation of the masses them-
selves in their work.
E. Monopoly of foreign trade.
F. The repudiation of state debts to foreign and home capitalists.
D. Conditiwis of Ldfe, Labor, etc.:
A. Reduction of the working day to seven hours, and to six hours in industries
particularly hainiful to the health of the workers. P^irther reduction of the
working day and transition to a five-day week in countries with developed pro-
ductive forces. The regulation of the working day to correspond to the increase
of the productivity of labor.
B. Prohibition, as a rule, of night work nnd employment in harmful trades
for all females. Prohibition of child labor. Prohiliition of overtime.
c. Special reduction of the work-day for the youth (a maximum six-hour day
for young persons up to 18 years of age). Socialistic reorganization of the labor
of young persons so as to combine employment in industry with general and
political education.
D. Social insurance in all forms (sickness, old age. accident, unemployment,
etc.) at state expense (and at the expense of the owners of private enterprises
where they still exist), insurance affairs to be managed by the insured them-
selves.
E. Comprehensive measures of hygiene; the organization of free medical
service. To combat social diseases (alcoholism, venereal dieases, tuberculosis,
etc. ) .
p. Complete equality between men and women before the law and in social
life; a radical reform of marital and family laws; recognition of maternity
as a social function: protection of mothers and infants. Initiation of social
care and upbringing of infants and children (creches, kindergartens, children's
homes, etc.).
The establishment of institutions that will gradually relieve the burden of
bouse drudgery (public kitchens and laundries) ; and systematic cultural
struggle against the ideology and traditions of female bondage.
E. Housififf:
A. The confi.scation of big housing property.
B. The transfer of confiscated houses to the administration of the local
Soviets.
c. The bourgeois residential districts to be settled by workers.
D. Palaces and large private and public buildings to be placed at the disposal
of labor organizations.
E. The carrying out of an extensive program of housing construction.
F. Nofio7ial and Colonial Questions:
A. The recognition of the right of all nations, irrespective of race, to com-
plete self-determination, that is, self-determination inclusive of the right to state
separation.
APPENDIX, PART 1 51
B The voluntary unification and centralization of tlie military and economic
forces of all nations liberated from capitalism— for the purpose of fightm^^
against imperialism and for building up socialist economy.
<3. Wide and determined striiggle against the imposition of any kind of limita-
tion and restriction upon any nationality, nation or race. Complete equality
for all nations and races.
D. The Soviet state to guarantee and support with all the resources at its
command thie national cultures of nations liberated from capitalism while
carrying out a consistent proletarian policy in the development of the content of
such cultuiies. . ^ ,^ ,
E. Everj assistance to be rendered to the economic, political and cultura^
gi-owth of the formerly oppressed "territories", "dominions" and "colonies",
with the oJ)ject of transferring them to socialist lines, so that a durable basis
may be l»M for complete national equality.
F. To c<ombat all remnants of chauvinism, national hatred, race prejudices
and other ideological products of feudal and capitalist barbarism.
G. Means of Ideoloigical Influence:
A. The nationalization of printing plants.
B. The monopoly of newspaper and book-publishing.
c. The nationalization of big cinema enterprises, theatres, etc.
D. The utilization of the nationalized means of "intellectual production" for
the most extensive political and general education of the toilers and for the
building up of a new socialist culture on a proletarian class basis.
4. The Basis for the Economic Policy of the Proletarian Dictatorship
In .carrying out all these tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the
following postulatees must be borne in mind :
A. The complete abolition of private property in land, and the nationalization
of the land, camiot be brought about immediately in the more developed
capitalist countries, where the principle of private property is deep-rooted among
broad strata of the peasantry. In such countries, the nationalization of all the
land can only be I)rought about gradually, by means of a series of transitional
measures.
B. Nationalization of production should not, as a rule, be applied to small and
middle-sized enterprises (peasants, small artisans, handicraft, small and
mediitm shops, small manufacturers, etc.). First, because the proletariat must
draw a strict distinction between the proiierty of the small commodity producer
workmg for him.self. who can and must be gradually brought into the groove of
socialist construction, and the property of the capitalist exploiter, the liquidation
of which is an indispensible prerequisite for socialist construction.
Second, because the proletariat, after seizing power, may not have sufficient
organisizing foz-ces at its disix)sal, particularly in the first phases of the dic-
tatorship, for the purpose of destroying capitalism and at the same time to
establish contacts with the smaller and medium individual units of production
'Oil a s<;»cialist basis. These small individual enterprises (primarily peasant
entei-prise^) will be drawn into the general socialist organization of production
and distribution only gradually, with the powerful and systematic aid the
proletarian state will render to organize them in all the various forms of col-
lective enterprises. Any attempt to break up their economic system violently
and to compel them to adopt collective methods by force would only lead to
harmful results.
c. Owing to the prevalence of a large number of small units of production
(primarily peasant farms, farmers' enterprises, small artisans, small shop-
keepers, etc.) in colonies, semi-colonies and economically backward countries,
where the petty-bourgeois masses represent the overwhelming majority of the
population, and even in the centers of the capitalist world economy (the United
States of America, Germany, and to some degree also England), it is necessary,
in the first stage of development, to preserve to some extent, market forms of
economic contacts, the money system, etc. The variety of prevailing economic-
forms (ranging from socialist large scale industry to small peasant and artisan
enterprises), which unavoidably come into conflict with each other; the variety
of classes and class groups corresponding to this variety of economic forms,,
each having different stimuli for economic activity and conflicting class interests
and finally, the prevalence in all spheres of economic life of habits and tradi-
tions inherited from bourgeois society, which cannot be removed all at once. —
/ill this demands that the proletariat, in exercising its economic leadership.
52 UN-AMEKICAN niUI'AGAXDA ACTIVITIES
shall properly combine, on the basis of market relationship, large-scale socialist
industry with the small enterprises of the simple commodity producers, i. e.,
it must combine them in such a way as to guarantee the leading i-ole to socialist
Industry and at the same time bring about the greatest possible development
of the mass of peasant enterprises. Hence, the greater the weight of scattered
small peasant labor in the general economy of the country, the greater will be
the scope of the market relations, the smaller will be the significance of direct,
planned management, and the greater will be the degree to which the general
economic plan will depend upon an estimation of the xmcontrollable economic
relations. On the other hand, the smaller the weight of petty husbandry and
the greater the proporti(»n of .socialized labor, the more powerful the concen-
trated and socialized means of production, the smaller will be the scope of the
market relations, the greater will be the importance of plaiuied management
as compared with the uncontrolled economic activities, and the more consider-
able and univer.sal will be the application of planned nuinagenient in the sphere
of production and distribution.
Provided the proletarian dictator.ship carries out a correct class policy, /. c.,
provided proper account is taken of clas.s-relationshii>s, the technical and eco-
nomic superiority of large-scale socialized production, the centralization of all
the most imiwrtant economic key positions (industry, tran.siiort, large-scale
agricultural enterprises, banks, etc. ) in the hands of the proletarian state,
planned management of industry, and the power wielded by the state apparatus
as a whole (the budget, taxes, administrative legislation and legislation gener-
ally), render it possible continuously and systematically to dislodge private
•capital as well as the new outcrops of capitalism which, on the basis of more
•or less free trading and of the market relations, emerge in town and country
■with the development of simple comnifMlity production (big fanners, kulaks).
At the same time, by organizing peasant farming on co-operative lines, and as
i\ result of the growth of collective forms of economy, the great bulk of the
peasant enterprises will be .systematically drawn into the main channel of
developing socialism. The oiitwardly capitalist forms and methods of eco-
nomic activity that are bound up with market relations (money form of ac-
counting, payment for labor in money, buying and selling, credit and banks,
etc.), serve as levers for the socialist transformation insofar as they to an
increasing degree serve the consistently socialist type of enterprises, /. e., the
socialist section of economy.
Thus, provided the state carries out a correct policy, the market relations
under the proletarian dictatorship destroy themselves in the process of their
•own development by helping to dislodge private capital, by changing the char-
acter of peasant economy, by further centralization and concentration of the
means of production in the hands of the proletarian state; by these means they
help to destroy market relations altogether.
In the event of probable capitalist military intervention, and of prolonged
counter-revolutionary wars against the dictatorship of the proletariat, the
necessity may arise for a war-Communist economic policy (War Communism),
which is nothing more nor less than the organization of rational consumption
for the purpose of military defense, accompanied by a system of intensified
pressure upon the capitalist groups (confiscation, requisitions, etc.), with the
more or less complete liquidation of freedom of trade and market relations and
a sharp interference with the individualistic, economic stimuli of the small
producers, which results in a diminution of the productve forces of the country.
This policy of War Conununism. while it luidermines the material basis of the
strata of the population of the country that are hostile to the working class,
secures a rational distribution of the available supplies and facilitates the
military struggle of the proletarian dictatorship, which is the historical justifi-
cation of this policy, it nevertheless cannot be regarded as the "normal" eco-
nomic policy of the proletarian dictatorship.
5. Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Classes
Tiie dictatorship of the proletariat is a eontiniiation of the class striiof/le
under new conditions. The dictatorship of the proletariat is a stubborn fight —
bloody and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic, pedagogical
iind administrative, — against the forces and traditions of the old society,
against external capitalist enemies, against the remnants of the exploiting
classes within the country, against the upshoots of the new bourgeosie that
spring up on the basis of still existing commodity production.
APPENDIX, PART 1 53
After the civil war has been broxight to an end the stubborn class struggle
continues in new forms, primarily in the form of a struggle between the sur-
vivals of previous economic systems and fresh upshoots of them on the one
hand, and socialist forms of economy on the othei-. The forms of the struggle
undergo a change at various stages of socialist development, and in the first
stages, the struggle, under certain conditions, may be extremely severe.
In the initial stage of the proletarian dictatorship, the policy of the prole-
tariat towards other classes and social groups within the country is determined
by the following postulates :
A. The Up honrgcoKic and the lando'wners, a section of the officer corps, the
higher command of the forces, and the higher bureaucracy — who remain loyal
to the bourgeosie and the landlords — are consistent enemies of the working
class against whom ruthless war must be waged. The organizing skill of a
certain section of these strata may be utilized, but as a rule, only after the
dictatorship has been consolidated and all conspiracies and rebellions of ex-
ploiters have been decisively crushed.
B. In regard to the technical i)itelUf/entsia, which was brought up in the
spirit of bourgeois traditions and the higher ranks of which were closely linked
up with the commanding apparatus of capital, the proletariat, while ruth-
lessly suppressing every coiuiter-revolutionary action on the part of hostile
sections of the intelligentsia, must at the same time give consideration to the
necessity of utilizing this skilled social force for the work of socialist con-
struction ; it must give every encouragement to the groups that are neutral,
and especially to those that are friendly, towards the proletarian revolution.
In widening the economic, technical and cultural perspective of socialist con-
struction to its utmost social limits, the iiroletariat must systematically win
over the technical intelligentsia to its side, subject it to its ideological influence
and secure its close co-operation in the work of social reconstruction.
c. In regard to the peasoHtrij, it is tb.e task of the Communist Party, while
placing its reliance in the agricultui'al proletariat, to win over all the exploited
and toiling strata of the countr.vside. The victorious proletariat must draw
strict distinctions between the various groups among the peasantry, weigh their
relative importance, and render every support to the propertyless and semi-
proletarian sections of the peasantry by transferring to them a part of the
land taken from the big landowners, by helping them in theii' struggle against
usurer's capital, etc. Moreover, the proletariat must neutralize the middle
strata of the peasantry and mercilessly suppress the slightest opposition on the
I)art of the village I)ourgeoisie who ally themselves with the landowners. As
its dictatorship becomes consolidated and socialist constniction develops, the
proletariat nnist proceed from the policy of neutralization to a policy of durable
alliance witli the masses of middle pea.santry, but must not adopt the viewpoint
of sharing power in any form. The dictatorship of the proletariat implies that
the industrial workers alone are capable of leading the entire mass of the toilers.
On the other hand, while representing the rule of a single class, the dictator-
ship of the proletariat at the same time represents a special form of class
alliance between the proletariat, as the vanguard of the toilers, and the
numerous non-proletarian sections of the toiling masses, or the majority of
them. It represents an alliance for the complete overthrow of capital, for the
complete suppression of the opposition of the bourgeoisie and its attempts at
restoration, an alliance aiming at the complete building up and consolidation
of socialism.
D. The urban pctti/ hoiin/eoisie, which continuously wavers between extreme
reaction and sympathy for tlie proletariat, must likewise be neutralized and,
as far as possible, won over to the side of the proletariat. This can be achieved
by leaving to them theii- small property and permitting a certain measure of
free ti-ade, by releasing them from the bondage of usurious credit and by the
proletariat's helping them in all sorts of ways in the struggle against all and
every form of capitalist oppression,
G. jl/a.s'.s^ Organizations iyi the f^iistcin of Proletariaii Dictatorship
In the process of fulfilling tliese tasks of the proletarian dictator.ship, a radi-
cal change takes place in the tasks and functions of the mass organizations,
particularly of the tahor organizations. Under capitalism, the mass labor or-
ganizations, in which the broad masses of the proletariat were originally
organized and trained, i.e., the trade (industrial) unions, served as the prin-
cipal weapons in the struggle against trustified capital and its state. Under
54 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the proletarian dictatorship, they become transformed into the principal lever
of the state; thej- become transformed into a school of communism, by means
of which vast masses of the pi-oletariat are drawn into the work of socialist
management of production; they are transformed into organizations directly
connected with all parts of the state apparatus, influencing all branches of its
■work, safeguarding the lasting as well as the day to day interests of the
working class and fighting against bureaucratic distortions in the organs of the
Soviet state. Thus, insofar as they promote from their ranks leaders in tlie
work of construction, draw into this work of construction broad sections of the
proletariat and particularly as they undertake the task of combating bureau-
cratic distortions which inevitably arise as a result of the operation of class
influences alien to the proletariat and of the inadequate cultural development
of the masses, the trade unions become the backbone of the proletarian economic
and state organization as a whole.
Notwithstanding reformist Utopias, worki)i[/ chhsu co-operatwe organizations
under capitalism are doomed to play a very minor role and in the general
environment of the capitalist system not infrequently degenerate into mere
appendages of capitalism. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, however,
these organizations can and must become the most important units of the
distributing apparatus.
Lastly, peasmit agricultural co-operative organ izationn (selling, purchasing,
credit and producing), under proper management and provided a systematic
struggle is carried on against the capitalist elements, and that really broad
masses of the toilers who follow the lead of the proletariat take a really active
part in their work, can and must become one of the principal organizational
means for linking up town and country. To the extent that they were able
to maintain their existence at all under capitalism, co-operative peasant enter-
prises inevitably became transformed into capitalist enterprises, for they were
dependent upon" capitalist industry, capitalist banks and upon capitalist eco-
nomic environment, and were led by reformists, the peasant bourgeoisie, and
sometimes even by landlords. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, how-
ever, such enterprises develop amidst a different system of relationships, they
depend upon proletarian industry, proletarian banks, etc. Thus, provided the
proletariat carries out a proper policy, provided the class struggle is system-
atically conducted against the capitalist elements outside as well as inside the
co-operative organizations, and provided socialist industry exercises its guid-
ance over it, agricultural co-operation will become one of the principal levers
for the socialist transformation and collectivization of the countryside. All
this, however, does not exclude the possibility that in certain countries the
consumers' societies, and particularly the agricultural co-operative societies led
by the bourgeoisie and their Social-Democratic agents, at first be hotbeds of
counter-revolutionary activity and sabotage against the work of economic
construction of the workers' revolution.
In the course of this militant and constructive work, carried on through
the medium of these multifarious proletarian organizations — which should
serve as effective levers of the Soviet state and the link between it and the
masses of all strata of the working class — the proletariat secures unity of will
and action and exercises this unity through the medium of the Communist
Party, which plays the leading role in the system of the proletarian dictatorship.
The Party of the proletariat relies directly on the trade unions and other
organizations that embrace the masses of the workers, and through these, relies
on the peasantry (Soviets, co-operative societies, Young Communist Leagues,
etc.) ; by means of these levers it guides the whole Soviet system. The pro-
letariat can fulfill its role as organizer of the new society only if the Soviet
government is loyally supported by all the mass organizations, only if class
unity is maintained, and only under the guidance of the Party.
~. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Cultural Revolution
The role of organiser of the new human society presupposes that the pro-
letariat itself will become culturally mature^ that it will transform its own
nature, that it will continually promote from its ranks increasing numbers of
men and women capable of mastering science, technics and administration in
order to build up socialism and a new socialist culture.
Bourgeois revolution against feudalism presupposes that a new class has arisen
in the midst of feudal society that is culturally more advanced than the ruling
class and is already the dominant factor in economic life. The proletarian
APPENDIX, PART 1 55
revcihition, however, develops under other conditions. Being economically ex-
ploited, politically oppressed and culturally downtrodden under capitalism, the
working class transforms its owai nature only in the course of the transition
period, only after it lias conquered state poiver, only by destroying the bour-
geois monopoly of education and mastering all the sciences, and only after it has
gained experience in great works of construction. The mass awakening of
communist consciousness, the cause of socialism itself, calls for a mass chunge of
human nature-, which can be achieved only in the course of the practical move-
ment, in revolution. Hence, revolution is not only necessary because there is
no other way of overthrowing the ruling class, but also because, only in the
process of revolution is the ov^erthroicing class able to purge itself of the dross
of the old society and become capable of creating a new society.
In destroying the capit^ilist monoply of the means of production, the working
class must also destroy the capitalist monopoly of education, that is, it must
take possession of all of the schools, from the elementary schools to the uni-
versities. It is particularly important for the proletariat to train members of
the working class as experts in the sphere of production (engineers, techni-
cians, organizers, etc.), as well as in the sphere of military affairs, science, art,
etc. Parallel with this work stands the task of raising the general cultural
level of the proletarian masses, of improving their political education, of raising
their general standard of knowledge and technical skill, of training them in
the methods of public work and administration, and of combating the survivals
of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois prejudices, etc.
Only to the extent that the proletariat promotes from its own ranks a body
of advanced men and women capable of occupying these "key positions" of
socialist construction and culture, only to the extent that this body grows, and
draws increasing numbers of the working class into the process of revolutionai*y-
cultural transformation and gradually obliterates the line that divides the
proletariat into an "advanced" and a "backward" section will the guarantees
be created for successful socialist construction and against bureaucratic decay
and class degeneracy.
However, in the process of revolution the proletariat not only changes its
own nature, but also the nature of other classes-, primarily the numerous petty-
bourgeois strata in town and country and especially the toiling sections of the
peasantry. By drawing the wide masses into the process of cultural revolu-
tion and .socialist construction, by uniting and communistically educating them
with all the means at its disposal, by strongly combating all anti-proletarian and
narrow craft ideologies, and by persistently and systematically overcoming the
general and cultural J>ackwardness of the rural districts, the working class, on
the basis of the developing collective forms of economy, prepares the way for
the complete removal of class divisions in society.
One of the most important tasks of the cultural revolution affecting the wide
mjisses is the task of systematically and unswervingly combating religion — the
(ipium of the people. The proletarian government must withdraw all state
support from the church, which is the agency of the former ruling class ; it
mu.«;t prevent all church interference in state-organized educational affairs, and
ruthlessly suppress the counter-revolutionary activity of the ecclesiastical or-
ganizations. At the same time, the proletarian state, while granting liberty
of worship and abolishing the privileged position of the formerly dominent
religion, carries on anti-religious propaganda with all the means at its com-
mand and reconstructs the whole of its educational work on the basis of
scientifie materiali-sm.
S. The Struggle for the World Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Principal
Types of Revolutions
The international proletarian revolution represents a combination of processes
which vary in time and character : purely proletarian revolutions ; revolutions
of a bourgeois-democratic type which grow into proletarian revolutions ; wars
for national liberation ; colonial revolutions. The world dictatorship of the
proletariat comes only as the final result of the revolutionary process.
The uneven development of capitalism, which became more accentuated in
the period of imi>erialism, has given ri.se to a variety of types of capitalism,
to different stages of ripeness of capitalism in different countries, and to a
variety of sijecific conditions of the revolutionary process. These circumstances
make it historically inevitable that the proletariat will come to power by a
varifty of ways and degrees of rapidity ; that a number of countries must pass
5g UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
through certain transition stages leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat
and must adopt varied forms of socialist construction.
The variety of conditions and ways by which the proletariat will achieve
its dictatorship in the various countries may be divided schematically into
three main types.
Countries of highly developed capitalism (United States of America, Germany,
Great Britain, etc), having powerful productive forces, highly centralized pro-
duction, with small-scale production reduced to relative insignificance, and a
long established bourgeois-democratic political system. In such countries the
fundamental political demand of the program is direct transition to the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat. In the economic sphere, the most characteristic
demands are: expropriation of the whole of large-scale industry; organization of
a large number of state Soviet farms and, in contrast to this, a relatively
small portion of the land be transferred to the peasantry ; unregulated market
relations to be given comparatively small scope ; rapid rate of socialist develop-
ment generally, and of collectivization of peasant farming in particular.
Countries ivith a medium development o^ capitalism, (Spain, Portugal, Poland,
Hungary, the Balkan countries, etc. I , having numerous survivals of semi-feudal
relationships in agriculture, possessing, to a certain extent, the material prerequi-
sites for socialist construction, and in which the bourgeois-democratic reforms
have not yet been completed. In some of these countries a process of more or less
rapid development from bourgeois-democratic revolution to socialist revolution is
possible. In others, there may be types of proletarian revolutions which will have
a large number of bourgeois-democratic tasks to fulfill. Hence, in these countries,
the dictatorship of the proletariat may not come ab(jut at once, but in the process
of transition from the democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry to
the socialist dictatorship of the proletariat ; where the revolution develops directly
as a proletarian revolution it is presumed that the proletariat exercises leadership
over a broad agrarian peasant movement. In general, the agrarian revolution
plays a most important part in these countries, and in some cases a decisive role ;
in the process of expropriating large landed property a considerable portion of
the confiscated land is placed at the disposal of the peasantry ; the scope of market
relations prevailing after the victory of the proletariat is considerable: the task
of organizing the peasantry along cooperative lines and, later, of uniting them in
cooperative production, occupies an important place among the tasks of socialist
construction. The rate of this construction is relatively slow.
Colonial and semi-colonial countries (China, India, etc.), and dependent coun-
tries (Argentina, Brazil, etc.), having the rudiments of and in some cases con-
siderably developed industry, but which in the majority of cases is inadequate for
independent socialist construction ; with medieval feudal relationship, or "Asiatic
mode of production" relationships, prevailing in their economics and political
super-structure: finally, their most important industrial, commercial and lianking
enterprises, the principal means of transport, the large landed estates (lati-
fundia), plantations, etc., are concentrated in the hands of foreign imperialist
groups. The principal tasks in such countries are, on the one hand, to fight
against feudalism and the pre-capitalist forms of exploitation and to develop
systematically the peasant agrarian revolution ; on the other hand, to fight against
foreign imperialism and for national independence. As a rule, transition to the
dictatorship of the proletariat in these countries will be possible only through
a series of preparatory stages, at the outcome of a whole period of the trans-
formation of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into socialist revolution, while
in the majority of cases, successful socialist construction will be possible only if
direct support is obtained from the countries in which the proletarian dictatorship
is established.
In still more backward countries (as in some parts of Africa) where there are
no wage workers or very few, where the majority of the population still live in
tribal conditions, where survivals of primitive, tribal forms still exist, where a
national bourgeoisie is almost non-existent, where the primary role of foreign
imperialism is that of military occupation and usurpation of land, the central
task is to fight for national independence. Victorious national uprisings in these
countries may open the way for their direct development towards socialism and
their avoiding the stage of capitalism, provided real, powerful assistance is
rendered to them by the countries in M'liich the proletarian dictatorship is
established.
Thus, in the epoch in which the proletariat in the most developed capitalist
countries is confronted with the task of capturing power, in which the dictatorship
of the proletariat is already established in the U.S.S.R. and is a factor of world
APPENDIX, PART 1 57
siguificance; tlie liberation movements in the colonial and semi-colonial countries,
which were caused by the penetration of world capitalism, may lead to their
.socialist development — notwithstanding the immaturity of social relationships in
these countries taken by themselves — iirovided theij reeeive the ai^sistance and
support of the proletarian dictatorship and of the international proletarian move-
ment generally.
9. The Struggle for the World Proletarian Dictatorship and the Colonial
Revolutions
The special conditions of the revolutionary struggle prevailing in colonial and
semi-colonial countries, the inevital)ly long period of struggle required for the
demo<-ratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry and for the trans-
formation of this dictatorship into the dictatorship of the proletariat, and,
finally, the decisive importance of the national aspects of the struggle, impose
upon the Comnnmist Parties of these countries a number of special tasks, which
are preparatory stages to the general tasks of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Communist International considers the following to be the most important
of these special tasks :
A. To overthrow the rule of foreign imperialism, of the feudal rulers and of
the landlord bureaucracy.
B. To establish the democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry
on a Soviet basis.
o. Ck)mplete national independence and national unification.
n. Annulment of state debts.
K. Nationalization of the large-scale enterprises (industrial, transport, banking
and others) owned by the imperialists.
F. The confiscation of landlord, church and monastery lands. The national-
ization of all the land.
Ci. Introduction of the eight-hour day.
H. The organization of revolutionary workers' and peasants' armies.
In the colonies and semi-colonies where the proletariat is the leader of and
commands hegemony in the struggle, the consistent bourgeois-democratic revolu-
tion will grow into proletarian revolution — in proportion as the struggle develops
and becomes more intense (sabotage by the bourgeoisie, confiscation of the enter-
pi'ises l)elonging to the sabotaging section of the bourgeoisie, which inevitably
extends to the nationalization of the whole of large-scale industry). In the
colonies where there is no proletariat, the overthrow of the domination of the
imperialists implies the establishment of the rule of people's (peasant) Soviets,
the confiscation and transfer to the state of foreign enterprises and lands.
Colonial revolutions and movements for national liberation play an extremely
important part in the struggle against imperialism and in the struggle for the
conquest of power by the working class. Colonies and semi-colonies are also
important in the transition period because they constitute the world rural district
in relation to the industrial countries, which function, as it were, as the urban
cenrers of the world. Consequently, the problem of organizing socialist world
economy, of properly combining industry with agriculture is, to a large extent,
the problem of the relation towards the former colonies of imperialism. The
establishment of a fraternal fighting alliance with the masses of the toilers in
the colonies co)i.stitutes one of the principal tasks lohich the tvorld industrial
proletariat must fulfill as the leader in the struggle against imperialism.
Thus, the world revolution in the course of its development, while rousing the
workers in the imperialist countries for the struggle for the proletarian dictator-
ship, rouses also hundreds of millions of colonial workers and peasants for the
struggle against foreign imperialism. In view of the existence of centers of
socialism represented by Soviet Republics of growing economic power, the colonies
which break away from imperialism economically gravitate towards and gradu-
ally combine with the industrial centers of world socialism. Thus, drawn into
the channel of socialist construction, they skip the further stage of development
of capitalism as a pi-edominant system, and obtain opportunities for rapid eco-
nomic and cultural progress. The Peasants' Soviets in the backward ex-colonies
and the Workers' and Peasants' Soviets in the more developed ex-colonies group
themselves politically around the centers of proletarian dictatorship, join the
grt>wing Federation of Soviet Republics, and thus enter the general system of
the world proletarian dictatorship.
Socialism, as the new method of production, thus obtains world-wide scope of
development.
58 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
CHAPTER FIVE
The Diotatorship or the Proletariat in the U. S. S. R. and the iNTsatNA-
TioNAL SooiAi. Revolution
1. The Building Up of Socialism in the U. S. S. R. and the Class Struggle
The principal manifestation of the profound crisis of the capitalist system
is the division of world economy into capitalist countries on the one hand, and
countries building up socialism on the other. Therefore, the internal consoli-
dation of the proletarian dictatorship in the U. S. S. R., the success achieved
in the work of socialist construction, the growth of the influence and authority
of the U. S. S. R. among the masses of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples
of the colonies signify the continuation, strengthening and expansion of the
international socialist revolution.
Possessing in the country the necessary and suflScient material prerequisites
not only for the overthrow of the landlords and the bourgeoisie but also for the
establishment of complete socialism, the workers of the Soviet Republic, with
the aid of the international proletariat, heroically repelled the attacks of the
armed forces of the internal and foreign counter-revolution, consolidated their
alliance with the bulk of the peasantry and achieved considerable success in the
sphere of socialist construction.
The linking up of the proletarian socialist industry with the small peasant
economy, thus stimulating the growth of the productive forces of agriculture and
at the same time asuring the leading role to socialist industry ; the collaboration
of this industry with agriculture, instead of its catering, as was the case under
capitalism, to the unproductive consumption of parasitic classes ; production, not
for capitalist profit, but for the satisfaction of the growing needs of the masses
of the consumers; the growth of the needs of the masses, which in the final
analysis greatly stimulates the entire productive process ; and finally, the close
concentration of the economic key positions under the command of the proletrian
state, the growth of planned management and the more economic and expedient
distribution of the means of production that goes with it— all this enables the
proletariat to make rapid progress along the road of socialist construction.
In raising the level of the productive forces of the whole economy of the
country, and in steering a straight course for the Industrialization of the
U. S. S. R. — the rapidity of which is dictated by the international and internal
situation, the proletariat in the U. S. S. R., notwithstanding the systematic
attempts on the part of the capitalist powers to org'anize an economic and
financial boycott against the Soviet Republics, at the same time increases the
relative share of the socialized (socialist) sector of national economy in the
total means of production in the country, in the total output of industry and in
the total trade turnover.
Thus, with the land nationalized, and with the increasing industrialization of
the country, the state socialist industry, transport and banking are more and
more guiding, by the means of the state trade and the rapidly growing coop-
eratives, the activities of the small and very small peasant enterprises.
In the sphere of agriculture especially, the level of the forces of production
is being ratsed amidst the conditions that restrict the process of differentiation
among the peasantry (nationalization of the land, and consequently, the pro-
hibition of the sale and purchase of land ; sharply gi'aded progressive taxation ;
the financing of poor and middle peasants' cooperative societies and producers'
organizations ; laws regulating the hiring of labor ; depriving the kulaks of cer-
tain political and public rights ; organizing the rural poor in separate organiza-
tions, etc.). However, in so far as the productive forces of socialist industry
have not yet grown sufficiently to provide a broad new technical base for
agriculture and, consequently, to render possible the immediate and rapid unifi-
cation of peasant enterprises into Targe social enterprises (collective farms),
the kulak class, too, grows, establishing economic and, later, also political col-
laboration with the elements of the so-called "new bourgeoisie".
Being in command of the principal economic key positions in the country and
systematically squeezing out the remnants of urban and private capital, which
has greatly dwindled in the last few years of the New Economic Policy ; re-
stricting in every way the exploiting strata in the rural districts that arise out
of the development of commodity and money relationships ; supporting existing
Soviet farms in the rural districts and establishing new ones ; drawing the bulk
of the peasant simple commodity producers into the general system of Soviet
APPENDIX, PART 1 59
ecouomic organization and, consequently, into the work of socialist construction,
through the medium of the rapidly growing cooperative movement, which —
under the proletarian dictatorship and in view of the economic leadership of
socialist industry — is identical with the development of socialism ; passing from
the process of restoration to the process of expanded reproduction of the entire
productive and technical base of the country — the proletariat of the U. S. S. R.
sets itself, and is already beginning to fulfill, the task of large-scale basic con-
struction (production of means of production generally, development of heavy
industry land especially of electrification) and, developing still further, selling,
buying and credit cooperation, sets itself the task of organizing the peasantry
in producing cooperatives on a mass scale and a collectivist basis, which calls
for the powerful material assistance of the proletari'an state.
Thus socialism — which is already the decisive economic force determining,
in the main, the entire economic development of the U. S. S. R. — makes still
further strides in its development and systematically overcomes the diflBculties
that arise from the petty-bourgeois character of the country and the periods
of temporarily acute class antagonisms.
The task of re-equipping industry and of large-scale basic construction must
give rise to serious difficulties in the path of socialist development which, in
the last analysis, are to be attributed to the technical and economic backward-
ness of the country and to the ruin claused in the years of the imperialist and
civil wars. Notwithstanding this, however, the standard of living of the
working class and of the broad masses of the toilers is steadily rising and,
simultaneously with the socialist rationalization and scientific organization of
industry, the seven-hour day is gradually being introduced, which opens up
still wider prospects for the improvement of the living and working conditions
of the working class.
On the basis of the economic growth of the U. S. S. R. and of the steady
increase in the relative importance of the socialist sector of its economy; never
for a moment halting the struggle against the kulaks ; relying upon the rural
poor and maintaining a firm alliance with the bulk of the middle peasantry,
the working class, united and led by the Communist Party which has been
hardened in revolutionary battles, draws increasing masses, scores of millions
of toilers into the work of socialist construction. The principal means employed
towards this aim are: the development of broad mass organizations (the Party,
as the guiding force ; the trade unions, as the backbone of the entire system
of the proletarian dictatorship ; the Young Communist League ; cooperative
societies of all types ; working women's and peasant women's organizations ;
(he various so-called "voluntary societies" ; worker and peasant correspondents'
societies; sport, scientific, cultural and educational organizations) ; full encour-
agement of the initiative of the masses and the promotion of fresh strata of
workers to high posts in all spheres of economy and administi*ation. The
steady attraction of the masses into the process of socialist construction, the
constant renovation of the entire state, economic, trade union and Party
apparatus with men and women fresh from the ranks of the proletariat, the
systematic training, in the higher educational institutions and at special
courses, of workers generally and young workers in particular as new, socialist
experts in all branches of construction — all these together serve as one of the
principal guarantees against the bureaucratic ossification and social degenera-
tion of the stratum of the proletariat directly engaged in administration.
2. The Signipcance of the U. 8. S. R. and Its International
Revolutionary Duties
Having defeated Russian imperialism and liberated all the former colonies
and oppressed nations of the tsai'ist empire, and systematically laying a firm
foundation for their cultural and political development by industrializing their
territories ; having guaranteed the juridicial position of the Autonomous Terri-
tories, Autonomous Republics and Federated Republics in the Constitution of
the Union and having realized in full the right of nations to self-determination
— the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. has thereby secured, not
only formal, but al.so real equality for the different nationalities of the Union.
As the land of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of socialist construc-
tion, the land of great working class achievements, of the union of the workers
with the peasants and of a new culture marching under the banner of Marxism,
the U. S. S. R. inevitably becomes the base of the world movement of all op-
pressed classe,s, the center of international revolution, the greatest factor in
,QQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
world history. In the U. S. S. R., the world proletariat for the first time has
acquired a country that is really its own, and for the colonial movements the
U. S. S. R. becomes a powerful center of attraction.
Thus, the U. S. S. R. is an extremely important factor in the general crisis
■of capitalism, not only because it has dropped cut of the world capitalist system
and has created a basis for a new socialist system of production, but also
because it plays an exceptionally great revolutionary role generally; it is the
international driving force of proletarian revolution that impels the proletariat
■of all countries to seize power ; it is the living example proving that the working
class is not only capable of destroying capitalism, but of building up socialism
as well ; it is the prototype of the fraternity of nationalities in all lands united
in the world union of socialist republics and of the economic unity of the toilers
of all countries in a single world socialist economic system that the world
proletariat must establish when it has captured political power.
The simultaneous existence of two economic systems — the socialist system
in the U. S. H. R., and the capitalist system in other countries — imposes on tlie
proletarian state the task of warding off the blows showered upon it by the
capitalist world (boycott, blockade, etc.). This also compels it to resort to
economic maneuvering and to utilize the economic contacts with the capitalist
countries (with the aid of the monopoly of foreign trade, which is one of the
fundamental conditions for the successful building up of socialism, and also
with the aid of credits, loans, concessions, etc.). The principal and fundamental
line to be followed in this connection must be the line of establishing the widest
possible contact with foreign countries — within limits determined hv tbfir
usefulness to the I'. !S. S. R., i. e., primarily for strengthening industry in tlie
U. S. S. R., for laying the base for its own heavy industry and electrification and
finally, for the development of its own socialist machine manufacturing in-
dustry. Only to the extent that the economic indei>endence of the U. S. S. R.
from the encircling capitalist world is secured can solid guarantees be obtained
against the danger that socialist construction in the U. S. S. R. may be destroyed
and that the U. S. S. R. may be transformed into an appendage of the world
capitalist system.
On the other hand, notwithstanding their interest in the markets of the
U. S. S. R., the capitalist states continually vacillate between their commercial
interests and their fear of the growtli of the U. S. S. R., which means the growth
of the international revolution. However, tha principal and fundamental
tendency in the policy of the imperialist powers is to encircle the U. S. S. R. and
to conduct counter-revQlutionary war against her in order to strangle her
and to establish a world bourgeois terrorist regime.
The systematic imperialist attempts politically to encircle the U. S. S. R. and
the growing danger of an armed attack upon her, do not, however, prevent
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — a section of the Communist Inter-
national and the leader of the proletarian dictatorship in the U. S. S. R. — from
fulfilling its international obligations and from rendering support to all the
<)ppressed, to the labor movement in the capitalist countries, to the colonial
movements against imperialism and to the struggle against national oppres-
sion in every form.
3. The Duties of the International Proletariat to the U. 8. S. R.
In view of the fact that the TJ. S. S. R. is the only fatherland of the interna-
tional proletariat, the principal bulwark of its achievements and the most
important factor for its international emancipation, the international pro-
letariat must on its part facilitate the success of the work of socialist con-
struction in the U. S. S. R. and defend it against the attacks of the capitalist
powers by all the means in its power.
"The world political situation has made the dictatorship of the proletariat
an immediate issue, and all the events of world politics are inevitably
concentrating around one central point, nfimely, the struggle of the world
bourgeoisie against the Soviet Russian Republic, which must inevitably
group around itself the Soviet movements of the advanced workei's of all
countries on the one hand, and all the national liberation movements of
the colonial and oppressed nationalities on the other." {Lenin.)
In the event of the imperialist states declaring war upon and attacking the
U. S. S. R., the international proletariat must retaliate by organizing bold and
determined mass action and struggling for the overthrow of the imperialist
APPENDIX, PART 1 61
governments with the slogan of: Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Alliance
with the U. S. S. R. ......
In the colonies, and particularly the colonies of the imperialist country
attacking the U. S. S. R., every effort must be made to take advantage of the
diversion of the imperialist military forces to develop an anti-imperialist
struggle and to organize revolutionary action for the purpose of throwing off
the vokp of imperialism and of winninj; complete independence.
The development of socialism in the U. S. S. R. and the growth of its inter-
national innuence not only rouse the hatred of the capitalist states and the
Social-Democratic agents against it, but also inspire the toilers all over the
world with sympathy towards it and stimulate the readiness of the oppressed
classes of all countries to fight with all the means in their power for the
land of the proletarian dictatorship, in the event of au imperialist attack
upon it.
Thus, the development of the contradictions within modern world economy,
the development of the general capitalist crisis, and the imperialist military
attack upon the Soviet Union inevitably lead to a mighty revolutionary outbreak
which must overwhelm capitalism in a number of the so-called civilized countries,
unlease the victorious revolution in the colonies, broaden the base of the prole-
tarian dlctatorsliip to an enormous degree and thus, with tremendous strides,
bring nearer the final world victoi-y of socialism.
chaptersix
The Strategy and Tactics of the Communist International in the Struggle
FOR the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
1. Ideologies Among the Working Class Inimical to Communism
In its fight against capitalism for the dictatorship of the proletariat, revolu-
tionary conuuunism encounters numerous tendencies within the working class
which to a greater or lesser degree express the ideological suliordination of the
proletariat to tlie imperialist bourgeoisie, or rellect the ideological influence
exercised upon the proletariat by the petty bourgeoisie, which at times rebels
against the .shackles of finance capital, but is incapable of adopting sustained
and scientifically planned strategy and tactics or of carrying on the struggle in
an organized manner on the basis of the stern discipline that is characteristic
of the proletariat.
The mighty social power of the imperialist state, with its auxiliary apparatus
■ — schools, press, theater and church — is primarily reflected in the existence of
confessional and reformist tendencies among the working class, which represent
the main obstacles on the road towards the proletarian social revolution.
The confessional, religiously tinged, tendency among the working class flnds
expression in the confessional trade unions, which frequently are directly con-
nected with corresponding bourgeois political organizations and are affiliated
with one or other of the church organizations of the dominant class (Catholic
trade unions, Young Men's Christian As.sociation, Jewish Zionist organizations,
etc.). All these tendencies, being the most striking ijroduct of the ideological
captivity of certain strata of the proletariat, in most cases, bear a romantic-
feudal tinge. By sanctifying all the abominations of the capitalist regime with
the holy water of religion, and by terrorizing their flock with the spectre of
punishment in the hereafter, the leaders of these organizations serve as the most
reactionary agents of the class enemy in the camp of the proletariat.
A cynically commercial, and imperialistic secular form of subjecting the pro-
letariat to the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie is represented by contem-
porary "socialist" reformism. Taking its main gospel from the tablets of
imperialist politics, its model today is the deliberately anti-socialist and openly
counter-revolutionary American Federation of Labor. The "ideological" dic-
tatorship of the servile American trade union bureaucracy, which in its turn
expresses the "ideological" dictatorship of the American dollar, has become,
through the medium of British reformism and His Majesty's Socialists of the
British Labor Party, the most important constituent in the theory and practice
of international Social-Democracy and of the leaders of the Amsterdam Inter-
antional, while the leaders of German and Austrian Social-Democracy embellish
these theories with Marxism phraseology in order to cover up their utter be-
trayal of Marxism. The principal enemy of revolutionary communism in the
labor movement, "socialist" reformism, which has a broad organizational base
62 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in the Social -Democratic Parties and tlirougli these in tlie reformist trade unions,
stands out in its entire policy and tlieoretical outlook as a force directed against
the proletaiian revohition.
In the sphere of foreign, politics, the Social-Democratic Parties actively sup-
ported the imperialist war on the pretext of "defending the fatherland". Im-
perialist expansion and "colonial policy'' received their wholehearted support.
Orientation towards the counter-revolutionary "holy alliance" of imperialist
powers (the League of Nations), advocacy of "ultra-imperialism", mobilization
of the masses under pseudo-pacifist slogans, and at the same time, active supiwrt
of imperialism in its attacks upon the U. S. S. R. and in its preparations for war
against the U. S. S. R. — are the main features of reformist foreign policy.
In the sphere of home politics, Social-Democracy has set itself the task of
directly cooperating with and supporting the capitalist regime. Complete sup-
port for capitalist rationalization and stabilization, safeguarding of class peace,
of "industrial peace" ; the policy of linking up the labor organizations with the
organizations of the employers and with the predatory imperialist state ; the
practice of so-called "industrial democracy" which in fact means complete sub-
ordination to trustified capital ; homage to the imperialist state and particularly
to its false democratic front ; active participation in the building up of the organs
of the imperialist state — police, army, gendarmerie, its class judiciary; the
defense of the state against the encroachments of the revolutionary communist
proletariat and the executioner's role Social-Democracy plays in time of revolu-
tionary crisis — such is the line of reformist home policy. While pretending to
conduct the industrial struggle, reformism considers its function in this field
to be to conduct that struggle in such manner as to guard the capitalist class
against any kind of shock, or at all events, to preserve the complete inviolability
of the foundations of capitalist property.
In the sphere of theory, Social-Democracy has utterly and completely be-
trayed Marxism, having traversed the road from revisionism' to complete liberal
bourgeois reformism and avowed social-imperialism ; it has substituted In place
of the Marxian theory of the contradictions of capitalism, the bourgeois theory
of its harmonious development : it has pigeonholed the theory of crises and of
the pauperization of the proletariat ; it has turned the flaming and redoubtable
theory of class struggle into the mean advocacy of class peace ; it has exchanged
the theory of growing class antagonisms for the petty-bourgeois fairy-tale about
the "democratization" of capital; in place of the theory of the inevitability of
war under capitalism it has substituted the bourgeois deceit of pacifism and the
lying propaganda of "ultra-imperialism" : it has exchanged the theory of the
revolutionary downfall of capitalism for the counterfeit coinage of "sound"'
capitalism transforming itself peacefully into socialism ; it has replaced revolu-
tion by evolution, the destruction of the bourgeois state by its active upbuilding,
the theory of proletarian dictatorship by the theory of coalition with the bour-
geoisie, the doctrine of international proletarian solidarity — by preaching defense
of the imperialist fatherland ; for Marxian dialetical materialism it has sub-
stituted the idealist philosophy and is now engaged in picking up the crumbs of
religion that fall from the table of the bourgeoisie.
Within Social-Democratic reformism a number of tendencies stand out that
are characteristic of the bourgeois degeneracy of Social-Democracy.
Constrnctii-e socialism (MacDonald & Co.) — the very name of which suggests
the idea of struggle against the revolutionary proletariat and a favorable atti-
tude towards the capitalist system — continiies the liberal-philanhropic. anti-
revolutionary and bourgeois traditions of Fabianism (Beatrice and Sydney
Webb. Bernard Shaw, Lord Oliver, etc.). It repudiates, on principle, the
dictatorship of the proletariat and the iise of violence in the struggle against
the bourgeoisie, but it favors violence in the struggle against the proletariat
and the colonial peoples. Acting as apologist of the capitalist state, "con-
structive socialism" preaches state capitalism under the guise of socialism,
denounces, in conjunction with the most vulgar ideologists of imperialism
in both hemispheres, the theory of the class struggle as "prescientific'' theory,
and ostensibly advocates a moderate program of nationalization with compensa-
tion, taxation of land values, inheritance taxes and taxation of surplus profits
as a means for abolishing capitalism. Being resolutely opposed to the dictator-
ship of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R., "Constructive* Socialism", in complete
alliance with the bourgeoise — is an active enemy of the communist proletarian
movement and of colonial revolutions.
A special variety of "Constructive Socialism" is "Cooperatism'", or "Coopera-
tive Socialism'" (Charles Gide, Totomyantz & Co.), which also strongly repudi-
APPENDIX, PART 1 63
ates the class struggle and advocates the cooperative organization of consumers
as a means of overcoming capitalism, but which in fact does all it can to help
the stabilization of capitalism. Having at its command an extensive propa-
gandist apparatus, in the shape of the mass consumers' cooperative organiza-
tions, which it employs for the purpose of systematically influencing the masses,
"cooperativism" carries on a fierce struggle against the revolutionary labor
movement, hampers it in the achievement of its aims and represents today one
of the most potent factors in the camp of the reformist counter-revolution.
So-called "Guild Socialism' (Penty, Ot*age, Hobson and others) is an eclectic
attempt to unite "revolutionary" syndicalism with bourgeois-liberal Fabianism,
anarchist decentralization ("national industrial guilds") with state-capitalist
centralization, and medieval guild and craft narrowness with modern capitalism.
Starting out with the ostensible demand for the abolition of the "wage system"
as an "immoral" institution which must be abolished by means of workers'
control of industi-y, Guild Socialism completely ignores the most important
question, viz., the question of power. While striving to unite workers, intel-
lectuals, and technicians into a federation of national industrial "guilds" and
to convert these guilds by peaceful means ("control from within") into organs
for the administration of industry within the framework of the bourgeois state,
Guild Socialism actually defends the bourgeois state, obscures its class, im-
perialist and anti-proletarian character and allots tti it the function of the non-
clas.« representative of the interests of the "consumers" as against the guild-
organized "producers". By its advocacy of "functional democracy", *. e., repre-
sentation of classes in capitalist society, each class being presumed to have
definite social and productive function. Guild Socialism paves the way for the
fascist "Corporate State". By repudiating both parliamentarism and "direct
action", the majority of the Guild Socialists doom the working class to inaction
and passive subordination to the bourgeoisie. Thus, Guild Socialism represents
a peculiar form of trade unionist Utopian opportunism and, as such, cannot but
play an anti-revolutionary role.
Lastly, Aiistro-Marxism represents a special variety of Social-Democratic
reformism. Being a part of the "Left-wing" of Social-Democracy, Austro-
]Marxism represents a most subtle deception of the masses of the toilers.
Prostituting the terminology of Marxism, while divorcing themselves entirely
from the basic principles of revolutionary Marxism (the Kantism, Machism,
etc., of the Austro-Marxists in the domain of philosophy), toying with religion,
borrowing the tiieory of "functional democracy" from the British reformists,
agreeing with the principle of "building up the Republic", i. e., building up the
liourgeois state. Austro-Marxism recommends "class cooperation" in periods of
so-called "equilibrium of class forces", /. e., precisely at the time when the revo-
lutionary crisis is maturing. This theory is a .iustification of coalition with the
bourgeoisie for the overthrow of the proletarian revolution under the guise
of defending "democracy" against the attacks of reaction. Objectively, and in
practice, the violence which Austro-Marxism admits in cases of reactionary
attack is converted into reactionary violence against the proletarian revolu-
tion. Hence, the "functional role" of Austro-Marism is to deceive the workers
already marching towards Communism, and therefore it is the most dangerous
enemy of the proletariat, more dangerous than the avowed adherents of
predatory social-imperialism.
All the above-mentioned tendencies, being constituent parts of "socialist"
reformism, are agencies of the imperialist bourgeoisie within the working class
itself. But Communism has to contend also against a number of petty-bourgeois
tendencies, which reflect and express the vacillation of the unstable strata
of society (the urban petty bourgeoisie, the lumpen-proletariat, the declared
Bohemian intellectuals, the pauperized artisans, certain strata of the peasantry,
etc. etc.). These tendencies, which are distinguished for their extreme political
instability, often cover up a Right policy with Left phraseology or drop into
adventurism, substitiite "radical" political gesticulation for objective estimation
of forces and often tumble from astounding heights of revolutionary bombast
to profound depths of pessimism and downright capitulation before the enemy.
Under certain conditions, particularly in periods of sharp changes in the po-
litical situation and of forced temporary retreat, these tendencies may become
very dangerous disrupters of the proletarian ranks and, consequently, a drag
upon the revolutionary proletarian movement.
Anarcliism, the most prominent representatives of which (Kropotkin, Jean
Grave and others) treacherously went over to the side of the imperialist
g4 tJN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
bourgeoisie in the war of 1914-1918, denies the necessity for wide, centralized
and disciplined proletarian organizations and thus leaves the proletariat
powerless before the powerful organizations of capital. By its advtx;acy of
individual terror, it distracts the proletariat from the methods of mass organiza-
tion and mass struggle. By repudiating the dictatorship of the proletariat in
the name of "abstract" liberty, anarchism deprives the proletariat of its most
important and sharpest weapon against the bourgeoisie, its armies, and all its
organs of repression. Being remote from mass movement of any kind in the
most important centers of proletarian struggle, anarchism is steadily being
reduced to a sect which, by its tactics and actions, including its opposition to
the dictatorship of the working class in the U. S. S. R., has objectively joined
the united front of the anti-revolutionary forces.
"Revolutionary" syndicalism, many ideologists of which in the extremely
critical war period went over to the camp of the fascist type of "•anti-
parliamentary" counter-revolutionaries, or became peaceful reformists of the
Social-Democratic type, by its repudiation of political struggle (particularly
of revolutionary parliamentarism) and of the revolutionary dictatorship of the
proletariat, by its advocacy of the craft decentralization of the labor movement
generally and of the trade union movement in particular, by its repudiation of
the need for a proletarian party, and of the necessity of insurrection, and by its
exaggeration of the importance of the general strike (the "folded-arms tactics").
like anarchism, hinders the revolutionization of the masses of the workers
wherever it has any influence. Its attacks upon the U. S. S. R., which logically
follow from its repudiation of dictatorship of the proletariat in general, place
it In this respect on a level with Social-Democracy.
All these tendencies take a common stand with Social-Dcinocraci/, the prin-
cipal enemy of the proletarian revolution, on the fundamental political issue,
viz., the question of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Hence, all of them come
out more or less definitely in a united front with Social-Democracy against the
U. S. S. R. On the other hand, Social-Democracy, which has utterly and com-
pletely betrayed Marxism, tends to rely more and more upon the ideology of the
Fabians, of the Con.structive Socialists and of the Guild Socialists. The.se
tendencies are becoming transformed into the official liberal-reformist ideology
of the bourgeois "socialism" of the Second International.
In the colonial countries and among the oppressed peoples and races gener-
ally, communism encounters the influence of peculiar tendencies in the labor
movement which played a useful role in a definite phase of development, but
which, in the new stage of development, are becoming transformed into a
reactionary force.
Sirfi-Yat-8enisin in China expres.sed the ideology of petty-bourgeois democratic
"socialism." In the "Three Principles" (nationalism, democracy, socialism),
the concept "people" obscured the concept "classes" ; socialism was presented,
not as a specific mode of production, to be realized by a specific class, i. c, by
the proletariat, but as a vague state of social well-being, the struggle against
imperialism was not linked up with the perspective of the development of 'the
class struggle in China. Therefore, while it played a very useful role in the
first stage of the Chinese revolution, as a consequence of the further process
of class differentiation that has taken place in the country and of the further
progress of the revolution, Sun-Yat-Senism has now changed from being the
ideological expression of the development of that revolution into fetters of its
further development. The epigones of Sun-Yat-Senism, by emphasizing and
exaggerating the very features of this ideology that have become objectively
reactionary, have transformed it into the official ideology of the Kuomintang,
which is now an openly counter-revolutionary force. The ideological growth of
Ihe masses of the Chinese proletariat and of the toiling peasantry must therefore
be accompanied by determined decisive struggle against the Kuomintang decep-
tion and by opposition to the remnants of the Sun-Yat-Senist ideology.
Tendencies like Gandhi-ism in India, thoroughly imbued with religious con-
ceptions, idealize the most backward and economically most reactionary forms
of social life, see the solution of the social problem not in proletarian socialism,
but in a reversion to these backward forms, preach passivity and repudiate thi^
class struggle, and in the process of the development of the revolution become
transformed into an openly reactionary force. Gandhi-ism is more and more
becoming an ideology directed against mass revolution. It must be strongly
combatted by communism.
Garveyism, which formerly was the ideology of the Negro small property
owners and tcorkers in America, and which even now exercises some influence
APPENDIX, PART 1 65
over the Negro masses, like Gandhi-ism. has hecome a hindrance to the revolii-
tionization of the Negro masses. Originally advocating social equalit.v for
Negroes, Garve.vism snbseqnentl.v developed into a peculiar form of Negro
Zionism which, instead of fighting American imperialism, advanced the slogan :
"Back to Africa !'" This dangeroiis ideology, which bears not a single genuine
democratic trait, and which toys with the aristocratic attributes of a non-
existent "Negro kingdom", must he strongly resisted, for it is not a help but a
hindrance to the mass Negro liberation struggle against American imperialism.
Standing out against all these tendencies is proletarian communism. The
powerful ideology of the international revolutionary working class differs from
all these tendencies, and primarily from Social-Democracy, in that in complete
harmony with the teachings of Marx and Engels, it conducts a theoretical avd
practical revolutionar)/ striif/gle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in
the strvfigle applies all forms of proletarian mass action.
2. The Fundamental Tasks of Communist Strategy and Tactics
The successful struggle of the Communist International for the dictatorship
of the iiroletariat presupposes the existence in every country of a compact
Communist Party, hardened in the struggle, disciplined, centralized, clo.'^ely
linked up with the masses.
The Party is the vanguard of the working class and consists of the best,
most class-conscious, most active, and most courageous members of that class.
It incorporates the whole body of experience of the proletarian struggle. Basing
itself upon the revolutionary theory of Marxism and representing the general
and lasting interests of the whole of the working class, the Party personifies
the unity of proletarian principles, of proletarian will and of proletarian revo-
lutionary action. It is a revolutionary organization, bound by iron discipline
and strict revolutionary rules of democratic centralism, which can be carried
out thanks to the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard, to its loyalty
to the revolution, its ability to maintain unbreakable ties with the proletarian
masses and to its correct political leadership, which is constantly verified and
clarified b.v the experiences of the masses themselves.
In order that it may fulfill its historic mission of achieving the dictatorship
of the proletariat, the Communist Party must first of all set itself and accom-
plish the following fundamental strategic aims :
Extend its influence over the ntajority of memiers of its own class, including
working women and the working youth. To achieve this the Comnuinist Party
must secure ijredominant influence in the broad mass proletarian organizations
(Soviets, trade unions, factory committees, cooperative societies, sport organi-
zations, cultural organizations, etc.). It is particularly important for the
purpose of winning over the majority of the proletariat, to gain control of the
trade unions, which are genuine mass working class organizations closely bound
up with the every-day struggles of the w<n-king class. To work in reactionary
trade unions and skillfully to gain control of them, to win the confidence of
the broad masses of the industriall.v organized workers, to change and "remove
from their posts" the reformist leaders, represent important tasks in the
preparatory period.
The achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat presupposes also that
the proletariat has acquired hegemony over vide sections of the toiling masses.
To accomplish this the Communist Party must extend its influence over the
masses of the urban and rural poor, over the lower strata of the intelligentsia
and over the so-called "little man", /. r., the petty-bourgeois strata generally.
It is particularly important that work be carried on for the purpose of extending
the Party's influence over the peasantry. The Communist Party must secure
for itself the whole-hearted support of that stratum of the rural population
that stands closest to the proletariat, /. e., the agricultural laborers and the
rural poor. To this end, the agricultural laborers must be organized in separate
organizations ; all possible support must be given them in their struggles again;:!t
the rural bourgeoisie, and strenuous work must be carried on among the small
parcel farmers and small peasants. In regard to the middle strata of the peas-
antry in developed capitalist countries, the Communist Parties must conduct
a policy to secure their neutrality. The fulfillment of all these tasks by the
l)roletariat — the champion of the interests of the whole people and the leader
of the broad masses in their struggle against the oppression of finance capital —
is an essential prerequisite for the victorious communist revolution.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 6
(56 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The tasks of the revolutionary struggle in colonies, seniwolonies and de-
pendencies are extremely important strategic tasks of the Communist Inter-
national from the standpoint of the world proletarian struggle. The colonial
struggle presupposes that the broad masses of the working class and of the
peasantry in the colonies be rallied around the banner of the revolution; but
this cannot be achieved unless the closest cooperation is maintained between
the proletariat in the oppressing countries and the toiling masses in the oppressed
countries.
While organizing, under the banner <if the proletarian dictatorship, the revolu-
tion against imperialism in the so-called civilized states, the Communist Inter-
national supports every movement against imiK'rialist oppression in the colonies,
semi-colonies and dependencies (for example in Latin-America) ; it carries on
propaganda against all forms of chauvinism and against the imperialist mal-
treatment of enslaved peoples and races, big and small (treatment of Negroes,
'•yellow labor", anti-Semitism, etc.), and supports their struggles against the
bourgeoisie of the oppressing nations. The Conununist International e.specially
combats the chauvinism among the dnmiiiant nations of the great powers, the
chauvinism fostered by the imperialist bourgeoisie as well as by its Social-
Democratic agency, the Second International, and constantly holds up in contrast
to the practices of the imperialist bourgeoisie the practice of the Soviet Union,
which has established relations of fraternity and equality among the nationalities
inhabiting it.
The Communist Parties in the imperialist countries must render systematic aid
to the colonial revolutionary liberation movement and to the movement of oppressed
nationalities generally. The duty of rendering active support to these movements
rests primarily upon the workers in the countries upon which the oppressed na-
tions are economically, financially or politically dependent. The Communist
Parties must openly recognize the right of the cohtnies to separation and their
right to carry on propaganda for this separation, i. e., propaganda in favor of
the independence of the colonies from the imperialist state ; they must recognize
their right of armed defense against imperialism (i. c, the right of rebellion and
revolutionary war) and must advocate and give active support to this defense
by all the means in their power. The Communist Parties must adopt this line of
policy in regard to all oppressed nations.
The Communist Parties in the coloui<i1 <uid semi-coloni-al countries must carry
on a bold and consistent struggle again.'it foreign im))crialism and unfailingly
conduct propaganda in favor of friendship and unity with the proletariat in the
imperialist countries. They nuist openly advance, conduct propaganda for and
carry out the slogan of agrarian revolution ; they must rovise the broad ma.sses of
the peasantry for the overthrow of the landlords and combat the reactionary and
medieval influence of the clergy, of the missionaries and other similar elements.
In these countries, the principal task i.s to organize the workers and the peasantry
independcntiii (to establish class Communist Parties of the proletariat, trade
unions, peasant leagues and committees and, in a revolutionary situation, Soviets,
etc. t. and to free them from the influence of the national bourgeoisie, with whom
temporary agreements may be made only on the condition that they, the bourgeoisie,
do not hamper the revolutionary organization of the workers and peasants, and
that they carry on a genuine struggle against imperialism.
In determining its line of tactics, each Communist Party must take into account
the concrete internal and external situation, the correlation of class forces, the
degree of stability and strength of the bourgeoisie, the degree of preparedness of
the proletariat, the position taken up by the various intermediary strata in its
country, etc. The Party determines its slogans and methods of struggle in accord-
ance with these circumstances, with the view to organizing and mobilizing the
masses on the broadest possible scale and on the highest possible level of this
struggle.
When a revolutionary situation is developing, the I'arty advances certain transi-
tional slogans and partial demands corresponding to the concrete situation; but
these demands and i^logans must be bent to the revolutionary aim of capturing
power and of overthrowing bourgeois capitalist society. The Party must neither
stand aloof from the daily needs and struggle of the working class nor confine
its activities exclusively to them. The task of the Party is to utilize these minor
tvery-day needs as a startnifj point from which to lead the working class to the
revolutionary strugfflc for power.
In the event of a rerolutiomiry upxurge. if the ruling classes are disorganized,
the mas.'jes are in a state of revolutionary ferment and the intermediary strata
are inclining towards the proletariat. If the masses are readv for action and for
APPENDIX, PART 1 g7
saciitice, the Party of the proletariat is confronted with the task of leading the
masses to a direct attack upon the bourgeois state. This it does by carrying on
propaganda in favor of increasingly radical transitional slogans (for Soviets,
workers' control of industry, for peasant connnittees for the seizure of the big
landed properties, for disarming the bourgeoisie and arming the proletariat, etc.),
ajid by organizing mass action, upon which all branches of the Party agitation
and propaganda, including parliamentary activity, must be concentrated. This
mass action includes : a combination of strikes and demonstrations ; a combination
o± strikes and armed demonstrations and finally, the general strike conjointly
with armed insurrection against the state power of the bourgeoisie. The latter
form of struggle, which is the supreme form, must be conducted according to the
lules of military science: it presupposes a plan of campaign, offensive fighting
operations and unboimded devotion and heroi.sm on the part of the proletariat. An
ab.sclutely essential prerequisite for this form of action is the organization of the
broad masses into militant units, which, by their very form, embrace and set into
action the largest possible numbers of toilers (Councils of Workers" Deputies,
Soldiers' Councils, etc.), and intensified revolutionary work in the army and the
navy.
In passing over to new and more radical slogans, the Parties must be guided by
the fundamental role of the political tactics of Leninism, which call for ability to
lead the masses to revolutionary positions in such a manner that the masses may,
by their own experience, convince themselves of the correctness of the Party line.
Failure to observe this rule must inevitably lead to isolation from the masses, to
])Ut.schism, to the indeological degeneration of communism into "Leftist" dog-
matism and to petty-bourgeois "revolutionary" adventurism. No less dangerous
is the failure to take advantage of the culminating point in the development of the
levolutionary situation, when the Party of the proletariat is called upon to conduct
a bold and determined attack upon the enemy. To allow that opportunity to slip
by and to fail to start rebellicm at that point, means to allow the initiative to pass
to the enemy and to doom the revohition to defeat.
When there is no revolutionary upsurge, the Communist Parties must advance
partial slogans and demands that correspond to the every-day needs of the toilers,
linking them up with the fundamental ta.sks of the Communist International. The
Connnunist Parties must not. however, at such a time, advance transitional slogans
that are applicable only to revolutionary situations (for example, workers' control
of industry, etc.). To advance such slogans when there is no revolutionary situa-
tion means to transform them into slogans that favor merging with the system
of capitalist organization. Partial demands and slogans generally form an essen-
tial part of correct tactics ; but certain transitional slogans go inseparably with a
revolutionry situation. Repudiation of partial demands and transitional slogans
"on principle", however, in incompatible with the tactical principle of communism,
for in effect, such repudiation condemns the Party to inaction and isolates it from
the masses. Throughout the entire pre-revohitionani period a most imiwrtant
basic part of the tactics of the Communist Parties is the tactic of the nnited front,
as a means towards most successful struggle against capital, towards the class
iiiobilization of the masses and the exposure and isolation of the reformist leaders.
The correct application of united front tactics and the fulfillment of the general
task of winning over the masses presuppose in their turn systematic and persistent
work in the trade unions and other mass proletarian organizations. It is the
boniiden duty of every Communist to belong to a trade union, even a most reac-
tionary one, provided it is a mass organization. Only by constant and persistent
work in the trade unions and in the factories for the steadfast and energetic defense
of the interests of the workers, together with ruthless struggle against the reformist
bureaucracy, will it be possible to win the leadership in the workers' struggle and
to win the industrially organized workers over to the side of the Party.
T'nlike the reformists, whose policy is to split the trade unions, the Communists
defend trade union vnitii nationally and internationally on the basis of the class
struggle, and render every support to and strengthen the work of the Red Interna-
tional of Labor Unions.
In universally championing the current everyday needs of the masses of the
workers and of the toilers generally, in utilizing the bourgeois parliament as a
platform for revolutionary agitation and propaganda, and subordinating the partial
tasks to the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Parties of the Com-
munist International advance partial demands and slogans in the following main
spheres :
In the sphere of lahor, in the narrow meaning of the term. i. c. questions con-
cerned with the industrial struyyle (the light against the trustified capitalist
68 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
offensive, wage questions, tlie working day, compulsory arbitration, nnemploy-
meut), wliich firow into questions of the general political struggle (big industrial
conflicts, tight for the right to organize, right to strike, etc.) : in the sphere of
politics proper (taxation, high cost of living, fa.scisiu, persecution of revolutionary
parties. White terror and current politics generally) ; and finally the sphere of
world politics; viz., attitude towards the U. S. S. R. and colonial revolutions, strug-
gle for the unity of the international trade union movement, struggle against
imperialism and the war danger, and systematic prepiiration for the tight against
imperialist war.
In the sphere of the peasant problems, the partial demands are those appertain-
ing to taxation, peasant mortgage indebtedness, struggle against usurer's capital,
the land hunger of the peasant small holders, rent, the metayer (crop-sharing)
system. Starting out from these partial needs, the Communist Party must
sharpen the respective slogans and broaden them out into the slogans : confisca-
tion of large estates, and workers' and peasants' government (the synonym for
proletarian dictatorship in developed capitalist countries and for the democratic
dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry in backward countries and in
certain colonies).
Similarly, systematic work must be carried on among the proletarian and
peasant yo^ith (mainly through the Young Communist International and its
Sections) and among working icomcn and peasant women. This work must
concern itself with the special conditions of life and struggle of the working and
peasant women, and their demands must be linked up with the general demands
and fighting slogans of the proletariat.
In the struggle against colonial oppi'ession, the Communist Parties in the
colonies must advance partial demands that correspond to the special circum-
stances prevailing in each country, such as : compieLe equalny lor all uanoiis
and races ; abolition of all privileges for foreigners ; the right to organize for
workers and peasants ; reduction of the working day ; prohibition of child labor ;
prohibition of usury and of all transactions entailing bondage ; reduction and
abolition of rent ; reduction of taxation ; refusal to pay taxes, etc. All these
partial slogans must be subordinate to the fundamental demands of the Com-
munist Parties such as : complete political independence of the country and the
expulsion of the imperialists, workers' and peasants' government, the land to the
whole people, eight-hour day, etc. The Communist Parties in imperialist coun"
tries, while supporting the struggle proceeding in the colonies, must carry on a
campaign in their own respective countries for the withdrawal of imperialist
troops, conduct propaganda in the army and navy in defense of the oppressed
countries fighting for their liberation, mobilize the masses to refuse to transport
troops and munitions and, in connection with this, to organize strikes and other
forms of mass protest, etc.
The Communist International must devote itself especially to systematic prep-
aration for the struggle against the danger of imperialist wars. Ruthless ex-
posure of .social-chauvinLsm, of social-imperialism, and of pacifist phrasemonger-
ing intended to camouflage the imperialist plans of the bourgeoisie ; propaganda
in favor of the principal slogans of the Communist International ; everyday or-
ganiz itional work in connection with this, in the course of which work legal
methods must unfailingly be combined with illegal methods; organized work in
the army and navy— such must be the activity of the Communist Parties in this
connection. The fundamental slogans of the Communist International in this
connection must be the following : Convert imperialist war into civil war ; defeat
"your own" imperialist government; defend the U.S.S.R. and the colonies by
every possible means in the event of imperialist war against them. It is the
bouiiden duty of all Sections of the Communist International, and of every one
of its members, to carry on propaganda for these slogans, to expose the "social-
istic" sorhisms and the "socialist" camouflage of the League of Nations and
constantly to keep to the front the experiences of the war of 1914-1918.
In order that revolutionary work and revolutionary action may be coordinated
and in order that these activities may be guided most successfully, the interna-
tional proletariat must be bound by international class discipline, for which, first
of all, it is most important to have the strictest international discipline in the
Communist ranks.
The international Communist discipline must find expression in the subordina-
tion of the partial and local interests of the movement to its general and lasting
interests and in the strict fulfillment, by all members, of the decisions passed by
the leading bodies of the Communist International.
APPENDIX, PART 1 69
Uulike the Social-Democratic, Second International, each section of which
submits to the discipline of "its own" national bourgeoisie and of its "fatherland",
the Sections of the Communist International submit to only one discipline, vis.,
international proletarian discipline, which guarantees victory in the struggle of
the world's workers for world proletarian dictatorship. Unlike the Second
International, which splits the trade unions, fights against colonial peoples, and
practices unity with the bourgeoisie, the Communist International is an organiza-
tion that guards proletarian unity in all countries and the unity of the toilers of
all races and all peoples in their struggle against the yoke of imperialism.
Despite the bloody terror of the bourgeoisie, the Communists fight with courage
and devotion on all sectors of the international class front, in the firm conviction
that the victory of the proletariat is inevitable and cannot be averted.
"The Connnunists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly
declare that their aims can be attained, only l>y the foreihle overthroiv of all the
ea^isting social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a ootnmunist revolu-
tion. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a tvorld
to win.
"Workers of all countries, unite!"
Constitution of the Communist International
/. Name and Objects
1. The Communist International — the International Workers' Association — is
a union of Communist Parties in various countries ; it is the world Communist
Party. As the leader and organizer of the world revolutionary movement
of the proletariat and the protagonist of the principles and aims of Com-
munism, the Communist International strives to win over the majority of the
working class and the broad strata of the propertyless peasantry, fights for
the establishment of the world dictatorship of the proletariat, for the estab-
lishment of a World Union of Socialist Soviet Ilepublics. for the complete
abolition of classes and for the achievement of socialism — the first stage of
communist society.
2. Each of the various Parties atfiliated to the Communist International
is called the Communist Party of [name and country] (Section
of the Communist International). In any given country there can be only
one Communist Party affiliated to the Communist International and con-
stituting its Section in that country.
3. Membership in the Communist Party and in the Conununist International
is open to all those who accept the program and rules of the respective
('Ommunist Party and of the Communist International, who join one of the
basic units of the Party, actively work in it. aliide by all the decisions of
the Party and of tlie Communist International, and regularly pay Party dues.
4. The basic unit of the Communist Party organization is the nucleus in
the place of employment (factory, workshop, mine, oftice, store, farm, etc.)
which unites all the Party members employed in the given enterprise.
5. The Communist International and its Sections are built up on the basis
of democratic centralism, the fundamental principles of which ;are : (a)
election of all the leading committees of the Party, from the lowest to the
highest (by general meetings of I'arty members, conferences, congresses and
international congresses) ; (b) periodical reports by k'ading Party committees
to their constituents: (c) decisions of the higher Party organs to be ob-
ligatory for the lower organs, strict Party discipline and prompt execution of
the decisions of the Communist International, of its leading committees and
of the leading Party centers.
Party questions may be discussed by the members of the Party and by
Party organizations until such time as a decision is taken upon them by
the competent Party organs. After a decision has been taken by the Congress
of the Communist International, by the Congress of the respective Sections,
or by leading committees of the Comintern, and of its various Sections, the
decision must be unreservedly carried out even if a part of the Party mem-
bersliip or of the local Party organizations are in disagreement with it.
In cases where a Party exists illegally, the higher Party committees may
appoint the lower committees and co-opt members for their own committee,
subject to subsequent endorsement by the competent higher Party committees.
70 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
6. In all non-Party workers' aud peasants' mass organizations and in their
leading committees (trade unions, co-operative societies, sport organizations,
ex-servicemen's organizations, and at their congresses and conferences! and
also on municipal elective bodies and in parliament, even if there are only
two Party members in such organizations and bodies. Communist fractions
must be formed for the purpose of strengthening the Party's influence and for
carrying out its policy in these organizations and bodies.
7. The Communist fractions are subordinated to the competent Party bodies.
Note. a. Communist fractions in international organizations (Red Inter-
national of Labor Unions, International Labor Defense, Workers International
Relief, etc.), are subordinate to the Executive Committee of the Communist
International.
B. The organizational structure of the Communist fractions and the manner
in which their work is guided are determined by special instructions from
the Executive Committee of the Communist International and from Central Com-
mittees of the respective Sections of the Comintern.
//. The World Congress of the Communist International
8. The supreme body of the Communist International is the World Congres.s
of representatives of all Parties (Sections) and organizations affiliated to
the Communist International.
The World Congress discusses and decides the programmatic, tactical and
organizational questions connected with the activities of the Communi>^t In-
ternational aud of its various Sections. Power to alter the Program and
Constitution of the Communist International lies exclusively with the World
Congress of the Communist International.
The World Congress shall be convened once every two years. The date of
the Congress and the number of representatives from the various Sections
to the Congress to be determined by the Executive Committee of the Communist
International.
The number of decisive votes to be allocated to each Section at the World
Congress shall be determined by the special decision of the Congress itself,
in accordance with the membership of the respective Party and to the political
importance of the respective country. Delegates to the Congress must have a
free mandate ; no imiierative mandate can be recognized.
9. Special Congresses of the Communist International shall be convened on
the demand of Parties which, at the preceding World Congress, had an aggre-
gate of not less than one-half of the decisive votes.
10. The World Congress elects the Executive Committee of the Communist
International (E. C. C. I.), and the International Control Commission (I. C. C).
11. The location of the headquarters of the Executive Committee is decided
on by the World Congress.
///. The Executive Committee of the Communist International
and Its Suhsi diary Bodies
12. The leading body of the Communist International in the period between
Congresses is the Executive Committee, which gives instructions to all the
Sections of the Communist International and controls their activity.
The E. C. C. I. publishes the Central Organ of the Communist International,
in not less than four languages.
13. The decisions of the B. C. C. I. are obligatory for all the Sections of
the Communist International and must be promptly carried out. The Sections
have the right to appeal against decisions of the E. C. C. I. to the World
Congress, but the decisions of the E. C. C. I. must be carried out pendioir the
action of the World Congress.
14. The Central Committees of the various Sections of the Communist
International are responsible to their respective Party Congresses and to the
E. C. C. I. The latter has the right to annul or amend decisions of Party^
Congresses and of Central Committees of Parties and also to make decisions
which are obligatory for them. (Cf. Par. 13.)
15. The E. C. C. I. has the right to expel from the Communist International,
entire Sections, groups and individual members who violate the program and
constitution of the Communist International or the decisions of the World
APPENDIX, PART 1 7J^
Congress or of the E. C. C. I. Persons and bodies expelled have the right
to appeal to the World Congress.
16. The programs of the various Sections of the Communist International
must be endorsed by the E. C. C. I. In the event of the E. C. C. I. refusing
to endorse a program, the Section concerned has the right to appeal to the
World Congress of the Communist International.
17. The leading organs of the press of the various Sections of the Communist
International must publish all the decisions and official documents of the
E. C. C. I. These decisions must, as far as possible, be published also in
the other organs of the Party press.
18. The E.C.C.I. has the right to accept affiliation to the Communist Inter-
national of organizations and Parties sympathetic to Communism, such organ-
izations to have a consultative voice.
19. The E.C.C.I. elects a Presidium responsible to the E.C.C.I., which acts as
the permanent body carrying out all the business of the E.C.C.I. in the interval
between the meetings of the latter.
20. The E.C.C.I. and its Presidium have the right to establish permanent
bureaus (Western European, South American, Eastern and other Bureaus of the
E.C.C.I.), for the purpose of establishing closer contact with the various Sec-
tions of the Communist International and in order to be better able to guide
their work.
Note: The scope of the activities of the permanent bureaus of the E.C.C.I.
shall be determined by the E.C.C.I. or by its Presidium. The Sections of the
Communist International which come within the scope of activities of the
permanent bureaus of the E.C.C.I. must be informed of the powers conferred
on these bureaus.
21. The Sections must carry out the instructions of the permanent bureaus
of the E.C.C.I. Sections may appeal against the instructions of the permanent
bureaus to the E.C.C.I. or to its Presidium, but must continue to carry out sucli
instructions pending the decision of the E.C.C.I. or of its Presidium.
22. The E.C.C.I. and its Presidium have the right to send their representatives
to the various Sections of the Communist International. Such representatives
receive their instructions from the E.C.C.I. or from Its Presidium, and are
responsible to them for their activities. Representatives of the E.C.C.I. have the
right to participate in meetings of the central Party bodies as well as of the
local organizations of the Sections to which they are sent. Representatives of
the E. C. C.I. must carry out their commission in close contact with the Central
Committee of the Section to which they are sent. They may, however, speak in
opposition to the Central Committee of the given Section, at Congresses and Con-
ferences of that Section, if the line of the Central Committee in question diverges
from the instructions of the E.C.C.I. Representatives of the E.C.C.I. are especially
obliged to supervise the carrying out of the decisions of the World Congresses and
of the Executive Committee of the Conununist International.
The E.C.C.I. and its Presidium also have the right to send instructors to the
various Sections of the Communist International. The powers and duties of
instructors are determined by the E.C.C.I., to whom the instructors are responsible
in their work.
23. Meetings of the E.C.C.I. must take place not less than once every six months.
A quorum consists of not less than one-half of the membership of the E.C.C.I.
24. Meetings of the Presidium of the E.C.C.I. must take place not less than
once a fortnight. A quorum consists of not less than one-half of the membership
of the Presidium.
25. The Presidium elects the Political Secretariat, which is empowered to make
decisions, and which also draws up proposals for the meetings of the E.C.C.I.
and of its Presidium, and acts as their executive body.
26. The Presidium appoints the editorial committees of the periodical and other
publications of the Communist International.
27. The Presidium of the E.C.C.I. sets up a Department for Work among Women
Toilers, permanent committees for guiding the work of definite groups of Sections
of the Communist International and other departments for its work.
IV. The International Control Commission
28. The International Control Commission investigates matters affecting the
unity of the Sections affiliated to the Communist International and also matters
72 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
connected with the Communist conduct of individual members of tlie various
Sections.
For tliis purpose tlie I.C.C.,
A. Examines complaints against the actions of Central Committees of Com-
munist Parties lodged by Party members who have been subjected to disciplinary
measures for political differences ;
B. Examines such analogous matters concerning members of central bodies of
Communist Parties and of individual Party members as it deems necessary, or
which are submitted to it by the deciding bodies of the E. C.C.I. ;
c. Audits the accounts of the Communist International.
The International Control Commission nuist not intervene in the political
differences or in organizational and administrative conflicts in the Communist
Parties.
The headquarters of the I. (". C. are lixed by the I. C. C, in agreement with
the E. C. C. I.
T. The Relationship Between the Sections of the Communist International and
the E. C. C. I.
29. The Central Committees of Sections affiliated to the Communist Interna-
tional and the Central Committees of affiliated sympathizing organizations must
send to the E. C. C. I. the Minutes of theii' meetings and reports of their work.
30. Resignation from office by individual members or groups of members of
Central Committees of the various Sections is regarded as disruptive of the
Communist movement. Leading posts in the Party do not belong to the
occupant of that post, but to the Communist International as a whole. Elected
members of the Central leading bodies of the various Sections may resign
before their time of office expires only with the consent of the E. C. C. I.
Resignations accepted by Central Committees of Sections without the consent of
the E. C. C. I. are invalid.
31. The Sections affiliated to the Communist International nuist maintain
close organizational and informational contact with each other, arrange for
mutual representation at each other's conferences and congresses, and with
the consent of the H C. C. I., exchange leading comrades. This applies par-
ticularly to the Sections in imperialist countries and their colonies, and to
the Sections in countries adjacent to each other.
32. Two or more Sections of the Communist International which (like the
Sections in the Scandinavian countries and in the Balkans) are politically
connected with each other b.v common conditions of struggle, may, with the
consent of the E. C. C. I., form federations for the piu'pose of co-ordinating
their activities, such federations to work under the guidance and control of
the E. C. C. I.
83. The Sections of the Comintern must regularly pay affiliation dues to the
E. C. C. I.; the amount of^such dues to be determined by the E. C. O. I.
34. Congresses of the various Sections, ordinary and special, can be convened
only with the consent of the E. C. C. I.
In the event of a Section failing to convene a Party Congress prior to the
convening of a World Congress, that Section, before electing delegates to the
World Congress, must convene a Party conference, or Plenum of its Central
Committee, for the purpf)se of considering the questions that are to come before
the World Congress.
35. The International League of Conununist Youth (Comnnuiist Youth Inter-
national) is a Section of the Communist International with full rights and is
subordinate to the E. C. C. I.
36. The Communist Parties must be prepared for transition to illegal
conditions. The E. C. C. I. must render the Parties concerned assistance in
their preparations for transition to illegal conditions.
37. Individual members of Sections of the Communist International may
pass from one country to another only with the consent of the Central Com-
mittee of the Section of which they are members.
Communists changing their domicile must join the Section in the country of
their new domicile. Communists leaving their country without the consent of
the Central Committee of their Section must liot be accepted into other Sections
of the Communist International.
APPENDIX, PART 1 73
Exhibit No. 6
[Source: A booklet published by the Trade Uuion Educational League, 1113 W. Wash-
ington St., Chicago. Illinois : September, 1924]
LENIN— THE GREAT STRATEGIST OF THE CLASS WAR
(By A. Losovsky)
{Translation and Jntrodiiction by Alexander Bitteltnan)
Published by The Trade Union International League, 111.3 W. Wasliington Blvd.,
Chicago. 111.
INTKODUCTION
If I were iiJ^ked to tell in a few words what is tlie most pronounced feature
of tliis pamplilet by A. Lozovsky on "Lenin ; tlie Great Strategian of the Class-
War," I should say this : It is a desire to extract from tlie experiences of
Lenin's life as many lessons as is humanly possible for the advancement «)f the
class struggle and for the promotion of the proletarian victory thruout the
world.
A. Lozovsky has been prompted to write on Lenin, it seems to me, not merely
by a desire to perpetuate Lenin's memory. No. Lenin's name will live in the
world as long as toiling ma.sses struggle against exploitation, and as long as
oppressed nations and persecuted races tread the path of revolt against their
masters in a fight for freedom aiul human equality. The motive that produced
this little book is mucli more immediate, direct and practical than a mere wish
to perpetuate the memory of a great leader. It is an earnest attempt to make
Lenin in his death as nearly useful to the working class as he was in his life,
and a study of this pamphlet will show that its autlior has acquitted himself of
his task with more than ordinary excellence.
What is it that we are primarily interested in about I/cniu? We, I mean
tliose that are part and parcel of the labor movement and of the proletarian
class struggle and that are fighting for the dawn of a new day. Wliat do we
want to know about I.*nin and for what purpose?
Lenin was the founder of a great party, the Commiuiist Party of Russia.
He was the leader of the first successful proletarian revoUition. He was for
over .six years the head of the tirst Workers' and Peasants' Government in the
world. He was also the founder and recognized leader of the Communist In-
ternational. For us, working class militants in the cause of labor, there is a
world to learn from the experiences of Lenin as to how to educate, organize and
arouse the masses to action against their capitalist exploiters. What we all
want to know is, how did Lenin do it? What theories did he hold? What
tactics did he pursue? What means did he employ? In short, ivhat is the
essence of Lenin ism f
Leninism is the theory and practice of working class struggle. It is tlie
accumulated experience of the battling armies of the proletariat against capi-
talism reflected by the mind of a genius. It is the century-old hatred of the
oppressed against tlie oppressors embodied in a man of iron will and a great,
beautiful heart. It is the proletarian urge to power expressed, formulated and
led by the greatest leader the working class ever had.
To understand thoroughly Lenin and Leninism one needs to be familiar with
Russia, its history, the martyrdom of hundreds and thousands of Russian
revolutionaries, and the long, bitter years of oppression suffered by the toiling
masses of Russia. Lenin is inseparable from the class struggle of the Russian
masses.
But his greatness and the importance of his work have gone far beyond the
boundaries of his native land. At this moment there is not another name in
the whole world which means so much for millions upon millions of human be-
ings. It is as if the deepest longings and most intimate dreams of the oppressed
in every corner of the globe, in "civilized" Europe as w^ell as in backward Africa,
as much in America, as in Asia, have gone forward into the endless spaces of the
universe and have found their point of concentration, their unifying genius in the
life and teachings of Lenin.
Was there ever a human being more truly international, more a leader of
the people of all countries and all nations, than Lenin?
Take his attitude toward the late imperialist war. How did he look upon
it? How did he react towards it?
74 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
He loA-ed the Russian masses with all the great powers of his human soul.
Is anyone in doubt about that? If one's understanding of the most deeply
buried feelings of the masses is any test of one's love for them, then who in
Russia's history has surpassed Lenin in such understanding? And if one's
sympathy for the sufferings of the masses, sympathy of the purest kind, of a
most intense and burning nature, is any sign of one's love and devotion to the
masses, then who in the life of Russia is greater in this resiJect than Lenin?
And vet Lenin was one of the most consistent opponents of the idea of the
workers defending "their" fatherland. He was unalterably opposed to the
Russian masses shedding their blood for the greatness of Russia. Why?
Because to him "Russia" was not an abstraction, but a real living thing.
Because his great realistic mind was able to pierce through the glittering super-
ficialities of "patriotism and fatherland, and to reach out after the substance of
things. And in doing so he tinally reached the truth that if the name Russia
stands for the tens of millions of its toiling masses, if the greatness of Russia is
the same as the well-being, peace and security of the workers and peasants, then
the true way of serving the greatness of Russia was to combat the late war
and to destroy those forces which were instrumental in bringing the war about.
This was the Lenin-way of being patriotic and loyal to one's nation and
country.
As these lines are being written, new war clouds are becoming visible on
the Far-Eastern horizon. The capitalists of Japan are preparing to resist th.e
encroachment of the capitalists of America in the division of imperialist spoils
in China. The capitalists of America are preparing to impose their will by
the force of arms. What does it mean? It means that we are drifting with
progressively greater speed into a war with Japan. In fact, we are already
engaged in war.
Look at what we are now doing in China. All the manoeuvres of our bankers
and officials in China in support of one warring general against another, all
the movements of our warships in the Chinese waters, are nothing else than war
against the capitalists of Japan for more power and influence over China for
the capitalists of America.
Again the air will be filled with "patriotism." love of country, loyalty to the
fatherland, etc. Again the workers of the United States will be called upon
l)y their masters to come to the defense of the honor, greatness and even
freedom of America. The capitalist press of the country, these giant factories
for the production of sham and camouflage to dope the working masses, will
again start out on a systematic campaign to befog and befuddle the minds of
the masses into tlie belief that "their" country is in danger of being attacked
by a foreign enemy.
' And when this begins to happen we shall be badly in need of some antidote
to the poisonous influences of war propaganda. And what better means is
there for such purpose than the wholesome, nourishing and sustaining food
of Leninism?
When in troi;ble, go back to Lenin. When in doubt, consult Lenin. This
should become the maxim of every worker and poor farmer in the United States.
For there is no surer guide to what the oppressed masses must do to protect
themselves against the conspiracies of the capitalists than the teachings and
directions of Leninism.
Is it war that you are called upon to sacrifice your life for? If It is, here
is what Lenin will tell you. First, inquire, ask questions. Who is it that calls
you to war? For what purpose? In defense of whose interests?
And when you find, as you are bound to, that the war is championed by the
capitalists, that you are called upon to defend the profits and power of your
I)Osses and exploiters, that it is a war of imperialist robbery and plunder, you
will say what Lenin said: Not a cent and not a man for the aggrandizement
of our class-enemies I Instead of waging war for capitalism, we shall start
war against capitalism, for the overthrow of the power of our bosses and for
the establishment of our own rule.
And, then, you might ask some more questions. You might want to know
liow best to fight your economic battles, how to resist wage cuts, open shops
drives, unemployment. You will find, for instance, that one of your main
problems in the coming months will be how best to strengthen your unions,
to rejuvenate them with a new spirit of militancy and hopefulness. What
must you do? What can you do?
Turn to Lenin, he'll tell you. He has built a party and led a movement
which already conquered for the toiling masses one sixth of the earth's surface.
APPENDIX, PART 1 75
He ought to know liow you do those things. Ask him and he'll tell you.
Then, if you go deep enough into the problems of the woi'king class, you
will strike the problem of all problems, the question of how you can do away
with capitalism altogether. And you will want to know the best way, the suresc
road, the shortest cut to your final goal. And again we say, ask Leuiu, study
Leninism.
As with all knowledge tliat is really worth having, there is no royal or
sliort road to the study of Leninism. Many books liave been and will be
written on Lenin and on Leninism, which is merely anotlier name for the great
art and science of the Social Revolution. Those working class militants, who
are truly ambitious to serve their class against capitalism, will no doubt find
the rime and energy required for a thorough study of Leninism. And as a
l.ieginning or introduction to such a course of study we know of no better work
than this pamphlet by A. Losov.sky.
Losovsky's pamphlet should be carefully read aud studied by every trade-
union militant who is active in the labor movement. For there are few better
ways of assimilating the experiences of great — one is tempted to say the
greatest — revolutionary leader and turning these experiences to good account
is one's own immediate work, than by studying the life work of Lenin. And
for this one would want no more efficient and kindlier guide than this little
book.
AVhen you are thru with the reading of it. you grasp, perhaps for the first
time, the true stature of the Russian giant. His marvelous knowledge of
economics and the social sciences generally, his great analytical mind, his
almost superhuman sense for detecting the deep, quiet processes that are
constantly taking place within the broad masses, his flexibility of mind, his
burning hatred of capitalist oppression and his iron determination to fight the
l)loody thing to a finish — all these qualities of Lenin take living shape under the
pen of Lozovsky, who has succeeded in presenting us with a most illuminating
picture of the great Strategian of the Class Struggle.
We cannot all become Lenins. it is true, but many a workingman and working-
woman can succeed in approximating the great leader to one degree or another
if sufficient effort is lent in that direction in a conscious and determined way.
Our class is badly in need of leaders — loyal, capable and efficient fighters
in the proletarian struggle for power. Never in the history of society has an
oppressed class struggling for freedom confronted an enemy as clever, tricky,
resourceful, unscrupulous and brutal as is the ruling class of today, the
capitalists. This fact imposes a duty upon every working class militant to
study and learn the art and science of social revolution, to familiarize him-
.self with the tactics and methods of Leninism which have been proved to be
the only way to the overthrow of capitalism and the complete liberation of
the working class.
Alexander Bittelmax
Chicago, September, 1924.
A Le:adf.r Not A Hero
There are epochs in human history when single individuals incorporate the
experiences and historical tasks of whole classes. History develops by curves
find as the class struggle develops in intensity these individuals appear in the
foreground and assume their greatest importance at a time when the social
antiigouisms reach their highest point.
Human history knows of many examples of gifted statesmen, thinkers,
politicians aud diplomats. But all of them up till now have been representa-
tives of the feudal and capitalist classes. Only in the 19th century when the
proletariat came to feel itself as a class do we find the refiection of its in-
terests in the genius, Marx. Lenin is the direct successor of Marx.
When we consider closely Lenin's role in the labor movement of the last
decades the first question that appears is. whether we Marxians ought not to
revise our theory regarding the role of single individuals in history. For is
it not a fact that Lenin has been a living illustration of the theory of the
heroes and the masses and did he not, by the activities of his life, disprove the
correctness of the materialist conception of history? We must consider this
problem at the very outset in order to relieve ourselves of any false idealistic
conceptions that we might entertain. The truth is that the real greatness of
yg UN-AMEKICAN PROl'AGANDA ACTIVITIES
the genius of the most outstanding strategian of the class struggle can be cor-
rectly appreciated only from the point of view of the class whose leader he was.
The Marxians who enter the study of Lenin's role in history are under
no necessity of abandoning their theory of the relation between heroes and
masses. Quite the contrary. Only on the basis of the materialist conception
of history, only thru a sober analysis of the forces in the class strugglp, can
we correctly appreciate the role which Lenin, the greatest thinker and rev-
olutionist, has played in the international labor movement and in tlse inter-
national revolution.
^Marxism ix Practice
Lenin was a Marxian dialectician. There are many people that 'know Marx
very well but are incapable of deriving the political lessons and conclusions
implied in theory. In this' respect Lenin was totally diffei-ent. He has taken
the Marxian tlieory and methods and applied them in the practice of life.
And with the help of his acute analytical mind he interpreted events in their
dialectical development. Lenin was one of the foremost experts in the economics
and philosophical theories of Marx. But as already said, he was not primarily
a theoretician, but a practical Marxian and a political dialectician. The Hegel-
ian dialectics which Marx had developed to its higliest point were conipletely
mastered by Lenin. He never reasoned abstractly. He despised piu-e rati<iii-
alizing. He hated the free sway of "pure reasoning." He fought against
philosophic charlatanism and always proved in action that the truth is concrete.
Just as Marx was manoeiivring with the general factors of economic life,
so was Lenin manoeuvring with the concrete forces of the class struggle. In the
colorful kaleidoscope of social relations and from the complexities of the
everyday events of modern life he always managed to hit upon the fundamental
and most important tendencies. He was never deceived by appearances. He
was a man called upon to tread new paths. Always pursuing his own way,
capable by means of his dialectics not only to explain but constantly to drive
history forward. Lenin was a dialectician in politics and a Marxist in action.
That is, he knew exactly how to make history in as masterly a fashion as Marx
explained it.
Identity With a Class
Lenin joined the labor movement at its very dawn. The first spontaueou.s
outbreaks of the class struggle in the '80s reverberated thru Russia with a
resounding echo. The advancing Marxian movement thrust itself upon the
beginnings of the industrial develoiiment of Russia, drawing into its ranks
many elements of the radical intelligentsia. The first generation of revolution-
ary intellectuals (Plechanov, Vera Sassulitsch, and Deutsch) founded the group
of "Liberation of Labor" which is the predecessor of the Russian Social-
Democratic Party and of the Russian Communist Party. Lenin belonged to
the second generation of Marxians. Together with many others he joined the
labor movement, but while tlie others were merely passers-by. utilizing it for
their own purpose, Lenin remained and led the movement until his very end.
Lenin imderstood from the very outset the power of the new class. In his
very first writings he discusses this matter and says : '"The working class
is the bearer of the revolution." The working class stands in the foreground
and everything which hampers its development, which demoralizes its ranks,
which stands in the way of its historical development, must be destroyed and
removed. To say at that period that the working class was the bearer of the
revolution meant to determine its historic role as against tlie couceptions of
the old socialist school of the "Narodniki."
Lenin completely identified him.'^elf with the working class and became its
spokesman. He knew as nobody else did how to keep away from the working
class and from the then-developing working class party all alien elements. At
present it is <>asier, of course, to see which of those elements were really alien
to the labor movement. But to have known this 25 or 30 years ago was much
more difficult. At that time there were no material advantages to be derived
by people accepting the Marxian theory. On the contrary.' they had to bring
sacrifices, suffer persecutions, etc. Nevertheless some of these Marxians were
nothing more than hangers-on to the labor movement. Chief among those was
Peter Struve, formerly a Social-Democrat and later on a leader of the left-wing
of the liberal movement, still later a meml)er of the Constitutional Democratic
APrENDIX, PART 1 77
I'arty, ami at present a monarchist. One required a sliarp tlieoretical mind,
and an extraordinary instinct, to detect in tlie Marxian pliraseology of the
Jirst worlc of Peter Struve the real weak spots.
Lenin po.ssessed the ability to guard the working class theoretically and
practically against the intrusion of alien elements. He also knew how to relieve
llie labor* movement of those of them who succeeded iu getting into it. Lenin
knew the working class, he had faith in it, he grasped its historical importance
and tlierefore understood how to maintain the integrity of the labor movement.
Building the Russian Party
The working class will win, but only iu the event that it succeeds in creating
a strongly united <ii'gauization whicli is ideologically homogeneous. The work-
ing class cannot be victorious without uniting the best, the most class conscious
and revolutionary elements. Hence tiie role of the party as the guiding-force
of the revolution." The party is not identical with the working class, l)ut is its
natural leader. The party leads the masses only inasmuch as it is organically
united with tiie working class reacting to its everyday life. Without a party
tlie working class cannot make a single step. Without a party the revolution
is an empty i)hrase.
Theoretically this truth was recognized even by Lenin's predecessors, but it
was he alone "who understood how to translate into practice these theoretical
propositions. The history of the Russian Social-Democracy and of the Russian
Communist Party is organically bound up with the activities of Lenin. He was
the organizer of "the party, tiie educator of a whole generation of party workers
and leaders, beginning with the time of underground groups up till the moment
when the working class assumed power in the largest country in the world.
It was because he understood that the w^orking class cannot live without a
party that he devoted his greatest attention to the building up of such a party.
It" would be difticult to find another man in the history of parties whose life
and activity was so intimately interwoven with the party as was Lenin's with
the Russian Commttnist Party. He was its theoretician, its man of action,
agitator, propagandist, organizer and leader. He was soldier and general,
teacher and ptipil. but never did he get the idea that: "The party, this is I,"
as his opponents used to reproach him. He realized that the power and great-
ness of the party depends upon its organic connection with tlie masses, its
collaboration with the creative and progressive elements of the working class.
One can state without exaggeration that the Russian Communist Party was
the creation of his spirit, the work of his hands. Such a party could be created
liy one who is perfectly clear as to what are the mtitual relations between the
party and the class. Lenin's slogan was: "The party above all." Why'?
Because the Party is the vanguard of the working class, and as such must know
not only how to march forward but, if need be, to go against the spontaneous
movements among the workers and at decisive moments powerfully to assume
the offensive. The party is the organized consciousness of the class, a fact
which distinguishes it from the unorganized elemental movements of the
workers.
Seuf-Criticism and Frankness
Lenin knew exactly the strong and weak sides of the labor movement. And
for this reason he reacted so exceptionally critically to every theory built upon
tlie backwardness and weaknesses of the working class. He possessed a sixth
sense, the sense of anti-reformism. He smelted reformism from a distance. It
was very difficult indeed in 1903 to have determined on the basis of differences
(if opinion regarding the first paragraph of tlie party constittition, who were the
proletarian Girondists and who were the Jacobins. Nevertheless, Lenin deter-
mined this very definitely after the Second Congress of the Russian Social-
Democratic Party. Thrti the formttlation of the famous paragraph one, he
came to the creation of the Girondist wing of the Party. Since then he con-
tinuotisly criticized the right wing of the Russian Social-Democratic Party whose
reformism became apparent to everyone only in 1905.
Thruout the first revolution, in tlie period preceding the late war, and par-
ticularly after the war, this anti-reformist sense of Lenin manifests itself in
all his activities. He was deceived neither by revolutionary phrases nor by
well-sounding resolutions. He exposed to the daylight the reformist theoreti-
cians and men of action, despite all their atteniijts to conceal their real nature.
78 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
He was primarily a man of experience and practical deeds, and it was iu this
.sphere of life that he caused the defeat of the strategians of reformism. More
than one half of his writings were devoted to the demoralizing activities of
reformism, specifically to the Russian Mensheviks. Just as an archeologist
determines the species of a pre-historic animal by the examination of a single
bone, so Lenin was able to determine the reformist nature of his opponents by a
single phrase in one or another of their articles.
The Enemy of Reformism
Lenin would i-eacli out after the substance of reformism, no matter under
what masks it would make its appearance, and without any effort on his part
would tear off the covering. In the attempt that was made before the first
revolution to revise Marx, to connect him with Kant and similar philosophers,
Lenin immediately recognized the intention to reject the revolution and a tend-
ency to surrender Marxism to the ideology of the bourgeoisie. Lenin never
considered reformism as an inner tendency in the working class. He con-
sidered reformism rather as a class enemy, operating within the labor movement
and therefore more dangerous to it than the outside enemies.
Because of this attitude of Lenin's, he has been charged with sectarianism
and intolerance. But he continued to pursue his line of action with the greatest
tenacity for details, proving that reformism is one of the greatest enemies of
the labor movement, and that our theoretical struggle with the Mensheviks will
eventually bring us to the sharpest conflicts with them. The Russian revolution
has proved Lenin correct, thereby showing his extraordinary far-sightedness and
sound instinct. In recent years reformism became the most powerful weapon
in the hands of the bourgeoisie. Due to reformism, the working class movement
has suffered a series of defeats enabling the capitalist system to continue a
while in existence.
Re\-oluiion and Actuaxity
Lenin conceived of the revolution as of something that Avas moving right
upon us. and not as something lying in the far-off distance. Because of this
he never tired of insisting that we must prepare ourselves daily for the revo-
lution, even politically and technically. The political preparations consisted in
training the masses for action thru everyday struggle. Lenin used to say:
"The most important thing is to bring the masses in motion, thereby enabling
them to accumulate experiences within a short period of time." The revolution
confronts us directly with the problem of armed insurrection. And to speak
of this without proper technical preparations, is merely to mouth empty
phrases. He who wants the revolution must systematically prepare for it the
broad masses, who will, in the process of preparation, create the necessary
organs of the struggle.
The Mtnisheviks were fond of ridiculing the idea of technical preparations
for an armed insurrection. According to their conception the center of gravity-
would lie in the sphere of propaganda, of arming the minds of the workers.
To this Lenin's reply was: '"He who refuses technically to prepare for the
insurrection ultimately rejects the insurrection itself, and transforms the
program of the revolution into an empty phrase."
Although Lenin knew quite well that revolutions are not made to order, that
the success of a revolution demands certain deep-going historical changes.
Tievertheless he insisted that the problem of the revolution is not only political
but also the technical organization of the revolutionary class. A party which
does not prepare for the revolution must be considered a discussion club rather
than the leader of a revolutionary class. No matter how difficult this problem
is. yet all the progressive forces of the working class must be organized in
order to solve this problem. Thus we see that for Lenin the revolution was
always a concrete problem of the day which at times comes close to us and
again moves back into the distance, depending upon the situation and the
correlation of forces, but always remains the acute problem of the labor
movement.
Proletarian Statesmanship
Lenin was a foremost statesman. What does this mean? Arcording to' his
own definition a statesman is one who understands how to manoeuver with
niiliions of people, Avho is capable of estimating correctly the mutual relations-
APPENDIX, PART 1 79
of social classes, who can detect the weak spots iu his enemy's armor and who
knows how to make effective the strongest side of his own class.
In this respect Lenin possessed extraordinary gifts. He knew above all
how to determine the line of demarcation between classes and to create a con-
crete and practical program of action calculated to bring together the working
class with its temporary ally, the peasantry. He based his judgment of political
conditions, not on superficial appearances, not upon the so-called public opinion,
but upon the deep processes that are taking place within the working class.
His mind always pierced thru to the very vitals of a situation. He studied
the make-up of social life in order to find for himself a starting point, and
then he continued to base his activities on tlie dynamics of the class struggle.
These traits of Lenin's character made him the most dangerous to, and at
the same time the most hated by, the class enemies of the proletariat, whom
he always managed to hit at the softest spot. He was a realer politiker (of
course, realistic not in the reformist sense, for whom realism means adaptation
to the bourgeoi-sie ) in the sense that he based his revolutionary activities on
the correlation of forces in the class struggle. The reformists of all countries
declared Lenin to be a Utopian, an "irrational" statesman, because he always
busied himself with the problem of revolution, and themselves they consider
realists because they advocate the idea of gradually transforming bourgeois
society along the lines of evolution. But these "great realists" became tools
in the hands of the bourgeois politicians after the war, while Lenin the
"irrational state.sman" became the most dangerous opponent of the bourgeoisie
and the leader of millions of toilers who have risen against theii* masters.
Immediately after the October revolution Lenin was charged by all petty
bourgeois socialists with being an adventurer. But this "adventurer" iiroved
by his deeds which side the real power was on. The "realists" among the
Social-Revolutionists and Mensheviks have simply missed the importance of
rhe great change that has taken place in human life. They have even failed
to notice that the masses have turned their backs on them, Lenin was the
greatest statesman of our age. He has proven this standing at the helm of
the greatest state in the world, by the exceptional flexibility of the Russian
Communist Party, whose leader and creator he was.
Critical and Realistic
A sober estimate of his own and his enemies' forces was always the starting
point for Lenins political activity. Only he can be termed a real statesman
who is able fearlessly to look reality in the face, who coolly estimates the forces
of the opposing class, who is not dealing in mere phrases and who is able mer-
cilessly to expose and criticize the weak sides of his own class and Iiis own
organization. Also in this respect Lenin iiossessed an exceptionally strong
senst' for reality. He never succumed to the hypnosis of fantastic figui'es and
prctnipous proclamation.
When he came to Russia in 1917. the time when the Social-Revolutionists held
full sway, Lenin remarked : "The power they hold is only imaginary. The
Party of the Socialist Revolutionists is an empty shell." Although at that
time millions upon millions of workers were following the lead of the party
of the Chernovs and Kerenskys. yet he immediately perceived the instability
of the influence of the Socialist Revolutionists.
Basing his opinion on the real situation, Lenin spoke in favor of the Brest-
Litovsk treaty against the wish of the "public opinion" (at that time the
liberal and reformist press was still in existence) and at first even against
the leadership of the Russian Connnunist Party. Upon what did Lenin base
his tactics? T'pon those deep processes which have been developing within
the broad masses. While these latter had been protesting against the peace
treaty, the soldiers were leaving the front e» masse. Lenin has defined the
situation by a very laconic but significant expi-ession : "The peasants have voted
in favor of peace with their legs because they have been leaving the front."
No amount of phraseology in favor of a revolutionary war could convince him to
the contrary. He was asking his opponents : "Have you got at least one regi-
ment, have you the support of any armed power, which could be put up against
rho fleeing, demoralized peasant ma.sses? We cannot fight. We need a I)rea th-
ing space. No matter how short, it will be of advantage to us." History has
proved that he was right.
Lenin's prognosis that by means of tliis breathing space we would be able to
create a new army, inspired with a new spirit, and able to take the offensive
^Q UN-AMERICAN PKOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
again, has been proven to the correct. "One must know also how to evade a
tight," he used to exclaim, arguing in favor of signing the Brest-Litovsk treaty.
"It is better to retreat in a semi-orderly fashion than to subject the army to
complete dissolution. A leader is he who knows how to protect his army from
breaking up, and who adopts all necessary measures to preserve his army for
future battles." Today this looks to us like A. B. C. wisdom. In order to
understand the real extent of Lenin's genius one must remember the tragic
situation of Soviet Russia in 1918, and the terrific difBculties which Lenin had
to overcome in order to convince his own Party that his estimate of the situa-
tion and of the relation of forces was the correct one.
The Gbkat Alliance Be-Tween Workers and Peasants
Lenin's sense for reality has manifested itself also in the fact that long before
the revolution he was able to estimate correctly the significance of the peasan-
try. Most of the Marxians had a very poor conception of the role of the peas-
ants in the approaching revolution. From the fact that agriculture was
subservient to city industry and that small-scale production was gradually dis-
appearing, many Marxians drew the conclusion that the peasants will not play
in the revolution any active part at all or else will play a reactionary part.
As far back as 1905, Lenin already perceived the insufficiency of the agrarian
program of the Social-Democratic Party. Immediately upon the beginning of
the wide revolutionary movement among the peasants in 1005, he formulated
the demand for the nationalization of the land. Lenin's slogan at that time was :
"The dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry." He saw the necessity
for an alliance of these two classes in order to remove the power of the largo
land-owners. As the February revolution was developing, making clear the
extent of the change that was to come, and as he realized that Russia would
not satisfy itself with a l)Ourgeois democracy, he conunenced propounding in a
practical fashion the problem of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the
peasantry which was to be incorporated in the Russian Soviet State.
As an expert in the agrarian problems, and as one well versed in the applied
phases of political economy, I^enin had been well aware of the fact that the
peasantry cannot play any independent role. But for this very reason, he said,
it is our duty to win the peasantry over to the side of the proletariat. He had
been writing and saying: "The peasantry will support either the bourgeoisie or
the proletariat. The peasantry stands to gain from the proletariat much more
than from the bourgeoisie. Particularly if we pursue such a policy as to
disabuse the peasantry of its prejudices against the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat." Hence his slogan : "An alliance between the proletariat and the peas-
antry," and the policy of winning the masses of the villages for the support of
the political and economic policies of the working class.
LEiVRNiNG From Events
How did Lenin succeed in arriving at such a realistic conception of the role
of the peasantry in the revolution? It was due to his ability to estimate cor-
rectly the social forces in modern society. He knew how to learn from events.
The peasant uprisings of 1902-03, which had assumed very large proportions
before the revolution of 1005, the role played by the army in suppressing the
first revolution, the role played by the same army during the second revolution,
the revolt of the peasants, the vacillating attitude of the peasantry towards the
Soviet Power during the first year after the October revolution — all these facts
served Lenin as material for his decisions on tactics with regard to the peasantry.
He was a realistic statesman in the best sense of the word. A defeat would never
cause him to fold his hands in passivity, but on the contrary would just aroust>
his energy and obstinacy, in a desire to study and arrive at the causes which had
led to defeat. He used to sa.v : "We are defeated. We must learn the causes
of our defeat, we must throw light upon every wrong step that we have made, so
that we become more practical and more far-sighted."
A WORLD OUTLOOK
Lenin never limited himself to the study of the labor movement of Russia alone
but studied with the same vigor all social confiicts in Europe during which the
working class suffered defeat. The great French Revolution, the conspiracy of
Baboeuf, the Chartist movement, the June days in Paris, the Paris Commune,
the great economic strikes during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the
APPENDIX, PAET 1 §J
20th ceiituiy— all these served as the basis for determiniug the causes of the
weakness of the working class movement. Furthermore he studied with the same
care the mechanism of modern society and the forces at the disposj'.l of our enemy
classes. As the result of his study of capitalist society, its form and methods
of oi'ganization, the unity of the bourgeois classes as against the disunity of the
working masses, he had found the prime reason for our defeats, for the victories
of the bourgeoisie, and had arrived at a correct appreciation of the methods of
struggle of the working class.
Tbtje Pegle^takian Internationalism
As with the agrarian problem, so also with the national problem, Leain has
given us a new conception of its siguificance. The international Social-
Democracy attempted tlie solution oi this problem in a purely rationalistic man-
ner. The Social-Democracy protested formally against the colonial policy of the
bourgeoisie. It became apparent, however, right at the beginning of the last
war, that international reformism is putting the so-called national interests
above the class interests, and is accepting the point of view of the bourgeoisie in
the matter of colonial ix)licy. Long before the revolution Lenin had been study-
ing the national problem. During the war he had been writing against the
Great Russian chauvinists, exposing the false position of even many of the left-
wing elements of the labor movement.
When Lenin came to power he commenced to put into effect his own policies.
In doing so, it must be admitted, he found resistance even in the ranks of his
own party. Lenin had fought with particular energy against the attempt to
carrj on a nationalistic and Russifying policy under the cover of international-
ism. It is known that Lenin was the spiritual father of tiie international policies
of Soviet Russia. But is is not so well known that he had been following with
particular attention Soviet Russia's Eastern policies. From the workers of those
countries which hold in subjection other nations, he used to demand not only
platonic sympathies for the oppressed, but practical political and technical mea-
sures of support to the revolutionary masses which are struggling against the
yoke of imperialism.
For Lenin the demand for "self-determination of nations up to the point of
separation" was no mere demagogic phrase, but a real law of practical policy.
If we follow the line of policy pursued by Soviet Russia since its existence we
hnd that this v.'as the actual policy of Leuin put into effect. He was never
satisfied with general principles alone. He carried out his ideas in all details.
Lenin took part in the debate on the national question which took place in
December of 1922. He wrote : "I have already mentioned in my writings on
the national question that there is no use in considering this problem abstractly.
It is necessary to distinguish between the nationalism of a people which op-
presses, and the nationalism of a people which is itself oppressed, that is, be-
tween the nationalism of big nations and the nationalism of small nations. We,
as representatives of a big nation, are almost always guilty of endless wrongs
against the small nations. And furthermore, unconsciously for ourselves, we
perpetrate outrages and give offense. The internationalism of the so-called big
nations, of one who is oppressing others, must consist not only in formally ac-
cepting the principle of equality of nations, but also in creating conditions for
the abolition of the wrong doings of the great nation. He who does not under-
stand this will not be able to assume a correct proletarian position on this
question. He will assume substantially the point of view of the petty bourgeoisie,
being liable at any moment to follow the lead of the bourgeoisie. What is it that
is of importance to the proletariat? It is not only important but absolutely
essential that the proletariat possess great confidence in iself. How can this
be secured V To establish the principle of formal equality will not suffice. Only
thru our deeds, thru the actual concessions that we make to other nationalities,
which will wipe out their memories of former oppression by the old ruling classes,
can we establish the necessary self-confidence. I believe that a Bolshevist or a
Communist needs no further explanations. A true proletarian policy would
demand of us in this sphere of activity, to be particuhirly careful and concilia-
tory, and in this given instance it would be much better to yield too nuich than too
little to the national minorities. The interests of proletarian solidarity, and c(m-
sequently of the proletarian class struggle, demand that we consider the national
question not merely in a formal way. We must take into consideration the dif-
ference of conception and ideas between the great nation and the small }iation.
Nothing is so detrimental to the development and consolidation of proletarian
94031 — 40 — app., pt. 1 7
§2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
solidarity as a sense of national injustice. Nothing calls forth such bitter reac-
tions from the national minorities as the sense of being oppressed by our own
proletarian comrades."
This quotation shows the whole genius and simplicity of Lenin's deep under-
standing of the psychology of the oppressed peoples. Now, has Lenin's national
policy brought any positive results? If there is any doubt on that score it can
be obliterated by merely inquiring of the oppressed peoples of the East. The
oppressed peoples of the entire East have a very correct understanding of the
deeply interna,tional and revolutionary proletarian character of Lenin's national
policy.
The Gift of Orientation
Lenin possessed the exceptional ability of orientation and Marxian far-
sightedness. As a realist in class politics he quickly perceived the nature of
bourgeois democracy. But it was in this field that great efforts had to be made
to free oneself from historic traditions. For was not Lenin the founder of the
Social-Democracy which had inscribed on its banner that the way to socialism
lies thru democracy? Yet in spite of all this he was successful in destroying
all fetishes of democracy. He succeeded in this because of the revolution which
in its development had to overcome these democratic obstacles. He did not shrink
even from dissolving the Constituent Assembly, which had been a sacred
thing in the minds of many generations of Russian intellectuals. Political
democracy was never able to blind his eyes to the social and economic problems
of the revolution. As against bourgeois democracy he placed the democracy of
the proletariat.
International refoi-mism saw in this act of Lenin's his heaviest sin, while in
reality it was one of his greatest contributions to the proletarian class struggle.
The civil war in Russia had exposed the fractions and parties, which had been
fighting under the banner of democracy and the Constituent Assembly as real
counter-revolutionists. The last years of struggle in the West have proved very
convincingly that the democratic cooperationi between the Social-Democracy
and the bourgeoisie is nothing more than betrayal of the working class.
The Proletarian State and the Communist Party
Lenin had a perfect conception of the nature of democracy and of the State.
He restated the ftlarxian position regarding the nature of the State and its
role in the class struggle. As against the bourgeois democi-atic State, he placed
the Soviet State as the concrete form of the proletarian dictatorship. And
he also defined the position of the Soviet State in the development of the social
revolution. Every State, including the Soviet State, is the weapon of a definite
class. The State as such is an organ of oppression of one class by the other.
In this definition is contained the idea of the tran.sitory nature of the State
from a historic point of view. By the abolition of classes and the class stmggle,
the State will disappear, hut as a result of many years of historical develop-
ment and not as a result of one single act, as in the conception of the Anarchists.
To bring about the situation where there are no classes in society, is possible
only by means of a firm dictatorship of the working class, becau.se it is only
by means of such a dictatorship that we can break the resistance of the classes
that are opposed to the proletariat. Lenin also knew that the establishment
of the proletarian power is impossible without a violent revolution, and tliat
the maintenance of this proletarian power would be impossible without a
merciless suppression of the exploiting classes.
But the State is not an abstract category. The proletariat creates the State
in a form which is most advantageous to itself. Such a form is the Soviet
System of State, for it best unites the workers for management of the economic
and political affairs of the country. Consequently the Soviet system is the
best form of the proletarian dictatorship, and the Soviets are the best adapted
fighting organs of the working class.
How does the working cla.ss realize its dictatorship? Naturally, thru the
Soviets. And how do the Soviets realize their dictator.ship? Thru special organs
created by themselves. The opponents of Communism criticized Lenin for
the fact that he placed the sign of equation between the dictatorship of the
class and the dictatorship of the Party. They said: "The dictatorship of the
class is one thing, while the dictatorship of the Party is an entirely different
proposition." To this Lenin replied : "The working class must realize its
APPENDIX, PART 1 83
dictatorship thru its vanguard, and since the Communist Party of Russia is the
vanguard of the working class it is quite natural that this Party exercises the
power of the proletarian rule." This theory Lenin had put into effect. And
it is not an abstract theory, but a living reality. In the gigantic workshop
called Soviet Russia were forged the new historic forms of working class power,
and new methods of struggle for its liberation. Lenin always went aliead,
clearing the path, casting aside all prejudices and throwing a mighty searchlight
of Marxism upon the complex problems of the social and economic struggles.
Power of Concentration
As a foremost strategian Lenin understood how to direct the attention of the
masses to itself, how to concentrate the lighting energies of the masses, direct-
ing them to some central point. He knew the secret of formulating slogans in
a simple and universally understood manner. He also knew as nobody else did
how to organize the masses and lead them into struggle, always in accordance
with the fundamental principle of strategy which is, that the offensive is the
best defensive. Lenin never iiermitted the initiative to slip out of his hands.
He knew that the moment the enemy seizes the initiative our battle is lost.
He was always striving towards determining results, even if they were small.
He pursued our class enemies to the point of tlieir complete destruction. He
knew neither sentimentalism nor vacillation, whicli was the result, not of his
"blood-thirstiness"' as our class enemies would have us believe, but of liis deep
understanding of the mechanism of the social struggle.
When the class struggle reaches a sharpened stage, indecision is much more
costly to the working class than the utmost relentlessness towards the enemy.
In moments of decision the least failure to adopt energetic measures results
in tlie working class paying witli thousands of lives. Such indecision enables
the enemy to collect its forces and to assume the offensive. In the whole of
Lenin's activities the following passes like a redthread : Initiative, determina-
tion, ruthlessness, the pursuit of the enemy until he is destroyed, quick action
and the co'.icentration of the proletarian forces at the weakest spot of the
enemy's front.
At the same time Lenin understood how to diagnose the weak spots in the
armor of his own class. He would fight and exclude from the midst of the
proletariat many elements and whole social groups that were steering against
the course of the proletarian movement. He had a very fine sense of perception
for all the quiet processes that are going on within the masses, he sensed very
quickly all the subterranean forces within the proletariat, and he always under-
stood how to differentiate between tlie sound and unsound tendencies within
the working class. We must not forget that the working class finds itself within
the capitalist order of society, and that as a result of this, capitalism is exert-
ing a great influence over the proletarian masses. Reformism, for instance, is
the ideology of the bourgeoisie transplanted on working class soil. Lenin was
in possession of an iron will to fight. He never permitted himself to be intimi-
dated by defeats. He always intrenched himself in the po.sitions to which the
working class would be compelled to retreat and from there again assume the
offensive.
An Organizer of Masses
Lenin was not only a foremost Marxian, a statesman and strategian of
extraordinary foresightedness, he was also one of the greatest organizers and
leaders of the masses. He knew how to unite around himself large masses of
human beings, to draw them into a mass movement, and to lead them into strug-
gles. He always stood at the central point of the class struggle. He was
charged with energy, with faith, witli absolute conviction, transmitting all this
not only to those who stood close to him but also to hundreds of thousands and
to millions. The international reformists speak of Lenin as the destroyer of
socialism, a sectarian, an intolerant spirit, and .so forth. Yes, we will admit
that Lenin was the destroyer of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties. He
couldn't tolerate reformism. He was a sectarian because he refused to deal
with the betrayers of the labor movement.
The work of Lenin's life speaks for itself. This "spirit of destruction" stood
at tlie head of a mighty country. This "sectarian" has been the founder and
leader of the greatest political party in the world. This "spirit of intolerance"
left after him more love and loyalty than anyone else in the course of thou-
sands of years. Lenin's organizing abilities have found their expression in 30
j'ears of work, beginning with the creation of illegal political groups up to the
84 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
point when he assumed the leadership of Soviet Russia. For him there was
no struggle possible, no victory possible, without organization. Organization
work was part and parcel of his life's activities. He had built his organiz-ition
from the bottom up, he created a school of organization that is being followed
hy a generation which, from his theorey and particularly from his action, will
draw inspiration for years and years to come.
The Embodiment op the Proletaeian Will to Po^^•ER?
One of Lenins most notable characteristics was his will pov\'er. He knew
nothing but the revolution, and had been pursuing this end with all his energy.
So-called public opinion had no influence over him. He never paid any attention
to "what the other fellow will say. He always felt the pulsation of the working
class, because he was so closely connected with it. He also knew how to swim
against the current, how to overcome obstacles, whenever this was demanded
by the revolution. Let us recollect how he passed to Russia thru Germany at the
I)eginning of the revolution without paying the least attention to the insinuations
of Ithe capitalist and reformist press the world over. He possessed the ability to
concentrate his will power and to strike the enemy at the weakest spot. While
he was very patient with his friends he never knew or showed any tolerance to
the betrayers of the working class. When a friend of yesterday would become
the enemy of todav Lenin would pursue the same tactics of uncompromising
hostility. His tactics were always elastic, which enabled him to utilize even
the slightest mistake of his opponent in order to drive a wedge into the ranks
of the enemy. He never shunned responsibility, especially in decisive moments
of struggle. * He always knew what he wanted. The most characteristic feature
of the Apolitical and moral physiognomy of Lenin, this gigantic concentration
of the v.'ill of the proletariat, were his extraordinary will power and his all-
inclusive spirit.
Formal Logic Versus Revolutionary Tactics
If one were to approach the estimation of Lenins activities from the point of
view of formal logic, one would find quite a number of contradictions. In the
one hand, if one analyzes his activity from the i>oint of view of the objective
conditions with which Lenin was dealing, and also considers dialectically the
developments themselves, then all contradictions will disappear. He pursued
the taetics of quick changes in orientation. His agrarian program between 1901
and 1903 had been based upon the principle of the division of land among the
peasants, and in October of 1917 he carried thru the socialization of land.
Like all Social-Democrats Lenin started out as one favoring the defense of the
fatherland. However, when the last war broke out, he immediately adopted
the attitude of uncompromising hostility to the theory and practice of national
defense. He declared that not even the defeat of Russia would matter for
the working class. xVt that time the Marxian literature had just begun to
discuss the problem of national and imperialist war. Lenin began devoting
his attention to this problem and came to the conclusion that it is our duty
to transform the imperialist war into a civil war.
From the Provisional Government of Russia he demanded the immediate con-
vocation of the Constituent Assembly, and after the October Revolution he dis-
persed this very same Assembly. In the beginning Lenin was in favor of mili-
tary Communism, but in 1921 he introduced the New Econmic Policy. Follov,ing
Ihe socialization of the land in 1917, he favored in 1918 the formation of special
committees composed of the poorest peasants, in order to split the peasantry
thereby deciding the fate of the civil war in the villages. Starting out as an
adherent of the idea of revolutionary war, he yet rejected this idea in 1918,
and signed the Brest Litovsk peace treaty. And in 1920, he again favored the
revolutionary war. this time against Poland. A deadly enemy of reformism,
opposed to all dealings with the reformists, yet when conditions changed he de-
clared in favor of the united front as a means of combating reformism altho it
involved dealing wtih the reformists. Altho he favored a direct struggle against
all parties of the Second International, yet at a certain stage in the development
of the class struggle in England he favored the idea of supporting the British
Labor Party and its coming into power. We could relate many more illustrations
of the same kind. . . , .c i, *
In view of all this, would not the activity of Lenin appear to be full of con-
tradictions? Closet philosophers, adherents of the so-called rationalistic and
logical formulae, could never adjust themselves to the "illogical" thinking of
APPENDIX, PART 1 g5
Lenin. But this proves only tliat tliese people have forgotten the whole Hegelian
rule that the truth is concrete. Lenins quick changes of orientation were not
caused by abstract reasons, but by changes of realties. He was no couservor of
dead formulae and lifeless slogans. Lenins mobility in politics and tactics was
always in accord with the daily changes in the mutual relation of forces between
classes.
If we were to collect all that has been written on Lenin by his opponents, we
should get one great historical rebus. According to some of his opponents, Lenin
was a typical conspirator, a Blanquist, a Jacobin. According to others, Lenin
was one of the greatest opportunists, a careerist, one who was determined upon
getting into power, irrespective of the price. All these descriptions are mean-
ingless because they are based upon single instances of Lenins activities, torn out
from their connections with the whole, qualified according to the personal senti-
ments of one or the other of his enemies, and stamped accordingly.
Lenin was a dialectician in politics. That is, he knew how to attack, when
necessary to retreat, always according to plan, to change directions, and when
the situation became favorable again, to reassume the offensive, never for a
second losing sight of his final aims. During the thirty years of his activities
Lenin showed how changes of orientation could be effected without the Party or
the class whom he represented breaking their necks, but on the contrary strength-
ening their fighting ability and organization. From this point of view his entire
political work has been a classical example of revolutionary class strategy.
War and Revolution
From the very beginning Lenin had a clear conception of the international
nature of the class struggle. Long before the war he already felt himself a
stranger at the international socialist parades where the phrase reigned svipreme
and where no action was to be seen. As a result of his appearance at interna-
tional congresses (Stuttgart, Copenhagen) there was formed a small and loosely-
allied left wing. This "Russian sectarian" was treated condescendingly by the
leaders of European reformism. Some of them looked upon Lenin's activities
as a sort of sectarian madness, others considers it a result of the mystical traits
of his Slavic character. Very few realized the significance of this coming leader
of the interjiational working class movement. Only a few radical Germans,
Polish social-democrats, and several comrades of other countries, stood in close
political relations towards Bolshevism. Clara Zetkin relates the following story :
At the congress in Stuttgart, held in 1907, Rosa Luxembourg, while pointing out
to her the place occupied by Lenin, said: "See that man? Just watch the char-
acteristics of his head. He looks as if he were ready to crush the whole world,
that he would rather break his head than surrender."
Lenin knew the international working class movement well for many years.
But the international labor movement began to know Lenin only after the Octo-
ber Revolution. And here we approach one of the most interesting questions
connected with the theory and practice of the labor movement. How many peo-
ple are familiar with the giant of scientific socialism whose name was Marx? A
few hundreds of thousands. On the other hand, how many have heard of Lenin?
Hundreds of millions. How is this to be explained? Marx forged the weapon
of criticism for the struggle against the capitalist system, while Lenin employed
this cHticism as a weapon to strike the enemy over the head. The oppressed
millions have gotten a very clear conception of the significance of what Lenin
was doing, while the materialistic conception of history, the theory of the sociali-
zation of production, could be understood by a limited number of people. But
the expropopriation of land, factories, and banks, the abolition of exploitation,
the annulment of debts — such propaganda by action appealed to and was
understood by the widest sections of the working class.
One of the French bourgeois papers wrote after Lenin's death : "His thots were
grey and theologically monotonous." For the bourgeois world the ideas of Lenin
were really grey. But how did the international working class movement
re.spond to his ideas? Millions of people understood his thots because they were
simple and within the grasp of the masses. They were in harmony with the
class instincts of these masses, if not always with their conscious understanding.
But the true greatness of Lenin's "grey ideas could be seen only after these ideas
had been transformed into "red actions."
When at the end of 1914 Lenin spoke of the necessity of putting up the civil
war against the imperialist war, not even the left wing could follow the trend
gQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of his thots. He therefore organized at Zimmerwald a left wing which assumed
definite form only at Kienthal. But even after the conference at Kienthal one
of its participant's, the French delegate Brisson, spolie of Lenin as of a queer sort
of fellow who had been making publicly very childish propositions.
From the very beginning Lenin had a very clear idea as to wliat results the
imperialist war would bring to humanity, and that the capitalist world would
under no circumstances be able to avoid civil war. This explains his radical
slogans. But the international labor movement had been developing very slowly.
It had to have a few more years of war before the masses would come back to
their senses. And this had been Lenin's task, to awaken the masses to revo-
lutionary action altho he was very little known to tlie wide proletarian masses.
After the February Revolution the patriotic henchmen of all countries started a
campiiign of vilification against Lenin as an agent of the Germnn General Staff.
This story found wide circulation also among social-democratic circles. Only
after the October Revolution did the masses come to learn the part played by
Lenin at Zimmerwald and Kienthal where he demanded that the working class
be aroused ti gainst the imperialist war. Only after he assumed the leadership of
the greatest revolution in the history of the world did tlie masses come to know
who Lenin really was. And since then the international labor movement has been
divided into two groups as far as Lenin was concerned, enthusiastic friends and
deadly enemies.
Every day of the existence of Soviet Russia, every attaclc against Russia by
its enemies, have contributed towards the increase of Lenin's popularity among
the masses, thereby raising the importance of those organizations (the Com-
munist International and the Red liiternational of Labor Unions) whose fiite was
bound up with that of Soviet Russia.
Lenin's deatli deeply impressed the working masses of the entire world. Most
of the leaders of the international revolutionary movement have realized that
Lenin has been the trail-blazer for the Commtinist Parties of every country in the
world. At present the theoretical and practical features of Bolsiievism which
were created by Lenin liave become factors of world importance. Since Bol-
shevism has thrown off the chains of Czarist rule, it has become the object of
universal attention and of the liatred of the imperialist bourgeoisie the world
over. Bolshevism at present stands against imperialism and reaction as a real
power. In the constant development of our movement, in the constant growtli
of the Communist ideas and Communist Parties, in the extended influence of the
Communist International and the Red International of Labor Unions, in the inter-
nationalization of our methods of struggle and in the elasticity of our revolution-
ary tactics, in the growing international unity between the various sections of the
revolutionary proletariat — in all this we can see the firm hand and the great
genius of Lenin. He stands out in the history of the international labor move-
ment as one of its foremost and greatest leaders.
The Father of the Communist International
Lenin was the creator and the drivhig force of the Third Communist Inter-
national, which he began building during the very first days of the world war. The
moment the Parties of the Second International began openly to support their
Governnu'nts, Lenin issued the following slogan : "The Second International is
dead; long live the Third International." He was one of the organizers of the
conference of Zimmerwald and Kienthal, where he fornuilated the basis for the
left wing. During the years of war he ruthlessly opposed and attacked every
shade of opportunism, particularly the meaningless pacifist abortion of Kautsky.
But it was only after the October Revolution that conditions became ripe for the
Third International, conditions which laid the national, territorial, social, and
political foundations for the International of action. The Russian experiences
served the Communist Internationnl as the guiding line of its policies.
However, Lenin did not reject in an offhand manner everijthinfj that was created
1\V the Second International. He understood how to differentiate between what
was valuable and what was not. In his article entitled "The Third International
and Its Place in History" he said the following:
"Tlie First International laid the foundation for the international proletarian
struggle for socialism. The Second International constitutes the epoch in which
the ground has been prepared in a number of countries for a mass movement.
The Third International utilizes the results of the activities of the Second Inter-
APPENDIX, PART 1 87
national, breaks with tlie opportunistic, social-chiuivinistic, and petty-bourgeois
tendencies, and begins to realize the dictatorship of the proletariat."
In the same article Lenin explains what he c^uisidercd llie foundation of the
Third International :
'•The historic world significance of the Communist International consists in
this, that it begins to put into effect the things which Murx has proven the-
oretically to be a necessity, thereby realizing the consequences produced by the
socialist and labor movement, that is, the dictatorship of the proletariat."
Lenin gave the Communist Iiiterjiational not only its ideological direction by
formulating many of the theses adopted by the Comintern, which hiive drawn the
attention of the Communist Parties to the importance of the agrarian and colonial
questions, to the mutual relations between the dictatorship and capitalist
democracy, but he also participated directly and actively in the solution of all
problems confronted by the Communist International. Between Congresses he
always occupied himself very intensively with the problems of the Communist
Parties all over the world. And when, in the beginning of 1920, he noticed the
appearance of a sort of Utopian Communism, he began struggling against it in his
famous booklet, "The Infantile Sickness of Communism," thereby dealing a death-
blow to this tendency.
After the formation of the Communist International, Lenin's main worry was
to close the gates to the opportunist elements. The famous 21 points, which
attracted so much attention, not only of the reformist press but also of the
capitalist press, belong to Lenin. Lenin looked upon the Communist International
not as a meeting place of all kinds of independent national parties, but as a abso-
lutely homogeneous international fighting organization. However, he always had
regard for the situations of the various countries, and never presented exag-
gerated demands to the newly-formed Communist organizations, for he knew only
too well how much effort it would require to educate politically and organization-
ally and to put on the right track all those new Communist Parties which had
just emerged from the ranks of the Social Democracy. He considered it the best
means to pursue a clear revolutionary policy and, in this sense, he developed his
activities in the Communist International. Lenin was, for the Third Interna-
tional, what Marx was for the First. The revolutionary workers of all countries
have still a lot to learn from Lenin's works, particularly from his actions, because
Leninism and Communism are one and the same thing.
Lenin and the Trade Unions
The trade union movement also is very much indebted to Lenin. First of
all because he has determined the correct place to be occupied by the trade
xmions in the class struggle. He fought very bitterly all those in the trade
unions of Europe that favored the existence of the trade unions as perfectly
independent organizations from the political party of the proletariat. He
proved in a number of cases that this idea of the independence of the unions
from the political movement of the proletariat in reality means independence
from revolutionary class politics, that the anarchists and reformists by preach-
ing the idea of the independence of the trade unions are merely serving the
Intei'ests ofjthe bourgeoisie.
Lenin looked upon the trade unions as the elementary units of working class
organization, "as the place where the masses are trained in organization, in
collective management, and in Communism." He was at one and the same time
opposed to over-estimating as well 'as under-estimating the importance of trade
unions. He always insisted upon the necessity of taking part in these mass
oi'ganizations, irrespective of the nature of their leadership. In his book "The
Infantile Sicknesses of Communism," in the chapter entitled, "Shall Revolu-
tionaries Participate in Reactionary Trade Unions?" he criticizes very ener-
getically those Communist elements which at the first onslaught of the reaction-
ary bureaucracy become pessimistic and throw out the slogan of : "Out of the
Trade Unions, an immediate split." Such tactics he designates as: "Unpardon-
able stuioidity which is equivalent to offering the greatest .service to the bour-
geoisie." He says : "We must work wherever the masses are, criticize merci-
lessly the labor aristocracy which is dominated by reformism, narrow craft
egotism, and the ideas of bourgeois imperialism." Lenin would emphasize time
and again that without the trade unions the Soviet Government could not have
maintained itself in power for more than two weeks. The trade unions are
the connecting link between the masses and the proletarian vanguard. It is
gg UN-AilERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
only by our dnily activities that we can convince the masses that it is only we
who are caijable of leadiiijr them from capitalism communism.
The development of the revolutionary trade union movement followed that of
the Communist movement. The Russian trade union movement was to the Red
International of Labor Unions of the same importance as the Communist Party
of Russia \\'^is to the Communist International. The Russian trade union move-
ment had begun developing with particuar intensity after the October Revolution
under the ideological and political leadership of Lenin.
Lenin followed the development of the trade nnion movement with the same
interest with which he followed that of the Commmiist movement. He would
always explain that the Amsterdam International is the main support of the
international bourgeoisie, and l^ecause of this was he so much interested in the
R(>d International of Labor Unions, as can be seen from his communication to
the First Congre.ss of the R. I. L. U. (July, 1921) where Lenin said :
"It is hard to express in words the importance of this international trade
union congress. Everywhere in the whole world the Communist ideas find ever
more followers among the membership of the trade unions. The progress of
Comnuniism does not follow a straight line. It is not regular, it has got to
overcome thousands of obstacles, but it moves forward just the same. This
international trade nnion congress will hasten the progress of Communism,
which will be victorious in the trade union movement. There is no power on
earth that is able to prevent the collapse of capitalism and the victory of the
working class over the bourgeoisie."
From this it can be seen what importance Lenin attached to the internation'al
unification of the revolutionary trade union movement for the struggles of the
working class.
A Child of His People and Centuby
Lenin was the child of his people and of his century. When called a Jacobin
he would answer : "We, the Bolsheviks, are the Jacobins of the Twentieth
Century, that is, the Jacobins of the proletarian revolution." Lenin was, as we
have seen, the very embodiment of the idea of internationalism, 'and at the
same time he was part and parcel of the mighty revolutionary movement that
the oppressed masses of Russia have been carrying on for years and years.
He was really one link in 'a long chain of struggles for the emancipation of
the Russian proletariat and the Russian peasantry. From Radschev, thru
Belinsky. Dobroljubov. Bakunin, Tschernischevsky, Netschajev. and Jelibov,
thru the party "The Will of the People" and thru the group of "Emancipation of
Labor.*' and thru many mdvnown representatives of the workers and peasants,
which have been populating the prisons of the Czar and of Siberia, there runs
the thread of struggle which unites Lenin with the Russian revolutionary move-
ment. He was a man of an all-inclusive spirit : the press of our opponents
would speak with irony about the utopian plans of Bolshevism. But in this
irony there is to be found 'a profound truth. Lenin has been operating with
whole continents. He was basing his policies upon the experiences of millions.
Only the limitless and vast extent of Russia could give birth to such a
spirit. This youth, born to a family of state functionaries and adopted by the
proletariat, embo<lied and gave expression to the hatred of the working class of
Russia accumul'ated thru centuries. He also reflected in himself the hatred of
the peasantry against its oppressors that accumulated thru centuries. He had
a deep sense for the sufferings of the toiling masses, even when the masses
could not give expression to those sufferings in words.
Lenin cnnnot be considered apart from the Russian workers and peasants
land from the Russian history. Only within the social structure of Russia, the
revolutionary struggles of whole generations, only by considering the achiev-
ments of the Russian revolutionary movement since the ISth century and up
to the last day, can we locate the prime factors that have brought about the
appearance of Bolshevism in Russia at the cross-roads of two centuries. Only
by taking all this into consideration can we properly estimate the moral, po-
litical, national, and international physiognomy of Lenin. For us, his contem-
poraries, who have been living within the circle of his influence, one thing is
clear. liCnin was one of those men by whom humanity marks its historical
path, concerning whom legends are being told in his lifetime, and the farther we
go from the date of his death the clearer will stand before us Lenin's greatness
and immortality.
APPENDIX, PART 1 89
Exhibit No. 7
[Source: "Lenin on the Historic Sisniflcance of tlio Tliird Internationiil," a pamphlet
published by Martin liawrence, London: 19;54]
LENIN ON THE HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THIRD
INTERNATIONAL
Published by Martin Lawrence, 33 Great James Street, London. W. C. 1. and printed in
Great Britain by Western Printing Services Ltd., Bristol, 1934
The Third, Communist International
Speech Recorded for the Gramophone
In March of this year, 1919, there took place an international congress of
Communists in Moscow. This Congress founded the Third, Communist Inter-
national, the Union of the Workers of the whole world who are striving for
the establishment of Soviet power in all countries.
The First International, founded by Marx, existed from 1864 to 1872. The
defeat of the heroic Paris workers — the famous Paris Commune — meant the
end of this International. It is unforgettable, it is eternal, in the history of
the struggle of the workers for their emancipation. It laid the foundation of
that building of the World Socialist Republic, which we to-day have the
happiness of constructing.
The Second International existed from 1889 to 1914, until the war. This
period was the period of the quietest and most peaceful developments of capi-
talism, a period without great revolutions. The labour movement grew strong
and mature in that period in a number of countries. But the leaders of the
workers in the majority of parties, growing accustomed to peaceful times, lost
the capacity for revolutionary struggle. When the War began in 1914, which
for four years has drenched the earth with blood, a war between the capitalists
for the division of protits, for power over the small and weak nations, these
socialists passed over to the side of their governments. They betrayed the
workers, they helped to drag out the slaughter, they became enemies of
Socialism, they passed over to the side of the capitalists. The masses of the
workers have "turned away from the:^ traitors to Socialism. Throughout the
world a turn to revolutionary struggle has commenced. The War has shown
that capitalism is doomed. A new order is taking its place. The traitors to
Socialism have disgraced the old word "Socialism."
Now the workers who have remained faitlifui to the cause of the overtlirow
of the yoke of capital call themselves Communists. Throughout the world
the Union of Communists is growing. In a number of countries Soviet power
has already been victorious.^ It will not be long before we see the victory of
Communism throughout the world, before we see the foundation of the World
Federal Republic of Soviets. {Made in March 1919.)
The Third International and Its Place in History
The imperialists of the Entente countries are blockading Russia, endeavouring
to cut off the Soviet Republic from the capitalist world, as a centre of infection.
These people who boast of the "democracy" of their institutions are so blinded
by hatred towards the Soviet Republic that they do not notice how they are
making themselves ridiculous. Only think : the advanced, most civilised and
"democratic" countries, armed to the teeth, which in a military respect have
xmchallenged sway over the whole earth, are frightened as of lire of the ideolof/ical
infection which proceeds from a ruined, hungry, backward, and, as they declare,
even a half-savage country !
This contradiction alone opens the eyes of the labouring masses of all countries
and helps to expose the hypocrisy of the imperialists Clemenceau, Lloyd George,
Wilson, and their governments.
But not only the blind hatred of the capitalists towards the Soviets, but also
their squabbles among themselves help us, inciting them to injure one another.
They have concluded among themselves a real conspiracy of silence, being fright-
ened more than anything else of the spreading of correct news about the Soviet
Republic in general, and of its official documents in particular. Howe^•er, the
^ Lenin refers to the Soviet revolutions in Bavaria and Hungary.
QQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
chief organ of the French hourgeoisie, Le Temps, has printed a communication
about the founding in Moscow of the Third, Communist International.
We express our respectful thanks for this to the chief organ of the French
bourgeoisie, to this leader of French chauvinism and French imperialism. We
are ready to send the newspaper Lc Tcmvn a solemn address in expression of our
gratitude for having so succes-sfuUy and cleverly assisted us.
From the wav in which the newspaper Lc Temps made its communication on
the basis of our wireless message we can see with complete clarity the motive
which impelled this organ of the money bags. It wanted to taunt Wilson, to
sting him. I'ray see what kind of people you are allowing negotiations with !
These clever feliows who wrote at command of the money bags do not see how
their attempt to scare Wilson with the P,olsheviks is turned in the eyes of the
labouring masses into an advertisement for the Bolsheviks. Once again, our
respectful thanks to the organ of the French millionaires!
The foundation of the Third International took place in such a world situation
that lui i)i'()liihitions, no petty or wretched tricks of the imperialists of the Entente
or of the lackeys of capitalism, such as Scheideniann in Germany, Renner in
Austria, could prevent the spreading of the news of this International among the
working class of the whole world and of sympathy towards it. This situation has
been created l»y the-iiroletarian revolution which is clearly growing everywhere,
no longer just daily, but hourly. This situation has been created by the Soviet
movement among the labouring masses which has already reached such a strength
that it has really become ivtennitional.
The First International (1864-1872) laid the foundation of the international
organisation of the workers for the preparation of their revolutionary onslaught
upon capital. The Second International (1889-1914) was the international or-
ganisation of the proletarian movement, the growth of which extended widely
but not without a temporary lowering of the height of the revolutionary level,
without a temporary increase in opportunism which finally led to the shameful
collapse of this International.
The Third International was in fact founded in 1918 when the many years
process of struggle against opportunism and social-chauvinism, particularly during
the War, has led to the formation of Communist parties in a number of nations.
Formally, the Third International was founded at its first Congress in Moscow
in March 1919. And the most characteristic feature of this International, its
vocation, is to fulfill and bring to life the heritage of Marxism and to realise the
century-old ideals of Socialism and of the labour movement — this most character-
istic feature of the Third International showed itself at once in the fact that
the new. Third, "International Working Men's A.ssociation" has alreadij begun nou-
to eoincide to a certain degree, with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The first International laid the foundation of proletarian. International struggle
for Socialism.
The Second International was the epoch of preparing the ground for a wide,
mass spreading of the movement in a number of countries.
The Third International gathered the fruits of the work of the Second Inter-
national, cut off its opportunist, social-chauvinist, bourgeois and pettv-bourgeois
filth and ber/an to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The International Union of the parties which are leading the most revolutionary
movement in the world, the movement of the proletariat for the overthrow of the
yoke of capital, now has beneath it a basis of unexampled firmness: several
Soviet republics which on an international scale embody in life the dictatorship of
the proletariat, its victory over capitalism.
The world historical importance of the Third, Communist International con-
sists in the fact that it has begun to bring to life Marx' greatest slogan the
slogan which sums up the century-old development of Socialism and of the labour
movement, tlie slogan which is expressed in the conception : the dictator.ship of
the proletariat.
This prophecy of genius, this theory of genius is becoming a reality
The.se T.atin words have now been translated into all the national languages of
modern Europe— more than that, into all the languages of the world
A new epoch in world history has begun.
Humanity is throwing off the last form of slavery, capitalist or wage-slavery
In emancii)ating itself from slavery humanity is for the first time approaching
real freedom. '^^ *
How could it happen that the first country to realise the dictatorship of the
proletarit to organize a Soviet republic, was one of the most backward European
countries? We shall hardly be mistaken in saying that it was precisely this
APPENDIX, PART 1 91
contradiction between the backwardness of Russia and its "leap" to the highest
form of democracy, through bourgeois democracy to Soviet or proletarian democ-
racy, it was precisely this contradiction which was one of the reasons (in addition
to the load of opportunist habits and philistine prejudices which lay upon the
majority of the socialist leaders), which has particularly made diflBcult and
slowed up the understanding of the role of the Soviets in the West.
The working masses throughout the world guessed by instinct the importance
of the Soviets as the weapons of struggle of the proletariat and as the forms of
the proletarian state. But the "leaders," spoiled by opportunism, continued and
still continue to pray to bourgeois democracy, calling it "democracy" in general.
Is it astonishing that the realisation of the dictatorship of the proletariat has
first of all shown the "contradiction" between the backwardness of Russia and
its "leap" fhrough bourgeois democracy? It would have been astonishing if the
realisation of n nctc form of democracy had been given us l:>y history without
a riumbcr of contradictions.
Any ^Marxist, even any person acquainted with modern science in general, if
you asked him: "Is the even, or harmonious, proportional transition of different
capitalist countries to the dictatorship of the proletariat likely?" — would un-
doubtedly have answered this question in the negative. Neither evenness, nor
harmony, nor proportion have ever existed in the world of capitalism or ever
could exist. Every country has developed particularly prominently either one
side or feature, or group of characteristics of capitalism and of the labour move-
ment. The process of development has gone on une^•enly.
When France carried out its great bourgeois revolution, awakening the
whole continent of Europe to a historically new life, England was at the head
of the counter-revolutionary coalition, although at that time it was much more
developed capitalistically than France. Yet the English labour movement at
this period anticipates with genius a great deal of future Marxism.
Wlien England gave the world the first wide and really mass, politically
organised, proletarian revolutionary movement. Chartism, on the European
continent in most cases feeble bourgeois revolutions were taking place, but in
France there broke out the first great civil war between proletariat and bour-
geoisie. The bourgeosie defeated the various national detachments of the
proletariat singly and in different ways in different countries.
England was an example of a country in which, according to the expression
of Engels, the bourgeosie, along with an aristocracy become bourgeois, created
a more or less bourgeois upper section of the proletariat. An advanced capi-
talist country for some generations was backward in the sense of the revo-
lutionary struggle of the proletariat. France apparently exhausted the strength
of the proletariat in two heroic revolts of the working class against the bour-
geosie in 1848 and 1871 which gave an extraordinary great deal in the world
historical sense. The hegemony in the International of the labour movement
nest passed to Germany from the seventies of the nineteenth century, when
Germany was economically behind both England and France. But when Ger-
many caught up both these countries economically, that is towards the second
decade of the twentieth century, then at the head of the Marxist labour party
of Germany, which had been an example to the world, appeared a group of
arch-scoundrels, of the filthiest swine bought by the capitalists, from Scheide-
mann and Noske to David and Legien, of the most disgusting executioners of
the workers in the service of the monarchy and the counter-revolutionary
bourgeosie.
World history mai-ches unswervingly towards the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat, but it marches along paths which are far from smooth, simple or direct.
When Karl Kautsky was still a IMarxist, and not the renegade from Marxism
he has become in his capacity of fighter for unity with the Scheidemanns and
for bourgeois democracy against Soviet or proletarian democracy, at the very
beginning of the twentieth century, he wrote an article, "The Slavs and the
Revolution." In this article he explained the historical conditions which
pointed to the possibility of the passing of the hegemony inside the international
revolutionary movement to the Salvs.
It has happened so. For a time— obvioiisly only for a short time — the hege-
mony in the revolutionary proletarian International has passed to the Russians,
as at different periods in the nineteenth century it was held by the English,
then by the French, then by the Germans.
I have had occasion to say more than once, in comparison with the advanced
countries it was easier for the Russians to 'brgin a great proletarian revolution,
but it will be more difficult for them to continue it and bring it to final victory,
in the sense of the complete organisation of socialist society.
92 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It was easier for us to begin because in the first place, the unusual political
backwardness— for twentieth century Europe— of the Tsarist monarchy called
forth unusual strength in the revolutionary onslaught of the masses. Sec-
ondly, the backwardness of Russia merged in an original fashion the prole-
tarian revolution against the bourgeosie with a peasant revolution agauist the
landlords. We started from this in October 1917 and we shoidd not have been
so easily victorious if we had not started from this. x\.s far back as 1856,
speaking of Prussia, Marx pointed out the possibility of au original combination
of the proletarian revolution with a peasant war. The Bolsheviks from the
beginning of 1905 persisted in the idea of the revolutionary democratic dic-
tatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. Thirdly, the revolution of 1905
did an extraordinary great deal for the political education of the masses of
workers and of peasants both in the sense of making the vanguard acquainted
with the "last word" in Socialism in the West, and also in the sense of the
revolutionarv activity of the masses. Without such a "general rehearsal" as
took place in 1905 the revolutions of 1917, both the bourgeois February one and
the proletarian October one, would have been impossible. Fourthly, the geo-
graphical conditions of Russia allowed it to hold out more than other countries
against the external preponderance of the capitalist advanced countries.
Fifthly, the peculiar relationship of the proletariat and the peasantry facili-
tated the transition from the bourgeois revolution to the socialist one, facili-
tated the influence of the proletarians of the towns ovev the semiproletarian,
poorest sections of the toilers in the country. Sixthly, the long school of strike
struggle and the experience of the European mass labour movement facilitated
the appearance in a deep and rapidly sharpening revolutionary situation of
such an original form of proletarian revolutionary organisation as the Soviets.
This list is, of course, not complete. But we can limit ourselves to it mean-
while.
Soviet or proletarian democracy was born in Russia. In comparison with
the Paris Commune a second world historical step was made. The proletarian-
peasant Soviet republic has become the first stable socialist republic in the
world. It is already impossible for it to die as a new type of state. It is
now already not standing alone.
For the continuing of the work of the construction of Socialism, in order to
bring it to a conclusion, a very great deal is still called for. Soviet republics
in more civilised countries in which the proletariat has greater weight and
influence, have every chance of overtaking Russia once they step onto the path
of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The bankrupt Second International is now dying and rotting alive. It is in
fact playing the role of servant of the international bourgeosie. It is a real
yellow International. Its most important ideological leaders .such as Kautsky,
are praising honrc/eois democracy, calling it "democracy" in general or, what
is still more crude and stupid, "pure democracy,"
Boui'geois democracy has outlived itself, as has the Second International,
having done a historically necessary and useful work, when it was a question
of the preparation of the working masses within the confines of this bourgeois
democracy.
The most democratic bourgeois republic has never been and never could be
anything but a machine for the suppression of the toilers by capital, a tool of
the political power of capital, of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The
democratic bourgeois republic promised power to the majority, proclaimed it,
but could never realise it so long as private property in the land and of the
means of production existed.
"Freedom" in the bourgeois democratic republic was in practice freedom
for the rich. The proletarians and labouring peasants could and should use
it for preparing their forces for the overthrow of capital, for passing beyond
bourgeois democarey, but in fact as a general rule the toiling masses under
capitalism could not make use of democracy.
For the fir.st time in the world, Soviet or proletarian democracy has created
democracy for the masses, for the toilers, for the workers and small peasants.
There has never before in the world been such a state power of the majority
of the population, a power of that majority in practice, as is the Soviet power.
It suppresses the " freedom " of the exploiters and their assistants, it takes
away f I'om them the " freedom " to exploit, the " freedom " to make profit out
of hunger, the " freedom " of struggle to restore the power of capital, the
" freedom " to make agreements with the foreign bourgeoisie against the workers
and peasants of their own fatherland.
APPENDIX, PART 1 93
Let the Kantskys defend such a freedom. To do this they must be renegades
from Marxism, renegades from socialism.
The colhipse of the ideological leaders of the Second International, such as
Hilferding and Kautsky, has in no way been so vividly shown as in their com-
plete incapacity to understand the meaning of Soviet or proletarian democracy,
its relation to the Paris Commune, its historical place, its necessity, as the form
of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In number 74 of the newspaper Die Freihcit, the organ of the "Independent"
(read, petty-bourgeois, philistine, middle-class) German Social Democracy, in
the issue of the 11th February, 1919. there was published an appeal " To the
revolutionary proletariat of Germany."
This appeal was signed by the leadership of the party and the whole of its
fraction in the "National Assembly," in the German " Constituent."
This appeal accuses the Scheidenianns of trying to get rid of the Soviets and
propose.s — don't lau^h ! — to conibiuc the Soviets with the Constituent, to give
the Soviets definite state rights, a definite place in the constitution.
To reconcile, to unite the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship
of the proletariat! How simple! Wliat a philistine idea of genius!
It is only a pity that the united Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries,
those petty-bourgeois democrats who call themselves socialists, have already
tried it in Russia under Kerensky.
Whoever has ii«>t understood when reading Marx that in capitalist society, on
every acute occa.sion. at every serious conflict of classes, it is only jjossible to
have either the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, or the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat, has understood nothing of either the economic or the political teaching
of Marx.
But the pliilistine idea of genius of Hilferding, Kautsky and Co. of peacefully
uniting the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat demands a special examination if we wish to exhaust the economic and
political stupidities crov.-ded into this remarkable and comic appeal of the 11th
February.
We must put this off for another article.
Moscow, 15th April, 1919.
First published in No. 1 of the Communist International, May 1st, 1919.
The Heroes of the Beene Internationai.
In the article The Third International and Its Place in History I pointed out
one of the outstanding manifestations of the ideological collapse of the repre-
sentatives of the old, rotten " Berne " International. This collap.se of the
theoreticians of the reactionary Socialism which does not understand the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat, is expressed in the proposal of the German "Inde-
pendent " social-democrats to combine, unite and join the bourgeois parliament
with Soviet power.
The most prominent theoreticians of the old International, Kautsky, Hilferd-
ing, Otto Bauer and Company have not understood that they are proposing to
join the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the dictatorship of the proletariat!
The people who made a name for themselves and won the sympathy of the
workers by preaching the class struggle, by explaining its necessities, at the
most decisive moment of the struggle for Socialism have not understood that
they are completely abandoning all teaching of the cla.ss struggle, that they are
completely renouncing it and in practice passing into the camp of the bourgeoisie
in trying to join the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship of
the proletariat.
This sounds unlikely, but it is a fact.
As a rare occurrence we have managed now to get in Moscow a fairly large
number of foreign newspapers, though of odd issues, so that it is possible to
put together in a little more detail, although, of course, far from fully, the
history of the hesitations of the " Independent " gentlemen in the chief theo-
retical and practical question of our time. This is the question of the relation-
ship of dictatorship (of the proletariat) to democracy (hourgeois) or of Soviet
power to bourgeois parlianientarianii-m.
In his pamphlet The Dictatorship of the Proletariat (Vienna, 1918) Mr.
Kautsky wrote that " Soviet organisation is one of the mo.st important phenom-
ena of our times. It promises to obtain decisive importance in the grrnt decisive
battles between capital and labour towards which we are marching" (page 33
94 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of Kautsky's pamphlet). And he added that the Bolsheviks had made a mistake
in converting the Soviets from "the militant organisation of one class" into "a
state organisation;' thereby "destroying democracy" (the same page).
In my pamphlet The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky
(Petrograd and Moscow 1918) I have analysed this argument of Kantskv in
detail and shown that it is made up of complete forgetfulness of the verv founda-
tions of the teaching of Marxism upon the state. For the state (every state,
including the most democratic republic) is nothing but a machine for the sup-
pression of one class by another. To call the Soviets the militant organisation
of a class and to deny them the right of becoming a " state organisation " means
in practice to renounce the A. B. C. of Socialism, to declare or to defend the in-
violability of the bourgeois machine for the suppression of the proletariat (that
is of the bourgeois democratic republic, of the bourgeois state), means in facl
going over into the camp of the bourgeoisie.
The stupidity of Kautsky's position is so glaring, the onslaught of the work-
ing masses who are calling for Soviet power is so strong, that Kautsky and the
Kautskyians have been forced to retreat shamefully, to fall into confusion, for
they have not shown themselves able to admit honestly that they were mistaken.
On February 9th, 1919, in the newspaper Freiheit, the organ of the " Inde-
pendent" (of Marxism, but completely dependent on petty-bourgeois democracy)
Social Democrats of Germany, there appeared an article by Mr. Hilferding
which already calls for the conversion of the Soviets into state organisations,
but along with the bourgeois parliament, with the " National Assembly," to-
gether with it. On February llth, 1919, in an appeal to the proletariat of Ger-
many the whole "Independent" party adopts this slogan (consequently Mr.
Kautsky also who has forgotten about the statement he made in the Autuinn of
1918).
This attempt to join the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with the dictatorship
of the proletariat is a complete renunciation of Marxism and of Socialism in
general, it is forgetting the experience of the Russian Mensheviks and " Socialist
Revolutionaries" who from May 6th, 1917 to October 25th, 1917 (old style)
made the "experiment" of combining the Soviets as a "state organisation"
with the bourgeois state and failed shamefully in this experiment.
At the Party Congress of the "Independents" (at the beginnins- of March
1919) the whole party adopted this position of sage combination of the Soviets
with bourgeois parliamentarianism. But in No. 178 of Freiheit. on April 1.3th,
1919, it is announced that the fraction of the " Independents " at the Second
Congress of Soviets has proposed the resolution:
"The Second Congress of Soviets is adopting the ground of the Soviet
system. In accordance with this the political and economic system of
Germany must be based on the organisation of Soviets. The Soviets of
Workers' Deputies are the recognised representative of the toiling popula-
tion in all spheres of political and economic life."
Alongside with this the same fraction proposed to the Congress a project of
"directives" (Richtlinien), in which we read :
"The Congress of Soviets has full political power. The right to elect and
to be elected into the Soviets is enjoyed without distinction of s^ex by those who
fulfill socially necessary and useful labour without exploiting other peoples'
labour power."
We see, con.sequently, how the "Independent" leaders have turned out to be
wretched philistines. completely dependent on thephilistine prejudices of the most
l)ackward section of the proletariat. In the Autumn of 1818 these leaders, through
the mouth of Kautsky, renounce any conversion of the Soviets into state organisa-
tion. In March 1919 they abandon this position, hanging onto the tail "of the
working masses. In April 1919 they upset the decision of their own Congress,
passing over completely to the position of the Communists: "All power to the
Soviets."
Such leaders are not worth much. To be an indication of the mood of the more
backward section of the proletariat, going behind and not in front of the advance
guard, it is not for this that leaders are needed. And these leaders are worth
nothing at all for the complete lack of character with which they change their
slogau.s. It is impossible to feel confidence in them. They will nlwaijs be ballast,
a negative quantity In the labour movement.
APPENDIX, PART 1 95
The most "left" of them, a certain Mr. Daumig, argued as follows at the Party
Congress (see Frciheit of March 9th) :
"Diiumig declares that nothuig divides him from the demand of the Com-
munists : 'All power to the Soviets of Workers' Deputies.' But he nuist
appeal against the putschism in practice carried out hy the Communist Party
and against the Byzantinism " which they assume in regard to the masses
instead of educating them. Putschist disrupting activity cannot take us
forward. . . ."
The Germans call putschism what old revolutionaries in Russia fifty years ago
called "outbreak.s," "outbreak-fomenting," the organisation of petty conspiracies,
attempts at assassination, uprisings, etc.
In accusing the Communists of "putschism" Mr. Diiumig only proves thereb.y his
own "Byzantinism," his servile crawlii.g before the pliilistine prejudices of the
petty bourgeoisie. The "leftism" of such a gentleman which repeats a "fashion-
iible" slogan out of cowardice before the masses, ivithout understanding the mass
revotutionary movement, is not worth a broken half-penny.
In Germany a powerful wave of spontaneous strike movements is taking place.
There is an unheard of revival and growth of the proletarian struggle, greater,
apparently, even than there was in Russia in 1905 when the strike movement
reached a height so far unparallelled in the world. To talk of "outbreak-foment-
ing" in the face of such a movement means that one is a hopeless tout and lackey
of Philistine prejudices.
The Philistine gentlemen, led by Diiumig, are dreaming probably of the kind of
revolution (if in general they have any kind of idea in their head about revolution)
in which the masses would rise all at once and completely organised.
There are no svich revolutions and there cannot be such revolutions. Capitalism
would not be capitalism if it did not keep the millions of the masses of toilers, the
immense majority, in oppression, down-trodden. In want and in darkness. Capi-
talism cannot collapse otherwise than by means of revolution which in the course
of the struggle will raise masse.> wlio were hitherto unaffected. Spontaneous
explosions are inevitable with the growth of revolution. Without this there has
been no revolution and cannot be a revolution.
That Communists are in favour of spontaneity is a lie of Mr. Diiumig, exactly
the same sort of lie as we have many times heard from the Mensheviks and S. Rs.
Communists are not in favour of spontaneity, do not stand for scattered outbreaks.
Comnuuiists teach the masses organised, complete, comradely, opportune, mature
action. This fact is not refuted by the philistine slanders of Messrs. Diiumig,
Kautsky and Co.
But the Philistines are not capable of understanding that Communists consider —
and quite correctly — it is their duty to he iritii the struggling masses of the op-
pressed and not with the heroes of Philistinism who stand on one side in cowardly
expectation. When the masses are struggling mistakes are inevitable in the
struggle. And the Communists seeing these mistakes, explaining them to the
masses, getting the mistakes corrected, unswervingly insisting on the victory of
con.sciousness over spontaneity, remain vith the niaf<ses. It is better to be with
the struggling masses who in the course of their struggle gradually free them-
selves from mistakes, than with the intellectuals, the phiiistines, the Kautskyians,
who wait on one side for "complete victory," and this is a truth which it is not
given to the Mr. Daumigs to understand.
So much the wor.se for them. They have already passed into the history of the
world revolution as cowardly phiiistines. reactionary whimperers, yesterday's
servants of the Scheidemanns, to-day's pi'eachers of 'social peace," for it is a matter
of indifference whether this preaching is hidden luider the form of combining a
Constituent Assembly with Soviets or under the form of deep thinking condemna-
tion of "putschism."
Mr. Kautsky has broken the record in the cause of replacing Marxism by reac-
tionary Philistine whining. He sticks to one note. He weeps over what has taken
place, complains, cries, is horrified, preaches reconciliation ! All his life this
knight of pitiful shape has written about the class struggle and about Socialism,
but when matters have reached a maximum sharpening of the class struggle and
the eve of Socialism, our sage is panic-stricken, bursts into tears and appeal's as a
common philistine. In No. r>8 of the paper of the Vienna traitors to socialism,
the Austerlitzes, the Renners, the Rauers, (Arbeiter Zietung, April 9th. 1919,
" Obscure dogmatism.
96 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Vienna, morning edition), Kautsky, for tlie hundredth, if not for the thousandth
time brings liis lamentations together :
"Economic thought and economic understanding," he weeps, "have been
driven from the lieads of all classes." "The long War has accustomed wide
sections of the proletariat to a complete disregard for economic conditions
and to a firm faith in the all-powerfulness of violence."
There are the two "little points" of our "very learned" person !
"The cult of violence" and the collapse of production — that is why instead of an
analysis of the real conditions of the class struggle he has fallen into the accus-
tomed, old, primordial, philistine whining. "We expected," he writes, "that the
revolution will come as a product of the proletarian class struggle . . . but the
revolution has come as a consequence of the military collapse of the ruling system
in Russia and in Germany. . . ."
In other words this sage "expected" a peaceful revolution ! This is excellent !
But Mr. Kautsky has so lost his head that he has forgotten how he himself
once wrote, when he was a Marxist, that war, most likely, will be the cause of
revolution. Now in place of a calm analysis of what changes in the forms of
revolution are hievitubic as a consequence of the War, our "theoretician" weeps
for his broken "expectations !"
". . . Disregard for economic conditions from wide sections of the proletariat !"
What pitiful nonsense ! How well we know that philistine song from the
Menshevik newspapers of the epoch of Kerensky !
The economist Kautsky has forgotten that when a country is ruined by
war, and brought to the verge of doom, that the chief, main, fundamental,
"economic condition" is the salvation of the worker. If the working class is
to be saved from famine, from downright destruction, then it will be possible
to restore ruined production. But in order to save the working class, the
dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary, the only means of preventing the
burdens and consequences of the war being thrown onto the shoulders of the
workers.
The economist Kautsky has "forgotten" that the question of dividing the
burdens of defeat is decided by class struggle and that the class struggle in the
situation of a completely tormented, ruined, starving, dying country incvitahhj
changes its form. This is no longer class struggle for a share in production,
for carrying on production (for pi-oduction is at a standstill, there is no coal,
the railways are spoiled, the war has thrown people out of their stride, the
machines are worn out and so on and so on), but for salvation from famine.
Only fools, even though they are very "learned," can in such a situation "con-
demn" "consumers' soldiers' " communism and sui^erciliously teach the workers
the importance of production.
It is necessary in the first place, above all, in the very first place, to save
the v^orker. The bourgeoisie wishes to preserves its privileges, to throw all
the consequences of the war upon the worker, and that means to kill the
workers with hunger.
The working class wishes to be saved from hunger and in order to do this
it must completely smash the bourgeoisie, in the first place guarantee consump-
tion, even though a very meagre one, for otherwise it is impossible to drag out
a semistarved existence, it is impossible to hang on until production is set
going again.
"Think of production !" says the well-fed bourgeois to the starving worker
enfeebled by hunger, and Kautsky, repeating these songs of the capitalists in
the shape of "economic science" is completely converted into a lackey of the
bourgeoisie.
But the worker says: "Let the bourgeoisie also be put on the ration of
semi-starvation in order that the toilers may pull themselves together, may
not perish." "Consumers' commmiism" is the condition for saving the worker.
It is impossible to hesitate before any sacrifices in order to save the worker!
Half a pound to the capitalists, a pound to the worker — this is the way it is
necessary to get out of the condition of f.-imine, of ruin. The consumption of
the starving worker is the foundation and condition for the restoration of
production.
Clara Zetkin was quite right to say to Kautsky that he "is going over to
bourgeois political economy. Production is for man, not the contrary . . . ."
The independent Mr. Kautsky, weeping over "the cult of violence" has shown
exactly the same dependence on petty bourgeois prejudices. When even in
APPENDIX, PART 1 97
1914 the Bolshevik party pointed out that the imperialist war will be turned
into a civil war, Mr. Kautsky was silent, while remaining in one party with
David and Co., who had declared this forecast (and this slogan) to be
"madness." Kautsky absolutely did not understand the inevitability of the
conversion of the imperialist war into a civil war and now throws his lack of
understanding onto both of the sides struggling in the civil war ! Surely this
is an example of reactionary, philistine stupidity?
But if in 1914 failure to understand that the imperialist war must inevitably
be turned into a civil war was merely philistine stupidity, now, in 1919, it is-
already something worse. It is treachery to the working class. For civil war
both in Russia, and in Finland, and in Latvia, and in Germany, and in
Hungary, is w fact. Hundreds and thousands of times in his former works
Kautsky recognised that historical periods occur when the class struggle is
inevitably converted into civil war. This has come, and Kautsky has turned
out to be in the camp of hesitating, cowardly petty-bourgeoisie.
''The, spirit inspiring Spartacvs^ is in essence the spirit of Ludendorf
. . . ISpartaciis is not onttj bringing about the doom of its oirn cause but
strengthening the policy of violence of the majority socialists. Noske i»
the antithesis of Spartacus . .''
These words of Kautsky (from his article in the Vienna Arbciter Zeitung) are
so utterly stupid, base and vile that is suflicient just to point at them. A
party which tolerates such leaders is a rotten party. The Berne International,
to which Mr. Kautsky belongs, must be judged by us as it deserves, from the
point of view of these words of Kautsky, as a yellow International.
As a curiosity we will also mention the argument of Mr. Haase in his article
on "The International at Amsterdam" {Freiheit May 4th, 1919). Mr. Haase
boasts that on the colonial question he proposed a resolution by which "a
League* of Nations, organized according to the proposal of the International
. . . will have the task, before the realisatiofi of socialism" (note this!) . . .
"of administering the colonies in the first place in the interests of the natives,
and afterward in the interests of all the peoples united in the League of
Nations. . ."
Is not this really a pearl? Before the realisation of .socialism the colonies
will be administered, according to the resolution of this sage, not by the
bourgeoisie but by some kind, just, sweet "League of Nations!" How is this dif-
ferent in practice from painting iu false colours the vilest capitalist hypocrisy?
And these are the "left" members of the Berne International. . .
In order that the render may more clearly compare the full stupidity, base-
ness and vileness of the writings of Haase, Kautsky and Co. with the real
situation in Germany, I will bring forward one other quotation.
The famout capitalist Walter Rathenau has published a book. The New State.
The book is dated March 24th, 1919. Its theoretical value is absolutely nil.
But as an observer, Walter Rathenau is compelled to recognise the following:
"We, a people of poets and thinkers, are philistines by our secondary
occupation. . ."
"To-day idealism is found only among the extreme Monarchists and the
Spartacists."
"The bare truth is a.s follows: we are going towards a dictatorship,
either a proletarian or a pretorian one."
This bourgeoise evidently imagines himself to be as "independent" of the
bourgeoisie as Messrs. Kautsky and Haase imagine themselves to be "inde-
pendent" of petty bourgeois Philistinism.
But Walter Rathenau is head and shoulders above Karl Kautsky. for the
latter whines, hiding himself in cowardly fashion from "the bare truth," while
the former recognises it directly.
2Sth May, 1919.
First published in No. 2 of the Communist International.
1st June, 1919.
* Kautsky refers to the Spartacus Lensno foundofl by Karl Liebknecht ami Rosa
Luxemburg which became the Communist Party of Germany hi November, 1018-
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 8
98 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 8
[Source: A pamphlet published by the International Publishers, New York: second print-
ing, 1935. In an edition of lOO.Odtl]
A Letter to American Workers
(V. I. Lenin)
International Publishers
INTRODUCTION
When the October Revolution was less than a year old, August 20, 1918, Lenin
submitted a written report to the American workers on the progress of the Pro-
letarian Revolution in Russia and the obstacles which were still in the way of
complete victory.
Remembering the revolutionary traditions of the American working class and
believing that "the American revolutionary proletarians are destined now to
play an especially important role as irreconcilable foes of American imperialism."
Lenin proceeded to explain the imperialist nature of the war which was still
raging, the rapacious imperialist designs of the ruling classes of the warring
nations, including the American, and the attempts of the capitalist governments
to destroy the young Soviet Republic. In flaming words he showed how the
Allies as well as the Central Powers were carrying on the wholesale slaughter
for the division of spoils, for profits from the markets and colonies which would
go to the victorious imperialist group.
In words full of scorn, Lenin described the betrayals of those Socialist leaders,
"the watchdogs of imperialism," who aided their capitalist governments by
deluding the workers. He wrote : "Thrice they deserve utmost contempt, this
scum of international Socialism, these lackeys of bourgeois morality."
But the October Revolution made a breach in the strongest imperialist block.
The Soviet Republic withdrew from the war and renounced all the imperialist
covenants and policies of tsarism and of the Kerensky government which con-
tinued them. The October Revolution established workers' rule, which was
showing the road to power to the toiling masses of the capitalist countries and
the colonies. World capitalism would not countenance that. Counter-revolution
in Russia was given every possible aid. Armies wore fitted out and dispatched
to the various borders from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Almost the
very day Lenin was writing his Letter to the American Workers about these im-
perialist attacks, American troops were disembarking in Vladivostock (August
17, 1918) to join Japanese, British and French military detachments.
Already on July 17, President Wilson had agreed to a "limited military in-
tervention." On August 3, the American government was forced to admit publicly
that it was in full accord with the other imperialist powers in the Russian inter-
ventionist policy. But in the usual, hypocritical Wilsonian manner, common to
all "democratic" governments, it declared that the troops wei-e being sent to
"protect" the "stranded" Czechoslovak regiments, and to "guard the military sup-
plies" from the Germans who were thousands of miles away. In "the most
public and solenm manner," the American government infornied the people of
Russia that "it contemplates no interference with the political sovereignty of
Russia and no intervention in her internal affairs" (sic!). The Japanese govern-
ment hurried to issue a statement containing similar assurances of "friendship
to Russia" and proclaiming "its avowed policy of respecting the territorial in-
tegrity of Russia and of abstaining from all interference in her internal affairs."
To make sure that Russian territory in Siberia was "respected," Japan, which
was to send over 7000 troops, soon landed 70,000 armed and equipped men.
Troops of the other "respectors" of Russian territory were pouring in from
Hong-Kong (British), Indo-China (French) and the Philippines (American).
Not satis- fled with sending troops to the Far East, the American government
al.so sent military detachments to Archangel in the North with the cradle of
the revolution, Petrograd, as a cherished objective.
Lenin characterised these American invasions by declaring that the American
government was joining "the Anglo-Japanese beasts for the purpose of stran-
gling the first Socialist Republic."
While Russian soil was being invaded, the enemies within, the Socialists-
Revolutionaries, were organizing an attempt on the life of the German Ambassa-
dor von INIirbach, in order to provoke the invasion of the German army from
the West, and were plotting to behead the revolution bv killing Lenin. They
succeeded in killing the German Ambassador and seriouslV wounding Lenin.
APPENDIX, PART 1 99
It was in these circumstances that Lenin addressed himself directly to the
American workers, telling them of the conditions under which the October
Kevolution was fighting to achieve its aims. He also drew lessons for the
American workers and, for that matter, for the workers of the whole world, to
whom the success or failure of the Russian Revolution was closely tied up
with their own struggles against the oppression of imperialism.
With war again the order of the day and with Japanese imperialisni and
Oerman fascism acting as spearheads in the threatening attack on the Soviet
I'nion, Lenin's Letter is as timely today as it was when it was written.
The lessons which Lenin outlined in the Letter are also timely at the present
lime. To those who did not free themselves "from the pedantry of bourgeois
intellectualism" and were questioning Lenin's policy of dealing with the French
niilitari^its when the German troops were marching towards the Ukraine, he
declared: "To throw back the rapacious advancing Germans we made use of
the equally rapacious counter-interests of the other imperialists thereby serving
I lie interests of the Russian and the international Socialist revolution." The
>ame reasoning was used earlier by Lenin when he fought the "revolutionary"
views of those who oppo.sed the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace with the
German government, necessary, according to Lenin, to "gain a breathing spell"
for the revolution.
Turning to American history, Lenin recalled how the leaders of the American
Revolution sought the aid of other Powers in their struggle against the British.
"The American people utilised the differences that existed between the French,
the Spanish and the English, at times even fighting side by side with the
armies of the French and Spanish oppressors against the English oppressors.
First it vanquished the English and then freed itself (partly by purchase) from
the French and the Spanish."
There were voices in America, as elsewhere, who were bemoaning the "de-
struction" which was entailed in the civil war brought about by the imperialist
invasion and counter-revolution at home. Drawing again the parallel with
epochal events in American history and suggesting that immediately after the
Civil War the United States may have appeared "behind" that of the pre-war
period, Lenin exclaimed : "But what a pedant, what an idiot is he who denies
on such grounds, the greatest, world-historic, progressive and revolutionary
significance of the American Civil War of 18G1-186.5 !"
Those in the American labor movement who ranged themselves against Lenin
and the Bolsheviks were prepared to admit the progressive character of the
war for the abolition of ehutirl slavery, but, "frightened by the bourgeoisie and
shunning the revolution, cannot understa)id or do not want to understand the
necessity and the legality of civil war" in the struggle for the abolition of
icage .slavery — "a vastly greater task."
Over the heads of the treacherous and faint-hearted leaders, the Gomperses
and the Hillquits, Lenin passed on to the American workers the great lesson
"that there can be no successful revolution without crusliino the resistance of
the exploiters" a truth "left as a heritage to the workers by the best teachers,
the founders of modern Socialism."
The workers of Germany and Austria are today smarting under the iron
heel of fascism because the socialist leaders refused to follow this truth "taught
by all revolutions" when the revolutions of 1918 occurred. Instead of allowing
the workers' revolution to develop to its logical conclusion — proletarian dicta-
torship and Soviet power — the socialist leaders permitted the counter-revolution
of the bourgeoisie to develop to its logical conclusion — fascism.
Under Lenin's tutelage, the Bolsheviks, on the other hand, mastered the
"great truth" and continually urged the Russian workers and peasants to carry
on tlie struggle until every vestige of capitalism in the city and on the land
was destroyed and the workers' rule firmly entrenched.
Every line of Lenin's Letter breathes with faith in the ultmiate triumph of
the revolution, and not only in Russia, but throughout the world. Fervently
confident that the international revolution would materialise, Lenin foresaw
that "before the outburst of the international revolution there may be several
defeats of separate revolutions." And, in his Letter he wrote: "We know that
help from you, comrades American workers, will probably not come soon."
Irrespective, therefore, of the temporary fortunes of the revolutions in other
countries, the Russian Revolution must carry on. Thus, under the leadership
of Lenin, the Russian workers conquered power, and under the leadership of
his successor, Stalin, are now building successfully a classless society— -
Socialism.
100 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
But the overthrow of the rule of capital, tlirougliout the world, is iiieYitahle.
Writing in the darkest hour of the Russian Revolution — imperialist attacks on
all sides, far-flung civil war — Lenin concluded his historic message to the
American workers with the words which the toiling masses of all countries
can inscribe on their banners: "We are wviiicible, because the world prole-
tarian revolution is invincible.''
A Letter to American Workers, dated August 20, 1918, was first published
in the United States in the December, 11)18 issue of the Class Striif/gle, a
bi-monthly issued by an internationalist group in the Socialist Party. It was
reprinted in pamphlet form from that magazine and widely distributed. It
played an important part in developing among American Socialists an under-
standing of the nature of imperialism, of the aims of the October Revolution
and of the role of the social-chauvinists in the labor movement. It directly
contributed to the building of the Left Wing in the Socialist Party which led
later to the splitting away of the revolutionary elements and the formation of
the Communist Party.
The version of the Letter printed in the Class Struffffle and reprinted on
numerous occasions in the periodical press, was not only inaccurate but also
incomplete. Whole passages were left out, some of them giving Lenin's estimate
of the role of American imperialism in the World War and stressing the im-
perialist designs of both warring groups. Much of what Lenin wrote about
the role of the reformist and centrist Socialists — the forerunners of present-day
social-fascists — in the war was omitted. The translation was free, whole sec-
tions of the Letter being rendered only in bare outline.
Partial results of an inquiry conducted recently into the cause of the crim-
inal mutilation of Lenin's ''Letter'' revealed that the English translation was
made from the Swedish text published in a Stockholm paper. It is yet to be
established who were responsible for the excisions and free tran.slation — those
v.iio translated the ''Letter" from Russian into Swedish, or the English
tran.slator.
For the present edition, a completely new translation was made from the
original Russian text, prepared l)y the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute and pub-
lished in Lenin's Collected Worl;s.'' This is, therefore, the first complete Eng-
lish version of the historic message of Lenin to the Americjin worki^rs, which
remains as fresh and appropriate today as when it was penned almost sixteen
years ago.
May, 1934. Alexander Tbachtenberg.
A Letter to American Workers
Comrades: A Russian Bolshevik who participated in the Revolution of 1905
and for many years afterwards live in your country has offered to transmit
my letter to you. I accepted his proposal all the more joyfully, because the
American revolutionary proletarians are destined precisely now to play an
especially important role as irreconcilable foes of American imperialism, which
is the newest, strongest and latest to participate in the world-wide slaughter of
nations for the division of capitalist profits. Precisely now the American
billionaires, these contemporary slave-owners, have opened a particularly tragic
page in the bloody history of bloody imperialism by giving their ajjproval — it
makes no difference whether direct or indirect, whether open or liypooitically
covered up — to an armed expedition of the Anglo-Japanese beasts for the pur-
pose of strangling the first Socialist republic.
The Iiistory of modern civilised America opens with one of those great, really
liberating, really revolutionary wars of which there have been so few among
the large numlier of wars of conquest that were caused, like the present
imperialist war, by squabbles among kings, landowners and capitalists over the
division of .seized lands and stolen profits. It was a war of the American
people against English robbers who subjected America and held it in colonial
slavery as these "civilised" bloodsuckers are even now subjecting and holding
in colonial .slavery hundreds of millions of people in India, Egypt and in ail
corners of the word.
Since that time aliout 150 years have passed. Bourgeois civilisation has
borne all its luxuriant fruits. By the high level of development of the produc-
tive forces of organised human labour, by utilising machines and all the wonders
of modern technic. America has taken the first place among free and cultured
nations. But at the same time America has become one of the foremost conn-
APPENDIX, PART 1 IQl
tries as regards the depth of the abyss which divides a handful of brazen
billionaires who are wallowing in dirt and in luxury on the one hand, and
niilliuns of toilers who are always on the verge of starvation. The American
people, who gave the world an example of a revolutionary war against feudal
subjection, now appears as a new, capitalist wage slave of a handful of billion-
aires; finds itself playing the role of a hired assassin for the wealtliy gang,
having strangled the Philippines in 1898 under the pretext of "liberating" them,
and strangling the Russian Socialist Republic in 1918 under the pretext of
"protecting" it from the Germans.
But four years of the imperialist slaughter of peoples have not passed in
vain. Obvious and irrefutable facts have exposed to the end the duping of
peoples by the scoundrels of both tlie English and the German group of brigands.
The four years of war have shown in their results the general law of capitalism
as applied to war between murderers for the division of spoils : that he who
was richest and mightiest profited and robbed the most; that he who was
weakest was robbed, decimated, crushed and strangled to the utmost.
In numljer of "colonial slaves" the English imperialist cutthroats have always
been most powerful. English capitalists did not lose a foot of their "own"
territory (acquired through centuries of robbery) but have managed to ap-
propriate al tiie German colonies in Africa, have grabbed Mesopotamia and
Palestine, have stifled Greece and have begun to plunder Russia.
German imperialist cutthroats were stronger in regard to the organisation
and discipline of "their" armies, but weaker in colonies. They have lost all
their colonies, but have robbed half of Europe and throttled most of the small
countries and weaker peoples. V/hat a great war of "liberation" on both sides !
How well they have "defended the fatherland" — these bandits of both groups,
the Anglo-French and the German capitalists together with their lackeys, the
social-chauvinists, i. e., Socialists who went over to the side of "their own"
boiirgeoisie !
The American billionaires were richest of all and geographic;! lly tlie most
secure. They have profited most of all. Tliey have made all, even the richest
countries, their vassals. They have plundered hundreds of billions of dollars.
And every dollar is stained with fllth ; filthy secret pacts between England and
her "allies." between Germany and her vassals, pacts on the division of spoils,
pacts on mutual "aid" in oppressing the workers and persecuting the Socialists-
internationalists. Every dollar is stained with the filth of "profitable" military
•deliveries enriching the rich and despoiling the poor in every country. And
every dollar is stained with blood — of that sea of blood which was shed by tlie
ten millions killed and twenty millions maimed in the great, noble, liberating and
holy war, which was to decide whether the English or the German cutthroats
will get more of the spoils, whether tlie English or the German executioners
Avill be the first to smother the weak peoples the world over.
While the German bandits established a record of military brutalities, the
English established a record not only in the numl)er of looted colonies, l)ut also
in the subtlety of their disgusting hyprocrisy. Precisely now the Anglo-French
and American bourgeois press is spreading in millions upon millions of copie.s
their lies and calumnies about Russia, hypocritically justifying their predatory
expedition against her by the alleged desire to "protect" Russia from the
Germans !
It is not necessary to waste many words to disprove this despicable and
Iddeous lie ; it is sufficient to point out one well-known fact. When in October,
1917, the Russian workers overthrew their imperialist government, the Soviet
power, the power of revolutionary workers and peasants openly proposed a just
peace, a peace without annexations and indemnities, a peace fully guarantee-
ing equal rights to all nations — and proposed such a peace to all the countries at
war.
And it was the Anglo-French and the American bourgeoisie who refused to
accept our proposals; they were the very ones who even refused to talk to us
of a universal peace! Precisely thej were the ones who acted treacherously
towards the interests of all peoples by prolonging the imperialist slaughter.
Precisely they were the ones who, speculating upon a renewed participation
■of Russia in the imperialist war, have shunned peace negotiations and thereby
given a free hand to the no less marauding German capitalists in foisting upon
Russia the annexationist and violent Brest Peace ! ^
1 The treaty signed in Brest-Litovsk, Marcli, 1918, between the Soviet Government and
the Central Powers. — Ed.
JQ2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It is difficult to imagine a more disgusting piece of hypocrisy than the
one with which the Anglo-French and American bourgeoisie now put upon us
the "blame" for the Brest Peace. The very capitalists of those countries upon
which it depended to turn Brest into general negotiations for world peace are
now our "accusers." The scoundrels of Anglo-French imperialism who profited
from the loot of colonies and from the slaughter of peoples, and who prolonged
the war almost a year after Brest— they "accuse" us, the Bolsheviks, who
proposed a just peace to all countries; us, who tore up, exposed and put to
shame the secret criminal treaties of the former Tsar with the Anglo-French
capitalists. . .
The workers of the whole world, in whatever country they may live, rejoice
with us and svmpathise with us, applaud us for having burst the iron ring of
imperialist ties, dirtv imperialist treaties, imperialist chains, for having dreaded
no sacrilice, however great, to free ourselves, for having established ourselves
as a Socialist republic, even though rent asunder and plundered by the im-
perialists, for having gotten out of the imperialist war and raising the banner
of peace, the banner of Socialism over the world.
No wonder that for this we are hated by the band of international im-
perialists; no wonder that they all "accuse" us and that the lackeys of imperial-
ism, including our right Socialist-Revolutiouiiries and Meusheviks, also "accuse"
us. From the hatred of these watchdogs of imperialism for the Bolsheviks,
as well as from the sympathy of class-conscious workers of all countries, we
draw new assurance in the justice of our cause.
He is no Socialist who does not understand that one cannot and must not
hesitate to make even such a sacrifice as the sacrifice of a piece of territory,
the sacrifice of a heavy defeat at the hand of capitalists of other countries, the
sacrifice of indemnities to capitalists, in the interest of victory over the
bourgeoisie, in the interest of transfer of power to the working class, in the
interest of the Icfjinning of the international proletarian revolution. He is no
Socialist who has not shown by deeds his readiness for the greatest sacrifices
on the part of his fatherland so that the cause of the Socialist revolution may
be pushed forward.
For the sake of "their" cause, that is, the conquest of world hegemony, the
imperialists of England and Germany have not hesitated to ruin and to strangle a
whole series of countries from Belgium and Serbia to Palestine and Mesopotamia.
And what about the Socialists? Shall they, for the sake of "their" cause — the
liberation of the workers of the whole world from the yoke of capital, the
conquest of a universal lasting peace — wait until they can find a way that entails
no sacrifice? Shall they be afraid to commence the battle until an easy victory
is "guaranteed"? Shall they place the integrity and safety of "their" fatherland,
created by the bourgeoisie, above the interests of the world Socialist revolution?
Thrice they deserve utmost contempt, this scum of international Socialism, these
lackeys of bourgeois morality who think along these lines.
The beasts of prey of Anglo-French and American imperialism "accuse" us of
coming to an "agreement" with German imperialism.
O hypocrites ! O scoundrels, who slander the workers' government and shiver
from fear of that sympathy which is being shown us by the workers of "their
own" countries ! But their hypocrisy will be exposed. They pretend not to un-
derstand the difference between an agreement made by "Socialists" with the
bourgeosie (native or foreign) against the workers, against the toilers, and an
agreement for the safety of the workers who have defeated their bourgeoisie,
with a bourgeoisie of one national color af/ainst the bourgeoisie of another color
for the sake of the utilisation by the proletariat of the contradictions between
the different groups of the bourgeoisie.
In reality every European knows this difference very well, and the American
people particularly, as I shall presently show, have "experienced" it in their own
history. There are agreements and agreements, there are fagots et fagots as the
French say.
When the German imperialist robbers in February. 1918, threw their armies
against defenseless, demobilised Russia, which staked its hopes upon the inter-
national solidarity of the proletariat before the international revolution had
completely ripened, I did not hesitate for a moment to come to a certain "agree-
ment" with the French monarchists. The French captain Sadoul, who sympa-
thised in words with the Bolsheviks while in deeds a faithful servant of French
imperialism, brought the French officer de Lubersac to me. "I am a monarchist.
My only purpose is the defeat of Germany," de Lubersac declared to me. "That
goes without saying {cela va sans dire)," I replied. But this by no means pre-
APPENDIX, PART 1 103
veuted me from coming to an "agreement" with de Lubersac concerning certain
services that French olticers, experts in explosives, were ready to render by
blowing up railroad traclis in order to prevent the advance of German troops
against us. This was an example of an "agreement" of which every class-con-
scious worker will approve, an agreement in the interests of Socialism. We
shook hands with the French monarchist although we knew that each of us would
readily hang his "partner." But for a time our interests coincided. To throw
l)ack the rapacious advancing Germans we made use of the equally rapacious
counter-interests of the other imperialists, thereby serving the interests of the
Russian and the international Socialist revolution. In this way we served the
interests of the working class of Russia and other countries, we strengthened
the proletariat and weakened the bourgeoisie of the whole world, we used the
justified practise of manoeuvring, necessary in every war, of shifting and waiting
for the moment when the rapidly growing proletarian revolution in a number of
advanced countries had ripened.
And despite all the wrathful howling of the sharks of Anglo-French and Ameri-
can imperialism, despite all the calumnies they have showered upon us, despite
all the millions spent for bribing the right Socialist-Revolutionary, Menshevik
and other social-patriotic newspapers, / would not liesiiate a single second to
come to the same kind of an "agreement" with the German imperialist robbers,
should an attack upon Russia by Anglo-French troops demand it. And I know
perfectly well that my tactics will meet with the approval of the class-conscious
proletariait of Russia, Germany, France. England, America— in a word, of the
whole civilised world. Such tactics will lighten the task of the Socialist revolu-
tion, will hasten its advance, will weaken the international bourgeoisie, will
strengthen the position of the working class which is conquering it.
The American people used these tactics long ago to the advantage of its
revolution. When America waged its great war of liberation against the English
oppressors, it was confronted with the French and the Spanish oppressors, who
owned a portion of what is now the United States of North America. In its
difficult war for freedom the American people, too, made "agreements" with one
yroup of oppressors against the other for the purpose of weakening oppressors
and strengthening those who were struggling in a revolutionary manner against
oppression — in the interest of the oppressed masses. The American people
utilised the differences that existed between the French, the Spanish and the
English, at times even fighting side by side witli the armies of the French and
Spanish oppressors against the English oppressors. First it vanquislied the Eng-
lish and then freed itself (partly by purchase) from the French and the Spanish.
The great Russian revolutionist Chernyshevsky once said : "Historical action
is not the pavement of Nevski/ Prospect." He is no revolutionist who would
"permit" the proletarian revolution only under the "condition" that it proceed
easily, smoothly, with the co-ordinated and simultaneous action of the prole-
tarians of different countries and witli a guarantee beforehand against defeat :
that the revolution go forward along the broad, free, direct path to victory, with-
out the necessity sometimes of making the greatest sacrifies, of "lying in wait
in besieged fortresses," or of climbing along the narrov.'est, most impassable,
winding, dangerous mountain road,s — he has not yet freed himself from the
pedantry of bourgeois intellectualism, he will fall back again and again into the
camp of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, like our Right Socialist-Revolu-
tionaries, Mensheviks and even (although more seldom) the Left Socialist-
Revolutionaries.
Along with the bourgeoisie these gentlemen like to blame us for the "chaos"
of revolution, the "destruction" of industry, the unemployment, the lack of food.
What hypocrisy these accusations are from people who greeted and supported
the imi^erialist war or came to an "agi'eement" with Kereusky, who continued this
war ! It is that very imperialist war which is the cause of all these misfortunes.
The revolution that was born of the war must necessarily go through the terrible
difficulties and sufferings left as the heritage of the prolonged, destructive, re-
actionary slaughter of the peoples. To accuse us of "destruction" of industries, or
of "terror," is either hypocrisy or clumsy pedantry ; it is an inability to under-
stand the basic conditions of the raging class struggle, intensified to the utmost,
which is called revolution.
Generally speaking, such "accusers" limit themselves to a verbal recognition
even when they do "recognise" the class struggle, but in deeds they revert again
2 Reference is here made to the smoothness of the pavement of the famed main street of
St. Petersburg, now Leningrad. — Ed.
104 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and asain to the philistine Utopia of "conciliation" and "collaboration" of classes.
For the class struggle in revolutionary times has always inevitably and in every
country taken on the form of a civil war, and civil war is unthinkable without
the worst kind of destruction, without terror and limitations of formal democracy
in the int(>rests of the war. Only suave priests, be they Christian or "secular"
parliamentary or parlor Socialists, are unable to see, understand and feel this
necessity. Only a lifeless "man in the case" ^ can shun the revolution for this
reason instead ' of throwing himself into the fight with the utmost passion and
decisiveness at a moment when history demands that the greatest problems of
humanity be solved by struggle and war.
The American people has a revolutionary tradition adopted by the best repre-
sentatives of the American proletariat, who gave repeated expression to their full
solidarity with us, the Bolsheviks. This tradition is the war of liberation against
the English in the ISth and the Civil War iri the 19th century. If we are to take
only into consideration the "destruction" of some branches of industry and
national economy, America in 1870 was in some respects hehlnd 18G0. But whnt
a pedant, what an idiot is he who denies on such grounds the greatest, world-
historic, progressive and revolutionary significance of the American Civil War of
1S61-1865!
Representatives of the bourgeoisie understand that it was worth letting the
country go through long years of civil war, the abysmal ruin, destruction and
terror which are connected with every war for the sake of the overthrow of
Negro slavery and the overthrow of the rule of the slave-owners. But now, wlien
we are confronted with the vastly greater task of the overthrow of capitalist
wage slavery, the overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie — now the representa-
tives and defenders of the bourgeoisie, as well as the socialist-reformists, fright-
ened by the bourgeoisie and shunning the revolution, cannot understand and do
not want to understand the necessity and the legality of civil war.
The American workers will not follow the bourgeoisie. They will be with us
for civil war against the bourgeoisie. The whole history of the world and the
American labour movement strengthens my conviction. I also recall the words
of one of the most beloved leaders of the American proletariat, Eugene Debs,
who wrote in Tltc Appeal to Rcamn. I believe towards the end of 191.^. in the
article "In Whose War I Will Fight" ^ (I quoted that article at the beginning
of 1916 at a public meeting of workers in Berne, Switzerland) that he, Debs,
would rather be shot than vote for loans for the present criminal and reaction-
ary imperialist w^ar : that he, Debs, knows of only one holy and, from the
standpoint of the proletariat, legal war. namely: the war against the capitalists,
the war for the liberation of manliind from wage slavery !
I am not at all surprised that Wilson, the head of the American billionaires
and servant of the capitalist sharks, has thrown Debs into prison. Let the
bourgeoisie be brutal to the true internationalists, the true representatives of the
revolutionary proletariat! The more obduracy and bestiality it displays, the
nearer comes the day of the vict<n-ious proletarian revolution.
We are blamed for the destruction caused by our revolution. . . . Who are
the accusers? The hangers-on of the bourgeoisie, that very bourgeoisie, which
has destroyed almost the whole of European culture during the four years of
the imperialist war, and has brought Europe to a state of barbarism, savagery
and starvation. That bourgeoisie now demands of us that we do not carry on
our revolution on the basis of this destruction, amidst the remnants of culture,
ruins created by the war, nor with men whom the war turned into savages.
O how humane and righteous is that bourgeoisie !
Its servants accuse us of terror. . . . The English bourgeois has forgotten
his 1649, the French his 1793." Terror was just and legal when used bv the
bourgeoisie to its own advantage against feudalism. Terror became monstrous
and criminal when workers and the poorest peasants dared to use it against
the bourgeoisie! Terror was legal and just when used in the interests of a
substitution of one exploiting minority for another. Terror became monstrous
and criminal when it began to be used in the interests of an overthrow of ei^erij
exploiting minority, in the interests of a really vast majoritv, in the interests
cl.nJ^n Us^*shon — Brf ' ""^ ^^ Anton Chekhov. The hero is hemmed in by routine like a
".l/;pe«/ foieert.so«, September 11, 1015. Reprinted in Voices of Revolt, Vol. IX,
Speeches (if I'.ujrene V. Deb.s ' (International Publi.shers) p 6.3 Ed
"The oxeeution of Khig Charle.s I and the suppression of opposition' durinj? the rggime
Df Cromwell in England, and the terror during the Great French Revolution.— JS/d.
APPENDIX, PART 1 105
of the proletariat and semi-proletariat, the working class and the poorest
peasantry!
The international imperialist bourgeoisie has killed off ten million men and
maimed twenty million in "its" war, the war to decide whether the English or
the German robbers are to rule the world.
If our war. the war of oppressed and exploited against oppressors and
exploiters, results in half a million or a million victims in all countries, the
bourgeoisie will say that the sacrifice of the former is justified, while the
latter is criminal.
The proletariat will say something altogether different.
Now, amid the ravages of the imperialist war, the proletariat is thoroughly
mastering that great truth taught by all revolutions and left as a heritage
to the workers by their best teachers, the founders of modern Socialism. That
truth is, that there can be no successful revolution without crush inr/ the resist-
ance of the exploiters. It was our duty to crush the resistance of exploiters
when we, the workers and toiling peasants, seized state power. We are proud
that we have been doing it and are continuing to do it. We only regret that we
are not doing it in a sutRciently firm and dererniined manner.
We know that the fierce resistance of the bourgeoisie to the Socialist revolution
is inevitable in all countries and that it will grow with the growth of this revo-
lution. The proletariat will crush this resistance; it will definitely mature to
victory and power in the course of struggle against the resisting bourgeoisie.
Let "the kept bourgeois press howl to the whole world about each mistake made
by our revolution. We are not afraid of our mistakes. Men have not become
saints because the revolution has begun. The toiling classes, oppressed and
downtrodden for centuries and forced into the clutches of poverty, savagery and
ignorance, cannot be expected to bring about a revolution flawlessly. And
the cadaver of bourgeois society, as I had occasion to point out once before,'
cannot be nailed in a casket and buried. Defeated capitalism is dying and
rotting around us, polluting the air with germs and poisoning our lives, grasping
the new, the fresh, the young and the live with thousands of threads and bonds
of the old, the rotten, the dead.
For every hundred mistakes of ours heralded to the world by the bourgeoisie
and its lackeys (including our own Mensheviks and Right Socialist-Revolu-
tionaries) there are 10,000 great and heroic deeds, the greater and the more
heroic for their simplicity, for their being unseen and hidden in the everyday
life of an industrial quarter or provincial village, performed by men who are not
used to (and who do not have the opportunity to) herald their achievements
to the world.
But even if the contrary were true— although I know this supposition to be
incorrect — even if there were 10,000 mistakes for every 100 correct actions of
ours, even in that case our revolution would be great and invincible, and so it
will be in the ei/es of ivorld history, because, for the first time not the minority,
not only the rich, not only the educated, but the real masses, the vast majority
of toilers are thetnselves building a new life, are deciding hy their own experi-
ence the most difficult problems of Socialist organisation.
Each mistake in such a work, in this most honest and sincere work of tens
of millions of simple workers and peasants for the reorganisation of their
whole life, each such mistake is worth thousands and millions of "faultless"
successes of the exploiting minority — successes in swindling and duping the
toiler. For only through such mistakes will the workers and peasants learn
to build a new life, learn to do without capitalists; only thus will they blaze
a new trail — through thousands of obstacles — to a victorious Socialism.
In carrying on their revolutionary work mistakes were made by our peasants
who abolished all private landed property at one blow in one night, October
25-26 (Nov. 7), 1917. Now, month after month, overcoming tremendoTis hard-
ships and correcting themselves, they are solving in a practical way the most
difficult tasks of oi-ganising new conditions of economic life — struggling with
kulaks, securing the land for the toilers (and not for the rich people) and
bringing about the transition to a Communist large scale agriculture.
In carrying on their revolutionary work mistakes were made by our workers,
who have now nationalised, after a few months, almost all the major factories
and plants and who are learning from hard, day-to-day work the new task of
managing whole branches of industry ; who are perfecting the nationalised
■^ In a speech before the Joint Session of the Central Executive Committee, the Moscow
Soviet and the Trade Unions on June 4, 1918. — Ed.
106 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
economy; who are overcoming the powerfnl resistance of inertia, petty-bourgeois
tendencies and seliisbness ; who are laying stone after stoue the foundation
of a neiv social bond, of a new labor discipline, of a neiv power of trade unions
of worliers over their members.
In carrying on their revolutionary work mistakes are made by our Soviets,
which were created back in 1905 by a mighty upsurge of the masses. The
Soviets of workers and peasants are a new ti/pe of state, a new and higher
type of democracy, the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a means of
ruling the state ivithout the bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. For the
first time democracy serves the masses, the toilers, having ceased to be a
democracy for the rich, as it stills remains hi all the bourgeois republics, even
the most democratic ones. For the first time the popular masses are deciding,
on a scale affecting hundreds of millions of people, the task of realising the
dictatorship of proletarians and semi-proletarians — a task without the solution
of which one cannot speak about Socialism.
Let the pedants, or people hopelessly stuffed with bourgeois-democratic or
parliamentary prejudices, shake their heads perplexedly about our Soviets, for
instance, about the lack of direct elections. These people forgot nothing and
learned nothing during the period of the great upheavals of 1914-1918. A
union of the dictatorship of the proletariat with a new democracy for the
toilers — civil war with the broadest involving of the masses in politics — such
union is neither to be achieved at once nor is it to be fitted into the dreary
forms of routine parliamentary democracy. A new world, the world of Social-
ism, is what rises before us in its contours as the Soviet Republic. And it is
no wonder that this world is not being born ready-made and does not spring
forth all at once, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter.
Wliile the old bourgeois-democratic constitutions spoke about formal equality
and right of assembly, our proletarian and peasant Soviet constitution casts
aside the hypocrisy of formal equality. When bourgeois republicans overthrew^
thrones they did not care about formal equality of monarchists with republicans.
When we speak of the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, only traitors or idiots will
seek to concede to the bourgeosie formal equality of rights. The "freedom of
assembly" for workers and peasants is not worth a cent when the best buildings
are in the hands of the bourgeosie. Our Soviets took away all the good build-
ings from the rich both in town and country, and turned over all these buildings
to the workers and peasants for their unions and meetings. That is our free-
dom of assembly — for the toilers. That is the idea and content of our Soviet,
Socialist Constitution !
And this is why we are so firmly convinced that our Republic of Soviets is
imniicibJe no matter what misfortunes befall her.
It is invincible, because each blow of frenzied imperialism, each defeat
which we suffer from the international bourgeoisie, calls to struggle new strata
of workers and peasants, teaches them at the price of the greatest sacrifices,
hardens them and gives birth to new mass heroism.
We know that help from you, comrades American workers, will probably not
come soon, for the development of the revolution proceeds with a different
tempo and in different forms in different countries (and it cannot be otherwise).
We know that the European proletarian revolution also may not blaze forth
during the next few weeks,** no matter how rapidly it has been ripening lately.
We stake our chances on the inevitability of the international revolution, but
fhis in no way means that we are so foolish as to stake our chances on the
inevitability of the revolution within a stated short period. We have seen in
our country two great revolutions, in 1905 and 1917, and we know that revolu-
tions are made neither to order nor by agreement. We know that circumstances
brought to the fore our Russian detachment of the Socialist proletariat, not by
virtue of our merits, but due to the particular backwardness of Russia, and that
before the outburst of the international revolution there may be several defeats
of separate revolutions.
Despite this, we are firmly convinced that we are invincible, because man-
kind will not break down under the imperialist slaughter, but will overcome
it. And the first country which demolished the galley chains of imperialist war,
was our country. We made the greatest of sacrifices in the struggle for the
* The German Revolution broke out about ten weeks after these lines were written. — F!d.
APPENDIX, PART 1 107
demolitiou of this chain, but we &roA-e it. We are beyond imiDerialist depend-
ence, we raised before the wliole world tlio banner of struggle for tlie complete
OA'erthrow of imperialism.
We are now as if in a beleaguered fortress until other detachments of the
international Socialist revolution come to our rescue. But these detachments
exist, they are more numerous than ours, they mature, they grow, they become
stronger as the bestialities of imperialism continue. The workers sever con-
nections with their social-traitors — the Gomperses, Hendersons, Renaudels,
Scheidemauns, Renners."' The workers are going slowly, bvit unswervingly,
towards Communist, Bolshevik tactics, towards the proletarian revolution,
which is the only one capable of saving perishing culture and perishing mankind
In a word, we are invincible, because the world px'oletarian revolution is
invincible.
N. Lenin.
August 20, 1918.
First published in Pravda, No. 178, August 22, 1918.
Exhibit No. 9
[Source: Excerpts from Stalin, by Boris Souvarine, former member of the Executive
Committee of the Communist International. Alliance Booli Corporation. Longmans,
Green & Company, New York : 1939]
The disaster of the Spartacus League in Germany, then the assassination of
Liebkuecht and of Rosa Luxemburg, has darkened the prospects of revolution.
But Lenin renounced neither his hopes nor his plans, and he had at heart
the creation of a Communist International. No one in his Party raised any
objections when he proposed to summon to Moscow the Conference, to which,
in addition to Bolsheviks of the various nationalities inside Russia, there was
only one single delegate representing a Party, the German Communist Party.
The other participants, recruited from refugees, emigres, exiles, represented
no one but themselves. The Spartacus delegate brought with him the
posthumous view of Rosa Luxemburg, definitely hostile to the premature forma-
tion of a new International. This was also the definite opinion of the Central
■Committee of his Party. After much hesitation, Lenin ignored it ; the Com-
munist International was born of his will. He was not disturbed by a modest
beginning. The political fortune of his own original group, of which he had
been the only fully conscious member, seemed to him to promise the future
victoi'y of the Communist embryo organization on a world scale. A few days
after the conference had transformed itself into a congress the proclamation
of a Soviet Republic in Hungary and then in Bavaria, where no Communist
Party even existed, fortified him in his illusions, [pages 236, 237]
The Politbureau, which had to conduct simultaneously both the foreign
policy of the Soviet Union, which was necessarily opportunist, and the Com-
munist International, which was, by definition, revolutionary, had embarked
on a queer diplomatic adventure with the General Council of the Trade Union
Congress using the bureaucratic Russian trade unions as intermediaries.
Ipage 428]
ilf ^ in H: il: if t-
After a few days of this unparalleled democracy, the Opposition, faced with
the dilemma of submission or insurrection, chose to retreat. On October 4th
it oiTered to make peace with the Politbureau ... As for Zinoviev, he was
invited to resign from the Presidency of the International, which he did soon
after, [page 436]
*******
Stalin arranged his pieces on the chess-board, where the so-called Trotskyists
were mere pawns : Ordjonikidze as Pi*esident of the Control Commission ; Chubar
to fill the vacancy as alternate of the Politbureau ; Bukharin at the helm of
* Right-wing leaders of American, English, French, German and Austrian socialist and
trade union movements. — Ed.
j;08 UN- AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the International, without the title of President ; lesser personages everywhere
where the machine did not appear to be secure, [page 440]
Stalin had against him a body of more or less respectable traditions, static
tendencies consecrated by time, and reputations which were long established,
even overvalued . . . Having already postponed the Party Congress, first for
some months, then for a year, he adjourned the Congress of the Soviets for
the same period, and put off the Congress of the International to an unspecified
date, [page 44S]
Exhibit No. dO
[Source: Excerpts from Questions and Answers to American Trade Unionists, Stalin's
Interviev; with the First American Trade Union Delegation to Soviet Russia. Septem-
ber 9, 1927. Workers Library Publishers, 39 East 125th Street, New York', N. Y. :
First edition — December 15, 1927]
^: :{: ^ ^ 4: >;: ^
Question II. Is it accurate to say that the Communist Party controls the
Russian Government?
Reply : . . . Perhaps the delegation did not mean control, but the guidance
exercised by the Party in relation to the Government. If that is what the
delegation meant by its question, then my reply is : Yes, our Party does guide
the Government. And the Party is able to guide the Government because it
enjoys the confidence of the majority of the workers and the toilers generally
and it has the right to guide the organs of the Government in the name of this
majority, [page 21]
Question X. Is any money now heing sent to America to aid either the
American Communist Party or the Communist paper, The ''Daily Worker''?
If not how much do American Communists remit to the Third International
in annual membership duesf
Reply: If this has reference to the relations between the Communist Party
of America and the Third International, I must say that the Communist Party
of America, as part of the Communist International most likely pays afliliation
fee to the Comintern. On the other hand, the Comintern, being the central
body of the International Communist movement, we assume, renders assistance
to the Communist Party of America whenever it thinks it necessary. I do not
think there is anything surprising or exceptional in this. . . . What would
hapiien if the Communist Party of America did appeal for aid to the Com-
munist Party of the U. S. S. R.? I think the Communist Party of the U. S. S. R.
w^ould render it whatever assistance it could. Indeed, what would be the worth
of the Communist Party, a Party which is in power, if it refused to do what
it could to aid the Communist Party of another country laboring under the
yoke of capitalism. I would say that such a Communist Party would not be
worth a cent. Let us assume that the American working class had come into
power after overthrowing its bourgeoisie. Let us assume that the working
class of another country appealed to the working class of America, which had
emerged victorious in a great struggle against capitalism, for material aid;
would the American working class refuse it? I think it would disgrace itself
if it hesitated to give the assistance asked fon [page 44]
Exhibit No. 11
[Source: Excerpts from My Life as A Rebel, by Angelica Balabanoflf, first Secretary of the
Vo"l"i^""'^ I"t<^'"°ational. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York and London :
*******
Soon after the February Revolution the Soviets had issued a proclamation
to the effect that "the time had come to begin a resolute struggle with the
predatory aspirations of the governments of all countries." [page 153]
APPENDIX, PART 1 109
In Russia, at the April meeting of tlie Bolshevik Party, Lenin liad already
railed for a break with the Zimnierwald "Center" and for the immediate organi-
zation of the Third International, [page 154]
5). ***** *
On January 24th Chicherin sent out, by radio, an invitation to an interna-
tional Left iving gathering to be held in Moscow early in March . . . The
manifesto which had been written by Trotsky, ended with the call : "Under
the banner of Workers' Councils, of the revolutionary fight for power and the
(llctarorship of the proletariat, under the bamier of the Third International,
workers of all countries, unite !" [page 209]
^;; * * * SfS * *
I heard that Radek was organizing foreign sections of the "Communist
Party,"' with headquarters in the Commissariat of Foreign Affairs. When I
went there to investigate, I found that this widely heralded achievement was
a fake. The members of these sections were practically all war prisoners in
Russia : most of them had joined the Party recently because of the favour
and privileges which membership involved . . . Radek was grooming them to
return to their native countries, Where they were to "work for the Soviet
Union." [page 210]
*#****»
Most of the thirty-five delegates and fifteen guests had been handpicked
by the Russian Central Committee from so-called "Communist parties" in those
smaller "nations" which had formerly comprised the Russian Empire, such as
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Finland; or they were war prisoners
or foreign radicals who happened to be in Russia at this time . . . the
Socialist Propaganda League of America (made up mostly of Slavic immi-
grants) . . . were represented by a Dutch- American engineer named Rutgers,
[page 213]
*******
The Third International was born ! Immediately after this, Lenin, Trotsky,
Zinoviev, Racovsky, and Flatten were chosen as the members of its first Bureau.
[page 216]
*******
Meeting Trotsky as I was leaving the hall, I bade him good-bye.
"Good-bye? AVhat do you mean?" he asked. "Don't you know that you are
to be the secretary of the International? It has been discussed and Lenin
is of the opinion that no one but you should have this position." [page 217]
* :;: *****
I hardly had time to voice my first objection to Lenin when he inter-
rupted me . . .
"Party discipline exists for you too, dear comrade. The Central Committee
has decided." (When Lenin had decided something before the Central Com-
mittee had ratified his decision, he usually anticipated their action in this
fashion so as to avoid superfluous discussion.)
I knew it would be useless to argue.
When I returned to my hotel a few minutes after this conversation with
Lenin I received the confirmation of my apiwintment by telephone, [page 218]
***** ^ *
I was surprised to find that the topics of discussion at our Executive meet-
ings had so little relation to the work we had been elected to do. (Later,
when I discovered that our meetings were mere formalities and that real
authority rested with a secret Party Committee, I was to understand the
reason for this.) [page 222]
*******
It was the secret Party Committee, not the Comintern Executive, that had
met "informally" and issued statements in my name, [page 224]
********
I knew, of course, that the Bolshevik leaders controlled the International
Executive . . .
The next meeting of the International Executive was to take place in Petrograd
in Zinoviev's magnificent oflices . . . [page 241]
IH) UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It become obvious that the Bolsheviks . . . were concerned only with the
organization in each country of a militarized and miniature Bolshevik Party
completely dominated by and dependent upon Moscow itself, [page 274]
Exhibit No. 12
[Source: A booklet published by the Publishing Office of the Communist International,.
Moscow : 1920 ; and reprinted by the United Communist Party of America]
Workers of the uorld unite!
THESES AND STATUTES OF THE THIRD (COMMUNIST)
INTERNATIONAL
Adopted by the Second Congress July 17th— August 7th, 1920. Publishing
Office of the Communist International, Moscow, 1920. Reprinted by
United Communist Party of America
(To be inserted in the U. C. P. edition of the Theses of the Second Congress
of the Third (Communist) International.)
ERBATA
Theses on the Trade Union Movement :
Page 136, twenty-fifth line from bottom
Instead of: "But the support of the revolutionary trades unions, which are
in a state of ferment and passing over to the class struggle, must not be
neglected" —
This sentence should read: "But the support of the revolutionary trades
unions must not result in an exodus of the communists from the opportunist
unions which are in a state of ferment and are beginning to recognize the class
struggle."
ADDENDUM
Final text of clause 17, of the "Theses on the Fundamental Tasks
of the Communist Interuationar' (see pages 120-121).
§ 17. With regard to the Italian Socialist Party the Second Congress of
the Third International recognizes that the revision of the programme, which
had been last year decided upon by the Party Congress of Bologne, indicates
a milestone along the road of communism and that the proposal which was sub-
mitted to the National Council of the Italian Socialist Party by the Turin
Section of the Party published in the journal "KOrdine Nuovo" (The New
Order) of the 3rd of May, 1920, is in keeping with all the basic principles of
the Third International. The Third International requests that at the next
Congress of the Italian Socialist Party which is to be convened in accordance
with the party regulations and the general rules regarding the affiliation to the
Third International the Italian Socialist Party should discuss these proposals
as well as all the decisions of the two Congresses of the Communists Inter-
national, special attention to be paid to the resolutions on parliamentary frac-
tions, trade unions and the non-communist elements of the party.
Statutes of the Communist International
In London in 1864 was established the first International Association of
Workers, latterly known as the First International. The statute of the Inter-
national Association of Workers reads as follows :
"That the emancipation of the working class to to be attained by the working
class itself;
That the struggle for the emancipation of the working class does not mean
a struggle for class privileges and mnnopolies but a struggle for equal rights
and equal obligations, for the abolition of every kind of class-domination ;
That the economic subjection of the worker under the monoy;)olists of the
means of production, i. e., of the sources of life is the cause of servitude in
APPENDIX, PART 1 m
all its forms, the cause of all social misery, all mental degradation and
liolitical dependence.
Tliat the economic emancipation of the working class is therefore the great
aim which every political movement must be subordinated to;
That all endeavors for this great aim have failed as yet because of the lack
of solidarity between the various branches of industry in all countries, because
of the absence of the fraternal tie of unity between the working classes of
the different countries.
That the emancipation is neither a local nor a national problem but a problem
of a social character embracing every civilized country, the solution of which
depends on the theoretical and practical co-operation of the most progressive
countries ;
That the actual simultaneous revival of the workers' movement in the
industrial countries of Europe, on the one hand, awakens new hopes, while,
on the other hand, it is a solemn warning of the danger of relapse into the
old errors and an appeal for an immediate union of the hitherto disconnected
movement."
The Second International which was established in 18S9 at Paris had under-
taken to continue the work of the First International. In 1914, at the outbreak
of the world slaughter, it suffered a complete failure. Undermined by oppor-
tunism and damaged by the treason of its leaders who had taken the side
of the bourgeoise — the Second International perished.
The Third Communist International which was established in March, 1919,
in the capital of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, in the cit.v
of Mt)scow, solemnly proclaims before the entire world that it takes upon itself
to continue and to complete the great cause begun by the First International
Workers" Association.
The Third Communist International was formed at a moment when the
Imperialist slaughter of 1911-1918, in which the Imperialist bourgeoise of the
various countries had sacrificed twenty million men, came to an end.
Keep in mind the Imperialist war ! This is the first appeal of the Com-
munist International to every toiler wherever he may live and whatever lan-
guage he may speak. Keep in mind that owing to the existence of the capitali-'^t
system a small group of Imperialists had the oijportuuity during four loog
years to compel the workers of various countries to cut each other's throats.
Keep in mind that the bourgeois war has cast Europe and the entire world
into a state of extreme destitution and starvation. Keep in mind that unless
the capitalist system is overthrown the repetition of such criminal war is not
only possible but inevitable.
The Communist International makes its aim to put up an armed struggle
for the overthrow of the International bourgeoisie and to create an Interna-
tional Soviet Republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the
State. The Communist International considers the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat as the only means for the liberation of humanity from the horrors of
capitalism. The Communist International considers the Soviet form of goverii-
ment as the historically evolved form of this dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Imperialist war is responsible for the close union of the fates of the
workers of one country with the fates of the workers of all other countries.
The imperialist was emphasizes once more what is pointed out in the stature
of the First International : that the emancipation of labor is neither a local.
nor as a national task, but one of a social and international character.
The Communist International once for ever breaks with the traiiitions of
the Second International which in reality only recognized the white race. The
Communist International makes it its task to emancipate the workers of the
entire world. The ranks of the Connnunist International fraternally unite
men of all colors : white, yellow, and black — the toilers of the entire world.
The Communist International fully and unreservedly upholds the gains
of the gx'eat proletarian revolution in Russia, the first victorious socialist
revolution in the world's history, and calls upon all workers to follow the same
road. The Communist International makes is its duty to support with all
the power at its disposal every Soviet Republic, wherever it may be formed.
The Communist International is awai-e that for the purpose of a speedy
achievement of victory the International Association of Workers, whicii is
struggling for the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of Communism,
should possess a firm and centralized organization. To all intents and purposes
]. ]^2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the Commiuiist International shonlrt represent a single universal Communist
party, of which the parties operating in every country form individual
sections. The organized apparatus of the Communist International is to
secure to the toilers of every country the possibility at any given moment of
obtaining the maximum of aid from the organized workers of the other
countries.
For this purpose the Communist International confirms the following items
of its statutes :
§ 1. The new International Association of Workers is established for the
purpose of organizing common activity of the workers of various countries
who are striving towards a single aim: the overthrow of capitalism; the
establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of the International
Soviet Republic; the complete abolition of classes, and the realization of
socia/sm — the first step of Communist Society.
§ 2. The new International Association of Workers has been given th.e name
of The Communist International.
§ 3. All the parties and orgnnizations comprising the Conununist Interna-
tional bear the name of the Communist party of the given country (section
of the Communist International).
§ 4. The World Congress of all parties and organizations which form part
of the Communist International, is the supreme organ of this International.
The World Congress confirms the programmes of the various parties com-
prising the Communist International. The World Congress discusses and
decides the more important questions of programme and tactics, which are
connected with the activity of the Communist International. The number
of decisive votes at the World Congress for every party and organization is
determined by a special regulation of the Congress ; it is found necessary to
strive for a speedy establishment of a standard of representation on the
basis of the actual number of the members of the organization and the real
influence of the party in question.
§ 5. The World Congress elects an Executive Committee of the Communist
International which serves as the leading organ of the Communist Interna tioiial
in the interval between the convention of World Congresses, and is respon-
sible only to the World Congress.
§ 6. The residence of the Executive ('ommittee of the ('ommunist Inter-
national is every time decided at the World Congress of the Communist
International.
§ 7. A Special World Congress of the Communist International may be
convened eitli.er by regulation of the Executive Committee, or at the demand
of one-half of the* number of the parties which were part of the Communist
International at the last World Congress.
§ 8. The chief bulk of the work and greatest responsibility in the Executive
Committee of the Communist International lie with the party of that country
where, in keeping with the regulation of the World Congress, the Executive
Committee finds its residence at the time. The party of the country in ques-
tion sends to the Executive Committee not less thtui five members with a
decisive vote. In addition to this, one representative with a decisive vote is
sent to the Comnuniist International from ten or twelve of the largest com-
munist parties. The list of these representatives is to be confirmed by the
Universal Congress of the Communist Interna tional. The remaining parties
and organizations forming part of the Communist International enjoy the
right of sending to the Executive Committee one representative each with a
consultative votei.
§ 9. The Executive Committee is the leading organ of the Communist Inter-
national between the conventions ; the Executive Committee publishes in no
less than four languages the central organ of the Communist International
(the periodical 'The Commimist International"). The Executive Committee
makes the necessary appeals on behalf of the Communist International, and
issues instructions obligatory on all the parties and organizations which form
part of the Communist International. The Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International enjoys the right to demand from the affiliated pa.rties
the exclusion of groups of members who are guilty of the infringement of
international pi-oletarian discipline, as well as the exclusion from the Communist
International of parties guilty of the infringement of the regulations of the
World Congress. In the event of necessity the Executive Connnittee organizes
in various countries its technical and auxiliary bureaus, which are entirely
under the control of the Executive Committee.
APPENDIX, PART 1 113
S 10. The Executive Committee of the Communist International enjoys the
right fo include in its ranlvs representatives of organizations and parties not
accepteil in tlie Communist International, but whicli are sympathetic towards
conunimism ; these are to have a consultative vote only.
§ 11. The organs of all the parties and organizations forming part of the
Communist International as well as of those which are recognized sympathizers
of tiie Communist International, are obliged to publish all official regulations of
the Connnunist International and of its Executive Committee.
§ lli. The general state of things in the whole of Europe and of America
makes it necessary for the conanunists of the wliole world an obligatory forma-
tion of illegal connnunist organizations along wuth those existing legally.
The Executive Connnittee should take charge of the universal application of
this rule.
§ 13. All the most important jiolitical relations between the individual parties
forming part of the Communist Inerniitional will generally be carried on through
the nieilium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. In
oases of exigency direct relations will be established, with the provision, how-
ever, that tiie Executive Connnittee of the Communist International shall be
informed of them at the same time.
§ 14. The Trade Unions that have accepted the Communist platform and
are united on an international scale under the control of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International, form Trade Union Sections of the
Communist International. The Communist Trade Unions send their representa-
tives to the World Congresses of the Communist International through the
medium of the Communist parties of their respective countries. Trade Union
sections of the Comnuinist International delegate a representative with decisive
vote to the Executive Committee of the Communist International. The Execu-
tive Committee of the Communist International enjoys the right of sending
a representative with decisive vote, to the Trade Union section of the Com-
munist International.
§ 15. The International League of Communist Youth is subordinate to the
Communist International and its Executive Committee. One representative of
the PJxecutive Committee of the International League of Communist Youth with
a decisive vote is delegated to the Executive Committee of the Communist
International. The Executive Connnittee of the Communist International, on the
other hand, enjoys the right of sending a representative with a decisive vote
to the Executive organ of tlie International League of Youth. Organization
relations between the League of Youth and the Communist party are basically
defined in every country after the same system.
S 10. The Executive Committee of the Communist International confirms
the Interna tiorial Secretary of the Communist Women's Movement, and organizes
a women's section of the Communist International.
S 17. In case a member of the Communist International goes to another
country, he is to have the fraternal support of the local members of the
Third Interna tional.
The Fundamental Tasks of the CommunIvST International
theses adopted by the second congress
1. A characteristic feature of the present moment in the development of the
international Communist niovement is the fact that in all the capitalist coun-
tries the best representatives of the revolutionary proletariat have completely
understood the fundamental principles of the Communist International, namely,
the dictatorship of the proletariat and the power of the Soviets; and with a
loyal enthusiasm have placed themselves on the side of the Communist Interna-
tional. A still more important and great step forward is the unlimited sym-
pathy with these principles manifested by the wider masses not only of the
proletariat of the towns, but also by the advanced portion of the agrarian
workers.
On the other hand two mistakes or weaknesses in the extraordinarily rapidly
increasing international Communist movement have shown themselves. One
very serious weakness directly dangerous to the success of the cause of the
liberation of the proletariat consists in the fact that some of the old leaders
and old parties of the Second International— partly half-unconsciously yielding
to the wishes and pressure of the masses, party consciously deceiving them in
ordei' to preserve their former role of agents and supporters of the bom-geoisie
94931 — 40 — a pp.. pt. 1 9
114 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
inside tlie Labor movement — are declaring tlieir conditional or even uiicdijcli-
tioual affiliation to the Third International, while remaining-, in reality, in the
whole practice of their party and political work, on the level of the Second
International. Snch a state of things is absolutel.v inadmissible, because it
demoralizes the masses, hinders the development of u strong Commnnist Party,
and lowers their respect for the Third International by threatening repetition
of such betrayals as that of the Hungarian Social-Democrats, who had rapidly
assumed the disguise of Communists. The second much less important mistake.
which is, for the most part, a malady inherent in the paity growth nf the
movement, is the tendency to be extremely "left." which leads to an erroneous
valution of the role and duties of the party in respect to the class and lo the
mass, and of the obligation of the revolutionary Communists to work in the
bourgeois parliaments and reactionary labor unions.
The duty of the Communists is not to gloss over any of the weaknesse>« of
'.heir movement, but to criticize them openly, in order to get rid of them
promptly and radically. To this end it is necessary, 1) to establish concretely,
especially on the basis of the already acquired practical experience, the meaning
of the terms: "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" and "Soviet Po^wer", and, 2
to point out what could and should be in all countries the immediate and sys-
tematic preparatory work to realizing these formulas; and. 3) to indiear*- the
ways and means of curing our movement of its defects.
I. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROlKTAKlAT AND OF THE SOVIBl'
POWER
2. The victory of Socialism over Capitalism — as the fii-st step to Cummu-
iiism — demands the accomplishment of the three following tasks by the prole-
tariat, as the only really revolutionary class :
The first task is to lay low the exploiters, and above all the bourgeoisie as
their chief economic and political representative : to defeat them completely : to
crush their resistance; to render impossible any attempts on their part to veini-
pose the yoke of capitalism and wage-slavery.
The second is to inspire and lead in the footsteps of the revolutionary advance
guai'd of the proletariat, its Communist party — not only the whole proletariat
or the great majority, but the entire mass of workers and those exploited )>y
capital ; to enlighten, organize, instruct, and discipline them during the course
of the bold and mercilessly firm struggle against the ex])loiters; to wrench this
enormous majority of the population in all the capitalist countries out of their
state of dependence on the bourgeoisies; to instill in them, through practical
experience, confidence in the leading role of the proletariat and its revolutionary
advance guard. The third is to neutralize or render harmless the inevitable
lluctuations between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, between bourgeois
democracy and Soviet Power, on the part of that rather numerous class in all
advanced countries — although constituting a minority of the population — the
small owners and proprietors in agriculture, industry, connnerce, and the cor-
responding layers of intellectuals, employees, and so on.
The first and second tasks are independent ones, demanding each of them
their special methods of action in respect to the exploiters and to the exploited.
The third task results from the two first, demanding only a skilful, timely,
supple combination of the methods of the first and second kind, depending on
the concrete circumstances of each separate case of fluctuation.
3. Under the circumstances which have been created in the whole world, and
especiall.^■ in the most advanced, most powerful, most eidightened and freest
capitalist countries by militarist imperialism — oppression of colonies and
weaker nations, the universal imperialist slaughter, the "peace" of Versailles —
to admit the idea of a voluntary submission of the capitalists to the will of the
majority of the exploited, of a peaceful, reformist iiassage to Socialism, is not
only to give proof of an extreme petty bourgeois stupidity, but it is a direct
deception of the workmen, a disguisal of capitalist wage-slavery, a concealment
of the truth. This truth is that the bourgeoisie, the most enlightened and dem-
ocratic portion of the bourgeoisie, is even now not stopping at deceit and crime,
at the slaughter of millions of workmen and ])easants, in order to retain the
right of private ownership over the means of prodiK'tion. Oidy a violent defeat
of the iKmrgeoisie, the confiscation of its propert.v, the annihilation of the
entire bourgeois governmental apparatus, parliamentary, judicial, military,
bureaucratic, administrative, municipal, etc., even the individual exile or in-
ternment of the most stubborn and dangerous exploiters, the establishment of
APPENDIX, PART 1 115
a strict control over them for the repression of all inevitable attempts at re-
sistance and restoration of capitalist slavery— only such measures will be able to
guarantee the complete submission of the whole class of exploiters.
On the other hand, it is the same disguising of capitalism and bourgeois
democracy, the same deceiving of the workmen, when the old parties and old
leaders of the Second International admit the idea that the majority of the
workers and exploited will be able to acquire a clear Socialist consciousness,
firm Socialifst convictions and character under the conditions of capitalist
enslavement, under the yoke of the bourgeoisie, which assumes an endless
variety of forms — the more refined and at the same time the more cruel and
pitiless, the nwjre cultured the given capitalist nation. In reality it is only
when the advance guard of the proletariat, supported by the whole class as the
only revolutionary one, or a majority of the same, will have overthrown the
exploiters, crushed them, freed all the exploited from their position of slaves,
improved their conditions of life immediately at the expense of the expropriated
capitalists — ttnly after that, and during the very course of the acute class strug-
gle, it will be iwssible to bring about the enlightenment, education and organ-
ization of the widest masses of workers and exploited around the proletariat,
under its influence and direction ; to cure them of their egotism, their non-soli-
darity, their vic-es and weaknesses engendered by private ownership, and to
transform them into free workers.
4. For victory over capitalism a correct correlation between the leading
Communist Party — the revolutionary class, the proletariat — and the masses,
i. e.. the whole mass of workers and exploited, is essential. If the <Jon>munist
Party is really the advance guard of the revolutionary class, if it includes the
best representatives of the class, if it consists of perfectly conscious and loyal
Communists, enlightened by experience gained in the stubborn revolutionary
struggle — if it can be bound indissolubly with the entire life of its class, and
thiough the latter with the whole mass of the exploited, and if it can inspire
full confidence in this class and this mass, only then is it capable of leading the
proletariat in the pitiless, decisive, and final struggle against all the forces of
capitalism. On the other hand, only under the leadership of such a Party will
the proletariat be able to employ all the force of its I'evolutionary onslaught,
nullifying the inevitable apathy and partial resistance of the insignificant mi-
nority of the demoralized labor aristocracy, the old trade-union and guild
leaders, etc. Only then will the proletariat be able to display its power whicli
is inmaeasurably greater than its share in the population, by reason of the
economic organization of capitalist society itself. Lastly, only when practically
freed from the yoke of the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois governing apparatus,
only after acquiring the possibility of freely (from all capitalist exploitation ►
oi-ganizing into its own Soviets, will the mass — i. e., the total of all the workei-)^
and exploited — employ for the first time in history all the initiative and energy
of tens of millions of people, formerly crushed by capitalism. Only when the
Soviets will become the only State apparatus, will effectual participation in the
administration be realized for the entire mass of the exploited, who, even under
the most cultured and free bourgeois democracy, remain practically excluded
from participation in the administration. Only in the Soviets does the mass
really begin to study, not out of books, but out of its own practical exijerience,
the work of Socialist construction, the creation of a new social discipline, a free
union of free workers.
II. IN WHAT SHOULD THE IMMEDIATE PKEPARATION FOR DICTATORSHIP OF THE
PROLETARIAT CONSIST ?
5. Tlie present moment in the development of the International Communist
movement is characterized by the fact that in a great majority of capitalist
countries the preparation of the proletariat or the realization of its dictator-
ship is not yet completed — very often it has not even been begun systemati-
cally. It does not follow that the proletarian revolution is not possible, for the
economic and political situation is extraordinarily rich in inflammable mate-
rial which may cause a .sudden flame: the other condition for a revolution,
besides the preparedness of the proletariat, namely, the general state of crisis
in all the ruling and all the bourgeois pai-ties. is also at hand. But \t follows
from the above that for the moment the duty of the Comnuinist Parties consist.*;
in accelerating the vevolution, without provoking it artificially until sufficient
preparation has been made; such preparation is to be carried on and empha-
sized by revolutionary activity. On the other hand, the above instance in the
\IQ UN-AMERIGAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
history of mauy Socialist parties draws our attention to the fact, that the
"recognition" of the dictatorship of the proletariat should not remain only
verbal.
Therefore the principal duty of the Communist Parties, from the point of
view of an international proletarian movement, is at the present moment the
uniting of the dispersed Communist forces, the formation in each country of
a single Communist Party (or the strengthening and renovation of the already
existing one) in order to perform the work of preparing the proletariat for
the conquest of the governing power, and especially for the acquisition of power
under the form of a dictatorship of the groups and parties that recognize the-
'dictatorship of the proletariat. This work has not been sufficiently subjected
to the radical reformation, the radical renovation, which ai-p necessary for it
to be recognized as Communist work, and as corresponding to the tasks on
the eve of proletarian dictatorship.
v6. The conquest of political power by the proletariat does not put a stop to
its class struggle against the bourgeoisie ; on the contrary, it makes the struggle
especially broad, acute, and pitiless. All the groups, pai'ties, leaders of the
Labor movement, fully or partially on the side of reformism, the "center,"
and so on, turn inevitably, during the most acute periods of the struggle, either
to the side of the bourgeoisie or to that of the wmvering ones, and the most
dangerous are added to the number of the unreliable friends of the vanciuished
proletariat. Therefore the preparation of the dictatorship of the prolcrariat
■demands not only an increased struggle against all reformists and "'centrist"
tendencies, but a modification of the nature of this struggle.
The struggle should not be limited to an explanation of the fallacy of ^nch
tendencies, but it should stulibornly and mercilessly denounce any leader in the
Labor movement who may be manifesring such tendencies, otherwise the ])ro-
letariat will not know whom it must trust in the n\ost decisive struggle
against the bourgeoisie. The struggle is such, that the slightest hesitation or
weakness in the denunciation of those who show themselves to be reformists
or "centrists," means a direct increase of the danger that the power of the
proletariat may be overthrown by the liourgeoisie, which will on the morrow
utilize in favor of the counter-revolution all that which to short-sighted people
appears only as a "theoretical difference of opinion" to-day.
7. In particular one cannot stop at the usual doctrinaire refutation of all
"'collaboration" between the proletariat and the hourgeoisie:
The simple defense of "liberty and equality," under the condition of preserving
the right of i>rivate ownership of the means of production, becomes transformed
under the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat — which will never
be able to suppress completely all private ownershii) — into a "collaboration "
with the bourgeoisie, v.'hich undermines directly the power of the working class.
The dictatorship of the proletariat means the strengthening and defense, by
means of the ruling power of the State, of the "non-liberty" of the exploiter
to continue his work of oppression and exploitation, the "inequality" of the
proprietor (i. e., of the person who has taken for himself personally the means
•of production created by public labor and the proletariat). That which before
the victory of the proletariat seems but a theoretical difference of opinion on
the question of "democracy," becomes inevitably on the morrow of the victoi'y,
ji question which can only be decided by force of arms. Consequently, without
a radical modification of the whole nature of the struggle against the "centrists"
and "defenders of democracy," even a preliminary preparation of the mass for
the realization of a dictatorship of the proletariat is impossible.
8. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the most decisive and revolution-
ary form of class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Such
a struggle can be successful only when the revolutionary advance guard of
the proletariat leads the majority. The preparation of the dictatorship of
the proletariat demands, therefore, not only the elucidation of the bourgeois
nature of all reformism, all defense of "democracy," with the preservation of
the right to the ownership of the means of production ; not only the denunci-
ation of such tendencies, which in practice mean the defense of the bourgeoisie
inside the Labor movement — but it demands also the replacing of the old
leaders by Communi.sts in all kinds of proletarian organizations, not only
political, but industrial, co-operative, educational, etc. The more lasting, com-
plete, and solid the rule of the bourgeois democracy has been in any country,
the more has it been possible for the bourgeoisie to apixtint as labor leaders
men who have been educated by it, imbued with its views and prejudices and
very frequently directly or indirectly bribed by it. It is necessary to remove
APPENDIX, PART 1 H^
Jill these representatives of the Labor aristocracy, all such "bourgeois" work-
men, from their posts and replace them by even inexperienced workers, so
long as these are in unity with the exploited masses, and enjoy tlie latter's
confidence in the struggle against the exploiters. The dictatorship of the pro-
letariat will demand the appointment of such inexperienced workmen to the
most responsible State functions, otlierwise the rule of the Labor government
will be powerless and it will not have the support of the masses.
9. The dictatorsliip of the proletariat is the most complete realization of a
leadership over all workers and exploited, who have been oppressed, beaten
down, crushed, intimidated, disi>ersed, deceived by the class of capitalists, oa
the part of the only class prepared for such a leading role by the whole his-
tory of capitalism. Therefore the preparation of the dictatorship of the
proletariat must begin immediately and in all places by means of the following
methods among others :
In every organization, vniion, association — beginning with the proletarian ones-
at first, and afterwards in all those of the non-proletarian workers and ex-
ploited masses (political, pi'ofessional, military, co-operative, educational,
sporting, etc., etc.) must be formed groups or nuclei of Communists — mostly
open ones, but also secret ones which become necessary in each case when the
arrest or exile of their juembers or the dispersal of their' organization is
threatened ; and these nuclei, in close contact with one another and with the
central Party, exchanging experiences, carrying on the work of propaganda,
campaign, organization, adapting themselves to all the branches of social life,
to all the various forms and subdivisions of the working masses, must syste-
matically train themselves, the Party, the class, and the masses by such
multiform work.
At the same time it is most important to work out practically the necessary
methods on the one hand in respect to the "leaders" or responsible repre-
sentatives, who are very frequently hopelessly infected with petty bourgeois
and imperialist prejudices : on the other hand, in respect to the masses, who.
especially after the imperialist slaughter, are mostly inclined to listen to and
accept the doctrine of the necessity of leadership of the proletariat as the
only way out of capitalistic enslavement. The masses must be approached
with patience and caution, and with an understanding of the peculiarities, the-
special psychology of each layer, each profession of these masses.
10. In particular one of the groups or nuclei of the Communists deserves
tJie exclusive attention and care of the party, namely, the parliamentary fac-
tion, i. e., the group of members of the Party who are members of bourgeois
representative institutions (first of all state institutions, then local, municipal,
and others). On the one hand, such a tribune has a special importance in the
eyes of the wider circles of the backward or prejudiced working masses;
therefore, from this very tribune, the Communists must carry on their work
of propaganda, agitation, organization, explaining to the masses why the
dissolution of the bourgeois parliament (Constituent Assembly) by the national
Congress of Soviets was a legitimate proceeding at the time in Russia (as it
will be in all countries in due time). On the other hand, the whole history
of bourgeois democracy has made the parliamentary tribune, e.specially in the
more advanced countries, the chief or one of the chief means of unbelievable
fijiancial and political swindles, the means of making a career out of hypocrisy
and oppression of the workers. Therefore the deep hatred against all parlia-
ments in the revohitionary proletariat is perfectly justified. Therefore the
Communist Parties, and all parties adhering to the Third International, espe-
cially in cases when such parties have been formed not by means of a division
in the old parties and after a long stubborn struggle against them, but by
means of tiie old parties passing over (often nominally) to a new position,,
must be very strict in their attitude towards their parliamentary factions,
demanding their complete subordination to the control and the direction of the
Central Committee of the party; the inclusion in them chiefly of revolutionary
workmen; the carrying out at Party meetings of a most intensive analysis of
the Party press and of the parliamentary speeches, from the point of view of
their Communist integrity ; detailing of parliament members for propaganda
among the masses ; the exclusion from such groups of all those who show a
tendency towards the Second International, and so forth.
11. One of the chief causes of difficiilty in the revolutionary Labor movement
in the advanced capitalist countries lies in the fact that owing to colonial
dominions and super-dividends of a financial capital, etc., capital has been able to
attract a comparatively more solid and broader group of a small minority of the
ll^ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
labor aristocracy. The latter enjoy better conditions of pay and are most of all
impregnated with the spirit of ijrofessional narrow-mindedness, bonrgeois and
imperialist prejndices. This is the true social '"support" of the Second Inter-
national reformists and centrists, and at the present moment almost the chief
social support of the bourgeoisie.
Not even preliminary preparation of the proletariat for the overthrow of tlie
bourgeoisie is possible without an immediate, systematic, widely organized and
open struggle against the group which undoubtedly — as experience has already
proved — will furnish plenty of men for the White (iuards of the hourgfoisie after
the victory of the proletariat. All the parlies adhering to the Third International
must at all costs put into practice tlie mottoes: "deeper into the masses," "in
closer contact with tln^ masses," understanding by the word "masses" the entire
mass of workers and those exploited by tapitalism, especially the less organized
and enlightened, the most oppressed and less adaptable to organization.
The proletariat becomes revolutionary in so far as it is not enclo-^ed within
narrow guild limits, in so far as it participates in all the events and branches
of public life, as a leader of the whole working and exploited mass ; and it is
completely impossible for it to realize its dictatorship unless it is ready for and
capable of doing everything for the victory over the boiugeoisie. The experience
of Russia in this resi)ect has a theoretical and practical importance; where the
proletariat could not have realized its dictatorship, nor acciuired the respect and
confidence of the whole working mass, if it had not borne most of the sacrifices
and had not suffered from hunger more than all tlu- other groups in this mass,
during the most difhcult moments of the onslaught, war and blockade on the part
of the imiversal bourgeoisie.
In particular it is necessary for the Conmnmist Parly and the whole advanced
proletariat to give the most absolute and self-denying support to all the masses
for a larger general strike movement, which is alone able under the yoke of
capitalism to awaken jiroperly. arouse, enlighten, and organize the masses, and
develop in them a full c(infi(lence in the leading role of the revolutionary pro-
letariat. Without such a preparation no dictatorship of the proletariat will be
possible, and those who are capable of preaching against strik<'s. like Kautsky
in Germany. Turati in Italy, are not to l)e suffered in the ranks of parties adhering
to the Third International. This concerns still more, naturally, such trade-union
and parliamentary leaders, as often betray the the worklngmen l»y teaching them
to make the strike an instrument of reform and not of revolution (Jouhaux in
France. Gompers in America, and Thomas in England.)
12. For all countries, even for most free "legal" and "peaceful" ones in the sense
of a lesser acuteness in the class struggle, the period has arrived, when it has
become absolutely necessary for every Communist party to join systematically
lawful and unlawful work, lawful and unlawful organization.
In the most enlightened and fi'ee countries, with a most "solid bourgeois-
democratic regime, the governments are systematically recurring, in spite of
their false and hypocritical assurances, to the method of keeping secret lists of
Communists: to endless violations of their constitutions f<ir the semi-secret sup-
port of White Guards and the murder of Communists in all countries; to .secret
preparations for the arrest of Communists: the introduction of provocateurs
among the Communists, etc. Only the most reactionary petty bourgeoisie, by
whatever high-sounding "democratic" or pacifist phrases it might disguise its
ideas, can dispute this fact or the necessary conclusion ; an immediate formation
by all lawful Communist parties of unlawful organizations for systematic unlawful
work, for their complete preijaration at any moment to thwart any steps on the
part of the bourgeoisie. It is especially necessary to carry on unlawful work in
the army. navy, and police, as, after the imperialist slaughter, all the govern-
ments in the world are becoming afraid of the national armies, open to all
peasants and workingmen. and they are .<etting up in secret all kinds of select
military organizations recruited from the bourgeoisie and especially provided with
Improved technical equipment.
On the other hand, it is also necessary, in all cases without exception, not
to limit oneself to unlawful work, but to carry on also lawful work over-
coming all diflSculties, founding a lawful press and lawful organizations under
the most diverse, and in case of need, frequently changing names. This is
now being done by the illegal Communist parties in Finland, in part in
Germany, Poland, Latvia, etc. It is thus that the I. W. W. in America should
act. as well as all the lawful Communist parties at present, in ca.se prosecutors
start prosecutions on the basis of resolutions of the congresses of the Com-
munist International, etc
APPENDIX, PART 1 119
The absolute necessity of the principle of unlawful and lawful work is
determined not only by the total aggregate of all the peculiarities of the
given movement, on the very eve of a proletarian dictatorship, but by the neces-
sity of proving to the bourgeoisie, that there is not and can not be any branch
of the work of which the Communists have not possessed themselves, and
still more by the fact that everywhere there are still wide circles of the
proletariat and greater ones of the non-proletarian workers and exploited
masses, which still trust in the bourgeois democracy, the discussion of which
is our most important duty.
13. In particular, the situation of the Labor press in the more advanced
capitalist countries shows with special force both the falsity of liberty and
equality under the bourgeois democracy, and the necessity of a systematic
blending of the lawful and unlawful work. Both in vanquished Germany
and in victorious America all the powers of the governmental apparatus
of the bourgeoisie, and all the tricks of its financial kings are being set
in motion in order to deprive the workingmen of their press; prosecutions
and arrests (or murber by means of hired murderers) of the editors, denial
of mailing privilege, curtailing of paper supply, etc. Moreover, the informa-
tion necessary for a daily paper is in the hands of bourgeois telegraph
agencies, and the advertisements, without which a large paper cannot pay
its way, are at the "free" disposal of capitalists. On the whole, by means
of deception, the pressure of capital, and the bourgeois government, the
bourgeoisie deprives the revolutionary proletariat of its press.
For the struggle against this state of things the Communist parties must
create a new type of periodical press for extensive circulation among the
workmen :
1) Lawful publications, in which the Communists without calling themselves
such and without mentioning their connection with the party, learn to utilize
the slightest liberty allowed by the laws, as the Bolsheviks did at the "time
of the Tsar," after 1905.
2) Illegal sheets, although of the smallest dimensions and irregularly pub-
lished, but reproduced in most of the printing offices by the workingmen (in
secret, or if the movement has grown stronger, by means of a revolutionary
.seizure of the printing offices) giving the proletariat imdiluted revolutionary
information and the revolutionary mottoes.
Without a Communist press the preparation for the dictatorship of the
proletariat is impossible.
III. THE .\MENDMBNT OF THE POLICY— PARTLY ALSO OF THE MAKE-UP — OF THE PARTIKS
ADHERING OR WILLING TO ADHERE TO THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
14. The degree of preparedness of the proletariat to carry out its dictator-
ship, in the countries most important from the view-point of world economics
and world politics, is manifested most objectively and precisely by the fact
that the most influential parties of the Second International, the French
Socialist Party, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, the
Independent Labor Party of England, the American Socialist Party, have
gone out of this yellow International and have passed resolutions to join the
Third International, the first three con-resolutions to join the Third Inter-
national, all, however, making certain reservations. This proves that not only
the advance guard but the majority of the proletariat has begun to pass
over to our side, persuaded thereto by the whole course of events. The chief
thing now is to know how to complete this passage and solidly, structurally
strengthen it, so as to be able to advance along the whole line, without the
slightest hesitation.
1.5. The whole activity of the above-mentioned parties (to which must be added
the Swiss Socialist Party if the telegraphic reports regarding its resolution to
join the Third International are correct) proves — and any given periodical paper
of tliese parties confirms it — that they are not Comtminist as yet, and frequently
even are in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of the Third Interna-
tional, namely: the rpoognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and of
♦Soviet iiower instead of the bourgeois democracy.
Therefore the Second Congress of the Communist International should announce
that it does not consider it possible to receive these parties immediately ; that
it confirms the answer of the Executive Committee of the Third International
to the German Independents ; that it confirms its readiness to carry on negotia-
tions with any party leaving the Second International and desiring to join the
120 UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Third ; that it reserves the right of a consultative vote to the delegate of such
parties at all its congresses and conferences, and that it proposes the following
conditions for a complete union of these (and similar) parties with the Com-
munist International.
1.) The publishing of all the resolutions passed by all the congress of the
party for the weeding out of all elements that Committee, in all the periodical
publications of the party.
2.) Their discussion at the special meetings of all sections and local organiza-
tions of the party.
3.) The convocation, after such a discussion, of a special congress of the party
for the weeding out of all elements which continue to act in the spirit of the
Second International. Such a congress is to be called together as soon as possible
within a period of four months at most foliov/ing the Second Congress.
4.) Expulsion from the party of all members who persist in their adlierence
to the Second International.
5.) The transfer of all periodical papers of tlie party into the hands of
Communist editors.
6.) The parties wishing to join the Third International but which have not
yet radically changed their old tactics, must above all take care that two-thirds
of their Central Conunittee and of their chief central institutions consist of such
comrades as have declared their adherence to a party of the Third International
before the Second Congress. Exceptions can be made only with the sanction
of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. The E. C. also
reserves the right of making exceptions with regard to the rejiresentatives of the
"centrist" movement mentioned in paragraph 7.
7.) Members of the party who repudiate the conditions and theses adopted by
the Communist International must be excluded from the Party. The same ap-
plies to delegates of special congresses. The Second Congress of the Third
Intern, must charge its Executive Committee to adnu"t the above-named and
similar parties into the Third International after a preliminary verification that
all these conditions have been fulfilled, and that the nature of the activity of the
party has become Conmiunist.
16. In regard to the question as to what must be the line of conduct of the
Communists at present constituting the minority at the responsible posts of the
above-named and similar parties, the Second Congress of the Third International
should establish, that, in view of the rapid progress of the actual revolutionarv
spirit among the workingmeTi belonging to these parties it would be undesirable
for the Communists to leave the parties, so long as they are able to carry on
their work within the parties in the spirit of a lecognition of the dictatorship
of the proletariat and of the criticism of all opportunists and centrists still
remaining in these parties.
When the left wing of the centre party becomes sufficiently strong, it can-
provided it considers it beneficial for the development of Communism— leave the
party in a body and inaugurate a Communist Party.
At the same time the Second Congress of the Third International must declare
itself in favor of the joining of Connnunist Party, and the groups and organiza-
tions sympathizing with Communism in England, joining the Labor Party, not-
withstanding the circumstance that this party is a member of the Second
International. The reason of this is that so long as this party will allow all
constituent organizations their present freedom of criticism and freedom of
propaganda, and organizing activity in favor of the dictatorship of the proletariat
and the power of Soviets, so long as this party preserves its principle of uniting
all the industrial organizations of the working class, the Connnunists ought to
take all measures and even consent to certain compromises, in order to be able
to exercise an influence over the wider circles of workingmen and the masses,
to denounce their opportunist leaders from a higher tribune, to accelerate the
transfer of the political power from the direct representatives of the bourgeoise
to the "Labor lieutenants of the capitalist class," so that the masses may be
more rapidly cured of all illusions on this subject.
17. In regard to the Italian Socialist Party, the Second Congress of the Third
International considers as perfectly correct the criticism of tliis Party and the
practical propositions which are stated, as propositions to the District Council
of the Italian Socialist Party on behalf of the Turin section of this Party in
the paper "New Order" (L'Ordine Nnovo) dated May 8th, 1920, and which
completely corresponds with the fundamental principles of the Third Inter-
national.
APPENDIX, PART 1 X21
Therefore the Second Congress of the Third International requests the Italian
Socialist Party to convene an extraordinary congress of the party for the dis-
cussion of these propositions and the resolutions of both congresses of the
Commnnist International, especially with regard to the parliamentary fraction,
lo the non-communist elements in the party, and concerning the tactics in the
trade unions.
18. The Second Congress of the Third International considers as not correct
Ihe views regarding the relations of the Party to the class and to the masses,
and the non-iiarricipation of the Communist Parties in the bourgeois parlia-
ments and reactionary Labor unions, whicli have been emphatically repudiated
in the special re,solutions of the present congress, and defended in full by the
'Communist Labor P;>rty of Germany" and also partially by the "Comnnmist
Parly of Switzerland," by the organ of the West European secretariat of the
< 'ommunist International "CommunisniTis" in Amsterdam, and by several of our
Dutch comrades: further by certain Communist organizations in England, as
for instances "The Workers' Socialist Federation," also by the "I. W. W." in
America, the '"Shop Steward Committees" in England, and so forth,
Nevertlieless the Second Congress of the Third International considers pos-
sible and desirable the iunnediate afriliation of such of these organizations as
have not already d(me so ollicially, because, in the given case, especially as
regards the I. W. W. of America and Australia, and the "Shop Steward Com-
mittees of England, we have to deal with a genuinely proletarian mass move-
ment, which practically adheres to the principles of the Communist Interna-
tional. In such organizations any mistaken views on the question of partici-
pation in the bourgeois parliaments, are to be explained not so much on the
theory that they are members of the bourgeoisie advocating their own petty
bourge<ns vievrs, as the views of the Anarchists frequently are, but on the
theory of the political inexjierience of the proletarians, who are, nevertheless,
completely revolutionary and in contact with the masses.
The Second Congress of the Third International requests, therefore, all
Communist organizations and groups in the Anglo-Saxon countries, even in
case immediate union between the Third International and the "Industrial
Workers of the World" and the "Shf)p Steward Committees" does not take place,
to carry on a polic.v of the most friendly attitude toward these organizations,
to eater into closer connection with them, to explain to them in a friendly way,
from the point of view of all revolutions and the three Russian revolutions in
the Twentieth Centttry especially, the fallac.v of their above-stated views, and
not to desist from repeated attempts to become united with these organiza-
tions so as to form one Communist Party.
19. In connection with this the Congress draws the attention of all com-
rades, especially in the Latin and AngloSaxon countries to the fact that
among the Anarchists since the war all over the world a deep ideological
schism is taking jjlace iipon the question of thei rattitude towards the dictator-
ship of the proletariat and the power of Soviets. And it is just among the
proletarian elements, which were frequently led into anarchism by their per-
fectly justified hatred of the opportunism and reformism of the parties of
the Second International, that there is to be noticed a perfectl.v correct ttnder-
standing of these principles, especially among those who are more nearly
acqtiainted with the experience of Russia, Finland. Hungary, Lettland, Poland,
and Germany.
The Congress considers it the duty of all comrades to sitpport by all measures
all the masses of proletarian elements passing from Anarchism to the Third
International. The Congress points out that the success of the work of the truly
Communist Parties otight to be measured, among other tbing.s, by how far they
have been able to attract to their party all the uneducated, not petty-botirgeois,
but proletarian masses from Anarchism.
Conditions or Admission to the Communist International
The First Constituent Congress of the Communist International did not draw
up precise conditions of admission to the Third International.
At the moment of the convocation of the First Congress in the majority of
countries only Communist currents and groups existed.
The Second World Congress of the Communist International is convening under
different conditions. At the present moment in most countries there are not only
Communist tendencies and groups but Communist parties and organizations.
122 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Commumst International more and more frequently receives applications
from parties and groups but a short time ago belonging to the Second Inter-
national, now desirous of poining the Third International, but not yet really
communist. The Second International is completely broken. Seeing the com-
plete helplessness of the Second International the intermediary faction and the
groups of the "centre" are trying to lean on the ever strengthening Communist
International hoping at the same time, however, to preserve a certain "autonomy"
which should enable them to carry on their former opportunist or "centrist"
policy. The Communist International has become the fashion.
The desire of certain leading groups of the "centre" to join the Third Inter-
national now is an indirect confirmation of the fact that the majority of conscious
workers of the whole world is growing stronger every day.
The Communist International is being threatened with the danger of dilution
with the fluctuating and half-and-half groups which have as yet not abandoned
the ideaology of the Second International.
It must be mentioned that in some of the large parties (Italy, Norway, Jugo-
slavia, etc.), the majority of which adhere to the point of view of Commnni.sm,
there is up to this moment a considerable reformist and social pacifist wing,
which is only awaiting the moment to revive and to begin an active "sabotage" of
the proletarian revolution, and thus assist the bourgeoisie and the Second
International.
No Communist should forget the lesson of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
The unity between the Hungarian Communists and the so-called Left Social
Democrats cost the Hungarian Proletariat very dearly.
In view of this the Second World Congress finds it necessary to establish
most definite conditions for the joining of new parties, as well as to ix)int out to
such parties as have already joined the Communist International the duties
which are laid upon them.
The Second Congress of the Commumst International rules that the condi-
tions for joining the Communist International shall be as follows :
1. The general propaganda and agitation shoxild bear a really Communist
character, and should correspond to the programme and decisions of the Third
International. The entire party press should be edited by reliable Communists
who have proved their loyalty to the cause of the Proletarian revolution. The
dictatorship of the proletariat should not be spoken of simply as a current hack-
neyed formula, it should be advocated in such a way that its necessity should be
apparent to every rank-and-file working man and woman, to each soldier and
peasant, and should emanate from everyday facts systematically recorded !iy our
press day by day.
All periodicals and other publications, as well as all party publications and
editions, are subject to the control of the presidium of the party, independently
of whether the party is legal or illegal. The editors should in no way be given
an opportunity to abuse their autonomy and carry on a policy not fully
corresponding to the policy of the party.
Wherever the followers of the Third International have access, and whatever
means of propaganda are at their disposal, whether the columns of new.>:papers,
popular meetings, labor imions or co-operatives, — it is indispensable for them
not only to denounce the bourgeoisie, but also its assistants and agent.s —
reformists of every color and shade.
2. Every organization desiring to join the Communist International shall
be bound systematically and regailarly to remove from all the responsible posts
in the labor movement (Party organizations, editors, labor unions, parliamentary
factions, co-operatives, municipalities, etc.), all reformists and followers of the
"centre," and to have them replaced by Communists, even at the cost of replacing
at the beginning "experienced" men by rank-and-file working men.
3. The class struggle in almost every country of Europe and America is enter-
ing the phase of civil war. Under such conditions the Communists can have no
confidence in bourgeois laws. Tliey should create everywhere a parallel illegal
apparatus, which at the decisive moment should do its duty by the party, and in
every way possible assist the revolution. In every country where in consequence
of martial law or of other exceptional laws, the Communists are unable to carry
on their work lawfully, a combination of lawful and unlawful work is absolutely
necessary.
4. A persistent and systematic propaganda and agitation is necessary in the
army, where Communist groups should be formed in every military organizarion.
Wherever, owing to repressive legislation, agitation becomes impossible, it is neces-
sary to carry on such agitation illegally. But refusal to carry on or participate
APPENDIX, PART 1 123
in such work shoiikl be considered equal to treason to the revolutionary rause,
and incompatible with affiliation with the Third International.
5. A systematic and regular propaganda is necessary in the rural districts.
The working class can gain no victory unless it possesses the sympathy and
support of at least part of the rural workers and of the poor peasants, and
unless other sections of the population are equally utilized. Communist work in
the rui'al districts is acquiring a predominant importance during the present
period. It shotdd be carried on through Communist workingmen of both city
and country who have connections with the rural districts. To refuse to do this
work, or to transfer such work to untrustworthy half reformists, is equal to
renouncing the proletarian revolution.
6. Every party desirous of affiliating with the Third International should re-
nounce not only avowed social patriotism, but also the falsehood and the hypoc-
risy of social pacifism ; it should systematically demonstrate to the workers that
without a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism no international arbitration, no
talk of disarmament, no democratic reorganization of the League of Nations
will he capable of saving mankind from new Imperialist wars.
7. Parties desirous of joining the Communist International must recognize
the necessity of a complete and absolute rupture with reformism and the
policy of the "centrists," and must advocate this rupture amongst the widest
circles of the party membership, without which condition a consistent Ccrm-
munist policy is impossible. The Communist International demands uncon-
ditionally and peremptorily that such rupture be brought about with the least
possible delay. The Communist International cannot reconcile itself to the
fact that such avowed reformists as for instance Tiirati, Modigliani, Kautsky,
Hillquit, Longuet, Macdonald and others should be entitled to consider them-
selves members of the Third International. This would make the Third
International resemble the Second International.
8. In the Colonial question and that of the oppressed nationalities there is
necessary an especially distinct and clear line of conduct of the parties of
countries where the boui'geoisie possesses such colonies or oppresses other
nationalities. Evei'y party desirous of belonging to the Third International
should be bound to denounce without any reserve all the methods of "its own"
imperialists in the colonies, supporting not only in words but practically a
movement of liberation in the colonies. It should demand the expulsion of its
o'wn Imperialists from such colonies, and cultivate among the workingmen
of its own country a truly fraternal attitude towards the working population
of the colonies and oppressed nationalities, and carry on a systematic agitation
in its own army against every kind of oppression of the colonial population.
9. Every party desirous of belonging to the Communist International should
be bound to carry on systematic and per.sistent Communist work in the labor
unions, co-operatives and other labor organizations of the masses. It is
necessary to form Communist groups within the organizations, which by per-
sistent and lasting work should win over labor unions to Communismi These
groups shoiild constantly denounce the treachery of the social patriots and
of the fluctuations of the "centre." These Communist groups should be com-
pletely subordinated to the party in general.
10. Any party belonging to the Communist International is bound to carry
on a stubborn struggle against the Amsterdam "International" of the yellow
labor unions. It should propagate insistently amongst the organized workers
the necessity of a rupture with the yellow Amsterdam Internatioiial. It shoiild
support by all means in its power the International Unification of Red Labor
L^nions. adhering to the Communist International, which is now beginning.
11. Parties desirous of joining the Third International shall be bound to
inspect the persotinel of their parliamentary factions, to remove all unreliable
elements therefrom, to control such factions, not only verbally but in reality,
to subordinate them to the Central Committee of the party, and to demand
from each proletarian Communist that he devote his entire activity to the
interests of real revolutionary propaganda.
12. All parties belonging to the Communist International should be formed
on the basis of the principle of democratic centralization. At the present time
of acute civil war the Communist Party will be able fully to do its duty only
when it is organized in a sufficiently thorongh way when it possesses an iron
discipline, and when its party centre enjoys the confidence of the members of
the party, who are to endow this centre with complete power, authority and
ample rights.
13. The Communist parties of those countries where the Communist activity
is legal, should make a clearance of their members from time to time, as well
224 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
-as those of the party organizations, in order systematically to free the party
from the petty bourgeois elements which penetrate into it.
14. Each party desirous of affiliating with the Communist International
should be obliged to render every possible assistance to the Soviet Republics
in their struggle against all counter-revolutionary forces. The Communist
parties should carry on a precise and definite propaganda to induce the workers
to refuse to transport any kind of military equipment intended for fighting
against the Soviet Republics, and should also by legal or illegal means carry on a
prop;iganda amongst the troops sent against the workers' republics, etc.
15. All those parties which up to the present moment have stood upon the
old social and democratic programmes should, within the shortest time pos-
sible, draw up a new Communist programme in conformity with the special
•conditions of their country, and in accordance with the resolutions of the
■Communist International. As a rule, the programme of each party belonging
to the Communist International should be confirmed by the next congress of the
Communist International or its Executive Committee. In the event of the
failure of the programme of any party being confirmed by the Executive
Committee of the Communist International, the said party shjill be entitled
to appeal to the Congress of the Communist International.
16. All the resolutions of the congresses of the Communist International, as
well as the resolutions of the Executive Committee are binding for all parties
joining the Communis!" International. The Communi.st International, operating
under the conditions of most acute civil warfare, should be centralized in a
better manner than the Second International. At the same time, the Communist
International and the Executive Committee are naturally bound in every form
of their activity to consider the variety of conditions under which the different
parties have to work and struggle, and generally binding resolutions should be
passed only on such questions upon which such resolutions are possible.
17. In connection with the above, all parties desiring to join the Com-
munist International should alter their name. Each party desirous of joining
the Communist International should bear the following name : Communist
Party of such and such a country, section of the Third Connnunist International.
The question of the renaming of a party is not only a formal one, but is a
political question of great importance. The Comnumist International has de-
clared a decisive war against the entire bourgeois world, and all the yellow
Social Democratic parties. It is indispensable that every rank-and-file worker
should be able clearly to distinguish between the Communist parties and the
•old official "Social Democratic'' or "Socialist" parties, which have betrayed the
cause of the working class.
18. All the leading organs of the press of every party are bound to publish
all the most important documents of the Executive Committee of the Communist
International.
19. All those parties which have joined the Communist International, as well
as those which have expressed a desire to do so, are obliged in as short a space
of time as possible, and in no case later than four months after the Second
Congress of the Communist International, to convene an Extraordinary Congress
in order to discuss these conditions. In addition to this, the Central Committees
of these parties should take care to acquaint all the local organizations with the
regulations of the Second Congress.
20. All those parties which at the present time are willing to join the Third
International, but have so far not changed their tactics in any radical manner,
shotild, prior to their joining the Third International, take care that not less
than two-thirds of their committee members and of all their central institutions
should be composed of comrades whf) have made an open and definite declaration
prior to the convening of the Second Congress, as to their desire that the party
should affiliate with the Third International. Exclusions are permitted only with
the confirmation of the Executive Committee of the Third International. The
Executive Committee of the Communist International has the right to make
an exception also for the representatives of the "centre" as mentioned in
paragraph 7.
21. Those members of the party wlio reject the conditions and the theses of
the Third International, are liable to be excluded from the party.
This applies principally to the delegates at the Special Congresses of the party.
The Role of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution
The world proletariat is confronted witli decisive battles. We are living in an
epoch of civil war. The critical hour has struck. I)i almost all countries where
APPENDIX, PART 1 125
there is a labor movement of any importance the working class, arms in hand,
stands in the midst of tierce and decisive battles. Now more than ever is the work-
ing class in need of a strong organization. Without losing an hour of invaluable
time, the working class must keep on indefatigably preparing for the impending
decisive struggle.
The first hetoic uprising of the French proletariat during the Paris Commune
of 1871 would have been much more successful, and many errors and shortcomings
would have been avoided, had there been a strong Communist party, no matter
how small. The struggle which the proletariat is now facing, under changed his-
torical cii'cumstances, will be of nuich more vital importance to the future destiny
of the working class than was the insmreciion of 1871.
The Second World Congress of the Connnunist International therefore calls upon
the revolutionary workers of the whole world to concentrate all their attention on
the following:
1. The ('ommunist Party is part of the working class, namely, its most ad-
vanced, intelligent, and therefore most revolutionary part. The Communist Party
is formed of the best, most intelligent, self-sacrificiug and far-seeing workers.
The Communist Party has no other interests than those of the working class. It
differs from the general mass of the workers iu that it takes a general view of
the whole historical march of the working class, and at all turns of the road it
endeavors to defend the interests, not of separate groups or professions, but of
the working class as a whole. The Communist Party is the organized political
lever by means of which the more advanced part of the working class leads all
the proletarian and semi-proletarian mass.
2. Until the time when the power of g(A-ernment will have been finally conquered
by the proletariat, until the time when the proletarian rule will have been firmly
established beyond the possibility of a bourgeois restoration, the Communist Party
will have in its organized ranks oidy a minority of the workers. Up to the time
when the power will have been seized by it, and during the transition period, the
Conmiunist Party may. under favorable conditions, exercise undisputed moral and
political influence on all the proletarian and semi-proletarian classes of the popula-
tion ; but it will not be able to unite them within its ranks. Only when the dicta-
torship of the workers has deprived the bourgeoisie of such powerful weapons
as the press, the school, parliament, the church, the government apparatus, etc.;
only when the final overthrow of the capitalist order will have become an evident
fact — only then will all or almost all the workers enter the ranks of the Communist
Party.
3. A sharp distinction must be made between the conception of "party" and
"class". The members of the "Christian" and liberal trade luiions of Germany,
England, and other coinitries, are undoubtedly parts of the working class. More
or less considerable circles of the working people, followers of Scheidemann,
Gompers and Co., are likewise part of the working class. Under certain historical
conditions the working class is very likely to be impregnated with numerous reac-
tionary elements. The task of Communism is not to adapt itself to such retrograde
elements of the working class, but to raise the whole working class to the level of
the Communist vanguard. The confoiuiding of these two conceptions — of party
and of class — can only lead to the greatest errors and confusion. Thus, for in-
stance, it is clear that notwithstanding the disposition or pre.iudices of certain
parts of the working masses during the imperialist war, the workers' parties ought
to have counteracted these prejudices, defending the historical interests of the
proletariat, which demanded of the proletarian parties a declaration of war
against war.
Thus in the beginning of the imperialistic war of 1914, the social-traitor parties
of all countries, in upholding the capitalists of their "own" countries, unanimously
declared that such was the will of the people. They forgot at the same time that
even if this were so, the duty of the workers' party would have been to combat
.such an attitude of the majority of the workers, and to defend the interests of the
workers at whatever cost. At the very beginning of the twentieth century the
Russian Mensheviks (minimalists) of the time (the so-called "economists"), denied
the possibility of an open political struggle against Tsarism, on the ground that
the working class in general was not yet ripe for the understanding of the political
struggle. So also has the right wing of the Independents of Germany, in all its
compromising, referred to the "will of the masses," failing to understand that the
party exists precisely for the purpose of marching ahead of the masses and point-
ing out the way.
4. The Communist International is firmly convinced that the collapse of the
old "Social Democratic" parties of the Second International cannot be rep-
126 UN-AMERICAN PKOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
resented as the collapse of the proletariau party organizations in general. The
period of open struggle for the dictatorship of the workers has created a new
proletarian party, the Communist Party.
5. The Communist International emphatically rejects the opinion that the
workers could carry out a revolution without having an independent political
party of their own. Every class struggle is a political struggle. The object of
this struggle, which inevitably turns into a civil war, is the obtaining of politi-
cal power. However, this power cannot be acquired, organized and directed
otherwise than by means of a political party. Only in case the workers have
for their leader an organized and experienced party, with strictly defined
objects, and a practically drawn up program of immediate action, both in
internal and foreign policy — then only will the acquisition of political power
cease to be a causal episode, but will serve as a starting point.
This class struggle likewise demands that the general guidance of the vari-
ous forms of the proletarian movement (labor unions, co-operative associations,
cultural-educational work, elections, etc. ) be united in one central organiza-
tion. Only a political party can be such a unifying and guiding centre. To
refuse to create and strengthen such a party and submit to its dictates, would
mean to abandon the idea of unity in the guidance of the separate proletariau
groups operating in the different arenas of the struggle. Lastly, the class
struggle of the proletariat demands a concentrated propaganda, throwing light
on the various stages of the fight, a unified point of view, directing the atten-
tion of the proletariat at each given moment to the definite tasks to be accom-
plished by the whole class. This cannot be done without the help of a cen-
tralized political apparatus, i. e., a political party. Therefore the propaganda
of the revolutionary Syndicalists, and the partisans of the Industrial Workers
of the World (I. W. W.), against the necessity of an Independent Workers"
Party, as a matter of fact has only served and continues to serve the interests
of the bourgeoisie and the counter-revolutionary "Social Democrats." In their
propaganda against the Comnuuiist Party, which the Syndicalists and Indus-
tiralists desire to replace by the labor unions, they approach the opportunists.
After the defeat of the revolution in 1905, during the course of several years
the Russian Mensheviks proclaimed the necessity of a so-called Labor Congress,
which was to replace the revolutionary party of the working class ; all kinds of
"Laborites" of England and America, while consicously carrying on a bour-
geois policy, are propagating among the workers the idea of creating indefinite
shapeless workers' unions instead of a political party. The revolutionary Syn-
dicalists and Industrialists desire to fight against the dictatorship of the
bourgeoisie, but they do not know how to do it. They do not see that a working
class without an independent political party is like a body without a head.
Revolutionary Syndicalism and Industrialism are a step forward only iu
comparison with the old. mttsty, counter-revolutionary ideology of the Second
International. But in comparison with the revolutionary Marxian doctrine,
i. e., with Communism, Syndicalism and indtistrialism are a step backward.
The declaration made by the "Lefts" of the Communist Labor Party of Ger-
many (in the programme-declaration of their Constituent Congress in April)
to the effect that they are forming a party, but not one in the traditional sense
of the word (''Kein Partei im iiberlieferten Sinne") — is a capitulation before
the views of Syndicalism and Industrialism which are reactionary. The work-
ing class cannot achieve the victory over the bourgeoisie by means of the gen-
eral strike alone, and by the policy of folded arms. The proletariat nn;st re-
sort to an armed uprising. Having understood this, one realizes that an or-
ganized political party is absolutely essential, and that shapeless labor organi-
zations will not suffice. ^
The revolutionary Syndicalists frequently advance the idea of the great ini;^
portance of a determined revolutionary minority. The Communist Party is
just such a determined minority of the working class, which is ready to act,
which has a program and strives to organize the masses for the struggle.
6. The most important task of a genuine Communist Party is to preserve con-
stantly the closest contact with the widest masses of the workers. For that
purpo.se the Communists must carry on activity also within such orgainzations
as are non-partisan, but which comprise large proletarian groups, for exam-
ple organizations of war invalids in various countries, the "Hands-off Russia"
Committee in England, Proletarian Tenants' Unions, and so forth. Of special
importance are the so-called non-party conferences of workers and peasants
held in Russia. Such conferences are being organized almost in every town,
in all industrial districts and in the country. In the elections to these con-
APPENDIX, PART 1 127
ferences the widest masses even of the most backward workers take part.
The order of business at these conferences is made up of the most pressing
questions, such as the food question, the housing problem, the military situa-
tion, the school question. The Communists exercise their influence on these
non-party conferences in the most energetic manner, and with the greatest
success for the party. They consider it their most important task to carry
on the work of organization and instruction within such organizations. But
in order that their efforts should bring forth the desired results, and that such
organizations should not become the prey of opponents of the revolutionary
proletariat, the most advanced Communist workers should always have their
own independent, closely united Connnunist Party, working in an organized
manner, and standing up for the general interests of Communism at each turn
of events, and under every form of the movement.
7. The Communists have no fear of the largest workers' organizations which
belong to no party, even when they are of a decidedly reactionary nature
(yellow unions, Christian Associations, etc.). The Communist Party carries
oil its work inside such organizations, and untiringly instructs the workers,
and proves to them that the idea of no political party as a principle is con-
sciously cultivated among the workers by the bourgeoisie and its adherents,
with the object of keeping the proletariat from an organized struggle for
Socialism.
8. The old classical division of the labor movement into three forms (party,
hibor unions and co-operatives) has evidently served its time. Th9 proletarian
revolution in Russia has brought forward the fundamental form of the workers'
dictatorship, the Soviets. The new divisions, which are now everywhere form-
ing, are: Party, Soviet, Industrial Union. But the party of the proletariat,
that is to say, the Communist Party, must constantly and systematically direct
the work of the Soviets as well as of the revolutionized industrial unions.
The Communist Party, the organized vanguard of the working class, must
direct the struggle of the entire class on the economic and the political fields,
and also on the tield of edvication. It must be the animating spirit in the indus-
trial unions, labor councils and all other forms of proletarian organizations.
The existence of the Soviets as an historically basic form of the dictatorship
of the proletariat, in no way lessens the guiding role of the Communist Party
in the proletarian revolution. The assertions made by the "Left" Communists
of Germany (in their appeal to the German proletariat of April 14th, 1920,
signed "The Communist Labor Party of Germany") that the party must always
adapt itself to the idea of the Soviets and assume a proletarian character, is
nothing but a hazy expression of the opinion that the Communist Party should
dissolve itself into the Soviets, that the Soviets can replace the Commimist
Party. This idea is essentially reactionary.
There was a period in the history of the Russian Revolution when the Soviets
were acting in opposition to the party, and sitpported the policy of the agents
of the bourgeoisie. The same has happened in Germany, and may take place
in other countries.
In order that the Soviets may be able to perform their historic mission, a
party of staunch Communists is necessary who should not merely adapt
themselves to the Soviets, but, on the contrary, should take care that the
Soviets do not adapt themselves to the boiu-geoisie, and to the white guard
Social Democracy. The Soviets, with the aid of the Communist factions in
them, should be brought under the banner of the Communist Party.
Those who propose to the Communist Party to "conform" to the Soviets,
those who perceive in such "conformation" a strengthening of the "proletarian
nature" of the party, are rendering a bad service both to the Party and to
the Soviets, and do not understand the importance of the Party, nor that of the
Soviets. The stronger the Communist Party in each country, the sooner will
the Soviet idea triumph. INIany "Independent" and even "Right" Socialists
profess to believe in the Soviet idea. But we cannot prevent such elements from
distorting this idea, unless there exists a strong Communist Party, capable of
determining the policy of the Soviets and of making them follow it.
9. The Communist Party is necessary to the working class not only before
it has acquired power, not only while it is acquiring such power, but also
after the power has passed into the hands of the working class. The history
of the Russian Communist Party, for three years at the head of such a vast
country, shows that the role of the party after the acquisition of i>ower by
the working class has not only not diminished, but, on the contrary, has
greatly increa.sed.
128 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
10. On the morrow of the acquisition of power by the proletariat, its party
still remained, as formerly, a part of the working class. But it was just that
part of the class which organized the victory. During twenty years in Russia —
and for a number of years in Germany — the Communist Party, in its struggle
not only against the bourgeoisie, but also against those Socialists who diffuse
bourgeois ideas among the proletariat, has enrolled in its ranks the staunchest,
the most far-seeing and most advanced fighters of the working class. Only by
having such a closely united organization of the best part of the working class
is it possible for the Party to overcome all the difficulties that arise before the
proletarian dictatorships in the days following tlie victory. In the organization
of a new proletarian Red Army, in the practical abolition of the bourgeois govern-
ing apparatus, and the building in its place of tlie framework of a new prole-
tarian state apparatus, in the struggle against the narrow craft tendencies of
certain separate groups of workers, in the struggle against local and provincial
"patriotism," clearing the way for the creation of new labor discipline — ^^iu all
these undertakings the final decisive word is to be said by the Communist Party,
whose members by tlieir own example animate, guide the majority of the workers.
11. The necessity of a political party for the proletariat can cease only with
the complete abolition of classes. On the way to this final victory of Comnnmism
it is possible that the relative importance of the three fundamental proletarian
organizations of modern times (Party, Soviets, and Industrial Unions), shall
undergo some changes, and that gradually a single type of workers' organization
will be formed. The Communist Party, however, will become absorbed in the
working class only when Communism ceases to be the object of struggle, and the
whole working class shall have become Communist.
12. The Second Congress of the Communist International must serve not only
to establish the historical mission of the Communist Party in general, but it
must indicate to the international proletariat, in rough draft, what kind of
Communist Party is needed.
13. The Communist International assumes that especially during the period
of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Communist Party should be organized
on the basis of strict proletarian centralism. In order to lead the working
class successfully during the long, stubborn civil war, the Communist Party
must establish the strictest military discipline within its own ranks. The expe-
rience of the Russian Communist Party in its successful leadership of the civil
war of the working class during three years, h'as proved that the victory of
the workers is impossible without a severe discipline, a perfected centralization,
and the fullest confidence of all the organizations of the party in the leading
organ of the party.
14. The Communist Party should be based on the principle of democratic
centralization. The chief principle of the latter is the election of the tipper
party units by those immediately below, the unconditional subordination of
subordinate units to the decisions of those above them, and a strong party
central organ, whose decrees are binding upon all the leaders of party life
between party conventions.
15. In view of the state of siege introduced by the bourgeoisie ag^xinst the
Communists, a whole series of Communist parties in Europe and America, are
comiielled to exist illegally. It must be remembered that imder such condi-
tions it may become necessary sometimes temporarily to deviate from the strict
observance of the elective principle, and to delegate to the leading party organi-
zations the right of co-election, as was done in Rtissia at one time. Under the
state of siege the Communist Party cannot have recourse to a democratic refer-
endum among all the members of the party (as was proposed by part of the
American Communists), but on the contrary, it should empower its leading
central organ to make important decisions in emergencies on beh'alf of all the
members of the party.
16. The doctrine of a vride "autonomy" for the separate local organizations
of the party at the present moment only weakens the Communist Party, under-
mines its working capacity, and aids the development of petty bourgeois,
anarchistic, centrifugal tendencies.
17. In countries where the power is in the hands of the bourgeoisie or the
counter-revolutionary Social Democrats, the Communist Party must learn to
unite systematically legal with Illegal work ; but all legal work must be carried
on under the practical control of the illegal Party. The parliamentary groups
of Communists, both in the central as well as in the local government institu-
tions, must be fully and absolutely subject to the Communist Party in general,
irrespective of whether the Party on the whole be a legal or an illegal organiza-
APPENDIX, PART 1 129
tlou at the moment. Ad.v delegate who in one way or another does not submit
absolutely to the Party shall be expelled from the ranks of Communism.
The legal press (newspapers, publications) must be unconditionally and fully
subject to the party in general, and to its Central Committee. No concessions
are admissible in this respect.
18. The fundamental principle of all organization work of the Communist
Party and individual Communists nuist be the creation of Communist nuclei
everywhere where they find proletarians and semi-proletarians — although even
in small numbers. In" every Soviet of Workers' Deputies, in every government
institution, everywhere, even though there may be only three people sympathizing
with Comnuuiisiu, a Communist nucleus must be inunediately organized. It is
only the power of organization of the Communists that enables the advance guard
of the working class to be the leader of the whole class. Communist nuclei,
working in organizations adhering to no political party, must be subject to the
party organizations in general, whether the Party itself is working legally or
illegally at the given moment. Conunnnist nuclei of all kinds nuist be subordin-
ated one to another in a strictly hierarchical order and system.
19. The Communist Party almost always begins its work among the industrial
workers residing for the niost part in cities. For the rapid victory of the work-
ing class it is necessary that the Party should also work in the country, in the
villages. The Communist Party must carry on its propaganda and organization
work among the agricultural laborers and the poorer farmers. It must especially
endeavor to organize Communist nuclei in tlie rural districts.
The international organization of the proletariat will be strong only if in all the
countries where the Communists are living and working the above principles of
party organization and activity are firmly established. The Communist Interna-
tional invites to its Congress all labor unions which recognize the principles of
the Third International, and are ready to break with the yellow International.
The Conmiunist International intends to organize an international section com-
posed of the red labor unions, which recognize the principles of Comnuinism.
The Communist International will not refuse to co-operate with purely non-
political workers' organizations desirous of carrying on a serious revolutionary
struggle against the boiirgeoisie. But at the same time the Communist Interna-
tional will never cease to emphasize to the workers of all the world :
1. The Communist International is the chief and essential instrument for the
liberation of the working class. In each country there must now be not only
Communist groups, or tendencies, — but a Communist Party.
2. In evei-y country there must be only one Commimist Party.
3. The Conunnnist Party must be founded on the principle of the strictest
centralization, and during the period of civil war it must introduce military
discipline in its ranks.
4. In every place where there are a dozen proletarians or semi-proletarians,
the Communist Party must have an organized nucleus.
5. In each non-political organization there must be a Communist nucleus,
strictly subordinate to the Party in general.
6. While firmly and faithfully supporting the programme and revolutionary
tactics of Communism, the Communist Party must always be closely united with
the most widely spread workers' organizations, and avoid sectarianism as much
as lack of principle.
The Communist Party and Parliamentarism
i. the new epoch and the new parliamentarism
The attitude of the Socialist Parties towards parliamentarism was originally,
at the time of the Fir.st International, one of utilizing the bourgeois parliament
for purposes of agitation. Participation in parliamentary activity was looked
upon from the point of view of developing class consciousness, i. e., of awaken-
ing in the proletariat class hostility toward the ruling class. Changes in this
attitude were brought about not through change of doctrine, but under the in-
fluence of political development. Owing to the uninterrupted advance of the
forces of production and the widening sphere of capitalist exploitation, capi-
talism, and together with it the parliamentary state, acquired a lasting stability.
This gave rise to the adaptibility of the parliamentary tactics of the Socialist
parties to "organic" legislative activity in the bourgeois parliament, and the
ever growing significance of the struggle for reforms within the capitalist
system as well as the predominating influence of the so-called "immediate de-
94931— 40— app., pt. 1—10
]^30 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
niand" and the conversion of the maximum programme into a figure of speech
as an altogether remote "final goal." This served as a basis for the develop-
ment of parliamentary careerism, corruption, and open or hidden betrayal of
the fundamental interests of the working class.
The attitude of the Third International towards parliamentarism is deter-
mined not by a new doctrine, but by the changed goal of i>arliamentarism
itself. During the previous epoch parliament performed a certain i)rogressive
function as the weapon of developing capitalism, but under the present condi-
tions of unbridled Imperialism, parliament has become a tool of falsehood,
deceit, violence, and enervating gossip. In the ruin, parliamentary reforms,
devoid of system, of constancy, and of definite plan, have lost every practical
significance for the working masses.
Parliament has lost its stability like the whole of bourgeois society. The
sudden transition from the organic to the critical epoch has created the founda-
tion for new proletarian tactics in the field of parliamentarism. The Russian
Workers' Party (Bolsheviks) had already worked out the essence of revolu-
tionary parliamentarism in the preceding period, owing to the fact that Russia,
since 1905, had lost its political and social equilibrium and had entered upon
Ihe period of storm and stress.
To the extent that some Socialists with an inclination for Communism iwinr
out that the moment of revolution in their respective countries has not yet
arrived, and so decline to break away from the parliamentary opportunists,
they are reasoning consciously or unconsciously from the assumption that the
present epoch is one of relative stability for imperialist society, and they are
assuming, therefore, that i)ractical results may be achieved in the struggle for
reform by coalition with such men as Turati and Longuet. As soon as Com-
munism comes to light, it must begin to elucidate the character of the present
epoch (the culminations of capitalism, imperialistic self-negation and self-
destruction, uninterrupted growth of civil war, etc.). Political relationships
and political groupings may be different in different countries, but the essence
of the matter is everywhere the same: we must start with the direct prepara-
tion for a proletarian uprising, politically and technically, for the destruction
of the bourgeoisie and for the creation of the new proletarian state.
Parliament at present can in no way serve as the arena of a struggle for
reform, for improving the lot of the working people, as it has at certain periods
of the preceding epoch. The centre of gravity of political life at present has
been completely and finally transferred beyond the limits of parliament. On
the other hand, owing not only to its relationship to the working masses, but
also to the complicated mutual relations within the various groups of the
bourgeois itself, the bourgeoisie, is forced to have some of its policies in one
way or another passed through parliament, where the various cliques haggle for
power, exhibit their strong sides and betray their weak ones, get themselves
unmasked, etc., etc. Therefore it is the immediate historical task of the work-
ing class to tear this apparatus out of the hands of the ruling classes, to break
and destroy it, and to create in its place a new proletarian apparatus. At the
same time, however, the revolutionary general staff of the working class is
vitally concerned in having its scouting parties in the parliamentary institu-
tions of the bourgeoisie, in order to facilitate this task of destruction.
Thus the fundamental difference between the tactics of Communists entering
parliament with revolutionary aims in view, and the tactics of the socialist
parliamentarians, becomes perfectly clear. The latter act on the assumption
of the relative stability and the indefinite durability of the existing order, they
consider it their task to achieve reforms by all means and are concerned to
make the mass(>s appreciative of every accompiishinent as the merit of Social
Democratic parliamentarism (Turati, Longuet & Co.).
Instead of the old compromising parliamentarism a new parliamentarism
has come to life, as a weapon for the destruction of parliamentarism as a
whole. Hut the aversion towards tlie traditional practices of the old parlia-
mentarism drives some revolutionary elements into the camp of the opponents
of parliamentarism on principle (I. W. W., the revolutionary Syndicalists,
German Communist Labor Party).
Taking all this into consideration, tlie Second Congre.ss adopts the following
theses :
ir. COMMUNISM, THE STRUGGLK FOR THE DICTATORSHTl' OF THE PR0T.ET.\RIAT, AND
THE UTILIZATION OF THE liOUKGIOIS PARLIAMENT
1. Parliamentarism as a State system, has become a "democratic" form of
the rule of liie bourgeoisie which, at a certain stage of its development, needs
1
APPENDIX, PART 1 131
ilif liotion of national representation, wliicli outwardly would be an organiza-
rion of a "national will" standing outside of classes, but in reality is an
instrument of oppi'ession and suppression in the hands of the ruling capitalists.
2. Parliamentarism is a definite form of State order. Therefore it can in
no way be a form of Comnuuiist society, which recognizes neither classes, nor
class struggle, nor any form of State authority.
3. Parliamentarism cannot be a form of proletarian government during the
transition period between the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and that of the
proietariat. At the moment when the accentuated class struggle turns into
civil war, the proletariat must inevitably form its State organization as a
fighting organization, whicii cannot contain any of the representatives of the
former ruling classes: all fictions of a "national will" are liarniful to the
proletariat at that time, and a parliamentary division of authority is needless
and injurious to it; the only form of proletarian dictatorship is a Republic
of Soviets.
4. The bourgeois parliaments, which constitute one of the most important
instruments of the State machinery of the bourgeoisie, cannot be won over
by the proletariat any more than can the bourgeois order in general. The
task of the proletariat consists in blowing up the whole machinery of tiie
bourgeoisie, in destroying it. and all the parliamentary institutions with it,
whether they l)e republican or constitutional-monarchical.
5. Thf same relates to the local government institutions of the bourgeoisie,
which theoretically it is not correct to differentiate from State organizations.
In reality they are part of the same apparatus of the State machinery of the
bourgeoisie which must be destroyed by the revolutionary proletariat and
replaced by local Soviets of Workers' Deputies.
6. <'onse(iuently, Communism repudiates parliamentarism as the form of the
future; it renounces the same as a form of the class dictatorship of the prole-
tariat: it repudiates the possibility of winning over the parliaments ;. its aim
is to destroy parliamentarism. Therefore it is only possible to speak of
utilizing the bourgeois State organizations with the object of destroying them.
The question can be discussed only and exclusively on such a plane.
7. All class struggle is a political struggle, because it is finally a straggle for
power. Any strike, when it spreads through the whole country, is a menace
to tlie bourgeois State, and thus acquires a political character. To strive to
overthrow the bourgeoisie, and to destroy its State, means to carry on political
warfare. To create one's own class apparatus — for the bridling and suppres-
sion of the resisting bourgeoisie, whatever such an apparatus may be — means
to gain political power.
8. Consequently, the question of a political struggle does not end in the
question of one's attitude towards the parliamentary system. It is a general
condition of the class struggle of the proletariat, insofar as the struggle grows
from a .small and personal one to a general struggle for the overthrow of the
capitalist order as a whole.
9. The elementary means of the struggle of the proletariat against the rule of
the bourgeoisie is, first of all, the method of mass demonstrations. Such mass
demonstrations are prepared and carried out by the organized masses of the
prol^'tariat, under the direction of a united, disciplined, centralized Conununist
Party. Civil war is war. In this war the proletariat must have its eflicient
political officers, its good political general staff, to coudtict operations dtu'ing
all tlie stages of that fight.
Ki. The mass struggle means a whole system of developing demonstrations
growing ever more actite in form, and logically leading to an uprising against
the capitalist order of government. In this warfare of the masses developing
into ;i civil war, the guiding party of the proletariat must, as a general rule,
secure every and all lawftil positions, making them its auxiliaries in the revolu-
tioiiaiy work, and stibordinating sitch positions to the plans of the general
campaign, that of the mass struggle.
11. One such auxiliary suiiport is the rostnun of the bourgeois parliament.
Against participation in a political campaign one should not use the argument
that parliament is a bourgeois government institution. The Communist Party
enters such institutions not for the purpose of organization work, imt in order to
blow up the whole bourgeois machinery and the parliament itself from within (for
instance, the work of Liebknecht in Germany, of the Bolsheviks in the Imi)erial
Duma, in the "Democratic Conference," in the "Parliament" of Kereusky. and
lastly, in the "Constituent Assembly." and akso in the Municipal Dumas, an<l
the activities of the Bulgarian Co;nnuinists. )
132 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
12. This work within the parliaments, which consists chiefly in malcing revolu-
tionary propaganda from the parliamentary platform, the denouncing of enemies,
the ideological unification of the masses, who are still looking up to the parlia-
mentary platform, captivated by democratic illusions, especially in backward
territories, etc., must be fully subordinated to the objects and tasks of the mass
struggle outside the parliaments.
The participation in the elective campaign and the revolutionary propaganda
from the parliamentary tribune has a special importance for the winning over of
those elements of the workers, who — as perhaps the agrarian working masses —
have stood far away from the revolutionarj' movement and political life.
13. If the Communists have the majority in the local government institutions,
they must: a) carry on a revolutionary opposition against the bourgeois central
authority; b) do all for the aid of the poor population (economic measures,
establishment ot attempt to establish an armed workers' militia : c) point out on
every occasion the barriers which the bourgeois State power i)urs against really
great changes; d) develop on this basis the sharpest revolutionary propaganda
without fearing a conflict with the State authorities; e) under certain conditions
substitute local Workers' Councils for the municipal administration. The whole
activity of the Communists in the communal administration therefore must be
a part of the general work of destruction of the capitalistic system.
14. The elective campaign must be carried on not in the sense of obtaining a
maximum of votes, but in that of a revolutionary mobilization of the masses
around the mottoes of the proletarian revolution. The election campaign must
be conducted by the entire mass of party members, not by the leaders alone ; it is
necessary to make use of and be in complete touch witli all the manifestations
of the masses (strikes, demonstrations, movements among the soldiers and sailors,
etc.) going on at the moment; it is necessary to summon all the masses of the
proletarian organizations to active work.
15. In complying with all these conditions, as well as with those indicated in
a special instruction, the parliamentary work must present a direct contrast to
the dirty ''politics" which has been practised by the Social Democratic parties
of all countries, that enter parliament with tlie object of supporting that "demo-
cratic" in.stitution or. at best, to "win it over." The Comnumist Party can only
recommend a revolutionary use of the parliament as exemplified by Karl Lieb-
knecht, Haeglund and the Bolsheviks.
16. "Anti-parliamentarism," in principle, in the sense of an absolute and
categorical repudiation of participation in the elections and the parliamentary
revolutionary work, cannot, therefore, bear criticism, and is a naive, childish
doctrine, which is founded sometimes on a healthy disgust of politicians, but
which does not understand the possibilities of revolutionary parliamentarism.
Besides, very often this doctrine is connected with a quite erroneous idea of the
role of the party, which in this case is considered not as a fighting, centralized,
advance guard of the workers, but as a decentralized system of badly joined
revolutionary nuclei.
17. On the other hand, an acknowledgement of the value of parliamentary
work in no wise leads to an absolute, in-all-and-any-case acknowledgement of
the necessity of concrete elections and a concrete participation in parliamentary
sessions. The matter depends upon a series of specific conditions. Under
certain circumstances it may become necessary to leave the parliament. The
Bolsheviks did so when they left the pre-parliament in order to break it up,
to weaken it, and to set up against it the Petrograd Soviet, which was then
prepared to head the uprising; they acted in the same way in the Constituent
Assembly on the day of its dissolution, converting the Third Congress of Soviets
into the centre of political events. In other circumstances a lioycotting of the
elections may be necessary, and a direct, violent storming of both the great
bourgeois State apparatus and the parliamentary bourgeois clique, or a parti-
cipation in the elections with a boycott of the parliament itself, etc.
18. In this way, while recognizing as a general rule the necessity of parti-
cipating in the election to the central parliament, and the institutions of local
self-goverment, as well as in the woi'k in such institutions, the Communist
Party must decide the question concretely, according to the specific conditions of
the given amount. Boycotting the elections or the parliament, or leaving the
parliament, is permissible, chiefly when there is a possibility of an immediate
transition to an armed fight for power.
19. At the same time one must constantly bear in mind the relative unimpor-
tance of this question. If the center of gravity lies in the struggle for the power
outside the parliament, then naturally the qtiestion of a proletarian dictatorship
APPENDIX, PART 1 133
and a mass fight for it is immeasurably greater tliau tlio seeoiidary one of using
the parliament.
20. Therefore the Communist International insists categorically that it con-
siders any division or attempt at a division within the Communist Parties
along this line a crime against the labor movement. The Congress calls upon
all the elements which are in favor of the mass struggle for the proletarian
dictatorship, and of being under the direction of a centralized party of the
revolutionary proletariat for gaining influence over all the mass organizations
of the working class, to strive for a complete unity Ijetween the Communist
elements, notwithstanding any iwssible disagreement on the question of utilizing
the bourgeois parliaments.
III. RWVOLUTION.ARY PARLIAMENTAKISM
For securing the real execution of revolutionary parliamentary tactics it is
necessary that :
1. The Conuuunist Party in general and its Central Committee should, during
the preparatory stage, before the parliamentary elections, inspect very carefully
the quality of the personnel of the parliamentary factions. The Central Com-
mittee should be responsible for the parliamentary Communist faction. The
Central Committee shall have the undeniable right to reject any candidate of any
organizations, if it is not perfectly convinced that such candidate will carry on a
real Communist policy while in parliament.
The Communist parties must desist from the old Social Democratic habit
of electing as delegates only the so-called "experienced" parliamentarians, chiefly
lawyers and so on. As a rule workmen should be put forward as candidates,
without troubling al)out the fact that these may be sometimes simple rank-and-
file workmen. The Communist Party must treat with merciless contempt all
elements who try to make a career by joining the party just before elections
in order to get into parliament. The Central Committees of Communist parties
must sanction the candidacy of only such men as by long years of work have
proved their unwavering loyalty to the working class.
2. When the elections are over, the organization of the parliamentary factions
must be wholly in the liands of the Central Committee of the Conununist Party —
whether the party in general is a lawful or unlawful one at the given moment.
The chairman and the bureau of the parliamentary faction of Communists must
he confirmed in their functions by the Central Committee of the Party. The
Central Committee of the Party must have its permanent representative in the
parliamentary faction with the right of veto. On all important political ques-
tions the parliamentary faction shall get preliminary instructions from the
Central Committee of the Party.
At each forthcoming important debate of the Communists in the parliament,
the Central Committee sliall bo entitled and I)ound to appoint or reject the
orator of the faction, to demand that he submit previously the theses of his
speech, or the text, for confirmation by the Central Committee, etc. Each candi-
date entered in the list of the Connnunists must sign a paper to the effect that
at the first request of the Central Committee of the Party he shall be bound
to give up his mandate, in order that in a given situation the act of leaving the
parliament may be executed in luiison.
3. In countries where reformist, semi-reformist or simply career-seeking ele-
ments have managed to penetrate into the parliamentary faction of the Com-
munists (as has already happened in several places), the Central Committees
of the Communist Parties are bound radically to weed out the personnel of the
factions, on the principle that it is better for the cause of the working class
to have a small but truly Communist faction than a large one without a regular
Communist line of conditct.
4. A Communist delegate, by decision of the Central Committee, is bound
to combine lawful work with unlawful work. In countries where the Communist
delegate enjoys a certain inviolability, this must be utilized by way of rendering
assistance to illegal organizations and for the propaganda of the party.
.5. The Communist members shall make all their parliamentary work depend-
ent on the work of the Party outside the parliament. The regular proposing
of demonstrative measures, uot for the purpose of having them passed by the
bourgeois majority, but for the purpose of jiropaganda, agitation, aiid organiza-
tion, must be carried on under the direction of the party and its Central
Committee.
J34 UN-AMBRIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
6. In the event of labor demonstrations in the streets or other revolutiouarjr
movements, the Commnnist members must occupy the most conspicuous place —
at the head of the proletarian masses.
7. The Communist deputies must try to get in touch (under the control of
the party) v^^ith the revolutionary workingmen, peasants, and other workers
either by correspondence or otherwise. They must in no way act like the
Social Democratic deputies who carry on mere business relations with the con-
stituents. They must always be at the disposal of the Commnnist organiza-
tions for propaganda work in the country.
8. Each Communist member nnist remember that he is not a "legislator"
who is bound to seek agreements with the other legislators, but an agitator of
the Party, detailed into the enemy's camp in order to carry out the orders of
the Party there. The Communist member is answerable not to the wide mas.<
of his constituents, but to his own Comnnmist Party— whether lawful or
unlawful.
9. The Communist members must speak in parliament in such a way as tt> be
understood by every workman, peasant, washerwoman, shepherd; so that
the Party may publish his sijeeches and spread them tol the most remote
villages of the country.
10. The rank-and-tile Communist worker must not shrink from speaking in
the bourgeois parliaments, and not give way to the so-called experienced
parliamentarians, even if such woikingmen are novices in parliamentary
methods. In case of need the workingmen members may read their speeches
from notes, in order that the speech may be printed afterwards in the papers
or in leaflet form.
11. The Communist members mnst make use of the parliamentary tribune to
denounce not only the bourgeoisie and its hangers-on, but also for the denuncia-
tion of the social patriots, reformists, the half-and-half politicians of the
centre and other opponents of Communism, and for the wide propagation of
the ideas of the Third International.
12. The Communist members, even though there should be only one or two
of them in the parliament, should by their whole conduct challenge capitalism,
and never forget that only those are worthy of the name of Communists, who
not in words only but in deeds are the mortal enemy of the bourgeois order
and its social-patriotic flunkeys.
The Trade Union Movement, Factory Committees, anu the Third International
The trade unions, created by the working class during the period of the
peaceful development of capitalism, were organizations of the workers for the
struggle for the increase of the price of labor at the labor market, and the im-
provement of labor conditions. The revolutionary Marxists endeavored by their
influence to unite them with the political party of the proletariat, the Socinl
Democracy, for a joint struggle for Socialism. For the same reasons that the
international Social Democracy, with a few exceptions, proved to be not an in-
strument of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for the overthrow of
capitalism, but an organization which held back the proletariat from revolution
in interests of the bourgeoisie, the trade unions proved to be in inost cases, duriiiir
the war, a part of the military apparatus of the bourgeoisie, helping the latter
to exploit from the working class as much sweat as possible for a more energetic
warfare for capitalist profits. Containing chiefly the skilled workmen, the better
paid, limited by their craft narrowmindedness, fettered by a bureaucratic appa-
ratus, which had removed itself from the masses, demoralized by their oppor-
tunist leaders, the labor xuiions betrayed not only the cause of the Social Revolu-
tion, but even also the struggle for the improvement of the conditions of life of
the workmen organized by them. They started from the point of view of the
trade union struggle against the employers, and replaced it by the program of
an amiable arrangement with the capitalists, at any cost. This policy was carried
on not oilly by liberal unions of England and America, not only by the would-be
"Socialist". Trade unions in Germany and Austria, but by the Syndicalist unions
in France as well.
2. The economic consequences of the war, the complete disorganization of worlil
economy, the insane prices, the unlimited application of the labor of women and
children, the aggravation of the housing conditions, all these are forcing tlu"-
large masses of the proletariat into the struggle against capital i.sm. This strug-
gle is revolutionary warfare by its proposition, and the character that it i.s;
assuming more and more every day ; a warfare destroying objectively the bases;
APPEiNDIX, PART 1 135
of the capitalist order. The increase of wages, ohtained one day by the economic
struggle of one or another category of workers, is the next day nullified by the
high prices. The prices must continue to vise, because the capitalist class of the
victorious countries, ruining by their policy of exploitation central and eastern
Europe, is not only not in a position to organize world economy but is incessantly
disorganizing it. For the success of their economic struggle, the larger masses of
workers who up to this time have stood apart from the labor unions, are now
flowing into their ranks in a powerful stream. In all capitalist .countries a tre-
mendous increase of the trade unions is to be noticed, which now become organi-
zations of the chief masses of the proletariat, not only if its advanced elements.
Flowing into the unions, these masses strive to make them their weapons of
battle. The sharpening of class antagonism compels the trade unions to lead
strikes, which flow in a broad wave over the entire capitalist world, constantly
interrupting the process of capitalist production and exchange. Increasing their
demands in proportion to the rising prices and their own exhaustion, the working
classes undermine the basis of all capitalist calculations, that elementary premise
of every well organized economic management. The unions, which during the
war had been organs of compulsion over the working masses, become in this way
organs for the annihilation of capitalism.
3. The old trade union bureaucracy and the old forms of organization of the
trade unions are in every way opposing such a change in the nature of the trade
unions. The old trade unions Bureaucracy is endeavoring in many places to
maintain the old trade unions as organizations of the workers" aristocracy. It
preserves the rules which make it impossible for the badly paid working classes
to enter into the trade union organizations. The old trade union aristocracy is
even now intensifying its efforts to replace the strike methods, which are ever
more and more acquiring the character of revolutionary warfare between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat, by the policy of arrangements with the capitalists,
the policy of long term contracts, which have lost all sense simply in view of
constant insane rise of prices. It tries to force upon the workers the policy of
"Joint Industrial Councils," and legally to impede the leading of sti'ikes with the
assistance of the capitalist State. At the most tense moments of the struggle
this bureaucracy sows trouble and confusion among the struggling masses of
the workers, impeding the fusion of the struggle of various categories of
workmen into one general class struggle. In these attempts it is helped by
the old organization of the trade unions according to crafts, which breaks up the
workmen of one branch of production into separate professional groups, not-
withstanding their being bound together by the process of capitalist exploita-
tion. It rests on the force of tradition of the ideology of the old labor aristoc-
racy, which is now constantly being weakened by the process of suppression of
the privilege of separate groups of the proletariat through the general decay of
capitalism, the equalization of the level of the working class and the growth
of its need and the precariousness of its livelihood. In this way the trade
imion bureaucracy breaks up the powerful stream of the labor movement
into weak streamlets, substitutes partial reformist demands for the general
revolutionary aims of the movement, and on the whole retards the transfor-
mation of the struggle of the proletariat into a revolutionary struggle for
the annihilation of capitalism.
4. Bearing in mind the rush of the enormous working masses into the trade
rnions. and also the objective revolutionary character of the economic struggle
which those masses are carrying on in spite of the trade union bureaucracy, the
Communists must join such unions in all countries, in order to make of them
efticient organs of the struggle for the suppression of capitalism and for Com-
munism. They must initiate the forming of trade unions where these do not
exist. All voluntary withdrawal from the industrial movement, every arti-
ficial attempt to organize special unions, without being compelled thereto by
exceptional acts of violence on the part of the trade union bureaucracy,
such as expulsion of separate revolutionary local branches of the unions
by the opportunist officials, or by their narrow-minded aristocratic policy,
which prohibits the unskilled workers from entering into the organization,
represents a great danger to the Communist movement. It threatens to hand
over the most advanced, the most conscious workers, to the opportunist leaders,
playing into the hands of the bourgeoisie. . . . The luke-warmness of
the working masses, their ideological Indecision, their tendency to yield to the
arguments of opportunist leaders, can be overcome only during the process of
the evergrowing struggle, by degrees as the wider masses of the proletariat
learn to understand, by experience, by their victories and defeats, that ob-
136 CN-AMERICAX PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
jectiveJy it is already impossible to obtain Imman conditions of life on the
basis of capitalist methods of management ; and by degrees as the advanced
Communist workmen Jearn through their economic struggle to be not only
preachers of the ideas of Communism, but also the most determined leaders
of the economic struggle of the labor unions — only in this ^\'ay will it be possible
to remove from the unions their opportunist leaders, only in this way will the
Communists be able to take the lead of rlie trade-union movement, and make of
it an organ of the revohitionary struggle for Communism. Only in this way can
tliey prevent the break-up of tlie trade unions, and replace them by industrial
unions, remove the old bureauiracy separated from the masses and replace it by
the apparatus of factory-representatives, leaving only the most necessary func-
tions to the center.
5. Placing the object and the essence of labor organizations before them, the
Communists ought not to hesitate before a split in such organizations, if a
refusal to split would mean abandoning revolutionary work in the trade unions,
and giving up tlie attempt to make of them an instrument of revolutionary
struggle, the attemjit to orgjinize the most exploited part of the proletariat.
But even if such a split siiould be necessary, it must be carried into effect only
at a time when tiie Comnnuiists have succeeded by the incessant warfai'e against
the opportunist leaders and their tactics, by their most active participation in
the economic struggle, in persuading the wider masses of workmen that the split
is occurring not because of the remote and as yet incomprehensible aims of the
i-evolution, but on account of the concrete, immediate interests of the working
class in the development of its economic struggle. The Communists in case a
necessity for a split arises, must continuously and attentively discu.ss the ques-
tion as to whether a split might not lead to their isolation from the working
mass.
6. Where a split between the opportunists and the revolutionary trade union
movement has already taken place before, where, as in America, alongside the
opportunist trade unions there are unions with revolutionary tendencies — al-
though not Comijiunist ones — there the Ccnnmunists are bound to support such
revolutionary unions, to persuade thein to abandon Syndicalist prejudices and
to place themselves on the platform of Connnunism, which alone is a trustworthy
compass in the complicated question of the economic struggle. Where within
the trade unions or outside of them in the factories, organizations are formed,
such as shop stewards, factory committees, etc., for the purpose of fighting
against the counter-revolutionary tendencies of the trade-union bureaucracy, to
support the spontaneous direct action of the proletariat, there, of course,' the
Oomminiists must with all their energy give assistance to these organizations.
But the support of the revolutionary trade unions, which are in a state of fer-
ment and passing over to the class struggle, must not be neglected. On the con-
trary, by approaching this evolution of the unions on their way to a revolution-
ary struggle, the Connnunists will be able to play the part of aii element uniting
the politically and industrially organized workmen in their joint struggle for
the suppression of capitalism.
The economic struggle of the proletariat becomes a political struggle during
an epoch of the decline of capitalism nmch quicker than during an epoch of
its peaceful development. Every serious economic clash may immediately place
the workers face to face with the question of revolution. ' Therefore it' is the
duty of the Communists in all the phases of the economic struggle to point out
to the workers, that the success of the struggle is only possible if the working
class conquers the capitalists in open fight, and by means of dictatorship pro-
peeds to the organization of a Socialist order, (^'onsequently. the Communists
must strive to create as far as i>ossible complete unity "between the trade
unions and the Communist party, and to subordinate the unions to the prac-
tical leadership of the Party, as the advance guard of the workers' revolutions.
For this purpose the Ccmmuuiists should have Communist factions in all the
trade unions and factory committees, and acquire by their means and influence
over the labor movement and direct it.
II
1. The economic struggle of the proletariat for the increase of wages and
the imT)rovenient of the conditions of life of the masses, is getting more and
more into a blind alley. The economic crisis, embracing one country after
another in ever increasing proportions, is showing to even unenlightened work-
ingmen that it is not enough to demand an increase of wages and a shortening
APPEiNDIX, PART 1 137
of the working hours, but thnt the capitalist classes less capable every day
of establishing the normal conditions of public economy and of guaranteeing
to the workers at least those conditions of life which it gave them before the
world war. Out of this growing conviction of the working masses are born
their efforts to create organizations which will be able to commence a struggle
for the alleviation of the situation by means of workers' control over pro-
duction through the medium of the factory committees. This aspiration to
create factory committees, which is more and more taking iwssession of the
workingmen of different countries, takes its origin from the most varied causes
(struggle against tlie counter-revolutionary bureaucracy, discouragement after
union defeats, striving to create an organization embracing all workers), but
in the end it results in the fight for control over industry, the special historic
task of the factory committees. Therefore it is a mistake to form the shop
committees only out of workingmen who are already struggling for the dic-
tatoi-ship of the proletariat; on the contrary, the duty of the Communist Party
is to organize all the workingmen on the ground for the economic crisis, and
to lead them toward the strv;ggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat by
developing the struggle for workers' control over production, which they all
understand.
2. The Communist Party will be able to accomplish this task if, taking part
in the struggle in the factory committees, it will instill in the minds of the
masses the consciousness that a systematic reconstruction of the public econ-
omy on the basis of a capitalist order, which would mean its new enslavement
by the government in favor of the industrial class, is now fatally impossible.
The organization of the economic management corresiionding with the interests
of the working masses, is possible only when the government is in the hands
of the working class, when the strong hand of the labor dictatorship will
proceed to the suppression of capitalism and to the new Socialist organization.
3. The struggle of the factory committees against capitalism has for its'
immediate object workers' control over production.
The workers of every enterprise, every branch of industry, no matter what
their trade, suffer from the "sabotage" of production on the part of capitalists,
wh<i frequently consider it more profitable to stop production in order that it
may be easier to compel the workingmen to agree to unsatisfactory labor
conditions, or not to invest new canital in industry at a moment of a general
rise in prices. The need to protect themselves against such sabotage of pro-
duction by the capitalists luiites the workingmen independently of their polit-
ical opinions, and therefore, the factory conunittees elected by the workingmen
of a given enterprise are the broadest mass organizations of the proletariat.
But the disorganization of capitalist management is the result not only of
the conscious will of the capitalists, but in a still greater degree an inevitable
decline of capitalism. Therefore in their struggle against the consequences of
such a decline, the factory committees must go beyond the limits of control in
separate factories. The factory committees of separate factories will soon
be faced with the question of workers' control over the whole branches of
industry and their combinati<ms. And as any attempt on the part of the
workingmen to exercise a control over the supplying of the factories with raw ma-
terial or to control the financial operations of the Factory owners, v/ill meet
with the most energetic measures against the working class on the pait of the
bourgeoisie and the capitalist government, the struggle for workers' control
over production must lead to the struggle for a seizure of power by the working
class.
4. The campaign in favor of the factory committees n>ust be conducted in
such a way that into the minds of the popular masses, even not directly be-
longing to the factory proletariat, there should be instilled the conviction that
the bourgeoisie is responsible for the economic crisis, while the proletariat, im-
der the motto of workers' control of indstry. is struggling for the organization
of produ^-tion. for the suppression of speculation, dism-ganization and high
prices, the duty of the Communist Parties is to struggle for control over pro-
duction on the ground of the most insistent questions of the day, the lack of
fuel, the transport crisis — to unite the different groups of the proletariat and
to attract wide circles of the petty bour<reoisie, which is ber-omino- nioi'e and
mo»-e proletarized day by day, and is suffering extremely from, the economic
crisis.
5. The factory committees cannot be substituted for the labor unions. Dur-
ing the process of struggle they mav forTU unions outside the limits of single
factories and trades, according to the branches of production, and create a
138 UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
-general apparatus for the direction of the struggle. The labor unions are
already now centralized fighting organs, although they do not embrace such
wide masses of workingmen as the factory committees are capable of, these
latter being loose organizations which arc accessible to all the workers of a
given enterprise. The division of tasks between the shop committees and the
industi-ial unions is the result of the historical development of the social revolu-
tion. The industrial unions organize the working masses for the struggle for
the increase of wages and shortening of work-hours on a national scale. The
factory committees are organized for workers' control over production, for tlir
struggle against the crisi.'s, cm.bracing all the workingmen of the enterprises, but
tlieir struggle can only gradually assume the character of a national one.
The Connnunists must endeavor to render the factory comn>ittecs the nuclei of
the labor unions and to support them in proportion as the unions overcome
the counter-revolutionary tendencies of their bureaucracy, as they consciously
h(>come organs of the revolution.
G. The duty of the Connnunists consists in inspiring the labor unions and the
factory committee with a spirit of determined struggle, and the consciousness
and knowledge of the best methods of such a struggle — tlie spirit of Commun-
ism.. In execution of this duty the Communists must practically subordinalc
the factory committees and the unions to the Connnunist Party, and thus create
a proletarian mass organ, a basis for a powerful centraliz(Hl party of the
proletariat, embracing all the organizations of the proletarian struggle, lendin;:
them all to one aim, to the victory of the working class, through the dictator-
ship of the proletariat to Communism. The Communists converting the labor
unions and factory committees into powerful weai)ons of the n'volution, pre-
pare these miiss organizations for the great task which they will have aft«'r
the establishment of the dictator.shiii of the proletariat, for the task of being
the Instmment of the reorganization of economic life on a Socialistic basis.
The labor unions, developed as industrial iniions and supported by the factory
committees as their factory organizations, will then make the working mas.ses
acquainted with their tjisks of production: they will educate the most experi-
enced workingmen to become leaders of the factories to control the technical
specialists, and, together with the repre.sentatives of the Workers' State, will
lay down the plan of the Socialist economic policy, and carry it out.
Ill
1. The labor unions tried to form international unions even in time of peace,
because during strikes the capitalists used to invite workers from other coun-
tries, as strike-breakers. But the International of Labor T'nions had only a
secondary importance before the war. It made one union support another
when needful ; it organized social statistic, hut it did nothing for the organiza-
tion of a joint struggle, because the labor unions, under the leader.ship of op-
portunists, strove to avoid all revolutionary collisions on an international scale.
The opportunist leaders of the lal)or unions, who, each in his own country,
during the war were flunkies of the bourgeoisie, are now striving to revive the
International of Labor Union, attempting to make it a weapon for the direct
struggle of international world capital against the proletariat. Under the di-
rection of Legien, Jouhaux, Gompers, they are creating a Labor Unreau of the
League of Nations, the organization of international capitalist robbery. In all
countries they are attempting to crush the strike movement by means of laws,
compelling the workmen to submit to the arbitration of representatives of the
■capitalist State.
They are endeavoring to obtain concessions for the skilled workers by
means of agreements with the capitalists, in order to break in this way
tl'.e growing unity of the working class. The Amsterdam International of
Labor Unions is thus a substitute for the bankrupt Second International of
IBrussels.
The Communist workers who are members of the labor unions in all
C'Oimtries must, on the contrary, strive to create an international battle fr<nit
of labor unions. The question now is not financial relief in case of strikes:
but when the danger is threatening the working class of one country, the
labor unions of the others, being organizations of the larger mas.ses, shoidd
all come to its defen.se: they should make it impossible for the bourgeoisie of
their respective countries to render assistance to the bourgeoisie of the country
engaged in the struggle against the working class. The economic struggle
against the working class, the economic str,uggle of the proh'tariat in all conn-
APPENDIX, PART 1 ] 39
tries, is daily becoming more and more a revolutionai-y .struggle. Therefore the
labor unions must consciously use their forces for the support of all revolution-
ary struggles in their own and in other countries. For this purpose they must
not only, in their own countries, strive to attain as great centralization of their
struggle as possible, but they must do so on an international scale by joining the
Communist International, and by vmiting in one army the different parts of
-which shall carry on the struggle co-jointly, supporting one another.
Whesst and Under What Conditions Soviets of Workers' Deputies
Should Be Formed
1. The Soviets of Workers' Deputies appeared for the first time in Russia
in 1905, at a time when the revolutionary movement of Russian workingmen
was at its heiglit. Already in 1905 the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' Deputies
was taking the first instinctive steps towards a seizure of the power. And at
that time the Petrograd Soviet was strong only as far as it had a chance
of acquiring political power. As soon as the Imperial counter-revolution rallied
its forces and the labor movement slackened, the Soviet, after a short vege-
tatitm, ceased to exist.
2. When in 190.5, at the beginning of a new strong revolutionary wave,
the idea began to awaken in Russia regarding the immediate organization of
Soviets of Workers' Deputies, the Bolshevik party warned the workingmen
against the immediate formation of the Soviets, and pointed out that such a
foi'iuation would be well-timed only at the moment when the revolution
■would have already begun, and when the turn would have come for the direct
■struggle for the power.
3. At the beginning of the February revolution of 1917. when the Soviets of
Workers' Deputies were transformed into Soviets of Wox-kers' and Soldiers'
Deputies, they drew into the .sphere of their influence the widest circles of
the popular masses and at once acquired a tremendous authority, because
the real force was on tlieir side, in their hands. But when the liberal bour-
geoisie recovered from the suddenness of the first revolutionary blows, and
^vhen the social traitors, the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviki.
lielped the Russian bourgeoisie to take the power into its hands, the importance
of the Soviets began to dwindle. Only after the Jidy days and after the
ill-success of Kornilov's counter-revolutionary campaign, when the wider popu-
lar masses began to m<ive, and when the threat of the counter-revolutionary
Iwurgeois coalition government came quite near, then the Soviets began to
flourish again ; and they soon required a pi'ominent position in the country.
4. The history of the German and the Austrian revolutions shows the same
situation. When the popular masses revolted, when the revolutionary wave
rose so high that it washed away the strongholds of the monarchies of the
Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs, in Germany and in Austria, the Soviets or
Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies were formed with gigantic rapidity. At first
the real force was on their side, and the Soviets were well on the way to
become practically the power. But, owing to a whole series of historical
■conditions, as soon as the power began to pass to the bourgeoisie and the
counter-revolutionary Social Democrats, then the Soviets began to decline
and lose all importance. During the days of the unsuccessful counter-revolu-
tionary revolt of Kapp-Liittwitz in Germany, the Soviets again resumed their
activity, but when the struggle ended again in the victory of the bourgeoisie
and the social-traitors, the Soviets, which had just begun to revive, once more
died away.
5. The above facts prove that for the formation of Soviets certain definite
premises are necessary. To organize Soviets of Workers' Deputies, and trans-
form them into Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, the following con-
ditions are necessary :
a) A great revolutionary impulse among the widest circle of working men
and working women, the soldiers and the workers in general ;
h) The acuteness of a political economic crisis attaining such a degree that
the power begins to slip out of the hands of the government ;
c) A serious decision to begin a systematic and regular struggle developing
in the ranks of considerable masses of the workingmen, and first of all in
the ranks of the Communist Party.
6. In the absence of these conditions the Conununists may and should systera-
ntically and insistently propagate the idea of Soviets, jxipuJarize it among the
X40 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
masses and demonstrate to the widest circles of the population that the Soviets-
are the only efficient form of government during the transition to complete
Communism". Bnt to proceed to a direct organization of Soviets in the absence
of the above three conditions is impossible.
7. The attempt of the social traitors in Germany to introduce the Soviets
into the general bourgeois-democratic constitutional system, is treason to the
workers' cause and deception of the workingmen. Real Soviets are possible
only as a farm of state organization, relieving bourgeois democracy, breaking
it up and replacing it by a dictatorship of the proletariat.
8. The propaganda of the rit^lit leaders of the Independents (Hilferdmg.
Kautsky, and others), proving the compatibility of the Soviet "system" with
the bourgeois Constituent Assembly, is either a complete misunderstanding of
the laws of development of a proletarian revolution, or a conscious deceiving
of the working class. The Soviets are the dictatorship of the proletariat. The
Constituent Assembly is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. To unite and
reconcile the dictatorship of the working class with that of the bourgeoisie is
impossible.
9. The propaganda of some representatives of the Left Independents in
Germany presenting the workers with a ready-made, formal plan of a "Soviet
system,'"' which has no relation whatever to the concrete process of the civil
war, is a doctrinaire pastime which draws the workers away from their
essential tasks of the real struggle for power.
10. The attempts of separate Communist groups in France, Italy, America,
England to form Soviets not embracing the larger working masses and unable,
therefore, to enter into a direct struggle for power, are only prejudicial to
the actual preparation of a Soviet revolution. Such artificial hot-house
"Soviets" soon become transformed in the best of cases into small associations
for propaganda of the idea of a Soviet power, and in the worst case stich
miserable "Soviets" are capable only of compromising the idea of the power
of "Soviets" in the eyes of the popular masses.
11. At the present time there exists a special condition in Austria, where
the working class has succeeded in preserving its Soviets, which unite large
masses of workers. Here the situation resembles the period between February
and Oetol)er, 1917, in Russia. The Soviets in Austria represent a considerable
political force, and appear to be tlie embryo of a new power.
It must be niiderstood that in such a situation the Communists onght to par-
ticipate in these Soviets, help the Soviets to i:»enetrate into all phases of the
social economic and political life of the country ; they should create Commu-
nist factions within these Soviets, and by all means aid their development.
12. Soviets without a revolution are impossible. Soviets without a pro-
letarian revolution inevitably became a parody of Soviets. Tlie authentic
Soviets of the masses are the historically revealed form of the dictatorship of the
proletariat. All sincere and serious partisans of the power of Soviets should
deal cautionsly with the idea of Soviets, and while indefatigably propagating
it among the mas.ses, proceed to the direct realization of such Soviets only under
the conditions mentioned above.
Theses on the National and Colonial Questions.
A.) THESES.
1. It is typical of bourgeois democracy, by its very nature, to take an abstract
or forinj'd attitude towards the question of the colonies in general, and to that
of national e(piality in particular. Under the appearance of the eqttality of
human beings in general, bourgeois democracy proclaims the formal or judicial
equality of the i)roprietor and the proletarian, of the exploiter and the exploited,
thereby greatly deceiving the oppressed classes. On the pretext of absolute
equality which is in itself but a rellection of the relations caused by commodity
production, he converts them into an instnnnent in the struggle"^ against the
abolition of classes. But the real essence of the demand for equality is based
on the demand for the abolition of classes.
2. In conformity with its chief task — the struggle against boni'geois democ-
racy and the denunciation of its lies and deceptions — the Communist Party
being the class conscious expression ot tlie struggle of the proletariat to cast off
the yoke of the bourgeoisie, must not advance any abstract and formal princi-
ples on the national question, but must first analyz-e liie historical, and, before
APPENDIX, PAPvT 1 141
nil, the economic conditions; second, it must clearly distinguish the interests
of 'the oppressed classes, of the toilers, of the exploited, from the general con-
ception of national interests which in reality means the interests of the ruling
class; third, it must equally separate the oppressed and subject nations from
the dominating nations, in* contradistinction to the liourgeois democratic lies
concealing the enslavement of a vast majority of the population of the earth
by an insignificant minority of the advanced capitalist nations which is peculiar
to the epoch of financial capital and imperialism.
3. The imperialist war of 1914 has deujonstrated very clearly to all nations
and to all opiiressed classes of the world the deceitfulness of bourgeois demo-
cratic phraseology. That war has been carried on on both sides under the false
motto of the freedom of nations and luttional self-determination. But the
Brest Litovsk and Bucharest peace on the one hand, and the Versailles and
Saint-Germain peace on the other, have shown how the bourgeoisie establishes
even "national" boundaries in conformity with its own economic interests,
•'National" boundaries are for the bourgeoisie nothing but market commodities.
The so-called "League of Nations" is nothing but an insurance policy in which
the victoi-s mutually guarantee each other their prey. The striving for the
reconstruction of national unity and of the "re-union of alienated territories"
on the part of the bourgeoisie, is nothing but an attempt of the vanquished to
gather forces for new wars. The re-uniting of the nationalities artificially torn
asunder corresponds also to the interests of the prolet;u-iat only through revolu-
tionary struggle and by the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. The League of Na-
tions and the policy of the imperialist powers after the war demonstrate this
even more clearly and definitely, making the revolutionary struggle in the
.■idvanced countries more acute, increasing the ferment of the working masses
of the colonies and the sul>ject countries, and dispelling the middle class na-
tionalistic illusion of the possibility of peaceful collaboration and equality of
D.-itions under capitalism.
4. It follows from the fundamental principles laid down above, that the policy
of the Conununist International on the National and Colonial questions must be
chiefly to bring about a union of the proletarian and working masses of all nations
and countries for a joint revolutionary struggle leading to the overthrow of
capitalism, without which national equality and oppression cannot be abolished.
5. The. political situation of the world at the present time has placed the
question of tlie dictatorship (^f the proletariat in the foreground, and all the events
of world politics are inevitably concentrating around one point, namely, the
struggle of the bourgeois world against the Russi;in Soviet Republic, which is
grouping around itself the Soviet movements of the vanguard of the workers of
all countries, and all national liberation movements of the colonial and subject
counti-ies, which have been taught by bitter experience that there can be no salva-
tion for them outside of a union with the revolutionary proletariat, and the
triumph of the Soviet power over Imperialism.
6. Consequently, we nutst not content ourselves with a mere recognition or
declaration concerning the tmlty of the workers of different nations, but we
must carry out a policy of realizing the closest union between all national and
colonial liberation movements and Soviet Russia, determining the forms of this
union in accordance with the stage of development of the Conununist movement
among the proletariat of each country, or the revolutionary liberation movement
hi the subject nations and backward countries.
7. Federation is a transitional form towards the complete imion of the workers
of all countries. It has already proved its efficiency in practice in the relations
of the Socialist Federated Soviet Republic of Russia to the other Soviet Republics
(Hungarian, Finnish, Lettish, in the past; and the Azerbeidjan and Ukrainian
in the present ) , as also within the borders of the Socialist Federal Soviet Republic
of Russia with regard to the nationalities which had neither their own govern-
ment nor any self-governing institutions (for example, the autonomous Republic
of Bashkiria and the Tartar Republic, wbich were formed in 1019 — 1920 by the
Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic).
8. It is the task of the Communist International in this regard not only to
develop further, but also to study and test by experience, these federations which
have arisen out of the Soviet order and the Soviet movement. Recognizing fed-
eration as a transition form towards complete tuiion, we must strive for ever
closer federative connections, bearing in mind first, the impossibility of maintain-
ing the Soviet Republic surrounded by powerful imperialist nations, without a
close union with other Soviet Republics ; second, the necessity of a close economic
union of the Soviet Republics, without which the restoration of the forces of pro
142 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
(luction destroyed by Imperialism, and the assuring of the welfare of the workers
is impossible ; third, the striving towards the creation of a unified world economy
based on one general plan and regulated by the proletariat of all the nations of
the world. This tendency has already manifested itself under capitalism, and is
undoubtedly going to be further developed and perfected by Socialism.
9. With regard to inter-state relations, the international policy of the Com-
munist International cannot limit itself to a mere formal verbal declaration of
the recognition of the equality of nations, which does not involve any practical
obligations, such as has been made by the bourgeois democrats who styled them-
selves socialist. The constant violations of the equality of nations and the
infringement upon the rights of national minorities practised in all the capitalist
states in spite of the democratic constitutions, must be denounced in all the propa-
ganda and agitational activity of the Communist International, within, as well
as outside the parliament. It is likewise necessary, first, to explain constantly
that only the Soviet regime is able to give the nations real equality, by uniting the
proletariat and all the masses of the workers in the stiuggle against the bour-
geoisie; second, to support the i-evolutionary movement among the subject nations
(for example, Ireland, American negroes, etc.) and in the colonies.
Without this last, especially important conditiun the struggle against the
oppression of dependent nations and colonies, as well as the recognition of their
right to an independent existence, is only a misleading signboard, such as has
been exhibited by the i)arties of the Second International.
10. It is the habitual practice not only of the centre parties of the Second
International, but also of those which have left it. to recognize internationali.sm
in words and then to adulterate it in their propaganda, agitation, and practical
activity by mixing it up with petty bourgeois nationalism and pacifism. This
is to be found even among those parties that at present call themselves Com-
munist. The struggle against this evil, and against the deep-rooted petty
bourgeois national pi-ejudices (manifesting themselves in various forms, such
as race hatred, national ant.-igonism and antisemitism). must be brought to the
foreground the more vigorously because of the urgent necessity of transforming
the dictatorship of the proletariat and changing it from a national basis (i. e.,
existing in one country and incapable of exercising an influence over world
politics), into an international dictatorship ( i. e., a dictatorship of the proletariat
of at least several advanced countries capable of exercising a determined influ-
ence upon world politics). Petty bourgeois internationalism means the mere
recognition of the rights of national equality, and preserves intact national ego-
tism. Proletarian internationalism, on the other hand, demands: (1) the sub-
ordination of the intei'e.sts of the proletarian struggle in one nation to the inter-
ests of that struggle on an international scale; (2) the capability and the readi-
ness on the part of one nation which has gained a victory over the bourgeoisie, of
making the greatest national sacrifices for the overthrow of international
capitalism.
In the countries in which fully developed capitalist states exist, the labor
parties, comprising the vanguard of the proletariat, must consider it as their
primary and most important task to combat the opportunist an<l petty bourgeois
pacifist confusion of the ideas and the policy of internationalism.
11. AVith regard to those states and nati(inalities where a backward, mainly
feudal, patriarchal, or patriarchal-agrarian regime prevails, the following must
be borne in mind: 1) All ("onnnunist parties must give active support to the
revolutionary movements of liberation, the form of support to be determined
by a study of existing conditions, carried on by the party wherever there is
one. This duty of rendering active support is to be impo.«ed in the first place-
on the workers of those countries on whom the subject nation is dependent
in a colonial or financial way: 2) Naturally, a struggle must be carried on
against the reactionary nudiaeval influences of the clergy, the christian mis-
sions, and similar elements; H) It is iilso necessary to combat the pan-Islam
and pan-Asiatic and similar movements, which are" endeavoring to utilize the
liberation struggle against European and American imperialism for the purpose
of strengthening the power of Turkish and .lapanese iniperiiilists, of the nobility,
of the large land owners, of the clergy, etc.: 4) It is of special importance to
support the peasant movements in backward countries against the land owners
and all feudal survivals: above all, we nmst strive as far as possible to give the
peasant movement a revolutionary character, to organize the peasants "and all
the exploited into the Soviets, and thus bring about the closest possible union
between the romminiist proletariat of Western Europe and the revolutionary
peasant movement of the East and of the colonial and subject countries; 5) It
is likewise necessary to wage determined war against the attempt of quasi-
APPE^^DIX, PART 1 143..
Coniimiiiist revolutionists to cloak the liboration movement in the backward
coimtries with a Cunnnnnist garb. It is the duty of the Communist International
to support the revolutionary movement in the colonies and in the backward'
countries, for the exclusive purpose of uniting the various units of the future-
proletarian parties — such as are Comnnuiist not t)nly in name^ — in all back-
ward countries and educate them to the consciousness of their specific tasks, i. e.,.
to the tasks of the struggle against the bourgeois democratic tendencies within
their respective nationalities. The Communist International muist establish
temporai'y relations and even unions with the revolutionary movements in the
colonies and backward countries, without, however, amalgamating with them, but
preserving the independent character of the proletarian movement, even though
it be still in its embryonic state. 6) It is essential continually to expose the
deception fostered among the masses of the toilers in all, and especially in the
backward countries, by the imperialist powers aided by privileged classes of"
the subject countries, in creating under the mask of political independence various
governments and state institutions which are in reality completely dependent
upon them economically, financially and in a military sense. As a striking
example of the deception practised upon the working class of a subject country
through the combined efforts of Allied Imperialism and bourgeoisie of the
given nation, we may cite the Palestine affair of the Zionists, where, under the-
pretext of creating a Jewish state in Palestine, in which the Jews form only an
insignificant part of the population. Zionism has delivered the native Arabian
working population t(» the exploitation of England. Only a union of Soviet
Republics can bring salvation to the dependent and weak nationalities under
present International conditions.
12. The age long enslavement of the colonial and weak nationrJities by the
imperialist powers, has given rise to a feeling of I'ancour among the masses of
the enslaved countries, as well as to a feeling of distrust towards the oppressive -
nations in general and towards the proletariat of those nations. These senti-
ments have becojjie strengthened by the base treachery of the majority of the-
official leaders of the proletariat in the years of 1914-1919, when the social
patriots came out in defence of their fatherlands and of the "rights" of their
bourgeoisie to the enslavement of the colonies and to the plunder of the financially
dependent countries. These sentiments can be completely rooted out only by
the abolition of imperialism in the advanced countries and the radical trans-
formation of all the foundations of economic life in the backward countries.
Thus it will take a long time for these national prejudices to disappear. This
impo.ses upon the class conscious proletariat of all countries the duty of exercising
special caution and care with regard to these national sentiments still surviving
in the countries and nationalities which have been subjected to lasting enslave-
ment, and also of making necessary concessions in order more speedily to remove
this distrust and prejudice. The victory over capitalism cannot be fully achieved
and carried to its ultimate goal unless the proletariat and the toiling masses of
all nations of the world rally of their own accord in a harmonious and close
union.
B. ) SUPPLEMENTARY THESES
1. To determine more especially the relation of the Communist International
to the revolutionary movements in the countries dominated by capitalistic im-
perialism, for instance, China and India, is one of the most important questions
before the Second Congress of the Third Internationiil. The history of the
world revolution has come to a peiiod when a proper understanding of this re-
lation is indispensable. The great European war and its results have shown
clearly that the mas.ses of non-European subject countries are inseparably con-
nected with the proletarian movement in Europe, as a consequence of the cen-
tralization of world capitalism — for instance, the sending of colonial troops and
huge armies of workers to the battle front during the war, etc.
2. One of the main sources from which European capitalism draws its chief
strength is to be found in the colonial possessions and deijendencies. Without
the control of the extensive ??V??V and vast fields of exploitation in the colonies,
the capitalist powers of Europe, cannot maintain their existence even for a
short time. P]ngland, the stronghold of imperialism, has been suffering from
overproduction for more than a century. But for the extensive colonial pos-
sessions ac(iuired for the sale of her surplus products and as a source of raw
materials for her ever-growing industries, the capitalistic structure of England
144 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
would have been crushed uuder its own weight long ago. By euslayiug the hun-
dreds of millions of inhabitants of Asia and Africa, English imperialism succeeds
so far in keeping the British proletariat under the domination of the bourgeoisie.
3. Super-profit gained in the colonies is the mainstay of modern capitalism
and so long as the latter is not deprived of this source of super-profit, it will
not be easy for the European working class to overthrow the capitalist order.
Thanks to "the possibilitv of the extensive and intensive exploitation of human
labor and natural resources in the colonies, the capitalist nations of Europe
are trviug, not without success, to recuperate their present bankruptcy. By
exploiting the masses in the colonies, European imperialism will be m a iwsition
to give concession after concession to the labor aristocracy at home While, on
the one hand, European imperialism seeks to lower the standard of living of the
home proletariat bv bringing into competition the productions of the lower paid
workers in subjectV-ountries, on the other hand, it wnll not hesitate to go to the
extent of sacrificing the entire surplus value in the home country so long as it
continues to gain its huge super-profits in the colonies. . , ^, , ^ •
4 The breaking up of the colonial empire, together with the proletarian
revolution in the home country, will ovei'thiow the capitalist system in Europe.
Consequently, the Communist International must widen the sphere of its
activities. It must establish relations with those revolutionary forces that
are working for the overthrow of imperialism in the countries subjected
politically and economically. These two forces must be co-ordinated if the
final success of the world revolution is to be guaranteed.
.5. The Communist International is the concentrated will of the world revo-
lutionary proletariat. Its mission is to organize the working class of the whole
world for the overthrow of the capitalistic order and the establishment of
Communism. The Third International is a fighting body which must assume
the task of combining the revolutionary forces of all the countries of the
world. Dominated as it was by a group of politicians, permeated with bour-
geois culture, the Second International failed to appreciate the importance of
the colonial question. For them the w'orld did not exist outside of Europe.
They could not see the necessity of co-ordinating the revolutionary movement
of Europe with those in the non-European countries. Instead of giving moral
and material help to the revolutionary movement in the colonies, the members
of the Second International themselves became imperialists.
6. Foreign imperialism, imposed on the Eastern peoples prevented them from
developing, socially and economically, side by side wath their felhtws in Europe
and America. Owing to the imperialist policy of preventing industrial devel-
opment in the colonies, a proletarian class, in the strict sense of the word,
could not come into existence there until recently. The ingenious craft indus-
tries were destroyed to make room for the products of the centralized indus-
tries in the imperialistic countries, con.sequently a majority of the population
was driven to the land to produce food, grains, and raw materials for export
to foreign lands. On the other hand, there followed a rapid concentration of
land in the hands of the big landowners, of financial capitalists, and the state,
thus creating a huge landless peasantry. The great bulk of the population
Avas kept in a state of illiteracy. As a result of this policy, the spirit of revolt
latent in every subject people, found its expression only through the small,
educated middle class.
Foreign domination has obstructed the free development of the social forces,
therefore, its overthrow is the first step towards a revolution in the colonies.
So to help overthrow the foreign rule in the colonies is not to endorse the
nationalist aspirations of the native bourgeoisie, but to open the way to the
smothered proletariat there.
7. There are to be found in the dependent countries two distinct movements
which every day grow farther apart from each other. One is the bourgeois
democratic nationalist movement, with a programme of political independence
uuder the bourgeois order, and the other is the mass action of the poor and
ignorant peasants and workers for their lil)eration from all sorts of exploita-
tion. The former endeavor to control the latter, and often succeed to a certain
extent, but the Communist International and the parties affected must stmggle
against such control, and help to develop class consciousness in the working
masses of the colonies. For the overthrow of foreign capitalism, which is
the first step toward revolution in the colonies, the co-operation of the bour-
geois nationalist revolutionary elements is useful.
But the foremost and necessary task is the formation of Communist Parties
which will organize the peasants and workers and lead them to the revolution
APPEJVDIX, PART 1 145
and to the establishment of soviet republics. Thus the masses in the backward
countries may reach Communism, not through capitalistic development, but
led by the class conscious proletariat of the advanced capitalist countries.
8. The real strength of the liberation movements in the colonies is no longer
confined to the narrow circle of bourgeois democratic nationalists. In most
of the colonies there already exist organized revolutionary parties which strive
to be in close connection with the working masses. (The relation of the
Communist International with the revolutionary movement in the colonies
should be realized through the mediums of these parties or groups, because
they were the vanguard of the working class in their respective countries.)
They are not verv large today, but they reflect the aspirations of the masses
and' the latter will follow them to the revolution. The Communist parties of
the different imperialistic countries must work in conjunction with these pro-
letarian parties of the colonies, and, through them, give all moral and material
support to the revolutionary movement in general.
9. The revolution in the colonies is not going to be a Communist revolution
in its first stages. But from the outset the leadership is in the hands of a
Communist vanguard, the revolutionary masses will not be led astray, but
will go ahead through the successive periods of development of revolutionary
experience. Indeed, it would be extremely erroneous in many of the Oriental
countries to try to solve tie agrarian problem according to pure Communist
principles. In "its first stages the revolution in the colonies must be carried on
with a programme which will include many petty bourgeois reform clauses,
such as division of land, etc. But from this it does not follow at all that
the leadership of the revolution will have to be surrendered to the bourgeois
democrats. On the contrary, the proletarian parties must carry on vigorous
and systematic propaganda of the Soviet idea, and organize the peasants' and
workers' Soviets as soon as possible. These Soviets will work in co-operation
with the Soviet Republics in the advanced capitalistic countries for the ulti-
mate overthrow of the capitalist order throughout the world.
Thesis on the Agrarian Question
1. No one but the city industrial proletariat, led by the Communist Party,
can save the laboring masses in the country from the pressiire of capital
and landlordism, from dissolution and from inperialistic wars, ever inevitable
as long as the capitalist regime endures. There is no salvation for the peasants
except to join the Communist proletariat, to support with heart and soiil
its revolutionary struggle to throw off the yoke of the landlords and the
bourgeoisie.
On the other hand, the industrial workers will be unable to carry out their
universal historic mission, and to liberate humanity from the bondage of capital
and war, if they shut themselves within their separate guilds, their nr.rrow
trade interests, and restrict themselves self-sufficiently to a desire for the
improvement of their sometimes tolerable botirgeois conditions of life. That
is what happens in most advanced cottntries possessing a "labor aristocracy,'*
which forms the basis of the would-be parties of the Second International, who
are, in fact, the worst enemies of Socialism, traitors to it, bourgeois jingoes,
agents of the bourgeoisie in the labor movement. The proletariat becomes a
truly revolutionary class, truly Socialist in its actions, only by acting as the
vanguard of all those who work and are being exploited, as their leader in
the struggle for the overthrow of the oppressors; and this cannot be achieved
without carrying the class struggle into the agrictiltural districts, without
making the laboring masses of the country all gather around the Communist
Party of the town proletariat, without the peasants being educated by the
town proletariat.
2. The laboring and exploited masses in the cotmtry, which the town pro-
letariat must lead on to the fight, or at least wih over to its side, are repre-
sented in all capitalist coimtries by the following groups :
In the first place, the agrictiltural proletariat, the hired laborers (by the year,
by the day, l)y the job), making their living by wage hibor in capitalist, agri-
cultural or industrial establishments; the independent organization of this class,
separated from the other groups of the country population (in a political, mili-
tary, trade, co-operative, educational sense), and an energetic propaganda among
it, in order to win it over to the side of the Soviet power and of the dictatorship
of the proletariat, must be the fundamental task of the Comnnniist parties in all
countries.
04931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 11
146 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
In the second place, the semi-proletariat or small peasants, those who make
their living partly by working for wages in agricultural and industrial capitalist
establishments, partly by toiling on their own or a rented parcel of land yielding
but a part of the necessary food produce for their families ; this class of the rural
population is rather numerous in all capitalist countries, but its existence and
its peculiar position are hushed up by the representatives of the bourgeoisie
and the yellow "Socialists" affiliated to the Second International. Some of these
people intentionally cheat the workers, but others follow blindly the average
views of the public and mix up this special clas.s with the whole mass of the
"peasantry." Such a method of bourgeois deception of the workers is used more
particularly in Germany and France, and then in America and other countries.
Provided that the work of the Communist Party is well organized, this group
is sure to side with the Communists, the conditions of life of these half-prole-
tarians being very hard, the advantage the Soviet power and the dictatorship of
the proletariat would bring them being enormous and immediate. In some coun-
tries there is no clear-cut distinction between these two groups ; it is, therefore,
permissible under certain conditions to form them into separate organizations.
In the third place, the little proprietors, the small farmers who possess by
right of ownership or on rent small portions of land which satisfy the needs of
their family and of their farming without requiring any additional wage labor ;
this part of the population as a class gains everytliing by the victory of the
proletariat, which brings with it: a) liberation from the payment of rent or of
a part of the crops (for instance, the metayers in France, the same arrangements
in Italy, etc.) to the owners of large estates: b) abolition of all mortgages; c)
abolition of many forms of pressure and of dependence on the owners of large
estates (forests and their use, etc.) ; d) immediate help from the proletarian
?tate for farm work (permitting use by peasants of the agrueiltural implements
and in part of the buildings on the big capitalist estates expropriated by the
proletariat, the immediate transformation by the proletarian state power of
all rural co-operatives and agricultural companies, which under the capitalist
rule were chiefly supporting the wealthy and the middle peasantry, into institu-
tions primarily for the support of the poor peasantry, that is to say, the proletari-
ans, semi-proletarians, small farmers, etc.)
At the same time the Connnunist I'arty should be thoroughly aware that during
the dictatorship of the proletariat, at least some partial hesitations are inevitable
in this class, in favor of unrestricted free trade and free use of the rights of
private property. For this class, being a seller of commodities (although on
a small scale), is necessarily demoralized by profit-hunting and habits of pro-
prietorship. And yet, provided thei'e is a consistent proletarian policy — and the
victorious proletariat deals relentlessly with tlie owners of the large estates and
the landed peasants — the hesitations of the class in question will not be consid-
erable, and cannot change the fact that on the whole this class will side with
the proletarian revolution.
3. All these three groups taken together constitute the majority of the agrarian
popiUation in all capitalist countries. This guarantees in full the success of the
proletarian revolution, not only in the towns but in the country as well. The
opposite view is very widely spread, but it persists only becaiise of a systematic
deception on the part of bourgeois science and statistics. They hush up by every
means any mention of the deep chasm which divides the rural classes we have
indicated, from the exploiters, the landowners and capitalists on the one hand,
from the landed peasants on the other. It holds further because of the incapacity
and the failure of the "heroes" affiliated to the yellow Second International and
the "labor aristocracy," demoralized by imperialistic privileges, to do gemiine
propaganda work among the poor in the country. All the attention of the
opportunists was given and is being given now to the arrangement of theoretical
and practical agreements with the bourgeoisie, including the landed and the middle
peasantry (see Paragraph concerning these classes) and not to the revolutionary
overthrow of the bourgeois government and the bourgeois class by the proletariat.
In the third place, this view persists because of the force of inveterate prejudice
possessing already a great stability (and connected with all bourgeois-democratic
and parliamentary prejudices) the incapacity to grasp a simple truth fully
proved by the Marxian theory and confirmed by the practice of the proletarian
revolution in Russia. This truth consists in the fact that the peasant population
of the three classes we have mentioned above, being extremely oppressed, scat-
tered, and doomed to live in half-civilized conditions in all countries, even in the
most advanced, is economically, socially, and morally interested in the victory
of Socialism; but that it will finally support the revolutionai'y proletariat only
APPENDIX, PART 1 147
after the proletariat has taken the political power, after it has done away with
the owners of the large estates and the capitalists, after the oppressed masses
are able to see in practice that they have an organized leader and helper suf-
ficiently powerful and firm to support and to guide, to show the right way.
The "middle peasantry," in the economic sense, consists of small landowners
who possess, according to the right of ownership or rent, portions of land, which,
although small, nevertheless may: 1) usually yield under capitalist rule not only
scanty provision for the fjiniily and the needs of the farming, but also the possibil-
ity of accinnulating a certain surplus, which, at least in the best years, could be
transformed into capital; and 2) necessitate the employment of (for instance, in
a family of two or three members) wage labor. As a concrete example of the
middle peasantry in an advanced capitalist country, we may take the situation in
Germany, where, according to the registration of ]917, there was a group tilling
farms from live to ten acres, and in these farms the number of hired agricultural
laborers made up about a third of the whole number of farms in this group.' In
France, the country of a greater development of siiecial cultures, for instance,
the vineyards, requiring special treatment and care, the corresponding group
employs wage labor probably in a somewhat larger portion.
The revolutionary proletariat can not make it its aim, at least for the nearest
future and for the beginning of the period of the proletarian dictatorship, to win
this class over to its side. The proletariat will have to content itself with neu-
tralizing this class, i. e., with making it take a neutral position in the struggle
between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The vacillation of this class is
unavoidable, and in the beginning of the new epoch its predominating tendency
in the advanced capitalist countries will be in favor of the bourgeoisie, for the
ideas and sentiments of private property are characteristic of the possessors. The
victorious proletariat will immediately improve the lot of this class by abolishing
the system of rent and mortgage, by the introduction of machinery and electrical
appliances into agriculture. The proletarian state power cannot at once abolish
private property in most of the capitalist countries, but must do away with all
duties and levies imposed upon this class of people by the landlords ; it will also
secure to the small and middle peasantry the ownership of their land holding-s
and enlarge them, putting the peasants in possession of the land they used to rent
abolition of rents).
The combination of such measures with a relentless struggle against the bour-
geoisie guarantees the full success of the neutralization policy. The transition to
collective agriculture must be managed with much circumspection and step by
step, and the proletarian state power must proceed by the force of example without
any violence toward the middle peasantry.
5. The landed peasants or farmei-s ( Grossbauern ) ) are capitalists in agricul-
ture, managing their lands usually with several hired laborers. They are con-
nected with the "peasantry" only by their rather low standard of culture, their
way of living, the personal manual work of their land. This is the most nu-
merous element of the bourgeois class, and the decided enemy of the revolu-
tionary proletariat. The chief attention of the Communist Party in the rural
districts must be given to the struggle against this element, to 'the liberation
of the laboring and exploited majority of the rural population from the moral
and political influence of these exploiters.
After the victory of the proletariat in the towns, this class will inevitably
oppose it by all means, from sabotage to open armed counter-revolutionary
resistance. The revolutionary proletariat must, therefore, immediately begin
to prepare the necessary force for the disarmament of every single man of this
class, and together with the overthrow of the capitalists in industry, the pro-
letariat must deal a relentless, crushing blow to this class. To that end it must
arm the rural proletariat and organize Soviets in the country, with no room
for exploiters, and a preponderant place must be reserved to the proletarians
and the semi-proletarians.
But the expropriation even of the landed peasants can by no means be an
immediate object of the victorious proletariat, considering the lack of material,
particularly of technical material, and further of the social conditions necessary
for the socialization of such lands. In some probably exceptional cases parts
^ These are the exact figures: number of farms .5 — 10 acres 552,798 (out of 5,736,082) :
tney possess in all sorts of hired worl^ers, 487,704 — the number of worlcers with their
families (Familienangehoeri'j-e) being 2,013,6.3.3. In Austria, according to the census of
1910, there were 383,351 farms in this group. 126,136 of them employing hired labor :
146,044 hired worker.s, 1,215,969 workers with their families. The total number of
farms in Austria amounts to 2,856,349.
148 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of their estates will be confiscated if they are leased in small parcels, or if they
are specially needed by the small-peasant iX)pulation. A free use must be also
secured to this population, on definite terms, of a part of the agricultural
machinery of the lauded peasants, etc. As a general rule, however, the state
power must leave the peasants in possession of their land, confiscating it only
in case of resistance to the government of the laboring and exploited peasants.
The experience of the Russian proletarian revolution, whose struggle against the
landed peasants became very complicated and prolonged owing to a number of
particular circumstances, nevertheless shows that this class has been at last
taught what it costs to make the slightest attempt at resistance, and is now
quite willing to serve loyally the aims of the proletarian state. It begins even
to be penetrated, although very slowly, by a respect for the government which
protects every worker and deals relentlessly vi'ith the idle rich.
The specific conditions which complicated and prolonged the struggle of the
Russian proletariat against the landed peasantry after the overthrow of the
bourgeoisie, consist mainly in the fact that after the coup d'etat of October 25 and
November 7, 1917, the Russian revolution traversed a stage of "general demo-
cratic," actually bourgeois democratic, struggle of the peasantry as a whole
against the landowners, and there were further the low standard of living and
scarcity of the urban proletariat, and, finally, the enormous distances and ex-
ceedingly bad transport conditions. Insofar as these adverse conditions do not
exist in the advanced countries, the revolutionary proletariat in Europe and
America must prepare with much more energy and carry out a much more rapid
and complete victory over the resistance of the landed peasantry, depriving it
of all possibility of resistance. This is of the utmost importance, considering that
until a complete, absolute victory is won, the proletarian state power cannot be
regarded as secure and capable of resisting its enemies.
6. The revolutionary proletariat must proceed to an immediate and uncondi-
tional confi.scation of the estates of the landowners and big landlords, that is,
of all those who systematically euiploy wage labor, directly or through their
tenants, who exploit all the small (and not infrequently also the middle)
peasantry in their neighborhood, and who do not do any actual manual work.
To this element belong the majority of the descendants of the feudal lords
(the nobility of Russia, Germany, and Hungary, the restored seigneurs of
France, the Lords in England, the former slave owners in America), or financial
magnates who have become particularly rich, or a mixture of those two classes
of exploiters and idlers.
No propaganda can be admitted in the ranks of the Communist parties in
favor of an indemnity to be paid to the owners of large estates for their
expropriation. In the present conditions prevailing in Europe and America
this would mean treason to Socialism and the imposition of a new tax on the
laboring and exploited masses, who have already suffered from the war, which
has increased the number of millionaires and has mulliplied their wealth.
In the advanced capitalist countries the Communist International considers
that it should be a prevailing practice to preserve the lai-ge agricultural estab-
lishments and manage them on the lines of the "Soviet farms" in Riissia.^ In
regard to the management of the estates confiscated by the victorious prole-
tariat from the owners of large landed property — the prevailing practice in
Russia — the cause of economic backwardness was the partition of this landed
property for the benefit of the peasantry, and in comparatively rare exceptions
was there a preservation of the so-called "Soviet farm." managed by the prole-
tarian state at its expense, and transforming the former wage laborers into
workers employed by the state, and into members of the Soviets managing these
farms.
The preservation of large landholdings serves best the interests of the revo-
lutionary elements of the population, namely, the landless agricultural workers
and semi-pi'oletarian small landholders, who get their livelihood mainly by
working on the large estates. IJesides, the nationalization of large landholdings
makes the urban population, at least in part, less dependent on the peasantry
for their food.
In those places, however, where relics of the feudal system still prevail,
where "serfdom" and the system of giving half of the products to the peasants
prevails and where a part of the soil belongs to the large estates the landlord
privileges give rise to special forms of exploitation.
2 It is also advisable to encourage collective establishments (Comnuines).
APPENDIX, PART 1 149
In countries where large landlioklings are insignificant in number, while a
great number of small tenants are in search of land, the distribution of the
large holdings can prove a sure means of winning the peasantry for the revo-
lution, while the preservation of the large estates can be of no value for the
provisioning of the towns. The first and most important task of the proletarian
state is to secure a lasting victory. The proletariat must put up with a tempo-
rary decline of production so long as it makes for the success of the revolution.
Only by persuading the middle peasantry to maintain a neutral attitude, and
by gaining the support of a large part, if not the whole, of the small ijeas-
antry, can the lasting maintenance of the proletarian power be secured.
At any rate, where the land of the large owners is being distributed, the
interests of the agricultural proletariat must be of primary consideration.
The implements of large estates must be converted into state property abso-
lutely intact, but on the unfailing condition that these implements be put at
the disposal of the small peasants gratis, subject to conditions worked out by
the proletarian state.
If just at first, after the proletarian coup de'etat, the Immediate confiscation
of the big estates becomes absolutely necessary, and moreover, also the banish-
ment or internment of all landowners as leaders of the counter-revolution, and
relentless oppressors of the whole rural population, the proletarian state, in
proportion to its consolidation not only in the towns but in the country as well,
must systematically strive to take advantage of all the forces of this class, of
all those who possess valuable experience, learning, organizing talent, and must
use them (under special control of the most reliable Communist workers) to
organize large agriculture on Socialist principles.
7. The victory of Socialism over capitalism, the consolidation of Socialism, will
be definitely established at the time that the proletarian state power, after hav-
ing finally subdued all resistance of the exploiters and secured for itself com-
plete and absolute submission, will reorganize the whole industry on the base of
wholesale collective production and a nev/ technical basis (founded on the elec-
trification of agriculture). This alone will afford a possibility of such radical
help in the technical and the social sense, accorded by the town to the backward
and dispersed country, that this help will create the material base for an enor-
mous increase in the productivity of agricultural and general farming work, and
will induce the small farmers by force of example and for their own benefit to
change to large, collective machine agriculture.
Most particularl.v in the rural districts real possibility of successful struggle
for Socialism requires, in the first place, that all Communist parties inculcate in
the industrial proletariat the necessity of sacrifice on its part, and readiness to
sacrifice it.self for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and that the consolidation of
the proletariat be based on the proletariat's knowing how to organize and to lead
the woi-king and exploited masses, and on the vanguard's being ready for the
greatest sacrifices and heroism. In the second place, possibility of success re-
quires that the laboring and most exploited masses in the country experience
immediate and great improvement in their position caused by the victory of the
proletariat and by the defeat of the exploiters. Unless this is done, the indus-
trial proletariat cannot depend on the support of the rural districts, and cannot
secure the provisioning of the town with foodstuffs.
8. The enormous ditficulty of organization and education for the revolutionary
struggle of the agrarian laboring masses placed by capitalism in a condition of
particular oppression, disper.sion, and often a mediaeval dependence require from
the Communist parties special care for the strike movement in the rural dis-
tricts. It requires enforced support and wide development of mass strikes of the
agrarian proletarians and semiproletarians. The experience of the Russian rev-
olutions of 1905 and 1917, confirmed and enlarged now by the experience of Ger-
many and other advanced countries, shows that only the development of mass-
strike struggle (under certain conditions the small peasants are also to be drawn
into these strikes) will shake the inactivity of the country population, arouse
in them a class consciousness and the consciousness of the necessity of class
organization in the exploited masses in the country, and show them the obvious
practical use of their joining the town workers. From this standpoint the pro-
motion or Unions of Agricultural "Workers, the co-operation of Communists in
the country, and woodworkers' organizations are of great importance. The
Communists must likewise support the co-operative organizations formed by the
exploited agricultural population closely connected with the revolutionary labor
movement. A vigorous agitation is likewise to be carried on among the small
peasants.
150 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Congress of the Communist International denounces as traitors those
Socialists — unfortunately there are such not only in the yellow Second Interna-
tional, but also among the three most important European parties, which have
left the Second International — who are not only indifferent toward the strike
struggle in the rural districts, but oppose it (as does Kautsky) on the ground
that it might cause a falling-off of the production of foodstuffs. No programmes
and no solemn declarations have any value if the fact is not in evidence, testified
to by actual deeds, that the Communists and labor leaders know how to put the
development of the proletarian revolution and its victory above everything else
and are ready to make the utmost sacrifices for the sake of this victory. Unless
this is a fact, there is no escape, no barrier against starvation, dissolution, and
new imperialistic wars.
The Communist parties must make all efforts possible to start as soon as pos-
sible setting up Soviets in the country, and these Soviets must be chiefly com-
posed of hired laborers and semi-proletarians. Only in connection with the
mass-strike struggle of the most oppressed class will the Soviets be able to serve
fully their ends, and become sufficiently firm to dominate (and further on to
include in their ranks) the small peasants. But if the strike struggle is not yet
developed, and the ability to organize the agrarian proletariat is weak because
of the strone: oppression by the landowners and the landed peasants, and also
because of the want of support from the industrial workers and their unions,
the organization of the Soviets in the rural districts will require long prepara-
tion by means of creating small Communist centers, of intensive propaganda, ex-
pounding in a most popular form the demands of the Communists, and illustrat-
ing the reasons of these demands by specially convincing cases of exploitation,
and pressure by systematic excursions of industrial workers into the country, etc.
Exhibit No. 13
[Source: Excerpts from Lenin On Organization, published by Daily Worl^er Publislilng
Company, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago. Illinois: 1926. Pages G4, 74, 111-
1251
* * * * * * *
On the other hand, the organizations of revolutionaries must be comprised
first and foremost of people whose profession consists of being revolutionaries
(that is why I speak of organizations of revolutionaries, meaning revolutionary
Social Democrats). In face of this common characteristic the members of such
an organization must ahdvdon all distincUo'n between workers and intellectuals,
let alone distinctions between trades and professions. Such an organization must
of necessity be not too extensive and as conspiratorial as possible.
****** 0
I might go on analyzing the statutes, but I think that what has been said will
suflSce. A small tight kernel, consisting of reliable, experienced and steeled
workers, with responsible agents in the chief districts and connected by all the
rules of strict conspiracy with the organizations of revolutionaries, can, with
the wide support of the masses and without any formulation, fully perform all
the functions belonging to a trade union organization, and perform them
moreover in the manner desii-ed by Social Democrats.
*******
IV
General Type of Organization
(From "A Letter to a Comrade on Our Problems of Organization,"
September, 1902)
. . . Now a word about the factory circles. They are of extreme im-
portance to us : the main strength of our movement lies in the workers' organi-
zations in the large factories. For in the large factories (and works) are
concentrated that section of the worlving class which is not only predominant
in numbers, but still more predominant in influence, development and fighting
capacity. Every factory must be our stronghold. And that means that every
"factory" workers' organization must be as conspiratorial internally and as
"ramified" externally, and that its feelers be stretched as far and widespread
as any revolutionary organization. I emphasize that hero again the center,
APPENDIX, PART 1 151
the leader, the "boss" nutst be .1 group of worker revolutionaries. We must
break completely with the traditional type of purely labor or purely trade union
oi-ganizatiou, not excludhiff the "factory" circles. The factory si'oup, or the
factory (works) committee (to distinguish it from other groups of which there
should be a great number) must consist of a very small number of revolu-
tionaries who will take their instructions and receive their authority to carry
on Social Democratic work in the factory, direetlij from the committee. Kvery
member of the factory committee must regard himself as an agent of the com-
mittee, obliged to subordinate himself to the orders of the committee and to
adhere to all the 'iaws and customs" of that "army on active service" which
he has joined and which in time of war he has no right to abandon without the
consent of his superior. The composition of the factory committee is therefore
a matter of extreme importance. One of the main cares of the committee
should be that the sub-committee be properly organized. I inuigine the thing
somewhat as follows: the committee charges certain of its members (plus, let
us say, certain workers who for some reason or other cannot join the committee,
)iut who may be very useful on account of their experience, knowledge of people,
good sense and connections) to organize factory sub-committees everywhere.
Ihe commission will consult with the district delegates, arrange meetings, care-
fully examine the candidates for membership of the factory sub-committees,
submit them to close cross-examination, if possible subject them to a test, en-
deavoring themselves to interview and directly examine as large a numher as
possible of candidates to the sub-committee of the factory in question and will
finally submit a certain list of members for each factory group for the approval
of the committee, or propose that authority be given to a certain worker to set
up. indicate, or select a complete sub-committee. The committee will itself
(letermine which of these agents is to maintain contact with it and how the
contact ivS to be maintained (as a rule, through the district delegates, but this
rule may be subject to additions and amendments). In view of the great im-
portance of these factory sub-committees, we must see to it that wherever pos-
sible each sub-committee should be in possession of an address to which to
direct its communications to the C. O. (16) and have a depot for its contacts
in some safe place (i. e., that the information required for the immediate
reformation of a factory committee in the event of the arrest of its members
should be transmitted as frequently and as abundantly as possible to the party
centre, there to be kept in a safe place where the Russian gendarmes are unable
to get at it). It will, of course, be understood that the transmission of
addresses is to be determined by the committee according to its own discretion
and the facts at its disposal, and not in accordance with some non-existent
"democratic" right. Finally, it is perhaps not superfluous to mention that it
might sometimes he more convenient in place of a factory sub-committee con-
sisting of several members to confine itself to the appointment of an agent of
the committee (and his candidate or substitute). As soon as the factory
sub-committee has been formed it should proceed to organize a number of fac-
tory groups and circles with diver.se functions and with varying degrees of
conspiratorialness and definition of organization : such as, for instance, circles
for distributing and broadcasting literature (this is one of the most important
functions ; it must be so organized as to provide us with a real postal service
of our own ; not only the methods of distributing literature but also of deliver-
ing it in the homes must be carefully studied and tested, and the home of
every worker and the way to it must be well learned) ; circles for reading
illegal literature ; groups for keeping a watch on spies ; ^ circles for the economic
struggle, groups of agitators and propagandists who know how to start and to
carry specific leadership of the trade union movement and on long conversations
in a legal manner (on the subject of machinery, inspectors, etc.), and so be
able to speak safely in public, to examine people and feel how the land lies."
The factory sub-committee should endeavor to embrace the whole factory and the
largest possible number of the workers in a network of circles of all kinds (or
agents). The success of the activities of the .sub-committee should be measured
1 We must get tlie workers to understand that while the killins of spies, pro-
vocateurs and traitors ma.v sometimes, of course, be absolutely unavoidable, it is highly
undesirable and mistaken to make a system of it, and that our endeavor should be to
create an organization which will be able to render spies innocuous by exposing them
and tracking them down. To root out spies altogether is impossible, but to create an
organization which will track them out and educate the working class masses is both
possible and necessarii.
2 We also need fighting groups, in which workers who have had military training or
who are particularly muscular and agile should be enrolled, to be used in tlie event of
demonstrations, prison, releases, etc.
][52 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
by the multiplicity of circles, the possibility of travelling propagandists getting^
into contact with them, and above all, by the correctness and regularity of the
work done in the distribution of literature and the reception of information and
correspondence.
In my opinion, the general type of organization should be as follows: the
head of the whole local movement and of all the local Social Democratic
activities should be the conmiittee. From it should proceed the institutions
and branch departments subordinated to it, such as, firstly, the network of
executive agents embracing (as far as possible) the whole working class mass
and organized in the form of district groups and factory (works) sub-corn-
mitties. In times of peace this network will be engaged in distributing litera-
ture, leaflets, proclamations and the conspiratorial communications of the
committee ; in time of war it will organize demonstrations and similar collec-
tive activities. Secondly, there will proceed from the committee circles and
groups of all kinds necessary for serving the whole movement (propaganda,
transport, conspiratorial function, etc.). Every group, circle, sub-committee,
etc., must be on the footing of a committee or branch department of the
committee. Certain of them may express a direct wish to join the Rus.sian
Social Democratic Labor Party (17), and, provided that the committee give\s
its approval, will do so, and (at the request of, or in agreement with, the
committee) will assume definite functions, will undertake to obey all the
instructions of the Party organs, will be endowed with the rights enjoyed by
every member of the Party, may be regarded as immediate candidates for
membership of the committee, etc. Others will not join the Russian Social
Democratic Labor Party, but will be regarded as circles formed by Party mem-
bers or associated with some or other Party group, etc.
In all their internal affairs the members of all these circles are, of course,
equal among themselves, just as the members of a committee are equal among
themselves. The sole exception will be that the right of personal contact with
the local committee (as well as with the C. C. and the C. O. ) will be possessed
only by the person (or persons) appointed for that purpose by the committee.
In all other respects, this person will be on an equality with the rest, who
will also have the right of addressing themselves (but not personally) to the
local committee and to the C. C. and the C. O. The exception indicated there-
fore will not be an infringement of equality, but only an absolutely essential
concession to the demands of conspiracy. A member of a committee who fails
to transmit to the committee, the C. C. or the C. O:, the communications of
"his" group will be guilty of a direct infringement of his Party duties. Fur-
thermore, the degree of conspiratorialness and definition of organization of the
various circles will depend upon the character of their functions, and the
organizations will therefore be of the most varied character (from the most
"strict", narrow and closed type of organization to the "loosest," widest, oi>en
and indefinite type). For instance, the distributing groups require the utmost
conspiratorialness and nnlitary discipline. The propagandist groups need to be
equally conspiratorial, but with a far less degree of military discipline. Work-
ers' groups for reading legal literature, or for discussions on trade union needs
and problems require to be still less conspiratorial and so on. The distributing
groups should belong to the R. S. D. L. P. and be acquainted with a certain
number of its members and responsible persons. A group for studying trade
union conditions of labor and for drawing up trade union demands is not obliged
to belong to the R. S. D. L. P. A group of students, officers or clerks engaged
in self-education with the cooperation of one or two members of the Party,
should sometimes even not be acquainted with the fact that they belong to the
Party, etc. But in one respect we must ahsoltdcly demand the maximum dcfi-
niteness in every branch of groups, namely, that each Party member working
in these groups is formally responsible for the conduct of their affairs and is
obliged to take ei-ery measure in order that the composition of each of the.se
groups, the whole mechani.-nn of its work and the character of that work should
be knoivn to the C. C. and the C. O. That is necessary not only in order that
the centres may have a complete picture of the whole movement, but that the
selection for various Party posts may be made from the widest possible circle of
people, that (through the intermediary of the centre) each group may serve as a
les-son for all the groups of a similar character in Russia, and that adequate
warning may be given in the event of the appearance of provocateurs or doubtful
persons — in a word, it is necessary from every point of view.
How is this to be done? By regular reports to the committee, the transmis-
sion of as large a number of as much of the contents as possible of these reports
APPENDIX, PART 1 153
1() the C. O. by arranging that members of the C. C. and the local committee
should visit the circles, and, tinally. that the contacts with the circles, i. e. the
names and addresses of several members of each circle, should be transmitted
for safe-keeping (and to the Party bureaus of the C. O. and the C. C). Only
when reports are regularly made and contacts transmitted may it be said that
a Party member participating in a circle is fulfilling his duties; only when the
Party as a whole is in a position to leant from every circle which; is carrying
(in practical work, will arrests have lost their terror; for if contacts are main-
tained with the various circles it will always be easy for a delegate of the C. C.
to find a substitute iiuDiediateUj and liave the work renewed. The arrest of a
committee will then not destroy the whole machine, but only remove the leaders,
to replace whom there will always be candidates ready. And let it not be said
that the communication of reports and contacts are impossible under conspira-
torial conditions: one has only to desire it and it is always, and icill always,
be possible to hand over (or transmit) reports and contacts as long as we have
committees, a C. C. and a C. O.
We have arrived at a very important principle of all Party organization and
all Party activity: while as far as the intellectual and practical leadership of
the movement and the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat is concerned,
the greatest possible decentralization is required, as far as keeping the Party
centre (and therefore the Party as a whole), informed regarding the movement
and as far as responsibility to the Party is concerned, the greatest possible de-
centralization is required. The leadership of the movement should be entrusted
to the smallest possible number of uniform groups of professional revolution-
aries who have been trained in the school of experience. The greatest possible
number of diverse and heterogeneous groups of every section of the proletariat
(and other clas.ses of the population) should take part in the movement. The
Party centre must always have before it not only exact information regarding
the activities of each of" the groups, but also the fullest possible facts regard-
ing its composition. The leadership of the movement must be centralized.
We must also, (and for that very reason, for without information we cannot
have decentralization) as far as possible, decentralization responsibility to the
Party on the part of every individual member and every participant in the
work and of every circle belonging to, or associating itself with, the Party.
This decentralization is an essential condition of revolutionary centralization
and an essential corrective to it. When centralization has been fully estab-
lished and we have a C. O. and a C. C, it will be possible for every group,
however small, to communicate with them — and not only will it be able to
communicate with them, but regularity of comnuinication will be established
by years of experience— and the possibility of grievous consequences resulting
from the chance unfortunate composition of a local committee will be removed.
Now, when we are seriously endeavoring to effect real unity in the Party and
to create a real leading centre, we must particularly bear in mind that the
centre will be impotent if we do not introduce the maximnm of decentraliza-
tion both as far as responsibility to the centre and keeping it informed of all
the wheels and inner wheels of the Party machine are concerned. Thisi de-
centralization is only the reverse side of the division of labor which is generally
recognized to be one of the most urgent practical needs of our movement. The
official recognition of a given organization as the leading organization, the setting
up of a formal C. C. is not enough to make our movement a real united move-
ment, or to create a strong fighting Party if the Party centre is oit off from
direct practical work by the local committees of the old type, i. e. by such as are,
on the one hand, made up of a great number of persons each of which carries
on every kind of work, does not devote himself to certain definite functions, is not
responsible for some special duty, never carries a well-considered and well-
prepared piece of work to an end, and spends an enormous amount of time and
energy in simply running to and fro — and, on the other hand, embrace a great
mass of student and worker.s' circles, half of which are altogether unknown to the
committee, and the other half are huge unspecialized, accumulating no profes-
sional experience, nor making use of the experience of others, and, like the
committee itself, engaged in endless conferences about everything in general,
in elections and in the drawing up of statutes. In order that the centre may be
able to work properly, the local committees must be re-formed; they must become
specialized and "business-like" organizations which will be capable of achieving
real "improvements" in some one or other practical .sphere. In order that the
centre should do more than discuss, argue and wrangle (as has been the case
hitherto) but really conduct the orchestra, it is necessary that it should know
X54 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
who is playing wliicli fiddle and where; who has learnt, or is learning to play
a certain instrument, and how and where ; who is playing a false note ( that
is, when the music happens to go wrong) and where and why, and who must
be transferred, and where to in order that the discord be corrected, etc. Let
it be said openly, at the present moment we either know nothing about the
real internal work of a given committee, except from its proclamations and gen-
eral correspondence, or we know about it from friends or personal acquaintances.
It is ridiculous to think that this is good enough for a huge Party which is capable
of leading the Russian working class movement and which is preparing itself
for an attack upon the autocracy. The number of members of the committees
must be cut down ; each of them, wherever possible, must be entrusted with a
definite special and responsible function, for which it must account ; a small
special directing centre must be set up ; a network of executive agents must be
developed to connect the committee with every large factory and works, to conduct
the regular distribution of literature and to supply the centre with an exact
picture of how the distribution is being carried out and of the whole mechanism
of the work ; and finally, numerous groups and circles must be formed which
will take various functions upon themselves or unite persons who desire to
work with the Social Democratic Party, to help it and to become Social Demo-
crats, and which will keep the committee and the centre constantly informed of the
activities (and the composition) of the circles. That is the way in which the St.
Petersburg, and all the other comimttees of the Party must be reorganized ; and
that is why the question of the statutes is of such little importance.
PROPAGANDIST GROUPS
... I now pass to the question of the propagandist groups. To organize such
in every district is hardly possible and hardly desirable, in view of our poverty of
propagandists. Propaganda should be carried on by the Committee as a whole
and must be strictly centralized, and my idea of the matter is therefore as fol-
lows : the Committee charges certain of its members to organize a propagandist
group (which will act as a branch department of the Committee or be one of the
Committee institution's). This group, making conspiratorial use of the services
of the district groups, will conduct propaganda throughout the tvhole town, and
in every locality "within the competence" of the Committee. If necessary, this
group may set up a sub-group, and, so to speak, transfer certain of its functions,
but only with the sanction of the Connnittee, and the Committee shall always
and unconditionally possess the right of detailing its delegate to each group,
sub-group, or circle which has any contact at all with the movement. . .
By the way, while on the subject of propagandists, I should like to say a few
words in criticism of the usual practice of ovcrloadinff this profession with
people of little capacity for it and thus lowering the level of propaganda.
Almost every student without any selection is regarded as a propagandist, and
the whole of our youth demand that they should "be given circles." This
tendency must be fought, because it is doing a lot of harm. As a matter of
fact, capable propagandists well-grouni!ed and trained in theory are very rare
(to become such a propagandist requires a fair amount of training and accu-
inulation of experience) ; they must therefore be specialized, we must put them
wholly on this work and take great care of them. We must arrange several
lectures a week for them; we nuist be able when necessary to send them to
other towns, and, in general, arrange for various towns to be toured by capable
propagandists. The mass of young beginners should rather be put on practical
jobs; these are rather neglected in comparison with the amount of circle attend-
ing which is done by the students and which is optimistically called "propa-
ganda." Of course, serious practice jobs also require considerable training,
but nevertheless, work in this sphere can more easily be found even for
"novices". . .
VARIOUS GROUPS
In the same way, and after the type of branch department of the Committee
or Connnittee institution, all the other groups serving the movement should be
organized — the university students and high school students groups, the groups,
let us say, for assisting government officials, transport groups, printing groups,
passport groups, groups for arranging conspiratorial meeting places, groups for
tracking spys, military groups, groups for procuring arms, organization groups,
such as for running income producing enterprises, etc. The whole art of con-
spiratorial organization consists in making use of everything and everybody and
APPENDIX, PART 1 155
finding work for everybody, at the same time retaining the leadership of the
whole movement, not by force, but by virtue of authority, energy, greater experi-
ence, greater versatility and greater talent. We say this for the sake of those
who usually object that too strict centralization, which is absolutely impossible
to any large extent and which is even directly harmful to revolutionary work
carried on under an autocratic government. Statutes gives us no guarantee ;
that can be provided only by measures of "fraternal co-operation," beginning
with the resolutions of each and every sub-group, their appeals to the C. O. and
the C. C. and ending (if the worst comes to the worst tvith the overthrow of
incapable authorities. The Committee should try to achieve the greatest possible
division of labor, remembering that the various kinds of revolutionary work
demand various capacities and that a person who is absolutely useless as an
organizer may be invaluable as an agitator, or that a person who does not
possess the endurance demanded by conspiratorial work may be an excellent
propagandist and so on. . .
Exhibit No. 14
[Source: Programme of the World Revolution, by N. Bucharin ; a booklet published by
the Contemporary Publishing Association, New York : 1920]
PROGRAMME OP THE WORLD REVOLUTION
(By N. Bucharin)
Contemporary Publishing Association, New York. 1920
chapter i
The Reign of Capital, the Working Class, and the Poorer Elements of the
Village Population
In all countries, except in Russia, Capital is predominant. Whatever State
one takes, whether semi-despotic Prussia, or Republican France, or so-called
democratic America, everywhere power is wholly concentrated in the hands of
big capital. A small group of people, landowners, manufacturers and the
richest bankers, hold millions and hundreds of millions of town workers and
rural poor in slavery bondage, compelling them to toil, sweating them and
throwing them on the street as soon as they become useless and worn out and
incapable of being a source of further profit to Lord Capital.
This terrible power of the bankers and manufacturers over millions of toilers
is given to them by wealth. Why does a poor man who is thrown on the streets
have to starve to death? Because he possesses nothing but a pair of hands
which he can sell to the capitalist should the capitalist want them. How is it
that a rich banker or business man can do nothing, and yet lead an easy life
free of care, getting a solid income and taking in profit daily, hourly, and
even by the minute? Because he possesses not only a pair of hands, but also
those means of production without which work is impossible nowadays, fac-
tories, land, machines, railroads, mines, ships and steamers, and all kinds of
apparatus and instruments. All over the world, except in present-day Russia,
this wealth accumulated by man belongs only to capitalist and landowners
who have also become capitalists. And it is no wonder that in such a state
of affairs a group of men, having in their hands all that is indispensable, the
most necessary things, dominate the rest who possess nothing. Let us take the
instance of a poor man from the country coming to town to seek work. Who
does he go to? To the proprietor, the man who owns a factory or works. And
this snme proprietor becomes the complete master of the man's life. If his,
the master's loyal servants, directors and bookkeepers, have calculated that it
is possible to squeeze more profits out of fresh workers than out of the old ones,
then he "gives a job." If not, he tells him to "pass along." At the factory
the capitalist is monarch of all he surveys. He is obeyed by all, and hi."?
directions are implicitly carried out. The factory is extended or reduced at
his will. At his command, through foremen and managers, workmen are em-
ployed or dismissed. He decides how long they are to work and what pay
they are to get. And all this happens because the factory is his factory, the
works his works, they belong to him, are his private property. It is this right
156 UN- AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of private property over the means of production that is the cause of the
terrible power trhich is in the hands of capital.
The same thing Iwkls good with regard to land. Take the freest and the
most democratic country — the United States. Thousands of workers cultivate
land that does not belong to them, land owned by landowning capitalists. Here
everything is organized on the plan of a large factory ; there are tens and
hundreds of electric ploughs, reaping machines, reaping and sheaf-binding
machines, at which hired slaves toil from dawn till night. And just as at the
factory, they work not for themselves, but for a master. This is because land
itself as well as the seeds and machines, in a word, everything, except the
working hands, is the private property of the capitalist master. He is autocrat
here. He commands and conducts the business in such a way as to convert
the very sweat and blood into shining yellow metal. The workmen, grumbling
sometimes, obey, and go on making money for the master because he possesses
everything, while the worker, the poor agricultural laborer, possesses nothing.
But sometimes It so happens that the landowner does not hire laborers, but
lets his land on lease. Here in Russia, for instance, the poor peasantry, holding
small allotments hardly enough to pasture a hen, were obliged to rent land
from the landowners. They cultivate it with their own horses, ploughs and
harrows. But even here they were mercilessly fleeced. The greater the peas-
ant's need for land, the greater was the rent charged by the landowners, thus
holding the poor peasant in real bondage. What enabled him to do that? The
fact that the land was his, the landowner's land ; the fact that the laud con-
stituted the private property of the landoimiing class.
Capitalist society is divided into two classes : those who work a great deal
and feed scantily, and those who work little or not at all, but eat well and
plentifully. That is not at all in accordance with the Scriptures, where it says:
"He that does not work, neither shall he eat." This circumstance, however,
does not prevent the priests of all faiths and tongues from lauding the capitalist
order; for these priests everywhere (except in Soviet Republic) are maintained
by increment derived from private or church property.
Another question now arises. How is it possible for a group of parasites to
retain private ownership over the means of labor, so indispensable to all? How
has it come about that private ownership by the idle classes is maintained to
the present day? Where does the reason lie?
The reason lies in the perfect organization of the enemies of the laboring
class. To-day there does not exist a single capitalist country where the capital-
ists act individually. On the contrary, each one of them is infallibly a member
of some economic organization. And it is these economic unions that hold every-
thing in their hands, having tens of thoiisands of faithful agents to serve them,
not out of fear, but as a matter of conscience. The entire economic life of every
capitalist country is at the complete disposal of special economic organizations ;
syndicates, trusts, and unions of many banking concerns. TTiese combines own
and direct everything.
The most important industrial and financial combine is the Bourgeois State.
This combine holds in its hands the reins of government and power. Here
everything Is weighed and measured, everything is premeditated and arranged
in such a manner as to crush instantly any attempt at rebellion on the part
of the working class against the domination of capital. The State has at its
disposal forces (such as spies, police, judges, executioners, and trained soldiers,
who have become soulless machines), as well as mental influences v.^hich grad-
ually pervert the workers and poorer elements of society, imbuing them with
fallacious ideas. For this purpose the bourgeois State utilizes schools and
Church, aided by the capitalist press. It is a known fact that pig-breeders can
breed such stock as are incapable of moving owing to the vast accumulation
of fat ; but such pigs are extremely suitable for slaughter. They are bred
artificially on special fattening food. The bourgeoisie deals witli the working
class in exactly the same way. It is true it gives them little enough substantial
food — not enough to get fat on. But day by day it offers to the workers a
specially-prepared mental food which fattens their brains and make them
incapable of thought. The bourgeoisie wants to turn the woi'king class into a
herd of swine, docile and fit for slaughter, not capable of thinking and ever
subservient. This is the reason why, with the help of schools and the Church,
the bourgeoisie tries to instill into the minds of children the idea that it is
necessary to obey the Authorities, as they hold their power from heaven (and
the Bolsheviks, instead of prayers, have drawn on themselves the curses of the
Church, because they have refused to grant any State subsidies 1o these cas-
APPENDIX, PART 1 157
socked frauds). This is also the reason why the bourgeoisie is so anxious to
circulate its lying press far and wide.
The poiverfiil organization of the bourgeois class enables them to retain pri-
vate property. TTie rich are few in number, but they are surrounded by a large
number of faithful, devoted and handsomely-paid servants : ministers, directors
of works, directors of banks, and so on; these latter are again surrounded by
a still greater number of retainers who get paid less, but who are entirely de-
pendent on them, and are educated along the same lines. They are themselves
on the look-out for such posts, should they be lucky enough to attain them.
These again are followed by minor officials, agents of capital, etc., etc. It is
just as the Russian nursery tale has it : "Grandad holds on to the turnip,
grandma on to grandad, grandchild on to grandma," and so on ; in short they
follow one another in an interminable chain united by the general organization
of the bourgeois State and other industrial combines. These organizations cover
all countries with a net out of which the working class struggles in vain to
get free. Every capitalist State is in reality one vast economic union. The
workers toil — the masters enjoy themselves. The workers carry out orders —
the masters lord it over them. The workers are deceived — the masters deceive
them. Such is the state of things called capitalistic, which the capitalists and
their servants — the priests, intellectual classes, mensheviks, socialist revolu-
tionaries, and the rest of that fraternity, are inviting the workers and peasants
to obey.
chapter ii
Plundering Wars, the Oppeession of the Working Classes, and the
Beginning of the Fall of Capitalism
In every capitalist country small capital has practically vanished ; of late it
has been eaten up by the big sharks of capitalism. At first, a struggle went
on between the individual capitalist for customers ; at the present time when
there are only a few of them left (as the small fry is absolutely ruined), the
remaining ones have united, organized, and have it their own way in their
country, just as in olden times the barons had full power over their own
domains ; a few American bankers own the whole of America, just as formerly
a single capitalist owned his factory. A few French usurers have subjugated
the whole French people ; 5 of the biggest banks hold the fate of the German
people in their hands. The same thing happens in other capitalist countries.
It may therefore be said that the present capitalist States, or as they are called,
"Fatherlands," have become huge factories owned by an industrial combine, just
as formerly a single capitalist owned his particular factory.
It is not surprising that such combines, unions of the various capitalist coun-
tries, are now carrying on among themselves the same sort of struggle which
was formerly carried on between individual capitalists ; the English capitalist
State is fighting the German capitalist State, just as formerly in England or in
Germany respectively one individual manufacturer was struggling against an-
other. Only now the State is a thousand times bigger, and the struggle for the
Increase of profits is being waged by means of human life and human blood.
In this struggle, which has spread over the whole globe, the first to i>erish
were small weak countries. At the beginning it is always the small colonial
people that perish. Weak, uncivilized tribes are dispossessed of their lands by
the great plundering States. A struggle ensues for the division of the remain-
ing '"free" lands, i. e., lands not yet looted by the "civilized" States. Then
begins a struggle for the re-division of that which has already been looted.
It is quite evident that the struggle for the re-division of the world must be
bloody and furious as no war before it. It is conducted by monstrous giants, by
the biggest States in the world, armed with perfected death-dealing machines.
The U'orld tear which broke out in the summer of 1914 was the first war of
the final re-division of the world between the monsters of "civilized" robbery.
It has drawn into its whirlpool four of the chief rival giants : England. Ger-
many, America and Japan. And the struggle is being carried on to decide
which of these plundering unions will put the world under the domination of
its bloody iron heel.
This war has everywhere vastly deteriorated the position of the working
class, which was bad enough as it was. Terrible calamities have fallen on the
workers : millions of the best men were simply mown down on the battlefields ;
158 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
starvation was the fate of others. Those who dare to protest are menaced with
severest punishments. Prisons are filled to overflowing; gendarmes with ma-
chine guns are held ready against the working classes. The rights of the
workers liave vanished even in the most "free" countries : the workers are even
forbidden to strike ; strikes are looked upon in the sam,e light as treason. The
Labor and Socialist Press is stifled. The best workers, the most loyal fighters
for the revolution, are compelled to hide and build up their organizations
secretly, just as we used to do in the time of the Czar, furtively liiding from
crowds of spies and police. No wonder that all these consequences of the war
have made the workers not only groan, but 7-ise against their oppressors.
But now the bourgeois States, which are responsible for the great slaughter,
are in their turn beginning to decay at the root and fall. The bourgeois States
have "stuck," so to speak. They have stuck in the bloody swamp they have
created in their hunt after profit, and there is no way out. To go back, to
return empty-handed is impossible. Tlie policy of the war has led .them into
a blind alley from which there is no exit. And that is why the war is still
continuing without either coming to an end or achieving any definite result.
For the same reason the decaying capitalist order is beginning to totter, and
will sooner or later have to make way for a new order of things, under which
the imbecility of the world war for the sake of gain will have become impossible.
The longer the war lasts the poorer the combatant countries become. The
flower of the working class has either perished or is lying eaten alive by lice
in the trenches, busily at work in the cause of destruction. Everything has
been demolished in the cour.se of the war : even brass door handles have been
conflscated for war requirements. Objects of primary necessity are lacking
because the war, like the insatiable locust, has devoured everything. There
is no one to manufacture useful articles any longer ; what there is, is being
gradually used up. For nearly four years factories that previously turned out
useful things are manufacturing shells and shrapnel instead. And now, with-
out men, without producing what is indispensable, all the countries have reached
a state of decline where people are beginning to howl like wolves with cold,
hunger, poverty, want and oppression.
In German villages, where formerly electricity was used, they now burn
dried wood cliips for lack of coals. Life is coming to a standstill with the
general growth of poverty of the people. In such well-kept towns as Berlin
and Vienna, the streets are not traversable at night because of the robberiei?
that take place. The press is wailing over the insufficiency of iwlice. They
refuse to see that the growth of crime is the consequence of the growth of
pauperism, despair and exasperation. Cripples returning from the front find
sheer starvation at home; the number of hungry and homeless, notwith-
standing the number of various relief organizations, is constantly growing,
because there is nothing to eat.
The harder the position of the warring States, the more friction, quarrels
and misunderstandings arise between the different sections of the bourgeoisie,
who formerly went hand in hand for the sake of their mutual aims. In
Austro-Hungary, Bohemians, Ukranians, Germans, Poles and others are fighting
each other. In Germany, with the conquest of new provinces, the same
bourgeoisie (Esthonian, Lettish, Ukranian, Polish) which welcomed the German
troops, are now quarreling furiously with their liberators. In, England, the
English bourgeoisie is in mortal conflict with the enslaved Irish bourgeoisie.
And in the midst of this tumult and general disorganization is heard the voice
of the laboring class, before which history has laid the problem of putting an
end to war and of oi^erthrotving the yoke of capitalism. Thus approaches
the hour of the decay of capitalism and the communist revolution of the working
class.
The first stone was laid by the Russian October Revolution. The reason why
capitalism in Russia became disorganized before it did in any other country,
was that the burden of the world war was heaviest for the young capitalist
State of our country. We had not the monstrous organization of the bour-
geoisie which they have in England, Germany or America ; and our bourgeoisie
could not therefore coi)e with the demands laid on it by the war. Nor could
they withstand the mighty onset of the Russian laboring class and of the poor
elements of the peasantry who, in the October days, knocked the bourgeoisie
out of their seats and put at the head of the Government the party of the
working class — the Communist Bolsheviks.
APPENDIX, PART 1 159
Sooner or later the same fate will overtake the bourgeoisie of Western
Europe, where the working class is joining more and more the ranks of the
communists. Everywhere, organizations of native "bolsheviks" are growing; in
Austria and America, in Germany and in Norway, in France and in Italy.
The programme of the communist party is becoming tlie programme of the
universal proletarian revolution.
chapter iii
General Sharing, or Cooperative Communist Production
We already know that the root of the evil of all plundering wars, of oppression
of the working classes and of all the atrocities of capitalism, is that the world
has been enslaved by a few State organized capitalist bands, who own all the
wealth of the earth as their private property. The capitalist ownership of
means of production — this is the reason of reasons which explains the barbarity
of the present order of things. To deprive the rich of their power by depriving
them of their wealth, by force, that is the paramount duty of the working class,
of the Labor Party, the party of communists.
Some think that, after depriving the rich of their possessions, these should be
religiously, justly and equally divided between everybody, and then all will be
well. Everyone, they say, would have just as much as everyone else; all would be
equal, and freed from inequality, oppression and exploitation. Thanks to this
equal share-out, general division and allotment of all the riches amongst the
I)oor, everybody will look after -himself, will own all things convenient for his
use, and the domination of man over man will vanish.
But this is not the point of view of the Communist Party. The Communist
Party considers that such equal sharing would lead to nothing good, and to no
other result than confusion and a return to the old order.
Firstly, there are quite a number of things which are impossible to divide.
How, for instance, would you divide the railway? If one man gets the rails,
another the steel plate, a third one of the screws, and a fourth begins smashing
up the carriages to light his stove, a fifth breaks a mirror, to have a piece of glass
for shaving purposes, and so on — it is plain that this kind of division would not
be fair at all, and would only lead to an idiotic plundering and destruction of
useful things. It is just as impossible to divide a machine. For. if one takes a
pinion, another a lever, and the rest other parts, the machine will cease to be a
machine, and the whole thing will go to ruin. And the same thing holds good with
I'egard to all complicated machinery, which is so important as a means of further
production. We have only to think of telegraph and telephone apparatiis, and
the apparatus at chemical works, etc. It is evident that only an unintelligent
man or a direct enemy of the working class would advise this kind <>f sharing.
This, however, is not the only reason why such a sharing is harmful. Let us
suppose that by some kind of miracle, a more or less equal division was attained
of everything taken from the rich ; even that would not lead to any desirable
result in the end. What is the meaning of a division? It means that instead of a
few large owners there would spring up a large number of small ones. It means
not the abolition of private ownership, but its dispersion over a large area. In
the place of large ownership there would arise ownership on a small scale. But
such a period we have already had in the past. We know very well that capital-
ism and large capitalists have developed out of the competition between one
small owner and another. If we bred a number of small owners as a result of
our division, we shouh! get the following result: part of them (and quite a
considerable part) would, on the very next day, get rid of their share on some
market or other (say the Soucharew Market in Moscow), and their property
would thus fall into the hands of wealthier owners ; between the remaining ones
a struggle would ensue for the buyers, and in this struggle, too, the wealthier
ones would soon get the upper hand of the less well-to-do. The latter would soon
be ruined and turn into proletarians, and their lucky rivals would amass fortunes,
employing men to work for them, and thus be gradually transformed into first-
rate capitalists. And so we should, in a very short time, return to the same order
which we have just destroyed, and find ourselves once again before the old
problem of capitalist exploitation.
Dividing up into small pi'operty-holders is not the ideal of the workers or the
agricultural laborer. It is rather the dream of the small shopkeeper opnressed
by the big one, who wants to become a large shopkeeper himself. How to
become a 'boss', how to get hold of as much as possible and i-etain it in his greedy
150 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
clutch — that is what the shopkeeper is aiming at. To think of otlier^ and consider
what this may result in is not his affair so long as he gets an extra sixpence
clinking in his pocket. He is not to be frightened by a possible return to capi-
talism, for he is cherishing a faint hope that he himself, John Smith, may
become a capitalist. And that would not be so bad for him.
No ; there is an entirely different road along which the working class should
go, and is going. The working class is interested in such a reconstruction of
society as would make return to capitalism impossible. Sharing of wealth
would mean driving capitalism out of the front door only to see it return by
the back door. The only way out of this dilemma is a cooperative lahor {com-
munist) system.
In a communist order, all the wealth belongs not to individuals or classes,
but to society as a whole, which becomes, as it were, one great labor association ;
no one man is master over it. All are equal comrades. There are no classes ;
capitalists do not employ labor, nor do workers sell their labor to employers.
The work is carried out jointly, according to a prearranged labor plan. A
central bureau of statistics calculates how much it is required to manufacture
in a year ; such and such a number of boots, trousers, sausages, blacking, wheat,
cloth, and so on. It will also calculate that for this purpose such and such a
number of men must work on the fields and in the sausage work respectively,
such and such a number in the large communal tailoring workshops, etc., and
working hands will be distributed accordingly.
The whole of production is conducted on a strictly calculated and adjusted
plan, on the basis of an exact estimate of all the machines, apparatus, all raw
material, and all the labor power in the community. There is also an exact
account kept of the annual requirements of the community. The manufactured
products is stored in communal warehouses, from whence it is distributed
amongst the workers. All work is carried out only in the largest works and
on the best machines, thereby saving labor. The management of production
is conducted along the most economical lines : all unnecessary expenditure is
avoided, owing to work being carried out on one general plan of production.
We do not have here the kind of order that allows one kind of management
in one place and another kind of management in another ; or that one factory,
for example, should not know how things are done at another factory. Here,
on the contrary, the whole world is weighed and accounted for. Cotton is only
grown where the soil is most suitable. The production of coal is concentrated
in the richest mines; iron foundries are built in the neighborhood of coal and
ore ; parts where the soil is tit for wheat, will not be employed for building
monstrous city edifices, but will be used for sowing wheat. Everything, in
short, is arranged in such a manner that each kind of production should be
carried out in a place most suitable for it, where work could be done most
successfully, where things could be obtained easiest, where human labor would
be most productive. All this can be attained only by working on a single plan
and by organizing the whole community into one vast labor commune.
People in this commtmistic order do not benefit at one another's expense.
There are no rich here, no parvenues, no bosses and no bottom dogs ; society is
not divided into classes of which one rules over the other. And there being no
classes means that there are not two sorts of people (poor and rich), gnashing
their teeth against one another, the oppressor against the oppressed, and vice
versa. For this same reason we have no such organization as the State, because
there is no dominating class requiring a special organization to keep their class
opponents under their heel. There is no Government to rule men, and there
is no power of one man over another. There is administration of things only,
management of machines ; there is the power of human society over Nature.
Mankind is not divided up into hostile camps; it is imited by common labor and
by a common struggle against the elements. The political barriers that divide
nations are done away with. Separate fatherlands are abolished. The whole
of humanity, without distinction of nationality, is bound together in all its
parts and organized into one united whole. All peoples form one great united
labor association.
chapter iv
An Anarchist or a Communist Crder
There are people who call themselves Anarchists, that is to say, adherents
to an order of things where there is no Government. They aflBrm that the
APPENDIX, PART 1 IgJ
Rolslievik-Coninmnists are on the wrong path, because they wish to preserve
order, and that any kind of power or authority, and any kind of state, means
oppression and violence. We have seen tliat sucli an opinion of communism
is not right. A communist order of life is an order in which there are neither
workers nor capitalists, nor any kiiul of State. The difference between an
anarchist and a communist order is not in the fact that there is a State in
one and none in the other. No ; there is no State in either of them. The real
difference is in the following : —
Anarchists think that human life will be better and freer when they sub-
divide all production into small labor-conmiune organizations. A group or
association, say, of ten men is formed who have united by their own free
will. Very well. These ten men begin to work on their own account and at
their own risk In another place there has arisen a similar association ; in a
third another. In time all these associations enter into negotiations and agree-
ments with one another concerning the things which are lacking in each respec-
tive union. Gradually they come to an understanding and "free contracts" or
agreements are drawn up.
And now all production is carried on in these small communes. Every
man is free at any time to withdraw from tlie commune, and each commune
is free to withdraw from the voluntary union (federation) of these small com-
munes (labor associations). Do anarchists reason rightly? Any v.'orker ac-
quainted with the present system of factory machine production will see that
this is not right. Let us explain why.
The future order is meant to save the working class from two evils. In
the first place from the subjection of man by man, from exploitation from
the evil of one man oppressing another. Tliis is attained by casting off the
yoke of capital and depriving the capitalists of all their wealth. But there
Is yet another problem, that of shaking off the yoke of Nature, of mastering
Nature, of organizing production in the best, most perfect way. Only then
will it i)e possible for each man to spend but a little time in the manufacture of
food products, boots, clothes, houses, etc., and to spend the rest of his time
for developing his mind, for studying science, for art, for all that which makes
human life beautiful. Prehistoric man lived in groups in which all were equal.
But they led a brutal existence, because they did not subject Nature to them-
selves, but allowed Nature entirely to subject them. Although with the capital-
ists production on a large scale humanity has learned to control Nature, the
working class still live like beasts of burden, because the capitalists hold them in
his clutches, owing to the existence of economic inequality. What follows?
That economic equality should be united with production on a large scale. It
is not enough to do away with capitalists. It is indispensible that production
should be organized, as we have already said, on a large scale. All small,
inefficient enterprises must disappear. The whole work must be concentrated
in the largest factories, work and estates. And not in such a way that Tom
should not know what John is doing, nor John know what Tom is doing ; this
kind of management is all wrong. What we want is a united plan of work.
The more localities such a plan embraces the better. The world must ultimately
become one labor enterprise, where the whole of humanity, in accordance with
a strictly worked out, estimated and measured plan, would work for its own
needs, on the best machines, at the biggest works, without either employers
or capitalists. In order to advance production, we must on no account subdivide
the big production which capitalisnk has left us as a heritage. It should, on
the contrary, be still more widened. The wider and larger the general plan,
the bigger the scale on which production will be organized, the more will it be
guided by the estimates and accounts of the statistical centres. In other words,
the more centralized industry will be, the better: for then the less labor will
fall to the share of each individual, the freer will each man be, the greater
the scope for mental development in human society.
But the future state of society propagated by the anarchists is just the
opposite of this. Instead of enlarging, centralizing or regulating production,
it subdivides it, and consequently iveakens the domination of man over Nature.
There is no general plan, no large organization. Under an anarchist order
it will be even impossible to utilize large machines to the fullest extent, to
reconstruct railroads, according to a ganeral plan, to undertake irrigation on
a big scale. Let us give an example. A great deal is being spoken of sub-
stituting steam plant by electricity, and of utilizing waterfalls, etc., for obtain-
ing electric motor power. In order to distribute correctly the electrical energy
obtained, it is of course necessary to estimate, weigh and measure where and
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 12
162 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
how much of this energy is to be directed, so as to derive the greatest possible
advantage therefrom. What does that mean, and how is it to be made pos-
sible? It is only possible wlien production is organized on a large scale, wlaen
it is concentrated in one or two great centres of management and control.
And, on tlie other hand, it is Impossible under an anarchist order of small,
disseminated communes but loosely held togetlier. In this way we can see
that, as a matter of fact, production cannot be properly organized in an
anarcliist State. This in its turn results in a long working day, i. e., dependence
to a great extent on Nature. An anarchist order would only serve as a bridle
retarding the progress of liumanity. That is wiiy we, communists, are tight! ng
against tlie teaching spread by the anarchists.
Now it is plain why anarchist propaganda leads to a sharing of wealth
instead of a communist construction of society. A small anarcliist commune
is not a vast collaboration of men, but a tiny group, wliidi can even consist
of as few as two or three men. At Petrograd there exist such a group — "The
Union of Five Oppressed". According to the anarchist teachings it might
have been "A Union of Two Oppressed". Imagine what would happen if
every five men or every couple of men began independently to requisition,
confiscate, and then start work at their own risk. Tliere are in Russia about
a hundred million of tlie laboring population. If they were to form "unions
of five oppressed," we should have in Russia twenty millions of such com-
munes. Imagine what a Babel would ensue if these twenty million little com-
munes began acting indei>end('ntly ! What chaos and anarchy we should have!
Nor would it be surprising that if such groups began, independently of each other,
to usurp tlie wealth of the ricli, notliing but a sharing-out would result. And
sharing-out leads, as we have seen above, to the reign of capital all over again,
to violence and oppression of tlie laboring masses.
CHAPTER V
To Communism Through Proletarian Dictatorship
How is the communist order to be instituted? How is it to be attained? To
this the Communist Party gives the following answer: Through the dictator-
ship of the proletariat.
Dictatorship means a power of iron, a power that shows no mercy to its
foes. Tlie dictatorship of the working class means the governing power of
the working class, which is to stifle the bourgeoisie and the landowners.
Such a government of the workers can only arise out of a Socialist revolution
of the working class, which destroys the bourgeois State and bourgeois power,
and builds up a new State on the ruins — that of the proletariat itself and
of the poorest elements supporting it.
This, in fact, is the reason why we stand for a workers' State, whilst the
anarchists are against it. That means to say that we, communists, want a
workers' government which we MUST HAVE PROVISIONALLY, UNTIL THE
WOisKING CLASS' HAS COMi'LETELY DEFEATED ITS OPPONENTS,
THOROUGHLY DRILLED THE WHOLE OF THE BOURGEOISE, KNOCKED
THE CONCEIT OUT OF IT, AND DEPRIVED IT OF THE LAST SHRED
OF HOPE EVER TO RISE AGAIN TO POWER.
And so you, communists, are for force, we may be asked. Certainly, we
shall reply. But we are for REVOLUTIONARY FORCE. First of all we
think that by mere gentle persuasion the working class will never attain any-
thing at all. The road of compromise, as preached by the mensheviks and
the socialist revolutionaries, will lead nowhere. The working class will achieve
liberty in no other w;>y except thronsrb a revolution, that is to say, through
the overthrow of the power of capitalism, through the destruction of the bour-
geoise State. But every revolution is a form of violence against former rulers.
The March revolution in Russia was force against the oppressors, landlords and
the Czar. The October revolution was force, of the workers, peasants and
soldiers, against the bourgeoisie. And such force against those who have op-
pressed millions of the toiling masses is not wiong — it is sacred.
But the working class is compelled to use force against the bourgeoisie even
after the bourgeoisie has been overthrown in an open revolutionary fight.
For, as a matter of fact, even after the working class have destroyed the
government of the bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie does not cease to exist as
a class. It does not vanish altogether. It continues to hope for a return to
1
appelNdix, part 1 163
the old order, and is therefore ready to form an alliance with anyone, except
•ciie victorious working class.
The experience of the Russian revolution of 1917 fully confirms this. In
October the working class excluded the bourgeoisie from the government. But,
nevertheless, the bourgeoisie was not completely crushed : it acted against the
workers, mobilizing all its forces, striving to crush the proletariat again, and
to achieve its own ends by hook or by crook. It organized sabotage; that is,
counter-revolutionary officials, — clerks, and civil servants who did not wish to
be subjected to workmen and peasants, abandoned their posts en masse. It
organized the armed forces of Dutoff, Kaledin, Korniloff ; it is at present, whilst
we are writing these lines, organizing the banus of Esaiil Seminoff for a cam-
paign against the Siberian Soviets ; and lastly it is calling to its aid the troops
■of the foreign bourgeoisie, German, Japanese, British, etc. Thus the experience
of the Russian October revolution teaches us that the working class, even after
its victory, is compelled to deal with the mightiest of external foes (the plun-
dering capitalistic States) who are on their way to aid the overthrown bour-
geoisie of Russia.
If we seriously consider the whole world at the present time, we shall see
that it is only in Russia that the proletariat has succeeded in overthrowing
the power of the bourgeois State. The remainder of the world still belongs
to big-capital robbers. Soviet Russia, with its worker and peasant Govern-
ment, is a small island in the midst of a tempestuous capitalist ocean. And
even if the victory of the Russian workers is to be followed by a victory of
the workers of Austria and Germany, there will still be left big vulture-like
capitalist States. If all capitalistic Europe breaks up and fails under the blows of
the working class, there will still be left the capitalistic world of Asia, with Japan
like a beast of prey at its head. Then we have the capital of America, at
the head of which stands the monstrous plundering union called the United
States of America. All these capitalist States will not give up their position
without a fight. They will fight with all their might to prevent the proletariat
from getting possession of the whole world. The mightier the onslaught of the
proletariat, the more dangerous the position of the bourgeoisie ; the more neces-
sary it becomes for the bourgeoisie to concentrate all its forces in the struggle
against the proletariat. The proletariat, having conquered in one, two, or
three countries, will inevitably come into collision with the rest of the bourgeois
world that will attempt to break by blood and iron the elTorts of the class
that is fighting for its freedom.
What follows? It follows that pr^ior to the establishment of the communist
order and after the abolition of capitalism, in the interval between capitalism
and communism, even after socialistic revolutions in several countries, the
working class will have to endure a furious struggle with its inner and external
foes. And for such a struggle a strong, wide, well-constructed organization'
is required, having at its disposal, all the means of fighting. An organization
of this kind is the Proletarian State, the power of the workers. The proletarian
State, similar to other States, is an organization of the dominant class (the
dominating class is here the working class), and an organization of force over
the bourgeoisie, as a means of putting an end to the bourgeoisie and getting
rid of it.
He who is afraid of this kind of force is not a revolutionist. The question
of force should not be regarded from the point of view that every kind of
force is pernicious. The force practised by the rich against the poor, by
capitalists toward workers — such force acts against the working class and
aims at supporting and strengthening capitalistic plunder. But the force of
workers against the bourgeoisie aims at freeing millions of working men from
slavery; it means redemption from the rod of capital, from plundering wars,
from savage looting and destruction of all that mankind has been building
up and accumulating for ages and ages. That is why, in the making of revolu-
tion and the forming of a communist order, the iron rule of a proletarian
dictatorship is indispensable.
It should be clear to everyone, that during the transition period, the working
class will have to (and must now) strain all its energy in order to emerge
victorious in the battle with its numerous enemies, and that no other organiza-
tion can defeat the enemies of the working class except one that embraces the
working class and the poorer peasantry of the whole country. How is it possible
to ward off foreign imperialists unless one holds in one's hands government
power and an army? How is it possible to fight against counter-revolution
unless one holds in one's hands arms (as a means of coercion), prisons for
154 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
confining counter-revolutionaries (a means of coercion), and other means of
force and subjection? How is it possible to make capitalists conform to the
workers' control, requisition, etc., if the working class possesses no means for
compelling others to obey? Of course some may say that a few "Unions of Five
Oppressed" would be sufficient. That is nonsense.
The pecularities of a transition, period call for ttie necessity of a Workers'
State. For even when the bourgeois will be defeated all over the world, accus-
tomed as it is to idleness, and imbued with feelings of hostility towards the
workers, it will do its best to avoid work, to try and injure the proletariat in every
way. The bourgeois must be made to serve the people. Only an authorized
government and compulsory measures can do that.
In backward countries like Russia there still exists a multitude of small and
medium property-holders, sweaters, usurers, and land-grabbers. All these are
against the poorest elements of the rural population and still more against the
town laborers. They follow in the wake of big capital and of the ex-state
owners. It is needless to say that the workers and the poorest of the peasants
must crush them should they rise against the revolution. The workers have got
to think how to organize a new plan of work, systematize the work of produc-
tion taken out of the hands of the manufacturers, help the peasants to organize
rural economy and a fair distribution of bread, manufactured goods, iron
products, and so on. But the sweater-land-grabber, grown fat on the war, is
stubborn ; he does not intend to act in the common interest. "I am my own
master", he says. The workers and the poor elements of the peasantry must
compel him to obey just in the same way as they are compelling the big
capitalists to obey ; the ex-landlords and ex-generals and officers.
The more precarious the position of the workers' revolution is. and the more
enemies it is surrounded by, the more ruthless should be the workers' govern-
ment, the heavier should be the hand of the revolutionary workers and of the
poorest elements of the peasantry, and the more energetic should be the dicta-
torship. State governnaent in the hands of the working class is an axe held
in readiness against the bourgeoisie. In a Communist order, when the bour-
geoisie has ceased to exist, and with it class divisions and every kind of ex-
ternal as well as internal danger, then the axe will be needed no longer. But
in the transition period, when the enemy is still showing his fangs, and is ready
to drown the whole working class in a sea of blood (let us recall to mind the
shooting of the Finnish workmen, the executions at Kiev, executions of work-
men and peasants all over the Ukraine and in Lithuania!), and we will agree
that to go unarmed, to act without this axe of State government, would be an
act of folly.
Two parties are clamouring against the dictatorship of the working class.
On the one side are the Anarchists ; these, being against every kind of govern-
ment, are therefore against the government of the workers and peasants. To
these we can say, "If you are against the workers using means of force against
the bourffcoisie, then get you to a convent !"
On the other side, against the dictatorship of the workers we have the
Mensheviks and the Right Socialist Revolutionaries (though they were them-
selves formerly in favor of it). These are against encroaching upon the
liberty. ... of the bourgeoisie. They are backing up the purse-proud bourgeois
to get for him that which he once possessed, and enable him peacefully to saunter
along the Nevsky Prospect in Petrograd or the Tverskaya at Moscow, etc. They
maintain that the working class is "not yet ripe" for a dictatorship. To them
we can say, "You, sirs, defenders of the bourgeoisie, go to the bourgeoisie whom
you love so much, but leave the working class and the poor peasantry alone".
Just because the Communist Party is an adherent of the most rigid iron
dictatorship of the workers over capitalists — small sweaters, late landowners,
and all other similar delightful relics of the old bourgeois order — it is for that
very reason the extremest and most revolutionary of all existing groups and
parties. "Through a mercilessly firm government of the workers, through a
proletarian dictatorship— to Communism !" This is the war-cry of our party.
And the programme of our party is the programme of proJctarian dictatorship.
CHAPTER VI
A Soviet Government or a Boltrgeois Repubuc?
Our attitude towards the necessity of dictatorship leads us, as an inevitable
result, both to our struggle against an antiquated form of a parliamentary
bourgeois republic (sometimes called "democratic"), and to our attempts at
APPENDIX, PART 1 1(35
setting up instead a new form of State administration — a government of the
tiovicts of Workers', Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies.
The meusheviks and the right wing of the socialist revolutionaries are staunch
supporters of the Constituent Assembly and a parliamentary republic. They
loudly abuse the government of the Soviets. And why? First, because they are
afraid of the power of the workers, and desire to retain all power in the
hands of the bourgeoisie. But the communists who are sti'iving to realize the
(ommunist (socialist) order must inevitably fight for the dictatorship of the
proletariat and for the complete overthrow of the bourgeoisie. That is where
the difference lies. And for this very reason tlie parties of meusheviks and
socialist revolutionaries are at one with the party of the bourgeoisie.
What is the essential dift'erence between a parliamentary republic and a
republic of Soviets? It is, that in a soviet republic the non-working elements
are deprived of the franchise and take no part in administrative affairs. The
country is governed by Soviets, which are elected by the toilers in the places
vrhere they work, as factories, works, work.shops, mines and in villages and
liamlets. The bourgeoisie, ex-landowners, bankers, speculating traders, mer-
chants, shopkeepers, usurers, the Korniloft" intellectuals, priests and bishops,
in short the whole of the black host have no right to vote, no fundamental
political rights. The foundation of a parliamentary republic is formed by
the Constituent Assembly, while the supreme organ of the Soviet Republic is
The Convention of Soviets. What is the principal difference between the Con-
vention of Soviets and the Constituent Assembly? Anybody with the least
intelligence can easily answer this question. Although the meusheviks and
the right wing of the .socialist revolutionaries do, as a matter of fact, try to
muddle things by inventing various pompous names such as, for instance,
"Master of the Russian Land," still truth will out. The Constituent Assembly
differs from the Convention of Soviets inasmuch as into the former are elected
not only the laborers, but also the bourgeoisie and all the bourgeois hangers-on.
It consequently differs from the Convention of Soviets in that in the Constituent
Assembly may sit not only workers and peasants, but also bankers, landowners
and capitalists; not only the labor party (the communists), not only the left
wing of socialist revolutionaries, and even not only the socialist traitors such
as the right wing of the socialist revolutionaries, but also the constitutional
democrats (the party of traitors to the people), the Black Hundred and the
Octobrists. This is the crowd for whom these honorable compromisers are
demanding enfranchisement. When they clamor for the necessity of a "popu-
lar," "all-national" Constituent Assembly, they do not consider the Soviets as
all-national, because the Rnssian. bourgeoisie is lacking to complete the full
representation of the Russian people. To supplement working-class representa-
tion with this crowd of parasites, to give these enemies of the people all
rights, to give them seats next to themselves iu parliament, to transform the
class government of workers and peasants into a class government of the boui'-
geoisie under the pretext of admitting all nationalities — this is the task of the
right wing of the socialist revolutionaries, of the mensheviks, of the constitu-
tional democrats, in a word of big capital and its petty bourgeois agents. The
experience of all countries shows that where the bourgeoisie enjoy all the
lights, it invariably deceives the working class and the poorest peasantry.
By holding the press, newspapers and magazines firmly in its grasp, possess-
ing as it does vast riches, bribing officials, exploiting the services of hundreds of
thousands of their agents, threatening and intimidating the more downtrodden
of their slaves the bourgeoisie succeed in preventing power from slipping from
their hands. At first sight it appears as if the whole nation were voting, but
iu reality this screen is used by domineering financial capital, which arranges
matters to suit itself, and even boasts of "allowing the people to vote" and of
preserving all kinds of "democratic liberties." This is the reason why, in all
countries where there is a bourgeois republic (take, for instance, France, Swit-
zerland, and the United States), notwithstanding universal suffrage, the power
is completely concentrated in the hands of the leading bankers. And so we see
why the right wing of the socialist revolutionaries and the mensheviks are
striving to overthrow the power of the Soviets and to summon the "Constituent
Assembly." In granting votes to the bourgeoisie they intend to prepare for a
transition to a similar order of things as exists in France and America. They
consider that the Russian workers are not "ripe" to hold the government in
their own hands. But the party of the communists-bolsheviks, on the contrary,
holds that dictatorship of the workers is essential at the present moment and
that there can be no talk whatever of any transfer of government. The bour-
geoisie must be deprived of every possibility of deceiving the people. The
IQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
bourgeoisie must be set aside aud firmly prevented from taking any part in the-
government of the country, because the present is the time of acute struggle.
We must strengthen aud widen the dictatorship of the workers and the poorer-
elements of the peasantry. That is why the State government of Soviets is
indispensable. Here we have no bourgeoisie whatever, and no landowners.
Here the State is governed by the organizations of workers and peasants which
have grown up together with the revolution and have borne the whole burden
of the great struggle on their own shoulders.
But this is not enough. An ordinary republic does not only represent the
power of the bourgeoisie. A republic of this kind can never, by reason of its
composition, become inspired with the spirit of the workers party. In a parlia-
mentary republic every citizen hands in his vote once in every four or five years,
and there his part in this matter ends. All the rest is left to deputies, ministers
and presidents, who manage everything. There is no connection whatever with
the masses. The masses of the laboring people are only tools exploited by the-
oflicials of the bourgeoisie, taking no real part in the government.
Quite a different matter is a Soviet republic, corresponding to a dictatorship
of the workers. Here the whole administration is based on an entirely different
principle. A Soviet government is not an organization of officials independent
of the masses and dependent on the bourgeoisie. The Soviet government and its
organs are supported by general organizations of the woi'king class and the
peasantry. Trade unions, works and factories committees, local Soviets of work-
ment and peasants, soldiers' and sailors' organizations — all these support the
central Soviet Government. Prom the Central Soviet Government thousands
and millions of threads spread in all directions : first these threads go to dis-
trict and provincial Soviets, then to the town Soviets, from these to the town-
parish Soviets, from these again to the factories and works, uniting hundreds
of thousands of workers. All the higher institutions of the Soviet Government
are organized on the same lines. Take, for instance, the Supreme Council for
Public Economy. It is composed of representatives of central committees of
trade unions, of factories and works committees, and other organizations. Trade-
unions in their turn unite whole branches of production ; they have branches in
various towns and are supported by the organized masses at factories and
works. To-day at every factory there is a factory and works committee, which
is elected by the workers of that factory ; these factory and works' committees
being again united. And these, too, send their representatives to the Supreme
Council for Public Economy, which draws up economic plans and directs pro-
duction. Thus, here, too, the central organ of the control of industry is com-
posed of representatives of workers, and is supported by mass organizations
of the working class and of the poorest elements of the peasantry. This, then,,
is an entirely different plan from that of a bourgeois republic. The bourgeoi-
sie is not only deprived of rights, and there is not only a question of the country
being governed by representatives of workers and peasants. The great thing is
that the Soviets govern the country, keeping in constant touch with the large
unions of the workers and peasants, and thus the wide masses are all the time
taking part in the administration of the Workers' and Peasants' Government
In this way each organized workman exercises his influence. He takes part
in the government of the state not only by electing trusted representatives once
a month or two. No. The trade unions, say, work out a plan for organizing
production ; these plans are then considered by the Soviets or by the Council
for Public Economy, and then, if they are practicable they obtain the full force
of law, after being approved by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets.
Any given trade union, any works' and factories' committee, can in this way
take a part in the general work of creating a new order of life. In a bour-
geois republic the more indifferent the masses are, the happier is the govern-
ment, because the interests of the masses are opiiosed to those of the capitalist
state. If, for Instance, the masses of the United States should take matters into
their own hands — that would mean the end of the supremacy of the bourgeoisie.
Tlie bourgeois State is based on the deception of the masses, keeping them half-
awake, by the method of depriving them of any active part in the everyday
work of the state, by summoning them once every few years "to vote", and by
deceiving them with their own vote. It is entirely different thing in a Soviet
republic. The Soviet republic, embodying the dictatorship of the masses, cannot
even for a minute tear itself away from these roas.ses. Such a republic is the
stronger in proportion to the greater activity and energy manifested by the
masses and the more work accomplished at works and factories, in the towns
APPENDIX, PART 1 167
and iu the provinces. It is not a matter of mere chance, therefore, that the
Soviet Government in issuing its decrees addresses tlie masses with the demand
that the workers and poorest peasants themselves should carry these decrees
into execution. That is why the significance of various workers' and peasants'
organizations entirely changed after the October revolution. At first they were
weapons of class struggle against the governing capitalists and landowners.
Take, for example, the trade unions and some small peasants' Soviets. At first
they were compelled to carry on a struggle for higher pay and a shorter working
day in the towns, and for depriving the landowners of the land in the rural
districts. At the present time, when the government is in the hands of the
workers and the peasants, the.se organizations are becoming wheels in the
machinery of state government. At present, the trade unions are not only fight-
ing with the capitalists, but are taking an active part in the organization of
production, as organs of a labor government, as part of the Soviet State, in the
adminii^tratio)! of industry; and in the same way the village and peasants'
Soviets not only have to carry on a war with village sharks or sweaters, with
the capitalists and landowners, but are also working to establish a new land
system; that is to say, they have the ndm'mistratlon of the land in their hands
as organs of a workers' and peasants' government; they are as screws and nuts
in the huge machine of state administration, where the power is in the hands
of the workmen and peasants.
In this way, through the workers' and peasants' organizations, the widest sec-
tions of the laboring masses have been gradually called to the work of govern-
ment. There is nothing like this in any other country. Nowhere but in Russia
has the victory of the working class and the establishment of a workers' govern-
ment yet been achieved ; no other country has yet a proletarian dictatorship,
nor a Soviet Republic, nor a Soviet state.
It is very clearly understood that the Soviet Government corresponding to
the proletarian dictatorship, does not suit those groups of the population that
are interested in a return to capitalist slavery, instead of going ahead to a
communist order. It is also clear that they cannot possibly say frankly and
openly, "we want the whip and the stick for the workers."
Here, too. a certain amount of deceit is required. Such deceit is the specialty
of the right wing of the socialist revolutionaries and of the mensheviks who are
shouting about "a struggle for a democratic republic," about the Constituent
Assembly, which they declare will save us from all evils, and so on. But as a
matrer of fact the real question here is to transfer the government to the
howf/eoisie. And iu this fundamental question no agreement can possibly be
arrived at between us, communists, and the various mensheviks, right wing
socialist revolutionaries, the followers of the "Novaya Zhisn," and the rest of
that fraternity. They stand for capitalism, whilst we stand for a movement
towards Comniunism. They— for a government of the bourgeoisie, we — for a
dictatorship of the workers; they — for a parliamentary bourgeois i-epublic, where
capital will reign, we — for a Soviet Socialist Republic where all the power
belongs to the workers and the poorest elements of the peasantry.
Until the present time, prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the dictator-
ship of the proletariat was only written about. But no one seemed to have
quite a clear idea as to how this dictatorship v.'as to be realized. The Russian
Revolution evolved the actual form of the dictatorship— that of the Soviet
Republic. And therefore, at the present moment, the best sections of the uiter-
national proletariat are inscribing on their banners the motto of a Soviet re-
public and of a Soviet government. And therefore, too, our task now consists
in strengthening the Soviet government by all the means in our power, and in
clearing it of various imdesirable elements, in attracting to the task of recon-
struction a greater number of capable comrades, elected by the working and
peasant masses. Only such a government, a government of the Soviets, a govern-
ment of the workers and peasants, is what the workers and peasants can and
should defend.
Should our workers and peasons suffer defeats, should the Constituent Assem-
bly be really summoned, should the place of the Government of the Soviets be
taken by an ordinary bourgeois republic after the manner of the French and
American Republic, then the worker should not only not be under any obliga-
tion to defend it, but should make it the task of his life to overthrow such a
reputlic. For it is his duty to defend the government of the workers and not
the government of the bourgeoisie. With regard to the government of the bour-
geoisie, he has but one obligation, and that is to overthrow it.
158 UN-AMERIGA^' PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
chaptee vii
Freedom for the Working Class and the Poorest Elements of the Peasantry ;
Restrictions for the Bourgeoisie
(Freedom of Speech, Press, Unions, Meetings, etc., in the Soviet Republic)
Since v^^e have a dictatorship of workers and peasants whose aim is to crush
the bourgeoisie completely and to put down any attempt at reviving the bour-
geois government, it is plain that there can be no question of freedom, in the
wide sense of the word, for the bourgeoisie, just as there can be no question of
allowing the bourgeoisie the riglit of franchise, nor of transforming the Soviet
Government into a republican bourgeois parliament.
The party of the Communists (bolsheviks) are overwhelmed on all sides by
shouts of indignation and even threats : ''You stop newspapers, you make arrests,
you prohibit meetings, you suppress the freedom of speech and of press, you
revive despotism, you are violators and murderei's," and much more to the same
effect. It is this question of "freedom" in the Soviet Republic that should be
thoroughly discussed in detail.
First of all, let us take an example. When the revolution broke out in ]\Iarch
of last year (1917), Tzarist ministers were arrested (Sturmer, Protoppopoff
and others). Did anyone protest? No! And yet these arrests, just as any
other arrests, were an infringement of personal freedom. Why was this in-
fringement universally approved? And why do we still say at the present
moment : "Yes, that was the right thing to do?" Simply because it was the arrest
of dangerous counter-revolutionaries. And in a revolution, more than at any
other time, we should remember the eleventh Commandment : "Be on the look
out!" If you are not, if you set all the enemies of the people free, if you do
not keep them under control, there will be nothing left to remember the
revolution by !
Anotljer example. When Sturmer and Goremikin were being arrested, the
Black Hundred press was closed. This was a deliberate infringement of the
freedom of the press. Was it justifiable? Most certainly! And no reasonable
being will dispute that this was just what should have been done. And why?
Again, because at a time of revolution, when there is a life and death struggle
going on, the enemy should be deprived of his weapons. And the press is such
a weapon.
Prior to the October revolution, several Black Hundred societies ("The Two-
Headed Eagle" and a few others) were closed down at Kiev. This was an
infringement of the freedom^ of association. But it was the right thing to do,
because the revolution cannot permit the free organization of unions against the
revolution.
Wlien Korniloff was advancing on Petrograd, a number of generals struck,
refusing to obey the orders of the Provincial Government. They declared they
would support Korniloff to the last. Was it possible to sanction such freedom
of generals' strikes f Surely for such strikes the Black Hundred generals should
have been subjected to the severest punishment.
What does all this mean? We see now that infringement of freedom is
necessary with regard to the opponents of the revolution. At a time of revolution
we cannot allow freedom for the enemies of the people and of the revolution.
That is a sure, clear, irrefutable conclusion.
After March and before October neither the mensheviks nor the right socialist
revolutionaries, nor the bourgeoisie, once raised their voices against the usurpa-
tion of power by violence in March, or against the suppression of freedom (of
the Black Hundred press), or speech (Black Hundred), etc. They never once
raised their voices against all this, because it was carried out by the bourgeoisie,
Goutchkoff, Mihikoff, Rodzianko, and Tereschenko, and their loyal servants Keren-
sky and Tzeretelli, who had usurped power in March.
By October things had changed. In October the workers rose against the
bourgeoisie who had trodden upon their necks in March. In October the peasants
supported the workers. It clearly follows that the bourgeoisie grew to hate
the woi'kers' revolution, and in its mad hatred behaved no better than the
landowners.
All the large property owners united against the working class and the
poorest peasantry. They gathered around the so-called party of the people's
freedom (in reality the party of the people's treason) against the people.
APPENDIX, PART 1 169
And it is easy enough to understand that when the people succeed in getting
the upper hand over their enemies the latter, in impotent fury, cry, "usurpers,"
"violators," and so on.
The following is now clear to the workers and peasants. The party of the
Connnunists not only allows no freedom (such as liherty of the press, speech,
meetings, unions, etc.) for the hourf/eois enemies of the people, but goes still
further and demands of the government to be always ready to close the bour-
geois press, to br(>ak up gatherings of the enemies of the people to forbid their
lying and libeling, and sowing panic; the party must mercilessly suppress all
attempts of the bourgeoisie to return to power. And this is what is meant by
dictatorship of the proletariat.
When there is a question of the press, we first ask whieh press— the bourgeois
or the workers' press; when there is a question of gatherings, we ask what
gatherings — workers' or counter-revolutionary ; when a question arises of strikes,
the first question for us is whether it is a strike of the workers against the
capitalists, or a sabotage instigated by the bourgeoisie or the bourgeois intel-
lectuals against the proletariat. He who makes no distinction between these
two things is groping in the dark. The press, meetings, unions, etc., are weapons
of class struggle. And in a revolutionary epoch they are the weapons of civil
war, together with munition stores, machine guns, powder and bombs. The great
question is : which class is using them as a weapon against the other. The workers
revolution cannot possiblv grant freedom for the organization of such risings as
those of Korniloff, Dutoff, or Milukoff against the working masses. Neither
can it allow full freedom of organization, of speech, press, and of meetings of
the counter-revolutionary bands who are stubbornly carrying on their own policy,
and only lying in wait for a chance of throwing themselves upon the workers.
As we have already seen, the right wing socialist revolutionaries and men-
sheviks, decaring their motto to be "the Constituent Assembly," are only
anxious for votes for the dourflcoisie. And just in the same way when they
violently abuse destruction of freedom they are anxious for the freedom of the
hourgeoisie. The bourgeois press, bourgeois leaders, the counter-revolutionary
bourgeois organizations are not to be touched — this is the real position of these
gentlemen.
But, they will say. you yourselves used to close both mensb.evik and socialist
revolutionary newspapers ; the party of the Communists has more than once
encroached on the liberty of worthy individuals, who in their time (in the reign
of the Tzar) suffered imprisonment. How can we .justify that'? This question
may be answered by another : when Goltz, the right wing socialist revolutionary,
organized a rising of Junkers and officers against the soldiers and the workers —
what were we to do? Pat him on the head for it? When Roudneff, the richt
wing socialist revolutionary together with colonel Riabtzeff, the right wing
socialist revolutionary. In October armed the Moscow White Guards, consist-
ing of the sons of the bourgeoisie, houseowners, and other gentry, the gilded
youth, and in union with the officers and .junkers tried to suppress by machine
guns and drown in blood the October rising of workers and soldiers — what could
we do? Decorate them with medals for their feats? When the menshevlk organ
"Forward" (which ought really to be named "Backward") and the socialist
• revolutionist "Labor" lied to the Moscow workers at the critical moment of the
struggle, that Kerensky had taken Petrograd (which they did to break up the
unanimity nf the workers), were we expected to praise them for these provocatory
tricks?
What follows from all this? It follows that when the socialist traitors and
socialist traitors' organs begin to serve the bourgeoisie too fervently, or when
they cease to differ In their line of action from the Black Hundred cadet or-
ganizers of pogroms — then they should and must be treated In the same way as
their beloved teachers and benefactors. At the present moment there are many
such, who, although having fought against the Tzar and landowners, now cry
at the top of their voice when the workers seize the wealth of the bourgeoisie.
For what they have done in the past we render them our thanks. But if at the
present moment they do not in any way differ from the Black Hundred liorde,
then they can hardly exiiect us to encourage them.
But whilst the l)ourgeolsle and all the other enemies of the proletariat and
I poorest peasantry require a bridle to restrain them, the proletariat and peasantry,
1 on the other hand, need complete freedom of speech, of association, and of the
I press, etc., not only In word, but In fact. Never, under any government, was
there such a number of workers' and peasants' organizations as there are now
I'JO UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in the Soviet Government. Never did any government support such a vast num-
ber of worliers' and peasants' organizations as does the Soviet Government. This
is because the Soviet Government is the government of workers and peasants
themselves, and it is no wonder therefore that such a government supports all
other working class organizations as far as it lies in its power. We repeat, the
Communists carry all this freedom into effect instead of merely proclaiming it
before the world. Here is a little example : the freedom of the workers' press.
Under the pressure of the working class even the bourgeoisie might agree to a
greater or smaller amount of freedom for the workers' press. But the workers
have no means ; all the printing works are in the hands of the capitalists. Paper
is in the hands of the capitalists, who have bought up everything. The workers
have the right to a free press, but they are unable to make use of it. We,
Communists, on the other hand, approach the owners of printing works and of
paper works, and we say to them : "the proletarian government is about to con-
fiscate your works and declare them to be the property of the workers' and
peasants' government, and to place them at the disposal of the workers" ; let
them now put their right to a free press into execution. Of course the capitalists
will set up a howl at such proceedings, but it is the only way to attain real
freedom of the workers' press.
Another question may be put to us : why did the bolsheviks never before speak
of the complete destruction of the freedom of the bourgeois press? Why were
they formerly on the side of a bourgeois democratic republic? Why did they
themselves side with the Constituent Assembly without ever expressing them-
selves in favor of depriving the bourgeoisie of the franchise? In a word, why
have they changed their attitude now in conection with these questions?
The reason is very simple. The working class at that time was not yet powerful
enough to storm the bourgeois fortress. It needed time to prepare, to gather
strength, to enlighten the masses, to organize.
It lacked, for instance, a press of its own uninfluenced by the capitalist class.
But it could not come to the capitalists and their government and demand :
"close your newspapers. Messrs Capitalists, and start newspapers for us work-
ers." They woidd be laughed at; it would be ridiculous to put such demands
to capitalists. It would be equivalent to expecting the latter to cut their hands
off with their own knife. Such demands are only made when a position is
being taken by storm. Previously there was no such time. And that is why
the working class (and our party) said: "Long live freedom of the press (the
whole press, the bourgeois jjress included) !" Or take another instance. It is
evident that employers' associations, such as throw workers on the street, keep
black lists, etc. These are very harmful to the working class. But the working
class could not demand the suppression of employers' associations and full
liberty for labor union. To do this it was necessary first to destroy the capi-
talist government, and the workers were not strong enough to do that. Tliat
is why at that time our party demanded the freedom of association (not only
workingmen's), but unions in general.
Now times have changed. There is no question now of a lengthy preparation
for the battle : we are now living in the period after storm, in the period after
the first great victory over the bourgeoisie. Now there is only one other prob-
lem before the working class : to finally and irretrievably break up the resist- •
ance of the bourgeoisie.
That is why the working class, acting in the name of the liberation of the
whole of humanity from the atrocities and terrors of capitalism, must carry
out this task to a definite end and with unswerving firmness. No indidgence
for the bourgeoisie and no leniency^ — but complete liberty and the possibility
of realizing this liberty, to the working class and poorest peasants.
chapter viii
Banks, the Common Propehity of the Workeks. Nationalization of Banks
We have seen above that the cause of all evils in a capitalist society lies in
the fact that all the means of production belong to the landowners and capital-
ists. We have also seen that the only way out of this is to take the means nf
production out of the hands of the capitalist class (whether they be individual
capitalists, or trusts, or a bourgeois State) and to transfer them into the hands
of the working class. This can be done and is being done, now that the workers
and peasants possess such a strong weapon as is their Workers' Soviet Govern-
ment.
APPENDIX, PART 1 171
It is perfectly understood that the tirst thing to be done in this direction is to
deprive capitaf of its most essential and most important means of control ; to
take the principal economic fortresses of capital. The second is to begin with
that which is not only easier to take, but easier also to organize and have
control and account over, and which can be arranged in the smoothest way.
AVe already know that the task of the working class and the poor peasantry
does not consist in depriving the rich of their wealth, distributing this wealth
among themselves, robbing and sharing the spoils. No ; it consists in construct-
ing society on the basis of labor, working according to a defimte plan, and
organizing the production and distribution of products. Hence it follows that
the working class must tirst of all take possession of those organizations which
have up till now existed only for the profit of the capitalist, and divert them
to their own uses, putting them on a different footing, thus making them serve
not capitalists and landowners, not speculators and sharks, but the laboring
mass.
That is why our party has put forward the demand (since carried into
execution) for the nationalization of banks, that is to say, for the transfer of
banks into the hands of the workers' and peasants' Government.
It is generally believed that the chief significance of banks lies in the fact
that their vaults are packed with piles of gold and heaps of paper money and
valuables, for which reason the Communists are so eager to get the banks. But
in reality tliis is not the case.
Modern banks are not only filled with money bags. Banks as a matter of fact,
represent the pinnacle of capitalist orf/anization which rules industry. The
industrial capitalists make profits uninterruptedly, and capital flows to them in
a continuous stream. What does tlie capitalist do with the profit acquired? A
parr of it is saved for eating, drinking and dissipation. Another part, consider-
ably larger, is saved for extending his business at any given moment: he can
only do so when a large enough "balance" has accumulated, a sum big enough,
let "us say, to build a new factory or set up a new plant. Until that happens he
deposits his money into the bank so as not to have "dead" capital on his hands.
He deposits it and gets definite interest on it. The question now is, does this
capital remain in the bank, increasing thei-e of itself? Certainly not. The
bank transacts business with this money. It either establishes enterprises, or
shares purchases in enterprises just being formed. The dividend it obtains on
its shares are considerably higher than the sums it pays to its clients.
The difference goes to form the profit of the bank. This difference accumu-
lates, is again involved in transactions, and in this way the capital of the bank
increases. Gradually the banks become the real heads of industrial enterprises ;
some enterprises are entirely owned by them, others, only partly. Experience
has shown that it is enough to own thirty or forty per cent, of the total shares
to become practically the controller of the whole enterprise. And that is what
really happens. For instance, two banks manage and direct the entire industry
of America. In Germany four banks hold in their hands the whole economic
lifei of the country. The same thing to a certain extent held good for Russia.
The great majority of big enterprises in Russia were limited companies.
Russian banks, too, were the owners of a large number of shares of these
enterprises, so that the limited companies were in the closest union and in
complete dependence on the banker — were, in fact, under their heel. Seeing that
one bank rules over many industrial enterprises, it is evident that a number of
the largest banks are in reality tlie main directors of industry, the centre as it
were, in which the threads of various enterprises meet. That is why confiscating
the banks, depriving private persons of control over banks, and transferring
them into the hands of the workers' and peasants' government, in a word, the
nationalization of banks, should become a question of paramount importance to
the working class. In response to this, the bourgeoisie, together with its press
and the rest of its suite, have, of course, raised the cry of alarm : "the bolshe-
viks are robbers ! The bolsheviks are thieves ! Do not allow them to plunder
the national wealth and the national savings !" But the reason for all this
clamor is self-evident : the bourgeoisie felt that the nationalization of banks was
a transfer to the working class of the main fortress of capitalistic society — and
therefore the first decisive step towards the destruction of their gain and ex-
ploitation. Once the proletariat has laid its hand on the banks, that means that
it has already taken into its hands to a great extent the reins of industry.
On the other hand, it is not hard to see that without the nationalization of
banks it would have been impossible to weaken the power of the capitalist in
works and factories. The modern factory depends on the bank ; either the
]^72 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
bank simply owns the whole factory or a part of its shares. In some cases it
allows the "factory credit in one form or another. Let us now suppose that the
workmen of a certain factory have taken everything under their own control.
If the bank of the factory is a private concern belonging to the bourgeoisie, the-
whole factory must stop work : it will simply be informed by the bank that there
will be no further credit. And that is equivalent to cutting off a fortress from
supplies. Under such conditions the workers would inevitably have to surrender
and bow the knee to the master. That means, that in nationalizing the banks-
the Soviet Government simultaneously acquires the power of directing and
managing finance, and various bonds and certificates which serve as substitutes
for money ; and thereby the bank, instead of hindering the transfer of industry
into the hands of the working class, on the contrary lends its assistance in such
transfer. The power that in the hands of the bankers was directed against the
workers, now under these now circumstances becomes a power helping the work-
ing class, and directed against the capitalists.
The next ta.sk consists in uniting the different and formerly private banks into
our national bank, to unite the work of the banks or, as it is called, to centralize
the hanking huslness. In that case the transfer of industry into the hands of
the working class would convert the national bank into the principle counting
house; an institution affecting mutual "payments" between different enterprises
and separate branches of production. Let us suppose that the coal, steel, and
iron industries depended on the Central bank. Each one of these has to utilize
the products of the others ; the steel foundries nuist receive their coal from the
coal mines, the steel works must get their steel from the foundries, and so on.
It is evident that since all these enterprises depend entirely upon the bank, all
kinds of "payments" can be settled by the mere transfer of accounts ; banks
become simply counting houses for central book-keeping, where the relations
between the various sections of industry are made clear. In accordance with
these relationships the banks supports ("finances") industry, supporting it with
financial supplies.
Ultimately should we be successful in duly organizing the whole business (and
that is what our party and tlie Soviet Government, at the head of which our
party stands, is striving for) it would result in the following state of things:
they are united by means of central national banks, at which the threads of the
separate enterprises meet, grotiped according to their respective specialties. The
bank keeps an exact account of these enterprises and of all transactions effected
between them which mutually countei-balance as one branch of production sup-
plies products for another. In the bank, the book-keeping department of com-
munal production, the general position of production is in this manner neg-
lected. The centralized and nationalized banking business (that is to say, the
united banking business that is in the hands of the workers' and iieasants'
State) is converted into a communal book-keeping department of the socialist
co-operative production.
chaptee ix
Industry to Belong to the Working Class. (Nationalization of Industry) ?
Although the most important step towards obtaining the means of productioii '
from the hands of exploiters is, as we have seen above, the proletarian na-
tionalization of banks, nevertheless, if industry, in factories and works, the
power of the capitalists will still be maintained, no very desirable results wouM
have been achieved. These enterprises wotild draw such sums as they reqtiircd
from the bank, and the capitalists would calmly go on exploiting their workers,
and would even manage to beg for State subsidies to be spent on all kinds of
things. And therefore a transition to a Comumnist oider. which is unattainable
without the nationalization of banks, is jttst as unattainable without the prole-
tarian nationalization of all large industrial enterprises.
In this direction, too, the working class and our party are taking such steps
to enable us not only to break with the old, taking the reins of prodttction out
of the hands of capitalists, but to create a new standard of relations. That is
why the nationalization of industry must begin with large enterprises, namely,
in the first place with the so-called syndicate.
What is syndicated industry (industries united in syndicates)? Syndicates
are huge industrial combines. When capitalist owners of various enterprises see
that it is not worth their while to compete for each others clients, and that it
is far more profitable to form a close union for the purpose of jointly fleecing
the public, they organize syndicates or still closer combines of manufacturers,
APPENDIX, PART 1 173
namely — trusts. Wlieu promoters are not united in sucli unions, each one tries
to bring clown the prices of his rival ; each one wishes to win over his com-
petitor's client, and this can only be done if he sells goods cheaper, thus ulti-
mately ruining his rival, who is unable to withstand the competition. This sort
of struggle between the rich manufacturt'rs invariably leads to the ruin of the
smaller man; the big sharks of capitalism and the richest manufacturers come
out victorious. Let us now suppose that in some one branch of industry (say the
merallurgic) three or four big lirms remain. If one of them is stronger it
•carries on the struggle until the rest are ruined. But supposing that their
powers are approximately the same, then it is evident that a mutual straggle
is fruitless : it will result in the exhaustion of all the rivals to an equal extent.
In such cases we generally see an attempt to come to an understanding; they
organize a union of these" enterprises and make an agreement not to sell their
goods below a fixed price; they distribute the orders among themselves, or
appoint one firm to do business in one pr.rt of the country and another firm in
^another; in a word, they amicably divide the market between themselves. As
the firms united into a syndicate usually supply nuich more than half products
required for a given area, that means that the syndicate dominates over the
market, and that the directors of the syndicates can fix very high prices and
fleece their buyers like sheep. But once they join a union it is natural that they
are comi>elled to form a joint board of management for the formerly separate
enterprises and to keep a strict account of all the goods produced, to organize
the distribution of orders, in a word, they are compelled to organize production.
Not for the people, not for the sake of the buyer's advantage. Oh, no! Only
for their own profits and gains, and for the sake of overcharging the worker
and fleecing the buyer ; that is the real purpose for which capitalists form their
tniions.
It has now been made clear why the working class must first of all proceed
to nationalize those branches of productiou which are syndicated. It is because
such branches have already been organized by the capitalists, and such produc-
tion, even when organized by capitalists, is easiest to deal with. It is, of
course, necessary somewhat to modify the capitalist organizations, ridding them
of the most obdurate enemies of the working class ; w^e must strengthen the
po.sition of the workers in such a way that everything should be subjected to
the workers ; and, in the process, abolish certain things altogether. Even a
child can understand why such companies are easiest to conquer. Here the
same thing is repeated as in the case of Government railroads ; being organized
by a bourgeois Government, their management was, for that very reason,
worked on a principle of centralization, and it was easier for the Workers'
Government to take them into its own haiuls.
In Western Europe (especially in Germany) and in th.e United States of
America, practically tlse whole of production during the time of the war has
fallen into the hands of the plundering bourgeois Government. The bourgeoisie
■decided that it would never attain a victory unless the war was condr.cted in
accordance with the latest dictates of science. And modern warfare dem-mds
not only expenditure of money, but necessitates all production to be organized
for the purpose of the war, a strict account being registered of everything,
so that there be no waste and all things be correctly distributed. All this is
possible when there is a central united management. It is needless to say that
production is not organized for the benefit of the working class, but only for
the purpose of conducting the war and of affording the bourgeoisie still more
chances of enriching themselves. No wonder, then, that at the head of this
system of penal servitude there stand generals, bankers, and the greatest
exploiters. Nor is it surprising that the working class in those countries
are oppressed and turned into white slaves or serfs. But, on the other hand,
if the workers there succeed in shattering the machinery of the bourgeois
State, it will be quite easy for them to take possession of the means of produc-
tion and arrange it on a new plan ; they will have to drive the generals and
bankers out, and put their own men everywhere ; but they will be able to use
that apparatus tor checking and control that has been created for them by
the vultures of capitalism. That is why it is infinitely harder for the Western
European workers to hegin destroying the most powerful of bourgeois States,
but it will be also much easier to conclude the task, having at their disposal
tlie means of production organized by the bourgeoisie.
The Russian bourgeoisie, seeing that its power was not very secure, and
that the proletariat was near a victory, was afraid to start decisively along
the road traced by the Western European bourgeoisie. It understood that,
together with the Government power, organized production would fall into
174 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the hands of the working class. And therefore the Russian bourgeoisie did
not care to improve its organization, but, on the contrary, strove to disorganize,
and at the time of Kerensli.v, had recourse to sabotage as a means of ruining
production.
However it is to be noted tliat, even prior to the war, in Russia, partly owing
to foreign capital, the most important spheres of industry were already
syndicated. This especially applies to the so-called heavy branches of industry
(coal mining, metallurgic industry, etc.). It is this heaA-y industry that must be-
nationalized first (and this is already being done: production in the Ural
district, for instance, being practically entirely nationalized). After that, the
whole of big production should be nationalized. Together with the transfer of
big industry into the hands of the Woi-kers' Government, the less important
industries will also become dependent on the Government, because very many
lesser industries depended to a great extent on the greater ones even before
any nationalization took place. Sometimes these smaller firms are no more
than branches of the larger concerns, depending on them for orders. In otlier
cases they supply their products to the larger concerns ; in others they depend
on the banks, and so on. Together with the nationalization of banks and of
large industry, they immediately become dependent in some way or other
upon nationalized production. Of course, there will still remain a number of
small owners and proprietors of small home industries, etc. There are a
great number of such in Russia. But, nevertheless, the basis of our industry
is not the above named workshops, but the large scale industry, and the
r\ationalization by the Workers' Government of this kind of production deals
capitalism an irreparable blow. The banks and large scale industry are the
two main fortresses of capitalism. Their expropriation, that is to say, their
seizure by the working class and the Workers' Government, marks the end of
capitalism and the beginning of Socialism. The means of production, that prin-
cipal basis of human existence, is thereby taken out of the hands of a small
number of exploiters and transferred into the hands of the working class and
the Workers' and Peasants' Government.
The Meusheviks and the Right Wing Socialist Revolutionaries, who do not
wish to deviate one step from capitalism, and who are going hand in hand witli
the bourgeoisie, are opposed to any kind of nationalization by the Soviet
Government. That is because they are fully aware, as well as the bourgeoisie,
that by nationalization a severe blow is dealt into the very heart of the
capitalist order, so dear to them. They deliberately deceive the workers with
tales of our "immaturity" for Socialism, of our industry being in a backward
state, of it being quite impossible to organize, and so on.
We have already seen that this is not the case at all. The backwardness
of Russia is not in the small number of large enterprises — on the contrary, we
have quite a number of such. Its backwardness consists in the fact that the
whole of our industry occupies too little place in comparison with the vast areas
of our rural districts. But in spite of this we must not belittle the importance
of our industry, for it is a significant fact that the working class is carrying
all the vital elements of the Revolution along with it.
There is another curious circumstance to be noted. All the time when the
Government was in the hands of the bourgeoisie, Mensheviks and Right Wing
Socialist Revolutionaries, these latter drew up a programme of Government
regulation of industry. They did not then lament over the backwardness of
our country. At that time they considered it possible to organize industry.
What is the reason for such change in opinion? It is simple enough. The
Mensheviks and Right Wing Socialist Revolutionaries hold it necessary for
the bourgcais State to organize production (in Western Europe this would be
agreed to by Wilhelm, George and President Wilson) ; the party of the Com-
munists, on the contrary, wants production to be organized by a proletarian
Government. The thing is indeed simplicity itself. It is the same story all over
again. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries want to revert to capital-
ism ; the Communists are going ahead to Socialism and Communism, and the
most important step on the road towards Communism they consider to be the
nationalization of banks and the nationalization of large-scale production.
CHAPTE» X
Communal Cultivation of Public Land
The October Revolution accomplished that for which the Russian peasants
had been striving during many centuries. It deprived the landowners of the
APPENDIX, PART 1 175
land and transferred it into the hands of the peasants. The question now is
how to allot this land. And here, too, we Communists must talce up the same
position as we did regarding the question of arranging industrial produftion.
riilike a factory, land can, of course, be divided. But what would be the
result of dividing up land into private allotments amongst individual i^asants?
The result would be that the man who had managed to save up a little money,
being stronger and richer, would soon become a "personality" and turn into
a shark, a land-grabber or a usurer; then he would aim still higher and l)egin
buying up the land of those who were getting poorer. Before long the village
would be again divided into big landowners and poor peasants, the latter having
no alternative but to go to town in search of work or hire himself out to the
rich landowner.
These new landowners would not, it is true, belong to the gentry, being only
rich peasants, but the difference is after all a small one. The exploiting peasant
landowner is a real vampire; he will sweat the poor worker even harder than
the representative of the degenerating, impoverished, and thoroughly incapable
nobility.
This shows us that the plan of dividing or sharing the land offers us no way
out of the dilemma. The only solution is in a communal national holding of
land ; in land being declared the conunon property of the laborers. The Soviet
Government has made a law of socialization of land ; the land has in fact been
taken from the landowners, and it has become the common property of the toiling
people.
But that is not enough. We must aim at such an arrangement as would ensure
the land being not only owned in common, but also be cultivated in common. If
that is not done, then no matter what you proclaim or whatever laws you
publish, the result will be most unsatisfactory. One man will fuss about on
his allotment, another on his, and if they continue to live apart without mutual
aid and common work, they will gradually come to look upon the land as their
private property, and no laws from above would be of any use. Common cultiva-
tion of the soil is what should be aimed at.
In agriculture, just as in industry, it is easiest to carry on production on a
large scale. With large-scale production it is possible to use good agricultural
machines effecting a saving of all kinds of material, to arrange the work accord-
ing to one single plan, to put every workman to the most suitable job, and to
keep a strict account of everything, thus preventing undue waste of either ma-
terials or labor-power. Our task, therefore, does not at all consist in making
every peasant a manager of his own small allotment, but in making the poorer
peasants join a cfimniDn scheme of work on the largest possible scale.
How is this to lie done? This can and must be done in two ways: first, co-
operative cultivation of irhat were formerly hiy estates; and secondly, hij or-
yanizing agricultural labor communes.
In the estates of former landowners where the land was not leased to the
peasant as a whole, and where there existed the private direction of the landlord,
the estate was, of course, ever so much better managed than the peasants'. The
evil was that the entire profits fell into the hands of the landowners, who
oppressed the peasants. And here again there is one thing clear to the Com-
munists ; just as there is no sense whatever in the factory workers plundering
the factory plant, to share them between themselves, and ruining the factory,
so would it be equally senseless for the peasants to act in the same manner on
the land. On the l)ig private estates there is often much that is valuable: horses,
cattle, different kinds of implements, stocks of seeds, reaping and other kinds of
agricultural machines, and so on. In other estates, again, there are dairies,
cheese churns, quite large works in fact. And it would be senseless to plunder
all that and drag it away to the different cottages. The village exploiters would
be interested in that, knov^'ing that sooner or later all these things would fall
into their hands again, as they would buy up the poor men's shares.
The exploiting country shark clearly understands that such a sharing will in the
end be to his "benefit." But the interests of the poorest peasantry, of the prole-
tariat, and of all those who eked out a poor living independently by selling their
labor power, lie in quite another direction. For the poorest peasants it is far
more profitable to deal with "the large estates in just the same way as the workers
are dealing with the factories," that is, to take them under their control and
management, to cultivate the former landowner's estates in common, and not
plundering and carrying off the machines and plant, but using jointly such ma-
chines and plant that formerly belonged to the landowners and have now become
the property of the laborers. They could call to their aid agricultural experts,.
lYQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
competent men, to help them cultivate the land not in a casual way, but properly,
so that it should yield not less than when it belonged to the landlord, but much
more. It is not difficult to seize the land; neither did it prove difficult to seize
private estates. It had to be done. In spite of all tliat the Socialist Revolu-
tionaries and Mensheviks did to dissuade the peasants (pointing out the lawless-
ness of such an action, and saying that the whole thing would be useless and
i-esult only in bloodshed, and so on ) , the peasants, in spite of everything, took the
land, and the Soviet Government helped them to do it. It is a far harder ta.sk
for the workers to retain the land, defending it from the exploiting village sharks
whose eyes are already lighting up with greed at the prospect of seizing it. At
this point the poorest peasants should remember that they must carefully guard
the safety of communal property. For now the wealth that was formerly the
landowner's has become the property of the whole community. It should be
improved for the benefit of all the workers. Things should be organized in such
a manner that the delegates of the poorest peasantry and of the laborers and
those of the regional Soviets and their land departments, should have charge of
everything, so as not to allow any waste, and should lend their assistance in the
joint cultivation of the land. The more ordered the joint production in such
estates will be, the better it will be for the workers. All this means that the
land will yield better crops, the village exploiters will be foiled, and the pea.saut
will be trained in co-operative production, the latter a most important principle of
Communism.
But it is not enough to preserve the estates of the former landowners and
cultivate them on new principles. AVe must strive to organize hir(/e joint
agriculfiiral labor communes by uniting separate allotments. For now the
Government is in the hands of the workers and peasants. That means that
this Government will, as far as it lies within its power, assist the peasants
in any useful undertaking. It is only necessary for the poorest peasants and
semi-proletariat, as well as the late farm hands, to manifest greater activity,
more personal initiative. The weak, poverty-stricken peasants, working each
one by liimself, can achieve nothing; they \\\\\ hardly be able to exist. But
they will aitain a great deal once they begin to unify their allotments, jointly
purchasing machinery with the aid of the town workers, and in this manner
cultivating the land in common, on a basis of common interests.
The town Soviets and economic organizations of the workers will assist
such labor agricultural communes, supplying them with iron and manufactured
goods, and they will help them by recommending land experts and competent
men. And thus gradually the once poor peasant, who has never seen anything
beyond his native town, will begin to be transformed into a comrade, who,
hand in hand with others, will march along the road of communal labor.
It has now been made clear that to organize matters in this direction we
must have a solid organization of the poorest elements of peasantry. This
organization must accomplish two principle tas-ks; the first is the struggle
with the country sharks, usurers, former inn-keepers, in a woi'd, with the
former bourgeoisie ; the second is the organization of agricultural production
and the control over the distribution of land, the organization of labor com-
munes and the management of the estates of former landowners with a view
to their best possible utilization ; in other words, they must set before them-
selves the groat task of a new reconstruction of land. The poorest peasantry
should form such organizations in the shape of regional Soviets, and shoidd
introduce into them special departments such as, for instance, a food supply
department, a land department, and others. The land departments of the
peasants' Soviets should form the chief support of the poorest elements of the
peasantry in conned ion with the land question. To arrange matters on a
firmer basis it woidd be best to construct these Soviet organizations in such
a way that the local and neighboring factory workers should also have
their representatives. Workmen are a moi'e experienced set of people than
the peasants, they are used to joint business organizations, and are also more
experienced in the struggle against the bourgeoisie. The factory workers
will always help the village poor against the rich, and therefore the former
will ever find in them their staunchest allies.
The village poor should not allow tliemselves to be duped. They have
fought and struggled for the land, and they have finally won it from the
landlords. They miTSt see that they do not lose it again ! They must see
that they do not let it slip through their fingers ! The danger is there if they
are going to work in the direction of sub-dividing the land and sharing it out
into private lots. The danger will vanish if the rural poor, together with
APPENDIX, PART 1 177
tlie working class, go along the road of joint production on as large a scale as
jidsi^ilile. Then we shall all proceed at top speed towards Communism.
Chapter XI
Workers' Management of Production
Just as in connection with the land, the lef'ding part in the management in
1 ^ various localities is gradually transferred to the organizations of poorest
1! 'asantry and the different peasant Soviets and their departments, so is indus-
trial management gradually heing transferred (which is exactly what our party
expects) into the hands of the workers and peasants' government.
Prior to the October revolution and in the period immediately following upon
ir. the working class and our party put forward the demand for a workers' con-
trol that is to say, for workers' supervision over factories and works to prevent
rhe capitalists from making secret reserves of fuel and raw materials, to see
that they did not cheat or speculate, damage goods or dismiss workers unjustly.
A workers' supervision was instituted over production, as well as over the sale
and purchase of products, raw materials, their storage, and the financing of
enterprises. However, a mere supervision proved inefficient. Especially did this
l)rove insufficient wdien the nationalization of production took place and the
v:trious privileges of the capitalists were destroyed, and when enterprises and
whole branches of Industry were transferred into the hands of the workers' and
peasants' government. It is easy to see that a mere supervision is quite ineffi-
cient, and that what is required is not only a workers' control but tvorkers' man-
aricvient of industry; workers' organizations, w^orks' and factories' committees,
trade unions, economic branches of the Soviets, of workers' deputies, and finally
organs of the Workers' and Peasants' Government (such as special committees,
Soviets of public economy, and so on). These are the organizations that should
nor cinly supervise but should also manage. There is another thing that atten-
tion should be drawn to here.
Some of the workers who are not sufficiently imbued with the class-spirit
argue as follows : w^e are here to take our factory into our own hands, and there
is an end to the matter. Before, the factory was the property of, say, Mr.
Smith ; now it is the property of the workers. Such a point of view is, of
coui'se. wrong, and closely resembles dividing. Indeed, if a state of affairs came
about in which every factory belongs to the workers of only that particular
factory, the result would be a competition between factories : one cloth factory
would strive to gain more than another, they would strive to win over eacli
others customers ; tlie workers of one factory would be ruined whilst those of
another would prosper ; these latter employ the workers of the ruined factory, and,
in a word, we have again the old familiar picture ; just as in the case of the shar-
ing out capitalism w^ould soon revive.
How are we to fight against it? It is evident that we must build up such an order
of workers' management of enterprises as would train the workers in the idea that
every factory is the property not only of the workers of that particular factory,
but of the tvhole working people. This can be attained in the following way.
Every factory that works should have a board of management composed of
workers in such a way that the majority of members should belong not to that
factory in question, but should consist of w^orkers delegated by trade unions of
the special branch of industry, by the Soviet of Workers' Deputies, and finally
by the local Soviet of Public Economy. If the board is composed of workers and
of employees (the workers must be in the majority, as they are more reliable
adherents to Communism), and if the majority of workers should belong to
other factories, then the factory will be managed in the manner required for
turtliering the interests of all workers as a class.
Every worker understands that works and factories cannot do without book-
keepers, mechanics, engineers, etc. Therefore another task of the working class
lies in enlisting these into their service. So far the working class could not
produce such specialists from their own midst (but they will be able to do so
when plans of general education will have been carried out successfully, and a
special h-igher education will have become accessible to ever.vbody), until that
time, of course, we shall have, willy-nilly, to pay higher wages to ordinary
spejialists. Let them now serve the working class just as they formerly did the
bourgeoisie. Formerly they were under the control and supervision of the
1 uurgeoisie ; now they will have to be under the supervision and control of the
workers and employees.
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 13
178 UN-AINIERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
To ensure a smooth running of the wheels of industry it is indispensable, as
we have already explained, to have one general plan. It is not enough for
every large factory to have its own board of management consisting of workers.
There are many factories and many branches of production ; they are all bound
to one another, all inter-dependent : if the coal mine yields little coal the result
will be that factories and railroads will be brought to a standstill ; if there is no
petrol, navigation is impeded ; if no cotton, there will be no work to do for the
textile factories. It is consequently necessary to form such an organization
which should embrace all production, based on a general plan, and united with
workers' boards of management of other works and factories; should keep an
exact account of all requirements and reserves, not only of one town or of one
factory, but for the whole country. The necessity for such a general plan is
especially evident in the case of railroads. Any child can understand that the
disorganization in the working of railroads causes incredible calamities: in
Siberia, for instance, there is a sui>er-abundauce of bread, whilst Petrograd is
on the verge of famine. Why is this? Because the bread is beyond the reach
of the inhabitants of Petrograd, as it is impossible to transport it. To ensure
regular traffic it is necessary that everything be strictly registered and correctly
distributed. And this is only possible under one uniform plan. Let us imagine
that one mile of the railroad is under one management, another is under a dif-
ferent one, and a third under a third, and so on, all working independently
of each other. An indescribable muddle would be the result. Such a muddle
could be avoided only by conducting the railway through a single centralized
management. Hence the necessity arises for such workers' organs and labor
organizations, as would unite entire branches of production to each other,
forming one complete whole, and which would also unite the work done in
different parts of the country, as, for instance, Siberia and the Ural districts,
the northern provinces, the centre, and so on. Such organs are in the course
of construction ; they are the district and regional Soviets of Public Economy,
sijecial committees uniting whole branches of production or commerce (as, for
instance, Centro-texile, Centro-sugar, and so on), and over all the rest we have,
as a central organization, the Supreme Council (Soviet) of Public Economy.
All these organizations are connected with the Soviets of the workers' deputies
and work in unison with the Soviet Government. Their staff is mainly com-
posed of representatives of tcorkers' orf/anizaiions. and they are siipported by
trade unions, works' and factories' committees, unions of employees, and so on.
In this way gradually a irorkrrs' management of industry is being formed
from the top of the ladder to the bottom. In the respective localities we have
works' and factories' committees and the workers' board of management, and
above those the region and district committees, and Soviets of Public Economy,
and at the head of all these organizations we have the Supreme Council of
Public Economy. The task of the working class now lies in enlarging and
strengthening by all possible means the workers' management of industry,
educating the vast masses of the people in this direction. The proletariat taking
production into its own hands, not as the property of separate individuals or
groups, but as the property of the whole working class, should concern itself
with supporting the central and district workers' organizations by thousands of
branches, at the various works and factories. If the higher organs of workers
boards of management in the localities of production are not supported by the
local ones, they will hover, as it were, in mid air, and become transformed into
bureaucratic institutions devoid of any live revolutionary spirit. But, on the
other hand, they will be enabled to cope with the terrible existing disorganiza-
tion if they are supported on all sides by the vital forces of the workers in every
locality, and every command of the workers' central organization will lie
responded to and executed not as a matter of form, but as a matter of duty by
the workers' organizations and by the working masses in their respective
localities. The more the masses discuss matters for themselves, the more keen
their interest in the election of their boards, the more work carried on at the
works and factories, the greater the part they take in the business of doing away
with all kinds of disorder and dishonesty — the sooner will the working class
possess itself not only in word but in deed of the whole industrial production,
thus realizing not merely a political, but even an eeonninie dieiaiorxhU) of flu'
■irfyi-Jcwfj elasn. that is to say, the working class will become the actunl nvi^tei'
not only of the army, the courts of justice, schools and other departments, hut
it will also be at the bead of the management of ijirjdiietio}). Only then will
the might of capital he completely rooted out, and the possibility for capital
ever again to crush the working class under its heel be completely destroyed.
APPENDIX, PART 1 179
chapter xii
Bkead — Only fdr the Woekers. Compxjlsory Labor Service fob the Rich
A transition to the communal order means a transition to an order where
there will be no class difference between people, and where all will be coiu-
mnnal icorkers and never hired laborers. It is necessary to pass immediately
on to the oryanization of such an order. And one of the first steps in this
direction on a parallel with a proletarian nationalization of banks and of
industry, is the introduction of labor service for the rich.
There are at present many ijeople who do nothing, create nothing, but consume
that which others have made. And more than that, there are people who not
only do no work, but whose whole activity is directed at hindering and inter-
fering with the work of the Soviet Government and the working class. The
Avorkers sflw with their own eyes the instance of the sabotage attempted by
the Russian intellectuals, teachers, engineers, doctors and others of the "learned
professions." It would be superfluous to mention the bigger game such as
directors of factories and banks, the late high oflicials, etc. They all made
efforts to disorganize and destroy at the i-oot the work of the proletariat and
the Soviet Government. The task of the proletariat consists in cmnpelling
these bourgeoisie, former landowners, and numerous intellectuals of the well-
to-do classes to work for the common good. How is this to be done? By means
of introducing lahor record books and labor service. Every one of the above-
named class should receive a special book in which an account is kept of his
work, that is to say, of his compulsory service. Fixed entries in his book
entitle him to buy or receive certain food products, bread in the first place.
Anyone who refuses to work, supposing he sabotages (an ex-official, a former
manufacturer or landowner who cannot possibly accustom himself to the idea
of the loss of land on which he has lived for years and has become a frenzied
enemy of the workers), if such an individual refuses to work there is nO'
corresponding entry in his book. He goes to the store, but is told, "There is
nothing for you. Please to show an entry confirming your work."
Under such a system the mass of idlers who fill the Nevsky Prospect of
Petrograd and the main street of other big towns, will have to set to work
against their will. It is i>erfectly understood that the carrying into execution'
of this kind <>f labor service will be hindered by many obstacles. The upper
and upper-middle classes will, on the other hand, make every endeavor to evade-
this compulsory service, and on the other hand, try by every means within their
power to hinder such an order. To arrange matters so that certain food
products should be obtained only on producing a corresponding entry in the
labor book, and that such products .should not be distributed in any other way,
is not an easy matter. The rich who possess money (and money means merely:
counters for obtaining products) have also a thousand possibilities of deceiving
the Soviet Government and duping the workers and poorest peasantry. These
possibilities must be destroyed by a well-regulated organization for supplying
products.
Of course labor service for the rich should only be a transitory stage towards
(jenenii labor service. The latter is necessary not only because the productveness
of our trade and agriculture can be increased by enlisting the service of all
members of society fit for work, but also because a strict account of labor power
and a proper distribution of such over the various branches of production and
the different undertakings is neces.sary. Just as in war time it is necessary,
on the one hand, to mobilize all the forces, and on the other to keep account of
and properly organize them, so in the war ivifh economic disoryanisaiiO'n it is
necessary to draw all the useful sections of the population into the work,
register and organize them into one great army of labor with a labor discipline
and a proper understanding of its duties.
At the pre.sent moment in Russia, in consequence of the economic disorganiza'-
tion and shortage of raw material which has been intensified by the occupatioru
of South Russia and Ukraine by the forces of German Imperialism, there is a
considerable amount of unemployment. As a result we are faced with the
following situation : we know that we can only win through by the aid of
human labor power, from the fact that only labor can increase the productivity
of our industry and agriculture; and of this human labor power we have plenty.
But in spite of that there is no opportunity to apply this labor power. There
is already a large amount of unemployment as a result of the shortage of fuel
and raw material. Where then shall we place these people whom the Workers'
IgQ UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and Peasants' Government intends to compel to work? It is true that one of
the most important questions is the organization of public works and construc-
tion of such things of supreme social importance as railways, grain elevators,
and the opening of new mines. But it is evident that this work could not at
once absorb the large surplus of labor that exists.
Thus it will be necessary fr-om the very first to limit ourselves to registering
the working hands, noting their respective compulsory service only at the request
of the Soviet Government, or working class bodies superintending the manage-
ment of production. Let us illustrate this by an example. Supposing that
for surveying new mines in Siberia engineering specialists are required. The
metallurgic department of the Soviet of Public Economy puts forward a demand
for such. The department for registering labor power examines its lists and
finds the people who correspond to the kind required, and these are then ohUycd
to go where the above-mentioned departments choose to send them.
Naturally, as the organization of production becomes more ordered, and the
demand for labor increases, so will compulsory service be carried into effect;
that is to say, all persons capable of work will be compelled to do their share
of work.
Compulsory labor service in itself is not a new idea. At the present moment,
in practically all the warring countries, the Imperialist Governments have in-.^
troduced labor service for their population (in the first instance, of course, for
the oppressed classes). But the labor service introduced in Westeni Europe
is as far removed from that which ought to be introduced by us as is heaven
from earth. In the Imperialist States such service means the complete suhju-
gation of the working class, its complete enslavement to financial capital and
the plundering Government. And why is that? Simply because the workers
do not govern themselves but are governed by generals, bankers and big syndi-
calists and bourgeois politicians. The worker there is a mere pawn in their
hands. He is a serf whom his master can dispose of as he pleases. No wonder
that compulsory service in the West at the present time means a new contri-
bution, a new ^feudal levy, the institution of a new system of military hard
labor. It is introduced there for the purpose of enabling the capitalists, whose
pockets are being filled by the labor of the workers, to carry on an interminable
plundering war.
Our workers themselves must, through their own organizations, introduce and
carry out compulsory labor-service on the basis of self government by the work-
ers. There is no bourgeoisie over them here. On the contrary, the workers
are noto placed over the bourgeosie. Controlling, accounting, and distributing
labor power is now the concern of tlie workers' oryaiiizations, and as compulsory
labor service will affect the rural districts, it will become the concern of the
peasants Soviets, which will stand over the village bourgeoisie, subjugating it
to their ride. All the organs dealing with labor will be purely workers* organs.
This is quite natural : if the administration of industry is to become a workers'
administration, the management of labor must also be in the hands of the work-
ers, for that is only part of the management or administration of production.
The working class, which wishes to take the lead in the economic life of the
country (and which will do so in spite of any obstacles), the class that is becom-
ing master of all the wealth, is confronted with this main question — the organi-
zation of prodiietiov. The organization of production demands in its turn the
solution of two principal problems : the organization of the means of production
(accounting, controlling, and correct distribution of fuel, raw material, machin-
ery, instruments, seeds, etc.), and the organization of labor (accounting, con-
trolling and correct distribution of labor power). In order to utilize thoroughly
all the forces of society, compulsory labor service, which will sooner or later
be introduced by the working class is indispensable. Idlers must vanish ; only
useful social workers will remain.
CHAPTER XIII
A Systematic Distribution of Products. The Abolition of Trade, Profits,
AND Speculation. Co-operative Communes
It is impossible to take possession of production properly without taking control
of the distribution of products. When products are wrongly distributed there
can be no projier production. Supposing that the largest branches of industry
are nationalized. As we have seen above, one branch of production works for
another. To make production systematic it is necessary that each branch should
APPENDIX, PART 1 181
be supplied with as much material as it requires; one enterprise getting more,
another less. That means that each product should be distributed regularly,
according to plan, in correspondence with the demands of the branches in question.
The various organs of supply, that is to say, such working organizations as deal
with distribution of pioducts, must be in direct communication with the organs
dealing with its production. Only then can the work of production run smoothly.
But there are some products that are directly used by the consumer. Such as
bread, for instance, many food products, the greater part of clothing materials,
many India ruliber products (no factory buys goloshes, which enter into direct
use of the consumer), and so on. Here an equally strict account and a just distri-
bution of these products among the population is necessary. And such a just
distribution is absolutely impossible without a definite plan being carried into
execution. First, the quantity of goods must be registered, then the demand for
fhem, and after that the products must be distributed according to these calcida-
tious. Tlie best instance of the necessity of an organized plan is the food question,
the question of bread. At present the bourgeoisie, the village sweaters, the
Right Social Revolutionaries, the IMensheviks, the well-to-do land grabbing peas-
ants, have all raised a hue and cry about repealing the bread monopoly, and
that speculators, big and small, the wholesale dealers and myesochniki ' should
be allowed to cairy on their trade as they like. It is easy to understand why
the tradesmen are interested in the repeal of the bread monopoly ; in some way
or another this monopoly hinders them from fleecing the consumer. On rhe
other hand, it is quite clear that the present state of things is absurd; the rich
calmly go on eating white bread, buying it in smuggler fashion ; that they have
black bread in plenty there is no question. They just pay considerably more and
get everything they want. Who helps them in thisV The speculators, of course.
What they are anxious about is not to feed the population, bui to grab a little more
money, to stuff a little more into their pockets, and it is, of course, the rich, not
the poor, that can give more. That is why the speculators bring bread not to
those localities where it is most needed, but to where they get paid most. And,
so far, it has not been possible to put an end to this. Hence it is clear that to
organize a systematic distribution of bread, the bread monopoly must be left
intact, as well as the food committees and the hoards of food, and further, this
monopoly must be carried out in the strictest manner, speculators must be dealt
with without mercy, private traders must be made to undei'stand that they dare
not make money out of a national calamity, disturl)ing the general plan. The
trouble at the present time is in the fact that the bread monopoly is imperfectly
carried out, while contraband private trading is thriving, and not in the fact that
there is a monopoly. And that, at a time when there is so little bread, when the
Germans have occupied the richest provinces; at a time when in many places
grain stored for seeds has been eaten up, when the fields remain uncultivated and
people are starving! Every piece of bread is precious, every pound of flour and
grain is priceless. And just for this very reason everything must be strictly
registered, so that not a crumb be wasted, and that all the bread be distributed
evenly, and that the rich should not be privileged in any way. This, we repeat,
can be done and will be attained if the workers only set to work promptly, if
they aid the working organizers in their task, if they help to catch speculators
and cheats.
Unfortunately, there are quite a number of people not filled with class spirit,
who make purchases at their own risk independently of the working organizations,
thereby also increasing the disorganization of the general plan. Each one thinks
to himself: "No matter what you say, I can mind my own business best" — and
off he goes to buy bread. Later on, conflicts are apt to arise on the way, on
account of this very bread, and then he complains : "They don't give you a chance
to look after yourself." As a matter of fact the whole affair looks somewhat like
this : let us imagine a train going, packed full ; some passengers are standing in
the corridors, others lying on the floors — in a word there is not enough room to
drop a pin. Then all of a sudden one man smells something burning, raises a cry
of "fire," and dashes like mad towards the door, pushing i)eople aside. The
people, panic stricken, try to break open the door, a wild scuffle ensues, they bite
and hit each other, break one another's ribs, trample children underfoot. The
result is — dozens of killed, wounded, maimed. Is that right? It might all have
been quite different. If reasonable people had been found to reassure the crowd,
^ The term "mysochnik" comes from a Russian word which means a sack, and is
applied to petty food speculators who carry flour, bread, etc., from the country Into tbe
towns in sacks.
132 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
to calm it, everyone would have walked out iu order without a scratch! Why
did everything hapiien in the way it did? Because each one thought: he will act
for himself, the others are "no concern of mine." But in the end it is he who gets
his neck broken first.
The very same thing takes place with those who buy bread independently,
infringing the regulations of the workers' food organizations. Each one thinks
that he will make things easier for himself. But what is the result? Every such
purchase upsets the systematic registering of the stock in hand : owing to these
purchases the regular delivery of bread becomes impossible. One locality, for
instance, where there is absolute starvation, must have bread delivered at the
expense of another, where things are comparatively better. But, instead some
people from the latter locality buy up all the bread and take it with them. The
former locality is thus left to starve to death. What follows? As the organized
public purchases have become disorganized there appears on the scene the maraud-
ing speculator. He at once begins to try his hand at private purchases. In this
manner the unintelligent poor, lacking in class consciousness, not understanding
things themselves, aid and abet the vampire speculator, whose real place is on
the gallows. Now we can understand why these speculating gentry exploit the
natural dissatisfaction of the hungry against the Soviet Government, and why
the greatest scoundrels and sweaters often stand at the head of risings against
the Soviets in small provincial towns. Workers should understand once and for
all that salvation is not to be attained by a return to the old order, but by ways
which lead forward towards the destruction of speculation towards the annihila-
tion of private trade, towards the social distribution of products by the workers'
organizations.
The same holds good concerning a whole series of other products. The working
class ought not to sufCer in order that the rich may get everything for extra prices,
but, on the contrary, must put an end to the profiteering speculators who, like the
hungry ravens, come flocking from all directions. A just, regulated distribution of
products, on the basis of registering the demands and reserves, is one of the
fundamental tasks confronting the working class. What does this mean? It
means the nationalization of trading, that is, in other words, the aholltion of
trading, for the transition to social distribution cannot exist side by side with
dealer.s and agents who live like parasites and completely upset the work of
supply. Not back to "free private trading," that is to say, to "free" robbery, but
towards an exact, regulated distribution of products by workers' organizations—
this should be the watchword of the intelligent workers.
In order to carry out this plan into execution more successfully a compulsory
union of the whole population into co-operative communes must be aimed at.
Only then can products be justly distributed, when the population that is to get
them is united and organized into large groups, whose demands can be exactly
estimated. If the population, instead of being united and organized, is scattered,
it becomes extremely difBeult to carry out this distribution in a more or less
orderly way ; it is difficult to calculate how much of each article is needed, what
and how much is to be delivered, how, that is, through what agency the distribu-
tion is to be effected. Let us imagine that the population is united into co-opera-
tive communes according to their parishes. Every town or parish, say, is united
into one co-operation which is in its turn united with the house committees.
Then a given product is first distributed to such communes, and these, having cal-
culated beforehand what product and of what quality they require, they distribute
it through their agents, among the different consumers.
In uniting the population into such co-oi>erative communes the already existing
co-operative societies will be of great importance. The wider the sphere of work
of the co-operatives, the wider the circle of the population included, the more
organized will the distribution of products become, and the more frequently will
these co-operatives be changed into organs of supply for the whole population.
Compulsory communes around already existing co-operatives; such, in all
probability, will be the most convenient form of the organization of distribution,
by the aid of which it will be ultimately possible to supplant trade and do away
once for ever with private profit.
To make the task of a regular distribution of products still easier, we must
aim at changing our private system of domestic economii into a social one. At
present every family has its own kitchen, every family, independently of others,
buys provisions, dooming woman to slavery, turning her into an eternal cook
who sees nothing from dawn till night except kitchen utensils, brushes, dusters,
and all kinds of refuse. An innnense amount of labor is absolutely wasted. If
we united and organized housekeeping, beginning with the supply and prepara-
APPENDIX, PART 1 183
tion of food (by means of joint purchases of provisions, cooking, construction of
large model restaurants, etc.). it would be much easier to keep an account of the
demandis of various households, and besides tlie saving of money tluis effected,
the regular genei'al distribulion would be greatly assisted.
One of the most viral questitms for the consumer, and a very painful one for
the town laborers, is the housino question. The poor are here mercilessly ex-
ploited. And on the other hand landlords used to make heaps of money on the
business. The expropriation of this kind of property, a transfer of houses and
of various kinds of residential premises, their registering and the regular dis-
tribution of flats and rooms, the transfer of this work into the hands of the
local workers' committee and of the organs of the Soviet Government is a difficult
but grateful task. We have had enough of the lording of the better classes ! The
worker, the poor toiler, has also a right to a warm room and to a living as
befits a human being.
In this way must economic life gradually be organized. The working class
must organize production. The working class must organize distribution. The
working class to organize consinnption — food, clothes, and housing — there is an
nccounf kept of everything, everything is distributed in the most reasonable way.
T'here are no master.s — there is the self administration of the working class.
chapter xiv
Labor Discipline of thei Working Class and of the Poorest Elements of the
Peasantry
To organize production so that life should be possible without masters, to
organize it on a fraternal basis, is a very good thing, but it is easier said than
done. We meet with munberless difficulties : in the first place we are now stand-
ing face to face with the heritage of the unfortunate war — a ruined country.
The working class is now obliged to clear up the mess made by Nicholas Romanoff
and his servants — Stunner. Sukhomlinolf, Protoppopoff, a mess which was later
increased by Gutchkofl: and Rodzianko with their servants — Kerensky, Tzeretelli,
Dan. and the rest of the treacherous company. Secondly, the working class are
now compelled to organize production whilst reijelling the blows of their greatest
enemies : on the other hand, those who are attacking them with savage hatred
from without, as well as those who are attempting to destroy the Workers'
■Government from within.
In order to emei-ge victorious under such conditions, to conquer once and for
•ever, the workers must struggle against their own inertia. Whilst organizing a
lahor (irriuj. it is at the same time imperative to create a revolutionm'y labor
(li.scipUne in this army. The fact of the matter is that there are still such indi-
viduals among the workers who do not yet believe that they have now become
masters of the situation. We want them to understand that at the present time
the State Exchequer belongs to the workers and the peasants : the factories are
national factories, the land is the land of the people, forests, machinery, mines,
factory plant, houses, evory thing has been transferred into the hands of the
working class. The administration over all this is a toorkers' ndnmmtration.
The attitude of the workers and peasants towards all this wealth cannot now
be the same as it was before; before it belonged to the masters, now all this
wealth belongs to the people. The masters used to sweat the workers to the
utmost. The landowner who lived like a lord fleeced the poor peasant and farm
laborer as bare as he could. Both the worker and the farm laborer were there-
fore right when they did not consider themselves bound to do their best under
the master's whip, for the sake of strengthening the might and power of their
tormentors. This is why there can be no question whatever of a labor discipline
when the whip of the capitalist is brandished over the workmen's head and the
whip of the landowner over that of the peasant and farm laborer. Things are
quite different now. These whips have now been destroyed. The working class
is now working for itself, it is now not making money for the capitalists, but
working in the people's cause, in the cause of the toiling masses which were
previously held in bondage.
But nevertheless, we repeat, there still are workers lacking class spirit who
do not seem to see all this. Why is that? Because they have been slaves too
long. Slavish servile thoughts ever crowd in their brain. Perhaps they think,
at the bottom of their hearts, that they cannot possibly exist without God and
i\ master. And consequently they use the revolution to their own ends, trying to
fill their pockets, to grasp where they can, and what they can, never stopping to
184 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
thiuk of their labor duties nor of the fact that slovenliness and cheating at wort
at present is a crime against the ivoikitKj class. For labor does not now serve to
enrich a master ; labor now supports the workers — the poverty-stricken classes
who are now at the helm of State. The indifferent workman now does not injure
directors or bankers, but members of workers' administration, workers' unions,
and the Government of the workers and peasants. To handle machinery care-
lessly, to break tools, to try and get little work done in the ordinary working
hours for the purpose of working overtime and receiving double pay — by all this
it is not the master who is cheated, it is not the capitalist who is harmed, but
the working class as a whole. The same thing applies to the land. He who
steals farming implements which have been registered by the farm laborers and
peasants, robs the society and not the landowner, who has been driven out a
long time ago. The man who cuts down timber despite the prohibition of the
peasants' organizations is thereby robbing the poor. Any man who, instead of
cultivating the land taken from the landowner, is engaged in bread speculation
or secret distilling, is a cheat and a criminal against the workers and peasants.
Now it is quite evident to everyone that, for setting in order and organizing
production, it is necessary for the workers to organize themselves and create
their own labor discipline. At the factories and works the workers must them-
selves see to it that every comrade should tuin out as much as is required.
Professional workers' unions and the Soviets of the workers are in direct super-
vision of production. They may, when possible, shorten the working day, and
we mean to aim at such excellent organization of production as to make it
possible for each set of workmen to work only six instead of eight hours. But
these very same workers' organizations, as well as the workers' Government and
the working class as a whole, may and she mid expect of their members the most
conscientious devotion to their work. The workers' organizations, especially
labor unions, should themselves fix the average output, that is to say, the amount
of work that must be performed by every workman during one working day :
he who does riot execute the required quantity, allowance of course being made
for sickness and weakness, is sabotaging, undermining the work of constructing
a new social order, and hinders the working class in its progress towards i^erfect
Communism.
Production is a vast machine, every part of which must be in perfect harmony
with the other, all working equally well. An imperfect tool in the hands of a good
workman is worthless, and so is a good tool in the hands of an inefficient one.
What we want is a good tool and a good workman.
Therefore we should strain our powers to the utmost to organize the supply
of fuel and raw material, to organize transpoi-t and to distribute this fuel and
raw material properly, at the same time taking measures for self-discipline and
a proper training of the working masses to conscientious labor.
It is more difficult to do this in Russia than in any other country. The work-
ing class (and this applies in a still greater degree to the peasantry) have not
gone through a long stage of organized training as the Western European and
American workers have. We have among our mnnber many woi'kers who are
only just becoming workers, who are only just getting accustomed to rollectivo
social work, who are only now learning that to say "other people's business is no
concern of mine" is not the proper sentiment for a workman to express. This
kind of workman will always tend to disturb the harmony of social labor. The
more we have of the kind who still nurse the idea of becoming their own masters,
or saving a little money and starting a shop, the harder will be our task of carry-
ing through real labor discipline. But foi- this very reason must those in tlie
vanguard of the I'evolution, pioneers and labor organizations, grow more and
more determined to establish and strengthen such discipline. If this is a success
will become possible to organize everytliing else and for the working class to
emerge victorious out of the difficulties created by the war, by disorganization and
sabotage, and all the barbarity and atrocities of the capitalist order.
chaptee xv
The End of the Power of Money. "State Finance" and Financial Economy
IN THE Soviet Republic
Money at the present time represents the means of obtaining goods. Tlius
those who have much money can buy many things ; they are rich. However low
the rate of money falls, it is always easier to live for the man who has much of it.
The rich classes who even now have an abundance of money can live at their
APPENDIX, PART 1 185
.-as.'. In towns, traders, merchants, capitalists and speculators : in the country
The "kulaks" (rich peasants), the sharks and sweaters who have fattened on
tliH wai- to an incredible degree, having saved hundreds of thousands of roubles.
Things have reached such a pitch that some buried their money in the ground in
boxes or glass jars.
The workers" and peasants' State, on the other hand, is in need of money.
Additional issues of paper money depreciates its value: the more paper money
is printed the cheaper it gets. And yet the works and factories must be main-
tained by these paper tokens ; workers must be paid, the administration must be
kept going, the employees must get their wages. Where is the money to come
f!om? To get the money it is necessary first of all to tax the rich. An income
inid property fax. that is to say, a tax on big profits and on large property, must
be the principal tax; a tax on the rich, a tax on those who receive a surplus
income.
But at the present time, when everybody is living through a revolutionary fever,
when it is diflScult to arrange for the regular imposition of taxes, any means of
obtaining money is reasonable and admissible. For instance, the following is
quite an excellent measure. The Government declares that up to a certain date
all money must be exchanged for new. and that the old money has lost its value.
That means that everybody must empty his boxes and jars and cupboards and
bring his hoard to the bank to be exchanged. And here the following system
should be carried out; the savings of poor people must be untouched, a new
rouble being paid for every old one ; but begiiniing with a certain sum a part must
be deducted for the benefit of the State. And the larger the amount of money
saved up, the greater will be the sum retained. Let us propose the following
scheme: up to 5000 the exchange is to be a rouble for a rouble; of the following
5000 a tenth part is deducted ; from the third 5000 a seventh part ; from the
fourth a fourth part ; from the fifth a half : from the sixth three-quarters ; and
beginning with a definite sum, the whole is confi.'icated.
Thus the power of the rich would be considerably undermined, additional
means for the needs of the Workers' State would be obtained, and everybody
would be more or less equalized with regard to income.
In a time of revolution the imposition of contrihutions on the bourgeoisie is
justifiable. It is certainly not at all advisable for one local Soviet to tax the
bourgeoisie according to one system, whilst the other does so in accordance with
another system, and a third according to a third. Tliis would be as bad as if
there were varying forms of levying taxes in a given locality.
We must strive towards a uniform system of taxation, suitable for the whole
Soviet Republic. But if in the meantime we have not been able to build up such
machinery, contributions are admissible. There is a Russian proverb which says :
"When you can't get fish, a lobster will do." We mi;st bear in mind that the
duty of the party and of the Soviets, as well as that of the working class and the
poorest peasantry, consists in uniting and centralizing on one definite plan, the
collection of taxes, thereby systematically driving the bourgeoisie out of their
economic stronghold.
We must, however, note that the moi-e successful the organization of produc-
tion on new labor principles, the more will the importance of money decrease.
Formerly, when private enterprises were the dominating institution, these private
enterprises sold their goods to one another. The tendency now is for various
branches of industry to unite and become different departments of general social
production. Products may be exchanged between the different departments
simply by a process of book-keeping without the need of using money at all.
This method is acrually in process between the different branches of capitalistic
trusts or combines.
Combined enterprises are those which embrace several varying branches of
production. In America, for instance, there are enterprises which own metal
works, coal mines, iron mines, and steamship companies. One branch of the
enterprise supplies the other with raw materials or transports its manufactured
products. But all these separate branches represent but part of one enterprise.
It is. of course, imderstood that one part does not sell its products to another
branch of the enterprise, but distributes it according to the orders of the central
head oflice of the various departments. Or let us take another example: the
works of one department transfer the half-finished product to another, yet
n-ithin the works no kind of purchase and sale transaction takes place. The same
sort of things will be established in the general plan of production. The main
branches of production will be organized into huge social enterprises under the
management of the workers. A systematic distribution of the necessary means
IgQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of production will take place between the different branches ; this will include
fuel, raw materials, half-finished products, auxiliary materials, and so on. And
that will mean that money will lose its importance. Money is important only
when production is unorganized ; the more organized it becomes the smaller
becomes the part played by money, and the need for it gradually decreases.
What about the woi-kers' pay? we shall be asked. The same thing will hold
good here. The better production is organized by the working class, the less will
social workmen be paid in money and the more they will be paid in kind, that
is to say, in products. We have already spoken of co-operative communes and of
labor registers. Products required by workers will be issued without any money
whatever, simply upon the evidence that such and such a man has worked and is
working; they will be given out by the co-operative stores in accordancf' with
such entries in the labor registers. This, of course, cannot be organized all at
once. It will be long before we are able to organize this into proi:>er working
order. It is a new plan that has never been worked before, and is therefore
exceptionally difficult to carry out. But one thing is clear : in proportion as the
worker.s come into possession of production and distribution, the need of money
will become less and less, and subsequently will gradually die out altogether.
An "exchange" of goods must then begin between town and countrij, without
the agency of money; municipal industrial organizations send out textile, iron
and other goods into the country, while the village district organizations send
bread to the towns in exchange. Here, too. the importance of money will \ye les-
sened in proportion as the town and country labor organizations of the workers
and peasants become more closely united.
But at present, at this very moment, the workers' Government needs money,
and needs it badly. That is because the organizations of production and di.^tri-
bution is only just getting into working order, and money still plays a most
important part. Finances, including income and expenditure of State money, are
at present of the utmost importance. And that is why the question of taxes is sa
acute at the present time ; they must be exacted by every means. The confisca-
tion of surplus incomes of Ihe town and country bourgeoisie is inevitable, as i?
also periodical taxation.
But in the future taxation will also become obsolete. To the extent that pro-
duction becomes nationalized, .so capitalists' profits cease: as there are no more
landowners the so-called land tax is abolished. Property holders are deprived of
their houses, and thus another source of taxation is gone. Superfluous wealth
is confiscated, the rich are losing their main support, and the whole population
is gradually becoming employed by the proletarian State organizations. (Later
on, with complete Communism, when there is no State, [jeople, as we have seen,
will become equal comrades, and the very memory of the division of society into
bourgeoisie will vanish.)
When such a state of things exists it will be much simpler to deduct the neces-
sary taxes immediately from salaries than to deduct considerable sums in the
way of taxes or dues. It is not worth while spending both time and money on
the senseless transaction of giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
We have seen, on the other hand, that when production and distribution are
thoroughly organized, money will play no part whatever and as a matter of
cour.se no kind of money dues will be demanded from anyone. Money will have
generally become unnecessar.v. Finance will become extinct.
We repeat that that time is a long way off yet. There can be no talk of it in
the near future. For the present we must find means for public finance. But we
are already taking steps leading to the abolition of the money system. Society
is being transformed into one huge labor organization or company to produce
and distribute what is already produced without the agency of gold coinage or
paper money. The end of the power of money is imminent.
CHAPTEB, XVI
No Trade Communication Between the Russian Bourgeoisie and Foreign
iMPERiAijsTS. ( Nation alizaton of Foreign Trade)
At the present time every countr.y is surrounded b.v other countries on which
it depends to a considerable extent. It is very difficult for a country to manage
without foreign trade, because the country produces more of one protluct than
another, and vice versa. Blockaded Germany is now experiencing how hard it
is to do without a supply from other countries. And should England, for instance,
be surrounded by as close a ring as is Germany, it would have perished long ago.
APPENDIX. PART 1 lg7
The Russian industry, nationalized by tli«^ working class, cannot possibly dis-
pense with certain goods from abroad, and on the other hand, foreign countries,
especially Germany, are badly in need of raw material. We must not forget even
for a minute that we live in the midst of rapacious capitalist States. Naturally
enough these plundering States will try to obtain everything that they require
to further their aims of plunder. And the Russian bourgeoisie, that has been so
hedged in and persecuted in Russia, will be very glad to enter into direct contact
with foreign Imperialists. There is no doubt whatever that the foreign bourgeoisie
could pay the Russian speculators even more than does our own home-made,
true-Russian patriotic bourgeoisie. A speculator, as we know, sells to him who
pays the most. And so we have only to give our bourgeois the chance of exporting
goods abroad, and foreign plunderers the possibility of arranging their little
business atfairs here, and the Socialist Soviet Republic would have little cause
to rejoice at the results.
Formerly, when the question of foreign trade arose, the discussion confined
itself to two points; whether high import duties on foreign goods were necessary
or whether they should be abolished altogether; that is to say, Protection or
Free Trade. During the last years of the reign of capital, capitalists were very
active in carrying out the policy of Protection. Thanks to this the trusts received
additional profit. Having no competitors or rivals within the country, they were
the monopolists of the home market, the high wall of import duties protected
them from foreign competitors. In this way, by the aid of high duties, the
syndicalists, that is the biggest sharks of capital, could fleece their countrymen
shamelessly. Making use of this double extortion of their countrymen, the syn-
dicalists began to export goods abroad at extremely cheap prices in order to
displace or remove their rival syndicalists of other countries from their path.
Xatuially these cheap prices were only temporary. As soon as they had removed
their rivals they immediately raised the prices in the newly-conquered markets.
It was in order to carry out this policy that they required high customs tarifEs.
In raising a cry about the defence of industry the syndicalists were really
clamoring for a' means of attack, for means of economic conquest of foreign
markets. And as always happens in such cases, these professional imposters on
the people were disguising their plunder by a pretence of guarding the national
interests.
A few Socialist.s seeing this, put forward the demand for Free Trade between
the different countries. That would have meant everything being left to the
chances of a free economic struggle between individual bourgeoisie. But this
war cry was left to hover in mid-air; it was simply of no use to anybody. For
what syndicalist would reject a proposition of additional profit? And since he
received this additional profit only owing to his being immune from foreign com-
petition thanks to the high customs tariff, how do you expect this syndicalist
to reject such high duties? First of all it is imperative to overthrow the syn-
dicalists. Our first object is a Socialist Revolution. This is how the question
was answered by true Socialists, by Communist Bolsheviks, as we now call them.
And a Socialist Revolution means the institution of such an order where every-
thing is in the hands of an oryanized ^tatc of the icorking class. We have seen
what harm private trade causes within the country: the harm done by this kind
of trade between different countries is not less. In other words, abolishing Free
Trade within the country whilst establishing it abroad is sheer nonsense. Equally
absurd, from the point of view of the working class, is the system of taxation of
foreign capitalists. A third way out is wanted, and this consists in the nationali-
zation of foreifj)! trade hi/ the proletarian State.
What does this mean? It means that no one who lives upon Russian soil has
a right to make business agreements with foreign capitalists. If anyone is
caught at it, he should be fined or Imprisoned. The whole of the foreign trade is
carried on by the Workers' and Peasants' Government. The latter carries out
all transactions whenever occasion arises. Suppo.sing American machines are
being offered In exchange for certain goods or for a certain amount of money or
gold, whilst some Germans offer the same machines at a different price and on
different terms. The workers" organizations (Government Soviet organizations)
consider whether it is necessary to make the purchase and of whom it should
be more advantageous to buy. In accordance with their decision the machines
are bought in the place and upon terms which are the most profitable. Products
bought in the manner are distributed to the liopulation without any profits being
made out of them, because the transaction is carried out not by capitalists to
make money out of the workers, but by the workers themselves. In this manner
the domination of capital would be abolished hi this department as well. The
138 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
workers must take the business of foreign trade (as tliey liave done and are
doing) into their own hands and organize it so that not a single swindler or
speculator or shop-keeper should be able to evade the workers' watchfulness.
It is clearly understood that capitalist smugglers should be dealt with merci-
lessly. They should be made to forget all their tricks. The management of
economic life is at present the business of the working class. It is only by the
aid of a further strengthening of this order that the working class can attain
its final liberation from the remnants of the accursed capitalist order.
chapter xvii
Spiritual Liberation — The Next Step to Economic Liberation. (The Church
AND the School in the Soviet Republic)
The working class and its party, the party of Communist Bolsheviks, are
struggling not only for economic freedom but also for spiritual liberation of the
toiling masses. Economic liberation itself will be the easier attained the sooner
the workman and the farm laborer get their brains cleared of all the rubbish
with which the landowners and the manufacturing bourgeoisie have stuffed
them. We have already noticed before how cleverly the dominating classes
have hitherto bound the workers with their newspapers, journals, pamphlets,
priests, and even the school, which they cleverly converted from an organ of
enlightenment into an institution for dulling the minds of the people.
One of the agencies in achieving this object was the belief in God and in the
Devil, spirits good and evil (angels and saints), in short, in religion. A great
number of people have grown accustomed to believe in all this, whilst if we
analyze these ideas and try to understand the origin of religion and why it
is so strongly supported by the bourgeoisie, it will become clear that the real
significance of religion is that it is a poison which is still being instilled into
the people. It will also become clear why the party of the Communists is a
>strong antagonist of religion.
Modern science has proved that the original form of religion was the worship
of the souls of dead ancestors. This worship began at a time when the so-called
elders — that is to say, the richer, more experienced and wise old men of the
tribe who already had some power over the rest, had attained great importance.
In the early stages of human history, when men were still living in herds, like
semi-apes, people were indeed equal. It was only later on that elders or heads
of tribes began to have command over the whole tribe: they were the first to
be worshipped. The worship of the spirits of the dead rich — this is the basis
of religion: and these "sacred" idols were later on changed into a terrible God
who punishes and forgives, judges and governs. Let us analyze why people
have come to accept such an explanation of everything that takes place around
them. The reason is that people judge of things that are little known to them
by comparing them with things with which they are familiar : they weigh and
measure things on a scale that is concrete and comprehensible. A well-known
scholar quotes the following instance. A little girl, brought up on a private
estate where there was a poultry farm, constantly had to do with eggs: eggs
were ever present before her eyes. Once, when she saw the sky strewn with
stars, she told a story of how the heavens were sprinkled with a vast number
of eggs. Such instances may be quoted endlessly. The same thing holds true
as regards religion. People saw that there are those who obey and those who
are obeyed. They constantly witnessed the following picture — the elder (and
later on the prince) surrounded by his followers, more experienced, wiser,
stronger and richer than the others, orders others and reigns over them: the
others act according to his wish : he is obeyed by all.
This kind of thing witnessed daily and hourly apiieared to explain all that
takes place in the world. There is on the earth, they said, one commander
and those who obey him. Consequently, they reasoned, the whole world is built
up on the same scheme. There is a master of the world, a great, strong, terrible
master upon whom everything is dependent, and who punishes her servants
severely for disobedience. This master over the world is God. And so the
idea of a god in the heavens arises only in tliose cases when people are accustomed
to the power of the elders over the tribe.
It is an interesting fact that all the names given to God confirm the same origin
of religion. The Russian words for God and for rich are of the same origin ; thus
"Bog" (God) and "Bogat" (rich) are derived from the same root. God is great,
powerful, and rich. God is called Lord or Master. What does "Lord" signify
APPENDIX, PART 1 Igg
hnt the contrary to servant or slaA^e? In prayers we have : "We arc thy servants."
God is further called the "Heavenly King." All the other titles point in the
same direction : "sovereign," "ruler." and so on. And so, what does "God"
really mean? It means, as we are told, a rich, strong master, a slave owner,
a "heavenly king," a judge — in short, an exact copy, a reproduction of the earthly
power of the elders, and later on of the princes. When the Jews were governed
by their ]irinces, who punished and tortured them, there arose the teaching of
a cruel and terrible God. Such is the God of the Old Testament. He is a vicious
old man, who chastises his subjects severely. Let us now consider the God of
the Greek Orthodox <;5hurch. The teachings concerning this god arose in
Byzantium, in the country which served as a model of despotism. At the head
stood a despotic monarch surrounded by his ministers: these, in their turn, were
surrounded by high ofiicials ; next followed a whole host of avaricious officials.
The Greek orthodox religion is an exact model of this system. The "Heavenly
King" sits above. Around him are gathered the most important saints (for in-
stance, Saint Nicholas, the Holy Virgin, something after the style of an empress,
tlie wife of the Holy Ghost), these are ministers; next comes a hierarchy of
angels and saints in the order of officials in a despotic government. These are
the so-called "ranks of angels and arch-angels": cherubs, seraphs heralds and
various other "ranks" or "offices." The word "rank" itself shows that we
have to do with officials ("rank" and "official" are words which have the same
root in the Russian language). These "ranks" are represented on images in
such a way as to show that he who stands higher in rank is better dressed, has
more laurels, that is to say, he has more "orders," just the same as on our
sinful earth. In a despotic State the official invariably demands "a bribe", else
ho will do nothing for you : and just in the same way it is necessary to light
a candle before the image of the saint or he will get angry and not deliver
your message to the highest official — to God. In a despotic State there are
special officials whose express mission is to act as intercessors, for a bribe,"
of course. Here in the orthodox religion there are also special saints — "inter-
cessors," or intermediaries, especially women. For instance, the Holy Virgin
is, so to speak, a professional female "intercessor." Of course, she does not per-
form her services free of charge ; she expects to have more churches built in
her name than anyone else, and a great number of surplices have tO' be bought
for her images, ornamented with precious stones, and so on.
In short, we see that the belief in God is a )X'ffcction of the commonest everyday
relations: it is the belief in sJarerii, which people are made to believe exists-
not only on the earth, but in the whole universe. We understand, of course, that
in reality there is nothing of the kind ; and it is clear to everybody that sucfe
legends hinder the development of humanity. The progress of Man is possible
only when he finds vafural explanations for all phenomena. But when, instead of
a logical reason, people invent a god or saints or demons or devilsi, then, of
course, we can expect nothing sensible. Here are a few more instances. Some
religious people believe that thunder is caused by the Prophet Elijah taking a
ride in his chariot ; and therefore, when they hear thunder they take off their
hats and make the sign of the cross. In reality this electricity which causes
thunder is perfectly well known to science, and by this same power we run
trams and carry on them many things we desire. A logical line of reasoning
shows us that we can convey manure with the aid of the "Prophet Elijah," and
that he makes a good carman. Let us suppose that we believed in the Prophet
Elijah version. In that case we should never have invented tramears. That
means that, owing to religion, we should for ever have remained in a state of
burharix')!!. Another instance. AVar breaks out, people perish in millions, oceans
of blood are shed. A reason explaining this must be found. Those who do not
believe in God think, reason, and analyze ; they see that the war is conducted
f(ir plundering purposes and for filthy aims; and therefore they say for the
workers of all countries, "To arms against your oppressors !" "Down with cap-
ital !" We see quite a different attitude in the case of a religious man. Sighing
like an old woman, he rea.sons as follows: "God is punishing us for our sins.
O Lord, our heavenly father ! Thou art chastising us justly for our transgres-
sions." And if he is very pious, and Greek Orthodox into the bargain he makes:
it a point to use one particular kind of food on definite days (this is called
fasting), to beat his forehead against stone floors (this is called penance), and
to perform a thousand other idiotic things. Equally foolish things are done
by the religious Jew, the Moslem Turk, the Buddhist Chinese, in a word by
everyone who believes in God. Hence it follows that really religious people
are incapable of fighting. Religion, as we have shown, not only leaves peopl'' iu
190 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
a state of harbarism. but helps to leave them in a state of slaverji. A religious
man is more inclined to suffer anything that happens resignedly, for everything,
as they believe, "comes from God" ("from on high") ; he considers himself bound
to submit to the authorities and to suffer, for which he will be repaid a hundred-
fold in the life to come. Little wonder, then, that the dominant classes in cap-
italist States look upon religion as a very useful tool for deceiving and stultifying
the people.
At the beginning of the chapter we saw that the power of the bourgeoisie is
sustained not only by bayonets but also by dulling the hrains of the slaves. We
also saw that the bourgeoisie poisons the minds of its subjects on an organized
plan. For this purpose there is a special organization, namely, the Church or-
ganized by the State. In nearly all capitalist countries the church is just af<
much a State institution as is the police ; and the priest is as much a State oflBcial
as is the executioner, the gendarme, the detective. He receives a Governmient
sahirij for administering his poison to the masses. Tliis is the most dangerous
part of the whole affair. Were it not for this monstrously firm and strong
organization of the plundering capitalist State, there would be no room for
a single priest. Their bankruptcy would be swift enough. But the trouble is
that the bourgeois States support the whole church institution, which in return
staunchly supports the bourgeois Government. At the time of the Tzar the
Russian priests not only deceived the masses, but even made use of the con-
fessional to find out what ideas or intentions their victims entertained towards
the Government ; they acted as spies while discharging their "sacred duties."
The Government not only supported them, but even persecuted by imprisonment
and exile and all other means, all so-called "blasphemers" of the Greek Orthodox
Church.
All these considerations explain the programme of the Communists with regard
to their attitude to religion and to the Church. RclU/ion must be fought, if not
by violence, at all events by argument. The Church must be seita rated from the
State. That means that the priests may remain, but should be maintained by
those who wish to accept their poison from them or by those who are interested
in their existence. There is a poison called opium ; when that is smoked, sweet
visions appear; you feel as if you were in paradise. But its action tells on the
health of the smoker. His health is gradually ruined, and little by little he
becomes a meek idiot. The same applies to religion. There are people wh<_)
wish to smoke opium ; but it would be absurd if the State maintained at its
expense, that is to say. at the expense of the people, opium dens and special men
to serve them. For this reason the Church must be (and already is) treated
in the same way : priests, bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, abbots and the rest
of the lot must l)e refused State maintenance. Let the believers, if they wish ir.
feed the holy fathers at their own expense on the fat of the land, a thing which
thev. the priests, greatly appreciate.
On the other hand, freedom of thought must be guaranteed. Hence the axiom
that religion is a private affair. This does not mean that we should not struggle
against it by freedom of argument. It means that the State should support
no' church organization. As regards this question, the programme of the Bol-
shevik Communists has been carried out all over Russia. Priests of all creed-*
have been deprived of State subsidy. And that is the reason why they have
become so furious and have twice anathematized the present Government, i. e.,
the Government of the workers, by excommunicating all workers from the church.
We must note this. At the time of the Tzar they knew well enough the text in
the Scripture which says, "There is no power but from God," and "The powers
that be are to be obeyed." They willingly sprinkled executioners with holy water.
But why have they forgotten these texts at a time when the workers are at
the head of the Government? Is it possible that the will of God does not hold
good when there is a Communist Government? What can the reason be? The
thing is very simple. The Soviet Government is the first Government in Russia
to attack the pockets of the clergy. And this, by the way, is a priest's most
sensitive spot. The clergy are now in the camp of the "oppressed bourgeoisie."
They areworking secretly and openly against the working class. But times
have changed, and the masses of the laboring class are not so prone to become
the easy prey to deceit they were before. Such is the great educational signfi-
cance of the Revolution ; revoiution liberates us from economic slavery, but ir.
also frees us from spiritual bondage.
There is another vital Question concerning the mental education of the masses.
It is the question of the school.
APPENDIX, PART 1 ]^9][
At the time of the domination of the bourgeoisie the school served more as an
ur^'aii of educating the masses in a spirit of submission to the houryeoisie than as
a medium of real education. All primers and other appurtenances of study were
permeated with the spirit of slavery. Especially was this the case with history
1 looks. These did nothing but lie in describing the feats of the Tzars and other
crowned scoundrels. Next to these, an important part in the schools was played
l>y the clergy. Everything aimed at one object: to mould the child so that it
i<liouId emerge not a citizen l)ut a subject, a slave, capable if the occasion requires
to kill his fellow-men should they rise against the capitalist Government. Schools
were divided into grades; there were schools for the common people and others
lor the better classes. For the latter there were colleges and universities, where
the sons of the bourgeoisie were taught various sciences with the final object
of teaching them how to manage and subjugate the rabble ; for the rabble there
was the lower school. In these, more than in the others, was the influence of the
clergy predominant. The object of this school, that gave very little knowledge
but lauglit the children a great deal of religious lies, was to prepare i^eople to
suffer, obey, and be resignedly submissive to the better classes. The common
people had no access whatever to the higher schools, that is to the universities,
the social higher technical schools, and various other institutions. And thus an
educational monopoly was created. Only the rich or those supported by the
rich could enjoy a more or less decent education. For these reasons the intellec-
tuals utilized their position in a very clever manner. And, of course, at the time
of the October Revolution they were against the workers ; they scented danger
of their privileges and rights vanishing if everybody had the right to study, and
if the "rabble" were given the possibility of acquiring knowledge.
It is therefore necessary in the very first place to make education general
and c^impulsory. In order to construct life on new principles it is necessary that
a man ^^hould be accustomed from childhood to honest toil. For this purpose
school children should be taught all kinds of manual labor in the schools. The
doors of the high schools shoitld be open to all. The priests should be turned
out of the schools ; let them, if they wish to, fool the children anywhere they like,
but not in a Government institution: schools should be secular and not religious.
The organs of the local government of the workers have control over the schools,
and should not be parsimonious where public instruction and the supply of all
the requisites for successful teaching for boys and girls is concerned. At present
in some of the villages and provincial towns, some idiotic schoolmasters, aided
l)y the "kulaks" (or rather the "kulaks" aided by these idiots) are carrying on
a propaganda, saying that the Bolsheviks are aiming at destroying science,
abolishing education, and so on. This is, of course, a most despicable lie. The
Comnuinist Bolsheviks have quite different intentions ; they wish to liberate
science from the yoke of capitalism, and to make all science accessible to the
laboring masses. They wish to destroy the monopoly (exclusive right) of the
rich to education. This is the true foundation of the matter : and it is no wonder
that the rich are afraid of losing one of their chief supports. If every workman
acquires the qualifications of an engineer, then the position of the capitalist and
of the rich engineer is not worth a brass farthing. They will have nothing more
to boast of, for there will be many such as they. No undermining of the workers'
cause, no amottnt of sabotage by the old servants of capital will be of any avail.
And that is what the right honorable bottrgeoisie is afraid of.
Culttire for the bourgeoisie, spiritual subjection for the poor — these are the
capitalists' war cries. Citltttre for all, liberation of the mind from the yoke of
capital — this is the watchword of the party of the working class, the party of
the Oimmunists.
chapter xviii
The People Akmed Defend Their Gains
(Army of the Soviet Republic)
"The best guarantee, the best security for freedom, is a bayonet in the hands
of the workers." These were the words of one of the creators of scientific Com-
munism, Frederick Engels. Now we can actually see how true this saying is :
it has been completely confirmed by the experience of the great Revolution of
1917.
Quite a short time ago even some of otir more radical comrades raised the
cry of "disarmament." This is what they said: The bourgeoisie is everywhere
]^92 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
building a monstrous, colossal fleet — submarine, marine and aerial; huge armies
are growing. Fortresses are being built, colossal cannon and such organs of
destruction as armored cars and tanks. All this terrible system of violence must
be destroyed. We must demand general disarmament.
But the Bolsheviks argued otherwise. We said : Our war cry is disarmament
of the bourgeoisie and unconditioTial and universal arming of the working class.
And indeed, it would be ridiculous to attempt to persuade the bourgeoisie to
surrender its most powerful weapon — its armed forces (composed by the way,
of deceived workmen and poor peasants). This violent death-dealing machine
can only be destroyed by means of violence. Arms are surrendered only by the
compulsion of the superior armed force of the other side ; and in this fact lies
the signiticance of the armed resi.sta)ice against the bourgeoisie.
For the bourgeoisie the army is a weapon in the struggle for the division of
the world on the one hand, and a weapon in the struggle against the working
class on the other. The Tzar and Kerensky dreamed of conquering Constanti-
nople as well as the Dardanelles, Galicia, and many another spicy bit by the
aid of their army. At the same time both the Tzar and Kerensky (and that
means the landowners and the capitalists) were oppressing the working class
and the poorest peasantry as nnich as they could. In the hands of large property
owners the army served as a weapon for the division of the world and for the
subjection of the poor elements of the population. That is what the army used to
be in former times.
How was it possible for the bovirgeoisie to make of the workers and peasants
(of whom the army is largely composed) a weapon against these very workers
and peasants? What enabled the Tzar and Kerensky to do so? Why was it
done by Wilhelra and Hindenburg and by the German bourgeoisie, who turned
their workers into executioners of the Russian, Finnisli, Ukrainian and German
revolutionaries? Why were German sailors who revolted against their oppres-
sors shot down by the hand of other German sailors? How is it that the Englisli
bourgeoisie is suppressing by means of English soldiers (who are also mostly
workers) the revolution in Ireland, a country oppressed and trodden underfoot
by cruel English bankers?
To this question the same answer should be given as to that of how the bour-
geoisie manages to retain its power in general. We have seen that this is
achieved by means of the perfect organization of the bourgeoisie. In the army
the power of the bourgeoisie rests on two principles ; tirstly on the officer corps.
consisting of nobles and bourgeois; and secondly on the special training and
spiritual murder, i. e., on a bourgeois moulding of the minds of the soldier.'t.
The otficer corps on the whole is a purely class institution. An officer is ideally
tiained for the work of militarism, to inflict brutal corporal punishment on the
soldiers and to cruelly mishandle them. Just glance at one of these brave officers
of the Guards or at a Prussian dandy with the face of a prize bull-dog. You
can see at a glance that like a circus trainer he has been long and i)ersistently
learning how to ill-treat and bully and keep the human herd in a state of mortal
fear and blind-obedience.
You can see that, since such gentlemen are picked and chosen from among the
bourgeoisie and nobility and sous of landowners and capitalists, it is quite
evident that they will lead the army in quite a definite direction.
And now, look at the soldiers : They enter the army as common men, with no
common bond, from different provinces, unable to show any united resistance,
with minds already tainted by the clergy and the school. They are instantly
put up at barracks, and the triiuing begun. Intimidation and teaching of the
most anti-democratic notions, a constant system of fear and punishment, cor-
ruption by i-ewards for crime (for instance, for the execution of strikers), all
this makes idiots of the men, dummies, who blindly obey their own mortal
enemies.
It is evident that with the Revolution, the army entirely resting on the old
Tzarist basis, the army driven to slaughter for the purpose of conquering Con-
stantinople even by Kerensky, must inevitably have become disorganized. Do
you ask why? Because the soldiers saw that they were being organized, trained
and thrown into battle for the sake of the criminal stupidity of the bourgeoisie.
They saw that for nearly three years they sat in the trenches, perished, hungered,
suffered, and died and killed others all for the sake of somebody's money-bags.
It is natural enough that when the revolution has displaced the old discipline
and a new one had not get had time to be formed, the collapse, ruin and deatji
of the old army took place.
APPEKDIX, PART 1 193,
This disease was inevitable. Tlie Meiishevik and Socialist revolutionary fools
accuse the Bolsheviks of this disaster: "see what you have done! Corrupted
the army of the Tzar." They fail to see that the lievolutiou could not have
been victoriou.s if the army had remained loyal to the Tzar and to the generals
in February and to the bourgeoisie in October. The soldiers' rising against the
Tzar was iilrvadv the result of the disorganization of the Tzarist army. Every
revolution destroys what is old and rotten: a certain period (a very difficult
one to live through) must pass until the new life is fornieil, until the building
of a new beautiful editice is begun upon the ruins of the old pig-sty.
Let us give you another example from a different sphere. As the older
workers know, in bygone times, when the peasants were only begiiming to turn
to factory work, the first thing that happened when they came to town was to
become desperate "hooligans," "rowdies," "roughs." The word "factory hand"
or "worker" were practically words of abuse ; and indeed our workers were
great hands at ruflianism, obscenity and swearing. Basing their arguments on
this state of affairs, all reactionaries fearing any kind of innovation used to
propagate a return to serfdom.
What they said was this : As town life depraves workers and as its rendency
is to "roughen their characters," what they want is the country, and especially
the paternal rod of the landowners. Under these conditions virtue will be sure
to thrive. And they sneered ill-naturedly at those who looked upon the working
class as the salt of the earth. They used to say to us Marxists, disciples of
the great Conununist, Karl Marx: "Do you see what you workers areV They
are swine, not men. They are blackguards ! And you say that they are tlie salt
of the earth ! A good whip and a stick — that is what they want ; that will teach
them to behave themselves."
Many were "convinced" by such argumeuts. But the truth of the matter is
this: when the pea.'^ants went to town iuid broke with the country, the old village
ties and traditions were forgotten. In the country they lived according to
old traditions, looking up to the old men as if they were oracles, obeying them
although they had grown childish with age : they would stay peacefully within
the limits of their cabbage patch, never setting foot outside their native town,
and would, of course, be afraid of anything new. This is an example of rustic
wisdom. Bad as it was, it served as a bridle, and helped to preserve village order.
This simplicity vanished rayndly in the towns, where everything was new: new
people, new outlooks, and a multitude of new temptations in store. No wonder
that the old village morality vanished into thin air, and some time elapsed
before a new was formed. It was this interval between two periods that came
to be a period of depravity.
But during the course of events a new consciousness arose in the new sphere
of life; the consciousness of the solidarity of the proletariat. The factory united
the workers; the opression of the capitalists taught them to struggle jointly:"
in the place of the weak, insipid grandfatherly wisdom there arose a new prole-
tarian outlook, infinitely higher than the old. It is this new outlook that is
changing the proletariat into the most advanced, most revolutionary, most
creative of all classes. We Communists, of course, and not the feudalist land-
owners proved to be right.
At the present time the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries have taken
up the attitude of the feudalists with regard to the army. They are loudly lic-
wailing the disorganization of the army, whilst laying the blame on the Bol-
sheviks. And just as the feudalists used to call the worlvers back into the country
under the protective wing of the landowner and his whip, just so do the Men-
sheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries now appeal for a return to the old army
discipline, to serve under a Constituent Assembly on a basis of a return to
capitalism and all its "attractions." But we Communists look aliead. We know
that the past is dead, having become rotten as was inevitable, and that, failing
thus, the workers and poor i>easants could never take the (Tovernment into their
hands: we know that in the place of the old army a new, more enlightened one.
the Red Arniii of Socialism, has arisen.
As long as the bourcjeoisie stand at the head of Government, and our country
is a fatherland of bankers, traders, speculators, liolice. kings and ))residents, so
long will the working class have no personal interests in guarding this filthy profit-
producing apparatus. A proletarian's duty is to rise against this institution.
Only miserable lackies and hangers-on to money-bags can say that we must not
strike and revolt against the plundering Imjierialist Government at a time of war.
Of course, such revolts stand in the way of the plundering war business. It is
949.^,1—40— app.. pt. 1— — 14
194 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
quite clear that agitation within the country, and more especially agitation in
the army, aids disorganization. But how is the domination of Wilhelm, for
instance, to be broken without disorganizing the Wilhelm discipline? Impossible.
The German martyr sailors murdered by Wilhelm's executioners, certainly aided
the disorganization of the army organized after the high-way robbery system.
But if the robbers' armv is inwardly strong, that would mean death to the revolu-
tion If the revolution is strong, that means death to the robbers' army. The
followers of Scheidemann, the German social betrayers, are persecuting Lieblvnecht,
as a disorganizer of the army. They are persecuting all the German revolution-
ists, the German Bolsheviks, as people who are "dealing the valorous army a
dastardly blow in the back," in other words, a blow to the cause of plunder. Let
the Scheidemanns fraternize with our Mensheviks and such like individuals^
they are all of a kidney.
Russia has passed through this period. The revolution of the workers is vic-
torious. The period of decay has passed into the realm of memory. The period
of construction of a new order of things is upon us. A Red Army is being built
now 7iot for plunder, but for the defence of t<ociaUsms not to guard the fatherland
of profit, where everything was in the hands of capital and the landowners, but
to protect the Socialist fatherland, where everything has been transferred to the
hands of workers ; not for the sake of mutilating and ravaging foreign countries,
but for the purpose of aiding the international Coninninist Revolution.
It is needless to say that this army must be built on different principles to the
old one. The Red Army, we have said, must represent an armed people alongside
a disarmed bourgeoisie. It must be a class army of the proletariat and the poor-
est peasantry. It is essentially directed against the bourgeoisie of the whole
world, including its own. This is the reason why it cannot include armed repre-
sentatives of the bourgeoisie. To admit the bourgeoisie into the army would be
equal to arming it: it would mean creating a White Guard within the Red Array
which might easily disorganize the whole concern, becoming a centre of treason
and revolt, and go over into the camp of the imperialist troops of the enemy. Our
object is not to arm the bourgeoisie, but to disarm it, depriving it of its last
machine gun.
Our second, and not less important task, is to prepare a proletarian officer corps.
The working class has to defend itself against enemies who are attacking it from
all sides. War has been imposed upon it by the imperialist rascals : and modern
warfare requires well-trained specialists. The Tzar and Kerensky had such men
at their disposal, but the working class and the peasantry have not. Specialists
have to be trained. For this purpose we must utilize the knowledge of the old
ones; they must be compelled to instruct the proletariat. Then the Socialist
Soviet Fatherland will have its own officers and its own officer corps. And just
as in the Revolution, the more experience and active working class leads after it
the poor peasantry, so in the war against the imperialist robbers, the worker-
officers will lead tlie whole mass of the Red Peasant Army.
The Red Army must be created on the basis of universal training of the worker.s
and the poorest elements of the peasantry.
This is most urgent and important. Not a minute, not a second should be lost.
Every workman and every peasant must be trained and must be taught how to
use arms. Only fools can argue that : "They are a long way off yet ; until they
come we shall have time to get ready." Russian sluggards often reason like that.
All the world knows that the favorite Russian saying is ("avos") "perhaps" or
"maybe" ; "avos we shall manage." But before you have time to wink, the class
foe called landowners and capitalists, arrives on the spot and takes the workman
by the collar; and, maybe, when some brave Prussian subaltern (or an English
oiie, who knows?) places our workman against the wall to be shot, the good-
natured fellow will scratch his head saying, "What a fool I have been !"
We must look sharp. Don't let Peter loait for Bill, or Bill for Peter. Let no one
be idle, but all set earnestly to work. Universal military training is the most
urgent and most important problem of the day.
The old army was based on the retreat of the soldiers. This happened because
of capitalists and landowners commanding over millions of soldiers-peasants and
workmen, whose interests were contrary to their own. The capitalist Govern-
ment was thus obliged to turn the soldier into a brainless tool, acting against his
own interests. But the Red Army of the workers and peasants, on the contrary,
is defending its own cause. It must therefore be based only on the enlighten-
ment and conscieniiou.'iness of all comrades who enter its ranks. Hence the need
for special courses, reading-rooms, lectures, meetings and conferences. In their
leisure hours the soldiers of the Red Army must take an active part together
APPENDIX, PAllT 1 195
Avirli the workmen in the political life of the country, attending meetings and
sliiirivf/ the life of the irorking class.
This is one of the most important conditions for creating a firm rvrolutiotuiry
discipline: not the former discipline of the rod, hut the new discipline of the
class-conscious revolutionary. If the bond between the army and tlie working
class is broken, then the army rapidly degenerates and can easily turn into a
band willing to serve the master who pays most. Then it begins to fall asunder,
and nothing can save it. And, on the contrary, if the soldiers of the Red Army
keep close contact with and take an interest in their lives, then they will be
exactly what they are meant to be — the armed organ of the revolutionary masses.
Due of the best ways of keeping in contact with the masses besides the above-
mentioned lectures, political meetings, is the utilization of the soldiers for con-
tinuously training the workers in shooting, handling rifles, machine guns, etc.
Instead of idling, card playing, and other "recreations." instead of senselessly
sauntering about the barracks, they can turn to creative work, which is in unit-
ing the proletariat into one friendly family. In this way an armed people is
<?reated, as well as an armed peasantry, to keep watch over the great revolution
of the workers.
CHAPTER XIX
The LiBEfRATioN OF Nations
(The National Question and International Diplomacy)
The programme of the Communist Party is a scheme not only for the liberation
of the proletariat of one country, but for the emancipation of the proletariat of
the whole world: for it is a programme of international revolution. But it is, at
the same time a progrannue of the liberation of all oppressed countries and
nations. The plundering "great Empires" (England, Germany, Japan, America,
ere.) have, by dint of robbery acquired ascendancy over untold expanses of land
and vast number of people. They have divided our whole planet between them ;
and no wonder that in these conquered countries the working class and the labor-
ing: masses are groaning under a double yoke — that of their own bourgeoisie and
the additional one cast ttpon them by their conqtierors.
Tzarist Russia had also gained by plunder a great deal of territory and many
peoi»les. The present size of "our"' Empire is only to be explained in this way It
is quite natural that among many "aliens," including even some sections of the
proletariat who did not belong to the "great Russian" nationality, there was a
general lack of confidence towards the "Moscal." as the natives of Muscovy were
formerly called. The nationalist persecution evoked nationalist sentiments ; the
ojtpressed part of the proletariat had no confidence in the oppressing nationality
a-> a whole, without distinction of class ; the oppressing parts of the pro-
letariat did not sufficiently understand the position of the "alien" prole-
tariat subjected to a double burden of persecution. And yet, in order to attain
the victory of the workers' revolution along the whole front, complete and
ji< rfect confidence of the various parts of the proletariat towards each other is
imperative. The proletariat of "alien" nations should be made to feel by deed
and word that it has a loyal ally in the person of the proletariat of the nation
that formerly was the oppressor. Here in Russia the dominating nation used to
be the "Great Russian," which conquered in succession the Finns and the Tartars,
the Ukrainian and the Armenians, the Georgians and the Poles, the Sivashes and
Moravians, the Kirghizes and Ba.shkirs, and dozens of other tribes. It naturally
follows that some proletarians of these peoples foster mistaken notions concerning
everpthififf Rus.^ian. He has been accustomed to being ordered about and abused
by the Tzar's officials, and he thinks that all Russians and the Russian proletariat
as well are like what the former was.
It is for the ptirpose of instilling a brotherly confidence in the various sections
of the proletariat that the programme of the Communists proclaims the rif/ht of
the laboring class of every nation to complete independence. That means to sa.v
that the Russian worker who is now at the head of the Government must say
to the workers of other nationalities living in Russia : "Comrades, if you do not
wish to form a part of the Soviet Republic: if you wish to organize your own
Soviets and form an independent Soviet Republic, you can do so. We fully
acknowledge your right to do so, and we do not wish to detain you by force even
for a single moment.
It is self-evident that only by such tactic.'< can the confidence of (he proletariat
as a whole be won. Let us imagine what would happen if the workers' Soviets
190 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of Great Russia were to attempt by force of arms to coerce the worting ela?.s of
other nations into submission. The hitter would mean the complete collapse of
the whole of all proletarian movements and the fall of the Revolution. Thai is
not the right way to act, for, we repeat, victory is possible only on condition of a
frntcrnal union of the ivorkers.
Let us bear this in mind. The question is not of the right of the nation [ i. e., of
the workers and the bourgeoisie together) to independence, but of the right of the
laboririff classes. That means that the so-called "will of the nation" is not in the
least sacred to us. We consider sacred only the will of tlie proletariat innl the
semi-proletarian masses.
That is why we .speak not of the rights of nations to independence, but of the
right of the lahoritu/ rlnsses of every nation to separation if it so desires. During
a proletarian dictatorship it is not the constituent Assemblies (all national,
embracing all the people of the given territory), but the Soviets of workers that
decide questions. And if in any out-of-the-way corner there would be simul-
taneously convened two conferences, the "Constituent Assembly" of the given:
nation and the Convention of Soviets ; and if it so happens that tlie "Constituent
Assembly" expressed itself in favor of separation, and the Proletariat Convontion
voted against it, even then we should support the decision of the prolcltiriaf
against that of the "Constituent Assembly" by every means, including force of
arms.
This is how the Proletarian Party decides que.stions relating to the proletarians
of the various nations living within the bomidai ies of the country. But our party
is confronted witli a still more dilRcuH question, that of its international pro-
gramme. Here our way is clear. We must pursue the tactics of universal siiit-
port of the International Revolution by means of revolutionary propaganda,
strikes, and revolts in Imperialist countries, and by piopagating revolts and in-
.surrections in the colonies of these countries.
In Imperialist countries (and such are all countries except Russia, whei'e the
workers have blown out the brains of capital) one of the main obstacles to a
revolution is the social-patriotic p;u-ty. Even at the present moment it is pro-
claiming the defence of the (phmdering) fatherland, thereby deceiving the masses
of the people. They are deploring the decay of the (plundering) army. They
are persecuting our friends the German, Austrian and English Bolsheviks, wlio
alone persist in refusing with contempt and indigiiatiDit to defend the bourgeois
fatherland. The position of tlie f^oviet Republic is an exclusive one. It is the
only proletarian State organization in the world, in the midst of organized plun-
dering bourgeois States. For that reason alone this Soviet State has a right to
he defended: and more tlian tliat, it must be looked on as a weapon of the
universal proletariat against the tuiiversal bourgeoisie. The war cry of this
struggle is self-evident: the universal war cry of this struggle is the motto of the-
International Soviet Republic.
The overthrow of Imperialist Governments by means of armed insurrection, and
the organization of the international Soviet Republic, such is the way to an
international dictatorship of the working class.
The most efficient means of supporting the international revolution is the
organization of armed forces of the revolution. The workers of all cottntrles who
are not blinded by social patriots, the local Socialist Revolutionaries and Menshe-
viks (of whom there are many in every country) I'ecognize in the Russian Workers'
Revolution and in the Soviet Government facts that concern them intimately.
Why? Because they understand that the government of the Soviets means tlie
government of the workers themselves. It w(tuld be quite different if the bour-
geoisie, aided by the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries had overthrown the
Soviet Government, convened the Constituent Assembly, and by its means had
organized the government of the bourgeoisie, approximately on the same plan as
that which existed before the October coup d'etat. In that case the working class
would have lost its country, its fatherland, foi' if would have lost its power. Then
the banks would inevitably have been returned to the bankers, the factories to the
manufacturers, and the land to the landowners. The fatherland of profits would
have revived, and the workers would not have been interested in the least in de-
fending such a fatherland. On the other hand the West European workers would
also have ceased to regard bourgeoisie Russia as the bright beacon showing them
their way in the difficult struggle. The development of international revolution
would have retarded. On the contrary, the organization of i-esistanee against
international robbers who are fighfing against Soviet Russia as its class enemies,
as owners and capitalists, in a word, as a band of executioners of the Workers''
Rcrolutioi7, the oi'ganization of the Red Army — these are the factors combining
to strengthen the revolutionary movement in all European countrie.s.
APPE^NDIX, PART 1 197
The better we are organized, the better we arm the battalions of workers and
peasants, tlie stronger will be the proletarian dictatorship in Russia, and the
quicker will the cause of international revolution advance.
The Revolution is inevitable, however its progress is hindered by German,
Austrian, French and English Mensheviks. The Russian working masses have
broken with the compromisers. The workers of Western Europe will also break
with them. (They are, as a matter of fact, doing so already.) The maximum
of overthrowing the bourgeois fatherlands, of shattering the plundering Govern-
ments, and of establishing workers' dictatorship, is steadily gaining ground.
Sooner or later we shall have an International RepvbUe of Soviets.
The International Republic of Soviets will free hundreds of millions in all
nations of their yoke. The "civilized" plundering Empires have cruelly tortured
tin- inhabitants of their colonies by their blood and iron regime. European civili-
zation was maintained by the blood of small peoples mercilessly exploited and
lobbed in the far-otf countries beyond the seas. They will be freed by the
dictatorship of the proletariat, and by that alone. Just as the Russian Govern-
menr has announced its refusal to participate in a colonial policy, and has proved
its decision by its attitude with regard to Persia, just so will the European work-
ing class, after overthrowing the domination of bankers, etc., give complete free-
dom to the oppressed and exploited classes. That is the reason why our pro-
gramme, which is that of the international revolution, is at the same time a
plan for the complete liberation of all the weak and oppressed. The great class —
the working class — has set before itself great problems: and it has not only set
them, but is proceeding to solve them in a bloody, painful, heroic struggle.
Conclusion
I (Why We are Communists)
Up to the time of the last Convention, our party called itself the party of the
social democracy. The party of the working class bore the same name all over the
world. But the war has been responsible for an unprecedented schism in the
social-democratic parties here. Three main tendencies have come to the fore —
the extreme right, the centre, and the extreme left wing.
The right social-democrats have proved to be thoroughgoing traitors to the
working class. They prostrated themselves in the dust, and are still doing so,
before the generals whose hands are covered with the blood of workers. They
support the vilest projects and greatest crimes of their Governments. We have
only to remember that the German Social-Democrat Scheidemann is supporting
the' Ukrainian policy of the German generals. They are the real executioners
■of the wvrkers revohition.
When the German workers have won their cause they will hang Scheidemann
on the same gallows as Wilhelm. There are a great number of these kind of
persons in France and England, as well as in other countries. It is they who
deceive the workei's by empty words about the defence of the fatherland (the
bourgeois, Wilhelm fatherland), and crush the workers' revolution at home and
execute it in Russia with the aid of the bayonets of their Governments.
The second current is the centre. This has a tendency to grumble against its
Guverinnent, but it is not capable ot carrying on a revolutionary struggle. It has
not the courage to call the workers into an open fight, and fears beyond everything
;an armed insurrection, which is the only way of solving the question.
And lastly, there is the third current, the extreme left. In Germany Liebknecht
and his comrades. They are German Bolsheviks, their policy and views being
those of the Bolsheviks.
You will understand what a muddle ensues as a result of all these grotips calling
themselves by one and the sante name. The Social Democrat Liebknecht and the
Social Democrat Scheidemann! What have they in common? The one, a mean
traitor, an executioner of the revolution : and the other, a brave fighter for the
working class. Can you imagine a greater difference?
In Russia, where the revolutionary struggle and the development of the revolu-
tion in October caused the question of Socialism and the overthrow of the bour-
geois Government to be settled : immediately the dispute between the traitors to
Socialism and the adherents of true Socialism was decided by force of arms.
The Right Socialist Revolutionaries and party of the Mensheviks were on the
same side of the barricades as the counter-revolutionary rabble : the Bolsheviks
were on the other side, side by side with the workers and soldiers. Blood marked
a boundary line between us. Such a thing cannot and never will be forgotten.
198 UN-AMEEICAX PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This is why we were compelled to give a different name to distinguish us from
the traitors to Socialism. The difference between us is too great. Our ways and
means are too far apart.
As regards the boiirr/eois Government, we Connnunists know but one duty
towards it— to blow it up, shattering at one blow this union of plunderers. The
Social Democrats propagate the defence of the union of business men, screening
themselves by a pretence of defending their fatherland.
But after the victory of the AA'orking class, we stand for the defence and pro-
tection of the workers' Soviet Government against the sworn enemies, the
Imperialists of the whole world. But they, like true traitors to the workers'
interests, make it their task to break up the Workers' Government and demolish
the Soviets. And in their struggle in this direction they go hand in hand with
the united bourgeoisie.
We Communists are eagerly striving onward in spite of all difficulties: we are
going towards Communism throin/h ihe dictntorship of the proletariat. But they,
like the evil bourgeoisie, hate this dictatorship with all their hearts, libelling and
lowering it whenever they can. proclaiming as their watchword : "Back to
Capitalism !"
We Connnunists say to the working class: "There ai-e many thorns upon our
path, but we must go onward, undaunted. The great revolution which is turning
the old world upside down cannot go smoothly ; the great revolution cannot be
carried out in white gloves ; it is born in pain. These birth pangs must be gone
through with infinite patience : when duly born they will serve to free us from
the iron grip of capitalist slavery."
And the Mensheviks. Socialist Revolutionaries and Social Democrats stand
aside, looking on at our mistakes and failings, and draw the conclusion of going
back. "Let us return," they say. "Give up everything to the bourgeoisie and
content ourselves with a modest helping at capitalist tables."
No! Our road is not the same. These wretches try to scare us by the hogej^
of civil war. But there can be no revolution without a civil war. Or do they
perhaps imagine that in other more advanced counti'ies Socialist revolutions will
take place without civil warY The example of Finland has proved the best
evidence of civil war in advanced capitalist countries being even more tierce,
more bloody, more cruel and frenzied than ours proved to be. Now we can foresee
that in Germany, for instance, the war between the classes will be extremely acute.
The German officers are already shooting their soldiers and sailors by hundreds
for the slightest attempt at rebellion. It is only through civil war and the iron
dictatorship of the workers that Socialism can be attained. Such is the pro-
gramme of the Communists.
The domination of the bourgeois Government, organization of production by the
working class, a wide road to Communism — such is the programme of the Com-
munist Party.
When we call ourselves Communists we not only draw a line to distinguish
ourselves from the social traitors, such as Mensheviks, Socialist Revolutionaries,
and followers of Scheidemann. and other bourgeois agents. We i-evert to the
old name of the revolutionary party, at the head of which stood Kail Marx. His
was the Communist Parti/. The testament of modern revolution up to the present
moment is still the "Manifesto of the Communists" written by Marx and Engels.
Some eighteen months before his death old Engels protested against the name of
"Social Democrat." He said. "This name is not a suitable one for a party which
is striving towards Communism and which finally aims at destroying evenj form
of government, including a democratic one." What would these great old men,
glowing with hatred towards the bourgeois State apparatus, say if they were
shown such Social Democrats as Dan, Tzeretelli, Scheidemann? They would have
branded them with contempt, as they did those "democrats" who. in tragic and
difficult moments of the revolution, directed the muzzles of their revolvers against
the working class.
There are many obstacles in our way ; and there is at present much that is
evil in our midst. For many outsiders have joined us who are selling themselves
for money to the highest bidder, intending to flsh in troubled waters. And the
working class is young and inexi>erienced. And the fiercest enemies are surround-
ing the young Soviet Republic on all sides. But we Communists know that the
working class is learning wi.sdom by its own mistakes. We know that it will
clear its ranks of all the impurity that has crept in ; we know that it will be
joined by its loyal and desired ally — the world proletariat. No old womanish
wails, no hysterical shrieks will confuse our party, for it has put upon its banner
APPENDIX, PART 1 199
the golden words written bv Marx in the Communist Manifesto: "LET THE
GOVERNI\G CLAS^^E.^ TREMBLE BEFORE THE COMMUNIST REVOLU-
TION THE PROLETARIAT HAS NOTHING TO LOSE BUT ITS CHAINS:
IT HAS A WORLD TO WIN. PROLETARIANS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
May, 1918.
Exhibit No. 15
[Source: A pamphlet published by the Tublishing Office of the Third Communist Interna-
tional, Moscow: 1920; American edition, published by the United Communist Party
of America]
Workers of the World Unite!
THE CAPITALIST WORLD AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
Manifesto of the Second Congress of the Third Communist International
Publishing Office of the Third Communist International, Moscow 1920. American
edition published by the United Communist Party of America
The Second Congress of the Communist International, representing
thirty-five countries, met at Petrograd on July 17th, 1920, and con-
tinued its sessions in Moscow from July 27th to Aug. 7th. Its pur-
pose was to form a clear idea regarding the international situation,
to cast a retrospective glance over the road already traveled, and to
establish the milestone of further struggle.
The World Congress of the Communist International unanimously
addresses this manifesto to the workingmen and women of the whole
world with the profound conviction that its aims are just and its
methods correct.
1. international relations after VERSAILLES
The bourgeoisie of the whole world is looking back wistfully upon the days-
just past. All the foundations of international and internal relations have beea
overthrown or shaken. Threatening clouds darken the future of the capitalist
world. The old system of alliances and mutual insurance which formed the
foundations of international equilibrium and of armed peace has been utterly
destroyed by the Imperialist War. The Versailles Treaty has failed to establish
any othei- adjustment in its stead.
Russia, Austria-Hungary and Germany in succession have fallen out of the
world race. Some of the powerful empires which had themselves previously
played a prominent part in the world's plunder have now become the objects of
plunder and dismemberment. A new and vast field for colonial exploitation,
beginning from this side of the Rhine, embracing the whole of Central and Eastern
Europe and stretching as far as the Pacific Ocean, opens itself before the victorious
Imperialists of the Entente. How can the Congo, Syria, Egypt or Mexico be com-
pared with the steppes, forests and mountain lands of Russia taken together with
the skilled labor power of Germany? The new colonial policy of the victors has
worked itself out: the overthrow of the Labor Republic in Russia, the plunder of
Russian raw material, the compulsory application of German labor power to work
this raw material with the aid of German coal, using the German employer as an
armed overseer — and the assembling of the manufactured products and the profits
that go with them. The victorious Allies have inherited the program of "organ-
izing Europe", which had been advanced by German Imperialism in the heyday
of its military success. Thus when the vanquished bandits of the German Empire
are to be put on trial by the Entente rulers, they will certainly be tried by a jury
of their peers.
But there are defeated parties even in the camp of tlie conquerors.
Stupefied by tlie fumes of a chauvinistic victory which it had won for the benefit
of others the French bourgeoisie fancies that it has become tiie ruler of Europe.
But in reality France has never been in such slavish dependence upon the more
powerful governments of England and America than she is today. France is
dictating Belgium's industrial and military policy, thus converting her weaker ally
into a subject province. While she herself is nothing but a larger Belgium in
relation to England. For the time being the English Imperialists allowed the
200 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
French usurers to have their way within tlie limits of the continent assigntd to
them, thus shrewdly diverting from themselves the keen indignation of Euroi^ean
and English workers, and turning it ui)on France. The power of moribund and
xlevastated France is ephemeral and almost farcical. Sooner or later this fact
will penetrate into the minds of even the French social-patriots.
Italv has fallen still lower in the scale of international relations. Deprived
of coal and bread, deprived of raw material, having its internal equilibrium lost
as a result of the war. the Italian bourgeoisie is incapable, though entirely will-
ing, to realize in full measure the rights to plunder and violate even those colonial
allotments assigned to it by England.
Japan, torn within her feudal shell by capitalist contradictions, stands on the
verge of a great revolutionary crisis which is already paralyzing her imperialist
aspirations, in spite of the favorable international situation.
Thus only two great powers remain : Great Britain and the United States.
The English Imperialism has rid itself of the Asiatic rivalry of Czarism and of
the menace of German competition. The military power of Britain has reached
its apex. England has surrounded the Continent with a chain of subject nations.
She has subjected to her control Finland, Esthonia and Latvia, thus depriving
Sweden and Norway of the last vestige of independence and converting the Baltic
Sea into a British bay. She has no rival in the North Sea. Her supremacy in
South Africa, Egypt, India, Persia and Afganistau has converted the Indian Ocean
into a British lake. Her domination on the sea makes her likewise mistress of the
continent. Her power over the world ends only with the American Dollar Repub-
lic and the Russian Soviet Republic.
The United States was absolutely thrown off the path of continental provincial-
ism by the world war. The Monroe doctrine — "America for the Americans" —
which was the program of the newly fledged national capitalism, has given place
to the imperialism watchword — ''Make the Whole World America." Having
started with exploiting the war and profiting from the European bloodshed by
commercial and industrial deals and exchange speculation, America went on to
direct participation in the world war, playing a predominant part in the destruction
of Germany and now has its hand in all questions of European and world politics.
Under the banner of the League of Nations the United States tried to extend to
this side of the ocean its policy of uniting various nationalities on a federative
basis and hitch to its golden chariot the nationalities of Europe and other pai'ts
of the world and govern them from Washington. The League of Nations was to
be essentially nothing more than a world monopoly of "Yankee and Co."
The President of the Ignited States, the great Prophet of Platitudes, had de-
scended from Mt. Sinai to conquer the world with his Fourteen Commandments.
Stockbrokers, ministers and men of business entertained no illusion whatever
regarding the meaning of this new revelation. The European "Socialists" on the
other hand, baked on the Kautskian oven, got into a religious transport, and
danced like King David following in the wake of the Wilsonian ark.
But in coming down to practical questions the American apostle learned that in
spite of the excellent exchange rate of the dollar, England still occupies, as here-
tofore, the first place on all sea routes which connect and divide nations, for she
has the strongest navy, the longer cables and the greater experience in world
plunder. Another obstacle in Wilson's path was the Soviet Republic and Com-
munism. Thus the American Messiah resentfidly deserted the League of Nations,
which has become one of England's diplomatic offices, and turned his back \xpou
Europe.
It would be childish, however, to suppose that American Imperialism, its first
advance thwarted by England, is going to lock itself up within the shell of the
Monroe doctrine. By no means. The laiited States is planning to create its own
international system with its center in North America ; both the Republican and
Democratic parties stand by the policy of continuing to subject the entire Ameri-
can continent, convert all the countries of Central and South America into colonial
dependencies, and thus create a counterpart to the English League of Nations.
This end is to be achieved by means of a naval program, which in 3 to 5 years
will create a navy surpassing that of Great Britain. This being a matter of life
and denth for English Imperialism, it results in a frenzied shipbuilding rivalry
between the two giants, accompanied by a no less frenzied scramble for petroleum.
France, which had expected to play the part of arbiter between England and the
TTnited States, but which has herself like one of the lesser planets been drawn into
the orbit of Great Britain, now finds herself unbearably burdened by the League
of Nations and is trying to rid herself of it by fainiing antagonism between
England and the United States.
APPENDIX, PART 1 201
Thus the greatest Powers are preparing the ground for a new world encounter.
Instead of liberating the small nationalities the War has brought ruination and
t'lislavemeut upon the Balkan nations, both victors and vanquished, and has Bal-
kanized a considerable part of Europe. Actuated by ilieir Imperialist interests
I he conquerors adopted the policy of dividing up the devastated great powers into
.-mall separate national states. This policy bears not even a trace of the so-called
national principle: Imperialism is essentially inimical to national boundaries, even
iliough they be those of great powers. The new petty bourgeois states are nothing
more than the by-products of Imperialism ; it has created as temporary props for
irself. a whole series of small nations, such as Austria, Hungary, Poland, Jugo-
slavia, Bohemia, Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia and
orliers, some of which are openly oppressed while others are officially patronized,
but all are treated as vassals. By means of its banks, railways and coal monop-
olies. Imperialism dominates these nations, dooming them to intolerable economic
and national hardships, to endless conflicts and sanguinary strife.
What an overwhelming irony of fate tliat the reconstruction of Poland, which
formed a part of the program of the Revolutionary democracy during the first rev-
olutionary outbursts of the international proletariat, should now be brought about
by Imperialism for counter revolutionary ends, and that the "Democracy" of
Poland, whose predecessors had died on the barricades of Europe, should be used
as a foul and bloody weapon in the miirderous hands of the Anglo-French bandits
against the first Proletarian Republic in the world !
"Democratic" Czecho-Slovakia has likewise sold itself to French capital, and
has furnished White Guard contingents against Soviet Russia and Hungary.
The heroic attempt of the Hungarian proletariat to free itself from the national
and economic chaos prevailing in central Europe, and emerge upon the road of a
Soviet Federation, which is the only means to salvation, was stifled by the com-
bined forces of capitalist reaction at a time when the proletariat of the more
advanced countries of Europe, misled by its parties, proved incapable of doing its
duty both toward Socialist Hungary and its own self.
The Soviet Government of Btidapest was overthrown with the assistance of the
social traitors who after having stayed in power foi' three and a half days, were
themselves overthrown by the luibridled counter-revolutionary canaille, surpassing
in Its bloody deeds the crimes of Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel and other Allied
agents. But even though temporarily crushed Soviet Hungary is like a beacon
light to the toilers of Central Europe.
The Turks are unwilling to submit to the l)ase peace terms dictated by the
London tyrants. In order to get these terms fulfilled England has armed Greece
and set her against Turkey. Thus both the Turks and the Greeks are given over
to mutual destruction, and the Balkan peninsida and anterior Asia Minor are
doomed to devastation.
Armenia's part in the Allies' fight against Turkey is analogous to that which
Belgium played in the war with Germany, and Serbia in the war with Austria-
Hungary. When the Armenian state was formed — without boundary lines and
withou't means of existence — Wilson declined the Armenian mandate offered him
by the "League of Nations", for Armenia's soil contained neither petroleum nor
platinum. "Liljerated" Armenia is now less secui'e than ever before.
Almost all the newly formed "national" states have their own irritants, their
internal national ulcers.
At the same time the national strike within the liounds of the victorious coun-
tries has reached its climax. The English bourgeoisie which pretends to be the
guardian of the nations of the world is incapable of solving the Irish question
at home.
Still more threatening is the national question in the colonies. Egypt, India,
Persia are shaken by internal upheavals. The toilers of the colonies are adopting
the slogan of the Soviet Federation from the advanced workers of Europe and
America.
Official, national, civilized bourgeois Europe — after it emerged from the war
and the Versailles peace — is like a lunatic asylum. The petty states artificially
dismembered, economically stifled within their boundaries, wrangle and fight with
one another over seaports, provinces, and small towns. They seek the protection
of the bigger states whose mutual antagojiism is increasing from day to day. Italy
stands in a hostile iiosition against France and is ready to side with Germany
against her as soon as the latter is capable of raising her head. France is rancor-
ous with envy towards England, and would not hesitate to set the whole of Europe
on fire if that would only enable her to get back her interests. Assisted by France,
England maintains a state of chaotic impotence in Europe, in order that no one
202 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
shall be able to interfere with her imperialistic plans against America. The United
States allows Japan to involve herself in Etistern Siberia so that she may mean-
while get her navy into a condition to get her the upper hand of Great Britain —
provided England should not in her turn attempt to have a trial of strength with
America before 1925.
It is in keeping with this state of international relations that the oracle of the
French bourgeoisie, Marshal Foch, predicts that the coming w^ar is going to begin
where the preceding war left off: aeroplanes, machine guns, mitrailleuses instead
of rifles, and grenades instead of the bayonet.
Workers mid peasants of Europe, America, Asia, Africa. Australia! This is
what ymi have achieved at the cost of ten iiiiJiiniis of killed, twenty miUions of
wounded and maimed !
II. THE ECONOMIC POSITION
Meanwhile the ruination of mankind is going on.
The war has mechanically destroyed those universal ecomonical ties, the develop-
ment of which was one of the most important conquests of capitalism. In 1914
England, Frjince and Italy were separated from Central Europe and from the
near East, in 1917 — from Russia.
During the few years of the war which has destroyed all that has been created
by many generations, human labor which had been reduced to a minimum, was
applied principally in those spheres where it was necessary to transform the
reserves of raw material into goods, chiefly into arms and weapons of destruction.
In those basic branches of economy where man must enter into a direct struggle
against the hardness and inertness of Nature, namely fuel and raw materials
which have to be excavated and brought out from the bowels of the earth — ^produc-
tion progressively died down. The victory of the Entente and the Versailles
Treaty have not stemmed the economic process of economic disorganization and
decay, but have changed its ways and forms. The blockade of Soviet Ru.ssia
and the artificial kindling of civil war against her fertile bordering states have
l)een and are causing incalculal>le damage to the welfare of humanity at large.
If Russia had the minimum technical support this country could, under the condi-
tions established by the Soviet form of production, provide two and three times
the quantity of provision and raw material to Euroiie than that which was pro-
vided by Czaiist Russia ; — the International states this in the face of the entire
W(»rld. Instead of this Anglo-French Imperialism is compelling the Labor Repub-
lic to direct all its forces towards defense. In order to deprive the Russian work-
ers of fuel England held firm in its claws that source of fuel, — Baku, from which
only an insignificant part of this wealth could be exported. The richest coal basin
of the Donetz was periodically devastated by the white guard bands of the Entente.
French instructors and sappers have worked hard over the destruction of Russian
bridges and railroads. Up to the present moment Japan is robbing and ruining
Eastern Siberia.
German technique and the high productivity of German labor — these most
important factors in tlie renaissance of the system of production are now after the
Ver.sailles peace, being paralyzed much more than was the case during the war.
The Entente is faced with contradictions. In order to extract payment it is indis-
pensable that work be supplied. In order to supply work it is indispensable that
life be made possible. To let devastated, dismembered, exhausted Germany live,
means to give her the opportunity to become capable of resistance. The policy of
Foch of keeping Germany in an ever tightening military vise, which is to prevent
Germany's revival — is being dictated by tear of (Germany's revenge.
There is a general shortage and a general need. The trade balance not only of
Germany alone but also of France and England is of a decidedly passive character.
The French State debt has reached the sum of 300 billion francs. It must be
mentioned that the reactionary French Senator Gaudin de Yillaine asserts that
two-thirds of this sum has been lost by embezzlement, thieving and general chaos.
The work of re-establishment of the French districts ruined by the war is a
mere drop in this sea of devastation. The shortage of fuel and raw material as
well as of labor power is the cause of insurmountable obstacles.
France wants gold, France wants coal. The French bourgeoisie points to the
innumerable graves of the war cemeteries and demands its dividends. Germany
must pay ! It nuist l)e remembered that (general Foch has suflicient negroes foV
the occupation of German cites. Russia nmst pay ! In order to inoculate the
Russian people with this idea the French Government spends billions upon the
devastation of Russia ; money which was originally collected and intended for
the revival of France.
APPENDIX, PART 1 203
The international financial compact which was to ease the tax bunlen of France
by a more or less coniiJlete annulment of war debts did not talio place ;— the
Unired States gave no evidence whatever of a desire to make Europe a present of
10 billions of dollars.
The issue of paper currency is continuing to an ever growing extent. While
in Soviet Kussia the extensive introduction of paper currency and its devaluation
is, coincident with the development of a systematic communal distribution of
products and an extensive introduction of payment in kind, only the result of the
gradual death of the conunodity-money system of production, in caiiitalist coun-
tries on the otlier hand, the spread of paper currency signifies the growth of
economic chaos and the approach of inevitable collapse.
The Entente Conference travels from place to place seeking inspiration at all
the European resorts. Dividends are demanded all round in accordance with the
number of men killed in the war. This traveling stock exchange of dead men, an
exchange which fortnightly decides the question of wliether Prance should receive
rjC^^'r or 55% of the contribution which Germany is unable to pay, is a splendid
example of the much-advertised "organization" of Europe.
In The process of the war capitalism has become a new thing. The systematic
extraction of surplus value in the process of production, which is the basis of
economic profits, seems too elementary to the bourgeoisie who liave become accus-
tomed to increase their capital twofold and tenfold within a few days, by means
of speculation on the basis of international robl)ery.
The bourgeoisie has lost certain pre.iudices which stood in its way and has
acquired certain habits which it did not possess formerly. The war has accus-
tomed it to the application of the hunger blockade to whole countries, to air raids,
to burning cities and villages, to the deliberate distribution of cholera bacilli, to
the transportation of dynamite in diplomatic valises, to counterfeiting the paper
■currency and credit notes of the enemy, to bribery, esiiionage and contT'aband to an
extent unheard of before. The methods of war have become upon the conclusion
of peace trading methods. The principal trading operations are now merged in
the activity of the state, whicli acts like a band of robbers armed with every
means of violence. The narrower the universal base of production grows the
more furious, cruel and extravagant the methods of acquisition.
To rob and to loot ! This is the last word of the policy of capitalism, which
has taken the place of free trade and protection. The raid of the Roumanian
bandits upon Hungary from which country they exported locomotives and golden
rings is a good symbol of the economic philoso])hy of Lloyd George and of
Millerand.
The internal economic policy of the bourgeoisie is remarkable for its fluctua-
tion between the program of further nationalization, regrouping and control on
the one hand and protests against State intervention — which has developed during
the war, — on the other hand. The French piirliament is occupied with the sensible
business of squaring the circle : viz. the formation of a 'united connnand" on the
railway net of the Republic without damage to the interests of ^he capitalist
private railway companies. At the same time the capitalist press is conducting
a vicious campaign against "statism", against State intervention which tends to
limit private property.
The condition of the American railways, which were disorganized by the state
during tlie war became still worse with the abolition of state control. At the
same time the Republican party, in its platform promises to safeguard the eco-
nomic life from arbitrai-y state intervention. That old watch dog, Samuel
Oompers, the head of American Trade Unions, is conducting a campaign against
the nationalization of railways, which is being advocated as a panacea b.v the
fools and charlatans of reformism. As a matter of fact the dis.1o)nted violent
intrusion of t!ie State vies with speculation in increasing the chaos in the system
of capitalist production during the period of capitalist decay. To transfer the
principal branches of production and transport from the hands of individual
trusts into the hands of the "nation", i. e., into the hands of the bourgeois State,
the most powerful and greedy capitalist trust, signifies not the abolition of the
evil but its unification.
The fall of prices and the rise of the rate of exchange is but a superficial and
temporary state of things caused by the continuing disorganization. The fluctu-
ation of prices does not affect the principal facts, namely the shortage of raw
material and the fall of productivit.v. Having passed through a period of extreme
tension due to the war, the working masses are incapable of working at the
former rate and under pre-war conditions. The destruction Avithin a few hours
of values which it had taken years to create, tbe rabid, stupendous gambling of
204 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the financial clique, ever rising on the heaped bones and ruins caused by the
war,— these object lessons of History are hardly helpful in maintaining an
automatic discipline in tlie wage slavery of the working classes.
Bourgeois economic writers and publicists speak of a "wave of idleness" which
is sweeping over Europe, undermining its economic future. The employers are
endeavoring to mend matters by granting privileges to the upper strata of the
working classes. But that is in vain ! In order to revive and to increase the pro-
ductivity of labor it is indispensable that the worker be fully guaranteed that
evei'y blow of the hammer will tend to increase his own welfare and enlighten-
ment, without sul)jecting him to the danger of extermination. Only a Social
Revolution is able to inspire him with tliis confidence.
The increase of the cost of living is a powerful factor of revolutionary agitation
in all countries. Tlie bourgeoisie of France, Italy and Germany and other States
is endeavoring to ameliorate by charity the destitution caused by the high price-^
and to retard the growth of the strike movement. To recompense the agricultural
class for a part of its expenditure of labor power the State, steeped in debt,
indulges in dishonest speculation and the enjbezzlement of its own funds, making
every effort to delay the hour of settlement. Even if there is a certain category
of workers whose standard of life is somewhat higher than it was prior to the war
this fact has no real relation to the actual economic position of the capitalist
countries. True enough some ephemeral results are often obtained today by
cheating out the morrow, but there is little doubt tliat this will lead to catastrophic
destitution and poverty.
And the United States? "America is the hope of humanity" — this phrase of
Turgot is being repeated in the person of Millerand by the French bourgeoisie in
the hoi)e that its debts will be annulled, in spite of the fact that it itself never acts
in this way. But the Government of the United States is not capable of leading
Europe out of the economic impasse. During tlie last six years America has
exhausted its reserves of raw material. The adoption of her capital to the
requirements of the world war has resulted in a narrowing of her industrial
foundations. European immigration has stopped. The counter current of emi-
gration has deprived American industry of hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of Germans. Italians, Poles, Serbians. Bohemians, who were withdrawn by war
mobilization or were attracted by the vision of a newly acquired fatherland. Tlie
shortage of raw material and of labor power hangs over the Republic; owing to
this the American proletariat is now entering upon a new revolutionary phase of
struggle. America is rapidly Europeanizing.
Nor have the neutral countries escaped the consequences of war and blockade :
like liquid in connected retorts,- — the economic system of production of inter-
connected states, whether large or small, fighting or neutral, victorious or
defeated, established a uniform level. — tliat of poverty, starvation and degen-
eration.
Switzerland lives from hand to mouth and every unforseen event menaces its
equilibrium.
In Scandinavia the abundant fiow of gold does not solve the food problem.
Coal has to be begged for in parcels, hat in hand, from England. In spite of
starvation in Europe the fishing industry is passing through an unprecedented
crisis in Norway.
Spain remains in an extremely critical position as regards the food question
owing to her having been drained of men and horses by France. This state of
things leads to stormy manifestations and strikes of the starving masses.
The bourgeoisie firmly relies on the agricultural districts. The bourgeois
economists assert that the welfare of the peasantry has improved very mucii.
But this is an illusion. It is true that the trading peasantry of all countries had
to some extent enriched themselves during the war. Products have been sold by
them at high prices, whilst their debts which were made at the period when
money was dear, must now be paid with cheap currency. That is its advantage.
But it should be mentioned that the whole agrarian economy was dilapidated and
disorganized during the war. It is in need of manufactured goods, while prices
for these have increased in proportion to the reduced value of money. The
demands of state taxes have become great and in the extreme and threaten to
devour the peasant with all his land and products. Thus after a period of tem-
porary improvement of the welfare of the small peasantry their condition beconit^s
more and more dithcult. Their dissatisfaction with the results of the war will
continually increase and because they constitute the permanent army, — the small
peasantry has many unpleasant surprises for tlie bourgeoisie.
APPENDIX, PART 1 205
Tbe economic restoration of Europe made so nuicli of by iier ministers, is a lie.
Europe is being ruined and the whole world along with her.
There is no salvation in the capitalist system. The policy of Imperialism
iloes not lead to the abolition of destitution, but to its intensitication owing to the
plundering of reserves.
Raw material and fuel are International questions. They can be solved only
oji the basis of systematic, socialized production.
The state debts must necessarily be annulled. Labor and its products must
be freed from the inordinate tribute to the world plutocracy. This plutocracy
roust be overthrown. All state barriers which tend to subdivide the entire system
of production, must be removed. The Supreme Economic Council of the Im-
perialists of the Entente must be replaced by the Supreme Economic Council of
the world proletariat, to effect a centralized exploitation of all the economic
resources of mankind.
It is essential to destroy Imperialism in order to give mankind an opportunity
to live.
III. BOURGEOIS REGIME AFTER THE WAS,
The entire power of the privileged classes has been concentrated upon two
questions : to maintain their place in the international struggle, and to prevent the
proletariat from becoming the owner of the country. This has led to the fact
that the former political groupings of the bourgeoisie have lost their power. Not
only in Russia where the banner of the Constitutional Democratic Party, at the
decisive moment of the struggle became the banner of all propertied classes against
the Workers' and Peasants' Revolution, but even in countries with an older and
deeper rooted political culture, the former programs which divided the different
strata of the bourgeoisie had lost their sharp distinction before the proletarian
revolution broke out.
Lloyd George is the spokesman for the amalgamation of the Conservatives, the
Friionists and Liberals for a mutual struggle against the approaching domination
of the working class. This old demagogue strives to establish the church as a
central electric station which is to feed all the parties of the propertied classes.
In France the recent and notorious epoch of anti-clericalism has now become
a mere phantom ; the radicals, royalists and catholics have formed a bloc of a
national character against the proletariat which is lifting its head. The French
Government, being ready to assist every reactionary force, supports the reac-
rionary blackhundred Wrangel and re-establishes diplomatic relations with the
Vatican.
Giolitti, neutralist and pro-German, has taken the helm of the Italian Gov-
ernment as the general leader of the interventionists, tlie neutralists, the cleri-
cnjist, Mazzinists, ready to nmnouvre with regard to the different questions of
foreign and home policy, in order to offer a stiff resistance to the attack of the
1 evolutionary proletarians of town and country. The Government of Giolitti
justly considers itself the last stake of the Italian bourgeoisie.
The policy of every German Government and all the government parties since
the overthrow of the Hohenzollerns has been an attempt to establish in conjunc-
tion with the Entente ruling classes a general basis of hatred of Bolshevism,
i. e., a united force against the Proletarian Revolution.
While the Anglo-French Shylock is making endeavors to garrote the German
nation — the German bourgeoisie, without distinction of parties, entreats its
enemy to loosen the noose just enough to enable it to strangle the vanguard of
the German proletariat with its own hands. This is what the porifxlical con-
ferences and agreements with regard to disarmament and the transfer of war
material amounts to.
In the United States the line of division between the Republicans and the
Democrats has been wiped out. Tiiese powerful political organizations of the
exploiters, adapted to the narrow circle of American interrelations, showed their
complete lack of policy the instant the Anverican bourgeoisie appeared upon the
arena of world plunder. At no other time have the intrigues of individual leaders
and cliques — both in the opposition and in the Cabinet, — been marked by such
open c.vnicism as now. But at the same time all leaders, all cliques, the bourgeois
parties of all countries, form a general front against the revolutionary proletariat.
At the time when the Social Democratic dullards persist in opposing dictator-
ship of democracy, the last vestiges of this democracy are being trodden upon and
demolished in every part of the world.
206 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVmES
Since the war, during which national representation played the part of an
ineffective though ostentatious screen for the ruling imperialist clique, the
parliaments fell into a state of complete prostration. All questions of importance
are now decided without the parliament. Little is changed in this respect by the
apparent widening of the parliamentary prerogatives as solemnly proclaimed
by the Im-perialist jugglers in Italy and in other countries. The actual masters
of the fates of states are Lord Rothschild and Lord Weir. Morgan and Rockefeller,
Schneider and Lusher, Hugo Stinnes and Felix Deutch, Rizello and Agnelli, the
gold, coal, petroleum and metal kings— these are the men who pull the strings
and who send their men to parliament to direct their work.
Amusing itself with the procedure of reading thrice insignificant acts the
French parliament — most discredited for its rhetoric of lies and the cynicism of
its prostitution — unexpectedly learns that the four billion which it had appro-
priated for the restoration of the devastated provinces in France, had been used
by Clemenceau for entirely different purposes, in particular for the further
devastation of Russian provinces.
The majority of members of the supposedly all-powerful British Parliament
are no more aware of the actual intentions of Lloyd George and Curzon with
regard to Soviet Russia, or even with regard to France than are Hindoo hags in-
Bengal villages.
In the United States, Congress is a docile or grumbling chorus for the President,
who is himself the figurehead of the electoral machine, which is in its turn the
political apparatus of the trusts. This is so, by the way, to a far greater extent
since the war than previously.
Belated German parliamentarism^ — an abortion of the bourgeois revolution, in
itself an abortion of history. — this parliamentarism suffers in its infancy from
every illness peculiar to senile decay. "The most democratic" Reichstag of the
Republic of Ebert is powerless, not only before the iron Marshal Foch, but even
before the Stock Exchange machinations of their own Stiuueses, as well as
before the military conspiracies of their war clique. German parliamentary
democracy is a void space between two dictatorships.
The composition of the bourgeoisie itself underwent a great change during rhe
war. In the general atmosphere of the impoverishment of the entire world, the
concentration of capital suddenly made a great step forward. Firms which
were formerly in the background now become pronwnent. Solidity, stabiliry. a
tendency to "reasonable" compromise, the maintenance of a certain decorum,
both in exploitation and in the utilization of this exploitation — all this was
washed away by the waves of the Imperialist flood.
A new class of rich men has come to the f(»reground. It consists of military
contractors, mean profiteers, parvenues, international adventurers, contrabandists,
well-clad crooks — all the unbridled canaille hunting for luxury and ready to com-
mit all kinds of atrocities against the Proletarian Revolution, from which they
can expect nothing but the gallows.
The existing order, the rule of the rich, stands now fully exposed before the
masses. The post helium period in America, France and England has been
marked by an indulgence in luxury which has assumed the nature of a mania.
Paris, tilled with international patriotic parasites, as admitted by the "Temps",
resembles Babylon on the eve of its destruction.
This new bourgeoisie puts its stamp upon politics, courts, tlie press, art and
the Church. All restraint has been thrown to the winds. Wilson, Clemenceau,
Millerand, Lloyd George and Churchill do uot shrink from the most brazen
deceit, the most transparent falsehood, and when exposed they calmly go on to
new criminal deeds. In comparison with the policies of the modern bourgeois
statesmen, the classic rules of jjolitical cunning expounded by old Machiavelli
become mere aphorisms of a provincial simpleton. The law courts, which for-
merly concealed their bourgeois essence under democratic finery, have now openly
become the agency of class brutality and counter-revolutionary provocation. The
judges of the Third Republic have passed a verdict of not guilty upon the
murderer of Jaures without a quiver. The law courts of Germany, which has
been prodainved a Socialist Reiwblic, are encouraging the assassins oif Liebknecht,
Rosa Luxemburg and othei- proletarian martyrs. The courts of Justice of the
bourgeois democracies solemnly legalize all the crimes of tlie White Terror.
The bourgeois press bears the impress of the golden calf like a trade mark.
The leading newspapers of the international bourgeoisie represent a monstrous-
fabrication of lies, slander and moral adultery.
The state of mind of the bourgeoisie is just as feverish and urispttled as are
the prices on its markets. I)uriiig the first few months following the teriniua-
APPENDIX, PART 1 207
lion of the war, the international bourgeoisie, especially the French, trembled
with fear before the oncoming Communism, measuring the degree of its imme-
diate peril by the enormity of the bloody crimes it had connnitted. It has.
liowever, sustained the first onslaught. The Socialist Parties and Trade Unions
i]f the Second International, bound by ties of common responsibility to the
bourgeoisie, shielded the bourgeoisie and made themselves the object of the first
wrathful onslaught of the toiler.'j. The bourgeoisie bought a temporary respite
at the price of the utter collapse of the Second International. The counter-
revolutionary elections to the French parliament puslied through by Clemenceaii,
a few months of unstable equilibrium, the failure of the May strike — all this
(was sufficient to mal^e the bourgeoisie feel confident of the security of its regime.
Its class arrogance is as great today as was its fear yesterday.
The only method of persuasion used by the bourgeoisie today is that of intimida-
tion. It believes no more in words, it demands action — arrests, confiscations,
I raids, executions. Wishing to play up to the bourgeoisie, the bourgeois ministers
and parliamentarians pose as men of steel. Lloyd George drily recommends to
the German ministers to shoot down their Communists, as Fiance did in ISTl. It
is sufficient for any third rate official to accompany his inane report liy defiant
threats against the working class, to receive the loud approval of the Chamber.
The official government apparatus has become transformed into a bloody
weapon to crush the labor movement. Alongside with it and under its auspices
various private counter-revolutionary organizations have been organized and
have started to work. They resort to violence in order to break strikes, to pro-
voke disturbances, to trump up charges, to raid revolutionary organizations and
wreck Conniiunist institutions, to organize massacres and incendiarism, to nnirder
tlie revolutionary leaders and perform similar deeds for the purpose of safe-
guarding private property and democracy.
Scions of the landlords and of the big bourgeoisie, petty bourgeois who have
lost their bearings and the declassed elements among which the emigrants of the
Russian nobility occupy the most prominent place, form an inexhaustible reser-
voir for the formation of counter-revolutionary bands. The connnand of these
bands, is in the hands of officers who have gone through the school of the
imiierialist slaughter.
Following the rebellion of Kapp-Lutwitz. several thoiisand professional officers
of the Hohenzollern army formed themselves into a strong counter-revolutionary
detachment, which cannot be overcome by the German democracy, and which
could be crushed only by the sledge-hammer of the proletarian dictatorship.
The centralized organization of the old regime terrorists obtains its reserves
from the white partisan bands foi'med on the Junker estates.
In the United States the "Nati<tnal Security League'", the "Loyal American
League", and similar organizations constitute the picked armies of capital, at
the extreme wings of which operate ordinary bands of brigands in the person
of private detective agencies.
In France the "Ligue Civique" represents a fa.shionable organization of strike-
breaker;?, while the reformist "Confederation du Travail" has been outlawed.
The officers Mafia of white Hungary and the counter-revolutionary executioners
patronized by England, have shown to the proletariat of the world a sample of
that civilization and humaneness advocated by Wilson and Lloyd George in
opposition to the Soviet government and revolutionary violence.
The "Democratic" governments of Finland and Georgia, Latvia and Esthonia
are trying by all means to live up to this Hungarian model.
In Barcelona there is a band of assassins working under the control of the
police. And so it is everywhere.
Even in defeated and devastated Bulgaria the officers, without employment, are-
uniting into secret societies, ready at the first opportunity to demonstrate their
patriotism upon the heads of the Bulgarian workingmen.
The program of the smoothing over of contradictions, of the cooperation of
classes, of parliamentary reforms, of gradual socialization, of national unity,
represents a grim jest in face of the bourgeois regime such as it has emerged
from the world war.
The bourgeoisie has entirely abandoned the idea of reconciling the proletariat
by means of reform. It contents itself with demoralizing the few labor aristo-
crats by means of bribery and holding the great masses in subjection bv blood
and iron.
There is not a single serious problem today which is decided by voting. Democ-
racy has left but a memory of itself in the minds of the reformists-. The entire-
208 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
state organization has been reduced to its primitive form, i. e., armed force.
Instead of counting the votes, the bourgeoisie counts tlie bayonets, machine guns
and cannons, which will be at its disposal at the moment when the question of
power will be finally decided. . .
There can be no room either for cooperation or for mediation. Ihe only salva-
tion is in the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. This can be achieved only by the
rising of the proletariat.
IV. SOVIEn- RUSSIA
Amidst the unbridled passions of chauvinism, avarice and destruction, it has
been the principle of Communism alone that has manifested a high degree of
vitality and constructive force. In the course of historical development the
Soviet" government has for the first time been established in the most backward
and exhausted countrv of Europe, surrounded by a host of mighty foes. But m
spite of all that, it has not only maintained itself in the struggle against such
great odds, but it has also demonstrated in reality the great possibilities inherent
in Communism. The development and consolidation of the Soviet power in
Russia is the most momentous historical event of the period succeeding the
foundation of the Communist International.
In the eyes of class society the creation of an army has usually been regarded
as the supreme test of industrial and State construction. The weakness or the
strength of the army has been regarded as evidence of the weakness or strength
of industry and the State.
In the midst of the strife the Soviet power has created a mighty armed force.
The Red Army has demonstrated its superiority not alone in the struggle with
unpen
Poland).
That the Soviet Government has succeeded in maintaining itself during the
first three trying years is a miraculous achievement in the field of economy.
The reason why it has withstood all pressure and continues to develop is that
it has taken the means of production out of the hands of the bourgeoisie, and
has transformed them into instruments for the organization of industry. Amid
tlie noise of battle along the endless liattlefronts. Soviet Russia has not failed
to take advantage of every opportunity of industrial construction. In the
interval between the crushing defeat of Denikin and the murderous attack of
I'oland, the Soviet government began upon a plan of an extensive organization
of labor conscription. It inaugurated a precise registration of economic forces
and means with a view to their proper application; it attracted military detach-
ments to the accomplishment of industrial tasks, and above all it began to
reestablish its transport system.
The monopoly by the Socialist State of the necessities of life, and an inde-
fatigable struggle against speculation have saved the Russian cities from starva-
tion, and made it possible to supply food to the Red Army. The centralization
of scattered mills, factories, private railroads and ships has assured the possibility
of production and transport.
The concentration of industry and of the means of transportation in the hands
of the government leads to the standardizing of the industrial arts and makes
them the common property of society. Only under a socialist regime is it possible
(o fix the minimum number of types of locomotive cars and steamers to be man-
ufactured and repaired, and to carry on standard manufacture en masse of
parts of machinery designed by periodic regulations, thus securing enormous
advantages in the matter of productivity. Beside the imperialist assaults from
abroad nothing stands in the way of Soviet Russia's further economic achieve-
ments, and nothing is going to prevent her scientific organization of industry and
(he introduction of the Taylor system, divested of course, of its capitalistic
features of exploitation and sweating.
While in the rest of the world national interests clashing with Imperialistic
encroachments serve as the source of incessant conflicts, uprisings and wars,
socialist Russia has shown how easily a Worker's Government can reconcile
national requirements with industry interests l)y purging the former of chauvinism
and the latter of imperialism. Socialism strives to bring about a union of all
regions, districts, and nationalities by means of a unified social economy. For an
economic centralism freed from the exploitation of one class by another and of
one nation by another and, hence, beneficial to all alike can be brought about
without any infringement upon the real freedom of national development.
APPEiNDIX, PART 1 209
All the oi)pressed nations and tribes, the peoples of the British dominions, the
Egyptians and the Turks, the Hindoos and the I'ersians, the Irish and the Bul-
garians, the nations of central Europe, and of the Balkan states, have all con-
vinced themselves by the example of Soviet Russia that the establishment of a
Federation of Soviet Republics will make it possible for all the national units of
humanity to live together in friendly cooperation.
As a result of the Revolution Russia has become the first proletarian empire.
During the three years of her existence her boundaries have undergone continual
changes : they have shrunk under the external military pressure of international
imperialism and extended again when that pressure relaxed. The struggle for
Soviet Russia has become blended with the struggle against world imperialism.
The attitude towards Soviet Russia forms the touchstone by which all labor
organizations are tested. When the German Social Democracy got in control of
the government it sought the protection of western imperialism instead of tlirow-
ing in its lot with the revolution in the East, thus adding another most dastardly
treacherous act to those committed by it since August 4, 1914. A Soviet Germany
united with a Soviet Russia would have represented a combined force exceeding
from the very start all the capitalist states taken together.
The cause of Soviet Russia has become the cause of the Communist Inter-
national. The International proletariat will not sheathe the sword until a Fed-
eration of Soviet Republics of the world, linked together with Soviet Russia will
be an accomplished fact.
V. PROLEn'AEIAN REVOLUTION AND THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
All over the world Civil War is on the order of the day. Its watchword is — All
Power to the Soviets !
The great masses of humanity have been converted into proletarians by capi-
talism. Imperialism has thrown these masses out of balance and started them
on the revolutionary rojid. The very meaning of the term, "masses", has under-
gone a change. Those elements which were regar<led as masses in the epoch of
parliamentarism and Trade Unionism have now become the aristocracy. Millions
and tens of millions of those who formerly lived outside of political life have
now become the revolutionary masses. The War hiis aroused everybody, it has
awakened the political interest of the backward strata and aroused in them illu-
sions and hopes which were not fultilled. The social foundations of the old forms
of the labor movement — the craft division of labor, the comparative stability of
the standard of living of the upper proletarian strata and the dull, apathetic hope-
lessness among the lower ranks — all this has irretrievably passed away. New
millions have joined the struggle. The women who have lost their husbands
and fathers and have been compelled to take their places in the ranks of labor
are streaming into the movement. The working youth which has grown up under
the storm and stress of the World War meets the Revolution as its native element.
In various countries the struggle is passing through different stages. But it is
the final conflict. Not infrequently the waves of the movement rush into the
obsolete channels of organization, lending them temporary vitality. On the
surface of the stream there are still found, drifted here and there, old time slogans
and obliterated mottos. There is still much confusion of mind, vacillation, preju-
dices and illusions. But tlie movement as a whole is of a profoundly revolutionary
character. It is all-embracing and irresistible. It spreads, strengthening and
purifying itself, and eliminating all the old rubbish. It will not halt before it
brings al)Out the rule of the world proletariat.
The fundamental form of this movement is the strike. Its prime and potent
cause lies in the increase of prices of the necessaries of life. Not infrequently it
arises out of single local conflicts. It also comes as an expression of the masses'
impatience with the parliamentary Socialist s(iuabbles. It originates in the
feeling of solidarity with the oppressed of all countries. Its slogans are both
economi cand political. It frequently combines fragments of reformism with
revolutionarv Socialist mottos. At times this movement quiets down, cease.s, then
breaks out again, shaking the foundations of production and keeping the govern-
ment apparatus under constant strain, and causing the bourgeoisie great anxiety
by sending its expressions of greeting to Soviet Russia. The anxiety of the ex-
ploiters is well founded, for the spontaneous strike movement is in reality the
Social Revolution ; it is the roll call and the marshalling of the International
Proletariat. The close interdependence between one country and another, which
has been so catastrophicallv demonstrated during the War, lends particular signifi-
cance to the branches of industry of each country, and puts the railwaymen and
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 15
212 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Regarding the fundamental problems of the class struggle, French parlia-
mentary socialism continues as heretofore to demoralize the will of the working
class, suggesting to it that tlie present moment is not favorable for the conquest
of power, because France is too exhausted. Yesterday the reason was the war,
while prior to the war it was the industrial revival that interfered, and still
earlier it was the industrial crisis. Alongside with parliamentary Socialism and
on the same level with it comes the garrulous and mendacious Syndicalism of
Jouhaux and Co.
The creation of a strong, firmly welded and disciplined Communist Party in
France is of vital importance to the French proletariat.
A new generation of workers is being educated and tempered in the strikes and
uprisings in Germany. The number of victims this struggle requires is great,
inasmuch as the conservative Social Democrats still retain their intliience in the
Independent Social Democracy, constantly reverting to the Social Democracy of
the times of Bebel, failing to understand the nature of the present revolutionary
epoch, flinching from civil war and revolutionary terrorism, and lingering in the
train of events in the expectation of a miracle which is to come to the assistance
of their inefficiency. But the party of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht
teaches the German workers in the front line of battle to find the proper road.
The stolidity in the upper ranks of the Labor movement in England is so great
that they have not yet even realized the necessity of changing their weapon :
the leaders of the British Labor Party stubbornly strive to maintain their position
within the Second International. At the time when the march of events during
recent years has undermined the stability of economic life in conservative Eng-
land and has made the toiling masses most susceptible to a revolutionary pro-
gram,— at this time the official bourgeois State machinery, the Royal power, the
Houses of Lords and Commons, the Church, the Trade Unions, the Labor Party,
George the Fifth, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Henderson — remains intact
as a powerful automatic brake on the wheel of progress. Only a Communist
Party, closely united with the mass organizations and free from routine and
schism is able to line up the lowly proletarians against the official aristocracy.
In Italy where the bourgeoisie itself openly admits that the future destiny of
the country is in the hands of the Socialist Party, the right wing headed by Turati
is striving to force the Proletarian Revolution, which is powerfully developing,
into the channel of parliamentary reforms. This internal sabotage represents the
greatest menace of the present day.
Workers of Italy, remember the fate of Hungary, which has come down in
history as a solemn warning to the proletariat that whilst struggling for power
and after the conquest of power it must stand firm, sweeping away all elements
of uncertainty and hesitation, and mercilessly crushing all attempts at treachery.
The upheaval caused by the War, which has led to a profound economic crisis,
has opened a new chapter in the Labor movement in the United States as well as
in the other countries of the American continent. The failure of the Wilsonian
bombast and falsehood will destroy at the same time American socialism, which
was made up of a mixture of pacifist illusions and businesslike pursuits, which
served as a peaceful adjunct to the left wing of the Trade Unions of Gompers.
The closest solidification of the revolutionary proletarian parties and organiza-
tions of the American continent — from the Alaska peninsula to Cape Horn — into
a firmly welded American Section of the International which shall stand up
against the mighty enemy — American imperialism, this is tlie task which must
be accomplished, and which will bei accomplished in the struggle against all the
forces which the Dollar will mobilize in its defense.
The official and semi-official Socialists of various countries accuse the Com-
munists on many occasions, that by their implacable tactics they provoke counter-
revolution and assist it to mobilize its forces. These political accusations are
nothing more than belated versions of Liberal complaints. The latter always
asserted that the independent struggle of the proletariat is driving the propertied
classes into the camp of reaction. This is, of course, beyond dispute. Should the
working class not encroach upon the foundations of bourgeois domination, the
bourgeoisie would have no need to resort to repressive measures. The very idea
of counter revolution would have no existence if revolutions were luiknown to
history. If the uprisings of the proletariat have as their inevitable result the
organization of the bourgeoisie for self-defense and counter attack, this only
means that Revolution is a struggle of two irreconcilable classes which can end
only with the final victory of one of them. Communism rejects with contempt the
policy of keeping the masses inert by intimidating them with the club of counter
revolution.
APPENDIX, PART 1 213
111 oppositi<ni to the disintegration and anarchy of the capitalist world, which
is threateneng to demolish in its last exertions all human culture the Communist
International sets up the united struggle of the international proletariat for the
abolition of private property in the means of production, and for the reconstruc-
tion of national and world economy on a uniform economic plan instituted and
maintained by a society of producers united by common interests and responsi-
bilities. Marshalling millions of toilers in all parts of the world under the banner
of the Dictatorsliip of the Proletariat and the Soviet form of government, the
Communist International builds up, organizes, and purifies its own ranks, in the
fire of the struggle.
The Communist International is the revolutionary party of the International
proletariat. It sweeps aside all those organizations and groups which beguile
the proletariat, openly or in disguise, inducing it to kneel before the fetishes
screening the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, such as legality, democracy, national
defense, etc.
Neither can the Communist International admit into its ranks those organiza-
lions which have inscribed in their program the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,
but which at the same time continue to rely in their tactics upon a peaceful solu-
(ion of the historical crisis. The mere recognition of the soviet system of gov-
ernment does not settle the question. The soviet organization does not possess
any miraculous powers. The revolutionary forces are in the possession of the
proletariat itself. The Soviet organization manifests its qualities as an indis-
pensable weapon in the hands of the proletariat only at the time when it rises to
conquer the power of government.
The Communist International demands the expulsion from the labor movement
of those leaders who are directly or indirectly implicated in political collabora-
tion with the bourgeoisie. We want leaders who have no other attitude towards
bourgeois society but one of mortal hatred ; who organize the proletariat for an
implacable struggle, who are ready to lead the insurgent army to the battle front,
who are not going to stop half way, whatever happens, and who v/ill not shrink
from resorting to severe measures against all those who may attempt to arrest
their progress by force.
The Communist International is the international party of proletarian insur-
rection and proletarian dictatorship. It has no aims and problems other than
those of the working class. The pretentions of petty sects, each of which claims
to have its own way leading to the salvation of the working class are foreign
and hostile to the spirit of the Communist International. Creating no panacea,
the Communist International bases its policy upon the past and present inter-
national experiences of the working class ; it purges that experience of all fal-
lacies and deviations from the proper course, it generalizes the conquests made
and recognizes and adopts only such revolutionary formulas as partake of the
nature of mass action.
The labor uni(m, the economic and political strike, the boycott, parliamentary
and municipal elections, the parliamentary platform, legal and illegal agitation,
auxiliary bases in the army, the cooperative, the barricade — none of these forms
of organization and methods of struggle is repudiated by the Communist Inter-
national, nor is any singled out as a panacea.
The Soviet system of government is not an abstract principle opposed by the
Communist to the principle of parliamentarism. The Soviet system is a weapon
of the working class which must do away with the parliament, and take its
place during the struggle and as a result of the struggle. Carrying on an
irreconcilable fight against reformism in the Trade Unions and against parlia-
mentary cretinism and careerism, the Communist International at the same time
condemns the attitude of leaving the ranks of the numerous labor organizations
or of keeping away from parliamentary and municipal institutions. The Com-
munists must not abandon the masses, which are being deceived and betrayed
by the reformist and patriots, but in carrying on an implacable struggle against
the latter they must make use of the mass organizations and institutions estab-
lished by bourgeois society, with a view of overthrowing them the more surely
and the more speedily. Under the guise of the Second International, the methods
of class organization and of class struggle, which have been almost exclusively
of a legal character were, in the final analysis, controlled and directed by the
bourgeoisie, which has made its reformist agencies act as a bridle on the revolu-
tionary proletariat. The Communist International, on the other hand, tears this
bridle out of the hands of the bourgeoisie, takes hold of the methods and organ-
izations of the working class, gets them all under revolutionary leadership, and
puts before the proletariat one single goal : the conquest of power for the aboli-
tion of the bourgeois state and for the institution of a Communist society.
214
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
In all his activity, whether it be as a leader of a revolutionary strike, as an
organizer of illegal groups, as secretary of a Trade Union, as agitator at mass
meetings, as deputy, as cooperator, or as barricade fighter the Communist must
always remain true to himself as a disciplined member of the Communist party,
a devoted fighter, a mortal enemy of the capitalist order together with its
economic bases, its forms of government, its democratic falsehood, its religion,
and its morality. He must be a self-sacrificing soldier of the Proletarian Revolu-
tion, and an indefatigable herald of the new society.
Working men and working women !
There is only one banner on earth under which it is well worth while to struggle
and to die. It is the banner of the Communist International.
Signed :
Russia : Lenin, Zinoviev, Boukharine, Trotsky.
Germany: Levi, Meyer, Valher, Volfstein.
Austria : Steinhardt, Thoman, Stremer.
France : Rosmer, Sadoul, Guilbeaux.
England : Quelch, Gallagher, Pankhurst, MacLaine.
America : Flynn, Fraina, Bilau, Reed.
Italy: Serrati, Bombacci, Graciadei, Bordiga.
Norway : Fries, Schefflo, Madsen.
Switzerland : Herzog, Humbert-Droz.
Denmark : Jorgensen, Nilsen.
Holland : Wijnkoop, Jansen, Van Leuven.
Belgium : Van Oeverstraetten.
Spain : Pestana.
Sweden : Dahlstrem, Samuelson, Winberg,
Hungary : Rakoszy, Rudniansky, Varga.
Galicia : Levitzky.
Poland : Marcholovsky.
Latvia: Stutchka, Krastin.
Czecho-Slovakia : Vanek, Hula, Sapotozky.
Esthonia : Vakman, Pegelman.
Finland : Rachia, Lotonitzky, Manner.
Bulgaria : Kabaktchiev, Maksimow, Chablin.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Jugo-Slavia : Milkitz.
Geoi'gia : Lita-Zhakaia.
Armenia : Nasaritjan.
Turkey : Nichad.
Persia : Sultan-Sade.
India : Acharia, Sheffik, M. N. Roy.
Dutch India : Maring.
China : Laou-Siu-Than.
Corea : Pak-Din-Chun, Kin-Tuliu,
Mexico : R. Allen, F. Seaman.
Exhibit No. 16
[Source: A pamphlet entitled "Constitution and Program of the Communist Party or
America, Adopted by the Joint Unity Convention of the Communist Party and the
United Communist Party of America," published by the Communist Party of America :
1921]
Constitution and Program of the Communist Party of America
adopted by the joint unity convention of the communist party and the united
communist PARTY OF AMEKICA
Capitalist society is distinguished from all previous forms of society by the
production of commodities on the basis of capital. Through the private owner-
ship of the means of production, the bourgeoisie, a small group in society, have
reduced the great majority of the people to the status of proletarians and semi-
proletarians. The working class is compelled to sell its labor power to the owners
of the machinery of production, and have become wage slaves who, by their labor,
create profits for the ruling classes of society.
During the last century the development of machinery means of communica-
tion and technique led to the extension of the capitalist system of production
throughout the world. As a result of the consequent formation of large indus-
trial enterprises, the small industrial enterprises and the small independent manu-
APPENDIX, PART 1 215
facturers were expropriated. This wliole class, the petit bourgeoisie, is continu-
ally being reduced to impotency in social, political and economic life.
The development of technique in production and distribution led to the division
and sub-division of labor, the use of woman and child labor, and the substitution
of unskilled and semi-skilled workers for craftsmen and artisans. The relative
decrease in the demand for human labor created a condition wherein the supply
<if labor exceeds the demand. The dependence of labor upon capital increased.
The degree of exploitation is intensified.
This economic development within the nation, together with the continual
sharpening of rivalry in the world market, makes the sale of commodities, the
production of which is ever increasing, more and more difficult. The inevitable
result of this development of productive power in capitalist society is over-
production. This over-production brings about industrial crises which ruin the
small manufacturers still more, creates a further dependence of wage labor upon
capital, and accelerates the deterioration of the conditions of the working class.
Manufacturers are compelled to perfect their machinery. This perfection of
machinery is complemented by a constant displacement of laborers, constituting
the industrial reserve army. The inevitable extension of production brings with
it a tremendous development of the productive forces, causes excess of supply
over demand, over-production, a glutting of the market, and recurring crises —
resulting in a vicious circle. On the one hand, there is an excess of the means
of production and products ; on the other, laborers without employment and with-
out means of existence. The two levers of production — machinery and labor
power — are unable to function because capitalism prevents productive forces
from working and the products from circulating unless they are first turned into
capital. The over-supply of machinery and labor power hinders this process.
The mode of production rebels against the form of exchange and the bourgeoisie
stands convicted of incapacity to further manage their own social production
forces.
These contradictions, which are inherent in bourgeois society, increase the dis-
content of the exploited mases. The number of the proletariat is continually aug-
mented. Their solidarity is strengthened, and the struggle with their exploiters
becomes ever more acute. This and the improvement of technique, concentrating
the means of production and socializing the process of labor, prepares the ground
for the social revolution — the replacement of the capitalist system by a Com-
munist society. This is the final aim of the Communist Party of America.
Through the systematic organization of production, distribution and exchange,
capitalism tends to overcome anarchy in social production. Mighty corporations
(syndicates, trusts, cartels) rise in place of the numerous small competitors.
Finance capital is combined with industrial capital. The finance oligarchy,
because of superior organization, becomes the dominant power in the whole
economic system. Monopoly supplants free competition. The individual cap-
italist becomes the corporation capitalist. Organized capital tends to remove
the anarchy of competition within each nation.
With the development of imperialism in each nation the contradictions, the
international competitive conflicts, the anarchy of world production and exchange
became more acute. Competition between the highly organized imperialist states
and the groups of states led directly to the world war. Greed for profits compels
the capitalist-imperiallot national groups to fight among themselves for new mar-
kets, new fields for the investment of capital, new sources of raw materials, and
for the cheap labor power of colonial peoples.
These imperialist states were dividing among themselves the territory of the
entire world. Millions of proletarians and peasants of Africa, Australia, Asia
and the Americas were being reduced to a most degrading wage slavery. In the
struggle for these spoils the imperialist states met each other in a mortal com-
bat— the Imperial World War.
The World War marks an epoch— the epoch of the collapse of capitalism and
the beginning of the proletarian revolution. With the disintegration of imperial-
ism come uprisings among the exploited masses in the colonies and in the small
independent nations. The imperialist armies disintegrate. The ruling classes
are unmasked and their incapacity to further direct the destiny of the world's
working masses is exposed. Armed insurrection of the proletariat, resulting in
victorious revolution, as in Russia ; and a series of open armed conflicts with the
state power of the bourgeoisie, as in Germany. This is typical of the conditions
throughout the world.
There is only one power that can save humanity — the power of the proletariat.
The old capitalist order is in decay. It can prevail no longer. The final outcome
216 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the capitalist system of production is chaos. Only the great producing class
the working class, can bring order out of this chaos. The working class must
destroy the capitalist state, root and branch. The working class must establish
a dictatorship of the proletariat, based upon Soviet power, in order to crush both
the resistance of capitalist counter-revolution at home and imperialist onslaught
from without.
Imperialism arms Itself for the final ^conflict against the world revolution
Under the guise of a league of nations, or other similar alliances, it is making
a last desperate effort to bolster up the capitalist system. Through such alliances
Its aims to direct all its power against the ever-growing proletarian revolution
There is but one answer to this huge conspiracy of collapsing capitalism The
proletariat must conquer political power and direct it against its class enemies
and set in motion all the forces of social revolution.
In order to achieve victory in the world revolution, the working class must
attain unity and co-ordinate all its forces. This victory cannot be realized unless
the working class forever completely breaks with all forms of bourgeois perversion
of socialism which have have dominated the Social-Democratic and Socialist
parties of the world.
One form of this perversion is opportunism— social chauvinism, socialist in
name but chauvinist in fact. These opportunists have betrayed the interests of
the working class under the false watchwords of the defense of the fatherland
Witness the imperialist world war. This opportunism takes root in the wanton
robbing of colonial and weak nations by imperialist states. The super-profits
acquired through this exploitation have enabled the bourgeoisie to bribe the lead-
ers of the working class. They have placed the upper strata of the workers in
a privileged position by guaranteeing them, in time of peace, a tolerable existence
and by taking their leaders into the service of the bourgeoisie.
The opportunists and social-chauvinists are servants of of the bourgeoisie
They arc enemies of the proletariat, especially is this true when, together with
the capitalists they are suppressing the revolutionary movement of their own
and other countries.
As Socialist workers begin to awaken to the treacherous character of the
so-called Socialist parties, and to desert them, the leaders of those parties make
desperate efforts to hold their following. These efforts sometimes take the form
of indorsing the Communist International "with reservations." Another device
is to indorse Soviets in Russia "but not here." Another is to pose as "defending
the Russian Soviet Republic from invasion by foreign imperialists." All these
are evasions of revolutionary duty. Abe Communist International is an organiza
tion for waging class warfare for the liberation of the working class ; there can be
no reservations in indorsement and affiliation with it. Loyalty "with reserva-
tions" is treachery. Indorsement and defense of Soviets in Russia with failure
to advocate the Soviet form of proletarian dictatorship in the United States
is hypocracy.
Those who attempt by such means to hold revolutionary workers in a iwsitiou
midway between the old bourgeois Socialist-reform position and the revolutionary
Communist position, are known as "centrists." Without the courage and intel-
ligence to lead the wokers to revolution, yet unwilling to admit their character
as friends of the bourgeois state, these centrist leaders confuse and obstruct
the development of the proletarian revolution.
The Socialist Party of the United States is a mixture of elements varying
from extreme social-chauvinism to centrism. The revolutionary and semi-revolu-
tionary membership brought into it or awakened within it by the world war and
the Russian revolution, compelled the Socialist Party nominally to oppose the
entry of the United States into the war. The membership which comijelled the
party to adopt the mildly anti-war platform has been ruthlessly expelled. The
leaders, in defiance of the mandate of the membership, during the war took
official part in promoting war loans and patriotic measures. Since the close of
the war the party spokesmen have completed the bankruptcy and disgrace of the
Socialist Party by pledging it to support the capitalist state (even against
proletarian revolution ) .
After attempting to keep their party from disintegrating by a cowardly indorse-
ment of the Communist International "with reservations," and after being re-
pulsed by the Communist International and rebuked before the world for their
cowardice, the Socialist Party leaders are now engaged in slandering the Com-
munist International and trying by deliberate falsehood to keep their membership
from understanding it.
APPENDIX, PART 1 217
Driven by the opposition of the working class out of the Second International,
to which they, by the logic of their program, still belong, the Socialist Party
leaders now try to form a "Fourth International" of most of the opportunist
parties and the centrist parties of the world. The Communist Party will con-
tinuously expose this "Fourth International" as having the same basis politically
as the Second International, which is now buried forever under the blood and
crime of the world war to which it gave its support. The Second International
is a reeking corpse, and the "Fourth International" is its still-born child.
The Communist International alone conducts the struggle of the proletariat for
its emancipation. The Communist Party of America is its American section.
Not alone in words but in deeds is the Communist International gaining more
and more the sympathy and support of the proletariat of all countries. Its
political content and ideology restore Marxism and realize the Marxian revolu-
tionary teachings.
The social revolution will replace the private ownership of the means of pro-
duction and distribution by collective ownership, systematize the organization
of production in order to secure the welfare of all members of society, abolish
class divisions, liberate oppressed himianity, and put an end to all exploitation
of one part of society by another.
The establishment of a proletarian dictatorship is indispensable to the attain-
ment of the social revolution. The proletariat must destroy the bourgeois state.
It must establish a proletarian state, and thereby crush the resistance of the
capitalists. In order to fulfill its great historic mission, the proletariat must
organize itself into an independent political party — a Communist Party — which
opposes all the bourgeois and opportunist Socialistic parties. Such a party is
the Communist Party of America. It leads the workers in the class struggle and
reveals to the working masses the irreconcilable conflict of interests between the
exploiters and the exploited. The Communist Party of America points out the
historic significance and the essential conditions of the approaciiing social revolu-
tion. The Communist Party of America, the revolutionary vanguard of the pro-
letarian movement, calls upon those of the toiling and exploited masses who
accept its principles and tactics to join the ranks.
The Communist Party of America, section of the Communist International,
defines the aims and processes of the proletarian revolution as follows :
PROiJiTARiAN Dictatorship and Boltrgeois Democracy
"Between capitalist and Communist society there lies a period of revolutionary
transformation from the former to the latter. A state of political transition
corresponds to this period, and the state during this period can be no other than
the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." (Marx.)
Through the private ownership of tho means of production, the burgeoisie
exploit and suppress the broad masses in all capitalist countries. Bourgeois
republics, even the most democratic, through skilful use of such watchwords as
"public opinion," "equality before the law," and "national interest," as opposed
to chKss interests, only veil this suppression and exploitation. Bourgeois democ-
racy is in reality bourgeois dictatorship. The proletarian or Soviet democracy
can be realized only through a transformation of all organizations of the broad
laboring masses — proletarian and semi-proletarian (that is, the vast majority
of the population) — into a single and permanent basis of state apparatus, local
as well as national.
The proletarian revolution comes at a moment of economic crisis precipitating
a political crisis. The politico-economic crisis causes a collapse in the capitalist
order. The role of the "Social-Democratic" parties is to attemiit to solve the
political crisis by a coalition of an "all-Socialist" government within the bour-
geois State machinery, thus, by the deception of the workers enabling the
capitalist State to live through the economic crisis.
The proletariat, once having learned the disastrous consequences of "Social-
Democratic" bolstering up of the bourgeois State, throws its support to the
Communists. Under pressure of the economic chaos, and led by the Communist
Party, the proletariat forms its organs of working class power entirely separate
and distinct from the bourgeois State. These organs are the Workers Soviets
(councils) which arise at the moment of the revolutionary outbreak and attain
a dominant position, during the course of the revolution.
By the use of force, the proletariat destroys the machinery of the bourgeois
State and establishes the proletarian dictatorship based on Soviet power.
218 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The proletarian State, like every other state, is an organ of suppression and
coercion, but its machinery is directed against the enemies of the working class.
It aims to break the desperate resistance of the exploiters who use all the power
at their command to drown the revolution in blood. The proletarian state aims
to make this resistance impossible. Under a proletarian dictatorship, which is
a provisional institution, the working class establishes itself as the ruling class
in society. After the resistance of the b(^irgeoisie is broken, after it is expro-
priated and gradually absorbed into the labor strata, then only do all classes
vanish, the proletarian dictatorship disappears and the State dies out.
The bourgeois parliamentary state is the organ of the bourgeoisie for the sup-
pression and coercion of the working masses. Parliamentary government is
nothing but an expression of bourgeois supremacy — the form of autliority of the
capitalist class over the working class. Bourgeois democracy is nothing but a
concealed dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Bourgeois democracy, through its
parliamentary system, fraudulently deprives the masses and their organizations
of any real participation in the administration of the State.
Under a Workers' Government — the proletarian dictatorship in the form of
Soviet power^ — the organizations of the masses dominate. Through these organi-
zations, the masses themselves administer. Bourgeois democracy, manifesting
itself through its parliamentary system, deprives the masses of participation in
the administration of the capitalist state by a division of legislative and executive
power, by unrecallable mandates, and by numerous agencies of social, political
and economic suppression.
Under a proletarian government, the Soviets, acting as real organs of state
power, merging the legislative and executive function, and by the right of recall,
bring the masses into close contact with the administrative machinery. This
unity is further promoted by the fact that under the Soviet government the elec-
tions themselves are conducted, not in conformity with arbitrary, territorial
demarcations, but in accordance with industrial divisions. The proletarian dic-
tatorship, in the form of a Soviet government, thus realizes true, proletarian
democracy — a democracy of and for the working class and against the bourgeoisie.
The proletarian revolution is a long process. It begins with the destruction
of the capitalist state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
and ends only with the complete transformation of the capitalist system into
the Communist society.
Political Action
Every class struggle is a political struggle. The object of the class struggle,
which inevitably develops into civil war, is the conquest of political power. A
political party that shall organize and direct this struggle is indispensable for
the acquisition of this power. When the workers are under the leadership of a
well-organized and experienced political party that has strictly defined objectives
and a program of immediate action, in foreign as well as domestic policy, then
only will the acquisition of political power cease to be a casual episode, and
become the starting point for the gradual realization of the Communist society.
The class struggle demands that the general guidance of the various expressions
of the proletarian movement (such a labor unions, co-operative associations,
cultural-educational societies, election campaigns, etc.) be centered in one organi-
zation. Only a political party can be such a unifying and guiding center. The
class struggle of the proletariat demands a concentrated propaganda to throw
light upon various stages of the conflict. It makes imperative a unified point of
view to direct, at each given moment, the attention of the proletariat to definite
tasks that are to be accomplished by the working class as a whole.
The Communist Party of America, section of the Communist lutei'national, is
that part of the working class which is most advanced, intelligent, seJf-sacrificing
and class conscious. It is therefore the most revolutionary part of the working
class. The Communist Party has no other interests than those of the working
class as a whole. It differs from the general mass of workers in that it takes a
comprehensive view of the entire historical development of the working class. At
every turn of the road, it endeavors to defend the interests, not of separate gi'oups
or trades, but of the entire working class. The Communist Party is the organized
political power by means of which the more advanced part of the working class
leads the whole proletarian and semiproletarian mass.
During the proletarian dictatorship the Communist Party will continue to
.systematically direct the work of the Soviets and revolutionized industrial unions.
The Communist Party, as the vanguard of the proletarian movement, will direct
the struggle of the entire working class on the political and economic fields. It
APPENDIX, PART 1 219
will guide the proletariat in the field of education and social life. The Com-
munist Party must be the animating spirit in the Soviets, revolutionized industrial
unions, and In all proletarian organizations.
I. Mass Action
In countries where the historical development furnished the opportimity, bour-
geois democracy served the working class as a means of organizing itself against
capitalism. This process will go on in all countries where the conditions for a
proletarian revolution are not yet ripe. The workers must never lose sight of
the true character of bourgeois democracy. The capitalist class screens its deeds
of violence behind the parliamentary system. Centuries of capitalist rule have
placed at its disposal the equipment and attainments of modern civilization. To
achieve its end the capitalist class resorts to lies, demagogy, bribery, persecution,
and murder.
The revolutionary epoch upon which the world has now entered forces the
proletariat to resort to militant methods — mass action, leading to direct collision
with the bourgeois state. Mass action culminates in armed insurrection and civil
war. The centralized power of the capitalist class manifests itself through
control of the state machinery — the army, the navy, police, courts, bureaucracy,
etc. It is through such means that the capitalist class imposes its will upon the
workers. Mass action is the proletarian revolt against the oppression of the
capitalist class. It develops from spontaneous activities of the workers massed
in large industries. Among its initial manifestations are mass strikes and mass
demonstrations.
The Communist Party will educate and organize the working masses for such
direct political action, i. e., mass strikes and mass demonstrations, and will lead
them in these struggles. These struggles form the major campaign of the Com-
munist Party. It is through such struggles that the working masses are pre-
pared for the final conflict for power. This can be nothing else but a direct strug-
gle between the armed forces of the capitalist state on the one hand and the
armed forces of the proletarian revolution on the other. In these mass strikes
and demonstrations large masses of workers are united. New tactics and a new
ideology are developed. As these strikes grow in number and intensity, they
acquire political character through unavoidable collision and open combat with the
capitalist state which openly employs all its machinery to break their strikes
and crush the workers' organizations. This finally results in armed insurrection
aimed directly at the destruction of the capitalist state and the establishment of
the proletarian dictatorship. This objective cannot be attained unless the entire
mass movement is under the control and guidance of the Communist Party.
The Communist Party will keep in the foreground the idea of the necessity of
violent revolution for the destruction of the capitalist state and the establishment
of the dictatorship of the proletariat based on Soviet power.
The Communist Party will systematically and persistent propagate the idea of
the inevitability of and necessity for violent revolution, and will prepare the
workers for armed insurrection as the only means of overthrowing the capitalist
state.
PABLIAMENTARY ACTION
The Communist Party of America recognizes that the revolutionary proletariat
must use all means of propaganda and agitation to win over the exploited masses.
One of these means is parliamentary activity. The work of Communist repre-
sentatives in parliament will consist chiefly in making revolutionary propaganda
from the parliamentary platform. They should unmask and denounce the enemies
of the masses. Our representatives in parliament shall further the ideological
unification of the masses who, captivated by democratic illusions, still put their
trust in parliaments. The Communist Party will utilize parliament as a means
of winning especially such backward elements of the working masses as tenant
farmers, farm workers and the semi-proletariat. All work within the parliaments
must be completely subordinated to the task of the mass struggles outside of
parliament.
Communist representatives shall make all their parliamentary activity de-
pendent on the work of the Party outside of parliament. They should regularly
propose demonstrative measures, not for the purpose of having them passed by the
bourgeois majority, but for the purpose of propaganda, agitation and organiza-
tion. All this activity must be carried on under the direction of the Party and its
Central Executive Committee.
220 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The bourgeois parliament, one of the most important instruments of the bour-
geois state machinery, can no more be won by the proletariat than the bourgeois
order in general. It'is the task of the proletariat to destroy the entire machinery
of the bourgeois state, not excluding its parliamentary institutions.
The parliamentary system of the American bourgeois government is based on a
rigid constitution. Its' authority is divided among forty-eight states. Each of
these states has its own legislature, governor, courts, etc. The American capi-
talist state, screened by bourgeois democracy, is the machinery in the hands of
the capitalists for crushing all working class aspirations. Large masses of
Negroes, migr'itory and foreign born workers are disfranchised. The working
class of America now faces a practically naked dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
The American bourgeois State was quick to recognize the Communist parties
in America as its historic and deadly enemies. It employed all its power in a
vicious onslaught against them. Being outlawed, the Communist parties reor-
ganized as underground, illegal parties. Thus, for the present, the Communist
Party of America is prevented from participating in the elections under its own
name.
While the Commanist Party of America wages its major campaigns and activi-
ties through the mass struggles of the working class outside of parliament, it will
also organize the necessary legal machinery for participation in municipal, state,
and national election campaigns. It shall, wherever possible, enter its candidates
in opposition to all bourgeois and social-reform parties.
Labor Unions and Labor Organizations
The trade unions arose as organs of the working class to check the growing
exploitation. In their early form the trade unions were organizations of skilled
workers in separate crafts. Modern industry has developed the machine worker.
The machine workers are massed together in the basic industries and constitute
the militant factor in the class struggle. The concentration of industry and the
development of the machine process renders useless the isolated craft strike and
makes necessary the organization of the workers on a wider scale. Industrial
unions are a better form or organization for the workers in their struggle for
higher wages and improved conditions, under capitalism. Craft unions have
not kept pace with the development of capitalist organization and still retain to a
large degree the ideology of property, contract and obsolete craft division.
Industrial unions alone are not sufficient for the successful carrying out of
the revolution. Syndicalism denies the necessity for establishing the proletarian
state during the transition period from capitalist society to Communist society.
Revolutionary syndicalism and industrialism are a step forward only in com-
parison with' the old, counter-revolutionary ideology of Socialist parties. But
in comparison with the revolutionary Marxian doctrine, i. e., with Communism,
Syndicalism and Industrialism, are a step backward.
The Socialist movement in America originally followed the policy of main-
taining contact with labor organizations and of propagating their ideas within
them. Impatience with the slowness of the process of educating and leading
the workers by working within the reactionary trade luiions gave rise to the
attempt during the period of 1895 to artificially stimulate the organization of
brand new "class-conscious" labor unions, such as the Socialist Trade and Labor
Alliance. The opportunist policy of the "yellow" reformist socialists of catering
to and supporting the reactionary leaders of the trade unions increased this
discouragement and led to the abandonment of the struggle within the old
unions by the more advanced worker and to the formation in 1905 of the
I. W. W. as an entirely new labor union, outside of and in opposition to the
existing trade unions.
The policy of the I. W. W. and similar organizations of artificially creating
new industrial unions has been shown by experience to be mistaken. Such
efforts result in isolating the most advanced workers from the main body of
organized labor and strengthen the control of the trade unions by reactionary
leaders. The members of the trade unions as a rule have not deserted the old
unions for the new ones : The old unions become more reactionary when the
revolutionary workers leave them. This situation represents a great danger,
for without the support of the labor unions, the success of the proletarian
revolution is impossible. The experience of the Hungarian and German revolu-
tions fully establishes the fact that if the American labor unions remain under
APPENDIX, PART 1 221
the control of such leaders as those who grossly betrayed the workers during the
World War, and who serve the bourgeoisie against the workers in every struggle,
they will be manipulated as deadly implements for the defeat of the prole-
tarian revolution.
The Conuuunist Party condemns the policy of the revolutionary elements
leaving the existing unions. These elements must remain with the large mass of
organized workers. The Comnuuiists must take an active and leading part in
the every-day struggles of the unions. They must carry on a merciless and
unconipro?nising struggle against the social-patriotic and reactionary leaders,
criticize and expose them and drive them out of power. The Communist Party
will develop from its ranks the most determined fighters in the labor movement
who, through courage, sacrifice, and class-consciousness, will inspire the masses
with a spirit of determined struggle and win tliem over for the proletarian revo-
lution. Only in this way can the disintegration of the unions be prevented,
the reactionary leaders ousted from control, the bureaucratic machinery de-
stroyed and replaced by the apparatus of shop delegates, and the trade unions
broadened in scope and gradually developed into industrial unions.
Bearing in mind the necessity for the closest contact of the Communists with
those workers who have not yet reached a revolutionary understanding, and the
intensity of the struggle which requires the closest unity and solidarity of the
workers on the economic field, the Communists shall not foster artificial division
in the labor movement, nor deliberately bring it about. On the contrary, they
must use all measures, short of giving up the revolutionary task in the unions,
not hesitating to employ strategy, to avoid giving to the reactionary leaders the
pretext to expel them. The Communists must not fear a split when the circum-
stances leave them no alternative except to abandon the struggle to transform
the unions into instruments of revolutionary action. Such a split may be
carried out only when the Communists, by the incessant warfare against the
reactionary leaders and their tactics, and by their whole-hearted participation
in the every-day struggles of the unions, have gained the confidence and the
leadership of the workers, and are able to convince them that the split is
occurring, not because of some remote revolutionary aim which they do not
understand, but because it has been forced by the bureaucracy and because it is
demanded by the concrete, immediate interests of the working class in the
development of the economic struggle. Even in such cases, the Comnumists must
act with the greatest care and consider the possibility of such a split resulting
in separating them from the working masses.
The Communist Party will lead and participate in every effort on the part
of the unorganized workers to organize into unions — initiating the organization
of unions where these do not exist — and will lead them in the class struggle
towards the proletarian revolution.
The Communist Party will work within the industrial unions of the I. W. W.
where these are established and function as mass organizations of the workers ;
and will support them especially during strikes and mass movements. The Com-
munist Party regards the workers in the ranks of the I. W. W. as comrades in the
class war. At the same time, the Communist Party rejects the absurd theory,
entertained by the I. W. W., that the revolution can be accomplished by the direct
seizure of industry without first overthrowing the capitalist state. Only after
the conquest of political power, after the establishment of the proletarian dictator-
ship, can the revolutionized industrial unions become the starting point for the
Communist reconstruction of society. The Communist Party will put forth every
effort to overcome the syndicalist prejudices of the members of the I. W. W., and
to win them over to the position of the Communist International.
II.
The effort to transform the antiquated craft unions into more effective offensive
and defensive instruments of the working class gives rise to the formation of
rank and file organizations of the more advanced workers within the luiions.
The purpose of such organization is to more effectively wage the struggle for
control of tlie unions and to oust the traitorous leaders. These expressions within
the unions are a necessary feature of the struggle to revolutionize the labor move-
ment and must be crystallized by the Communist Party. The Communist Party
will take an active part in this movement and co-ordinate it, fully utilizing for
this purpose its press, nuclei and all other means, and lead it by degrees to the
platform of Connnunism and thus make of it an auxiliary instrument of the
Communist Party.
222 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
III.
The experience of the European lahor movement indicates (hat out of the
economic chaos developing in America the laboring masses will endeavor to create
factory committees, such as the factory councils (Betriebs Rat) in Germany,
which will undertake a struggle for workers' control over production. The aspira-
tion to create such organizations takes its origin from the most varied causes,
namely, struggle against the counter-revolutionary bureaucracy, discouragement
after a strike or defeat of the unions, or the desire to create an organization
embracing all the workers, etc, but in the end, it results in the struggle for control
over industry, which is their special historic task. These organizations should
consist of the widest possible masses of workers and should not be formed exclu-
sively of those who already understand and are fighting for the proletarian dicta-
torship. The Communist Party will organize all workers on a basis of the eco-
nomic crisis, and lead them toward the struggle for the dictatorship of the
proletariat by developing the concrete struggle for workers' control over industry.
The factory committees cannot be substituted for the trade unions. The trade
unions are central fighting organs although they do not embrace such large masses
of the workers as the factory committee, since these become accessible to all the
workers of a given industry. The trade and industrial unions organize the
workers on a national scale for the struggle to increase wages and shorten hours
of labor. Factory committees fight for workers' control over production, in the
struggle to resist the economic crisis, and embrace all the workers in a given
industry. This division of tasks is the result of the historic development of the
social revolution.
Factory committees are extra-union organizations and must not be confused
with shop committees and the shop delegate system, which are part of the
machinery of some labor unions. The shop committees and the shop delegate
system constitute a form of union management whereby the power in the union
rests in the hands of delegates elected by and from the workers in the shop. The
Communist Party will advocate and promote this form of union management.
At the same time it will expose the so-called "shop committees" which are organ-
ized by employers as substitutes for labor imions.
The Communist Party will propagate the idea of factory committees to the
working class of America as an immediate and essential part of its general propa-
ganda. It will lead the workers in their attempts to form factory committees and
will initiate their organization when the necessary conditions arise.
IV.
Two Internationals of Trade Unions are struggling for supremacy. On the one
hand, "The International Federation of Trade Unions," with headquarters at
Amsterdam, endeavors with a subtle program of "Socialistic" reform to lure the
labor unions into collaboration with the capitalist governments and leagues of
governments. It seeks to paralyze and demoralize the working class of all coun-
tries simultaneously, in time of revolutionary crisis, in the interests of the
capitalist class.
On the other hand is the Red Labor Union International, with headquarters
at Moscow. This International of Trade and Industrial Unions unites the labor
unions of the world for the carrying on of the labor struggle on the economic field
in the interests of the working class as a whole. It wars on the capitalist class
and all capitalist governments in close and indissoluble union with the Communist
International.
The Communist Party will carry on an extensive propaganda for the affiliation
of all organized labor in America to the Red Labor Union International. Where
revolutionary minorities or separate organizations within the American labor
movement indorse the revolutionary program of the Red Labor Union Interna-
tional, the Communist Party will pursue the policy of keeping the revolutionary
minorities within their national organizations for the purpose of combating any
efforts at affiliation with the yellow Amsterdam International, and of bringing
the entire labor movement of America into the Red International. The Commu-
nist Party will fully co-operate with the Red Labor Union International and any
committees or bureaus it may establish to carry on its work in the American
labor movement, in keeping with the decisions of the Communist International.
The Communist Party will strive to inspire all the organizations of labor with
the spirit of determined struggle, i. e., with the spirit of Communism. The
€ommunist Party will practically subordinate these and thus create a mass
APPENDIX, PART 1 223
organization, a basis for a powerful centralized organ of the proletai'ian struggle.
The Communist Party will lead them all to one aim, the victory of the working
class, through the dictatorship of the proletariat, to Communism.
COMMUNIST PARTY NUCLEI
The Comnumist Party of America will organize party nuclei wherever there are
proletarians or semi-proletarians. These nuclei will be organized in trade and
industrial unions, in factory committees, in working class educational or social
organizations, in government institutions, in the army and navy, and in the
organizations of the agricultural laborers, tenant farmers, small farmers, etc.
These nuclei will enable the party to effectively carry on its propaganda. These
nuclei will aid the party in leading the working masses in the proletarian revolu-
tion. Communist Party nuclei shall be subordinated one to another in a cen-
tralized order and system. They shall be under the control, supervision and
discipline of the Communist Party of America.
AGRICULTURAL WORKERS AND FARMERS
Capitalism dominates agricultural production as well as all other functions of
the economic life of society. The exploitation of the agricultural proletariat
links up the interests of this class inseparably with the interests of the city
proletariat. The forces which drive the city worker into conflict with the capital-
ist state are also at work in rural districts.
In the United States, the small farmers have time and again attempted to
resist oppression and exploitation by the finance and industrial oligarchy. The
Greenback movement in the '70's, the Populist movement in the '90's, and the
present Non-Partisan movement are examples.
These small farmers are only nominally the owners of parcels of land. They
are mercilessly exploited by banks, commission merchants, transportation com-
panies, farming implement trusts, absentee landlords, etc. The reform movements
which have periodically swept over the counti-y failed to ameliorate the conditions
of the exi>loited rural masses. The position of the latter, like that of the city
proletariat, is becoming steadily worse under the capitalist system.
The city proletariat must educate, win over, and lead in the class struggle these
laboring and exploited masses of the country. In America, the latter are repre-
sented by the following groups :
1. The agricultural proletariat, that is, hired laborers, farm and harvest hands.
They are wage workers on the large ranches, plantations and farms. They are
largely migratory workers.
2. The semi-proletariat. These are the small farmers and tenant farmers.
Through the land owned or rented by them, they secure only part of the sustenance
needed by them and their families. They are compelled to work partly for wages
in capitalist agricultural or industrial establishments.
3. The small proprietors — small farmers. The land owned by them is usually
heavily mortgaged. They satisfy the needs of their families and farming with-
out working for wages. These three groups constitute the vast majority of the
agrarian population of the United States. Co-operation of the city proletariat
with the exploited agrarian masses is necessary to insure the success of the
proletarian revolution.
The large landed farmers are capitalists in agriculture. They manage their
own farms and employ foremen and laborers. This group constitutes a most
numerous element of the bourgeoisie and is an open enemy of the proletariat.
Only the city proletariat, under the leadership of the Communist Party, can
emancipate the laboring masses from exploitation and oppression by the capital-
ists and landowners. Privation and imperialist wars are inevitable as long as
the capitalist sy.stem endures. The .salvation for the small farmer, tenant farmer,
and farm worker lies only in a union with the revolutionary proletariat. They
should whole-heartedly support the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat in
order to throw off the yoke of the landowners and bourgeoisie. The proletariat
will become a truly revolutionary class only when it acts as the vanguard of all
those who are exploited and suppressed and leads the struggle against the
oppressors of the toiling masses.
The Communist Party of America will establish nuclei in the organizations of
the exploited rural masses in order to ^^'in them away from the political and moral
influence of the bourgeoisie. The Communist Party will carry the struggle into
224 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the agricultural districts and gather the toiling masses aroutid the standard of
Communism.
The Communist Party will initiate and support the organization of farm
laborers and tenant farmers and will lead them to co-operation with the city
proletariat in their struggle against their exploiters, toward the social revolution
Impebiausm and the Colonial Question
Since the Imperialist World War, the United States has become a creditor
nation. It is now seeking new fields for the investment of capital. It is looking
for new sources of raw material for its factories. Thus, America is brought into
conflict with such Imperialism as the Japanese or English. This leads to im-
perialist wars in preparation for which the American bourgeoisie maintains huge
military and naval establishments.
The recent imperialists' war has exposed the fraudulent character of bourgeois
democracy. The war was waged by both sides luider such false slogans as
"rights of small nations" and "national self-determination.'' The Brest-Litovsk,
the Bucharest and the Versaillies Peace have clearly shown how the bourgeoisie
established their "national" boundaries in conformity with economic class inter-
ests. The so-called "league of nations" is only an insurance company, in which
the victors are guaranteed their prey. The revolutionary struggle and the over-
throw of the bourgeoisie alone can achieve national freedom and unity for the
proletariat. Thus, the revolutionary struggle in the advanced countries becomes
ever more acute. The ferment of the working masses of the colonies and subject
countries is increasing, and the middle class nationalistic illusion of the possibility
of peaceful collaboration and the equality of nations under capitalism is being
dispelled.
The present world political situation has placed the question of the Dictatorship
of the Proletariat in the foreground. All the events of world politics are inevit-
ably concentrating around one point — the struggle of the entire bourgeois world
against the Russian Soviet Republic, the heart of the world Soviet movement.
Tlie Russian Soviet Republic is drawing to itself more and more closely not only
the Soviet movement, carried on by the vanguard of the proletariat of all coun-
tries, but also the national liberation movements of the colonial and subject
coiuitries. These have already been taught by bitter experience that salvation for
them lies only in a union with the revolutionary proletariat and in the triumph
of Soviet power over imperialism.
The United States was in its origin a colony of England. It retained the char-
acteristics of a colonial people and was a hinterland for Europe until after the
American Civil War. The American capitalists had their own world to conquer
and exploit within the present territorial confines of the United States, which
contains fabulous resources and natural wealth. Millions of workingmen and
their families, lured by the false light of bourgeois democracy and the hope of
economic security, came to this country. These immigrant workers were merci-
lessly exploited in the building up of capitalism in America, which forcibly
annexed huge territories from its weaker neighbors through fraud and conquest.
After the Spanish-American war, the United States definitely entered upon the
conquest of world markets. An aggressive policy of imperialism was developed.
Hawaii, Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Phillipines were conquered and subjected.
The Caribbean and Central American republics are practically dependencies of
the United States. Together with Mexico, they have been brought under the
control of American finance imperialism by the constant threat of military
intervention.
The Communist Party of America will support with all its power every move-
ment for the liberation of the oppressed colonial peoples of the United States.
The Communist Party will fight against the economic and military aggression of
American capitalists upon the populations of the weaker American republics.
The Communist Party of America will carry on a systematic agitation in the
American army and navy against every kind of oppression of the colonial peoples
by American imperialism. It will strive to cultivate among the American pro-
letariat a fraternal feeling towards the colonial working populations in all the
nations that are under the iron heel of American capitalists. The Communist
Party will systematically agitate against the oppression of the colonial peoples by
American imperialism, and support every uprising on the part of these oppressed
peoples. It will aid them in every way possible to throw off the yoke of American
imperialism. The Communist Party will link up the struggle of the exploited
APPENDIX, PART 1 225
toiling masses in the subject countries with that of the proletariat in America
against their common enemy — the American capitalist and the subject countries'
native bourgeoisie, who are only tools of the American capitalist class.
The Communist International
The Connnunist Intei'national, brought forth by the proletarian revolution in
action, is the central organ of the revolutionary proletariat in its struggle for the
conquest of world power. The revolutionary movement is growing in every
country. But this movement of the proletarian revolution is menaced with
suppression by a coalition of capitalist states. The social-patriotic parties are
uniting with each other to betray the revolution through service to the imperialist
League of Nations. The co-ordination of proletarian action all over the world
is imperative. The Communist International is an absolute necessity.
The Communist International subordinates the so-called national interests to
the interest of the international proletarian revolution. The Communist Inter-
national merges and centralizes the reciprocal aid of the proletariat of all coun-
tries. In order to accelerate the final collapse of the imperialistic system of the
world, the Communist International supports the exploited colonial peoples in
their struggles against imperialism.
The Communist International is the concentrated will of the world revolution-
ary proletariat. Its mission is to organize the working class of the world for the
overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of Communism. The
Communist International is a fighting body and assumes the task of combining
the revolutionary forces of every country.
In order to overthrow the international bourgeoisie and to create an Interna-
tional Soviet Republic as a transition stage to the Communist Society, the Com-
munist International will use all means at its disposal, including force of arms.
The Communist International breaks with the traditions of the Second Inter-
national. The Communist International fraternally invites to its ranks the men
and women of all colors and races — the toilers of the entire world. The Com-
munist International declares that a firm and centralized organization is indis-
Iiensable to a speedy achievement of victory. The Communist International
represents the single universal Communist Party, of which the parties of the vari-
ous countries are sections.
The Communist International calls the world proletariat to the final struggle
against capitalism. The revolutionary epoch may last for years. The Com-
munist International offers a program both immediate and ultimate in scope.
The old order is in decay. The workers must prepare for the pi'oletarian revolu-
tion and the Communist reconstruction of society.
Constitution of the C. P. of A.
ADOPTED AT THE JOINT UNITY CONVENTION OF THE UNITED COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE
COMMUNIST PARTY OF AMERICA
Article I. Name, Purpose and Emblem
Section 1. The name of this organization shall be the Communist Party of
America, Section of the Communist International.
Section 2. The Communist Party of America is the vanguard of the working
class, namely, its most advanced, class conscious and therefore and its most
revolutionary part. Its purpose is to educate, direct and lead the working class
of America for the conquest of political power : to destroy the bourgeois state
machinery ; to establish the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the form of Soviet
power ; to abolish the capitalist system and to introduce the Communist Society.
Section 3. The emblem of the Party shall be the crossed hammer and sickle
between sheaves of wheat and within a double circle. Below the hammer and
sickle the words "All power to the workers." In the circular margin the words
"Communist Party of America— Section of the Connnunist International."
Article II. Membership
Section 1. Every person who accepts the principles and the tactics of the
Communist Party and of the Communist International, and agrees to submit
to the Party discipline and engage actively in its work, shall be eligible for
94931— 40— a pp., pt. 1 16
226 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
membership, provided he is not a member or supporter of auy other political
organization.
Section 2. No person whose livelihood is gained by exploiting labor shall be
eligible to meml)ership in the Communist Party of America.
Section 3. Applicants shall be vouched for by two persons who have been mem-
bers of the Party for at least six consecutive months, except in newly organized
groups in new territory. Every applicant shall be assigned to a recruiting group
on probation for three months, with voice but no vote. The applicants shall be
accepted only upon examination and recommendation by the recruiting group
captain, and by unanimous approval of the Branch Executive Committee.
Section 4. A special captain shall be placed in charge of each recruiting group
by the Branch Executive Committee.
Section 5. An applicant shall pay one dollar Initiation fee, and all dues and
assessments beginning with the month in which he is accepted in the recruiting
group.
Section 6. A member may transfer from one Party unit to another only upon
certification of the Party unit to which he belongs. The unit granting the trans-
fer must ascertain that the member asking for it has discharged all his Party
obligations, and shall notify the unit to which the member transfers through the
regular Party channels. He shall go to the group to which he is assigned by
the Branch Executive Committee.
Article III. Form and Units of Organization
Section 1. The Communist Party of America is an underground, illegal
^organization. It is highly centralized with the Convention as its supreme
body, and the Central Executive Committee acting as such between Conventions.
Section 2. The basic unit of the Party shall be a group of approximately
ten members, and wherever possible not less than five.
Section 3. Groups of the same language within a city or locality shall form
a Branch. Branches shall consist of not more than ten groups each.
Section 4. Branches within a locality shall form a Section. Sections shall
consist as nearly as possible of ten Branches, and shall be formed wherever
there are two or more Branches within a locality.
Section 5. Sub-districts shall consist of not more than ten Sections and of
isolated Branches within a territory prescribed by the District Executive
Connnittee.
Section 6. All Sub-districts within a prescribed territory shall form a Dis-
trict. The limits of Districts are determined by the Central Executive Com-
mittee. Districts and Sub-districts shall be organized within industrial sections
regardless of political boundaries.
Article IV. Conventions
Section 1. The Convention is the supreme body of the Party, and shall l)e
called by the Central Executive Committee at least once a year.
Section 2. Emergency Conventions, with all the powers of regular Conven-
tions, shall be called by the Central Executive Committee upon its own initiative
or upon the demand of District Conventions representing a majority of the
membership.
Section 3. (a) Elections to the Convention shall begin in the groups. Each
group shall elect one elector to the Section Convention, and the Section Con-
vention shall elect delegates to the District Convention. Branches that are
directly connected with the Sub-district shall send their delegates to the
nearest Section. The representation in the Section and the District electors'
meeting and in the Convention of the Party shall be fixed by the Convention
call, issued by the Central Executive Committee.
(b) If there are more than fifteen groups in a Section, the Sub-district
Connnittee shall subdivide the Section for the elections so that no more than
Mfteen attend a Section electors' meeting. Wherever necessary, units shall be
combined to comply with the accepted basis of representation.
Section 4. The number of delegates shall be determined by the Central
Executive Committee according to the circumstances. Delegates shall be
apportioned to the Districts in proportion to the membership.
Section 5. Section, Sub-district and District Organizers of the Party shall
attend the electors' meetings of their respective and subordinate units, and
shall have voice but no vote, unless elected as delegates themselves.
APPENDIX, PART 1 227
Section 6. Section, Sub-district and District electors' meetings may elect
as their delegates members of the Party from any unit outside their territorial
divisions.
Section 7. At the same time that the call for the Convention is issued, the
Central Executive Committee shall submit to every group for discussion the
Agenda and other propositions that are to come before the Convention. At
least sixty days before the Convention, the Party Press shall be opened for
discussion of important Party matters.
Section 8. Delegates to the National Convention shall be paid railroad ex-
penses and the same wages as Party oflScials.
Article V. Central Executive Committee
Section 1. Between Conventions the Central Executive Committee shall be
the supreme body of the Party and shall direct all the Party's activities.
Section 2. The Central Executive Committee shall consist of ten members
elected by the Convention. The Convention shall also elect six alternates.
When the list of alternates shall have been exhausted the Central Executive
Committee shall have the right to co-optation.
Section 3. All Central Executive Committee members shall devote all their
time to the work of the Party and shall live in tlie city in which the National
Headquarters are located, or in adjacent cities.
Section 4. Candidates for the Central Executive Committee must have been
members of a Party affiliated with the Communist International at least eight-
een months.
Section 5. The identity of the Central Executive Committee members shall
not be made known either by themselves or by those present at the Convention.
Section 6. The Central Executive Connnittee shall elect delegates to the
International Congresses and the Communist Party of America members of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International.
Section 7. The Central Executive Committee shall call in the District Organ-
izers for a conference at least every six months.
Section 8. The Central Executive Committee shall make a monthly report
of the Party activities and Party finances itemized by Districts.
Section 9. A complete audit and accounting of all Party funds shall be
made every six month.s. The auditing committee shall consist of three mem-
bers elected by the Convention. The Convention shall also elect three alter-
nates. No member of the Central Executive Committee and no paid Party
employee shall be a member of the auditing committee. The report of the
auditing committee shall be made to the membership, within one month after
(he completion of its work.
Article VI. Districts and Subordinate Units
Section 1. The Centi'al Executive Committee shall appoint District Organizers
for each District.
Section 2. Every District Organizer shall make complete reports to the Dis-
trict Executive Committee as to the general Party work in his District. He
shall submit and carry out the instructions and decisions of the Central Executive
Committee. He shall make remittances, financial statements and reports to the
Central Executive Committee at least once a month.
Section 3. District Conventions shall be held at least every six months. Every
Section shall send delegates to the District Convention in proportion to the mem-
bership. The District Convention shall elect five members to the District Execu-
tive Committee. These five members, together with the District Organizer and
the Subdistrict Organizers, shall constitute the District Executive Committee.
The District Executive Committee shall sui>ervise the activities of the District
Organizer and shall regularly submit the minutes of its meetings to the Central
Executive Committee. All actions of the District Convention are subject to
approval by the Central Executive Committee.
Section 4. District Organizers shall appoint Sub-district Organizers subject to
the approval of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 5. Sub-district Organizers shall make remittances, financial statements
and reports to the District Organizers once a week.
Section 6. The Sub-district Organizer shall call meetings of the Sub-district
Executive Committee at least every two weeks. He shall make a complete report
to the Sub-district Executive Committee, and transmit and carry out the deci-
228 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
sious and the instructions of the Central Executive Committee, the District
Oi'ganizer and the District Executive Committee.
Section 7. The Sub-district Executive Committee shall consist of the Sub-
district Organizer, the Section Organizers and the Organizers of the isolated
Branches having direct connections with the Sub-district.
Section 8. The Section Executive Committee shall consist of Branch Organizers
and shall elect Section Organizers.
Section 9. Branch Organizers shall be elected by the group captains. They
shall work under the direction of the Section Organizers and shall meet at least
once a week.
Section 10. The Branch Executive Committee shall consist of the Branch
Organizer and the group captains of the Branch. The Branch Executive Com-
mittee shall meet at least once a week.
Section 11. District Organizers, Sub-district Organizers, Section and Branch
Organizers shall have been members of the Party not less than one year.
Group captains six months.
Section 12. Executive Committees of the various Party units have authority to
act within their jurisdiction, subject to the decisions of the higher Party units.
Section 13. Each group shall meet at least once every week under the direction
of the group captain, who shall make a complete report to his group on all Party
work, on the activities of the Branch and of all other Party units.
Article VII. Language Federations
Section 1. Language groups shall consist of members speaking the same lan-
guage. Language groups in the same locality shall be formed into Language
Branches; all Branches of the same language shall be united into Language
Federations, provided they have at least 250 members.
Section 2. All language groups and branches shall be integral parts of the
Party structure in their localities, and shall perform and carry out all Party
functions and obligations.
Section 3. (a) Shortly after Party Conventions, National Language Confer-
ences shall be held. The expenses of these conferences shall be paid out of the
regular Party treasury.
(b) These National Conferences shall formulate plans for education and propa-
ganda in their respective languages, both legal and illegal, and shall elect National
Language Bureaus consisting of not less than five and not more than seven
members each, subject to the approval of the Central Executive Committee. All
actions of these conferences shall be in strict conformity with the decisions
of the Party Convention and the Central Executive Committee.
Section 4. National Language Bureaus shall elect editors for their legal and
illegal publications, and shall supervise all legal and illegal activities of
their respective Federations, subject to the approval of the Central Executive
Committee.
Section 5. The minutes of the National Language Bureaus shall be regularly
submitted to the Central Executive Committee and all their actions shall be
subject to the direction, control and approval of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 6. (a) For illegal work, the National Language Bureaus shall connect
with their respective Branches through their Language Federation Channels,
or, if necessary, thi'ough regular Party channels of communications.
(b) They shall have the right to appoint Organizers, including District and
Sub-district Language Organizers, subject to approval of the Central Executive
Committee.
(c) All Language Organizers shall work under the supervision of the Party
District Organizers in the various districts.
Section 7. National Language Bureaus shall translate and transmit all state-
ments, circulars and communications addressed to the membership by the Cen-
tral Executive Committee within one week after their receipt. They shall issue
at least once a month an underground official organ in their respective languages,
subject to the approval of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 8. (a) Language Groups and Branches shall pay all their dues and
assessments through the regular Party channel to the Central Executive Com-
mittee.
(b) By the 10th of each month the Central Executive Committee shall remit
20 cents of the dues received from each member of the Language Branches to
the respective National Language Bureaus.
APPENDIX, PART 1 229
(c) Additional exijenses of Langnage Bureaus, authorized by tlie Central
Executive Committee, shall be paid from the regular Party treasury.
(d) The National Language Bureau sliall account to the Central Executive
Conunittee regularly for all funds entrusted to them and shall make regular
financial reports to the Central Executive Committee regarding all the legal
institutions in their respective languages, subject to the audit of the Central
Executive Committee.
Section 9. (a) Special assessment for language work may be recommended by
the Language Bureaus and may be levied by the Central Executive Committee
upon the entire Party membership.
(b) Special assessments may also be levied by the National Language
Bureaus on the membership of their Federations, with the approval of the
Central Executive Committee.
Section 10. (a) Language Bureaus and Federations shall have no power to
suspend, expel or reorganize affiliations. All disciplinary powers are vested
exclusively in the regular Party organization machinery.
(b) Language Bureaus and Federations may recommend such suspension,
expulsion or reorganization to the party units having jurisdiction.
Section 11. District Language Conferences shall be called by the District
Executive Committee to discuss educational and propaganda needs of their
languages in the district and to elect five members to the District Language
Bureaus. These, together with the Federation District Organizer and the
Federation Sub-district Organizer, shall constitute the District Language
Bureau. The District Language Bureau shall carry on the work in their
respective languages under the direction of the District Executive Committee.
Article VIII. Discipline
Section 1. All members and Party units shall maintain and enforce strict
Party discipline. All decisions of tlie governing bodies of the Party shall be
binding upon the membership and subordinate units.
Section 2. The following offenses are breaches of Party discipline :
1) Violation of the fundamental principles of the program and the Constitu-
tion of the Party.
2) Refusal to accept and carry out the decisions of the Party.
3) Wilfully to block and disrupt Party work and the cooperation of the
various Party units.
4) Knowingly and unnecessarily to endanger the uudergroi;nd work of the
Party.
5) In any way to betray the Party trust.
Section 3. Formal charges must be presented against any member or unit
accused of breach of discipline, and these must be investigated by the next
higher unit before discipline is enforced.
Section 4. Members deliberately accusing any member or unit of the Party,
after accusation has been found groundless by the investigating committee, are
subject to discipline.
Section 5. Members may be susi^ended or expelled by the Branch Executive
Committee subject to approval of the Section Executive Committee.
Section 6. Groups may be suspended, expelled or reorganized by the Section
Executive Committee subject to the approval of the Sub-district Executive
Committee.
Section 7. Branches may be suspended, expelled or reorganized by the Sub-
district Executive Committee subject to the approval of the District Executive
Committee.
Section S. A Section or Sub-district may be suspended, expelled or reorganized
by the District Executive Committee subject to the approval of the Central
Executive Committee.
Section 9. Districts may be suspended, expelled or reorganized by the Central
Executive Committee subject to the approval of the Convention.
Section 10. Members or groups suspended or exiielled may appeal to the
District Executive Committee before final action is taken.
Section 11. Any higher unit in the Party may present charges against any
subordinate unit or member within its jurisdiction.
Section 12. Every member of the Communist Party elected or appointed to an
ofl5cial position in a labor union or any other organization shall be under strict
Party control and the immediate instructions of the Party nucleus of his labor
union or other organization.
230 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Section 13. No delegates to the National Convention shall be bound by deci-
sions of the units by which they are elected. Delegates are obliged to present
instructions as recommendations to the Convention.
Section 14. The Central Executive Committee shall maintain discipline over
its members. It may suspend or expel one of its members by a vote of eight to
one, accused member not voting.
Section 15. Any suspended or expelled member of the Central Executive Com-
mittee shall have the right to appeal in writing to the next National Party
Convention.
Article IX. Finance
Section 1. Applicants for membership shall pay an initiation fee of One Dollar,
which shall be forwarded to the National Organization.
Section 2. Monthly dues shall be sixty cents and shall be receipted for by
dues stamps issued by the Central Executive Committee and paid into the Na-
tional Party treasury through the regular Party channels.
Section 3. Special assessments may be levied by the Convention and the Central
Executive Committee. No member shall be considered in good standing unless
he pays such assessments.
Section 4. Members unable to pay dues and assessments on account of sick-
ness, unemployment, imprisonment, strikes or for similar reasons, shall be
granted exemption upon application to the Branch Executive Committee. Group
Organizers shall include such requests in their reports, and Branch Organizers
shall report all exemptions granted every time they make their remittances for
dues.
Section 5. Dues shall be paid monthly. No advance payments shall be made,
and members who have not paid dues by the first of the month for the previous
month shall be considered in bad .standing. A member who is two months in
arrears shall be dropped from the membership, unless within one month after
notification by the Grovip Organizer he places himself in good standing.
Article X. Party Press
Section 1. The Central Executive Committee shall publish the ofiicial under-
ground organ of the Party, which shall be issued at least once a month.
Section 2. The Central Executive Committee shall issue a bi-weekly Pai'ty
bulletin which shall be distributed to the membership free of charge.
Section 3. Literature issued by the Party shall be under the supervision of the
editorial committee and under the control of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 4. No subdivision of the Party may publish paper's or books without
the permission of the Central Executive Committee. Over their own signature,
Sections may issue leaflets, dealing with matters in their locality, subject to the
approval of the Central Executive Committee or such District Committees as
may be so empowered by the Central Executive Committee.
Section 5. All legal and illegal Party press and publishing machinery, includ-
ing Federation press and establishments, shall be unconditionally and fully sub-
ject to the Party through its Central Executive Committee or such other Party
units as may be expressly authorized by the Central Executive Committee.
Section 6. No member of the Party shall contribute articles or editorials of a
political or economic nature to the bourgeois press except by permission of the
Central Executive Committee.
Article XI. Party Nuclei
Section 1. The Central Executive Committee shall provide for the organization
of Communist Party nuclei, composed of Communist Party members only, in the
shops, in the unions, and in other workers' organizations ; within the army and
navy, and ex-soldiers' organizations.
Provisions for the Organization of Communist Party Nuclei in the Shops
AND Unions
Article I.
Section 1. In order to carry out the Communist task in the labor unions and
shops, the Section Executive Committees of the Party, or the Sub district Execu-
tive Committees (where there are two or more Sections in a city) shall organize
Party Nuclei in the shops and unions.
APPENDIX, PART 1 231
Section 2. Every Party member shall belong to a labor nnion, if eligible.
Section 8. All Party members belonging to a labor union shall be affiliated
with the Party Nuclei in their respective unions. Members who do not belong
to any union shall, wherever possible, form and belong to Party Nuclei in their
shops, trade or industry.
Section 4. Each Nucleus shall consist of about 10 members. The Nuclei
shall elect their captains and these captains shall form the Nuclei Committee
of their respective union locals, trades or shops.
Section 5. Where two or more locals of the same union exist in a city, Party
Nuclei in these locals of the union shall be connected with each other through
ofgmiizers elected by the Nuclei for each local of the union.
Section 6. The Nuclei Organizers for the various unions shall be appointed
by the Section or Sub-district Executive Committees. These Organizers shall
ronstitute the Industrial Department of the respective Party sub-divisions.
Section 7. In order to co-ordinate and centralize the work of the Nuclei on
a national scale, the C. E. C. of the Party shall organize a National Industrial
Department, and through it appoint District Nuclei Organizers, who shall be
members ex-officio (with voice but not vote) of the District Executive Com-
mittee.
Section 8. The District Nuclei Organizer shall appoint, subject to the ap-
proval of the District Executive Committee, the Section or Sub-district Nuclei
Organizers, who shall be in charge of the Section or Sub-district Industrial
Department.
Section 9. All Party Nuclei shall be subject to the discipline and decisions
of the Party, and shall, in their various localities, be under the control of the
Section or Sub-district Executive Committees.
Article II.
Section 1. All local Industrial Departments shall submit for the approval
of the Section or Sub-district E. C. any general plan of action which they
intend to carry out in the unions or industry.
Section 2. Section or Sub-district Industrial Departments may be authorized
by the District Executive Committee to issue leaflets in connection with the
various problems arising from the daily struggle of the workers in the shops
and unions. Such leaflets shall not attempt the exposition of general com-
munist principles and tactics, and shall not be signed in the name of the
Commmunist Party. Copies of all leaflets issued by the Industrial Depart-
ments shall be sent through regular Party channels to the Central Executive
Committee of the Party.
Section 3. Communist Nuclei shall not participate in a split within a local
labor union without the approval of the District Executive Committee. In
case of a split in their national unions, C. P. Nuclei shall not participate
without the approval of the Central Executive Committee of the Party.
Section 4. Party members may accept paid positions in the unions, provided
that they can further Communist propaganda.
Exhibit No. 17
[Source: "Program and Constitution, Workers Party of America," a pamphlet published
by Lyceum and Literature Department of the Workers Party, Room 405 — 799 Broadway,
New York, N. Y. : 1921]
Program and Constitution Workers Party of America
Adopted at National Convention, New York City, December 24, 2.5, 26, 1921.
Published by Lyceum and Literature Department, Workers Party, Room 405 —
7S9 Broadway, New York City.
preface
The first convention of the Workers Party was held in New York City, Decem-
ber 24-25-26. One hundred and fifty delegates were present, representing organi-
zations from nearly every state. This convention was not born of the desires
of any group of ambitious persons ; but was the natural outgrowth of develop-
ments within the revolutionary movement in America during the years since the
Russian Revolution and the end of the World War — aye, since the very beginning
of the war itself.
232 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
At the St. Louis convention of the Socialist Party in 1917 the Left tendencies
were coming to tlie fore, whicli was shown by tlie anti-war resolution then
adopted ; but it could be easily seen that opportunism had by no means lost the
fight. The opportunistic leaders of the S. P. were not sincere supporters of the
St. Louis Resolution ; later events showed that many who supported that reso-
lution were merely playing for time. They were mere pacifists who never
intended to tight for the St. Louis Resolution.
In January prior to the St. Louis convention, a unity conference was held
between representatives of the Socialist Party and the Socialist Labor Party.
The Left elements in the S. P. had grown strong enough to bring about this
conference through a referendum vote. This class-conscious element was looking
about for new leadership, the old leaders were beginning to lose their hold ;
besides that, they were ready to end the deplorable condition created by having
two parties of socialism. The S. L. P. was beginning to grow into favor with
the new growing "left wing" because of its decided stand against opportunism.
The S. L. P. delegation refused to unite in any way unless the S. P. would endorse
the principle of industrial unionism. This the S. P. delegates could easily refuse
to do. Unity failed.
It is true that the S. L. P. is not opportunistic ; but it has the failing that is
the twin brother of opportunism — doctrinairism. It had no confidence in the
strong left-wing revolutionary elements in the S. P. imless the S. P. would
officially go on record for a statement of the only correct and pure principles.
Besides this, the S. L. P. withdrew all its anti-militarist literature as soon as
the U. S. went into the war and showed a most cowardly attitude toward the
government. New leadership naturally developed in the S. P. that began con-
tending with the old Berger-Hillquit forces of opportunism. The left wing split ;
the subsequent formation of the Communist parties which eventually were driven
under ground are matters too well known to repeat in detail here.
During all this time the struggle of the workers in industry to maintain their
old standard of living broke out in fierce conflicts involving larger numbers than
ever known before. The need for a political party capable of taking practical
leadership became ever more urgent, until at last the many scattered elements
that had left either the S. P. or the S. L. P. began to regroup themselves, forming
the American Labor Alliance and the Workers' Council. Many language organi-
zations held their federations into line. It was these organizations that finally
formed the convention that launched the Workers Party.
In presenting the program and constitution of the Workers Party we wish to
comment briefly to meet the objections of both the doctrianaire and the oppor-
tunist. To the practical man of action, no comments are necessary, for the
documents speak for themselves. The revolutionary movement in America was
dom'inated by the extremes, above mentioned, so much so in this country that a
program of action will be misunderstood.
He is the doctrinaire who believes that the sole duty of a revolutionary party
is to preach the class-struggle and outline the final aim — the workers' republic,
the socialist commonwealth, or whatever name he chooses to call it. Battles in
the every-day struggle should not interest the Party except to be used as a means
of criticism ; to show the futility of struggling over mere wages, or the folly of
moving behind false leaders who do not preach the class struggle. The doctri-
naire knows the masses must be with him to achieve the revolution ; but he is
going to get the masses by preaching the new doctrine in its purity, and he will
have nothing to do with immediate demands.
The opportunist, on the other hand, lays strong emphasis upon immediate
denvands. He does not overlook the final aim, but he does insist that the masses
are not intelligent enough to understand remote, abstract theories such as
socialism. The Party nuist be practical and offer immediate demands.
Immediate demands ARE practical. Thus far the opportunist is right but
he always fails by the kind of demand he offers, and the purpose of these
demands. The opportunist makes demands to dull the class struggle ; the
revolutionist makes demands to shitrpen it. Cheap milk, cheap ice, municipal
ownership, etc., are all demands that the capitalist state can meet with ease.
Such demands are not made with the idea of destroying confidence in, and
eventually disrupting, the capitalist state machine. They are sentimental de-
mands "in the interest of suffering humanity."
Because the Workers Party has seven demands in its Program the doctrinaire
says the Party is opportunistic ; the opportunists say "they are no different
from us." Quite the contrary. Whether the State attempts to meet the de-
mands or fails to do so, the effect will be the same, if the workers are united
APPENDIX, PART 1 233
by the Workers Party to make tlieni, a weakening and eventual disruption ot
tlie capitalist state machinery will ensue.
Remember the demands of the Russian Workers — demands that brought on
the revolution — "Peace, Land, Bread !" Such demands grow out of the struggle
of proletarian life with capitalist decay; such demands must be met or other-
wise we are are fastened in doctrinaire sterility like the S. L. P. Demands
must be met intelligentlv or we slump into the mire of opportunistic mud lik?
the S. P.
We call attention to the complete working Program of the Workers Party
and leave the practical thiidcing wage worker to judge between it and the
extreme programs of the past.
The Constitution speaks for itself as a document representing centralized,
efficient organization that can act promptly and intelligently in time of crisis.
Caleb Harkison, Natiofial Secretary.
PROGRAM OF THE WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA
The Great W^ar has brought untold misery and chaos in its wake. Millions
of workers have been maimed and slaughtered in the conflict of the imperialist
governments. Capitalist society is face to face with social and industrial col-
lapse. Kingdoms and empires have disappeared ; but republics, ruled by an
exploiting class more powerful and more unscrupulous than the kings and
emperors, have taken their place.
National hatred rules the world. In spite of peace treaties and international
conferences, the relations between the nations are more strained than ever.
Intense commercial rivalry, and the resentment of the weak and vanquished
nations against their victorious oppressors, are a constant menace to world
Ijeace. The capitalists dismayed at the chaos, and yet unable to understand
it or even to contemplate its economic causes, are blindly steering the world
towards new wars.
In Germany and Austria, the masses are being bled to meet the exorbitant
war indenmities. In England, France and Italy, an impoverished proletariat
is paying for armaments on a larger and more stupendous scale than ever
before. Every battleship that is built and every shell that is manufactured,
adds to the profits of the exploiters and increases the poverty of the wage
slaves.
Even before this war social legislation met only inadequately the needs of
a proletariat condemned to the uncertainties of existence under capitalism.
Today it is a farce. No lasting improvement of the condition of the working-
man under capitalism is any longer dreamed of. More than ever before,
hunger and want are rife among the workers. And the violent uprisings that
result are met with merciless suppression by the master class. All capitalist
governments are openly fighting the battles of the employers. The legislatures,
courts and the executive powers stand behind them. The struggle of the
workers even for the most elementary necessities of life is met with ruthless
persecution, and tends to become a fight for political power — a revoluti<niary
struggle.
The Workers party will base its policies on the international nature of this
struggle. It will strive to make the American labor movement an integral part
of the revolutionary movement of the workers of the world. The Workers
Party will expose the Second International, which is continually splitting the
ranks of labor and betraying the working masses to the enemy. It will also
warn and guard the workers against the attempt of the so-called Two-and-a-
Half Intei-national to mislead them.
Disillusioned by the cowardly and traitorous conduct of their own leaders,
and inspired by the proletarian revolution in Russia, the wokers of the world
have organized the Communist International. Despite the bitter opposition of
the Capitalists and their labor lieutenants, the Communist International is
growing rapidly. It has become a world power, the citadel and hope of the
workers of every country.
Even America, the bulwark of world capitalism, is suffering acutely from the
general disorganization. Its economic and financial life has been caught in
the violent, swirling maelstrom of war. Because of the catastrophic deprecia-
tion of European currency it can find no outlet for the products of its industry.
Its foreign trade has declined approximately fifty per cent. Armies of unem-
ployed crowd the cities. Millions are out of work. War prosperity is ended.
The bread lines have come. Capitalism is totally unable to cope with the
234 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
situation. Its utter helplessness was revealed at the recent Government Unem-
ployment Conference. Nowhere is there a serious effort to ameliorate this
condition. On the contrary, the employers are using it to increase their power
of exploitation and oppression. The steel corporation, the oil industry, the
railroads, the meat-packing and textile industries have already made heavy
cuts in the workers' pay. A powerful open-shop campaign is being waged by
the Employers' Association. Even the soldiers who have given their all in the
fight for capitalist "democracy," are now clubbed and jailed at the first sign
of protest against the destitution forced upon them by this same "democracy,"
which is in fact a dictatorship of the exploiting class. Everywhere it is robbing
the workers of the small gains they have won through many years of struggle.
Imperialism
For generations the workers have been producing a surplus over and above
what they have received in wages. A part of this surplus the capitalists have
invested in the development and exploitation of the industrially backward coun-
tries of Asia, Africa and South America. These countries have been cowed
into submission as colonies or "spheres of influence." In order to safegttard
their investments in these countries, European and American capitalists have
seized control of the local governments and oppressed and terrorized the native
populations. Today these exploited and oppressed people, inspired by the Rus-
sian Revolution, are demanding freedom. In China, in India and Egypt, in
Haiti, in the Philipijiues, in South Africa, in Mexico and South America—every-
where the spirit of revolt is awakening with new strength and momentitm.
The Great Powers are still arming to the teeth in order to maintain their
domination over the colonial peoples, and protect the privileges of their own
capitalists against encroachments from those of other nations. Neither the
League of Nations nor the Washington Conference with its "Association of
Powers," has been able to solve the problem arising from these conflicts of
national business interests.
American Imperialism
The history of America has been a history of economic expansion. Acquisi-
tion of new territory was characteristic of the first fifty years of the last
century. The forcible annexation of Texas was but the most ruthless example
of early American expansion. The modern imperialist era begins with the
acquisition of the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, and the hegemony over
Cuba. This was followed by the seizure of the Panama Canal Zone through a
staged "revolution" against Colombia. Intervening in Santo Domingo, Haiti
and Nicaragua at the behest of Wall Street, the United States Government
has added these Central American Republics to its spheres of influence. The
islands of Guam and Samoa in the Pacific, and the Virgin Islands in the
Carribean Sea, are the more recent loot that has fallen to the American im-
perialists.
Thus the United States has also its subject peoples, and it is fast acquiring
a reputation which rivals that of the British in India and of the Belgians
in the Congo. The savage treatment accorded the natives of some of these
islands by the armies of occupation and the civil authorities has became an
international scandal.
Soviet Russia
While the leading powers are thus arming and conspiring against one another
in the exploitation of subject peoples, they are united in their hatred of Soviet
Russia. Russia, the Workers' Republic, stands clearly opposed to the im-
perialist nations that are under the rule of a capitalist dictatorship. Russia,
having established the dictatorship of the proletariat, cultivates international
working class solidarity as a means to thwart the machinations of world
imperialism.
For more than four years the Soviet Government of the Workers and
Peasants has stood unshaken before the continued attacks of international
capitalism. The death-dealing blockade, the incited attacks of the Czarist
generals, the criminal onslaught of the Polish imperialists, the crop failure,
and the famine due to drought— all these have failed to undermine the Soviet
Government. Today it is more firmly establislied than ever. The Workers'
APPENDIX, PART 1 235
Party looks to Soviet Russia for leadersliip in the struggle against world
imperialism.
Our Labor Movement
The present moment finds but a small part of the working class of America
organized for the purpose of abolishing capitalism. Of all the powerful nations
America alone lacks a well developed proletarian political movement.
The Socialist Party reached its zenith with the St. Louis anti-war resolu-
tion. Its vigorous opposition to America's participation in the imperialist war
brought into the party a flood of enthusiasm and life. But its leaders were
not true to the declared attitude of the party, and this resulted in the devel-
opment of a virile revolutionary faction which was expelled when it defeated
the coii.servative leadership in the 1919 party elections. Since then the Socialist
party has shown its utter inability to lead the workers in their struggle. It
has persistently compromised with the very enemy it is supposed to be fighting.
Instead of attempting to free the workers from the ideologies which the capi-
talists spread, the Socialist Party has assumed the role of the only true defender
of the American constitution. Instead of exposing the sham and fraud of
capitalist dictatorship masquerading as democracy and representative govern-
ment, the Socialist Party has taken pains to glorify our "common heritage of
democracy." Instead of pointing out to the worker that free speech and a free
press are incompatible with capitalist dictatorship, it has devoted its energy
to praising these "American rights." Such policies, combined with its failure to
respond to the everyday needs and struggles of the workers, have completely
discredited the Socialist Party. Its recent effort to unite the so-called pro-
gressive labor elements and the Farmer-Labor Party into some sort of moderate
Socialist organization, has been a total failure.
The Socialist Labor Party, in spite of its proud boast of revolutionary
purity and correctness, is moribund. Its insistence upon destroying the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor, and supplanting the existing labor vmions with unions
of its own creation, brands it as impractical and reactionary in outlook. It
has not succeeded in gaining any influence in the American Labor Movement,
and like the Socialist Party, it has failed to respond to the clarion call of
the Russian Workers.
The Farmer-Labor Party was organized by an anti-Gompers element in the
American Federation of Labor, together with former Socialists. It was an
attempt to capitalize exi .sting popular discontent without the drawback of
a supposedly unpopular label. It offers to the workers a program of social
reform and "industrial democracy," but very carefully avoids declaring its
attitude towards the existence of the capitalist system. Far from receiving
the support of the large masses of progressive labor unions, the Farmer-Labor
Party has utterly failed as a uniting force even among the conscious element
of the American working class.
The Non-Partisan League was developed by the working farmers of the
Northwest to resist a ruthless capitalist exploitation. It captured the entire
machinery of government from the exploiters in 1918, but nevertheless proved
powerless to inaugurate a program of State ownership. For four years these
oppressed farmers, in possession of the local parliamentary machinery, have
struggled against an organized capitalist blockade. This struggle has culminated
in the defeat of the League in the recent elections — another failure of the
reformist principle.
There has been up to the present no political organization that could lead
and unify the workers against capitalism. With the Workers Party such an
organization makes its appearance in American life.
The Workers Party will centralize and direct the struggle of the laboring
mas.ses against the powerfully centralized opposition of their exploiters. It
will courageously defend the workers, and wage an aggressive struggle for the
abolition of capitalism. Its general program will be :
1. To consolidate the existing labor organizations and develop them into
organs of militant struggle against capitalism, permeate the Trade Unions with
truly revolutionary elements, mercilessly exiwse the reactionary labor bureau-
crats and strive to replace them with revolutionary leaders.
2. To participate actively in the election campaigns and the general political
life of the country. Its representatives in the legislative and executive offices
of the government will unmask the fraudulent Capitalist democracy, and help
to mobilize the workers for the final struggle against the common enemy. They
236 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
will give conscious and public expression to the everyday grievances of the
working class in concrete demands upon the capitalist government and its
institutions.
3. To load in the fight for the immediate needs of the workers, broaden and
deepen their demands, and develop out of their everyday struggle a force for
the abolition of capitalism.
4. To work for the establishment of a Workers' Republic.
Congressional Campaign of 1922
In preparation for the Congressional campaign and election of 1922, the
Workei's Party of America will carry on extensive and Intensive educational
activities in the unions. It will formulate its demands upon the capitalist
government in accordance with the actual status of the class struggle, and the
readiness and ability of the workers to fight for the interests of their class.
Waging its campaign upon tlie most pressing and vital needs of the workers,
it will ask for their endorsement at the polls. Today these needs are :
1. The protection of labor unions, and of the right to strike and picket in
all industries.
2. An immediate appropriation of funds from the Municipal, State and Fed-
eral treasuries to relieve the distress of the unemployed — these funds to be
dispensed through the labor unions and special councils created by the un-
employed.
3. An obedience upon the part of the capitalists and the governing bodies
to their own laws regarding the rights of the individual, and the laws won
from them by organized labor.
4. The protection of the lives and civil rights of the negroes.
5. The cessation of preparation for new wars.
6. The withdrawal of American military and governing forces from Haiti,
Santo Domingo, Porto Rico ; independence for the Philippine and Pacific
Islands.
7. The resumption of trade relations with Russia, and the recognition of the
Soviet Republic.
The Agricultural Problem
The laboring masses of America are divided into two principal sections, tlie
industrial workers and the farm workers. The farm workers are proletarian
and semiproletarian. The proletarian worker plays a comparatively insignifi-
cant role, however, in American farm life. The semi-proletarians, the tenants
and mortgaged owners of comparatively small farms, are the typical agricul-
tural class. As a result of their environment, their psychology and political
demands are individualistic. But nevertheless, they are beginning to realize
that ultimate success depends upon joint action with the industrial workers.
Today the farmers are subjected to an exploitation unequaled in their entire
history. Mortgages in some states have increased 500 per cent since the census
of 1910. The farmers have been producing crops for the past two years at a
loss of billions of dollars. The form of exploitation and oppression varies in
each section in accord with the type of farming and the social conditions that
prevail. In the south the whites are incited to mob the negroes. In the west
wages are kept down by maintaining a surplus of migratory labor. In the
middle west the bankers control by ownership of farm mortgages and they
dictate the wages to be paid by farmers to harvest workers, forcing them low
enough to maintain the antagonism between these two exploited groups of
producers. In the east, the natural individualism of the farmers is fostered by
the capitalists. Their agents dominate in every farm organization. They con-
trol the agricultural press, in which their propaganda openly blames' farm
exploitation upon the wage demands of the city workers.
The resistance of the farmers to capitalist exploitation manifests it.self in
a tremendous development of farm organizations. There are two hundred and
sixty-five national farm organizations, with a dues paying membership of over
two million. In the south, there are secret Negro organizations and white
tenant unions; in the west there are farm labor unions; in the middle west,
large grain-marketing organizations and cooperatives; in the east, many local
commodity organizations and societies. The.se organizations have struggled un-
successfully against exploitation. They have failed because they were struggling
against only one phase of exploitation, and were not organized as a part of the
working class fighting for the overthrow of capitalism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 237
The Workers Party will seek to unite the struggles of the farmers with those
of the city workers a'long these lines. It will deyelop for this purpose conscious
groups of'farmers in all farm organizations, and will expoiie the capitalist agents
and their propaganda. It will make every effort to participate actively in the
daily struggle of the farmers.
The Race Problem
The Negro workers in America are exploited and oppressed more ruthlessly
than any other group. The history of the Southern Negro is the history of a
brutal terror — of persecution, rape and murder. The formal abolition of .slavery
made it possible for the northern capitalists to penetrate the south and to bring
cheap Negro labor north. This was, however, detrimental to the interests of
.southern capitalists, and they have sought by every means to maintain tlie
enslavement of the Negro. It is in order to subjugate him and l)reak his spirit,
that secret murder societies such as the Ku Klux Klan have been established.
Because of the anti-Negro policies of organized labor the Negro has despaired
of aid from this source, and has either been driven into the camp of labor's
enemies, or been compelled to develop purely racial organizations which seek
purely racial aims. The Workers Party will support the Negroes in their struggle
for liberation, and will help them in their fight for economic, political and social
equality. It will point out to them that the interests of the Negro workers are
identical with those of the white. It will seek to end the policy of discrimination
followed by organized labor. Its task will be to destroy altogether the barrier
of race prejudice that has been used to keep apart the black and white workers,
and weld them into a solid union of revolutionary forces for the overthrow of
their common enemy.
Labor Union Program
Taking advantage of the world industrial crisis, and the consequent unem-
ployment, the capitalists of the United States have launched a war of extermina-
tion upon the unions, including the most conservative as well as the aggressive
and virile unions. They are determined to smash the unions, and reduce the
workers far below their pre-war standard of wage and working conditions.
They are determined to take from the hands of labor, with interest, the cost
of the unparalleled destruction cau.sed by the world war.
In spite of heroic resistance from the organized masses, this plot is being
carried out to an alarming extent. Orgies of wage reduction are the order of
the day. Hours are being lengthened, union conditions broken down. The
unions are bending beneath the onslaught of capitalism.
In this greatest crisis of the Labor movement, the officialdom of almost all the
American unions have betrayed their utter cowardise, stupidity and even bad
faith. Instead of rallying the organized workers to positive and energetic resist-
ance, and launching a counterattack upon the capitalists by demanding some of the
good things promised them during the war — instead of this course, dictated
by elemental common sense and good faith to the workers they are supposed
to lead, they are conniving, openly and .secretly, with the workers' enemies.
They are surrendering point by point, under one pretext and another, and a
gradual demoralization of the union ranks is the result.
Facing this crisis, the W^orkers Party of America rejoices to be able to point
out that, for the first time in our labor history, an adequate and comprehensive
program has been laid out for the militant workers in the labor unions. The
First World Congress of Red Labor Unions, held in jNIo.scow in July, 1921,
brought together the wisdom and experience of the revolutionary labor move-
ment of the whole world. Out of this congress came a clear and definite pro-
gram, which if applied with intelligence and energy by the militant workers,
will lead the American labor union movement out of the present disruption, and
place it on the high road to social and economic power — the road to the Workers'
Republic.
The Workers Party, therefore, calls upon the class-conscious workers of
America to rally to the banner of the Red International of Labor Unions. It calls
upon them to con.sider carefully the Resolutions and Decisions of the First Con-
gress of the Red International, and to i)ut its policies into effect: (1) by joining
the labor union of their trade or calling, (2) by organizing a minority group
with all other class-conscious workers in such imion, or joining such militant
bodies of this nature as already exist, (3) by using the energies of the.se class-
238 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
conscious groups to place militant, aggressive programs into effect in their
unions, and depose the conservative or reactionary officials that stand in the way
or oppose.
The Workers Party stands for the principle of one union in each field. Dual
luiionism must be done away with. The revolutionary workers must remain
v.-ithin the mass organizations of the backward workers. The custom of seceding
from the n)ass unions to form smaller unions on the ground that the mass union
Is reactionary, must be abandoned. Attempts of tlie officialdom to expel revolu-
tionary individuals or groups must be resisted by every possible means. The
policy shall be consolidation, not division.
Resolution of Labor Union Activity
appendix to the program of the workers party
The Workers Party of America will call upon the existing revolutionary
industrial unions to cooperate in its thoroughly modernized plan to revolutionize
the four or five million organized workers in the reactionary unions of the
United States. It will ask them to join in the effort to change the structure of the
reactionary trade unions into the industrial union form, and to eject from
control of these unions the reactionary leaders.
The Red International of Labor Unions, composed as it is of the most trusted
and experienced representatives of the revolutionary unions in all countries, is
an instrument for bringing to the unions of each country the tactical wisdom
and scientific knowledge of revolution gained in the experience of all. The Work-
ers Party will urge the revolutionary unions existing in the United States to follow
the policies outlined by the Red Labor Union International.
Abandon Dual Unionism
In industries dominated by the trade unions, and where the revolutionary in-
dustrial unions are either nonexistent or a minor factor, the Workers Party will
urge the revolutionary unionists to abandon their dual unionism, and concentrate
their activities in the trade unions. Such industries are, principally : coal mining,
building trades, printing trades, metal trades, clothing trades, railroads, general
transport, theatrical trades, electrical supply trades, and meat-slaughtering. In
all these industries the trade unions are strong, containing the overwhelming
majority of the workers that are organized ; the revolutionary industrial unions
have either no organization at all, or one that is negligible in strength and influ-
ence. Nor can the situation be changed by the tactics heretofore used. For the
revolutionary industrial unions to continue a dual organization in these industries,
and to insist upon the support of all revolutionists in this policy, will simply block
the performance of real work. The revolutionary industrial unions must be in-
duced to stop maintaining or attempting to form, dual unions in such industries.
What few members they now have in such unions must be induced to enter the
old unions and organize themselves therein as minority groups.
Support the Strongest Unions
In certain industries the trade unions are weak, and the revolutionary indus-
trial unions have developed some degree of constructive organization. These in-
dustries are, principally : metal mining, textile, lumber, boot and .shoe manufac-
turing, baking and candy making, automobile manufacturing, hotels and restau-
rants, and agriculture. Wliere such revolutionary industrial unions have attained
a membersliip superior to, or approximately equal to. the membership of the re-
actionary trade unions, the Workers Party will vigorously support the revolutionary
industrial union with a view to its absorbing the entire industry. W^here several
revolutionary industrial unions have a foothold in the same industry, the aggre-
gate of their membership being greater than, or approximately equal to, that of the
reactionary trade unions, the policy will be to unite them. ' Failing of that, the
Workers Party will support the union having the greatest hold upon the industry.
Support Industrial Amalgamation
The Workers Party will support all of the present tendencies among the unions
to break down craft aloofness, and draw closer to the industrial form. The move-
ment of the International Association of Machinists to introduce industrial union
forms into the American Federation of Labor, as well as the movement for closer
APPENDIX, PART 1 239
federation and subsequent amalgamation of tlie various crafts of tlie railroad
brotherhoods, will be supported, without giving support to the reactionary leaders
who have been drawn into a half-hearted identification with these movements.
Don't Destroy the Unions
The effort of the revolutionary groups within the trade unions should not be to
split or destroy these unions, but while keeping the membership as intact as
possible, to throw off from each union its bureaucratic superstructure. The
subject matter of agitation for the revolutionary groups should be the questions
arising in the everyday struggle of the unions. Revolutionary principles should
be applied to their solution in a practical manner — never in a merely theoretical
or abstract manner. The revolutionists must be more practical than their
opponents. They must be more efficient and hardworking in handling the daily
routine of the union, at the same time that they strive with all their power to
bring it into line with the more advanced unions for the proletarian revolution.
Resist Expulsion ; Stand for Unity
The revolutionists must continue their revolutionary propaganda at any cost.
But wherever humanly possible they must avoid being expelled from the unions
either as groups or individuals. They must remember that their doing any
propaganda at all is dependent upon their remaining in contact with the masses In
the unions. In case of the expulsion of fragments from the unions, these frag-
ments must refuse to recognize their expulsion, and make a continuous fight to
remain a part of the union, or contend for their claim to be themselves the original
union. In case of expulsion of entire luiions from the American Federation of
Labor, such expulsion must be resisted as long as possible, for the purpose of
exposing the motives of the bureaucracy. The same rule applies to the railroad
brotherhoods and the independent unions generally.
The Workers Party will formulate programs for individuals and groups that
may be expelled from unions by the reactionary bureaucracy, finding solutions
free wherever possible from the old mistake of dual unionism.
Within all trade and industrial unions the Workers Party will organize and
promote revoluntionary groups, and will help to crystallize around such groups
larger blocks of sympathetic workers, growing in understanding. The Party will
supply these groups with literature, information, instruction as to methods, and
so endeavor to co-ordinate the entire left-wing of the American Labor Movement
within the existing unions.
Constitution of the Workers Party of America
Article 1 — Name and Purpose
Section 1— The name of this organization shall be THE WORKERS PARTY OF
AMERICA. Its purpose shall be to educate and organize the working class for
the abolition of capitalism through the establishment of tlie Workers' Republic.
Article II. — Emblem
Section 1 — The emblem of the party shall be the crossed hammer and sickle with
a circular margin having at the top, "Workers Party of America," and underneath.
"Workers of the World, Unite."
Article III. — Membership
Section 1 — Every person who accepts the principles and tactics of the Workers
Party of America and agrees to submit to its discipline and engage actively in its
work shall be eligible to membership.
Section 2 — Applicants for membership shall sign an application card reading
as follows :
'The undersigned declares his adherence to the principles and tactics of the
Workers Party of America as expressed in its program and constitution and
agrees to submit to the discipline of the party and to engage actively in its work."
Section 3 — Every member shall join a duly constituted branch of the party
if such exists in the territory where he lives. Applicants living in territories
where the Workers Party of America has no organized branch may become mem-
bers at large.
240 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Section 4 — All applicants for membership must be endorsed and recommended
by two persons who have been members for not less than three months. An appli-
cant must be present in person when his application is acted upon.
Section 5 — Applications for membership shall not be acted upon finally until
one month after presentation. In the mean time the applicant shall pay initia-
tion fees and dues and shall attend all meetings. This rule shall not apply to
charter meml)ers or new branches nor to those who make application to" the
newly organized brandies during the first month.
Article IV. — Units of Organization
Section 1. — The basic units of organization of the Workers Party of America
shall be:
a) The Branch, to consist of not less than five members.
b) Members-at-large, who shall be connected with tlie nearest district organi-
zation.
c) Such special forms of local organization as may be authorized by the
Central Executive Committee.
Section 2. — Two or more branches in the same city shall form a City Central
Committee. The City Central Committee may also include branches in adjacent
territory.
Section 3. — The Central Executive Committee is empowered to designate
the boundaries of the disrict organizations (which may include more than one
state or parts of states), such boundaries to be fixed with regard to economic
rather than state divisions. For the purpose of carrying on parliamentary
activity, the City Central Committees and branches in any state shall constitute
the state organization. The entire supervision of this activity shall be assigned
by the Central Executive Committee to the district organization best equipped
lor this purpose.
Article V. — Administration
Section 1. — The supreme body of the Workers Party of America shall be the
Convention of the Party.
Section 2. — Between conventions the Central Executive Committee elected
by the convention shall be the supreme body of the Party and shall direct all
the activities of the Party.
Section 3. — The administrative power of the district shall be vested in the
Annual District Convention.
Section 4. — Between District Conventions the administrative powers of the
district shall be vested in the District Committee elected by the District Conven-
tion. District organizers appointed by the Central Executive Committee
shall be members of the District Committee and carry on their work under
its supervision.
Secion 5. — The City Central Committee shall consist of delegates elected by
the branches. Every branch shall have at least one delegate. The City Central
Committee shall meet at least twice a month. The City Central Committee
shall elect a secretary, executive committee and such other officers as may be
found necessary. The District Executive Committee reserves the right of
approval of secretary.
Article VI — Conventions
Section 1. — The Convention is the supreme body of the Party, and shall be
called by the Central Executive committee at least once a year.
Section 2. — Emergency conventions, with all the powers of regular conventions,
may be called by the Central Executive Committee or upon demand of District
Organizations representing 40 per cent of the membership.
Section 3. — The number of delegates to the National Convention shall be
determined by the Central Executive Committee. Delegates shall be appor-
tioned to the districts according to membership based upon average dues paid
for the period of four months prior to call for the convention. The districts
shall apportion the number to be elected by city conventions on the same basis.
Section 4. — Delegates to the national convention shall be elected by district
conventions. Branches in organized cities shall elect delegates to a city
convention which in turn shall elect the delegates to the district conventions.
The number of delegates to which each branch is entitled shall be decided by
the City Central Committee according to membership as above. When there
is no city central organiation the branch shall elect delegates directly to the
district convention.
APPENDIX, PART 1 241
Section 5. — City and district secretaries and organizers sliall attend the
conventions of their respective units and shall have a voice but no vote unless
elected as delegates themselves.
Section 6. — City and district conventions may elect as their delegates mem-
bers of the Party from units outside their territorial and divisions.
Section 7. — At the same time that the call for the convention is issued the
Central Executive Committee shall submit to every branch for discussion the
Agenda and other propositions that are to come before the convention. At least
sixty days before the Convention the Party Press shall be opened for discussion
of important Party matters. District Committees may submit propositions to
be included in the Agenda.
Section 8. — Delegates to the National Convention shall be paid railroad
expenses and a certain amount per diem to be determined by the Central Execu-
tive Committee.
Article VII. — Central Executive Committee
Section 1. — Between Conventions the Central Executive Committee shall be
the supreme body of the Party and shall direct all its activities.
Section 2.- — The Central Executive Committee shall consist of seventeen mem-
bers elected by the Convention. The Convention shall also elect seven alter-
nates, to fill vacancies in order of vote. When the list of alternates are ex-
hausted the Central Executive Committee shall have the right of cooptation.
Section 3. — The Central Executive Committee shall elect the Executive Secre-
tary and Chairman of the Party, and all other officers.
Section 4. — The Central Executive Committee shall appoint District Organ-
izers and all national officials. It shall create sub-committees for the proper
direction of its activities.
Section 5. — The Central Executive Committee shall make a monthly report
of the Party activities and of Party finances, itemized by districts.
Section 6. — The Central Executive Committee shall divide the country into
districts in accordance with Article IV, Section 3, provided that the boundary
lines of the districts shall not be changed within a period of four months prior
to the national convention.
Section 7. — A complete audit and accounting of all Party funds shall be made
every six months.
Section S.— All press and propaganda activities shaU be under the full con-
trol of the Central Executive Committee.
Article VIII. — District and Subordinate Units
Section 1. — The Central Executive Committee shall appoint District Organizers
for each district.
Section 2. — Every district organizer shall make complete reports to the Dis-
trict Executive Committee as to the general Party work in his district. He shall
submit and carry out the instructions and decisions of the Central Executive
Committee. He shall make remittance and financial statements regularly to
the Central Executive Committee and shall also vsubmit financial statements to
the membership in his district at least once a month.
Section 3. — District conventions shall be held within thirty days of the
national convention. The district convention shall elect six members to the
District Executive Committee.
Section 4. — These six members, together with the District Organizer, who
shall be a member of the District Executive Committee with voice and vote,
shall supervise the activities of the district and shall regularly submit the
minutes of their meetings to the Central Executive Committee. AH actions of
the District Committee are subject to review by the Central Executive
Committee.
Section 5.^ — -The District Executive Committee shall determine the boundaries
of the city locals.
Section 6. — The City Central Committee shall consist of delegates representing
branches in accordance with their relative memberships. Each branch shall be
represented by at least one delegate. The City Central Committee shall have
supervision of all activities in the local and shall make regular reports of its
work to the District Executive Committee.
Section 7. — The City Central Committee shall elect a city executive committee,
consisting of from 5 to 7 members, which shall act for the city central committee
between meetings.
94931 — io— app., pt. 1 17
242 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Section 8. — The Branch shall consist of members, as provided in Article III,
Section 1. It shall elect an executive committee, branch organizer, delegates
to the City Central Committee, and such other fifficers as may be considered
necessary.
Article IX. — Language Sections
Section 1. — Members speaking a common language other than English may
organize into a "Language Branch."'
Section 2. — Language oranches of the same language, with an aggregate mem-
bership of at least 400', shall be formed into a L;inguage Section. Inhere shall be
only one section in each language, and all language branches must affiliate with
their respective language sections.
Section 3. — All language branches shall be integral parts of the party structure
in their localities, and shall perform and carry out all Party functions and
obligations.
Section 4. — Shortly after Party Conventions, national language conferences shall
be held. Those conferences shall fornuilate plans for education and propaganda
in their respective languages, subject to the approval of the Central Executive
Committee. All actions of these conferences shall be in strict conformity with the
decisions of the Party Convention and the Central Executive Committee. Expenses
of these conferences shall be borne by the language sections.
Section 5. — The language section conference shall elect a bureau to administer
its affairs and a suitable number of alternates. The bureau shall elect the editors
and officers and shall supervise all activities of their respective language sections,
subject to the approval of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 6.^ — The Central Executive Connnittee shall ha-\e the right to disapprove
the members elected by the conference to the language bureaus and fill such
vacancies from among the alternates.
Section 7. — The Central Executive Committee may appoint a fraternal member
to every language section executive committee with voice but no vote.
Section 8. — The bureau shall have the right to appoint district language section
organizers subject to the approval of the Central Executive Committee. All
organizers shall work under the supervision of the Party District Organizers in
the various districts.
Section 9a) — National Language Bureaus shall translate and transmit all state-
ments, circulars and communications addressed to the membership by the Central
Executive Committee within one week after their receipt.
Section 9h)- — Language branches shall purchase their due stamps directly from
their national bureau, which shall purchase due stamps from the Central Execu-
tive Committee at 30 cents each, and sell same to its branches at a price determined
by the Language Section conference. The branches to sell due stamps to members
at 50 cents. The national office shall remit to the district organization ten cents,
and to the city local five cents for each stamp sold to language sections.
Section 9c) — The National Language Bureau shall account to the Central Execu-
tive Committee regularly for all funds entrusted to it and shall make regular
financial reiwrts to the Central Executive Connnittee regarding all the institutions
under its control. Its accounts shall be subject to the audit of the Central Execu-
tive Committee. Special assessments may also be levied by the National Language
Bureaus on the membership with the approval of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 10 — a) Language Bureaus and Language Sections shall have no power
to suspend, expel or reorganize affiliations. All disciplinary powers are vested
exclusively in the regular Party organization machinery.
b) Language Bureaus and Sections may reconnnend such suspension, expulsion
or reorganization to the party units having jurisdiction.
Article X. — Discipline
Section 1. — All decisions of the governing bodies of the Party shall be binding
upon the membership and subordinate units of the organization.'
Section 2. — Any member or organization violating the decisions of the Party
shall be subject to suspension or expulsion by the organization which has jurisdic-
tion. Charge."? against members shall be made before branches, subject to appeal
by either side to the City Central Committee or to the District Executive Com-
mittee, where there is no city organization. Charges against a branch shall be
made before the City Central Committee or before the District Executive Com-
APPENDIX, PART 1 243
mittee where there is no city organizutioii. Decisions of the City Central Commit-
tee in the case of branches shall be subject to revision by the district organization.
Charges against state or district organization shall be made before the Central
Executive Committee.
Section 3. — Each unit of the Party shall restrict its activities to the territory it
represents.
Section 4. — A member who desires to transfer his membership to another branch
shall have a transfer card from the tinancial secretary or organizer of his branch.
No branch shall receive a member from another branch without such transfer card
and upon presentation of the card the secretary of the branch receiving same shall
make inquiries about the standing of the member to the .secretary issuing the card.
Section 5. — All party units shall use uniform application cards, dues books and
accounting records, which .shall be printed by the National Organization.
Section 6. — Any suspended or removed member of the Central Executive Com-
mittee shall have the right to appeal in writing or in person to the next National
Party Convention.
Article XI. — Dues
Section 1. — Each applicant for membership shall pay initiation fees of fifty
cents, which shall be receipted for by an initiation stamp furnished by the Central
Executive Committee. The entire sum shall go to the National Organization.
Section 2.^ — Each member shall pay fifty cents per month in due stamps, which
shall be .sold to the state or district organizations at 25 cents. State or District
Organizations shall sell stamps to the City Central Committee and to the branches
where there is no city central committee at 35 cents. The City Central Committee
shall sell stamps to branches at 40 cents.
Section 3. — Special assessments may be levied by the National Convention or
Central Executive Committee. No member shall be considered in good standing
unless he purchases such special assessment stamps.
Section 4. — Husband aiid wife belonging to the same branch may purchase dual
stamps, which shall be sold at the same price as the regular stamps. Special
assessments must be paid by both husband and wife.
Section 5. — Members unable to pay dues on account of unemployment, strikes,
sickness or for similar reasons shall upon application to their financial secretary
be furnished with exempt stamps. Provided that no state or district organizations
shall be allowed exempt stamps in a proportion greatei' than ten per cent of its
monthly purchases of regular stamps.
Section 6. — Members who are three months in arrears in payment of their dues
shall cease to be members of the Party in good standing. Members who are six
months in arrears shall be stricken from the rolls. No member shall pay dues in
advance for a period of more than three months.
Article XII. — Headquarters
Section 1.— The National Headquarters of the Party shall be located in the city
designated by the Convention.
Article XIII. — Qualifications
Section 1.— Members of the Central Executive Committee, Executive Secretary,
Editor, and all candidates for political office, must have been (a) members of the
party for two years at the time of their nomination, or (b) members of a charter
organization, or members of any organization afiiliating as a body within sixty
days after the first convention.
Section 2. — One year's membership in the Party shall be necessary to qualify
for membership on the District Executive Committee ; six months for city central
delegates and officers, three months (in the branch) for branch officers. This
section shall not apply to branch officers or city central delegates of new branches.
DIGKST OF RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED AT THE FIRST CONVENTION OF! THE WOKKEES PARTY
OF AjSIERICA
1. The violent persecution of the organised workers in all countries is but an
indication of the intensification of the class struggle, the W. P. exposes the true
character and intentions of the destructive efforts of the masters and by uniting
its forces with tho.se of the workers of all nations, takes up the challenge.
2. The American Lcf/ioti, is the creature of the capitalist class, its function
is to try to terrorize labor.
244 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
TJie World War Veterans have at all times proved their loyalty to the workers,
they are endorsed by the Workers Party and all ex-soldiers urged to join.
3. Education in the history and problems of the labor movement and the fvmda-
mental principles and tactics of revolutionary Marxism is one of the most impor-
tant functions of the W. P. of A. The Central Executive is directed to immedi-
ately endeavor to establish workers' schools in the chief industrial centers and to
organize study courses in the locals and sections of the party.
4. Russio/n, Relief and Reconstruction calls for immediate help by organized
labor ; the W. P. of A. pledges itself to do all within its power to carry the urgent
appeal of Soviet Russia to the great masses of the American working class,
and to support any organizations or movement aiming to aid Russian relief and
reconstruction.
5. (?oi'iet Russia. The Russian revolution is the first successful uprising of
the masses under the leadership of the working-class against private ownership
of capitalists and landlords in modern society. For the first time since the
establishment of capitalism, the Russion workmen nationalized all the larger
industrial establishments and declared the land the property of the nation to
be used only by those who work on it with their own hands. Thus, the Russian
revolution marks a new era in the history of our times and proves beyond
doubt that, once organized in a strong party and conscious of its historic aim,
the working class may be able to seize the power of state in time of a revolution,
establish proletarian dictatorship, and abolish private ownership in order to
establish the Socialist order.
Though the Soviet government of Russia, the government of workers and
peasants being harassed by constant war on numerous fronts, compelled to fight
for its very existence against the combined efforts of the capitalist states, bled
white by economic blockade and exhaustion of its productive forces, saw fit to
reintroduce capitalism under state control, the rule of the proletariat remains
the supreme power in Russia and the authority of the Soviets is now greater than
ever. The Convention of the Workers Party of America sees in the Russian
Revolution the vanguard of all class-conscious workers of the world and the herald
of a new era, the era of Workers' Republics.
W^hatever may be the future transformations and adaptations of the Russian
Soviet regime, the Convention is fully aware of its colossal role in the stimulation
of new thought and new regroupings among the workers of the world. Pledging
itself to aid the Soviet Republic in its present crisis, the Convention sends Its
fraternal greetings to the workers of Russia and to their leaders, the fighters for
a Communist order.
Long live the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic !
Long live the rule of the Russian Workers and Peasants !
6. The revolutionary young xmrkers' organizations of Europe have long been
the vanguard in all activity, every party is striving for the allegiance of the
Youth, but 800,000 young workers in 40 countries are enrolled under the banner
of the Young Communist International.
The United States presents a fertile field for such an organization, but at
present all elements out of which it could be built are divided into unrelated
groups. The W. P. pledges its aid to organize these young workers on a national
scale in the following motion adopted by the convention: "That the Executive
Committee of the Workers Party appoint a provisional national organization
committee to amalgamate all existing militant young workers' organizations, to
create new ones wherever possible, and to carry on all work preparatory to the
calling of a national convention which will unite these forces and officially launch
the Young Workers' League of America."
7. Amnesty agitation on behalf of prisoners in Federal penitentiaries must be
extended to include those jailed under State statutes.
8. Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of murder on insufficient evidence because
they held radical views, the W. P. expresses its conviction of their innocence
and demands a new trial for them.
9. Howat and Dorchy are imprisoned for resisting the further shackling of
organized labor through the Kansas Industrial Court Law, the W. P. records its
sympathy for them in this fight and its support of their followers.
10. A monthly magazine "to propagate the principles of Mai-xism and revolu-
tionary understanding" is to be established.
11. Mooney and Billings are victims of one of the most dastardly crimes ever
perpetrated by the capitalist courts of America, their innocence has been attested
even by prominent officials of the capitalist State, yet every technicality is made
use of to hold them in prison. The W. P. of A. pledges itself not to rest until they
are free.
APPENDIX, PART 1 245
12. The worTcing class woman is a wage slave and in addition must bear the
burden of her sex. "The W. P. of A. recognizes the necessity for an intensified
struggle to improve woman's conditions and to unify them in the common struggle
with the rest of the worliing class against capitalism." It will take the initiative
to organize and lead them in their struggle for economic freedom.
13. The shop delegate system has arisen in the struggle of the workers for more
efficient and representative centralization of organized labor power than is
afforded by the craft unions. The W. P. of A. recognizes that this form of organi-
zation affords the workers a better medium in their daily struggles and will also
facilitate the building of their power and the taking over of production after the
breakdown of capitalism.
14. Pogroms, involving the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Poland,
Ukraine and Palestine, are characterized as the result of counter-revolutionary
outrages.
15. Liberation of Eugene V. Dels and other class war prisoners was marked by
the dispatch of the following telegram : "One hundred and hfty delegates con-
vened to organize the Workers Party of America, and comrades assembled, greet
with joy your homecoming and fervently hope that you will soon again be lighting
in the ranks of the American woiking class in their struggle for emancipation."
Exhibit No. 18
[Soiu'ce: Excerpts from Theses and Resolutions, adopted at the Third World Congress of
the Communist International (June 22- July 12, 1921), published by the Contemporary
Publishing Association, New York City: 1921. Pages 34-70, 7r)~114, 115-117, 131-149,
150-153. 190-199]
Thesis on Tactics
1. Definition of the Problem
"The new international labor organization is established for the purpose of
organizing united action of the world proletariat, aspiring toward the same goal ;
the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat, and of an International Soviet Republic, for the complete elimination of
classes and (he realization of Socialism, the first step toward the Commimist
Commonwealth." This definition of tJie aims of the Communist International,
laid down in the statutes, distinctly defines all the questions of tactics to be
solved. They are the tactical problems of our struggle for the proletarian dic-
tatorship. They deal witli the means of winning over the majority of the working
class to the principles of Communism, ot org.'aizing the socially important ele-
ments of the proletariat in the struggle for its attainment, the attitude to be
assumed toward the proletarized petty-bourgeois elements, the way pnd means of
disrupting the organs of bourgeois power, and destroying them. And they deal,
finally, with the ultimate, international battle for the dictatorship. The problems
of the dictatorship per se, as being the only way to victory, constitute no part of
this discussion. The development of the world revolution has proved beyond any
doubt that there is only a single alternative in tlie given historical situation, either
capitalist or proletarian dictatorship. The Third Congress of the Communist
International is proceeding to renewed investigation of the problems of tactics at
a time when the objective situation in a number of countries has grown critically
revolutionary, and a number of communist mass parties have come into being.
None of these, however, can claim to possess the actual leadership of the majority
of the working class in the real revolutionary struggle.
2. On the Eve of New Battles
The world revolution, i. e., the decay of capitalism, and the concentration of
the revolutionary energy of the proletariat, its organization into an aggressive,
victorious power, will require a prolonged period of revolutionary struggle.
The variations in the sharpness of the social antagonisms and in the social
structures of the various countries, and therefore in the obstacles to be over-
come, the high degree of organization of the bourgeoisie in the capitalist coun-
tries of Western Europe and North America prevented the immediate victory
of the world revolution as a result of the world war. The Communists were
therefore right in declaring, ivhile the war was still raging, that the period of
246 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
imperialism xvas developing into the epoch of social revolution, i. e., of a long
scries of civil wars in a number of capitalist countries, and of wars hetween the
capitalist states on one side and proletarian states and exploited colonial peoples
on the other side.
The world revolution is not a process following absolutely straight lines; on
the contrary, the periods of the chronic decay of capitalism and the daily, revolu-
tionary, undermining activity become at times acute, and develop into severe
crises. Tlie course of the world revolution was also retarded by strong labor
organizations and lalior parties, such as the Social Democratic parties and the
trade unions, which, though established by the proletariat for the conduct of its
struggle against the boui'geoisie, turned into organs for counter-revolutionary
agitation and paralyzing of the proletariat during the war. They continued
these practices after the war had ended. This made it easy for the world bour-
geoisie to master the crisis during the period of demobilization, and to raise new
hopes among the proletariat, during the sham prosperity of 1919-1920, of a
possible imi)rovement of conditions under capitalism. To these causes may be
attributed the defeat of the revolts during 1919, and the protracted tempo of the
revolutionary movements during 1919-1920.
The universal economic cri.sis beginning in the middle of 1920 has since
extended over the entire world. With increasing unemployment on every hand,
it is proof to the international proletariat that the boui'geoisie is powerless to
reconstruct the world, even capitalistically, that is, on the basis of exploitation.
The aggravation of all international political conflicts, the French campaign to
despoil Germany, the English-American and American-Japanese opposition of
interests, and the consequent rivalry in the augmentation of armarnent.s — all
these facts show that the moribund capitalistic world is tumbling headlong into
world war. Even the League of Nations, the international trust of the victori-
ous states for the exploitation of their vanquished competitors and the colonial
peoples, has been disrupted by the English-American rivalry. The illusion by
which international social democracy and trade union bureaucracy restrained
the laboring masses from entering the revolutionary struggle, this illusion that
they could gradually and peacefully attain the economic power and consequent
independence by the renunciation of all attempts to conquer political power in
revolutionary combat is being rapidly dissipated.
The socialization farces in Germany, by the aid of which the government of
Seheidemann-Noske endeavored to hold the working class back from the attack in
March, 1919. have come to an end. Socialization chatter has given way to Stin-
nesisation, the subjection of German industry to a capitalist dictator and his
allied groups. The attack by the Pru.ssian Government led by the Social-Demo-
crat Severing, on the miners of Middle Germany, is merely the prelude to a
general attack by the German bourgeoisie for the reduction of the wages of the
German workers. In England all the nationalization schemes have evaporated
into thin air. Instead of executing the nationalization plans of the Sankey
Commission, the British Government is employing force to support the lock-out
of the miners. In France, the government can only put off its inevitable eco-
nomic bankruptcy by a predatory expedition against Germany. There is no
question in France of any systematic reconstrxiction. In fact, the rehabilitation
of the devastated districts in Northern France, as far as it is being undertaken,
only serves the enrichment of private capitalists. In Italy the bourgeoisie,
aided by tlie white bands of the Fascist!, is waging an offensive against the
working class. In every country, in the old states of bourgeois democracy, as
well as in the new ones that have arisen out of the imperialistic collapse, bour-
geois democracy has been forced to remove its mask. White Guards and dicta-
torial powers of the government in Elngland against the miners' strike ; Fascist]
and Guardia Regia in Italy; Piidi;ertons, expulsion of Socialist representatives
from Congress and Lynch-Law in the United States ; white terror in Yugo-
slavia, Latvia, Esthonia, Rumania, Finland, Poland, Hungary and the Balkan
states; anti-Connnunist legislation in Switzerland, etc. On ercnj hand the bonr-
geoisie is attenipting to burden the working class with the consequences of the
increased economic chaos; to lengthen the working hours and reduce wages.
On every hand it receives assistance from the leaders of social democracy and
of the Amsterdam Trade Union International. But they cannot hinder the
awakening of the laboring masses to new strife nor can they stem the revolu-
tionary tide. Even now we see the German proletariat preparing for the coun-
ter-attack and the English miners valiantly resisting for weeks in their battle
APPENDIX, PART 1 247
against the mine-owning capitalists. And this in spite of the treachery of their
trade union leaders ! AVe see how the experience gained hy the Italian prole-
tariat in respect to the vacillating policy of the Serrati group, is developing in
its front ranks the will to fight, finding expression in tlie organization of tlie
Communist Party of Italy. In France we see how the Socialist Party, after the
split by which the social-patriots and centrists were eliminated, begins to pro-
ceed from Communist agitation and propaganda to mass demonstrations against
imperialistic piracy. In Czecho-Slovakia we witness the political December
strike, embracing a million workers in spite of the complete lack of unity in
organization and the resulting organizaiton of the Czecho-Slovakian Communist
Pai-ty as a mass organization. In Poland we had tlie railroad strike of Febru-
ary under the leadership of the Communist Party and the general strike which
arose out of this, and we are now witnessing the continual process of disinte-
gration which is affecting the social-patriotic Socialist Party of Poland. What
we are confronted with then is not the waning of the world revolution, but on
the contrary, the aggravation of social antagonisms and social struggles and tlie
transition to open civil war.
3. "The Important Task of the Present.
In view of these imminent new struggles, the question of the attainment of
decisive influence on the most important sections of the working class, in short,
the leadership of tlie struggle, is the most important question now confronting
the Third International. For, despite the present objective revolutionary eco-
nomic and political situation wherein the acutest revolutionary crisis may arise
suddenly (whether in the form of a big strike, or a colonial upheaval, or a new
war, or even a severe parliamentary crisis) the majority of the working class is
not yet under the influence of Communism. Particularly is this true in such
countries, as for example, England and America, where large strata of workers
depending for their existence on the power of finance-capital are corrupted by
imperialism, and the real revolutionary propaganda among the masses has only
just begun. From the very first day of its establishment, the Communist Inter-
national distinctly and clearly devoted itself to the pui'iiose of participating in
the struggle of the laboring masses, of conducting this struggle on a Communist
basis, and of erecting, during the struggle, great, revolutionary communist mass
parties. It did not aim to establish small Communist sects which would attempt
to influence the masses solely by propaganda and agitation. In the very first
year of its existence, the Communist International disavowed all sectarian
tendencies. It called ui)on all the parties affiliated to it, however small they
might be, to enter the unions and from within overcome the reactionary trade
union bureaucracy in order to transform the trade unions into revolutionary
mass organizations of the proletariat, and into efficient organs of the struggle.
In the very first year of its existence, the Communist International called upon
the Communist Parties not to confine themselves to propaganda, but to utilize
every possibility which bourgeois society is compelled to leave open, for agitation
and organization of the proletariat : Free press, the right of association, and
the bourgeois parliamentary institutions, however worthless they may be, forg-
ing them into a weapon, into a tribune, into a gathering center for Communism.
At its Second Congress, the Communist International publicly repudiated sec-
tarian tendencies, by the resolutions it adopted on the questions of trade union-
ism and the utilization of parliamenarism. The experience gained in the two
years' struggles of the Communist Parties has completely corroborated the cor-
rectness of this standpoint of the Communist International. By its tactics, the
Communist International has succeeded in separating the revolutionary workers
in a number of countries, not only from the reformists, but also from the
centrists. The formation by the centrist elements of a two and a half Interna-
tional, which united itself with the Scheidenianns, Jouhax and Hendersons on
the basis of the Amsterdam Trade Union International, clarified the issues of
the struggles for the proleterian masses and lightened its task. Thanks to the
policy of the Communist International revolutionary work in the trade unions,
open declarations to the masses, etc., German Communism has been transformed
from a mere political group, such as it was when it entered the struggles of
January and March, 1919. into a great revolutionary mass-party. The influence
it has gained in the trade unions has provoked the trade union bureaucracy
into expelling numerous Communists from the trade unions because of their
fear of the revolutionary effect of Communist activity in the unions and lias
compelled them to assume the odium and responsibility of splitting the organiza-
tions. In Czecho-Slovakia, the Communists have succeeded in rallying to their
248 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
colors the majority of the politically-organized workers. As a result of its
undermining activities in the trade unions, the Polish Communist Party, in spite
of the untold persecutions which have driven it to work exclusively "under-
ground," has not lost its contact with the masses for a moment, but has, on
the contrary, exceedingly augmented its influence. In France, the Communists
have secured the majority in the Socialist Party. In England, the process of
consolidation of the Communist groups on the basis of the Communist Inter-
national is proceeding rapidly. The growing influence of the Communists has
forced the social-traitors to close the doors of the Labor Party to them. The
sectarian groups, such as the C. L. P. of Germany, on the contrary, were unable
to win even the slightest success with their methods. The theory of the stength-
ening of Communism solely by propaganda and agitation and by the organization
of separate Communist trade unions, has met with complete failure. Nowhere
has a Communist Party of any influence arisen in this way.
THE u. s.
In the United States of North America, where on account of historical circum-
stances, there was a total lack of broad revolutionary movement even before the
war, the communists are confronted with the first and simplest task of creating
a communist nucleus and connecting it with the working masses. The present
economic crisis, which has thrown five million people out of work, affords very
favorable soil for this kind of work. Conscious of the imminent danger of a
radicalized labor movement becoming subject to communist influence, American
capital tries to crush and destroy the young communist movement by means of
barbarous persecution. The Communist Party was forced into an illegalized
existence under which it would, according to capitalist expectations, in the
absence of any contact with the masses, dwindle into a propagandist sect and
lose its vitality. The Communist International draws the attention of the united
Communist Party of America to the fact that the illegalized organization must
not only serve as the ground for collecting and crystallizing the active com-
munist forces, but that it is the party's duty to try all ways and means to get
out of the illegalized condition into the open, among the wide masses. It is the
duty of the Communist Party to find the means and forms to unite these masses
politically, through public activity, for the struggle against American capitalism.
ENGLAND
The English Communist movement has also fallen short of becoming the Party
of the masses, despite the concentration of their forces.
The continued disorganization of English industry, the unprecedented acute-
ness of the strike movement, the growing discontent among the widest masses
of the people with the regime of Lloyd George, the possibility of a Labor and
Liberal victory at the next General Election — all these circumstances open new
revolutionary perspectives in England's development, confronting the English
communists with questions of the greatest importance.
The first and foremost task of the English Communist Party is, to become the
Party of the masses. The English communists must take the firmest stand upon
the actually existing and ever developing mass-movement. They must permeate
all its concrete manifestations and convert desultory and partial demands of the
workers into issues for their own untiring agitation and propaganda.
The mighty strike movement puts to the test the ability, reliability, stead-
fastness and conscientiousness of the trade-union machinery and leaders in the
eyes of hundreds of thousands and millions of workers. Under these circum-
stances the work of the Communists within the trade-unions becomes of decisive
importance. No party influence from the outside can exercise even the smallest
part of that influence which the constant daily work of communist nuclei in the
workshops can exercise by persistently unmasking and discrediting the traitors
and betrayers of trade-unionism. In England, more than in any other country,
have the latter become the political tool of capitalism.
While in other countries the task of the communist parties which have become
mass-parties consists in seizing to a great extent the initiative in mass action,
the task of the Communist Party in England consists first of all in proving and
demonstrating to the masses on the basis of their actual experience of present-
day mass-actions, that the communists can correctly and courageously express
the interests, needs and sentiments of these masses.
APPENDIX, PART 1 249
CENIRAL WESTEKN EUROPE
The Commuuist mass-parties of Middle and Western Europe are in the propeas
of evolving the necessary methods of revolutionary propaganda and agitation,
and of working out methods of organization which would correspond to the
nature of their struggle, and are in the process of transition from communist
propaganda and agitation to action. This process is hindered by the fact that
in a number of countries the revolutionizing of the workers going over to the
communist camp took place under the guidance of leaders who either have failed
to overcome their centrist tendencies and are incapable of conducting a real
popular couununist agitation and propaganda, or are simply afraid because they
know that this agitation and propaganda will lead the workers to revolutionary
struggles.
ITALY
These centrist tendencies have caused a split in the party in Italy. The party
and trade-union leaders of the Serrati group, instead of transforming the spon-
taneous action of the working classes and their growing activity, into the con-
scious struggle for power for which the situation was ripe in Italy, have allowed
these movements to become stranded. Tli6y turned their backs on Communism
which would have shaken the woi-king masses out of their lethargy and united
them for the struggle. And, because they were afraid of the struggle, they
diluted the communist propaganda and agitation and led it into centrist chaimels.
In this manner they strengthened the infltience of the Centrists, like Turati and
Treves in the party, and like D'Aragona in the trade Unions. Because they did
not differ from the centrists either in word or in deed, they would not part com-
pany with them. They preferred to part company with the Communists. The
Serrati policy, while on the one hand increasing the influence of the reformists,
on the other hand increased the danger of the influence of the Anarchists and
Syndicalists, and of the danger of the creation of tendencies toward anti-parlia-
mentary and mere revolutionary phrase-mongering within the party. The split
at Livorno, the forming of the Italian Communist Party, the rallying of all the
really communist elements on the basis of the decisions of the Second Congress
of the Gommttnist International into a united Communist Party will make Com-
munism a live force among the masses in Italy, if the Italian Communist Party
will only maintain an unbending front against the opportunistic policy of the
Serrati school and will succeed in identifying itself with the masses of the prole-
tariat in the unions, in strikes, in fights against the counter-revolutionary Fas-
cisti, in consolidating their movements, in converting their spontaneous actions
into carefully planned struggle.
FRANCE
In France, where first the chauvinist poison of "national defense" and then
the shouts of Victory were stronger than in any other country, the reaction
against war developed much slower than in the other countries. The majority
of the French Socialist Party developed in the direction of Communism even
before being confronted with decisive questions of revolutionary action through
the development of events. This new orientation was due to the moral influence
of the Russian Revolution, to the revolutionary struggles in the capitalist coun-
tries and to the first experience of the French proletariat in its own struggles with
the treason of its leaders. The French Communist Party will be able to make
the best and fullest use of this advantageous position, insofar as it will be able
to liquidate in its own ranks — particularly among the leading circles — the rem-
nants of national pacifist and parliamentary-reformist ideology. The party must
reach the masses and their most oppressed strata in a far larger degree than it
has done in the past or is being done at present ; it must give clear, complete
and uncompromising expression to the sufferings and needs of these masses. In
its parliamentary activity the party must decisively break with all the ugly,
hypocritical formalities of French parliamentarism which have been deliberately
nurtured and supported by the bourgeoisie in order to muzzle and intimidate and
hypnotize the representatives of the working class. The representatives of the
Communist Party in Parliament must tear the veil from the bourgeois tradition of
national democracy and revolution, presenting it point-blank as a question of
class-interest and irreconcilable class-struggle.
250 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The agitation of the party must assume a more concentrated, strenuous and
energetic form. It must not dissolve itself in the changeable and variable po-
litical situations and combinations of the day. It must draw the same funda-
mental revolutionary conclusions from all events, big and small, bringing them
home to the most backward working masses. Only through such a truly revolu-
tionary attitude will the Communist Party avoid the appearance — as well as the
reality — of being a mere left-wing of that radical Longuet bloc which with ever
increasing energy and success places itself at the service of bourgeois society, to
protect the latter against those upheavals which are made inevitable in France
by the sheer logic of events. These decisive revolutionary events may come
sooner or they may come later, but a determined revolutionary Communist Party,
inspired by a revolutionary will, can even now, during the preparatory stage,
mobilize the working masses on economic and political grounds, and broaden and
clarify all their present struggles.
The attempts of the impatient and the politically inexperienced to apply ex-
treme methods, which by their very nature are methods of decisive proletarian
revolution, to simple questions (e. g., the calling upon the recruits of the year
1919 to resist mobilization, the proposal for the forcible prevention of the occu-
pation of Luxemberg, etc.) contain elements of most dangerous adventurism.
If applied such tactics would put off for a long time the real revolutionary prepa-
ration of the proletariat for the conquest of power. That adventurism, which by
its very nature forms no clear conception of the purposes of mass-action and the
difficulties in the way, merely bring sickly and ofttinies deadly premature travail
instead of the revolution. It is the duty of the French Government Party, and
indeed of all other Communist parties, to reject such highly dangerous methods.
To increase the union of the Party ivith the masses means above all a closer
alliance tcith the toorkers' organizations. The task does not at all consist in
mechanicaUy and outivardly subjecting the unions to the Party and thereby deny-
ing them the autonomy required by the very nature of their work, but in the truly
revolutionary, comnmnist elements toithin the miions giving them that direction
which answers the general interests of the proletariat in its struggle for the
conquest of power. In view of these considerations, it is the duty of the French
Communist Party to criticize in friendly but firm and unmistakeable manner those
anarcho-syndicalist tendencies which reject the Proletarian dictatorship and
which do not admit the necessity of uniting its vanguard in a centralized leading
organization — the Communist Party. The Party should also pursue such a policy
towards those syndicalist tendencies which under the cloak of the Charter of
Amiens, drawn up eight years previous to the war, now refuse to give a clear and
outspoken answer to the fundamental questions of the new, post-bellum epoch.
The amalgamation of the revolutionary-syndicalist groups within the unions
with the Communist organization as a whole is an indispensable preliminary con-
dition for every earnest struggle of the French proletariat.
To render harmless and remove those adventurous tendencies, and to overcome
the nebulous principles and organizational separatism of the revolutionary syn-
dicalists, it is imperatively necessary that the Party itself — as already said —
should by real revolutionary handling of every question of daily life and struggle
make itself the irresistible centre of gravitation for the working masses of France.
In Czecho.'ilovakia, the workers in the course of two and a half years have freed
themselves from a great deal of reformist and nationalistic illusions. In Sep-
tember of last year the majority of the social-democratic workers broke away
from their reformist leaders. In December already a million workers out of
Czechoslovakia's three and a half million industrial workers were in the midst of
revolutionary mass-action against the Czechoslovak capitalist government. In
May of this year the Czechoslovak Communist Party of 350,000 members was
formed. In addition there is the German-Bohemian Communist Party which
numbers 60,000 members. The communists thus not only represent a great por-
tion of the Czechoslovak proletariat, but also of the entire population of the
country. The Czechoslovak Party now stands before the task of gaining the
adherence of even wider working masses through real communist agitation, in
order to train the masses by clear and uncompromising communist propaganda,
to form a solid front by a union of the workers of all the peoples of Czechoslo-
vakia, against the nationalists who are the main instrument of the bourgoisie in
Czechoslovakia. It is the task of the Party to make the proletarian force thus
created strong and invincible in all its future struggles against the oppressive
tendencies of capitalism and the government. The quickness with which the
Czechoslovak Communist Party will master these tasks depends upon the clear-
APPENDIX, PART 1 251
ness and determmatiou with which it will do away with all centrist traditions
and moods which found their expression in the Smeral policy. They should
follow the advice given hy their best imprisoned comrades, Muna, Kuls, Sabotot-
sky and by the Communist International and conduct such a policy as will edu-
cate and revolutionize the masses, organize and equip them for action and
victorious consummation.
THE UNITED COMMUNIST PARTY OF GERMANY
The United Communist Party of Germany, formed by a union of tlie Spartakus-
buud with the left Indeijendent working masses, although already a mass-party,
stands before the task of raising and strengthening its influence among the wide
masses, winning the proletarian mass-organizations — the trade-unions — and dis-
pelling tlie intluence of the social-democratic party and the trade-unionist bureau-
cracy. This main task demands that the Party base its wliole agitation — propa-
ganda and organization work — upon acquiring tlie sympathies of the majority
of the worlcers. Witliout tliis, in the presence of strongly organized capital, no
communist victory in Germany is possible. For this task the Party was not quite
ripe as yet, both* regarding the scope of its agitation and its content. Nor did
it understand how to consistently continue the road it had started upon when it
published the "Open Letter," the road of opposing the practical interests of the
Proletariat to the treacherous policy of tlie social-democratic parties and the
trade-union bureaucracy. Its press and its organization are still rather too
strongly marked by the stamp of decentralized associations, not of militant organs
and solid organization. Those centrist tendencies whicli found their expression
therein, unsubdued as yet, have driven the Party to the necessity of throwing
down the gauntlet without due preparation for tlie battle, and on the other hand
rather obscured the necessity of close spiritual association with the non-com-
munist masses. The problems of action which are soon to confront the United
German Communist Party, through the process of disintegration of German
economy, and through the offensive started by capital against the very existence
of the working masses, can be solved only if the Party will not consider the prob-
lems of agitation and organization as opposed to those of action and deeds, but
will rather make its agitation a real popular force, building its organization in
such a manner that the Party by its close association with the masses shall
develop the ability to constantly and carefully weigh the military situation and
carefully prepare for the struggles.
The parties of the Communist International become revolutionary mass-parties
if they overcome the remnants and traditions of opportunism in their ranks by
seeking close association with the struggling working masses and by drawing
their problems from the practical struggles of the Proletariat. These struggles
act as an antidote to opportunistic clouding of irreconcilable social contrasts, and
reject all revolutionary catch-phrases which obstruct the view into the real
relation of the contending forces and which permit the difiiculties of the struggle
to be overlooked. The communist parties have arisen from the breaking up of the
old social-democratic parties. This break-up resulted from the fact that these
parties have betrayed the interests of the proletariat in the war and have con-
tinued the betrayal after the war, by alliances with the bourgeoisie or by conduct-
ing a tame policy and shirking the fight. The fundamentals of the Communist
Party form the only basis upon which the working masses can reunite, because
they express the necessities of the proletarian struggle. It is because of this fact,
that the social-democratic parties and tendencies seek the splitting up and division
of the proletariat — while the communist parties are a uniting force. In Germany
it was the centrists who broke away from the majority of their Party, after the
latter had rallied to the banner of Communism. Fearing the uniting influence
of Communism, the German social-democrats in league with the social-democratic
trade-unions refused to go with the communists in joint actions for the defence
of even the elementary interests of the proletariat. In Czechoslovakia, again.
It was the social-democrats who fled the old party on perceiving the triumph of
Communism. In France the Longuet group seceded from the majority of the
French socialist workers, while the Communist party acts as a rallying ground
for socialist and syndicalist workers. In England it was the reformists and the
centrists that drove the communists out of the Labor Party, for fear of their
influence. Even now they continue sabotaging the unification of the workers in
their struggle against the capitalists. The Communist Parties thus become the
standard-bearers of the unifying process of the proletariat, on the basis of the
struggle for its interests. From this consciousness of their role they will draw
and gather new forces.
252 UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
5. Partial Struggles and Partial Demands
The development of the communist parties can only be achieved through a
fighting policy. Ereii the smallest eonnnvnist units must not rest content with
mere proixifiniulu. In nil proletarian mass organizations they must eonstiiute
the ranynunh irhich must teach the hackward, vacillating masses how to fight,
hy formulating practical plans for direct action, and by urging the tvorkcrs to
make a stand' for the necessaries of life. Only in this manner will Communists
be alile to reveal to the masses the treacherous character of all non-communist
parties. Only in case they prove able to lead the practical struggle for the prole-
tariat, only in case they can promote these conflicts, vpill the Communists succeed
in winning over great masses of the proletariat to the struggle for the dictatorship.
The entire propaganda and agitation as well as the other work of the Com-
munist parties, must be based on the conception that no lasting betterment of
the position of the proletariat is possible tuider capitalism, and that the overthrow
of the bourgeoisie is a prerequisite for the achievement of such betterment and
the rebuilding of the social structure destroyed by capitalism. This conception,
however, must not find expression in the abandonment of all participation in the
proletarian struggle for actual and immediate necessaries of Iffe, until such a
time as the proletariat will be able to attain them through its own dictatorship.
Social-democracy is consciously deceiving the masses, when, in the period of
capitalist disintegration, when capitalism is unable to assure to the workers even
the subsistence of well fed slaves, it has nothing better to offer than the old social-
democratic program of i>eaceful reforms to be achieved by peaceful means within
the bankrupt capitalist system. Not only is capitalism, in the period of its dis-
integration, unable to assure to tlie workers decent conditions of life, hut the
social-democrats and i-eformists of all lands are also continually demonstrating
that they are unwilling to put up any fight, even for the most modest demands con-
tained in their own programs. The demand for socialization or nationalization of
the most important industries is nothing but another such deception of the
working masses. Not only did the centrists mislead the masses hy trying to
persuade them that nationalization alone, without the overthrow of the bour-
geoisie, would deprive capitalism of the chief industries, but they also endeavored
to divert the workers from the real and live struggle for their immediate needs,
by raising their hopes of a gradual seizure of industry, to be followed by "syste-
matic" economic reconstruction. Thus they have reverted to the minimum social-
democratic program of the reform of capitalism, which once an illusion, has now
become an open counter-revolutionary deception. The theory prevailing among a
portion of the centrists, that the program of the nationalization of the coal or any
other industry is based on the Lassalian theory of the concentration of all the ener-
gies of the proletariat on a single demand, in order to use it as a lever in revolution-
ary action, which in its development would lead to a struggle for power, is nothing
but empty words. The suffering of the working class in every country is so
intense, that it is impossible to direct the struggle against these blows, which are
coming thick and fast, into narrow doctrinarian channels. On the contrary,
it is cssrnliitl to make use of all the economic needs of the masses, as issues in the
revolutionary struggles, tohich, when united, form the flood of the social revolu-
tion. For this struggle, the Connnunist Parties have no minimum program for the
strengthening of this reeling world structure within the system of capitalism.
The destruction of this system is the chief aim and immediate task of the parties.
But in order to achieve this task, the Communist Parties must put forward de-
mands, and they must fight with the masses for their fulfillment, regardless of
whether they are in keeping with the profit system of the capitalist class or not.
'^^^lat the Connnunist Parties have to consider is not whether capitalist indus-
try is able to continue to exist and compete, but rather whether the proletariat
has reached the limit of its endurance. If these communist demands are in ac-
cord with the inunediate needs of the wide proletarian masses, if these masses
are convinced that they cannot exist without the realization of these demands,
the struggle for these demands will become an issue in the struggle for power.
The alternalire offered bri the Communist hiternntinnal in place of the minimum
program of the reformists a.nd centrists is: the struggle for the concrete need
of the proletariat and demands, which, in their application, undermine the power
of the bourgeoisie, organize the proletariat, form the transition to proletarian
dictatorship, even if the latter have not yet grasped the meaning of such
proletarian dictatorship.
APPENDIX, PART 1 253
BROADENING THE FIGHT
As the struggle for these demands embraces ever-growing masses, <is the needs
of the masses clash with the needs of capitalist society, the workers will realize
that capitalism must die if they are to live. The realization of this fact is the
basis of the will to fight for the dictatorship. It is the task of the Communist
Parties to widen, to deepen and to co-ordinate these struggles which have been
brought into being by the formulation of concrete demands. As the partial
struggles of isolated groups of workers gradually merge into a general struggle
of labor versus capital, so the Communist Party must also alter its watchword,
which would be — ''uncompromising overthrow of the enemy." In formulating
their partial demands the Communist Parties must take heed that these demands,
based on the deeply rooted needs of the masses, are such as will organize the
masses and not merely lead them into the struggle. All concrete watchwords,
originating in the economic needs of the workers, must be assimilated to the
struggle for the control of production, which must not assume the form of a
bureaucratic organization of social economy under capitalism, but of an organi-
zation fighting against capitalism through workers' committees as well as through
the revolutionary trade-unions.
It is only through the establishment of such workers' committees and their
co-ordination according to branches and centres of industry, that Communists
can prevent the splitting up of the masses by the social-democrats and the trade-
union leaders. The workers' committees will be able to fulfil this role only if
they are born in an economic struggle in the interests of wide masses of workers,
and provided they succeed in uniting all the revolutionary sections of the pro-
letariat— the communist party, the revolutionary workers and those trade-unions
which are going through a process of revolutionary development.
Every ohjeGtion io the estahlishment of such partial demands, every accusation
of reformism in connection until these partial struggles, is an outcome of the same
incapacity to grasp the live issues of revolutionary action which manifested itself
in the opposition of some cmnmiunist graups to participation, in trade union
activities and parliamentary action. Communists should not rest content with
teaching the proletariat its ultimate aims, hut should lend impetus to every
practical move leading the proletariat into the struggle for these ultimate aims.
How inadequate the objections to partial demands are and how divorced they are
from the needs of revolutionary life, is best exemplified by the fact that even
the small organizations formed by the so-called "left" communists for the propa-
gation of pure doctrines have seen the necessity of formulating partial demands,
in order to attract larger sections of workers than they have hitherto been able
to. They have also been obliged to take part in the struggle of wider masses of
workers in order to influence them. The chief revolutionary characteristic of
the present period lies in the fact that the most modest demands of the working
masses are incompatible with the existence of capitalist society. Therefore the
struggle, even for these very modest demands, is bound to develop into a struggle
for Communism. . .
While the capitalists make use of the ever increasing army of the unemployed
as a lever against the organized workers for the forcing down of wages, the
Social-Democrats, the Independents and ofiicial trade-union leaders maintain a
cowardly aloofness from the unemployed. They consider them mere objects of
state and trade-union charity and despi.'je them iwlitically as Lumpen-Proletariat.
The Communists must clearly understand that under the present circumstances
the unemployed represent a revolutionary factor of gigantic significance. The
communists must take upon themselves the leadership of this army. By bringing
the pressure of the unemployed to bear uix)n the trade-unions, the communists
must seek to effect the rejuvenation of the latter, and above all their libei'ation
from the treacherous leaders. By uniting the imemployed with the proletarian
vanguards in the struggle for the social-revolution, the Comnmnist Party will
restrain the most rebellious and impatient elements among the unemployed from
Individual desperate acts and enable the entire mass to actively support, under
favorable circumstances, the struggle of the proletariat, thus developing beyond
the limits of present conflict and making this conflict the starting point of the
decisive offensive — in a word, this entire mass will be transformed from a mere
reserve army of industry into an active army of the Revolution.
The t'ommunist Parties, in energetically supporting this section of the workers
(now low down in the scale of labor) stand up, not for the interests of one section
of workers, as opposed to those of other sections, but for the common good of the
entire working class betrayed by the counter-revolutionary leaders in the interests
of the labor aristocracy. The more workers in the ranks of the unemployed and
254 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
part time employed, the quicker tlieir interests become transformed into the
common interests of the entire worlving class. The momentary interests of the
labor aristocracy must be subordinated to those common interests. Those who
plead the interests of the labor aristocracy, in order to arouse their hostility to
the unemployed, or in order to leave the latter to their own devices, are splitting
the working class and are acting in a counter-revolutionary manner. The Com-
munist Party, as the representative of the common interests of the working class,
cannot rest content with merely recognizing those common interests and using
them for propaganda purposes. To effectively represent the workers, the party
must, under certain conditions, undertake to lead the bulk of the most oppressed
and downtrodden workers into action, in order to break down the resistance of
the labor aristocracy.
Tlip character of the transition period makes it imperative for all Communist
Parties to be thoroughly prepared for the struggle. Each separate struggle may
lead to the struggle for power. Preparedness can only be achieved by giving to
the entire I'arty agitation the character of a vehement attack against capitalist
society. The Party must also come into contact with the widest masses of workers,
and must make it plain to them that they are being led by a vanguard, whose real
;iiiii is — the conquest of power. The Communist press and proclamations must
not merely consist of theoretical proofs that t-ommunism is right. They nuist be
clarion calls of the proletarian revolution. The parliamentary activity of the
Communists must not consist in debates with the enemy, or in attempts to con-
vert him, but in the ruthless unmasking of the agents of the bourgeoisie and the
stirring up of the fighting spirit of the working masses and in attracting the serai-
proletarian and the petty bourgeois strata of society to the proletariat. Our
organizing work in the trade-unions, as well as in the party organizations, nuiSt
not consist in mechanically increasing the number of our membership. It must
be imbued with the consciousness of the coming struggle. It is only in becoming,
in all its forms and manifestations, the embodiment of the will to fight, that the
Party will be able to fulfil its task, when the time for drastic action will have
arrived.
Wherever the Communist Party represents a mass power, wherever Its influ-
ence is felt among large sections of the workers, it becomes its duty to rouse the
masses to action. Mass parties can not rest content with criticizing the short-
comings of other parties and opposing their demands by connnunist demands.
They, as a mass party, are responsible for the development of the revolution.
Wherever the position of the workers becomes increasingly unbearable, the Com-
munist Parties must do their utmost to make the working masses join in the
struggle for their own interests. //( i-iew of the fact that in Western Europe and
in America the irorkers are organized in trade unions and political parties, and
hence spontaneous movements are for the time being out of the question, it is the
duty of the Connnunist parties to endeavor, by means of their influence in the trade
lotions, by increased pressure on other parties connected ivith the loorkinf/ masses,
to bring about the struggle for the achievement of the immediate needs of the
proletariat, i^hould noncommunist parties be pressed into this struggle, it will
become the duty of communists to warn the masses in good time against the
possibility of betrayal by the nou-communistic elements in later stages of the
struggle, and to make the conflict as acute and far-reaching as possible, in order
to eventually be able to carry on the fight independently. We can refer to the
open letter of the V. K. P. D. which may provide an example of the prerequisite of
direct action.
Should the pressure of the Connnunist Party in the Trade Unions and the press
not be strong enough to rouse the proletariat to a united front, it will become the
duty of the Communist Party to endeavor to lead the masses into the struggle.
The latter policy uill be successful, and will lead to the awakening of the back-
ward masses, when it will become clear to them that our aims are their aims,
although they are not yet able to put up a fight for them.
However, the Communist Party must not rest content with merely warding off
the dangers threatening the proletariat and meeting the blows directed against it.
In the period of world Revolution, its role consists in attacking and storming the
strongholds of capitalist society. Its duty consists in transforming every defen-
sive into an offensive against capitalist society. Wherever circumstances permit,
the Communit Party should also do its utmost to assume the leadership of the
working masses in such attacks.
Such circumstances are, first and foremost, the growing strife and dissensions
in the ranks of the national and international bourgeoisie. Should these dissen-
sions bring disintegration into the enemy's ranks, then it would become the duty
APPENDIX, PART 1 255
of the Commuuist Party tp take the initiative and lead the masses to attack, after
careful political and, if possible, organizational preparation. Strong ferment in
the ranks of the more responsible and important workers, would also justify the
Party to assume the leadership of the offensive against a capitalist government on
a wide front. Whilst it is the duty of the Comnuinist I'arty to inspire and lead
the masses to attack, it should also bear in mind that, in the event of retreat, it
becomes imperative for the Party to prevent panic and to lead the workers out of
the fray in perfect order.
The attitude of the Communist Party to the question of offence and defence
depends entirely on concrete circumstances. AVhat really matters is that it should
be animated by the fighting spirit which will overcome the centrist spirit of
"wait and see" in the foremost ranks of workers, by means of agitation, organiza-
tion and readiness to fight. This fighting spirit and will to attack must be a
feature of the communist mass parties, not only because, as such it is their duty
to lead in the fight, but also because of the present decay of capitalism and the
ever-growing misery of the masses. It is essential to shorten the period of decay,
in order to prevent the destruction of the material basis of Communism, and in
order to preserve the energy of the working masses.
7. The Lesson of Actions of March
The action of last March was forced upon the V. K. P. D. (United German
Communist Party) by the Government's attack upon the proletariat of Middle-
Germany.
In stoutly defending the workers of Middle Germany, the V. K. P. D. has shown
itself to be the Party of the revolutionary proletariat of Germany. In this first
great struggle, which it had to sustain immediately after its formation, the
V. K. P. D. committed a number of mistakes, of which the chief one was that it
did not clearly understand the defensive nature of the struggle, but by the call for
the attack gave the opportunity to the luiscrupulous enemies of the proletariat —
the S. P. D. and the U. S. P. D.— to denounce the V. K. P. D. in the eyes of the
proletariat as the aggressor. This mistake was fiirther amplified by a number
of Party theorists who represented the offensive as the principal means of the
campaign of the V. K. P. D. in the present situation. This mistake has already
been repudiated by official party organs, notably by its chairman. Com. Brandler.
The Congress of the Communist International considers the March action of the
V. K. P. D. as a step forward. The March action was a heroic battle of hundreds
of thousands of workers against the bourgeoisie. It is of the opinion, that in order
to ensure greater success for its mass-actions the V. K. P. D. must in the future
better adapt its slogans to the actual situation, giving the most careful study to
the situation and conducting their actions in the most iiuiform manner.
For the purpose of carefully weighing the possibilities of the struggle, the V. K.
P. D. must attentively listen to the voices which point out the difficulties of the
actions and carefully examine their reasons for urging caution. But as soon as
an action is decided vpon hij the Parti/ authorities, all comrades must submit to
the decisions of the I'ditij and earrii out the action. Criticism of the action must
commence only after its completion and be practiced only within the party oi-gani-
zations, giving due consideration to the situation wherein the Party had found
itself in the face of the enemy. Since Levi did disregard these obvious demands
of Party disciplines and the conditions of Party criticism, the Congress approves
his expulsion from the Party and declares it inadmissable for any members of the
Communist International to co-operate politically with him.
8. The Forms and Means of Direct Action
The forms and means of action, its extent and the question of offensive or de-
fensive, are bound up with certain conditions which cannot be created at will.
The experience of the revolution has shown us various forms of partial actions.
1. The partial actions on the part of sections of the proletariat (the action of
miners, railway men, etc., in Germany, and of land workers in England, etc.).
2. The partial actions of the whole proletariat for limited objects (the action of
the days of the Kapp-Putsch, the action of the English miners against the military
intervention of the British government in the Russo-Polish war).
These partial actions may extend over separate districts, over whole countries
and over a series of countries simultaneously. All these forms of action will in all
countries be intermingled in the course of the revolution. The Communist Party
cannot discard actions which are limited to a certain area, but it must strive
256 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
to turn every important local proletarian action into a universal struggle. Just
as we are bound to raise the whole working class in defence of the struggling
workers of a single branch of industry wherever possible, we are also bound to
rouse the workers of all the industrial centres to lend their help to the struggling
workers of a whole district or area. The experience of revolution teaches us that
the greater the area of the struggle, the greater the prospect of victory. The
bourgeoisie relies, in its struggle against the rising world revolution, partly on
the White Guard organizations, and partly on the fact that the working class is
scattered, and that its front is built up very slowly. The greater the number of
workers who join in the battle, the greater the fighting area, the more must the
enemy divide and scatter his forces. Even when the other sections of workers,
who are anxious to help the oppressed part of the proletariat, are temporarily not
in a position to support it with all their might, their very movement forces the
capitalist to divide his forces, for the latter are unable to fathom to what extent
the other part of the proletariat will be able to take part in the struggle and
render it more acute.
In the course of the past year, during which \Ye saw the ever increasing
arrogance of the capitalist offensive against the workers, we observed that the
bourgeoisie in all countries, not satisfied with the normal activity of its state or-
gans, created legal and semi-legal though state-protected White-Guard organiza-
tions, which played a decisive part in every big economic or industrial conflict.
In Germany it is the Orgesch, backed by the government, which includes all
Party colorings from Stinnes to Scheidemann.
In Italy it is the Fascisti, whose depredations effected a change in the mood
of the bourgeoisie, giving the appearance of a complete change in the respective
strength of the contending political forces.
In England— to combat the strikers— the Lloyd George government appealed
for volunteers, whose task it was to defend property and so-called "free-labor"
by means of blackleggiug and wanton destruction of workers' centres.
In France the leading semi-official newspaper, "Temps," inspired by the Mille-
rand clique, conducts a vigorous campaign for the reinforcement of the already
existing "Civic Leagues" and for the introduction of Fascisti methods to French
soil. >
The organizations of strike-breakers and cut-throats, which are an old-time
embellishment of American democracy, have now acquired a leading organ in the
so-called "American Legion," made up of the flotsam and jetsam of the war.
The bourgeoisie, though apparently conscious of its power and actually bragging
about its stability, knows through its leading governments quite well, that it has
merely obtained a breathing spell and that under the present circumstances every
big strike has the tendency to develop into civil war and the immediate struggle
for the possession of power.
In the struggle of the proletariat against the capitalist offensive it is the duty
of the communists not only to take the advanced posts and lead those engaged in
the struggle to a complete understanding of the fundamental revolutionary tasks,
but it is also their duty, relying upon the best and most active elements among
the workers, to create their own workers legions and militant organizations which
would resist the pacifists and teach the "golden youth" of the bourgeoisie a whole-
some lesson that will break them of the strike-breaking habit.
In view of the extraordinary importance of the counter-revolutionary shock-
troops, the Communist Party must, through its nuclei in the unions, devote special
attention to this question, organizing a thorough-going educational and com-
munication service which shall keep under constant observation tlie military
organs and forces of the enemy, his headquarters, his arsenals, the connection
between these headquarters and the police, the press and the political parties, and
work out all the necessary details of defence and counter-attack.
The Communist Party must in this manner convince the widest circles of the
proletariat by word and deed, that every economic or political conflict, given the
necessary combination of circumstances, may develop into civil war, in the course
of which it will l)econie the task of the Proletariat to conquer the power of the
state.
With regard to acts of White Terror and the fury of bourgeois justice, the
Communist Party must warn the workers not to be deceived, during crises, by
an enemy appeal to their leniency, but to demonstrate proletarian morality by
acts of proletarian justice, in settling with the oppressors of the workers.
Bwti in times when the workers a/re only preparing themselves, when they have
to he mobilized hy agitation, political campaigns and strikes, armed force may
be used solely to defend the masses frdim bourgeois outrages. Individual acts
of terorrism, however they may demonstrate the revolutionary rancor of the
APPENDIX, PART 1 257
masses, however justified they may be as acts of retribution against the lynch
law of the bourgeoisie and its social-democratic flunkeys, are in no way apt
to raise the workers to a higher level of organization, or make them better
prepared to face the struggle. Acts of sabotage are only justified when they
can only serve the purpose of hindering the despatch of enemy troops against
the workers, and of conquering important strategic points from the enemy in
direct combat.
9. Relation to the Semi-Proletarian Elements.
In Western Europe there is no other important class besides the proletariat,
which might become a determining factor in the world revolution. But it is
different in Russia, where the peasantry, owing to the war and lack of land
were predestined to become a determining revolutionary fighting element next
to the working class. But even in "Western Europe a part of the peasantry, a
considerable section of the petty-bourgeoisie in the towns, the numerous so-
called "new middle-class," the ofiice workers, etc., are sinking into ever worse
conditions of life. Under the pressure of the high cost of living, housing diffi-
culties, and the insecurity of their positions, these masses are beginning to
pass through a process of fermentation, which draws them out of their po-
litical inactivity, and drags them into the revolutionary and counter-revolu-
tionary struggle. The bankruptcy of imperialism in the defeated countries, the
bankruptcy of pacifism and social reform in the victorious countries, drives
some of these middle-class elements into the camp of open counter-revolution,
and others into the revolutionary camp. The Communist Party is bound to
bestow increasing attention to these elements. The winning over of the small
farmers to the ideas of Communism, and the organization of the agricultural
workers, are prerequisite conditions for the victory of the proletarian dictator-
ship. Then we shall be able to bring the revolution from industrial centres
down to the country districts. And this will enable us to capture the most
important strongholds, and thus solve the food question, that vital question for
the revolution. The acquisition of large groups of technical and commercial
employees and intellectuals would make it easier for the ijroletarian dictator-
ship to master the problems of technique and organization in the transition
period from capitalism to communism. It will cause disintegration in the
enemy ranks and will do away with the traditional notion that the workers
are isolated. The Communist Parties have to keep alive the fermentation
among the petty-hourgeoisie, in order to utilize it in the most appropriate way,
even though it does not lose its petty-'bourgeois illusions. Those of the in-
tellectuals and employees who free themselves from these illusions must be
taken up in the proletarian ranks, and made use of for the purpose of organiz-
ing such petty-bourgeois masses.
The economic ruin and consequent disorganization of national finance, force
the bourgeoisie to doom even the basic support of its governmental apparatus,
the middle and lower ofiicials, to gradual impoverishment. The economic
movement on the part of these elements affects the very root of botirgeois
society. Though this movement may temporarily abate, it will be as im-
possible for the bourgeois state to preserve this administrational foundation
(the officials), as it is impossible for capital to grant fair conditions to its
wage slaves while insisting on the preservation of its system of exploitation.
The Communist Parties, by espousing the cause of the lower and middle,
officialdom, and by helping it economically, irrespective of the state of public
finance, will do most effective preliminary woi'k for the destruction of bour-
geois institutions and the preparation of the elements requisite for the super-
structure of the proletarian state.
10. International Coordination of Action
In order to break the front of the international counter-revolution, in order
to make use of the combined forces of the Communist International, and bring
nearer the victory of the revolution, we must strive, with all our energy, for
united international leadership in the revolutionary struggle. The conditions
essential to this are the political and organizational centralization of the com-
ponent elements of the Communist International, the doing away with the
autonomy-trickery of the opportunist, the creation of an appropriate political
organization of the executive of the Communist International and of its entire
machinery. The Congress believes that the Communist International must not
949.31 — 40 — app., pt. 1 IS
258 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
confine itself to mere demonstrations on a world-wide scale, as advocated by
the Two and a Half International, or launched by the various sections of the
Communist International under the same slogans. As the situation in various
countries becomes more acute, the Communist International must strive to co-
ordinate and combine the action of all the affiliated sections or of any group
of sections with the working masses which they control. The Congress takes
into account the national peculiarities according to countries or groups of
countries, the differences in the conditions under which the struggles take
place, the strength of the enemy, and the fighting ability and strength of the
revolutionary forces. But the nearer we get to iniiform international fighting
leadership, the more necessary it becomes to harmonize the forms of organiza-
tion and tactics of the affiliated sections.
The Communist International imposes on all Communist Parties the duty to
support each other most energetically in the struggle. The growing economic
conflicts demand the immediate intervention of the proletariat of other coun-
tries. The Communists must carry on diligent propaganda in the trade unions,
to prevent not only the importation of strike-breakers, but also the exporta-
tion of goods of those countries where a considerable part of the workers are
engaged in battle. In cases where the capitalist government of one country
perpetrates outrages against another country by trying to plunder or subju-
gate it, the Communist Parties must not only protest, but do all in their
power to prevent such a pillaging campaign. The Third Congress of the Com-
munist International welcomes the demonstration of the French Communists
as a beginning of their action against the counter revolutionary predatory
aspiration of French capital. It reminds them of their duty to work assid-
uously in this direction, to make the French soldiers in the occupied terri-
tories realize that they are playing the part of watch-dogs of French capital,
and to induce them to rebel against the disgraceful duties imposed on them.
It is the duty of the French nation conscious of the fact that by suffering
the formation of a French army of occupation, and tolerating its permeation
by a nationalistic spirit, it forges its own chains. In the occupied territories
of Germany troops are being drilled, in order to be subsequently let loose
against the French working class and to murder it in cold blood. The French
Communist Party is faced by the special problem of the presence of black
troops in France and the occupied territories. The French are thus able to
approach these colonial slaves, to explain to them that they are serving their
oppressors and exploiters, to rouse them to a fight against" the regime of the
colonizers, and to establish connections with the colonial peoples through this
medium. The German Communist Party must clearly explain ta the German
workers, that no struggle against spoliation by Entente capital is possible
without the overthrow of the German capitalist government, which in spite
of all its outbursts against the Entente, is the taskmaster and agent of the
Entente capital. The V. K. P. of Germany will be able to induce the workers
of France to fight their imperialism only if it takes up the dauntless, ruthless
struggle against the German Government and thereby proves that it is not
anxious to provide a loop-hole for bankrupt German imperialism, but wishes
to clear the ground of the ruins of German imperialism.
The Communist International denounced before the world's Proletariat the
indemnity demands of entente capitalism as a campaign of spoliation directed
against the workers of the vanquished countries. It brandmarked the cowardly
capitulation to Bourse interests by the Longnet followers in France and the
Independents in Germany who were pleading that this spoliation be done in a
gentler fashion and less painfully for the workers. This indicates to the French
and German proletariat that the only way for the reconstruction of the dev-
astated provinces, the indemnification of the widows and orphans, lies in calling
the proletariat of both countries to the common struggle against their exploiters.
The German working class can help the Russian in its hard struggle, if by a
victorious combat it will precipitate the union of agricultural Russia and indus-
trial Germany.
It is the duty of Commiuiist Parties of all countries taking part in the sub-
jugation and partition of Turkey, to do their best toward revolutionizing these
ai-mies. The Communist Parties of the Balkan countries must strain all the
efforts of their mass parties to hasten their victory. The victory of the Com-
munist Parties of Bulgaria and Serbia which will cause the downfall of the
shameful Horthy regime, and facilitate the liquidation of Roumanian Boyar
APPENDIX, PART 1 259
rule, would create an economic basis for the Italian Revolution and protect it
against a blockade by England. The unconditional support of Soviet Russia
is still the main duty of the Communists of all countries. Not only must they
act resolutely against any attacks on Soviet Russia, but they must also struggle
ro do away with all the obstacles placed by capitalist states in the way of
Russia's communication with the world market and all other nations. Only if
Soviet Russia succeeds in reconstructing economic life, in mitigating the terinble
misery caused by the three years of imperialist war and three years of civil
war, only when Soviet Russia will have contrived to raise the efficiency of the
masses of its population, will it be in a position, in the future, to assist the
western proletarian States with food and raw material, and protect them against
being enslaved by American Capital. The International political task of the
Communist International consists not in demonstrations on special occasions,
but in the permanent increase of the international relations of the Commvmists,
in their ceaseless struggle in closed formation. It is impossible to foretell at
what front the proletariat will succeed in breaking the capitalist lines, whether
it will be in capitalist Germany with its workers who are most cruelly oppressed
by the German and the Entente bourgeoisie, and are faced by the alternative
of either winning or dying, or in the agrarian southwest, or in Italy, where the
decay of the bourgeoisie has reached an advanced stage. It is therefore the duty
of the Communist International to intensify its efforts on all the sectors of the
workers' world front, and it is the duty of the Communist I'arties to support
with all their means the decisive battles of each section of the Communist
International. This nmst be achieved by immediately widening and deepening
all international conflicts in every other country, as soon as a great struggle
breaks out in any one country.
11. Decline of the Second and Two-and-a-half Internationals
The third year of the Communist International witnessed the further decline
of the Social Democratic Parties, and the loss of influence and unmasking of the
reformist Trade Union leaders. During the last year, however, they have at-
tempted to organize themselves and proceed to an attack on the Communist
International. In England the leaders of the Labor Party and the Trade Unions
proved, during the coal strike, that they consider their only task to be the
premeditated destruction of the workers' front, which is in the process of
formation, and the conscious defence of capital against labor. The breakdown
of the Triple AUiunce is proof Ihat the reformist Trade Union leaders do not
even ivish to struggle for the improvement of the labor conditions ^vithin the
limits of the present capitalist system.
In Germany, the Social-Democratic Party, after withdrawing from the
Government, proved that it was no longer able to carry on even agitational
opposition of the pre-war kind. Every one of its oppositional actions was
carefully calculated not to elicit any struggles of the working class. Although
apparently in the opposition in the Reichstag, Social-Democracy organized a
campaign in Prussia against the Middle-German miners, for the confessed
purpose of provoking an armed combat before the Communist battle-front
could be organized. In the face of the capitulation of the German bourgeoisie
to the Entente, in the face of the undeniable fact that the German bourgeoisie
is only able to carry out the dictates of the Entente by making the living
conditions of the German proletariat absolutely unbearable, German Social-
Democracy re-entered the Government in order to aid the bourgeoisie in turn-
ing the German proletarians into helots. In Czecho-Slovakia, Social-Democracy
is mobilizing the military and police to deprive the Communist workers of
their houses and institutions. By its policy of prevarication, the Polish Socialist
Party is abetting Pil.sudsky in the organization of his pi"edatory cam])aign
against Soviet Russia. It lends its services to the Government in throwing
thousands of Communists into prison and attempts to drive them out of the
trade unions, in which they are gaining more and more hold, in spite of all
persecutions. The Belgian socialists retain their seats in a government that
is participating in the enslavement of the German people.
The centrist parties and groups of the Two and a Half International are
no less crass examples of counter-revolutionary organizations. The German
Independents brusquely refused to resiwnd to the appeal of the German Com-
munist party for unity of action, in spite of all differences, in the battle
again.st the impoverishment of the working class. During the March revolt
they took a decided stand on the side of the White Guard movement against
260 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the Middle-German workers, only to raise a hypocritical howl about White
Terror, after they had aided in securing victory to this very White Terror,
and had denounced the proletarian vanguard, before the eyes of the bourgeoisie,
as thieving, plundering "gutter" proletarians. Although they pledged them-
selves, at the Congress of Halle, to support Soviet Russia, their press is
replete with calumny against Soviet Russia. They stepped into the ranks
of the entire counter-revolutionary congregation, from Wrangel to Miliukov
to BurtsefC, by supporting the Kronstadt revolt against the Soviet Republic,
a revolt that signified the commencement of a new policy of international
counter-ievolution against Soviet Russia to overthrow the Communist Party
of Russia, to destroy the soul, the heart, the mari'ow, the nervous system of
the Soviet Republic, in order then to sweep away its corpse more easily. The
French Longuetists joined the German Independents in this campaign, thus
affiliating publicly to the French counter-revolutionary forces, who have proved
to be the sponsors of this new policy against Russia. In Italy the tactics of
the centrists, of Serrati and D'Aragona, the policy of avoiding any struggle,
has revived the courage of the bourgeoisie and enabled it to control rhe life
of Italy by means of its White Fascisti Guards.
Although Centrism and S(Wial Democracy differ only in phraseology, the
union of both in a single International has not yet taken place. In fact,
the centrist parties united last February in an international association of
their own, with a separate political platform and constitution. This Two
and a Half International is attempting to oscillate on paper between the policies
of democracy and proletarian dictatorship. It not only lends practical service
to the capitalists in every country by nurturing a spirit of irresolution in
the working class, but in the face of the destruction caused by the world
bourgeoisie, in face of the subjugation of a large part of the world by the
victorious capitalist states of the Entente, it concocts plans for the bourgeoisie
as to the best means of executing its exploitation projects without unloosening
the revolutionary forces of the proletarian masses. The only distinction between
the Two and a Half International and the Second International lies in the
fact that, besides their common fear of the power of capital, the former is,
moreover, afraid to lose the last vestiges of its influence upon the still un-*
classconscious though yet in spirit revolutionary masses, by a clear formula-
tion of its standpoint. The political oneness of the character of reformists
andji centrists is revealed in their common defence of the Amsterdam Trade
Union International, this last bulwark of tlie world bourgeoisie. By uniting
with the reformists and trade union bureaucrats in the battle against Com-
munism wherever they still posses any influence in the trade unions, by re-
sponding to the attempts at revolutionizing the trade unions by expulsion
of the Communists and splits in the trade unions, the centrists prove that
in common with the Social-Democrats, they are resolute opponents of the
proletarian struggle and peacemakers of the counter-revolution.(
It is the task of the Communist International to wage relentless war against
the Two and a Half International as well as against the Second International
and the Amsterdam Trade Union International. Only ty means of such unre-
lenting struggle, dally proving to the tnasses that, the Social^Deniocrats and
Centrists are not only unwilling to fight for the over-throw of capitalism,
tut not even for the simplest and most urgent needs of the working class, will
it be possible for the Communist International to liberate the ivorking class
from the grip of these lackeys of the bourgeoisie. It cannot wage this struggle
successfully except by nipping in the bud every Centrist tendency or inclina-
tion in its own ranks, by giving constant daily evidence of its being the Inter-
national of Communist deeds, not of Communist phrases or theories. The
Communist International is the only organization of the world proletariat
capable of conducting its struggle against Capitalism on the basis of its
principles. Our task consists in so improving our internal cohesion, our inter-
national leadership and activity, that we will, in reality, attain the aim we
have set up in our Statutes : "Organizing united action by the proletarians
of all countries, aspiring toward the same goal ; the overthrow of capitalism,
the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and of an Internationa]
Soviet Republic."
APPENDIX, PART 1 261
The Okganizationat. Construction of the Communist Parties and the
Methods and Scope of Their Activity
Guiding Rules for the Construction and Organisation of Communist Parties
1. General Principles
11 The organization of the Party must be adapted t(V the conditions and
to the goal of its activity. The Communist Party must be the vanguard —
the advance troops of the proletariat — through all the phases of its revolu-
tionary class struggle and during the subsequent transition period towards
the realization of Socialism, i. e., the first stage of the Communist Society.
2) There can be no absolutely infallible and unalterable form of organiza-
tion for the Communist Parties. The conditions of the proletarian class
struggle are subject to changes in a continuous process of evolution, and in
accordance with these changes the organization of the proletarian vanguard
must be constantly seeking for the corresponding forms. The peculiar con-
ditions of every individual country likewise determine the special adaptation
of the forms of organization of the respective Parties.
But this differentiation has definite limits. Regardless of all peculiarities,
the equnlity of the conditions of the proletarian class-struggle in the various
countries and through the various phases of the proletarian revolution is of
finidamental importance to the International Communist Movement, creating
a common basis for the organization of Communist Parties in all countries.
Upon this basis it is necessary to develop the organization of the Communist
Parties but not to seek to establish any new model parties instead of the
existing ones or to aim at any absolutely correct forms of organization and
ideal constitutions.
3) Most Communist Parties, and consequently the Communist International
as the united party of the revolutionary proletariat of the world, have this
common feature in their conditions of struggle, that they still have to fight
against the dominant bourgeoisie. To conquer the bourgeoisie and to wrest
the power from its hands is for all of them, until further developments, the
determining and guiding main goal. Accordingly, the determining fiictor in
the organizing activity of the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries
must bo the upbuilding of such organizations as will make the victory of
the proletarian revolution over the i^ossessing classes both possible and secure.
4) Leadership is a necessary condition for any common action, but most
of all it is indispensable in the greatest fight in the world's history. The
organization of the Communist Party is the organization of communist leader-
ship in the proletarian revolution.
To be a good leader the Party itself must have good leadership. Accordingly,
the principal task of our organization work must be the education, organization
and training of efficient Communist Parties under capable directing organs
to the leading place in the proletarian revolutionary movement.
.'i) The leadership in the revolutionary class struggle presupposes the organic
combination of the greatest possible striking force and of the greatest adapta-
bility on the part of the Communist Party and its leading organs to the ever-
changing conditions of the struggle. Fui'thermore, successful leadership re-
quires absolutely the closest association with the proletarian mas.ses. Without
such association, the leadership will not lead the masses, but. at best, will follow
behind the masses.
The organic unity in the Communist Party organization must be attained
through democratic centralization.
II. On Democratic Centralization
6) Democratic centralism in the Communist Party organization must be a
real synthesi.s, a fusion of centralism and proletarian democracy. This fusion
can be achieved only on the basis of constant common activity, constant common
struggle of the entire party organization. Centralization in the Communist Party
organization does not mean a formal and mechanical centralization, Init a centrali-
zation of communist activity, that is to say the formation of a strong leadership,
ready for war and at the same time capable of adaptability. A formal or mechani-
cal centralization is the centralization of the "power" in the hands of the party
262 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
bureaucracy, dominating over the rest of the membership or over the masses
of the revolutionary proletariat standing outside the organization Only the
enemies of communism can assert that the Communist Party conducting the
proletarian class struggles and centralizing this communist leadership is Jryi^g
to rule over the revolutionary proletariat. Such an assertion is a lie. Neithei
is any rivalry for power or any contest for supremacy withm the party at all
compatible With the fundamental principles of democratic centralism adopted
by the Communist International. . ,, ^- <^,.^,.^ i,^.
In the organization of the old, non-revolutionary labor movement, theie has,
developed an all-pervading dualism of the same nature as that of the bourgeois
State namelv the dualism between the bureaucracy and the people. Lnder
the baneful influence of bourgeois environment there has developed a separation
of functions, a substitution of barren, formal democracy for the living assi.cia-
tion of common endeavour, and the splitting up of the organization into active func-
tionaries and passive masses. Even the revolutionary labor movement inevitably
inherits this tendency to dualism and formalism to a certain extent from the
bourgeois environment. *. , , ^c
The Communist Party must fundamentally overcome these contrasts l)> sys-
tematic and persevering political and organizing work and by constant improve-
ment and revision. . „ , ,, „ ^
7) In transforming a socialist mass party into a Communist Party, the Party
must not confine itself to merely concentrating the authority in the hands of its
central leadership while leaving the old order unchanged. • Centralization should
not merely exist on paper, but be actually carried out, and this is possible of
achievement onlv when the members at large will feel this central authority
as a fundamentallv efficient instrument in their common activity and struggle.
Otherwise, it will appear to the masses as a bureaucracy within the Party and
therefore likely to stimulate opposition to all centralization, to all leadership,
to all stringent'discipline. Anarchism is the opposite pole of bureaucracy.
Merely formal democracy in the organization cannot remove either bureaucratic
or anarchical tendencies, which have found fertile soil in the workers' movement
on the basis of just that democracy. Therefore, the centralization of the organ- ^
ization, i. e., the aim to create a strong leadership, cannot be successful if its
achievement is sought on the basis of formal democracy. The necessary pre-
liminary conditions are the development and maintainance of living associations
and miitual relations within the Party between the directing organs and the
members, as well as between the Party and the masses of the proletariat outside
of the Party.
III. On the Duties of Communist Activity
8) The Communist Party must be a training school for revolutionary Marxism.
The organic ties between the different parts of the organization and tlie mem-
bership become joined through daily common work in the party organization.
Regular participation on the part of most of the members in the daily work
of the Party is lacking even today in the lawful Communist Parties. That is
the jchief fault of these parties, forming the basis of constant insecurity in their
development.
9) In the first stages of its Communist transformation every workmen's
Party is in danger of being content with having accepted a Communist pro-
gram, with having substituted the old doctrine in its propaganda by Com-
munist teachings and having replaced the officials belonging to the hostile
camp by Communist officials. The acceptance of a Communist program is
only the expression of the will to become a Communist. If the Communist
activity is lacking and the passivity of the mass of members still remains,
then the party does not fulfil even the least part of the pledge it had taken
upon itself in" accepting the Communist program. For the first condition for
an earnest carrying out of the program is the participation of all the members
in the constant daily work of the Party.
The art of Communist organization lies in the ability of making use of each
and every one for the proletarian class struggle; of distributing the Party work
amongst " all the Party members, and of constantly attracting through its
members ever wider masses of the proletariat to the revolutionary movement;
further it must hold the direction of the whole movement in its hand not by
virtue of its might, but by its authority, energy, greater experience, greater
all-round knowledge, and capabilities.
APPENDIX, PART 1 263
10) A Ccmnuiiiist Party must strive to have only really active members, and
to demand from every rank and file party worker that he should place his
whole strength and time, in so far as he can himself dispose of it, under
existing conditions, at the disposal of his Party and devote his best forces
to these services.
Membership in the Communist Party entails naturally, besides communist
convictions — formal registration, tirst as a candidate, then as a member ;
likewise, the regular payment of the established dues, the subscription to
the Party paper, etc. But the most important is tlie participation of each
member in the daily work of the Party.
11) For the purpose of carrying on the Party work every Party member
must as a rule be also a member of a smaller working group : a committee, a
commission, a board group, faction, or nucleus. Only in this way can the
Party work be properly distributed, directed and carried on.
Attendance at the general meetings of the members of the local organizations
of course goes without saying: it is not wise to try under conditions of legal
existence, to replace those periodical meetings under lavpful conditions by meet-
ings of local representatives. All the members must be bound to attend these
meetings regularly. But tliat is in no way sufficient. The very preparations
for these meetings presupposes work in smaller groups or tlirough comrades
detailed for the purpose, effectively utilizing as well as the preparations for
the general workers' meetings, demonstrations and mass actions of the working
class. The numerous ta.sks connected with these activities can be carefully
studied only in smaller groups, and carried out intensively. Without such a
constant daily work of the entire membership divided among the great mass of the
smaller groups of workers, even the most laborious endeavors to take part in the
class struggles f the proletariat will lead only to weak and futile attempts to
influence those struggles, but not to the necessary consolidation of the proletariat
into a single unified capable Communist Party.
12) Communist nuclei must be formed for the daily work in the different
branches of the Party activities: for home agitation, for Party study, for news-
paper work, for the distribution of literary matter, for information service, for
constant service, etc.
These Communist units are the nuclei for the daily Communist work in the
factories and workshops, in the trade unions, in the proletarian associations,
in military units, etc., wherever there are at least several members or candi-
dates for membership in the Communist Party. If there are a greater number
of Party members in the same factory or in the same union, etc., then the
nuclei is enlarged into a faction, and its work is directed by the nucleus.
Should it be necessary to form a wider general opposition faction, or to take
part in an existing one, then the Communists should try to take the leadership
in it through their special nucleus.
Whether a Communist nucleus is to come out in the open, as far as its own
surroundings are concerned, or even before the general public, will depend on
the special conditions of the case after a serious study of the dangers and
the advantages thereof.
13) The introduction of general obligatory work in the Party and the organi-
zation of these small working groups is an especially difficult task for Com-
munist mass parties. It cannot be carried out all at once, it demands unweary-
ing perseverance, mature consideration and much energy.
It is especially important that this new form of organization should be
carried out from the very beginning with care and mature consideration. It
would be an easy matter to divide all the members in each organization
according to a formal scheme into small nuclei and groups and to call these
latter at once to the general daily party work. Such a beginning would be
worse than no beginning at all ; it would only call forth discontent and aversion
among the Party members towards these important innovations.
It is recommended that the Party should take council with .several capable
organizers, who are also convinced and inspired Communists and thoroughly
acquainted with the state of the movement in the various centres of the country
and work out a detailed foundation for the introduction of these innovations.
After that, trained organizers or Organization Committees must take up the
work on the spot, elect the first leaders of groups and conduct the first steps
of the work. All the organizations, working groups, nuclei, and individual
members must then receive concrete, precisely defined tasks presented in such
a way as to at once appear to them to be u.seful, desirable and executable.
264 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Wherever it may be necessary they must be shown by practical demonstrations,
in what way these tasks are to be carried out. They must be warned at the
same time of the false steps esi^ecially to be avoided.
14) This work of reorganization must be carried out in practice step by
step. In the beginning too many nuclei or groups of workers should not be
formed in the local organization. It must first be proved in small cases that
the nuclei formed in the separate important factories and trade unions are
functioning properly, and that the necessary groups of workers have been
formed also in the other chief branches of the Party activitity and have in
some degree become consolidated (for instance in the information, communica-
tion, women's movement, or agitation department, newspaper work, unemployed
movement, etc.). Before the new organization apparatus will have acquired
a certain practice the old frames of the organization should not be heedlessly
broken up.
At the same time this fundamental task of the Communist organization work
must be carried out everywhere with the greatest energy. This places great
demands not only on a legal Party, but also on every illegal Party.
Until a widespread network of Communist nuclei, factions and groups of
workers will be at work at all the central points of the proletarian class
struggle, until every member of the party will be doing his share of the daily
revolutionary work and this will have become natural and habitual for the
members, the Party can allow itself no rest in its strenuous labors for the
carrying out of this task.
15) This fundamental organizational task imposes upon the leading Party
organs the obligation of constantly directing and exercising a systematic
influence over the Party work. This requires manifold exertion on the part of
those comrades who are active in the leadership of their organizations of
the Party. Those in charge of Communist activity must not only see to it
that the comrades, men and women, should be engaged in Party work in general,
they must help and direct such work systematically and with practical knowl-
edge of the business with a precise orientation in regard to special conditions.
They must also endeavor to find out any mistakes committed in their own
activities on the basis of acquired exijerience, constantly improving the methods
of work and not forgetting for a moment the object of the struggle.
16) Our whole party work consists either of direct struggle on theoretical
or practical grounds or of preparation for the struggle. The specialization
of this work has been very defective up to now. There are quite important
branches in which the activity of the Party has been only occasional. For
instance, the lawful parties have done little in the matter of combatting the
secret service men. The instructing of the Party comrades has been carried
on, as a rule, only casually, as a secondary matter, and so superficially that
the greater part of the most important resolutions of the Party, even the Party
programme and the resolutions of the Communist International have remained
unknown to the large strata of the membership. The instruction woi'k must
be carried on methodically and unceasingly through the whole mass .system of
the Party organizations in all the working communities of the Party in order
to obtain an even higher degree of specialization.
17) To the duties of the Communist activity belongs also that of submitting
reports. This is the duty of all the organizations and organs of the Party
as well as of every individual member. There must be general reports made
covering short periods of time. Special reports must be made on the work
of special committees of the party. It Is essential to make the work of report-
ing so systematic that it should become an established procedure as the best
tradition of the Communist movement.
18) The Party nmst hand in its quarterly report to the leading body of the
Communist International. Each organization in the Party has to hand in its
report to the next leading Committee (for instance, monthly reports of the
local branches to the corresponding Party Committee).
Each nucleus, faction and group of workers must send its report to the Party
organ under whose leadership it is placed. The individual members must hand
in their reports to the nucleus or group of workers (respectively to the leader)
to which he belongs, and on the carrying out of some special charge to the
Party organ from whom the order was received.
The reports must always be made at the first opportunity. It is to be made
by word of mouth, unless the Party or the person who had given the order
demands a written report. The reports must be concise and to the point.
APPENDIX, PART 1 265
The receiver of the report is responsible for having such communications as
cannot be published without harm kept in safe custody, that important reports
be sent in without delay to the corresponding leading Party organ.
19) All these reports must naturally not be limited to the account of what
the reporter had done himself. They must contain also Information on such
circumstances which may have come to light during the course of the work
and which have a certain significance for our struggle, particularly, such
considerations which may give rise to modification or improvement of our
future work. Also proposals for improvejnents, the necessity of which may
have made itself felt during the work must be included in the report.
In all the Comnninist nuclei, factions and groups of workers, all reports,
both those that have been handed in to them and those that they have
to send must be thoroughly discussed. Such discussions must become a
regular habit.
Care must be taken in the nuclei and groups of workers that individual Party
members or groups of members be regularly charged with observing and report-
ing on hostile organizations, especially with regard to the petty-bourgeois
workers' organizations and chiefly the organizations of the "socialist" parties.
IV. On Propaganda and Agitation
20) Our chief general duty to the open revolutionary struggle is to carry on
revolutionary propaganda and agitation. This work and its organization is
still, in the main, being conducted in the old and formal manner, by means
of casual speeches, at mass meeting and without special care for the concrete
revolutionary substance of the speeches and writings.
Communist propaganda and agitation must be made to take root in the very
midst of the workers, out of their common interest and aspirations and
especially out of their common struggles.
The most important point to remember is— that communist propaganda must
be of a revolutionary character. Therefore the communist watchword and
the whole communist attitude towards concrete questions must receive our
special attention and consideration.
In order to achieve the correct attitude, not only the professional propa-
gandists and agitators, but also all other party members must be carefully
instructed.
21) The principal forms of communist propaganda and agitation are: indi-
vidual verbal propaganda, participation in the industrial and political labor
movement, propaganda through the party press and distribution of literature.
Every member of a legal or illegal party is to participate regularly in one or
the other of these forms of propaganda.
Individual propaganda must take the form of systematic house to house can-
vassing by special groups of workers. Not a single house, within the area
of party influence, must be omitted from this canvass. In larger towns a
specially organized outdoor campaign with posters and distribution of leaflets
usually produce satisfactory results. In addition, the factions should carry on
a regular personal agitation in the workshops, accompanied by distribution of
literature.
In countries whose population contains national minorities, it is the duty
of the Party to devote the necessary attention to propaganda ;ind agitation
among the proletarian strata of these minorities. The propaganda and agita-
tion must, of course, be conducted in the languages of the respective national
minorities, for which purpose the Party must create the necessary special
organs.
22) In those capitalist countries where a large majority of the proletariat
has not yet reached revolutionary consciousness, the Communist agitators nuist
be constantly on the lookout for new forms of propaganda, in order to meet
these backward workers half way, and thus facilitate their entry into the
revolutionary ranks. The communist propaganda, with its watchwords, must
bring out the budding, unconscious incomplete, vacillating and semi-bourgeois
revolutionary tendencies which are struggling for supremacy with the bour-
geois traditions and conceptions in the minds of the workers.
At the same time communist propaganda must not rest content with the
limited and confused demands or aspirations of the proletarian masses. These
demands and expectations contain revolutionary germs and are a means of
bringing the proletariat under the influence of communist propaganda.
2QQ UN-AMERICAN PKOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
23) Communist agitation among the proletarian masses must be conducted^ in
such a way that our communist organization be recognized by the struggling
proletarians as the courageous, intelligent, energetic and ever faithful leader
of their own labor movement.
In order to achieve this, the Communists must take part in all elementary
struggles and movements of the workers, and must defend the workers' cause
in all conflicts between them and the capitalists over hours and conditi(ms of
labor, wages, etc. The comuuuiists must also pay great attention to the
concrete questions of working class life. They must help the workers to come
to a right understanding of these questions. They must draw their attention
to the most flagrant abuses and must help them to formulate their demands in
a practical and concise form. In this way they will awaken in the workers
the spirit of solidarity, the consciousness of community of interests among all
the workers of the country as a united working class, which, in its turn, is a
.section of the world army of proletarians.
It is only through the everyday performance of such elementary duties, and
through participation in all the struggles of the proletaria that the Communist
Party can develop into a real communist party. It is only by adopting such
methods that it will be distinguished from the propagandists of the hackneyed,
so called, pure socialist propaganda, consisting of recruiting new members and
talking about reforms and the use of all parliamentary possibilities, or rather
impossibilities. The self-sacriflcing and conscious participation of all the party
members in the daily struggles and controversies of the exploited with the ex-
ploiters is essentially necessary not only for the conquest, but in a still higher
degree, for the carrying out of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is only
through leading the working masses in the i^etty warfare against the onslaughts
of capitalism that the community party will be able to become the vanguard of
tlie working class, acquiring the capacity for systematic leadership of the prole-
tariat in its struggle for supremacy over the bourgeoisie.
24) Communists must be mobilized in full force, especially in times of strikes,
lockouts and other mass dismissals of the workers, in order to take part in the
workers' movement.
It would be a great mistake for Communists to treat with contempt the present
struggles of the workers for slight improvements of their working conditions,
even to maintain a passive attitude to them, on the plea of the Communist pro-
gramme and the need of armed revolutionary struggle for final aims. No matter
how small and modest the demands of the workers may be for which they are
ready and willing to fight today with the capitalist, the Communists must never
make the smallness of the demands an excuse at the same time for non-participa-
tion in the struggle. Our agitational activity should not lay itself bare to the
accusation of stirring up and inciting the workers to nonsensical strikes and other
inconsiderate actions. The Communists must try to acquire the reputation among
the struggling masses of being courageous and effective participators in their
struggles.
25) The communist cells (or fractions) within the trade union movement have
often proved themselves in practice rather helpless before some of the most ordi-
nary questions of everyday life. It is easy, but not fruitful to keep on preaching
the general principles of Communism, and then fall into the negative attitude of
common place syndicalism when faced with concrete questions. Such practices
only play into the hands of the yellow Amsterdam International.
Communists should, on the contrary, be guided in their actions by a careful
study of the practical aspect of every question.
For instance, instead of contenting themselves with resisting theoretically and
on principle all trade agreements, they should rather take the lead in the struggle
over the specific nature of the trade agreements recommended by the Amsterdam
leaders. It is. of course, necessary to condemn and resist any kind of impediment
to the revolutionary preparedness of the proletariat, and it is a well known fact
that it is the aim of the capitalists and their Amsterdam myrmidons to tie the
hands of the workers by all manner of trade agreements. Therefore, It behooves
the Communists to open the eyes of the workers to the nature of the.se aims.
This the Communists can best attain by advocating a trade agreement which
would not hamper the workers.
The same should be done in connection with the unemployment, sickness and
other benefits of the trade-union organizations. The creation of fighting funds
and the granting of strike pay are measures which, in themselves, are to be
commended.
APPENDIX, PART 1 267
Therefore, an opposition on principle against sueli activities wonld be ill advised.
But Comnuniists sliunld point out to tlie worlvers tliat tlie manner of collections of
these funds and their use as advocated by the Amsterdam Leaders is against all
the revolutionary interests of the working class. In connection with sick benefit,
etc., Communis^^s should insist on the abolition of the contributory system, and
of all binding conditions in connection with all voluntary funds. If some of the
trade union members are still anxious to secure sick benefits by paying contribu-
tions it would not do for us to simply prohibit such payments, for fear of not
l)eing understood by them. It will be necessary to win over such workers from
their petty bourgeois conceptions by an intensive personal propaganda.
26) In the struggle against the social democratic and other petty bourgois trade
union leaders, as well as against the leaders of various labor parties one cannot
hope to achieve much by persuasion. The struggle against them should be con-
ducted in the most energetic fashion, and the best way to do that is by depriving
them of their following, showing up to the workers the true character of these
treacherous socialist leaders who are only playing into the hands of capitalism.
The Communists should endeavor to unmask these so-called leaders, and subse-
quently attack them in the most energetic fashion.
It is not by any means sufficient to call Amsterdam leaders yellow. Their
"yellowness" must be proved by continual and practical illustrations. Their
activities in the ti'ade-unions, in the International Labor Bureau of the League of
Nations, in the bourgeois ministries and administrations; their treacherous
speeches at conferences and in parliament ; the exhortations contained in many
of their written messages and in Press, and above all their vacillation and hesi-
tating attitude in all struggles even for the most modest rise in wages, offer
constant opportunities for exposing the treacherous behavior of the Amsterdam
leaders in simply worded speeches and resolutions.
The niiclei and fractions must conduct their practical van.guard movement in a
systematic fashion. The Communists must not allow the excuses of the minor
trade-union olficials, who, notwithstanding good intentions, often take refuge,
through sheer weakness, behind statutes, union decisions and instructions from
their supei'iors to hamper their march forward. On the contrary, they must
insist on getting satisfaction from the minor officials in the matter of the removal
of all real or imaginary obstacles put in the way of the workers by the ])ureau-
cratic machine.
27) The fractions must carefully prepare the participation of the communists
in conferences and meetings of the trade union organizations. For instance, they
must elaborate proposals, select lectures and counsel and put up as candidates
lor election, capable, experienced and energetic comrades.
The Communist organizations nuist, through their fractions, also make careful
preparations in connection with all workers' meetings, election meetings, demon-
strations, political festivals and .such like, arranged by the hostile organizations.
Wherever Communists convene their own workers' meetings, they must endeavor
to have considerable groups of communists distributed among the audience, and
they must make all due preparations for the assurance of satisfactory propaganda
results.
28) Communists must also learn hovr to draw unorganized anad backward
vv'orkers permanently into the ranks of the Party. With the help of our nuclei
and fractions we naust induce the workers to join the trade unions and to read our
Party organs. Other organizations, as for instance, educational boards, study
circles, sporting clubs, dramatic societies, co-operative societies, consumers' asso-
ciations, war-victims' organ] zation.s, etc., may be used as intermediaries between
us and the workers. Where the Communist Party is working illegally, such
workers' unions may be formed outside of the Party through the initiative of
Party members and with the consent and under the control of the leading Party
organs (unions of sympathizers).
Communist youths and women's organizations may akso be helpful in rousing
the interest of the many politically indifferent proletarians, and in drawing them
eventually into the Communist Party, through the intermediary of their educa-
tional courses, reading circles, excursions, festivals, Sunday rambles, etc., distri-
bution of leaflets, increasing the circulation of the Party organ, etc. Through
participation in the general movement, the workers will free themselves from their
petty bourgeois inclinations.
29) In order to win the semi -proletarian sections of the workers as sym-
pathizers of the revolutionary proletarians, the Communists must make use
of their special antagonisms to the landowners, the capitalists and the capitalist
state in order to win these intermediary groups from their mistrust of the
proletariat. This may require prolonged negotiations with them, or intelligent
268 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
sympathy with their needs, free help and advice in any difficulties, also
opportunities to improve their education, etc., all of which will give them
confidence in the Communist movement. Communists must also endeavor to
counteract the pernicious influence of hostile organizations which occupy au-
thoritative positions in the respective districts, or may have influence over
the petty bourgeois working peasantry, over those who work in the home-
industries and other semi-proletarian classes. Those who are known by the
exploited, from their own bitter experience, to be the representatives and
embodiment of the entire criminal capitalist system, must be unmasked. All
everyday occurrences whicJi bring the State bureaucracy into conflict with the
ideals of petty bourgeois democracy and jurisdiction, must be made use of
iu a judicial and energetic manner in the course of communist agitation.
Each local country organization must carefully apportion among its mem-
bers the duties of house to house canvassing, in order to spread Communist
propaganda in all the villages, farm steads and isolated dwellings in their
district.
30) The methods of propaganda in the armies and navies of capitalist
states must be adapted to the peculiar conditions in each country. Anti-
militarist agitation of a pacifist nature is extremely detrimental, and only
assists the bourgeois in its efforts to disarm the proletariat. The proletariat
rejects on principle and combats with the utmost energy, every kind of mili-
tary institution of the bourgeois State, and of the bourgeois class in general.
Nevertheless, it utilizes these institutions (army, rifle clubs, citizen guard
organizations, etc.) for the purpose of giving the workers military training
for the revolutionary battles to come. Intensive agitation must therefore be
directed not against the military training of the youth and workers, but against
the militaristic regime, and the domination of the officers. Every possibility
of providing the workers with weapons should most eagerly be taken ad-
vantage of.
The class antagonisms, revealing themselves as they do in the materially
favored positions of the officers as against the bad treatment and social in-
security of life of the common soldiers, must be made very clear to the soldiers.
Besides, the agitation must bring home the fact to the rank and file that its
future is inextricably bound up with the fate of the exploited classes. In
a more advanced period of incipient revolutionary fermentation, agitation
for the democratic election of all commanders by the privates and sailors and
for the formation of soldiers' councils may prove very advantageous in un-
dermining the foundations of capitalist rule.
The closest attention and the greatest care are always required when agitat-
ing against the picked troops used by the bourgeoisie in the class war, and
especially against its armed volunteer bands.
Wherever the social composition and corrupt conduct of these troops and
bands make it possible, every favorable moment for agitation should be made
use of for creating disruption. Wherever it possesses a distinct bourgeois class
character, as for example, in the officers corps, it must be unmasked before
the entire population, and made so despicable and repulsive, that they will
be disrupted from within by virtue of their very isolation.
V. The Organization of Political Struggles
31) For a Communist Party there can be no period in which its party or-
ganization cannot exercise political activity. For the purpose of utilizing every
political and economic situation, as well as all the changes in these situations,
organizational strategy and tactics must be developed. No matter how weak
the party may be, it can nevertheless take advantage of exciting political
events or of extensive strikes affecting the entire economic system, by a
radical propaganda. Once a party has studied to thus make use of a par-
ticular situation it must concentrate the energy of all its members and party
in this campaign.
Furthermore, all the connections which the party jiossesses through the
work of its nuclei and workers' groups must be used for organizing mass meet-
ings in the centers of political importance and following up a strike. The
speakers for the party must do their utmost to convince the audiences that
only communism can bring the struggle to a successful conclusion. Special
commissions must prepare these meetings very thoroughly. If the party can-
not for some reason hold meetings of its own, suitable comrades should address
the strikers at the general meetings organized by the strikers or any other
section of the struggling proletariat.
APPENDIX, PART 1 269
Wherever there is a possibility of inducing the majority or a large part
of any meeting to support our demands, these must be well formulated and
l)roperly argued in motions, and resolutions to be submitted for adoption.
In the event of such resolutions being passed, attempts must be made to have
similar resolutions or motions adopted in ever increasing numbers, at any
rate supported by strong minorities at all the meetings held on the same
question at the same place or in other localities. In this way we shall be
able to consolidate the working masses in the movement, put them under
our moral influence, and have them recognize our leadership.
After all such meetings the committees which participated in the organiza-
tional preparations and utilized its opportunities must hold a conference to
make a report to be submitted to the leading committee of the party and draw
the proper conclusions from the experiences or possible mistakes made, for
the future. In accordance with each particular situation, the practical de-
mands of the workers involved must be made public by means of posters and
handbills, or leaflets distributed among the workers, proving to them by
means of their own demands how the Communist policies are in agreement
with and applicable to the situation. Specially organized groups are required
for the proper distribution of posters, the choice of suitable spots as well as
the proper time for such pasting. The distribution of handbills should be
carried out in and before the factories and in the halls where the workers
concerned are wont to gather, also at important points in the town, employ-
ment offices and stations ; such distribution of leaflets should be accompanied
by attractive discussions and slogans, readily permeating all the ranks of
the working masses. Detailed leaflets should if possible be distributed only
in halls, factories, dwellings or other places where proper attention to the
printed matter may be expected.
Such propaganda must be supported by parallel activity at all the trade
union or factory meetings held during the conflict, and at such meetings,
whether organized by our comrades or only favored by us, suitable speakers
and debaters must seize the opportunity of convincing the masses of our
point of view. Our party newspapers must place at the disposal of such
a special movement the greater part of their space as well as their best argu-
ments, in fact, the entire party organization must for the time being be
made to serve the general purpose of such a movement, whereby our comrades
may woi'k with unabated energy.
32) Demonstrations require very mobile and self-sacrificing leadership, closely
intent upon the aim of a particular action, and able to discern at any given
moment whether a demonstration has reached its highest possible effectiveness,
or whether, during that particular situation, a further intensification is pos-
sible by inducing an extension of the movement into an action of the masses,
by means of demonstration strikes and eventually general strikes. The dem-
onstrations in favor of peace during the war have taught us that even after
the dispersal of such demonstrations, a really proletarian fighting party must
neither deviate nor stand still no matter how small or illegal it may be, if
the question at issue is of real importance and is bound to become of ever
greater interest for the large masses.
Street demonstrations attain greatest effectiveness when their organization Is
based on the large factories. When efiicient preparations by our nuclei and
groups by means of verbal and handbill propaganda has succeeded in bringing a
certain unity of thought and action in a particular situation, the managing
committee must call the confidential party members in the factories, and the
leaders of the nuclei and groups to a conference, to discuss and fix the time and
business of the meeting on the day planned, as well as the determination of
slogans, the prospects of intensification, and the moment of cessation and dis-
persal of the demonstration. The backbone of the demonstration must be
formed by a well instructed and experienced group of diligent oflicials. mingling
among the masses from the moment of departure from the factories up to the
time of dispersal of the demonstration. Responsible party workers must be
systematically distributed among the masses, for the purpo.se of enabling the
officials to retain active contact with each other and keeping them provided
with the requisite political instructions. Such a mobile, politically organized
leadership of a demonstration permits most effectively of constant renewal and
eventual intensification into greater mass actions.
33) Communist Parties already possessing internal firmness, a tried corps of
officials and a considerable number of adherents among the masses, must exert
every effort to completely overcome the influence of the treacherous socialist
270 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
leaders on the working class by means of extensive campaigns, and to rally
the majority of working masses to the Communist banners. Campaigns must
be organized in various ways depending upon whether the situation favors
actual fighting, in which case they become active and set themselves at the head
of the proletarian movement or whether it is a period of temporary stagnation.
The make-up of the Party is also one of the determining factors for selection
of the organized methods for such actions.
For example, the method of publishing a so-called "Open Letter" was used
in order to win over to the V. K. P. D., as a young mass party, tlie socially
decisive sections of the proletariat to a greater extent than had been possible
in certain districts. In order to unmask the treacherous Socialist leaders, the
Communist Party addressed itself to the other mass organizations of the prole-
tariat at a moment of increasing desolation and intensification of class conflicts,
for the purpose of demanding from them, before the eyes of the proletariat,
whether they, with their allegedly powerful organizations, were prepared to take
up the struggle, in co-operation with tlie Communist Party, against tlie obvious
destitution of the proletariat, and for the slightest demands, even for a pitiful
piece of bread.
Wherever the Communist Party initiates a similar campaign, it must make
complete organizational preparations for the purpose of making such an action
re-echo among the broad masses of the working class.
All the factory groups and trade-union oflScials of the party must bring the
demands made by the party, representing the embodiment of the most vital
demands of the proletariat, to a discussion at their next factory and trade-
union meetings, as well as at all public meetings, after having thoroughly pre-
pared for such meetings. For the purpose of taking advantage of the temper
of the masses, leaflets, handbills and posters must be distributed everwhere and
effectively at all places where our nuclei or groups intend to make an attempt
to influence the masses to support our demands. Our party press must engage
in constant elucidation of the prol)lems of the movement during tlie entire period
of such a campaign, by means of short or detailed daily articles, treating the
various phases of tlie question from every possible point of view. The organiza-
tions must continually supply the press with the material lor such articles and
pay close attention that the editors do not let up in their exertions for the
furtherance of the party campaign. The parliamentary grt)ups and municipal
representatives of the party must also work systematically for the promotion
of such struggles. They must bring the movement into discussion, according to
the directions of the party leadership, in the various parliamentary bodies by
means of resolutions or motions. These representatives must consider them-
selves as conscious members of the struggling masses, their exponents in the
camp of the class enemy, and as the responsible oflieials and party workers.
In case the united, organizationally consolidated activities of all the forces of
the party succeed, within a few weeks, in inducing the adoption of large and
ever increasing numbers of resolutions supporting our demands, it will lie the
serious organizational task of our party, to consolidate the masses thus shown
to be in favor of our demands. In the event of the movement having assumed
a particularly trade-union character, it must be attempted above all to increase
our organizational influence on the trade unions.
To this end our groups in the trade unions must proceed to well prepared,
direct action against the local trade union leaders, in order to either overcome
their influence, or else to compel them to wage an organized struggle on the
basis of the demands of our party. Wherever factory councils, industrial com-
mittees or similar institutions exist, our groups must exert influence on the
plenary meetings of these industrial committees or factory councils to also decide
in favor of supporting the struggle. If a number of local organizations have
thus been influenced to support the movement for the bare living interests of
the proletariat, under Communist leadership, they must be called together to
general conferences, which should also be attended by the special delegates of
the factory meetings at which favorable resolutions were adopted. The new
leadership consolidated under Communist influence in this manner, gains new
power by means of such concentration of the active groups of the organized
workers, and this power must be utilized to give an impetus to the leadership
of the Socialist Parties and trade unions or else to fully unmask it.
In those industrial regions where our party possesses its best organizations
and lias obtained the greatest support for its demands, they must succeed, by
means of the organized pressure on the local trade unions and industrial coun-
cil, in uniting all the evident economic isolated struggles in these regions, as
APPENDIX, PART 1 271
well as the developing movements of other groups into one coordinated struggle.
This movement must then draw up certain common elementary demands, en-
tirely apart from the particular craft interests, and then attempt to obtain the
fulfillment of these demands by utilizing the united forces of all the organiza-
tions in the district. In such a movement the Communist Party will then
prove to be the leader of the proletarians prepared for the struggle, whereas
the trade union bureaucracy and the Socialist Party who would oppose such
a united, organized struggle, would then be exposed in their true colors, not
only politically, but also from a practical organizational point of view.
34) During acute political and economic crises causing, as they do, new
movements and struggles, the Communist I'arty should attempt to gain control
of the masses. It may be better to forego any specific demands and rather
appeal directly to the members of the Socialist Parties and the Trade Unions,
pointing out how distress and oppression have driven them into the unavoidable
fights with their employers in spite of the attempts of their bureaucratic leaders
to evade a decisive struggle. The organs of the Party, particularly the daily
newspapers, must emphasize, day by day, that the ('ommunists are ready to
take the lead in the impending and actual struggles of the distressed workers,
that their fighting organization is ready to lend a helping hand wherever possible
to all the oppressed in the given acute situation. It must be pointed out daily
that without these struggles there is no possibility of creating tolerable living
conditions for the workers in spite of the efforts of the old organizations to
avoid and to obstruct these struggles. The Communist factions within the trade
unions and industrial organizations must lay stress continually upon the self-
sacrificing readiness of the Communists and make it clear to their fellow work-
ers that the figlft is not to be avoided. The main task, however, is to unify and
consolidate all the struggles and movements arising out of the situation. The
various nuclei and factions of the industries and crafts which have been drawn
into struggle must not only maintain the closest ties of organization among
themselves, but also to assume the leadership of all the movements that may
break out, through the district committees as well as through the central com-
mittees, furnishing promptly such oflScials and responsible workers as will be
able to lead a movement hand in hand with those engaged in the struggle, to
broaden and deeiien that struggle, and make it wide-spread. It is the main
duty of the organization everywhere to point out and emphasize the common
character of all the various struggles, in order to foster the idea of the general
solution of the question by political means if necessary. As the struggles be-
come more intensified and general in character, it becomes necessary to create
uniform organs for the leadership of the struggles. Wherever the bureaucratic
strike leaders have failed, the Communists nu;st come in at once and ensure a
determined militant leadership. Where the combination of isolated struggles
has been achieved, the common organization of action must be insisted upon, and
it is here that the Communists must seek to win the leadership. The common
organization of action can be achieved, under capable preliminary organization,
by persistent advocacy at the meetings of the factions and industrial councils
as well as at mass meetings of the industries concerned.
When the movement becomes widespread and, owing to the onslaughts of the
employers' organizations and government interference, assumes a political char-
acter, preliminary propaganda and organization work must be started for the
election of Workers' Councils which may become possible and even necessary.
It is here that all party organs should emphasize the idea that only by forg-
ing their own weapons of struggle can the working class achieve its real emanci-
pation. In this propaganda not the slightest consideration should be shown to
the trade union bureaucracy or to the old Socialist parties.
35) The Communist Parties which have already grown strong, and particu-
larly the big mass parties, must be equipped for mass action. All political dem-
onstrations and economic mass movements, as well as local actions, must always
tend to organize the experiences of these movements in order to bring about a
close union with the wide masses. The experiences gained by all new great
movements must be di.scussed at broad conference of the leading ofiicials and
responsible party workers, with the trusted representatives of the large and mid-
dle industries, and in this manner the network of connnunications will be con-
stantly increased and strengthened, and the tru.sted representatives of the indus-
tries will become increasingly permeated with the fighting spirit. Tlie ties of
mutual confidence between the leading officials and resp<5nsible party workers,
272 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
with the shop delegates, are the best guarantee that there will be no premature
political mass-action, in keeping with the circumstances and the actual strength
of the Party.
Without the closest ties between the Party organizations and the proletarian
masses employed in the big and middle industries, the Communist Party cannot
carry out any big mass-actions and really revolutionary movements. The un-
timely collapse of the undoubtedly revolutionary upheaval in Italy last year,
whicli found its strongest expression in the seizing of factories, was certainly due
to a great extent to the treachery of the trade-unionist bureaucracy and the un-
reliability of the political party leaders, but partly also to the total lack of
intimacies of organization between the Party and the industries through politi-
cally informed shop delegates interested in the welfare of the Party. Also the
English coal miners' strike of the present year has undoubtedly suffered through
this lack to an extraordinary degree.
VI. On the Party Peess
36) The Communist Press must be developed and improved by the Party with
indefatigable energy.
No paper may be recognized as a Communist organ if it does not submit to the
directions of the Party.
The Party must pay more attention to having good papers than to having
many of them. Every Communist Party must have a good, and if possible, a
daily central organ.
37) A Communist newspaper must never be a capitalist undertaking, as are
the bourgeois and frequently also the "socialist" papers. Ouj paper must be
independent of all the capitalist credit institutions. A skillful organization of
the advertisements, which render possible the existence of our paper for lawful
mass parties, must never lead to our becoming dependent on the large adver-
tisers. On the contrary, its unswerving attitude on all proletarian social ques-
tions will create the greater respect for it in all our mass parties.
Our papers must not serve for the satisfaction of the desire for sensation or as
a pastime for the general public. They must not yield to the criticism of the
petty bourgeois writers or journalist virtuosos in the striving to become "respect-
able."
38) The Communist paper must in the fir.st place take care of the interests of
the oppressed and fighting workers. It must be our best agitator and the lead-
ing propagator of the proletarian revolution.
It will be the object of our paper to collect all the valuable experience from
the activity of the party members and to demonstrate the same to our comrades
as a guide for the continued revision and improvement of Communist working
methods. In this way it will be the best organizer of our revolutionary work.
It is only this all embracing organization work of the Communist papers and
particularly our principal paper, with this definite object in view, that will be able
to establish democratic centralism and will lead to the efficient distribution of
work in the communist party, thus enabling it to perform its historic mission.
39) The Communist paper must strive to become a Communist undertaking,
i. e., it must be a proletarian fighting organization, a working community of the
revolutionary workers, of all writers who regularly contribute to the paper, edi-
tors, typesetters, printers and distributors, those who collect local material and
discuss the same in the paper, those who are daily active in propagating it, etc.,
etc.
A number of practical measures are required to turn the paper into a real
fighting organ and a strong working community of the communists.
A Communist should be in closest connection with his paper when he has to
work and make sacrifices for it. It is his daily weapon which must be newly
hardened and sharpened every day in order to be fit for use. Heavy material and
financial sacrifices will continually be required for the existence of the commu-
nist paper. The means for its development and inner improvement will con-
stantly have to be supplied from the ranks of party members, until it will have
reached a position of such firm organization and such a wide circulation among
a legal mass party, that it will itself become a strong support of the communist
movement.
It is not sufiicient to be an active canvasser or propagator for the paper, it is
necessary to be a contributor to it as well.
APPENDIX, PART 1 273
Every occurrence of any social or economic interest liappening in the work-
shop from an accident to a general workers meeting, from the ill treatment of an
apprentice to tlie financial report of the concern must be immediately reported
to the paper. The Trade Union fraction must communicate all important deci-
sions and resolutions of its meetings and secretariats, as well as any characteris-
tic actions of our enemies. Public life in the street and at the meeting will
often give an opportunity to the attentive party member to exercise social criti-
cism on details, which published in our paper will demonstrate even to indifferent
readers how closely we follow the daily needs of life.
Such conununications from the life of worlcers and working organizations must
be handled by the board of editors with particular care and attention. They
may be used as 8hort notices that will help to convey the feeling of an intimate
communion existing between our paper and the workers' lives ; or they may be
used as practical examples from the daily life of workers that help to expiain
the doctrine of connunnism. The latter is the shortest way to bring the wide
masses of the workers vitally nearer to the great ideas of Communism. Wher-
ever possible, the board of editors should have tixed hours at a convenient time
of the day, when Ihey should be ready to see any worker coming to them and
listen to his wishes or complaints on the trt)ubles of life, which they ought to
note and use for the enlivenment of the paper.
Under the capitalist system it will of course be impossible for our papers to
become a perfect communist workers' community. However, even under most
ditlieult conditions it might be possible to obtain a certain success in the organi-
zation of such a revolutionary paper. This has been proved by the "Pravda"
of our Russian comrades during the period of l'J12 to 1913. It actually repre-
sented a permanent and active organization of the conscious revolutionary work-
ers of the most important Russian centres. The comrades used their collective
forces for editing, publishing and distributing the paper, many of them doing that
alongside with their other work and sparing the money required from their
earnings.
The newspaper in its turn furnished them with the .best things they desired,
with what they needed for the moment and what they can still use to-day in
their work and their struggle. Such a newspaper could really and truly be called
by the Party members and by many another revolutionary worker "Uur JNews-
paper."
40 ) The proper element for the militant communist press is direct participation
in the campaigns conducted by the Party. If the activity of the Party at a given
time happens to be concentrated upon a definite campaign it is the duty of the
Party-organ to place all its departments, not the editorial pages alone, at the
service of this particular campaign. The editorial board must draw nii.terials
from all sources to feed this campaign, which must be incorporated throughout
the paper both in substance and in form.
41) The matter of canvassing subscriptions for "Our Newspaper" must be
made into a system. The first thing is to make use of every occasion for stirring
up the workers and of every situation in which the political and social conscious-
ness of the worker has been aroused by some special occurrence. Thus, following
each big strike movement or lockout, during which the paper openly and ener-
getically defended the interests of the workers, a canvassing activity should be
organized and be carried on among the participants. Subscription lists and
subscription orders for the paper should be distributed not only in the industries
where communists are engaged and among the trade union fractions of those
industries that had taken part in the strike, but also, whenever possible, subscrip-
tion orders should be distributed from house to house by special groups of workers
doing propaganda for the paper.
Likewise, following each election campaign that aroused the workers, special
groups appointed for the purpose should visit the homes of the workers, carrying
on systematic propaganda for the workers' newspaper.
At times of latent political or economic crises manifesting themselves in the
rise of prices, unemployment, and other hardships affecting great numbers of
workers, all possible efforts should be exerted to win over the professionally
organized workers of the various industries and organize them into working
groups for carrying on systematic house-to-house propaganda for the newspaper.
Experience has shown that the most appropriate time for canvassing work is
the last week of each month. Any local group that would allow even one of these
last weeks of the month to pass by without making use of it for propaganda work
for the newspaijer will be committing a grave omission with regard to the spread
of the Communist movement. The working group conducting propaganda for the
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 19
274 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGAJS'DA ACTIVITIES
newspai)er must not leave out any public meeting or any demonstration without
being there at the opening, during the intervals, and at the close with their
subscription lists for the paper. The same duties are imposed upon every trade
union faction at each separate meeting of the union as well as upon the group
and factions at shop meetings.
42) Every Party member must constantly defend our paper against all its
opponents and carry on an energetic campaign against the capitalist press. He
must expose and brandmark the venality, the falsehood, the suppression of infor-
mation and all the double dealings of this press.
The social-democratic and independent press must be overcome by constant
aggressive criticism, without falling into petty factional polemising, but by per-
sistent unmasking of their treacherous attitude in veiling the most flagrant class-
conflicts day by day. The trade union and other fractions must seek by organized
means to win away the members of trade unions and other workers' organizations
from the misleading and crippling influence of these social-democratic papers.
Also the canvassing and house-to-house campaign for our press, notably among
industrial workers, must be judiciously directed against the social-democratic
press.
"VII. On the Structure of the Party Organism
43) The Party organization spreading out and fortifying itself must not be
organized upon a scheme of mere geographical divisions, but in accordance with
the real economic, political and transport conditions of the given district. The
centre of gravity is to be placed in the main cities, and the centres of large
industries.
In the building xip of a new P^rty there usually manifests itself a tendency to
have the Party organization spread out at once all over the country. Thus dis-
regarding the fact that the number of workers at the disposal of the Party is very
limited, those few workers are being scattered in all directions. This weakens
the recruiting ability and the growth of the Party. In such cases we witness
an extensive system of Party offices spring up, but the Party itself does not
succeed in gaining foot-hold even in the most important industrial cities.
44) In order to get the Party activity centralized to the highest possible degree
it is not advisable to have the Party leadership divided into a hierarchy wirh a
number of rungs subordinated to one another. Tlie thing to be aimed at is that
every large city forming an economic, political or transportation center shouhl
spread out and form a net of organizations within a wide area of the surroundings
of the given locality and the economic political districts adjoining it. The Party
Committee of this large center should form the head of the general body of the
Party and conduct the organizational activity of the district directing its policy
in close connection with the membership of the locality.
The organizers of such a district elected by the district conference and confirmed
by the Central Committee of the Party are obliged to take active part in the Party
life of the local organizations. The Party Committee of the district must be
constantly reinforced by members from among the Party workers of the place,
so tiiat there should be close relationship between the Committee and the large
masses of the district. As the organization keeps developing, efforts should be
made to the effect that the leading Committee of the district should at the same
time be the leading political body of the place. Thus, the Party Committee of the
district together with the Central Committee should play the part of tlie real
leading organ in the general Pai'ty organization.
45) The boundary lines of a party district are not naturally limited by the
area of the place. The determining factor should be that the district committee
be in a position to direct the activities of all the local organizations within the
district in a uniform manner. As soon as this becomes impossible the district
must be divided and new Party districts formed.
It is also necessary in the larger countries to have certain intermediate organi-
zations serving as connecting links between the Central Committees and the
various district Committees, and also the various district Committees with the
locals. Under certain conditious it may be advisable to give to some of these
intermediary organizations, as for example, an organization in a large city with
a strong membership, a leading part, but as a general rule this should be avoided
as leading to decentralization.
The larger intermediary organizations are formed out of local Party organiza-
tions: of country groups or of small cities and of districts of the various parts of
a large city.
APPENDIX, PART 1 275
The Party as a whole is to be uiitler the guidance of the Comnuinist Interna-
tional. The instructions and resolutions of the Executive of the International
on methods affecting the affiliated Parties are to be directed, (1) either to their
Central Committee of the Party or (2» through this Committee to some special
Committee or (3) to the members of the Party at large.
The instructions and resolutions of the international are binding upon the
Party, and, naturally, also upon every Party member.
4(») The large units of the Party organization (districts) are formed from the
local bodies of the Party; namely, from the "local groups" in the villages and
small towns, and from the "districts" or "quarters" of the various sections of the
larger towns.
Any local Party organization which has grown to such an extent that it can
no longer legally hold proper general meetings of its members, must be subdivided.
The members of the local Party organization are to be assigned to the various
working groups for the purpose of daily Party activity. The larger organiza-
tions may find it of greater value to unite the working groups into various col-
lective groups. Each collective group should as a rule be constituted of members
who are in constant contact with each other at their work-shops or in their
daily associations. The duties of the collective group consist in the assignment
of general Party work to the various working groups, the receipt of reports from
the leaders of such groups, the education of candidate members in their midst, etc.
47) The Central Committee of the Party is elected at a Party Congress and
is responsible before it. The Central Committee selects out of its own midst a
smaller body consisting of two sub-committees for political and organizational
activity. Both these sub-committees are z-esponsible for the political and current
M'ork of the Party. These sub-committees or Bureaus arrange for regular joint
sessions of the Central Conunittee of the Party where decisions of later moment
are to be passed. In order to study the general and political situation and to
gain a clear idea of the state of affairs in the Party it is necessary to have
various localities represented on the Central Committee whenever decisions are
to be passed affecting the life of the entire Party. For the same reason ditfer-
ences of opinion regarding tactics should not be suppressed by the Central Com-
mittee if they are of a s-erious nature. On the contrary, these opinions should
get representation upon the Central Conunittee. But the Smaller Bureau should
be conducted along uniform lines, and in order to carry its own authority as
well as upon a considerable nuijority of the ('entral Committee.
Carried on such a basis the Central Committee of the Party, especially in case
of legal mass parties will be able in the shortest possible time to form a firm
foundation for a discipline reciuiring the unconditional confidence of the Party
membership and at the same time manifesting the vacillations and deviations
that make their appearance among the responsible workers which are to be
recognized and done away with. Such abnormalities in the Party may be re-
moved before reaching the stage where they should have to be brought up before
a Party Congress for decision.
48) Every leading Party Committee must have its work among its members
in order to achieve efficiency in the various branches of work. This may neces-
sitate the formation of various special committees as for example committees
for propaganda, for editorial work, for the trade union campaign, for communi-
cation, etc. Every special committee is subordinated either to the Central Com-
mittee or to the District Committee.
The control over the activity as well as over the composition of all committees
should be in the hands of the given District Committee and in the last instance
in the hand of the Party's Central Committee. All the members attached to the
Partv for particular party work are directly responsible before the Party Com-
mittee. It may become advisable from time to time to change the occupations and
the office of tliose people attached for various Party work such as editors, organ-
izers, propagandists, etc., provided that this does not interfere too much with the
Party work. The editors and propagandists must participate in the regular Party
work in one of the Partv groups.
49) The Central Committee of the Party, as also of the Communist Interna-
tional, is empowered at any time to demand complete reports from all Conununist
organizations, from their organs and from individual members. The representa-
tives of the Central Committee and comrades authorized by it are to be admitted
to all meetings and sessions with a deciding voice. The Central Committee of
the Partv must always have at its disposal pleni-potentiaries (Conunissars) to
instruct and inform the leading organs of the various districts and regions not
onlv l)v means of their circulars and letters, but also by direct, verbal and re-
276 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
sponsible agencies on questions of politics and organization. Every organiza-
tion and every branch of the party, as well as every individual member, has the
right of communicating his respective wishes, suggestions, remarks or complaints
directly to the Central Committee of the Party, or of the International, at any
time.
50) The instructions and the decisions of the leading Party organs are obliga-
tory f(n' the subordinate organizations and for the indi\idual members. The
responsibility of the leading organs and the duty to prevent either delinquency or
abuse of tlieir leading position, can only partly be determined in a formal manner.
The less their formal responsibility (as for instance, in illegal Parties), the
greater the obligation upon them to study the opinion of the Party members, to
obtain regular and solid information, and to form their own decisions only after
mature and thorough deliberation.
.'')1 ) I'he Party members are obliged to act always as disciplined members of a
militant organization in all their pui)lic actions. Should differences of opinion
occur as to the proper mode of action, this should be determined as far as possible
by previous discussion inside the Party organization, and the action .should be
according to the decision thus arrived at. Even if the decision of the organiza-
tion or of the Party Committee should appear faulty in the opinion of tlie rest
of the niember.s, these comrades in all their public activities must never lose sight
of the fact, that it is the worst form of undisciplined conduct and the gravest
military error, to hinder or to break entirely the unity of the common front.
It is the supreme duty of every Party member to defend the Communist Party
and above all the Communist International, against all the enemies of Com-
munism. He who forgets and, on the contrary, pul>licly assails the Party or the
Communist International, is a bad Communist.
52) The statutes of the Party must be drawn in siich a manner, as not to
become a hindrance, but rather a helping force to the leading Party organs in
the constant development of the general Party organization and in the continuous
improvement of Party activity. The decisions of the Connnunist International
must be promptly carried out by the affiliated Parties, even in the case when
corresponding alterations in existing statutes and Party decisions can be adopted
only at a later date.
VIII. Legal and Illegal Activity
53) The Party must be so organized, that it shall always be in a position to
adapt itself quickly to all the changes that may occur in the conditions of the
struggle. The Communist Party must develop into a militant organization capable
of avoiding a tight in the open against overwhelming forces of the enemy, con-
centrated upon a given point; but on the other hand, the very concentration of
the enemy nuist be so utilized as to attack him in a spot where he least suspects
it. It would be the greatest mistake for the Party organization to stake every-
thing upon a I'ebellion and street fighting, or only upon condition of severe
oppression. Communists must perfect their preliminary revolutionary work in
every situation on a basis of preparedness, for it is frequently next to impossible
to foresee the changeable wave of stormy and calm periods: and e^•en in cases
wdiere it might be possible, this foresight cannot, in many cases, be made use of
for reorganization, because the change as a rule comes quickly, and frequently
quite suddenly.
57) Therefore, our general party work must be apportioned in a manner which
would ensure, even in the pre-revolutionary period, the foundation and consoli-
dation of a fighting organization commensurate with the needs of the revolution.
It is of the greatest importance that the directing body of the Communist Party
should be guided in its entire activity by the revolutionary requirements, and that
it should endeavor as far as possible, to gain a clear idea of what these are likely
to be. This is, naturally, not an easy matter, but that should not be a reason for
leaving out of consideration this very important point of communist organiza-
tional leadership.
Even the best organized party would be faced with very difficult and compli-
cated tasks, if it had to undergo great functional changes in a period of open
revolutionary uprising. It is quite possible that our political Party will be called
upon to mobilize in a few days its forces for the revolutionary struggle. Prob-
ably, it will have to mobilize, in addition to the party forces, their reserves, the
sympathizing organizations, viz., the unorganized revolutionary masses. The
formation of a regular red army is, as yet, out of the question. We must con-
APPENDIX, PART 1 277
quer without a previously organized army — tlirough the masses under the leader-
ship of the party. For this reason, even the most heroic effort would not succeed
should our party not be well prepared and organized for such an eventuality.
58) One has probably observed that the revolutionary central directive bodies
have proved unable to cope with revolutionary situations. The proletariat has
generally been able to acliieve great revolutionary organization as far as minor
tasks are concerned, but there has nearly always been disorder, confusion and
chaos at its headquarters. Sometime there has been a lack of even the most
elementary apportioning of work. The intelligence department is often so badly
organized that it does more harm than good. There is no reliance oa postal and
other communications. All secret postal and transport arrangements, secret
quarters and printing works are generally at the mercy of lucky or unlucky cir-
cumstances, -and afford line opportunities for the "agents provocaieurs" of the
enemy forces.
These defects cannot be remedied unless the party organizes a special branch
in its administration for this particular work. The military intelligence service
requires practice and .special training and knowledge. The same may be said of
the secret service work directed against the political police. It is only through
long practice that a satisfactory secret service dep-irtment can be cieatcd. For
all this specialized revolutionary work, every legal communist party must make
secret preparations, no matter how small. In most cases such a secret apparatus
may be created by means of perfectly legal activity.
For instance, it is quite possible to establish a secret postal and transport com-
munications by a code system through the judicially arranged distribution of
legal leatlets, and through correspondence in the Press.
59) The Communist Organizer must look upon every member of the party and
every revolutionary worker as a prospective soldier in the future revolutionary
army. For this reason he must allot him a place in the party which will fit him
for his future role. His present activity must take tiie form of useful service,
necessary for present party work, and not mere drilling which the practical
worker of today rejects. One must also not forget tl'.at this kind of activity is
for every Communist the best preparation for the exigencies of the ilnal struggle.
« 9 * * * * *
54) The legal Communist Parties of the capitalist countries usually fail to
grasp the importance of the task before the Party to be properly prepared for the
armed struggle, or for the illegal fight in general. Communist organizations often
commit the error of depending on a permanent legal basis for their existence, and
of conducting their work according to the needs of the legal tasks.
Ou the other hand, illegal parties often fail to make use of all the possibilities
of legal activity towards the building up of a party organization which would
have constant intercourse with the revolutionary masses. Underground organi-
zations which ignore these vital truths run the risk of becoming merely groups of
conspirators, wasting their labors in futile Sysiphus tasks.
Both those tendencies are erroneous. Elvery legal communist organization
must know how to insure for itself complete preparedness for an underground
existence, and above all for revolutionary outbreaks. Every illegal communist
organization must, on the other hand, make the fullest use of the possibilities
offered by the legal labor movement, in order to become, by means of intensive
party activity, the organizer and real leader of the great revolutionary masses.
55) Both among legal and underground Party circles there is a tendency for
the illegal Communist organization activity to evolve into the establishment and
maintenance of a purely military organization isolated from the rest of the Party
organization and activity. This is absolutely erroneous. On the contrary, during
the pre-rev(^lutionary period the formation of our militant organizations must be
mainly accomplished through the genei-al work of the Connnunist Party. The
entire' Party must be developed into a militant organization for the Revolution.
Isolated revolutionary-military organizations, prematurely created in the pre-
revolutionary periods, are apt to show tendencies towards dissolution, because of
the lack of direct and useful party work.
56) It is of course imperative for an illegal party to protect its members and
party organs from being found out by the authorities, and to avoid every possi-
bility of facilitating such discovery by registration, careless collecting of contri-
butions and injudicious distribution of revolutionary material. For these rea-
sons, it cannot u.se frank organizational methods to the same extent as a legal
party. It can, nevertheless, through practice, acquire more and more proficiency
in this matter.
278 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
On the other hand, a legal mass party must be fully prepared for illegal work
and periods of struggle. It must never relax its preparations for any eventuali-
ties (viz., it must have safe hiding places for duplicates of members' files; must,
in most cases, destroy correspondence, put important documents into safe keeping
and must provide conspirative training for its messengers, etc. ) .
It is often assumed in the circles of the legal, as well as of the illegal parties,
that the illegal organization must be in the nature of a rather exclusive, entirely
military institution, occupying, within the party a position of splendid isolation.
This assumption is quite erroneous. The formation of our fighting organization
in the pre-revolutionary period must depend principally on the general communist
party work. The entire party must be made into a fighting organization for the
revolution.
The Organization of the Communist International
(Adopted at the 24th Session July T2th, 1921.)
The Executive Committee of the Communist International mvTst lie so organized
that it is able to take a stand upon all questions connected with the activities
of the proletariat. In addition to the general appeals hitherto issued by the
Executive upon critical questions of this kind it is necessary also, that, on inter-
national questions under dispute, the Executive should try to find the best method
of organizing and standardizing the propaganda throughout the various sections.
The Communist International must actually become the International of action,
and lead the actual day-to-day fight of the revolutionary proletariat of all
countries. The following preliminary conditions are indispensable :
1) The Parties affiliated to the Communist International must do their utmost
to keep in the closest touch with the Executive ; they must not only appoint
the best representatives of their country to the Executive, but must also keep
the Executive constantly supplied with the best information, so that the Executive
will be in a position to take a stand on any political problem that may arise, on
the basis of real documents and exhaustive materials. In order that full use
may be made of such material, the Executive must organize and subdivide its
special activities. An international institute of political economy and statistics
should be attached to the Executive for the benefit of the labor movement and
communism.
2) The afllliated Parties must learn to regard themselves as sections of one
Universal International Party. Regular exchange of information must therefore
be arranged between the parties, particularly if they happen to be in neighboring
States, for they are then equally interested in the political conflicts which arise
out of the clash of the economic interests of capitalism.
At the present time community of action can best be achieved by mutual par-
ticipation in important conferences, and by reciprocal exchange of representatives.
This exchange of representatives must be made an absolutely obligatory con-
dition for all the Sections that are capable of rendering substantial services to
the cause.
3) In order to promote this welding together of all the National Sections into
a single International Party the Executive should publish a newspaiier in all the
important languages of Western Europe. This paper would be able to direct
the ever increasing growth of communist ideas ; and further by supplying reliable
and uniform information would serve as a basis for active work in the various
Sections.
4) By sending plenipotentiary members of the Executive to Western Europe
and America, the Executive can support actively, the aspirations of the pro-
letariat of all countries towards a real International based on the common daily
struggle. These representatives must keep the Executive informed about the
particular conditions under which the Communist Parties of the various capitalist
and colonial countries Ijave to work, and they must also see to it that these
Parties keep in the closest possible touch with the Executive, as well as with
each other, in order to increase their fighting efl!iciency. The Executive, as well
as the affiliated parties, must see to it. that, by means of trusted personal mes-
sengers and written correspondence, communication between the Executive of
the individual Communist Parties is regular and frequent, and is carried out with
greater safety and speed than hitherto. In this way it should be possible at
any time, to take a unanimous stand upon any important political questions
which may arise.
APPENDIX, PART 1 279
5) In order to be able to cope with this exti'aordinarily intensified activity,
the Executive must be considerably augmented. Those sections to which 40
votes had been allotted by the Congress, as well as the Executives of the Young
Communist International, have 2 votes each in the Executive ; the sections with
30 and 20 votes at the Congress have 1 vote each. Tlie Russian Communist Party
is to have 5 votes as before. The representatives of the remaining sections
are to have consultative votes. The Congress elects the President and instructs
the Executive to appoint three leading secretaries who, if possible, should be
chosen from different Parties.
These secretaries shall be assisted in their work by members of the Executive,
divided into various Sections, whose duty it shall be to assist in the transaction
of the current work of the Executive and of the Secretariat, either through
their national departments, or by taking upon themselves the task of reporting
upon certain definite questions. The members of the Small Bureau shall be
chosen by the Executive.
6) The seat of the Executive Committee is Russia, the first proletarian State.
But the Executive shall try to extend its infiuence by organizing conferences
wherever possible outside of Russia, and, further, it shall try to bring about the
centralization of the International through its organization and political
leadership.
The Communist Intebnational and the Red International of Trade Unions
(struggle against the tellow trade] union international of amsterdam)
(Adopted at the 2^th Session, July 12th, 1921)
1. The Fallacy of "Neutrality"
The bourgeoisie is holding the working class in subjection, not only by means
of violence but also by the most refined deception. The school, the church,
parliament, art, literature, the daily press — all of them represent powerful means
of deceiving the working masses, and of imbuing the proletariat with the ideas
of the bourgeoisie.
One of the bourgeois ideas, which the ruling classes have succeeded in incul-
cating among the working masses, is the idea of trade union neutrality, that
is, the idea of the non-political and non-party character of the trade-unions.
For the last decades of modern history, and especially after the close of the
imperialist war, the trade-unions throughout Europe and in America have become
the largest proletarian organizations, in some countries embracing the entire
working class.
The bourgeoisie is fully aware that the near future of the capitalist system
depends on the extent to which the trade unions are going to free themselves
from bourgeois infiuences. Hence, the frantic elforts of the bourgeoisie and
their myrmidons, the social-democrats throughout the world, to keep the trade
unions at any price in the thraldom of bourgeois social-democratic ideas.
The bourgeoisie cannot very well invite the trade unions quite openly to sup-
port the bourgeois parties. It is urging them, therefore, not to support any
party, the revolutionary Communist Party included, but in reality the bourgeoisie
means that the trade-unions must not support the party advocating Communism.
The doctrine of neutrality (or of the non-political and non-party character of
the trade-unions) is not of recent growth. For decades this bourgeois idea has
been inculcated in the trade-unions of Great Britain, Germany, America and
other countries by the representatives of the priest-ridden Christian trade unions,
as well as by the leaders of the bourgeois Hirsch-Duucher trade-unions, the
leaders of the old pacific British trade-unions, the representatives of the so-called
free trade-unions of Germany and by many representatives of syndicalism.
Legien, Gompers, Jouhaux, Sidney Webb have been preaching neutrality to the
trade-unions for decades. But in reality the trade-unions have never been and
could never be neutral. Not only is neutrality harmful to the trade-unions, it
cannot positively be maintained. In the struggle between capital and labor no
mass organization of workers can remain neutral. Consequently, it is impos-
sible for the trade-unions to remain neutral in their relations to the bourgeois
parties and to the party of the proletariat. This the leaders of the bourgeoisie
know full well. But just as it is imperative for the bourgeoisie that the masses
280 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
should believe in the after life it i^ imperative for them that the trade unions
should maintain neutrality with regard to politics and with regard to the work-
men's Communist Party. For the exploitation of and the mastery over the
workers the bourgeoisie needs not only the priest, the policeman and the general,
but also the trade-union bureaucrats, the "leaders" who preached to the workers
neutrality and non-participation in political struggles.
The fallacy of the neutrality idea had become more and more apparent to
the advanced proletariat of Europe and America even before the imperialist war.
This fallacy became still more apparent as the class contrasts became more
acute. When the imperialist mass-murders began in real earnest, the old trade-
union leaders were obliged to drop the mask of neutrality and to side quite
openly with their respective bourgeoisies.
During the imperialist war those social democrats and trade-unionists who
have had been preaching neutrality to the trade-unionists for many years, while
driving the workers into the service of the most dastardly murder policy, un-
blushingly assumed the role of agents for certain political parties not for the
parties of the working cla.ss, but for those of the bourgeoisie.
After the imperialist war these same social-democratic and trade-union leaders
have again been trying to put on the mask of trade-union neutrality, etc. Now
that the abnormal war conditions are at an end, these agents of the bourgeoisie
are trying to adapt themselves to the new circumstances and want to lure away
the workers from the path of revolution to the only path which is profitable
for the bourgeoisie.
Economics and politics are closely connected. This connection becomes espe-
cially evident in such epochs as the present. There is not a single important
question of political life which does not concern not only the labor party, but
also the trade-unions, and vice versa. If the French imperialistic government
orders the mobilization of a certain class for the occupation of the Ruhr basin
and for the strangulation of Germany in general, can it be said that this purely
political question does not concern the French trade-unions? Can a truly revolu-
tionary French trade-unionist remain neutral, and take up a non-iiolitical attitude
on such a question? Or to use another illustration, — if there is in England a
purely economic struggle such as the present lockout of the miners, can the
Communist party declare that this does not concern it, that it is a purely trade-
union question? At a time when the struggle against misery and poverty is
the order of the day for millons of workers, when the requisitioning of bourgeois
houses is imperative for the solution of the housing problem of the proletariat,
when the practical experiences of life force the workers to interest themselves
in the question of the arming of the working class, when the seizure of factories
by the workers is taking place in various countries, can it l>e asserted that in
such a period the trade-unions must not take part in such a struggle and must
remain neutral, which really means that they must serve the bourgeoisie?
With all the wealth of nomenclature of the political parties in Europe and
America, these parties are to be divided into three groups with regard to their
nature :
1) Parties of the bourgeoisie; 2) Parties of the petty bourgeoisie (chiefly the
social-democrats), and 3) The party of the proletariat. All trade unions, which
proclaim themselves to be non-party and declare their neutrality with regard
to the above mentioned party groups, are practically supporting the parties of
the petty-bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie.
2. Amstekdam a Bulwark of Capitalism
The International Trade Union Association of Amsterdam represents the
organization in which the Second International and the Second and a Half Inter-
national meet each other and join hands. The whole international bourgeoisie
looks upon this organization with assurance and confidence. The principal idea
of the International Trade Union Association is at present the idea of the neu-
trality of Trade Unions. It is not mere chance that this watchword is used by
the bourgeoisie and their lackeys, the social democrats, as well as the Right
Trade-Unionists to unite the wide masses of workers in Western Europe and
America. While the political 2nd International that openly took the side of the
bourgeoisie experienced a complete collapse, a certain success may be noted in
regard to the International Trade Union Association of Amsterdam that wants
to act under cover of the idea of neutrality.
Under the flag of neutrality the Amsterdam Trade Union Association under-
takes the execution of the dirtiest and most difficult commissions of the bour-
geoisie; the strangling of the miners' strike in England (that task was fulfilled
APPENDIX, PART 1 281
by the well-known Thomas, who is at the same time president of the Second
International and one of the best known leaders of the Amsterdam Yellow Trade
Union Association) ; the decrease of wages, the organized plundering of the
German workers for the sins of imperialist German bourgeoisie; Leipart and
Grassman, Wiesel and Bauer, Robert Schmidt and J. H. Thomas, Albert Thomas
:ind Jouhaux, Daszinsky and Zulawsky, — they have all distributed their roles
among themselves : some have exchanged their posts as trade-union leaders for
ministerial posts in the service of bourgeois governments or for minor govern-
ment positions, while others who are allied to them in body and soul are at
rhe head of the Amsterdam Trade Union International preaching to the workers
of the trade unions neutrality in political struggles.
At the present moment the Amsterdam International Trade Union Association
represents the chief support of International Ciipital. Whoever does not fully
understand the necessity of the tight against the false idea of nonpolitical and
Don-party character of the Trade Unions cannot tight successfully against this
capitalist fortress. In order to decide upon the most etticient righting methods
to be used against the yellow Amsterdam International, it will be necessary to
clearly and definitely ascertain the mutual relations between the Communist
I'arty and the trade unions of each country.
3. The Communist Party and the Trade Unions
The Communist Party is the vanguard of the proletariat, that clearly recog-
nized the ways and means to be used for the liberation of the proletariat from
the capitalist yoke and consciously accepted the Communist progi'am.
The trade unions represent mass organizations of the proletariat which de-
velop into organizations uniting all the workers of a given branch of industry;
they include not only the conscious communists but also the medium and back-
ward ranks of the proletariat, who through the lessons taught by their life's ex-
perience are gratlually educated to understand Conununism. The port played
by the trade associations in the period preceding the struggle of the proletariat
for the conquest of power, and dniing the period of struggle for power is in
many respects different from the part played by them in the period succeeding
the conquest of power. But throughout the dilferent periods the trade unions
represent a wider organization, uniting a greater mass of people than the party
and the relations between the party and the unions must be the Same as between
the centre and the periphery. Prior to the securing of power the truly prole-
tarian trade unions have to organize the workers principally on an economic
basis to fight for improvements that can be obtained before capitalism is com-
pletely defeated. Th<^ir principal ob.iect, however, must be the organization of
the proletarian mass fight against capitalism and for the proletarian revolution.
During this revolution the truly revolutionary trade unions conjointly with the
party organize the masses for the immediate attack on the f(^rfs of capitalism
and undertake the laying of a foundation for social revolution.
After the power has been secured by the proletariat the trade unions con-
centrate the greatest part of their activity to the organization of the economic
conditions on a Socialist basis.
During all these three phases of the campaign, the trade union must support
the proletarian vanguard, the communist party, which takes the lead through-
out the proletarian fight.
In order to achieve this end, the communists together with sympathizing ele-
ments must organize Communist fractions within the trade unions, (which
must be completely under the control of the Communist Party.
The tactics adopted by the Second Congress of the C'ommunist International
in regard to formation of communist fractions in every trade union pi'oved to be
fully up to the mark during the coiu'se of last year and have given good re-
sults in Germany, England, France, Italy and a numl)er of other countries. The
principles of the Communist International respecting the participation of com-
munists in the trade union movement nuist not be intluenced by the circumstance
that considerable numbers of politically inexperienced workers, have lately left
the free social democratic trade imioas not expecting to have any direct ad-
vantage from the membership in the same (as has lately been the case in
Germany). It is the task of the Communists to explain to the proletarians, that
they will not find salvation in leaving the old trade unions before creating new
ones, as this will only turn the proletariat into a disorganized mob; they must
be told that it is necessary to revolutionize the trade unions, to expel the spirit
of reformism together with the treacherous reformist leaders, and thus con-
vert the trade unions into a real support of the revolutionary proletariat.
282 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
4. The Tasks of Our Parties
During the next epoch the principal task of all communists will be to con-
centrate their energy and perseverance on winning over to their side the ma-
jority of the workers in all labor unions. They must not be discouraged by the
present reactionary tendency of the labor unions, but take part actively in the
daily struggles of the unions and win them over to the cause of Communism
in spite of all resistance.
The real test of the strength of every Communist Party is the actual influence
it has on the workers in the labor unions. The party must learn how to in-
fluence the Unions without attempting to keep them in leading strings. Only the
Communist fraction of the union is subject to the control of the party, not the labor
union as a whole. If the Communist fractions persevere, if their activity is
devoted and intelligent, the party will reach a pcjsition where its advice will be
accepted gladly and readily by the unions.
In France the labor unions are now passing through a wholesome period of
fermentation. The working class is regaining strength after the crisis in the
workers' movement and is learning to recognize and punish the past treachery
of the reformist Socialist and trade-unionists. Many of the revolutionary trade-
unionists of France are still unwilling to take part in the political tight "and are
prejudiced against the idea of a political proletarian party. They still hold to
the idea of neutrality as expressed in the well-known Charte d'Amiens of 1906.
The point of view of this fraction of the revolutionary trade-unionists may be
regarded as a source of great danger for the movement. If this fraction should
gain control of the majority in the unions, it would not know what to do with
this majority. It would be helpless against the agents of capitalism, the
Jouhaux and the Dumoulins.
The revolutionary trade-unionists of France will remain without definite lines
of demarcation as long as the Communist party itself lacks such lines. The
Communist Party of Ffance must strive to work in friendly cooi>eration with
the best elements of revolutionary trade-unionism. It is, however, essential
that the party should rely solely upon its own elements. Sections should be
formed wherever three Connnunists are to be found. The party must at once
undertake a campaign against neutrality. It must point out in a friendly but
decided manner the defects in the position of revolutionary trade-unionism.
This is the only possible way to revolutionize the trade miion movement in
France and to establish close cooperation between the party and the trade-union
movement.
In Italy the situation is very peculiar. The majority of the trade-union
members are revolutionary but the leadership of the Confederation del Lavoro
is in the hands of reformists and centrists whose sympathies are with Amster-
dam. The first task of the Italian Communists will be to or.ganize a persistent
daily struggle in every section in the trade unions; endeavor to systematically
and patiently expose the treachery and indecision of the leaders and to wrest
the trade-unions from their control. In regard to the revolutionary trade-union
elements of Italy, the Italian Communists will have to adopt the same measures
as the Communists in France.
In Spain we have a strong revolutionary trade-union movement, which still
lacks a clearly defined final purpose, and a young and relatively weak Com-
munist Party. In view of the existing conditions, the party must do everything
possible to secure a firm foothold in the Trade Unions. It must support the
unions in word and deed, and exercise a clarifying influence on the whole trade-
union movement. It must likewise establish friendly relations with the unions
and make every effort to organize the whole struggle in common.
Important developments are taking place in the British trade-union movement
which is rapidly becoming more and more revolutionary. The mass movement
is growing, and the influence of the old trade-union leaders is on the wane. The
Party must do its utmost to establish itself firmly in the great Trade Unions
(miners, etc.). Every member of the Party must work actively in some trade-
union, and must endeavor to make Communism popular through active and
persevering work. Every effort must be made to get into closer contact with
the masses.
The same process is taking place in America, although at a slower rate.
Communists must on no account leave the ranks of the reactionary Federation of
Labor. On the contrary, they should get into the old trade unions in order to
revolutionize them. Co-operation with the best sections of the I. W. W. is
APPENDIX, PART 1 283
imperative; this does not, however, preclude an educational campaign against
the prejudices of the I. W. W.
In Japan a great trade-union movement has rapidly come into being, but it
lacks an enlightened leadership. The Communistic elements of Japan must
support this movement and use every effort to direct it into Marxian cliannels.
In Czecho-Slovakia, our party is backed by the majority of the working class,
but the trade-union movement is, to a great extent, still in the hands of the
social patriots and centrists and is therefore divided by nationalities. This is
because the party itself has lacked organization and clearly defined principles
among the revolutionary-minded trade-unionists. The party must make a great
effort to put an end to these conditions, and to get control of the trade-unions.
For this purpose the creation of nuclei and of a united Communist Central trade-
union organization to include all nationalities is absolutely indispensable. Tlie
utmost efforts must be applied in the direction of uniting the various divided
natonal associations.
In Austria and Belgium the social patriots have with great cunning succeeded
in getting control of the trade-union movement. The trade-union movement is
the chief field for revolutionary action in these countries. That is why it should
have received more attention from the Communist Parties.
In Norway the party which has the majority of workers behind it, must
become more influential over the trade-union movement.
In Sweden the Party has not only to contend with reformism, but also with
petty bourgeois tendencies in the Socialist movement.
In Germany the Party is gradually getting control of the trade-union movement.
On no account should concessions be made to the partisans of the "Leave the
Trade-Unions" movement.
This would play into the hands of the social-patriots. All attempts to expel
Communists from the unions must be met by constant and energetic resistance
if we are to win over to Communism the majority of the organized workers.
5. Relations of the Communist International to the Red Trade-Union
International
These considerations will define the mutual relations to be established between
the Cbmmunist International on the one hand, and the Red International of
Trade Unions, on the other.
The task of the Communist International is not only to direct the political
struggle of the proletariat in the narrow sense of the word, but to guide its entire
struggle for liberation, whatever form it may acquire. The Communist Inter-
national must be not only the arithmetical total of the central organizations of
the Communist Parties of different countries. The Communist International
must stimulate and coordinate the work throughout class struggle of all prole-
tarian organizations, the purely political organizations, trade unions, the Soviet
and cultural organizations, etc.
Quite unlike the Yellow International, the Red International of Trade Unions
will in no wise adopt the point of view of non-partyism or neutrality. Any
organization which would wish to remain neutral with regard to the Second, the
"Two and a Half." and the Third International, would unavoidably become a
pawn in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The program of action of the Inter-
national Council of the Red Trade Unions which tlie Communist International
will lay before the First Congress of Red Trade Unions, will be defended in
reality by the Communist Parties alone and by the Communist International.
On these grounds alone if we are to succeed in carrying out the new revolutionary
tasks of the trade unions, the red trade unions will have to work hand in hand
and in close contact with the Communist Party, and the Red International of
Trade Unions will have to bring each step of its work in agreement with the
work of the Communist International.
The prejudices of neutrality, of "independence," of non-party and non-political
tactics, with which certain revolutionary syndicalists of France, Spain, Italy
and other countries are infected, are objectively nothing more than a tribute
paid to bourgeois ideas. The Red Trade Unions cannot conquer the Yellow
Amsterdam International and consequently capitalism without repudiating the
bourgeois ideas of independence and neutrality once for all. From the point of
view of economizing and concentrating blows, the formation of a single united
proletarian International would unite in its ranks political parties and all other
forms of labor organizations. The future will undoubtedly belong to this type
2§4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of organization. However, in tlie present transitional period, given the actual
variety of trade unions in the different countries, it is unavoidably necessary to
create' an International Association of Red Trade Unions, which will on the
whole stand for the platform of the Communist International, but which will
admit members much more freely than is done by the Connnunist International.
The Third Congress of the Communist International promises its support to
the Red International of Trade Unions, which is to be organized on these lines.
To bring about a closer union between the Connnunist International and the
Red International of Trade Unions, the Third Congress of the Communist Inter-
national proposes that it should be represented by three members on the Executive
of the Red International of Trade Unions and vice versa.
The program of action which in the opinion of the Communist International
should be accepted by the Constituent AVorld Congress of Red Trade Unions,
runs approximately as follows :
THE PEOGRAM OF ACTION
1) The acute economic crisis spreading all over the world, the catastrophical
fall of wholesale prices, the overproduction of goods combined with an actual
lack of sale, the militant policy of the bourgeoisie towards the working class,
the tenacious tendency towards the reduction of wages and the throwing of the
workers far backwards; the growing exasperation of the masses on one side
and the impotence of the old trade unions and their methods on the other, —
impose new problems on the revolutionary class trade unions all over the world.
New methods of economic struggle ai-e required. Called forth by the decomposi-
tion of capitalism, a new aggressive economic policy of the Trade Unions is
necessary in order to parry the attaclvs of capital, and strengthen the old posi-
tion—passing over to the offensive.
2) The basis of the tactics of the trade unions is the direct action of revolu-
tionary ma.sses and their organizations against capitalism. The gains of the
workers are in proportion to the degree ot direct action and revolutionary
lactivity of the masses. Under '"direct acti(m" we mean all forms of direct
pressure of the workers upon the employers and the state: boycott, strike, street
demonstrations, seizure of the factories, armed uprisings and other revolutionary
activity, which tend to unite the woi-king class in the fight for Socialism. The
aim Oi the revolutionary trade unions is, therefore, to turn direct action into a
weapon of education and lighting ability f>f the working masses for the social
revolution and institution of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
3) The last year of the struggle has shown with particular vividness the im-
potence of strictly trade union organizations. The fact of the workers in one
concern belonging to .several unions produce a weakening effect on tlie struggle.
It is necessary — and this should be the starting point of a tenacious struggle —
to pass from a strictly trade union, to an organization of trade unions on the
stiaiggle of production. "One union for one enterprise"- — this is the militant
motto in tlie organization structure. The fusion of related unions into one union
should he effected in a revolutionary way putting this (juestion directly before
the members of the unions in the factories and concerns and further, before
district and regional conferences, as well as Ijefore the national congres.'jes.
4) Etch factory and each null should become a citadel of the revolution.
Old forms of communication between rank and file members of the union and the
union itself sucli as money collectors, repre.sentatives, proxies and others should
be substituted by the formation of factory committees. The factory conimittee
must be elected by the workers engaged in the given enterprise, independently
of the political creed they profess. The problems imposed upon the supporters
of the Red International of Trade Unions is to involve all the workers of a given
concern into the election of their representative organ. The atreinpt to elect
the factory committee exclusively among adherents of the same party, casting
aside the broad non-party rank and file workers, should be severely condemned.
This would be only a nucleus and not a factory conimittee. The revolutionary
workers should influence and act uijon the general meetings as well as upon
committees of action and their rank and file members.
5) The first question to l)e put befoi'e the workers and the factory com-
mittee is the maintenance of the workers discharged on account of unemploy-
ment, at the expense of the enterprise. It should not be permitted that workers
Should be thrown out into the streets without the enterprise being in the least
concerned with it. The owner must be compelled to pay full wages to the
unemployed and mainly to the workers engaged in the enterprises, explaining
APPENDIX, PART 1 285
to the lattPi- at the same time that tlie problem of unempkjyment is not to be
solved within the capitalist regime, and that the only way to abolish it is the
social revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
6) The closing down of enterprises and curtailing of the workers' hours are
at the present time the most efficient weapon for tiie cleansing of the industrial
establishments of unreliable elements with the help of which the bourgeoisie is
compelling the workers to accept the reduction of wages, increasing of the
working day and the abolition of collective bargaining. The lock-out is taking
more and more detinitely a form of direct action on the part of the employers.
For tliis i)urpose special controlling connnissions should be instituted with regard
to fulfilling orders controlling raw materials, in order to verify the quantities of
available raw material necessary for production, as well as money resources
in the banks. Specially elected controlling commissions must investigate in a
most careful manner the financial co-relation existing between the given enter-
prise and other concerns and the practical task of abolishing commercial mastery-
should be imposed upon the workers for this purpose.
7) One of the ways of struggling against the closing down of concerns for
the purpose of reduction of wages and standard of life, should be the taking hold
of the workers of the factories and mills and proceed with production by them-
selves di^spite the owners.
Owing to the lack of goods it is highly important to continue prodviction, and
the workers should therefore oppose the premeditated closing down of factories
and mills. In comiection with local conditions and the condition of production,
the political situation, the tension of the social struggle, the seizure of the enter-
prises may and should l)e followed by other means of pressure upon capital. On
taking hold of the concern the management of the same should be confined to
factories and workshops conmiittees and a representative of tlie union specially
appointed for the purpose.
8) The economic struggle should follow the motto of an increase in wages
and of the improvements of the labor conditions to a much higher degree as
compared with tlie pre-war period. The attempts to bring back the workers to
the pre-war conditions of labor must meet witli the most resolute revolutionary
resistance. The exhaustion of the working class as a consequence of the war
must be compensated by an increase in wages and the improvement of the labor
conditions. The reference of capitalists to foreign competition should by no
means be taken into consideration. The revolutionary trade unions are bound
to approach the question of wages and labor conditions not from the point of
view of the competition between rapacious capitalists of different nations, but
solely from that of the preservation and the defense of the living labor force.
0. In the case of such tendencies of reducing wages taken up by capitalists
of an economic crisis in the country, the task of the revolutionary trade unions
should consist in their endeavors to prevent the reduction in wages by turn in
each separate concern, in order not to be defeated in parts. The workers
engaged in the enterprises of public welfare such as the mining, railroad,
electric, gas concerns and others, should be drawn in at once, in order that the
struggle against the onslaughts of capital should touch the very nerve of the
economic organism.
All ways of resistance, from the separate intermittent strike up to the general
strike embracing all large fundamental industries on a national scale, are, iu
such a case not only advisable but strictly necessary.
10) The trade unions must consider it their practical task to prepare and
organize international action in each separate industry. The interruption in
transport or coal mining on an international scale is a miglity weapon in the
struggle against the reactionary attempts of the world bourgeoisie.
The trade unions must attentively study the course of events all over the
world, choosing the most appropriate moment for their economic action, not
forgetting for a single instant that international action is possible only when real
revolutionary class conscious trade unions are formed on an international scale,
having nothing in common with the Yellow Amsterdam International.
11) The belief in the absolute value of collective agreements propagated by
the opportunists of all countries, must be met with a resolute and keen resistance
from the part of the revolutionary trade union movement. The collective agree-
ment is nothing more than an armistice. The owner always violates these
collective compacts when the smallest opportunity presents itself for doing so.
The respectful attitude toward collective agreements testifies only that the
bourgeois conceptions are deeply rooted in the minds of the leaders of the work-
ing class. The revolutionary trade unions, without rejecting as a rule the
286 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
collective agreements, must realize its relative value and clearly define the
methods to abolish these agreements when it proves to be profitable to the
vporking class.
12) The struggle of the labor organizations against the individual and collec-
tive employer, while adapting itself to national and local conditions, should
utilize all the experience acquired during the previous periods of the struggle
for the liberation of the working class.
Therefore, every large strike should not only be well prepared but simul-
taneously with the declaration of it, there must be organized special detach-
ments for the strxiggle against scabbing and for counteracting the provocative
movement on the part of all kinds of white guard organizations, encouraged by
the bourgeoisie and the government. The Fascisti in Italy, the Technical Aid
in Germany, the civil white guard organization consisting of ex-commissioned
and non-commissioned officers in France and in England — all these organiza-
tions pursue the aim of disorganizing and forestalling all the actions of the
workers with the purpose not only to replace the strikers by scabs, but to
destroy materially their organizations and kill the leaders of hie labor move-
ment. The organization of special strike militia and special self-defense
detachments is a question of life and death to the workers under similar
conditions.
I'd) These militant organizations should not only struggle against the attacks
of the employers and the strike-breaking organizations, but take rhe initiative
by stopping all freight and products transported to their respective factories
and all other enterprises, and the union of the transport workers ought to
play a specially prominent part in such cases. The task of stopping the trans-
portation of freight which has fallen on their shoulders can be realized by the
unanimous support of all the workers of the given locality.
14) All the ecoiiomic struggles of the working class should center around
the slogan of the Party — "Workers' control over production" — which control
ought to be realized as soon as possible without waiting for the ruling classes
and the government to prevent the initiation of the same. It is necessary to
carry on a merciless struggle agains-'t all the attempts of the ruling classes and
reformists to establish intermediary labor affiliations and intermediary control
committees. Only when control is realized directly by the workers themselves
will the results be definitive. The revolutionary trade unions ought to fight
resolutely against that perverted socialism and graft with which the leaders
of the old trade unions, aided by the ruling clas.ses, are practising. All the
talk of these gentlemen abi>ut the peaceable socialization of the industry is
done with the sole aim to divert the attention of the working class from
revolutionary action and the social revolution.
15) In order to divert the workers from their direct problem and instill in
them petty bourgeois a.spirations, they advance the idea of workers participating
in the profits, which means the return to the workers of an insignificant part
of the wealth created by them, and which is called surplus value. This slogan,
only meant for the demoralization of the workers, should be met by severe
and rigorous criticism: "Not particiiiation in profits, but the entire elimination
of all capitalist profit," should be the slogan of the revolutionary unions.
16) For the puriwse of crippling or breaking the fighting power of the
working class, the bour^ois states have resorted under the pretense of pro-
tecting vital industries, to temporary militarization of individual industrial
enterprises or entire branches of industry. For the ostensible purpose of pre-
venting economic disturbances, they introduced compulsory arbitration and
exchange of agreements for the further protection of capitalism. Also in the
interests of capitalism, the burden of war expenditures has been placed entirely
on the shoulders of workers by tho introduction of the direct subtraction of
taxes from their wages, which turns the employer into a tax-collector. Against
these state measures c;ilcuhited to serve only the interests of the capitalist class
the bitterest fight must be waged by the trade unions.
17) While carrying on the struggle for the improvement of labor conditions,
the elevation of the living standard of the masses and the establishment of
workers control, it is always necessary to remember that it is impossible to
solve all these problems within the limits of the capitalist forms of goverinnent.
Therefore the revolutionary trade unions wrenching concessions from the
ruling classes everywhere, forcing them to legislate socialistic laws, should
always clearly explain to the workers that only the overthrow of the bour-
geoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat can solve
that important question. Therefore, every local uprising, every local strike,
and every small conflict should be guided by the above mentioned principle.
APPENDIX, PART 1 287
The revolutionary ti-ade miioiis ought to make these conflicts general, elevating
the consciousness of the workers tcj the comprehension of the inevitability of
the social i-evolution and the dictatorship of the in-oletariat.
IS) Every economic struggle is also a political, i. e., a general class struggle.
No matter how great a working class section a given country may contain,
such a struggle can only acquire a real revolutionary character, and result
in the greatest benefit to the entire working class, only when the revolutionary
•trade unions act in perfect unity and maintain the closest co-ordination with
the Communist Party of that country. The theory and practice of fostering
a split of the workers in the class struggle into two independent parts is
extremely detrimental to the present revolutionary period. This struggle
requires the greatest concentration of forces, a concentration characterized by
the greatest expression of revolutionary energy of the working class, i. e.,
of all the Connnunists and revolutionary elements. Dual actions by the Com-
uiunist Party on the one hand and the red revolutionary trade unions on the
other hand are doomed in advance to failure and miscarriage. Unity of action
and organic co-ordination of the Communist Party with the trade unions are
therefore preliminary conditions to success in the struggle against capitalism.
THESIS ON THE WORK OF COMMUNISTS IN THE CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES
{Adopted at the 22nd Session, July 10th, 1921)
1) In the period of a proletarian revolution two problems arise for the
proletarian co-operatives — (a) to aid the working masses in the struggles for
the conquest of political power, (b) where such power has already been seized,
to assist them in the work of socialist reconstruction.
2) The old co-operatives pursued the path of Reformism and avoided the
revolutiona ry struggle.
T^iis consumers' co-operative embodied in itself the idea of a slow growth
into "Socialism," without the aid of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
It preached the political neutrality of the co-operative, in reality concealing
under this watchword the subjection of the co-operatives to the political aims
of the imperialistic bourgeoisie.
Its internationalism was limited to words. In reality it tran.sforms the
international solidarity of the workers into a colaboration of the working
class with the bourgetiisie of its own country.
With such a policy the revolution is not furthered but impeded by the co-
operatives. Instead of accelerating, they hinder the revolutionary development.
3) The various forms of co-operatives cannot equally serve the proletarian
movement, for the consumers' co-operatives are the most adaptable. But
among these there are many co-operatives which consist of bourgeois elements.
Such co-operatives will never place themselves on the side of the proletariat
in the revolutionary struggle. Only the workers' co-operatives; in town and
country are capable of doing this.
4) The tasks of the Communists in the co-operative movement are as follows:
1) To propagate Communist ideas.
2) To transform the co-operative movement into an instrument of the revo-
lutionary class struggle, without detaching the local societies from the national
organization as a whole.
It is the duty of Commtfnist& to form groups within the Co-operatives whose
aim should be to organize a Central Bureau of the Communist Co-operative in
every country.
The groups, as well as the Central Bureau, must remain in constant touch
with the Conuimnist Party and with their representatives on the Co-operative
Committees. The Central Bureau must work out the tactics for the Com-
munists in the Co-operative Movement, setting forth the best methods to lead
and organize the movement.
5) The practical problems which confront the revolutionary co-operatives of
the West at any given moment will become clearer in. the process of struggle,
but even at the present time it is possible to mark out some of them.
a) Agitation and propaganda of the Communist ideas by printed word and by
mouth. A struggle for the emancipation of the Co-operatives from the leader-
ship and the influence of the bourgeois compromiser.
h) The alliance of the Co-opei'atives with the Communist parties and the Red
"Trade Industrial Unions. The direct and indirect participation of the Co-opera-
288 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tives in the political struggle ; in demonstrations and political campaigns of the
proletariat. ^ ^ ^ .^
The rendering of material support to the Communist Party and its press,
and similar aid to strikers, locked-out workers, etc.
c) The struggle against the imperialistic policy of the bourgeoisie, and par-
ticularly the struggle against the intervention of the Entente in the affairs of
Soviet Russia and other Soviet countries.
d) The creation not only of ideal and organizational connections, but also
of business connections with workers' co-operatiA'es of different countries.
e) The struggle for the speediest establishment of commercial treaties and
commercial relations with Soviet Russia and other Soviet Republics.
f) The most active interchange of commodities with these republics.
g) The use of the natural wealth of the Soviet countries by obtaining con-
cessions for the Co-operatives.
6) The functions of the Co-operatives will only fully develop after the
triumph of the proletarian revolution. But the experience of Soviet Russia
makes it possible to point out certain characteristic features now.
a) The Consumers' Co-operatives must take hold of all affairs connected with
the distrilnition of food and products according to the plans given by the pro-
letarian Government. This will lead the co-operatives towards an unprece-
dented expansion.
b) The Co-operative must become an organization which connects the small
S(^attered industry of the peasants and handicraftsmen, with the central eco-
nomic organs of the Proletarian Government. By means of Co-operatives, the
latter will direct the work of the small scattered industries on a general plan.
The Consumers' Co-operatives will be the organ which collects foodstuffs and
raw materials from the small producers, for their transmission to members of
co-operative societies and to the government.
c) In addition to this, industrial Co-operatives can bring the small producers
together into Common Workshops, which will allow the application of machine
work and scientific and technical processes of labor. This will give small
industry a technical basis which will render possible the creation of a socialized
industry, making for the destruction of the individualistic psychology of the
petty artisan and the development of a collective psychology.
7) Taking into consideration the important parts which the revolutionary
co-operatives will play during the epoch of a proletarian revolution, the Third
Communist International advises the parties, groups and organizations to carry
on energetic propaganda for the idea of Communist Co-operatives and the
formation of Communist groups inside the societies, in order to transform the
Co-operative movement and bring it into union with the revolutionary trade
unions.
The Congress instructs the Executive Committee of the Communist Inter-
national to organize a Co-operative Department whose duty it shall be to pro-
mote the tasks here enumerated; this department shall call meetings, con-
ferences and congresses on an international scale for the realization of these
Co-operative aims,
^ ***** *
A Call to New Work and New Stutjggles Addressed to the Proletariat of All
COUNTKIES BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
(Adopted at the Session of the Executive on the 17th of July 1921)
TO THE PROLETARIAT OF ALL COUNTRIES
The third Congress of the Communist International is over. The great review
of forces of the Communist proletariat of all countries is erded. It has shown
that during the past year, in a number of countries in which Communism has
just begun to appear it has grown into a great power capable of moving the
masses and of threatening capitalism. The Communist International which at
its first Constituent Congress i-epresented besides Russia only small groups of
comrades, and which at its Second Congress sought for means of creating mass
parties, has now at its disposal not only in Russia, but also in Germany, Poland,
Czecho-Slovakia, Italy, France, Norway, Jugo-Slavia and Bulgaria, parties
around whose banner great masses are rallying. The Third Congress is now
addressing a call to the communists of all countries to follow this path further
APPENDIX, PART 1 289
and to do all tliey can. in oi-der to unite ever greater millions and millions of
workers in the ranks of the Communist International. The power of capitalism
can be broken down only when the idea of Communism will be embodied in the
tremendous impetus of the greater majority of the proletariat, led by communist
mass parties encircling the lighting proletarian class in an iron Solidarity. "To
the masses" is the tirst slogan addressed by the Third International to the
communists of all countries.
FORWAE© TO NEW GREAT BATTLES
These masses are coming to us, streaming into our parties, because world
capitalism is proving ever clearer and ever more palpably that the only way of
prolonging its own life is by ruining the whole world and increasing ever more
the cliaos, poverty and enslaveiuent of the masses. In view of the world eco-
nomic crises, which are driving million^ of workers into the streets, the cry
of the social democratic flunkeys of capitalism "produce more!" is now hushed
up, as well as the call of the bourgeois class which it used to address to the
workers for years and years "work ! work !"
The cry for work is becoming the war cry of the working class, and it will be
realized only on the ruins of capitalism, when the proletariat v/ill itself be in
possession of the means of production which it has created. Tlie capitalist
world is on the eve of new wars. The American-Japanese, the English-French,
the French-German, the Polish-German complications, the complications in the
Near and Far East, are all driving Europe to increase armaments. They are
arousing the terrible question : "Must Europe again tread the path of a new
world war?" It is not the murder of millions that the capitalists are fearing.
Already since the war, they have coolly condemned millions of people to death
through starvation by their policies as well as by their blockade of Russia.
What they are afraid of is that a new war will finally drive the masses into the
army of the world revolution, that it will mean the tinal uprising of the world
proletariat. They are trying therefore as they did before the war to bring about
a relaxing of the tension by diplomatic jugglery. But the relaxating of the
tension in one place only signifies an increase of the tension in another. The
negotiations between England and America on the limitation of naval armaments
of both these countries are inevitably creating a battle front against Japan.
The Franco-English rapprochement delivers Germany to France, and Turkey
to England. Not peace, but a growing unrest, a growing enslavement of the
conquered nations by the capitalism of the victorious countries ; this is the
result of the endeavors of world capitalism to bring order into the ever-growing
world-chaos. The capitalist press is now talking of an era of world prosperity
and calm because the German bourgeoisie lias submitted to the dictatorship of
the Allies, and, in order to save its power, has delivered up the German people
to the hyenas of the Paris and London Stock Exchanges. But. at the same time,
this same press is full of the development of the economic crisis in Germany,
the imheard of taxes which in autumn will pour down like hail upon the masses
doomed to unemployment, thus raising the price of every morsel of food, of every
scrap of clothing. The Communist International, whicli is basing its policy on
a calm, practical observation of the world situation — for the proletariat can
only gain complete victory if it clearly sees and understands the battlefield — says
to the proletariat of all countries : Capitalism up to now has proved itself in-
capab'e of ensuring to the world the degree of order which existed before the
last war. It can only bring a prolongation of our sufferings, a prolongation of
its own death process. The world revolution is marching on apace. The founda-
tions of c pitalism are shaking everywhere. The second call that the world
coi gross of the Communist International is sending to the proletarians of all
coiuitries is :
Forward to meet new great battles ! Arm yourselves for new struggles.
Straighten out the general battlefront of the proletariat!
The world bourgeoisie is incapable of ensuring work and bread, housing and
clothing to the workers ; but it is showing its gi-eat capacity for organizing the
war against the world proletariat. Since the moment of its first great em-
barrassment and since it has overcome its fear of the workers returning home
from the war, since it has managed to drive the workers into the factories again
and to overthrow their first attempts at revolt since it has .succeeded, in spite
of the war, in prolonging the agreement with the Social Democratic and Trade
Union betrayers of the proletariat to keep the workers divided, splitting the
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 20
290 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
latter, it has been directing all its efforts to organizing a white guard against
the proletariat and to disarming the workers. The world bourgeoisie is armed
to the teeth. It is read.v, not only to repulse all uprisings of the proletariat by
force of arms, but it kuows how to provoke, when necessary, premature uprisings
of the proletariat which is only yet preparing for the struggle in order to defeat
it before the general unconquerable front will have assembled. The Communist
International must set its own strategy against such strategy of the world
boiu-geoisie. The Conununist International has only one infallible weapon
against the cash-boxes of world capitalism, which sets armed brigands against
the organized proletariat, namely, the proletarian masses, the united compact
front of the proletariat.
The cunning and the power of the bourgeoisie must give way before the onrush
of the close ranks of the millions of proletarians ; then the railroads, which
carry the white guards of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat will come to
a standstill. There will be panic among some sections of the white guards. The
proletariat will seize their arms in order to turn them against other white guard
formations. If we succeed in leading the united proletariat into the struggle,
capitalism and the world bourgeoisie will be deprived of the most important
guarantee for victory, i. e., the faith in victory which has been restored to them
only through the treachery of Social Democracy and the splitting up of the
working masses. Only by winning the hearts of the majority of the working
class can the victory over capitalism be achieved. The Third Congress of the
Communist International appeals to the Commiiuist parties of all countries and
to the Communists within the trade-unions to use their whole strength and all
their efforts in order to free the widest possible masses of workers from the
influence of the Social Democratic parties and the treacherous trade-union
bureaucracy. This is only possible if the Communists of all countries prove
themselves, in these trying times, when every da.v brings new privations for
woi'kers, the champions of the workers in all their every-day needs, by leading
them in the struggle for more bread and for the lessening of the burdens which
capitalism is imposing on them in ever-increasing measure. It is essential to
show the working masses, that it is the Comnninists alone, who are fighting
for the betterment of their conditions, and that the Social Democrats and the
reactionary trade-union bureaucrats, rather than fight, would see the proletariat
perish before their eyes. We cannot beat the betrayers of the proletariat and
the agents of the bourgeoisie by theoretical discussions on democracy and dic-
tatorship, but only by supporting the workers in their struggles for broad, for
wages, for houses and all the necessaries of life. The most important battlefield
on which we must meet them and conquer them is the field of the Trade-Union
movement, the struggle against the Yellow Amsterdam Trade T'nion Interna-
tional, the struggle for the Red Trade Union Int^n-national. It is a struggle
over the question of capturing the enemy forts within our own camp, and a
struggle for the formation of a battle front before which world capitalism must
give way.
Steer clear of centrist tendencies and develop the fighting spirit. It is only
through the struggle for the ordinary needs and interests of the workers that
we can build up a united front of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, and
put an end to the splitting up of the proletariat, which is the basis for the con-
tinued existence of the bourgeoisie. But this proletarian front can only grow
s^trong and eager for battle if it is kept together and led l)y strong and nuiited
Commi;nist Parties with an iron discipline. Therefore the Third World Congress
of the Communist International joins to its call : "To the masses ! Build up a
united proletarian front' " by the further call to the Communists of all countries :
"Keep your ranks clear of elements capable of vitiating the fighting morale and
the fishting discipline of the shock troops of the world proletariat — the Com-
munist Parties." The Communist International Congress confirms the expulsion
of the Italian Socialist Party until the latter severs all connection with the
reformists and expels them from its ranks. By this decision the Congress ex-
presses its belief that the Communist International cannot harbor in its ranks
reformists (whose object is not the proletarian revolution, but reconciliation
with the bourgeois and the latters' reform), if it is to lead millions of workers
into the revolutionary struggle. Armies which tolerate leaders who contemplate
reconciliation with the enemy are always sold and betrayed to their enemy by
these very leaders.
The Commiuiist International has also recognized the fact that there are
still remnants of reformist tendencies in various parties although the latter had
APPENDIX, PART 1 291
excluded the reformists from their ranks, and that these parties, while not
working for the reconciliation with the enemy, are nevertheless not sufficiently
energetic in their propaganda against capitalism, and for the revolutionizing of
the masses. Parties, which in their daily work fail to become t^ie inspiration
of the masses, which are not capable of continuously increasing and strengthen-
ing the will to fight of the proletariat, by their own energy and impetuosity,
such parties are bound to miss good opportunities for struggle, and to allow
spontaneous outbursts of the proletariat to remain without results, as was the
case in the occupation of the factories by the Italian workers, and during the
December strike in Czecho-Slovakia. The Communist Parties must develop
the fighting spirit within their ranks. They must get ready to become the
General Staff of the revolutionary movement, which will be able to make the
best use of our forces. The Third International says to you : "Be the vanguard
of the working masses when they begin to march forward ; be their heart and
their brain. And to be the vanguad means — to march at the head of the masses
as their bravest, most conscious and most circumspect section. It is only by
forming such a vanguard, that the Communist Parties will be able, not only to
build up a united proletarian front, but also to lead the proletariat to final
victory.
Pit the strategy of the proletariat against the strategy of capitalism. Prepare
your battles.
The enemy is strong because for centuries he has had the power in his hands ;
this has fostered in him the consciousness of power and the desire to keep it.
The enemy is strong because he has been learning for centuries how to split,
subdue and keep down the proletarian masses. The enemy is experienced in the
conduct of civil war, and therefore the Third Congress of the Communist Inter-
national calls upon the Communist Parties of all countries not to leave out of
consideration the danger arising from the perfect strategy of the ruling and
possessing class, as against the faulty, newly developing strategy of the pro-
letariat, which is struggling for power. The March events in Germany have
shown the great danger, that the front ranks of the working class, the Com-
munist vanguard of the proletariat, may be forced by the enemy into the fight,
before the gathering of the great masses of the proletarians has taken place.
The Communist International has welcomed the ready assistance given by hun-
dreds of thousands of workers throughout Germany to the menaced workers
of Middle Germany. In this spirit of solidarity, in the rising of the proletarians
of the entire country, and even of the entire world to defend a menaced portion
of the proletariat, the Communist International sees the road to victory. It has
welcomed the fact that the United Communist Party of Germany placed itself
at the head of the working masses that hastened to the defence of their menaced
brothers. But at the same time, the Communist International deems it its duty
to declare frankly and distinctly to the workers of all countries: When the
vanguard is unable to evade the open fight, when such fights cannot force the
mobilization of the entire working class, the vanguard must not let itself be
drawn into decisive fights alone and isolated, that when forced into isolated
fight, the vanguard of the proletarian army must evade the armed clash with
the enemy, because the source of the victory of the proletariat over the armed
white-guards consists in its reliance upon the masses.
If it does not march as an overwhelming mass, the vanguard miist not expose
itself to the armed enemy as an unarmed minority. And the Marcli events have
taught yet another lesson, to which the Communist International draws the atten-
tion of the workers of all countries. The broad masses of the workers must be
prepared ])y constant, daily, ever-increasing and extending revolutionary agitation
for the coming struggle whicli shall lie entered upon, under the watchwords that
have become familiar and understandable to the widest proletarian masses. The
strategy of the enemy must be met by wise and deliberate strategy on the part of
the proletariat. The militant will of the front ranks does not suffice, nor do their
valor and determination. The fight must be so prepared, so organized, that it
shall bring along the widest masses into the struggle, which should recognize it
as the fight for their vital interests. The struggle must mobilize the masses. The
more advanced the position of world-capitalism will be, the more it will attempt
to prevent the future victory of the Communist International by destroying its
front ranks isolated from the great mass. This plan, this danger, must be met by
an all-pervading, all-ai-ov;sing mass agitation of the Communist Parties, by vigorous
organizational activity which assures its influence upon the wide masses, and en-
ables cool judgment of the battle situations, by deliberate tactics of evading the
292 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
fipht against superior forces of the enemy and by taking the offensive in a situation
where the enemy is divided and the masses united.
The Third World Congress of the Communist International recognizes that only
through experience in fighting will the working class form Communist Parties that
will be able to attack the enemy with lightning rapidity wherever he can be trapped
in a tight corner, and to evade him where he has the upper hand. It is therefore
the duty of the proletarians of all countries to appreciate and make use interna-
tionally of any lessons that the working class in any given country may have
gathered through gi-eat sacrifices.
Take care of militant discipline !
The working class and the Communist Parties of all countries prepare themselves
not for a period of quiet agitation and organization, but for prolonged struggle
which capital will now force upon the proletariat, in order to beat it into sub-
mitting to all the burdens of capitalist policy. In this fight the Communist Parties
must develop the highest militant discipline. Its Party leaders must cooly and
deliberately consider all the lessons of the fight, they must prudently review the
battlefield, uniting enthusiasm with the greatest deliberation. They must forge
their militant plans and their tactical course in the spirit of collective thinking
of the entire Party, giving due consideration to all criticism by comrades of the
Party. But all the Party organizations must unhesitatingly carry out the course
adopted by the Party. Every word and every step of every Party organization
must be subordinate to this purpose. The Parliamentary factions, the press of the
Party, the Party organizations must unwaveringly obey the order given by the
Party leader.ship.
The world review of the Communist front ranks has ended. It has shown Com-
munism to have become a world power. It has shown that the Communist Inter-
national has to create and to form ever greater armies of the proletariat. It has
announced our determination to carry these fights to victory. It has shown to the
world's proletariat how to prepare and how to achieve this victory. It is now for
the Communist Parties of all countries to make the decisions of the Congress, de-
rived from the experiences of the world's proletariat, the common knowledge of the
Communists of all countries, in order that every Communist working man and
women may become the leader of hundreds of non-Communist proletarians in the
struggles that ai"e to come.
Long live the Communist International !
Long Live the World Revolution !
Get to work for the preparation and organization of our victory !
THE EXECUTIVE OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAI,
Germany : Heckert, Froehlich.
France : Souvarine.
Czecho-Slovakia : Burian, Kreibieh.
Italy : Terracini, Gennari.
Russia : Zinoviev, Bucharin, Radek, Lenin, Trotsky.
Ukraine : Shumsky.
Poland : Warski.
Bulgaria : Popoff.
Jugoslavia : Marcovicz.
Norway : Scheffle.
England: Bell.
America : Baldwin.
Spain : Merino. Gracia.
Finland : Simla.
Holland : Janson.
Belgium : Van Overstraaten.
Sweden : Tschilbum.
Latvia : Stutschka.
Switzerland : Arnhold.
Austria : Koritschoner.
Hungary : Bela Kun.
Executive of the Young Communist International :
Munzenberg, Lekai.
Moscow, July 11, 1921.
APPENDIX, PART 1 293
Exhibit No. 19
i Source : Excerpts from the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, published for
the Communist International by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Meetings of
the Fourth Congress were held in Petrograd and Moscow, November 7-December 3, 1922]
« * 41 * « * •
Zinoviev then read the following telegram from Comrade Lenin : —
'I deeply regret that I cannot be present at the first session of the Con-
gress, and can only send you a written greeting * * *
"It is Soviet Russia's greatest pride to be able to help the world proletariat
in the difficult task of overthrowing capitalism. The victory will be ours.
"Long live the Communist International."
V. Ulianov-Lenin [page 6]
m ***** *
The Comintern does not regard its Executive Committee as a conciliation
committee but as a leading organ. It is only natural that the Executive Com-
mittee had tg "intervene" in the affairs of nearly everyone of the parties
adhering to the International Federation, [page 12]
V lif * * * * *
The Executive Committee of the Comintern took an active part in the
preparation of every congress and of every conference of the most important
of its parties. The Theses and resolutions which were to be put before the
Congresses of the various parties were (according to regulation) previously
discussed at the E. C. C. I. or in its Pi*esidum. Representatives of the
E. C. C. I. attended nearly all the most important congresses of the sections
of the Comintern, giving these congresses the benefit of their advice and guid-
ance. During this period the Presidium of the E. C. C. I. was enabled to get
Thoroughly acquainted with the personnel of the leading organs of our most
important parties, [page 12]
if ^. ^ * * * *
The International Conuuunist Movement stands in need of a firm General
Staff, of a strong and authoritative International Central Committee, [page 13]
^ 1^ ^ * * * *
From our communist viewpoint it is perfectly clear that the Communist
International is of tiie greatest importance for Soviet Russia, and vice versa.
It is utterly ridiculous to ask who is the exploited, who the subject and who
the object. The Republic and the International are as foundation and the
roof of a building, they belong to each other, [page 14]
i^ ***** *
We were able to send a delegate to America who remained there for some
time, [page 25]
* Si! ^ * * * *
There is still another point. The Executive has resolved that the National
Congresses of the Communist Parties should as a rule be held after the World
Congress * * * But what, indeed, was the meaning of tliis decision? It
means that we were determined to be a centralized world party, a party
directed from one centre, [page 28]
*******
Election of Executive Committee of the Communist International
The list prepared by the Small Commission has been confirmed by the Pre-
sidium with certain modifications, and I am instructed to present It to you.
It is as follows : —
Chairman — Zinoviev.
France — Two delegates, Frossard, Souvarine; one substitute, Duret * * *
Russia — Two delegates, Bukharin, Radek ; two substitutes, Lenin,
Trotsky * * *
America — One delegate, Carr; one substitute, Damon, [page 295]
292 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
fifjlit against superior foi-ces of the enemy and by taking the offensive in a situatiori
where the enemy is divided and the masses united.
The Third World Congress of the Communist International recognizes that only
through experience in fighting will the working class form Communist Parties that
will be able to attack the enemy with lightning rapidity wherever he can be trapped
in a tight corner, and to evade him where he has the upper hand. It is therefore
the duty of the proletarians of all countries to appreciate and make use interna-
tionally of any lessons that the working class in any given country may have
gathered through great sacrifices.
Take care of militant discipline !
The working class and the Communist Parties of all countries prepare themselves
not for a period of quiet agitation and organization, but for prolonged struggle
which capital will now force upon the proletariat, in order to beat it into sub-
mitting to all the burdens of capitalist policy. In this fight the Communist Parties
must develop the highest militant discipline. Its Party leaders must cooly and
deliberately consider all the lessons of the fight, they must prudently review the
battlefield, uniting enthusiasm with the greatest deliberation. They must forge
their militant plans and their tactical course in the spirit of collective thinking
of the entire Party, giving due consideration to all criticism by comrades of the
Party. But all the Party organizations must unhesitatingly carry out the course
adopted by the Party. Every word and every step of every Party organization
must be subordinate to this purpose. The Parliamentary factions, the press of the
Party, the Party organizations must unwaveringly obey the order given by the
Party leadership.
The world review of the Communist front ranks has ended. It has shown Com-
munism to have become a world power. It has shown that the Communist Inter-
national has to create and to form ever greater armies of the proletariat. It has
announced our determination to carry these fights to victory. It has .shown to the
world's proletariat how to prepare and how to achieve this victory. It is now for
the Communist Parties of all countries to make the decisions of the Congress, de-
rived from the experiences of the world's proletariat, the common knowledge of the
Communists of all countries, in order that every Communist working man and
women may become the leader of hundreds of non-Communist proletarians in the
struggles that ai^e to come.
Long live the Communist International !
Long Live the World Revolution !
Get to work for the preparation and organization of our victory !
THE EXECUTIVE OF THE COMMUNIST INTEIENATIONAL
Germany : Heckert, Froehlich.
France : Souvarine.
Czecho-Slovakia : Burian, Kreibich.
Italy : Terracini, Genuari.
Russia : Zinoviev, Bucharin, Radek, Lenin, Trotsky.
Ukraine : Shumsky.
Poland : Warski.
Bulgaria : Popoff.
Jugo-Slavia : Marcovicz.
Norway : Scheffle.
England : Bell.
America : Baldwin.
Spain : Merino, Gracia.
Finland : Sirola.
Holland : Janson.
Belgium : Van Overstraaten.
Sweden : Tschilbum.
Latvia : Stutschka.
Switzerland : Arnhold.
Austria : Koritschoner.
Hungary : Bela Kun.
Executive of the Young Communist International :
Munzenberg, Lekai.
Moscow, July 17, 1921.
APPENDIX, PART 1 293
Exhibit No. 19
1 Source : Excerpts from the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, published for
the Communist International by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Meetings of
the Fourth Congress were held in Petrograd and Moscow, November 7-December 3, 1922]
» * « * * • •
Zinoviev then read the following telegram from Comrade Lenin : —
"I deeply regret that I cannot be present at the first session of the Con-
gress, and can only send you a written greeting * * *
"It is Soviet Russia's greatest pride to be able to help the world proletariat
in the ditiicult task of overthrowing capitalism. The victory will be ours.
"Long live the Communist International."
V. Ulianov-Lenin [page 6]
0 * * * * f *
The Comintern does not regard its Executive Committee as a conciliation
committee but as a leading organ. It is only natural that the Executive Com-
mittee had to "intervene" in the affairs of nearly everyone of the parties
adhering to the International Federation, [page 12]
9 iii i^ * * * *
The Executive Committee of the Comintern took an active part in the
preparation of every congress and of every conference of the most important
<.if its parties. The Theses and resolutions which were to be put before the
Congresses of the various parties were (according to regulation) previously
•discussed at the E. C. C. I. or in its Presidum. Representatives of the
E. C. C. I. attended nearly all the most important congresses of the sections
of the Comintern, giving these congresses the benefit of their advice and guid-
ance. During this period the Presidium of the E. C. C. I. was enabled to get
Thoroughly acquainted with the personnel of the leading organs of our most
important parties, [page 12]
The International Communist Movement stands in need of a firm General
^taff, of a strong and authoritative International Central Committee, [page 13]
*******
From our communist viewpoint it is perfectly clear that the Communist
International is of the greatest importance for Soviet Russia, and vice versa.
It is utterly ridiculous to ask who is the exploited, who the subject and who
the object.' The Republic and the International are as foundation and the
roof of a building, they belong to each other, [page 14]
*******
We were able to send a delegate to America who remained there for some
time, [page 25]
*******
There is still another point. Tlie Executive has resolved that the National
Congresses of the Communist Parties should as a rule be held after the World
Congress * * * But what, indeed, was the meaning of this decision? It
means that we were determined to be a centralized world party, a party
directed from one centre, [page 28]
*******
Election of Executive Committee of the Communist International
The list prepared by the Small Commission has been confirmed by the Pre-
sidium with certain modifications, and I am instructed to present It to you.
It is as follows : —
Chairman — Zinoviev.
France — Two delegates. Frossard, Souvariue; one substitute, Duret * * *
Russia— Two delegates, Bukharin, Radek ; two substitutes, Lenin,
Trotsky * * *
America — One delegate, Carr ; one substitute, Damon, [page 295]
294 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES i
Exhibit No. 20
[Source: Excerpts from "Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist
International, Held in Moscow Nov. 7 to Dec. 3, 1922." Published for the COMMDNIbT
INTERNATIONAL by the Communist Party of Great Britain, 16 King Street, Covent
Garden, W. C. 2]
*******
XIV. The Comintern as a World Party.
The Communist International must, to an increasing degree, and simultaneously
with its establishment as an international party from the point of view of
organisation, also act as an international party politically. It must control the
political actions in whole groups of countries.
XV. International Discipline.
In order to carry out the United Front tactics internationally and in every indi-
vidual country, the Comintern must insist more than ever on strict discipline
within the sections, as well as on an international scale.
The Fourth Congress categorically demands of all its sections and members to
observe strict discipline in carrying out the adopted tactics, which can be success-
ful only if they are systematically applied in all the countries, not only in words,
but in deeds. . ^ „ xt, i. *• »
The acceptance of the 21 conditions implies the carrymg out of all the tactical
decisions of the world congresses and of the Executive, as the organ of the Comin-
tern, in the period intervening between the world congress. The Congress
instructs the Executive to demand and watch over the fulfillment of the tactical
decisions by all the parties.
Only the well-defined revolutionary tactics of the Comintern can guarantee a
speedy victory of the international proletarian revolution, [pages 34, 35]
n, ***** *
REIPORTS TO THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL.
2.5. The Executive of the Communist International will diligently follow each
practical step taken in the indicated sphere of action, and it asks all parties to
communicate to it all details of attempts and achievements on the lines of this
policy, [page 45]
*******
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 im-
portant 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 orgaiiisatory 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 instruc-
tions to its organisations to carry out this decision, and report to the E. C. C. I. on
the results during the coming spring, [page 89]
*******
The Fourth Congress of the Communist International therefore, regards it as
the duty of every workers' party and organisation, and especially of the Com-
munist Parties, to render 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, [pages 90, 91]
*******
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.
APPENDIX, PART 1 295
EXCHANGE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
It is desirable, for the purpose of mutual information and for the co-ordinated
work, that the more important sections of neighboring countries shall mutually
exchange representatives'. The reports of these representatives shall be simul-
taneously furnished to the Executive.
It is further desirable that the appointment of such representatives should
take place with the consent of the Executive, [page 951
****** ■ff
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 members. The Congress considers such resignations as the great-
est disorganisation of the Communist movement. Every leading post in a Com-
munist 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, [page 95]
*******
REPRESENTATION IN THE PEOFINTERN
The Congress instructs the Executive, in conjunction with the Executive of the
Profintern, to work out the form of mutual relations of the Comintern and
Profintern. The Congress further points out that now more than ever is the
economic struggle closely bound up with the political campaign, and c«nsequently
a special internal co-ordination of forces of all the revolutionary organisations of
the working class must be effected, [page 96]
Exhibit No. 21
[Source : The Party Organization, with an Introduction by Jay Lovestone, published by the
Workers (Communist) Party of America, 111.3 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Illinois :
undated, but approximately 1925. Pages 3-40]
The Party Organization With an Introduction by Jay Lovestone
Workers (Communist) Party of America, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, 111.
The Party Organization
workers (communist) party oj* america
"More Communist Strongholds," Introduction by Jay Lovestone. Letter from
the Comnuinist International to the Central Executive Committee. Constitution
of the Workers (Communist) Party of America, with inti'oduction by C. E. Ruth-
enberg. Organizational Charts. Index. Price 15c. Published for The Workers
(Communist) Party of America, By the Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1113 W.
Washington Blvd., Chicago, 111.
Chapter I.
More Communist Strongholds
(By Jay Lovestone)
There is no more urgent problem before the Workers (Communist) Party today
than the re-organization of its Party apparatus on the basis of shop nuclei and
the development of these nuclei into politically vigorous units of the Party.
This is not a question involving merely a basic readjustment of our Party's
structure, important as this phase of our task may be. It is a question of out-
standing political significance and of a most pressing nature for us, since it
vitally involves the very development of our Party, the success of every one of
our campaigns.
296 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Our Present Organizational Structure
Our present organizational structure, based primarily on arbitrary territorial
divisions, is a heritage from the Socialist party. The Socialist party was and
still is first and foremost an election apparatus. Consequently, it was based
simply on the territorial divi^^ions most convenient for the bourgeoisie in their
organization of election campaigns. In short, the territorial basis and the decen-
tralized, the federalist character of the Socialist party cannot be separated from
its all-important tasks of participating in the parliamentary campaigns and
striving to reform the capitalist order.
Our Party is suffering too much from this heritage. The time is at hand to
cast overboard whatever structural forms we have inherited from the old
Socialist party. The time is at hand to remove completely the vestiges of social-
democratic organization noticeable in our Party. The time is at hand to erad-
icate these serious obstacles to developing our Party into a genuine Bolshevik
organization.
Our Party Today
Comrade Zinoviev declared before the sessions of the Enlarged Executive
Conuiiittee of the Communist International held last April, that the American
Party must recognize that it is "necessary to fuse the national sections of the
Party into a real united Party." In the opinion of the Comintern there are few
of its sections which have more organizational defects than the Workers (Com-
munist) Party. The seriousness of this criticism becomes obvious when one
considers that an effective organizational structure is an absolute prerequisite
for the success of a working-class party in executing its decisions, in mobilizing
the proletariat for action.
All we have to do is to look at our eighteen language sections. These separate
language federations form, in effect, eighteen parties within one party. The
existence of these language federations tends to isolate the Party center from
the mem.bership and tlie Party itself from the working masses in general. It
must be remembered that mere orders from a central executive committee do not
serve as the electric power cables for stirring up a Communist Party to action.
What we need is such an inter-relationship between the Party center and the
general membership as will promote the most direct contact between the two and
which will thus serve to lend life to every Party decision and facilitate its
execution.
And when we consider our present branch system we find how sick the Party
is organizationally. The comrades gathered in the branches spend very little of
their time at branch meetings for political purposes. The very basis of the
branch organization, insofar as the execution of Party plans is concerned, is
accidental. This basis has n(»t been chosen by us because of its having been
found helpful to our Party.
Let us look at the order of business of a usual branch meeting in our Party.
The meetings are usually paralyzed by the palsied hands of Roberts' Rules of
Order. Every regular meeting opens with the reading of the minutes of the
previous meeting. Then communications are read. It will not be out of place
to confess at this time that most of these communications are uninteresting and
altogether too long. Very seldom do these communications have a political
character. Seldom, if ever, do these communications deal with the political prob-
lems of the American working class. These branch communications rarely serve
to stimulate the political development of our membership, their effectiveness as
Communist workers in the ranks of the proletariat. If the road to the revolu-
tion were to be paved with these communications as cobblestones, we would have
to picnic and dance our way to the proletarian dictatorship.
What is a Communist Party?
A Communist Party aims to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie, strives for
the winning of complete political power by the working class and works unceas-
ingly for the realization of Communism. Thus a Communist Party has, for its
paramount task, tlie winning of the majority of the working class througli its
vigorous participation in the everyday struggles of the working masses and
through its consecpient leadership of these masses. It is clear, even to the most
politically purblind, that only through the closest contact with the masses in the
centers where they are found, can a proletarian party hope to achieve this pro-
gram, this Communist objective.
APPENDIX, PART 1 297
The Fourth Congress of the Communist International declared categorically
that "No Communist Party can be seriously considered as a solid, organized,
mass Party unless it has strong Counnunist nuclei in the shops, factories, mines,
on the railways, etc." Our present pure and simple territorial structure is
therefore in more ways than one a millstone around our Communist neck. First
of all, our present territorial structure is in conflict with the final aim of Com-
munism, yecond, the present system of our Party organization is replete with
serious obstacles to our immediate tasks, to the success of all the campaigns
througii wliich the Party can be developed into a mass Communist Party.
Plainly speaking, what our Party needs is much more than a mere surface
reoi'ganization. What our Party needs is a fundamental, a deep-going cliange
in its structure, in its organization anatomy. Only such a re-organization can
lay the necessary sound foundation for the political development, for the Bol-
shevization of our Party.
Reconstructing our Party
Our entire Communist press is now printing articles aiming to enlighten our
membersliip about the character of our re-organization program and to convince
the Party of the necessity of rebuilding the Workers (Communist) Party on the
basis of shop nuclei. General membership meetings in the various Party centers,
meetings of branch functionaries, branch meetings and section conferences, de-
voted mainly to a consideration of Party reconstruction, are additional features
of the intense ideological campaign organized to insure the si;ccess of giving a
Communist basis to our Party.
Already a majority of our Party is for the reorganization on the basis of shop
nuclei. Tiie primary ijurpose of this ideological campaign is to promote a more
conscious acceptance, a real understanding of the political significance of the
organization of our Party on the new basis.
After the Party has completed its preliminary ideological and organizational
cotnpaign we will proceed with the organization of shop nuclei on a wide scale.
Wherever three or more of our Party members work in a mill, mine, factory,
shop, etc., they will be organized into a shop nucleus. Immediately upon organ-
ization, this shop nucleus is a basic unit of our Pai'ty. In cases where less than
three Party members work in a shop or factory tliey will, in many instances, be
temporarily attached to another shop nucleus in the same industrial section. In
some cases we ^^"ill form shop nuclei consisting of a numlier of individual com-
rades working in separate plants in a specific industrial area. Of course we will
bend all of our efforts to form big, powerful shop nuclei in as many factories as
iwssible.
Those Party members who are not employed in shops, mills, mines, etc., will,
as a rule, be oi-gnnized into street nuclei. These street nuclei may also he called
international branches — particularly by our Party with its minimum of eighteen
national language sections. Such international branches or street nuclei will not
be based on the present lines of language spoken by a particular national group.
Often, when an individual comrade works in a plant and when there is no shop
nucleus in the neighborhood to which he or she may be attaclied, the comrade
in question will be permitted to be a member of a street nucletis.
It must be remembered that the more completely the Party is organized on
the basis of shop nuclei, the stronger will it be. In the early stages of our
organization many street nuclei may be set up. With the development of the
Party as a mass Party, with the increase of our Party's influence over the
working masses found in the big basic industries, over the industrial proletariat
massed in the giant factories, the number and importance of our street nuclei as
units of tlie Party will decrease and the number and strength of the shop nuclei
will increase.
The shop and street nuclei are to be co-ordinated into sub-sections, where
conditions require them, and into sections, sub-districts and districts, through
executive committees. The guiding center of the Party, the Central Executive
Committee, will be in a position to transmit its policies and instructions directly
to the comrades at the head of the A-arious Party centers, shop nuclei, in the
factories, in the mines and on the railways, etc., where the great industrial
proletarian masses are found. Tlie gap between the Party directing center and
the Party masses and the chasm between the Communists and the amiy of
workers congregated in the giant capitalist establishments, will thus be reduced
to a minimum.
298 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Shop Nuclei at Work
The center of gravity of the political and the other numerous activities of our
Party will swing towards the shop nuclei.
Our shop nuclei units will participate actively in the election campaigns of the
Party, for it is in the factories that the greatest number of workers are found
who are responsive to the Communist program. It is in the shop that the Com-
munist has the opiKirtunity to make the most effective individual appeal to the
non-Communist worker.
In plants where a Party nucleus has sufficient strength it will publish a factory
newspaper dealing with the immediate, tangible, and pressing questions of the
workers. But these shop nuclei papers will not limit themselves to the imme-
diate factory problems only. The papers of, by, and for the workers will strive to
broaden the point of view of the non-Communist workingmen, will, on the very
basis of these inuuediate issues, educate and inspire these workers to class
action, to political action.
These shop nuclei will become the veritable steel rods of the organized
workers, of the existiug trade unions. In cases where the workers have not yet
been organized into trade unions, our shop nuclei will serve as powerful agencies
for the unionization of the unorganized workers.
And particularly because the shop nuclei will be centers for developing
militancy among the great non-Party masses in their struggles for their imme-
diate every-day demands, will these shop nuclei provide the most organically
suitable basis for politicalizing our own Party and for developing the politicaJ,
the class consciousness of the American proletariat.
In the shop miclei our Party members will also have the best opportunity to
show that the Communists are the most loyal champions of the interests of the
working class and that the reactionary bureaucrats and the social-democrats
are the enemies of the working masses.
More than that, the shop nuclei, forming as they do veritable Communist pha-
lanxes in the ranks of the employed masses, will be in a strategic position to pre-
vent misunderstandings between the employed and the jobless workers and tr>
unite both against the capitalists and their government.
In the shop nuclei our members will have a genuine opportunity to lend blood
and life to the idea of workers" control of production and to win over the non-
Communist proletariat, working side by side with them, to the idea of working-
class ownership of the machinery of production and exchange, to the idea of the
socialization of industry.
And when the workers of one industry, or of one plant, are attacked by the
municipal, state, or federal strikebreaking agencies of the capitalists, the various
government bodies, the shop nucleus system of Party organizations will enable the
Communists to rouse the workers in the other industries, in the other factories,
to rally to the defense of their attacked brothers. With Conununists embedded
deep in the ranks of the industrial proletariat, defense of the Communists by the
proletarian masses will be much facilitated.
These are only a few of the countless ways in which the shop nucleus units of
our Party will afford a fur better basis for building our Party.
The Why and Wherefore of Shop Nuclei
Lenin has snid that "Every factory is our stronghold." The reorganization of
our Party on the basis of shop nuclei, on the basis of organized Communist groups
in the factories, is an absolute necessity for our Party's realizing this great truth
spoken by Lenin.
To enumerate briefly, we may say that the following are the outstanding
advantages of the shop nucleus system of organization :
1. The shop nucleus affords our Party the best opportunity of establishing
continuous and close contact with the proletarian masses.
2. The shop nucleus lays the most suitable basis for our Party's realizing the
needs and gauging the reactions and sentiments of the masses. A full understand-
ing of the moods and demands of the masses is an absolute prerequisite to the
Party's achieving success in its campaigns against the exploiters and their
government.
3. The Party's being organized on the basis of shop nuclei gives added life to all
our campaigns, for we are thus enabled to appeal most directly to the broadest
masses whom we must reach in order to take our campaigns out of the columns
of the newspapers and into the avenues of reality.
APPENDIX, PART 1 299
4. The organization of our Party on the basis of shop nuclei will proletarianize
our Party. It will put us eye to eye with the actual class conflicts of the American
workers. The factory becomes at once the battle ground for our forces and the
reservoir for our new adherents. Being based on the units, on groups of Com-
munists found in the shops and mills, our Party will have the opportunity to be
a proletarian Party in the truest sense of the word and spirit.
5. The shop nucleus brings our Party into vital touch with the everyday demands
of the workers and thus gives an immediate concrete basis to the plan of the Com-
munists, and to the struggle of the workers who are riot yet in our Party, for pro-
letariau control of prodi;ction. This problem of working-class control of produc-
tion must not, and cannot, be relegated to the realm of the actual moment of the
revolution. Workers' control of production assumes increasing importance with
the intensification of the efforts of the bourgeoisie to promote their fraudulent
schemes of class collaboration.
6. Last, but not least, the organization of our membership into shop nuclei will
tend to increase the initiative of our individual members. Increasing sections of
our members will be placed in positions where they will have to assume responsi-
bilities and take the leadership in the struggles of the workers employed in the
same mines or factories with them. There can be no better guarantee for the
development of our Party into the real advance guard, into the undisputed leader-
ship of the American proletariat, tlian the enhancement of Communist initiative
in our rank and file membership.
Experiences with Shop Nuclei
Many of our European brother parties have already made considerable headway
in i-eorganizing themselves on this basis of the shop nucleus plan. The mightiest
political party in the world, the Russian Communist Party, is organized on the
basis of shop nuclei. It is precisely because of this that it has such a sound
organizational foundation for achieving its splendid political victories.
The French Communist Party has in recent months shown marked improvement.
It will be no exaggeration to state that the success of the French Communist Party
in its campaign to reorganize itself on the basis of shop nuclei has played a very
important and decisive part in its latest successful political campaigns. The shop
nuclei of the French Communist Party have facilitated tremendously the Party's
mobilization of the masses against the imperialist war in Morocco, for trade union
unity and against political reaction.
In our own Workers (Communist) Party we have not had such big scale experi-
ence with shop nuclei. The number of shop nuclei organized today does not exceed
sixty. Not all of these are functioning well. Hitherto the Party's campaign for
reorganization on the basis of shop nuclei has not been co-ordinated and has
lacked energy and planfulness. Yet meager as our experience with shop nuclei has
been to date it is already clear that the road to the saving of our Party, the road
to laying a proper organizational foundation for the Bolshevization of our Party,
lies in such a complete and fundamental reorganiztition.
One of our comrades who is a member of a shop nucleus organized in a big auto-
mobile factory has thus summed up his experiences to me : "In all of my fifteen
Tears of labor movement activity, I never saw the comrades take so much interest
in having the papers (the Daily Worker) distributed at their respective plants as
on this May Day. In the past comrades went from house to house where they were
inimolested in their work, but this year, especially at the Ford shops, with all the
police interference, the comrades went at it in a revolutionary spirit. . . .
They were going to have their shopmates read their paper and they were interested
in hf ving their shop organized."
Such spirit and determination as were shown by these comrades characterizes
the activities of our comrades in the shoi) nuclei in the other Party campaigns.
Towards Bolshevization
The first step towards the Bolshevization of our Party is the Party reorganiza-
tion on the basis of shop nuclei. With the reorganization on this basis, our Party
will rid itself of its social-democratic elements. Regardless of the theoretical
correctness of our program, regardless of the true Communist character of our
campaigns and slogans, our Party cannot be a Bolshevik party unless it has a
Bolshevik basis of organization.
Bolshevization of the Workers (Communist) Party means the application of the
lessons of the proletarian revolution in Russia and the lessons of the experiences
300 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the Russian Communist Party to the specific conditions before our Party. The
experiences of the proletarian Russian revolution and of the Russian Comnumist
Party indicate that a Communist Party can achieA'e success in its struggle for the
destruction of bourgeois rule and the establishment of the Soviet power only to
the extent that the Party organization is based on the proletarian masses. A Com-
munist Party cannot lead the working mas.ses unless it is in constant contact with
them and their needs.
The reorganization of our Party on the basis of shop nuclei is the building of
new, impregnable Communist strongholds. The building of our Party on the
basis of shop nuclei is the setting up of Communist fortresses in every factory.
Chapter II
Letter Feom Communist International
TO the central executive committee of the workers (COMMUNIST) PARTY OB'
AMERICA
Dear Comrades : During the visit of the representatives of your Pai'ty to Moscow
we held with them a consultation on the iinmediiite tasks of the Workers Party
in the sphere of organization and the methods of carrying out the decision of the
Plenum as expressed in the Theses of Comra<le Zinoviev on Bolshevization in the
Section dealing with the duties of the Workers Party, the second point of which
(the decision) states that it is necessary "to fuse the national sections of the party
into a real united party." The conclusion arrived at in our consultations on this
question was unanimously agreed to by all present.
We observe with great satisfaction tliat the Workers Party has recently been
achieving undoubted successes in its political activities. Nevertheless, it may be
safely said that these successes would have been greater if the Workers Party
possessed a proper organizational structure. Every member of the Workers Party
is aware that there is no party or political organization iu the United States, apart
from the Workers Party, which really stands for, and endeavors to defend the
interests of all toilers. Nevertheless, every member of the Workers Party will
admit that this party — the only party of the workers and farmers — is still far
from having received fi'om the majority of the workers, the interests of whom it
is out to defend, that recognition which the party shonid and can win. It is
obvious to every comrade how much stronger would be the position of the Ameri-
can workers and farmers if they followed the Workers Party and if the influence
of the latter were the dominating factor in the movement of the masses. There-
fore, every member of the Workers Party should ask himself the question, what
in reality is preventing his party from gaining that Influence?
Provided the policy of the party is a correct one it may be safely said that one
of the chief reasons for such a state of affairs lies in the defects of the organiza-
tional structure of the Workers Party, which are greater than in any other party
and therefore affect it to a greater extent than other parties. It cannot be denied
that it will be extremely difficult for the party to consolidate its successes, and
that the extetision and interpretation of its political influence will be hampered
very considerably both in respect of embracing by our agitation the wide sections
of the workers and farmers who are still outside our influence and by winning
over those workers from other mass organizations which our enemies still hold
firmly in their grasp, as well as in the protection of oiu' movement from possible
destruction by the bourgeoisie, if our party does not possess a well-constructed
organization. This consideration, in our opinion places before the Workers Party,
with greater insistence than ever before the question of a correct organizational
structure.
For a party of the working class a proper structure is, first and foremost, a
guarantee that its decision will be carried into effect by all its organs and
members.
What importance can a party have, what part can it play in the political life
of the country, if its decisions remain only on paper, are not carried into effect,
and assert no influence on real affairs? The party must know how to act, count-
ing upon the whole of its membership and the help of its organs. For that pur-
pose its organization must be a united and centralized one. If its organs and
members act in an isolated way, each after its own fashion, it Is hopeless to expect
useful and desirable results. Moreover, the party must be able to bring the
masses into the movement, which demands' that its structure should be such that
its organs can penetrate deeply into the nonparty mass of the workers, exert
APPENDIX, PART 1 3Q1
influence over them, organize them for the struggle, guide their organizations and
«lso introduce the decisions and slogans of the party into those organizations.
The present organizational structure of the Workers Party is not adapted to
these requirements. Those advantages which centralized activity bring a working
class party are fibsent in the Workers Party. It does not even possess a real
.single guiding party center capable of directing the activities of the party as a
whole, nor does unity prevail in its ranks. A party of the working class can,
if it has a centralized party organization, simultaneously lay duties upon the
whole party and direct the whole of its forces towards putting them into effect.
The result is a situation in whicli the party is able to carry out its iwlicy firmly,
uniformly, and without distortion, in all parts of the cimntry and in all organi-
zations in which the party has its members, and, in fact, everywhere where the
members of the party come into contact with the non-party workers and peasants.
Tlie federal structure of the Workers Party stands in the way of such a successful
conduct of its work. Each of its 17 national sections represents almost a separate
and independent party within the Workers Part.v, enjoying a large portion of
independence in relation to the leading organ, the Central Committee. The
National t^ections have their own district, town, and national bureaus: they
summon their own conferences and collect their own membership contributions.
The fundamental oi-ganizational requirement of a party defending the interests
of the whole working class, namely, that the decisions of the leading party organs
should be carried out by all the party organizations, is to a large extent dependent
in the Workers' Party on whether the national organizations are willing or not,
ro carry out the corresponding decisions of the superior party bodies. Therefore,
unlike a centralized party, the ATorkers Party as it is at present constituted, is
not a party of united action. The party members of the various national sections
are not fused titgether into one ^^'hole, but divided among themselves. They do
not discuss questions interesting all the workers and the whole party. They live
the exclusi\e life of their own national minority, or of its working class section,
so isolated from the American workers that they even do not sufficiently know
the direct interests of the whole working class of the United States. As a result,
instead of unity of action, instead of general decisions wliich would unite and
consolidate the party, disorganization and differences inevitably arise in the course
of its work.
Of course, we do not for a moment believe that this state of affairs exists
be<-ause the various national sections desire it, or that it is not in any way due
to ol)jective causes and the past development tif the party. It is also clear that
the absolutely essential reorganization of the Workers Party, with a view to
centralization, cannot be at once accomplished upon the mere orders of the Central
('ommittee. It is quite natural that in so nationally diversified a party as the
American party centralizati<m cannot be as easily achieved as in some other
working class parties. But the abnormality of the present situation must be made
clear to every member of the Workers Party whatever national section he belongs
to. It is necessary that every member of the Workers Party fully realize the
absolute necessity for centralization, the actual harmfulness of the present divi-
sions in the ranks of the party, and realize the part wliich national sections ought
to play, in such a party like the American party. If that is achieved, then
whatever the difficulty which the task of reorganization may encounter, their
solution will be possible.
The begiiuiings of the reorganization above referred to are already to be found
in the successes achieved in the work of the existing factory nuclei in the Workers
Party. It is essential that the formation of these nuclei should be vigorously
proceded with, a task which according to the DAILY WORKER has already been
well begun. The factory nucleus is the best organizational method of uniting
comrades belonging to different nationalities and bringing them into contact with
The working class masses. Therefore, the work of properly organizing the party
will be best accomplished by the organization of factory nuclei. The party should
also make it its duty to form street nuclei. In these nuclei the national factor
will no longer count, too. We will not dwell here on the question as to how the
factory and street nuclei should be formed, since that question is dealt with in
special instructions and resolutions, from which you may obtain all neces.sary
information. We would oiily refer to one fact which we learned from the reports
in the DAILY WORKER on the work of the factory nuclei. In these reports the
names of active comrades are openly mentioned, and facts are cited which may
assist the employers in taking repressive measures against the members of the
nuclei. We desire to draw your attention to the fact that a nucleus, without
isolating itself from the non-party woi'kers and clerical employes ought so to
302 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
conduct its work as not to permit the employer or his agents to see how the
nucleus is working or to ascertain who its members are. The activities of a
nucleus must be concealed from the eyes of the enemy and yet keep close to the
working class masses (see our letters of December 6, 1923, No. 1313, and Januarv
10, 1925, No. 490 on this subject.)
Another essential step in the reorganization of the party should be the creation
of united party committees in all towns and urban districts, which would unite
under their leadership all the members of the party residing in the given town
or town-district, independent of nationality. The town and town district com-
mittees which according to your delegation, exist in New York and its districts,
cannot meet the demands of a centralized party, since they, in fact, do not
guide the party work ; the work is not carried out in the various national groups
according to the instructions of the New York town or district committees. But
the situation is still worse in other towns where there are not town district
committees, and where there is no sign of unitetl party work, since if the national
groups receive its instructions at all regarding party work, it is only from the
bureau of their own national section.
While devoting every possible attention to the creation of nuclei, the party
must also make it its aim to set up district and town party committees. In
the town district — into which the large town must be divided, if that has not
already been done — meetings must be summoned of all the members of the nuclei
already formed and from all the national groups still existing in the given town
district. If the number of members in such a district is too large to make it
feasible to summon a general meeting, a town district conference may be sum-
moned instead consisting of delegates from all the niiclei and the still existing
national and other groups of the given district. At the district meeting, or con-
ference, a single town district committee for all the national groups or nuclei
should be elected to carry out all the work of the district. Town committees
should be elected in a similar way in small towns, where it is not advisable to
mark off town district. In very large towns, such as New York, Boston, Chicago,
etc., the town committee should be elected at the conference of town district
delegates elected at the district meetings or conference.
Some remark should be made concerning the election of town district com-
mittees and the town committees in small towns.
We must make one very important observation regarding the composition of
town district and town committees. They must not be federal bodies, or, so to
speak, co-ordinating elements under the control of one member who regards him-
self as the representative of "his" national group and believes his tasks to be to
defend the interests of "his own" national organization. Therefore, during the
preparations for summoning and conducting the electoral meeting (or confer-
ence) it must be clearly emphasized that at the meeting the participants must
regard themselves as members of a united party and not as representatives of
national sections, and that questions, even those which concern their sections,
can only, and will only, be considered from the point of view of the whole party.
Similai-ly, the lists of candidates for the district and town committees must not
be drawn up on the principle of proportional national representation. In the
election to the committee, one must consider the capacity of the comrades elected
to guide the party organization, and the candidates must therefore, be put for-
ward only on INDIVIDUAL considerations. Nevertheless, the candidates should
be selected from all the large national sections, so that the future committee
should be guaranteed contact with them. This remark applies also to the elections
to the Central Committee.
It is equally important for the rule to be adopted that where factory nuclei
already exist their representatives should unconditionally be elected to the party
committees, and in numbers guaranteeing the influence of the factory nuclei in
the nffairs and work of the given party organization. If the factory nuclei are
already sufficient numerous, their representatives must be given the majority of
the party committees.
LANGUAGE FRACTIONS
Thirdly, it is equally important to bear in mind the necessity of arranging the
general meetings of the nuclei, the party meetings, the conferences and the meet-
ings of the party organs (committees, etc.) in such a way that the comrade
belonging to the various national groups should be able to take part in the meet-
ings, themselves speaking and understanding everything that is said— in a word
that they should feel no inconvenience from the fact that they know no language
APPENDIX, PART 1 3Q3
but their own. To that end it is essential that at all meetings where comrades
from dilTerent national groups attend there should be translators, they should be
so organized as to hamper the proceedings of the meeting as little as possible.
One more remark regarding the size of the town districts. In certain towns
the town districts are inordinately large, both as regards territory and the number
of inhabitants. For instance, in New York, Brooklyn, which has a population
of two million, is regarded as a single town district. Of course, it is impossible
to cover and be of service to Brooklyn without dividing it up. In determining
the size of districts the possibilities of helping them must be borne in mind.
It should also be borne in mind that the town districts must coincide with the
municipality, or unite within their territory several municipalities wards, without
breaking them up.
When the Workers Party in the towns adopts the system of town district and
town party committees common to all nationalities it will already be possible to
some extent to carry into effect the decisions of the leading party centers thru-
out the whole organization, from top to bottom and to carry them into the fac-
tories, workshops and other undertakings. The question of district committees
and organizations will then be solved with less difficulty.
The election of town district and town committees — which can be proceded
with even before nuclei have been formed in the majority of the factories — is,
after the formation of nuclei, the second radical step towards the re-formation
of the federal-national organization of the Workers Party. With the growth of
the nuclei the national organizations will cease to be the fundamental part of
party structure, and will begin to play a different role. One has to grasp the
new role of national sections in order to understand that a correct reorganiza-
tion of the party will only help to strengthen the work among the proletariat of
,ieach individual nationality. Even before now, the national sections of the
Workers Party have to a certain extent exercised some influence upon the public
opinion of the workers of their nationality, since it was they chiefly who were the
active workers, in all the, sometimes fairly numerous, educational, social and
other working class institutions in their language (such as for instance, the
"People's Houses" of the Finns). Moreover, the national sections actually control
their point of view of general party interests. For instance, a party policy was not
always pursued, since the ntaional sections, owing to the fact that they are separated
from general party life and the inadequate (and sometimes distorted) under-
standing of general party duties which resulted could not always be fully
acquainted with the forms of agitation and propaganda corresponding with the
aims of the party in each given period. Moreover, this work could not be suffi-
ciently intensive, since its nature was dictated by local interests and did not
embrace the interests and aims of the struggle of the whole working class of the
United States. Only by bringing the national sections together and fusing them
will it be possible to extend and intensify their activity.
The existing national sections, or federations must not lose their mass character.
On the contrary, they must attract all the workers and clerical employees of their
nationality who accept the view of the class struggle.
The existing national federations by their agitation and propaganda work in
the working class bodies and organizations of their particular nationality must
win the workers belonging to the national minorities of America away from
the influence of the social-democrats, the nationalists, the clericals and other
bourgeois tendencies. The national federations must be a reservoir drawing
the best elements into the Workers Party and the workers and clerical emplo.ves
of their particular nationality into the American Trade Unions. The national
federations must not isolate themselves from one another, but on the contrary,
set up closer contact not only among themselves, but also with the American
workers belonging to their trade unions, and interest themselves generally more
than hithei'to in American life.
It will of course be understood that the national sections in the form above
indicated cannot enter the Workers Party as a whole. The party members
belonging to the present national sections must join the party nuclei of the
factories where they work, or, if they do not work in enterprises, the nuclei of the
streets in which they reside.
It is there that they must pay their party dues. Thus the national sections
will not form parts of the Workers Party. The members of the present national
sections will enter the party thru the nuclei.
All members of the Workers Party, Finns, Germans, Russians, etc., must set
up party fractions within their wide national sections, which will elect their
304 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
town district, town regional, state and national leading organs (bureaus).
BUT . . . The national fraction bureaus must abandon their isolation and become
bodies for adapting the party members of their nationalities to general party-
life. Hence in the work of reorganization the duty arises of bringing the
national fraction bureaus close to the general guiding organs of the party, identi-
fying them with the general party machine, thus enabling them to strengthen
and improve the quality of their work.
That is why such a structure must be created for the agitational and propa-
ganda party committees. In order to guide the work in the agitational and
propaganda departments of the party committees the national fraction bureaus
should be includecl in full force, or where this is not required, in part, so that
they may be able to conduct the woi'k among their nationals in their own lan-
guage. The leadership, responsibility and control of their activities lie with
the Agitprop Department and the correspondent party committee as a whole.
It will therefore be seen that the national bureau fractions will be by no means
limited to the extent of their activities, but on the other hand, they will be
included in the system of a united party machine and their functions will be
different from what they have been hitherto. While the national bureaus hitherto
were independent leading party bodies representing the national sections in the
party, and had the right of directing the whole work of the national section
without exception and to collect membership dues, they will now lose those func-
tions, but, on the other hand, will become a part of the general party apparatus,
working under its control and direction and according to its directions and
performing the whole of the agitational and propaganda work among their own
nationalities.
The Central Committee should see that statutes be drawn up regulating the
work of the fraction bureaus of the national sections in their new form. These
statutes should provide for the ratification by the Agitprop Departments of the
party committees of the decisions of the national fraction bureaus, the summon-
ing of national conferences with the agreement of the competent party com-
mittee etc.
Vv'ithin a town district the comrades belonging to one nati<>nality and using
one language avail themselves of the Agitprop Department of the town district
committee (that is, the competent national bureau) for agitational and propa-
ganda work among the workers of their nationality within the town district,
within the working class organizations, etc. The most capable comrades should
be entrusted with responsible work — reports, lectures and other forms of propa-
ganda and agitational work among the workers of their nationality in their
native tongue. Comrades speaking the same language may and should be
assembled within the limits of a town district, in order to listen to reports and
to take part in theoretical discussions, in order to raise the level of party educa-
tion and to determine the methods of agitational, propaganda, party educational
and club work. These meetings have no right to adopt DECISIONS on party
questions— questions of policy or internal party questions, etc. This right
belongs to the factory nuclei, the street nuclei and the locals, (where they still
exist) the general meeting of the party members or the party conference which
are to be the party organizations of the urban district or town, since for the
party there can be no difference of interests demanding discussion or decision
by a" national section alone. The work of the Agitprop Departments of the town
district committees, as all the activities of the latter are directed by the town
committee, which also has its Agitprop Department, which in its turn includes
the national fraction bureaus, whose function it is to control the agitational
propaganda work among their own nationalities. Similar bureaus must be
formed in the superior party committee (Regional and Central Committee).
Within the non-partv working class organizations and instances of the varioub
nationalities— Finns, Poles. .Tew.s, etc.— such as co-operatives. People's Houses,
mutual aid societies, etc., the duty of the party members of the corresponding
nationality is that of a party fraction with the same functions as the party frac-
tions within the Trade Unions have or should have (see our instructions of
February, 1924, on fractional work and the corresponding section of the thesis on
party structure adonted by the organizational conference). In these national
non-party organizations — such as co-operatives, mutual aid societies, clubs, peo-
ple's houses or printing, publishing, new.spaper and similar limited liability
companies — the comrades come into direct contact with wide sections of work-
ers, clerks or farmers of their own nationality and speaking in their own tongue.
Consenuently, the influence of the party will to a large extent be exerci-sed thru
the national fractions in the above-mentioned organizations, and the work and
APPENDIX, PART 1 305
policy which the natioual sections of the Workers Party are carrying on at
present, as well as the agitational and propaganda work among the working
class masses of their own nationality, will be carried on inside of the national
fractions in close contact with the corresponding party committees. While the
agitational and propaganda work will lie conducted hy the reformed national
linieaus, inchided in the apparatus of the Agitprop Departments, the work of the
fractions in the co-operatives, publishing houses, banks, etc., will be directed
by other corresponding departments of the party committees, trade union,
organizational, etc. It is, therefore, necessary to organize such national Com-
munist fractions in all non-party organizations, Latvian, Lithuanian, Jewish,
Polish, etc., both town district, town, regional district and national. The
national fractions in all the above-mentioned organizations — workers' clubs,
workers" insurance societies, sport societies, etc. — will carry out the policy
of the Communist Party, raise questions for discussion and bring forward
prupKsals corresponding with the general tactics of the party, or upon the
special decision of party bodies, will carry on agitation on the instructions
of the Workers Party, explain the activities of the fraction among the non-
party working class members of the organizations, etc., etc.
At the head of the national Communist fractions of the local, district and
central national bodies of the organizations there shoidd be bureaus for guiding
tlie fractional work. Their acti\ities as we have said, will be guided and con-
U'tiUcd by the competent party connnittees — town district, town, etc.
It shotild also be provided that the bitreaus of all fractions of similar insti-
tutions of one nationality, for instance fraction bureaus of Finnish workers'
co-operatives, may have a single central bureau uniting the activities of all the
local and regional bureatis. Those bureaus in their ttirn should maintain with
the Ideal regional and central connnittees of the party thru the corresponding
dei.'artments of these connnittees. The latter may also unite the fraction bureaus
(co-operatives for instance), of all nationalities, in order to exchange exi^riences,
<o-ordinate activites and even for tmited action. As in the case of the nuclei, we
shall not here give theses regarding the fractions, but would refer you to the
instructions which were adopted by the presidium in February, 1924, and by
the organizational conference in March, 192.5.
The alteration of the functions of a national organization within the organi-
zational structure of the party, raises the question of party dues. It will of
course, be understood that after reorganization party dues will not go to the
national organizations, but to the town committee (thru the town district com-
mittees), which shotdd retain a certain percentage for its own needs and trans-
fer the remainder to the .superior party committee. The question will arise, as to
what means the national organizations will condttct their work (agitation, propa-
giinda. education, etc.). The only answer can be that this work will be financed
liy the party conmiittees which will assign the necessary funds for this purpose.
Tlie very first steps towards the reorganization of the national sections will
come up against the question of the party press. The situation which at present
exists in the Workers Party with regard to the party press is entirely abnormal.
As a matter of fact, the party and the central committee have no control what-
ever over the party papers issued by the various national sections in their own
languages. The papers of the national sections can write what they like without
even following the general policy of the Central Committee and the party. This
"freedom" of the press from party control is in full accord with the general inde-
pfTulence of the national sections of the party center. This .situation must also
he elianged especially after the election of party committees connnon for all
nationalities. The Central Committee must place the party press in all languages
under its control. The Central Conuuittee or some other competent party com-
mittee must be in a position to give direct instruction.^ on policy to the editors
of ill] papers which are recognized, or desire to be recognized, by the party as
p.'.rty papers. The party should transmit its instructions on policy to the press
thru the competent national fractions, i. e., thru those party members who are
shareholders in a national paper, or are on its directing bodies, editorial
itoards, etc. In this way the Central Committee may. thru the corresponding
fractions, exercise a controlling influence over a paper which is not officially a
p.-'rry paper, introdtice desiral)le comrades on to the editorial boards or have
tliem appointed as editors, etc. Of course, with regard to the papers which
belong to the party, the Central Connnittee must have the unconditional right
of directly ratifying the appointment of the editors.
In conclusion, we de.sire to draw your attention to two important points.
I'lrst. it is quite clear, as we stated above, that it is no easy matter to I'eform the
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 21
306 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
old structure of the party immediately. The old organization has become deep-
rooted, a fact which must not be underestimated. Therefore, great caution
must be observed in the reconstruction of national sections. First of all, an
extensive ideological campaign must be initiated for the reorganization of the
Workers Party, for transforming it into a centralized party and for breaking
down the federalist principle of party structure as absolutely failing to comply
with the requirements of an active proletarian party. This ideological campaign
must be pursued simultaneously and parallel with a determined agitation for
the construction of the party on the basis of factory and workshop nuclei
explaining this measure. A number of instructive reports for agitators, editors
and active workers must be devoted to questions concerning the reorganization
of the Workers Party, and these comrades must be clearly given to understand
the need for this measure and be made active advocates of reorganization. The
Central Committee and the other competent party committees must direct this
campaign in the press. It will thereby become possible still further and still
more extensively to acquaint the members of the party with the proposed recon-
struction and its absolute necessity and usefulness. The comrades belonging to
the national sections must understand that their organization is not a measure
directed against the national sections, but that it exclusively pursues the general
aims of the party and is in the interests of the whole party, including the natioanl
sections themselves. The aim of reorganization is not, by clumsiness and care-
lessness to destroy the organizations and work created by the national .section.*-,
but to strengthen the organizational influence of the Workers Party over the
proletarians of all nationalities in the United States. By making use of all the
available material, by demon.strating the advantages of the new forms of organi-
zation over the old, by treating the question seriously and in a business-like
fashion, and insistently quoting the arguments in favor of the reorganization
of the Workers Party, insistently repeating them if necessary in the press, at
party meetings, conferences, etc., the leading organs of the party may achieve
success, all the more since the first practical steps and the success which accom-
panies them will .speak eloquently in favor of the course adopted.
The second point is this : Perhaps in addition to the inevitable conservatives
and sceptics there will be found conu-ades who under-estimate the difficulties
and who will want to break up the national sections before the new form of
organizations — the nuclei — Avill be sufficiently numerous and .strong in a particu-
lar town district, town, or region and sufficiently adapted to life, to serve as a
foundation for the new form of party organization. We issue a warning again.^t
such a step. Only when the town district and town committees, as the result
of the organization of factory and street nuclei, establish close contact with
these nuclei, will it be possible finally to reorganize the old organization, the
national sections and the given town district or town. To break, however, one
organization without creating something in its place, would be extremely disas-
trous. The first thing is to organize factory and street nuclei, to set up ward.
town district town and i-egional committees, which are to be elected at the mept-
ings or conferences of all the members of the party of all the nationalities in
the ward, town district, town or region (we repeat that the organization of
certain ward, town district, town, etc., committees may be proceeded with even
before there are nuclei in all factories and streets). At the town or town district
conferences the delegates to the party congress are to be elected. The Central
Committee, elected at the congress, after carefully examining all the pros and
cons and after careful preparation, will thru the regional, town or town-district
committees, proceed to the reorganization of one or several of the existing 17
national .sections, which are sufficiently prepared for such reorganization on
the basis of the fraction as above set forth. Only when the reorganization of
the national section has given good results, of which we do not doubt, it will be
possible gradually to proceed to the reorganization of the remainder.
The rate at which reorganization is undertaken, you must determine for
yourselves. We shall help you in every way we can. But for that purpose you
must send us information as to the progress of the work.
I. Ideological Campaign
1. There is to be printed a series of articles in all party papers dealing with the
problems of reorganizing the party on the basis of shop nuclei. These articles
are to be written by C. E. C. members, district organizers, and the leaders of
the various language sections of the party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 307
a. The C. E. C. members will write from the general party viewpoint and
syeeitically from the point of view of their speeial departments. For example,
the heads of the Agitprop, industrial, etc., departments are to emphasize the
intluence of party reorganization on the particular field of party activity for
which they are responsible.
b. The district organizers are to write of shop nuclei from the specific angle of
the application of the party's reorganization plan in their i-espective districts.
c. The language section leaders are to write from the viewpoint of the special
conditions characterizing the party's activities among the working masses of
their respective languages.
2. The party shall issiie a pamphlet on reorganization to be translated also
by the leading language sections. This pamphlet shall contain the following:
a. The new constitution.
b. The Comintern organization letter to our party.
c. Organization charts.
d. Special foreword on party reorganization by the organization department.
3. The organization department shall publi.sh a series of articles on the party
constitution, in which there will be presented an analysis of every section thru
a concrete application of the various provisions. These articles are to be
featured prominently in every language organ of the party.
4. The organization departments shall have a special press service for the en-
tire party press. There shall be a special section in the DAILY WORKER given
over to the organization department. This press service shall deal mainly with :
a. The progress of party organization.
b. The organizational and political experiences of specific shop nuclei.
c. Letters and reports from sho]3 luiclei members themselves covering their
various activities.
5. In every district there shall be called general membership meetings ad-
dressed by special C. E. C. representatives. The subjects of these meetings
shall be :
a. Rolshevization.
b. Party reorganization.
II. Definitions
1. Shop Nucleus. — ^A group of party members, not less than three in number,
working in the same shop, or sometimes from a group of factories.
L'. t^frert Nucleus (International Branch.)— A group of party members, other-
wise unattached, united on a street or neighborhood basis regardless of language
grouping.
3. Sub-Sectiou.— The next highest organizational unit which can be made
up as follows :
a. Entirely of shop nuclei within a given industrial or working area.
b. Of shop and street nuclei (International branches) within a given indus-
trial of working ai'ea.
c. Entirely of street nuclei (International branches) within a given industrial
or working area or a given territorial, residential area.
Each of these units of the party, the shop nucleus, the street nucleus (Inter-
national branch) or the sub-section, is to have general and periodic meetings of
all the members of the component units.
4. The Form of Party Organisation Shall Be:
a. The shop or street nucleus ( International branch) as defined above.
b. The sub-section as defined above.
c. The .section, a given industi-ial or working area of the city consisting of a
combination of subsections or containing isolated shop nuclei and street nuclei
d. The city.
e. The sub-district.
f. The district.
g. The national organization.
III. Organizational Campaign
1. The C. E. C, in consultation with the district committee, shall appoint
special party reorganization commissions for the various districts to co-operate
with the organization department of the C. E. C. in the campaign for party reor-
ganization. This shall be done immediately by the New York and Chicago dis-
tricts.
308 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
2. The C. E. C. shall, lu consultation with the various language bureaus, im-
mediately appoint a special reorganization commission for each language section
to co-operate with the organizational department of the C. E. C. in party reor-
ganization.
a. The C. E. C. shall appoint representatives to every language bureau. These
representatives are to attend the language bureau meetings regularly, make re-
ports to the C. E. C. on the activities of the various bureaus, and see to it that
every bureau regularly submits minutes and reports of its activities to the
C. E. C.
3. The organization department of the C. E. C. shall call conferences in the var-
ious cities in the districts, of shop nuclei and branch organizers, industrial organ-
izers, and branch and shop nuclei secretaries. Such conferences shall be called
first of all in the New York and Chicago districts.
a. At these conferences of party functionaries there is to be a more detailed
and thoro discussion of party reorganization led by C. E. C. representatives,
4. The comrades present at these conferences of party functionaries are to
report back to the units they represent which are to hold meetings especially
arranged for receiving these reports. Special preparations shall be made to
secure the maximum attendance at these meetings which shall be devoted to a
discussion of the campaign for party reorganization on the basis of shop nuclei.
5. The organization department of the C. E. C. and the district reorganization
commission shall arrange for a temporary division of New York and Chicago cities
into a definite number of sections.
6. Membership meetings shall be held in each of these sections.
a. Every member present at the branch meetings to which the functionaries
reported shall be given a certain number of names and addresses of comrades
absent at the branch meetings and shall be responsible for bringing these absent
comrades to the section membership meetings.
7. The comrades attending the conference of party functionaries shall be di-
vided into committees temporarily representing the various sections of the cities.
a. These comrades shall be charged with the tasks of organizing and mobilizing
the section membership meetings.
b. These comrades shall check up the attendance at the section meetings of the
members of their respective branches and shall arrange to visit personally every
one of their absent comrades and secure from these absent comrades the necessary
information for party reorganization purposes.
8. At these .special section membership meetings the following shall be the
procedure :
a. Talks on party organization by C. E. C. District Reorganization Commission
and in certain cases language .section representatives in their respective lan-
guages.
b. Every member present at these section membership meetings shall fill out a
blank answering the following questions.
1. Name.
2. Age.
3. Address.
4. Occupation.
5. Trade Union affiliation.
n. Name and address of place of employment.
7. Name and address of any other comrades yon know to be employed in the
same place of work.
8. How long in the party?
9. Are you a sub.scriber to the Daily Worker?
c. Special registration committees will be appointed at these section member-
ship meetings for eacli language group in order to facilitate securing the nece'^-
•sary information at the.se meetings for party reorganization.
d. Special prominent publicity for these section membership meetings shall be
given to the Daily Worker and the respective language papers.
9. At these section membership meetings there are to be elected temporary
section committees for carrying on further reorganization and other party work.
10. As far as pos.sible tliere shall be formed at these section meetings shoj)
nuclei which sliall start to function without delay.
lOa. On the basis of information gained at these section meetings, street
nuclei (international branches) shall be organized as quickly as possible.
APPENDIX, PART 1 309
11. Wlicrt'vor necessary the District Reoi-ganization Commission, in coopera-
tion with the national organization departmetir, shall divide the sections into
suh-sections.
1-. As soon as we have oi'ganizcd in a pai-ticiilar section, a definite number of
shop nuclei, the remaining comrades not members of shop nuclei, shall be orgaii-
ized into street nuclei (International lii'anches) or
a. If deemed advisable, shop nuclei shall be formed of party members work-
ing in a number of shops and factories within a given area in a section. Such
a shop nucleus shall aim to develop at the earliest moment regular shop nuclei.
Such a form of shop nucleus can often take the place of street nuclei and often
Jays the basis for regular shop nucleus organization.
Efforts sliall be made that sub-sections shall not contain over 50 members.
Sub-sections which contain more than 75 members shall be further sub-divided.
The maximnm of the street nuclei shall be 25 members, and shall be sub-divided
when they exceed 25.
13. The pi'ovisional section committees shall, as soon as the reorganization of
the section is completed or nearly completed, call a conference of delegates from
shop nuclei, street nuclei or sub-sections, for the purpose of electing permanent
section committees.
14. In ciises where sections have been divided into sub-sections delegates con-
ferences shall be called in these sub-sections to elect permanent sub-section com-
mittees to direct the party work in this sub-division.
15. In the subdivision of industrial areas special care must be taken to con-
sider also the efficacy of the party apparatus in functioning in parliamentary
camp.iigns.
16. Uy the fiist of December. 1925, reorganization of New York and Chicago
districts will have been completed. Any member of a present territorial branch
not in a shop in- street nucleus will then no longer be considered a member of
the party.
a. Special efforts shall be made by the section committees to draw in every
party member thru making a card index and having a follow up system.
17. In general the same plans will be applied in all other cities of the New
York and Chicago districts as well as the other districts in which there are city
central committees. Details will be worked out for these centers by the Org
Dei>artment and the District Reorganization Commissions.
18. Unattached branches shall be handled separately.
15). A city exectttive committee shall be elected in each city where there is ;i
city organization and no district committee and then the city central committee
shall cease to exist.
2(1. It is absolutely neces,sary that in all cases where party members know of
(•tlier party members workihg in tlie same places with them, they shotild irame-
tliately t;ike the initiative to get together and organize themselves into a shop
nucleus. The comrades should then inform the district organizer who will
arrange for official approval of these shop nuclei.
21. In special cases of need, where shop uticlei do not have sufficiently expe-
rienced members, the section committees shall attach temporarily to these shop
nuclei experienced members from other party units in order to train and
to help these shop nuclei members.
22. Wherever possible, shop nuclei functioning in plants employing fair-sized
members of workers, shall get otit at regular periods, mimeographed bulletins
for these factories. Wherever comrades are attached to shop nuclei, they should
be so attached also with the end in view of helping the nucletis in sticli propa-
ganda w-ork. These bulletins with increasing strength are to be developed into
regular factory papers, mimeographed or printed. The initiative of the shop
nucleus itself in this work must be constantly stimulated.
23. Every nucleus organizer shall till out special activity reports at each
meeting of the shop nucleus. These activity reports must be filled out and read
before the close of every shop nucleus meeting. The reading of these activity
reports must be made a peimanent point on the order of business of every
shop nucleus. These activity reports are to be mailed without delay to the
next highest unit as the local conditions demand.
24. The plan herewith proposed for New York and Chicago shall be the
model plan for the other districts. While the C. E. C. is concentrating on the
reorganization of the New York and Chicago districts the comrades of the
other districts are expected to proceed with the reorganization in various
divisions of their own districts.
310 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Constitution of The Workers (Communist) Party of America — The Ameri-
can Section 'of The Communigt International
introduction
By C. E. Ruthenberg, General Secretary, "Workers Party
The new constitution of tlie Workers (Communist) Party which follows con-
tains two new developments of the party which are of the utmost importance.
The first of these is contained in the fact that the party declares itself "the
American Section of the Communist International."
The Communist Party of America, organized in 1919, proudly declared itself
the "American Section of the Communist International," but the Workers
Party, up to the last convention could only declare its fraternal atRliation and
acceptance of the leadership of the Communist International. With the
adoption of the constitution which follows our party becomes openly "the
American Section of the Communist International," and takes its rightful
place with the other Communist parties of the world as an organic part of the
Communist International.
The party still retains the name Workers Party, but includes in it the word
"Communist" preparatory to the change which will undoubtedly be made by the
next convention of the party to complete the transition and have the party
adopt its rightful name, "The Communist Party of America, American Section
of the Communist International."
While unheralded in the reports of the convention this change marks an im-
portant stride forward and should inspire new pride in the party in the heart
of every member of our party.
The second point of importance is that this new constitution outlines the
form and structure of the party as it will appear after the reorganization of
the party. Because of this fact it should be carefully studied by every mem-
ber of the party.
The party member who has a clear picture in his mind of the new structure
of the party will be able to more readily fit himself into that structure. He
will be able to aid in the work of re-organization, which is one of the most
vital tasks before the party.
The party described in the constitution which follows is not an organization
hanging in the air or existing for itself. The form of organization will root
the party deep in the masses of workers. Through its nuclei in the factories,
mines, mills, stores and wherever the members are employed it organizes itself
where the workers are. Through its fractions in the trade unions, co-oi^ra-
tives, benefit societies, etci., it reaches to penetratp other groups of workers
with revolutionary Influence.
The party organized, as described in this constitution, will be a much more
powerful organization than the party we have, even though the party does not
add a single new member. But the reorganization experience as shown in
other countries will mean the rapid growth of our party. It will be a party
capable of influencing a greater number of workers and of quicker action.
Every member must know this organization. Every member must study it
and come to his party branch prepared to take intelligent action to quickly
transform the organization of our party to that of a Bolshevik Party.
*******
Article 1. Name of the Party
Section 1. The name of this organization shall be the Workers (Communist)
Party of America, the American section of the Communist International.
Article 2. Emblem
Section 1. The emblem of the Party shall be the crossed hammer and sickle
with a circular margin having at the top: "Workers (Communist) Party of
America" and underneath "Workers of the World Unite."
Article 3. Membership
Section 1. Every person who accepts the program and statutes of the Com-
munist International and of the Workers (Communist) Party, who becomes a
member of a basic sub-organization of the Party, who is active in this organi-
APPENDIX, PART 1 311
zation, who subordinates himself to all the decisions of the Comintern and of
the Party, and regularly pays his membership dues may be a member of the
Party.
Section 2i. Applicants for membership shall sign an application card reading
as follows :
••The undersigned declares his adherence to the program and statutes of the
Communist International and of the Workers (Communist) Party and agrees
to submit to the discipline of the Party and to engage actively in its work."
At the time of being accepted as a member of the Party this pledge shall be
read to the applicant who shall indicate his endorsement of same.
Section 3. New members must join a shop nucleus or a street nucleus (inter-
national branch) of the Party and the application must be accepted by a vote
of the membership of the unit to which application is made and the acceptance
ratified by the leading committee of the territorial division of the Party in
which membership is held.
Section 4. Members who change their place of work, or in case they are
members of an international branch, their place of residence, must secure a
transfer card from the Party unit in which they have held membership and
present this card to the unit to which they transfer. A duplicate of the trans-
fer card given the member shall be sent to the leading committee of the terri-
torial section from which the member transfers and transmitted by this com-
mittee to the territorial section to which the member transfers.
If the member transfers frota one section of a city organization to another,
the transfer card shall be transmitted thru the city executive committee; if
the member transfers from one city in a district to another the transfer card
shall be transmitted thru the district executive committee; if the member
transfers from one district to another the transfer card shall be sent thru
the Central Executive Committee.
Section 5. Members of the Party who desire to leave the country and go to
nnother country must obtain the permission of the Central Executive Com-
mittee of the Party.
Section 6. Every member of the Party who is eligible to be a member of a
trade union must become a member of the union to which he is eligible.
Article 4. The Structure of the Party
Section 1,. The Workers (Communist) Party, like all sections of the Comin-
tern is built on the principle of democratic centralization. These principles are :
a) Election of the subordinate as well as the upper party organs at general
meetings of the Party members, conferences and conventions of the Party.
b) Regular reporting of the Party committees to their constituents.
cl Acceptance and carrying out of the decisions of the higher Party cotn-
mitrees by the lower, strict Party discipline, and immediate and exact applica*
tion of tiie decisions of the Executive Committee of the Communist Interna-
tional and of the Executive Committee of the Party.
d) Any Party committee whose activities extend over a certain area is
considered superior to those Party organizations whose activity is limited only
to certain parts of this area.
e) The discussion on Party questions can be carried on by the members
only until the proper Party committee has decided them. After a decision has
been adopted at the Congress of the Comintern, the Party convention, or by the
leading Party committee, it must be carried out unconditionally even if some
of the members or some of the local organizations are not in agreement with
the decision.
Section 2. The highest authority of each unit of the Party is the general meet-
ing of Party members, conference, or Party convention.
Section 3. The membership meeting, conference, or Party convention elects the
leading committee which acts as the leading Party organ in the interim between
the membership meeting, conferences or conventions and conducts the work of
the Party organization.
Section 4. The units of the Party organization shall be as follows :
a » The shop nucleus, of which the leading committee is the luicleus bureau.
b ) The street nucleus ( the international branch of which the leading com-
mittee is the street nucleus bureau.
CI In small cities having not more than two hundred members the shop nu-
clei and the street nuclei (international branches) shall .send delegates to a city
confei'ence, or if the menbership is not large, a general membership meeting
sliall he held at which a citv executive shall be elected.
312 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
d) Larger cities shall be divided into sections and sub-sections. Tlie sliop
nuclei and the street nuclei (international branches) in each of these sections
and sub-sections shall hold conference of delegates which shall elect the section
and sub-section executive committee. The sections of the city organization shall
hold conferences of delegates which shall elect the city executive committee,
except in the headquarters city of a district organization in which case the Dis-
trict Executive Committee acts as the City Executive Committee.
e) The city organization in each district shall send delegates to a conference
which shall elect the district executive committee.
f) The delegates from the district organization shall send delegates to the
national convention which elects the Central Executive Committee.
Section 5. For the conduct of special work each leading committee organizes
departments, such as the Agitprop Department, Organization Department, Trade
Union Department, Women's Work Department, and such other departments, the
need for which arises. These departments are subordinate to the leading com-
mittee and work in accordance with its instructions and carry out its decisions.
Article 5. The Shop Nucleus and the Street Nucleus (International Branch)
Section 1. The basis of the Party organization is the shop nucleus (in fac-
tories, mines, workshops, offices, stores, agricultural enterprises, etc.) which all
Party members working in these places must join. The nucleus must consist of
at least three members. Newly organized shop nuclei must be endorsed by
the leading committee of the territorial section in which the shop nuclei are
organized.
Section 2. In factories where only one or two members are employed, these
members are affiliated to the nearest working nucleus or form a factory nucleus
joining with the members working in neighboring factories.
Section 3. Party members who cannot be immediately affiliated with a shop
nucleus, shall join the street nucleus (international branch) in the section of the
city in which they reside.
Section 4. The nucleus is the organization which links up the Party with the
workers and poor farmers. The tasks of the nucleus are to conduct Party work
among the non-party masses of workers and peasants by means of systematic
Communist agitation and propaganda, to recruit new members to distribute and
seil Party literature, to issue a factory newspaper, to conduct cultural work, to
discuss Party problems, to carry on the work of enlightenment and education of
the Party members in the fundamental principles of Communism. The members
of the nucleus should strive for all official positions in the workers' organizations
in the factory, participate in all economic contlicts and demands of the employees,
interpret these from the standpoint of the revolutionary class struggle and seek
to win the leadership of all the struggles of the workers by tireless nucleus work.
Section 5. The street nucleus (international branch) conducts similar work
among the workers living in that section of the city in which it is organized.
Section 6. The shop nucleus and street nucleus (international branch) elects a
bureau to conduct its work. This bureau should consist of from three to five
members and conducts all nucleus work, assigns it to the individual members of
the nucleus or international branch, as, for instance, propaganda, distribution of
papers, fraction work in the trade unions, shop committee work, work among
women, defense work, connection with the youth nucleus, etc. The nucleus bureau
is responsible for this work and makes periodical reports to the next higher
committee.
Section 7. The shop nucleus or street nucleus (international branch) bureau
elects an organizer-secretary, whose duty it is to maintain the connections be-
tween the shop nucleus or street nucleus (international branch) and the next
higher committee, conduct the corresixindence of the shop nucleus or street
nticleus and to carry out the decisions of the bureau.
Article 6. Sub-Sections, Sections and City Organizations
Section 1. In the small cities (of not more than two hundred members), the
shop nuclei and street nuclei (international branches) shall each hold general
membership meetings periodically, not less often than each three months. These
membership meetings in January and July shall elect the city executive counnit-
tee which shall direct the Party work in such cities.
Section 2. Larger cities shall be divided into sections by the city executive com-
mittee of such cities. The party members affiliated with the shop nuclei or
APPENDIX, PART 1 313
street nuclei (interaational branches) in eacli section of such cities shall meet in a
general membership meeting once each three months to discuss general party
Itrublems. At the membership meetings held in January and July or at a special
conference of elected delegates from the shop and street nuclei a section executive
committee which shall direct the work of the Party in this section, shall be
elected.
Section 3. In the very large cities such as New York and Chicago, the city shall
be divided into sections and sub-sections. The shop nuclei and street nuclei
(international branches) in each sub-section shall hold periodic membership meet-
ings in January and July shall elect a sub-section executive committee which shall
direct the work of the Party in the sub-section.
b) There shall also be held periodic conference of delegates from the shop
nttclei and the street nuclei (international branches) in each section, and the
confert'nces in January and July shall elect a section execittive committee which
shall direct the work of the Party in the section.
c) In January and July of each year, there shall be held a conference of dele-
g.ites elected by the section or sub-section conferences (of representatives of the
shop and street nuclei) in the city, v/hich shall elect the city executive committee,
except in those cities which are the headipiarters of the district executive com-
mittee. In the latter cities, the district executive committee functions as the lead-
ing connnittee.
Section 4. The size of the sub-section, section, and city executive committees,
shall be determined by the respective conferences which elect these committees^
Sectitin 5. As soon as the Party reorganization progresses so that at least 25
per cent of the Party members are organized in shop nuclei, at least fifty per cent
of the members of the sub-section, section, and city executive committee shall be
elected from the shop nuclei.
Section 6. The sub-section, section, and city executive committees elect a secre-
tary-organizer, who is responsible for the maintenance of connections with the
next higher unit and for the execution of the decisions of the committees.
Article 7. Sub -District Organization
Section 1. Wherever the district executive committee considers that the func-
tioning of the Party organization will be improved, it may with the consent of the
Central Executive Committee, create a sub-district organization, thru the com-
bination of several cities. Such sub-district organizations shall hold a conference
of delegates from the city organization or from shop nuclei and street nuclei (in-
ternational branches) in the sub-district in January and Jtdy of each year and
elect a sub-district executive committee.
Section 2. The number of members of which the sub-district executive com-
mittee shall consist shall be determined by the sub-district conference. Where
the basic organizations of a sub-district are made up of shop nuclei to an extent
of at least twenty-five per cent, fifty per cent of the members of the sub-district
executive committee shall be elected from the shop nuclei.
Section 3. The sub-districl executive commitlee shall elect a secretary-organizer
Avho shall maintain connections with the next higher unit of the Party, and execute
the decisions of the sub-district executive committee.
Section 4. In the city in which the sub-district committee has its headquarters,
the sub-district committee acts as the executive committee of that city.
Article 8. District Organization
Section 1. The Central Executive Committee of the Party shall divide the coun-
try into districts. Once each year there shall be held a district conference made
up of delegates from the city organizatit)ns in the district and such unattached
nuclei and international branches as there may be in the district. This district
coriference shall elect a district executive connnittee. Special conferences may be
called by the district executive connnittee or by the Central Executive Committee.
Section 2. The district conference also elects the District Control Committee
Avhich shall be charged with the control of the financial accounts of all the Party
units in the district and which also deals with the appeals from the decisions of
lower I'arty units against disciplinary action.
Section 3. The District Executive Committee is the highest Party authority in
the district between district conferences. The District Executive Committee
nmst be composed partially of factory workers and should include representatives
of the chief towns of the district. The district connnittee determines how often
314 UN- AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
full meetings of the district committee are to be held. But these must be held at
least once a month. Tlie district committee where composed in part of members
not residing in the city of the district headquarters shall elect an executive council
for the conduct of its current business.
Section 4. The District Executive Committee elects the district organizer in
agreement with the Central Executive Committee. The district organizer must
have been a member of the Party for two years. If a district paper is published
the District Executive Committee elects the editor of the paper with the agree-
ment of the Central Executive Committee.
Section 5. The district executive committee shall organize such departments
for the conduct of the Party work as Agitprop, organization, trade union work,
woman's work, etc. As a rule members of the district committee should be placed
at the head of these departments. These departments carry on their work under
the direction of the District Executive Committee and submit periodic reports to
the District Executive Committee.
Section 6. The District Executive Committee is responsible for its work to the
district conference and the Central Executive Committee. It must submit a
monthly report of its activities to the Central Executive Committee.
Section 7. In the city in which the District Executive Committee has its head-
quarters the city organization does not elect a city executive committee and the
Party work in this city is directed by the District Executive Committee.
Article 9. The Party Conference
Section 1. The Central Executive Committee may, when it deems it necessary,
call party conferences. The delegates to these party conferences from the dis-
tricts shall be elected by the district committee. The Central Executive Com-
mittee may co-opt individual party workers to attend the party conferences in an
advisory capacity without voting rights.
Section 2. The decisions of the Party conference are not valid and binding on
the party unless endorsed by the Central Executive Committee.
Article 10. The Party Convention
Section 1. The party convention is the highest authority of the Party and shall
be called by the Central Executive Committee at least once a year in agreement
with the executive committee of the Communist International.
Section 2. Special conventions which shall have all the powers of regular con-
ventions, may be called by the Central Executive Committee eithei- at its own
initiative and in agreement with the Executive Committee of the Communist
International or at the initiative of the Communist International, or upon the
demand of party organizations representing half the members of the Party.
Special conventions, however, can only be called with the agreement of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International.
Section 3. The call for the national convention and the proposed agenda of the
convention shall be submitted to the membership at least one month before the
date of the convention.
Section 4. The number of delegates to the convention shall be determined by the
Central Executive Committee. Delegates shall be apportioned to the districts in
proportion to the membership to be decided in accordance with the provision of
article 10 of this constitution.
Section 5. The party convention shall hear the reports of the Central Executive
Committee and the Central Control Committee, decide the questions of Party
program, formulate resolutions on all political, tactical and organizational ques-
tions, elect the Central Executive Committee and the Central Control Committee.
Article 11. Elections of Delegates
Section 1. Election of delegates to all party conferences and conventions shall
be based upon the number of members in good standing on the first of the month
prior to the date of the election. No party member can vote in the election if
more than two months in arrears in dues payments. The secretary of the Party
unit shall submit with the results of the election a certified list stating the names
of the good-standing members in the Party unit. No election of delegates to any
conference or convention shall be valid imless 5 per cent of the good-standing
members in the Party unit participated in the elections.
APPENDIX, PART 1 315
Section 2. The highest couimittee of the unit of the Party in which a conference
or convention is to be held shall decide the basis of representation, that is, the
number of good-standing members necessary to elect delegates.
Section 3. The shop nucleus and the street nucleus (international branch) or
in case of large cities the sub-section, shall elect delegates to the city convention
in accordance with the number of delegates they are entitled to based upon the
certified list of good-standing members which the secretary shall send to the
city convention in certifying the results of the elections.
Section 4. The city convention shall elect the number of delegates it is entitled
to according to the ratio fixed for the election of delegates from the city conven-
tion to the district convention based upon the number of members in good standing
in the city as certified by tlie shop nuclei and the street nuclei (international
branches).
Section ."). The district convention shall elect the number of d-^'legates it is
entitled to according to the ratio fixed for the election of delegates from the
district convention to the national convention based upon the number of good-
standing members in the district as certified by the city convention.
Section 6. The same rule shall apply in the election of delegates to section and
city conferences, provided for in Article 5.
Article 12. Central Executive Committee
Section 1. The Central Executive Committee of the Party shall be elected by the
Party convention and shall consist of 19 members elected by the convention, a
representative of the Young Workers League and a neutral chairman with deci-
sive vote. The convention shall also elect six candidates who shall have a right
to participate in the full sessions of the C. E. C. with a voice but no vote. In
case of vacancies the candidates shall become members of the C. E. C.
Section 2. The Central Executive Conunittee is the highest authority of the
Party between the party conventions. It represents the Party as a whole over
and against other Party institutions and other institutions, organizes various
organs of the Party, conducts all its political and organizational work, appoints
the editors of its central organs who work under its leadership and control,
organizes and guides all undertakings of importance for the entire Party, dis-
tributes all the Party forces and controls the Central Treasury. The Central
Executive Committee conducts the work of the Party factions within bodies of a
central nature.
Section 3. The Central Executive Committee elects from among its numbers a
Political Committee for conducting the work of the C. E. C. between its full ses-
sions. The Central Committee shall elect a general secretary, and a secretariat
for conduct of the permanent current work, and establish an agitprop depart-
ment, organization department and such other departments as the Party requires.
The members of the Central Executive Committee should be the heads of these
departments wherever possible.
Section 4. The Central Executive Committee shall divide the country into dis-
tricts and create district organizations. The Central Executive Committee has
the right to combine or divide existing organizations, either according to territory
or otherwise in conformity with their political and economic characteristics.
Article 13. The Central Control Committee
Section 1. The Party convention shall elect a Central Control Committee of four
members which shall audit the books and accounts of the national organization
and supervise similar control of the financial accounts of the Party as a whole.
Section 2. The Central Control Committee shall also pass upon appeals from
decision of lower party units in reference to branches of discipline. The decisions
of the Central Control Committee in such matters are subject to the approval of
the Central Executive Committee.
Article 14. Qualifications
Section 1. Members of the Central Executive Committee, general secretary,
editor, and all candidates for political office must have been members of the Party
for two years at time of their nomination.
Section 2. Members of the District Executive Committee, must have been mem-
bers of tlie Party for two years at the time of their nomination.
315 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Section 3. Members of City Executive Committees must have been members of
the Party for one year at the time of their uomination, and of section unci sub-
section committees must have been members of the Party for six months at the
time of their nomination.
Article 15. Party discipline
Section 1. The strictest party discipline is the most solemn duty of all Party
members and all Party organizations. The decisions of the Com^iiunist Inter-
national and the Party convention, of the Central Executive Committee and all
the leading committees of the Party must be promptly carried out. Discussion
of questions over which tliere have been differences must not continue after the
decision has been made.
Section 2. Breaches of party discipline by individual members may be punished
by censure, public censure, dismissal from office, suspension from the Party, and
expulsion from the Party. Breaches of discipliine by Party commiLtees may be
punished by removal of the committee by the next higher Party committee.
Section 3. Charges against individual members shall be made in the shop
nucleus or international branch and the decision of the Party unit shall be con-
firmed by the Party committee in the territory in which the unit is located.
Charges against individual members znay also be made in any leading committee of
the Party and such committtes have full power to act. The member expelled
may appeal to the next higher committee. Appeals can be made only by the pun-
ished members themselves or by a party organization in his behalf.
Section 4. No leading committee of the Party has power to suspend any of its
members from the couunittee. Charges against members of committees must be
filed with the next higher committee.
Article 16. Dues
Section 1. Each applicant for membership shall pay an initiation fee of 50c
which shall be receipted for by an initiation stamp furnished by the Central
Executive Committee. The entire sum shall go to the national organization.
Section 2. Each member shall pay 50c per month dues, which shall be receipted
for by dues stamps issued by the Central Executive (Vnnmittee. Members whose
earnings are more than $100.00 per month shall pay additional dues to tlie
amount of one per cent of their earnings above $100. The payment of the addi-
tional dues shall be receipted for by special stamps issued by the Central Execu-
tive Committee.
Section 3. 'i'he district organization shall purchase regular dues stamps from
the Central Executive Committee at 25c per stamp, the city organization shall
purchase dues stamps from the city organization at 40c; the sub-section organi-
zation shall purchase dues stamps from the section organization at 42i/>c; and
the shop nuclei and the street nuclei (international branches) shall purcha.se
stamps from the sub-section organization at 45c. Where no sub-sections exist the
shop nuclei and international branches purchase tiieir stamps from the section
organization at 45c. Where no sections exist, the shop nuclei and street nuclei
(international branches) purchase stamps from the city organization at 45c.
Section 4. Special assessments may be levied by the national cons ontion or the
Central Executive Committee. No member shall be considered in good standing
unless he purchases such special assessment stamp.
Section 5. Members unable to pay dues or assessments on account of unem-
ployment, strikes, sickness, or similar rea.son shall by vote of the nucleus or inter-
national branch be furnished with exempt stamps. No district organization shall
be allowed exempt stamps in a proportion greater than ten per cent of its monthly
purchase of regular stamps, except by decision of the C. E. C.
Section 6. Members who are three months in arrears in payment of dues
shall cease to be members of the party in good standing. Members who are
six months in arrears shall be stricken from the rolls. No member of tlie
Party shall pay dues in advance for a period of more than three months.
Article 17. Language Fractions
Section 1. All members of the Party now members of language branches
must become members in either shop nuclei or international branches in the
APPENDIX, PART 1 317
reorganization of the Party on the basis of this constitution, in order to
retain their membership in tlie Party.
Section 2. The former members of the language sections of the Party,
in addition to their membership in the Party, through affiliation with the shop
Tiuciei or international brancli shall form language fractions.
Section 3. The language fraction shall consist of all the members of the
Party who speak a certain language, who are members of a sub-section,
section, or city organization of the Party. The units of the language fraction
should be formed on the basis of the most efficient metliod of worliing among
their paiticular language group. The D. E. C. or City Executive Committee
shall decide as to the units to be formed.
Section 4. Where tbei'e is more than one sub-section in a section organization,
in which language fractions of a particular language group are organized,
these language fractions shall hold general membership meetings of all the
members of the language fraction, in the section in January and July of each
year, and elect an executive committee of the language fraction for the section.
Svhere there are several sections of a city in which fractions are organized,
tlie membei-s of the language fraction shall hold a city membership meeting in
January and July of each year, and elect a city executive committee of the
language fraction. sub.iect to the approval of the respective Party committee.
Section 5. Once each year, there shall be held a district conference of dele-
gates from the language fractions in the party districts which shall elect a
district executive connnittee for the language fraction. The D. E. C. for the
language fraction nnist be approved by the Party D. E. C.
Section 6. The Central Executive Connnittee of the Party may, if it deems
it advisable, permit the liolding of a national conference of a language fraction
of a particular language group. Wlien such national conferences are held,
they shall elect, subject to the approval of the Central Executive Connnittee, a
national language bureau. In cases where the Central Executive Committee
does not deem it advisable to hold national conferences of a language fraction,
it shall appoint a national bureau for the language fraction.
Section 7. The language fraction is an auxiliary organization of the Party,
for work among a pai'ticular language group. Only Party members who are
affiliated to the shop nuclei or the street nuclei (international branches) and
pay duos to the basic units of the Party, can be members of the language
fraction of tlie Party. The language fraction of the Party does not collect
dues, but may, with the consent of the Central Executive Committee carry on
si^ecial campaigns among their language groups for funds to carry on the
work of the language fraction. The Central Executive Committee shall also
provide a definite monthly appropriation from the dues receipts for the work
of the language fraction national bureaus.
Section 8. It is the work of the language fraction to carry on agitation,
prt)pagan(ia, and organization work among the working masses of its language
group. The language fraction must also organize fractions of party members
in the frateriml and benevolent organizations of its language group, as pro-
vided for in the section of this constitution dealing with the organizational
question, and carry on a systematic campaign to establish Communist influence
and bring these organizations under the influence of the party, ideologically
and organizationally.
Section 9. The language fractions of each language group shall also organize
a workers' club of their particular language group in each city or the sections
of the city. These workers' clubs shall consist of both party and non-party
members. The language fraction shall function as a fraction in these clubs
to carry on agitation and propaganda and bring the nou-Party members under
Communist influence and recruit them for membership in regular Party units.
Article 18. Fractions
Section 1. In all non-Party workers' and farmers' organizations (trade
unions, co-operatives, cultural societies, educational societies, fraternal and
benevolent societies, .sports and other clubs, war veterans' organizations, factory
councils, unemployed councils, at conferences and conventions, in local admin-
istrative bodies, state legislatures and the national congress) where there are
at least two Cimimunists, a Conmnmist fraction must be organized for the
piu'pose of increasing the influence of the I'arty in applying its policy in the
Jioii-Party sphere.
318 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Section 2. The fractions are organs of the Party within non-Party organiza-
tions. They are not independent, fnlly authorized organizations, but are sub-
ordinate to the comi^etent local Party committee.
Section 3. In case of differences arising between the Party committee and
the fraction, the Party committee must investigate the question anew, togetlier
witli tlie representatives of the fraction and come to a decision whicli must
be carried out unconditionally by the fraction. In case an appeal is made
against the decision by the fraction, the question shall be finally settled by the
next higher Party committee.
Section 4. If questions are discussed by a Party committee which concerns a
fraction, the committee shall accept a representative of the fraction concerned,
who shall attend the meeting of the committee in an advisory capacity.
Section 5. The fractions elect their own oflScers who, however, must be
endorsed by the Party committee in the section in which the fraction operates.
The officers of the fraction are responsible for their activities to the fraction
and to the Party committee.
Section 6. The Party committee, which directs the Party work in the
territory in which a fraction is organized, has the right to send its repre-
sentatives into the executive committee of any fraction or to recall any member
of that body, after the reason for such action has been explained to the
fraction.
Section 7. Candidates for all important positions in the organization in which
the fractions are working are selected by the fraction, in agreement with the
Party committee for the section.
Section 8. Questions which come up for decision in the organization in which
a fraction is working must be discussed in advance in the meeting of the
fraction, or by its leading committee. On every question on which a decision
is reached in the fraction, or a decision made by the leading committee, the
fraction members must act unanimously in the meeting of the organization
and vote together solidly. Members who break this rule are subject to disci-
Ijlinary measures by the Party.
Article 19. Relations to the Y. W. L.
Section 1. A corresponding committee of the Young Workers League shall
he entitled to send one representative with voice and vote into all sub-sections,
sections, city and district and central executive committees of the Party, pro-
vided there is a corresponding Y. W. L. organization to the organization of
the party to which the representative is sent.
Section 2. The Party executive connnittee, in the sub-section, section, city,
district, and the Central Executive Committee shall send a representative with
voice and vote into the corresponding Y. W. L. committee.
Section 3. The corresponding Y. W. L. organization shall be entitled to send
representatives to all conferences and conventions of the Party organization.
The number of representatives which shall be given to the Y. W. L. in such
conferences and conventions shall be decided by the Party committee wliich
calls the conference or convention.
Section 4. All members of the Party under 21 years of age must join the
Young Workers League. AH members of the Young Workers League over 21
years" of age, should join the Party and must join the Party if 23 years of
age or over, or be excluded from the League.
Section 5. Members of the Y. W. L. who are under 21 years of age and
who are also members of the Party, shall be exempt from paying Party dues
upon presentation of their Y. W. L. dues card, with dues stamp aflixed. An
exempt stamp, marked "Y. W. L." shall be aflixed to the Party card of such
member.
Section 20. Schedule
1. The provisions of this constitution in relation to purchase of dues stamps
from the district committee and city organizations by the l)asic units of the
Party go into effect on October 1, 1925. Language branches which have not
been reorganized by that date must purchase their dues stamps from the dis-
trict and city organizations.
2. The provisions of this constitution in regard to the elections of the sub-
section, section, city and district committees go into effect as fast as the
reorganization of the Party on the basis of this constitution take place in a
APPENDIX, PART 1
319
locality. This provision also applies to the organizatioti of language fractions
which must be organized as fast as the Party reorganization takes place. The
provisions of the previous constitution of the Party apply in a locality until
such rime as the reorganization takes place, except that the City Central
Connnirtee shall hold one session to constitute a City Executive Committee and
then be abolished.
3. The reorganization of the entire Party on the basis of the provisions of
this constitution shall be completed within 6 months from the time of its
adoption (Sept., 1925). The Central Executive Committe is instructed to take
all the necessary steps to carry out the reorganization in the period allotted.
T\r\e C.E.C. ^kn<J its Deba^rt men t 9.
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UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
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322
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
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APPENDIX, PART 1 323
Exhibit No. 22
[Source: Our Immediate Work-— Program adopted l>.v the Central Executive Committee
of tbe Workers Party of America, published by Literature Department, Workers Party
of America, 1113 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago, Illinois : 1924]
OuB Immediate Work
PROGRAM
Adopted by the Central Executive Committee of the ^^'ol•lcel•s Party of America
Price Ti cents. Published by Literature Department. Workers Party of America,
1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, 111.
PROGKAM OF ACTION ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CENTRAL, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Program as a Whole
In March tlie Central Executive Committee issued a statement entitled
"Activities of tlie Worliers Party." in which was pointed out the necessity for
a balanced program of action for tlie Party. At that time attention was called
to tlie tendency of various groups in the Party to unduly stress certain activities
of the Party and neglect others. The consequence of this course naturally leads
to a lopsided development of the Party and to the growth of unnecessary fac-
tionalism. The Central Executive Committee stressed the necessity of so or-
ganizing its program of work that the tasks of building the Party, educating
its membersliip, and utilizing it in the class struggle would go ahead simul-
taneously and in such manner as to give the Party a thoroughly rounded char-
acter. The present Program of Action, herewith outlined, is the putting into
effect of the principles enlarged upon in the statement, "Activities of the Work-
ers Party."
The Program of Action contains several points: 1) Labor Party and election
policy: 2) Trade Union and industrial work; 3) Party membership campaign;
4) K'lucational work; 5) Reorganization of the Party on the shop nuclei basis;
(■>) riiemployment policy: 7) Daily Worker subscriptiou campaign. These
proi)! ►tuitions cover most of the main activities of the Party and consist of the
matters to which the Party must direct its concentrated attention. This does
not mean, however, that other activities of the Party shall be neglected. On
the contrary, they. too. shall be pushed with redoubled energy.
Ill order that the Program of Actiou may be put into effect systematically,
energetically and uniformly throughout the organization, and all these activi-
ties carried on continuously in the sense of their comparative importance, a cer-
tain amount of specialization and organization will have to take place around
each policy. This will develop from the top to the bottom of the Party. In the
Cen«^ral Executive Committee individual members will be commissioned to de-
vote special attention to the various iihases of the Program of Action, this sije-
cialization not to intHrfere with the proper centralization of the Party. The
District Executive Committees will also carry out the same principle, organizing
the necessary committees to specialize upon each of the points of the program.
Likewise the City Central Committees and local branches will create the neces-
sary specialization so that they can be brought systematically and effectively into
the' work of putting tlie whole Program of Action into operation.
lii addition to creating the necessary committees around each phase of the
Program of Action, a fundamental necessity is to require that all of these re-
sponsible individuals and committees submit regular reports as to what is being
accomplished in the line of activity directly under their supervision. Thus the
<'entral Executive Committee will require regular reports from those of its mem-
bers commissioned to carry out these activities. Likewi.se. the Central Executive
Committee will receive similar reports from all District Organizers explaining
in detail what is being done in their respective territories relative to all the
points on the Program of Action. So far as practical the District Executive
Committees, City Central C^mimittee, and local branches should put the same prin-
ciple into effect. Only in this manner, by creating the necessary specialized ma-
chinery and then seeing to it that this machinery functions effectively, will it be
pissible to achieve the highly beneficial effects possible under this program.
The following .statement of policies and the manner of their application
deals in the main with general principles. Detailed instructions on each
poli<y will be sent to the Party units.
324 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Our Electiou Caniyaigu and the Farmer-Labor Party
In June, 1922, our Party declared, in a manifesto dealing with, the applica-
tion of the United Front policy in the United States, that the pidbienx of the
United Front politically was the problem of the I'ormatiou of a Labor Party.
Since that time the Party has carried on a consistent United Front cam-
paign with the end in view of nniting those workers and farmers who were
ready to break with the capitalist parties in a mass Farmer-Labor Party
with which the Workers Party would be affiliated. This campaign ha.s been
the major political campaign of our Party.
We have during this campaign advanced the cause of independent working
class action and made the Farmer-Labor Party an issue in the American
labor movement. We can also say, without danger of the statement being
challenged, that our Party had made the greatest gains for itself through
this campaign for the Labor Party. It is through this Farmer-Labor Party
campaign that our Party has established itself as a political force in the
United States. It is through this campaign that it has established its prestige
and its leadership among the masses of workers and farmers. Nothing ha.s
contributed so much to develop our Party from a sectarian group to a recog-
nized political force in the life of the labor movement of this country than
our nianouvers in relation to the Farmer-Labor Party.
The Central Executive Committee declares that the campaign for a Farmer-
Labor Party was a correct estimation of the situation in the United States.
It declared further that the campaign for the Farmer-Labor Party must be
continued and will be a major campaign of the Party in the future.
We miist, however, consider fundamentally the situation which our Party
face.s in the present election cami^aign. The June 17th Farmer-Labor Party
was not successful in mobilizing all the Farmer-Labor forces of the United
States for a Farmer-Labor campaign. The convention made tentative nomi-
nations and adopted a tentative platform and organization plan. It was
considered possible that the Farmer-Labor elements which still adhered to
the Conference for Progressive Political Action would break away from that
(Jonference when it again betrayed their hopes for a Farmer-Labor Party
and that an alliance with these forces would create the basis for the Farmer-
Labor Party campaign in this election struggle.
The group in the Conference for Progressive Political Action which is for
a Farmer-Labor Party, did not have sitfficient courage to take a stand fnr
the principle of class Farmer-Labor action in the United States. Without
protest it accepted the LaFollette petty bourgeois progressive movement. The
Conference for Progressive Political Action has become a petty bourgeois
])rogressive United Front extending from LaFollette to Debs.
It is the supreme duty of our Party to raise against this petty bourgeois
progressive alliance which is misleading the workers wnth the slogans of
i-evolutionary class action. LaFollette is a menace to the labor movement.
It is placing the workers under the leadership of the petty bourgeois class
with a progi-am in direct contradiction to the interests of the workers and
liquidating their class movement. If the Farmer-Labor Party, as formed at
St. Paul, represented a real United Front, iniifying a mass movement of
farmers and workers which would stand firm and carry on the fight against
LaFolletteism and the petty bourgeois progressive alliance, unquestionably
the fight against LaFolletteism should be made through the Farmer-Labor
Party. This is not the situation. Part of the organizations participating
in the June 17th Convention are them.selves infected with LaFolletteism and
will be swept along in the wake of the LaFollette petty bourgeois progressive
movement.
Our Party, therefore, faces the question whether it shall participate in a
Farmer-Labor Party campaign in which the Workers Party will have to bear
the brunt of the work and will have to largely conduct the campaign through
its organization, or whether it shall conduct a Communist campaign against
LaFolletteism in the name of the Workers Party. A campaign in the name
of the Farmer-Labor Party would, in the face of the Cleveland betrayal,
unite only a relatively small part of the Farnier-Tiabor forces with the Workers
Party. On the other hand, otir Party wo\ild be greatly harnpered in its agita-
tion and propaganda and could not use the political campaign for thf direct
upbuilding of the Party, if the campaign were conducted under the name-
of the Farmer-Labor Party. The United Front campaign is only of value-
to onr Party if it unites with us large groups of workers for common action..
APPENDIX, PART 1 325
The degree ti» which this wouhl be true in the Farmer-Labor eampaigu is
iior siifficient for such a United Front campaign. The Central Executive Com-
mittee of tlie Party therefore has unanimously decided that the Workers
I'arty shall enter the campaign in its own name, nominate Communist candi-
dates and conduct a Communist campaign.
The alignment in the elections will be : The capitalist Republican and Demo-
cratic parties, the LaFollette petty bourgeois progressive alliance, and the
Workers Party raising the slogan of working class action ou a Communist
program against the capitalists and against the i>etty bourgeois misleaders
of the worliers. This situation should nerve every member of our Party fur
the most aggressive and militant struggle our Party has ever made.
Our program and policy during the campaign will be the following :
1. To run candidates nationally, in the states, and locally, under the names
of the AVorkers Party, wherever it is possible for us to put these candidates
on the ballot, this to include the nomination of presidential electors in every
.-late in which we can get on the ballot.
2. The National Executive Committee of the Farmer-Labor Party formed
at St. Paul has endorsed the candidates of the Workers Party in this cam-
]»aign and called upon all Farmer-Labor groups who stand for working class
ncrion to support these candidates. Our Party shall urge all local and state
Farmer-Labor Party organizations to endorse the Workers Party candidates,
maintaining their organization intact and using them to support the Workers
Party campaign during the election struggle, thus also preparing the ground
for continuance of the fight for the Farmer-Labor Party after the election
campaign.
2-a. A campaign fund of $100,000 shall be raised through circulation of
subscription lists and donations from s.ympathetic organizations.
3. Every unit of the Workers Party must at once form election campaign com-
mittees for the purpose of organizing and carrying on the work in support of the
campaign of the Party.
4. The National Office will at once place in the field a corps of speakers who
will be routed to every part of the country in a speaking campaign in support
of our candidates and program.
5. The National Organization will issue a series of campaign leaflets which
must be distributed by the Party organization in millions of copies.
6. The Party National Organization will print during the campaign a series
of campaign pamphlets dealing with the issues of the campaign and with the
fundamentals of the Communist movement for the purpose of education of the
workers to support our movement.
7. Pai-ty papers in all languages must give special attention to the election
campaign supiwrting the Party campaign in every way possible.
•S. We must make consistent use of the election campaign for the upbuilding
of o'lr Party. No meetings must pass without inviting the workers present to
join our Party. No piece of literature can be issiied without containing a similar
appeal.
Membership and Daily Worker Campaigns
The strengthening of our Party as an organization is essential to the future
growth of the influence of the Party among the masses of the workers. Increase
of the membership will furnish a wider basis for all of our activities. An in-
creased membership will furnish both the workers and the financial support
necessary to widen the scope of our work.
The activitit^s of the Party during the past two years have created a large
group of sympathizers with our movement. We have, however, failed in carry-
ing on the organization work necessary to bring those workers who are ripe for
membership in our Party into the organization. Our Party must now take up
this work eneigetically. We must create in every unit of the Party a committee
charged with the work of systematically conducting a campaign for membership.
Our slogan dui'ing the election- campaign must be: 10,000 new members for the
Party.
The Daily Worker
0\n Party made a splendid successful effort in the campaign for the DAILY
Wr>RKER. The fact that we were able to raise the funds to establish the DAILY
AVORKER with its own plant is a monument to the willingness of the members
of our own Party to work for the upbuilding of the movement.
The establishment of the DAILY WORKER, however, does not complete our
task. Our Party, since the DAILY WORKER has come into existence, has not
326 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
given it the organized support in the effort to build up its subscriptions thar must
be given. A daily paper, under any circumstances, is a mountain of strength
for our Party, but we can make it even of greater service if our Party gives it
organized support and thus builds up its influence among the workers thru
extension of the number of its readers. As part of the immediate program of
activity of the Party we must carry on the organized campaign of support for the
DAILY WORKER thru building the subscription of the DAILY WORKER. Just
as the increase of our membership makes possible the Increase of all of our
activities, so the increase of the subscribers for the DAILY W^ORKER extends
and broadens our influence and broadens the possibilities of our actually being
among the masses.
Combined Membership and Daily Worker Drive
The membership and DAILY WORKER subscription campaign will be com-
bined as one campaign. The C. E. C. asks that every member of the Party secure
one new member and a new subscription for the DAILY WORKER. The pro-
gram will be the following:
1. A letter from the Central Executive Committee to each member of the Party
will be furnished to the branches in such quantities as will supply every membei'.
This letter will set forth the campaign for the DAILY WORKER and membership.
2. With this letter each member will receive an application card and a DAILY
WORKER subscription card which he must use to secure one new member and
one new subscriber for the DAILY.
3. Each branch will create a Membership and DAILY WORKER Campaign
Committee which will keep record of every member who turns in the subscription
and application card.
4. When the subscriirtion is turned in or the application is turned in, the mem-
ber of the Party turning same in will be furnished a special stamp to be placed
in his dues book certifying that he has done his full Communist duty in th0
campaign.
5. Each branch is expected to appoint as a member of the Campaign Committee
a DAILY WORKER subscription agent who will function permanently as the
agent of the DAILY WORKER.
6. All Party mass meetings during the election campaign must be used for the
purpose of securing new members.
7. Subscription lists of all Party papers must be systematically canvassed for
new members. All members of unions and other organizations must approach
those sympathetic with our Party to bring them into the Party.
8. The Party press will carry a series of articles on the necessity for Member-
ship and DAILY WORKER campaigns.
Educational Work
Party educational work is to be developed manifold. It must be established
in all sections of the Party as an indispensible department of Party activities to
be carried on in a systematic manner thruout all periods of the year alongside
of special campaign of the Party. In order to insure the permanence and con-
tinuity and Communist character of the Party educational work thruout the
Party, all phases of work must fall under the central direction of the C. E. C. and
be developed from year to year according to a national co-ordinated scheme. For
the furtherance of the educational work, the following decisions are to go into
effect.
1. The C. E. C. shall establish an educational committee, which shall have full
direction and supervision of the Party educational work in all of its aspects.
The direct administrative responsibility of the national Party educational work
shall be in the hands of the national educational director who shall be a member
of the Educational Department of the C. E. C. and shall be responsible for the
carrying out of its decisions. The educational committee and the national edu-
cational director shall be directly responsible to the C. E. C. for the whole educa-
tional program of the Party and must make regular and systematic reports of
the progress of the work.
2. Every District Executive Committee and City Central Committee must
immediately establish its etlucational committee and appoint its district or local
educational director. The district and local educational committees and educa-
tional directors shall be responsible for the development of systematic educational
work in their respective fields. Each district and local educational director .shall
APPENDIX, PART 1 327
be ill direct communication witli the educational director of tlie C. E. C. and sliall
develop the district and local work according to the general plan and under the
general supervision of the National Educational Committee.
3. The Educational Department of the C. E. C. shall take steps at once to
set the following program of educational activity into action :
(a) Develop the circuit system of educational lectures and classes in at
least one district of the Party according to the plans laid down in the educational
program adopted last Fall and put into practice in the Chicago and Boston
districts.
(b) Arrange for the systematic routing of Party lecturers on subjects dealing
with the fundamentals of Communist principles.
(c) Begin the iieriodical publication of books and pamphlets of a theoretical
nature and continue such publication according to a worked-out plan.
(d) Conduct a section in the Party press on educational work in order to
popularize this Party activity and keep it constantly before the attention of
the Party members.
(e) Work out plans for holding of a Party School in Chicago after the elec-
tion campaign for the purpose of giving intensive instructions to a selected
group of Party leaders from the various Districts.
(f) Work out the plans and make arrangements for the holding of special
lectures by the most prominent Party leaders on questions of Communist prin-
ciple and arrange special debates with other political bodies on the same
subjects.
(g) The New York Party School, which is under direct supervision of the
C E. C, must be encouraged and supported by every possible means in order
that it may soon establish itself as a solid and permanent institution for the
training of Party comrades in the New York District.
(h) All the comrades responsible for the educational work in every depart-
ment of the Party must make special efforts to draw into this educational
activity the most acitve members of the Young Workers League.
(1) Special means should be provided for the adequate financing of the
Party educational work. The Educational Department of the C. E. C. shall
prepare and submit for the approval of the C. E. C. an approximate budget
for the carrying on of the activities provided for in this program. Upon
approval of the budget, -the C. E. C. shall directly provide the required finances.
Trade Union and Industrial Work
The effectiveness of the Communist movement everywhere depends directly
upon the .success it has in sinking its roots into the industrial organizations of
the working class. This principle is so generally recognized that the Com-
munist International has reiterated time and again the supreme necessity for
carrying on intensive and persistent work among the trade unions in all coun-
tries. The Workers Party, following the general policy, has al.so repeatedly
insisted upon the need for well-organized efforts among the industrial workers.
But nevertheless our Party has not yet come to realize the great importance
of it. The trade union and industrial work is still in its infancy. Many units
of the organization ignore it altogether. They seem to look upon the Trade
Union Educational League as either some foreign organization or one capable
of running along entirely upon its own resources. The consequence of this
glaring neglect of trade union work is that the Party is failing to draw sus-
tenance from the richest field of opportunity lying before it. All its activities
suffer accordingly. A firm grip in the industries is the first consideration for
the success of our whole movement.
The Central Exeeutie Committee is detei'mined that the Party shall take
the industrial work much more seriously than in the past. For this purpose all
the Party units will be required to make it a definite and constant feature of
their activities. The present state of neglect must come to an end at once.
We must aim to a condition wherein every industrial center there is a large
and flourishing section of the Trade Union Educational League, and where every
party of our Party is functioning vigorously industrially. The real health and
growth of our Party depends upon the accomplishment of this condition. As
the most vital present necessities of the industrial work, the Central Executive
Committee calls upon the Party to put into effect he following general measures :
1. Build the League. — In every industrial center where the Party has local
branches there must be formed local groups of the Trade Union Educational
League. In the organized Districts the District Organizers shall consider it
328 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
a part of their most urgent tasks to see to it that in every industrial city
or town within their Districts there is an active section of the League. They
will be held responsible for the rigid fulfillment of this provision. The District
Executive Committees, the City Central Committees, and local branches shall
give the fullest co-operation in this matter.
2. Industrml Registration. — A first necessity for successful work among the
trade unionists and unorganized masses in the industries is a complete indus-
trial registration of all Party members. Such a registration will be carried
out by the Central Executive Committee in the near future. All Party units,
including Federations, District Executive Committees, City Central Committee,
and local branches, are instructed to make this a special order of business.
The District Organizers are especially instructed to see to it that the indus-
trial registration is a success in their respective Districts.
3. Industrial Organisers. — In order to carry out the industrial work success-
fully, it is necessary that the various units of the Party commission industrial
organizers and industrial committees to have charge of the work. The local
branches shall each appoint an industrial organizer. The District Executive
Committees shall specialize themselves accordingly and shall devote direct
attention to the industrial work. The function of the industrial machinery of
the Party shall be to bring the Party membership into the League and into
the industrial work generally, in accordance with the policies of the Party.
4. Union and League Membership. — It shall be a leading aim of the indus-
trial work to bring all working class members of the Party into the mass trade
unions. Where none exist, they must be organized. The Party members who
work in industry must also join the Trade Union Educational League and take
an active part in its work. The campaign to bring the members into the
unions and into the League must be prosecuted vigorously throughout the Party
from top to bottom.
5. Finances. — In the near future the Trade Educational League will establish
the Class Struggle Propaganda Fund. The purpose of this will be 1o regularize
the financial support of the League. The Party units and membeiship every-
where shall give this Fund tlie most active support and look upon its maintenance
as a Party duty. In addition, in order to further the industrial work, there
shall be at least one picnic and one entertainment or dance organized to benefit
the Trade Union Educational League each year in each important locality.
6. The Labor Herald. — The I'arty shall give active support to the circulation
of The Labor Herald. oflBcial organ of the Trade Union Educational League. Dis-
trict Organizers will undertake to systematize the circulation of the Labor Herald
in their respective districts.
7. Build the Parti/. — The Party membei'ship must constantly bear in mind the
fact that the prime aim of the trade union work is to build up the Workers
Party into a mass Communist Party. To this end there nmst be a steady cam-
paign carried on to bring all League .sympathizers and members into the Workers
Party. At the present time there are many workers who belong to the League
but not to the Party. The welfare of the Party demands that all available work-
ers made sympathetic through tl)e work of the League be brought into the Party
at the earliest moment and there developed into real Communists.
Shop Nuclei
From its inception the Communist International has never ceased to point out
the absolute necessity of reorganizing the Commimist Parties in the various coun-
tries from a territorial form of organization to one based upon shop nuclei. The
territorial form of local branches is an inheritance from the Social-Democratic
Party. It is unfit for effective Communist work, which can oidy be carried on
when the Communists are thoi'oughly organized in the places where they work.
For many reasons this change to a shop nuclei basis is vital to the progress of
the Workers Party, (hie of these reasons, which may be noted, is the necessity
of our eventually carrying on campaigns to organize the industrial mas.ses into
trade unions. This we can accfimplish only if we liave established elaborate con-
nections by the institution of shop nuclei throughout the industries. These shop
nuclei are in turn united upon tlie territorial principle. Likewise, the effective
application of the whole program of the Workers Party depends upon our gain-
ing the close contact with the woi'king masses which can only be had through
a well developed system of shop nuclei.
All over the world the Communist Parties are now in process of changing from
the territorial to shop nuclei form as the basis of the local Party oi-ganization.
APPENDIX, PART 1 329
The Workers P.nrty must follow suit. Everywhere the transiti<iii is a very
ditfieult one. Especially is this the case in the United States where the situation
is greatly complicated by the language problem. Pursuant to the resolution
adopted at the last convention of the Workers Party, the Central Executive
Committee will now proceed directly to the formation of shop nuclei. Inasmuch
as the problem is such a difficult one, the work will be done carefully and largely
in an experimental way so that our Party organization will not be injured, but,
on the contrary, will be strengthened from the beginning. The Central Executive
Committee will instruct the District Organizers to institute certain numbers of
shop nuclei in their districts and to develop these directly under the guidance
of the Central Executive Committ( e. As soon as possible the network of slu)p
nuclei will be extended and developed as the basis of the Party. In order to
make the shop nuclei campaign a success it is absolutely essential that the indus-
trial registration be carried out 100%. Only if the Party is fully informed of
the actual places of work of its members, can it possibly organize them into nuclei,
'llie membership generally are urged to give their active support to this beginning
of the shop nuclei reorganization of the Party.
Unemployment
AVithin the past 30 days the growth of the unemployment crisis has taken on
new impetus. There is little doubt that it will rapidly become worse. While
up to the present this has resulted in activity among the unemployed, on a mass
scale, only in a few centers, such as the textile towns of New England and in
some mining fields, movement of the unemployed may be expected on a national
scale before many months, especially if stimulated and organized by the militant
unionists and Conuniuiists. In this situation it is the duty of every member and
unit of the Workers Party to apply the unemployment program, making them-
selves thoroughly familiar with it, and to inaugurate the following immediate
steps :
1. Make unemployment a leading issue in all election campaign meetings.
2. Distribute the pamphlet on unemployment to be published by the Party,
giving it a wide circulation.
3. Introduce resolutions in all labor unions and other bodies, calling for action
to combat unemplo5'ment, along the lines of the Workers Party program.
4. Agitate for the organization of unemployed councils in districts such as the
New England textile towns.
5. Bring the unemployed into close touch with the Workers Party and recruit
new members from among their ranks.
B. Organize demonstrations in localities where unemployment is acute.
7. The Research Department is to issue weekly bulletins on the unemployment
situation, and all Party papers are instructed to publish same and comment
editorially.
S. The program of the party is to be studied in all Party units, and popularized
among the masses of workers, organized and unorganized, employed and unem-
ployed.
The campaign against unemployment shall be carried out under the following
slogans, applied in each case to the particular conditions of the locality, industry,
or the circumstances of the action being taken :
Political
Government operation of non-operating industries and shops.
Inauguration of public works.
Maintenance of unemployed at union rates of wages.
Nationalization of mines, railroads, and public utilities.
Abolition of child labor.
Recognition of and trade relations with Soviet Russia.
Unemployment insurance administered by the workers.
Grants by the Government.
Industrial
Industry must be responsible for maintenance of its workers.
Equal division of work among members in each industry and shop.
Assessment of employed for relief of unemployed.
Establishment of control commodities of workers to regulate pi-oduction and
investigate accounts.
330 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Struggle against sabotage of employers.
Unemployment insurance supported wholly by the employers and administered
wholly by the workers.
Exhibit No. 23
[Source: The Seconrl Year of the Workers Party of America — Theses. Program. Reso-
lutions, published by the Literature Department of the Workers Party of America,
1009 N. State Street, Chicago, Illinois : 1924]
THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA
Hejport of the Central Executive Commiitke to the Third National Convention
Held in Chicago, Ilunois, Deo. 30, 31, 1923, and Jan. 1, 2, 1924
theses — program — resolutions
Published bv the Literatuie Department, Workers Party of America, 10O9 N.
-State St., Chicago, 111.
INTRODUCTION
The Workers Party As a Revolutionary Force. By C. E. Ruthenberg. {Re-
printed from, the Februari/ Liberator.)
After four years of persistent struggle, during which the Communists wandered
along many by-paths, there has come into being in this country a Communist party,
Avhich has learned how to reach the workers, make itself part of their struggles
and to become a leader in those struggles.
At the second convention of the Workers Party it was already clear that the
Party had formulated correct policies, but little had been done in the actual
application of those policies. The past year has been a period of putting those
policies into effect, of actual work, of achievement, of establishing the influence
of the Party and building a following among the workers.
From its Third National Convention the Workers Party emerges as a growing
political force in the life of this country.
The task which the Communists have set themselves is of herculean proportions.
We have in the United States a social system more firmly rooted than anywhere
in the world. The industrial order upon which it rests has reached a develop-
ment which is gigantic and unrivaled elsewhere. The ruling class in this country
possesses wealth and power, which has not been equalled in human history.
Here are thousands upon thousands of factories, mills, mines, railways, steam-
ship lines, stores, banks, all the enormous, monstrous, intricate machinery of
production and distribution upon which one hundred and ten million people are
dependent for their livelihood, owned and controlled by the exploiting class.
Here exist thousands of newspapers, magazines, schools, colleges, churches,
moving picture theatres, all of which are cleverly exploited to shape the thoughts
and ideas of the people in support of the existing social order and the industrial
system upon which it rests.
The fact that this social system was created in a virgin land, that we have no
past history of the uprooting of one social system and the establishment of a
new, such as that which replaced the feudal system in Europe with capitalism,
is an added element of strength for the capitalist .system of the United States.
Capitalism, in its early forms, came with the Pilgrims. It has grown and devel-
oped and dominated tiiruout the history of the white race in this country.
The state power, which expresses the rule of the capitalists, had its origin
in events which have given it added elements of strength. Our government
institutions had their birth after a revolution. That a counter-revolution inter-
vened is hidden from the masses. With the supposed revolutionary origin of our
government as a basis it has been easy to foster the illusion that it is "a gov-
ernment of the people, by the people and for the people." The belief in the
democratic character of our government is deeply intrenched and has behind
it the authority of more than a century of general acceptance.
Add to this economic power, the tradition of the rights of property, of the
capitalist system as the only possible method of production and distribution, of
APPENDIX, PART 1 33 1
the government as a government of the people, the organs for repression, the laws
and courts, the police, the army and navy, and the picture of the strength of the
existing social order is overpowering.
This mighty, powerful, colossal capitalist order the Workers Party of America
is fighting to overthrow and to replace with a new social order. The twenty-five
thousand men and women who are today the members of the Workers Party
dare hope — nay, helieve, are certain — that in spite of the economic power of the
capitalists, in spite of the traditions which support their industrial system and
government, in spite of laws, courts, police, army and navy, they will win in this
struggle and establish a Connnunist .•social order in the United States.
Truly this is the epic struggle of the ages — the great adventure. Twenty-five
thousand workingmen and women stand in battle array against this mighty
collossus of capitalism. Their means of struggle are the meagre funds spared
from the scanty living capitalism grants them, their intellectual abilitv, and —
a SOCIAL SCIENCE.
Let us look at the twenty-five thousand — the members of the Workers Party — ■
on the road to the victory over capitalism.
II
Other organizations have set as their aim the creation of a new social order
in the place of capitalism. It will, by contrast, throw some light ou the princi-
ples and tactics of the Workers Party, if we first examine their principles.
The Socialist Party, which once had a hundred thousand members and polled
a million votes for its candidate, stated as its aims the establishment of a co-
operative commonwealth. Its method of achieving that goal was theoretical
propaganda about the l)eauties of the co-operative conunonwealth, thru which
it hoped to educate a nia.iority of the workers to an luider standing of the need of
the new social order and thus win their support. To this theoretical propaganda
it added a long list of abstract demands, the enactment of which were to slowly
transform into the co-operative commonwealth.
The Socialist Labor Party, and its latest prototype, the Proletarian Party, both
believe that they can educate the voters thru abstract propaganda to an under-
standing of the necessity of replacing capitalism with socialism. Educate a ma-
jority on the theory of surplus value, educate a majority to an imderstanding of
the beauties of the co-operative commonwealth, and some fine day you will
achieve it. To this conception the Socialist Labor Party added the idea of a
theoretically perfect industrial union, which was to aid in the achievement of the
co-operative commonwealth.
Tlie Workers Party, too. states its goal to the workers — the achievement of
a new social order. It holds before the workers the ideal of Communism. It
seeks to educate the advancee guard in the basic principles of Marxian science.
But these are the ouly points of similarity between its methods and those of
the organizations referred to above. The Workers Party does not believe that
a majority will be educated to an understanding of the theory of surplus value
nor that they will be inspired to overthrow capitalism by the beauties of an
abstractly presented co-operative commonwealth. Its methods of struggle are
based upon quite a different conception.
"The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class strug-
gles," wrote Marx in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. That is the key to the
policies of the Workers Party, and of all comnuuiist parties.
In the capitalist United States the people are divided into economic classes
with clash-economic interests. There is not only the main economic division
of capitalist and worker, employer and employee, but there are the working
farmers, the small shopkeeiK>rs, the professional groups, yes, even within the
capitalist class there are economic groups with clashing economic interests.
The guiding principle of Communist policy, of the policies of the Workers
Party, is to use the class struggles growing out of these confiicting economic
interests to mobilize the forces which will wrest from the capitalists the state
power through which they maintain their .system of exploitation and to use
the power thus gained as the instrument to transform capitalism into com-
munism.
This does not mean only a campaign on the basic economic issue, which
sharply divides the interests of the capitalists and the workers — privately
owned industry, operated for exploitive purposes ver.sus socialized industry,
operated for service. Tiie conflict between economic groups in capitalist society
manifests itself in continuous struggles o^■er immediate questions. The work-
332 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
ers fight for better wages and working conditions. They engage in stru^gli^s
against restriictive laws, against injunctions, the use of the armed pow^r of
the government against them. The farmers tight against high railway rates,
against the tru.stitied marketing interests, against the banks, which hold tii(^
mortgages on their land, they seek legislative action to improve their economic
position.
These daily struggles are the starting point of the Communist struggle tor
the overthrow of capitalism. By entering into all of these struggles, which
grow out of the every day life of the exploited groups, championing the cause
of the exploited, becoming their spokesmen, winning their confidence, the Com-
munists establish their leadership of all those who suffer under the whip of
capitalism. Tims the Communist Party combines under its direction all the
forces in opposition to the capitalists in preparation for the day when the
sharpening economic conflict will enable it to mobilize these forces for the
blow which will make an end to the capitalist power.
Ill
The reports and resolutions of the Third National Convention of the Wnrkei's
Party graphically illustrate the practical application of this policy and the
growing strength of the Workers Party as a revolutionary force.
The sharp conflicts between the industrial workers and capitalists over
wages, working conditions and the right to organize during recent years, con-
flicts in which the government has appeared regularly as the agency of thr
capitalists fighting the workers; the farm crisis, which has bankrupted Uiil-
lions of farmers, has developed a wide-spread movement for independenr politi-
cal action through a farmer-labor party. The Workers Party has been in fore-
front of this movement. Thru its aggressive campaign, thru the struggle it
waged at the July 3rd Convention, it has greatly extended its influence among
both industrial workers and farmers and today holds a position of leadersliip
in the movement for a mass farmer-labor party, which will light the pnlitical
battles of the industrial workers and exploited farmers.
In the trade unions the reverses of recent years has created a demand for
more effective organization. The Workers Party stands before the organized
workers as the exponent of amalgamation of the trade unions into industrial
unions and a more militant leadership in their struggles. Representatives of
hundreds of thousands of workers have voted in conventions in support of these
proposals of the Party and these woi-kers see in the Workers Party the lender
in the struggle to create more effective fighting organizations upon the in-
dustrial field.
The capitalist government aims a blow at the whole working class in its
proposal to register foreign born workers and for selective immigration. These
measures would create a class of coolie labor so tied down with restrictive
legislation that it would be unable to offer resistance to the exploiters. The
Workers Party, thru the action of its second convention, reaffirmed Iiy the
third convention, takes up the cudgel in defense of the foreign born workers
and of the standard of living of the whole working class in its campaign for
protection of foreign born workers.
The working farmers of this country are facing a crisis which is deeper
than ever before in the history of this country. The convention resolution
analyses the situation of the poorer farmers and raises tlie demand of a five
year moratorium for farmers and ownership of the land by its users.
The Negro workers of this country are an especially exploited class. The
Workers Party proposes a campaign against all forms of discrimination against
the Negroes and will assist them in organizing their strength to make an end
to these discriminations.
American, Irelands, Egypts and Indians are appearing as a result of the
advance of American imperialism. The Workers Party sees in the national
groups exploited by American imperialism in the West Indies, Central America,
Hawaii and the Phillipines, its natural allies in the struggle against the cen-
tralized, imperialist capitalist government at Washington and it raises the
slogans of independence for the victims of American imperialism and endeavors
to rally the masses of this country in support of these slogans.
Soviet Russia is a dagger thrust straight at the heart of the whole capitalist
world. It is a flag which is the inspiration and rallying point of the exploited
everywhere in the world. The Workers Party takes up the fight for Soviet
Russia in the demand for recognition and trade relations.
APPENDIX, PART 1
333
IV
Thus tlicro is Jieiug created a growing revolutionary force in American life.
Tht:! capitalists hold in their hands a mighty power. But within the capitalist
order tliere are generated those forces which weaken and disintegrate that
power in the form of the continuous class conflict which capitalism engenders.
What is needed is the organization which can combine for the struggle against
the capitalists all the forces of opposition which it creates. That organization
is here — a Communist party, the Workers Party of America.
REPORT ON CREDENTIALS
Credentials in proper form have been received from all districts. In view of the
fact that there are no contests of any character the Central Executive Committee
recommends that the following delegates be seated without the formality of elect-
ing a credentials committee and the convention proceed inunediately to its organi-
zation :
District 1
Vv'illJnm Simons
C. .1. Blocklnnd
E. J. Sinisalo
J. F. Mullen
Henry Puro
District 2
Ludwig Lore
•Juliet S. Poyntz
(.'. E. Ruthenberg
IJenjamin Gitlow
J. Jampolsky
Benjamin Lifschitz
A. Bittelman
A. Bimba
C. Paivio
J. Brahdy
A. Bail
H. Benjamin
Peier Han.sen
District 3
District 4
District 5
Paul Kucinic
Fred H. INIerrick
District 6
D. Spehar
W. White
A. v. Severino
A. Schaeffer
M. Lerner
District 7
Edgar Owens
Herman Richter
Jos. Finnila
District 8
Arne Swabeck
Charles Krumbein
1'. Aronberg
William Z. Foster
James P. Cannon
J. Johnstone
District 9
]Matti Tenhunen
N. H. Tallentire
C. A. Hathaway
Ceo. Halonen
■U'hn Miller
J. Skoglund
District 10
John Mihelic
T. R. Sullivan
District 12
Ella Reeve Bloor
W. H. Wilson
District 13
D. Gorman
Paul Reiss
District 15
Alfred Wagenknecht
Agricultural District
Joseph IManley
Unorganized Territory
Fable Buhrman
Young Workers League
John Williamson
^lartin Abern
John Edwards
FRATERNAL DELEGATES
AVorkers Party of Canada
F. Cu-tance
Armenian Federation
A. Zariarian
Bulgarian Federation
Christ Koteff
Czecho-Slovak Federation
None
Esthonian Federation
Joseph Kalousek
Finnish Federation
Fahle Buhrman
German Federation
F. Herschler
Italian Federation
L. Candela
Jewish Federation
M. J. Olgin
Lettish Federation
W. Rodgers
Lithuanian Federation
Roy MIzara
334 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Polish Federation A. Nastasievsky
J. Kolwalski Rose Pastor Stokes
Roumanian Federation :Marian Emerson
None B. Boi'disoff
Russian Federation Alexander Trachtenberg^
George Ashkenuzi ^J;.,-/; ^^'^i," ^
* , ,. ^ -, ,. William F. Dunne
Scandinavian Federation ^ Jakira
N. Juel Christensen John Pepper
South Slavic Federation Robert Minor
None •!• Loui.«. Engdahl
Ukrainian Federation H. M. Wicks
M. Dnrdella l'''-^' I^o^f tone
Max Bedacht
Friends of Soviet Russia William F. Kruse
Rose Karsner Edward Lindrgren
Daily Worker Campaign Committee fnhle Buhrman
John J. Ballam
Labor Defense Council
Israel Amter
L. E. Katterfeld
„ , , , _ The Executive Secretary will present
Geo. Maurer ^^^ (.j^^ convention any new candidate
Central Executive Committee Members for fraternal delegates which are re-
who are not Regular Delegates ceived.
William Weinstone
RULES OF ORDEB OF THE CONVENTION
1. Robert's Rules of Order shall govern the proceedings of the convention when
not in conflict with these rules.
2. The Convention shall elect a chairman and vice chairman at the beginning
of each day's session. A secretary and assistant secretary to serve during the
convention shall be elected.
3. The Convention shall elect the following committees, each to consist of five
niembers :
1. Committee on Constitution.
2. Committee on Resolutions.
4. The order of business of the Convention shall be as follows :
1. Election of chairman and vice-chairman.
2. Election of secretary and assistant secretary.
3. Election of Committees.
(a) Committee on Constitution.
(b) Committee on Resolutions.
4. Report of the Central Executive Committee.
(a) The Party Work During the Year.
(b) The Economic and Political Conditions in the United States and the
Policies of the Party. Report by C. E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary.
Report to begin at 11 A. M. and to be finished at 2: 15.
Adjournment at 2: 1.5 to 3 P. M.
Debate on report under two headings.
(a) The Party Work.
(b) Policies of Party.
Adjournment at 5 P. M.
Monday, December 31
5. The Industrial Work and Policies of the Party
(a) Report from 10 A. M. to 11 : 30 A. M.
(b) Debate 11:30 to 1 P. M.
(c) Adjournment until 2 P. M.
(d) Debate 2 P. M. to 3 : 15 P. M.
(e) Fifteen minutes summary by reporter.
(f) Vote on Resolution 3 : 30 P. M.
6. The Communist International and the World Revolution.
(a) Report by J. Louis Engdahl 3 : 30 to 4 P. M.
(b) Debate until 4: 30 P. M.
(c) Vote on Resolution.
APPENDIX, PART 1 335
7. American Imperialism.
(a) Report from 4 : 40 to 5 : oO P. M., by Jaj' Lovestone.
(b) Debate until 6:30- P. M.
(c) Summary by reporter and vote on resolution,
(cl) Adjournment until 7:30 P. M.
8. Recognition of Soviet Russia.
(a) Report by Robert Minor from 7 : 30 to 8 : 30 I'. M.
(c) Sununary and vote on resolution.
9. Protection of the Foreign Born Workers.
( a ) Report from 8 : 30 to 9 P. M. by Ludwig Lore.
(b) Debate and vote on resolution.
(c) Summary and vote on resolution.
10. The Daily Worker.
A— Report from 9: 30 to 10 P. M. by .John J. Ballam.
B— Debate until 10:30 P. M.
C — Summary and vote on resolution.
11. The Party Press.
A— Report by A. Jakira until 11 P. M.
B— Debate until 11 : 30 P. M.
C — Summary and vote on resolution.
Tuesday, January 1
12. Shop Nuclei Organization.
A — Report from 10 to 10 : 45 by Max Bedacht.
B— Debate until 12 : 45.
C — Summary and vote on resolution 1 P. M.
Adjournment 1 P. M. to 2 P. M.
13. The Agricultural Situation and Work of Party.
A— Report from 2 P. M. to 2 : 30 by Joseph Manley.
B— Debate until 3 P. M.
C — Summary and vote on resolution.
14. The Young Workers League.
A— Report from 3 P. M. to 3 : 30 by for Y. W. L.
B— Report from 3 : 30 to 3 : 45 by C. E. Ruthenberg for Party.
C— Debate until 4 : 30 P. M.
D— Summary and vote on resolution.
15. Report of Committee on Constitution.
Report and debate until 5 ; 30 P. M.
16. Election of the Central Executive Committee 5: 30 to 6: 30 P. M.
Adjournment until 7 : 30 P. M.
17. Educational Work of the Party.
A— Report from 7 : 30 to 8 P. M. by Jas. P. Cannon.
B— Debate until 8: 30 P. M.
C — Summary and vote on resolutions.
18. Report of Committee on Resolutions.
19. Adjournment.
5. Debate shall be limited to ten minutes for each speaker on the report of the
C. E. C, the Party Policies and the Industrial Work of the Party, and to five min-
utes for each speaker on all other points of the agenda. No speaker shall speak
a second time while others who have not had the floor desire to speak.
6. Debate shall close at the hour allowed to each point on the agenda without
the previous question being moved and the convention proceed to a vote.
7. A roll call vote may be demanded by five delegates representing two or more
districts.
Report of the Central Executive Committee of the Thikd National
Convention of the Workers Party of America
By C. E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary
During the past year our Party has made the greatest step forward since
its existence as an organization. At the last convention of our Party, we
finally formulated the correct policies to govern the work of our organization.
This report of the Central Executive Committee will .state in detail the
application of those policies and the results for our Party.
33(3 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
In opening this report, we may well summarize what has been achieved.
The Central Executive Committee believes that during the past year the
Communist party in the United States has for the first time become a real
ixilitical factor influencing the life and struggles of the workers of this
country.
United Front
The policies outlined by the Second National Convention had as their basis
the application of the united front policy of the Connnunist International in
the United States. It is the united front policy which has governed the work
of the Central Executive Conuuittee during tlie past year and it is through
the application of this policy that we have achieved the progress which our
Party has made. This policy has been applied in tlie following campaigns :
Michigan Defense Campaign
The Michigan Defense Campaign wa.s, of course, begun before the last
convention of the Party, but this campaign continued during the present
vear and the full results became apparent since the last convention. In call-
ing for a united front of all workers oi'ganizations, for defense of the rights
of free speech and free press and to secure the repeal of the criminal syndicalist
laws, the Central Executive Committee applied the imited front principle.
Through this campaign we drew to our support organizations of Wiirkers and
even liberal organizations in all parts of the country. It is a fact admitted
by our enemies in the Michigan cases that our campaign resulted in turning the
attack upon our Party into a victory for our Party. The connections which were
established, the influence and prestige which we gained through the defense cam-
paign materially strengthened the Party inlluence and aided in preparing
the way for the Workers Party to become the openly functioning Communist
party of the United States.
Foreign Born Protection
The Second National Convention adopted a resolution instructing the Central
Executive Committee to begin a campaign for the protection of foreign born
workers. The Central Executive Committee during the early months of last
year began to build a ttnited front organization to carry on this sniggle. In
a number of cities we were successful in creating committees for Protection
of Foreign Born Workers in which various labor organizations, fraternal
organizations and political groups were represented. A number of our federa-
tions, notably the Hungarian and German Federations, were also able to
draw into united front organizations numerous fraternal and labor organiza-
tions in their respective language groups. At the time of the adjotirnment
of the Congress, the Central Executive Committee had under way the launch-
ing of a National Council for the Protection of the Foreign-Born Workers
in which various representative labor union members of national standing
were to participate. However, in view of the fact that Congress adjouriied
without passing the legislation directed against the foreign-born workers,
the campaign was left in al>eyance for the time being. With the new develop-
ment in the form of the recommendatit)n (^)f President Coolidge's message for
the Registration of the Foreign-Born Workers, becomes a great issue in the
life of the American workers.
The C. E. C. recommends that this convention re-endorse the resolution
of the Second National Convention and that the incoming C. E. C. be directed
to carry the campaign previously initiated forward with new aggressiveness.
Even in the devek)pments of this campaign during the past year, our Party
}>articularly through the language sections was able to strengthen its position
and win the support of new grotips of workers.
Policy in the July 3rd Convention
The next move of the Farmer Labor Party was to issue a call for a national
Conference on July 3rd to which were to [sic in original]
May Day United Front
In connection with the celebration of May Day. the Central Executive Com-
mittee launched (he slogans 'Amalgamation," "A Labor Party" and "A Workers
APPENDIX, PART 1 337
Govpniiiient" and endeavored to build up a united front May Day Celebration
on the basis of these slogans. This campaign brought into co-operation with
our Party organization for the celebration of May Day, a greater number of
labor unions and workers' fraternal organizations than were united in any
of the previous campaigns of the Party.
Labor Party Campaign Before the July 3rd Convention
The campaign for a Labor Party was initiated prior to the Second National
Convention, and tha tirst action in this campaign in the form of the effort
to seat our delegates in the Conference for Progressive Political Action at
Cleveland took place just prior to the last national convention. Even in
its action in this instance the Party increa.sed its prestige and political influ-
ence. It was in the effort to seat our delegates in the Conference for Political
Action that our Party lirst appeared as a political factor in this country.
In the Conference for Progressive Political Action the caucus of the Farmer
Labor Party had voted to support the seating of the Workers' Party delega-
tion. After the convention was over, however, when the Labor Party Resolu-
tion was defeated in this convention, the National Committee of the Farmer
Lab<ir Party, disgusted by tiie reactionary tendencies of the Conference for
Progressive Political Action, decided to withdraw from that body. When
the Central Executive Committee of the Party learned of this proposal, it
expressed to the Farmer Labor Party its opposition to such a move arguing
that tlie Farmer Labor Party should remain within the Conference for Pro-
gressive Political Action at least until its next ccmvention and make an ojjen
tight for the Labor Party there and if possible to take with it out of that
convention all those groups which favored the organization of a Labor Party.
However, the National Committee of the Farmer Labor Party voted to with-
draw and this organization severed its connection with the Conference for
I'rogressive Political Action.
When the C. E. C. received this information from the National Committee
of the Farmer Labor Party, it immediately accepted and pledged its support
to make the July 3rd Convention a success.
From the beginning of the campaign for the July 3rd convention there
was close co-operation between the Farmer Labor Party and the C. E. C.
The Executive Secretary of the Party held a number of conferences with
the secretary of the P'armer Labor Party at which the plans for the campaign
were formtilated. ()ur Party did not only give its support as an organiza-
tion but It assisted in financing the work of printing and sending: out the
call ftn- the convention.
During the.se conferences between the Farmer Labor Party and the repre-
sentative of the C. E. C, it was agreed from the very beginning that prior
to the July 3rd Convention there would be a conference between the t'om-
mitlee representing the Farmer Labor Party and a Committee representing
the <'. E. C. of the W. P. for the purpose of agreeing upon a program for
the July 3rd conference.
Sometime early in June it appeared, however, that the Farmer Labor Party
had lost some of its enthusiasm for the July 3rd conference. The Farmer
Labor Party had expected that some of the International Unions and the
S. P. would respond to this call, but found that these organizations which
were tied up with the reactionary Conference for Progressive Political Action
or even with the Gompers Machine were not going to send delegates ^o the
Convention. It appeared from the viewpoint of the representatives of the
Farmer Labor Party expressed that John Fitzpatrick of the Chicago Federa-
tion of Labor appeared to be allied with the Workers Party in a federated
fanner labor party which would include local unions, central bodies and
farm organizations and would not include the international unions and the
S. P. At a conference early in the month of June the representatives of the
Farmer Labor Party proposed that in place of organizing a federated farmer
labor party at the July ord Conference only an Organization Connnittee siiould
be created in which the Workers Party and all other national organizations
would be represented while the local imions and central bodies would be
attiliated with the existing Farmer Labor Party.
This proposal was reported to the Central Executive Committee and consid-
ered by it. It was the decision of the C. E. C. that if a sufticient number o(
workers were represented at the July 3rd Conference the Pai'ty delegates
04931— 40— ai.p., pt. 1 — —23
338 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
would have to figlit for tlie organization of a federated farmer lab<.i party,
and it was the view of the Committee that if a half-million workers were repre-
sented that would be a sufficient basis for tlie creation of a federated farmer
labor party. The Committee decided that if the light were made for the labor
party and we were defeated we would accept the Organization Committee as a
compromise.
A sub-committee of the C. E. C. was sent to Chicago tw^o weeks before tlie July
3rd Conference for the purpose of carrying on official negotiations with the
Farmer Labor Party in regard to the working program for the July Srd
Conference. This Committee met with a Committee of the Farmer Labor
Party . In the conference it was agreed by the representatives of the Farmer
Labor Party that if the representation at the July ord Convention was sufficient
(and it was considered that if there were a half-million workers represented
that would be a sufficient number) a federated farmer labor party should be
foi-med. It was agreed that a National Executive Committee of the federated
farmer labor party so formed should lie elected by the Convention in place
of the existing National Committee of the Farmei- Labor Party based upon
state representation. It was agreed that the structure of the Farmer Labor
Party should be used as the structure for the new federated farmer labor party.
It was agreed that the Conference should pass a resolution containing a general
statement of principles and a resolution for the recognition of Soviet Rus>:ia.
It was on the basis of this agreement that the C. B. C. and the delegates of
our Party went into the July 3rd convention. At no time prior to the Conven-
tion did the Farmer Labor Party repudiate this agreement which it had entered
into with the representatives of the Workers Party.
During the two days prior to the opening of the July 3rd Confereni-e the
representatives of the C. E. (J. whi» forninl the steering committee of our Party
endeavored to continue the conferences with the Farmer Labor Party and made
repeated efforts to arrange a conference with John Fitzpatrick, who it appeared,
was opposing the plan which the Farmer Lal)or Party representatives had agreed
ro. But these efforts for such a conference were fruitless.
Prior to the opening of the July 3rd Conference the question arose as to
which delegates would be seated in the preliminary Farmer Labor Party Con-
vention. The Steering committee of the C. E. C. sent a letter to the National
Committee of the Farmer Labor Party stating as its view that only delegates
from bona fide affiliated organizations of the F. L. P. .should be seated in the
preliminary convention and received in reply assurance from tlie F. Ij. P. that
it agreed with this principle and wxmld put it into effect.
Much to the surprise of the steering committee of the C. E. C. when the
convention opened, the credentials committee, entirely made up of representatives
of the F. L. P. brought in a report seating all the delegates present. The
steering committee of the C. E. C. v.-as ready to accept this decision liut during
the process of debate on the question amendments were made which would
have .seated all the local unions and central labor body delegates not affiliated
with the F. L. P. but would have excluded the Workers Party and a number
of international organizations. The steering committee could not permit such
isolation of our delegates and therefore insisted that either all delegates be
seated or only the bona fide Farmer Labor Party delegates as per the agreement
previously made. The motion of the steering committee for the seating of all
delegates was carried in the convention.
During the proceedings of the convention whicli followed the steering com-
mittee made repeated efforts to come to a new agreement with tlie Farmer
Labor Party. In the organization committee which was elected, the Farmer
Labor Party representation was a.sked to state what they desired the convention
to do on the question of organization. After the Resolution Committee had
worked out an organization plan the steering counnittee made another effort for
a conference with John Fitzpatrick, and the opening of the morning session
of the convention was held up for several hours in the hope that such a confer-
ence could be arranged, but again our efforts were fruitless.
During the debate on the organization plan submitted by the Organization
Committee Comrade Ruthenberg took the floor and in a speech made in the name
of the steering committee asked the Farmer Labor Party delegates what they
wish, and that if they would submit their plan to the convention that we would
agree to any concessions except that involving the sacrifice of the organization
of a federated farmer labor party. Our committee even went so far as to
provide in the organization plan for five representatives of the Farmer Labor
Party on on the National Executive Committee altho the Workers Partv was
APPENDIX, PART 1 339
only granted two representatives. The Farmer Labor Party in response to
Comrade llutlienberg's speech, asked for n recess of the convention and for an
opportunity to caucus. While the caucus was going on, our steering committee
informed the representatives of the Farmer Labor Party that it would be glad to
send representatives to tlie caucus to discuss any question at issue and come to
an agreement, but this offer was not accepted.
The result of the caucus of the Farmer Labor Party was that tlie Farmer
Labor Party delegates brought in a resolution proposing to exclude the Workers
Psirty from the conference and ask the conference to accept the 1921 program
and constitution of the Farmer Labor Party. This, of course, was impossible of
acceptance by our steering committee and the proposal was laid on the table by
500 delegates voting against about 4(1, and the organization plan and statement
of principles proposed ))y the organization committee was adopted and the
Federated P^armer Labor Party organized.
We believe that the facts as outlined above show that the G. E. C. made
every effort possible to avoid the split at the July 3rd conference and that it
was 'the fact that John Fitzpatrick had gotten "cold feet" because of fear of
the Gompers" machine that caused the split of the July 3rd conference.
Labor Party Policy After the July 3rd Conference
Immediatelv after the July 3rd Conference the C. E. C. launched, a campaign
to assist in the organization of the Federated Farmer Labor Party. There
had been represented in the July 3rd Convention more than 000,000 organized
workers and the problem was to secure the afftliation of the organizations repre-
sented with the Federated Farmer Labor I'arty. The instructions sent to our
Party units were to raise the issue of the Federated Farmer Labor Party in all
local unions, and endeavor to secure a vote of affiliation. In those cities in
which the conditions were ripe the Party units were directed to take the initia-
tive to form a Connnittee for the organization of a branch of the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party in which all local unions, fraternal organizations and
political organizations would be refused, provided that the support secured
was in a ratio of ten to one of the members of our Party.
A few weeks later it appeared that the barrage of misrepresentation and lies
carried by the capitalist pi-ess and the Gompers Labor Press in regard to the
July ofd convention was having an influence on the work of organizing tlie
Federated Farmer Labor Party. The C. E. C. considered that under these condi-
tions it was necessary to modify the original instructions to our Party in this
work in support of the Federated and adopt a resolution which provided that in
carrying on this work we should endeavor :
(a) to secure affiliation wherever possible
(b) to secure endorsements of the Federated where affiliation could
not be secured
(c) to secure delegates to the next convention of the Federated where
neither affiliation nor endorsement could be secured.
At a meeting of the 0. E. C. about the middle of August, the whole question of
our work in support of the Federated was raised and thoroughly discussed. As
a result of this discussion the C. E. C. adopted a two-fold policy so far as its
relations with the Federated Farmer-Labor Party was concerned.
(a) That our support of the Federated Farmer Labor Party must take
the form of assisting the organization of the Federated and that an
organization campaign and organization work to build branches of the
Federated must be initiated wherever conditions wore I'ipe,
(b) That in addition the Federated Fiirmer Labor Party must con-
sider this as an instrument for the work of propaganda and organization
for a larger united front and must carry on a campaign in those organiza-
tions )iot ready to affiliate with the Federated for the idea of a united
front labor party.
Since the August meeting of the C. E. C, this policy has been in force and has
been •^uccessfnlly applied. The C. E. C. during the period between the August
meeting and the preseni time, has adopted policies for a score <>f di.ssiiniiar sit-
uations in various parts of the United States. On the left there has been the
policy of assisting the organization of the Federated Farmer Labor Party as in
the case of New York City and Washington County, Pennsylvania. Where
strong branches of the Federated have been brought into existence there ha.s
340 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
been the policy of securing endorsements for tlie Federated ; there has been the
jiolicy of securing delegates for the next convention of the Federated ; and in
some instances, as in the case of Massachusetts, there has ))een the iwlicy of
carrying on an educational campaign for a united front labor party without any
reference to the Federated Farmer Labor Party.
The C. E. (J. believes that a close examiua'tion of all the details of these
policies in relation to the Federated Farmer Labor Party and the Labor Parry
issue since the August policy was adopted, will not show a single instance in
which a mistake has Ixen made. The policy of the C. E. C. has been elastic
enough to fit itself to each individual situation and to secure for ihe Party
the greatest results from each sudi situation.
Our Present Position in Relation to the Fed*^'rated and a United Front I-abor
Party
On tlie basis of the present situation of our Party in relation to the Labor
Party movement in this country, the C. E. C. declares its belief that the organ-
ization of the Federated Farmer Labor Party at tlie July 3rd convention has
greatly strengthened the position of the Worlcers Party. Through the manouvres
carried on by our Party directly and by the Federated Farmer Labor Party
witli our assistance, our Party i:^ now in a position which makes it impossible
to challenge our leadership in the labor party movement. The Federated
Farmer Labor I'arty, although it has secured the affiliation of Imt 155,000 of
the (500,000 organized workers represented in the July 3id Conference, enjoys
a greater influence and prestige than the number of ollieially altiliured members
would indicate. It has built for it.self a position of powerful inlluence upon
the whole labor party movement and its connections extend to practically every
part of the country in wlxich there is a labor party movement. On the basis
of these facts and our co-operation in bringing about this situation the C. E. C.
believes that its view that the July 8rd conference and its results were a very
great victory for oiw Party cannoi be successfully challenged.
During the last two months, following out the policy declared in the August
statement and reiterated in the November thesis submitted to this convention
for appi'oval that our Party must assist the Federated in bringing into exist-
ence a greater united front labor party, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party
has entered into an agreement with the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, the
Farmer-Labor Party of Washington, the Progressive I'ai-ty of Idaho and the
Connnittee of 48 for a convention to be held in the Twin Cities of Minnesota
on May 30th for tlie nomination of a candidate for President and Vice-President
and adoption of a national plafforni. Thus the C'entral Executive Committee
is able to present (o the convention a successful culmination of this policy of
assisting in making the Federated Farmer-Labor Party the nucleus for a greater
united front labor party
The Chicago Situation
While everywhere in the country except in Chicago the results of the July 3d
Conference immensely strengtiiened our influence, in the city of Chicago, tlie
reverse was true. It was in the city of Chicago that the Fitzpatrick group
which bolted the July 3d Conference had its greatest inliuonce and it was in
that city that our orgaiiization had to meet the full brunt of the attack of this
disgruntled element. In order to fully present the development in Chicago
and to draw for the Party the les.'^on of that development for its future guid-
ance, it is necessary to review the whole situation in that city so far as our
united front policy is concerned.
For a considerable period before the July 3d Conference there was an in-
formal united front relationship between the so-called "progressive" leaders i,f
the Chicago Federation of Labor and our Part.v organization. It is argued and
correctly that this united front was the basis for the launching of a nation-
wide scale of the "Amalgamation" and "'Labor Party" campaigns of the Party.
Undoubtedly the fact that these policies secured the support of the Chicago
Federation of Labor thru the intluence of tlie Fitzjjatrick group helped mate-
rially in carrying oii a successful campaign for these issues.
It appears, however, that there was a fundamental weakness in our policy in
the Chicago situation for after the July 3d Conference, in place of being able
to hold in the hands of our Party a section of organized workers, we found our
influence limited to tho.se unions in which there was a clear-cut sentiment for
APPENDIX, PART 1 341
Communism and which our members represented in the Chicago Federation of
Labor.
We did not during the process of united front build up our independent power
and when the crisis came we were left only with those groups of workers who have
come fully under our direct influence.
During the process of the development of the united front campaign in Chicago,
the Central Executive Committee came in conflict with the District Committee on a
number of issues. The first case of this character was in relation to the United
Frout Manifesto issued by the Party to which the District Committee objected
on the groimd that it made one of the demands of the United Front, the opposition
to the Second International. The Central Executive Committee took this matter up
with the District Committee in detail, explained its position, and its? view was
finally accepted by the District Committee.
The question of the relationship of the District Committee to the negotiations
with the P^nmer-Labor Party prior to the July 3d Convention has also been raised
as an issue in the Party and it has been charged that the Central Executive Commit-
tee olijected to the Chicago comrades maintaining a close contact with the Farmer-
Labor Party group prior to the July M ('(invention. In order that this issue may be
clearly presented to the convention we quote the following letters sent by the
Executive Secretary to the organizer of the Chicago District, Arne Swabeck, in
leply to a communication from Comrade Cannon endorsed by the members of the
District Executive Committee.
"Your letter informing me of the action of the District Executive Committee in
regard to tlie United Front policy of the Party has been received. I will present
this letter to the Political Committee, which will close the incident.
"In regard the July 3d Conference. Comrade Cannon's letter was considered by
the Executive Council of the Party and it is the decision of that body that a con-
ference will be held with the representatives of the Farmer-Labor Party on or about
June 12th as has been the plan from the very beginning of our work in favor of the
Labor Party Conference. We have no need for permanent representation in Chi-
cago at the present time and feel sure that all the matters pertaining to the con-
veiition can be handled best at the proposed conference in June.
"The above is written in view of my personal interview with Jay Brown on
last Monday during which there did not develop the slightest friction of any
character or anything that needed to be straightened out between our organizations.
In fact, Brown congratulated me upon the circular letter which I had sent out in-
structing oiu- Party members how to conduct the work for the Labor Party con-
vention. This lettei-, by the way, instructed our branches as to the number of
delegates we would elect.
"Fraternally,
"Executive Secketary.''
"June 4, 1923.
"It is the view of the Executive Coumil of the Party that the situation in regard
to the Labor I'arry Convention can be seriously muddled up should there be any
negotiations v<'ith the representatives of the Farmer-Labor Party conducted by
comrades in Chicago. It, therefore, strongly recommends that in discussing the
questions which may arise, the representatives of tlie Party in official positions in
CJiicago, particularly, Swabeck, Browder and Krumbein, shall merely secure infor-
'mation to be transmitted to the national oflice and considered by the Political
Committee and not to discuss any details in regard to arrangements which might be
made.
"The above does not, of course, apply to the convention of the Farmer-Labor
Party which is to be held on June 11th as it is the duty of the Chicago comrades to
take all the necessary steps to work out the details of what is to be done in this
convention so as to protect the interests of our organization in relation to the
coming convention on July 3.
"Please submit this letter to the comrades in question and also to the District
Executive Committee.
"Fraternally yours,
"Executive Secretary.
It will bo clearly seen from the above letters that the Central Executive Com-
mittee desired the Chicago comrades to keep in close contact and secure all the
information possible and only reserve for itself the right to make any decision
in regard to the Party policy.
The Central Executive Committee was also obliged to correct the policie.«t of the
Chicago district in relation to the Federated Farmer-Labor Party after the July
342 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
3d Convention. The District Executive Committee sent out a circular letter in
which there appeared the following quotation :
"1. The Chicago local Federated Farmer-Labor Party must be organized imme-
diately by obtaining the affiliation of all local unions, fraternal organizations,
from which the Federated Farmer-Labor Party City Central Committee will be
formed.
"2. Our attitude toward the Farmer-Labor Party is to be that we will not
encourage any immediate conflict either with the officials of the old Farmer-
Labor Party or in the unions that have been up until now affiliated with that
party.
"3. If the conflict is forced Tipon us, either by an attack on the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party by the officials of the Farmer-Labor Party or in any
union now affiliated with the Farmer-Labor Party, we will fight for the new
party."
The Central Executive Committee, upon receipt of these instructions issued
the following statement to the District Executive Committee correcting them:
"That we instruct the Chicago district to carry on an aggressive campaign
to secure the affiliation of all unions in Chicago with the Federated Farmer-
Labor Party, irrespective of any previous affiliation. This is to be conducted
under the slogan of 'Unity in the Federated Farmer-Labor Party of all Labor
Organizations for Independent Political Action.' It .should be xiointed out that
the P>derated Farmer-Labor Party consistently followed the policy of unifying
the forces of labor and that it is the old Farmer-Liibor Party which is bringing
about this disunity.
"There should be no personal atacks on Fitzpatrick and others in this cam-
paign. Rather their past attitude should be held up in contradistinction to
their present viewiwint. They were for a Labor Party at the Cleveland Con-
ference, they were for seating the Workers Party in the Labor Party, why
are they against the Labor Party and against the Workers Party now?
"The Chicago district should at once instruct its branches on the policies
decided upon by the Central Executive Committee and see that every Party
branch and every Party member carries out these policies.
"Fraternally yours,
"Executive Secketary."
Before the receipt of the letter from the Central Executive Committee the
Chicago district had sent out a new circular to the branches in which it
itself changed the paragraphs above, to read as follows :
"In every local union not now affiliated to the old Farmer-Labor Party our
members must organize for this campaign of immediate affiliation with the
Federated Farmer-Labor Party, basing their arguments upon the merits of the
party irself, the numerous groups and organizations represented, its statements
of principles and program, and the party as an actual live expression of united
political action by the working class.
"In unions now afliliated to the old Farmer-Labor Party our members must
organize for an aggressive campaign of propaganda for the new party, preparing
the ground for affiliation at the earliest possible date. Their arguments should
likewise be based upon the merits of the party and any ix)ssible attacks of
domination by "reds," "advocacy of force and violence" or "connections with
the Third International" should not be dodged but met in the same manner
in which these were handled by the July 3d Convention. The actual status
and strength of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party should be compared to that
of the split-up, bankrupt old Farmer-Labor Party."
The Central Executive Committee replied to the second instruction as follows :
"Your letter enclosing a new statement to the member.ship in your district
in regard to the Federated Farmer-Labor Party has been received.' This state-
ment seems to be in harmony with the instructions I sent y ou upon direction
of the Political Committee excepting as to paragraph two which suggests only
the preparation of the ground for atRliation of unions formerly affiliated with
the Farmer-Labor Party. This should be changed to read "to instruct the
Party members in these unions to carry on an aggressive struggle to have them
immediately affiliated with the Federated Farmer-Labor Party. I think also
that the ground should be prepared as quickly as possible for the calling of a
convention in Cook County of the organizations supporting the Federated Party
for the purpose of organizing a Chicago local of the Federated Partv. Of
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 343
cniusf'. we do not want to call such a convention until we are certain of sub-
stJinrial !<ui)iJort and the date will depend to a lar^e extent upon how many
organizations afhliate with the Federated Party.
•"Fraternally yours,
"Executive Secretary."
It will appe-ni- from the above that the Central Executive Committee's in.struc-
tions in this instance were shown to be correct guidance of the District Execu-
tive Committee in view of the fact that the District Executive Committee itself
acknowledged its original error by sending out the second circular.
Communist Propaganda
While carrying on the united front campaign of our Party the Central Execu-
tive Committee has not overlooked tlie necessity of continuous propaganda about
the fr.ndamentals of Communism, in order that the workers may not be misled
as ru the veal character of our I'arty. It has kept in the foreground the necessity
of the campaigns which would bring out the fundamental Communist principles
and educating tlie workers to an understanding of the Communist program and
goal. These campaigns have been the following:
a. Program Distribution. — Innnediately after the last convention of the Party
the Cental Executive Conunittee undertook the distribution of a million copies
of the Party program setting forth these principles. While this goal was not
reached we were able to distribute a half -million copies of the program, with
the resulting Communist education among the masses.
b. Michigan Trials. — Probably the greatest propaganda for the fundamentals
of Comnumism was that carried on thru the defense in the Michigan trials.
The Central Executive Conunittee considered the question of the policy to be
followed during these trials and decided that advantage must be taken of the
opportunity to reach the working masses of this country with Communist propa-
ganda. As a result of this decision. Comrades Ruthenberg and Foster went on
the witness stand to state the Communist principles. The fact that the testimony
tluts given was printed practically everywhere in the United States with the
lesults that millions of workers for the first time heard of our movement and its
principles is well known to the delegates to this convention.
It was also during the Michigan trials that the slogan of a "Workers' and
Farmers" Government" was iirst thrown out, in accordance with the decision
of the Central Executive Committee. The enlarged session of the Connnunist
International, which adopted the slogan of "A Workers' and Farmers' Govern-
ment'" for the whole International, gave our Party credit for having fir,st raised
this slogan before the masses.
c. Why Every Workers Should be a Communist. — During the fall of the year,
the Central Executive Committee, in connection with the membership drive,
undertook the distribution of the pamphlet, "Why Every Worker Should be a
Conmuuiist and Join the Workers Party," as part of the work of Communist
propagaiida. This pamphlet is still being distributed and the total number will
run into the hundreds of thousands before the campaign is over.
d. Why Congress Should Investigate Conumuiism. — Taking up the challenge
of the Lewis machine of the United Mine Workers of America, that Congress
sliould investigate the Connnunist movement in the United States, the Central
Executive Committee arranged a series of mass meetings at which addresses
were made on the question of "W^hy Congress Should Investigate Communism,"
and the fundamentals of our movement explained to the workers at these
meetings.
e. Lectures. — The Central Executive Committee has bad speakers in the field
for the greater part of the past year. Comrade Cannon made a speaking tour
lasting five months which took him to every part of the country. His meetings
were tmiversally successful and we reached thotisands of workers thru his
addresses.
Comrade Rose Pastor Stokes was also toured for a considerable time.
During the fall, Comrades Wicks, O'Flaherty and Bedacht made speaking
tours in various parts of the country explaining the Party policies at member-
ship meetings and speaking at mass meetings in each city.
f. November 7th Celebrations. — The November 7th celebrations, held under the
auspices of The Daily Worker Campaign Committee were also used for Com-
munist propaganda and were more successful than at any previous time in the
history of our Party.
344
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Organizations
g. Consolidation of tbe Party. — At tlie beginning of last year our Party still
consisted of numerous groups with factional inclinations. Groups were definitely
organized around certain auxiliary institutions of the Party. It has been the
policy of the Central Executive Committee to consolidate the Party into one
centralized organization in which factional difficulties would not exist. We be-
lieve that the Central Executive Committee has been successful in this work
and that in spite of any divisions on questions nf policy which may exist within
the organization oiu- Party has now defniitely become an organization which
can no longer be torn asunder by any divisions upon policy which may arise in
the Party in the future.
Membership
The following shows the development of the Party membership since the
organization of the Party.
In order to contrast the membership figures for the four months of last year
on which the convention apportionment of delegates was based with that of
this year and to show the present make-up of our Party the following tables are
presented :
Membership — July, August, September, October, 1922 {average)
District
o >
dj o
O
n
"a
g
a
a
0
0
0
i
a
W
p
1— 1
.a
.3
0
0
03
a
A
*^ 0
om
a
03
'i
1— »
a
"3
0
Eh
1
59
543
45
19
157
95
126
57
121
38"
"36"
80
25
19
8
1,469
1,189
54
276
532
297
432
1,275
25
444
344
172
25
110
6
10
'26"
"i
6
5
83
30
"3"
71
508
123
150
24
42
85
11
17
139
135
5
"27"
62
273
91
11
23
64
173
6
2
1
"e"
195
213
36
7
2,031
3 175
2
13
"265"
266
54
236
98
107
58
20
22
89
24
76
3
411
6
707
6
1 160
7
656
8
58
5
126
1,242
9 : .
10
20
1,470
10
54
----
29
381
12
1
10
2
445
13
64
----
12
44
20
6
23
29
498
Unorganized..
218
Total
1,276
196
6,509
181
46
179
1,087
326
757
20
606
1,002
318
12, 394
APPENDIX, PART 1
345
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346
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
English Membership
While the table above shows thar dues payments from members paying dues
thru English branches represent only a small part of the total membership, this
does not tell the whole story so far as our English si>eaking members are con-
cerned. The Executive Secretary of the Party reporting at a recent meeting
of the Central Executive Committee stated that hi"s opinion from the investiga-
tions and experiences in visiting various party organizations is that at least
50% of our total membersliip is an English speaking membership altho a
large number of these membei-s pay their dues thru federation branches and are
officially listed as foreign language speaking members.
The industrial registration of tbe Party undertaken by the National Office
has thus for brought complete reports from 319 branches with a total of 6.862
members, or about one-third of the total Party membership.
This registration shows the following results :
Total registration C, S62
Total members in unions 2,409 35%
Total non-union members registered 4, 453 65%
The members registered fall in thf following groups:
Industry
Union
Non-
Union
Total
Percent in
Union
Agrarian Workers
Building Workers
Clothing Workers
Food Workers
Metal and Machinery Workers
Lumber Workers
Miners
Printers,-^
Public Service Workers ._.
Railroad Workers
Textile Workers
Miscellaneous
(Including laborers and housewives)
Totals
583
452
75
334
10
622
32
69
14
41
156
2,409
114
276
160
127
635
12
96
16
107
39
159
2, 650
4,453
114
859
612
202
969
22
718
48
176
53
200
2,806
6,862
62%
74%
37%
34%
45%
87%
75%
34%
27%
21%
5%
The sale of initiation stamps during the year ending November 30th shows
that 6,5.50 new members were admitted to our Party, whereas the average dues
payment shows an increase in Membership of only a little over 3,000. It will
be, therefore, seen that during this period we lost 3,500 members who were
in the Party while admitting 6,550 new members into the organization.
The average membership figures, of course, do not as yet show the results
of the membership drive during the last few months as the dues payment of
new members for a single month would not appreciably affect the average for
a long time. However, it will be noticed that as between October and Noveml>er
there has been an increase of 1,61*'. members. Unquestionably the membership
drive has resulted in a large addition to the previous membership of the Party.
The charter applications .show that during the year 347 new branches were
organized.
Summary of Cash Receipts and Expenditures for Fiscal Year Ending November
30th, 1923
Miscellaneous :
Check Exchange $5, 865. 95
Protested Checks 1,821.88
Loans and Funds received for other organiza-
tions 4, 117. 80
Subscription Transfers 733.88
Refunds of advances and payments 3, 050. 52 $15, 590. 03
Executive Department :
Dues Stamps Cash Receipts $49, 598. 38
Initiation: Cash Receipts 3,275.15
Make the Party Grow Stamps, Cash Sales 10, 239. 27
Organization Stamps. Cash Sales 128. .50
Labor Party Campaign Fund 8,234.54
APPENDIX, PART 1 347
Summary of Cash Receipts and Expenditnres for Fiscal Year Ending November
30tli, 1923— Continued.
Executive Department — Continued.
General Donations $13. 840. 10
Rent Income 1, 226. ."0
1922 Convention Asi^essment 2, 473. 0.5
Organization Liquidation a/c 1,482.88
Speakers' and Organizers' Receipts 1, 279. 21
Nov. 7th Flag Pin Sales 1.849. 10
Organization Supplies, Cash Sales 707.24
Propaganda Leaflets, Ca.sh Sales 2,822.75
Voice of Labor Receipts 024.47
May Day Buttons 2,044.25 $94,825.39
liiterature Department :
Literature Cash Sales $8,819.70
Communist Int'l Magazine Casli Sales . 137. 30
Literature Loans Payable 40.50 $8,997.50
Workers Department : *
Donations $79. (X)
Subscriptions 7, 277. 41
Bundle Cash Receipts 6,351.22
Cannon Subscriptions Card Receipts 3, 676. 05
Advertising Sold 955. 00 $1S, 338. 68
Total Receipts for Year $137,751.60 $137,751.60
Summary of Cash Receipts and Expenditures for Fiscal Year Ending November
30th, 1923
Miscellaneous :
Check Exchanges $ 5, 775. 61
Protested Checks 1,831.60
Loans and Funds paid to other organizations 8, 754. 07
Subscription Transfers 185. 80
Accounts Payable 31,241.28
Advances 2, 500. 36
Furniture and Fixtures 522. 31
Advance to New York Book Stores 635. 00 $ 57, 446. 0:3
Executive Department :
Dues Refund to Districts $16,378.87
Wages 11, 582. 50>
C. E. C. Meeting Expense 816,42
Wages— Political Committee 3, 684. 52
Agrarian Department Subsidy 2, 032. 42
Rent 1, 355^, 00
Industrial Dept. Wages and Expenses 1, 383. 50
Research Dept. Wages and Expense 2, 113. 75
General Office Expense , 736. 14
Stationerv and Supplies 272. 04
Donations and Per Capita Tax to F. F. L. P 1, 000. 00
Telephone and Telegraph Expense 377. 32
Press Service Expense 863. 36
Moving Expense 1,384.78
Propaganda Leaflets Forwarding Expense 607. 76
Voice of Labor Expense 657. 73
Executive Dept. Travel Expense 1, 137. 23
Labor Party Convention Expense 2, 702. 83
United Toilers of America Deficit 300.00
Miners' Organization Expense 826. 98
Organization Liquidation a/c 150. 00
Political Conference Exijense 1, 402. 18
Organizers' and Speakers' Expense 5, 984. 74
Organization Sui:)plies Purchase 3. 00
May Day Buttons, Refunded 23.30
Subsidies and Donations to Districts and Federa-
tions ..— 2,136.62
Postfige Is 330. 34
1922 Convention Expense 3,047.03 $ 64,290.36
348 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Siiramary of Cash Receipts and Expeiulitiu-es for Fiscal Year Ending November
30th, 1923— Continued.
Literature Department:
Literature Purchase $ 621.85
Wages , ,- 1, 808. 00
Carrage and Forwarding Charge 1, 165. 87
General Office Expense 176. 14
Sales Promotion Expense 1. 50
Stationery and Supplies , 32. 75
Writers' Expense 55. 78 $ 3, 856. 89
Worker Department :
Wages , $ 7, 955. 25
Printing 1, 187. 93
News Service i 254. 18
Mailing 668. 04
■ Postage , 704. 08
General Office Expense 309. 52
Stationery and Supplies 117. 95
Telephone and Telegraph 74.80
Cannon Tour Expense 1, 820. 99 .$ 13, 092, 74
Total Expenditures for Year $138,686.02
Cash Receipts and Expenditures for Fiscal Year Ending November 30th, 1923,
by Months
Month Receipts Expenditures
December, 1922 $12, 213. 75 $12, 922. 72
January, 1923 7, 879. 84 7, .567. 2r>
February, 1923 7, 97.3. 21 7, 762. 77
March, 1923 8,979.76 8,048.10
April, 1923 13,888.33 14,080.47
May, 1923 12, 778. 80 12, 796. 06
June, 1923 9, 531. .51 10, 945. 21
July, 1923 14,994.25 14,34.5.14
August, 1923 11, 231. 20 11, 375. 76
September. 1923 10, 278. 79 10, 072. 53
October, 1923 14,944.49 15,200.00
November, 1923 13,057.07 12,970.05
Total $137, 7.51. 60 $138, 686. 02
Balance Cash November 30th, 1922 $985. 19
Receipts for Fiscal Year ending 11-30-23 137, 751. 60
Expenditures for Fiscal Year ending 11-30-22 $138, 686. 02
Balance Cash November 30th, 1923 $50. 77
Total $138, 736. 79 $1.38, 736. 79
Executive Department Oper.\tion Account
Bank Charges $
Czecho-Slovak Federation Subsidy
Conference for Progressive Political Action Expense-
Convention (1922) Expense
Protection of Foreign-Born Campaign Expen.se
District No. 14 (Wagenknecht) Subsidy
Donations Made
Purniture and Fixture (Depreciation)
District No. 13 Subsidy
Interest on Loan
Italian Federation Subsidy
Loans Receivable from Districts (Subsidv to Dis-
tricts) 1 375. 50
$75, 714. 67
64.24
38. 05
360. 32
3. 032. 98
108. 50
905. 83
819. 86
443. 61
50.00
8.85
.542. 60
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 349
Office MaehineiT $1^^- ^
Negro Committee Subsidy 150.00
Miners' Organization Campaign 511. 20
Polish Federation Subsidy 439.00
Scandinavian Federation Subsidy 64. 10
United Toiler Deficit 300. 00
Young Workers League Subsidy 200.00
West^Virginia District Subsidy 100. ()0
May Day Button Purchase a/c i 392. 50
May Day Button Refund to Districts 752. 53
C. E. C. Meeting Expense 816.42
Federation Dues Refund Payments to Districts 15, 610. 39
Flag Pin Expense 1. 50
Executive Dept. Gen'l Office Exp 1, 113. 23
Organization Supplies Purchases 936. 56
Make the Party Grow Stamps Refund 1. 50
Executive Department Postage 1,255.10
Propaganda Leaflets Purchase a/c 3, 144. HO
Executive Department Rent 966. 00
Propaganda Leaflets Forwarding Exp .537. 73
Stationery & Supplies (Exec. Dept.) 1,610.16
Telephone & Telegraph (Exec. Dept.) 1,606.02
TravelExpen.se (Exec. Dept.) 1,166.68
Industrial Dept. Gen'l Office Expeu.se 347. 06
Industrial Dept. Travel 45.00
Industrial Dept. Wages 1, 036. 50
Executive Dept. Wages 11,306.00
Voice of Labor Expenses 724. 41
Voice of Labor Postage 524. 82
Lyceum Department Expen.ses 2,210.05
Research Dept. Wages & Expenses 2,205.30
Political Committee Wages 3,005.00
Political Conmiittee Expen,se 656.56
Political Committee Conferences 383. 33
Agrarian Department Subsidy 1,020.25
Agrarian Department Wages 1, 120. 67
Niitional Defense Committee, N. Y. Division, Rent 7. 75
Polish Federation Rent 16.25
Russian Literature Dept. Rent 3. 25
Press Service Gen'l Office Expense 1,353.46
Press Service Wages 225. 00
Labor Party Campaign Expeu.se 2, 576. 17
Labor Party Fund Expen.se 770.42
IMoving Expen.se 1,403. 78
Reserve for Bad Debts (N. Y. Bad Debt) 924 49
Per Capita Tax FFLP 500. ((0
New York IIead(iuarters Rent 685. 00
General Field Organizers Exp 3, 702. 31
Lyceum Dept. Advertising 316. 62
Office Maintenance & Repair a/c 48. 50
Total debited to executive operation a/c $ 75,714.07
Bank Interest 3.29
Campaign Fund 45 OO
1922 Convention Assessments 2,469.75
1922 Convention As.sessments (to be refunded) 40.25
Donatiim Received 1, 159.34
Federated Press Fund ' 44. 20
Discount Earned 1. 59
Overpayment a/e 10. (X>
Rent Income 400. 00
Suspen.se a/c H 75
Textile Strike Fund 35.40
May Day Button Sales 2, 601. 85
Dues Stamps Cash Sales 49 117. 98
350
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
November 7th Flag Pin Sales $1, 849. 10
Initiation Stamps Cash Sales 3,275.10
Make the Party Grow Stamp Cash Sales 10, 231. 27
Leaflet Fund 64. 00
Organization Donations 12, 623. 01
Organization Stamps Cash Sales 128. 50
Organization Supplies Cash Sales 707.24
Propaganda Leaflet Cash Sales 2, 822. 75
United Front Fund ' 18. 00
Voice of Labor Cash Sales 624. 47
Labor Party Fund Receipts 3, 234. 99
Organization Liquidation a/c 241. 51
General Field Organizers Receipts 562. 06
Lyceum Department Income 614. 18
Receipts to Executive Department $92,293.66
Charges to Executive Department 75, 714. 67
Surplus — Executive Department 17, 221. 99
Total $92, 936. 66 $92, 936. 66
The Worker Dept. Operation Account $33, 466. 38
Advertising Commission $33. 60
General Office Expense 282.27
Mailing Expen.se 4,263.36
News Service Expense 657*. 10
Printing __^ 15, 936. 96
Kent 67.5.00
Sales Promotion Expense 187. 31
Stationery and Supplies 709. 37
Telephone and Telegraph 189. 36
Wages 7, 945. 25
J. P. Cannon Tour Expense 2, 586. 80
Total Debited to "Worker" Operation Account— $33, 466. 38
Advertising Income $955. 00
Bundle Sales.*. 6, 335. 97
Workers' Challenge 18. 13
Donation 53. 50
Office sales IL 15
SubscriiJtions 7, 274. 31
Toiler a/c 17.89
J. P. Cannon Subscription Cards Cash Receipts 3, 411. 34
J. P. Cannon Field Organizers' Receipts 306. 93
The Worker Dept. Operation Account $18,384.22
Receipts to The Worker $18,384.22
Charges to The Worker $33, 466. 38
Deficit, The Worker $15, 082. 16
Total $33, 466. 38 $33, 466. 38
National Defense Committee Account $6, 608. 19
Bank Charges $14. 42
General Office Expense -- 26.61
Loss on Bail Bonds 50.00
Legal Expense 3,684.53
Inventory 1922 — 327. 50
Donation to New York Division 150. 00
Printing , 109-. 05
Prisoners Family Relief 225.00
Prisoners Relief 353.97
Pittsburgh Defense Expen.se 1, 062. S3
Special Defense Relief 356. 00
Travel Expense -- 108.48
Premiimi on Bail Bonds 130.80
Total debited to N. D. C. of W. P. of A. Op-
eration a/c 6, 608. 19
Suspense Account . 04
Defense Donation 841. 82
APPENDIX, PART 1 35I
Defense Stamps Cash Sales $4, 712. 26
Shiimovich Bond Receipt 1, 176. 09
Literature Cash Sales 52. 52
National Defense Committee Operation Ac-
count $6, 782. 73
lU'ceipts to N. D. C $6, 782. 73
Charges to N. D. C 6, 608. 19
Surplus to N. D. C 174. 54
Total $6, 782. 73 $6, 782. 73
Literature Dept. Operation Account $17, 846. 87
Advertising Bought $810. 82
General Office Expense 227. 39
Inventory, 1922 3, 960. 27
Purchases 6, 874. 54
"Communist International" Purchase 375. 00
Parcel Post and Cartage Charges 1, 155. 24
Rent 675. CO
Reserve for Literature Accounts Receivable 1, 377. 78
Sales I'romotion Expense 64.37
Stationery and Supplies 387. 81
Telephone and Telegraph 79. 87
Wages - 1, 803. 00
Writer.s' exi>ense 55. 78
Total Debited to Literature Department Opera-
tion Account $17,846.87
"( 'ommunist International" Cash Sales $137. 30
Literature Cash Sales 8,795.88
Lite'rature Sales 2, 877. 78
Inventory, 1923 2,996. 15
Literature Department Operation Account $14, 807. 11
Receipts to Literature Department $14, 807. 11
Charges to Literature Department $17, 846. 87
Deficit— Literature Department 3, 0.39. 76
Total $17, Sm. 87 $17, 846. 87
Summary for Year Ending November 30th, 1923
Surplus Deficit
Executive Department $17, 221. 90
Worker Department $15,082. 16
Literature Department 3, 089. 76
National Defense Committee 174. 54
$17, 396. 53 $18, 121. 92
Total deficit— Workers Party of America 725. 39
Totals $18, 121. 92 $18, 121. 92
Statement of Assets and Liabilities for Fiscal Year Ending November 30, 1923
Assets :
Cash
Stop Payment Check 1. 69 $52. 46
Accounts Receivable
Reserve for A/c Received
Dues Stamp Sales
Initiation Stamp Sales
A/cs Rec. Make T. P. G. Stamps_
Organization Supplies Sales
Propaganda Dit Sales
Reserve for ITncollectable Bal-
ances "Lit." Department
Organization Stamp Sales
$50. 77
1.69
27. 900. 31
$632. 83
4, 532. 58
4, 114. 85
2. 52
240. 94
252. 50
3, 377. 78
10, 837. 60
$27, 900. 31 $23. 811. 60 $4, 088. 71
352 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Assets — Continued.
Loans Receivable $4. 425. 34
Daily Worker $70.74
Liberator 3. 669. m
General 685. 00
Worker A/c' Receivable for Bundles— $3, 242. 96
Reserve for Uncollectable bal-
ances of the Worker 2, 000. 00 1, 242. 06
Deposit a/c ( Rent, Light. Telephone ) .. 397. 50
Furniture and Fixtures ] , 000. 00
New York Book Store Advance 535. 00
Office Machinery 500.00
Petty Cash 50.00
Pittsburg Defense Committee 70. 00
Postage Fund 63. 97
Protested Checks 9. 09
Rents a/cs Receivable 215.00
Rents a/cs Liberator Publishing Co 117. 00
Russian Relief 1. 00
Federation Dues Refund to Districts
Payable 2, 5:36. 71
Federation Dues Refund to District
No. 10 94. 45
Make the Partv Grow Stamps Sale 2. 02
Literature Inventory, 1923 2.996.15
Research Department Petty Cash 25. 00
Liabilities :
Accounts Payable $15,922. 48
Freiheit Exchange 7-50. 00
Labor Defense Receipts to be remitted . 35
Loans Payable 715. 00
Polish Communist Fund 52. 05
Wages Unpaid 395. 54
Dues Refunds Payable to Di.stricts 2. 4.51. 16
Literature Loans Payable 933. 07
Loan A. B. C 206. 06
Speakers' Expenses Payable 98. 06
Subscriptions Transfers 37. 57
Inprecorr Subscription Transfer (57. 50
Liberator Subscription Transfer 128. 80
Total liabilities $21, 757. 64
National Defense Committee
Assets :
Defense Accounts Receivable $2,212.78
Chas. Bramson 100. 00
Cash 690. 94
Edgar Owens 62. 20
Total assets 3,065.92
Liabilities :
Defense Stamps Sales $2, .537. 11
Net Worth National Defense Committee 661. 52
Tf.tal Liabilities 3,198.63
Operation Accounts
Lit. Dept. Operation J $3,039.76
Worker Dept. Operation 15, 082. 16
Executive Dept. Operation $17. 221. 99
Deficit Workers Party of America, 1923 889. 93
Deficit Workers Party of America, 1922 2, 398. 06
Total deficit AVorkers Party of America 3, 297. 99
Totals - $24, 956. 27 $24, 956. 27
APPENDIX, PART 1
35a
Liberator Operation Account
Debits :
Advertising Bought $186. 67
Advertising Commission Bought 17^.^H)
Binding 1922 Liberator 74. 40
Bank Charges 72.49
Contributors" Payments 676. 50
Furniture and Fixtures 85.00
General Office Expense 716.03
Liberator Evening Expenses 14. 30'
Mailing Expen.ses 953. 66
Manufacturing Expense 9, 997. 23
Office Po.stage 306. 53
Rent 573. 00
Sales Promotion Expense 815.71
Supplies 50. (X»
Wages — Administration 3. 046. 50
Wages — Advertising ]. 187. 50
Wages — Editorial 2, 542. 50
Telephone and Telegraph 78. 16
Reserve for Uncollectable Balances 1, 500. OO
$22, 891. la
Credits :
Advertising Sold $4, 013. 48
Books 107. 56
Donations (Contributions) 872. 86
Bundle Order Cash Receipts 8,158.02
Defense 1. 00
March, 1923, Ball 59s. 73
Office Sales 115.59
Singles Ca.sh Receipts 3, 356. 10
Subscriptions 3, 356. 47
Subscription Agents Cash Receipts 164.48
Suspense 5. 10
Waste Paper Sold 12.20
Ridpath's Raffle Receipts 15.40
BuncUo Order Sales _'__ 2, 557. 54
Liberator operation account $20. 034. 5:->'
Receipts to Liberator $20,034.53
(^larges to Liberator $22,891.18
Loss— Liberator Pub. Co., 1923 2,856.65.
Totals $22, 981. 18 $22, 98L 18
The books of the national organization were audited by a certified accountant..
Samuel Freidman. up to July 30th. Since the removal of the headquarters to
Chicago, no audit has been made and the incoming C. E. C. should be instructed
to make arrangements to cover the period from July 30th to November 30rii.
Bookstores. — During the year the C. E. C. decided to as quickly as possible
establish a .series of bookstores in the larger cities for the sale of Communist
literature. The first of these stores has been established in New York under
the name of the Jimmie Higgins Bookstore and seems to be on the road lo
success.
Freiheit & Elore. — The C. E. (.'., following out the policy of the last conven-
tion that the Party press sh(_)uld come under the centralized ownership of the
Party during the year, took over the ownership of the Freiheit and the Elore.
The Freiheit, since the beginning of May, has also been under the direct man-
agement of the C. E. C.
Voice of Labor. — With the removal of the Pai'ty headquarters to Cliicng<i, the
National Organization took over the Voice of Labor and has issued it as a
bi-weekly propaganda paper during the I'ecent mf)nths. With the establish-
ment of the Daily, the Voice of Labor will become more imiwrtant as a propa^
ganda sheet, and it should be the effort of tlie C. E. C. to build up a large circula-
tion for this paper.
940.31 — 40— app.. pt. 1 24
354 UN-AMEKICAN PHOPAGAISDA ACTIVITIES
Press Service. — The C. E. C. during the past year has maintained a Workers
Party Press Service vphich has continuously supplied news, stories and articles
to the Party press and also to some 500 labor papers throughout the country.
Through this means a great deal of material in regard to our Party principles
and our campaigns has received publicity in the labor press throughout the
United States.
Research Department. — The C. E. C. ims also maintained a Research Depart-
ment which furnishes material to the Party editors and speakers and also
issues a review of the week which is sent to the Party press and Labor
press through our Party Press Service.
Literature Publication. — During the past year our Party has at le'ast made
a beginning in the publication of Communist literature applicable to the needs
of the life of the workers in this country. During the year we have issued
the following books and pamphlets:
1. Two editions of "For A Labor Party." — John Pepper.
2. Two editions of "Underground Radicalism." — John Pepper.
3. The "American Foreign Born Workers." — Clarissa S. Ware.
4. The "Government Strike-breaker." — Jay Lovestone.
5. "Blood and Steel." — Jay Lovestone.
6. "What's What About Coolidge." — Jay Lovestone.
7. "Strategy of the Communist." — Letter from C. I. O. to Mexico.
8. "Why Every Worker Should Be A Communist And Join the Workers
Party."— C. E. Ruthenberg.
The C. E. C. has also issued leaflets in connection with the various Party
campaigns which have received a wide disti'ibution.
Agricultural Department. — Beginning in the spring of the ye'ar the C. E. C.
established an Agricultural Department. Comrade Hal Ware was originally
put in charge of this work and made a survey of the conditions of the agricul-
tural sections of this country for the S. E. C. In August actual work of organ-
izing was begun in North Dakota where we have succeeded in building up a
Party organization of about 200 members. At the present time we are carrying
on similar work in South Dakota through our organizer, Comrade A. Knutson,
and a beginning is just being made in Oklahoma where Comrade J. E. Snyder
is at work.
In connection with this agricultural department, a monthly paper, "The
United Farmer," was published for a time, which has now been consolidated
with the "Farmer Labor Leader" in Mitchell, South Dakota.
District Reorganization. — The C. E. C. during the year adopted the policy of
reducing the district organizations of the Party so that a district would cover
a definite industrial center and the district organizer would be able to be in
continuous contact with all the Party units in such a center. In accordance
with this policy District 2 was divided into three separate districts, making
Greater New York City with the towns in Northern New Jersey a district such
as the C. E. C. believes must be the district unit of the Party in the future.
As our organization develops onr policy should be to create similar districts
wherever sufficient number of Party members are centered in a definite indus-
trial territory.
Daily Worker. — In August the C. E. C. undertook a campaign for the estab-
lishment of a Daily Comunist Paper in the United States. As has l>een an-
nounced in the press the first issue of the "Daily Worker" will appear on
January 13. The details of the successful campaign to launch the Daily Com-
munist Paper for our Party will be reported under a separate point on the
agenda.
Dues Payments. — The industrial registration which appears in another place
in this report shows that in 319 branches 6.862 members of the Party were
registered. Tliere are a total of over 1,300 Party branches at the present
time, and if the average membership per branch for these 319 branches holds
good for the entire Party, the industrial registration will show 27,448 members
on the Party rolls. The highest dues payment in recent months has been for
the month of November which shows 17,726 members paying dues for that month.
It will readily be seen from these figures that there is a wide discrepancy be-
tween the member.';hip on the Party rolls and the members paying their dues
regularly each month. The C. E. C. has considered in the past that in a
Communist Party the membership would pay their dues regularly without
special campaigns to insure such dues payment. It seems that this is not the
case, and it will i)e necessary for every Party unit to begin a campaign for
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 355
regular payment of clues, and this should be one of the instructions to the
incoming: Central Executive Committee.
Industrial Work. — The details of the industrial work will be reported by
Comrade Foster under a separate report. The Party organization as such took
au active part in all the industrial work of the Party, notably the miners'
campaign. For a consider^able period of time the Party maintained special
organizers in the mining fields to carry on agitation for the Progressive Miners
Program.
During the spring of the year Comrade Charles Krumboin was appointed
as industrial organizer for the Party with headquarters in Chicago. An at-
tempt was made to take an industrial registration of the Party at this time,
but because of the separation of the industrial organizer from the Party head-
quarters the work could not be carried to a successful end. Recently Comrade
Jakira, Assistant Secretary, has been apiwinted to the industrial work in the
national office and 'a new industrial registration is under way. The reports
received thus far have been stated in the membership report. It is the decision
of the C. E. C. that industrial registration shall be taken twice each year.
The Party in various parts of the country has undertaken to carry into effect
the decision of the last convention urging every member to become a member
of a union, and this has greatly increased the number of union members in our
Party. Exceptionally good work has been done in this respect in the city of
Detroit where hundreds of Party members have been brought into unions and
are now carrying on effective work for the Party in these organizations.
Defense. — At the present time there are three Communists who are in prison
because of their Communist activities: Comrade L. E. Katterfield in Joliet,
III. ; Comrade I. Blankenstein and Jos. Martinowich in Pennsylv'ania Prisons.
It is the hope that all three Comrades will be released at an early date.
There are pending in the courts in addition to the 32 Michigan cases, 9 cases
in Pittsburgh where a raid was made on our org'anization on or about May 1st
of this year. There are also pending the New York cases involving Comrade
Benjamin Gitlow whose case is now before the Supreme Court of the United
States for decision ; Comrade Harry Winit.sky, whose case is in the Appellate
division of the New York Courts, and the case of Comrade C. E. Ruthenberg
is still pending in the Lower Court of New York, although the original convic-
tion w^s reversed.
During the year a number of deportations cases dating back to 1919-20 were
pressed by the authorities, and three or four Comrades were deported as a
result of these cases.
Summary
The Central Executive Committee is of the opinion that the report which
appears above contains a record of Party achievements which our organization
can well he proud of, and it submits its work to the delegates of this convention
confident that it has fulfilled its duty to the Party during the period of its
leadership in the past year.
THESES ON THE PRESENT ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SITUATION AND ON LABOR PARTY
POLICY, PROPOSED BY CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
1 — Economic Conditions in the United States
A — The farmers of the United States did not participate in the prosperity
which followed the economic crisis of 1920-21. The prosperity was a one-sided
industrial prosperity. In 1922 some two million farmers left the land because
of bankruptcy and it is estimated that in 1923 three million others will follow
them. Tens of thousands of farms have been abandoned in a number of states.
The mortgaged farmers are having mortgages foreclosed on their farms and
;tre being compelled to become tenants. The government reports show a tre-
mendous increase in tenantry in the farming regions. Taxation has increased
to such a tremendous extent that it is estimated that in 1922 thirty per cent
of the net products of the farmer went to pay his taxes. As a result of this
economic pressure upon the farmers they are entering politics en masse.
B — There is every indication that the existing industrial pro.sperity will soon
come to an end. Production and employment already show decreases in the
basic iTidustries. Unfilled orders in the .steel industry have decreased 30 iper
cent during the last three or four months. Employment in the bituminous
356 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
coal industry is decreasing. In many coal fields the miners are working
short days and unemployment is already quite general. Textile mills are closing
down because of lack of orders. The Amoskeag Mills in New Hampshire hav<-
closed down for the first time in 25 years. There is a great over-productiou
in the copper industry and prices have fallen to the lowest figure in many years.
The oil industry is in a catastrophal condition. The development of another
crisis and widespread unemployment is forecast by all the symptoms of eco-
nomic life in this country today. Just now the interlocking financial oligarchy
which is the ruling power in American industry, is throwing in its last reserve'^
to avoid a crisis by having the railroads place larger orders for steel and the
Washington government has begun negotiations for the purpose of making a
loan to Germany, with the condition, of course, that the money will have to be
spent in the United States.
During the wave of prosperity which is now passing, the working class was
able to bring to a halt the offensive of the capitalists and was able, in some
cases, to win wage increases and to shorten hours. However, during this period
organized labor was not able to strengthen itself. On the contrary, the mem-
bership of the American Federation of Labor decreased in the year 1923 from
the year before by 269.167, and in the railroad industry the shop crafts organi-
zation was practically destroyed. Reports generally in regard to the trad."
unions indicate that organization is at a low ebb. This crisis will be all the
greater because millions of exploited fai'mers are invading the industries in
search of the means of gaining a living.
2— The Political Situation
A — Political parties in this country have had within the same parties various
economic classes. The shari>ening of the conflict of economic group interests
is developing a situation which makes it impossible for these economic groups to
remain together in the same iK>litical party. The first result of this clash of
economic group interests within the old parties manifests itself in the failure
to agree upon a common piogram. This has developed into factional struggles
in many states and the continuance of the divisions which are developing
means the split of the old parties. This division is clearer and sharper in the
Republican than in the Democratic party, altho the latter shows the ><ame
tendency.
B — These economic groups whose class interests are in conflict with the
ruling big capitalists", such as the lower middle class, the professional groups
and the farmers, drawing in their wake a part of the aristocracy of labor,
are splitting away from the old parties and the tendency is for these groups
to draw together to form a third party which will contain elements from both
rhe old parties and which will enter the political arena as the enemy of the
big capitalists whti now dominate the government. The La Follette movement,
the Hearst-Hylan movement, the Ford-For-President movement, the Farmer-
Labor Party of Minnesota, are all expressions of this tendency. The birth of
such a party means a revolutionary change in the American political system,
but the policies of such a party will be the backward-looking policies of de.stroy-
ing the trusts or regulating the big capitalists and it would be foolish to believe
that such a party can bring any fundamental change in the existing industrial
system which would be of benefit to the exploited workers and farmers.
' On the other hand, such a party will weaken aiid split up the united capitalist
class and make impossible a united attack of the capitalist upon the worker.
We must differentiate between such a third party which includes small business
men, well-to-do farmers and the professional classes, even tho it may call itself
a Farmer-Labor Party, and a class Farmer-Labor Party made up of the industrial
workers and exploited farmers.
C — There exists a growing sentiment for a labor party which has deve)oi)ed out
of the industrial crisis of 1920-21. and the interference of the government in all
the great strikes. This movement of the workers expresses itself in two forms:
1 The support of the third party movement, and. 2 In the organization of a class
labor party.
The Conference for Progressive Political Action, holding under its influence
more than a million workers, is friendly to, and a great part of the organized
woikers it represents are supporting, a third party movement.
On the other hand, farmer-labor parties have been organized in some states,
such as West Virginia, IMinnesota (with the Farmer-Labor Federation expressing
(he class-conscious element), Montana, and many local labor parties are springing
APPENDIX, PART 1 357
up as in Buffalo, Los Angeles, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party of Washington
County, Pa., and the Federated Farmer-Labor Party has been organized on a
national scale.
While the sentiment and pressure for a labor party is growing, it would be an
Illusion to believe that an all-inclusive mass labor party will be organized in the
liear future. The Gompers' machine will, as in the past, again support one of
the old capitalist parties. Johnston and the Railroad Brotherhood and their
follt^wers, organized in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, will un-
doubtedly follow the third party or support a candidate on the old party ticket.
Only the left wing of the labor movement will at the beginning participate in
the organization of a mass class party of the farmers and workers. On the other
hand the defection of that part of the labor movement controlled by Johnston
and Gompers. will be counterbalanced by the great mass of desperate farmers
who are ready to join in a Class Farmer-Labor Party.
3. The Third Party and the Farmer-Labor Party
A — We must continue our campaign for the organization of a party of the
workers and exploited farmers, embracing as broad a section of these groups as
can be won for a class farmer-laI)or party. Our policy must be to develop a class
party of workers and exploited farmers, and not a third party including the lower
middle class and the well-to-do farmers. We may, in special circumstances, be
compelled to participate in a farmer-labor party which is in reality a third party,
as in Minnesota, but in such a situation it is our duty to develop inside of such an
organization of the workers and exploited farmers.
Our goal is not the organization of a so-called third party, even tho it may
disguise itself and call it.self a Farmer-Labor Party, but to organize a class
farmer-labor party of workers and exploited farmers.
Where such third parties calling themselves farmer-labor parties arise, which
include the workers and exploited farmers, we must enter into such parties, but
our policy must be to win all the workers and exploited farmers away from the
Ihird party and to organize them in a class farmer-labor party.
B — Wliile we carry on our campaign for the organization of a class farmer-
labor party we must at the same time carry on a campaign for the third party
forces to split away from the old capitalist parties and whenever a third party
is organized we nuist make an alliance with it against the old capitalist parties
and the capitalist government. This alliance must not take the form of organiza-
tional unity between the class fjirmer-labor party and the third party. We will
enter into common campaigns with the third party against the capitalist class,
such as the maintenance of civil liberties, recognition of Soviet Russia, against
intervention to uphold capitalism in Europe, democratization of the government,
nationalization of the railroads and mines, measures to enable the farmer to buy
at lower prices the products of the great trusts.
a. We will nominate our candidates on the Farmer-Labor Party ticket wher-
ever possible and carry on an independent campaign.
b. Whenever the Farmer-Labor Party candidates have a chance to win we
will carry on the tight to elect these candidates against those of the old parties
and the third party. Wherever the Socialist Party or any other labor political
group has a chance to win we will support these candidates against all other
parties including the third party.
c. Wherever neither the Farmer-Labor Party nor the third party candidates
have a chance to win, we will vote for the Farmer-Labor Party candidates in
the election.
d. Where the Farmer-Labor Party candidates have no chance to win and the
third party can unquestionably win against the capitalist parties with our
support we will vote for the third party candidates.
e. In any case and under all circumstances we will maintain the separate
organizational existence of the Farmer-Labor Party, carry on an independent
campaign for its separate policies and under its ov/n slogans.
f. While maintaining the alliance with the third party me must at all times
carry on a campaign of merciless criticism against it, pointing out the use-
lessness of its half-measures, its cowardice and hesitation and destroying the
illusion that the class struggle can be won thru its measures.
4 — The Labor Party and the Federated Farmer-Labor Party
A — There are three great dangers which threaten the labor party movement
in the United States at the present time. These forces, if not counteracted,
358 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
can dissipate and destroy the whole movement for years to come. These
forces are as follows:
a. The third party movement and the Ford movement. The workers and
exploited farmers of the United States have for so many years supported the
Republican and Democratic parties that any organization which breaks away
fi'om these old parties will have a tremendous appeal for them and they will
not differentiate between such a general third party movement and the class
farmer-labor movement. Unless there is a national rallying point for the
existing Farmer-Labor groups which represent the class parties there is great
danger that these isolated groups will be swept into the third party movement
and thus the whole movement for a class labor party will be halted for years
to come.
b. There is also the danger that the existing isolated state and city parties
will disintegrate and disappear because there is no national expression and
no national leadership to give them direction and hold them together. The
l)ast history of similar farmer-labor party organizations has been that sucli
isolated parties will not exist for a long time. They can only be made perma-
nent thru a national leadership continually formulating policies which bring
them into action and thus giving them life and strength. There is also the
danger that these isolated parties may carry on independent campaigns locally,
but on a national scale still support the old capitalist parties. Thus, for in-
stance, in West Virginia one of the leaders of the party has already announced
that the Farmei'-Labor Party of West Virginia will have its own candidate
and make its own fight in the state of West Virginia, but that on a national
scale the members will be free to vote the Republican and Democratic tickets
as in the past. A similar expression has been made by Magnus Johnson in
relation to the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.
c. The presidential campaign of 1924 will be one of the most vital importance
to the labor party movement. Unless there is a national crystallization of
the labor party movement enabling it to nominate a presidential cau<lidate
and to conduct a nation-wide campaign the movement will receive a severe
set-back and there will be no hope for organizing a class-labor party on a
national scale for some years to come. The whole life of the movement de-
pends upon a national organization and a national campaign and such a cam-
paign is bound to awaken great enthusiasm and enable the class farmer-labor
party idea to make great strides forward.
B — All of the foregoing analysis shows conclusively, first, that only the left
wing masses of the labor and farmer movement will at first participate in the
organization of the class farmer-labor party and, second, that unless such a
class farmer-labor party is organized on a national scale for the 1924 election
the whole movement will be dissipated and destroyed for years to come. Our
policy, therefore, must be to organize the left wing bloc among the workers and
exploited farmers into a national class farmer-labor party for the 1924 elections.
C — The Federated Farmer-Labor Party is the beginning of the organization
of the left wing of the exploited farmers and industrial workers. We must, as
part of the campaign for the organization of the whole left wing, assist in
maintaining, organizing and strengthening the Federated Farmer-Labor Party.
a. We should also seek to have the Federated Farmer-Labor Party as ai\
instrument for propaganda for the idea of the all-inclusive farmer-labor party
i'.nd must draw as broad a mass of the workers and exploited farmers into the
labor party as possible.
b. The Federated Farmei--Labor Party must organize wherever possible and
afiiliate those organizations of which it can win the support.
c. The ciimpaign of the Federated Party should be carried on to secure:
1. Affiliation wherever possible.
2. Where we are not strong enough to secure affiliations we should seek
endorsement.
3. If we are unable to secure either affiliation of endorsement we should
endeavor to have delegates sent to the next convention.
D — The Federated Farmer-Labor Party should consider each situation sei?-
arately and thoroughly. It should organize the Federated Farmer-Labor Party
only in such places in which the organization of the Federated Farmer-Labor
Party will not bring a split of the left wing; that is, of the followers of the
class-labor party movement. In the process of organization of the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party, it will come in confiict with ijome of the progressive leaders
in the labor movement. Its effort must be, through a careful policy, to clarify
these progressive leaders and to win them for the organization of the Federated
APPENDIX, PART 1 359
Farmer-Labor Party, it will come in contiict with some of the progressive leaders
masses because of the hesitancy and irresolntion of individual progressives here
and there, provided that it can carry with it tlie masses.
E — Where a class farmer-labor party exists we must ende.ivor to become
affiliated with it and must carry on propaganda for its redicalization and for
national affiliations.
p — The Farmer-Labor Party is an expression of the united front. While it
must l)e our policy to draw as large ;i mass of workei-s as possible into rlie
united front, this does not mean that we caiuiot at a particular time organizf
a united front with those groups which are ready to join us. It is not sufficient
to carry on propaganda and to build up a vague sentiment for a united front on
some particular issue. The propaganda and the building of such sentiment must
be followed by organizaiton or it will quickly dissipate itself. Where we build
a united front organization which includes only a part of the m.isses it is our
task to endeavor to expand it and draw as many as possible of the workers into
the organization.
G?— All our organizational effort should be to assist the Federated Farmer-
Labor Party to create a national crystallization of the class farmer-labor move-
ment for the 1924 campaign. To achieve this end we will not insist upon a
dogmatic attitude that the national convention in which such crystallization will
take place must come in the form of a convention of the Federated Farmer-
Labor Party. On the contrary, our effort must be to secure support of as manv
groups as possible for such a convention. The call for the convention should be
signed by the Federated Farmer-Labor Party and if possible, by the West Vii"-
ginia Farmer-Labor Party, the Montana Farmer-Labor Party, the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party of New York, the Federated Farmer-Labor Party of Wash-
ington County Pa., and any other local or state group which may be organized.
The policy of the Conference for Progressive Political Action creates a situ-
ation whicl[ will force the Socialist Party into a different position. The So-
cialist Party is not likely to follow Johnston in support of one of the old parties.
Unless it is to completely isolate itself it must come closer to the existing Farmer-
Labor Party movement. Our policy must be to hasten this development and to
endeavor to secure the support of the Socialist Party for the call for the 1924
convention.
H — The Federated Farmer-Labor Party should not only carry on a struggle
to organize itself in the industrial centers, but should make the greatest effort
to win the support of the laboring farmers. All the facts indicate that there are
great masses of farmers who cau be w^on for the Federated Farmer-Labor
Party.
5— Dangers to the Workers Party
A — The manouvres in relation to the third party constitute a serious danger to
the Workers Party unless our members are given a clear Communist understand-
ing of our strategy and tactics in each particular situation. This makes it neces-
sary to immediately begin a thoro-going campaign of education in fundamental
Communist principles among our members and thus to create a party membership
which will never forget its fundamental Communist principles in these manouvres
of the class struggle.
B — As part of the campaign of education we must also develop a stronger
discipline among our members. It is only if the party members luiderstand that
they are soldiers in an army which is carrying on difficult manouvres in a battle
of the class struggle and that unhesitating loyalty to the party is a first requi-
site of victory in these manouvres, that we can hope to successfully carry thru
the manouvres we undertake.
C — In order to impress upon our membership the real character of a Com-
munist party we must develop campaigns which are directed against the capitalist
system and the capitalist government. Our struggles in the past have been
largely struggles within the trade unions against reactionary labor leaders. Un-
less we combine with these struggles greater battles against capitalist class, our
members and even the masses of the workers will get a one-sided impression
of the character of our party. The utilization of the discontent of the masses
for such campaigns is therefore of the first importance.
D — One of the methods thru which we carry on our campaigns against the
capitalists is to participate in election campaigns in opposition to the capitalist
parties. Thus far our party has in principle declared itself in favor of parlia-
mentary action, but in practice it has been an anti-parliamentary organization.
We must change these conditions and throw our party into the election campaigns.
350 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This also applies to political iictiou against the capitalist government both in anfl
outside of election campaigns.
E — Tlie campaign for ten tliousand new members for the party must be sup-
ported with all the strength of our party. At the present time our interests and
camijaigns are of such a widespread nature that our party organization is un-
able to carry on successfully with its present strength. We must increase the
membership of the party in order that we may have the forces at our command
to carry thru the many actions in which we are involved.
F — The Daily Worker will iiid in carrying thru all of the measures necessary
to strengthen our party. It will be a means of Connnunist education, a means of
teaching our members the needs and the purpose of our various actions and the
establishment of the daily is one of the important factors in strengthening our
parly and overcoming the dangers which face it.
G— Danger of new i^roseeutions directed at the destruction of our party con-
tinues to exist. We cannot forecast when the class struggle will so sharpen that
the ruling class will find it necessary to again launch an attack upon the Com-
munisis and thru such an attack endeavor to crush the whole revolutionary
movement. We must take measures to safeguard our party against the possi-
liilities of such an attack. These measures should be the following :
We must as quickly as possible reorganize our party so far as it is possible
upon the basis of shop units in addition to the existing territorial branches. Shop
units cannot be destroyed altho territorial branches can easily be driven out of
existence.
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL TO THE WORKERS
PARTY OF AMERICA
Dec. 7th, 1923.
To the Workers Partii of America.
Dear Comrades : The Convention of the Workers" Party of America is taking
place at a time when world reaction is preparing another blow against the inter-
national proletariat. Gathered like ravens over the bodies of the working class
of Germany, the imperialist powers of France, England and America are mak-
ing plans to divide the spoils in Germany and reduce the working class to the
l)Osition of coolies. The capitalists of Germany have established their military
dictatorship and are ready to co-operate with the foreign imperalists provided
they are guaranteed part of the booty.
In several states of Europe fascism holds the workers in its bloody grip. Italy.
Spain aiid Bulgaria are in the throes of the wildest reaction. The White Terror
rules in Finland, Rumania and Hungary.
In Soviet Russia alone, the rule of the workers and peasants is unshaken despite
the many attempts that have been made to destroy it. The Soviet power is con-
solidating more and more and today stands invincible to the plots and intrigues of
the reactionary capitalist governments and counter-revolutionary emigries.
American imperialism, with its surplus of war gains wrung from the work-
ing class, is utilizing the brokendown condition of Europe to make fresh con-
quests. In Europe it is directing its forces once more against Soviet Russia, in
tlie hope of undermining the Soviet power. The path to this new attempt is over
the bodies of the enslaved German workers who are to be bought with food
furnished to the murderous Seeckt dictatorship. In Asia, American imperialism
is penetrating further into the heart of China, where it is securing a stranglehold
on its resources and industries. The earthquake in Japan, which has seriously
weakened Japanese imperalisni. is opening up the door for American encroach-
ments, which must surely lead to war. In South and Central America and in
Mexico, American imperialism is in the heyday of its expansionist policies, whose
aim is the acquirement of large sources of raw material and the extension of
fields of investment for Wall Street and American industrialists.
New, fearful wars menace the whole world as a result of the machinations
nf American Imperialism. It is the duty of the American workers to watch
well the acts of their capitalists. They must prevent any interference with the
struggle of the German workers to obtain their freedom. They must fight
against attempts to embroil the American workers in new wars for the sake
of capitalist profits. It will be the duty particularly of the Communists to
mobilize the proletariat of the United States against the coming wars.
To perform this and the many other tasks confronting the Party, the Central
Executive Committee of the Workers' Party has rightfully conceived as the
most important step the establishment of an Engli.sh Communist Daily in the
United States. This Daily must become the medium for reaching the widest
APPENDIX, PART 1 3()1
massps of the workers and mobilizing them for military action in protection
of their rights and in securing tinal control of power. The struggles in the
United States are among the bloodiest in the world. The power of the capitalist
press is tremendous. The workers have no real expression throughout the
country and hence are exposed to misrepresentation and distortion of fact,
which is one of the methods that the capitalist class of America employs in
order to crush the labor movement. The Connnunist Daily must become the
organ not of the revolutionists alone, but of the whole working cUiss. Hence
the whole strength of the Party must b(> mobilized for the establishment of
the Daily, which should be the forerunner of more revolutionary dailies in
other parts of the country.
To accomiilish this task and put the Daily on a sound basis, the membership
must be drawn into close relatiduship with one another. The Language Federa-
tions constituting the Party are a necessity and yea are a hindrance to uni-
form action of the membership. The Language Federations are essential for
propaganda among the foreign-born workers and must be retained for that
purpose. Within the Party, however, there should be created international
branches comprising all the membership, regardless of hinguage. Thus mem-
bers of all nationalities and Negro workers will be grouped in uniform branches
and work together on the problems confronting the Party. This will produce
greater mobility and lead to the inner harmony that is fundamental to all
Communist action.
In an industrial coimtry like the United States, the .shops and mills are the
centers of activity. It is obvious, therefore, that the shop must be the basis
of all Party work. Even though the factories are infested with spies placed
there by the capitalists, thus rendering work difficult, the basic unit of the
Party must be the Shop Nucleus. This will enable us to gather the workers on
the job, where they feel most keenly the capitalist and the force of the Govern-
ment.
The excellent work that has been done by the Communists in the Left Wing
of the labor movement of the United States demonstrates that if all the com-
rades were members of trade unions, the work would increase many fold.
We must repeat the decision of the last session of the Enlarged Executive Com-
mittee, to the effect that it is the duty of all Communists to join the trade
unions and be active in their work. The Convention of the Workers' Party
must take steps to get the comrades into the unions. This is one of its main
tasks and one not to be neglected.
The propaganda that the Workers' Party has conducted during the past year
has been most effective. As a result, the ideas of Communism and the Com-
munist movement are the center of discussioli both among the workers and the
capitalists. Despite the savage attempts of the American bourgeoisie to install
fear into the minds of American workers at the suggestion of Communism,
and to point to the achievements of American democracy as the highest that
mankind can aspire to. the actions of the American capitalist class and the
capitalist government in the past two years have opened the eyes of the
workers.
The strikes of 1922 taught them the true meaning of capitalist democracy ;
it also taught them that the Communists are feared and persecuted by the
capitalist class merely because they are the most powerful spokesmen of the
workfng class and the most valiant fighters in its interests.
The vast sentiment for Communism that the Workers' Party has aroused nujst
be organized. Your Central Executive Committee acted right in inaugurating a
campaign for membership. This campaign must be a matter of discipline. Each
member of the Party must be pledged to secure one or more new members for
the Party. The Workers' Party must increase its membership .several times
before it will become the factor in the proletarian movement of the United States
that the Communists are destined to become.
The Workers' Party has applied Connnunist tactics correctly in seeking a
United Front of all forces to fight the capitalist system in the United States.
It has sought a United Front not only on the economic, but particularly on the
political field. That Gompers and the reactionary trade luiion officialdom opix^se
it because of their antiquated, treacherous policy of "rewarding the friends and
puni.shing the enemies of labor" in the capitalist parties; that the Socialists,
having renounced every revolutionary idea and lined up with the reactionary
forces of the country, also oppose it ; and that a few so-called "progressive" trade
union leaders of the Middle West have betrayed the workers and gone over to
Gompers, that they denounce the ideas they once stood for and therefore also
oppose the United Front — is creating the best basis for the United Front nolicv.
362 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This treachery has been the main one of the chief reasons why the workers of
America still are the prey of the capitalist parties of America. This treachery,
however, will show the workers so much more clearly the necessity of the United
Front. It will also demonstrate to them that the Communists, who are the only
militant exponents of the United Front, are not only their best friends, but the
only ones in the United States who understand the political needs of the working
class.
The organization of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party was an achievemout
of primary importance. The coming together of Tlie militant farmers and workers
for the attainment of political power against the control of the capitalist parties,
revealed an awakening consciousness and a rising spirit no longer to tolerate
political domination by the bourgeoisie. In the Federated Farmer-Li'.bor Party
are organized only a small portion of the militant workers and farmers. The
United Front of all proletarian and farmers' i>arties and organizations for the
flight against capitalism, is the demand of the hour. The Connnuni'<ts must
spare no effort to bring this about.
This is all the more necessary in view of the presidential elections of 1924. The
Inbor parties and farmer-labor parties that have been formed in 20 states m\ist
be consolidated into a United Front : they must put up joint proletarian candi-
dates. They must fight as a united body against the reaction that is bound to
set in after the elections. They must be prepared to support this United Front
with their economic power. The chaos in the working-class movement must be
ended. This is the task of the Communists, a task they are performing with
great effect.
There is one problem to which the American Communists have not applied
themselves with sufficient energy, viz., that of American imperialism. The liuge
profits from the war and the exploitation of foreign markets have enabled the
American bourgeoisie to penetrate deeper into the Latin-American coiuitries. The
recent declaration of Secretary of State Hughes to the eiffect that the interpreta-
tion of the Monroe doct)'ine must be left exclusively to the discretion of America,
is already bearing fruit. The recognition of Mexico is merely a trick to give
American capitalists greater control over the resources of Mexico and, in case of
"trouble," afford the American government an excuse for intervention "in protec-
tion of American property and interests." The conflict in Cuba, which will also
probably end with an intervention, the continued military occupation of Haiti
and Santo Domingo, the muzzling of Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia, the
loans to the numerous South American states, the increasing economic exiiloita-
tion of these countries, and the rising revolt in the Philippines, indicate that
American imperialism intends to conquer the western hemisphere and force the
colonies under complete control.
This is a problem of vital importance to the American working chiss. Fearful
imperialist wars face the country. The bourgeoisie is making ready. The gov-
ernment is i^erfecting its military machinery : General Pershing is demanding a
larger army. The Communists must sound the alarm and prepare the workers
for resistance to these bloody schemes. The Communists nmst point out that
the illegal organizations of the capitalist class, the spies, and especially the
TCu Klux Klan and American Legion, are a product of the foresight of the
capitalists and are openly sponsored by the government of the LTnited States.
The capitalists are prepared to crush any attempt to interfere with their plans.
These, comrades, are the vital problems that confront the Party. To propagate
them and organize the workers for action will demand the concentrated strength
of the whole Party membership.
We greet the Third Convention of the Workers Party and have confidence that
the Party will line up the workers of America with the revolutionary workers of
the world in the struggle against capitalism and for the establishment of a
Workers' and Farmers' Government.
With Communist greetings,
(Signed) Executims Committee Communist International.
W. KoLAiiow. General Sccrefnrp.
ACTION of the convention ON THE REPORT OF THE CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
AND THE THESES ON ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
AND THE POLICIES OF OUR PARTY
The following motions were ado])ted :
1. That the section of the theses relating to "The Third Party" and the Farmer-
Labor Party be withdrawn and referred to the Communist International for de-
cision as to the correctness of this policy.
APPENDIX, PART 1 363
2. The Couveutiou approves the work of the Central Executive Committee and
voiigratuhites the party on the achievements for our movement during the past
year.
o. The November Theses supercede all previous theses of the party on the Labor
Party question.
4. The National Convention adopts the November Theses of the Central Execu-
tive Committee.
5. The Convention approves the actions of the Central Executive Committee on
I he Labor Party issue.
6. The Convention approves the actions of the Central Executive Committee in
the July 3d Convention, and the party's participation in the organization of the
I'Vderated Farmer-Labor Party.
7. The Convention declares the formation of the Federated Farmer-Labor Party
on July 3d was a victory for the Party and for its labor party policy and opened
the road to a broader united front.
S. The Convention endorses the affiliation of the Workers Party with the Fed-
erated Farmer-Labor Party.
9. The Convention approves the actions of the Central Executive Committee in
helping to organize the Federated Farmer-Labor Party not only as a propaganda
and organizing instrument but also as a real political party.
RESOLUTION ON THE CHICAGO SITUATION
Submitted by the Central Executive Committee
The National Convention considers it a necessity to take position on the Chicago
situation, as being a serious problem ; and the convention thinks that our party
can draw highly instructive lessons out of developments in Chicago.
The problems manifested itself in the fact that while everywhere in the coun-
try the results of the July 3d Conference immensely strengthened our influence, in
Chicago the reverse was true.
We must analyze the situation to explain this fact.
In Chicago the Workers Party had a united front with the so-called "Progres-
sive" leaders of the Chicago Federation of Labor who were at the same time the
leaders of the Farmer-Labor Party. The members of the Workers Party of the
Chicago district, through their trade unions, entered into the Farmer-Labor
Party, participated in the convention of that party, and formed the left wing of
that party. The Central Executive Connnittee approved of the united front in
< 'hicago, and considered that this united front was a great help for the launching
(m a nation-wide scale of the "amalgamation" and "Labor Party" campaigns of the
party. The National Convention agrees with the Central Executive Committee
1 hat" the securing of the support of the Chicago Federation of Labor through the
influence of the Fitzpatrick group helped materially in carrying on a successful
campaign for these issues.
It apper.rs, however, that there was a fundamental weakness in the policy of
our district organization in the Chicago situation, for, after the July 3d Con-
vention, in place of being able to hold in the hands of the Party a section of
organized workers we found the Party influence- limited to those unions in which
I here was a clear-cut sentiment for Communism, and which our members repre-
>ented in the Chicago Federation of Labor.
The Central Executive Connnittee has established, and the convention leaffirms
that the basic reason for uur weakness in Chicago was that our Chicago district
did not, during the process of the united front build up our independent power,
and when the crisis came, were left only with those groups of workers who have
come fully under our direct influence.
Our Chicago district did not build up an independent power because it applied
the tactics of the United front in a wrong manner, because it did not understand
thoroughly the united front policies of the Party and the Communist International.
The united front in Chicago remained on the surface. It was established with the
Fitzpatrick group of "progressive" leaders, but it was not sufficiently embedded
into the depths of the masses of workers.
Tiie District Committee of Chicago, in its practice, accepted the leadership of
the Fitzpatrick group in Chicago as an unquestionable fact, and did not make
sufficient efforts to assume leadei'ship for the Communists.
The report of the District Committee of Chicago to the Central Executive Com-
mittee about the Cook County convention of the Farmer-Labor Party said literally :
We had decided and did pursue the method of as much as possible following the
364 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
lend of the national officers of the Farmer-Lahor Party and mainly stres> the
necessity of unity.
The District Committee of Chicago, in its practice, did not direct any criticism
against the Fitzpatrick group, and did not sufficiently work out the Ideological
difference between the so-called "progressive" and the Communists.
The "Voice of Labor." official organ of the Chicago District Committee, thniout
the duration of the united front with the Fitzpatrick gioup, had no critical articles
about the activities of the Fitzpatrick group and the Farmer-Jjabor Party.
These are the reason that during the process of development of the united front
campaign in Chicago, the Central Executive Committee came in conflict with the
District Committee on a number of issues.
The first case of this character was in April, in relation to the united front
manifesto issued by the Party, to which the District Committee objected on the
ground that it made one of the demands of the united front, the fight against the
yellow Internationalists. The District Committee's position was that such a
platform would alienate the trade unions ; therefore, the fight against the yellow
Internationalists is not timely. The Central Executive Committee's position was
that the fight against the Second and Seeond-and-a-Half Internationals was esi^e-
cially timely in Chicago, where the Socialist Party pulled 40,000 votes, and v/here
the Fitzpatrick group advocated the joining of the American Federation of Labor
to the Amsterdam International.
The second conflict arose after the July 3d Convention. The District Execu-
tive Committee of Chicago sent out a circular letter to the membership, in which
there appeared the following quotation : "Our attitude toward the old Farmer-
Labor Party is to be that we will not encourage any immediate conflict either
with the officials of the old Farmer-Labor Party or in the unions that have been
up until now affiliated v/ith that Party." The District Connnittee declared that
it will not make any attempt to affiliate those unions with the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party which were affiliated with the old Farmer-Labor Party.
The Central Executive Committee was forced to correct that position in these
terms: "We instruct the Chicago district to carry on an aggressive campaign
to secure the affiliation of all unions in Chicago with the Federated Farmer-
Labor Party, irrespective of any previous affiliation."
The Central Executive Committee instructed the district of Chicago at the
same time to criticize the Fitzpatrick group.
The Central Executive Committee held the opinion that the District Committee
of Chicago did not make sufficient efi'orts to denounce Fitzpatrick's double-
crossing role in the July 3d Convention, at the meetings of the Chicago Fed-
eration of Labor and at the local unions. The Central Executive Committee was
compelled to criticize the District Committee because they did not hold any
mass meetings of the party after the July 3d Convention for the Federated
Farmer-Labor Party, despite the instructions of the Central Executive Commit-
tee. (Only the Trade Union Educational League held a mass meeting. The
Party as a party had its first pu})lic meeting for the Federated at the end of
September. )
The Central Executive Committee wtls compelled to criticize the District
Committee of Chicago because it tolerated the unanimous election of Fitz-
patrick, Nockels and Nelson in the Chicago Federation of Lalior. without any
public criticism, without any public statement or meeting. The Central Execu-
tive Committee took the position that after Fitzpatrick's vicious attack on the
Communists in the July 3d Convention, after the open letter of Fitzpatrick and
Nockels against amalgamation, against the Trade Union Educational League,
and for Gompers, it was our duty in Chicago to utilize the opportunity of the
election to expose publicly their swing to Gompers, their betrayal of the ideas
of Labor Party, amalgamation and recognitiou of Soviet Russia.
The National Convention of the Workers Part.v draws the following lessons
from the differences between the Central Executive Committee and the District
Committee of Chicago over the Chicago situation.
We must seek the united front with the masses of workers. If we cannot
approach the masses otherwise, we must form the united front with the non-
communist leaders of the masses. But the united front with the "progressive"
labor leaders cannot serve as a substitute for the united front with the masses.
We must under all cii'cumstances work out our ideological independence. We
miist have f)ur independent Communist campaigns. We must under no circum-
stance abandon our freedom of criticism.
We must build up an independent influence and independent organizational
power for our Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 , 3(35
We should not forget that the united front ix)licy has two aims: First, to
unite the masses and to help them a tisht against capitalism. Second, to lielp
the masses to get rid of their reactionary and "progressive" leadership and lielp
tiicm to a real revolutionary, Conuiumist leadership.
STATEMENT ON THE UNITED FRONT IN CHICAGO
Siihmitted by Chicago Delegation
I. In order for the convention to properly judge the united front in Chicago
ii is essential to know the total efforrs upon our Parly as a whole. These cmui-
siltiite a great victory for the Workers I'arty. By and large the united front in
Cliioago was a most valuable experience for our organization. For one thing,
it was the means througli wiiich was launched the great amalgamaticm move-
ment. This movement made a definite factor of the Workers Party industrially.
It showed to the working class of this country that our organization alone has
a j'ractical program for solidifying the ranks of the workers upon the industrial
lieid. It put us ideologically in the lead of the revolutionary and progressive
forces thruout the trade union movement. Besides this great advjinti'ge to iis
on the industrial field, the united front in Chicago contributed enormously to
giving us our present position as the real leaders of the labor party movement.
It was because of our united front arrangement with the Farmer-i:jab()r Party
that we were able to develop the strong national movement which culminated
in our participation in and control of the July 8-5 convention. At this gatliering
was born the Federated Farmer-Labor Party, which now serves as the basis for
our labor party activities nationally. That convention convinced the whole
ialior movement that we are a factor which has to be reckoned with in the
labor party movement. In addition to giving us a favorable opportunity to
liiitncii our national industrial and political programs, the united fr<»nt in Clii-
cago also held many other advantages for us. One that may be mentioned was
rhe organization of' the Labor Defense Council, which had the full backing of
our united front allies and which was largely responsible for the great support
of and the educatioiuil effects which came from the Michigan trials. Another
was the dearh thrust given to the movement of protest against the trials of the
iSocial Revolutionists in Moscow, when the Chicago Federation of Labor unani-
mously defeated a resolutiou protesting to the Soviet Goverrnuent, tind which
was aimed to be the opening gun in a big national campaign among the trade
luiions on this matter. Another benefit for us from the Chicagf) united front
Avas the strorg and constant support given the recognition of Soviet Russia and
the movement to relieve the great famine. Tiiken Together, therefore, the vari-
ous movements growing out of the united front in Chicago were a tremendous
significance and value ro our Party.
2. Another fundamental, winch it is essential to know about the united front
in Chicago, is tlnit, in all its important aspects, the Chicago united front was a
national situation. As such, it was strictly under the control and direction of
the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party. It was thru the
Chicago united front that the Party was handling its most vital industrial and
political connections and programs, and manoeuvering them upon a national
scale. Every important move that was made, was either initiated or endorsed
by the Central Executive Committee, which was constantly in full touch with
the whole situation for the almost two years that it lasted. In view of these
facts the District Executive Connnittee cannot be held fully responsible for the
united front, as has been attempted by the critics of that committee. What-
ever the praise or blame may be due as the result of its achievements and
failures, must be shared heavily by the Central Executive Committee, which
controlled the situation directly.
3. In reviewing the activities of the District Executive Committee in carrying
out the united front policy in Chicago, as understood and accepted by the
(Central Executive Committee we find that Committee to be substantially correct.
Some mistakes were made, but these were all of a minor character and in
no considerable measure influenced the final outcome of the situation. Criticism
of these mistakes is strictly in order, for only by such criticism can we improve
our conceptions and methods. This criticism, however, should not take on a
defeatist character or obscure the tremendous advantages won by our Party
by the Chicago United Front.
4. The criticism is made that, "while everywhere in the country the results
of the July 3rd Conference immensely strengthened our influence, in Chicago
the reverse was true." This statement is untrue. In the agreement between
366 UN-AMEniCAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the majority and the minority regarding the November theses, the majority
definitely agreed that had the split not occurred that we would have been more
favorably situated thruout the country. The reason the bad effects of the split
were felt more severely in Chicago was that that was the storm center of the
struggle, and the stronghold of the Farmer-Labor Party.
5. The majority resolution attempts to explain the severity of the split in
Chicago by charging that the District Executive Commitee failed to build our
Party as an independent power. But this charge is untrue. The truth is that,
particularly in the industrial work, the Fitzpatrick group was practically
ignored. In the case of the historic amalgamation resolution, which brought
the whole Gompers machine into action against the Chicago Federation of
Labor, the heads of that organization were not even consulted about the advis-
ability of introducing that resolution. Deeming the time ripe for such a proposi-
tion, the resolution was simply drafted and brought in by the Chicago comrades,
chances being taken as to whatever fight might develop over it. The same was
true of every other measure introduced by them in the Chicago Federation
of Labor. Not one went in by agreement. In the case of the protest against
the raid upon the Bridgeman convention, the resolution putting the Chicago
Federation of Labor on record in support of the defense, was introduced in
the face of ofticial opposition. Another typical instance of independent indus-
trial policy carried on as against the Fitzpatrick group was found in the case of
the general labor party referendum sent out by the Trade Union Educational
League. The first thing the leaders of the Farmer-Labor Party knew of this
matter, which they considered of the most vital importance to their organiza-
tion, was when it appeared in print. They were so bitter over it that they
almost broke the united front. If this policy was wrong, the Central Executive
C!r)mmittee must stand the criticism for it, because it was fully informed of
what was going on and made no objection.
6. The further charge is made "that the united front in Chicago remained on
the surface" and "was not sufiicienrly imbedded in the deptlis of Hie masses of
the workers," because it was "established with the Fitzpatrick group of lead-
ers." That the united front remained upon the surface was decidedly not
true, altho it was certainly true that the great m;isses had not been entirely
won away from their "progressive" leaders. But t!)is jtrocess was g«»iug on
rapidly. Sufl^cient proof of this was to be found in the Chicago district where,
uiiiil the brealv occurred, the influence of our Party among the masses was in-
creasing by leaps and bounds. This was shown by the growing number of our
delegates in the Chicago Federation of Labor and the various labor party and
other conferences, as well as by th.e constantly more friendly reception by the
masses of all our slogans and movements. Tlie Chicago District was sinking
its roots deeply and rapidly in the basic soil of the labor organizations. As
for the national situation the demonstration that the charge is untrue that the
united front was being carried on simply with the leaders, is furnished by the
tremendous outpouring of rank and file delegates at the famous July 3-ri
convention, and by the profoundly rank-and-file character of the amalgamation
movement everywhere.
7. Another criticism that is invalid is the charge that the District Plxeculive
Committee "accepted the leader.ship of Fitzpatrick as an unquestionable fact
an.d never attempted to assume leadership for the Comnnniists." The truth is
just the reverse. Especially in the Chicago Federation of Labor the ideological
leadership had largel.v passed into the hands of the Communists. Amalgama-
tion, the defense of the Michigan cases, the recognition of Soviet Russia, and
the concept of the labor party to include all political groups, as well as many
other movements, were distinctly Communist policies and openly recognized as
such by the Federation. The leadership in the struggle for tliese measui'es
was always taken by the Communists, with the Fitzpatrick group taking no
active part in the discussions. There was a standing instruction to the Party's
delegates in the Federation that in presenting any measures to that body they
should always point out the limitations of them and to call attention to the
full revolutionary program. To say they "neither in the measures which they
advocated nor in the fight for them was there an essential difference between
the Fitzpatrick group and the District Committee of Chicago." is a complete
misrepresentation of the actual situation.
8. In the majority resolution, the following single sentence is cited from
Organizer Swabeck's report on June 10th Convention of the Cook County Labor
Party : "A^'e had decided and did pursue the method of as much as possible
following the lead of the national officers of the Fnrmer-Lnbor Party and mainly
APPENDIX, PART 1 357-
stressed tlin lun-essity of unity."' The rest of the report, as well as the facts
of the convention, show tl)at the Workers Party followed its own policy and
made its own light. The critical test was when the Workers Party submitted its
own re.soiurion demanding that the labor paity include all political groups.
The Rodriguez-Krnest group, or right-wing of the Farmer-Labor Party then
submitted an amendment demanding the exclusion of the Workers Party from
the July 3-5 Convention. This amendment was supported by the left-wing
group of the Farmer-Labor Party, tlie Fitzpatrick-Buck-Nockels group. Tlieri'-
upon the Workers Party made a motion to lay the amendment on the table,
which was carried. In the July 3-5 Convention the Workers Party carried out
exactly the same policy by laying on the table a similar motion presented by
Rodriguez. The rept)rt by whicli tliey attempt to convict the District Executive
Committee of being followers of Fitzpatrick, is a report that proves the opposite
of the ma.jority resolution.
9. The majority resolution declares that the District Committee in its practice
did not direct any criticism against the Fitzpatrick group. This was largely
true. But in so doing the District Commirtee merely followed the policy whicii
the Central Executive Committee is following in Minnesota, D<>troit and every-
where else where we have some seniblance of a united front. If this policy was
wrong, the Central Executive Conunittee was entirely responsible, because it
was fully advised for a year and a half duration of the united front in Chicago
and never called upon the District Committee to criticize Fitzpatrick, nor
u])on the Trade Union Educational League ro criticize him until the crisis over
the July 3-5 Convention. The Central E,xecutive Committee's policy towards
Fitzpatrick was the same as it now is towards Mahoney. Since the July 3-5
split, the Chicago comrades have waged a bitter light against the Fitzpatrick
group. No body of Communists in America are confronted with so intense a
struggle. Charges of weakness or timidity in this fight are totally unfounded,
especially in view of the fact that the Central Executive Committee took definite
action to prevent the figiit in the Federation from developing to the point of
intensity where it would be an actual menace to our Party nationally.
10. The majority resolution falsely accuses the District Executive Committee
that it consitlered that "the fight against the yellow Internationals was not
timely," because it complained against the May Day leaflet. This is entirely
untrue. The District p]xecutive Committee took the position that the May Day
leaflet was incorrectly drawn up, because it laid down the struggle against
A,msterdam as the basis for the united front, in exactly the same manner as
amalgamation and other issues of everyday struggle. It is entirely to falsify
the issue to state that the Central Executive (Committee only asked the District
Executive Committee to carry on a propaganda: the manifesto was addressed
to "all labor unions," etc., and definitely laid down the struggle against Amster-
dam as the basis for the united front. When the Central Executive Committee
later explained that they did not mean what the manifesto said, the entire
controversy was closed. And in spite of its correct criticism of the May Day
leaflet, the District Conunittee. in a spirit of Communist discipline, did distribute-
the leaflets sent them to the number of 25,000 copies.
11. It is stated in the majority resolution that the District Executive Com-
mittee sent out a letter to the membership in which it was urged that the fight
for the Federated Farmer-Labor Party be not started immediately in the unions
■controlled by the Fitzpatrick group, but that efforts be concentrated on other
local unions. It is further stated that the Central Executive Committee had
to correct this policy. But this is inexact. The fact is the District Executive
Committee corrected the policy itself within three days. Its letter to New York.,
stating the cori-ecfion of the policy crossed en route the letter of the Central
Executive Committee, ordering that the policy be changed. The effect of such
a mistake upon the general outcome of the united front in Chicago was insig-
nificant, and the same is true of the few others by the District Executive Com-
mittee.
12. The criticism that the District Executive Committee had too much con-
fidence in the Fitzpatrick group will not bear investigation. An interesting
proof of this is that it was the District Executive Committee and its active mem-
bers who. in the critical weeks preceeding the July 3rd convention, warned
the Central Executive Committee repeatedly that the Fitzpatrick group were
weakening very badly and that the greatest care had to be exercised in order
to avoid a break with them. They recommended and urged that more sys-
tematic and careful negotiations be carried on with the Farmer-Labor Partv. .
368 UN-AMERICAN i'liOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and that to this end a committee be kept in Chicago to keep in close touch with
the delicate situation. Tliese recommendations were not concurred in by the
Central Executive Committee, which shows great laxity and carelessness in
handling the negotiations with the Farmer-Labor Party.
13. The charge that the District Executive Committee and the comrades in
Chicago have not sutticiently criticised tlie Fitzpatrick group since the July 3-5
Convention hardly merits refutation. Almost every meeting of the Chicago
Federation of Labor since the convention lias been marked by the bitterest
struggles between the Communists and the Fitzpatrick and reactionary groups.
The tight reached such a point, we repeat, that the Central Executive Committee
itself had to intervene and tell the Chicago comrades that they should slacken
in their opposition to Fitzpatrick in the Chicago Federation of Labor.
14. Two most important conclusions to be drawn from the united front in
Chicago are the following :
1st. The principles of the united front laid down by the Communist Interna-
tional were proved by the Chicago united front to be practical and effective
instruments for the Workers Party in the American class struggle. The Chicago
united front resulted in advantages of first magnitude to the Workers Party
nationally.
2nd. In carrying out the policies of the Central Executive Committee the
tactics of the District Executive Committee were substantially correct. Some
mistakes were made, as noted above, but tliese were of a minor character and
had little or no determining effect upon the general outcome of the situation.
Convention Action
The Cliicago delegation resolution was adopted by a vote of 87 for and 15
against.
PKOGRAM or THP: WORKKKS PARTY OF AMETtICA
That the program adopted by the 2nd National Convention be adopted by the
3rd National Convention without change.
The cajiitalist world, whicli in 1914 boasted of its great wealth, of its gigantic
l)0wers of production, of its smoothly running system of business, of the power
and security of its government, is sinking into decay.
Hundreds of billions of wealth have been destroyed by the Great War. The
financial structure of many European countries is nearing the point of collapse.
Industries produce haltingly or have come to a stop altogether. The capitalist
governments try one trick after the other to maintain their power in the face
of the wrath of the suffering masses.
The victorious and vanquished countries of the world war present a picture
that is different only in the degree of the suffering and misery which is the lot
of the workers. Central Europe is a mass of hungry men, women and children.
In England, France and Italy an army of workei's numbering millions in each
instance have no work and daily come closer to the same conditions. In the
United States great strikes expressing the resistance of the workers to the
capitaMst effort to lower their standard of living follow one upon the other. The
war clouds still hover over the world and threaten again to engulf mankind
in the abyss of bloodshed and destruction.
Soviet Russia alone has freed itself from the forces of destruction, which
are inherent in the capitalist system and which threaten the destruction of
civilization. In Soviet Russia the foundation has been laid for the new social
order and there is being erected that structure which will forever free mankind
from the suffering, bloodshed and destruction of the capitalist system.
The Class Struggle
Tlie whole capitalist system of production rests upon the robbery and enslave-
ment of the workers. In the United States the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the
Schwabs, the railroad kings, the coal barons, the industrial magnate* own the
means of production and the workers cannor secure work without their consent.
They are unable to earn the means of buying food, clothing and homes to live
in without the permission of these financial and industrial kings. The owners
of capital are so many czars and kaisers, each with a group of workers ranging
froni a few hundred to tens of thousands whose right to life they hold in their
hands thru their control of the workers' opportunity to earn a living.
APPENDIX, PART 1 369
The condition on wliich the workers are permitted to worlv is the enrichment
of the capitalists. They must worlc for wages which will leave in the hands
of the railroad Ivings, the coal barons, and indnstrial magnates a large sliare of
what they produce or otherwise they are denied employment. They must add
more millions to Rockefeller's billions, they must create new hundreds of millions
for Morgan, they must add to the swollen fortunes of the financial and industrial
lords of the country.
In the Declaration of Independence, a document underlying the institutions
of the country, it was laid down as a principle that all men are endowed with
certain inalienable rights, and "that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness."
These rights do not exist for the thirty million American wage workers and
their families. The workers of this country are industrial slaves. They can-
not work and earn a living without the consent of the capitalists. That consent
is given only upon the conditions that they make the capitalists richer.
It is the struggle against these conditions which is continually breaking out
in strikes. The history of this coiuitry during the last half century is full of
examples of the rebellion of the workers. The capitalists continually seek to
secure greater profits for themselves, while the workers struggle to improve the
conditions of their life by forcing the capitalists to pay higher wages and to
grant better working conditions. The result is the class-struggle which manifests
itself on all sides in the United States.
The great strikes at Pullman, Homestead, McKees Rocks, Lawrence, Mass.,
Ludlow. Colo., Calumet, Mich., Messaba Range, the steel strike and the miners'
strike of 1U19 the West Virgina miners' strike, are all but outstanding incidents
in the class struggle, which is being fought daily in every industrial center in
the United States.
Since the end of the few months of prosperity for the financial and industrial
magnates, which followed the close of the war, the capitalists have been fighting
to put upon the working people of this country the burden of the destruction of
wealth during the war. Tliey are endeavoring to make the working people,
who paid the cost of the war in blood, pay also for the destruction and waste of
the war in a lower standard of living. They are trying to make the working
people pay by forcing them to work for lower wages and longer hours.
The result has been that the struggle between the workers and the financial
lords and industrial magnates has grown even more bitter. The workers are
fighting against a lower standard of living. They refuse to eat poorer food, to
wear poorer clothes, to live in pooler homes, to have less opportunity for the
education of their children. The garment workers' .strike, the miners" strike,
the railroail shopmen's strike, the textile workers' strike, are evidence of the
resistance of the workers to a bitter industrial slavery, resistance which has
found expression in such oi)en, violent clashes as the armed struggle in West
Virginia and at Herrin, 111.
The mass power of the exploited class is its strongest weapon in this struggle
against the capitalists. If during the strike of the coal miners, the railroad
shopmen, and the textile workers, the whole working class had united in mass
meetings and mass demonstrations against the use of the courts and soldiers in
the strikes, they could have, through such mass pressure, compelled the govern-
ment to withdraw the troops and recall the injunctions.
When in 1910 the railroad workers, through the threat of general strike, com-
pelled the Congress to pass the Adamson eight-hour day law, they demonstrated
the strength of the direct mass power of the workers.
The West Virginia miners who marched into iSIingo Comity to compel the
coal barons and their armed thugs to respect the rights guaranteed the miners
under the constitution and the laws of West Virginia and the nation made use
of their mass power to establish these rights.
The conflict between the workers and the capitalists cannot be harmonized
or compromised while the railroad kings, the coal barons and the industrial
magnates own and conti-ol the factories, mines, mills and railroads. It can only
be ended by abolishing the capitalist system.
The Workers Party will enter into every struggle involving the interests of
the exploited class and through its slogans and programs of action will endeavor
to develop the mass power of the workers. It will seek to unit ever greater nuia-
bers of workers in a common struggle so that each struggle will come to be, not
a struggle of a small group of workers against a section of the capitalist class,
but a struggle of the working class against the capitalist class.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 25
370 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Government
In the struggle between the workers and the industrial magnates, the coal
barons and the railroad kings, the government is openly on the side of the
capitalists.
The miners of West Virginia, fighting for the right to organize against the
armed thugs of the coal barons, were forced into submission by the army acting
under the orders of the Federal Government.
The railroad workers have had worse working conditions and reductions of
wages forced upon them by the Railway Labor Board, created by the United
States government to help the capitalists beat the workers into submission.
This Board has shown the bankruptcy of capitalism in the declaration, that the
railroads cannot pay "a living wage," thus also placing all the power of the
government behind the capitalist di'ive to force down the wages of the workers
below the point of a decent existence.
In the miners' strike and the shopmen's strike, the Harding administration
used all its power to break the strike. The States Governments filled the strike
centers with soldiers to intimidate the workers and force them back to work.
Courts everywhere are issuing injunctions against strikers. In Kansas an
Industrial Court denies the workers the right to strike at all. The Supreme
Court, through the decision in the Coronado case, gives the capitalists a club
with which to destroy any union which dares strike for better wages and
working conditions. Through the Daugherty injunction the government swept
aside all the rights of the workers with one stroke of the pen of a capitalist
judge.
Government officials conspire with the exploiters of labor to put militant
leaders of the working class movement in prison. The Mooney frame-up, the
Sacco-Vanzetti prosecution and a score of similar cases show how the govern-
ment workers in close co-operation with the employers to rid them of indi-
viduals and movements threatening their interests.
The capitalist state, that is, the existing government, municipal, state and
national, is the organized power of the capitalist class for suppression of the
exploited and oppressed workers. A democratic president, Cleveland, used fed-
eral troops against the Pullman strikers ; a republican president, Roosevelt,
threatened the hard coal miners with the iron fist of the government in lf)02;
another democratic president, Wilson, used all the governmental power, from
courts to soldiers, against the steel workers and coal miners in 1919 : and the
republican president, Harding, did the same in the miners' and shopmens'
strikes of 1922.
The workers cannot wage a successful struggle against capitalist exploitation
and oppression, while the government remains in control of the capitalists. The
Workers Party therefore declares that the class struggle is a political struggle,
a struggle for the governmental power.
Imperialism
The Government of the United States is not only an instriTment of aggression
against the workers in the class struggle in this country. It is also the instru-
ment through which the capitalists fight their battles against the competing
capitalists of other countries.
In the United States capitalism has reached a high degree of development.
At this stage of development capitalism produces, goods, predominantly tools,
machinery, rails, locomotives, the products of iron and steel, which under the
conditions of capitalist production must be sold in foreign markets. Coincident
with this development of capitalism it becomes increasingly difficult for the
capitalists to invest their new capital profitably in home industry. In order to
prevent the break-down of the whole capitalist system, the capitalists must sell
their surplus goods and find profitable investment for their surplus capital.
They are also faced with the need of finding new sources of raw material for
the highly developed capitalist industries. These needs produce the policy of
imperialism and have developed American imperialism.
American capital has been investor in Mexican mines and oil fields. It is
being used to exploit the resources of China. It is invested in loans to the
countries of West Indies, Central and South America. These investments create
markets for the surplus pi-oducts of American industry as well as profitable
use for the new capital created for the capitalists by the exploited American
workers.
APPENDIX, PART 1 371
The power of the government is openly used by the financial lords of Wall
Street to open up weaker countries for these investments and to protect the
Investments. .
Since the Spanish-American war, in which this country acquired the Philip-
pines and Porto Rico, American imperialism, "Dollar Diplomacy," has over-
thrown the governments of Haiti and Santo Domingo and subjected the people
of those countries to the bitterest oppression in order to safeguard the loans of
Wall Street. Nicaragua has been reduced to vassalage. Cuba is a protectorate
of the United States in the interests of the Sugar Trusts. The Mexican govern-
ment is coerced to agree in the interests of oil and banking capital.
The World War, which drenched Europe in blood and in which millions of
w^orkers lost their lives, was the consequence of the imperialist rivalry between
the capitalist governments of the world.
Although capitalism still lies shattered as a result of that war, a new im-
perialist struggle is already under way, which points to a new war and greater
suffering and misery for the masses of the world.
After the Washington conference the imperialists of the world endeavored
to harmonize their dilTerences through division of the loot of the Pacific in order
that they might reduce the burden of naval armament. This conference has,
however,' proven a complete fiasco and already the nations participating in it
are repudiating its decisions. In spite of all this conference could do, the United
States is still in conflict with England over the division of the oil fields of the
world and the rivalry between the United States and Japan constantly grows
sharper.
The necessity which compelled the capitalists of each nation to hurl tens of
millions of men into the death struggle upon the European battlefields has not
been abolished. Driven by the same necessity, the American capitalists are using
the governmental power to advance their interests in all parts of the world.
Imperialism with all its horrible consequences in the crippling and maiming
and killing of the workers and the great destruction of wealth can only be
ended through the workers wresting the power of the government from the
hands of the capitalists.
Election Campaign and American Democracy
The Workers Party will not foster the illusion, as is done by the yellow
Socialists and Reformists that the workers can achieve their emancipation from
the oppression and exploitation of capitalism through the election of a majority
of the members of the legislative bodies of the capitalist government and the
executive officials of that government, and by using the existing government to
establish the new social order.
The Constitution of the United States was so drafted as to protect the inter-
ests of the exploiters of the workers. The merchants, the bankers, and land-
owners of 1787 wrote into the Constitution provisions which they hoped would
forever protect the interests of their class.
A majority of the people of the United States cannot change the Constitution.
The vote of two-thirds of the members of the legislators of three-fourths of the
states is required to pass a constitutional amendment. One-fourth of the
states, in which there may live only one-fortieth of the population can prevent
any change of the fundamental law of the land.
The Constitution contains a series of checks and balances which are intended
to make it impossible for a majority antagonistic to the ruling class to make its
W'ill effective. The members of the House of Representatives are elected every
two years, the President every four years, the members of the Senate every six
years, so that a complete change of the government can be made only through
elections spread over six years. The Senate has a veto over the decisions of
the House, the President can veto the actions of both bodies, and over and
above the House, the Senate and the President stands the Supreme Court, which
can nullify laws which all three unite in passing.
The character of the Constitution as a document intended to protect the
bankers and industrial magnates of the country has been made clear in many
decisions under its provisions. Child labor laws, laws regulating hours of labor,
and protecting the life and health of the workers, and minimum wage laws
have been declared void. A weapon to strike down organized labor has been
found in its clauses as shown in the Coronado decision.
In addition to the protection which the Constitution gives to the coal barons,
railroad kings, and the industrial and financial lords, millions of workers are
372 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
disfranchised in this country through naturalization laws. Hundreds of thou-
sands of citizens cannot vote becanse of residential qualifications, which through
the necessity of earnings a living make is impossible fi)r them to comply with.
The capitalists control thousands of newspapers thru which they shape the
ideas of the masses in their interests; they control the schools, .the colleges, the
pulpits, the moving-picture theatres, all of which are part of the machinery
through which the capitalists shape the minds of the workers.
When it serves their purpose the capitalists do not hesitate to expel mem-
bers of the legislative bodies elected by working class votes. This was done
in the case of the Socialist members of the Cleveland City Council and a mem-
ber of the School Board of that city. These representatives, elected by the
workers, were expelled in violation of all law to stifle their protests against
the imperialist war. The expulsion of the Socialist assemblymen of New York
state is a case of similar character.
Under these conditions to talk of "democracy" is to throw sand into the eyes
of the workers. The much-talked of "American democracy" is a fraud. Such
formal democracy as is written into the Constitution and the laws of the
country is camouflaged to hide the real character of the dictatorship of the
capitalists.
While recognizing the impossibility of the workers winning their emancipation
thru use of the machinery of the existing government, the Workers Party
realizes the importance of election campaigns in developing the political con-
sciousness of the working class. The first step toward revolutionary political
action by the working class must he made thru independent political action by
the workers in election campaigns. The Workers Party will therefore partici-
pate in election campaigns and use them for propaganda and agitation to de-
velop the political consciousness of the workers.
It will endeavor to rally the workers to use their power to make real the
rights which the fraudulent American democracy denies them. It will use them
to carry on the struggle for the right of labor to create a revolutionary political
party and for such an organization to function openly in the political life of the
country.
The Workers Party will al.so nominate its candidates and enter into election
campaigns to expose the fraudulent character of capitalist democracy and to
carry on the propaganda for the Soviets. It will use the election campaigns to
rally the workers for mass political demands upon the capitalist state. Its
candidates, when elected to office, will use the forums of the legislative bodies
for the same purpose.
The Labor Party
The open use of the governmental power against the workers and farm
laborers, tenant farmers and working farmers of this country has developed a
wide-spread movement for the formation of a labor party. This movement is
an expression of the awakening class consciousness of the American workers.
The Workers Party favors the formation of a labor party — a working class
political party independent of, and opposed to all capitalist political parties.
It will make every effort to hasten the formation of such a party and to effect
admittance to it as an autonomous section.
The mighty centralization of power of the government of the United States,
which was brought about by the war, the offensive of the capitalist class,
which resulted from the economic crisis, make it necessary for the workers to
defend themselves politically. The change in the wages of the skilled and
unskilled workers have brought them nearer to the same conditions of life, the
taking away of the privileges of the "aristocracy" of labor by the capitalist
power, the assimilation of the foreign born, the organization of the alien
workers as militant trade unionists, have for the first time in the history of
the American labor movement produced a uniformity of the working class
which makes possible the organization of a labor party.
A real labor party cannot be formed without the labor unions and organiza-
tions of exploited farmers, tenant farmers and farm laborers must be included.
The Workers Party will direct its propaganda and educational work to the
end of arousing a mass sentiment of the labor party in the labor unions to
secure the formation of such a party.
Labor Unions
The division of the organized workers into craft unions is one of the gi-eatest
obstacles to the progress of the workers in this country against capitalism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 373
During the past two years organized lalxn- has been dealt many heavy blows
by the employers, who are bent on destroying or at least weakening so as to
make ineffective the organization of the workers. In spite of this desperate
struggle, each craft has fought alone. There has been no united resistance,
110 solid united front against the industrial kings, who are striving to reduce
the wages and make worse the working conditions of the workers. The example
of the seven railroad shop unions, striking while nine other railroad unions
continued to serve the railroad kings and help them to whip their fellow
workers is but one striking example of a situation which exists everywhere
in the ranks of organized labor in this country.
In addition to the weakness of the craft form of organization the labor unions
suffer from a fiuidamental error of policy. In place of waging a class struggle
to free themselves from the grip of tiie capitalists they have pursued the policy
of attempting to come to an agreement with the capitalists on the basis of
"a fair day's pay for a fair day's work."
No such compromise with capitalism can be permanent. The hunger of the
capitalists for greater profits drives them to seek to lower the standard of
living of the workers when they have the upper hand. On the other hand
when the workers are in strong position their need and their desire for more
of the good things they produce results in greater demands upon the capitalists.
The gain of the workers during the war time scarcity of labor and their
present losses indicate the futility of the hope that the class struggle can be
settled thru a compromise.
The labor unions must be revolutionized ; they must be won for the class
struggle against capitalism'; they must be inspired with a new solidarity and
united to fight a common battle. The existing craft unions must be amalga-
mated and powerful industrial unions created in each industry. The reaction-
ary official bureaucracy of the unions must be supplanted by the shop delegates
system.
The Workers Party declares one of its chief immediate tasks to be to inspire
in the labor unions a revolutionary purpose and to unite them in a mass move-
ment of uncompromising struggle against capitalism. It will use all the re-
sources at its command to educate the organized workers to an understanding
of the necessity of amalgamation of the craft unions into industrial unions.
This end cannot be achieved if the revolutionary workers leave the existing
unions to form feeble dual organizations. The work of transforming the labor
unions must be carried on inside of the existing unions. The members of the
Workers Party will carry on their work within the existing unions to awaken
the spirit of the class struggle and to bring about a i-econstruction of the
organization form so as to make of the unions powerful organized centers of
the wcu'kers' struggle against capitalism.
The Workers Party declares its support of the Red Labor International and
adopts as its program for the struggle within the unions the theses of the Red
Labor International on the American Labor Unions.
The Working Farmer and Farm Laborer
The struggle of the farm laborers is the same struggle in which the industrial
workers are engaged. It is a struggle against those who exploit them thru low
wages and hard working conditions. The Workers Party will seek to organize
the farm laborers into unions of agricultural workers and to unite them with
their brothers in the industrial centers for the common struggle against
capitalism.
While the exploitation of the working farmer is not so apparent, he suffers
in the grip of the same enemy who robs the industrial workers of the cities.
The bank, which holds the mortgage on his land, the railroad which transports
his product, the grain elevator or the commission house which he must use in
marketing his products represent the tentacles of the same capitalist system
which is robbing the industrial workers.
The interests of the working farmers, tenant farmers and farm laborers are
linked together with those of the exploited industrial workers and it is the aim
of the Workers Party to arouse them to a consciousness of this and to unite
them with the industrial wox'kers in a common struggle against their common
exploiter.
The Negro Worker
The Negro workers of this country are exploited and oppressed more ruthlessly
than any other group. The history of the Southern Negro is the history of brutal
terrorism, of persecution and murder.
374 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
During the war tens of thousands of Southern Negroes were brought to the
industrial centers of the North to supply the needs of the employers for cheap
labor. In the Northern industrial cities the Negro has found the same bitter
discrimination as in the South. The attack upon the Negroes of East St. Louis,
Illinois, the riot in Chicago are examples of the additional burden of oppression
which is the lot of the Negro workers.
Although the influx of Negro workers in the Northern industrial centers has
laid the foundation for a mass movement of Negroes who are industrial workers,
because of neglect of this problem by organized labor little progress has been
made in organization of these industrial workers. The Negro has despaired of
aid from organized labor, and he has been driven either into the camp of the
enemies of labor, or has been compelled to develop purely racial organizations
which seek purely racial aims.
The Workers Party will support the Negroes in their struggle for liberation
and will help them in their fight for economic, political and educational equality.
It will seek to end the policy of discrimination followed by some labor unions
and all other discriminations against the Negro. It will endeavor to destroy
altogether the barrier of race prejudice that has been used to keep apart the
black and white workers and to weld them into a solid union for the struggle
against the capitalists who exploit and oppress them.
Soviets, or Workers' Councils
The experience of the workers in the struggle against capitalism has proven
that the workers cannot take over the ready-made machinery of the Capitalist
government and use this machinery to build up a Communist society. The form
of organization of the existing government, constitutional basis, its laws, the
bureaucracy which has been built up over a century cannot be used by the
workers. They are all of a character to aid the capitalists in the struggle
against the workers and cannot be transformed into instruments of struggle
of the workers against the capitalists.
The workers' revolution in Russia, Hungary, Bavaria, the revolutionary
struggle in Germany, all show that the Soviets or ' Workers Councils are the
organizations of the workers' power which in time of crisis arise naturally out
of the previous struggles and experiences of the workers.
The Soviets are first constituted through delegates elected by the workers
in the factories and labor unions. They are comparable to a general strike
council, which might arise in the case of a strike embracing all the workers of
a city. The local councils are federated in state or district councils and these
in a national council, or Soviet, which is the supreme organ of the working class
government. The Soviets carry on both the legislative and administrative work
of the working class government.
The Workers Party will carry on propaganda to bring to the workers an
understanding of the necessity of supplanting the existing capitalist government
with a Soviet government.
The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
The existing capitalist government is a dictatorship of the capitalists. Today in
the United States a comparatively small group of capitali.st-financial and industrial
kings, with headquarters in Wall Street, control the government of the United
States, of the states and municipalities. Through the capitalist government this
group of financial and industrial kings enforce their will upon the thirty million
workers and their families.
While part of the workers are granted the hollow mockery of voting, they find
that whether they vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate, in time of
struggle the government^ is always on the side of the financial and industrial
kings.
The Soviet government of the workers will, because of the same necessity — the
necessity of suppressing the capitalists — be a dictatorship of the workers. The
government expressing the will of the thirty million workers will openly use its
power in the interest of the workers and against the capitalists.
The Goal of the Proletarian Dictatorship
It will be the task of the government of the thirty million woi'kers of this country
to take from the capitalists the control and ownership of the raw materials and
APPENDIX, PART 1 375
machinery of production upon which the workers are dependent for their life,
liberty an"d happiness and to establish collective ownership.
Together with this collective ownership the Workers Government will as quickly
as possible develop the manasement of the industries by the workers.
Tlirough the establishment of this Communist system of industry the exploita-
tion and oppression of the workers will be ended. As the power of the capitalists
in industry wanes and Communism is established the struggle between the classes
will disappear and the dictatorship of the Proletariat will become unnecessary and
will cease to function. The government will become an instrument for adminis-
tration of industry and the full, free Comnmnist society will come into being.
The International
The Workers Party accepts the principle that the class struggle for the emancipa-
tion of the working class is an international struggle. The workers of Russia have
been obliged to fight against the whole capitalist world in order to maintain their
Soviet Government and to win the opportunity of rebuilding their system of pro-
duction on a Communist basis. In this struggle they have had the support of the
enlightened workers of every country.
The future struggles against capitalism will take the same character. In order
to win the final victory in the struggle against world capitalism the working class
of the world must be united under one leadership.
*******
The leadership in the international struggle which inspires hope in the hearts
of the workers of the world and arouses fear in the capitalists of every country is
the leadership of the Communist International.
The Workers Party declares its sympathy with the principles of the Communist
International and enters the struggle against American capitalism, the most power-
ful of the national groups, under the inspiration of the leadership of the Communist
International.
It rallies to the call : "Workers of the World Unite."
INDUSTRIAL KEI'ORT BY WM. Z. FOSTER
The Economic Situation
About 18 months ago American industry was entering into the full blush of
a period of high production and general "prosperity." As this is written
(December, 1923), the first unmistakable signs of crisis are being registered.
During the intervening time industry has been running at almost full blast,
in the midst of a capitalist world that is visibly breaking up and disintegrating.
Because this economic condition is fundamental to all work within the labor
movement, a brief review of the period just passing and the indications for the
coming year are imiDOrtant.
The seeming prosperity of the period just ending was of an unsound nature.
The main points in explanation of the instability of the passing period of
prosperity (in addition to the inevitable operations of the capitalist system
which brings periodical crises), can be summarized as follows:
1. The revival was not based upon an extension of the markets under con-
trol of American capitalism, but upon an unusual absorption of products in
the domestic market in the way of replacements and extensions of equipment
in industry and transportation. Contrary to expectations of a year and a half
ago, the European market has not been of any great value to American
capitalism, due to the economic and financial collapse of European capitalism.
The domestic absorption of products is exemplified in the building boom
{building in 1922 running into millions of dollars, with 1923 not far behind),
in the automobile industry, which reached a new high peak of production, and
in the replacements and extensions of the railroads which have absorbed,
along with building, much of the steel production of the country.
2. This unprecedented boom, at a time when industry in most of the other
capitalist countries is on the decline, has been accompanied by an accelerated
rate of combination among capitalist interests. The copper, textile, oil, auto,
meat-packing, steel, railroad, and financial combinations have been enormously
extended and strengthened. The benefits of this "prosperity" have, however,
not extended to any considerable circles outside of the larger capitalists. The
Avorkers have had their unions smashed, and while weekly wage earnings have
slightly increased (now on the decline, however) the wage-rate per hour has
376 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
been lowered and working conditions worsened. There has been no increase in
tlie capacity of the workers to consnme the products of their industry.
3. The farmers have been systematically forced into bankruptcy during this
very period of "prosperity." The bankruptcy of the farmers is not figurative
but actual. Thousands of them in the Northwest, men who traditionally pay
their bills even if they have to starve and whose financial stability has made
farm mortgages synonomous with complete security of investment in this
country, are now resorting to bankruptcy courts in order to be relieved of debt
and to be free to start all over again as tenants or as wage workers competing
with the workers already in the cities. This baidvruptcy of the farming
system, occurring during the false prosperity period, is the cause of the
political upheavals in the agrarian states.
The peak of this abnormal "prosperity" has now been passed. Unemployment
is beginning to be felt, and is increasing more and more rapidly. All signs
point to a rapid decline in production and an extended period of depression.
II. Failure of the Trade Unions
For the past sixty years the periods of economic revival have always been
accompanied by a growth and extension of trade union organization. So con-
sistent was this phenomena that it came to be looked upon as inevitable.
Consequently when the latest era of prosperity began (March, 1922) trade
union leaders and bourgeois economists quite generally jumped to the conclu-
sion that the downward trend of trade unionism would stop and that the move-
ment was due for the customary period of expansion. They declared the
"open shop" drive to be defeated. But we disputed these optimistic prophesies.
More than a year ago we said, in a report to the Red International of Labor
Unions, that those who counted upon the economic revival to also revive
the trade unions would be disappointed. The rea.sons cited for this were, the
militant character of the capitalist offensive, and the completely reactionary
character of the bureaucracy that holds the trade unions in its power. We
said : "Unless it modernizes its thinking, tactics, and organization forms, the
American labor movement is in imminent danger of being wiped out."
The past year has justified that analysis. The bureaucracy has done nothing
to improve the structure of the luiions, to organize the unorganized, or to
infuse the rank and file with a militant spirit to offset the growing power and
aggressiveness of the capitalists. Consequently the trade unions have lost
hundreds of thousands of members. According to the report of Secretary
Morrison at the 1923 convention, the American Federation of Labor lost 269,(X)0
members in the past year. Thousands of local unions have surrendered their
charters, particularly in the railroad industry. Even international craft unions
have not been immune, as witnessed by the International Union of Timber-
workers giving up the ghost. In the railroad industry the shop unions have
been completely wiped out over whole sections of the country. In the mining
indu.stry newly-organized fields have been allowed to lapse again into the hands
of nonunion operators, and the organization morale is at the lowest ebb in
years. Even in the needle trades the unions are suffering a great crisis
regarding membership. The organizations in the other industries are in a
similar condition. Thruout the labor movement it has been a year of retreat
in the face of generally favorable economic conditions. With industrial activity
now on the decline we can definitely say that the labor movement is faced
with imminent danger, not only from the dry-rot which affects it internally
but also from the big "open shop" drives left wing. It is our duty to block the
right-wing efforts and of the employers which may be expected in the near
future.
III. The Campaign for Class Collaboration
In the face of this crisis, developments within the labor movement during
the past year are characterized by two profound and opposing currents. On
the one hand the masses, the rank and file of the unions, goaded on by the
"open shop" drive and the lowered conditions of labor, are more and more
striving to engage in struggle against their exploiters ; witness the growing
labor party movement, the amalgamation movement that has swept the trade
unions, the various left-wing conferences and the growing left-wing press. On
the other hand the bureaucracy, the trade vmion ofl3cialdom with a small sec-
tion of the "aristocracy of labor," out of fear of the struggle with the bosses
APPENDIX, PART 1 377
and fear of the awakening membersliip, has been moving to the right; it has
been attempting to consolidate its position by alliances witli the employers; wit-
ness the revival of insurance schemes, the labor banking mania, the collabora-
tion schemes of Wm. H. Johnstone and his cohorts in the railroad shop uuions,
the expulsions and discriminations against the left wing, the "red menace"
campaign with its appeals for help to the employers (typified in the Searles
articles), and the official program of the Gompers family enunciated in the
Portland convention by Gompers, Woll, Berry, Lewis, and others, the open
advocacy of collaboration in all its forms.
The result of these two profound and opposing currents is a deep cleavage
within the labor movement itself. The struggle against the employing class
demanded by the working masses, under pressure of the worsening conditions,
is sabotaged by the officialdom of the unions. In order to find expression it
must turn into' a struggle against the bureaucrats who stand as the protectors
of the interests of capitalism, and the obstacle to struggle for better condi-
tions. The resulting conflict between "left" and "right," now taking on even
larger proportions thruout the labor movement, is thus really the struggle
within the labor movement, the working masses, on the one side and on the
other the agents of capitalism entrenched within the ranks of labor. It is not
a class struggle between factions of the labor movement ; it is the class struggle
itself, with the officials fighting the battle of the capitalist class.
IV. Growth of the Left Wing
The unexampled development of the left wing in the American trade unions,
and its crystallization around definite programs, slogans, and organizational
forms upon a national scale (a development hitherto absent from American
trade unionism), is the direct result of the severe economic pressure and of
this cleavage between the officialdom of the trade unions, the bureaucrats,
and the great masses of the working class. This cleavage is for the first time
becoming clear and distinct. The organization of the rank and file left-wing
militants is crystallizing in the Trade Union Educational League. The League
has established its local general groups in all the principal industrial centers,
and its network of national industrial committees cover all the principal indus-
tries, such as Mining, Railroads, Textile, Clothing, Printing, Building, Metal,
Food, Leather, etc. These industrial committees include all unions within
their respective industries independent and American Federation of Labor alike.
Contact witli the revolutionary independent unions, as such, is established thru
the Red International Committee. This organization is made up, on the one
hand, of the revolutionary minorities organized in the Trade Union Educa-
tional League, and on the other hand of the revolutionary unions affiliated to
or sympathetic with the Red International of Labor Unions. Already the
left-wing has created the organizational foi-ms necessary for complete func-
tioning and co-ordination of all its forces in the labor movement as a whole.
The task now before it is to fill in these forms and to rally the entire left wing
tor the work in hand.
Even at this incipient stage of its organization the left-wing movement in
the trade unions has given ample demonstration of its power. This is because
the Communists have given it conscious leadership. We alone thruout tlie
labor movement have a program. All the other tendencies are bankrupt. Strik-
ing illustration of this has been given by the r.'ipid spread of the amalgamation
movement, especially in the railroad industry where it has swept thousands of
local unions into its folds. Another outstanding manifestation of the power
of the left-wing movement was evidenced at the convention of the Molders'
Union where, in spite of desperate resistance from the reactionary officialdom,
the left wing under the leadership of a handful of avowed Communists, suc-
ceeded in putting this old and conservative organization on record for the
labor party, amalgamation, the recognition of Soviet Russia, the organization
of the unorganized, and various other campaigns and slogans of the Trade
Union Educational League.
V. The War with the Bureaucrats
The reactionary bureaucrats are not permitting this left-wing movement to
spread save in .spite of their most desperate opposition. Faithful to the intei-ests
of their mnsters, the capitalists, they have launched a war to the knife, in all
branches of the trade union movement, against the militant and revolutionary
378 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
elements in the Leagriie. The attacks of the bureaucrats take on many forms.
Democracy in tlie unions, so far as the left-wing individuals and programs
are concerned, has been practically abolished. At the Portland convention, for
example, when the questions of amalgamation, recognition of Soviet Russia,
the Labor Party, etc., came up for consideration, scores of delegates voted
against these measures in spite of the fact that their unions had gone on record
definitely in favor of them. Moreover, there was the brutal expulsion of
William F. Duinie. In the Railway Carmen's Union, the General Executive
Board is illegally refusing to send out a referendum to the rank and file on
the question of amalgamation, notwithstanding that a large number of locals,
ten times as many as required by the constitution, have regularly demanded it.
Everywhere the trade union press teems with denunciations of the Comnnuiists,
one of the most notable incidents of this organized campaign of villification
being the infamous series of articles sent forth to a gullible world by Ellis
Searles, in the name of the United Mine Woi'kers. In this organization Lewis
and the other autocrats are carrying on a war of extermination against the
left wing. They did not liesitate to line up with the British Empire Steel
Corporation in order to crush the revolutionary miners of District No. 26,
Nova Scotia. They have expelled many active militants. But the war against
the left wing has reached its climax in the needles trades, especially in the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. In this union, dominated by
typical Amsterdam Socialists, the most contemptible practices are being in-
dulged in. Revolutionists are being discriminated against and denied the
right to hold office. Many have been .slugged by the professional thugs in the
employ of the union officials. Other have been expelled outright from the
organization. Many have been blacklisted from the industry, the employers co-
operating eagerly with the reactionary union officials in this contemptible pro-
cedure. In Philadelphia the reactionaries have practically destroyed the organi-
zation in their efforts to prevent the left wing from putting some real life and
fighting spirit into it. From Gompers to Sigman it is a united front of all the
reactionary officials with their capitalistic allies against the growing left wing.
VI. The Task Before Us
The critical state of the American labor movement throws a tremendous task
upon the revolutionary left wing. The trade union bureaucrats, faced by con-
stantly increasing pressure from the employers, are now preparing to make a
still more rapid retreat to the right. When the real struggle begins, as it will
shortly, they will follow a policy of compromise and surrender. They will
sacrifice the standards of living of the workers by accepting for them longer
hours, lower wages, piece work, and generally worsened working conditions in
industry. To prevent this further beti'ayal of the workeiis' interests is the
task of the union to direct the masses to the left and the militant resistance
against the employers. We must redouble our efforts to imbue the workers
with a fighting spirit, to amalgamate their scattered unions, and to induce them
to take independent political action. We must carry on a ceaseless campaign
for the organization of the unorganized ; for the labor movement will be prac-
tically helpless so long as millions of workers remain outside of its folds. We
must break down the national isolation of the American trade union movement,
and bring it into the fold of the Red International of Labor Unions. Mean-
while we must seek, ever and always, to defeat the reactionary leaders now
at the head of the movement and to replace them by revolutionaries, for so
long as defenders of capitalism stand at the head of organized labor the
workers' cause will be constantly compromised and betrayed. But above all,
we must bring home to the workers a clear understanding of the futility of
the capitalist system and teach them that the only way out of their slavery
is thru the proletarian revolution, thru the establishment of the Workers'
and Farmers' Government.
VII. The Party and the Unions
The strengthening and unification of the trade unions for the class struggle,
and the conquest of these oi'ganizations for the program of Communism, are
of the utmost inqiortance to oiir Party. Without attaining the leadership of
the masses organized in the trade unions it will be impossible for us to func-
tion effectively as the vanguard of the proletariat. Time and again the Com-
munist International has emphasized the supreme necessity of Communists
APPENDIX, PART 1 379
working amongst the masses organized industrially. In every unit of our
Party the question of work in the trade unions must be recognized as one of
the greatest importance, and all available strength must be thrown into it.
The Party has a fundamental service to perform for the left-wing movement
in the unions. That deep-going swing to the left, is a blind reaction of the
masses against the oppression of the employing class and against the treachery
of their reactionary leaders. It is a groping after the deep realities of the
struggle against capitalism. But this blind left-wing movement cannot become
conscious of its functions, cannot bring into existence its proper organizational
forms, except it has the organized and militant leadership of the Communists,
of the vanguard organized in the Workers Party under the leadership of the
Communist International. The active and conscious participation of our Party
in every phase of the left-wing movement among the trade unions is the first
condition for the successful development and functioning of the movement.
In carrying on the industrial work it must never be forgotten that its final
aim is the building and strengthening of the Workers Party. The movements
for amalgamation, the labor party, organization of the unorganized, etc., among
the unions, create favorable spheres of influence for us and win the sympathy
of great numbers of workers who recognize the practical leadership of the
Communists in the every-day struggle. It is the duty of all units of the Party
to follow up closely the industrial work carried on by the Party and its mem-
bers, and to absorb those workers brought under our ideological leadership
thru this work, into actual membership in the Party. Unless this is done otir
work is largely in xah\ The conscious goal of the work on the industrial
field must be ever and always the building of the Workers Party into a Com-
munist Mass Party.
Two features of the industrial work require special mention. The first re-
lates to our labor party program. Inasmuch as the labor party, insofar as it
represents the industrial workers, rests directly upon the trade unions and
draws its conventions and other legislative assemblies out of their ranks, the
extent to which we will have power and influence in the growing labor party
movement will depend almost entirely upon the strength and grip we have in
the trade unions. A fundamental condition for the success of our labor party
program is, therefore, a successful industrial program.
VII. Organization Program
The following are the general organizational proposals of the industrial
department for the carrying oiit of the industrial work :
1. Industrial Organizers. — Each unit of the Party shall select an industrial
organizer whose duty it shall be to see to it that the industrial program of the
Party is put into effect insofar as his unit is concerned.
2. Registration. — A complete registration of the entire membership shall be
taken semi-annually, showing the occupation and union affiliations of the mem-
bers. It shall be the duty of the branch industrial organizers to carry out this
registration promptly and thorouglily.
3. Union Membership. — It is the duty of each member of the Workers Party
to be a member of a labor union and to be active therein. The branch indus-
trial organizers shall report regiilarly to the branch, names of Party members
working in industries who are not affiliated to labor union.s.
4. League Membership. — It is the duty of each member of the Workers Party
employed in the industries to be a member of the Trade Union Educational
League. The Party units in the various localities will be held responsible for
the organization and maintenance of a section of the Trade Union Educational
League in thpir respective fields, and for the active participation of their
membership in the same.
5. League Support. — It is the duty of each Party unit to help actively in
circulating the "Labor Herald," and the other publications of the Trade Union
Educational League. Each Party unit shall also help in financing the League
by the sale of Sustaining Fund Certificates, and the organization of picnics,
dances, and ofher forms of entertainment.
The Workers Party has every reason to congratulate itself ujion its solid
achievements upon the indu.strial field as well as the political field during the
past year. We have become a major factor in the trade unions, and the main-
spring of all progressive movements therein. It must be acknowledged, how-
ever, that our full forces have not been mobilized, and if we could liave brought
our full strength to bear upon the problems with which we had to deal, our
results would have been many fold. The main task for the coming year is
to enroll within the Party the fresh elements from tlie left wing ready for us.
330 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Resolution ou Industrial Work
The convention endorses the industrial work of the Party for the past 12
months, and the program laid out for the coming year. In order for our
industrial work to he a success, it is absolutely essential that the Party throw
its whole available force into it. Wherever possible, shop nuclei must be
formed. The members of the Party, wlio work in the industries, must join
the trade unions and become aggressive participants therein in furthering the
Party work. In addition, the members must become active in the Trade Union
Educational League and give real supiwrt to its slogans of amalgamation, the
labor party, organize the unorganized, recognition of Soviet Russia, affiliation
to the Red International of Labor Unions, etc. They shall subscribe for and
help circulate The Lahor Herald and othc>r publications of the League. In
each locality the local Party organization will be lield responsible for the
organization and continuance of a branch of the Trade Union Educational
League. The semi-annual industrial registration of the Party must be taken
seriously and made as nearly as practical 100 per cent complete. The indus-
trial organizers selected by the local branches must function regularly and
see to it that the Party is brought actively into the industrial work. The
thorough carrying out of the foregoing measures will do much towards giving
our Party the grip necessary among the organized masses to enable it to func-
tion really and effectively in its true role of the advance guard of the prole-
tariat.
Resolution referred to the Central Executive Committee with instructions to
work out a policy :
1. To combine our present convention policy in the trade unions with an
effective policy ou strikes in shops, mines and factories.
2. To work out plans for the d.ijly struggles of the workers to be joined
with our present amalgamation campaign.
3. Prepare a plan to utilize for the organization advantage of the party our
present propaganda campaigns such as amalgamation, etc.
MINORITY RESOLUTION ON INDUSTRIAL REPORT
The convention agrees with the proposals of the industrial department in its
recommendations for industrial organizers, registration, union membership,
Trade Union Educational League membership of the party members and the
support of the Trade Union Educational League and the Labor Herald.
But the convention believes that these proposals do not meet in a satisfactory
manner the present situation.
We are facing new industrial crisis and a new offensive of capital. In the
coal mining industry, in the copper industry, in the textile industry, and in the
needle trades, we already have a vei-y heavy unemployment. This new situa-
tion demands new policies. The one-sided emphasis of our amalgamation slogan
does not meet the situation. The tens of thousands of workers who are dropping
out from their unions are not interested at all in amalgamation. Neither the
workers of the unorganized industries nor the hundreds of thousands of organ-
ized workers are interested in any organizational improvement of the existing
craft unions. Our vigorous campaign for amalgamation was in place for the
period of prosperity, and it helped to stir up great sections of. organized labor.
Our slogan, "Organize the Unorganized," was a proper slogan during a period
of complete employment, increasing wages and decreasing hours. The industrial
prosperity of 1022-23 offered a great opportunity for organizing the slaves of
the steel trust, of the rubber and automobile industry and the textile industry.
The American Federation of Labor neglected, betrayed and sabotaged the tre-
mendous task of organizing the unorganized masses. The labor aristocracy
is not interested in organizing the proletarian workers. Our Party had the
right policy in issuing the .slogan. "Organize the Unorganized," and demanding
of the American Federation of Labor that it fulfill this historical task. But
our Party is.sued the "Organize the Unorganized" slogan too late, not at the
beginning of the industrial prosperity, but at the end of it, in a time in which
the first signs of the shaking up of the industrial prosperity were beginning to
mamifest themselves. Our campaign for organizing the unorganized was
lifeless. We had no concrete plans. We did not grasp the initiative in a con-
crete manner in certain industries where that miglit have been possible, such as
with the rubber workers in Akron or automobile workers in Detroit.
APPENDIX, PART 1 381
The coTiveiition considers that the most urgent and most important task
for meeting tlie new situation is tlie worlving out of the policy on tlie luiem-
ployment situation. The convention instructs tlie incoming Central Executive
Committee to work out such a policy at once, and to begin a nation-wide cam-
paign to organize the unemployed workers, to form councils of unemployed, to
issue a special paper. The luiemployment campaign must be conducted on the
ground of solidarity of interests of employed trade union workers and unem-
ployed non-trade union masses. The Workers Party must become in any case the
leading center of the unemployment movement. The unemployment campaign
must be conducted in such a manner that it shall be directed into political
channels. The slogans and demands shall be directed, not only against the
bosses, but shall try to focus the eyes of the workers upon the government and
Congress. Tlie Party must lead the unemployed movement in such a way that
the demand of the masses shall force Congress to take up the unemployment
question.
Millions of bankrupt farmers are streaming into the cities and industries,
and are increasing the danger of unemployment. Our Party must recognize
that fact in its industrial policies, as offering the best opportunity for calling
the attention of the workers and expropriated farmers to the commonness of
their interests and for pointing out t<i them how onlj^ a workers' and farmers*
government can remedy their common misery.
In our industrial policies in the past we did not understand thoroughly how
to utilize our industrial activities for our political work. Our comrades often
forget that the work in the trade unions is not an end in itself, but that it
must .serve to stir up the masses politicall.v.
The best example of lack of political understanding in our industrial policies
was the great anthracite strike last September. Our Party had no policy for
the strike, before the fight began. One hundred thousand workers struck in
the most important basic industry. The attention of the whole country was
focused on the negotiations between the United Mine Workers and the bosses.
In that situation neither the August nor the September issues of the Labor
Herald had any articles or statements on the subject of the strike, so as to give
a clear and revolutionary program for the miners, and thus driving Lewis and
the other labor officials into a real fight. The anthracite strike provoked the
intervention of Coolidge and Pinchot, the federal and state governments. The
labor officials did not fight against the goverinnent arbitration. It was the
best opportunity for our Party to utilize tlie situation to begin a campaign for
nationalization, against intervention of the capitalist government and for estab-
lishing a workers' and farmers' government. The Party missed that fine oppor-
tunity. Our first statement appeared too late after the strike, and it was too
weak to make any impression on the masses. The strike began early in Sep-
temlier, but the Labor Herald had no special articles, neither in its September
nor October issues. The fir.st article on the anthracite strike in the Labor
Herald appeared as late as November. That there was a possibility for our
Party to assume leadership in the anthracite strike is proven by the repeated
"outlaw" strikes, which broke out after the reactionary Lewis machine sold
out the workers and after the "progressive" Capellini had become a part of
the Lewis machine.
Our industrial policy has had many successes and achievements, but it has
been a one-sided convention policy. The convention emphasizes that we must
combine our convention polic.v in the trade unions with an effective policy on
strikes in shops, factories and mines. We should not forget that "amalgama-
tion" or " organize the unorganized" or a "Labor Party" are not so closely, im-
mediately and deeply connected with the interests of the laboring masses as
the fights for a bigger piece of bread, against wage cutting or for better
working conditions. We must go deeper into the masses. It is not enough
to fight in conventions of trade unions and it is not even enough if we partici-
pate in the work of the local unions. We must become the leaders of the
workers in the industries themselves. The masses will misunderstand us if
they see us fighting only against the reactionai'y labor leaders and not fighting
at the same time against the bosses. Especially in the needle trades did our
policy show that shortcoming, which made it possible for the reactionaries
of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union to start a persecution
against the Trade Union Educational League.
The convention declares that it approves and appreciates the industrial de-
partment of the Central Executive Committee and instructs the incoming
382 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Central Executive Committee to consider the suggestions and recommenda-
tions given above in the shaping of our industrial policies of the future.
The convention asserts that the industrial work of the Party and the Trade
Union Educational League has stirred up millions of workers and aroused a
great sentiment for our slogans. But it considers it a basic shortcoming of our
work that we did not follow up our propaganda with the proper organizational
work. A vague sentiment evaporates easily, without an actual, solid organiza-
tion. It is tlie foremost duty of our industrial department in the future to take
the steps to utilize successful slogans and aroused sentiments, for a crystallyzed
organization.
Ben Gitlow.
John Peppe^r.
Joseph Manley.
The above resolution was i*eferred to the Central Executive Committee.
resolution on communist international
The Third National Convention of the Workers Party extends greetings to
the Communist International.
During the past year the Communist International has appeared everywhere
where the workers suffer from oppression and exploitation as the leader in
the struggle against the oppressors and exploiters. It stands today as the
hope of all those who struggle against the suffering and bloodshed which the
decaying capitalist system brings into the world.
It is the leadership of the Communist International, which inspires hopes
in the hearts of the workers of the world and arouses fear in the capitalists of
every country.
The Workers Party re-affirms its declaration of sympathy with the Commu-
nist International and enters the struggle against American capitalism, the
most powerful of the national groups, under the inspiration of the leadership
of the Communist International.
EEiPORT OP AMEEICAN IMPERIALISM, BY JAY LOVESTONE
The breath of imperialist battles and wars is in the air. Germany is crumbling.
England is in the throes of severe industrial stagnation. France is groaning
under staggering taxation. In the United States the war poison of an intensely
aggressive imperialism is sipping into the very tissues of our capitalist political-
economic system. Everywhere preparations are afoot, which will give American
capitalists the undisputed leadership of the imperialist world powers.
Since Spain was routed in 1898, the history of American capitalism has been
the story of the most gigantic strides in imperialist development.
The Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean have become the American Mediter-
ranean. Cuba is in the firm grip of a protectorate of American bankers and
industrialists. Porto Rico has been annexed. Turning to the Pacific and the
Far East our imperialists have grabbed in quick order the Philippines, Guam
and Hawaii. The Central American Isthmus is a Yankee satrapy under the
"general supervision" of New York financiers and manufacturers. While Wilson
was penning notes on democracy, American troops forcibly dissolved the Haitian
parliament and destroyed the national freedom of the rejmblic in the name of the
much-vaunted capitalist formula of the "self-determination of nationalities."
Today the United States is the political master of an imperial hinterland in
Central America and the Caribbean, covering over 1.50,000 square miles of land
and having a population of about 10,000,000. In the Pacific the United States has
an island empire of over 125,000 square miles and a population of 13,000.000.
The Yankee exploiters are securing a stranglehold on Canadian resources. The
packing, rubber and paint industries are rapidly falling into Wall Street's hands.
Already over $2,500,000,000 of American capital, or the equivalent of the British
interests, are invested in Canadian industries.
Under the guise of protecting the weaker nations and in the name of the
Monroe Doctrine, American capitalists have secured complete domination over
South America. The nitrate beds of Chile, the meat and wheat of Peru, the
coffee and rubber plantations of Brazil are more and more falling into the grasp
of our imperialists. The Standard Oil is getting great concessions in Ecuador,
Bolivia, Columbia and Argentina. America is extending her South American
market with great dash and determination.
APPENDIX, PART 1 383
American impcrialisiu is octopus-like fastening its tentacles on the resources
of Asia. Our bankers are increasing their hold on China's railway system. Tak-
ing advantage of the great catastrophy that ha.>^ befallen Japan in the recent
•earthquake American capitalists are increasing their investments in Japan. In
the last decade our commerce with the Oriental countries has increased three
hundred per cent. More and more American capitalism is turning its eyes to the
Far East. In the Near East American imperialism is also making itself felt.
The famous Chester concessions, the drive for oil in Mesopotamia, and the growing
interest of our investors in Palestine indicate the direction of the trade winds here.
The Yaidvce imperialists have their eyes on Europe. Wall Street has done
more than its share to turn Austria into a coolie colony. Now our capitalists
are landing heavily on Italian resources and bolstering up the Fascist tyranny
of Mus.solini.
Our capitalists are interested even in the wildest thickets of the jungles of
African investments. In the present Tangier controversy, involving the leading
imperialist powers of Europe, the United States government is springing to the
defense of the interests of our leading public utility magnates.
America has become the industrial, trading and banking nation of the world.
The World War has transformed America from a debtor into a creditor nation.
The world now owes America billions of dollars. America's crops, animal prod-
ucts, manufactures, mineral output, forest products and merchant marine have
reached a hitherto unheard of degree of development.
American banking is now international. New York has displaced London as
the banking centre of the world. International finance now hides its manipula-
tions and registers its progress in the sign of the dollar.
But the great financial and industrial expansion brought on by the World War
has also brought new problems and new difficulties in its wake.
The rule of dollar democracy by our financiers and industrialists at home has
been translated into a regime of dollar diplomacy abroad and in our vast colonial
possessions. American democracy now truly rests upon a monarchy of gold and
an aristocracy of finance.
In order to maintain control of oiir growing imperialist empire and in order to
serve American investors abroad, the American government has been steadily
developing a huge military and naval system. The last decade has seen the cost
of national defense doubled. The total number of individuals under training has
been increased over 100 per cent.
We have invested over three billion dollars in our navy today. The aim of
American navalists is to have a navy second to none.
But giant waves of discontent are sweeping the islands in the grasp of American
imperialism.
The Philippines are astir with protest against the dictatorial regime of the
iron-fisted military Governor General Leonard Wood. The Filipinos are strug-
gling to win their independence from American imperialism and are resisting the
plans of General Wood to hand over the natural resources of their country to
American capitalists. Cuba is in the throes of a serious confiict over the domi-
nation of the island by American sugar, shipping and railway barons.
In the present disturbance in Mexico the sinister manipuations are evident.
Porto Rico is pleading for independence.
The Virgin Islands are crying oiit against the super-Prussion rule imposed upon
them by their new masters of the LTnited States navy.
The wounds inflicted upon the Haitians and the Dominican republic by Ameri-
can marines serving as revenue collectors are only outward manifestations of
outrageous crimes perpetrated against these weaker nations by the United States,
the new policeman of the capitalist world.
Nicaragua is under Wall Street's thumb.
Colombia is being ruled by an American financial mission ostensibly sent to help
the republic put her house in order.
Bolivian policy is dictated by American bankers.
Peru is actually in American hands.
The presence of an American naval mission in Brazil has almost brought on a
war between Brazil and Argentine. The Argentine republic cannot enact laws
unless the American packing interests approve them first.
The people of Honduras cannot hold an election without an American battleship
visiting their coast.
Salvador must mortgage its life as an independent nation in order to get a loan
from American bankers.
384 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
111 all these imperialist veutures and outrages the American government has
served the imperialists with unfailing regularity. The War Department, the
Navy Department, the Departments of Commerce and State have become the
tireless functionaries of the most powerful band of imperialist financiers and
industrial overlords the world has yet seen.
American capitalism has garnered fabulous profits in its exploitation of these
weaker countries. This has made it economically possible for the American
capitalists to win over some sections of the working class against the rest of the
workers. As the struggle amongst the imperialist powers for the division of the
world is becoming sharper, this tendency for the upper crust of aristocracy of
labor to line up with the capitalists grows stronger.
Gompers and his lieutenants are direct beneficiaries of the imperialist system.
These misleaders of the working class in America have turned a deaf ear to the
demands of the oppressed nationalities seeking freedom from the United States.
These men, who are at the helm of the best organized section of our workers, are
working hand in glove with the powerful employers. They were of the greatest
service to the capitalist class in the last war.
New and even more serious dangers are threatening to overcome the American
workers and farmers. The United States has at last decided to step in as the
virtual receiver of bankrupt Europe. The notorious enemy of labor, "Hell-an'-
Maria" General Charles G. Dawes and the Morgan's agents, Owen D. Young and
Henry M. Robinson, will soon openly help the manufacturers and bankers of
England, France and Italy to stave off bankruptcy. The price set by our im-
Ijerialists for this "humanitarian" help will be complete American economic hegem-
ony over Europe. This step is only a prelude to more entangling alliances which
are bound sooner, rather than later, to draw an army of millions of American
workers and farmers "over there" to fight for the defense of the foreign invest-
ments of our employing class. Furthermore, America is pursuing with renewed
vigor its policy of isolating Soviet Russia and refusing to recognize it.
In the light of this ever-increasing militarist and imperialist menace to the
peace and security of the American workers and poor farmers the need for united
action against American imperialism is more urgent than ever. Towards this
end the Workers Party of America proposes the following program :
1. General propaganda to arouse the opposition of the laboring and farming
masses to imperialism and militarism.
2. A united front of all workers' and farmers' organizations against the mainte-
nance and extension of American imperialist plans.
3. Concerted action by the workers' and farmers' political and economic organ-
izations to compel Congress to enact legislation prohibiting the expenditure of a
man or a dollar to guarantee the investments of American capitalists abroad.
4. A vigorous campaign in all labor and farm organizations for the immediate
and complete independence of all the possessions of the United States.
5. Struggle against American interference in the political and economic affaii's
of Mexico, the South and Central American republics. The immediate evacuation
of all territories now occupied by American military and naval forces.
6. A special organizational and propaganda campaign to help the Filipino people
in their resistance to American capitalist exploitation. Our workers and farmers
should render the greatest help possible to the Filipinos in their struggle for
complete national independence from United States imperialist domination.
7. Special publicity campaigns exposing American capitalist brutality in our
possessions and in territories occupied by the military and naval forces of the
United States. The interests dominating Mexico, Central America, South America,
and our island possessions must be exposed in their light as imperialist brigands
before the working class and poor farmers.
8. Struggle against the reactionary trade union leaders of the United States
and of the weaker exploited countries. These leaders of the type of Gompers and
the Mexican IMorones have become part and parcel of the imperialist coterie
oppi'essing the working masses.
9. Struggle against the attempt of the imperialist Coolidge administration to
unite the countries of the world against Soviet Russia and against the tacit sup-
port given to the monarchist movement in Germany by American reactionary
forces.
10. An intensive campaign against American participation in the League of
Nations, the World Court, the Reparations Commission, and all other imperialist
conferences and alliances.
11. The organization of an international united front of the political and eco-
nomic organizations of the workers and poor farmers against international cap-
APPENDIX, PART 1 385
italist imperialism. The workers of nil the American countries must unite for a
common strujigle against American imperialism.
12. That copies of this resolution be forwarded to the labor orjianization of all
the American possessions, Canada, Mexico, the Central and South American
republics.
EESOLUTION ON RECOGNITION OF SOVIET RUSSIA
The workers and peasants of Russia, overthrowing first the age-old autocracy
of the Czars and then the new-found autocracy of modern capitalism, have
brought into the world a new form of state.
Every available military and political means of the greatest capitalist nations
has been directed against this new state in the efi'ort to destroy it ; and every
effort has failed. Today it stands as the strongest power of continental Europe
and Asia. Russia, with the newly-released vitality and a revolutionary country,
with institutions better adapted to modern needs, steadily improves its economic
conditions while all other nations of Europe are steadily sinking toward ruin.
Peace has not been made among the nations since the world war.
The imperialist nations, controlled by capitalist cliques who are frightened
with the sight of the rise of the new class into power in Russia, have refused
to make peace with a government of workers* and peasants. Yet the banner
of Russian freedom flies over one-sixth of the land surface of the earth. A large
portion of the world's richest possessions, absolutely necessary to peaceful inter-
national life, lie under the flag of the •workers' and farmers' republic. Without
Russia, peaceful world life is impossible for all nations. Soviet Russia has
olfered peace. Willing to forgive the fact that the American government has
repeatedly invaded and made war upon their land, the Soviet government has
repeatedly held out its hand in friendship to this country.
Every new invitation to heal the wounds of war has been met by the American
President and Secretary of State with petty evasion, calumnies and slanders. In
fear of standing a comparison between the American dictatorship of Big Business
and the Rus.sian dictatorship of the wage-working and farming classes, the
American government has invented ridiculous falsehoods, one after another,
during a period of five years, as excuses for non-recognition of Russia. Among
these is the lie that the Russian Soviet government is seeking and will use any
diplomatic contact to encourage American workers and farmers to revolt against
the tyrannies of the American capitalist class to put "the red flag on the White
House.''
Although a friend to all exploited and abused classes of the earth, although
it stands and will continue to stand out as a shining example of progress and
victory for the exploited of the earth, it is ridiculous to say that Soviet Russia
could or would in any way interfere in the internal affairs of any other nation.
Russia alone of all nations has shown its willingness to let all countries control
their own affairs, while President Coolidge, with arrogant effrontery, demands
the right to reshape Russia's internal institutions before according her recognition.
Only because the President and Secretary of State, the government of this coun-
try, represent a Big Business clique which considers its private wealth in advance
of the interests of the nation, does this government fail to recognize the Soviet
Republic of Russia. For that reason alone the economic chaos and stagnation
of the world is prolonged. Only for that reason does the Secretary of State of
the United States stoop to petty forgeries of documents, deliberate mistranslations
of articles and low intrig:ue with the scum of extinct European monarchies, to
make a dishonest propaganda against the new republic of Russia.
The Workers Party calls upon the workers and farmers to renew their demand
for the restoration of peaceful relations between nations through recognition of
the Russian Soviet Republic, and demands such action of the Congress of the
United States.
RESOLUTION ON THE PROTECTION OF THK FOREIGN-BORN WORKERS
The millions of foreign-born workers are facirig new dangers.
The message of President Coolidge to Congress, and the plan of Secretary of
Labor Davis have revealed the plans of the capitalists against the foreign-born
workers. Congress will in the very near future considei- bills on registration and
fingerprinting of the foreign-born workers. New special annual taxes and new
discriminating special measures against the foreign-born workers will come up
before Congress in the near future.
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 26
386
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Workers Party was the only political party which, as far back as a year
ago, in its last convention, brought to the attention of the workers these great
dangers. We have begun a big movement for the protection of foreign-born
workers.
The convention authorizes the Central Executive Committee and District Exec-
utive Committees immediately to take steps to initiate a united front with all
organizations which are willing to join in such a campaign. The Convention
of the Workers Party jjledges our Party to carry on a big campaign in the next
year, for the protection of foreign-born workers, and calls upon every worker
to organize the united front of native-born American and foreign-born workers
against the criminal plans of the Coolidge administration, Ku Klux Klan, and
American Legion patriots. The workers must recognize that the attack against
the foreign-born workers is l)Ut a new attempt of the capitalist offensive against
the suppressed and ill-paying laboring masses of the basic industries.
BE3'OKT OF THE DAILY WORKER CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE TO THE NATIONAL CON\'ENTI0N
OF THE WORKERS PARTY OF AMERICA
By John J. Ballam, Manager, Daily Worker Campaign Committee
■ Comrades :
This report covers the period of The Daily Worker Drive from the date of its
announcement in The Worker, issue of Aug. 18th, which was actuallv published
Aug. Sth, 192.3, to Dec. 22. 1923.
I was called in from Buffalo to take charge of the drive Aug. 20th. Plans
were prepared by the committee before I took otfice which contemplated running
the drive almost exclusively for shares sales among our party membership,
through our branches and mass meetings in the principal cities. Each federa-
tion language bureau was allotted a quota and all were expected to carry on
the campaign through their affiliated branches under the direction of The Daily
Worker Campaign Committee.
The following list shows the quota allotted to each federation :
Federation
Average
Member-
ship (Aug.)
Quota
Federation
Average
Member-
ship (Aug.)
Quota
Czeeho-Slovak
437
76
7,000
172
481
355
454
1,007
$3, 000
400
25, 000
1,000
5,000
3,500
1,000
5,000
Lithuanian
Lettish
Polish
Russian
843
403
181
955
200
1,174
532
283
$5, 000
Esthonian
Finnish
Greek
3,000
501)
3,000
German
Hungarian
Italian
Jewish
Roumanian
South Slavic
1,000
6,000
Ukranian
Scandinavian
2,000
1,000
The drive started in the midst of all the confusion and unavoidable disorgani-
zation attendant upon the removal of the entire office force and equipment of the
National Office to Chicago, together with the offices of many of the federations,
so that the drive did not really get under way until Sept. 6, 1923.
All federation bureaus, district organizers. City Central Committee secretaries,
and branch secretaries received instructions as to the method of conducting the
drive. Every unit was requested to create campaign committees and to elect a cam-
paign manager for their respective unit. All language bureaus elected a special
campaign manager and 58 City Central Committees out of the 76 listed elected
their committees and managers and were active in the drive.
The campaign was confined until recently to the sale of $5.00 stock pledges of
which each party member was expected to purchase at least one. 125,000 stock
application blanks (including 20,000 installment payment applications) were
distributed proportionally to all federation campaign managers ; to all district
organizers ; to all City Central Committee secretaries and campaign managers,
and to every branch secretary. This distribution was made directly from the
national office to all units with instructions to higher units to adequately supply
all lower units. Therefore, every member of the Party was supplied with these
blanks in sufficient number for all purposes.
Publicity. — Publicity matter has been gotten out in large quantities and thor-
oughly distributed throughout the entire country from the national office and
APPENDIX, PART 1 387
we believe that the campaign for our daily has been popularized so as to lay a
firm foundation for our daily upon its appearance. The following material was
distributed :
a. 3.000 posters announcing the opening of the drive for September meetings.
h, 100,000 copies of the "Miniature Daily Worker" in two editions of 50.000
each. These were designed to reach nonparty workers in unions, societies, etc.,
and were supplied to districts. City Central Committees and branches free of
charge. All copies were supplied by order only. This leaflet has proven to be
an effective method of popularizing the daily and aided in stock sales and
donations.
e. Display ads and cartoons in every issue of The Worker together with special
articles and news items, and full page posters for meeting halls.
d. Daily Worker Campaign Committee News Service, containing articles, re-
ports, etc", sent to all party press and connections regularly each w^ek.
e. Advertisements in magazines and foreign prt)grams and trade union programs.
f. Pennants and posters for Russian Revolution celebrations.
g. 10,000 contribution lists were sent to all branches.
h. 30,000 contribution lists, with share applications and special letter sent
through special list.
i. 10,000 specially selected union secretaries were circularized with trade union
appeal and lists.
j. 8.000 miners" locals were appealed to for donations and shares.
k. 10,000 lists were circulated to Worker and Liberator lists, with appeals by
Comrade Engdahl and Minor. A total of 63,000 letters, pledges and lists were thus
sent out.
Meetings. — The first series of meetings arranged by the Daily Worker Cam-
paign Committee were those in which the $100,0i)0 drive was opened in the prin-
cipal cities, between Sept. 29th and Oct. 10th, addressed by the most prominent
speakers in the Party. These meetings were held before the Party hud mobilized
all its forces for the drive but aroused intense enthusiasm. Twelve of these meet-
ings were held.
Dances, picnics, entertainments, concerts were arranged all over the country for
The Daily Worker Drive during the month of October. The conspicuously
successful meeting was that held by the New York Campaign Committee at the
Lenin Bust Unveiling where the income was over $2,000,00
Russian Revolution Celebrations were arranged by the Daily AVorker Cam-
paign Committee in over 50 cities thruout the country, addressed by over 30
prominent Party speakers.
More than 70 meetings, from coast to coast, are now being arranged for Jan.
12th and 13th to greet the birth of The Daily Worker.
Language Federations. — Each Language Section was given its quota of shares
to be sold and complete instructions for general conduct of the drive. It was the
policy of the committee to permit each federation to conduct the drive among
its units in its own way, relying upon the pledge to raise the amount appor-
tioned. Our foreign-born comrades have supported the drive for the English
daily magnificently, and especial credit is due them when the fact that most of the
language sections carry the burden of maintaining dailies and weeklies in their
respective languages, is taken into consideration. Full credits for amount raised
cannot in all cases be given to each federation as many of their branches remitted
directly thru the City Central Committee campaign manager without showing
sources, while others sent their remittances through the several Federation Bu-
reaus. Special mention must be made of the Lithuanian and South Slavic Fed-
erations where the drive was carried on Intensively and in close co-operation
with our conunittee. The Finnish Bureau is still busily engaged in rasing its
quota among its members, and their pledge to turn over to The Daily Worker
Publishing Co. $25,000 in cash or notes was the decisive factor making for the
early appearance of our daily.
General. — The announcement of the Central Executive Committee to start the
drive for an English language was greeted by the leaders of the Communist
Parties of the principal countries thruout the world. Zinoviev, Radek, Zetkin,
Thalheiraer, Brandler, Treint, Tom Mann, and others hailed the English Com-
munist Daily. Upton Sinclair called upon all workers to support the Workers
Party in its drive for the new daily in Chicago.
Our comrades responded to the call of the Party with tremendous enthusiasm.
While there was some hesitation and doubt which in some cases continued
through the drive by a few who were appalled at the magnitude of the task
which the Party had set itself to accomplish, the rank and file set to work to
388 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
organize ; and the forces of the Party were gradually mobilized and set in motion
for the most inspiring drive that our Central Exec-utive Committee has instituted.
The first to respond was the Bulgarian branch of Madison, 111., which sent the
first $30.00 donation. An analysis of all sources of income show that almost
the entire sum raised came from the workers in factory, mill, mine and railroad
and from the exploited working farmers on the land. The comrades in Las
Angeles raised over $900.00; the Ukrainian branch of Hamtramck (Detroit),
Mich., sent in over $1,000.00 ; under the efficient direction of Comrade Julius Cod-
kind the New York City campaign committee carried on an effective drive, con-
ducted splendid meetings, and turned in directly to campaign headquarters over
$6,0O(>.0O; the drive was conducted in Chicago under the tireless efforts of Com-
rade Gus Schulenberg as campaign manager and resulted in direct returns of
more than $5,000.00; Boston, under Comrade Zelms as campaign manager, turned
in directly nearly $3,000.00. These are the highest spots in the campaign. A
complete analysis of returns of federations and districts accompany this report.
There was some hesitation on the part of some of our trade union sections
toward carrying on the campaign into the unions. Wherever our trade union
militants did make the proper approach good results were obtained. Over 100
workers' organizations have donated money or purchased shares.
Our foreign-language press (with a few exceptions) has supported the drive
and carried our announcements and to the extent that they gave their aid this
support was invaluable.
Our intention was to raise the necessary amount by Nov. 7th and to issue our
daily on the Sixth Anniversary of the Russian Revolution. But it was shown that
eight weeks was too short a time in which to accomiDlish this object. When it
w^as announced by our Central Executive Committee that the date was extended to
January, 1024, our members, instead of becoming discouraged, took a fresh hold
and from that time to the present the drive became intensified and is now neariug
completion.
The total income from the drive is today $73,011.90 ($71,497.15 plus $1,514.75
received since Dec. 22). The Finnish comrades have pledged $15,000.00 and the
Italian comrades have pledged themselves to pay $2,000.00. This makes a total
of $90,000.00. Our membership must raise the other $10,000.00. Every member
who has not yet bought a share must be urged to do so at once. Only unemploy-
. ment or sickness should be accepted as a valid excuse. There remain two weeks
before our paper will be issued. If every member will see to it that all comrades
do their full duty we can yet go over the top with the full $100,000.00 on the day
before our paper appears.
In making their decision to found a great national daily Party organ in the
English language our Central Executive Committee has properly gauged the
ability and enthusiasm and the revolutionary determination of the Party mem-
bership. It was hailed by the chairman of the Communist International, Com-
rade Ziuoviev, as the necessary weapon to make our Party a real mass party.
The Daily Worker Drive was one of the most important tasks which our party
has undertaken. It has been crowned with almost complete success.
On Sunday, Jan. 13th, The Daily Worker will be born. Upon its success will
depend in great measure, the success of our immediate objectives: the membership
drive ; amalgamation : the labor party ; recognition of Soviet Russia ; organization
of the unorganized, and defense. The Daily Worker will be the chief instrument
through which our Party will popularize all its slogans, and mobilize all its forces
for action in every field and it becomes the supreme duty of all party workers,
regardless of their special activities, to work energetically to build up the influence
and the circulation of The Daily Worker.
We are convinced that oiu- daily will be supported by tens of thousands of work-
ers and farmers and become a tremendous power in the coming nation-wide elec-
tions, developing the political consciousness of the workers, rallying them in sup-
port of the labor paity at the polls, becoming an institution in the life of the work-
ers and exploited farmers, and setting up another milestone on the path of our
Party toward the realization of its final goal. There may be issues within our
Party upon which there can be a wide division of opinion — upon the question of
The Daily Worker there cannot be any egitimate opposition.
Our enemies fear the coming of our English Daily for they nicely estimate its
potential power and influence. Their fear is matched by the joy of our friends at
the prospects of a working class daily. Once published the success of The Daily
Worker is assured.
APPENDIX, PART 1 389
The decision of the Central Executive Committee of our Party to pubish The
Daily Worker is the crowning act in a series of realistic and Comnninist actions
during their term of office.
The Daily Worker Campaign Committee appeals to the Third National Conven-
tion of the Workers Party of America and through it to the Party for united effort
to build up the circulation of The Daily Worker and to establish it in the hearts
of the working class of America.
Long Live the Workers Party and Its Organ, The Daily Worker !
FINANCIAL STATEMENT DAILY WORKER CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE
Statement of cash receipts and expenditures from Aug. 28 to Dec. 22, 1923
Cash Receipts :
Paid applications for Preferred Stock
a. Full payments $50,808.75
b. Partial payments 187. 00
c. Finnish Federation 9,821.91
$60, 817. 66
Cash donations:
General Donations $7,701.06
Special Lists 326. 36
Liberator Lists 57. 00
Worker Lists 122.30
— 8, 206. 72
Stock Sales & Donations (unclassified) 1,223.31
Pennants Sales 1,164.23
Nov. 7th Subscriptions to Daily Worker 64. 85
Interest on Bank Deposits 20.38
$71, 497. 15
Cash Disbursements :
Advertising
Campaign Headquarters 812. 00
For Party Units 263.60
$1, 075. 60
Printing
aiiniature Daily Worker 324. 38
Soliciting Purposes 1,372.87
1,697.25
Pennants 750.00
General Office Expenses
Stationary Supplies & Equipment 278.53
Rent of National Office Space 60. 00
Postage & Forwarding 561.81
Telegrams & Telephone 34. 85
Speakers' Traveling Expenses 1,133.48
Wages
Administration 1, 426. 50
Publicity 576. 23
2, 002. 73
Exchange on Checks 6. 85
Total Expenses 7, 605. 10
Funds Advanced to Daily Worker Pub. Co 2,333.85
Total Disbursements 9, 938. 95
Born out of the bone and sinew of the militant proletariat of America, con-
trolled, guided and inspired by the Workers Party of America, "The Daily
Worker" comes into being to lead the battalions of the workers and exploited
farmers to victory, in the accomplishment of the historic mission of the working
class, through the establishment of a govermnent of workers and farmers.
Long Live The Daily Worker !
Long Live the Workers Party and the Communist International!
390 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Additional Resolution
The price of the Daily Worker shall be :
In Chicago by carrier
$10.C0 for one year
5.00 for six months
1.00 for one month
In Chicago by mail and Foreign Subscriptions
$8.00 for one year
4.50 for six months
2.50 for three months
Outside of Chicago
$6.00 for one year
8.50 for six months
2.00 for three months
Cash in Special Fund $25, 000. 00
Cash Held by Finnish Federation a/c Shares 9, 821. 91
Cash in Bank 27,406.83
Petty Cash 20.00
Total Cash 62,248.74
Less accounts payable 690. 54 $61, 558. 20
$71, 497. 15
Fraternally submitted,
Daily Worker Campaign Committee,
John J. Baixam, Manager.
RESOLUTION ON THE DAILY WORKER
The Third National Convention congratulates the thousands of members and
sympathizers who co-operated with the Daily Workers Campaign Committee in
carrying on the drive to establish "The Daily Worker."
The first Communist daily in the English language is thus made possible
through the devotion, sacrifice and tireless energy of our comrades and friends
who out of their little have given much.
RESOLUTION ON LANGUAGE PRESS
The Third Convention of the Workers Party fully confirms the resolution on
the language press adopted by the Second Convention a year ago.
Fully appreciating the progress towards the establishment of a unified press
action made by the Party during the last year, the Third Convention instructs
the incoming Central Executive Committee to continue in its efforts to establish a
uniform press policy and action for all the Party press.
The editors of the Federation papers are urged to pay close attention to the
central organ of the Pai-ty and to the Press Service issued by the National Office,
and to take active part in all campaigns conducted by the party. The Federation
Press should apply itself more than before with American conditions and not so
much to European problems.
The Federation Press must devote sufficient space to the clarification of the
various policies and issues of the Party regardless of whether the editor agrees
with the official stand of the Party or not.
RESOLUTION ON SHOP NLTCLBI
1. The experience of the Communist parties the world over has proven that
the only sound basis for Communist organization is an organization which is
rooted in the shops and factories.
2. It is the experiences of the workers in the shops and factories, which are
the basis of their struggles against the capitalists and agitation in the shops,
offers the best opportunities for arousing the workers for the struggle against
Iheir exploiters and oppressors, because such agitation is close to the realties
of their everyday life.
APPENDIX, PART 1 391
3. It is in the shops that the workers come in daily contact with each other
and it is there that they can be best reached with Commnnist propasauda.
4. The problem of organizing Shop Nuclei in the United States is greatly
complicated by the fact that onr Party is made up of many language sections,
but the Party must nevertheless begin this work.
T). The National Convention therefore instructs the incoming Central Execu-
tive Committee to organize Shop Nuclei wherever possible on the basis of the
following instructions :
1. Siiop Nuclei shall be organized wherever two or more party members are
employed in the same factory or shop.
2. No change shall be made in the present .system of language branches or the
affiliation of members and dues payment through such branches.
3. The Shop Nuclei shall be organized as organizations for propaganda and
the political and economic work of the Party in the shops alongside of the existing
organization.
4. The method of combining the Shop Nuclei in certain district and their
contact with the city organization shall be worked out by the Central Executive
Committee in accordance with the experience gained in the process of forming
the Shop Nuclei organization.
5. In answer to the recommendation of the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International that we form international branches of workers of various
language groups, we declare that such action at this time would seriously dis-
turb the structure of our party organization and weaken the Federations, which
are needed to carry on the work of agitation and organization among the work-
ers of the many language groups in this country. We therefore request the
Executive Committee Communist International to reconsider this reconnnenda-
tion and refer it for consideration to the next convention of our Party.
BESOLUTION ON THE AGRICULTURAL WORK OF THE PARTY
The convention approves the initiative of the Central Executive Committee in-
creating an agricultural department of the Party, recognizes the tremendous
importance of Communis^t work among the farmers and instructs the incoming
Central Executive Committee to increase and develop our Party work among
the poor and exploited farmers.
The convention of the Workers Party, as representative of the class-conscious
head of the working class of the United States, sends its warmest greetings
and deepest expression of solidarity to the masses of poor and exploited farmers.
The convention recognizes the heroic struggle of the masses of exploited farm-
ers against monopolistic trust magnates, greedy railroad barons, the parasitic
grain brokers and cotton gamblers. We denounce capitalism, imperialism and
the ever growing menace of state power as the chief cause of the bankruptcy
of hard working farmers. The farmers go baidcrupt because they have to sell
their products at a low price and must buy the industrial products of the mighty
trusts at high prices. At the same time industrial workers receive low wages
and capitalist distribution, controlled by unscrupulous middlemen, forces the
city worker to pay high prices for food. The capitalist press tries thru its lies to
alienate the workers and exploited farmers from each other. The capitalist
press lies to the farmers, telling them that the reason for the high prices on
industrial products is the high wages of the workers. The capitalist press lies
to the workers that the reason of the high cost of living is the high prices of
farm products. The convention of the Workers Party considers it as one of
the most important tasks to speak at once to the workers and exploited farmers
and to destroy the lies which keep them apart, and it declares that only aji
alliance between city workers and exploited farmers can free both from the yoke
of the common enemy, capitalism and the imperialist government.
The convention points out that our whole party membership must recognize
the tremendous revolutionary fact of the revolt of bankrupt farmers. The bank-
ruptcy of millions and millions of farmers is inevitable under the present system.
It is a mistake to think that this bankruptcy is only a temixtrary situation
caused by natural reasons, by bad crops. The present year shows one of the
largest crops the United States has ever seen. But the monopoly of trust was
never as terrible as now, checking the farmers, as it does today. RfjUlons and
millions of farmers are forced to sell their products at less than the cost o£
production. The Department of Agriculture reported that no less than 30 per
cent of the income of the farmers goes for taxes. Secretary Wallace reported
that in fifteen agricultural states of the country not less than 23 percent of the
392 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
owner-farmers are bankrupt. The trend towards tenancy is growing ever faster.
The American farmer comes more and more dangerously near to the condition of
the peasants in old Czarist Russia. Revolutionary farmers in South Dakota, with
bitter sarcasm and despair already call themselves "peasants." Millions and
millions of farmers have deserted the farms during the last two years, and have
gone into industry and into the over-crowded cities. A new proletariat is in
creation before us : Midwestern farmers are the substitute today for the Euro-
pean immigration of unskilled workers. At the same time the capitalist press
advises the bankrupt Midwestern farmers to go to the South and replace the
Negroes who migrated to Northern industry. And President Coolidge revealed
the bankruptcy of the Republican administration in declaring that the only
remedy for the bankrupt formers is for them to help themselves and to build up
decayed cooperatives through patient work.
But the exploited and bankrupt farmers cannot help themselves without the
state power. Half-measure against middlemen cannot bring any radical improve-
ment. The exploited farmers must form an alliance with the workers and
establish a govermnent of workers and farmers. Only a mighty farmer-labor
party can achieve this goal. But we must demand in the interest of the farmers,
a moratorium of at least five years on all debts and mortgages. We must
demand the elimination of absentee landloi-dism, of tenancy, and the establish-
ment of the great principle that the land shall belong to its users. We must
convince the working class that the bankruptcy and expropriation of the masses
of farmers is the greatest menace to the workers themselves. The farmers driven
from their land are streaming into industry, and with their unorganized masses
can become one of the biggest factors in the destructions of the trade unions
in the next economic crisis and period of unemployment. The workers must
recognize that the abandonment of the land by millions of farmers and the
shrinkage of the acreage of cultivated land will cause a serious food shortage
and will diminish the purchasing power of the workers' wages. And lastly,
our Party members must recognize that the Workers Party as a revolutionary
party must establish an alliance with the exploited farmers. If the Workers
Party would neglect that task it would prove that the Workers Party has lost
the vision of establishing a workers and farmers' government, because the
working class of the United States cannot seize and maintain power without the
help of the millions of exploited farmers. It is a utopia to think that we can win
for the revolution the support of Gompers and the labor aristocracy corrupted
by imperialism, but it is revolutionary realism to make every effort to win the
support of the working and exploited farmers.
RESOLUTION ON THE YOUNG WORKERS LE^AGUB
I.
1. The National Convention of the Workers Party of America extends fraternal
greetings to the Young Workers League which is uniting the youth of this
country for the Communist struggle against capitalism.
2. The task of reaching the youth with the message of Communism, of interest-
ing them in our cause and organizing them for the militant struggle against the
existing social order and its oppression and exploitation is of major importance
for the whole CommuuLst movement. In carrying on this work the Young
Workers League is preparing the fighters for Communism who will soon stand
in the ranks of the Party as part of its best fighters.
3. The Young Workers League has during the past year correctly interpreted
its task in extending its work so as to include the education of the children of
the workers and to bring them under Communist intluence and a Communist
environment.
4. The Young Workers League has taken the lead in establishing Shop Nuclei,
thus laying the correct foundation for its organization.
5. The National Convention urges every unit of the party to carefully study
the work of the Young Workers League and to give its utmost co-operation in
supporting this work and thus to strengthen both the youth and children's
movement.
II
1. The present system of representation of the Young Workers League in party
meeting duplicates and pyramids the vote of the members of the Young Workers
League. The constitution of the party is, therefore, amended to provide:
A — City organization of the Young Workers League shall be represented
in city conventions through delegates elected by the City Central Committee
APPENDIX, PART 1 393
of the Young Workers League, the apportionment to be made by the party
organization. Where only one branch of the Y. W. L. exists that branch shall
elect the representatives.
15 — District organizations of the Y. W. L. shall be represented in the District
Conventions of the party through representatives appointed by the District
Committee of the Y. W. L. No branches of city organization shall have
delegates in the District Convention, except in such instances where no Dis-
trict Organization of the Y. W. L. exists. In these cases the City Central
Committee of the hirgest Y. W. L. city organization in the district shall elect
the delegates apportionment to the Y. W. L. District Organization.
BESOLUTION ON THE CI4ASS WAR PRISONERS
As against the long-delayed liberation by President Coolidge, five years after
the ending the World War, of 31 political prisoners, all memliers of the Industrial
AVorkers of the World, we see the federal government rallying all strength pos-
sible to secure the passage of new and ever more vicious and anti-labor
legislation.
The Johnson Bill, now before Congress, that has the endorsement of the
Federal Department of Labor, provides for the punishment up to five years
imprisonment for any alien who shall fail to register with the authorities every
year, giving his name, sex, race, nationality, date and place of birth, age, resi-
dence, marital status and occupation.
This legislation, reminiscent of a Russian czarist tyranny that is gone forever,
also requires all aliens in the United States to be photographed, and to furnish
"such other information as the Secretary of Labor may by regulation prescribe."
For all this "the foreigners" are to be taxed $5.00 at the time of registration.
This attempt to create a super-blacklist of America's workers, especially among
the foreign-born in the great basic industries, is only exceeded by the diabolical
provisions of the Sterling Bill, now in the hands of the judiciary committee of
the United States Senate, seeking to prohibit and punish "certain" seditious acts
against the government of the United States." The Sterling Bill is, in effect,
an anti-syndicalism bill, seeking to duplicate on a national scale the anti-labor
laws now on the statute books of nearly all the states.
The release of the 31 war prisoners is, therefore, but a spur to wage a greater
struggle for the release of L. E. Katterfeld, Israel Blankenstein, Joseph Martino-
witz and Jacob DoUa. in Pennsylvania ; Tom Mooney and Warren K. Billings,
with Ford and Suhr, in California ; Sacco and Vanzetti, in Massachusetts, and
countless others, mostly members of the Industrial Workers of the World, but
also members of the American Federation of Labor, especially the victims of the
coal and railroad barons during the great mine and rail strikes of 1922.
The places of the political prisoners of the World War are now being taken
by the political prisoners of the "peace that was to end all wars." The cells of
Leavenworth Prison, and other federal penitentiaries, are being emptied, but new
victims are about to face the capitalist courts, especially in the pending trials of
Fred H. Merrick and many others, in Pittsburgh, the capital city of Pittsburgh
steel and coal czardom.
Thus dominant capitalism makes a mockery of the constitutionally "guaran-
teed" rights of the free speech and free assemblage as it seeks to bulwark its own
position against the rising working class.
The Communists, ever in the lead in the working class struggle, realize
that pleas to "democracy" will never save the workers from the attempts of the
exploiters to wipe out all labor progress and destroy all traces of working class
organization.
In this struggle, therefore, the Third National Convention of the Workers
Party, pledges its whole-hearted support to every effort to free all the class war
prisoners.
We greet the successful efforts of the Labor Defense Council to combat reaction
in the trials of the Michigan Syndicalist cases, in which a disagreement was
secured in the case of William A. Foster, while the guilty verdict returned against
C. E. Ruthenberg is being appealed to the highest court in the land. We call upon
the members of the Workers Party, and all sympathizing workers everywhere, to
generously contribute to the support of the Labor Defense Council in the tre-
mendous fight it is making for all labor.
We call upon the workers and their organization to support the National De-
fense Committee, now handling the cases of Ben Gitlow and Harry Winitsky,
394 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
involving the constitutionality of all state criminal syndicalist laws. The appeal
is now before the United States Supreme Court. The National Defense
Committee is also fighting the deportation of workers.
We call upon all workers and their organizations to demand the relea.?e of
the injunction victims of the great railroad strike, and of those in prison as a
result of the efforts of the United Mine Workers of America to unionize the coal
fields of West Virginia, Ohio, and other states.
We call upon all workers and their organizations everywhere to unite in one
mighty movement, not only for the release of all the class war prisoners, but
also to secure the abolition of the injunction in labor disputes, to demand the
right of organization to all workers, to fight for the repeal of all anti-labor laws,
and to prevent other infamous legislation, like the Johnson and Sterling Bills,
fj-om being placed upon the statute books of the nation.
EESOLUTTON ON NEGRO QUESTION
The twelve million negroes in the United States constitute an oppressed race,
and as such they require and demand special attention. The American negro
population will be an important factor in the class struggle, a factor which might
be used as a weapon of reaction for the defeat and further en.slavement of Ixtth
themselves and their white brother workers, or which, if enlightened to its own
interests can be a decisive factor for the liberation of the exploited classes of
both colors.
The winning of the negro masses, who toil in industry and in agriculture, to an
aggressive partianship with the white industrial workers and working farmers
is a primary task. Simultaneously, the workers of the white race must be en-
lightened to the giving of complete and equal participation in all forms of the
political and industrial organization of the working class. The elimination of
all race discrimination within the working class movement is preliminary to its
elimination in society as a whole.
The Workers Party pledges itself to strive, both in the process of its regular
work and also by the creation of special organs of press and organization, for
the following ends :
1. Equal rights of negroes to membership in the trade unions.
2. Equal wages to negroes.
3. Complete restoration of the right of the ballot, the right to hold political
office, the right to assemble and to organize, in the South as well as the North.
4. Drastic action to punish and suppress lynching of negroes in the South and
elsewhere, depriving local and state authorities of jurisdiction in this matter
which must become a national responsibility.
5. National legal measures for the abolition, under severe i^enalty, of all dis-
crimination against negroes in every form of public service.
G. Abolition of all discrimination against negroes in housing.
The Workers Party will combat all movements which seek to induce the negroes
meekly to submit to the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and similar organisations,
and will encourage the negroes in resistance to such terrorism.
The Workers Party will oppose among the negroes all movements looking to the
surrender of the negroes' rights in this country, such as the "Back to Africa"
movement, which is only an evasion of the real struggle and an excuse to sur-
render the negroes' rights in their native land, America. The United States is
the home of the American negro, and the Workers Party champions his full, free
and equal partnership with his white brothers in the future society.
The emancipation of the negro can be attained only in the emancipation of
the working class as a whole. A fixed rigid status and the traditions of slavery
bind the negro as a whole to the working class. Even where individual negroes.
in spite of all handicaps, raise themselves to the condition of the bourgeoisie, they
are not permitted to enjoy the fruits of their success in equality with the white
members of the same class. The negro is condemned, while the capitalist class-
system prevails, to a common interest with the working class. It is reasonable
to expect, therefore, that this suppressed race, as was the case with suppressed
races in Europe, will ultimately play a large role in the future social upheaval.
The Workers Party invites the attention of all negroes interested in the
emancipation of their' people, to the program of this Party. Intelligent and sin-
cere negroes of the working class are urged to organize themselves into the ranks
of the regular branches of the Workers Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 395
AMENDMENTS TO THE PAETT CONSTITUTION ADOPTED
Article 1, Section 1, to read: The name of this organization shall be the
Workers Party of America. Its purpose shall be to educate and organize the
working class for abolition of capitalism through the establishment of a Workers
and Farmers' Republic.
Section, Article 3, to read : Every member shall join a duly constituted
branch of the Party if such exists in the territory where he lives or works.
Section 4, Article 6, to read : Delegates to the National Convention shall be
elected by district conventions. Branches in organized cities may elect dele-
gates to the city convention. City Conventions shall elect delegates to the district
conventions.
New Section 9, of Article 6 : Delegates to district conventions must have been
members of the party for one year. Delegates to National Conventions must
liave been members of the party for two years. Delegates to City Conventions
must have been members of the party for six months.
Section 2, Article 7, amended to read : The Central Executive Committee
shall consist of 13 members, twelve shall be elected by the convention and the
N. E. C. of the Y. W. L. shall elect one member. The convention shall also elect
seven alternates.
Section 8, Article 8, amended to read : Tlie Branch shall consist of members,
as provided in Article III, Sectional. It shall elect an executive committee,
branch organizer, industrial organizer, delegates to the City Central Committee
and such other officers as may be considered necessary.
Section 2, Article 9, to read : There shall be only one section in each language,
and all language branches must affiliate with their respective language sections.
Section 6, Article 9, amended to read : The Central Execative Committee shall
have the right to disapprove the members elected by the Conference of the
language bureaus and fill such vacancies.
Section 5, Article II, amended to read : Members unable to pay dues or
assessments on account of unemployment, etc.
Members of The Central Executive Committee of the W. P. Elected by the
Convention of 1923-24
Alexander Bittelmau Benjamin Gitlow
Earl Browder Ludwig Lore
Fable Buhrman Jay Lovestone
James P. Cannon John Pepper
William F. Dunne C. E. Ruthenberg
J. Louis Engdahl Y. W. L. representative
William Z. Foster
Exhibit No. 24
tSource: The Daily Worker, Chicago, Sunday, January 13, 1924, page 1. From an article
entitled "Here Is 'The Daily'!"]
*******
Now, in this first issue of The Daily Worker, we join hands with the comrades
of the Communist International in declaring that the Daily is but "The fore-
runner of more revolutionary dailies in other parts of the country."
Exhibit No. 25'
{Source: The Daily Worker, Chicago, Monday, February 25, 1924, page 1. From an
article entitled "Workers Party In Call to All Sections of Party to Celebrate CI
Anniversary"]
*******
The Communist International issued a manifesto urging all parties in sym-
pathy with it and following the leadership of the Communist International to
arrange anniversary meetings . . .
Our party must on March 5th demonstrate its loyalty and support to the
Communist International as will the Communist Parties all over the world.
On that day every party organization in each city must arrange a great mass
meeting to celebrate the anniversary. All our Party papers are instructed to
issue special anniversary editions on March 5th.
396 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The whole party must mobilize its strength at once for these anniversary meet-
ings. The time is short, but we must make them a great demonstration of the
American workers in support of the leading body of the world revohition — ^The
Communist International.
(signed) C. E. Ruthenbebg,
Executive Secretary, Workers Party.
Exhibit No. 26
[Source: The Worker, New York, Saturday, April 28, 1923, page 6. From an editorial,
"Our Second May Day"]
But this year's May Day will also be remembered as the time when the
Workers Party appears in the world arena of the class struggle as the American
Section of the Communist International.
Exhibit No. 27
[Source: Tlie Worker, New York, Saturday, September 8, 1923, page 1. Cablegram to
Ruthenberg from Zinoviev]
Aug. 28, 1923.
Moscow 40 310 PM
Ruthenberg 799 Broadway NY.
Know no more important task American w^orkers than establishment militant
daily. This should be rallying point for concentration all forces pi'esent time.
Only after foundation daily will Comintern consider we have real mass party
America.
Zinoviev.
Exhibit No. 28
[Source: The Worker, New York, Saturday, Marcli 24, 1923, page 5. From a "Statement
by the Workers Party"]
:t: ^ :{: iK ^ ^ 4:
3. The convention of the Technical Aid shall be postponed pending the final
decision of the Communist International . . .
All comrades who are active in the Technical Aid shall not forget for one
instant that first of all they are party members, and first of all they must
therefore obey party discipline.
(signed) C. E. Ruthenberg,
Executive Secretary.
Exhibit No. 29
[Source : The Worker, New York, Saturday, April 7, 1923, page 2. From an article
entitled, "Communist Principles on Trial in Person of Foster in Michigan"]
*******
The Defense do'ps not contend that the Conimunists say the workers can
achieve power and dominate the government as the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat, without the use of force, either in achieving power or in protecting
their rule after it is established. The Communist viewpoint that great histor-
ical changes have never come without a resort to force is boldly avowed, but
is declared that this use of force must resolve out of the social and economic
conditions, that Communists are not bomb throwers nor do they incite the
workers to isolated acts of violence.
APPENDIX, PAttT 1 397
Exhibit No. 30
'[Source: xlie Worker, New York, Saturday, April 21, 1023, page 1. From an article
entitled "Foster Verdict Triumph for Communism in United States," by C. E. Rutlien-
berg]
The evidence bronght before the jury in the form of the official documents
of the Comnuini.st Party frankly stated in Connnunist viewpoint tiiat the class
struggle inevitably develops into an open struggle between contending classes
and that the ultimate phase of the struggle between workers and capitalists
would involve a resort to force . . .
What the Communists have done, and what they insist is their right, is to
express their view, based upon liistorical precedents, that no privileged class
has ever given up its power without a resort to force and that the class strtiggle
between workers and capitalists will follow this historic precedent.
Exhibit No. 31
[Source: Excerpts from "'Fifth Congress of the Communist International, Abridged
Report of Meetings held at Moscow June 17th to July 8th, 1924." I'ublished for The
Communist International by the Communist Party of Great Britain, 16, King Street,
Covent Garden, W. C. 2]
*******
The first session of the Fifth Congress of the Communist International was
held in the Grand Theatre, Moscow, jointly with representatives of the workers,
Red Army and Navy, Young Communists and Pioneers. Nimierous delegations
from factories came to greet the Congress.
Comrade Kolarov was in the Chair.
Comrade Milutin, in the name of all the delegations, proposed the following
comrades for the Presidium of the Congress : Comrade Zinoviev, Chairman ;
Clara Zetkin : Comrades Stalin, Btikharin, Trotsky (Russian) ; Braun, Gebhardt
(German) ; Treint, Sellier (France) ; Bordiga (Italy) ; Smeral, Muna (Czecho
-Slovakia) ; Kolarov (Balkans) ; Kraevsky (Poland) ; Katayama (Japan) — (a
voice: Long live the peoples of the East) — Roy (India); Stewart (Great
Britain); Dunne (America). Secretariat: Piatnitski, MacManus, Neurath,
Doriot, Stirner. (Applause.) The Presidium and the Secretariat were approved
unanimously.
... It was under the banner of Marx that the Comintern was called into
existence and under the leadership of Lenin that the Comintern fotight and built
up its organisations. I believe, comrades, that our Congress can have no greater
honour than to recognise that it is our duty to follow that path which Vladimir
Ilyitch Lenin has pointed out for the world proletariat and for the international
revolution, [page 5]
* * * * * * ^
The delegates marched to the Red Square led by a band of the Red Army,
where already thousands of Moscow workers, delegated by the factories, wath
bands and iimumerable red banners, had assembled in order to hear the report
on "Lenin and the Comintern." Arrived at the grave of Comrade Lenin, the
delegates to the Congress tiled past the bier of our dead leader. The delegates
from .52 countries, from all parts of the globe, many of whom had seen him
last in Zimmerwald and Kienthal, many who had seen him at the height of his
work, and many who saw him now for the first time lying embalmed on the
bier, gazed at Vladimir Ilyitch Lenin. He lay in the coffin, his face pale, but
almost unchanged, as though he only slept. It was a mournful and yet noble
sight, the mortal shell of the man who had given the greatest to mankind,
[page 8]
*******
. . . The Third International was founded by Lenin and in spite of all diffi-
culties, it will force its path from Russia through Europe and through the whole
world. Under the symbol of Lenin, we shall defeat the bourgeoisie of the whole
"world and the red flag will fly not only over Moscow but over Berlin and over
the whole globe. Leninism will bring the victory of the world revolution !
(Applause. )
398 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
... It was Lenin who created a real international. It was Lenin who was
able to rally rouiul himself not only the proletariat of Europe and America but
also the oppressed and exploited of the colonies and semi-colonies. We know
that world revolution will triumph only under the banner of Leninism. (Long
live Leninism !) (Applause.) [page 9]
Exhibit No. 32
[Source: Excerpts from "Workers (Communist) Party of America, the Fourth National
Convention," held in Chicago, Illinois, August 21-30, 1925 ; published by Daily Worker
Publishing Company, 1113 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago, Illinois: 1025]
4: H: ;!: H: 4: :<: A
In this hour, the Workers (Communist I Party of America, knowing its duty
and ready to act with vigor and decision, pledges anew to the workers and
pea.sants of Soviet Russia its every effort to defend and advance the world
proletarian revolution, to support Soviet Russia and its allies among the world's
exploited and oppressed, to extend and intensify the movement for recognition
of Soviet Russia by the Amei'ican capitalist government on th«> basis of the
common interests of the workers and poor farmers of America with the workers
and peasants of Soviet Russia. We .shall make all efforts to prevent a new
militant attack upon the U. S. S. R. and to hold aloft the banner of the
Proletarian Dictatorship of the American bourgeoisie. (Adopted unanimously.)
[Page 142]
*******
Thru six years our Party has held aloft the banner of Communism and the
Communist International in the United States . . .
Long live the Communist International.
Resolution adopted unanimously. [Page 166]
Exhibit No. 33
[Source : Excerpts from "The Communist International, Between the I<"^fth & the Sixth
World Congresses — 1924-8." Published by the Communist Party of Great Britain, 16,
King St., Covent Garden, W. C. 2. : July, 1928]
In its work in reorganising the Parties on the basis of factory groups, the
Organising Department chiefly concerned its attention on the Communist Parties
of the major capitalist countries, namely, Germany, France, Czecho-Slovakia,
Great Britain, and the United States. [Page 14]
:|E * * * * * *
As a result of the reorganisation of the Workers' (Communist) Party of
America on the basis of factory groups, the ground has been prepared for a
radical organic reconstruction of the entire party. Formerly the Workers'
Party was a federation of nineteen practically independent Communist Parties
with their own Central Committee and local organisations, their own Party
press, etc. After their organisation on the factory group basis, this federation
of nineteen Parties has been transformed into one centralised Communist Party.
[Page 16]
*******
Suffice it to mention the United States, where in August 1927, there were 25
factory newspapers with a circulation of 59,000 copies. . . . The Organising
Department of the E. C. C. I. devoted attention to the question of factory news-
papers. During the period covered by the report a large number of general
and individual letters have been sent to the Parties, instructions have been
given in conversation with Party representatives, criticisms of factory news-
papers of the various countries have been published, etc. [Pages 20, 21]
*******
The Organising Department has elaborated material in regard to the in-
dividual countries and has held a series of conferences with the representatives
of individual countries and groups of countries. [Page 29]
APPENDIX, PART 1 399
In order to make a through [sic] study of the most important questions con-
nected with the re-organisation of the Communist Parties on a factory group
basis, the Organising Department convened two International Organisation
conferences in the period covered by tlie report (one at tlie time of the Fifth
and another at the time of the Sixth Enlarged Plenum of the E. C. C. I.). These
eonferences were attended by Organisational workers of the most important
national sections belonging to the C. I., workers from the central committees
as well as organising workers from the lower party organisations .... the
Organising Department made a special point of utilising every visit of Party
representatives for getting supplementary information about the organising work
of the respective Communist Parties . . . [page 32]
*******
The main method of work of the Organising Department was systematic
instruction of the brother parties. This instructing was done in tliree ways :
(a) through correspondence; (b) through instructors; (c) through workers
from the Department.
Instruction by cori'espondence is carried on on the basis of the material
received from the Parties which describes their organising work (reports, reso-
lutions, the Party press, oral reports, etc.). The Organising Department in its
replies, addressed to the Organising Department of the C. C. points out all the
defects in the organising work of the Party noticed on the strength of the
received information, it explains how they can be overcome ... In some cases
the Organising Department takes upon itself the initiative in setting new
organisational tasks in the Party . . . [pages 32, 33]
*******
As to international guidance and support of the Party press, it has consisted
mainly in supplying the press of the individual sections with information . . .
It should be, however, pointed out that the 'Inprecorr," as the leading inter-
national press organ, is publishing valuable material on all international ques-
tions, and is supporting the press of the small Sections in its capacity of an
officials' organ ; it is developing into a platform for the practical exchange of
experience in the sphere of agitation and propaganda work, [page 37]
*******
Conversations took place with comrades present here in the course of which
the agitprop work of the C. P. of France and of the United States was very
fully discussed . . . [page 38]
*******
Information about the Soviet Union occupied a special place; all Parties were
supplied with this in a bulletin which published authentic matei-ial. [page 39]
*******
Since the beginning of 1927, the following campaigns have been carried out
with the support of the agitation sub-department :
Lenin Week, 1927.
The Anniversary of the February Revolution.
May Day, 1927.
The Tenth Anniversary of the October Revolution.
Lenin Week, 1928.
Tlie Tenth Anniversary of the Red Army.
. . . There were also compaigns [sic] against White terror and the execution
of Sacco and Vanzetti . . .
For May Day, material of an historical character was issued . . .
An attempt was also made to place pictures and other illustration-material at
the disposal of the Parties ; a series of diagrams on construction under ten
years of Soviet rule were sent to all Parties, and the biggest legal Parties were
supplied with small exhibitions for the Tenth Anniversary, [pages 40, 41]
*******
The supply of the Party press with useful material, which was done first and
foremost through the "Inprecorr," proved to be the best way of influencing it.
Although the "Inprecorr" is not a very adequate substitute for a press corre-
spondence, it does serve as an information organ for the editorial boards of the
provincial press and for the press of the smaller Parties, and facilitates their
work. [iDage 42]
400 UN-AIMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The agitation snb-clepartment has endeavoured to influence this work, not so
much by circulars and letters as by criticism in tlie press, and particularly in
the "Inprecorr," as well as by direct contact with their places of origin . . .
In connection with individual campaigns it has always been pointed out that
the agitation sub-department endeavours to place illustration material at the
disposal of the Parties . . .
Particular stress was laid on the necessity of increased propaganda of
Leninism and of the publication of Lenin's works in foreign languages,
[page 44]
« * * * « 4: 4e
All the sessions of the Executive of the E. C. C. I. were utilised for propa-
ganda purposes by sending out to the Parties suitable syllabuses for courses and
methodical instruction . . .
Much of the current propaganda work has been concentrated on the ideological
struggle against Trotskyism . . . The more important material published in
the Russian press was properly abbreviated and elaborated for publication in
the Communist press ... a plan of courses was elaborated in connection with
the Lenin Week, 1928, which contained a reasoned argument against Trot-
skyism . . .
The British, Czech and American Parties have also held central schools which
were supported by the Propaganda Sub-Department of the E. C. C. I. ))y the
drawing up of syllabuses on various subjects in the sphere of Leninism, and by
instructions on organisation and method. [page 45]
Exhibit No. 34
[Source: Excerpt from The Worker, New York, March 18. 1022, page 6. From an
editorial entitled "Individual Acts of Terrorism"]
« « * # # 3!; 4:
The official position of the Communist International, as adopted at its Third
•Congress, held June 22nd-July 12th. 1921. is as folloAvs :
"With regard to acts of White Terror and the fury of bourgeois justice, the
Communist Party must warn the workers not he deceived, during crises, by an
enemy appeal to their leniency, but to demonstrate proletarian morality by acts
of proletarian justice, in settling with the oppressors of the workers.
"But in times when the workers are only v>repi^i'iiig themselves, when they
have to be mobilized by agitation, political campaigns and strikes, armed force
may be used solely to defend the masses from bourgeois outrages.
"Individual acts of terrorism, however they may demonstrate the revolu-
tionary rancor of the masses, however justified they may be as acts of retribu-
tion against the lynch law of the bourgeoisie and its social democratic flunkeys,
are in no way apt to raise the workers to a higher level of organization, or
make them better prepared to face the struggle.
"Acts of sabotage are only justified when they can only serve the purpose
of hindering the dispatch of enemy troops against the workers and of con-
quering important strategic points from the enemy in direct combat."
We publish this statement for the benefit of our readers. The capitalist
press will not publish it the next time they launch an attack on the Communist
movement. We do not expect the hell hounds of the system, commonly known
as secret service operatives, to have brains enough to understand it. But the
workers will learn and act accordingly.
Exhibit No. 35
[Source: The Worker, New York, Saturday, .Tune 17, 1022, page 4. Excerpt from the
"Theses of the Enlarged Committee of the Communist International" — incorporated in
an article entitled "Against the Next ^Yar the \Vorld Revolution"]
*******
Tliis realization will prevent the crippling and paralysis of the proletariat's
revolutionary fighting energy, a danger which is closely connected with the
propaganda of bourgeois pacifism.
For it would be very detrimental to the proletarian struggle for liberation
if the working-class were to disarm imder the influence of such propaganda
instead of arming and fighting on with increasing energy.
Nebulous pacifist and sentimental hopes should not displace the clear realiza-
tion that the bourgeoisie is able to rule and exploit thanks to the control of
the creative and destructive means of production.
APPENDIX, PART 1 401
The proletariat must acquire the control of both of these if it is to free itself
from exploitation and serfdom.
But since its freedom is denied it by force of arms, it must acquire and
defend it by force of arms. It nuist deprive the property-owning class of the
military as well as of the political machines, and reconstruct them to serve,
its own demands and historical task.
Exhibit No. 36
[Soured : The Worker. Xew York. Saturday, November 4, 1922, page 2. Prom an article
entitled "The Russian Revolution and tlie American Communist Movement," by C. E.
Ruthenbergi Secretary of the \Vorkers I'artyl
It was the Russian Revolution — the Bolshevik Revolution of November 7,
1917 — which created the American Conununist Movement. There had been a left
wing in the Socialist Party for a decade or more . . .
Marx had said that in the development of the proletariat we could trace
■"more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point
where the war breaks ovit into open revolution, and where the violent over-
throw of the bourgeoisie lays the fondation [sic] for the sway of the prole-
tariat." He had said that "There lies between the capitalist and communist
society a period of revolutionary transformation of one into the other. This
period has a corresponding political period of transition, during which the State
can be nothing else than a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat." . . .
The Comnuinist Movement in the United States — just as elsewhere in the
world, owes its existence, its clarity of ptirpose to the splendid demonstration
of the correctness of the principles laid down by Karl Marx given by the Rus-
sian workers in their victory on November 7, 1917 and in the scores of great
victories which the Proletarian Distarorship has won since that time.
Withotit the Russian Revolution there would have been no Communist Move-
ment in the United States. There would have been no clear grasp of the gnid-
iiig principles which will lead the workers to victory and their emancipation.
In celebration of the 5th Anniversary of the victory of tlie Rtissian workers
we should not only have in our minds the determination, the will, the courage,
the willingness, to suffer for their cause which has thus far maintained the
power of the Soviets, but also the contribution they liave made to our cause
in showing us the road we must travel to win our victory and establish the
proletarian sway in the United States.
Exhibit No. 37
f Source: The Worker, Saturday, September 16, 1922, page 4. Excerpt from "Manifesto
of the Communist Party of America"]
*******
We know very well that capitalism cannot be abolished without the use of
force.
The capitalist magnates will hand over power to the workers only as willingly
and a.s peacefully as the British Crown and Feudal Forces handed it over to the
American bourgeoisie in 1776, and as peacefully and as willingly as the Southern
slave-owners freed their Negro slaves in the Civil War.
Indeed, we openly proclaim that the industrial and agricultural workers, who,
being the vast majority of the population of this country, have a right to estab-
lish their own rule, with force if need be, against the rule of the small group
of trust magnates and capitalists generally.
Exhibit No. 38
[Source: The Worker. New York, Saturday. November 4, 1922, page 5. From an article
entitled, "The ^^■orkers Party and the Russian Revolution," by J. Louis Engdahl]
******:(!
The men and women ol labor, allied with the Workers' Party, feel that they
have good cause for elation on this epoch-making anniversary in the struggle
for Conununism in Soviet Russia, since they have accomplished the greatest task
04!(31 — 40 — app., pt. 1 — —27
4Q2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the birth-year of the party,— the achievement of real unity among all American
working-class elements drawing their inspiration from the Russian Revolution
and accepting the leadership of the Communist International in the world-wide
onslaught against capitalism.
Exhibit No. 39
[Source : The Worker, New York, Saturday, December 2. 1922, page 5. From an article
entitled, "Here Is Proposed Program for Workers Party ; It Will Be Presented to
Convention Dec. 25th"]
*******
The Woi-kers Party declares its sympathy with the principles of the Com-
munist International and enters the struggle against American capitalism,
the most powerful of the national groups, under the inspiration of the leader-
ship of the Communist International.
Exhibit No. 40
[Source : The Worker, New York, Saturday. December 16, 1922, page 1. Excerpt from a
cablegram from Gregory Zinoviev to C. E. Ruthenberg, Secretary, Workers Party]
*******
We decisively condemn frivolous breach of discipline against Central Com-
mittee of Workers Party . . . We request all Jewish branches and members
carry out decisions of Central Committee Workers Party to re-establish unity,
otherwise Central Committee would have to carry out energetically immediate
disciplinary measures against leaders of revolt.
ZINOAIEV.
Exhibit No. 41
[Source: The Worker, New York, January 13, 1923, page 5]
******
THE NEW PARTY PROGRAM
By H. M. Wicks
..* * * When you formulate platforms of principles then you establish landmarks
by which all the world will gauge the height of the party movement." — Karl Marx.
The new party program, prepared as a tentative document and published re-
cently in The Worker, was adopted unanimously by the Second National Conven-
tion of the Workers Party without dissenting criticism and but few minor changes.
There is a plain statement of the character of the capitalist state as an instru-
ment of oppression against the working class. Starting from this premise the
inevitable Communist conclusion is reached that this instrument must be wrested
from the hands of the ruling class and in its place must be established the dictator-
ship of the proletariat thru the Soviet form of government.
There is no equivocation or evasion of the historical destiny of the capitalist
class, nor is there any attempt to camouflage the character of the proletarian state.
The new program leaves no doubt in the mind of the worker as to what is
meant when we refer to the "Workers' Republic" in our propaganda.
Exposes Fake Democracy
The section dealing with "Election Campaigns and American Democracy" is a
real achievement as a contribution to the American movement. The delusion of
democracy under capitalism that holds large numbers of workers under its sway
is effectively di.sposed of in a few compelling sentences.
There is to be no following in the footsteps of those enemies of the working
class, the Bergers, Hillquits and Oneals, of the discredited Socialist Party, who
delude the workers with the idea that the road to power can be found by travel-
ing the way of bourgeois democracy.
APPENDIX, PART 1 403
"The Workers Party will destroy the illusion fostered by the yellow Socialists
and Reformists that the workers can achieve their emancipation from the oppres-
sion and exploitation of capitalism thru the election of a majority of members of
the legislative bodies of the capitalist government and the executive officials of
that government by using the existing government to establish the new social
order."
The program does not stop at the mere statement of fact regarding the inability
of the revolutionary proletariat to use the capitalist state apparatus but presents'
evidence that proves conclusively the impossibility of this state ever responding to.
the will of the majority of the population. The U. S. Constitution, about which
we hear so much from the defenders of capitalism, instead of being an instrument
protecting the majority of the population is merely a class instrument conceived
by exploiters of labor that thwarts the will of the majority.
Even tho there is an explanation of the manner in which the constitution
prevents tlie expression of majority opinion if it conflicts with the interests of the
capitalist class, the program contains no plea for the abstract "rights" of ma-
jorities and minorities, but plainly declares in favor of the rule of the thirty mil-
lion workers in the United States. There is no sickly plea for the rule of that
metaphysical entity known as "the people" but a clear statement that the present
government of theUnited States, thru which the capitalist class imposes its will
upon the working class must be wrested from the hands of our enemies and In
its place must be established the direct rule of the wage workers of America thru
a Soviet government of the United States.
The Labor Party
Reflirming the stand of the Workers Party in favor of the creation of a Labor
Party, the program clearly explains the historical necessity for such a Party in
the United States at this time. But this Labor Party must stand definitely upon
the ground of the class struggle and be independent of and opposed to all capital-
ist parties.
Such a Labor Party can be formed only thru the labor unions and it is in these
bodies that the Workers Party will fight for the creation of such a Party. At the
same time the birth of a Labor Party will not mean that the Workers Party will
lose its identity in the process of the working class uniting upon the political field.
Instead of submerging itself in tho Labor Party it will retain its identity and
become an autonomous unit of the larger Party.
Likewise the work in the labor unions will be directed toward creating more
militant sentiment on the part of the rank and tile of labor in order to strengthen
the unions so that they can more effectively wage the struggle against the ruling
class and also against the reactionary leaders of labor unions who constantly
betray the rank and file of labor into the hands of the insatiable capitalist class.
Revolutionary Progress
The height of the party movement can be gauged by the program just adopted
in convention and it speaks eloquently for the Party progress that has been made
during the past year.
The new program is the scientific application of the principles of communism
to conditions as they exist in thi.s country today.
It is a program upon which all the revolutionary elements in the United States
can honestly unite, and there is no doubt that before another year rolls by every
thorogoing revolutionist will be enrolled under the banner of the AVorkers Party
for the purpose of hastening the day when that program will become the basis
for the rule of the working class in this country.
Exhibit No. 42
[Source: The Worker, New York, March 3, 1923, pa^e 5. Central Executive Committee of
U. S. Communist Party Replies to Executive Committee of Communist International]
* * * ^ if ^ ^t
The C. E. C. will carry out the decisions of the C. I. not only out of discipline
but because of full conviction of their correctness.
404 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 43
r Source: The Worker, New York, Saturday, February 24. lOii.3. page 5. From Statement
of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the American Ques-
tion]
*******
The Fourth Congress and the new Executive of the Communist International
are of the opinion that the American communists must commence a new chapter
in their work. Illegality for the sake of illegality must cease. The main
efforts must he devoted to work on the legal field. This is what the Communist
Intenatioual [sic] now categorically demands * * *
These are the instructions given you by the Executive. All this, however,
can be carried out only on the condition tliat the factional struggle, the
struggle between the various groups, be brought to an end. We have now to
carry out a most important political measure. The party will be able to
carry out this task only when it is properly disciplined, and when it marches
along the path indicated, like one man. The tasks that now confront the
American Party are so important that we frankly declare : He, who refuses to
adopt these tactics, let him leave the Party !
The Communist International demands discipline. On the basis of its ex-
perience the Communist International assures the American comrades that,
if they raise no difficulty with regard to the policy indicated above, the
Communist Party of America, with the help of the Communist International,
will in a short time achieve great success. The situation is so serious and
the injury caused by factional struggle so great that the Executive Committee
has resolved to take the most energetic measures against all those who will
hamper the carrying out of the aliove dicisions. Unity and discipline, on
the basis of the decisions of the Communist International, arrived at after
mature thought — this is what the Exectitive Committee demands from all
American comrades without exception.
With Communist Greetings.
Executive Committer of the Communist International.
Exhibit No. 44
[Source: The Worker, June 2, 1923, page 4]
• ••»*«•
THE SOVIET GOVERNMENT AND THE THIKD INTERNATIONAL
By H. M. Wicks
The New York Times and other organs of World Imperialism have volun-
teered the role of spokesmen for the jingoes of Great Britain in its diplomatic
misunderstanding with Soviet Russia. These American publications brand the
Soviet diplomats liars for asserting that the Soviet government has not done
anything in the Far East, except to endeavor to maintain friendly relations
with the governments there. The Soviet note to Britain categorically denies
that the government works thru the Third International for the purpose of
utilizing the unrest for Communist purposes.
"It is inconceivable," says the Times, "that the Third International should
attempt to inspire insurrection against British rule in the Far East without
the connivance, or at least the silent consent, of the Soviet Government."
The Times must get its information regarding the relation of the Soviet
Government to the Third International from the stool pigeons on the Jew-
ish Daily Forward and the New York Call, who sabotaged famine relief becattse
they feared they might be inadvertantly aiding the Conuuunist International.
As a matter of fact the Communist International is in no sense an adjunct of
the Soviet Government of Russia. The Executive of the Communist Inter-
national is composed of representatives of every Communist Party in the w(u-ld,
and it is concerned with the preservation and perpetuation of the Soviet Gov-
ernment only to the extent that every class conscious worker recognizes that
Government as the outpost of the World Revolution. But if the Soviet Govern-
ment should cease to exist tomorrow, the Communist International wotild still
APPENDIX, PART 1 405
exist and carry on revolutionary propaganda in every part of the earth where
capitalism has extended its power.
The Soviet Government has no power to either give or withold consent for the
Third International to propagate Communism anywhere. Nor would the Russian
Comnmnists who represent their Party in the Councils of the Tliird Interna-
tiona! over propose such an absurdity, to please the diplomats of old Europe or
of America, anymore than tliey would request the Communist International and
the Red International of Labor Unions to cease agitation against the Second,
the Vienna 2V2 or the Am-sterdara Internationals because it displeases the yellow
servants of Imperialism masquerading as leaders of Labor.
Soviet Russia can offer certain concessions to capitalist P>ritain and to other
capira.list countries that will be mutually advantageous, but the Communist
International exists for the one purpose of waging unceasing warfare against
every capitalist government on the face of the earth, and utilizing every form
of discontent for the purpose of furthering the interests of the World Revolution.
Exhibit 45
[Source: The Worker, Septemben 15, 1923, page 4]
9K ^ ^ ^ ak itE 41
THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL, THE EMANCIPATOR, OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE
Workers Party Is Praised for Its Initiative and Work Since the Fourth Congress
Note — In this space each week "The Worker" is publishing, in instalment
form, a report of the recent Enlarged Executive Committee Meeting of the
Communist International. Each instalment takes up a separate question
treated by the world gathering of Communists at Moscow, a gathering that
received but scant attention in the daily press. This week's instalment takes
up the question " 'Democratic Centralism' Misunderstood." It is as follows :
"Democratic Centralism" Misunderstood
Several slogans of the Communist International have been misunderstood
and consequently have produced confusion in the ranks of the Communist
parties. Thus, the issue of the "United Front" was misconceived, and as a
result it was misapplied. "Democratic Centralism" has not been understood
in Scandinavia ; particularly in Norway. Norway, therefore, played a con-
siderable role at the Enlarged Executive. The lessons that are to be drawn
from this case will be wholesome for the entire Communist movement.
The Norwegian Labor Party is an anomaly in the Communist International.
It is made up of trade unions, individual membership being an exception.
Altho instructions had been given to the Norwegian comrades to transform
the party into one of individual membership, they continually asked for time^
which was granted. But in seeking for time, the comrades were impelled by
two different motives. One faction, of syndicalist origin, is instinctively op-
posed to centralism, even when it is qualified as "democratic," with all the
rights and privileges that democracy has within the field of centralism as
understood in the Communist International. The other, an opportunist and not
thoroly Communist faction, opposes centralism, because of an unwillingness to
accept instructions that will give uniformity to the Communist movement.
The discussion of the Norwegian question, which was the discussion of
"Democratic Centralism," revealed several more spots. Within the Norwegian
Labor Party is a group of students who issue a magazine called the "Mot Dag."
This group is only partially communistic, and yet has exerted considerable in-
fluence over the party. This has beeu an influence that not only demanded
autonomy for the Norwegian Party, but also assumed a most dangerous aspect,
in that some of its members manifest anti-semitism.
The discussion demanded evidence : and the evidence was produced. Articles,
statements, and the arguments made at the Conference itself, particularly by
a member of the "Mot Dag" group, demonstrated that an element was at work
in the Norwegian party that would be harmful to the whole Scandinavian
movement.
406 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
What are the limits of "centralism?" What are the rights of "democracy"
within this centralism? It is clear that, since the expansion of imperialism on
an international scale, it has become increasingly necessary for the proletariat
to have an international organization and international direction, if it is to gain
power. The workers of the separate countries cannot fight their battles alone
against the internationally organized capitalists. It is extremely difficult to
differentiate between national and international lines. Is the Ruhr question
a matter concerning only the German party, or one concerning the French
party alone? Or is it not rather an international question, involving not
only these two parties, but the British, Belgian, and Italian parties as well?
Who should coordinate the activities of these parties, if not the Communist
International? To whom should be left the question of tactics and strategy:
the separate parties — or should not rather the Communist International, as the
sole body that has an international survey, direct the actinu : Did the Italian
question concern only the Italian comrades, and therefore did not concern
the Communist International; or did not the very failure of the Commtmist
Party of Italy to get together with the Socialist Party, lead to the violent
reaction that dominated Italy and encouraged the White Guards of other coun-
tries to follow in the path of Mussolini?
Zinoviev Lauds Workers Party
And surely, as Zinoviev pointed out in his report, the interference and ue-
cision of the Communist International in the American question at the Fourth
Congress, to the effect that the Communist Party of America, in obedience to
the conditions prevailmg in the country, must come out into the open, were
based on the idea of "democratic centralism: on the right and duty of the
Communist International to interfere in what appears to be purely national
questions, when a settlement cannot be effected by comrades themselves. The
American delegates to the Enlarged Executive covild only confirm and applaud
the fact that the decision of the Communist International had reinforced and
solidified the party, which today is working as a unit. Zinoviev praised the
activity of tlie Workers Party of America, which showed that it had the
insight and will to lead the workers.
What then are the rights of democracy? There are problems that are purely
national — administrative and technical. The Communist International has not
and does not intend to interfere in such matters — provided they can be settled
within the country itself. But there are times when the Comintern is too
mild, too unwilling to interfere. The Comintern has allowed the British Party
to carry on without interference too long, so that today the British Party is
unable to function. Well might the British comrades have asserted that the
British affair is an affair entirely British. But they have taken a different
view, and seeing that they cannot settle tlie matter and that the advice and
experience of the Communist International, of the representatives of all coun-
tries and not the Russian comrades alone, will serve best in unraveling the
entanglements into which they have fallen, they have come to the Communist
International for settlement of their problems.
Not grasping the nature of "Democratic Centralism," the Norwegian and
Swedish Parties demanded that the members of the Executive Committee of
the Communist International be elected by the respective countries, and not
by the Congress of the Communist International. This is a species of federalism
tliat is intolerable and inconsistent with Communist principles, which demand
that the Communist International be a REAL international and not one com-
posed of federated bodies. It must have in its Executive not men who are
responsible to their National Executives, but men responsible to the highest
body in the world, the Congress of the Communist International. Hence the
Executive must be composed of men whom tlie Congress considers fit for di-
recting the affairs of the whole revolutionary movement of the world.
The Norwegian question and the question of "Democratic Centralism" were
the occasion of the most heated discussion, in which the Norwegian comrade,
participant in the "Mot Dag" group, assumed a challenging and defiant atti-
tude, and accused the Comintern of being responsible for any trouble that has
arisen or might arise in the Norwegian Labor Party.
It was discovered, however, that he was riding on a wave of a majority of
two votes (94 to 92) which his faction secured at the last convention of the
Norwegian Party. Altho his faction also included the syndicalistically inclined
comrades, it was clear that the syndicalists and especially their leader are an
integral part of the life and history of the Norwegian Labor Party, with char-
APPENDIX, PART 1 407
acteristics that time and experience will eliminate. In tbe opposition however,
were a large part of the Party and the Young Communists, who pledged their
support to the Communist International.
The united demonstration of the Enlarged Executive, who accused the Nor-
wegian comrade, Comrade Falk, of applying disruptive tactics and of being
m.ade of the stufe of which fascists are made, because of his anti-semitism,
revealed clearly what the stand of the parties of the world is on this most
vital factor in international revolutionary action and strategy — "democratic
centralism."
Next Week : — "The Religious Question Cannot Be Ignored By Communists."
Exhibit No. 46
[Source: The Worker, Chicago, January 12, 1924, page 2; J. Lonis Engdahl, managing
editor, Nicholas Dozenberg, business manager. Article entitled "Greetings to the
Communist International"']
The Third National Convention of the Workers Party extends greetings to
the Communist International.
During the past year the Communist International has appeared everywhere
where the workers suffer from oppression and exploitation as the leader
in the struggle against the oppressors and exploiters. It stands today as
the hope of all those who struggle against the suffering and bloodshed, which
the decaying capitalist system brings into the world.
It is the leadership of the Communist International which inspires hopes
in the hearts of the workers of the world and arouses fear in the capitalists
of every country.
The Workers Party re-affirms its declaration of sympathy with the Com-
munist International and enters the struggle against American capitalism,
the most powerful of the national groups, under the inspiration of the leader-
ship of the Communist International.
Exhibit No. 47
[Source: The Worlver, Chicago. January 5, 1924, page 6; J. Louis Engdahl, managing
editor, Nicholas Dozenberg, business manager. Excerpts from an editorial entitled
"Greetings From the International"]
The greetings to the Workers Party, published in full elsewhere, is excep-
tional in the history of the Communist International. It is a document
approving in glowing terms of the struggles waged by the Workers Party
during the past year. No criticism is offered of policies adopted and tactics
pursued. It is doubtful if any other section of the Comintern can boast
of a similar endorsement of any year's endeavor. . .
With the definite endorsement of its policies by the Communist International,
the Workers Party will press forward, in the words of the Comintern, "to
propagate them and organize the workers for action." This is the next step
in the forward march of American Communi.sm, and it will demand the
concentrated strength of the whole membership of the Workers Party.
Exhibit No. 48
[Source: The Worker, Chicago, .Tanuary 5, 1924, page 2; J. Louis Engdahl, managing
editor, Nicholas Dozenberg, business manager. Excerpt from "Greetings from Com-
munist International to Third Convention of Workers Party"']
IMPERIALIST WARS FACE AMERICA
T'his is a problem of vital importance to the American working class. Fear-
ful imperialist wars face the country. The bourgoisie is making ready. The
408 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
government is perfecting its military machinery ; General Pershing is demanding^
a larger army. The Communist must sound the alarm and prepare the
workers for resistance to these bloody schemes. The Communist must point
out that the illegal organizations of the capitalist class, the spies, and
especially the Ku Klux Klan and American Legion, are a product of the
foresight of the capitalists and are openly sponsored by the government cf
the United States. The capitalists are prepared to crush any attempt to
interfere with their plans.
These, comrades, are the vital problems that confront the party. To prop-
agate them and organize the workers for action will demand the concentrated
strength of the whole party membership.
We greet the third convention of the Workers Party and have confidence
that the party will line up the workers of America with the revolutionary
workers of the world in the struggle against capitalism and for the establish-
ment of a workers' and farmers' government.
Exhibit Nq. 49
[Source: The Worker, Chicago, Jaim.iry 12, 1024, page 2; >T. Louis Engdahl, managing
editor, Nicholas Dozenberg, business manager. Excerpt from "Big Achievements of
Worlvers Party Told in Report of Central Executive Committee"]
THE UNITED FRONT.
The policies outlined by the second national convention had as tlieir basis
the application of the united front policy of the Communist International in
the United States. It is the united front policy which has governed the work
of the Central Executive Committee during the past year and it is thru the
application of this policy that we liave achieved the progress which our
party has made.
Exhibit No. 50
[Source: Daily Worker, Chicago, July 5, 1924, page 6; J. Louis Engdahl and William F.
Dunne, editors. Excerpt from an editorial entitled "Against Imperialist War"]
But this social peace means above all, to deliver the working class helpless
into imperialist war Nothing can stop the slaughter of tlie wars of capital-
ism, except the class war of the workers for the overthrow of capitalist govern-
ment, and the establishment of the workers' government. The cry of the
imperialists for war between nations can only be answered by the cry of the
workers for the war between the classes. The imperialist war must be turned
into the civil war, through which the power of the exploiting class sliall be
broken.
This is the meaning of the week of demonstrations on the tenth anniversary
of the world war. Let every worker prepare to spread the message: Against
the imperialist war — the class war ! Against the experts' report on repara-
tions— the rebuilding of the world by workers' governments ! Against the capi-
talist dictatorship — the proletarian dictatorship !
Exhibit No. 51
[Source : The Daily Worker. Chicago, Thursday, March 6, 1924, page 6. From an article-
entitled, "The Communist International," by Robert Minor]
Everywhere now as a matter of course "revolution" means communist revo-
lution . . . The whole world understands that there is no kind of revolu-
tionist in the working class except a Communist. . . .
APPENDIX, PART 1 4Q9
The Congresses of tlie Communist Intei'national, and the Executive Committee
of the Communist International between Congresses, are the factor tliat decides
historical questions. Now we must know that tlie Communist International is
destined to be the instrument thru which the working class takes possession of
the earth.
Exhibit No. 52
[Source: Daily Worker, March 5, 1924, page 1]
*******
FORWARD UNDEai BANNER OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
The Fifth Anniversary of the founding of the Communist International should
be a (lay of rejoicing to the workers of the whole world.
The Communist International came into the world as the new rallying centre
of the revolutionary workers fighting against capitalism in the hour of betrayal
by the Second International and the parties of which it was composed.
During the past five years the Communist International has grown from the
small group of men assembled in the Kremlin on March 5th, 1919, and their few
tens of thousands of followers to an organization which has won loyalty and
devotion of millions of workers.
Today the Communist International has its sections in practically every
country in the world. Wherever there are men and women who fight against
the exploitation and oppression of capitalism, there are the supporters of the
Communist International.
On this Fifth Anniversary of the founding of the Communist International,
the Central Executive Committee of the Workers Party believes that it should
make clear to those workers who do not know what the Communist Interna-
tional is, what it stands for and the ends it is seeking to achieve.
The Communist International declares that we are living in the period of
the disintegration of the capitalist system of production. Conflicting forces
within the capitalist system are destroying it. These forces expressed them-
selves in the World War, which was a direct outgrowth of the imperialist
capitalist development. During the war the capitalist system generated new
forces of destruction which are undermining the whole economic foundation of
capitalist society.
The disintegration of capitalism is apparent in every European country. All
the efforts of the statesmen and economists of capitalist Europe have been un-
able to restore capitalist production in Europe to the conditions of 1914. While
there is an ebb and flow of capitalism the dominating tendency is downward
to the disintegration of the entire capitalist system of production.
The forces which are bringing the downfall of capitalism in Europe are
apparent in the United States. Since the war this country has experienced one
bitter period of hard times and unemployment and in spite of all that the
capitalist can do our system of production stands trembling on the brink of
another period of breakdown.
This period of decay and destruction of the capitalist system, which may
extend over decades of time, will bring upon the workers everywhere unheard
of Suffering. Already in Germany millions of people are starving because of
the condition created by the disintegration of capitalism. In England unem-
ployment of close to a million workers has been chronic since the end of the
war because of the same causes. Tlie conditions in other capitalist countries
is only a difference of degrees. The same forces of disintegration are at work
and threaten to bring the same conditions everywhere.
There is only one way in which the workers of the world can save themselves
from all the misery, suffering and bloodshed which the dying capitalist order
brings into the world, the Communist International declares. They must
organize their strength. They must enter into a struggle against the capitalists
and their government. They must wrench control from the hands of the capi-
talists and use that power to build a new social order.
The workers cannot establish their rule thru the organs of the capitalist
government. They must create in the struggle against capitalism their own
organs of the government — the Soviets. It is thru the Soviets and the Dictator-
ship of the Proletariat that the workers will mobilize their power and create
410 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGAJS'DA ACTIVITIES
the means of establishing Communism in the place of the dying capitalist order.
For all the workers of the world who enter the struggle against the decaying
capitalist order the Communist International is the rallying point, the source
of guidance and leadei-ship.
The Communist International stands as the uncompromising enemy of the
whole capitalist order, guiding and directing the struggles of the workers of
every country to the goal of establishing their own rule in order to save them-
selves from the misery and suffering which capitalism brings upon them.
The Workers Party of America, on this Fifth Anniversary of the founding,
of the Communist International renews its declaration of acceptance of the
leadership of the Communist International in the struggle against American
capitalism.
Hail to the communist international, the leader of the world revolution I
Hail to the world revolution and the rule of the workers of the world.
Centeal Executive Committee
Workers Partv of America
C. E. RUTHENBERG,
Executive Secretary.
Exhibit No. 53
[Source: The Daily Worker, Chicago, Special Magazine Supplement, March 5, 1924, page
2. From an article, "The Communist International in America," by C. E. Ruthenberg,.
Member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. ]
^p fjfi *J» «|* 3p ^P ^w*
It was the demand and influence of the Communist International which
unified the United Communist Party and the Communist Party in 1921. It was
the representative of the Communist International who in 1922 led back into
the Party the opposition which split away in the struggle over the founding
of the open party.
Had there been no Communist International, no deciding and directing body
with authority to pass upon question of the principles and tactics for the
revolutionary workers in the United States and to direct their movement into
the right channels, the factional struggle might well have resulted otherwise
than it did. It is not an exaggeration to say that if there is today in the
United States one part.y- — the Workers Party — in which all the Communist
groups are united, it is because of the persistent effort and tactful guidance of
the International, . . .
It was the guiding influence of the Communist International which helped
the Communist Party in this country to formulate those policies which during
the last year have enabled the Party to make such great gains in establishing
its influence among the workers and farmers.
It was the Communist International which impressed upon the party driven
underground thru the Palmer raids the need of again fighting its way into the
open. The Workers Party was established and the underground Communist
Party was liquidated with the aid of the International. That so fundamental
a change in the policy of the Communist Party in this country was achieved
without a split was due to the fact that the International clearly saw the need
of the movement in this country and used its disciplinary power to establish
what probably not a single member of the Workers Party now doubts was the
right policy . . .
LEADS REVOLUTIONABY STRUGGLE HERE
In guiding the Workers Party the Communist International is guiding the
struggles of the American workers, for it is upon the principles laid down by
the Communist International and policies it has enunciated as the means to
win the support of the workers for those principles, that there will develop the
mass movement of the American workers thru which the struggle against
capitalism will be won in this country.
For the American workers, even today, the Communist International is not
a far-away abstraction but a living, fighting organization which influences their
struggles and guides them along the road to victory.
Today the slogan of the Communist International for the masses of workers
and farmers of the United States is, a mass Farmer-Labor Party fighting for
APPENDIX, PART 1 4]^ J
a Workers ana r armers Government. To this slogan luiudreds of thousands
of workers ard farmers are responding. On the morrow, wlien the time is
ripe, the Conminnist International will raise the new slogan of a Soviet Gov-
ernment and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and lead the workers in their
final struggle for power, even as it today leads them in preparation for that
struggle.
Hail to the leadership of the Communist International.
Exhibit No. 54
[Source: The Daily Worker, Chicago, Thursday, February 28. 1924, pace 4. From an
article entitled "The Discussion Within the Russian Communist Party"]
« * :!: * « « ^
The great majority of the Party took full account of the fact that the Com-
munist Party of Russia is not merely one of the Communist Parties, but is a
governing party, whose crisis is at the same time a crisis of the proletarian
state, that the Communist Party of Russia is the leading party of Internationa!
Communism and its crisis means a crisis for the Communist international.
Exhibit No. 55
[Source: The Daily Worker, Chicago, February 1, 1924, page 5; J. Louis Bngdahl, editor,
Moritz J. Loeb, business manager. Excerpt from "The Party at Work"]
* *^ * * ns t m
After a full discussion of the whole problem of bringing these Armenian
workers into the organized Communist movement of the Party, the Executive
Committee of the Communist International adopted the following decision :
"To send a telegram to the American Workers Party demanding that Com-
rade Sunarin with the whole opposition group return into the ranks of the
Workers Party and await the instructions of the E. C. C. I., which are being
sent immediately.
"b) While approving the steps taken by the American Workers Party for
the unification of the revolutionary Communist elements and for bringing them
into the ranks of the Workers Party, to insist that after the Congress of the
Workers Party in December, 1923, an Armenian Conference be convened with
the object of carrying out the recommendations of the E. C. C. I. laid down
in the resolution of the Presidium in February, 1923. At this conference the
title 'Armenian Section of the Workers Party' must be definitely adopted.
Exhibit No. 56
[Source: Daily Worker, June 26, 1924, page 4]
* * * if ill * *
STATUTES OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
In accordance with the decisions of the Fourth Congress of the Communist
International to revise at the Fifth Congress the statutes of the Communist
International accepted at the Second Congress and to take into consideration
the decisions made at the Third and Fourth Congresses on organizational
questions, the Executive Committee, of the Comintern herewith publishes a draft
of the revised statutes drawn up by the Orgbureau of the E. C. C. I., to be
submitted to the Fifth Congress now in session for discussion and final
acceptance.
I. Principles
Par. I. The new International Workingmen's Association is an organization
of Communist Parties in various countries. It is their leader in the struggle
to win over the majority of the working class, for the overthrow of Capitalism,
for the establishment of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and a world union
of Socialist Soviet Republics, for the complete abolition of classes and the
establishment of Socialism as a first stage of Communist Society.
412 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Par. II. The new International Workingmen's Association assumes tlie title
of "Communist International."
Par. III. All Parties affiliated to the Communist International shall be known
as Communist Party of ... (Section of the Comintern). Only one party
in any country may be affiliated to the Communist International.
Par. IV. Any person accepting the program and statutes of the Communist
Party of the country in which he is a resident and of the Comintern, who is
attached to a basic party organization, is actively working in it, and who
submits to all the decisions of the party and the Comintern and regularly pays
Party dues, is accounted a member of the Communist Party and tlie Comintern.
Par. V. The basic Party organization (its unit) is the nucleus at the place of
employment (factory, mine, workshop, office, store, farm, etc.), to w'hich all the
members of the party employed in the given enterprise must be attached.
Par. VI. Tlie Comintern and the Communist Party are constructed on the
basis of democratic centralism. The fvuidamental principle of democratic
centralism is : the election of the lower and higher Party organs at general
meetings of Party members, conferences and congresses; periodical reports
of the Party organs to their constituents; all decisions of the higher Party
organs are obligatory for the lower Party organs; strict discipline and rapid
and precise execution of the decisions of the E. C. C. I. and the leading Party
centres. Party rpiestions may be discussed by members of the Party or Party
organizations only up to the moment of their decision ]>y the competent party
organs. After decisions have been arrived at on the given question by the
Congress of the Communist International, the Party Congress or the leading
Party organs, these decisions must be unconditionally carried out, even if
there is a difference of opinion amongst the members of local organizations
with regard to the decisions.
In illegal conditions lower Party organs may be appftinted by the higher
Party organs and individuals ma> be co-opted to various Party organs with
the endorsement of the superior Party organ.
II. World Congresses of the Comintern
Par. VII. The supreme organ of the Comintern is the World Congress of all
Parties (sections) and organizations affiliated to it.
The World Congress discusses and resolves the most important questions of
the program, tactics and organization connected with the activities of the
Comintern as a whole as well as of its various sections. The World Congress
alone has the right to amend the program and statutes of the Comintern.
As a rule the World Congress should be convened at least once in two years,
the date for convening the congress is determined by the Executive Committee
of the Comintern. All affiliated sections send delegates to the Congress, the
number being determined by the Executive Committee of the Comintern.
The number of decisive votes that each section may have is determined in
each case by a special lesolution of the Congress in accordance with the mem-
bership of the Party and the political importance of the country.
Par. VIII. Extraordinary World congresses of the Comintern may be con-
vened on the demand of Parties which at the previous World Congress of the
Comintern jointly commanded not less than half of the decisive votes.
Par. IX. The World Congress elects the President of the Communist Inter-
national, the Execvitive Committee of the Comintern and the International
Control Commission (I. C. C.)
Pai'. X. The World Congress on each occasion decides on the seat of the
Executive Committee of the Comintern.
III. The Execvitive Committee of the Comintern and its Apparatus
Par. XI. The Executive Committee of the Comintern is the leading organ of
tlie Communist International in the period between the World congresses, gives
instructions, which are obligatory to all the Parties and organizations affiliated
to the Comnninist International, issues, when necessary, manifestoes in the
name of the Comintern and publishes the central organ of the Communist
International in not less than four languages.
Par. XII. The decisions of the E. C. C. I. are obligatory for all sections and
must be immediately carried out by them. The sections have the rig'ht to
appeal against a decision of the E. C. C. I. to the Congress of the Communist
International, but the section is not relieved of the duty of carrying out the
decision until it is revoked by the Congress.
APPENDIX, PART 1 4]^ 3
Par. XIII. The central organs of the sections affiliated to the Communist
International are responsible to the party congresses and the E. C. C. I. The
E. C. C. I. has the right to annul or amend decisions of the central organs as
well as the congresses of the respective sections, and pass decisions the execu-
tion of which shall bo obligatory for the central organs. (Cf. par. XII.)
Par. XIV. The E. C. C. I. has ithe right to expel from the Comintern such
parties, groups and individual members who violate the program, rules, de-
cisions of world Congresses, and the E. C. C. I. Such parties, groups, and
individuals have the riglit to appeal to the World Congress.
Par. XV. The E. C. C. I. endorses the program of each section affiliated
to the Communist International. In the event of the E. C. C. I. refusing to
endorse the program of any section, the latter may appeal to the World
Congress.
Par. XVI. The decisions and the official documents of the E. C. C. I. must
be published in the leading party organs of the sections affiliated to the
Connnunist International.
Par. XVII. The E. C. C. I. has the right to receive into the Communist
International organizations and parties sympathizing with Communism and
approaching the Communist International. Such organizations are to have
con.sultative votes.
Par. XVIII. The E. C. C. I. elects a Presidium of its own members which
serves as the permanent acting organ and conducts all the work of the E. C. C. I.
in the periods between the meeting": of the latter. The Presidium reports on its
activity to the E. C. C. I. The chairman of the C. I. acts as chairman of the
E. C. C. I. and of the Presidium.
Par. XIX. The E. C. C. I. elects an Organization Bureau (Orgbureau) which
discusses and decides all questions affecting organization and finance. The
decisions of the Orgbureau may ho appealed against in the Presidium of the
E. C. C. I. But until these decisions are revoked or amended by the Presidium
they remain obligatory. The composition of the Orgbureau is determined by
the E. C. C. I. The members of the Secretariat of the E. C. C. I. form part
of the Orgbureau.
Par. XX. The E. C. C. I elects a Secretariat which is the Executive organ
of the E. C. C. I., the Presidium and the Orgl)ureau.
Par. XXI. The E. C. C. I. elects the editoiMal board of the monthly organ
of the Communist International as well as the editors of all other of its
publications.
Par. XXII. The E. C. C. I. elects an international secretary for the Com-
munist women's movement, and in conjunction with the latter, passes all
decisions of a political and organizational character affecting the international
women's movement.
Par. XXIII. The E. C. C. I. sets up an information statistical department,
agitational propaganda department (Agitprop), an organization department and
an Eastern department. The E. C. C. I. has the power to set up other depart-
ments if it considers it. necessary.
Par. XXIV. The E. C. C. I. and the Presidium of the E. C. C. I. has the
power to send its representatives to the various sections of the Communist
International. The representatives receive their instructions from the E. C. C. I.
and are responsible for their actions to the latter. Representatives of the
E. C. C. I. must be permitted to attend all meetings of the central organs
as well as of the local organizations of the section to which thev have been
sent by the E. C. C. I. The representatives of the E. C. C. I. fulfill the task
given them in closest contact with the Central Committee of the resiiective
sections. Their speeches however at the congresses, conferences, etc. convened
by the Central Committee of the given section, may, (in the consistent execution
of the instructions of the E. C. C I.), not coincide with the opinions of the
Central Committee of the respective Parties. It is the special duty of the
representatives of the E. C. C. I. to see that the decisions of the World Con-
gresses and of the E. C. C. I. are carried out by the sections to which they
are sent.
XXV. Meetings of the E. C. C. I. must take place at least once a month. A
quorum is composed of not less than one-half of the members of the E. C. 0. I.
IV. The Enlarged Executive
Par. XXVI. In order to decide important questions, the decisions of which
admit of no delay, the E. C. C. I., in the intervals between World Congresses,
414 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
convenes not less than twice a year, meetings of the Enlarged Executive of
the Comintern.
In addition to the members of the E. C. C. I., representatives of all the
sections affiliated to the Communist International participate in sessions of the
Enlarged Executive. The number of representatives of the various sections
at the sessions of the Enlarged Executive is determined by the Congress of
the Communist International.
In addition to these meetings of the Enlarged Executive, meetings are also
called immediately prior to Congresses of the Communist International.
V. International Control Commission
Par. XXVII. The functions of the International Control Commission, which
is appointed by the Congress are: a) to investigate complaints of individuals
and whole organizations against disciplinary measures taken against them
by sections and to submit their opinions concerning them to the E. C. C. I.
which makes a definite decision, c) To audit the financial accounts of the
E. C. C. I., d) To audit accounts of the sections on the instructions of the
E. C. C. I., Presidium or Oi'gbui'eau.
The Control Commission does not intervene in political, organizational or
administrative conflicts which mav arise in the various sections of tlie Com-
munist International or between sections and the E. C. C. I.
The seat of the International Control Conniiission is fixed by the E. C. C. I.
in conjunction with the International Control Commission.
VI. Relations of the Sections of the Communist International to the E. C. C. I.
Par. XXVIII. The Central Committees of all .sections affiliated to the Com-
munist International and also of ox'ganizations accepted as sympathising
organizations, must systematically send the minutes of their meetings and
the report of their work to the E. C. C. I.
Par. XXIX. The resignation of individual comrades from the Central Com-
mittee of any section, as well as of wliole groups of comrades, is regarded as
an act of disorganization of the Communist movement. All leading posts in
the Communist Party belong to the C. I. and not to the bearers of the mandate.
Elected members^ of central organs in the various section may resign rheir
mandates only with the concurrence of the E. C. C. I. Resignations approved
by the Central Committee of any section without the consent of the E. C. C. I.
are annulled.
Par. XXX. Sections affiliated to the Communist international, especially
sections in neighbouring countries must siipport each other by the closest ties
of organization and information. These ties may be established by sections in
neighbouring countries, ences [sic] and congresses as well as by the mutual inter-
change of leading comrades, whicii, however, must be done in agreement with
the Communist International. Copies of the reports sent by such representa-
tives to their sections must be sent to the Communist International.
Par. XXXI. Sections of the Comnninist International must pay regular dues
to the E. C. C. I. the amount of which is determined by the E. C. C. I.
Par. XXXII. Prior to World Corigresses of the Conununist International,
Party conferences or enlarged plenums of the central committees of the various
sections are convened to discuss the questions to be raised at the World
Congress and to elect delegates to it. Exceptions to this rule are permitted
only by decisions of the E. C. C. I.
Par. XXXIII. In the year in which the World Congress takes place. Con-
gresses of sections affiliated to the Communist International, are convened after
the World Congress. Elxceptions are permitted only by decision of the E. C. C. I.
Par. XXXIV. The Young Communist International is a full member of
the Communist International and is subordinate to the E. O. C. I.
Parfl XXXV. The Communist Parties must be prepared to carry on their
work illegally. The E. C. C. I. must assist the Parties in the preparation for
illegal work, and see to it that the work is carried out.
Par. XXXVI. The transfer of members of sections of the Communist Inter-
national from one country to another is permitted only with the sanction of
the Central Committee of the given section. In changing his residence, a
Communist must join the section in tlie country of which he has become resi-
dent. Communists who leave their respective country without the sanction
of the Central Connnittee of the section to which they belong, cannot be accepted
by any other section.
J
APPENDIX, PART 1 425
Exhibit No. 57
[Source: Daily Worker, May 16, 1924, page 1]
****** tt
COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL ENDORSES PARTY POLICY
The question whether the AVorkers Party was following the correct Com-
munist policy in supporting with all its strength the formation of a Farmer-
Labor Party in the United States has been raised by members of the organi-
zation in this country.
In order to settle the question of whether the Farmer-Labor United Front
was a policy for a Communist Party such as the Workers Party should put into
effect and in support of which it should throw all its strength, the Central
Executive Committee of the Workers Party submitted this question to the
Communist International, with which it is atfiliated as a fraternal organiza-
tion.
The view of the Communist International on this question is expressed in
the following cablegram :
"Communist International considers June 17th Convention momentous im-
portance for Workers Party. Urges C. E. C. not to slacken activities prepara-
tion June 17th. Utilize every available force to make St. Paul Convention
great representative gathering labor and left wing.
Executive Committee, Communist International.
The fact that the Communist International supports the policy which the
Workers Party has been following in relation to the June 17th Convention
should inspire every Party member to more earnest support of the June 17th
Convention.
The Party must throw all of its energy into familiarizing the workers and
farmers of this country with the purpose of the June 17th Convention. It
must endeavor to have delegates elected from all labor and farmer organiza-
tions so that the June 17th Convention will be a great mass demonstration of
workers and farmers in support of independent political action in the interests
of these classes and against the domination of the government by the capi-
talists.
The June 17th Convention is the first step toward realizing the slogan of a
Workers' and Farmers' Government.
In supporting the June 17th Convention, our Party is rendering the greatest
service to the movement of the workers and farmers in this country.
Forward to a mass Farmer-Labor Party !
Forward to the Workers' and Farmers' Government !
Central Executive Committee,
Workers Party of America,
William Z. Foster, Chairman,
C. E. Ruthenberg, Executive Secretary.
Exhibit No. 58
[Source: The Workers Monthly. Chicago, October, 192.J. Vol. IV, No. 12, pages 531-5.38]
********
FROM THE THIRD THROUGH THE FOURTH CONVENTION OF THE WORKERS (COMMUNIST)
PARTY
By C. E. Ruthenberg
In his report to the Fifth Congress of the Communist International Com-
rade Zinoviev declared :
"I think it is quite clear by now that the Communist International, in its ear-
liest years, in a number of countries, was only a society for the propaganda of
Communism without being aware of this itself. At the beginning, we thought
we were very strong, but as a matter of fact, in a number of countries at that
time we did not have Communist Parties, but only great propaganda societies."
Later on, in the same report, he declared :
"In spite of all weaknesses, in spite of all shortcomings of our sections, we
are now in a number of countries, no longer propaganda societies, but we have
grown into a Communist Party and in part even into a mass Communist
Party."
416 UN-A^IKUICAN l'K(>l'A(iANr)A ACTIVITIES
Coinrado Ziiioviov niado cloar at tlio Fifth Conjiross, and this was omphasized
still more stroui^ly at the Knlargod Kxocutivo ("oimuitteo of the ('(inuiuinist In-
ternational. h«'ld last ]Marc-h. that there was still a third statje in tlie develop-
ment of the Communist Parties, that is. the r.olsh(>vization of tlu' Communist
I'arties.
The three stasres of development — propaganda seels. Connunnist Parties, and
Bolshevized Connnnnist I'arties — are also the stages of development of the
Connntmist Tarty in this coiuitry. If we examine the history of the Connnnnist
Party in this eountry. we will come to the eonelusion that our I'arty has
definitely left behind the stage of development in which it was a propaganda
sect ami that it has created a tirm foundation of policies and tactics for its
development as a Connnnnist I'arty — even a mass Connnnnist I'arty — and that
it now stands before those great tasks wliicli will malce it really a Bolshevik
Party.
From tlie time of its organization in lOllX until the organization of the
Workers I'arty at the end of liVJl. was. roughly speaking, the i)eiiod of the
existence of the Party as a propaganda sect; tlie p»'riod from the f(u-matiou
of the Workers Party until the Fourth National Convention which closed on
the sixth anniversary of the ftnnnation of the t\>mmunist I'arty. was the period
of the development and growth with some setliacks, into a Connnnnist I'arty;
the Fourth National Convent imi is the opening of a new period in the develop-
ment of the I'arty wliich gives the promise that the Party will become not only
a mass Communist Party, but a Bolshevik I'arty. The Fourth National Con-
vention can be said to have detinitely crystallized the policies and tactics which
make our Party a Comnnmist Party and also to have laid down the beginning
of the program through which the first steps will be taken for the Bolshevization
of the Party.
The Period of the Propaganda Sect
The purpose of this article is not to present a detailed history of the entire
development of the Party, but rather to deal with that imp(n-tant phase of its
developmenr which took place between the Third and Fourth National Conven-
tions and in the Fourth National Convention. It is necessary, however, brietly
to sketch the earlier years of the Party development in order to lay the basis
for discussion of the last twenty months of the I'arty history, and also to
clarify what are the characteristics of the three stages of development of a
Comnnniist Party pointed out above.
The Connnnnist I'arty came into existence in the Ignited States, as elsewhere,
in response to the ferment caused in the socialist parties by the Russian Revolu-
tion. It was the historical example, that is. the establishment of a proletarian
state through an armed uprising of the working masses, the sweeping away
of the old p;irlianientary form of government, the establishment of the new
workers' government uixui the foundation of the Soviets, that drove into the
socialist parties the wedge which split them into two sharply defined groups,
those who pretended they could achieve a socialist society through forms wrung
from the capitalist state and those who saw the only road to socialism, the
overthrow of the capitalist state and the establishment of the proletarian state,
the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The C(nnmunisr I'arty organized in the T'nited States in September, 1010.
clearly stated this fundamental dilTerence in principle in the program it adopted.
Its analysis of the development of the socialist party showed that reformist
socialism led to the betrayal of the workers and not to socialism. It considered
the proitaganda of this fundamental difference between the socialists and
Comnnmist s its chief task.
In the four months of existence as an open Conuiumist Party, which our
"American democracy" permitted it. the work of the Party consisted almost
entirely of propaganda to drive home this difference between socialists and
Comnnmist s in the minds of the workers. The government persecution towards
the end of 1010 and the beginning of 1020 lielped to accentuate this tendency
on the part of the Party. Tlie Party was attacked because it taught the workers
that the.v could emancipate themselves from capitalism only through an armed
uprising which would overthrow the capitalist state and establish a soviet
government. After it was driven undergrcmnd. the Party considered it all the
more its duty to continue this propaganda. This wonld have been all very well
if the Party had nnd(>rstood how to connect the proletarian revolution with
the immediate struggles of the workers, but it did not understand how to
APPENDIX, PART 1 4;['7
do this. It hiid no coniipctions with thf masses of workers and their iininedinfe
sti'Uj;;.?h's. The I'arty existed as s(inielhinu separate and apart from the life
and strujfgles of the masses. The way which it showed the workers to their
emancipation, was, to he sure, correct, but it had not learned how to cross the
void between itself and the working masses and to lead them toward the way
to which it iKjinted as leading to their emancipation. It had no program or
Ijolicies for their immediate struggle. Its entire work consisted of pcnnting
to the ultimate means of achieving the proletarian revolution. It was purely
a propaganda s(x-iety and as long as it remained such a propaganda society
it could not establish its leadership and influence among the masses.
Development Toward a Communist Party
The struggle for the formation of the Workers Party and adoption of the
program for work within the existing unions marked the beginning of the
second i)eriod in the growth of the Party. Not that the foimation of an open
party in itself necessarily would transform the Party from a propaganda sect
to a Communist Party. An open party can just as easily fall into a sectarian
policy — as later developments of our Party .show. The struggle for the open
party, however, was an effort to create an instrument through which the Party
could actually play a part in the every day fights of the workers, establish
its prestige and intluence among them, and as such must be considered as one
of the first steps away from the previous sectarian policy.
The first real development from a propaganda sect into a Communist Party
came during the year 1922. The Party members began to function on the
trade union field as part of the Trade Union Educational League, and the
infiuence of the Party began to develop in the struggles in the trade unions.
The Party played its part in the miners' strikes and the railway shopmen's
strike of that year. It learned to take up the immediate struggles of the
workers and on the basis of these struggles to win support for it.s policies and
to establish its leadership. It had learned that the workers' demands and
struggles of the day are the starting point from which it must move them
forward into more revolutionary action against the cai>italist class and the
capitalist state.
In June, 1922, the Party formulated the statement of the application of the
United Front tactic to the situation in the United States. It to(jk up the slogan
of the Labor Party which had developed a strong momentum among the
workers and soon became the leader in the movement for the formation of a
Labor Party. The Party made the attack upon the Bridgeman Convention the
mean.s of widening its influence among the workers by initiating a united
front defense. It met the government persecution of the foreign-born workers
by the formation of Councils for the Protection of the Foreign-Born, thus
extending its influence among the workers.
The fact that by July, 1923. when the convention called by the Farmer-Labor
Party for the formation of a Farmer-Labor Party was held, our Party could
elect 2(X) delegates to this convention, mostly from the trade unions, and could
take the leadership of the 550 delegates, representing over 600,000 workers, who
were present at that convention — this fact was an indication of the progress
the Party has made in establishing contact with the masses and in becoming a
CommTuiist Party.
At the end of 1023, when the Tliird National f'onvention was held, the Party
had seemingly cast off its sectarian past and was no longer what Conn-ade
Zinoviev described as a propaganda society. It had sunk its roots deeply among
the masses, it had won a place as the leader in the movement for a Labor
Party. It had gained a strong influence in the trade unions through its fight
for amalgamation. It had learned to make itself part of the immediate struggles
of the workers, as in the case of Councils for Protection of the Foreign-Born.
It was well on the road to becoming a Communist Party in contradistinction to
the propaganda society which it had been.
The Third National Convention
With this brief preliminary survey of the past history of our Party in its strug-
gle to become a Communist Party, the ground is cleared for consideration of the
development between the Third and Fourth Natlf»nal Conventions of the Party.
The Third National Convention adopted the policy submitted by the Party
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 28
418 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
leadership which had guided the Party in its development along the correct
Communist line. The theses and resolutions of the Third National Convention
laid the basis for further development of our Party as a Communist Party. In
the light of this fact we may well ask how it came to be that the Party was com-
pelled to go through a bitter factional struggle, lasting almost a year, to
prevent the Party again becoming involved in the morass of sectarianism.
The explanation is to be found in the grouping which developed within the
Party itself. The sectarianism of the period of the Party history up to 1922
was a left sectarianism. The new sectarianism which threatened the Party
came from the right wing of the Party.
The formation of the Workers Party at the end of 1921 had brought into
the organization a membership making up a majority of the Party which had
not passed through the experiences of the previous yeai's. This group had
held aloof from the Communist Party at the time of its organization in 1921,
remaining in the socialist party or maintaining a separate organizational
existence.
All of the language federations in the socialist party had been to a large
degree national social organizations. Those language federations wliich joined
the Communist Party in 1919 lost through the Government persecutions the
major part of the element of its membership which had joined them as social
organizations. At least two-thirds of the membership of the federations which
joined the Communist Party in 1919 dropped out of the Party after the
Government raids, leaving within the Party only the conscious Communist
elements.
This was not true of the Finnish Federation, the German Federation, part of
the Jewish Federation, the Czecho-Slovakian Federation and the Scandinavian
Federation, all of which came into the Party only after the formation of the
Workers Party. This group of the membership was still strongly under the
influence of the socialist traditions. Their attitude toward the main tasks
of the Party was that the Party should devote itself to propaganda and
organizational work. The drawing of the Party into the main stream of the
struggles of the masses in this country was criticized as "adventurism" and
"grand maneuvering."
What has been said above was particularly true of the Finnish Federation,
"which composed at least one-third of the membership of our Party. Only
a small part of this membership actually participates in the work of the Party
in the class struggle in this country. The membership is composed of elements
no doubt sympathetic to the Communist principles and accepting these principles,
but it has not learned how Communists must apply their principles in the
actual class struggle. It has not yet broken with the pleasant unruflled
existence as part of a socialist organization, free from the duties, burdens and
work which are the lot of a Communist who actually carries on a Communist
struggle.
At the Third National Convention, the Foster group, which had been part
of the leadership of the Party and which had formed a separate group on the
issue of our Labor Party policy after the Federated Farmer-Labor Party
convention, secured a majority in the national convention of the Party
through the support of the right-wing sectarian elements described above.
Thus, while the Third National Convention adopted correct principles and
policies, it placed in the leadership of the Party the group which had its
support in the right-wing sectarian elements. The result of this combination
soon became apparent on the first occasion that the Central Executive Com-
mittee was faced with the necessity of formulating a policy to meet a new
situation. It fell into sectarian errors. The tendency of the Central Executive
Committee to coalesce with its support in the Party was irresistible, and
the Party as a consequence was thrown into a new struggle, the struggle
against the right-wing sectarian tendency of the Foster group by the Central
Executive Committee minority, which fought to keep the Party on the correct
lines of development as a Communist Party.
The Issue of Trotzkyism
The first question on which the influence of the right wing of our Party
made itself felt was the attitude of the Foster group in the Central Executive
Committee on the question of Trotzkyism. Lore, who had been elected to the
•Central Executive Committee, telegraphed to the Volkszeitung that "the Trotzky-
ites have won the Party." Lore was the leader of the extreme right of the
APPENDIX, PART 1 4^9
Party. When the issue of endorsement of the Old Guard of the Communist
Party of Russia came before the Central Executive Committee, the committee
majority hesitated and vacillated. It first refused to publish an article en-
dorsing the Old Guard because not sufficient information was at hand ou the
issues. It later voted down a motion submitted by the minority to endorse
the Old Guard and adopted the proposal to print all material, and that the
question of Trotzkyism should not be made a factional issue in the Party.
It was not until after the convention of the Russian Communist Party detiniteiy
condemned Trotzkyism and after Comrade Foster returned from Moscow that
the Central Executive Committee actually went ou record endorsing the Old
Guard against Trotzky. Even then Ludwig Lore voted against this endorsement.
We have in this question the first indication of the tendency of the Foster
majority of the Central Executive Committee to make compromises in the
direction of its right wing support in the Party. The vacillation and hestitation
to place it.self ou record on the Issues of Trotzkyi.sm was due to the fact that
it was exactly those groups in the Party which supported it and which were
its basis in the Party which were infected by Trotskyism.
The Fight Against Loreism.
Lore has been in consistent opposition to the policies of the Party from the
time of its organization. Even at the time of the formation of the left wing,
Lore, together with Scott Neariug, led an opposition in the left wing and
finally broke with it. Lore opposed the underground Party at a time when
it was not possible to preserve the Communist movement organizationally in
any other form than through an underground organization. Lore opposed the
German Communist Party and the Communist International on the question
of Levi and supported Serrati of Italy again.st the Communist International.
After the formation of the Workers Party, Lore opposed those policies which
had as their purpose to take the Party into the movement of the workers and
to establish its prestige and leadership through fighting with them in their
everyday struggles. Thus Lore opposed the adoption of the first statement of
United Front policy of the Party, which included the Labor Party policy. Lore
was opposed to the Party .sending delegates to the convention of the "Conference
for Progressive Political Action" in Cleveland in December, 1922, which was one
of the maneuvers through which the Party gained prestige in relation to the
Labor Party movement. Within the Central Executive Committee, Lore fought
consistently to have the Labor Party built upon individual membership, thus
making it a competing organization with the Workers Party and destroying it
as an expression of the United Front. The views and policies advocated by
Lore were left wing socialist but not Communist views and policies.
The errors of Lore as an individual had been fought by the Central Executive
Committee prior to the Third National Convention. At the Third National
Convention, through his opposition to the Labor Party-LaFoUette alliance, which
was proposed by the convention thesis submitted by the Central Executive Com-
mittee, Lore had crystallized around himself the opposition to this policy.
There developed within the Party a definite Lore group, not only opposed to
the Labor Party-LaFollette alliance, but which was in opposition to the United
Front tactic and maneuvering which the Central Executive Committee had
applied prior to the convention in order to draw the Party into the mass
struggles of the workers.
The first test of the attitude of the new Central Executive Committee majority
on the question of Loreism came when Lore wrote an editorial on the Fifth
Anniversary of the Communist International, distorting the entire history and
policies of the Communi.st International. The Central Executive Committee
minority demanded a statement from the Central Executive Committee repudi-
ating this editorial. This the Central Executive Committee refused to do.
This policy was in effect to protect Lore against the exposure and condemna-
tion of his fallacious views.
In the struggle which followed on the question of Loreism. the Central Executive
Committee majority manifested the same tendency, even after the first decision of
the Communist International. It repeatedly refused to adopt proposals of the
minority of the Central Executive Committee to expose Lore before the Party
and to correct his erroneous policies. It was not until after the second decision of
the Communist International categorically condemning Lore and directing his
removal from the Central Executive Committee that the Central Executive Com-
mittee majority, composed of the Foster group, took a stand against Loreism.
420 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This refusal to fight Loreism was another expression of the right-wing orienta-
tion of the Foster group, which could not take a stand against Lore because it was
allied with Lore, particularly in New York City, where it depended upon the
support of Lore for its support in the Party.
Liquidation of the Labor Party Policy.
The decision of the Communist International against the proposed Labor Party-
LaFoUette alliance, while not based on the reasons for opposition to this policy
on the part of the right wing Loreist group in our Party, strengthened this group.
The decision of the Communist International was not based on opposition to such
a maneuver in principle. In fact, the decision made clear that such maneuvers
were permissible for Communist Parties. The decision of the Communist Inter-
national was made on the basis of the situation of our Party, its degree of strength
and ideological development, but not because the maneuver was incorrect in
principle. However, the Lore group had opposed this alliance, and the fact of the
Communist International deciding against it strengthened the Lore group. Both
the majority and the minority of the Central Executive Commit ten had been
declared in error on the Labor Party-LaFollette alliance and thus had burnt their
fingers. This decision had the effect of driving the Foster Central Executive
Committee majority closer to the Lore group. The reaction of the Foster majority
was to adopt a position in opposition to further maneuver, that is, to take a
right-wing sectarian policy, as the safest course. The difference between the
majority of the Central Executive Committee and the minority group was then
indicated in the fact that the decision on the question of the Labor Party-
LaFollette alliance had no such effect upon the minority.
With the defeat of the Party in the St. Paul Convention, compelling the Party
to nominate its own candidates, in the presidential elections, came the test of the
Central Executive Committee majority.
The decision made in October in relation to the dropping of the slogan for n
Labor Party in the A. F. of I^. convention, the statement on the results of the
presidential elections, and finally the thesis of the majority declaring against the
continuance of the Labor Party policy, were expressions of the new right-wing
sectarianism in our Party in full bloom.
The Foster group had declared that their policy was not opposition in principle
to the Labor Party policy, but opposition under the then existing conditions.
It is true that the thesis of the Foster group contained the declaration : "We are
not opposed to the Labor Party in principle." While this platonic declaration was
made, the tone of the whole discussion in the Party was otherwise and the thesis
itself declared in a section endeavoring to prove that advocacy of the Labor
Party slogan was a right-wing deviation :
"The position taken by the comrades of this tendency is that the only way
to crystallize independent political action of workers and poor farmers is through
a Farmer-I>abor Party, forgetting the existence of the Workers Party as the
political class Party of the workers and poor farmers. These comrades also take
the position that the only way to build a mass Communist Party in America
is through a Farmer-Labor Party, thus enunciating a new principle that the
Workers Party can never become a mass Communist Party except through
organizing and working within a Farmer-Labor Party."
And further along in the same section we find a declaration that :
"This non-Communist conception of the role of our Party manifests itself
particularly in the tendency to resort to all kinds of new political organizations,
substitutes for the Workers Party, whenever an opportunity presents itself to
appeal to masses of workers on concrete issues of every-day life."
These two quotations indicate clearly where the Foster group was drifting.
The latter quotation is in essence a declaration against the United Front
tactic. For, what do we seek to do in the United Front maneuver but to unite
existing workers' organizations for a conunon struggle on some particular issue?
The declaration that the formation of such United Front organizations is creat-
ing substitutes for the Workers Party is of course pure sectarianism, for if the
Workers Party carries on a correct Communist policy in relation to such United
Front organizations, they will not only not be substitutes for the Workers
Party, but will be the means of building it, just as the Labor Party policy resulted
in building up the Workers Party.
That the sectarian error of the Labor Party was not an isolated mistake was
indicated by the fact that the Foster group made the same error in relation to
work among women when it endeavored to liquidate the United Council of
APPENDIX, PART 1 421
Workingclass Women as a comiieting organization to the Workers Party, and
it made a similar sectarian error in proposing tliat the Party should make a
non-partisan relief organization a department of the Party itseLf.
The struggle which developed in the Central Executive Conuuittee during the
same period over the question of the Party's trade union work was part of the
same general tendency of the Central Executive Committee majority. The
struggles were over the questions of carrying on a campaign to win the trade
unions ideologically for Communism at the same time that we carried on an
election campaign, and against the over-emphasis upon the election campaign.
This issue arose in another form in relation to proposals to inject major ijolitical
issues into certain trade union situations. The tendency of trade union work
for the sake of trade union work and not for the puriiose of building up the
influence and prestige of the Communist Party goes with the right-wing
sectarianism.
Later in relation to the conferences of the "Conference for Progressive Politi-
cal Action"' which were being held in various states and the national conference
held in February, 1925, the Central Executive Conunittee majority raised the
slogan, "Boycott the C. P. P. A."
Thus the circle was completed. We had been a propaganda society, w'e were
again to be a propaganda society. We had fought our way from the status
of a propaganda society to that of a developing Communist Party playing its
part in the struggles of the masses, entering into these struggles, and bringing
leadership to them and direction along a Comnuinist line. We hiid returned
to the policy of "Boycott the C. P. P. A.," that is, boycott a mass movement of
workers.
The Central Executive Committee majority elected at the Third National
Convention through the support of a right wing sectarian group in our Party
had coalesced with that right-wing sectarian group and had adopted the policy
of this gi'oup as the policy of the Party. The Party was in danger of losing all
that it had gained in developing itself as a Communist Party. It was sliding
down the road the Socialist Labor Party had gone, to become a self-admiration
society living its life apart from the actual struggles of the w^orkers.
The Struggle in the Party.
It was this issue, whether we should retrace our steps toward sectarianism, or
go forward in developing our Party as a Communist Party, that was at the
bottom of the factional struggle in our Party during the past year. Happily,
with the aid of the Communist International, the Party was returned to the
right path. The decision of the Comnuinist International swept away every
shred of the sectarianism which had developed in our Party. It made clear
wdiy the Labor Party policy must be a major policy of our Party. It declared
against a sectarian attitude in regard to work among women. It directed the
Part.v to the right tactic in relation to trade union work, took decisive measures
against Loreism within the Party. The Central Executive Committee minority,
which had led the fight to develop the Party from a propaganda society to a
Communist Party, succeeded, with the aid of the Communist International,
in preventing the Party from again degenerating into the i>ropaganda society
which it had been.
The Fourth National Convention.
The Fourth National Convention marked the close of the period of struggle
to prevent our Party again degenerating into a propaganda society. It also
marked the beginning of a new period in the history of the Party — the period
of the Bolshevization of the Party.
The situation in the convention presented an interesting contradiction. All
the resolutions outlining the policy of the Party for the coming period were
unanimously adopted in the Party Commission which worked out these resolu-
tions. Still, there was a sharp factional division in the convention and the
ten days of debate marked one of the bitterest struggles in the history of
our Party.
The explanation of this situation is to be found in the year of factional struggle
to keep our Party on the correct Communist line. Tlie policy of the Foster
group had been corrected through the struggle of the minority in the Central
Executive Committee and the decision of the Communist International. The
resolutions presented to the Convention stressed this corrected policy. It again
422 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
put the Party on the road to development as a Communist Party. The debate
on these resolutions dealt v/ith the policies contained in the resolutions as con-
trasted with the policies which the Foster group had presented previously. It
was necessary to point out the errors of a sectarian character which had been
made and to stamp these definitely before the Party in order that there might
not exist a further possibility that such errors would again find support in our
Party.
The relation of forces within the convention also contributed to sharpen the
discussion and the factional alignment.
An analysis of the decision of the Communist International makes clear the
aims of the Communist International in relation to our Party. This aim was
to break the alliance which had existed between the Foster group in the Central
Executive Committee and the right wing of the Party. This policy is clearly
indicated in the sharp position taken by the Communist International against
Lore and Loreism and its insistance on co-operation in the Party leadership
between the two leading groups in the Party.
A realization of this aim of the Communist International has been seriously
hampered by the tactics of the Foster group in the period between the return
of the delegation from Moscow and the National Convention and was made
imiJossible by its alliance with the right wing of the Party in the struggle for
control of the National Convention.
The Foster group had suffered a defeat in the decision of the Communist
International. Its main line of policy was declared to be incorrect by the
decision. While the decision criticized the minority in relation to the Labor
Party policy, the main line of the minority in this respect was upheld. Facing
this situation, the Foster group endeavored to divert the attention of the Party
from the political issues before the Party. In place of creating the opportunity
for a thorogoing understanding of the decision of the Communist InternationaL
which would have raised the theoretical level of our Party, it sought to divert
the whole struggle into a fight over petty organizational questions and sought to
divert the attention of the Party from the meaning of the decision of the Com-
munist International on Loreism through an effort to connect the minority, which
had made a consistent fight against Loreism, with the Loreist group in the Party.
These efforts of the Foster group took the form of sending to all the Party
branches the "nine points" circular containing charges and defense in relation
to factional actions within the Party during the absence of the delegates in
Moscow. It sent to the Party a statement in regard to the Needle Trades situ-
ation in which the minority group was attacked as supporters of the Loreist
elements, and a similar statement in reference to Comrade Poyntz. To all of
these statements the minority group had been denied the opportunity to make
a reply.
These activities of the Foster group were, to say the least, acts of bad faith
in relation to the decision of the Communist International. They were efforts
to divert attention from that decision and prevented the realization of the aim of
the Communist International as plainly indicated in the decision, the unification
of the Party leadership in a struggle against the right wing in the Party.
The election of delegates in the Party was another factor which laid the basis
for a continuation of the struggle in the convention. The Foster group, as has
been pointed out, previously, gained this majority in the Third National Con-
vention through the support of the right wing of the Party. The same situation
developed in relation to the elections for the Fourth Convention. It was exactly
those elements which are the right wing of our Party, the Finnish Federation,
the Czecho-Slovakian Federation, the Scandinavian Federation, part of the Jewish
Federation, which formed the basis of the Foster group in the National Con-
vention. In place of a unification of the leadership of the Party to fight for a
correct Connnunist line and the Bolshevization of the Party, the Foster group
followed the policy of a fight against the minorit.v which had supported the correct
policies and used the elements in the right of our Party as the basis of this
struggle against the minority.
Formally, the Foster group won a majority of the delegates to the National
Convention. In five districts, however, which form the greater section of the
Party, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, the minority
had won a clear vistory, for it claimed the districts on the basis of contests before
the convention. The decision of the contested districts against the minority by the
Foster group, the rejection of its proposal that in New York, Philadelphia, and
Cleveland, the parity principle should be applied, was, for the minority group, a
rejection of the policy of the Communist International and an indication that the
APPENDIX, PART 1 423;
Foster group would not bring about amalgamation of the leading groups in the
Party but would continue an alliance with the right wing in the Party and as leader
of this right wing would continue a struggle against the minority. It was this
situation, the continuation of the alignment which had caused the sectarian
errors and the factional struggle of the past year, the beginning of a clear de-
lineation of a struggle between right and left wing in the Party, which was the
basis of the severe factional debate and struggle in the Convention.
The intervention of the Communist International changed this situation and
eliminated the danger of a consolidated right wing leadership in our Party.
This intervention took the form of a cablegram addressed to the chairman of
the Parity Commission, Comrade Green, reading as follows :
Communist International decided under no circumstances should be allowed'
that Majority suppresses Ruthenberg Group because :
Firstl.v — It has finally become clear that the Ruthenberg Group is more loyal
to decisions of the Communist International and stands closer to its views.
Secondly — Because it has received in most important districts, the majority
or an important minority.
Thirdly — Because Foster Group employs excessively mechanical and ultra-
factional methods.
Demand as minimum:
Firstly — Ruthenberg group must get not less than 40 per cent of Central
Executive Committee.
Secondly — Demand as ultimatium from majority that Ruthenberg retains
post of secretary.
Thirdly — Categorically insist upon Lovestone's Central Executive Committee
membership.
Fourthly — Demand as ultimatum from majority refraining removals, replace-
ments, dispersions against factional opponents.
Fifthly — Demand retention by Ruthenberg group of co-editorship on central
organ.
Sixthly — Demand maximum application of parity on all executive organs
of Party.
If majority does not accept these demands then declare that, in view of cir-
cumstances of elections, unclear who has real majority and that methods of
majority raise danger of split and therefore Communist International proposes
that now only a temporary Parity Central Executive Committee be elected with
neutral chairman to call new convention after passions have died down. Those
who refuse to submit will be expelled.
This cablegram resulted in a bitter struggle and division in the ranks of the
Foster majority over the policy to be pursued in the face of this second decision
of the Communist International. The Foster group finally decided, although
the cablegram permitted them to take a majority of the Central Executive
Committee, that in the face of a declaration by the Communist International that
the Ruthenberg group was more loyal to the Communist International and nearer
to its views, it could not take over the leadership of the Party. It proposed that
a Central Executive Committee of an equal number of representatives from both
groups in the convention be elected and this proposal was adopted.
At the first meeting of the Central Executive Committee, Comrade Green, the
chairman of the Parity Commission, made the following declaration :
"Of course we have now a parity C. E. C, but it is not exactly a parity
C. E. C. With the decision of the Communist International on the question of
the groups in the American party there go parallel instructions to the C. I.
representative to support that group which was the former minority. If the
C. I. continues to support this policy, that will always be the case, that is, the
C. I. representative will be siipporting that group and therefore altho we have
a nearly parity C. E. C, we have a majority and a minority in the C. E. C."
With the support of the representative of the Communist International, the
majority of the leading committee of the Party was given to the Ruthenberg
group. Thus again responsibility for the leadership of the Party was placed
iTpon that group which had carried on the struggle against sectarianism and
to develop our Party from a propaganda society into a Communist Party, and
which during the past twenty months has carried on the struggle against the
Party's again degenerating into a sectarian organization. This outcome of the Na-
tional Convention is a guarantee to the Party that the struggle against sectarian
errors has been finally won and that our Party will, with the support of the Com-
munist International, go forward to new achievement in developing itself as a
mass Communist Party.
424 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Convention Resolutions.
The resohitions adopted by the Fourth National Convention lay the foundation
for such a development of the Party. In these resolutions, formulated in the
Parity Commission under the chairmanship of the representative of the
Communist International, there is not a scintilla of sectarianism.
These convention rseolutions must be studied by our whole Party, and the
Party must be mobilized to transform the resolutions into actual living things
in the work of the Party.
The major resolutions are those dealing with the general tasks of the Party,
the Labor Party and the trade union work of the Party. The Labor Party
campaign nuist again become a major activity of the Party. It is not only to be
a propaganda campaign, but the Party must again stir into life and movement
the working mas.ses in the direction of actual organization of the Labor Party.
The mobilization of the workers for a political struggle for their class interests
is the first requirement of the situation of the working-class movement in the
United States. If our Party can aid in stirring into life and can crystallize as
an organization a movement of hundreds of thousands of workers to enter the
lists to fight against the capitalist parties, then we have made the first great
step forward in the development of the American working-class and at the same
time toward our Party becoming a mass Communist Party.
Closely connected with the Labor Party campaign is the work in the trade
unions. Our Party was able to make substantial progress in this field in the
past, but it never mobilized its whole strength for the trade union work. The
records show that only one-third of the Party membership are members of the
trade unions. This situation must be remedied. It will be one of the first
tasks of the Party to bring into the trade unions its whole membership and to
mobilize it for action there. The trade unions are the greatest organized mass
of workers in this country and offer the greatest possibility for Comnnmist
propaganda. Our work in the trade unions, under the slogans of the Labor
Party, amalgamation, trade union unity, will create a solid foundation of Party
influence among the masses.
In relation to the trade union work, the convention resolutions emphasize the
part that organization of the unorganized will play in establishing Communist
influence among the organized workers. Our Party must take up the task and
make at least a beginning in the organization of unorganized workers. These
workers will be lai'gely the unskilled workers, most susceptible to Communist
influence, and will form in the American Federation of Labor the counter-weight
to the aristocracy of labor which today dominates that organization.
The program for the struggle against imperialism, for work among the farm-
ers, work among the Negro workers, and work among women, all outline con-
cretely the tasks of the Party in special fields which have not previoiasly received
sufficient attention and which must from now on be taken up aggressively by the
Party, as part of its work of going to the masses.
Bolshevization the New Period of Development.
The Fourth Convention has not only given our Party a program for its devel-
opment as a mass Communist Party, but it has taken the initiative and laid the
foundation for the Bolshevization of our Party.
The resolutions outlining programs for work among the masses are, of course,
an important part of the program of Bolshevization. A Bolshevik Party is a
mass Party — a Party which has its roots deep among the masses and influences
their struggles, leading them into ever more aggressive fights against the capi-
talist class and the capitalist state power. A sectarian party cannot be a
Bolshevik Party. The fight against sectarianism is therefore a fight for Bol-
shevization. In definitely cleaning its house of all sectarianism, the Party has
cleared the way for BoLshevization.
The resolution of the National Convention for the liquidation of Loreism,
which means a fight against all right-wing opportunist tendencies in our Party,
represents another phase of the task of Bolshevization. In expelling Lore from
the Party, in its disciplinary action against Comrade Askeli, in its declaration
in reference to Comrade Poyntz, the convention gave an expression of its
earnestness and determination that the fight against Loreism is not a mere
temporary struggle, but is to be carried on until every vestige of such tendencies
Is liquidated in the Party. In the attitude adopted by the new leading majority
in the Jewish section convention in relation to the Loreist elements there is
APPENDIX, PART 1 425
further indication that there will be no conipi-omise on this issne. The Bolshevik
Party must carry on a ceaseless struggle against opportunism, and this the
Party will do.
The best guarantee that sectarianism will not again gain a foothold m the
Partv, and also a guarantee against opportunism of the Lore type, is the raising
of the theoretical level of the Party. The work of educating the membership
of the Party in Marxism and Leninism therefore becomes a vital part of the
work of Bolshevization. The National Convention has adopted a program tor
this work and the Central Executive Committee has already established an
Agitprop department so that this work will be given systematic attention in the
future.
The reorganization of our party on the basis of shop nuclei and street nuclei
(international branches) is for the Party the greatest immediate transformation
in tlie work of Bolshevization. We cannot become a Bolshevik Party as long
as our Party is decentralized into eighteen language groups and exists in the
form of language and territorial branches. The reorganization on the basis of
shop nuclei is the basis of our becoming a mass Party.
The existing Party organization belongs to the past. It was a Party organi-
zation existing outside of the working class in place of inside as part of it.
The new Party organization will create the organ for carrying out our program
for work among the masses. The reorganization is the sine qua non without
which we cannot make even the first step toward the Bolshevization of the
Party. With the reorganization, a new Party will come into existence — a Party
in close contact with the workers in the factories through its shop nuclei, a
Party with its fractions in every trade union and benefit society and co-opera-
tive-^in a word, a Party that is so deeply embedded among the workers and
the organizations of the workers that there is no power which can separate
it from the working masses and prevent its influence and leadership from grow-
ing powerful among these masses.
Thus, through these actions of the Fourth Convention, there has opened the
new phase of Party development, the period of Bolshevization. Our Party
stands before tremendous tasks and great opportunities. In order that these
tasks may be accomplLshed and to take advantage of the opportunities before it,
the Party must be united for the work it has on hand.
The Party has a correct program of activity. It has a leadership which
has the stamp of approval of the Conmiunist International as being the group
closest to the views of the Communist International in our Party. We must
now through actual work, through actual struggle, make our program a reality.
The immediate future requires of every member of the Party greater sacrifice,
greater service to the Party than ever before in its history. We have achieved
the correct program, our Party leadership has shown in the past that it can
put our program into action. Now the Party must work.
Exhibit No. 59
[Source : Excerpt from Leninism, by Joseph Stalin, published by International Publishers,
New York: 1928. Pages 29-51]
5. THE PARTY AND THE WORKING CLASS WITHIN THE SYSTEM OF THE DICTATORSHIP
OF THE PROLETARIAT
Hitherto I have been writing about the dictatorship of the proletariat from
the standpoint of its historical necessity; from the standpoint of is nature as
a class manifestation ; from the standpoint of its political characteristics ; and,
lastly, from the standpoint of its destructive and creative tasks, which persist
throughout an entire historical epoch known as the period of transition from
capitalism to socialism.
Now we have to consider the dictatorship of the proletariat from the stand-
point of its structure ; its "mechanism" ; the function and the importance of
the "belts," the "levers," and the "guiding force," which comprise in their
totality "the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat" (Lenin), and with
the aid of which the daily work of the dictatorship of the proletariat is
carried on.
What are these "belts" or "levers" in the system of the dictatorship of the
proletariat? What is the "guiding force"? Why are they needed?
426 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The levers and the belts are the mass organisations of the proletariat without
whose aid the dictatorship cannot be realised in practice.
The guilding force is that of the advanced section of the proletariat, the
workers' vanguard, which constitutes the veritable leader of the dictatorship
of the proletariat.
The proletariat needs these belts, these levers, and this guiding force, because
without them it would, in its struggle for victory, be like a weaponless army
in face of organised and armed capital. It needs these organisations, because
without them it would inevitably be defeated in the fight for the overthrow
of the bourgeoisie, for the consolidation of its own power, for the upbuilding
of socialism. The systematic help of these organisations and of the guiding
force of the workers' vanguard is indispensable, because otherwise the dictator-
sliip of the proletariat could not be durable or steadfast.
What are these organisations?
First of all there are the trade unions, with their national and local rami-
fications in the form of productive, educational, cultural, and other organisa-
tions. In these, the workers of all trades and industries are united. They are
not Party organisations. Our trade unions can be regarded as the general
organisation of the working class now holding power in Soviet Russia. They
constitute a school of communism. From them are drawn the persons best
fitted to occupy the leading positions in all branches of administration. They
form the link between the more advanced and the comparatively backward
sections of the working class, for in them the masses of the workers are united
with the vanguard,.
Secondly we have the Soviets with their manifold national and local rami-
fications, taking the form of administrative, industrial, military, cultural, and
other State organisations, together with a multitude of spontaneous mass
groupings of the workers in the bodies which surround these organisations
and link them up with the general population. The Soviets are the mass organ-
isations of all those who labour in town and country. They are not Party
organisations, but are the direct expression of the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat. All kinds of measures for the strengthening of the dictatorship and
for the upbuilding of socialism are carried out by means of the Soviets.
Through them, the political guidance of the peasantry by the proletariat is
effected. The Soviets unite the labouring masses with the proletarian vanguard.
Thirdly we have cooperatives of all kinds, with their multiple ramifications.
These, too, are non-Party organisations, being mass organisations in which the
workers are united, primarily as consumers, but also, at a later stage, as
producers (agricultural cooperatives). The cooperatives play a specially
important part after the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
during the period of widespread construction. They form a link between the
proletarian vanguard and the peasant masses, and provide a means whereby
the latter can be induced to share in the work of socialist construction.
Fourthly there is the League of Youth. This is a mass organisation of the
young workers and peasants, not a Party organisation, but in close touch with
the Party. Its work is to help the Party in training the younger generation in
a socialist spirit. It provides young reserves for all the other mass organi-
sations of the proletariat in every branch of administration. The League of
Youth acquires peculiar importance after the consolidation of the dictatorship
of the proletariat, during the period when widespread cultural and educational
work is incumbent upon the proletariat.
Lastly we come to the Party of the proletariat, the proletarian vanguard.
Its strength lies in the fact that it attracts to its ranks the best elements
of all the mass organisations of the proletariat. Its function is to unify the
work of all the mass organisations of the proletariat, without exception, and
to ffiiide their activities toward a single end, that of the liberation of the
proletariat. Unification and guidance are absolutely essential. There must
be unity in the proletarian struggle ; the proletarian masses must be guided
in their fight for power and for the upbuilding of socialism; and only the
proletarian vanguard, only the Party of the proletariat, is competent to unify
and guide the work of the mass organisations of the proletariat. Nothing
but the Party of the proletariat, nothing but the Communist Party, is able
to act as universal leader in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Why is this? Let me quote from my pamphlet Foundations of Leninism:
First of all, because the Party is the rallying-point for the best ele-
ments of the working class, of those who are in touch with the non-
Party proletarian organisations, and are often leaders in these. In the
APPENDIX, PART 1 427
second place, because the Party, as rallying-poiut for the best elements of
the working class, forms the best training school for leaders competent to
guide every kind of working-class organisation. Thirdly, because the
Party, as the best training school for working-class leaders, is the only
organisation competent, in virtue of its experience and authority, to
centralise the leadership of the proletarian struggle, and thus to transform
all non-Party working-class organisations into accessory organs and con-
necting belts linking up the Party with the working class as a whole.
The Party is the fundamental guiding force within the system of the
dicatorship. As Lenin puts it, the Party is the supreme form of class organi-
sation of the proletariat.
To sum up : the trade unions, as mass organisations of the proletariat,
linking the Party with the working class as a whole, especially in the industrial
field ; the Soviets, as mass organisations of all who labour, linking the Party
with these latter, especially in the political field; the cooperatives as mass
organisations, chiefly of the peasants, linking the Party with the peasant
masses, especially in the economic field and as concerns peasant participation
in the work of socialist construction; the League of Youth, as a mass organi-
sation of the young worker and peasants, whose function it is to help the
proletarian vanguard in the socialist education of the rising generation and
in the formation of young reserves ; finally, the Party, as the essential guiding
force within the system of the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and
called upon to lead all the before-mentioned mass organisations — here we
have, in broad outline, a picture of the "mechanism" of the dictatorship, a picture
of the "system of the dictatorship of the proletariat".
Without the Party as the essential guiding force, there cannot be a lasting
and firmly consolidated dictatorship of the proletariat.
To quote Lenin :
We thus have a supple, broadly based, and extremely powerful pro-
letarian apparatus. In point of form, considered as a whole, it is not com-
munist ; but by means of it the Party is closely linked to the class and to
the masses; and, thanks to it, under the leadership of the Party, a class
dictatorship is realised. {Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 139.)
Of course this does not mean that the Party can or should become a sub-
stitute for the trade unions, the Soviets, and the other mass organisations.
The Party effectively realises the dicatorship of the proletariat. It does this,
however, not directly, but with the help of the trade unions, and through the
instrumentality of the Soviets and their ramifications. Without these "belts",
a stable dicatorship would be impossible.
Lenin writes :
The dictatorship cannot be effectively realised without "belts" to trans-
mit power from the vanguard to the mass of the advanced class, and from
this to the mass of those who labour. . . . The Party comprises the
proletarian vanguard, and this vanguard realises the dictatorship of the
proletariat. In the absence of such a basis to work upon as the trade
unions constitute, the dictatorship could not become effective, the func-
tions of the State could not be fulfilled. They have to be fulfilled through
the instrumentality of a series of special institutions which are likewise of
a new type, throiiyh the instrumentality of^ the Soviet apparatus. (Works,
Russian edition, vol. xviii., part I., pp. S-9. )
Here is a fact which may be considered the supreme expression of the guiding
function of our Party. In the Soviet Union, in the land where the dictatorship
of the proletariat is in force, no important political or organisational problem
is ever decided by our Soviets and other mass organisations without directives
from the Party. I?i this sense we may say that the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat is, suhstantially, the "dictatorship" of its vanguard, the "dictatorship"
of Its Party, as the force which guides the proletariat. Consider what Lenin
said in reference to this matter at the Second Congress of the Communist In-
ternational :
Tanner tells us that he is in favour of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
but he does not understand the term in precisely the same sense as we do.
He says that by the dictatorship of the proletariat we mean, substantially,^
* Italicised by Stalin.
428 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the dictatorship of its organised and class-conscious minority. In actual
fact, under capitalism, when the working masses are subject to unceasing
exploitation and caiuiot deA'elop their human faculties, one of the main
characteristics of working-class political parties is that such parties can
only enrol a minority of the working class. The reason is that, under
capitalism, effectively class-conscious workers form a minority of the work-
ers as a whole. We have, therefore, to admit that the broad masses of the
workers must be led and guided by the class-conscious minority. When
Comrade Tanner says that he is opposed to the Party, and in the same
breath declares that a minority of the best organized and most revolutionary
workers must show the way to the proletariat as a whole. I answer that
really there is no difference between our views. (Works, Russian edition,
vol. xvii., p. 270.)
Does this mean that the dictatorship of the proletariat and the guiding func-
tion of the Party (the "dictatorship" of the Party) are one and the same thing,
that the latter can be substituted for the former without producing any change?
Of course it means nothing of the kind. Comrade Sorin declares that "the
dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of our Party" {What Lenin
teaches about the Party, p. 95). Obviously, to say that is to identify the "dic-
tatorship of the Party" with the dictatorship of the proletariat. Can this be
admitted while remaining within the confines of Leninism? No, for the following
reasons :
1. In his speech to the Second Congress of the Communist International,
Lenin does not identify the guiding role of the Party with the dictatorship of the
proletariat. He says that the broad masses of the workers must be led and
guided by the class-conscious minority — by the Party. He says that, in this
sense, by the dictatorship of the proletariat we mean, suhstantiaUy. the dictator-
ship of its organised and class-conscious minority. When he uses the word
"substantially", he implies that he does not mean "wholly". We often say that
the national problem is, substantially, a peasant problem. This is perfectly
true. But when we say it we do not mean that the national question covers
exactly the same ground as the peasant question; that the peasant question
is of precisely the same scope as the national question, that the peasant question
and the national question are one and the same thing. There is no need to
prove that the scope of the national question is much wider than that of the
peasant question, that the content of the former is much richer than that of the
latter. There is an analogous relationship between the concept of the dictator-
ship of the proletariat and the concept of the guiding function of the Party.
Even though the Party carries out the dictatorship of the proletariat, so that,
in this sense, the dictatorship of the proletariat is subsantiaUy a "dictatorship"
of the Party of the proletariat, that does not signify that "the dictatorship of
the Party" (the guiding function of the Party) is identical with the dictatorship
of the proletariat, that the former is coextensive with the latter. There is no
need to prove that the scoi^e of the dictatorship of the proletariat is much wider
than that of the guiding function of the Party, that the content of the former
concept is much richer than that of the latter. The Party carries out the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat; but what it carries out is the dictatorship of the
proletariat, and not the dictatorship of something else. Any one who identifies
the guiding function of the Party with the dictatorship of the proletariat, is
substituting the "dictatorship" of the Party for the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat.
2. No important decision is ever arrived at by the mass organisations of the
proletariat without directives from the Party. This is perfectly true. But
does it mean that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the guiding function of
the Party and nothing moref Does it mean that the issuing of directives by
the Party is one and the same thing as the dictatorship of the proletariat? Of
course it does not mean this. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the issuing
of directives by the Party, plus the carrying out of these directives into effect
On the part of the mass organisations of the proletariat, plus their being made
actual by the population at large. Obviously, we are faced here with a whole
series of transitions and graduations which comprise important elements of the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Between the directives of the Party and their
being made actual, come the will and the activities of those who carry out these
directives, the will and the activities of the class, its willingness (or unwilling-
ness) to act in accordance with the directives, its capacity (or incapacity) for
acting upon them, its capacity (or incapacity) for realising them as circum-
stances may demand. It is hardly necessary to prove that the Party, when it
APPENDIX, PART 1 429
has shouldered the harden of leadership, has to take into account the wills, the
states of mind, the degrees of class consciousness, of those who are being led —
of the members of the class as a whole. Consequently, any one who identities
the guiding function of the Party with the dictatorship of the proletariat, is
substituting the directives of the Party for the will and the activities of the class.
3. "The dictatorship of the proletariat", says Lenin, "is the class struggle of
the proletariat after its victorious seizure of political power". ( Works, Russian
edition, vol. xvi., p. 240.) How can this class struggle find expression? It may
take the form of a series of armed activities on the part of the proletariat de-
signed to resist tlie onslaughts of the bourgeoisie which has been overthrown,
or to resist the intervention of a foreign bourgeoisie. If the power of the pro-
letariat is not yet fully established, it may take the form of civil war. After
that power has been consolidated, it may take the form of widespread organi-
sational and constructive work on the part of the proletariat, with the enlist-
ment of the masses in these activities. In all cases alike, the " personality " at
work is the proletariat as a class. Never has the Party, simply as a Party, been
able to undertake all these activities solely in virtue of its own strength, and
without the support of the class. Ordinarily the Party does no more than lead
them, and it can lead them only in so far as it has the support of the class. For
the Party is not the same thing as the class, and cannot replace the class. The
Party, however impoi'tant it may be, however indispen.sable its guiding function,
is still nothing more than a part of the class. Consequently, any one who identi-
fies the guiding function of the Party with the dictatorship of the proletariat, is
substituting the Party for the class.
4. The Party effectively realises the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin
writes: "The Party is the directly managing vanguard of the proletariat; it is
the leader". This is the sense in which the Party wields power, in which the
Party governs the country. But that does not mean that the Party realises the
dictatorship of the proletariat outside the limits of the State authority ; that
the Party governs the country independently of the Soviets, for it governs through
the Soviets. But this, again, does not mean that the Party can be identified with
the Soviets, or that it can be identified with the State authority. The Party
is the substantial wielder of authority, but it cannot be identified with the Slate
authority. Lenin writes: "Since we are the ruling Party, we cannot but amal-
gamate the chiefs of the Soviets with the chiefs of the Party ; in Soviet Russia
they are thus amalgamated, and will remain so". (Works, Russian edition, vol.
xviii., part I., p. 112) . This is perfectly correct. But Lenin does not mean that
our Soviet institutions as a whole (such as the army, the transport service, the
economic institutions, etc.) are Party institutions; he does not mean that the
Party can take the place of the Soviets and their ramifications, or that the Party
can be identified with the State authority. Lenin says again and again that
"the Soviet system is the dictatorship of the proletariat" and that the Soviet
power is the dictatorship of the proletariat. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvi.,
pp. 44-46). Nowhere does he say that the Party is the State authority, or that
the Soviets and the Party are one and the same. The Party, with its member-
ship of a few hundred thousand, guides the Soviets both nationally and locally,
the Soviets and their ramifications, comprising several million persons, some of
whom are Party members but the majority of whom are not ; it neither can nor
ought to take the place of the Soviets. That is why Lenin writes : "The dic-
tatorship is realised by the proletariat organised in the Soviets, and the prole-
tariat itself is guided by the Connuunist Party of the bolsheviks"; why he tells
us that "all the work of the Party is carried out throiif/h^ the Soviets, which
unite the labouring masses without distinction of occupation" (Works, Russian
edition, vol. xvii., pp. 138-140) ; and why he declares that the dictatorship
" must be realised * * * ^/(/•o;////; ' the Soviet apparatus ". (Wo/7i-.s-, Russian
edition, vol. xviii., part I., p. 8.) Consequently, any one who identifies the
guiding function of the Party with the dictatorship of the proletariat, is
.substHuting the Soviets, the State authority, for the Party.
5. The concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat is a political concept, a
State concept. The dictatorship of the proletariat necessarily involves the idea
of force. Without force there can be no dictatorship in the strict sense of the
term. T^nin defines the dictatorship of the proletariat as "power based directly
on force". (Works. Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 124.) Any one, therefore, who
talks as if the dictatorship of the Party were exercised over the proletarian class,
^ Italicised by Stalin.
430 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and identifies this dictatorship with the dictatorship of the proletariat, is in effect
saying that in relation to its own class the Party must be, not only guide and
teacher, bnt also in some sort a State authority which rules that class by force.
Consequently, any one who identifies the "dictatorship of the Party" with the
dictatorship of the proletariat is tacitly assuming that tlie authority of the Party
can be grounded on force — which is absurd, and utterly incompatible with
Leninism. The authority of the Party is maintained by the confidence of the
worlving class. The confidence of the working class is not to be won by force ;
for the use of force would kill confidence. It can only be won if Party theory
is sound, if Party policy is correct, if the Party is devoted to the cause of the
working class, if the Party is closely linked with the masses of the working class,
and if the Party is ready and able to convince the masses that its slogans are
the I'ight ones.
What follows from all these considerations?
Plere we have the deductions :
1. When Lenin speaks of a dictatorship of the Party, he does not use the word
dictatorship in its literal meaning of "power based directly on force", but uses
it figuratively, to mean leadership.
2. Any one who identifies leadership by the Party with the dictatorship of the
proletariat distorts Lenin's meaning, wrongly attributing to the Party the use of
force in relation to the working class as a whole.
3. Any one who attributes to the Party a non-existent use of force in relation
to the working class, violates the elementary principles of the proper mutual
relationships between the workers' vangnard and the working class as a whole,
between the Party and the proletariat.
Tills brings us to the question of the relationships between the Party and the
working class, between those in the working class who are and those who are
not members of the Party.
Lenin defines these relationships as "mutual confidence between the workers"
vanguard and the working masses". {Works, Russian edition, vol. xviii., part I.,
p. 13.5.)
What does this mean?
First of all, that the Party must have a good ear for the voice of the masses,
must pay close attention to their revolutionary instinct, must study the actualities
of their struggle, must carefully enquire whether their policy is sound — and must,
therefore, be ready, not only to teach the masses, but also to learn from them.
This means, in the second place, that the Party must from day to day win the
confidence of the proletarian masses : that, by its policy and its activities, it must
secure the support of the masses ; that it must not order but persuade, helping
the masses to become aware by their own experience that the Party policy is
right : that it must, therefore, be the guide, the leader, the teacher of the
proletariat.
To violate these conditions is to violate the proper mutual relationships between
the vanguard and the class as a whole, to luidermine the "mutual confidence", to
imperil discipline both within the class and within the Party.
Lenin writes :
Beyond question, almost every one knows by this time that the bolsheviks
would not have been able to hold power for two and a half years, nor even for
two and a half months, had there not been the strictest possible discipline, a
truly iron discipline, within the Party ; nor would they have been able to
hold power without the whole-hearted support of the entire mass of the
irorkinf/ class,'^ or at any rate the full support of all the members of the
working class who are class-conscious, sincere, devoted, influential, and com-
petent to lead those who are comparatively backward or attract them into
the forword movement. (WorJxS, Russian edition, vol. xvii.. p. 117.)
The dictatorship of the proletariat is a hard-fought fight against the forces
and traditions of the old society ; a fight that is both bloody and unbloody,
both violent and passive, both military and economic, both educational and
administrative. The power of habit, ingrained in millions and tens of mil-
lions, is a terrible power. Without the Party, a party of iron which has been
tempered in the struggle, a party that enjoys the confidence of all the straight-
forward members of the working class,^ a party able to understand and to
1 Italicised by Stalin.
APPENDIX, PART 1 431
influence the psychology of the masses, success in such a struggle would be
impossible. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 136.)
But how is the Party to win the confidence and gain the support of the class?
The iron discipline necessary for the dictatorship of the proletariat — how is it
fashioned, upon what soil does it grow?
Here is what Lenin has to say about the matter :
How is discipline maintained within the revolutionary Party of the pro-
letariat? What controls this discipline, and what strengthens it? First
of all, there is the class consciousness of the proletarian vanguard, it^
devotion to the revolution, its self-control, its self-sacrifice, its heroism.
Secondly, there is the capacity of the proletarian vanguard for linking
itself with, for keeping in close touch with, for to some extent amalgamating
with, the hroad masses of those ivho lahour,^ primarily with the proletarian
masses, but also icitJi the nou-proletarianised masses of those who lahour}
Thirdly, we have the soundness of the vanguard's political leadership, the
soundness of its political strategy and tactic— with the proviso that the
broad masses must become convinced hy their oimi experienee^ that the lead-
ership, the strategy, and the tactic are sound. Unless these conditions are
fulfilled, there is no possibility of achieving the discipline which is indis-
pensable for a revolutionary party that shall be able to become the Party
of the most advanced class, the Party whose task it is to overthrow the
bourgeoisie and to transform the whole of society. Unless these conditions
are fulfilled, the attempts to establish such a discipline will never get
bej'ond empty talk and unmeaning gestures — hot air. On the other hand,
these conditions cannot be fulfilled betwixt night and morning. Much
labour and pains, hard-won experience, will be required. Their fulfilment
must be guided by accurate revolutionary theory, which, however, must
never harden into dogma, but must always be formulated in close touch
with the practical activity of the masses and the daily worlc of the revolu-
tionary movement. [Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., pp. 118-119.)
Again :
In order to win the victory over capitalism there must be a proper
relationship between the leading party, the Communist Party, the revolu-
tionary class, the proletariat, on the one hand, and the mass, the totality
of those who labour and are exploited, on the other. The Communist Party,
as the vanguard of the revolutionary class, enrolling as members all the
best elements of that class, consisting of fully class-conscious and devoted
communists who have been enlightened and steeled by their experience in
the stubborn revolutionary struggle, insei^arably connected with the whole
life of the working class and through this class linked up with the wider
mass of the exploited, enjoying the full eonfidenee ^ of one and all of these — •
only the Communist Party, if it fulfils all the before-mentioned conditions,
is competent to lead the proletariat in the last, the ruthless, the decisive
campaign against the united forces of capitalism. On the other hand, only
under the leadership of such a party is the proletariat able to develop the
full power of its revolutionary onslaught, to render harmless the inevitable
apathy (and sometimes the active hostility) of the small minority of the
workers, of the working-class aristocracy which has been corrupted by
capitalism, of the old leaders in the trade unions and the cooperatives, etc.
Only under the leadership of such a party can the proletariat develop all its
strength, which, in virtue of the economic structure of capitalist society, is
incomparably greater than its numerical ratio to the rest of the population.
(Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 232.)
From the foregoing considerations it follows that:
1. The authority of the Party, and the iron discipline of the working class
indispensable to the dictatorship of the proletariat, are based, not upon fear
nor upon the concession of "unrestricted" rights to the Party, but upon the con-
fidence of the working class in the Party and upon the support of the Party
by the working class.
2. The Party does not win the confidence of the working class in the
twinkling of an eye, or by the use of force against the working class. Trust
^ Italicised by Stalin.
432 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
is gradually inspired by the prolonged work of the Party among the masses ;
thanks to the soundness of Party policy ; because the Party is able to convince
the masses by their own experience that its iiolicy is sound, thus ensuring
the support of the working class and inducing the broad masses of the workers
to follow its lead.
3. The Party does not and cannot effectively lead unless its policy is sound,
and strengthened by experience in the working-class struggle ; it does not
and cannot effectively lead unless it has the full confidence of the working class.
4. If the Party enjoys the confidence of the working class and if its leader-
ship is effective, the Party and its leadership cannot be contra posed to the
dictatorship of the proletariat, for a firmly established dictatorship of the
proletariat is impossible unless the Party leads the working class (the "dictator-
ship" of the Party) and enjoys the confidence of the working class.
Unless these conditions are fulfilled, "the authority of the Party" and "the
iron discipline of the working class" are but empty phrases, are but an idle
boast.
There is no justification for contraposing the dictator.ship of the proletariat to
the leadership (the "dictatorship") of the Party. The contraposition is inad-
missible for the reason that the Party leadership is the most important element
in the dictatorship of the proletariat — if we are thinking of a firmly established
and effective dictatorship, and not of such a dictatorship as that of the Com-
mune of Paris, which was neither firmly established nor effective. The contra-
position is inadmissible because the dictatorship of the proletariat and the Party
leadership are, as it were, complementary parts of one piece of work, and act
•together along the same line.
Lenin writes :
Any one who states the question in this way, speaking of the dictatorship
of the Party or the dictatorship of the class, speaking of dictatorship of the
leaders and dictatorship of the masses as alternatives, shows by this very
formulation that his mind is incredibly and hopelessly confused. . . . Every
one knows that the masses are split up into classes; . . . that (in modern
civilised countries, at least) classes are usually led by political parties;
that these parties are, as a rule, managed by more or less stable groupings of
the most authoritative, influential, and experienced persons among their
members, elected to responsible posts and spoken of as leaders. ... To im-
ply that there is, in general, a contraposition between the dictatorship of the
; masses and the dictatorship of the leaders is utterly absurd. (Works,
.Ru.s.sian edition, vol. xvii., pp. 133-134.)
The statement is perfectly correct, but it presupposes the existence of sound
relationships between the vanguard and the working masses, between the
Party and the class. It assumes that the relationship between the vanguard and
the class are, so to say, normal ; that they are inspired by mutual confidence. ,
But what will happen if the relationship between the vanguard and the class is
disturbed, if the mutual confidence which ought to subsist is shaken or destroyed?
Suppose that in one way or another the Party begins to set itself up against the
class, thus undermining the foundations of proper relationships between the
'two, the foundations of mutual confidence! Can such a thing happen? Cer-
tainly it can happen, if the Party begins to base its authority among the masses,
not upon its work, not upon the trust it inspires, but upon its 'unrestricted"
rights ; if the Party is manifestly wrong in its policy, and yet will not admit
and rectify its errors ; or if the policy of the Pai'ty, though soiuid in the main,
is one which the masses are not yet ready to adopt, and the Party will not or
cannot wait until the ma.s.ses have had a chance of learning by their own ex-
perience that the Party policy is right. The history of oiir Party presents a
number of instances of the kind. Various groupings and fractions of the Party
have failed and have broken up because they infringed one of the three con-
ditions just mentioned — or sometimes infringed them all.
No one, therefore, is entitled to speak of the "dicta tori^hip" (the leadership) of
the Party as equivalent to the dictatorship of the proletariat unless he has in
mind one of the three following cases :
1. The case in which, when we speak of the dictatorship which the Party
exercises over the Avorking class, we mean what Lenin meant when he used
the phrase, not a dictatorship in the strict sense of the term ("i>ower based
directly on force"), but the guiding function of the party exercised without the
use of force directed against the class as a whole — against its majority.
APPENDIX, PART 1 433
2. The case in which the Party is really qualified to act as leader of the class,
the implication being that the Party policy is sound, and in conformity with
the interests of the class.
3. The case in which the class, the majority of the class, accepts the Party
policy, makes that policy its own, and, being convinced by the daily work of the
Party that the ix)licy is sound, has confidence in the Party and supports it.
Failure to satisfy these conditions will inevitably lead to a conflict between
the Party and the class.
Can the Party impose its leadership on the class by force? No, it cannot. Or,
if such a thing were done, the leadership would not last long. If the Party is
to remain the Party of the proletariat, it must know that, above all, it is the guide,
the leader, the teacher of the working class. We must not forget what Lenin
said about this matter in TJie State and Revolution:
By educating the workers' party, Marxism educates the vanguard of the
proletariat, thus fitting it to seize power and to lead the whole people towards
socialism, to carry on and to organise the new order, to become the teacher,
the guide, the leader^ of all who labour and are exploited — their teacher,
guide, and leader in the work of organising their social life without the
bourgeoisie and against the bourgeoisie. {Worhs, Russian edition, vol, xiv.,
part II., p. 317.)
But can we look upon the Party as the effective leader of the working class
if the Party policy is wrong, if its policy conflicts with working-class interests?
Of course not ! In such circumstances, the Party, if it is to remain the leader,
mu.st reconsider its policy, must rectify its policy, must acknowledge its mis-
takes and amend them. Consider, for instance, the compulsory levies of grain.
At a certain period in the history of our Party it became obvious that the masses
of workers and peasants disapproved of these levies. Thereupon the Party openly
and honestly revised its policy, and the levies were abolished. At the Tenth
Party Congress, Lenin discussed this question of the abolition of the forced levies,
and that of the introduction of the New Economic Policy. Here is an extract
from his speech :
We must not try to hush up anything. We must frankly admit that the
Ijeasants are discontented with the system we have established, and that they
will not put up with it any longer. This is indisputable. They have ex-
pressed their wishes very plainly indeed. We are confronted with the wishes
of the great mass of the labouring population. Their wishes have to be
taken into account, and, as politicians, we are realists enough to say : ''Let
ufi reconsider the question."^ {Works, Russian edition, vol. xviii., part I.,
p. 138.
Now let us contemplate another possibility. Let us suppose that, owing to the
political backwardness of the working class, the Party policy (though right in
the main) does not inspire general confidence or command general support; let
us suppose that the Party has not yet been able to convince the working class
that its policy is sound, the reason being that (as the phrase runs) the time is
not yet ripe. In such a case, is the Party to take a decided initiative? Should
the Party try to give a strong trend to the actions of the masses? No, certainly
nor. ! In such cases the I'arty, if it is to lead effectively, must know how to wait
until it has convinced the masses that its policy is sound, must help the masses
to learn by their own experience.
Lenin writes:
If the revolutionary Party is not supported by a majority in the advanced
sections of the revolutionary classes and throughout the country, then there
can be no question of a rising. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xiv., part II.,
p. 255.)
Again :
No revolution is possible without a change of views in the majority of the
working class. Such a change of views is brought about, in the masses, by
political experience. {Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 172.)
Once more :
The proletarian vanguard has been won over to our ideas. That is the
main thing. Until so much has been achieved, we cannot take even the first
* Italicised by Stalin.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 29
434 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
step towards victory. But from this first step it is still a long way to the
victory. The vanguard cannot conquer unaided. It would be worse than a
blunder, it would be a crime, to send the vanguard into the fighting line before
the class as a whole (the broad mass) is ready to support it, or at least ready
to show benevolent neutrality and fully determined not to go over to the
enemy. But propaganda and agitation alone will not suffice to ensure that
the class as a whole, the broad masses of those who labour and are exploited
by capitalism, are to be depended on. For this the masses must have learned
by their own political experience. ( Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii., p. 179.)
We know that the Party worked along this line from the days when Lenin
wrote his April theses down to the time of the October revolution. The armed
rising of October (November) 1917 was successful for the very reason that
Lenin's teaching had gone home.
Such are the fundamental characteristics of a proper mutual relationship
between the vanguard and the class as a whole.
What does leadership mean when the Party policy is sound and when the
relationships between the vanguard and the class as a whole are all that can
be wished?
In such circumstances, leadership means : ability to convince the masses that
the Party policy is right ; ability to issue and to act upon slogans that will bring
the masses nearer to the Party standpoint, and will make it easier for them (as
the outcome of their own experience) to realise the soundness of the Party
policy ; ability to raise the masses to the Party level, and thus to ensure their
cooperation at the decisive hour.
Thus the method of persuasion must be the chief method employed by the
Party in its leadership of the class.
Lenin wi'ites :
If in Russia to-day, after two and a half years of unexampled success in
the fight against the Russian bourgeoisie and the Entente capitalists, we
were to make the "recognition of the dictatorship" a condition of membership
of the trade unions, we should commit a gross blunder, should forfeit our
influence over the masses, should play into the hands of the mensheviks. For
the essential task of the communists is to convince the backward members
of their class, to work amovfj them, and not to set themselves apart by arti-
ficial and childishly "left-wing" slogans. ( Works. Russian edition, vol. xvii.,
p. 144.)
Of course this does not mean that the Party must convince all the workers
without exception, and must not till then take any action. It means nothing of
the sort. What it means is that before entering upon decisive political activities
the Party must, by prolonged revolutionary work, make sure of the support of
the great majority of the working masses, or at least of their benevolent neutral-
ity. Otherwise there would be absolutely no meaning in Lenin's contention that
a victorious revolution is impossible unless the Party has first won over the
majority of the working class.
What is to be done if the minority refuses to submit to the will of the majority?
When the Party enjoys the confidence of the majority, may it and must it force
the minority to comply? Yes, it may and it must. The fundamental way in
which the Party acts upon the masses is by persuasion ; it is by persuading the
majority that the leadership is safeguarded. This however does not exclude
compulsion. On the contrary, it presupposes the use of compulsion when com-
pulsion is supported by the confidence of the majority of the working class, and
when the Party does not apply it to the minority until the majority has been
won over. In this connexion let us recall the discussions that went on in our Party
during the time when the trade-union problem was under consideration. What
was the error of the opposition, of the Central Committee of the Transport
Workers' Union? Did that error consist simply and solely in this, that the use
of force was contemplated? Not at all! The mistake was that the opposition
contemplated the use of force in spite of the fact that it was unable to convince
the majority that its views were sound, in spite of the fact that it had forfeited
the confidence of the majority ; the mistake was that in these circumstances the
opposition wanted "to make a clean sweep" of jiersons who enjoyed the confidence
of the majority.
Here is what Lenin said at the Tenth Congress of the Party, in his speech on
the trade-union question :
To restore mutual confidence between the workers' vanguard and the work-
ing masses, it was necessary that the Central Committee of the Transport
APPENDIX, PART 1 435
Workers' Union, made having a blnnder, * * * should correct its ertor.
When people who have made a mistake try to defend it, the political situation
grows dangerous. Unless the utmost possible had been done in the demo-
cratic direction in order to carry into effect the views expressed here by
Kutuzoff. there would have been a political explosion. We tnust convince
first, and keep force in reserve. At any cost, ice must convince first, and not
use foi'ce till afterwards.^ In this case wo did not succeed in convincing the
broad masses, and we therefore impaired the relationships between the
vanguard and the masses. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xviii., part I., p. 135.)
Lenin writes to the same effect in his pamphlet Concerning the Trade Unions:
We have applied force rightly and successfully in those cases in which
we have paved the way for it by persuasion. {Works, Russian edition, vol.
xviii., part I., p. 19.)
This is perfectly correct, for on no other supposition is leadership possible.
In no other way can the unity of the Party or the unity of the working class as
a wliole (as the case may be) be safeguarded. Otherwise there will be disunion,
disarray, in the ranks of the workers.
Such are the fundamental characteristics of correct Party leadership.
Any other conception of leadership may be syndicalism, anarchism, bureauc-
racy, or what you will ; it is certainly not bolshevisnt, certainly not Leninism.
If there are sound relationships between the Party and the working class,
between the vanguard and the working masses, then there can be no ground
for contraposing the leadership (the "dictatorship"') of the Party to the dicta-
torship of the proletariat. It follows from this that there is no warrant for
identifying the Party with the working class, or the leadership ("dictatorship")
of the Party with the dictatorship of the working class. From the circum-
stance that the "dictatorship" of the Party must not be contraposed to the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat. Comrade Sorin draws the erroneous conclusioa
that "the dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of our Party". But
Lenin does not merely tell us that to contrapose the "dictatorship" of the Party
to the dictatorship of the proletariat is inadmissible; in the same connexion he
declares that we must not contrapose the "dictatorship of the masses" to the
"dictatorship of the leaders". Are we, for this reason, to identify the dicta-
toi'ship of the leaders with the dictatorship of the proletariat? If we took that
road, we might declare that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictator-
.ship of our leaders. Such is the absurdity to which we are led if we set out
from an identification of the "dictatorship" of the Party with the dictatorship!
of the proletariat.
What are Comrade Zinovieff's views on this subject?
In reality, Comrade Ziuovieff holds that the "dictatorship" of the Party and
the dictatorship of the proletariat are one and the same thing. The only dif-
ference between him and Comrade Sorin is that Comrade Sorin says plainly
what he means, whereas Comrade Zinovieff "wriggles." Read, for instance,
what Comrade Zinovieff writes in his Leninism:
What is the prevailing system in the U. S. S. R. when considered from
the class standpoint? It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. What is
the mainspring of power in the U. S. S. R. ? Who incorporates the power
of the working class? The Communist Party! In this sense, tlw dictator-
si} ip of the Party prevails.^ What is the legalised form of power in the
U. S. S. R. ? What is the new type of State system brought into being
by the October revolution? The Soviet system. There is no contradictloa
between one and the other. {Leninism, pp. 370-.371.)
Certainly there is no contradiction between the one and the other — provided
always that when we speak of a dictatorship exercised by the Party over the
working class we mean the leadership of the Party. But how is it possible,
for that reason, to identify the dictatorship of the proletariat with the "dicta-
torship" of the Party, or to identify the Soviet system with the "dictator.ship"'
of the Party? Lenin identified the Soviet system with the dictatorship of the
proletariat, and he was right to do so, for the Soviets, our Soviets, are or-
ganisations in which the masses of those who labour are united round the prole-
tariat under the leadership of the Party. But when, where, and in which of
1 Tj-aJVispfl hv .'^ts.Hw
436 UN-AMERIOAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
his writings, has Leuin identiliecl the "dictatorship" of the Party with the
dictatorship of the proletariat, or the "dictatorship" of the Party with the
Soviet system, in such a way as that in which Comrade ZinoviefC is now iden-
tifying them? There is no contradiction between the leadership ("dictator-
ship") of the Party and the dictatorship of the proletariat, or between the
guiding function ("dictatorship") of the leaders and the dictatorship of
the proletariat. But should we, for that reason, declare that our country is
the country of the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is to say the country
of the dictatorship of the Party, that is to say the country of the dictatorship of
the leaders? This is the absurdity to which we are led by the "principle" of the
identity of the "dictatorship" of the Party with the dictatorship of the pro-
letariat, the "princple" surreptitiously and timidly maintained by Comrade
Zinovieff.
In Lenin's numerous works there are, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
only five passages in which he touches (and lightly) upon the question of the
dictatorship of the Party.
The first of these is one directed against the social revolutionaries and the
mensheviks. Here he writes :
When they complain that we have established a dictatorship of one
party, and, as you have heard, propose a united socialist front, we reply :
"Yes, the dictatorship of one party ! We stand by this, and have no
intention of giving it up, for it is the Party which, in the course of decades,
has fought for and won the position of vanguard to all the factory and
industrial proletariat. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvi., p. 296.)
The second allusion is in the Letter to the Workers and Peasants about the
Defeat of Kolchak.. He writes :
Some people (especially the mensheviks and the social revolutionaries
— even those among them who claim to belong to the left wing) try to
frighten the peasants with the bogey of the "dictatorship of one party",
the Party of Communist Bolsheviks. Tlie Kolchak affair has taught the
peasants not to be terrified by this spectre. Either the dictatorship
of the ground landlords and the capitalists (the Iron Heel), or else the
dictatorship of the working class. (Wo^-ks, Russian edition, vol. xvi.,
p. 306.)
The third passage is in the answer to Tanner at the Second Congress of
the Communist International. I quoted it on p. 33.
The fourth reference comprises several allusions made in Left-Wing Coni^
munism, an Infantile Disorder. The passage in question was quoted by
me on p. 41. See also the quotations from the same booklet on pp. 38-40.
The fifth and last occasion on which Lenin refers to this matter is in his
draft scheme of the dictatorship of the proletariat where "Dictatorship of One
Party" is used as a sub-title. [Choice Works of Lenin, Russian edition, vol.
iii., p. 497.)
The reader should note that in two of these passages, the second and the
fifth, Lenin has the words "dictatorship of one party" in quotation marks,
thus emphasizing his view that the phrase lacks precision and is used
metaphorically.
I must also point out that in every one of these instances when Lenin
speaks of the "dictatorship of the Party" as exercised over the workiny class,
he obviously does not mean dictatorship in the strict sense of the term ("power
based directly on force") ; he means nothing more than Party leadership.
Noteworthy is the fact that in none of the works, major or minor, where
Lenin discusses or merely alludes to the dictatorship of the proletariat and
speaks of the function of the Party in the system of the dictatorship of the
proletariat, does he imply in any way whatever that (as Sorin puts it) "the !
dictatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of our Party". On the
contrary, every page, every line, of these works is a strong protest against
any such formulation. (See The State and Revolution, The Proletarian
Revolution and Kautsky the Renegade, Left-Wing Communism, an. Infantile
Disorder, etc.)
Even more noteworthy is the fact that in the theses of the Second Congress
of the Communist International concerning the function of a political party
(theses worked out under Lenin's supervision, often quoted in his speeches,
and regarded by him as a masterly formulation of the tasks of our Party)
there is not a word, literally not one word, about Party dictatorship.
'
APPENDIX, PART 1 437
What does all this mean?
It means that :
1. Lenin did not regard the formula "the dictatorship of the Party" as ob-
jectionable ; he did not look upon it as accurate. That was why he rarely
used the phrase, and sometimes put it in quotation marks.
2. On the few occasions when Lenin found it necessary, for controversial
reasons, to speak of the dictatorship of the Party, he usually explained that
when he referred to the dictatorship of the Party as exercised over the
working class he was to be understood as meaning Party leadership.
3. Whenever Lenin thought it necessary to give a scientific definition of the
function of the Party in the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
he spoke of Party leadership and nothing else (innumerable instances!).
4. Tliat was why, at the Second Congress of the Communist International,
when a resolution of fundamental importance concerning the function of the
Party was adopted, Lenin never dreamed of including in it the formula of
"the dictatorship of the Party."
5. Those who identify or try to identify the "dictatorship" of the Party
or the "dictatorship of the leaders" wath the dictatorship of the proletariat,
are out of touch with Leninism, and are politically blind, for these comrades
infringe the right relationships between the vanguard and tlie class.
It is hardly necessary to say that the phrase "dictatorship of the Party,"
when used without the before-mentioned qualifications, may involve us in
serious dangers and give rise to a number of mistakes in our practical political
work. When employed without qualification, the exi)ression implies that we
are saying :
1. To the non-Party masses: "Dont dare to contradict, or to discuss matters;
the party is supreme ; the dictatorship of the Party has been established."
2. To the members of the Party: "Act more resolutely; tighten up the screw;
pay no heed to what the nou-Party masses say ; the dictatorship of the Party
is in force."
3. To the Party leaders: "You can enjoy the luxury of self-satisfaction; you
can have a touch of swelled head if you like ; a Party dictatorship has been set
up, and of course that really means the dictatorship of the leaders."
The present moment is one at which it is more than ever incumbent on us to
keep these dangers well in mind, at a time when the political activity of the
masses is increasing. Now, in especial, the Party must be ready to pay close
attention to the voice of the masses ; must have a fine ear for their demands ;
must display extreme caution and show peculiar elasticity in its policy. Now,
more than ever, will the Party leadership of the masses be imperilled if com-
munists should suffer from swelled head.
Let us never forget Lenin's golden words at the Eleventh Party Congress :
Among the masses of the people, we communists are but drops in the ocean,
and we caimot rule unless we give accurate expression to the folk con-
sciousness. Otherwise the Communist Party will not be able to lead the
proletariat, the proletariat will not be able to lead the masses, and the whole
machine will fall to pieces. {Works, Russian edition, vol. xviii., part Il.f
p. 55.)
Oive accurate expression to the folk consciousness! Only on condition that it
does this, can the Party have the honour of being the essential guiding force in
the system of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Exhibit No. 60
[Source: Excerpts from Leninism, bv Joseph Stalin, published by International Publishers,
New York : 1928]
* ^ :t! 4f * * ^t
I quote Lenin once more :
The dictatorship of the proletariat is a peculiar form of class alliance
between the proletariat (the vanguard of all those who labour) and the
various strata of the non-proletarian labouring masses (the petty bour-
geoisie, independent artisans, peasants, members of the intelligent.sia, etc.),
or with the majority of these: it is an alliance against capital; an alliance
aiming at the complete overthrow of capital, at the crushing of bourgeois
resistance and the frustrating of any attempt at a bourgeois restoration ;
438 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
an alliance designed for the establishment and the definitive consolidation
of socialism. This peculiar form of alliance is entered into under special
circumstances at a time when civil vpar is raging ; it is an alliance between
the convinced supporters of socialism and its wavering allies. (Some of
the allies may be "neutrals," and then an agreement to fight may be
replaced by an agreement to maintain neutrality.) It is an alliance be-
tween classes ivJdch differ economically, politically, socially, and idealogi-
cally. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvi., p. 241.) [page 25]
H; ***** *
With reference to the crushing of the exploiters, as one of the chief aims of
ilie dictatorship, Lenin writes :
Scientifically defined, a dictatorship is an authority based directly on
force, an authority which is absolutely unrestricted by any laws or regula-
tions . . . The dictatorship means (let the cadets grasp the fact once for
all!) power, unlimited power, based on force and not on law. When civil
war is raging, the authority of the victors cannot be anything but a dicta-
torship. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvii, pp. 355 and 361.) [page 26]
*******
Of course, the dictatorship of the proletariat does not mean force and nothing
else, although a dictatorship cannot be maintained except by force. To quote
Lenin :
The dictatorship does not mean force alone, though it is impossible without
force. It likewise betokens a higher organisation of labour than has pre-
viously existed. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xvi., p. 222.)
The dictatorship of the proletariat ... is not merely the exercise of
force against the exploiters, and indeed does not chiefly consist in the use of
force. The economic basis of this revolutionary force, the guarantee of its
vitality and success, is that the proletariat represents and realises a type of
social organisation of labour higher than that represented and realised by the
capitalist system. That is the main point. Herein lies the source of the
strength of communism ; herein we find assurance of its inevitable victory.
(Works, Russian edition, vol. xvi., pp. 247-248.) [pages 26-27]
*******
Let us turn to Lenin. In August 1915, more than two years before the October
revolution, he said :
Irregularity in economic and political development is an invariable law of
capitalism. It is, therefore, possible for socialism to triumph at the outset
in a small number of capitalist countries, nay even in one alone. The vic-
torious proletariat in such a land, having expropriated the capitalists and
having organised socialist production, would rise against the remainder of
the capitalist world, winning over to its cause the oppressed classes in other
lands, inciting them to revolt against the capitalists, and even, when needs
must, having recourse to armed intervention against the exploiting classes
and their States. (Works, Russian edition, vol. xiii., p. 133.) [pages 58-59]
*******
2. Marx's idea was that the conquest of State authority by the proletariat
would crown the work of the revolution. The woi'kers, having successively over-
thrown one fraction of the bourgeoisie after another, and having attained power,
would then kindle the torch of revolution in all the countries of the world,
[page 107]
*******
* * * That is why the fostering of revolution, the support of revolution, in
other countries, is incumbent upon the country where the revolution has
triumphed. That is why a country in which the revolution has triumphed must
not look upon itself as an independent magnitude, but as an aulxiliary, as a
means for hastening the victory of the proletariat in other lands.
Lenin expressed this idea pithily as follows :
In any country, the victorious revolution must do its utmost to develop,
support, and awaken the revolution in all other countries. (Works, Russian
edition, vol. xv., p. 502.) [page 109]
APPENDIX, PART 1 439
Exhibit No. 61
[Source: A booklet published by Workers Library Publishers, 35 East 125th Street, New-
York: January, 1929]
(JOMMUNISM AND THE iNTfatNATIONAL SITUATION — 6TH WOELD CoNGBESS
COMilUNISM AND THE INTEKNATIONAL SITUATION. THESIS ON THE INTERNATIONAL
SITUATION AND THE TASKS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNA^TIONAL, ADOPTED ' AT THE
SIXTH WORLD OONGKESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL, 1928.
Workers' Library Publishers, 35 East 125th Street, New York. First pub-
lished in January, 1929. Printed in England by the Dorrit Press, Limited
(T. U. throughout) 68-70 Lant St., London, S. E. 1.
Communism and the Inte3inationai, Situation
Theses imssed loiftnimonsly by the Sixth Congrefis of the Comintern on August
29th, 1928, on the Report of N. Bukharin.
introduction
I. After the first world imperialist war the international Labour movement
passed through a series of historical phases of development, expressing various
phases of the general crisis of the capitalist system.
The p-st period was the period of extremely acute crisis of the capitalist
system, and of direct revolutionary action on the part of the proletariat. This
period reached its apex of development in 1921, and culminated, on the one
hand, with the victory of the U.S.S.R. over the forces of foreign intervention
and internal counter-revolution and with the consolidation of the Communist
International. On the other hand, it ended with a series of severe defeats for
the Western European proletariat and the beginning of the general capitalist
offensive. The final link in the chain of events in this period was the defeat
of the German proletariat in 192.3. This defeat marked the starting point of
the second period, a period of gradual and partial stabilisation of the capitalist
system, of the restoration of capitalist economy, of the development and expan-
sion of the capitalist f>ffHnsive and of the continuation of the defensive battles
fought by the proletarian army weakened by severe defeats. On the other
hand, this was a period of rapid restoration in the U.S.S.R., of extremely im-
portant successes in the work of building up socialism, and also of the growth
of the political influence of the Communist Parties over the broad masses of
the proletariat. Finally came the third period, which, in the main, is the
period in which capitalist economy is exceeding the pre-war level, and in
which the economy of the U.S.S.R. is also almost simultaneously exceeding the
pre-war level (the beginning of the so-called "reconstruction period," the further
growth of the socialist forms of economy on the basis of a new technique).
For the capitalist system this is the period of rapid development of technique
and accelerated growth of cartels and trusts, and in which tendencies of devel-
opment towards State capitalism are observed. At the same time, it is a period
of intense development ot the contradictions of world capitalism, operating in
forms determined by the whole of the preceding process of the crisis of capital-
ism (contraction of markets, the U.S.S.R., colonial movements, growth of the
inherent contradictions of imperialism). This third period, in which the con-
tradiction between the growth of the productive forces and the contraction
of markets become particularly accentuated, is inevitably giving rise to a fresh
series of imperialist wars ; among the imperialist States themselves, wars of
the imperialist States against the U.S.S.R., wars of national liberation against
imperialism and imperialist intervention, and to gigantic class battles. The
intensification of all international antagonisms (antagonisms between the cap-
italist States and the U.S.S.R.. the military occupation of Northern China — •
which is the beginning of the partition of China — the mutual struggles between
the imperialists, etc.), the intensification of the internal antagonisms in capi-
talist countries ( the swing to the left of the masses of the working class, grow-
ing acuteness of the class struggle), and the wide development of colonial
movements (China. India and Syria), which are taking place in this period,
will inevitably lead — through the further development of the contradictions of
capitalist stabilisation— to capitalist stabilisation becoming still more precarious
and to the severe intensification of the general crisis of capitalism.
440 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
I
The Technique and Economics of World Industry
2. There is not the slightest doubt that considerable progress has been made
in the technique of industry in a number of capitalist countries. In some coun-
tries (United States, Germany) it has assumed the character of a technical
revolution. The gigantic growth in the employment of internal combustion
engines, electrification, the development of the chemical industry, the new meth-
ods of producing synthetic fuels and raw materials (benzine, artificial silk, etc.),
the employment of light metals and the extensive development of automobile
transport on the one hand, and the new forms of organisation of labour, which
is linked up with the extraordinary rapid development of the endless chain
system on the other, have revived the productive forces of capitalism. On this
basis foreign trade is expanding and the export of capital is increasing to an
extraordinary degree. The relative importance of the latter form of economic
intercourse between countries has grown considerably compared with pre-war
times.
3. In the sphere of economics is observed an exceptionally rapid growth of
capitalist monopoly (cartels, trusts and banking consortiums) which are exer-
cising increasing influence on agriculture. Simultaneously with the organisation
of capital in cartels and trusts on a "national" scale, there is an increase in the
growth of international finance capitalist combines. At the same time a growth
is observed in State capitalist tendencies, both in the form of State capitalism
proper (State electrical stations, municipal industrial and transport enterprises),
as well as in the form of the merging of private enterprises with the organs of
the State.
4. Meanwhile the general crisis of capitalism is assuming new forms and is de-
veloping special and specific contradictions, which arise out of the radical structu-
ral changes that have taken place in the world economic system. The transference
of the economic centre of capitalism from Europe to America and the growing ef-
forts of Europe, now recovered and trustified, to liberate herself from the economic
domination of the United States ; the development of capitalism in colonial and
semi-colonial countries ; the disproportion between the rate of growth of the eco-
nomic and military power of certain countries and the dimensions of their
colonial possessions; the danger threatening the positions of the imperialists
in the colonies, primarily in China : the development of the U. S. S. R. — the
counter-balance to the world capitalist system which revolutionises the working
class of all countries, and the toiling masses of the colonies — all these contra-
dictions cannot but lead, in the final analysis, to another explosion.
5. The growing productive forces of capitalism come more and more into
confiict with the restricted internal markets — which have contracted as a re-
sult of the state of ruin prevailing in a number of imperialist countries after
the war, the growing pauperisation of the peasant masses in the colonies — as well
as with the structure of post-war world industry, the inherent contradictions
of which have greatly increased and become more complicated as a result of
the new, fundamental, antagonism that exists between the U. S. S. R and the
capitalist countries. The disturbance of the equilibrium between America and
Europe finds most striking expression in the so-called "German problem" and
in the decline of British imperialism. Germany, having rapidly achieved a high
level of development — thanks to a considerable degree to American capital —
and compelled to pay reparations and interest on loans, cannot find sufficient
markets for the export of her commodities and the whole system of her rela-
tionships is maintained by means of repeated additions of American credits,
which in their turn increase the competitive power of Germany in the world
market.
The decline of British imperialism reveals itself directly as a continuous
process of decline and stagnation of British industry which, notwithstanding
all the attempts at rationalisation and the serious depression of the standard
of living of the working class, is steadily losing its competitive power on the
world market in the most important branches of exports. It reveals itself
in the steady decline in the exports of British capital as well as in the fact that
the British bourgeoisie has lost its predominant position both as world creditor
and world banker. It reveals itself primarily in enormous, chronic unem-
ployment. This economic decline, taken together with the growth of the
Dominions and the growth of revolutionary movements in the colonies, is
reflected in the tendency towards the break-up of the British Empire.
APPENDIX, PART 1 441
6. The successes achieved iii technique and organisation liave helped to create
chronic mass unemployment in the leading industrial countries. The unem-
ployed army of to-day far exceeds in numbers the industrial reserve army of
pre-war times, and is not absorbed completely even in periods of boom. In the
United States, for example, where the greatest successes have been achieved in
technique, we have simultaneously with a powerful increase in production, a
diminution in the amount of labour power employed by capital in industry.
Even in those countries where great technical successes have been achieved,
rationalisation, which, while causing an enormous expansion of production, re-
sults in the intensification of labour to the utmost, to a murderous speeding up
of labour and to an unparalleled exhaustion of human labour power. The
mechanisation of the labour process enables the capitalists to employ unskilled
labour to a greater extent (woman and child labour), and generally to substitute
unskilled labour power for skilled labour power.
The attempts to alleviate these ditBculties by forming European and inter-
national cartels merely reproduce on an expanded basis and in new forms (the
introduction of the quota system, the struggle for enterprises not yet absorbed
by cartels, etc.), the competitive struggle between Great Britain and the Euro-
pean Continental States, as well as on the Continent of Europe itself, which is
politically and economically broken up into fragments and covered with a
network of tariff barriers.
Under such conditions the problem of markets and spheres of investments
becomes extraordinarily acute. Hence the maturing of a new series of gigantic
military conflicts, of wars of intervention against the U.S.S.R., and the inter-
vention now proceeding at full pace in China. Therefore, the development of
the contradictions of capitalist stabilisation inevitably leads, in the final analysis,
to the present '"stabilisation" period growing into a period of gigantic cataclysms.
II
Inter-State Relationships and the Problems of So-called " Foreign Politics "
7. The relations between capitalist States and the U.S.S.R. ; the attitude of
imperialism towards China and the relations between Europe — principally Great
Britain — and the United States represent in general the basis of international
relationships in the present period. The growth of Germany and the re-grouping
of States resulting from it, represents one of the principal factors in the change
of inter-State relationships in Europe.
8. The transference of the world's economic centre to the United States of
America and the increase in the latter's imperialist aggressiveness resulting from
that, must be regarded as an important factor in the modern development of
capitalism generally. As permanent creditor of Europe, the United States repre-
sents the lever of Central European revival ; at the same time, however, she is
strengthening her own position in almost all parts of the globe. As a result of
the squeezing out of British capital. South America is gradually becoming an
enormous "sphere of influence" of the United States, who suppresses all resist-
ance on the American Continent with blood and iron (Nicaragua, etc.) ; Canada,
and even Australia, are more and more gravitating towards so-called "economic
co-operation," in ivhich the hegemony of the United States is assured beforehand.
All over the world the United States is developing extensive plans to secure
possession of the most important sources of raw materials, to weaken Great
Britain's position by destroying her monopoly in oil and rubber, and her raw
cotton base in Egypt, the Sudan, etc. In Africa, the United States is developing
extensive plans directed towards undermining the power of Great Britain in the
cotton-growing industry ; in China, in conflict with Japan and England, she holds
the stronger position, and while screening herself for the time being behind the
principle of the "open door," she is, in fact, taking part in the partition of China.
Thus North American imperialism is more and more passing from the policy
of so-called "peaceful penetration" to the policy of direct military, colonial
occupation.
9. The I'apid expansion of the United States inevitably brings her interests
into conflict with the interests of decaying, but still extremely powerful,
British imperialism. The antagonisms between the Dollar Republic, with her
rapid rate of development and relatively small colonial possessions, and the
declining British colonial Empire, with its gigantic colonial monopoly, represents
the pivot of international antagonisms in the present period, and it is precisely
here that the complications of future struggles for a redistribution of the colo-
442 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
nial (and not only of the colonial) world are maturing. Anglo-American
"co-operation" has changed into fierce Anglo-American rivalry, which widens
the prospects of a gigantic conflict of forces.
10. The influence of American capital in Europe made itself most strongly
felt in the economic recovery of Germany. From a State which had sunk to
the lowest depths of economic ruin, Germany has again risen to great heights
with the aid of systematic credits from the United States. This al.so has
caused the elevation of German's political role. The growth of monopolistic
capitalism in Germany, on the one hand, accelerates the process of breaking
up the Versailles Treaty, and on the other hand, it causes Germany to adopt
a more definitely "Western" {i.e., imperialistic and anti-Soviet) orientation.
While in the days of her economic, political and national humiliation Germany
sought an agreement with the proletarian State, the only State that was
opposed to her imperialist enslavement, the tendencies of German neo-imperial-
ism that have arisen are forcing the German bourgeoisie more and more towards
an anti-Soviet position.
11. This fact must in its turn inevitably change the grouping of the Euro-
pean States. The prevalence of a whole series of internal European antag-
onisms (primarily Franco-Italian, in the Balkans and in North Africa), on the
background of the general instability of relationships, leads to a continuous
regrouping of the Powers. However, through the kaleidoscopic changes in
the groupings there runs a fundamental tendency, the tendency of combatting
the Soviet Union. The innumerable treaties and agreements concluded between
a number of minor and major States (Poland, Roumania, Italy, Hungary,
Czecho-Slovakia, the "Russian Border States," etc.) directed against the U.
S. S. R., and concluded at the dictation of London and Paris, express this
tendency to an increasingly marked degree. The change in Germany's atti-
tude, to a certain extent, marks the completion of a definite stage of this
process, which is a process of preparation by the counter-revolutionary impe-
rialist block for a war against the U. S. S. R.
12. The struggle for markets and for spheres for the investment of capital
is not only pregnant with wars against the U. S. S. R., and with wars among
the imperialists themselves, it has already resulted in a great war of interven-
tion for the partition of the enormous Chinese market. In China, where the
imperialists are simultaneously confronted with an object of exploitation and a
revolutionary movement, which is undermining the domination of capitalist
principles, the establishment of general imperialist blocs is most highly prob-
able. Therefore, simultaneously with a bloc of imperialist States against the
U. S. S. R. we have a general counter-revolutionary, militarist intervention
against the forces of the Chinese revolution. At the same time, however, this
joint struggle against the Chinese revolution develops a profound antagonism
of interests within the imperialist bloc, primarily an antagonism between the
predatory and openly annexationist imperialism of .Japan and the tremendous
power of American imperialism, which, in the present stage of development,
cloaks herself in the false toga of pacifism. Thus the imperialist war actually
being waged against the Chinese people may develop into a gigantic conflict
between the imperialists.
Ill
The State Power of the Bourgeoisie and the Re-grouping of Class Forces
13. In the great majority of capitalist countries at the present time the
politics of the boui'geoisie are determined by two main tasks : first, to further
increase "competitive power," i.e., to further develop capitalist rationalisation,
and, second, a prepare for war. From the social-class standpoint bourgeois
politics leads, on the one hand, to increased pressure upon the working class
and to an increase in the rate of exploitation. On the other hand, they lead to
the employment of "compensating" methods of economic and political corrup-
tion, the conscious vehicle of which social-democracy is more and more
becoming.
14. The centralisation of capital and the absorption, through the medium of
the banking system, or large landed property into the general finance capitalist
organisations, help more and more to consolidate the combined forces of the
big exploiters, whose organisations are becoming directly grafted to the organs
of State power. While the system known as war State capitalism, to a con-
siderable degree, represented a system of "siege economics," which was "abol-
APPENDIX, PART 1 443
ished" at the conclusion of the war, the growth of State capitalist tendencies
un the other hand, which at the present time is based on the growth of pro-
ductive forces and the rapid centralisation of industry, is objectively a pre-
requisite for military economic mobilisation for future conflicts. The shifting
in the weight of the productive forces in the direction of the chemical industry,
which is of first-class importance in modern warfare, still further enhances
the signiticance of this fact.
1.5. This evolution in the relationships between the State power and private
capitalist organisations, the concentration of all the bourgeois forces in the
bourgeois State, gives rise in all capitalist countries to a reactionary evolution
«if the whole of the so-called "bourgeois State system." This evolution, which is
the characteristic expression of the present critical period of capitalism, finds
expression politically in the general crisis of bourgeois democracy and of
bourgeois parliamentarism, and leaves a specific impress upon all the economic
cnntiicts between capital and labour, causing them to become extraordinarily
acute.
p]very strike of any magnitude brings the workers into conflict with trustified
capitalist giants, which have become merged with the imperialist State power.
Consequently, every strike assumes a political, i.e.. a general, class character.
The development of every such strike must, therefore, lead to its assuming an
"anti-State" character. It is precisely this state of affairs that compels the
bourgeoisie and its State to resort to complex methods of economically and
poliically corrupting definite sections of the working class itself and its political
and industrial organisations. The grafting of the upper stratum of the re-
formist trade unions and "reformist parties" on to the employers' organisations
and the bourgeois State, the appointment of workers to official positions in the
State and in capitalist organisations, the theory and practice of "industrial
democracy," "industrial peace," etc. — all these are preventive, measures directed
against the development of the class struggle.
16. Siuuiltaneously, the imperialist States more and more develop weapons
anfl methods of repression against the revolutionary detachments of the prole-
tariat and particularly against the Communist Party, the only Party that
organises and leads the revolutionary working-class struggle against imperialist
wars and growing exploitation. These meaures are also part and parcel of the
war preparations of the imperialist States. At the same time, however, they
reflect the general acuteness of class antagonisms and particularly the intensi-
fication of all forms and methods of the class struggle, as expressed in the
increasing application of Fascist methods of oppression by the bourgeoisie.
The.se measures include: the Trade Union Act in Great Britain; Paul Bon-
cour's military law, a number of so-called "Defence of the Realm Acts," for
example, in the Balkans, the acts of repression against the Communists in
France; the wrecking of the trade unions and the terror against the Commu-
nists in Italy: terror in Japan; terror in Poland: the mass execution of Com-
munists, the revolutionary workers and the peasants in China, and the acts
of repression perpetrated against revolutionaries in the colonies generally ; the
attempt to dissolve the Red Front Fighters in Germany, etc. In a number of
countries where the Communist Parties are still legal the bourgeoisie is striving
with the aid of the social-democrats to drive them underground. For that
reason to bring the masses to a state of fighting preparedness and strenuous
struggle against any attempt on the part of the bourgeoisie to repeat such
attacks become immediate tasks.
17. Simultaneously, the resistance of the working class — which has already
recovered from the severe defeats of the preceding period — is growing and assum-
ing extremely diverse forms. The development of the contradictions of capitalist
stabilization,"rationalisation, growth of unemployment, the increasing pres.sure upon
the standard of living of the working class, the ruination of the petty-bourgeoisie,
etc.. inevitably intensify the class struggle and widen its basis. The general
process of the "working class swing to the left" in European countries continues
further: the infiuence of purely bourgeois parties upon the mass of the workers
wanes; a section of the workers abandon these to join the social-democrats, while
another section joins the Communist Parties. Tliere is a quickening in the
process of more militant elements of the working class abandoning the social-
democrats and coming over to the Communist camp. Social-democracy is more
and more relying upon the petty-bourgeoisie, and is therefore transferring its
social basis from the working class to the petty-bourgeoisie. The infiuence and
authority of the Communist Parties among the working class are growing. Just
as the beginning of the stabilisation period and the general capitalist offensive
gave rise to great defensive battles, so the new period is marked by great mass
444 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
struggles. These include primarily : the strike wave in a number of countries
(Germany, France, Czecho-Slovakia, etc.) ; the uprising of the Viennese prole-
tariat ; the demonstrations against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti ; the
movement in favour of the U. S. S. R., etc. Thus, notwithstanding the counter-
measures taken by the bourgeoisie and social-democracy, the reproduction of the
contradictions of capitalist stabilization and the growing acuteness of the class
struggle cause an ideological differentiation and growth of the revolutionary
forces in the ranks of the working-class movement to the strengthening of the
position of Communism in the international Labour movement.
IV
Class Struggle, Social-Democracy and Fascism
18. Notwithstanding the growing acuteness of the class struggle, reformism in
the European and American Labour movement reveals symptoms of vii-ility and
political tenacity. The general social and economic basis of this fact is the
slow rate of development of the crisis of capitalism, in the course of which some
of the principal parts comprising the capitalist system are on the upgrade while
others are undergoing a process of relatively slow decline. This is illustrated by
the following facts : the growing consolidation of the position of the United
States as the world exploiter, creditor and usurer ( the "prosperity" of the United
States) ; the considerable colonial might of Great Britain, which is only gradually
losing its positions in the world market ; the upward trend of German economy,
etc. Connected with this primary process is the secondary process of the graft-
ing together of the State apparatus and capitalist organizations with the upper
stratum of the Labour organizations, led by social-democracy : the establishment
of a new bureaucracy consisting of Labour bureaucrats ( State and municipal
officials, officials of capitalist organizations, functionaries serving "joint" Labour
and capitalist organizations, so-called "representatives of the proletariat" in the
Post Office, on Railway Boards and in banking organizations, where they speak
in the name of trade unions, co-operative societies, etc.).
19. This process of bourgeoisisiug the upper stratum of the Labour bureau-
cracy is deliberately fostered and encouraged by social democracy. Social-
democracy has passed from shame-faced defense of capitalism to open support of
capitalist construction ; from mouthing phrases about the class struggle to the
advocacy of "industrial peace" ; from the slogan "Defend the fatherland" to
preparations for military operations against the U. S. S. R. (Kautsky) : from
verbal defense of colonies to the policy of directly supporting colonial oppres-
sion ; from petty-bourgeois pacifism to the deification of the League of Nations
and from pseudo-Marxian revisionism to the Liberalism of the British Labour
Party.
20. Wholly corresponding to this ideological position is the practical activity
of the social-democrats and reformist trade union leaders, primarily their cam-
paign for the wide-spread introduction of "American" methods of corrupting
the working class ; the activities of the International Labour Office ; the con-
ferences between representatives of the General Council of the T. U. C. and the
Labour Party with employers' organisations in England ; the "National Economic
Council" in France; the "Schlichtungswesen" (Arbitration Courts) in Germany;
the Compulsory Arbitration Acts in some of the Scandinavian countries, the
establishment of a joint organ of the "Chamber of Commerce" and "Chamber of
Labour" in Austria, etc. The treacherous role of the social-democrats and of
the reformist trade union leaders during strikes and political crises, during
conflicts and rebellions in the colonies, their justification of the employment of
terror against the workers (the strike in Great Britain, the Vienna uprising, the
metal workers' strike in Germany, shooting down of workers in Czecho-Slovakia
and Poland, the rebellion in Indonesia, the revolution in China, the rebellions in
Syria and Morocco, etc.) is now supplemented by ferocious attacks upon the
Communists and the revolutionary workers (the expulsion policy and the policy
of splitting the unions, the co-operative societies and other mass organisations
adopted in a number of countries).
21. At the present time this class-splitting policy, so widely practised by the
reformist leaders who, at the dictates of the bourgeoisie, expel the best revolu-
tionary elements from the proletarian mass organisations, is an inseparable part
of their policy of co-operating with the bourgeoisie for the purpose of disrupting
from the outset the internal unity of the fighting ranks of the proletariat, and in
this way to weaken their resistance to capitalist attacks. This policy represents
an essential link in the chain of social imperialist policy (the armaments policy.
APPENDIX, PART 1 445
their anti-Soviet policy and their predatory policy in the colonies). To counteract
these attempts on the part of the reformists to disintegrate the proletarian class
front from within, the Communists must, particularly at the present moment,
commence and develop a strenuous counter-offensive ; the reformist policy of
splitting the mass proletarian organisations (trade unions, co-operative societies,
cultural and sport leagues, etc.,) must be countered by a mass struggle for class
unity.
A particularly shameful role in this reformist splitting campaign is played
by the so-called "Left" social-democratic leaders, who make verbal claims of
being in favour of unity but who, in fact, unreservedly support the criminal split-
ting tactics of the Second International and of the Amsterdamers.
22. In the sphere of foreign politics, the upper stratum of the social-democrats
and of the trade unions in the imperialist countries consistently express the in-
terests of the bourgeois State. Support for this State and its armed forces, its
police, its expansionist strivings, its fundamental ho.stility towards the U. S. S. R.,
the support of predatory treaties and agreements, of colonial policy, of occupa-
tions, annexations, protectorates and mandates ; support of the League of Nations
and the malicious campaign conducted by the imperialist Powers against the
U. S. S. R. ; social-democracy's participation in the "pacificist" deception of the
masses, in preparation for war against proletarian republics and the reformist
deception of colonial workers (Purcell in India, the Second International's
resolution on the colonial question) — such, in the main, is the actual line of
conduct of social-democracy in the sphere of foreign politics.
23. Throughout the whole of the past period social-democracy has acted as the
last reserve of the bourgeoisie, as a bourgeois "Labour" Party. Through the
medium of social-democracy the boui'geosie paved the way for the stabilisation
of capitalism (the series of coalition Cabinets in Europe). The consolidation
of capitalism rendered the functions of social-democracy as a governing party in
a certain measure superfluous. The ejection of social-democrats from coalition
governments and the formation of so-called "purely bourgeois" governments took
the place of the so-called era of "democratic pacifism." By playing the role of
opposition on the one hand, and the role of agitator and propagandist of so-called
"realistic pacifism" and "industrial peace," on the other hand, social-democracy
retained considerable strata of the working class under its influence, absorbed a
section of the workers who had abandoned the bourgeois parties, acquired influ-
ence among that section of the petty-bourgeoisie that was swinging to the Left
(the elections in France and in Germany), and have again entered Cabinets
in Central Europe. It must be borne in mind, however, that these new coalition
governments, in which social-democrats are directly participating, cannot and
will not be a mere repetition of previous combinations. This particularly applies
to foreign politics generally, and to war politics in particular. Socal-democratie
leadership will play an immeasurably more treacherous role in the present period
than it did in all previous stages of development.
It is necessary also to bear in mind — particularly in view of the coalition
policy practised by social-democracy and the evolution of its official upper
stratum — the possibility of a growth in the so-called "Left-Wing" of Social-
democracy (Austro-Marxism, Tranmaelism, the idealogy of the British Inde-
pendent Labour Party, Maximalism in Italy) which deceives the workers by
methods more subtle and therefore more dangerous to the cause of the
proletarian revolution. Experience in critical periods (the revolution in Ger-
many in 1923, the British strike, the Vienna uprising), and also the attitude of
Left-wing social-democrats towards imperialist war preparations against the
U. S. S. R., have glaringly revealed that the Left-AVing social-democratic leaders
are the most dangerous enemies of Communism and of the dictatorship of the
proletariat. This was most strikingly demonstrated by the shameful conduct
of Austrian social-democracy, this "model party," the "Left" wing of the
Second International, at the time of the .sanguinary July battles of the Vienna
proletariat. This utter bankruptcy of Bauer. Adhn- and Co. strikingly reveals
that "Austrian Marxism" in developing more and more a reactionary tendency —
particularly after the suppression of the Vienna uprising — that in practice it
constantly betrays the cause of Labour in the most shameful manner and serves
as the most dangerous instrument in the hands of the reformist for deceiving the
revolutionary masses. Therefore, while taking into account the leftward swing,
even among the workers in the ranks of social-democracy, and while striving to
exercise increasing influence upon them, the Commmiists must resolutely expose
the "Left-Wing" social-democratic leaders as the most dangerous channels
through which bourgeois politics may penetrate into the working class, and to
446 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
win over to their own side the masses of the workers wlio must inevitably
abandon these Left-Wing social-democrats.
24. Simultaneously with co-opting social-democracy, the bourgeoisie in critical
moments and under certain conditions establishes a Fascist regime.
The characteristic feature of Fascism is that as a consequence of the shock
suffered by the capitalist economic system and of special objective and sub-
jective circumstances, the bourgeoisie — in order to hinder the development of
the revolution — utilises the discontent of the petty and middle, urban and riu'al
bourgeoisie, and even of certain strata of the declassed proletariat, for the
purpose of creating a reactionary mass movement. Fascism resorts to methods
of open violence in order to break the power of the Labour organisations and
those of the peasant poor, and to proceed to capture power. After capturing
power Fascism strives to establish political and organisational unity among all
the governing classes of capitalist society ( the bankers, the big industrialists and
the agrarians), and to establish their undivided, open and consistent dictator-
ship. It places at the disposal of the governing classes armed forces specially
trained for civil war, and establishes a new type of State, openly based on
violence, coercion and corruption, not only of the petty-bourgeois strata but
even of certain elements of the working class (office employees, ex-reformist
leaders, who have become government officials, trade union officials, and officials
of the Fascist Party, and also poor peasants and declassed -f'roletarians re-
fcruited into the "Fascist militia").
Italian Fascism — which by various means (support of American capital, un-
'exampled economic and social pressure upon the masses, certain forms of State
capitalism) has managed, during the past few years, to alleviate the conse-
quences of the internal political and economic crisis — has created the classical
type of the Fascist system.
Fascist tendencies and the rudiments of the Fascist movement exist in a more
or less developed form in nearly all countries. The ideology of class co-
operation— the official ideology of social-democracy — ^has many points of contact
with Fascism. The employment of Fascist methods in the strviggle against
the revolutionary movement is observed in a rudimentary form in the practice
of numerous social-democratic parties, as well as in that of the reformist trade
union bureaucracy.
In the sphere of international relations Fascism conducts a policy of violence
and provocation. The Fascist dictatorships in Poland and in Italy more and
more reveal aggressive tendencies, and represent to the proletariat of all countries
a constant menace to peace — a threat of military adventures and war.
Colonial Countries and the Chinese Revolution
25. The general crisis of the world capitalist system finds most striking
expression at the present time in colonial and semi-colonial rebellions and
revolutions. Resistance to the imperialist policy of the United States (Mexico
and Nicaragua) ; the movement against the United States in South America;
the colonial uprisings in Syria and Morocco; the continuous ferment in Egypt
and Korea ; the rebellion in Indonesia ; the maturing revolutionary crisis in
India ; and, finally, the great revolution in China, are all events and facts
indicating the gigantic role the colonies and semi-colonies play in the revolu-
tionary struggle against imperialism.
26. The most important of these facts, an event of world historical nnpor-
tance. is the great Chinese revolution. It directly brings within its orbit tens
of millions and, indirectly, hundreds of millions of people. This is the first
time that such a gigantic human mass has entered into the struggle against
imperialism with such force. The close connection that exists between China,
Indo-China and India, in its turn, embraces the significance of the Chinese
revolution to an enormous degree. Finally, the very progress of this revolution,
its democratic character and its inevitable transformation into a proletarian
revolution must demonstrate to the international proletariat the full signifi-
cance of the international role the Cliinese revolution plays.
27. While being an anti-imi^erlalist and national-lilieration revolution, the
Chinese revolution is at the same time, in its objective content and in its
present stage, a bourgeois democratic revolution, which will inevitably grow
into a proletarian revolution. In the process of its development, as the broad
masses of the workers and peasants became mobilised, as the agrarian revolu-
APPENDIX, PART 1 447
tiou actually developed and inflicted plebeian punishment upon the landlords,
the gentry and the "tuhao," the national (Kuomintang) bourgeoisie, in a series
of evolutions, finally deserted to the camp of the counter-revolution, entered
into alliance with feudalism and compromised with the imperialist violators.
For that reason the struggle against imperialism is inseparable from the
struggle for land and against the rule of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie.
It is inseparable from the struggle against the landlords (gentry and tuhao)
an<l the militarists, and against their internecine wars — which result in the
plunder of the masses of the people and in the strengthening of the positions
of the imperialists. The liberation of China can be achieved only in the
struggle against the Chinese bourgeoisie, in the struggle for the agrarian
revolution, in the confiscation of the landlords' land, and in the liberation of
the peasantry from the crushing burden of taxation.
The liberation of China cannot be achieved without the dictatorship of
the proletariat and the peasantry, without the confiscation of the land,
without the internationalisation of foreign enterprises, banks, transport, etc.
These tasks can be fulfilled only by a victorious rebellion of the broad masses
ot the peasantry, marching under the leadership and under the hegemony of
the revolutionary Chinese proletariat.
The present stage of the Chinese revolution is characterised by the following
features : notwithstanding internal rivalries the bloc between the Imperialists,
the feudal elements and the bourgeoisie has inflicted a severe defeat upon the
proletariat and the peasantry, and has physically exterminated a considerable
.section of the ranks of the Communist Party. The Labour movement has not
yet wholly recovered from defeat. The development of the peasant movement in
a number of districts continues. In those districts where peasant rebellions have
been victoriotis, peasant organs of power have been establLshed, and in some
places peasant Soviets. The Communist Party is gaining in strength and becom-
ing internally consolidated ; its authority and influence among the broad ma.sses
of the workers and peasants are growing. Taken as a whole, making allow-
ances for the lack of uniformity of development in variotts parts of the
enormous territory of China, the peasant situation must be characterised as the
stage of preparation of the mass forces for a fresh rise in the revolutionary
nitivemeut.
2S. In India a fresh wave of the national-revolutionary movement has arisen,
characterised by the independent action of the proletariat (the textile strike
in Bombay, the railway strike in Calcutta, the First of May demonstrations,
etc.). This new outbreak has its roots deep down in the general conditions
of the country. The rate of industrialisation, which was greatly accelerated
in the war and the post-war periods, has now slackened down. The policy
of British imperialism retards the industrial development of India and leads
to the pauperisation of the peasantry and to their divorcement from the land.
The attempt by means of petty agrarian reforms to create a thin stratum of
well-to-do peasants — which is to serve as a prop for the British Government
and native feudalism^is accompanied by the still further pauperisation and
increased exploitation of enormous masses of the peasantry. The cruel ex-
ploitation of the workers, which, in some places, still bears the forms of semi-
.slavery, is combined with the extreme intensification of labour. In the fight
again.st this barbarous exploitation the proletariat is liberating itself from the
infiuence of the bourgeoisie and of the reformists — notwithstanding the fact
that the trade union apparatus is still in the hands of the latter. The peasant
movement, disrupted in 1922 by the treachery of Gandhi and subjected to
cruel suppression by the feudal reaction, is slowly but surely recovering. The
Liberal National bourgeoisie — the leading wing of the Swaraj Party — although
compelled by the unyielding attitude of British imperialism to resume their
qualified oppositional tactics are, as a matter of fact — notwithstanding all
their anti-British demonstrations— seeking a compromise with imi)erialism at
the expense of the masses of the toilers. On the other hand, the whole of the
development of India impels the broad masses of the petty-bourgeoisie of town
and country, and primarily the ruined and pauperised peasantry, along the
path of revolution. Only under the leadership of the proletariat will the bloc
of workers, peasants and the revolutionary sections of the intelligentsia be
in a position to smash the bloc of imperialist landlords and compromising
bourgeoisie, release the agrarian revolution and break the imi>erialist front
in India. The unification of the Communist elements and groups into a strong
448 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Communist Party, the organisation of tlie masses of the proletariat in trade
unions, a sytematic struggle in the trade unions for the complete exposure
and expulsion of the social-treacherous leaders, are the essential tasks of the
working class of India and a necessary condition for the mass revolutionary
struggle for Indian independence.
29. The revival of the Chinese revolution and the inevitable intensification
of the revolutionary situation in India may create an absolutely new world
political situation and upset the relative stabilisation of the capitalist system.
The development of conflicts among the imperialist States, their bloc against
the U. S. S. R. and the profoundly acute struggle between imperialism and
the colonial world, again and again confirm the correctness of the character-
isation of the present epoch as an "epoch of wars and revolution."
VI
The Tactical Line and the Fundamental Tasks of the Communist International
30. The problem of combatting the approaching imperial war, the defence of
the U. S. S. R., the fight against the intervention in and the partition of China
and the defence of the Chinese revolution and colonial uprisings, are the principal
intei-national tasks of the Communist movement at the present time. These tasks
must be linked up with the everyday working-class struggle against the capitalist
offensive and directed towards the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
31. The fight against the danger of imperialist wars between capitalist States
and imperialist wars against the U. S. S. R. must be conducted systematically
from day to day. It will be impossible to conduct this fight without exposing
pacifism, which, "under present conditions, is an important instrument in the hands
of the imperialists for their preparations for war and for concealing their prepara-
tions. It will be impossible to carry on this struggle without exposing the
"League of Nations," which is the principal instrument of imperialist "pacifism."
Finally, it will be impossible to carry on this struggle without exposing social-
democracy, which is helping imperialism to screen its war preparations with the
flag of pacifism. Continuous exposure by facts of the work of the "League of
Nations" ; constant support for the U. S. S. R. disarmament proposals and ex-
posure of the "home" government on this quest \(>}i (together with interpellations
in parliament backed by mass demonstrations in the streets, etc.) ; continuous
publicity for facts about the armaments of imperialist States, about the chemical
industry, about the war budgets, the secret and open treaties and plots of the
imperialists, about the role of the imperialists in China, exposure of the falsehoods
spread by social-democratic "realist-pacifists" about ultra-imperialism and ex-
posure of the role of the "League of Nations" ; continuous publicity on the "resiUts"
of the first world war and of rhe secret military and diplomatic preparations made
f*n' it ; to fight against pacifism in all its forms and the propaganda of Com-
munist slogans — primarily the slogan of defeat of the "home" imperialist country ;
work among the soldiers and seamen; the establishment of underground nuclei;
work among the peasants — such are the fundamental tasks of the Communist
Parties in this sphere.
32. An imperialist victory in the fight against the U. S. S. R. would mean
much more than the defeat of the proletariat of the U. S. S. R. ; it would inflict
the severest defeat the international proletariat has ever suffered throughout the
whole course of its existence. The Lal)our movement would be thrown back for
decades. The severest reaction would rage in Europe. If, as a result of the
influence of the October revolution and of the series of revolutions in Germany,
Austria and other countries, the working class managed to achieve a number
of important gains, the defeat of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. would open
up a new page of history inscribed with records of absolutely unexampled and
ferocious counter-revolutionary terror. Hence it is essential that attention be
concentrated on the defence of the U. S. S. R. For that reason alarm for the
fate of the U. S. S. R., against which the military forces of the imperialists are
being collected, must stimulate systematic work in preparation for the conversion
of war against the U. S. S. R. into war against imperialist governments, into
war for the defence of the U. S. S. R.
33. The fight against imperialist war and the fight for the defence of the Chinese
revolution and of the U. S. S. R. call for the raising of the militant interinitionul
solUlarity of the working class. Experience has shown that the Communist
Parties are not coping with their international tasks. The Seventh Enlarged
Plenum of the E. C. C. I. stated that, "hardly any of the Parties affiliated to
APPENDIX, PART 1 449,
the Comnuinist International developed sufficient energy in the struggle for the-
snpport of the British strike and of the Chinese revolution." Subsequent experi-
ence has contirmed the fact that precisely the international tasks of tlie movement
are insufficiently understood. In a number of cases, particularly in regard to,
the fight against intervention in China, the Sections of the Communist Inter-
national displayed a lack of adequate mobilising ability. The Congress calls upon
all Conjmunist Parties to take determined measures to remove these shortcomings,
and urges the need for systematic work on these questions (wide publicity in
tlie press, propaganda and agitation material, etc.) — it urges the need for far
more energetic international and militant self-education of the Party members
and education of the masses of the world proletariat.
34. Support of colonial movements, particularly on the part of the Com-
munist Parties in the oppressing imperialist countries, represents one of the
most important tasks of the present day. The fight against intervention in
China ; the fight against the suppression of the liberation movement in all
colonies; work among the armed forces and determined support of rebellious
colonial peoples — such are the measures to be adopted for the immediate future.
The Congress at the same time instructs the Executive Committee to devote
more serious attention to the colonial movement, and, corresiwndingly, to re-
organise and strengthen its own departments directing this work.
The Congress also lays special stress upon the necessity for the energetic
organisation of a movement among the negroes in the United States and in
other countries (especially in South Africa). In this connection the Congress
demands that all manifestations of so-called "white cliauviuism" be resolutely
and ruthlessly combatted.
35. In "advanced" capitalist countries, in which deci.sive battles for the
proletarian dictatorship and socialism will take place, the general tactical
orientation of the Communist Parties must be towards preventing the Labour
organisations, towards preventing the trade unions from becoming "grafted"
with the trusts, and against "industrial peace," compulsory arbitration, against
the State power of the bourgeoisie and against the trusts. The Communist
Parties must untiringly explain to the masses of the workers the close con-
nection that exists between "industrial peace" and arbitration and the measures
of repression exercised against the revolutionary vanguard of the proletarian
movement and the preparation for imperialist war.
36. In view of the intensified trustification of industry, the tendencies towards
State capitalism, the grafting of the apparatus of the reformist unions with the
organisations of the State and the trusts, and in view of the new, thoroughly
bourgeois and actively imi>erialist ideology of social-democracy, the struggle
against the "bourgeois Labour Party" must be intensified. This follows logically
from the change in the relation of forces and from the changed position of
social-democracy, which is now entering into a more "mature" — from the point
of view of imperialism — stage of development. The Congress therefore entirely
approves the tactics outlined at the Ninth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. The test
to which these tactics were subjected during the elections in France and in the
British movement has wholly confirmed their absolute correctness.
37. These tactics, while changing the form, do not in any way change the
principal content of the tactics of the united front. The intensification of the
struggle against social-democracy transfers the weight of importance to the
united front firjni below, but it does not relieve the Communists from the duty
of drawing a distinction between the sincere, but mistaken, social-democratic
working men, and the obsequious social-democratic leaders cringing at the feet
of imperialism. On the contrary, it makes it more obligatory for them to do
so. Nor is the slogan "Fight for the Masf<esr (including the masses following
the lead of the bourgeois and the Social-Democratic Parties) repealed by this.
It must become the object of attention in the work of the Communist Inter-
national more than ever before.
To care for every-day needs of the working class ; to give strenuous
supiwrt to even the most insignificant demands of tlie masses of the workers ;
to peneti-ate deeply into all mass proletarian organisations (trade unions, cul-
tural organisations, sports organisations, etc.) : to strengthen the positions
of the Party in the factories and works and in large enterprises particularly;
to work among the backward strata of the proletariat (agricultural lalxmrers)
and among the unemployed, and at the same time unfailingly to link up the
minor every-day demands with the fundamental slogans of the Party — all tliese
must serve as the principal tasks of the Party. Only to the extent That these •
949.31— 40— app., pt. 1-— .30
450 UN-AMEllICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
rasks are fulfilled will the winning over and mobilisation of the masses he
really accomplished.
38. In regard to the trade union ■move>ne')}t, the Congress resolutely calls uix)n
all the parties to exert the maximum of effort on this sector of the front. The
very fact that in a number of countries the reformists are forcing the expulsion
of Communists (and of Leftists generally) from the trade union organisations
makes it necessary for the fight for Communist influence in the trade unions
to be carried on at the present time with greater energy than ever. Unless
they strengthen their positions in the trade unions the Communists may become
isolated from the mass of the industrially organised proletariat. For that
reason the Communists, by every-day, devoted and patient work in the trade
unions, must win for themselves among the broad masses of the trade unionists
authority as experienced and capable organisers, who fight not only for the
proletarian dictatorship, but for all the every-day partial demands of the
masses of workers ; they must win authority as leaders of well-conducted
strike struggles.
The Communist Parties, the revolutionary trade union opposition and the
revolutionary trade unions can win the leadership in these struggles only in
intense struggle against the social-democratic and politically corrupt trade
union bureaucracy. In order to achieve real success in winning over the masses
special attention must be devoted to the careful preparation of strikes (mass
work, strengthening of trade union fractions, etc.), to the capable leadershp
of strikes (establishment of strike committees and utilisation of factory coun-
cils), and explaining to the masses the political causes and conditions for the
success or failure of every industrial conflict and strike.
Where a united front exists between the bourgeois State, the employers'
organisations and the reformist trade union bureaucracy, jointly striving to
suppress the strike movement by means of compulsory arbitration, the funda-
mental task is to stimulate the energy and the initiative of the masses and,
if circumstances are favourable, to conduct the strike struggle even in opposi-
tion to the will of the reformist trade union bureaucracy.
While precaution should be taken against being provoked by the reformists
into acts calculated to secure the expulsion of the Communists and to split
the trade union movement, and while taking all measures to paralyse unex-
pected blows from the reformists, every effort must be made to combat tactics
of capitulation (unity "at any price," abstaining from defending expelled
comrades, failure to fight strenuously against compulsory arbitration, unre-
served obedience to the bxireaucratic trade union apparatus, toning down of
criticism of the reformist leadership, etc.). To organise the unorganised, to
win over the reformist trade unions, to organise the expelled where conditions
are suitable (in coimtries where the trade union movement is split), to break
away local organisations we have captured and get them to affiliate to revolu-
tionary industrial organisations — these are the tasks of the day. Under no
circumstances must the Communists lose the initiative in the struggle for
national and international trade union unity. They must conduct a determined
struggle against the splitting policy of the Amsterdam International and of
its national sections. In view of the intensified struggle between Communism
and reformism it is extremely important to develop the work of the Com-
munist trade union fractions, of the trade union opposition and of the revolu-
tionary trade unions, and to increase in every way the work and activities
of the Red International of Labour Unions.
The Communist Parties must support the work of the Pan-Pacific Trade
Union Secretariat and of the Latin-American Trade Union Seei*etariat, in so far
as the latter stand on the basis of the class struggle and conduct a revolution-
ary fight against imperialism for the independence of the colonies and semi-
colonies.
39. The growth of the importance of the youth in industry, due to capitalist
rationalisation, and the growing danger of war make it more than ever neces-
sary to intensify work among the youth.
The Congress instructs the Young Communist International to examine the
question of the tactics and the methods of work of the Young Communist
International, with a view to embracing larger sections of the working youth,
to adopting more varied methods of recruiting, to securing more lively and
active response to their economic, educational and theoretical requirements,
while at the same time preserving the militant political features of the Young
Communist Leagues.
APPENDIX, PART 1 451
In view of the more important part now being played by the youth in
inclH'^try it is necessary to intensify the worlc of the trade union youth sections.
In those places where young woi'kers are not eligible for membership in trade
unions it is necessary to proceed to organise, under the leadership of the Young
Comnuuiist Leagues, special youth societies, the object of which shall be to
light for the economic needs of the proletarian youth. To conduct the industrial
struggle ; to participate in the leadership of strikes and in special cases, inde-
pencfently to conduct strikes ; to work in the trade unions ; to fight for the right
of young workers to membership of the trade unions ; to see that the Young
ConHuunlst Leagues penetrate into every organisation to which young workers
belong (trade unions, sport organisations, etc.) ; to develop anti-militarist
work : to give a sharp turn to methods and tactics in the direction of mass
work — such must be the principal tasks of the Young Communist International.
Unless it undertakes and fulfils these tasks the Young Communist International
will never be able to organise? a real mass struggle against imperialism and war.
The Congress is of the opinion that a change over to mass work is essential.
It calls upon all the sections of the Communist International and upon the
E. C. C. I. to render more systematic aid to the Communist youth organisations
and exercise more systematic guidance over them. The Communist Party, as
well as the Young Communist League, must devote greater attention to work
among workers' children and to the activities of Communist Children's Leagues.
The Congress at the same time instructs the E.G. C.I. to carry out, through
the medium of the International Women's Section, measures for intensifying
the work among industrial irorkiiig women and among women toilers generally,
and in doing so to utilise the experience of the so-called working women's
"delegate meetings."
40. In the conditions of growing danger of imperialist wars the work of the
Communist Parties in the rural districts and among the very broad masses of the
toil»^rs generally, acquires special significance. On the basis of the results of
the elections in France and Germany, the Congress resolves that work among the
agricultural laboitrers and small peasants must be intensified. The Congress
draws special attention to the necessity for intensifying work among the
peasantry and places on record that this work has been neglected by the ma-
jority of the Communist Parties. The Congress instructs the E.C.C.I. to take
measures to stimulate the work among the peasantry, particularly in agrarian
countries (Roumania, the Balkans, Poland, etc.), as well as in France, Ger-
many, etc. The Congress instructs the E.C.C.I. to take urgent measures to
stimulate the work of the International Peasants' Council and calls upon every
Section to support this work.
41. The Congress instructs the E.C.C.I. to take measures to assist the organisa-
tions conducting the struggle for liberation in capitalist countries and in the
colonies, which mobilise the broad masses of the toilers in defense of the Chinese
revolution and of the U.S.S.R., which aid the victims of White Terror, etc. It
is necessary to intensify and improve the work of the Communists in organisations
like the '"Groupe d'Unite," "The League for the Strtiggle Against Imperialism,"
'•Friends of the U.S.S.R. Society." the "I.C.W.P.A.," "W.I.R.," etc. The Com-
munist Parties must render every support to these organisations, help in the
circulation of their publications, render support to their local branches, etc.
42. The increasing repression and growing acuteness of the class strugle,
and particularly the prospects of war, inipo.se upon the Communist Parties the
task of discussing and drawing up plans for the timely establishment of an
imderground apparattis, which shall guarantee continuity of leadership in future
battle.*, unity of the Communist line of policy and unity of Communist action.
VII
A Retrospect of Work Done, Achievements, Mistakes, and the Tasks of the
Industrial Sections
43. The Congress places on record a number of important achievements in
the work of the Comintern. Among these are to be included : the growth of
the influence of Communism, which for the first time has extended its influence
to the countries of South America, Africa, Australia, and a number of Oriental
countries (the strengthening of the Communist position in Japan, and the
spread of Communism in China) : the expansion and deepening of the influence
of the Comintern in the imperialist countries — notwithstanding the partial
stabilisation of capitalism and the relative strength of social-democracy (Gor-
452 un-a:\ierican propaganda activities
many, France, Czecho-Slovakia, Great Britain) ; the growtli of underground
parties marching forward in spite of incredible police and Fascist terror (Italy,
Poland on the one hand, and China, Japan on the other) — in China this terror
bears the character of unparalleled mass butchery. Finally the growth of the
Bolshevist Parties, accumulation of experience, internal consolidation, over-
coming of internal strife, recovery from the recent "opposition" crisis, and
the overcoming of the Trotskyist opposition in the Communist International
At the same time it must be stated that all the Sections of the Communist
International suffer from a number of general defects. These are : the as yet
weak development of militant international solidarity ; a certain amount of
provincialism, manifesting itself in a lack of ability properly to appreciate the
full significance of particularly big questions ; weakness of work in the trade
luiions; lack of ability organisationally to consolidate the growth of political
influence and to secure stability of membership of the parties ; inadequate
attention on the part of a number of Parties to the work among the i^easantry
and among oppressed national minorities ; a certain element of bureaucracy
in the Party apparatus and methods of work (inadequate contact with the
masses, weak initiative in recruiting members, lack of animation in the work
of the subordinate nuclei, and a tendency to impose the work mainly upon
Party functionaries) ; relatively low political and theoretical level of the Party
cadres ; weak contact with big industrial enterprises, while the reorganisation
of the Parties on the basis of factory nuclei is far from being completed, etc.
44. The Conmiiniist Parti/ of Great Britalu, whose past activity was judged
by the Seventh Enlarged Plenum, now stands confronted by new tasks. The
siiarp turn to the Right on the part of the leaders of the General Council of
the T. U. C. and of the Labour Party ; "Mondism" ; the process of transforma-
tion which the Labour Party is undergoing into a Social-Liberal party on the
continental Social Democratic model (the introduction of a corresponding
political discipline, the growing centralisation of the apparatus, etc.), the
expulsion of Communists and revolutionary workers generally from the trade
unions, and the policy of splitting the trade unions Inaugurated by the reform-
ists (for example in Scotland) while on the other hand the rank and file of
the workers are displaying more and more Leftist temper, has confronted the
Communist Party with the task of maintaining a much more definitely class
position and of conducting a more determined struggle against the Labour
Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain, while displaying ability to
approach the trade unions and capability in conducting work in a numher of
separate practioal spheres, failed, however, immediately to appreciate the new
circumstances and at its last Congress committed a serious mistake in advancing
as the principal slogan, a Labour Government controlled by the Executive
of the Labour Party. In connection with the new situation in Great Britain
the Tenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. passed a resolution on tactics which im-
plied a definite change in the whole work of the Party. Experience has shown
that this tactical line corresponds to the new and special situation in Great
Britain and in the British Labour movement. Complete class independence of
the Communist Party : ruthless struggle against the Labour Party ; energetic
exposure of "industrial peace" with the Fascist chemical King, Mond : expan-
sion and the organisational consolidation of the Minority Movement ; to lead
the strike movement; to conduct an active struggle against the foreign policy
of the Government and of the Labour Party ; to fight against intervention in
China and against preparation for war against TJ .S. S. R. : to support the
Indian Revolution — these are the fundamenetal tasks of the Communist Party
at the present time. At the same time the Party must take all measures pos-
sible to increase its membership, to develop its work in the factories, to
strengthen the Party apparatus, to establish closer contact with the masses in
the factories and workshops, to abandon the narrowness from which it suffers
somewhat in its ideological and political outlook, etc. The Congress of the
Communist International instructs the Party to initiate a wide discussion an
the tactical change in the Party policy and on the methods of carrying out
the new tactics.
45. A correct appreciation of the political line and of the work of the Com-
munist Party of France was given at the Sixth and particularly at the Ninth
Enlarged Plenum of the E. C. C. I. The latter found that a tactical change was
necessary in the policy of the Communist Party of France in connection with the
parliamentary elections. At the same time the Plenum emphasised the neces-
sity for changing the relationships then existing between the Communist Party
of France and the Socialist Party of France and for completely eradicating from
APPENDIX, PART 1 453
its ranks the old parliamentary trjiditions and the tendency to link up the policy
of the Communist Party with that of the "'Left" wing petty-bourseois parties.
The results of the elections proved that the line laid down for the French Party
by the Ninth Plenum was correct. In the course of the election campaign, how-
ever, a number of mistakes and defects were revealed in the activities of the
Party ( election work was too superficial ; this work was not linked up with the
immediate struggles of the proletariat ; weakness of the average membership
of the Party; inadequate work among the farm labourers and peasants). Hence,
the principal tasks tliat now confront the French Party are the following: to
intensify the work among the masses of the industrial proletariat (particularly
in the factories) ; increased recruiting of new members; radical improvement
of trade union work ; greater activity in the leadership of strikes and of the
immediate struggles of the proletariat generally: to organise the unorganised; to
establish wider trade union democracy in the (_'. G. T. U.. in all links of the organ-
isation, and the proper organisation of the work of Communists in the trade
unions. The Party must intensify its anti-militarist work, its colonial work and
work among the foreign workers. In internal Party life the Party must primarily
put up strong resistance to Right wing tendencies which are offering more or
less open resistance to the new political line of the Party (parliamentary devia-
tions, survivals of anarcho-syndicalist tendencies towards restoring the territorial
bases of organisation). At the same time the Party must overcome "left" tenden-
cies (excessive prominence of the Party in the trade unions, the overbearing,
"commanding" attitude of Communists in the trade unions, repudiation of the
united front tactics, etc.). In the sphere of organisation, the Party must take
measures to widen its base in the big enterprises, to strengthen the Party nuclei
in big enterprises, to stimulate their political life and to recruit new members
for the Party.
46. Notwithstanding the exceptional terror directed against it» the Communist
Party of Italif has managed to preserve its illegal organisation and to continue
its proiiiiganda and agitational work as the only Party genuinely fighting for
the overthrow of Fascism and the capitalist regime. It has managed to extend
considerable influence over the most active elements of the working class, who
enabled the General Confederation of Labour to continue in existence after it was
betrayed by the reformist leaders. However, the Party made the mistake in
not changing the methods of its organisational work in proper time in order to
preserve intact its revolutionary fighting capacity amidst conditions of Fascist
reaction and Fascist exceptional laws. Consequently, organisational tasks now
acquire exceptional significance for the Italian Party (the creation of fresh
cadres, the restoration of strong mass organisations, the adoption of new
methods of agitational work, etc.).
In internal Party life, the Party has overcome the "Bordiga" ideology, which
formerly predominated in its ranks, and has succeeded in securing a large measure
of unity in ideology and political views. These successes enable the Party
euergeti'callv to resume its former struggle against Right wing deviations
(abandonmenf of the fight for the leadership of the proletariat), for under present
conditions, these tendencies represent a very serious danger to the Party. At
the same time, the Italian Communist Party must strongly combat all tendencies
towards repudhiting or curtailing the possibilities ^f extensive work for winning
the masses who are at present under the influence of non-Communist, but anti-
Fascist tendencies, or of the masses which Fascism is striving to influence. The
Congress instructs the Italian comrades to utilise to a greater degree than they
have done hitherto all the opportunities that present themselves for work in the
Fascist mass organisations, and for creating independent mass organisations for
the purpose of expending the influence of the Party.
47. The 3% million votes obtained by the Communist Pariii of Germany at the
last elections reveal on the one hand the considerable growth of Connnunist
influence am<»ng the masses of the workers and on the other hand the great
disproportion that exists between the political influence of the Party and its
organisational strength (stationary membership: 314 million votes, but only
"i2r),0C)0 paying members). The successes achieved in the trade union movement
totally fail to correspond to the magnitude of the tasks that confront the Party
in this sphere of work. A great achievement is the organization of the Red
Front Fighters, which is developing on a mass basis. The complete liquidation
of ultra-Left deviations, the collapse of the so-called "Lenin Bund" and the
self-exposure of its Social Democratic core, also represent a groat victory for
the German Communist Party. The Connnunist Party of Germany is one of the
best units of the international proletarian revolutionary army, but it has against
454 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
itself the best organized Social Democratic Party, whicb still has extreoiely
strong roots in the country,— this creating favonrnble soil for Right wing devia-
tions even in the Communist movement itself. For that reason, consistent
struggle against Right deviations (the slogan of control of production in the
present stage of development; opposition to the decisions of the Fourth Con-
gress of the R.I.L.U. ; compromising attitudes towards left wing Social Demo-
crats, etc.) ; unfailing liquidation of tendencies conciliatory towards these devia-
tions, while at the same time utilising for responsible Party work all the best
Party workers who stand for the decisions of the Comintern and for the Essen
Congress of the Communist Party of Germany; to steer a determined course
for the consolidation of the Party; to consolidate all the forces of the existing
leadership and strengthen its collective character, while maintaining the abso-
lute subordination of the minority to the majority-all these are the tasks of
the day. These tasks also include the creation of new proletarian cadres; in-
creasing the activity of the Party masses: raising the cultural, political and
theoretical level of the active Party members ; to improve the press and increase
its circulation; to improve trade union work and the leadership of industrial
conflicts.
48. The Communist Part if of Cz'echo-SIordh-ia continues to make progress in
the direction of becoming a real mass Party of the proletariat. Nevertheless, it
suffers from serious shortcomings, viz.. a certain amonnt of opportunistic pas-
sivity in the leadership and inadequate ability to mobilise the masses and to
organise mass resistance (for example, the protest against the prohibition of
the Spartakiade) ; the excessively legalist lines on which it conducts its practical
work; inadequate attention to the peasant and national question and also
extreme tardiness in removing defects in trade union work (lack of a suffi-
ciently distinct Communist line; exclusiveness of Red trade unions; weak ties
in reformist uaions. with cases of ideological captivity of Comnnniists. etc.).
At the same time strong emphasis must be laid on the need, while conducting
a strenuous flght against the Government, and while protecting the legal posi-
tions, of the Party, for preparing for underground conditions of working and
fighting.
49. The Communist Party of Poland (underground) working amidst conditions
of Facist terror has not only preserved its position, but has grown in member-
ship and still more in political influence, and is becoming a serious political
factor in the country, particularly in the industrial centres. Having completely
rectified the grave opportunistic errors committed during the Pilsudsky coitp
d'etat, the Party now has a correct political line. However, very serious danger
exists in the internal struggle within the Party which is totally unjustified in
view of the absence of any really important political disagreements. In view
of the special importance that attaches to the Polish Party, and the grave
responsibility that rests upon it in the event of war, the Congress strongly
demands the complete cessation of fractional struggle, and gives the E. C. C. I.
special instructions to take in the name of the Congress all the necessary meas-
ures towards this end.
50. The Com))ninist Parties in the Ballcan vountrics are at the present time
confronted by extremely important tasks. The tasks emerge from the instability
of the internal political situation in all the Balkan countries, the steady intensi-
fication of the agrarian crisis in these countries, the growing complexity of
national problems, and also from the fact that the Balkans represent one of
the most dangerous hotbeds for the breeding of fresh wars.
Recently, nearly all the Communist Parties in the Balkans experienced serious
internal crises called forth by the political errors, right-wing deviations in certain
leading groups and by intense factional strife, all of which in turn were called
forth by the severe defeats and the extreme complexity of the objective situation.
At the present time, however, iiearly all the Communist Parties in the Balkans
are well on the way towards liquidating these internal crises, and, notwithstand-
ing the reign of terror introduced by the respective Balkan Governments, are
nearly all consolidating, restoring and expanding their contacts with the masses
of the workers and peasants in the respective countries.
The Congress strongly emphasises the necessity for a correct line of policy for
the Balkan Communist Parties in the national question, and the need for exten-
sive agitational and organisational work among the masses of the peasantry.
Now that the Community Party of Roumania has gone a long way towards
overcoming the serious internal crisis which until very recently paralysed its
work, the Congress strongly stresses the political and organisational tasks that
now confront it in view of the fact that the Roumanian bourgeois and fetidal
APPENDIX, PART 1 455
classes are striving to excel all others in their preparations for an attack upon
the U.S.S.R.
All the Balkan Parties must, far better than they have done hitherto, co-
ordinate and combine their work under the general political slogan of "A Workers'
and Peasants' Balkan Federation."
51. In regard to the Scandinavian countries, the Congress takes note of the
intensification of class antagonisms in these countries, of a further sharp swing
to the right of social-democracy ; and in Norway the complete capitulation of the
centre (Traumaelism) to social-democracy and a direct transition to the side of
ministerial socialism. At the same time, the masses of the workers are swinging
to the left, and are, to an increasing extent, adopting the slogans of the Com-
munist Party (the printers' strike and the protest strike against the anti-strike
laws in Sweden; the builders' strike against compulsory arbitration and the
establishment of Workers' Self-Defence Corps by the land and forest workers
as a protection against blacklegs in Norway). The swing to the left of the
masses manifests itself in the movement in favour of agreements between the
Scandinavian and Soviet trade unions, and in the Norway-Finland-Russian
Conference that took place in Copenhagen, which demonstrated the desire of the
masses for international trade union unity. Notwithstanding these successes,
the Communist Parties in all the Scandinavian countries must, more strenu-
ously than hitherto, strive to organisationally consolidate their political and
ideological influence upon the masses of the toilers, and particularly to expand
and consolidate the swing to the left of the proletariat by proper organisational
measures.
52. The Workers' (Communist) Party of America has displayed more lively
activity and has taken advantage of the symptoms of crisis in American
industry and the growth of unemployment (caused by the extremely rapid
rise in the organic composition of capital and the development of the technique
of production). A number of stubborn and fierce class battles (primarily the
miners' strike) found in the Communist Party a stalwart leader. The campaign
against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti was also conducted under the lead-
ership of the Party, within which is observed a slackening of the long-standing
fractional struggle. While recording successes, however, references must be
made to a number of right mistakes committed in connection with the Socialist
Party ; to the fact that the Party has not with sufficient energy conducted work
for the organisation of the unorganised and for the organisation of the negro
movement, and to the fact that it fails to carry on a sufficiently impressionable
struggle against the predatory policy of the United States in Latin America.
These mistakes, however, cannot be ascribed exclusively to the majority
leadership.
On the question of organising a Labour Party, the Congress resolved : that the
Party concentrates on the work in the trade unions, on organising the unorgan-
ised, etc., and in this way lay the basis for the practical realisation of the slogan
of a broad Labour Party, organised from below. The most important task con-
fronting the Party is to put an end to the factional strife — w^hich is not based
on any serious differences on principles — and at the same time to increase the
recruiting of workers into the Party and to give a definite stimulus to the
promotion of workers to leading posts in the Party.
53. The Communist Party of Japan, with its underground apparatus, has made
its first entry into the electoral struggle. Notwithstanding the terror, it carries
on mass agitational work, publishes an illegal organ, carries through mass cam-
paigns (for example, the campaign of protest against the dissolution of the three
mass organisations : Rodo Nominto, the Hyogikai — Left-Wing Trade Union Fed-
eration— and the youth organisation). The principal task confronting the Party
which is overcoming its internal ideological waverings, is to proceed along the
path of converting itself into a mass Party. In order to achieve this persistent
work must be carried on among the masses of the proletariat and in the trade
unions, and the fight must be conducted for trade union unity. Work must al.so
be carried on among the masses of the peasantry, particularly on the basis of the
tenant-farmer movement. Notwithstanding the difficult conditions under which
the Party has to work (the law inflicting the death penalty for "dangerous
thoughts") and the numerical w^eakness of the Party, it must exert every effort
to defend the Chinese revolution and to fight against the predatory ijolicy of
Japanese imperialism.
54. The Commtmist Party of China has sufi:ered a series of severe defeats due
to a number of grave opportunist errors committed in the past, viz., lack of
independence from and failure freely to criticise the Kuomintang ; the failure
-456 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
to unclerstaiKl that the revolution was passing from one stage to another, and
the necessity for timely prepai'ations for i-esistance, and, finally, its retarding
of the agrarian revolution. Under the blows of defeat the Party has heroically
rectified its mistakes, and has declared ruthless war ou opportunism. Its
leaders, however, committed a mistake of another kind in failing to put up
sufficient resistance to obvious putschist and adventurist moods, whicli led to
the unsuccessful uprisings in Hunan, Hupeh and other places. On the other
hand, several comrades dropped into opportunist errors; they began to advance
the slogan of a National Assembly. The Congress considers it to be obsolutely
wrong to regard the Canton uprising as a putsch. The Canton uprising was an
heroic rearguard action of the Chinese proletariat in the preceding period of the
revolution, and notwithstanding the grave errors committed by the leaders in
the course of the rising, it marks the beginning of the new Soviet phase of
revolution. The principal tasks confronting the Party in the present situation,
in the trough of two waves of the revolution, are to fight for the masses, to
carry on mass work among the workers and peasants, to restore their organisa-
tions and to take advantage of all discontent with the landowners, the bour-
geoisie, the militarists and the foreign imperialists for the piirpose of developing
The revolutionary struggle. To achieve this it is necessary to strengthen the
Party itself in ever way. The slogan of mass uprising now becomes a propa-
ganda slogan, and only to the extent that the masses are really prepared and
the conditions for a fresh revolutionary tide mature, will it again become the
.slogan of immediate practice on a higher plane, under the banner of the dicta-
torship of the proletariat and peasantry based on Soviets.
55. In the Latin-American countries the principal task of the Communists is
to organise and consolidate Communist Parties.
In some countries (Argentine, P.razil, Mexico, Uruguay) Communist Parties
have been in existence for several years, and consequently the task that now
confronts them is to strengthen themselves ideologically and organisationally
and to transform themselves into genuine mass parties. In several other coun-
tries independent Communist Parties, organised as proletarian parties, do not
yet exist. The Congress instructs the E. C. C. I. to devote more attention to
the Latin-American countries generally and to draft a "programme of action"
for the parties in these countries (which, among other questions, include the
extremely important agrarian peasant question and the question of combatting
United States imperialism). The E. C. C. I. must Ksecure the definite organisa-
tion of these Parties, to see that proper relations are established between them
and the non-Party organisations (trade miions, peasant unions), to see that
they carry on proper work among the masses; that they consolidate and broaden
the trade unions, unify and centralise them, etc.
56. The Congress notes a growth of Communist influence in South Africa.
The Congress imposes the obligation upon all Communists there to take up as
their central tasks the organisation of the toiling negro masses, the strengthen-
ing of negro trade tinions and the fight against "white" chauvinism. The fight
against foreign imperialism in all its forms ; the advocacy of complete and abso-
litte equality for negroes ; strentious struggle against all exceptional laws against
negroes ; determined support for the fight against driving the peasants from the
land ; to organise the peasants for the struggle for the agrarian revolution,
while at the same time strengthening the Communist groups and Parties — such
must be the fundamental tasks of the Communists in these countries.
57. The Congress notes with special satisfaction that in the U. S. S. R., the
land of the proletarian dictatorship, the Party of the proletariat, the C. P. S. U.,
after overcoming the social-democratic Trotskyist deviations in its ranks,
and after overcoming a number of the objective economic difficulties arising
in the reconstruction period, has achieved important successes in the work of
building up socialism in the U. S. S. R., and has proceeded now to take up
the work for the socialism reorganisation of peasant economy. Work for the
building up of socialism in the U. S. S. R. must henceforth develop on the
basis of the industrialisation of the country as a whole, and on the basis of
intensified socialist constrtiction in the countryside (Soviet farms, collective
farms and the organisation of individual farms into mass co-operative farms).
Simultaneously with this work, the Leninist slogan concerning reliance upon
the rural poor, alliance with the middle peasants and strtiggle against the
kulak (rich farmer) must be systematically carried out.
The Congress places on record that the C. P. S. U. has taken timely note
of the elements of bureaucracy and conservatism in certain links of the State,
economic, trade union, and even the Party apparatus, and that it is coi>
APPENDIX, PART 1 457
ducting a strong campaign against these tendencies. The development of
self-criticism ; the intensification of the struggle against bureaucracy ; the
rallying of the forces and unfolding the activities of the working class —
which commands the hegemony in the wliole revolutionary development of
the U. S. S. R. — represent the most important tasks of the Party. The
Congress expresses the conviction that the Party will not only emerge vic-
toriously from the economic difficulties arising from the general backwardness
of the country, but — with the aid of the whole of the international proletar-
iat— will also emerge victoriously from the external conflicts, for which the
ruling groups in imperialist States are systematically preparing.
VIII
The Fight for the Leninist Line and the Unity of the Comintern
58. On the background of grave difficulties of the stabilisation period in
the capitalist countries, and of the difliculties of the reconstruction period
in the U. S. S. R., oppositional groups arose in the Communist International
which strove to organise themselves on an international scale. Their various
wings and shades (from extreme right wing to extreme "left" wing) found
their most complete expression in the criticism of the dictatorship in the
U. S. S. R., which slanderously ascribed a more or less petty-bourgeois char-
acter to this dictatorship and undermined the mobilising capacity of the
International proletariat. In the various national sections of the Comintern
these views were linked up with extreme right (the Souvarine group in France)
and with extreme "left" views (Korsch and Maslov in Germany). All these
tendencies, inspired and united by Trotskyism, formed a united bloc, bu.t
began rapidly to break up after the defeat of the Trotskyist opposition in
the C. P. S. U. The principal nucleus of this bloc in Western Europe, the
so-called "Lenin-Bund," which was based on the platform of Trot.skyism, and
which organised itself into an independent Party, exposed itself as an open
agent of social-democracy. In fact a considerable section of this group passed
directly into the Social-Democratic Party, the open and bitter opponent of
the theory and practice of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
59. On the basis of the partial stabilisation of capitalism, and directly owing
to the influence of social-democracy, the principal line of deviation from the
correct political position observed within the Communist Parties at the present
time is towards the right. This manifests itself in survivals of "legalism,"
in an excessive obedience to the law, in "khvostism" in relation to the strike
movement (dragging at the tail of the movement), in an incorrect attitude
towards social-democracy (for example, the resistance that was offered to the
decisions of the Ninth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. in France), in inadequate
reaction to international events, etc. In view of the existence of relatively
strong Social-Democratic Parties, these right deviations are particularly dan-
gerous and the fight against them must be put into the forefront. This implies
a systematic struggle against a conciliatory attitude towards Right-Wing
tendencies within the Communist Parties. However, side by side with this
there are "left" deviations, which find their expression in a tendency to
reject the tactics of the united front and the failure to understand the
enormous importance of trade union work, in a policy of revolutionary phrase.s.
and in China, in putschist tendencies.
60. The Congress instructs all the Parties to combat these deviations and to
combat them primarily by means of persuasion. The Congress places on
record that the decisions of the Seventh Enlarged Plenum concerning the rais-
ing of the theoretical level of the membership and the promotion of new
Party workers, etc., has not been carried out in a number of important countries.
The Congress is of the opinion that in view of the extreme complexity of the
international situation and the possibility of sharp changes in the historical
situation, all measures must be taken to raise the theoretical level of the Com-
munist Parties generally, and of their principal cadres in particular. In
view of the necessity to consolidate the central leadership of the Communist
International, and to guarantee the closest contact with the Parties, the Con-
gress resolves that authoritive representatives of the most important parties be
appointed in the capacity of permanent workers in the leading organs of the
Communist International.
61. The Congress instructs the E. C. C. I. to employ all measures necessary to
preserve the unity of the Communist International and of its sections. Only
458 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
on the basis of good team work and on the condition that differences are re-
moved, primarily by methods of internal Party democracy, will it be possible
to overcome the enormous difficulties of the present time and to fulfill the
great tasks of the immediate future.
The serious mistakes observed in the internal life of our Parties at the
present time (the tendency towards bureaucracy, drop in Party member-
ship in several countries, political inactivity of the subordinate organisations,
etc. ) can be overcome by raising the level of political life in the Com-
munist Parties in all their organisational links on the basis of wider internal
democracy. This does not imply that discipline is to be relaxed ; on the con-
trary, it implies the general tightening up of iron, internal discipline, the
absolute subordination of the minor organizations, as well as other Party
organisations (parliamentary fractions, fractions in the trade unions, the press,
etc.) to the leading Party centres and of all sections of the Comintern to the
Executive Committee of the Comintern. The tightening up of proletarian disci-
pline in the Parties ; the consolidation of the Parties ; the elimination of
factional strife, etc., are an absolute condition for the victorious proletarian
struggle against all the forces imperialism is mobilising.
Exhibit No. 62
{Source: The Communist, September. 1929. Max Bedaclit, editor. From an article entitled.
"T»n Years of the Communist Party in the United States"]
« H! * * « >» •
The resolution of the Second World Congress on the role of the workers'
councils (Soviets) destroyed this illusion and brought our American Party back
to the realities of the American class struggle and the needs of the American
working class in this struggle.
The 21 conditions of membership in the Communist International, adopted at
the Second World Congress, also settled definitely the character of a Communist
and of a Communist Party.
From the Second World Congress on the development of our Party and its
unification was distinctly on a basis of a progressive absorption of the deci-
sions of the Second World Congress by the Party.
The second period of post-war capitalism made it clear to our Party that it
can play its revolutionary role only in the degree in which it succeeds in making
itself the leader of the American working masses in their every-day struggles,
and in the degree it succeeds in conveying to these masses out of the experiences
of this every-day struggles the conception of the necessity of the revolutionary
overthrow of capitalism. The Communist International, as the international
leader of our Party, was most instrumental in creating this definite understand-
ing of its tasks in our Party. Especially Comrade Lenin was instrumental in
bringing our Party out of the clouds of revolutionary phrases on to the firm
ground of revolutionary action. His "Left Communism : An Infantile Dis-
order," and his discussions with representatives of the American Party, and
especially his conferences with the delegation of our Party to the Third World
Congress, were starting points in the concretization of the tasks of our Party.
In his conferences with the American delegation to the Third Congress he
proved to the delegation that he knew the general problems of the American
Party better than the American Party or its representatives did. [page 484]
■ 4 4 « « * •
The guiding hand of the Comintern, so invaluable during the entire existence
of our Party, again straightened out its course, [page 485]
Exhibit No. 63
[Source : The Communist, September, 1929, Vol. VIII, No. 9, pages 502-511 ; Max Bedacht,
editor]
:tL ***** *
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE OOMINTERN IN AMERICA
By Leon Piatt
The internal struggle now taking place in the Communist Party of America as
well as within the Communist Parties of other countries, is the most outstanding
APPENDIX, PART 1 459
aud important siuce the clays when the iuteruatioual communist movement
declared Trotskyism a counter revolutionary idealogy and opened war against it.
The actions of Lovestone and his group, and the struggle of our I»arty against
them bring to the surface a series of questions, which are of decisive importance
to the membership of our Party and to the revolutionary workers who carry on
their daily struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party. The present
day position of Lovestone on the role of the Comintern, the role of leadership in
a Communist Party, and his role in the struggle against war and for the defense
of the Soviet Union must be exposed before the working class, and show his
degeneration to Social Democracy.
1. Why do the Communists fight among thcmselces?
Many "of our Party members and revolutionary workers who are being in-
fluenced by our Party ask this question. The bourgeoisie, the social democrats
and all other enemies of the revolutionary movement are again rejoicing over
the internal struggle in our Party and the actions the Party had to take in
eliminating some of its former leaders who ceased to lead and became misleaders.
The Communist Party wants to make it clear that internal controversies in
a Communist Party are not based on per.sonal struggle between individual
leaders. Internal fights in a Communist Party are based on political differences
and not on unprincipled scramble for power as the bourgeoisie interprets and
as even some of our backward members believe it to be.
The development of the revolutionary movement is not following a straight
line. The tactics and policies of our Party are being shaped according to the
economic and political situation existing in the United States at given periods
and are subordinated to our chief aims of the full realization of our Communist
program. If at a certain period the economic and political conditions change,
then the party basing itself on Leninist analysis of these changed conditions must
also change its course and adopt new tactics to be able to cope with the newly
created situation. This the Party must do if it does not want to isolate iself
from the toiling masses and remain the leader of the working class in its struggle
against capitalism.
From the experience of the revolutionary movement we know that, in a
period when the Party has to take a sharp turn, we have certain sections of our
members as well as sections of our leadership, who do not see the changed
economic and political conditions and consequently refuse to follow the new
political line of the Party and not only persist iu maintaining their old course
but begin actively to oppose the new orientation and decisions of the Party.
Thi.s creates the basis for differences in a Communist Party. It is true that
our American Party went through many years of unprincipled struggle without
any political basis ; this fact was already long ago established by the Comintern
and does not concern the present struggle of the Party against Lovestone and
his group.
The Communists as convinced Leninists carry on an uncompromising struggle
against those who deviate from the Leninist line of the Party. This struggle
cannot remain a secret or be avoided. The Party as the leadel- of the working
class, brings out into the open ail the political differences that exist in the
Party and on the basis of consistent Leninist political discussion it clarifies its
membership and the revolutionary workers and thereby adopts a correct Com-
munist policy that will lead the working clas.s to victory. However, those
leaders of the Party, who refuse to subordinate themselves to the accepted
opinions and decisions of the Party majority and insist on following a different
line, the Party vigorously combats and does not hesitate to use any disciplinary
measures against them.
2. The Question of Leaders in a Communist Organization
The present period of capitalist development, known as the third period, is
being characterized by the sharpening of the internal and external contradic-
tions of capitalism which have their inevitable effect upon the working class,
leading to developing sharp class struggles. Lovestone refuses to see the con-
tradictions arising in the present third period of capitalist development and
began to organize an active opposition to the new course of the Party and the
Communist International. The American Party as well as the Communist
International has already had experience with situations, where former Party
leaders instead of being the champions of the new course and tactics of the
Party become an hindrance and prevent the Party from carrying out its new
tasks. Of particular importance to us are the experiences derived from our
struggle against counter-revolutionary Trotskyism.
460 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
When Lovestone today pretends not to understand the reasons for the decisive
and energetic action of the Party against him and his group it will be of interest
to recall some of the views expressed by one of the present leaders of the
right wing group and see how today they lost every vestige of Communist
consciousness and responsibility. In a speech made by Wolfe on Trotskyism
in 1928. it is said :
"We live in a changing world and those who are not capable of adjusting
themselves may lead today in the right direction, tomorrow in the wrong
direction. Then they become misleaders and must be fought. The history
of our movement is full of such persons." (From a corrected steuogram of a
speech by B. D. Wolfe.)
"Thus the same leader continuing to lead in the same direction when a new
direction is necessary, becomes a misleader and it becomes necessary for the
working class to cease to follow him, oftentimes to fight him." (From an article
by B. D. Wolfe, Leaders and Faction fights.)
This was the approach of our Party membership in the struggle against
counter-revolutionary Trotskyism. However, it is not only limited to Trotsky-
ism, but applied to leadership in a communist organization generally. In the
present moment in the case of Lovestone, Wolfe, and Gitlow.
The Trotskyites, to justify their struggle against the Communist International
brought up the past services of Trotsky, his personal abilities and individual
greatness. Likewise Lovestone and his groups bring continually up their past
work as a justification for their present slander and struggle against the
Comintern. The membership must answer Lovestone as it did to Trotsky, that
their past work as leaders who today became renegades is not the question
before the Party. The party and the revolutionary working class do not judge
their leaders only on their past. What is important for the party is where
do they lead at present? We shall let Wolfe speak again to show how Love-
stone and Wolfe degenerated to social democracy. In the same speech Wolfe
continues :
"So I say we cannot ask how eloquently does this man speak? How much
has he served us in the past, how much has he seemed to be a leader. At
every stage, again and again, we must subject our leadership to the most
searching analysis and ask where are they leading in the present movement?
What are the objective results of their proposals for the working class? In
our movement there is no room for hero worship. When our leaders become
misleaders, we break them just as we have made them, otherwise we cannot
go ahead to victory."
The membership of our Party has no sentimental approach to its leadership
and the personal factor is not important. The membership therefore must
understand and not to permit itself to be confused with the demagogic argu-
ments of Lovestone expressed in every one of his anti-Party documents, about
his past services, long membership in Party, devotion, etc. . . . All this does
not justify his struggle against the Communist International, but on the con-
trary condemns him. This petty bourgeois ideology basing leadership in a
Communist Party on sentiment must be condemned, because it weakens the
consistency of a bolshevik leadership which can only lead to the political degen-
eration of the party. Only those who are permeated with a bourgeois ideology
and completely degenerated into the camp of social democracy can judge lead-
ership on the basis of personal characteristics. The membership of a Commu-
nist Party has only a political attitude to its leadership. They judge concrete
deeds and policies and nothing else, and in spite of everything Lovestone.
Wolfe and Gitlow have done in the past the moment however, they began to
struggle against the Communist International they were condemned by the
meraber.ship and expelled from the Party. To make Wolfe understand why
this was done we will let Wolfe speak again :
Let him not dare to say : 'Look what I did for the movement yesterday."
For the working class must always answer : 'What are you doing for the
movement today?' It is useless for him to urge: 'On such and such an
occasion I was right' when it is clear to all conscious workers that on the
present occasion he is wrong."
"The revolution has no respect for persons. In fact the more prominent
a leader has been in the past, and the greater his reputation, the more
dangerous his influence for the bad becomes when he attempts to lead in the
wrong direction." (Leaders and Faction Fights by B. D. Wolfe.)
The history of all those who deviated from the line of the Communist Interna-
tional and resisted its decisions .shows that they inevitablv have to land in the
APPENDIX, PART 1 461
camp of social democracy. From passive resistance and disagreements on little
questions they tiiially build up a political platform which becomes incompatible
with membership in the Communist International.
3. The role of the Comintern. — The 6th World Congress correctly pointed out
and confirmed by the 10th Plenum of the C. I. that the main danger facing the
Communist Parties is the right danger. The right danger consists in the failure
to see the contradictions of capitalism in the present period, the shakiness of capi-
talist stabilization, the great disproportion between the developing forces of pro-
duction and the contraction of markets, the elfects of capitalist rationalization on
the working class, sharpening of the contradictions between the state building
socialism and the capitalist world and the effect of all these contradictions on the
working class and the further development of capitalism. The working class in
the present period of capitalist contradictions is becoming more radicalized and is
entering into a counter-offensive against its exploiters, the economic struggles of
the workers are today being raised to a higher level and the daily struggles for
better economic conditions are today assuming a political character and directed
against the capitalist system as a whole. The increasing pressure of the im-
perialist world on the colonial countries inevitably leads to a growing resistance on
the part of the colonial people against imperialism and the growing class dilfer-
entiation in the colonies, where the working class Is also assuming the role of the
leader of the National Liberation movement. On the other hand the basic internal
and external contradictions of capitalism, are sharpening the war danger between
the U. S. S. R. and the imperialist world and between tlie imperialist powers
themselves. Deviations from the above analysis given by the Comintern, inevitably
leads to an overestimation of the strength of capitalism and thereby creating the
impression that the working class will never be able to overthrow capitalism,
underestimation of the readiness of the working class to struggle for better eco-
nomic conditions, softening of our struggle against the "progressive" and "left"
wing of the Socialist party. Not seeing the pre.sent contradictions of capitalism
and their effect upon the working chiss will lead the party to isolation from the
masses and instead of being at the head of these struggles of the workers the party
will find itself at the tail end of these struggles. For this reason the C. I. and every
Party in the Comintern are carrying on a bitter struggle against the right winger
and conciliators who fight the political line of the Communist International. This
struggle was yet begun at the 9th Plenum of the C. I. and at the 6th congress,
however, the moment the decisions of the congress began to be put into effect, the
right wing became niore crystallized and increased its resistance to the line of the
C. I. This necessitated for the C. I. to take more energetic measures in combatting
the right wing. To Lovestone. however, the right wing in the Comintern is the
Comintern itself. In one of his documents of August 19, Lovestone writes:
"Replacing any attempt (by the 10th Plenum L.P.) to estimate the situation
of The parties of the Comintern as a whole, there are whole columns of measure-
less abuse against the "rights and conciliators" (that is generally primarily at
those who resist the i-evision of the line of the Gth congress.")
The characteristic feature of all those who in the past have fought the line
of the Comintern and refused to carry out its decisions is, that they carry on
their struggle under the pretext of fighting the revisionist and saving Leninism.
In America too, Lovestone is justifying his struggle and slander against the Com-
munist International under the pretext that the E. C.C.I, and the 10th plenum
are revising the decision of the 6th congress and Leninism. In the same docu-
ment of August 19, Lovestone states :
"The tenth Plenum and its thesis has put a stamp of official approval on the
dangerous line of revision of the Gth congress decisions and of Leninism recently
cari-ied through by the E. G. C. I. and the "new leaderships" in the U.S. and other
countries."
The party and the Communist International are not blind to this hypocrisy.
From the experience of the revolutionary movement we know, that many crimes
were committed in the names of Leninism and Marxism. In 1912 Bernstein
revised Marxism under the excuse that he was trying to save Marxism. Trotsky
and Cannon in America are today fighting the Communist International also
under the excuse that they are fighting the revision of Leninism. Brandler
and Thalheinier in Germany, who deny the existence of the war danger advo-
cating collaboration with the social democrats for workers control of production,
denying the fa.scist role of the social democrats, are also fighting the Comintern
under the excuse that the Comintern is revising the 6th congress and Leninism.
The events that took place since the 6th congress proves distinctly that not
onlv was the analysis of the 6th congress correct, but that this line was effectivelv
462 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
carried out by the Comintern in the conrse of the daily struggles of the Inter-
national proletariat. The sharpened struggle against social democracy and the
exposure of its fascist role before the working class, the raising of the economic
struggle of the workers to a higher level by transforming them into political
struggles against capitalism generally, the August 1, anti-war demonstrations,
all this represents an effective application of the policy adopted at the 6th
World Congress of "class against class." The expulsion of the right wingers
from the Communist International and cleansing the ranks of all communist
parties from opportunists and social democrats is a continuation of the policy
laid down at the 6th congress of struggle against the right danger and ideological
consolidation of the Communist Parties. The anti-war demonstration of August 1
taking place OA^er the entire world is a direct outgrowth of the line of the 6th
congress in the struggle against war and for the defense of the Soviet Union.
On the other hand issuing strike-breaking bulletins on August 1. urging the
workers not to strike when the party in certain sections of the country did issue
the slogan : "Down tools on August 1," failure to see the contradictions of
capitalism in the third period, failure to see tlie growing radiealization of the
American workers, violation of the most fundamental principles of communist
organization, etc., represents not only a revision of the 6th world congress de-
cisions but of communist principles generally and succumbing to social
democracy.
Lovestone with his "theory"' of the "degeneration" of the Communist Inter-
national is going a step further. He is not limiting himself with the charge
that the C. I. is revising the 6th congress and Leninism, but that the C. I. is
destroying the Communist Parties of the International. In the document of
August 19, Lovestone writes :
"The 'new leaderships' are conducting a campaign of ideological and organi-
zational terror (similar to our own 'enlightenment campaign') which have suc-
ceeded in paralyzing the energies of the Parties and giving them great political
and organizational setbacks ... in practically all countries (U. S. S. R., Ger-
many, France, U. S. Czecho-Slovakia, England, Poland, Italy, Switzerland,
Canada, etc.)"
What is the political meaning of Lovestone's charges of the "degeneracy" of
the Comintern, what political conclusions can he draw from this if he is to take
Lovestone seriously? If the Comintern is revising Leninism, so what is it accept-
ing in its place? Every class conscious worker knows, that today there are only
two ways for the working class to follow, either along the Leninist revolutionary
lines or along capitalist lines. The revolulionary front and the capitalist front
are today more leveled than ever before, there is no middle ground between
them. According to Lovestone. when the Communist International revised
Leninism it naturally must accept social democracy, then the logical conclusion
one can come to is. that the Comintern is no longer a communist organization,
that it outlived its purpo.se and has no .iustification for its existence as a revo-
lutionary force. These are the conclusions Lovestone draws in one of his docu-
ments of September 4. In this document Lovestone charges the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist International that they revised
Leninism and accepted Trotskyism in its place. Lovestone says :
"With the support of the E. C. C. I. the 'new leaderships' are carrying through
a revision of the line of the 6th congress and Leninism. Such revision has
brought them closer to the line and views of Trotskyism in its various forms."
The revolutionary working class however, knows that Trotskyism is a counter-
revolutionary ideology incompatible with Communism and those who "are brought
closer to the line and views of Trotskyism in its various forms" are counter-
revolutionai'ies.
The renegade Lovestone further says that the E.C.C.I. endorsed such leader-
ships in the various parties of the C.I. that "have succeeded in paralyzing the
energies of the Parties and giving them great political and organizational set-
backs ... in practically all countries (U.S.S.R., Germany, France, U. S.,
Czecho-Slovakia, England, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, etc." What
political conclusions can one draw from this statement if he is to take Love-
stone Seriously in tlie case. If the Comintern today is destroying the energies
of the parties — the leader of the working class and giving them great organiza-
tional and political set-backs, then the Comintern is not only destroying the
Communist movement which it itself helped to build, but with this very act
it is defeating the working class and thereby assuming a coiinter-revolutionary
role and must be combatted as such. If the Comintern is no longer the general
staff of the world revolution, the leader of the struggles of the exploited
APPENDIX, PART 1 4^3,
and oppressed workers and colonial people then why should the workers follow
the Comintern and carry on struggles under its banner? If the Comintern
replaced Leninism with Trotskyism then why should a true communist belong
to the Comintern? This is where Lovestone leads to. This is how Lovestone
thinks and this is political basis for struggles against the Party and the Com-
intern leading directly to counter-revolution.
However, the developments since the world congress prove that it is Love-
stone who degenerated to Trotskyism and revised Leninism, and that the C.I.
applied the decisions and program adopted at the 6th congress in a true LeniniKV
fashion. The struggles carried on by our German Party under the leadership
of the C.I. in the Ruhr district, the strike in Lodz, the strikes in Bombay.
Calcutta, the strike of the textile and agricultural workers of Czecho-Slovakia,
the miners' and textile strikes in France, the strikes in Colombia, the Gastonia
strike, the heroic struggles of the Berlin proletariat on the barricades on May 1,
the political demonstrations of the International proletariat on August 1 against
imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union. All these heroic
battles of the International working class, led under the direct guidance of
the Communist International shattered the capitalist world and drove social
democracy to fascism, all this shows distinctly that the Comintern is the only
revolutionary organization fighting capitalism.
Only a renegade and social democrat blinded by his zeal to discredit the leader
of the working class can say that the Comintern today is revising Leninism
and accepting Trotskyism in its place and breaking up the various parties of
the Communist International. Such views have no place in Communist Parties
and individuals holding such views cannot remain members of the Communist
International, and when the Party expelled Lovestone and his right wing group,
it did what Wolfe himself expected the Party to do :
''The vanguard of the working class is not made up of blind followers and the
wisdom of no individual is greater than the collective wisdom of the Party that
judges him and that places him in a position of trust and removes him from
this position according to how he serves at any given moment." (Leaders and
Faction Fights, B. D. Wolfe.)
The Struggle Against War and for the Defense of the Soviet Union
The main task facing the Communist movement is the struggle against
imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union. The Party must
popularize the achievements of the Russian workers in their building" up of
socialism and mobilize the support of the American workers for the defense
of the U. S. S. R. What is the role of Lovestone in our struggle against war?
It is necessary to establish the fact, that any one having a wrong view on inner
Party questions cannot fight th(^ war danger. The struggle and the slanders
of Lovestone against the Comintern is undermining the prestige of the Comin-
tern and thereby weakening our struggle against imperialist war. The direct
acts of Lovestone coming out against the strikes the Party called in various
sections of the country for August 1 and minimizing its political significance
is of the same counter revolutionary character as the action of the Trotskyites
who have also appealed to the workers not to demonstrate on August 1. Then
if the Comintern revised Leninism and is not longer a revolutionary organiza-
tion, why then shall the workers respond to the call of the Comintern in the
struggle against war? Why .should the workers defend this Comintern?
If the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is accepting Trotskyism and is
not building socialism then it is going to capitalism, and then why should the
workers defend it? If the Russian Communist Party is nothing else but a
bureaucratic machine revising Leninism then why should the workers of other
countries follow the example of the Russian party and establish a dictatorship
of the proletariat in their country? It must be recognized that Lfivestone with
his slanders against the Comintern and the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union is undermining the prestige of the U. S. S. R., the successful building up of
socialism and is weakening the efforts of the party and the C.I. in mobilizing
the support of the American workers for the defense of the Soviet Union. In
this present period the attacks of Lovestone on our party is of the same
counter-revolutionary nature as tho.se of the Trotsky opposition. It would be
here of interest to bring the opinion of one of the present leaders of this right
wing group, of tho.se who slander the Comintern and the Commimist Party of
the U. S. S. R. and its effect on our struggle against war. In 1925 Wolfe wrote :
"If they were successful if the working class were to believe their slanders.
4g4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
then they would be strengtliening the imperialist armies, lessening the possi-
bility of turning the imperialist war into a civil war, strengthening the forces
preparing to attack the Soviet Union, and weakening the forces preparing to
defend it. Their propaganda is the more dangerous because it is disguised in
the name of Communism." (B. D. Wolfe, the Trotsky Opposition, page 55.)
As part of the struggle of our party against war, the party must carry on a
.struggle against coimter-revolutionary Lovestonism and with his defeatist atti-
tude, spreading pessimism, is undermining the efforts of the Party and the
Comintern in mobilizing the workers for the defense of the Soviet Union.
The struggle against Lovestone and his right wing group can best be carried
on by building the Party. Unless we widely popularize the decisions of the 6th
world congress and the 10th plenium and make every member understand the
contradictions of the present period of capitalist development and its effects on
the working class, the party will not be in a position to lead the growing strug-
gles of the American workers. In this period particularly it will be necessary
for the party to continue its uncompi'omising struggle against Lovestone and
all other manifestations of the right danger. The best answer the Party mem-
bership can give to disruptive activities of Lovestone is to .strengthen the party
organization, raise the political level of the membership and activize our party
units. The American Party has great opportunities of becoming a mass party
if it will follow and apply the political line of the Communist International.
The po.sition of the American working class is continually becoming worse, the
deadly effects of rationalization and the tremendous war preparations of Ameri-
can imperialism will bring the American workers to the realization that only
through sharp class struggle against their exploiters, luider the leadership of
the Communist Party and the T.U.U.L. established in Cleveland on August 31,
will they be able to defeat their capitalist enemies. While the membership will
build the party and T.U.U.L. and other mass organizations, Lovestone and his
group will further degenerate into social democracy and completely go over into
the camp of capitalism.
Exhibit No. 64
[Source: Daily Worker. .Tnly 11, 1929, page 1]
Ni « * 3!l « « «
FIGHT AGAINST IMPERIALIST WAR MUST RALLY MASSES OF WORKERS THROUGHOUT U. S.
The capitalist governments and the imperialists of the whole world are
alarmed at the preparations going on everywhei'e to mak'? August 1 a day of
mobilization of the masses for revolutionary struggle against the war danger.
The trickery, the duplicity, the stealthy preparations that are being made to
plunge the world into another war are being exposed in every capitalist country
in the world.
August 1 must put the war-mongers on the defensive. In no uncertain terms
the masses will i-ally against the conspiracies, the provocations and the open war
preparations against the Soviet Union, the federated republic of workers and
peasants.
The workers in the two giant imperialist countries, the United States and
England, will stage strikes and great demonstrations against the war preparations
of their governments.
The Communist Party of the United States is the driving force in the fight
against imperialist war here. The biggest districts of the Party have already
held conferences that laid down the principal agitational and organization tasks
for August 1. There will be demonstrations of a nature never before staged in
the United States. Many war industries themselves will be hit by the workers
employed in them.
In the preparation for August 1, the Daily Worker plays an increasingly im-
portant role. We expose the war plans of the imperialists and act as collective
organizer in mobilizing the workers in the great basic industries for the struggle
against the war danger. We have plans on foot to publish some of the most
startling information about the war game of the United States government.
But in order to be able to carry out our tasks funds are urgently needed to keep
the Daily alive. The raising of funds to help the Daily and the campaign for
the One Day's Wage for the Party and the Daily are a part of the tight against
the imperialists. The Commiinist International, in its directives for Inter-
APPENDIX, PART 1 465
national Day Aisainst War, August 1, urjjed the raising of funds with which to
carry on the struggle not only for the mightiest of demonstrations and strikes
on that day, but to enable the Parties to be in a financial condition to continue
and intensify the struggle in the coming months ; it must be the turning point
whereby the workers take the offensive against the war-mongers. Instead of
the end" it is the beginning of our offensive.
But first and foremost it is necessary that our Party press survive in order
that the workers may be able to get day by day information the development of
the struggle. But this cannot be done without immediate assistance. Rush
funds at once to the Daily AVorker, 26 Union Square, New York.
Exhibit No. 65
[Source: Daily Worker, May 20, 1929, page 3]
****** it
Dkoisions of Central Committee of Communist Party of the U. S. A. on the
Address of the Communist International
(Decisions made Saturday, May 18, 1929.)
1. The Central Committee accepts and endorses the Address to the American
Party membership by the Executive Committee of the Communist International
and undertakes to win the entire Party membership for the support of the
Comintern Address.
2. The Central Committee pledges itself unconditionally to carry into effect
the decisions contained in this Address.
3. The Central Committee pledges itself and its members to defend the Address
of the Comintern before the membership against any ideological or other oppo-
.sition to the Address.
4. Central Committee calls upon the members of the delegation in Moscow
to withdraw all opposition to the Address and to the decisions contained therein
and to do all in their power to assist the Comintern and the Central Committee of
the American Party to luiify the Party in support of these decisions.
5. The Central Committee instructs the Secretariat to proceed immediately,
in agreement with the Executive Committee of the Communist International,
to take all measures necessary to put into application the decisions and to realize
the objectives of the Comintern as expressed in the Address.
6. The Central Committee approves all decisions of the Secretariat of the
same date, accepting and ordering immediate publication in the entire Party
pre.^s of the Address of the E. C. C. I. to the American Party membership, and
instructs the Secretariat to put these decisions into effect immediately.
Exhibit No. 66
[Source : Excerpts from a pamphlet entitled "Building Socialism in the Soviet Union,"
by Leon Piatt : Workers Library Publishers, .39 East 125th Street, New York, N. Y. :
1929. With an Introduction by the Agit-Prop Department, Communist Party of the
U. S. A. I'ages 5, 32, 38-40]
**♦•**•
introduction
The 12th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution brings again to the working
class of the world its epoch-making lessons of how the working class has defeated
and overcome its enemies. When on November 7, 1917, the workers of Russia
seized power under the leadership of the Party of Lenin, the Bolsheviks of the
Communist Party, the realization in life of the loiig-dreamed-of dictator.ship of
the proletariat became an ineradicable fact of history of the most far-reaching
revolutionary consequences.
If the November 7th Revolution shook the world, then how much more world-
shaking are the events accompanying the 12th Anniversary of that Revolution,
which uyitnesses the beginnings of the concrete achievement of those aims for
which the proletarint seized, power, that is, the building of a new system of .society,
of socialism, which should bring to the working class all those tremendous
advantages made possible by the achievements of science in industry.
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 31
466 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Fire Year Phni, the first year's operation of which is celebrated on the
12th Anniversary of the seizure of power, is the tiiial seal upon the success and
world-revolutionary significance of the Russian Revolution. It is the concrete
expression of the Building of Socialism.
For the workers of the United States as well as of the whole world, the facts
regarding the tremendous achievements being achiieved in the Soviet Union are
of the utmost interest and importance. To present them in their historical set-
ting, and in a popular and easily-read style, this little pamphlet is is.sued by the
Communist Party of the U. S. A. on the occasion of the llith Anniversary, in the
expectation that it will prove to be an introduction for thcmsands of American
workers not only to an understanding of the Soviet Union but also to their duties
and opportunities in the way of preparing the ground for similar victories and
achievements in their own land.
Agit-Prop Depaktment.
Commuvist Party of the V. S. A.
New York City.
* * « » • « «
The Five Year Plan shows that only the Communist Parties and the Com-
munist International are really the revolutionary leaders of the world prole-
tariat. That only the Communist Party of the United States, the American
section of the Communist International is capable of emancipating the American
working class and leading it to victory. It proves that the Communist Inter-
national is and will be the only revolutionary force th'at will lead the workers
and the exploited colonial people to the social revolution.
10. The Tasks of the American Working Class
The economic and political system existing in the Soviet Union system.
A war between the Soviet Union and the capitalist world is unavoidable. The
Imperialist powers in spite of the great differences and 'antagonisms that exist
between them are uniting for a combined attack on the Soviet Union. The
attack on the Chinese Eastern Railroad by the Chinese generals, which has
not the support of the Chinese workers and peasants, but which was inspired
and is being supported with aiiamunition and finances, by the great imperialist
powers, is already a concrete expression of the imperialist attack on the Soviet
Union. The successful building of Socialism and the great improvement of
the conditions of the working class and the superiority of Soviet Economy
over the capitalist economy serves as an inspiration to the exploited workers
of the capitalist countries 'and to the oppres.sed people in the colonial and
semi colonial countries, encouraging them to thi-ow off the capitalist class iu
their own coimtry and follow the example of the Russian workers and establisli
a workers' and farmers' government under the leadership of the Communist
Party. In addition to that is the fact that one sixth of the world's m'arket
having one eighth of the world's population is taken out from the sphere of
capitalist exploitation, which would otherwise offer a rich field for the investment
of the surplus capital of the Imperialist powers, and a valuable market for
the surplus products of the capitalist countries. All these factors lead to an
unavoidable war against the Soviet Union. The workers of the capitalist
countries will be armed and called upon to go to war against the Soviet Union,
to overthrow the workers' and farmers' government, to reestablish the old
inferior methods of capitalist production and establish the rule of imperialism.
The American workers when called upon to go into this war against the Soviet
Union, must refuse to fight the Russian workers, and go over on the side of
the Red Army. The American workers, like the Russian workers in 1917 must
turn the imperialist war into a civil war against their real enemies — the capi-
fjilist class of the United States which exploits and oppresses the American
working class.
Aside from this great task, the American workers must recognize that the
best way they can help the Russian workers to establish a strong socialist
foundation is by strengthening their revolutionary struggle against American
capitalism. The stronger the American workers build the new revolutionary
industrial unions, the wider they spread out their struggle against capitalist
rationalization, the more the American workers join the Communist Party,
the greater will be the guarantee of the successful carrying out of the Five
Year Plan and the building of socialism in the Soviet Union.
At the same time the American workers must learn, that the aims of the
Russian workers and jje'asants and the aims of Communist International are
APPENDIX, PART 1 467
not only to maintain the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and build socialism
in the Soviet Union alone, but to destroy capitalism the world over and estab-
lish a workers' and farmers' government in every country. Though the Russian
workers today are alre^ady laying the basis for the successful building of social-
ism, yet they will only be able to establish Socialism finally and completely
when the proletarian revolution will also take place in other countries. This
means that it is also the duty of the American workers to overthrow American
capitalism and es^ablish the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the United
States.
Exhibit No. 67
r Source: A booklet published by Workers Library Publishers, 35 East 125th Street, New
York, N. Y. : 1929]
*******
Ten Years op the Communist Inteirnational
By I. Komar
Workers' Library Publishers. 35 East 125th St., New York. Published in
March, l!t29'. Printed in England by the Dorrit Press, Limited (T. U. Through-
out), 68-70 Lant St., London, S.E.I.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Historical Importance of the Third International 1
Against Reformism and Treachery — for the Restoration of the Interna-
tional 5
The New Epoch 11
The '•Stabilisation" of Capitalism and the Stabilisation of the World
Organi.sation of the Comintern 22
For the Soviet Union ,32
The Growth of the Comintern and of its Sections 34
Before Another World War 35
The International Situation and the Tasks of the Comintern 38
The Unity of the Comintern 41
The Programme of the Struggle for Proletarian Dictatorship 43
TE.\ YEL\KS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
The Historical Importance of the Third International
Immediately after the establishment of the Comintern, April 15th, 1919,
Lenin wrote an article entitled "The Place of the Third International in His-
tory,' in which he lays down the historical role of that organisation.
"The First International,"* says Lenin, "laid the foundation of the proletarian
international struggle for socialism. The Second Internationalt prepared tbt?
ground for a wide extension of the movement in a number of countries. The
Thiid International succeeded to the fruits of the work of the Second Inter-
national, threw overboard its opportunist social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petty-
bourgeois ballast and made a beginning with the realisation of the dictatorship
of the proletariat."
This is the great historic importance of the Communist International. The
realisation of proletarian dictatorship is the task of a whole historic epoch, the
extension of which we, Leninists, cannot determine by a definite date. The first
stronghold of proletarian dictatorship — the Soviet Union, has been in existence
eleven years, and is going towards socialism. "On the Russian proletariat has
devolved the great honour of being first in the field," says Lenin in his addres.s
ar the opening of the April Conference of the Party in 1917, "but it must not
forget that its movement and revolution constitute merely a part of the world
revolutionary proletarian movement which is growing in strength from day to
day."
*18G4-1872.
tl889-1914.
468 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
According to this viewpoint of Lenin, tlie working class of the Soviet Union
must consider the ten years' history of tlie Comintern as a pliase of the great
epoch of struggle for the world dictatorship of the proletariat. The Russian
workers started this — the revolutionary proletariat of the whole world will
bring it to a finish under the leadership of the Comintern.
The ten years of the militant history of the Comintern confirm the state-
ment of the First Congress of the Comintern according to which "the Third
International is the International of open mass action, the International of
revolutionary realisation, the International of practical action." (Manifesto
of the First Congress.) While at the first Constituent Congress of the Comin-
tern only 11 Communist Parries were represented ( the other delegates repre-
sented only groups, nuclei and embryonic Communist I'arties), 59 Communist
Parties participated in the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern. This figure
alone shows that the Comintern has become a world Party in the first ten
years of its existence, has been transformed into a world organisation spread
OA'er all parts of the globe. At the time of the establishment of the Comintern,
the imperialist world had isolated the Soviet Republics and everything which
went on within their frontiers by means of a "real conspiracy of silence."
(Lenin in the article quoted above.) The bourgeoisie endeavoured to surround
also the Communist International with "a conspiracy of silence." At present,
no one can simply ignore the Comintern. The bourgeois slogan at the present
juncture with regard to the Comintern is: Htnvnyiilation, hriital perseciition.
The majority of the 59 Communist Parties represented at the Sixth World
<!k)ngress of the Comintern work illeyally, and the rest of the Parties are being
grafiually deprived of legal possibilities of work. This persecution of the Sec-
tions of the Comintern is one of the best proofs that "the spectre of Commu-
nism" has become a real and a growing danger to the imperialist bourgeoisie.
A "danger" which the boiirgeoisie and its ally, social-democracy, full of intense
hatred, are endeavouring to remove, but which, in spite of persecution, is grow-
ing continually and, via victories and defeats, is marching towards the inevitable
final victory. "Let the bourgeoisie do its worst, let it kill thousands of workers,
victory is ours, the victory of the world Communist revolution is guaranteed."
(Lenin; speech at the opening of the First Congress of the Comintern.)
Imperialism, says the Programme of the Comintern, 'binds the whole world
in chains of finance capital ; forces its yoke upon the proletariat and the
nations and races of all countries by methods of blood, iron and starvation ;
sharpens to an immeasurable degree the exploitation, oppression and enslave-
ment of the proletariat."
The opportunist Second International of Social-Democracy has become an
agency of imperialism in the ranks of the working class. However, to counter-
balance it throughout the world there is "the Third, Communist International —
the international organisation of the working class which embodies the real
unity of the revolutionary workers of the world." (Programme of the C. I.
Introduction.) The Comintern was created under Lenin's leadership, Lenin was
the great advocate of the creation of the Third International, and its founder.
Under Lenin's banner and under the leadership of Lenin's Party, the Comin-
tern has established its strength in the first ten years of its existence, and has
been converted into an invincible revolutionary force.
Against Reformism and Treachery — for the Restoration of the International
On August 4th, 1914, the beginning of the world war, Rosa Luxemburg called
the German social-democracy ''a stinkiur; corpse." On November 1st, 1914. Lenin
followed up this with: "The Second International is dead, overcome by oppor-
tunism. Downi with opportunism and long live the Third International."* On the
same day was issued the manifesto of the Central Committee of the Russian So-
cial-Democratic Labour Party (Bolshevik) on the imperialist war. The manifesto
of the Bolsheviks condemned the war as an imperialist slaughter caused by the rul-
ing classes — the finance and industrial bourgeoisie and its government. "The war
is the beginning of the disintegration of the capitalist system," says the manifesto.
"It calls forth the growth of the forces which make for an economic and iwlitical
crisis, it intensifies and accentuates the discontent of the toiling masses, it leads
them to civil war. The task of the socialists does not consist in being afraid of
civil war, but in getting ready for such a war and for a proletarian revolution."
The manifesto divulges the treachery of the leaders of the Social-Democratic Par-
"The position and tasks of the Socialist International," Social Democrat, No. 3S.
APPENDIX, PART 1 469
ties aucl calls upon all consistent internationalists to explain to the masses the real
character of the war, to expose the treachery of these leaders, to break off all rela-
tions with them, to carry on work among the masses under the slogan "Down
with the imperialist war. transform it into civil war directed against your own
governments. Long live proletarian revolution and socialism."
This constituted the ideological platform of the struggle for the creation of the
Tliird International. The task consisted in uniting, in the period of the fierce
world slaughter, those forces of the international laliour movement which were
capable of putting into practice the slogan "Transformation of the imperialist
war into civil war." The difliculties of this struggle were very noticeable at the
international conferences held during the war in Switzerland. Lenin's views
concei-ning the collapse of the Second International and the necessity of acting in
the spirit of the decisions of the Basle Congress of the Second International in
1012 (in accoidance with which the crisis created by the war must be used by
the social-democrats for "the acceleration of the downfall of capitalism," in the
spirit of the Paris Commune and of the Russian revolution of 1905), did not
only meet at these conferences with resistance on the part of avowed opportunists,
but had even to go through an extremely difficult ideological struggle with the
centrists, semi-internationalists who under the cloak of revolutionary phraseol-
ogy re.iected the consistent viewpoint of Lenin and his conclusions.
The first international conference held in the spirit of struggle agauist war was
the International Women's Conference in April, 1915. The conference was held
at the initiative of the Bolsheviks and of comrade Clara Zetkin. It was attended
by representatives of Great Britain, France, Russia, the Scandinavian countries
and Switzerland. The majority of the conference represented the viewpoint of
struggle against war. but it rejected the consistent Leninist viewpoint defended
by comrades Krupskaya and Inez Armand. Speaking of the results of the
Women's Conference, Lenin described the resolution of the majority as follows :
"Not a .sound in condemnation of the traitors, not a word about opportunism,
merely a repetition of the ideas of the Basle resolution ! Just as if nothing serious
had happened — just a small casual mistake, so let us repeat the old decision —
just a slight divergence, and not on a matter of principle, so let us plaster it up !
Surely this is downright mockery with regard to the decisions of the International,
and with regai-d to the workers." (Article "On Struggle Against Social Chauvin-
ism"— Social Democrat, 1-6-1915.) However, the Women's Conference adopted
the manifesto against the war.
A step forward was the International Youth Conference, which was also held
in April, 1915, in Berne. The organiser and leader of this conference was Willi
Miinzenberg. The conference was imbued with the rebel spirit of Karl Liebknecht.
The resolutions of the conference bear witness of its revolutionary spirit. How-
ever, here, too, the slogan, "Transformation of the imperialist war into the civil
war" did not get any recognition. Nevertheless, this youth conference is of con-
siderable historic importance ; it passed the resolution on observance of Interna-
tional Youth Day as a day of anti-war struggle, it founded the organ "Youth
International," to which Lenin became a contributor. The Berne Youth Con-
ference was an important step towards the establishment of the Communist
Youth International.
"Slowly," says Lenin, "moves the development of the international socialist move-
ment in the epoch of the very serious crisis caused by the war. It moves, never-
theless, towards a break with opportunism and social-chauvinism. The Inter-
national Socialist Conference in Zimmerwald (Switzerland), September 5th, 1915,
has shown this very clearly." {Social Democrat, No. 45-46, 11-10-1915, "The First
Step.")
On the initiative of the Italian and Swiss socialists, invitations to the conference
were sent to all internationalists who disagreed with the social-patriots and advo-
cated class struggle against the war. Lenin and the Bolsheviks thought that only
the most consistent and revolutionary internationalists, internationalists who were
•or the .slogan "Transformation of imperialist war into civil war" should be invited.
However, the conference was convened on the above-mentioned basis. Two ten-
dencies soon made themselves felt at the conference. The majority was under
the leadership of Ledebour (Germany) and Martov (tlie Russian Menshevik) . This
majority declared itself internationalist, condemned the tactics of the social-patriots
and recognized the necessity of class struggle also during the war. It rejected,
however, all Lenin's conclusions concerning the necessity of accentuating and ex-
tending the class struggle to the extent of civil war, concerning the proletarian
revolution, the ruthless exposure of all treacherous leaders before the masses,
(idncerning the necessity of breaking with these leaders and organising a new
International.
470 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Under Lenin's leadership the "Zimmerwald Left" participated in the conference
in spite of its attitude to the majority of this conference, and signed the mani-
festo because it meant "a step forward." At the same time the "left" began the
struggle against the "half-heartedness" of the majority and its readiness to make
peace with the opportunists. "The international revolutionary-Marxist section
of the conference" — as Lenin calls the "Zimmerwald Left" — expressed openly at
the conference its opinion of the majority. Lenin pointed out that the manifesto
proclaims "the necessity of arousing the revolutionary spirit," but saj^s nothing
in a straightforward, open and definite manner about the revolutionary means
of struggle." ( Lenin, "The First Step." )
In the quoted article, comrade Lenin comes to the conclusion that the manifesto
otf the Zimmerwald Conference means a step toward idealoglcal and practical
break with opportunism and social-chauvinism. At the same time he condemns
the "inconsistency and incompleteness" of the manifesto.
The draft resolution of the "left" was rejected at the conference by 19 vote.s
against 12. But after the conference it became the basis of the further work of
the "left." Soon after the Zimmerwald Conference, the "left" began to publish
Vorhote in German and The Commnnist in the Russian language, strengthening
at the same time its influence in all the countries.
The "Zimmerwald Left" is the first nucleus of the Communist International.
The path fx-om the "left" to the Comintern is the path of struggle for the trans-
formation of the imperialist war into civil war, the path of an increasingly ruthless
exposure of the traitors and of an ever-growing realisation of the necessity of
creating a new International.
A characteristic stage along this path is the Kienthal Conference (or the Second
Zimmerwald Conference). At this conference the left is already better repre-
sented, it constitutes about one-half of the conference. Here also "two
views, two tactics" are represented, as stated by Zinoviev in his article
"'Zimmerwald-Kienthal" : "Some think that the Second International has
suffered shipwreck, and that in the fire lit by the world war are being forged
the premises for the Third International, an International free from opportunism
and nationalism. Others again have not understood the character of the war.
nor tbe character of the crisis through which socialism is going." (Against the
Stream.") However, the relative majority was already more on the side of the
"left."
The war of 1914-1918 gave rise to the fir.st attempts to establish a new, revolu-
tionary International, as a counterpoise to the Second Socialist-Chauvinist Inter-
national, and as a weapon of resistance to bellicose imperialism (Zimmerwald-
Kienthal) . The victorious proletarian revolution in Russia gave an impetus to the
formation of Communist Parties in the centres of capitalism and in the colonies.
In 1919 the Communist International was formed.
The New Epoch
"Under the banner of the Workers' Soi-iets, of the revolutionary struggle for
power and proletarian dictatorship, under the banner of the Third Interna-
tionol — workers of the ivorld, unite!" {From the Manifesto of the Canstitne^it
Congress of the Comintern.)
"Our Party must not wait but must found the Third International imme-
diately. . . ." wrote Lenin on April 10th, 1917, in the pamphlet "The Tasks of
the Proletariat in Our Revolution." The shock to world capitalism, the accen-
tuation of the class struggle and the direct intluence of the October revolution
created the revolutionary foundation for the establishment of the Communist
International. A breach was made in the imperialist front, in its weakest spot,
in Russia the imperialist war was transformed into civil war, and in the
conflagration of the civil war the proletarian revolution was victorious. The
October revolution, for the first time in human history, set up and consolidated
the dictatorship of the proletariat in an enormous country, brought into being
a new Soviet type of State and laid the foundations for the international
l^roletarian revolution.
The characteristic feature of the Third International consists in the fact
that it is called upon "to carry out, to put into practice the behests of Marxism
and to make the old ideals of socialism and of the Labour movement a reality;
this most characteristic feature of the Third International immediately asserted
itself by the fact that the new, third 'International Workingmen's Association'
began to coincide to a certain extent with the Union of Socialist Soviet Re-
publics." (Lenin, "The Third International and Its Place in History," written
APPENDIX, PART 1 471
on April loth. 1919.) The birth of the Third International took place under the
ssgif- of proletarian dictatorship, and rested on the first victorious proletarian
dictatorship in Soviet Russia.
Lenin and the Bolshevik Party strove consistently for the immediate estab-
lishment of the Communist International. On January 24th, 1919, the C. C. of
the Bolshevik Party, together with a number of other Parties, issued a Mani-
festo, in which the necessity of convening a congress of advocates of the new
International is explained.
The sympathy for th(^ proletarian revolution in Russia and the interest in
Bolshevism were rapidly growing. Under the influence of the victorious prole-
tarian revolution, of the intense post-war capitalist crisis and of the accen-
tuation of the class struggle in a number of capitalist countries, the
]-evo!uti(tnary elements of all the socialist parties began to throw vacillation
to the winds and to group themselves around Lenin and his Party. On the
other hand, the leaders of the Second International endeavoured, at the con-
ference in Berne, to revive that International. All this helped to clear up
the iwsition of the revolutionary elements.
The Manifesto of eight organisations invited the representatives of all Parties,
groups and tendencies which, in connection with the war and the crisis in the
International, had declared themselves advocates of the proletarian revolution
and of the organisation of a new International. This Manifesto met with a
ready response among all the Communist elements of the Labour movement.
Flora March 4th to 7th, 1919, the Constitutent Congress of the Communist
International took place in Moscow. Apart from the Russian Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) the following organizations were represented at this Congress:
the Communist Party of Germany (an outcome of the "Spartakus Bund"), the
<'ommunist Party of Austria and Hungary, the left circles of social-democracy
in Sweden and Norway, the American Socialist Labour Party, the revolutionary
Balkan Federation, the Communist Parties of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Esthonia, the oppositional circles of the Socialist Party of Switzerland and
other groups, including one representative of the Zimmerwald Left from France.
It was decided at the conference which preceded the Congress to reject the
proposal of the representative of the German Communists concerning the post-
ponement of the e.stablishment of a new International, and to convert the Con-
gress into a constittient congress of the Comnmnist International. Having heard
the reports of the representatives of the various countries, the Congress turned
its attention to the elaboration of the Platform of the Communist International.
Ilie Platform deals with the chief contradictions of imi)erialism which are
leading to its downfall. The imperialist war, an inevitable result of capitalist
development, has called forth a rebellion of the masses against the capitalist
classes. The transformation of the imperialist war into civil war in a number
of countries, and the victory of the proletariat in Russia have ushered in a new
epoch of Communist revolutions. Conquest of political power has become the
order of the day for the proletariat of all countries. 'The final victory of the
proletariat can be guaranteed only through the establishment of proletarian dicta-
torship. The aim of the proletariat in the near future is — organization of the
International Soviet Republic. The means of struggle are — all the forms of
mass struggle, including the highest form, armed insurrection.
The main problem before the Congress was the consideration of the question
of "bourgeois democracy and proletarian dictatorship." In the epoch of imperial-
ist wars and revohitions dictatorship is oidy possible in the form of domination
by one class — dictatorship of the bourgeoisie or dictatorship of the proletariat.
Democracy has been converted by the bourgeoisie and the social traitors into
an instrument of struggle against the liberation of the working class, into counter-
revolutionary support for the tottering bourgeois rule. The dictatorship of the
proletariat in the form of Soviet power draws the most destitute and the widest
possible sections of workers into all the forms of social and political activity.
Therefore, it represents the most consistent proletarian democracy.
On the basis of the statement of the Zimmerwald Left, the First Congress of
the Comintern decided to consider the Zimmerwald Association dissolved.
Having discussed the attempt to revive the Second International, the Congress
considered in a special resolution the tendencies in the Second International
liefore and during the war. came to the conclusion that three main tendencies
■existed there. The first tendency is the social-chauvinist. The typical repre-
isentatives of this tendency are the German social democrats who share power
with the German bourgeoisie and "who have become the assassins of the leaders
472 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the Communist International — Karl Leibknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. The
social-chauvinists are the class enemies of the proletariat."
The second tendency is the so-called centrist tendency. The resolution ex-
plains the development of this tendency of Kautskyists and German independents
from outward opposition to the social-chauvinists to complete identification
with them.
The third tendency is the Communist tendency. In the Second International
this tendency defended the Communist-Marxist views on war, but remained in
the minority. The group of left radicals (subsequently the Spartacus group
in Germany), the Bolshevik Party in Russia, the Left-Wing of the Youth inter-
national in a number of countries formed the first nucleus of the new Inter-
national.
The Manifesto of the First Congress indicates the main features of the devel-
opment of the Labour movement and of socialism, from the creation of the
First International by Marx and Engels, via the collapse of the Second Inter-
national, and up to the moment of the establishment of the Comintern. The
Communist International sets itself the task of co-ordinating the genuine revolu-
tionary struggle of the proletariat of all countries for the overthrow of the
bourgeoisie and the establi.shment of proletarian dictatorship. As an immediate
task, the Manifesto indicates the strengthening of existing and the organisation
of new Communist Parties in all countries, a complete break with opportunism
and relentless struggle against it, rapprochement between the proletariat of the
advanced western countries and the oppressed peoples of the East, unification of
the struggle of the proletariat and the peasantry, active help to the first prole-
tarian State of the world.
The appeal of the First Congress of the Comintern fell on fertile ground.
After the First Congress began the ideological and organisational growth of the
Comintern. The characteristic feature of the first period of the post-war capi-
talist crisis — the period of actual revolutionary crisis — was a series of revolu-
tions and revolutionary actions. During the first period of the existence of the
Comintern, between its First and Second Congresses we witnessed : the prole-
tarian revolution in Hungary, the Soviet Government in Bavaria and the bour-
geois-national revolution in Turkey. "The first attempts at revolutionary over-
throw, which sprang from the acute crisis of capitalism (1918-1921) ended in
the victory and consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the
U. S. S. R. and in the defeat of the proletariat in a number of other countries."
{Programme of the Comintern.) Why could not the Comintern, in these first
attempts, achieve the same results as its founder, the Bolshevik Party, in the
October revolution and in the civil war in Russia? The Programme of the
Communist International gives a direct answer to this question : "The.se defeats
were primarily due to the treacherous tactics of the social-democratic and
reformist trade union leaders, but they were also due to the fact that the majority
of the working class had not yet accepted the lead of the Communists and that
in a number of important countries Communist Parties had not yet been
established at all."
In spite of these defeats, the Comintern developed enormously in the first
years of its existence. The news of the organisation of the new International
accentuated the inner-Party struggle in the socialist parties of the West, called
forth a series of splits and afiiliations of the seceded Communist organisations
and groups to the Comintern.
At the time of the Second Congress of the Comintern, which was opened on
July 19th, 1920, in Moscow, representatives of 66 Parties and organisations of
35 countries participated in its work. At the time of the Second Congress the
victories of the Red Army, the rapid success of Communism in the western
Labour movement, and the growth of the revolutionary movement in the East
made the Comintern very popular. This rapid growth of the popularity of the
Comintern brought with it the danger of undesirable and even hostile elements
penetrating into its ranks. The historic task of the Second Congress of the
Comintern consisted in closing the road to the Comintern to all but genuine
Communist elements, by means of the famous "21 conditions."
The representatives of the "centrists" from the Independent Social-Democratic
Party of Germany and of the left in the French Socialist Party declared at the
Congress that in a number of questions they agreed with the Comintern. They
failed, however, to understand the revolutionary epoch, and demanded easier
conditions of admission and also more freedom for the individual national
sections.
APPENDIX, PART 1 473
Yet another '"left" tendency made its appearance at the Congress. The repre-
sentative of this tendency was the Communist Labour Party of Germany, and
also a section of the Italian and Dutch Communists. This tendency visualised
the struggle for Soviet power in the European countries solely in the form of
armed insurrection. It rejected struggle for the capture of the trade union
rank and tile, participation in bourgeois parliaments and utilisation of other
legal possibilities, being of the opinion that the new epoch which had just begun
demands complete relinquishment of these "obsolete methods of struggle."
On the basis of the experience of the Bolshevik Party, the Congress directed
its main attack against the right, emphasising the necessity of simultaneous
struggle against "left" tendencies. In his pamphlet, Lenin emphasises that Bol-
shevism grew, gained in strength and steadfastness first and foremost and
mainly in the struggle against opijortunism. In the already mentioned pamph-
let Lenin writes that "this enemy (opportunism) is still the chief enemy, on an
international scale. This enemy received, and still receives, maximum attention
from Bolshevism." The left tendency is considered by Lenin on the basis of
the experience of the Bolshevik Party and is described by him as follows:
"The petty-bourgeoisie brought to a state of frenzy by the horrors of capital-
ism, is a social phenomenon appertaining, just as anarchism, to all capitalist
countries." Lenin condems "the instability of si;ch revolutionism." The re-
jection of compromise "on principle" by the left is mere "childishness." In
This pamphlet Lenin also explains that there are compromises and compromises.
"One should be able," writes Lenin, "to analyse the circumstances and concrete
conditions of every compromise or of every variety of compromise."
The decision of the Second World Congress on the role and structure of
the Communist Party before and after the conquest of power explains the
attitude of the Comintern towards the left and the right tendency.
The discussion of the national question by the Second Congress of the Com-
intern is important from the viewpoint of principle. On the basis of Lenin's
Theses the national-liberation struggle of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples
is described in the resolution of the Second World Congress as the inevitable
result of capitalist development and as the inevitable element in the grow-
ing proletarian revolution. On the basis of Lenin's Theses, the Congress
pointed out that there is an indissoluble connection between the national and
the peasant question. Just as in the individual countries, the union between
tlie working class and the fundamental mass of the peasantry constitutes a
premise for the victory of the proletariat and the consolidation of its dictator-
ship, the world victory of the proletariat demands the unification of the struggle
of the advanced toiling masses of the West with that of the oppressed nation-
alities of all countries.
The discussion of the question of revolutionary parliamentarism at the
Second World Congress is of great importance to the entire subsequent revo-
lutionary parliamentary work of the Comintern. The Congress exposed the
opportunist parliamentarism of the parties of the Second International, and
issued the direction of revolutionary ixtilisation of parliament and of other
forms of bourgeois democracy for the purpose of strengthening Communist in-
fiuence among the masses.
This revolutionary parliamentarism is essential for all Communists in coun-
tries where the Soviet power has not yet been established.
The trade union question played an important role at the Second Congress.
Work in trade unions is one of the most important tasks of all the Communist
I'arties. For a Communist Party the conquest of power cannot be thought of
without the energetic participation of the widest possible masses including the
organised. Immediately after the Second Congress of the Comintern, the Red
International of Labour Unions was established in Moscow. The Manifesto
of the Second World Congress exposes the treacherous role of the Amster-
dam International of Trade Unions, and invites affiliation to the Red Inter-
national of Labour Unions.
The resolutions of tlie Second Congress are of great importance to the ten
years' struggle of the Comintern and to the whole period of its development.
In the years of struggle which follow-ed the Second Congress, these resolutions
served as a guide, and their decisions in questions of principle are included
in the Programme of the Communist International.
The resolutions of the Second World Congress accelerated the establishment
of clarity in the ranks of the followers of the Third International. In rapid
succession. Communist Parties were formed in Great Britain, America, Italy
(through splits in the Socialist Parties) and Czecho-Slovakia. The split in the
474 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Independent Social-Democratic Party of Germany strengthened the Communist
Party. The Congress of the Peoples of the East convened in the U. S. S. R.
associated itself with the resolutions of the Second Congress. A beginning was
made in Japan with the formation of a Communist Party. The same happened
in Roumania.
The acute post-war capitalist crisis was nearing its end. With the help of
the social-democracy, capitalism was emerging gradually from this crisis. "As
a result of these defeats, which created the opportunity for intensifying the
exploitation of the mass of the proletariat and the colonial peoples, and for
severely depressing their standard of living, the Ijourgeoisie was able to achieve
a partial stabilisation of capitalist relations." (Programme of the Conrifiterii.)
However, in spite of these defeats, the Comintern was converted, in the first
years of its existence, into a world Party, which, in spite of persecutions and
defeats, was strengthening its ranks, and was continuing on a world scale the
struggle for the capture of the masses.
The "Stabilisation" of Capitalism and the Stabilisation of the World
Organisation of the Comintern
The Struggle for the Masses
"Imperialism is therefore moribund and decaying capitalism. It is tlip final
stage of development of the capitalist system. It is the threshold of world
social revolution." {Programme of the Co)uhitern.) In the period of a pro-
longed general crisis in the capitalist system the Communist Party must fulfil
its historic tasls — the conquest of proletarian dictatorship. However, to be
able to carry out this the Communist Party nuist have a clear conception of
the strategical premises of a victorious proletarian revolution. First of all it
must set itself the strategical aim 'of capturing the majority of its own class,
and it must achieve this aim. The fundamental slogan of the Third Congress
of the Comintern (June 22nd-July 12th, 1921) was precisely emphasis of the
necessity of capturing the proletarian masses for the struggle for proletarian
dictatorship.
This fundamental slogan was determined by the change in the world situa-
tion at the time of the Third Congress. When, with the help of social-democ-
racy, capitalism had somewhat i-ecovered from the acute post-war crisis, it
began an offensive against the working class in the economic and political
spheres. The organ of power of the capitalist class — the capitalist State — had
regained its strength and had also begun an attack on the revolutionary working
class. After a number of defeats (in Hungary, Italy, Germany, etc.) the work-
ing class had to go from offensive to defensive. In its work the Second World
Congress of the Comintern took into consideration this change in the interna-
tional situation.
To understand the resolutions of the Third Congress it is essential to study
the state of the world economy. Was the Comintern right in estimating the
contemporary epoch as the epoch of the downfall of capitalism and of the
rapid growth of the proletarian revolution. The answer of the Third Congress
of this question is : Although capitalism has consolidated itself to a certain
extent, its disintegration continues. However, this disintegration is not without
interruptions and is developing, not in a direct line which leads to the preeipie,
but by way of a series of booms and slumps. The activity of the masses,
throttled by defeats and want, is bound to revive as soon as the economic situa-
tion becomes brighter. The revival of capitalist economy does not mean that
capitalism's sickness unto death has been overcome. This sickness unto death —
the insuperable capitalist contradictions — continues to have effect under various
conditions and in various forms.
The question of the recuperation of capitalism in the tendency to further de-
velopment, raised by the Third Congress of the Comintern, was given a more
and more definite formulatioti in the subsequent deliberations of the Comintern,
on the basis of the characteristic features of the post-war development of
capitalism which were becoming more and more evident. The Fifth World Con-
gress formulated the decision on the stabilisation of capitalism and emphasised
the relativity of this stabilisation. The Sixth Enlarged Plenum of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Comintern formulated very carefully, on the basis of
new incidents, the decision on the transitory, unstable character of the stabil-
isation. In any case, the corresponding consideration of the question by the
Third International determined in principle the character of the entire subsequent
work of the Comintern.
APPENDIX, PART 1 475
As important with regard to iiriiuMple aro the detailed decisions of the Third
World Congress on questions of tactics. The Third Congress drew lessons from
The defeat of the March action of 1921 in Germany, and condemned the then
"left" majority of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany,
which, by considering "attack" as the only suitable method of struggle, was
artificially accelerating the March events. The Third Congress condemned
this "offensive-theory," and proposed to the Communist Party to carry out a
more careful and systematic preparation of proletarian struggles. At the same
rime the Third Congress condemned severely the right, wlio described the
March insurrection as a "putsch," and confirmed the expulsion of Levi from
the ranks of the Comintern.
"Having organized ourselves into a Party," said Lenin at the Third Congress
of the Comintern, "we must learn to prepare revolution," Lenin attacked those
who do not know what the word masses means. "To achieve victory one must
have the sympathy of the masses." "An absolute majority is not always neces-
sary. However, for victory, for the retention of power, one must have
on one's side not only the majority of the working class, but also the majority
of the exploited toiling rural population." Bolshevik experience, applied to the
lessons of past struggles, brought forward at the Third World Congress the
slogan : "To the masses !"
The Third Congress discussed, in the spirit of the Second Congress, the ques-
tion of work in the trade unions and organisational questions, developing still
further the decisions of the preceding Congress on these matters.
Of great importance is the decision of the Third World Congress on the tac-
tics of the Russian Communist Party. The Congress fully endorsed the
correctness of the change in the economic policy. The tactics of the New-
Economic Policy, declared the Third World Congress, is of international
importance, theoretically and practically. Therefore, the Congress resolved
to explain the character of this policy to the toiling masses of all countries.
"When the revolutionary tide is not rising, the Communist Parties must
advance partial slogans and demands that cori-espond to the everyday needs
of the toilers, and combine them with the fundamental tasks of the Communist
International. United front tactics also occupy an important place in the
tactics of the Communist Parties throughout the whole pre-revolutionai*y
period as a means towards achieving success in the struggle against capital,
towards the class mobilization of the masses and the exposure and isolation
of the reformist leaders." {Programme of the Comintern.)
The basis for this statement in the Programme of the Comintern was elab-
orated on the basis of the deci.sion of the Third Congress by the Plenum of
the Executive Committee of the Comintern in December, 1921, in the united
front theses.
These theses explain the character of the tactics laid down at the Third
Congress in the slogan "To the masses !" The united front should be inter-
preted as unity of all workers who are prepared to strive for the greatest
possible unity of all the Labour organisations, and must take into their hands
the initiative for joint action. The task of the Communist International
and its sections consist in exposing before the masses the social-democrats
who are destroying the united front of the proletariat. However, the nec-
essary premise for this is complete independence of the Connnunist Party
and full freedom of criticism for Communists. The First Enlarged Plenum
of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in February-March, 1922, also
dealt with the question of the united front. The idea of the necessity of a
united proletarian front to resist the bourgeois offensive was penetrating
more and more into the consciousness of the toiling masses. Under the pres-
sure of the masses, the leaders of the Second and Two-and-a-Half (Vienna)
Internationals were compelled to seek means of contact with the Comintern for
the discussion of this question. The enlarged Plenum of the Executive <Jom-
mittee of the Comintern discussed the proposal of the Two-and-a-Half Inter-
national concerning the convocation of a conference of the three Internationals.
The French Communists declared at this Plenum that they consider pos-
sible the application of the united front tactics only in the economic sphere.
The Italian "left," headed by Bordiga, declared that the united front tactics
is possible only in the trade union sphere. To counter-balance these erroneous
views, the Enlarged Plenum elaborated a resolution on the basis of the
above-mentioned decision of the Executive (^ommittee. In this decision the
Executive Committee emphasises tliat the appication of the united front tac-
tics is the duty of every Communist Party, that this tactics constitutes a
476 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
powerful means of exposing the opportimism of the reformist leaders and
of dissociating the toiling masses from these leaders, and also of miiting the
proletarian masses under the banner of the Comintern. As a result of the
discussions, the Comintern accepted the proposal of participation in the con-
ference of the three Internationals.
The conference of the three Internationals led to the election of a Commission
in which all the three Internationals were represented. The Conference resolved
to carry out a joint demonstration and brought forward, in connection with it,
slogans' of joint struggle for the eight-hour day, against unemployment, for pro-
letarian unity in the struggle against the capitalist offensive, for the Russian
revolurion. and for the establishment of political and economic relations with
Russia by all countries, as well as for the organization of a united proletarian
front in all countries. Soon after this conference the reformists convened a
conference of their own at which the united front of the Second and Two-and-a-
Half Internationals against the Comintern materialised.
Tlie lessons of these events were summed up by the Second Enlarged Plenum
of the Executive Committee of the Comintern in June, 1922. The Plenum placed
on record that, in spite of the break up of the Unity Commission, the premises
of the united front tactics still exist, and will even play a more important role
than before. Therefore, the Comintern must continue to strive for the establish-
ment of the united front.
The final lessons of the united front tactics were laid down by the Fifth
World Congress of the Comintern (June 17th-July 8th, 1924). The Fifth Con-
gress summed up the October events, 1923, in Germany and declared that in a
number of sections of the Comintern, "right" as well as "left" tendencies were
noticeable in the application of the united front tactics.
The right brought to nought tlie fundamental task of the united front tactics,
forgetting that the main object of this tactics is the exposure of the treacherous
leaders and the liberation of the toiling masses from their influence. They in-
tei^preted the united front slogan, first and foremost, as a call to conciliation, and
even to unification, with the social-democratic upper strata. This distortion
of the luiited front tactics on the part of the right had very serious consequences
during the revolutionary crisis in Germany, October, 1923. The majority of
the C. C. of the Communist Party of Germany, headed by Brandler, entered
into an alliance with the upper stratum of the "left" social-democrats, and was
betrayed by them at the decisive moment.
On the other hand, "ultra-left" elements (Italy, Germany, France) distorted the
imited front tactics, sabotaging work in the proletarian mass organisations, chiefly
in the trade unions, under the pretext that these organisations are under reformist
leadership.
"A correct application of the united front tactics, and. generally speakitig. the
solution of the problem of capturing the masses, presupposes, in its turn, sys-
tematic and persistent work in the trade unions and other mass organisations of
the proletariat," says the Programme of the Comintern. The Fifth Congress of
the C. I. elaborated an exact formulation of the united front tactics in this spirit.
This decision rejects the united front only with the upper stratum of the Social-
Democratic Parties and trade unions. Application of the united front tactics
from below (with the masses) is essential always and everywhere. The estab-
lishment of a united front from below, simultaneously with negotiations with
the reformist upper stratum, is admissible only in countries where social-democ-
racy is still very strong.
At the Fifth Congress the slogan of the Third Congress of the Comintern "To
the masses" is given additional emphasis : "To the masses and again to the
masses!" is the call of the Fifth World Congress.
In pursuance of the line of the Third World Congress of the Comintern, i. e., the
line of struggle for the capture of the masses and foi- the development of the
Communist Parties into real mass Parties of the proletariat, the Fifth Congi^ss
made a number of extremely important organisational decisions.
Of paramount importance to the further development of the Comintern is the
direction concerning the organisation of factory nuclei. The decisions of the Fifth
World Congress concerning the organisational construction of the Counnunist
I'arties. the functions of tlie Party Committees and their relations with Com-
munist fractions in trade unions and other mass organisations, and also concerning
the organisation of mass work among non-Party working men and women, led to
the thorough reorganisation of all the Sections of the Comintern in the organisa-
tional sphere.
APPENDIX, PART 1 477
All tbese decisions were adopted by the Fifth World Congress on the basis of
the experience of the Bolshevik Party, and were contirnied by it in a special resolu-
tion on the "Bolshevisation" of the Sections of the Comintern. This decision
summed up the whole experience of the Leninist Bolshevik Party, which is of
international importance, and w^as transmitted to all flections of the Communist
International and put into practice there.
In connection with the defeat of the revolutionary movement in Germany (1923),
the Fifth World Congress placed on record the relative stabilisation of capitalism.
It emphasised, however, at the same time the temporary character of this stabilisa-
tion. A series of phenomena in Germany, France, Great Britain, etc., and also the
growing discontent of the toiling masses and the accentuation of the class struggle
bear witness, as continued by the Fifth World Congress, of the instability of
this stabilisation.
During the Fifth Congress, Fascism celebrated in several countries its
victorious offensive against the defeated working class. In other countries the
"democratic era" set in.
Fearing revolution, the bourgeoisie was compelled to substitute for the
mailed fist policy the policy of deceit by means of seeming concessions. The
Programme of tlie Communist International describes as follows the application
of these two methods of boui-geois rule: "Adapting itself to the change in the
political situation, the bourgeoisie resorts either to the method of Fascism or
to the method of coalition with social-democracy according to the changes in
the political situation ; while social-democracy itself often plays a Fascist role
in periods when the situation is critical for capitalism." Mussolini's rule in
Italy and the Labour Government in Great Britain are two classical examples
of these two methods of bourgeois rule.
For the Soviet Union
In view of the fact that the U. S. S. R. is the only fatherland of the
international proletariat, the principal bul'wark of Its achievements, and
the most imiiortant factor for its international emancipation, the international
proletariat must, on its part, facilitate the success of the work of socialist
construction in the U. S. S. R., and defend her against the attacks of the
capitalist Powers by all the means iu its power." In the spirit of these words
of the Programme of the Comintern, the Fourth World Congress of the
(["omintern (November 5th-December fith, 1922) assumed the form of a demon-
stration of the Comintern for the Russian revolution. The Fourth World
Congress met on the Fifth Anniversary of the Soviet Power. The reports
on the Fifth Anniversary of the Soviet Power were made by Lenin, Clara Zetkin
and Bela Kun. In these reports and in the resolutions on this question, stress
was laid on the importance of the October revolution and of the existence of
the Soviet Power for the cause of international revolution and for the
Comintern.
The Fourth World Congress took place after the Fascist coup d'etat in Italy.
In connection with the consolidation of White Terror in all countries, the
Congress called upon the Communist Parties of all countries to organise mate-
i-ial and moral support for political prisoners in bourgeois jails. Thus, the
Fourth Congress laid the foundations of the I. R. A. (L C. W. P. A.).
The Fourth Congress discussed the question of the Versailles Peace Treaty,
and pointed out, in this connection, the growing danger of new wars. This
question was discussed in the Comintern at the First Enlarged Plenum of its
Executive. This Pleiuim adopted the dicisiou of strengthening Communist
work in the armies, and especially among the youth. Soon after the Fourth
Congress, at the Third Enlarged Plenum of the E. C. C. I. in the middle of
1923. the Comintern took up once more the question of the growth of the war
danger.
The Growth of the Comintern and of its Sections
In the years between the Fifth and Sixth World Congresses, the Communist
Intei-national extended its influence considerably. The organisations of its
Sections gained in strength. The numerical development of the Communist
Parties is not a criterion of their consolidation. The growing persecution of
the Communist Parties hinders the growth of the organisations. The growing
influence of the Communist Parties is noticeable in the role they play in the
class struggles, in their influence in the trade unions and other mass organisa-
478 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tions and also at parliamentary elections. The number of votes polled by the
Communists is considerably increased in many countries.
In several countries the Communist Parties have achieved considerable
success with regard to the establishment of mass organisations which are
under their influence, this in accordance witli the decisions of the Fiftli
Congress. We would like to mention, as an example of this the Red Front
Fighters' League in Germany which is well-known to workers throughout the
world.
Of particular importance in the struggle of the Comintern is the Com-
munist Youth International, the leader of the revolutionary young proletariat
in all countries. From its very inception, the Communist Youth International
I'.as been leading the revolutionary struggle of the young proletariat and has
been in all countries the loyal supporter of Communism, the growth of which
it endeavours to promote in every possible way.
Before Another World War
Four years passed between the Fifth and Sixth World Congresses of the
Comintern. During these years the attention of the militant front of the
Communist International was concentrated on events of enormous historic im-
portance to the whole world. During this period we witnessed the gigantic
struggle between the British miners and the capitalists and the nine days' Gen-
eral Strike. A series of colonial insurrections and wars, and, first and foremost,
the Chinese revolution sapped the roots of world imperialism. In 1927, we
witnessed in the Vienna streets a sanguinary struggle of the workers against
growing Austrian Fascism. "These events, as well as events like the uprising
iti Indonesia, the deep ferment in India, the great Chinese revolution, which
shook the whole Asiatic Continent, are links in one and the .^ame international
revolutionary chain, constituent pai'ts of the profound general crisis of capitalism.
(Programme of the Comintern.)
As a result of the first imperialist Woiid War and of the October victory of
the proletariat in Russia, the whole world split into two fundamentally hostile
camps: "The camp of the imperialist States and the camp of the dictatorship
of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R." Capitalism cannot solve the contradiction
between the Soviet Union and the capitalist world except by an attempt to
destroy the Soviet Union.
There was also a further accentuation of the internal contradictious of the
capitalist world economy. The struggle for oil, rubber, cotton, coal and ore, for
the redistribution of markets and spheres for the investment of capital, is
making inevitably for a new world war.
The differences between the imperialist countries and the colonial and semi-
colonial peoples are growing. "The great Chinese revolution, which roused hun-
dreds of millions of the Chinese people to action, caused an enormous breach
in the imperialist system." iProijrainme of the (Joinintern.) The awakening
of the colonial masses constitutes a more and more dangerous front against the
struggle of the imperialists.
"Finally, the revolutionary crisis is inexorably maturing in the very centres
of imperialism : the capitalist offensive against the working class, the attack
upon the workers' standard of living, upon their oi-ganisations, and their politi-
cal rights, and the growth of White Terror, rouse increasing resistance on the
part of the broad masses of the proletariat and intensify the class struggle
})etween the working class and trustified capital. The great battles fought be-
tween labour and capital, the accelerated swing to the left of the masses, the
gi'owth in the infltience and authority of the Communist Parties; the enormous
growth of .sympathy of the broad masses of workers for the land of the prole-
tarian dictatorshiiT — all this is a clear symptom of the rise of a new revolu-
tionary tide in the centres of imperialism." (Programme of the Comintern.)
On the basis of a careful investigation of the development of world economy
and of the labour movement in the period between the Fifth and Sixth Ci>n-
gresses of the Comintern, on the basis of the preparatory work of a series of
Enlarged Plenums of the E. C. C. I. held during this period, the Sixth Congress
of the Communist International (July-August, 1928) carried out a big piece of
work. It embraced the whole previous development of the Comintern and
summed up in its resolutions the lessons of the ten years' struggle of the
Comintern. By the final adoption of the Programme of the Connnunist Inter-
national, the Sixth Congress sub.1ected, on the basis of Marxist-Leninism, the
whole history of the struggle between capital and labour to a thorough historic
APPENDIX, PART 1 479
appreciation, and laid down the tasks as well as the circumstances and condi-
tions of the struggle for the world dictatorship of the proletariat for the whole
epoch of this struggle.
In this pamphlet we are able to lay stress only on a few characteristic
features of the enormous work carried out by the Sixth Congress of the Cotn-
intern. The Programme of the Comintern must become the subject of careful
study ; it must be read, studied and fully assimilated by all workers. The
Comintern dealt with the question of the Programme at three Congresses —
for the first time at the Fourth Congress, then at the Fifth, and it was only
on the basis of the work of many years, that the Sixth Congress was able to
produce the final formulation of the Programme.
The International Situation and the Tasks of the Comintern
The basic resolution of the Sixth World Congress analyses the entire post-
war development of capitalism. This post-war development is divided into
three periods. The first period — from the end of the war to 1923 — was the
period of the most serious capitalist crisis.
Out of this crisis the first Socialist State emerged strengthened, but on the
other hand, the international proletariat suffered a series of serious defeats.
In these struggles the Communist Parties, the organisers of future victories,
were born. The second period, which set in approximately at the end of 1923,
brought with it, on the one liand a partial stabilisation of capitalism, and, on
the other hand, the rapid economic development of the Soviet Union. The third
period begins where the capitalist system exceeds the pre-war level of pro-
duction. This development is accompanied by a simultaneous transition of
the Soviet Union to the period of reconstruction.
The third period does not by any means indicate the longevity or stability
of the contemporary capitalist development. On the highest economic plane,
there arise in an accentuated form the former differences which are bound
to lead to new gigantic crises. Experience throughout the post-war historical
period has shown that the stabilisation achieved by the repression of the
working class and the systematic depression of its standard of living can only
be a partial, transient and decaying stabilisation {Programme of the Coni-
intei~ih )
Capitalism is doing its utmost to strengthen its position. It develops its
technique, it does its utmost to rationalise production wath a brutal disregard
for human labour power. The capitalist offensive against the working class
is extending. This is accompanied by a swing to the left among the proletarian
masses.
In the present conditions, the struggle against capitalism is indissolubly
connected with the struggle, against Social Democracy.
During the progress of the international revolution, the leading cadres of the
Social Democratic parties and of the reformist trade unions on the one hand,
and the militant capitaist organisations of the Fascist type on the other, ac-
(juired special significance as a powerful counter-revolutionary force actively
fighting against the revolution and actively supporting the partial stabilisation
of capitalism. (Prof/nnnmc of the Comintern.)
Social Democracy became a clearly expressed counter-revolutionary force.
Its chief role consists at present in sabotaging the unity of the proletariat, so
necessary in the struggle against imperialism. The preparation and organisa-
tion of the victory of the national revolution demands imperatively strenuous
struggle against reformism.
The Sixth Congress, on the basis of an investigation of the international
situation and of an analysis of the capitalist differences emphasises the enor-
mous importance of the war question for the whole present period. Therefore,
the war question, the question of methods of struggle against new imperialist
wars, was the centre of the w'ork of the Sixth World Congress. The Sixth
World Congress paid also considerable attention to the colonial question.
The task of capturing the widest possible proletarian masses is becoming more
and more pi*essing for the whole Comintern. The struggle against the anti-
Communist forces within the working class, first and foremost against Social
Democracy, is one of the most important tasks of the Communist Party. The
Sixth Congress considered the work of the Sections of the Comintern and drew
artention to a number of serious omissions in the carrying out of the strategical
and tactical tasks of the Communistic Parties. More attention to the work of the
480 UN-AMERICAN PEOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
trade unions, more attention to the work of strengthening the influence of the
Communist Party on the peasantry. Wholehearted support for the revolu-
tionary liberation movements in the colonies and for the movements of the
oppressed peoples in general. Such are the slogans of the Sixth Congress.
The Unity of the Comintern
In the spirit of Lenin's teaching and on the basis of the experience of the
Bolshevik Party, the Comintern strengthened its Bolshevik skeleton through
continuous struggle against "left" as well as "right" tendencies. In the i)eriod
following the Fifth World Congress, the Comintern had to carry on repeatedly
a stubborn struggle against various oppositional tendencies. The Sixth World
Congress bears witness of the complete unity of the Comintern. This unity
in its ranks was achieved through the victory over Trotskyism. From the
Fifth World Congress onwards, the series of Comintern Plenums reflected the
attempts of Trotskyism to revise Leninism. The Sixth Congress showed that
Trotskyism has been completely exposed in the ranks of the Comintern.
With the partial stabilisation of capitalism, various Social Democratic
tendencies exercise influence over some circles in the Communist Parties. The
Sixth World Congress of the Comintern directed its chief attack against the
right tendency in the Communist Movement. We must not forget the still exist-
ing power of Social Democracy in the ranks of the working class. Millions
of workers are still voting for the Social Democrats at the elections. The
ideological influence of Social Democracy penetrates, and frequently to a con-
siderable extent, also into the Communist Parties. Therefore, we must direct
our chief attack against the right. However, we must at the same time bear
in mind the existence of "left" tendencies.
Fifty-nine Communist Parties were represented at the Sixth World Con:,'ress
of the Comintern, i. e., ten Sections more than at the Fifth World Congress.
In the course of ten years' of continual struggle the Communist International
has strengthened its organisation and has extended its ideological and organisa-
tional influence to wide sections of workers in the capitalist and colonial
countries. The Comintern is maintaining everywhere its fighting position. It is
the only leader in the struggle against world imperialism, the loyal guard of
the First Socialist State, the leader in the struggle for the world dictatorship
of the proletariat. The Sixth Congress of the Comintern and the whole ten
'years' history of the Communist International bear witness of this. "The Sec-
tions of the Communist International know only one kind of discipline, the
discipline of the international proletariat which guarantees the victory of the
workers of all countries in the struggle for the world dictatorship of the
proletariat." {Programme of the Comintern.)
"Communists carry on with the utmost bravery this struggle in all the
sections of the international class front, in spite of the brutal terrorism of the
bourgeoisie, being firml.v convinced that the victory of the proletariat i.s inevi-
table and cannot be averted."
The Programme of the Struggle for Proletarian Dictatorship
Eighty years have passed since the time when Marx and Engels on behalf
of a small propagandist society, the Communist League, published the "Com-
munist Manifesto" (1847). In the period when capitalism was only at the
beginning of its victorious progress, the founders of scientific Socialism an-
nounced in the "Communist Manifesto" the inevitable downfall of the cap-
italist system and called the proletariat to carry out the death sentence of
history. AIJ first, however, the "Communist Manifesto" reached only the
small vanguard, the group of advanced fighters which made the first attempts
to create proletarian fighting organisations.
The "Commimist Manifesto" could not be anything but a call for the uni-
fication of the Communists. It was the first political mass manifesto to the
Communists. It examined contemporary capitalism and brilliantly predicted
the trend of the proletarian class struggle. Tens of years of proletarian class
struggle, after the publication of the "Communist Manifesto," made the brilliant
prognostication of Marx and Engels a reality.
A few years after the appearance of the "Commiuilst Manifesto" the Com-
munist League was liquidated. It was only in 1864 that the "International
Workingmen's Association" was founded. Once more Marx formulated the
Programme for this Association, for the First Proletarian International. It
APPENDIX, PART 1 4§1:
was now a questiou of the international amalgamation of the existing pro-
letarian organisations, which had readied different degrees of development
and held different views with regard to the aims and methods of struggle.
Marx wrote an address in which he explains the necessity of creating an
international proletarian organisation and invites to join its ranks. At the
same time Marx wrote an explanation of the statutes of the First International
in which he shows clearly the aim of all Communist movements and points
the way they should go. If the "Communist Manifesto" was a powerful call
to rally under the banner of Communism, the "Address" drawn up by Marx
— the Programme of the First International — was to quote Franz Mehring's
splendid definition," the raising of the banner which the struggling proletarian
armies of the individual countries must never lose sight of if they want to
achieve the great victorious united front of the contemporary proletariat."
TTie Second International did not even attempt to elaborate a united pro-
gramme for the international movement. True, individual Parties of the
Second International adopted a programme of their own. However, these
programmes are limited to a definite country, and even if they express them-
selves for Socialism, they avoid by all manner of means mentioning the
dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx and Engels criticised very severely the
first programmes of the German Social Democracy which served as a model
to the other Social Democratic Parties : "That which, to all intents and
purposes, should have been said, is absent there" — said Engels.
The latest programmes of the Parties of the Second International are pro-
grammes of capitalist rationalisation.
The inability of the Second International to produce one international pro-
gramme showed merely that the individual parties of the Second International
recognised only "their own State, their own country and did not want to
undertake any international obligations.
The Third Comnmnist International had to be in order to give to the revo-
hitionary proletariat of all countries one revolutionary international programme
of action. The character of this Programme was defined by Lenin in 1914 when
he confirmed the final collapse of the Second International: "The Third Inter-
national has before it the task of organising the forces of the proletariat for
revolutionary pressure on the capitalist Governments, for civil war against the
bourgeoisie of all countries, for political power, the victory of Socialism."
("Tasks of the Socialist International." 1914.)
The Programme of the Communist International is the programme of struggle
for World Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The First International laid the
ideological foundation for the international proletarian struggle for Socialism.
The Second International, in the best period of its existence, prepared the ground
for the expansion of the labour movement among the masses. The Third. Com-
munist International, in continuing the work of the First International, and in
accepting the fruits of the work of the Second International, resolutely lopped
off the latter's opportunism, social chauvinism, and bourgeois distortion of Social-
ism and set out to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat — says the Pro-
gramme of the Comintern. The brilliant prognostication of the "Communist
Manifesto" and of the Progrannne of the First International is becoming a
reality in our epoch. The construction of Socialism in one country, the inter-
national struggle against imperialism, from highly developed capitalist Great
Britain down to the most backward African colony, must be carried on under
a united leadership. The Programme of the Comintern is a guide to the revo-
lutionary World army of Communism, and will be a guide to millions of prole-
tarians and to the oppressed of all the countries of the globe until the world
victory of the international proletariat has been won.
Exhibit No. 68
[Soiu-cp: Excerpt from the Daily Worker, New York, January IS, 1930. page ."!. From an
article entitled "Strengthen Bolshevik Methods of Party Work," by H. Benjamin]
*******
Our struggle against imperialist war; for the defense of the Soviet Union and
in support of the revolutionary struggles of the colonial masses can become
really effective and assume revolutionary form only if we take these struggles
into the factories and especially those factories where war materials are pro-
duced ; onto the waterfronts from which the war materials are shipped and
upon the ships on which they are conveyed
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 32
482 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 69
[Source: Excerpt from a statement by William Z. Foster, chairman of the Communist
Party of the T'nited States, before Aldernianic President McKee. Daily Worker, New
York, March 15, 1930, page 5]
"You cannot cure unemployment except by the overthrow of capitalism and
the establishment of a Soviet Government in the United States." Aldernianic
President McKee, a fat, Tammany politician asked : "Do you people advocate the
violent overthrow of the government V" Foster: "We explain to the workers, and
we teach the workers that only by violence finally can a revolution be accom-
plished. All revolutions have been accomplished by force and violence."
Exhibit No. 70
[Source: Excerpt from speech by Robert Minor before Mayor James J. Walker, New York,
N. Y., Daily Worker, New York, March 15, 1930, page 5]
Whereas the Communist Party is the party of the working class, leading the
workers in the class struggle and recognizing that all of history is made up of
this struggle which has never been solved and never can be solved without
violence. It is not a qitestion of violence or no violence. It is a question of
which class.
Exhibit No. 71
[Sonrce : The Communist, May 1931, Vol. X. No. 5 ; pages 409-42.3 ; Max Bedacht, editor]
*******
ON THE USE OF "TRANSMISSION BELTS" IN OUR STRUGGLE FOR THE MASSES
By C. A. Hathaway
"What is the reason that in spite of the fairly good response of the unemployed
workers to our slogans, demands and actions, we do not develop a real organized
mass movement of the unemployed workers?
"Because 'we have no real orgavized Unonployed Coi<t)eU.s. Our Councils are
too loose. Thousands and thousands of workers join and leave. No member-
ship meetings are held and, because of this, the Councils do not have any elected
leaders. We have no functioning fractions in the Councils. The Party's guid-
ance in the Unemployed Councils consists of nothing but one comrade bringing
down instructions of the Communist Party to the unemployed workers." — From
the March 26th organization bulletin of the New York District.
*******
This extremely sharp indictment of our unemployment work, presented in the
form of a reply to his own question, was written by a leading New York comrade.
It -was written, please note, just IS months — a year and otie-half — after the out-
break of the present severe economic crisis which brought misery, hunger and
starvation to millions of American workers. It was written a month after
International Unemployment Day (February 25th) this year, the preparations
for which should have marked a decisive change for the better in our work
among the unemployed.
Was this comrade mistaken in his indictment? Did he paint too gloomv a
picture? In the main. I think not! With a few rare exceptions, here and there,
his statements are correct. We have not yet real, organized Unemployed Coun-
cils. Those that we have — again with a few exceptions — function too loosely,
without regular membership meetings, without real leadership, without Partv
fractions, and without real Party guidance and direction.
Is this state of affairs confined to the New York District of which this comrade
wrote? I think not! Reports from Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia. Cleveland,
and elsewhere indicate that this is quite a general situation. Thev indicate
that the localities which can boast of well functioning Councils that lead broad
HiMss movements of unemployed workers are still decidedly scarce.
APPENDIX, PART 1 4§3
Answer Needed for Whole Party
The question raised by the comrade wiitinj; in the New York organization
huHefin must l)e (inite fully answered, therefore, not only for New York, but for
the whole Party.
''What is the n (rs-o» tlml in spite of the fairlii (jaod rcftjjousc of the unemployed
ivorkrrs to our sloi/diis. (itHuiiids and aciioiix, ice do not develop a real oryanized
lituKS niovemnit of the iincinpJoijed workers?"
The comrade, not incorrectly when his purpose is considered, placed the
emphasis, in replying, on our organizational shortcomings.
Tliere are, of course, also serious political shortcomings — too general slogans,
working out of slogans without consultation with the workers, insufficient
attention to local issues of vital concern to the unemployed, weak and unsystem-
atic exposures of the charity organizations and of the demagogy of the bour-
geoisie and reformists, insufficient continuity and persistence in our work, failure
in rime to see the need ft)r directly undeitaking relief in acute cases of suffering,
bureaucratic tendencies and failure to develop the initiative of the workers them-
selves, many opportiuiist conceptions of both the Right and "Left" variety, etc.
These, together with the organizational shortcomings enumerated in the bulletin,
are certainly very major reasons for our failure to develop "a real organized mass
movement of the unemployed workers."
But there is still a most vital cpiestion to be answered!
Why, after a year and one-half of aente unemployment, during which time
we have repeatedly pointed out and attempted to correct, most of these weaknesses
and shortcoininys, have we not made greater progress on the road towards
self-correction?
Without answering this (piestion, any effort to solve either the organizational
or political shortccmiings enumerated becomes mere patch work. And the answer
to this question raises basic problems for the Party. It raises problems which
concern not only the work among the unemployed but also every other field of
work. The sanie question could be put with regard to our trade union work,
<:)ur Negro work, etc. Everywhere, in every field, we are face to face with the
problem: Why are we only to a very limited extent successful in the development
of hrond. organized mass struggles against the brutal and vicious bourgeois
offensive?
Some Progress Made
Bv putting the question so sharply one should not conclude that no progress
has been made. Such conclusions could only be harmful to the Party and inter-
fere with the serious job of self-corection now ahead of us. In the three major
fields of Party work, unemployment, trade union, and Negro, definite progress
has been made, especially since the arrival of the latest Comintern directives
earlv in February. In textile (Lawrence) and mining (Pittsburgh, anthracite)
verv marked improvement is to be noted. The character of the demands raised,
the' preparatory organizational work, and the conduct of the strike struggles in
each of these instances show that the lessons of past experiences are being
learned.
In a number of cities, notably the smaller industrial towns, Unemployed
Councils have been established which are carrying on a persistent and effective
struggle aL'-ainst unemployment.
In Negro work onlv now is the Party really beginning to develop the broad
mass struggle for Negro rights (Scottsboro case, Greenville, District 17, etc.),
making this a part of the mass struggles against wage cuts and the speed-up
and for unemployment insurance.
The most notable achievements, however, are still to be found within the
Partv — sta»)ilization of the Party membership, increase in dues payments, im-
provement of the Party cMunposition, beginning of planned work, more serious
consideration to our defects in mass work, etc.
These achievements, while still extremely limited, are particularly character-
istic of only the past three months, are not yet common to the entire Party,
and do n(»t as yet invalidate the following extremely sharp characterization of
the Party's woik contained in the Prarda editorial, "In the Footsteps of
Lenin." of Januarv 21st, this year :
"The day-to-day work of the Communist Party. U. S. A., still bears a purely
propaganda character. The Party has as yet come out before the masses only
with general slogans, failing to concentrate attention on the immediate, every-
484 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
day demands of the masses. The trade unions have, in fact, only duplicated
the Party. The result of all this has been a considerable neakoiing of the
Party's contact nnth the masses, passivity, and lagging behind the general mass
movement, and a consequent strengthening of opportunist tendencies, especially
the Right Danger, in the various sections of the Party." (April Communist,
page 296.)
To Build Mass Party Is Problem
This statement, "The day-to-day work of the Communist Party U. S. A. still
hears a purely propaganda character," brings us back to our basic problem.
We are still a propaganda Party ; we have not yet become a Bulshevik mass-
Party. The achievements wiiicb have been made have been chiefly of a routine
character. /. e., improvements in our work as a propaganda Party, but not yet
the transformation of our Party into a mass Party.
Already in the Open Letter of the (Jonununist Internationa] to our Party
in May, 10129, and again in the C. I. Address of a few months later, the urgent
need for rapidly transforming our Party from a propaganda Party to a mass
Party was strongly emphasized. Since then, in one form or another, the
burning need for such a transformation has been many times repeated. But we
are still a propaganda Party! — and we proceed on the road toward becoming
a mass Party only at a snail's pace.
The reason — the basic reason. — why we have not made greater progress dur-
ing the past 18 months (the crisis period) is overcoming our weaknesses and
shortcomings and in progressing more rapidly on the road toward becoming
a mass Party in the Leninist sense is because we did not fully grasp the signifi-
cance of the change which we bad to make. The membership was driven
harder and harder ; more work was done than ever before, but we did see the
need of changing thoroughly our methods of work from top to bottom.
We accepted too much as a mere phrase the Comintern's directives without
really considering in a concrete manner just what these directives meant. We
proceeded with the best of intentions, but in a vague, groping, tmplanned and
confused manner. AVe tried first one method and then another without clearly
asking ourselves what we wanted or how we were going to get it. Phraseg
too often became a substitute for a thorougli examination of otxr prolilems.
Utilize Transmission Belts
What must we do?
In the first place we must break definitely with the conception that Communist
work consists solely in direct efforts to build the Communist Party and in
recruiting new members. We must learn to set up and work through a whole
series of mass organizations and in this way also develop our Party work.
Our chief error is our failure to understand the role of and to systematically
utilize mass organizations (T. U. U. L., Unemployed Councils. I. L. D., W. I. R.,
L. S. N. R., etc.) as transmission belts to the broad masses of non-Party workers.
The Communist Party is necessarily composed of the most conscious and self-
sacrificing elements among the workers. These mass organizations, on the
contrary, with a correct political line, can be made to reach many thousands of
workers not yet prepared for Party membership. Through these organizations,
led by well -functioning Party fractions, the Party must necessarily find its best
training and recruiting ground. Tliey are the medium through which the Party,
on the one hand, guides and directs the workers in their struggles and, on the
other hand, keeps itself informed on the mood of the masses, the correctness of
Party slogans, etc.
Comrade Piatnitsky, speaking at the 10th Plenum of E. C. C. I. on the methods
of organizationally consolidatin.g the growing political influence of the various
Parties of the Comintern, stated :
"How can the growing influence of the Parties be consolidated? By good
work on the part of the Party organization, by close contact with the masses.
What is the best way of establishing this contact? By Communist work in the
workers' and peasants' mass organizations (factory committees, trade unions,
workers cooperatives and sport organizations. I. R. A., Free Thinkers' organiza-
tion.s, W. I. R., provisional organizations, mainly .strike committees, antilock-out
committees), bj; the ivork of Partu nuclei in enterprises." (My emphasis —
C. A. H.)
Comrade Kuusinen, speaking on the organization report at the 6th Plenum of"
the E. C. C. I., dealt even more fully with this method of developing our Com-
munist work.
APPENDIX, PART 1 485
"The carrying out of the task of whining over the masses of the proletariat
far the proletarian revolution," he said, "calls forth a certain one-sidedness
among a section of our Party membership. According to the view of these
comi-ades. Communist work consists solely of building up Connuunist Party
organizations, and in recruiting new members. This is, of course, one of our
fundamental tasks. It would, hoivever, be entirely wrong to suppose that it is
fluence of our Parti/ {not under meeJiunical leadership.)'' (My em — C. A. H.)
A Solar System of Organizations
Later on in the same speech, Comi-ade Kuusinen says:
"The first part of our task is to build up, not only Comnuuiist organizations,
but other organizations as well, ahore all mass organizations sympathizing
with our aims, and able to aid us for special purpo.ses. . . . We must create
a whole solar si/steni of organizations and smaller conwiittecs around the
Comuiunist party, so to speak, smaller organizations working actualJij under
the influence of our Party {not under mecMnical leadership.)" (My emphasis —
C. A. H.)
Finally Comrade Kuusinen energetically opposed, as a serious deviation, the
tendency to consider mass work as "not real Communist work."
"In any case," he declared, "we most energetically oppose that deviation
which regards work among the masses, and the organization of this work,
as being n(»t real Communist work, and considers that Party work is only
to be carried on in our own midst, while work among outsiders is of secondary
importance. No, — for the majority of the members of the Party the main
sphere of Party work is the organization of the non-Party, syndicalist and even
social democratic workers.'" (My emphasis — C. A. H. )
I have quoted at length to show, in the first place, that (to again use the
words of Kuusinen) "the chief object of our attention should be the organiza-
tion of the daily revolutionary detail work of every individual comrade among
■the masses." The work of our comrades and units must be conducted in such
a way that everywhere {in the factories, among the unemployed, among the
Negroes, etc.) we .s-ef up various organized groups under our influence and
through which our comrades work. These groups, in turn, must bo the instru-
ments through which still greater masses of workers are organized for revolu-
tionary struggle against the bourgeoisie. It is this principle of "t7-ansmission
belts" (organized committees and groups — Unemployed Councils, T. U. U. L.,
L. S. N. R., etc. — under Party influence) which must be firmly established in
our Party as the means for our trans formation from a propaganda Party to a
Bolshevik mass Party.
Comrade Stalin on "Transmission Belts"
Comrade Stalin, in his Problems of Leninism, puts this need for "transmission
belts," and their relationship to the Party still more sharply. He says (pages
29 and 30) :
"The proletariat needs these belts, these levers, (the mass organizations —
C. A. H.) and this guiding force (the Party — C. A. H.), because without them
it would, in its struggle for victory, be like a weaponless army in the face of
organized and armed capital. . . .
"Lastly we come to the Parti/ of the proletariat, the proletarian vanguard.
Its strength ''^s in f^^ ff^'f that it attracts to its ranks the best elements of
all the mass organizations of the proletariat. Its function is to unify the work
of all the mass organizations of the proletariat, without exception, and to
guide their activities toward a single end, that of the liberation of the pro-
letariat."
Comrade Stalin also quotes Comrade Lenin as follows: ''The dictatorship
{of the proletariat) cannot be effectirely realized irithout "belts" to transmit
power from the vanguard to the mass of the advanced class, and from this
to the mass of those who labor."
From all this it is clear that the setting up. maintaining, and systematic
utilization of such "transmission belts" are essential prerequisites for the
transformation of our Party from a propaganda Party to a Bolshevik Party of
action. Yet, due primarily to a gross underestimation of the need for such
organizations and to lack of knowledge of how to carry on general Party Wor-k
through such organizations (mobilization for May Day, the Scottsboro case,
etc.), our revolutionary trade unions today are but little larger than the Party,
486 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the Unemployed Councils are still extremely feeble, and the L. S. N. R., except
in a few cities, is almost non-existent.
Correct Theory ; Wrong Practice
Many comrades may say that there is nothing new about this. Quite correct !
This principle of organization is as old as the Bolshevik movement itself ! Every
leading comrade, at least, understands it in theory.
But what about our practice?
To again return to our work among the unemployed. Is this principle applied
in pi'actice? We will take our answer from the New York org-bulletin :
"We have no functioning fractions in the C'ouncils," says the comrade. "The
Party's guidanca . . . consists of nothing but one comrade bringing down in-
structions (!) of the Communist l^rty to the unemployed workers."
Comrade Weiner, in his report to the Politburo on Party work in the Pitts-
burgh District, also had the following to say on the work of the Party there
among the unemployed :
". . . The splendid fight against evictions reduced considerably the great
number of evictions in that section (Hill District, Pittsburgh — C. A. H.). This
result, instead of stimulating the activities and the building of Unemployed
Councils had the opposite effect. The f/ri)iips irrre nof provided icifh Jeode'-
ship, the Party did not pay sufficirm attention to the irorl: of the TJnemphmed
Councils and they gradually died out.
These experiences from New York and Pittsburgh are common to the entire
Party. During the past year, in every locality. Councils have been built and
rebuilt. In preparation for March 6th. a year ago. Councils were set up. They
lived for only a few weeks. Before July 4th they were again established only
to die out again after the Chicago convention. The same was true of September
1st, August 1st, and February 25th. We have not learned to establish Councils
and then conduct both their work and that of the Party in such a manner as to
give continued leadership and thereby life to the Councils. The same can be said
with regard to our work and other mass organisations. None of them are syste-
matically used to broaden the Party's organizational influence and to extend
the struggle against the bosses with all our forces.
Lack of Direction and Leadership
Of course the political and organizational factors cited at the beginning of the
article are very major reasons for the weaknesses of the Unemployed Councils,
but I am convinced that the major reaso^i (which also is a direct cause for most
of the other weaknesses enumerated) is the lack of real Party direction and
leadership through Party fractions in the Council.s. This, in turn, is due largely
to the fact that our comrades and the lower Party units are not trained to make
work in mass organizations such as the Unemployed Councils a task second
only to the building of shop nuclei in the largest factories. One could go as far
now as to say that there is an almost complete lack of contact between the
Unemployed Councils and the Party, and even between the Party members and
the unemployed workers. Certainly our Party work is not planned in such a way
as to regularly and cofitinuonMy bring our members into association with the
unemployed workers. With this almost complete lack of contact with, or knowl-
edge of the day-to-day problems of the unemployed. Party decisions are made
and applied in the most bureaucratic and mechanical manner.
Comrade Bedacht in reporting on the work in the Detroit District had the
following to say :
"The Unemployed Councils (in Detroit) lack a mass character and are not
functioning bodies able to generate out of themselves through Communist
initiative real mass action. There are one or two exceptions to this rule. One
is the Council in Lincoln Park, the other is the Council in Port Huron. It is
instructive to knmv that both of these Comieils are fnnetioning in virgim, terri-
tory and have a large percentage of native American workers in their ratiks.
I am tempted to say that they function where there is no Party to choke them
to death. I am fully aware of the sharpness of this formulation, and do not
want to have its meaning interpreted in a general manner. The fact is that
our Party has not yet learned to function im a mass movement. Our comrades
are es.sentially afraid of the initiative of the masses. They do not allow an
organization to function except on the basis of a preconceived plan brought
down to them in the form of an order and usually drawn up in complete
APPENDIX, PART 1 487
ignorwnce of local conditions, issues and problems. Instead of inviting dis-
cussions and proposals out of the ranks of the workei\ they stifle them." (My
emphasis — C. A. H.)
Why is this so? Why do we have so little contact with the unemployed
workers? Why do we have so little knowledge of their problems? Is it
because of some personal traits in our Party members? Certainly not! Why,
even our unemployed Party members are separated from the unemployed
workers ! It s due to the method of functioning of our Party, to endless
inner-Party meetings, to the practice of developing our Party activities almost
entirely outside of and not through these mass organizations. As Comrade
Bedacht correctly states, "our Party has not yet learned to function in (and
I woxild add, through) a mass movement."
Too Many Meetings
In fact, by our present methods, our comrades have little or no time for
direct work among the masses. In New York, for example (and New York
is no exception), practically every acti'Ve Party member spends all his time
in meetings where good plans for mass work are made to the exclusion of all
possibility of carrying out these plans. There are about 3,000 members of the
Party in New York. Of this number, according to the District Organization
Secretary, there are 7(X) direct Party functionaries, District, Section, and unit,
not counting auxiliary functionaries which probably number several hundred
more. The following is their schedule: Mo-nday. unit buro meetings; Tuesday,
unit meetings; Wednesday, department meetings (Agit-prop, Negro, etc.);
Thursday, school, union meetings, etc. ; Friday, section committee meetings,
street meetings ; Saturday, free ; and Sunday, week-end schools. "Red Sundays"
(distribution of Daily Worker, and other jnirely agitational work). The Section
funtionadries, usually the ablest comrades (in New York numbering about 80)
as well as the District leaders, have absolutely no time for mass work. The
unit functionaries, as can be seen from the above schedule, have not more than
two nights, assuming even that the comrades must give seven nights a week
to Party work, which in itself is incorrect. So from this it is clear that the
entire "Active" of the Party is now almost completely isolated from the masses.
Yet it is this "Active" which must direct and carry forward the work of the
Unemployed Councils, the T. U. U. L., L. S: N. R., and other mass organizations.
Purely Agitational Methods of Work
•
And then our methods of work are purely agitational in character. Speeches,
pamphlets, leaflets, our press all en 11 on the workers, for example, to join the
Unemployed Councils. And as a result to quote again the New York org-
bulletin, "thousands and thousands of workers join and leave." Why do they
leave? Because, as our New York comrade says, "No membership meetings
(of the Councils) are held . . . (they) do not have any elected leaders."
And as Comrade Weiner from Pitt'^l<urgh says. "The groups were not provided
with leadership !" Comrade Bedacht sharply declares that we "do not allow
an organization to function. . . ." Obviously, then, it is chiefly criminal
neglect of the most elementary organizational work that causes the workers
to leave the Coimcils. Or better said, our comrades do not know how to
work in these organizations in sucii a way that both the work of these organi-
zations and that of the Party is carried forward. The result is neglect of the
mass organizations.
Failure To Use All Forces
Our Party members see this situation, but they plead a complete lack of
time for this work, not to speak of energy. It arises, in my opinion, chiefly
because we do not know how to ure these mass organizations as "transmission
belts" in our mass work. They stand in the way of <mr "Party work" — but
only because we have not shown an understanding of how to develop effectively
methods of Party work, which permits a full utilization of all mass organi-
zations and their members to strengthen the Party's mass work. For example,
in preparation for February 25th, International Unemployment Day, all efforts
were concentrated on work among the unemployed. Unemployed Coimclls
were for a time made to function. After February 25111 there was a noticeable
falling off in unemployed activity and a tendency to neglect unemployed
work in order to concetrate on the factories. Now, in preparation for May
488 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
First, instead of continiied energetic work either among the unemployed or at
the factories tliere appears to be a reversion bacli to simply leaflet distribution
and general agitational work. Certainly the preparatory work does not show
increased organizational activity among the unemployed.
Comrade Johnstone, writing in last month's Communist, cited another case
■of "united front" activity which reflects very clearly our continued failure to
carry on systematic and continuoui work in mass organizations as a means
of broadening the workers' struggle. He says:
"In New York City, quite a broad united front conference was formed by the
T. U. U. L. and the Unemployed Council in support of the Unemployed
movement, hut it never reaUy functioved, never tvas utilized to a fraction of
the degree that it was for. . . Again the Party, Instead of using Party
experience. Party knowledge, Party organization to broaden the united front,
proceeded to substitute for it."
In the same way the Party "substitutes for" the T. U. U. L., the Unemployed
Councils, and other mass organizations, with the result that we tend to
liquidate these organization, and therehy serioushj u-eakcn ourselves, weaken
our own organized influence among the workers.
Best Work in Small Towns
Comrade Bedacht's observations on Lincoln Park and Port Huron, the only
successful Councils in Michigan, should be emphasized. He says:
"It is interesting to know that both these Councils are functioning in virgin
territory."
Most of our most successful unemployed work in other parts of the country
is a.lso in virgin territory. In addition to Lincoln Park and Port Huron, one
can cite the examples of Chester. Greenville. Ambridge, and Reading. All of
these places are new territories for Party work.
The Reading Experience
Reading is an excellent example of how "transmission belts" can be used. On
January 28th the Party there had 7 members, almost wholly isolated from the
masses. There were no Unemployed Councils, no Y. C. L.. and no trade unions.
Now, three months later by really concentrating on unemployed work, the
Unemployed Council has 1,000 members with GOO paying dues regularly. A
large portion of these are Negroes. Approximately 100 attend meetings every
day and participate actively in every phase of the struggle for immediate relief,
f5r iinemployment insurance, and against the socialist party administration
of the city. They have many successful struggles to their credit. Now, with
the energetic aid of the unemployed workers who are members of the Un-
employed Councils, the Party fraction is developing the work among the
employed workers in the factories. After only three weeks' work many con-
tacts have been made and two workers from each of 6 shops have been
organized into committees of the Metal Workers Industrial League — that is,
a beginning has been made, with 12 members. This shows, how by working
through one mass organization utilizing the forces there, who have been won for
the Party line in struggle, it is possible to extend the work of building other
mass organizations which still further broaden the organized influence of the
Party. A unit of the Y. C. L. has also been organized with 4 members. And
the Party membership has increased from 7. three months ago, to 32 now.
(These figures are only up to April 1st; the number now is probably still
greater.) And finally, the Party is now entering the election campaign there
with the endorsement of Unemployed Councils which are energetically aiding
in putting forward the Party candidates, securing the signatures, distributing
literature, etc. From practically nothing three months ago, our Party has
become a serious political factor in Reading.
Could the same results have been accomplished in Reading if our 7 Party
members (the size of the unit three months ago) had carried on their work
in the manner of a New York or Pittsburgh unit (leaflets, street meetings, etc.)
without having drawn in the non-Party workers into the Unemployed Councils
and secured their help in extending the work? Obviously not!
Why These Successes?
Why do we have successes in Reading, Chester, Lincoln Park, Greenville, and
Ambridge, and much more meager successes in New York, Philadelphia, Pitts-
APPENDIX, PART 1 489
burgh, and other old pstahlishod Pai'fy centers? Chiefly because the Party
work was carried on around and tliroiif/h the Unemployed Councils and the
other mass organizations. The comrades there realized that Party work was
not merely agitation, but also serious and continuous organization work among
the workers. The Party, in these places, organized the workers in the Coun-
cils; it gave constant attention to the Councils; it drew the workers into the
discussion of demands and slogans based on local issues (Greenville is an ex-
cellent example of this ! ) and into the preparation and carrying through of
demonstrations and struggles also organized around local issues. These or-
ganizarions and their members in turn were persuaded to directly aid the
Party, as for example, in the Reading and Lincoln Park election campaigns.
Through these activities workers were organized, trained, and disciplined ; they
were taught to respect the Party for its work ; they were drawn into the
Party as members. And members secured in such a manner are better mem-
bers for the Party. They are recruited in the struggle, and not merely be-
cause they have listened to an agitational speech or read an agitational leaflet.
These are the workers who will most likely remain with the Party. In the
old Party centers there has been a persistent clinging to the old agitational
methods, with no systematic continuous organizational work, no building and
using of mass organization, such as was done here.
This Is Road to Mass Party
From these examples. Comrade Piatnitsky's statement at the 10th Plenum
should become clear. His reply to the question, "Hoiv can the growing influ-
ence of the Parties be consolidated?'^ with the answer, "i?(/ Communist work in
the worhers' and peasants' mass organizations, bg the work of the Party nuclei
in the entei-prisesr is proven to be fully correct by the Reading experiences,
as well as by those in the other cities mentioned. And it is in this way—
by building and working through the Unemployed Councils, the T. U. U. L., the
L. S. N. R., etc., by building these organizations in the struggle, by recruiting
the best, the most reliable workers for oiir Party — that our Party is to be
really transformed from a propaganda Party to a Bolshevik mass Party. This
is the only way that we can consolidate organizationally the increased influ-
ence which the Party undoubtedly now has among the workers.
But as I stated earlier, the cases such as Reading are still the very rare
exception. The weaknesses of our unemployed work are cheifly due to this
fact. Such cases must now become the rule on a much higher and more
extensive plane. The question is, how to accomplish this? How are we to
quickly overcome the inertia of the past and rapidly develop these methods of
work in order to progress with greater speed on the road toward becoming a
Bolshevik mass Party, capable of organizing and leading the every-day struggles
of the employed and unemployed workers against the bourgeoisie for their
partial demands, and utilizing these struggles to prepare and organize the
workers for the struggle for power? In short, how are we to overcome our
isolation from the masses?
What It to Be Dune?
Obviously this cannot be answered with a phrase or a formula. It will
require much hard and persistent work to re-orientate our Party in this di-
rection. Both the Central Committee and the District Committees have the
task of driving home the necessity of abandoning purely propaganda methods
of work as represented by our almost complete failure to organize the hundreds
of sympathetic workers around the Party and of seriously taking up the root-
ing of our Party in the shops and mines by organizing factory nuclei and groups
and committees of the T. U. U. L., and placing in the foreground, work in the
mass organizations, especially the Unemployed Councils and the Trade Union
Unity League.
Use The Mass Organizations !
The work of improving the functioning of our Party, which certainly must
be pushed, and the developing of our mass campaigns must be carried through
with the clear perspective of improving our mass organizational work, especially
in the factories and among the unemployed, and by utilizing to the maximum
extent the forces, resources, contacts and apparatus of the mass organizations
(T. U. U. L., Unemployed Councils, I. W. O., other fraternal bodies. I. L. D.,
L. S. N. R., etc., as well as the local unions of the A. F. of L.) as the means
of extending the Party's organizational mass influence.
490 UN-AMERICAN PEOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Division of Worli
A careful check-up on all inner-Party meetings must be made with the
view of drastically reducing the number, this to be carried through in con-
junction with the working out of a careful division of work and the assign-
ment of our forces so that the overwhelming majority (at least 90 per cent) of
our members are carrying forward the work of the Party through mass organi-
zations.
Reorientate Sections and Nuclei !
The sections and nuclei must be made to realize that they are only success-
ful in their work when they build around themselves basic mass organizations,
much larger than the Party, and through which the Party fractions can work
in rallying the masses for the struggle against unemployment, wage cuts,
etc., and for the broader revolutionary struggles led by the Party.
Establish Well-functioning Fractions !
Party fractions must be set up in every sucli mass organization and syste-
matically guide their work. The tendency for the fractions to become "outside
bodies," giving instructions and orders to mass organizations must be over-
come through the full participation of the members of the fraction, not only
in making decisions, but especially in the day-to-day work of the.se organiza-
tions in carrying out these decisions.
Secure Regular Reports !
Higher Party committees must insist upon and secure full reports from the
Districts, sections, units, and fractions on their activities, especially on work
among the unemployed, the Negroes, and in the factories. And these reports
must not merely be plajis for work, but tveekly statements of progress, the
diflSoulties, the successes, the mistakes, and the experiences gained in carrying
through the plans. Only by insistence on such regular reports can the leading
committees really insure the carrying through of a line in practice that will
insure our transformation to a Bolshevik mass Party. The political mistakes of
the past period, and especially of our failure to correct these mistakes, are
due primarily to the lack of functioning fractions and of regular rep<irts
from these fractions and from lower units on our actual experiences in mass
work.
Leadership Chiefly Responsible
And finally it must be understood that the problems presented here are the
problems primarily of the Party leadership in the center and the Districts.
An army cannot effectively fight, regardless of the willingness of the soldiers,
without a general staff which furnishes the various sections with a coordinated
plan of advance. The same is true of our Party. It is chiefly the task of the
leadership to plan the systematic and rapid re-orientation of the Party toward
real mass work in which the factory work and the work among the unem-
ployed will be the central link. The leadership must overcome in practice the
"contradiction" between "Party work" and "mass work" by developing the
plans for Party work in such a way that Party work will be carried on
<:hiefly through the mass organizations of the workers.
Exhibit No. 72
{Source: "Comintern Documents," the Conmiunist, May, 1931, Vol. X, No. 5; pages 402-
408 ; Max Bedacht, editor]
4: « * * * * *
COMINTERN DOCUMENTS
Directives of the Politsecretariat of the ECCI to the Communist Party of the
USA relative to the decisions of the Twelfth Plenum of the CPUSA
January 31, 1931.
To THE CC CPUSA.
Dear Comrades: The Political Secretariat of the ECCI recognizes that the
CC at its 12th Plenum has with determination taken a course towards mass
APPENDIX, PART 1 491
work, and endorses the main line of the resolution adopted. The Political
Secretariat emphasises that the resolutions today are only on paper, and having
In mind the seriousness of the situation, regards as the most important task
of the CC the mobilization of its energies to obtain concrete results in the near-
est future in carrying the resolutions into life. It directs the CC to concentrate
its attention particularly upon the following next tasks:
1. The main task of the Fartij at the present time is the organization of the
mass strnggJes against unemployment. At the moment, the chief campaign
against unemployment is the rallying of the masses for the struggle on Inter-
national Unemployment Day — February 25th — (for which special directives
have already been sent you), but following this d;iy the work must be energetically
followed up and systematically carried through.
(a) The Party must strive with full determination to build Unemployment
Committees, elected by the workers at the luiemployment agencies, mass bread-
lines, and other gathering points of the unemployed, and to unite these com-
mittees into Unemployment Councils, according to sections of the city. Recruit-
ing of individual members into unemployed branches must likewise take place
and committees of those branches must be represented in the Unemployed
Councils. Councils must likewise include representatives of the workers in the
factories, the revolutionary trade unions, and other mass organizations.
(b) The Unemployed Councils must fight for immediate relief from the state,
at the expense of the military, police, and secret service budget, and by tax upon
the employers, but must at the same time set up their own organs to secure
housing for unemployed workers, as for instance, specified public schools, to
develop mass struggles against the evictions of unemployed workers, and to
fight for food for the children of the unemployed, etc.
(c) The Unemployed Councils must investigate and present concrete material
in the press, before workers' meetings, through deputations to city bodies, etc.,
on the devastating situation among the unemployed families, and must con-
tinuously expose the miserable treatment of the unemployed workers, and pro-
pose concrete measures capable of rallying the unemployed for struggle for
their relief. The Unemployed Councils must also collect funds together with the
WIR, cooperative, and fraternal bodies, for the establishment of relief kitchens
for their own members, as a means of consolidating and strengthening the
Councils of the Unemployed.
(d) The slogans for the fight against unemployment are given by the Five-
Party Conference of January. The main slogan must be: Unemployment in-
surance at the expense of the state and employers. While calling the masses
of the employed and unemployed to fight for unemployment insurance at full
nrages, and while exposing all parties of the bourgeoisie and the A. F. of L., who
oppose insurance and are for private charity, our Party shall not create the
impression that it calls upon the distressed workers to refuse benefits even of
charity relief. At the same time, the Party must, by means of concrete facts,
actually expose the complete insufficiency, rotten food and methods of raising
relief funds (virtual taxation of the workers).
The demand must be put forward that all unemployed relief funds should be
distributed by unemployment organizations, and the harsh treatment, waste-
fulness, corruption, etc., of the present relief distributing agencies must be
exposed.
(e) For the strengthening of the work among the unemployed, the Party
must carefully instruct the District Committees in regard to the line and policy,
and in turn the district leadership must instruct their functionaries on the
carrying through of the struggle, and must see to it that capable forces are
assigned to the work of the Unemployed Councils and that at least one organizer
and one agitator are assigned to each unemployment agency and mass bread-
line. The revolutionary unions and other mass organizations must be drawn
actively into the struggle against unemployment. Serious efTorts must be made
to draw the A. F. of Li local unions and especially the unemployed members of
the A. F. of L. into the fight.
(f) The fight for unemployment insurance, as well as the struggle for social
insurance as a whole, must be turned into a real mass struggle in accordance
with the October resolution of the ECCI. The demands must be more clearly
formulated and real efforts be made to draw the workers into the discussion and
final formulation of the demands. The demands must be continually carried
in our press, explained and popularized to the masses, and contrasted with the
various proposals now being made by bourgeois parties and social reformists
which must be subjected to a comprehensive and penetrating criticism and
492 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
exposure. The fight for unemployment msurance must be more prominently
linked up with the day to day struggle, with mass demonstrations, strikes, etc.,
and with the fight for immediate relief. The signature campaign must be more
widely developed, particularly by building committees for the collection of
signatures in the factories and in the neighborhoods. In order to clarify the
fight for unemployment insurance and to explain to the masses our program in a
popular way, it would be useful to issue a pamphlet on unemployment insurance
for mass circulation.
2. TJw Central Coinniittee miif<t tend its energies to aecomplisl] a turn ioirords
mass work in the trade union field. The Party from top to bottom must take
up trade union questions and give directions and see to the carrying out of
them throngh its fractions in the trade unions. The Party, which has to con-
cern itself with every question of working class struggle, must not supplant
the work of the trade unions and must not transgress upon the democracy of
the trade union organizations.
(a) The decisions of the Y Congress of the RILU and of the Plenum of the
TUUL nmst be discussed in the revolutionary trade unions and the next ta.sks
concretely worked out by these unions in the application of these decisions.
(b) The CC must as its next immediate tasks give its main attention to im-
proving the leadership and day to day functioning of the Miners, Automobile,
Metal, Textile, and IMarine unions, and must strengthen the work of the Party
organizations in the centers in which these industries are chiefly located,
especially Chicago, Pittsburgh. Detroit, and Cleveland districts. The New York
district must give its main attention at the present time to improving the situa-
tion in the Marine, Needle Trades Union, and Textile unions.
(c) Through sending representatives of the CC and of leading functionaries,
assistance must be given to the Party fractions in these unions, to the district
organizations, and to the lower units in working out the methods and forms
suitable to the local conditions and factories for organizing the workers into the
revolutionary unions and for initiating mass struggles against the offensive
of the bourgeoisie.
fd) Energetic steps nmst be taken to bring the membership of the Party
into the revolutionary unions, to organize them into well fiuictioning fractions,
which must assign definite tasks to the Party members and which must improve
their work in the unions.
3. The Politieal Seeretariat stresses the inimf'diate inipetrtanee of rommencing
work to organize the agrarian proletariat and poor farmers. The severe eco-
noTnic crisis, which grows worse from month to month, and which has given
rise to a number of strikes of the agricultural proletariat, and to local armed
demonstrations of poor farmers for relief, and which has expressed itself in
increased support of the farmers to the Communists in the elections, demands
that the Party seize the present opportunity for establishing its influence among
the farm workers and poor farmers. For this purpose it is necessary as the
next tasks :
(a) To hasten the steps for the transformation of the United Farmer into
a popular mass organ, published in Chicago.
(b) To organize groups around the paper.
(c) To strengthen the revolutionnry iinion of the agricultural workers.
(d) To set up committees of poor farmers, also among the Negroes, where
there are favorable opportunities, and can-y through struggles for their imme-
diate interests.
(e) To take measures to clarify the Party in regard to the tasks and slogans
in our agi-arian work, and to complete the working out of an agrarian program.
4. For the carrying out of these immediate tasks, the CC must planfullif and
under strict control carry out a series of measures :
(a) Strengthen the local lendership in the main industrial centers — Chicago,
Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, to organize the unemployed, build up the revo-
lutionary unions, and establish well-functioning factory nuclei and shop papers
in the most important factories, develop the initiative of the local comrades,
and to enliven the work of the lower units and to activize the membership.
For this purpose the CC must send a majority of its capable forces (including
from among the Politburo, C<>ntral Committee, Control Commission, co-workers
of the CC, and other forces from the New York district) chiefly into these
basic centers.
The Party leadership shall report in two months on what decisions and steps
it has taken in the realization of this instruction.
APPENDIX, PART 1 493
(b) The CC must clarify by popular articles in the press, by discussion of
district "actives," discussion in the units, the immediate tasks of the Party,
and shall constantly teach in such clarification and discussion how the tasks
are to be carried out. It must above all bring to the Party examples of good
work in the respective fields of activity, shall criticize by specific examples the
weaknesses, shortcomings, and deviations, concentrating in this task upon the
unemployment and trade union work.
In accordance with the October resolution of the ECCI, the CC must carry
through measures for improving the Dailn Worker, particularly in making it
an organizer and mobilizer in the struggle against unemployment, in building
the revoliTtionary trade unions, in effecting a turn in the work toward the
factories.
The Daihi Worker must be more firmly controlled by the CC, which must
insist upon more systematically, steadfastly, and perseveringly keeping in the
foreground of its agitation the main tasks of the Party, concentrating at present
upon the above stated tasks and presenting its agitation to the masses in a more
popular way. At the same time, the Party must establish firmer control over
the language press and must see to it that its agitation is in line with that of
the Dailn M'orker so that the entire Party press may become a real force in
the mobilization and organization of the workers particularly for economic
struggle.
The Political Secretariat considers it necessary to correct the estimation of
the present political situation in the United States given by the Plenum. The
Plenum resolution contains confusing and incorrect formulation about "the
development of the various elements of a political crisis." It would be wrong
1o draw a distinction between a political crisis and a revolutionary situation,
and therefore, it is incorrect to speak of an approach of a revolutionary situa-
tion in the United States. Such an incorrect estimation of the situation is
bound to slide over into tactical errors. The estimation of the situation in the
United States as one of a severe economic crisis which is sharpening the con-
tradictions of American capitalism, given in the October resolution of the ECCI,
still remains in force, and has been borne out by subsequent events.
The Party must widen its mass agitation on the basis of the day to day events
and the struggles for partial demands. Instead of putting forward such in-
correct slogans as "Death to the bankers." which detract it from its mass agita-
tion to expose the capitalist system, the Party must more comprehensively and
popiilarly expose the nature of the caiptalist system as a whole and the neces-
sity for overthrowing it. It must make use of all current events (oppression
in the factory, unemployment, police brutality, appression of Negro workers
and foreign born, corruption in government, war preparations) in order to
expose the whole system and mobilize the masses in its struggle against capi-
talism. The Party must direct its fight more against the two main parties of
the bourgeois, the Republican and Democratic parties, and show itself to the
proletariat as the only anti-capitalist party, exposing the American Federation
of Labor and the Socialist Party as aids of the bourgeoisie in carrying through
the offensive of the capitalist class and in maintaining the capitalist system.
At the same time the Party miist unfold more its propagnuda showing the revo-
lutionary way out of the crisis.
POLIT SeCRETTAEIAT OF THE ECCI.
Decision of the Polit-Commission of the ECCI on the Question of the Hour
Slogan in the United States (Jamiary 31, 1931)
The Party must not alter the general slogan on hours which must be "Seven-
hour day, six hours for dangerous trades and for youth." In some industries
in which at present the eight-hour day. five-day week prevails, the slogan of
the "Seven-hour day, five-day week" may be put forward.
In the industries and factories, as for example in the South where the 10-
and 12-hour day are in force, the Party may in some places put forward the
demand for the eight-hour day, at the same time avoiding a situation whei'o
for the white workers the seven-hour day is demanded and for Negro workers
the demand is for the eight-hour day.
The A. F. of L. and the Socialists are raising the shorter workday slogan
in accord with the stagger plan and other hours policy of the bourgoisie.
aimed chiefly at reducing the wages and living standards of the workers
and avoiding social insurance, and the Party must expose them on this basis.
494 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This does not mean that the Party must stand aside from the movement for
the shorter workday and limit itself to mere exposures of the burocrats. The
task of the Party must be on the basis of the united front tactic to take the
leadership of the shorter workday movement from the hands of the burocrats,
putting in the center of the campaign the questions of wage cuts and other
slogans directed toward developing a real mass movement from below for
struggle and showing to the workers that the A. F. of L. burocrats put
forward the shorter workday slogans in order to agree to the corresiwnding
wage cuts.
Resolution of the Polit-Committee of the ECCI Regarding the Putting into
Effect of the Resolution of the ECCI on the Negro Question in the U. S. A.
The Party must take the leading role in the struggle for all rights of the
Negroes, drawing into this struggle all organizations under its influence, and
uniting in the struggle Negro and white workers. "It is advisable for the
Communist Party in the North to abstain from the establishment of any
special Negro organizations, and in place of this to bring the black and white
workers together in common organizations of struggle and joint action.
Effective steps must be taken for the organieation of Negro workers in the
TUUL and revolutionarv unions." (ECCI resolution on Negro Question in
U. S.)
The task of the League of Struggle for Negro Rights must be to aid in
Immediately establishing and building the Liberatur as a popular mass organ.
developing workers' correspondents, etc., and to act as an auxiliary of the
Party in drawing Negro and white workers into the struggle for Negro rights.
At no time must the League of Struggle for Negro Rights be considered as
a substitute for the Party or revolutionary unions, and the Communist Party
roust strongly combat any tendencies to relegate the struggle for Negro rights
to the League of Struggle for Negro Rights, such as have already been
manifested in certain articles appearing in the Daily Worker.
POUT-COM MISSION OF THE ECCI.
Exhibit No. 73
[Source: Excerpt from Ihe Communist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Mar.xi.sm-
Leninism, published monthly by the Oommiinist Party of the United States of America :
Max Badacht, editor. .August. Ifl.'tl. Vol. X, No. 8. page 702. From an article entitled!
"Factors Governing Our Tactical Line," pages <i9."!-702]
• * * * * * •
One of the most important tasks of the Communist Parties is the organization
of the working class and the toilers for the tight against the preparation of inter-
vention against the Soviet Union.
The Communist Parties must expose the preparation of the bourgeoisie for a
new imperialist war. for a war against the U. S. S. R. by iwinting to concrete
examples. It must expose systematically the social-democratic lackeys, helping
their masters prepare a counter-revolutionary war against the V. S. S. R.
The Communists of all countries must increase their work in the capitalist
armies. The Eleventh Plenum of the E. C. C. I., in its resolutions on the report of
Comrade Cachin, emphasizes this and reminds all Communists of the instructions
of the Second Congress of the Comintern, dictated by Ijonin :
"The obligation to disseminate Communist ideas necessitates the carrying on of
a steadfast systematic propagandti in the armies. There where this agitation
is prohibited by special laws, it must be carried on illegMlly. To reject such work
would be equal to betraying revolutionary duty and incompatible with membership
in the Third International.
The increase of the work in capitalist armies, the systematic explanation of the
significance of the preparation of a counter-revolutionary war against the
U. S. S. R. to the working masses, the ruthless exposure of the treacherous role of
the social-fascists, the organization of the proletariat and the toiling peasantry for
the defense of the U. S. S. R. — such are the basic elements of the struggle of the
Communist Parties with armed intervention against the country which is building
socialism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 495^
Exhibit No. 74
[Source : Kxcei'iit from llie Coinniuuist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Marxism-
Leninism, published monthly l>y the Commiiuist Partv of the United States of America ;
Max Bedacht, editor. July, 1931, Vol. X. No. 7, pages 612, 013. Prom the article
entitled "Faitli in the Masses — Organization of tlie Masses,"' by Earl Browder, pages
eOO-614]
****** ^
Struggle Against War
III .suite of .some itartial advance.s in tlie anti-war worli of our Party, this
remains one of our weak points. An inner-political reason for this weakness
lies in the remnants of a petty-bourgeois skeptical attitude regarding the war
danger, the idea that the war danger is real only after the moment the guns
begin to boom. This is capitulation before the pacili.st barrage of the war-
markers. There remains an underestimation of the role of American imperial-
ism in the preparation for intervention against the Soviet Union ; this tendency
.sees the military enemies of the Soviet Union in every imperalist country
except our own, it thinks we are "exaggerating" when we point out that
Washington is step by step moving forward to the hegemony of the anti-Soviet
war front. And above all, there is the almost c<)mplete neglect of the vitally
necessary work of penetration of the armed forces with the message of work-
ingclass solidai-ity and directives for effective organizational measures to root
the anti-militarist movement in the very heart of militarism.
In the anti-war campaign now beginning which culminates on the Interna-
tional Day of Struggle on August First, we must make decisive steps towards
overcoming these weaknesses. August First must be a mass-mobilization
against war, far surpassing ;inything we have hitherto done on this field. Our
Central Committee Plenum must mercilessly examine this campaign to search
out and expose all the weak spots in it, as the necessary step toward strength-
ening the future work.
P^speciall.v must we learn to make more effective use of the deepening contrast
between the magnificent achievements of the workers in the Soviet Union, on
the one liand, witli the catastrophic misery of the workers in the capitalist
countries, on the other hand. This is the mightiest weapon for winning tlie-
masses.
Exhibit No. 75
[Source: Daily Worlior, November 7, 19.'>2, page 6]
THE 1.5TH ANNIVEKSARY AND TWO ELECTIONS
The Fifteenth Anniversary of the Proletarian Revolution in Russia falLs in'
between tlie days the national elections in the United States and the national
elections in Germany are taking place.
The ct)ntrast presented is a sign manual of the coming social revolution.
The elections in these two great capitalist nations, one "victorious" in the
woild war and the other defeated, occur in a period of acute crisis, with industry •
in a state of collapse, with 1.5-16,000,000 unemployed in the United States and
with 7,000,000 unemployed in Germany. Berlin, the capital city and the greatest
industrial center of Germany, is tied up by a strike of transport workers, led b.v
Communists, as the elections proceed under military supervision practically
amounting to martial law.
In these two nations, with total populations of 185,000.000 the two capitalist
nations of greatest industrialization and capitalist civilization, the economic and
social conditions of the masses have been forced steadily downwards in the three
.vears of the crisis; there is not the slightest sign of an end of the crisis; th(^
working cla.ss of the.se two nations, typical of victor and vanquished in the world
imperialist slaughter of 1914-18, faces ever sharpening attacks from the capitalists
aiid their governments, on all fronts.
Rationalization — new mechanical and chemical proces.ses coupled with the
speed-up of workt^rs — "the Americanization of industry" "mass production and
expanding mass consumption", "worker-management co-operation", "industrial
peace" — all the panaceas of capitalism's experts, aided and abetted by the socialist
parties the world over, have failed to solve the contradictions of capitalism in
496 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
either country. In no capitalist country liave tliey been solved. Everywhere the
crisis deepens.
The end of capitalist stabilization in countries on both sides of the imperialist
conflict brings into bold relief the basic contradiction between social production
embracing millions of workers and capitalist ownership of natural resources,
machines and commodities, maintained by the suppressive force of capitalist
government.
Capitalism itself, with its remnants of feudalism (special forms of robbery
and oppression of the Negro masses in the United States, feudal and semi-feudal
forms of land tenure and cultivation in Germany, etc.) has produced the forces
for its overthrow, as it did in Russia.
More and more in the most advanced capitalist countries millions of hungry
workers and ruined farmers see standing between them and the necessities of
life the giant industrial mergers and huge combinations of finance capital united
ever closer with the machinery of government. Fiercer and fiercer grow the
attacks upon the living standards and elementary political rights of the masses.
In the Soviet Union the reverse is true. The power is in the hands of the
proletariat in alliance with the peasantry, led by the Communist I'arty.
There is no unemployment. The first part of the most tremendous program
of industrialization — Socialist construction — ever conceived in the brain of man
has just been completed — the Five- Year Program in four years, and tlie Second
Five-Year Plan is already launched.
The land, the natural resources of (he country, the great plants and their
products belong to the Russian masses, not to any capitalist or capitalist class.
The marching feet of millions of workers and peasants with their Conununist
Party at the head of their fighting batallions have packed the eartli like granite
on the grave dug by the Revolution for czarism. capitalism and its supporters.
The national minorities oppressed under the czar, from the Jews in the cities
to the Mongols on the stepijes, have been liberated.
There is in the Soviet Union the widest democracy ever seen on this earth. In
no country in the world and in no period of liistory have so many millions taken
part in government.
The social and cultui'al conditions of the workers and peasants rise steadily.
In no country in the world and in no historical period has there been such a rapid
rise. The first stage of the classless society of Communism has been reached
in a country of 163.000,000 people.
Everything which has to do Avith the well-being and improvement of the status
of the masses is on the upgrade in the Soviet Union.
In the United States and Germany the conditions of the toiling population grows
steadily worse.
In the United States and Germany, as in all other capitalist countries, the
masses are being prepared for a new robber war, for slaughter in the interests
and for the profits of the ruling class. Tlie Soviet Union is the greatest force,
backed by the world proletariat and the colonial peoples, for preventing imperialist
war. Its Red Army and its armed working class are prepared to defend the
revolution and the land of Socialism against imperialist invasion and counter-
revolution and this alone is a powerful factor in halting the outbreak of imperialist
war.
With all capitalism antagonisms brought to the .surface by the three-year crisis,
and sharpened by the election struggles, on the Fifteenth Anniversary of the
Russian Revolution the magnificent achievements of the masses of the Soviet
Union, headed by their Communist Party, break through the blockade of capitalist
lies and distortions and give to the oppressed of the whole world a contrast from
which they are learning rapidly the revolutionary lessons. Especially are they
learning the lessons of the revolutionary contrast in their increasing militant mass
battles against the capitalist offensive.
The breakdown of capitalist production and distribution, the bankruptcy of
the capitalist system of production, not for use. but for sale and exchange — the
profit system — the rise of socialist production for the betterment of the conditions
of the toiling population, the decisive struggle between two world systems — these
are the contrasts brought hi the sharpest form before the eyes especially of the
masses of city and countryside in the two most developed countries of capitalism —
America and" Germany — on the day of national elections.
Frantically the capitalist class and its political parties strive for a way out of
tlie crisis. Put this way lies over and through the millions of toilers disillusioned
bv the crisis and the bankruptcy of capitalism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 497
The ComimuiLst way out of the crisis of 1917 was taken by the Russian masses.
The power they conquered then througli the Soviets is held today, fifteen years
afterward, and has increased a tliousandfold.
Capitalism and its government, as the elections and the mass struggles of tlie
employed ami unemployed prove, encounters stronger and stronger mass opposi-
tion on its road out of the crisis over the lives and liberties of the working class.
The Conununist Parties of the United States and Germany — each in a different
stage of tJie struggle — basing themselves on the Marxist-Leninist program of
organization and revolutionary mass battles against every sector of the cai)italist
offensive, bring to the hungry and oppressed millions the lessons taught by the
I'roletarian Revolution of 1917.
On its Fifteentli Anniversary, coinciding witli elections in whicli the capitalist
crisis and the way out is the issue, the winning of the majority of the working
class for the revolutionary way out of the crisis is the main and immediate task.
It is from this standpoint that the Communist Party will make its appraisal
of the results of the election struggle.
Workers of the U. S. — Vote Communist tomorrow !
Exhibit No. 76
(Source: Daily Worker, November 7, 1932, page 6; excerpt from an article entitled "Why
Thoniiiis Is Being Boosted by Republican, Democrat Press," by Bill Dunne]
No "Orderly Revolution"
There never has been and there never can be an orderly revolution. "Orderly
revolution" means no revolution. The whole international experience of the
working class, immeasurably enriched by the Russian Revolution, proves this
beyond question.
Exhibit No. 77
[Source: A pamphlet published for the Communist Party National Campaign Committee
by Workers Library Publishers, New York : 1932]
THE FIGHT FOR BREt'i.D
By Earl Browder
Keynote Speech Opening the National Nominating Convention of the Communist
Party, Chicago, May 28, 1932.
Comrades and Fellow Workers !
Our Convention meets in the midst of the greatest economic crisis ever
known.
The present ferocious attack against the toiling masses — that is the capitalist
way out of the crisis.
While millions starve. Hoover, chief of the Republican Party, leads the fight
to save capitalist profits at the expense of the lives of the workers, their wives,
and children.
The Fight for Jobs, Bread and Peace
In this situation only the Communist Party raises and fights for the workers'
demands for jobs, bread and peace. (Applause.)
For three years Hoover promised "prosperity in 60 days." This prosperity
takes the form of cities of unemployed, homeless outcast millions living in
packing-boxes, in cellars, under bridges, in sewers. Hundreds of these cities,
all over the country, have very properly paid homage to the fame and glory ol
the great engineer in the White House by adopting the name "Hooverville."
The very name of this man has become a symbol of degradation and misery for
the masses.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 33
498 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Fifteen million workers are unemployed, other millions have only part-time
jobs, wage rates for the employed have been cut by 25 to 60 per cent, millions
of farmers are being evicted from their farms because they are unable to pay
taxes and interest on their mortgages. Starvation and disease are sucking
the blood of men, women, and children in every state, every city, every working
class neighborhood.
The issue of the elections is the issue of work and bread — of life or death for
the workers and the farmers. (Applause.)
All this occurs in the richest country in the world. Our warehouses are
bursting with unused food and clothing. Our cities are full of empty houses.
There is plenty to spare of all things needed for life for all people.
Millions are starving precisely because there is too mncli of everything. That
is what all the wise men of Wall Street tell us. That is the fundamental law
of our economic and social system. That is capitalism. That is the inevitable
result of a .system in which the machinery of production and distribution is the
private property of a small parasite class — the capitalist class.
The communist Party is the only Party which organizes the workers and
farmers, to create a revolutionary government which will confiscate the indus-
tries, banks, railroads, etc., from the parasite capitalists who have proved they
do not know how to run them, and to piit the industrial machinery to work
for the benefit of the masses of workers and farmers. (Applause.)
Capitalists Responsible for Crisis
The question is not one of Hoover. It is of the system, of which way out
of the crisis. Hoover's policies have been carried out by a coalition of Repub-
lican and Democratic parties. Between these parties there is a fight only about
who shall get the graft of office, but complete agreement that the workers and
farmers shall pay all the costs of the crisis, complete agreement that the govei-n-
ment treasury shall be used primarily for the benefit of the banks, the railroads,
the great corporations.
The "Reconstruction Corporation" that gave two billion dolars to the banks
and corporations, was the joint work of Repiiblicans and Democrats, and was
endorsed by the leaders of the Socialist Party whose only complaint was that
"it didn't go far enough."
The present projects before Congress supposedly for relief, from Hoover's
billion, to Robinson's two billion, to Hearst's five billion, to the Socialist party's
ten billion — all differ from one another only in the degree of their demagogy.
They all agree that nothing can be done except through restoring capitalist
protits and placing the burdens of the crisis upon the mas.ses.
Even Ihe shameful charity doles, which prolong the starvation of a portion
of the unemployed, are not taken from the rich capitalists who own everything
in rich America, but from the masses who have nothing except a remnant of a
job at part-time.
A classical example of this is the New York "block-aid" system. Under this
system each block is to take care of its own starving : down on the East Side
where two thousand are starving together in one block, the few hundred with
jobs in that block shall take care of others ; up on Fifth Avenue, Morgan, Rocke-
feller and Company will take care of all the unemployed in their blocks.
In putting across this beautiful scheme, which includes a system of blacklist-
ing all radical workers spotted by the "block-aid committees," all those who
support the capitalist way out of the crisis were brought forward ; J. Pierpont
Morgan spoke over the radio for it, and said : "You give a dime and I give a
dime, and we all share equally" ; over the same radio Morgan was followed by
Norman Thomas, leader of the so-called Socialist Party, who supported Morgan
and attacked the Communist Party as "slanderers" of Morgan's pure motives.
Capitalist Solution of Crisis — Hunger and War
There are only two ways out of the crisis. One way is the capitalist way.
That way is the attempt to restore capitalism, to restore profits. But to re-
store profits means to cut wages, to throw millions out of work, to refuse un-
employment relief, to refuse social insurance, to pile heavy taxes upon the
masses and reduce the taxes on wealth, to refuse the bonus to the ex-soldiers.
It means "to balance the budget," in the words of the slogan that now unites
all three capitalist parties, the Republican, Democratic and Socialist parties.
And it means WAR. '
APPENDIX, PART 1 499
The capitalist way out of the crisis is the way of misery, suffering, starvation,
war, death for tlie worlcers and farmers. It is a way out only for the little
parasite class of capitalists and their servants.
The capitalists have two main weapons — demagogy and terror, to piit across
their attacks upon the workers. They use these weapons through their three
parties — Republican, Democratic and Socialist. These are, first, to confuse the
workers' mind with demagogy, with false promises of "prosperity in 60 days"
and. later, with the hope that "Congress will do something before long." Thus
they try to keep the workers quiet and patient under all miseries and attacks.
But when the demagogy fails to keep the workers from fighting for some
relief, then the capitalists and all their parties use the most brutal police
violence and terror, as well as illegal fjiscist attacks upon the workers.
The working class already has a long list of martyrs, of dead and wounded
and imprisoned, in the fight to resist the capitalist attaK>ks.
Melrose Park, in Chicago, where the underworld, the police, and the American
Legion, opened machine-gun fire on tm unemployed meeting, is only an out-
standing example.
Democrats in Chicago and New York — Republicans in Detroit at the Ford
ma.ssacre, and in Pennsylvania — "progressives" and reactionaries, it makes nc
difference for the workers. They all club, shoot, imprison, if they cannot
keep the workers quiet with their lies.
In Kentucky they already have an openly fascist dictatorship, which differs-
from capitalist "democracy" in Chicago, Detroit and New York only by its
discarding of all pretences and bragging about what the others try to conceal.
The Open and Hidden Agents of the Bosses
And not to be outdone by its elder brother parties, the Socialist Party in
Milwaukee (the only city it controls) sent the unemployed leader, Fred Bassett,
to prison for one year for leading the demonstration of March 6, 1930, at the
same time that Democratic Jimmy Walker of Tammany Hall, New York, who
received gifts of a million dollars while in ofiice, was sending Foster, Minor,
Amter, and Raymond to jail for six months for the same "crime."
The ofllicialdom of the American Federation of L'abor is openly supporting
the Hoover program. It fights against the workers 'and for the capitalists on
every essential point. It fights against unemployment insurance, against the
bonus for the ex-soldiers, it prevents strikes and signs agreements for broad
wage-cuts, it figlTts for huge grants of money to the corporations and taxation
of the masses, it supports new laws to help build greater giant monopolies,
it helps prepare imperialist wars, especially the war against the Soviet Union.
Through its deceitful "non-partisan" policy of "rewarding friends and punishing
enemies." it delivers the workers gagged and bound to the Republicans and
Democrats, "progressives" and reactionaries, in order to further confuse and
divide the working class. It decks itself out in "victories" like the so-called
anti-injunction law, which fastens injunctions and "yellow dog contracts" more
firmly upon the workers than ever before.
The reactionary officialdom of the American Federation of Labor is an agency
of capitalism among the workers for putting over the capitalist way out of
the crisis.
The Communist Party — the Only Party that Fights for N'egro Equality and
Their Right to Self-Deterraination
Oppression of the Negro masses in the United States takes on the most bestial
forms, rivalled only by the rule of the British in India, and by the Japanese
and Kuomintang generals In China. Negroes are burned alive on the piiblic
squares of our cities, — and their bodies mutilated in the most horrible manner
by crazed and drunken agents of the landlords and capitalists. And it also
takes on the most subtle forms, tho.se of the "liberal" and "humanitarian"
slave-owners, who with gentler means keep the black man "in his place" of
servant — the w^ays of deceit and hyprocrisy.
The Democratic Party is the party of the lynchers; the Republican Party is
bidding for the support of the lynchers and has completely discarded its tradition
as liberator of the chattel slaves: the Socialist Party at its convention last week
rejected the Negro demand for social equality, and one of its chief leaders. Key-
wood Broun, has openly declared against enforcing the right to vote of Negroes in
the South. The Socialist Party convention was even more "lily-white" than the
Republican Party in its most degenerate days.
^QQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It is clear that only the Communist Party fights every clay in the year for
equality of the Negro' masses, complete equality without any restrictions, eco-
nomic,'political, or social. (Applause.) Only the Communist Party comes for-
ward with the demand for self-determination for the Negroes in the Black Belt
where they constitute the majority of the population. Only the Communist Party
fights every day for the unconditional freedom of the Scottsboro boys, and against
each and every act of oppression of the Negro people. Only the Communist Party
calls upon the white workers to defend their Negro brothers, and organizes the
joint struggle of white and Negro toilers, side by side, in the closest fraternal
unity. [Applause.]
For the Defense of the Chinese People, for the Defense of the Soviet Union
The climax of the monstrous brutalities of the capitalist way out of the crisis,
is the preparation for a new imperialist war.
Hoover, at the head of American imijerialism, is one of the chief organizers of
the war against the Soviet Union. Secretly and openly instigating Japanese im-
perialism to begin this attack in the East, the Hoover government at the same
time pushes on the French military system in Europe.
Hoping thus to destroy the Soviet Union, and at the same time weaken American
imperialism's strongest "rivals. Hoover and Company are dragging the American
working class into a world slaughter for redivision of the world.
The new world war, which will claim millions of working-class lives, can only
be postponed by the most energetic, fearless, self-sacrificing action of the workers,
of all lands, especially of America, to fight against and halt the whole capitalist
offensive.
The Communist Party calls upon the workers of America to fight for rhe
defense of the Chinese people, for the liberation of the Philippines and otlier
colonies and semi-colonies, for stopping the shipment of munitions to Japan. We
call for fraternal solidarity with and support of the heroic Japanese workers who
tight for the overthrow of their semi-feudal ruling regime, and support the demand
for the expulsion from this country of the representatives of Japanese imperialism.
We call upon the workers to fight and defeat the war plans of American imperial-
ism, and build a living wall of defense of the workers' fatherland, the Soviet
Union. [ Applause. ]
Billions for the banks and corporations; hunger, starvation, oppression, and
war for the workers and farmer.s — this is the capitalist way of the crisis.
Will American workers submit to this without a fight? No, they will not!
[Applause.] This Convention, representing the most developed workers and
farmers from coast to coast, is itself one of the most important signs that the
workers will fight, that they are already beginning to fight.
Our Chief Election Demands
There is no way out of the crisis for the workers and farmers except the
road of militant class struggle. Against the united forces of the capitalist class,
which, in spite of all differences it swings into action against the toiling masses —
against this the working class must build up a fighting front of its own class
forces.
Class aga'mst class! That is the expression of the class alignment which the
workers must fight for and secure in the elections.
The election struggle is not something separated from everyday life and prob-
lems. The election struggle grows out of, and must help conduct, the daily fight
for bread, clothing, shelter for the worker and his family.
That is why the election platform of the Communist Party places in the
very first place the fight for the most burning, the most immediate, needs of the
toiling masses.
Our six main planks in the election platform, represent the most pressing
needs of the million-masses of America. They are :
1. Unemployment and social insurance at the expense of the state and em-
ployers.
'\ Against Hoover's wage-cutting policy.
d. Emergency relief for the impoverished farmers, without restrictions by the
government and banks; exemption of impoverished farmers from taxes, and no
forced collection of rents or debts.
4. Equal rights for the Negroes and self-determination for the Black Belt.
5. Against capitalist terror ; against all forms of suppression of the political
rights of the workers.
.1. Against imperialist war; for the defense of the Chinese people and of the
Sm">et Union.
APPENDIX, PART 1 5Q1
Fight of Masses Can Win Our Demands
It is the task of the Communist Party to make of the election campaign
merely a part of the whole striiggle of the working class for these demands,
which is conducted every day in demonstrations, strikes, struggles of every sort,
in which the widest class forces of the workers will be registered. The naass
fight for these demands alone can build up effective resistance to the capitalist
way out of the crisis.
Only the fight of the masses can win these demands. (Applause.) Every
Party that tells the workers to depend upon representatives in Congress to
give these things to them, is fooling the workers, is trying to keep the workers
quiet while the capitalists continue to rob them and oppress them.
Especially important is the fight for imemploirmcnt insurance. There can be
no security of life, to the smallest degree, until the workers force the capitalist
class, the ruling class, to give them unemployment insurance. (Applause.)
Now. at a time when even if capitalist industry increased its production, still
fewer workers would be engaged, because of labor-saving machinery and ra-
tionalization and speed-up — now, it is a thousand times more important that the
workers shall force the capitalists to give a minimum guarantee of the means
of life under all conditions.
The only project for such unemployment and social insurance which gives
any guarantee to the workers, is the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill
which was presented to Congress last December 7th by the National Hunger
Marchers who came from all over the country.
The Communist Party election struggle will be, before all. the fight for the
Workers' UnempJoyment Insurance Bill. And the Communist Party is the only
Party that fights for this Bill. (Applause.)
For a Revolutionary Workers' and Farmers' Government
The fight for these demands is the first step to find the working class way out
of the crisis. The working class way is, and must be, the revolutionary way,
that is, it must be the way of a fundamental change in the whole system, it must
take power out of the hands of the capitalist class and put it into the hands
of the working class.
The struggles of the working class must have as their aim the setting up of a
revolutionary workers' and farmers' government. (Applause.)
Only such a government can finally free the masses from starvation and slavery.
Only such a government can open up every idle factory, mill and mine, and give
jobs again to every worker and provide a decent living. Only such a government
can inmiediately seize and distribute to the hungry masses the enormous stores
of food now kept locked up in warehouses. Only such a government can open up
the millions of houses, kept locked and empty by greedy and private landlords,
and fill them with the homeless unemployed.
This is the only working class way out of the crisis.
Of the three political parties of the capitalist class — the Republican, Demo-
cratic, and Socialist parties — the first two are open tools of Wall Street, while
the third calls itself a "workers' party." But the Socialist Party is only the
third party of the capitalist class. It is no more the party of Socialism than
is the Democratic party the party of democracy. It is the party of the betrayal
of Socialism. (Applause.)
A new Socialist system of society is actually being built in a great country,
one-sixth of the entire world. That is in the Soviet Union. (Applause.)
There the working class, allied with the farmers, took political power away from
the capitalists, chased the capitalists away or put them to work, and set up a new
kind of government, the Soviet Government.
Today, finishing the Five Year Plan of Socialist construction with the most
magnificent success, building giant new industries where there were none at
all before, growing at a rate five to ten times as fast as anything the world
ever saw before, the Soviet Union is the living example of the workers' way,
the revolutionary way out of the crisis, the way to Socialism and Communism.
(Applause.)
The Socialist Party — Champion of Capitalist Demagogy — Paving the Way for
Fascism
But the Socialist Party is the bitterest enemy of the Soviet Union. Its brother-
party in Russia joined the capitalists in trying to overthrow the Soviet govern-
502 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
ment. The leader of the Socialist Party in the U. S. A., Morris Hillqiiit, was
the attorney for those ex-capitalists of tsarist Russia who owned the Baku oil
fields before the Revolution. Morris Hillquit signed the documents of these
capitalists who asked the United States government to seize the oil shipped to
the United States and turn it over to them because the Baku oil fields had been
"unlawfully and wrongfully seized" by the Russian working class and really
belonged by right to their former capitalist owners.
Can the Socialist Party bring Socialism in America, when its chief leader
fights to restore capitalism in Russia?
The Socialist Party has the same program as its brother party in England,
the Labor Party, which, when in ofiice, was the most aggressive initiator of
wage-cuts, reduction of unemployment relief, inflation, and the whole capitalist
way out of the crisis. It has the same program as its German brother party,
the Social-Democracy, which is in coalition with the monarchist Hindenburg,
and is negotiating a coalition with the fascist Hitler, for the capitalist way
out at the expense of the workers.
What is true of the Socialist Party is equally true of its self-styled left-wing,
the "militants" and Musteites, as well as their Lovestone and Cannon winglets.
These groups use radical phrases, and put on sham fights like that against
Hillquit in Milwaukee, but they are all agreed on fundamentals. They are
united in struggle against the Communist Party of the United States and
against the Soviet Union.
The Socialist Party puts itself forward as the champion of American democ-
racy, capitalist democracy. It is for the democracy which puts Jimmy Walker
in charge of New York City, to secure a million dollars graft by farming out
the rights to exploit the masses ; it is against the dictatorship in the Soviet
Union which shoots such grafters as Jimmy Walker.
For a Soviet Government in the United States
But the workers of the United States are learning a great deal about the real
meaning of capitalist democracy. They can no longer be fooled, as of old, so
easily. The workers know that in the Soviet Union, the dictatorship of the work-
ing class means the first and only real democracy for the workers. (Applause.)
That it is a dictatorship against the exploiters and their agents. They know
that in the United States, the boasted democracy is a democracy of money, and
a dictatorship against the workers. (Applause.)
Only the mass struggle for the demands of the workers contained in the plat-
form of the Communist Party is an effective method of gaining concessions
from the capitalist class here and now. (Applause.)
There is no other practical struggle for immediate demands except the class
struggle led by the Coiiiniunist Party. (Applause.)
A million votes for Foster and Ford and the Communist platform in the presi-
dential elections will tvin many concessions for the y)orkers from the capitalist
class, who are filled with deep fear when the ii>orkers turn toward Communism.
A million votes for the Commnnist platform will fte the first long step on the
road of the revolutionary way out of the crisis. (Applause.)
Forward to the revolutionary election struggle of the working class for its
immediate needs and its ultimate goal !
Organize a mighty mass movement of the workers and farmers, Negro and
white, men, women, and youth, to vote Communist on November 8th. and to
fight evei"y day in the year against capitalism until it is destroyed and a Soviet
government rules in the United States! (Loud applause — ovation.)
Exhibit No. 78
[Source: Daily Worker, New York, Saturday, January 2, 1932, page 4]
1* 3|S SjC S|! ■!% ip •!■
LENIN AND THE DAILY WORKER
By Max Bedacht
The first issue of the Daily Worker came off the press Jan. 13, 1924. This
date, however, is not the beginning of the history of the Daily Worker. The
conception which finallv led to the publication of the Daily Worker dates back
to July, 1921.
APPENDIX, PART 1 503
Just before the Third Congress of the Conimnnist International the two
American Communist organizations wliich resulted from the split of the socialist
party in 1919 had united into the Comnuuiist Party of America. The Third
■Congress of the Communist International, therefore, had one united delegation
from the American section. This unity, however, was not yet well founded
in a uniform conception of policy.
Our American I'arty suffered intensely from the infantile disease of leftism.
•Our Party had taken over from tlie left wing of the socialist party the inheri-
tance of abstractness and of lack of direct connection with the working class
and its struggles. The decisions and resolutions of the Second Congress of
the Communist International contributed greatly to a better understanding of
our revolutionary tasks, yet the poison of leftism was still virile enough to
interfere with, if not almost hinder, the process of ideological bolshevization.
The poison of bourgeois influences manifested itself then in a vicious form of
American exceptionalism. This exceptionalism repeated again and again that
the decisions and policies laid down by the Second Congress of the Communist
International were absolutely correct in principle — but that because of peculiar
American conditions they could not be applied in practice.
The delegation to tlie Third Congress of the Communist International was
Invited by Comrade Lenin to confer with him and talk over the jjroblems of the
American Party. This conference took place toward the end of the Congress.
•One day, after the Congression and after midniglit, we met in the buro of
Comrade Lenin. The American delegation was there in full force. The dis-
cussion was carried on in the English language. Comrade Lenin spoke English
very well.
It will be of historic and political value for our Party to reconstruct the
discussions in this conference. It is this importance which keeps me now from
a detailed reproduction of this conference. It will be necessary to check up
carefully on everything by consulting the memory of ail comrades who were
at that meeting and who can still be reached. To my knowledge, only Com-
rade Minor and myself are now in our Party and in the United States who
participated in the meeting. Until we succeed in producing a collective recon-
struction of events and arguments in that conference I will confine myself here
merely to some general questions.
In 1021 our Party operated underground. The mass attacks and deportations
of 1919 and 1920 had resulted in a practical state of illegality. Lack of ex-
perience on the one hand, and lack of a broad mass movement around the Party
on the other hand, prevented an immediate struggle for the right of the legal
existance of the Party. The disease of infantile leftism also contributed to
this lack of struggle for legality.
In the conference of the American Party delegation to the Third Congress
with Comrade Lenin the building of a mass Party was the basic subject. The
issue of struggle for legality was part of the problem of building a mass Party.
Comrade Lenin's theme in the conference from beginning to end was : How
■can we build a mass Party in America ; what are the conditions for the building
of such a Party ; what are the conditions of the Party itself for the carrying
out of this task?
There was a very serious objection on the delegation to any efforts of building
a mass Party. The guardian of the infantile disease of leftism in the American
Party, Comrade Hourwich, was at the conference himself to watch for the
welfare of this disease. He objected most strongly to any proposal that might
bring the Party in contact with the masses of workers. His fear of the Party's
contamination with the backwardness of the American workers as a result of
real contact with these workers was so great that he impatiently interrupted
Comrade Lenin ever so often when the latter formulated possible methods of
approach to these workers. Finally, Comrade Lenin rebuked Comrade Hour-
wich's impatience by saying that to reach the masses of workers is the in-
dispensable prerequisite for the revolutionization of the working class. These
masses of workers, Lenin said, are on the other side of the street. We are on
this side. We must cross the street to reach the masses. We must cross the
street by all means and under all conditions. Comrade Lenin declared that to
argue that we should not cross the street because we might get our feet dirty
is no proof of radicalism and revolutionary integrity, but might be opportunism,
which tries to escape doing anything and find a good excuse for this inactivity.
After this the discussion ran a little smoother. The problem of the forma-
tion of the mass Party was discussed. In this connection Comrade Lenin
declared that the formation of a mass Party necessitates under all conditions
504 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the establishment of a daily mass paper. He pointed out that without a daily
paper the Party could not maintain the necessary contact with the masses; the
Party cf»n]d not speak to the masses rally on every important question ; the
Party could not utilize the mass response which a realistic revolutionary activity
would produce among the workers ; it could not crystalize organizational gains
out of this mass response. The delegation was convinced by Comrade Lenin
that the formation of a mass Party also necessitated the establishment of a
mass paper.
Tlius, the conference with Comrade Lenin resulted in a firm determination
on the part of the delegates of our Party after its return to America to help
mobilize every ounce of energy of the Party for the formation of an open mass
Party and for the publication of a dail.v mass organ of this Party. Thus this
conference with Lenin of the delegation of the American Party to the Third
Congress of the Communist International became the starting point of the cam-
paign for the formation of the Workers' Party and also for the establishment
of a daily organ in the English language. Although this daily organ, our Daily
Worker, was actually only published in January, 1924, yet it really originated in
that conference with Comrade Lenin in July, 1921.
Exhibit No. 79
[Source: Daily Worker, January 24, 1933, page 4]
« * * * *
"A BOUND OF NEW WARS AND EEVOLUTIONS"
(Concluding Remarks of Ercoli at 12th Plenum of E. C. C. I.)
(Conclusion)
Comrades ! the definition of the differing character of the general ob.iectives,
which we have given. Implies a differentiation in the development of the capi-
talist crisis in various countries.
In Germany, we have a situation where reactionary and revolutionary forces
are gathering and opposing each other in an extremely rapid manner.
Our task is to raise the ideological capacity of our Party, so as to be able
to analyze with continuous attention and exactly understand, at every moment,
the nature of the situation which we have before us and adapt our political
line, our tactics, to this situation. Now, more than at any other time, our ideo-
logical capacity must be allied with the capacity to do practical work, with the
spirit of struggle, with the greatest development of the initiative of each Party
and each Party organization.
We speak of war, of revolutionary upsurge, of revolution. We do not know
what the situation will be when the next session of the Communist International
assembles. We do not know, in case of war, what connections we shall be able
to maintain between the Parties of the Communist International and the centre
of the Conmmnist International. We do not know, during the development of
the revolutionary struggle in each country, where strikes are going to develop
and assume the character of mass political strikes; we do not know what con-
nections we shall be able to have between the centre of our Party and the basic
organizations.
In these circumstances we cannot advance unless we succeed in developing, to
the widest extent, the initiative of our Party and of all the organizations of our
Party, from the highest leading organizations down to the factory cell.
We see a movement of the masses in our direction, coming partly from the
unorganized masses, partly from the workers organized in the reformist trade
unions. That mass is seeldng for a revolutionary direction; part of that mass
wishes to join our ranks. Our task consists in succeeding in directing it, and,
in order to achieve this task, it is absolutely necessary for all Social-Democratic
traditions to be overcome in our ranks. It is absolutely necessary, in order to
achieve this task, for each Party to work with the greatest ideological and
political steadiness.
We are advancing towards a period of great struggles. What will be the
reaction in our ranks, in the ranks of the various parties in capitalist countries
APPENDIX, PART 1 505
with regard to these struggles? Will there be elements which will weaken just
when it is necessary, on the contrary, to show the greatest amount of strength?
Can we put aside such a prospect? No! We must have that prospect here
before us and we must learn to understand the importance for all the Parties
of the Communist International, under the present conditions of struggle, of
a Leninist ideology of revolutionary INIarxism, against right opportunism, which
is the main danger, and against deviations of the left wing.
All our Parties have not yet become real Bolshevist Parties. They will be-
come Bolshevist Parties in the course of struggle, but, beside the great ideologi-
cal and political confusion of the Parties of the Second International, we are
an International unified on the basis of a program which is a banner to tlie
workers, to the oppressed peoples of the whole world.
We are a world Party which draws its strength from an ideology and tactics
which we have been taught by our great leaders, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Staliu,
which has been taught us by the experience of three revolutions. All our Par-
ties are not yet Bolshevist Parties, they will become so in the course of the
struggle, but we have at our head, at the head of the Communist Party of
the U. S. S. R., Lenin's Party, the Party directed by Comrade Stalin, the leader
of the world proletariat, which shows the whole International an example of
ideological steadfastness, of irreconcilable struggle against opportunism, against
Social-Democratic and petty-bourgeois opportunist deviations to the right and
to the left, the way of close alliance with the masses, obtained by daily work
in contact with the masses.
The victories of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the victories of
Socialist construction in the Soviet Union are a guarantee of victory for the
whole world proletariat, for the whole Communist International.
Strengthened by the experience of the Bolshevist Party, let us go back to our
work, let us try to bring into our work the same spirit of struggle, the same
practical spirit which we have tried to put in our resolutions. No mere words.
Work ! Let us try to overcome the gap which exists between our decisions and
our resolutions. Let us take root in the factories, let us work thoroughly in
the reformist trade unions, let us work among the mass of unemployed, let us
penetrate into Fascist trade union organizations, into the army, into the navy.
Let us practice revolutionary class struggle throughout the world, the straggle
for bread, for tlie workers' freedom, against war, against the regime of capitalist
exploitation, for the dictatorship of the proletariat !
Long live the Communist International !
Long live the Bolshevist Party and its leader — Stalin !
Long live the world revolution !
Exhibit No. 80
[Source: a pamphlet published by the Central Committee, Communist Party, U. S. A.,
New York: 1933]
AN OPEN LETTER TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
Adopted by the Extraordinary National Conference of the Communist Party
of the U. S. A., held in New York City, July 7-10, 1933. Central Committee,
Communist Party U. S. A. P. O. Box 87, Sta. D (50 East 13th St.), New
York City.
"This Extraordinary Conference and the Open Letter are designed to rouse
all of our resources, all of the forces of the Party to change this situation, and
to give us guarantees that the essential change in our icork will he made. The
letter represents the most serious judgment of the situation and tasks of our
Partii and our leadership." — (From Comrade Browder's report at the Extraor-
dinary Party Conference).
What to do With the Open Letter
The Open Letter of the Extraordinary Party Conference is addressed to
you — the Party membership. It outlines in the clearest manner the situation
•existing in our Party today. It points out the necessary steps that must be taken
by the entire Party, by the entire membership, by every leading committee^
506 UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
if we are to become the mass Party of the American working class. It is a.
letter which should arouse the whole membership to a realization that only the-
most determined, persistent and' organized activity will enable us to carry
through the tasks outlined in the immediate period before us.
The present unsatisfactory work of our Party requires the most self-critical
examination of the work of our entire Party membership, of every unit of the
Party, of every fraction in the mass organizations, of every leading committee,
on the basis of which immediate steps should be taken to guarantee the rallying
of every member for the carrying out of the tasks laid down.
You should read this letter carefully — study every line. Apply the critical
examination it makes of the work of the entire Party to your own work, ta
the work of your unit, to the work of your fraction, to the work of your section
or district committee. Use this letter as a real weapon to overcome all obstacles
that stand in the way of improving our Communist work in the factories, among
the unemployed, in the mass oi'ganizations.
Discuss this letter in your unit, in your fraction, in your section and district
committee. But discussion is not enough. Discussion will establish that political
clarity necessary to transform this letter into the weapon with which to hew
out the road to the most decisive sections of the American proletariat — in the lirst
place to those in the big factories. What is needed now is work — carrying out in
deeds the words of the letter. The Central Committee and the comrades gathered
at the Extraordinary Party Conference know that the membership is ready for
work ; we know they will carry out the letter.
Adopt resolutions in your unit, in your fraction, in your section and district
committee on the tasks that you must carry through if the entire Party is to move
ahead at a faster tempo. Check up regularly on this resolution, see that every
member is involved in the work, see that every member carries out his Com-
munist task. Forward your resolution to the Daily Worker as soon as the mem-
bership of your unit, or fraction, section or leading committee has adopted it.
Make the resohition a means of controlling all decisions, guaranteeing that every
decision of the leading committee, of your fraction, and unit is carried out. For-
ward to rooting the Party among the basic sections of the American proletariat,
among the Negro and white masses.
Open Letter to All Party Members
Party Comrades : The tremendous sharpening of the economic crisis, and the new
severe attacks of the bourgeoisie on the workers and toiling masses, as well as the
feverish preparations of the imperialists for wars among themselves and for inter-
vention against the Soviet Union, make a rapid turn of the Party to revolutionary
mass work among the decisive sections of the American industrial proletariat an
imperative task.
The rise of the strike movement, the mass action of the unemployed, the increas-
ing opposition within the A. F. of L. against the bureaucracy, the various move-
ments which are growing at a tempestuous pace among the poor farmers and
ruined middle farmers, the movements among the masses of petty bourgeoisie in
the cities and the toiling intelligentsia, especially among the teachers, students and
intellectuals — all these factors indicate that the revolutionary upsurge is gaining
momentum. But in spite of the spread of the mass movements, and, above all,
in spite of the radicalization of the masses of workers, the Party has not developed
into a revolutionary mass Party of the proletariat, even though it can point to a
number of achievements in its work, such as in the Detroit strike, in the Hunger
Marches, in the veterans' movement and in the Farmers' Conference.
Developing the Party Into a Mass Proletarian Party
In many resolutions we already set ourselves the task of developing our Party
into a proletarian mass Party. We did this with the greatest thoroughness over
a year ago at the XIV Plenum of the Central Committee. But all these resolutions
have for the most part remained on paper. The leading organs of our Party have
not succeeded in mobilizing the masses of members for a systematic and determined
application of these resolutions or in giving the Party membership practical assist-
ance in putting these resolutions into force. At the XV and XVI Plenums, the
leading organs of the Party did not call themselves ruthlessly to account for the
failure of the Party to make any headway in the carrying out of this turn.
What did we decide at the XIV Plenum? At this Plenum we declared that
we are still isolated from the main masses of the American industrial workers;
that we still have no firm contacts with these sections of workers, and that we
APPENDIX, PART 1 507
are not keeping pace with the general revolutionary advance. In oixler to
overcome this situiitiou we set ourselves the following tasks :
1. The organization of a firm basis for our Party and the revolutionary
trade union movement among the decisive strata of the American workers in
the most important industrial centers;
2. The consolidation and strengthening of the revolutionary trade unions,
especially revolutionary unions of the miners, steel and metal, textile and
marine workers, and systematic work in the reformist trade unions, above all
among the reformist unions of miners and railroad workers, with a view to
organizing a broad revolutionary trade iniion opposition ;
3. The organization and mobilization of the millions of unemployed, together
with the factory workers, for their most urgent needs and the organization
of the struggle for unemployment insurance as the central immediate struggle
of the Party ;
4. The transformation of the Dadly Worker into a really revolutionary mass
paper, into an agitator and organizer of our work;
5. The wide development of new cadres of workers ; the establishment of
really collectively-working leading bodies of our movement and the improve-
ment of the work of these leading bodies by the drawing in of new capable
working class elements.
In order to carry out these tasks, we worked out a concentration plan and
pledged ourselves to transfer the center of our work to a number of selected
most important large factories, sub-districts and districts. The entire work
of the Party and the best forces of the Party were to be directed first of all
to building' up and consolidating the Party and revolutionary trade union
movement in the most important industrial centers of the country, to effectively
and systematically win the decisive sections of the American workers, free
them from the influence of the reformist and bourgeois parties, mobilize for
the struggle against the bourgeoisie, and get our influence solidly established
in these centers.
But these tasks have not been carried out. Only 4% of the membership are
organized in factory nuclei, and only a small portion of these are organized
in nuclei in big factories. The Communists have neglected and worked badly
in the revolutionary trade unions, and consequently the chief red trade unions,
such as the unions of the coal miners, the steel and metal workers, the textile
and marine workers, have not gone forward, but have stagnated. The work
in the reformist trade unions has in general been neglected by the Communists,
which particularly led to the fact that the "left" reformists (Muste) were able
to bring many radicalized workers, e.specially American workers, under their
influence (Southern Illinois), and that the influence of the reformists has
extended also to some elements of unorganized workers. The circulation of
the Daily Worker has fallen off.
In spite of the fact that there have been widespread mcfvements among the
workers and many workers have come forward in the struggles, the cadres of
functionaries of the Party have not been rejuvenated and strengthened from
the ranks of these workers, and sectarian elements, who are beyond hope of
improvement and have lost touch with the masses, have not been replaced by
new worker cadres who have distinguished themselves in strugiile.
The clearest expression of the failure to carry out this concentration is the
fact that during the past year the majority of strikes were led by reformists,
while we made no serious attempt to get the leadership of these struggles away
from them, thus abandoning militant workers to the disorganizing and disrupt-
ing activities of the refoi-mists. Moi-e than that even. In fact the reformists
in Eastern Ohio, a concentration district of the Party, succeeded in taking over
the leadership of miners who had previously carried on a heroic strike under
the leadership of the National Miners Union. This was possible only because
the Central Committee and local leading bodies of the Party failed in an inex-
cusable manner to devote sufficient attention to this movement of one of the
most important sections of workers, and consequently did not realize the militancy
existing among the miners.
The success of the Party and of the Automobile Workers Union in Detroit
shows what can be accomplished by the Party and the revolutionary trade
unions in other districts when they vigorously defend the interests of the
workers and carry out the principles of concentration in the proper way. We
did not devote our full enei'gy to flie campaign for unemployment and social
insurance — a campaign olfering the possibilities of welding the emj)loyed, part-
time and unemployed workers together in the struggle against tlie boiu-geoisie
508 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and in a number of localities allowed the initiative to be snatched from our hands
(Cleveland, etc.). We underestimated and neglected the struggle against social-
fascism, and did not link it up with the daily revolutionary work in the factories
and trade unions, as well as among the unemployed. We did not take the trouble
to answer carefully all the arguments of the social-fascists. All of which con-
stitute one of the chief reasons for a growth of the influence of the reformists,
especially "left" reformists among the workers.
Party Leadership Bears Full Responsibility
This situation in our work, for which the whole Party leadership bears full
responsihility, makes it the iron revolutionary duty of the Party to carry out
a decisive turn in our work in a most siieedy way, in view of the tremendously
rapid development of the criisis and the growing revolutionary advance.
Owing to the changes in the administration, the American bourgeoisie was
in a position to spread among broad masses of workers temporary illusions of
an approaching improvement in their situation. But the depth and tempo
of the economic crisis have established favorable conditions for a speedy un-
masking of the policy of the parties of the bourgeoisie. Roosevelt is continuing
Hoover's policy against the working class and other laboring masses in an
intensified form, ushering in his term with bitter attacks (inflation, reduction
(^f salaries of government employees, reduction in veterans' allowances, the
Allotment Plan, forced labor and militarization of unemployed workers, the
sales tax, etc.).
The radicalized workers who had their bitter experience with the Republicans.
are now well on the way to meeting with the same experience from the second
traditional party of finance capital, namely, the Democrats, and the movements
among the workers against robber measures are bound to increase. The poor
farmers and the ruined middle farmers who only yesterday voted for the
bourgeois parties are, in fact, already taking the path of sti-uggle against the
policy carried on by these parties, and are constantly intensifying their efforts
to attain an "independent" policy. Thus, as a result of the development of the
crisis, which is characterized not only by a rapid extension of the labor
movement, but also by a widespread movement among the petty bourgeoisie,
we find a far-reaching mass movement of workers, farmers and other middle
elements which is directed against the old bourgeois parties, and against the
government, and which is growing continually stronger.
The American bourgeoisie, which fears a development of great class struggles
and clashes, is already mfking attempts to block this development. It is no
mere chance that the Socialist Party, with the calling of the so-called Continental
Congress, is developing the greatest activity they have shown for years, that
the Musteites are intensifying to a very marked degree their activity especially
among the American sections of the working class, and that at the same time
efforts and tendencies are coming to light in the direction of organizing a Farmer
Labor Party, and that various reformist, fascist and semi-fascist organizations
among the unemployed farmers, etc. are springing up all over the country. On
the one hand the bourgeoisie is attempting with the help of the reformists to
establish all kinds of rallying centers for intercepting the disilhisioned masses,
and to set up barriers against Communism. On the other hand, and at the
same time the bourgeoisie is intensifying direct terrorism and ]irovocation
against the masses and coming more and more to adopt fascist methods of
violence and demagogy and to establish fascist organizations.
The reformists and especially the Musteites are attempting in the most active
manner to pnralyze the influence of the Communists by their own activity, which
is directed also toward the organization of a Farmer Labor Party. As opposed
to our policy, namely: alliance of the proletariat with the poor farmers and
ruined middle farmers imder the hegemony of the proletariat and struggle for
the revolutionary way out of the crisis. — they are putting forward their policy,
namely: a policy which goes in the direction of establishing a Farmer-Labor
Party, in which the workers become an appendage to the petty bourgeoisie and
the petty-bourgeoisie become an appendage to the bourgeoisie, and for "demo-
cratic" methods of struggle.
Main link in execution of correct policy
Every Party member must now imderstand that it depends on correct policy
and above all. the e.reeution of the correct policy whether we will be able to
APPENDIX, PART 1 509
mobilize the masses of workers for struggle and whether our Party, in this
historically favorable situation will become the decisive mass Party of the
American proletariat, or whether the bourgeosie with the help of its social-
fascist and fascist agents will succeed in disorganizing the mass movement and
keeping it dt)wn. Never before was the situation in the country so favorable
for the development of the Communist Party into a real revolutionary mass
Party. But from this it follows also that failure of the Party to understand
its chief task — namely, to become rooted in the decisive industrial centers, in
the important big factories — never before represented such great danger for
the fulfiiment of our revolutionary tasks as a whole.
Why is it that the Party adopts irsotiitioiis such as icere adopted at the XIV
rienuin of the Central Cojiiuiittee, and does not carry thou, out? Why is it
that we do not learn from our experiences and mistakes in strikes, trade union
and factory work, and from our work among the part-time workers and unem-
ployed? Why is it that the leading bndies of the Party do not concentrate the
full forces of the Party to help the comrades in a practical way in their difficult
but most important Party work, namely, work in big factories, enabling them
to overcome all the difficulties in this work? Why is it that the entire Party,,
from top to bottom, is not working to determine the best ways and means for
establishing contacts with the most important sections of the workers, learning
to overcome their prejudices, speak a language they understand and persistently
and patiently help them to organize the struggle against hunger? Why is it
that the Communist fractions in the revolutionary unions do not make a con-
crete investigation of the weaknesses in the work of the revolutionary trade
unions in order to overcome these weaknesses?
Establish solid base amongst decisive elements of American Proletariat
Because in the Party, and particularly among the leading cadres, there is a
deep-goivfj lack of political nndertitandiiig of the necessity for strengthening our
basis among the decisive sections of the American workers. From this follows
the fact that the leadership of the Party has not adhered to a fixed course for
overcoming the main weaknesses of the Party, allows itself to be driven by
events, and does not work out carefully with the comrades of the lower organiza-
tions ways and means for the carrying through of resolutions and checking up
on their execution. The result is that we talk about factory and trade union
work in countless resolutions, without carrying this work out.
It is time that the entire Party should miderstand that without a solid basis
among the decisive elements of the American workers, the Party cannot lead the
revolutionary struggles of the working class and free them from the influence
of the social democrats and the bourgeoisie, which still prevails among the
decisive elements of the working class, however favorable the conditions for our
influence may be. It is idle chatter to talk about the revolutionizing of the
working class by the Party utdess the Party conquers a flrm basis for itself
among the miners, metal and steel workers, railroad workers, auto, marine
and textile workers. It is idle chatter to speak about the leading role of the
Party without establishing contacts with the decisive strata of the workers,
nuibilizing these workers and winning them over to our side. Talk about the
defense of the Soviet Union and struggle against imperialist war is nothing but
empty phrases luiless systematic work is carried out in the war industry
plants and in the ports; talk of struggle against social fascism in nothing but
empty phrases unless the struggle is carried on from day to day in the big
factories, in the reformist unions and among the unemployed. It is nothing
but phrase-mongering to speak aboiit building up the Party and the revolutionary
trade unions without doing this among the important bodies of workers, in the
big factories, in the impm-tant industrial sections. It is idle to talk about the
necessity of new cadres without developing them from among these very sections
of workers.
The working class will be in a position to fulfill its role as the most decisive
class in the struggle against finance capital, as the leader of all toiling masses,
only if it is headed by a Comnumist Party which is closely bound up with the
decisive strata of the workers. But a Comnumist Party, with a very weak
and inadeqimtely functioning organization in the big factories and among the
decisive sections of the American industrial workers, a Communist Party whose
entire policy, whose entire agitation and propaganda, whose entire daily work
is not concentrated on winning over and mobilizing these workers and winning
of the factories, a Communist Party which, through its revolutionary trade uicioo
510 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
work, does not build highways to the broadest masses of workers, cannot lay-
claim to a policy capable of making it the leader of the working class within the
shortest possible time.
The necessary concentration of our work on the most important factories does
not, of course, in any way mean that we should allow our work among the
unemployed to slacken. In carrying out this main task we should not for an
instant lose sight of the fact that we represent the interests of the entire class,
and that, especially under the present conditions the unemployed constitute a
factor of greatest revolutionary importance. One of the chief tasks of the Party
is the organizing and mobilizing of the millions of unemployed for immediate
relief and unemployment insurance and the linking up of their struggles with
the struggles of the workers in the big factories — full-time, as well as part-time
workers — especially now, in view of the introduction of militarized forced labor
for the unemployed and the increased attempts to bring them under reformist
and fascist influence. But the Party cannot carry out this task successfully
uidess at the same time it establishes its base in the decisive big factories.
Hunger marches and other activities of the unemployed must be accompanied by
.sympathetic actions on the part of the workers in the factories, while the actions
of the workers in the factories must receive the most active support from the
unemployed.
Allies of the American Working Class — the Hegemony of the Proletariat
The fact that great masses of the petty bourgoisie and particularly poor
and ruined farmers are getting into action, the right sectarian failure to
understand such movements, as expressed in the stand of leading comrades
against participation in the veterans' movement, and the opportunist tendencies
to succumb to the influence of petty bourgois views (the report of a C. C.
member about the activity of a Party organization in the Pittsburgh coal
district in connection with the preparation of the struggle of the miners for
April 1st : "They forgot 10,000 miners who are ready to struggle. In order
not to ofEend the feelings of the business people, they forgot about the militancy
of the miners") — all these factors make it urgently necessary for the Party
to take a clear stand with regard to the allies of the proletariat in order
to win these allies and to protect itself against errors and deviations.
The most important allies of the American working class are the poor and
small farmers. These farmers, as well as broad sections of the middle farmers,
are hardest hit by the whole development of post-war capitalism and especially
by the economic crisis and are most brutally exploited by the government,
by the banks, by the trusts and the insurance companies. Their interests are
consequently directed objectively against finance capital.
In this situation the main task of the Party in its work among these toilers
consists above all in the organization of the agricultural workers independently
of the farmer, in organizing them into the Party and trade unions, in organ-
izing and leading strikes of the agricultural workers, which in many places
already played an important role in the development of the farmers' move-
ment. At the same time the Party has the possibility of mobilizing not only
the poor and small farmers, but also broad sections of ruined middle farmers,
for the struggle against capitalism on the side of the proletariat, while at
the same time it can neutralize other sections of middle farmers. The win-
ning over of broad masses of farmers as allies of the working class is an
important prerequisite for a successful struggle against the offensive of cap-
italism, against fascism and for the defense of the Soviet Union, and finally
for the victory of the proletariat.
The other important ally of the American proletariat is to be found in the
masses of Negroes in the struggle against national oppression. The Com-
mvnist Party, as the revolutionary party of the proletariat, as the only party
which is courageously and resolutely carrying on a struggle against the
national oppression of the Negroes, which is becoming particularly intense
with the developing crisis, as shown by the recent death sentence against
the Scott.sboro Negroes — can win over the great masses of Negroes as allies
of the proletariat against the American bourgeoisie.
The Party can stand at the head of the national revolutionary struggle
of the Negro masses against American imperialism only if it energetically
carries through the decisions of the XIV plenum of the Central Committee
on work among Negroes. The Party must mobilize the masses for the struggle
for equal rights of the Negroes and for the right of self-determination for the
APPENDIX, PART 1 511
Negroes in the Black Belt. It must ruthlessly combat any form of white
chauvinism and Jim-Crow practices. It must not only in words, but in deeds
overcome all obstacles to the drawing in of the best elements of the Negro
proletariat, who in the recent years have shown themselves to be self-sacri-
ficing fighters in the struggle against capital. In view of tliis, special atten-
tion must be given to the promotion of Negro proletariats to leading work
in the Party organizations. In all mass actions, strikes and unemployed
struggles the Party must pay particular attention that in formulating prac-
tical demands, it takes into consideration and gives expression to the special
forms of exploitation, oppression and denial of the rights of the employed
and unemployed Negro masses. At the same time the Party and in the first
place the Negro comrades must genuinely improve the methods of patient,
systematic but persistent struggle against the ideology and influence of petty
bourgeois nationalists among the Negro workers and toiling Negro masses.
It is possible also to win over to the side of the workers, or at least to neutral-
ize broad sections of the lower petty bourgeoisie and intellectual workers in the
cities who have been brought into action as a result of the tremendous pressure
of the crisis (employees, lower officials, teachers, intellectuals, students, petty
bourgeois war invalids), if only the Party will come out resolutely in defense
of their interests (teachers' strikes, students' demonstrations, resistance to re-
duction of salaries of employees, to robbery through inflation and bank crashes,
etc. ) .
But the one way for the proletariat to secure and maintain its hegemony is
for it to prove in all struggles that it is the vanguard, the leader, that strikes
most courageously again.st the common enemy, namely finance capital. There
is no other way to win hegemony. An absolutely necessary but auxiliary means
toward this end i.'* the winning of the influence of the proletariat on the non-
proletarian sections through revolutionary work of the Party among these strata.
It is the task of the Party to organize all toiling masses who have been ])rought
into action against finance capital and its government, into a broad revolutionary
political army, in which the proletariat is the leading class, and the broad
jnasses of the petty bourgeoisie in the towns and in the rural districts are its
allies in the struggle against the bourgeoisie. To ignore this task means objec-
tively to impede the proletariat in the winning of reserves and thus make it
easier for the bourgeoisie to recruit fascist gangs from among the petty bourgeois
elements and to isolate the proletariat.
But the more widespread the movement among the nonproletarian masses
becomes and more acute the task of winning allies of the proletariat becomes,
the more intensely must the Party work to extend and organize its proletarian
basis. This very extension of the movements of the nonproletarian masses
makes it incumbent on the Party not to allow itself to be sidetracked from its
main task, namely, the winning of the influence in the factories, above all in
the big factories, and the systematic building up of factory nuclei and trade
union organizations.
If the Party intensifies its activity among the petty-bourgeois masses without
at the same time and above all strengthening its basis in the big factories and
among the most important sections of the American working class, but this
base even having become weaker — as expressed in such facts as the leaving of
the majority of the strikes to the leadership of the reformists, the decline of
the factory nuclei, the unfavorable development of the revolutionary trade
unions, and the decline of circulation of the Daily Worker — then the danger
arises that the Party, having only weak contacts with the decisive section of
American workers, will be driven away from its proletarian base, and instead
of leading the petty bourgeois masses will succumb to the infiuence of petty
bourgeois sentiments, illusions and petty bourgeois methods of work. The root
of this danger lies in the sum total of objective conditions created by the crisis,
and in the relationship of cla.ss forces.
In spite of the rapid revolutionary advance, the work of the revolutionary
party, as well as the class consciousness of the American proletariat, is still
weak, while at the same time the movement among the farmers and the move-
ment among the petty bourgeoise elements are rapidly spreading. If the Party
does not further make a turn to the work in the large factories, and does not
organize strike movements and movements of the unemployed, if it does not
strengthen its proletarian ba.se and build up the revolutionary trade union
movement, then the danger exists that the Party, under the elemental pressure
of tlie iietty bourgeois masses, especially the masses of farmers, will be switched
512 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
to the wrong track, in the direction of a Farmer-Labor Party. The Farmers'
Conference in Washington was, in spite of its mistakes, a great success, and
marked the beginning of serious work among the farmers, whicli must be car-
ried out most energetically, but in a more correct and improved way. But the
Party must now bend all its efforts to carry out the work among the industrial
workers in such a way that the Party will make decisive headway among the
industrial workers, and thus make impossible all danyer of the Party yoiny off
its proletarian base.
The Immediate Tasks of the Party
The Party is now faced with the task of organizing the united struggle of
the American workers and all toiling masses for their vital immediate demands.
This Includes :
1. The organizing of struggles against direct wage cuts and the reduction of
real wages through inflation, for Increase of wages, against every form of the
stagger plan, for a reduction of working hours with no reduction in pay.
2. Closely linked up with the mobilization against the wage cut offensive is
the campaign for the organizing of the struggle of the unemployed and part-
time workers for immediate relief, and the organization of the struggle for
Vnemploymeut and Social Insurance at the expense of the government and the
employers. Of the greatest importance at the present time is the task of
developing a broad struggle against forced labor and the militarization of the
unemployed, in the press, through meetings, demonstrations, strikes, raising the
slogans: "For the abolition of all forms of forced labor"; "Against the militari-
zation of the unemployed" ; demanding "trade union rates upon all public
works" and organizing especially within the labor camps and among the workers
on public works, the struggle for these demands and for their grievances.
3. For the cancellation of debts on mortgages, taxes and rents of the great
masses of farmers; for the abolition of the slavish exploitation of the share
croppers.
4. The organization of the struggle against the reduction of veterans' dis-
ability allowances and for the payment of the bonus.
5. For equal rights and resistance to all forms of oppression of the Negroes
and for the right of self-determination for the Black Belt.
6. Struggle against all forms of terrorism, denial of freedom to strike, speech,
press, and against all forms of persecution and deportation of foreign born
workers.
7. Against German fascism and for the release of all proletarian political
prisoners.
8. Struggle against a new imperialist war and intervention against the Soviet
Union and against financial and military support of Japanese imperialism.
The campaign and the mobilization of the workers for the struggle on behalf
of these demands must be carried out by all Party organizations, above all by
the factory nuclei. The factory must form the center of our Party and trade
union work in carrying on this struggle. All leading Party bodies must first
of all set themselves the task of concretizing these demands in accordance with
the conditions in the particular factories, sections and districts.
The organizing of the struggles of the working class for these demands must
be carried out on tlie basis of the united front in which the Party must always
have the initiative. The united front tactic consists in organizing and mobiliz-
ing the workers, regardless of Party or trade union affiliation, religion or color,
for conunon struggle in behalf of their most Immediate and urgent demands.
In the factories and trade unions and among the unemployed we must help the
workers formulate their demands concretely and effectively, really adapting
them to the immediate demands of the workers. These demands must serve to
develop their solidarity and class-consciousness, and bring the broadest masses
of workers into action.
The systematic application of the united front in the big factories is of
decisive significance in the question of leading strikes, tlie establishment of a
united fighting front, and in tearing down of the barriers between the revolu-
tionary workers and the masses of other workers. The decisive factor in carry-
ing out this united front Is tireless revolutionary everyday work among the
workers, in order to prove in every question the correctness of our slogans and
our proposals for action.
Such .systematic day to day work in the factories is the necessary condition
for all serious rreDaration of strikes and for the launchirs of strikes at the
APPENDIX, PART 1 513
proper moment. The workers will have confidence hi us as strike leaders
only If they see that we take every necessary step for the careful preparation
of strikes, selecting the proper moment for the declaration of the strike,
firmly welding the united front of all workers hefore and during the struggle
through fighting organs based on proletarian democracy, and if they see that
we mobilize all moral and material assistance for the strikers, and know enough
to call a strike off at the proper moment if the mass of strikers are not able
to carry the struggle further. There must he no repetition of such cases as
those in Warren, Kentucky and AUentown, when after the strike was lost the
Party and the revolutionary trade unions left the workers to themselves and
failed to carry on any work whatsoever. It is only by adhering to all these
conditions in the preparation and leading of strikes that strikes will serve to
strengthen our position among the masses of workers, that the confidence of
the workers in us will be firmly established, and the readiness of the masses
for further struggles will be increased.
The united front tactic must not be limited to special campaigns or activities
which we abandon because we have not succeeded at once in winning over the
workers for struggle, in convincing them, and because they do not at once want
to separate themselves from the reformist leaders. The united front must also
not lead to the subordination of the revolutionary policy to that of the reformist
leaders in the name of a so-called "united front." The united front demands
uninterrupted patient convincing work to destroy the influence of the reformists
and the liourgeosie. The rejection of the united front proposals of our Party
for the immediate urgent demands of the workers by the reformist leaders must
impel us to make even stronger efforts to organize a common fighting front
in the factories, mines and among tlie unemployed masses, with the workers
who are utider the influence of the reformists. The Party must in the everyday
work clarify the workers, in a popular and concrete way, on the principle
difference between us and the reformists. The Party must prove to the workers
by its practical work that we are the vanguard fighters for a united struggle
and that the reformists are the splitters and disrupters of the struggle.
Persistent Struggle Against Sectarianism
In order to get the Party now firmly rooted among the decisive elements of
the American worlvors, it nuist in all seriousness carry out the concentration
on special factories, districts and sections. The center of gravity of Party
work must be shifted to the development of the lower organizations, the factory
nuclei, local organizations and street nuclei. It goes without saying that it is
our taslv to place ourselves at the head of every movement which breaks out
spontaneously in the country, and to lead such movements, or where the re-
formist leaders stand at the head of a movement, to work for the building of
fighting organs of the masses, independent of the bureaucrats, in order to aid
the masses in the exposure and replacement of the reformist leaders. But
unless we tenaciously concentrate our work on the most important industrial
centers, we cannot build up a stable Party and revolutionary trade union
movement, capable of resisting all blows and persecutions by the bourgeosie.
The German Communists offer us the best example of this. It is only because
the Communist Party of Germany is closely linked up with the decisive sections
of the German proletariat that it is able to carry on its struggle against German
fascism uninterruptedly, in spite of brutal fascist terror.
The party is confronted with the task of drawing in the young workers in
the class struggle. This demands that an end be made to the underestimation
of youth work, and of the necessity of putting up special youth demands. All
Party organizations, especially the factory miclei as well as the fractions in all
trade unions and mass organizations must organize youth sections and give
active support to the Young Communist League. Every Party factory nucleus
must help to organize a nucleus of the Y. C. L.
In order to effectively carry out this turn to the decisive sections of the
American workers, it is necessary to carry on a persistent struggle against
the sectarianism which expresses itself in all Party and trade union work,
which continues to be one of the chief obstacles to the establishment of firm and
live contacts with the decisive masses of workers. This sectarianism expressed
itself above all in the lack of understanding of the necessity of the Party and
its leading organs for carrying througli the turn to mass revolutionary work,
to develop broad revolutionary unions and unemployed organizations and to
build the basis of the Party in the most decisive industries. This sectarianism
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 34
514 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
can be overcome only if the Party carries on a continuous struggle against the
main danger, namely Right opportunism as well as opportunism clothed in
"•left" phrases.
In the present situation, when the American working class stands before great
tasks, any attempt at factionalism would be the greatest crime before the Party
and revolutionary movement, and would only help our enemies in their struggle
to destroy the Party. The Party must watch closely that, firstly, no factional
opposition is developed against the leading organs of the Party, and secondly,
that not a single Party functionary, whether he be in the leading organs or in
the lower organizations, misuses his position to carry on factional methods of
work. If such manifestations appear, the leading organs of the Party and all
organizations must decisively combat and liquidate every such factional at-
tempt, not shrinking before the removal of incurable factionalists from the
Party. It is only by vigorously preventing all forms of unprincipled factional
struggle, and by energetically liquidating all factional methods of work, ahove
all hi/ really developing colleetive leadership from fop to bottom, that the Party
will be able to make the necessary turn to the decisive strata of the working
class and develop the proletarian mass struggle. But it must be absolutely clear
that positive criticism and practical proposals, and comradely, material exchange
of political opinions, for improving the work of the Party are a vital necessity
for the Party and that all bureaucratic tendencies to interfere with such criti-
cism and proposals, all bureaucratic intolerance of criticism, must be decisively
fought.
At the same time the Party must carry on a systematic -struggle against the
bureaucratic isolation of the apparatus from the Party masses, against the
suppression of inner Party democracy, for the development of political life in the
lower organizations, particularly in the factory nuclei, for the development of
thorough-going self-criticism, for the development of initiative in the lower
organizations and for the improvement of its functionng cadres. Every Party
member, and especially every Party functionary, must be a real organizer of
mass struggles in his particular sphere of work. Prom this standpoint, the
Party must judge the activity of its functionaries and must choose its leading
bodies. All leading bodies, especially those in the sections, must reorganize
their work on the basis of the carrying out of revolutionary mass work. Revolu-
tionary work is the task of the entire membership. The secretaries of the lead-
ing bodies in their work must not replace the work of the membership. It is
their task to plan and organize the work together with the members, to give
the members practical assistance in carrying out their tasks and to check up
on the carrying out of these tasks. As delegates to all Party conferences, section
and district conferences and above all to the Party congress, there must be
elected comrades who carry on active mass work and who have distinguished
themselves in mass struggles.
Comrades : The Party has approved the estimation of the international situa-
tion given by the XII Plenum of the Comintern, stating that we are approaching
a new round of wars and revolutions. It is time that we should draw from
this declaration the practical conclusions for our activity. The development of
mass struggles depends to a great extent upon the speed with which we succeed
in drawing the industrial proletariat in to the struggle and in becoming the
revolutionary mass Party of the American working class.
Is it possible to carry out such a turn in our work? Of course, it is possible.
The members of the Party have shown in countless activities, in strikes, in
hunger marches, demonstrations and in painstaking day-to-day work, that
they are loyal and self-sacrificing revolutionists. Now all members and all
Party organizations must at once proceed to determine how the work of the
Party can be improved and what practical measures must be adopted in order
to guarantee and carry out the turn in the Party.
The discussion of this letter must not take place merely in a gener'al way.
Every nucleus, every organization, every Party fraction must link this discussion
up with concrete tasks, working out ways and means how to bring about
immediately a real turn in the entire work of each individual organization, for
the carrying out of this turn. The leading org'ans of the Party are responsible
to the membership, the membership is responsible to the leading bodies and
the Party is responsible to the American working class and the international
working class.
APPENDIX. PART 1 515
Exhibit No. 81
I Source : A pamphlet published by Workers Library Publishers, New York ; undated, but
approximately 1933]
^ ***** *
Indispensable to Organizers
THE BOLSHE]VIZATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTIES BT ERADICATING THE SOCIAL-
DEMOCRATIC TRADITION S
O. Piatnitsky
2nd Reprint from the "Commtinist International" Revised. — Note : Only correct
rendering. Five cents.
This pamphlet comprises the amended text of the stenographic report of a
lecture on Party organization delivered at a Conference of International Com-
munist Party School Teachers.
Giving a detailed comparison of the organizational development and methods
of the Bolshevilv Party with the post-war Communist Parties of advanced
capitalist countries.
The Bolshevisation of the Communist Parties of the Capitalist Countries by
Eradicating Social-Democratic Traditions, O. Piatnitsky
The XI Plenum of the E. C. C. I. recorded the fact that the sections of the
Comintern in the capitalist countries lag behind the rise of the revolutionary
labour and peasant movement.
Since the XI Plenum of the E. C. C. I. a year has passed, a period sufficient
for drawing some conclusions. Has this backwardness been liquidated?
The last three quarters of 1931 and the first quarter of 1932 brought a sharp
deterioration of the conditions of the toiling masses, of the workers and of the
poor and middle peasant ma.sses. The Social-Democratic and Socialist Parties
and the reformist trade union bureaucracy which still have a large following
among the workers and employees, have long completely deserted to the side of
the bourgeoisie and have been daily betraying the interests of the working class.
During this period the revolutionary labour and peasant movement did not
subside while in some countries (Spain. Poland. Czecho-Slovakia, China, Japan,
India. America, France) it even continued on the up-grade, yet in the principal
imperialist countries (England. America. Germany, France) the Communist
Parties are .iust as backward as they were before the XI Plenum of the E. C. C. I.
Each country has its objective causes to explain this backwardness. This does
not mean, however, that the backwardness is not due in a very large measure to
the sub.iective factor — the failure to utilise tlie discontent of the great masses
of the toilers with the lowering of the living standards, with unemployment, star-
vaion, the burden of taxation, the actions of the Social-Democratic and Socialist
Parties and the reformist trade union bureaucracy.
How are we to explain this failure to capture the working masses from the
Social-Democratic and Socialist Parties and the reformists, and to consolidate,
organise and keep those workers who joined the Communist Parties and revolu-
tionary trade union movements of the capitalist countries?
It is due mainly to the Social-Democratic and reformist traditions, prevailing
in every field of party and trade union work, which are deeply-rooted in the
Communist Parties, red trade unions and trade union oppositions.
By contrasting the Bolshevist and the Social-Democratic methods of mass
work, organisational forms, estimations of the current situation and tactics, we
shall show that the sections of the Comintern in the capitalist countries took
over and preserved a good deal of the practices of the Social-Democratic Parties.
Czarist Russia was dominated by an autocracy, by a feudal-landlord clique.
Not only the position of the workers, but also that of the peasants was un-
bearable. The entire petty bourgeoisie (and even the lilieral ))ourgcoisie) were
discontented with the autocracy. (This, by the way. explains the extensive par-
ticipation of the intelligentsia and students in the revolutionary movement
against the autocracy in inor>. ) Russia, as the events of 1905 proved, was head-
ing for a bourgeois-democratic revolution. Comrade Lenin wrote in March. 190."),
on this question as follows: "The objective course of events has confronted the
51(3 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Russian proletariat precisely with the task of a democratic-bourgeoiis revolu-
tion . . . The same task confronts the whole nation, i. e., the entire mass of the
petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry ; without such a revolution any more or less
extensive development of an independent class organisation aiming at a Socialist
revolution is unthinkable." ("The Revolutionary Democratic Dictatorship of
the Proletariat and Peasantry," Volume VI, Page 136, First Edition.)
This period of the bourgeois-democratic revolutions liad already been passed
in the 90"s by the principal countries abroad. The bourgeois-democratic revolu-
tions there were made, under the leadership of the bourgeoisie, by the proletariat
and petty bourgeoisie with no revolutionary labour parties in existence.
The Social-Democratic and Socialist Parties which already existed as mass
parties in the principal countries abroad in the 90's, adapted themselves to the
existing regimes and legislations. Before the world war. the political struggle
conducted by the Social-Democratic Parties was a struggle for reforms in the
field of social legislation and for universal suffrage, the struggle itself being
carried on chiefly by means of the ballot.
While in words they did not reject the ultimate goal of the struggle of the
proletariat, Socialism, in reality they did nothing of a serious and practical
character to prepare for and wage the revolutionary battles, to train for this
purpose the necessary cadres, to give the party organisations a revolutionary
policy, to break through bourgeois legality in the process of the struggle. The
entire policy of the Social-Democratic and Socialist Parties resolved itself into
securing through universal, equal suffrage, etc., a parliamentary majority, in
order then to "inaugurate Socialism." Attempts at such adaptation, which
met with resolute resistance on the part of the illegal Bolshevist Party, found
an expression in Russia as well among the Menshevik liquidators (and Trotsky)
who proclaimed the Stolypin regime a boui'geois one, and sought to adjust them-
selves to it by taking up legal activities, and fighting for reforms after the
model of the West-European Socialist Parties. The Mensheviks ignored the
fact that the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution remained unsolved
after the 1905 revolution as well.
The role of the trade unions in the West was deliberately restricted to that
of a subsidiary organisation of the great working masses protecting nothing
but the daily, even if important, economic interests of the working class without
pursuing the aim of overthrowing the bourgeoisie and establishing the dictator-
ship of the proletariat. They left the entire field of "pure" politics to the
political party. They had no other aims except to negotiate collective agree-
ments and conduct economic strikes. Even more reformist was tlie role of the
workers' co-operatives. The trade unions sometimes found themselves in con-
flict even with the Social-Democratic Parties on the question of the calling of
political strikes and revolutionary holidays, while the co-operatives clashed with
the trade unions seeking aid from the workers' co-operatives during economic
strikes. It was for this reason that the foreign Social-Democratic and Socialist
Parties regarded Bernstein's revision of the fundamental principles of Marxism
so tolerantly, without even thinking of a split, de-spite the fact that certain
Social-Democratic Parties passed resolutions against the opportunists, revision-
ists, and reformists, for the whole work of the Social-Democratic Parties and the
Labour organisations led by them, was permeated in practice with Bernsteinism.
The situation in Czarist Russia was quite different. During the 90's there
existed in every city, particularly in the industrial centres of the former
Russian Empire, not only groups of populists but also groups and organisations
of Social-Democrats. From their very inception there existed among them
opposing tendencies : "Economists,"* Bundists, with their demand for cultural-
national autonomy, who adhered to the "Economists," Revolutionary Social-
Democrats, ordinary Social-Democrats — a swamp which swung both ways. The
Social-Democratic newspaper, "Iskra," which was published by the revolutionary
Social-democrats headed by Comrade Lenin, opened from the very outset a
struggle against all deviations from Marksism in general, and against "Econ-
omism" in particular.
Lenin and the revolutionary "Iskrists" who gained a majority at the second
congress of the Party (the Bolsheviks) continued in their subsequent activities
to follow the revolutionary Social-Democratic line of the old " Lskra." In a
tireless struggle against Menshevism, liquidationism, Trotskism, the right devia-
tion, opportunism in practice, sectarianism, conciliationism within the Party, and
all deviations from the Party line, in the name of the capture, maintenance and
*See "What is to be done." N. Lenin.
APPENDIX, PAPvT 1 517
consolidation of the liegemony of the proletariat in the honrgeois-democratic
revolution, in a heroic revolutionary struL'gle against the Czarist autocracy, in a
relentless struggle against the liberal bourgeoisie which was prepared to com-
promise with the Czarist autocracy and sought to deflect the Russian i-evolution
on to the "Prussian road," in a struggle against the entire capitalist system, at
all the stages of the bourgeois-democratic revolution, the Bolshevist Party,
headed by Lenin, forged the Bolshevist strategy and tactics, the methods of
mass work, the organisational principles and the Bolshevist Party structure.
The Bolsheviks in Russian, unlike the Communist Parties of tlie capitalist
countries, did not have to overcome the old, deep-rooted opportunist and reform-
ist traditions in the policy, organisation and methods of their work. Besides,
the Bolsheviks carefully studied and learned the lessons of the bourgeois-demo-
cratic revolutions, the role of the liberal bourgeoisie in them, rejected the weak
points of the theory, programme and practice of the Western Social-Democratic
Pai-ties and mass labour organisations and absorbed the good elements.
The co>i(1ifioiis prevnilmo in Czftrist Russia and abroad ivhcn the Bolshevist
Party icas organised in Russian, and Social-Demoeratic Parties in the West. —
Up to 1905 there were no legal parties in Czarist Russia. Even the liberal
bourgeoisie were forced to publish their printed party organ, "Emancipation,"
abroad (in Stuttgart, Germany). In other countries, on the contrary, there
existed practically throughout the history of tlie mass labour movement (with
some rare and temporary exceptions such as the anti-Socialist law in Germany),
freedom for the Social-Democratic Parties not only before, but even during the
war. In the decisive capitalist countries (France, Germany, England, America.
Czecho-SIovakia and other countries) the Communist Parties exist more or less
legally. It is these parties that we shall deal with. It is these parties that I
will contrast and compare with the Bolshevist Party of former Czarist Russia.
Up to 1905 Russia had no legal mass trade unions, and after 1905 when they
were created by the R. S. D. L. P.* (Bolsheviks and Mensheviks) they eked oiit
a miserable existence until 1912. The Mensheviks endeavoured to give the T.U's
they had created functions and a character analogous to that of T.U's in Western
Europe. If they did not succeed in this, it was only thanks to the tireless
struggle of the Bolsheviks against these efforts inside the workers' mass organi-
sations. During the period of reaction the Menshevik liquidators tried to use the
T.U's as a substitute for the Party. From the outbreak of the war until the
February Revolution the T.U's were eitlier closed or placed in such police con-
ditions as to be unable to function normally. Abroad, in the principal countries
(England, America. Italy) trade unions were created before the organisation of
the Social-Democratic Parties, while the trade union movement of France was
permeated by syndicalism which ignored the political parties. At the same time,
in some countries (England, Belgium, Sweden, etc.) the trade unions were col-
lectively affiliated to the Labour Parties so that it may be said that in a certain
measure these Parties were formed out of the trade unions. Even of Germany
it may be said that the trade union movement is older than the independent
political Labour Parties. In the 60's the trade imions in various Labour centres
(such as the unions of compositoi's, cigar makers in Berlin, etc.) originated and
functioned before the workers' educational societies which gave rise to the two
Labour Parties of Germany, the Lassalians and the Eisenachers (which subse-
quently constituted the German Social-Democrat Party), arose and broke away
from the bourgeois progressive party. The workers' strikes took place without
the leadership of political parties, especially during the latter half of the fiO's.
To illustrate the attitude of one of the most politically active workers' pai'ties
of that time towards strikes we ■«all quote the decision of the Congress of the
German General Workers' League (a political party led by Lasalle and after
his death by Schweitzer) held in Hamburg in August, 1868. The Cou'-ress, by a
vote of 3.417 to 2, .583, declared not in favour of leading strikes but only of main-
taining a friendly attitude towards strikes whei'eas the minority was even opposed
to this rather indefinite formula. The Congress rejected a proposal to convene
a national Workers' Congress for the pui-pose of establishing general workers'
unions.
It goes without snying thnt individual Socialists and, particulnrly, the First
Internation.'il as a whole, led by IMarx nnd Engels, exercised a very great in-
fluence over the existing trade unions and the strikes of that time. But the fact
is that even in Germany of that epoch the political parties did not organise strike
'Rus.sian Social-Democratic Labour Party.
518 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
or lead the trade unions. Later, with the passing of the anti-Socialist law, the
German trade unions suffered less than the political Social-Democratic Party.
The powerful development of capitalism strengthened the trade union movement
despite the persecutions. Under the conditions of the time the trade unions
could not but strengthen their independence. The Parlimeutary Social-Democratic
fraction which assumed the functions of the Central Committee did not direct
the economic struggle of the proletariat, restricting itself to Parlimentary-political
problems. Thus, from the very beginning of the existence of the Social-Demo-
cratic Party, and of the trade union organisations, the latter displayed tendencies
towards independence. In Czarist Russia, on the contrary, the Party organisations
of the Bolsheviks led the entitle struggle, both economic and political. Abroad the
functions of the trade unions and the Social-Democratic Parties were divided, the
Parties engaging in pure politics while the trade unions conducted the economic
struggle. It must be emphasised that certain Communist Parties in capitalist
countries do not even now consider it their duty to lead the economic struggle,
but entrust it completely to the trade union opposition or the red trade unions.
Thus, the Communist Parties have taken over these Social-Democratic traditions.
In those countries where the Communist Parties organise strikes and attend to the
trade union movement we sometimes observe cases of a sectarian attitude towards
it. It is only with great difficulty that the Communist Parties succeed in ridding
themselves of this attitude.
The Bolshevik and the Sooial-Democratic Forms of Party Organisation. — In
Czarist Russia there were no elections or election campaigns up to 1905. Although
the municipal and county councils (the Zemstvos) and City Duma were elected
bodies, neither the peasants nor the workers participated in the elections. After
1905 when the State Duma was created the workers were given special voting
conditions, labour '"curias" * being created and the workers voting in the fac-
tories and mills.
All the parties in Czarist Russia up to 1905 were illegal, and the absence of
elections and (and this is of chief importance) the correct attitude of the Bol-
sheviks towards the structure of the Party — they recruited into the Party the
workers of the factories, created political and self-education circles for the fac-
tory workers— gave rise to these special forms of the Bolshevik Party in Czarist
Russia. The illegal condition of the Bolshevik Party prompted it to establish
Party groups in the factories, where it was easier and more convenient to work.
The Party sti-ucture of the Bolsheviks thus began with the factories, and this
yielded excellent results both during the years of the reaction, after the February
revolution, and particularly during the October Revolution of 1917, the civil
war and the great constrxiction of Socialism. During the reaction following upon
1908, when in places the local party committees and the party leadership ( the C. C. )
were broken up, there still remained in the factories and mills a certain base,
small party cells which continued the work. After the February Revolution,
when the elections to the Soviets of Workers' Deputies were held, the factories
and mills also served as the basis for the elections. It is noteworthy that the
elections to the miuiicipal and district coimcils and the Constituent Assembly,
which were based not upon occupational but upon territorial principles, were also
carried out by the Bolshevik Party very successfully after the February and
October Revolutions, despite the fact that the party had no territorial organisa-
tions, and its agitation was concentrated in the factories and barracks. The
cells and the district and city committees conducted the election campaign
without creating special territorial organisations for the purpose. During all
periods the lower party organisations of the Bolsheviks existed at the place of
work rather than at the place of residence.
Abroad the situation was entirely different. There elections were not held in
the factories but in the election districts, in the places where the voters lived. The
main task pursued by the Socialist Parties was to gain electoral victories, to fight
by means of the ballot, and the Party organization was therefore built along
residential lines, which made it easier to organi.se the Party members for the
election campaign in the respective election districts.
It cannot be said, however, that the Social-Democratic Parties were not con-
nected with the factories and mills. They kept in contact with thqm through
the trade unions which they headed through their members. Although the trade
unions were not built along factory lines, they still had their representatives and
*An electoral body on a class basis. The workers' "curia" could not elect the same
number of representatives as those of the bourgeoisie and landlords.
APPENDIX, PART 1 519
financial secretaries iu the factories, and since these financial secretaries and
trade union delegates were mostly Social-Democrats, the Social-Democratic Parties
tlirough these trade union delegates and through the trade unions, were connected
with the factories. When the Communist Parties appeared (and they appeared
in some countries as a result of secessions and withdrawals from the Social-
Democratic Party, while in others, such as Czecho-Slovakia and France, the
majority of the Social-Democratic Party decided to join the Communist Inter-
national, the remaining minorities constituting themselves into Social-Democratic
Parties), they built their organisations exactly after the model of the Social-
Democrats. And this, despite the fact that the Communist Parties, from the
very moment of their inception, aimed at an entirely different objective to that
of the Social-Democratic Parties. They made it their object to overthrow the
bourgeoisie and establish the power of the proletariat, while the international
Social-Democracy during the war, supported its bourgeoisie, and after the war,
developed into the chief social support of the bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, the
Communist Parties constructed their organisations along the same lines as the
Social-Democrats, on the basis of election constituencies, along residential lines.
In addition it must be said that they did not have their trade union organisations,
and where they created their own trade unions, the latter did not, and do not,,
to this day, have firm organisational connections with the factories. Thus, the
organisations of the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries were built with-
out permanent organisational connections with the factories. Such is the prin-
cipal defect in the structure of the Comnnmist Parties which must be clearly and
sharply stressed by the teacher iu the Party schools. The Communist Parties
have different tasks, yet they built their organisations along the same lines as the
Social-Democratic Parties. While the Social-Democrats are connected with the
factories through the trade unions, the Communist Parties do not have even
such connections with the factories ; this is true of even those Communist Parties
which strongly influence the red trade unions (the Communist Parties of Czecho-
slovakia and France). The Communist Parties, immediately after their for-
mation, took over the organisational foi'ms of the Social-Democratic Parties,
because they did not know of, they were not familiar with, the peculiar Bol-
shevist forms and methods of Party structure. However, during the war, and
immediately after it, the factory workers in many countries appointed revolu-
tionary representatives (in Germany these representatives played an important
part in the big strikes conducted during the war) elected factory committees
(such as the shop stewards in England) and even sent I'epresentatives to local
and National Councils. In this way they were able the realise the advantages
of organising at their place of work compared with organisation along territorial
lines. But after the revolutionary storm subsided, the Social-Democratic tradi-
tions gained the upper hand over the forms of organisation approaching the
Bolshevist forms of work in the factories. This is the main reason why the
Communist Parties, especially the middle and lower Party and revolutionary
trade union organisations and cadres wiiich are actually carrying out most of
the Party and revolutionary work, rejected at that time the nearly-Bolshevist
methods of work in the factories, and are now resisting the adoption of these
methods, despite the fact that their superiority to the Social-Democratic methods
has already been proven. In this, however, they do not meet with sufficient opposi-
tion on the part of the Party leadership.
That the absence of Party organisations in the factories strongly affects the
work of the Communist Parties is shown by such an example, for instance, as
that of Germany, in 1928, when the Party failed to utilise the revolutionary
situation for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, this being due not only to the
absence of a truly revolutionary leadership, but also to the absence of extensive
and firm connections with the workers in the factories. In 1923, German Social-
Democracy was seriously weakened by mass desertions. The reformist trade
unions in 1922 had nine million members (7,895.065 in the all-German Federation
of Trade Unions and the rest in the clerical workers' unions) of whom only three
million remained in 1923. The apparatus of the reformist trade unions was
demoralised, it had no money to pay its officials. The German Communist Party
could then have captured power had it been headed by a revolutionary leadership,
had it conducted a real struggle against the Social-Democratic Party and the
reformists, had it been strongly connected with the factories, had it been familiar
with the interests of the factory workers, had it mobilised them, applying the
revolutionai-y united front policy in the struggle for the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat instead of the Brandlerist united front with the "left" Saxon Social-demo-
crats and with Zeigner's Government. The meeting called by the Brandlerist
^20 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
opportunist leadership in 1923 to decide the question of whether they were to
talie action or ncjt consisted mainly of Party officials, co-operative workers and
trade union officials, among whom there were a good many right opportunists
of the type of Brandler, Thalheimer and Watcher, who were not connected with
the masses, who did not know what the working masses were thinking and
interested in, and it was this meeting which decided not to act.
Factory Cells and Street Cells. — In Czarist Russia the cells (or the individual
Bolsheviks in the factories and mills in which no Party cells existed) utilised all
the grievances in the factories ; the gruffness of the foremen, deductions from
wages, lines, the failure to provide medical aid in accidents, etc., for oral agitation
at the bench, through leaflets, meetings at the factory gates or in the factory yards,
and separate meetings of the more class conscious and revolutionary workers.
The Bolsheviks always showed the connection between the maltreatment in the
factories, and the rule of the autocracy, for the workers felt the effects of the
Czarist whips on their own backs and jail and exile for their protests and strikes
against the employers. At the same time the autocracy was connected up in the
agitation of the Pa'rty cells with the capitalist system, so that at the very beginning
of the development of the Labour Movement the Bolsheviks established a connec-
tion between the economic struggle and the political. When the sentiments of
the workers in the factories became favourable towards a strike, the Bolshevik
cells immediately placed themselves in the leadership. The strikes in single shops
.spread to all departments, a strike in a single factory spread to all the other fac-
tories, and the strikes of the factory workers, under the influence and leadership
of the Bolshevik Party organisations, frecpiently assumed the forms of street dem-
onstrations, and in this way the economic strikes developed into a political
struggle.
In the history of the Labour Movement of Czarist Russia there were many cases
when strikes at individual factories developed into strikes of all the factories of
the entire city, and affected other cities as well. All such strikes, despite the
underground work of the Bolsheviks, demanded great sacrifices on their part as
well as the revolutionary workers. But these sacrifices, this struggle and daily
activity gave rise to new cadres who continued the struggle. In this way the
Bolshevik cells became organisers of the struggle of the masses, and conducted
the economic and political struggles.
The third congress of the Comintern held in 1921 adopted the first theses on the
question of the structure of the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries.
Up to 1924 the Communist Parties completely failed to respond to these decisions
of the third congress. Now many of the Communist Parties already have factory
cells, but in most cases, especially in the legal Communist Parties, they do hardly
any work in the factories. The Social-Democratic traditions of Party structure
have been so strongly rooted in some of the Communist Parties that they press
upon the Party members even when Bolshevist forms of organisation are already
applied. Factory Party cells already exist in many f)f the factories, but they are
still very far from changing the method of their work. They discuss the Party
questions, participate in the campaigns for the election of factory committees,
sometimes even publish factory newspapers, but they do not attend to the questions
of their own factory, they do not conduct oral individual agitation in the factories,
at the factory gates, in the tram-car, sub-way and train, while travelling to and
from work, they rarely speak at the meetings held by the factory committees,
which are addressed by Social-Democrats and reformists and where it is easier
to prove and reveal their treachery. The factory cells do not direct or control
the work of the Communists in the factory committees led by the reformists.
They leave the red factory committees without leadership: that is why the work
of the red factory conmiittees is frequently in no way superior to that of the
reformist committees. The most important Party and trade union campaigns
are not conducted by the Party Committees through the factory cells. Even
the municipal, District Council and Parliamentary elections which are held quite
frequently are still carried out, not through the factory cells, but through the
street cells. All this leads to the factory cells learning of strikes in the shops
and even in the factories in which the members of the cells are employed, onh/ after
they are already hcfjun. Even in those cases when the factory cells and the groups
of the trade union opposition and red trade unions do prepare for a strike, as soon
as the strike committees are elected, they withdraw from the leadership and cease
to exist as organisations, of which the reformists are naturally quick to take
advantage.
This may be said of the majority of the cells existing in the factories and mills
of the capitalist countries. This does not mean that there are no cells there which
APPENDIX, PART 1 521
are working excellently, which have proved that the factory cell system is superior
to the Social-Democratic system of building the I'arty organisation. Unfor-
tunately, however, such cells constitute a minority, while the enormous majority
of the cells in the factories do not work at all, or work poorly. In very many cases
not all the members of the party employed in the factories join the factory cells
to this day.
The Bolshevik Party knew only one form of lower organisation, the cell in the
factory, office, army barracks, etc. Taking into consideration the conditions
aboard, the Comintern was forced to introduce an additional form of organisation,
the street cells. They were introduced for such members of the Party as house-
wives, small artisans, etc. The street cells were to be used for the Party work in
the places of residence. The street cells are to embrace also the unemployed
members of the Party until they find work ; it is impossible to force an unemployed
memoer of the Party to go to the factory where he was formerly employed in
order to attend a cell meeting (if a cell exists there) when these unemployed
simply have not the means of paying for their fare to the factories. The street
cells have definite tasks ; to canvass the homes of the workers, to distribute hand-
bills, to help in the election campaigns, to give outside help to the factory cells.
In the big cities abroad, it happens that a worker is employed in the city
itself, but lives far away from the city, sometimes even in a town located
several miles from the city. But in the evening, as well as wcek-t'nds, the
Party members living far from these places of work must be utilised by the
local Party committees and street cells for Party work in their place of resi-
dence The basic work of these Party members still remains that in their
factory cell.
But instead of making it into a merely subsidiary organisation, the Com-
munist Parties made the street cell the predominant organisation. They began
to create street cells on such a scale that they embraced 80 per cent, and some-
times even more of the Party members.
In other words, in the street cells they found a loophole through which they
sought to drag in the old form of organisation to leave intact the old territorial
form of organisation of the Party members. And the entire struggle of the
organisational department of the E. C. C. I. for the past five years to get the
Communist Parties to check up the membership of the street cells and remove
those employed in the factories from them, produced practically no result. If
we take the figures of the German Communist Party we will see that at the
end of December, 1981, they had 1,983 factory cells and 6,196 street cells. Iix
membership they are large, but their activity is weak. In other cases they
began to create so-called concentration groups, so as to avoid organising factory
cells They take a few from different factories and create a group to serve
one factory. Such concentration groups, existing especially in England, could
not produce the same results as factory cells. In France cells were created
consisting of 1-2 workers of the factory, and 12-16 members from outside the
factory. And these were also called factory cells ! To these 12-16 members
of the Party, the events in the factory appear trifling, so that the cell naturally
attends to anything, but what takes place in the factory.
Diffi-^-uIties in the inork of the Communist Cells in Capitalist Conntries and the
methods for Orcrroniinf/ these Difficiilties. — There are, of course, serious difficul-
ties in the vrork in the factories which tlie teachers must not ignore. In Czarist
Russia the Bolshevik Party was illegal and the Party cells were naturally also
illegal. When the Party became legal the calls also became entirely legal.
Abroad the situation is quite different. The Parties in the principal capitalist
countries are legal, but the cells must be illegal. Unfortunately, they cannot
work unnoticed. The employers and their spies detect the revolutionary workers
and throw them out of the factory without meeting with any protest on the
part of the reformist trade unions ; on the contrary, the latter frequently act
themselves as the initiator in the expulsion of the Communists from the fac-
tories. But inasmuch as the work of the Communists in the factories is weak,
as a rule the workers do not defend the discharged Communists (though there
have been opposite cases, as well, of course). Under these conditicms the fac-
tory cells do nothing in most cases, or if they display the least activity, their
members are thrown out of the factories, owing to failure to conceal even their
insignificant work. There are frequently also cases when the Comnnuiists are
thrown out of the factories even when they do nothing there, simply because of
their membership in the Communist Party. The teachers of the International
Communist Universities must remember this difllculty. They must explain to
the students in the discussion of the work in the legal Couununist Parties how
522 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
such cells can and must organise their work, and it is here that the Bolshevist
experience of illegal work in the factories under the Czar which produced such
excellent results, can be utilised. Let this not appear a trifle. The Communist
Parties suffer very nuich from their inability to conduct conspirative worlv in
the factories, losing members and revolutionary worlvers, through their expul-
sion from the factories. To some Communists it may appear a sliame that
the Social-Democrats, the nationalists and the members of the other Parties are
able openly to proclaim their Party afiiliatlon while they, despite the fact that
the Communist Party is legal, must hide their membership in it. Is not such
secrecy cowardice? Or right opportunism? Not in the least. This would be
cowardice and opportunism if the members of the cells, or the individual Com-
munists, feared and evaded addressing the factory workers' meetings against
the reformists and Social-Democrats, when they proposed to agree to a lower-
ing of the living standards of the workers, to approve the dismissal of the
workers, or when they vote for the proposals of the Social-Democrats and re-
formists, etc. Such ca.ses, unfortunately, have occurred. But there is no need
at all to shout in the factories and mills that we are Communists and while
shouting thus, not always conducting Communist work. It is possible and neces-
sary to carry on real Party work connecting the Party slogans with the every-
day struggle in the factories, without calling oneself a member of the Party or
cell. It is always possible to find appropriate forms for this. Is it not possible
to say: "to-day I read such and such a report, this or that," or "a chap from our
factory (or from the neighbouring factory) told me . . .," etc.? In short, every-
thing in the spirit of the decisions of the cell and Party, though in form there
is no shouting about it ; it may even appear "innocent." Even in those cases
when anyone addresses the workers' meeting in the factory on instructions from
the cell, it is not always necessary to declare that he speaks in the name of
the cell. The main point is that the speeches should always be in the spirit of
the decision of the cell, while the motions should be prepared or approved by
the cell bureau. The other members of the cell and their sympathisers must not
only vote for the motion made by the comrade sent by the cell, but also conduct
agitation among the workers for this motion. In the illegal Parties the situa-
tion is different. There both the Party and the cells are illegal, but unfortun-
ately even the illegal Parties have not yet learned properly to disguise their
work.
There is one more important difficulty which the teachers m,ust remember
and sharply emphasise.
In Czarist Russia the rules and regime in the factories were lenient com-
pared with those in the factories of the big capitalist coimtries, esijecially com-
pared with what we have now after the introduction of capitalist rationalisation
which sweats the workers to death, after the introduction of the conveyer sys-
tem. Before the fall of Czarism the workers were so miserably paid by their
employers, and conducted such a vigorous struggle against the deterioration of
the conditions in the factories that the maimfacturers were forced, on the whole,
to give up the idea of introducing Taylorism in the exploitation of the workers.
This facilitated the Party work in the factories. Besides, the workers in the
factories and mills, no matter what so-called Socialist Parties they may have
belonged to,"^ joined the Bolshevik workers in the economic and political strug-
gles (strikes, demonstrations, and even uprisings). But this does not at all
mean that the Bolshevik Party, the factory cells, or the individual Bolsheviks
drifted with the current, that they hid their Bolshevist principles in the fac-
tory. On the contrary, in the factories and mills, as well as in the illegal
newspapers and appeals, the Bolsheviks conducted a vigorous campaign against
the Menseviks, liquidators, Trotskists, Socialist-revolutionists, National Social-
ists, etc. The Bolshevike, by their convincing agitation, by their alignments
in the debates with the members of other Parties, by their reasoned and timely
proposals, by their knowledge of the situation of the workers in the factories,
by their methods of work, by drawing the workers into the solution of the ques-
tions, by patient preparation of the struggle, by their methods of organisation,
proved their correctness and superiority to the other Parties ; that is why the
Bolshevist Party succeeded in establishing in the factories and mills the united
front from, below, with the workers of all tendencies throughout the history of
the Labour Movement in Russia, even when the Mensheviks shouted about the
* After 100.5 there were formed "Black Hundred Gangs" led by Czarism, which wormed
themselves into the railway service, especially among the clerks. In the factories and
mills they completely failed to gain an influence among the workers.
APPENDIX, PART 1 523
Bolshevik "strike feA'er" in 1912-1914 and when under Kerensky, the Moscow
Bolsheviks in August, 1917, called a general strike against the Moscow State
Conference in which the Mensheviks and the Socialist-revolutionists played the
first fiddle, and later, during the October days of 1917, when the Bolsheviks
organised the uprising against the bourgeoisie, the Mensheviks and the Socialist-
revolutionists.
Some of the favourable conditions mentioned above are not enjoyed by the
present-day Communist Parties. Thus, they are forced to conduct the eco-
nomic struggle — and not only the economic — both against the Social-Democrats,
the reformist trade unions, the Fascists, the yellows and everybody else.
All of them go hand in hand with the employers. The least carelessness in
the work and the Communists, whether as members of the trade union opposi-
tion or the red trade unions, are thrown out of the factories. This makes it
necessary to resort to such methods of work as will produce, in the struggle
of the revolutionary proletariat, the highest effect with the least losses.
Such methods are the tried Bolshevist methods alone. The Communists
must and should overcome all the difiiculties. The greater the difficulties, the
more patient and determined must be the work of the Communists inside the
factory, near its gates and everywhere where the workers and the unemployed
are found.
The contents and methods of the work must be Bolshevist. It is necessary
to systematically convince, and prove by convincing arguments instead of
denouncing the opponents, especially the Social-Democratic and reformist
-workers. It is necessary to systematically expose the Social-Democracy and
the reformists in a popular manner, with the aid of facts, without, however,
forgetting the national Socialists and all other enemy Parties still followed
by the workers. But agitation alone is insufficient. It is necessary to organise
the struggle, it is necessary to prove to the workers that the Communists are
able to organise the struggle and paralyse the manoeuvres of the Social-Demo-
crats and reformists. This can be achieved by the application of Bolshevist
methods of work and organisation, not a mechanical application, but one
depending upon the concrete conditions. At the present moment when the
situation of the workers in every capitalist country has been incredibly wor-
sened, when the number of unemployed has mounted into the millions, when
all the burdens of the economic and financial crisis coupled with the expenses
of the preparation for imperialist wars and the attacks upon the U. S. S. R.
are being thrown on the backs of the toilers, it becomes possible and absolutely
jiecessary for the Communist Party to overcome all the difficulties and improve
its work.
EnroUmenf of Communist Party Members and the Membership Fluctuation. —
How are new members enrolled by the Commiuiist Parties? The Bolsheviks
enroll and have enrolled revolutionary workers in the factories. Only after the
capture of the power did the Bolsheviks begin to organise Party weeks, that is,
campaigns for the enrolment of members, these campaigns also being conducted
in the factories. Prior to the October Revolution the Bolsheviks enrolled
members on the basis of the every-day work. Those admitted to the Party
were drawn into the party work and included in political study circles.
How is the enrolment of members by the Connnunist Parties of the capitalist
countries organized to this day? Members are enrolled at meetings, at great
mass meetings. Sometimes even in the streets (in England). A speaker makes
a fiery speech, carries away the worker, and the latter submits an application
for admission to the Party. Let us assume that in doing this he gives his
address. However, our Party organizations have not been in a hurry to estab-
lish contact with such comrades, to bring them into the Party organizations,
to find them in their homes, to ascertain where they work in order to get in
touch with their factory cell or street. "While they take their time a large
number of applicants disappears in an unknown direction: some changing their
addresses, some leave for other cities, soiue lose their ardour about joining
the Communist organization. Precisely because the admission to the Party
takes place not in the factories, not on the basis of the work of the Party in the
factories, through the creation of a body of active non-party workers who make
themselves conspicuous in the everyday work, particularly during strikes and
demonstrations, and from among whom the cells recruit new Party members,
even those whom we have already enrolled leave us. I could cite perfectly
amazing figures to charactei'ise the fluctuation in the Communist Parties.
In January, 1930, the German Communist Party, according to its data, had
133,000 dues paying membef s ; during 1930 another 143,000 members were
524 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
admitted, so that in 1931 the total membership ought to have amounted to
276,000. But at the end of December, lltSO, the C.P. of Germany had only
180,000, which means that in 1930, 96,000 members dropped their membership
in the C.P. of Germany. In 1931, the situation, according to the figures of the
Organisational Department of the E.C.C.I., based upon the statistics of the C.P.
of Germany, was as follows : the number of newly-admitted members was
210.000, but at the same time as many members left the Party as in 1930.
Would all of these Party members have left the Party had the organisations
worked well, had they given attention to the new members, had they drawn
the new members into Party work, had they supplied them with proper litera-
ture, had they formed circles and included these members within them so that
they would study there? Would under such conditions all those who left the
party have left it? I think they would not.
Although the workers and employees are being thrown out of the factories in
masses, the enrolment of Party members must be carried out mainly among
the employed workers, especially in the big factories of the key industries.
The Party organisations are obliged particularly to pay attention to the mem-
bers of the Party in these factories and industries; they should be drawn into
the discussion of all the questions of the current policy of the Party. They
should be given assistance in the preparation of speeches at the factory meet-
ings, in the oral agitation among the workers of the factory, they should be
supplied with materials against the social-democrats, reformists, national So-
cialists, the Government, &c. Similar work should be carried out among the
Party activists who conduct the Party and trade union work among the unem-
ployed, and within the reformist trade unions. If such work is carried out, the
number of Party members, new and old, leaving the Party, will decline. For
the fact that thousands and, hundreds of thousands are joining the Communist
Party and the revolutionary trade union organisations, proves that the workers
agree with the slogans, tactics and programme of the Communist Parties and with
the programmes of the mass-organisations. But the internal life of the local
organisations and their activity does not satisfy the revolutionary workers, so
that a large section of the newly-admitted members leaves them. To the
teachers of the international universities, as well as to the activitists and cadres
who are to engage in the Party work, these questions of enrolment and main-
tenance of new members are far from different. Special attention must be
given to these questions. The question must be carefully studied. Perhaps
the teachers are already giving attention to the fact which I have pointed out,
but what I say is based on practice and practical results. And in this field
we find that the Communist Parties have not yet received the cadres which
are necessary for the correct building of the Party organisation.
The Parti/ Cnimnittees, Inver-Partii Demorraci/. Partjf Discipline, Methods of
Leadership. ^elf-Criticism, Democratic Cciitralism, the Question of Cadres.--
Take the I'arty committees. When the Bolsheviks built their party during and
after the Czarist regime the Party committees were collective organs, all
of whose members participated in the decision of questions, and had distinct
fxinctions of their own.
The district and city Party committees considered and decided all questions
connected with the economic and political struggle of the proletariat within
the framework of the decisions of the congresses and plenums of the Party
C. C of the C. C. directions, of the Central Organ and of Comrade Lenin's
instructions. They not only discussed and issued instructions as to how these
decisions and directives should be applied in the given province and city, but
took upon themselves the organisation of the operation of these decisions, ex-
plaining and popularising them. They gave special attention to the local com-
mittees which were directly connected with the factories. They saw to it
that the Party decisions and the directions of the Party committees were dis-
cussed in all the Party organisations, especially in factories, especially that
they passed resolutions on them and adopted methods for their realisation.
They saw to it that the Party organisations .should not violate the inner-party
democracy, but at the same time they also saw to it that the strictest discipline
should prevail in the Party organisations. The questions were discussed before
a decision was adopted. But as soon as a decision was adopted it had to be
carried out without question by all tlie Party members, including those who
opposed it and voted against it. This did not of course interfere witli any
criticism of the Party committees after the decisions had been carried out, as
well as with self-critici.sm on the part of the Party committees, &c. But the
criticism and self criticism only led to an improvement of the methods of work
APPENDIX, PART 1 525
of the leadership, to the strategy and tactics lieiiig worked oiit more carefully
and the mistakes heing corrected. The leadership of the Party, the leadership
of the district and city committees did not restrict themselves to "pure" politics
only. They engaged in questions of progrannne. policy and organisation.
They did not separate policy from organisation, the adoption of decisions
from their realisation. Tliis was, in the tremendous majority of cases correct,
vital, revolutionary Bolshevist leadership. This is why the divergency be-
tween the ideological intluence over the masses and its organisational consoli-
dation was not large.
An entirely different position prevails in the Communist Parties of the capital-
ist countries. There very frequently no local Party committees exist, and where
they do exist the only one doing any work, at best, is the seceretary, who is
sometimes paid and sometimes unpaid, while the Party committees exist only
in the form of attachments to the secretaries, and do not function regularly
as collective organs.
Where the Party committees exist, vei-y frequently all reports at the fiiU
meetings are made by the .secretaries and whatever they propose is adopted
because the Party committees (that is their individual members) are not in
touch with the Party affairs. The.se local and city committees are unable, of
course, either to organise the work of the cells or to give them proper leadership.
To the local party organs, especially the lower ones, special attention must be
given.
In many cases the decisions of the congresses and C. C. of the Communist
Parties of the capitalist countries are not discussed in the factory or street
cells or residential party groups which still exist in large numbers. These
decisions are di.scussed at meetings of the city or district activists and that is
where the matter ends.
The directives of the C. C. and regional committees rarely reach the cells, are
marooned in the district committees, yet directives applying, say, to the conduct
of mass campaigns are meant mainly for the cells, since it is precisely the cells
which come into direct contact with the masses. The cells and residential
groups are on the whole passive. They do not throb with life as is dictated by
the conditions of the present period ; this too is a social-democratic tradition.
These Party organisations come to life only before election campaigns. That
is why there are many cases of inner-Party democracy and Bolshevist dis-
cipline being ab.sent from these Party organisations. In this situation it is not
surprising that- the decisions of the congresses, the directives of the Comintern
and C. C. remain unfulfilled. Take for instance the decisions of the C. I.
congresses, of the congresses of the different Parties, of the E. C. C. I. and of the
C. C.'s calling for the shifting of the centre of gravity of the Party and trade
union work into the factories, for the improvement of the work of the lower
units of the Party and trade iinion organisations, especially in the factories, &c.
Obviou.sly the cause for the absence of Bolshevist methods of Party work
should be sought in the incorrect ix>licy of the leading (central, district,
sub-district and partly local) Party cadres.
But there is "self-criticism" galore. They criticise themselves openly during
strikes, when it is necessary to reorganise the work in the course of th«
struggle, during campaigns, when it is necessary to change the methods and con-
tent of the work to improve the organisation of the Party forces for the pur-
pose of extending and deepening the campaign. They criticise themselves upon
the conclusion of the strikes and campaigns, which is all right, but they repeat
the same old mistakes during the next strikes and campaigns. We have plenty
of such cases.
In the Bolshevik Party, even under the Czar, when the Party was illegal,
we had democratic centralism. The Party organisations did not wait for instruc-
tions from the C. C. the regional committees, the provincial committees and the
city committees; without waiting for them, they acted, depending upon the
hical conditions, upon the events, within the framework of the general Party
deci.'iions and directives. The initiative of the local Party organisjitions. of
the cells, was encouraged. Were the Bolsheviks of Odessa or Moscow, of Baku,
or Tiliis, always to have waited for directives from the C. C, the pro\'incial
committees, &c., which during the years of the reaction and of the war fre-
quently did not exist at all owing to arrests, what would have been the result?
The Bolsheviks would not have captured the working masses and exercised any
influence over them. The provincial and city committees themselves published
appeals and leaflets on all occasions when this was necessary.
526 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Unfortunately, in many Communist Parties there is supercentralism, espe-
cially in the legal parties. The C. C. must supply leaflets to the local organisa-
tions, the C. C. must tirst state its opinion on the events in order that the locals
should wake up. The responsibility does not exist which the Party organisation
must have to act at any moment, regardless of whether directives exist or not,
on the basis of the decisions of the Party and Comintern. And even in those
cases when corresponding directives of the centre do exist, they frequently do
not reach the mass of the membership, and at the same time there is not suffi-
cient control over the execution of the directions on the part of the higher
organs. All this must be combated and the teachers must remember this side
of the question in the work. In the Bolshevik Party the buttress of Party work
was cells in the factories and works. The connection with the masses, who were
led through the cells and Communist fractions in the mass organisations was a
living one. The Party press literature, the written, spoken agitation, was based
on the level of understanding of the masses.
Since the Bolshevist Party under the Czar was illegal up to the February
revolution, no big apparatus existed either at the centre (in the C. C.) or
locally (in the district, local and provincial committees) ; they did not and could
not have permanent headquarters necessary for any more or less reasonable
apparatus. The financial resources would also not allow a large staff. For
this reason the centre of gravity of the Party work (and not only of the Party
work, but even of the work of the legal and illegal trade unions) was naturally
shifted into the factories and mills. This situation of the Party work con-
tinued during the period of Febiuary to October, 1917, as Avell. when the
Bolshevik Party became legal and carried out enormous mass work while
the apparatus of the C. C, of the regional and provincial committees was
quite small. As before the principal attention was given to the work of the
local committees, sub-local committees and factory cells.
In the legal parties of the capitalist countries the order in the Party ap-
paratus is the reverse : these Communist Parties, being legal, have quite a
number of convenient i)remises at their disposal to house their apparatus.
The main forces of the apparatus (the agitation, organization, rrade union,
women's, parliamentary, village and other departments) are concentrated in
the C. C, regional and provincial committees, while the local committees and
the cells are empty. In many local committees in the industrial centres — -not
to speak of the cells — there are even no paid secretaries. The local commit-
tees must receive "everything" from the centre : that is why the initiative of
the local Party organisations is deadened. The E. C. C. I. is waging a
determined struggle against this phenomenon.
The str\iggle is all the more necessary because here again the question is
not one of simply organisational condition of legality or illegality. The ques-
tion consists in taking a cour.se to the masses, to a close permanent connection
with them. The forms of organisation must be subjected to these aims and
serve them, not the reverse.
In the legal Communist Parties of the capitalist countries the connection
with and leadership of the masses is in most cases of a paper character —
through circulars; the press, literature, written and oral agitation are abstract
and not concrete : they do not, as a rule, correspond to the concrete situation.
This is due to the fact that under the conditions described above there are
not Suitable cadres capable of acting locally and directly in contact with the
masses. This leads us therefore to the question of proper Party cadres. In
the Bolshevik Party the Party cadres were forged in the mass practical work.
They learned through this work to react to all the events in the life of the
worker. They not only knew whi.i the worker thinks and how he lives, but
they also i-esix)nded to it; they oiganized the struggle, they pointed the way
out to the worker ; that is why the Bolshevik Party even during the days of
the Czar exercised, such a great influence over the masses, enjoyed such a
great prestige among the working class.
The higher and middle Party cadres in the Communist Parties of the capi-
talist countries are in most cases revolutionary ex-mombers of the Social-
Democratic Parties. Their methods of work remained in most cases the same
as in the Social Democracy. INIanj of them have not yet freed themselves
from the Social-Democratic traditions. And even a large section of the new
young cadres who have been brought to the fore during the last few years
in some of the Communist Parties, are inexperienced, are also miable to work
concretely and independently, and, in view of the excessive centralisation of
APPENDIX, PART 1 527
the leadership ("everything" from the centre!), they are poorly learning the
art of independent initiative and concrete leadership in the local work.
The Communist Fractions and their Relations irith the Parly Committees. —
Of course, it was easier for the P.olsheviks than for the Communist Parties of
the capitalist conntries to estaWish the mutual relations hetween the Commu-
nist fractions and Party committees since the Party oi-ganisations actually
conducted a great variety of activities, they led the economic struggle, organ-
ised trade unions and co-operative societies and created all sorts of labour
organisations, such as were allowed to exist under the Czarist regime, from
190.~» until the war. That is wliy the Party organisations were recognised
authorities in the eyes of the workers in all these organisation^, especially of
the Party members and sympathisers. This situation appeared to all to be
quite natural and no one raised any question about it. When we came into
power there were some tendencies among certain Soviet (^ommunist fractions
to supplant the Party organs, but this was a passing phenomenon. The rela-
tions between the Party organisations and the Communist fractions (or indi-
vidttal Communists) in the non-Party mass labour organisations prior to and,
especially, since the capture of power, have been such that tlie Party organi-
sations decide the important questions while the Communist fractions and
the individual Communists, no matter what non-Party organisations may be
affected, carry the decisions into effect. Tlie Communist fractions themselves
decide upon the methods for carrying out the decisions. In their everyday work
they are entirely independent. They can and must display initiative in their
work within the non-Party organisations and bodies. The Communist frac-
tions in the leading bodies of the non-Party organisations must not only report
to the conferences and congresses whicli elected them, but also to the Party
committees. Prior to the October Revolution, and even immediately after it,
when there were still Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries in some of the
non-Party mass organisations, the Bolsheviks converted each newly-gained
position into a stronghold for the capture of the organisation in tlie district,
city, region and nationally. They demonstrated their ability to work better
than the others, prepare the questions, lead, and weld together and organise
the masses of the workers. That iw why they succeeded in driving the Men-
sheviks. Socialist-Revolutionaries and the other " Socialist " and populist parties
out of the mass labour organisations.
In the Communist Parties in capitalist countries tilings are different because
in them Social-Democratic traditions are still preserved, which are frequently
interwoven with sectarianism. The trade unions, and the other proletarian
mass organisations, as has been pointed out above, arose before tlie Social-
Democratic Parties in, the principal capitalist countries and made a strong
position for themselves in the working class as independent organisations which
led the economic struggle.
Tlie members of the Social-Democratic Parties who led the mass proletarian
organisations, therefore, had a definite amount of independence. Moreover, the
Social-Democratic Party not only did not oppose this independence but on the
contrary, they themselves developed tlie theory that the trade unions were
equal in value to, and therefore should have equal rights with, the Party,
that the trade unions were neutral organisations. As 'has been said already,
the only exception in this respect was the Bolshevik Party A number of cases
could be quoted in the histoi-y of German Social-Democracy for instance, when
the decisions of the trade union congresses differed from those of the Social-
Democratic Party Congresses- — for instance on the question of the general strike
in 190.5. And this was so despite th(^ fact that the delegates to the trade union
congresses were Social-Democrats who knew the standpoint of the Party. The
same thing occurred in connection with the celebration of the First of May.
Before the war the Social-Democratic Parties in Central Europe celebrated
May Day on the first of May, while the Social-Democratic " free " trade unions
sabotaged the First of May celebrftion. in order to avoid paying victimisation
benefit to workers who might lose their jobs for taking part in May Day
celebration on the First of May The trade unions urged that May Day
should be celebrated on the first Sunday in May. These relations which ex-
isted between the Social-Democratic Parties and the trade unions before the
war, and which the Bol.sheviks regarded as abnormal (.since the war surpris-
ing unanimity has been displayed between the Social-Democratic Parties and
trade unions and there has been complete co-operation between them in betray-
ing the interests of the working class in tlieir respective countries) cannot be
528 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tolerated in a Bolshevik Party since they prevent uniform leadership being
exercised over all fonns of the revolutionary labour movement. But they
have been inherited from the Social-Democratic Parties by the Communist
Parties in the capitalist countries.
The abnormal relations between the Communist Parties and the Communist
fractions in the trade unions and in all the other mass proletarian organisa-
tions are due to two fundamental causes : the Party committees sometimes
supplant the mass organisations, they remove the elected secretaries and
appoint others, they openly publish in the press such things as : We propose
to the red trade unions that they do this or that ; that is, they act in a way
as is very rarely done even by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Usually the decisions of the Central Committee of the Connuunist Party
of the Soviet Union or of the local Party committees are carried out through
the Communist fractions or through individual Party members working in
this or that non-Par ty organisation. Another cause of the abnormal relations
is that the individual members of the Communist Party work on their own
accord, disregard the directions of the Party organs or disobey them. There
have been cases in France, for instance, when the Party organs thought that
they must do absolutely everything, that they must take the place of the
International Red Aid, the trade unions, the co-operative and sport organ-
isations, where they alone can perform the fmictions of these organisations.
This is absolutely wrong. Even had the leadership of many of the Com-
munist Parties been a hundred times superior to what it is, in reality, they
■could not do the work of these organisations. This, in fact, is unnecessary
because both the Central Committee and the local Party organisations should
only determine the line, see that the line is carried out, lead the Communist
fractions and the individual Communists working in the mass organisations.
The Central Committee and the Party committees must get their directives
carried out in the mass labttur organisations through the Communist fractions
or the individual Party members where there are no fractions, but they must
not do their work for them.
However, I think it is hardly necessary to go into further details to prove
that these incorrect relations between the Party, the trade unions and the
mass organizations generally interfere with the extension of the Party con-
nections among the masses, with the real consolidation of the Party among the
masses.
In the countries in which there are red trade unions there exist side by
side with them, in the same industries, trade unions of other tendencies.
However, the red trade unions have very rarely succeeded in capturing whole
organisations, or more or less considerable groups of members, from the trade
unions of other tendencies.
The trade union oppositions in the reformist trade unions frequently suc-
ceed in gaining a majority in the local branches of the different reformist
trade unions. But the Communist Parties and the trade union oppositions
do not convert these into strongholds from which to extend their influence
over the other branches of the same union or over branches of other trade
unions which are affiliated to the same local trades council. This can only be
explained by the fact that the opposition branches not infrequently take up
the same position as reformist trade unions. The same applies to the red
factory committees. They do not receive proper leadership and the necessary
aid in their work.
The Press
The Bolshevist Party Press, expressing as it does the Party line, has always
carried out the decisions of the Party both during the illegal period and at
the present time. It mobilises, organises and educates the masses of the
workers.
The Party press must not be separated from the Party committees. Abroad
the Social-Democrat Parties used to elect the editors of the Party news-
papers at their congresses. There were cases when the Central Committee
could do nothing with such a newspaper: the paper had its own line while
the Central Committee followed its line. Such was the case in Germany with
the Voricarfs, the same occurred in Italy with Avmiti. The Comnninist Parties
naturally discarded these "excellent" traditions. But the "independent" press
which the Social-Democrats had before the war nevertheless left a deep
impress upon the Communist Parties as well. Not that the editors are ap-
APPENDIX, PART 1 529
pointed by the congresses and remain independent of the Central Committee
and Party committees, this does not liappen in the Communist Parties, but
in many cases the Central Connnittee and the Party committees give very
little attention to the Party press, and so the press in these cases goes its
own ^ay while Central Committees and the Party committees go their own
way. Tlie line of the Central Committee and of the Party committees often
differs from that of the Party newspapers — but this is not because the Central
Committee, the Party committees' and the editors want this to be so.
In Germany we have 38 Party dailies. If all of these 38 daily newspapers
had good and proper leadership they could exercise much greater intiueuce
upon the masses of the workers than they do at present. Remember that
from 1912 to IDli the Bolshevik Party had only one legal daily, Pravda.
And what miracles Pravda, performed in Russia in those days! AVhat an
inestimable help to Pravda was to the workers locally, though owing to the
censorship it could not say everything it desired. Pravda wrote on all the
most important and serious questions in popular language that could be
understood even by the uneducated workers. Pravda devoted much space
to events in the factories and mills. In those countries to which I have
referred the newspapers are legal, they are able, more or less, to say what-
ever they think to express and carry out the Party line. Like the mass
labour organisations, newspapers are channels through which the Communist
Parties can and must influence the workers, through which they can and must
win the workers. One must know how to utilise the newspapers, how to run
them properly.
The legal daily Communist press in many countries is not distinguished
for popularity of style, the topical character of subjects discussed, or brevity
of articles. The newspapers are filled with thesis-like articles instead of
popular and brief expositions of the most important vital tasks. If the active
members of the Party, the members of the Party generally, and the revolu-
tionary workers do not get material for the fight against the Social-Democratic
Parties, the reformists, the National-Socialists and other Parties, which still
have a working class following, the responsibility for this must rest upou
the press. The Party press must not only indicate the line and give facts
proving the treachery of the Social-Democrats and reformists and exposing
the demagogy of the National-Fascists, but it must also explain how these
facts should be utili.sed. Most of the Party newspapers contain no news
from the factories. The Party press has no room for such things.
Not all the Communist Parties have yet learned to appreciate the importance
of the Party press. Teachers at International Communist Party schools must
give the Party press special attention in their work with the students. Many
of the students graduating from the International Party schools become editors.
AVe have not observed that they are bringing fresh blood into and helping
to revive the Party press; that they are breaking down the Social-Democratic
traditions in this field.
Agitation
The capitalist world is at present experiencing a profound industrial crisis,
an agrarian crisis, financial upheavals, an imperialist war in the Far East,
which threatens to spread to the other countries. All this not only affects the
workers and poor peasants, but also the urban petty bourgeoisie (oflice em-
ployees, Government otfieials, &c.).
These masses are much more open to Communist agitation under present
conditions, when capitalist stabilisation has come to an end. than was the case
during the period of capitalist "prosperity." Unfortunately, the agitation the
Communist Parties carry on in their newspapers, leaflets and oral agitation is
too abstract. It seems to be based on the assumption that all the workers
know as much as those who write in the papers, who write the leaflets and
speak at meetings. When an emergency decree is published in Gei-many which
stings every worker to the quick, which cuts the wages or increases taxes, &c.,
instead of examining the decree point by point, instead of showing how much
the workers will have to pay in taxes, to what extent wages are to be cut,
so that the masses can understand it all, instead of this, they simply write:
We are opposed to the emergency decree! We demand a strike against this
decree !
How did the Bolsheviks carry on agitation in the past and how do they do
so at the present time? Did they do it in the way some of our Parties are
94931— 40— app.. pt. 1 35
530 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
doing it now? The strengUi of tlie Bolsheviks was due to the fact that they
took up every question ; be it a matter of a wage cut of even a kopek, of
absence of lavatories, broken windows in the factories, hot water, fines, the
quality of the provisions sold in the factory store, &c., &c., and argued about
tliem this way and that until the workers themselves drew logical political
conclusions from them.
Take the strikes which occurred in 1903 in^ the South of Russia. The Bol-
sheviks succeeded in developing this econoniic strike movement which was
initiated in Odessa by Shayevich and Co., the agents of Zubatov, Chief of the
Moscow Secret Police, into a coloss'al political movement which affected the
entire South. Many of the Communist Parties have not yet learned to agitate
effectively, while the leading comrades acting as editors, agitators, &c., think
that since they understand what is taking place it must be more or less clear
to the workers as well. And this is the way they 'approach the Social-Demo-
cratic workers. Instead of taking every little fact of treachery — where it
happened, when it happened, naming the witnesses, citing the exact records,
relating just how and when the Social-Democratic and reformist leaders nego-
tiated with the government and the employers and betrayed the interests of
the working class, instead of painstakingly explaining this to the Social-
Democratic, reformist and non-Party workers, our comrades keep repeating :
"Social-Fascists and trade union bureaucrats," and that is all. And they think
that having said "Social-Fascists" and "trade union buretiucrats," all the
workers must understand just what is meant by these terms of abuse and
believe that the Social-Democratic and reformist leaders deserved them. This
only has the effect of repelling the honest workers who belong to the Social-
Demociatic Parties 'and the reformist trade unions, since they do not regard
themselves either as Social-Fascists or trade union bureaucrats.
It should be quite clear, therefore, that methods of carrying on agitation must
occupy a prominent place in the curriculum of International Communist Party
Schools. Read Lenin's articles written in 1917. At that time the Bolshevik
P'arty was accused of being in the pay of the German imperialists. One would
have thought that the only way to reply to such a charge, to such an insinu-
ation, would be to say to the accusers : "You are scoundrels, rascals, we do
not want to talk to you ! We do not think it necessary to justify ourselves
before you ; you may think what you like, but we shall continue our work."
This is probably how many Communist Parties would have replied under the
circumstances ; they would have said that it was below their dignity to refute
such mean accusations! But how did Lenin react to this charge? In the first
place he began to explain who Alexinsky * was, and listed all the foul acts
by which Alexinsky had distinguished himself in Fi-lance, that at such and such
a meeting in France, this man had been thrown out because he was such a
liar and skunk. He then returned to Russia. The Central Executive Com-
mittee of the , Soviets, in which the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries
predominated would not receive him until he rehabilitated himself. Alexinsky
began to attack the Bolsheviks in the press and accused them of working for
the Germans, for money, in July, 1917. Lenin exposed this Alexinsky in his
true colours, showed what a creature he really was. Having thus exposed
the moral character of Alexinsky and destroyed him, Lenin then proceeded to
reveal the part the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries played in this
dirty campaign. The Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries knew that the
Bolsheviks were being falsely accused of espionage. Tseretelli, the Menshevik
leader, even telephoned to all the newspapers informing them that Alexinsky's
document was a forgery and asking them not to publish it. Lenin then quoted
a third fact. The slanderous document was known to the Provisional Govern-
ment as early as June, yet it did not arrest 'any of those who were accused
of being in the pay of the Germans. Hence, it was evident that the Provisional
Government did not believe in this calumny againts the Bolsheviks. Lenin
analysed all these facts, dissected them in a popular style and then put the
question: Who was at the he'ad of the Government? Kerensky? No. The
Central Executive Committee? No. It is the military. It was the military
*"Zhivoe Slovo" (Livin? Word) a yellow sheet published in Petrograd, in its issue of
.Tilly IS, 1917, No. 51, published a declaration signed by Alexinsky, a renegade Social-
Democrat, and Pankratov, a Socialist-Kevolntionary. in which they, on t'^e evidence given
by a certain Lieut. Yermalenko, under examination at the General Staff Headquarters and
the Military Intelligence Service on .\pril 28, 1017, accused the Bolsheviks of receivin,?
money froni German General Staff Headquarters for the purpose of carrying on anti-war
propaganda.
APPENDIX, PART 1 531
who wrecked our printing office! Wlio ordered it to be wrecked? Was it
the Provisional Government? No. Was it the C. E. C? No. There is another
power, that power is the military, and it was they who wrecked our printing
shop. And do you know who stands behind the military? The Cadets.* A
day later, in another article, quoting the speech of the National-Socialist,
Tchaikovsky, at the C. E. C, Lenin showed that the Cadets and the Western
imperialists had common aims, that the imperialists were willing to proivde
money only if the Cadets came into power. Lenin began with Alexinsky but
ended with the question of who was to be in power, with the question of the
class character of the State. He did not merely hurl abuse, he did not say
that it was beneath our dignity to refute the mean charges, but he proved
that they were insinuations and lies which were first circulated by a yellow
sheet and then taken up and trumpeted through the country by the entire
bourgeois, Menshevik, Narodniki and Socialist-Revolutionary press.
By carrying on agitation in this simple manner, intelligible to the masses of
the workers, the Bolsheviks succeeded not only in repelling the attack of the
Mensheviks, Socialist-Revoluntionists and Cadets at a time when the situation
was very acute for the Bolsheviks, but they succeeded in developing wide agi-
tation during the next three months ajrainst all the Parties of that time, par-
ticularly against the Mensheviks and the Social-Revolutionists who still exercised
some influence over the workei's, peasants and soldiers. In this campaign the
Bolsheviks utilised against these Parties, all their acts and deception on all
questions that came to the front at that time. You must remember that in the
lieriod before the October Revolution, in 1917, millions of workers, soldiers and
peasants had been drawn into the movement. Just before the October Days
the Bolsheviks had already vv'on the support of the entire woi'king class and the
majority of the soldiers, while the peasantry also supported the Bolshevik
slogans for land and peace.
Is this the way the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries are carrying
on their agitation? The Social-Democrats have committed so many acts of
treachery against the working class that one easily understands the perplexity
of the workers of the Soviet Union who frequently ask : what stuff are the
foreign workers made of? The Social-Democrats betray their interests daily,
we can see from here that they are being betrayed, yet these foreign workers
continue to vote for th Social-Democrats and remain in their Party. The reason
why the Social-Democrats are still able to get the support of the workers is that
many Communist Parties do not know how to carry on agitation even in the
extremely favourable situation which has been created by the present world in-
dustrial and agrarian ci'isis. The Communist Parties must present their criti-
cisms in a detailed and painstaking manner particularly because the Social-
Democratic leaders, despite their innumerable acts of treachery, still manage
to find new forms for their demairogic manoeuvres. The German Social-Demo-
crats have helped to carry out the emergency decrees with all their might and
rob the unemployed as well as the workers who are still employed. Now, they
are introducing a series of demagogic bills in the Reichstag — to reduce unem-
ployment, to increase unemployment benefits, to reduce rents, &e. — and at the
same time, by voting against the Communists with whom after the withdrawal
of the National-Socialists, they have a majority in Reichstag, get the Reichstag
dissolved indefinitely, without any date being fixed for its reassembly, without
any discussion of their bills and, of course, without a discussion of the proposals
of the Communist fraction. Under these conditions it is the duty of the Com-
munist Parties to catch the Social-Democratic swindlers " red handed " as it
were, to expose every one of their manoeuvres, every step in their treachery
with facts and proof.
Both before and after the capture of the power, the Bolshevik Party managed
to educate its members, to give them such instructions, such directives, as
enabled all the members of the Party to work towards one aim; no matter
where they were, no matter what functions they performed, all aimed at one
point. And yet, often the local Party bodies received their directives only
through the press. The Bolshevik Party achieved all this by applying those
methods of work which I have described above. Unfortunately the same can-
not be said of the majority of the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries.
There we have frequent cases of Party members aiming at different points.
♦Abbreviation for : Constitutional Democratic Party. The Party of the bourgeoisie.
532 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Present Situation, Tactics, Slogans, the Theory of "Lesser Evil" and the
United Front
Before the October Revolution the Meiisheviks ridiculed the Bolsheviks for
frequently placing on the agenda of their meetings the question: "'The Present
Situation." Yet, without making a precise analysis of a given situation and
defining its character it is very difticult to determine the tactics to be pursued.
The adoption of correct tactics in each given situation, and still more, the
correct application of these tactics is a great art. To master this art means
to advance the struggle and the task of winning the masses. It is no small
art to advance appropriate and timely slogans corresponding to the situation
and needs of the moment. At present hardly anyone will deny the ability of
the Bolsheviks to determine the character of the situation, prevailing at any
given moment, in masterly fashion, to adopt correct tactics and apt slogans to
which the great masses would and do respond and rally. Comrade Lenin
mocked at those Bolsheviks who clung to the tactics of yesterday and failed
to see that they no longer suited the new stage, or changed situation (for
instance, the proposal made by Kamenev and Bogdanov to boycott the elections
to the Third State Duma in the same way as the Bolsheviks boycotted the
First Duma).
It is this ability to define the "present situation (and to adopt correct tactics
corresponding to the given situation) that the Communist Parties in the
capitalist countries often lack (and this despite the fact that the Comintei'n,
mil ike the Second International, decides and frequently lays down the tasks
and tactical line of its section).
While some Communist Parties regard the fall of this or that Cabinet as a
"political crisis," others have regarded the temporary elimination of Parliament
from the discussion of current questions as the establishment of a Fascist
dictatorship and have deduced from it the necessity of proclaiming as the main
slogan the struggle against Fascism, and therefore, of diminishing the struggle
against the Social-Democratic Parties. When the mistake is rectified the
sfruggle begins to be conducted against Social-Democracy alone and the Fascists
are lost sight of. Very frequently the slogans advanced are absurd : sometimes
they apply to domestic questions alone, sometimes they are directed against war,
without, however, being organically connected with the questions of domestic
policy. Unfortunately we have had absurd slogans not only in the field of
"high" politics but also in the economic struggle where they are no less harm-
ful. It is necessary to study the peculiarities of the developing situation very
carefully and attentively, to watch its changes and tendencies, to study how
the workers react to events, how the enemies, the Social-D?mocrats, the Fascists,
&c., are preparing, what they are about to do, what tactics they are adopting.
Only such an analysis and study of the current situation can enable us to adopt
correct tactics, correct and timely slogans and to carry on our agitation on
proper lines. Questions arising out of the current situation should be frequently
and widely discussed in the Party press so that the analysis of the situation,
the refutation of the arguments and agitation of the opponents, and the ex-
posure of their plans and deceitful tricks serve to arm, educate and prepare the
Party members for the struggle. For the same purpose it is necessary to have
frequent discussions on the current situation and the tasks of the Party at
Party meetings, meetings of the Party groups, &c.
Such discussions will not only enable the Party members to understand the
Party line and tactics, to get their bearings on the burning problems of the day
and arm themselves with arguments for discussion and agitation in the factories,
among the unemployed, in the trade union branch and street, but will also put
more life into the groups and local Party organisations.
In recent years the Social-Democratic Parties and the reformist trade union
Inireaucrats have been making special use of the theory of the "lesser evil." The
reformists persuade tlie workers to agre^e to a wage cut of 8 per cent instead of
the 12 per cent, "demanded" (not without a preliminary agreement with the
reformist leaders) by the employers. Then they proclaim this "gain" of 4
per cent, as a victory for the workers. The Social-Democratic Parties support
ihe most despicable laws, which place a heavy burden of taxation upon the
toilers and cut down wages, on the pretext that the Government and the bour-
geoisie had intended to tax the workers even more heavily. This too they
represent as a victory for the workers. They propose to vote for Hindenburg
whom they attacked in the 1925 elections as a reactionary and a monarchist,
by representing Hindenburg to be the "lesser evil" compared with Hitler. The
APPENDIX, PART 1 533
Russian Mensheviks also resorted to the theory of the "lesser evil." Thus
during the elections to the Second St;ite Duma tiie Mensheviks, on the pretext
that Russia was menaced by the Black Hundreds, urged the workers to vote
for the Cadet Party. The Bolsheviks then struck the Mensheviks a crushing
blow. They convinced the revolutionary electors that they must vote for the
revolutionary candidates by showing that both prior to, during and after the
1905 revolution the Mensheviks supported the liberal bourgeoisie — just as the
Social-Democratic Parties are now supiwrting the bourgeoisie in their respective
countries on every question.
The Mensheviks opposed the hegemony of the proletariat in the bourgeois-
democratic revolution. Hence, their cries al)out the Black Hundred danger was
only a ruse designed to divert the working class from the correct revolutionary
path. The Communist Parties have not yet succeeded in exposing the manoeuvre
of the Social-Democratic Parties on the "lesser evil," by the methods with which
the Bolsheviks exposed the Menshevik manceuvre on the Black Hundred danger.
And as long as this false manceuvre of the Social-Democratic Parties remains
unexposed to the masses, it will be ditficult to free the workers from their
influence.
Among the vast masses of the workers there is a desire for unity. There have
been many cases in different countries when tlie crafty agents of the bourgeoisie
resorted to the unity slogan to dupe the workers.
The Social-Democrats too sometimes put forward the slogan of unity. And in
this the renegade Trotsky hastens to their aid with his proposal for a "bloc"
between the Communists and Social-Democrats. In support of his proposal he
argues that the Bolsheviks and Comrade Lenin adopted the same tactics.
I have tried to show above how the Bolsheviks established the united front
from below in the factories and mills.
Cases have occured in the history of Bolshevism when the united front policy
was applied simultaneously from below and above ; but these cases occurred only
in the midst of actual st)-tifjgJc. Such cases occurred in 1905 during the strikes,
demonstrations, pogroms, uprisings (Moscow) for the duration of the action.
So-called contact and federative committees were set up for the duration of the
joint action. The united front which sprung up from below in the course of the
practical, united struggle, compelled the Menshevik leaders to join the struggle
which the Bolsheviks led. Joint manifestos were issued. What was the situation
during the Kornilov days in 1917, by reference to which the renegade Trotsky
attempts to mislead the Communists?
At the end of August, 1917, Kerensky, not without the Ijnowledge of the Socialist-
Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks, invited Kornilov to march loyal troops on
Petrograd to strangle Bolshevik Petrograd. Kornilov came. But before reaching
Petrograd he demanded that practically all power be transferred to him. The
workers and soldiers who followed the lead of the Mensheviks and the Socialist-
Revolutionists realised that if Kornilov came into power he would not only hang
the Bolsheviks but them also. Under pressure of the masses the Mensheviks
and Socialist-Revolutionaries were compelled to join the struggle which was
already pi'oceeding under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. They were obliged
to distribute arms to the workers of Petrograd for this struggle. This was a
"bloc" only for the duration of the struggle against Kornilov. But even during
the struggle against Kornilov the Bolsheviks did not discontinue the campaign
against the Mensheviks, the Socialist-Revolutionists and the Provisional Govei'n-
meut, who, by their betrayal of the interests of the workers, soldiers and peasants,
reduced the country to the Kornilov affair and wavered between supporting
Kornilov and fighting against him. Can there be any comparison between this
and the situation in Germany? How is it possible to deduce from the Kornilov
events the necessity of establishing a "bloc" with the German Social-Democrats,
say. for the struggle against Fascism when the Social-Democrats are doing
nothing but helping the Fascists and the bourgeoisie : the Social-Democratic
Minister of the Police in Prussia dissolved the Red Front League because the
latter fought against the Fascists, but at the same time he not only tolerated but
protected the Fascist Shock Troops, while the Social-Democratic police alway.s
side with the Fascists and attack the workers whenever they resist the Fascists.
The Conmiunists will not be deceived by the fact that Hindenburg, on the eve
of the Prussian elections "dissolved" the Fascist Sliock Troops. Otlicially these
Fascist Shock Troops were declared dissolved, but their organisation was not
destroyed, in fact no real damage was done them. The object of this manoeuvre
was to provide the Social-Democrats with the protext for claiming that a fight
534 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
was beins waged against the Fascists and thus dupe the workers and win them
over to their side.
Practically every Communist Party has made numerous mistakes in the
application of the united front tactics. It must be said, however, that there
have already been cases of a correct application of the united front tactics. One
example of this is provided by the miners' struggle in Northern Bohemia which
was led by the Communist Party and red trade unions of Czecho-Slovakia. It is
necessary' to avoid mistakes and secure the correct and energetic establishment
of a Bolshevik united fighting front in the factories and mills from below at
all costs.
Legal and Illegal Work. The Utilisation of Legal Possibilities
The Bolshevik Party in Czarist Russia, although a completely illegal Party,
yet managed to utilise legal possibilities to the utmost extent.
Beginning with 1905 legal weeklies and magazines of a more solid nature were
published in various parts of vast Russia even in the years of blackest reaction.
These were in addition to Pravda, the daily organ of the Bolshevik Party, which
played such a tremendous role in the consolidation of the Bolshevik Party for the
struggle against Czarism, the bourgeoisie, and the Mensheviks, the Liquidators,
the Trotskists, the Conciliators, &c.
In addition to the legal press, illegal Party newspapers and leaflets were of
course published.
The illegal Bolshevik Party utilised all legal congresses of public organisations :
of doctors, co-operators, teachers, «S:C., in order to speak on the lines of the
Bolshevik programme of demands. It worked in all the legal workers' societies,
trade unions, co-operatives, recreation societies and other organisations. More-
over, the Bolshevik Party utilised the labour organisations formed by the Chief
of Police, Zubatov and the priest. Father Gapon, during the period preceding 1905.
to free the workers from the in.fluence of the police agents and these police traps.
It succeeded in exposing the machinations of the police at the meetings of these
very organisations.
How successful the work of the Bolsheviks was may be seen in the fact that the
police priest, Gapon, was compelled to include the most important demands of the
minimum programme of the Bolshevik Party, by the pressure of the masses, in
his programme, to avoid being exposed as an agent of the police.
It must be said that not only have the illegal Communist Parties failed to
utilise the legal possibilities, but. what is more surprising, even the legal Com-
munist Parties have not succeeded in successfully employing the underground
methods of work, though they have far greater opportunities for doing so than
the illegal Communist Parties.
When the legal Communist Press is temporarily suspended or when the
authorities forbid them to write about the emergency decrees which are aimed
against the working class (and have been coming thick and fast lately) or
the shooting of demonstrators, «S:e., the legal Parties have failed to pour a
stream of illegal newspapers and leaflets into the fartories on the topics which
the legal papers are prohibited from dealing with.
The same may be observed with regard to the prohibition of meetings and
demonstrations. To call meetings ostensibly for other purposes, sudden demon-
strations, in the working-class districts, despite the injunctions, is not only
possible but necessary after careful preparations have been made.
The authorities and the police close down newspapers for various periwls,
prohibit labour meetings and demonstrations at the most critical moments.
The Communist Party is therefore not only vitally interested in telling the
workers what the authorities seek to hide from them, but in getting the
workers to protest under the leadership of the Communist Party.
Only in this way can the Communist Parties win the masses and become
their leaders. In the absence of good cells in the factories it will be much
more difficult to work and maintain connections with the masses when the
legal Communist Parties are driven underground.
Urgent Tasks.
1. Communist and Tra<le Union Work in the Factories. — ^What is the main
point that should be emphasised in the course of studies at the Commi;nist
Party Schools? Work in the factories at aU costs. Unless work is carried on
in the factories it will be impossible to win the majority of the working class,
and that means impossible to fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat sue-
APPENDIX, PART 1 535
cessfnlly. Thnt is the first point. Rut work in the factories assumes excep-
tional importance in view of the approaching imperialist war, which will mean,
in the first place, the hreak-up of tlie legal revolutionary lahour movement,
of the legal Communist organisations and red trade unions. Under such
conditions work in the factories becomes more important than ever, and almost
the only metins of maintaining contacts with the masses of the factory workers,
of influencing them and guiding their actions. Moreover, in time of war,
nearly all factories are transferred to the production of munitions and the
manufacture of supplies for the imperialist armies of the home country or of
other countries; consequently, the fight against war must, more than ever, be
■carried on in the factory.
Work in tlie factories is a difficult matter. At the present time, when unemploy-
ment is rife, all the revolutionary workers are being discharged. Our task is to
penetrate the factories and mills at all costs, by all means, if necessary, under
another flag, it makes no difference how, but we must penetrate the factories
to carry on Communist work in them. Wide and popular agitation must be
carried on of the kind that the Bolsheviks carried on in the old days, and from
February to October, 1917. The Communist Parties in the principal capitalist
countries are still legal. They have their own Press, they can call meetings.
But the work of agitation must assume a different character ; it must be de-
veloped in the factories, at the factory gates, at the tram stops, near the subway
stations, wherever tlie workers and office employees work and congregate. Yon
must train a body of active people who know how to speak briefly and clearly,
supply them with information and instructions, and send them into the street,
into the factories and mills as agitators. Is this possible? It certainly Is pos-
sible. The students w^ho return to work should know this, should know how to
do this themselves and how to organise this work.
2. Strikes. — Plow should strikes be prepared? How should they be conducted,
what demands should be advanced? These are not easy questions. They pre-
sent very many difficulties to the majority of the Communist Parties, red trade
unions and trade union oppositions. Up to very recently many of the Com-
munist Parties advanced maximum programme* demands only and did not
trouble to issue every-day demands.
Now they seem to be saying : Let us advance only every-day demands without
any connection with the high politics and the maximum programme, for when
we advanced political points the workers did not listen to us, did not follow us,
and the work was done badly. We know from experience that the Bolsheviks
always connected politics with economics and economics with politics. I know
of cases in 1905 when in starting a political strike the Bolsheviks advanced
economic demands and vice versa.
To prepare strikes well is a difficult task. There was an enormous difference
between the Social-Democratic reformists and the Bolsheviks both in the aims
they pursued in strikes as well as in the organisation and conduct of strikes.
The Bolsheviks collected information on the conditions of the workers in the
factories ; they conducted activities among the individual workers in order to
explain the situation to them. When the preparatory work was finished (after
the cell had discussed all the details of the strike with the revolutionary non-
party activists)** the strike would be declared, the demands issued, a strike
committee would be elected which called the workers together and put the
questions connected with tlie strike to them. If the strike committee and the
revolutionary activists yveve arrested a new committee would be formed in the
same way. Tliere were no collective agreements then. If strikes broke out
unexpectedly — owing to a worsening of labour conditions, accidents, the ab-
scene of safety .screens around the machines, &c. — the Bolsheviks of the given
factory placed themselves in the leadersliip of the movement, formulated de-
mands, &c. Thus, strikes were prepared from below, in the factories, and in
those cases when strikes spread from factory to factory, or from city to city,
this did not always occur spontaneously. The party organisations in the city,
•district and the factory cells discussed methods for broadening the move-
ment, &c. The Bolsheviks, in conducting strikes, pursued two objectives : firstly,
«n improvement of tlie material and cultural standards of the workers, and,
secondly, the broader objective of drawing the largest possible number of work-
*!Maxininm programme : the Party's final programme for the overthrow of capitalism
as distinct from everyday immediate demands ou wages, hours, etc.
** Active worliers.
536 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
ers into tlie general proletarian struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie
and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
As soon as trade unions were formed, the Social-Democrats and the reformists
introduced such centralisation in the matter of sti-ikes that the trade union
members in the factories could not go on strike without the sanction of their
trade luiion. Whenever they went on strike without such sanction and the
Union Executive (or chairman) refused to approve the strike, it would be
declared to be "unofficial" and the strikers refused material assistance. When
they did sanction a strike they took the leadership into their own hands an»i
the strikers had nothing to do except i>erhaps send pickets to the place of
the strike if this was required. When the reformist trade unions grew strong
they began to conclude long-term collective agreements with the employers'
associations) and strikes rarely occurred during the period the collective agree-
ment remained in force. Strikes, sometimes big strikes, took place whenever a
new collective agreement had to be negotiated. In such cases the strikes were
led by the Central Committee of the unions. At best the strikers acted as pickets.
The reformist trade unions were guided in the conduct of the economic struggle
(before the war they conducted strikes) only by the desire to improve the
material and cultural standards of the working class, completely neglecting the
struggle against the capitalist s.vstem as a whole. The Commiinist Parties, in
leading relatively small red trade unions which are almost invariably dual
unions,* or trade union oppositions within the reformist trade unions, in most
cases adopted not the Bolshevik but the Social-Democratic, reformist method of
preparing strikes, the method of preparing them in their offices, without always
knowing the sentiments of the workers. For that reason, to this day the work-
ers frequently fail to respond to the strikes called by the red trade unions and
trade union oppositions, sometimes workers come out on strike from factories
that were not expected to come out on strike.
In the International Party Schools the students must also learn how to
prepare, conduct and lead strikes.
3. The Striif/(/lc Arjnixst the Reformisits and Social-Deniorratic Pariies. — The
Social-Democrats and the reformists must be exposed, they should be shown
up for what they say and actually do. This must be done day in and day out,
in every article of the party press, in leaflets and in oral agitation.
It is necessary to watch the Social-Democratic and reformist press and react
immediately to their agitation and leaflets in reply to them. It is necessai-y
to react in a popular and intelligible manner. Every article, every speech writ-
ten and uttered by the Social-Democrats and reformists can furnish the Com-
munist agitators and propagandists with material for their speeches against the
Social-Democrats and Reformists. Only in this way can we expose Social-
Democracy; without tills it will be hardly possible to expose them. In expos-
ing the Social-Democrats and the reformists you must not overlook the other
parties and organisations which exercise or seek to gain influence over the
working class (the Catholics. National-Socialists, &c.) .
The Social-Democratic Parties in the different countries apply various methods
in performing their role as the chief social bulwark of the boiirgeoisie. In Eng-
land, until the last elections, the Labour Party openly played its part while in
the Government. As soon as it saw that the masses of the workers were turning
away in disgust from its policy, that it was endangered from this side, it sacri-
ficed its leaders and went into "opposition." In France, the Socialist Part.y
has not participated in the Government since the war. Sometimes, on the eve
of an election, it even votes against this or that Bill in Parliament when it is
certain that the Government is assured of a ma.i(>rity without the Socialist
votes. In reality the French Socialist Party is a most devoted servant and pillar
of bellicose French imperialism. It is hardly necessary to speak about the
German Social-Democrats at all. They are past masters in the art of deceiving
the masses and the most cunning Party in the Second International in ma-
na'uvring.
The Communist Parties, like the Bolsheviks in Czarist Russia, must anticipate
the manoeuvres of the Social-Democrats and warn the masses against them.
They must expose them whenever they succeed in their manoeuvres, deceiving
the woi-kers and toilers. The Comnnmist Parties, the red trade unions and
all the mass revolutionary organisations, must tirelessly expose the Social-
*Dual Unions : Unions in industries where more than one exists.
APPENDIX, PART 1 537
Democrats and the reformists, for unless the workers are freed from their
intlueute the Comnuinist I'arties cannot win the majority of the worlving chiss,
without which it will be impossible to fight successfully against the bourgeoisie.
The Communist Parties must also carry on a vigorous and unrelenting struggle
against the National-Socialists, who take advantage of the treachery of the
Social-Democrats and reformists as well as of the mistakes and weaknesses of
the C;>nnnunist Parties to extend their iiilluence over the petty bourgeoisie and
permeate the unemployed with the aid of their demagogic slogans, frequently
even with the aid of Communist slogans.
4. Uneuiploijnient. — Unemployment is rife. None but the Communist Party
pays iiny attention to the unemployed. Nevertheless, even when it was possible
to organise the unemployed, when it was easy to do this by championing the
every-day interests of the unemployed, the Communist Parties failed to take
advantage of the situation. They failed to achieve such organization. There
are not many Communists in the factories since most of them have been dis-
charged. It "is not easy to work in the factory. But why has the work not been
organised among the unemployed, at the labour exchanges, in the lodging houses,
in the bread and soup lines? There is an enormous number of members of the
Parry and of revolutionary trade union organisations among the unemployed ;
is it ditficult to organize the work among these comrades? In Czecho-Slovakia
and Poland the unemployed organisations succeeded in places in mobilising
large masses and brought pressure to bear upon the municipalities, as a result of
which, the latter were forced to issue grants to the unemployed. In America
the unemployed receive no aid either from the State, or from the employers,
and are forced to depend upon charity. Large numbers of them are being evicted
from their homes. During 1930 and 1931, 352.469 families were evicted in New
York alone. There is a vast field of activity for the revolutionary and Com-
munist organisations, but they only take advantage of these conditions to a very
slight degree. At one moment they set up an exclusive unemployed organisation,
at another they spend all their time organising demonstrations and overlook the
need for establishing kitchens for the unemployed, for organising a movement
capable of preventing the eviction of the unemployed, demanding and securing
benefits for the unemployed, &c., &c.
"Why the Communist Parties and Revolutionary Trade Unions Lag Behind the
Revolutionary Labour and Peasant Movements
I have tried to show the difference between the tactics, organisation, methods
and content of work, and ultimate aims of the Bolsheviks and Social-Democrats,
and I have also tried to show the causes of this difference. We, the workers on
the E. C. C. I., sometimes hear arguments to the effect that the old Bolshevik
experience does not apply to the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries,
especially in regard to methods of work in the factories. The experience of the
past few years, however, has refuted this view. Where the Bolshevik methods
of work have been applied, and flexible tactics in the factories, they have yielded
excellent results. Does not the intensity of the struggle, the mass character
of tb3 labour and peasant movement in Poland and the leading role of tlio Com-
munist Party plays in this struggle, in this movement, reveal the superiority of
Bolshevik methods over Social-Democratic ones? You must remember that the
Polish revolutionary proletariat, the former S. D. P. of Poland and Lithuania,
iiovv' the Communist Party of Poland, in spite of the mistakes it committed,
fought shoulder to shoulder with the Bolshevik Party of Russia. They adopted
the Bolshevik methods of work ; that is why they have not become isolated from
the Polish proletariat despite the ruthless fascist terror in the country. But the
Communist Parties, the red trade unions and the trade union opposition in the
capitalist countries which have not yet freed themselves from Social-Democratic
traditions, have not adopted, are not carrying out, or are carrying out poorly,
the Bolshevik methods of work and forms of organization, are not giving the
work a Bolshevik content, are lagging behind the revolutionary labour movement,
behind the revolutionary events and are unable to consolidate their growing
political influence organisationally (for instance, we get four to five million
votes and at the same time we fail to organise resistance to the employers'
attack on wages). This backwardriess will be inevitable until the Communist
Parties, the red trade unions and the trade union opposition discard the Social-
Democratic traditions and assimilate and apply the truly Bolshevik experience
in every field of their political work and every-day activities.
538 UN-AMERICAN PIIOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Training Cadres and the Methods of Teaching in the Communist Party Schools
The question of cadres is assuming tremendous importance for tlie Communist
Parties, red trade unions and trade union opposition, in the present conditions.
The International Communist Party Schools therefore play an important part in
training revolutionary cadres.
The question of instruction in these Party Schools is of vital importance
because tue need for theoretically-trained cadres who combine theoretical knowl-
edge with practical experience is very acute in the sections of the Communist
International. This need has not diminished in recent years, but, on the contrary
it has increased. We have not trained such cadres in sufficient numbers. The
Communist Parties in the capitalist countries can obtain these cadres from the
International Communist Party Schools. Some of these Party Schools have been
in existence for some time now, but the Comintern has not yet received the cadres
necessary for Communist work. To be sure, when the students of the Interna-
tional Communist Party Schools return to their Parties upon graduating, they
iiuow, perhaps, the most important works of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, quite well, and In
some countries they even become Party leaders.
But what the Communist Parties have not yet received from the International
Communist Party Schools are comrades capable of applying Marxism and
Leninism to the local conditions, capable of organi.sing and conducting mass work,,
and this is precisely what the Communist Parties are mainly in need of at the
present time.
They have not been getting workers really capable of helping them to rebuild
the Parties, the red trade unions and the trade union oppositions on a factory
basis.
What are the causes of this? The causes are as follow: the students study
Party structure in the Soviet Union; that is those forms of Party structure
which cannot be fully applied in their countries at the present time, but only
after the capture of power by the proletariat. But they even learn the Party
structure of the C. P. S. U. superficially : they do not study the methods of
mass work, the mobilisation of the masses, the different approach to the differ-
ent sections of the toilers, mass agitation, forms of organisation of mass agita-
tion, the relations between the Communist fractions (especially in the lower
mass uon-Party organisations) and the respective cells and Party committees,,
the work of the factory Party cells and of the factory trade union committees,
&c., with suflicient attention. This is the cliief point. They do not study and
assimilate the experience of the period preceding the capture of the power
by the working class, that is the experience of the Bolsheviks in the Tsarist
days and in the Kerensky days from February to October.
it is this experience which our Communist Parties need most.
It is this experience which contains elements of similarity with the situation
in the Communist Parties in the capitalist countries at the present time. Of
course there are also points of difference.
That is why I dealt with the difference between the position of the Bolshevik
Party under the Czar, and that of the Communist Parties in the capitalist
countries at the present time.
The fact that the Communist Parties do not get the kind of graduates they
need from the International Party Schools proves that the instruction given is
apparently not conducted with a view to the peculiarities of each individual
Party, to its development, traditions and former customs.
The task of the International Communist Party Schools is to assist our Com-
munist Parties to assimilate the experience of the Bolsheviks, both in Party
organisation as well as in Party work as a whole, in such a way as to enable
them to apply this experience to the conditions prevailing in their respective
countries. Tlie conditions in the various countries differ. Conditions in Ger-
many differ very much from those in France, they differ very much from those
in England and not less from those in the United States. In every country
the labour movement has its own peculiar features, history and traditions, its
peculiar forms of Pai'ty organisation and of labour organisations. When you
are giving instruction according to groups of countries you must bear this in
mind. It should be stated that teachers can obtain the necessary material and
facts concerning each country, and the conditions prevailing tliere, from the
students who have taken part in the practical work of their Parties.
The International Communist Party Schools must help the Communist Parties
and the revolutionary trade union movement to train genuinely Bolshevik cadres.
APPENDIX, PART 1 539
Exhibit No. 82
[Source: Daily Worker, January 6, 1933, page 4]
:ic H: H< ilf it: * *
E3VEBY SHOP AND FACTOKY OUR FORTRESS !
The Central Committee called two important regional shop conferences, one
Eastern and one of the concentration districts. These conferences were held
in order to mobilize the Party for the carrying ont of the historically signifi-
cant tactical line given up by the 12th Plenum of the E.C.C.I., which is based
upon the analysis that relative capitalist stabilization has ended.
What is the chief task of our Party at the present moment? The 12th
Plenum of the E.C.C.T. gives us a clear guide. It says : "The greatest possible
development and strengthening of the struggle of the proletariat against wage
cuts and worsening of the conditions of labor, the exertion of all the efforts
of the Commimist Parties and the revolutionary trade union organizations to
insure the independent leadership of strike struggles and the unemployed move-
ment, the raising of the fighting capacity of the masses, leading them on the
basis of their own experiences from the struggle for every day partial de-
mands to the struggle for the general class tasks of the proletariat represents
the chief tasks for all sections of the Communist International under the con-
ditions of the end of capitalist stabilization."
^^'hat is the main base for the development of the struggle against the capi-
talist offensive at the present moment? It is the shop, the center of the attack
of the capitalist class. Isn't it a fact that our Party is still isolated from the
main sections of the American working class precisely because we lack solid
contacts with the workers in the shops, particularly in the basic industries?
The steel workers, the automobile workers, the railroad workers, have received
numerous wage cuts. Certainly these workers are dissatisfied and are ready to
struggle. The steel magnates have annoimced new wage cuts. The workers
in each industry are facing new wage cuts and most vicious working condi-
tions. We must say that the absence of large scale struggles in these indus-
tries is primarily due to our isolation from these workers, and lack of contacts
and organization in the shops.
The important experiences and valuable lessons from these two shop confer-
ences will be made available to the entii'C Party. Within a few days the Daily
AVorker will cari'y the reports of these conferences on the work in the shops
and discuss the problems and lessons which arose at these conferences. The
entire Party should, with the closest attention, follow the discussion in the
Daily. The discussion in the Daily should help in concentrating the attention
of the Party on shop work. It should help in basically improving our methods
of shop work.
The discussions at these two conferences have shown that the Resolution
of our 14th Plenum of the Party and the struggle for the carrying out of the
14th Plenum Resolution is beginning to take root amongst large sections of the
Party membership. At the same time it also showed that the Section, District
and Central Committee fimctionaries have not sufSciently participated in the
attempts of the lower organizations and our comrades in the shops in developing
shop work and shop struggles. This only once more emphasizes the need of
struggle against our bureaucratic methods of work and leadership. Indeed one
of the main complaints of the comrades active in shop work was the fact that
they do not receive immediate, intimate guidance from the higher bodies.
Both conferences have disclosed that our greatest weakness in the develop-
ment of shop work is the inability of raising partial demands. And even still
more, our inability to apply the policy of the united front in setting in motion
the most backward sections of the workers in the shop for struggles against
immediate grievances. At the same time comrades active in the shop have
brought forward excellent examples how a Communist, by correctly raising
partial demands and applying the policy of the united front, gains the confidence
of the workers in the shop and develops shop struggles.
The discussion also emphasized the fact that our weaknesses in developing
a correct policy of the united front was due to an under-estimation and in-
ability of fighting social fascism. It must lie remembered that the shop is
the very basis of building the revolutionary trade unions and opposition grouns
within the reformist unions. The struggle for the shop is the key point in the
development of a correct revolutionary strike strategy.
More progress in shop work could be reported at our Eastern Regional Con-
ference. The positive lessons brought forward at the Eastern Conference are
540 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of great value and immediate use to tlie entire Party in the development of
shop work. But this progress reported at the Eastern Conference was mainly
confined to the lighter industries. The Regional Conference of the concentra-
tion districts has brought forward the difhculties and main problems of shop
work in the basic industries from the concentration districts. The concentra-
tion districts have made very little progress. We must remember that our
policy of concentrating in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago is based
on the struggle of our Party to "Hrmly root itself in the decisive industries
. . . and to overcome the isolation of the Party from the decisive masses of
the American proletariat."
The need of winning the native born workers was stressed at the shop
conferences. At the same time the comrades refuted the ideas that foreign
born woi'kers cannot organize the native born workers in the shops. A living
illustration of the important role which foreign born workers can play in
organizing the native born workers was given by a comrade from a Patterson
shop.
At the shop conferences all of the important political problems of shop work —
the question of the unemployed in shop work, the question of shop agitation,
the question of the Party and union work in the shop — all of these problems
were raised and discussed by the comrades active in shop work. The suc-
cessful development of our shop work depends on the solution of all of these
problems. The exchange of experiences at the shop conferences and the fur-
ther discussion in the entire Party will help in the solution of these problems.
An outstanding weakness of both shop conferences was the very small number
of Negro comrades present. Even in the discussion when the conu'ades were
describing the composition of shops in basic industries they merely mentioned
Negro workers. But this was only done statistically. No reports whatsoever
were made with regard to our special methods of work and activities in win-
ning the Negro workers in the industries. The 14th Plenum Resolution already
spoke of the need of "making the red unions the real channels of Negro work."
The entire Party must immediately realize this great weakness and take ener-
getic steps in winning the Negro workers in the shops for struggle.
At the Eastern Conference we had some women comrades from the lighter
industries, but this number was very limited. Shop work is unthinkable with-
ovit the winning of the women workers in the industries.
At the Eastern regonal conference a most instructive report was given by
the Y.C.L. comrade on the leadership in the Trenton doll strike. This strike
has resulted in material gains for the young workers. The exi>eriences in
Trenton emphasized both the importance of the youth in shop and strike strug-
gles and the possibility of winning strikes when a correct strike strategy is
applied.
A necessary condition for the development of struggles in the shop is the
fight against opportunism. At both conferences right and left opportunism
manifested itself. Opinions that the social fascists can better formulate im-
mediate demands than we, that the appearance of the Party in the shop is a
hindrance in developing shop organization emphasize once more that we must
carry on a decisive struggle against the right danger as the chief danger and
against the "leff'deviation.
From the viewpoint of mobilizing the Party for vshop work and important ex-
change of experiences, we may say that both conferences, in spite of the men-
tioned weaknesses, were successful.
The best indication of the earnestness with which the Party is beginning to
take up shop work is the spirit of real self-criticism which prevailed at these
conferences. Self-criticism not based merely on confessing sins, and pledges to
be good, but based on actual contact with the workers and experiences of strug-
gles in the shops. Only a self-criticism which leads to self-correction is Bol-
shevik self-criticism.
The tempo in our shop woi'k is improving, the general life of the Party is
beginning to improve, the valuable guide of the C.I. in aiding our Party in the
struggle against sectarianism is beginning to bear fruit. Tlie beginnings of con-
tacts and organization in the shops have helped to ci'eate a healthy and re-
freshing atmosphere at the shop conferences. This spirit must permeate the
entire Party from top to bottom.
Let us not allow the tempo to slacken. Deeper into the ranks of the Party.
More intimate and permanent contacts with the large masses of workers!
APPENDIX, PART 1 541
Exhibit No. 83
[Source : Daily Worker, New York, April 17, 1933, page 4]
COMMUNIST INTEKNATIONAL DBNOrNCES SURRBNDOEIR OF GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRAOY
TO hitler; approves policy of GEKIIAN COMMUNIST PARTY LED BY THAELMANN
The Presiclinm of the Executive Committee of tlie Communist International
several clays ago adopted a comprehensive resohition on the German situation.
Reports about it, some of them misleading and garbled, appeared in the capitalist
press. The full text of the resolution, sent by mail, is printed below. — Editor
Daily Worker.
Having heard the report of Comrade Heckert on the situation in Germany,
the Presidium of the ECCI declares that the political line and the organizational
policy pursued by the CC of the Communist Party of Germany, led by Comrade
Thaelmann, before and at the time of the Hitler coup was quite correct.
It was in the conditions of the tremendous sharpening of the economic and
political situation in Germany, when, on the one hand, the Communist Party
had already become a tremendous force in the working class and a revolutionary
crisis was rapidly maturing; when on the other hand, the deep contradictions
among the ruling classes themselves had become clear and the fascist dictatorship
in the shape of the Papen and Schleicher Government was not in a position to
stop the growth of Communism and find any way out of the ever intensifying
economic crisis, that the German bourgeoisie delegated the establishment of an
open fascist dictatorship to the fascist Hitler and his "National-Socialist" Party.
Socialist Leaders Restore Capitalism
The victory of Hitler and the establishment of the power of the "National-
Socialists" was possible owing to the following circumstances :
German Social-Democracy, which had the support of the majority of the
proletariat in the November revolution of 1918, split the working class, and
instead of carrying the revolution forward to the dictatorship of the proletariat
and Socialism, which was the duty of a proletarian party, it, in alliance with the
bourgeoisie and the generals of the Kaiser, suppressed the uprising of the revo-
lutionary masses and laid the basis for a profound split in the working class
of Germany.
Under the flag of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and the tactic of the
"lesser evil," in alliance with the bourgeoisie and with the approval of the whole
of the Second International, it continued this policy of severe repression of the
revolutionary movement and the line of splitting the working class right up to
the most recent date. It disbanded the Red Front Fighters League, suppressed
revolutionary workers' organizations, prohibited and fired into workers' demon-
strations, broke economic and political strikes against the capitalist offensive
and fascism, and supported the power of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie.
Social democracy concentrated the leadership of the mass workei's' organiza-
tion into the hands of its corrupt bureaucratic leaders. It expelled revolutionary
workers from these organizations, and by means of a network of centralised
workers' organizations subordinated to it, it fettei'ed the initiative of the
working masses, undermined their fighting powers for the struggle against
capital and fascism, and hindered them from decisively reijelling the advance
of the fascist dictatorship and the terrorist fascist gangs.
This policy of struggle against the revolutionary masses, collaboration with
the bourgeoisie, and help for reaction, under the pretense of pursuing the tactics
of the "lesser e\il" has been the policy of the Second and the Amsterdam
Internationals as a whole, from 1914 up to the present time.
In the conditions of imperalism, and still more so in a country which had been
defeated in the imperialist war and whose capitalism had been deeply under-
mined by the general crisis of the capitalist system, the Weimar "democratic"
bourgeois republic could only be a reactionary dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
The labor legislation, insurance and democratic rights which the bourgeoisie had
been compelled to give to the workers in the years of the revolution, were
gradually taken away by the Weimar coalition that was in power, consisting
of Social Democrats, the Center Party and the "democrats." Continual and
gradual concessions to reaction, a gradual repeal of one point of the constitution
542 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
after another, of one gain of the workers after another ; the gradual fascisation
of the whole apparatus of the state, so greatly discredited the Weimar coalition
and the Weimar republic that it lost all serious significance in the eyes of the
broad masses.
Social Basis of Fascism
The Versailles system plundered Germany, and put the German toiling masses
iTuder the oppression of the unbearable exploitation, not only of their own
capitalists, but also of foreign capital, to whom the German government had to
transfer reparation payments. The oppression of Versailles, multiplied by the
oppression of their "own" German bourgeoisie led to an unprecedented fall in
the standard of living of the proletariat and to such an impoverishment of the
peasants and of the urban petty-bourgeoisie that a section of these strata began
more and more to consider pre-war Germany as their ideal, in which there was
not yet the general crisis of capitalism and not such an impoverishment of the
masses as now.
It can be understood therefore, that at a time of the most intense economic
crisis, which increased the burden of the external Versailles national oppression
and when, due to the Social Democrats, the i)roletariat was split, and consequently
not strong enough to carry the urban petty-bourgeoisie and the peasant masses
with it, there was bound to arise, and actually there did arise, a tempestuous
outburst of German nationalism and chauvinism which considerably strengthened
the political situation of the bourgeoisie, and brought to the surface the most
demagogic nationalist party — the Party of the "National Socialists."
Social-Fascist Leaders Disrupt United Struggle Against Fascism
The Communist workers organized and carried on a struggle against the
capitalist and fascist offensive. They supported every, even the slightest action
of the social democratic workers against capital, wherever such actions took
place. WisMng to restore the revolutionary unity of the working class, they, long
before the victory of fascism, repeatedly proposed to the social democratic
workers and the lower social democratic organizations that a United Front be
formed for the struggle against the bourgeoisie and their lackeys, the fascists.
But the mass of the social democratic workers, who carried with them the
majority of the working class of Germany, were fettered by their social demo-
cratic leaders, who were opposed to the revolutionary united front, and who
maintained their reactionary united front with tlie bourgeoisie, rejected the
united front with the Communists on every occasion, and disrupted the struggle
of the working class. Wliile the Conununists insisted on a Revolutionary united
front of the working class against the bourgeoisie, against fascism, the social
democrats on the contrary, impelled the workers in the direction of a reactionary
united front with the bourgeoisie, against the Communists, against the Com-
munist workers, destroying and repressing Communist organizations wlienever
und wherever this was possible.
Social Fascists Surrender Prevents General Strike Against Hitler's Accession
In pursuing its line of struggle for the revolutionary unity of the working
class against the social democratic united front with the bourgeoisie, the Com-
munist Party, as the only revolutionary leader of the German proletariat, in
spite of the strike-breaking tactics of social democracy in the matter of the
united front against the bourgeoisie, called on the working class for a General
Political Strike on July 20, 1982, when the fascists dispersed the social demo-
cratic Prussian Government, and on January 30th, 193.3, when Hitler came
into power in Germany ; and in order to carry on this strike proposed a united
front to the Social Democratic Party and the reformist trade unions. Tlie
development of the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and fascism.
combined with general strike, would have caused the hesitating toiling masses of
peasants and the urban petty-bourgeoisie to follow the proletariat.
But the Social Democrats, continuing their previous policy, and orientating
themselves to further collaboration witli the bourgeoisie, fettered the initiative
of the masses by the network of centralized organizations which followed tlieir
lead, first of all the reformist trade unions, interfered with the organizations of
a general strike and disrupted it, thus encouraging the further attacks of the
fascists on the proletariat.
APPENDIX, PART 1 543
As a re?:ult, the Ynngtiard of the revolutionary wing of the Gorman proletariat,
the Conimnnist Party, was dei)ri\ed of the support of the majority of the
worldns class.
Under these circumstances, the proletariat was not in a position to organize,
and in fact failed to organize, an immediate and decisive blow against the state
apparatus, which now for the purpose of fighting against the proletariat, absorbed
the figliting organizations of the fascist bourgeoisie: the .Storm Detachments,
the "Steel Helmets" and the Reichswehr. The bourgeoisie was able, witliout
.serious resistance, to hand over the power of government to the National So-
<'ialists, who acted against the working class by means of provocation, bloody
terror and political banditism.
Conditions Not Ripe For Uprising
In analyzing the conditions for a victorious uprising of the proletariat,
Lenin said :
"A decisive battle can be considered as fully mature." if all the class forces
which are hostile to us have become sufticiently entangled, have sufficiently
come into conflict with each other, have sufficiently weakened themselves by
a struggle which is beyond their strength." If "all the vacillating, hesitating,
unstable, intermediate elements, i. e., the petty bourgeoisie, petty bourgeois
democracy as distinguished from the bourgeoisie, have sufficiently exposed
themselves to the people, have sufficiently disgraced themselves by their prac-
tical bankruptcy." If "among the proletariat mass sentiment has begun, and
is rising strongly in faA'our of supporting the most decisive supremely, bold
and revolutionary activity against the bourgeoisie. Then the revolution has
matured, and if we have properly taken into account all of the conditions
mentioned above . . . and have properly selected the moment, our victory is
assured."
The characteristic feature of the circumstances at the time of the Hitler
coup was that these conditions for a victorious rising had not yet managed
to mature at that moment. They only existed in an embryonic state.
As for the vanguard of the proletariat, the Communist Party, it did not wish
to slip into adventurism, and of course, could not compensate for this missing
factor by its own actions.
"It is Impossible to win with the vanguard alone." says Lenin. "To throw
the vanguard alone into the decisive fight, while the whole of the class, the
whole of the broad masses, have not occupied the position either of direct
support of the vanguard, or at least of friendly neutrality towards it . . .
would not only be foolish, but a crime."
Such were the circumstances which decided the retreat of the working
class and the victory of the counter-revolutionary fascists in Germany.
Socialist Support of Bourgeoisie Responsible for Fascism
Thus, in the last analysis, the establishment of the fascist dictatorship
in Germany is the result of the social democratic policy of collaboration with
the bourgeoisie throughout the whole period of existence of the Weimar republic.
The Social Democrats repeatedly stated that they would not oltject to Hitler's
coming into power in a "constitutional" manner. After Hitler assumed
power. "Vorwaerts" on February 2nd, stated that without social democracy
a person like Hitler could not have become Reichs Chancellor. Wels stated the
same thing on March 23rd, in his declaration in the Reichstag, in which he said
that the services social democracy had rendered to the "National Socialists"
are very great, because it was thanks to the policy that social democracy
pursued, that Hitler was able to come to power. There is no need to mention
Leipart, Loebe and other social democratic leaders who completely support
the fascists. The Commimist Party was right in giving the name of social
fascists to the social democrats.
Fascism Destroys Democratic Illusions
But the fascist dictatorship, basing itself on armed gangs of National Social-
ists and "Steel Helmets." and commencing civil war against the working class,
abolishing all the rights of the proletariat, is at the same time smashing the
544 UX-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Social Democratic theory tliat it is possible to win a parliamentary majority
by means of elections, and to develop peacefully towards Socialism without
revolution. It is destroying the social democratic theory of class collaboration
with the bourgeoisie, and the policy of the "lesser evil," and is destroying
all the democratic illusions among the broad masses of workers. It is
proving that the Government is not a super-structure rising above classes, but
a weapon of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, that the real State power is
the armed bands of storm troops, "Steel Helmets," police and officers who are
governing in the name of the bourgeoisie and the Junkers. The working
class is actually becoming convinced that the Communists were right, when
for a number of years they fought against democratic illusions, the Social
Democratic policy "of the "lesser evil,"' and collaboration with the bourgeoisie.
Mass Misery Grows — Hitler Leads Germany To Economic Catastrophe
Meanwhile the frantic dictatorship of Hitler, which has started civil war
in the country, cannot solve a single political and eonomic question of con-
temporary Germany. The poverty and want of the masses are increasing day
by day. The position of industry is growing worse because the adventurist
policyof the government is only accelerating the contraction of the home and
foreign market. There are not and there cannot be any prosijects of a serious
reduction of unemployment. There is no possibility of giving work and em-
ployment to all the adherents of the National Socialists. In phice of the
National Socialists who are giving jobs, other workers will be dismissed.
The continuation of the moratorium until October and introduction of fjuotas
on imports of agricultural products, can only satisify a small section of the
most well-to-do peasants for a very short period, but cannot stop the growth
of want, poverty and discontent among the broad peasant masses. The dem-
agogic attacks on tlie big stores and Jewish capital cannot help the impover-
ished petty-bourgeoisie, whose position will grow worse pi'oportionally with
the further fall of the purchasing power of the home market. The giving
of paltry help to the needy with bread and pork was only a sop for the
elections. In view of the worsening economic situation, the increase of unem-
ployment relief by 2 marks a month, cannot but be taken back. It is be-
coming clear that Hitler is leading Germany to economic catastrophe, which
is becoming more and more inevitable.
German Fascism Increases War Danger
The National Socialist movement grew up first of all as a nationalist and
chauvinist movement of tlie petty-bourgeoisie and part of the peasant masse>,
led by officers and government officials of the Kaiser, against the Versailles
treaty. The two months in which Hitler has been in power is just one
chauvinist tirade against proletarian internationalism and against "world
Bolshevism." It is a policy of sharpening relations with all countries without
discrimination. Such a policy will not only fail to strengthen Germany, but
will weaken it still further and isolate it. The attempts of the government
to violate the Versailles treaty under such conditions and to obtain successes
in foreign policy, even if only unity with Austria, so as to raise its prestige
among its followers, will only lead to a further sharpening of the whole
international situation and a tremendous growth of the war danger. Every
day of the Hitler Government will reveal with greater clearness the manner in
which the masses who follow Hitler have been tricked. Every day will show
with greater clearness that Hitler is leading Germany to catastrophe.
Communist Party Prepares for Decisive Revolutionary Battles
The present period of calm after the victory of fascism is temporary. The
revolutionary upsurge in Germany will inevitably grow in spite of the fascist ter-
ror. The resistance of the masses to fascism is bound to increase. The estao-
lishment of an open fascist dictatorship, by destroying all the Democratic
Illusions among the masses and liberating them from the Influence of social
democracy, accelerates the rate of Germany's development towards proletarian
revolution.
The task of the Comunists must be to explain to the masses that the
Hitler Government is leading the country to catastrophe. It is now necessary
to warn the masses with greater energy than ever before that the only salvation
APPENDIX, PART 1 545
for the toiling masses from still greater poverty and want, the only way to
avoid catastrophe, is the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the
proletariat. It is necessary to strive to rally all the forces of the proletariat
and form a united front of social democratic and Communist workers for the
struggle against the class enemies. It is necessary to strengthen the Party
and strengthen all the mass organizations of the proletariat, to prepare the
masses for decisive revolutionary battles, for the overthrow of capitalism and
for the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship by an armed rebellion.
lu view of all this, the Presidium of the ECCI approves the programme of
practical activities planned by the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Germany.
Exhibit No. 84
[Source: Daily Worker, May 19, 1933, page 1]
* * * ■» if * 4e
DEMiLOP ANTI-WAR STRUGGLES
Our struggle against imperialist war has of late slackened. This in spite
of the growing war tenseness wliich permeates the whole international situation
at the present time. It is necessary with the greatest vigor to develop anti-war
activities. It is necessary to popularize the Resolution of the 12th Plenum
Against War. Below, we print a section of the 12th Plenum Anti-War Resolu-
tion, outlining tlie immediate steps for struggle against imperialist war.
The general tasks of all Communist Parties in the struggle against imperialist
war and military intervention and in the struggle against fascism, social democ-
racy and bourgeois pacifism which facilitate the various methods of preparing
and carrying on imperialist war and military intervention against the U.S.S.R.,
are as follows :
a) To develop a systematic ideological struggle against chauvinism and
nationalism, to carry on propaganda for real proletarian internationalism, to
expose to the masses all the machinations of the foreign policy of their own
bourgeoisie, to expose all the measures of the home policy of the bourgeoisie in
preparation for war, to expo.se the production and transport of munitions for
imperialist countries, to remind the masses of all the calamities of the first
imperialist war, to light tirelessly against the militarization of the schools.
b) To react actively to all manifestations of the anti-Soviet campaigns, to
seriously im]>rove the propaganda of the success of Socialist construction in
the U.S.S.R., among the broadest masses, to mobilize the toilers against the
whiteguards, to popularize the peace policy of the U. S. S. R., to mobilize the
masses for the active defense of the U.S.S.R., China and the Chinese-Soviet
revolution.
c) To expose on the basis of actual and well-known facts all the sophisms
and maneuvers of the bourgeois pacifists and especially the social-democratic
parties.
d) To expose widely to the masses the peculiar, secret birth and conduct
of a new imperialist war (mobilization in parts, formation of a covering army,
preparation to cleanse the rear from revolutionary elements) and in deciding
the anti-war tactics of the Communist Party, to take into account the variety
of the new methods employed by the bourgeoisie in preparing and carrying
on war.
(e) By employing the tactic of the united front, to set up legal, semi-legal
and illegal control committees and committees of action in the munition fac-
tories, in ports, in factories, on railroads, and on ships, for the purpose of de-
veloping mass activity and carefully prepared protest strikes and economic
strikes to prevent the "transport of munitions and troops, and to rouse the initia-
tive of the broad masses of workers in this matter.
f ) To develop extensive mass work among the unemployed, among the youth,
among working women and among emigrant workers, against imperialist war
and military intervention. To draw the peasant masses into the stru<rgle against
imperialist war. To support the national liberation movement of the colonial
and subjected nations.
g) To carry on extensive anti-imperialist work among the soldiers, among
conscripts, reservists and in the special militaiy organizations of the bour-
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 36
^46 UN-AMEPaCAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
geoisie. To strengthen the Party organizations and all the revolutionary youth
organizations, bearing in mind that the whole Party, the whole of the Y. C. L.
must participate in this work.
To organize the struggle of the soldiers for their every day demands and to
support this struggle by the solidarity of the workers and the toiling peasants.
To popularize revolutionary traditions and examples of the struggle against war.
All the C. P.'s must carry on an irreconcilable Bolshevik struggle in their
own ranks against an opportunist underestimation of the war danger, against
opportunist passivity in the struggle against imperialist war and military
intervention and against a pseudo-left fatalistic attitude towards war.
Exhibit No 85
[Source: Daily Worker, January 14, 1933, page 5; an article entitled "Leninism and tlie
Mass Struggle Against Imperialist War," by Earl Browder]
LENINISM AND THE MASS STEUCKil-E AGAIN.ST IMPERI-«iJJST WAS HIS TEACHINGS
ONLY RELIABLE GUIDE IN THE ANTI-WAR FIGHT
-Show Necessity for Defeat of 'Own' Country, Expose "Socialist" Betrayers
By Earl Browder
The smouldering ruins of the city of Shanhaikwan, aaiidst which lie the
shattered bodies of several thousand Chinese men, women and children, give
the tone to the opening of the year 1933. Simultaneously, the wars in Latin-
America proceed with a ferocity revealing the depth of the antagonisms which
urge them on, primarily the rivalry between Great Britain and the United
States. The world is moving inexorably into a general imperialist war, which
will be aime4 in the first place against the Soviet Union.
More than ever before, the workers must prepare themselves for the struggle
..against imperialist war, and for the task, when the war is upon us, to transform
it into a revolutionary struggle for socialism.
Lenin's Teachings Are Guide
Lenin's teachings constitute the only reliable guide in this struggle. Under
Lenin's leader.ship, the Bolsheviks conducted the struggle against the imperialist
war of 1914-1918, which actually transformed it into a civil war that overthrew
imperialism in one-sixth of the world.
All who seriously think of action against imperialist war must, therefore,
master the lessons of history, contained in the teaching of Lenin.
There are a few central principles of Leninist theory, which necessarily guide
all phases of the struggle against imperialist war.
"It must be the task of the Social-Democracy (for today, read Communist
Parties — E.B.) of every count)'y first of all to struggle against the chauvinism
of that country."
Thus wrote Lenin in October, 1914, in a manifesto of the Central Committee
of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (the Bolsheviks, now the Com-
munist Party). The enemy is at home; it is the capitalist class, and its ex-
ploiting allies ; so long as capitalism rules, the working class has no fatherland
to defend.
It was the violation of this principle that brought about the collapse of the
Second International, when in 1914 "the majority of the Social-Democratic
Parties and first of all the German party, the greatest and most influential in
the Second International, have joined their general staffs, their governments,
their boui-geoisie, thus taking a stand against the proletariat." (Lenin, "Collapse
of the Second International." summer 1915). In the midst of imperialist war,
the revolutioTiary working class must put forward the slogan, "Defeat of 'our
own' imperialism."
"To repudiate the defeat slogan means to reduce one's revolutionary actions
to an empty phrase or sheer hypocrisy." (Lenin, "Defeat of 'our' Government,"
This was the issue which split the Socialist Parties of the world, the Second
International, and in 1919 gave birth to the Communist International, which
APPENDIX, PART 1 547
gathered to itself all that was revolutionary, all that was sound and healthy,
and which restored revolutionary Marxism, which had been revised and prosti-
tuted by the leaders of the Second International. This was the issue, upon
which the treacherous revisionist leaders (represented in America by Hillquit
& Co.) passed openly over to the side of the capitalists, and proceeded step by
step CO integrate themselves more thoroughly into capitalist society, culminating
today in their role of path-clearers for fascism (support of Hindenburg in
Germany, MacDonald "labor'' government in England), which we call social-
fascism.
Already then Lenin clearly defined the tasks of struggle against war even
under the most difficult conditions. Referring to the situation in Belgium,
he says :
"What should the Belgian socialists have done? Since they could not accom-
plish a social revolution together with the French, etc., they had to submit to
the ma.iority of the nation at the present moment and go to war. But in
submitting to the will of the slave-holding class, they should have put the
responsibility on the latter, they should have refrained from voting for appro-
priations, tiiey should have sent Vandervelde not on ministerial journeys to the
exploiters, but to organize (together with the revolutionary Social-Democrats of
ALL countries) illegal revolutionary propaganda in favor of a 'socialist revolu-
tion' and civil wa r ; they should have conducted the same work in the army,
experience having shown that even in the trenches of the fighting armies
'fraternization" of soldier-work?rs is possible. To prattle about dialectics and
Marxism, at the same time being unable to combine the temporary necessity
of submission to the majority with revolutionary work under all conditions,
means to mock at the "vvorkers. to jeer at Socialism." (Lenin, February, 191o. )
The workers must Hght against all imperialism, beginning with "their own."
But "it is foolish to renounce participation in war forever and as a matter of
principle." For there is not only imperialist war, but there is also the war of
an oppressed nation for its independence, for its national existence. Such wars
are today a part of the struggle to overthrow imperialism, and must be sup-
ported by the workers of all lands. Lenin said in 1914:
"Thus!^ of all the belligerent countries only the Serbs are fighting for their
national existence. Similarly, the class-conscious proletarians in India and
China cannot follow any but the national road, as their countries have not
been formed as yet into national states. If China had to wage an aggressive
war for this purpose, we could only sympathize with It, since objectively this
would be a progxessive war."
Still less is It possible for the workers to fight against war by empty slogans
of "peace," or by pacifist means. Exposing pacifist maneuvers in 1915, Lenin
wrote this historic paragraph:
'•This is a lesson for those phrase-lovers who, like Trotsky, defend, in opposi-
tion to us, the peace slogan, alleging among other things that 'all the Left
Wingers' have united for the purpose of 'action' under this very slogan! The
government of the Junkers has now demonstrated the correctness of our Berne
resolution, which said that peace propaganda 'not accompanied by a call to
revolutionary mass actions' is only capable of spreading Illusions and of mak-
ing- the proletariat 'a plavthing in the hands of the secret diplomacy of the
belligerent countries.'" (Collected Works, p. 2(^2. AmiI. XVITI.)
These are the central, guiding pi-inciples of Marxism-Leninism in the struggle
against imperialist war.' They are simple and clear; every worker is able to
understand them. Amid the confusion and clamor of contemporary events, and
the poison-gas of chauvinism, pacifism, and social fascism, they furnish the
dependable compass which will auide the revolutionary workers of America
also through the period of testlng-by-fire which is approaching.
Exhibit No. 8^
[Source • Daily Worker, April 8, 1933, page .5: a series of quotations entitled "Lenin On
War" ]
LETfiN ON WAR
By social patriotism we mean the willingness to defend one's country in this
imp'erlalistie war, to justify the alliance of the Socialists with the bourgeoisie
and the governments of their own country, and the refusal to preach and sup-
548 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
port the revolt of the proletarians against their national bourgeoisie. It is
obvious that in its essential traits, politically and intellectually, chauvinism is
identical with opportunism. Both represent one and the same tendency.
Socialism and War. — Lenin.
"A logical analysis of war leads to the conclusion that war is simply "the
continuation of politics by other means."
Socialism and the War — Lenin.
Civil wars are also wars. Those who accept the class struggle must accept
civil wars, which, under certain circumstances, are a natural and inevitable con-
tinuance, development and accentuation of the class struggle in every society
based on class divisions. . . To deny or to overlook civil wars would mean
becoming a victim of the most hopeless opportunism and abandoning the social
revolution.
Socialism and War. — Lenin.
The fight against imperialism is empty and deceitful if it is not combined with
a fight against opportunism.
Socialism and War. — Lenin.
Exhibit No. 87
[Source: A pamphlet published by Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148 Sta D
(50 East 13th St.), New York City : September, 19331
***** :|c ^
OKGANIZE MASS STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL INSURAN£!E — TASKS OP THE AMEEICAN
COMMUNIST PARTY IN ORGANIZING STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL INSURANCE
By S. I. Gusev and Earl Brow^der
The Tasks of the Communist Party of U. S. A. in the Struggle for Social
Insurance
By S. I. Gusev
The past j^ear in the U.S.A. has been marked by a series of mass actions
of the proletariat and the farmers. A number of economic strikes accompanied
by fierce clashes with the police, the farmers' "strike," in which armed bands
were organised to prevent agricultural products being hauled into the towns,
and repeatedly came into conflict with the police forces, tlie Veterans' march,
which terminated in their armed expulsion from Washington, the hunger march
of the unemployed, which repeatedly clashed with the police — all these facts
show the growing radicalisation of the workers and the masses of the farmers,
the growing determination of these masses to wage a firm struggle for their
interests. The source of all this is unemployment, the lowering of wages and
the worsening of the general standard of living of the working class, the growth
of insecurity of their existence, uncertainty as to the morrow and the ruin
of the farmers.
The imperialists are attempting to emerge from the crisis by means of war.
War in the Far East, where British and French imperialism is supporting the
Japanese imperialists — while American imperialism backs the Nanking govern-
ment, the war between Colombia and Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, which are in
reality Anglo-American wars for markets and sources of raw materials (oil) —
are the first attempts at a military way out of the crisis. But the imperialists
understand the extreme danger of war between themselves, especially at the
present time, after the completion of the Five-Year Plan in the U. S. s'. R., and
are trying to organise international intervention in the U. S. S. R., that they may
solve the crisis at the expense of the toilers of the U. S. S. R. and all countries.
The attempts to find a way out of the crisis through the agency of imperialist
war are assuming a somewhat protracted character. The imperialists are slipping
slowly into war.
The prolongation of the crisis means a further ruin of the masses of workers
and farmers, a further growth of the uncertainty of their existence. Therefore
the further radicalisation of the masses, the further growth of still wider mass
actions is inevitable.
However, in spite of this growing radicalisation, the political consciousness of
the masses still remains at a low level. The presidential election showed, on the
APPENDIX, PART 1 549
one hand, that tremendous masses of workers and farmers voted for the bourgeois
parties (democrats, republicans and socialists) and only an insignificant minority
(probably 20O,00<)-30O.0(K> if we reckon the stealing of votes) for the Connnunist
Party. P'nrther, the election disclosed the growth of the illusion that rhe Roosevelt
government would tind a peaceful and painless way out of the crisis, would
liquidate unemployment, etc. On the other liand, the presidential election, the
swing of the majority of the electors from tlie more Right Republican Party to
the side of the Democratic Party, and rhe growth in the vote of the Socialist
Party disclosed an increasing dissatisfaction of the masses, and 1h(>ir striving
to change tlie existing position, and thus, indirectly, proves tlie radlcalisatiou of
the masses.
There can be no doubt that the breakdown of the parliamentary illusion con-
nected with the presidential election will set in very rapidly after Roosevelt takes
power, and be accompanied by a new and nuich higher wave of mass actions.
Even now there are signs of a new rise of the mass struggle (demonstrations and
marches of the unemployed, the strike at Detroit, mass action by the farmers to
prevent the auctioning of belongings).
All the bourgeois partie-s — republican, democratic, socialist and also the A. F.
of L. and the Musteites, understand the inevitability of a tremendous new wave of
mass movements perfectly well, and have been using tlie greatest demagogy,
especially recently, by their projects for a 30-hour week and social insurance, to
restrain the masses from activity and weaken these manifestations.
During the last year, we may observe certain successes of the Communist Party
in the leadership of the mass activity (Veterans' march, hunger marcli, conference
of farmers, some improvement in the work among the unemployed, the struggle
inside the A. F. of L. for social insurance). But, at the same time, it must be
stated that, firstly, the leadership of this activity has been marked by strong
vacillations, indecision, and lagging behind the spontaneous upsurge of the move-
ment, and that, secondly, the Party has let a series of strikes slip during the past
year, the leadership of which has passed into the hands of the Musteites and the
A. F. of L.. and also it has not ordy failed to consolidate the achievejneuts of last
year in the sphere of trade union work, but has permitted the greatest weakening
of all the Red trade unions, with the exception of the tailors, furriers, boot and
shoe operatives and food v.'orkers. In the conditions of a growing mass movement,
especially in view of the prospects of a new and higher mass upsurge, such a
weakening of mass v/ork as took place in 1932 menaces the Party with a very
serious daiiger. The growth in the number of votes cast for the Socialist Party
at the last elections, the membership of this party, and the number of its local
organisations ; the miners' union organised by the Mnsteites ; the passing of the
leadership of the majority of strikes to the Mnsteites and the A. F. of L. — all
these facts are the reverse side of the lagging of the Communist Party behind the
mass movement, and clearly show the nature and the extent of the danger which
menaces the Party. Though the Party is even now very weakly linked up with
the decisive strata of the native American workers, it is in danger of still greater
isolation, in view of the fact that it is lagging ever more behind the mass move-
ment, which, though irregular, is nevertheless increasing.
The same lagging behind the mass struggle must be noted in the campaign
for all kinds of social insurance at the expense of the capitalists and the govern-
ment, which was begun by the Party in 1930. Compared with lf)31, tliis campaign
carried on by the Party in 1932 was weaker, and on a narrower mass basis. And
this took place in spite of the fact that, during the last few years, the campaign
for the seven-hour day, for social insurance, has been systematically put before
the Party as a central task requiring insistent, constant and planned work by the
Party.
It was stressed with the greatest urgency in the Communist press as early
as May, 1923, that the main demands, capable of uniting the colossal masses of
American workers, were the seven-hour day and all kinds of social insurance at
the expense of the capitalists and the government, and that the widest and most
tireless agitation for these demands must become the chief task of the l*arty for
a whole period, which must sinu;ltaneously start to organise the unemployed.
Since then it has been repeated on numerous occasions that the strug.gle for social
insurance, especially unemployment insurance, must occupy the central place
in the struggle for immediate demands (1930), that the struggle for social
insurance and unemployment insurance must be converted into a genuine mass
campaign (1931), that the directly central task of the Party is the mobilisation
of the masses for the struggle for immediate aid for the unemployed, the insuring
of the unemployed, social insurance (1932). This fundamental task of the Party
550 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
has been repeatedly explained in the most detailed niamier, and simultaneously
detailed and concrete organisational measures have been worked out with the
aim of mobilising the masses for the struggle, of creating a system of various
organs, of organisationally embracing the great masses. In this very way, the
necessity of a systematic campaign in the press for social insurance of nil kinds
at the expense of the capitalists and the State has been constantly emphasised
with the greatest insistence.
It is also necessary to recall the decisions of the XI. Plenum of the E. C. C. I ,
which said that the immediate task of the C. P. of the U. S. A. was the "struggle
against the capitalist offensive and the organisation of a wide counter-ott'en-
sive ... for social insurance at the expense of the capitalists and the State."
What has the Party done in the course of the four years since May, 1929, when
the struggle for the seven-hour day and for social insurance was first put forward
as the central task?
In 1930, the Party carried on a wide campaign for collecting individual and
collective signatures to a Bill on social insurance, and gathered about a million
signatures. Then the Party put forward the slogan of social insurance as the
central slogan during the hunger march of 1931. In the same way this slogan
was put forward during the Veterans' march and in the election campaign, and
also during the last hunger march. However, both in these marches and espe-
cially in the election campaign, the agitation for this slog;in was completely
insufficient.
Thus the campaign for social insurance was carried on unsystematically by
the Party, in fits and starts. It had not a sufl5ciently mass character, and the
Party only carried out the plan contained in the decisions of the XI. Plenum to
"organise a wide counter-offensive of the proletariat for social insurance at the
expense of the capitalists and the State" to an insufficient degree.
And this took place in spite of the fact that the Party had a monopoly in the
working class for almost three years on the struggle for social insurance, in
spite of the fact that the number of unemployed increased year by year, and, at
the present time, has reached 15-16 millions.
The basic source of the lagging of the Party behind the mass movement con-
sists in the sectarian tendencies still very strong in the Party. These tendencies
have found a clear expression, especially recently, in the incorrect manner in
which the question of the relation between the political and organisational tasks
of the Party, between the leadership of the mass struggle and the organisational
preparations for mass activity, were raised in the Party and its leadership.
Serious differences arose among the Party leaders on the question of which is
more important — the political leadership of mass struggles, or the organisational
preparations for them. Such a contrasting of politics and organisation, from the
point of view of Marxism-Leninism, is absolutely incorrect. Without a correct
policy, and our whole policy is directed to winning the masses to our side, the
mobilising of the masses for struggle against the bourgeoisie, there can be
no question of victory. But no policy, even the most coi-rect one, can give victory
of itself, and requires organisational measures to carry it out. Policy cannot
replace organisation ; organisation cannot replace policy. One is impossible
without the other. Policy predetermines : organisation decides. Policy is the
basis: organisation the derivative. Not politics for organisation, but" organi-
sation for politics. For victory, both policy and organisation are equally
necessary. Therefore, to raise the question — which is more important
for victory — policy or organisation — is utterly wrong. To reduce everything to
policy alone without organisational measures, means to convert the Party into a
propaganda society, a narrow sect, proud of the purity of its principles, but
absolutely separated from the masses. To reduce everything to organisation
and the preparation of struggles, also means to convert the Party into a sectarian,
petty, "business" organisation, urging the masses to be patient and wait, until the
Party prepares everything. But the masses cannot be satisfied with political
directives alone, and demand organisational guidance. The masses cannot wait
and will not postpone their activity until the Party has made organisational
preparations, but demand leadership immediately at every manifestation they
make. Therefore, while carrying on persistent political and organisational prep-
aration of mass activity, the Party must, together with this, take the leadership
of all mass movements, even in cases when it is by no means ready for this
movement organisationally. The Party must take the leadership of mass actions
in the condition in which these mass actions find it. introducing further organi-
sational measures in the course of the struggle itself, on the basis of a wide
APPENDIX, PART 1 551
application of the tactic of the united front from below, as was stressed by the
decision of the Xllth Plenum of the E. C. C. I.
The unclarity and confusion on the question of mass struggles, and particu-
larly the tendency to surrender the leadership of mass activity, or narrow it
down under the pretext of organisational unpreparedness (which was shown
in the Veterans' march with the greatest clarity) led to the fact that the Party
leaders had no firm line on this basic question. Vacilations, half-heartedness
and indecision among the leaders were observable repeatedly, which naturally
found reflection in all I'arty organisations, and, above all, in the Party press.
It was precisely this absence of a firm line, the absence of firmness in apply
ing the line; waverings, indecision, and half-heartedness, which found expression
in the lack of system in the campaign for social insurance ; in spite of a series-
of categorical instructions as to the central importance of this task for a
whole period ; the exceptionally favourable conditions for carrying on this
campaign in the broadest possible manner ; and the monopoly enjoyed by the
Communist Party for a number of years in this sphere.
The monopolist position of the Party in the struggle for social insurance
has ended. At present, all the bourgeois parties, together with the A. F. of L.
and the Musteites, are trying to snatch this matter out of the hands of the
Party, putting forward their projects for a 30-hour week and social insurance.
The Communist Party is faced with the most «rgent task — to concretely expose
the lying demogogic nature of these projects, and carry on the widest mass
campaign for social insurance, converting it into a systematic daily campaign,
without losing its leiiding role in the struggle for social insurance, making
it the main axis of all Party work — which will be impossible unless a decisive-
struggle is carried on against the sectarian tendencies and their actual cham-
points.
At the present time, the struggle for social insurance is most closely-
interwoven with the demagogic slogan of the 30-hour week, put forward by
the bourgeois parties. The aim of this demagogic campaign is to introduce
the so-called "stagger system" under this slogan, i. e.. to take part of the work
from the employed workers and transfer it to the unemployed, thus lowering
the wages of the workers who are engaged in industry. Th0 reduction of
the working day will mean it is claimed, that a larger number of workers will
be needed to do the same amount of work, and part of the unemployed
consequently will get work. Such statements need to be most carefully investi-
gated, because, in the first place, experience shows that the reduction of the
working week in a number of factories has not led to the reduction of unem-
ployment, and, in the second place, the reduction of the working week may lead
to a new intensification of labour. Consequently, it is not impossible tliat, in
a number of factories, the introduction of the 3U-hour week will lead to no
increase in the number employed. The capitalists count on the slogan of
the 30 hour week to distract the unemployed from the struggle for social
insurance, and set them against workers employed in industry. Our task
is not to repudiate the 30-hour week ; but advance the demand for the main-
tenance of weekly and monthly wage-rates, and the introduction of social
insurance of all kinds, first of all, unemployment insurance at the expense
of the capitalists and the government. "By the stagger system, the capitalists
want to feed the unemployed at the expense of the employed. Not a cent
off wages of the workers. Feed the unemployed at the expense of the capi-
talists and the State. The capitalists want to set the workers against the
unemployed. We call for a united front of the unemployed and the employed
workers in the struggle for social insurance and to prevent the lowering of
wages when passing to a 30-hour week" — such is the way in which we should
link up the slogan of social insurance with opposition to wage reduction.
One of the primary conditions fen- winning the masses in the course of the
campaign for social insurance and no reduction of wages when introducing the 30-
hour week, it the exposure of all bourgeois parties, first of all and mainly
the social-fascists, chiefly for their refusal to mobilise the masses for a real
struggle for their demands, and limiting themselves exclusively to parliamen-
tary means of struggle, and also for introducing splits into the struggle of the
working class for the.se demands. It is necessary to explain to the masses
insistently and patiently that it will be impossible to secure the granting of
their demands without their determined actions.
However, the matter cannot be restricted to this. The most concrete criticisnt
is required of all the proposals for a 30-hour week and social insurance.
552 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The basic criterion of the 30-hour week is the question of wages. Not a single
bourgeois party, including here the A. F. of L. and the Musteites, is against the
lowering of wages when the HO-hour week is introduced in reality. But, natur-
ally, they cannot state openly that they are in favour of a reduction. Therefore,
they put various evasive foriaulas into circulation, to give the impression that
these parties are against wage reductions. Thus the A. F. of L. says that it
"recommends" no reduction of wages, while Green, who stated that if wages
were reducetf, the A. F. of L. would employ violent methods, repudiated his threat
almost the following day, and explained that the "violent methods" he had in
view was economic struggle. All these crooked tricks must be exposed and nailed
down by our press. We must constantly remind the workers, of these exposed
tricksters in our papers.
As for the projects of social insurance, it is necessary to submit them to the
most concrete criticism in our papers, and in pamphlets.
The Wisconsin law of social insurance is a reactionary slave law, enslaving
and oppressing the unemployed, if they get relief. The law demands: (a) that
the unemployed worker prove that he is physically capable of work; (b) that
the unemployed worker was not dismissed from work for misconduct or striking ;
(c) that the unemployed worker has lived in the State of 'Wisconsin continuously
for two years and worked not less than 40 weeks during this period; (d) that
the unemployed worker will not refuse any work offered him by the Employment
Bureau, otherwise he loses the right to receive relief. The workers are thus
tied down to a definite State, and in case of unemployment are condemned to
forced labour, receiving relief at the rate of 10 dollars a week for not more than
10 weeks.
The project of the A. F. of L. has a large number of all kinds of provisos, which
exclude large strata of tlie unemployed from the list of the insured, and make it
possible to nullify the proposiils contained in it. The main thing in this project
is that it is a statement against a Federal law and in favour of a separate law
for each State, thus splitting the united struggle of the proletariat for a single
Federal law up into small parts, breaking up the united proletarian front and
making it possible to defeat the separate sections of the unemployed individually.
The draft of Muste is, in essence, this same draft of the A. F. of L., with the
additional demand for a Federal subsidy for the States, which demarid is in-
tended to create the impression that the r.Iusteites are for a Federal law.
The project of the socialists, the most demagogic of them all, consists in a
forgery of the draft of the Communist Party. In reality, this draft is in favour
of insurance by separate States, financed by the Federal government. But the
very leader of the socialist party — Morris Hillquit — exposed the lying nature of
this project in the press in its central organ, "The New Leader," on November
26th, by practically joining wirh the project of the A. F. of L., praising it as
being the "first decided step in the direction of socialist philosophy," as being
near to the socialist project, and although not so far-reaching and generous as the
socialist plan, more practical.
When criticising the projects, special attention must be paid, firstly, to the fact
that when the projects enumerated speak of insurance against unemployment,
they evidently have in view, not those unemployed who are already out of work,
but those who will lose their jobs after the law comes into force, and, secondly,
that the date when the law is to operate and relief be paid is put off for a
lengthy period in every project (two to five years).
In the past campaign for social Insurance, the Communist Party made a series
of mistakes, disch)sing a flippant, thoughtless approach to it, and a failure to
understand its central and decisive importance. This failure stulibornly main-
tains itself in the Party despite a series of most categorical instructions on the
central importance of the campaign. The draft insurance Bill w^as worked out
by the Party from above, and not presented to the workers for discussion. This
draft has been changed three times. After the changing of the draft at the
Cincinnati conference, with the participation of the representatives of the local
branches of the A. F. of L., the original draft of the Bill was presented to Congress
during the national hunger march; while the new draft was presented to the
convention of the A. F. of L.. which inevitably brought confusion into the minds
of the w'orkers. The Party did not consider it necessary to popularise the con-
tents of its draft among the workei-s. The leading comrades, and our press, were
content with bare statements that the Communist Party is in favour of social
insurance against unemployment at the expense of the capitalists and the govern-
ment. When the social-fascists (including the Musteites), following the example
APPENDIX, PART 1 553
of the Conimmiist Party, beg-jiii to piit forward their own projects for bills, tlie
Party and its press paid very little atteiition to making a detailed examination
of these bills, and did not systematically expose them to the workers, in spite
of a nnmber of repeated instructions on the necessity of doing this. The Party
did not attempt to propose to the workers that they should organise a joint struggle
of all workers' organisations on the basis of the united front fi-om below for
Federal unemployment insurance on a single occasion, for the appropriation of
funds for public Avorks, for the appropi'ia.tion of funds to assist the unemployed.
A riumber of facts from the recent period show that a non-serious and
inattentive attitude to the campaign continues to exist in the Party leadership.
This leads to the greatest lack of clarity in the question of our attitude to
Federal or State insurance, and to retreats from the line of struggle for
Federal insurance adopted by the Party (e. g., tlie article of Comrade Bill
Dunne in the "Daily Worker" on December 1st, 1932).
A dangerous disorganisation is introduced into the campaign for social insur-
ance by tlie fact that, after a three-year struggle for Federal, insurance, the
('alifornian district organisation published its proposal for State unemploy-
ment insurance, from which the demand for Federal unemployment insurance
is omitted, and the amount of relief made to depend on the average wages
received, while a demand is included for 3 per cent, of the wages to be deducted
from the employers, for the insurance fund. In the same way the Chicago
organisation put forward the demand for unemployment insurance at the
expense of the employers and the State government, while the demand for
Federal insurance was completely left out. How does it happen that the Cali-
fornian district organisation takes, in essence, the line of the proposal of the
A. F. of L. ? How does it happen that the Chicago organisation replaced the
demand for Federal insurance by that of State insurance? AVould such things
be possible if the C. C. had really led the campaign in a planned and proper
manner?
^Vith the aim of giving the campaign for social insurance the widest mili-
tant mass character and ensuring the leading role of the Communist Party
in it. it is necessary to introduce a series of varying measures of a political
and organisational nature : —
1. It is necessary, above all, to instil the most complete understanding into
tlic irholc Party that the campaign for social insurance, alongside and including
the struggle against wage-cuts with the shortened week (irrespective of whether
such a short week is adopted) and the struggle for immediate aid for the
unemployed, touches vitally, in addition to the anti-war campaign, the most
urgent and burning interests of the proletariat, and that this campaign at the
present time is the chief link to be seized to tug the whole chain, that this
campaign demands the mobilisation of all Party forces for a whole period of
indefinite length, and that a planned, unbroken, every-day and persistent
conduct of this campaign is necessary. All the members of the Party must
be drawn into the conduct of this campaign on the basis of Bolshevik inner-
Party democracy, by raising the question of the struggle for social insurance
for discussion by all the Party members, by all the Party organisations (cells,
fractions, committees, conferences), by the inclusion of every single member
of the Party in the every-day work for conducting the campaign. Every member-
of the Party must become an agitator for our insurance proposal, must learn
to expose other propositions.
2. The Politburo, together with the representatives of the nearest largo Party
organisations, the representatives of the Red trade unions, the representatives
of the fractions of the national committee of the opposition in the A. F. of L.,
and representatives of the fraction in the National Unemployed Committee,
must work out a firm and united tactical line in the struggle for social insur-
ance (and also against the reduction of wages when a shortened week is
introduced, and for immediate aid for the unemployed), and a plan for con-
ducting the whole campaign in the next three months. The decisions of this
meeting must be sent to all local Party organisations and Party fractions as
obligatory; for fulfilment. It is particularly important to attain unity of
action with the aim of preventing such disorganising actions as that of the
Californian district organisation.
3. The Politburo decided absolutely correctly that one or more active mem-
bers of the P. B. must be appointed as responsible leaders to guide the whole
campaign. Every two weeks the P. B. must discuss the reports of this leader,
and also of representatives of the fraction in the national committee of the
unemployed, the fraction in the T. U. U. L., the fraction in the national com-
554 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
mittee of the opposition in the A. F. of L., and the editorial board of the "Daily
Worlier" and other central papers. According to the course of the campaign,
it is also necessary to discuss the reports of the district organisations.
4. In the same way, the district organisation (above all. in the industrial
districts) must appoint a responsible leader of the campaign from among the
most active members of the bureau of the district committee, and his report
must be discussed every two weeks, together with the reports of the fraction
iu the town committee of the opposition in the A. F. of L., the local branch of
the T. U. U. L. and the local council of the unemployed.
5. It is necessary to mobilise all our Party press (inchuling the language
press) and also the trade union papers, the factory papers and the papers
of the councils of the unemployed for a wide, systematic, daily conduct of the
campaign. This campaign must always be given space on the front page.
The main points which must be systematically dealt with in all the papers
are the popularisation of our proposal, and of social insurance in the U. S S. R.
(in the most concrete form, by printing extracts from the Soviet laws on social
insurance, giving statistics on the number of insured persons, the sums ex-
pended by the Central Insurance Board, the hospital service and the sana-
toriums provided for the workers, etci), concrete criticism of the projects of
social insurance advanced by other parties, especially the A. F. of L., the
Musteites, and the socialists, together with an every-day exposure of their
crooked demagogic methods, resistance to the masses entering the independent
struggle for social insurance, and the splits they bring into the working class
in the struggle for social insurance, which was commenced by the Communist
Party and conducted for a long time by it alone; the exposure of the activity
of all legislative commissions which only trick and deceive the workers. Fur-
ther, reports and information on the course of the campaign, meetings, dem-
onstrations, strikes, etc., the publication of resolutions for our draft adopted
at mass meetings and various workers' organisations, and also letters from
workers from the factories and the unemployed. Not a single issue of any
paper should appear without a special section dealing with the struggle for
social insurance, for immediate aid for the unemployed, against the lowering
of wages when a shortened week is introduced.
6. It is necessary to widely disseminate our proposal adopted at Cincinnatti
among the masses demanding Federal Insurance for all unemployed with-
out exception for the whole period of unemployment, on a scale equal to
average wages, but not less than ten dollars a week and three dollars for
every dependent : furthermore, the funds must be found by taxing the rich,
and the progressive taxation of all incomes over 5,000 dollar?, and also (it
should be added) at the expense of the military and police appropriations.
Tliis proposition should be presented to Congress in place of the first one.
7. It is necessary to appeal to all local workers' organisations, as was decided
to do already in 1931, with a proposal for the united front from below, for
Federal insurance against unemployment, at the same time supporting the
demands of the workers' organisations for appropriations for public works; for
the immediate issue of grants for the relief of the unemployed ; and also the
demand for the exemption of the unemployed from paying for light, gas, water,
with a determined struggle against evictions ; against the "economy"' measures
which are being energetically carried through at present at tlie expense of
hospitals, road construction, public works, etc. •
8. It is necessary to continue the unemployed marches which were com-
menced by the Party in some States, within the limits of the State, and to
transfer this method of mass struggle to other States, at the same time con-
tinuing to organise meetings, the mass collection of signatures for our draft
and constantly striving to link up the actions of the ujiemployed with the
strikes of employed workers, with the activity of the Veterans and the poor
farmers.
9. In the course of the campaign, it is necessary to form committees and
councils of the unemployed, committees of struggle for social insurance, com-
mittees of unity, including tlie employed workers and the unemployed workers'
committees, etc. (by calling local, district, and national conferences). In
connection with such district committees, according to the decisions of 1931,
wide committees, including non-proletarian elements (writers, doctors, lawyers,
etc.) who fully support our project for social insurance must be organised.
In connection with the central workers' committee (or the central unemployed
committee) it is necessary to organise a central committee of sympathisers.
* * *
APPENDIX, PART 1 555
A new wave of big mass actions of the American workers and farmers is
rising. Only if tlie Party is able, in tlie course of the campaign for social
insurance, to eliminate its sectarian aloofness from the working masses, to
strengthen and extend its contacts with the native American workers in the
hig enterprises in the basic branches of industry, to strengthen and enlarge
the Party basis in the factories, to draw all the militant cadres which are
growing up in the course of the mass hghts into its ranks, to strengthen the
leading organs of the Party with fresh and new cadres, will it be able to
stand at the head of the millions of American proletarians, poor farmers, and
negroes who are lighting for a revolutionary way out of the crisis.
Struggle for Social Insurance — A Central Task
(From Speech of Earl Broivder' at Extraordinary Conference of Communist
Party U. 8. A., held in New York City, July 7-10, 1933)
Let us turn to an examination of our central struggle for social insurance,
where we have most serious weaknesses. These weaknesses have been examined
in detail in the article of Comrade Gusev, published in the Communist Inter-
tuitional and in the Daily M'orker. We must all agree with the fundamental
correctness of that article. We must search for the causes and remove them.
While in theory we all agree that social insurance is the business of all
workers, of all organizations, yet in practice we assign all concrete measures
in the fight for unemployment insurance to the unemployed councils. In resolu-
tions, we speak of imity of the employed and unemployed, but in practice our
red unions often ignore the whole question of social insurance. They do not
iinderstake any concrete actions which show they understand it is their very
central task to fight for social insurance also. We have the beginnings of a
good movement for social insurance in the A. F. of L. local unions, but it is left
isolated, working by itself. The districts and sections neglect their task of
building the whole broad movement.
Above all we have a general underestimation of the historical aim of the
fight for social insurance, even within our Party, and yet worse, among the
leading cadres. We have not won mass support as it is quite possible to do
because we have not been able simply and clearly to explain to the workers
the need for struggle for social insurance. We will win the masses when every
Party member and every Party leader can explain in the simplest terms that
mass unemi)loyment of millions of workers is a permanent feature of American
society as long as capitalism lasts; and without unemployment insurance this
condition results in degrading to a starvation level, not only the millions of un-
em.ployed but the millions who are in the shops. We must explain the dif-
ference between the real social insurance as proposed in the Workers Unem-
ployment Insurance P>ill and the fake schemes of the reformists.
Probably it is no exaggeration to say that our explanation of social insurance
has been so weak, that even you 300 or 300 comrades in this meeting today
would not be able, if you were called upon suddenly, to give a serious and simple
explanation of the AVorkers Unemployment Insurance Bill. If you were asked
the question, "What is the Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill ; how does it
differ from the fake unemployment insurance scliemesV" would you be ai)le after
a half hour or an hour's talk, to win support for the Workers Unemployment
Insurance Bill? If you cannot do this you cannot fulfill one of our fundamental
tasks. We not only have to know how to do this ourselves, we have to know
how to train others to do this also. But before we can train anybody else we
must know how to do it ourselves.
Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill and Bills of Our Opponents
I will list ten points tliat distinguish the Workers Unemployment Insurance
Bill, points upon which we can win the masses to us, to work with us, fight with
ns, to support our struggle, to join our organizations. These ten points are :
First — Whereas the fake schemes of the employers, reformists and social fascists
direct themselves only to future unemployment, the Workers' Bill prcivides for
immediate insurance for those now unemployed.
Second — While the fake schemes all exclude some categories of workers, the
Workers' Bill covers all those icJto depend for a living upon iruges.
Tliird — While most of the fake schemes phif^e burdens upon the employed work-
ers, the Workers' Bill places the full burden of the insurance upon the etnployers
and their government.
556 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Fourth — While all of the fake schemes contain provisions that could and would
be used for strike-breaking, wage-cutting and victimization, the Workers' Bill
protects tlie unemployed from being forced to work below union rates, at reduced
wages, or far from home.
Fifth — While all fake schemes place the administration of the insurance in the
hands of the employers and the bureaucratic apparatus controlled by them, the
Workers' Bill provides for administration by representatives elected from the
workers themselves.
Sixth — While all the fake schemes provide for benefits limited to a starvation
level, a tixed minimum which is also the maximum, and this only for a few weeks
in a year (thereby being in amount even below charity relief), the Workers' Bill
provides for full average icages for the entire period of unemployment, determined
according to industry, group and locality, thus maintaining the standard of life
at its previous level.
Seventh — While the fake schemes establish a starvation maximum above whicli
benefits cannot be given, the Workers' Bill establishes a living minimum, below
which beneiits shall not be allowed to fall, no matter what the previous conditions
of the unemployed worker.
Eighth — While all the fake schemes refuse benefits to all workers who still have
any personal property, forcing them to sell and consume the proceeds of home,,
furniture, automobiles, etc., before they can come under the insurance, the W^ork-
ers' Insurance Bill establishes the benefits as a matter of right, without investiga-
tion of the worker's other small resources.
Ninth — While the fake schemes limit their benefits to only able-bodied unem-
ployed, the Workers' Bill provides for every form of involuntary unemployment,
whether from closing of industries, from sickness, accidents, old age, maternity,
etc. ; in other words the Workers' Bill is an example of true socUd insurance.
Tenth — Whereas the fake schemes all try to turn attention of the workers to the
48 different state governments in an effort to split up and discourage the movement,
the Workers' Bill provides for federal insurance, one uniform national system,^
financed through national taxation and all proposals to the state legislatures con-
tain the provision that the state bills are only temporary, pending the adoption
of the Federal Bill demanded in the state proposals.
These ten points all protect the most vital interests of the entire working class.
Each and every one of them is absolutely essential to protect the working class
from the degrading effects of mass unemployment. All that is necessary to win
millions of worliers to active struggle for this social insurance is to make these
proposals clear, show how the fake schemes violate these fundamental interests
of the workers, and show how mass struggle can v,an real insurance.
With this Workers' Bill we can then proceed to .smash the influence of the social-
fascists and employers who claim that it is impossible to finance such a system of
insurance. The Hoover and Roosevelt administrations have already shown that
tens of billions of dollars are available to the government whenever it really decides
to get the funds. But Hoover and Roosevelt got these billions only to give to the
banks and trusts. We demand these billions together with the hundreds of mil-
lions used in war preparations to be used for social insurance.
We really must begin a mass campaign along these lines, conducted in the most
simple form with a real concentration of attention by all of our organizations
and all leading committees. Such a campaign will rouse a mighty mass move-
ment for the Workers' Bill. And this movement will be under the leadership of
the Commuiiist Party. The fact that our mass struggle for social insurance has
been so weak, politically and organizationally, is largely to be attributed to neglect
arising from serious underestimation of this issue ; and also to lack of detailed
understanding of our own Workers' Bill, and the vital differences between it and
tlie other bills.
Exhibit No. 88
[Source: The Department of State; Eastern European Series No. 1: Establishment of
Diplomatic Relations with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ; United States Gov-
ernment Printing Office, \Yashington : 193.3. Publication No. 528, pages 5, 6]
if ie ^ * * ^ *
Washington, November 16, 1933.
My dear Mr, Pr?:sident :
I have the honor to inform you that coincident with the establishment of
diplomatic relations between our two Governments it will be the fixed policy of
the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics :
APPENDIX, PAPtT 1 557
1. To respect scrnpnlously the in disputable right of the United States to
order its own life wiihiii its own jurisdiction in its own way and to refrain
from interfering in any manner in the internal atfairs of the United States, its
territories or possessions.
2. To refrain, and to restrain all persons in government service and all organ-
izations of the Government or under its direct or indirect control, including
organiz;itions in receipt of any ti]iancial assistance from it, from any act overt
or covert liable in any way whatsoever to injure the tranquility, prosperity,
order, or security of the whole or any part of the United States, its territories
or possessions, and, in particular, from any act tending to incite or encourage
armed intervention, or any agitation or propaganda having as an aim, the
violation of the territorial integrity of the United States, its territories or pos
sessions, or the bringing about by force of a change in the political or social
order of the whole or any part of the United States, its territories or possessions.
3. Not to permit the formation or residence on its territory of any organiza-
tion or group — and to prevent the nctivitj^ on its territory of any organization or
group, or of representatives or officials of any organization or group — which
makes claim to be the Government of, or makes attempt upon the territorial
integrity of. the United States, its territories or possessions ; not to form, subsi-
dize, support or permit on its territory military organizations or groups having
the aim of armed struggle against the United States, its territories or posses-
sions, and to pievent any recruiting on behalf of such organizations and groups.
4. Not to permit the formation or residence on its territory of any organiza-
tion or group — and to prevent the activity on its territory of any organization or
group, or of representatives or officials of any organization or group — which
has as an aim the overthrow or the preparation for the overthrow of. or the bring-
ing about by force of a change in. the political or social order of the whole or any
part of the United States, its territories or possessions.
I am. my dear Mr. President,
Very sincerely yours,
Maxim Lm'iNOFF
People's Co7t>})}issar for Foreign Affairs,
Union of Soviet Socialist Repuhlics.
Mr. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
President of the United States of America.
The White House.
Exhibit No. 89
[Source: The Communist. November, 19.34, from .an article entitlerl : "Leninism Is the
Only Marxism of the Imperialist Era,'' by Alex Bittelman and V. J. Jerome cases
11.32-1133]
*******
The stage of declining c'apitalism, which is the era of proletarian revolution,
makes necessary the existence of a vanguard proletarian Party that shall be
prepared to lead the working class — allied with the toiling farmers and in
hegemony over them — to the seizure of power; that shall sound the slogan
demanded by the new historic ei'a^Dictatorship of the Proletariat; that .shall
rouse and lead the masses, under the banner of proletarian internationalism,
to struggle against imperialist militarism and that shall call upon the toilers
in uniform and at home to transfoi"m imperialist war into revolution.
Exhibit No. 90
[Source: Chapter VIII from Foundations of Leninism, by Joseph Stalin, a booklet pub-
lished by the International Publishers, New York: 1934; pages 106-122. In an edition
of 100,000]
*******
VIII. The Party
In the pre-revolutionary period, in the period of more or less peaceful devel-
opment, when the parties of the Second International were the predominant
force in the labor movement and parliamentary forms of struggle were regarded
as the principal forms, conditions were such that the Party neither had nor
could have that great and decisive importance which it acquired afterwards
558 UN-AMEHICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in the midst of open revolutionary battles. In defending the Second Interna-
tional against the attacks that were made upon it, Kautsky says that the
parties of the Second International are instruments of pe'ace and not of war,
that for that very reason they were powerless to take any far-reaching steps
during the war, during the period of revolutionary action by the proletariat.
That is absolutelv true. But what does it prove? It proves that the parties
of the Second Intern'ational are not suitable for the revolutionary struggle
of the proletariat, that they are not militant parties of the proletariat leading
the workers to power, but an election apparatus suitable for parliamentary
elections and parliamentary struggle. This, properly speaking, explains why,
in the days when the opportunists of the Second International were dominant,
it was not the Party but the parliamentary fraction that was the fundamental
political organisation of the proletariat. It is well konwn that the Party at
that time was really an appendage or an auxiliary of the parliamentary frac-
tion It is superfluous to add that under such circumstances and with such
a Party at its head, it was utterly impossible to prepare the proletariat for
revolution. ^. ,, mv.
With the dawn of the new period, however, matters changed radically, ihe
new period is a period of open collisions between the classes, a period of revo-
lutionary action by the proletariat, a period of proletarian revolution; it is
the period of the immediate mustering of forces for the overthrow of imperi-
alism, for the seizure of power by the proletariat. This period confronts the
proletariat with new tasks of reorganising all Party work on new, revolutionary
lines- of educating the workers in the spirit of the revolutionary struggle for
power- of preparing and moving up the reserves; of establishing an alliance
with the proletarians of neighbouring countries; of establishing durable contact
with the liberation movement in the colonies and dependent countries, etc.,
etc To imagine that these new tasks can be fulfilled by the old Social-
Democratic parties, brought up as they were in the peaceful atmosphere of
parliamentarism, can lead only to hopeless despair and to inevitable defeat.
To have such tasks to shoulder under the leadership of the old parties is tanta-
mount to being left completely disarmed. It goes without saying that the
proletariat could not accept such a position.
Hence the necessity for a new party, a militant party, a revolutionary party,
bold enough to lead the proletarians to the struggle for power, with sufficient ex-
perience to be able to orientate itself in the complicated problems that arise m a
revolutionary situation, and sufficiently flexible to steer clear of any submerged
rocks on the way to its goal. .
Without such a party it is futile to think of overthrowing imperialism and
achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat.
This new party is the party of Leninism.
What are the special features of this new party?
(1) The Paitii a.s- the Vanguard of the Woiking Class.
The party must first of all constitute the vanguard of the working class. The
Party must absorb all the best elements of the working class, their experience,
their revolutionarv spirit and their unbounded devotion to the cause of the pro-
letariat. But in order that it may really be the vanguard, the Party must be
armed with a revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of the laws of the move-
ment, with a knowledge of" the laws of revolution. Without this it will be im-
potent to guide the struggle of the proletariat and to lead the proletariat. The
Party cannot be a real Party if it limits itself to registering what the masses of
the working class think or experience, if it drags along at the tail of the spon-
taneous movement, if it does not know how to overcome the inertia and the
political indifference of the spontaneous movement, or if it cannot rise above the
transient interests of the proletariat, if it cannot raise the masses to the level
of the class interests of the proletariat. The Party must take its stand at the
head of the working class, it must see ahead of the working class, lead the pro-
letariat and not trail behind the spontaneous movement. The parties of the Sec-
ond International which preach "tailism" are the exponents of bourgeois politics
which condemn the proletariat to being a tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie.
Only a party which adopts the point of view of the vanguard of the proletariat,
which is capable of raising the masses to the level of the class interests of the
proletariat, is capable of diverting the working class from the path of craft union
ism and converting it into an independent political force. The Party is the
political leader of the working class.
I have spoken above of the difficulties encountered in the struggle of the working
class, of the complicated nature of this struggle, of strategy and tactics, of
APPENDIX, PART 1 559
reserves and manoenveriiis operations, of attack and defence. These conditions
are no less complicated, perhaps more so, than war operations. Who can under-
stand these conditions, who can give correct guidance to the vast masses of the
proletariat? Every army at war must have an experienced General Staff if it
is to avoid certain defeat. All the more reason therefore why the proletariat
must have such a General Staff if it is to prevent itself from being routed by
its mortal enemies. But where is this General Staff "i' Only the revolutionary
party of the proletariat can serve as this General Staff. A working class with-
out a revolutionary party is like an army without a General Staff. The Party
is the Military Staff of the proletariat.
But the Party cannot be merely a vanguard. It must at the same time be a
unit of the class, be part of that class, intimately bound to it w'ith every fibre
of its being. The distinction between the vanguard and the main body of the
working class, between Party members and non-Party workers, will continue as
long as classes exist, as long as the proletariat continues replenishing its ranks
with newcomers from other classes, as long as the working class as a whole
lacks the opportunitj^ of raising itself to the level of the vanguard. But the
Party would cease to be a party if this distinction were widened into a rupture :
if it were to isolate itself and break away from the non-Party masses. The
Party cannot lead the class if it is not connected with the non-Party masses,
if there is no close union between the Party and the non-Party masses, if these
masses do not accept its leadership, if the Party does uot enjoy moral and
political authority among the masses. Recently, two hundred thousand new
workers joined our Party. The remarkable thing about this is that these
workers did not come into the Party, but were rather sent there by the mass
of other non-Party workers who took an active part in the acceptance of the
new members and without whose approval no new member was accepted. This
fact proves that the broad masses of non-Party workers regard our Party as
their Party, as a Party near and dear to them, in the expansion and consoli-
dation of which they are vitally interested and to whose leadership they will-
ingly entrust their destinies. It goes without saying that without these intan-
gible moral ties connecting the Party with the non-Party masses, the Party
could never become the decisive force of its class. The Party is an inseparable
part of the working class.
"We are the party of a class," says Lenin, "and therefore almost the entire
class (and in times of war, during the period of civil war, the entire class must
act under the leadership of our Party, must link itself up with our Party as
closely as possible. But we would be guilty of Manilovism* and "khvostism"
if we believed that at any time under capitalism nearly the whole class, or the
whole class, would be able to rise to the level of the class consciousness and
degree of activity of its vanguard, of its socialist party. No sensible Socialist
has ever yet doubted that under capitalism even the trade union organisations
(which are more primitive and more accessilile to the intelligence of the unde-
veloped strata) are unable to embrace nearly the whole, or the vrhole, working
class. To forget the distinction between the vanguard and the whole of the
masses gravitating towards it, to forget the constant duty of the vanguard to
raise these increasingly widening strata to this advanced level, only means
deceiving oneself, shutting one's eyes to the immensity of our tasks and nar-
rowing them." (Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 205-06, Russian edition.)
(2) The Party as the Organised Detachiiient of the Working Class.
The Party is not only the vanguard of the working class. If it desires
really to lead the struggle of the class it must at the same time be the organised
detachment of its class. Under the capitalist system the Party's tasks are
huge and varied. The Party must lead the struggle of the proletariat under
the exceptionally difficult circumstances of inner as well as outer development ;
it must lead the proletariat in its attack when the situation calls for an
attack ; it must withdraw the proletariat from the blows of a powerful oppo-
nent when the situation calls for retreat; it must imbue the millions of
unorganised non-Party workers with the spirit of discipline and system in
fighting, with the spirit of organisation and perseverance. But the Party can
acquit itself of these tasks only if it itself is the embodiment of discipline and
organisation, if it itself is the organised detachment of the proletariat. Unless
these conditions are fulfilled it is idle to talk about the Party really leading
*From the name Manllov, the hero in Goirors Dead l^ouls, who typifies a per.son filled
■with good intentions, a sentimental dreamer, but one completely lacking in strength of will
and capacity to do things.— iJd.
560 UN-AMEMCAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the vast masses of the proletariat. The Party is the organised detachment of
the working class.
The conception of the Party as an organised whole has become firmly fixed in
Lenin's well-known formulation of the first point of our Party Constitution, in
which the Party is regarded as the sum- total of the organisations and the Party
member as a member of one of the organisations of the Party. The Menshe-
viks, who had objected to this formulation as early as 1903, proposed to substi-
tute for it a "system" of self-enrolment in the Party, a "system" of conferring
the "title" Party member upon every "professor" and "high school student," upon
every "sympathiser" and "striker" who gave support to the Party in one way
or another, but who did not belong and had no inclination to belong to any
one of the Party organisations. We need n<jt stop to prove that had this old
"system" become firmly entrenched in our Party it would have been inundated
with professors and students, it would have degenerated into a widely diffused,
amorphous, disorganised "body" lost in a sea of "sympathisers," that would have
obliterated the line of demarcation between the Party and the class and would
have frustrated the aim of the Party to raise the unorganised masses to the
level of the vanguard. It goes without saying that under such an opportunist
"system" our Party would not have been able to accomplish its mission as the
organising nucleus of the working class during the course of our revolution.
"From Martov's point of view," says Lenin, "the boundary line of the Party
remains absolutely unfixed inasmuch as 'every striker covikl declare himself a
member of the Party.' What advantage is there in this diffuseness? The broad-
casting of a 'title.' The harmfulness of it lies in that it introduces the dis-
ruptive idea of identifying the class with the Party." {Collected Works, Vol.
VI, p. 211, Russian edition.)
But the Party is not merely the sum total of Party organisations. The Party
at the same time represents a single system of these organisations, their formal
unification into a single whole, permitting of higher and lower organs of leader-
ship, of the submission of the minority to the ma.iority, where decisions on ques-
tions of practice are obligatory upon all members of the Party. Unless these
conditions are fulfilled the Party is unable to form a sin; le organised whole
capable of exercising systematic and organised leadership of the struggle of the
working class.
"Formerly," says Lenin, "our aPrty was not a formally organised whole, but
only the sum total of separate groups. Therefore, no other relations except
that of ideological influence were possible between these groups. Now, we have
become an organised Party, and this implies the creation of a power, the con-
version of the authority of ideas into the authority of power, the subordination
of the lower Party bodies to the higher Party bodies." {Ihid., p. 291.)
The principle of the minority submitting to the majority, the principle of
leading Party work from a centre, has been a subject of repeated attacks by
wavering elements who accuse us of "bureaucracy," "formalism," etc. It hardly
needs to be proved that systematic work of the Party, as one whole, and the
leadership of the struggle of the v.'orking class would have been impossible with-
out the enforcement of these principles. On the (U-gauisational question, Lenin-
ism stands for the strict enforcement of these principles. Lenin terms the fight
against these principles "Russian nihilism" and "gentleman's anarchism" which
deserve only to be ridiculed and thrown aside.
This is what Lenin has to say aboiit these wavering elements in his book
entitled One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward:
"The Russian nihilist is especially addicted to this gentleman's anarchism.
To him the Party organisation appears to be a monstrous 'factory.' the sub-
ordination of the part to the whole and the submission of the minority to the
majority appears to him to be 'serfdom' . . . the division of labour under the
leadership of a centre evokes tragi-comical lamentations about people being re-
duced to mere 'cogs and screws' . . . the bare mention of the Party rules on
organisation calls forth a contemptuous grimace and some disdainful . . . re-
marks to the effect that we could get along without rules. ... It seems
clear, however, that tliese outcries against tlie alleged bui'eaucracy are an
attempt to conceal the dissatisfaction with the personnel of tliese centres, a
fig leaf. . . . 'You are a bureaucrat because you were appointed by the Con-
gress without my consent and against my wishes : you are a formalist because
you seek support in the formal decisions of the Congress and not in my ap-
proval : you act in a crudely mechanical way, because your authority is the
"mechanical" majority of the Party Congress and you do not consult by de-
sire to be co-opted ; you are an autocrat because you do not want to deliver
APPENDIX, PART 1 561
power into the hands of the old gang.'"* {CoUccted Works, Vol. VI, pp. 310
and 287, Russian edition.)
(3) The Party as the Highest Form of Class Organisations of the Proletariat.
The Party is the organised detacliment of the working class. But the Party
is not the only organisation of the working class. The proletariat lias in addi-
tion a great number of other organisations which are indispensable in its
correct struggle against the capitalist system — trade unions, co-operative soci-
eties, factory and shop organisations, parliamentary fractions, non-Party wom-
en's associations, the press, cultural and educational organisations, youth
leagues, military revolutionary organizations (in times of direct revolu-
tionary action), soviets of deputies as the state form of organisation
(where the proletariat is in power), etc. Most of these organisations
are non-Party and only a certain part of these adhere directly to tlie Party,
or represent its ofC-slioots. All these organisations, under certain conditions,
are absolutely necessary for tlie working class, as witliout them it is impossible
to consolidate the class position of the proletariat in the diversified spheres of
struggle, and without them it is impossil>le to steel the proletariat as the force
wliose mission it is to replace the bourgeois order by the socialist order. But
how can unity of leadership become a reality in the face of such a multiplicity
of organisations? Wliat guarantee is tliere that tliis multiplicity of organisa-
tions will not lead to discord in leadership It might be argued that each of
these organisations carries on its work in its own field in whicli it specialises
and cannot, therefore, interfere with the others. That of course is true. But
it is likewise true that the activities of all these organisations ought to be
directed into a single channel, as they serve one class, the class of the proletar-
iat. The question then arises ; who is to determine the line, the general di-
rection along which tlie w'ork of all these organisations is to be conducted?
Where is that central organisation which is not only able, having the necessary
experience, to w'ork out such a general line, but also capable, because of its
authority, of prevailing upon all these organisations to carry out this line,
in order to attain unity of direction and preclude this possibility of working at
cross purposes?
This organisation is the party of the proletariat.
The Party possesses all the necessary qualifications for this purpose because, in
the first place, it is the common meeting ground of the best elements in the class
that have direct connections with the non-Party organisations of the proletariat
and very frequently lead them ; because, secondly, the Party, as the meeting
ground of the best members of the working class, is the best school for training
leaders of the working class, capable of directing every form of organisation of
their class ; because, thirdly, the Party, as the best school for training leaders
of the working class, is, by reason of its experience and authority, the only
organisation capable of centralising the leadership of the struggle of tlie prole-
tariat and in this way of transforming each and every non-Party organisation
of the working class into an auxiliary body, a transmission belt linking it with
tlie class. The Party is the highest form of class organisation of the proletariat.
This does not mean, of course, that non-Party organisations like trade unions,
co-operative societies, etc., must be formally subordinated to Party leadership.
It means simply that the members of the Party who belong to these organisations
and doubtless exercise influence in them should do all they can to persuade these
non-Party organisations to draw nearer to the Party of the proletariat in their
work and voluntarily accept its political guidance.
That is why Lenin says that "tlie Party is the highest form of class association
of proletarians" whose political leadership ought ito extend to every other form
of organisation of the proletariat. {"Lvft-Wnig" Coiuiuiuiism, Chap. VI.)
Tliat is why the opportunist theory of the ''independence" and "neutrality" of
the non-Party organisations, which theory is the progenitor of independent
parliamentarians and publicists who are isolated from the Party, and of narroiv-
minded trade unionists and co-operative society oliicials who have become petty-
bourgeois, is wholly incompatible with the theory and practice of Leninism.
(ff) The Party as the Weapon of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.
The Party is the higliest form of organisation of the proletariat. The Party
is the fundamental leading element within the class of the proletariat and within
*The "old gang" here referred to is that of Axelrod. Martov, Potresov and others who
would not submit to the decisions of the Second Congress and who accused Lenin of being
a "bureaucrat." — J. 8.
04931— 40— app., pt. 1 37
562 UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the organisation of that class. But it does not follow by any means that tlie
Party can be regarded as an end in itself, as a self-sufficing force. The
Party is not only the highest form of class association of the proletarians ;
it is at the same time a weapon in the hands of the proletariat for the
achievement of the dictatorship where that has not yet been achieved : for the
consolidation and extension of the dictatorship where it has already been
achieved. Tlie Party would not rank so high in importance and it could not over-
shadow all other forms of organisation of the proletariat if the latter were not
face to face with the question of power, if the conditions of imperialism, the
inevitability of wars and the presence of a crisis did not demand the concentra-
tion of all the forces of the proletariat on one point and the gathering together
of all the threads of the revolutionary movement in one spot, to overthrow the
bourgeoisie and to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat
needs the Party first of all as its General Staff, which it must have for the
successful seizure of power. Needless to say, the Russian proletariat could never
have established its revolutionary dictatorship without a Party capable of rally-
ing around itself the mass organisations of the proletariat and of centralising
the leadership of the entire movement during the progress of the struggle.
But the proletariat needs the Party not only to achieve the dictatorship, it
needs it still more to maintain, consolidate and extend its dictatorship in order
to attain complete victory for socialism.
"Certainly almost every one now realises," says Lenin, "that the Bolsheviks
could not have maintained themselves in power for two and one-half years,
and not even for two and one-half months, without the strictest discipline, the
truly iron discipline in our Party and without the fullest and unreserved sup-
port rendered it by the whole mass of tlie working class, tliat is, by all those
belonging to this class who flunk, Vt'ho are honest, self-sacrificing, influential
and capable of leading and attracting the backward masses." {''Left-Wing"
Cornnmnism, p. 9.)
Now what is meant by "maintaining" and "extending" the dictatorship? Ir
means imbuing these millions of proletarians with the spirit of discipline and
organisation : it means creating among the proletarian masses a bulwark against
the corrosive intluences of petty-bourgeois spontaniety and petty-bourgeois
habits ; it means that the organising work of the proletarians in re-educating
and remoulding the petty-bourgeois strata must be reinforced ; it means that
assistance must be given to the masses of the proletarians in educating them-
selves so that they may become a force capable of abolishing classes and of
preparing the ground for the organisation of socialist production. But it is
impossible to accomplish all this without a Party, which is strong by reason
of its cohesion and discipline.
"The dictatorsliip of the proletariat," says Lenin, "is a persistent struggle —
sanguinary and bloodless, violent and peaceful, militai-y and economic, educa-
tional and administrative — against the forces and traditions of the old society.
The force of habit of millions and of tens of millions is a terrible force.
Without an iron party steeled in the struggle, without a party enjoying the
confidence of all who are honest in the given class, without a party capable
of keeping track of and influencing the mood of the masses, it is impossible
to conduct such a struggle successfully." {''Left-Wivg" Conmiunism, pp. 28-29.)
The proletariat needs the Party for the puriiose of achieving and maintaining
the dictatorship. The Party is the instrument of the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
From this it follows that when classes disappear and the dictatorship of
the proletariat dies out, the Party will also die out.
(5) The Party as the Expression of Unity of Will, Which Is Incompatible
With the Existence of Factions.
The achievement and maintenance of the dictatorship of the proletariat are
impossible without a party strong in its cohesion and iron discipline. But
iron discipline in the Party is impossible without unity of will and without
absolute and complete unity of action on the part of all members of the Party.
This does not mean of course that the possibility of a conflict of opinion within
the Party is thus excluded. On the conti'ary, iron discipline does not preclude
but presupposes criticism and conflicts of opinion within the Party. Least of all
does it mean that this discipline must be "blind" discipline. On the contrary,
iron discipline does not preclude but presupposes conscious and voluntary
submission, for only conscious discipline can be truly iron discipline. But after
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 553
a discussion lias been closed, after criticism has run its course and a decision
has been made, unity of will and unity of action of all Party members become
indispensable conditions without which Party unity and iron discipline in the
Party are inconceivable.
"In the present epoch of intensified civil war," says Lenin, "the Communist
Party can discharge its duty only if it is organised with the highest degree
of centralisation, ruled by iron discipline bordering on military discipline, and
if its Party centre proves to be a i)otent authoritative body invested with broad
powers and enjoying the general confidence of the Party members." (Condi-
tions of Affiliation to the Communist International.)
This is the position in regard to discipline in the the Party in the period of
struggle preceding the conquest of the dictatorship.
The same thing applies, but to a greater degree, to discipline in the Party
after the establishment of the dictatorship.
In this connection, Lenin said : "Whoever in the least weakens the iron dis-
cipline of the party of the proletariat (especially during its dictatorship)
actually aids the bourgeoisie against the proletariat." {''Left-Wing" Com-
munism, p. 29.)
It follows that the existence of factions is incompatible with Party unity
and with its iron discipline. It need hardly be emphasised that the existence
of factions leads to the creation of a number of centres, and the existence of
a number of centres connotes the absence of a common centre in the Party, a
breach in the unity of will, the weakening and disintegration of discipline,
the weakening and disihtegration of the dictatorship. It is true that the parties
of the Second International, which are fighting against the dictatorship of the
proletariat and have no desire to lead the proletariat to power, can permit
themselves the luxury of such liberalism as freedom for factious, for they have
no need whatever of iron discipline. But the parties of the Communist Interna-
tional, which organise their activities on the basis of the task of achieving and
strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat, cannot afford to be "liberar'
or to permit the formation of factions. The Party is synonymous with unity of
will, which leaves no room for any factionalism or division of authority in the
Party.
Hence Lenin's warning on the "danger of factionalism from the point of
view of Party unity and of the realisation of unity of will in the vanguard of
the proletariat as the piimary prerequisite for the success of the dictatorship
of the proletariat." which is embodied in a special resolution of the Tenth Con-
gress of our Party, On Party Unity.
Hence Lenin's demand for the "complete extermination of all factionalism"
and the "immediate dissolution of all groups, without exception, that had been
formed on the basis of this, or that platform" on pain of "unconditional and
immediate expulsion from the Party." (Cf. the resolution. On Party Unity.)
(6) The Party Is Strengthened by Purging Itself of Opportunist Elements
The opportunist elements in the Party are the source of Party factionalism.
The proletariat is not an isolated class. A steady stream of peasants, small
tradesmen and intellectuals, who have become proletarianised by the develop-
ment of capitalism, flows into the ranks of the proletariat. At the same time
the upper strata of the proletariat— principally the trade union leaders and
labour members of parliament — who have been fed by the bourgeoisie out of
the super-profits extracted from the colonies, are undergoing a process of decay.
"This stratum of bourgeoisified workers or 'labor aristocracy,' " says Lenin,
"who have become completely petty-bourgeois in their mode of life, in the amount
of their earnings, and in their point of view, serve as the main support of the
Second International, and, in our day, the principal social (not military) sup-
port of the bourgeoisie. They are the real agents of the bourgeoisie in the
labour movement, the labor lieutenants of the capitalist class, the real carriers of
reformism and chauvinism." (Imperialism, the High-Stage of Capitalism [Inter-
national Publishers], pp. 13-14.)
All these petty-bourgeois groups somehow or other penetrate into the Part.v
into which they introduce an element of hesitancy and opportunism, of
disintegration and lack of self-confidence. Factionalism and splits, disorganisa-
tion and the undermining of the Party from within are principally due to them.
Fighting imperialism with such "allies" in one's rear is as bad as being caught
between two fires, coming both from the front and rear. Therefore, no quarter
should be given in fighting such elements, and their relentless expulsion from
564 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the Party is a couclitiou precedent for the successful struggle against imperialism.
The theory of "overcoming" opportunist elements by ideological struggle
within the Party ; the theory of "living down"' these elements within the confines
of a single Party are rotten and dangerous theories that threaten to reduce to
Party to paralysis and chronic infirmity, that threaten to abandon the Party to
opportunism, that threaten to leave the proletariat without a revolutionary party,
that threaten to deprive the proletariat of its main weapon in the fight against
imperialism. Our Party could not have come out onto the high road, it could
not have seized power and organised the dictatorship of the proletariat, it could
not have emerged victorious from the civil war, if it had had within its ranks
people like Martov and Dan, Potresov and Axelrod. Our Party succeeded in
creating true unity and greater cohesion in its ranks than ever before, mainly
because it undertook in time to purge itself of opportunist pollution and expelled
the liquidators and Mensheviks from its ranks. The proletarian parties develop
and become strong by purging themselves of opportunists and reformists, social-
imperialists and social-chauvinists, .social-patriots and social-pacifists. The
Party becomes strong by ridding itself of opportunist elements.
"With reformists and ^Mensheviks in our ranks," says Lenin, ''ive camiot be
victorious in the proletarian revolution vor can we defend it against attack.
This is clearly so in principle. It is strikingly confirmed by the experiences of
Russia and Hungary. . . . Russia found itself in a tight corner many a time,
when the Soviet regime would certainly have been overthrown had the Men-
sheviks, reformists or petty-bourgeois democrats remained within our Party. . . .
It is generally admitted that in Italy events are heading towards decisive battles
of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie for the capture of state power. At such
a time not only does the removal of the Mensheviks, reformists and Turatists
from the Party become absolutely necessary but it may even prove useful to
remove certain excellent Communists who might and who do waver in the
direction of desiring to maintain 'unity' with the reformists — to remove these
from all responsible positions. . . . On the eve of the revolution and in the
midst of the desperate struggle for victory, the slightest hesitancy within the
Party is apt to ruin, everything, to disrupt the revolution and to snatch
the power out of the hands of the proletariat, since that power is as yet in-
secure and the attacks upon it are still too violent. The retirement of waver-
ing leaders at such a time does not weaken but strengthens the Party, the
labour movement and the revolution." (Collected Works, Vol. XXV, pp. 462-64,
Russian edition.)
Exhibit No. 91
[ Source : A pamplilet published by Worlvers Library Publishers, New York, N. Y. : second
edition, July, 1934]
The Struggle Against Impebiaxist War and the Tasks of the Communists
eesolution op the sixth world congress of the communist international
July-August, 1928
Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Station D, New York City. First
Edition, December, 1932. Second Edition, July, 1934.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Tlie Menace of Imperialist War 3
II. Attitude of the Proletariat Towards War 9
III. The Proletariat's Attitude Towards the Army 39
IV. The Proletariat's Attitude Towards the Question of Disarmament
and the Fight Against Fascism 54
V. Defects in the Work of the Communist Parties and Their Tasks 60
APPENDIX, PART 1 565
I. THE MENACE OF IMPEKIAtlST WAR
1. Ten years after the world war, the big imperialist powers solemnly
conclude a pact for outlawing war: they talk about disarmaments; they seek,
with the support of the leaders of international social-democracy, to delude
the workers and toiling masses into the belief that the rule of monopoly
capitalism assures peace to the world.
The Sixth World Congress of the Communist International condemns all
these maneuvers as vile deception of the working masses. It recalls to the
minds of the international proletariat, of the toilers and oppressed peoples
of the world, the experiences of recent years, the small wars of plunder
continuously waged against the colonial peoples, and the events of last year:
intervention against the Chinese revolution, the sharpening conflict between
the powers for a new division of China, the mobilization of troops in Poland,
the immediate menace to the independence of Lithuania — and in connection
therewith, the constantly growing menace of war against the Soviet Union
by an imperialist bloc under the leadership of Great Britain; it recalls all
these facts as illustrating the criminal war policy of the imperialists, which
may suddenly burst into a terrible world conflagration.
The Sixth World Congress has already analyzed the political and economic
driving forces of the coming war.
The changes in the world situation since the Fifth World Congress are
characterized by a tremendous intensification of all the contradictions of
capitalism, by the great economic and political strengthening of the Soviet
Union, by the rapid growth of the national revolutionary movements in the
colonies and semi-colonial countries, — above all in China — and by the in-
tensification of the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
in the capitalist coimtries.
The antagonisms between the imperialist powers in the struggle for markets
are more and more sharply expressed. But still more strongly than the an-
tagonisms between the imperialist powers is grovN^ing the principal antagonism
that is dividing the world into two camps; on the one hand the whole of the
capitalist world, and on the other hand the U. S. S. R., around which the
international proletariat and the appressed peoples of the colonies are grouping.
The fight for the destruction of the Soviet system and the Chinese revo-
lution, for unrestricted domination over China and for the possession of
the enormous reservoirs of raw materials and the markets in these countries,
is a matter of extreme importance for international capital and the basis for
the imminent danger of a new imperialist war that is threatening at the
present time.
2. The coming imi)erialist world war will not only be a mechanized war
with a tremendous use of material, but simultaneously it will be a war that
will seize upon vast millions, indeed upon the majority of the population
of the warring countries. The boundary between battle-front and rear will
tend more and more to become obliterated.
The Congress points to the tremendous increase in armaments, to the great
improvements in the field of war technique, and to the measures for the
militarization of the masses and of industry taken in all capitalist countries;
the militarization in Fascist Italy: the military reform in France; the reac-
tionary army laws in Czechoslovakia; the growing military preparations in
Poland and Roumania under the direction of the General Staffs of the big
imperialist powers ; the preparations in Germany for the re-building of the
old militarism in new forms ; the mass militarization in America ; the mil-
itary preparations in Great Britain, in the Dominions and particularly in
India, etc. The naval rivalry between America and England opens up a
new world armament race. A most significant new factor in the present mass
militarization is intensified militarization of the youth and that this militariza-
tion actually, and in some places even officially, extends to women (France,
Poland, Bulgara, etc.).
3. Side by side with the armaments and war preparations of the imperialists
against foreign rivals, there proceeds an intensification of reaction at home.
Without a "quiet" hinterland it is impossible for the imperialists to wage
war. The bourgeoisie is taking measures to prevent the workers from putting
up any kind of organized resistance to their war policy.
This "covering of the rear" by the bourgeoisie is served by such measures
as the Trade Union Laws in Great Britain and Norway, the arbitration system
566 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in Germany, the Mond plan for collaboration in the chemical enterprises, the
"industrial peace" campaigns, the non-political trade unions (Spencerism in
Great Britain), the "company unions" in America, the creation of Fascist State
unions in Italy and the law militarizing the trade unions in case of war in
Prance. These are measures to assure the military suppression of every working
class movement immediately war is declared.
On the other hand, the unofficial armies of the tyi>e of the "Stalhelm" in
Germany, the "Schutzcorps" in Finland, the "Strelzy" in Poland, and the "Heim-
wehr" in Austria pursue the aim of strike-breaking and forcible suppression of
the workers — not only in time of war, but also in the period of war preparations.
In this must be included also the military or semi-military women's organiza-
tions established in a number of countries. The big imperialist powers support
Fascism in Southeastern Europe and in Poland and Roumania as an important
instrument in the preparation for and conduct of the imperialist war especially
against the U. S. S. R.
The persecution and measures of suppression against the Communist Parties
are being systematically intensiiied and the Comintern Sections in all imperial-
ist countries are immediately confronted with the danger of being driven
"underground," into complete illegality.
4. In this situation of increased armaments and extensive preparations for
imperialist wars, the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeois pacifists seek, by
means of hypocritical speeches, to deceive the toiling masses as to the real
facts of the situation, and under the cloak of pacifism, and "peace" policy,
systematically strive to turn them in favor of the struggle against the Soviet
Union. Tlie battle-cry of the coming war against the Soviet Union will be:
"The war for peace ! Down with Bolshevism, the destroyer of civilization !"
The speeches of the bourgeoisie and the social-democratic and petty bour-
geois pacifist accomplices, about disarmament security, arbitration courts, out-
lawry of war as an instrument of national policy, etc., are examples of the
worst hypocrisy.
The League of Nations, founded nine years ago as an imperialist alliance
in defense of the robber "peace" of Versailles, and for the suppression of the
revolutionary movement of the world, is itself more and more bt^coming a
direct instrument for the preparation and carrying through of war against the
Soviet Union. The alliances and pacts created under the protectorate of the
League of Nations are direct means for camouflaging war preparations, and
are themselves instruments for the preparation of war, especially war against
the Soviet Union.
5. The imperialists are only able to carry on their war policy thanks to the
active collaboration of international Social Democracy. The reformists were ex-
posed as social patriots and chauvinists already by the world war of 1914-1918.
Since then, the policy of Social-Democracy has ripened into open social-imperial-
ism. In all decisive questions, the leaders of Social-Democracy and of the
Amsterdam trade unions have not only become the defenders, but the active
champions of imperialism. They have developed their greatest activity in
support of the imperialist war preparations against the Soviet Union.
The course adopted by the reformist leaders towards deepening the split in
the camp of the labor movement by a sharpened offensive against the Com-
munist movement and by their active splitting tactics in the trade unions and
proletarian mass organizations (Germany, Great Britain), serves, like their
defeatist strategy in big economic struggles, to strengthen the bourgeoisie,
to weaken the battle-positions for the proletariat, and, in this way, to prepare the
conditions in which the bourgeoisie may embark on a new imperialist war.
The proletariat must closely study the methods by which Social Democracy is
preparing ideologicjijly for the war against the Soviet Union. Some of these
methods are: (a) dissemination of lies about "Red" imperialism" and "Red"
militarism," about the "identity of Fascism and Bolshevism," etc.; (b) the
claim that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the cause of war, or one of
the caiises of war: (c) the hypocritical attitude that "We are for the support
of the Soviets, but against the Communists and the Comintern"; (d) propa-
gation of defeatism towards the Soviet Government under a "Left" ma.sk. The
war danger during the last year has provided several examples of these meth-
ods ; especially in the work of the German Social Democrats. These examples
were no less clearly expressed by the allies of Social Democracy, the Trot-
skyists, e. g.. in their phrases about "Thermidor," "kulakization." etc.
The so-called "Left" leaders of Social-Democracy were characterized by the
Eighth Plenum as the most dangerous enemies in the labor movement. This
APPENDIX, PART 1 567
characterization has been completely confirmed by tlieir treacherous policy during
the past year and by their behavior at the Brussels Congress of the Second Inter-
national. It is precisely they who, under "Left" phrases, seek to save both the
bourgeoisie and Right reformist leaders in critical situations, by describing the
Soviet regime and the Communist world movement as enemies of the proletarian
united front, as enemies of "world peace," as "allies of reaction," in order thereby
to mislead and confuse the workers and to assist the bourgeoisie in carrying out
its war policy.
6. Events of recent years have shown that the main front in the policy of all
imperialist powers is directed more and more openly against the Soviet Union
and the Chinese revolution. But in view of the sharpening antagonisms between
the imperialist powers themselves, a clash between the imperialist groups of
powers in the struggle for woi'ld supremacy is possible even before this war
breaks out.
Just as the world war of 1914-18 led directly to the victorious proletarian revo-
lution in the former Tsarist Empire, to the development of the liberation move-
ment in the colonies and to uprisings and revolutionary mass movements among
the European proletariat, so a new war will rouse a mighty revolutionary move-
ment that will embrace the industrial workers of America, the broad ma.sses of
peasants in agrarian countries and the millions of oppressed peoples of the
colonies. However, the crisis of capitalism — the sharpest expression of which
is war — may give rise to broad revolutionary mass movements, even before the
open conflict breaks out. In such a movement, as in the daily struggles, the
Conimimists must strive to rally, organize and lead the masses, with the aim of
fighting, by means of revolutionary action, for the conquest of power, for the
overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a proletarian dictatorship.
Even if the Communists in the European countries do not succeed in sharpen-
ing the daily struggle for the most urgent demands of the workers to the point of
an open struggle for power, for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie — and only through
the overthrow of the bourgeoisie in the most important countries can imperialist
wars be prevented — nevertheless the constant combining of this struggle with
the fight against imperialism will considerably augment the activity of the workers,
and will make it considerably more ditficult for the bourgeoisie to prepare for or
embark on war. It is clear that a postponement of the imperialist war measures
by the mass actions of the proletariat will create conditions that will considerably
facilitate the transformation of this war into civil war and the overthrow of the
imperialists. In any case, the growing Leftward development among the prole-
tariat and the toiling masses generally and the powerful development of the na-
tional revolutionary movement in the colonial and semi-colonial countries, pro-
vides a broad foundation for the growing influence of the Comintern and for the
intensified struggle of the Communists against the ivhole policy of the world
bourgeoisie— a policy which leads to increased exploitation and oppression as
well as to the greatest sharpening of war conflicts.
II. ATPITUDE OF THE PROIOETARIAT TOWARDS WAR
7. War is inseparable from capitalism. The struggle against war, above all,
calls for a clear insight into its nature, causes, etc. As against the reactionary
excuse that war is a natural phenomenon, and the no less reactionary Utopian
schemes for its abolition l)y means of phrases or pacts, the revolutionary prole-
tariat advances the rational theory of Marxism-Leninism, as the only scientific
basis for a real struggle against war.
The cause of war as an historic phenomenon is not the "evil nature" of man-
kind, not the "bad" policies of governments, but the division of society into
classes, into exploiters and exploited. Capitalism is the cause of the wars in
modern history. These wars are not exceptional phenomena ; they do not
contradict the principles of capitalism, of private ownership in the means of pro-
duction, of competition and exploitation, but are rather their direct consequence,
Imperialism, the monopolist stage of capitalism, sharpens all the contradic-
tions of capitalism to such an extent that "peace" becomes but a breathing spell
for new wars. The surface of the earth and its economic wealth (with the
exception of that part that is ruled by the proletarian dictatorship) is almost
completely monopolized by a few big powers. The uneven economic and
political development of the various countries, however, again and again creates
the necessity for a new division of the world. In the last analysis, this cannot
take place except through wars waged bj' the decisive imperialist countries
against one another. At the same time, however, the exploitation of the
558 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
huiulreds of millions of proletarians and colonial slaves can lie maintained only
by bloody wars of oppression.
War is inseparable from capitalism. From this it follows that the "abolition"
of war is possible only through the abolition of capitalism, i. e., through the
overthrow of the bourgeois class of exploiters, through the proletarian dictator-
ship, the building of Socialism, and the elimination of classes. All other theories
and proposals, however, "realistic" they may claim to be are nothing but a
deception calculated to perpetuate exploitation and war.
For this reason, Leninism combats all pacifist theories concerning the abolition
of war and points out to the masses of the workers and to all the exploited
people the only way leading to this goal : the overthrow of capitalism.
8. But the overthrow of capitalism is impossible without force, without armed
uprising and proletarian wars against the bourgeoisie. In the present epoch of
imperialist wars and world revolution, as Lenin has stated, proletarian civil
wars against the bourgeoisie, wars of the proletarian dictatorship against bour-
geois states and against world capitalism, and national revolutionary wars of
the oppressed peoples against imperialism, are inevitable and revolutionary.
Therefore, the revolutionary proletariat, precisely because it is fighting for Social-
ism and for the abolition of war, cannot be against every war.
Every war is but a continuation of the politics of certain classes "by other
means." The proletariat, therefore, must carefully study the historical and
political class meaning of each given ivar and give special study to the role of
the ruling classes in all the countries participating in the war from the view-
point of the international proletarian revolution.
In the present epoch the following three types of wars are possible: first,
wars between imperialist states ; second, wars of imperialist coxmter-revolution
against the proletarian revolution, or against countries in which Socialism is
being built ; third, national revolutionary wars, especially of colonial countries
against imperialism, which are connected with wars of imperialist suppression.
In the first case, of which the world war of 1914-1918 is a classical example,
both sides wage a reactionary imperialist war. In the second case, e. g., the
wars of intervention against the Soviet Union (1914-1918), only the imperialists
wage reactionary war; the proletarian dictatorship, in such a case, wages a revo-
lutionary war for Socialism in the interests of the whole world proletariat.
In the third, case, e. (/., the war of imperialism against the Chinese revolution,
again it is only the imperialist powers that wage reactionary robber war. The
war of an oppressed nation against imperialism, however, is not only just, but
revolutionary ; it is, in present times, a part of the proletarian world revolution.
This Marxian analysis of wars serves as the basis upon which the proletariat
determines its position, in principle and in tactics, towards these various types of
wars. The proletariat lights against the wars between imperialist states with a
program of defeatism and the transformation of the war into a civil war against
the bourgeoisie. The same position, in principle, is taken by the proletariat in
imperialist countries in the event of a war of oppression waged by the imperial-
ists against national revolutionary movements, above all against the colonial
peoples and in the event of impei'ialism waging an open counter-revolutionary
war against the land of the proletarian dictatorship. The proletariat, however,
supports and conducts national revolutionary wars and Socialist wars against
imperialism, and organizes for the defense of national revolutions and of the
countries of the proletarian dictatorship.
9. As long as the proletariat has not yet established its dictatorship, it must
determine its tactics in regard to wars waged by its country in accordance with
the results of a thorough examination of the concrete aspect of the war at each
separate stage. National wars may be turned into imperialist wars, and vice
versa.
Mere formal tokens, e. g., offensive or defensive wars, cannot serve as a
substitute for a concrete test of the character of a given war. In an imperialist
war like that of 1914 this criterion is generally senseless, and serves only to
deceive the masses. However, in wars waged by imperialists against revolu-
tionary powers, it is necessary to view this criterion not in the strategical, but
rather in the historico-political sense. The question primarily, is not, who is the
aggressor, who is waging an unjust war, but, who represents reaction, the
counter-revolution and exploitation; who is on the imperialist side, and against
the national proletarian revolution? An example of the wrong application of
the argument of the offensive war was furnished by the French Socialists in
1925 when they supported the French war against the insui'gents of Morocco,
because the latter was supposed to have "started first." A sirnilar attitude was
APPENDIX, PART 1 5g9
taken by the labor imperialists in England in regard to intervention in China in
1927 ("protection of British life and property''),
10. The attitude in principle to a given war determines also the attitude to
the question of war. The proletariat has no country until it has captured
political power and has taken the means of production from the exploiters.
The expression "national defense" is nothing but a catchword, and mostly a
petty-bourgeois catchword to justify war. In wars staged by the proletariat
itself, or by a proletarian State against imperialism, the proletariat defends its
Socialist country. In national-revolutionary wars against imperialism, the pro-
letariat defends its country against imperialism. But in imperialist wars the
proletariat absolutely rejects "national defense" as being defense of exploitation
and treachery to the cause of Socialism.
A. The Proletariat Fights Against Imperialist Wars
1. The Figlit Against Imperialist War Before Its Outhreak.
11. The fight the Communists wage against imperialist war difl:ers essentially
from the "fight against war" waged by pacifists of various shades. The Com-
munists do not regard the struggle against such a war as beiug separate from
the class struggle. On the contrary, they regard it as part of the general pro-
letarian struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. They know that im-
perialist wars are inevitahle as long as the bourgeoisie remain in power. This
postulate is sometimes interpreted to mean that it is useless to carry on a specific
struggle against imperialist war. Indeed, the Social Democrats deliberately
charge the Communists with encouraging imperialist wars in order to accelerate
the advent of Revolution. While the first-mentioned attitude is a mistaken one,
the second is a silly calumny.
Although convinced that war is inevitable under the rule of the bourgeoisie, the
Communists, in the interests of the masses of the workers and of all the toilers
who bear the brunt of the sacrifice entailed by war, wage a persistent fight
against imperialist war and strive to prevent imperialist war by proletarian
revolution. They strive to rally the masses around their standard in this
struggle, and if unable to prevent the outbreak of war, they strive to transform it
into civil war for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
12. The first duty of Communists in the fight against imperialist war is to
tear down the screen by which the bourgeoisie conceal their preparations for
war and the real state of affairs from tiie masses of the workers. This duty
implies above all a determined political and ideological fight against pasifism.
In this fight the Communists must take careful note of the various shades of
pacifism. The most important of these shades are :
(a) Oflicial pacifism, behind which the capitalist governments mask their
maneuvers against each other and against the Soviet Union (League of Nations,
Locarno, Disarmament Conferences, "outlawry of war," etc.).
(b) The pacifism of the Second International (Hilferding, Paul Boncour,
MacDonald), which is but a branch of oflicial government pacifism, except that
it is embellished with Socialistic and even "Marxian" phrases.
(c) "Radical" or "revolutionary" pacifism, advocated by certain "Left" Social-
ists who admit the danger of war, but strive to combat this danger frequently
by meaningless phrases against war. These pacifists frequently lay excessive
stress upon the destructiveness of modern Aveapous of war in order, either
to prove that protracted wars are impossible, or else, to demonstrate that it is
impossible to transform imperialist war into civil war,
(d) Semi-religious pacifism, which has its basis in the church movement.
In the struggle against pacifism, however, the Communists must draw a dis-
tinction between the anti-war sentiments of large masses of the toilers — who
are ready to fight against war, but do not as yet understand that the revolu-
tionary way is the only proper way of combating wai', and therefore, become
a prey to pacifist swindlers — and the swindlers themselves, the pacifists of
various shades. The masses must be patiently enlightened as to their error and
urged to join the revolutionary united front in the struggle against war. But
the pacifist swindlers must be relentlessly exposed and combated.
(e) A special role is played by so-called "co-operative pacifism." This type
of pacifism is to be observed chiefly in the International Cooperative Alliance
and International Women's Cooperative Guild in London. To those must be
added "Left" bourgeois organizations like the Women's International League
for Peace and Freedom.
570 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
13. The closer and more imminent the danger of war becomes, the more
dangerous becomes so-called "radical" pacifism. This type of pacifism is to be
observed today chiefly among the "Left-wing" Social-Democrats in Germany, the
I.L.P. in England, and the Social Democrats in the smaller countries like Hol-
land, Norway, etc. The catchwords and phrases advocated by these pacifists
like "No more war," "Boycott War," "General strike against the declaration of
war," "Military strike," etc., are taken up in the utterances of the reformist
leaders for the purpose of deceiving the masses (e. g., the phrases about the
general strike uttered by the Amsterdam International). In his instructions to
the Russian Trade Union Delegation to the Hagvie Peace Conference in De-
cember, 1922, Lenin properly laid special stress upon this type of pacifism. His
warning holds good to this day, particularly when we bear in mind that even in
the ranks of the Communist Parties there are many members who, unconsciously
perhaps, betray inclinations in this direction.
It is therefore necessary :
(a) To comhat all high-sounding phrases like "we shall never permit another
war," "no more war," etc. The Connnnnists must not be content merely to
"correct" these slogans theoretically, but must wage an active fight against
this kind of propaganda by unmasking those who conduct it, and denounce
this phrase-mongering as a screen to conceal the preparations being made
for war. The same thing applies in many cases today to the slogan : "War
against war" that is advanced by the Social Democrats as a hypocriticiil means
of raising unfounded expectations among the masses.
(b) To combat the proposals advanced by the "radical" pacifists for pre-
venting war. Communists cannot content themselves merely with exposing
these people as phrasemongers, who would do nothing to carry their radical
proposals into effect (general strike, military strike), but they must also point
out to the masses that, as framed by these pacifists, these slogans are wrong
and childish. They must explain to the masses the real circumstances under
which war breaks out, the impossibility of limiting the struggle to certain fixed
methods and the need for bringing into action all forms of the class struggle.
(c) Energetically to combat and openly criticize all frivolousness in the ranks
of the Communist Parties concerning the question of combating war. This is
particularly necessary at the present time, in view of the mistakes contained
in press articles and parliamentary speeches. Under no circumstances should
such mistakes be allowed to pass without criticism.
14. In addition to the task of combating pacifism and frivolous "revolutionary"
phrasemongering in the struggle against imi>erialist war, the Communists are
faced with a number of other fundamental agitational and educational tasks.
These are:
(a) To expose in proper time, the sophistries and catch-words by which the
bourgeoisie and Social-Democracy try to justify war. The principal slogan
advanced by the latter, even in the present day, is the slogan of "national de-
fense." The war against China in 1927 revealed the true significance of slogans
like "Protection of life and property," "Protection of trade," "Protection of the
flag," etc. In the last imperialist war, the Allies made use of the slogan "Fight
against Prussian militarism," while the Central Powers used the slogan "Fight
against Tsarism" ; both sides using the respective slogans to mobilize the masses
for the war. In a future war between Italy and France, or Yugo-Slavia, the
same purpose will be served by the slogan "Fight against reactionaiy Fascism,"
for the bourgeoisie in the latter countries will take advantage of the anti-Fascist
sentiments of the masses of the people to justify imperialist war. On the other
hand. Fascism justifies its imperialist war policies by the catchwords "over-
population," "natural necessity for expansion," etc. The Communist Parties
have hitherto paid insuflBcient attention to the duty of refuting these sophistries.
(b) "It is essential again and again, and as concretely as possible, to explain
to the masses what the ^situation was at the time of the last war, and why that
situation was inevitable."
"It is particularly necessary to explain to the masses the significance of the
fact that the question of 'national defense' is becoming an inevitable question,
which the enormous majority of the toilers will inevitably decide in favor of
their own bourgeoisie." (Lenin.)
"In view of recent experiences of war, we must explain that on the morrow
of the declaration of war, such an enormous number of theoretical and social
questions will arise, that the overwhelming majority of the men called up for
service will find it utterly imixissible to examine them with a clear head and
with any degree of impartiality." (Lenin.)
APPENDIX, PART 1 571
"We must tell the masses the real facts about the profound secrecy in which
the governments make their plans for war and how impotent the ordinary labor
organizations, even those that call themselves revolutionary, are in the face of
impending war." (Lenin.)
The Bolsheviks, having a well set up illegal organization, were the only Party
able to carry on revolutionary work during the war. Yet even they could no
more prevent the masses from responding to the bourgeois call for "national
defense" then they could prevent the outbreak of war, notwithstanding the fact
ihat the proletarian struggle in Russian was at high tide at that period.
In fact, only a few weeks before the outbreak of war, barricades were erected
in the streets of St. Petersburg.
Consequently, only by thoroughly explaining to the masses the tremendous
difficulties that have"^to be overcome in a real struggle against war can the founda-
tion be laid for the solution of the tactical problems involved in this struggle.
(c) Pinallv, it is necessary to explain thoroughly to tlje masses the experiences
of the last world war, of 1914-1918: the tendencies that prevailed in the labor
movement at that time, the struggles the Bolsheviks conducted against war, and
the fundamental slogan they advanced of transforming the imperialist war into
civil war.
15. This agitational and propagandist activity must be closely linked up with
the revolutionary work of the Party among the masses.
This is the main task in the struggle against imperialist war before it breaks
out. Stated in detail this task includes the following:
(a) Factory and trade union activity must be concentrated primarily in the
industries which serve the mobilization for and conduct of war, like the metal
industry, the chemical industry, and transport. It is particularly important to
apply the tactics of the proletarian united front and to secure the organizational
consolidation of its results (establishment of Committees of Action, etc.).
(b) In view of the fact that the peasantry constitutes the bulk of the army
in most countries, special attention must bo paid to anti-war work among the
peasants. This work is facilitated by the strong anti-war sentiment prevailing
among the peasants in many countries. The bourgeoisie, through the medium
of the big landlords and big farmers and through Ex-Servicemen's Leagues, the
press, Fascism, pacifism, the churches, etc., strive to consolidate their influence
in the countryside, and to rouse the "fighting spirit" of the peasantry. Com-
munists must counteract this activity by their work to sharpen the class struggle
in the countryside. The Communists must conduct anti-war agitation among the
peasant masses and in this utilize the experiences of the world war, and link up
this agitation with the economic demands of the small peasantry. They must
explain to the peasants the proletarian attitude towards war ; carry on fraction
work in the reactionary peasant leagues; organize anti-war conferences of the
small peasantry, and give consideration to the special interests of the peasants in
carrying on work in the army.
(c) The national-revolutionary movements in the Balkans, Poland, etc., play
an extremely important part in the struggle against the imperialist war danger
and in transforming imperialist war into civil war. The struggle against the
imperialist war danger in these countries must be linked up with the fight against
the remnants of feudalism and against national oppression, and must be directed
towards the development of the agrarian and national revolutions.
Hence, the establishment and expansion of a revolutionary bloc of the pro-
letariat, the i>easantry and the oppressed nations against capitalism and against
the imperialist war danger is an exceedingly important task that now confronts
the Communist Parties.
(d) A matter of decisive importance is the work among the youth, especially
among the industrial youth. The greatest efforts must be exerted — not only by
the youth organizations, but by all Communists — in comliating bourgeois sport
organizations, fascist organizations, military schools, etc., through which the
bourgeoisie are training the youth for imperialist wars. Furthermore, bourgeois
military training of the youth must also be combated. Where the military
training of the youth is compulsory, the Communists should urge the young
workers to accept it, but they must organize work for the political education of
these young workers and for the disintegration of the boiirgeois military organi-
zations. Similar work must be carried on in the bourgeois voluntary military
training organizations. For this purpose the Communist Party and the Young
Communist League must send members into these organizations, but they nmst not
urge the young workers to join them. Instead, they must urge the young workers
to join, or form, Labor Defense organizations.
572 UN-AME,RICAN PKOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
(e) Bearing in miud the important part women play in industry, especially
in time of war, work must be carried on among the industrial working women
and workingmen's wives. To combat the imperialist influence disseminated
among working women through petty-bourgeois organizations and to organize
the working women in trade unions and other proletarian mass organizations,
are extremely important tasks at the present time in view of the threatening war
danger. In this connection, special consideration must be given to the plans
for the militarization of women and to the Increasing influence which bour-
geois pacifist, religious and nationalist organizations are exercising over work-
ing class women. Work among 1;he women must no longer be neglected, and
the idea that this work is solely the affair of the women Communists must be
stamped out.
(f) Anti-militarist activity; work in the army and navy; work among the
recruits and reservists and in hov.rgeois defense or(/aiiiz(itious, in which the prole-
tarian element is strongly represented, must constitute an inseparable part of the
general revolutionary mass activity of the Party, and must embrace Ihe whole of
the working class.
16. Lenin was of the opinion that "the only possible way of continuing revolu-
tionary work after the outbreak of war is the creation of an illegal organization."
But, an illegal organization is also necessary in the anti-war struggle before war
breaks out. There is still considerable confusion of mind concerning this im-
portant task in the struggle against war, and serious neglect in its practical
fulfillment. In some Communist Parties the definitely opportunist view prevails
that the conduct of anti-war activity is the business only of the youth, or of a
special organization, while activity within the army is regarded as not being abso-
lutely essential. Such views must be vigorously combated, and the work must be
taken up immediately, in the spirit of the instructions given by Lenin. In this
connection, we must:
(a) Enlarge the number of Party factory nuclei which, under given circum-
stances arising from the persecution of the employers and the police, must go
underground. The preparations for the transference to underground conditions
when the contingency arises, must be undertaken now.
(b) ]Make preparations for guaranteeing the proper functioning of the leading
bodies of the Party, of the communications apparatus and of the Party press,
in the event of the necessity arising for going strictly underground.
While never for a moment ceasing to utilize all available legal possibilities, the
Communist Parties must already at the present time devote the greatest energy
and attention to these tasks. If they fail to do this the persecution that must set
in at the moment of the outbreak of war — a foretaste of which we have already
in a number of countries today — will inevitably destroy the Party organization,
and with it, the principal base of the revolutionary struggle against war.
17. The Communist Parties must bend all their work to the central task of
preparing, winning over and organizing the masses for the struggle against im-
perialist war. The struggles of the proletariat and of toilers generally against
the intensification of exploitation and oppression — in matters of wages, the work-
ing day, taxes, rent, social services, political disfranchisement, victimization and
the intensification of the Fascist menace — must not be confined to the demands
arising out of these struggles, but must be linked up with the determined struggle
against imperialist war policy.
All the important questions of foreign policy, of armaments, of the introduction
of new weapons of war, etc., must be brought before the masses of the workers
and utilized for the organization of revohitionary mass action. In this struggle,
the Communist Party, giving due and sober consideration to its strength, must
march boldly and determinedly at the head of the masses. It must organize
demonstrations and strikes against the war policy of the imxjerialist bourgeoisie,
and, at the proper moment, put to the masses the question of the general strike
and of still sharper methods of struggle.
2. The Struggle During Imperialist War
18. The political program of the Communists in an imperialist war is the pro-
gram worked out and applied by the Bolshevik Party under the leadership of
Lenin in its heroic struggle against the last imperialist war. The main points
of this program may be summarized as follows :
(a) The rejection of imperialist "national defense" in this war. To enlighten
the workers and peasants as to its reactionary character. Strongly to combat all
tendencies in the labor movement which openly, or covertly, justify this war.
APPENDIX, PART 1 573
(b) Defeatism, ;. r., to work for the defeat of the home imperialist government
in tills war.
(c) Genuine internationalism, i. e., not "international" phrases and formal
"agreements," but revolutionary defeatist work to be carried on by the proletariat
in all the belligerent countries, for the overthrow of their home bourgeoisie.
(d) To transfer the war between the imijerialist States into proletarian civil
war against the bourgeoisie, for the purpose of establishing the dictatorship of the
proletariat and Socialism — this transformation to be achieved by means of revolu-
tionary mass action in the rear, and fraternization at the fi-ont.
(e) A "democratic" or "just" peace cannot result from an imperialist war
without the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the seizure of power by the proletariat
in the most important belligerent States. Therefore, "peace" cannot be the central
slogan during imperialist war ; the central slogan must be "proletarian revolu-
tion." It is the boundeu duty of Communists strongly to combat all peace phrase-
mongering ; for at a certain moment in the war, this can be utilized by the bour-
geoisie as an extremely important ideological weapon to prevent the imperialist
war from being transformed into civil war.
Communists must not confine themselves merely to conducting propaganda in
favor of this program ; they must rouse the masses of the workers to tight for it,
by apx^lying the tactics of the united proletarian front from below.
19. "Transform the imperialist war into civil war" means primarily, revolu-
tionary mass action. The Communists resolutely repudiate all so-called "means"
of combating war that hamper the development of revolutionary mass action.
Consecpiently, they repudiate individual actions that have no connection with
revolutionary mass actions or that fail to contribute to their development. Com-
munists combat the propaganda in favor of the "against the war" prescriptions
that are recommended by the petty-bourgeois elements in the labor movement.
Proscriptions like "refusal to bear arms," "refusal to shoot." etc., are still circu-
lated widely among the masses today, and many workers seriously believe in their
efficacy. As a matter of fact, these prescriptiims are meaningless and harmful.
The Communists must tell the workers that the struggle against war is not a single
and simultaneous act. and that revolutionary mass action on the part of the
workeis and poor peasants, in the rear and at the front, for the armed overthrow
of the bourgeoisie, is the only proper means of combating war, to which all other
means must be directed. While combating the above-mentioned prescriptions for
individual action, which can only hinder mass action, the Communists must at the
same time rouse the workers to display a spirit of revolutionary heroism in the
struggle against imperialist wars.
20. The Communists' attitude towards the question of the general strike against
war is determined by the same point of view, vis., the transformation of imperialist
war into civil war. Already in 1907, Lenin, in opposing Herve, repudiated the
general strike slogan as a "panacea" to be applied regardless of the concrete situa-
tion and divorced from the general class struggle of the proletariat. In 1922, on
the basis of experiences in the world war, he formulated his position still more
definitely. In his instructions to the delegation to the Hague Peace Congress, he
said :
"It is impossible to 'reply' to war with a general strike, just as it is impossible
to reply to war with 'revolution,' in the simple and literal sense of the word."
This holds good to this day. But while Communists repudiate the slogan of
"reply to war wirh a general strike." and warn the workers against harboring such
illusions, which can only injure the real struggle against war, they do not by any
means abandon the weapon of the general strike in the struggle against war, and
sharply condenui any suggestion to do so as an opportunist deviation. Side by side
with other revolutionary mass actions (demonstrations, strikes in munition works,
transport strikes, etc.), the general strike — as the supreme form of the mass
strike movement — is an extremely important weapon, and as a transition to the
armed uprising it constitutes a stage in the transformation of imperialist war into
civil war. This transformation, however, does not depend upon the will of the
Party alone. It presupposes the existence of a revolutionary situation, the capac-
ity of the proletariat for mass action, etc. These conditions do not as a rule
prevail at the very beginning of the war ; they develop in the course of the war.
But even in war time the general strike does not come like a bolt from the blue.
It comes on the rising tide of revolutionary mass action (demonstrations, partial
strikes, etc.) and as a result of the persistent preparation, which the Communists
must make, and which may entail heavy sacrifices. (3f course, a general strike
in war time will lead to revolutionary results much more rapidly than in peace
time ; but it is by no means easier to prepare for and organize it in war time than
574 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in peace time. On the contrary, in war time the bourgeoisie will take determined
counter-measures to prevent it. They will call the strikers to the colors, militarize
the factories, etc. Communists, therefore, cannot in war time, confine themselves
to abstract general strike propaganda. As in peace time, they must carry on
daily revolutionary work in the factories and trade unions. They must champion
the economic demands of the workers and link up these demands with anti-war
propaganda; organize revolutionary factory councils; capture the subordinate
trade union organizations ; eliminate the social-patriotic elements from these or-
ganizations, and, when they have been captured, elect new executives parallel with
the reformist executives, and despite the will of the latter, organize, lead and
extend partial strikes, etc. The general strike must not be an abstract watch-
word. It must be the aim and the outcome of our general practical activity.
That being the case, the revolutionary proletariat must be ready, in the event of a
general strike, firmly to steer a course towards transforming the strike into an
armed rebellion, if conditions are propitious for thai.
21. Prom the same standpoint of the transformation of imperialist war into civil
war, the Communists take their stand with regard to the slogan of refusal of mili-
tary service (boycott of war) advocated by certain "radical" pacifists and "Left"
Social Democrats. The Communists fight against this slogan for the following
reasons :
(a) The idea that imperialist war can be rendered impossible by a call for the
refusal of military service, by calling upon those liable for military service to
refuse to answer the call for mobilization is as illusory as the idea of "replying to
war with a general strike." Propaganda in favor of this prescription merely
serves to weaken the genuine revolutionary struggle against war.
(b) Even if a "mass boycott" were at least partially successful, the result would
be that the most determined and class-conscious workers would remain outside the
army. Systematic revolutionary work in the army — one of the most vital tasks
in the struggle against war — would then be impossible.
Lenin was absolutely right, therefore, when in 1922, on the basis of experience of
the world war, he wrote: "Boycott the war, is a stupid phrase. The Conxmuniats
must participate in every reactionary war."
But Lenin's instructions regarding the Communists' attitude towards the boycott
(the refusal of military service) as a means of combating war, does not mean that
the Communists must urge the masses of workers to join the bourgeois armies.
It means that the Communists, while strongly combating the harmful and ilhisory
boycott .slogan, must agitate for revolutionary work and organization in the bour-
geois army, for the arming of the proletariat and for the transforming of imperial-
ist war into civil war.
Therefore, when the question of .ioining the bourgeois army or refusal of military
service (boycott) is raised, the (Communists must advise the workers and i)Oor
peasants to reject the refusal of the military service slogan, to avail themselves
of the opportunity to learn to use arms, to carry on revoliitionary work in the
army and, at the proper moment, to turn their weapons against the bourgeoisie.
In the event of a big mass movement arising at the rooment of outbreak of
war in favor of refusinr^ military service, the Communists must join that
movement to give it a revolutionary character ; they must put forward concrete
demands and slogans of action in the direction of revolutionary mass action
against imperialist war and utilize the movement as much as possible for the
purpose of revolutionizing the masses. But even in such an event, the Com-
munists must combat the boycott ideology and the pacifist boycott slogan.
They must speak out quite frankly about the inadequacy of refusal of military
service as a mean of combating war, and make it clear to the masses that
the only correct way of combating the imperialist war is to transform it into
civil war. Strenuous propaganda must be conducted urging the necessity
for carrying on revolutionary work in the bourgeois armies.
If the general situation is favorable for it. Communists must utilize such
mass movements for the formation of guerilla forces, and for the immediate
development of civil war. This applies especially to eoTintries where strong
national-revolntionary movements exists. In such countries the Communists,
on the declaration of war — especially war against the Soviet Union — or in the
course of the war, if the situation is favorable, must issue the slogan of
national-revolutionary rebellion against the imperialists and for the immediate
formation of national-revolutionary guerilla forces.
22. In countries where the system of compulsory military service does not
exist, the government, at the beginning of the war, will lamich a wide recruit-
ing campaign for volunteers, and if it deems it necessary, will introduce com-
APPENDIX, PART 1 575
pulsory military service. In s'nch countries also, the Communist Parties must
set themselves the aim of transforming the imperialist war into civil war.
Btit in pursuing this aim the Commuuists must also fight against the bourgeois
recruitiug campaign for volunteers and light against the introduction of com-
pulsory military service. Under no circumstances, however, must they foster
the illusion that the war can be prevented or stopped by refusing to join the
army or by opposing the introduction of compulsory military service and that,
therefore, revolutionary work in the army is superfluous. It must be made
clear to the masses that the struggle against conscription is only of secondary
importance compared with the fight against the imperialist war itself. Revo-
lutionary work in the army must be organized and openly advocated.
23. An extremely important point in the matter of transforming imperialist
war into civil war is revolutionary v/ork at the front. lu this, the Commu-
nists must not confine themselves merely to propaganda, but must issue definite
slogans of action corresponding to tht, concrete situation.
(a) In connection with the econcmic demands and complaints of the soldiers,
collective refusal, or sabotage of service, and certain forms of soldiers' and
sailors' strikes should be applied.
(b) The most important sloga'i of action at the front is the slogan of
fraternization. The purpose of fraternization is to unite the worker and
peasant soldiers in the 6pposite linos of trencbes against their officers. Experi-
ence in the last world war has shown that mass fraternization inevitably leads
to class differentiation in the armier: and to armed conflicts between soldiers
and ofliccrs. The Communists in the army must organize fraternization and
give it a clear, politicnl color, partictilarly in regard to the question of peace
and the organization of the revoltttionary forces in the army.
3. The Proletarian Cii':I War Ayninst the Bourgcoise.
24. The imperialist war of 1914-1918 was, in a number of cottntries in Eastern
and Central p]urope, transformed into civil war, which, in Russia, ended in the
victory of the proletariat. The lessons of the October Revolution are of pa-a-
mount importance in determining the attitude of the proletariat towards war.
They show: (1) that in their imperialist wars the bourgeois must place
weapons in the hands of the workers, but that in critical military situations,
defeats, etc., they lost command over the mass armies; (2) that a real and
sustained struggle against this war implies that work must be carried on to
revolutionize the masses of the soldiers, i. e., work in preparation for civil war,
and (3) that the ground for civil war must be thoroughly prepared by the
proletariat and the Party.
The civil w*rs in Germany in 1920 and 1923, in Bulgaria in 1923, in Esthonia
in 1924, nnd in Vienna in July, 1927, prove that proletarian civil war may not
only break out in times of bourgeois imperialist wars, but also in the present
"normal conditions" of capitalism ; for present-day capitalism intensifies the
class struggle to an acute degree and at any moment may create an immediate
revolutionary situation. The proletarian uprisings in Shanghai in March,
1927, and in Canton in December, 1927, contained important lessons for the
proletariat, especially in the nationally oppressed colonial and semi-colonial
countries. Events in Shanghai particularly, show how proletarian uprisings
can be utilized as a weapon in v national war against imperialism and its
lackeys.
All this makes it incumbent upon the Communists, primarily in connection
with struggle against imperialist and counter-revolutionary wars, to put the
question of proletarian civil war openly to the masses and to study the lessons
of the above-mentioned uprisings.
25. These lessons are :
(a) In regard to the necessary conditions preced&rit for rebellion. A revo-
lutionary situation must prevail, / c, the ruling class must be in a state of
crisis, for example, as the result of military defeat. The misery and oppres-
sion of the masses must be intensified to an extraordinary degree, and the
masses must be active and ready to overthrow the government by revolutionary
mass action. A tried and tested Communist Party, having influence over the
decisive masses of the proletariat, must exist.
(b) In regard to the preparatioiis for rebellion. The rebellion cannot be
based solely on the Party ; it mtist be based upon the broad masses of the
working class. Of decisive importance is the preparatory work in the prole-
57G UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tarian mass orgauizations, particularly In the trade unions; to secure their
active participation in the work of preparing for the rebellion, and the creation
of special organizations for rebellion, which shall unite the masses. The ques-
tion of rebellion must be put openly to the masses.
The rebellion must be based on the rising revolutionary temper of the entire
working population, particularly of the semi-proletarians and poor peasantry.
Pei'sistent and intensified work nuist be conducted for the purpose of dis-
integrating the bourgeois armies, which work, at the moment of the uprising,
will assume the character of a struggle for the army.
Activities for organizing rebellion and military preparation must both occupy
a prominent place in the work among the proletarian masses and among the
toilers in the colonies and semi-colonies.
The time for launching the rebellion will be determined by the state of
maturity of the objective and subjective prerequisites for it. The time cau
be fixed definitely only if the closest contact exists between the Party and the
masses of the revolutionary proletariat.
(c) In regard to camjiiig out the rehcllioii. The rule must be: no playing
with rebellion. The rebellion once launched must be vigorously prosecuted until
the enemy is utterly crushed. Hesitation and lack of determination will cause
the utter defeat of the revolutionary armed uprising. The main forces must
be thrown against the main forces of the enemy. Efforts must be made to
secure the superiority of the proletarian forces at the decisive moment at the
decisive place, and without delay the rebellion must be carried over the widest
po.ssible territory. There is an art in rebellion ; but rebellion is not purely a
military problem, it is primarily a political problem. Only a revolutionary
Party can lead a rebellion. On the outbreak of the rebellion the Party must
subordinate the whole of its activity to the requirements of the armed struggle.
B. The Proletariat Defends the Soviet Union Against the Imperialists
26. Imperialist war against the Soviet Union is open, bourgeois, counter-
revolutionary class war against the proletariat. Its principal aim is to over-
throw the proletarian dictatorship and to introduce a reigu of white-guard
terror against the working class and the toilers of all countries. The basis
for the tactics of the proletariat in capitalist countries in the struggle against
svtch a war is furnished by the Bolshevik program of struggle against the
imperialist war, i. e., transform the war into civil war. The methods and
tasks of this struggle, prior to the outbreak of the war and during the war
must, however, be adapted to the concrete conditions under which it was
prepared for, and to its oijeuly class character. The fact that, in this case,
the "enemy" is not an imperialist i>ower, but the proletarian dictatorship,
introduces certain important modifications in anti-war tactics.
27. The propaganda tasks in connection with imperialist war and the prepa-
rations for war against the Soviet Union, stated concretely, 'are as follows:
(a) Pacifism is being transformed from a mere screen to conceal war i)repa-
rations into one of the most important instruments for these preparations.
Hence, it is necessary to intensify the campaign against p'aciflsm and against
its specific slogans ; against the Soviet Union in the name of "civilization",
and "peace" ; against "realistic pacifism", which regards the Soviet Union and
proletarian and coloni'al revolutions as a menace to peace ; against "radical"
pacifism, which, under the mask of opposition to "all war", strives to dis-
courage defense of the Soviet Union.
(b) Social Democracy is passing to active counter-revolutionary preparation
for war against the Soviet Union. Hence, it is necessary to intensify the
campaign against the Social Democratic leaders of the Right as well as of the
"Left", and also against their Trotskyist and anarcho-syndicalist liangers-on.
Above all, the slogans with which these will try to justify war against the
Soviet Union such as: "Fight for democracy against dictatorship"; "degenera-
tion" ; "kulakization" ; "the Soviet system is approaching the Thermidor stage" ;
the legends they spread about "Red imperialism" ; the slogan of "Neutrality"
in the event of war, etc., must be exposed and discredited in the eyes of the
masses.
28. The international working class, 'and the toilers generally, look to the
Soviet Union as their champion, and their attitude towards the Soviet Union
is one of growing sympathy. Bearing this in mind, and also that the broad
masses of the workers will understand much better than in 1917 that the
next imperialist war ag'ainst the Soviet Union will be open class war ; that
APPENDIX, PART 1 577
the masses of the toilers are now wiser from the experience that they had
of the first imperialist war and that the vanguard ot the proletariat now
has a strong revolutionary organization in tlie shape of the Communist Inter-
national, it may be safely asserted that the opportunities for fighting against
war are far greater now than they were in previous times, and consequently
that there is every reason for adopting bolder tactics.
(a) The possibilities of preventing war against the Soviet Union by inten-
sifying class struggles to the i>oint of revolutionary, mass action against the
bourgeois governments are much gre'ater at the present time that the ijossi-
bilities for such action wei-e in 1914. An example of revolutionary action was
given by the British workers in 1920, when, by forming Councils of Action,
they forced their government to abandon their intention of declaring war
against the Soviet Union.
(b) The conditions favorable for tran.sforming a war against the Soviet
Union into civil war against the bourgeoisie will be much more speedily created
for the proletariat than in an ordinary imperialist war.
(c) Therefore, although the Communists in capitalist countries must reject
the phrase "Reply to war' by general strike," and have no illusions whatever
about the efficacy of such phrases, nevertheless, in the event of w'ar against
the Soviet Union becoming imminent, they must take into consideration the
increased opportunities for employing the weapon of mass strikes and the geji-
eral strike, in-ior to the outbreak of war and diiring the mobilization
fd) In the event of an attack upon the Soviet Union the Communists in
oppressed nations, as well as those in imperialist countries, must exert all their
efforts to rouse rebellion or wars of national liberation among the national
minorities in Eui'ope and in the colonial and semi-colonial countries against the
imperialist enemies of the Soviet State.
29. In view of the fact that the "enemy" in such a war is the Soviet Union,
■(■. €., the fatherland of the international proletariat, the following changes must
be made in tactics as compared with the tactics employed in "purely" imperialist
war:
(a) The proletariat in the imperialist countries must not only fight for the
defeat of their own governments in this war, but must actively strive to secure
victory for the Soviet Union.
(b) Therefore, the tactics and the choice of means of iighting will not only be
dictated by the interests of the class struggle at home in each country, but also
by considerations for the outcome of the war at the front, which is a bourgeois
class war against the proletarian State.
(c) The Red Army is not an "enemy" army, but the army of the international
proletariat. In the event of a war against the Soviet Union, the workers in
capitalist countries must not allow themselves to be scared from supporting the
Red Army and from expressing this support by fighting against their own bour-
geosie. by the charges of treason that the bourgeoisie may hurl against them.
30. Although the proletariat in imperialist countries is not bound by the duty
of "national defense", in the land of the proletarian dictatorship, however, na-
tional defense is an unfailing revolutionary duty. Here, the defenders are the
armed proletariat supported by the poor peasantry. The victory of the October
Revolution gave a Socialist fatherland to the workers of the world, viz., the
Soviet Union. Defense of the Soviet Union is a matter of class interest for the
international proletariat as well as a debt of honor. In 1919-1921, the Soviet
Government was able to defeat the interventionist forces of fourteen States,
among which were the most powerful imperialist States, because the interna-
tional proletariat intervened on behalf of the proletarian dictatorship in the
U. S. S. R. by revolutionary mass action. A renewed imperialist attack on the
Soviet Union will prove that, in spite of all the preparations made for this
attack and in spite of the counter-revolutionary efforts of the Social Democrats,
this international proletarian solidnrity still exists.
The proletariat's allies in the defense of the U. S. S. R. are: (1) The rural
poor and the mass of the middle peasants; and (2) the national revolution and
liberation movements of the colonies and semi-colonies.
31. The international policy of the U. S. S. R. is a peace policy, which con-
forms to the interests of the ruling class in Soviet Russio, viz., the proletariat,
and to the interests of the international proletariat. This policy rallies all the
allies of the proletarian dictatorship around its banner and provides the best
basis for tfiking advantage of the antagonisms among the imperialist States.
The aim of this policy is to guard the international revolution and to protect
the work of buihling up Socialism — the progress of which is revolutionizing the
94931 — 40 — app.. pt. 1 38
578 UN-AME,EICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
world. It strives to put off the conflict with imperialism as long as possible. In
regard to the capitalist States, to their nuitnal relationships and to their rela-
tionships with their colonies, this policy implies: opposition to imperialist war,
to predatory colonial campaigns, and to pacifism, which camouflages these
campaigns.
The peace policy of the proletarian State certainly does not imply that the
Soviet State has become reconciled with capitalism, as the Social Democratic
and their Trotskyist allies declare in order to discredit the Soviet State in the
eyes of the iuternarional proletariat. Tliis policy is the Leninist policy of the
proletarian distatorship. It is merely another — and under present conditions —
a more advantageous form of lighting capitalism ; a foi'm which the U. S. S. R. has
consistently employed since the October revolution.
32. The proletariat in the Soviet Union harbors uo illusions as to the ix)ssi-
bllity of a durable peace with the imperialists. The proletariat knows that the
imperialist attack against the Soviet Union is inevitable ; that in the process of
proletarian world revolution, wars between proletarian and bourgeois States,
wars for the emancipation of the world from capitalism, will necessarily and
inevitably arise. Therefore, the primary duty of the proletariat, as the fighter
for Socialism, is to make all the necessary political, economic and military prepa-
rations for these wars, to strengthen its Red Army — that mighty weapon of
the proletariat — and to train the masses of the toilers in the art of war. There
is a glaring contradiction between the imperialists' policy of piling up arma-
ments and their hypocritical talk about peace. There is no such contradiction,
however, between the Soviet Government's preparations for defense and for
revolutionary war and a consistent peace policy. Revolutionary war of the
proletarian dictatorship is but a continuation of revolutionary peace policy
"by other means."
C. The Proletariat Supports and Conducts Revolutionary Wars of Oppressed
Peoples Against Imperialism
33. In the course of the last two years national revolutionary wars of the
oppressed colonies and semi-colonies, which Lenin predicted in 1916, have
changed from a theoretical postulate into a world historic fact. Examples of
such wars are : the war in Morocco against French and Spanish imperialism ;
the rebellion in Syria ; the wars in Mexico and Nicaragua against United States
imperialism in the revolutionary Canton war against Hong Kong in 1925 ; finally,
the Chinese Northern Expedition in 1926-1927. National revolutionary wars
will play an important role in the present epoch of world revolution. The
proletariat must therefore devote the closest study to the experiences and
lessons of these wars, especially of the Chinese Northern Expedition of 1926-
1927.
In that campaign the Chinese proletariat rightly supported the South against
the Northern militarists and the imperialists who backed them — notwithstanding
the fact that the Southern forces were commanded by the bourgeoisie. The
Chinese proletariat not only desired and worked for the defeat of the counter-
revolutionary government of North China, but also fought against the wavering
and hesitation of the bourgeoisie in the South, against the latter's compromising
policy and subsequent treachery, and fought for a revolutionary leadership
of the campaign and for the hegemony of the proletariat in the war. This
general line, which was proposed to the Chinese Communists by the Comintern,
corresponded to the position taken up by Marx and Engels towards the national
wars in the last century and to the teachings of Lenin.
34. Nevertheless, the Chinese Communist Party committed a number of grave
mistakes, from which the Connnunists of all oppressed nations have important
lessons to learn. In this war, the duty of the Communist Party of China was
to take full advantage of the revolutionary situation prevailing at the time to
establish its own proletarian class army, and to extend the military organization
and training of the workers and peasants in order to pave the way for the
proletariat's struggle for the leadership of the revolution. Although the objec-
tive conditions at the time of the Northern Expedition were favorable for the
Communist Party, the latter refrained from utilizing the military and political
apparatus of the Kuomintang for the purpose of conducting its work in the
army, and made no attempt to create its own armed forces. The Communist
Party devoted itself entirely to maneuvering with the higher Kuomintang com-
mand and failed to concentrate on the work of propaganda and organization
among the masses of the soldiers, or on mass recruiting of workers and peasants
APPENDIX, PART 1 579
for the army for the purpose of changing its character. It failed to recognize
the revolutionary significance of arming the workers and peasants and did not
devote sufficient attention to the work of preparing for and leading peasant
guerilla warfare.
35. While supporting a national-revolutionary war, the proletariat deter-
mines its tactics on the basis of a concrete analysis of each given national war,
the role of the various classes in it, etc. Thus, Marx' tactics in 1848, when he
issued the slogan of ^ war against Tsarism, differed from his tactics in 1870,
in the Prussian war against Napoleon III. During the Northern campaign, the
Chinese Communists rightfully entered into a temporary alliance with the
national botirgeoisie, as long as they fought against imperialism and as long
as the Communists were able to carry on their work of exposure in the
national-revolutionary camp. The tactics of the German Communists in 1923,
when they were confronted by the problem of national defense against the
invasion of French imperialism, were necessarily difi'erent. The German
Communists had to combine national defense with a struggle for the overthrow
of the German bourgeoisie, which was incapable of playing a revolutionary
role. This is the attitude the Chinese Communists must now take up towards
the national struggle against Japanese intervention. They must combine revo-
lutionary national defense with the struggle to overthrow Chiang Kai-Shek
and the' Kuomintaug bourgeoisie, and to establish the revolutionary dictator-
ship of the workers and peasants.
It must be stated, however, that the national wars in which the proletariat
in the fight against imperialism may enter into temporary alliance with the
bourgeoisie, are becoming more and more rare, because, out of fear of the
workers' and peasants' revolution, the bourgeoisie in the oppressed countries
is becoming reactionary and is accepting the bribes of the imperialists. A new
type of national war, in which the proletariat alone can play the leading role,
is coming more and more to the front. This applies also to the national wars
of the Latin American countries against the United States' imperialism. The
tendency for national wars and rebellions to become transformed into prole-
tarian wars and rebellions, or wars and rebellions led by the proletariat — a
tendency which Lenin predicted already in 1916 — has notably increased.
36. In view of the numerous oppressed nationalities and national minorities
existing in a number of the States in Europe, set up by the Versailles Treaty,
the question of national revolutionary war will come up prominently, also in
Europe, particularly in relation to the task of transforming imperialist war
into civil war. Poland and Roumania cruelly oppress with ^a bloody hand the
White Russian, Ukrainian and Bessarabian populations in their territories,
who look longingly towards their Soviet fatherland. In Czechoslovakia and in
the Balkan countries, in Italy, in France, Spain, Belgium, and Great Britain
(Ireland), there are also oppressed nationalities. The Communist Parties
must support the liberation movement of the oppressed nations and the national
minorities in all these countries, lead them in the revolutionary struggle against
imperialism and unreservedly champion their right to self-determination, which
must include the right to complete separation. In the event of an imperialist
war, or an anti-Soviet war being declared. The Communi.sts, in the course of
carrying out this policy, must prepare themselves, and the nationally oppressed
masses, for national revolutionary rebellions, of wars, against the imperialist
bourgeoisie.
37. The teachings of Marx and Lenin arxl the experience of national wars
in recent years, indicate the following tasks and tactics for the proletariat in
wars of national liberation :
(a) The support the proletariat renders in these wars and the temporary
alliance which — in certain cases — it enters into with the bourgeoisie, must
under no circumstances imply the abandonment of the class war. Even when
the bourgeoisie, for a long time, fights side by side with the proletariat against
the imperialists, it still remains the enemy and strives to utilize the pro-
letariat for its own aims.
(b) Therefore, the proletariat must not simply accept the policies and
slogans of the bourgeoisie, but must act independently, advance its own political
program and slogans and set up its own revolutionary organizations (Party,
trade unions, workers' militia, proletarian military movements). The Com-
munists must prepare the masses for the inevitable treachery of the bour-
geoisie, take the strongest measures to retain the proletarian positions, do
everything possible to hinder the bourgeoisie in its efforts to achieve its own
class aims, and prepare for the overthrow of the botirgeoisie.
580 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
(c) In national wars in which the bourgeoisie, or the bourgeois government
plays a counter-revolutionary role (as is the case in the struggle which the
Chinese workers and peasants are now carrying on to prevent the imperialists"
dismemberment of China), the Communists must worli for the overthrow of the
bourgeois government under the slogan of national defense.
38. The question of national wars in countries where class differentiations-
are undeveloped, i.e., in Morocco, the Druses, Syria and Arabia, must be simi-
larly formulated. Among such people, the patriarchal lyid feudal chiefs and
rulers play a role similar to that played by the bourgeosie in the more advanced
colonial countries. Temporary co-operation with these chiefs and rulers is per-
missible in revolutionary struggles against imperialism, but there is always the
danger that they will be bought over by the imperialists, or that they will sub-
ordinate the struggle for liberation to their own caste interests. The national
wars of these peoples must therefore be linlied up with the struggle against
feudalism, or against the feudal rulers, and for the overthrow of feudalism.
39. The tasks of the international proletariat in connection with wars of lib-
eration of oppressed peoples, and with imperialist expeditions for the suppression
of the national revolutionary movements and revolutions — with a few concrete
exceptions — are the same as in imperialist wars against the Soviet Union, viz.,
(a) to fight against wars of oppression by intensifying the class antagonisms
with a view to transforming this war into civil war against the imperialist bour-
geoisie, (b) Consistent application of defeatist tactics towards the imperialist
country and its armies ; to fight for the victory of the oppressed nation and
to support its armies, (c) To resist, primarily by means of revolutionary mass
action, the despatch of warships and munition transports to the colonies by the
imperialists; to oppose the extension of the period of military service for soldiers
fighting in wars against the colonies, etc. ; to oppose increases in war budgets and
the granting of loans by the imijerialists to the counter-revolutionary govern-
ments and militarists in the colonies ; to fight against imperialist war prepara-
tions in concession territories and on railways and inland waterways in the
colonies, (a) To take measures to counteract the butcheries perpetrated by the
imperialists in the colonies and the support which they render to the native
counter-revolutionary governments in suppressing the masses of the toilers.
40. The tactics to be adopted in the present struggle against intervention in
China differ from the tactics adopted in the struggle against intervention at the
time when a section of the Chinese bourgeoisie, and of the Kuomintang, still
played a revolutionary role. The internecine wars of the various native military
rulers, in the main, are an expression of the conflicts that prevail among the
various imperialist powers over the partition of China. All the warring classes,
which represent various factions of the bourgeoisie and the landlords, are counter-
revolutionary. In view of the present situation in China, the international pro-
letariat must combine its active struggles in defense of the Chinese workers and
peasants with exposing the counter-revolutionary role which all bourgeois govern-
ments and militarists play in China as the tools of imperialism. Support in the
struggle against imperialism must be given only to the Chinese workers' and
peasants' revolution. The slogan of going over to the side of the oppressed
nation cannot be applied, at the present time, to the Chinese bourgeois armies.
Despite this change in tactics, the struggle against intervention must umler no
circmnstam-es be allowed to subside. The majority of the Communist Parties
came to the conclusion that the change in tactics means a weakening of the
struggle against intervention, and in this they committed a grave error.
III. THE proletariat's ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE ARMY
41. One of the most serious mistakes the Communist Parties have committed
hitherto, is that tliey regarded the war question from the abstract, purely
propagandist and agitational point of view, and that they did not devote
sliflicient nttention to the army, which is the decisive factor in all wars. Unless
the significance of the revolutionary policy in the war question is explained to
the broad masses, and unless work is carried on in the army, the struggle
against imperialist war and attempts to prepare for revolutionary wars will
never reach beyond the stage of theory.
For the most part, this mistake is due to the bad legacy inherited from the
Second International, which, while never ceasing to declaim against imperinlist
wars, never carried on any work in the armies. Indeed, it described Karl
Liobknecht as an "anarchist" because he demanded that such work be carried
on. Instead of carrying out a revolutionary war policy, and instt^ad of working
APPENDIX, PART 1 581
in the armies, the Second International advocated the "abolition of standing
iirmies," and their snbstitntion by a "national militia." The slogan : "national
militia," %A'hich was suitable for the period in which national States were
struggling into existence in Europe, had some revolutionary significance in
connection with the demand for the abolition of standing armies, so long as
Tsarism and Absolutism represented a menace to revolution (up to the end
of the 19th century). But with the growth of imperialism, this slogan became
inadequate and finally became a chauvinistic slogan (Hyndman in 1912). The
resuscitated Second International abandoned the demand for a "national
militia" only in order to subordinate itself entirely to the political interests of
the bourgeoisie in the various States. In France, under the guise of supporting
the old slogan of a "national militia," the Second International is advocating
an imperialist "national army" ; in Germany and Great Britain, on the pretext
of advocating disarmament, it is supporting mercenary volunteer armies. The
principle proclaimed by the Second International of "freedom for each nation
to select the form of military organization it desires" is tantamount to freedom
to repeat the events of August 4th. Meanwhile, the Social Democratic flunkeys
of the bourgeoisie are conducting a campaign of slander against tlie Red Army
and the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R. and are spreading
legends about "Red militarism."
42. As against this counter-revolutionary military policy, which serves the
interests of the boui'geoisie. the Communists advance a revolutionary military
policy, which serves the interests of international proletarian revolution. Of
course, no hard and fast rules can be laid down as to the position to hs adopted
in regard to all armies in general. The proletariat must determine its attitude
towards the army in accordance with the class and the policy the particular
army serves. It is not the military system, or the form of organization of the
army iu any given State that matters so much as the political role that army
plays, i. e., imperialistic, nationalist or proletarian. The Communist Parties
must follow the precepts of Marx and Engels who, in the epoch of great
national wars, opposed the petty bourgeois democratic Utopia of militia and
advocated universal military service, the democratization of existing armies
and their conversion into revolutionary armies. After the Paris Commune,
Marx and Engels advocated the destruction of the bourgeois State and in the
military question the dissolution of standing bourgeois armies and their sub-
stitution by the armed nation — these they regarded as the most important
lessons to be learned from the Paris Commune from the standpoint of the
proletarian revolution. The Second International distorted these precepts, but
Lenin restored and develoi>ed them and drafted a military program of the
proletarian revolution.
A. The Proletariat's Attitude Towards Armies in Imperialist States
43. In imperialist States the attitude of the proletariat towards armies is
determined by the following:
No matter what their form of organization may be, armies are a constituent
part of the bourgeois State apparatus, which the proletariat, iu the course of
its revolution, must not democratize, but break up.
In the light of this task, the organizational difference between standing
armies and militia, between conscript armies and volunteer armies, etc., dis-
appears. The slogan : "Not a man, not a penny for the army," i.e., relentless
struggle against bourgeois budgets, etc.. holds good.
This attitude must be maintained equally towards standing armies and demo-
t-ratic militia, for both these forms of military organization represent the
armed forces of the bourgeoisie held against the proletariat. Democratic partial
demands, which the proletariat must under no circumstances abandon, assume
an altogether different character from those advanced during democratic revo-
lutions : their purpose must be not to democratize armies, but to disintegrate
them.
The adoption of a uniform attitude towards the army in principle, does wof
mean that the important differences in the systems of defense and military
organization in the respective States must be ignored, for these differences are
extremely important from the point of view of practical work.
44. Although imperialist armies are a part of the bourgeois State apparatus,
nevertheless, owing to mutual rivalries and wars among the capitalist States,
modern armies are tending more and more, directly or indirectly, to embrace
the whole nation and to militarize it ("the armed nation", the militarizatioo
582 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of women, military training of the youth, etc.). This tendency subsided
temporarily at the end of the world war, but at the present time, oa the eve
of a new war, it is manifesting itself very strongly (United States, France,
Poland). The immediate results of this tendency are, however, that the class
antagonisms between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat — between the ex-
ploiters and the exploited — are being reflected in the armies, between the
oflicer-class and the "common people". In the words of Engels, mass militari-
zation results in the disintegration of all armies from within. Hence, Com-
munists must not "boycott" bourgeois armies, but must join them and take
revolutionary control of this objective process of internal disintegration.
The bourgeoisie is exerting every effort to create a reliable army by drilling,
stern discipline, by isolating the soldiers from the ordinary population, by
prohibiting the soldiers from taking part in politics, and, in certain cases, even
by giving them a privileged social position.
In recent years, particularly in those countries where formerly consci-iptiou
prevailed, and even where it is still in vogue, the bourgeoisie have been adopt-
ing the system of recruiting mercenary armies from certain selected elements
(Germany, France). But this does not relieve the bourgeoisie of the necessity
to militarize the masses. It can succeed in this only by combining the mercen-
ary troops with the "national armies" or else by establishing a militia type of
military organization. It cannot stop the process of disintegration in the
bourgeois armies ; it can only retard this process and place severe obstacles in
the way of revolutionary work in the army. For these reasons, the Com-
munists are confronted with the important task of studying carefully the condi-
tions created as a result of the measures adopted by the bourgeoisie and to
counteract these measures by new methods of revolutionary work.
45. The proletariat's attitude towards imperialist armies is closely linked up
with its attitude towards imperialist war. For that reason, defeatism, and
the slogan of transforming the imperialist war into civil war indicate the man-
ner in which the partial problems of the system of defense and military organi-
zation should be approached.
Bourgeois militia, universal military service, the military training of the
youth, etc., were all at one time advocated by revolutionary democracy. At
the present time, however, they serve as ordinary reactionary instruments for
oppressing the masses and for preparing for imperialist wars. Consequently,
they must be combated as strenuously as possible. This applies also to those
countries where the bout-soisie has abolished conscription and adopted the
voluntary system (for example, in Germany). Although universal military
service would facilitate revolutionary work and would provide the workers with
opportunities for learning the use of arms, the Com.munists in imperialist
countries must not demand the introduction of the system; they must oppose
conscript armies in the sam.e way as they oppose volunteer armies. The slogan :
Tnmsform impennlist tear into citnl irar, indicates ho7i- the Communists must
fight against measures for mass militarization (introduction of conscription).
By militarizing the workers and training them in the use of arms, imperialism
creates the prerequisites for the victory of the proletariat in the civil war.
Hence, the revolutionary proletariat must not combat mass militarization with
the arguments advanced by the pacifists. In conducting the struggle for revolu-
tion and for Socialism, we do not refuse to bear arms. The aim of our strug-
gle is to expose the militarization the imperialists introduce for the benefit of
the bourgeoisie.
As against this sort of militarization we advance the slogan: Arm the pro-
letariat. Simultaneously, the Communists must advance and give .support
to the partial demands of the soldiers which, in a concrete situation, stimulate
the class struggle in the armies and strengthen the alliance between the pro-
letarian and peasant soldiers and the workers outside the ranks of the army.
46. The partial demands are approximately as follows :
1. Dcmavds in Connection nrith the Sifstem. of Defense.
Dissolution of mercenary forces ; dissolution of standing and principal
military units ;
Disarming and dissolution of the gendarmerie, police and other special armed
forces for civil war ;
Disarming and dissolution of fascist leagues;
Concrete demands for the reduction of period of military service ;
Introduction of the territorial system military service;
Abolition of compulsory residence in barracks; soldiers committees;
The right of labor organizations to train their members in the use of iirms.
with the right to the free selection of instructors.
APPENDIX, PART 1 583
The fact that the reduction of the period of military service in some countries
is being planned and curried out by the capitalist governments themselves, has
given rise to doubts as to whether we should put forward such a demand. But
the reduction of the period of military service, taken by itself, under certain
circumstances, does not mean the strengthening, but the weakening of the mili-
tary system. Consequently, this demand can be put forward as a general
partial demand in relation to conscript armies under the following circum-
stances :
(1) That a distinct defeatist line is maintained; (2) complete dissociation
from analogous partial demands advanced by the Social Democrats; (3) that
the illusion that this is a step towards the abolition of militarism is com-
bated. It goes without saying that partial demands must always be concrete,
i. c that they must be put forward in such a form and at such a time that
the masses will understand them and support them, and that they will help
to revolutionize the masses. In those cases where a reduction of the period
of military service is being planned by the capitalist governments, or is de-
manded by the Social Democrats, a fight must be put up against the measures
that are usually adopted simultaneously with this for the purpose of strength-
ening the bourgeois system (militarization of the whole population, the organi-
zation of strong cadres of professional soldiers, etc, etc. ) . The pseudo-democratic
program of reducing the period of military service must be countered by a
defeatist program of partial demands.
In the case of volunteer, mercenary armies, the demand should not be for
the reduction of the period of military service, but for the right to leave the
service whenever the soldier desires.
2. Demands in Connection With the Legal Rights and Economic Position of
the Soldiers.
Increased pay for soldiers;
Improved maintenance ;
The establishment of stores committees composed of soldiers' representatives ;
Abolition of disciplinary punishments ;
Abolition of compulsory saluting;
Severe penalties for officers and non-commissioned officers inflicting corporal
punishment on private soldiers ;
The right to wear mufti when off duty ;
The right to be absent from barracks every day ;
Furlough, and extra pay while on furlough ;
The right to marry ;
Maintenance for soldiers' families ;
The right to subscribe to newspapers ;
The right to organize in trade unions ;
The right to vote ; the right to attend political meetings.
The fact that in numerous imperialist countries a considerable i3ercentage of
the armies are recruited from among oppressed national minorities, whereas
the officers either entirely or for the greater part belong to the oppressing
nation, provides very favorable ground for revolutionary work in the army.
Consequently, among the partial demands we advance in the interests of the
masses of the soldiers, should be included demands corresponding to the needs
of these oppressed nationalities (for example, military service in their home
district; tlie use of the native language in drilling and instruction, etc.).
47. The demands of both the above-mentioned categories (only a few of
which have been enumerated) must not only be put forward in the army, but
also outside of it — in parliament, at mass meetings, etc. Propaganda in sup-
port of these demands will be successful only if they bear a concrete character.
In order that they may do so, it is necessary : ,
(a) To have a close acquaintance with the army, with the conditions of
service, with the needs and demands of the soldiers, etc., which can only be
acquired by maintaining close personal contact with the army.
(b) To give consideration to the system of defense in the given States and
to the situation in regard to the military question at the given moment.
(c) To take into consideration the morale of the army and the political
situation in the country at the given moment. For example, the demand for
the election of officers, as a rule, can be advanced only when the army has
reached an advanced stage of disintegration.
(d) To link up closely political demands with the principal slogans of the
Communist Party — arming the proletariat, proletarian militia, etc.
5S4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
These demands will have revolutionary significance only if they are linked
np with a distinct political program for revolutionizing the bourgeois army.
Special attention must be paid to organizing the soldiers for the protection
of their interests, in alliance with the revolutionary proletariat, prior to their
being called up for service (recruits' leagues, mutual aid clubs), during the
period of military service (soldiers' councils) and also after the conclusion of
military service (revolutionary ex-servicemen's leagues). It must be the special
task of the trade unions to maintain contact with their members in the army
and to help them to form the above-mentioned organizations.
48. The conditions for revolutionary work in volunteer armies differ from
the conditions for such work in conscript armies. In volunteer armies it is
usually much more ditiicult to carry on agitation in support of partial demands
Jike those mentioned above. Nevertheless, the work must be undertaken. The
fact that in a majority of cases volunteer armies are recruited from among the
proletariat (the unemployed) and from among the poor peasants, provides a
social base for mass work among the soldiers. The forms of this work must
be carefully adapted to the social composition and the special features of the
troops. Strenuous agitation must be carried on among the masses against the
special forces the bourgeoisie organize for class struggle against the proletariat
(gendarmes and police), and especially against their volunteer forces (the
fascists). The reformists who talk loudly about the "public utility" of these
forces, about the "national police," and about fascist "equality," must be re-
lentlessly combated with particular energy, and every effort must be made to
rouse a passionate hatred among the people towards these forces and to expose
their real character. But every effort must be made to stimulate social differ-
entiation even among these forces and to win over the proletarian elements
in them.
49. Revolutionary work in the army must lie linked up with the general revolu-
tionary movement of the masses of the proletariat and poor peasantry. If an
immediate revolutionary situation prevails, and if the industrial proletariat is
beginning to establish Soviets, the slogan, Establish soldiers' councils, assumes
immediate jiractical importance and facilitates the work of imiting the masses
of the soldiers with the proletariat and the poor peasantry in their struggle for
power.
Wherever circumstances permit, the Communists must try to organize the
masses of the soldiers in volunteer armies under the slogan of soldiers' councils,
and mobilize them for the fight against the officers and the bourgeoise. Where
the social composition of certain units do not permit of this being done, the
Communists must demand the immediate disarming and dissolution of such
military units.
B. The Military Question During the Proletarian Revolution
50. The main slogans upon which the democratic partial demands are based
are : disarm the bourgeoisie ; arm the proletariat.
The arming of the proletariat assumes various forms at various stages of the
revolution. In the period prior to the seizure of power, and in the first period
after the seizure of power, it takes the form of a proletarian militia — a militia
of the toilers, the Red Guard, and also Red Guerilla detachments. The Red Army
is the form of military organization of the Soviet Government, i.e., it is the army
of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The demand for a proletarian militia (a militia consisting of toilers, a workers'
and peasants' militia) in an imperialist country is merely another way of for-
mulatng the demand for arming the proletariat and can be put forward only in
the inevitable transitional stage in the military policy of the proletarian revolu-
tion, in the period prior to'the organization of the Red Army. Where there is
no immediate revolutionary situation, this slogan can have only a iiropagandist
significance. Nevertheless, it may become an immediately practical slogan in the
fight against fascism.
At all events, the demand for a proletarian militia, or for a militia of the toilers,
can only be put in the form of a direct appeal to the proletariat and not as a
demand upon the bourgeois government. That being the case, this demand should
be made to governments, or to parliaments, only in exceptional circumstances
(for example, where there is a Social-Democratic government, or where there
is a Social-Democratic ma.iority in parliament, or among the masses). Under
such circumstances, the demand nmst be put forward only as a means for exposing
the Social-Democratic Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 585
The Red Guard is an organ of the rebellion. It is the duty of the Communists
to agitate for the establishment of such a Red Guard and to organize It when
an immediate revolutionary situation arises.
51. Under no circumstances must it be forgotten that the existence of a prole-
tarian militia, or a Red Guard, in imperialist countries, under a bourgeois State
and in a state of "peace" is absolutely impossible.
The proletarian militia is the armed organization of the proletariat fighting for
the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat or, an organ of the
proletarian dictatorship for the purpose of suppressing the exploiters. This dis-
tinguishes our slogan of proletarian militia from the reformist plans for estab-
lishing yellow "workers' defense corps," consisting of specially selected, ignorant,
or bribed proletarian elements. The latter kind of "labor defense corps" was used
for the purpose of disrupting and restraining the proletariat in the struggle in the
Ruhr in May. 1923, and after the Vienna uprising in 1927. It is the duty of the
Communists'^ strenuously to combat these despicable maneuvers of the Social-
Democrats. .
52 A distinction must be made between the militant slogan of workers militia.
proletarian militia and Red Guard— to be established prior to the capture of
power, and which represent the rudiments of the Red Army— and the forms of
militia which must arise after the dictatorship of the proletariat has been estab-
lished and consolidated, in the period when the State and classes are dying out.
In order to protect itself against imperialism, the proletariat must have a strong,
disciplined, well-armed and etlicient Red Army. Under present conditions, this
function can be fulfilled only by a standing army representing the corps of the
armed mass of the toiling population. To demand from the dictatorship of the
proletariat, when it is surrounded by a capitalist environment, the immediate
and complete transition to the militia system, is petty bourgeois and the counter-
revolutionary stupidity. The more or less complete introduction of the militia
principle in its pure form without any weakening of military povv^er will be possi-
ble only when the productive forces have been completely developed, when Social-
ism has been fully established and the masses have been thoroughly trained in the
spirit of Communism. Only when the proletarian revolution has been victorious
in a number of big capitalist States will the proletarian government (as the
Eighth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. has declared) be in a position to substitute the
standing Red Army by a class militia.
At all events, the spirit, discipline and system of organization of the defense
force of the dictatorship of the proletariat must bear a distinctly class character.
Elements belonging to the exploiting class must not be permitted to serve in the
ranks.
O. The Proletariat's Attitude Towards Armies in Colonial and Semi-Colonial
Countries
53. With the opening of the period of national revolutions and wars of
oppressed nations against imperialism, the military question assumed decisive
importance in all colonial and semi-colonial countries. This is true of countries
which are, or have been, in a state of war with imperialism (China, Morocco,
Syria, Nicaragua), as well as those countries in which open war is not yet being
conducted (India, Egypt, Mexico, the Philippines, Korea). Clearly, the military
question in relation to national wars against imperialism must be formulated
differently from that in relation to imperialist States.
54. It must not be forgotten that two altogether different types of armies exist
in these countries at the present time. On the one hand we have national armies
(which are not always revolutionary armies), and on the other hand, we have
imperialist armies (which are either expeditionary forces despatched from the
home country, or armies consisting of natives of other Colonial coinitries, or else
armies recruited in the given colonial country). In China we have both types
of armies and also an example of how national armies become practically con-
verted into imperialist armies. After Chiang Kai-Shek's coup, the Southern
national army became transformed into an army practically serving imperialist
aims. Obviously, the attitude of the proletariat and of the revolutionary toiling
masses towards these two types of armies must be different. With regard to the
national armies, the military program of Marx and Engels of 1848-1870, *. e., the
democratization of these armies for the purpose of converting them into revolu-
tionary armies, must be applied with certain modifications. In regard to the
imperialist armies, we can apply only the defeatist program, i. e., disintegration
from within. In the event of special officer units or bourgeois class military
586 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
organizations existing, efforts must be made to isolate and liquidate them, i. e.,
the program which must be applied in imperialist countries must be applied here.
From the point of view of tactics there exists a third type of army in colonial
and semi-colonial countries in addition to the two types already mentioned,
i. e., the army commanded by the imperialists, and in which a struggle is pro-
ceeding between the national movement and the imperlialists (India, Egypt,
Indo-China, Syria, Algiers, Tunis, etc.).
In such cases, the elements of both programs must be combined according to
concrete circumstances, /. e., the defeatist program must be applied to the armies,
or certain units of these armies, which are under the command of the imperialists,
and at the same time the slogans of the armed nation (militia) and a national
army must be advanced.
The slogan for a national army must be advanced when the concrete situation
is suitable for it and put forward in such a way as to prevent it being misused
by the imperialists and their flunkeys (complete independence of the army from
the imperialists, organization of the army on the widest democratic basis, election
of officers, etc.).
The slogan : Withdraw the imperialist armies from the colonies ; withdraw
the imperialist cadres and officers from native armies, must be advanced in the
colonies as well as in the home countries.
55. In order to determine the attitude to be taken towards the military system
in colonial and semi-colonial countries, consideration must be given to the
political role being played by the given country at the given moment, in the
decisive stages of the international revolution, /. e., whether it is an ally or a
foe of the Soviet Union, of the Chinese revolution, etc. On the whole, the prole-
tariat, and the revolutionary masses among the oppressed nations, must demand
the democratic system of armaments in which all the toilers are able to learn
the use of arms, which will improve the defense of the country against
imperialism, secure the influence of the workers and peasants in the army, and
facilitate the struggle for the hegemony of the proletariat in the democratic
revolution.
Unlike the position in regard to the imperialist States, the slogans : universal
military service, the military training of the youth, a democratic militia, a
national army, etc., must be included in the revolutionary military programs in
colonial and semi-colonial countries. In the present historical epoch, however,
the tactics of the national revolutionary movement must be subordinated to the
interests of the world proletarian revolution. Revolutionaries cannot advance
such a program in oppressed countries which are themselves oppressors and
act as the vassals of the imperialists in a war against proletarian, or national
revolutions. In such countries Communists must unfailingly combine their
propaganda in favor of revolutionary war for the defense of other revolutionary
countries, and their propaganda in favor of a revolutionary military policy,
with a defeatist position in relation to the given war or army. Such a position
must be taken up at the present time in those provinces in China which are under
the rule of Kuomintang generals.
56. In laying down the military program for oppressed countries, consideration
must be given to the stage of economic and political development of those
countries.
(a) In those countries in which the democratic revolution has not yet been
accomplished, the slogan of the armed nation (national militia) must be adopted,
particularly in those countries where the class rupture between the bourgeoisie
and the proletariat is not yet very strongly expressed (Syria, Morocco, and
Eypt). This slogan must be linked up with democratic demands directed against
feudalism and the feudal and bourgeois officers. In coinitries in which class
differentiation is strongly expressed, but where the bourgeois revolution has not
.vet been accomplished, for example, in Ijatin-American countries, this slogan
must bear the class character of a workers' and peasants' militia.
(b) In countries passing through the stage of democratic revolution, the
slogan for militia will prove inadequate and must therefore be expanded into
the slogan : Organize a revolutionary army. This, of course, does not prevent
the militia slogan from being advanced at the same time, particularly in pre-
paring for rebellion. It must be noted that arming the proletariat does not
contradict the demand for the armed nation ; in fact, the armed proletariat is
a fundamental part of the armed nation. While participating in the general
organizations of the armed nation, it is absolutely essential to set up special,
proletarian, armed units, commanded by officers elected by these units.
APPENDIX, PART 1 587
(c> In couutries passing from the stage of democratic revolution to prole-
tarian revolution, the military program of the Communists in imperialist coun-
tries may be adopted, with certain concrete modification.
The slogan proletarian militia (a militia of the toilers, a vv'orkers' and
jieasants' militia) takes the place of the demand for a democratic militia.
When, in the process of the revolution in the colonies, the question of armed
seizure of power arises, the question of organizing a Red Army must be brought
up simultaneously with the organization of Soviets. The old, revolutionary,
democratic form.s of army organization must be substituted by class forms,
dictated by the proletarian revolution.
57. In the fight against imperialism, for the carrying out of a national-
revolutionary military policy, it is absolutely necessary to conduct systematic
agitational and propagandist work among the colonial armies. Communists
and national revolutionaries must therefore carefully study the various types
of colonial armies and devise effective methods for working among the various
types. As the case of China shows, work in b:!dly-diseipllned and badly-paid
native mercenary troops frequently has many chances of success.
In such cases, the partial demands may be somewhat similar to those enu-
merated above for imperialist States, but here, too, a careful study must be
made of the concrete circumstances (class composition of the army, morale of
the troops, economic conditions, etc.). Special attention must be paid to the
formulation of the demands of the native troops, and to combating ill-treatment
of the native troops by the white officers.
The character of the work that Communists must carry on in national
armies will differ from that in other types of armies, but it is extremely impor-
tant that this work should be done as the experience of the national war In
China in 1926-1927 has shown. In this case, the task of the Communists is to
organize nuclei throughout the whole of the army ; to make it a more conscious
instrument in the fight against imperialism; in the interests of the national
revolution to fight against the unreliable elements among the oflicers, and where
the command is not yet in the hands of the Communists, to subject the com-
mand to the control of the soldiers by the application of wide revolutionary
democracy. It nnist always be borne in mind that the system of electing
oflacers prevailed in the army of the Convent during the P'rench revolution, and
that the army achieved great victories, whereas the absolutely undemocratic
.system of organization of the Southern armies in China in 192&-1927 greatly
facilitated the treacherous turn taken by the bourgeoisie and their generals.
IV. THE proletariat's ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE QUESTION OF DISARMAMENT AND THE
FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM
58. Imperialism at the present time encounters serious obstacles in its ideolog-
ical and organizational preparations for new imperialist counter-revolutionary
wars, vu., the instinctive hostility to war aroused among the broad masses of
the population, particularly among the workers, the peasants and the working
women, since the last world war. For th.at reason, imperialism is compelled to
make its preparations for war under the cloak of pacifism. At the same time,
pacifism is acquiring a new objective significance as the ideology and the instru-
ment in world imperialism's struggle against the progressing world revolution
and its stronghold, the U.S.S.R. Herein lie the objective significance and the
fundamental aim of the disarmament proposals and conferences initiated by
the imperialist States, and particularly of the "work" of the League of Nations
in this sphere: the discussions on "security"; the proposal to establish arbitra-
tion courts ; the pacts for the "outlawry of war," etc. The purposes of all these
pacifist schemes, treaties, and conferences are: (a) to camouflage imperialist
armaments; (b) to enable certain great powers to maneuver against each other
for the purpose of securing, by treaties, a reduction in their rivals' armaments,
while at the same time to increase their own military power (c) to enable the
great powers to reach temporary agreements guaranteeing their domination
over the weak and oppressed countries; (d) to carry out ideological and political
mobilization against the Soviet Union under the cloak of pacifist slogans, or
direct preparation for war.
Per this reason, to fight against the diarmament swindle and pacifism is one
of the fundamental tasks in the struggle against imperialist war at the present
time.
5§8 UN-AME,RICAN PROrAGANDA ACTIVITIES
A. The Social-Democratic Disarmament Program and Leninism
59. The principal instrument in the imperialist disarmament farce is Social-
Democracy, which sows among the masses illusions about the possibility of dis-
armament and abolishing war without overthrowing imperialism. Among the
Social-Democrats there are two tendencies on the question of disarmament, both
of which, however, are tendencies of bourgeois pacifism.
One of these tendencies, the herald of which Kautsky became already in
1911, "discovers" non-existent objective forces of capitalism, which are alleged to
be operating in the direction of disarmament and the abolition of war. This
tendency represents the policy of co-operating with the "Left" bourgeoisie for
the purpose of limiting armam,ents, concluding' international agreements be-
tween the imperialists for preventing, or altogether "outlawing" war, etc. Al-
ready, in 1916, I^enin described this tendency as "absolutely bourgeois pacifism."
In 1914-1918, these views comprised the ideology of the "Center"; but when
the world war came to an end and the imperialist governments began to resort
to pacifist maneuvers, it became the policy of the leaders of the Second Inter-
national. This policy is supported by the Riglit Wing as well as by the majority
of the "Left" Social Democrats. It is presented as the policy of "realist" paci-
fism, but it in no way difi:ers from the policy of the imperialist bourgeoisie.
With this policy is associated the "organized capitalism" theory, according
to which, capitalism, in the present imperialist stage, itself develops the ob-
jective factors for abolishing war from the realm of the "civilized world," etc.
It is also associated with the theory of "ultra-imperialism," of imperialist
"alliances," "pacts," and international cartels as a means for removing im-
perialist antagonisms. As a matter of fact, imperialism reveals no tendency
whatever towards the abolition of war. On the contrary, all the facts which
the "realist" pacifists enumerate for the purpose of lulling the masses, are
symptoms of the preparations of imperalist war on the largest possible scale, of
vvars in which, not individual States, but whole groups of allied States, will
be involved against each other.
A United States of Europe, or a United States of the World is a Utopian
dream under the capitalist system. But even if such could be established they
would inevitably be reactionary, because they would represent an alliance for
the suppression of the proletarian revolution and of the national liberation
movements of colonial peoples. All the tendencies within this main tendency
(for example the Pan-European movement) are out and out reactionary.
60. The adherents to the second tendency come out as "radical," or "revolu-
tionary" pacifists, and demand complete disarmament, not only of the bour-
geoisie, but also of the proletariat, /.. e., they reject the slogan of arming the
proletariat. At the time of the imperialist war, this slogan was adopted by a
number of revolutionary internationalists, who found no other way of expressing
their honest desire to abolish militarism. It was not a revolutionary slogan,
however, for it failed to take into account, or completely rejected, the necessity
for arming the proletariat and for civil war; objectively, it was an expression
of the desperation of the petty bourgeoisie. Lenin's criticism of this slogan ex-
pressed itself in 1916, holds good to this day, and must be employed even
more sharply today, notwithstanding the fact that the number of those who
support this slogan is now extremely insignificant. The October Revolution
has proved to every honest revolutionary the absolute necessity for arming
the proletariat. To substitute the slogan of disarming the proletariat for the
slogan of arming the proletariat, can serve at the present time only as a
counter-revolutionary slogan. For that reason the Communists must take great
pains to explain the true position to those workers who sympathize with the
slogan of disarming, particularly in the smaller countries, and to fight as
strenuously as possible against the "Left" leaders, who advocate it. This applies
also to the theory that international guarantees and "arbitration courts" can
abolish war. Such institutions are merely soap-bubbles, which burst at the very
first serious conflict, or else serve as instruments in the hands of the more
powerful imperialist robbers.
There is only one point on which both Social-Democratic tendencies can agree
on questions of disarmament and pacifism, .and that is, that the principal ob-
stacle to disarmament are the countries where "there is no democracy," i. e.,
the dietatorshi]) of the proletariat in the U. S. S. R.
APPENDIX, PART 1 589
B. The Soviet Disai-mament Proposals
61. Already in the theses of the Eighth Pleuiim of the E. C. C. I., emphasis
was laid on the point that the international proletariat must take up an alto-
jiether different position in ijrinciple towards the Soviet Union's point of viev?
( u the question of disarmament from the position it must take up towards the
hypocritical proposals for disarmament advanced by the capitalist States. In
view of the exceptional importance of this question in the fight against pacifism,
it must be veiy clearly presented and explained to the masses.
The proposals for general and complete disarmament submitted by the Soviet
Government to the Preparatory Commission on Disarmament called by the
League of Nations in November, 1927, differ radically in aim, sincerity and
objective significance from the phrases and schemes submitted by the imperial-
ists and their Social-Democratic flunkeys.
The aim of the Soviet proposals is not to spread pacifist illusions, but to
destroy them; not to support capitalism by ignoring or toning down its shady
sides, but to propagate the fundamental Marxian postulate, that disarmament
and the abolition of war are possible only with the fall of capitalism.
The Soviet Government called upon the imperialists who talk cynically about
disarming, actually to disarm ; it tore down the pacifist masks from their faces.
It goes without saying, that not a single Communist thought for a moment that
the imperialists would accept the Soviet disannament proposals. Nevertheless,
the Soviet Government's proposals were not hypocritical, they were made in all
sincerity, because they in no way contradict the domestic and foreign policy of
the workers' government, whereas, imperialist "disarmament" phrasemongering
contradicts the policy of bourgeois States — the policy of plunder and oppression.
The Soviet Government represents the dictatorship of the proletariat in the
interests of the majority of the population, who had been exploited for centuries.
The Soviet Government does not conduct a policy of plunder and oppression ; its
policy is a peace policy, in the interests of the international proletariat.
The Soviet Union's proposals differ from the bourgeois and Social-Democratic
proposals also in their ohjeciive significance. They do not serve as a screen to
conceal a policy of aggression ; they do not express the desperation of the petty
bourgeoisie ; they express one of the aims of Socialism, which the revolutionary
proletariat will achieve after it has achieved victory all over the world.
62. In their opposition to the Soviet disannament proposals, the Social-Demo-
crats resorted to the most venomous means and utilized the slogans supplied to
them by Trotskyism. They tried to discredit the disarmament proposals of the
Soviet Government in the eyes of the masses by declaring them to be a "revision
of Leninism," a transition to "Thermidor," etc. Enough has been stated above
to prove that this is despicable slander. After the Soviet proposals for complete
disarmament were rejected, the Soviet Delegation, in March, 1928, submitted a
second plan, which provided for partial disarmament and for a gradual reduction
of land and naval forces. This was not a concession to pacifism. On the con-
trary, it served to expose more completely the attitude of the great powers
towards the small and oppressed nations. The Soviet Government's position on
the question of disarmament is a continuation of Lenin's policy, and a consistent
application of his precepts.
C. The Proletariat's Fight Against Pacifism
63. The workers in the Soviet Union, having defeated the bourgeoisie in civil
war and having established the dictatorship of the proletariat in their country,
may adopt a new method in their fight against pacifism — that venomous tool of
imperialism — namely, to propose general disarmament to the imperialists. But
the proletariat which is still fighting for power in capitalist States, cannot employ
such a method. It would not be a revolutionary act for the proletariat in these
countries to propose to, or demand disarmament from their bourgeoisie and their
flunkeys ; it would merely mean the substitution of the slogan of arm the prole-
lariat for the slogan of disarm the proletariat ; it would mean the rejection of civil
war and of Socialism. Hence, Communists must strenuously combat the wrong
conclusions drawn from the Soviet Government's disarmament proposals — con-
clusions which contradict the revolutionary sense of this prograru — and must
ruthlessly condemn such a deviation in their own ranks.
590 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
64. The difference between the methods of combating pacifism employed by the
proletariat in the Soviet Union and those adopted by the worliing class in capitalist
countries does not mean that there is a contradiction between the two ; nor does it
follow that Communists in capitalist countries must not make use of the Soviet
Government's declaration on disarmament in carrying on agitation among the
masses. On the contrary, the disarmament policy of the Soviet Government must
be utilized for purposes of agitation much more energetically and to a wider extent
than has been done hitherto. However, they must not be utilized as a pretext
for advancing similar demands in the capitalist countries, but as a means : ( 1) for
recruiting sympathizers for the Soviet Union — the champion of peace and Social-
ism. (2) For utilizing the results of the Soviet disarmament policy and its ex-
posure of the imperialists in the effort to eradicate all pacifist illusions and to
carry on propaganda among the masses in support of the only way towards
disarmament and abolition of war, viz., arming of the proletariat, overthrowing
the bourgeoisie and establishing the proletarian dictatorship.
v. DEFECTS IN THE WOKK OF THE COMMUNIST PARTIES, AND THEIK TASKS
65. The Eighth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. called attention to a number of errors
committed by the Communist Parties and to the defects in their work, and laid
down a number of special and concrete tasks to be fulfilled by all the Sections
of the Comintern in the fight against war.
The opinion expressed by the Eighth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. still holds good.
Since the Eighth Plenum we have gained more experience, and from this the
Sixth Congress draws certain conclusions in relation to the future activities of
the Communist Parties.
60. The principal defect from which all the Sections of the Communist Interna-
tional still suffer, is their underestimation of the danger and inevitability of war.
This is clearly seen from the fact that none of the Sections displays sufficient
energy in carrying out of the decisions of the Eighth Plenum. The two greatest
events in recent times — the British note to Egypt, and Japan's war in China,
passed unobserved, as if they were minor, altogether unimportant incidents. In
view of the rapid swing of the masses to the Left, which indicates that the masses
sense the danger of war — the Communists stand in danger of trailing behind the
working class, instead of leading it in the fight against war. Many Sections of
the Comintern are influenced by the bourgeois and Social-Democratic propaganda
for "peace," "disarmament," and "international arbitration" ; they are not con-
cerned with the imminence of the war danger, and speak about war as something
very remote.
The underestimation of the danger of war, particularly of war against the
Soviet Union, manifests itself in the failure to understand concrete facts and
events which are symptomatic of the preparations now being made for war.
When Comrade Rakovsky was recalled, the French comrades failed for a long
time to understand the significance of this incident as a decided step on the part
of P'rance on the road of diplomatic preparations for war again.^^t the Soviet
Union. The Party in Yugo-Slavia admits that it did not understand how imminent
the danger of war was in the Italo- Yugoslav conflict. Several of the Communist
Parties in the Baltic countries did not immediately understand the real signifi-
cance of the concrete measures that are being taken for the formation of an
anti-Soviet bloc of the Baltic States (for example, the negotiations for a Customs
Union between Esthonia and Latvia). All these mistakes, which were subse-
quently admitted and rectified by the respective Parties, prove how extremely
dangerous it is to ignore the measures being taken for the preparation of war.
The Parties must maintain constant vigilance and watch the coucrete forms
which the war danger is assuming.
67. One of the principal defects in the Parties' work against war is their ex-
cessively abstract, schematic, and even shallow attitude to the war question.
Certain of the Sections confine their activities to speeches in parliament and at
public meetings, in which speeches the question of war is usually left in the
background. Our Parties have not yet learned to combine the parliamentary
struggle against war with work outside of parliament for the purpose of popu-
larizing our demands (the work of the Czecho-Slovak Communists in connection
with the St. Gofhard affair and the despatch of arms to China, consisted of mild
protests in parliament and in the columns of the press). International problems
must not be separated from war problems, but both are a part of the general class
struggle and must be linked up with class conflicts at home, particularly with
conflicts in enterprises engaged solely in the production of war material.
APPENDIX, PAKT 1 591
The mechanization of the armed forces and the militarization of imlnstry are
directly connected with war and call for strenuous activity in these branches of
industry as well as in the trade unions and other labor organizations connected
with them. So far, there is little to show that the Communist Parties have com-
menced to take up these elementary tasks seriously.
68. The abstract manner in which the war problem is regarded is shown by the
failure of the Parties to take up a delinite position on the question of war policy.
Sometimes the Parties either fail altogether to react, or react too late, to the
anti-militarist tricks of the Social-Democrats, which frequently find support among
the masses (for example, the campaign conducted by the Social-Democrats In
Germany in which they posed as being "opponents of war on principle"). Some-
times the Comnuniist I'arties try to evade the concrete problems of war politics
by employing general phrases and repeating abstract propaganda slogans, instead
of taking up practical tasks.
This applies particularly to army questions. In this a tendency is observed
to evade the question of fighting for concrete partial demands and reforms which
would actually weaken militarism (such as, reduction of period of military
service, the question of the composition of volunteer armies, etc.). The fight for
reforms is left entirely to the Social-Democrats, against whom no genuine prole-
tarian political program on the army question — a program for weakening militar-
ism and of practical proposals for the arming of the workers — is pur, forward.
Only a few sections have taken the necessary organizational measures for con-
ducting systematic anti-militarist work. The work among soldiers and seamen
in countries which are very important from the point of view of war danger is
very unsatisfactory. The mass characler of this work, its use as a means for
carrying on agitation and propaganda among the soldiers, are not understood.
In some countries, anti-militarist activity among the youth is conducted on too
restricted a basis, while no attempt is made to establish an adequae organizational
base among the masses of the soldiers. The fact that work among sailors is not
carried on with sufficient energy in imperialist countries shows that the role of
the navy in a future war is underestimated. In no country has systematic use
been made of family influence upon the men serving in the army or the navy, and
upon recruits.
69. Almost in all countries is observed a failure to properly appreciate the
enormous importance of carrying on work among the peasants, among national
minorities and in the colonies. The closest attention must be devoted to all
these spheres of work.
Anti-militarist tvork in the rural districts must not be conducted solely by
means of a few casual campaigns, parades, demonstrations, etc. Planned and
systematic work must be carried on and linked up with the immediate demands
of the toiling peasantry. A special task is to work among the peasant youth.
It is imperatively necessary to devote special attention to the establishment of
connections between the villages and the peasant soldiers in the army, by
means of correspondents, soldiers on furlough, etc. Experience in such work will
be of enormous value in the event of war.
In our work among national minorities, we must more determinedly than
hitherto, champion the demands of the oppressed nations, fight against the
tyrannical actions of the imperialist government against them, and guide the
work of the national revolutionary organizations.
The Communist Parties must maintain permanent contact with the Commu-
nist organizations and trade unions in the respective colonial countries. They
must render every support, by means of mass action, to the revolutionary
movements in the colonies.
The Communist Parties of all countries must devote special attention to
the setting up of non-Party organizations like the League for the Struggle
Against Imperialism and to the question of establishing a united front between
the proletariat in capitalist countries and the national liberation movements
in subject countries for the struggle against war.
70. The fight against fascism has not up till now received sufficient attention
from many of the Sections. The greatest initiative must be displayed in this
connection, both in regard to the ideological struggle, as well as in regard to
revolutionary mass actions against fascism. In this, not only should attention
be given to avowedly fascist organizations but also to semi-fascist tendencies
and organizations existing under the guise of democratic, or Social-Democratic
bodies (like the "Imperial Flag," in Germany; the Social-Fascist tendencies of
development in the higher ranks of the Social-Democratic and trade union
592 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
bureaucracy; factory Fascism, etc.). The fight against Fascism in all its
forms must be closely linked up with the fight against imperialist war.
71. We are witnessing at the present time a fresh wave of bourgeois propa-
ganda in favor of "peace" and "disarmament" and for the "outlawry of war."
Hitherto, the fight against this sort of pacifism has uot been conducted with
sufficient energy, and the same may be said in regard to the fight against the
Social-Democratic propaganda against the alleged "Red Imperialism" of the
Soviet Union and "Bolshevism as a factor making for war." The exposure of
the real character of the League of Nations which is playing a decisive part
in the work of creating pacifist illusions among the masses of the people, has
not been carried on systematically or with sufticient energy.
In the majority of cases, the very important Communist task arising from
the results of the Geneva Conference, viz., to combine the struggle against war
with propaganda for the proletarian dictatorship and arming of the proletariat,
was forgotten. In some countries, utterly pacifist mistakes were committed
which were expressed in the advocacy of the slogan of disarmament.
72. The majority of the Communist Parties, after the Eighth Plenum failed
to devote sufficient attention to popularizing the proper Leninist method of
fighting against war among the memhers of the Party. Neither in the theo-
retical journals, not in the ordinary Party press were the fundamental prob-
lems connected with the fight against war adequately discussed ; nor were the
concrete partial demands connected with this fight properly elucidated. The
latter must be noted as a iDarticularly grave defect in the Parties' woi'k, for
in many cases these problems were extremely urgent, and the Social-Democratic
press devoted fairly considerable attention to them.
The work of the Parties suffers also from a lack of Ideological clarity on all
these problems. Certain comrades (in France, Switzerland and in Austria)
raised the question of "national defense" in the event of war with Italy. Others
advocated a complete "boycott" of military training camps (in America). All
these examples of deviation, although subsequently rectified by the leading Party
bodies, show how necessary it is to conduct, in the Party ranks, as well as among
the masses, serious and extensive propaganda work on the question of the war
danger and the methods of combating it.
73. The principal agitational tasks in the struggle against the war danger,
and particularly against the provocation and preparation for war against the
Soviet Union are as follows :
(a) In view of the innninence of the war danger, the principal and central
agitational slogans must be : "Defense of the Soviet Union," "Support the revo-
lutionary struggle in colonial and subject countries," "Fight against imperialist
war."
(b) Agitational work must be steadily directed towards the exposure of the
predatory strivings of various imperialist groups in all countries. It must be
particularly directed against the American imperialists ; against British im-
perialists, who are leading the preparations for war against the Soviet Union;
and against the British and Japanese imperialists who are leading the military
intervention in China. The demand must be made for the publication of all
secret treaties and secret military alliances.
(c) The Social-Democratic proposal for "limited armaments," their defense
of the Geneva Protocol, and of compulsory arbitration, must be criticized and
-exposed.
(d) An energetic campaign of exposure must be carried on against "industrial
peace," class collaboration, neutral (non-political) unions and "company unions"
advocated by the reformist trade union leaders, and which, in fact, are measures
in the preparation for war.
(e) Work must be immediately commenced to explain to the workers why
they must stand for the defeat of their imperialist country in the coming war.
The slogan "transform imperialist war into civil war," must already become the
leading idea in our propaganda, before imperialist war breaks out.
(f) All the Communist Parties must coiuluct the fight against the imperialist
partition of China by means of wide mass campaigns, and by combating the
special military and political measures initiated by the Great Powers. This
fight is closely linked up with the fight against the danger of new imperialist
wars.
74. The most important measures to be taken, the majority of which have
already been indicated in the Theses of the Eighth Plenum, are the following:
Women's and children's demonstrations on the routes taken by troops on the
way to the front and places of embarkation, and also women's, children's and
disabled soldiers' demonstrations outside parliaments. Anti-war agitation in
APPENDIX, PART 1 593
proletarian and petty bourgeois women's organizations, the convening of women
delegate conferences under anti-imperialist war slogans ; the calling of meetings
of wurlving women outside factory gates and in working class districts from
which delegates shall be elected ; to utilize the existing and to set up new women
delegate conferences, which must serve as permanent bodies for conducting
campaigns against imperialist war. The tactics of the uyited front and work
in "Hands Oft" Russia" committees must be conducted more effectively than
hitherto. Moreover, trade unions must be persuaded to aftiliate to these com-
mittees. A figlit must be conducted along the wliole line against Fascism, which
is one of the armed units of the counter-revolution. Wherever possible, mass
organizations, like the German Red Front Fighters League, must be set up.
Anti-Fascist and anti-war work must be carried on in sport organizations.
Existing class war victims' organizations (Disabled Soldiers' Leagues, War
Widows' Organizations, etc.) must be utilized and strengthened for the purpose
of lighling against imperialist war. The Young Communist League, in close
contact with the Communist Parties, must carry on strenuous work among the
working and peasant youth, from among whom the soldiers are recruited. Ex-
isting proletarian teachers', parents' and pupils' organizations and Communist
children's groups must also be utilized. New children's organizations must be
established for the purpose of combating imperialist influences in the schools.
75. The task of preparing the Communist Parties themselves is one of first
class importance. The spreading of a protounder consciousness of international
solidarity among the Sections of the Comintern is a necessary condition precedent
for the preparedness of the Communist Parties for war.
The closest possible contact must be established between all the Sections before
the outbreak of war, and every means must be employed to maintain these con-
tacts throughout the whole course of the war.
The terror against the Communist Parties, and the revolutionary movements
as a wliole, that will accompany the mobilization, will assume unparalleled inten-
sity. Thousands of Communists and revolutionary workers, whose names have
been listed beforehand, will be put away in concentration camps. The imperial-
ists will not only try to destroy the legal Communist Parties but the whole
apparatus and leadership of the underground Parties as well.
Tile Communist Parties must immediately set to work to prepare to meet this
situation. Tiie legal Communist Parties must exert every effort to prepare for the
timely transition to underground conditions. The underground Parties must make
preparations to adapt their leadership and their organization to conditions of a
worse terror than prevails at present. Timely preparations must be made for the
changing of organizational methods and for changing the organizational con-
tacts from top to bottom. Party members must be prepared beforehand for the
new situation that will arise in connection with the mobilization and the opening
of hostilities.
76. The Sixth World Congress recalls to the minds of all Communists what
Lenin said about the fight against war being by no means an easy matter. It
urges upon the Parties to subject themselves to thorough self-criticism and sys-
tematically to verify what has been done up till now in the fight against the war
danger and for preparing the Party for the struggle during the war. It enjoins
them ruthlessly to bring to light and immediately to rectify all mistakes that have
been committed.
The Sixth Congress calls upon all the Sections to give the struggle against war
a more international character and to take preparatory measures for the inter-
national co-ordination of revolutionary action in order that they may be in a
position at tlie required moment to carry out important international mass
action against imperialist war.
Exhibit No. 92
[Source: Chapter IV from Foundations of Lenini.sm, by Joseph Stalin, a booklet pub-
lished bv the International Publishers, Xew York : 19:J4 ; pages 45-58. In an edition
of 100,000]
■^ 1^ :^ * * * *
*
IV. THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
From this theme I will take three main questions: (1) the dictatorship of
the proletariat as the instrument of the proletarian revolution; (2) the dictator-
ship of the proletariat as the domination of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie;
(3) the Soviet power as the state form of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 39
594 UN-AMEiRIGAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
(1) The Dictatorship of the Proletariat as the Instrument of the Proletarian
Kevolution.
The question of the proletarian dictatorship is above all a question of the
basic content of the proletarian revolution. The proletarian revolution, its
movement, its sweep and its achievements acquire flesh and blood only through
the dictatorship of the proletariat. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the
weapon of the proletarian revolution, its organ, its most important stronghold
which is called into being, first, to crush the resistance of the overthrown ex-
ploiters and to consolidate its achievements ; secondly, to lead the proletarian
revolution to its completion, to lead the revolution onward to the complete
victory of socialism. Victory over the bourgeoisie and the overthrow of its
power may be gained by revolution even without the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat. But the revolution will not be in a po.'^ition to crush the resistance of
the bourgeoisie, maintain its victory and move on to the decisive victory for
socialism, unless at a certain stage of its development it creates a special organ
in the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat as its principal bulwark.
"The question of power is the fundamental question of the revolution."
(Lenin.) Does this mean that the only thing required is to assume power, to
seize it? No, it does not. The seizure of power is only the beginning. For a
number of reasons, the bourgeoisie overthrown in one country for a consider-
able time remains stronger than the proletariat which has overthrown it.
Therefore, the important thing is to retain power, to consolidate it and make it
invincible. What is required to attain this end? At least three main tasks con-
fronting the dictatorship of the proletariat "on the morrow" of victory must be
fulfilled. They are :
(a) to break the resistance of the landlords and capitalists overthrown and
expropriated by the revolution, and to liquidate every attempt they make to
restore the power of capital ;
(b) to organise construction in such a way as will rally all toilers around the
proletariat and to carry on this work in such a way as will prepare for the
liquidation, the extinction of classes ;
(c) to arm the revolution and to organise the army of the revolution for the
struggle against the external enemy and for the struggle against imperialism.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is necessary in order to carry out and fulfil
these tasks.
"The transition from capitalism to communism," Lenin says, "represents an
entire historical epoch. Until this epoch has terminated, the exploiters will
inevitably cherish the hope of restoration, and this hope will be converted into
attempts at restoration. And after their first serious defeat, the overthrown
exploiters — who had not expected their overthrow, who never believed it
possible, who would not permit the thought of it — will throw themselves with
tenfold energy, with furious passion and hatred grown a hundred-fold into
the battle for the recovery of their lost 'paradise' on behalf of their families
who had been leading such a sweet and easy life and v/hom now the 'common
herd' is condemning to ruin and destitution (or to 'common' work). ... In the
w-ake of the capitalist exploiters will be found the broad masses of the petty
bourgeoisie, to whose vacillation and hesitation the historical experience of every
country for decades bears witness ; one day the.y march behind the proletariat,
the next day they will take fright at the difficulties of the revolution, become
panic-stricken at the first defeat or semi-defeat of the workers ; they become
irritable, they run about, snivel and rush from one camp to the other." (The
Proletarian Revolution and Reneaade Kavtskn.)
Now the bourgeoisie has reasons for making attempts at restoration, because
for a long time after its overthrow it remains stronger than the proletariat
which has overthrown it.
If the exploiters — Lenin says — are vanquished in only a single country, which,
of course, is the typical case since a simultaneous revolution in a number of
countries is a rare exception, they still remain stronger than the exploited.
{Ihid.)
Wherein lies the strength of the overthrown bourgeoisie?
First, "In the strength of international capital, in the strength and dtirability
of the international connections of the bourgeoisie." ("Left-Winff'' Communism,
p. 9).
Serondly, in the fact that "for a long time after the revolution, the ex-
ploiters will inevitably retain a number of enormous and real advantages :
they will have money left (it is impossible to abolish money all at once), some
APPENDIX, PART 1 595
movable property, often of considerable value; there remain their connections,
their organising and administrative ability and the knowledge of all the secrets
of administration (of usages, of procedure, of ways and means, of possibilities) ;
there remain their superior education, their kinship to the highest ranks of the
technical personnel (who live and think like the bourgeoisie) ; there remains
their immeasurable superiority in the art of war (this is very important), etc.,
etc." {The Proletarian Revolution and Renegade Kautsky.)
Thirdly, "In the force of habit, in the strength of small-scale production.
For unfortunately, very, very much of small-scale production still remains in
the world, and small-scale production gives hirth to capitalism and the bour-
geoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale. . . ."
For "the abolition of classes not only means driving out the landlords and capi-
talists— that we accomplished with comparative ease — it means also getting rid
of the small commodity producers, and they cannot he driven out or crushed;
we must live in harmony with them; they can (and must) be remoulded and
re-educated, but this can be done only by very prolonged, slow, cautious organi-
sational work." C Left-Wing" Communism, pp. 9, 28.)
That is why Lenin declares: "The dictatorship of the proletariat is the most
determined and most ruthless war waged by the new class against the more
poiverful enemy, against the bourgeoisie, whose resistance is increased tenfold
by its overthrow," that "the dictatorship of the proletariat is a persistent strug-
gle— sanguinary and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic,
educational and administrative — against the forces and traditions of the old
society." (Ibid.)
It need hardly be emphasised that there is not the slightest possibility of
accomplishing these tasks in a short period of time, within a few years. We
must, therefore, regard the dictatorship of the proletariat, the transition from
capitalism to communism, not as a fleeting period replete with "super-revolu-
tionary" deeds and decrees, but as an entire historical epoch full of civil wars
and external conflicts, of persistent organisational work and economic con-
struction, of attacks and retreats, of victories and defeats. This historical
epoch is necessary not only in order to create the economic and cultural pre-
requisites for the complete victory of socialism, but also in order to enable the
proletariat, first, to educate itself and become steeled into a force capable of
governing the country ; secondly, to re-educate and remould the petty-bour-
geois strata along such lines as will assure the organisation of socialist pro-
duction.
Marx said to the workers: "You will have to go through fifteen, twenty, fifty
years of civil wars and conflicts of peoples, not only to change the conditions,
but in order to change yourselves and to make yourselves cnpable of wielding
political power."
Divelopiiig Marx's thought still further, Lenin goes on to say: Under the
dictatorship of the proletariat we will have to re-educate "millions of peasants
and petty proprietors, hundreds of thousands of employes, ofhcials and bourgeois
intellectuals" ; to subordinate "all these to the proletarian state and to proletarian
leader.ship" ; to overcome "their bourgeois habits and traditions . . ." just
as nuich as it will be necessary ". . . to re-educate in a protracted struggle,
on I he basis of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the proletarians themselves,
who do not ab'ndon their petty-bourgeois prejudices at one stroke, by a miracle,
at the behest of the Virgin Mary, at the behest of a slogan, resolution or decree,
bu* <i;;Iy in the cour.se of a long and difficult mass struggle against mass petty-
bourgeois influences." ("Left-Wing'" Communism^ pp. 92-93.)
(2 1 ' //e Dictatorship of the Proletariat as the Domination of the Proletariat
over the Bourgeoisie
Frnra the foregoing, it is quite obvious that the dictatorship of the proletariat
is nut a mere change of personalities in the government, a change of "cabinet,"
etc., icavi >g inviolate the old order of things economically as well as politically.
The Mensheviks and opportunists of all countries, who fear dictatorship like the
plagn,', and who, in their trepidntion, palm olT the concept "conquest of power"
for ;he concept "dictator.^hip of the proletariat," habitually reduce the meaning of
"comines* of power" to a change of "cabinet," or to a new ministry composed of
pfoTi1c Hk" Scheidemann and Noske, MacDonald and Henderson taking over the
hf^lm of the st:ite Thpre is hardly any need to explain that these and .similar
cab • - ' clninges have nothing in common with the dictatorship of the proletariat
or ' f' -in-^nc^t (if rpnl power by a real proletariat. With the MacDonalds
596 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and Scheidemanns in power, and the old bourgeois order of things allowed to
remain, their governments, so to speak, cannot be anything but an apparatus
serving the bourgeoisie, a screen to hide the sores of imperialism, a weapon in
the hands of the bourgeoisie against the revolutionary movement of the oppressed
and exploited masses. Capital needs such govennnents to screen it, when it
finds it inconvenient, unprofitable or difficult to oppress and exploit the masses
without the aid of such a blind. Of course the appearance of .such governments
is a symptom that "all is not quiet on Shipka Hill" * (i. e., among the capitalists).
Nevertheless, governmental of this complexion necessarily remain camouflaged
capitalist governments. The government of a MacDonald or a Scheidemann is as
far removed from the conquest of power by the proletariat as the earth from
the sky. The dictatorship of the proletariat is not a mere change of government,
l)ut a new state, with new organs of power, both central and local; it is the
proletarian state which has arisen on the ruins of the old state, the state
•of the bourgeoisie.
The dictatorship of the proletariat does not arise on the basis of the bourgeois
order : it arises while this order is being torn down, after the overthrow of
the borgeoisie, in the process of the expropriation of the landlords and capital-
ists, during the process of socialisation of the principal instruments and means
of production, in the process of violent proletarian revolution. The dictatorship
of the proletariat is a revolutionary power based on violence against the
bourgeoisie.
The state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing
the resistance of its class enemies. In this respect the dictatorship of the
proletariat in no way differs, in essence, from the dictatorship of any other
class, for the proletarian state is an instrument for the suppression of the
bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, there is an essential difference between the two,
which is, that all class states that have existed heretofore have been dictator-
ships of an exploiting minority over the exploited majority, whereas the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of the exploited majority over
an exploiting minority.
To put it briefly: the dictatorship of the proletariat is the domination of
the proletariat over the bourgeoisie, untrammelled by law and based on violence
and enjoying the sympathy and support of the toiling and exploited masses.
(Cf. Lenin, State and Revolution.)
From this two fundamental deductions may be drawn.
First deduction: the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be "complete"
democracy, a democracy for all, for rich and poor alike ; the dictatorshii) of
the proletariat "must be a state that is democratic in a neio loay (for* the
proletariat and the poor in general) and dictatorial in a nexo tccty (against*
the bourgeoisie)." (State and Revolution, Little Lenin Library, "Vol. 14, p. 31;
Collected icorks, Vol. XXI, Book II, p. 177.) The talk of Kautsky and Co.
about universal equality, about "pure" democracy, about "perfect" democracy
and the like, are but bourgeois screens to conceal the indubitable fact that
equality between exploited and exploiters is impossible. The theory of "pure"
democracy is the theory of the upper stratum of the working class which is
tamed and fed by the imperialist plunderers. It was invented to hide the sores
of capitalism, to camouflage imperialism and lend it moral strength in its
straggle against the exploited masses. Under the capitalist system there is
no true "freedom" for the exploited, nor can there be, if for no other reason
than that the buildings, lorinting plants, paper supplies, etc., indispensable
for the actual enjoyment of this "freedom." are the privilege of the oxuloiters.
Under the capitalist system the exploited masses do not, nor can they, really
participate in the administration of the country, if for no other reason than
that even with the most democratic system under capitalism, the governments
are set up not by the people, but by the Rothschilds and Stinneses, the Morgans
and Rockefellers. Democracy under the capitalist system is capitalist democ-
racy, the democracy of an exploiting minority based upon the restriction of
the rights of the exploited majority and directed against this majority. Only
under the dictatorship of the proletariat is real "freedom" for the exploited
and real participation in the administration of the country by the proletarians
and peasants possible. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat, democracy
is proletaria/n democracy — the democracy of the exploited majority based upon
*A Russian saying carriefl over from tlie Russo-Tnrkisli War. Severe fighting was talking
place at Sliipka Hill in which the Russians were snfYering severe losses : but Russian
Headquarters in their communique reported : "All quiet on Shipka Hill."- — Ed.
*My italics. — J. S.
APPENDIX, PART 1 597
the restriction of the rights of the exploiting minority and directed against
this minority.
Second deduction: the dictatorsliip of the proletariat cannot come about as
a result of the peaceful development of bourgeois society and of bourgeois
democracy ; it can come only as the result of the destruction of the bourgeois
state machine, of the bourgeois army, of the bourgeois civil administration and
of the bourgeois police.
In their Civil War in France, Marx and Engels wrote: "The working class
cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery and wield it for its
own purposes." (International Publishers, p. 37.)
In his letter to Kugelmanu (April 12, 1871), Marx wrote that the task of
the proletarian revolution must "be no longer, as before, to transfer the bureau-
cratic-military machine from one hand to another, but to smash it, and that
is essential for every real people's revolution on the Confluent." {Letters to
Dr. Kuf/cliiiann [International Publishers], p. 123.)
Marx's qualifying phrase about the Coiitinent gave to the opportunists and
Mensheviks of all countries a pretext to cry aloud that Marx admitted the
possibility of the peaceful evolution of bourgeois democracy into a proletarian
democracy at least in certain countries which do not come within the European
continental system (England, United States). Marx did in fact concede that
possibility, and he had good grounds for doing so in regard to the England and
the United States of the seventies of the last century, when monopoly capitalism
and imperialism did not yet exist and when these countries, owing to the special
conditions of their development, had as yet no developed militarism or bureau-
cracy. That is how matters stood before developed imperialism made its appear-
ance. But later, after a lapse of thirty to forty years, when a state of affairs
in these countries had undergone a radical change, when imperialism was
developing and was embracing all capitalist countries without exception, when
militarism and bureaucracy appeared in England and the United States aiso,
when the special conditions of peaceful development in England and the United
States had disappeared — then the qualification in regard to these countries
could no longer apply.
Lenin said : "Today, in 1917, in the epoch of the first great imperialist war,
this exception made by Marx is no longer valid. Both England and America,
the greatest and last representatives of Anglo-Saxon 'liberty' in the whole
world, in the sense of the absence of militarism and bureaucracy, have today
plunged headlong into the all-Eui"opean dirty, bloody morass of military bureau-
cratic institutions to which everything is subordinated and which trample every-
thing underfoot. Today, both in England and in America, 'essential for every
real people's revolution' is the brcak-vp. the shatteriuf/ of the 'ready-made' state
machinery (brought in those countries, between 1914 and 1917, to gener.il 'Euro-
pean' imperalist perfection)." (State and RevoJntion, Little liCnin Library,
p. 34 ; Collected Works, Vol. XXI, Book II, p. 180.)
In other words, the law of violent proletarian revolution, the law of destruc-
tion of the machinery of the bourgeois state as a condition precedent for such
revolution, is an inevitable law of the revolutionary movement in the imperialist
countries of the world.
Of course, in the remote future, if the proletariat is victorious in the most
important capitalist countries and if the present capitalist encirclement gives
way to a socialist encirclement, a "peaceful" course of development is quite
po.ssible for some of the capitalist countries who.se capitalists, in view of the
"unfavourable" international situation, will consider it advisable "voluntarily"
to make substantial concession to the proletariat. But this supposition deals
only with the remote and possible future ; it has no bearing whatever on the
immediate future.
Lenin is therefore right in saying: "The proletarian revolution is impossible
without the violent destruction of the bourgeois state machine iind its replace-
ment by a 7}ew one." {The Proletarian Rei'olufion and Renepade Kautsky.)
(3) The Soviet Power as the State Form of the Dictatorship of the Poletariat.
The victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat signifies the suppression of
the bourgeoisie, the break-up of the bourgeois state machine and the disiilacement
of bourgeois democracy by proletarian democracy. That is clear. But what
organisations are to be employed in order to carry out this collossal work? There
can hardly be any doubt that the old forms of proletarian organisation which
grew up with bourgeois parliamentarism as their base are not equal to this
task. What are the new forms of proletarian organisation that can serve
as the grave-digger of the bourgois state machine, that are capable not only
598 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of breaking this machine, not only of rephiclng bourgeois democracy by pro-
letarian democracy, but also of serving as the foundation of the state power of
the proletariat?
This new form of organisation of the proletariat is the Soviets.
In what lies the strength of the Soviets as compared with the old forms
of organisation?
In that the Soviets are the most all-embracing mass organisations of the prole-
tariat, for they and they alone embrace all workers without exception.
In that the Soviets are the only mass organisations that take in all the
oppressed and exploited workers and peasants, soldiers and sailors, and for this
reason the political leadership of the mass struggle by the vanguard, by the
proletariat, can be most easily and most completely exercised through them.
In that the Soviets are the most powerful organs of the revolutionary mass
struggle, of mass political demonstrations and of mass uprising ; they are organs
capable of breaking the omnipotence of finance capital and its political accessories.
In that the Soviets are the direct organisations of the masses themselves, i. e.,
they are the most democratic, and therefore the most authoritative organisations
of the masses, that provide them with the maximum facilities for participating
in the building up of the new state and its administration ; they develop to their
fullest extent the revolutionary energy, the initiative and the creative faculties
of the masses in the struggle for the destruction of the old system, in the struggle
for the new proletarian system.
The Soviet power is the unification and the crystallisation of the local
Soviets into one general state organisation, into a state organisation of the prole-
tariat which is both the vanguard of the oppressed and exploited masses and
the ruling class — it is their unification into the republic of Soviets.
The essence of the Soviet power is the fact that the most pronounced mass
and revolutionary organisations of precisely those classes that were oppressed
by the capitalists and landlords now constitute the "permanent and sole founda-
tion of all state power, of the entire state apparatus" ; that "precisely those
masses which in the most democratic bourgeois republics" enjoy equal rights
according to the letter of the law, but "in fact, by a thousand tricks and machi-
nations were prevented from participating in political life and from exercising
their democratic rights and liberties, are now constantly, imperatively drawn
into participation, and, moreover, into decisive participation, in the democratic
administration of the state." {Collected Works, Vol. XXIV, p. 13, Russian
edition.)
For this reason the Soviet power is a new form of state organisation different
in principle from the old bourgeois-democratic and parliamentary form — a new
type of state adapted, not to the task of exploiting and oppressing the toiling
masses, but to the task of completely emancipating them from all oppression
and exploitation and to the tasks facing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Lenin rightly says that with the appearance of the Soviet power "the epoch
of bourgeois-democratic parliamentarism has come to an end and a new chapter
in world history has commenced : the epoch of proletarian dictatorship."
What are the main characteristics of the Soviet power?
They are that the Soviet power has a most pronounced mass character and is
the most democratic of all state organisations possible while classes continue
to exist ; for, being the arena of the bond and co-oiieration of the workers and
exploited peasants in their struggle against the exploiters, and basing itself in
its work on this bond and co-operation, the Soviet power by this very fact repre-
sents the rule of the majority of the population over the minority, it is the
state of that majority, the expression of its dictatorship.
That the Soviet power is the most international of all state organisations
in class society, for, by extirpating every kind of national oppression and basing
itself on the cooperation of the toiling masses of the various nationalities it
facilitates the amalgamation of these masses into a single union of states.
That the Soviet power by its ^•ery striicture facilitates the leadership of the
oppressed and exploited masses by llie vanguard of these masses, i. e., the prole-
tariat^— the most compact and most class conscious nucleus of the Soviets.
"The experience of all revolutions and of all movements of the oppressed classes,
the experience of the world socialist movement teaches us," says Lenin, "that
only the proletariat is able to unite the scattered, backward strata of the toiling
and exploited population and to lead them." {Collected Works, Vol. XXIV,
p. 14, Russian edition.) The structure of the Soviet power facilitates the prac-
tical application of the lessons to be drawn from this experience.
APPENDIX, PART 1 599
That the Soviet power, by combining the legislative and executive functions
in a single state body and replacing territorial electoral divisions by units of
production, i. c, factories and vporkshops, thereby directly connects the workers
and the labouring masses in general with the apparatus of state administration
and teaches them how to administer the country.
That only the Soviet power is capable of releasing the army from its position
of subordination to bourgeois command and of converting it from an instrument
of oppression of the people, which it is under the bourgeois order, into an instru-
ment for the liberation of the people from the yoke of the bourgeoisie, both
native and foreign.
That "only the Soviet state organisation can definitely destroy at one blow
tlie old, i. €., the bourgeois-bureaucratic and judicial apparatus." (IMd.)
That the Soviet form of state alone, by drawing the mass organisations of
the toilers and of the exploited into constant and unconditional participation
in the administration of the state, is capable of preparing the ground for the
dying out of the state which is one of the basic elements of the future stateless
communist society.
The republic of Soviets is thus the political form, so long sought and finally
found, within the framework of which the economic emancipation of the prole-
tariat and the complete victory of socialism is to be accomplished.
The Paris Commune was the embryo of this form ; the Soviet power is its
development and culmination.
That is why Lenin says that : "The republic of Soviets of workers', soldiers'
and peasants' deputies is not only the form of a higher type of democratic
institution . . . but is also the only form capable of ensuring the least painful
transition to socialism." {Collected Works, Vol. XXII, p. 131, Russian edition.)
Exhibit No. 93
[Source: The Communist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism,
published monthly by the Communist Party of the United States of America ; August,
1934, Vol. XIII, No. 8, page 799. An excerpt from an article entitled "The Leninist
Party as Leader of the Struggle Against Imperialist War," by H. M. Wicks]
^ ***** ^
History has put the question : Either the dictatorship of the proletariat or the
dictatorship of the bourgeoise ; hence the chief slogan of the Communist Inter-
national is Soviet Power.
An even here, in the still most strongly intrenched imperialism in the world,
the workers are more insistently raising the issue of general strike, thereby regis-
tering a higher stage of struggle, which, with correct leadership, can go forward
from defensive struggles to attacks against the capitalist system itself.
But while including the general strike as a weapon against imperialist war,
Communists do not fall into such errors as raising the slogan of "reply to war
with a general strike". To do so would create illusions. But along with the
growth of revolutionary mass actions, such as demonstrations, strikes in basic
industries, munitions works, waterside, rail transport, etc., the general strike —
as the supreme form of the mass strike movement — can be a mighty weapon,
and "as a transition to the armed uprising it constitutes a stage in the trans-
formation of the imperalist war into civil war. But even in war tinu> Ihe general
strike does not come like a bolt from the blue. It comes on the rising tide of
revolutionary mass action (demonstrations, partial strikes, etc.) and as a result
of the persistent preparation, which the Communists must make, and which may
entail heavy sacrifices". (Resolution of the Sixth World Congress of the
Communist International. )
Finally, in all our activity against imperialist war, we must always refute the
pacifist illusion that wars can be abolished under capitalism, and keep before
the masses the Leninist position as set forth in the Sixth World Congress
resolution against war :
"War is inseparable from capitalism. From this it follows that the 'abolition'
of war is possible only through the abolition of capitalism, i. e., through the
overthrow of the class of bourgeois exploiters, through the proletarian dictator-
ship, the building of socialism, the elimination of classes. All other theories and
proposals, however 'realistic' they may claim to be, are nothing but a deception
calculated to perpetuate exploitation and war."
goo UN-AMEEICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 94
[Source : Excerpts from the Communist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Marxism-
4. The betrayal of Socialism by a majority of the leaders of the Second
International (1889-1914) signifies the ideological and political collapse of that
International. The fundamental reason for this collapse is the actual preva-
lence in it of petty-bourgeois opportunism, the bourgeois nature and the
danger of which have long been pointed out by the best representatives
of the revolutionary proletariat of all countries. The opportunists had long
been preparing the collapse of the Second International by renouncing the
Socialist revolution and substituting for it bourgeois reformism; by rejecting
the class struggle, which at certain moments necessarily turns into civil war,
and preaching instead the collaboration of classes, by preaching bourgeois
chauvinism and defense of the fatherland, under the cloak of patriotism, and
rejecting the elementary truth of Socialism, expressed long ago in The Com-
munist Manifesto, that the workers have no fatherland; by confining them-
selves in the struggle against militarism to a sentimental philistine point of
view Instead of recognizing the necessity of a revolutionary war of the pro-
letarians of all countries against the bourgeois of all countries; by making
a fetish of the necessity of utilizing bourgeois parliamentarism and bourgeois
legality, forgetting that in times of crisis illegal forms of organization and
propaganda are imperative.
*******
7. The slogans of Social-Democracy must now be : First an all-embracing
propaganda of the Socialist revolution, to be extended also to the army and the
area of military activities; emphasis to be placed on the necessity of turning
the weapons, not against the brother wage slaves of other countries, but against
the reaction of the bourgeois governments and parties in each country ; rec-
ognition of the urgent necessity of organizing illegal nuclei and groups in the
armies of all nations to conduct such propaganda in all languages ; a merciless
struggle against the chauvinism and patriotism of the philistines and bour-
geoisie of all countries without exception.
Exhibit No. 95
[Source : The Communist, a magazine of tlie theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism,
fublished monthly bv the Communist Partv of the United States of America. February,
934, Vol. XIII, No. 2, pages 131-144]
ifi t- ^ :¥ * * *
FASCISM, THE DAKGEE OF WAR AND TASKS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTIES
Thesis of the Thirteenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist
Internationa]
The development of the general crisis of capitalism, after the end of the
relative stabilization that was noted by the last (XII) Plenum of the Executive
Committee, Communist International, has already shaken the capitalist system
to a far-reaching degree all over the world.
While the U S. S. R., the bulwark of the international proletariat and of
the oppressed nations, is developing its socialist construction and raising its
power to a higher and higher level, the economy of the capitalist world is
falling to pieces. The noose of poverty, ruin, and hunger is tighteningi. The
bourgeoisie is furiously intensifying its economic means of exploitation by
methods of fascist violence, by robbing the toiling classes and by predatory
wars against other nations. But at the same time the revolutionary indig-
nation of the toiling masses and their readiness to overthrow the intolerable
yoke of the exploiting classes are growing more and more.
The tremendous strains of the internal class antagonisms in the capitalist
countries, as well as of the international antagonisms, testify to the fact that
APPENDIX, PART 1 601
the objective prerequisites for a revolutionary crisis have matured to such an
extent that at the present time tlie world is closely approaching a new round
of revolution and wars.
I. — Fascism and the Maturing of the Revolutionary Crisis
1. Fascism is the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most
chauvinist and most imperialist elements of finance capital. Fascism tries to
secure a mass basis for monopolist capital among the petty-bourgeoisie, appeal-
ing to the peasantry, artisans, office employees and civil servants who have
been thrown out of their normal course of life, and particularly to the declassed
elements in tlie big cities also trying to penetrate into the working class.
The growth of fascism and its coming into power in Germany and in a
number of other capitalist countries mean :
(a) That the revolutionary crisis and the indignation of the broad masses
against the rule of capital are growing.
(b) That the capitalists are no longer able to maintain their dictatorship,
by the old methods of parliamentarism and of bourgeois democracy in general.
(c) That, moreover, the methods of parliamentarism and bourgeois democ-
racy in general are becoming a hindrance to the capitalists both in their
internal politics (the struggle against the proletariat) as well as in their
foreign politics (war for tlie imperialist redistribution of the world).
(d) That, in view of this, capital is compelled to pass to open terrorist
dictatorship within the country and to unrestrained chauvinism in foreign
politics, which represents direct preparation for imperialist wars.
Fascism Born in the Womb of Bourgeois Democracy
Born in the womb of bourgeois democracy, fascism in the eyes of the capital-
ists is a means of saving capitalism from collapse. It is only for the purpose
of deceiving and disarming the workers that social-democracy denies the fasci-
zation of bourgeois democracy and makes a contrast between the democratic
countries and the countries of the fascist dictatorship in principle. On the
other hand, the fascist dictatorship is not an inevitable stage of the dictator-
ship of the bourgeoisie in all countries. The possibility of averting it depends
upon the forces of the fighting proletariat, which are paralyzed by the cor-
rupting influence of social-democracy more than by anything else.
2. While the general line of all bourgeois parties, including social-democracy,
is towards the fascization of the dictatorship of the botirgeoisie, the realization
of this line inevitably gives rise to disagreement among them as to forms and
methods of fascization. Certain bourgeois groups, particularly the social-
fascists, who in practice stick at nothing in their acts of police violence against
the proletariat, urge the maintenance of parliamentary forms when carrying
through the fascization of the bourgeois dictatorship. The fascists, however,
insist on the full or partial abolition of these old, shaken forms of bourgeois
democracy, on carrying through fascization by means of the establishment of
open fascist dictatorship and by a wide application of both police violence and
the terrorism of fascist gangs. Having come to power, fascism pushes asidCj
splits and disintegrates the other bourgeois parties (for instance, Poland), or
dissolves them (Germany and Italy). This striving of fascism for political
monopoly intensifies the discord and conflicts in the ranks of the ruling classes
which follow from the internal contradictions in the position of the bourgeoisie
who are becoming fascized.
-"»
Social-Democracy Main Prop of Bourgeoisie
3. The establishment of the fascist dictatorship in Germany has unmasked
Qerman Social-Democracy before the whole world. From the bloody crushing
of the proletarian revolution in 1918, through an uninterrupted chain of treach-
ery and strike-breaking, through all the coalition governments, the savage
police massacres of revolutionary workers, voting for Hindonburg as the "lesser
evil," to servile endeavors to cooperate openly with the fascist gangs — such is
the record of German social-democracy, the leading party in the Second
International.
German social-democracy was and still remains the banner-bearer of all
the parties of the Second International which follow the steps of German
social-democracy.
602 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Social-democracy continues to play the role of the main social prop of the
bourgeoisie also in the countries of open fascist dictatorship. In fighting
against the revolutionary unity of the proletariat and against the U.S.S.R.,
it helps the bourgeoisie to prolong the existence of capitalism by splitting the
working class. In the majority of countries, however, it is already in the
process of disintegration. The radicalization of the social-democratic worliers
intensifies tlie squabbles among the leading circles of the social-fascists.
Avowed neo-fascist groups are arising; "left" fragments break away and try
to patch together a new two-and-one-half international. Trotsky, the lackey
of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie, is unsuccessfully trying to prevent
the social-democratic workers coming over to the side of Communism by his
despicable attempts to form a fourtli international, and by spreading anti-
Soviet slanders. On the basis of the sharp antagonisms between the imperialist
countries, the international organization of social-democracy is disintegrating.
The crisis of the Second International is a fact.
Finance Capital Cannot Restore Stabilization of Capitalism
4. The economic policy of the financial oligarchy for overcoming the crisis
(the robbery of the workers and peasants, subsidies to the capitalists and
landlords) is unable to restore the stabilization of capitalism; on the contrary,
it is helping still further to disintegrate the mechanism of capitalist economy
(disorganization of the money system, of the budget, state bankruptcies, a
further deepening of the agrarian crisis), and to sharply intensify the funda-
mental contradictions of capitalism.
In this situation, all the capitalist countries are developing their war indus-
tries to unprecedented dimensions, and are adapting all the principal branches
of industry, as well as agriculture, to the needs of war. The "demand" thus
created for means of extermination and destruction, combined with open infla-
tion (U.S.A., Great Britain, and Japan), super-dumping (Japan), and hidden
inflation (Germany) has in the past year caused an increase in output in some
branches of industry in a number of countries (particularly iron, steel, non-
ferrous metals, the chemical and textile industries). But this whipping up of
production for non-productive purposes, or the speculative leaps in production
on the basis of inflation, is accompanied by stagnation or a fall in production
in a number of other branches (machine construction, building, the production
of articles of consumption), and in the near future cannot but lead to the stiU
greater disturbance of state finances and to a still further intensification of
the general crisis of capitalism.
The furious struggle for foreign and colonial markets has already assumed
the form of an actual international economic war.
Social-Democracy's Wrong Estimate of the Crisis
5. Therefore, the social-democratic estimation of the present world situation
as one in which capitalism has succeeded in consolidating its position, in which
it is already on the path towards overcoming its general crisis, is completely
wrong. As distinguished from the first wave of the fascization of capitalist
states which took place at the time of the transition from a revolutionary crisis
to partial stabilization, the capitalist world is now passing from the end of
capitalist stabilization to a revolutionary crisis, which determines other per-
spectives of development of fascism and the world revolutionary movement of
the toilers.
Even the most savage terror which the bourgeoisie employs, in order to
suppi'ess the revolutionary movement, cannot, in the conditions when capitalism
is shaken, for long frighten the advanced strata of the toilers and restrain it
from taking action ; the indignation whicli this terror has aroused even among
the ma.iority of the workers who followed the social-democrats, makes them
more susceptible to Communist agitation and propaganda. When the bour-
geoisie reorganizes its tottering dictatorship on a fascist basis in order to create
a firm, solid government, this, in the present conditions, leads to the strength-
ening, not only of its class terrorism, biit also of the elements which disrupt its
power, to the destruction of the authority of bourgeois law in the eyes of the
broad masses, to the growth of internal friction among the bourgeoisie and
to the acceleration of the collapse of its main social support — social-democracy.
Finally, when the bourgeoisie tries, by an aggressive war policy, to strengthen
its foreign position, it intensifies extremely international antagonisms and the
danger for capitalism which arises from them.
APPENDIX, PART 1 603
The Maturing of the Revolutionary Crisis
6. It would, therefore, be a right opportunist error to fail to see now the
objective tendencies of the accelerated maturing of a revolutionary crisis in
the capitalist world. But the presence and operation of these tendencies, both
economic and political, do not imply that revolutionary development is pro-
ceeding upwards by itself, or unhindered without resistance from counteracting
forces. Revolutionary development is simultaneously hindered and accelerated
by the fascist fury of the bourgeoisie. The question as to how soon the rule of
bankrupt capitalism will be overthrown by the proletariat will be determined by
the fighting preparedness of the majority of the working class, by the successful
work of the Communist Parties in undermining the mass influence of social-
democracy.
In the present situation, in conditions when antagonistic class forces are
strained to the utmost, the growth of the revolutionary mass movement in indi-
vidual capitalist countries can have a constant or level character even less than
before. In China there is a war, intervention and revolution. In Japan there is
the growth of the forces of revolution and the mobilization of the military fascist
forces on the eve of great class conflicts. In Spain there is the clash between
revolution and counter-revolution. In the U. S. A. there is a wave of mass
strikes of the workers and indignation among the farmers against the bourgeois
program for overcoming the crisis. In Germany, the revolutionary hatred of
the proletariat is growing at the present moment in less open forms. There,
enormous revolutionary energy is being accumulated among the masses and a
new revolutionary upsurge is already beginning. The strained situation in
Germany sharpens to the extreme the class relations in the neighboring coun-
tries— in Czechoslovakia, Austria, the Baltic countries, as well as in the Scandi-
navian countries, in Holland, Belgium, and in Stoitzcrlaud. In Poland the mass
strikes of the workers are accompanied by big revolutionary actions in the
Polish rural districts. In Bulgaria., in spite of the terror, the majority of the
working class solidly follows the Communist Party. In Rumania there is a big
strike of railwaymen, with barricade fighting.
At the same time, the main stronghold of the world proletariat, the powerful
Land of the Soviets, the land of the victorious working class which is making
the present year into the last year of economic difficulties, raising the well-being
of the toiling masses to a new and higher level by its great socialist victories,
serves as an inspiration to the toilers of all countries in their revolutionary
struggle.
II. — The Imperialist Preparations for a New World War
The growing uncertainty of the bourgeoisie as to the possibility of finding a
way out of the crisis only by the intensified exploitation of the toilers of their
own countries, has led the imperialists to put their main stake on war. The
international situation bears all the features of the eve of a new world war.
Soviet China a Big Factor of World Revolution
1. The flames of a new world war are flaring up in the Pacific. The .Japanese
militarists, spurred on by the profound internal crisis which the bourgeois-
landlord monarchy is undergoing, are continuing the predatory war against
China, and with the aid of the Kuomintang are subjugating Northern China
and are preparing a blow against the Mongolian People's Republic. British
imperialism is stretching out its hand to the southeastern provinces of China,
Tibet, Szechwan, while French imperialism is stretching out its hand towards
Yunnan. The fascist military clique of Japan is acting as the battering ram
against the anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution in China. The American,
Japanse and British imperialists are behind the Kuomintang in its sixth cam-
paign against the only people's government in China, against the Chinese Soviets.
The victories of the Soviet revolution in China, the partisan war in Manchuria,
the growth of the revolutionary forces in Japan and of the lilwration movement
of the colonial peoples, create a new front in the rear of the imperialists. The
Soviet revolution in China has become a big factor of the World Revolution.
Unleashing Counter-Revolutionary War Against U. S. S. R.
2. The Japanese militarists are calling to the German fascists and the British
imperialists to unleash a counter-revolutionary war against the V. 8. 8. R., from
604 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the East and from the West. Pursuing a policy of continuous provocation
against the U. S. S. R. and contemplating the seizure of Soviet territory, the
fascist militarists of Japan are acting as an outpost in a counter-revolutionary
war against the Land of the Soviets. At the same time, German fascism is
inviting the international bourgeoisie to purchase its national-socialist mer-
cenaries to fight against the U. S. S. R., intriguing with British, Italian and
Polish imperialists (the German-Polish negotiations). The British impteiialists
at the present time have taken the place of the French as the chief organizers
of an anti-Soviet war.
The Soviet Union has achieved considerable successes in the unswerving and
firm policy of peace it has pursued in the interests of all the toilers (a number
to pacts of non-aggression, a number of new recognitions, the definition of the
aggressor, the forced raising of the embargo of Great Britain). The Land of
the Soviets is the only bulwark of peace and of the independence of the weak
states against the attacks of the predatory imperialists. By its proletarian
policy, it is winning more and more the confidence of the toilers of the whole
world and of the oppressed nations. Retarding the outbreak of a new war by
the gigantic growth of its power, the U.S.S.R. invokes upon itself a new wave
of hatred on the part of the most reactionary and aggressive groups of the
imperialists.
Fascist Germany Cliief Instigator of War in Europe
3. The fascist government of Germany, which is the chief instigator of war
in Europe, is provoking trouble in Danzig, in Austria, in the Saar, iu the Baltic
countries and in Scandinavia, and on the pretext of fighting against Versailles,
is trying to form a bloc for the purpose of bringing about a new bloody carving
up of Europe for tlie benefit of German imperialism. Imperialist blocs, headed
either by France or Italy, or by Britain, which intrigues behind their backs,
are being feverishly reorganized around the keypoints of imperialist contradic-
tions. Europe has become a powder-magazine which may explode at any
moment.
British and American imperialists, availing themselves of the war alarm in
Europe and the events in the Far East, are increasing their preparations for a
decisive imperialist struggle for world hegemony in the Atlantic and in the
Pacific.
Social-Democracy in Support of Imperialism
4. In this situation social-democracy sticks at nothing in the support of the
imperialist interests of its own bourgeoisie and combines this support with
service to international capital against the U.S.S.R.
Japanese social-democracy and the trade union leaders, following General
Araki, proclaim the civilizing mission of Japanese imperialism in Asia and
justify the predatory conquests of their bourgeoisie in China on the grounds
of the "interests of socialism''. In England the National Laborites, in conjunc-
tion with the Conservatives, are pursuing the predatory policy of British im-
perialism ; the Labor Party, deceiving the workers by its pseudo-opposition to
the government, is striving after ministerial posts in order to continue what,
in fact, is the same imperialist policy. The French Socialists (as well as the
social-democrats of Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, etc.), carrying out the "sacred
unity of the nation" under the slogans of "defense of democracy", and "defense
against German fascism", actively participate m the preparations for war
against Germany. The German social-democracy openly voted in the Reichstag
for the national front of German fascism, which is preparing for a military
adventure.
At the same time, the Second and Amsterdam Internationals are adapting
their policy to the situation of the eve of war, trying to safeguard the interests
of their own bourgeoisie and to ensure that the main blow will be directed
at the U.S.S.R. ; they hypocritically ask this by expressing readiness to reply
to war by a general strike and a boycott, but they declare in advance that they
will do so only against the government that will be declared the aggressor by
the League of Nations. They pretend to he leading a boycott against goods
from fascist Germany, but they persecute the workers who really carry out this
boycott. Under the slogans of pacifism and of a fight against war and fascism,
they act as pioneers in working up public opinion in the capitalist countries in
favor of a counter-revolutionary war against the U.S.S.R.
APPENDIX, PAKT 1 505
The bourgeoisie wants to postpone the doom of capitalism by a criminal
imperialist war and a counter-revolutionary campaign against the land of vic-
torious socialism. The great historical task of international Comnumism is to
mobilize the broad masses against war even> before war has begun, and thereby
hasten the doom of capitalism. Only a Bolshevik struggle before the outbreak
of war for the triumph of revolution can assure the victory of a revolution
that breaks out in connection with war.
III. Tlie Tasks of the Communist Parties
In the conditions of the maturing of the world revolutionary crisis, when
the bourgeoisie is trying to divert the ferment, the discontent and the indigna-
tion of the masses into the channel of fascizatioii and tear in order to strengthen
its dictatorship, the main task of the Communists is to direct this mass move-
ment towards the tight for tlie overthrow of the dictatorship of the exploiting
classes.
A. The Fight Against Fascist Ideology
The Communists must :
Daily and concretely expose chauvinism to the masses in every country and
oppose it by proletarian internationalism ; in the imperialist countries come out
determinedly for the independence of the colonies, for the liberation of the
dependent nations from all national oppression ; in the keypoints of national
antagonisms Communists must struggle against imperialist occupation and
violence, for the right of self-determination (Upper Silesia, the Saar, Northern
Bohemia, etc.), coming out in all these regions, and also in Austria and Danzig,,
against the chauvinism of their national bourgeoisie and against incorporation
in the hangmen's "third empire" of German fascism.
Vv'idely popularize the solution of the national question in the U. S. S. R. and
the tremendous economic, social and cultural successes achieved by the peoples
v\i!ich were liberated by the October Revolution.
B. The Fight Against the Fascization of the Bourgeois Governments and
'Against War
In the fight against the fascization of the so-called "democratic" countries, the
Communist Parties must first of all brush aside the fatalist, defeatist line of the
inevitability of a fascist dictatorship and imperialist war and also the opportun-
ist underestimation of the tempo of fascization and the threat of imperialist war,
which condemn the Communist Parties to passivity.
In carefully explaining the economic and political slavery which the fascist
dictatorship is bringing to the toilers, showing the masses that the fascists are not
socialists and are not bringing in a new order, but are lackeys, lickspittles of
capital, the Communists must rouse the masses in time for the defense of the
trade unions, of the labor press, of the workers' clubs, of the freedom to sti'ike
and of workers' meetings, organizing protest demonstrations, strikes, and setting
up fighting self-defense detachments to resist the terrorist gangs.
In the fight against the fascist dictatorship, the Communists must:
(a) Taking as the starting point the defense of the cvenj-day economic and
political interests of the toilers, rouse the masses against the fascist dictatorship
which deceived the workers, the peasants and the urban toilers ; expose the
demagogy and all provocations of fascism (the burning of the Ri'ichstag, the
faking of the Reichstag elections, etc.), stirring up strikes and leading the pro-
letariat up to mass political strikes; (b) Penetrate all the fascist mass organiza-
tions and also carry on revolutionary work in the forced-labor camps; while
fighting against the revolutionary workers leaving tho fascist trad(^ unions in-
dividually, but not calling upon the workers to join the fasci.st trade unions, thp
Commimists must utilize all mass movements as well as all manifestations of
discontent shown by the masses in the fascist trade unions in order to form and
consolidated ivdrpendcnt class trade unions, while at the same time continuinj?
their revolutionary work inside the fascist organiz.-itions ; (e) Expos(> in tlit?
eyes of the peasants the policy whicli fascism pursues in the interests of the
landlords and the kulaks, illustrating this by concrete examples from their own
farm life; join the mass fascist organizations in the rural districts in order to
split off the toiling peasants; organize the af/riciiltural proletariat in independent
trade unions which are to serve as the main lever for the whole work in the rural
districts.
QQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
In fighting against war, the Communists must prepare even now for the trans-
formation of the imperialist war into civil war, concentrate their forces in each
country, at the vital parts of the war machine of imperialism.
In addition to increased agitation, the Communist Parties must by all means
in their power ensure the practical organization of mass action (increasing the
work among the railwaymen, seamen and harbor workers, preventing the ship-
ping of arms and troops, hindering the execution of orders for belligerent coun-
tries, organizing demonstrations against military maneuvers, etc) and must
intensify political educational work in the army and in the navy.
The Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. calls upon all the workers and the
toilers of the world self-sacrificing to defend the U. S. S. R. against the counter-
revolutionary conspiracy of the imperialists, and to defend the Chinese revolu-
tion and its Soviet power from imperialist intervention.
C. Against Social-Democracy and for a United Front from Below
In their fight against social-democracy, the Communists must prove to the
workers that the new bankruptcy of social-democracy and the Second Inter-
national was historically inevitable. While carefully exposing to the masses
and refuting the hypocritical and treacherous sophistries of social-democracy,
the Communists must win over the social-democratic Avorkers for active revolu-
tionary struggle under the leadership of the Communist Parties.
The Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. fully approves the appeal for a united
front issued by the Presidivmi of the E. C. C. I., and the position of the Political
Secretariat, E. C. C. I., in the correspondence with the British Independent Labor
Party. Social-democracy, which split the working class by its treachery at the
time of the imperialist war and the October Revolution, has in all countries, in
accordance with directives of the Second International, refused the offers made
by the Communist Parties for united working class action, and sabotaged the
united anti-fascist and anti-war movements created in Amsterdam and Paris, and
in the face of fascism and war, striven to deepen the split in the ranks of the
l>roleatriat.
The Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. calls upon all Sections of the
Communist International persistently to fight for the realization of a united
militant front with the social-democratic workers, — in spite of and against the
will of the treacherous leaders of social-democracy.
The Plenum fully approves the resolution of the Presidium of the E. C. C. I.
of April 1, 1933, on the situation in Germany and the political line pursued
by the Central Committee of the Communist Parly of Germany, headed by
Comrade Thaelmann, before and at the time of the fascist coup. The Plenum
notes the heroic Bolshevik struggle waged by the Communist Partj- of (iermauy
against the fascist dictatorship.
IV. The Tasks of Mass Work and the Strengthening of the Communist Parties
The fulfilment of these fundamental tasks demands the genuine reorganization
of the whole of the mass work of the Communist Parties, especially the work
in (he factories and trade unions, which still represents their weakest sector.
In the situation when the toilers are in a state of great ferment, the Commun-
ists, wliile taking into account the moods of the masses, must formulate slo(/ans
and demands in such a way as to make them arise from the present level of
the movement ; at the same time they must show the workers the revolutionary
way out. This means :
a) That the content and language of agitation and the press must henceforth
be addressed to the broadest strata of the proletariat and the toilers, showing
the face of the Communist Parties in both agitation and in mass actions (dem-
onstrations, strikes and other mass actions).
b) Securing within tJ^e shortest time possihle a decisive turn to the ivwk
in the factories, concentrating the forces of the Party organizntion in the de-
cisive enterprises and raising the political level of the leadership given by the
factory nuclei to the daily class struggles.
c) Putting an end to the opportunist, defeatist neglect of trade union work
and in particular work inside the reformist trade unions and the mass fascist
and Christian trade unions, in accordance with the directives given by the
Twelfth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. on work inside the trade unions.
d) Really developing mass loork among the unemployed, carrying on an
untiring fight for social insurance, for all kinds of municipal relief.
APPENDIX, PART 1 gQ7
e) Intensifying revolutionary work in the rural districts, opposing the land-
lord-kulak slogan of a "united countryside" by the class slogans of the toilers
and by the agrarian program of the Soviet revolution ; at the same time, devel-
oping the fight for all the partial demands of the peasantry, at the same time
opposing tlie kulak demands which conliict with the interests of the proletariat
and the village poor; obtaining a foothold (trade unions of agricultural workers,
peasant committees) among the farm laborers, poor peasants and the semi-
proletarian elements of the villages ; to win over the basic masses of the small
and middle peasants.
f ) Increasing the mass tvork among women, at the same time promoting and
training even uow% a body of active Party women, who, during the war, could
in a number of cases replace mobilized comrades.
g) Putting an end to the narroivness of the Y. C. L. and really turning it
towards the masses of working youth, struggling against the compulsory gov-
ernment system of fascization and militarization. The Communist Parties
must give every possible help to the Y. C. L. in developing tiie work inside
the mass bourgeois and reformist youth organizations (cultural, sporting, etc.)
and in the formation of Y. G. L. cells in the factories.
Discipline and Fighting Fitness
The Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. sets before all Communist Parties
as most important tasks the carrying out of regular and constant check-ups on
the strengthening of their ranks, of preparing to go underground, of tightening
up the discipline and fighting fitness of every Party organization and of every
member of the Party.
The whole situation demands that the Communist Parties prepare in good
time cadres for underground work, that they seriously tackle the question of
combatting provocateurs, that they combine the methods of strict secrecy with
securing the best contacts with the masses and avoiding the schematic structure
and work of the underground organization.
Only the concentration of all tlie efforts of the Party organizations on forming
underground factory nuclei and intensifying the work of the Communist frac-
tions in all of the mass organizations can ensure contacts with the masses
and also the maxirnum secrecy and efficiency.
In carrying out these tasks, the Communists must utilize all legal possibilities
to develop mass work, and to link up legal and illegal work.
The XIII Plenum of the E. C. C. I. calls upon all sections of the Comintern
to ruthlessly root out opportunism in all its forms, and above all, right oppor-
tunism (Remmele, Neumann, the defeatists in other countries in their estimate
of the prospects of the German revolution), witliout which struggle the Com-
munist Parties will not be able to lead the working masses up to the victorious
struggles for the Soviet power.
V. — For a Revolutionary Way Out of the Crisis — For a Soviet Government
1. The Communist Parties must, with all resoluteness, raise before the masses
the task of the revolutionary way out of the crisis of capitalism.
Against the quack recipes of the fascists and the social-fascists for saving
decayed capitalism, the Communists must prove to the masses that the ills
of capitalism are incurable. Therefore, the Comnumists, while defending in every
way the demands of the toilers, must untiringly disclose to the masses who
are suffering from starvation and exploitation the whole truth, viz, that their
catastrophic conditions will grow worse and worse under the blows of the
continuous offensive of capitalism, until the toilers succeed in uniting their
forces for a counter-blow and the crushing of bourgeois rule.
There is no way out of tlie general crisis of capitalism other than the one
shown by the October Revolutimi, via the overthrow of the exploiting classes
by the proletariat, the confiscation of the banks, of the factories, the mines,
transport, houses, the stocks of goods of the capitalists, the lands of the land-
lords, the church and the crown.
Living Example of Soviet Union
2. It is necessary increasingly to popularize the living example of the Land
of the Soviets and to explain to the toilers and the exploited masses in all
capitalist countries how' Soviet economy, freed from the anarchy of the crisis
g08 UN-AME,RICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of capitalism, is in the position to develop unhindei-ecl the productive forces on
the basis of a socialist plan ; how the Soviet workers and all the toilers are vitally
interested in this development and in its rapid tempo; how the Soviet proletarian
state, which is at the same time the organization of the ix)wer of the proletariat
as well as the dominating productive organization of society, constantly increases
the social wealth and thereby the welfare of all the toilers, whereas every
bourgeois state, being a social economic parasite, devours and exhausts the
economic foi'ces of the people.
It is necessary to unfold before the toilers of each counti'y a program which,
basing itself on the experience of the great triumphs of the Soviet workers
and collective farmers on all fronts of the class struggle and socialist con-
struction, should, while making allowance for the peculiar conditions of the
different countries, show what the Soi'iet Potver tvill give them in their oum coun-
try. At the same time it is necessary to emphasize in particular the abolition of
unemployment and the elimination of uncertainty for the morrow under the
Soviet power; the constant improvement in the conditions of labor, and social
insurance, along with the reduction of the working day ; the liberation of the
toilers of the countryside from all the remnants of feudalism and from all
bondage ; the provision of land for the landless peasants and those having little
land ; the support given to the poor peasants and the assistance rendered to
the peasant cooperative societies and collective farms ; the throwing open of all
the doors of cultural development to the working class youth and to all the
toilers, etc.
The Soviet power, which is based on the mass organization of the workers
and semi-proletarians, offers the possibility of the wide and real enjoyment of
democracy by all the toiling masses who were formerly oppressed by capitalism.
The Soviet power is the state form of the proletarian dictatorship.
The Soviet power is the state form of the revolutionary democratic dictatorship
of the proletariat and the peasants, which ensures the growing over of the
bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist revolution (China, etc.).
It is democracy for the toilers, but a stern dictatorship against exploiters.
Chief Slogan Is Soviet Power
3. It is necessary with all insistence to raise the question of potver in the
mass work of the Communist Parties. The Chief slogan of the Communist
International is : Soviet power.
The example of the U. S. S. R. is the example of Bolshevism. Only this example
shows the way out, and the way to save the exploited and oppressed in all the
imperialist and colonial countries.
The example of Bolshevism is the example of proletarian internationalism.
The victory of the socialist revolution is possible only by strengthening the inter-
national ties of the revolutionary proletariat. The way of Bolshevism is the
way of uniting the proletarian forces of all nationalities and races, it is the way
of their joint struggle hand in hand with the proletariat against the oppressors
and exploiters.
The Plenum of the E. C. C. I. obliges all Sections of the Communist Inter-
national to be on their guard at every turn of events, and to exert every effort
without losing a moment for the revolutionary preparation of the proletariat for
the impending decisive battles for power.
Exhibit No. 96
[Source: The Communist, a magazine of the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism,
published monthly by the Coniniunist Party of the United States of America. August,
1934, Vol. XIII, No. 8, pages 755-7721
It ***** *
FOR A BOLSHEVIK ANTI-WAR STRUGGLE
By Alex Bittelman
"The international situation bears all the features of a new world war."
(Thirteenth Plenum of the E.C.C.I.)
In the twenty years after the outbreak of the first world imperialist war,
capitalism has brought humanity to the threshhold of a new world war. In the
war of 1914-1918, the American bourgeoisie, under Wilson, resorted to the swindle
of "the war to end war", war "to make the world safe for democracy". For this
gigantic fraud and crime, the Second International, the Socialist Parties and the
APPENDIX, PART 1 g09
reformist bureaucracy of the A. F. of L. hailed Wilsou as a new Messiah that
would lead the world out of the wilderness of war and oppression. Only the
Bolsheviks pointed out the imperialist nature of the first world war ; only they
mobilized the masses to fight against it by transforming it into civil war against
capitalism, the U.S'.S.R. being the undying monmnent of the Bolsheviks' success
and their loyalty to proletarian internationalism. In the United States, as in
the rest of the world, it was only the extreme Left Wing of the Second Interna-
tional, led by the Bolsheviks, that was waging a revolutionary fight against the
first world imperialist war. It was the Left Wing of the Socialist Party of
America, headed by Charles E. Rnthenberg, the group that later founded the
Communist Party of this country, that salvaged the grain of proletarian inter-
nationalism out of the semi-pacifist and semi-opportunist St. Louis anti-war reso-
lution (and even this was brazenly betrayed by the official S.P. leadership),
undertaking to mobilize the American masses for a revolutionary struggle against
the imperialist war. Though weak and inconsistent, because it did not proceed
from a complete Bolshevik position, the anti-war struggles led by the Left Wing
were the only manifestation of proletarian internationalism in the United States.
War in the Making
The whole capitalist world is intensively preparing for war. Nothing shows
this better than the feverish race in armaments in all imperialist countries, the
search for regroupings and war alliances, the rapid fascization of the bour-
geoisie and its social-democratic agency. "The bourgeoisie wants to postpone
the doom of capitalism by a criminal imperialist war and a counter-revolutionary
campaign against the land of victorious Socialism." (Thirteenth Plenum of
the E. C.C.I. ) Only one country in the whole world, the U.S.S.R., the country
where the working class rules, consistently fights for peace.
It is already fully obvious that the Geneva Conference of the League of
Nations has suffered a complete collapse as a conference for dlsannanient.
And whose responsibility is that? It is the responsibility of the entire capitalist
world which does not want to disarm or reduce armaments, but on the con-
trary is feverishly arming for war. Most especially must the responsiljility
be placed squarely at the door of the military-fascist clique of Japan that is
waging a brigand war against the Chinese people and is preparing for war
against the Soviet Union ; the fascist murderers of Germany who are likewise
preparing for this counter-revolutionary war, exchanging signals with their
Japanese friends ; the criminal war incendiaries of England who lead the
sabotage of the peace proposals of the Soviet Union; the most reactionary
sections of monopoly capital in the United States and in all other imperialist
conn tries.
The Peace Policy of the Soviet Union
It is necessary to recall that it was the Soviet Union which, in pursuance of
its consistent and proletarian peace policy, had repeatedly challenged the
capitalist world to make good its demagogic talk and — disarm. At the very
beginning of the Disarmament Conference meetings in Geneva, Comrade Lif-
vinov proposed a plan for total and complete disarmament. This was not
accepted. The Soviet Union then proposed a plan for partial disarmament,
which met the same fate. But these proposals were not in vain. They served
to focus the attention of the toiling masses in the capitalist world vipon the
increasing danger of war manifested in growing armaments and aggravated by
it. They served further to demonstrate before the toiling masses of ail
countries the peace policy of the Land of Socialism in contrast to the imperi-
alist war policies of the lands of capitalism. In this way the repeated dis-
armament offers of the Soviet Union served to strengthen both the struggle of
the Soviet Union for the maintenance of peace and the anti-war, anti-imperialist
struggles of the workers and toilers in the capitalist world.
The eve of the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of the first world
imperialist war is characterized by a most complex and alarming world
situation in which the aggressive forces of world imperialism, are growing, re-
grouping and placing the question of war on the order of the day. In this
situation the Soviet Union has made another effort to retard the outbreak of
a new world war. Developing further its policy of concluding non-aggression
pacts with its imediate neighbors, the Soviet Union seeks tjo bind the rest of the
capitalist world to similar pacts, and as many of the capitalist countries as can
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 40
^10 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
be pressed into mutual assistance pacts, in order to create as many obstacles
as possible to the outbreak of a new world war, to retard and delay it as much
as possible. With supreme clarity and cogency Comrade Litvinov urged this
policy upon the capitalist world at the recent meeting of the General Disarma-
ment Commission, in Geneva. His proposal to transform the Disarmament
Conference into a Permanent Peace Conference for the prevention and retarda-
tion of war, to lay aside for the present the hypocritical talk of the capitalist
governments on disarmament, since it had been abundantly proved that none
of them thinks of disarming, and to concentrate on binding together for mutual
assistance all those States which have cause to fear aggression by others and
which, for one reason or another, do not want the outbreak of war at the
present time, — these proposals have already served to clarify before the masses
the world situation. They threw a glaring light on the war danger spots and
on those imperialist forces and States that are pressing hardest at the preseuL
time for a new criminal world war, for a counter-revolutionary war against the
Soviet Union. The impotently malicious attack of German fascism upon these
proposals of the Soviet Union, the similar attitude of the Japanese military-
fascist clique, and the oposition of British imperialism spoken in Geneva
through Simon, "advocate of German fascism" (Pravda), clearly indicate the
location of those imperialist forces that are now driving to a new war, to a
counter-revolutionary war against the Socialist fatherland of the world
proletariat and of all toilers.
It goes without saying that the possibility and effectiveness of the peace
policies of the Soviet Union result first and foremost from the gigantically
increased strength of the Socialist fatherland, on the one hand, and the grov/ing
revolutionary movement of the masses in the capitalist world, on the other.
This is fundamental, and it is this growing strength of the Socialist sector of
the world tliat calls forth the increasing hatred of the capitalist world and
its provocative maneuvers against the Soviet Union. At the same time, the
effectiveness of the Soviet peace policies is made possible also by the sharpen-
ing conti'adictions within the imperialist canin. The sharpening of these
imperialist contradictions (French-German, British-U.S.A., U.S.A.-Japanese,
the contradictions around Austria and in Southeastern Europe generally, etc.),
out of which grows the danger of war and of an attack upon the U.S.S.R.,
has also led to a split in the anti-Soviet camp. Speaking of the line-up in the
imperialist camp from the point of view of Litvinov's recent proposals in
Geneva, Pravda wrote : "There are countries at present in the capitalist
world which strive actively towards war and are openly preparing an attack
upon the U.S.S.R." Germany and Japan are foremost among these. "There
are countries which, though reluctant to be drawn into war themselves but
which are in fact paving the way for war, are pushing forward and en-
couraging the war incendiaries." England is at the head of these, and the
most reactionary circles of American monopoly capital incline in the same
direction. "And, finally, there are countries which are now not interested in
war, would like to avoid it, and therefore are agreed to collaborate with
those who are interested in strengthening peace" (Pravda, May 31, 1934).
Chief among these latter countries are France and the Little Entente.
The Place of American Imperialism in the War Line-up
Where does the government of the United States stand in this line-up? The
first thing to take note of is the feverish preparations of American imperialism
for war. "It has embarked on a naval race with its main imperialist rivals.
Great Britain and Japan. The army has been further mechanized, and the
world s largest air fleet provided for, coast defense has been strengthened,
army cantonments througout the country have been provided; and the C.C.C.
has served as a trial mobilization and training ground for a great army, both
for imperialist war and for civil war against the workers at home, as openly
admitted by Roosevelt's Assistant Secretary of War, Woodring" (Eighth
Convention of the C.P.U.S.A.). Neither the pacifist demagogy of the Roosevelt
government nor its empty talk of the "good neighbor" can hide the fact tliat
the struggle of American imperialism against its chief imperialist rival. Great
Britain, has sharpened and continues to sharpen all along the line, and that
the U.S.A.-Japan imperialist contradictions are becoming more acute, espe-
cially in China but also beginning to develop in South America. The out-
standing fact is that, behind the brazen peace-demagogy of tlie New Deal,
Yankee imperialism is intensively preparing for war to secure world hegemony
APPENDIX, PART 1 611
against British imperialism and to settle accounts with Japanese imperialism.
More than ever it is becoming clear that the Roosevelt New Deal, hailed by
the Socialist Party as "a step to socialism" and by the A. F. of L. bureaucracy
as "a genuine partnership of labor and capital" is a weapon for a more rapid
fascization of the rule of the U.S. bourgeoisie and for imperialist war
preparations.
The New Deal had recognized the Soviet Union because, in the face of
the tremendous power and international significance of the latter due to the
historic successes of Socialist construction and the consequent rise of the
sympathies and support of the American masses for the Soviet Union and
its peace policies, any other policy would be utterly ridiculous and harmful
for American imperialism itself. It is hardly necessary 1^) prove that th«
class antagonism between the Socialism of the U. S. S. R. and the capitalism
of the U. S. A. has not been in the least weakened by this recognition but,
on the contrary, is increasing and bound to increase with the growing suc-
cesses of the Socialist world and the deepening general crisis of the capitalist
world. But can it be said that at this present historical conjucture American
imperialism belongs to those countries in the imperialist line-up that agree
to collaborate for the strengthening of peace? No, there are no signs of
that. "While extending recognition to the U. S. S. R., United States im-
perialism continues to furnish munitions and war supplies to Japan, and tries
to provoke a war between Japanese imperialism and the U. S. S. R. for the
purpose of weakening both its chief imperialist rival in the Pacific, as well
as the country of Socialism — the workers' fatherland" (Eighth Convention of
the O. P. U. S. A.). Is this a sign of a peace policy? No, quite the contrary,
it is an act and policy of imperialist war provocation and, moi'e particularly,
against the Soviet Union. Or, take the conduct of the U. S. delegation, under
Davis (Morgan's messenger boy), at the recent session of the General Dis-
armament Commission in Geneva. Confronted with the iieiv methods for the
strengthening of peace and retardation of war, submitted by Comrade Litvinov
on behalf of the Soviet Union, and in accord with the dearest wishes of the
toiling masses all over the world, on the one hand, and with the opposition
to these proposals in the Commission, led b.v Simon, the spokesman of British
imperialism and advocate of German fascism and Japanese military-fascist
brigandage, on the other hand, what did Davis and the U. S. delegation do?
Did they show any signs of leaning in the direction of those imperialist
powers which, like France, etc., show willingness to collaborate with the
U. S. S. R. in the strengthening of peace at the present time? No, not at
all. Through all the disarmament and peace camouflage of Davis' speeches,
he and the U. S. delegation were leaning definitely in the direction of Simon
and British imperialism, i. e., in the direction of those imperialist countries
which, while reluctant to be drawn into war themselves, are in fact paving
the way for war and are encouraging the war incendiaries to go ahead —
especially to go ahead against the Soviet Union.
We know, of course, and that must be made very clear to the masses, that
French imperialism, the watchdog of the Treaty of Versailles, is not one iota
better than English or German ; that the only reason French imperialism
has changed its position from one of chief organizer of the anti-Soviet war
to one of rapproachement with the U. S. S. R. is because it sees now in
the maintenance of peace its chief salvation and because the Soviet Union
is the most important factor working for the strengthening of peace. No
doubt, French imperialism gains certain advantages from its policy of rap-
prochement with the U. S. S. R. ; but so do we, the world revolutionary
movement and the Socialist fatherland. No doubt, postponement of war
enables the bourgeoisie of those countries that work for it (France, etc.)
to prepare the war better and to push further the process of fascization ;
but the same postponement enables the Soviet Union to press forward and
higher with its Socialist construction and to become mo7-e powerful; the same
postponement of war enables the Communist Parties in the capitalist world
to gain time for better iireparation of the proletariat for the decisive struggles,
and under increasingly favorable objective conditions, since the general crisis
of capitalism is increasingly intensifying, the revolutionary crisis is maturing,
and the imperialist contradictions are sharpening. "Time is on our side, if
only we do not remain passive" (Kuusinen, Report to t*he Thirteenth Plenum
of the E. C. C. I.).
It goes without saying that if the policy of the Roosevelt government were
to veer around to the position of collaborating with the U. S. S. R., for the
612 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
present historical moment, for the strengthening of peace, as it well may
under the impact of the revolutionary anti-war struggle of the masses, and
since U. S. imperialism does not yet feel itself prepared for war, this would
in no way indicate a turn of U. S. imperialism to a peace policy. It would
mean, as it does in the case of French imperialism, a turn to a policy that
seeks to gain time for the better preparation for war and for pressing further
the fascization of the rule of the American bourgeoisie. And from such an
eventuality there is only one conclusion to be drawn for the proletariat of
the U. S. and its vanguard, the Communist Party, namely, to utilize the
time thus gained from the retardation of war for more intense mobilizatimi
of the forces of the American proletariat and its allies for decisive battles
against American capitalism.
We must never fail to explain and emphasize that a bourgeois policy of main-
taining peace for a given time differs rudicaUy and on principle from the con-
sistent and Bolshevik peace policy of the U. S. S. R. To take an example: the
policies of the U. S. S. R. and of the U. S. towards Japan. The U. S. S. R. pur-
sues towards Japan, as towards all other States, a consistent and honest policy
of peace. This policy arises and is dictated by the principles of proletarian
internationalism upon which the Soviet State rests, principles that are mortally
opposed to all kinds of imperialist conquest and oppression, this policy is dic-
tated by the needs of Socialist construction which, again, are of international
importance for the toiling masses all over the world ; and, finally, this policy
serves the interests of the maturing world revolutionary crisis "if only we do
not remain passive". The ridiculous assertions of the bourgeoisie and its social-
fascist agents led by Trotzkyism, that the Soviet peace policy is dictated by its
"weakness", has been exploded conclusively by Stalin at the Seventeenth Con-
gress of the C. P. S. U., and this lying assertion has not been much in evidence
since. This does not mean, of course, that the proletariat of the U. S. S. R. has
no "quarrels" with the military-fascist clique of Japan. The proletariat and the
collective peasants and all toilers of the U. S. S. R. have one big fundamental
"quarrel" with Japanese imperialism as one link in the chain of world imperial-
ism: it is the "quarrel" between Socialism and capitalism as two rival world
systems, between proletariat and capitalists, between national independence and
foreign imperialist domination. It is the class struggle on the international
arena. This struggle the U. S. S. R. seeks neither to bridge nor conciliate, but,
on the contrary, it seeks the solution of this struggle, together with the prole-
tariat and its allies in the capitalist world, in the maturing of the world revolu-
tionary crisis, in the victory of the world revolution. It is precisely for this
reason that Japanese imperialism, and world imperialism, seek the destruction
of the U. S. S. R. Hence the revolutionary policy of defense of the Socialist
fatherland.
The Brazen "Peace" Demagogy of Imperialism in Contrast to the Proletarian
Internationalist Peace Policy of the U. S. S. R.
On the other hand — the "peace" policy of Yankee imperialism towards Japan.
Can it hide the imperialist ambitions of American capitalism in China? Can it
hide the determination of Yankee imperialism to secure mastery of the Pacific?
These are the "quarrels" of U. S. imperialism with Japanese imperialism. And
what is their nature? They are not class quarrels but imperialist quarrels,
they are the rivalries of two imperialist brigands over the dismemberment
and rape of China, over the robbery and exploitation of the peoples of the
Pacific regions. And how can this "quarrel" be solved? Capitalism, and
imperialism especially, knows only one way — imperialist war. And this is what
U. S. imperialism (and Japanese) is p^eparing for. Consequently, the "peace"
policy of Yankee imperialism towards Japan is not a peace policy at all ; it is thor-
oughly hypocritical and dishonest. Treaties, pacts and agreements between
these two imperialist brigands may be negotiated and even concluded as long
as both continue to feel unprepared for the final showdown ; but all the while,
both are feverishly preparing for it as the only solution of their contradictions.
Thus we see the fundamental difference between the r>olshevik peace policy of
the U. S. S. R. and the hypocritical playing-around-with-peace policies of the
U. S. The former follows from the proletarian internationalism of the growing
Socialist system, based on the power of the U. S. S. R. and the anti-war strug-
gles of the toiling masses in the capitalist world, as well as upon the sharpening
contradictions between the imperialist powers; the latter follows from the
decaying capitalist system and the sharpening inner and outer contradictions
APPENDIX, PART 1 613
of U. S. imperialism. Tlie former seeks to retard tlie outbroalv of war for the
sake of tlie growing Socialism and the maturing world revolutionary crisis ;
the latter seeks to hide imperialist aggression and war preparations, all the
while cultivating the criminal proposition of a counter-revolutionary war against
rhe U. S. S. R.
War as the Capitalist Way Out of the Crisis
"The growing uncertainty of the bourgeoisie as to the possibility of finding
a way out of the crisis only by the intensified exploitation of the toilers of
rheir own countries, has led the imperialists to put their main stake on war"
(Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I.)- I'bis uncertainty has increased since
the Thirteenth Plenum, and also in the U. S. The depression, into which the
economic crisis has passed at the expense of the workers, farmers, and the
toiling masses of the colonies, has turned out precisely as Stalin has shown,
"not an ordinary depi-ession" but a "depression of a special kind which does
not lead to a new boom and flourishing industry". The trend of business in
the U. S. since the high point of the "recovery" in July, 1933, passed a zigzag
course of sporadic ups and downs ; and while the downs do not reach the
lowest point of March, 1933, neither do the ups tend to come up to the highest
point of the depression of July, 1933. Regular employment — especially in
capital goods industries — has increased inconsiderably, and the increase that
took place was in the main an extension of the "stagger" system, i. e., at the
expense of the standard of living of the working class as a whole. The
disparity between prices of industrial and agricultural products continues to
grow unfavorably to the farmers. The agricultural crisis showns no signs of
abating, but, on the contrary, is getting worse, through the added factor of the
disastrous drought which is netting new profits to the rich farmers, banks and
speculators while resulting in the further ruination of masses of toiling farmers.
This inevitably narrows down the home market still further and makes the
ueneral question of markets even more acute. Hence U. S. Imperialism is
losing patience and confidence in its ability to find a way out of the crisis
except by means of war, for which the New Deal is feverishly preparing.
This is seen in the increasing ufigrcssivcncss of Yankee imperialism in the
struggle for markets and spheres of imperialist exploitation, manifesting itself
in all parts of the world, chiefly in conflict with British imperialism. We see
it also in the particular stranglehold with which the New Deal is fastening
the yoke of Yankee imperialism upon the Caribbean countries (the Yankee
imperialist preserve) and the desperate push to the conquest of South America.
Let no one be deceived by the good neighborly phrases of the Roosevelt admin-
istration. The abrogation of the so-called Piatt Amendment for Cuba, forced
from Roosevelt l)y the anti-imperialist agrarian revolution in Cuba led by the
Communist Party of that land, does not abolish any of the economic, political
and military positions of U. S. imperialism in Cuba. Under cover of the
"magnanimous gesture" of giving up some of the old formal rights of the Piatt
Amendment (a gesture also dictated by the fear of the growing anti-Yankee
movement in South America), the Roosevelt government is attempting through
its pnppet governments (Mendieta, etc.), through economic pressure and
through military-naval domination, to fasten Yankee imperialist rule upon the
island even more securely than heretofore. This is being done, not only in
order to make the sweat and blood of the Cuban toiling masses help solve
the crisis of U. S. capitalism, but also to strengthen the position of U. S.
imperialism for war. We see these war preparations of Yankee imperialism
also in the Philippines where, under cover of demagogic and fraudulent prom-
ises of independence, the New Deal seeks especially to destroy the revolu-
tionary organizations of the masses (trade unions, peasant leagues, etc.), and
in the first place the Communist Party — the leader of the fight for complete
national independence and against imperialist war. We see the war prepara-
tions, finally, in the support (financial and military) rendered by Yankee
imperialism to Chiang Kai-Shek for the counter-revolutionary war against the
Chinese Soviets, admittedly the only force in China capable of unifying the
country and strengthening the cause of peace in the Far East and in the whole
world.
I( would be a grave error to assume that the inten.ciive preparations for war
by TJ. S. imperialism signify in any way a slackening of the capitalist offensive
>]pon the workers, toilitig faimers, Negroes, and the toiling masses generally,
at home. This is what the New Deal and its social-fascist apologists would want
Q14, UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the masses to believe, namely, that war preparations mean more work, better
wages and a better life for everybody. The facts speak louder than words. The
New Deal feverishly prepares for war abroad and at the same time wages merci-
less war against the toiling masses at home. Roosevelt and the 73rd Congress
have done their utmost to raiiie the profits and to insure the capital values, of
the monopolies at the expense of the standard of living of the widest masses of
workers and toiling farmers, while perfecting more and new instruments for
crippling the fighting ability of the masses and their organizations. Only th-
most militant .struggle against the capitalist offensive and the New Deal of
hunger, fascization and war, with the determination manifested by the rank and
file in Toledo, Minneapolis, on the Pacific Coast, etc., can expect to cope vrith the
sharpening attacks of the New Deal upon the workers, the toiling iMrmers, the
Negroes and all exploited. What is still lacking to make this new fighting spirit
of the masses more effective, to develop it into a wider counter-offensive against
the New Deal, is a revolutionary leadership at the head of the masses, more
effective revolutionary mass work of the lower organizations of the Communisi
Party and of the revolutionary trade union movement.
As the stupefying effects of the Nev/ Deal demagogy are beginning to wear off,
and the mass actions of the workers assume ever more political consciousness and
aggressivene.ss, the Roosevelt government and its N. R. A. exhibit moi-e and
more clearly their character of fascization and war preparation. Force and
violence against the fighting masses are increasingly taking first place in the
methods of the capitalist offensive. All efforts of the bourgeoisie, its government,
and the social-fascists are directed towards preventing and, in fact, outlawing,
the organization of the workers, into unions free from boss and government
control. Supported by the A. F. of L. bureaucracy and the Socialist Party
leadership, the New Deal maneuvers desperately to take away from the workers
the right to strike and picket, imposing nil sorts of schemes for compulsory
mediation and arbitration, all the while resorting to methods of open civil warfare
against the strikers who refuse to be "persunded" into surrender and slavery by
the spokesmen of the New Deal and its social-fascist partners. Violence against
the Negroes is growing. The ground is being prepared for the outlawing of the
Communist Party and all revolutionary mass organizations, the signal for that
having been openly given by the Roosevelt administration through its chief
"ideologist", professor Moley. The poison gases of chauvinism, nationalism, and
Americanism are being spread widely to enhance the process of faszication ami
war preparation carried out for nionoply capital by the New Deal. New and
more brazen methods of fascist demagogy (Roosevelt's new promises of security
and insurance) are being resorted to in order to check the growing disillusionment
of the masses and to hide the sharpening capitalist offensive and its war
preparations.
Our Slogans for August First
ATigust First must be made a day of widest mass actions of all forms against
the New Deal of Hunger, Fascization and War. Consequently, the chief slogans
for these mass actions are : "Fight Against Imperialist War and the Counter-
Revolutionary War Against the U. S. S. R. Support the Revolutionary Peace
Policies of the Soviet Union. For the Defense of the Soviet Union and Soviet
China. Further the Militant Struggle Against the Hunger, Fascization and War
Measures of the N. R. A. Fight for the Right to Organize, Strike and Picket.
Fight Militantly for All Workers' Rights. Not a Cent for Bosses' War, All War
Funds for Unemployment Relief and Insurance. For the Immediate Enactment
of the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Rill (Pi. R. 759S), the Farmers' Emer-
gency Relief Bill and thp Bill for Negro Rigbts and to Suppress Lynching. Against
the Fascization and Militarization of the Youth in the C. C. C. Oust the Army
Officers from the C. C. C. Young Workers and Students, White and Negro, Young
Socialists and Communists, Unite in Struggle Against Fascism and Imperialist
War. Draw the Women into the Anti-War Struggle. Organize Factory and
Neighborhood Women's Committees Against War and Fascism. Workers and
Farmers, Negro and White, Native and Foreign-Born, Unite in Struggle Against
Imperialist War and the Counter-Revolutionary War Against the Soviet Union.
Stop the Shipment of Munitions to .Tap.nn and Latin America. Halt the Money
and Wheat Loans to the Murderous Government of Chiang Kai-Shek, the Flunkey
of Imperialism. For the Immediate and Unconditional Independence of all U. S.
Colonies and Dependencies. Support the Anti-Imperialist Agrarian Revolution
in Cuba. For a United Front From Below Against War and Fascism. Against
APPENDIX, PART 1 615
the Treacherous Socialist Party Leadership, the A. F. of L. Bureaucracy, the
Muste Leadership and All "Left" Social-Fascists and Their Renegade Supporters.
Support the Courageous Struggle of the German Proletariat and Its Communist
Party Against the Fascist Dictatorship and the War Incendiaries. Fight for the
Liberation of the Leader of the German Proletariat, Ernst Thaelmann."
The fight for the freedom of Ernst Thaelmann is an outstanding phase of the
anti-war struggle. It is a fight against the chief incendiaries of imperialist
war — Hitler fascism — the spearhead of imperialism against the Soviet Union on
its western frontier. It is a fight for all the imprisoned anti-fascists in Ger-
many and for the saving of the life of the leader of the only party in Germany —
the Communist Party — which is organizing the masses against Fascism and war.
Let the present and first crisis of fascist rule in Germany, brought about by
the stormy awakening of the masses deceived by it and by the glorious struggle
of the Communist Party, serve as an impetus to our fight for the freedom of
Thaelmann.
Bring the Anti-War Struggle into the Basic Factories
In organizing the August First mass actions, we must check up on whether or
not, and to what extent, we have been carrying out the following most important
decision of the Thirteenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. :
"In fighting against ivar, the Communists must prepare even now for the
transformation of the imperialist war into civil war, and concentrate their
forces in each country at the vital parts of the war machine of imperialism.
"In addition to increased agitation, the Communist Parties must by all means
in their power ensure the practical organization of mass action, preventing the
shipment of arms and troops, hindering the execution of orders for belligerent
countries, organizing demonstrations against military maneuvers, etc., and must
intensify political educational tvork in the army and in the navy."
Here we must utilize the experiences of the Party and of the revolutionary
trade union movement in the latest national action — May Day — and in the more
outstanding subsequent strike movements and struggles. From these we find,
as was already pointed out by the Party, that the weakest mass actions on May
Day were observed in the centers of the basic industries, this being the result
primarily of our "still weak position in the factories and slowness in carrying
through the program of concentration" {The Communist, June, 1934). There-
fore, the question must be raised again : how do we expect to be able to carry
on a Bolshevik struggle against war, how do we propose to prevent the ship-
ment of munitions and troops and to hinder the execution of orders for bellig-
erent countries, and, in general, to attack "the vital parts of the war machine
of imperialism", with the still existing slowness in the carrying out of the
program of concentration? It will do little good merely to repeat that this
program must be carried out with infinitely greater speed if, at the same time,
we take no organizational and political measures to insure that this will actually
be done. Consequently, it is necessary, not only to clarify n>ore sharply the
political importance of the program of concentration, but also to check up the
capability and fitness of our cadres in the strategic points of concentration and
to make sure that the most proven, experienced and courageous mass xoorkers
and leaders occupy these positions. In the preparation of the August First
anti-war mass actions, such check-up of the cadres and correct placing and
concentration of our forces is one of the most important political and organiza-
tional tasks. Only this can insure the bringing of the anti-war struggle into
the most important factories of the basic industries.
In Toledo, for example, we have had a brilliant demonstration of the growing
readiness of the workers to accept our slogans and fight for them militantly, to
adopt the methods of mass struggle advocated by our Party and the T. U. U. L.
and to welcome the Party's support and leadership. This is an achievement
which will not be obscured by any amount of bourgeois "Red scare" tactics and
Musteite cowardly slander. But this achievement only brought out in greater
relief the fact that the Party and the revolutionary trade union movement were
not entrenched in the factories, especially the large ones, and that the building
of the revolutionary oppositions in the reformist unions was badly neglected,
where it was not plainly obstructed. The lesson from this is simple; frequent
and systematic check-up of our cadres, elimination of those who are not whole-
heartedly for the Party line or are, for any other reason, unfit to win the masses
for this line, and the systematic promotion of those who are for the line and
able to put it into effect among the masses. This lesson must be applied thor-
QIQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
oughly in the preparation and organization of the August First anti-war mass
actions.
We must also check up, and draw the necessary conclusions from the work
of organizing in the factories groups of the American League Against War and
Fascism. The work of building up branches of the League in the neighborhoods,
and among the non-proletarian masses is of the highest importance. But the
program of concentration demands precisely the giving of the chief attention
to the factories, especially those producing ammunition, to the marine workers,
railroads, transport generally. No District or Section of the Party that does not
provide for the building of factory groups of the League will be in a position
to register even moderate advance of the anti-war work now being developed
around August First.
It is necessary especially to guard against the conception that such special
activities and national actions as Anti-War Day somehow "interfere" with the
daily revolutionary activities of the Party among the masses. Wild and non-
Bolshevik as such a conception is, it still finds place among us. It was one of
the factors accounting for the weaknesses of May Day. Such conceptions arise
primarily from inability to connect in a Leninist way, both agitatioually and
organizationally, the economic demands of the masses with the political demands
and slogans, the local struggles with their national implications and significance.
It is, in other words, the inability to raise correctly the daily struggle of the
workers to higher levels ; an inability that produces especially bad results when
coupled with weak revolutionary mass work in the factories. The fight against
the above misconceptions is, therefore, primarily a fight for bringing the anti-war
struggle into the factories, a fight for raising the daily struggles of the masses
to higher political levels (against war, fascism, the N. R. A., etc.), always ''taking
as a starting point the defense of the cverydan economic and political interests
of the toilers" (Thirteenth Plenum of the E. 0. O. I.).
Learning from our May Day (and other) experiences, we must draw the
Negro masses into the anti-war struggles more effectively than heretofore.
The Party's influence among the Negro masses is high and rising. Our Negro
program and our historic leadership in the Scottsboro fight are primarily re-
sponsible for that. But "they do not see that in the factories, in the trade
unions, and among the unemployed, we take up sufficiently the fight for their
needs. . . . We have not yet reached the masses of the Negro workers with
the Left-wing organizations" (The Coniininiist, Jime, 1934). The winning of
the Negro m;isses for the anti-war struggle, especially the Negro proletariat in
the large and basic enterprises and the Negro farmers, is an outstanding task
of the August First action.
A determined effort must also be made to bring the toiling farmers (particularly
the youth ) into the anti-war struggle. The general radicalization of the toiling
farmers, the spread of the Party's influence among them, create favorable con-
ditions for our anti-war program among the toilers of the countryside.
The building of the Party, with especial emphasis on organization in the shops,
and of the revolutionary trade union movement, is an organic part of the August
First action. No advances in the field of anti-war struggle, as in all other, can
be considered real and lasting, if they are not crystallized in growth of Party
membership, new nuclei, the growth and strengthening of old ones, the building
of T. U. U. L. groups, the building of oppositions in the reformist unions, and
the building of the Party press, especially the Daili/ Worker. Organizational
results and the building of Daily Wo7'ker circulation — these must be placed in
the forefront of our August First preparations.
For the United Front Against War and Fascism — for the Struggle Against
Social-Fascism
It is beyond dispute that our fight for the united front from below is making
headway. We see it in the American League Against War and Fascism. We
see it in the strikes and strike movements (West Coast, Toledo, steel, etc.). But
we are still just at the beginning. We are still suffering from a certain fear to
step boldly into the masses of non-Party as well as Socialist workers, to fight
and win them for the united front from below ; we also suffer from the tendency
to "top-combinations" as a substitute for the united front from below and for a
merciless struggle against social-fascism of all colors and hues.
The tremendous impetus given to our struggle for the united front by the
Austrian and French events, by the glorious conduct of the Communist, Dimitroff,
APPENDIX, PART 1 617
at the Leipzig trial, by the courageous revolutionary fight against Hitler fascism
of our German brother Party under Thaelmann, and, on the other hand, by the
black treaclieries of social-democracies, — this impetus to our united front has
forced the Socialist Party of America to bring forward its "Lefts" in order to
checli the drift to the united front and to Communism. Obviously, Panken,
Oneal and Abe Cahan would not do as the face of the Socialist Party in this
situation of growing radicalization ; some less compromised social-fascists are
necessary to keep the workers from Communism, that is, social-fascists who are
able to play skilfully wnth revolutionary phrases and thus continue to deceive
the workers among whom the "old guard" can no longer show their faces. The
mushroom growth of "Left" social-fascism (Muste & Co., the new leadership
of the S. P., etc.) confirms the rapid trend of the masses in our direction, which
the American bourgeoisie expects to check with the help of its "Left" social-
fascist agents ; it also show's the growing disintegration of social-fascism. Our
answer to this is : a bolder fight among the widest masses for the united front
from below and merciless struggle against social-fascism of all varieties, especially
the "Lefts".
The "new" Thomas leadership of the S. P. to v.'hich the "Revolutionary" Policy
Committee has abjectly capitulated, promises th;it "they will meet war ... by
massed war resistance organized so far as practicable in a general strike of
labor unions . . . and to convert the capitalist war crisis into a victory for
socialism" (Declaration of Principles of Detroit Convention of the S. P.).
Sounds very revolutionary. But, to begin with, let us recall the fate of the
famous anti-war resolution of the Stuttgart Congress of the pre-war Second
International. Thanks to amendments of Lenin and Luxemburg, that resolution
contained some very definite and binding revolutionary anti-war obligations for
the Socialist Parties. But none of tliese parties, with the exception of the
Bolshevik Party of Russia, waged a revolutionary anti-war struggle prior to the
outbreak of the war, because they were eaten up with opportunism and class
collaboration. Inevitably, these parties, upon the outbreak of war, continuing
their class collaboration with the imperialist bourgeoisie, hetrat/ed the ohlif/atioris
assumed uvdcr the Stiittyart resoUifion. The Thomas "Left" leadership pur-
poses to repeat the same crime, with this important addition, that, through
S. P. support of the New Deal, the "Militants" are alreadii assisting U. S.
imperialism to prepare for war and for the counter-revolutionary war against
the Soviet Union. Let us also recall the fate of the St. Louis anti-war resolution
of the Socialist Party. Again thanks to the pressure of the Left Wing, that
resolution contained some few, but definite, revolutionary anti-war obligations.
But these were flagrantly betrayed by the official leadership of the Socialist
Party. Now, seeing the growth of anti-war feelings among the masses and the
headway of the Communist struggle for a united front against war and fascism,
the S. P. puts forward its "Left" face, makes revolutioiiary promises, in order
to hamper the struggle of the masses todai/ and every day for the retardation
of war, in order to obstruct the Bolshevik struggle against war preparations
which alone can lay the basis for the transformation of imperialist war into
civil war.
Thomas and Co. promises "to meet" the coming war with a general strike,
but . . . there are two significant qualifications: (1) "as far as practicable",
and this will be decided by the well-known "revolutionary firm" of Thomas
and Co. ; (2) even if practicable, the general strike must lie one of "labor unions"
which, knowing the collaboration of the S. P., and also its new leadership, with
the bureaucracy of the A. F. of L., means a general strike against war with
the permission of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy. Can there be anything more
brazenly fraudulent than this?
But there are some more questions which we must put to the S. P. member-
ship and the workers in general. Thomas promises a fight against war, but he
(the S. P.) offers no real program of struggle against the war-making machinery
of the N. R. A. and the New Deal. What is the conclusion from that? Thomas
wants the workers to believe that the S. P. is becoming a party of proletarian
internationalism and anti-war struggle; but he and the S. P. continue to
sabotage and combat and vilify the American League Against War and Fascism
which is the only united front organization earnestly striving to mobilize the
masses to fight against war. What is the name for such activities? Thomas
promises (the Declaration of Principles) that "they will unitedly seek to de-
velop trustworthy instruments for the peaceable settlement of " international
disputes and conflicts". As it stands, it is fraudulent bourgeois pacifism
Qlg UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
because it wants to deceive the workers into believing that imperialist war
can be abolished just by "seeking to develop" instruments of peace. However,
we must ask this : if you gentlemen of the "new" S. P. leadership, are so much
interested in the maintenance of peace, why do you keep quiet about the prole-
tarian peace policies of the U. S. S. R.? Why did you not endorse and support
these i)eace policies which, based as they are upon the tremendous power of
a Socialist State of 170 million people, supported by millions upon millions of
toilers in the capitalist world, constitute one of the most powerful factors for
the maintenance of peace? Who will believe that Thomas and Co. are
"seeking peace" even in the sense in which certain bourgeois governments are
"seeking peace" at the present time (the French, for example), when this "Left"
S. P. leadership did not even find it necessary to endorse the peace struggles of
the U. S. S. R.? No one in his senses can believe a word of these promises.
The S. P. and its new leadership take the same position in the present inter-
national situation (eve of war) as the United States Department of State,
as Roosevelt, as Yankee imperialism. And this is seen nowhere as clearly
as in the attitude of both to the strus-gle of the U. S. S. R. for the retarda-
tion of war. Both sabotage and obstruct the peace policies of the Socialist
Patherland. In the face of these indisputable facts, can there be any other
name for the S. P. new "Declai-ation of Principles", and for the Thomas-
R. P. C. leadership, but fraud and deceit? The S. P. collaboration with the
A. F. of L. bureaucracy reaffirmed at the Detroit convention in the face of
the rapid fascization of this bureaucracy, is additional proof of the fascization
(and disintegration) of the S. P., its more intense participation in the war
preparations, and for the counter-revolutionary war against the U. S. S. R.,
only covered by a "new" leadership and new "Left" maneuvers.
We must go to the widest masses of workers, farmers, and Negroes with
our Bolshevik anti-war policies and program, exposing mercilessly the counter-
revolutionary position of social-facism. We must build tirelessly the united front
from below against the New Deal program of War, Hunger and Fascization.
"The great historical task of international Communism is to modilize the
hrnnd ma^sses against war evev before war has hepun, avd therchii hasten the
doom of capitalism. Only a Bolshevik struggle before the outbreak of war for
the triumph of revolution can assure the victory of a revolution that breaks out
in connection with war" (Thirteenth Plenum of the B. C. C. I.). To enhance,
deepen and widen the Bolshevik struggle against war is the special task of the
August First action. In this struggle, we frankly seek and work for the triumph
of the proletarian revolution in the United States and the establishment of a
Soviet government in this country.
A Soviet government in the United States would signify the beginning of
the end of world capitalism. It would signify the beginning of the end of
imperialist war danger and imperiali.st war.
A Soviet government in the United States would at once set free all the
nations and countries now oppressed and dependent on Yankee imperialism,
in the Black Belt of the South (the Negroes), in the Carribbean, South America,
the Philippines, China, etc., thus gaining the powerful support of millions of
toilers for its proletarian internationalism and peace policies.
A Soviet government in the United States, following the example of the first
Soviet Republic, would make it clear to the whole world that it breaks funda-
mentally and forever with the imperialist policies and territorial aggrandize-
ment of the overthrown bourgeoisie, abrogating all imperialist privileges en-
joyed now by this bourgeoisie. At the same time the Soviet Government of the
United States would organize all the forces of the country for the defense of
the Soviet Power against imperialist intervention. For then, and only then,
for the first time in the history of this country, will the United States have
become a fatherland for the proletariat and all toilers.
A Soviet government in the United States, joined in fraternal alliance with
the U. S. S. R. and actively supported by the toiling masses of all the remaining
capitalist countries, would constitute such an impregnable power that the last
dying efforts of imperialism to provoke war would be rapidly liquidated, together
with the remaining capitalist governments ; and the World Soviet Republic,
building a world Socialist economy, would soon become a reality.
APPENDIX, PART 1 glQ
Exhibit No. 97
[Source ; The Communist, September, 1934, Vol. XIII, No. 9, pages 862-874]
FIFTEEN YEARS OF OUR PARTY
By Max Bedacht
September 1 marks fifteen years of life of the Communist Party of the United
States — fifteen years of growth and of struggle.
Our Party was born in Chicago on September 1, 1919. It was born twins.
In Machinist Hall on Ashland Boulevard the Left wing delegates to the Socialist
Party convention formed the Comnwnist Labor Party. In Smolny Hall, on
Blue Island Avenue, a convention called by the Left wing Council organized
the Comtnunist Party. This division in the ranks of the American revolutionists
was caused by a laclc of clarity about the tasks of a revolutionary party.
The revolutionary movement in the United States suffered in its early stages
from a great deal of formalism. When members of the First International
and friends of Marx and Engels planted the first seeds of scientific Socialism
in America, they also planted that seed of abstractness. Both Marx and Engels
repeatedly complained about this tendency in their letters to these friends.
The comparatively favorable conditions under which American capitalism de-
veloped, tended to foster strong capitalist illusions that were planted deeper
and were maintained for peristently in the American proletariat than in any
other working class. The American working class became, in a sense, the
"aristocracy of labor" of the woi-ld proletariat. While in the capitalist coun-
tries of Europe the workers as a whole had already quite a definite conception
of their class position, the American worker still chei'ished his capitalist and
democratic illusions.
The first bearers of the seed of scientific Socialism in the United States did not
.sTifiiciently succeed in presenting Marxism as a guide to action. For them it
was mostly a series of formulae about class divisions, class struggles, historical
materialism, etc. Thus, the teachings of Marx and Engels remained without
clear relation to the immediate troubles and problems of the American workers.
They remained generalities, and, as such, could not decisively influence the
thoughts, the aims and the actions of the American workers. Yet the oppor-
tunities and the needs for such influence were very great despite the ideological
backwardness of the American workers. The history of the American working
class records an almost uninterrupted series of militant battles. The battles
for the eight-hour day in 18S6, the struggles of the steel workers in Homestead
in 1892, the great steel strike in 1919, and the class battles of the American
workers today, have demonstrated that the American workers have on various
occasions not permitted their illusions to stand in the way of their efforts to
solve their immediate problems.
Revolutionary Socialism having no solid roots among the American working
masses, the rise of petty-bourgeois radicalism in the beginning of the 20th
century found no difficulties whatever in making the Socialist Party its party.
The very abstractness of the revolutionists allowed the muck-rakers to pass off
as revolutionary realism their petty-bourgeois criticism of big capital. These
petty-bourgeois ' ideologists, from Upton Sinclair to Charles Edward Russell,
condemned revolutionary principles as foreign importations, and advanced their
petty-bourgeois "Socialism" as the real thing. They dominated the Socialist
movement and gave color and content to Socialist agitation, propaganda, and
theory in the United States.
The First Steps Toward the Formation of Our Party
The sharpening of the class struggles on the eve of and during the World
War gave impetus to the ever-existing Left wing of revolutionists in the Social-
ist Party. But the lack of a clear Bolshevik understanding in its ranks caused
serious divisions in this Left wing. Some who least understood the problems
of the proletarian revolution in America denied the need for struggle to solve
the immediate problems of the American workers; they based their propaganda
and tactics on the assumption that armed insurrection was the order of the
day. This tendency found considerable response in the foreign language sec-
620 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tions. In the West, especially among the strong section of the migratory
workers, syndicalist tendencies showed themselves. There the opportunist social-
democratic contention th'at the revolution would be made by the ballot caused
a strong anti-political reaction. These workers, who are deprived of a vote
by residential qualifications, were unwilling to have themselves disqualified
as active revolutionists. Another group in the Left wing thought that the
ideological backwardness of the American workers is not a problem of class-
struggle 'action but of "education". They wanted to prepare the revolution
in the class-room. They refused to see that the class-room for the proletariat
is the class struggle. Then there were those who had some Marxist under-
standing of the problems, but were incapable of applying Bolshevik tactics.
They did not see that the ranks adhering to the various Left wing tendencies
were fundamentally healthy militant opponents of capitalism. They did not
see that the Communist Party in America would have to be built up out of
these elements by clarifying their conception and by defeating ideologically
and removing the petty-bourgeois and opportunist leaders of their groups.
This lack of ideological unity of the Left wing led to organizatioual divisions.
It caused 'a split in the Left wing Council and finally led to the formation of
two parties.
Socialist Party Leadership Expels Majority
At the time of the St. Louis Convention of the Socialist Party, in April,
1917, the radicalizatiou within that party had grown to a point that the Hill-
quit-Berger leadership found it necessary, in spite of their bitter opposition
to it, to accept its anti-war resolution. That was the only means with which
they could trick the Party into reelecting them as leaders. But that very
trick contributed to the further enlightenment of the workers in the Party.
The sabotage and betray'al of the anti-war decisions of the St. Louis Convention
by these leaders led to a definite organizational crystallization of the Left wing-
within that Party. The Hillquit-Berger leadership then sought to maintain
its control by expelling the majority from the Party. This is an interesting
historic fact. It is especially 'a political illustration of the readiness to play
dictators on the part of these last defenders of bourgeois democracy — the
social-democratic leaders.
The Russian Revolution supplied the required ideological leadership to this
crystallization of the Left wing in the S. P. Bolshevism in action, as the leader
of the proletarian revolution in Russia, demonstrated to the revolutionists
in this country the impertaive need of Bolshevism as the guide of a revolu-
tionary party. To build such a Bolshevik party became the conscious aim of
the Left wing during 1018 and 1919. To formulate programmatically the aims
of such a party was the purpose of the Left-wing conference in New York in
June, 1919. The Conventions in Chicago in September, 1919, were called to
establish such a Bolshevik party. But because of the re'asons already given
not one Communist Party was founded, but only two roots to one Party.
Bolshevik parties are not born ; they develop. They arise and strengthen
them.selves out of the experiences of the struggles of the working class. Of
course, the individual parties of the working class in the various countries
do not depend entirely upon their own experiences. Proletarian struggles are
international. The workers everywhere face the same enemy. The same prob-
lems arise for the workers^ everywhere. All these problems have local color,
to be sure ; but their origin Ts the same ; their solution calls for the same funda-
mental measures. That is why experiences of a revolutionary party in any
country become a lesson to the revolutionary proletarian parties everywhere.
Th'at is why international unity of the proletarian movement in theory and
in action is an imperative necessity. That is why national and nationalistic
division of the workers, as practiced by social-democracy, is the greatest asset
to the power of the capitalists against the workers.
The international historic experiences of the working class are embodied in
the science of the proletarian revolution. The Bolshevik Party of Russia was
in 1919 — and is now — a complete embodiment of this science. Its founder and
leader, Lenin, was the first Bolshevik. Lenin developed the theory of Bolshevism.
He developed it, in Comrade Stalin's words, as the Marxism in the epoch of
the proletarian revolution. Basing himself on Marxism, which he further de-
veloped, Lenin crystalized the experiences of the fighting working class every-
where into the theory and tactics of the proletarian revolution, into the science
of Bolshevism,
APPENDIX, PART 1 (521
With Leninism as a guide, our Communist Party in the United States could
utilize from its very inception the experiences of the world struggles of the
working class. It could shape its efforts to become a Bolshevik Party, with the
Bolshevik Party of Russia as example.
The Comnnuiist International Leads
Six months before the formation of our Party, in March, 1919, upon the
initiative of the Bolshevik Party of Russia, the Communist International was
organized in Moscow. Since then "orders from Moscow" have been the favorite
scai'e-crow used by bankrupt capitalism to shy away any tendency on the part
of their workers to look for Bolshevik leadership in their struggles. Needless
to say, "orders from iloscow", as formulated by bourgeois propagandists, are
a ridiculous fiction. The Communist International is a world association of
revolutionary proletarian parties. Its Executive Committee and its Congresses
lire a clearing house for the experiences and a coordinator of the proletarian
-truggles the world over. Its resolutions are the result of the deliberations of
representatives of all these parties, and are crystallized out of the actions and
struggles of all of these parties. The experiences, the problems and the
struggles of the American Party, therefore, make as much toward the contents
' if the '"orders from Moscow" as the contents of these "orders" make toward the
policies of the American Party.
The formation of the Communist Party and the Communist Labor Party
was greeted by the ruling class of the United States with a reign of persecution
and terror. The leaders of the Left wing Council in New York were indicted
and convicted on charges of criminal anarchism. The delegates to the conven-
tion in Chicago were indicted, and the delegates to the Communist Labor Party
convention convicted on charges of criminal syndicalism. The delegates to the
t'alifornia State Convention of the Communist Labor Party were indicted in
Oakland, and several of them were convicted. INIitchell Palmer, Attorney Gen-
eral in the cabinet of President Wilson, carried through several national raids.
The most effective of them took place on .January 2, 1920. and netted some ten
thousand arrests throughout the land. Mass deportations were resorted to.
The homes of active comrades were broken into by guardians oc" the law.
Literature was stolen by the police and carted away by the truckloads from
workers' homes and from the headqiiarters of workers' organizations. Mem-
bership in the Communist Party was declared a crime. This persecution deter-
mined the character of the first chapter in the history of our Party. By steel-
ing the advance guard of the working class, it facilitated the unification of
the revolutionary element. This unification was finally achieved under the
guidance of the Communist International, when the Communist Party and the
CJommunist Labor Party united into the Communist Party of the U.S.A.
Our Party tried to adapt itself to the reign of terror by organizing under-
ground. Until then even the American revolutionists had shared some demo-
cratic illusions with the rest of the American workers. ?To thought had been
given, no preparations had been made for the probable necessity of an illegal
existence, which always faces the Party of the proletarian revolution. As a
result, the first elTorts of underground organization were in many instances,
amateurish. On the whole, the mistakes made in these efforts led to serious
political difficulties. Oat of these difficulties arose within our Party the first
determined struggle for Bolshevization.
Bolshevik Party Must Be a Mass Party
The need for the protection of the Party apparatus and its membership led
{0 the hiding of the Party, not only from the authorities, but also from the
workers. Yet, the most important prerequisite of the Party in the fulfillment
of its duty to organize and lead the masses toward revolution is contact with
the masses, is work among the masses.
As against this first Bolshevik need, a contrary theory developed within the
Party. The Party was conceived of as a revolutionary officers' training school.
This training was to be effected only through theory. The actual daily struggles
of the workers were to be left to themselves. The future officers of the revolution
were to earn their oflicers' spurs not as organizers and leaders of these daily
struggles but by staying hidden for the purpose of abstract study, to emerge and
take commanding positions only when the workers, through their own efforts,
had arrived at the struggle for power.
522 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
This period of our Party ended with the second, Bridgeman convention In Sep-
tember, 1922. This convention vpas raided. Practically all of the leaders of the
Party were indicted and arrested. That very arrest opened the eyes of our Party.
It forced the Party to go to the masses. If the Party was to save itself, it had to
become an organizer and leader of the working masses. Of course, it could be that
leader and organizer also as an underground party. But to be any kind of a
revolutionary proletarian party it had to be that leader and that organizer. Cir-
cumstances decide whether the Party is to be a legal or an underground Party.
But under all circumstances the Party must be a mass party.
Discussions around these issues contributed greatly to making our Communist
Party an American Bolshevik Party.
Even before this question was completely clarified, the Party had taken steps
toward the establishment of a mass base. The first steps were taken toward the
formation of an open party. First, the American Labor Alliance was organized.
This rather narrow organism made room in December, 1921, for the Workers
Party of America.
In the effort of our Party to establish the first roots in the working masses, the
experiences of our international proletarian movement were of tremendous im-
portance and value. As a result of discussing our pi-oblems with the leaders of
other Communist parties and with the leaders of the Communist International,
especially with Comrade Lenin, our Party leaders were corrected on many non-
Bolshevik conceptions. Especially Lenin urged consistently that our Party study
closely the problems of the American working class, that it organize the American
workers, and that it root itself in American soil, and that it become an American
Party.
Tlie Party Learns Bolshevik Trade Union Work
This first period of our Party's existence was a period of serious struggles of the
American working class. The need of reorienting tlie industries from war-time
to peace-time set-up had caused an economic crisis. As in all crises, the capitalists
at once made attacks on the living and earning standards of the workers. After
the workers had paid with their blood for the war profits of the capitalists, they
were expected to pay for their peace profits with hunger. The workers in the
steel industry struck. The railroad workers developed serious battles to better
their working conditions.
In spite of confused theoretical conceptions, our Party was fundamentally a
party of fighting revolutionarj' workers. These workers were in the battles of
their class. They were most active in the steel strikes and in all class battles.
These activities led to an important pha^e of Bolshevization. At its formation,
our Party was strongly under the influence of syndicalist tendencies in its trade
union policy. The program of the Communist Labor Party showed definite traces
of this syndicalism. But in the battles of 1919-1921 the Party learned th(^ raeiin-
ing of Bolshevik trade iniion policy. It learned that to win the workers we
revolutioiiists must be with them. It learned that no matter how much the trade
union bureaucrats misuse the trade unions to serve the bosses' interests, the masses
of workers were in these unions because they wanted to fight in the defense of
their proletarian interests. For the Communists not to be with them, not to fight
for leader.'^hip against the misleadei's of labor, would not be a revolutionary priii-
riple. but would be playing into the hands of the capitalists. Thus, out of the
experiences of our Party in its stiniggles in these first years of i*^s existence, a
Bolshevik trade union policy emerged. This policy tremendously strengthened
our Party organizationally and politically. It improved the fighting strength of
the Party and it brought into its ranks the best elements of the fighting trade
unionists.
Second Congress of C. I. Clai-ifies Communist Tactics
Meantime the Second Congress of the Communist International was held in
June, 1921. This Second Congress, and its decisions, was an event of utmo.st
importance in the history of our Party. At that Congress the organizational
prerequisites and political tactics of a Bolshevik party were definitely fixed.
The 21 conditions of admission into the Corumunist International explained the
required membei-ship qualification in the Communist International. The resolu-
tion on trade union work clarified the relation of the revolutionary party to
the unions. Resolutions on the national problem and on the agrarian question
as well as on revolutionary parliamentarism established the groirndwork for
a thorough Bolshevist understanding of its tasks, by our Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 623
At that time our Party was composed of a series of language federations.
Each of these federations had its own executive committee. This form of
organization, at best, lilndered concerted and uniform action. At their worst,
the federations became caucuses within the Party — not subordinate to it, but
independent of it.
As against this federationism, our Party had to establish itself as a unified
whole with a centralized leadership based on the confidence of the Party.
A revolutionary proletarian party is not only a party of leadership, but a
party of leaders. The members of the Communist Party are ideologically the
most advanced workers. They are class conscious. They know and under-
stand the social forces which determine the position of the working class.
They know the power of the working class to influence those forces and to
change them. It is this knowledge that makes them the advance guard of
the workers. It is this knowledge which enables every individual member
of the Party to be a leader among his fellow workers. He knows what is
indisix>nsable for effective eft'orts of the workers to improve their conditions.
That is why, under all conditions and everywhere, each individual Communist
is, and must be, a leader. It may depend on individual qualification how far
this leadership extends. In some cases it may be merely an ideological in-
fluence upon a few fellow woi'kers in the shop. In other instances it may
extend to the leadership over large masses of workers in organizations.
Communist Discipline Imperative
If such a party of leadership and leaders is to be effective, it must assure
concerted action of all of its members. A group of leaders whose actions are
determined by each one individually cannot serve the working class. At best,
they contribute to chaos by counteracting each other ; at worst, they invite
betraying agents of the enemy into their ranks. That is why a Communist
Party must demand discipline of its members. A Communist is either guided
by the principles and tactics of his Party, or he has no business in that Party.
The individual Communist either exercises his leading function among the
workers in accordance with the general plan, aims, and tactics of the Party
as a whole, and thereby becomes an instrument to exercise Party leadership,
or he hinders concerted Party activity by his individualism and thus becomes
an enemy of the Party. For the Communist Party, discipline is, therefore, an
absolute necessity. This C(jmmunist discipline requires a leadership on the
one hand entrusted with full power, and, on the other, borne by the confidence
of the masses within the Party itself. It requires democratic centralization.
The struggle for this democratic centralization was the next eft'ort of our Party
toward Bolshevization. It led to the abolition of the language federations and
to the establishment of a uniform Party hewn out of one of block.
Another contribution to the Bolshevik growth of our Party was the beginning
of building its nuclei in the shops and factories. A revolutionary party cannot
be an outside force. It must be a party of the working class. It must breathe
and work and organize and fight where the working class breathes and works
and organizes and fights.
Communist Party Must be in Shops
The workers have built for themselves many organizations for many piirposes.
The revolutionists must be with the workers in these organizations. They
must make the functioning of these organizations in the interests of the working
class, or the discussions about these functions, the base of the development
among the workers of an understanding, and of an organized force for the
carrying out of, the revolution. But no matter how many organizations the
workers have, and no matter hov/ many workers are organized in them,
neither of them, nor all cf them together, comprise the working class as a whole.
In neither of them nor in all of them together, arise the fundamental clas&
problems of the workers in their entirety. The place where all of the workers
are organized, and where all of these problems arise originally, is the place
where they work. Aside from that the capitalist government may prohibit
all workers' organizations. Yet, the very existence of capitalism depends upon
its organizing the workers into productive miits, in its shops and factories.
It was, therefore, the most fundamental experience of the working class the
world over that tells them in imperative language : "You either drive your roots
^24 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
into the shops and factories, or you can never claim to be a Communist Party."
Tlie Communist International gave voice to this guiding policy.
The decision of our Party to try to become a Bolshevik Party by driving its
roots into the shops and mills and mines and factories did not spring from an
abstract desire of conforming to tlie policies and rides of our Communist Inter-
national. It sprang out of its own experience. This is an illustration of the case
that "orders from Moscow" are in the last analysis, "orders to Moscow" from
the various revolutionary parties. The efforts of our Party to establish intimate
contact with the masses of American workers, the efforts of our Party to become
one with the American masses, demonstrated everywhere that this could not be
accomplished without the Party going into the mills and mines and factories.
Of course, the members of our Party are, in the main, workers. They always
were in the mills and mines and factories. Their class position sent them
there, not "orders from Moscow". But in their activities they had not been
orientated toward the shop. In the shop they were workers. They became Com-
munists only outside the shop and outside the working hours. But experience
taught them that if they did not become, and act as Communists in the shop, they
could not become the leaders of the American working class.
The ideological and organizational concentration on the shop, therefore, be-
came another great problem and campaign for the Bolshevization of our Party.
It still is the Party's most important problem. We have only begun to solve it.
The Theory of American Exceptionalism
After American capitalism had emerged from the post-war crisis and the
period of relative stabilization had set in, there arose a new political problem for
our Party. The "prosperity" of that period strengthened the reflections of cap-
italist illusions in our ranks. Opportunist conclusions became dominent. These
opportunist influences contributed to a loosening of the bonds of Party discipline.
Discussions about important political issues and problems were permitted to
residt in the crystallization of permanent factioiis within the Party. Factions
are at all times unhealthy and impermissible organizational growths. But these
factions turned into a definite political cancer. Out of a factional method of
fighting for a political opinion, factionalism itself grew into a political principle.
The petty-bourgeois opportunist origin of this factionalism finally bore a petty-
bourgeois opportunist programmatical fruit. It advanced the monstrous theory
of American "exceptionalism".
American "exceptionalism" is a conception of old standing. The very inability
of the revolutionary movement in America, in its early stages, to Americanize
itself, had given birth to the petty-bourgeois phrase that Socialist ideas were
alright in other countries, but that they had no meaning for America. All the
things that Socialism was fighting for were already in the possession of the
American working class: political freedom, equal opportunities, high living
standards, etc. According to this theory American capitalism held an exceptional
position, granted exceptional rights to the workers, and therefore, required no
change by methods of revolutionary class struggle.
This crude form of American exceptionalism received a new dressing and
reappeared in the form of the assertion that American capitalism was not
affected by the forces that had led to the crisis of the capitalist system the world
over. It maintained that American capitalism still had inexhaustible resources.
It asserted that the conditions under which American capitalism operated made
it possible for it to continue its "prosperity" indefinitely. According to these
exceptionalists, even if the existing stability of world capitalism was only tem-
pora'v and precarious, for American capitalism it was permanent and sound.
Thes.> exceptionalists asserted that American capitalism had not yet travelled
over the top of its development and was not on its way downward, but that it
was entering its Victorian age.
Party Defeats Internal Enemy
At the time when this theory was advanced, the period of relative stabilization
of capitalism was at its end. The coming crisis of world capitalism was casting
its shadow ahead. War preparations were intensified by all capitalist govern-
ments. American capitalism drew plans for the drafting of "labor" in case of
war. Plans were discussed in Washington for the regimentation of the American
working class. Every indication pointed toward a rapid sharpening of the class
struggle. The Bolshevik need of our Party then was to close its ranks, to
APPENDIX, PART 1 625
strengthen its tie with the masses, and to prepare for increased and more intense
mass struggles.
This period was selected as the opportune moment by the petty-bourgeois
opportunist elements within the Party to throw the Party off the straight path
toward Bolshevization. The theory of American "exceptionalism", sponsored by
the Lovestone leadership, was the more evidently opportunist of these efforts ;
another one dressed itself in the garb of Trotzkyism and tried to cover its oppor-
tunist flight from Bolshevik organization and tactics with "Left" i^hrases.
Under the skin both efforts were anti-Communist brothers.
The struggle against these tendencies, and to root out the cancerous faction-
alism became the greatest of the efforts of our Party to Bolshevize itself. In
fact, it became an effort that was to test the degree of its completed Bolsheviza-
tion.
In this effort our international leadership played a decisive part. The leaders
of our Party were asked by the leaders of the revolutionary working class the
world over : "Look at your tasks ! See American capitalism crush its iron heel
more and more brutally upon the necks of the American workers. See the need
<-f Bol.shevik action. See the need of revolutionary organization and leadership
for the American workers. See the proletarian revolution in America in its
makings. It is your duty to take your place to further and guide this revolution-
;;ry development. Instead of that what are you doing? Instead of woi'king and
building a unified Bolshevik Party, you are building factions within the Party
to fight each other. Instead of seeing the working class in its effort to organize
and fight for its victory, you claim a victory for capitalism. Instead of building
a united front of the American workers for the defense of their interests, your
factions are even preventing the unity of the Party."
Our international leadership embodied this warning in an Open Letter to
our Party, issued in May, 1929. This letter thoroughly aroused the revolutionary
loyalty of our members to the cause of the working class and to the cause of
the Bolshevik Party. In a tremendous effort the Party liquidated factionalism
and made out of our Party a ixtwerful unified whole. It expelled and defeated
decisively those who resisted this Bol.shevik endeavor. Thus it created a party
which today can face confidently, and solve in a considerable degree its tasks
as the leader of the American working class in its effort to find a revolutionary
way out of bankrupt capitalism.
Base Laid for Bolshevist Mass Party
The progress of the capitalist crisis after the fall of 1929, put our Party to
a serious test. The sharpening class struggles put the highe.st pressure on every
functioning of the Party. This pressure brought out a number of weaknesses
resulting from incomplete or incorrect efforts of Bolshe,vization. The shifting
of the Party's base from territorial to shop units had evidently proceeded too
slowly. Because of that the Party was often surprised by militant actions
of the workers. Instead of generating and organizing these actions, the Party
often had to appear as an outside force after the action had begun.
In the mass work opportunist influences often had erected sectarian walls.
A petty-bourgeois radicalism tended to isolate the Party from the masses.
The efforts of the Party to Bolshevize itself had, in some instances, developed
into a mere routine effort.
However, its Bolshevization was sufiiciently advanced to make the Party
con.scious of these weaknesses. The Party saw the tremendous waves of
radicalization sweeping the American working class. At the same time it saw
its relative inability to organize this rising tide into revolutionary proletarian
power. It recognized that only persistent and concentrated efforts could remedy
this. The Party embodied its determination to remedy it in an Open Letter
issued to the Party by the Central Committee in July, 1933. This Letter called
the attention of the Party to these weaknesses and outlined a few fundamental
Tasks upon which all the energies of the Party were to be concentrated.
The Party is at this moment still engaged in completing these tasks. The
ability which the Party has demonstrated lately in organizing the workers and
in developing and leading mass struggles are an indication of the degree in
which the Party succeeded in accomplishing these tasks.
As a re.sult of this steady growth our Party, on its 15th Birthday, can pride
itself on being a worthy comrade of its revolutionary brother parties in the
ranks of the Communist International. It is true, its Bolshevik growth is by
no means completed ; but it is assured.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 41
g26 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The working class will be in a position to fulfill its role as the most decisive
class in the struggle against finance capital, as the leader of a toiling masses,
only if it is headed by a Communist Party which is closely bound up with the
decisive strata of the workers. But a Communist Party with a very weak and
inadequately functioning organization in the big factories and aniong the
decisive sections of the American industrial workers, a Communist Party whose
entire policy, whose entire agitation and propaganda, whose entire daily work
is not concentrated on winning over and mobilizing these workers and winning
of the factories, a Communist Party which, through its revolutionary trade union
work, does not build highways to the broadest masses of workers, cannot lay
claim to a policy capable of making it the leader of the working class within
the shortest possible time. (From An Open Letter to All Members of the
Communist Party, adopted bv the Extraoi-dinary National Conference of the
Communist Party of the U. sl! A., held July 7-10, 1933.)
Exhibit No. 98
r Source: A pamnhlet published by Workers Library Publishers, New York: NoTember,
1935]
Seventh Wori© Congress of the Communist Initeknational
BESOLXJnONS
Including Also the Closing Speech of Georgi Dimitroff
Workers Library Publishers, New York
Published by Workers Library Publishers, P. O. Box 148, Sta. D, New York
City, November, 1935. The Seventh World Congress of the Communist Inter-
national was held in Moscow from July 25 to August 20, 1935.
CONTENTS
Closing Speech of Georgi Dimitroff:
The Present Rulers of the Capitalist Countries Are but Temporary,
the Real Master of the World Is the Proletariat 5
Resolution on the Reiwrt of Wilhelm Pieck :
The Communist International — From the Sixth to the Seventh
Congress— 1928-1935 17
Resolution on the Report of Georgi Dimitroff:
The Offensive of Fascism and the Tasks of the Communist Interna-
tional in the Fight for the Unity of the Working Class Against
Fascism -t
Resolution on the Report of M. Ercoli :
The Tasks of the Communist International in Connection with the
Preparations of the Imperialists for a New World War 40
Resolution on the Report of D. Z. Manuilsky :
The Victory of Socialism in the U. S. S. R. and its World Historic
Significance 49
IHE PRESENT RULEK8 OF THE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES ARE BUT TEMPORARY, THE REAL
MASTER OF THE WORU) IS THE PROLETARIAT
By Georgi Dimitroff
(Speech Delivered at the Close of the Seventh Congress of the Commuaist
International on August 20, 1935)
{Comrade Ditnitroff's appearance on the platform is greeted hii a storm of
cheers. All delegates rise and applaud heartily. Shouts of ''Red Front. '"^
''Banzai!" "Hurrah!" "Long Live Comrade Dimitroff!" Orchestral flourish.
The ovation continues for several minutes.)
Comrades, the work of the Seventh World Congress of the Communist Inter-
national, the Congress of the Communists of all countries, of all continents of
the world, is coming to a close.
APPENDIX, PART 1 (J27
What are the results of this Congress, what is its siguiticance for our move-
uieiit, for the working class of the world, for the toilers of every land?
It has been the Congress of the complete triumph of the unity between the
proletariat of the country of inctorious socialism, the Soviet Union, and the pro-
letariat of the capitalist countries which is still fUjlitivg for its liberation. The
A ictory of socialism in the Soviet Union — a victory of world-historic significance —
gives rise in all capitalist countries to a powerful movement toward socialism.
This victory strengthens the cause of peace among peoples, enhancing as it does
the international importance of the Soviet Union and its role as the mighty bul-
wark of the toilers in their struggle against capital, against reaction and fascism.
It strengthens the Soviet Union as the base of the world proletarian revolution.
It sets in motion throughout the whole world not only the workers, who are
turning more and more to Communism, but also millions of peasants and farmers,
of rhe hard-working petty townsfolk, a considerable proportion of the intellectuals,
the enslaved peoples of the colonies. It inspires them to struggle, increases their
attachment for the great fatherland of all the toilers, strengthens their deter-
mination to support and defend the proletarian state against all its enemies.
This victory of socialism increases the confidence of the international proletariat
in its own forces and in the tangible possibility of its own victory, a confidence
which is itself becoming a tremendously effective force against the rule of the
bourgeoisie.
The union of forces of the proletariat of the Soviet Union and of the militant
proletariat and toiling masses in the capitalist countries holds out the great
persi)ective of the oncoming collapse of capitalism and the guarantee of the
victory of socialism throughout the whole world.
Our Congress has laid down the foundations for so extensive a mobilization of
the feyrees of all toilers against capitalism as nether existed in the history of the
irorkinff class struggle.
Our Congress has set before the international proletariat, as its most important
immediate task, that of consolidating its forces politically and organizationally,
of putting an end to the isolation to which it had been reduced by the Social-
Democratic policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, of rallying the
toilers around the working class in a wide people's front against the offensive
of capital and reaction, against fascism and the threat of war in each individual
country and in the international arena.
We have not invented this task. It has been prompted by the experience of
the world labor movement itself, above all, the experience of the proletariat of
France. The great service which the French Communist Party performed consists
in the fact that it grasped the need of the hour, that it paid no heed to the sec-
tarians who tried to hold back the Party and hamper the realization of the
united front of struggle against fascism, but acted boldly and in a Bolshevik
fashion, and, by its pa^t with the Socialist Party providing for joint action,
l.repared the united front of the proletariat as the basis for the anti-fascist
people's front now in the making. (Applause.) By this action, which accords
with the vital interests of all the toilers, the French workers, both Communists
and Socialists, have once more advanced the French labor movement to first
place, to a leading position in capitalist Europe, and have shown that they are
worthy successors of the Communards, worthy exponents of the glorious heritage
of the Paris Commune. (Storm of applause. All rise. Shouts of ''Hurrah T
Comrade Dimitroff turns around to face the presidium and is joined by the entire
audience in applauding Comrade Thorez and the other French comrades on the
presidium.)
It is the great service of the French Communist Party and the Fi-ench
proletariat that by their fighting against fascism in a united proletarian front
they helped to prepare the decisions of our Congress, which are of such
tremendous importance for the workers of all countriea
But what has been done in France constitutes only initial steps Our Con-
gress, in mapping out the tactical line for the years immediately ahead, could
not confine itself to merely recording this experience. It went further. We,
Communists, are a class party, a proletarian party. But as the vanguard of
the proletariat we are ready to arrange joint actions between the proletariat
and the other toiling classes, interested in the fight against fascism. _We,
Communists, are a revolutionary party ; but we are ready to undertake joint
action with other parties fighting against fascism.
We, Communi.sts, have other ultimate aims than these parties, but in strug-
gling for our aims we are ready to fight jointly for any immediate tasks
which when realized will weaken the position of fascism and strengthen the
position of the proletariat.
(328 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
We, Communists, employ methods of struggle which differ from those of
the other parties ; but while using our own methods in combating fascism, we,
Communists, will also support the methods of struggle used by other parties,
however inadequate they may seem to them, if these methods are really directed
against fascism.
We are ready to do all this because, in countries of bourgeois-democracy,
we want to blocli the road in the way of reaction and the offensive of capital
and fascism, prevent the abrogation of bourgeois-democratic liberties, forestall
fascism's terrorist vengeance upon the proletariat, the revolutionary section of
the peasantry and the intellectuals, save the young generation from physical
and spiritual degeneracy.
We are ready to do all this because in the fascist countries we want to pre-
pare and hasten the overthrow of fascist dictatorship.
We are ready to do all this because we want to save the ivorld from fasci'St
barbarity and the horrors of iniperialist war.
(Here Comrade Weber, a delegate of the Oermam, Communist Party, mounts
the platform and presents to Comrade Dimitroff an album in the following
ivords: ''Comrade Dimitroff, in the name of the German Communist Party dele-
gation I deliver this book into yoiir hands, a book of the heroic exploits of
the revoluti<ynary fighter's of Gernmny. It was you tcho by your conduct at
the Leipzig trial and your entire subsequent activity served as an example for
the German Communist Party, for the German anti-fascists, in their struggle.
Accept this book, this song of the heroism of the proletarian fighters of Ger-
m-any, to whom you have furnished an example to follow, who give up their
freedom, their health, their lives in the cause of the revolutionr Comrade
Dimitroff accepts the album and warmly embraces Comrade Weber. Loud
applause, shouts of "Hurrah!" cheering.)
Ours is a Congress of struggle for the preservation of peace, against the
threat of imperialist war.
We are now raising the issue of this struggle in a new way. Our Congress
is decidedly opposed to the fatalistic outlook on the question of imperialist war
emanating from old Social-Democratic notions.
It is true that imperialist wars are the product of capitalism, that only the
overthrow of capitalism will put an end to all war ; but it is likewise true
that the toiling masses can obstruct imperialist war by their militant action.
Today the world is not what it was in 1914.
Today on one-sixth of the globe there exists a powerful proletarian state
that relies on the material strength of victorious socialism. Guided by Stalin's
wise peace policy, the Soviet Union has already more than once brought to
naught the aggressive plans of the instigators of war. (Applause.)
Today the world proletariat, in its struggle against war, has at its disposal
not only its weapon of mass action, as it did in 1914. Today the mass struggle
of the international working class against war is coupled with the influence
of the Soviet Union as a state, of its powerful Red Army, the most important
guardian of the peace, (Loud applause.)
Today the working class is not under the exclusive influence of Social-
Democracy participating in a bloc with the bourgeoisie, as was the case in
1914. Today there is the World Connnnnist Party, the Communist Interna-
tional. (Applause.) Today the bulk of the Social-Democratic workers are
turning to the Soviet Union, to its policy of peace, ;to a united front with the
Communists. Today the peoples of the colonial and semi-colonial countries do
not regard their liberation as a hopeless cause. On the contrary, they are
passing on more and more to determined struggle against the imperialist en-
slavers. The best evidence of this is the l^ovict revolution in China and the
heroic exploits of the Red Army of the Chinese people. (Stormy applause. All
delegates rise. Loud cheering.)
The popular hatred of war is constantly gaining in depth and intensity. In
pushing the toilers into the abyss of imperialist wars the bourgeoisie is staking
its head. Today not only the working class, the peasantry and other toilers
champion the cause of the preservation of peace, but also the oppressed nations
and weak peoples whose independence is threatened by new wars. Even some
of the big capitalist states, afraid of losing out in a new redivision of the
world, are interested at the present stage in the avoidance of war.
This gives rise to the possibilty of forming a most extensive front of the
working class, of all the toilers, and of entire nations against the threat of im-
periali'^t Avar. Relying on the peace policy of the Soviet Union and the will
of millions upon millions of toilers to havp peace, our Congress has opened up
APPENDIX, PART 1 (j29
the porspective of unfokliug a wide anti-war front not only for the Communist
vanguard but for the working class of the whole world, for the peoples of
every land. The extent to which this world-wide front is 'realized and put
into action will determine whether the fascist and other imperialist war incen-
diaries will he able in the near future to kindle a new imperialist war, or
whether their fiendish hands will be hacked off by the ax of a powerful anti-
war front.
Ours is the Congress of the unit]/ of the workivg class, the Congress of strug-
gle for a united proletarian front.
We entertain no illusions on the subject of the difficulties which the reac-
tionary portion of the Social-Democratic leaders will place in the path of real-
izing a united proletarian front. But we do not fear these difficulties. For
we reflect the will of millions of workers; for we serve the interests of the
proletariat best by fighting for a united front ; for the miited front is the
surest road to the overthrow of fascism and the capitalist order of society,
to the prevention of imperialist war.
At this Congress we have raised aloft the banner of trade union unity. Com-
munists do not insist on the independent existence of the Red trade unions at
all costs. We, Conunuuists, want trade union unity. But this unity must be
based on actual class struggle and on putting an end, once and for all, to a
situation in which the most consistent and determined advocates of trade miiou
unity and of the class struggle are expelled from the trade unions of the Am-
sterdam International. {Applause.)
We know that not all those woi'king in the trade unions affiliated with the
Red International of Labor Unions have understood and assimilated this line of
the Congress. Among these workers there are still remnants of sectarian self-
satisfaction which must be overcome if the line of the Congress is to be carried
out firmly. But we shall carry out this line whatever the cost, and shall
find a common language with our class brothers, our comrades in the struggle,
the workers now affiliated with the Amsterdam International.
At this Congress we have taken the course of forming a single mass political
parti/ of the tcorkinf/ class, to end the political split in the ranks of the prole-
tariat, a split caused by the class collaboration policy of the Social-Democratic
Parties. To us the political imity of the working class is not a maneuver but
a question of the future fate of the entire labor movement. Should there be
any people in our midst who ajiproach the question of the political unity of
the working class as a maneuver, we shall fight them as i>eople bringing harm
to the working class. Precisely because our attitude on this question is one
of absolute seriousness and sincerity, dictated by the interests of the prole-
tariat, we lay down definite fundamental conditions to serve as the basis for
such unity. We have not invented these fundamental conditiouvS. They are
the result of the experience gained from the sufferings of the proletariat in the
coui-se of its : struggle ; they are also in accordance with the will of millions of
Social-Democratic workers, a will engendered by the lessons of the defeats suf-
fered. These fundamental conditions have been tested by the experience of the
entire revolutionary labor movement. (Applause.)
Since proletarian unity has been the keynote of our Congress, it has been not
only a Congress of the Communist vanguard, but a Cons;ress of the entire inter-
national working class thirsting for militant trade union and political unity.
(Applause.)
Though our Congress was not attended by delegates of the Social-Democratic
workers nor by non-party delegates, though the worKers herded into fascist
organizations were not represented, the Congress has spoken not only for the
Communists but also for these millions of workers. It has expressed the
thoughts and feelings of the overwhelming majority of the working class. (Ap-
plause. ) If the labor organizations of various trends were to hold a really free
discussion of our deci-sions among the workers of the whole world, there is no
doubt in our minds but that they would support the decisions for which you,
comrades, have voted with such unanimity.
So much the greater our duty as Communists to render the decisions of our
Congress in actual fact the property of the entire working class. To have voted
for these decisions is not enough. Nor is it enough to popularize them among
the members of the Communist Parties. We want the workers affiliated with
the parties of the Second International and the Amsterdam International Fed-
eration of Trade Unions as well as the workers affiliated with organizations of
other political trends to discuss these decisions jointly with us, bring in their
amendments and make practical proposals ; we want them to deliberate jointly
g30 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
with us how decisions can best be carried into life, how they can best realize
them in practice jointly with us, hand in hand.
Ours has been a Congress of a neiv tdotioal orientation for the Communist
International.
Standing firmly on the impregnable position of Marxism-Leninism, which has
been confirmed by the entire experience of the international labor movement,
and primarily by the victories of the great October Revolution, our Congress,
acting in the' spirit and guided by the method of living Marxism-Leninism, has
reshaped the tactical lines of the Communist International to meet the changed
world situation.
The Congress has taken a firm decision that the united front tactics must be
applied in a neio ivay. The Congress is emphatic in its demands that Com-
munists do not content themselves with the mere propaganda of general slogans
about proletarian dictatorship and Soviet Power, but that they pursue a definite,
active, Bolshevik policy with regard to all internal and foreign political ques-
tions arising in their country, with regard to all urgent problems that affect the
vital interests of the working class, of their own people and of the international
labor movement. The Congress insists most emphatically that all tactical steps
taken by the Communist Parties be based on a sober analysis of actual condi-
tions, on a consideration of the relation of class forces, and of the political level
of the broadest masses. The Congress demands the complete eradication of
every vestige of sectarianism from the practice of the Communist movement, as
this represents at present the greatest obstacle in the way of the Communist
Parties cari-ying out a really mass, really Bolshevik policy.
While imbued with the detei-mination to carry out this tactical line and filled
with the conviction that this road will lead our Parties to major successes, the
Congress has at the same time taken into account the possibility that the carry-
ing out of this Bolshevik line may not always be smooth sailing, may not always
proceed without mistakes, without deviations here and there to the Right or
to the "Left" — deviations in the direction of adaptation of trailing behind events
and the movement, or in the direction of sectarian self -isolation. Which of
these constitutes, "speaking generally", the main danger is a dispute in which
only scholastics can engage. The greater and worse danger is that which at
any given moment and in any given country represents the greater obstacle to
the carrying out of the line of our Congress, to the development of the correct
mass policy of the Communist Parties. {Applause.)
The cause of Communism demands, not abstract, but concrete struggle against
deviations; the prompt and determined rebuff of all harmful tendencies, as they
arise, and the timely rectification of mistakes. To replace the necessary con-
crete struggle against deviations by a peculiar sport — hunting imaginary de-
viations or deviators — is an intolerably harmful twist. In our Party practice
every encouragement must be given to develop initiative in formulating new
questions. We must assist in having the questions concerning the activity of
the Party discussed from every angle, and not hastily set down as a deviation
or other every doubt or critical remark made by a Party member with reference
to practical problems of the movement. A comrade who committed an error
must be given an opportunity to correct it in practice, and only those who stub-
hornhj persist in their mistakes and those who disorganize the Party are to be
flayed without mercy.
Championing, as we do. working class unity, we shall with so much the
more energy and irreconcilibility fight for unity tvithin our Parties. There
can be no room in our Parties for factions, or for attempts at factionalism.
Whoever will try to break up the iron unity of our ranks by any kind of fac-
tionalism will get to feel what is meant by the Bolshevik discipline that I^nin
and Stalin have always taught us. (Applause.) Let this be a warning to those
few elements in individual Parties who think that they can take advantage of
the difficulties of their Party, the wounds of defeat or the blows of
the raging enemy, to carry out their factional plans, to further their own group
interests. (Applause.) The Party is above every thing else! (Loud applause.)
To guard the Bolshevik unity of the Party as the apple of one's eye is the first
and highest laiv of Bolshevism !
Ours is a Congress of Bolshevik sclf-criticis and of the strengthening of the
leadership of the Communi.<it International and its Sections.
We are not afraid of pointing out openly the mistakes, weaknesses and short-
comings in our ranks, for we are a revolutionary Party which knows that it
can develop, grow and accomplish its tasks only if it discards everything impeding
Its development as a revolutionary Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 631
And the work which the Congress has accomplished by its merciless criticism
v»f .sfclf-satisfied sectarianism, of the use of cut-and-dried schemes and stereo-
typed practices, phlegmatic thinking, substitution of the methods of leading a
Party for the methods of leading masses — all this work must be continued in
an appropriate manner in all Parties, locally, in all links of our movement, as
this is one of the most essential preconditions for correctly carrying into life
the decisions of the Congress. (Applause.)
In its resolution on the report of the Executive Committee, the Congress re-
solved to concentrate the day-to-day leadership of our movement in the Sections
themselves. This makes it our duty to intensify in every way the work of form-
ing and training cadres Jind of reinforcing the Communist Parties with genuine
Bolshevik leaders, so that at abrupt turns of events the Parties might quickly
and independently find correct solutions for the political and tactical problems
tif the Communist movement, on the basis of the decisions of the Congresses of
the Communist International and the Plenums of its Executive Committee.
The Congress, when electing the leading bodies of the Communist International,
strove to constitute its leadership of such people as accept the new lines and
decisions of the Congress and are ready and able firndy to carry them into life,
not from a sense of discipline, but out of profound conviction. (Applause.)
It is likewise necessary in each country to ensure the correct application
of the decisions adopted by the Congress. This will depend primarily on ap-
propriately testing, distributing and directing the cadres. We know that this
is not an easy task. It must be borne in mind that some of our cadres did not
go through the experience of Bolshevik mass policy, but were brought up largely
along the lines of general propaganda. We must do everything to help our
<?adres reorganize, to be retrained in a new spirit, in the spirit of the decisions
of this Congress. But where the old bottles prove unsuited for the new wine,
the necessary conclusions must be drawn — not to spill the new wine or spoil
it by pouring it into the old bottles, but to replace the old bottles by new ones.
(Loud applause.)
We intentionally expunged from the reports as well as from the decisions of
the Congress high -sounding phrases on the revolutionary perspective. We did
this not because we have any ground for appraising the tempo of revolutionary
development less optimistically than before, but because we want to rid our
Parties of an inclination to replace Bolshevik activity by revolutionary phrase-
mongering or futile disputes about the appraisal of the perspective. Waging
a decisive struggle against any reliance on sponteneity, we take accoimt of the
process of development of the revolution, not as passive observers, but as active
participants in this process. By proceeding as the party of revolutionary
action — ^fulfilling at every stage of the movement the tasks that are in the
interest of the revolution, the tasks that correspond to the specific conditions of
the given stage, and soberly taking into consideration the political level of the
wide toiling masses — we accelerate, more than in any other way, the creation
of the subjective preconditions necessary for the victory of the proletarian revolti-
iion.. (Applause.)
"We must take things as we find them," said Marx. "We must utilize revolu-
iiona/ry sentiments in a manner corresponding to the changed circum-
stances. . . ."*
This is the gist of the matter. This we must never forget.
Comrades: the decisions of the World CMigress must be hronght home to
the masses, must he explained to the masses, must be applied as a guide for
the action, of the masses, in a word, must be made the flesh and blood of millions
of toilers!
It is necessary to encourage everywhere as much as possible the initiative of
the workers in their respective localities, the initiative displayed by the lower
organizations of the Communist Parties and the labor movement in carrying out
these decisions.
When leaving here, the representatives of the revolutionary proletariat must
hring to their respective countries the firm conviction that we, Communists,
"bear the responsibility for the fate of the working class, of the labor moven>ent,
the responsibility for the fate of our own nation, for the fate of all toiling
humanity.
To us, the workers, and not to the social parasites and idlers, belongs the
world— a world built by the hands of the workers. The present rulers of the
<'apitalist world are but temporary rulers.
•Marx, Letters to Kiigelmann, p. 38, International Publishers, New York.
532 UN-AMERICAN PEOPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The proletariat is the 7-eal master, tomorrow's master of the icorld. (Loud
ajyplause.) And it must enter upon its historical rights, take into its hands
the reins of government in every country, all over the world. (Applatise.)
We are disciples of Marx and Engels, Lenin a/tid Stalin. We should be worthy
of our great teachers. (Applause.)
With Stalin at their head the millions of our political army overcoming all
difli'Culties a}id courageously breaking through all barriers must and unll level
to the ground the fortress of capitalism and achieve the victory of sociali^sm
throughout the tvhole world! (Storm of applause.)
Long live the unity of the working class!
Long live the Seventh Congress of the Communist International!
(Loud applause, passing into an ovation. The orchestra plays the "Interna-
tionale" in which all delegates join. Cheers from the various delegations: ^"Long
Live Stalin!" ''Long Live Diniitroff !'' "Hurrah!" "A triple 'Red Fronf !" The
French delegation sings the "Carmagnole" ; the Czech delegation, "The Scarlet
Banner'; the Chinese delegation, "The March of the Chinese Red Army" ; the
Itali-an delegation, "Bandiera Rossa" ; the German delegation, "Red Wedding".
Shouts from the delegations: "Long live the helmsman of the Communist Inter-
national, Comrade Dimitroff !" "Hurrah!" Applause. Thor&»: "Hurrah for the
Bolshevik Party and its leader, Comrade Stalin!" "Hurrah for the Communist
International and its helmsman, Comrade Dimitroff!" Reneiced shouts of "Hur-
rah". The orchestra plays the "Internationale.")
THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL — FROM THE SIXTH TO THE SE\'ENTH CONGRESS —
1928-1935
(Resolution on the Report of Wilhelm Pieck, Adopted August 1, 1935 by the
Seventh Congress of the Communist International)
1. The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International endorses the
political line and practical activity of the Executive Committee of the Communist
International.
2. The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International approves the
proposals of the Executive Committe of the Communist International of March,
1933, October, 1934, and April, 1935, to the national sections and leadership of
the Second International for joint action in the struggle against fascism, the
offensive of capital and war. Expressing its regret that to the detriment of the
working class all these proposals were rejected by the Executive Committee of
the Second International and by most of its Sections, and noting the historic
significance of the fact that Social-Democratic workers and a number of Social-
Democratic organizations are already struggling hand in hand with the Commu-
nists against fascism and for the interest of the toiling masses, the Seventh World
Congress of the Communist International enjoins the Executive Committee of the
Communist International and all Parties affiliated with the Communist Inter-
national to strive in the future by every means to establish a united front on a
national as well as an international scale.
3. The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International records the
growing revolutionary influence of the work and slogans of the Communist Parties
on the broad masses of workers, including members of Social-Democratic Parties.
With this as its point of departure, the Congress enjoins all Sections of the Com-
munist International to overcome in the shortest possible time the survivals of
sectarian traditions which prevented them from finding a way of approach to the
Social-Democratic workers, and to change the methods of agitation and propa-
ganda which hitherto were at times abstract in character and little accessible to
the masses, by giving these methods absolutely definite direction and linking them
to the immediate needs and day to day intere.sts of the masses.
4. The Seventh World Congress of the Commimist International notes serious
shortcomings in the work of a number of Sections of the Communist International :
the belated carrying out of the tactics of the united front, the inability to mobilize
the mas.ses around partial demands, political as well as economic in character,
failure to realize the necessity of struggling in defense of the remnants of bour-
geois democracy, failure to realize the necessity of creating an anti-imperiali.st
People's Front in colonial and dependent countries, neglect of work in reformist
and fascist trade unions and mass organizations of toilers formed by bourgeois
parties, underestimation of the importance of work among toiling women, under-
estimation of the importance of work among the peasantry and urban petty-
APPENDIX, PART 1 g33
bourgeois masses, also the delay with which the Executive Committee gave politi-
cal assistance to these Sections.
Taking into consideration the constantly growing importance and responsibility
of the Communist Parties which are called to head the movement of the masses in
the process of revolutionization, taking into consideration the necessity of con-
centrating operative leadership within the Sections themselves, the Seventh World
Congress of the Communist International instructs the E. C. C. I. :
(a) While shifting the main stress of its activity to elaboration of the funda-
mental political and tactical lines of the world labor movement, to proceed in
deciding any question from the concrete situation and specific conditions obtain-
ing in each particular country and as a rule to avoid direct intervention in internal
organizational matters of the Communist Parties ;
(b) Systematically to assist in the formation and training of cadres of genu-
inely Bolshevik leaders in the Communist Parties so that the Parties will be able
at the sharpest turn of events independently and quickly to find, on the basis of
the decisions of the Congresses of the Communist International and Plenums of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International, correct solutions for
political and tactical problems of the Communist movement ;
(c) To render effective aid to the Communist Parties in their ideological sti'ug-
gle against political opponents ;
(d) To assist the Communist Parties in making use of their own experience
as well as the experience of the world Communist movement, avoiding, however,
mechanical application of the experience of one coiintry to another country and
substitution of stereotyped methods and general formulations for concrete Marx-
ian analysis;
(e) To ensure closer contact between leading bodies of the Communist Inter-
national and the various Sections of the Communist International by still more
active participation on the part of authoritative representatives of the most im-
portant Sections of the Communist International in the day-to-day work of the
E. C. C. I.
5. Pointing out the underestimation by the Young Communist Leagues as well
as the Communist Parties of the importance of mass work among the youth
and the weakness of this work in a number of countries, the Seventh World Con-
gress of the Communist International instructs the Executive Committee of the
Young Communist International to take effective measures to overcome the
sectarian secludedness of a number of Young Communist organizations, to make
it the duty of the Young Communist League members to join all mass organiza-
tions of the toiling youth (trade union, cultural, sports organizations) formed by
bourgeois-democratic, reformist and fa*<cist parties, as well as by religious as-
sociations ; to wage a systematic struggle in these organizations to gain influence
over the broad masses of the youth, mobilizing it for the struggle against militari-
zation and forced labor camps, and for the improvement of its material condi-
tions, for the rights of the young generation of toilers, while striving to establish
for these purposes a broad united front of all non-fascist youth mass organiza-
tions.
The Seventh World Congress of the Connnunist International notes that during
the last few years, under the influence of the victory of socialism in the U. S. S. R.,
of the crisis in the capitalist countries, the fiendishness of German fascism and
the danger of a new war, a turn of the broad masses of the workers and the
toilers in general from reformism to revolutionary struggle, from disunity and
dispersion to united front, has set in all over the world.
The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International, taking into
account the fact that the striving of the toilers for unity of action will con-
tinue to grow in the future despite the resistance of individual leaders of Social-
Democracy, instructs all Sections of the Communist International in the process
of struggle for the united front of the proletariat, and the people's front of all
toilers against the offensive of capital, against fascism and the danger of a new
war, to focus their attention on the further consolidation of their ranks and the
■winning over of the majority of the working class to the side of Communism.
The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International points out that
the transformation of maturing political crisis into a victorious proletarian
revolution depends solely on the strength and influence of the Communist Parties
among the hroad masses of the proletariat, on the energy and self-sacrificing de-
votion of the Communists. Now, when political crises are maturing in a number
of capitalist countries, it is the most Important, the paramount task of Com-
munists, not to rest on successes already achieved, but to advance towards new
634 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
successes, extend contacts with the working class, gain the confidence of millions
of toilers, transform the various Sections of the Communist International into
mass parties, bring the majority of the working class under the influence of the
Communist Parties, and thus secure the conditions necessary for the victory of
the proletarian revolution.
THE OFFENSIVE OF FASCISM AND THE TASKS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL IN
THE FIGHT FOB THE UNITY OF THE WORKING CLASS AGAINST FASCISM
(Resolution on the Report of Georgi Dimitroflf, Adopted August 20, 1935 by
the Seventh Congress of the Communist International)
I. FASCISM AND THE WORKING CLASS
1. The Seventh Congress of the Communist International declares that the
alignment of class forces in the international arena and the tasks facing the
labor movement of the world are determined by the following basic changes
in the world situation :
(a) The final and irrevocaNe victory of socialism in the Land of the Soviets,
a victory of world importance, which has enormously enhanced the power and
role of the U. S. S. R. as the bulwark of the exploited and oppressed of the whole
world, and is inspiring the toilers to struggle against capitalist exploitation,
bourgeois reaction and fascism, for peace, and for the freedom and independence
of the peoples.
(b) The most profound- economic cri'-is in the history of capitalism, from
which the bourgeoisie has tried to extricate itself by ruining the masses of the
people, by dooming tens of millions of unemployed to starvation and extinc-
tion, and by lowering the standard of living of the toilers to an unprecedented
extent. Despite a growth in industrial production in a number of countries
and an increase in the profits of the financial magnates, the world bourgeoisie
has not succeeded on the whole either in emerging from the crisis and the
depression, or in retarding the further accenttiation of the contradictions of
capitalism. In some countries ( France. Belgium, etc. ) the crisis is continuing,
in others it has entered a state of depression, while in those countries where
production has exceeded the pre-crisis level (Japan, Great Britain^ new
economic upheavals are impending.
(c) The offensive of fascism, the advent to power of the fascists in Germany,
the groicth of the threat of a nevj imperialist world irar and of an attack on
the U. S. 8. R., by means of which the capitalist world is seeking a way out of
the impasse of its contradictions.
(d) The political crisis, expressed in the armed struggle of the workers in
Austria and Spain against the fascists, a struggle which has not yet led to the
victory of the proletariat over fascism, but which prevented the bourgeoisie
from consolidating its fascist dictatorship: the powerful anti-fascist movement
in France, which began with the February demonstration and the general strike
of the proletariat in 1934.
(e) The revolutionizatiov of the toilinrj masses throughout the whole capi-
talist world which is taking place under the influence of the victory of socialism
in the U. S. S. R. and of the world economic crisis, also on the basis of the lessons
derived from the temporary defeat of the proletariat in the central part of
Europe — in Germany — as well as in Austria and Spain, that is. in coimtries
where the majority of the organized workers supported Social-Demooratic
Parties. A powerful urge for unity of action is growing in the ranks of the
international working class. The revolutionary movement in the colonial r^un-
tries and the Soviet revolution in China are extending. The relationship of
class forces on a world scale is changing more and more in the direction of
a growth of the forces of revolution.
In this situation, the rtiling bourgeoisie is seeking salvation more and more
in fascism, in the establishment of the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most
reactionary, the most chauvinist and the most imperialist elements of finance
capital, with the aim of putting into effect extraordinary measures for despoil-
ing the toilers, of preparing a predatory, imperialist war. of attackine the
V. S. S. R., enslaving and dividing up China, and. on the basis of all this,
preventing revolution. Finance capital is striving to curb the indignation of
the petty-bourgeois masses against capitalism throiigh the medium of its fa'^cist
agents who demagogically adapt their slogans to the moods of these sections
of the population. Fascism is thus setting up for itself a mass basis and, by
APPENDIX, PART 1 535
directing these sections as a reactionary force against the working class, leads
to the still greater enslavement of all the toilers by finance capital. In a
number of countries fascism is already in power. But the growth of fascism
and its victory attest not only to the weakness of the working class, disorgan-
ized as the result of Social-Democracy's disruptive policy of class collaboration
with the bourgeoisie, but also to the weakness of the bourgeoisie itself, which
is stricken with fear at the realization of unity in the struggle of the working
class, is in fear of revolution, and is no longer able to maintain its dictatorship
by the old methods of bourgeois democracy.
2. The most reactionary variety of fascism is the German type of fascism which
brazenly calls itself National-Socialism though it has absolutely nothing in com-
mon either with socinlism, or with the defense of the real national interests of the
common people, and merely fulfills the role of lackey of the big bourgeoisie and
constitutes not only hourr/eois natiojiali-sm hut also bestial chauvinism.
Fascist Germany is plainly showing to the whole world what the masses of the
people ma.v expect where fascism is victorious. The raging fascist government is
annihilating the flower of the working class, its leaders and organizers, in jails
and concentration camps. It has destroyed the trade unions, the cooperative
societies, all legal organizations of the workers, as well as all other non-fascist
political and cultural organizations. It has deprived the worker? of the ele-
mentary right to defend their interests. It has converted a cultured country
into a hotbed of obsciu'antism, barbarity and war. German fascism is the main
instigator of a new imperialist war and comes forward as the shock troop of
international counter-revolution.
3. In emphasizing the growth of the threat of fascism in all capital countries,
the Seventh Congress of the Communist International warns against any under-
estimation of the fascist danger. The Congress also rejects the fatalistic views
regarding the inevitability of the victory of fascism. These views are basically
incorrect and can only give rise to passivity and weaken the mass struggle against
fascism. The working class can prevent the victory of fascism, if it succeeds in
bringing about unity in its struggle and by promptly developing its own militant
action does not allow fascism to gather strength ; if it succeeds, by correct revolu-
tionary leadership, in rallying around itself the broad strata of toilers in town
and country.
4. The victory of fascism is insecure. In spite of the formidable difficulties that
fascist dictatorship creates for the working-class movement, the foimdations of
bourgeois domination are being further shaken under the rule of the fascists.
The internal conflicts in the camp of the bourgeoisie are becoming especially acute.
The legalistic illusions of the masses are being shattered. The revolutionary
hatred of the workers is accumulating. The baseness and falsity of the social
demagogy of fascism is revealing itself more and more. Fascism not only did not
bring the masses the improvement in their material conditions which they had
been promised, but has brought about a further increase of the profits of the
capitalists by lowering the living standard of the toiling masses, has intensified
their exploitation by a handful of financial magnates, and has carried out their
further spoliation for the benefit of capital. The disillusionment of the urban
petty-bourgeois strata and of the toiling peasants, deceived by the fascists, is
growing. The mass base of fascism is disintegrating and narrowing down. The
Congress, however, warns against the dangerous illusions of an automatic collapse
of the fa.'-cist dictatorship, and points out that only the united revolution^i-y
struggle of the working class at the head of all the toilers will bring about the
overthrow of the fascist dictatorship.
5. In connection with the victory of fascism in Germany and the growth of
the fascist danger in other countries, the class struggle of the proletariat, which
is increasingly adopting the course of determined resistance to the fascist bour-
geoisie, sharpened and continues to sharpen. The united front nwrement against
the offensive of capital and fascism is developing in all capitalist countries. The
National-Socialist terror raging in Germany has lent powerful impetus to the
international united front of the proletariat (the Leipzig trial, the campaign for
the release of Dimitroff and the comrades jailed together with him, the campaign
for the defense of Thaelmann, etc.).
Alth<nigh the united front movement is as yet only in the initial stage of Its
development, the Communist and Social-Democratic workers of France, fighting
side by side, succeeded in beating off the first attacks of fascism, thereby exerting
a mobilizing influence on the united front movement internationally. The joint
armed struggle of the Social-Democratic and Communist workers in Austria" and
Spain not only set a heroic example to the toilers of other countries, but also
(536 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
demonstrated that a successful struggle against fascism would have been fully
possible but for the sabotage of the Right and the wavering of the "Left" Social-
Democratic leaders (in Spain there must be added the open treachery of the
majority of tlie Anarcho-Syndicalist leaders), whose influence over the masses
deprived the proletariat of determined revolutionary leadership and of clarity
In the aims of the struggle.
6. The bankruptcy of the leading party of the Second International, of German
Social-Democracy, which by its entire policy facilitated the victory of fascism,
also the failure of ''Left" reformist Social-Democracy in Austria, which drew the
broad masses away from the struggle even when the inevitable armed clash with
fascism was drawing close, have tremendously increased the disillusionment of
the Social-Democratic workers with the policy of the Social-Democratic Parties.
The Second International is undergoing a profound crisis. Within the Social-
Democratic Parties and the whole Second International a process of differentia-
tion into two main camps is taking phice — side by side with the existing camp of
the reactionary elements who are trying to continue the policy of class collabora-
tion with the bourgeoisie, there is being formed a camp of elements who are be-
coming revohitioni~ed, elements who declare for the establishment of the united
proletarian front and are adopting more and more the position of the revolution-
ary class struggle.
The Seventh Congress of the Communist International welcomes the aspiration
of the Social-Democratic workers to establish a united front with the Com-
munists, regarding this as a sign that their class consciousness is growing, and
that a beginning has been made toward overcoming the split in the ranks of the
working class in the interest of a successful struggle against fascism, against
the bourgeoisie.
II. The United Front of the Working Class Against Fascism
In face of the towering menace of fascism to the working class and all the
gains it has made, to all toilers and their elementary rights, to the peace and
liberty of the peoples, the Seventh Congress of the Communist International
declares that at the present historical stage it is the main and immediate task
of the international labor movement to establish the united fighting front of the
working class. F«r a successful struggle against the offensive of capital, against
the reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie, against fascism, the bitterest enemy
of all the toilers who, without distinction of political views, have been deprived
of aU rights and liberties, it is imperative that unity of action be established
between all sections of the working class, irrespective of what organization they
belong to, even before the majority of the working class unites on a common
fighting platform for the overthrow of capitalism and the victory of the proletarian
revolution. But it is precisely for this very reason that this task makes it the
duty of the Communist Parties to take into consideration the changed circum-
stances and to apply the united front tactics in a new manner, by seeking to
reach agreements with the organizations of the toilers of various ix)litical
trends for joint action on a factory, local, district, national and international
scale.
With this as its point of departure, the Seventh Congress of the Communist
International enjoins the Communist Parties to be guided by the following instruc-
tions when carrying out the united front tactics :
1. The defense of the immediate economic and political interests of the working
class, the defense of the latter against fascism, must be the starting point and
form the main content of the workers' united front in all capitalist countries. In
order to set the broad masses in motion, such slogans and forms of struggle must
be put forward as arise from the vital needs of the masses and from the level of
their fighting capacity at the given stage of development. Communists must not
limit themselves to merely issuing appeals to struggle for proletarian dictatorship,
but must show the masses ichat they are to do today to defend themselves against
capitalist plunder and fascist barbarity. They must strive, through the joint
action of the labor organizations, to mobilize the masses around a program of
demands that are calculated really to shift the burden of the consequences of the
crisis onto the shoulders of the ruling classes, demands, the fight to realize ivhich,
disorganizes fascism, hampers the preparations for imperialist war, weakens
the bouregoisie and strengthens the positions of the proletariat.
While preparing the working class for rapid shifts in the forms and methods
of struggle as circumstances change, it is necessary to organize, in proportion
as the movement grows, the transition from, the defensive to the offensive
APPENDIX, PART 1 637
against capital, steering toward the organization of a mass political strike,
in wliicli it is indispensable that the participation of the principal trade
unions of the country should be secured.
2. Without for a moment giving up their independent work in the sphere
of Communist education, organization and mobilization of the masses, the
Communists, in order to rendei' the road to unity of action easier for the
workers, must strive to secure joint action with the Social-Democratic Parties,,
reformist trade uiiious and other organizations of the toilers against the
class enemies of the proletariat, on the basis of short- or long-term agreements.
At the same time attention must be directed mainly to the development of
mass action in the various localities, conducted by the lower organization
through local agreement.
Loyally fulfilling the conditions of the agreements, the Communists must
promptly expose any sabotage of joint action by persons or organizations
participating in the united front, and if the agreement is broken, must im-
mediately appeal to the masses while continuing their tireless struggle for the
restoration of the disrupted unity of action.
3. The forms in which the united proletarian front is realized, which depend
on the condition and character of the labor organizations and on the concrete
situation, must be varied in character. Such forms may include, for instance,
joint action by the workers agreed upon from case to case on particular oc-
casions, to secure individual demands, or on the basis of a common platform ;
action agreed upon in individual enterprises or branches of industry; action
agreed upon on a local, district, national or international scale; action agreed
upon in the organization of the economic struggle of the workers, in defense of
the interests of the unemployed, in carrying out mass political activity, in the
organization of joint self-defense against -fascist attacks; action agreed upon
to render aid to political prisoners and their families, in the field of struggle
against social reaction ; joint action in defense of the interests of the youth
and women, in the sphere of the cooperative movement, cultural activity and.
sports; joint action for the purpose of supporting the damands of the toiling
peasants, etc. : the formation of workers', and workers' and peasants' alliances
(Spain) ; the formation of lasting coalitions in the shape of "Labor Parties" or
"Workers' and Farmers" Parties" (U.S.A.).
In order to develop the united front movement as the cause of the masses
themselves, Communists must strive to secure tlie establishment of elected (or.
in the countries under fascist dictatorship, selected from the most authoritative
participants in the movement) non-Party class organs of the united front in
the factories, among the unemployed, in the working-class districts, among the
small townsfolk, and in the villages. Only such bodies, which, of course,
should not supplant the organizations participating in the united front, will
be able to bring into the united front movement also the vast unorganized mass
of toilers, will be able to assist in developing the initiative of the masses
in the struggle against the offensive of capital and against fascism, and on
this basis help to create a large body of working-class united front activists.
4. Wherever the Social-Democratic leaders, in their efforts to deflect the
workers from the struggle in defense of their every-day interests and in order
to frustrate the united front, put forward widely advertised "Socialist" projects
(the de Man plan, etc.), the demagogic nature of such projects must be
exposed, and the toilers must be shown the impossibility of bringing about
socialism so long as power remains in the hands of the bourgeoisie. At the
same time, however, some of the measures put forward in these projects that
can be linked up with the vital demands of the toilers should be utilized, as the
starting point for developing a mass united fro^rt struggle jointly with the
Social-Democratic ivorlcers.
In countries where Social-Democratic governments are in power (or where
there are coalition governments in which Socialists participate). Communists
must not confine themselves to propaganda exposing the policies of such govern-
ments, but must mobilize the broad masses for the struggle to secure their
practical vital class demands, the fulfillment of which the Social-Democrats
announced in their platforms, particularly when they were not yet in power
or were not yet members of their respective governments.
5. Joint action with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations not only-
does not preclude, but on the contrary, renders still more necessary the serious
and well-founded criticism of reformism, of Social-Democracy as the idealogy
and practice of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and. the patient
638 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
exposition of the principles and program of Communism to the Social Democratic
workers.
While revealing to the masses the meaning of the demagogic arguments
advanced by the Right Social-Democratic leaders against the united front,
while intensifying the struggle against the reactionary section of Social-
Democracy, the Communists must establish the closest cooperation with those
Left Social-Democratic wwkers, functionaries and organizations, that fight
against the reformist policy and advocate a united front with the Communist
Party. The more we intensify our fight against the reactionary camp of
Social-Democracy, which is participating in a bloc with the bourgeoisie, the
more effective will be the assistance we give to that part of Social-Democracy
which is becoming revolutionized and the self-determination of the various
elements within the Left camp will take place the sooner, the more resolutely
the Communists fight for a united front with the Social-Democratic Parties.
The attitude to the practical realization of the united front will be the chief
indication of the true position of the various groups among the Social-Demo-
crats. In the tight for the practical realization of the united front, those Social-
Democratic leaders who come forward as Lefts in words will be obliged to
show by deeds whether they are really ready to fight the bourgeoisie and the
Right Social-Democrats, or are on the side of the bourgeoisie, that is, against
the cause of the working class.
6. Election campaigns must be utilized for the further development and
■strengthening of the united fighting front of the proletariat. While coming
forward independently in the elections and unfolding the program of the Com-
munist Party before the masses, the Communists must seek to establish a
united front with the Social-Democratic Parties and the trade unions (also
with the organizations of the toiling peasants, handicraftsmen, etc.), and exert
every effort to prevent the election of reactionary and fascist candidates. In
face of fascist danger, the Communists may, while reserving for themselves
freedom of political agitation and criticism, participate in election campaigns on
a commo-n platform and with a common ticket of the anti-fascist front, depend-
ing on the growth and success of the united front movement, also depending
on the electoral system in operation.
7. In striving to unite, under the leadership of the proletariat, the struggle
of the toiling peasants, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the toiling masses
of the oppressed nationalities, the Comaunists must seek to bring about the
establishment of a wide anti-fascist people's front on the basis of the prole-
tarian united front, supporting all those specific demands of those sections of
the toilers which are in line with the fundamental interests of the proletariat.
It is particularly important to mobilize the toiling peasants against the fascist
policy of robbing the basic masses of the peasantry; against the plundering
price policy of monopoly capital and the bourgeois governments, against the
unbearable burden of taxes, rents and debts, against forced sales of peasant
property, and in favor of government aid for the ruined peasantry. While
working everywhere among the urban petty bourgeoisie and the iritelligentsia
as well as among the office employees, the Communists must rouse these strata
against increasing taxation and the high cost of living, against their spoliation
by monopoly capital, by the trusts, against the thraldom of interest payments,
and against dismissals and reductions in salary of government and municipal
employees. While defending the interests and rights of the progressive intel-
lectuals, it is necessary to give them every support in their movement against
cultural reaction, and to facilitate their going over to the side of the working
class in the struggle against fascism.
8. In the circumstances of a political crisis, when the ruling classes are no
longer in a position to cope with the powerful sweep of the mass movement,
the* Communists must advance fundamental revolutionary slogans (such as,
for instance, control of production and the banks, disbandment of the police
force and its replacement by an armed workers' militia, etc.), which are
directed toward still further shaking the economic and political power of
the bourgeoisie and increasing the strength of the working class, toward iso-
lating the parties of compromise, and which lead the working masses right up
to the point of the revolutionary seizure of power. If with such an upsurge
of the mass movement it will prove possible, and necessary, in the interests
of the proletariat, to create a proletarian united front government, or an anti-
fascist people's front government, which is not yet a government of the prole-
tarian dictatorship, but one which undertakes to put into effect decisive
measures against fascism and reaction, the Communist Party must see to it
APPENDIX, PART 1 g39
tliar such a goverument is formed. The following situation is an essential
prerequisite for the formation of a united front government: (a) When the
state apparatus of the bourgeoisie is seriously paralyzed so that the bourgeoisie
is not in a condition to preA'ent the formation of such a government; (b) When
vast masses of the toilers vehemently take action against fascism and reaction,
but are not yet ready to rise and fight for Soviet Power; (c) When already a
considerable proportion of the organizations of the Social-Democratic and other
parties participating in the united front demand ruthless measures against the
fascists and other reactionaries, and are ready to tight together with the Com-
munists for the carrying out of these measures.
In so far as the united front government will really undertake decisive
measures against the counter-revolutionary financial magnates and their fascist
agents, and will in no way restrict the activity of the Communist Party and
the struggle of the working class, the Communist Party will support such a
government in every way. The participation of the Communists in a united
front government will be decided separately in each particular case as the con-
crete situation may warrant.
III. The Unity of the Trade Union Movement
Emphasizing the special importance of forming a united front in the sphere
of the economic struggle of the workers and the establishment of the unity of the
trade union movement as a most important step in consolidating the united
front of the proletariat, the Congress makes it a duty of the Communists to
adopt all practical measures for the realization of the unity of the trade unions
by industries and on a national scale.
The Communists are decidedly for the reestablishment of trade union unity in
each country and on an international scale ; for united class trade unions as
one of the major bulwarks of the working class against the offensive of capital
and fascism ; for one trade union in each industry ; for one federation of trade
unions in each country ; for one international federation of trade unions or-
ganized according to industries ; for one international of trade unions based on
the clasB struggle.
In countries where there are small Red trade unions, efforts must be made
to secure their admission into the big reformist trade unions, with demands put
forward for the right to defend their views and the reinstatement of expelled
members. In countries where big Red and reformist trade unions exist side
by side, efforts must be made to secure their amalgamation on an equal footing,
on the basis of a platform of struggle against the offensive of capital and a
guarantee of trade union democracy.
It is the duty of Communists to work actively in the reformist and united
trade unions, to consolidate them and to recruit the itnorganized workers for
them, and at the same time exert every effort to have these organizations actually
defend the interests of the workers and really become genuine class organiza-
tions. To this end the Communists must strive to secure the support of the
entire membership, of the oflScials, and of the organizations as a whole.
It is the duty of the Communists to defend the trade unions against all at-
tempts on the part of the bourgeoisie and the fascists to restrict their rights
or to destroy them.
If the reformist leaders resort to the policy of expelling revolutionary workers
or entire branches from the trade unions, or adopt other forms of repression, the
Communists must rally the entire union membership against the splitting activity
of the leadership, at the same time establishing contact between the expelled
members and the bulk of the members of the trade unions, and engaging in a
joint struggle for their reinstatement, for the restoration of the disrupted trade
union unity.
The Red trade unions and the Red International of Labor Unions must receive
the fullest support of the Communist Parties in their efforts to bring about the
joint struggle of the trade unions of all trends, and establish unity in the
trade union movement both nationally and internationally, on the bams of the
class strnggle and trade union democracy.
IV. Tasks of the Communists in the Individual Sectors of the Anti-Fascist
Movement
1. The Congress calls particular attention to the necessity of carrying on a
systematic ideological struggle against fascism. In view of the fact that the
g40 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
chief, the most dangerous form of fascist ideology is chauvinism, it must be
made plain to the masses that the fascist bourgeoisie uses the pretext of de-
fending the national interests to carry out its sordid class policy of oppressing
and exploiting its own people as well as robbing and enslaving other i^eoples.
They must be shown that the working class, which lights against every form of
servitude and national oppression, is the oiih/ (/eiiuiiic protagonist of national
freedom and the independence of the people. The Communists must in every
way combat the fascist falsification of the history of the people, and do every-
thing to enlighten the toiling masses on the past of their own people in an
historically correct fashion, in the true spirit of Lenin and Stalin, so as to
link up their present struggle with the revolutionary traditions of the past.
The Congress warns against adopting a disparaging attitude on the question
of national independence and the national sentiments of the broad masses of
the people, an attitude which renders it easier for fascism to develop its chau-
vinist campaigns (the Saar, the German regions in Czecho-slovakia, etc.), and
insists on a correct and concrete application of the Leninist-Stalinist national
policy.
While Communists are irreconcilable opponents, on principle, of iKinrgeois
nationalism of every variety, they are by no means supporters of national
nihilism, of an attitude of unconcern for the fate of their own people.
2. Communists must enter all fascist mass organizations which have a monop-
oly of legal existence in the given country, and must make use of even the smallest
legal or semi-legal opportunity of working in them, in order to counterpose the
interests of the masses in these organizations to the policy of fascism, and to
undermine the mass basis of the latter. Beginning with the most elementary
movements of protest around the urgent needs of the toilers, the Communists
must use flexible tactics to draw ever wider masses into the movement, especially
workers who by reason of their lack of class consciousness still follow the
fascists. As the movement gains in width and depth, the slogans of the struggle
must be changed, while preparing to smash the fascist bourgeois dictatorshixi
with the aid of the very masses who are in the fascist organizations.
3. While vigorously and consistently defending the interests and demands of
the unemployed, while organizing and leading them in the fight for work, for
adequate relief, insurance, etc., the Communists must draw the unemployed into
the united front movement and use all means to force out the influence of
fascism among them. At the same time it is necessary to take striC^ly into
account the specific interests of the various categories of unemployed (skilled
an unskilled workers, organized and unorganized, men and women, youth, etc.).
4. The Congress emphatically calls the attention of all Communist Parties of
the capitalist countries to the exceptional role of the youth in the struggle
against fascism. It is from among the youth mainly that fascism recruits its
.shock detachments. In fighting against any underestimation of the importance
of mass work among the toiling youth, and taking effective steps to overcome
the secludedness of the Young Communist League organizations, the Communist
Parties must do everything to help unite the forces of all non-fascist mass youth
organizations, including youth organizations of the trade unions, cooperative
societies, etc., on the basis of the broadest united front, including the formation
of various kinds of common organizations for the struggle against fascism,
against the unprecedented manner in which the youth is being stripped of every
right, against the militarization of the youth, and for the economic and cultural
interests of the young generation. The task of creating an anti-fascist associa-
tion of Communist and Socialist youth leagues on the platform of the class
struggle must be brought to the fore.
The Communist Parties must give every assistance in the development and
consolidation of the Young Communist Leagues.
5. The vital necessity of drawing the millions of toiling tnomen into the united
people's front, primarily women workers and toiling peasant women, irrespective
of the political and religious views they hold, requires that the Communists
intensify thoir activity for the purpose of developing the mass movement of tlie
toiling "women around the struggle for their urgent demands and interests,
particularly in the struggle against the high cost of living, against inequality
in the status of women and their fascist enslavement, against mass dismissals,
for higher wages on the principle of "equal pay for equal work", and against the
war danger. Flexible use must be made, in every country and on an international
scale, of the most varied organizational forms to establish contacts between and
bring about joint action of the revolutionary, Social-Democratic and progressive
APPENDIX, PART 1 g41'
women's organizations, while ensuring freedom of opinion and criticism, without
hesitating to form also separate women's organizations wherever this may become
necessary.
6. Connnunists must carry on a struggle to draw the cooperative organizations
into the ranks of the united front of the proletariat and of the anti-fascist
people's front.
The most active assistance nmst he rendered by Communists in the struggle
of the cooperative societies for the urgent interests of their members, especially
in the fight against high prices, for credits, against the introduction of predatory
duties and new taxes, against the restrictions imposed on the activities of the
cooperative societies and their destruction by the fascists, etc.
7. The Communists must take the initiative in establishing anti-fascist mass
defense corps against the attacks of the fascist bands, recruiting these corps
from reliable, tested elements of the united front movement.
V. The Anti-imperialistic People's Front in the Colonial Countries
In the colonial ami semi-colonial coini\tries, the most important task facing
the Communists consists in working to establish an anti-imperialist people's
front. For this purpose it is necessary to draw the widest masses into the
national liberation movement against growing imperialist exploitation, against
cruel enslavement, for the driving out of the imperialists, for the independence
of the country ; to take an active part in the mass anti-imperialist movements
headed by the national reformists and strive to bring about joint action with the
national-revolutionary and national-reformist organizations on the basis of a
definite anti-imperialist platform.
In China, the extension of the Soviet movement and the strengthening of the
fighting power of the Red Army must be combined with the development of the
people's anti-imperialist movement all over the country. This movement must
be carried on under the slogan of the national-revolutionary struggle of the
armed people against the imperialist enslavers, in the first place against Jap-
anese imperialism and its Chinese servitors. The Soviets must become the rally-
ing center for the entire Chinese people in its struggle for emancipation.
In the interests of its own struggle for emancipation, the proletariat of the
imperialist coimtries must give its unstinted support to the liberation struggle
of the colonial and semi-colonial peoples against the imperialist pirates.
VI. The Strengthening of the Communist Parties and the Struggle for the
Political Unity of the Working Class
The Congress emphasizes with particular stress that only the further all-
round consolidation, of the Communist Parties themselves, the development of
their initiative, the carrying out of a policy based on Marxist-Leninist principles
and the application of correct flexible tactics, which take into account the con-
crete situation and the alignment of class forces, can ensure the mobilization
of the widest masses of toilers for the united struggle against fascism, against
capitalism.
In order that the united front may be really brought about, the Communists
must overcome the self-satisfied sectarianism in their own ranks which in our
day is, in a number of cases, no longer an "infantile disorder" of the Communist
movement but an ingrained vice. By overestimating the degree of revolutioniza-
tion of the masses, by creating the illusion that the path to fascism had already
been barred while the fascist movement was continuing to grow, this sectarianism
actually fostered passivity in relation to fascism. In practice it replaced the
methods of leading masses by the methods of leading a narrow party group,
substituted abstract propaganda and Left doctrinairism for a mass policy, re-
fusing to work in the reformist trade unions and fascist mass organizations and
adopting stereotyped tactics and slogans for all countries without taking account
of the special features of the concrete situation in each particular country. This
sectarianism to a great extent retarded the growth of the Communist Parties,
made it difficult for a genuine mass policy to be carried out and hindered these
Parties in making use of the difficulties of the class enemy to strengthen the
revolutionary movement, hindered the cause of winning over the wide masses of
the proletariat to the side of the Communist Parties.
While carrying on a most energetic struggle to root out all vestiges of sec-
tarianism, which at the present moment is a most serious obstacle to the pursuing
of a real mass Bolshevik policy by the Communist Parties, the Communists must
94031— 40— app., pt. 1 42
542 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
increase their vigilance in guarding against the danger of Right opportunism,
and must carry on a determined struggle against all its concrete manifestations,
bearing in mind that the Right danger ivill grow as the tactics of tlie united
front are widely applied. The struggle for the establishment of the united
front, the unity of action of the working class, gives rise to the necessity that
the Social-Democratic workers be convinced by object lessons of the correctness
of the Communist policy and the incorrectness of the reformist policy, and
charges every Communist Party to wage an irreconcilable struggle against any
tendency to gloss over the differences in principles between Communism and
reformism, against weakening the criticism of Social-Democracy as the ideology
and practice of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, against the illusion that
it is possible to bring about socialism by peaceful, legal methods, against any
reliance on automatism or spontat)eity, whether in the liquidation of fascism
or in the realization of the united front, against belittling the role of the Party
and against the slightest vacillation of the moment of decisive actimi.
Holding that the interests of the class struggle of the proletariat and the
success of the proletarian revolution make it imperative that a single ma^s
political parti/ of the ^vorking class exist in every country, the Congress sets
the Communist Parties the task of taking the initiative in bringing about
this unity, relying on the growing desire of the workers to unite the Social-
Democratic Parties or individual organizations with the Communist Parties.
At the same time it must be explained to the workers without fail that such
unity is possible only under certain conditions : under the condition of com-
plete independence from, the bourgeoisie and the complete severance of the hloc
between Social -Democracy and the bourgeoisie, under the condition that unity
of action be first brought about, that the necessity of the revolutionary over-
throw of the rule of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship
of the proletariat in the form of Soviets be recognized, that support of one's
own bourgeoisie in imperialist war be rejected, and that the party be con-
structed on the basis of democratic centralism which ensures unity of wiU
and action and has been tested by the experience of the Russian Bolsheviks.
At the same time it is necessary to act resolutely against the attempts of the
"Left" Social-Democratic demagogues to utilize the disillusionment among the
Social-Democratic workers to form new Socialist Parties and a new "Interna-
tional" which are directed against the Communist movement and thus widen
the split in the working class.
Considering that unity of action is an urgent necessity and the surest way
to bring about the political unity of the proletariat, the Seventh Congress of
the Communist International declares in the name of all Sections of the Com-
munist International that they are ready to begin immediate negotiations with
the corresponding parties of the Second International for the establishment of
imity of action of the working class against the offensive of capital, against
fascism and the threat of imperialist war, and likewise declares that the
Communist International is prepared to enter into negotiations with the Second
International directed to this end.
VII. For Soviet Power
In the struggle to defend against fascism the bourgeois-democratic liberties
and the gains of the toilers, in the struggle to overthrow fascist dictatorship,
the revolutionary proletariat prepares its forces, strengthens its fighting con-
tacts with its allies and directs the struggle toward the goal of achieving real
democracy of the toilers — Soviet Power.
The further consolidation of the Land of the Soviets, the rallying of the
world proletariat around it, and the mighty growth of the international au-
thority of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the turn toward revolu-
tionary class struggle which has set in among the Social-Democratic workers
and the workers organized in the reformist trade imions, the increasing mass
resistance to fascism and the growth of the revolutionary movement in the
colonies, the decline of the Second International and the growth of the Com-
munist International are all accelerating and will continue to accelerate the
development of the world socialist revolution.
The capitalist world is entering a iieriod of sharp clashes as a result of the
accentuation of the internal and external contradictions of capitalism.
Steering a course in the direction of this perspective of the revolutionary
development, the Seventh Congress of the Communist International calls on
the Communist Parties to display the greatest political activity and daring, to
APPENDIX, PART 1 643
carrv on a tireless struggle to bring about unity of action by the working
class. The establishment of tlie united front of the working class is the
decisive link in the preparation of the toilers for the forthcoming great battles
of the second round of proletarian revolution. Only the welding of the pro-
letariat into a single mass political army will ensure its victory in the struggle
against fascism and the power of capital, for the dictatorship of the proletariat
and the power of the Soviets.
"The victory of revohitlon ne^:er comes by itself. It has to be prepared for
and imn. And only a strong proletarian revolutionary party can prepare for and
win victory:'' (Stalin.)
THE TASKS OP THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL IN CONNEXJTION WITH THE
PREPARATIONS OP THE IMPERIALISTS FOR A NEW WORLD WAR
(Resolution on the Report of M. Ercoli. Adopted August 20, 1935
by the Seventh Congress of the Communist International)
1. The Preparation of War for a New Repartition of the World
The world economic crisis and the shattering of capitalist stabilization have
given rise to the extreme instability of all international relations. The intensi-
fied struggle on the world market, which has shrunk extremely as a result of the
economic crisis, has passed into fierce economic war. A new repartition of the
tco7-ld has actually already begun.
Japanese imperialism, waging war in the Far East, has already made a start
toward a new repartition of the world. The military occupation of Manchuria
and North China signifies the virtual annulment of the Washington Treaties
which regulated the division of the spheres of influence among the imperialist
powers in China and their mutual relations in the Pacific. Japan's predatory
expedition is already leading to the weakening of the influence of British and
American imi>erialism in China, is menacing the position of Great Britain and the
U.S.A. in the Pacific and is a preparation for a counter-revolutionary war against
the Soviet Union.
All that is left of the Versailles Treaty is state frontiers and the distribution
of mandates for colonies. The liquidation of the Versailles Treaty took place as
a result of the stoppage of reparation payments, the re-establishment of universal
conscription by the Hitler government, and also the conclusion of a naval agree-
ment between Britain and Germany.
Being the chief instigators of tear, the German fascists, who strive for the
hegemony of German imperialism in Europe, raise the question of changing the
boundaries of Europe at the expense of their neighbors by means of war. The
adventurist plans of the German fascists are very far-reaching and count on a war
of revenge against France, dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, aimexation of Aus-
tria, destruction of the independence of the Baltic states, which they are striving
to convert into a base for attack on the Soviet Union, and the wresting of the
Soviet Ukraine from the U.S.S.R. They are demanding colonies and are en-
deavoring to arouse moods in favor of a world war for a new repartition of the
warld. All these intrigues of the reckless inciters of war help to intensify the
contradictions between the capitalist states and create disturbances throughout
Europe.
German imperialism has found an ally in Europe — fascist Poland, which
is also striving to extend its territory at the expense of Czechoslovakia, the
Baltic countries and the Soviet Union.
The dominant circles of the British bourgoisie support the German arma-
ments in order to weaken the hegemony of France on the European continent,
to turn the spearhead of German armaments from the West to the East and
to direct Germany's aggressiveness against the Soviet Union. By this policy
Great Britain is striving to set up a counterbalance to the United States
on a world-wide scale and, simultaneously, to strengthen the anti-Soviet
tendencies not only of Germany but also of Japan and Poland. TTiis policy
of British imperialism is one of the factors accelerating the outbreak of a
world imperialist war.
Italian imperialism is directly proceeding to seizure of Abyssinia, thus
creating new tension in the relations between the great imperialist powers.
The main contradition in the camp of the imperialists is the Anglo-American
antagonism which exerts its influence on all the contraditions in world politics.
In South America, where the hostile interests of Great Britain and the United
States clash most sharply, this antagonism led to wars between the respective
g44 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
South American vassals of these powers (between Bolivia and Paraguay,
Colombia and Peru), and threatens further armed conflicts in South and
Central America (Colombia and "Venezuela).
At a time when particularly the fascist states — Germany, Poland, Hungary,
Italy — are openly striving for a new repartition of the world and a change
in the frontiers of Europe, there is a tendency among a number of other
countries to maintain the status quo. At the present time this tendency is
represented on a world scale by the United States; in Europe, primarily by
France; the efforts of these two leading imperialist powers to maintain the
status quo are supported by several smaller countries (the Little and Balkan
Ententes, some of the Baltic states), whose independence is threatened by
a new imperialist war.
The victory of German National-Socialism, the most reactionary, the most
aggressive form of fascism, and its war provocations have spurred on the war
parties, which represent the most reactionary and chauvinist elements of the
bourgeoisie, in all countries to fight more vigorously for power and to
intensify the fascization of the state apparatus.
The frantic arming of fascist Germany, especially the restoration of military
conscription and the enormous increase of the navy and air fleet in Germany,
have given rise to a new, intensified race for armaments throughout the
capitalist world. Despite the world economic crisis, the war industry flourishes
more than ever before. The countries which have gone furthest in preparing
for war (Germany, Japan, Italy, Poland) have already placed their national
economy on a war footing. Alongside the regular armies, special fascist
detachments are trained to safeguard the rear and to do gendarme service
at the front. Pre-conscription training is widespread in all capitalist countries,
and even includes juveniles. Education and propagauda in the spirit of
chauvinism and racial demagogy are encouraged in every way, their cost
being defrayed by the government.
Although the acuteness of the imperialist contraditions renders the forma-
tion of an anti-Soviet bloc difficult at the present moment, the fascist govern-
ments and war parties in the capitalist countries endeavor to solve these con-
traditions at the expense of the fatherland of all the toilers, at the expens^e
of the Soviet Union. The danger of the outbreak of a new imperialist war
daily threatens humanity.
11. Role of the Soviet Union in the Struggle for Peace
On the basis of the rapid rise of socialist industry and agriculture,
on the basis of the liquidation of the last capitalist class — the kulaks, on the
basis of the final victory of socialism over capitalism and the strengthening
of the defensive power of the country resulting therefrom, the mutual relations
hetiveen the Soviet Union and the capitalist countries have entered a new
phase.
The basic contradiction, that between the socialist and the capitalist world,
has become still more acute. But due to its growing might, the Soviet Union
has been able to avert the attack that was already prepared by the imperialist
powers and their vassals, and to unfold its consistent policy of peace directed
against all instigators of war. This has m'ade the Soviet Union the center of
attraction not only for class-conscious workers, but for all the toiling people in
the capitalist and colonial countries who strive for peace. Moreover, the peace
policy of the U. S. S. R. has not only upset the plans of the imperialists to
isolate the Soviet Union, but has laid the basis for its cooperation in the cause
of the preservation of peace nyith the small states for whom war, by placing
their independence in jeopardy, repi'esents a special danger, as well as with
those governments which at the present moment are interested in the preser-
vation of peace.
The peace policy of the U. S. S. R., putting forward proletarian inter-
nationalism as against national and racial dissension, is not only directed
towards defense of the Soviet country, towards ensuring the safety of socialist
construction ; it also protects the lives of the workers of all countries, the lives
of all the oppressed and exploited; it means the defense of the national in-
dependence of small nations, its serves the vital interests of humanity, it
defends culture from the barbarities of war.
At the time when a new war between the imperialist states is approaching
ever more closely, the might of the AVorkers' and Peasants' Red Armv of the
APPENDIX, PART 1 645
U. S. S. R. is constantly gaining in importance in the struggle for peace.
Under the circumstances of a frantic increase in armaments by the imperialist
countries, especially on the part of Germany, Japan and Poland, all those who
are striving to preserve peace are vitally interested in strengthening and
-actively supporting the Red Army.
III. The Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle
for Peace and Against Imperialist War
On the basis of the teachings of Mnvx Engels-Lenin-Stalin on war, the Sixth
World Congress of the Communist International concretely formulated the
tasks of the Communist Parties and the revolutionary proletariat in the struggle
against imperialist war. Guided by these principles, the Communist Parties of
Japan and China, both directly affected by war, have waged and are waging a
Bolshevik struggle against imijerialist war and for the defense of the Chinese
people. The Seveuth World Congress of the Gommiuiist Inter national, con-
firming the decision of the Sixth Congress on the struf/f/le anainst imperialist
war, sets the following main tasks before the Communist Parties, revolutionary
workers, toilers, peasants and oppressed peoples of the whole world :
1. The stnif/ffJe for peace, and for the defense of the U. S. S. R. In face of
the war provocations of the German fascists and Japanese militarists, and the
speeding up of armaments by the war parties in the capitalist countries, in
face of the immediate danger of a counter-revolutionary war breaking out
against the Soviet Union, the central slogan of the Communist Parties must
be : struggle for peace.
2. The united people's front in the struggle for peace and against the instiga-
tors of ivar. The struggle for peace opens up before the Communist Parties
the greatest opportunities for creating the broadest united front. All those
interested in the preservation of peace should be drawn into this united front.
The concentration of forces against the chief instigators of war at any given
moment (at the present time — against fascist Germany, and against Poland and
Japan which are in league with it) constitutes a most important tactical task
of the Communist Parties. It is of especially great importance for the Com-
munist Party of Germany to expose the national demagogy of Hitler fascism,
which screens it.self behind phrases about the unification of the German
people but in fact leads to the isolation of the German people and to a new
war catastrophe. The indispensable condition and prerequisite for the unifica-
tion of the German people lies in the overthrow of Hitler fascism. The
establishment of a united front with Social-Democratic and reformist organi-
zations (party, ti'ade unions, cooperative, sport, and cultural and educational
organizations) and with the bulk of their members, as well as with mass
national-liberation, religious-democratic and pacifist organizations and their
adherents, is of decisive importance for the struggle against war and its fascist
instigators in all countries.
The formation of a united front with Social-Democratic and reformist organi-
zations for the struggle for peace necessitates a determined ideological struggle
against reactionary elements within the Social-Democratic Parties which, in
face of the immediate danger of war, proceed to collaborate even more closely
with the bourgeoisie for the defense of the bourgeois fatherland and by their
campaigns of slander against the Soviet Union directly aid the preparations for
an anti-Soviet war. It necessitates close collaboration with those forces in the
Social-Democratic Parties, reformist trade unions and other mass labor organi-
zations whose position is approaching ever closer to that of revolutionary struggle
against imperialist war.
The drawing of pacifist organizations and their adherents into the united
front of struggle for peace acquires great importance in mobilizing the petty-
bourgeois masses, progressive intellectuals, women and youth against war.
AVhile constantly subjecting the erroneous views of sincere pacifists to construc-
tive criticism, and vigorously combating those pacifists who by their policy
screen the preparations of the German fascists for imperialist war (the leader-
ship of the Labor Party in Great Britain, etc.). the Communists must invite
the collaboration of all pacifist organizations that are prepared to go with
them even if only part of the way towards a geiuiine struggle against imperialist
wars.
The Communists must support the Amsterdam-Pleyel anti-war and anti-fascists
movement by active collaboration witli it and help to extend it.
646 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
3. The comhvnation of the strugiile against imperialist war with the struggle
against fascism. The anti-war struggle of the masses striving to preserve peace
must be very closely combined w-ith the struggle against fascism and the fascist
movement. It is necessary to conduct not only general propaganda for peace,
but primarily propaganda directed against the chief instigators of war, against
the fascist and other imperialist war parties, and against concrete measures
of preparation for imperialist war.
4. The struggle against militarism and armaments. The Communist Parties
of all capitalist countries must fight; against military expenditures (war
budgets), for the recall of military forces from the colonies and mandated
territories, against militarization measures takeii by capitalist governments,^
especially the militarization of the youth, women and the unemployed, against
emergency decrees restricting bourgeois-democratic liberties with the aim of
preparing for war; against restricting the rights of workers employed iu war
industry plants; against subsidizing the war industry and against trading in
or transporting arms. The struggle against war preparation measures can be
conducted only in closest connection with the defense of the economic interest
and political rights of the workers, office employees, toiling peasants and urban
petty bourgeoisie.
5. The struggle against chauvinism. In the struggle against chauvinism tlie
task of the Communists consists in educating the workers and the whole of
the toiling population in the spirit of proletarian internationalism, whicli can
be accomplished only in the struggle against the exploiters and oppressors for
the vital class interests of the proletariat, as well as iu the struggle against
the bestial chauvinism of the Nationalist-Socialist parties and all other fascist
parties. At the same time the Communists must show that the working class
carries on a consistent struggle in defense of the national freedom and inde-
pendence of all the people against any oppression or exploitation, because only
the Communist policy defends to the very end the national freedom and inde-
pendence of the people of its country.
6. The national liberation struggle and the support of wars of national
liberation. If any weak state is attacked by one or more big imperialist p<:»wers
which want to destroy its national independence and national unity or to dis-
member it, as in the historic instance of the parlition of Poland, a war conducted
by the national bourgeoisie of such a country to repel this attack may assume
the character of a war of liberation, in which the working class and the Com-
munists of that country cannot abstain from intervening. It is the task of the
Communists of such a country, while carrying (»n an irreconcilable struggle to
safeguard the economic and political positions of the workers, toiling i)easauts
and national minorities, to be. at the same time, in the front ranks of the
fighters for national independence and to wage the war of liberation to a
finish, without allowing "their" bourgeoisie to strike a bargain with the attacking
powers at the expense of the interests of their country.
It is the duty of the Commmiists actively to support the national liberation
struggle of the oppressed peoples of the colonial and semi-colonial countries,
especially the Red Army of the Chinese Soviets in their struggle against the
Japanese and other imperialists and the Kuomintang. The Communist Party
of China must exert every effort to extend the front of the struggle for
national liberation and to draw into it all the national forces that are ready
to repulse the robber campaign of the Japanese and other imperialists.
IV. From the Struggle for Peace to the Struggle for Revolution
The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International most deter-
minedly repudiates the slanderous contention that Communists desire war,
expecting it to bring revolution. The leading role of the Communist Parties
of all countries in the struggle for the preservation of peace, for the triumph of
the peace policy of the Soviet Union, proves that the Communists are striving
with all their might to obstruct the preparations for and the unleashing of a
new war.
The Communists, while fighting also against the illusion that war can be
eliminated while the capitalist system still exists, exert and will exert every
effort to prevent war. Should a new imperialist world war break out, despite
all efforts of the working class to prevent it, the Communists will strive to lead
the opponents of war. organized in the struggle for peace, to the struggle for
the transformation of the imperialist war into civil war against the fascist
instigators of war, against the bourgeoisie, for the overthrow of capitalism.
APPENDIX, PART 1 (347
The Congress at the same time warns Communists and revolutionary workers
against anarcho-syndicalist methods of struggle against war, which take the
form of refusing to appear for military service, the form of a so-called boycott of
mobilization, of committing sabotage in war plants, etc. The Congress considers
rhat such methods of struggle only do harm to the proletariat. The Russian
Bolsheviks who, during the World War, fought energetically against war and
were for the defeat of the Russian government, rejected such methods ; these
methods merely make it easier for the bourgeoisie to take repressive measures
against Communists and revolutionary workers, and prevent the latter from
winning over the toiling masses, especially the soldier masses, to the side of the
mass struggle against imperialist war and for its transformation into civil war
against the bourgeoisie.
The Seventh Congress of the Communist International, in outlining the tasks
of the Communist Parties and of the entire working class in the event of war,
bases itself upon the thesis advanced by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg and adopted
by the Stuttgart Congress of the pre-war Second International :
"If, nevertheless, war breaks out, it is their duty to work for its speedy
termination and to strive with all their might to utilize the economic and political
crisis produced by the war to rouse the political consciousness of the masses of
the people and thereby hasten the downfall of capitalist class rule."
At the present historical juncture, when oti one-sixth part of the globe the
Soviet Union defends socialism and peace for all humanity, the most vital
interests of the workers and toilers of all countries demand that in pursuing
the policy of the working class, in waging the struggle for peace, the struggle
against imperialist war before and after the outbreak of hostilities, the defense
of the Soviet Union must be considered paramount.
If the commencement of a counter-revohitionary war forces the Soviet Union
to set the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in motion for the defense of
socialism, the Communists will call upon all toilers to worh, with all means at
their disposal and at any price, for the victory of the Red Army over the armies
of the imperialists.
THE VICTORY OF SOCIALISM IN THE U. 8. S. R. AND ITS WORLD HISTOEIO SIGNIFICANCE
{ResoVution on the Report of D. Z. ManniUky, Adopted August 20, 1935 hy
the Seventh Congress of the Convmunist International)
Having heard Comrade Manuilsky's report on tJie results of socialist con-
struction in the V. 8. 8- R., the Seventh World Congress of the Communist
International notes with profound satisfaction that, under the leadership of
the C. P. S. U., the final and irrevocable victory of socialism in the U. S. S. R.
and the all-round consolidation of the State of the proletarian dictatorship
have been achieved as a result of carrying through the socialist reconstruction
of national economy, of accomplishing the collectivization of agriculture, of
squeezing out the capitalist elements and liquidating the kulaks las a class.
1. Socialist industrialization has heen successfnlly carried through. The
U. S. S. R. has changed from an economically and technically backward agrarian
country into a great, advanced, industrial country with its iron and steel pro-
duction, machinery construction, aviation, automobile and tractor industry,
and is becoming a country of electric power and chemical industries. The
U. S. S. R. is in a position to manufacture any machine and any instrument
of production in its plants. Big industrial towns have sprung up in formerly
uninhabited places. The old industrial areas are expanding and new ones
are being created. The formerly backward outlying regions and the erstwhile
tsarist colonies are being successfully industrialized and, as a result, are being
transformed into flourishing, advanced, industrial national republics and terri-
tories. Highly qualified cadres of technicians, organizers and executives have
been trained for the numerous and diversified industries and processes of
production. The successes already achieved provide new great possibilities
for the further growth of the industrialization of the entire national economy
of the U. S. S. R.
2. The greatest revolution has heen successfully accomplished w the country-
side— the collectivization of agriculture. With the triumph of the collective
farm system, the most difficult task, that of turning the vast majority of the
peasantry onto the path of socialist development, has been solved in practice.
Large-scale mechanized agriculttire. organized along socialist lines, has been
established. The network of machine and tractor stations is extending. The
iQ4:8 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Soviet (state) farms are gaining strength. The material and productive advan-
tages of the collective farm system have already become a stimulus to the
further consolidation of the collective farms and extension of voluntary col-
lectivization. The grain problems has been solved. Livestock raising has im-
proved and is steadily on the upgrade. Thanks to the collective and state
farms, the existence of vast stretches of hitherto uncultivated fertile soil and
the turn to intensive methods of agriculture, accompanied by 'an ever-increasing
application of technique and scientific principles of farming, guarantee the
possibility of the development of socialist agriculture in the U. S. S. R. on
a tremendous scale.
3. A radical improvement in the material conditions of the toilers in the
U. 8. S. R. and a tremendous rise of their cultural level have been achieved.
Unemployment has disappeared. Workers and office employees are growing
in number and becoming more highly skilled. Wage and social insurance funds
as well as individual wages and social insurance benefits 'are rising (sani-
tariums, rest homes, free medical aid, invalid and old-age pensions, etc.). The
working day has been reduced to seven and six hours, and the conditions of
labor are progressively improving. Food supply difficulties are being success-
fully overcome (abolition of bre'ad cards; the growing supply of meats and fats
for the toilers, as livestock raising keeps on developing). The big cities and
industrial centers have changed their appearance. The housing and living
conditions of the toilers are steadily improving; in place of the slums which
are characteristic of the working class quarters in big cities and industrial
centers under c'apitalism, spacious, light and sanitary workers' homes have
already been built and more are being built. Thanks to the collectivization
of agriculture and the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, poverty has vanished
in the villages, tlie peasants have secured the opportunity of a well-to-do life,
and work under conditions which do not exhaust but invigorate them.
Solicitude for people, for the toilers, for cadres and, above all, solicitude for
the children, occupies a central place in the activities of the Party, the state,
the trade unions and all public organizations. The cultural level of the
toilers is rising fast. In the Republics of the Soviet Union universal com-
pulsory elementary education has been introduced, conducted in the native
national language. Millions of children of the workers, peasants and office
employees are studying in the secondary schools and universities. A vast
network of educational institutions for clnldren under school age, and a system
of specialized evening schools, circles and courses for adults have been set up.
Tens of thousands of clubs, theatres, and cinema houses have been built in
working class districts, at factories, in villages. The development and flourish-
ing of the culture, national in form and socialist in content, of the peoples of
the U. S. S. R. which were formerly oppressed, neglected and doomed to extinc-
tion, but are now free and equal, proceeds apace. Women actively participate
in socialist construction on an equal footing with men. Young generations
which have grown up under Soviet conditions, which have not known capitalist
exploitation or want and deprivation of rights, and recognize only the interests,
tasks and aims of socialism, are entering into the construction of socialism.
Science and all forms of art have been made accessible to the broadest masses.
Academicians, scientists, research workers, actors, writers, painters and masters
of every other branch of art have turned to the side of the toilers. No mat-
ter how vast all these material and cultural achievements may be. compared
with the recent past and with the position of the toilers in capitalist countries
today, they represent merely the beginning of that splendid near future, flour-
ishing in every way and abounding in universal well-being, toward which the
Land of Socialism is advancing.
4. A great political consolidation of the fitatc of the proletarian dictatorship
has hccn arhirrcd. The Land of the Soviets has the most stable and most
impregnable political order. It is a state of developed democracy, not divorced
from the masses of the people nor placed in opposition to them, but organically
connected with them, defending their interests, expressing their will and
carrying it into effect. The profound, radical changes which have taken place
in the social structure of the LT. S. S. R. as a result of the socialist reconstruc-
tion of national economy, the elimination of the exploiting classes and the
victory of the collective farm system, have brought about a further expansion
and strengthening of the social foundation of the Soviet Power. In accordance
with these changes and relying on the increased confidence of the broad masses
in the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Soviet government has carried out new
measures of great historic significance in introducing a further democratization
APPENDIX, PART 1 649
of its system : the substitution of equal suffrage for the previously not entirely
equal suffrage, direct for indirect elections, the secret for the open ballot ; the
extension of electoral rights to include new sections of the adult population,
re-enfranchisement of those of the former kulaks who have been deprived of
the vote but who have since shown in actual fact, by honest labor, that they
have ceased to fight against the Soviet order. The dictatorship of the prole-
tariat is steadily developing along the path of constantly strengthening and
widening the direct connection of the Soviet state with the masses of the people,
with the overwhelming majority of the population, the path of enhancing the
all-round and active direct participation of the masses of the people in the ad-
ministration of the state and the direction of socialist construction. The de-
velopment of proletarian democracy which has been attained as a consequence
of the liquidation of the exploiting classes, the consolidation of socialist owner-
ship as the basis of Soviet society and the realization of the unity of interests
of the vast majority of the population in all the Republics of the Soviet Union,
enormously strengthens the State of the proletarian dictatorship.
True to its principles of the brotherhood, freedom and independence of all
peoples and nations, the Soviet Union unswervingly fights for the preservation
of peace between nations, exposes the aggressive plans of the imperialist rob-
bers and takes all the necessary steps to ensure the defense of the socialist
fatherland of the toilers of the whole world against the menace of a predatory
attack by the imperialists. The Seventh Congress of the Communist Interna-
tional records with satisfaction that in place of old tsarist Ru.ssia, a country
beaten by all, and in place of the weak Soviet country which, in the early days
of its development, was faced with the possibility of being partitioned by the
imperialists, a mighty socialist state has now arisen.
The U. S. S. R. is hecoining a country of the new man, of a new social and
individual mode of life of people. In the great workshop of planned socialist
labor, founded on socialist competition, on shock work and the creative initia-
tive of the masses, a great process of remaking people is taking place. The
mercenary and anti-social, private property ethics and habits inherited from
capitalism are gradually vanishing. Tlie atmosphere of enthusiastic socialist
labor facilitates the re-education of criminals and law-breakers. The principle
of the inviolability of public property is being instilled in every branch of
national economy in town and village. The public oi)inion of the toiling masses
and the practice of self-criticism have become a mighty factor for moral in-
fluence for bringing iip people and re-educating them. On the basis of the
new attitude towards labor and society that is gaining firm hold, a new mode
of life is being created, the consciousness and psychology of people are becom-
ing reshaped, new generations, healthy, able-bodied, and versatilely developed,
are coming into being. From the very midst of the people, organizers, leaders,
inventors, bold explorers of the uncharted elements of the Arctic, heroic con-
querors of the atmosphere, the air and the depths of the sea, of the summits of
mountains and the bowels of the earth, are coming forth in vast numbers. Mil-
lions of toilers are storming and mastering the hitherto inaccessible citadels
of technique, science and art. The U. S. S. II. is becoming a country of new
people, full of purpose, buoyancy and the joy of living, surmounting all
diflaculties and performing great feats.
5. The victory of socialism in the U. S. S. R. teas achieved in. a determined
struggle hy the Communist Party of the Soviet Union against Right and- "Left"
opportunism, in a stuhhorn and protracted struggle to overcome enormous diffi-
culties, which arose because of the low level of technical and economic develop-
ment inherited by the country and because of the need to achieve, in a brief
space of time, by its own forces and means, and under conditions of hostile
encirclement by imperialists, the reconstruction of the technical foundation of
national economy and the fundamental reorganization of its social and economic
relations. Carrying out this readjustment, and especially the rebuilding of the
technical base of agriculture, which was connected with the uniting of small
peasant households into large collective farms and the liquidation of the kulaks
as a class, meant a resolute attack by the proletariat on the capitalist elements.
As they lost every economic foundation, the remnants of the exploiting classes,
backed by the imperialists, offered desperate resistance, resorted to sabotage,
wrecking, the burning of crops, the disruption of sowing campaigns, the extermi-
nation of cattle, etc. The proletariat succeeded in crushing the resistance of
its enemies, creating a powerful socialist industry, consolidating the collective
farm system, surmounting the difficulties connected with the need for rapid
advancement of national economy. The possihility of building up socialis-m. in
550 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
a single cormtry, brilliantly foreseen by Lenin and 8tali7i, has become a reality,
palpable and tangible, for millions of people throughout the world. The historic
question of "who trill win" inside the country, the question of the victory of
socialism over capitalism in the U. S. S. R., has been finally and irrevocabl y
decided in favor of socialism. This does not exclude the possibility that the
survivors of the routed class enemy, who have lost all hope of preventing the
development of socialism, will do whatever harm they can to the woi'kers and
collective farmers of the U. S. S. R.
The further development of triumphant socialism will be accompanied in the
U. S. S. R. by difficulties of a different order, difficulties ai'ising out of the need
to overcome the survivals of capitalism in the minds of people ! With the
victory of socialism in the U. S. S. R., the world proletarian revolution has
gained an impregnable position in the sharpening struggle to decide the question
"who will win" on the international arena.
6. The victory of socialism in the U. 8. S. R. is a victory of world importance.
Gained, with the support of the international proletariat, by the tvorkers and
collective farmers of the U. S. S. R. under the leadership of the best companion-
in-arms of the great Lenin, the wise leader of the toilers of the whole world.
Comrade Staliri, the victory of socialism in the U. S. S. R. is causing a profound
cham^ge in the minds of the toilers of the ivholc tvorld; it is convincing the
broad masses of Social-Democratic woi-kers and workers of other trends of the
necessity of waging a common struggle for socialism, and is a decisive factor
in the realization of proletarian fighting unity ; it is destroying ideas and con-
ceptions, embedded for centuries, of the capitalist order being eternal and lui-
shakable, is revealing the bankruptcy of bourgeois theories and the schemes to
"rejuvenate" capitalist society, is having a revolutionizing effect on the toiling
masses, instilling into them confidence in their own strength and a conviction
of the necessity and practical possibility of the overthrow of capitalism and
the construction of socialism. The road of salvation, the road to socialism
already trodden by the living example of the U. S. S. R. is shining brightly
before the eyes of millions of toilers in the capitalist and colonial countries,
of all the exploited and oppressed.
The Soviet socialist order guarantees :
To the workers — liberation from the horrors of unemployment and capitalist
exploitation, the opportunity to work for themselves and not for exploiters
and parasites ; to administer the state and national economy, to steadily
improve their material conditions, to lead a cultured life.
To the peasants — land and emancipation from their bondage to landlords,
moneylenders, banks, from unbearable taxes, liberation from crises, ruin, degra-
dation and destitution, a steady rise in their prosperity and cultural standards,
and a thoroughgoing lightening of their labor.
To the petty-bourgeois folk of the totvns — liberation from the nightmare of
bankruptcy, from the opression of big capital, from ruin and degeneration, and
the opporunity of finding a place as honest toilers in the system of socialist
economy, of bringing about a radical improvement in their material and
spiritual life.
To the intellectuals — the necessary conditions and the widest scope for the
perfection of their knowledge, capabilities and talents, great impulses and wide
horizons for creative work, a radical improvement in their material and
cultural life.
To peoples of the colonies and dependencies — national emancipation from
the yoke of the imperialists, the possibility of rapidly raising their national
economy to the level of the most advanced countries, the advancement and
flourishing of their national culture, free and equal active participation in
international life.
7. With the victory of socialism, the U. 8. 8. R. has become a great political,
economic and cultural for'ce which influences tvorld policy. It has become the
center of attraction amd the rallying point for all peoples, countries a^nd even
governments which o/re interested in the preservation of international peace.
It has become the stronghold of the toilers of all countries against the menace
of tear It has become a mighty weapon for consolidating the toilers of the
tvhole world agadnst world reaction.
The victory of socialism, having transformed the U. S. S. R. into a force
which sets in motion broad strata of the population, classes, nations, peoples,
and states, marks a new great chamge in the relationship of class forces on a
world scale in favor of socialism, to the detriment of capitalism; it marks the
beginning of a new stage in the development of the world proletarian revolution.
APPENDIX, PART 1 651
From the historic balance of achievements secured since the Sixth Congress
i^f the Communist International, with which the world proletarian movement
is approaching the second round of wars and revolutions and which determines
the basio taiSks of the tvorkl proletarian revolution, follows the primary duty
of the working class and the toilers of the world and of all Sections of the C. I. :
To help uyith all their might and by all means to strengthen the U. S. 8. R.
and to fight against the enemies of the U S. S. R. Both under peace conditions
and in the circumstances of war directed against the U. S. 8. R. the interests
of strengthening the U. 8. 8. R., of increasing its power, of ensuring its victory
in all spheres and in every sector of the struggle, coincide fully and inseparably
with the interests of the toilers of the whole world in their struggle against
the exploiters with the interests of the colonial and oppressed peoples fighting
against imperialism; they are the conditions for, and they contribute to, the
triumph of the world proletari<an revolution, the victory of socialism through-
out the world. Assistance to the U. 8. 8. R , its defense, the cooperation in
bringing about its victory over all its enemies must therefore determine the
uctions of every revolutionary organization of the proletariat, of every genuine
revolutionary, of every 8ocialist, Communist, non-party worker, toiling peasant,
of every honest intellectual and democrat, of each and every one who desires
the overthrow of exploitation, fascism and imperialist oppression, deliveramce
from imperialist tvar, who desires that there should exist brotherhood and
peace among nations, that socialism should trhumph thro-ughout the world.
Exhibit No. 99
{ Source : A speech delivered by Georgi Dimitroff, general secretary of the Communist
International, in the Hall of Columns, Moscow, at the Seventh World Congress of the
Communist International, on August 2, 1935. Published bv Workers Library Publish-
ers, New York : second edition, September, 19.35 ; also bv International Publishers in
193S as Chapter I in Dimitroffi's book, the United Front]
DIMITROFF— WORKING CLASS UNITY— BULWARK AGAINST FASCISM
Published by Workers Library Publishers, P. O. box 148, Sta. D. New York City. First
Edition, September, 1935. Second Edition, September, 1935
The Seventh World Congress of the Communist International was
held in Moscow from July 25 to August 20, 1935. Of this second edition
•of Dimitroff's report to the Congress, half a million copies must be printed
and distributed. The historic imix)rtance of this call to unity of action
against fascism, and its effectivness as a means of building the united
front make it the duty of every worker, of every anti-fascist to give it
the widest possible distribution. Additional copies may be secured from
the publishers or from any of the bookshops listed on the back cover.
Long before the morning session of August 2 started, the Hall of
Columns was crowded. When Dimitroff, who was to give the report
on this day, entered the hall, he was welcomed with a tumultuous
ovation. The German delegation shouted in speaking chorus : "Red
Front !" Revolutionary greetings resounded from every part of the
hall, in the languages of the five continents. It was a quarter past
eleven before Kuusinen was at last able to open the session. He called
upon Dimitroff to speak on the second point of the agenda : "The Offen-
sive of Fascism and the Tasks of the Communist International in the
Struggle for the Unity of the Working Class Against Fascism." When
Dimitroff mounted the platform, a fresh storm of applause broke out.
This time it commenced with shouts in speaking chorus from the benches
of the Chinese delegation, followed by the Scandinavian countries, then
the Czechoslovakians and finally the English, till at last the "Inter-
nationale" was being sung in every language in the world. Then again
endless handclapping before Dimitroff could speak.
I. FASCISM AND THE WORKING CLASS
Comrades, as early as its Sixth Congress, the Communist International warned
the world proletariat that a new fascist offensive was impending, and called
for a struggle against it. The Congress pointed out that "in a more or less de-
g52 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
veloped form, fascist tendencies and the germs of a fascist movement are to be
found almost everywhere".
With tlie outbreak of the present most profound economic crisis, the sharp
accentuation of the general crisis of capitalism and the revolutionization of the
toiling masses, fascism has embarked upon a wide ofCensive. Tlie ruling bour-
geoisie is more and more seeking salvation in fascism, with the object of in-
stituting exceptional predatory measures against the toilers, preparing for an
imperialist war of plunder, attacking the Soviet Union, enslaving and partition-
ing China, and by all these means preventing revolution.
Imperialist circles are endeavoring to place the whole burden of the crisis
on the backs of the toilers. That is why they need fascism.
They are trying to solve the problem of markets by enslaving the weak na-
tions, by intensifying colonial oppression and repartitioning the world anew by
means of war. That is why they need fascism.
They are striving to forestall the growth of the forces of revolution by smash-
ing the revolutionary movement of the workers and peasants and by under-
taking a military attack against the Soviet Union — the bulwark of the world
proletariat. That is why they need fascism.
In a number of countries, Germany in particular, these imperialist circles
have succeeded, before the masses have decisively turned toward revolution, in
inflicting defeat on the proletariat and establishing a fascist dictatorship.
But what is characteristic of the victory of fascism is the fact that this vic-
tory, on the one hand, bears witness to the weakness of the proletariat, dis-
organized and paralyzed by the disruptive Social-Democratic policy of clas&
collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and, on the other, expresses the weakness of
the bourgeoisie itself, afraid of the realization of a united struggle of the work-
ing class, afraid of revolution, and no longer in a position to maintain its
dictatorship over the masses by the old methods of bourgeois democracy and
parliamentarism.
The victory of fascism in Germany, Comrade Stalin said at the Seventeenth
Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union :
". . . must be regarded not only as a symptom of the weakness of the working
class and as a result of the betrayal of the working class by Social-Democracy,
which paved the way for fascism; it must also be regarded as a symptom of
the weakness of the bourgeoisie, as a symptom of the fact that the bourgeoisie is
already unable to rule by the old methods of parliamentarism and bourgeois
democracy, and, as a consequence, is compelled in its home policy to resort to
terroristic methods of administration — it must be taken as a symptom of the
fact that it is no longer able to find a way out of the present situation on the
basis of a peaceful foreign policy, as a consecpience of which it is compelled to
resort to a policy of war."*
The Class Character of Fascism
Comrades, as was correctly described by the Thirteenth Plenum of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International, fascism in power is the
open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chanivinistic mid most
imperialist elements of finance capital.
The most reactionary variety of fascism is the Oerman type of fascism. It
has the effrontery to call itself National-Socialism, though having nothing in
common with socialism. Hitler fascism is not only bourgeois nationalism, it is
bestial chauvini.sm. It is a government system of political banditry, a .system
of provocation and torture practised upon the working cla.ss and the revolu-
tionary elernents of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia.
It is medieval barbarity and bestiality, it is unbridled aggression in relation
to other nations and countries.
German fa.scism is acting as the spearhead of international counter-rei^olution,
as the chief incendiary of imperialist war, as the initiator of a crusade against
the Soviet Union, the great fatherland of the toilers of the ivhole world.
Fascism is not a form of state power "standing above both classes — the pro-
letariat and the bourgeoisie", as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It is
not "the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of
the state", as the Briti.sh Socialist Brailsford declares. No, fascism is not
super-class government, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen -
proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself.
♦Socialism Victorious, pp. 11-12. Internatlor al Publishers, New York.
APPENDIX, PART 1 653
It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and
the revolntionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy,
fascism is chauvinism in its crudest form, fomenting the bestial hatred of other
nations. , .. , , ^ ■, ,
This, the true character of fascism, must be particularly stressed; because
in a number of countries fascism, under cover of social demagogy, has man-
aged to gain the following of the petty-bourgeois masses who have been driven
out of their course by the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most
backward strata of the proletariat. These would never have supported fascism
if they had understood its real class character and its true nature.
The' development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume
different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and eco-
nomic conditions and to the national peculiarities and the international posi-
tion of the given country. In certain countries, principally those in which
fascism does not enjoy a broad mass basis and in which the struggle of the
various groups within the camp of the fascist bourgeoisie itself is fairly
acute, fascism does not immediately venture to abolish pai-liament, but allows
tlie other bourgeois parties, as well as the Social-Democratic parties, to retain
a certain degree of legality. In other countries, where the ruling bourgeoisie
fears an early outbreak of revolution, fascism establishes its unrestricted po-
litical monopoly, either immediately or by intensifying its reign of terror
against and persecution of all competing parties and groups. This does not
prevent fascism, when its position becomes particularly acute, from endeavor-
ing to extend its basis and, without altering its class nature, combvning open
terrorist dictatorship with a crude sham of parliamentarism.
The accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one
bourgeois government by another, but a substitution for one state form of
class domination of the bourgeoisie — bourgeois democracy — of another form —
open terrorist dictatorship. It would be a serious mistake to ignore this dis-
tinction, a mistake which would prevent the revolutionary proletariat from
mobilizing tlie broadest strata of the toilers of town and country for the
struggle against the menace of tlie seizure of power by the fascists, and from
taking advantage of the contradictions which exist in the camp of the bour-
geoisie itself. But it is a mistake no less serious and dangerous to tmderrate
the importance, in establishing the fascist dictatorship, of the reactionary
measures of the bourgeoisie which are at present being increasingly initiated
in bourgeois-demacrati/o countries — measures which, destroy the democratic
liberties of the toilers, falsify and curtail the rights of parliament and intensify
the repression of the revolutionary movement.
Comrades, the accession to power of fascism must not be conceived of in so
simplified and smooth a form, as though some committee or other of finance
capital decided on a certain date to set up a fascist dictatorship. In reality,
fascism usually comes to power in the course of a mutual, and at times
severe, struggle against the old bourgeois parties, or a definite section of
these parties, in the course of a struggle even within the fascist camp itself —
a struggle which at times leads to armed clashes, as we have witnessed
in the case of Germany, Austria and other countries. All this, however, does
not detract from the fact that before the establishment of a fascist dictator-
ship, bourgeois governments usually pass through a number of preliminary
stages and institute a number of reactionary measures which directly facilitate
the accession to power of fascism. Whoever does not fight the reactionary
ineasures of the bourgeoisie and the growth of fascism at these preparatory
stages is not in a position to prevent the victory of facism, but, on the con-
t)ary, facilitates that victory.
The Social-Democratic leaders glossed over and concealed from the masses
the true class nature of fascism, and did not call them to the struggle against
the increasingly reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie. They bear great
historical responsibilitij for the fact that, at the decisive moment of the fascist
offensive, a large section of the toiling masses of Germany and a number
of other fascist countries failed to recognize in fascism the most bloodthirsty
monster of finance, their most vicious enemy, and that these masses were not
prepared to resist it.
What is the source of the influence enjoyed by fascism over the masses?
Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their
most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that
are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments
of the masses, on their sense of justice, and sometimes even on their revolu-
654 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tionary traditions. Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the big:
bourgeoisie and mortal enemies of socialism, represent themselves to the
masses as "socialists", and depict their accession to power as a "revolution"?
Because they try to exploit the faith in revolution, the urge towards socialism,
which live in the hearts of the broad masses of the toilers of Germany.
Fascism acts in the interests of the extreme imperialists, but it presents
itself to the masses in the guise of champion of an ill-treated nation, and
appeals to outraged national sentiments, as German fascism did, for instance,,
when it won the support of the masses by the slogan "Against the Versailles
Treaty !"
Fascism aims at the most unbridled exploitation of the masses, but it
appeals to them with the most artful anti-capitalist demagogy, taking ad-
vantage of the profound hatred entertained by the toilers for the piratical
bourgeoisie, the banks, trusts and the financial magnates, and advancing
slogans which at the given moment are most alluring to the politically imma-
ture masses. In Germany — "The general welfare is higher than the welfare
of the individual" ; In Italy — "Our state is not a capitalist, but a corporate
state" ; in Japan — "For Japan, without exploitation" ; in the United States —
"Share the Wealth", and so forth.
Fascism delivers up the people to be devoured by the most corrupt, most venal
elements, but comes before them with the demand for "an honest and incorruptible
government". Speculating on the profound disillu-sionment of the masses in
bourgeois-democratic governments, fascism hypocritically denounces corruption
(for instance, the Barmat and Sklarek affairs in Germany, the Stavisky affair in
France, and numerous others).
It is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that
fascism intercepts the disappointed masses as they leave the old bourgeois par-
ties. But it impresses these masses by the severity of its attacks on bourgeois
governments and its irreconcilable attitude toward the old bourgeois parties.
Surpassing in its cynicism and hypocrisy all other varieties of bourgeois
reaction, fascism adapts its demagogy to the national peciiUarities of each
country, and even to the peculiarities of the various social strata in one and the
same country. And the petty-bourgeois masses, even a section of the workers,
reduced to despair by want, unemployment and the insecurity of their existence,^
fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism.
Fascism comes to power as a party of attack on the revolutionary movement
of the proletariat, on the masses of the people who are in a state of unrest ; yet
it stages its accession to power as a "revolutionary" movement against the bour-
geoisie on behalf of "the whole nation" and for "the salvation" of the nation.
(Let us recall Mussolini's "march" on Rome, Pilsudski's "march" on Warsaw,
Hitler's National-Socialist "revolution" in Germany, etc.)
But whatever the masks which fascism adopts, whatever the forms in which
it presents itself, whatever the ways of which it comes to power —
Fascism is a most ferocious attack hy capital on the toiling masses;
Fascism is unhridled chauvinism and annexationist war;
Fascism, is rabid reaction and counter-revolution ;
Fascism is the most xncio\ts enemy of the working class and of all the toilers!'
What Does Victorious Fascism Bring for the Masses?
Fascism promised the workers "a fair wage", but actually it has brought them
an even lower, a pauper standard of living. It promised work for the unem-
ployed, but actually has brought them even more painful torments of starvation,
and compulsory, servile labor. It actually converts the woi'kers and unemployed
into pariahs of capitalist society stripped of rights, destroys their trade unions;
deprives them of the right to strike and to have their working class press, forces
them into fascist organizations, plunders their social insurance funds and trans-
forms the mills and factories into barracks where the unbridled arbitrary rule
of the capitalists prevails.
Fascism promised the toiling youth a broad highway to a brilliant future. But
actually it has brought with it wholesale dismissals of young workers, labor
camps and continuous military drilling for a war of conquest.
Fascism promised the office workers, the petty offiGials and the inteUectuals
to ensure them sec\irity of existence, to destroy the omnipotence of the trusts
and wipe out profiteering by bank capital. But actually it has brought them
an even greater degree of hopelessness and uncertainty as to the morrow ; it is
subjecting them to a new bureaucracy made up of the most compliant of its
APPENDIX, PART 1 g55,
followers: if it setting up an intolerable dictatorship of the trusts, and fosters
corruption and degeneration to an unprecedented extent.
Fascism promised the ruined and improverished peasants to put an end to debt
liondage, to abolish rent and even to alienate the landed estates without com-
pensation, in the interests of the landless and ruined peasants. But actually it is
lilacing the toiling peasants in a state of unprecedented servitude to the trusts
and the fascist state apparatus, and promotes the exploitation of the great
mass of peasantry by the big agrarians, the banks and the usurers to the very
utmost limit.
"Germany will be a peasant country, or will not be at all". Hitler solemnly
declared. And what did the peasants of Germany get under Hitler? A morato-
rium, which has already been cancelled? Or a law on the inheritance of peasant
property, which is resulting in millions of sons and daughters of peasants being
squeezed out of the villages and reduced to paupers? Farm laborers have been
transformed into semi-serfs, deprived even of the elementary right of free move-
ment. Toiling peasants have been deprived of the opportunity of selling the
l)roduce of their farms in the market.
And in Poland?
"The Polish peasant,'" says the Polish newspaper, Czas, "employs methods
and means which were used perhaps- only in the Middle Ages; he nurses the
fire in his stove and lends it to his neighbor: he splits matches into several
parts; he lends dirty soap-water t" others; he boils herring barrels in order to
obtain salt water. This is not a fiible, but the actual state of affairs in the
countryside, of the truth of which anybody may convince himself."
And it is not Communists who write this, comrades, but a Polish reactionary
newspaper !
But this is by no means all.
Every day. in the concentration camps of fascist Germany, in the cellars of
the Gestapo (German .secret police), in the torttire chambers of Poland, in
the cells of the Bulgarian and Finnish secret police, in the "Glavnyacha" in
Belgrade, in the Rumanian "Siguranza" and on the Italian islands, some of the
best sons of the working class, revolutionary peasants, fighters for the splendid
future of mankind, are being sub.iected to revolting tortttres and indignities,
before which pale the most abnminable acts of the tsarist secret police. The
villainous German fa.scists beat husbands to a bloody pulp in the presence of
their wives, and send the ashes of murdered sons by parcel post to their
mothers. Sterilization has been made a method of political warfare. In
the torture chambers, captured anti-fascists are given injections of poison,
their arms are broken, their eyes gouged out; they are strung up and have
water pumped into them : the fascist swastika is carved in their living flesh.
I have before me a statistical summary drawn up by the International Red
Aid — the international organization for aid to revolutionary fighters — regarding
the number of killed, wounded, arrested, maimed and tortured to death in
Germany. Poland, Italy. Austria, Bulgaria, Ytigoslavia. In Germany alone,
since the National-Socialists came to power, over 4,200 anti-fascist workers,
peasants, employees, intellectuals — Commtniists, Social-Democrats and members
of opposition Christian organization.^ — have been murdered, 317,800 arrested.
218,600 wounded and subjected to excruciating tortures. In Austria, since the
battles of February last year, the "Christian" fascist government has murdered
1,900 revolutionary workers, maimed and wounded 10,000 and arrested 40,000.
And this sunnnary, comrades, is far from complete.
Words fail me in describing the indignation which seizes us at the thought
of the torments which the toilers are now suffering in a number of fascist
countries. The facts and figures we quote do not reflect one-liundredtli part of
the true picture of the exploitation and the tortures inflicted by the White
Terror which make up the daily life of the working class in many capitalist
countries. Volumes cannot give ;< just picture of the eotmtless brutalities
inflicted by fascism on the toilers.
With feelings of profound emotion and hatred for the fascist butchers, we
lower the banners of the Connnunist International before the unforgettable
memory of John Scheer, Fiete Schulz and Luttgens in Germany, Koloman
Wallisch and ^Munichreiter in Austria. Sallai and Furst in Hungary, Kofard-
zhiev, Lutibrosky and Voikov in Bulgaria— before the memory of thousands and
thousands of Communists. Social-Democrats and non-partisan workers, peasants
and representatives of the progressive intelligentsia who have laid down their
lives in the struggle against fascism.
556 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
From this platform we greet the leader of the German proletariat and the
honorary chairman of onr Congress — Comrade Thaelmann. {Lond applause,
all rise.) We greet Comrades Rakosi, Gramsci {loud applause, all rise), Anti-
kainen and Yonko Panov. We greet the leader of the Spanish Socialists,
Cabellero, imprisoned by the counter-revolutionaries, Tom Mooney, who has been
languishing in prison for eighteen years, and the tlionsauds of other prisoners
of capitalism and fascism {loud applause), and we say to tliem : "Brothers in
the fight, brotliers in arms, you are not forgotten. We are witli you. We
shall give every hour of our lives, every drop of our blood, for your liberation,
and for the liberation of all toilers, from the shameful regime of fascism."
{Loud appla/use, all rise.)
Comrades, it was Lenin who warned us that the bourgeoisie may succeed in
overwhelming the toilers by savage terror, in checking tlie growing forces of
revolution for brief periods of time, but that, nevertheless, this would not save
it from its doom.
"Life," Lenin wroter, "will assert itself. Let the bourgeoisie rave, work
itself into a frenzy, overdo things, commit stupidities, take vengeance on the
Bolsheviks in advance and endeavor to kill off (in India, Hungary, Germany,
etc.), hundreds, thousands, and liuiidreds of thousands more of yesterday's
and tomorrow's Bolslieviks. Acting thus, tlie bourgeoisie acts as all classes
doomed by history have acted. Communists should know that the future, at
any rate, belongs to them ; therefore, we can, and must, combine the most
intense passion in the great revolutionary struggle with the coolest and most
sober evaluation of the mad ravings of the bourgeoisie." *
Aye, if we and tlie proletariat of the whole world firmly follow the path indi-
cated by Lenin and Stalin, tlie bourgeoise will perish in spite of everything.
{Applause.)
Is the Victory of Fascism Inevitable?
Why was it that fascism could triumph, and how?
Fascism is the most vicious enemy of tlie working class and the toilers.
Fascism is the enemy of nine-tenths of the German people, nine-tenths of the
Austrian people, nine-tenths of the other people in fascist countries. How, in
what way, could this vicious enemy triumph?
Fascism was able to come to power priiitaiilii because the working class,
owing to the policy of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie pursued by the
Social-Democratic leaders, proved to be split, politically and organizationally
disarmed, in face of the onslaught of the bourgeoisie. And the Communist
Parties, on the other hand, were not strong enough to be able, apart from and
in the teeth of the Social-Democrats, to rouse the masses and to lead them in a
decisive struggle against fascism.
And, indeed, let the millions of Social-Democratic workers, who togetlier with
their Communist brothei's are now experiencing the horrors of fascist barbarism,
.seriously reflect on this. If in 191S. when revolution bi'oke out in Germany
and Austria, the Austrian and German proletariat had not followed the Social-
Democratic leadership of Otto Bauer, Friedrich Adler and Karl Reuuer in
Austria and Ebert and Schiedemann in Germany, but had followed the road
of the Russian Bolsheviks, the road of Lenin and Stalin, there would now be no
fascism in Austria or Germany, i!i Italy or Hungary, in Poland or in the
Balkans. Not the bourgeoisie, but the wi)rking class would long ago have been
the master of the situation in Europe. {Applause.)
Take, for example, the Austrian Social-Democratic Party. The revolution of
1918 raised it to a tremendous height. It held the power in its hands, it
held strong positions in the army and in the state apparatus. Relying on these
positions, it could have nipped fascism in the bud. But it surrendered one posi-
tion of the working class after another without resistance. It permitted the
bourgeoisie to strengthen its power, annul the constitution, purge the state
apparatus, army and police force of Social-Democratic functionaries and take
the arsenals away from the workers. It allowed the fascist bandits to murder
Social-Democratic workers with impunity and accepted the terms of the Huetten-
berg pact, which gave the fascist elements entry to the factories. At the
same time the Social-Democratic leaders fooled the workers with the Linz
program, in which the alternative was provided for the possibility of using
* Lenin, "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, p. 80. Little Lenin Library.
International Publishers, New York.
APPENDIX, PART 1 657
armed force against the bourgeoisie and for the establishment of a proletarian
dictatorshii), assuring them that in the event of the ruHng class using force
against the worliing class, the party would reply by a call for a general strike
and for armed struggle. As though the whole policy of preparation for a
fascist attack on the working class were not one claim of acts of violence
against the working class masked by constitutional forms. Even on the eve
and in the course of the February battles the Austrian Social-Democratic leaders
left the heroically fighting Schutzbund isolated from the broad masses aud
doomed the Austrian proletariat to defeat.
Was the victory of fascism inevitable in Germany? No, the German working
class could have prevented it.
But in order to do so, it should have compelled the establishment of a united
anti-fascist proletarian front, forced the Social-Democratic leaders to put a
stop to their campaign against the Communists and to accept the repeated
proposals of the Communist Party for united action against fascism.
When fascism was on the offensive and the bourgeois democratic liberties
were being progressively abolished by the bourgeoisie, it should not have con-
tended itself with the verbal resolutions of the Social-Democrats, but should
have replied by a genuine mass struggle, which would have made the fulfil-
ment of the fascist plans of the Germans bourgeoise more difficult.
It should not have allowed the prohibition of the League of Red Front
Fighters by the government of Braun and Severing, and should have estab-
lished fighting contact between the League and the Reichsbainier,* with its
nearly one million members, and have compelled Braun and Severing to arm
both these oi-ganizations in order to resist and smash the fascist bands.
It should have compelled the Social-Democratic leaders who headed the Prus-
sian goveriuneiit to adopt measures of defense against fascism, arrest the fascist
leaders, close down their press, confiscate their material resources and the
resources of the capitalists who were financing the fascist movement, dissolve the
fascist organizations, deprive them of the weapons, and .so forth.
Furthermore, it should have secured the re-establishment and extension of
all forms of social assistance and the Introduction of a moratorium and crisis
benefits for the peasants — who were being ruined under the influence of crise.s — •
by taxing the banks and the trusts, in this way securing for itself the support
of the toiling peasantry. It was the fault of the Social-Democrats of Germany
that this was not done, and that is why fascism tvas able to triumph.
Was it inevitable that the bourgeoisie and the nobility should have triumpnea
in Spain, a country where the forces of proletarian revolt are so advantageously
combined with a peasant war?
The Spanish Socialists were in the government from the first days of the
revolution. Did they establish fighting contact between the working class
organizations of every political opinion, including the Communists and the
Anarchists, and did they weld the working chiss into a united trade union
organization? Did they demand the confiscation of all the lands of the land-
lords, the church and the monasteries in favoi- of the peasants in order to win
over the latter to the side of the revolution? Did they attempt to fight for
national self-determination for the Catalonians and the Basques, and for the
liberation of Morocco? Did they purge the army of monarchist and fascist
elements and prepare it for passing over to the side of the workers and peasants?
Did they dissolve the Civil Guard, so detested by the people, the executioner
of every movement of the people? Did they strike at the fascist party of Gil
Robles and at the might of the Catholic church? No, they did none of these
things. They rejected the frequent proposals of the Communists for united
action against the offensive of the bourgeois-landlord reaction and fascism ;
they pa.ssed election laws which enabled the reactionaries to gain a majority in
the Cortes (parliament), laws which penalized popular movements, laws under
which the heroic miners of Asturias are now being tried. They had peasants
who were fighting for land shot by the Civil Guard, and so on.
This is the way in which the Social-Democrats, l)y disorganizing and splitting
the ranks of the working class, cleared the path to power for fascism in Germany,
in Austria, in Spain.
Comrades, fascism also triumphed for the reason that the proletariat found
itself isolated from its natural allies. Fascism triumphed because it was able
to win over large jnasses of the peasantry, owing to the fact that the Social-
*Reic'hs!'banner — "The Flag of the Realm", a Social-Democratic semimilitary mass
organization.
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 43
558 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Democrats, in the name of the working class, piirsuerl what was in fact an
anti-peasant policy. The peasant saw in power a number of Social Democratic
governments, which in his eyes were an embodiment of the power of the work-
ing class, but not one of them put an end to peasant want, none of them gave
land to the peasantry. In Germany, the Social-Democrats did not touch the
landlords ; they combatted the strikes of the agricultural workers, with the
result that long before Hitler came to power the agricultural workers of Ger-
many were abandoning the reformist trade unions and in the majority of cases
were going over to the Stahlhelm and to the National-Socialists.
Fascism also triumphed for the reason that it was able to penetrate the ranks
of the youth, whereas the Social-Democrats diverted the working class youth
from the class strugle, while the revolutionary proletariat did not develop the
necessary educational work among the youth and did not devote sufficient at-
tention to the struggle for its specific interests and demands. Fascism grasped
the very acute need of the youth for militant activity, and enticed a consider
able section of the youth Into its fighting detachments. The new generation ot
young men and women have not experienced the horrors of war. They have
felt the full weight of the economic crisis, unemployment, and the disintegration
of bourgeois democracy. But, seeing no prospects for the future, large nmnbers
of young people have proved to be particularly receptive to fascist demagogy,
which depicted for them an alluring future should fascism succeed.
In this connection, we cannot avoid referring also to a number of mistakes
committed by the Commioiist I'artics, mistakes that hampered our struggle
against fascism.
In our ranks there were people who intolerably underrated the fascist danger,
a tendency which has not everywhere been overcome to this day. Of this nature
was the opinion formerly to be met with in our Parties to the effect that
"Germany is not Italy", meaning that fascism may have succeeded in Italy,
but that its success in Germany was out of the question, because the latter
was, industrially and culturally, a highly developed country, with forty years
of traditions of the working class movement, in which fascism was impossible.
Or the kind of opinion which is to be met with nowadays, to the effect that in
countries of "classical" bourgeois democracy the soil for fascism does not exist.
Such opinions may serve and have served to weaken vigilance with regard to the
fascist danger, and to render the mobilization of the proletariat in the struggle
against fascism more difficult.
One might also cite a number of instances in which Communists were caught
unawares by the fascist eoiip. Remember Bulgaria, where the leadership of
our Party took up a "neutral", but in fact opportunist, position with regard
to the coup d'etat of June 9, 1923 ; Poland, where, in May, 1926, the leadership
of the Connnunist Party, making a wrong estimate of the motive forces of the
Polish revolution, did not realize the fascist nature of Pilsudski's coup, and
trailed in the rear of events ; Finland, where our Party based itself on a false
conception of slow and gradual fascization and overlooked the fascist coup
which was being prepared by the leading group of the bourgeoisie and which
caught the Party and the working class unawares.
When National-Socialism had alre;idy become a menacing mass movement
in Germany, certain comrades, like Heinz Neumann, who regarded the Bruening
government as already a government of fascist dictatorship, boastfully declared:
"If Hitler's 'Thii'd Empire' ever comes about, it will only be six feet under-
ground, and above it will be the victorious iiower of the workers".
Our comrades in Germany for a long time failed to reckon with the wounded
national sentiments and indignation of the masses at the Versailles Treaty : they
treated as of little account the vacillations of the peasantry and the petty bour-
geoisie; they were late in drawing up their program of social and national emanci-
pation, and when they did put it forward they were unable to adapt it to the
concrete demands and the level of the mas.ses. They were even unable to popu-
larize it widely among the masses.
In a number of countries the necessary development of a mass fight against
fascism was replaced by sterile hair splitting as to the nature of fascism "in gen-
eral" and by a varrow sectarian attitude in presenting and solving the actual
political problems of the Party.
Comrades, it is not simply because we want to dig up the past that we speak
of the causes of the victory of fascism, that we point to the historical responsi-
bility of the Social-Democrats for the defeat of the working class, and that we
also point out our own mistakes in the fight against fascism. AVe are not his-
torians divorced from living reality; we, active fighters of the working class,
APPENDIX, PART 1 659
are obliged to answer the question that is tormenting milions of workers : Can the
victory of fascism he prevented, and hou:? And we reply to these millions of
workers : Yes, conn-ades, the road in the way of fascism can be blocked. It is
quite possible. It depends on ourselves — on the workers, the peasants and all
the toilers !
Whether the victory of fascism can be prevented depends in the first place
on the militant activity displayed by the working class itself, on whether its
forces are welded into a single militant army combatting the offensive of capital-
ism and fascism. Having established its fighting unity, the proletariat would
paralyze the intluence of fascism over the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie of the
towns, the youth and the intelligentsia, and would be able to neutralize one section
and win over another section.
Second, it depends on the existence of a strong revolutionary party, correctly
leading the struggle of the toilers against fascism. A party which systematically
calls on the workers to retreat in the face of fascism and permits the fascist
bourgeoisie to strengthen its positions will inevitably lead the workers to defeat.
Third, it depends on whether a correct policy is pursued by the working class,
towards the peasantry and the petty-bourgeois masses of the towns. These masses,
must be taken as they are, and not as we should like to have them. It is only in
the process of the struggle that they will overcome their doubts and vacillatiou.s.
It is only provided we adopt a patient attitude towards their inevitable vacilla
tions, it is only with the political help of the proletariat, that they will be able to
rise to a higher level of revolutionary consciousness and activity.
Fourth, it depends on whether the revoliitionary proletariat exercises vigilance
and takes action at the proper time. It must not allow fascism to catch it un-
awares, it must not surrender the initiative to fascism, it must inflict decisi\'e
blows on the latter before it can gather its forces, it must not allow fascism to
consolidate its position, it must repel fascism wlierever and whenever its mani-
fests itself, it must not allow fascism to gain new positions, all of which the
French proletariat is doing so succes.sfully. (Applause.)
These are the main conditions for preventing the growth of fascism and its
accession to power.
Fascism — a Ferocious but Unstable Power
The fascist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is a ferocious power, but an un-
stable one.
What are the chief causes of the instability of the fascist dictatorship?
While fascism has undertaken to overcome the discord and antagonisms w^ithin
the bourgeois camp, it is rendering these antagonisms even more acute. Fascism
endeavors to establish its political monopoly by violently destroying other politi-
cal parties. But the existence of the capitalist system, the existence of various
classes and tlie accentuation of class contradictions inevitably tend to undermine
and explode the political monopoly of fascism. This is not the case of a Soviet
country, where the dictatorship of the proletariat is also realized by a party with
a political monopoly, but where this political monopoly accords with the interest
of millions of toilers and is increasingly being based on the construction of class-
less society. In a fascist country the party of the fascists cannot preserve its
monopoly for long, because it cannot set itself the aim of abolishing classes and
class contradictions. It puts an end to the legal existence of bourgeois parties.
But a numl)er of them continue to maintain an illegal existence, while the Com-
munist Party even in conditions of illegality continues to make progress, be-
comes steeled and tempered and leads the struggle of the proletariat against the
fascist dictatorship. Hence, under the l)lows of class contradictions, the political
monopoly of fascism is bound to explode.
Another reason for the instability of the fascist dictatorship is that the con-
trast between the anti-capitalist demagogy of fascism and its policy of enrich-
ing the monopolistic bourgeoisie in the most piratical fashion makes it easier to
expose the class nature of fascism and tends to shake and narrow its mass ba.sis.
Furthermore, the success of fascism arouses the profound hatred and indigna-
tion of the masses, helps to revolutionise them and provides a powerful stimulus
for a united front of tlie proletariat against fascism.
By conducting a policy of economic nationalism (autarchy) and by seizing the
greater portion of the national income for the purpose of preparing for war.
fascism undermines the whole economic life of the country and accentuates the
economic war lietween the capitalist states. It lends the conflicts that arise
among the bourgeoisie the character of sharp and at times bloody collisions.
QQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
which undermines the stability of the fascist state power in the eyes of the people.
A government which murders its own followers, as was the case in Germany on
June 30 of last year, a fascist government against which another section of the
fascist bourgeoisie is conducting an armed fight (the National-Socialist putsch in
Austria and the violent attacks of individual fascist groups on the fascist govern-
ments in Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and other countries) — a government of this
character cannot for long maintain its authority in the eyes of the broad petty-
bourgeois masses.
The working class must be able to take advantage of the antagonisms and con-
flicts within the bourgeois camp, but it must not cherish the illusion that fascism
will exhaust Itself of its own accord. Fascism will not collapse automatically.
It is only the revoliitionary activity of the working class which can help to take
advantage of the conflicts which inevitably arise within the bourgeois camp in
order to undermine the fascist dictatorship and to overthrow it.
By destroying the relics of bourgeois democracy, by elevating open violence to
a system of government, fascism shakes democratic illusions and undermines the
authority of the law In the eyes of the toiling masses. This is particularly the
<.'ase In countries such as, for example, Austria and Spain, where the workers have
taken up arms against fascism. In Austria, the heroic struggle of the Schutzbund
and the Communists, in spite of their defeat, from the very outset shook the sta-
bility of the fascist dictatorship. In Spain, the bourgeoisie did not succeed in
placing the fascist muzzle on the toilers. The armed struggles in Austria and
Spain have resulted in ever wider masses of the working class coming to realize
the necessity for a revolutionary class struggle.
Only such monstrous phllistines, such lackeys of the bourgeoisie, as the super-
annuated theoretician of the Second International, Karl Kautsky, are capable of
casting reproaches at the workers, to the effect that they should not have taken up
arms in Austria and Spai.n What would the working class movement in Austria
and Spain look like today if the working class of these counti'ies were guided by
the treacherous counsels of the Kautskys? The working class would be experi-
encing profound demoralization in its ranks.
'The school of civil war," Lenin says, "does not leave the people unaffected.
It is a harsh school, and its complete curriculum inevitaWy Includes the victories
of the counter-revolution, the debaucheries of enraged reactionaries, savage punish-
ments meted out by the old governments to the rebels, etc. But only downright
pedants and mentally decrepit mummies can grieve over the fact that nations are
entering this painful school; this school teaches the oppressed classes how to
conduct civil war; it teaches how to bring about a victorious revolution ; It con-
centrates in the masses of present-day .slaves that hatred which is always harbored
by the downtrodden, dull, ignorant slaves, and which leads those slaves who have
become conscious of the shame of their slavery to the greatest historic exploits." *
The success of fascism in Germany has, as we know, been followed by a new
wave of fascist onslaughts, which, in Austria, led to the provocation by Dollfuss,
in Spain to the new onslaughts of the counter-revolutionaries on the revolutionary
conquests of the masses, in Poland to the fascist reform of the constitution, while
in France it spurred the armed detachments of the fascists to attempt a coup d'etat
in February, 1934. But this victory, and the frenzy of the fascist dictatorship,
■called forth a counter-movement for a united proletarian front against fascism
on an International scale. The burning of the Reichstag, which served as a signal
for the general attack of fascism on the working class, the seiziire and spoliation
of the trade imlons and the other working class organizations, the groans of the
tortured anti-fascists rising from the vaults of the fascist barracks and concen-
tration camps, are making it clear to the masses what has been the outcome of
the reactionary, disruptive role played by the German Social-Democratic leaders,
who rejected the proposal made by the Communists for a joint struggle against
advancing fascism. They are convincing the masses of the necessity of amalga-
mating all the forces of the working class for the overthrow of fascism.
Hitler's victory also provided a decisive stimulus to the creation of a united
front of the working class against fascism in France. Hitler's victory not only
aroused In the workers the fear of the fate that befell the German workers, not
only Inflamed hatred for the executioners of their German class brothers, but also
strengthened in them the determination never in any circumstances to allow in
their country what had happened to the working class in Germany.
* Ijenin, "Inflammable Material in World Politics," Selected Works, Vol. IV, p. 298.
International Publishers, New York.
APPENDIX, PART 1 661
The powerful urge towards the united front in all the capitalist countries
show that the lessons of defeat have not been in vain. The working class is
beginning to act in a vciv way. The initiative shown by the Communist Party
in the organization of the united front and the supreme self-sacrifice displayed
by the Communists, by the revoluti(mary workers in the struggle against fascism,
have resulted in an unprecedented increase in the prestige of the Communist
International. At the same time, within the Second International, a profound
crisis has been developing, which has manifested itself with particular clarity
and has become particularly accentuated since the bankruptcy of German
Social-Democracy.
The Social-Democratic workers are able to convince themselves ever more
forcibly that fascist Germany, with all its horrors and barbarities, is in the
final analysis the result of Hochd-Democrdtie polieij of doss collaboration with
the bourgeoisie. These masses are coming ever more clearly to realize that
the path along which the German Social-Democratic leaders led the proletariat
must not again be traversed. Never has there been such ideological dissension
in the camp of the Second International as at the present time. A process of
differentiation is taking place in all the Social-Democratic parties. Within their
ranks two principal camps are forming; side by side with the existing camp of
reactionary elements, who are trying in every way to preserve the bloc between
the Social-Democrats and the bourgeoisie, and who furiously reject a united
front with the Communists, there is begimnng to form a camp of revolutionary
elements who entertain doubts as to the correctness of the policy of class
collaboration with the bourgeoisie, who are in favor of the creation of a united
front tvith the Conmiunists and are increasingly coming to adopt the position
of revolutionary ckiss struggle.
Thus fascism, which appeared as the result of the decline of the capitalist
system, in the long run acts as a factor of its further disintegration. Thus
fascism, which has undertaken to bury IMarsism, the revolutionary movement of
the working class, is. as a result of the dialectics of life and the class struggle,
itself leading to the further development of those forces which are bound to
serve as its grave-diggers, the grave-diggers of capitalism. {Applause.)
II. UNITED FRONT OF THE WORKING CLASS AGAINST FASCISM
Comrades, millions of workers and toilers of the capitalist countries ask the
question : How can fascism be prevented from coming to power and how can
fascism be overthrown after being victorious? To this the Communist Inter-
national replies : The first thing that must be done, the thing with ichich to
commence, is to form a united front, to establish unity of action of the workers
in every factory, in every district, in every region, in. every country, all over
the world. Unity of action of the proletariat on a national and. international
scale is the mighty weapon which renders the working class capable not only of
successful defense but also of successful counter-offensive against fasci-tm
against the class enemy.
Importance of the United Front
Is it not clear that joint action by the adherents of the parties and organiza-
tions of the two Internationals, the Communist and the Second International,
would facilitate the repulse by the masses of the fascist onslaught, and would
enhance the political importance of the working class?
Joint action by the parties of both Internationals against fascism, however,
would not be confined to influencing their present adherents, the Communists
and Social-Democrats ; it would also exert a powerful influence on the ranks of
the Catholic, anarchist and unorganized workers, even on those who had tem-
porarily become the victims of fascist demagagy.
Moreover, a powerful united front of the proletariat would exert tremendous
influence on all other strata of the toiling people, on the peasantry, on the urban
petty bourgeoisie, the intelligentsia. A united front would in.spire the wavering
groups with faith in the strength of the working class.
But even this is not all. The proletariat of the imi)erialist countries has
possible allies not only in the toilers of its own countries but also in the
oppressed nations of the colonics and semi-colonies. Inasmuch as the proletariat
is split both nationally and internationally, inasmuch as one of its parts supports
the policy of collaboration with the bourgeoisie, in particular its system of
oppression in the colonies and semi-colonies, this alienates from the working
552 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
class the oppressed peoples of the colonies and semi-colonies and weakens
the world anti-imperialist front. Every step on the road to unity of action,
directed towards the support of the struggle for the liberation of the colonial
peoples on the part of the proletariat of the imperialist countries, denotes the
transformation of the colonies and semi-colonies into one of the most important
reserves of the world proletariat.
If, finally, we take into consideration that international unity of action by
the proletariat relies on the steadilij growmfj strength of a proletarian, state, a
htiid of socialism, the Soviet Union, we see that broad perspectives are re-
vealed by the realization of united action on the part of the proletariat on a
national and international scale. The estnblishment of unity of action by all
sections of the working class, irrespective of their party or organizational
affiliation, is necessary even, hefore the majoritii of the irorlcing class is united
in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the victory of the
proletarian revolution.
Is it possible to realize this miity of action by the proletariat in the indi-
vidual countries and throughout the whole world? Yes, it is. And it is pos-
sible at this very moment. The Communist International attaches no condi-
tions to unity of action, except one, and that an elementary condition accepfahlc
for all workers, viz., tliat the unity of action be directed against fascism, against
the offensive of capital, against the threat of tear, against the class enemy.
This is our condition.
The Chief Arguments of the Opponents of the United Front
What objections can the opponents of the united front have and how do
they voice their objections?
Some say : "To the Communists the slogan of the united front is merely n
maneuver." But if it is a maneuver, we reply, why don't you expose the
"Communist maneuver" by your honest participation in a united front? We
declare frankly: We want unity of action by the working class, so that the
proletariat may grow strong in its struggle against the bourgeoisie, in order
that while defending today its current interests against attacking capital,
against fascism, the proletariat may be in a position tomorrow to create the
preliminary conditions for its final emancipation.
"The Communists attack us," say others. But listen, we have repeatedly
declared : We shall not attack anyone, neither persons nor organizations nor
parties that stand for the united front of the working class against the class
enemy. But at the same time it is our duty, in the interests of the prole-
tarint and its cause, to criticize those pei'sons, those organizations, those parties
which impede miity of action by the workers.
"We cannot form a united front with tlie Communists, since they have a
different program," says a third group. But you yourselves say that your
program differs from the program of the bourgeois parties, and yet this did
not and does not prevent you from entering into coalitions with these parties.
"The bourgeois-democratic parties are better allies against fascism than the
Communists," say the opponents of the united front and the advocates of
coalition with the bourgeoisie. But what does Germany's experience teach?
Did not the Social-Democrats form a hloc with those "better" allies? And
what were the results?
"If we establish a united front with the Communists, the petty bourgeoisie
will take fright at the 'Red danger' and will desert to the fascists," we hear
it said quite frequently. Rut does the united front represent a thrent to the
peasants, the petty traders, the artisans, the toiling intellectuals? No. the united
front is a threat to the big bourgeoisie, the financial magnates, the Junlxcrs
and other exploiters, whose regime brings complete ruin to all these strata.
"Social-Democracy is for democracy, the Commmiists are for dictatorship ;
therefore we cannot form a united front with the Communists." say some
of the Social-Democratic leaders. But are we offering you now a united front
for the purpose of proclaiming the dictatorship of the proletariat? We make
no such proposal for the time being.
"Let the Communists recognize democracy, let them come out in its defense,
then we shall be ready for a united front." To this we reply : We are ad-
herents of Soviet democracy, the democracy of the toilers, the most consistent
democracy in the world. But in the capitalist countries we defend and shall
contiime to defend every inch of bourgeois-democratic liberties which are being
APPENDIX, PART 1 (363
attacked by fascism and bourgeois reaction, because the interests of the class
struggle of the proletariat so dictate.
"But the tiny Communist Parties do not contribute anything by participating
in the luiited front brought about by the Labor Party," say, for instance, the
Labor leaders of Great Britain. Recall how the Austrian Social-Democratic
leaders said the same things with reference to the small Austrian Communist
Party. And what have events shown? It was not the Austrian Social-
Democratic Party headed by Otto Bauer and Karl Renner that proved right,
but the tiny Austrian Communists Party which at the right moment signalled
the fascist danger in Austria and called upon the workers to struggle. For
the whole experience of the labor movement has sliown that the Communists
with all their relative insignificance in numbers are the motive power of the
militant activity of the proletariat. Besides this, it must not be forgotten that
the Communist Parties of Austria or Great Britain are not only the tens of
thousands of workers who are supporters of the Party, but are pai'ts of the
world Communist movement, are Sections of the Communist International, the
leadiiif/ parry of which is the party of a proletariat wliich has already achieved
victory and rules over one-sixth part of the globe.
"But the united front did not prevent fascism from being victorious in the
Saar," is another objection advanced by the opponents of the united front.
Strange is the logic of these gentlemen! First they leave no stone unturned
to ensure the vicrory of fascism and then they rejoice with malicious glee
because the united front which they entered into only at the last moment did not
lead to the victory of the workers.
"If we were to form a united front with the Commimists, we should have to
withdraw from the coMlitlon. and reactionary and fascist parties would enter the
government," say the Social-Democratic leaders holding cabinet posts in various
countries. Very well. Was not the German Social-Democratic Party in a coali-
tion government? It was. Was not the Austrian Social-Democratic Party
in office? It was. Were not the Spanish Socialists in the same government
as the bourgeoisie? They were, too. Did the participation of the Social-Demo-
cratic Parties in the bourgeois coalition governments in tliese countries prevent
fascism from attacking the proletariat? It did not. Consequently it is as clear
as daylight that participation of Social-Democratic ministers in bourgeois gov-
ernments is not a banner to fascism.
"The Communists act like dictators, they want to prescribe and dictate every-
thing to us." No. We prescribe nothing and dictate nothing. We only make
proposals concerning which we ai'e convinced that if realized they will meet
the interests of the toiling people. This is not only the right but the duty of
all those acting in the name of the workers. You are afraid of the "dictatorship"
of the Communists? Let us jointly submit all proposals to the woi-kers, both
yours and ours, jointly discuss them and choose, together with all the workers,
those proposals which are most useful to the cause of the working class.
Thus all these arguments against the united front n'ill not hear the slif/htcst
criticism. They are rather the flimsy excuses of the reactionary leaders of
Social-Democracy, who prefer their united front with the bourgeoisie to the
united front of the proletariat.
No. These excuses will not hold water. The international proletariat has
known all the bitterness of tribulation caused by the split in the working class,
and becomes more and more convinced that the nnitcd front, that the proletariat's
iinity of action on a national and' international scale are toth necessary and
perfecthi possible. (Applause.)
Content and Forms of the United Front
What is and ought to be the basic content of the united front at the present
stage? The defense of the immediate economic and political interests of the
working class, the defense of the working class against fa.scism, must form Ihe
startinfj point and main content of the united front in all capitalist countries.
We must not confine our.selves to bare appeals to struggle for the proletarian
dictatorship, but must also find and advance those slogans and forms of struggle
which arise out of the vital needs of the masses, and are commensurate with
their fighting capacity at the given stage of development.
We must point out to the masses what they must do today to defend themselves
against capitalist spoliation and fascist barbarity.
We must strive to establish the wide.st united front with the aid of joint
action by workers' organizations of different trends for the defense of the vital
interests of the toiling masses. This means :
6g4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Fhst, joint struggle really to shift the burden of the consequences of the
crisis onto the shoulders of the ruling classes, the shoulders of the capitalists,
landlords — in a word, to the shoulders of the rich.
Second, joint struggle against all forms of the fascist offensive, in defense
of the gains and the rights of the toilers, against the liquidation of bourgeois-
democratic liberties.
Third, joint struggle against the approaching danger of imperialist war, a
struggle that will impede the preparations for such a war.
We must indefatigably prepare the working class for a rapid change in forms
and methods of struggJe when there is a change in the situation. As the move-
ment grows and the unity of the working class strengthens, we must go further,
and prepare the transition from the defensive to the offensive agaimst capital
steering towards the organization of a mass political strike. It must be an
absolute condition of such a strike to draw into it the main trade unions of the
respective countries.
Communists of course cannot and must not for a moment abandon their own
independent work of Communist education, organization and mobilization of
the masses. However, for the purpose of ensuring that the workers find the
road to unity of action, it is necessary to strive at the same time both for
short-term and for long-term agreements providing for joint action with Social-
Democratic Parties, reformist trade unions and other organizations of the
toilers against the class enemies of the proletariat. The chief stress in all this
must be laid on developing mass action locally, to he carried out by the local
organizations through local agreements.
While loyally carrying out the conditions of all agreements made with them,
we shall mercilessly expose all .sabotage of joint action on the part of persons
and organizations participating in the united front. To any attempt to wreck
the agreements — and such attempts may possibly be made — we shall reply by
appealing to the masses while continuing untiringly to struggle for the restoration
of the broken unity of action.
It goes without saying that the concrete realization of the united front will
take various forms in various countries, depending upon the condition and char-
acter of the workers' organizations and their political level, upon the concrete
situation in the particular country, upon the changes in progress in the inter-
national labor movement, etc.
These forms may include for instance : co-ordinated joint action of the work-
ers to be agreed upon from case to case on definite occasions, on individual de-
mands or on the basis of a common platform ; co-ordinated actions in individual
enterprises or whole industries ; co-ordinated actions on a local, regional, na-
tional or international scale; co-ordinated action for the organization of the
economic struggle of the workers, carrying out of mass political actions, for
the organization of joint self-defense against fascist attacks ; co-ordinated action
in the rendering of aid to political prisoners and their fanvilies; in the fi.eld
of struggle against social reaction; joint actions in the defense of the interests
of the youth and women, in the field of the cooperative movement, cultural
activity, sports, etc.
It would be insufficient to content ourselves with the conclusion of a pact
providing for joint action and the formation of contact committees consisting
of the parties and organizations participating in the united front, like those
we have in France, for instance. That is only the first step. The pact is an
auxiliary means for realizing joint action, but by itself it does not constitute
a united front. A contact commission between the leaders of the Communist
and Socialist Parties is necessary to facilitate the carrying out of joint action,
but by itself it is far from adequate for a real development of the united front,
for drawing the broadest masses into the struggle against fascism.
The Communists and all revolutionary workers must strive for the formation
of elective (and in the countries of fascist dictatorship — selected from the most
authoritative participants in the united front movement) non-partisan cla^s
todies of the united front at the factories, among the unemployed in the woi'k-
ing cMss districts, among the small townsmen and in the villages. Only such
bodies will be able to embrace in the united front movement the vast masses of
unorganized toilers as well, will be able to assist in developing the initiative
of the masses in the struggle against the offensive of capital, against fascism
and reaction, and on this basis to create the necessary hroad active rank and
file of the united front, the training of hundreds of thousands of non-Party
Bolsheviks in the capitalist countries.
APPENDIX, PART 1 gg5
Joint action of the onjanlzcd worlvers is the beginning, the foundation. But
we must not lose sight of the fact that the unorganized masses constitute the
vast majority of worliers. Thus, in Ffwnce the number of organized worliers —
Communists, Socialists, trade union members of various trends — is altogether
about one viillion, while the total number of workers is eleven million. In
Great Britain there are approximately five million members of trade unions
and parties of various trends. At the same time the total number of workers
is fourteen million. In the United States of Amcriea about fti^e million work-
ers are organized, while altogether there are thirtif-eir/ht million workers in that
country. About the same ratio holds good for a number of other countries.
In "normal" times this mass in the main does not participate in political life.
But now this gigantic mass is getting into motion more and more, is being
brought into political life, comes out in the political arena.
The creation of non-partisan class bodies is the best form for carrying out,
extending and strengthening the united front among the rank and file of the
broadest masses. These bodies will likewise be the best bulwark against every
attempt of the opponents of the united front to disrupt the established unity
of action of the working class.
The Anti-Fascist People's Front
In the mobilization of the toiling masses for the struggle against fascism, the
formation of broad people's anti-faseist frmit on the basis of the proletarian
united front is a particularly important task. The success of the entire strug-
gle of the proletariat is closely connected with the establishment of a fighting
alliance between the proletariat on the one hand and the toiling peasantry and
the basic mass of the urban petty bourgeoisie constituting a majority in the
population of even industrially developed countries, on the other.
In its agitation, fascism, desirous of winning these masses to its own side,
tries to set the toiling masses of the cities and the countryside against the revo-
lutionary proletariat, intimidating the petty bourgeoisie with the bugaboo of
the "Red danger". We must turn the spearpoint in the opposite direction and
show the toiling peasants, artisans and toiling intellectuals whence the real
danger threatens. We must show them eoneretely who piles the burden of
taxes and imposts on to the peasant, squeezes usurious Interest out of him, and
who, while owning the best lands and enjoying every form of wealth, drives
the peasant and his family from his plot of land and dooms him to unemploy-
ment and poverty. We must explain concretely, explain patiently and per-
sistently, who ruins the artisans, the handicraftsmen, with taxes, imposts,
high rents and competition impossible for them to withstand, who throws into
the street and deprives of employment the broad masses of the toiling
intelligentsia.
But this is not enough.
The fundamental, the most decisive point in establishing the anti-fascist peo-
ple's front is the resolute action of the revolutionary proletariat in defense of
the demands of these strata, particularly of the toiling peasantry, demands in line
with the basic interests of the proletariat, combining in the process of struggle
the demands of the working class with these demands.
In forming the anti-fascist people's front, a correct approach to those organiza-
tions and parties to which a considerable number of the toiling peasantry and
the mass of the urban petty bourgeoisie belong is of great imiioitance.
In the capitalist countries tlie majority of these parties and organizations,
political as well as economic, are still under the influence of the bourgeoisie and
follow it. The social composition of these parties and organizations is hetiToge-
neous. They include big kulaks (rich i.)easants) side by side with landless
peasants, big business men alongside of petty shopkeeyjers, but control is in the
hands of the former, the agents of big capital. This makes it our duty to
approach these organizations in different icays, taking into consideration that
not infrequently the bulk of the membershiii does nut know anylhing about the
real political character of its ieadershijf. Under certain coiulitions. we can and
must bend our efforts to the task of drawing these parties and organizations or
certain sections of them to the side of the ant i fascist people's front, despite their
bourgeois leadership. Such, for instance, is today the sittialion in France with
the Radical Party, in the United States with various farmers' organizations,
in Poland with the "Stronnictwo Ludowe", in Yugoslavia with the Croatian
Peasants' Party, in Bulgaria with the Agrarian League, in Greece with the
Agrarians, etc. But irrespective of whether there is any chance of attracting
QQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
these parties and organizations to tlie side of the people's front, our tactics must
under all circumstances be directed towards drawing the small peasants, artisans,
handicraftsmen, etc., among their members into the anti-fascist ijeople's front.
You see consequently that in this field we must put an end all along the line
to what frequently occurs in our practical work — the ignoring of or contemptuous
attitude towards the various organizations and parties of the peasants, artisans
and urban petty-bourgeois masses.
Cardinal Questions of the United Front in Individual Countries
There are in every country certain cardinal fjiiestions which at the present
stage are agitating vast masses of the population and around which the struggle
for the estal)lishment of the united front must be developed. If these cardinal
points, cardinal questions, are properly grasped, it will ensure and accelerate the
establishment of the united front.
A. The United States of America
Let us take, for example, so important a country in the capitalist world as the
United States of America. Thei-e millions of people have been brought into
motion by the crisis. The program for the recovery of capitalism has collapsed.
Vast masses are beginning to abandon the bourgeois parties, and are at present
at the crossi'oads.
Incipient American fa.scism is endeavoring to direct the disillusionment and
discontent of these masses into reactionary fascist channels. It is a i^eculiarity
of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it appears prin-
cipally in the guise of an opposition to fasci-sm, which it accuses of being an "un-
American" tendency imported from abroad. In contradistinction to German
fascism, which acts under anti-constitutional slogans, American fascism tries to
portray itself as the custodian of the constitution and "American democracy''.
It does not yet represent a directly menacing force. But if it succeeds in pene-
trating to the broad masses who have become disillusioned with the old bourgeois
parties, it may become a serious menace in the very near future.
And what would the success of fascism in the United States entail? For the
toiling masses it would, of cour.se, entail the unrestrained strengthening of the
regime of exploitation and the destruction of the working class movement. And
what would be the international significance of this success of fascism? As we
know, the United States is not Hungary, or Finland, or Bulgaria, or Latvia.
The success of fascism in the United States would change the whole interna-
tional situation quite materially.
Under these circumstances, can the American proletariat content itelf with
the organization of only its class conscious vanguard, which is prepared to follow
the revolutionary path? No.
It is perfectly obvious that the interests of the American proletariat demand
that all its forces dissociate themselves from the capitalist parties without delay.
It must at the proper time find ways and suitable forms of preventing fascism from
winning over the broad discontented masses of the toilers. And here it must be
said that under American conditions the creation of a mass party of toilers, a
"Workers' and Farmers' Part if, might serve as such a suitable form. Such a
party would he a speeifie form of the mass people's front in America that should
be set up in opposition to the parties of the trusts and the banks, and likewise to
growing fascism. S'uch a party, of course, will be neither Socialist nor Com-
munist. But it nnist be an anti-fascist party and must not be an anti-Communist
party. The program of this party must be directed against the banks, trusts and
monopolies, against the principal enemies of the people who are gambling on its
misfortunes. Such a party will be equal to its task only if it defends the urgent
demands of the working class, only if it fights for genuine social legislation, for
unemployment insui-ance ; only if it fights for land for the white and black share-
croppers and for their liberation from the burden of debt : only if it works for the
cancellation of the farmers' indebtedness : only if it fights for the equal status of
the Negroes: only if it fights for the demands of the war veterans, and for the
interests of the members of the liberal professions, the small business men, the
artisans. And so on.
It goes without saying that such a party will fight for the election of its own
candidates to local oflSces, to the state legislatures, to the House of Representatives
and the Senate.
Our comrades in the United States acted rightly in taking the initiative for
the creation of such a party. But they still have to take effective measures in
APPENDIX, PART 1 gg^
order to make the creation of such a party the cause of the masses themselves.
The question of forming a "Workers' and Farmers' Party", and its program, should
be discussed at mass meetings of the people. We should develop the most wide-
spread movement for the creation of such a party, and take the lead in it. In
no case must the initiative of organizing the party be allowed to pass to elements
desirous of utilizing the discontent of the masses which have become disillusioned
in both the bourgeois parties. Democratic and Republican, in order to create a
"third party" in the United States, as an anti-Comnuniist party, a party directed
against the revolutionary movement.
B. Great Britain
In Great Britain, as a result of the mass action of the British worliers, Mosley's
fascist organization has for the time being been pushed into tlie background.
But we must not close our eyes to the fact that the so-called "National Govern-
ment" is passing a number of reactionary measures directed against the working
class, as a result of which conditions ai'e being created in Great Britain, too, which
it easy for the bourgeoisie, if necessary, to proceed to a fascist regime. At the
present stage, fighting the fascist danger in Great Britain means primarily fight-
ing the "National Government"' and its reactionary measures, fighting the offensive
of capital, fighting for the demands of the unemployed, fighting against wage
reductions and for the repeal of all those laws with tlie help of which the British
bourgeoisie is lowering the standard of living of the masses.
But tlie growing hatred of the working class for the "National Government"
is uniting increasingly large numbers under the slogan of the formation of a new
Labor GovoninKiii in Great Britain. Can the Communists ignore this frame of
mind of the masses, who still retain faith in a Labor government? No, comrades.
AVe nuist find a way of approaching these masses. We tell them openly, as did
the Thirteenth Congress of the British Connnunist Party, that we Communists
are in favor of a Soviet government, as the only form of government capable of
emancipating the workers from the yoke of capital. But you want a Labor gov-
ernment? Very well. We have been and are fighting hand in hand with you
for the defeat of the "National Government". We are prepared to support your
fight for the foi-mation of a new Labor government, in spite of the fact that both
the previous Labor governments did not fulfill the promises made to the working
class by the Labor I'arty. We do not expect this government to carry out Soc-ialist
measures. Btit we shall present it with the demand, in the name of the working
class millions, that it defend the most essential economic and political interests of
the working class and of all the toilers. Let us jointly discuss a common iDrograni
of sttch demands, and let us achieve that unity of action whicli the proletariat
requires in order to repel the reactionary offensive of the "National Government",
the attack of capital and fascism, and the preparations for a new war. On this
basis, the British comrades are prepared at the forthcoming parliamentary elec-
tions to cooperate with branches of the Labor Party against the "National Gov-
ernment", and also against Lloyd George, who is endeavoring in his own way to
lure the masses into following him against the catise of the working class and In
the interests of the British bourgeoisie.
This position of the British Communists is a correct one. It will help them
to set up a militant united front with the millions of members of the British trade
unions and the British Labor Party.
While always remaining in the front ranks of the fighting proletariat, and point-
ing out to the masses the only right patli — the path of struggle for the revolu-
tionary overthrow of the rule of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a
Soviet governmeiri — the Communists, in defining their immediate political aims,
must not attempt to leap over those necessary stages of the mass movement in
the course of which the working class masses by their own experience ouftlive
their illusions and pass over to the side of Communism.
C. France
France, as we know, is a country in which the working class is .setting an exam-
ple to the whole world proletariat of how to fight fascism. The French Com-
munist Party is setting an example to all the Sections of the Comintern of how the
tactics of the united front should be conducted ; the Socialist workers are setting
an example of what the Social-Democratic workers of other capitalist countries
should now be doing in the fight against fascism. (Applause.) The significance
of the anti-fascist demonstration attended by half a million people held in Paris
668 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
on July 14 of this year and of the numerous demonstrations in other FVench
cities is tremendous. This is not merely a movement of a united working class
front ; it is the beginning of a wide general front of the people against fascism
in France.
This united front movement enhances the confidence of the working class
in its own forces; it strengthens its consciousness of the leading role it is
playing in relation to the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie of the towns and
the intelligentsia ; it extends the influence of the Communist Party among the
working class masses, and therefore brings new strength to the proletariat in
the fight against fascism. It is mobilizing in good time the vigilance of the
masses in regard to the fascist danger. And it will serve as an infectious
example for the development of the anti-fascist struggle in other capitalist
countries and will exercise a heartening influence on the proletarians of Ger-
many crushed down by the fascist dictatorship.
The victory, needless to say, is a big one, but it still does not decide the
issue of the anti-fascist struggle. The overwhelming majority of the French
people are undoubtedly opposed to fascism. But the bourgeoisie is able by
armed force to violate the will of peoples. The fascist movement is continuing
to develop absolutely freely, with the active support of monopoly capital, the
state apparatus of the bourgeoisie, the general staff of the French army, and
the reactionary leaders of the Catholic church — that stronghold of all reaction.
The most powerful fascist organization, the Croix de Feu, now commands 300,-
000 armed men, the backbone of which consists of 60,000 officers of the reserve.
It holds strong positions in the police, the gendarmerie, the army, the air force
and in all government offices. The recent municipal elections have shown that
in France it is not only the revolutionary forces that are growing, but also
the forces of fascism. If fascism succeeds in penetrating widely among the
peasantry, and in securing the support of one section of the army, while the
other section remains neutral, the French toiling masses will not be, able to
prevent the fascists from coming to power. Comrades, do not forget the organi-
zational weakness of the French labor movement, which tends to facilitate the
success of the fascist attack. The working class and all anti-fascists in France
have no grounds for resting content with the results already achieved.
What are the tasks confronting the working class in France?
First, to achieve the establishment of a united front not only in the political
sphere, but also in the economic sphere in order to organize the struggle against
the capitalist offensive, and by its pressure to smash the resistance offered to
the united front by the leaders of the reformist Confederation of Labor.
Second, to achieve trade union unity in France — united trade unions based on
the class struggle.
Third, to enlist in the anti-fascist movement the broad peasant masses, the
petty-bourgeois masses, devoting special attention in the program of the anti-
fascist people's front to their urgent demands.
Fourth, to strengthen organizationally and extend further the anti-fascist
movement which has already developed, by the widspread creation of elected
non-partisan bodies of the anti-fascist people's front, the influence of which
extends to wider masses than those in the parties and toilers' organizations
in France at present in existence.
Fifth, to secure by their pressure the disbanding and disarming of the fascist
organizations, as organizations of conspirators against the republic and agents
of Hitler in France.
Sixth, to achieve the purging of the state apparatus, the army and the police
of the conspirators who are preparing a fascist coup.
Srvcfhth. to develop the struggle against the leaders of the reactionary cliques
of the Catliolic church, as one of the most important strongholds of French
fascism.
Eighth, to link up the army with the anti-fascist movement by creating in
its ranks committees for the defense of the republic and the constitution,
directed against those who want to utilize the army for an anti-constitutional
coup d'etat (applause) ; not to allow the reactionary forces in France to wreck
the Franco-Soviet agreement, which defends the cause of peace against the
aggression of German fascism. { Applause. )
And if in France the anti-fascist movement leads to the formation of a
government which will carry on a real struggle against French fascism — not
in word but in deed — will carry out the program of demands of the anti-fascist
people's front, the Communists, V'hile remainvng the irreconcilable foes of every
APPENDIX, PART 1 ^gQ
bourgeois government and supporters of a Soviet government, will nevertheless,
in face of the growing fascist danger, be prepared to support such a goverrmient.
{Applause.)
The United Front and the Fascist Mass Organizations
Comrades, the fight for the establishment of a united front in coimtries
where the fascists ai'e in power is perhaps the most important problem that
confronts us. In such countries, of course, the fight is carried on under far
more difficult conditions than is the case in countries which have legal labor
movements. Nevertheless, all the conditions exist in fascist countries for the
development of a real anti-fascist people's front in the struggle against the
fascist dictatorship, since the Social-Democratic, Catholic and other workers,
in Germany for instance, are in a position to realize more directly the necessity
for a joint struggle with the Communists against the fascist dictatorship. Wide
strata of the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry, having already tasted the
bitter fruits of fascist rule, are growing increasingly discontented and dis-
illusioned, which fact makes it easier to enlist them in the anti-fascist people's
front.
But the principal task in fascist countries, particularly in Germany and
Italy, where fascism has managed to gain a mass basis and has forced the
workers and other toilers into its organizations, consists in a skillful combina-
tion of the struggle against the fascist dictatorship from without and its under-
mining from within, inside the fascist mass organizations and bodies. Special
methods and means of approach suited to the concrete conditions prevailing
in these countries must be learned, mastered and applied, so as to facilitate
the rapid disintegration of the mass basis of fascism and to prepare the way
for the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship. We must learn, master and
apply this, and not only shout "Down with Hitler!" and "Down with Musso-
lini !" Yes, learn, master and apply.
This is a difficult and complex task. It is all the more difficult because our
experience in successfully combating the fascist dictatorship is extremely
limited. Our Italian comrades, for instance, have already been fighting under
the conditions of a fascist dictatorship for about thirteen years. Nevertheless,
they have not succeeded in developing a real mass struggle against fascism,
and therefore they have unfortunately been little able in this respect to help
the Communist Parties in other fascist countries by their positive experience.
The German and Italian Communists, and the Communists in other fascist
countries, as well as the Communist youth, have displayed prodigies of valor ;
they have made and are daily making tremendous sacrifices. We all bow our
lieads in honor of such heroism and sacrifices. But heroism alone is not enough.
(Applause.) Heroism must be combined with day-to-day work among the
masses, with such concrete struggle against fascism as will achieve the most
tangible results in this sphere. In our struggle against fascist dictatorship it
it particularly dangerous to confuse the wish with the fact. We must base
ourselves on the facts, on the actual concrete situation.
What is now the actual situation, in Germany for instance?
The masses are becoming increasingly discontented and disillusioned with
the policy of the fascist dictatorship, and this even assumes the form of partial
strikes and other action. In spite of all its efforts, fascism has failed to win
over politically the basic masses of the workers: it is even losing its former
supporters, and will lose them more and more in the future. Nevertheless, we
must realize that the workers who are convinced of the possihility of over-
throwing the fascist dictatorship, and who are prepared, already today, to
fight for it actively, are still in the minoi'ity — they consist of us, the Com-
munists, and the revolutionary section of the Social-Democratic workers. But
the majority of the toilers have not yet become aware of the real, concrete
possibilities and methods of overthrowing this dictatorship and are maintaining
a waiting position. This we must bear In mind when we outline our tasks in
the struggle against fasci.sm in Germany, and when we seek, study and apply
special methods of bringing about the undermining and overthrow of the
fascist dictatorship in Germany.
In order to be able to strike a telling blow at the fascist dictatorship, we
must first find out what is its most vulnerable point. What is the Achilles'
heel of the fascist dictatorship? Its social basis. The latter is extremely
heterogeneous. It is made up of various classes and various strata of .society.
Fascism has proclaimed itself the sole representative of all classes and strata
570 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the population : the manufacturer and the worker, the millionaire and the
unemployed, Junker and the small peasant, the big capitalist and tlie artisan.
It pretends to defend the interests of all these strata, the interests of the
nation. But since it is dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie, fascism must
inevitably come into conflict with its mass social basis, all the more since,
under the fascist dictatorship, the class contradictions between the pack of
financial magnates and the overwhelming majority of the people are brought
out in greatest relief.
We can lead the masses to a decisive struggle for the overthrow of the
fascist dictatorship only by getting the workers who liave been forced into
the fascist organizations, or have joined them through ignorance, to take part
in flic most elementary inovenicnts for the defense of their economic, political
and cultural interests. It is for this reason that the Communists must work
in these organizations, as the best champions of the day-to-day interests of
the mass of members, bearing in mind that as the workers belonging to these
organizations begin more and more frequently to demand their rights and
defend their interests, they inevitably come into conflict with the fascist
dictatorship.
In defending the urgent and, at first, the most elementary interests of the
toiling masses of town and country, it is <^omparatively easier to find a com-
mon language not only witli the conscious anti-fascists but also witli those
toilers who are still supporters of fascism, but are disillusioned and dissatisfied
with its policy, and are grumbling and seeking an occasion for expressing
their discontent. We must in general realize that all our tactics in countries
with fascist dictatorship must be of such a character as not to repulse the
rank-and-file supporters of fascism, not to throw them once more into the
arms of fascism, but to deepen the chasm between the fascist leaders and the
mass of disillusioned ranlv-and-file followers of fascism drawn from the toiling
strata.
We need not be dismayed, comrades, if the people mobilized around these
day-to-day interests consider themselves either indifferent to politics or even
followers of fascism. The important thing for us is to draw them into the
movement which, altliough it may not at first proceed openly under ihe
slogans of the struggle against fascism, is already objectively an anti-fascist
movement counterposing these masses against the fascist dictatorship.
Experience teaches us that the view that it is rjeneraUn impossihle, in coun-
tries with a fascist dictatorship, to come out legally or seml-legally, is harmful
and incorrect. To insist on this point of view means to fall into passivity,
and to renounce real mass work altogether. True, under the conditions of a
fascist dictatorship, to find forms and metliods of legal or semi-legal action
is a diflficult and complex problem. Rut, as in many other questions, the
path is indicated by life and by the initiative of the masses themselves, which
have already provided us with a number of examples that must be generalized
and applied in an organized and effective manner. We must very resolutely
put an end to the tendency to underestimate work in the fascist mass organi-
zations. In Italy, in Germany and in at number of otlier fascist countries,
our comrades concealed their passivity, and frequently even their direct i-efusal
to work in the fascist mass organizations, by putting work in the factories
in contradistinction to work in the fascist mass organizati<ins. In reality,
however, it was just this mechanical distinction which led to work being
-conducted very feebly, and sometimes not at all, both in the fascist mass
'Organizations and in tlie factories.
Yet it is particularly important that Commxuiists in the fascist countries
should be wherever the masses are to be found. Fa.scism has deprived the
workers of their own legal organizations. It has forced the fascist organi-
zations upon them, and it is there that the masses are by compulsion, or to
some extent voluntarily. These mass fascist organizations can and must be
made our legal or semi-legal field of action, where we can meet the masses.
They cani and must be made our legal or semi-legal starting point for the
defense of the day-to-day interests of the masses. In order to utilize these
possibilities, Communists must strive to win elective posts in the fascist mass
■organizations, with the object of establishing contact with the masses, and
must rid themselves once and for all of the prejudice that this kind of activity
is unseemly and unworthy of a revolutionary worker.
In Germany, for instance, there exists a system known as shop delegates.
But where is it stated that we must leave the fascists a monopoly in these
organizations? Cannot we endeavor to unite the Communist, Social-Democratic,
APPENDIX, PART 1 671
Catholic and other anti-fascist workers in the factories so that when the list
of shop delegates is voted upon, the known agents of the employers may he
struck off and other candidates, enjoying the contidence of the workers, inserted
in their stead? Practice has already shown that this is possible.
And does not practice also go to show that it is possible, jointly with tlie
Social-Democratic and other discontented workers, to demand that the shop
delegates really defend the interests of the workers?
Take the ''Labor Front" in Germany, or the fascist trade unions in Italy.
Is it not possible to demand that the functionaries of the "Labor Front" be
elected, and not appointed; to insist that the leading bodies of the local
groups report to the meetings of the members of the organizations ; to address
these demands, following a decision by the group, to the employer, to the
"guardian of labor", to the higher bodies of the "Labor Front"? This is
possible, provided the revolutionary workers really work within the "Labor
Front" and try to obtain posts in it.
Similar methods of work are possible and essential in other mass fascist
organizations aLso — in the Hitler Youth Leagues, in the sports organizations,
in the Kraft (lurch Freude organizations, in the Do[)i)0 Lavoro in Italy, in the
cooperatives, and so forth.
Comrades, you remember the ancient tale of the capture of Troy. Troy
was inaccessible to the armies attacking her, thanks to her impregnable walls.
And the attacking army, after suffering many sacritices, was unable to achieve
victory until with the aid of the famous Trojan horse it managed to penetrate to
the very heart of the enemy's camp.
We revolutionary workers, it appears to me, should not be shy about using
the same tactics with regard to our fascist foe, who is defending himself
against the people with the help of the living wall of his cutthroats.
(Applansc.)
He who fails to understand the necessity of applying such tactics in the
case of fascism, he who regards such an approach as "humiliating", may be
a most excellent comrade, but, if you will allow me to say so, he is a windbag
and not a revolutionary, he will be unable to lead the masses to the overthrow
of the fascist dictatorship. (AiJijlaiisc.)
Growing up outside and inside the fascist organizations in Germany. Italy
and the other countries in which fascism possesses a mass basis, the mass
movement for a united front, starting with the advocacy of the most elementary
requirements, changing its forms and watchwords of the struggle as that
struggle extends and grows, will be the hattcriiuj ram that will shatter the
now seemingly (to many) impregnable fortress of the fascist dictatorship.
The United Front in the Countries Where the Social-Democrats Are in Office
The struggle for the establishment of the united front raises also another
very important problem, the problem of the united front in countries where
Social-Democratic governments, or coalition governments in which Socialists
participate, are in power, as, for instance, in Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Czechoslovakia and Belgium.
Our atitude of absolute opposition to Social-Democratic governments, which
are governments of compromise with the bourgeoisie, is well known. But this
notwithstanding, we do not regard the existence of a Social-Demoratic govern-
ment or a coalition government formed by a Social-Democratic party with
bourgeois parties as an insurnumntahle obstacle for the establishment of a
imited front with the Social-Democrats on definite issues. We believe that in
such a case too a united front for the defense of the vital interests of the toiling
people and in the struggle against fascism is quite possible and necessary. It
stands to reason that in countries whei-e representatives of Social-Democratic
parties take part in the government, the Social-Democratic leadership offers the
greatest resistance to the proletarian united front. This is quite comprehensible.
After all, they want to show the bourgeoisie that it is they v,'ho can keep the
discontented working masses under control and prevent them from falling under
the influence of Communism better and more skillfully than anyone else. The
fact, however, that Social-Democratic ministei-s are opposed to "the proletarian
united front can by no means justify a situation in which the Communists do
nothing to establisli a united front of the proletariat.
Our comrades in the Scandinavian countries often follow the line of least
resistance, confining themselves to propaganda exposing the Social-Democratic
572 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
governments. This is a mistake. In Denmark, for example, the Social-Demo-
cratic leaders have been in the government for the last ten years, and for ten
years day in and day out the Communists have been reiterating that it is a
bourgeois, a capitalist government. We have to assume that the Danish workers
are acquainted with this propaganda. The fact that a considerable majority
nevertheless vote for the Social-Democratic government party only goes to show
that the exposure of the government on the part of the Communists by means
of propaganda is insufficieni. It does not prove, however, that these hundreds
of thousands of workers are satisfied with all the government measures of the
Social-Democratic ministers. No, they are tiot satisfied with the fact that by
it so-called "crisis agreement" the Social-Democratic government assists the
hig capitalists and landoumers and not the workers and poor peasants. They
are not satisfied with the decree issued by the government in January, 1933, which
deprived the workers of the right to strike. They are not satisfied with the
project of the Social-Democratic leadership for a dangerous anti-democratic
electoral reform (which would considerably reduce the number of deputies). I
shall hardly be in error, comrades, if I state that 99 per cent of the Danish
workers do not appro^re of these political steps taken by the Social-Democratic
leaders and ministers.
Is it not possible for the Communists to call upon the trade union and Social-
Democratic organizations of Denmark to discuss some of these burning issues,
to express their opinions on them and jointly come out for a proletarian united
front with the object of obtaining the workers" demands? In October of last
year, when our Danish comrades appealed to the trade unions to act against
the reduction of unemployment relief and for the democratic rights of the trade
unions, about a hundred local trade union organizations joined the united front.
In Siveden a Social-Democratic government is for the third time in power,
but the Swedish Communists have for a long time refused to apply the united
front tactics in practice. Why? Was it because they were opposed to the
united front? No, in principle, of course, they were for the united front, for a
united fron^ in general, but they failed to understand in what circumstances, on
what questions, in defense of what demands a proletarian united front could be
successfully established, where and how to "hook on". A few months before the
Social-Democratic Party formed its government, it advanced during the elections
a platform containing demands whcih were the very thing to include in a plat-
form of the proletarian united front. For example, the slogans "Against customs
duties", "Against militarization", "Make an end to the policy of delay in the
question of nnemployment insurance", "Grant adequate old age pensions", "Pro-
hibit organizations like the 'Munch' corps" (a fascist organization), "Down with
class legislation against the unions demanded by the bourgeois parties."
Over a million toilers of Sweden voted in 1932 for these demands advocated by
the Social-Democrats and welcomed in 1933 the formation of a Social-Democratic
government in the hope that now these demands would be realized. What could
have been more natural in such a situation and what would have suited the
working masses better than an appeal of the Communist Party to all Social-
Democratic and trade union organizations to take joint action to secure these
demands advanced hg the Social-Democratic Party?
If we had succeeded in really mobilizing the broad masses, in welding the
Socialist-Democratic and Comnuinist workers' organizations into a \mited front
to secure these demands which the Social-Democrats themselves had advanced,
no one can doubt that the working class of Sweden would have gained thereby.
The Social-Democratic ministers of Sweden, of course, would not have been
very happy over it, for in that case the government would have been compelled
to meet at least some of these demands. At any rate, what has happened now,
when the government instead of abolishing has raised some of the duties, instead
of restricting militarism has enlarged the military budget, and instead of re-
jecting any legislation directed against the trade unions has itself introduced such
a bill in Parliament, would not have happened. True, on the last issue the Com-
munist Party of Sweden carried through a good mass campaign in the spirit of
the proletarian united front with the result that in the end even the Social-
Democratic parliamentary fraction felt constrained to vote against the govern-
ment bill, and for the time being the bill has been defeated.
The Norwegian Communists were right in calling upon the organizations
of the Labor Party to org'anize joint May Day demonstrations and in putting
forward a number of demands which in the main coincided with the demands
contained in the election platform of the Norwegian Labor Party. Although
this step in favor of a united front was poorly prepared and the leadership
APPENDIX, PART 1 g73
of the Norwegian Labor Party opposed it, united front demonstrations took
place in thirty localities.
Formerly many Communists used to be afraid that it would be opportunism
on their part if they did not counter every partial demand of the Social-
Democrats by demands of their own which were twice as radical. That was
la naive mistake. It Social-Democrats, for instance, demanded the dissolution
of the fascist organizations, there was no reason why we should add : "and
the disbanding of the state police" (a demand which would be expedient under
different circumstances.) We should rather tell the Social-Democratic workers:
We are ready to accept tJiese demands of your party as demands of the pro-
letarian united front and are ready to fight to the end for its realization. Let
us join hands for the battle.
In Czechoslovakia also certain demands ad^tinced by the Czech and the Ger-
man Social-Democrats, and the reformist trade unions, can and should be
utilized for the establishment of a united front of the working class. When
the Social-Democrat, for instance, demand work for the unemployed, or the
abolition of the laws restricting municipal self-government, as they have done
ever since 1927, these demands must be made concrete in each locality, in each
district, and a fight must be carried on hand in hand with the Social-Democratic
organizations for their actual realization. Or, when the Social-Democratic par-
ties thunder against the exponents of fascism in the state apparatus "in general",
the proper thing to do is in each particular district to drag into the light of
day the particular local fascist spokesmen, and together with the Social-Demo-
cratic workers demand their removal from government employ.
In Belgium, the leaders of the Socialist Party, with Bmile Vandervelde at
their head, have entered a coalition government. This "success" they have
achieved thanks to their lengthy and extensive campaigns for two main de-
mands: (1) the abolition of the emergency decree, and (2) the realization
of the de Man plan. The first issue is very important. The preceding govern-
ment issued 150 reactionary emergency decrees, which are an extremely heavy
burden on the toiling people. It was proposed to repeal them at once. Such
was the demand of the Socialist Party. But have many of these emergency
degrees been repealed by the new government? It has not rescinded a single
one. It has only nullified somewhat a few of the emergency decrees in ordpr
to make a sort of "token payment" in settlement of the generous promises
of the Belgian Socialist leaders (like that "token dollar" which some European
powers proffered the U. S. A. in payment of the mjllions due as war debts).
As regards the realization of the widely advertised de Man plan, the matter
has taken a turn quite unexpected by the Social-Democratic masses. The
Socialist ministers announced that the economic crisis must he overcome iirst,
and only those provisions of de Man's plan should be carried into eiJect which
improve the position of the industrial capitalists and the banks ; only thereafter
would it be possible to adopt measures to improve the conditions of the workers.
But how long must the workers wait for their share in the "lienefits" promised
them in the de Man plan? The Belgian bankers have already had their veri-
table shotoer of gold. The Belgian franc has been devaluated 28 per cent;
by this manipulation the bankers were able to pocket 4,500,000,000 francs as
their spoils at the expense of the wage earners and the savings of the small
depositors. Biit how does this fally with the contents of the de Man plan?
Why, if we are to believe the letter of the plan, it promises to "prosectitc
monopolist abuses and speculative manipulations".
On the basis of the de Man plan, the government has appointed a commission
to supervise the banks. But the commission consists of bankers who can now
gaily and light-heartedly supervise themselves.
The de Man plan also promises a number of other good things, such as a
"shortening of the working day'', "nortnalization of wages", "a. minimum wage",
"organization of an all-embracing system of social insurance", greater con-
venience in living conditions through new housing construction and so forth.
Tliese are all demands which we Communists can support. We should go to
the labor organizations of Belgium and say to them : The capitalists have
already received enough and even too much. Let us demand that the Social-
Democratic ministers now carry out the promises they made to the workers.
Let us get together in a united front for the successful defetise of our interests.
Minister Vandervelde, we support the demands on behalf of the workers con-
tained in your platform : but we tell you frankly that we take these demands
seriou.'ilg. that we vp'ant action and not empty words, and therefore are uniting
hundreds of thousands of workers to struggle for these demands !
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 44
674 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Thus, in countries having Social-Democratic governments, the Communists
ought to make use of appropriate individual demands taken from the platforms
of the Social-Democratic parties themselves and of the election promises of
the Social-Democratic ministers as the starting point for the realization of joint
action with the Social-Democratic parties and organizations, so that they may
afterwards the more easily develop a campaign for the establishment of a united
front, but on the b'asis of other mass demands to be raised in the struggle
against the offensive of capital, against fascism and the threat of war.
It must further be borne in mind that if in general joint action with the
Social-Democratic parties and organizations requires that the Communists exer-
cise serious and substantial criticism of Social-Democracy as the ideology
and practice of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and untiringly explain
to the Social-Democratic workers in a comradely way the program and slogans
of Communism, in countries having Social-Democratic governments this task
is of particular importance in the struggle for the united front.
The Struggle for Trade Union Unity
Comrades, the most important stage in the consolidation of the united front
must be the establishment of national and international trade union unity.
As you know, the disruptive tactics of the reformist leaders were applied most
virulently in the trade unions. The reason for this is clear. Here their policy
of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie found its practical culmination
directly in the factories, to the detriment of the vital interests of the working
class. This, of course, gave rise to sharp criticism and resistance on the part
of the revolutionary workers under the leadership of the Communists. That is
why the struggle between Communism and reformism raged most fiercely in the
trade imions.
The more difficult and complicated the situation became for capitalism, the
more reactionary was the policy of the leaders of the Amsterdam unions and
the more aggressive were their measures against all opposition elements within
the trade iinions. Even the establishment of the fascist dictatorship in Ger-
many and the intensified capitalist offensive in all capitalist countries failed
to diminish their aggressiveness. It is not a characteristic fact that in 1983
alone, most disgraceful circulars were issued in Great Britain, Holland, Belgium
and Sweden, urging the expulsion of Communists and revolutionary workers
from the trade unions?
The same year a circular was issued in Great Britain prohibiting the local
branches of the trade unions from joining antiwar or other revolutionary or-
ganizations. That was a prelude to the notorious "black circular" of the Trade
Union Congress General Council, which outlawed any trades council admitting
delegates "directly or indirectly associated with Communist organizations".
What is there left to be said of the leadership of the German trade unions,
which applied unprecedented repressive measures against the revolutionary ele-
ments in the trade unions?
Yet we must base our tactics, not on the behavior of individual leaders of
the Amsterdam unions, no matter what difficulties their behavior may cause the
class struggle, but primarily on the question of where the masses of u-orkers are
to he foKTid. And here we must openly declare that work in the trade unions
is the sorest spot in the work of all Communist Parties. We must bring about
a real change for the better in trade union work and make the question of
struggle for trade union unity the central issue.
"What constitutes the strength of Social-Democracy in the West?" asked Com-
rade Stalin ten years ago. Answering this question, he said :
"The fact that it has its support in the trade unions.
"What constitutes the weakness of our Connnunist Parties in the West?
"The fact that they are not yet linked with the trade unions, and that certain
elements within the Comnmnist Parties do not wish to be linked with them.
"Hence, the main task of the Communist Parties of the West at the present
time is to develop the campaign for unity in the trade union movement \^nd to
bring it to its consummation ; to see to it that all Communists, without excep-
tion, join the trade unions, there to work systematically and patiently to
strengthen the solidarity of the working class in its fight against capital, and
thus attain the conditions that will enable the Communist Parties to rely upon
the trade unions." *
*Stalin, "The Results of the Work of the Fourteenth Conference of the R. C P"
Leninism, Vol. I, p. 160, International Publishers, New York. * ' " '
APPENDIX, PART 1 675
Has this precept of Comrade Stalin's been followed? No, comrades, it has not.
Ignoring the urge of the workers to join the trade unions, and faced with the
difficulties of working within the Amsterdam unions, many of our comrades
decided to pass by this complicated task. They invariably spoke of an organiza-
tional crisis in the Amsterdam unions, of the workers deserting the unions, but
failed to notice that after some decline at the beginning of the world economic
crisis, these unions later began to grow again. The peculiarity of the trade
union movement has been precisely the fact that the attacks of the bourgeoisie
on trade union rights, the attempts in a number of countries to unify the trade
unions (Poland, Hungary, etc.), the curtailment of social insurance, and wage
cuts, forced the woi-kers, notwithstanding the lack of resistance displayed by the
reformist trade union leaders, to rally still more closely around these unions,
because the v.-orkers wanted and still want to see in the trade unions the mili-
tant champions of their vital class interests. This explains the fact that most
of the Amsterdam unions in France, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Holland, Sweden,
Switzerland, etc., have grown in membership during the last few years. The
American Federation of Labor has also considerably increased its membership in
the past two years.
Had the German comrades better understood the problem of trade union
work of which Comrade Thachuann spoke on many occasions, we would un-
doubtedly have had a better situation in the trade imions than was the case at
the time the facist dictatorship was established. By the end of 1932 only about
ten percent of the Party members belonged to the free trade unions. This in
spite of the fact that after the Sixth World Congress of the Comintern the
Communists took the lead in quite a number of strikes. Our comrades used to
write in the press of the need to assign 00 percent of our forces to work in the
trade unions, but in reality activity was concentrated exclusively around the
revolutionary trade union opposition which actually sought to replace the trade
unions. And how about the period after Hitler's seizure of power? For two
years many of our comrades stubbornly and systematically opposed the correct
slogan of fighting for the re-establishment of the free unions.
I could cite similar examples about almost every other capitalist country.
But we already have the first serious achievements to our credit in the strug-
gle for trade union unity in European countries. I have in mind little Austria,
where on the initiative of the Communist Party a basis has been created f<^r
an illegal trade union movement. After the February battles the Social-
Democrats, with Otto Bauer at the head, threw out the watchword : "The
free unions can be re-established only after the downfall of fascism." The
Communists applied themselves to the task of re-estahlishing the trade unions.
Each phase of that work was a bit of the living united front of the Austrian
proletariat. The successful re-establishment of the free trade unions in
underground conditions was a serious blow to fascism. The Social-Democrats
were at the parting of the ways. Some of them tried to negotiate with the
government. Others, seeing our successes, created their own parallel illegal
trade unions. But there could be only one road: either capitulation to fascism,
or towards trade union unity throuf/h joint struggle against fascism. Under
mass pressure, the wavering leadership of the parallel unions created by the
former trade union leaders decided to agree to amalgamation. The basis of
this amalgamation is irreconcilable struggle against the offensive of capitalism
and fascism and the guarantee of trade union democracy. We welcome this
fact of the amalgamation of trade unions, which is the first of its kind since
the formal split of the trade unions after the war and is therefore of inter-
national importance.
In France the united front has unqiiestionably served as a mighty impetus
towards the establishment of trade imion unity. The leaders of the General
Confederation of Labor have hampered and still hamper in every way the
realization of unity, countering the main issue of the class policy of the
trade unions by raising issues of a subordinate and secondary or formal
character. An unquestionable success in the struggle for trade union unity
has been the establishment of single unions on a local scale, embracing, in
the case of the railroad workers, for instance, approximately three-quarters
of the membership of both trade unions.
We are definitely for the re-establishment of trade union unity in each
country and on an intei^ational scale. We are for one union in each industry.
We stand for one federation of trade unions in each country. We are for
one international federation of trade unions organised according to industries.
We stand for one Intemation<il of trade unions based on the class struggle.
gyg UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
We are for tinited class trade unions as otie of the major bulwarks of the
xmrking class against the offensive of capital and fascism. Our only condition
for uniting tlie trade unions is: Struggle against capital, struggle against
fascism, and internal trade union democracy.
Time does not stand still. To us the question of trade union unity on a
national as well as international scale is a question of the great task of
uniting our class in mighty, single trade union organizations against the
class enemy.
We welcome the fact that on the eve of May First of this year the Red
International of Labor Unions addressed the Amsterdam International with
the proposal to consider jointly the question of the terms, methods and forms
of uniting the world trade union movement. The leaders of the Amsterdam
International rejected that proposal, using the stock argument that unity in
the trade union movement is possible only within the Amsterdam International,
which, by the way, includes almost none but trade unions in a number of
European countries.
But the Communists working in the trade unions must continue to struggle
indfefatigably for the unity of the trade union movement. The task of the
Red trade unions and theR. I. L. U. is to do all in their power to hasten
the hour of joint struggle of all trade unions against the offensive of capital
and fascism, to establish a united trade union movement, despite the stubborn
resistance of the reactionary leaders of the Amsterdam International. The
Red trade unions and the R. I. L. U. must receive our unstinted support in
this matter.
In countries where small Red trade unions exist we recommend to work
for their aflSliation with the big reformist unions, but to insist on the right
to defend their views and on the reinstatement of expelled members. But
in countries where big Red trade unions exist parallel with big reformist
trade unions, we must work for the convening of unity congresses on the basis
of platforms of struggle against the capitalist offensive and of ensuring trade
nnion democracy.
It should be stated categorically that any Communist workers, any revolu-
tionary worker who does not belong to the mass trade union of his industry,
who does not fight to transform the reformist trade union into a real class
trade union organization, who does not fight for trade union unity on the basis of
the class struggle, such Communist worker, such revolutionary worker, does not
discharge his elementary proletarian duty. (Applause.)
The United Front and the Youth
I have already pointed out the role whicli the drawing of the youth into
the fascist organizations played in the victory of fascism. In speaking of the
youth, we must state frankly that we have neglected our task of drawing the
masses of the toiling youth into the struggle against the offensive of capital,
against fascism and the danger of war; we have neglected these tasks in a
number of countries/. We have underestimated the enormous importance of
the youth in the fight against fascism. We have not always taken count of
the specific economic, political and cultural interests of the youth. We have
likewise not paid proper attention to revolutionary education of the youth.
All this has been utilized very cleverly by fascism, which in some countries,
particularly in Germany, has inveigled large sections of the youth on to the
anti-proletarian road. It should be borne in mind that the glamor of mili-
tarism is not the only enticement with which fascism captures the youth It
feeds and clothes some of them in its detachments, gives work to others, even
sets up so-called cultural institutions for the youth, trying in this way to imbue
them with the idea that it really can and wants to feed, clothe, teach, and
provide work for the masses of the toiling youth.
In a number of capitalist countries, our Young Communist Leagues are still
largely sectarian organizations divorced from the masses. Their fundamental
weakness is that they are still trying to copy the Communist Parties, their
forms and methods of work, forgetting that the Y. C. L. is not a Communist
Party of the youth. They do not sufficiently take into consideration the fact
that this is an organization having its own specific tasks. Its methods and
forms of work, of education and of struggle, must be adapted to the specific
level and needs of the youth.
Our Young Communists have given memorable examples of heroism in the
first against fascist violence and bourgeois reaction. But they still lack the
APPENDIX, PART 1 677
ability to win the masses of the youth away from hostile influences by dint
of stubborn, concrete work. This is attested by the fact that they have not
yet overcome their opposition to work in the fascist mass organizations, and
that their approach to the Socialist youth and other non-Communist youth is
not always correct.
A great part of the responsibility for all this must be borne, of course, by
the Communist Parties as well, for they ought to lead and support the Y. C L.
in its work. For the problem of the youth is not only a Y. C. L. problem.
It is a problem for the entire Communist movement. In the struggle for the
youth, the Communist Parties and the Y. C. L. organizations must actually
efEect a decisive change. The main task of the Communist youth movement
in capitalist countries is to advance boldly in the direction of bringing about
the united front, along the path of organizing and uniting the toilers of the
young generation. The tremendous importance for the revolutionary move-
ment of the youth that attaches to even the first steps taken in this direction
is shown by the examples of France and the United, States during the recent
past It was sufficient in these countries to proceed to apply the united front,
when considerable successes were at once achieved. In the sphere of the inter-
national united front, the successful initiative of the anti-fascist and anti-
war committee in Paris in bringing about the international co-operation of
all non-fascist youth organizations is also worthy of note in this connection.
These recent successful steps in the united front movement of the youth
also show that the forms which the united front of the youth is to assume
must not be stereotyped, nor be necessarily the same as those met with in the
practice of the Communist Parties. The Young Communist Leagues must
strive in every way to unite the forces of all non-fascist mass organizations of
the youth, including the formation of various kinds of common organizations
for the struggle against fascism, against the unprecedented manner in which
the youth is being stripi)ed of every right against the militarization of the
youth and for the economic and cultural rights of the young generation, in
order to draw these young toilers over to the side of the anti-fascist front, no
matter where they may be — in the factories, the forced labor camps, the labor
exchanges, the army barracks and the fleet, the schools, or in the various
sports, cultural or other organizations.
In developing and strengthening the Y. C. L., our Y. C. L. members must
work for the formation of anti-fascist associations of the Communist and
Socialist Youth League on a platform of class struggle.
Women and the United Front
Nor was work among toiling women — among working wotnen, unemployed
women, peasant women and housewives — underestimated any less than was
work among the youth. While fascism exacts most from youth, it enslaves
women with particular ruthlessness and cynicism, playing on the most painful
feelings of the mother, the housewife, the single working woman, uncertain
of the morrow. Fascism, posing as a benefactor, throws the starving family
a few beggarly scraps, trying in this way to stifle the bitterness aroused, par-
ticularly among the toiling women, by the unprecedented slavery which fascism
brings them. It drives working women out of industry, forcibly ships needy
girls to the country, reducing them to the position of unpaid servants of rich
farmers and landlords. While promising women a happy home and family
life, it drives women to prostitution like no other capitalist regime.
Communists, above all our women Communists, must remember that there
cannot be a successful tight against fascism and war unless the brond masses of
women are drawn into it. And agitation alone will not accomplish this. We must
find a way of mobilizing the masses of toiling women around their vital interests
and demands, taking into account the concrete situation in each instance, in the
fight for their demands against high prices, for higher wages on the basis of the
principle of equal pay for equal work, against mass dismissals, against every mani-
festation of inequality in the status of women, and against fascist enslavement.
In endeavoring to draw the toiling women into the revolutionary movement,
we must not be afraid of forming separate women's organizations for this purpose,
wherever necessary. The preconceived notion that the women's organizations
under Communist Party leadership in the capitalist countries must be liquidated,
as part of the struggle against women's separatism" in the labor movement, has
frequently caused a great deal of harm.
678 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It is necessary to seek out the simplest and most flexible forms, in order to
establish contact and bring about co-operation in struggle between the revolu-
tionary, Social-Democratic and progressive anti-war and anti-fascist women's
organizations. We must spare no pains to see that the women workers and
toilers light shoulder to shoulder with their class brothers in the ranks of the
united working class front and the anti-fascist people's front.
The Anti-Imperialist United Front
In connection with the changed international and Internal situation, exceptional
nni)ortance attaclies in all colonial and semi-colonial countries to the question of
the anti-Hnperidlist nnited front.
In forming a wide anti-imperialist united front of struggle in the colonies and
serai-colonies, it is necessary above all to recognize the variety of conditions in
which the anti-imperialist struggle of the masses is proceeding, the varying degree
of maturity of the national liberation movement, the role of the proletariat within
it and the influence of the Conunmiist Party over the broad masses.
In Brazil the problem differs from that in India, China, etc.
In Brazi] the Connnunist Party, having laid a correct foundation for the de-
velopment of the imited anti-imperialist front by the establishment of the National
Liberation Alliance, has to make every effort to extend further this front by
drawing into it first and foremost the many millions of the peasantry, leading up
to the formation of units of a people's revolutionary army, completely devoted to
the revolution, and to the establishment of the rule of the National Liberation
Alliance.
In India the Communists have to support, extend and participate in all anti-
imperialist mass activities, not excluding those A%hich are under national reformist
leadership. While maintaining their political and organizational L'ldependence,
they must carry on active work inside the organizations which take part in the
Indian National Congress, facilitating the process of crystallization of a national
revolutionary wing among them, for the purpose of further developing the national
liberation movement of the Indian peoples against British imperialism.
In China, where the people's movement has already led to the formation of
Soviet districts over a considerable territory of the country and to the organization
of a powerful Red Army, the predatory attack of Japanese Imperialism and the
treason of the Nanking Government have brought into jeopardy the national
existence of the great Chinese people. Only the ('hinese Soviets can act as a
unifying center in the struggle against the enslavement and partition of China
by the imperialists, as a unifying center which will rally all anti-imperialist
forces for the national defense of the Chinese people.
We theref(n-e approve the initiative taken by our courageous brother Party
of China in the creation of a most extensive anti-imperialist united front against
Japanese imperialism and its Chinese agents, jointly with all those organized
forces existing on the territory of China which are ready to wage a real sti'uggle
for the salvation of their country and their people. I am sure that I express
the sentiments and thoughts of our entire Congress if I state that we send our
warmest fraternal greetings, in the name of the revolutionary proletariat of the
whole world, to all the Soviets of China, to the Chinese revolutionary people.
(Loud api)l<tuK('. all rise.) We send our ardent fraternal greetings fo the heroic
Red Army of China, tried in a thousand battles. ( Lond applause. ) And we assure
the Chinese people of our firm resolve to support its struggle for its complete
liberation from all imperialist robbers and their Chinese henchmen. {Loud ap-
plause, all rise. The oration lasts several minutes. Cheers from all delegates.)
The Government of the United Front
Comrades, we have taken a bold and determined course towards the united
front of the working class, and are ready to carry it out with full consistency.
If we Communists are asked whether we advocate the united front only
in the struggle for partial demands, or whether we are prepared to share
the responsibility even when it will be a question of forming a government
on the basis of the united front, then we say with a full sense of our respon-
sibility : Yes, we recognize that a situation may arise in which the formation
of a government of the proletarian united froiit. or of the anti-fasoist people's
front, will become not only possible but necessary in the interests of the prole-
tariat. (Applause.) And in that case we shall declare for the formation of
such a government without the slightest hesitation.
APPENDIX, PART 1 679
I am not speaking of a government which may be formed after the victory of
the proletarian revolution. It is not impossible, of course, that in some country,
immediately after the revolutionary overthrow of the bourgeoisie, there may be
formed a .Soviet government on the basis of a government hloc of the Com-
munist Party with a definite party (or its Left wing) participating in the re-
volution. After the October Revolution the victorious Party of the Russian Bol-
sheviks, as we know, included representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolution-
aries in the Soviet government. This was a specific feature of the first Soviet
government after the victory of the October Revolution.
I am not speaking of such a case, but of the possible formation of a united
front government on the eve of and before the victory of the Soviet revolution.
What kind of government is this? And in what situation could there be any
question of such a government?
It is primarily a government of strufjgle against fascism and reaction. It
must be a government arising as the result of the united front movement and
in no way restricting the activity of the Communist Party and the mass or-
ganizations of the working class, but on the contrary, taking determined
measures against the counter-revolutionary financial magnates and their fascist
agents.
At a suitable moment, relying on the growing united front movement, the
Communist Party of a given country will declare for the formation of such a
government on the basis of a definite anti-fascist platform.
Under what objective conditions will it be possible to form such a government?
In the most general terms, our reply to this question will be as follows : Under
conditions of political crisis, when the ruling classes are no longer in a condi-
tion to cope with the mighty upsurge of the mass anti-fascist movement. But
this is only a general perspective, without which it is scarcely possible in prac-
tice to form a united front government. Only the existence of definite and
specific prerequisites can put on the order of the day the question of forming-
such a government as a politically necessary task. It seems to me that the
following prerequisites deserve the greatest attention in this connection.
First, the state apparatus of the bourgeoisie must already be sufiiciently dis-
organised and paralysed, so that the bourgeoisie cannot iireveut the formation
of a government of struggle against reaction and fascism :
Second, the broadest masses of toilers, particularly the mass trade unions,
must be in a violent state of revolt against famism and reaction, though not
ready to rise in insurrection, to fight under Communist Party leadership for
the achievement of Soviet Power;
Third, the differentiation and Leftward movement in the ranks of Social-
Democracy and other parties participating in the united front must already
have reached the point where a considerable proportion of them, demand ruth-
less measures against the fascists and the other reactionaries, struggle together
with the Communists against fascism, and openly come out against that reac-
tionary section of their own party which is hostile to Communism.
When and in what Countries a situation will actually arise in which these
prerequisites will be present in a sufficient degree, it is impossible to state in
advance. But inasmuch as such a possibility is not precluded in any of the capi-
talist countries we must reckon with it, and not only orientate and prepare our-
selves but orientate also the working class accordingly.
The fact that we are bringing up this question for discussion at all today is,
of course, connected with our evaluation of the situation and the innnediate
prospects, also with the actual growth of the United front movement in a num-
ber of countries during the recent past. For more than ten years the situation
in the capitalist countries has been such that it was not necessary for the
Comniunist International to discuss a question of this kind.
You remember, comrades, that at our Fourth Congress, in 1922. and again
at the Fifth Congress, in 1924, the question of the slogan of a workers', or a
workers' and peasants' government, was under discussion. Originally the issue
turned essentially upon a question which was almost analogous to the one we
are discussing today. The debates that took place at that time in the Communist
International concerning this question, and in particular the political errors
which were committed in connection with it, have to this day retained their im-
portance for sharpening our vigilance aoainst the danger of deviations to the
Right or "Left" from the Bolshevik line on this question. Therefore I shall
briefly point out a few of these errors, in order to draw from them the lessons
necessary for the present policy of our Parties.
680 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The first series of mistakes was determined precisely by tlie circumstance
that the question of a workers' government was not clearly and firmly inter-
linked with the existence of a political crisis. Owing to this 'the Rlfjhi op-
portunists were able to interpret matters as though we should strive for the
formation of a workers' government, supported by the Communist Party, in
any, so to speak, "normal" situation. The ultra-"Lefts". on the other hand,
recognized only such a workers' government as could be formed exclusively by
armed insurrection, after the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. Both views were
wrong. In order to avoid a repetition of such mistakes, we now lay such
great stress on the exact consideration of the siiecific, concrete circumstances
of the political crisis and the upsurge of the mass movement, in which the
formation of a united front government may prove possible and politically
necessary.
The second series of errors was determined by the circumstance that the
question of a workers' government was not interlinked with the development
of the militant mass united front movement of the proletariat. Thus the Rif/ht
opportunists were enabled to distort the question, reducing it to the unprinci-
pled tactics of forming blocs with Social-Democratic Parties on the basis of
purely parliamentary arrangements. The ultra-"Lefts'\ on the other hand,
shouted : "No coalitions with the counter-revolutionary Social-Democrats !"
regarding all Social-Democrats as counter-revolutionaries at bottom.
Both were wrong, and we now , emphasize, on the one hand, that we are not
in the least anxious for such a "workers' government" as would be nothing more
or less than an enlarged Social-Democratic government. We even prefer to
waive calling it a "workers' government," and speak of a united front ffovern-
ment which in political character is something absolutely different, different
in principle, from all the Social-Democratic governments which usually call
themselves "workers' (or Labor) governments". While the Social-Democratic
government is an instrument of class collaboration with the bourgeoisie
in the interest of the preservation of the capitalist order, a united front (fovern-
ment is an instrument of collaboration between the revolutionary vanguard of
the proletariat and other anti-fascist parties, in the interest of the entire toiling
population, a government of struggle against fascism and reaction. Obviously
there is a radical difference between these two things.
On the other hand, we emphasize the necessity of seeing the difference be-
tween the two different camps of liocial-Democracy. As I have already pointed
out, there is a reactionary camp of Social-Democracy, but /alongside of it there
exists and is growing the camp of the Left Social-Democrats (without quotation
marks), of workers who are becoming revolutionary. The decisive difference
between them dn practice consists of their attitude to the united front of the
working class. The reactionary Social-Democrats are against the united front ;
they slander the united front movement, they sabotage and disintegrate it, as
it undermines their polic.v of compromise with the bourgeoisie. The Left Social-
Democrats are for the united, front; they defend, develop and strengthen the
united front movement. Inasmuch as this united front movement is a militant
movement against fascism and I'eaction, it will be a constant motive force,
impelling the united front government to struggle against the reactionary
bourgeoisie. The more powerfully this mass movement develops, the greater
the force which it can offer to the government to combat the reactionaries.
Andithe better this mass movement will be organized fro)n heloir, the wider
the network of non-partisam class organs of the united front in the factories,
among the unemployed, among the rvorkers' districts, among the small people
of town and country, the greater will be the guarantee against a possible de-
generation of the policy of the united front government.
The third series of mistaken views which came to light during our former
debates touched precisely on the practical policy of the "workers' government".
The Right opportunists considered that a "workers' government" ought to keep
"within the framework of bourgeois democracy", and consequently ought not to
take any steps going beyond this framework. The ultra -''Lefts", on the other
hand, actually refused to make any attempt to form a united front government.
In 1923 Saxony and Thuringia presented a clear picture of a Right oppor-
tunist "workers' government" in action. The entry of the Communists into the
Saxony government jointly with the Left Social-Democrats (Zeigner group)
was no mistake in itself ; on the contrary, the revolutionary situation in Ger-
many fully justified this step. But, when participating in the government, the
Communists should have used their positions primarily for the purpose of aiin-
ing the proletariat. This they did not do. They did not even requisition a
APPENDIX, PART 1 ggl
siugle apartment of the rich, although the housing shortage among the workers
was so great that many of them were still without a roof over their heads,
together with their wives! and children. They also did nothing to organize the
revolutionary mass movement of the workers. They behaved generally like
ordiruirif parliamentary ministers "within the framework of bourgeois democ-
racy". As you know this was the result of the opportunist policy of Brandler
and his adherents. The result was such bankruptcy that we are still compelled
to refer to the government of Saxony as the classical example of how revolu-
tionaries should not behave when in office.
Comrades, we demand of every united front government an entirely different
policy. We demand that such a government carry out definite and fundamental
revolutionary demands requiretl |by the situation. For instance, control of
production, control of the banks, disbanding of the police, its replacement by
an armed workers' militia, etc.
Fifteen years ago Lenin called upon us to focus all our attention on "search-
ing out forms of transition or approach to the proletarian revolution". It may
be that in a number of countries the united front government will prove to be
one of the most important transitional forms. The "Left" doctrinaires always
evaded this precept of Lenin's. Like the limited propagandists that they were,
they spoke only of "aims", without ever worrying about "forms of transition".
The Right opportunists, on the other hand, tried to establish a special "demo-
cratic intermediate stage" lying between the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and
the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the purpose of instilling into the worker.s
the illusion of a peaceful parliamentary procession from the one dictatorship
to the other. This fictitious "intermediate stage" they also called the "transi-
tional form"', and even quoted Lenin on the subject ! But this piece of swin-
dling was not difficult to expose ; for Lenin spoke of the form of transition and
approach to the "proletarian revolution", i.e., to the overthrow of the bourgeois
dictatorship, and not of some transitional form between the bourgeois and the
proletarian dictatorship.
Why did Lenin attribute such exceptionally great importance to the form of
transition to the proletarian revolution? Because he bore in mind ''the funda-
mental l-aw of all great revolutions", the law that for the masses propaganda
and agitation alone cannot take the place of their oivn political experience, when
it is a question of attracting really broad masses of the toUers to the side of the
revolutionary vanguard, without which a victorious struggle for power is im-
possible. It is a common mistake of a Leftist character to imagine that as
soon as a political for revolutionary) crisis arises, it is enough for the Com-
munist leaders to throw out the slogan of revolutionary insurrection, and the
broad masses will follow them. No, even in such a crisis the masses are far
from always being ready to do so. We saw this in the case of Spain. To help
the millions to master as rapidly as possible, through their own experience, what
they have to do, where to find a radical solution, what party is worthy of their
confidence — these among others are the purposes for which both transitional
slogans and special "forms of transition or approach to the proletarian revolution"
are necessary. Otherwise the great mass of the people, a prey to petty-bourgeois
democratic illusions and traditions, may waver even when there is a revolutionary
situation, may procrastinate and stray, without finding the road to revolution
and then come under the ax of the fascist executioners.
That is why we indicate the possibility of forming a government of the
anti-fascist united front in the conditions of a poltical crisis. In so far as such
a government will really prosecute the struggle against the enemies of the people,
and give a free hand to the working class and the Communist Party, we Commu-
nists shall accord it our unstinted support, and as soldiers of the revolution shall
take our place in the first line of fire. But we state frankly to the ma.sses :
Final salvation this government cannot bring. It is not in a position to over-
throw the class rule of the exploiters, and for this reason cannot finally
eliminate the danger of fascist counter-revolution. Consequently it is necessary
to prepare for the i^ociulist revolution! Soviet power and onli/ Soviet power can
bring such salvation !
In estimating the present development of the world situation, we see that a
political crisis is maturing in quite a number of countries. This determines the
great urgency and importance of a firm decision by our Congress on the question
of a united front government.
If our Parties are able to utilize in a Bolshevik fashion the opportunity of
forming a united front government, of waging the struggle for its formation
(582 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and the existence in power of such a government for the revolutionary training
of the masses, this will be the best political justification of our policy of the
formation of united front governments.
The Ideological Struggle Against Fascism
One of the weakest aspects of the anti-fascist struggle of our Parties lies in
the fact that they react inadequately and too slowly to the demagoffy of fascism,
and to this day continue to look with disdain upon the prolilems of the struggle
against fascist ideology. Many comrades did not believe that so reactionary a
variety of bourgeois ideology as the ideology of fascism, which in its stupidity
frequently reaches the point of lunacy, was capable of gaining a mas^; influence
at all. This was a great mistake. The putrefaction of capitalism penetrates to
the innermost core of its ideology and culture, while the desperate situation of
the broad masses of the people renders certain sections of them susceptible to
infection from the ideological refuse of this putrefaction.
We must under no circumstances underrate this fascist capacity for ideological
infection. On the contrary, we must develop for our part an extensive ideologi-
cal struggle on the basis of clear, popular argumentation and a correct, well-
thought-out approach to the peculiarities of the national psychology of the
masses of the people.
The fascists are rummaging through the entire history of every nation so as
to be able to pose as the heirs and continuators of all that was exalted and
heroic in its past, while all that was degrading or offensive to the national
sentiments of the people they make use of as weapons against the enemies of
fascism. Hundreds of books are being published in Germany which pursue only
one aim — to falsify the history of the Germany people and give it a fascist
complexion.
The new-baked National-Socialist historians try to depict the history of Ger-
many as if for the last two thousands years, by virtue of some "historical law",
a certain line of development had run through it like a red thread which led
to the appearance on the historical scene of a national "saviour", a "Messiah",
of the German people, a certain "coi'poral" of Austrian extraction! In these
hooks the greatest figures of the German people in the past are represented as
having been fascists, while the great peasant movements are set down as the
direct precursors of the fascist movement.
Mussolini makes every effort to capitalize the heroic figure of Garibaldi. The
French fascists bring to the fore as their heroine Joan or Arc. The American
fascists appeal to the traditions of the American War of Independence, the tradi-
tions of Washington and Lincoln. The Bulgarian fascists make use of the
national liberation movement of the 'seventies and its heroes beloved of the
people, Vassil Levsky, Stephen Karaj, and others.
Communists who suppose that all this has nothing to do with the cause of
the working class, who do nothing to enlighten the masses on the past of
their own people, in a historically correct fashion, in a genuinely INIarxist, a
Leninist-Marxist, a Lenin-Stalin spirit, who do nothing to link up their present
strufifile with its revolutionary traditions and past — voluntarily relinquish to
fascist falsifiers all that is valuable in the historical past of the nation, that
the fascist may bamboozle the masses. (Applause.)
No, comrades, toe are concerned ivith every important question, not only of
the present and the future, but also of the past- of our own peoples. For we
Communists do not pursue a narrow policy based on the craft Interests of
the workers. We are not of those narrow-minded fmictionaries of the trade
unions or leaders of the medieval guild handicraftsmen and .iourneymen. We
are the representatives of the class interests of the most imp<u-tant, the great-
est class of modern society — the working class, to whose destiny it falls to free
mankind from the sufferings of the capitalist system, the class which on one-
sixth of the world has already cast off the yoke of capitalism and constitutes
the ruling class. We defend the vital interests of all the exploited toiling
strata, i. e., of the overwhelming majority in any capitalist country.
We Communists are the irreconrilahle opponents, on principle, of bourgeois
nationalism of every variety. But we are not supporters of national nihilism.
and should never act as such. The task of educating the workers and all toilers
in the spirit of proletarian internationalism is one of the fundamental tasks
of every Communist Party. But whoever thinks that this permits him, or even
compels him, to sneer at all the national sentiments of the broad toiling masses
APPENDIX, PART 1 gg3
is far from genuine Bolshevism, and has understood nothing of the teaching
of Lenin and Stalin on the national question. (Applause.)
Lenin, who always fought bourgeois nationalism resolutely and consistently,
gave us an example of the correct approach to the problem of national senti-
ments, in his article 'On the National Pride of the Great-Russians", written in
1914. I shall quote a passage :
"Are we enlightened Great-Russian proletarians impervious to the feeling of
national pride V Certainly not. We love our language and our motherland;
we, more than any other group, are working to raise its hiboring masses {i.e.,
nine-tenths of its population) to the level of intelligent democrats and So-
cialists. We, more than anybody; are grieved to see and feel to what vio-
lence, oppression and mockery our beautiful motherland is being subjected by
the tsarist hangmen, the nobles and the capitalists. We are proud of the fact
that those acts of violence met with resistence in our midst, in the midst of
the Great-Russians; that ire have given the world Radishchev, the Decembrist,
the declasse revolutionaries of the 'seventies ; that in 190.5 the Great-Russian
working class created a iiowerful revolutionary party of the masses. . . . We
are filled with national pride because of the knowledge that the Great-Russian
nation, too, has ci-eated a i-evolutionary class; that it, too, has proven capable
of giving humanity great examples of struggle for freedom and for Socialism;
that its contribution is not confined solely to great pogroms, numerous scaf-
folds, torture chambers, great famines, and great servility before the priests,
the tsars, the landowners and the capitalists.
"We are filled with national pride, and therefore we particularly hate our
slavish past . . . and our slavi.sh present, in which the same landowners, aided
by the capitalists, lead us into war to stifle Poland and the Ukraine, to throttle
the democratic movement in Persia and in China, to strengthen the gang of
Romanovs. Bobrinskys, Purishkeviches that cover with shame our Great-
Russian national dignity." *
This is what Lenin wrote on national pride.
I think, comrades, that when the fascists, at the Leipzig trial, attempted to
slander the Bulgarians as a barbarous people, I was not wrong in taking up
the defense of the national honor of the toiling masses of the Bulgarian people,
who are struggling heroically against the fascist usurpers, the real barbarians
and savages (strong unci continued applause), nor was I wrong in declaring
that I had no cause to be ashamed of being a Bulgarian but that, on the
contrary, I was proud of being a son of the heroic Bulgarian working class.
(Ap2}latise.)
Comrades, proletarian internationalism must, so to speak, "acclimatize itself"
in each country in order to sink deep roots in its native land. National forms
of the proletarian class struggle and of the labor movement in the individual
countries are in no contradiction to proletarian internationalism ; on the con-
trary, it is precisely in these forms that the international interests of the
proletariat can be successfully defended.
It goes without saying that it is necessary everywhere and on all occasions
to exiiose before the masses and prove to them concretely that on the pretext
of defending general national interests, the fascist bourgeoisie is conducting its
egotistical policy of oppressing and exploiting its own people, as well as robbing
and enslaving other nations. But we must not confine ourselves to this. AVe
must at the same time prove by the very strgggle of the working class and the
actions of the Communist Parties that the proletariat in rising against every
manner of bondage and national oppression is the only true fighter for national
freedom and the independence of the people.
The interests of the class struggle of the proletariat against its native ex-
ploiters and oppres.sors are in no contradiction whatever to the interests of a
free and happy future of the nation. On the contrary, the Socialist revolution
will signify the saving of the natimi and will open up to it the road to loftier
heights. By the very fact of building at the present time its class organizations
and consolidating its positions, by the very fact of defending the democratic
rights and liberties against fascism, by the very fact of fighting for the over-
throw of ca))itali.sm. the working class is fighting for the future of the nation.
The revolutionary proletariat is fighting to save the culture of the people,
to liberate it from the shackles of decaying monopoly capitalism, from barbarous
♦Lenin, collected Works, Vol. XVIII, pp. 100-101. International Piibli.shers, New
York.
684 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
fascism wnich is violating it. 0?;/// the proletarian revolution can avert the
destruction of culture, and raise it to the highest stage of florescence as a truly
national culture — tuitioval in form and socinlifit in content — which, under
Stalin's leadership, is being realized in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
before our very eyes. {Applause.)
Proletarian internationalism not only does not contradict this struggle of the
toilers of the individual countries for national, social and cultural freedom but,
thanks to international proletarian solidaritj' and fighting unity, provides the
support which is necessary for victory in this struggle. The working class
in the capitalist countries can triumph o)il!i in closest alliance with the victori-
ous proletariat of the great Soviet Union. Only by struggling hand in hand with
the proletariat of the imperialist countries can the colonial peoples and op-
pressed national minorities achieve their freedom. The road to victory for the
proletarian revolution in the imperialist countries lies mily through the revo-
lutionary alliance of the working class of the imperialist countries with the
national liberation movement in the colonies and dependent countries, because, as
Marx taught us, "no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations".
Communists belonging to an opijressed. dependent nation cannot combat
chauvinism successfully among the people of their own nation if they do not at
the sntne time shoiv in practice, in the mass movement, that they actually
struggle for the liberation of their nation fi'om the alien yoke. And again, on
the other hand, the Communists of an f)ppressing nation camiot do what is
necessary to educate the toiling masses of their nation in the spirit of inter-
nationalism without leading a resolute struggle against the oppressor policy
of their "own" bourgeoisie, for the right to complete self-determination of the
nations kept in bondage by it. If they do not do this, they likewise do not
make it easier for the toilers of the oppressed nation to overcome their
nationalist prejudices.
If we act in this spirit, if in all our mass work we prove convincingly that
we are free of both national niliilism and bourgeois nationalism, then and only
then shall we be able to wage a really successful struggle against the chauvinist
demagogy of the fascists.
This is the reason why a correct and practical application of the Leninist-
Stalinist national policy is of such paramount imix>rtance. It is nnquestionablu
am. esse^itial preliminary condition for a successful struggle against chauvinism —
this main instrument of ideological influence of the fascists upon the masses.
(Applause.)
III. OONSOIJDATION OF THE CX)MMTJNIST PARTIES AND STRUGGLE FOR THE POLITICAL
UNITY OF THE PROLETARIAT
Comrades, in the struggle for the establishment of the united front the im-
portance of the leading role of the Comnnmist Party increases extraordinarily.
Only the Communist Party is at bottom the initiator, the organizer and the
driving force of the united front of the working class.
The Communist Parties can ensure the mobilization of the broadest masses of
the toilers for a united struggle against fascism and the offensive of capital only
if they strenf/then their own ranks in every respect, if the.v develop their initia-
tive, pursue a Marxist-Leninist policy and apply correct, flexible tactics which
take into account the concrete situation and alignment of class forces.
Consolidation of the Communist Parties
In the period between the Sixth and Seventh Congresses, our Parties in the
capitalist countries have undoubtedl.v yrovyn in stature and have been consider-
ably steeled. But it would be a most dangerous mistake to rest on this achieve-
ment. The more the united front of the working class extends, the more will
new, complex problems rise before us and the more will it be necessary for us
to M'ork on the political and organizational consolidation of our Parties. The
imited front of the proletariat brings to the fore an army of workers which will
be able to carry out its mission if this army is headed by a leading force which
will point out its aims and paths. This leading force can only be a strong
proletarian, revolutionary party.
If we Conununists exert every effort to establish a united front, we do this
not for the narrow purpose of recruiting new members for the Communist
Parties. But we must strengthen the Communist Parties in every way and
APPENDIX, PART 1 685
increase their membership for the very reason that we seriously want to
strengthen the united front. The strengthening of the Communist Parties is not
a narrow Party concern but the concern of the entire working class.
The unity, rcvolutiomiry cohesion and fiyhting preparedness of the Communist
Parties constitute most valuable capital which belongs not only to us but to the
entire working class. We have combined and shall continue to combine our
readiness to march jointly with the Social-Democratic Parties and organizations
to the struggle against fascism with an irreconciliable struggle against Social-
Democracy as the ideology and practice of compromise with the bourgeoisie, and
consequently also agiiinst a7iy penetration of this ideology into our own ranks.
In boldly and resolutely carrying out the policy of the united front, we meet
in our own ranks with obstacles which we must remove at all costs in the
shortest possible time.
After the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, a successful struggle was waged
in all Communist Parties of the capitalist countries against any tendency to-
wards an opportunist adaptation to the conditions of capitalist stabilization and
against any infection irith reformist and legalist illusions. Our Parties purged
their ranks of various kinds of Right opportunists, thus strengthening their
Bolshevik unity and fighting capacity. Less successful and frequently entirely
lacking was the fight against sectarianism. Sectarianism manifested itself no
longer in primitive, open forms, as in the first years of the existence of the
Communist International, but, luider cover of a formal recognition of the Bol-
shevik theses, hindered the development of a Bolshevik mass policy. In our
day this is often no longer an 'Hnfa/ntile disorder", as Lenin wrote, but a deeply
rooted vice, which must be shaken oft: or it will be impossible to solve the prob-
lem of establishing the united front of the proletariat and of leading the masses
from the positions of reformism to the side of revolution.
In the present situation sectarianism, self-satisfied sectarianism, as we desig-
nate it in the draft resolution, more than anything else impedes our struggle
for the realization of the united front. Sectarianism, satisfied with its doc-
trinaire narrou-ness, its divorcement from the real life of the masses; satisfied
with its simplified methods of solving the most complex problems of the working
class movement on the basis of stereotyped schemes : sectarianism, which pro-
fesses to know all and considers it needless to learn from the masses, from the
lessons of the labor movement. In short, sectarianism, to which, as they say,
mountains are mere stepping-stones.
Self-sati.sfied sectarianism irill not and cannot understand that the leadership
of the working class by the Communist Party cannot be attained by a process
of spontaneous development. The leading role of the Communist Party in the
struggles of the working class must be won. For this purpose it is necessaiy,
not to rant about the leading role of the Communists, but to merit and win the
confidence of the tcorking tnasses by everyday mass work and correct policy.
This will only be possible if we Communists in our political work seriously take
into account the actual level of the class consciousness of the masses, the degree
to which they have become revolutionized, if we soberly appraise the concrete
situation, not on the basis of our wLshes but on the basis of the actual state of
affairs. Patiently, step by step, we must make it easier for the board masses
to come over to the positions of Communism. We ought never to forget these
warning words of Lenin, so forcefully expressed :
". . . this is the whole point — we must not regard that which is obsolete for
use as obsolete for the class, as obsolete for the nwsses."*
Is it not a fact, comrades, that there are still not a few such doctrinaire ele-
ments left in our ranks who at all times and places sense nothing but danger in
the policy of the united front V For such comrades the whole united front is one
unrelieved peril. But this sectarian "stickling for principle" is nothing but
political helplessness in face of the difficulties of directly leading the struggle
of the masses.
Sectarianism finds expression particularly in overestimating the revolutioniza-
tion of the masses, in overestimating the speed at which they are abandoning
the positions of reformism, in attempts to leap over difficult stages and over
complicated tasks of the movement. Methods of leading the masses have in
practice been frequently replaced by the methods of leading a narrow party group.
The power of traditional contacts between the masses and their organizations
•Lenin, "Left-Winp" Communism: An Infantile Disorder, p. 41. Little Lenin Library,
International Publishers, New York.
ggg UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Because the bourgeoisie wages imperialist war for its predatory purposes,
aeSnTthe i^fterests of the vast majority of the peoples under whatever guise
S war may be waged. Because all imperialists combine their feverish prepara-
t?ons?oi war JIth extremely intensified exploitation and oppression of the
toners ii their own country. Support of the bourgeoisie in such a war means
treason o the country and the international working class
Why finally,Ts the building of the Party on the basis of democratic centralism
^ BTcauLronly"a' party built on the basis of democratic centralism can ensure
unity of will and action, can lead the proletariat to victory over the bourgeoisie,
which has at its disposal so powerful a weapon as the centralized state apparatus.
The apnlication of the principle of democratic centralism has stood the splendid
msUFcal SJof the experience of the Russian Bolshevik Party, the Party of
^YS,''c°om?ades%e are for a single mass political party of the working class.
But this party must be, in the words of Comrade Stalin, , . , , ,^
a militant party, a revolutionary party, bold enough to lead the prole-
tarians to the struggle for power, with sufficient experience to be able to orientate
itself in the complicated problems that arise in a revolutionary situation, and
sufficiently flexible to steer clear of any submerged rocks on the way to its
goal " *
This explains why it is necessary to strive for political unity on the basis of
the conditions indicated. . „, ^
We are for the political unity of the working class ! Therefore we are ready
to collaborate most closely with all Social-Democrats who are for the united
front and sincerely support unity on the principles indicated. But precisely
because we are for unity, we shall struggle resolutely against all "Left" dema-
gogues who will try to make use of the disillusionment of the Social-Democratic
workers to create "new Socialist Parties or Internationals directed against the
Communist movement, and thus keep deepening the split in the working class.
We welcome the aspiration which is gaining ground among Social-Democratic
workers for a united front with the Communists. In this fact we see a growth
of their revolutionary consciousness and a beginning of the healing of the split
in the working class. Being of the opinion that unity of action is a pressing
necessity and the truest road to the establishment of the political unity of
the proletariat as well, we declare that the Communist International and its
Sections are ready to enter into negotiations with the Second International
and its Sections for the establishment of the unity of the working class in the
struggle against the offensive of capital, against fascism and the threat of
imperialist war. (Applause.)
CONCLUSION
Comrades, I am concluding my report. As you see, we are raising a number of
questions today in a new light, taking count of the change in the situation since
the Sixth Congress and of the lessons of our struggle, and relying on the degree
of consolidation in our ranks already achieved, primarily the question of the
united front and of the approach to Social-Democracy, the reformist trade unions
and other mass organizations.
There are wiseacres who will sense in all this a digression from our basic
positions, some sort of turn to the Right of the straight line of Bolshevism. Well,
in my country, Bulgaria, they say that a hungry chicken always dreams of millet.
(Lnuf/htcr, lovd applause.) Let those political chickens think so. {Laughter,
loud applause.)
This interests us little. For us it is important that our own Parties and the
broad masses of the whole world should correctly understand what we are striving
for.
We would not be revolutionary Marxists, Leninists, worthy pupils of Marx,
Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, if we did not reconstruct our policies and tactics in
accordance with the changing situation and the changes occurring in the labor
movement.
We would not be real revolutionaries if we did not learn from our own experi-
ence and the experience of the masses.
•Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, p. 107. International Publishers. New York.
APPENDIX, PART 1 QgQ
We want our Parties in the capitalist countries to come out and act as real
political parties of the working class, to become in actual fact a political factor
in the life of their countries, to pursue at all times an active Bolshevik mass policy
and not confine theniselves to propaganda and criticism, and hare appeals to
struggle for proletarian dictatorship.
We are enemies of all-cut-and-dried schemes. We want to take into account
ihe concrete situation at each moment, in each place, and not act accordingly to a
fixed, stereotyped, form anywhere aud everywhere ; not to forget that in varying
circumstances the position of the Communists cannot be identical.
We want soberly to take into account all staffes in the development of the class
struggle and in the growth of the class consciousness of the masses themselves,
to be able to locate and solve at each stage the concrete problems of the revolu-
tionary movement corresponding to this stage.
We want to find a common language with the broadest masses for the purpose
of struggling against the class enemy, to find ways of finally overcoming the isola-
tion of the revolutionary vanguard from the masses of the proletariat and all
other toilers, as well as of overcoming the fatal isolation of tJie ivorking class
itself from its natural allies in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, against
fascism.
We want to draw increasingly wide masses into the revolutionary class struggle
and lead them to proletarian revolution, proceeding from their vital interests and
needs as the starting point, and their own experience as the basis.
Following the example of our glorious Russian Bolsheviks, the example of the
leading Party of the Communist International, the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, we want to combine the revolutionary heroism of the German, the Spanish,
the Austrian and other Communists with genuine revolutionary realism, and put
an end to the last remnants of scholastic tinkering with serious political questions.
We want to equip our Parties from every angle for the solution of the most
complex political problems confronting them. For this purpose we want to raise
ever higher their theoretical level, to train them in the spirit of live Marxism-
Leninism and not dead doctrinairism.
We want to eradicate from our ranks all self-satisfied sectarianism, which
above all blocks our road to the masses and impedes the carrying out of a truly
Bolshevik mass policy. We want to intensify in every way the struggle against
all concrete manifestations of Right opportunism, realizing that the danger from
this side will increase precisely in the practice of carrying out our mass policy
and struggle.
We want the Communists of each country promptly to draw and apply all the
lessons that can be drawn from their own experience as the revolutionary vanguard
of the proletariat. We want them as quickly as possible to learn how to sail on
the turbulent ivaters of the class struggle, and not to remain on the shore as ob-
servers and registrars of the surging waves in the expectation of fine weather.
(Applause.)
This is what we want !
And ice loant all this because only in this loay will the ivorking class at the head
of all the toilers, welded into a million-stronp revolutionary army, led by the Com-
muni.^t International and possessed of so great and wise a pilot as our leader
Comrade Stalin (a storm of applause) be able to fulfill its historical mission with
certainty — to sweep fascism off the face of the earth and, together with it,
capitalism!
{The entire hall rises and gives Comrade Dimitroff a rousing oration.)
Cheers coming from the delegates are heard on all sides and in various lam,-
guages: "Hurrah! Long live Comrade Dimitroff !"
Tlie strains of the ''Internationale" sung in every language fill the air. A new
storm, of applause srveeps the hall.
Voices: "Long live Comrade Stalin, long lire Comrade Dimitroff !" "A Bolshevik
cheer for Comrade Dimitroff, the standard-bearer of the Comintern!"
Someone shouts in Bulgarian: "Hurrah for Comrade Dimitroff. the valiant war-
rior of the Communist Internationale against fascism!" The delegations sing in
succession their revolutionary songs — the Italians. "Bandiera Rossa." the Poles,
"On the Barricades," the French, "Carmagnole." the Germans, "Roter Wedding."
the Chinese, "March of the Chinese Red Army.")
94931 — 40— -app., pt. 1 15
g9Q UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 100
[Source : A booklet published by Workers Library Publishers, July, 1935J
****** ♦
THE COMMUNIST PARTY— A MANUAL ON ORGANIZATION
(By J. Peters)
Workers Library Publishers
Preface
This organizational Manual fills a long-felt need. It will be welcomed by
many thousands of active Party members who have looked forward to its
publication for a long time. Murb of the material used by Comrade Peters
as the basis for this Manual was, it is true, available, but it is scattered in
many documents over a period of years. I\Iuch of the material was of late
available, as for example, the famous and thorough-going resolutions and
decisions on the question of organization adopted by the Second Organiza-
tional Conference of the Communist International, which was printed in the
Inprecorr some ten years ago {International Press Correspondence, Vol 6,
No. 38).
Comrade Peters has added much to the existing material both from more
recent international experience and especially from the recent experience of our
own Party, experience that is very rich and valuable. The Manual embodies,
therefore, the best that is available in the theory and practice of organization
in our own Party and the Communist International. Comrade Peters not only
is thoroughly acquainted with the fundamental principles of Leninist organi-
zation but has had a wide and varied experience in organizational work over
a period of many years. It is this combination of theory and practice per-
meating the Manual that makes it so valuable to our Party. I am sure that
when this Manual becomes popularized in the Party we will wonder how we
could have gotten along without such a weapon for so long.
Aside from the fact that Manual will be of great benefit to every member
of our Party in the daily work, it will, in the first place, provide the necessary
material for the training of our cadres, and help in the solution of many
problems with which our functionaries are faced. With 500 shop nuclei, 2,000
street nuclei, more than 250 sections, some 30 districts, and hundreds upon
hundreds of fractions in the trade unions and other mass organizations, there
are many thousands of functionaries who will find the Manual indispensible.
It will be of incalculable value especially to the functionaries in the lower
organizations, the organizers, secretaries, agitprop directors, literature agents,
etc., the bureau members of the shop and street nuclei, the Section Committees,
upon whom falls the main burden for the execution of the line of the Party in i
the mass work, the character of which determines the progress of the Party ;
in the solution of its main tasks.
If we remember that, as a result of the recent growth of the Party, the
majority of the Party membership is relatively new (less than two years in
the Party), then more emphasis is added to tlie value of the Manual. The
growth of the Party membership and its increasing activity has not only
multiplied our organizational problems but of necessity require that many new
comrades with little organizational experience assume" leading positions in the
lower Party organizations and in the fractions. While we have made some
efforts through the Party Organizer and the "Partv Life" column in the Daily
Worker, through conferences, etc., to impart to them our knowledge and .
experience, this has not been done systematically. Hence, many mistakes are
made all over again by the new functionaries, mistakes in the solution of
problems which in some sections of the Party have alreadv been solved. Now,
with this Manual at hand, the entire Party will have avaiiable in an organized
form the best experience that we have.
That the improvement in our organizational work is very pressing was force-
fully brought out at the May, 193.5, meeting of the Central Committee of the
Party where the organizational status and the organizational work of the
Party were examined very thoroughly. One of the things that was disclosed
IS the lack of stabilization of the lower cadres. This is mainlv due to the fact
timt comrades are assigned to tasks for which thev are not fully prepared; they
APPENDIX, PART 1 691
are not given help, they are allowed to drift, with the result that soon it is found
that their work is not satisfactory and changes are made. But the iiow function-
aries who replace them go through the very same experiences. The result is con-
stant change. The examination, however, brought out the fact that in those units
and sections where we succeed somewhat in stabilizing the cadres the work is
much better than in those where there is constant change. If the Manual will
but aid in the solution of this one burning question it will more than justify
its publication.
The examination of the work of the Party disclosed that, in practice, there is;
still an insufficient orientation in conducting our work along the lines laid down
in the Open Letter (adopted at the Extraordinary Party Conference, July, 1933),
that is, from the viewpoint of concentration in the main factories, industries,
trade unions, the placing of the center of gravity of our work in the lower
organizations.
This, of course, involves in the first place the concentration of our eiTorts
towards the building of the Party in the factories, the creation of shop nuclei
and the development of the shop nuclei into real mass Party organizations in
the factories, carrying out all the tasks of the Party, leading the struggles
of the masses in these factories — the struggles on all issues, economic and
political.
The Manual takes vip this question in great detail. It explains why we Com-
munists are the only political Party that builds its basic organization in the
factories. It takes up the questions of the construction of the shop nuclei, their
methods of work under varying conditions, the relation of the shop nuclei
to the sections, to the trade union fractions, etc. I am convinced that this
Manual in the hands of our comrades in the shop nuclei will aid in the improve-
ment of the work of the shop nuclei, as well as in the more rapid and systematic
building of shop nuclei where they do not as yet exist.
Another central question dealt with at the May meeting of the Central
Committee was the work of the trade unions fractions. With the strengthened
position of our Party in the A. F. of L. unions the improvement of the work
of the trade union fractions has become of increasing importance. The Manual
deals with these important questions ; the role of the fractions, how they are
to be built, their work, their relation to the Party organizations, etc.
The question of increasing the recruiting power of the Party, the methods of
recruiting, the overcoming of the high fluctuation of members, all these problems
that are so closely connected with the work of the lower organizations, the
questions of methods of dues collections, initiation of new members, the educa-
tion of the new members, etc., are taken up and treated in great detail.
It is unnecessary in this introduction to mention all the important questions
treated in the Manual. This can be seen from a glance at the index. Suffice
it to say that it deals with all the vital questions of Party organization. Let
us mention just two more types of questions dealt with. First, the opening
sections which explain in a very elementary and detailed manner the Party
itself. What is the Communist Party ; what is its role in relation to the other
organizations of the workers ; what is its fundamental policy ; what are the
main tactics of the Party, etc. It is a fact that many of our Party members
have not as yet become fully acquainted with many of these questions. The
second type of questions dealt with that should be mentioned we are sure will
be most welcome to the comrades charged with the various duties in the shop
and street nuclei: What is the task of the various functionaries? How often
have we faced the question that a comrade is assigned a post, let us say unit
organizer, agitprop director of the unit. Daily Worker agent of the unit; and
the comrade receives no records of the comrades who preceded him in the post,
no guidance as to his or her tasks? Finally, I wish to call attention to the
section dealing with the structure of the Party from top to bottom, illustrated
by a number of charts, which will give the comrades an appreciation of the
whole of the machinery of the Party, their relation to it, the understanding
of their special task in relation to the whole Party.
Naturally, the Manual will not by itself solve our problems. Nor will it bring
the best results if it will be conceived of as a blue print to be ajiplied mechanically.
It will be most effective if it is properly understood as a guide to the daily i>rac-
tical problems. In this respect it is necessary not only that we ensure every
Party member securing a copy of the Manual and reading it — and especially every
comrade holding a post of responsibility from the units uii — we must organize the
collective study of the Manual in the units, among the various functionaries io;
the units, sections and districts.
Jack Stachex
590 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 100
[Source: A booklet published by Workers Library Publishers, July, 1935]
„j ***** ♦
THE COMMUNIST PARTY— A MANUAL ON ORGANIZATION
(By J. Peters)
Workers Library Publishers
Preface
This organizational Manual fills a long-felt need. It will be welcomed by
many thousands of active Party members who have looked forward to its
publication for a long time. Muclj of the material used by Comrade Peters
as the basis for this Manual was. it is true, available, but it is scattered in
many documents over a period of years. Much of the material was of late
available, as for example, the famous and thorough-going resolutions and
decisions on the question of organization adopted by the Second Organiza-
tional Conference of the Communist International, which was printed in the
Inprecorr some ten years ago {Intertiational Press Correspondence, Vol 6,
No. 38).
Comrade Peters has added much to the existing material both from more
recent international experience and especially from the recent experience of our
own Party, experience that is very rich and valuable. The Manual embodies,
therefore, the best that is available in the theory and practice of organization
in our own Party and the Communist International. Comrade Peters not only
is thoroughly acquainted with the fundamental principles of Leninist organi-
zation but has had a wide and varied experience in organizational work over
a period of many years. It is this combination of theory and practice per-
meating the Manual that makes it so valuable to our Party. I am sure that
when this Manual becomes popularized in the Party we will wonder how we
could have gotten along without such a weapon for so long.
Aside from the fact that Manual will be of great benefit to every member
of our Party in the daily work, it will, in the first place, provide the necessary
material for the training of our cadres, and help in the solution of many
problems with which our functionaries are faced. With 500 shop nuclei, 2,000
street nuclei, more than 250 sections, some 30 districts, and hundreds upon
hundreds of fractions in the trade unions and other mass organizations, there
are many thousands of functionaries who will find the Manual indispensible.
It will be of incalciilable value especially to the functionaries in the lower
organizations, the organizers, secretaries, agitprop directors, literature agents,
etc., the bureau members of the shop and street nuclei, the Section Committees,
upon whom falls the main burden for the execution of the line of the Party in |
the mass work, the character of which determines the progress of the Party
in the solution of its main tasks.
If we remember that, as a result of the recent growth of the Party, the
majority of the Party membership is relatively new (less than two years in
the Party), then more emphasis is added to the value of the Manual. The
growth of the Party membership and its increasing activity has not only
multiplied our organizational problems but of necessity require that many new
comrades with little organizational experience assume leading po.sitions in the
lower Party organizations and in the fractions. While we have made some
efforts through the Party Organizer and the "Partv Life" column in the Daily
Worker, through conferences, etc., to impart to them our knowledge and
experience, this has not been done systematically. Hence, many mistakes are
made all over again by the new functionaries, mistakes in the solution of
problems which in some sections of the Party have already been solved. Now.
with this Manual at hand, the entire Party will have available in an organized
form the best experience that we have.
That the improvement in our organizational work is very pressing was force-
fully brought out at the May, 1935, meeting of the Central Committee of the
Party where the organizational status and the organizational work of the
Party were examined very thoroughly. One of the things that was disclosed
IS the lack of stabilization of the lower cadres. This is mainlv due to the fact
that comrades are assigned to tasks for which they are not fully prepared; they
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 691
are not given help, they are allowed to drift, with the result that soon it is found
that their work is not satisfactory and changes are made. But the iiew function-
aries who replace them go through the very same experiences. The result is con-
stant change. The examination, however, brought out the fact that in those units
and sections where we succeed somewhat in stabilizing the cadres the work is
much better than in those where there is constant change. If the Manual will
but aid in the solution of this one burning question it will more than justify
its publication.
The examination of the work of the Party disclosed that, in practice, there i»
still an insufficient orientation in conducting our work along the lines laid down
in the Open Letter (adopted at the Extraordinary Party Conference, July, 1933),
that is, from the viewpoint of concentration in the main factories, industries,
trade unions, the placing of the center of gravity of our work in the lower
organizations.
This, of course, involves in the first place the concentration of our efforts
towards the building of the Party in the factories, the creation of shop nuclei
and the development of the shop nuclei into real mass Party organizations in
the factories, carrying out all the tasks of the Party, leading the struggles
of the masses in these factories — the struggles on all issues, economic and
political.
The Manual takes up this question in great detail. It explains why we Com-
munists are the only political Party that builds its basic organization in the
factories. It takes up the questions of the construction of the shop nuclei, their
methods of work under varying conditions, the relation of the shop nuclei
to the sections, to the trade union fractions, etc. I am convinced that this
Manual in the hands of our comrades in the shop nuclei will aid in the improve-
ment of the work of the shop nuclei, as well as in the more rapid and systematic
building of shop nuclei where they do not as yet exist.
Another central question dealt with at the May meeting of the Central
Committee was the work of the trade unions fractions. With the strengthened
position of our Party in the A. F. of L. unions the improvement of the work
of the trade union fractions has become of increasing importance. The Manual
deals with these important questions ; the role of the fractions, how they are
to be built, their work, their relation to the Party organizations, etc.
The question of increasing the recruiting power of the Party, the methods of
recruiting, the overcoming of the high fluctuation of members, all these problems
that are so closely connected with the work of the lower organizations, the
questions of methods of dues collections, initiation of new members, the educa-
tion of the new members, etc., are taken up and treated in great detail.
It is unnecessary in this introduction to mention all the important questions
treated in the Manual. This can be seen from a glance at the index. Suffice
it to say that it deals with all the vital questions of Party organization. Let
us mention just two more types of questions dealt with. First, the opening
sections which explain in a very elementary and detailed manner the Party
itself. What is the Communist Party ; what is its role in relation to the other
organizations of the workers ; what is its fundamental policy ; what are the
main tactics of the Party, etc. It is a fact that many of our Party members
have not as yet become fully acquainted with many of these questions. The
second type of questions dealt with that should be mentioned we are sure will
be most welcome to the comrades charged with the various duties in the shop
and street nuclei: What is the task of the various functionaries? How often
have we faced the question that a comrade is assigned a post, let us say unit
organizer, agitprop director of the unit. Daily Worker agent of the unit; and
the comrade receives no records of the comrades who preceded him in the post,
no guidance as to his or her tasks? Finally, I wish to call attention to the
section dealing with the structure of the Party from top to bottom, illustrated
by a number of charts, which will give the comrades an appreciation of the
whole of the machinery of the Party, their relation to it, the understanding
of their special task in relation to the whole Party.
Naturally, the Manual will not by itself solve our problems. Nor will it bring
the best results if it will be conceived of as a blue print to be ajiplied mechanically.
It will be most effective if it is properly understood as a guide to the daily prac-
tical problems. In this respect it is necessary not only that we ensure every"
Party member securing a copy of the Manual and reading it — and especially evevj^
comrade holding a post of responsibility from the units uii — we must organize the
collective study of the Manvial in the units, among the various functionaries ii*
the units, sections and districts.
Jack Stachex
592 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
I. Fundamentals of the Party Program
The Communist Party is the organized vanguard of the working class, corn-
nosed of the most class-conscious, the most courageous, the most self-sacrifacing
section of the proletariat. The Communist Party does not stand above, but is part
and parcel of, the working class. It is the general staff of the proletariat.
The Communist Party is armed with the teachings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and
Stalin These teachings are a powerful weapon in the hands of the Conmiuuist
Party They enable the Party to direct the struggles of the working class along
the correct line, and to gain victories while avoiding unnecessary sacrifice. These
teachings enable the Party to know which forces are acting in the interests of
the working class and which against it. By means of these teachings the Com-
munist Party is able to find the best methods of struggle of the working class
against capitalism, and for socialism.
THE ROLE AND AIM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
As the leader and organizer of the proletariat, the Communist Party of the
U. S. A. leads the working class in the fight for the revolutionary overthrow of
capitalism, for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the
establishment of a Socialist Soviet Republic in the United States, for the com-
plete abolition of classes, for the establishment of socialism, the first stage of the
c-lassless Communist society.
Our Party realizes that certain conditions must exist before the outworn
capitalist system can be overthrown.
What are the conditions? Comrade Lenin, in his pamphlet. "Left-Wing"
Communism: An Infantile Disorder, answers this question.
". . . for revolution it is essential, first, that a majority of the workers
(or at least a majority of the class-conscious, thinking, political active workers)
should fully understand the necessity for revolution and be ready to sacrifice
their lives for it ; secondly, that the ruling classes be in a state of governmental
crisis which draws even the most backward masses into politics, . . . weakens
the government and makes it possible for the revolutionaries to overthrow it
rapidly." (Little Lenin Library, Vol. 20, p. 65.)
These two conditions alone are not suflicient for the successful struggle of
the working class. Even if the masses know that socialism liberates the work-
ing class, even if the masses know that socialism can be won only through
revolution, unless there is a strongly organized Communist Party which explains
the aims and methods of the struggle to the workers, unless it itself organizes
these struggles, and is itself in the forefront of them, the revolution cannot
be victorious. Lenin wrote about the need for a strong Communist Party as
the advance guard of the working class in the following words :
"In order that the mass of a definite class may learn how to understand its
own interests, its situation, may learn how to carry on its own policy, precisely
for this an organization of the advanced elements of the class is immediately
Tiecessary at any cost though at the beginning these elements may form a
jnegligible section of the class."
How will the Communist Party convince the majority of the working class
tthat a revolution is necessary? The Communist Party can do this by becoming
tlie trusted vanguard, the beloved organizer and leader of the struggle of the
working class. Agitation and propaganda alone are insufficient. Something
more is needed to convince the masses of the proletariat of the necessity for
the overthrow of the old order.
Learn Through Struggle
The workers also need schooling through their daily struggles under the lead-
ership of the Communist Party. Workers learn by their own experiences that
only through stubborn struggle can they wrest any concessions from the capi-
talists. They learn the relationship of classes in present-dav society. They
learn the nature of bourgeois democracy and of fascism. The'v learn "the role
of the henchmen of the bourgeoisie in the ranks of the working class, they
learn the role of the reformist leaders of the trade unions and of the Socialist
Party. In other words, the proletarian masses learn through their own experi-
ences that their class, the working class, has class enemies— the bosses, the
exploiters, the capitalists and their henchmen. Thev learn that there is only
one way out of misery, insecurity, unemployment, etc.— the wav of the final
APPENDIX, PART 1 593
overthrow of the old order, and the establishment of the new — the proletarian
dictatorship.
These experiences will be learned in the day-to-day struggles in the fight for
better conditions, in strikes for higher wages and shorter hours, in the struggles
for adequate relief, for unemployment insurance, against evictions. The masses
will learn in these struggles who their enemies are. They will see the police
with their clubs and revolvers and gas bombs, the militia with their machine
guns; the extra -legal forces of the bourgeoisie (Ku Klux Klan, Vigilantes, etc. )•
with their lynch law ; the press with its poisonous anti-working class propa-
ganda ; they will recognize the role of the church ; the judges with their in-
junctions and vicious sentences against workers ; the mayor of the city or
town, the governor of the state, the President of the United States, always-
supporting the capitalists. They will see the reactionary leaders in the A. F.
of L. unions treacherously helping the bosses to crush the struggles of the
workers for a decent living and against capitalism. They will see the efforts
of the Socialist Party leaders to fuse themselves more and more with the leaders
of the A. F. of L. unions. They will see the cynically conciliatory policy of the
Right wing of the S. P. toward the bourgeoisie and A. F. of L. bureaucrats.
They will see the role of the Trotskyites as the advance guard of the counter-
revolution, supplying the capitalists with "arguments" against Communism
and the Workers'" Fatherland, the Soviet Union. They will see the Lovestone-
Ites, the renegades from Communism.
Convince Through Leadership
The workers learn through their own experiences that thoy must have a
Communist Party, which leads them in their struggles, which draws the correct
conclusions from these struggles, and which, in the preparation for, and in the
midst of, the struggles, continuously exposes every move of the enemy and,
teaches the workers the lessons that should be learned in their struggles. The
Communist Party, part and parcel of the proletariat, has only one interest: a
better life for the exploited, oppressed masses, the end of all exploitation. While
the Communist Party knows that hunger and misery cannot be finally aboli-shed
under the capitalist system, it leads and organizes the fight of the masses for
better conditions now because the interests of the workers are its interests, and
because it knows these day-to-day struggles develop the workers for their
final task — the overthrow of capitalism.
The Communist Party explains to the workers that even those concessions
which are won by them through hard-fought battles will be taken back by the
bourgeoisie unless the workers build and strengthen their mass combat or-
ganizations, especially their unions. In these fights the musses will see their
enemies, will realize that there is only one Party they can trust, only one Party
which fights uncompromisingly with them against the enemy, the Party which
is their fiesh and blood — their Party — the Communist Party.
In this way, the Communist Party will win the confidence of the masses, and
become their recognized leader, their General Staff, their vanguard, which they
will follow in the final battle to victory.
Bourgeois Dictatorshiii — Proletarian Dictatorship — Bourgeois Democracy —
Proletarian Democracy
Comrade Stalin in his book, Foutidations of Leninism, gives a very clear
analysis of tlie question of dictatorship and democracy. We quote a few para-
graphs :
"The State is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing
the resistance of its class enemies. In this respect the dictatorship of the
proletariat in no way differs, in e.ssence, from the dictatorship of any other
class, for the proletarian State is an instrument for the suppression of the
bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, there is an essential difference between the two,
which is, that all class States that have existed heretofore have been dictator-
ships of an exploiting minority over the exploited majority, whereas, the dicta-
torship of the proletariat is the dictatorship of the exploited majority over an
exploiting minority.
". . . the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be 'complete' democracy, a
democracy for all, for rich and poor alike; a dictatorship of the proletariat
'must be a State that is democratic iti a new tcay (for the proletariat and the
poor in general) and dictatorial in a new way (against the bourgeoisie).'*
*Quoted from V. I. Lenin, State and Revolution.
g94 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
'«orfPfi-' democracv aud the like, are but
"... <pure' democracy . . . .P^'^f^^^^^^^i^ableTacl that equality between ex-
bourgeois screens .to/?nceal tliyudulntame la i democracy is the
plotters and exploited is impossible Jl'; f^^J^^f^.f Xh is tamed and fed
theory of the upper stratum o_f the \voiking V„ 1;-.; *i,^ .^,.o« »f nn,^if«ium
the exploited masses, ^^^""^^^^"^.^•^rf";'';;^-^-^!^^^ reason than that the build-
for the exploited nor can t^ere be^ e?c -nSensable for the actual enjoy-
ings Printmg plants,^ ^^TthrSilege of the exploiters. Under the capitalist
ZTemS^e^l^Z'ZlsTrnTnor can th'ey, really participate in the
SSstration of the country, if for no other reason than that even with the
mSrtmocmny^vStemmA^ capitalism, the governments are set up, not
S^ the Se but by the Rothschilds and Stinneses, the Morgans and Rocke-
^%?mocracy under the capitalist system is capitalist democracy the democ-
racy oT an exploiting minority based upon the restr ction of the rights of
the exploited majority and directed against ths majority. Only under the
dictatorship of the proletariat is real 'freedom' for the exploited and real
participation in the administration of the country by the proletarians and
peasants possible. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat democracy is
proletarian democracy— the democracy of the exploited majority based upon
the restriction of the rights of the exploiting minority and directed against
this minority." {Foundatims of Leninism, by Joseph Stalin, pp. 51-52.)
THE ALUES OF THE PROLEH'ARIAT
The chief strategic aim of our Party in the present period is to win the
majority of the working class for the struggle against capitalism. This is an
essential condition for victory over the bourgeoisie and for preparing the
workers for the decisive battles for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system is the historic mission
of the working class. But the workers cannot fulfill their mission if they
fail to win over the wide sections of the toiling masses. It is essential that
the proletariat wins to its cause all its allies, without whom there cannot
be a successful revolution.
Who are the allies of the American working class? The Open Letter, adopted
by the Central Committee in July, 1933, very clearly answers this question.
The Poor and Small Farmers
The Open Letter stressed the following facts: The most important allies of
the American working class are the poor and small farmers. These farmers,
as well as broad sections of the middle farmers, are hardest hit by the whole
development of post-war capitalism and especially by the economic crisis. They
are most brutally exploited by the government, by the banks, by the trusts
and the insurance companies. Their interests are consequently directed objec-
tively against finance capital.
The main task of the Party in its work among agrarian toilers is, above all,
the organization of the agricultural wage workers, organizing them into the
trade unions and the Party, organizing and leading strikes of the agricultural
workers for better wages and working conditions. Such strikes, in many places,
have already played an important part in the development of the farmers' move-
ment. At the same time the Party has the important task of winning over the
poor and small farmers, and also broad sections of ruined middle farmers, for
the struggle against capitalism on the side of the proletariat ; while at the same
time it must strive to neutralize other sections of middle farmers. This is an
important prerequisite for a successful struggle against the offensive of capital-
ism, against fascism and for the defense of the Soviet Union, and for the final
victory of the proletariat.
The Negro People
The other important ally of the American proletariat is the mass of 13,000,000
Negro people in their struggle against national oppression. The Communist
Party, as the revolutionary Party of the proletariat, as the onlv Party which
IS courageously and resolutely carrying on a struggle against the double ex-
APPENDIX, PART 1 g95
ploitation aud national oppression of the Negro people, becoming particularly
intense with the developing crisis, can win over the great masses of Negro
people as allies of the proletariat against the American bourgeoisie.
The Party can stand at the head of the national revolutionary struggle of
the Negro masses against American imperialism only if it energetically carries
through the following tasks :
"The Party must mobilize the masses for the struggle for equal rights of the
Negroes and for the right of self-determination for the Negroes in the Black
Belt. It must ruthlessly combat any form of white chauvinism and Jim-Crow
practices. It must not only in words, but in deeds, overcome all obstacles to
the drawing in of the best elements of the Negro proletariat, who in the recent
years have shown themselves to be self-sacrificing fighters in the struggle
against capital. In view of this, special attention must be given to the pro-
motion of Negro proletarians to leading work in the Party organizations. In
all mass actions, strikes and unemployed struggles the Party must pay particu-
lar attention that, in formulating practical demands, it takes into considera-
tion and gives expression to the special forms of exploitation, oppression and
denial of the rights of the employed and unemployed Negro masses. At the
same time the Party and in the first place the Negro comrades must genuinely
improve the methods of patient, systematic but persistent struggle against the
ideology and influence of petty-bourgeois nationalists among the Negro workers
and toiling Negro masses." {An Open Letter to All Members of the Communist
Party, pp. 14-15.)
International Solidarity
The Communist Party systematically aids the revolutionary liberation move-
ment of the oppressed peoples of the colonial countries (Cuba, Philippines,
Latin-America, India, China, etc., etc.).
The Communist Party mobilizes the masses for international solidarity with
the struggle of the workers in other capitalist countries.
The Communist Party rallies the masses against imperialist war and fascism,
and for the defense of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union is the only fatherland of workers all over the world. It
is the achievement of the international proletariat. It is the most important
factor for the liberation of all workers in every country. Therefore, the
workers all over the world must help the Soviet Union in building socialism,
and must defend it vrith all their power against the attacks of the capitalist
powers.
The Petty Bourgeoisie
It is necessary and possible also to win over to the side of the workers broad
sections of the lower petty bourgeoisie and intellectual workers in the cities and
to neutralize other sections of the petty bourgeoisie (municipal and state
employees, lower officials, teachers, intellectuals, students, petty bourgeois war
invalids, artisans, small shop-keepers), who have been brought into action as a
result of the tremendous pressure of the crisis. This can he done only if the
Party will come out resolutely in defense of their interests, by organizing and
leading teachers' strikes, students' demonstrations, resistance to reduction of
salaries of city and state employees, resistance to robbery through inflation and
bank crashes, etc.
But the more widespread, the movement among the non^proletarian masses
hecomes and the more acute the task of winning allies of the proletariat be-
comes, the more intensely must the Party work to extend and organize its
proletarian base. This very extension of the movement of the n on -proletarian
masses makes it incumbent on the Party not to alloxa itself to be side-tracked
from its main task, namely, the winning of the decisive influence in the factories,
above all in the basic industries (steel, m.etal, raihvay, maritime, mining, etc.),
and the systematic building up of factory nuclei and trade-union organizations.
"If the Party intensifies its activity among the petty-bourgeois masses without
at the same time and above all strengthening its ba.se in the big factories and
among the most important sections of the American working class . . . then the
danger arises that the Party, having only weak contacts with the decisive sec-
tions of American workers, will be driven away from its proletarian base, and
instead of leading the petty-bourgeois masses will succumb to the influence of
petty-bourgeois sentiments, illusions and petty-bourgeois methods of work."
{Open Letter, p. 16.)
g95 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES 1
THE UNITED FRONT
"The increasingly sharp attacks against the workers raise more insistently
than ever the necessity of the establishment of the working-class fighting front
to resist these attacks and to win the demands of the workers. The working
class in the United States is still largely unorganized. That part which
1<5 or-anized is largely under the influence of the A. F. of L. bureaucracy, which
keeps it split up in innumerable ways by craft divisions, l)y discriminations
against the Negroes and foreign-born, by divisions between the skilled and
unskilled etc That smaller section which has begun to question the capitalist
svstem is further divided between the leadership of the Socialist Party and
the Communist Party, while a considerable section stands aside, still bewildered
bv these divisions and the problems it does not yet understand, and further con-
fused by the shouts of those small but active groups, the renegades from Com-
munism, the Musteites, etc." (Earl Browder: Report to the Eighth Conven-
tion of the Cormntmist Party, U.S.A., p. 55.)
The Communist Party understands that the road towards our main strategic
aim, the winning of the majority of the working class for revolutionary battles,
lead's through a broad united front of the masses. The united front is organized
by the Communist Party for the united struggle of Communists and all other
workers, members of other parties or of no party whatever, for the defense of
the interests of the working class against the bourgeoisie. The Communists do
not make any conditions for the united front except that the unity shall be one
of struggle for the particular demands agreed upon. The united front is there-
fore, first and foremost, the coming together of working class forces for action
for demands upon which the forces have agreed. For example : In a given fac-
tory the workers may be Democrats, Republicans, Socialists, Communists, or
members of the A. F. of L. without any political affiliation ; Catholics,
Protestants, etc. When the employer increases the working hours or reduces
the wages, the policy of the Communist Party is immediately to unite the
workers to resist the employer's attacks, to organize shop committees, grievance
committees, to bring the various unions and the workers who belong to dif-
ferent parties into a solid line against the bosses. This united front, according
to the situation, will enable the workers in this given factory to fight unitedly
against the bosses. In this action the Communist Party will show the workers
that only the Communist method of waging the struggle will bring victory.
The systematic application of the united front in the big factories is of
decisive importance, especially for leading strikes, establishing a united figliting
front, and tearing down the barriers between the revolutionary workers and
the masses of other workers. The decisive factor in establishing the united
front is tireless, every day activity among the workers in order to prove, in
every question, the correctness of our slogans and our proposals for action.
Apply to Unions
This application of the united front of the factory workers in action is very
easily understood. But when we pass from the factories to the unions and to
the parties, the confusion begins. What is the difference between the average
trade unionist and a Communist. The trade unionist thinks only of the interest
of the workers in the particular trade or occupation embraced by his own union.
The Communist thinks of the interests of the working class as a whole, and
aims to bring the whole working class into common action for their common
interests. The method of the united-front action in the factory must also be
applied to the unions, which must be brought together for common action. But
the bureaucratic leaders of the unions are against 3uch a policy for obvious
reasons (their role as agents of the bourgeoisie).
Nevertheless, we must consider the fact that they are at the head of the
unions of the workers, and therefore cannot be ignored. In most instances,
if the rank and file is approached by us for a united front, the first reaction is :
Did the executive committee of our union take up this question? Is it endorsed
by them? If we have not approached their leaders, we already find one obstacle
against the workers even considering our proposal. Therefore, in many cases
while approaching the rank-and-file membership directly with our united-front
proposals for action on specific issues, while organizing our influence through
building united-front committees (shop committees, grievance committees, etc.),
in the factories, and in this way increasing our influence, we also appeal, at the
same time, to the leaders of the unions and the Socialist Party who have a mass
APPENDIX, PART 1 697
following, and we are prepared to negotiate with them. If they agree to act
with us, so much the better, even though we may be sure that at some stage
of the action they will try to betray the workers. If they refuse to negotiate
for the united front, then we must expose them and the obstncle they are
putting in the way of the united front. In this manner, the prestige of the
bureaucratic officialdom in the minds of the rank and file of the unions receives
a severe blow.
The united front must not be limited only to special campaigns. Nor must we
abandon efforts to achieve a united front because we do not succeed at once in
winning over the workers for struggle, and because they do not at once want to
separate themselves from their reformist leaders. The united front must not
lead to subordination of the revolutionary policies to that of the reformist leaders
in the way of a so-called "non-aggression pact". United front means uninter-
rupted, patient, convincing work to destroy the influence of reformists and the
bourgeoisie. The rejection of the united front proposals of our Party and the
immediate urgent demands of the workers by the reformist leaders must impel
us to make even stronger efforts to organize a common fighting front in the
factories, mines, and among the unemployed masses, in the locals r.nd branches
of the A. P. of L. and Socialist Party, with the workers who are under the in
fluences of the reformists.
On All Issues
The united front could and should be built on all issues concerning the interests
of the working class, such as war and fascism, elections, unemployment insurance,
wage cuts, conditions, hours, defense of political prisoners, etc., besides the im-
mediate daily problems of the workers in the factory or in the industry.
The Communist Party in the united-front activities does not give up for a
moment its independent political role. Thus, the Party, in all phases of the
united-front action, while fighting side by side with the nou-Party workers, must
politicalize the struggle and show its perspective clearly.
The Party, in its every day work, must clarify to the workers in a positive and
concrete way the principal difference between us and the reformists. The Party,
by its practical work, must prove to the workers that we are the fighters for a
united struggle and that the reformist leaders are the splitters and disrupters of
the struggle.
We must show clearly in action that the Communist Party is the only Party
that fights uncompromisingly for the interests of the workers.
II. Basic Principlks of Party Organization
The Communist Party is organized in such a way as to guarantee, first,
complete inner unity of outlook ; and, second, combination of the strictest
discipline with the widest initiative and independent activity of the Party
membership. Both of these conditions are guaranteed because the Party is
organized on the basis of democratic centralism.
DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM
Democratic centralism is the system according to which :
1. All leading committees of the Party, fi-om the Unit Bureaus up to the
highest committees, are elected by the membership or delegates of the given
Party organization.
2. Every elected Party committee must report regularly on its activity to
its Party organization. It must give an account of its work.
3. The lower Party committees and all Party members of the given Party
organization have the duty of carrying out the decisions of the higher Party
committees and of the Communist international. In other words, decisions of
the C. I. and of the higher Party committees are binding upon the lower bodies.
4. Party discipline is observed by the Party members and Party organizations
because only those who agree with the program of the Communist Party and
the C. I. can become members of the Party.
5. The minority carries out the decisions of the majority (subordination
of the minority to the majority). Party questions are discussed by the mem-
bers of the Party and by the Party organization until such time as a decision
is made by the Party committee or org'anization. After a decision has been
made by the leading committees of the C. I., by the Central Committee of
698
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the Party or by the National Convention, this decision must be unreservedly
carried out even if a minority of the Party membership or a minority of the
local Party organizations is in disagreement with it.
6 The Party organizations, Units, Sections, tind Districts, have the full
initiative, right and duty to decide on local questions within the limits of
the general policies and decisions of the Party.
Decisions of Higher Bodies Binding on Lower Bodies
On the basis of democratic centralism, all lower Party organizations are sub-
ordinated to the higher bodies; District organizations are subordinated to the
Central Committee; Section organizations are subordinated to the District
Committee; Party Units (shop, street and town) are subordinated to the Section
Committees.
All decisions of the World Congress and committees of the C. I. must be
fulfilled by all parties of the C. I. All decision of the National Convention
and the Central Committee must be fulfilled by the whole Party ; aU decisions
of the District Convention and Committee must be fulfilled by the Section
organizations of that District; all decisions of the Section Convention and
Committee are binding on the shop, street and town Units in that Section.
A Party committee or Unit Bureau, throughout the whole of its activity
from Convention to Convention, from Conference to Conference, from Unit
meeting to Unit meeting, is not only under the control of the higher Party
committees, but also under the control of the whole Party membership in the
given organization. In c&ses where the elected Party committee is not capable
of carrying out its task and the correct Party line, this committee can be
changed through the calling of an extraordinary Conference by decision of the
higher committees, or by the initiative of the lower organizations with the
approval of the higher committees.
The Communist Party puts the interest of the working class and the Party
above everything. The Party subordinates all forms of Party organization to
these interests. From this it follows that one form of organization is suitable for
legal existence of the Party, and another for the conditions of underground,
illegal existence. Under conditions where there is no possibility of holding open
elections or broad Conventions, the form of democratic centralism necessarily has
to be changed. In such a situation, it is inevitable that co-option be used as well
as election. That means that in such a situation the higher committees will
appoint the lower committees (for example, the Central Committee may appoint
the District Committee ; the District Committee may appoint the Section Commit-
tee, etc.). Or, in very exceptional cases, when the lower committee is to act
quickly, this committee has the right to co-opt new members to the committee
from among the best leaders of the organization ; and this co-option must be
approved by the higher committee.
But even in the most difficult situation, the Party finds ways and means of
holding elections. The Conventions or Conferences under such conditions will
necessarily be smaller. The organization will be tighter so as to eliminate as
far as possible the danger of the exposure of delegates to the class enemies.
Under conditions of extreme terror, open election of committees would endanger
the elected leaders and make it possible for the bourgeoisie and their police agents
to capture the leaders of the Party, and in this way cripple the revolutionary
movement. Therefore, such a method is used bv the Party in electing leading
committees during such a period which eliminates the danger of exposure.
Democratic centralism therefore represents a flexible system of Party organiza-
tion which guarantees all the conditions for combining the conscious and active
participation of the whole Party membership in the Partv life together with the
best forms of centralized leadership in the activity and struggles of the Partv
and the working class.
PARTY DISCUSSION AND FREEDOM OF CRITICISM
The free discussion on questions of Party policy in individual Party organiza-
tions or in the Party as a whole, is the fundamental right of every Party member
/.r^ST'"''^-''^-?'''''^ -l ^'"''^y <^^™ocracy. Only on the basis of internal Party
ilZT^-J- r '^ ^f-'l^*^ ^"^ ^^''^^^P Bolshevik self-criticism and to strengthen
frpp/n^ .f ^iVf' ^^^""^ °1V'^^^ conscious and not mechanical. There is complete
Unffnf^nltfr ""'''" '"^ "L^ ^^^*y "^"^ ^ majority decision has been made bv the
S. pirriS mtf h ""^ committee after which discussion must cease and the decision
be carried out by every organization and individual member of the Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 699
It is clear, however, that basic principles and decisions, such, as for example,
the Program of the Communist International, cannot be questioned in the Party.
We cannot imagine a discussion, for example, questioning the correctness of the
leading role of the proletariat in the revolution, or the necessity for the prole-
tarian dictatorship. We do not question the theory of the necessity for the force-
ful overthrow of capitalism. We do not question the correctness of the revolu-
tionary tlieory of the class struggle laid down by Marx, Engels, Lenin and
S'talin. We do not question the counter-revokitionary nature of Trotskyism.
We do not question the political correctness of the decisions, resolutions, etc.,
of the Executive Committee of the C. I., of the Convention of the Party, or of
the Central Committee after they are ratified. Otherwise, every under-cover
agent of the bourgeoisie and every sympathizer of the renegades would have an
opportunity of continually raising their counter-revolutionary theories in the
Units, Sections, etc., and make the members spend time and energy in discussing
such questions, thus not only disrupting the work of the Party, but also creating
confusion among the less experienced and trained elements in the Party. (As
a matter of fact, this is what enemies of the party are always trying to do in
the name of "democracy".)
However, that does not mean that the problems dealt with in such decisions —
and how best to apply these decisions — are not to be clarified in the Party
organizations by discussion. On the contrary, a most thorough discussion for
the purpose of making every Party member understand these resolutions and
decisions and liow to apply them is essential for effective Party work.
PARTY DISCIPLINE
Party discipline is based upon the class-consciousness of its members; upon
the conviction that without the minority accepting and carrying out the de-
cisions of the majority, without the subordination of the lower Party organiza-
tions to the higlier committees, there can be no strong, solid, steeled Party able
to lead the proletariat. This discipline is based upon the acceptance of the C I.
and the Party program and in the confidence of the membership in the Com-
munist International and in the Central Committee.
There can be no discipline in the Party if there is no conscious and voluntary
submission on the basis of a thorough understanding of the decisions of the
Party. "Only conscious discipline can he truly iron discipline'' (Stalin).
Why Do the Communists Attach So Much Importance to Discipline?
Because without discipline there is no unity of will, no unity in action. Our
Party is the organized and most advanced section of the working class. The
Party is the vanguard of the proletariat in the class war. In this class war
there is the capitalist class with its henchmen and helpers, the reformist leaders,
on one side, and the working class and its allies, on the other. The class war
is bitter. The enemy is powerful ; it has all the means of deceit and suppres-
sion (armed forces, militia, police, courts, movies, radio, press, schools, churches,
etc.). In order to combat and defeat this powerful enemy, the army of the
proletariat must have a highly skilled, trained General Staff (the Communist
Party), which is united in action and has one will. How can an army fight
against the army of the enemy if every soldier in the army is allowed to questioa
and even disobey orders of his superior oflicers? Wliat would happen in a war
if, for example, the General Staff orders an attack, and one section of the army
decides to obey and go into battle ; another thinks that it is wrong to attack the
enemy at this time and stays away from the battle; and a third section decides
to quit the trenches and retreat to another position instead of going forward?
Unity in Action
Let us take an example from the class struggle. The District Committee de-
cides that a demonstration should be held against police terror and gives direc-
tives to the Sections to mobilize the whole membership to get the greatest possible
number of workers to the demonstration. The date and place of the demonstra-
tion are set by the District Committee. One section, after receiving the de-
cisions, works out plans to mobilize the masses, and activizes the whole Section
to work for the demonstration. Another Section does not think that the issue
is very important and neglects to mobilize the membership; a third Section
decides that the time set by the District Committee is not the best one and
YQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
instructs its members to mobilize at a later hour; and a fourth Sectiou decides
!o come at an earlier hour. What kind of a demonstration would it be? What
would workers think and say about such a Party? ^ .. . .. ,, .^
Our Party cannot lead the masses if there is not unity m action. Unity
of will and action can be achieved only if all the members of the Party act
as one— are disciplined. If each Party member should dec-ide which decision
of the Party he wanted to carry out; if each member would carry out only
those decisions which he liked and ignored those with which he disagreed,
it would be impossible to lead the masses in the struggle against capitalism.
An army with that kind of leadership would be defeated.
Unified opinion is es.sential for unity in action, for successful work of the
Communist Party. What would happen if each Party member would in-
terpret a political issue individually and bring his individual opinion to the
masses? The workers in a factory, for example, would get as many opinions
on certain questions as there are Party members in the factory.
The unified opinion which is hammered out in the Party by di.scussion i.s
necessary in order that the Party be able to lead the masses in their constant
struggles.
WHAT IS SEXF-CRITICISM?
Self-criticism is the most important means for developing Communist con-
sciousness and thereby strengthening discipline and democratic centralism.
Self-criticism helps to discover all the mistakes, deviations, shortcomings,
which separate us from the masses, and to correct them. It helps us to
discover and expose the harmful policies or practices of organizations and
individuals who work against the interest of the masses. Self-criticism helps
us to improve the work of the Party organizations; to exterminate bureaucracy;
to expose the agents of the enemy in our ranks.
"Let us take, for instance, the matter of guidance of economic and other
organizations on the part of the Party organizations. Is everything sati.sfac-
tory in this respect? No, it is not. Often questions are decided, not only in
the locals, but also in the center, so to speak, 'en famille', the family circle.
Ivan Ivanovich, a member of the leading group of some organization, made,
let us say, a big mistake and made a mess of things. But Ivan Federovitch
does not want to criticize him, show up his mistakes and correct him. He
does not want to, because he is not disposed to 'make enemies'. A mistake
was made, things went wrong, but what of it, wlio does not make mistakes?
"Today I will show up Ivan Ivanovitch. Tomorrow he will do the same
to me. Let Ivan Ivanovitch, therefore, not be molested, because where is
the guarantee that I will not make a mistake in the future? Thus every-
thing remains spick and span. There is peace and good will among men.
Leaving the mistake uncorrected harms our great cause, but that is nothing!
As long as we can get out of the mess somehow. Such, comrades, is the
usual attitude of some of our responsible people. But what does that mean? If
we, Bolsheviks, who criticize the whole world, who, in the words of Marx,
storm the heavens, if we refrain from self-criticism for the sake of the peace
of some comrades, is it not clear that nothing but ruin awaits our great cause
and that nothing good can be expected?
"Marx said that the proletarian revolution differs, by the way, from other
revolutions in the fact that it criticizes itself and that in criticizing itself it
becomes consolidated. This is a very important point Marx made. If we,
the representatives of the proletarian revolution, shut our eyes to our short-
comings, settle questions around a family table, keeping mutually silent con-
cerning our mistakes, and drive our ulcers into our Party organism, who will
correct these mistakes and shortcomings? Is it not clear that we cease to be
proletarian revolutionaries, and that we shall surely meet with shipwreck if
we do not exterminate from our midst this Philistinism, this domestic spirit
in the solution of important questions of our construction? Is it not clear that
by retraining from honest and straight-forward self-criticism, refraining from
^rf. , 'If ''i^^l straight making good of mistakes, we block our road to i)rog-
^f.l -lo ;i ""^^°t ?^ our cause, and new success for our cause? The process of
Spro n,^''^'T"* '? "'''"'^'" ^"^'^^^^ "o^" general. No, cotnrades, we have classes,
nnd«fn.nf. ??"''""' ^'^^''' *^^ country, we have a past, we have a present
smoo?lifv tnt^H 7'' fr contradictions between them, and we cannot progress
stra?o i^'in nfp f^ ^^'.T^^'f ^^ "^^- ^''' progress proceeds in the form of
struggle, in the form of developing contradictions, in the form of overcoming
APPENDIX, PART 1 701
these contradictions, in the form of revealing and liquidating these
contradictions.
"As long as there are classes we shall never be able to have a situation when
we shall be able to say, 'Thank goodness, everything is all right.' This will
never be, comrades. There will always be something dying out Bat that
which dies does not want to die; it fights for its existence, it defends its dying
cause. There is always something new coming into life. But that which is
being born is not born quietly, but whimpers and screams, fighting for its right
to live. Struggle between the old and the new, between the moribiuid and
that which is being born — such is the basis of our development. Without
pointing out and exposing openly and honestly, as Bolsheviks should do, the
shortcomings and mistakes in our work, we block our road to progress. But we
do want to go forward. And just because we go forward, we must make one
of our foremost tasks an honest and revolutionary self-criticism. Without this
there is no progress." (Stalin, Report to the Fifteenth Congress of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet TJniion, pp. 65-66.)
Two Kinds of Criticism
Self-criticism is a natural part of the life of the Party. How can the mem-
bers fail to criticize the Bureau or committee if its work is poor, if it makes
mistakes? Without self-criticism there can be no Communist Party. But
this criticism must never depart from the line of the Party, from the princi-
ples of Marxism-Leninism. We should make it very clear that there are two
kinds of criticism : one which, on the basis of the line of the Party, on the
basis of revolutionary theory and practice, analyzes mistakes and shortcom-
ings, and offers concrete proposals for improvement in the work of the organ-
ization or individual member. This is Bolshevik self-criticism — constructive
criticism. A good example of such self-criticism is the Open Letter, adopted
at the Extraordinary Party Conference. The other is the kind of criticism
which is based on distortion of the line of the Party or does not offer any
proposal to improve the work, or to correct mistakes. This is destructive
criticism, which, if tolerated, inevitably leads not only to driving out new
members, discouraging the weaker elements and disrupting the work of the
Party, but also leads to factionalism.
WHAT IS FACTIONAI.ISM AND WHERE DOES IT LEAD?
Comrade Stalin, in his speech on the Communist Party of the U. S. A., in
1929, gave an excellent answer to this question :
". . . factionalism weakens the Party spirit, it dulls the revolutionary sense
and blinds the Party workers to such an extent that, in the factional passion,
they are obliged to place the interests of faction above the interests of the
Party, above the interests of the Comintern, above the interests of the working
class. Factionalism not infrequently brings matters to such a pass that the
Party workers, blinded by the factional struggle, are inclined to gauge all facts,
all events in the life of the Party, not from the point of view of the interests
of the Party and the working class, but from the point of view of the narrow
interests of their own faction, from the point of view of their own factional
kitchen.
". . . factionalism interferes with the training of the Party in the spirit of
a policy of principles ; it prevents the training of the cadres in an honest,
proletarian, incorruptible revolutionary spirit, free from rotten diplomacy and
unprincipled inti'igue. Leninism declares that a policy based on principles is
the only correct policy. Factionalism, on the contrary, believes that the only
con-ect policy is one of factional diplomacy and unprincipled factional intrigue.
That is why an atmosphere of factional struggle cultivates not politicians of
principle, hut adroit factionalist manipulators, experienced rascals and Men-
sheviks, smart in fooling the 'enemy' and covering up traces. It is true that
such 'educational' work of the factionalists is contrary to the fundamental in-
terests of the Party and the working class. But the factionalists do not give
a rap for that — all they care about is their own factional diplomatic kitchen,
their own group interests. . .
"It is, therefore, not surprising that politicians of principle and honest prole-
tarian revolutionaries get no sympathy from the factionalists. On the other
hand, factional tricksters and manipulators, unprincipled intriguers and back-
stage wire pullers and masters in the formation of impriucipled blocs are held
by them in high honor.
702 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
factionalism, by weakening ttie will for unity in the Party and by uu
dermining its iron discipline, creates within the Party a peculiar factional regime,
psTresult of which the whole internal life of our Party is robbed of its conspira-
av^pfo ection iithe face of the class enemy, and the Party itself runs the
danger of being transformed into a plaything of the agents of the bourgeoisie.
Thiq as a rule comes about in the following way : Let us say that some question
is being decided in the Polit-Bureau of the Central Committee. Within the
Polit-Bureau there is a minority and a majority which regard each decision
from their factional standpoint. If a factional regime prevails m the Party,
the wirepullers of both factions immediately inform the peripheral machine
of this or that decision of the Polit-Bureau, endeavoring to prepare it for their
own advantage and swing it in the direction they desire. As a rule, this pro-
cess of information becomes a regular system. It becom.es a regular system
because each faction regards it as its duty to inform its peripheral machine in
the way it thinks fit and to hold its periphery in a condition of mobilization in
readiness for a scrap with the factional enemy. As a result, important secret
decisions of the Party become general knowledge. In this way the agents of
the bourgeoisie attain access to the secret decisions of the Party and
anake it easy to use the knowledge of the internal life of the Party against the
interests of the Party. True, such a regime threatens the complete demoraliz-
ation of the ranks of the Party. But the factiona lists do not care about that,
since, for them, the interests of their group are supreme.
". . . factionalism consists in the fact that it completely nullifies all positive
'work done in the Party; it robs the Party workers of all desire to concern them-
selves with the day-to-day needs of the working class (wages, hours, the im-
provement of the material welfare of the workers, etc.) ; it weakens the work
of the Party in preparing the working class for the class conflicts with the
bourgeoisie and thereby creates a state of affairs in which the authority of the
Party must inevitably suffer in the eyes of the workers, and the workers, in-
stead of flocking to the Party, are compelled to quit the Party ranks. . . .
What have the factional leaders of the majority and the minority been chiefly
occupied with lately? With factional scandal-niongering, with every kind of
petty factional trifle, the drawing up of useless platforms and sub-platforms, the
introduction of tens and hundreds of amendments and sub-amendments to these
platforms.
"Weeks and months are wasted lying in ambush for the factional enemy,
trying to entrap him, trying to dig up something in the personal life of the
factional enemy, or, if nothing can be found, inventing some fiction about him.
It is obvious that positive work must suffer in such an atmosphere, the life of
the Party becomes petty, the authority of the Party declines and the workers,
the best, the revolutionary-minded workers, who want action and not scandal-
tQongering, are forced to leave the Party.
"That, fundamentally, is the evil of factionalism in the ranks of a Communist
Party." {Stalin's Speeches on the American Communist Party, pp. 27-30.)
III. Structure and Functions of the Party Organizations
The most important points where the Communist Party must work untiringly
rso .%« to fulfill the task of winning the majority of the working class for the
struggle against capitalism are the following:
1. The big factories, mines, mills, docks, ships, railroads, etc., where the great
masses of the basic sections of the proletariat are employed. The Communist
Party puts its main energy into building Party organizations in these places.
2. The A. F. of L. unions and Railroad Brotherhoods, where millions of or-
ganized workers can be won for the Party program and led in decisive struggles.
The Communist Party realizes that one of the most important tasks in winning
the majority of the decisive sections of the proletariat is gaining influence among
members of A. F. of L. unions. In order to achieve this, every available Party
member must join the union of his industry, craft or occupation and work
there in a real Bolshevik manner, helping to build the union, fighting for better
conditions, exposing the bureaucratic, treacherous leaders as the agents of the
employers and, in this way, proving to the rank and file what the leadership of
the Communists means in the labor movement.
3. The independent unions where the Communists must work with the same
energy and perspective as in the A. F. of L. unions.
4. The organized and unorganized masses of unemployed. The Communist
Party fighting for unemployment relief and insurance leads and organizes the
APPENDIX, PART 1 7Q3
unemployed masses, maintains fractions in all organizations of the unemployed
and forges an unbreakable link between the unemployed and employed workers
in the fight for social insurance and better conditions.
5. The fraternal cultural and sport organizations in which there are large
numbers of working people. The Communist Party persistently works in the
mass organizations of workers, especially workers in basic industries, and
through the effective work of disciplined fraction leads them and wins their
confidence in the Communist Party.
6. The Negro organizations (churches, fraternal, cultural, etc.). The Com-
munist Party through well functioning fractions in these institutions of the
Negro people, leads the fight for the special interests of the Negroes (against
discrimination, segregation) for the liberation struggle of the Negro people.
7. The huge farms where large numbers of agricultural workers are em-
ployed. The Communist Party through its farm Units fights for the interests
of the agricultural workers (farm laborers) and organizes them in unions.
The main strategic aim of the Communist Party is to win the majority of
the working class for the proletarian revolution. In order to achieve this aim
the Communist Party establishes closely knit organizations everywhere where
workers work for their living (factory), where they live (neighborhood),
where they are organized for the defense of their economic interests (unions and
unemployment organizations), or organized for satisfying their cultural desires
(clubs, sports and cultural organizations). These Party organizations which
lead the masses in the struggle for their economic and political demands are the
following: (1) Shop and Street Units. Both of these forms of organizations
are full-fledged Party bodies. (2) Fractions. The Party leads the masses
organized in unions and other mass organizations through the fractions which
are instruments in the hands of the Party to carry the policy of the Party
among the masses.
THE PARTY ORGANIZATIONS
The basic organization of the Party is the Shop Unit (Nucleus), which may
consist of three members or more in a given place of employment, i. e., factory,
shop, mine, mill, dock, ship, railway terminal, office, store, farm, etc.
The other form of membership organization is the Street or Town Unit,
comprising a group of members living within a given territory.
The leadership of the Unit is the Unit Bureau, elected by the membership
of the Unit.
The next higher organization is the Section. The Section is made up of a
number of Shop, Street or Town Units in a given territory. The size of the
territory of a Section is decided upon by the District Committee. The Party
always strives to make the territory of the Sections as small as possible in
order to be able to carry on work more effectively.
The highest body in the Section is the Section Convention. The Section
Convention is a meeting of delegates elected by the Shop and Street Units of
the Section. The leading committee in the Section is the Section Committee
and is elected by the delegates at the Section Convention from among the best
members of the Section. The Section Committee is the highest leading body
in the Section between Conventions. It is responsible for all its actions and
decisions to the Section Convention. The elected Section Committee must be
approved by the District Committee. The Section Organizer is elected by the
Section Committee, subject to the approval of the District Committee. Should
the District Committee not approve the election of a Section Organizer the
reasons for this action are discussed and explanation made to the Section
Committee.
The next highest organization in the Party is the District. The District
organization is made up of the Sections in a territory assigned to it by the
Central Committee. The District covers a certin portion of the country (a part
of one, or one, two and sometimes three states, depending upon the industries,
on the size of the membership, etc.). The highest body in the District is the
District Convention, which is a meeting of delegates elected at the Conventions
of the Sections in the District. Between Conventions, the highest committee in
the District is the District Committee, elected by the delegates of the Sections
at the District Convention. The District Committee is responsible for all its
actions and decisions to the District Convention and Central Committee. The
elected District Committee has to be approved by the Central Committee. The
704 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
District Organizer (political leader) is elected by the District Committee sub-
ject to the aproval of the Central Committee.
The highest Party body is the National Convention. The National Convention
is a meeting of delegates elected at the District Conventions. The highest
committee of the Party in one conntry is the Central Committee, elected by the
delegates at the National Convention. The Central Committee loads the Party
organizations, with full authority, between Conventions and is responsible for its
actions and decisions to the National Convention and to the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International.
WHAT IS THE BASIS OF REPRESENTATION TO CWNVENTIONS ?
The number of delegates to Conventions is not fixed in the Constitution of
the Party.
It depends on the conditions in a given situation, plus the numerical strength
of the given Units, Sections and Districts.
The strategic importance of a Shop Unit, or Concentration Section, or of a
District is the governing factor in deciding the number of delegates to the
Convention. For example, the Section Committee can decide whether a Shop
Unit from a big factory sends proportionately more delegates to the Section
Convention than a Street Unit with the same number of, or perhaps even more,
members.
The conditions under which the Party works are also an important factor
in deciding the number of delegates. For example, a District which works
partly illegally will have a smaller number of delegates to the District Con-
vention than other District witli the same number of units working more openly.
On the other hand, in one District, because of certain problems which have to
be clarified before the broadest possible gathering, the situation may demand
a much larger representation from the Units or Sections to the Section or
District Convention than another District where no such problem exists.
At the Eighth Party Convention of our Party, the general rule of representa-
tion was the f olowing :
1. The Units elected one delegate for each five members to the Section
Convention.
2. The Section Conventions elected one tielegate for each 15 members in the
Section to the District Convention.
3. The District Conventions elected one delegate for each 100 members in the
District to the National Convention.
THE PARTY CONFERENCES
The Sections, with the approval of the District Committee, and the Districts,
with the approval of the Central Committee, may call meetings of delegates
for a conference between Conventions. These conferences take up the work of
the respective organizations and discuss problems concerning new tactics
necessitated by changed situations. The difference between a convention and
conference is that the conference does not elect a new leadership and that all
decisions must be approved by the higher Party committee. The Partv con-
ference has the right to elect new members to the Committee if some old ones
have been removed for one reason or another, and has the right to remove
individual members from the committee if for sufficient reason it believes they
are not fit to be leaders of the organization.
PARTY COMMITTEES AND THEIR SIZE
The Party committees elected at the Conventions are composed of the best,
most developed comrades in the given organization. Representation to the
Section Committee is not on the basis of representation from each Unit ; nor
does each Section elect a repi-esentative to the District Committee. At the
same time we must bear in mind that the Section Committee or a iiigher
Farty committee must have among its members comrades who are working in
the most important factories, as well as members of the most important
tracle unions, m order to maintain a living connection between the leadership
and the masses at these important points.
Tiie size of the Party committee always depends on the numerical strength
of the organization which elects it, on the importance of the organization, and
APPENDIX, PART 1 705
on the given situation. The approximate average size of the committee is the
following :
Unit Bureau — 3-5 members
Section Committee — 9-11 members
District Committee — 15-19 members
Central Committee — 30-35 members
WHAT ARE THE PARTY BUREAUS?
The Bureau is the leading body in the Section, District and Center between
committee meetings, acts with full authority during this period, and is re-
sponsible to the committee by which it is elected. Their approximate size is :
Section Bureau — about 5 members
District Bureau — about 7-9 members
Political Bureau of the C. C —about 7-9 members
As a general rule the Party committees meet as follows :
Unit Bureau— once a week
Section Bureau — once a week
Section Committee — twice, usually, but at least once a month
District Bureau— once a week
District Committee — once a month
Political Bureau — once a week
Central Committee— once in two months
THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL (COMINTERN)
The Communist International is the international organization of Communist
Parties in all countries. It is the World Communist Party. The Communist
Parties in the various countries affiliated to the Comintern are called Sections
of the Communist International.
The World Congress composed of delegates from all the parties affiliated to
the Communist International (Comintern) is the highest authority in Com-
munist Party organization.
The date of the Congress and the number of delegates from the various
Communist Parties are decided upon by the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International (E. C. C. I.). But the number of votes allocated to each
Party at the World Congress is decided upon by special decision of the Congress
itself, in accordance with the membership of the given Party and the political
importance of the given country.
The leading body of the Communist International during the period be-
tween Congresses is the Executive Committee of the Communist International
(E. C. C. I.), elected by the delegates at the World Congress. The decisions of
the E. C. C. I. are binding for all Parties belonging to the Comintern and must
be promptly carried out. The Communist Parties have the right to appeal against
decisions of the E. C. C. I. to the World Congresses, but must proceed to carry
out such decisions pending the final action of the World Congress on the appeal.
The leadership of the Comintern (C. I.) is composed of the best, most developed,
experienced, tried, leaders of the various Communist Parties.
The meetings of the Executive Committee of the Communist International
are in size similar to a World Congress. These meetings are called the Enlarged
Plenums of the Executive Committee of the C. I. Besides the elected members
of the Executive Committee of the C. I. there are invited to this Enlarged
Plenum additional delegates from the various countries, so that these Plenums
have 300 or 400 delegates present from the various Parties. The difference
between a Congress and an Enlarged Plenum consists in the fact that while dele-
gates to the Congress are elected on the basis of numerical strength tind political
importance of the Communist Parties, the number of additional invited delegates
from the Communist Parties to the Enlarged Plenum is decided upon on the
basis of the order of business of the Plenum. These delegates are selected
by the Central Committees of the various Communist Parties. At the Enlarged
Plenum of the E. C. C. I. only the members of the E. C. C. I. have the right to
vote. The other invited delegates have the right to participate in the discussion,
but have only a consultative vote.
The E. C. C. I. elects from among its members a Presidium which is responsible
to the E. C. C. I. The Presidium meets at least once a month and acts as the
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 46
7Qg UN-AMERICAX PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
permanent body carrying out aU the business of the E. C. C. I. during the
neriod between meetings of the latter. ^,.. ,0. <. -i. i-i
^ The PrSdium elects from among its members the Political Secretariat, which
is empowered to make decisions between Presidium meetings, and is responsible
to the Presidium.
STBUCTURE OF THE COMMUNIST INTEBNATIONAI,
Let us briefly sum up the structure of the Communist Party in the order of
responsibility on the basis of the foregoing description* :
Unit Bureau
Unit Membership Meeting
Section Bureau
Section Committee
Section Convention
District Bureau
Di.strict Committee
District Convention
Political Bureau of the C. C.
Central Committee
National Convention
Political Secretariat of the C. I.
Presidium of the C. I.
Executive Committee of the C. I.
World Congress of the C. I.
SHOP UNIT (NUCIJSUS)
The Shop Unit (Nucleus) is the basic organization of our Party in the place
of employment (factory, shop, mine, dock, ship, office, store, etc.). Shop Units
should be organized in every factory, shop, mine, etc., where there are three
or more members of the Party.
The main strength of our movement is in tlie Unit.s (Nuclei) in large factories
because :
1. The large factories and railroads are the nerve centers of the economic
and political life of the country.
2. In the large factories the workers concentrated in large numbers.
3. Workers in these large factories have great influence on the workers in
smaller shops.
4. The workers in large factories are better trained and disciplined by the
process of large-scale production.
5. Workers in large factories are generally more militant because, concen-
trated in large numbers in one enterprise, they feel their strength.
Comrade Lenin, in "A Letter to a Comrade on Our Problems of Organiza-
tion," states that:
". . . The main strength of our movement lies in the worker.s' organizations
in large factories, because in the large factories are concentrated that section
of the working class which is not only predominant in numbers, but still more
predominant in influence, development and fighting capacities. Every factory
must be our stronghold."
ADVANTAGES OF SHOP UNIT FOEM
Why i.s the Shop Unit (Nucleus) the best form of basic Party organization?
1. Workers feel the pressure of exploitation most in the factory where they
are employed. There they have common interests and problems (wages, work-
ing conditions, etc.).
2. A properly working, well-trained, politically developed Shop Unit, although
it may have to work under the most difficult conditions, because of the highly
developed spy system, etc., cannot be found out and gotten rid of by the boss.
In order to stop the work of such a Unit, the boss must clo.se the factory. That
means stopping production — shutting off the profits.
3. The Shop Unit is traiyed to work in a consplrative manner, in order to
organize and lead the other workers, to safeguard the organization and pre-
vent its members from being fired. Because of this method of work the Shop
*See chart inserted at p. 714.
APPENDIX, PART 1 707
Unit will remain the most solid link with the masses under any conditions
(terror, illegality).
4. The Shop Unit registers the reaction of the most decisive elements of the
proletariat to every issue. The reaction, sentiment, opinion of the workers
brought by the Shop Unit to the higher connnittee of the Party makes it possible
to formulate the best policy or to correct and improve decisions. Through the
Shop Units, Party Committees are in daily contact with the most important
strata of the working class.
5. The leadership of the Party gets its strength from the Shop Units by
drawing the most developed comrades into the leading Party committees. In
this way direct contact with factory workers is established.
6. The Shop Units, through their daily activities in leading and organizing
struggles in the factories, gain the confidence of the workers and spread the
influence of the Party to wider and wider circles. At the same time the Shop
Units bring into the Party the best elements of this decisive stratum of the
proletariat, thus improving the social composition of the Party.
7. The Shop Unit is very effective in building real united fronts of workers
on immediate issues (Grievance Committee, Shop Committee) and also on
liroader political issues (terror, election, war).
S. The Shop Units are instrumental in building and strengthening well-func-
tioning fractions in the A. F. of L. and other unions.
9. The Shop Unit brings the DaUy Worker, this mighty weapon of our Party,
directly to the most important strata of the working class.
These are the main arguments for the necessity of building the Party in the
factories. These arguments prove that in order to win the majority of the
decisive strata of the proletariat, the Party must be rooted in the factories,
mines, ships, docks, offices, etc.
■'The working class will be in a position to fulfill its role as the most decisive
class in the struggle against finance capital, as the leader of all toiling masses,
only if it is headed by a Communist Party which is closely bound up with the
decisive strata of the workers. But a Communist Party with a very weak and
inadequately functioning organization in the big factories and among the deci-
sive sections of the American industrial workers, a Communist Party whose
entire policy, whose entire agitation and propaganda, whose entire daily work
is not concentrated on winning over and mobilizing these workers and winning
the factories, a Communist Party which, throtigh its revoltitionary trade union
work, does not build highways to the broadest masses of workers, cannot lay
claim to a policy capable of making it the leader of the working class within the
shortest possible time." (Open Letter, p. 12.)
WHAT AKB THE BASIC INDUSTRIES '!
The Party should concentrate all its forces and energy to build Shop Units,
first of all in the basic industries.
Basic industries are those upon which the whole economic system depends.
They include :
1. Those which produce material for production, like steel, mining, oil,
chemicals.
2. Those which deliver material to the place of production or consumption,
like railroad, trucking, marine, etc.
3. Those which produce power for running the wheels of industry, electric
power plants, steam and hydro-electric plants, etc.
It is also important to concentrate all our energy to build the Party in the
auto, textile and packing house industries because of their strategic importance
in the economic system. Strong Party organizations ( Shop Units) in these basic
industries with a mass following could really influence and lead the millions
of workers engaged in these as well as in all lesser industries in their daily
sti-uggles. and deliver decisive blows to capitalism.
AVhile it is of the utmost importance to concentrate all energy of the Party
to build and strengthen the Units in the basic industries, the other industries
lannot be neglected. The Party systematically builds Units in light industries
(clothing, shoe and leather, etc., in offices, stores, laundries, hotels and restau-
rants, etc.).
HOW TO BUILD SHOP UNITS
The stronghold, the fortress of the revolutionary movement, is in the factory.
But in order to build the revolutionary movement there, we must organize all
Party members working in one factory into a Shop Unit. The main difference
708
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
between the Communist Party and the Socialist Pa?'ty form of organization i.'S
that the Socialist Party organizations (branches) are built on the basis of
bourgeois election wards and districts while the Communist Party is built on the
basis of the place of employment. Party members who work in the same shop
cannot belong to different Street Units. If such forms of organization were
permitted, Party members working in the same factory and not knowing each
other, would carry on their Party work in an anarchistic way. Each one indi-
vidually would try to give leadership to the other workers.
The first step, therefore, in building the Unit in a factory is to find irho the
Party members are. This can be done by checking the membership registration
or by getting information from the fraction of the union. If we find three or
more members, a Shop Unit should immediately be organized.
Since the most effective work of the Party is inside the factory, it is necessary
to find ways and means whereby developed Party members can get a job in a giveli
factory, and in this way to start building the Party there.
The Street and Town Units have many members who are working in big
factories. These single members should know that their main task is to build the
Party inside the factory. But it is not sufficient to assign this basic task to these
members. Their Street Units must help them politically and organizationally
(forces from outside, shop papers, Daily Worker distribution from outside, fi-
nances, etc.). There are many good examples in our Party which prove that
with proper help, one member in a big factory can recruit two, three or more
members for the Party in two or three weeks, and organize a Shop Unit.
There are thousands of very close sympathizers, readers of oiu" press {Daily
Worker or the language papers), members of the unions and various fraternal and
cultural organizations, who are working in important factories. Conscientious
effort will help us to recruit them into the Party and thus build Shop Units.
CONCENTEATION
Besides these organizational measures, there are various other effective methods
for organizing and strengthening the Shop Units. The best method is the concen-
tration of our best forces around a factory. This concentration work consists of
systematic mass agitation and propaganda among the workers in the selected fac-
tory through distribution of the Daily Worker. Party pamphlets, and other litera-
ture at the factory gates or at the workers' homes, combined with the holding
of shop-gate meetings. This mass agitation will help prepare the ground for the
carrying on of successful work by our members inside the factory.
A Shop Unit consisting of three members can be strengthened by adding one
or two of the best, most developed, most reliable comrades from the Street or
Town Unit. These comrades, as regular members of the Shop Unit, help in work-
mg out policies and making decisions for activity in the factory They help the
Shop Unit keep connection with the Section Conuuittee, and help guide and
participate in the mass work outside of the factory. It is absolutely essential that
outside members (from Street Units) be always in the minority in" the Shop Unit.
WHAT IS THE GTHDING PKINCIPLB FOR THE OEGANIZATION.U. FORM OF A UNIT?
rv,-^^^?T ^^^^^'■ty organization in the factory, shop, mine, dock, etc., is deter-
1 ^. ^.^^^ factors, which are very closely linked to each other:
ion.i. '^/.'^''^''^'"^f*'^"^' ^^™' ^'"^^ ^'" "^«^e the Party Unit the most effective
leader of the workers ; and
fhf' Jw «^.f "i^f^i""'^! form which will best safeguard the Party members and
the other militant workers from the bosses' stool-pigeons and thugs
rin n^Lf fi!!lf''*'*',"'*l^.?'''' ""'"'^ ^^ '^"^^ ^^""^ it becomes possible for the Unit to
the memhlv« .f'r''^"''' ^""""'^ ^™^ P'^^'^"*' ^« ^^^ «« possible, th.^ exposure of
worwl ., fi' .1 f^'^^l^'^^-ge and blacklisting of sympathetic and active non-Party
woikers, and the exposure of militant union members
is the d™.^*^''^ """'^'^'' of "^^™bers who come together regularly, the smaller
should be mvilr-^f"r- ^'\' ^^'°P U"'* ^^"^^ S^-o^^ t« over 10-12 members
When we fi li two independent working groups as quickly as possible.
be cons^dererfis T^r''' ^i'^^* "" ^^^^P ^^^t' ^^'^ ^'^^ question which should
™rthe nn f . i "^""f'^^f ^° organize a Unit in another department from
fn ?hf sine denr.'"^'f • Jt -^^^'^ ^^"^ *^''^^ members in the Unit who work
there aS not enmlr''*' 'I ^'"-^ "' "^'"t department should be organized. If
Sarflorsnr.nS "'^"'^'^r.^?.^^'' department. Party members working on
several floois or m the same building should be organized in one Unit
APPENDIX, PART 1 709
If a departmental Unit group is so big that it is too cumbersome for effective
wo]-li, (lie department Unit should be divided into smaller groups on the basis
of Party members working near each other in the department. The Shop Unit
may also consider organizing Units on the basis of shifts. In this form of organi-
zation, the decisive factor will be whether the members on one shift are con-
tinually together in the same work group, and whether the changing of shift
n'ould not mean changing the composition of the members in the same group.
The best way to build an effective Party Unit in one factory is to concentrate
on the most important, so-called "key" department or departments.
The Leading Bodies in the Factory
As the Party grows in one factory, the question arises : How will the work
be coordinated? What body gives leadership for the whole factory? In order
To make this problem clear, we will compare a factory in which we have many
Units, with a Party Section. In the Section, the various units, as already stated,
tome to a Convention and elect their leadership, the Section Committee, which
leads the work of the whole Section between Conventions. Because of the special
conditions in a factory (spies, stool pigeons, etc.), it is inadvisable to bring all
members together at one meeting. Therefore the best form of organization is
the delegate conference of the Units.
The Units in the various departments and shifts elect their representatives,
according to the size and importance of the Unit, to a conference, where these
delegates elect the leading body of the Party organization : the factory Unit
Bureau. This Bureau works in the same way as a Section Committee. It has
the right to make decisions for the whole body (Party organization), in the fac-
tory. These decisions are binding for each department and shift Unit and
for each individual member in the factory. The factory Unit Bureau is re-
sponsible for all its decisions and actions to the delegate conference, which is
the highest body in the factory.
SAFEGUARDING THE UNITS
In order to coordinate the work of the various department units, the Bureau
regularly meets with the department Unit Organizers, receiving reports about the
activity of the department Units, and guides them in their work. It is necessary
to emphasize again that in order to avoid the danger of spies, the factory Unit
Btireau should not bring all department Unit Organizers to one meeting. The
best method is to meet with the individual organizers separately.
There is need for continuous exchange of experiences between the various
department Units. Therefore, it is necessary to call delegates to conferences
as often as possible, and at least once a month.
The department and shift Units meet regularly every week and have their
independent life. They elect their own Bureau, work out plans and activity
in the department, discuss Party problems, etc., in the same manner as any other
independent Unit of the Party. There is no need to point out that the factory
Unit Bureau is constantly in touch with the Section Committee and receives
guidance and directives from this body.
WHAT ARE THE FRACTIONS IN THE FACTORY, AND WHAT AEB THEIR REI.ATIONS TO THE
FACTORY UNIT?
It mtist be emphasized again that the factory Unit, or, in big factories, the
conferences of the delegates of the Units, is the deciding Party organization in
the factory. It is responsible for all activity of all individual Party members
in the factory. Its decisions are final on every question and only the higher Party
Committees — the Section Committee, the District Committee, and the Central
Committee, have the right to overrule them. It is necessary to emphasize this
fact in order to clarify the relation between the Party organization in the factory
and the leading fraction of the union which has members in the factory.
To further clarify this problem, let us take an example. In one city there
are a number of steel factories. The steel union has members in all these fac-
tories. This union has a leading fraction on a city-wide scale. This leading
fraction has no right to make decisions for any given factory over the head of the
Party organization in this factory. In order to cordinate the work of the Units
in the various factories, the Section or District Committee assigns one member
of the leading fraction to each factory as a regular member of the factory Unit.
They discuss the problems of the industry generally with the Units and they guide
s
yiQ UN-AMERICAX PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
them in their work, but they have no right to hand down decisions for the Unit.
The decisions in this factory are made by the Unit itself.
FRACTION INSIDE FAGTOBY
Now let us see how the fractions inside the factory are functioning. If there
is only one union in the factory, we face the following problem :
Every member of the Partv is or should be a member of the union. In other
words 'the Party Unit is at the same time the Party fraction in the local union
of their factory. In this case there is no need for special fraction activities
by the Party Unit as a whole. But even in this case we will have fracrions.
How? In the factory there are various committees elected by the members of
the union (grievance committees, department committees, factory committees,
etc ) These committees are elected by the workers in the factory. If the mem-
bers of the Communist Party are active, are good fighters, and are recognized as
such by the workers, we will have Party members on every committee. For ex-
ample : The workers in the factory elect a factory or shop committee of lif reen.
Out of this number, five are Party members. These five Party members com-
pose the fraction of the committee, and they are responsible for all their activities
in the committee to the factory Unit or delegate conference.
In factories where there is more than one union (craft unions), the Party
members belonging to each craft union compose the fraction in that craft union.
These Party members, as the fraction, are responsible for all their activities to
the factory Unit or delegate conference.
Let us assume that in a factory there are other organizations, besides unions,
such as a sports club, etc. The factory Unit appoints comrades to join these
organizations and these comrades compose the fraction of the given organization
and work under the direction of the factory Unit.
WHAT IS THE POLITICAL TASK OF THE SHOP UNIT?
The answer to this question may be divided into two parts: First, participa-
tion in working out the policy of the Party, and second, the application of this
policy in the daily work (mass work) of the factory Unit.
The factory Units have not only the right, but it is their Communist duty to
participate in formulating the general policy of the Party. Hotv is this task
performed? The policy of the Party is decided at the Convention in the form
of adopted resolutions. These resolutions are prepared for discussion by tlie
Central Committee. The draft (proposed) re.solution is published in the Party
press or in pamphlet form at least two months before the date of the Convention.
The Unit membership organizes a thorough discussion on these draft resolutions.
At the end of these discussions the Unit votes on this resolution, either adopting
it as is, or making amendments as it thinks necessary.
The Unit always has the right to make proiKtsals to the Section, District, or
Central Committee as to the points on the order of business of the Convention as
well as to suggest amendments to the draft resolutions. These amendments and
proposals are presented to the Convention by the delegates. The delegates at
the Convention, after discussing the resolution and the amendments, vote on them.
The delegates who bring up amendments cannot be instructed by their organi-
zations to vote under all circumstances for these amendments. If a delegate,
at the Convention, after his amendment is discussed, becomes convinced that the
amendment is incorrect, he will vote as a good Communist against the proposals
which he introduced.
After the Convention, the delegates report to their Units. The Unit di.'scusses
the report and works out the details for applving the resolutions to the concrete
situations before them.
The Shop Unit should discuss and express its opinion on all important political
problems and tasks of the Party. In this discussion the members of the Nuclei
should report the reaction of the workers with whom thev are in contact (A. F.
ot L Socialists, non-party, etc. ) , to the given issue. This discussion will help also
the bection. District, and Central Committees to formulate correct .slogans, to
prepare proper actions, to react quickly and correctlv to every happening, to all
changes of the political life of the community, to work out a correct tactical line.
BRING PARTY CAMPAIGNS INTO THE FACTORY
The Unit.s should participate in all campaigns and actions of the Partv, that is.
bung them into the factory. In order to be able to carry on this very important
APPENDIX, PART 1 711
work, the Shop Units must develop their own initiative, and must be well ac-
quainted with the general line of the Party. Otherwise, they will not be able to
apply the line of the I'arty in their work in the factory.
It is especially important to understand how to carry on work during election
campaigns. The Shop Units can counteract all the demagogy of the capitalist
parties if concrete problems of the factory workers are used in exposing the
programs of capitalist parties. The Units then can easily show the workers that
only the Communists represent and fight for their interests.
The general task of the Party is to win over the majority of the working class
for its program. To achieve this aim, the Shop Units must become the recognized
leaders of the workers in the factories. In order to win the confidence of these
workers, the Shop Units must react quickly on all Jssnes. A Shop Unit must
utilize the attacks of the bosses on their working conditions for agitation and
organization, for the counter-offensive for higlier wages, better working condi-
tions, etc.
At the same time the Shop Unit must show the workers how, in their fight
for their daily bread, they come up against the close connections between
their bosses and the city, state and federal government, the political repre-
sentative of the boss class. The Units conduct struggles for the daily demands
of the workers in the shop, for social and unemployment insurance, against
taxation of small incomes, against sales taxes, for better housing, lower
rents, etc.
ANSWER THE WORKHIKS' QUESTIONS
In order to win the confidence of the workers, the Unit must be able to
give a correct answer to every question which bothers the workers. However,
this is possible only if the Unit systematically gathers as much material about
the given situation as possible. With the help of the Section Committee, the
Unit should equip itself with material about the profits of a company, e.g., the
dividends paid out to the coupon clippers, the income of the bosses, how they
live (house, apartment), how many servants and automobiles they have, and
their political connections with the city, state and federal government. If a
Unit is armed with such important material, it will be easier for it to bring
these facts to the attention of the workers, in connection with their grievances,
through shop paper, leaflet and Daily Worker.
The Shop Units must convince the workers of the necessity for organizing
unions, of the necessity for united struggle for better conditions, for freedom
of organization (union recognition), for equal rights for Negroes, against
police terror, against the factory spy system, against war and fascism, against
lynching of Negroes, for the freedom of class war prisoners.
The Shop Units should mobilize the workers by continuous agitation for
international solidarity actions (support of the struggles of colonial peoples;
against fascism in Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, etc. ; for the defense of the
Soviet Union) and should contrast the conditions of the workers in the Soviet
Union with those in the given factory and neighborhood.
The Units must follow very carefully every step that is taken by the capi-
talist class in the city and county councils, state legislatures and Congress, and
expose all their moves through leaflets, shop papers, and the Party press. This
should always be done by starting out with the concrete problems of the work-
ers in the given factory and neighborhood and bringing forward the slogans
of the Party suited to the situation.
By bringing forward continuously the political problems of the workers, the
Shop Units increase the general political understanding of the workers, increase
their class consciousness and bring them into working class political activity.
In this way the circle of sympathizers will constantly broaden, the basis for
recruiting new members into the Party will be established and thus increase
its influence.
WHAT ARE THE ORGANIZATIONAL TASKS OF THE SHOP UNIT?
The main organizational task of the Shop Unit is to establish strong con-
nections with all the workers in the factory. Thus the workers can be mo-
bilized for quick action when the need arises. In order to achieve this aim,
the factory Unit must throw all its energy into building the union in the
factory and in organizing united front actions for the various campaigns of
the Party (against war and fascism, election campaign. May Fir.st. etc.), and
on the concrete issues in the factory (grievances, speed-up, wages, freedom
710 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES |
them in their work, but they have no right to hand down decisions for the Unit
The decisions in this factory are made by the Unit itself.
FRACTION INSIDE FACTORY
Now, let us see how the fractions inside the factory are functioning. If there
is only one union in the factory, we face the following pr(U>lem :
Every member of the Party is or should be a member of the union. In other
words, the Party Unit is at the same time the Party fraction in the local union
of their factory. In this case there is no need for special fraction activities
by the Party Unit as a whole. But even in this case we will have fractions.
How? In the factory there are various committees elected by the members of
the union (grievance committees, department committees, factory committees,
etc.). These committees are elected by the workers in the factory. If the mem-
bers of the Communist Party are active, are good fighters, and are recognized as
such by the workers, we will have Party members on every committee. For ex-
ample : The workers in the factory elect a factory or shop committee of fifteen.
Out of this number, five are Party members. These five Party member.s com-
pose the fraction of the committee, and they are responsible for all their activities
in the committee to the factory Unit or delegate conference.
In factories where there is more than one union (craft unions), the Party
members belonging to each craft union compose the fraction in that craft union.
These Party members, as the fraction, are responsible for all their activities to
the factory Unit or delegate conference.
Let us assume that in a factory there are other organizations, besides unions,
such as a sports club, etc. The factory Unit appoints comrades to join these
organizations and these comrades compose the fraction of the given organization
and work under the direction of the factory Unit.
WHAT IS THE I'OUTICAT. TASK OF THE SHOP UNIT?
The answer to this question may be divided into two parts : First, participa-
tion in working out the policy of the Party, and .second, the application of this
policy in the daily work (mass work) of the factory Unit.
The factory Units have not only the right, but it is their Communist duty to
participate in formulating the general policy of the Party. How is thf~s task
performed? The policy of the Party is decided at the Convention in the form
of adopted resolutions. These resolutions are prepared for discussion by the
Central Committee. The draft (proposed) resolution is published in the Party
press or in pamphlet form at least two months l)efore the date of the Convention.
The Unit membership organizes a thorough discussion on these draft resolutions.
At the end of these di.scussions the Unit votes on this resolution, either adopting
it as is, or making amendments as it thinks necessary.
The Unit always has the right to make proixi.snls to the Section. District, or
Central Committee as to the points on the order of business of the Convention as
well as to .suggest amendments to the draft resolutions. These amendments and
propo.sals are presented to the Convention l)y the delegates. The delegates at
the Convention, after discussing the resolution and the amendments, vote on them.
The delegates who bring up amendments cannot be instrueted by their organi-
zations to vote under all circumstances for the.se amendments. If a delegate,
at the Convention, after his amendment is discussed, becomes convinced that the
amendment is incorrect, he will vote as a good Communist against the proposals
which he introduced.
After the Convention, the deleg.ites report to their Units. The Um't di.scnsses
the report and works out the details for applying the resolutions to the concrete
situations before them.
The Shop Unit should discu.ss and express its opinion on all important political
problems and tasks of the Party. In this discu.s.sion the members of the Nuclei
should report the reaction of the workers with whom they are in contact (A. F.
of L., Socialists, non-party, etc.), to the given issue. This discussion will help also
the Section, District, and Central Committees to formulate correct slogans, to
prepare proper actions, to react quickly and correctly to every happening, to all
changes of the political life of the community, to work out a correct tactical line.
BRING PARTY CAMPAIGNS INTO THE FACTORY
The Units should participate in all campaigns and actions of the Party, that is,
bring them into the factory. In order to be able to carry on this very important
APPENDIX, PART 1 7^1
work, the Shop Units must develop their own initiative, and must be well ac-
quainted with the general line of the Party. Otherwise, they will not be able to
apply the line of the Party in their work in the factory.
It is especially important to understand how to carry on work during election
campaigns. The Shop Units can counteract all the demagogy of the capitalist
parties if concrete problems of the factory workers are used in exposing the
programs of capitalist parties. The Units then can easily show the workers that
only the Connnunists represent and fight for their interests.
The general task of the Party is to win over the majority of the working claess
for its program. To achieve this aim, the Shop Units must become the recognized
leaders of the workers in the factories. In order to win the confidence of these
workers, the Shop Units must react quickly on all issues. A Shop Unit must
utilize the attacks of the bosses on their working conditions for agitation and
organization, for the counter-offensive for higher wages, better working condi-
tions, etc.
At the same time the Shop Unit must show the workers how, in their fight
for their daily bread, they come up against the close connections between
their bosses and the city, state and federal government, the political repre-
sentative of the boss class. The Units conduct struggles for the daily demands
of the workers in the shop, for social and unemployment instirance, against
taxation of small incomes, against sales taxes, for better housing, lower
rents, etc.
ANSWER THE WORKEHtS' QUESTIONS
In order to win the confidence of the workers, the Unit must be able to
give a correct answer to every question which bothers the workers. However,
this is possible only if the Unit systematically gathers as much material about
the given situation as possible. With the help of the Section Committee, the
Unit should equip itself with material about the profits of a company, e.g., the
dividends paid out to the coupon clippers, the income of the bosses, how they
live (house, apartment), how many servants and automobiles they have, and
their political connections with the city, state and federal government. If a
Unit is armed with such important material, it will be easier for it to bring
these facts to the attention of the workers, in connection with their grievances,
through shop paper, leaflet and Daily Worker.
The Shop Units must convince the workers of the necessity for organizing
unions, of the necessity for united struggle for better conditions, for freedom
of organization (union recognition), for equal rights for Negroes, against
police terror, against the factory spy system, against war and fascism, against
lynching of Negroes, for the freedom of class war prisoners.
The Shop Units should mobilize the workers by continuous agitation for
international solidarity actions (support of the struggles of colonial peoples;
against fascism in Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, etc. ; for the defense of the
Soviet Union) and should contrast the conditions of the workers in the Soviet
Union with those in the given factory and neighborhood.
The Units must follow very carefully every step that is taken by the capi-
talist class in the city and county councils, state legislatures and Congress, and
expose all their moves through leaflets, shop papers, and the Party press. This
should always be done by starting out with the concrete problems of the work-
ers in the given factory and neighborhood and bringing forward the slogans
of the Party suited to the situation.
By bringing forward continuously the political problems of the workers, the
Shop Units increase the general political understanding of the workers, increase
their class consciousness and bring them into working class political activity.
In this way the circle of sympathizers will constantly broaden, the basis for
recruiting new members into the Party will be established and thus increase
its influence.
WHAT ARE THE ORGANIZATIONAL TASKS OF THE SHOP UNIT?
The main organizational task of the Shop Unit is to establish strong con-
nections with all the workers in the factory. Thus the workers can be mo-
bilized for quick action wlien the need arises. In order to achieve this aim,
the factory Unit must throw all its energy into building the union in the
factory and in organizing united front actions for the various campaigns of
the Party (against war and fascism, election campaign. May First, etc.). and
on the concrete issues in the factory (grievances, speed-up, wages, freedom
712 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of organization). In this organizational activity of the factory Unit, we must
pay special attention to the problems of the Negro workers in the factory,
because of the special form of exploitation they are subjected to and because
they are discriminated against on the job. A special approach and methods
should also be worked out to organize the women and the young workers in
the factory. Every Shop Unit has the task of building as well as strengthening
the Y. C. L. Unit in the factory.
The other organizational tasks of the factory Unit are the following: (1) To
control and check whether the general decisions of the membership meeting and
the concrete a.ssignmcnts are carried out by every member of the Unit. (2) To
control the member.ship dues. (3) To get finances for the work of the Unit.
(4) To see whether the members of the Unit are members of the union ; to see
whether Party members in the union and other mass organizations work regu-
larly in the Party fractions. (5) Tc keep in constant touch with all sympa-
thizers. (6) to distribute literature and to sell the Daily WorA-er every day.
(7) To establish and corefully guard the printing apparatus which publishes
papers and leaflets. (8) To find specific methods for detecting and exposing
stool pigeons. (9) And last but not least, constantly to recruit new members
into the Party.
SHOP PAPERS
The .s'7io/) paper, the organ of th» Communist Party Unit in a given factory,
mine, dock, ship, office, etc., f.s the most effective instninient in the hand of the
Unit for af/itation and ort/ani.zation.
In every shop where we have a Unit, the shop paix*r should be issued regu-
larly. In shops where thei'e is no Unit as yet. but there are one or two Party
members, the issuance of a shop paper will be a great help in building the
Party Unit.
Who Is Responsible for the Shop Paper?
The Shop Unit is responsible for the paper. That does not mean that the
Street Unit which helps the Shop Unit from the outside has no responsibility.
On the contrary, the ccmirades should consider it their duty to help the Shop
Unit not only in distributing, but also in producing the paper. Especially at
the beginning, the printing, financial help and distribution of the papi'r will
be on the shoulders of the Section Committee or concentration Unit. It should
be understood, however, that the policy of the paper, the text of the articles,
etc., is decided upon by the Shop Unit and not by the concentration Unit. From
the very beginning tlie Shop Unit mombers should be trained by the Section
Committee to edit and produce the paix'r themselves. Every Shop Unit should
be equipped with a machine for printing its paper. The Section Committee
should continuously aid the Shop Unit in this and all other needs.
Who Edits the Shop Paper?
The shop paper is edited by a committee elected by the Shop Unit. But
we must keep one very important matter in mind. The shop paper as a Party
organ is the paper of all the workers in the given shop, mine, etc. Therefore,
it is essential to interest the best non-party workers in the actual editing of
the paper. The larger the number of workers who take part in editing the
shop paper, the more effective weapon will it be, and the closer will these non-
party workers be drawn to the Party. Scores of workers should be induced
to write articles for the pap'r. We must make every worker feel that the
shop paper is his. The higher committees must give the utmost help in
educating members for editing shop papers.
Who Finances the Shop Paper?
The Shop Unit finances the paper by getting the greatest possible number
of woi'kers in the factory to buy and otherwise support the paper. If the
paper is good, raises the basic Issues confronting workers, explains them well,
and gives correct advice to the workers as to what to do about them, the
workers will support it. A paper which has no financial support inside the
factory will find it hard to keep g<'ing. We must bear in mind that under
certain conditions (as in Germany today) it will be quite difficult to get
money for the shop paper from the outside. It will have to be supported by
the workers themselves inside of the factory. This financial basis must be
APPENDIX, PART 1 7]^ 3
prepared now — today— by the Shop Unit (donations, subs, sale of paper, etc.)
The workers in Germany provide splendid examples of financing shop papers.
There, under the most difficult conditions of terror, workers in the shop find
ways and means of supporting their paper. For example, they leave their
contribution for the paper either on the bench of the comrade who they think
is a Communist, or in many cases put this contribution in the pocket' of the
comrade or leave it on their own bench, where the comrade can pick it up.
Who Distributes the Paper?
The most effective distribution of a shop paper is from the inside. Each
Shop Unit, each individual memb'^r, should use the experiences of other Units
and of other Communist Parties in methods of distribution. We realize how
difficult it is in Hitler Germany to distribute shop papers and leaflets. In
spite of this the Shop Units do distribute them. Membei's of the Shop Units
will find thousands of ways of bringing the shop paper into the factory if
we properly explain the importance of doing so. The shop paper could and
should be distributed from outside also (Street Unit), but it must be empha-
sized that the workers will react more favorably to the paper if they get it
from the inside, if they know that the paper is given to them by one who
may be working in their department. The workers will have great respect for
a Party which is skilled enough tfi spread the paper inside, in spite of the
strenuous effort of the boss to keep it out. Besides this, we know that there
will be a time when it will be more difficult to distribute Party material at
the shop gate than inside the factory. We have to train ourselves, train our
forces, inside the factories, todaij, for this work. The shop paper is and will
be the most important link between the masses and the Party.
There is no need to emphasize that the printing, editing, financing and
distribution of the shop paper must be organized in such a way that the
company, through its stool pigeons, will not know what workers are involved.
WHAT IS THE STREET UNIT?
The Street Unit is the Party organization in the neighborhood.
The Street Unit is composed of those Party members who live in a certain
territory, and cannot belong to a Shop Unit. (Housewives, professionals, small
store-keepers, unemployed workers who are out of the shop for a long period
and, for the time being, employed workers who have not as yet organized
Shop Units.)
WHAT IS THE TOWN UNIT?
The Town Unit is the Party organization in a small town.
The Town Unit is composed of all those Party members in a given town who
cannot belong to a Shop Unit and where there are not enough members to form
Street Units.
WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL TASKS OF THE STREEJT AND TOWN UNITS?
The basic task of the Street Unit is to win over the majority of the working
class in the neighborhood to the fight for the active support of the revolutionary
struggles, and to make them conscious followers of the Communist Party.
In order to achieve this basic task the Street Unit must first of all concentrate
on organizing and leading the struggle for unemployment relief and social in-
surance. In the daily work of the Street or Town Unit, we must always keep
in mind that the Unit, as the Party in the territonj, must win the confidence of
the masses, must become the leader of the workers of the given street, district
or town.
A Party Street Unit which is not involved in mass work, which does not
organize and lead the struggles In the neighborhood, cannot become the leader
of the proletarian masses. Patient, continuous, systematic work of the Unit
among the workers in the neighborhood will bring results. The Unit must
react to every issue which affects the workers. The problems of unemploy-
ment (relief, insurance) ; the high cost of living (high rent, high food prices,
high electricity and gas rates, etc.) ; sanitary conditions (on the street, in the
homes, in schools); free lunch, clothing for the children; the various taxes
on necessities (sales tax, tax on small incomes, etc.) ; civil rights (free speech,
714
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
APPENDIX, PART 1 715
assembly, press) ; police brutality; injunctions, and many other problems which
harass the workers are the problems which the Street and Town Units must
tackle.
The Unit which knows these problems, which quickly reacts to all these issues
and brings forward the proper slogans for action, will succeed in gathering
around itself the working masses in the neighborhood. The unemployed organ-
izations will grow, our fractions in tlie different workers' organizations will be
strengthened, and the Unit will become the established and trusted leader of the
workers in the street or town.
Must Be Known as Fighters
In order to gain these results, the Unit as a whole and every individual
member of the Unit should be known by the workers in the street or town
as fearless fighters in the interests of the working class. In the daily work
of the Unit we should systematically gather all relevant information about the
workers and other sections of the population in the street or town. We should
know who is who ; we should know not only those workers who voluntarily
gather around the activities of the Party organization, but those who are in-
clined to be sympathetic as well as thase ix)isoned by the capitalist propaganda
of the enemies of the working class and by the counter-revolutionary Trotsky
renegades. We should know those workers who are in the Socialist Party and
other organizations led and influenced by reformist and reactionary leaders.
A Street or Town Unit acquainted with the individuals in its territory could
formulate the correct, most compelling slogans and actions for the mobiliza-
tion of the masses. Such a Unit would not have any great diflaculties in taking
its part in an election campaign, or any other campaign of the Party. In the
election campaign, the Unit should be able to enlist all the sympathetic elements
in the territory. A Unit should know in advance who will vote Communist, and
who is inclined to vote for the bourgeois parties, and should adjust its activities
accordingly^ — not only in the mass campaigns, but also in personal contacts.
If the workers know, through the Unit's activity, how bravely and uncompro-
misingly the Party fights for the interest of the workers, and if at the same
time the Unit can convince the workers of the anti-working class role of the
other parties — such a Unit can gain tremendous influence and a large vote during
election campaigns. Such a Unit carrying on daily mass work (street meetings,
house-to-house canvassing, distribution of leaflets, mass meetings, distribution
of the Dmly Worker, publication of a neighborhood paper, etc.), during the
j election campaign, will show results, not only in the number of votes cast
I for the Party, but in gaining better conditions for the workers and new recruits
for the Party, as well as new readers for the Daily Worker.
Aids Shop Unit
Another important task of the Street and Town Unit is to help the Shop
Units in its territory or near to it, in their daily work. The well-organized
assistance of a Street or Town Unit to a Shop Unit can greatly increase the
possibilities of building organization inside the factories. If there are not
many forces in the Street Unit this assistance can be limited to one or two
things: for example, systematic sale of the Daily Worker in front of the factory;
or systematic holding of shop-gate meetings ; distribution of leaflets or shop
paiiers from the outside. The Street Unit can also help the Shop Unit do open
I work around the factory, in the street-car and bus stations, etc., etc.
I The Street Unit must not adopt a patronizing attitude toward the Shop Unit.
It cannot make any decisions for the Factory Unit. It must help from the out-
; side in a manner determined by the Shop Unit.
I Finally, a Street Unit or Town Unit should concentrate on a large factory
in its territory. The concentration point, if there is more than one factory in
' the territory, should be decided upon in consultation with the Section Com-
mittee. The best method of organizing the work around the concentration
factory is to set up a special concentration group from among the members
of the Unit. This group should be composed of members who volunteer to carry
I out this very important task and at the .same time have the necessary qualiflca-
j tions for the work.
It should be under.stood that after the group is set up on a voluntary basis,
• the carrying out of the work is compnUory. The Unit, as a whole, regularly
^ discusses and controls the activities of this concentration group. This work
716
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
needs patient, systematic daily attention by tlie whole Unit and also by the
higher committees of the Party. The Street Unit supports activity and takes
part in the strike struggles of the factory workers, and also mobilizes the
neighborhood for support, furnishing reserves for the picket lines, conducting
demonstrations, collecting strike relief, etc.
Must Aid Members Working in Factories
We have listed the general tasks of the Unit in the street or town. All these
tasks cannot always be taken care of by every Unit. Simie of the Units will
be able to tackle and carry out all of these tasks, and some of them only a part
of them. We wish to empliasize again the need for systematic help and guidance
for those members of the T'nits who are working in factories but who belong
to the Street Units because there is no Shop Unit in their place of employment.
These members should get continuous political organizational and financial help
in building the Unit in their factory. With proper work, the Street or Town
Units will be able to transfer all tho.se members who are working in a shop,
mine, office, etc., to their respective Shop Unit.
The fact that the member of a Street Unit works in a factory far from the
Unit territory does not exclude the possibility of help from the Unit. This
member should be encouraged to raise the problems of the factory at the Unit
Bureau or Unit membership meeting, where, after a thorough discussion, steps
should be taken to build the Party in the factory. It would be of lielp to
issue a leaflet in the shop which could be distributed by one or two unemployed
members in front of his factory.
Is it difficult for a Party member to get two or three more workers in his
factory to join the Party in a period of two or three weeks if he is constantly
helped and guided? We do not think so.
THE ORGANIZATIONAL TASKS OF THE STREET AND TOWN tTNITS
TJie organizatinnnl tasks of the Street and Town Units are in the main the
same as those of the Factory Units. However, these organizations must con-
sider the special problem of building unemployment organizations, of building
fractions in all workers' organizations in their territory, of building united
fronts with these organizations on concrete issues.
The Street Unit in a Negro neighborhood, especially if the Unit is composed
of a large majority of Negro Party comrades, must remember that a vital ta.sk
of the Party is to establish strong bonds with the broadest masses. In Negro
neighborhoods this can be done best by penetrating the Negro organizations :
churches, fraternal organizations, societies, etc. In order to carry out this
task it is es.sential that every member of a Street T'nit in the Negro territory
be a member of a Negro organization. The best solution to this problem is
for the majority of a Unit to join one such organization — the most important
and biggest Negro organization in the territory. The Party members in these
organizations will work as a fraction under the guidance of the Street Unit.
It is understood, however, that Street Units will not give up the work in the
neighborhood generally while the main attention is directed towards the work
in the organizations where the Party members belong.
WHAT IS A FARM UNIT?
The Farm Unit is the basic Party organization in the rural sections of the
country. We have two kinds of Farm Units: (1) Farm Units in big farms
composed of agricultural workers. These Units have the same standing in
the Party as the factory units; (2) Farm Units composed of farm hands,
tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and small farmers in a given territory.
There is no need here for dwelling on the necessity of Communist work
among the toiling rural population. The question of allies of the proletarian
revolution, of winning over the poor farmers and broad sections of the middle
farmers to the side of the proletarian revolution, and of neutralizing other
sections of the middle farmers as an important factor in a successful revolution,
can be answered in our favor only if we succeed in building a strong Party
organization on the big "industrial"' farms, among the agricultural workers,
and also among the poor, small farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, etc.
The main task of the Party in its work in the countrvside consists first of
all in the organization of the agricultural workers in 'the Partv and trade
APPENDIX, PART 1 717
unions, in organizing and leading strikes of these terribly exploited workers
who play an important role in the development of the revolutionary agrarian
movement.
The general task of the Farm Unit is about the same as that of other Units of
the Party. The issues they deal with, however, are entirely different. Here
the issues are mortgages, interest rates, high taxes, roads, schools, low prices of
farm products, high railroad rates, relief, etc., problems which the Farm Unit
must tackle. The Communist Party in the countryside is in the forefront in
fighting for the interests of the exploited and puverty-striclien rural population,
against the big landlords, commission houses, mortgage companies, farm imple-
ment trusts, grain trusts, railroad companies, milk trusts, banks, etc. In this
fight, the masses of the countryside will inevitably come into conflict with the
suppressive machinery of the bourgeoisie (city, state, federal government,
National Guard, courts, etc.).
The Communist Party has to show to these vast masses the role of this whole
suppressive set-up, the necessity of fighting against it, and the only road which
leads out of the misery created for them by capitalism — the road to Soviet Power.
In these fights, the poor rural population will learn through their own experiences
and by the work of the Communist Party that their place is on the side of the
proletariat.
We have to work untiringly in the existirig farm organizations in order to
isolate the rich farmers, to win the poor farmers, and sections of the middle
farmers to the side of the workers, and at least to neutralize other sections of
the middle farmers.
HOW IS A UNIT MERITING PEEPARED?
The Unit Bureau on the basis of the general directives of the Party (Central,
District or Section Committees), prepares the agenda and proposals for the
Unit meeting, and the activity for the coming week. In other words, it adapts
the general campaign of the Party to the given situation in the shop or territory.
The Unit Bureau presents these well-prepared proposals to the Unit membership
meeting, with a thorough explanation by one member of the Unit Bureau.
Are the plans or policies presented by the Unit Bureaus binding on the mem-
bership? No. The member.ship discusses the report of the Unit Bureau and
decides the policy or activity by a majority vote, accepting, amending, or rejecting
the proposals of the Unit Bureau.
HOW SHOULD A UNIT AGENDA (ORDEK OF BUSINESS) BE DRAWN UP?
The first point should always be a well-prepared discussion on a certain actual
political problem. For example : The city administration wants to put through a
sales tax. The reporter assigned by the Unit membership or Unit Bureau should be
given sufficient time to prepare this report — the meaning of the sales tax, how it
will affect the workers in general, and in the shop or territory where the Unit
is working in particular. Then he gives concrete proposals as to how to mobilize
the workers to fight against the sales-tax proposal. In order to have a more
effective discussion in the Unit, it is necessary not only to assign one comrade to
prepare the report, but also to supply material for all members of the Unit on the
subject at least one week in advance. A well-organized, well-prepared discussion
should not last longer than from one to one and a half hours.
The next point on the agenda should be the cheek-up of the assignments of the
individual members. The Unit membership as a whole should always know not
only whether a comrade carries out his assignment, but also should discuss the
experiences of the individual comrades in carrying out assignments.
The next point should be the plan of activity for the next week, with a proper
evaluation of the work of the past week. This point also takes care of the
assignments of tasks to the individual comrades. In discussing this point the
problem of recruiting must be raised. How many members were recruited, and
by whom as a result of last week's activities, and how many and through what
activities do we intend to recruit next week?
The next point could be the problems of the unions or mass organizations
in which the Unit is working.
The next point should be the problem of the Daily Worker (distribution,
correspondence, routes, building circulation, etc.).
718 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Literature
Literature distribution is a basic part of every activity of the Unit. This
question should therefore be talien up in connection with every item on the
agenda. For example if the Unit prepares a political discussion for the next
uliit meeting, the question of literature with which our comrades can properly
prepare themselves must be brought up then and there. If the question is one
of organizing a campaign of the party, work in the shops, trade unions, mass
organizations, house-to-house canvassing, or a street or mass meeting, the
distribution of suitable literature must receive its rightful place in the dis-
cussion of the problem and in the assignments given to the comrades. The
check-up of the assignments of the individual members must also include a
check-up on the method of selling the literature, how much was sold, how it
was received by the workers, what questions they raised about our Party
policy, and what further literature is needed in order to clarify these workers
on the questions raised. In order to save time in the Unit meeting, the actual
obtaining of the literature by the unit members for use in their assignments
may be placed on the agenda just before the close of the meeting, but the
mobilization and assignments on this work must be made in connection with
every question on the agenda.
Dues Payments
The dues payment should take place before the meeting opens, as the comrade.s
come in one by one to the meeting. A special period ma.v be allowed during
the meeting for dues payment if it is necessary. The Financial Secretary should
report to every Unit Bureau meeting about the dues payment and the Unit
Bureau should prepare a report on this problem at least once a month for
the Unit membership meetings.
If the points on the agenda are well prepared, and the proposals are concrete,
a Unit meeting could easily be finished in no more than two and a half hours.
It is necessary to emphasize the importance of starting the meeting on time,
and not to wait for one or two comrades who may come a little later.
HOW OFTEOT SHOULD THE UNIT MERT?
Only in exceptional cases, when it is impossible to bring together the members
every week, should we make exceptions from the rule of one meeting per week
for each Unit.
Every member of the Unit knows a week in advance where the next meeting
will be held. Members who are not present at the meeting miist be notified
through the group system.
WHAT IS THE fiROxn» SYSTEM?
This is the division of the membership of the Unit into small groups on the
basis of the residence of the members. For example : A Street Unit has a terri-
tory of a number of blocks or a small town. The Unit has 25 or 30 members
living all over the small town or scattered over a number of blocks. The four or
five comrades living nearest to each other are organized into one group, the next
five or six comrades near to each other into another group. Thus we divide the
unit into six to eight groups.
The best developed comrade in the group is the group captain or leader.
The group captain is not elected. He is appointed by the Unit Bureau.
What Is the Task of the Group Captain?
To keep his group together. To see to it that every member in his group attends
Unit meetings. If one fails to appear he must find out the reason. He must
collect dues from and bring assignments to those who cannot come to the Unit
meeting.
Should the Unit Bureau Consist of the Group Captains?
^°:^ "^^^^ ,F"^* Bureau consists of the best developed comrades in the Unit,
even it they live in the same block or neighborhood and belong to the same group,
ihe group leaders must be selected from among the members of the group. In case
^ ^f^L rr^^^^ consisting of three members, each of whom lives in a different
part ot the Unit territory, and belong to different groups, they may each be a
leader of their group. » i . . j
APPENDIX, PART 1 719
Have Groups Any Iiulependent Function in the Unit?
No. They are organized for the purpose of keeping the membership together
and making it easier quickly to mobilize the Party — and the mass organizations
as well, through the Party members in them.
WHY ARE MEMBEES OVERBUKDENED WITH WORK AND HOW CAN WE CHANGE
THE SITUATION?
Generally in our Party Units the members work to such an extent that they
have very little time for reading and recreation. The main reason for this over-
burdening of our members is that the details of every campaign, action, activity,
are carried out by the Party members and Partj^ members only. At the same
time we have exceptional cases in some Units where certain members of the
Party, because of their lack of understanding of the political problems, are not
as active as the others, and the Unit is forced to throw more and more work on
the other members of the Unit. To change this situation which in many cases
results in losing members from the Party, we have to find ways and means of
distributing the work equally, not only among Party members, but also among
sympathizers around the Party Units in the shop or street.
If every Party member were assigned to persuade and enlist five or six workers
in the sliop or neighborhood to help him carry out his tasks, many burning organ-
izational problems would be on the way to solution. This would bring us more
results, more prospective Party members from among these active workers and
would develop every Party member as an organizer for certain activities of the
worker.
Why can't we, in canvassing houses for signatures in the election campaign
or for selling literature or soliciting subs for the Daily Worker, or collecting
money for the Daily Worlxcr, or in some other campaign, draw in the sympathetic
workers? Why shouldn't we give them responsibility if they are willing to take
it? And they are. Why shouldn't we trust them with literature. Daily Worker
money? Why shouldn't the Shop Units enlist sympathetic workers to help edit,
print, finance and distribute the shop paper? The activities of the Party would
be increased manifold. The burden now carried by the Party members would be
distributed among more workers, leaving more time for study, reading, making
friends, and carrying on personal agitation.
How Can the Street Units Utilize Members Active in Mass Organizations?
By exchanging the experiences of these comrades through regular discus-
sions of their activities in the mass organizations at the Unit meeting. Tliat
means that members who belong to mass organizations must systematically
report to the Unit Bureau or to the Unit meeting about their work: How
they bring the various political campaigns of the Party into their mass or-
ganizations ; about their experiences in recruiting members for the Party ;
in getting subs for the Daily Worker; in strengthening the influence of the
Party by organizing and leading struggles of the members of the unions,
Unemployment Councils, I. L. D., or other mass organizations.
If the Unit regularly hears the reports of these active members, the mem-
bership will learn from the experiences of these members: they will be helped
to solve their own problems, while at the same time continuously checking
on the activities of the members.
How Should We Involve These Members in the Work of the Unit in the
Territory?
We must realize and recognize the fact that the work of the comrades in
the mass organizations is very important. Therefore the Unit should not
demand that they take Unit assignments in the same proportion as those
members who are not active in the mass organizations. But we should expect
all of these comrades to act as Communists in the territory where they live;
make friends in their free time among their neighbors; surround themselves
with sympathizers and in this way help the Unit get connections with more
workers in the territory. An active member of a union or other mass or-
ganization cannot excuse his negligence or failure to act as a Communist in
the house or territory where he lives.
720 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
WHAT ABE THE TASKS OF THE UNIT BUREAU?
To prepare proposals for activities, policy, etc., for the Unit meetings ; to
organize tlie membership to carry out the decisions of the Unit meeting; to
control the carrying out of the decisions; to show the members of the Unit
in the daily work how to carry out decisions, by participating, organizing
and leading the workers in the daily struggles, in the campaigns, etc. ; to see
that the Unit members join and are active in unions and other mass organiza-
tions, and in their fractions; to see if the members are in good standing;
to prepare all necessary information about the new applicants (recruits) for
the Unit meeting; to build up systematically a financial income other than
that from dues; to watch carefully the development of each member and
train and promote promising ones — supplying them with proper literature,
sending them to Party schools, proposing them for work in the commissions
of the higher Party committees, etc.
HOW TO ORGANIZE THE MEMBERSHIP FOR CAKIiYING OUT DECISIONS
First of all every important decision must come only after a thorough
discussion in the Unit. If the Unit members understand why certain steps
must be taken by the Party, what the facts in a given situation are which
demand the outlined policy, what the perspectives of the Party are regarding
this action (what we intend to achieve) then the organization and mobilization
of the members for the carrying out of the decision will be much easier.
But in assigning members to certain work, the Unit Bureau nuist know every-
thing about the members ; consideration must be given, among other things, to
what vmion or mass organization this or that member belongs, what assignments
or posts he has there, his (or her) personal life (housewife, children, etc.),
ability, desire for certain tasks, how long in the Party, etc.
if we know the members, and the members know the problems and the tasks
of the Unit, then the Unit Bureau will not have much trouble in organizing the
work. This can be done in the following way : The Unit Bureau, in preparing
the proposals for activities, also prepares proposals for the assignment of the
individual members. The Bureau brings these proposals to the meeting, where
the decision is made. The member, before a decision is made, has the right to
express his opinion about his ability, or state reasons why he couldn't or shouldn't
be assigned to the given work. But after the Unit meeting decides on the assign-
ment, he must carry it out. In better functioning Units, where the Unit Bureau
is thoroughly acquainted with the members, there is no necessity for discussion
on the individual assignment. The Bureau makes the assignment and if the
individual member asks to be excused for one reason or another and the Bureau
does not agree to release him, only then is the question taken up at the meeting.
We should always have in mind that the most disillusioning effect on the new
member is created by constant squabbling about assignments. Short, decisive
reports on the division of work which take into account the situation and ability
of each individual member will change the situation.
HOW TO ENSURE THE CAKRTING OUT OF DEXJISIONS
The decisions and assignments are to be registered at the Unit meeting. At
every meeting of the Unit Bureau all the decisions and assignments should be
examined, and those not carried out should be noted. The facts should be
reported to the Unit meeting. In this report the Unit Bureau sharply states
the facts about the activities of the individuals in question, opening discussion on
those members who shirk work. The open criticism will help the members take
assignments more seriously. The members must learn from these discussions
one important organizational principle of our Party, namely, that each individual
member has the responsibility to build the mass movement of the toiling masses ;
to build the Communist Party, the vanguard of the proletariat.
THE "daily worker" — THE MAIN INSTRUMENl OF THE UNITS FOB REACHING THE
MASSES
One of the main and most important instruments of agitation and propaganda
in the hands of the Party Units is the Daily Worker, the central organ of our
Party. Those comrades who can influence the masses, who can win over the
workers in one factory or a certain territory, have no chance of speaking per-
APPENDIX, PART 1 721
sonally and daily to the workers in thousands of factories, thousands of cities,
thousands of streets. And even if these comrades do talk to the workers in a
certain factory occasionally, they can deal with only one or two of the most
burning questions. But the Daily Worker, the collective agitator and organizer
of our Party and of the masses, speaks to its readers every day.
The best leaders of our Party speak to the workers through articles in the
Dally Wo?-ker. The Central Committee speaks to the workers through editorials.
Comrades in the unions, worker correspondents from the factories and towns, tell
the stories of their fight against capitalism. If we hand the Daily Worker to a
worker, wej get him in daily touch with the leadership of our Party, with the
Central Committee, with the best, most experienced Communists. Is there any
better instrument than the Daily Worker for reaching and winning the masses?
No, there is not. Therefore, selling the Daily Worker in the neighborhood, and
at the factory gates, getting subscribers and worker correspondents for it, is one
of the most important duties of the Party organization.
WHAT IS THE METHOD OF DISTEIBUTING THE DAILY WORKEE ?
The workers in the big factories can be reached by selling the Daily Worker
to them at the gate or inside the factory.
In the neighborhood (Htreet or Town Unit) the most effective method of
getting new subscribers and buyers for the Daily Worker is through canvassing
the homes of the workers. In order to make the reader interested in the Daily
Worker at the beginning, we should get stories (worker correspondence) from
the factories, neighborhood, town or city where the workers live, into the Daily.
The territory to be covered should be limited to a couple of blocks. The worker
and his family should be visited and told tliat sample copies of the Daily Worker
will be left with them for a limited time ; that they should read it, and if they
like it. they should subscribe. The Daily Worker and the visit and talk of the
canvassing comi'ades will make a good impression even if the worker does not
subscribe. There should be no Street Unit, Town Unit, or Shop Unit of the
Party without a good number of Daily Worker readers in the shop or territory.
WHAT IS THE NEIGHBORHOOD PAPER?
The neighborhood paper is the official organ of the Street or Town Unit,
edited, printed (mimeographed) distributed (sold) in the Unit territory under
the leadership of the Unit by the Party members and by sympathizers. The
neighborhood paper should have the same role in the smaller territory that the
Daily Worker has nationally. It is the agitator and organizer of the Party,
dealing with the concrete problems of the population in the Unit territory,
agitating and propagandizing the workers for our program, and organizing them.
Simple language, neat appearance and pictures are necessary to make the
neighborhood paper popular.
We should strive to issue the paper as often as possible, and build around
it a large circle of active supporters (correspondents, distributors, financial
supporters, etc.). We should consider the development of neighborhood pai>ers
as of the greatest importance. If, for the last few years, we had been issuing
a paper in the territory of each Street and Town Unit, we would have today
thousands and thousands of little Party papers all over the country, a larger
Party, and a wider circle of supporters. If each neighborhood pai>er would
be read by only 200 or 300 people we would have close to a million workers
closely connected with the Party.
We have to bear in mind that under more suppressive conditions, when the
printing and sliipping of the Daily Worker will be made much more difficult
by the class enemy, we must have these hundreds of thousands of Party papers
systematically placed in the hands of the workers.
OUR AGITATIONAL AND PROPAGANDA LITERATURE — THEORY TO THE MASSES
In order to educate our party membership and the masses with whom we
come in contact in our work, to combat the lies of the bourgeois press, books,
radio, movies, etc., to expose and defeat the theories of the counter-revolu-
tionary Trotskyites, the Lovestoneite renegades, and all the social-fascist and
fascist demagogues and other agents of the bourgeoisie, our Party membership
should study and spread as widely as possible among the masses the teachings
of the great leaders of the revolutionary movement, as well as our current
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 47
^22 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
theoretical publieatious, and our agitational pamphlets ou the everyday issues
aud problems which confront the masses.
The Party has made and is making available the most important works of
Marx Eugels, Lenin and Stalin in low-priced editions. There can be no sound
revolutionary movement built without the distribution of this literature. This
is why the importance of literature distribution is stressed so much by the
Party
The Communist, the theoretical organ of the Central Committee, and The Com-
munist International, organ of the Executive Committee of the Communist Inter-
national, should be read by all the Party members, and receive a broad sale
among the masses. There should be no Party member who does not read the
Party Organizer, the monthly organ of the Central Committee which takes up
all the current organizational problems of the Party giving concrete experiences
aud directives to aid our Party members in their every-day work.
Besides the theoretical books, pamphlets and magazines, the Central Committee,
District Committees, and in some places, the Section Committees issue pamphlets
on vital, every-day problems facing the broad masses. These are called our
agitational pamphlets because they deal with specific questions affecting the
broadest masses. Effective mass work, bringing the highe.st degree of political
and organizational results, cannot be conducted without the distribution of
this literature. Our Party literature will help to clarify the minds of the
workers on the problems which face them, and will help bring them nearer to our
Party. Without the broadest distribution of our Party literature the influence
which our Party gains in its campaigns may soon give way in the minds of the
workers to the influences of the bourgeois press, radio, movies, etc. Through
distribution of our Party literature we can consolidate our influence and recruit
thousands of new members for our Party.
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE UNIT ORGANIZER?
The Unit Organizer should be the most able, most politically developed nit^m-
ber of the Unit. He is the political leader of the Unit. His duties are as
follows :
1. As a political leader he directs all the work of the Unit.
a. He prepares the material for the Unit Bureau (agenda, proposals fur
action, assignments, etc.)
b. Helps the Agit-Prop Director in preparing material for discussion in the
Unit on political problems ; on the policy of the Party ; ou resolutions of
the higher committees.
c. He must react immediately to any issue that arises in the factory or in
the territory. If there is no time to wait for the next Bureau meeting,
he must call together the members of the Unit Bureau and decide with
them what action must be taken. If it is not possible to call the Bureau
together, he must take responsibility for the action and notify the indi-
vidual Party members of their tasks. Taking responsibility for an action
is especially important in a factory where the Unit Organizer faces great
difficulties in calling meetings during working hours. In this case he
acts independently, notifies the members and takes the responsibility at
the next Unit meeting.
2. He is responsible for controlling the decisions of the Unit. He is the one
who should carefully check on whether the assignments are carried out, and
report his findings without hesitation to the Unit Bureau and the membership.
3. He sees to it that the group captains take care of their work.
4. He is responsible for developing new forces from the Unit.
5. He must be in constant touch with the Section Committee, to whom he
reports on the activities of the Unit 'and from whom he receives directives.
In order to be able to make proposals and formulate policies for the Unit,
he must be an example to the members of the Unit of how a good Party
member works among the masses.
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE ACIT-PROP UIREX TOR ?
He is the comrade on the Unit Bureau who is resiwnsible for the agitational
and propagand'a work of the Unit. His functions are :
1. To carry out the decisions of the Unit Bureau concerning discussions in
the Unit, by gathering material for the reporter selected by the Unit Bureau
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 723
or membership meeting. He must also supply material for these discussions
to the individual members of the Unit.
2. He is in charge of the Editorial Board of the shop paper or neighborhood
paper. He is responsible for organizing open forums, workers' schools, etc.,
in the territory.
3. He is also responsible for 'agitation and propaganda work not only inside
the Party, but among the non-Party workers.
Does this mean that all of these tasks should be taken care of by the Agit-
Prop Director alone? Of course not! A good Agit-Prop Director should be
able to pick comrades in the Unit who will help him carry out these tasks.
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE FINANCIAL BECEETrAEY ?
He takes care of all the financial problems of the Unit. He checks on mem-
bers' dues payments and reports to the Unit Bureau regularly on who is falling
behind in dues and attendance. He takes steps, through the group captains,
to see that these members are visited. He organizes special financial income
for the Unit from sympathizers, individual contributors, various kinds of social
affairs. He should establish a fund for the Unit through these Various activi-
ties, a fund which will enable the Unit to be able to extend its mass agitation
among the workers in the shop or territory.
He is responsible for the membership list of the Unit. This task puts great
responsibility on the shoulders of the Financial Secretary. He has to see to
it that this list is safeguarded properly so th'at agents of the class enemy do not
get hold of it. The Financial Secretary has under his leadership the entire
technical and business activities of the Unit.
We have to emphasize that all these problems have very important political
siffuificance. The assignment or election of a comrade to this post must always
be considered from this point of view.
WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF THE UNIT DAILY WORKER AGENT?
The Daily Worker agent should be one of the best developed, most energetic
members of the Unit. If he is not an elected member of the Unit Bureau, he
should attend all Bureau meetings in order to make it possible for him to
participate in making plans for the spreading of the Daily Worker in all
activities of the Unit. The task of the Unit Daily Worker agent must be
considered as an important political function. His tasks are :
1. To mobilize the membership of the Unit to sell the Daily Worker every
day in the factory or in the territory.
2. To mobilize the sympathizers around the Unit and make them enthusias-
tic distributors of the Daily Worker.
3. He is resi)onsible for organizing a group of Daily Worker Builders from
among the members of the Unit and sympathizers of the Party in the shop
or territory where the Unit is operating.
4. He should check up whether the individual members are getting new
readers for the Daily Worker in the unions or other mass organizations where
they belong.
5. He has the duty of seeing whether the members of the Unit read the
Daily Woi'ker every day.
6. He should see to it that the experiences of the individual members in sell-
ing the Daily Worker should be discussed from time to time at Unit meetings
and in that way improve the method of work in this respect.
WHAT ARE THE TASKS OF THE UNIT OTKRATURK DIRECTOR?
The Unit Literature Director is not merely an "agent" or "salesman" who
sells literature to the Party members at the Unit meeting, or who covers
street and mass meetings for the sale of literature among the workers ; neither
is his task merely one of being a "go-between" bringing literature from Section
Literature Department to the Unit meetings. Much of this work he must also do,
but his tasks have a much broader aspect which we enumerate below:
1. To work in close collaboration with the Unit Bureau and the Unit
Agit-Prop Director in planning the distribution of literature (what, where,
when, how, how much, by whom).
2. To familiarize himself with our literature and be prepared to convince
the Party members of the importance of reading and distributing each piece
of literature.
724 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
3. To prepare the necessary literature at least a week beforehand for political
discussion in the Units, and see to it that the Unit membership obtains same.
4. To check up and control that each Party member shall take out and sell
literature in connection with his or her assignment, and establish regular
distribution in his or her shop, trade union, or mass organization. To urge
each member to mobilize workers and sympathizers to do likewise, and wher-
ever possible establish a literature table or department officially in their
organization. To mobilize also for sale of literature outside the shops par-
ticularly those in which we have no definite contact, at meetings of trade
unions under reactionary leadership where we may not have organized con-
tact inside, at opponent mass meetings, and at meetings of bourgeois-controlled
fraternal, cultural, and religious organizations.
5. To check up and report on the reactions of workers to our literature and
what literature is needed for their further clarification, and to become familiar
with the conditions in the shops, organizations, neighborhoods, etc., and around
what issues struggles could be developed and literature distributed. To see to
it that all valuable experiences, particularly in distribution of literature inside
the shops and trade unions are written up for the Party press or district lit-
erature bulletin.
6. To take the initiative in organizing oollection.s, raffles, etc., at Unit meetings
and affairs through which funds can be raised for the building of a Unit library
of our basic theoretical books.
7. To keep a strict account of the Unit literature funds : see to it that all litera-
"ture is paid for promptly by the Unit members, and that all bills for literature
are paid promptly and exactly to the Section each week.
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNIT I-EADESSHIP
The resolutions and decisions of the Conunnnist International, and the Central,
District and Section Committees will remain on paper unless we have in the
Units well-functioning, developed leadership which is able to mobilize the mem-
bership for carrying out these decisions. This mobilization will be succes.sful
only if the Unit leadership (Unit Bureau) is capable of olarifying all decisions
to the membership. Only through political understanding can tlie membership be
activitized to apply the decisions of the Party committees in their daily work
among the masses. We should always remember the emphasis stressed by the
Open Letter in discussing this question :
"The center of gravity of Party work must be shifted to the development of the
lower organizations, the factory nuclei, local organizations, and street nuclei."
(Open Letter, pp. 20-21.)
In order to carry out this directive of the Open Letter we must strengthen
and develop the leadership of the lower organizations. The main link of the
masses to the Party is the Unit. If this link is faulty, if some of the links of the
whole chain of Party organization do not function pro^ierly, the Party will have
either very weak or no connections with the masses. In order to sti'engthen this
link we must have a strong leadership (Unit Bureau).
FLUCTUATION IN i:NIT LEADERSHIP
The Unit Bureau is the leader of the Party and the masses among which the
Unit operates. In order to have a strong, able leadership in the factory or in the
neighborhood, we must elect the most able, capable comrades to the Unit Bu-
reaus— comrades who grew up in the Party in struggles and wiio have been
trained for leadership. To change the leadership in the Unit frequently is a
sign of insufficient understanding of the role of the Unit Bureau. Many'Party
Units in our Party fail to develop mass activity, fail in influencing broad strata of
the workers in the shop or neighborhood where they are operating because thev
change their leadership ( Unit Bureau ) too often. There should be a rule in the
Unit that no Unit leader should be changed unless he is proved to be incapable of
leading the Unit, or if he has developed so well that his promotion to a higher
Party committee is on the order of the day. But even in that ca.se, no comrade
should be changed unless another comrade who is well developed can take his
place. Stability in the Unit leadership is as important as it is in the Section,
District, or Center.
The basis of electing any functionary in the Party is preciselv defined in the
Open Letter:
I
APPEiNDIX, PART 1 725
"Everj- Party member and especially every Party functionary must be a real or-
ganizer of mass struggles in his particular sphere of work. From this standpoint
the Party must judge the activity of its functionaries and must choose its leading
bodies." (Oijen Letter, p. 23.)
THE SECTION COMMITTEE
Whether the Party Units fulfill their tasks among the masses depends to a great
extent on a well-functioning Section Conunittee. The daily guidance of the Unit
Bureaus, especially of the Shop Units, is one of the principal tasks of the Section
Committees. This should be achieved mainly thi'ough personal contact between
the Section Committees and the Unit Bureaus. While the organizational letter
can give general guidance to the work of the Units, it alone is not sufficient to
develop the Unit Bureaus ; in many cases it curbs the initiative of the Units.
A Section Committee should use the following method of giving leadership to
the Units :
1. Regular meetings of the various Unit functionaries should be held where,
besides discussing politically the most outstanding tasks of the coming week,
a well-prepared discussion is conducted ou basic organizational and political
problems of the Party. These discussions should take the form of a regular
class where the role and organizational principles of the Party are studied.
Through these weekly meetings we can develop, strengthen and stabilize the
leadership in the Units.
L'. The Section Committees should discuss the work of one of the Units at
each meeting. This point should be prepared very carefully in conjunction
with the Bureau of that Unit. The Section Committee, discussing the problem
of the given Unit, gives concrete suggestions, proposals to correct mistakes
and to overcome weaknesses.
SECTION OEGANIZBJB
The Section Organizer is the political leader of the Section, and is respon-
sible for the entire Section. He is the leader not only of the Party organization
in the territory of the Section, but also must be or become a leader of the
masses in the territory where the Section is operating. In order to be able
to give leadership to the Party and to the masses, the Section Organizer must
be in daily touch with the problems of the workers. He should be a member
of the local union of his trade. In this way he strives to become the leader
of the organized workers in that trade union. The Section Organizer has the
task of preparing the agenda for the Section Bureau and Section Committee
meetings, and he sees to it that the decisions adopted at these meetings are
carried out by the Units of the Section. In order to be able to carry out this
big task, other members of the Section Committee are made responsible for
the various fields of activity of the Party. But the Section Organizer is respon-
sible to the Section Committee also for the activity of these comrades The
work in the Section Committee is divided among the members of the Section
Committee, around whom are built up the various commissions. In the Section
Committees we have the following leading functionaries: Organizational Secre-
tary, Agitational-Propaganda Director, head of Trade Union Commission, head
of Daily Worker Committee, head of the Literature Committee, Financial Sec-
retary, head of the Membership Committee.
INITIATIVE OF THE UNITS AND SECTIONS
From the foregoing we see how the Party is connected organizationally with
the workers and their mass organizations. Let us sum up very briefly: The
basic link between the Party and the decisive strata of the working class are
the Units in the industries; the Street, Town, and Farm Units in the territory
and the fractions, particularly in the unions but also in other mass organizations.
These organizations are the ones through which the Party leads the masses
in the place of employment, or organization, and where thev live. On the
efficiency, independence, and initiative of these Party organizations depend the
ability of the Party to lead the masses in the daily struggle against the bosses
and for final victoryi.
In the statutes of the Communist Parties of the Communist International, we
find the following point: All Party organizations may decide on local questions
independently insofar as the.se decisions do not conflict with any decision of the
higher Party organizations.
726 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The problem is how are we to equip our units and Sections to function inde-
pendently? How can we develop the initiative of these organizations to such
an extent that they won't wait for directives from the higher bodies as they too
often do now, but develop their own campaigns, react to every issue in their
shop or territory? Naturally, these actions will always be based on the general
policy or campaigns of the Party.
Why is it so important to develop the initiative of the lower organizations?
In answering this question, we have to remember one very important fact. The
Units are the organizations which are in direct touch with the masses. The Units
are the leaders of the workers in the factories, neighborhoods, etc. In order
to be able to give correct leadership to these workers, the Unit must rause
slogans which fit the given situation. But the concrete issues are often quite
different in each factory or neighborhood. The Unit, with its members among
the masses, can react quickly on these issues. If we wait until the news about
n wage cut or w^srsening of conditions reaches the Section, and is then trans-
mitted to the Units, the issue will have become useless in many cases, or there
is a danger that the workers will already be following the leadership of some
reformist. Waiting for instructions will not make a Unit the leader of the masses.
Too many decisive 'moments" have been lost in this way.
In the Units where there is real initiative there will be constant development
of the individual members. They will continuously discuss problems and study
the line of the Party in order to be able to apply it to the given situation.
Proper Leadership Develops Initiative
The "indei)endence" and "initiative" of the Unit must not be interpreted to
mean that they have nothing to do with the higher committees of the Party.
The Section, District and Central Committees, by the principle of democratic
centralism, on which our Party structure and procedure are based, always have
the right to approve or disapprove any decision of the lower organizations.
The initiative of the Units develops precisely because the proper leadership is
given by the higher Party committees.
What are the best methods of developing the initiative of the Units? First
of all, the personal guidance given by the Party committees, through representa-
tives, or instructors, who work with the Unit for some time. These representa-
tives or instructors assigned to a Unit participate in all activities of the Unit
and not only help prepare proposals for actions, but take part in carrying out the
decisions.
There is one more very important reason for hastening the process of develop-
ing the initiative of the Units to the highest degree. In a comparatively
"peaceful" period, when the Party has the possibilities of wvirking openly, the
Units can come for advice to the Section or District headquarters. But in a situ-
ation when it may not be possible to have open headquarters, when it will be
quite difficult to get in touch with the Section Committee quickly, the Unit will
have to work independently. If we neglect to develop the initiative of the Units
today, the work of the Party would be hampered in illegal conditions.
WHAT ARE THE COMMISSIONS IN THE SECTION. DISTRICT, AND CENTRAL COMMITTEES
The Commissions are the instruments in the hands of the respective Party
Committees for the purpose of carrying out the work more effectively.
1. The role of the Commissions is to prepare material for the Committees
in their respective field of work.
2. They are responsible for carrying out the decisions of the Party Com-
mittee in their field of work and to see to it that the decisions made in the
Committees are carried out by the lower organization.
These Commissions have no right to make decisions on general policies of
the Party, but they have the right to make decisions in the process of carrying
out the policy of the respective Party Committees. For example: The Section
Committee decides that steps must be taken to stop membership fluctuation in
the Units. The Organization Department, in carrying out this decision, exam-
ines a number of Units, finds out the basic weaknesses and in this way gathers
material for a thorough campaign for stopping fluctuation. In the process of
the examination the Organization Department makes decisions about the com-
position of the Commission and the method of work of this Commission which
carries on the investigation.
APPENDIX, PART 1 727
The head of the Commisssion should be a member of the Party committee.
The members of the Commissions are appointed by the Party committee from
the best qualified members of the Party organization, not necessarily members
of the Party committee. It is advisable to draw in as many comrades from
the lower organizations into these Commissions as possible in order to develop
them for more I'esponsible work.
WHAT COMMISSIONS DO WF: HAVE IN THE PARTY OOMMITTTEE?
1. Organizational Commission (Org. Commission),
2. Agitation and Propaganda Commission (Agit-Prop).
3. Trade Union Commission,
4. Negro Commission,
.5. Women's Commission,
6. Agrarian Commission.
The other phases of activity {Daily Worker, Literature, Finances, etc.) are
taken care of by one or the other of these Commissions.
WHAT IS THE TASK OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMISSION IN THE SECTHON OB
DISTRICT ?
1. To explain and popularize the Organizational decisions of the Conven-
tions, Conferences (Communist International, Central Committee, District or
Section Committee), and see to it that these decisions are carried out.
2. To prepare Org. Directives, outlines for the Party Committee, for all fields
of organizational work in connection with the various campaigns of the Party
(elections. May First, anti-war, anti-fascism, recruiting. Dally Worker, etc.).
3. To control and check upon whether the decisions of the Party Committees
are carried out (control tasks).
4. To exchange the organizational experiences of the Party organizations
through articles in the Party Organizer, "Party Life" column in the Daily
Worker, special Organizational Bulletins, functionaries' meetings.
5. To watch and control constantly the composition of the Party and take the
necessary steps if there is any danger of unstable non-proletarian elements at-
taining too great numerical and political Influence.
6. To check on whether members have joined the unions in their industry.
.7. To watch and check fluctuation (turn-over in membership).
S. To promote recruiting.
9. To give special guidance and assistance to the Factory Units.
10. To report systematically to the higher committees about dues, recruiting.
Factory Units, shop papers. Fractious, etc.
11. To follow up systematically the behavior and development of the function-
aries in the Party, and to promote new cadres.
12. To help the lower organizations through instructors.
13. To organize the Fractions in the mass organizations and see that they
function.
HOW SHOULD THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMISSION WORK?
Through personal contact with the lower organizations. Members of the Org.
Commission should train instructors to help maintain this contact. These in-
■structors, while helping the lower organizations in their daily work, at the same
time bring problems up to the higher committees, problems which have not been
solved in the lower organizations of the Party. These problems, after thorough
discussion, should be written about in the Party Organiser, "Party Life" column,
etc.. in this way giving the experiences of one organization to the whole party.
The Org. Commission should also use the method of bringing together promising
comrades from the Units to classes, where they can be developed into new or-
ganizational forces for the Party.
THE TRADE UNION COMMISSION AND ITS TASKS
There is no need to emphasize again how important and vital it is to work in
the A. F. of L. and other unions. This work must occupy one of the most pre-
dominant places in the work of all Party Committees. In order to be able to pay
daily attention to all trade union problems, each Party committee should organize
a special Commission for this work. Its duties are :
730 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
On problems which will he decided by the general membership meeting of the
organization, the Fraction of this organization must take a stand. Every indi-
vidual member of the Fraction must carry out the decisions of the Fraction
at the membership meeting whether he agrees with it or not. At the present
period it is especially important to organize the Fractions and make them
work correctly in the A. F. of L. unions.
The Units and the Party committees must take the responsibility for this
basic task of the Party. The decisions that every Party member who is eligible
should belong to a union and function there as a member of the organized
Fraction must be carried out in the shortest possible time. It must be empha-
sized that without good working Fractions, revolutionary mass work is
impossible.
HOW DOES THE FEAOTION FUNOnOW?
The Party Fraction in a union or a branch of another mass organization
meets regularly before the meeting of this organization. At this meeting the
members of the Party Fraction discuss and decide how to apply the policy of
the Party in the organization ; how to introduce the Party campaigns ; how to
recruit new Party members from the union ; how to get new readers for the
Daily Worker; and what things can be done to improve the conditions of the
members of the organization. On the various questions, the decisions are made
by vote. The minority must help to carry out the decisions. No Party member
has the right to speak or act in the union or other mass organization against
the decisions of the Fraction. The Party members must always act as a solid
unit in the union or other mass organization. Workers look upon the Party
as a disciplined body. K they should see that the Party members come to a
meeting with different opinions on certain questions they will lose confidence
in the ability of our Party to give them leadership. They will inevitably
raise the question: "How can the Party claim to be a disciplined organizational
leader of the masses if they cannot unite their own members on certain issues?"
If certain members of the Fraction do not agree with the decision of the
majority, they can bring the problem to the Party committee and ask for a
discussion, but this appeal cannot keep back the minority from carrying out
the decision if the mass organization meeting happens to take place before
the Party committee can act on this appeal.
What Is the Function of the Fraction Secretary
The members of a Fraction elect one comrade as Secretary. His work is
as follows:
1. He maintains connections between the Party committee and Fraction.
2. He is personally responsible to the Party committee for the proper function-
ing of the Fraction.
3. He checks up and sees to it that the Party members function in the
Fraction.
4. He watches the behavior of the Party members in the mass organization.
5. He sees to it that the campaigns are brought into the mass organization
(election campaign. May First, anti-fascism, anti-war, recruiting. Daily Worker,
IV. Pakty Membership and Cadres
Continuous daily recruiting is the basic task of every Unit and each individual
member of the Party. In the daily struggles of the workers in the factories and
o^^f^r. • f '1t^^^' *^^ P"'^ ^^^^ conscientiously develop its recruiting activities,
getting into the Party the best fighters in these struggles.
whom: to reoruit
elem"JS?f itnli^n'^^f?^ recruiting must always be placed on the basic proletarian
S S fL n^S .^ ^^""'^ ^r^" *^^ ^'^ factories. Special efforts must be made
recfnftin. ^^f^^^^-^o^'^ workers and Negroes into the Party. The necessity of
nosltTon the wrf^.n '^T "^l^^ ^^'"^ ^^ emphasized because of the strategic
Severlose siirof thTSnf.^/^ '''. "^^"^ industries. Besides this we shill
arfmDOTtPn; rL^r. ^ ^^''- ^^^^ '^"""^ ^^'^ ^^^ Communist women will play
?triSs organizing and leading the workers in their revolutionary
APPENDIX, PART 1 731
The best method of getting new members into the Party is to place individual
responsibility for recruiting on the Unit members. Each individual Party mem-
ber has friends in the factory where he works, in the union of which he is a
member, in the neighborhood where he lives. Each individual Party member
has the Communist duty of convincing these friends of his of the correctness of
the program of the C. I. and of the Communist Party, and in this way, recruiting
them into the Party. It is understood that the individual Party members must
pay special attention to those workers who prove to be fearless fighters on the
picket line, in the unemployed struggles. Tlie necessity for individual re-
sponsibility of each Party member in recruiting new members into the Party
and in helping and guiding them after they join the Party cannot be over-
emphasized.
While we have to bring into the Party tens of thousands of workers in order
to build a real mass Party of the American proletariat, we must bear in mind
always that our Party must be composed of the most courageous, most de-
veloped, most self-sacrificing elements of our class — the working class. That
means that, in recruiting members, we must pay special attention not only to
the quantity but also to the quality of the new recruits.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY 7
Any person from the age of eighteen up, who accepts the program and statutes
of the C. I., and the Communist Party of the U. S. A.
If a worker who is less than IS years of age wants to join the Party, and
there is no Young Communist League in the town or factory, the Party Unit has
the right to accept him into the Unit, get him a book and permit him to remain
of the Party Unit until, with the help of the Party Unit, he is able to build up
a Unit of the Y. C. L.
WHAT ARK THE CONDITIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE COMMUNIST PARTY?
The conditions for membership in our Party are contained in the following
pledge read by Comrade Browder to 2,000 workers who were initiated into the
Party in the New York District in 1935.
"/ now take my place in the ranks of the Communist Parti/, the Party of the
working class. I take this solemn oath to give the best that is in me to the
service of my class. I pledge myself to spare no effort in uniting the workers
in militant struggle against fascism and war. I pledge myself to work unspar-
ingly in the unions, in the shops, among the unemployed, to lead the struggles
for the daily needs of the masses. I solemnly pledge to take my place in the
forefront of the struggle for Negro rights; against Jim-Croioism and lynching,
against the chauvinist lies of the ruling class. I pledge myself to rally the
masses to defend the Soviet Union, the land of victorious Socialism. I pledge
myself to remain at all times a vigilant and firm defender of the Leninist line
of the Party, the only line that insures the triumph of Soviet Power in the
United States."
Our Party application carries this declaration :
"The undersigned declares his adherence to the program and statutes of the
C.I. and the Communist Party of the U.S.A. and agrees to submit to the
discipline of the Party and to engage actively in its work."
On the basis of this declaration we could enumerate the conditions for
membership in the Party in the following way :
1. Activity in a unit;
2. Regular payment of membership dues ;
3. Adherence to all decisions of the Comintern and of the Party ;
4. Adherence to the discipline of the Party.
MHO DECIDES WHETHER A MEMBER SHOULD BE ACCEPTED INTO THE PARTY?
1. The membership meeting of the Unit into which the new member is
recruited.
2. The application of a factory worker who works where a Shop Unit exists
must be acted on by that Shop Unit, no matter where and by whom the worker
is recruited (fractions, members of other Street or Shop Units).
In case the new member is not recruited from the shop or from the territory
of the Unit, his application should be acted upon by the Unit to which the
endorser belongs. The member who brings the application for acceptance to
his Unit takes full responsibility for the new member.
732 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The same procedure should be followed in cases where the new members
are recruited by the fractions or members of fractions in unions or other masa
organizations. The individual Party member who recruits the uew member
brings the application card to his own Unit. The Unit acts on the application,
holding the endorser responsible for the new Party member.
WHERE SHALL THE NEW MEMBER BE ASSIGNED?
1. To the Shop Unit in his place of worlj.
2. If there is no Shop Unit where he works, he should be assigned to the
Street Unit where he lives. If the new menil)er wishes, he may be assigned to
the Street Unit of the comrade who recruited him.
MEMBERSHIP DUES
According to the Constitution of our Party, the individual Party members
pay their dues weekly on the following basis :
1. Members receiving weekly wages of $15 or less (including housewives)
])ay 10 cents dues weekly.
2. Members receiving weekly wages of over $15 and up to $25 pay 25 cents
dues weekly.
3. Members receiving over $25 and up to $30 pay 50 cents dues weekly.
4. Members receiving over $30 and up to $40 pay 75 cents dues weekly.
5. Members receiving over $40 and up to $50 pay $1.00 dues weekly.
6. Members receiving over $50 per week pay, in addition to their regular
$1.00 weekly dues, additional dues (special tax) at the rate of 50 cents for
«ach $5.00 (or fraction) of their weekly earnings above $50.
7. Members who are unemployed pay two cents dues weekly.
Distribution of Dues
Dues paid by the individual members are divided among the Party organi-
zations in the following proportion : the Unit retains 40 per cent of the amount
collected from every individual member; 15 per cent g<jes to the Section; 15
per cent to the District and 30 per cent to the Center, of which amount one-
third is for the special national trade-union fund. For example, the unit
pays 60 cents to the Section for a $1.00 dues stamp; the Section pays 45
cents to the District; and the District ])ays 30 cents to the Center, out of which
10 cents goes for the national trade-union fund.
As we see from the division of dues payments, the largest proportion re-
mains in the Unit — 40 per cent. The Eighth National Convention of our
Party made this decision in order to enable the Party Units to intensify their
agitation and propaganda amoung the masses. This amount was intended to
be used for producing more leaflets, shop papers, neighborhood papers, etc.
All tendencies to use this money for other purposes should be fought by the
Party Units.
Special Assessments
No Unit, Section or District has the right to assess the member.ship without
the permission of the Central Committee. Special assessment may be levied
by the National Convention or the C. C. of the Communist Party. If such
a decision is made by any of these bodies, no member shall be considered in
good standing unless he has such special assessment stamp in his book.
Members who are four weeks in arrears in payment of dues cease to be
members in good standing of the Party. IMembers who ai'e three months in
arrears shall be dropped from the rolls after all possible means to avoid this
are exhaused. No member of the Party shall pay dues in advance for a
period of more than six weeks. Exceptions can be made for such comrades wiio
secure a leave of absence from the Party for a longer period.
TRANSFERS
If a member of the Party moves from one place to another, he must secure a
transfer from the Party organization before he moves. No Partv member has
the right to leave his Unit without permission. The Units must iiot accept any
member without a transfer. A transfer card must be secured from the Section
APPENDIX, PART 1 733
Committee in order to transfer from one Unit to another in the same Section ;
from one Section to another in the same District, the transfer is issued by the
District Committee: from one District to another, the Centi'al Committee issues
the transfer ; from tlie Conmiunist Party of tlie U. S. A. to a Communist Party
in another country, the Central Committee issues the transfer.
LEAVES OF ABSENCE
The members of the Party can secure permission for a leave of absence in case
of sickness or necessity for travel from the Party Unit or committees. If a
member leaves the Party Unit without permission, his case will be handled
in a disciplinary way.
FOKCES — CADRES
One of the main conditions for developing the initiative of the Units is the
systematic development of forces, cadres, leadership. We must realize that
without good leadership in the Units and Sections the Party cannot function
properly. We must have in each Unit of our Party a core of comrades who
are politically developed, capable of making, quickly and boldly, responsible
decisions in the most intricate situation — comrades who are experienced,
steeled, stable, who will not be weakened under any circumstances, who will
follow the line of the Party.
Where are these forces trained? They are trained in militant actions of the
masses. These militant, courageous members are our future leading forces.
We must help them, encourage them, school them in action, teach them in train-
ing schools, persuade them to study and read fundamental Marxist -Leninist
classics. We need thousands upon thousands of such forces, in order to be
able to give leadership to the Leftward moving masses.
There are other important problems to be considered in connection with the
question of forces :
First, the development and projjer iitilization of the old and new forces. We
have spoken already about the necessity of developing forces, about building up
a mighty force of new cadres. This is done in our Party by the following
methods :
1. Confei'ence of functionaries, where discussions about basic problems help
to develop our cadres; 2. Regular meetings of Unit and Section function-
aries, where the decisions of the Party committees are clarified through discus-
sion ; 3. Workers' schools ; 4. Section schools ; 5. District schools ; 6. National
schools : 7. Study circles composed of promising comrades ; 8. Individual study
with the help of a more developed comrade.
It should be emphasized that in discussing the question of training forces,
we have in mind not only the new forces, but also the old forces who need further
training, and in some cases re-education.
The Party, in selecting the members for further training, examines the comrade
for the qualifications needed for leadership — not only reliablity, loyalty, capacity
for development, but also whether he is a mass worker, or capable of being one.
Our I'arty emphasizes the need of American, proletarian elements, the need, of
Negi'oes and women in the leadership.
Party Must Know Its Forces
The Party leadership must know its forccis, must be able to assign each one
to the place where he is most suitable and most needed.
Comrade Lenin, dealing with the problem of the proper utilization of forces,
gives a splendid example. Te enable the Party leadership,
". . . not only to advise (as this has been done until now), but really conduct
the orchestra, one must know exactly who is playing first or second fiddle,
and where, what instrument he was taught, where and how, where and why
he plays out of tune (when the music begins to be trying to the ear), and what
changes should be made in the orchestra so as to remedy the dissonance. . . .""
The systematic control of the carrying out of decisions and the proper appli-
cation of Bolshevik self-criticism, will help the Units and Sec-tions to discover
who is occupying a position which suits him, and who is in the wrong place,
or who has no business to have any responsible position in the Party. We must
know our forces. AVe must know who we can rely on, who can and. who cannot,
who will and who will not carry out decisions.
734 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The second problem is the continuous control of the existing forces. We are
conducting today, and will lead on a much larger scale tomorrow, mighty l)attles.
In these struggles we are in the forefront. The fighting masses follow us,
because they have confidence in the Party, because the Communists are brave,
self-sacrificing. But if the workers see that one of the Communist leaders is a
coward, or unable to lead them, this will have serious consequences. We can-
not have in our leadership members who cannot stand up before the class
enemy, who get panicky, who lose their heads in a serious situation. We must
know whom we can trust under any cii'cumstances, who will l)e shaken.
Comrade Stalin in his speech in 1921J in the American Commission, said :
"The struggle for the winning of the millions of the M-orking masses to the
side of Communism must be intensified. The fight must l)e intensified for the
forging of real revolutionary Party cadres and for the selection of real revolu-
tionary leaders of the Party, of individuals capable of entering the fight and
bringing the proletariat with them, individuals who will not run before the face
of storm and will not fall into panic, but will sail into the face of the storm.
But in order to carry out this task, it is necessary at once, without the loss
of a single moment, for time does not wait, to set about cleaning the Couimnnist
Parties of Right and conciliatory elements, who objectively rejiresent the agenc.v
of Social-Democracy within the ranks of the Communist Party. And we must
set about this matter, not at the usual pace, but at an accelerated pace, for, I
repeat, time does not wait, and we must not allow events to catch us unawares."
t>talin's Speeches on the American CovuniiniKt Partii (p. 34).
What Kind of Forces Do We Need Most Now?
"We need proletarian forces who grow up from the masses, who are jwipular
leaders of their fellow workers in a shop, union, block, town, or farm com-
munity, forces who are in close contact with the mas.ses and reflect tlie feelings
of the proletariat, who can best bring into life the correct fighting slogans of
the Party. We need forces, first of all, from the native-born workers, from
among the Negro proletariat, from among the women workers. The basic forces
of the Party should come from the big factories. The.^e members should be
drawn into leadership, preparing them in tlie process of Party work for the
actual carrying out of Party tasks, training them politically also. One of the
main conditions of becoming a real mass Party, leading the revolutionary
struggles of the American proletariat, is that the Party basically be made up
of native American workers, and that its cadres consist of native American
revolutionists.
WHO ARE THE PROFESSIONAL REVOLUTIONISTS?
Comrade Lenin in his writings always stressed the necessity of developing a
core of comrades from among the best, tested mass leaders, to such a point
that they would be able to serve the proletariat as trained, skilled revolutionary
leaders. There is a misconception in the ranks of the Party as to what a [u-o-
fessional revolutionist, in the Leninist sense, is. Some are of the opinion that
a professional revolutionist is a comrade whom the Party takes out of the
factory and assigns as full-time functionary; in other words, that the Party
organization (Section — District — Center) supports him while he spends all his
time on Party work. This notion is wrong.
A professional revolutionist is a highly develoi>ed comrade, trained in revolu-
tionary theory and practice, tested in struggles, who gives his whole life to the
fight for the interests of his own class. A professional revolutionist is ready to
go whenever and wherever the Party sends him. Today he may be working in
a mine, organizing the Party, the trade unions, leading struggles ; tomorrow, if
the Party so decides, he may be in a steel mill ; the day after tomorrow, he may
be a leader and organizer of the unemployed. Naturally, these professional
revolutionists are supported by the Party organization if their assignment doesn't
send them to work in shops or mines. From the.se comrades the Party demands
everything. They accept Party assignments— the matter of family associa-
tions and other personal problems are considered, but are not decisive. If the
class struggle demands it, he will leave his family for months, even years. The
professional revolutionist cannot be demoralized ;' he is steeled, stable. Nothing
can shake him. Our task is to make every Party member a professional revo-
lutionist in this sense.
APPENDIX, PART 1 735
COIXECTIVE LKADERSHIP AND WORK
Collective leadership is composed of two inseparable parts :
1. All decisions of a Unit or Party Committee are made by the whole body
and not by one or two members of that body.
2. Each member of the Unit or Committee is individually responsible for
carrying out not only the decisions concerning himself, but of the Unit or
Committee.
It one of the two conditions is missing, we are faced with the problem of
bureaucracy or looseness in the organization. If the members of an elected
committee do not participate in liammering out (discussing) the steps to be
taken by them, but only the organizer or another functionary makes the
decision, the carrying out of tliis decision will be mechanical. On the other
hand, if the members are not held individually responsible for carrying out
the decisions made collectively, the leadersliip will be narrowed down to one
or two members of the Unit. The pi-oper Bolshevik method of working col-
lectively is the following :
The organizer or another functionary of the Unit or Party committee pre-
pares the proposals and distributes them among the members of the Unit
Bureau or committee at least one day before the meeting. The members
come to the meeting well prepared for discussion, bringing additional pro-
posals or amendments. These proposals are thoroughly discussed and the
tinal decision is worked out together.
It is not suflBeient to adopt the plan of work: to lay doion the line. This
must be accompanied by the assignment of the tasks to the individual mem-
bers. While the organizt>r is responsible for checking whether the assigned
comrades carry out tlieir tasks, at the same time each member of the Com-
mittee and Unit must feel the responsibility and must fight for the carrying
out of the decisions.
In order to make it possible to divide the responsibility among the members
of the Party Committees, the individual members of the Committee are assigned
to be responsible for the various phases of the work of the Committee. Besides
the organizer of a Section or District who is actually the political leader of
the organization, we assign members of the Committee to be responsible for
organizational work, agitational and propaganda work, trade union work,
work among Negroes, work among women, work among youth. Daily Worker
distribution, literature distribution, finances, etc. These comrades assigned
to the various phases of the work are lielped by a number of developed com-
rades who form a commission around them.
V. Rules and Methods for Disciplinary Cases
Party discipline would remain an empty phrase If the Party constitution did
not provide for necessary measures against those who break it Breaches of
Party discipline by individual members, such as financial irregularities, con-
duct or action harmful to the prestige and influence of the Party among the
masses, failure to carry out decisions especially during strikes, etc., may be
punishetl by (1) censure; (2) public censure; (3) removal from committees;
(4) removal from all responsible work; (5) expulsion from the Party.
There is no such disciplinary measure in our Party as suspension or pro-
bation. For example, if a member commits an offense against the Party for
which removal from his responsible post is not sufficient punishment, but
where there is reason to believe he can be corrected, the Party can decide that
he is to be expelled from the Party with tlie right to apply for membership in
a c-ertain period of time (six months — one year). The per.son is not consid-
ered a Party member during the period of his expulsion. In order to be able
to judge his attitude at the end of the period, the Party, in deciding on his
expulsion, also decides on the work to which he is to be assigned to test his
ability and willingness to follow the line and instructions of the Party. If the
exi>elled member proves to be sincere, honest and revolutionary and corrects
the faults for which he was expelled, the Party will consider his application
for membership at the end of the disciplinary period — and in some special
cases before.
736 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Who Has the Right To Prefer Charges?
Charges against individual members may be made either in tlie Units of the
Party, or in any Party committee by any individual Party member, or any
Unit or Party committee.
Charges made by one member against another, as a rule, should be made
in writing, but the Party unit or any Party Connnittee may take up a case
for investigation, even without definite charges. A member must submit to
examination by any Party body even when no definite charges are communi-
cated to him. Loose spreading of charges or rumors from one menibor to
another is not permitted In our Party. All charges and suspicions nitist be
taken up only with the Party unit or the ju-oixt Party Committee, and are
to be acted upon promptly. Those questioned in the course of the investigation
or hearing should be warned against loose talking about the case outside-
Who Has the Right To Make Decisions on Charges?
Decisions on chai'ges may be made by any of the following organizations "
Unit membership meeting. Section Bureau or Section Conmiittee, District Bu-
reau or District Committee. Political Bureau of the Central Committee, or
Central Committee. The.se Party bodies have the right to decide on any of
the disciplinary measures to be taken against Party members.
Street or shop units of the Party have the right to take disciplinary action
up to and including expulsion against any of their members, not exempting
members or functionaries who are members of higher connnittees.
A Section Committee has the right to act against any member in its .><e<tii>n.
At the same time it may refer the case to the unit whidi the accu.sod
member belongs.
A District Committee has the right to act against any member in its district,
or it may refer the ease to the respective .section or unit, if it finds it necessary
to do so.
The Central Committee of the Party has the right lo take disciplinary action
against any member of the Party, or to refer the case to the district, s^Mjtion or
unit to which the accused member belongs.
Expulsion decisions of the units require rhe approval of the respective Section
Committee, and mu.st be approved also by the I>i.strict Bureau or District Com-
mittee. No expulsion or readmission of previously exp«'lled members can take
effect without the approval or direct decision of the respective District Bureau or
District Committee. An expulsion decision passed by the District Committee
is final, except in cases of District Committee members themselves, and in cases
of appeals to the Central Committee when the final decision rests with the
Central Committee.
Expulsion decisions of units and of Section Committees must be promptly re-
ported to the district for approval, together with materials of the investigation
and findings. The member against whom the expulsion decision has been made
should be immediately notified and disconnected from unit and fraction. It
should be definitely understood however that the final action on the expulsion,
which must be obtained quickly, rests with the District.
Hearings and Appeals
Every accused member has the right to a hearing before any disciiilinary
action can be taken against him. The main thing in the examination is to estab-
lish the essential facts in each case and to give an opP<irtnnity to the accused
member to present his side with his witnesses and documents.
Every member against whom any disciplinary action has been taken has the
right to appeal to a higher Party committee. The appeal, however, does not
interfere with the carrying out of the decision. The decision has to be carried
out and remains in force until the appeal is acted upon by the higher committee.
It must be emphasized that judgment of the seriousness of violations of Party
discipline must be based on the question of fulfilling and carrying out the b.-isic
political and organizational directives of the Party Unit or the higher Party com-
mittees. Action taken against an individual member, or Partv committee, must
never be mechanical. The action must be explained to the Party memltersliip
and also to the masses if the Issues involved are so serious that it is neces.sarv
to destroy any confidence non-Party workers may have had in the expelled mem-
ber and to make the reasons for the Partv action clear.
APPENDIX, PART 1 737
What is the Disciplinary Committee in the Districts?
A subcomittfttee of the District Committee has the task of gathering material
on the disciplinary cases for the District Committee. The Disciplinary Com-
mittee i-eceiving the charges from the District Bureau against a member conducts
the itivestigation on the case, calls witnesses and examines the member who is-
up on charges. After proper examination, the Disciplinary Committee formulates
its recommendation on the case and presents it to the District Committee or
Bureau and this body makes the decision. The Disciplinary Committee has no
right to make a decision. The members of the Disciplinary Committee are.
appointed by the District Committee.
Is There Any Disciplinary Committee in the Section or Unit?
No. Disciplinary cases are handled by the Section Committee proper or the
Section Bureau or the Unit membership. The Unit or Section Committee, how-
ever, can appoint a small committee to investigate a given case and report to the
body. Bi;t this connnittee is not permanent. After the case is investigated the
committee is dissolved.
HOW SHAIX WE SAFEGUARD THE PARTY ORGANIZATION AGAINST STOOL-PIGEONS
AND SPIES?
Tlie working class is constantly at war with its enemy, the capitalist class,
In this war (class struggle), as in any other war, the capifalist class has
one main objective — to defeat its enemy, the working class. In order to achieve
this aim, the capitalists use all possible methods to disorganize, demoralize
and divide the ranks of the proletari'at. One of the most effective weapons
in the hands of the enemy is the agent-provocateur, the stool-pigeon, the spy
in the ranks of the working class, and especially in the ranks of tlie vanguard
of the proletariat — the Communist Party.
The activities of these human rats c'an be listed as follows :
1. Agents-provocateurs are planted in the Party either by the police depart-
ment. Department of Justice, "patriotic"' organizations, or counter-revolutionary
Trotskyites, with the aim of disrupting the work of the Party organizations.
The methods they use are :
(a) Creating sentiment against the leadership of the Party;
(b) Systematic destructive criticism against the line of the Party;
(c) Provocative proposals for certain actions, which, if adopted, would lessen
the confidence of the masses in the ability of the Communist Party to lead
them, because of the unnecessary sacrifice as a result of such provocative
action ;
(d) The spreading of rumors about individual leaders of the Party, concerning
their political integrity or personal life;
(e) Creating an atmo.sphere of spy mania in the Party org'anization by
skillfully spreading rumors about certain individuals being spies;
(f) Accepting important assignments at strategic points and certain activity
and then sabotaging the carrying out of the assignment, in this way disrupting
the action of the Party organization.
The most effective weapon in the hands of the Communist Party against the.se
agents-provocateurs is the carrying out of the general line of the Party, the
uncompromising fight against any one who attempts to deviate from this line,
Bolshevik self-criticism and correction of mistakes and shortcomings in the
work of the Party organization or individuals in the process of applying or
carrying out the general line of the Party. In a Party organization where these
principles are strictly adhered to, agents-provocateur will be exposed very
quickly.
2. The second type of class enemy in the ranks of the Party and in other
workers' organizations is the stool pigeon. They have the task of gathering
information about the Party and the individual members. They work diligently,
attend every meeting, and take responsible as.signments in the org'anization.
They strive to be promoted to higher po.sitions in order to get more important
information to the Police Department, oi- to their bosses. They are very inquisi-
tive about individuals, their names and addresses; they always like to get some
inside "dope" from and about higher committees. They are present in every
possible place they can get into. They try to get luild of docnnients and keep
94931 — 40 — app.. pt. 1 48
738 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
them for a day or so. They try to find ways and means of getting to other
Party organizations and Fractions than their own.
Against both types of rats, the best safeguard is the proper selection of new
members. While we do not create difficulties for workers to join the Com-
munist Party, we have to be careful in accepting new members, especially
those who have had no previous connections with any workers' organizations
or with individual members of the Party, or whose previous record is hard
to obtain. In order to counteract the activities of the stool pigeon, we have
to keep before our eyes, always, the following general rules :
1. Do not tell any member anything about Party members which does not
concern that member. . ^ ^ t^ .
2 Do not discuss any Party question outside of the meeting of the Party
organization (Unit, membership, Unit Bureau, Section Committee, Fraction).
Stop discussing inner Party questions on the street corners or cafeterias,
where anyone can listen in. Do not broadcast inner Party decisions to
long-eared stool pigeons who are waiting for the information.
3. Avoid, as much as possible, keeping membership lists with names and
addresses, and if you have such lists, do not keep them in your home, or in
the headquarters of the Party Unit or Section, or in your pocket.
4. Documents which are not for publication should be read only by those
Party members to whom they are addressed, and should be destroyed im-
mediately after reading. Documents which need study must be carefully
safeguarded. Every member who has such a document must return it after
reading it to the Party committee, which destroys it immediately.
HOW SHALL WE EXPOSE THE STOOL PIGEON?
There is a tendency among some comrades to hide from the masses the
fact that a stool pigeon has been discovered in the organization. In certain
places, the comrades develop the theory that if we expose the stool pigeons
the workers will be afraid to join the Party — because there are spies in
the organization. This conception is entirely incorrect. The mass exposure
of a stool pigeon will greatly increase the contidence of the masses in the
Party, since it proves the Party is able to find out who the class enemies
are in its ranks.
There is only one proper method of exposing the stool pigeons — and that
is mass exposure, creating and organizing mans hatred against these rats.
Experience of the Communist Parties prove that such mass exposures not
only do not scare away workers, but have resulted in hundreds of new recruits
to the Party.
The following methods have been used very effectively in many places and
can serve as a model for exposing spies:
1. Photograph the spy, and print his picture in the Daily Worker and in
leaflets and stickers. Spread this material in the place where the spy was
operating.
2. Organize systematic agitation among the workers where the spy wag
discovered.
3. Mobilize the children and women in the block in the part of town where
the stool pigeon lives to make his life miserable; let them picket the store
where his wife purchases groceries and other necessities; let the children
in the street shout after him or after any member of his family that they
are spies, rats, stool pigeons.
4. Chalk his home with the slogan: "So-and-So who lives here is a spy."
Let the children boycott his children or child ; organize the children not to
talk to his children, etc.
Such forms of agitation will gather around the issue hundreds of workers
who were outside of the influence of the Party before, and who will now
come with us on some action. At the same time, we will expose and get rid
of the spy, not through individual action, but through real mass mobilization.
FOB THE BOLSHEIVrzATION OF THE PABTY
"What is meant by Bolshevizing the Party?
"It means to master all the lessons taught us bv that first Communist Partv,
the most successful one, created and led to victory bv Lenin, and now suc-
cessfully building Socialism under the leadership of Stalin. It means to
become the Party of the masses ; to be a Party with its strongest roots among
APPENDIX, PART 1 739
the decisive workers in the basic industries; it means to be a Party whose
stronghold is in the shops, mines and factories, and especially in the biggest
and most important ones; it means to be a Party that leads and organizes
the struggles of all the oppressed peoples, brings them into firm alliance with
the working class; it means to be a Party that answers every question of
the struggle; that can solve every problem; it means to be a Party that never
shrinks from difficulties, that never turns aside to find the easiest way; that
learns bow to overcome all deviations in its own ranks — fight on two fronts;
it means to become a Party that knows how to take difficulties and dangers
and transform them into advantages and victories." (Earl Browder : Report
to the Eighth Convention of the Communist Party, U. S. A., pp. 78-79.)
Millions of American workers are going through the school of the class struggle.
Classes of imix>verished farmers have begun to learn through their own ex-
Ijerience.s the real role of the capitalist parties. Millions of them are searching
for the way out of their misery and poverty. Fascist demagogues, small and big,
grow like mnsliroonis after a rain. These fascist demagogues, following the road
of Hitler and Mussolini, try to capitalize on the dissatisfaction of the masses.
Huey Long, Coughlin, .Johnson, and Co. are subtly spreading the gospel of fascism
among the masses. They will "share the wealth" without hurting capitalism.
They preach righteousness, justice for the poor, while protecting the private prop-
erty of the big bourgeoisie.
The toiling masses in the United States are looking for leadership. The Com-
munist Party, which is equipped to give leadership to these masses, must show
them the only way out of their misery, must expose the demagogy, the "radical"
phrases of the fascist leaders and the hypocritical promises of the capitalist
government. The Communist Party, in order to be able to give this leadership,
must be entrenched among the workers and poor farmers. We must build and
strengthen our Units in the factories. We must build and strengthen our Units in
the neighborhoods, in the small towns, etc. We must spread our Party organiza-
tions all over the country. We must build and strengthen the Fractions in the
A. F. of L. unions and other mass organizations of the workers.
Every Communist must become a leader, of the workers. Every Communist
must know that the Party has a historical mission to fulfill, that it has the mission
of liberating the oppressed exploited masses from the yoke of capitalism, that it
has the mission of organizing and leading the mas.ses for the revolutionary over-
throw of capitalism, and for the establishment of the new world, a Soviet America.
Exhibit No. 101
[Source: Excerpts from Why Communism? by M. .T. Olgiu, a pamphlet published by Work-
ers Library Publishers, New York : .second revised edition. Jlay, 1935. Pages 27-28, 32,
33. 43. 58-72]
*******
NO NEED OF REVOLUTION ?
The Socialists say there is no need of a revolution. They say democracy
has prepared for the workers all the means necessary to achieve Socialism.
Ler the workers use universal suffrage, they say, to send Socialists into the
legislative a.ssemblies. Let the Socialists form a majority in these assemblies.
When this is done, the road is open to pass laws abolishing the capitalist
system. Of course, there is the Federal Constitution which prohibits the con-
fiscation of property by legal procedure, but this, says the leader of American
Socialists, Mr. Norman Thomas, can be overcome. Let us have a Constitutional
Convention to amend the Constitution so as to permit Congress to enact So-
cialist legislation. Let Congress then enact a law which orders tlie big cor-
porations to cede their industrial establishments and all their property to the
State. Let us not expropriate them, say the Socialists, not by any means! Let
us pay them with bonds issued by the government and redeemable in thirty
years. This will mean Introducing Socialism by pacific methods. No revolu-
tions ; no seizure of power ; no infringement upon the law ; no mass action ; no
expropriation of the exploiters. Everything lawful. Everything in a gentle-
manly fashion. The electoral law works. The citizens vote. The legislators
assemble. They count noses and find a Socialist majority. The Socialist
majority, both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, passes a law.
740 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Capitalism passes out. Tlie big trusts bow before the "will of tbe people".
"Gentlemen, you are the lawful heirs of our system," they say politely, and
leave the stage for the Norman Thomases and their associates.
What a sweet picture! And how deceptive! We are sorry to mai- such
an idyllic scene. But we Communists are realists, and we do not wish to he
carried away by fancies, especially when these fancies are beneflcial to the
capitalist system as they tend to keep workers from lighting the capitalist State.
Let us not argue at length about the ingenious invention of paying the owners
of industrial establisbments with bonds, which means recognizing that the
exploiters are entitled to their monopoly of the means of production and that,
if they are to give them up, it is to be only through sale. It is not really^
difficult to see that if you pay your exploiters with bonds, you continue their
exploitation in another form. You may have taken over the factories hut you
still continue working for the profits of the former owners. E^•erybody can
see that. Let us rather examine the proposal of introducing Socialism by means
of the ballot.
What does the State consist of? It consists not only of the legislative
assemblies, which, by the way, play a lesser and lesser role as big monopoly
capitalism grows. It consists first of all of the army with its commanding staff,
the militia, the police force and tlie executive branch of the government which
uses the armed forces to achieve the ends of capitalism. Is it possible ro get
a majority of Socialist Congressmen? Even assuming that such a miracle
would happen, it still wouldn't spell Socialism. Even before there is any
danger of a majority of Socialists actually ready to legislate Socialism, the-
electoral laws can be changed to prevent such an emergency. Even were a
Socialist majority to convene, their decisions may not be carried out. One-
squad of soldiers is sufficient to disperse an entire l«'gislative assembly, the
way this was done in Italy, in Germany, and in many other countries.
In case of a Socialist majority, we have before us one of two jiossibilities.
Either the capitalists are certain thnt the Socialist leaders are harmless to
capitalism — as was the case on numerous occasions in (Jermany and England
when power was in the hands of the Socialist leaders; in such a case they will
rather be glad to have them carry the burden of government for capitalism ;
or the capitalists do not like that Socialist majority, because it suits their
interests better to have an open dictatorship, — and then tliey Avill h;ive every
means to get rid of the unwelcome legislators.
Remember that the Socialists are against revolutionary methods. Uemem-
ber that they do not appeal to the masses to oflfer resistance against brutiil
capitalist oppression. And do not forget that capitali.sm is armed to the teeth
and that it will use its armed force to secure its domination. Capitalism never
gives up its wealth and power voluntarily and it has little respect for its own
laws when it comes to defend its nde.
He who says that you can use tlie capitalist State to abolish capitalism'
verily resembles one who says you can demolish the enemy fortress by sounds-
of trumpets.
*******
The capitalist State is a glaring fact. It is flesh and blood of the capitalist
system. It stands in the way of the workers' progress towards a new. free life.
Can it be abolished by gi-adual transformation? Tho.se who say it can are the-
staunchest supporters of the capitalist robbers and the most active promoters of
imperialist wars. Their theory is not harmless, indeed. It is a p(MS(mous theory.
It is a smoke screen behind which cruel capitalist exploitation is hiding.
We Communists say that there is one way to abolish the capitalist State, and
that is to smash it by force. To make Communism possibl(> the workers must
take hold of the State machinery of capitalism and destroy it.
*******
It is therefore inevitable that whenever the workers are bent on actually
defending their economic demands they are forced to fight the State.
The fight against the w;ir danger is a political fight. The wen-king class nuist
be aroused. There must be protest meetings, mass petitions, demonstrations,
strikes. The powers that be must be given to understand in an unmistakable way
that the workers and farmers are dead set against war. This spirit must be
comm.unicated to the army.
If this fight has been carried on with sufficient determination, the ground is
prepared for action when war comes. The workers do not realize that it is iii'.
APPENDIX, PART 1 741
their power to postpone war. It is. Workers in ammunition plants, go on strike !
Shut d<iwn your plants ! Prevent governmental strike-breakers from resuming
work! Railroad men, refuse to handle war materials or to transport troops!
Keep guard over your railroad yards and depots lest transportation facilities be
used by governmental agents. Marine workers, do not load either men or am-
munition ! Truck drivers, refuse to assist in war work ! Workers of other indus-
tries, help the strikers. Farmers, refuse to give your foodstuffs and raw
materials to be used for slaughter!
If the workers rise in this way against war, the capitalists with their armed
forces will try to break the deadlock. There will be attacks on strikers. The
workers will have to offer resistance. We Conniiunists do not close our eyes to
the fact that this means civil ivar. But when the masses are organized and fig'ht
in great numbers under revolutionary leadership the victory is assured. Part of
the army is certain to waver and to join the people. There may be victims, but
their number can not be compared to the losses in life and limb that the workers
would suffer in the imperialist war.
Victory in the civil war spells the doom of the capitalist State.
We Communists do not say to the workers that they have to begin the civil
-war today or tomorrow. We say that the civil war is the inevitable outcome of
long and arduous struggles against the capitalists and their State and that these
struggles must be made the everyday practice of the working class.
* ***** *
YI. The Revolutionary 0\^ebthrow of Capitausm and the Dictatorship of
THE PeOLETAKIAT
The overthrow of the State power, and with it, of the capitalist system,
grows out of the everyday struggles of the workers. One is historically
inseparable from the other.
As the organization of the workers grows, as their struggles become fiercer,
wbile many non-proletarian elements like farmers, intellectuals, and oppressed
members of the lower middle class join the revolutionary movement, the final
onslaught on the fortress of capitalism draws nearer. These struggles are
the reaction of the masses to the misery wrought by the crisis of capitalism.
The capitalists try to overcome the crisis by putting additional burdens on
the shoulders of the masses, but they cannot cure the incurable disease. There
■comes a time when large sections of the population say that this simply "cannot
go on." The government seems to be entirely incompetent to cope with the
political and social difficulties. The belief of the population in the wisdom
and all-powerfulness of the "men higher up" is shaken. These men are losing
their confidence. The confidence of the masses in their own strength is growing
apace. The struggles of tlie masses meanwhile become broader and deeper. The
government tries suppression. It does not succeed in crushing the spirit of
revolt. It cannot stem the tide. The previous struggles of the workers count
greatly. The clearer the class-consciousness of the workers, the more steeled
they are in fighting, the better the revolutionary leadership they have developed
in the course of years (the Communist Party), the greater the number of friends
they have allied with themselves from among the other oppressed classes, the
more capable are they to deal the final blow.
It is not necessary that this final blow, /. e., the revolution, should come in
connection with an imperialist war, although this is very likely. Capitalism
will seek to prevent a revolution by plunging the country into war. War is to
sei've not only as a way out of the crisis but as a means to arouse the patriotism
of the masses, to increase governmental terror (martial law), and to divert
public attention from internal affairs. War, under such conditions, for a while
retarding the revolutionary movement, may hasten it later when the war suffer-
ings begin to tell on the masses.
A time comes when there is demoi-alization above, a growing revolt below ;
the morale of the army is also undermined. The old structure of society is
tottering. These are actual insurrections ; the army wavers. Panic seizes the
rulers. A general uprising begins.
Workers stop work, many of them seize arms by attacking arsenals. Many
bad armed themselves before as the struggles sharpened. Street fights become
frequent. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, the workers organize
Revolutionary Committees to be in command of the uprising. There are battles
in the principal cities. Barricades are built and defended. The workers' fight-
ing has a decisive influence with the soldiers. Army units begin to join the
742
UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
revolutionary fighters; there is fraternization between the workers and the
soldiers, the workers and the marines. The movement among the soldiers and
marines' spreads. Capitalism is losing its strongest weapon, the army. The
police as a rule continue fighting, but they are soon silenced and made to tiee
by the united revolutionary forces of workers and soldiers. The revolution is
victorious.
Historic Examples
Can it be done? It has been done more than once. A revolution broke the
backbone of tsarism in Russia in 1905, but was soon defeated. A revolution
abolished tsarism in March 1917 when a provisional revolutionary capitiilist
government was established. In each ca.se the workers played the leading role.
A workers' revolution was accomplished in Russia in November 1917 when the
Soviet Government, which is the government of the workers and peasants,
was established. The Soviet system has been in existence for nearly 18 years.
A workers' revolution took place in Germany in 1918, in Hungary and Bavaria
in 1919, in China in 1927. A revolution took place in Spain In 1932. In most
of these revolutions the workers were betrayed; they were either deprived by
shrewd capitalist politicians of the fruits of their revolutionary struggle or
defeated in armed combat, with Socialist leaders aiding the exploiters. In
Russia the revolution has survived first of all because the workers had a strong,
well organized Bolshevik (Comnninist) Party that headed their fight. The defeat
of the other revolutions does not argue against the eventuality of revolution. In
fact, revolutions are inevitable. They are a natural outcome of the existing
system. Our time is a time of workers' revolutions. If not all of the revolu-
tions of the last 15 years succeeded in seciu-ing the workers' rule, this was
due either to the absence of a strong Communist Party entrenched among the
workers, or to the absence of other strong working-class organizations, or to
the intervention of foreign imperialists, or to some of these causes combined.
And in either case, the reformists were playing the role both of enemies
within the working class betraying the revolution and of leaders of the capitalist
forces from without the working class against the revolution — all in the name
of "democracy" and freedom".
Can a revolution be won? Capitalism creates a situati<m where large masses
of the people are dissatisfied, embittered, emboldened by intolerable hardships.
Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for its cataclysm. If under conditions
of a severe capitalist crisis the majority of the working class is ready to wage
a determined armed fight for the overthi-ow of the capitalist system, then the
revolution may be victorious, provided there is in existence a mass Communist
Party recognized by the workers as their leader in struggles against capitalism.
A standard reformist argument against the revolution is: "The weapons of
warfare are so strong in our days that the workers have no chance of winning
in open conflict". The wish is father to the thought of the reformists in this
respect. Because they hate a revolntion of the workers, they maintain that
a revolution cannot win. What is true is that a revolution cannot win unless
the armed forces, or at least part of them, .if^in the workers. But once they
join, the workers have not only rifles and cannon but also airships and poison
gas and battleships to fight the bosses. Poison gases are destructive, to be
sure, but their destructive power can be turned also against the old system.
There is no reason why the workers should not use them against the enemy
when the final conflict has arrived. In all revolutions throughout history the
armed forces of the old system were at the beginning strmiger than the armed
forces of the revolutionists.
The Question of Forct: and Vioi-encb
"But this is force and violence", somebody will contend. "Don't you Com-
munists know that the use of force and violence is wrong? We reply to this,
first, that if being a "red-blooded American" means anything, it means that you
must not take punishment lying down, that you must offer resi-stance ; secondly,
that It IS not the workers but the capitalists and their State that start the
use of force and violence. When you wish to stay on in vour plarp of
work and the employer who wants you "fired" sends for the watchmen and
has you thrown out, it is he that uses force. When vou wish to stay on
in the apartment of a house you and the like of vou" have built, and th(^
landlord calls the sheriff to evict you, it is he that uses force. When vou go
APPENDIX, PART 1 743
out on a demonstration in the oppn in front of a governmental offire and the
government .sends the police and armed thugs to beat yon up and disperse you, it
is the government that is using force. When you are thrown in jail for refusing
to transport ammunition in time of war, it is the government that is u.sing
violence again.st you. Force and violence are the daily bread of the exploiters
and their government in dealing with the exploited. Force and violence are the
very essence of the State. When the warehouses are bulging with foodstuffs you
and the like of you have produced while you, the hungry, are kept from them
by the armed force of watchmen and police, force and violence are used against
you. How can you live and breathe if you do not resist? How can you defend
your fundamental interests if you do not defy boss restrictions? To defy boss
restrictions, to resist the attacks of the enemy class is just as natural for the
working class as it is for a red-blooded human being not to take punishment
lying down.
What a picture! Those who live on your sweat and blood tell you it is not
"right" to resist this robbery. Those who hold the big stick over you tell you to
be meek as a lamb. Those who make the oppressive lav.s against you preach
among you about the sanctity of the law. This is boss law, boss justice, boss
ideas of right and wrong. If the workers were to submit they would not be
able to live : they would be reduced to something worse than chattled slavery.
We Communists say the workers cannot have respect for boss law and
boss morality directed against them. The class interests of the working class —
these are the supreme law for the workers. Defending their lives and their
future they mu.st inevitably come into conflict with boss law. Defending their
very lives they are driven to stand up against boss force. Fighting against the
boss system they are defending not only their own class interests but the
interests of mankind. For capitalism has reduced mankind to a state of chronic
misery, poverty, insecurity, fear, periodic carnage, insane luxury for the few,
hunger and degradation for the many — a state that simply cannot continue if
mankind is to progress. Capitalism is decaying and, to save humanity, this
putrid wound on its body must be removed.
When you fight capitalism you are doing what is right and just and lawful
from the point of view of your class interests and of the future of humanity.
You are not "outlaws" the way the capitalist world brands revolutionary fighters.
You are fighting for a higher morality and a higher law that will forever abolish
exploitation — the morality and the law of the social revolution.
Having crushed the capitalist State the social revolution, acting through armed
workers and soldiers, will establish the Soviet State as the instrument of the
workers' and poor farmers' power.
The Soviet State
The Soviet State was first established in Russia, but it was later introduced
wherever workers seized power : in Bavaria, Hungary, in large sections of China,
and, most recently, in Asturias and Biscay (Spain). The Soviets are composed
of Deputies elected at the places where men and women work. In cities, the
Soviets are elected by the workers in factories, plants, offices and educational
establishments. In villages, the Soviets are elected by all working peasants.
Each person engaged in any kind of work is entitled to a vote. Owners of wealth,
capitalists, laud-owners, and other exploiters, as long as they have not yet been
turned into useful citizens working for the community, are excluded from
suffrage. They have no voice in the administration of public affairs. On the
other hand, suffrage is extended to vastly greater numbers of working people
than is the case under capitalism. The Soviets of AVorkers', Soldiers' and
Peasants' Deputies form the local government everywhere. Representatives of
the local Soviets form the central Soviet which is the government of the country.
The Government of the Soviets is a government of those who work. It is
elected in the places of work from among those who work, and it is responsible
to those who elected it. It consists exclusively of workers and peasants, which
means that it is the greatest democracy in the world. It is a real government of
the rank and file. Exploiters are barred from it. Its deputies and other officials
are paid no more than the average wage of a skilled worker. Its deputies are
subject to instant recall by their electors. Under the Soviets the workers and
peasants are armed, and police and judicial functions are carried out by the
workers and peasants themselves.
This government has the great task of taking away from the owners the
plants, factories, railroads, banks, and turning them into public property to
744 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
be administered by the workers for the common benefit of all. In other words,
it is the task of the Soviets to abolish private property in the means of produc-
tion and to establish Socialist proiluction and distribiitio7i.
This cannot be accomplished peacefully. The exploiters won't give up their
loot even after their State power is crushed. They will have to be routed.
The Soviet government will have to expropriate the expropriators by force.
The latter will conspire and plot against the new system ; they will organize
counter-revolutionary uprisings. The Soviet State will have to crush these
with an iron hand. The former exploiters will be given no quarter. The old
system of robbery with all its rubbish will have to be cleared away. This
means that the Soviet Slate nmst be ruthless; it must destroy the counter-
revolutionary forces— the quicker the better for the workers and for the
future of mankind. This is why the Soviet State is named Dictatorship of the
Proletariat. It is the reverse of capitalist dictatorship. It does not pretend to
be a government treating all on the basis of equality. It openly declares itself
to be a class government directed against the former ruling class. It is
avowedly an instrument for the expropriation and suppression of the former
exploiters and oppressors. It is a government of the former exploited and
oppressed. And it does away tvith exploitation and oppression forever'. As
soon as private property is abolished, as soon as the industrial machinery of
the country has become socialized, as soon as the individual farmers have
been induced, for their own advantage, to luiite in collective farms, exploita-
tion of man by man ceases to exist. Tliat means freedom.
With the workers coming info their own, the load is oi)en for economic
and cultural progress undreamed of under capitalism. Production is rapidly
increased. Standards of living rise higher and higher. Education, letters,
art, invention blossom under proletarian rule. Exploitation of man by man is
abolished. Differences between farmers and workers disappear. Minority na-
tionalities, oppressed and kept backward under capitalism and granted self-
determination by the revolution, rapidly develop. The whole country becomes
one big working community on a high plane. The rule is soon establi.shed :
"Let each person work according to his ability ; let each person receive from he
common stock of goods according to his needs". This is Communism.
Man himself changes under such conditions. Soon the State is no more
needed. In a cla.^slrss society there is nobody to suppress or keep in check.
Highly cultured men and women, bred in a spirit of collective life, masters of
nature and of their own society, do not need the big stick of the State. They
manage their affairs without the State force. Mankind is free, forever.
VII. The Communist Party
The Communist Party is the vanguard and general staff of the workers in
their struggle against the old system, in their revolution against it and in the
upbuilding of the new system.
The Communist Party is a political party, which means that its concern is
the struggle of the working class as a whole for State power. Whereas the
primary concern of the militant unions is the economic struggle for better
conditions while preparing the workers for their ultimate struggle; whereas
the primary concern of the Unemployment Councils is the fight for unemplov-
ment and social insurance; whereas the fraternal organizations concern them-
selves primarily with mutual aid and the struggle for social insurance (none
of these struggles is isolated from the others and all of them must be fought
on a political basis), the Communist Party concerns itself with all phases of
the movement, unifying them, giving them direction, tilling them with the spirit
of the class struggle, orientating them towards the ultimate overthrow of the
capitalist system.
The Communist Party is a political party. Its aim is to effect the seizure of
political power by the workers. It therefore looks upon every activity of the
workers (and poor farmers) from this point of view. But there is no contra-
diction between the ultimate aim and the immediate interests of the workers.
Whatever contradicts the political aim of the workers is also harmful to them
at present and therefore rejected by the Party. The outlook of the Commu-
nist Party is wider and more all-embracing than the outlook of the other
working-class organizations, even those that assume the point of view of the
class struggle.
The Communist Party not only draws into its ranks the most advanced and
inost militant workers, but it gives them political training. It teaches them
APPENDIX, PART 1 745
Marxism-Leninism, whicli equips the worker with a thorough understanding
of the society he lives in and of the historic task of the working class. The
Communist Party looks upon its members as leaders in the struggle and it trains
them to be fit for this work. The Communist Party is a school of the class
struggle in every one of its phases.
At the bottom of all the activities of the Communist Party lies a clear and
exhaustive analysis of the social forces in the society of the present.* The
Communist Party watches very carefully every turn in the development of the
country, whether economic, political, social or cultural, and at every turn it
points out to the workers what they have to do in oi'der finally to achieve the
maximum, results, the overthrow of capitalism. This plan of struggle for the
working class is called the Party line. The Communist Party is the only
political organization that works out a line of activity for every branch of
the labor movement at every given moment.
The Communist Party is active directly as an organization and indirectly
through its members within other orgiuiizatious. The Communist Party leads
political as well as economic struggles, like the fight foi- the liberation of
political prisoners, the fight against high taxes levied upon the workers, the
fight for better housing, free lunches for school children, the fight against
imperialist war and for the defense of the Soviet Union, the fight against
governmental terror, the fight against the Jim-Crow system and lynchiugs, the
fight against fascism, the fight for the liberation of the oppressed colonial
peoples, and many other. These fights are conductec? through literature,
through mass meetings, through demonstrations and, when the occasion de-
mands, through open mass combat with the police in the streets.
The Communist Party also participates in the election campaigns as a
separate and distinct political party. It nominates its candidates for federal
and local ofl5ces and it solicits votes. It is anxious to have its representatives in
the legislative bodies. But its election campaigns and its activities within
parliament are fundamentally different from those of say, the Socialist Party.
We Communists are not here to help the capialists govern the masses. We are
here to help the masses press their masters, get from the capitalists and their
government a maximum of concessions. We do not spread the false notion that
there can be cooperation between the exploited and their exploiters. On the
contrary, we go to the legislatures to prove to the workers that such coopera-
tion must not be because it is good only for the bosses. In other words, we
go to the legislatures — and we conduct our election campaigns — in the spirit
of the class struggle. We use the platform of the legislatures, from which our
voice can be heard better than the voice of private citizens, to help organize
the workers and help them conduct all their daily struggles. At the same time
we try to force the law-makers to pass legislation that would bring relief to the
workers. We do so, not by pretty speeches, not by telling the law-makers, who
are servants of the big money bags, how fine and noble they are, but by heading
great movements of the masses which would make those gentlemen sit up and
take notice. In other words, while the Socialists solicit votes in order to
reform the State and thereby to make it more effective for the capitaists, we
Communists practice rerolntiotmry parllamentnrUm, by which is meant strength-
ening the working class and weakening its enemies. We go to the law-making
institutions, not to tinker them up for the benefit of the capitalists, but to be
a monkey wrench in their machinery, preventing it from working smoothly
on behalf of the masters. We use, while there, every step of those agents of
the capitalists to expose them before the people, to show what these so-called
representatives of the people and what these so-called democratic institutions
actually are.
THE PARTY UNIT
Aside from these political activities directly condvicted in the name of the
Communist Parly, every Communist is obliged to be active in the organization
to which he belongs and in the place where he works. Wherever there are
three or more Communists, whether in a factory or in a mine, in a union or in
a fraternal organization, they have to get together and form a group. A group
formed in a place of work is called Party nucleus. A group formed in an
organization is called a Party frartiaii. The group discusses the problems of the
•For the daily opinion of the Communist Party on all economic and political questions
read the Daily Worker, published at 50 East 13th St.. New York City.
746 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
shop or the organization and instnictp its members to act in the best interests
of the worlving class. A good Communist is a worlier who thoroughly under-
stands the problems of his place of work or his organization and who develops
activity that can serve as an example for his fellow workers. A good LVnn-
munist is a social being who has the interests of his fellow workers at heart
and who is devoting his best energies! to advance the cause of the workers
wherever he liappens to be. A good Comminiist is a man or a woman who by
virtue of the.v-e qualities becomes a leader amongst his fellow workers — not a
leader by dint of .some mechanical control, but a leader by dint of better
understanding, more courage and superior organizing abilities. Communists
are trained to be that way. This is why a small number of Communists will
often achieve more than greater numbers of unorganized workers pulling in
different directions. What is important to remember is this, that Communists
have no interests other than the interests of the working class, the improve-
ment of its life at present and the destruction of capitalism in the future.
You have undoubtedly heard about the "sinister plots" of the Communists.
There is nothing sinister about the Communist organization. Here are a dozen
Communists working in the same shop. It is natural for them to get together
and form a shop nucleus. It is natural for them to constitute themselves as
a permcmoH body. They may use secrecy to avoid the spying eye of tlie
employers ; but this again is most natural under capitalism ; the workers
would be foolhardy to expose their plans of activity to tlie bosses.
A Party nucleus holds its meetings regularly every week. Our shop nucleus
will discuss at nearly every meeting how to organize the struggle of the workers
against the employer in that particular shop. The shop nucleus will not keep
it.self isolated from the rest of the workers. On the contrary, it will be the
duty of every Communist to be in closest touch with the workers, to be
part of the workers, to understand every issue of their shop life. The Com-
munists will distribute papers and pamphlets among the workers. If need
be, they will publish a local paper which will expose the evils of the shop
and organize the workers for struggle. The Communists will keep secret from
the management and the stool pigeofns but not from the workers. They will
invite non-party workers to their nucleus meetings to discuss certain problems.
They will gain the confidence of the workers just because they have a well-
thought-out and fitting solution for the pressing problems and because they
show resistance in dealing with the boss or with the foreman). They have
got to stand up as fighters or else they cannot be Communists. They will soon
become known to the workers as a militant group. Many more will join.
The influence of the Communist Party will grcnv.
The time comes when the Communists head an open struggle against the
employer or the State. It may be a strike for higher wages. In this case
the Communists will help organize a strike committee from among the rank-
and-file workers, this committee to consist of Party and non-Party workers and
to act under the direct leadership of the trade union of that industry. It
may be a mass demonstration for unemployment insurance. In that case
the Communists will help organize a local rank-and-file Unemployment Council.
It may be any other act of struggle. In either case the Communists will not
force their will upon the workers. On the contrary, they will see to it that
they share the initiative with as many workers as possible. They are not
here to give orders. They are workers themselves who suffer like all the
other workers but give a clearer voice to the protest that is brevdng among
the workers. The more workers participate in preparing an act of struggle
the greater the chances of victory.
In such struggles some of the workers will move to the front as more clear-
sighted, more active, more able to express the needs of the workers, and
more quick-minded in finding a solution to an emergency problem. These will
become the mass leaders. Some of them will be Communists, some non-Party
workers, but in the long run every fighting mass leader will find his way to
the Communist Party because he will realize its advantages for the workers'
struggle.
Thus the Communist nucleus will establish itself as the fighting organization
recognized by the workers. It will lead. It will put fear in the heart of the
boss. It will put confidence in the hearts of the workers. It will become
the vanguard and the leader of the local workers.
The Communists who, for one reason or another, are not members of a shop
nucleus (or mine or mill nucleus) organize locally in the place of residence
into a street nucleus. The street nucleus is composed of the Communists living
APPENDIX, PART 1 747
in rhe same neighborhood. It may consist of from ten to thirty, but rarely
more members, because a large nucleus becomes unwieldy. When a street
nucleus grows too large, part of it is organized into another nucleus and given
another territory to work in. The street nucleus organizes and leads the
workers' struggles in its territory. Suppose there is a shop in that territory
and the workers are unorganized. The street nucleus concentrates on that
.shop. It organizes open air meetings in front of the shop just at the time when
the workers tinish work. Some of the workers stop to listen, become interested,
receive paper.'* and pamphlets distributed around the meeting place, The
nucleus repeats this action until contacts are established with the shop. Once
there is a group of sympathetic workers inside, the task of organizing the
shop workers to defend their interests becomes much easier. One street nucleus
may concentrate on a number of local shops. It also concentrates on unem-
ployed work. It makes a canvass of all the unemployed in its territory, organ-
izes from among them an Unemployment Council, fights together with it for
"unemployed relief; if need be, the street nucleus calls a demonstration in
iront of the local Home Relief Bureau to insist on aid for those discriminated
against. The street nucleus heads many other workers' struggles in its terri-
tory. The fight against the eviction of unemployed, the fight for free gas and
electricity for the unemployed, the fight for the release of imprisoned local work-
ers, assistance to strikers' pickets, local demonstrations against the oppression of
Negroes in the neighborhood — all these and many other activities are the almost
daily tasks of the street nucleus.
Both the shop and the street nuclei, thus, exist not for themselves, not for
"Communist interests", as you are so often told, for there are no Communist
interests outside of the interests of the working class. The Party nucleus is
a center of fighting workers in a shop or neighborhood. That is a bad nucleus
which stews in its own juice. A good nucleus is one that is in various ways
connected with the workers in the shop or neighborhood, is recognized by them
as a fighting unit, is supported by them, is continually increased by the joining
of new workers, and is proved as leader in many class conflicts for the benefit
of the workers.
Not the least among the functions of the shop and street nuclei is the distri-
bution of the Communist papers, magazines and pamphlets. After all, the press
is a good propagandist and a good organizer. Its influence can be great, if the
■workers are induced to read it and to spread it. The Comminiists make it
their business to talk to non-Party workers, explaining to them the meaning
of the Communist press as the workers' press, and offering to provide them
with a paper or magazine. In the same way they distribute pamphlets and
books. Once a worker has begun to read a paper or pamphlet explaining to him
the class struggle, he soon recognizes the truth of that explanation which he
■can supplement by numerous facts from his own experience. Reading about
the class struggle, recognizing the correctness of the class struggle, is a step
to actual participation in the class struggle.
Here as elsewhere there is a deep gulf between us Communists and the So-
cialist leaders. They say the American workers are difficult to move and that
there is no hope of workers putting up a stiff fight in this country. We say, but
let the American worker recognize his class interests, and he will fight in great
working-class militant organizations for his life, for his freedom, for the final
liberation of his class and all oppressed.
Aside from shop (mine, plant) nuclei and street nuclei of the Communist
Party, there are Party fractions. The Commitnists belonging to any organi-
zation form a special fraction which discusses the problems of its organization
and proposes a line of action for its members. This enables the Communists in
a reformist imion or fraternal organization to follow the same line. The Party
fraction advocates militancy and strives to transform the whole organization
into a real fighting unit.
It is quite obvious that Communist activity requires training. Every Party
nucleus is in fact a training school in the practice of the class struggle. It
also gives theoretical classes to its members. It conducts discussions on citr-
rent questions. Its most capable, militant members are sent to special train-
ing schools. The whole Party is engaged in raising, as we call it, the theoretical
level of its members.
You will now understand what there is to those tales about "Communist
plots." The Communists have a good organization and a uniform line : they plan
work and they carry it out. The bosses certainly dislike such a method, when
used by the workers. You will also understand why the enemies speak so much
748 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
about "rigid Communist discipline". They would like the workers to be un-
decided, without unity and cohesion. That would be good for the capitalist in-
terests. When they see a party of revolutionary workers organized, enlight-
ened, trained to do revolutionary work and acting in harmony with one an-
other in accordance with a preconceived plan, they decry it. In this plan,
unity and cohesion, however, is the strength of every workers' organization,
including that of the Communist Party. We discuss problems, we study them
carefully, but once a decision is made it is binding for every member. We are
a democratic organization because every member has a vote and every rank
and filer is entitled and invited to criticize the activities of the organization or
of individual leaders, and to participate in shaping the policies of the Party.
We are at the same time a centralized orgainzation because we work according
to one plan and because decisions of the higher Party bodies are obligatory for
the lower bodies — from the center down to the units. The Communist Party
is thus built on the basis of democratic centralism. That makes for unity of
action.
THK PARTY IN ACTION
Let us now have a look at the Party as a whole. At the head of it is the
Central Committee elected at the national convention. In the Districts there
are District Committees elected at District conventions (the country is divided
into 27 districts). Each District is divided into Sections and each Section
comprises a number of units, /. c, sliop and street luielei.. Under the District
and Section Committees are the various fnirtioii.s. The interests of the Party
require that all members should have thoroughly discussed every issue that
comes up in the life of the working clas.s. They should have discu.s.sed in each
unit what every member has to do in tlu> coming few days. Directives are
given from the Center to the Districts, from the Districts to the Sections and
the units. Everybody must be prepared. Everybody must luiderstand the
meaning of what is to be done. Everybody is obliged to assist his comrade.
There should be complete imity of purpose and unity of action. Today we are
having a unit meeting which first discusses an impoitant problem, theoretical
or practical, and then assigns work to each member. It is at this meeting that
the fundamental unity of the Party is forged. Tomorrow each one of these
Party members will plunge headlong into one or the other realm of work. One
will confront the boss with the demand of the workers in his shop; another
will lead a group of unemployed workers to the Home Relief Bureau to demand
immediate relief for those that have been discriminated against; a third will
participate in the picket line facing the clnbs of armed thugs; a fourth will be
active in putting back into an apartment the furniture of an evicted family; a
fifth will be speaking to a group of marine workers, trying to make them join
the union ; a sixth will be speaking to a group of workers engaged in an am-
munition plant, trying to make them understand the necessity of organizing in
order to be ready to .stop work in case of war; a seventh wilT distribute leaflets
calling for a demonstration to protest against U. S. imperialist intervention in
Cuba; an eighth will be speaking in the open air in favor of the local Com-
munist candidate for mayor; a ninth will be showing the workers a Soviet
film in which the free life of the workers uiuler the proletarian dictatorship is
vividly depicted. All these Communists will be animated with one ideal. They
will all work along the same line. They will work hand in hand with all the
workers they are connected with, trying to make them understand the better
ways of struggle and to make their struggle more effective. At the next unit
meeting every comrade will have to report as to how he or she carried out
the assignment. All the Communist units, forming concentration points of the
workers' struggle, are engaged in practical everyday work, the more practical
the better, but at the same time they never for a moment lose sight of the
ultimate goal of the movement — the destruction of capitalism.
When you observe the Communist Party in action you cannot fail to compare
it with the blood-stream of the human body. Like the blood-stream it brings life
to every section of the body of the working class. Like the blood-stream it helps
build up every tissue. Like the blood-stream it makes the organism live, act, grow.
There can be working class movements without the Commimist Party, but there
can be no real movement for the liberation of the working class without the Com-
munist Party. There can be no ultimate overthrow of the entii'e capitalist system
without the Communist Party.
Hand in hand with the Communist Party and under its guidance functions the
Young Communist League, the revolutionary organization of the young workers.
APPENDIX, PART 1 749
Many other orgauizations function under the guidance of and in close cooperation
with the Comnaunist Party.
There is a Communist Party in every country of the world. All of them work
for the same end, and all of them adapt their activities to conditions existing in
their country. Delegates from each Communist Party gather once in a few years
to an international Communist Congress (there have been six of them so far).
The Congress meets for two or three weeks and discusses thoroughly the inter-
national situation and the situation in every country. Experiences of a world-
wide struggle are shared and a general line of further struggles mapped out. (The
Congress elects an Executive Committee which is the leading body between one
congress and the other. The decisions of the Executive Committee of the Com-
mimist International guide the activities of the parties. The Executive Com-
mittee meets at intervals of a few months. Its meetings very much resemble a
small congress. Between one meeting and the otlier a smaller body called Presid-
ium is conducting the aflairs of the organization. The organization is called
the Communist International and expresses the common purpose and common
decisions of all the Communist Parties of the world. The Communist Inter-
national (Comintern) gives unity of policy and leadership to the entire revolu-
tionary movement of the world. It is the general staff of the world revolution of
all the exploited and oppressed.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is affiliated with the Communist
International. It is the most influential but not the only influential Party in the
International. It is one part but not the whole of the International. Its advice
is highly precious because it has long accomplished what the Communist Parties
of the world are only striving at — the proletarian revolution. The advice and
experiences of the other Parties, however, are also of great value in determining
the policies of the Comintern. The seat of the Comintern is Moscow because this
is the capital of the only workers' and peasants' government in th« world, and the
Comintern can meet there freely. As the workers become the rulers of other
countries, the Comintern will not have to confine its meetings to Moscow alone.
The Communist Party of the U. S. A. is thus part of a world-wide organization
which gives it guidance and enhances its fighting power. Under the leadership
of the Communist Party the workers of the U. S. A. will proceed from struggle to
struggle, from victory to victory, until, rising in a revolution, they will crush the
capitalist State, establish a Soviet State, abolish the cruel and bloody system of
capitalism and proceed to the upbuilding of Socialism.
That is why every worker must join the Conununist Party.
Exhibit No. 102
[Source: Excerpt from a pamphlet published by Workers Library Publishers, New York:
June, 1935; pamphlet entitled "The Negroes in a Soviet America," by James W. Ford
and James S. Allen, pages 13-14, 46]
*******
One of the principal lessons to be gained from the fight for the Scottsboro
boys is this: It is possible to obtain certain victories from the ruling class,
but not by cringing. Uncle Tom or Judas methods. The only wa such victories
can be obtained is by rousing and organizing the masses, by rrf .sing to accept
sops.
The reformers have still another idea. They have a great reverence for the
ballot, they think it can produce wonders. The leaders of the Socialist Party
still cling to this old fairj-tale. The workers, they say, can elect themselves into
power and then i)eacefully bring about a change in capitalism. But what if the
capitalists refuse to abdicate? They reply: "We'll see then."
The miracle of the ballot ! If the ballot can do all they say it can how are
the Negroes going to use it when 4,000,000 Negroes, eligible to vote, are dis-
franchised? When two out of three Negi'o eligible voters are not even per-
mitted into a voting booth?
We say that Negroes must have this right to vote, as well as the other rights
of citizensliip. We must fight for these rights. We say that the workers and
the oppressed masses should use the ballot, the right of free speech and assem-
bly, to elect their own representatives, and create their own organizations.
We fight against ever.v effort to take these rights away.
But at the same time we emphasize that capitalism cannot be done away
with by the ballot. We believe in using elections and our representatives in
elected bodies to rally the people against capitalism. As long as capitalism
750 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
permits the rights of citizenship, the working class should use these rights n gainst
the capitalists. But anyone who tells you to depend upon the ballot and civil
rights for your defense is betraying you.
****** ^:
We have only indicated some of the possibilities. Still greater ones would
unfold in a Soviet America. This much is important and certain : with the
overthrow of the landlord capitalist power and the establishment of the Soviet
Negro Republic, the most backward section of the United States would develop
into an advanced, wealthy area. The rich resources of the territory, until now
wasted and plundered by the capitalists, would be turned to their own account
by the workers and farmers, with the aid of the working class of the North
and northern resources. Thpn woidd the basis of Negro equality be established
And the so-called poor whites would also be liberated from iwverty, extreme
exploitation and backwardness.
Exhibit No. 103
[Source: Excerpt from Marxism vs. Liberalism — An Interview of Jcseph Stalin by H. G.
Wells; a pamplilet published by tlie International Publisliers, New Yorli : 19:55. Pages
16, 17]
Staxin : Of course the old system is breaking down, decaying. That is true.
Rut it is also true that new efforts are being made by other methods, by every
means, to protect, to save this dying system. You draw a wrong conclusion from
a correct postulate. You rightly state that the old world is breaking down. But
you are wrong in thinking that it is breaking down of its own accord. No, the
.substitution of one social system for another is a complicated and long revolu-
tionary process. It is not simply a spontaneous clash, but a struggle, it Is a
process connected with the clash of classes. Capitalism is decaying, but it must
not be compared simply with a tree which has decayed to such an extent that it
must fall to the ground of its own accord. No, revolution, the substitution of
one social isystem for another, has always been a struggle, a painful and a cruel
struggle, a life and death struggle. And every time the people of the new world
came into imwer they had to defend themselves against the attempts of the old
world to restore the old order by force ; these people of the new world always
had to be on the alert, always had to be ready to repel the attacks of the old
world upon the new system . . . That is why the Communists say to the working
class: Answer violence with violence; do all you can to prevent the old dying
order from crushing you. do not permit it to put manacles on your hands, on the
hands with which you will overthrow the old system. As you see, the Commu-
nists regard the substitution of one social system for another, not simply as a
spontaneous and peaceful process, but as a complicated, long and violent process.
Communists cannot ignore facts.
Exhibit No. 104
[Source : A pamphlet published b.v Workers Library Publishers. New York : November. 193.j.
Excerpt from pamphlet, pages 14-19, 28-.30]
Youth and Fascism
(By O. Kuusinen)
THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Tlie experiences recently gained by the Young Communist League of the U.S.A'.
are also highly instructive.
There matters began with the calling of a general congress of the youth
organizations of the country as a result of the wide organizational initiative
displayed by a fascist group, with the support of the government. The Yoiuit;
Communist League was faced by the question of whether it should send its
J
APPENDIX, PART 1 75L
vepreseutatives to this congies:> or uot. It is not surprising that opinion within
the Young Communist League should have been divided on so novel a question.
A few years earlier a question of this kind would in all pi-obability have
been settled even without discussion : any participation would have been re-
jected, and our Young Communist League would probably have received such a
sectarian decision with self-complacency, as the best solution to a difficult
question. But now this question was discussed in the Young Communist League,
and it turned out that the comrades who were opposed to participating in the
congress had very poor arguments to offer. "We are afraid that we are too-
weak to put up a stand against such powerful forces", they said.
You see, comrades, how the old sectarianism, which has so often taken the
shape of exaggerated self-assertion, on this occasion, when a great practical task,
demanded a clear and bold decision, revealed itself as a lack of confidence'
in our own forces, in the leading role of the working class youth.
The leaders of the Young Conmiunist League of the United States, headed
by Comrade Green, brushed this faint-hearted argument aside, rolled up their
sleeves and went to the congress, at which an extremely variegated group of
young people from most diverse strata was assembled. Our American comrades
Jichieved a great success at this youth congress. The agents of fascism were
completely isolated, and the c<^)ngress was transformed into a great united front
congress of the radical youth. And when, somewhat later, a second general
youth congress was held, our young comrades already enjoyed a position of
authority at it. This authoritative position was due to the confidence which
they had gained by their new mass policy, and also to the fact that they had
learned to approach and condtict the work in the right way.
What did they learn concretely?
First, they learned noherUj to estimate the degree of radicalizntion of the
youth massea. that is, to estimate it correctly, without Right under-valuations
and without "Left" over-valuations.
Previously, many comrades had to simple an idea of the matter, and believed
that once a radicalization of the toiling masses and an tipsurge of the mass
movement had begun — which was actually the case in America — it could be
"stamped" without further ado a real "revolutionary" upsurge and one h.ul
only then to look up the program of the Young Commtmist International for
the revolutionary slogans that should be issued in such a situation and the
revolutionary tasks that should be undertaken.
Our American young comrades now learned that although a great process
of radicalization and aetivization of the youth masses had indeed set in in
the United States, these masses — indeed even their most active representa-
tives— still did not understand the most ordinary Commtmist slogans, battle
cries and demands. They did not even understand so "simple" a thing as
fascism. This had first to be explained to them in a popular way. And even
when they grasped that fascism is an enemy, it was found that many of them
con.sidered it quite in order when the Hearst press issued the cry, "Against
Communism and Fascism !" They failed to observe that genuine American
fascist agitation was being carried on under this treacherous guise. They had
to be convinced in the most patient manner possible of the true state of affairs,
without our own opinion being forced on them. Whereupon it was discovered
for instance, that many of those who were already prepared to join with
the Yoting Communist League in the fight against the war danger and fascism
could still not be gotten to take part in street demonstrations. They were
entirely unaccustomed to this method of struggle, and one had at first to join
with them in other, more elementary forms of strtiggle, which could be regarded
by the members of their organizations as their own forms of struggle, in ordei'
later, as their fighting spirit grew, to lead them further.
Second, our American young comrades convinced themselves that they indeed
had a lot to learn from the non-Commnnist masses.
For instance, they learnt "a new language", the fresh, concrete, popular
and expressive language of youth — the language which Comrade Dimitroff here
demanded — in place of the old, dry, stereotyped jargon which is almost
incomprehensible to the normal human mind. Comrade Green has explained
how, in connection with the youth congre.ss, they succeeded in framing the
highly important "Declaration of Rights of the American Youth" in the
language of yotith :
". . . We did all in our power to see to it that as many youth and their
or^.-inlzatinns as possible were drawn in to help formulate and finalize this
document."
"752 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
And he added :
"By working in this uiiiinier we did not weaken the prestige of the Y.C.L.
but strengthened it ; we showed hirge numbers of youth that the Y.C.L. had
no narrow interests but that its main concern was to broaden the youth
congress and make it tlie most effective mass movement against reaction and
for the innnediate needs of tlie youth."
In particuhir, the representatives of the American Young Communist League
have learnt from the masses how to approach tlie non-proletarian strata of
the youth correctly. Formerly, many meml)ers of the Young Communist League
looked down, for instance, on the student youth, and thereby, of course, made
it dillicult to set up closer contacts with them. This was also an expression
of sectarianism and had to be eliminated from the ranks of the Communist
youth movement. If the representatives of the Young Communist League of
the United Stfites had not known how to approach the student youth in a
comradely fashion, it would have been impossible for them to have developed
their great united front actions among the students, the most important of
which was the big students' strike against war and fascism on April 12, I'Joo,
in which 184.000 students took part.
Third, the American young comrades have also learned to overcome iheir
former intlexibility in tactics and to apply rld.stic tactic.'i.
Comrade (Jreen lias quoted two characteristic examples of this. The first
example is that the religious members of the congress, who were at first i>ar-
ticularly skeptical of the po.ssibility of a united front with the Communists, on
Sunday morning were given the opportunity of the private enjoyment of divine
service. The second example is that the Roosevelt project for making pro-
vision for the youth by an appropriation of .$;")( t.dOO.OOO for the purpo.se of
immediate assistance to the youth, on the initiative of our comrades was
not labeled demagogic, but rather credited as a cotu-CKSion which the govern-
ment was obliged to make in view of the growing united front movement. At
the same time, the leaders of the youth united front exposed the utter inad-
equac.v of this measure and also i»ointed out how the government's plan
threatened to impair the condition of certain sections of the youth. Comrade
Green was quite right when he summarized the results of these tactics in the
following terms:
'Thus it turns this project of Roosevelt from a wojipon against the Youth
Congress into an instrument for mobilizing the youth for increased govern-
ment aid."
Here you see the same result as in France ; you see how the sword was wrested
from the hand of the enemy and turned against him.
Fourth, the comrades of the Young Communist League of the United States
have learned that it is es.^entijil to enter the biff youth oif/anizatioriR led by
the boiirr/i'oiniv. And not only that, they have also learned how to work in
the.se organizations.
Formerly, such bourgeois youth organizations were simply counted by the
Young Communists among the enemy organizations, and their millions of
members were without more ado regarded as "enemies"'.
The fact was ignored that in the United States — and not only there — the
t/reat majority o/ the toiling youth belong to such organizations. You must not
think that the majority of the youth are unorganized. No, in many countries
the majority are organized, and not only in the army, not only in the schools —
they too are bourgeois organizations — but directly in these bourgeois youth
organizations. But even after we really began to say that we must work
within the ranks of these organizations, this work was vmderstood in an
entirely sectarian way as so-called "destructive work". Now, "destructive work"
in this sphere was so little in place, that it is not to be regretted that, as was
mostly the case, it :;imply remained on paper.
The American young comrades are speaking from experience when they
say today that we must work in these mass organizations not with the pur-
pose of destroying or weakening them, but to work "to transform them from
centers of bourgeois influence into centers of united front struggle, into centers
of proletarian influence". The mass of the youth regard these organizations as
their own. and only by earnestly working to represent the needs and interests
of the youth through these organizations can we extend our influence among
the masses.
In these organizations our An^rican young comrades have discovered a
large number of functionaries and cadres who are prepared to fight side by
side with the Communists against reaction, and in the course of not quite a
APPENDIX, PART 1 753
year tbe Young Communist League in the United States has succeeded in creat-
ing 175 fractions in these mass organizations. {Applause.)
Comrades, these are only a few — not all — of the positive experiences gained
by the Young Communist League of the United States in the course of the work
recently carried on by our American young comrades.
WORK IN BOURGEOIS YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS
Is the work which the Young Communist League of the U. S. A. has initiated
so successfully within the ranks of the bourgeois mass organizations possible
and necessary only in the United States?
Of course not. It is equally possible in many other countries, if not in the
same forms. In Great Britain, our comrades have begun something similar,
although in different forms. Or, more exactly, they are only just beginning;
they are considerably belated. In the Scandinavian countries, our comrades
are so late in starting that they even still have not seriously set themselves this
task.
Naturally, in the fascist countries this work has to be carried on dilTerently
from the way it is carried on under legal conditions. Comrade Dimitroff has
very excellently shown you this in his brilliant comparison with the Trojan horse.
But these tactics must be applied not only in the fascist countries, but also
in many colonial countries, for instance, in China. You know that our Chinese
young comrades in the Soviet regions have performed trttly legendary deeds of
heroism. In the regions where fighting is going on they understand in a mas-
terly fashion also how to pursue the tactics characterized by the comparison with
the Trojan horse. But in the White regions, where the Kuomintang terror is
raging, it is precisely in these tactics that they are weak. The heroism of our
yotmg Chinese comrades is testified to by the prominent French writer, Andre
Malraux, who went to China and there recorded in his descriptions the its own
efforts have also given the Party leadership a better understanding of the role
and needs of the Young Communist Leagtie. [sic in original]
But all Communist Pa/Hies, all leaders of the Communist Parties must under-
stand once for all that the yotith movement is the lieart of the movement
for social emancipation. Otir youth, our hopes, are growing. Btit they would
grow ten times faster if the Party leadership earnestly helped the Young Com-
munist Leagues and if they assigned really capable forces to assist the youth.
Some leaders of our youth movement have during the past few years grown to
the stature of real youth leaders. But it will not do for every functionary of a
Yottng Communist League who has proved himself to be a capable worker in
the youth movement to be immediately taken away from this work by the
leadership of the Party, as is now often the case.
Of course, the Young Communist League is among other things a school of
cadres for the Party. But a school that is robbed of every capable teacher and
leader is of no value. {Stormy applause.)
Comrades, the second imperiaUst world tear is approacJmiff. Preparations are
being made for the most criminal of all criminal wars — a counter-revolutionary
imperialist attack on the Soviet country, the fatherland of the workers of all
countries.
Well, we know that this war — as Comrade Stalin said — will be a most dan-
gerous war for the bourgeoisie. But whom the gods would destroy, they first
make blind.
The ruling bourgeoisie is steering towards a most dangerous military ad-
venture. In many countries it has already selected stone-blind and insane
adventurers as "leaders", and has turned over the government to their bands.
Perhaps the German bourgeoisie does not deserve better leaders, but the world
must be protected against the frenzy of such leaders.
The Japanese military leaders are "apostles of peace" (as General Araki
called himself and his accomplices) not less dangerous to the common weal.
In Poland, too, it is not political wisdom that stands at the helm of govern-
ment : and British imperialism, insatiable in its lust for conquest, is prepared
to support, directly or indirectly, any adventurist government in a war against
the Soviet country. They are all from various ends and corners driving the
world into a new massacre of the peoples. Hence the menace of war.
Well, all this does not frighten us. But it demands an earnest and energetic
mobilization of the toiling population for the purpose of resisting, for combatting
the war preparations of the bourgeoisie : it demands that the millions of members
of the younger generation must be summoned for the united front.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 49
754 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
How else can we resist the imperialist warmongers?
We want to attack our class enemies in the rear, when they start the war against
the Soviet Union. But how can we do so if the majority of the toiling youth
follow not us, but, for instance, the Catholic priests or the liberal chameleons?
We often repeat the slogan of transforming the imperialist war into a civil war
against the bourgeoisie. In itself, the slogan is a good one, but it beconie.s an
empty and dangerous phrase if we do nothing serious in advance to create a
united youth front. (Loud applauac.)
We need a revolutionary youth movement at least ten times as broad as
our Parties, and a united youth front hundreds of times broader still. That
this is entirely possible in many countries is shown by the achievements of our
French and American young comrades.
Only if we undertake and press this work everywhere with the greatest
possible energy, only if we achieve really important successes in this work,
shall we be able to say that we ai-e preparing the masses in a Bolshevik way
against the event of an imperialist war.
"You will be given a gun. Take it and learn well the art of war. This is
necessary for the proletarians, not in order to shoot your brothers, the workers
of other countries . . . but in order to fight against the bourgeoisie of your
own country, in order to put an end to exploitation, poverty and war, not by means
of good intentions, but by a victory over the bourgeoi-sie and by disarming them."
If our Parties and our youth carry on tlu' tight against war in this spirit,
there can be no doubt that in a number of countries the counter-revolutionary im-
perialist war will lead to revolution, and that by the end of this world war
many a Goering will present as pitiful a picture as van der Lubbe did in
Leipzig. (Loud applatisc.)
Long Iwe the BoUhevik youth!
Long live the (jlorious Soviet fatherland .'
Long live the great leader of the world proletariat — Stalin!
(Loud and prolonged applause. All stand amidst cries of "Red Front!" "Hur-
rah!" and "Brazai!" The "Junge Garde'\ "Carmagnole" and other revolutionary
songs are sung.)
Exhibit No. 105
[Source: Excerpt from State and Revolution, by V. I. Lenin, published by International
Publishers, New York : fourth printing. 1935 (third printing in 1935 was an edition of
100,000.) Pages 7-20]
STATE AND REVOLUTION
Chapter I. Class Society and the State
1. THE state as the PRODUCT OF THE IRRECONCIT-ABILITY OF CL.\SS ANTAGONISMS
What is now happening to Marx's doctrine has, in the course of history,
often happened to the doctrines of other revolutionary thinkers and leaders
of oppressed classes sti-uggling for emancipation. During the lifetime of
great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes have visited relentless persecution
on thom and received their teaching with the most savage ho.stility, the must
furious hatred, the most ruthless campaign of lies and slanders. After their
death, attempts are made to turn them into harmless icons, canonise them,
and surround their names with a certain halo for the "consolation" of the
oppressed classes and with the object of duping them, while at the same time
emasculating and vulgarising the real essenee of their revolutionary theories
and blunting their revolutionary edge. At the present time, the bourgeoisie
and the opportunists within the labour movement are co-operating in this work
of adulterating Marxism. They omit, olditerate. and di-stort the revolutionair
side of its teaching, its revolutionary soul. They push to the foreground and
extol what is, or seems, acceptable to the bourgeoisie. All the social-chauvin-
ists are now "Marxists" — joking aside ! And more and more do German
bourgeois professors, erstwhile specialists in the demolition of Marx, speak
now of the "national-German" Marx, who, they aver, has educated the labour
unions which are so splendidly organised for conducting the present predatory
war !
In such circumstances, the distortion of Marxism being so widespread, it is
our first task to resuscitate the real teachings of Marx on the state. For this
APPEiNDIX, PART 1 755
purpose it will be necessary to quote at length from the works of Marx and
Engels themselves. Of course, long quotations will make the text cumbersome
and in no way help to make it popular reading, but we cannot possibly avoid
them. All, or at any rate, all the most essential passages in the works of
Marx and Engels on the subject of the state must necessarily be given as fully
as possible, in order that the reader may from an independent opinion of ail
the views of the founders of scientific Socialism and of the development of
those views, and in order that their distortions by the present predominant
"Kautskyism" may be proved in black and white and rendered plain to all.
Let us begin with the most popular of Engels' works, Der JJr sprung der
Familie, des Privateigentums und des Staats,^ the sixth edition of which was
published in Struttgart as far back as 1894. We must translate the quotations
from the German originals, as the Russian translations, although very numerous,
are for the most part either incomplete or very unsatisfactory.
Summarising his historical analysis Engels says:
The state is therefore by no means a power imposed on society from the
outside; just as little is it "the reality of the moral idea," "the image and
reality of reason," as Hegel asserted. Rather, it is a product of society at a
certain stage of development ; it is the admission that this society has become
entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is deft into ir-
reconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that
these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, may not
consume themselves and society in sterile struggle, a power apparently
standing above society becomes necessary, whose purpose is to moderate the
conflict and keep it within the bounds of "order" ; and this power arising
out of society, but placing itself above it, and increasingly separating itself
from it, is the state.'
Here we have, expressed in all its clearness, the basic idea of Marxism on
the question of the historical role and meaning of the state. The state is the
product and the manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The
state arises when, where, and to the extent that the class antagonisms cannot he
objectively reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the state proves that
the class antagonisms are irreconcilable.
It is precisely on this most imiwrtant and fundamental point that distortions
of Marxism arise along two main lines.
On the one hand, the bourgeois, and particularly the petty-bourgeois, ideolo-
gists, compelled under the pressure of indisputable historical facts to admit
that tlie state only exists where there are class antagonisms and the class
struggle, "correct" Marx in such a way as to make it appear that the state is
an organ for reconciling the classes. According to Marx, the state could
neither arise nor maintain itself if a reconciliation of classes were possible.
But with the petty-bourgeois and philistine professors and publicists, the state —
and this frequently on the strength of benevolent references to Marx !■ — becomes
a conciliator of the classes. According to Marx, the state is an organ of
class domination, an organ of oppression of one class by another ; its aim is the
creation of "order" which legalises and perpetuates this oppression by mod-
erating the collisions between the classes. But in the opinion of the petty-
bourgeois politicians, order nieans reconciliation of the classes, and not op-
pression of one class by another; to moderate collisions does not mean, they
say, to deprive the oppressed classes of certain definite means and methods
of struggle for overthrowing the oppressors, but to practice reconciliation.
For instance, when, in the Revolution of 1917, the question of the real meaniDg
and role of the state arose in all its vastness as a practical question demanding
immediate action on a wide mass scale, all the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Men-
sheviks suddenly and completely sank to the petty-bourgeois theory of "recon-
ciliation" of the classes by the "state." Innumerable resolutions and articles by
politicians of both these parties are saturated through and through with tbis
purely petty-bourgeois and philistine theory of "reconciliation." That the state
is an organ of domination of a definite class which cannot be reconciled with its
antipode (the class opposed to it) — this petty-bourgeois democracy is never able
to imderstand. Its attitude towards the state is one of the most telling proofsc
that our Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks are not Socialists at all (whieli
1 Friedrich Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, Londoro
and New York, 1933. — Ed.
2 IMd. — Ed.
756 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
we Bolsheviks have always maintained), but petty-bourgeois democrats with a
near-Socialist phraseology.
On the other hand, the "Kautskyist" distortion of Marx is far more subtle.
"Theoretically," there is no denying that the state is the organ of class domina-
tion, or that class antagonisms are irreconcilable. But what is forgotten or
glossed over is this : if the state is the product of the irreconcilable character
of class antagonisms, if it is a force standing nbore society and "increasingly
separating itself from it." then it is clear that the liberation of the oppressed class
is impossible not only without a violent revolution. J/iit (iJxo irithuiil the destruc-
tion of the apparatus of state power, which was created by the ruling class and
in which this "separati<»n" is embodied. As we shall see later, Marx drew this
theoretically self-evident conclusion from a concrete historical analysis of the
problems of revolution. And it is exactly this conclusion which Kautsky — as we
shall show fully in our subsequent remarks — has "forgotten" and distorted.
2. SPECIAL BODIE.S OF AKMED MEN, PRISONS, ETC.
Engels continues :
In contrast with the ancient organisation of the gens, the first distinguish-
ing characteristic of the state is the grouping of the subjects of the state on
a territorial basis. . . .
Such a grouping seems "natural" to us, but it came after a prolonged and costly
struggle against the old form of tribal or gentilic society.
. . . The second is the establishment of a public force, which is no longer
absolutely identical with the population organising itself as an armed power.
This special public force is necessary, because a self-acting armed organization
of the population has become impossible since the cleavage of society into
classes. . . . This public force exists in every state ; it consists not merely of
armed men. but of material appendages, prisons and repressive institutions of
all kinds, of which gentilic society knew nothing. . . .^
Engels develops the conception of that "power" which is termed the state — a
power arising from society, but placing itself above it and becon\ing more and
more separated from it. What dot's this power mainly consist of? It consists of
special bodies of armed men who have at their disposal prisons, etc.
We are justitied in speaking of special liodies of armed men, because the public
power peculiar to every state is not "absolutely identical" with the armed popula-
tion, with its ".self-acting armed organisation."
Like all the great revolutionary thinkers, Engels tries to draw the attention
of the class-conscious wnrk<>rs to that very fact which to prevailing philistinism
appears least of all worthy of attention, most common and sanctified by solid,
indeed, one might say, petrified prejudices. A standing army and police are the
chief instruments of state power. But can this be otherwise?
From the point of view of the vast majority of Europeans at the end of the
nineteenth century whom Engels was addressing, and who had neither lived
through nor closely observed a single great revolution, this caimot be otherwise.
They cannot understand at all what this "self-acting armed organisation of the
population" means. To the question, whence arose the need for special bodies
of armed men, standing above society and becoming separated from it (police
and standing army), the Western European and Russian philistines are inclined
to nnswer with a few phrases borrowed from Spencer or Mikhailovsky, by refer-
ence to the complexity of social life, the differentiation of functions, and .so forth.
Such a reference seems "scientific" and effectively dulls the senses of the aver-
age man, obscuring the most important and basic fact, namely, the break-up
of society into irreconcilably antagonistic classes.
Without such a break-up, the "self-acting armed organisation of the popula-
tion" might have differed from the primitive organisation of a herd of monkeys
grasping sticks, or of primitive men, or men united in a tribal form of society,
by its complexity, its high technique, and so forth, but would still have been
possible.
It is impossible now, because society, in the period of civilisation, is broken
up into antagonistic and, indeed, irreconcilably antagonistic classes, which, if
armed in a "self-acting" manner, would come into armed struggle with each other.
A state is formed, a special power is created in the form of special bodies of armed
men. and every revolution, by shattering the state apparatus, demonstrates to
' Ibid. — Ed.
APPENDIX, PART 1 757
us how the ruling class aims at the restoration of the special bodies of armed
men at its service, and how the oppressed class tries to create a new organisation
of this kind, capai3le of serving not the exploiters, but the exploited.
In the above observation, Engels raises theoretically the very same question
which every great revolution raises practically, palpably, and on a mass scale
of action, namely, the question of the relation between special bodies of armed
men and the "self-acting armed organisation of the population." We shall see
how this is concretely illustrated by the experience of the European and Russian
revolutions.
But let us return to Engels' discourse.
He points out that sometimes, for instance, here and there in North America,
this public power is weak (he has in mind an exception that is rare in capitalist
society, and he speaks about parts of North America in its pre-imperialist days,
where the free colonist predominated), but that in general it tends to become
stronger :
It [the public power] grows stronger, however, in proportion as the class
antagonisms within the state grow sharper, and with the growth in size and
population of the ad.iacent states. We have only too look at our present-day
Europe, where class struggle and rivalry in conquest have screwed up the
public power to such a pitch that it threatens to devour the whole of society
and even the state itself.^
This was written as early as the beginning of the 'nineties of last century,
Engels' last preface being dated June 16, 1891. The turn towards imperialism,
understood to mean comjilete domination of the trusts, full sway of the large
banks, and a colonial policy on a grand scale, and so forth, was only just begin-
ning in France, and was even weaker in North America and in Germany. Since
then the '"rivalry in conquest" has made gigantic progress — especially as, by the
beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century, the whole world had
been finally divided up between these "rivals in conquest," i. e., between the
great predatory powers. Military and naval armaments since then have grown
to monstrous proportions, and the predatory war of 1914-1917 for the domination
of the world by England or Germany, for the division of the spoils, has brought
the "swallowing up" of all the forces of society by the rapacious state power
nearer to a complete catastrophe.
As early as 1891 Engels was able to point to "rivalry in conquest" as one of the
most important features of the foreign policy of the great powers, but in 1914-
1917, when this rivalry, many times intensified, has given birth to an imperialist
war, the rascally social-chauvinists cover up their defence of the predatory
policy of "their" capitalist classes by phrases about the "defence of the father-
land," or the "defence of the republic and the revolution," etc. !
3. THE STATE AS AN INSTEUMENT FOR THE EXPIX)ITATION OF THE OPPRESSED CLASS
For the maintenance of a special public force standing above society, taxes and
state loans are needed.
Having at their disposal the public force and the right to exact taxes, the
officials now stand as organs of society above society. The free, vohmtary re-
spect which was accorded to the organs of the gentilic form of government
does not satisfy them, even if they could have it. . . .
Special laws are enacted regarding the sanctity and the inviolability of the
officials. "The shabbiest police servant . . . has more authority" than the repre-
sentative of the clan, but even the head of the military power of a civilised state
"may well envy the least among the chiefs of the clan the unconstrained and
uncontested respect which is paid to him." ^
Here the question regarding the privileged position of the officials as organs
of state power is clearly stated. The main point is indicated as follows : what
is it that places them above society? We shall see how this theoretical problem
was solved in practice by the Paris Commune in 1871 and how it was slurred over
in a reactionary manner by Kautsky in 1912
As the state arose out of the need to hold class antagonisms in check ; but
as it, at the .same time, arose in the midst of the conflict of these classes, it is,
* Hid.— Ed.
758 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
as a rule, the state of the most powerful, economically dominant class, which
by virtue thereof becomes also the dominant class ijolitioally, and tluis ac-
qiiires new means of holding down and exploiting the oppressed class. . . .
Not only the ancient and feudal states were organs of exploitation of the slaves
and serfs, but
the modern representative state is the instrument of the exploitation of wage-
labour by capital. By way of exception, however, there are periods when the
warring classes .so nearly attain equilibrium that the state power, ostensibly
appearing as a mediator, assumes for the moment a certain independence in
relation to both. . . .^
Such were, for instance, the absolute monarchies of the seventeenth and
eighteenlli centuries, the Bonapartism of the First and Second Empires in France,
and tlie Bismarck regime in Germany.
Such, we may add, is now the Kerensky government in republican Russia after
its shift to persecuting the revolutionary proletariat, at a moment when the
Soviets, thanks to the leadership of the petty-bourgeois democrats, have (ilrrady
become impotent, while the bourgeoisie is not yet strong enough to disperse them
outright.
In a democratic republic, Engels continues, "wealth wields its power indirectly,
but all the more effectively," first, by means of "direct corruption of the officials"
(America) ; second, by means of "the alliance of the government with the stock
exchange" (France and America).
At the present time, imperialism and the domination of the banks have "de-
veloped" to an unusually tine art both these methods of defending and asserting
the omnipotence of wealth in democratic republics of all descriptions. If, for in-
stance, in tlie very first months of the Russian democratic republic, one might
say during the honeymoon of the union of the "Socialists" — Socialist-Revolution-
aries and Mensheviks — with the bourgeoisie, Mr. Palchiii.sky ol>structed every
measure in the coalition cabinet, restraining the capitalists and their war profi-
teering, their plundering of the public treasury by means of army contracts ; and
if, after his resignation Mr. Palcliinslcy (replaced, of course, by an exactly similar
Palchinsky) was "rewarded" by the capitalists with a ".soft" job carrying a
salary of 120,000 rubles per annum, what was thisV Direct or indirect biiliery?
A league of the government with tlie capitalist syndicates, or "only" friendly rela-
tions? What is the role played by the Chernovs, Tseretelis, Avkseutyevs and
SkobelevsV Are they the "direct" or only the indirect allies of the millionaire
trea.sury looters?
The omnipotence of "wealth" is thus more secure in a democratic republic,
since it does not depend on the poor political shell of capitalism. A democrsitic
republic is the best possible political shell for capitalism, and therefore once
■capital has gained control (through the Palchinskys, Chernovs, Tseretellis and Co.)
of this very best .shell, it establishes its power so securely, so firmly that no
change, either of persons, or institutions, or parties in the bourgeois reiuiblic
<;an shake it.
We must also note that Engels quite definitely regards universal suffrage as a
means of bourgeois domination. Universal suffrage, he says, obviously summing
up the long experience of German Social-Democracy, is "an index of the ma-
turity of the working class ; it cannot, and never will, be anything else but that
in the modern state."
The petty-bourgeois democrats, such as our Socialist-Revolutionaries and Men-
sheviks, and also their twin brothers, the social-chauvinists and opportunists of
Western Europe, all expect "more" from universal suffrage. They themselves
share, and instil into the minds of the people, the wrong idea that universal suf-
frage "in the modern state" is really capable of expressing the will of the majority
of the toilers and of assuring its realisation.
We can here only note this wrong idea, only point out that this perfwtly clear,
exact and concrete statement by Engels is distorted at every step in the propa-
ganda and agitation of the "oflScial" (i. e., opportunist) Socialist parties. A de-
tailed analysis of all the falseness of this idea, which Engels brushes aside, is
given in our further account of the views of Marx and Engels on the "modern"
State.
2 Ibid.— Ed.
APPENDIX, PART 1 759
A general summary of his views is given by Engels in the most popular of his
works in the following words :
The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity. There have been
societies which managed without it, which had no conception of the state
and state power. At a certain stage of economic development, which was
necessarily bound up with the cleavage of society into classes, the state
became a necessity owing to this cleavage. We are now rapidly approach-
ing a stage in the development of production at which the existence of
rhese classes has not only ceased to be a necessity, but is becoming a posi-
tive hindrance to production. They will disappear as inevitably as they
arose at an earlier stage. Along with them, the state will inevitably dis-
appear. The society that organises production anew on the basis of a free
and equal association of the producers will put the whole state machine
where it will then belong : in the museum of antiquities, side by side with
the spinning wheel and the bronze axe.^
It is not often that we find this passage quoted in the propaganda and agita-
tion literature of contemporaiy Social-Democracy. But even when we do come
across it, it is generally quoted in the same manner as one bows before an
icon, f: e., it is done merely to show official respect for Engels, without any
attempt to gauge the breadth and depth of revolutionary action presupposed by
this relegating of "the whole state machine ... to the museum of antiquities."
In most cases we do not even find an understanding of what Engels calls the
state machine.
4. THE "WITHEEING AWAY" OF THE STATE AND VIOLENT REVOLUTION
Engels' words regarding the "withering away" of the state enjoy such popu-
larity, they are so often quoted, and they show so clearly the essence of the
usu.nl adulteration by means of which Marxism is made to look like opportunism,
that we must dwell on them in detail. Let us quote the whole passage from
which they are taken.
The proletariat seizes state power, and then transforms the means of
l>roduction into state property. But in doing this, it puts an end to itself
as the proletariat, it puts an end to all class differences and class antago-
nisms, it puts an end also to the state as the state. Former society, moving
in class antagonisms, had need of the state, that is, an organisation of the
exploiting class at each period for the maintenance of its external conditions
of production ; therefore, in particular, for the forcible holding down of the
exploited class in the conditions of oppression (slavery, bondage or serfdom,
wage-labour) determined by the existing mode of production. The state
was the official representative of society as a whole, its embodiment in a
visible corporate body ; but it was this only in so far as it was the state of
That class which itself, in its epoch, represented society as a whole: in
ancient times, the state of the slave-owning citizens ; in the Middle Ages, of
the feudal nobility; in our eix)ch, of the bourgeoisie. When ultimately it
becomes really representative of society as a whole, it makes itself super-
fluous. As soon as there is no longer any class of society to be held in
subjection ; as soon as, along with class domination and the struggle for
individual existence based on the former anarchy of production, the col-
lisions and excesses arising from these have also been abolished, there is
nothing more to be repressed, and a special repressive force, a state, is no
longer necessary. The first act in which the state really comes forward as
the representative of society as a whole — the seizure of the means of pro-
duction in the name of society— is at the same time its last independent
act as a state. The interference of a state power in social relations be-
comes superfluous in one sphere after another, and then becomes dormant
of itself. Government over persons is replaced by the administration of
things and the direction of the processes of production. The state is not
"abolished," it tvithers aivay. It is from this standpoint that we must
appraise the phrase "people's free state"— both its justification at times for
agitational purposes, and its ultimate scientific inadequacy— and also the
• JUd^ — Ed.
760 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
demand of the so-called Anarchists that the state should be abolished
overnight.'
Without fear of committing an error, it may bo said that of this argument by
Engels so singularly rich in ideas, only one point has become an integral part
of Socialist thought among modern Socialist parties, namely, that unlike the
Anarchist doctrine of the "abolition" of the state, according to Marx the state
"withers away." To emasculate Marxism in such a manner is to reduce it to
opportunism, for such an "interpretation" only leaves the hazy conception of a
slow, even, gradual change, free from leaps and storms, free from revolution.
The current popular conception, if one may say so, of the "withering away" of
the state undoubtedly means a slurring over, if not a negation, of revolution.
Yet, such an "interpretation" is the crudest distortion of Marxism, which is
advantageous only to the bourgeoisie ; in point of theory, it is based on a dis-
regard for the most important circumstances and considerations pointed out in
the very passage summarising Engels' ideas, which we have just quoted in full.
In the fii-st place, Engels at the very outset of his argument says that, in
assuming state power, the proletariat by that very act "puts an end to the
state as the state." One is "not accustomed" to reflect on what this really
means. Generally, it is either ignored altogether, or it is considered as a piece
of "Hegelian weakness" on Engels' part. As a matter of fact, however, these
words express succinctly the experience of one of the greatest proletarian revo-
lutions— the Paris Commune of 1871, of which we shall speak in greater detail
in its proper place. As a matter of fact, Engels speaks here of the destruction
of the bourgeois state by the proletarian revolution, while the words about its
withering away refer to the remains of proletarian statehood after the Socialist
revolution. The bourgeois state does not "wither away," according to Engels,
but is "put an end to" by the proletariat in the course of the revolution. What
withers away after the revolution is the proletarian state or semi-state.
Secondly, the state is a "special repressive force." This splendid and ex-
tremely profound definition of Engels' is given by him here with complete
lucidity. It follows from this that the "special repressive force" of the bour-
geoisie for the suppression of the proletariat, of the millions of workers by a
handful of the rich, must be replaced by a "special repressive force" of the
proletariat for the suppression of the bourgeoisie (the dictatorship of the pro-
letai'iat). It is just this that constitutes the destruction of "the state as the
state." It is just this that constitutes the "act" of "the seizure of the means of
production in the name of society." And it is obvious that such a substitution
of one (proletarian) "special repressive force" for another (bourgeois) "special
repressive force" can in no way take place in the form of a "withering away."
Thirdly, as to the "withering away" or, more expressively and colourfuUy, as to
the state "i)ecoming dormant," Engels refers quite clearly and definitely
to the period after "the seizure of the means of production [by the state] iu
the name of society," that is, after the Socialist revolution. We all know
that the political form of the "state" at that time is complete democracy.
But it never enters the head of any of the opportunists who shamelessly
distort Marx that when Engels speaks here of the state "withering away."
or "becoming dormant," he speaks of democracy. At first sight this seeins
very strange. But is is "unintelligible" only to one who has not reflected on the
fact that democracy is also a state and that, consequently, democracy will
also disappear when the state disappears. The bourgeois state can only be
"put an end to" by a revolution. The state in general, i. e., most complete
democracy, can only "wither away."
Fourthly, having formulated his famous proposition that "the state withers
away," Engels at once explains concretely that this proposition is directed
equally against the opportunists and the Anarchists. In doing this, however,
Engels puts in the first place that conclusion from his Droposition about
the "withering away" of the state which is directed against' the opportunists.
One can wager that out of every 10,000 persons who have read or
heard about the "withering away" of the state, 9,990 do not know at all
or do not remember, that Engels did not direct his conclusions from this propo-
sition against the Anarchists alone. And out of the remaining ten, probably
nine do not know the meaning of a people's free state" nor the reason why ah
attack on this watchword contains an attack on the opportunists. This is
8 Friedrich Engels, Anti-Diihring, London and New York, 1933. — Ed.
APPENDIX, PART 1 761
how history is written! This is how a great revolutionary dortrine is imper-
ceptibly adulterated and adapted to current philistinism ! The conclusion
drawn against the Anarchists has been repeated thousands of times, vul-
garized, harangued about in the crudest fashion possible until it has acquired the
strength of a prejudice, whereas the conclusion drawn against the opportunists
has been hushed up and "forgotten" !
The "people's free state" was a demand in the programme of the German
Social-Democrats and their current slogan in the 'seventies. There is no polit-
ical substance in this slogan other than a pompous middlo-class circumlocution
of the idea of democracy. In so far as it referred in a lawful manner to a
democratic republic, Engels was prepared to "justify" its use "at times"
from a propaganda point of view. But this slogau was opportunist, for it not
only expressed an exaggerated view of the attractiveness of bourgeois de-
mocracy, but also a lack of understanding of the Socialist criticism of every
state in general. We are in favour of a democratic republic as the best form
of the state for the proletariat under capitalism, but we have no right to
forget that wage slavery is the lot of the people even in the most democratic
bourgeois republic. Furthermore, every state is a "special repressive force"
for the suppression of the oppressed class. Consequently, no state is either
"free" or a "people's state." Marx and Engels explained this repeatedly to
their party comrades in the 'seventies.
Fifthly, ' in the same work of Engels, from which every one remembers
his argument on the "withering away" of the state, there is also a disquisi-
tion on the significance of a violent revolution. The historical analysis of its
role becomes, with Engels, a veritable panegyric on violent revolution. This,
of course, "no one remembers" ; to talk or even to think of the importance of this
idea is not considered good form by contemporary Socialist parties, and in the
daily propaganda and agitation among the masses it plays no part whatever.
Yet it is indissolubly bound up with the "withering away" of the state in one
harmonious whole.
Here is Engels' argument:
. . . That force, however, plays another role (other than that of a diabolical
power) in history, a revolutionary role; that, in the words of Marx, it is the
midwife of every old society which is pregnant with the new ; that it is the
instrument with whose aid social movement forces its way through and shat-
ters the dead, fossilised political forms — of this there is not a word in Herr
Diihring. It is only with sighs and groans that he admits the possibility
that force will perhaps be necessary for the overthrow of the economic sys-
tem of exploitation — unforunately ! because, all use of force, forsooth, de-
moralises the person who uses it. And this in spite of the immense moral
and spiritual impetus which has resulted from every victorious revolution!
And this in Germany, where a violent collision — which indeed may be forced
on the people — would at least have the advantage of wiping out the servility
which has permeated the national consciousness as a result of the humiliation
of the Thirty Years' War. And this parson's mode of thought — lifeless,
insipid and impotent — claims to impose itself on the most revolutionary party
which history has known?''
How can this panegyric on violent revolution, which Engels insistently brought
to the attention of the German Social-Demcrats between 1878 and 1894, i. e.,
right to the time of his death, be combined with the theory of the "withering
away" of the state to form one doctrine?
Usually the two views are combined by means of eclecticism, by an unprin-
cipled, sophistic, arbitrary selection (to oblige the powers that be) of either
one or the other argument, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred (if not
more often), it is the idea of the "withering away" that is specially emphasised.
Eclecticism is substituted for dialectics — this is the most usual, the most wide-
spread phenomenon to be met with in the official Social-Democratic literature
of our day in relation to Marxism. Such a substitution is, of course, nothing
new ; it may be observed even in the history of classic Greek philosophy. When
Marxism is adulterated to become opportunism, the substitution of eclecticism
for dialectics is the best method of deceiving the masses; it gives an illusory
satisfaction ; it seems to take into account all sides of the process, all the tend-
encies of development, all the contradictory factors and so forth, whereas in
reality it offers no consistent and revolutionary view of the process of social
development at all.
= md. — Ed.
762 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
We have already said above and shall show more fully later that the teaching
of Marx and Engels regarding the inevitability of a violent revolution refers
to the bourgeois state. It cannot be replaced by the proletarian state (the dic-
tatorship of the proletariat) through "withering away," but, as a general rule,
only through a violent revolution. The panegyric sung in its honour by Engels
ami fully corresponding to the repeated declarations of Marx (remember the con-
cluding passages of the Poverty of Philsophy and the Communist Manifesto, with
its proud and open declaration of the inevitability of a violent revolution ; remem
ber Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme of 1875 in which, almost thirtj
years later, he mercilessly castigates the opiwrtunist character of that pro-
gramme^)— this praise is by no means a mere "impulse," a mere declamation,
or a polemical sally. The necessity of systematically fostering among the masses
this and just this point of view about violent revolution lies at the root of the
ichoJe of Marx's and Engels' teaching. The neglect of such propaganda and
agitation by both the present predominant social-chauvinist and the Kautskyist
currents brings their betrayal of Marx's and Engels' teaching into prominent
relief.
The replacement of the bourgeois by the proletarian state is impossible without
a violent revolution. The abolition of the proletarian state, i. e., of all state, is
only possible through "withering away."
Marx and Engels gave a full and concrete exposition of these views in studying
each revolutionary situation separately, in analysing the lessons of the experi-
ence of each individual revolution. We now pass to this, undoubtedly the most
important part of their work.
Exhibit No. lOG
[Source: Excerpt from State and Revolution, by V. I. Lenin, published by International
Publishers, New York: fourth printing, 1935 (third printing in 1935 was an edition of
100,000). Pages 39-44]
;i. THE DESTRUCTION OF PABUAMKNTAKISM
The Commune — says Marx — was to be a working, not a parliamentary
body, executive and legislative at the same time. . . .
Instead of deciding once in three or six years which member of the
ruling class was to represent the people in Parliament, universal suffrage
was to serve the people, constituted in Communes, as individual suffrage
serves every other employer in the search for the workmen and managers
in his business.*
This remarkable criticism of parliamentarism made in 1871 also belong;?
to the "forgotten words" of Marxism, thanks to the prevalence of social-
chauvinism and opportunism. Ministers and professional parliamentarians,
traitors to the proletariat and Socialist "sharks" of our day, have left all
criticism of parliamentarism to the Anarchists, and, on this wonderfully
intelligent ground, denounce all criticism of parliamentarism as "Anarchism"!!
It is not surprising that the proletariat of the most "advanced" parliamentary
countries, being di.sgusted with such "Socialists" as Messrs. Scheidemann,
David, Legieu, Sembat, Renaudel, Henderson, Vaudervelde, Stauning, Branting,
Bissolati and Co. has been giving its sympathies more and more to Anarcho-
syndicalism, in spite of the fact that it is but the twin brother of opportunism.
But to Marx, revolutionary dialectics was never the empty fashionable
phrase, the toy rattle, which Plekhanov, Kautsky and the others have made of it.
Marx knew how to break with Anarchism ruthlessly for its inability to make
use of the "stable" of bourgeois parliamentarism, especially at a time when
the situation was not revolutionary ; but at the same time he knew how to
subject parliamentarism to a reallj revolutionary -proletarian criticism.
To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to
repress and oppress the i)eople through parliament — this is the real essence of
bourgeois parliamentarism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchie.s,
but also in the most democratic republics.
3 Ibid.— Ed.
APPENDIX, PART 1 763
But, if the question of tlie stfite is raised, if parliamentarism is to be regarded
as one institution of the state, what then, from the point of view of the tasks
of the proletariat in this realm, is to be the way out of parliamentarism?
How can we do without it?
Again and again we must repeat : the teaching of Marx, based on the study
of the Commune, has been sc completely forgotten that any criticism of
parliamentarism other than Anarchist or reactionary is quite unintelligible
to a present-day "Social-Democrat" (read: present-day traitor to Socialism).
The way out of parliamentarism is to be found, of course, not in the abolition
of the representative institutions and the elective principle, but in the con-
version of the representative institutions from mere ''talking shops" into work-
ing bodies. "The Commune was to be a v>7orking, not a parliamentary body,
executive and legislative at the same time."
"A working, not a parliamentary body" — this hits the vital spot of present-
day parliamentarians and the pj^rlianientary Social-Democratic "lap-dogs" !
Take any parliamentary country, from America to Switzerland, from France
to England, Norway and so forth — the actual work of the "state" there is done
behind the scenes and is carried out by tlie departments, the offices and the
staffs. Parliament itself gives up to talk for the special purposes of fooling
the "common people." This is so true that even in the Russian republic, a
bourgeois-democratic republic, all these aims of parliamentarism were immedi-
ately revealed, even before a real parliament was created. Such heroes of
rotten philistinism as the Skobelevs and the Tseretelis, Chernovs and
Avksentyevs, have managed to pollute even the Soviets, after the model of
the most despicable petty-bourgeois parliamentarism, by turning them into hollow
talking shops. In the Soviets, the Right Honourable "Socialist" Ministers are
fooling the confiding peasants with phrase-mongering and resolutions. In
the government itself a sort of permanent quadrille is going on in order that,
on the one hand, as many S.-R.'s and Mensheviks as ix)ssible may get at the
"gravy," the "soft" jobs, and, on the other hand, the attention of the people
may be occupied. All the while the real "state" business is being done in the
offices, in the staffs.
The Di/elo Narodo, organ of the ruling Socialist-Revolutionary Party, recently
admitted in an editorial article — with the incomparable candour of i>eople of
"good society," in which "all" are engaged in political prostitution — that even
in those ministries which belong lo the "Socialists" (please excuse the t.erm),
the whole bureaucratic apparatus remains essentially the same as of old,
working as of old, and "freely" obstructing revohitionary measures. Even if
we did not have this admission, would not the actual history of the narticipa-
tion of the S.-R.'s and Menshevik.; in the government prove this? It is only
characteristic that — while in ministerial company with the Cadets — Messrs.
Chernov, Rusauov, Zenzinov and other editors of the Dyelo Naroda have so
completely lost all shame that they unblushingly proclaim, as if it were a
mere bagatelle, that in "their" ministries everything remains as of old ! ! Revo-
lutionary-democratic phrases to gull the Simple Simons ; bureai;cracy and red
tape for the "benefit" of the capitalists — ^^here you 'have the essence of the
"honourable" coalition.
The venal and rotten parliamentarism of bourgeois society is replaced in
the Commune by institutions in which freedom of opinion and discussion does
not degenerate into deception, for the parliamentarians must themselves work,
must themselves execute their own laws, must themselves verify their results
in actual life, must themselves be directly responsible to their electorate.
Representative institutions remain, but parliamentarism as a special system,
as a division of labour between the legislative and the executive functions, as
a privileged position for the deputies, no longer exists. Without representative
institutions we cannot imagine democracy, not even proletarian democracy;
but we can and mvst think of democracy without parliamentarism, if criticism
of bourgeois society is not mere empty words for us, if the desire to overthrow
the rule of the bourgeoisie is our serious and sincere desire, and not a mere
"election cry" for catching workingmen's votes, as it is with the Mensheviks
and S.-R.'s, the Scheidemanns, the Legiens, the Sembats and the Vanderveldes.
It is most instructive to notice that, in speaking of the functions of those
officials who are necessary both in the Commune and in the proletarian de-
mocracy, Marx compares them with the workers of "every other employer," that
Is. of the usual capitalist concern, with its "workers and managers."
There is no trace of Utopianism in Marx, in the sense of inventing or
imagining a "new" society. No, he studies, as a process of natural history, the
764 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
birth of the new society from the old, the forms of transition from the latter
to the former. He takes the actual experience of a mass proletarian movement
and tries to draw practical lessonft from it. He "learns" from the Commune,
as all great revolutionary thinkers have not been afraid to loarn from the
experience of great movements of the oppressed classes, never preaching them
pedantic "sermons"' (such as Plekhanov's: "They should not have taken up
arms"; or Tsereteli's: "A class must know how to limit itself").
To destroy ofHcialdom immediately, everywhere, completely — this cannot be
thought of. That is a Utopia. But to break up at once the old bureaucratic
machine and to start immediately the construction of a new one which will
enable us gradually to reduce all ofHcialdom to naught — this is mo Utopia,
it is the experience of the Commune, it is the direct and urgent task of the
revolutionary proletariat.
Capitalism simplilies the functions of "state" administration; it makes it
possible to throw off "commanding" methods and to reduce everything to a
matter of the organisation of the proletarians (as tlie ruling class), hiring
"workmen and managers" in the namt of the whole of society.
We are not Utopians, we do not indulge in "dreams" of how best to do
away iinmcdinteli/ with all administration, with all suliordination ; these
Anarchist dreams, based upon a lack of luiderstanding of the task of proletarian
dictatorship, are basically foreign to .Marxism, and. as a matter of fact, they
serve but to put off the Socialist revolution until human nature is different.
No, we want the Socialist revolution with human nature as it is now, with
human nature that cannot do without subordination, control, and "managers."
But if there he subordination, it must be to the armed vanguard of all the
exploited and the labouring — to the proletariat. The specific "commanding"
methods of the state officials can and nnist begin to be replaced — innnediately,
within twenty-four hours — by the simple functions of "managers" and book-
keepers, functions which are now already within the capacity of the average
city dweller and can well be performed for "workingmen"s wages."
We organise large-scale production, starting from what capitali.^m has already
created; we workers oiirsclrrs. relying on our own experience as workers,
establishing a strict, an iron discipline, supported by the state jMiwer of the
armed workers, shall reduce the role of the state officials to that of simply carry-
ing out our instructions as responsible, moderately paid "manag(>rs" (of course,
with technical knowledge of all sorts, types and degrees). That is our prole-
tarian task, with this we can and must be(/iii when carrying through a proletarian
revolution. Such a beginning, on the basis of large-scale proihiction, of itself
leads to the gradual "withering away" of all bureaucracy, to the gradual crea-
tion of a new order, an order without quotation marks, an order which has
nothing to do with wage slavery, an order in which the more and more simplified
functions of control and accounting will be performed by each in turn, will
then become a habit, and will finally die out as special functions of a special
stratum of the population.
A witty German Social-Democrat of the 'seventies of the last century called
the pout-office an example of the socialist system. This is very tru(>. At present
the post-ofBce is a business organised on the lines of a state capitnlist monopoly.
Imperialism is gradually transforming all trusts into organisations of a similar
type. Above the "common" workers, who are overloaded with work and starv-
ing, these stands here the same bourgeois bureaucracy. But the mechanism of
social management is here ali'eady to hand. Overthrow the capitalists, crush
with the iron hand of the armed workers the resistance of these exploiters, break
the bureaucratic machine of the modern state — and you have before you a mech-
anism of the highest technical equipment, freed of "parasites," capable of
being set into motion by the united workers themselves who hire their own
technicians, managers, bookkeepers, and pay them all, as. indeed, every "state"
ofiicial, with the usual workers' wage. Here is a concrete, practical task, im-
mediately realisable in relation to all trusts, a task that frees the workers of
exploitation and makes use of the experience (especially in the realm of the
construction of the state) which the Commune began to reveal in practice.
To organise the whole national economy like the postal sy.stem, in such a
way that the technicians, managers, bookkeepers as well as all officials, should
receive no higher wages than "workingmen's wages," all inider the control and
leadership of the armed proletariat — this is our immediate aim. This is the
kind of state and economic basis we need. This is what will produce the
destruction of parliamentarism, while retaining representative institutions. This
is what will free the labouring classes from the prostitution of these institu-
tions by the bourgeoisie.
APPENDIX, PART 1 765
Exhibit No. 107
[Source: Excerpt from State and Revolution, by V. I. Lenin, published by International
Publishers, New York: fourth printing, 1935 (third printing in 19o5 was an edition or
100,000). Page 73]
But the dictatorship of the proletariat— i.e., the organisation of the vanguard
of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of crushing the oppressors —
cannot produce merely an expansion of democracy. Together with an immense
expansion of democracy which for the first time becomes democracy for the
poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the rich folk, the
dictatorship of the proletariat produces a series of restrictions of liberty in
the case of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. We must crush
them in order to free humanity from wage-slavery ; their resistance must be
broken by force : it is clear that where there is suppression there is also violence,
there is no liberty, no democracy.
Exhibit No. 108
[Source: What Is Communism? by Earl Browder, published by Workers Library Publish-
ers, New York : second edition, 1930. Chapter XIV, entitled "Force and Violence,"
pages 124-130]
CHAPTER xrv
Force and Violence^
It is obvious to everyone that the capitalist system is breaking down, that
millions of people are condemned to a life of slow starvation because the
capitalists can profitably operate only a small part of the existing means of
production. But it would be a fatal mistake to conclude that the capitalist
social order will simply collapse of its own weight, or that the capitalists
will peacefully surrender tiieir present power and then all of us will join
together in the building of a new social system. No ruling class group has
ever behaved in such peaceful fashion. As the crisis becomes worse, the more
desperately will the capitalists cling to their property and their power, the
more murderous will become their attacks on the masses of the people. It must
be emphasized that capitalism will not simply come to an end ; it can only
be ended by the organized actions of the working class in collaboration with
its allies from other sections of the population.
The revolution does not simply happen; it must be made. This does not
imply that the Communist Party "makes" the revolution. The socialist revolu-
tion is carried out by the great masses of toilers. The Communist Party, as
the vanguard of the most conscious toilers, acts as their organizer and guide.
It gives the masses political awareness of their problems, a realistic program
that will solve these problems ; the heightened class consciousness of the workers
leads them to follow the Communist Party.
The transfer of state power from the capitalists to the working class, which
begins the social revolution, can be accomplished only under certain conditions
which have an objective existence independent of the desires of the struggling
classes. There must be what we Communists call "a revolutionary situation".
1 At the Ninth Convention of the Communist Party, held June 24-28, 1936, the following
resolution was adopted :
"The Communist Party must use the opportunity of this election campaign to smash
once and for all the superstition, which has been embodied in a maze of court decisions
having the force of law, that our Party is an advocate of force and violence, that it is sub-
ject to laws (Federal immigration laws, state 'criminal syndicalism' laws) directed against
such advocacy. The Communist Party is not a conspirative organization, it is an open
revolutionary party, continuing the traditions of 1776 and 1861 ; it is the only organization
that is really entitled by its program and work to designate itself as 'sons and daughters
of the American revolution'. Communists are not anarchists, not terrorists. The Com-
munist Party is a legal party and defends its lejrality. Prohibition of advocacv of force
and violence does not apply to the Communist Party ; it is properly applied onlv to the
Black Legion, the Ku Klux Klan, and other fascist groupings, and to the strike-breaking
agencies and the open-shop employers who use them against the working class, who are
responsible for the terrible toll of violence which shames our country."
•
766 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Such a situation develops when the ruling class can no longer dominate society
in the old way ; when the economic system breaks down and can no longer feed
the masses; when the middle classes are wavering and a considerable part
have turned against the rulers; when the capitalists themselves have lost
confidence in their ability to solve their own problems; and when capitalist
control of the armed forces of the state has been undermined and shaken.
Under such circumstances the revolutionary will-to-power of the workers,
their heroism, their self-sacrifice, their enthusiasm to struggle for a new order,
strike telling blows against a ruling class which is alrc^july shaken and con-
scious of its own doom. In this revolutionary situation, the Connnunist Party,
which has won the active support of the majority of the working class and of
the decisive sections of the other exploited classes, wins some i>f the armed
forces to its side, and leads the effective majority of the population to the
seizure of state power. There can be no such first step if there is no revolu-
tionary situation, or if the Comnuniist Party has failed to rally the support of
the majority of the population. After this first step of taking state power has
been it'alized, the workers make use of the state power to take possession of
the instruments of production. Then the ne.w government, at the head of the
masses, reorganizes the entire national economy of the country in an organized
and planned manner, along socialist lines.
So long as the capitalists retain comi)lete control of the armed forces and
their deadly weapons, tliey can defeat the revolt of the masses. In a revolu-
tionary situation, however, the capitalists lose their former conii)lete control
of the armed forces. Capitalists do iK^t fight their own battles; we have seen
that they are but a tiny fraction of the population. To maintain their rule
they need the support of sections of the population whom they bribe or dope
with demagogj'. Above all, they need the armed forces. But soldiers and
sailors come from the ranks of the workers. They can be, and must be. won
for the revolution. All rcrolutions have been made xolth weapons which the
orcrfhrotm rulers had relied on for their protection.
We must dispose of the false notion that Communists believe that a revolu-
tionary situation can only arise out of a second world war. Communists are
opposed to another imperialist war and strive to organize the workers to de-
feat the plans of the warmongers. It is the luicompromising fight against war,
not the imperialist war as such, which leads to revolution. Revolution arises
out of imperialist war, not because revolutionists "welcome the war", but beca\ise
they fight against the war before it comes with all their power, and if this is in-
sufficient to stop the war, they lead the masses in struggles for peace that
transform the imi)orialist war into a civil war against the oppressing class. It
must be pointed out that a revolutionary situation could arise independently of
whether an international war was being fought or not. At the same time, any
large scale imperialist war, under the i)resent conditions of capitalist decline,
will inevitably bring about a revolutionary situation.
Jtil.story does not show a single example in which s(ate power was trans-
ferred from one class to another by peaceful means, whether in the form of
voting or some other method of formal democracy. We have seen that the
United States was able to win its independence only after a fierce and costly
war. The elimination of chattel slavery in the South and the subsequent
opening up of the entire country to the unchecked development of capitali.sm
required four years of bloody civil war. These American examples can be
duplicated in every country. We have seen how, in Italy and Germany, when
capitalism faced the danger of the growing revolt of the masses, fascism
emerged right out of the womb of the bourgeois democracy. Fascism is truly
the enemy of democracy, which it devours in the most bestial fashion the
world has ever seen. Wherever capitalism is confronted with a life-and-death
crisis, it turns to fascist force and violonc«^ to destroy the civil liberties of
the masses. It is the capitalist who utilizes unlimited violence against the
toilers : it is the fascists who raise mass sadism to a ruling principle.
Communists, despite what their enemies say. do not advocate or idealize
violence. A violent struggle with the capitalists is by no means our choice
or preference. We know only too well the terrible price workers have to pay
as the result of the violence employed by the capitalists against them every
day. We would be only too delighted if the capitalists would voluntarily
scrap the deadly weapons which they use against the population at ]iome,
and which they are piling iip in unprecedented quantities for a second world
war. But we would be more than fools, we would be criminals, if we did not
warn the toilers that capitalists will not peacefully submit to the dictates
of history. They will not allow the human race to move smoothly to a new
H
APPENDIX, PART 1 767
and better society. We know that rather than tnrn over control to the
workers tliey would first destroy all of civilization.
The more that capitalism disintegrates the more desiierate will be its actions
against the masses of the people, the more fiercely will it use unrestrained
violence to keep down rising discontent, and the more frantically will it
destroy those formal democratic rights that once it granted when it felt itself
strong and secure. Here in the United States, the classic hand of bourgeois
democracy, the most authoritative spokesmen for the ruling class have openly
declared that they will abolish all civil liberties and establish a fascist
dictatorship, rather than allow any fundamental change in the economic
system. Under the Roosevelt administration big strides in this direction were
taken. The martial law and terror used against strikers throughout the
strike wave of 1933-35 gave a pretty good sample of what the capitalist class
has in store for the workers. Would even the most optimistic pacifist pretend
that the white landlords in the South will ever peacefully grant democratic
rights to the Negroes, not to speak of land? Wotild the mine operators, the
textile mill owners, and all the capitalists who have mtirdered their workers
in cold blood when they merely asked for union recognition, ever turn over
their mines, mills and factories to the workers withotit a struggle?
The workers are permitted democratic rights only so long as they do not
employ them against capitalism. The moment they begin to use these limited
democratic rights to better their economic conditions, then the capitalists
Immediately move against these democratic rights. That is why it is so neces-
sary for the anti-fascist movement in the present situation in the United States
to fight for the democratic rights of the toilers.
But for the workers to win a re'al democracy for themselves they must or-
ganize the dictatorship of the proletariat against the capitalists. Just as the
capitalists enjoy democracy among themselves by suppressing the toilers, so
can the latter enjoy democracy only by suppressing the capitalist class. The
decisive question is democracy for whom, land dictatorship against whom. We
Communists propose to reverse the present situation, to provide democracy
for all the toilers and dictatorship against the bankers, monopolists and other
capitalist racketeers.
If bourgeois property is to be maintained vmder the present conditions of
capitalist crisis, then the ruling class says there mtist be the destruction of
surplus goods and productive forces accompanied by the most brutal sup-
pression of the suffering masses. If the productive forces and accumulated
wealth of society are to be preserved and further developed, the property
rights of the capitalists and the institutions by which they are maintained
must be abolished, and the exploiting minority and its agents suppressed. Thus,
some foi-m of violence is unavoidable. There is no possible choice between
violence and non-violence. The only choice is between the two sides of the
class struggle.
If the capitalists should win the immediate fight, it will not mean a solution
of the problems of the capitalist crisis. All the antagonisms which brought
on the decline of capitalism will be intensified many-fold and a new and more
violent crisis will develop. But if the progressive forces in society can over-
come the violence of the capitalists, then mankind will be able to leap forward
to a new and higher stage of history. The planned utilization of all productive
possibilities will for the first time release humanity from the tyranny of man
over man. and the subjection of mankind to the whims of nature. As Engels
said, mankind wiU then be able to go from the kingdom of necessity to the
kingdom of freedom.
Exhibit No. 109
[Source: What Is Communism? by Earl Browder, published by Workers Library Publish-
er< New York: second edition, 1936. Chapter XVII, entitled "What About Religion?"
pages 146-150]
chapter xvii
What About Religion?
The united front work of Communists, especially their anti-war work, brings
them into contact with large sections of the American population which are
768 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
conuected with church institutions in one form or another. In working with
these masses to forge the united front against fascism and war, Communists take
their religious beliefs into account. We respect these beliefs, because we think
that religious-minded people will participate in the Socialist revolution. This doe.s
not mean that we cease to regard religion as a capitalist controlled institution.
But we do respect the right of the masses to hold on to their views, and are
entirely opposed to any system of coercion, such as the fascists in Germany are
trying to impose upon Protestajits and Catholics.
Communists believe, as Marx poirited out at the very beginning of his career,
that the social function of religion and religious institutions is to act as an opiate.
They keep the masses passive and persuade them to accept bad conditions in the
hope of a reward after death. It is this social role of religious institutions that
the Communist Party fights against uncompromisingly. We try to rouse the
masses from passivity, and organize them in struggle for a better life on earth.
Naturally we fight against anything and any institution that propagates the idea
of passive submission to the ruling class.
But the Comuumists maintain that the religious beliefs of a person are his
private concern in relation to the state and governmental policies. The state
should not dictate religious beliefs. We Conununists are completely opposed
on principle to state coercion in regard to religious beliefs.
Of course. Communists do not consider religion to be a private matter insofar
as it concerns members in our revolutionary Party. We stand without any
reservations for education that will root out beliefs in the supernatural, that
will remove the religious prejudices which stand in the way of organizing the
masses for socialism, that will withdraw the si)ecial privileges of religious insti-
tutions. But as far as religious workers go, the Party does not insist that they
abandon their beliefs before they join the Party. Our test for such people is
whether they represent and fight for the aspirations of the masses. If they do,
we welcome them into our Party, and we exercise no coercion against their
religious beliefs within our movement. We subject their religious beliefs to
careful and systematic critici.sm, and we expect that they will not be able to
withstand this educational process. It is our experience that their work in the
movement will bring them to see the correctness of our viewpoint on this
question.
it is significant that the Communist Party, more than any other labor group,
has been able to achieve successful imited fronts with church groups on the
most important issues of the day. This is not due to any compromise with re-
ligion as such, on our part. In fact, by going among the religious masses, we
are for the first time able to bring our anti-religious ideas to them. We have
been able to unite with them because we have been able to convince many church
leaders, and especially their followers, of the necessity for unity if we are to
protect our rights, among them religious freedom, which are endangered by the
rise of fa.scism. They have found that it is the anti-religious Conmmnists who
fight for freedom of religious belief. They have seen that it is the fascists,
who supposedly march under the flag of religion, as in Germany, who destroy
all freedom including religious freedom. Hence, many church organizations
have joined in the broad united front against war and fascism, and are glad to
find the anti-religious Communists fighting alongside of them, shoulder to
shoulder.
It is true that we have learned to be much more careful about the quality
of our mass work in this field. We take pains not to offend any religious belief.
We don't want to close the minds of religious people to what we have to tell
them about capitalism, because of some remark or action offensive to their re-
ligion. We can well say that the cessation of ineffective, rude and vulgar
attacks upon religion is a positive improvement in our work.
Our aim is to remove all obstacles that stand in the way of mobilizing the
religious masses of this country into a movement against fascism and war.
This is especially important work because the greatest organized section of our
population is in or around church groups. Only a "Leftist" simpleton would
suggest that we Communists should keep ourselves "pure" and uncontaminated
by association with the millions of church-goers in this countrv ; only a reaction-
ary will advise the church followers to keep themselves uncontaminated by the
united front with the Communists.
This aim of ours clears up a question much discussed by critics of the Com-
munists, namely, our united front activities with the followers of the self-
styled God of Harlem. Father Divine. It is significant that most of tho^e i->oople
who criticize us for associating with Father Devine and the members of his
APPENDIX, PART 1 769
church are williug euough to permit us to have united activities with more
"respectable" church orgimizatioiis. In other words, they demand that we
should be "discriminating", and should not associate ourselves with "bad" I'e-
ligious organizations, but only with "good" ones. They are especially outraged
by the fact that Father Divine's followers place their God on 115th Street in
Harlem, instead of the more romantic regions of the heavenly firmament. Their
sense of decorum is outraged because Father Divine's flock loudly demonstrates
its religious enthusiasm in the streets, and not quietly behind stained-glass
windows.
But these critics do not understand that we Communists do not distinguish
between good and bad religions, because we think they are all bad for the masses.
We are not interested in the exact location of God's residence or in the enthusiasm
or lack of enthusiasm in religious worship.
We judge religious organizations and their leaders by their attitude to the fun-
damental social issues of the day. What church organization has so completely
demonstrated its opposition (o fascism and war as that of Father Divine? Other
churches could very well follow his example. We would be delighted if thousands
of other churches would support the Workers' Social Insurance Bill, the fight to
free the Scottsboro Boys, and would fight against Mussolini's invasion of Ethi-
opia, as the followers of Father Divine have done.
It is especially important that we bring our united front program to the Negro
masses where there are the greatest suffering and oppression, and where there
has been the greatest response to our message of organization and struggle. Our
activity is gradually succeeding in giving a social and political education to the
Negro men and women who belong to Father Divine's church? Who would deny
the tremendous importance of this education in the center of Harlem, where a
people are bound in the chains of segregation, misery and oppression? These
masses will be liberated from religious superstitions only by our economic and
political work, which reaches them in the only way possible at this particular
point in their development.
We have nothing in common with the religious beliefs of Father Divine, in whose
fantastic features we see the fundamental characteristics of all religions. But
we have much in common with the masses of Negroes who follow Father Divine.
They are our people. We v,'ill fight for them and for their interests. We will
do everything possible to draw them into the common struggle against a common
foe — the capitalist system. We will not deny to them the right to religious beliefs
that we grant to Catholic workers, Jewish workers, or the members of the numer-
otis Protestant sects. We fight for all of them; at the same time we reserve our
own right to oppose all religious superstition wherever we find it, and with the
most effective means at our disposal.
There are common objectives that Communists and religious organizations can
strive to obtain. We have seen this take place in the United States, where they
have fought jointly against fascism and war, and against coercion in the field
of educational freedom by reactionaries. Such joint struggles will develop more
and more, and many religious bodies will be valuable allies in the battle against
oppression.
Exhibit No. 110
ilished by Workers :
impse 'of Soviet
[Source: What Is Communism? by Earl Browder, published by Workers Library Publish
ers, New York : second edition. 1936. Chapter XXI, entitled "A Glimpse of Soviel
America," pages 173-179]
CHAPTER SXI
A Glimpse of Soviet America
Questions are frequently put to us asking, in one form or another, what a
Soviet America would look like. There is a great temptation to answer with
an imaginative picture of the glories of an America released from capitalist
sabotage. But the imagination is staggered by the first approach to this task.
And, after all, there is more value in the sober examination of tho.se objective
facts of the already achieved productive forces, to see what can be done by
simply the full utilization of the present technical achievements, which would
be but the first steps of a workers' government.
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 50
770 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
To what extent can we take the exiK»rieuce of the Soviet Union as a forecast
of what a Soviet America would look like?
In certain respects it gives us an accurate forecast ; in other respects the ques-
tion in America will be placed quite differently. The principles upon which
a Soviet America would be organized would be the same, in every respect, as
those which guided the Soviet Union. But in our case those principles would be
applied, not to the most backward but to the most advanced capitalist country.
This makes tremendous differences in the details of birth and growth of the new
society.
In Russia the actual seizure of power and establishment of the Soviet Govern-
ment were relatively easy and almost bloodless; only afterward came the
imperialist intervention, prolonged civil war and oapilalist-ins))ired wrecking
which, added to the ruin the World War inllicted upon a backward country, left
the Soviet Government with the task of building from the ground up in the midst
of a hostile world.
In America most of our difficulties lie i)iecist'ly in the achit'vemont of povi'er
for the working class, in the establishnu'nt of tlie Soviet Govirnment. After that
has been accomplished, the American capitalists will have no great powerful allies
from abroad to help them continue the struggle. It will already be clear that
world capitalism has received its death-blow. The Soviet Government of America
will take over a society already techtiically prepared for coninnuiism. Where in
Russia it was necessary to go througli the prolonged period of War Communism,
the N. E. P., the First and Second Fivt^-Y«'ar Plans, in Ameriftt we will start
economically at a stage even further advar.ced, at about the point which Russia
will reach in her Fourth Five- Year Plan.
The only thing th.it could change this favorable perspective for a Soviet America
would be a inissible, but unpredictable, destruiiion of American economy by an
imperialist war, carried out by agencies of destruc-tion hitherto unknown.
The United States, in short, contains already all the prerequisites for a com-
nuuiisi society except the one single fa<'tor of Soviet power. In Ru.ssia, Lenin
said, several years after 1017, "The Soviet power, plus electriciflcation, equals
communism". In America the electrification already exists, so we can shorten
Lenin's formula.
The question is, given the American working cla.ss in undisputed ix)wer, what
would be the po.«:sible and probable course of development of the economic and
social life of the country?
The new government would immediately take over and operate all the banks,
railroads, water and air transport. Tuines and all major trustified industries.
Minor industries, municipal public utilities and the distriltutive occupations would
l)e reorganized as functions of local government or as cooperatives, or, in some
instances, as auxiliaries-of major industries. Large-scale agriculture would be
taken over and ()i)erated by the govermt^nt. while the mass of small farmers
would be encouraged and helped to comlnne into voluntary cooperatives for
large-scale production with state aid.
All available man-power would be jiut to work immediately, first of all in
the direct production of material wealth, second in its distribution, and third
in the social services of health, education and entertainment.
Every able-bodied person would be required to go to work and for this receive
wages according to a scale socially determined. Such a wage-scale in the be-
ginning could range, for example, from a minimum of $2,000 per year up to
$10,000 or higher, at present values. The average, according to the most con-
.servative estimates of present potential national incon^, after making allow-
ance for capital accumulation, would be about .S5.000 per year foi- each family
in the United States. That can bo taken as the inunediate average standard
of living under a Soviet Government In America.
In what form would this be made available to the population? Many ques-
tions have been raised, asking whether there would not bo such regimentation,
such monotonous uniformity, that, even with such high standards of income, it
would take the salt out of lifo. Such doubters visualize the citizens of Soviet
America living in uniform barracks, wearing uniform clothing prescribed by
law. eating the same meals, reading the san>o books and new.spajjers, seeing the
same entertainment, thinking the same thoughts, etc., etc. Such a picture
of comnmnist society is the bogey-man created by the propagandists for capi-
talism, but the closest that humanity will ever get to such a condition is the
present moment under capitalism. These gentlemen would have us believe that
communism will merely take the worst feature of capitalism and make it the
universal rule. Why we should do such a stupid thing, no one can explain I
APPENDIX, PART 1 771
The fact is, of course, that the communist reality would be quite different from
this doleful picture. For the first time we could escape from the terrible hous-
ing of slum barracks imposed by capitalism and begin to get modern, decent
homes for everybody. Even the first simple redistribution of existing hous-
ing would revolutionize this situation. We could smash the uniformity of
clothing imposed by the combination of our own poverty and capitalist mass pro-
duction. For the first time in our lives the majority could eat what their tastes
dictate, because for the first time they could afford it. And for the first time,
the human mind would be liberated from regimented mental slavery to Holly-
wood. Hearst & So. •
Why can we be sure that we would have all these desirable things? Be-
cause there would be nothing to prevent us from having them if we want
them. We would have the power to form our lives the way we choose ; we
have every reason, therefore, to expect that the choice will not be stupid,
reactionary nonsense described by the enemies of communism.
The primary concern of the Soviet Government will be prcxJuction ; this will
be highly centralized, to realize the benefits of the highest technical achieve-
ments. All means of production will be socialized, taken out of private control.
But consumption will be socialized only upon a voluntary basis, with the
greatest flexibility and freedom of choice for each individual. And the greater
grows the flow of wealth production, the more complete will become the freedom
of consumption, up to the point where all consumption will become absolutely
free and unfettered.
Only under such a society can we expect to witness the full unfolding of the
marvelous potentialities of the human spirit, the development of human genius
and individuality raised to the nth power because it is the power no longer of
a few exceptional individuals but of the million masses of free men and won>en.
Many of our questioners have asked :
"But how can the industries be kept operating at capacity without the profit
motive".' Will not a bureaucratic apparatus grow up in control which will
become a new ruling class? And do we not have again the seeds of the old
profit motive in the unequal wages, etc., which even you admit will exist under
socialism?"
We expect our socialist factories to produce at top speed, because the "profit
motive" has been eliminated. That famous old profit motive, which used to
open up factories in the youth of capitalLsm, operates in modern times mainly
to close them down. The administrative apparatus of a socialist economy
can never become a new ruling class because it lacks that private ownership,
that monopoly of the means ot life of the masses, which is the foundation of
class divisions in society.
No. the old profit motive will not creep back into the socialist .society through
unequal wages, etc. The profit motive has nothing to do with wages, equal
or unequal, notwithstanding Mr. Roosevelt's efforts in his message to Congress
in January, 193-5, to picture the whole population of the country as living on
profits, and as depending upon increased profits for an increased standard of
living. Such a conception of profits belongs not to the literature of economics,
but that of bed-time stories for children. Profit is only that appropriation
from the current production of society which is based upon, and justified by,
the private owner.ship of the socially-used means of production. The profit
motive is never anything else than that motive of a small group of owners, as
owners, to allow their property to be used by the great mass of non-owners
for production, in the expectation of realizing an increasing proportion of the
product as profit. The motive of those who do the producing never was, is not,
and can never be, a "profit motive" but exists only in spite of profit and in
constant antagonism to profit. The removal of profit under socialism releases
the constructive human motives to labor from their greatest handicap.
What are the human motives to labor? The most primitive and almost the
only ones under capitalism are the fear of hunger and want, the desire to
escape poverty and st^rvntion. Under capitalism, the highest development
of this motive is the ambition to rise, by hard labor, out of the laboring class
into the petty bourgeoisie. Under .socialism, this most primitive motive will
be applied mainly in the remarking of bourgeois elements into workers, as
in the slogan "He who does not work, neither shall he eat". For the main
mass of workers, .socialism introduces new motives, social motives, the motives
of social emulation, the honor and heroism of producers serving society and not
private profit-takers.
Under socialism, labor becomes more and more of a privilege instead of
a burden ; it carries with it its own rewards, of which the material aspect
772 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
becomes less and less important, the aspect of social recognition becomes more
and more dominant.
And what a gigantic motive power for society is this new motive of socialist
labor! What an expansion of the human powers is brought about by it! Al-
ready the Soviet Union has given us a few glimpses into the profound revolu-
tion in human nature that is brought about by the operation of this new
motive in human activity.
Socialism is not only a revolution in economic life. It makes an entirely
new human race. It takes this man who has been brutalized and degraded
through the ages by the violance and oppression of class- societies, frees him
from his woeful heritage, carries over from the past only the achievements
of the human mind and not its crimes and stupidities, and remakes man, molding
him in the heat of socialist labor into a new social being.
The rising socialist system in the Soviet Union has, for years now, demon-
strated that in the expansion of material production it outdistances capitalism
in the period of its youth by seven or eight-fold. In the prothiction of superior
types of human beings, the superiority of sociali-sm is demoiist rated a thousand
times more decisively. Capitalism, even in decay, can still produce material
wealth, even though the amount becomes smaller; but in producing higher typos
of men and raising the social level of the jiopulation as a whole, the capitalist
system has completely lost what power it had in its youth. Today it is corrupting
and degrading whole populations, and poisons and stultifies its own geniuses.
Today it has become clear that all human i)rogress is possible only in struggle
against the capitalist system and its agents, only in the tight for .socialism as the
next stage in the historical march of humanity toward the classless, conununist
society.
Exhibit No. Ill
[Source: Party Organizer, issued by Central Committee, Communist Party, r. S. A., Mav,
1937, Vol. X, No. 5, pages 25-29]
*******
"Work Among Professional People
By David Armstrong
This is an industrial town of about 200,000 people, with a university and a
fairly large middle-class population. Two years ago there was no Party organiza-
tion among these middle-class people, and hardly any work going on among them.
At that time the Party approached a few sympathetic pi'ofessional workers
and suggested to them the possibility of building a study circle. This group at
first attracted about ten people, who were studying Marxism. By January, 193.J,
there was already a Party unit of five, which worked in secrecy, only two or
three leading comrades knowing who were in it. There was regular leadership
from a district comrade, himself an Intellectual.
The history of the unit can be divided as follows :
FIKST PERIOD — JANUARY TO SB3'TKMBER, 1935
Our main work was in the study group, which doubled its size. At its meet-
ings, which were held in private homes, in addition to the discussions we had
reports from those of us who were active in other work, such as unemployment
insurance work, and we always called for volunteers to join in these campaigns.
As a result we were able to supply half a dozen active people in the unemployment
insurance work, forming a fairly broad committee which visited organizations,
got endorsements for the Lundeen Bill, and ran mass meetings.
The unit itself was very weak. Meetings were unprepared; we had few
discussions, and in fact we acted simply as a fraction for the two phases of work
mentioned above. Our best feature was that we immediately formed the habit
of discussing possible recruits every month. In this way, starting with personal
contact, and going on through the study group, and activization in the Lundeen
Bill campaign, we recruited seven more people.
SECOND PERIOD — SEPTEMBER TO JANUARY, 1936
The unit now had a dozen members. It was much more mature in the
matter of discussions and preparing agendas. A bureau began to function.
APPENDIX, PART 1 773
The main weakness (from which we still suffer) began to be felt; that was,
our conditions of secrecy kept us isolated from the rest of the Party. We
did not know at all what was going on, relying simply on sporadic reports
from a few contacts we had with the section.
Our mass work broadened out a lot. In addition to the growing study group,
which was continually activizing more of its members, we now sent forces
into the American League Against War and Fascism which was at a standstill,
we helped establish the Friends of the Soviet Union here and provided forces
for work in aid of the unemployed, as well as in the trade union movement
and in the Farmer-Labor Party, where two of our comrades played a leading
part. We also began to raise money every month or so through house parties.
At the end of rhis period we tried out the method of mass recruiting. We
brought together a group of our best contacts, the section organizer spoke on
The role of the Party, and seven signed up. Some of them later criticized
this method as being too open, but the results were all right.
THIRD PERIOD — JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER, 193G
As we now had 20 members we decided we ought to split into two units.
This in itself vras correct, but the way we did it was a model of how not to
work. We brought all the twenty together (the seven recruits had never been
to a unit meeting before) and confronted them with a plan for reorganization
which meant taking several from the organization they were used to, and
pitchforking them into another that they knew nothing about; at the same
rime we vrould split the unit along functional lines. There was so much opposi-
tion to the first proposal that we dropped it, but the second we carried through,
although the reasons for it were not clear to the recruits who wanted one large
unit with the stronger leadership that could have resulted.
The results of this blunder were that the new comrades got a poor first im-
pression of Party leadership. However, we did not lose any of them and our
work went ahead. We now began to undertake some of the regular Party
tasks. We got about 30 subs for the Sunday Worker, and some of the comrades
began to do house-to-house .selling in outlying sections of the city. We began to
build a sustainers' list, and recruiting went on steadily ; we had it on the
agenda every month.
At this time, too, some of the new comrades took the initiative in starting
work in the middle class mass organizations they had been members of before
they came into the movement. They have been able to gain influence, and
achieve really progressive results, bringing in many of our speakers and collect-
ing m.oney for a number of united front causes. This is rapidly becoming one of
the best parts of our work.
LAST PERIOD
We are now in strong positions in many of the community organizations.
They ask us to arrange programs for them, and although they don't yet follow
our line in everything, they accept us as progressives and our influence is
growing.
In our discussion group we are taking a much broader line, with political
subjects alternating with cultural and social, so that the group is again
growing in size.
Our fi-action in the American League Against War and Fascism took the lead
in the campaign for Spain and has to date collected over $1,000, as well as a
truckload of clothes, etc.
In the inner Party work, also, we are now able to take and fulfil quotas on
all drives, the DaUy Worker, election campaign, etc.
The good features of our work can be summed up as follows :
1. Functioning bureaus, well-prepared agendas, regular political discus-
sions. The comrades look forward to the unit meetings, and recruits are
always well impressed.
2. Recruiting is a habit with us. Even a year before the center gave us
the suggestion we have had a recruiting list. In two years we have brought
in 27 and only lost one.
3. An outward orientation ; shown by the beginnings of open Sunday Worker
selling, work in middle class organizations, growth of the Party and of our
discussion group
We have also many weaknesses :
774 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
1. After two years we have no regular sustainers' fund. Some months we
bring in $20 — others, nothing. This must be remedied very soon.
2. A tendency for our units to work as functiona This results in omitting
fraction meetings, sloppy work in the mass groups and too much detail in
the unit meetings.
3. Isolation from the Party and the working class. This is the result of our
secret character, and it is a problem. Many of the comrades do not know
what the rest of the Party is doing, and what little the do know is from
reports, not from contact. This slows up our development, and is recognized
by all as a shortcoming.
4 We were very slow in re-adjusting our work to the line of the Seventh
Congress. The study group was too "Left", instead of quickly becoming a
forum for all middle class progressives : and we started work too slowly in
the middle class organizations.
What conclusions shall we draw from all this?
1. It is not only in this city that this kind of work can be done. There
must be a core of Loft-wing professionals in every city who can easily be won
for activity and for the Party if we look for them. These people are waiting
for the Party to find them.
2. It is easy and important to win key positions in the middle class organi-
zations. We can find many individuals there to follow us, and even win the
whole group for the People's Front, for Spain, against war and fascism.
3. The district and section should pay attention to the wish of many pro-
fe.<5sionals to stay under cover. That has been done here, and the result is
that a lot of good work has been done in places we should not otherwise have
reached ; also those for whom secrecy is not so important have learned in
their own time how far they can safely come out in the open.
4 There is a grave danger of isolation, which might easily lead to sec-
tarianism and petty-bourgeois deviations. This will best be solved by building
a People's Front movement where the middle class Party members and sympa-
thizers will be in contact with the working class through their activity.
Exhibit No. 112
[Source : A booklet published by Workers Library Publishers. New York : 19.37]
MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY
By Alex Bittelman
Workers Library Publishers, New York
Pref.\tory Note
The present putlication is a reprint of my pamphlet Fifteen Years of the
Communist Party which appeared m 193J{. Added is a brief historical survey
a>i the occasion of the eighteenth anniversarxi of oiir Party.
The reader should bear in mind that the series of articles appearing here
were written at various times in convection with specific phases of our Party's
growth, and that they constitute, therefore, a part of the development of our
Party. As such, these articles present historical material which we felt should
be republished as an aid to the study and understanding of the history of our
Party.
Alex Bittelma>-
August, 1937
The Vanguard Role of the Communist Pabty *
A brief historic sue\'ey on the occasion of the eighteenth anniversary of the
COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
In celebrating the eighteenth anniversary of the Communist Party, it is our
task to bring to life our Party's history : its origin, its struggles for the
1 Reprinted from The Communist, August and September, 1937.
APPENDIX, PART 1 775
working class and for the people, its setbacks and achievements. We should
make the membership of the Party, and the widest circles of our people, conscious
of the fact that our Party stems from the first Marxian groups in this country,
which played such an important role in the birth and organization of the American
labor movement, that we stem from the groups of the First International of
Marx and Engels, which inscribed a glorious page in the struggle against slavery
and for democracy that was led by Abraham Lincoln.
We should make the people conscious of the fact that in our Party are em-
bodied the best revolutionary and democratic traditions of the country, of the
working class.
And as we come nearer to our own day, to the time when the Communist Party
was formally organized, we find that the birth of our Party as an independent
political organization was made possible by the infusion of Leninism into the
experience of the progressive labor movement of America. These experiences plus
Leninism gave us the basis for the Communist Party. The Communist Inter-
national, and its model party — the Communist Party of the Soviet Union —
headed by Comrade Stalin, gave us the guidance that helped the American Com-
munists to find the way to the masses and to the position of vanguard.
Through the eighteen years of its existence, our Party has passed through
several periods, the same »s the world in which we live and struggle. These
periods have to be studied and lessons drawn for our work today. But through
all these periods and changes, our Party has always been a loyal and devoted
section of our class — the working class ; its self-sacrificing advanced detachment
in the; struggle for a better life. Mistakes we have made ; but we have never
been ashamed to admit them and correct them openly and with the help of our
class. That is why, in part, our Party was able to function as the advance
guard, to fight most consistently for the task of the day and to point the road
forward to the struggle of tomorrow. That is why so many of our slogans
of agitation of yesterday have now become the slogans of action of great
mass movements of the working class and its allies. That is how our Party
has reached its present advanced position in the labor movement and in the
developing People's Front.
This we should make the masses conscious of by spreading widely the writ-
ings of our leaders, Browder and Foster, where the history of our Party comes to
life and helps build the future.
From such a study of our history, the masses will also learn how our struggle
against Right opportunism (Lovestonism, which is becoming less and less
distinguishable from Trotskyism) and against Trotskyism, now degenerated
into fascist banditism, has helped us to become stronger, more able to resist
bourgeois influences, more effective fighters as the vanguard of our class.
And especially our Party membership will learn how persistence in deviations
from Leninism, from the Bolshevik line of the Party, invariably leads to
degeneration and to the camp of the enemy.
Let us prepare properly for the fulfilment of these tasks on the eighteenth
anniversary of our Party. And let us make this an occasion for heightening
the work of Party building : recruiting. Daily Worker circulation, improvement
of all phases of our work, and deeper training in the theory of Marx, Engels,
Lenin and Stalin.
Let the eighteenth anniversary become a milestone in the realization of our
great tasks as formulated in the decisions of the June meeting of the Central
Committee.
It does not require much investigation for us to see that never in the history
of the Party was the situation so favorable as it is today for the Communist
Party to function successfully as the vanguard of the working class. And for
the following reasons : the working class is in motion. It is organizing eco-
nomically and politically. It has come into life as a class, becoming a leading
political factor in the country and reaching out for correct relations with its
allies among the farmers, city middle classes and Negroes.
And where does our Party find itself in relation to these big progressive move-
ments of the working class and of the people? Not outside but inside, in the
very thick of them ; not as observers but as active participants ; not in conflict
with these movements but as close collaborators. Clearly, this is a most favor-
able position from which to build the Party as the true vanguard of the working
class. Never as yet has our Party found itself in such a favorable position.
This, of course, did not come about automatically. Given the objective condi-
tions which characterize the present situation, nationally and internationally,
it was our correct line and the struggle for it among the masses that placed our
776 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Party in this position. It was our correct struggle for tlie unity of the working
class and for the People's Front that brought the Party to this advanced position.
Is it true, then, or is it not true, that the present position of our Party in the
mass movements of the working class and its allies is most favorable for the
fultilment of our historic role as the vanguard, for the building up of our Party
as the true advanced detachment of the American working class? It is abso-
lutely true. The whole previous history of our Party has prepared lis for that.
I refer especially to the following: our constant devotion and loyalty to the class
interests of the workers and their allies; our self-sacrificing struggles in defense
of these interests ; loyalty to our revolutionary principles ; to the teachings of
Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin under all and every circumstance; our pioneering
work in all fields of working class organization and struggle ; similar historic
pioneering activities among the Negroes, farmers, women and youth ; our struggle
against opportunism and sectarianism in our own midst ; our readiness to admit
errors and to correct them publicly and with the help of our class; our devotion
and loyally to our Party and to the Comnuinist International — to its principles,
discipline and leadership — all these vital achievements and experiences in Ihe his-
tory of our Party which we placed at the service of the line of the Seventh World
Congress, for the struggle for the united and People's Front, have helped to
bring about the present forward march of labor as^well as to place our Party
in the present favorable position in the mass movements.
Favorable in what sense? In the sense of being able to render greater service
to our class and to our people in the struggle against their exploiters; in the
sense of being a more effective force in the struggle for the unity of the working
class and for the People's Front against reaction, fascism and war ; in the sense
of being able to help Ihc irhole elans and its allies to proceed froju lower to
higher stages of struggle and to the socialist revolution ; in the sense, in short,
of building up our Party as the true revolutionary vanguard of the working
class.
How does the Party build itself as the vanguard of the working class? Comrade
Stalin's Fovndatiovs of Leninism^ gives us the answer to the question. He says:
"The Party must ab.sorb all the best elements of the working class, their experi-
ence, their revolutionary spirit and their unbounded devotion to the cause of
the proletariat." (p. 38.)
That mean.s, first, recruiting. Without day by day recruiting by which we
seek to absorb into our midst "all the best elements of the ^\'orkiiig class," our
Party cannot become the vanguard. He who talks about the Party being the
vanguard but does not exert himself to stimulate and help recruiting is merely
a phrasemongerer and a chatterer.
That means, second, to cultivate and enrich the experience, the revolutionary
spirit and proletarian devotion of the new members. The Party builds itself as
the vanguard of the class only by absorbing continually the experience, the
revolutionary spirit and proletarian devotion of the new members which it
recruits. We continually seek new members because we want more of this
experience, spirit and devotion. New members have a good deal to contribute to
the building of the Party as the vanguard, that is. when we recruit the best
elements of the working class. Therefore, we must create for the new members
the most favorable conditions to transmit to the Party their exjierience, their
revolutionary spirit, and to demonstrate their proletarian devotion. And on this
basis we undertake to transmit to them our experience, our principles, our theory.
In other words, recruiting (without which there is no building of the Party
as the vanguard) is not a mere formal act of bringing in a new member but
is a process of absorbing his experiences and revolutionary spirit, thus enriching
the Party's ov.ii experience and revolutionary spirit, and. at the same time,
of enabling the new member to absorb the Party's experience, its traditions, its
theory, principles and organizational practices.
This is the most fundamental way of building the Party as the vanguard
of the working clas.s, that is. by absorbing eontivufiUg all its best elements, their
experience, revolutionary spirit and proletarian devotion.
Are the circumstances today more favorable or less for such work? More
favorable, of course. Why? Because the best elements of the working class
are coming forward now by the thousands in all the big mass movements (which
was not the case when the working class was not as actively in motion as today),
you can literally point these people out with your finger ; because, being in the
^Foundations of Leninism, by Joseph Stalin, New York, International Publi.shers. 10
cents.
APPENDIX, PART 1 777
midst of llieso mass movements and in the front lines, w'e are daily rubbing
slioulder.s with these people, associating with them, working with them in all
fields, gaining their confidence ; and because, finally, the prestige of Com-
munism and of the Communist Party is growing day by day.
Hence the conditions are most favorable for recriiiting the best elements of the
working class and thus building the Party as the vanguard.
How do we fulfil the role of vanguard? Comrade Stalin formulates two funda-
mental Leninist principles governing this question. I shall quote them.
"1. The Party must be armed with a revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of
the laws of the movement, with a knowledge of the laws of revolution. Without
this it will be impotent to guide the struggle of the proletariat and to lead the
proletariat. The Party cannot be a real Party if it limits itself to registering
what the masses of the working class think or experience, if it drags along at
the tail of the spontaneous movement, if it does not know how to overcome the
inertness and the political indifference of the spontaneous movement, or if it
cannot rise above the transient interests of the proletariat, if it cannot raise the
masses to the level of the class interests of the proletariat." (Ibid.)
Stated even more concisely :
"The Party must take its stand at the head of the working class, it must see
ahead of the working class, lead the proletariat and not trail behind the spon-
taneous movement." (Ibid.)
"2. It must at t!ie same time be a unit of the class, be part of that class, inti-
mately bound to it with every fiber of its being. The distinction between the
vanguard and the main body of the working class, between Party members and
non-Party workers, will continue as long as classes exist, as long as the proletariat
continues to replenish its ranks with newcomers from other classes, as long as the
working class as a whole lacks the opportunity of raising itself to the level of
the vanguard. But the Party would cease to be a party if this distinction were
widened into a rupture; if it were to isolate itself and break away from the
non-Party masses. The Party cannot lead the class if it is not connected with
the non-Party masses, if there is no close union between the Party and the
non-Party masses, if these masses do not accept its leadership, if the Party
does not enjoy moral and political authority among the masses." [Ibid.)
There is nothing to add to these principles. They have stood the test of time
and have proven invulnerable.
What has to be discussed at vital turns in the class struggle is the concrete
ways in which these principles can find their best and most eil'ective expression.
These concrete ways are not always the same. They depend upon many factors,
among them the maturity of the class struggle, the relation of class forces, the
degree of "moral and political autliority" which the Party enjoys among the
masses, etc. Taking this into consideration, the Seventh World Congress defined
these concrete ways of realizing the vanguard role of the Party as follows :
"The Congress emphasizes with particular stress that only the fnrtlier all-o-ound
consolidation of the Comnmnist Parties themselves, the development of their
initiative, the carrying out of a policy based upon Marxian-Leninist principles,
and the application of correct flexible tactics, which take into account the con-
crete situation and the alignment of class forces, can ensure the mobilization of
the widest masses of toilers for the united struggle against fascism, against
capitalism." (p. 36.) "
Let me draw your attention to the essentials of this very important state-
ment on the concrete ways of building the vanguard in the present period.
(a) Party initiative; (b) policies based on Marxist-Leninist principles; (c)
correct flexible tactics, taking into account the concrete situation and alignment
of class forces; (d) the aim being the mobilization of the undest masses of
toilers for the united struggle against fascism, against capitalism.
This is our guide. First comes Party initiative. This is fundamental. With-
out it, there can be no building of the revolutionary vanguard, there can be no
mass mobilization of the widest scope for the fight against fascism and capitalism.
This means that we continually have to discover the best policies for the
mobilization of the masses for this struggle and to bring these policies to the
mass movements and to win them for these policies. This is the duty of every
Party organization and of the Party as a whole.
Second, we must initiate correct policies. Initiative is good provided it pro-
duces good policy and good policy is one that mobilizes the widest masses of
^Resolutions, Seventh Congress of the Communist International, New York, Workers
Library Publishers. 10 cents.
778 UN-AMERICAN PROrAGANDA ACTIVITIES
toilers for united struggle against reaction, fascism and capitalism. To be .so,
policy has to be based on Marxist-Leninist ijrinciplcs.
Third, good policy brouglit to the masses by Party initiative is good for the
masses and good for the vanguard. Yet this alone is not enough. Just as good
initiative can be ruined by bad policy, so good policy can bo ruined by bad
tactics. To prevent this, we need correct flexible tactics. This, however, is not
and cannot be given once and for all lu'canso correct flexible tactics must take
into account "the concrete situation and alignment of class forci's." Those, as
we know, vary and change and hence tactics must vary and i-hange. It is there-
fore incumbent upon every Communist and Party organization to be constantl.N
alive to the problem of "correct flexible tactics" because this is just as decisive
as timely initiative and good ix)licy. In fact, when these two are given, correct
flexible tactics will decide everything. And remember, to be correct and flexible,
tactics must take account of the vwicrete situation and of the alignment of
class forces.
Compare, for example, some of our policies and tactics prior to the Seventh
World Congress and subsequently. During the years prior to the Seventh Con-
gre.ss, we fulfilled our role as vanguard by propagating the final aims of our
Party, by pointing out the next steps in the daily mass struggle for partial
demands and by independently organizing mas.ses of toilers to light for these
demands; independently, that is, from those mass organizations of the workers
and other toilers in which the reformists were successful in preventing the
workers from struggling and iti expelling the militant forces from the organiza-
tion. We fought for the united front all through these years but because the
objective conditions were not as favorable, becau.'<e of our sectarian habits and
practices, and because of the splitting tactics of the reformist leaders, we were
making relatively little headway in bringing about the united front. But we
couldn't, because of that, give up the light and capitulate to capitalism as the
reformists did. This we never will do. We will always defend the interests of
the mas.ses against their exploiters, regardless of the forms and methods which
conditions may dictate. We were forced to lead minority movements and minority
struggles.
Thus, in the former period, we resorted as a rule to the tactic of organizing
mass struggles independently, of leading them largely ourselves and of raising
the movements from lower to higher levels at a comi)aiatively fast temix).
On the whole, barring the sectarian and Right opportunist errors which
distorted this line and militated against its greater success, this was a correct
tactic. It laid the groiuulwork in part for tlie present advance of the mass
movements. It helped prepare many of its cadres. It popularized many of
our slogans which in the past were either slogans of agitation or demands of
minority movements and struggles but which are today slogans of action
of large mass movements (unemployment relief, organize the unorganized into
industrial unions, trade union unity, Negro rights, farmer demands, youth
demands, independent working class political action, alliance with farmers and
middle classes, etc.). It served as a check upon the capitalist offensive in many
crucial instances and also as a check upon the extent and scope to whicii
reactionary reformists were able to betray the mas.ses. It actually succeeded
directly and indirectly in securing important concessions for the masses from
the exploiters. It — this tactic of independent leadership — strengthened our
Party and prepared us for the vanguard role in the present period.
Those who would negate in our past not only the sectarian and Right op-
portunist errors but also our vStruggles against these errors, and with that would
cancel our achievements in helping to bring about the liirth of the American
working class as a class — the propaganda of revolutionary Socialism and the
leadership of minority movements and struggles — those who would knowingly
want to do that are in danger of ceasing to be good Communists nor would
they be dependable fighters for the vanguard role of our Party in the present
situation.
What is the situation today? The working class is moving. The masses are
moving. The unity of the working class and the People's Front is being
cemented in the heat of major economic and political struggles. The objective
conditions and our past struggles are moving the masses forward. And we are
in the very midst of it all. Where thousands would rally around our slogans
in the past, hundreds of thousands are doing it today. From this certain
important tactical changes had to follow. We are now in a position to place
before ourselves tasks of major magnitude in tlie struggle for the united
front and for the People's Front. Instead of being forced to lead independently
APPENDIX, PART 1 779
minority movements and struggles, we are getting into a position of collaborating
witli big progressive majority movements of the working class and its allies,
of actively participating in these movements and establishing ourselves as a
vanguard of the class. For the first time in the history of the United States,
the revolutionary vanguard of the proletariat — the Communists — is able to begin
to function within the class and its mass movements in the way in which The
Communist Manifesto envisaged it. Namely:
"They have no interests apart from those of the working class as a
whole. . . . The Communists are practically the most advanced and resolute
section of the working class parties of every country, that section which pushes
forward all others ; and theoretically, they have over the great mass of the
proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the condi-
tions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement."* (P. 22.)
This is the way in which we have begun to function and to build ourselves
as the vanguard of our class. The present way differs in many essential
respects from the old way. And necessarily so. As a rule we seek to fulfill
our function as vanguard within and in the front lines of the mass movements
of our class and its allies, in line with the policy of the united and People's
Front, instead of being forced (as in the past) ourselves to lead minority
movements and struggles. This is clearly more advantageous to the class as
well as to ourselves as its vanguard. It is more advantageous for the needs
of the day as well as for the ultimate socialist liberation.
At first glance it might appear as though the tempo of transition from lower
to higher stages of class struggle must necessarily be slowed down because of
the new relationship between the revolutionary vanguard and the mass move-
ments. This is not absolutely so. The tempo of transition need not necessarily
be slowed down if the relationship of class forces continues, nationally and
internationally, in a dii'ection favorable to our camp. But even if, at one point
or another, this tempo of transition from lower to higher stages of struggle
should have to slow down as compared with past years, this would be only
relative; because in compensation for that we would have the decisive fact that
the transition when made would be made not only by ourselves and minority
movements led by us but by great mass movements, bi/ the elass. In other words,
not only minorities would be marching forward but the decisive sections of our
elass and its allies. In the past we could dream of that, propagate the idea and
unfold the perspective; today it has become a practical task and a practical
possibility.
Does it follow from that that in the present situation, with the new relationship
between the vanguard and the mass movements of the class, a relationship
stressed so well by Comrade Dimitroff in his May Day statement, the Communists
should permit themselves to become dissolved in the mass movements, should
cease to function within them as Communists and Marxists, should cease building
the Communist Party? Does it follow that the Communist Party and its organi-
zations have no independent activities to carry on aside from the activities of
Communists as participants of the mass movements? Of course not. Such
conclusions have nothing in common with Communism. Recall once more the
two principles of Stalin governing the role of the vanguard. With the elass and
at the head of it. The June meeting of the Central Committee has concretized
these principles fully in application to the present situation. It warned against
the danger of dissolution and indicated the ways of guarding against it. The
Plenum resolution puts it to us :
"Working on the basis of this democratic People's Front platform, the Com-
munist Party should in no way lose its identity or slacken in the task of strength-
ening its role as the most advanced and revolutionary section of the People's
Front movement. This means that, in the midst of these mass movements, the
Communist Party membership and organizations must:
"(a) Build the Communist Party into a mass Party;
"(b) Carry on mass propaganda for its final aims of working class power and
socialism ;
"(c) As the vanguard of the mass movement, point out the next steps of the
struggle, initiating and supiwrting the progressive demands of the movement."
In broad outline. Comrade Dimitroff elucidates the same task as follows :
"When we carry on a resolute struggle for the defense of democratic rights
and liberties, against reaction and fascism, we do so as Marxists, as consistent
* The Commuwist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. New York, Interna-
tional Publishers, 5 cents.
780 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
proletarian revolutionaries and not as bourgeois democrats or reformists.
Where we come forward in defense of the national interests of our own ijeople,
in defense of their independence and liberty, we do not become nationalists or
bourgeois patriots ; we do so as proletarian revolutionaries and true sons of our
people. When we come forward in defense of religious freedom, against the
fascist persecution of believers, we do not retreat from our Marxian outlook,
which is free of all religious supei-stitions."
Thus we have the correct answer to the taslj of building our Party as the
true vanguard of the working class in the struggle for the united front and
People's Front, for the struggle against reaction, fascism and capitalism.
Fifteen Yeass of the Communist Pakty
September, 1934, marks the fifteenth anniversary of the Communist Party of
the United States.
Ninteen hundred and nineteen was the year when our Party was formed. It
was a year of great nias>< strikes and deep revolutionary fermentation among tlie
widest masses of the toiling population of the United States. The American
working class was beginning to wake up to the swindle of the lirst world im-
perialist war, to the gigantic crimes of the capitalists and to their social-fascist
supporters in the labor movement. Tlie demobilization and peace reconstruction
plans of the American bourgeoisie, which aimed at a widespread lowering of
the standard of living of the toiling masses, were met with militant strikes iu
alniost all the basic industries of the country. It was also the year of the great
Seattle General Strike.
Nineteen hundred and nineteen was the year when the Communist Inter-
national was formed, preceding the formation of our Party by about five mouths.
Our Party became part of it. This followed logically and inevitably from the
whole situation in the United States. All the lessons of the American class
struggle dictated this step. But it was only through the costly experiences of
the first world war, and esi>ecially the victory of the proletarian revolution in
Russia under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, that the proletarian vanguard
of the United States came to realize that the Bolshevik way is the only way for
the liberation of the American proletariat and all the exploited and oppressed.
Thus it came to pass that our Party came into existence in the period of the
first cycle of war and revolution.
On the "theory" that American Communism is a "foreign imix)rtation," the
ruling class of the United States undertook to uproot the young Communist
Party by the method of police raids and deportations of so-called aliens. We
refer to the infamous days of Wilson-Palmer in 1919-11)20.
History has already pronounced conclusive judgment upon this bourgeois
and social-fascist "theory" of the foreign origin of American Communism. The
jtidgment is contained in the present anniversary which marks 15 years of
American Comtinunism. The fact that 15 years after the lirst anti-Conununist
mass persecutions the American bourgeoisie is again initiating similar meas-
ures as part of the intensified fascization of its rule is the best proof of the
American character of the Communist Party of the United States.
From the date of the birth of the Commtxnist Party of the United States to
its fifteenth anniversary the world has passed through the first cycle of wars
and revolutions, then the period of the relative stabilization of capitalism, and
now finds itself confronted with a new cycle of wars and revolutions. For
our Party it meant first a long and difficult i)eriod of formation and unifica-
tion, then the establishment of contacts with the masses and their daily
struggles along with the mastery of the program and tactics and organiza-
tional principles of Bolshevism, and finally the independent leadersliip of mass
struggles of the workers, toiling farmers, Negroes, etc.
At the present time, which is characterized by deep-going shifts in the ranks
of the working class and a sharp turn to higher forms of mass action (sympathy
strikes, general strikes), the revolutionary activity of the Communist Party
is growing, the influence of its slogans is increasing, its contacts with the masses
are multiplying and becoming more firm, and its ranks are becoming more
numerous. The factional struggle, which plagued the Party for many years,
has become a thing of the past. With the expulsion of the Lovestone group
from the Party and the liquidation of the Trotsky group, carried through in
the latter part of 1929 under the leadership of the Executive Committee of
the Communist International and of Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party
of the United States became consolidated and was thus enabled to take up
in earnest the task of mass revolutionary work dictated by the present period.
APPENDIX, PART 1 78]^
From the end of 1929, the struggle of the Communist Party of the United
States for establishing firm contacts with the workers in the decisive factories
of the basic industries, the unfolding of the program of concentration, began
to take place, though unevenly, with ever-increasing effectiveness. The Open
Letter of the Extraordinary Party Conference (July, 1933), marks a mile-
stone on the road of this development.
It is no accident that the fifteenth anniversary of our Party will be cele-
brated in a heightened revolutionary atmosphere generated by the great General
Strike in San Francisco which was of the nature of a historic vanguard battle
In the developing revolutionary counter-offensive of the American proletariat.
There are more San Franciscos to come with higher revolutionary conscious-
ness among the masses and wider Communist leadership. Following out the
analysis of the Thirteenth Plenum of the Comintern Executive in application
to the conditions in the United States, the Eighth Convention of our Party
had foreseen and foretold the maturing of decisive class battles. Further-
more, by developing and concretizing the Open Letter, the Eighth Convention
equipped the Party organization and membership with the practical direc-
tives for daily mass revolutionary work. It was the application of these
directors of the Open Letter and of the Eighth Party Convention that enabled
the Communist Party to give effective leadership to the masses in the maritime
strike of the West Coast and in the General Strike of San Francisco. These
hattles will mark a decisive advance in the struggle against capitalism and
in the growth of the Party, if we utilize the experiences of these battles in a
Bolshevik way.
The present pamphlet is made up of a number of articles previously pub-
lished in The Communist. They are offered as an introduction to the study
of Party history but not as the history itself. As an outline of the main paths
of the Party's development, its organic and inevitable rise, and the influences of
international Bolshevism — Lenin and Stalin — in the shaping of a revolutionary
proletarian ideology in the United States, these articles seek to arouse in the
reader a desire for further study of the growth and development of American
Communism. Such a study is of the highest importance for our Party member-
ship, and for all class-conscious workers. Tiiere is a world to learn from the
experiences of the past, and many an error can be avoided in the present and
the future through a critical evaluation of the history of our Party. In the
history of oixr Party there is embodied the revolutionary experience of the
American proletariat during a fateful fifteen years in the history of the United
States and of the whole world.
August, 1934-
Fkom Lkft Socialism to Communism °
The formative period in tlie history of our Party appears as a development
from Left Socialism to Communism. The essence of this development con-
sisted in this, that the Left wing of the Socialist Party (1918-1919) was
gradually freeing itself from vacillation between reformism and ultra-Left
radicalism by means of an ever closer approach to the positions of Marxism-
Leninism.
Tlie Left wing of 1918, the organizer of our Party, was very definitely opposed
to the reformist leaders of the Socialist Party and of the America Federation
of Labor and was consciously organizing for a complete organizational break
with the oportunists in the Socialist movement. Furthermore, the Left wing
of 1918. unlike tlie previous Left currents in the American labor movement,
took issue with the reformists on all the basic problems of the class struggle
of the present epoch, chief of which was the problem of the dictatorship of
the proletariat. And in this the Left wing of 1918 was consciously following—
or, rather, was trying to follow— the lead of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. It is
this central fact tliat determines the historic role of the Left wing of 1918 as the
bridge for the class conscious workers of th eUnited States from vague Left
Socialism and general proletarian militancy to the definite and solid foundations
of Leninism.
However, when it came to the concrete application of the fundamental princi-
ples of Leninism to the class struggle as it developed from day to day, the
" Reprinted from The Communist of September, 1933.
732 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Left wing manifested great vacillations between reformism and ultra-Left radi-
calism. Also there was a strong current of sectarianism running through its
policies and tactics. These weaknesses of the Left wing were somewhat similar
to the weaknesses of the first Marxian groups in the United States. Of these
latter, Engels wrote in 1886 that they "have not been able to use their theory
as a lever to set the American masses in motion. To a great extent they do
not understand the theory themselves and treat it in a doctrinaire and dogmatic
fashion as. if it were something which nuist be committed to memory and whicli
then suffices for all purposes without further ado. For them it is a credo, not
a guide for action." It must be added, however, that the Left wing of 191S,
having arisen in the epoch of the general crisis of world capitalism and of the
proletarian revolution, was bound to outlive its weaknesses much sooner and
to find its way to the American masses much more easily than had been the
case with the first Marxian groups.
From the foregoing it will not be correct to assume that the only element
that went into the making of the Conununist Party of the United States was the
Left wing of the Socialist Party. As a matter of fact, there were many mure
Left andmiliiant elements, such as came from the Socialist Labor Party, the
American Federation of Labor, the Industrial Workers of the World, etc. Gen-
erally, therefore, our Party springs from the Left and militant elements in the
labor movement as a whole. Moreover, in the period that followed the organi-
zation of our Party in 1919, it was through the Left wing in the trade unions,
headed by Foster, that the Commiuiist movement began to derive its main
strength and influence. But in the formative period (191S-1919), the basic
Left group which organized our Party was the Left wing of the Socialist Party,
the outstanding representative of which was Rutheuberg.
THE ISSUES OF STRUGGLE
The social-fascist historians of the American labor movement (James Oneal
& Co.) maintain that the issue between the ofticlal leaders of the Socialist I'arty
and the I/eft wing of 1918 was Socialism versus Anarchism. Nothing is fur-
ther from the truth. As we shall .see. the central issue was the dictatorship
of the proletariat, that is, revolutionary Marxian Socialism, versus reformism.
And only hopeless philistines and outright flunkeys of capitalist rule can
confuse the adherents of the dictatorship of the proletariat with Anarchism.
Oneal's method of "proving" this point is quite simple. He takes all the ele-
ments in the American labor movement of the past who advocated militant
methods of struggle and direct mass action and dubs them Anarchists ; then
he discovers that the Left wing of 1918 also advocated militant class struggle
and mass action ; hence, the Left wing derives from Anarchism.
It is not the purpose of this article to trace the development of the Com-
mimist movement in the United States back to the labor movement of the
pi-e-iniperialist era. But that much can be seen without much argument, that
the struggle between Marxism and Anarchism (Bakunin & Co.) in the L'nited
States during the period of the First International was not a struggle between
the opponents of '"force" in the cla.ss struggle and its adherents, as Oneal tries
to make it out. Marx and Engels were no pacifists, and their struggle against
Anarchism was not because of its "violence" but because it represented the
ideology of the petty bourgeoisie and not of the working class. The historic
mass struggles and street battles of the American proletariat in 1877, which the
present-day social-fascist bemoans as an unfortunate episode that seemed to
strengthen the "force tendencies" in the labor movement, Marx greeted as the
"first explosion against the associated oligarchy of capital which has arisen
since the Civil War." And while he foresaw that the movement would be
suppressed, Marx pointed out that it "can very well form the point of origin
of an earnest workers' party." {Letter to Engels, July 25, 1877.)
The Communist movement of the United States is undoubtedly absorbing and
assimilating all the militant and revolutionary traditions of the American
working class. Following in the footsteps of Ijenin. who restored the revolu-
tionary essence of Marxism, developing it further in the era of imperialism,
the American Comnumists ui\qnestlonal)ly seek to revive these tradition.s. rais-
ing them to the present higher stage of preparation for the struggle for power.
But it is just as unquestionable that the social-fascists of today are the direct
descendants of those petty-bourgeois elements who. throughout the history of
the American labor movement in the imperialist era, had tried to keep the
working class chained to the chariot of the capitall.st class, hampering and
retarding its growth into an independent political force.
APPENDIX, PART 1 783
From its very inception the Left wing of 1918 was conscious of the fact that
its differences with the official leadership (Right wing and Centrist) were of a
fundamental character. "Many see in this internal dissension merely an un-
important difference of opinion or, at most, dissatisfaction with the control
of the party and the desire to replace those who have misused it with better
men. We, however, maintain that there is a fundamental distinction in views
concerning party policies and tactics. And we believe that this difference is
so vast that from our standpoint a radical change in party policies and tactics
is necessary." (From the Manifesto and Program of the Left Wing Socialist
Party, Local Greater New York.)
In accord with this conception, the Left wing brought to the forefront
the basic question of the present epoch — the question of the attitude of the
proletariat to the capitalist state and the struggle for the dictatorship of the
proletariat. The Left wing maintained that official Socialism ("dominant
moderate Socialism") "accepted the bourgeois state" and "strengthened that
state" ; the Socialisit leaders had "lost sight of Socialism's original purpose, that
goal became 'constructive reforms' and cabinet portfolios — the cof>peration of
classes." ^Moreover, the Socialist leaders were ready to "share responsibility
with the bourgeoisie in the control of the capitalist state even to the extent
of defending the bourgeoisie against the working class." (Left Wing Mmiifesto.)
And what was the position of the Left wing on the question of the capitalist
state? Says the Manifesto:
"Marx declared that 'the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-
made state machinery and wield it for its own purposes.' This machinery must
be destroyed. . . . The attitude toward the state divides the Anarchist (an-
archo-syndicalist), the 'moderate Socialist' and the revolutionary Socialist.
Eager to abolish the state (which is the ultimate purpose of revolutionary
Socialism), the Anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist fail to realize that a state is
necessary in the transition period from capitalism to Socialism ; the 'moderate
Socialist' proposes to use the bourgeois state with its fraudulent democracy,
its illusory theory of the 'unity of all classes,' its standing army, police, and
bureaucracy oppressing and baffling the masses ; the revolutionary Socialist
maintains that the bourgeois state must be completely destroyed and proposes
the organization of a new state — the state of the organized producers — of the
Federated Soviets — on the basis of which alone can Socialism be introduced."
And this is the position which Hillquit, Oneal & Co. had met with the charge
of Anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism !
It is obvious that in formulating its views on the question of the capital
state, the Left wing was trying to follow Lenin (the Bolsheviks), many of whose
writings — as The State and Revolution — were already available at that time
in the United States. But it is .iust as obvious from the Left Wing Manifesto
as a whole, that many leading Leninist ideas escaped the Left wing altogether
while others were insufficiently understood. Thus, the Manifesto throughout
speaks of "moderate" Socialism as the exponent of opportunism in the parties
of the Second International without a differentiated and close analysis of the
various shades and forms of opportunism. This was especially necessary at
that time, as Leninism repeatedly insisted, because the most dangerous variety
of opportunism was then the Centrist group (Kautsky, Trotsky, Hillquit to a
certain extent, etc.). Failing to expose the nature of Centrism as hidden op-
portunism and the most effective cover for the open betrayals of the social-
chauvinists, the Left Wing Manifesto disarmed itself to a consideralile extent
in the sti-uggle against the opportunist leaders of the Socialist Party of America,
which, under the guidance of Hillquit, occupied a position of Right Centrism
rather than of open social-chauvinism ; or, more precisely, it was maneuvering
between social-chauvinism and Centrism. It was partly for this reason that
the weakest part of the Manifesto is the one that deals with the nature of
"moderate" Socialism in the United States. This very serious error was only
partly rectified in the agitation of the Left-wing press, with the result that the
Hillquist leadership was able, more or less easily, to carry on "Left" maneuvers
(willingness to join the Communist International on certain conditions) even
after the formation of the Communist Party.
Nor does the Manifesto analyze the economic and class basis of opportunism,
namely, the corruption of the labor bureaucracy and aristocracy by imperialism.
There is no need for this article to explain the importance^theoretical and
practical— of this Leninist idea. The question arises, how could this idea have
escaped the Left Wing Manifesto, especially in the United States of that period
784 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
where the corruption was so ripe and where the splitting up of the working
class was being carried out so consistently and openly by the reformists, most
particularly by the leaders of the American Federation of Labor? That the
Left wing was familiar with this idea, and was developing it in its discussions
of trade union questions, can be seen from the Left press. Then how could it
happen that, of all places, this should be missing in the Manifesto? We may
come perhaps closer to the explanation of this fact when we note another omission
in the Manifesto: it says nothing about the Amei-ican Federation of Labor.
Did the Loft wing have any ideas about it? It did. And its main idea was
that the A. F. of L. was an organization of the aristocracy and bureaucracy of
labor and hence so hopelessly reactionary that it was considered totally out of
the sphere of interest and activity of revolutionary Socialists. Thus, while the
Manifesto proclaims definitely its position in favor of chiss struggle Industrial
unionism, it says nothing about the existing mass trade union movement under
reformist leadership. What does this show? It shows (1) that the Left wing
had not yet turned its face to the masses, their organizations and their daily
struggles ; and that the Left wing's understanding of the role of the
A. F. of L. bureaucracy as the labor lieutenants of the capitalist class was more
that of the sectarian Socialist Labor Party (S. L. P.) than that of the Bolshevik
Leninists.
On the question of imperialist war. which was the second big issue between
the Lefts and the reformists, the Left wing took a position which was substan-
tially that of the Bolsheviks. The war question played a vei-y important part,
perhaps a decisive part, in precipitating the rise and consolidation of the Left
wing. As late as April, 1917, the time of the St. Louis Convention of the Social-
ist Party, the Left elements still constitute an undifferentiated mass of many
tendencies and shades, running from a relatively developed ideology of revolu-
tionary Socialism to outright Centrism. The policy of the official party leader-
ship (Ilillquit & Co.), while social-chauvinist in substance, took the form of a
series of maneuvers, between outright social-chauvinism and Centrism infused
with a considerable dose of pacifism. The result was that the St. Louis Conven-
tion produced no real division between social-chauvinism and true revolutionary
internationalism. This convention was overwhelmingly Left, but in the al)Ove-
described sense. Only five delegates voted for the Spargo report (open pro-
war position) ; the rest of the votes (172) were distributed between two anti-war
resolutions. But what was the nature of these resolutions? While they differed
somewhat in form and in minor detail, they were nearly identical in substance,
and the substance was a grain of genuine revolutionary opposition to the im-
perialist war dissolved in a sea of pacifism and reformism. The majority anti-
war report, which received 141 votes, was submitted to the convention by Hill-
quit; the first minority anti-war report, which received 31 votes, was submitted
by Boudin. This alone — the fact that these two men were allowed to represent
the anti-war position — shows how immature were the views and attitudes of the
Left elements at the convention. And the resolutions bear that out.
However, soon after the convention things began to move pretty SAviftly.
There set in a process of rapid differentiation within the Left, an unmasking of
the maneuvers of the Hillquit leadership and the beginning of a crystallization of
a movement which resulted in the organization of the Left wing of 1918. This
was brought about primarily by the following factors: the open and flagrant
betrayal of the St. Louis anti-wai- resolution by the Hillquit leadership, which
was especially glaring in Hillquit's New York Mayoralty campaign in the summer
of 1918 and in the pro-war activities of the Socialist aldermen in New York, in
the decision of the National Socialist Party Conference to solidarize itself with
the social-chauvinist Inter-Allied Socialist Conference, etc. : the beginnings of
mass disillusionment with the gigantic swindle of the "war to end war" and to
make the world "safe for democracy" : the activities of Lenin and the Bolshevik
Party to rally and organize all the true internationalists throughout the world,
which were beginning to be more widely understood by the class-conscious workers
in the United States ; and the victory of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia,
which demonstrated the correctness of tiie Leninist principle of transforming
imperialist war into civil war for the establishment of the dictatorship of the
proletariat.
Tlius the Left wing of 1918 not only succeeded in salvaging fom the St. Louis
resolution the grain of genuine internationalism that it contained but it also
developed this further into a revolutionary position along the lines of the
Bolshevik point of view.
APPENDIX, PART 1 785
Closely allied with the war question was the question of international affilia-
tion. Prior to the entry of the United States into the war, the Hillquit leader-
ship of the Socialist Party tried to establish itself in the position of so-called
arbiter and peacemaker between the various groups in the Second International.
In Hillquit's own words (Labor Tear Book 1917-1918), the Socialist Party had
"preserved an attitude of strict neutrality toward the belligerent powers before
our entrance in the war" and had at all times "endeavored to re-unite the Social-
ist International and to revive it as a factor for lasting peace within and among
the nations of the world." The reader will see that this was in essence the
position of social-chauvinism dictated at the time by the interests of American
imperialism which (through the Wilson administration) was also trying to
maintain strict neutrality, seeking to function as "peacemaker" between the
warring nations. The Hillquit leadership, until the entrance of the U. S. into
the war, was, more or less frankly, trying to serve the interests of its "own"
bourgeoisie in the sphere of international relations.
On the other hand, tlie Left elements in the Socialist Party were definitely
in sympathy only with the Left elements in the Second International (Zimmer-
wald and Kiental). But this sympathy was as yet (before 1918) undiffer-
entiated, with only a relatively small part of the American Lefts definitely
leaning toward tlio then extreme Left of Zimmerwald and Kiental — the Bol-
sheviks and their followers. But also on this question the crucial months of
1917-1918 brought in clarity and definiteness in political alignments in the
American labor movement. Tlie Left wing of 1918 came into existence taking
its position on international affiliation together with the Bolsheviks, expressing
on this question, as on all the other issues, the sentiments of the overwhelming
majority of the membership of the Socialist Party.
As a result the Hillquit leadership saw itself compelled to engage in a lot
of maneuvers calculated to cheat the party membership and to cheek the growth
of the Left wing. Hillquit, Oneal & Co. even began to talk of the collapse
of the Second International and promised to join in the rebuilding of the
International only with such parties as had not been in coalition with the
bourgeoisie during the war. Of course, any honest following up of such
promises should have led to joining with the Bolsheviks in effecting a complete
break with the social-chauvinists and Centrists. But the official leadership
of the Socialist Party were only maneuvering and cheating. All the while,
they were in deeds supporting the policies of Woodrow Wilson (their ovsti
bourgeoisie), seeking to "rebuild" the International with the same social-
chauvinist and Centrist elements that had led to the collapse of the Second
International in 1914. These maneuvers, of even a more "Left" character,
they continued also after the formation of the Communist Party in 1919, inas-
much as considerable numbers of the Socialist Party membership, which did
not join the Communist movement in 1919 but preferred to stay in the S. P.
in the hope of making it more revolutionary, were waveringly but none the
less definitely pushing in the direction of the Communist International. It
was this wavering group that forced through, at the Socialist Party Conven-
tion in September, 1919, a resolution "in support of the Third (Moscow) Inter-
national not because it supports the 'Moscow' programs and methods, but be-
cause 'Moscow' is doing something which is really challenging world imperial-
ism" and because "it is proletarian." Considering these very substantial
reservations to the program and methods of the Communist International, and
considering also the decisive fact that this resolution was being passed at the
time when the Left wing was already organizing itself separately into a
Communist Party, the above resolution was objectively playing into the hands
of Hillquit & Co., who were using it as a weapon against the Communist Inter-
Jiational, while some of the elements who supported this resolution were sub-
jectively and consciously Centrist. The bulk of this group began to see the
truth of this contention only later on when they too broke with the Socialist
Party and joined with the Communists (1921).
When the Bolsheviks and their supporters issued the call for the constituent
Congress to organize the Communist International, the issue of international
affiliation in the Socialist Party came to a head. The Left wing initiated a
referendum in the party ou the following proposal : "that tlie Socialist Party
shall participate in an international congress or conference called by, or in
which participate, the Communist Party of Russia (Bolshevik) and the Com-
munist Labor Party of Gennany (Spartacan)." Because of the sabotage and
delay of the Socialist Party bureaucracy, the results of this referendum became
known only in May, 1919, after the First Congress of the Communist Interna-
94931— 40— £Lpp., pt. 1 51
786 UN-AMEKICAN PROl'AGANDA ACTIVITIES
tional had already been held (March, 1919). The result of this referendum
showed that the proposal of the Left wing was adopted by an overwhelming
majority of the members. No wonder Hilhiuit iJc Co. did not want to make
the result known. It might bo relevant to observe in this conueetion that the
reformists who made their main stand upon "demoeracy" as against the dicta-
torship of the proletariat were flaunting and violating every rule of inner-
party democracy (betraying the St. Louis anti-war resolution, violating the
international affiliation referendum, etc.), in order to make the Socialist Party
safe for the democracy of Morgan, Rockefeller & Co.
Thus the three principal issues of the Left wing against the reformists in the
S.P. were the dictatorship of the proletariat versus bourgeois democracy, revo-
lutionary struggle against imix-rialist \\'ar and proletarian internationalism
versus social-chauvinism, and the Communist International versus the Second
International. All these issues arose and matured on the background of the
general fight of the Lefts for the revolutionary class struggle against reformism
and class collaboration. In its general light for class struggle policies and tactics,
the Left wing (csijecially in its Manifesto) emphjisizcd particidarly two points:
the Marxian conception of the class struggle as a political struggle and the need
of a reroIiitioiKinj use of parliamentary action and the need of class striiggle
industrial unionism.
It is well known that the reformists in the pre-war Second International had
reduced the political struggle of the proletariat merely to parliamentary cam-
paigns, and these campaigns they had reduced to a purely legalistic activity for
reforming, that is, strengthening, capitalism. This was also the policy of the
othcial leadership of the Socialist Tarty. But here the Left wing was con-
fronted wath certain peculiarities in the American labor movenu'Ut. These were
(1) the fact that tbe dominating labor organizations from the point of view
of ideological and political influence among the workers were the trade uuions
and not the Socialist I'arties, the A. F. of L. under (iompers being then the
most important organization in the trade union held: (2) the fact that th«i
ollicial attitude of the Gompers btu'i'aucracy toward the Socialist Party «.s' a
party was one of hostility and opposition which. Imwever, did not prevent the
closest collaboration of the Socialist trade union bureaucrats with Gomijers;
(3) the fact that the Ilillquit leadership maintained an attitude of Socialist
Party non-interference in the affairs of the trade unions, which in practice led
to collaboration with Gomiiers, which, in its turn, meant collaboration with the
capitalists.
The Left wing sharply challenged the narrow-parliamentary and legalistic
conception of political action as well as tbe official S.P. attitude of "non-
interference" in the economic struggles of the workers and their mass organi-
zations. The Manifesto states its position in the following way :
"We assert with Marx that 'the class struggle is essentially a political struggle'
and we can only accept his own oft-repeated interpretation of that phrase.
The class struggle, whether it manifests itself on the industrial field or in the
direct struggle for government control, is es.sentially a struggle f(u- the capture
and destruction of the capitalist state. This is a political act. In this l)roader
view of the term 'political,' Marx includes revolutionary industrial action. In
other words, the objective of Socialist industrial action is 'jK)liticar in the sense
that it aims to undermine the bourgeois state which 'is nothing less than a
machine for the oppression of one class by another and that no less so in a
democratic republic than in a monarchy.' "
On the question of parliamentary action, which the Manifesto considers only
as one phase of political action and not the most important one, it says the
following :
"It (parliamentary action) must at all times struggle to arouse the revolu-
tionary mass action of the proletariat — its use is both agitational and obstructive.
It must on all issues wage war upon capitalism and the state. Revolutionai-y
Socialism uses the forums of parliament for agitation hut it does not intend to and
cannot use the bourgeois state as a means of introducing socialism; this bour-
geois state must be destroyed by the mass action of the revolutionary proletariat.
The proletarian dictatorship in the form of a Soa iet state is the immediate
objective of the class struggle."
These rather lengthy quotations are reproduced here for the reason that they
show the weak as well as the strong sides of the Left wing. It is clear that the
general trend of the Lefts on these issues was away from reformism and toward
Bolshevism. The central Marxist-Leninist idea is here : that the class struggle is
a struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat and that the revolutionary party
APPENDIX, PART 1 787
of the proletariat must organize and direct all the daily manifestations of the
class struggle from this point of view. Thus, the issue with reformism was drawn
clearly, but not clearly enough. The Left wing lacked the correct Leninist
conception of the dialectics of the class struggle and of the role of the Party
in it.
On the dialectics of the class struggle. The Left wing correctly emphasized
the primacy of mass action, insisting that all the forms of activity of the revolu-
tionary party of the workers be subordinated to the end of arousing and organiz-
ing the struggles of the masses against their exploiters. But the Left wing did
not sufficiently understand that revolutionary mass action does not spring out
all ready-made to conform to some pattern previously drawn up. The Left wing
did not seem to realize that revolutionary mass action grows out only of the
real living issues of the class struggle, as it develops day by day, that these issues
are varied and manifold (sometimes big and sometimes apparently "small"),
and that, depending upon the objective and subjective factors, these daily
struggles will jump up very rapidly to higher forms of mass action or they may
not rise higher at all or develop more slowly.
On the role of the Party. Here again the Left wing correctly emphasized the
Leninist idea of the primacy of the Party as the leader of all proletarian strug-
gles (without, however, showing any understanding of the role of the Party as
the leader of all oppressed: toiling farmers and Negroes). But what was to be
the role of the Party concretely in the daily struggles of the masses for their
partial demands? How was the Party to deepen and widen these struggles into
political and revolutionary mass action? To this the Left wing gave no answer
or rather it gave the wrong answer. The Manifesto says : "It is the task of a
revolutionary Socialist Party to direct the struggles of the proletariat and provide
a program for the culminating crisis." The reference here is to the revolutionary
crisis and the struggle for power, and the assumption here is that the American
proletariat will get to this stage merely by the party carrying on agitation for
its program. But how? The Leninist idea of revolutionary agitation is that
it be carried on on the basis of concrete struggles for specific demands and that
in the course of these struggles the Party aims to widen and deepen their
political content, organizing the masses, organizing the Party, thus leading the
masses up, on the basis of their own experience, to higher forms of revolutionary
mass action. The Left wing had no such idea. As already pointed out, it had
a non-dialectical conception of the class struggle and it suffered greatly from an
underestimation of the role of the Party as organizer and leader of the daily
sti'uggles of the masses as well as organizer of the proletarian revolution.
These weaknesses made themselves felt very strongly in the position of the
Left wing on trade union questions. Here the Left wing sought to combat the
craft and "pure and simple" trade unionism of the Gompers bureaucracy in
the A. F. of L., on the one hand, and the official S.P. non-interference but
practical collaboration with the Gompers bureaucracy, on the other hand. To
accomplish this aim, the Left wing formulated the following position : "Indus-
trial unionism, the organization of the proletariat in accordance with the
integration of industry and for the overthrow of capitalism, is a necessary
phase of revolutionary Socialist agitation." But in taking this position the
Left wing did not rise much above the traditional, that is, sectarian policies
of industrial luiionism as practiced by the dominating element in the I.W.W.
(Industrial Workers of the World) and in the S.L.P. (Socialist Labor Party).
To be sure, the Left wing was largely free (not fully) of the syndicalist con-
ception of industrial unionism, but the sectarian understanding of it was there.
The correct fight for industrial unionism in the United States called for a policy
of active participation in the American Federation of Labor (the largest mass
trade union organization), the systematic building of a Left wing within it
and participation in and leadership of the daily economic and other struggles
of the workers against their exploiters. But this is not what the Left wing
was proposing to do. Its full proposal on this question in the Manifesto reads
as follows :
"Realizing that a political party cannot reorganize and reconstruct the
industrial organizations of the working class, and that that is the task of the
economic organizations themselves, we demand that the Party assist this process
of reorganization by a propaganda for revolutionary industrial unionism as
part of its general activities. We believe it is the mission of the Socialist
movement to encourage and assist the proletariat to adopt newer and more
effective forms of organization and to stir it into newer and more revolutionary
modes of action."
788 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The A. F. of L. is not in the picture at all. The Party Is called upon to fight
for industrial unionism only by means of general propaganda. The fight for
industrial unionism is conceived as more or less of an organizational problem
instead of as an organic part of the general revolutionization of the working
class and its mass organizations and the struggle against the reformist trade
union leaders. It will also be seen from the above quotation that the Left
wing was not yet completely free of the Hillquit policy of "non-interference"
in the trade unions, for that is the meaning of the statement that "a political
party cannot reorganize and reconstruct the industrial organizations of the work-
ing class." Trying to avoid the pitfalls of S.L.P. sectarianism, the Left wing
failed to break altogether with the official S.P. opportunism on the trade union
question.
It is apparent that Lenin's advice on this question to the Socialist Propaganda
League of America (1915) was either unknown to the Left wing of 1918 or
so little understood that it made no mark on its policies. Lenin endorsed the
position of the Lefts against craft unions atui for industrial unions. But
seeing the mechanical and sectarian twist which the issue is receiving in the
U. S., Lenin finds it necessary to iirge "the most active participation of all
Party members in the economic struggle and in nil trade unions and cooi>erative
organizations of the workers." The emphasis ui)on the word "all" is I.K»nin's
and tlie meaning is clear : fight for industrial unionism by participating in the
economic struggles of the masses and by working in all unions, no matter how
reactionary tlieir leadership. This meant primarily the unions of the American
Federation of Labor. This advice of Lenin became effective in the American
labor movement only in later years, subsequent to the organization and unifica-
tion of the Connnunist movement and with the rise of the trade union Left
wing (the Trade Union Educational League headed by Foster), luider the
guidance of the Communist International and of the Red International of Labor
Unions.
From the above it will be understood how the Left wing came to adopt a very
sectarian and ultra-Left position on the question of partial demands generally.
The Left wing correctly centered its attack upon the reformism of the S. P.
leadership, pointing out the "social-reform" character of the S. P. program and
platforms as well as its practices. This was a move in the direction of Bol-
shevism, which move, at the time, drew u pretty clear line of demarcation be-
tween the opportunists and revolutionary Socialists. But unlike the Bolsheviks,
who always formulated partial demands for mass struggles and through these
led the masses to higher struggles and to the seizure of power, the Left wing
ruled out partial demands altogether. Here we have a case of the Left wing
trying to exrricate itself from the opportunist morass of the S. P. and falling
into the sectarian pit of the S. L. P. (which al.so ruled out partial demands).
The Left wing position was that "the Party must teach, ])ropagate and agitate
exclusively for the overthrow of capitalism and the estaiiiishment of socialism
through a proletarian dictatorship." (Our emiihasis — A. B.) This attitude,
which the Left wing carried over into the Communist movement, proved one of
the main obstacles to the growth of our Party in the first years after its
formation.
The social-fascist slanderers of our movement (Oneal & Co.) like to insist
that the Communists in later years became more "moderate" for a while, incor-
porating into their programs and platforms the same social-reform planks for
which the S. P. leadership was attacked as opportunist in 1918-1919. What
the f (fcial-fascists pretend not to understand is this, that on the question of
partial demands (as on many others) the Communist movement of the United
States was developing from Left Socialism toward Bolshevism. What appears
to the social-fascists as a return by the Communists to S. P. social-reform prac-
tices is in reality a more radical hreak iiith opportunism. Right and "Left,"
for underestimation of partial demands and struggle in the Leninist sense is an
expression of opportunism covered with Left phrases; what actually took place
in the Communist movement, and is still taking place, but on a higher plane,
is a process of freeing itself from opportunism and sectarianism and an ever
closer approach to Bolshevism, not alone in theory but also in the daily practice
of mass revolutionary activity. In this proce.ss the Communist movement is
learning to carry on the Bolshevik struggle against opportunism on two fronts,
Right and "Left." which the Left wing did not understand.
The Left wing al-so took issue with the reformists on the question of the
role of the Party and its organizational structure. But on this question the
APPENDIX, PART 1 789
Left wiiig attacked only the most obvious faults of the organization, such as its
loose petty-bourgeois structure, the lack of a single political line obligatory for
every Party unit and member, the fact that the Party press and educational
institutions were run as the private domain of individual "prominent" Socialists
rather than as Party institutions under Party control and also the fact that
the leading organs of the Party were totally irresponsible before the Party
membership, violating time and again the expressed wishes of the membership,
since these wishes were opposed to the opixtrtunism of the S. P. official leader-
ship. The Left wdng demanded a correction of these opportunist abuses but
it had not yet risen to the understanding that a true revolutionary working class
party must be a different type of party in respect to its leading role in the class
struggle in all its forms, in its relation to the non-Party mass organizations as
the Party's transmission belt to the working class, the principle of democratic
centralism, the primacy of the shop structure of organization, Bolshevik dis-
cipline, etc. Thus, one might say that the Left wing only signalized the need
of a new type of party without going much further, mainly because it was not
yet fully free from the influence of Right and "Left"' opportunism, the most
decisive expression of which on this question was a considerable degree of
faith in the opportunist theory of spontaneity. We have already seen above
that the Left wing assigned to the Party only an agitational role in the daily
struggles of the masses prior to the emergence of a revolutionary crisis, and
that only with the arrival of the revolutionary crisis does the Party step in
as the real organizer and leader of the fight — which is the fight for power. In
other words, the maturing of the revolutionary crisis on its subjective side was
conceived largely as a spontaneous development. Hence the inability of the
Left wing to come closer to Leninism on the question of tlie role of the Party
and its structure.
To conclude with the subject of issues between the Left wing of 1918 and
the reformist leadership of the S. P., it is important to point out at least two
of the more fundamental issues which were practically not raised by the Left
wing. These are the Negro question and the agrarian-farmer question. These
omissions will seem today even more astounding when we consider the fact
that the Left wing did place the struggle for power and the dictatorship of the
proletariat in the very center of its theoretical and political fight against the
opportunists, showing thereby the influence of Leninism. Then how could the
Left wing fail to raise the question of the allies of the proletariat in the United
States — the nationally oppressed Negro masses and the toiling farmers? Be-
sides, many of the implications of the Negro question were at the time (1918-
1919) manifesting themselves acutely in the class struggle and in the unions
(Chicago stockyards) where the Left elements of the A. F. of L., under Foster,
were grappling with these problems, trying to find a solution for them. Under
these conditions, the failure of the Left wing to raise the Negro and agrarian
questions would show that the Left wing ideology was still largely dominated
by reformism and sectarianism : it took over from the S. P. leadership its
ignoring of the Negro and farmer questions, which to reformists could not
appear as basic problems of the proletarian struggle for power ; it also took
over some of the narrow craft ideology, especially of the reformists in the
unions, which cannot see the working class as a class leading the fight against
the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in alliance with and supported by the
Negro masses and the toiling farmers; while its purely agitational attitude to
the class struggle, and general sectarian approach, prevented it from feeling and
evaluating the pressure of these issues that was coming from the daily struggles
of the masses.
THE ORGANIZATIONAL BRE:AK WITH THE SOCIALIST PARTY OPPORTUNISTS
From its very inception, the Left wing realized that its task was to bring about
a complete break with the opportunists in the S. P., not only ideologically and
politically but also organizationally. While theoretically the Left wing (with
the exception of its most advanced elements) was rather hazy on the especially
dangerous role at the time of Centrism, in practice the fight was developed for
the organizational break also with the Centrists.
In effect the organizational break with the opportunists began to take place
immediately after the organization of the Left wing, while it still was formally
a part of the Socialist Party. Moreover, as Left groups were becoming crystal-
lized in various language sections, cities and branches of the party, which took
place throughout 1918, these groups were practically igoring the opportunist and
790 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
social-chauvinist policies of the official leadership and were carrying on their
agitation and other mass work more or less in accord with their own view of
revohitionary Socialism. This occurred especially on such issues as the war,
international affiliations, the Bolshevik revolution in Russia (and later the
proletarian revolution in Germany), the Left groups undertaking to carry out in
practice their own point of view even before there was a national Left wing
organization and a national program. And wherever they did so, the Left elo-
meuts had tlie (>xprossed overwhelming support of the party membership. What-
ever truly revolutionary and internationalist work was carried on by the Socialists
of the United States at that time, was carried on dcsj/ite the official S. P. leader-
.«^hip (Hillquit & Co.) and not because of it.
But on the question of how soon and in what form the comi)lete and foniiftl
break with the S. P. opportunists should tiike place, there .soon developed in the
Left wing serious differences of opinion. These differences came to sharp ex-
pression at the tirst National Left Wing Conferenee, held in New York, in June,
1919. One section of the delegates stood out for the innnediate (or as soon
as practleally possible) convocation of n national convention of all Left wing
elements for the purpo.-^e of organizing the Conununist Party of America, while
another section favored a slower and more flexible mode of procedure calculated
to win for the Communist Party al.^o the nu)re iiackwardand and hesitating ele-
ments of the S. P. This is not the place to discuss elabor.ately these differences,
except to point out the following: that it was a differi-nce of tactics, and not of
principle as some of the Ij<'ft wing delegates were inclined to think at the time.
Both sections had given unmistakable proof of their determination to break
formally with the opportunists and to organize the Communist Party. But one
section of the Left wing procet'ded from the belief that the formal break with
the opiiortnnists bad bi-en delayed long enough, that there was no hope of the
Left wing securing formal control of the S. P. organization for the purpose of
transforming it Into a Conununist Party because of the wholesale expulsions
carried on by the Hillquit leadership, and that the hesitant Left elements who
would not join in the organization of the Conununist Party at once were either
no good or wonld come to the Party lat(>r. The other section was not at all sure
that the formal break had been <lelayed l)ut was agreed that the time for the
break had already arrived. However, it argued that considerable munbers of
party membei-s among the native-born workers, although in general sympathy
with the Left elements, were not yet ready for a formal break, but that they
wonld be won over soon to this step when it became more ol)vious to them Hiat it
was Hillquit bureaucracy that was splitting the party and not the Left Wing.
Hence they pi'oposed a slower and less direct course which also led to the
organizatifui of the Comnnmist Party in the United States. These differences,
which might have been comjiosed if not comjiletely eliminated, were aggraxated,
however, by disagreements on the question of language federations in the party,
and also by a certain degree of factionalism. The result was a split in the Left
Wing, each side proceedings to cover its point of view.
There is this to be said on the question that is relevant even today. The
formal break with the opportunists in the S. P. was drlayed. Had there been
in the United States, during the war and especially in the crucial years of 1918-
1919, a strong revolutionary working class party — a Leninist Party — the mobili-
zation of the deep and powerful mass upsurge of the American workers of that
period wonld have given the class struggle in the United States an entirely
different turn. And the upsurge was not confined to the workers alone but was
arousing also the Negro masses and the toiling farmers in various degree. One
cannot say whether or not a revolutionary situation would have developed in
the United States in the first period of post-war capitalism had there been a
strong revolutionary workers' party, but its absence certainly militated against
the revolutionary advance which was objectively being prepared and this ab.sence
of a revolutionary party is directly traceable to the hif!toriea11j/ delayed break
of the revolutionary elements from the opportunists in the Socialist movement.
From this, however, it does not follow that in the month of June, 1919, the
tactic of immediate break was the best. Certainly, when both sections of the
Left Wing were finally agreed that by September (the time of the emergency
convention of the S. P.) the formal break would have to be consummated, and
when mass sentiment inside and outside the party was continually rising In
favor of the Left Wing, the more fiexible tactics propo.sed for the winning of the
still hesitant elements, especially among the native-born workers, were correct
and in no way militated against the Left Wing widening its independent revo-
lutionary work among the masses outside of the S. P. Both could have and
APPENDIX, PART 1 791
should have been combined. Failure fo realize this resulted in a split and in
the formation of two Communist Parties in September, 1919 — the Commvmist
Party and the Connnunist Labor Party.
Thus the formal break with the opportunists in the S. P. became consummated
and the basis laid for the building of a mass Communist Party in the United
States. Both Communist conventions demonstrated in their deliberations and
programs considerably more clarity in their understanding of Leninism and its
application in this country than did the Left Wing. In the programs adopted
by these conventions we already find llie hegimiings of an understanding of the
importance of partial struggles, of their dialectics, and of their relation to the
pi"eparation of tlie struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. We also find
there a fuller understanding of the role of the Communist Party as the leader
of these struggles, a closer approach to the practical problems of the class
struggle and of trade union work. In other words, the conventions which formed
the Communist Party and Communist Labor Party took one more step away
from Left Socialism and toward Communism.
As already pointed out in the opening paragraphs of this article, the historic
role of the Left Wing of 1918-1919 consisted in this, that it served as a bridge
for the class-conscious workers of the United S'tates from vague Left Socialism
and general proletarian militancy to the solid foundations of Leninism. This
process of development was by no means completed at the first Communist
couveiitions but has been going on continuonsly in the Communist movement
throughout its history. Only, with each succeeding period in the class struggle,
old problems appeared in a iieir form, new and stronger forces were being
developed within our movement for the successful solution of these problems,
the general class struggle and our Party with it rising to higher levels of
revolutionary advance. This is the struggle for the Bolshevization of onr
Party.
The question may be raised as to whether the present "Left" Socialist tend-
encies are fulfilling the same role as the Left Wing of 1918. The answer is
this : far from playing the same role, they are playing the opposite role. Where
the Left Wing of 1918 was a bridge to Communism, the present "Left" Socialists,
whether those in the S. P. or the Musteites, are actually building a dam against
Communism. This does not mean that the rank-and-file proletarian elements
in the S. P. who incline toward the Left and the working class elements of
the Muste movement are following their "Left" reformist leaders because they
(the rank and file) want a dam against Communism. Not at all. Rather these
reformists^ leaders put on a "Left" coloring in order to stop this rank and file
from moving further to the Left, that is, to Communism. Let us make no
mistake about it. The rank and file of the reformist organizations — Socialist
and trade union — is genuinely moving to the Left — to the Communist Party
and to class struggle unionism. Not all of them are as yet conscious of where
they are going; some of them still have many bourgeois prejudices against
Communism instilled into their minds primarily by the "Left" reformists and
most especially by the Musteites; but if this rank and file is ever to have what
it is looking for — class struggle and a true working class party — it will inevi-
tably come to Communism. Of course, if we leave uncombatted the activities
of the "Left" Socialists and Musteites, if we don't expose them systematically
and in the course of the class struggle, with the united front policy, as "Left"
social-fascists, and if we don't prove in practice the correctness of our line
and our ability to put it into effect, Muste and Co. may succeed to an extent
in delaying and obstructing the drift to Communism. ' Hence, the great sig-
nificance of the Open Letter and the need of its earnest and speedy execution.
Thk Party Anniversary in the Light of Oub Tasks *
In its Open Letter to the Sixth Convention of our Party the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International said the following:
"The Workers (Communist) Party is obviously still unprepared for the great
class confiicts which will inevitably arise on the basis of the sharpening class
relation in the United States. Its past still weighs upon its present [Our em-
phasis— A.B.]. The relics of the previous period of its existence form the great-
est obstacle in the path it has to travel before it successfully passes the turning
point and develops in the shortest possible time from a numerically small propa-
gandist organization into a mass political party of the American working class."
This task, the task of developing our Party from a numerically small propa-
« Keprinted from The Communist of December, 1931.
792 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
gandist organization into a mass political party of the working class, the Open
Letter qualified as "the chief, fundamental and decisive task to which all other
tasks must be entirely subordinated." Furthermore, the Open Letter said that
this is the task "which the whole objective situation in the United States, the
entire post-war development of American imperialism, places before the Party."
The Address of the E.C.C.I. to all members of the Communist Party of the
United States, after the Sixth Convention, approaches our problems in this period
from the same angle. The Address stresses the vital necessity of our Party con-
verting itself in the shortest possible time into a mass political Party of the work-
ing class. It points out that this task has assumed a particularly decisive char-
acter in view of the fundamental tasks arising before us "in connection with the
accentuation of the inner and outer contradictions of American imperialism in
the present period."
Since the E.C.C.I. Address in the siunmer of 1920. our Party has been engaged
in the work of converting itself into a mass political party of the American
working class. Its chief weapon for the attainment of this end has been and
continues to be the organization and leadership of the daily struggles of the
masses against the capitalist offensive and the liquidation of the relics of the
previous period which obstruct our progress in the present period.
The Twelfth Anniversary of our Party, which occurred in September of this
year, finds us on the path which leads to a mass Communist Party and freed from
some of the relics of the previous period — the inner factional struggle — which
were obstructing our growth. Tlie turning iK)int. however, we have not yet
passed — that turning point which we nuist successfully pass in order to be able
to convert our Party into a mass political Party in the shortest possible time.
The Thirteenth Plenum of our Central Committee declared that only "the first
beginning of the turn toward mass work was made," that "the process is only
begun," that we must now seize that particular link in the chain which would
enable us to pass to the next link and to turn the corner. The Plenum has pointed
out to the Party the nature of that link. It is the building of the Party and
revolutionary unions in the shops, organizing and leading the daily struggles of
the employed and unemployed workers, combating energetically all manifesta-
tions of opportunism. The carrying out of the practical tasks formulated by
the Thirteenth Plenum, increasing the temix) of our work day by day in order
to catch up with the demands of the sharix-ning crisis and war danger, will create
the prerequisites for the successful pas.sing of the turning point from which the
Party will be able to develop in the shortest possible time into a mass political
party of the American working class.
To fulfil the practical tasks formulated by the Thirteenth Plenum means
to continue to liquidate those relics of the previous period which are .still
obstructing our growth. These are chiefly remnants of opportunism — Right
opportunism (the main danger in the present i>eriod) and "Left" sectarianism
which is also opportunism. It is from this angle that we must approach the
review of the Party's past development on the occasion of its Twelfth
Anniversary.
THREE PERIODS IN THE PARTY'S DEVELOPMENT
It is possible to distinguish three definite periods in the development of
our Party. (1) The first period is the period of separation from social-
reformism and the gathering of the Communists in the United States into
one Party. (2) The second period is the period in which the Communist
Party developed itself into a propagandist of Communism and functioned pri-
marily as a propagandist organization. (3) The third period is the period in
which the Party begins to emerge from the propagandist stage, moving to the
turning point from which will become possible its rapid conversion into a mass
political party of the working class.
This division of our Party's past development into definite and distinct
periods, like every other historic demarcation, must be viewed dialectical! y.
That is, that some of the problems and tasks of one period were carried over
into the succeeding period and that the problems and tasks of the succeeding
period were already present, at least in embryonic form, in the previous period.
This, however, does not prevent us from distinguishing definite periods in the
Party history. In what sense? In the sense that each period placed before
us specific and peculiar tasks, which we undertook to fulfill in a certain way,
thus reaching the next period, the successive stage in the development of the
Party, with its own specific and peculiar task.
APPENDIX, PART 1 793
First Period. We defined the first period as the one in which took place
the differentiation and separation from social-reformism and the gathering
togetlier of the American Communists into one Party. This period may be
said to have concluded with the organization of the Workers Party in 1921.
The beginning of this period is marked by intense ideological and organi-
zational struggle in the American Labor movement (Socialist and trade unions)
of the adherents of militant class struggle against the reformist policies of the
official leadership. Tlie fight of the American labor militants and Left So-
cialists against Gompersism and Hillquitism was essentially (but not fully) of
the same character as the fight of the revolutionary Marxists against the
opportunists and revisionists in the Second International in the period that
preceded the late imperialist world war.
When did this period begin? In a broad historical sense, the crystallization
of the theory and practice of the revolutionary class struggle of the American
proletariat, whose complete and conscious expression is Marxism-Leninism,
began with the first manifestations of working class struggle against capitalist
exploitation in the United States. The historic roots of the Communist move-
ment of the United States go back to the birth of the American working class
and the class struggle. These roots have absorbed and grown upon the life-
blood of all the struggles of the American working class and its advance
guard through the various periods in the history of the class struggle in the
United States.
But in a narrow sense, in the sense of the phase that immediately preceded
the formation of the Communist Party and Communist Labor Party (G. P.
and C. L. P.) in September, 1919, the first period of our Party's history
can be said to begin with the organizational crystallization of the Left Wing
in the Socialist Party in 1918. The organization of the Left Wing was
preceded by years of struggle against reformism in the Socialist and trade
union movement of the country. This struggle, with its ups and downs,
had several culminating points in the years of 1905, 1912, 1914 and 1917.
Through all these struggles the Left and militant elements in the labor move-
ment had given expression, often in a confused and incomplete manner, to
the interests and aspirations of the American proletariat as against the cor-
rupt labor bureaucracy, aristocracy and petty-bourgeois reformism. Tliis was
in essence the meaning of the struggle for industrial unionism as against craft
unionism, for class struggle as against class collaboration, for revolutionary
Socialism as against the petty-bourgeois reformism of the Hillquits and Ber-
gers. The consolidation of American imperialism in the pre-war period, with
the consequent sharpening of all inherent contradictions of capitalism, has
produced on the one hand GompersLsm and Hillquitism, the expression of
the corrupt bureaucracy and aristocracy of labor, and on the other hand it
has also produced the various Left and militant tendencies in the labor
movement which gave expression to the awakening proletariat, to its dawning
consciousness of the need of revolutionary class struggle and organization.
The Left Wing of the Socialist Party of 1918 was the forerunner and
organizer of our Party. With it began (strictly speaking) the ideological
and organizational differentiation of revolutionary Socialism — later, Com-
munism— ^from reformism. This Left Wing was born in the heat and under
the pressure of the late imperialist world war which opened up the epoch
of proletarian and colonial revolutions, and at the inception of the great wave
of strikes in the United States that followed the end of the war. Because
of this fact, this Left Wing was more conscious of its mission and objective
than its predecessors. It declared war against reformism along the entire
front. It battled against Gompersism and Hillquitism on the question of war,
taking its position against the imperialist war, at first semi-pacifist but
later approaching the Leninist position. It sided unequivocally with the
proletarian revolution in Russia. It was trying to link itself up interna-
tionally with the revolutionary Socialists led by Lenin in the Second Inter-
national. With the formation of the Communist International, this Left Wing
made its major battle of that period in the labor movement of the United
States on the issue of breaking with the treacherous Second International and
for joining the Communist International. It was in the process of this
struggle against imperialism and imperialist war, for the class struggle and
against class collaboration, for revolutionary Socialism against petty-bourgeois
reformism, for the proletarian revolution in Russia, for the Communist Inter-
national against the Second International, that there began the process of
794 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
organizational separation from the reformists in the Socialist Party which
led to the organiaition of the two Communist Parties in September, 1919.
The organization of the two Communist Parties took place in the midst of
the first period of the post-war development of capitalism, the period of "ex-
tremely acute crisis of the capitalist system ami of direct revolutionary action
on the part of the proletariat" (Resolution of the Sixth Congress of the C. I.).
The working class of the United States was in great fermentation. Great strikes
wei'e in process of development in the steel industry, nuniiig, railroad, meat-
packing, etc. But the ideological differentiation between reformism and revolu-
tionary Socialism was at that time very little known tir under.stood by the
masses. This fact, arising partly from the historically delayed organizational
separation of the Socialists from the reformists, together with the formation of
ttvo Communist Parties struggling with each other, offers the main reason for
the relative ineffectiveness of the Communist Parties in those strikes. The strong
sectarian tendencies prevalent in the two parties at the time had worked toward
the same end.
In view of the above, what were the specific tasks of the Communists of that
period and to what extent did they succeed in fulfilling them?
The first of the tasks that were placed before us by the objective situation and
by the internal condition of the young Con)uumist movement at that ime was to
iinifj/ it. to bring together all adherents of the ('(innnunist International into one
party. This involved the task of completiiuj the organizational break with the
reformist political parties, since various groups of adherents of the Communist
International had remained in the "Socialist" parties, especially the Socialist Party
of America, subsequent to the formation of the Communist Parties in September,
1919, and the unification of these two parties (Communist Party and Communist
Labor Party) into one party. The second task was to establish active contact
with the proletarian masses and mass movements. This involved the task of
penetrating the reformist mass organizations, especially the A. F. of L., the organi-
zation of the Communists and their sympathizers within the reformist unions for
the struggle against Gomperism, the popularization of the Communist program
among the masses on the basis of their daily struggles and experiences, and skill-
ful resistance to the efforts of the reformists and the government to isolate us
from the masses and to drive the young Communist movement underground (the
Palmer raids), while building up all necessary machinery for the protection of
the Party organization from governmental attacks. The third task was to deepen
and extend the struggle against reformist ideology, to analyze the American situa-
tion in a theoretical way from the Communist point of view and to educate the
membership to an understanding of Marxism-Leninism.
These tasks, which were placed before us by the external and internal conditions
of the Comnumist movement at that time, were only partially fulfilled during the
first period of the Party's existence. The vital task of establishing active contact
with the masses and of organizing the Communist and militant workers within
the A. F. of L. for the struggle against the Compers policies and leadership — this
fundamental task of the first period was left almost vmtouched. This task, the
fulfilment of which was to create the prerequisites for the independent leadership
of the daily struggles of the workers by the Communists, began to be tackled in
earnest only in the second period of the Party's existence, following the formation
of the Workers Party at the end of 1921. Nor were the Communists successful in
the first year or so in combatting effectively the wall of illegality that the govern-
ment had tried to erect between our Party and the masses. However, the achieve-
ments of the period stand out quite clearly. The Communist movement was unified
under the pressure and guidance of the Communist International. The Party
withstood the terrific onslaught of the Palmer raids and the regime of persecution
that followed. It succeeded in drawing a clear line of demarcation between itself
and the reformists, drawing into its ranks and rallying around itself the most
mature and militant elements in the labor movement. The Communists came to
the first convention of the Workers Party with a clearer realization of the nature
of those opportunist tendencies which have militated against the Party's growth,
especially in the field of mass work.
What were those tendencies? First there was the "Left" opportunist concep-
tion that revolutionists can have nothing to do with reformist unions, that the
Communists must not work in the reactionary unions of the A. F. of L., that they
must build their own unions. Considering the objective situation of the time and
the fact that the Conmiunist movement had just been organized, this meant in
practice no work in the unions and no mass work. It meant to condemn the
Party to the position of a sect. On the other hand, there was the Right oppor-
APPENDIX, PART 1 795
tunist conception, taken over from the S. P. reformist leadership, that we must
live "in peace" with the reactionary bureaucrats of the A. F. of L. ami that the
"political arm" of the movement (the Party) must not interfere with and "dic-
tate" its policies to the union. This meant to surrender the masses to Gompers
and to the capitalists. It meant no work in the unions and no revolutionary
mass work of any kind. These opportunist tendencies, especially the "Left" sec-
tarian tendency, were primarily responsible for the fact that the fundamental
tasks of our movement in its first period were fulfilled only partially, as was
indicated above. These two opportunist tendencies have manifested themselves
in all fields of Party activity- — in the question of legal and illegal work, parlia-
mentary activities, partial demands and daily economic struggles, etc. In the
struggle against these tendencies, in the clarification of the correct policies with
the direct and systematic assistance of the C. I. and R. I. L. U., the Party had
moved forward to internal consolidation, to the establishment of contacts with
the workers and their mass organizations, and to a better understanding of
Leninist policies and tactics. In this way the Party had reached the second period
of its existence, the next and higher stage in its development which was ushered
in by the first convention of the Workers Party at the end of 1921.
Second Period. The second period in the history of our Party is the period in
which it developed itself into a propagandist of Communism and functioned pri-
marily as a propagandist organization. Essentially, the Party is still in this
period, but just now it is beginning to emerge from it. Already there are signs
to show that we are nearing a new period in the life of the Party — rhe period of
development into a mass political party of the American working class.
This period, which is thus far the longest in our Party's history, is marked
by the following characteristics: (a) the Party carries on systematic work in
the unions of the A. F. of L., taking the leadership in the oi-ganization of the
Left Wing in the unions (Trade Union Educational League) ; (b) the Party
begins to participate in the political struggles, especially in various election
campaigns, aiming to apply in this field the policy of the united front, evolving
in this process its labor party policies; (c) the illegal Communist Party and
the Workers Party (its legal expression) become fully merged; (d) the Party
takes the first steps in the direction of work among the Negro masses; (e) there
become crystallized within the Party two rigid factious, carrying on an almost
uninterrupted struggle during most of this period, imtil the summer of 1929
when the E. C. C. I. Address lays the basis for the liquidation of the factional
situation; (f) the appearance of Trotskyism and the development of Right op-
portunism and the struggle of the Party against it.
The development of our Party in the course of these years was taking place
on the basis and within the framework of the second period in the development
of post-war capitalism. This was the period of "gradual and partial stabiliza-
tion of the capitalist system, of the 'restorati'in' process of capitalist economy,
of the development and expansion of the capitalist offensive and of the con-
tinuation of the defensive battles fought by the proletarian army weakened
by severe defeats. On the other hand, this period was a period of rapid restora-
tion in the U. S. S. R., of extremely important successes in the work of building
up socialism, and also of the growth of the political influence of the Communist
Parties over the broad masses of the proletariat." (Resolution of Sixth
Congress of the C. I.)
The peculiarities of the objective conditions at the time of the formation of
the Workers Party (end of 1921 and beginning of 1922) arose from the fact
that it was a period of transition from The first period of post-war capitalism
to its second period. That is, the transition from the period of "extremely
acute crisis of the capitalist system and of direct revolutionary action on
the part of the proletariat" to the period of temporary and relative stabilization
and "the continuation of the defensive battles fought by the proletarian army
weakened by severe defeat." The greatest danger that confronted our Party at
that time was the danger of "Left" sectarianism which threatened to isolate
us from the masses by failing to utilize the then existing possibilities for Com-
munist mass work, especially the work in the A. F. of L. and the systematic
application of the united front policy. At the same time the Party was men-
aced by the tendencies of Right opportunism which tended to relinquish the
independent revolutionary role of the Communist Party by various maneuvers
on top with reformist leaders.
Between the years of 1922-1927 the Party developed into a propagandist
organization. It functioned primarily as a propagandist of Communism. Its
efforts to become a mass party of the American proletariat and the leader of the
796 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
daily struggles of the workers against capitalist exploitation and capitalist
rule have been seriously hampered by the opportunist tendencies and by the
inner factional struggle, with the consequence that the beginning of the third
period in the post-war development of capitalism found our Party unprepared
for the great class conflicts that have arisen and continue to arise in increasnigly
sharper forms. , ^ ^, , ., ^ , ,
The possibilities for our Party becoming the leader of the dady struggle of
the masses and hence for its conversion into the mass political party of the
American proletariat, were already inherent in the objective conditions that
were beginning to shape themselves around 15>27. This was clearly seen in the
big strike movements of that year (miners, furriers, garment workers, textile in
New Bedford and Paterson) in which the Party and the T. U. E. L. were
playing a leading and organizing role. From these struggles, and the independent
leading role played by us in them, the road was opening up for a new period
in the life of our Party. The second period of post-war capitalism was coming
to an end and the third period was approaching with all the possibilities and
responsibilities that this situation was bringing to us. But the Party was unable
to utilize fuUv these possibilities, to reorientate itself and to make the turn
toward the approaching new period, because of the acute factional situation in
the Party and the serious Right opportunist tendencies tliat had accumulated in
the Party in the previous years.
Hence the Open Letter of the E. C. C I. to the Sixth Convention of the Party
had to declare that "from a propagandi-st organization ... the Workers (Com-
munist) Party is noiv heginmnri [Our emphasis— A. B.] to turn into a mass
Party," that "the Party is now just making its first steps on the new path. It is
now 'just on the threshold between the old and new, it has not yet passed the
turning point." It was in this letter that the E. C .C. I. also declared that
"the existing factions must be resolutely and definitely liquidated. The factional
struggle must be unconditionally stopped. Without this no mass Communist
Partii of the Anicrirau proletariat can he orfinnizcd."
The liquidation of factionalism which became a condition for the growth of
the Party, for the successful struggle against the Right danger as the main
danger in the present period and for the conversion of the Party into a mass
Party, was accomplished after the Sixth Convention of the Party with the help
of the Address of the E. C. C. T. which constitutes a milestone in the Party's
history. In this way the conditions were created for a fresh and determined
effort to pass the turning point that leads to the conversion from a propagandist
organization into a mass political party of the American working class.
Third Period. This period we have defined as the one in which the Party
begins to emerge from the propagandist stage, moving to the turning point from
which will become po.ssible its rapid conversion into a mass political party of
the working class. Strictly speaking it is not yet a completely new period. It is
more in the nature of a transition stage from the old to the new but with this
specific characteristic, that the Party is now moving iinitcdhj, consciously and
honestly toward the turning point, the passage of which will mark the full
unfolding of the third period — the rapid development of our Party into a mass
party.
Herein lies the basic explanation of our lagging behind the radicalization of the
masses. Whereas objectively the capitalist system and the world labor movement
are already fully in the third period of post-war development, our Party still
finds itself in transition to the present period. It is true that the tempo of our
movement is continually increasing, but not sufficiently to catch up with the con-
tinued shattering of capitalist stabilization and the growing radicalization of
the masses. The successive stages of the Party's development since the E. C. C I.
Address (the Seventh Convention. Twelfth and Thirteenth Plenum of the Central
Committee) each marked a step in advance, at the same time taking note of the
outstanding fact that we continue to lag behind. We must therefore make haste
in the execution of the decisions of the Thirteenth Plenum.
The twelfth Anniversary of our Party finds us free from factional divisions,
united behind the Central Committee on the line of the C.I., extending our influ-
ence among the masses and our leadership of their daily struggles, and deter-
mined to convert ourselves into a mass party. Our Party .stands out today as
the only leader of the workers in their daily struggles against the capitalist
offensive (unemployment, wage cuts, imperialist war and intervention, etc.).
The great and historic strike of the miners, the strikes of the textile workers
in Paterson and Lawrence, the struggles of the unemployed and the fight against
imperialist war and intervention organized and led by our Party and the revo-
APPENDIX, PART 1 797
lutionary unions of the Trade Union Unity League are ample proof of this fact ;
while the Lovestone and Cannon renegades have moved into the camp of the
enemy. At the same time we are still hampered by some of the relics of the
previous period of our existence (Right and "Left" opportunism, especially
Right opportunism, formalism and bureaucracy), which we mtist combat con-
sistently and energetically, as formulated by the Thirteenth Plenum of our
Central Committee.
In its Address to our membership in the summer of 1929, the E. C. C. I. said :
"With a distinctness unprecedented in history, American capitalism is exhibit-
ing now the effects of the inexorable laws of capitalist development, the laws
of decline and downfall of capitalist society. The general crisis of capitalism
is growing more rapidly than it may seem at first glance. The crisis will shake
also the foundation of the power of American imperialism."
The truth of this prognostication is realized not only by us, members of the
Party, but is beginning to be felt and understood by hundreds and thousands
and millions of American workers. The deepening crisis, the war danger (war
already a reality in Manchuria), the entry of the U.S.S.R. into the period of
socialism — these are hastening the radicalization of the masses, leading them
to a realization of the need of a revolutionary way out of the crisis. More
than ever the masses need the leadership of our Party and the revolutionary
unions of the T.U.U.L. This leadership we must bring to the masses without
delay, exposing and combatting the Right and "Left" reformists with their
renegade assistants that are trj'ing desperately to check the radicalization of
the masses.
Milestones of Comintern Leadership'
The proletarian vanguard of the United States can jus^tly take pride in the
fact that it participated actively in the building of the Communist International,
whose fifteenth anniversary falls in March of this year. At the same time, the
revolutionary vanguard of this country can derive deep satisfaction from the
fact that it unfailingly received brotherly advice and guidance from the Com-
munist International in the struggle for the revolutionization of the American
working class. It was from the outset, and continues to be so, a mutual col-
laboration of the revolutionary proletariat of all countries, organized in a world
party, for the victory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the establishment
of a World Soviet Republic. The leading role of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union in the Comintern needs neither explanation nor apology. A Party
that has opened up the epoch of the world revolution, and that is successfully
btiilding a classless society on one-sixth of the earth, is cheerfully recognized
and followed as the leading Party of the world Communist movement. And
by the same token, the leaders of that Party — first Lenin and now Stalin —
are proudly followed as the leaders of the proletariat and of all oppressed in
every country of the world.
The bourgeoisie, and especially the social-fasci.st agents in the labor movement,
speak of Comintern "interference" in American affairs as though the Comintern
was something foreign to and outside of the working class of the United
States. But that is sheer nonsense. The revolutionary vanguard of the Ameri-
can proletariat, organized in the Communist Party of the U. S. A., is blood of
the blood and flesh of the flesh of the American working class: and it is this
Party that represents the Comintern in the United States. On the other hand,
the Comintern is a tvorld partih and its "interference" in the affairs of its
various national sections is nothing else but as.sistance rendered by all of these
Parties collectively to each of them separately. But the social-fascists usually
press the point further. It isn't, they say. so much the "interference" itself as
the "dictatorial" way in which it is done. And the "Left" social-fascists (Muste
& Co.), sometimes assisted and at other times led by the renegades from Com-
munism (Lovestone and Trotsky-Cannon), push the same argument from a
somewhat different angle. These — the "Left" social-fascists and the renegades —
pretend to be concerned with what they call the "national" peculiarities of
the American labor movement which the Comintern (so they chiim) fails to
take into consideration. These claims and assertions would be laughable if
they were not the direct reflection of bourgeois nationalism and imperialist
chauvinism with which monopoly capital is now trying to fa.scize its rule and
prepare for war. Muste's "Americanism" and Lovestone's "exceptionalisni,"
Reprinted from The Communist of March, 1934.
798 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
therefore, assume especial value for the New Dealers, the value of the most
"advanced" detachments of the imperialist and chauvinist bourgeoisie operating
among the more conscious workers.
Stalin has long ago answered these laughable arguments. As to dictation from
the outside, he said :
"There are no such Communists in the world who would agree to work 'under
orders' from outside against their own convictions and will and contrary to the
requirements of the situation. Even if there were sucli Communists they would
not be worth a cent. Communists bravely fight against a host of enemies. The
value of a Comnninist, among other things, lies in that he is able to defend his
convictions. Therefore, it is strange to speak of American Communists as not
having their own convictions and capable only of working according to 'orders'
from outside. Tlie only part of the labor leaders' assertion that has any truth
in it at all is that the American Communists are afliliated to an international
Communist organization and from time to time consult with the central body
of this organization on one question or another."* (P. 30.)
And as to the "national" peculiarities, the refuge of every opportunist, Stalin
observes :
"It would be wrong to ignore the specific peculiarities of American capitalism.
The Communist Party in its work must take them into account. But it would
be still more wrong to base the activities of the Communist Party on these
specific features, since the foundation of the activities of every Communist
Party, including tlie American Communist Party, on which it must base itself,
must be the general features of capitalism, which are the same for all countries,
and not its specific features in any given country. It is on this that the inter-
valionalism of the Communist Party is founded. Specific features are only sup-
plenientarv to the general features." (Speech in the American Commission of
the Presidium of the E. C. C. I., 1029.)
GUIDING THE AMKRICAN PARTY
We shall sketch briefly the most outstanding events in the life of the American
Party where con.sultation with and adviee from the Comintern marlved off a
special stage in the development of the revolutionary movement in the United
States.
The bringing togetlier of all American i-evolutionary workers into one Com-
munist Part II — to realize this historic task of tlie American working class with
the least waste of time and energy — was the first of the more significant acts of
advice of the Comint(>rn to tlie revolutionary worlvcrs in the United States. Con-
sidt'ring the historically delayed orgjuiizational l)reak with the opportunists in
the Socialist movement, on tiie one hand, and the heterogeneous character of
the Left elements in the American labor movement out of which came the Com-
munist Party, on the other hand, this unification was no easy or simple task.
Tlio ditliculties lay in the "specific" features of American capitalism and of the
labor movement. And in the years 1019-1921, the best elements of the American
working class had been struggling to overcome the effects of these "specific"
features and to arrive at a united and single Communist Party. If it were pos-
sible to imagine those years without a Communist International (which, of
course, is impossible), these struggles for Comnumlst unity would have been
infinitely more protracted, wasteful and harmful than was actually the case.
But there was a Communist International, led by Lenin, and, consequently, there
was made available to the revolutionary workers of the United States the world
experience and prestige of the Bolshevik movement which has gone through a
long struggle with opportunism and built up a united Communist Party. These
experiences the Comintern utilized in order to help the American Communists
of those years to solve their own specific problems of unity, and these problems
were solved. A unified and single Communist Party was materialized in the
United States in shorter time, less painfully and wastefully, than would have
been the case without the advice and assistance of the Comintern. Is there a
single class-conscious worker in the United States who, having familarized him--
self with this event, would reproach the Comintern for "interfering" in American
affairs or reproach the American Communists for accepting this "interference"?
No, only Muste & Co., and the renegades, who echo the chauvinism of the Yankee
imperialists, will utter such reproaches.
» Joseph Stalin, Interview With Foreign Workers' Delegations, New York, International
Publishers, 1934.
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 799
We come now to another milestone of Comintern leadersliip. Tliis time it
was ttie problem of breaking through the walls of illegality erected by the
American bonrgeoisie between the young Communist Party and the working
class. The Communists, having been driven underground by Wilson-Palmer in
1919-1920, were struggling to find their way to the masses despite the illegality
and governmental persecutions. What were the special ditliculties for the solu-
tion of this problem? They arose from the danger of seeking to achieve legality
by sacriflciTig Connnunist principles and hiding the revolutionary line, on the one
hand, and from the danger of trying to preserve intact the Communist principles
by abandoning all serious fight for legal and open work, on the other hand.
The way to the masses, the Communist Party could then find only by fighting
and overcoming these Right and "Left" opportunist dangers. One of the
founders of the recently launched Muste American Workers' Party, Hardman-
Salutsky, was at that time especially active in trying to switch the Commu-
nist movement to the path of buying legality by sacrificing the revolutionary
line. Lacking the necessary Leninist training and experience, the American
Communist Party found it extremely difficult to reach the correct solution
of this task and was therefore torn between the two opportunist dangers of
legalistic liquidation of the Connnunist Party and underground sectarianism.
Once more rhe American Conununists consulted with the Communist Inter-
national. This was in 1021-1922. And the correct advice came, as it was
bound to, and with its help the Workers' Party of America was organized,
which opened up for the illegal Communist Party of America wide opportuni-
ties for open revolutionary work among the masses. Illegal work, that is,
revolutionary mass work that could not be done openly because of govern-
mental persecuticms, was not abandoned but continued; the illegal work supple-
menting the legal, and '-ice versa.
The Party authority continued to rest in the underground Communist Party,
as it should be under these ct^nditions. And when the influence of the Com-
munists in the Workers' Party had become firmly established, and the basic
revolutionary mass work could be carried on through the Workers' Party
legally, then the underground Communist Party became merged with the
Workers' Party, that is, the latter became the Connnunist Party of the
country. American Ciommunism thus solved its immediate task and reached
a higher stage in its development toward becoming the mass party of the
American proletariat.
What was it that proved especiallj helpful for the American Communists in
the Comintern advice on legal and illegal work? It was the world and Russian
experience of Bolshevism. Under Lenin's guidance the Bolsheviks had re-
peatedly met and solved such and similar problems and solved them success-
fully, as history has proved. The Bolshevik solutions, while primarily applied
in Russia because there was the Party to do it, were based upon the experi-
ences of the working class movement all over tlie world and thus acquired
an international significance. The American Conununists have been helped
by the Comintern in applying these solutions to American conditions. In doing
.so they not only defeated the ett'orts of the bourgeoisie to strangle the revolu-
tionary movement in the period of 1919-1921, l)ut have also acquired knowledge
and skill to defeat such efforts again, especially in the present period of shaiTp
turn to fascism and war which inevitably brings new attacks upon the legality
of the Communist Party and the working class movement as a whole. Will
any sincere and militant worker in the United States, who is loyal to his class
and its liberation, from the misery and sufferings of capitalism, reproach the
Comintern for having helped the American revolutionary workers to defeat
the Wilson-Palmer persecutions? And will such a worker hold it against the
American Commmiist Party for having accepred this heljiful guidance? No,
only Muste-Hardman & Co., led by the renegades, will indulge in such re-
proaches, because this select company is echoing the raging chauvinism of the
Yankee imperialists.
The next milestone in the Comintern leadership for the American Party
we find on the question of trade union work. On this, more perhaps than
on any other question, the Left and militant elements in the American labor
movement, in the two decades before the emergence of the Comintern (not to
go into the pre-imperialist era), had got themselves tangled up in insoluble
difficulties, torn between reformism and anarcho-syndicalism, only because
they were unable, by their own efforts, to restore and further develop the
revolutionary teachings of Marx and to apply them to the United States of
800 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the imperialist era. Lenin did that; but the American militants (even they)
were too provincial, not enough international, because still influenced by bour-
geois ideology, to find out what Leninism stands for and what it could do
for the progress of the American working class. The Comintern brought the
American militants and Lefts closer to the world labor movement and to the
basic problems of the American labor movement. The trade union question
was one of them. The young American Communist movement strn>;gled pain-
fully to throw off the ballast of Gomper.s-Hillqnit reformism and DeLeon-
I. W. W. sectarianism, sometimes falling victim to the former, at other times
to the latter, and occasionally to both. Even the best and most experienced
among the Left and militant leaders of the American workers, the builders
and founders of the revolutionary movement of the American workers in the
imperialist era, such as the late Ch.arles E. Ruthenberg, as well as the i)resent
leader of our Party. William Z. Foster, were able to rid themselves and our
movement of the old ballast of opportunism only by coming closer to Leninism
and into the Comintern. By becoming more itiiernationah the proletarian
vanguard in the United States has become also iiiore American, because the
international experience, as it is incoriX)rated in Leninism and in Comintern
guidance, helped the American Communists to come closer to the basic masses
of the American proletariat and to begin to function as the leaders of its
struggles against American capitalism.
It was Comintern advice and guidance that helped the American Communists
to turn full face to the building of a Left Wing in the reformist unions beginning
with 1920; it was the advice of the Comintern that heljied formulate a correct
solution to one of the ba.sic problems of the American proletariat — the organiza-
tion of the unorganized into trade unions ; it was advice of the Comintern on
indei)endent leadership of the economic struggles by the revolutionary elements
that helped formulate strike policies and tactics ; it was Comintern advice on
how to revolutionize the labor movement, through organization and leadership
of the daily struggles of the masses and systematic exposure and struggle
against the reformists, that helped the American Communists to prove to wide
masses of workers and toilers that the C. P. U. S. A. is the only true prole-
tarian party in the United States and the leader of all exploited. In short,
at every stage in the development of the revolutionary trade imion movement
in the United States (Trade Union Educational League, class struggle unions of
the Trade Union Unity League, the application of the united front on the trade
union field, the fight for trade union unity, etc.), it was with the help of the
Comintern that the American revolutionary workers were able to find the correct
way, to correct their errors and, through manifold changes in tactics, to press on
to the goal of building a revolutionary trade union movement in the United
States.
Comintern influence on the development f»f revolutionary trade union policies
in the United States has especial significance. Here, as in other capitalist
countries, the imperialist bourgeoisie, with the help of the reformists, succeeded
in fiplitting the working class, setting the small minority of "labor aristocrats"
against the basic mass of the proletariat. Following out this policy, the reformist
trade union bux'eaucracy was persistently shutting out of trade union organiza-
tion the bulk of the American proletariat, especially its most oppressed and
exploited sections. This it was that constituted and still constitutes one of the
chief weaknesses of the American working class. And the most damning indict-
ment against the A. P. of L. bureaucracy is its disci-imination and exclusion of
the Negro proletariat.
It is significant, therefore, that the first que.stion which Comrade Stalin put
to the American trade union delegation was : "How do you account for the small
percentage of American workers organized in trade unions?"' And he added:
"I would like to ask the delegation whether it regards this small percentage
of organized workers as a good thing. Does not the delegation think that this
small percentage is an indication of the weakness of the American proletariat
and of the weakness of its weapon in the struggle against the capitalists in the
economic field?"
That was in 1927. Lack of space does not permit to deal liere with the
answer of the delegation. Suffice it to say that this delegation, made up as it
was of so-called progressives, really bourgeois liberals, was in its answers, at
best, very helpless and confused. But the intent of Stalin's question is clear:
Why don't you organize the workers in trade unions? Why don't you strengthen
them against the capitalists? And it was in this direction that the Comintern
threw the full weight of its influence and advice in the American labor move-
I
APPENDIX, PART 1 gQl
ment. Organize the basic sections of the proletariat into unions, liberate the
existing mass trade unions from the stranglehold of the reformists, and unify
the trade union movement of this country — this was the nature of Comintern
guidance to the revolutionary workers in the United States.
Tactics and methods of work may vary, depending upon the state of the class
struggle. In the light of recent events, the Communist Party favors the organi-
zation of independent unions, in those cases where such a measure would con-
stitute a step ill advance toward the revolutionization of the trade union move-
ment. But the strategic aim always remained the same, and for this aim the
Communist Party fights bravely and persistently and with increasing effective-
ness. The general crisis of capitalism, undermining the basis of existence of
large numbers of the "labor aristocracy" as well as the working class as a
whole, creates ever more favorable conditions for the realization of this aim.
So, we ask again : can any American worker, who is alive to the needs of his
class and is willing to fight for them, find anything to object to in tliis "inter-
ference" of the Communist International in American affairs? And will he
object to the Communist Party of the United States accepting and taking deep
satisfaction in such "interference"? No, he will not. Only Muste and Co.,
abetted by the renegades, will object and will call it "outside dictation," because
these groups echo the mad chauvinism of the Yankee imperialists.
We shall now relate another significant instance of Comintern leadership
in the United States. In the years 1921-1924, one of the important phases of
the American labor movement was a widespread urge for the organization of
a Labor Party. The Left Wing in the Socialist Party and the first Communist
Party convention took a completely negative attitude toward it. But in their
struggle to establish contact with the masses and with their movements against
capitalism and its major political parties, tlie American Communists came to
adopt the position of active participation in the Labor Party movement. The
aim of this position was to accelerate the existing break-away movement of the
workers and toiling farmers from the capitalist parties and to direct this move-
ment along the channels of independent working class political action. Comin-
tern influence and advice strengthened the American Communists in this deter-
mination, thus helping to overcome the various sectarian objections to such a
policy.
But it also did something else ; it tried to guard the American Communists
against some of the reformist dangers, for instance, the danger of forcing the
organization of a Labor Party before there was a second proletarian mass basis
laid for it ; or the danger of the Labor Party movement becoming a tail end to
the petty-bourgeois Farmer-Labor movements with the inevitable submerging of
the workers and the young Communist Party into this petty-bourgeois outfit
controlled by bourgeois politicians. The Comintern advice was : Beat back
your sectarian tendencies, participate actively in the Labor Party movement,
build unceasingly your own proletarian base and the proletarian mass base for
the Labor Party, especially by building the revolutionary trade union move-
ment, and fight against all Right opportunist tendencies to submerge the workers
in i)etty-bourgeois movements.
Unfortunately this advice was not always followed, with the result that the
Communist Party itself began to fiirt with the petty-bourgeois Farmer-Labor
Party and with the late LaFollette (1923-1924). If continued, such flirtation
might have become highly dangerous for the cause of working class independent
political action and for the Communist Party. Again Comintern advice was
thrown in to straighten out the Party's line, and at the Sixth Congress of the
Comintern the American experiences were evaluated afresh. This was done in
the light of the general analysis of the world (and American) situation, which
showed the weakening of the relative stabilization of capitalism, the approach
of a new and sharper phase of its general crisis, and the consequent growing
radicalization of the masses. This was in 1928. And the Congress said to the
American Communists : "Concentrate on the work in the trade unions, on or-
ganizing the unorganized, etc., and in this way lay the basis for the practical
realization of the slogan of a broad Labor Party, organized from below."
No wonder Muste, Hardman-Salutsky and Co. do not like Comintern "inter-
ference," because it helps to expose, and cuts straight across, the reformist
machinations of this "Left" social-fascist outfit. In 1922, the Communist Party
was forced to expel from its ranks the same Hardmann-Salutsky because he was
working hand in glove with the A. F. of L. bureaucracy and the Farmer-Labor
Party politicians against the an/anization of a Lahor Party and against the
Labor Party policies of the Communist Party of which he was then a member.
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 52
802 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Now, when the Communist Party concentrates on building the firm proletarian
base (in the unions and in the shops and among the unemployed) upon which
alone, as experience has shown, a broad Labor Party organized from below
can come into existence without the danger of its becoming the tail end of
reformist and bourgeois Farmer-Labor ix)liticians, the same Salutsky-Hardman,
this time in company with jMuste, proceeds again to collaborate with the
A. F. of L. bureaucracy and the Farmer-Labor politicians to oppose the line of the
Communist Party. Only now, having "learned" from experience, he and Muste
are using the very Labor Party slogau for this purpose, for the purpose of
obstructing the radicalization of the masses and of steering this radicalizatiou
into Farmei'-Labor channels. The Comintern has helped the American workers
and their Communist Party to expose and tight against this and similar "Left"
maneuvers of the reformists; it has helped and is helping to build organized
proletarian strength and to unite this strength with the exploited toiling farmers
under working class leadership.
With Leninism as its guide, the Communist Party of the United States is
fighting for the organization of the (illidiicc between the workers, toiling farmers,
and Negroes under the hef/citiO)nj of the proJclaridt. concentrating on deveh)ping
the working class, politically and organizationally, as the true leader of this
alliance. Can the American class-conscious workers and militant toiling farmers
reproach the Comintern for thus guiding the American Conununists and the
struggling masses of the United States? Can they object to the American Com-
munists accepting ;ind following out this advice? No, they cannot and do not.
Only Muste, Ilardman and Co. raise such objections and this they do because
the Yankee imi>erialists do it.
We come to a milestone of Comintern leadership in the United States that has
been e.specially fruitful in making the fight for proleteritni internationalism
alive and real in projecting the liberating mission of the Americnn proletariat in
a most concrete and telling maimer. We refer here to tlie Conumuiist program
for Negro liberation. It was no accident that this was the problem — the Negro
problem in the United States — that it took the revolutionary workers of America
till' JoiKjcst in point of time, to become aware of and to find a solution for.
Bourgeois ideology, the "white prejudices" of the old slave market, had i)oisoned
the minds, not alone of the back\\'ard strata of the toilers, but also the most
advanced sections. And thus we find that the Left Wing of the Socialist Party
which formed the Communi.st Party somehow "overlonked" the national-revolu-
tionary significance of the Negro liberation struggles. And even when the
American Communists had finally begun to grapple with the Negro question
in a Leninist way, starting practical mass work to organize the white and
Negro toilers to struggle for Negro rights, there still was considerable hesitation
and confusion among the weaker eh'ments of the Communist movi-ment to
project boldly the full Leninist solution of the problem.
Once more came the "outside" infinence of the Comintern ; and what did it
i^ay? It said that the struggle ag.iin.^t discrimination and for Negro rights is a
revolutionary .struggle for the national liberation of the Negroes, that we must
fight for complete Negro equality, and that in the Black Belt the full realiza-
tion of this demand requires the fight for the national .self-determination of the
Negroes including the right of separation from the United States and the or-
ganization of an independent state. Furthermore, it was the interpretation of
Leninism and its apjilication to the United States as made by the Comintern
that showed the American Communists that the agrarian revolution in the
Black Belt, where the Negro masses are mostly peasants and semi-serfs, is the
basis of the national-liberation movement and that this movement is one of the
allies of the American proletariat in the struggle for the dictatorship of the
proletariat. The Lovestone renegades advocate the bourgeois theory that capi-
talist development itself, the "industrialization of the South," wiil .solve the
Negro question. The Communist Party — following the lead of the Comintern —
says that only the national-revolutionary movement of the Negroes, as an organic
part and ally of the proletarian revolution, will .solve the Negro question. From
this point of view, the American Communists are able to expose the Muste-IIard-
man position on this question as bourgeois liberalism in words and Yankee white
chauvinism in deeds.
Will the Negro workers, farmers, and city poor consider the Comintei-n advice
on the Negro question as "out.side dictation"? No. They will, as they actually do,
receive this advice with outstretched arms and will contiiuie in ever larger
masses to rally around the Communist Party as the leader of the liberation
fight. And will the white workers, those belonging to the dominating nationality
APPENDIX, PART 1 803
in the United States but who are already awake to their true interests, will they
perhaps resent this advice as "outside dictation"? No. Some of these class-
conscious white workers may still hesitate because they are as yet not completely
free from the bourgeois curse of white chauvinism, but none of them will say
that this advice is not in the best interests of the American working class and
of all exploited.
Let us now ca.st just a glance (space does not permit more than that) at still
another "dictation" from the Comintern — the advice to the American Communists
and to the revolutionary trade union movement to make demands for unemploy-
ment insurance one of the major issues of the class struggle. Not that the
American Communists were not aware of the importance of this demand, but
(for a time) they had not managed, for various reasons, to project this demand
into a mass struggles in a really effective way. The Comintern began to stress
this issue long before the outbreak of the economic crisis with its 17,000,000 fully
unemployed. Seeing the permanent unemployed army of over 4,000,000 workers
in the years of "prosperty," and foreseing the end of relative capitalist stabiliza-
tion which would catastrophically increase unemployment, as it did, the Comin-
tern undertook to prepare the proletarian vanguard, the Communist Party, and
through it the whole working class for effective struggle against unemployment.
The Communist Party, guided by the Comintern, eventually succeeded in
making tliis demand, together with the demand for immediate relief to the
unemployed, a major issue in the class struggle of the United States. And it
is indisputable that whatever relief was "granted" to the workers, through
governmental agencies and otherwise, was a result mainly of the struggles
initiated by the Communist Party and the revolutionary trade union movement.
Furthermore, these struggles had a powerful revolutionizing effect upon wide
masses of workers. Will the unemployed American workers, who knew these
facts, as well as the class-conscious employed workers, resent this "interfer-
ence" of the Comintern in American affairs? No, they will not; they will say:
if this is what Comintern leadership means, we are all for it, despite the
chauvinistic "Americanisms" of the Right and "Left" social-fascists and their
renegade companions.
And lastly — the liquidation of the factimial situation in the Communist Party.
It is on this, more than anything else, that the Muste-Hardman outfit, led by
the Lovestone renegades and the Trotskyist counter-revolutionaries, choose to
illustrate the "outside dictation" and interference of the Communist Inter-
national. Well, the facts speak for themselves. By the early summer of 1919,
the factional cancer that had been spreading to the vitals of the Communist
Party for many years was beginning to threaten the most serious consequences.
A break-up of the Party into various pieces with some of them getting switched
into the channels of "Left" reformism, others getting tangled up in some
hopeless sectarian nooks, while still others being caught in the nets of Trot-
skyism, seemed almost inevitable, if a quick and radical end was not made to
the factional situation. And remember : these were the dangers confronting
the Communist Party at the very threshold of the economic crisis, that is, at
the time when the American working class needed and was going to need
this Party more than ever in the history of the American class struggle.
But this disaster did not happen. And why? Because the Comintern spoke
to the American Party with authority and wisdom; in so speaking, in pointing
out the dangers and the way to avoid them, the Comintern released the initia-
tive and creative activity of the overwhelming majority of the Party, the
initiative that had become paralyzed during the years of factional fight;' and
on the basis of this initiative of the Party membership, with the help of this
power, the Party was able to cleanse itself of the hopelessly factional elements
and of the Right and "Left" opportunist groupings that went with the factions
and thus laid the basis for the subsequent unification of the Party and its
fresh start on the field of revolutionary mass work.
The Comintern did "interfere"; there can be no doubt of that. And it is
fortunate that it did. And if you wish to know what precisely it was that
fired the imagination and enthusiasm of the membership and sympathizers of
the Communist Party of the United States to endorse and follow out the advice
of the Comintern in making an end to factionalism and in cleansing itself of
the Lovestone opportunists and the conciliators, read once more Stalin's
speeches on the question. We must quote at least this :
"I think, comrades, that the American Communi.st Party is one of those few
Communist Parties in the world upon wliich history had laid tasks of a decisive
character from the point of view of the world revolutionary movement. You all
gQ4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
know very well the strength and power of American imperialism. Many now
think [that was spoken in May, 1929] that the general crisis of world capitalism
will not affect America. That, of course, is not true. It is entirely untrue, com-
rades. The crisis of world capitalism is developing with increasing rapidity and
cannot but affect American capitalism. The 3,0(10,000 now unemployed in America
are the first swallows indicating the ripening of the economic crisis in America.
The sharpening antagonisms between America and England, the struggle for
markets and raw materials and, finally, the colossal growth of armaments — that
is the second portent of the approaching crisis. I think the moment is not far off
when a revolutionary crisis will develop in America. And when a revolutionary
crisis develops in America, that will be the beginning of the end of world capital-
ism as a whole. It is essential that the American Communist Party should be
capable of meeting that historical moment fully prepared and of assuming the
leadership of the impending class struggle in America. Every effort and every
means must be employed in preparing for that, comrades. For that end the
American Conmiunist Party must be improved and Bolshevized. For that end
we must work for the complete liquidation of factionalism and deviations in the
Party. For that end we must work for the re-establishment of unity in the
Communist Party of America. For that end we must work in order to forge
real revolutionary cadres and a real revolutionary leadership of the proletariat,
capable of leading the many millions of the American working class toward
the revolutionary class struggle. For that end all personal factors and fac-
tional considerations must he laid aside and the revolutionary education of the
working class of America be placed above all."
PROLETTAKIAN INTE3RNATI0NALISM AS AGAINST JMPEEJALIST CHAUVINISM
For the class-conscious American workers, but especially for its younger gei)-
eration, there is great significance in the fact that the two militant \\orking class
fighters in the labor movement of the United States in this country — the imperial-
ist era — the two men who repre.«;eut most fully the best and most advanced achieve-
ments of the American working class, Ruthenberg and Foster, that both of these
became the builders of the Communist Party, the builders and followers of the
Communist International.
Ruthenberg we have lost altogether too soon ; March 2 of this years marks the
seventh anniversary of his death ; but the value of his work in founding our
Party, in pointing the way to the Communist International for other thousands
of workers, and in guiding our movement for many years, this will never be lost.
Now our movement has F'oster as the leader. And while he is temporarily disabled
by terrific exertion in the class struggle. Comrade Foster's power of attraction
to our Party, the power that has brought and will continue to bring into our ranks
and to the Comintern all that is militant, honest and creative in the American
working class, this power has never weakened but is growing stronger with the
sharpening of the class struggles.
Ruthenberg and Foster came to the Communist International because in the
proletarian internationalism of Lenin's teachings, which guide the Comintern
work, both had found the solution of all those problems and tasks that confronted
them and the American working class in the present epoch. RuLhenberg's ex-
periences had been acquired in the Socialist Party, chiefly on the political field ;
Foster's, on the other hand, were acquired mainly on the trade union field. The
revolutionary instinct and consciousness of Ruthenberg could not but I'ebel against
the narrow parliamentary limitations of Socialist Party politics ; while the revolu-
tionary consciousness of Foster, and the logic of the great economic struggles
which he had organized and led, could not but make him rebel against the narrow
"economism" of Gompers as well as of anarcho-syndicalism. Both, Ruthenberg
and Foster, were therefore led to Leninism and its conception of a "new type"
of Party as the only ideology that offered a revolutionary and proletarian solution
for their problems. And these were the problems of the American working class
and its revolutionary vanguard.
The coming together of these two revolutionists and their followers into one
working class Party marked a historic event of the first magnitude. The
meaning of this event was that, for the first time in the history of the American
working class, there came to an end the traditional separation between the ad-
vanced revolutionary elements of the trade unions, on the one hand, and the
revolutionary elements of the Socialist (political-parliamentary) Party, on
the other. This traditional separation was perhaps the largest single factor
that had retarded, in the past, the coming into life in the United States of a
proletarian revolutionary Party of the Leninist kind. Ruthenberg and Foster
APPENDIX, PART 1 805
started the process of liquidating this separation by coming together in the
building of the Communist Party in the United States. To this they came by
the inexorable logic of the class struggle in the United States and the point at
which they met and joined hands was Leninism and the Communist Interna-
tional.
In the fifteen years of its existence the Comintern has grown into a true
world party. It has reached the high stage where all "Communist Parties are
carrying out one single line of the Comintern," a stage where all "Communist
Parties are united by the Executive Committee of the Communist International
into a single centralized World Party which the Second International never
had and never will have." (Piatnitsky, Speech at the Thirteenth Plenum of
the E.G. C.I.) In this lies the main strength of the world revolution and the
guarantee of its inevitable victory. It is this that makes possible, for the first
time in the history of the world, the effective carrying out of a world revolu-
tionary strategy, the only road to victory over capitalism. And it is in Com-
rade Stalin, since Lenin's death, that this strategy has found the greatest
formulator, interpreter, and organizer. With the deepest pride in this achieve-
ment, the class-conscious workers of the United States, the militant farmers
and revolutionary Negroes, will celebrate the Fifteenth Anniversary of the
Comintern. It is with the same feeling of pride that they realize that they
belong to a world party together with the glorious Party of the Soviet Union ;
that they belong to a world party which is daily guided by such proved leaders
as Manuilsky, Kuusinen, Tliaelmann and Piatnitsky ; and that by building the
revolutionary movement in the United States we are also building the world
power of the proletariat for the victory of the world revolution.
Exhibit No. 113
[Source: Daily Worker, New York, February 17, 1938, page 2]
Stalin's Reply on Question of Victory and Defending Sociaxism in the
U. S. S. R. — A Letter From Comrade Ivanov and Comeadb Stalin's Rei>ly
(Wireless to the Daily Worker)
MOSCOW, Feb. 16. — Folloimng is the text of the exchange of letters ietioeen
Joseph Stalin, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
and Ivan Philipovich Ivanov, staff propagandist of the ManturovsJc district com-
mittee of the Young Communist League of the Soviet Union, Kursk Region:
rVANOV'S LETTER
To Comrade Stalin, from Ivan Philipovich Ivanov, staff propagandist of the
Manturovsk district committee of the Young Communist League, Kursk Region.
Dear Comrade Stalin : I earnestly request you to explain the following ques-
tion: In the local districts here, and even in the regional committee of the
Young Communist League, a two-fold conception prevails about the final victory
of Socialism in our country, that is, the first group of contradictions is con-
fused with the second. In your works on the destiny of Socialism in the
U. S. S. R., you speak of two groups of contradictions — internal and external.
As for the first group of contradictions, of course we have solved them^
within the country Socialism is victorious. I would like to receive a reply
on the second group of contradictious, that is, those between the land of Social-
ism and capitalism. You point out that the final victory of Socialism implies
the solution of the external contradictions, that we must be fully guaranteed
against intervention, and consequently, against the restoration of capitalism.
But this group of contradictions can be solved only by the efforts of the
workers of all countries.
Besides, Comrade Lenin taught us that "we can achieve final victory only
on a world scale, only by the joint efforts of the workers of all countries."
While attending the seminary for staff propagandists at the regional com-
mittee of the Y. C. L., basing myself on your works, I said that the final victory
of Socialism is possible only on a world scale; but the leading regional com-
mittee workers — Urozhenko [first secretary of the regional committee] and
Kazelkov [propaganda instructor] — characterized my statement as a Trotzkylst
deYiation.
806 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
I began to read to them passages from yonr works on this question, but
TJrozhenko ordered me to close the book and said, "Comrade Stalin said this
in 1926, but we are now in 1938; at that time we did not have final victory, but
now we have it and there is now no need for us to worry at all about inter-
vention and restoration." Then ho went on to say, "We have now the final
victory of socialism and the full guarantee against intervention and the restora-
tion of capitalism." And so I was looked upon as an abettor of Trotzkyism
and removed from propaganda woi'k, and the question was raised whether I was
fit to remain in the Y. C. L.
Please, Comrade Stalin, will you explain whether or not we yet have the
final victory of Socialism. Perhaps there is additional contemporary material
on this question connected with recent changes that I have not yet come across.
Also I think that Urozhenko's statement that Comrade's Stalin's works on this
question are somewhat out-of-date is an anti-Bolshevik one. Are the leading
workers of the regional committee right in looking upon me as a Trotzkyist?
I feel very nmch hurt and offended over this.
I hope. Comrade Stalin, that you will grant my request and reply to: Man-
turovsk District, Kursk Region, First Zasem.^ky Village Soviet, Ivan Philipovich
Ivanov.
[Signed] : I. Ivanov. Jan. 18, 1938.
Stalin's eepx,t
To Comrade I\ an Philipovich Ivanov: Of course you are right. Comrade Ivanov.
and your ideological opponents. Comi-ades Urozhenko and Kazelkov, are wrong.
And for the following rea.'sons :
Undoubtedly the question of the victory of Socialism in one coiuitry, in this
case of our country, has two different sides.
The first side of the question of the victory of Socialism in our country em-
braces the problem of the mutual relations between the classes in our country.
This concerns the sphere of internal relations. Can the working class of our
country overcome the contradictions with our peasantry and establish an alli-
ance, a collaboration with them? Can the working class of our country in
alliance with our peasantry smash the bourgeoisie of our country, deprive it
of the land, factories, mines, etc., and by its own efforts build a new, cla.«sless
society, a complete Socialist society?
These are the problems connected with the first side of the question of the
victory of Socialism in our country.
Leninism answers these problems in the affirmative. Lenin teaches that
"we have all that is necessary for building a complete Socialist society." Hence
vre can and must by our own efforts overcome our bourgeoisie and build a
Socialist society. Trotzky, Ziuoviev, Kamenev and those other gentlemen who
later became spies and agents of fascism, denied that it was possible to build
Socialism in our country unless the victory of the Socialist revolution was first
achieved in other countries, in the capitalist countries. As a matter of fact,
these gentlemen wanted to turn our country back to the path of bourgeois
development, and they concealed their apostasy by hypocritically talking about
the "victory of the i-evolution" in other countries. Tliis was precisely the
point of controversy between our Party and these gentlemen. Our country's
.subsequent cour.se of development proved that the Party was right and that
Trotzky and Company were wrong. For during this period we succeeded in
liquidating our bourgeoisie, in establishing fraternal collaboration with our
peasantry, and in building, in the main. Socialist society, notwithstanding the
fact that the Socialist revolution has not yet been victorious in other countries.
This is the position in regard to the first side of the question of the victory
of Socialism in our country.
I think. Comrade Ivanov, that it is not this side of the question that is the
point of controversy between you and Comrades Urozhenko and Kazelkov.
The second side of the question of the victory of Socialism in our country
embraces the problem of mutual relations between our countr.v and the other
countries, capitalist countries ; the problem of the mutual relations between the
working class of our country and the bourgeoisie of other countries. This
concerns the sphere of external, international relations. Can the victorious
Socialism of one country which is encircled by many strong capitalist countries,
regard itself as being fully guaranteed against the danger of military invasion —
intervention — and hence, against attempts to restore capitalism in our country?
Can our working class and our iieasantry, by their own efforts, without the
APPENDIX, PART 1 807
serious assistance of the working class in capitalist countries, overcome the
boui'geoisie of other countries in the same way as we overcame our own bour-
geoisie? In other words: can we regard the victory of Socialism in our coun-
try as final, that is, as being free from the danger of military attack and of
attempts to restore capitalism, assuming that Socialism is victorious only in
one country and that the capitalist encirclement continues to exist?
These are the problems connected with the second side of the question of the
victory of Socialism in our country.
Leninism answers these problems in the negative. Leninism teaches that
"the final victory of Socialism, in the sense of the full guarantee against the
restoration of bourgeois relations, is possible only on an international scale."
f Resolution of the 14th convention of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.)
This means that the serious assistance of the international proletariat is a force
without which the problem of the final victory of Socialism in one country
cannot be solved. This, of course, does not mean that we must sit with folded
arms and wait for assistance from outside. (Jn the contrary, the assistance of
the international proletariat must be combined with our work to strengthen
the defense of our country, to strengthen the Red Army and the Red Navy,
to mobilize the whole country for the purpose of resisting military attack and
attempts to restore bourgeois relations.
This is what Lenin says on this score : "We are living not merely in a state,
but in a system of states, and it is inconceivable that the Soviet Republic should
continue to exist for a long period side by side with imperialist states. Ulti-
mately, one or the other must conquer. Meanwhile, a number of terrible clashes
between the Soviet Republic and the bourgeois states is inevitable. This means
that if the proletariat, as the ruling class, wants to and will rvUe, it must prove
this also by military organization." {Collected Works, Vol. 24, P. 122, Russian
edition.) And further: "We are surroimded by people, classes and governments
which openly express their hatred for us. We must remember that we are at
all times but a hair's breath from invasion." {Collected Works, Vol. 27, P. 117,
Russian edition.)
This is said sharply and strongly, but honestly and truthfully, without embel-
lishment, as Lenin was able to speak.
On the basis of these premises, Stalin stated in Problems of Leninism that
"the final victory of Socialism is the full guarantee against attempts at inter-
vention, and that means against restoration, for any serious attempt at restora-
tion can take place only with serious support from outside, only with the support
of international capital. Hence the support of our revolution by the workers of
all countries, and still more, the victory of the workers in at least several coun-
tries, is a necessary condition for fully guaranteeing the first victorious country
against attempts at intervention and restoration, a necessary condition for the
final victory of Socialism." {Problems of Leninism, 1937 Russian edition, P. 134),
{Leninism, Vol. I, by Joseph Stalin, P. 299. — Editor.)
Indeed it would be ridiculous and stupid to close our eyes to the capitalist
encirclement and to think that our external enemies, the fascists, for example,
will not, if the opportunity arises, make an attempt at a military attack upon
the U. S. S. R. Only blind braggarts or masked enemies who desire to lull the
vigilance of our people can think like that. No less ridiculous would it be to
deny that, in the event of the slightest success of military intervention, the
interventionists would try to destroy the Soviet system in the districts they occu-
pied and restore the bourgeois system. Did not Denikin and Kolchak restore
the bourgeois system in the districts they occupied? Are the fascists any better
than Denikin or Kolchak? Only blockheads or masked enemies who by their
boastfulness want to conceal their hostility and are striving to demobilize the
people, can deny the danger of military intervention and of attempts at restoration
as long as the capitalist encirclement exists. Can the victory of Socialism in one
country be regarded as final if this country is encircled by capitalism, and if it is
not fully guaranteed against the danger of intervention and restoration? Clearly
it cannot.
This is the position in regard to the question of the victory of Socialism in
one country.
It follows that this question contains two different problems: (a) the problem
of the internal relations in our country, that is, the problem of overcoming our
bourgeoisie and building complete Socialism, and (b) the problem of the external
relations of our country, that is, the problem of completely insuring our country
against the dangers of military intervention and restoration. We have already
308 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
solved the first problem, for our bourgeoisie has already been liquidated and
Socialism has already been built in the main. This is what we call the victory
of Socialism, or to be more exact, the victory of Socialist construction in one
country. We could say that this victory is final if our country were situated on
an island and if it were not surrounded by numerous other capitalist countries.
But as we are living not on an island, but "in a system of states," a considerable
number of which are hostile to the land of Socialism and create the danger of
intervention and restoration, we say openly and honestly that the victory of
Socialism in our country is not yet final. But from this it follows that the second
problem is not yet solved and that it has yet to be solved. More than that, the
second problem cannot be solved in the way that we solved the first problem,
that is, solely by the effoi-ts of our country. The second problem can be solved
only by combining the serious efforts of the international proletariat with the
still more serious efforts of the whole of our Soviet people. The international
proletarian ties between the working class of the U. S. S. R. and the working class
in bourgeois countries must be increased and strengthened ; the political assist-
ance of the working class in the bourgeois countries for the working class of
our country must be organized in the event of a military attack on our country ;
and also every assistance of the working class of our country for the working
class in bourgeois countries must be organized ; our Red Army, Red Navy, Red
Air Fleet and the Chemical and Air Defense Society must be increased and
strengthened to the utmost. The whole of our people must be kept in a state
of mobilization and preparedness in the face of the danger of military attack,
so that no "accident" and no tricks on the part of our external enemies may take
us by surprise. . . .
From your letter it is evident that Comrade Urozhenko adheres to different
and not quite Leninist conceptions. lie asserts, it appears, that "we now have
the final victory of Socialism and full guarantee against intervention and
restoration of capitalism." There cannot be the slightest doubt that Comrade
Urozhenko is fundamentally wrong. Comrade Urozhenko's assertion can be
explained only by his failure to understand the surrounding reality and his
ignorance of the elementary propositions of Leninism, or by the empty boastful-
ness of a conceited young bureaucrat. If it is true that "we have full guarantees
against intervention and the restoration of capifali^^m,"'then why do we need a
strong Red Army, Red Navy, Red Air Fleet, a strong Chemical and Air Defense
Society, more and stronger ties with the international proletariat? Would it
not be better to spend the billions that now go for the purpose of strengthening
the Red Army on other needs and to reduce the Red Army to the utmost, or even
to dissolve it altogether? People like Comrade TTrozhenko, even if subjectively
they are loyal to our cause, are ob.1ectively dangerous to it because by their
boastfulness they, willingly or unwillingly — it makes no difference! — lull the
vigilance of our people, demobilize the workers and peasants and help the
enemies to take us by surprise in the event of international complications.
As for the fact that it appears that you. Comrade Ivanov, have been "removed
from propaganda work and the question has been raised of your fitness to remain
in the Y. C. L.," you have nothing to fear. If the people in the regional committee
of the Y. C. L. really want to imitate Chekhov's Sergeant Prishibeyev, you can
be sure that they will lose in this game. Prishibeyevs are not liked in our
country.
Now you can judge whether the passage from the book Problems of Leninism
on the victory of Socialism in one coimtry is out-of-date or not. I myself would
very much like it to be out-of-date. I woxild like unpleasant things like the
capitalist encirclement, the danger of military attack, the danger of the restora-
tion of capitalism, etc.. to be things of the past. Unfortunately, however, these
impleasant things still exist.
(Signed) J. Staijn.
February 12, 1938.
Exhibit No. 114
[Source : Daily Worker, April 28, 1938, page 4]
*******
LEiiDiNG Artists, Edthoators Support Sovmr Trial Verdict
Nearly 150 prominent American artists, writers, composers, editors, movie
actors, college professors, and Broadway figures, yesterday issued a statement in
APPENDIX, PART 1
809
support of the verdicts of the recent Moscow trials of the Trotskyite-Buclfharinite
traitors.
The list includes : Arthur Arent, author of One-Third of the Nation ; J. R.
Brown, University of Kansas ; Edwin Berry Burgum, president, College Teachers'
Union ; Morris Carnovsky, leading player in "Golden Boy" ; Robert Coates,
author and art critic of New Yorker ; Harold Clurman, dramatic director ; Merle
Colby, editor, Massachusetts Guide Book ; Jack Conroy, novelist ; Malcolm Cowley,
writer and an editor of New Republic and others.
Entitled "A Statement by American Progressives on the Moscow Trials," the
announcement declares that the signatories consider the trials "have by sheer
weight of evidence established a clear presumption of the guilt of the defend-
ants."
Bracketing the fight against fascism in the United States with the necessity
for protecting the American progressive and labor movement against Trotzkyite
undermining, the signers of the statement conclude :
"The measures taken by the Soviet Union to preserve and extend its gains
and its strength therefore find their echoes here, where we are staking the
future of the American people on the preservation of progressive democracy
and the unification of our efforts to prevent the facsists from strangling the
rights of the people. American liberals must not permit their outlook on these
questions to be confused, nor allow their recognition of the place of the Soviet
Union in the international fight of democracy against fascism to be destroyed.
We call upon them to support the efforts of the Soviet Union to free itself from
insidious internal dangers, principal menace to peace and democracy."
The signatories to statement of American Progressives on Moscow trials
follows :
Arthur Arent
Nelson Algren
Beril Becker
Thomas B. Bennett
Arnold Blanch
Marc Blitzstein
Roman Bohnen
Millen Brand
Phoebe Brand
Dorothy Brewster
J. R. Brown
Edwin Berry Burgum
Alan Campbell
Morris Carnovsky
Vera Caspary
Si-lan Chen
Haakon M. Chevalier
Ch'ao-ting Chi
Harold Clurman
Robert Coates
Merle Colby
Jack Conroy
Curt Conway
Ted Couday
Malcolm Cowley
Bruce Crawford
Kyle Crichton
Robert M. Crenbach
Lester Cole
H. W. L. Dana
Jerome Davis
Stuart Davis
Paul de Kruif
Muriel Draper
Robert "W. Duan
Dr. Garland Ethel
Phil Evergood
Guy Endore
Louis Ferstadt
Frederik V. Field
Elizabeth G. Flynn
Jules Garfield
Hugo Geilert
Robert Gessner
Harry Gottlieb
Emmett Gowan
B. D. N. Grebanier
Richard Greenleaf
Dashiell Hammett
Abraham Harriton
Henry Hart
Lillian Heilman
Granville Hicks
Langston Hughes
Rolph Humphries
Lee Hurwitz
Burton O. James
Florence B. James
Joe Jones
V. D. Kazakevich
Adelaide Klein
H. S. Kraft
John Howard Lawson
Corliss Lamont
Catherine Lawrence
Melvin Levy
Jay Leyda
Philip Loeb
Louis Lozovick
William C. MacLeod
Albert Maltz
V. J. McGill
Selden C. Menefee
Alfred Morang
Elizabeth Olds
John O'Malley
A. L. Ottenheimer
Samuel Ornitz
Raymond Otis
Dorothy Parker
Paul Peters
John Hyde Preston
Rebecca E. Pitts
Samuel Putnam
Charles Recht
Wallingford Riegger
Lynn Riggs
Holland D. Roberts
Anna Rochester
Harold J. Rome
Henry Roth
Paul Romalne
Margaret Schlauch
Morris U. Schappes
Edwin Seaver
George Seldes
Howard Selsam
Irwin Shaw
Dr. Henry E. Sigerist
George Sklar
Harry Schlochower
Bernard Smith
F. Tredwell Smith
Jessica Smith
Hester Sondergaard
Raphael Soyer
Lionel Stander
Bernhard J. Stern
Housely Stevens, Jr.
Philip Stevenson
Maxwell A. Stewart
Paul Strand
John Stuart
Geneviev Taggard
Nahum Tichabasov
Ethel Turner
Keene Wallis
Max Weber
George T. Willison
Frances Winwar
Martin Wolfson
Richard Wright
Victor A. Yakhontoflf
31Q UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 115
[Source : Daily Worker, New York, May 28, 19o8, page 1. Excerpt from an article entitled
"Communist Tarty Convention in First Business Session Names Leading Committees,
Tremendous Ovation Greets Naming to Honorary Presiding Committee of Stalin, Dimi-
trov, Tliaelmann, Pasionaria, Thorez, Others"]
3|t SP T" •1' •I' •!* •»*
Another demonstration came immediately afterwards wlien Ford proposed
three leaders of the Commniiist Iiitcrnatioiuil — Dimitroff, Mainiilisky and
Kuusinen — for places on the honorary presiding committee.
Exhibit No. IIG
[Source : Daily Worker, January 21, 1938, page 5]
Lenin's Heritage
Five days after Lenin's death. Jan. 26, 192'i, the people of the Soviet
Unimi, strieken with grief, met, through their Sovi<:t representatives who
gathered in the Second Soviet Congress, to plan their future. It was at
this Congress, where Lenin's hodij lag in state, that Stalin, toho from
the very first days of the founding of Bolshevism in J'JO.). had worked
in the closest collaboration icith Lenin in the highest councils of the
Comnmnist Party, stepped forward as the Party's spokesman, the leader
of the Soviet people and the ivorld proletariat. Amidst a scene of nnfor-
gettahle impressiveness, he delivered a speech which has become one of
the most treasured of revolutionary classics, the speech, text of which
is given heloio. While the en^'nuics of Lenin were even then tliinking
how to swerve the Soviet Union from the caurse of Marxism-Leninism,
Stalin already saw hoio the heritage of Lenin would have to be carried
forward, and he delivered this profoundly moving pledge for its faithful
execution.
(By Joseph Stalin)
We Communists are people of a siwcial mould. We are made of sj^ecial
material. We are those who comprise the army of the jrreat proletarian strate-
gist, tlie army of Comrade Lenin. There is nothing higher than the honor to
belong to this army. There is nothing higher than the title of member of the
Party founded and led by Comrade Lenin. It is not given to all to be members
of siich a Party. It is not given to all to withstand the stress and storm that
accompanies membership in such a Party. Sons of the working class, sons of
poverty and struggle, sons of incredible deprivation and heroic effort — these
are the ones who must first of all be members of such a I*arty. That is why the
Leninist Party, the Communist Party, at the same tinue calls itself the party of
the working class.
In departing from us. Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of holding
aloft and guarding the purity of the great title of member of the Party. We
vmv to you Comrade Lenin, tiuit we will fulfill your bequest with honor.
*******
For twenty-five years Comrade Lenin reared our Party and finally reared it
into the strongest and most steeled workers' party in the world.
The blows of Tsari.sm and its agents, the fury of the bourgeoisie and the land-
lords, the armed attacks of Kolchak and Denikin, the armed intervention of
England and France, the lies and slander of the hundred-mouthed bourgeois
press — all these scorpions persistently hurled them.selves at our Party during
the course of a quarter of a century. But our Party stood firm as a rock,
repelled the innumerable blows of its enemies and led the working class forward
to victory. In the midst of fierce battles our Party forged the unity and com-
pactness of its ranks. And by its unity and compactness it achieved victory
over the enemies of the working class.
In departing from us, Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of guarding
the unity of our Party like tlie apple of our eye. We vote to you. Comrade Lenin,
that we will also fulfill this bequest of yours ivith honor.
APPENDIX, PART 1 gH
Heavy and unbearable is the lot of the working class. Painful and burden-
some are the sufferings of the toilers. Slaves and slave-owners, serfs and feudal
lords, peasants and landlords, workers and capitalists, oppressed and oppres-
sors— such has been the structure of the world for ages, and such it remains
today in the overwhelming majority of countries.
Scores and hundreds of times in the course of centuries have the toilers tried
to throw their oppressors off their backs and become masters of their own
conditions. But every time, defeated and disgraced, they were compelled to
retreat, their hearts burning with shame and degradation, auger and despair,
and they turned their eyes to the unknown, to the heavens, where they hoped
to find salvation. The chains of slavery remained intact, or el.se the old chains
were exchanged for new ones equally burdensome and degrading. Only in our
comitry have the oppressed and suppressed masses of toilers succeeded in throw-
ing off the rule of the landlords and capitalists and in putting in its place the
rule of the workers and peasants.
You know, comrades, and now the whole world admits this, that this gigantic
struggle was led by Comrade Lenin and his Party. The greatness of Lenin lies
tirst of all in the fact that he, by creating the republic of Soviets, showed by
deeds, to the oppressed masses of the whole world, that hope of salvation Is
not lost, that the rule of the landlords and capitalists will not last long, that
the kingdom of labor can be created by the efforts of the toilers themselves,
that the kingdom of labor must be created on earth and not in heaven. By that
lie inflamed the hearts of the workers and peasants of the whole world with the
hoi>e of liberation. This explains the fact that the name of Lenin has become
a name most beloved to the toilers and the exploited masses.
In departing from us. Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of guarding
and strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat. We vow to you, Comrade
Lenin, that we icill spare no effort to fulfill also this bequest of yours with
honor.
The dictatorship of the pi'oletariat was created in our country on the basi.s
of the alliance between the workers and the peasants. This is the first and
fundamental basis of the republic of Soviets. The workers and peasants could
not have vanquished the capitalists and the landlords without such an alliance.
In departing from us, Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of strength-
ening with all our might the alliance between the workers and the peasants. We
VOID to you, Comrade Lenin, that we ivill fufill also this bequest of yours with
h onor.
The second foundation of the republic of Soviets is the alliance of the toiling
nationalities of our country. Russians and Ukrainians, Bashkirs and White
Russians, Georgians and Azerbaijanians, Armenians and Daghestans, Tartars
and Kirghiz, Uzbeks and Turkomans — all are equally interested in strengthening
the dictatorship of the proletariat. Not only does the dictatorship of the prole-
tariat release these people from their chains and oppression, but these peoples,
by their unbounded loyalty to the republic of Soviets and their readiness to
make sacrifices for it, release our republic of Soviets from the designs and at-
tacks of the enemies of the working class. That is why Comrade Lenin untir-
ingly urged upon us the necessity for establishing a voluntary alliance of the
nations of our country, the necessity of fraternal cooperation within the frame-
work of a Union of Republics.
In departing from us, Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of consoli-
dating and expanding the Union of Republics. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin,
that loe tv-ill also carry out this bequest of yours toith honor.
The third foundation of the dictatorship of the proletariat is our Red Army
and our Red Navy. Lenin told us more than once that the respite we have
gained from the capitalist states may be a short one. More than once Lenin
pointed out to us that the strengthening of the Red Army and the improvement
of its condition is one of the most important tasks of our Party. The events
connected with Curzon's ultimatum and the crisis in Germany once again con-
firmed the fact that Lenin, as always, was right. Let us vow then, comrades,
that we will spare no effort to strengthen our Red Army and our Red Navy.
Our country stands like a huge rock surrounded by the ocean of bourgeois
states. Wave after wave hurls itself against it, threatening to submerge it and
sweep it away. But the rock stands unshakable. Wherein lies its strength?
Not only in the fact that our country is based on the alliance between the workers
and peasants, but it is the personification of the alliance of free nationalities,
812 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
that it is protected by the strong arm of the Red Army and the Red Navy. The
strength of our country, its firmness, its durability lies in the fact that it finds
profound sympathy and unshakable support in the hearts of the workers and
peasants of the world.
The workers and peasants of the whole world want to preserve the republic
of Soviets as an arrow shot by the sure hand of Comrade Lenin into the camp
of the enemy, as a bulwark of their hope for emancipation from oppression and
exploitation, as a faithful lighthouse lighting up their path to liberation. They
want to preserve it and they will not permit the landlords and the capitalists to
destroy it. This is where our strength lies. Herein lies the strength of the
toilers of all countries. And herein lies the weakness of the bourgeoisie of the
whole world.
Lenin never regarded the republic of Soviets as an end in itself. He always
regarded it as a necessary link for strengthening the revolutionary movements
in the lauds of the West and the East, as a necessary link for facilitating the
victory of the toilers of the whole world over capital. Lenin knew that only
such an interpretation is the correct one, not only from the international point
of view, but also from the point of view of preserving the republic of Soviets
itself. Lenin knew that only in this way is it possible to inflame the hearts of
the toilers of all countries for the decisive battles for emancipation. That is
why this genius among the great leaders of the proletariat, on the very morrow
of the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship, laid the foundation of the
workers' International. That is why he never tired of expanding and consoli-
dating the union of the toilers of the whole world, the Communist International.
You have seen during the past few days the pilgrimage of tens and hundreds
of thousands of toilers to the coffin of Comrade Lenin. Very soon you will see
the pilgrimage of representatives of millions of toilers to Comrade Lenin's tomb.
You need have no doubt that later these representatives of millions will be
followed by representatives of tens and hundreds of millions from all corners
of the earth, in order to testify that Comrade Lenin was the leader not only of
the Russian proletariat, not only of the European workers, not only of the colonial
East, but of all the toilers of the globe.
In departing from us, Comrade Lenin bequeathed to us the duty of remaining
loyal to the principles of the Communist International. We vow to you, Comrade
Lenin, that we icill not spare our lives to strengthen and expand the union of the
toilers of the whole ivorld — the Cofnmunist International.
Exhibit No. 117
[Source: T\\c Constitution and By-Laws of the Oonimunist Party of thp United States of
America, published by Workers Library Publishers, Inc. P. 0. Box 148, Station D, New
York, N. Y. : August, 1938]
AKTIOLE XL AFFILIATION
The Communist Party of the U. S. A. is affiliated with its fraternal Communist
Parties of other lands through the Communist International and participates in
International Congresses, through its National Committee. Resolutions and
decisions of International Congresses shall be considered and acted upon by the
supreme authority of the Community Party of the U. S. A., the National Con-
vention, or between Conventions, by the National Committee.
Exhibit No. 118
[Source : Excerpt from the testimony of Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist
Party of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, September 6, 1939, page 4431]
Mr. Matthews. But assuming that it should attack the Soviet Government,
or become involved in war against the Soviet Union, what then?
Mr. Browdbr. If it were possible for the American Government to do that,
or if we assume that the American Government should make an aggressive
war against the Soviet Union, I would stand as absolutely opposing such a
war, and as doing everything possible to stop it.
Mr. Matthews. Even to turning such a war into a civil war?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir ; in every way I could to stop it. I cannot conceive,
however, of America being an aggressor nation.
APPENDIX, PART 1 gl3
BXHTBTT Na 119
[ Source : Excerpt from testimony of Alexander Trachtenberg, secretary and treasurer of
International Publishers, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
September 13, 1939]
* * * 4c * * «
The Chaibman. If the United States declared war against Russia, would you
support the United States in that war against Russia?
Mr. Teachtenbeeg. I do not think the United States will declare any such war.
*******
The Chairman. Which one would you favor, between Russia and the United
States, if the United States declared war on Russia or Russia declared war on the
United States?
Mr. Trachtenberg. I cannot conceive the possibility of either one declaring
war on the other.
Exhibit No. 120
[Source: Excerpt from testimony of William Z. Foster, chairman of the Communist Party
of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities,
September 29, 1939, page 5386]
*******
The Chairman. In the event of war between the United States and Soviet
Russia, would your allegiance be to the United States or Soviet Russia?
"Why are you conferring with your counsel?
Mr. Brodsky. He can confer with counsel. I have the right to tell him that
it is purely a hypothetical question. I am going to advise him that it is a
hypothetical question and not within the purview of the committee.
The Chairman. Mr. Browder did not hesitate to answer. Did you advise Mr.
Browder on that matter?
j\Ir. Brodsky. If I did, I would not tell you, or what I advised him. That is
privileged.
The Chairman. You are advising him not to answer?
Mr. Brodsky. I am not advising him anything on that ; I am advising him on
the law, and I have a right to do that.
The Chairman. Do you decline to answer that question?
Mr. Foster. Well, I say it is a hypothetical question.
The Chairman. Why would you not answer it?
Mr. Foster. On the ground that it is a hypothetical question.
Exhibit No. 121
[Source : Excerpt from testimony of Max Bedaeht, general secretary of the International
Workers Order, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, October
16, 1939, page 5850]
*******
The Chairman. Now, I am asking you if the United States should enter
this particular war on the side of France and England, would you support the
United States in such a war?
Mr. Bedacht. First of all, I would work like hell to see that it did not happen.
The Chairman. But what would you do?
Mr. Bedacht. First of all, that is a hypothesis, and I cannot answer a
hypothesis.
The Chairman. You are not in a position to say whether, if the United
States entered the war on the side of England and France, against Germany
and Russia — you cannot say you would support the United States in such
event?
Mr. BFa)ACHT. I say it is a hypothetical question.
The Chairman. A hypothetical question ! Cannot you say whether or not
you would support this country under those conditions?
Mr. Bedacht. There will be no war, so what?
The Chairman. I am asking you if there is a war, I am asking you the
question would you support the United States, on the side of England and
France?
Mr. Bedaoht. I say it is a hypothetical question and I will not give an
answer, because it has to be a hypothetical one, too.
814 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 122
[Source: Excerpt from the testimony of Alexander Trachtenberg, secretary and treasurer
of International Publishers, Hearings of the SiJecial Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, September la, 1939, page 4929]
****** i^
Mr, Matthews. Now, Mr. Trachtenberg, you are the cbairmau of the literature
coiiimissiou t)f the Communist Party, are you not?
Mr. TRACHTENBEaiG. That is right.
Mr. Matthews. And you are familiar witli tlie arrangements made for the
distribution of the History of the Cuunuuui.st Party of the Soviet Union, are
you not?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Yes.
Mr. Matthews. You are familiar with the mimeographed statement that went
out concerning the distribution of the History of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Yes ; that is right.
Mr. M.xtthews. Will you please identify this as the special bulletin issued by
the Org-Educational and Literature Commissions? [Handing a paper to the
witness.]
Mr. TRACHTENBEiiG. That is right
Mr. MArrHEWS. I ask that this be marked as an exhibit.
(The paper referred to was marked "Trachtenberg Exhibit No. — , September
13, 1939," and is filed herewith.)
Mr. Matthews. Mr. Trachtenberg, as a member of the national committee of
the Communist Party, you are familiar with the resolution adopted by the national
committee on the distribution of the history?
Mr. TRACHTENBF3fi. YCS.
Mr. Matthew^s. That resolution states as follows:
"We accept full responsibility f(ir the sale of 1(X),000 copies of the History of
the Communist I'arty of the Soviet Union and will use this, together with the
whole campaign connected with the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of
the Communist International and our own party, as a means of raisng the
ideological level of our entire party membership."
That resolution is stated to have been adopted in December 1938. That is a
direct quotation from the resolution?
Mr. Trachtenberg. That is right.
Mr. Matthe^vs. Mr. Trachtenberg, in this document which you have identified
it is stated :
"The national committee will absorb the cost of distribution to the districts."
Is that a correct statement?
Mr. Trachtenberg. I think so ; yes.
Exhibit No. 123
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 13,
1939, pages 4936-^989 ; being the Trachtenberg Exhibit identified by the witness and
submitted for the record]
*******
(The following was submitted for the record by Mr. Matthews:)
[Special bulletin issued by the org-educational and literature commissions of the national
committee, Communist Party of the United States of America, January 1939]
The History of the Communist Party of the So\'iet Union, Prepared by the
Central Committee, Communist Party of the Soviet Union
•'We accept full responsibility for the sale of 100,000 copies of The History of
the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and will use this, together with the
whole campaign connected with the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of
the Communist International and our ow^n party, as a means of raising the
ideological level of our entire party membership."
Resolution adopted by national committee of the Communist Party, United
States of America, December 1938.
This special bulletin is devoted entirely to the organization of the national
campaign for the distribution of 100,000 copies of The History of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union. Please read these directives carefully and initiate
discussions on them in all district, section, and branch committees.
APPENDIX, PART 1 815
COMRADE BROWDEB'S MESSAGE TO THE PARTY ON THE '"HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION," AT THE BECEMBER PLENUM OF THE NATIONAL
COMMITTEE
Oiu- great brother party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which
gave to the world the supreme example of the Communist progi-am translated
into life, has also now provided us with a great instrument for our ideological
rearmament. It is the new book, A Short Course in the Histoi-y of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union, prepared under the direction of its central
committee, with the personal participation and leadership of Comrade Stalin.
We do not yet have the authentic English translation, but from what we have
already learned of its character and of its role in the Soviet Union, where a
first edition of 6,000,000 copies was sold in a few days, we know that it will
be of equal importance for us in America and for our brother iiarties of all lands.
Allow me to give you some idea of this supremely important book by a few
quotations from its introduction. We read:
'"The history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the history of
three revolutions : The bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905, the boui'geois-
democratic revolution in February 1917, and the Socialist revolution in October
1917.
"The history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the history of
the ovei'throw of czarism, of the overthrow of the power of the landlords and
capitalists, the history of the routing of the foreign armed intervention during
the civil war, the history of the building up of the Soviet state and of Socialist
society in our country."
What do we gain from the study of such a history? The introduction tells us :
"The study of the history of the Conmiunist Party of the Soviet Union en-
riches us with the experience of the stmggle of the workers and peasants of
our country for socialism.
"The study of the history of struggle of our party against all the enemies of
IMarxism-Leninism. against all the enemies of the working people, assists us to
master bolshevism, raises our political vigilance.
"The study of the heroic history of the Bolshevik Party arms us with the
knowledge of the laws of social development and political struggle, with tlie
knowledge of the driving forces of the revolution.
■'The study of the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
strengthens our confidence in the final victory of the great cause of the party of
Lenin and Stalin, the victory of communism throughout the entire world."
Will such a book be of special value also to us here in America, a book writ-
ten and edited under the personal direction of our great teacher, Stalin? Of
course, it will be of the most inestimable value.
I think you will all agree with this judgment without hesitation. And there-
fore I think you will also agree with the proposal which the iwlitical committee
decided to place before you, that we make use of this book on a large scale, in a
really organized manner, a.s a b;isic feature of our parly's work and education.
We expect soon to have in our hands the authorized English translation, care-
fully checked and verifie<l for accuracy by a conunission of exiierts. We will be
rushing it to the printer as soon as it is ready. We had to estimate how many
copies of this book we need really to make use of it seriously. We recalled the
facl that our party, together with the Young Communist League, has considerably
more than lOO.tKlO members. We therefore judge that we should print a minimum
of 100.000 copies.
The liistory, although called "a short course," is not a small book, containing,
as it does, some 450 pages. Such a book, in the usual course of publishing and
distributing, would have to sell at a price of about $3 per copy. Clearly, such a
price would enormously increase the difficulties of distributing the number we
consider necessary. We therefore turned our minds to the problem of eliminating
every unnecessary expense and placing the book in the hands of every party mem-
ber and close sympathizt'r at the physical cost of production, without any of the
normal costs of distribution being added to the price. We decided that we would
ask every branch of the part.v to order as many copies as they have members, plus
as many copies as they think they can iuunediately sell to close sympathizei's at
the reduced price. The national committee will absorb the cost of distribution
to the districts. The districts and sections will be asked to absorb the cost of
distribution to the branches. The branches will distribute the book as a central
political task of their members and sympathizers. Every copy of the book will
glQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
represent a fixed price, from top to bottom, exactly the cost of printing and paper,
and no more. Thus, witli this special distribution, we will distribute the book
through the party itself at a price of about 40 cents per copy instead of $3.
Copies to be distributed through the ordinary channels of book stores, and so on,
will be sold at $1 per copy.
That, briefly, is the plan which we submit for your approval. We think it is a
practical one, within the powers of our party to fulfill completely and with dis-
patch. We hope you will agree with our judgment.
Once the book is in the hands of the readers, widely distributed, it will be a
political task of the first magnitude to insure, in organized fashion, that it is
made the best possible use of. That requires study and discussion. This is no
ordinary book to be skimmed through and then laid aside on a bookshelf. It is a
scientific textbook to he studied and mastered, not a collection of dogmas to be
memorized, not for mechanical quotation of extracts, but to understand the essence
of the theory of Marxism-Leninism so that it can be applied to the most varied
and different problems and situations so that this theory can be enriched with
the new experiences of the revolutionary woking-class movement also of our
country.
HOW SHALL THE "HISTORY OF THE COMMirNIST PARTY OF THE SO\lET UNION" BE SOLD
AND DISTKIBUTED?
1. The price per copy of the special edition of the History of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union shall be 40 cents in the party and Young Communist
League branches when purchased with the prciiaynicnt coupon card. This edition
will be bound in hiird board covers and will be sold only to party and Young
Communist League members in the branches at the special 40-cent price; they will,
however, have the right to purchase more than one copy for sympathetic contacts
and recruits for purposes of recruiting. A cloth edition will Ik? available for sale
through the bookshops at $1 per copy.
2. iso district, section, or branch is authorized to alter the price set by the
riational committee for this book, nor to retain any margin of the moneys col-
lected for it. The national committee has undertaken to stand the cost of dis-
tribution to the districts; the State committees within the districts, so as to pass
on the book to the party membership at cost of production.
3. The national committee proposes the following quotas for the districts, based
on the resolution adopted by the December plenum to distribute 100,000 copies
of the English edition through the party and the Young Communist League.
New England 2,500
New York 50, 000
East Pennsylvania 3, 500
Kansas 300
West Pennsylvania 2,000
Ohio 4, 500
Lower Michigan 3, 000
Illinois 6, 500
Minnesota 2, 000
Nebraska 100
North Dakota 150
Washington 4. 000
California 10, 000
North Jersey 2,000
Connecticut 1, 200
North Carolina 150
Alabama 500
Wisconsin 1, 750
4. All orders shall be sent directly to the national committee.
5. All funds shall be handled through branch, section, and district finance
departments, and shall be sent directly to the national committee.
6. All collections and payments shall be made in advance for books ordered,
through issuance of prepayment coupon cards, of which sufficient copies will
be sent to each district to reach the entire party membership. The prepayment
coupon card is designed to enable each party or Young Communist League mem-
ber to purchase two copies of the book in installments of 10 cents. There are
two coupons attached to each prepayment coupon card ; each of the coupons
is divided into four boxes, each box representing a 10-cent payment when dated
Colorado 350
Texas -. 500
Missouri 500
West Virginia 150
Kentucky 1,50
Louisiana 150
Florida 350
South Dakota 2."")0
Upper Michigan 300
Indiana .500
Virginia 150
Montana 200
Oklahoma 250
Iowa 200
Tennes.see 200
Maryland 1, 500
Utah • 150
APPENDIX, PART 1 817
and signed by the branch financial secretary. Thus, a fully paid-up coupon
which represents four 10-cent payments, entitles a comrade to one copy ; eight
payments to two copies.
7. Payments should be made to the branch finance director, who will enter
the payments in the regular branch receipt book, and will also indicate that
payment has been made by dating and signing one of the boxes on the coupon
for each 10-cent payment made.
8. The prepayment coupon card is designed to fit the membership book, and
should be kept there. Additional cards should be given to any comrades who
desire to purchase additional copies of the book.
9. The branch organizer of each branch shall in every case give leadership in
organizing the sale and distribution of the book, although the branch finance
secretary should handle the funds and the books.
PL.\N OF PROMOTION OF HISTORY OF COMMUNIST PARTY OP SOVIET UNION
1. The national committee will launch a national prize essay contest on the
Significance of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for Ameri-
can Workers. The winning essay will be printed in the Communist. The
winner will be invited to attend the next plenum of the national committee.
2. Each district committee to submit its plans to the national committee for the
popularization, study, and distribution of the book.
3. At least one large mass meeting should be organized in each district, at which
a party leader will lecture on the significance of this book.
4. This special bulletin is being sent to the districts in sufficient quantities so
that each branch of the party receives a copy. The branch organizer is to present
the plans incorporated in this bulletin to his members.
5. The district committees to arrange special conferences to discuss distribu-
tion with fractions and commissions of the International Workers Order, workers'
schools, Young Communist League, national groups, trade unions, etc.
6. The national org-educational commission is preparing plans and outlines for
study of the book throughout the party.
7. A poster is being designed by a leading artist for national distribution. Also
a circular and other material.
8. Each district to issue its own leaflets or circulars, in addition to literature
bulletins. The best leaflet will earn a copy of the History of the Communist
I'arty of the Soviet Union, signed by Comrade Foster.
9. Every book store to organize a special window display around the book.
Photos of the display should be sent to the national committee. The winning
display will get a copy of The People's Front, signed by Comrade Browder ; The
Negro and the Democratic Front, signed by Comrade Ford ; and From Bryan to
Stalin, signed by Comrade Foster.
10. The national committee will designate special writers to each of the three
newspapers, the Daily Worker, People's World, and Daily Record, to publicize
the book.
11. Outstanding party leaders will contribute articles on the book, to appear
in the English and language press.
12. A campaign to be initiated in every district and section to request the book
in the public libraries to guarantee that the libraries will make it available.
13. The study of the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to
be linked up throughout the anniversary year of 1939 with the study of other basic
Marxist-Leninist theoretical works, with American history, with the counter-
revolutionary role of Trotskyism-Lovestoneism, with the achievements of the
Soviet T^nion, etc.
14. A banner to be awarded by the national committee to the district surpassing
its quota by the highest margin.
ExHiiUT No. 124
[Source: Daily Worker, February 13, 1939, page 6]
*******
'History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union' Soon in English
The book you have long waited for — the History of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union — is almost here.
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 53
gig UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Workers Library Publishers say it will be out about March 15th.
There have, of course, been published several histories of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, a number of wliich have been translated into
English.
This, however, is one of those rare products which stand out among hundreds
of thousands of books that may appear over a period of years.
It is a history preparetl by the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union with the direct and intimate participation of Jo.seph Stalin,
It is more than a history. It is a review of the development of tlie Party
that led the Russian people to victory in sucii a manner, that if becomes a
guide for action in the present highly charged world situation.
BEOWDICR STRESSES VALUE
When the book appeared last year, it took the Soviet Union by storm and
6,000,000 were sold in several days.
Attacliing special significance to the book, Browder declared in his report
at the December plenum of the Communist I'arty:
"Our great brother Party, the Communist I'ariy of the Soviet Union, which
gave to the world the supreme examplo of the Couununist program translated
intc^ life, has also now provided us with a gri'at instrument for our ideological
rearmiiment. It is the new book. A SHORT COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF
THE COMMUNIST PARTY of the Soviet Union, prepared under the direction
of its Central Committee, with the personal participation and leadership of
Comrade Stalin. We do not yet have the authentic English translation but
from what we have already learned of its character, and of its role in the
Soviet Union where a first edition of six million copies were sold in a few
days, we know that it will be of equal importance for us in America and for
our brother Parties of all lands."
This 400 page book of carefully concentrated exi)erieuce, research, lessons
and vivid accounts of the rusli of events during three revolutions, will be
issued for only 40 cents.
The first printing will bo of 100.000 stiff-backed copies, for sale through the
Communist Party units. Shortly afterward clothbound copies will be on sale
at all bookshops at $1.00 each.
The 100.(X)0 has betni divided into quotas for all 35 district and state organi-
zations of the Communist Party. A campaign has been launched to get the
book into the hands of every member of the Communist Party and through
them, to their friends, so that by the time the 100.000 are off the press they
will be practically sold.
The success with which the Conuininist Party carried out last year the
similar campaign to circulate Earl Browder's "People's Front" — a $2 book —
leaves little doubt that the history will be grabbed up in several weeks.
As a measure to get the 100,000 sold befort^ they ai-o off the press, the Central
Committee's literature department issued "Pre-))ayment Coupon Cards" upon
which eight coupons are printed, representing 10 cents each. As each Party
member pays his weekly 10 cents it is noted on the card. After eight weeks
two books will be paid for — one for the member, another for a friend. The
coupon card fits like a page into the membership book.
Connected with the sale of the book, is a campaign to bring its spirit to the
masses. A national essay contest on the "Significance of the History of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the American Workers" has been
launched, the winning one to go into the Communist, and its writer to be
invited to the next plenary session of the Central Committee.
Each district is called upon to organize at least one mass meeting at which
a leader of the Party should lecture on the book.
The national educational department of the Communist Party is preparing
an outline to aid in the study of the book.
The Communist press will run a series of articles by Communist leaders on
various phases of the book.
As 1939 develops the campaign towards the 20th Anniversary of the Com-
munist Party on September 1. will warm up. The study of the story of the
world's foremost Communist Party will actually lay the ground for appre-
ciating the full significance of our own.
APPENDIX, PART 1 819
Exhibit No. 125
[Source: Daily Worker, March 21, 1939, page 3]
New C. p. S. U. History Issued Here Today— 100,000 Copies Prepared fob
Sale in This Country — Invaluable as Guide to Party Work in All Lands
A hundred thousand copies of the new short History of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union were published in the English edition today to
bring the "greatest story of this generation" to the American people.
The new History of the Soviet Union, handsomely bound and bearing the
authorship of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, has already been distributed in millions of copies in the Russian
edition.
Quoting the introduction, "TTie history of the C P. S. U. is the history of
three revolutions: the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1905, the bourgeois-
democratic revolution in February, 1917, and the socialist revolution in Oc-
tober, 1917 . . . the history of the overthrow of tsarism, of the overthrow
of the power of landlords and capitalists, the routing of the foreign armed
intervention during the Civil War, the building up of the Soviet State and
of Socialist society in our country."
NO ordinary book
Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United
States, in a recent statement indicated the importance of this great new
history. He said :
"This is no ordinary book to be skimmed through and then laid aside on
a bookshelf. It is a scientific textbook to be studied and mastered, not a
collection of dogmas to be memorized, not for mechanical quotation of ex-
tracts, but to understand the essence of the theory of Marxism-Leninism
so that it can be applied to the most varied and different problems and situa-
tions, so that this theory can be enriched with the new experiences of the
revolutionary working class movement also of our country."
The contents of the new short history are divided into twelve chapters
with the following titles:
Chapter One: The Struggle for the creation of a Social-Democratic Labor
Party in Russia (1883-1901).
Chapter Two : Formation of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party.
Appearance of the Bolshevik and the Menshevik Groups Within the Partv
(1901-1904).
Chapter Three : The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the
Russo-Japanese War and the First Russian Revolution (1904-1907).
Chapter Four : The Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks in the Period of the
Stolypin Reaction. The Bolsheviks Constitute Themselves an Independent
Marxist Party (1908-1912).
Chapter Five: TTie Bolshevik Party During the New Rise of the Working
Class Movement Before the First Imperialist War (1912-1914).
Chapter Six : The Bolshevik Party in the Period of the Imi>erialist War.
The Second Revolution in Russia (1914-March 1917).
Chapter Seven: The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Preparation and
Realization of the October Socialist Revolution (April 1917-1918).
Chapter Eight: The Bolshevik Party in the Period of Foreign Military In-
tervention and Civil War (1918-1920).
Chapter Nine : The Bolslievik Party in the Period of Transition to the Peaceful
Work of Economic Restoration (1912-1925).
Chapter Ten: The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle for the Socialist Indus-
trialization of the Country (1926-1929).
Chapter Eleven: The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle for the Collectiviza-
tion of Agriculture (1930-1934).
Chapter Twelve : The Bolshevik Party in the Struggle to Complete the
Building of the Socialist Society. Introduction of the New Constitution (1935-
1937). i
Other important publication announcements here today include the decision
to public a quarter of a million copies in English of the main reports to the
820 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
18th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, now in session.
Pravda today announces the publication of 15 million copies of the Russian
edition of the report.
Exhibit No. 326
[Source: An Article entitled "North Dakota First to Top 'llistory of CPSU' Quota," Daily
Worker, April 6, 1939, page 5]
****** t
Little North Dakota is the first district to go over the top in the socialist
competition among the various state organizations of the Conmuuii.st Party
to fulfill their quotas on the distribution of the History of the CPSU.
With a quota of 150, North Dakotii has achieved 112 per cent or 108 copies
ordered and distributed. Connecticut, with a quota of 1,2()(» has already taken
760, or 63 per cent. Close on its heels conies Colorado which, with 208 copies,
has fulfilled 59.5 iK>r cent of its quota of 350.
New York has taken 25,000 copies of its tremendous quota of 50,000 i-efiecting
the scope and depth of the influence and power of the N. Y. State Organiza-
tion. These copies are being eagerly l)ouglit up by the thousand in the Party
branches. Manhattan alone has taken a (piota of 20,000 copies to distribute,
and the competition among the various sections in New Y'ork is extremely
keen.
Virginia has also fulfilled 50 per cent of its quota of 150.
Among the larger districts, Californi.i, with 2,.S5!) copies, or 23.6 per cent of
its quota of 10,000 copies, is running well behind Illinois, which has already
taken 2,000 copies even, or 30.8 per cent of its quota of 6,500 copies.
New England, with 25.6 per cent of its quota of 2,500, is just a nose ahead
of Eastern Pennsylvania which has fulfilled 23.33 per cent of its quota of 3,500
and of Western Pennsylvania with 24.5 per cent of its quota of 2,0(X). Put
it is trailing behind New Jersey which has achieved 27.4 \)er cent of its quota
of 2,000 and its closest competitor, Wisconsin, whose latest rush order has
brought it to 27.8 per cent of its quota of 1,750. However. Maryland beats all
these districts, with a full third of its quota of 1,500 fulfilled.
Ohio and lower Michigan are running neck and neck for last place among the
larger districts, having fulfilled only 12.6 per cent of their respective quotas of
4,500 and 3,0(X). Also among the tailenders is Minnesota with only 15.4 per
cent of its quota of 2,000, and Texas with 8.4 i>er cent of a quota of 500.
West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma have not even started
their campaigns. Not a single book has been ordered.
The goal of 100.000 distributed copies of the History of the CPSU was adopted
by the National Committee at its December Plenum.
Exhibit No. 127
[Source : Excerpts from "Review of the Month," the Communist, January 1939, page 3]
*******
. . . And although Lenin and his teachings are always present in our thought
and minds, the anniversary of his death — the Lenin days — serves as a fresh
stimulus for deeper study of Marxism-Leninism and for rededication to the
cau.se which is guided by this theory.
Soon there will be available the American edition of the History of thr,
Commnnifit Party of the Soviet Union, prepared by the Central Committee
of that Party with the closest collaboration of Comrade Stalin. And this is
very fortunate. For with this book, the most authoritative exposition of the
history and development of Leninism, as it were — Leninism in action — tens
and perhaps himdreds of thousands in our country will have the opportunity
of studying Marxi.sm-Leninism at its very source and to gain the great advan-
tages vrhich the mastery of this theory gives to the labor movement.
The National Committee of the Communist Party of the United States de-
cided at its last plenary meeting. . . . upon the proposal of Comrade Browder, to
publish and distribute a minimum of 100,000 copies of this book at a price . . .
which should enable the worker of the lowest income to acquire a copy of this
book for individual use. To acquire it, to have it, to study it. Because every
APPENDIX, PART 1 821
worker will ueed it, especially those who are active and leading in the pro-
gressive mass movements of the people.
It will be the task and duty of the membership and organizations of the
Communist Party in the coming months to organize and carry tlirough the
distribution of the minimum of 100,000 copies of this book. It will also be
the task of the Party organizations to organize their educational facilities in
such a way as to lend the utmost encouragement and assistance to all individual
and group studies of the great lessons to be learned from the glorious history
of oiir brother Party in the Soviet Union. . . .
The recently concluded meeting of the National Committee of the Commu-
nist Party, deliberating on the very practical and immediate tasks facing the
working class and all democratic forces of America consequent upon the
results of the last elections and of the Munich conspiracy, sought consciously
to be guided by this creative, forward-looking, and forward-moving theory of
Marxism-Leninism. Led by Comrades Browder and Foster, the National Com-
mittee aimed to make the December plenary meeting a stage in the mastery
of the Marxist-Leninist theory. It thus aimed with its p<ilitical and organiza-
tional decisions to enable our Party to be of greater service to the further
progress of our class and people.
Exhibit No. 128
[Source : Excerpts from an article entitlerl "Minnesota to rii«h 'History of C. P. S. U.,' "
Daily Worker, April 4, 1939, page 3]
The State committee of the Communist Party has initiated a broad educational
campaign throughout the state with the distribution of 2,000 copies of the
"History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."
"In the rural communities," writes the Committee, "the arrival of the History
of the C. P. S. U. was greeted enthusiastically, and study groups are being
organized in some villages, of workers and farmers, with leading comrades of
the state committee conducting these study groups.
"Plans to distribute the full quota of 2,000 copies are well under way.
"An indication of the understanding among the Party members of the great
service that this book will perform is seen by the following occurence v.'hich took
place in Rochester. A radio announcer there, in commenting on the Soviet Union,
lumped together Communism and fascism, making slanderous remarks on the
history of Soviet Union. Because of the great number of protests a reply which
came in from one of the air listeners was read over the station, and this reply
stated that anyone who wanted to be thoroughly clarified as to the history of the
U. S. S. R., how it came to be established, and what it was accomplishing, should
read the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). As
a result, we are planning tliat the next broadcast of the Communist Party, in
Rochester, which takes place on April 10, will deal with the Histoi-y of the
C. P. S. U.
Exhibit No. 129
[Source: Excerpts from an article entitled "Some 01)servations on How to Study the 'His-
tory of ihe Communist Party of tlie Soviet Union (Bolshevilvs),' " by A. Landy, the
Communist, May, 1939, page 407]
4: H: ^ lis * i|l lie
The second thing we must remember is that Marxism-Leninism can be studied
as a science only if it is studied as a guide to action and not as a dogma.
Georgi Dimitroff expressed the inseparable connection of all these aspects of
Bolshevism when he wrote :
"It isn't enough to have the temperament of a revolutionary; one must also
know how to handle the weapon of revolutionary theory. It isn't enough to know
the theory ; one must forge a solid character with a Bolshevik inflexibility. It
isn't enough to know what has to be done; one must have the courage to accom-
plish it. One must always be ready to do, at any cost, everything which may
truly serve the working class. One must be able to subordinate his entire
personal life to the interests of the proletariat."
822 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 130
[Source: Excerpt from an article ontitlcri "New C. P. S. T'. History Issued Here Today,"
Daily Worlier, March 121, 1939, page 3]
*******
Earl Rrowfler. Gonoral Spcrctary of tlio Communist Party of the United
States, in a recent statement indicated the imiiorlance of this si'^at new history.
He said :
"This is no ordinary liook to be skimmed through and then laid aside on a
book.shelf. It is a scientific textbook to be studied and mastered, not a collec-
tion of dogmas to be memorized, not for mechanical quotation of extracts, but
to understand the essence of the theory of Marxism-Leninism so that it can
be applied to the most varied and different prol)lems and situations, so that
this theory can be enriched with the new experiences of the revolutionary
working class movement also of our country."
Exhibit No. 131
[Source : Excerpts from an article entitled "Southern District Heart Tells of Plans to Study
CPSU History," by Robert F. Hall, Daily Worker, March 27. 1939, page 4]
*******
We therefore recommended to the District Committee the acceptance of the
quota of 500 copies. * ♦ * In view of the poverty of the share croppers and
even industrial workers in the South, and in view of the great illiteracy in the
South, it will require careful planning and hard work to fulfill this quota.
In accepting the quota, the District Committee set up a committee to plan the
distribution and promotion as well as the study of the book. The committee is
headed by Bob Taylor, District Administrative Secretary, and includes the edu-
cational director, the literature director, the county secretary of Jefferson
County, and the section organizer of the Black Belt.
An immediate task is the planning of the study of the book, to include the
entire i)arty membership.
In our "night school" we expect to utilize the book fully.
Exhibit No. 132
[Source: Excerpt from an article entitled 'Tlio Soviet I'nion and the American People,"
by Alexander Trachtenberg, the Communist, September, 1939, page 885]
*******
WluMi the HISTORY OF THE COMMI NIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET
UNION, prepared under the suiiervi.sion of the Central Committee of the
Party, was recently published in the U. S. S. R.. American Communists im-
mediately recognized the great value of this book and an American edition in
an English translation was made available. . . . Hundreds of groups in the
United States are now engaged in careful reading and study of the book, with
the purpose of learning about the forces which produced the Revolution, the
Party under whose leadership it was accomplished, the establishment of social-
i.sm, the lessons to be derived for the international working class.
Exhibit No. 133
[Source: Daily Worker, March 29, 1939, page 4]
Illinois C. P. Calls Study Plan Parley
Chicago, March 23. — The distribution and study of 6,500 copies of "History
of C. P. S. U" in Illinois, launched at a citywide functionary meeting on Wash-
ington's Birthday, at which William Z. Foster, was the main speaker, is being
spurred by an intensive Party educational campaign.
Two commissions have been appointed, one on sale and promotion, the other
on study of the book. "Everything will be done," stated Ed Brown, State
APPENDIX, PART 1 823
Organizational Secretary "in bringing forward the campaign to prevent it from
being considered just a problem of getting rid of so many copies, or even of
raising monev— making the foundation, even of the task of selling the book.
a question of' its great contribution to the Party's work and the perspective one
of intensive study."
Of the quota of 6,500 copies, Cook County has been assigned 4,(00; 1,000 to
the Y. C. L. the national groups, and the Workers School; and the remainder
will be distributed to the downstate sections.
A Conference on Education will be held on Sunday, March 12, at which all
leading comrades of the district, county and section, as well as five delegates
from each branch, including the chairman, educational and literature directors,
will be present. This Conference will begin with a showing of the Soviet film,
"The Groat Citizen," and will be followed by a report by Morris Childs, State
Secretary, on the significance and the utilization of the History of the C. P.
S. U. The Conference will also organize three round tables on Education,
Literature and the Daily Record.
The objective will be to involve every Party member in the State organization
in the organized study of this important book.
In the spirit of socialist competition, the State Committee pledged to be the
first district to fulfill its quota on the sale and distribution of the History of the
C. P. S. u.
The "History of the C. P. S. Z7." u-ill he on sale at all Party branches at the
end of March, at 'fOc per copy. It is a 3S4-page cloth-hound book, written under
the direct supervision of the Central Committee, C. P. 8. U.
Exhibit No. 134
[Source : Daily Worker, March 31, 1939, page 2]
History of C. P. S. U. Factor in N. J. Drive
"The news of the issuance of the American edition of the 'History of the
C. P. S. U.' was received with great enthusiasm throughout the Party in the
State of New Jersey," declared Lena Davis, State Secretary, in discussing plans
for the distribution and study of New Jersey's quota of 2,000 copies.
Describing the activity of the State Educational Department which is assist-
ing the counties in the organization of classes and of study groups in all Party
branches. Comrade Davis stated : "The whole campaign is centered around the
problem of becoming more thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice
of the Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union so as to be able to apply the program
of our Party to the concrete activities of each locality.
"We are also availing ourselves of the opportunity of using the Consultation
Service set up by the New York Workers School in order to help our comrades
better understand the contents of the book."
The New Jersey State Committee issued a si>ecial letter to all Party branches
dealing specifically with the mobilization of the entire Party for the sale and
study of the "History of the C. P. S. U.," suggesting how this should be carried
on not only within the Party, but among non-Party people as well.
The study of this vital book, plans for which are being carefully worked out
by the State Committee is being Jinked up with an intensive recruiting drive to
bring the best and most advanced elements among the workers into the Party,
and to raise the whole quality of Party work among the masses.
"We feel confident," said Comrade Davis, "that the Party membership will
utilize this opportunity to the fullest extent and will advance in their theoretical
understanding of their tasks and that, in turn, will improve their concrete day
to day activities."
Exhibit No. 135
[Source: History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), published by
International Publishers, New York: 1989. Page 9]
Marx and Engels taught that it was impossible to get rid of the power of
capital and to convert capitalist property into public property by peaceful means.
g24 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and that the working class could achieve this only by revolutionary violence
against the bourgeoisie, by a proletarian revolution, by establishing its own
political rule — the dictatorship of the proletariat — which must crush the resist-
ance of the exploiters and create a new, classless, Communist society.
Exhibit No. 136
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un American Activities, September 6, 1039,
pages 4404-4J0r>]
*******
Mr. Matthews. Mr. Browder, has the American Communist Party, through
its leaders and pul)lications, made fi'equent rt'ltM-cncps to the Conniiunist Party
of the Soviet Union a.s a model party for all other Communist Parties?
Mr. BuowDER. Frequently.
Mr. Matthkws. In the world?
Mr. Browder. Frequently.
Mr. Matthews. Tliere has been recently puiilislied in the United States a
history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Browder. Yes.
Mr. M.vrTHEWs. Was the edition a rather large one?
Mr. Bkowder. One liundred thousand copies.
Mr. Matthews. Is the party of the Uriit»'d States now conducting a campaign
for the education of its own nu>nil)ers in all the liistory and tactics of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union?
Mr. BuowDEni. That is correct.
Mr. Matthews. Are the member.s of the Communist Party of the United
States required to purchase copies of the History of the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union?
Mr. BuowDKR. Not required to ; it is purely a voluntary act.
Mr. Matthews. Not reqiiired except by moral stress of the party?
Mr. Browder. Required, insofar as they accept the opinions of the leaders of
the party. i
Mr. Matthews. They have been urged so to do?
Mr. Bkowder. They have been urged to do so.
Mr. Matthews. Rather strongly?
Mr. Browder. Very strongly.
Mr. Matthews. Reading from the rominunist for Septenilter 1930 from an
article which is signed only with the initials A. B., which I take to refer to
Alex Bittelman
Mr. Browder. That is correct.
Mr. Matthews. We have the following statement :
"Conununists, and many non-Communists, are well familiar with the fact
that, beginning with about 1924, when the post-war revolutionary wave was
beginning tempoi-arily to recede, all Communist Parties, upon Stalin's advice,
began concentrating on bolshevizing themselves. And this was the main content
of the guidance of the Communist International."
The Communist Party has fi-equently referred to the guidance of the Com-
munist International
Mr. Bkowder. Frequently.
Mr. Matthews. In its affairs, and has frequently made reference to Stalin's
advice in conducting its activities?
Mr. Browder. Frequently.
Mr. Matthews. Again from the same editorial I read with reference to the
history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which we have just been
discussing, the following statement :
"Hence a comparative study of the history of the two parties has become an
absolute necessity for every Comnninist, for (nery anti-Fascist. for every progres-
sive fighter of America. The history of the Conununist Party of the Soviet
Union is the guide to the struggle for democracy."
That is an indication that the party members are expected, rather emphati-
cally, to purchase and study that history.
Mr. Browdhhi. That is. they are advised that they will be unable to follow the
events of the day if they do not know the history.
Mr. Matthews. To understand and study the history in the United States
Mr. Bkowdek. In the world.
APPENDIX, PART 1 825
Mr. Matthews. Including the United States?
Mr. Browdkk. Including the United States.
Mr. Matthews. That it is absolutely necessary for them to study the history
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and use it as their guide?
Mr. Browdek. That it is necessary to the understanding of the movement.
Mr. Matthews. In this country and in the .struggle for democracy?
Mr. BRowDpa!. Yes.
Mr. Matthews. In the same issue of the Communist you have an article en-
titled "Some Remarks ou the Twentieth Anniversary of the Communist Party
of the United States."
Mr. Browdek. I have.
Mr. Matthews. That is correct?
Mr. Browdek. Yes.
Mr. Matthews. 1 read the following statement, also concerning the History
of the Comnuuiist Party of the Soviet Union :
'■In approaching the task of working out detailed and systematic understanding
of the liistory of the United States of America, of the labor movement, and of
the Socialist movement and specifically the Communist Party of the United States
of America we have received a highly important stimulus and help in a recently
published History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union."
That is a further verification of your estimate of the history of the Com-
munist Party as being absolutely necessary.
Mr. Browder. Yes.
Exhibit No. 137
[Source : Excerpt from the testimony of William E. Browder, state treasurer of the New
York State CommunLst Party, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties. September 12, 1939, page 4819]
^ •!* *j* *P •!* ^ V
Mr. Whitley. Mr. Browder, if the branches or the sections purchased litera-
ture how was that literature handled through the State organization?
Mr. WiLLiAii E. Browder. That would be turned over by the branch finance
secretary, to him, and by him cleared, in all instances, into my hands.
Mr. Whitley. In other words, the literature would be handled in that
manner?
Mr. WiLLiAji E. Browder. There may be a few exceptions of one or two
sections.
Mr. Whiti.ey. But ordinarily the section or branch would order literature
and then they would make payment through you?
^Ir. William E. Browder. That is right.
Mr. Whitley. They would iiay you and you, in turn, would pay the people
that supplied the literature?
Mr. William E. Browder. That is right.
]Mr. Whitley. Now, what is the approximate amount of expenditures of that
type, Mr. Browder?
Mr. William E. Browder. As I say, somewhat around $50,000 or $60,000
a year.
Mr. Whitley. And that went to
Mr. William E. Browder. The Wholesale Book Corporation.
Mr. Whitley. The Wholesale Book Corporation?
Mr. William E. Bkowdkr. Yes ; but also known as the literature department.
They carry a bank account as the litei'ature department.
Mr. Whitley. They are one and the same?
Mr. William E. Browder. Yes.
Mr. Whiti.ey. We are still talking about 1938?
Mr. William E. Browd.kr. Yes.
Mr. Whitley'. And the Wholesale Book Corporation — is that a subsidiary or
affiliate of the national organization or of the State organization?
Mr. William E. Browder. Well, to the best of my knowledge, it is the State
organization.
Mr. Whitley. In other words, the State organization owns and operates that
corporation?
Mr. William E. Browder. Yes.
Mr. Whitley. Was it undei- your supervision in any way?
Mr. William E. Browder. It was not under my supervision in any way.
826 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Mr. Whitley. What was your relation to it?
Mr. William E. Browdeb. The State orsanization, you know, own it in the
direct sense, but it was understood definitely as being our literature department.
Mr. Whiti.ky. Your literature department?
Mr. William E. Browder. Yes.
Mr. Whiti,ky. In other words, the Wholesale Book Corporation was, in effect,
the literature department of the State organization?
Mr. William E. Browder. Yes.
Exhibit No. 138
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4353]
• *•****
The Chairman. Would you say as many as 5,000,000 pieces of literature are
sent out over the country, through the United States?
Mr. Browder. I would say that would be rather conservative. I would say
more than 5,000,000.
The Chairman. Probably 10,000,000?
Mr. Browdf:r. Maybe not 10.
The Chairman. Between 5 and 10 million pieces?
Mr. Browder. Certainly more than 5; the books and pamphlets alone, you see,
we ran 1,500,000 last year.
Exhibit No. 139
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Tin- American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4350]
• *♦•**♦
Mr. Whitley. What is the corporation, if it is a corporation, which publi-shes
The Conuuuiiist. its monthly magazine?
Mr. Browder. That is published by the Workers Library Publishers.
Mr. Whitley. What is the relation between the Workers Library Publishers
and the Communist Party?
Mr. Browder. It is a corporation which specializes in the market of the Com-
munist Party membership.
Mr. Whitley. It specializes in publishing and distributing Communist Party
literature?
Mr. Browder. Those things — not always party literature — but those things
which would sell in Communist Party circles.
Mr. Whitley. And they are sold through Communist Party channels?
Mr. Browder. Yes.
Mr. Whitley. Is that a corporation?
Mr. Bbowdh3{. That is a corporation.
Mr. Whitley. A New York State corporation?
Mr. Bbowdee. Yes.
Exhibit No. 140
[Source: Excerpt from the testimony of Robert William Weiner. financial secretary of the
Communist Party of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-
American Activities, September 12, 1939, page 4802]
51r. WHiTr.EY. You have also mentioned the Workers Library Publishers, Inc.
Is that relationship just as a consumer?
Mr. Weiner. No; it is more than that.
Mr. Whitney. What is it? Explain it briefly for us.
Mr. Weiner. Well, it is tied up more closely with the party.
Mr. Whitley. In what way? Does the party own it, operate it, own stock
in it? What do you mean by tied up? It is a party subsidiary, is it not?
Iklr. Weiner. I would call it that ; yes.
Mr. Whitley. That is the simplest way to describe it, as a party subsidiary?
Mr. Weinejr. Yes, sir.
APPENDIX, PART 1 827
Exhibit No. 141
[Source : Heai'ings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4314]
Mr. Whitley. Mr. Dimitroff is a member of what Communist Party?
Mr. Browdek. At the present time I think he is a citizen of the Soviet Union
and a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He comes from
Bulgaria.
Mr. Whitley. But he is a member of the Soviet Communist Party?
Mr. Browder. At the present time; yes — .'^ince his release from Germany. At
the time of the Reichstag fire trial, he V(7as gotten out of Germany by being
made a citizen of the Soviet Union at that time.
Exhibit No. 142
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on T^n-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4315]
Mr. BROW0ER. I can give you a complete list of the secretariat of the Com-
munist International.
Mr. Starnes. And let us know what country they come from.
Mr. Whitley. Give us the background.
Mr. Browder. The name and the country?
Mr. Whitley. That is right ; their citizenship and the Communist Party they
belong to ; that is, what country.
Mr. Browder. That is right.
( The list referred to follows : )
Members of the Secretariat, Executive Commiitee of the Communist
intbilnational (as elected at the se^'enth world congress, 1935)
George Dimitroff, general secretary ; M. Ercoli, D. Z. Manuilsky, AVilhelm
Pieck, Otto Kuusinen, Andre Marty, Klement Gottwald.
Caudidate-memhers. — M. Florin, M. A. Moskvin, Wang Ming.
Exhibit No. 143
[Source: Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4317]
Hi if If ^ * * if
Mr. Whitley. We were discussing the relation between the Communist Party
of the United States and the Communist International, and you are explaining
the administrative structure of the Communist International. Does the Com-
munist Party of the United States have representatives to the Comintern or the
Communist International?
Mr. Browder. We have delegates to the congresses and conferences of the
Communist International.
Exhibit No. 144
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4318]
*******
Mr. Whitlet. Are any representatives of the Communist Party of the United
States members of that group [presidium of the Communist International] ?
328 un-a:\ii:rican propaganda activities
Mr. Browder. I believe that William Z. Foster is a member of it. I can
confirm that positively later,
Mr. Whitley. A member of the presidium?
Mr. Browdkr. Yes, sir.
Mr. Whiti.ey. Will you let us know definitely about that?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir ; I believe that he is a member.
Mr. Whitley. That meets subject to call, or periodically?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir; subject to call.
Mr. Whitley. I believe you staletl that you were a mombcr of the executive
committee?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir.
Mr. WnnxEY. How long have you held that position?
Mr. Browdeb. Since 1935.
Mr. WHiTury. Have any other members of the C. P. U. S. A. held positions
on the executive committee, the presidium, or the secretariat?
Mr. r>B()wnE». At the iiresent time there are four Americans on the executive
committee : William Z. Foster, myself, James W. Ford, and Gilbert Green.
Exhibit No. 145
[Source: Iloariiigs of the Special Committee on In Aiiiei-icjin Activities, September 5, 1939,
page i:>.2-2]
**>«**•♦
Mr. Whiti.ey. Between 1028 and ID:',."), tlie years in which the sixth and
seventh congresses were held, the entire '"nnnnuiiist International was directed
and administerefl by the executive committee, or by the smaller body, the
presidium, and the Secretariat?
Mr. Browdku. Yes, sir.
Mr. Whitlett. There has not been one since 1935?
-Mr. Bkowdkh. That is right.
Mr. Whitli:y. And only a world congress can outline the program for the
Communist International?
Mr. P.itowPF.R. That is right.
Mr. WiinxEY. No change in the program in the interim can be made until
the next congress meets?
IVIr. Browder. That is right.
Exhibit No. 14G
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on t'n .Vmerican Activities, September 6, 19-39,
page 4407]
« * * * « 4> *
Mr. Matthews. Tlie article begins on page 726 of the Communist International
[October 1.5, 19.33], and is entitled "Review of the Dailv Worker, U. S. A. (June
and July)."
The subtitle in the paragraph reads as follows:
"In the order of checking up the carrying out of the tasks put before the
Communist Party of the United States of America by the executive committee
of the Communist International."
The article i.« a very lengthy one. and it would be impossible to read it,
but I will siunniarize its purpose and ask you if that summary is correct.
Mr. Browdkr. Yes.
Mr. Matthkws. The Communist International examined and analyzed 2
months' issues of the Daily Worker and then wrote a rather lengthy report
on the successes and shortcomings of the Daily Worker for the guidance of its
publishers in the future.
Mr. Browdkr. A'ery sharply criticized it and pointed out wherein it has made
many political mistakes; that is correct.
Tlie Chairman. And did it make constructive suggestions as to the future?
Mr. Browder. Yes ; it made some very serious observations about how certain
weaknesses had prevented the party from effectively meeting the problems and
how they could be overcome.
Tlie Chairman. And in furtherance of those suggestions has the Daily
Worker taken the advice given in those suggestions?
APPENDIX, PART 1 829
Mr. Browdee. I think they learned a great deal from them; that is correct.
Mr. Stabnes. Did they take advantage of the suggestions?
Mr. Bbowder. Yes.
Mr. Stabnes. Did they carry out the suggestions which were made?
Mr. Browdeb. As a precondition to taking advantage of this learning.
Mr. Stabnes. Then they followed the suggestions?
Mr. Bbowder. As we learned them.
Mr. Stabnes. As you learned them and you interpreted them?
Mr. BB0WDE21. Yes.
Exhibit No. 147
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 6, 1939,
page 4406]
* iji If * * ^ *
Mr. Matthews. It is correct that both Lenin and Stalin have made direct
expressions of opinions which have been necessary for the mastery of American
problems by the Communist Party of the United States.
Mr. Browdeb. That is correct.
Exhibit No. 148
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 6, 1939,
page 4402]
*******
Mr. Mattheavs. Mr. Bittelman says :
"An essential part of the Bolshevik principles of organization is the principle
of democratic centralism. The constitution and rules of the Communist Interna-
tional formulate this as follows :
" 'The Communist International and its sections are built upon the basis of
democratic centralism, the fundamental principles of which are: (a) Election of
all the leading committees in the party, subordinate and superior (by general
meetings of party members, conferences, congresses, and international con-
gresses) ; (b) periodical reports by leading party committees to their constit-
uents; (c) decisions of superior party committees to be obligatory for subordi-
nate committees, strict party discipline and prompt execution of the decisions
of the Communist International, of its leading committees and of the leading
party centers.
■' 'Party questions may be discussed by the members of the party and by the
party organizations until such time as a decision is taken upon them by the
competent party committees. After a decision has been taken by the congress
of the Communist International, by the congress of the respective sections,
or by leading committees of the Comintern, and of its various sections, these
decisions must be unreservedly carried out even if a section of the party
membership or of the local party organization are in disagreement with it.
" 'In cases where the party exists illegally the superior party committees may
appoint the subordinate committees and co-opt members on their own committees
subject to subsequent endorsement by the competent superior party committees.' "
That language, I believe you will notice, is somewhat stronger than the language
of the other paragraph in that the decisions of the congress of the Communist
International must be unreservedly carried out even if lower party bodies are in
disagreement with them.
The Chairman. Is that a c<u-rect statement?
Mr. Bbowder. I would say it is correct in the sense that any party that disagreed
with the decisions of a congress and did not carry them out would witlidraw from
the Communist International. Only those would stay in the Communist Inter-
national who agreed. The Communist International is a body, an association of
people of like minds, and if their minds differ on fundamental questions, they
would part company.
The Chairman. Then that is a correct statement, that Mr. Matthews read?
Mr. Bbowdeh. In general principle.
Mr. Matthews. In other words, the decisions of the Communist International
are obligatory upon all sections and affiliates of the Communist International
and if they disagree they have only the choice of retiring from tlie Communist
International; is that correct, Mr. Browder?
830 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Mr. Browdek. That is, they are obligatory for the continuation of the association.
The Chaikman. That is what he asked you.
Mr. Browdesi. Yes.
Exhibit No. 149
[Source : Hearings of the Special Comniittoe on rn-Amerlcan Activities, September 6, 1939.
page 4399]
Mr. Matthews. I read again from Mr. Bittehuan's pamplilet:
"In the 15 years of its existence the Comintern has grown into a true world
party. It has reached the high stage where all ("uimnunist parties are carrying
out one single line of the Comintern * * *."
Does that statement require any kind of a context in order to make it say
something other than is apparent on the surface?
Mr. Browder. It could he de(>iiened. It is a very bald statement. It is a
correct statement, that the parties of the Communist International — that is,
all the Communist Parties of the world — are in full agreement on their main
line of approach to the wox'ld situation.
Exhibit No. 150
[Source : Hearings of the Special Comniittee on T^n-American Activities, September 6, 1939.
page 4398]
Mr. MATTHEnvs. You know Mr. Bittelman's pamphlet entitled, "Milestones
in the History of the Comnmnist Party"?
Mr. Browdek. I am familiar with it.
Mr. Matthews. Has the Communist Party of the United States through its
leaders and publications, made frequent reference to the leadership of the
Comintern in the affairs of the American Communist Party?
Mr. Browdek. Very frequently.
Mr. Matthews. I read you from the pamphlet by Alex Bittelman, page 71 :
"The leading role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the Comintern
needs neither explanation nor apology."
That is a correct statement as of the present date?
Mr. Browder. Oh, yes.
Exhibit No. 151
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-.\nierican Activities, September 6, 1939,
pages 439G-4397]
Mr. Matthews. You recall, do you not, that Paul Crouch has for many years
occupied a rather prominent position in the Communist Partv of the United
States?
Mr. Browder. He has been a member for many years.
Mr. Matthews. Do you know that some years ago when he was in the armed
forces of the United States, stationed in Hawaii, he was court-martialed for
his Communist activities in the Army and received a sentence of 40 years?
Mr. Browder. I am familiar with that.
Exhibit No. 152
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4343]
*******
Mr. Whitley. How many members of the C. P. U. S. A. altogether have attended
the Lenin School in Moscow?
Mr. Browder. I have no statistics on that.
Mr. Whitley. Approximately?
Mr. Browdek. I would say approximately 120, and possibly as much as 150.
APPENDIX, PART 1 831
Exhibit No. 153
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4327]
*******
Mr. Whitley. During the period that the students or members of the C. P.
U. S. A. did attend the Lenin school, who paid their expenses?
Mr. Browdeb. The Communist I'arty of the United States paid their traveling
expenses, and the Communist International maintained the school.
Mr. Whitley. Maintained the school and took care of their subsistence while
they were attending school?
Mr. Browdeb. That is right.
Exhibit No. 154
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
pages 4325-4326]
Mr. Whitley. Did you pay your own expenses, or did the party pay your
expenses, on these various trips to Russia?
Mr. Browdb:e. Since I have been general secretary of the party, the party has
always paid my expenses.
Mr. Whitley. The party in this country?
Mr. BROWDiaL Tlie party in the United States ; yes, sir.
Mr. Whitney. They paid your expenses?
Mr. Browder. They paid my traveling expenses. My expenses in the Soviet
Union were taken care of from the ruble fund from royalties, accumulated
from my books and pamphlets.
The Chairman. It is difficult to hear what the witness is saying. What was
his last statement?
Mr. Whitley. The last question was who paid Mr. Browder's expenses on his
trips to Russia, and he said since he has been secretary the party pays his
traveling expenses, and that his expenses there were paid from some fund.
Mr. Browdek. Out of the proceeds of my writings published there.
Mr. Starnes. Published in Russia?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Starnes. Published, sold, and circulated there?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Whitley. Out of royalties that had accumulated there?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. Do you have a bank account in Russia in which you place
the money derived from the sale of your works in Russia?
Mr. Browder. It is not exactly a bank account. It is a fund from royalties
on which I draw for expenses. Prom there I can draw out in rubles what
is coming to me in royalties.
The Chairman. What publishing firm?
Mr. Browder. I really do not know. I could not give you the names offhand,
because I deal with a representative.
The Chairman. They handle your works and you have an account there,
and you go there and draw it out?
Mr. Browder. That is right.
The Chairman. Is that the only time you have received payments from the
Soviet Union in United States money?
Mr. Browder. Until 193S I never did, but in 1938 the newspaper Pravda began
to send me the fees that they pay me for my articles to the United States in
dollars. That is the first time I ever received dollars from the Soviet Union.
Moscow gold only comes in this form.
The Chairman. Do you have any arrangement similar to that in France?
Mr. Browder. In France? No.
The Chairman. No other country but the Soviet Union?
Mr. Browder. No other country but the Soviet Union.
Mr. Thomas. Mr. Whitley, did T understand correctly that these are royalties
from his books that have been sold by the Soviet Union?
Mr. Whiti.ey. Royalties from hi's books that had been sold by the Soviet
Union, as I understand.
Mr. Browder. That is right.
g32 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 155
[Source : Hearings of the Special CommittPe ort TTn-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4324]
* * * ie if • 0
Mr. Whitley. We will go into that in more detail. How many trips have you
made to Russia?
Mr. Browder. I cannot .say offliand, but very many.
Mr. Whitley. Will you jjive the dates of as many as you can. bepinnins with
the first trip?
Mr. Browder. My first visit was in 1021. T was (here in a union conference. I
attended the Trade l^nion Conference. My next visit was in 1920. to a Trade
Union (Conference. I believe I have visited there almost at least once a year
since then. My last visit was in lOSS.
Mr. Whiti.by. What was the purpose of these later yearly visits?
Mr. Browder. Since 1930 I visited there because of my position as jieneral !«ec-
retary of the i)arty, and a desire to confer with Connnunists in the Soviet Union
and other countries.
Mr. Whitley. Have any of these trips l»een in connection with yoiu' position as
a member of the executive committee of the Comnnniist International?
Mr. Browdrr. Yes, sir ; most of them.
Mr. Whitley. During those visits, or many of the visits to Soviet Russia, did
you ever contact Mr. Stalin or other Soviet dovenmient officials?
Mr. Browder. I met Mr. Stalin once, in 1926, personally, and that is the only
time I ever spoke to him personally.
Mr. Whitt>ey. What was the occasion of that meeting?
Mr. Browder. We were both members of the same commission, and I was
introduced to him.
Mr. WHin.EY. Wliat commission was that?
Mr. Browder. I do not know. I think it was a commission on China. It was
some political discussion.
Exhibit No. 156
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on T^n-American Activities, September 6, 19S9.
page 44201
♦ *♦***»
Mr. M.\tthkws. I hold here a copy of a .speech delivered by Mr. Kuusinen
at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International. Was that the
congress at which the present line of the communist parties throughout the world
was adopted in general?
Mr. Browder. Yes, sir.
Mr. Matthews. In 1935?
IMr. Browder. Yes. sir.
Mr. M.\tthews. So the statement by one of the highest authorities and leading
figures of the Comnnniist International at the Seventh World Congress would,
in general, reflect the po.sition of the Communist parties throughout the world
today?
Mr. Browder. In general : yes. sir.
Mr. Matthews. I will read from page 2S of Mr. Kuusinen's speech :
"Comrades, the second imperialist World War is approaching. Preparations
are being made for the most criminal of all criminal wars — a counter revolution-
ary imperialist attack on the Soviet country, the fatherland of the workers of
all countries."
Mr. Browder, have you not freqiiently in your literature and your speeches
for the Communist Party in the I'nited States referred to the Soviet Union
as the fatherland of the workers of all countries?
Mr. Browder. I have ; yes, sir.
Exhibit No. 157
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on T'n-,\merican Activities, September 6, 1939,
pages 4.397—4398]
*******
Mr. Matthews. From your book entitled, "What Is Communism?" published
in 193G by the Workers Library Publishers, New York, chapter 21, entitled "A
Glimpse of Soviet America," I read :
APPENDIX, PART 1 833
"The principles upon wliich a Soviet America would be organized would
be the same in every respect as those which guided the Soviet Union."
That was the statement made by you.
Mr. Browdkr. Yes. I said the principles, not the details. Your question was
about details and forms. I said the principles.
Exhibit No. 158
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 6, 1939,
pages 4431-4432]
9): 4: « * * « *
Mr. Matthews. I take it that Stalin occupies a very important, if not a
unique, position in the Communist movement of the world.
Mr. Browdeb. He carries great authority and his word is respected.
Mr. Matthews. When he speaks, which is on rare occasions, I suppose, ha
speaks with care and precision, does he not?
Mr. Browdek. I believe he does; yes, sir.
Mr. Matthews. Are you familiar with the pamphlet entitled "Stalin's Speeches
on the American Communist Party"?
Mr. Bhowdek. Yes, sir.
Mr. Matthews. Published by the central committee, Communist Party, U. S. A.,
in 1929.
Mr. Browder,. Yes, sir ; I am familiar with it.
Mr. Matthews. I will read to you from one of Stalin's speeches :
"Therefore, we must put the question squarely to the members of the American
delegation : When tlie draft assumes the force of an obligatory decision of the
Comintern, do they consider themselves entitled not to to submit to that decision?
We have argued the question in the commission for a whole month ; we have
had a number of discussions : we have spent a tremendous amount of time on the
matters, time that might have been more profitably employed ; we finally arrived
at the point when the time for discussion was over and were on the eve of adopt-
ing a decision which must be compulsory for all members of the Comintern. And
now the question arises : Do the members of the American delegation, as Com-
munists, as Leninists, consider themselves entitled not to submit to the decision
of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the American
question."
You are familiar wtih that statement of Stalin?
Mr. BKOWDEii. Yes, sir.
Mr. Matthews. That reflects the relationship between the Communist Inter-
national and the American Communist Party. That decision was chiefly of
interest to the American Communist Party. Now, I will read further from
one of Stalin's speeches, with reference to the matter of American loyalty to the
Comintern :
"Can you picture a Communist, not a paper Communist, but a real Communist,
avowing loyalty to the Comintern and at the same time refusing to accept
resix)nsibility for carrying out the decisions of the Comintern?"
Mr. Matthews. Do you avow loyalty to the Comintern, Mr. Browder?
Mr. BROWDB2f. I do.
Exhibit No. 159
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 6, 1939,
page 4437]
Mr. Whitley. Does your organization circulate printed matter received from
any foreign country?
Mr. Browder. In the book shops we sell publications printed in the Soviet
Union, some books printed there, and a newspaper.
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 54
834 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 160
[Source: Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 6, 1939,
page 4472]
Mr. Matthews. Have there ever beeu delegates from the Comiuteru to the
United States?
Mr. Browder. Harry Pollitt vv'as a delegate.
Exhibit No. 161
[Source: Excerpt from tlie testimony of Alexander Trachtenberg, secretary and treasurer
of luternatioual Fublisliers, Hearings of tbe Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, September 13, 1939, page 48741
Mr. Whitley. Mr. Trachtenberg, how many trips have you made to Moscow,
or to Russia, since the International Publishers was founded? Just name them
and give us the date, or the approximate date.
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Yes, sir. 11321)
Mr. Whitlev. Is that your lirst one?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. That is right. 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939. These
are trips to Europe, including the Soviet Union.
Mr. Whitley. But did you go to the Soviet Union?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Yes.
Mr. Whitley. Now, were those trips pleasure trips, or were they trips on
business for the International Publishers, or trips on business for the Communist
Party of the United States?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. All three were included in some trips.
Mr. Whitley. All three?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Yes ; and one trip for the Communist Party.
Mr. Whitle. One trip for the Communist Party exclusively?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. That is right.
Mr. Whitley. And the others were combination trips?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Business and pleasure, and sometimes only business.
Mr. Whitley. Sometimes only business?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Yes. Unfortunately, none of the trips were for pleasure
only, but business.
Exhibit No. 162
[Source : Excerpt from tlie testimony of Alexander Traciitenberg, secretary and treasurer
of International I'ublisbers, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, September 13, 1^39, pages 48«1, 48b2]
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. Mr. Heller is now retired, I should say the last 5 or 6
years. He is a man about 65 to 66. He was a very wealthy man, a manufac-
turer. He had an oxygen business for many years, which he sold later to the
trust.
The Chaibman. Is he a member of the Communist Party, too?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. He is.
Mr. Mason. He is a member of the Communist Party?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. He is.
The Chairman. And has been a member since 1921, like you?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. He has been a member for 40 years of the Socialist move-
ment.
The Chaibman. For 40 years?
Mr. Tbachtenbebg. For 40 years. I have been for 33 years with the Socialist
movement.
The Chairman. You broke off from the radicals and joined the Communists?
Mr. Trachtenberg. That is right. He helped to build the Rand School, which
is a Socialist educational institution
APPENDIX, PART 1 835
The Chairman. What is his income the past 15 years? How long has it been,
in other words, since he retired from business?
Mr. Tru\chtenberg. Oh, he only retired about the last 5 years.
The Chairman. What was the name of his company?
Mr. Trachtenbbrg. His company was the International Oxygen Co.
The Chairman. The International Oxygen Co.?
Mr. Trachtbnberg. Oxygen Co.
Mr. Thomas. Is that company located in the United States?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Yes ; in Jersey.
Mr. Thomas. In Jersey?
Mr. Trachtenberg. I think he sold to the United Carbide. That is right —
your State, in Newark.
Mr. Thomas. Do they also have branches abroad?
Mr. Trachtenberg. I don't know ; I don't know about his business, but I know
he was connected with that. That was his firm.
Mr. Thomas. "International" must mean some connection abroad.
Mr. Trachtenberg. I don't know.
The Chairman. Do you have some questions, Mr. Matthews?
Mr. Matthews. Mr. Trachtenberg, did not Mr. Heller, through this company,
the International Oxygen Co., have a concession in the Soviet Union?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Well, I would not know his personal business — that
particular business.
Mr. Matthews. You know that, though?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Yes ; I have heard about it.
Mr. Matthews. You do know that fact?
Mr. Trachtenberg. Yes ; that is right. And he has made plenty of money,
like a lot of other concessionaires.
Exhibit No. 163
[Source: The War and the Working Class, by Georgi Dimitroff, general secretary of the
Communist International ; a pamphlet published by Worliers Library Publishers. New
York, N. Y. : 1939]
The War and the Working Class of the Capitalist Countries
(By Georgi Dimitroff, General Secretary of the Communist International)
Throughout all the years following the first world imperialist war the Com-
munists, basing themselves on the teachings of Lenin and Stalin, incessantly
explained to the working people that capitalism, by its very nature, gives rise
to wars, that the contradictions between the imperialist countries were not
eliminated by Versailles and by the other imperialistic peace treaties, but, on the
contrary, that these contradictions would break out after some time with new
and still greater force.
Lenin taught that wars are the inevitable accompaniment of imperialism.
The plunder of foreign lands, the conquest and spoliation of colonies, the seizure
of markets serve as the cause of wars between the capitalist states.
Stalin repeatedly uttered warnings regarding the danger of a new imperialist
war and disclosed the causes giving rise to it. In his report at the Sixteenth
Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) in 1930,
he said :
"The bourgeois states are furiously arming and re-equipping their forces.
What for? Of course, not for a friendly talk, but for war. The imperialists
need war because it is the only means of dividing the world afresh, dividing
anew the markets, sources of raw materials and spheres for capital investment." *
In a talk with Roy Howard on March 1, 1936, Stalin stressed the point
that the chief cause of wars lies in capitalism, in its imperialist, predatory
manifestations. He said at that time :
"You remember how the first World War arose. It arose out of the desire
to redivide the world. Today we have the same background. There are capital-
' J. V. Stalin, Lemnism, Vol. II, p. 256, International Publishers. New York.
336 UN-AMEKICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
ist states which consider that tliey were dieated in tlie previous redistribution
of spheres of influence, territories, sources of raw materials, markets, etc.,
and which would want another redivisiou that would be in their favor. Capital-
ism in its imperialist phase is a system which considers war to be a legitimate
instrument for settlinj; international disputes, a legal method in fact, if not
in law." '
The events of the recent period completely contirm the correctness of these
far-sighted warnings uttered by Stalin. They also testify to how correct the
Connnnuists were wheu they i)ointed out that the peoples would, in the very
nearest future, be hurh'd into the tlames of war, if the international working
class shiMild fail, by its united and resolute militant actions, to curb in time the
instigators and provokers of war. They al.so testify to how timely were the
tenacious efforts of the Connnunist International, directed toward the establish-
ment of a powerful fighting front against war.
The second imperialist war. which began with the onslaught on the peoples
of Ethioj)ia, Spain and China, has now devclniH'd into a war between the biggest
capitalist states. The war has been transferred to the heart of Euroi)e, and
threatens to become a world slauirhter.
In its character and essence, the present war is, on the part of both warring
sides, an intpcrialist, iDijiisi tear, despite the fraudulent slogans being employed
by the ruling classes of the warring capitalist states in their endeavor to hide
their real aims from the masses of the people.
The character of a war, as Lenin taught, "dei)ends not on who attacked and
on whose side the 'enemy' is, but o» nhich chiss is waging the war. what policy
is being continued by the given war."
Now, as in l!n4. the war is being waged by the imperialist bourgeoisie. This
w.ir is the direct continuation of the struggle between the imperialist powers for
a new repartition of the earth, for iixjrid domitidtion.
Only the blind can fail to see, and only out-and-out charlatans and deceivers can
deny, that the present war betwe(>n Britain and France, on the one hand, and
(Jermay. on the other, is being waged for colonies, source's of raw materials, for
domination over sea routes, for the subjugation and exploitation of foreign peo-
])les. As is well known. Great Britain is a huge empire with a colonial population
of 4RO.(K)0.(MtO. while France possesses colonies inhabited by 7().(MM),0(K) people.
Ctcrmany, which as a result of the first imi)erialist war was deprived of its
colonies, is now putting forward claims for a division of the colonial booty in the
hands of the British and French imperial'sts.
The bourgeoisie of England and France, however, have no intention of letting
their huge possessions slip out of their hands. They want to hold undivided sway
<iver hundreds of millions of colonial slaves, to maintain their imi»erialist ix)si-
tions. to ensure the possibility of new conquests, to enfeeble their rival and to
place it in a position of dependence on them. Herein lies the essence of the pres-
ent war. The clash of arms between the warring states is for hegemony in
Europe, for colonial possessions in Africa and in other parts of the globe, for oil,
coal, iron, rubber, and not at all in defen.se of "democracy," "liberty," "interna-
tional law," and the guarantee of the independence of small countries and peoples,
as is howled by the bourgeois pre.ss and the Social-Democratic deceivers of the
working class.
The interests of the imperialist bourgeoisie al.so determine the position of the
majority of the capitalist states not directly participating in the war. Their
neutrality policy is hypocritical through and through and above all is his true of
the neutrality of the biggest capitalist state — the U. S. A.
The American bourgeoisie did no lift a finger when Japan attacked China. What
is more, they are in actual fact the chief contractors of war supplies to Japanese
imperialism. Under the flag of neutrality the American imperialists are inflaming
war in the Far East, so as to enfeeble Japan and China, and then, basing them-
selves on their might, to dictate their conditions to the belligerent comitries and
firmly to establish themselves in China.
T'nder the flag of neutrality the American bougeoisie are encouraging the fur-
ther inflammation of the European war, becoming in fact an arms factory for
Great Britain and France, and raking in enormous war profits at the expense of
the blood of the peoples of the warring countries. They are aiming to drive their
rivals out of the world markets, to strengthen their imperialist positions and to
consolidate their domination on the seas and oceans.
' The Stalin-Hoicard Interview, p. 6, International Publishers, New York.
APPENDIX, PART 1 §37
Just as hypocritical in character is the neutrality of the other non-belligerent
capitalist countries. Their bourgeoisie are doing everything to pile up as big
profits as possible out of the war. Therefore, even if they stand for peace for
their own country, they encourage war between the other states. They use their
neutrality as a commodity with which to haggle, endeavoring to sell it to the
highest bidder.
Many of these neutral states, and above all Italy, are waiting for the time
when, as the war goes on, the chances of victory for one side or the other become
clear, so as to take the side of the strong, and to dig their teeth into the van-
quished and to tear away their share of the booty.
Thus the position both of tlie belligerent and of the "neutral" states shows
with the utmost clarity that the rcsjwusibiUfy for the war 1ief< with the bourgeoisie
of capitali-^t countries and pri)narili) tvith the rtiling circles of the belligerent
states.
II
Two stages can be clearly di.scerned in the course of the second imperialist war.
In the first stage, Italy, Germany and Japan came forward directly as aggressor
states. They took the offensive, while the other capitalist states — England,
Fi-ance and the U.S.A. — retreated, in the endeavor to avoid a decisive clash with
their rivals and to turn their expansion in another direction, against the land of
Socialism. Now, on the other hand, the imperialists of Britain and France have
passed over to the offensive, liave hurled their peoples into war against Germany,
endeavoring in every way to win a number of other states to their side.
Whereas previously the above-mentioned European states were divided into
aggressor and non-aggtessor powers, that is, into those who were directly the
war-makers and those who for the time being did not come out openly as aggres-
sors, although behind the scenes they encouraged aggression against other coun-
tries, now this division does not correspond to the real position. This difference
has disappeared. Wliat is more, it is the British and French irnpprialisis who
now come forward as the most zealous supporters of tJic continnation and fur-
ther incitement of war.
What has given rise to this change in the position of the chief imperialist rivals,
a change of very substantial significance from the point of view of understand-
ing the events now taking place?
As is well known, present-day Germany grew up on the basis of slogans of
revenge against Versailles and of being the shock troops of international reaction
against "world bolshevism," against the U.S.S.R. The National-Socialist regime
received every kind of support from British and French imperialism, precisely
so that it could fulfil its "historic" anti-Bolshevik mission. It made wide use of
the constant concessions made b.v Britain and France and, taking the law into its
own hands, liquidated the Versailles Treaty, created an armed force, laid its
hands on Austria, Czechoslovakia and Memel and won certain positions in Spain.
As long as the British and French imperialists hoped to turn Germany's ex-
pansion eastward, they encouraged in every way its aggressive strivings, doing
this at the expense of other peoples under the flag of the "non-intervention" policy.
They renounced collective security and transformed the League of Nations — their
own creation — into a laughing stock. They also accept with great satisfaction
the conclusion of the much noi.sed "Anti-Comintern" pact between Germany,
Italy and Japan and the establishment of the so-called Berlin-Rome-Tokyo "tri-
angle." The culminating point of this policy was the well-known deal at Munich,
from whence the heads of the British and French governments returned home as
the "saviors of peace." exultant that they had at length succeeded in turning the
aggression of Germany against the U.S.S.R.
But by that time the Soviet Union constituted a gigantic force. Rallied around
the tested and victorious I'arty of Lenin and Stalin, the Soviet people, by success-
fully fulfilling two huge five-year plans, had established a powerful socialist
industry, had carried throngli the transfer of small peasant economy to the
path of socialism, and had achieved the consolidation of the collective farm sys-
tem. On this basis there was guaranteed the Indestructible defensive capacity
of the land of socialism, resting on the moral and political unity of its people, on
the splendidly equipped Red Army, and the most profound Soviet patriotism. By
the construction of socialist society and by its wise Stalinist peace policy, the
Soviet Union immea.surably increased its importance on the international arena
and won tremendous confidence and love among the masses of the people of all
countries, including Germany itself.
838 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Therefore when, in the opinion of the imperialists, a suitable moment had ar-
rived for Germany to fulfil its role as shock ti'oop against the U. S. S. R., Germany
could not make up its mind to do so. It had first to reckon with the economic and
military might of the Soviet Union and with the moral unity and solidarity of the
Soviet people, ready to defend their socialist country to the last drop of blood and
capable of crushing any enemy ; second, the rulers of Germany were compelled
to take account of the fact that they would fail to rally the majority of the German
people to a war against the great land of socialism.
In such a state of affairs, Germany was faced with the dilemma — either to
fall into the position of luulerling of British and French imperialism, to go to
war against the Soviet Union and risk its neck in this war; or, to make a decisive
turn in its foreign policy and to take the path of peaceful relations with the Soviet
Union.
As the facts show, the leaders of Germany selected the second path.
At the same time the ruling circles of Britain and France, on their part, while
spending months of negotiations with the U. S. S. R. for the alleged purpo.se of
establishing a common front against aggression, were in actual fact using every
means possible to prevent this front from being established. Until the very last
moment of the negotiations they did not in the least give up their striving to bring
Germany and the Soviet Union into collision. This is also confirmed, by the way,
by the White Paper published by the British government itself regarding the
negotiations between the British ambassador, Neville Henderson, and Hitler on
the eve of the German-Poli.sh war.
But the British and French imperialists miscalculated. They staked 0)i an
anti-Soviet icar but lost.
The Soviet Union, operating a soeiaUst foreign poliei/, by concluding a Non-
Aggression Pact with Germany, frustrated the insidious plans of the provokers
of war, ensured peace between the two biggest states in Europe and strengthened
its influence over the entire course of international development.
After the conclusion of the German-Soviet treaty, the bourgeoisie of Britain
and France, no lunger having any hope of war by Germany against the U. S. S. R.,
turned to the path of armed struggle against their chief imperialist rival. Tliey
did this under the pretext of defending their vassal-reactionary-landlord Poland —
the very Poland which the British and French imperialists had established as an
outpost against the land of the Soviets and by whose hands they wanted in 1920
to strangle the young Soviet republic. The very same Poland whose potentates
deprived Lithuania of Vilna and who not so long ago tore a piece out of the terri-
tory of Czechoslovakia. They staked on I'oland hut here aJso they lost. The
Polish state, which constituted a i)rison of peoples with its regime of reaction
and terror, oppression and plunder of millions of Ukrainians, Byelo-Russians and
Polish working people them.selves, at the very first military blow, disclosed all its
internal rottenness and fell to pieces in sonif two weeks.
In these conditions, the Soviet Union, pursuing its own independent policy, a
policy dictated by the interests of socialism which coincide with the interests of
the working people of all lands, undertook resolute measures to ensure peace
throughout the east of Europe. By the entry of the Red Army into West Ukraine
and West Byelo-Russia, the Soviet people rendered aid to their brothers groaning
under the yoke of the Polish gentry, extricated 13,0(M»,CKI0 working people from
sanguinary slaughter, emancipated them from capitalist slavery, opened up
before them the road to a happy life and secured them freedom of national and
cultural development. By concluding the German-Soviet "Amity and Frontier"
tx-eaty the U. S. S. R. not only eliminated the immediate danger of war for its
peoples but also created a barrier against the extension of the imperialist war.
By concluding mutual assistance pacts with the small Baltic countiies, which
were constantly menaced with the danger of falling victim to the big imperialist
states, the U. S. S. R. established the guarantee of their national independence and
secured their defense against imperialist aggression, and strengthened the defensive
capacity of its own country.
The transfer of the city of Vilna and the Vilna region to Lithuania once again
clearly shows the exceptional attention displayed by the land of socialism toward
the national interests of small peoples. There never has been nor is there today
in the world any state, other than the Soviet Union, which has, of its own accord,
ceded a whole region to a small people living on its borders, out of regard for the
national interests of this people.
At a time when im].>erialist war is raging in Europe, when the bourgeoisie are
inflaming chauvinism, inciting one nation against another, the Soviet Union estab-
lishes good neighboi'ly relations with the surrounding states, being guided in this
APPENDIX, PART 1 839
by the Stalinist policy of peace and friendship of nations. By its entire policy
the U. S. S. R. is rendering an inestimable service to the cause of world peace,
in which the peoples of all lands are interested.
But the imperialists of Great Britain avd France, havinr; taken the path of icar,
do not want to leave it. On the contrary, they are dragging the peoples further
and further onto the fields of battle, covering up in every way the real character of
the war. With this end in view they are setting into motion all the means of the
ideological deception of the masses.
The older generation of workers who experienced the first world imperialist war
well remember how at that time the press of Britain and France sought day in
and day out to prove that the governments of these countries were waging war
only in "defense of the fatherland," against "Prussian militarism," while the
German press in its turn sought to convince people that the war was being waged
against "Russian tsarism." In actual fact, however, as is well known, what was
taking place was a struggle between two groups of imperialists for the repartition
of the earth.
Now the ruling classes of Britain and France who today, as at that time, are
pursuing imperialist aims, have altered the means and slogans of ideological decep-
tion in accordance with the situation of today. Speculating on the anti-fascist
seutiments of the masses, they put forward the slogan of "anti-fascist" war and
proclaim that their war against Germany is a "war of democracy against fascism,"
a war against "Hitlerism," a war for the freedom of nations.
But what fine apostles of "anti-fascist" war these are, who for so many years
gave every indulgence to those against whom they are fighting today, and who dis-
rupted the united front of the people's struggle against fascism and war, when the
entire international situation advanced this struggle as the most imiwrtant task
of the moment. What fine "fighters for the freedom of nations" these are, who
for centuries have kept millions of colonial slaves in bondage and who play with
the fate of small nations as bargaining counters in their imi>erialist deals. What
fine "defenders of democracy" these are who in their own countries are destroy-
ing the last remnants of the democratic rights of the popular masses, closing down
their newspapers, removing their elected representatives and persecuting all who
raise their voice against the present anti-popular war.
The French bourgeoisie is now reviving the blackest days of counter-revolu-
tionary terror. Since the days of the sanguinai'y suppression of the Paris Com-
mune, France has not experienced such a drive of reaction against the working
class. The banning of the Communist Party of France, the arrest of the revolu-
tionary representatives of the French proletariat in Parliament — the most con-
sistent fighters against reaction of every kind — serves as a clear proof of how
false and hypocritical are the declarations regarding the democratic anti-fascist
character of the war.
The reactionary bourgeoisie hurls itself against the Communists because it fears
the truth about the tear more than fire, because the Communist Party is the only
party that can organize the struggle of the proletariat and all working people
against the imperialist war.
The bourgeoisie is doing everything to compel millions of people to go to war
and to die for a cause that is alien to them. But the proletariat, the working
people, have nothing to defend in this war. It is not their war, but the war
of their exploiters. It brings them suffering, privation, ruin and death. Were
they to support such a war they would merely defend the interests of their
enslavers and oppressors, they would be supporting capitalist slavery.
For the icorkinfj elass there is only one true stand — irreconcilable, courageous
struggle against the imperialist rvar, struggle against the culprits and vehicles
of this war primarily in. their men country, struggle to end this predatory war.
This is the most just of causes, one dictated by the fundamental interests of the
proletariat and all working people.
iir
The war that has unfolded between the imperialist countries has radically
changed the international situation.
The war is leading to an acute sharpening of all the basici contradictions
of the capitalist world. The longer it goes on, the more does it sharpen the
contradictions between the imperialist states. It is sharpening the contradictions
between the metropolitan countries and the colonies, between the dominating
and the oppressed nations. And the most important thing is that it is laying
bare the class relations in bourgeois society and sharpening to the uttermost
840 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
limits the contradictions between the proletariat and tlie bourgeoisie, between
the whole world of the exploited and the liandful of exploiters.
The war is disclosing all the bankruptcy of the capitalist system and is giving
rise to a most acute and profound crisis of capitalisnj.
The imperialist war is railing forth a regrouping of the class forces in the
capitalist countries. In the camp of the bourgeoisie, the group interests of
its dilTerent sections are receding before the common class interests of the
bourgeoisie. The previousl.v existing division into various opposing groups,
into more reactionary and less reactionary elements of the bourgeoisie, is yielding
place to their common interest in conducting the war and preserving capitalism.
"National Unity" is being established from the (>xtreme reactionary to the
extreme "Left" wing of the bourgeoisie, including the top leaders of the petty
bourgeois parties. But at the same time the other pole is witnessing the
beginning of the accelerated departure of the war-ruined masses from the
position of support for boiu-geois and petty bourgeois parties to the position
of struggle against the imperialist war and against the bourgeoisie waging it.
Decisive significance in the administration of the state, l)oth in the warring
and in the majority of the other capitalist countries, is being assumed by the
most liellicose, chauvinistic, most reactionary elements of the financial bour-
geoisie. A regime of military dictatorship is in fact being establislied. although
frequently masked by various outward decorations, for tlie su])pi'ession of the
indignation of the masses against the war and for the safeguarding of the
bourgeois system against possible convidsions. Everywhere in the capitalist
world, not only in the warring countries, a furious reactionary drive is taking
place against the working class and th(> toiling masses.
Thus, that which in the period i>r(Hi'ding the present war was cliaracteristic
of the regime of the fascist countries is becoming — in the conditions of the
war let loose — increasingly prevalent in the countries of so-called bourgeois
democracy.
In these changed conditions the tasks facing the xcorking class also assume a
iicir character. Whereas fortnerlii the tasjy was to concentrate all forces on the
strn'jtjle to avert the imperialist war, to ciirh the irar)nonc;ers, noir the mohili:::n-
tion of the widest riiasses for the struf/f/le oi/ainst the war alreiulij heinfi irarjed,
and to hrinfj it to an end, is the prime task of the moment. Whereas formerly
it was a question of barring the road to the onslaught of capital and fascist
reaction, now the working class is faced with the task of c(mducting a most
resolute struggle against the regime being established of mibridled terror,
oppression and plinider of the popular masses; it is faced with the task of
insuring that the ruling classes are prevented from placing the burdens of the
war on the backs of the working people.
Whereas formerly the efforts of the working class were directed primarily to
the defense of the dail^i' interests of the working people and to gtiarding them
against the plunger and license of the capitalist exphuter.s — and it was imiwssible.
by virtue of the absence of the necessary preconditions, to place the aliolition
of capitalist slavery on the order of the day — now. to the extent that the crisis
called forth by the war grows deeper, this task will face the working class with
ever-growing acutene.ss.
The changed situation and the new tasks of the working class also demand a
corresponding change in the tactics of the Communist Parties. The united pro-
letarian and people's front tactics pursued in recent years made it possible for
the proletariat and the laboring masses temporarily to hold up the offensive of
capital and imperialist reaction in a number of countries. It helped the Spanish
people to conduct an armed struggle for two and a half years against internal
reaction and the f(u-eign interventionists. It made it possible for the proletariat
of France to secure considerable social gains. The people's front movement
awakened wide masses of people in town and country to activity, and rallied
them to the struggle to uphf>ld their own interests against the reactionary cliques.
This movement rendered it possible to postpone for a time the outbreak of the
European war.
The tactics of the uiuted people's front are fully applicable even now in China
and also in colonial and dependent countries, the peoples of which are conducting
a .struggle for their national liberation.
But these tactics, in the form in which they were conducted prior to the present
war, are no longer suitable for other countries. The necessity fif changing the
tactics is conditioned by the chan.ge in the situation and the tactics facing the
working class, and also by the position occupied in connection with the imperialist
war by the leading circles of the parties that previously took part in the people's
front.
APPENDIX, PAET 1 g4l
The tactics of the united people's front presupposed joint action by the Com-
munist Parties and the Social-Democratic and petty bourgeois "democratic" and
"radical" parties against reaction and war. But the top sections of these latter
parties have now openly passed over to the position of active support for the
imperialist war. The Social-Democratic, "democratic" and "radical" flunkeys
of the bourgeoisie are brazenly distorting the anti-fascist slogans of the people's
front, and are using them to deceive the masses of the people and to cover up
the imperialist character of the war. Under the flag of "national unify" they have
in fact established a common front with the capitalists, a front stretching from
the Conservatives to the Labor leaders— in England, and from the Cagoulards
to the Socialists — in France.
The top leaders of the Social-Democratic parties and the reformist trade unions
shamelessly took up front-rank posts in the camp of the imperialists from the
very flrst day of the war. As long as the ruling classes of Britain and France
had hopes of directing Germany's expansion against the Soviet Union and of
utilizing the reactionary regime of the German bourgeoisie against the revolu-
tionary working class movement, the Social-Democratic leaders stood for the
policy of concessions to the desires of Germany. They preached "integral
pacifism," fulminated against those who exposed the men of Munich, preached
"peace at any price" and proposed the peaceful regulation of questions concerning
the distribution of sources of raw materials, spheres of influence and colonies.
But when it became clear that German expansion was taking place not in the
direction of the Soviet Union, but against the spheres of domination and the
colonies of Britain and France, and that, on the other hand, the Soviet Union
had no intention of pulling the chestnuts out of the fire for them, the "socialist"
pacifists became transformed into the most furious instigators of war. They
directed the poisonous sting of their slander against the land of socialism, against
the revolutionary workers and the Communist Parties.
The leading circles of the Second International are fulfilling the most filthy
and criminal role in the blood-dripping slaughter machine of the war. They are
deceiving the masses by their homilies regarding the anti-fascist character of the
war and are helping the bourgeoisie to drive the iieoples to the slaughter-hduse.
The ruling classes well know that the masses of the people will not believe the
British lords, the French bankers and their press when they try to convince them
of the anti-fascist character of the war, and allege that it is being waged in
defense of Poland and in the interests of their own peoples. In the war of 1914-
1918 already the bourgeoisie was aware that without the assistance of Social-
Democracy it would be unable to set alight the fiames of chauvinism, to deceive
the masses with the slogan of "the defense of the fatherland" and to drive them
to the field of death for the sake of its imperialist interests. Now it is again
placing great hopes on Social-Democracy.
The behavior of the leading circles of the Second International and their
social-chauvinistic position in the war also throws a vivid light on the whole
of their previous policy, the policy of stubbornly sabotaging unity in the ranks
of the working class and its struggle directed toward averting the imperialist
war. The Communist International did everything to unite, to rally together the
forces of the working class for this end. It addressed to the Second Interna-
tional and the International Federation of Trade Unions a proposal for united
action by the international proletariat against the Italian onslaught on Ethiopia.
It proposed joint action by all working class organizations to repulse Japanese
imperialism when it attacked the Chinese people. On numerous occasions, as
everybod.v knows, it addressed a similar proposal for joint action in defense of
the Spanish people. The Communists persistently pointed out at that time the
policy of "non-intervention" was leading to the kindling of a new imperialist war.
At the time of "Munich" the Communists strove to secure the establishment of a
real front of the peoples, with the participation of the U. S. S. R., against the
provokers of war. But the Social-Democratic leaders systematically disrupted
all these efforts of the Communists.
It now becomes clear to all who do not wish to close their eyes to Incontro-
vertible facts that it is precisely the Social-Democratic leaders — all these Blums
and I'aul Faures, Citrines, Atlees, Greenwoods, and De Brouckeres^ — who bear
the direct respovsihilif!/ for the fact that they, by disrupting the united actions
of the international proletariat capable of preventing war, rendered it possible
fm- the botirf/eoisie to doom millions of people to destruction for the sake of its
mercenary interests.
It is Blum and his confederates together with the British and French bourgeoisie
who strangled Republican Spain by the policy of "non-intervention." supported
the Munich "peacemakers" for the purpose of war against the Soviet Union, and
842 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
who now are demanding that the working people should go to their death for
the restoration of the hankrupt reactionary state of the Polish landlords and
capitalists.
It is he and his confederates who disrupted the united working class and
People's Front in France and opened up the floodgates to the most furious hour-
geois reaction against the working chiss. It is they, together with Jouhaux, who
are now stabbing the French proletariat in the back, by splitting its united trade
unions and placing them at the service of the war. It is Blum and his con-
federates who are now dragging the worker^; and peasants to shed their blood
and die for the maintenance of the colonial dtpmination of the British and French
imperialists over the i>eoples of India, Morocco, Indo-China.
It is the Blums, the De Brouckeres. the British Labor leaders, together with
the bourgeoisie of France and Britain who are taking up the discredited banner
of the "Anti-Comintern"' which the German National-Socialists were comi)elle(l
by the force of circumstances to give up. It is the Social-Democratic Ministers
of a number of countries who refused to sell arms to the Spanish people for its
heroic struggle, and who now, behind the mask of neutrality, are assisting the
war contractors in every way in their trade in the weapons of death, and are
inflaming the anti-Communist and anti-Soviet campaign.
It clearly follows from the above that the Communists can have no united front
whatsoever with those tcho are in a comnKjn front with tlie imperialists and
support the criminal anti-popular war. The working class and all working people
have nothing in common with the Social-Democratic, "democratic" and "radical"
politicians who are betraying the vital interests of the popular masses. Between
the nuisses of the people and these lackeys of imperialism lies the ahyss of sangui-
nary war.
But in the conditions of the war and of the crisis which it has called into being
the neetl for working class unity and for rallying the wide ma.sses of the working
people around the working class rises more acutely than formerly. Millions of
working i^eople in the capitalist world, and above all in the warring countries,
are vitally interested in bringing about militant working class unity and estab-
lishing a real popular front against the war let loose by the capitalists, against
raging reaction and the unbridled plunder of the masses. And the Communists
will not only not cease the struggle for unity of the proletarian ranks and for
rallying together the masses of the working people, but will also increase their
efforts tenfold in this direction.
However, the question now of bringing working class unity about and of creat-
ing a united popular front is raised in a ncic fashion. In the period preceding
the war, the Communists strove to bring about united working class action by
agreements between the Communist and Social-Democratic parties. Now such
an agreement is no longer thinkable. In the present situation, working class
unity can and must be achieved from below, on the basis of the development of
the movement of the working masses themselves and in a resolute struggle against
the treacherous leaders of the Social-Democratic parties. And this process will
be facilitated to a great degree by the comradely relations that have been estab-
lished in recent years between the Communists and a considerable section of
the Social-Democratic workers in the joint struggle against reaction and the
war-makers.
It will also be facilitated by the fact that the Social-Democratic parties, under
the weight of the criminal policy of their leaderships, will increasingly disinte-
grate, and the healthy proletarian section of these parties will join with the
Communists in taking the path of struggle against the imperialist war and
capitalism.
In the preceding period the Communists strove to secure the establishment of
a united popular front by agreements with the Social-Democratic and other petty
bourgeois "democratic" and "radical" parties in the person of their leading bodies,
on the basis of a common platform of struggle against fascism and war. But
to the extent that the top leaders of these parties have crossed over wholly and
completely into the camp of the imperialists, while certain of them, such as the
French Radicals, are directly in charge of the conduct of the war, there can be
no question of such agreements. Now the mustering of the working chiss, of the
basic masses of the peasantry, of the urban working folk and of the progressive
intelligentsia can and must be brought about apart from and against the leader-
ship of these parties, on the basis of the struggle against the imperialist war and
reaction in a united front from below. Such a united fighting front of the masses
cannot be brought about without a most resolute struggle against the Social-
APPENDIX, PART 1 843
Democratic, "democratic''' and "radical" fliivkei/s of imperiaUsm, for the elimi-
nation of the influence of these agents of the bourgeoisie in the working class
movement and for their isolation from the masses of the working people.
IV
History now faces the working class of the capitalist countries with tasks of
enormous importance. They have to extricate millions of people from the abyss
of war, to save their countries and peoples from ruin, devastation and destruction.
Only the working class, taking the lead of the basic masses of the peasantry and
the working people of the cities, is in a position resolutely to resist the bourgeoisie
and imperialism, to put an end to their sanguinary criminal work and to do away
once and for all with the causes giving rise to imperialist wars.
These tasks, which face the working class, are quite capable of fulfillment
Now, the forces of the international proletariat have grown immeasurably by
comparison with the first imperialist war. Its vanguard detachment — the work-
ing class of the U. S. S. R. — has established an impregnable fortress of socialism.
The existence of the Soviet Union multiplies the might of the working class of
all the capitalist countries and fortifies their confidence in their own strength.
As distinct from the first imperialist war, the trnst of the working masses in
the bourgeoisie, in capitalism, has already at the beginning of the present war
been considerably undermined and will continue inci-easingly to be iindermined.
The Social-Democratic leaders will not succeed for long in deceiving the masses,
as they were able to do during the first imperialist war. Their treacherous
policy, their anti-Communist, anti-Soviet drive, is already causing acute dis-
content in the ranks of the Social-Democratic parties themselves. As the war
goes on, the indignation of the masses will grow and the anti-war movement
will become increasingly extensive. The most furious persecution by the bour-
geoisie is not in a position to hold up and stifle the struggle of the working
people against the imperialist war.
The historic role of the Communist vanguard of the working class is at the
present moment to organize and to take the lead of this struggle. If the Com-
munists are to be able successfully to fulfill this role of theirs, they must show
an example of the correct understanding of the essence of the present war and
utterly smash the legend regarding its alleged anti-fascist, just character, so
assiduously spread about by the Social-Democratic leaders. Explain, explain and
once again explain the real state of affairs to the masses — this above all at the
present moment is the most important condition for the mobilization of the
masses for the struggle against the imperialist war and capitalist reaction.
The unfolding of a really wide movement against the imperialist war and
reaction can only be successful if the Communists act and conduct the struggle
in the very midst of the masses, keep a sharp watch as to their state of mind,
take careful heed of their voice, and take their needs and sufferings to heart.
The Communists must not run ahead. They must put forward slogans that
correspond to the concrete situation, slogans that can be understood and grasped
by the masses, they must always take the lead of the movement of the masses
and lead them on to the solution of the maturing new tasks.
The present exceptionally serious situation demands of the Communists that
they do not give way at all to repression and persecution, but come forward
re.solutely and courageously against the war, against the bourgeoisie of their
own country, that they act in the way Lenin taught, in the way taught now by
the great, wise leader of the working people, Stalin.
The Communist Parties must rapidly reorganize their ranks in accordance
with the conditions of the war. purge their ranks of rotten, capitulatory elements,
and establish iron Bolshevik discipline. They must concentrate the fire against
opportunism, which is expressed in slipping into the position of "defending the
fatherland," in support of the fairy tale about the anti-fascist character of the
war, and in retreat before the acts of repression of the bourgeoisie. And the
sooner the Communist Parties achieve all this, the better will thev be able to
carry through their independent leading role in the working class movement
and the more successfully can they fulfill the tasks now facing them.
As the war goes on, all the Communist Parties, all working class organizations,
all active workers are put to the supreme test. Individual weak elements, faint
hearts will drop away at sharp turns. Elements alien to the working class,
careerists, renegades, who have tacked themselves onto the Communist Party,
will be thrown overboard. The Communist Parties as a whole will undoubtedly
stand the test. They will become still better steeled in the coming battles.
844 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
New hundreds of thousands of fighters for the working class cause will fill the
ranks of the army of communism.
The Communist Parties and the working class of the capitalist countries will
be inspired by the heroic example of the Russian Bolsheviks, by the example of
the Party of Lenin and Stalin, which in 1914-11)18 showed the proletariat the true
way out of the war and subsequently secured the victory of socialism over
one-sixth of the glol)e.
By holding aloft the banner of proletarian internationalism, and strengthening
the bonds of fraternal solidarity between the working class of all countries the
Communists will thereby help all working people to fulfil their historic mission.
The it)ipcriaUsts of the waning countries have begun the war for a neio parti-
tion of the earth, for world domination, dooming millions of peoples to destruction.
The working class is called upon to put an end to the irar after its own fashion,
in its on-)i interests, i)i the interests of llic whole of laboring manJcind and therehg
to destroy once and for all the fundamental causes giving rise to imperialist wars.
OCTOBEK, 1939.
Exhibit No. 164
[Smiicc : Th«> Siindav Worker, New York, M;irch .">. lO.Sf), pape 2. From an artiole entitled,
"('oniuninist Intoriiational Stands <iii;ini Against Reaction — Pravda," quoting an edi-
torial fioni I'ravda. central organ of the ("onuiuinist I'arty of the Soviet Tnion]
"The Communist Party of the Soviet Union always was and always will be a
model, an example for the Communist Parties of all countries."
Exhibit No. 165
[Source: A leaflet published by the National Coniittee of the Communist Party, U. S. A.:
September, 10:!9]
Dkclaratiox of the National Commitiek, Communist Pakty, U. S. A.
KEEP AMERICA OUT OF THE IMPERIALIST WAR!
To the American People: Workers. Toiling Farmers, Middle Clas.nes and Youth:
The war that has broken out in Euroi)e is the Second Imperialist War. The
ruling capitalist and landlord classes of all the belligerent countries are equally
guilty for this war.
This war, therefore, cannot be supported by the workers. It is not a war
against fascism, not a war to protect small nations from aggression, not a war
witli any of the character of a just war, not a war that workers can or should
support. It is a war between rival imp<M-ialisms for world domination. The
workers must be against this war. It is a war that threatens the American
people as well as the peoples of the whole world.
The Nazi imperialists brazenly try to cover up their aggressive war and
designs by claiming that Poland rejected their "peace terms" and provoked
the war. This is a monsti'ous fascist deception and fraud.
The Briti.sh-French warmongers and their apologists, on the other hand, cry
out that Poland, martyred Poland, is the justification of this war, and the
proof that their war nmst be supported by all lovers of peace, that they make
war "to destroy Hitlerism." This is a hypocritical lie, one of those great historic
lies which demand credence entirely on the grounds of their arrogance and their
colossal dimensions.
This war is not being fought in defense of Poland. On the contrary, Poland
was deliberately sacrifi<.'ed by the British and French statesmen in order to
provide the occasion for their predatory, robber, imperialist war.
The Polish government followed Chamberlain's dictation when it rejected the
proposal of the Soviet Union for a joint British-French-Soviet guarantee to all
victims of aggression, behind which guarantee the Red Army and Air Fleet
would go into oiieratiim when necessary in the logical fields for such action —
in those adjacent countries which might be invaded, including Poland. When
Chamberlain rejected the only plan that could have saved the independence of
Poland, he demonstrated for all men and for history that Britain cared nothing
APPENDIX, PART 1 845
for Poland except as an occasion for war, and a possible opportunity to turn
Nazi military aggression against the Soviet borders.
German fascism— Nazism— the bloody dictatorship of monopoly capital, was
nurtured and ushered into power by Chamberlain and his class. For years
Chamberlain had been speculating uiwn a German-Soviet war; for this he
helped Hitler to power and to rearm Germany ; for this he accepted the fortifica-
tion of the Rhineland; for this he approved the rape of Austria; for this he
sacrificed Czechoslovakia; for this he helped strangle the Spanish Republic;
for this he handed Ethiopia and Albania to Mussolini; for this he destroyed
the League of Nations; for this he meekly accepted humiliation and injury
from the Japanese imperialists in the Far East and abandoned China to their
mercies; and finally for this be threw Poland to the fascist wolves.
Why did the Polish government lend itself t<i this scheme which results in
its own destruction? Because this Polish government was itself fascist in
character; because for years it has been involved in all plots for the destruction
of the Soviet Union ; because up until a few months ago it was itself in closest
communion with the Nazi government, and participated with it in the dismem-
berment of Czechoslovakia ; because it followed the Nazi policy of persecution
of the Jews ; because it was a government of corrupt and tyrannous landlords
and bourgeoisie, not only oppressing and robbing the Polish people, but also
oppressing subject nationalities within its own borders numbering more than
one-third of the total population. Such a government could not defend Poland.
This government of the Polish "colonels" and landlords has broken up and
fled the country at the first impact of war, abandoning the peoples to helpless-
ness and destruction. In this situation the Soviet Union has met its responsi-
bility to its own security, to its immediate neighbors connected by territory
and nationality, and to the cause of world peace, by moving the Red Army into
Western Ukrainia and Byelo-Russia, while proclaiming its neutrality in the
war, and its aim in securing peace and protection for the peoples abandoned
by their former rulers.
We Communists, of America and all countries, wanted and did everything
in our power to bring about the formation of a real anti-fascist front, with
the participation of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, and the United
States. Not only we, but all serious advocates of the Peace Front, knew and
declared that without the U. S. S. R. any self-styled peace front would be only
a huge fraud, a mask for a new predatory imixrialist war. But the Tory
coalition in the United States blocked American support, and the British and
French statesmen rejected the U. S. S. R. participation just because they
wanted, not a peace front, but a new predatory war to achieve a new Versailles
and a new Munich.
The U. S. S. R., the only great nation with a consistent peace record, the
only nation which kept faith with China, Spain and Czechoslovakia, strong
in its magnificently growing socialist economy, its solid inner unity based upon
abolition of classes and free cooperation of its component family of nations,
and its powerful Red Army, Navy and Air Fleet, repulsed from its desired role
of helping organize world peace, in which for years it fought alone without a
single great power coming to its support, demonstrated that it was entirely
capable of protecting its own peace, thereby making a contribution to the peace
of the world. The Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, whereby the Nazi gov-
ernment renounced its long-standing agreement with Chamberlain under which
they promised to destroy the U. S. S. R. in return for British help in rearma-
ment and destruction of other nations, exposed the final debacle of Chamberlain's
"appeasement" policy.
This victory for peace of the Soviet Union, now being followed by cessation
of hostilities on her eastern borders, tremendously improved the international
position of the U. S. S. R. itself and also strengthened the position of the
working class and all true democratic forces everywhere. It created the condi-
tions for the people of the United States to keep America out of the imperialist
war, and to promote in a new way the aim of a peaceful and orderly world.
The U. S. A. and the U. S. S. R., despite their contrasting economic andpolitical
systems, are now in a position, more than ever before, to collaborate for the
common interests of their peoples, which are the interests of the masses of all
countries.
The outbreak of the Second Imperialist War, which for years has been devel-
oping as a one-sided war, fundamentally changes the situation hitherto existing.
All issues and alignments are being re-examined and re-evaluated in the light
346 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of these changes. The previous alignment into democratic and fascist camps
loses its former meaning. The democratic camp today consists, first of all,
of those who fight against the imi)erialist war. The preconditions have been
created for the destruction of fascism by the German people themselves. The
Axis is broken, and Briti.sh imperialism works feverishly to incorporate its
disconnected parts into her war system, trying to transform the war into a
general anti-Soviet war. Democracy in Britain and France, long in eclipse,
suffers a •'blackout" which can be lifted only when the working class, leading
the nation, defeats the predatory aim.s of their ruling classes.
Connnunists in all the belligerent countries are exposing the imperialist and
inedatory character of the war, they will vote against war credits, they go
among the soldiers at the fronts anil the masses at home explaining that thi.s
war will bring the people nothing but misery, burdens, destruction and death.
The United States must keep out of any involvement in this imperialist war,
or in the rivalries and antagonisms from which it arose. The people must
demanil that the President's jiromise that this country will not be involved shall
be kept inviolate, and ihcy nuist i)e constantly on guard against tlie powerful
forces at work in our land toward such involvement. Etpially mu.st we be on
guard against the hidden enemies of peace, who hide themselves behind loud
protestations that we must "keep out of war" while advancing iKilicles that pre-
pare to get us in war. Such, for example, are Coughlln, Hearst and Lindbergh,
decorated by Ilitli-r fiu' his servlees In Iti'lnging Munich to its disastrous con-
summation a year ago, who now comes forward as spokesman for that section
of the reactionary camp which, denumding the retention of the Neutrality Act,
has other plans for profiting from and finally involving America in the war.
Such, on the other hand, are those spokesmen of the same camp who demand
the repeal or revision of the Act for the purpose of United States help to British
and French imperialism, and thereby drawing America into the war. Such are
the gentleman who have been piling up profits by supplying to Japan more than
half of all the materials for her war against China, one of the most shameful
pages in American history.
In the United States Congre.ss, as it meets In special session September 21, the
issue of keeping our country out of the imperialist war will be presented in a
most distorted form. Enormous efforts will be made to convince that IX) per cent
of the people whi» demand at all costs that America keep out of the war, that
retaining the Neutrality Act will do the job for them, or else, on the contrary,
that repealing or revising the Act will do it.
Both claims are lies and hypocrisy. On both sides of this issue are war-
mongers and their agents, with plans carefully laid out to utilize the decision,
whichever way It goes, as the starting point for dragging America into the war.
And also on both sides of the issue are masses of workers, farmers and middle
classes, who are of one deep and fervent desire and opinion, that America
can and must keep out of this disastrous and fruitless war. lint who are divided
and set to fighting one another over the false issue of whether to keep the Neu-
trality Act, revise it, or repeal it. But not this one position or the other will
help keep America out of this war, while the divisions upon these unreal ques-
tions will help no one but the warmakers.
The task of the day in the United States is to overcome the artificial divisions
among the peace forces, that set them fighting among themselves, and to bring
them into a united front against the warmakers who stand on all sides of these
confused issues. The Neutrality Act, which in the past played the reactionary
role of helping strangle the Spanish Republic, and of keeping America's influence
from helping realize that real Peace Front for which we fought so long and so
hard, is now. with the destruction of the Peace Front possibility, and the outbreak
of the Imperialist war, no longer an important or decisive issue. It serves only
to distort the real issues, to clutter up the political .scene, and bring confusion
instead of a clear program to the masses of the people who .seek the road to
peace.
Hammering out a real peace program for the United States, one that will really
guarantee keeping America from involvement, we must keep two guiding
thoughts in mind : First, allow no single measure to be taken for purposes of
giving American help to either side of the imperialist conflict; second, find the
most effective means of keeping out of the war, without any regard to whether
these means incidentally happen to confer some small advantage to one side or
the other. These two guiding thoughts are inseparable ; in every concrete issue.
APPENDIX, PART 1 847
they will help lis decide what is best for the American people ; neglect of one
would soon destroy the effectiveness of the other.
In an entirely different category must be considered the question of aid to
China. The great Chinese people are fighting a war of national liberation,
a just war, In which not only American sympathy but its national interests
demand all possible aid be given.
Especially must we beware of the war propaganda which is being spread by
the Social-Democrats, Trotskyites and Lovestoneites of this and every other
country, who helped prepare the war by disrupting working class unity, na-
tionally and internationally. These Judas creatures talk in the name, of
socialism, but have begun openly to agitate for war against the Soviet Union,
the land where socialism has been realized for the first time in history. Their
whole course has been one of assistance to Chamberlain, for whose crimes they
are jointly responsible, and which they have defended. They are among the
most dangerous enemies of American peace, they are among the most vicious and
insidious who would drag our country into the imperialist war.
American national and social security today require, first of all, to keep our
country out of the imperialist war. Only the people's fight to keep America
out of the imperialist war will make it possible to maintain and improve such
measures of social seciirity as we now have ; only the fight for greater social
security and democracy can strengthen the security of our nation and save us
from the horrors of fascism and war.
This is a period of great social convulsions and catastrophes, sudden changes
and transformations, when history is running with the speed of the airplane and
radio instead of the old seven-league boots. The workers and all toilers must be
prepared to meet and adjust themselves to sudden changes in their situation and
problems, to unite their forces on the broadest scale, to promote the democratic
alliance of workers, farmers and middle classes with labor's initiative in this
alliance, to make sharp changes in demands, alignments and tactics, that may be
required by the social convulsions that a rotten and dying capitalist system
inflicts upon the people. A determined struggle will be necessary to preserve
civil liberties and living standards against reactionary attacks already launched.
On the road of struggle against the imjjeriaHst war, the struggle for the main-
tenance of national and social security, for jobs, security, democracy and peace,
the working class and toiling masses of America will begin to advance seriously
and on a mass scale toward the establishment of a new s.vsteni, without classes
and without exploitation, in which the economy of the country is the common
property of all and used for the common good — that is, a socialist system — which
alone will abolish forever exploitation, oppression, imemployment, poverty,
fascism and war. and realize all the best dreams of mankind for a happy world.
In this grave hour of crisis, when American peace and democracy are at
stake, the Communist Party of the United States of America, now as in the past,
pledges all of its efforts and strength to promote unity of action of labor and
the working people to :
Keep America Out of the Imperialist War ! For America's National and
Social Security !
Build the Democratic Unity of the American People Against Imperialist War,
Fascism and Monopoly Capitalist Reaction !
Forge the Democratic Alliance of the Workers, Toiling Farmers and Middle
Classes Against the Economic Royalists and Imperialists Warmakers ! Protect
and Improve Living Standards, Democratic Liberties, and the Right to Organize
and to Strike !
United Labor as the Bulwark of the Nation, Democracy and Peace!
Strengthen the Unity of the Democratic Forces of the Americas for Peace,
National Freedom and Real Good Neighbor Relations !
Give Maximum Support to China and to all Oppressed Peoples in Their
Struggle Against Imiierialism and Fascism, for Freedom and National Inde-
pendence !
Support the Peace Policy of the Soviet Union — the Land of Socialist De-
mocracy, Progress, Peace and National Liberation !
National Committee. CoM^ruNisT Pabtt, XJ. S. A.
Wm. Z. Fosteib, National Chairman
Eabl Browdbb, General Secretary
g48 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 166
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on l^n- American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4307]
Mr. WnriXEH'. Mr. Browder, i.s the most authoritative definition or statement
<»n the present line of the Communist Party set forth in The United Front, by
DimitroffV
Mr. BitowDER. I would say that is the most authoritative statement of the
general line of the World Communi.st movement as formulated by the Seventh
World Congress in 1935.
Mr. WHiTLFry. I would also like to have that identified.
(The book above referred to was marked "September 5, 1939. Witness
Browder, W. R. G.")
Mr. Whitlky. In other words. Diniitroff is the secretary of the executive com-
mittee of the Communist InternationalV
Mr. Bk(>wdf:r. That is right. He is general secretary of the Communist
International.
Mr. WniTi,KY. His position with the Communist International corresponds to
your position with the Communist Party in the United States?
Mr. Br<)W1)kj{. Yes.
Mr. WHiTuri'. And his book represents — it is tlic best representation of the
present line of the Communist I'arty?
Mr. Bkowder. In its international i)hase; yes.
Mr. Whitley. In its international phase?
Mr. Browdek. Yes.
Exhibit No. 167
[Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4. 308]
Mr. WHiTi.ETi'. Mr. Browder, is the Comniuiiist Party of the United States
affiliated with and a part of the Communist International?
Mr. Browdeu. The Communist Party of the United States is affiliated with the
Communist International.
Exhibit No. 168
[Source : Hearings of the Siiecial Committee on Un-American Activities. September .'», 1939,
page 4309. Statement by Earl Browder, general secrctarv of tho Communi.st Party,
U. S. A.]
Mr. Browder. Well, we have reported, in the peiaod in which I can sjieak of
my own per.sonal knowledge, at the international congresses and conferences in
I)er.son. Most of those since 1930 I have myself attended, and I have given oral
reports to all of my associates of the other Communist Parties, both in personal
conversations and in formal meetings of the Communist International. I have
spoken about American conditions and problems, and tried to explain them
and to make clear these problems and conditions, and also the attitude of the
Communist Party of the United States to them.
Exhibit No. 169
[Source : Hearing.s of the Special Committee on Un-Amerioan Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 4310. Statement by Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist I'arty,
U. S. A.]
Mr. Browdier. So far as the political essence of the problem is concerned,
there is the closest harmony between the Communist Party of the United States
and the Communist International.
APPENDIX, PART 1 849
Exhibit No. 170
{Source : Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939,
page 43] 0. Statement by Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist Party,
U. S. A.]
Mr. Thomas. You said the closest harmony existed between the Communist
Party in the United States and the Communist International. That is the state-
ment you just made; is not that correct?
Mr. Browder. Yes.
Mr. Thomas. That is true; is it not?
Mr. Browdek. That is correct.
Mr. Thomas. What I want to know is whether the closest harmony exists right
today, now that Mr. Stalin has made his non-aggression pact with Mr. Hitler,
that did not exist a few weeks ago V
Mr. Browdek. I understand your question now. Yes. Yes ; the closest harmony
and agreement exists.
ExHmiT No. 171
[ Source : An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Take Your Choice War as in Aprii^ 1917, ob This in Apeh, 1940 Jobs — Pejace
A job, marriage, a home, security, civil liberties and peace ; OR Shell-shock,
gas. an armless body, a grave in some "Flanders Field." You've got to make
that choice— RIGHT NOW !
THINGS don't look SO HOT
Here's news that's not in the papers. These days the Stockyards, Harvester,
Steel mills in South Chicago and Gary, are firing, not hiring. Five million unem-
ployed youth tramp the streets, looking for work. In the richest country in the
world, it doesn't have to be this way. Jobs can be made for all.
Yet, President Roosevelt's budget cuts down the WPA, NYA, CCC, and aid to
the farmers — to the bone. In April, 14,800 WPA workers will be laid off in
Illinois. One third of the NYA students at the University of Chicago will soon
be laid off.
NEGRO AND WHITE UNITE
The plight of the Negro Youth is even worse. Fifty per cent of all the unem-
ployed Negro people are young. Those who work receive the district jobs for
the lowest wages. A recent NYA survey reveals that they receive an average pay
of $9.06 a week, $3.50 less than their white brothers. i?hey're forced to live in
firetraps and pay Goldcoast rents. Thej'* are packed into overcrowded schools.
Motion pictures like "Gone with the Wind," which are a disgrace to real
Americanism, slander and insult the whole Negro people.
JOBS, NOT GUNS — -PEACE, NOT WAR
While President Roosevelt and Congx-ess kicked the jobs and public works
program out the window, they have increased the war-budget to over $574,000,000.
While twelve million unemployed Americans suffer privation. President Roosevelt
joined hands with Hoover, sending public funds to Mannerheim.
At the same time he is maneuvering for loans to the Allies, going to bat for
the profit-crazy gang that runs the banks and war industries of our country.
He panned the American Youth Congress for condemning loans to the stooge
for American. Britisli and French financiers — Mannerheim. He said that the
idea that loans could involve our country in war was "Twaddle."
Run up to the Hines Memorial Hospital on the far West Side. Ask the first
jiiraless vet you meet what he thinks about "Twaddle."
It was just 23 years ago, this April, that our country entered the First World
War. Then, young men gave up their jobs, their farms, their schools, their
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 55
g50 UN-AMEIlICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
homes, their sweethearts and wives and — their lives. Why did they go? President
Wilson told them "Its a war to save the world for Democracy." "It's a war
to end all wars." When those who were lucky returned, they said "Never again."
THE HIGH COST OF KlIXINO
It co.st the United States $22,000,0(30.0<iO to lielp kill 10.fMIO.nOO.O()0 solditM>
and wound 21.'.<W(»,(HI0 others: 18.UCH> new American millionaires made .$12,U(M»
profit on each dt^ad .-soldier. When those who came back tried to get jobs, they
got the run-around. "What do yon mean, jobs?" they were asked. "Wliat jobs?"
Then the boys found out that while the war lasted, a war industry had beei!
built up. When it ended, the whole setup collapsed. The workers gained
nothing, the rich, made profits.
THIS TIME — THE YANKS AKB NOT CX)MING
We are young. We want to live a decent life. As long as imperialist war
continues to exist and spread into other sections of this globe, our own peace
is in danger. The whole American people, osix-cially the young people, want
I'eace. We want to keep this country out of the present imperialist conflict
in Europe. We join hands with the American Youth Congress — voice of n,()()0.(KX)
young men and women — who sang — •'We're not so green as the boys in '17."
We join hands with the whole labor inovement and others who have raised the
slogan "The Yanks are NOT coming." No, we want a useful job over here, not
a useless death over there.
THE RED ARMY CLOSES THE DOOR ON IMPEaUAUST WAR
Have you been following the papers? You nnist have been puzzled. The rich:
the Roo.sevelts. the Chamberlains and Daladiers. have been disappointcnl in the
Soviet-Finnish Peace. Those who have sold-down-the-river Austria, Ethiopia.
China. Czechoslovakia, and Spain — those who opjiress the people in Ireland and
India now speak al»out Soviet 'harshness." They wanted this war to spread so
it would involve all of the Scandinavian countries, spread into the Balkan and
Near East countries, a war that would involve ALL countries, including our own.
The same papers that shout for economy at the expense of the i»eople, that cry
for even more cuts in the WPA, NYA. that urge anti labor legislation — are
howling against the Soviet Union. They, however, cannot hide the fact that the
Soviet-Finnish peace has narrowed down the theatre of war — and has prevented
Sweden and Norway from becoming involved in the European war.
FOR 1JFE WITH A PURPOSE
We have a life ahead of us — for we are young. Things may look bad, but we
know "He who has Youth has the Future." What kind of a future are we
looking forward to? We know the burning desire of all young iieople to rid our
country of war, \niemployment and hunger can come about only when there will
be no one to make profit from our sweat, when the land and factories will be
run by the people who work them, when our country will really belong to the
people who inhabit it. This is our desire— this is our goal. This is called
Socialism. This is the system they have established in the Soviet Union.
Today, the Sovet LTnion is the land of real opportunity for all. This is the
only country in the world where the workers rule.
JOIN THE ARMY
Are you strong and healthy? Join the "Army" — an army for jobs and peace.
We do'not want to destroy — we want to build. We must build ourselves in the
first place. WE MUST GET .JOBS. OR HELP FROM THE GOVERNMENT,
UNTIL WE DO. We support the American Youth Act — an act that will help
give young people jobs. We demand that the Governor call a special session
of the State legislature to take up the need of our unemployed. We need more
democracy here.
JOIN NOW
This is what we stand for. It is for that reason we are called 'RED.' We
would much rather speak our own minds and be called "Reds" than suffer in
APPENDIX, PART 1 851
silence. We support the Comninnist Party, because it is the only party that
fights against this War, for Jobs, for the People, for Socialism. They are trying
TO shut us up. They are trying to send some of the leaders to jail. But they
cannot destroy us. Thousands are joining our ranks. We advise you to think
through our message. We would like to hear your opinions. But we say : FOR-
LIFE WITH A PURPOSE JOIN US.
Issued by the Young Communist League of Tiliuois and Lake County, Indiana,
Exhibit No. 172
[Source : An excerpt from an original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on
Un-American Activities, 1940]
War Bulletin
Thursday, November 23, 1939, Vol. 1— No. 4
THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING
Want to Die? Wall Street Needs Dough
The wolves of Wall Street are wearing some of their very best sheep's cloth-
ing these days, but their bleat that business doesn't want war profits is the
phoniest cry since Chamberlain at Munich said he had won "peace in our time."
Big Business lives on profits. And it doesn't care whether it gets them by
killing workers on the picket lines or the front lines, on Memorial Day at Chi-
cago's Republic Steel plant or any dayon Flanders Fields.
Big Business is already tasting blood in the European imperialist war, and,
to insure that war trade, it is trying its vilest to drag the United States into it.
The Associated Press reports that corporation earnings Sept. 30, were at a
rate more than 55 per cent greater than a year ago. It also reports that
Federal G(tvernment tigures shovv' business in mid-November actually at the all-
time "prosperiry"' peak reached in lil29.
As John L. Lewis lias pointed out, however, workers and farmers are the
losers in any war, and even right now are getting swindled of their share in
the increased industrial activity.
Wall Street doesn't want to kill the goose that's laying its golden eggs, and
that is why it whipped Senators and Congressmen of both parties into line to
rei)eal the embargo clause of the Neutrality Act and open wider the gates of
trade with those countries, England and Frfyice, who are prolonging the conflict.
Published bv Communist Party of Massachusetts. 15 Essex Street, Boston —
Phil Frankfeld, Editor
Exhibit No. 173
rSource : An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on rn-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
To Every Young Man and Woman in Southern California
ON GUARD!
Youth Wants ^^o Part of the War
The Yanks Are Not Coming
The old song and dance is on. President Roosevelt, aided and supported by
reactionary forces, wants to convince us that the time has come when we have
to prepare to go to war again "to save the world for Western civilization."
Instead of calling the American people to help put out the "four-alarm fire," he's
proposing to add fuel to it — in the form of the lives of thousands of us in another
bloodbath.
852 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
They are pouring out lies aud half-trutlis by the ton. They :iro dt-liberately
making it appear that there is nothing left hmt to give full support to the Allies
and prt'pare to fight if necessary. They ai'e deliberately Haunting the will of
the American people to keep out of war, expressed in hundreds of ways in reieut
years, and shown this year in the tremendous April (iili ijcace demonstrations,
April lUth student strikes and ri'solutions aud actiou>; of hur.dreds (»f groups,
t'sju cially in the labor movement. They are stoiiping at nothing and using every
trick in the bag to incite and intiame us to plunge into the war.
The "boogey-man" story about Hitler being around the corner is a fake. It is
being conjured up by Roosevelt and the reactionary press to blackjack (ho
American ix'ople into agreeing to billions of dollars in loans and war jualerials
li/ the Allies and to a big army and navy so that a better war can be waged.
Hitler's victories have been exaggerated by the nevv.spapers with a definite aim
in mind. There have been no decisive battles yet; and it is more likely that it
is part of the Allied campaign designed to scare America into plunging headlong
int<i the war. The early Cierman victories in the last war did not mean a
final victoiy. The danger is not tliat Hitler will come over here; this is a delib-
erate falsehood. The danger is rather that we will again be tricked into going
over there.
It is wrong to believe that there is nothing h'ft except to supjinrt the Allies.
There is plenty left. We can k<'ep out of tliis war. We can lefuse to take
sides. We can refuse to stipply any military means or money to either side.
We can exert all the force at our cttnuuand to stop flie war in Europe. The
Allies, the Churchills and Chamberlains, the Reynauds and Daladiers are as
guilty as Hitler, having nutured Hitler and paved his way all during the i)ast
years. To support the Allies means to support the same forces of imiu'rialism
and war mongering that Hitler repre.'<ents in (i(>rniany. Some lielieve that there
is very little the people can do now. Remember tlie last war. The people did
tinally have their say and they said plenty. In Germany, Himgary, Italy, Ire-
land, Finland and in America the people spoke out against war. In R\issia they
took matters in their own hands, kicked out the war makers and stopijcd the use-
less slaughter. They removed the profit system from which imperialist war
arises and have built a society devoted only to the peace, freedom and prosperity
of its people — a socialist society. Don't think that l)ecause one reads only about
Hitler or Churchill, Reynaud or Roosevelt, that they speak fully for the people
of their countries. The people of France and England, of Germany, of India,
Irt'land. tlie Ralkans, the liowlands have yet to speak. Despite government,
repression, the people's opposition to the war is being felt. In I'^ngland and
France hundreds of unions, youth organizations and the co-operatives have
coTidemned the war as imperialist and are fighting against it. The underground
movement in Germany has intensified its fight against the war. They will tell
the war-mongers off in no uncertain terms. They will throw the Cburciiills and
Hitlers and their like into the garb.ige can of history and build lands and a
Europe freed from perpetual nnnder and war. The youth already on the battle-
fields of Europe say to us; "Keep out of this war and ht^lp us get out of the
trenches !"
The issue now is to stop the war, to do everything in our power to see that
America is not diawn in. The job now is to work haid to guarantee that nothing
is done that will lead to the slaughter of thousands of us on European
battlefronts.
On guard, youth of Southern California ! Beware of the lies in the press.
Organize yourselves now and make your voice heard against those who would
plunge us into a war. Don't be fooled by sweet words and past records. Any
government leader has to be measured by today's needs and not those of yes-
terday. Any one in American public life who works to bring America into the
war in any form is guilty of the highest treason to the American people and
has to be defeated in his efforts. Drown Washington in protest against the
war preparations and war enactment !
Not a man, not a cent, not a gun for imperialist war and military purpo.ses —
all funds for the improvement of the conditions of the poor, the aged, the
unemployed, the sick, for improved education and housing. Let the money be
devfited to giving youth a decent chance in life by passing the American Youth
Act now before Congress.
We, Young Communists, are part of the young generation of America. We
love our country, and because we do, we don't want to see its youth torn to
pieces on a foreign battlefield for the profits of war-makers. The reaction-
APPENDIX, PART 1 g53
aries can rave and rant but we stand fapt and pledge our every effort together
with the American people, that America will not be sucked in.
Youth Wants No Part of the War!
Issued by Young Communist League, 124 W. 6th St., Room 605, Los Angeles, Calif iimia
Exhibit No. 174
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties. 1940]
Young Amekica DemonstriVTB on May D.^y !
May First, International Labor Day, grew out of the great struggle of the
American workers for the eight-hour day. On this day, we, the American
people, youth and adult, declare :
"The Yanks Are Not Coming — We Want Work, Not War!"
boosevext stands for hrnger and war
His budget slashed N. Y. A., C. C. C. and W. P. A. but gave 2 billions for the
Army and Navy. Only the protest of the American Youth Congress, the trade
unions, and progressives forced the House of Representatives to add $69,000,000
to N. Y. A. and G. C. C. and cut $68,000,000 from Roosevelt's war appropriation.
WHAT ABOITT MAYOR LA GT'AKDIA ?
He begged the City Council to cut funds from education and relief. This
means more over-crowded schools, fewer playgrounds and swimming pools, etc.
La Guardia labored to make our city an OPP^N SHOP town by his attack on
the Transport Wf)rkers Union. He cooperated to permit the bankers t<i filch
over $r.l2.0O0;6oO profit from the subways. Furthermore, the Coudert-Moffat
Bill authorizing a higher fare was introduced in the State Assembly at
La Guardia's request. This would mean an increase in the family budget of
one to two months rent money over a year's time.
Their tune is "Johnny Get Your Gun," but Young America will not be starved
into the imperialist war! NOW YOUNG AMERICA IS OUT TO PASS THE
AIMEKICAN YOUTH ACT. This provides for jobs for young people at trade
union wages with the money to come out of the huge Roosevelt war budget.
ROOSEVELT SAYS ITS "A WAR FOR DEM0CR.\CY"'
Is it to make America and tlie world "safe for democracy" that Roosevelt
and Wall Street .supply the .Japanese militarists with the war materials iieing
used against China? Is that why in all his speeches he incites against tlie
Soviet Union, a country with which we are at peace?
And what about democracy at home?
Why are lynching, the Ku Klux Klan. the denial of the right to vote to
11 million Southerners, and oppression of the Negro people OK'd by Roosevelt
and llie Republicans? Why do they give the green "go-ahead" signal by their
conspiracy to kill the anti-lynching bill and anti Poll Tax P.ill? Why the
gang-up to destroy the Labor Relations Act? Why is the Sherman anti-Trust
Law being used to bust the unions and not the trusts? Why does Roosevelt
imitate Hitler and Daladier in his attacks on the Comnumists?
Since when have the overlords (»f the Ri-itisli and French empires become
the champions of democi-acy? Who but the imperialists would have the i?n-
pudence to claim that the enslavers of Ireland. India, Palestine, Africa, Indo-
China. and IMorocco are fighting a "war for dsunocracy and the independi-nce of
.small nations"? Who but the so-called "Socialists." NoVnian Thomas. Leon Blum.
Atlee, woiild sell themselves to the imperialists by telling the workers this is a
"just" war? Didn't Britain's mining of Norwegian waters in violation of lier
neutrality spread the war to Scandinavia by bringing on the German invasion?
Wasn't Britain prepared to move in, even if Hitler hadn't?
Both sides, the Allies and Germany, are guilty and we cannot we must not —
support either side.
S54 UN-AMERICAX PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Roosevelt is out to pull a "Woodrow Wilson." If his or Repiiblioau policies
are piirsuod, it means America's involvement in the European war. Already
he speaks of extending; the .Monroe Doctrine to Iceland and Greenland, bringing
us closer to the theatre of war.
We, the Forgotten Youth. Must Join Tookther Under the Leadership of
THE POWKRFX'L AMERIC.\N LABOR MOVE>rEXT TO ORGANIZE A MlGUTY ANTI-
Imperialist People's Front— an Anti-War Farmer-Labor Party for Jons,
Security, Democracy and Peace.
soviet union fights for peace
The great laud of socialism, established by the workers and fanners, firmly
pursues the fight for peace. It is the best ally of the Amerii^an people. The
Soviet I.^nion is truly neutral. It defeiuU'd the cause of ix^ace and llie interests
of its S(H'ialist state by destroying the British-made Mannerheim Line, thus
putting an end to the Anglo-French and American Imperialist war instigators,
and. .securing the independence of Fiidaiid. Contrast the Soviet Union's non-
aggression pact with Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania whicli have helped to keep
these small ner.tral nations out of the war and P.ritains guarantee 1o Norway
which dragged that country into the war.
This peace policy of the Soviet Union is i>o.ssible because it is a nation where
Socialism exists. ' Socialism means that the workers and farmers own the
country and its riches. There are no capitalists to solve their difficulties by
tlie bloody profit of war. There is no unemployment, poverty or race hatred
there. Young people study aiul go to school and get paid a salary while doing
it. The wealth, rising production, rising standard of living of the U. S. S. R.,
in contrast to the misery of capit.'.lism. is the final answer to the desire of
America's youth for jobs, peace and civil liberties.
YofNG Americ.v — March on :\Iay Day to: T'ass the Amkruan Youth Act!
Deiend the P.ii.l ok Rights! For Jobs Not Guns! Kei:p America Out of
THE Imperialist War I
Hi'ar Earl Browder, Friday. May 8, 7 : .SO p. m. Royal Windsor,
69 West GGth Street
Exhibit No. 175
[Source: An origin.Tl leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
tii'S, 1940 J
Hey Buddy !
Did you read about it? Roosevelt just ordered your uniform, plus 909,999
other khaki eollins. Ut^'a got your size .so you don't have to worry. He expects
you soon. In fact if the Plattsburg Group (Leading business men who were
instrumental in bringing America into the last war) have their way, you are
getting into that uniform sooner because they want universal comimUory military
naining. (That means YOU.) And if the Herald Tribune has itii way, you will
get that uniform Umujht. because they say, "The least costly solution, in both
life and welfare, would be to declare war on Germany at once."
It won't cost you much, the treat is on them— $3.500,000,0(X) and all you chip
in is your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Yes, it's a wonderful party.
We're all friends now. Hoover likes Roosevelt and Alf Landon gets invited to
a AVhite House luncheon.
But weren't the Republicans wcn-ried about balancing the budget? Well,
F. D. R. is making them happv. He cuts .$1,000,000,000 from PWA and WPA,
$75,000,000 from NYA and the CCC and .$400,(X)0,000 from the AAA.
The Hoover boys were afraid that the union.s were getting too strong. Leave
it to Frankie. His "New Deal" phonies are trying to bring up crippling amend-
ments to the NLRA, the Wages and Hours Law and Thurman Arnold is union-
busting in the name of trust-busting !
Or are you afraid business has no confidence in government? It has. Why
not? Some 250 corporations just announced $272,000,000 net profits for first
three months of 1940, a 50% increase over 1939. Not bad? Eh sucker?
APPENDIX, PART 1 855
Or are you a sucker? "The American White Paper" by Alsop and Kintner,
giving undenied statements by Roosevelt reveals a White House ". . . . nervous'
ness concerning the (letcrmination of tJie American people for peace."
You bet they're nervous. From all corners of America, individuals, unions,
youth groups are writing to Washington :
"The Yanks Ake Not Coming!"
"No Loans, No Credits, No Munitions to the Belligerents !"
"Work not War! . . . Pass the American Youth Act!"
Come on buddy, join in and help give the war-mongers a nervous breakdown.
Write to Roosevelt tonight and tell him you're not going to war. And tell him
again I
"The Yanks Are Not Coming !"
Yours for peace.
Club Lincoln
Young Communist League
P. S. — Read the Daily and Sunday Worker,* It's your paper.
Exhibit No. 176
[Source : An oiigiual leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
BILLION $ BLITZKRIEG ON OUR PEACE !
President Roosevelt's speech to the special joint session of Congress brought the
V. S. closer to the brink of war than at any time since 1917.
The President asked for an "Emergency" Arms Program amounting to $1,182,-
(KX>,()00 — and whipped up an already war-frenzied Congress to a new peak of
hysteria.
On the same day, the NEW YORK HERALDTRIBUNE, former enemy of
Roosevelt and the New Deal, openly joined forces with him in declaring: "THE
LEAST COSTLY SOLUTION, IN BOTH LIFE AND WELFARE, WOULD BE
TO DECLARE WAR ON GERMANY AT ONCE !"
Peace is America's Best Defence ! ! !
pex>ple of jackson heights — parents, taxpayers, workeks, youth !
Here is what Wilson's solution got us in 1917-18 :
1. Killed and died 126,000
Wounded 234,000
Total 350, 000
(Total killed in all countries : 8,358,000— wounded, 21,210,000)
2. Prices of daily necessities rose from 50 to 100 per cent.
3. The people were saddled with the 10 billion dollar debt on which the Allies had
defaulted and on which Wall St. Collected.
4. The people inherited an economic crisis immediately after the war, which
inevitably laid the basis for the overwhelming crisis of 1929 and for the
unemployment reaching 12,01 MJ.OOO today.
5. 18,000 new millionaires were created.
6. The profits of American corporations increased in the years 1916-18 by 5 bil-
lion dollars over their profits of 1914—16.
7. American imperialism seized profitable trade from its rivals, winning domina-
tion of the Canadian and Latin-American markets — a domination which it
hopes to expand today into a world empire.
We Have the Strength to Keep America Out !
IN THE name of DEFENSE — DEMAND THAT THE G0\T!;RNMENT STAY OUT OF WAR ! !
That it advance the living standards of its people! That it feeds America and
starves the war! That if refuses all aid to the belligerents! That it
co-operates with the Soviet Union in its efforts to extend Peace by limiting and
stopping the War !
856 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Write or Wire Your Congressman and the PRjisioENT — CrRouLATE PEnrnoNS
PRopt>sB Resolutions in Your Organizations !
DEFEATISM IS TREASON — WAR IS NOT INE\ ITABI^ ! — ^THE YANKS ARE NOT
COMING !!!!!!!
Lincoln Club of the Young Communist League — 99-16 Forty-third Ave., Corona,
L/I/N/Y/
Exhibit No. 17T
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties. 1940]
the yanks not coming
May Day Mass Meeting
On the Stage . . . See the Historic Struggle of Labor ... in Song — Dance — Drama
AGAINST war!
Hoar : William Schniederman, Pettis Perry, Paul Cline
Embassy Auditorium, Ninth and Grand, May 1st 1940 Wed. S p. m.
Admission 2oc & 35c. Auspices Los Angeles Comiaunist Party. 124 W. 6th, L. A.
Exhibit No. 178
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Americans Want Prvce
FATHERS :
Renicniber 1017 ! You were led into war to ".«!ave democracy." The same
forces which i>ersuaded you then are trying to do the same now. France and
England are pictured again as the savior.s itf democracy. But didn't they betray
democracy in Ethiopia, Spain, Austria, Palestine, Czechoslovakia, and now
China? They did it in 1917. They would do it again today. DEMONSTRATE
FOR PEACE ON MAY DAY.
MOTHERS :
Remember your own mothers who gave up sons in 1917 to be maimed and
killed. Don't let the same thing happen to you. Do you want to be a Gold
Star Mother? Campaign for neutrality. I'rolest against loans and credits
to France and England. Loans and credits get u.s deeper into war. FIGHT
FOR PEACE FOR OUR HUSBANDS AND SONS. MAKE YOUR VOICE
HEARD ON MAY DAY.
YOUTH :
War is facing you. Don't become cannon fodder. Protect civil lib(u*ties
to insure peace. An attack against civil lil)erties is the forerunner of fascism,
anti-semitism, and tinallv war. UNITE WITH PROGRESSIVE FORCES ON
MAY DAY.
E\'ERYBODl- :
Be neutral.
Join in a protest for peace.
Shout to the world "The Yanks are not coming."
Make your protest stronger at the May Day Mass Meeting at rvsselt. hall,
306 NORTH 52ud streei, Wednesday, April 24th, 1940. Speaker.s — carl kee\e. —
MAUDE white.
Keep the United States Out of War.
No Loans to Any Bei,ligerent Country. Loans Are the Road to War.
Remember 1917.
APPENDIX, PAiir 1 857
Dkfend CmL Liberties Against the Attacks of the Dies Committe:e
All Out May 1st at Reybukn Plaza
Issued by the 34tli Ward, Communist Party
Exhibit No. 179
[Source: An original leaflet in the flies of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
March May Day to: Pass the American Youth Act! — Defend the Bill of
Rights! — For Work, Not War! — For Jobs, Security, Civil Liberty, and
Peace ! — Keep America Out of the iMPiJiiALisT War !
On May First, International Labor Day, we the American people, youth-
adult, declare: "THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING— WB WANT WORK, NOT
WAR!"
Roosevelt stands for hunger and war. His budget slashed NYA, CCC, and
WPA, but gave 2 billions for the Army and Navy. What about Mayor La
Guardia? He begged the City Council to cut funds from education and to
slash relief. This means more over-crowded schools, fewer playgrounds and
swimming pools, etc.
Yes, the tune of these Wall Street politicians is: "Johnny Get Your Gun."
But Young America will not be starved into the imperialist war! NOW
YOUNG AMERICA IS OUT TO PASS THE AMERICAN YOUTH ACT, pro-
viding jobs and education for youth. The Yanks of 1910 are going to fight
a war for democracy right here at home, for the passage of the Anti-Lynching
and Anti-Poll Tax Bills, for the defense of the Wagner Labor Relations Act,
against the infamous use of the Anti-Trust Laws to bust the unions, against
FDR's insidious attempt to pull a Woodrow Wilson on the American people.
WE. THE FORGOTTEN YOUTH, ARE JOINING TOGETHER UNDER THE
LEADERSHIP OF THE POWERFUL AMERICAN LABOR MOVEMENT TO
ORGANIZE A MIGHTY ANTI-IMPERIALIST PEOPLES FRONT— AN
ANTI-WAR FARMER LABOR PARTY FOR JOBS, SECURITY, DEMOCRACY
AND PEACE.
In this struggle, the best ally of the American people is the Soviet Union.
The great land of Socialism, established by the workers and farmers, firmly
pursues the fight for peace. It is truly neutral. It defended the cause of
peace and the interests of its Socialist state by destroying the British-made
Mannerheim Line, thus putting an end to the Anglo-French and American
war instigators, and securing the independence of Finrand. Contrast the Soviet
Union's non-aggression pact with Esthonia, Latvia, and Litliuania which have
helped to keep these small neutral nations out of the war and Britain's
guarantee to Norway which dragged that country into war.
This peace policy of the Soviet Union is possible because it is a nation
where Socialism exists. Under Socialism, the workers and farmers own the
country and its riches. There are no capitalists to solve their difiiculties by
the bloody profit of war. There is no unemployment, poverty, or race hatred
there. Young people study aud go to school and get paid a salary vrhile doing
it. The wealth, rising production, rising standard of living of the U.S.S.R.,
in contrast to the misery of capitalism, is the final answer of America's youth
for jobs, peace, and civil liberties.
Youth of Washington Heights March on May Day. Come to 36 St. & 9 Ave.
at 4:30 P.M. Hear Earl Browder, Royal Windsor, 59 W. 66 St., Fridav.
May 3, 7 :30 P.M.
FORT GEORGE CLUB YCL 521 W. 179 ST.
Exhibit No. ISO
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Demonstrate for Peace April 6th
Why should you worry about your future?
They're thinking about it for you over in Washington and on Wall Street.
§5g UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Presulent and his administration have got it all mapped out for yon.
They stay up nights planning the thing out. That's a fact.
Maybeyou read about those plans in the President's budget speech.
READ THOSE FIGURES : YOU'LL SEE THEY SPELL WAR ! ! !
They provide for two and a quarter billion dollars for guns and cannons and
warships, and they take this money from the AV. P. A., from the farmers, the
unemployed, the young people, from the whole American people.
Those figures mean that Wall St. is back in the White Hon.se.
The President does not talk about economic royalists any longer ; lie smiles
at Garner and shakes his hand, he invites Republicans to the Jackson Day
Dinner, he calls for Lenity with Wall St.
The Administration is preparing for war and it is taking th(> same steps
toward war that the nations of Europe have tak«Mi. They've got plans. Don't
kid yourself about that. If there's a war they can outlaw strikes and break the
trade unions, they can cut wages in a national emergency and lengthen hours,
thev can do away with free speech and assembly.
We've got a big job ahead of us. A\'e"ve got a war of our own on t>ur hands —
a war against war! While Wall St. and Mr. Roosevelt and all the big shots and
money pots of the world are busy whijiping their armies into shai>e for slaughter,
we've got to organize an army of peace. We've got to organize in every city
and town, organize the people into a grout army for peace.
Not an army that .just talks about peace. Not an army that spouts phrases
against war, but battalions and regiments of i)eople who know what war is
about and how to combat it. First of all the peace army will turn its guns
against those wlio would wipe out the Rill of Rights. FREE SPEECH IS
OUR BIG GUN AND WE HAVE TO KEEP IT!!
THE YANKTS ARE NOT COMING !
Club Herndon, Young Communist League, 808 Westchester Avenue
Exhibit No. 181
rSource- \n original leaflet in the file.'! of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Is RoOSEn'ELT TATCING WILSON'S PaTH?
Did Roosevelt send Welles to make a deal with the Allies as Colonel House
did in 1915?
Will the billion dollar airplane deal with the Allies be followed by loans
which will drag us into the war?
2,000,000 people lost their jobs since January. Why did the Administration
cut W. P. A.?
The destruction of civil liberties is the first step towards war. Why do the
Dies Committee and the F. B. I. terrorize till progressives who speak for peace?
"the yanks ake Nar coming"
Rally, Friday April 12th, 8 : 30 p. m., at 144 2ud Ave.
Auspices Stutvesant Club, Young Communist League, 144 2nd Ave.
Speaker Joe Clark, Editor of the "Review," Member. National Council, Young
Communist League. Admission Free — Dancing before and after the meeting —
starts at 7 : 30.
Read the "Review" — Join the Young Communist League
APPENDIX. PART 1 §59
Exhibit No. 182
[Source : An original leaflet in the files of the Speei.il Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Friday, April 5, 8 p. m. — Admission Free — Manhattan Trade School,
129 East 22nd St.
Ptjbljc Anti-War Mass Meeting
kkep america out of the imperialist wab !
Speaker : Clarence Hathaway, Editor Daily Worker
23 years ago April 6th America entered the first World War and gave its best
sons to save our Bankers who grew rich on the suffering of our people. Roosevelt
has scrapped his New Deal, united with war-making reactionaries. Amerijcana
want to stay out of this European War. Keep our money, our war materials
and our boys at home ! Feed Americans tirst. Americans want JOBS — not
War !
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT PEACE — THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING !
Auspices Br. 3&4 Communist Party 26W18
Exhibit No. 183
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
AVAR
TOTAL WAR has begun. Terror and death engulf all Europe. Americans
draw back in horror at the carnage.
Yet, despite our desire to KEEL* OUT of the confiict, we all feel our country
being drawn closer with each new event. Today the Roosevelt Administration
considers our country an ally (non-belligerent). Tomorrow, will it consider
our country an ally (BELLIGERENT) ?
Why this criminal policy of un-ueutralily? Can we be fooled again so easily
with fake slogans of a war for "Democracy" and "Civilization"?
Isn't this war simply Rtmnd 2 of Imperialist Gernumy vs. Imperialist England?
Can our Hatred of Hitler Fascism blind us to the facts :
1. Chamberlain was the "Angel" for Hitler's whole rotten "Show" in
Germany.
2. Chamberlain changed his Appeasement I'olicy when Hitler refused to
direct his aggression against Eastern Europe and began to threaten BRITISH
IMPERIALIST INTERESTS !
3. The peoples of India. Ireland, Palestine and the other British colonies
are brutally exploited and oppressed .lust as the peoples conquered by
Hitler.
4. Democracy has been COMPLETELY extinguished in France. Trade
unions are g(n-ernment controlled, the Communist Partv has been out-
lawed and the FliENCH FASCIST leader has been taken into the CABINET !
The war is the responsibility of the criminal imperialist rulers of ALL the
belligerents: Germany. England and France. American support to EITHER
SIDE can only extend the war and increase the suffering and aid one gangster
in robbing another.
It is up to the people of Europe to put an end to the war bv getting rid of the
Imperialist and establishing Socialism. AMERICA'S job is to STAY OUT.
Even Pres. Roo.sevelt can't turn the pages of historv back 23 years.
THE YANKS OF 1940 ARE XOT COMING !
Raise your voice at home, at work and hi your organizations against sales,
credits or any support to EITHER SIDE.
S(50 UN-AMERICA X PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Write to Washington advising the President and your Congressman of your
desire to keep America our of wiir.
Read the Daily Worker, a NI-:UTRAL and TRUTHFUL paper.
.loin the Counnunist Party, tlie leader and organizer of the forces for peace
and security.
Communist Party, 289 Bleecker St., N Y C
Exhibit No. 1S4
[Sonrcp : An original loaflet in tlip filos of tlio S'nocial Committee on Un-Amoric.Tn Activi-
ties, 1940]
Blackout
shall wk ki^\ckout our demo( kacy by joining the imfekiaiist war?
In 1917-lS, America had a bhickout "'to make the world s.afe for diinocracy".
In 194U, are we to be led onto a more horrible blackout in the name of
"humanity and civilizatiou"?
In 1917, as every American knows. British propaganda and Wall Street
investments dragged us into a European war. War-mongers invented German
atrocities and worked up a war fever until we were made to believe that
we had to exterminate the Huns or perish by their sword. They didn't tell
us about the billions of Wall Street dollars that were at slake in a British
\ ictory.
So we went to war "to make the world safe for democracy".
What did we get?
The big capitalists got billions in blood-stained war profits.
And the workers got millions of dead and crippled, the burden of worldwide
economic depression, and millions of hungry unemployed.
Today, the same warmongers are trying to play us for suckers. They are
screaming of their love for democracy and humanity, but what did they do?
Sacrificed Ethiopia, sold out Spain, cold-shouldered China, and turned over
Austria and Czechoslovakia to Hitler.
ARE WE TO SACRIFICE AMERICAN DEJIOCRACY TO SAVE BRITISH, FRENCH, AND WALL
STREET IMPERIALIST INTERESTS?
President Roo.sevelt asks a billion dollars for defense. Defense; well and
good — we all want adequate deft^nse. But did you note the kind of defen.se
he advocates?
1. We are to defend all the Anifricas. including European coloni(>s.
2. We nuist be ready to make our defense "flexible". In plain English, be
ready to send our boys over :
S. The defense of "civilization", just as America was the defender of
"democracy" in the First Imperialist War;
4. The supplying of airplanes and munitions to the Allies. "(Jur lirst line
of defense is on the Rhine.'
BUT WHAT nOES TfUS DEFENSE PROGRAM MEAN FOR THE Otjoi OF AMERICANS WHO
WANT PF_\CE?
*1. Cutting down of the relief, health, and housing programs;
*2. Attack on organized labor in the name of "national .solidarity" and
"emergency" — suspension of wage and hour standards in the name of national
"defense" :
*3. Aboli-shing civil liberties for ail who do not agree with the war policy
of the ruling class.
STOP THIS Br.A( KOUT OF LIBIRTIF^. PEACE, DEMOCRACY ! — BLACKOUT THE WAR-
JfONC.ERS ! :^THIS TIME THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING ! !
Communist Party of U. S. A., 3.' East 12th St., New York
APPENDIX, PART 1 §61
Exhibit No. 185
[Source : An original leaflet in tbe files of tho 55i)ocial Coinniittee on Un-AuKnican Activi-
ties, 1940 J
Italy Enters Wab
The young fellows of another country have been dragged into the imperialist
Tvar. Just as British young men are dying for '"civilization", sn Italian yuuth
^Vill die for "the honor and interests uf the future."
Italy's entry into the bloodbatli of war must be a lesson to us. Up until now
Moussolini stood on the sidelines doing "everything short of war." Like Italy
was a moment ago, America is today — not neutral, but non-belligerent. Italy
sent trade, then guns, then doughboys. America allready sends trade and guns,,
and Wallstreet is yelling to send the doughlioys. Unless we stop this step by
step war policy, Koosevelt and Wall Street will drag us in. When Italy entered
the war, Roosevelt said, '"Full si^eed ahead." But what lies ahead . . .?
CONSCRIPTION FOK YOU
Allready, just like Italy Roosevelt hiis come out for universal military con-
scription in peace time. This means, job or no job. you can be conscripted. If
you have no job, if you need W. P. A. or C. C. C. or relief, the war boys have
another trick. Ali-eady in New Jerse.v men have been thrown oft" relief and told
to join the army. And for what? To "make the world safe for democracy"
again. But there is no difference between the capitalist bandits in London
and Paris who built up Hitler, and Hitler Himself. Both sides are responsible
for this war. Both sides smash lives for empire, for mai-kets, for oil, metal,
and rubber.
PROFITS FOR WALL STREET
Italy enters war — Stock prices boom, profits soar. The fat boys on Wall
Street are out for the same things as the English French and German war-
makers. Morgans boys, Stettinius and Knud.sen., are on F. D. II. 's "Defence"
Board. Morgans U. S. Steel buys $200,000,000 Avorth of government guns for
$50,000,000— then resells them to the Allies at a Juicy profit. . . . What price
glory? But we, the youth of Washington Heights, don't have any war profits to
protect. We don't even have jobs. We must speak now for peace or forever
hold a gun. Flood Congress and the President with letters and telegrams
demanding that the America keep out : NO LOANS. NO CREDITS, NO MUNI-
TIONS TO THE BELLIGERENTS! JOIN THE YOUNG COMMUNIST
LEAGUE to guarantee that —
THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING !
Fort George Club, YCL, 521 West 179 St. Patrick Henry Club, YCL,
2032 Amsterdam Ave. (meets this Friday — P. M.)
Exhibit No. 186
[Source: An orisriual leaflet in the files of tin- Special Committee on Un-American A<'tivi-
ties, 1940]
Britain Strangles Freedom
While His Majesty's government says it is waging war for Democracy and
the "Independence" of Small Nations, British Imperialism strangles the fight
for Freedom and National Liberty in Ireland and India !
Two more workers have added their names to the long list of martyrs in the
fight for a Free Ireland !
British Imperialism stops at no length to keep the Irish people — and all the
people of the "British Empire" — chained and en.slaved. They hypocritically
speak of "freedom" — yet they refuse to grant liberty and independence to the
people of Ireland and India I
The fight for Independence of the Irish people is the concern of all the jieople
who cherish freedom and democracy. It is also bound with our struggle as
Americans to Keep our Country Out of the Imperialist War ! Strike a blow at
British Imperialism by refusing to have our country come to the support of the
Chamberlain government.
352 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
FOR A FREiE IRISH KEPUBLIC. — THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING ! — THERE IS KO FUTURES
IN FLANDEES FIELD !
Mass Meeting For Irish Freedom. Hear E. G. FLYNN, PAT TOOHEY. and
other speakers. Songs and Ballads of Ireland. This Friday Nite at P. S. 43,
l36rh St. and Brown Place. AdiuLssion Free. Ausp. Helen Lynch Club, Young
Communist League, 694 E. 141st St.
I would like to have more information about the Y. C. L. My name is
My address is
Read the Daily & Sunday Worker
Exhibit No. 187
[Source: An origiual leaflet In the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Unite Against Warmakers — Keep America Oit oi War!
APRIL t), I'.UT
Cannon thundered across Europe. Jnlinny gor his gun "to niako llie world
safe for democracy." What of democracy today? Clianihcrlain in England,
Daladicr in France, Hitler in Germany, throw the crushing weight of the war
machine against the trade unions and again.st all organizations that fight for
progress and for freedom. They attack rivil liberties, ihey wipe out (ienKH-ratic
riglits, imprison tho.se who are for peace, unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism,
gag the press. And in the United States, there is F'ranklin 1). Roosevelt's war
and hunger budget.
In 1917 we were told that it w;is a war for the rights of small nations, for
the self-determination of peoi)les. Then whar of India today whose workiTs
and pea.sants are bombed by British planes when they ask independence'.' What
of the Philippines and Puerto Ric(t".' What of the masses of Africa sweated by
British, French, Belgian, Dutch masters".' What of Chamberlain's betrayal of
the .Jews and Aiabs in Palestine? What of the Negro iK'ople in our own country
to whom the promises made in 1917. promises of suffrage, education. ;iii end to
Jini-Crowii^m and lynching, remain projni.scs?
Who today do«'s not know that 1914 was an iniiK'rialist war. a war to n>divide
the earth among the great powers, a war bred by capitalism?
Who today doe>i not knctw that America entered the war in 1917 to protect
Wall Streefs loans to the Allies? To serve the Americ.in capitalists to whom
every ci»rp.se on the battlefield meant added dollars of profits?
APKlr. <■>. I'MO
Again cannon thunder across Europe.
The Roo.sevelt government has taken long .strides towards war. Roosevelt is
not neutral. The resonrces of America ar(> again at the disposal of British-
French imperialism. The newspa])ers of America serve then). The radio of
America broadcasts for them. Sumner Welles goes to Eiu'ope, as did Colonel
House, to hasten Anu'rica's getting fully into the blood-bath.
They try to tell us that this is a war again.st fascism l)ecause they know we
hate fascism. But who assisted, financed. re;;red German fascism? Was it not
Chamberlain and Daladicr, with their policies of appeasement? Did they not
betra.v Spain and Czechoslovakia? Are the.v not ready to sacrifice every small
nation in their own imperialist interests? Are they not looking for new battle-
fields in the Balkans Jind in the Near East? Did they not nurse German fascism
in the hope that it would turn against the Soviet Union?
The Roosevelt government is playing a leading role in the war plot.s against
the Soviet Union. A "holy war," a crusade, against the U. S. S. R.. the workers'
country.
But why should American working people fight against the Soviet Union?
Because Soviet workers own their factories, tlu'ir mines, their i)Ower-plants?
Because Soviet farmers own their land? Because the Soviet Union has abolished
unemployment? Because Soviet children and youth receive free schooling, its
old people pensious? Because it is the sole country with universal suffrage?
Because in the former Czarist land of pogroms, of Jewish ghettoes, of national
ATl'ENDIX, PART 1 863
antagonisms, all men are free and equal? Are these reasons why we should fight
the Soviet Union?
LEST WE FORGET
Roosevelt's War and Hunger Program Means S-uffering and Death for the
people.
The 200 days in whicli we fought in the last war cost us 350,000 casualties and
200 billion dollars. Think of the food, the clothing, the housing, the education,
the medical care that this money could have brought to Americans !
Already we are paying the costs of the present war. The Roosevelt budget
cuts WPA. public works, youth aid, and help to the farmers, by $1,252,000,000.
It is an •'economy" budget. But the knife that cuts the budget, cut only one way.
The appropriation for the army, the navy, and the anti-labor activities of the
F. B. I., totals over two billion dollars.
It is a budget of hunger and war. Butter is transformed inlto cannon,
housing into battleships, medical services into bombs. All the rights for
which we have fought for so many generations, are in danger. The govern-
ment's M-Day plan for mobilization of labor, endangers the very life of the
trade unions. Anti-trust laws designed to curb the monopolist bosses are being
used by Roosevelt's Department of Justice to attack the unions. The Wagner
Labor Rehiticms Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act are under fire of the
reactionary 'national unity" majority in Congress. Over eighty anti-alien bills
aimed at the foreign-born and at dividing and weakening the unions, are pending
in Congress. The anti-lynching bill is being knifed in a Congressional committet.
Mayor LaGuardia has launched an open-shop, union-smashing campaign againsc
labor and labor's rights in New York City. The Roosevelt war and hunger
program has the active support of such Inbor officials and Social-Democratic
leaders as Green, Tol)in. Hilhnan. Dubinsky and Thomas.
Tfiday, Communists are under fire because they have been the most vigorous
in opposing war. But the attempt to suppress civil liberties, which always begins
with Communists, ends by involving all who work for a living, all who warn
peace and liberty.
Today, Communists are under fire because they have been the most vigorous
in opposing war. But the attempt to suppress civil liberties, which always
begins with Ccmimunists, ends by involving all who work for a living, all who
want peace and liberty.
THE YANKS AKE NOT COMING
We Americans have our own war, a war right here at home. It is a war on
unemployment, on sickness, on poverty, on lynching. A war to maintain and
extend our democratic liberties. Tliat war must be pressed forward. Ameri-
cans want no part of the European war. Organized labor — the C. I. O. and the
members of the A. F. of L. — the unemployed, the youth, the mass of the farmers,
as well as the common people generally have announced to the world that the
Yanks are not coming. They are opposed to the war and hunger program of
RcKisevelt and are organizing for peace, security and freedom for America.
Roosevelt's new course — unity with the Economic Royalists of Wall Street
for war and hunger — has made it necessary for the workers, toiling farmers and
exploited city middle classes to seek a new way out, through independent po-
litical action. Instead of a third term for Roosevelt, the masses are uniting in
the movement for a tliird party — a united people's front against the imperialist
war, reaction and exploitation by the bosses.
The people have already dealt the war-makers heavy blows. The stockbrokers
and munition makers tried to start a world war in Finland. They failed.
Tliey wanted Sweden and Norway as a battlefield for the Allied armies. They
failed.
A VICTOR FOB PEACE
The Soviet Union has always wanted peace. That was the reason for the Non-
Aggression Pact with Germany. That was why the Red Army liberated the
White Russians and Ukrainians in Poland. That explains the peace pacts with
the small Baltic countries and the return of Vilna to Lithuania. In the Finnish
as in all other international situations, the Soviet Union has been guided by the
jolicy enunciated by Joseph Stalin when he declared :
"We stand for peaceful, close and friendly relations with all the neighboring
countries which have common frontiers with the U. S. S. R. That is our posi-
gg4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
tion ; and we shall adhere to this position as long as these countries maintain
like relations wifh tlie Soviet Union, and as Ions fis thoy make no attempt to
trespass, directly or indirectly on the integrity and inviolability of the frontiers
of the Soviet State. . . .
"We are not afraid of the threats of aggressors and are ready to deal two
blows for every blow delivered by instigators of war who attempt to violate
the Soviet border."
The Soviet-Finnish peace was a victory for the anti-war forces throughout
the world. This mighty blow against the war-makers was made possible not
only by the peace policy of the Soviet Union and its incomparable Rod Army,
but by the peace forces throughout the world. By the refusal of the Scandi-
navian peoples to be made the pawns of British, French and American im-
perialism. By the fight of the British and French masses against the iKilicies
of their own war-making governments. And, not least of all, by the struggle
of American labor and the people against being tra])ped into support, with loans
and intervention, of the "Belgium of 1940."
On April 6, 1940, American labor and the people have greater possibilities of
victory over the war plans of Washington and Wall Street because the Ameri-
can masses have already struck telling blows against the war-makers. The
mighty tide of opposition to America's being dragged into the rubber war of
Kiuope needs only to be united into a single, organized movement of labor and
the lieople against the warmongers and their war and hunger program.
Forge the unity of labor and the people against the unity of the war makers I
Keep America out of war !
Defeat the war and hunger budget; defend the living standards of the people?
Defend civil rights !
Stop the persecution of the Communist Party !
Put an end to the anti-Soviet policies of the Roosevelt administration!
Support the peace policy of the Soviet Union !
N. Y. State Committee — Communist Party. N. Y. State Committee — Young.
Communist League. 35 East 12th Street, New York, N. Y.
Read the Daily Worker — Join the Communist Party
Exhibit No. 188
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties. 1940]
Abe You Old Enough to Die? — Do You Come Within the Consckiption Age
Limits?
W^ith all sorts of dressings and camouflage, Mr. Roosevelt has brought in a
plan for compulsory military training and forced labor. Nothing suits a military
l)lan like camouflage. So Mr. Roosevelt calls his scheme "Government service."
But it's still compulsory training and cheap labor. And it still has a stamp on it —
IMade in Germany. The whole set-up sounds just like Hitler's labor camps and
regimentation of youth.
WHY DOES ROOSEVELT IAIITATE HITXEE?
What is the real purpose of this fascist-like system? There must be some
hidden meaning, or else the U. S. war-mongers would not be copying every detail
of fascism. Just compare Germany and the announced plans of Roosevelt and
party.
HITLER FASCISM THE ROOSEVELT ADMINISTRATION
1. Regimentation of youth ; forced labor. 1. Con.scription plan — forced labor for
1'. Abolition of free education and civil youth at military pay.
liberties. 2. Cut educational funds — G million
3. Destruction of rights and living from D. C. Budget. Increased size,
standards of labor. power and ruthle.ssness of F. B. I.
3. Attempt to destroy unions through
use of anti-trust laws, emascula-
tion of N. L. R. A.
And that isn't all ! There are plans for concentration camps, persecution of
minorities like the foreign-born and Negroes, attacks on the Communist Party —
APPENDIX, PART 1 §65
that fights for peace. The Administration and its followers are ready to de-
stroy our freedom. WHY? For the same reason that Hitler built fascism in
Gennany — WAR ! Step by step Roosevelt is trying to drag this country and its
young people into a war in Europe, just as in 1917. And to be able to get away
with it he must silence and crush all opposition.
EOOSBVEXT ATTACKS YOUTTI !
Because the young people of America are opposed to his war efforts, our Presi-
dent saw fit to rebuke them for having no "idealism". So displeased was the
President that he introduced the conscription plan to discipline youth — to support
his program. In other words, if we disagree, we shall be put into uniforms and
labor camps to see to it that we come around.
But the President is in error. Youth has ideals — great American ideals of
freedom., security, and peace. The youth of our country have a sincere love for
democ'acy and will defend it from all enemies. That is why today they do not
throw '■hemselves behind Mr. Roosevelt. They do not trust him. What is
democratic about labor camps? What is peaceable about the destruction of our
neutrality? No, young people do not have Mr. Roosevelt's ideals, because a job
in America is better than a grave in Flanders Fields.
YOUTH ANSWEKS WITH ITS OWN TEOGRAM
The so-called advantages of the conscription plan sound very phony to us.
People say that military training and underpaid work will build health and
character, improve the soul. Real health comes from a decent job at decent
wages — not from drilling, not from working for a pittance. As for the character
building and soul-uplifting, regimentation did not produce such effects in Ger-
many and will not do it here. What this plan calls for is slave-like obedience —
and youth has a mind of its own.
The youth of America reject the war schemes of both parties of Wall St. — the
parties of Roosevelt and Hoover.
We want work, not war. A real program for job training is tbe American
Youth Act. And the health and character of young people will best be advanced
by this type of youth aid, by defense of labor and by maintenance of civil liber-
ties. The youth of America will fight for peace — jobs — and civil liberties !
THE TANKS ARE NOT COMING !
Issued by the Young Communist League, Washington, D. C. 527 9th Street, N. W.
Read the Review ! On newsstands at 1753 Penn. Ave., 2727 Georgia Ave.
Exhibit No. 189
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties. 1940]
SAVE AMERICA'S PEACE
AoT Now ! — Act Now ! — Keep the U. S. Out of War !
YOUNG workers, FARMEIRS, AND STUDENTS OF AMERICA !
Look at the inferno let loose in Europe by British, French, and German
imperialism !
The horror, mass murder and destruction of imperalist war sweeps through
Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Open cities are bombed ; the
countryside is ravaged. The most terrible kind of warfare known to history
rages on ; war that involves civilians as well as soldiers. Rivers of blood are
flowing !
Young people of America ! Our own peace and our own lives are in terrible
danger ! Despite our overwhelming demand to stay out, Roosevelt and Wall
Street are dragging this country into the slaughter at breakneck speed!
Peace hangs by a thread !
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 56
gQQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Roosevelt Administration has already destroyed the neutrality of the
United States. Let us recognize this bitter and dangerous truth : The Roosevelt
government is not neutral: it is an active non-belligerent on the side of the
Allies !
The speech of President Roosevelt to the Pan-American scientists and his
message to the King of Belgium were deliberately designed to provoke the hys-
teria needed by Wall Street to get the United States completely into the war on
the side of the Allies. Only a short while ago the American jicople demanded
that Ambassador "Doris Duke" Cromwell be removed from his post for making
a war-mongering speech supporting the Allies. Now President Roosevelt is
making the same kind of speeches himself! When President Roosevelt aids the
Allies and weeps crocodile tears over "little Belgimn" — remember, that's the
way it hapix?ned in 1917 ! President Wilson, too, aided the Allies and ;<hed false
tears over "little Belgium"! That's whj American youth rot in Flanders Field
today.
It must not happen again !
No one can look at this imperialist butchery without raising still higher the
mighty shout, the demand that America must keep out of the war! Keep out
of the imperialist war! That is the single, insistent and overwlielniing demand
of the American people! That is the cry that comes from the hearts of millions
of youth. Let us raise that cry so loudly that Roosevelt, leading the war drive
of Wall Street and its twin instruments, the Itepul)lican and Democratic Parties,
will be comiielled to listen, will be compelled to heed the voice of tlie people.
With horrible brutality the imperialist armies of Germany, I'ritain and
France turn one country after another into a l)attl('fie!d ; convert one people after
another into cannon fodder. The imperialist gangsters of Nazi Germany invaded
Norway, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The imperialist gangsters of
England and France followed them. The capitalist bandits who have their head-
quarters in London and Paris were getting ready to strike. The capitalist
bandits who have their headquarters in P.erliu struck first. That is the only
difference.
lioth sides are guilty! Both sides .smasli deiiiocracy at home! Both sides
destroy freedom of nations! Both sides liglit for empire, for markets, for raw
materials, for oil, metal and rubber. Both sides are offering up the lives of
youth as a bloody sacritice on the altar of protits. Neither side fights for right,
justice or freedom !
American youth can support neither side!
Every plane, every bomb shipi>ed to the Allies by Wall Street is already
helping to bring about military particip.ition in the war. But even this is not
fast enough for Wall Street. Now the Roosevelt Administration is driving full
speed ahead to grant loans and credits to the Allies in order to tie our youth
with chains of gold to the trenches of Europe.
Our lives are being gambled with because Roosevelt, with whose war policy
the Republican Party is in complete agreement, wants to make American im-
perialism supreme in the world. Yankee imiKTijilism is reaching out for control
of the Dutch East Indies with its vast deposits of oil. tin and rubber. It wants
to use the Army, Navy and Marines to make the Western Hemisphere safe for
W^all Street, for Standard Oil and its invistments in Mexico, for the sugar trust
and its investments in Cuba, for the rul)ber trust and its investments in Brazil.
Even now it is plotting together with Mexican traitors to overthrow the demo-
cratic government of Mexico a la Franco so that together they can rob the
Mexican people of their oil, their mineral wealth, and their right to rule
themselves.
That's why the administration is spending billions of dollars for battleships
and armaments. That's why the M-Day plan is ready. That's why the draft
blanks are already being printed. That's why plans are already completed for
sending a new American Expeditionai'y Force to Europe.
But the youth of America don't have foreign investments to protect. They
don't even have jobs. The youth of America want peace ! And louder than ever
they raise their voices in the mighty cry of the American people that THE
YANKS ARE NOT COMING !
We won't be fooled again !
What did the last imperialist war get usV For some, a cross over a gi-ave in
Flanders Field ! For others, life without an arm or a leg. Depression and unem-
ployment for the whole nation ! Lynchings for the Negro lad who came back
from the front ! There was nothing in that war, and there is nothing in this
APPENDIX, PART 1 867
^ne for tlie youth at the heiich, at the plow, or in the school. It is only the capital-
ists who are already rt';iping a golden harvest in war profits, who will gain.
The hnrden of ji staggering, unprecedented armaments program of two billion
dollars has already been unloaded im the backs of the people. Now, the Koosevelt
Administration which can't tind the 51)0 million dollars needed to finance the
American Youth Act for jobs and education is proposing that another 800 million
dollars be added to the war budget !
The youth of .\merica want .jobs not cannon !
The youth of America have a war of their own to fight right here. Our war
is at home against poverty, disease and unemployment. It is a war for jobs for
five million unemployed youth ; for the pass.-ige of the American Ycmth Act.
It is a war for higher wages and shorter hours. It is a war for defense of the
Bill of Rights, a war to bring democracy to all the peiiple. It is a war to abolish
lynching and the poll tax, to secure full rights for the Negro people.
Young workers, students, farmers! Negro and white 1 Rjiise your voices
against Americas involvement in the war. KEEP AMERICA OUT OF THE
WAR !
P>uild the unity of youth against the war! The youth of Germany, France
and England dont want the Yanks to come over.
Strengthen the bonds of cooperati(m with the progressive labor movement!
Unite with labor, the farmers and Negro people to build a third party, a party
of peace. Beware of the agents of Wall Street in the ranks of labor, the Norman
Thomases, and old (Juard Socialists, the Dubinskys, Hillmans and Wolls ! They
are the blood bmtht'rs of the European Social-Democrats, the British L;iborites
and French Socialists, who sit in the war cabinets of Europe directing the murder
(»f millions of youth. Here. too. they want to chain American labor and the
lieople to tlie war-chariot of Roosevelt and Wall Street.
Lo(;k at the Soviet I'liion, sons and daugliters of the American working people!
There is the only country in the whole world that is really neixtral. It is a
•Socialist country where working men and women govern and where they collec-
tively own and operate its land and factories for use and not for profit ! It is
a country that wants peace and is at peace. In this land of Socialism there are
no bankers, no industrialists, no landl'irds who profit from war or who need
colonies and foreign investments. It has no stake in the dog-eat-dog butchery
of the capitalist countries for world supremacy. That is why it can fight for peace.
Only Socialism can guarantee peace!
While the capitalist countries wage this war, while the United States pours
oil on the flames by providing munitions and money to keep it going, and works
feverishly to drag our youth into it, the Soviet Union offers to live at peace with
all countries ; it has thus far rebuffed all efforts to start a "holy cnxsade" of
the capitalist countries against it. It works for peace because its interests are
the same as the interests of the masses all over the world.
Youth of America ! The fight to keep America out of the imperialist war is
The fight for our very lives ! We must speak up ; we must act ! Flood Con-
gress and the President with letters and telegrams demanding that America
keep out ! Get your organizations to pass resolutions and to hi)ld protest meetings.
Let a storm of opposition develop and make itself felt until Wall Street and its
government is forced to halt its plans for mass murder of American youth !
No Loans, No Credits, No Munitions to the Imperialist Belligerents !
Jobs, Not Cannon ! Pass the American Youth Act !
Defend the Rights of the Negro I'eople ! Pass the Anti-Lvnching Bill ! Abol-
ish the Poll Tax!
Keep Yankee Imperialism Out of Latin America and the Far East!
.Support the Liberation Struggle of the Chinese People! Stop the arms ship-
ments to .Japan !
Support the peace policy of the Soviet Union !
For Friendship and Trade with the Soviet Union !
Young Men and Women ! You Who Are Opposed to the Imperialist War :
g(J8 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Join the Young Communist League!
Issued by : National Council, Young Communist League, U. S. A., 799
Broadway, NYC
N. Y. Statk Young Communist League
50 East 13th St., 5tL Floor
New York City
D I want to Join the Y. C. L.
□ I want more information about the Y. C. L.
Name
Axldresa
City
Exhibit No. 190
[Source: An original leaflet in the flics of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
23 Years Akteji — Will It II.m'Pen Ag.mn
koose\ei.t and wall stiteet are trying to drag american youth into the
slaughter for the capitalist's profits.
April 1917, 23 years ago America was thrown into (he First World War wliich
was sui)p<)sod t<» "save the world for democracy." Millions (if Youii^,' Americans
were killed and wounded jind died at home . . . all for llie purpose of stuliing the
fat BOYS MONEY BAGS!
ROOSEVELT APRS WILSON
Today Roo.^ovelt is rei>eating stop hy step, the war preparations of Woodruw
Wilson who was elected because he "kept us out of WAR. "
let's CXJMPARh: THE HKCX>RD
WILSON — 1017 EOOSEVELT — 1940
1. Wilson broke I'. S. Neutrality by No sooner did the Profiteers' War he-
selling War supplies to Europe. 7 tween England, France and (Jermany
BILLION dollars worth of exports begin that I'residetit Roosevelt liftefl
and loans was the "Democracy" that the end)argo (which crtished Demo-
America's Youth "saved" at the price eratic Spain) and startwl to sell
of their lives. Murder material to Euroi)e.
2. Millions for "National Defense" . . . rooskvf;lt iiuixjEr:
Not a cent to help a guy get a job. 6iK> Million more for Army and
3. Col. House, "The Angel of Peace" Navy.
was sent to stop the First World 1(H) Million more for Bankers' In-
War ... 6 months later we were terest.
in it. 5()0 Million less for W.P.A.
4. The Anti-Negro Film "THE BIRTH 15 Million Lf^ss for N.Y.A.
OF A NATION" was released in Sumner Welles, "Modern Angel of
order to split the unity of Negro and Peace" was sent to stop the present
White against the blood bath. liuperialist War. G months later . . .
? ? V
The Anti-Negro Film "GONE WITH
THE WIND" intends to play (he same
role.
the YANKS are NOT COMING ! !
Peace Rally. Friday. Mar. 29th. 8 : 30 P. M. Speaker Al Steele, Adra. Secy..
Y. C. L. Sing Trio Lillian Zahn Internationally Known Singer, Crystal
Palace, 1373 43rd Street
APPENDIX, PART 1 ggQ
Peace Demonstration, Saturday. April 6tli, at 2 P. M. Madison Square Parli,
23rd St. & 5th Ave.
OUB OWN WAR
But Young America is waging its own war : It is a war against UNEMPLOY-
MENT and SICKNESS, against low wages and long hours, against closing the
schools and recreation centers, against closed opportunities to learn a trade,
against anti-Semitism and Negro discrimination.
UNITED ACTION
Organized Labor through the C. I. O. and members of the A. F. L. and Organized
Youth — Through the American Y'outh Congress are leading the battle against
Roosevelt's War and Hunger budget. For PEACE, JOBS and CIVIL LIBER-
TIES !
J^very Young American has gained by the Peace Policy of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet-Finni?!h Peace Pact has stopped Roosevelt from using Finland as an
excuse to get America into the war. Only in a country where Socialism exists
will unemployment and profiteers' wars be ended forever. The Young Communist
League stands for a Socialist America and its members are in the forefront for
the improvement of youth conditions.
JOIN THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE
Jobs not guns — Pass the American Youth Act — Keep Democracy alive — Pass the
Anti-Lynching bill — Unite the Boro Park Youth Clubs to keep America out of
war — The Yanks are not coming.
Auspices of The Boro Park and Abraham Lincoln Branches of the Young
Communist League, 1213 50th Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.
Please send me more information about the Y. C. L.n I would like to join
the Y. C. L D
Name Address
Exhibit No. 191
[Source: Au original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1040]
The Yanks Are NOT Coming !
The British and French governments are at war with the German government.
They say they are fighting 'Tlitlerism," for "the rights of small nations," etc.
Ir's a lie. This war is the same kind of war as the last one. (They were sup-
ix)sed to be "making the M'orld safe for democracy" then — remember?)
This war is an imperialist war. Both sides are fighting for profits, colonies,
raw materials, "spheres of infiuence," the mastery of Europe. The common
people on both sides are the sufferers. They will have to fight, die, starve. It's
not their war.
And it's not our war ! But there are people in this country who want to get
us in. The Wall Street money-men, the high-salaried columnists, the big rich
newspaper and radio chains, industrialists and bankers who see a chance for fat
profits^ — all of them are trying to get us into this war. First they are cunningly
trying rouse sentiment in support of the war. Then they will gradually try
ro get us in — to have American boys cross the Atlantic to fight for the British
Empire.
But the Yanks aren't coming! Not this time. The American people are
against this imperialist war. Talk to people on the street, in their homes,
in public places. Read the resolutions passed by trade unions and other organiza-
tions. See the results of national polls. They all prove that America doesn't
want this war.
What can we do about it? That's the big question mark.
We Communists are solidly against this imperialist war, and we are doing
everything we can to prevent this country from being sucked into it by the
war-mongers. We have some ideas about how to help give organized expression
to American anti-war feeling.
Here are some examples of what has been done in other places. Why not
try them right here in Indiana 1
870 UN-AMERICAN PROPAUANDA ACTIVITIES
1) In Californin : trade unions aro gottinp; together around tlie slogan THE
YANKS ARE NOT COMING! It's elTective. The idea is expressed in the
following i-esolution being i)assed by West Coast organizations :
"Whereas, no matter what neutrality legislation Congress may or may not
enaet there is no possible means of preventing American linant-icrs and indus-
trialists from making loans or extending credit in devious ways if they see the
hope of a profit, and
Whereas, American financiers and industrialists are now breaking their
necks to make as much money as possible out of the war. and
Whereas, most of them are doing so in the belief that if these loans or credits
are endangered, they will be protected by Americans troops, and
Whereas, it is only fair that they be informed of the truth, now therefore be it
Resolved, that we serve due notice that in our considered opinion every dollar
invested on either side of that imperialistic and liighly dirty war is thrown out
the window, ami b(> it further
Resolved, that we make it plain that we are heart and soul for the suffering
people on both sides, but have no use whatever for the conniving higher-ups on
either side of this imperialist war and sincerely hope the various peoples give
them a good dressing down before the tiling is over, and be it finally
Resolved that we serve expli<-it noIi<-e on Wall Street that the American
{M'ople will not underwrite llu'ir bians or credits or foreiirn interests with its
blood and that THE YANKS ARE POSITIVELY NOT COMING.
Copies to : The I'resident and members of Congress : The United States Chamber
of Commerce, ICl." H Street. N. W. Wasliington, I). C. ; The National Association
of Manufacturers. 14 W. 49th Street. New York City; The New York Stock
Exchange, New Y'ork. N. Y'.
How about introducing a similar rcsolutinn into your organi/.alionV Tell
your friends about it, too.
2) Defend civil lilierties. First step in the campaign to get us into the war
is an attempt to shut otV the right to sjieak fre(-ly. This attack against civil
and democratic rights is being led by the Dies Committee. The Dies Ccmimittee
is out to destroy all progressive organizations, and first of all thi' Comnuuiist
Party. WhyV Because they know the Connnunists are the strongest fighters
against imperialist war. That's why they have indicted our General Secretary.
Earl Rrowder, on a flimsy charge. You can bring this to the attention of your
organization. Resentment against the Dies Connnittee's dirty work has i)een
expressed by auto workers, packing house workers, etc. Why not by your
union V Resolutions should be sent to the Pre.sident and the Attorney General,
demanding that no more appropiiations be given for the continuiition of this
fascist committee. Remember: the Dies program is first to knife the Com-
miniists. then the unions and progri'ssiv fsicj
3) Fight the increa.se in cost of living. Rally the people to defend their
living standards. The big monopolies have already raised prices, trying to
make money out of the war even before dragging us into it.
4) Remember that the Soviet Union, with 1S"»,000.(M)0 people, is anti-war.
Join the defense of the i>eace policy of the only socialist countiy in the world,
the Soviet Union.
5) Keep up with what's happening. Check the war propaganda of the Wall
Street press and radio by reading the Communist press. Here's the list of
papers, pamphlets and magazines you can easily get:
The Communist, New Masses, Daily Workei-. Weekly Record.
Whose War Is If/— Browder ; Behind the Headlines— Fields ; The War and
the Working Class — DimitrofE: Report to the Supreme Soviet — Molotoff.
We suggest that you carry some pamphlets around on you. Give one to
people who discuss the war with you. Let them make up their own minds by
considering the argnmems. That's the reasonable way. It's the American way.
And keep this bulletin handy. It's a memo to help you in your work, keeping
the U. S. A. out of this imperialist war.
Exhibit No. 192
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of tlie Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
MUTUAL ASSISTANCE PACTS
The Soviet Union sought to protect itself and the freedom and indeix^idence of
Finland through a mutual assistance pact similar to the ones signed with Latvia,
APPENDIX, PAPvT 1 gJl
Lithuania and Esthonia. The Soviet Union returned Yilna to Lithuania. Is this
aggression? Tlie Soviet Union gave tliese Baltic countries the use of the Soviet
P>altic-White Sea Canal. Is this aggression? The Soviet LTnion arranged trade
agreements favorable to these countries. Is this aggression?
Tlie Soviet Union wished to secure certain islands and territory near Leningrad
for its protection, for which it offered twice as much territory in Soviet Karelia as
compensation.
The Socialist USSR wanted only to assure its own safety. Behind its pi'oposals
w^as no Wall Street, no Big Business control and exploitation of smaller nations.
The governments of Esthonia, Lithuania and Latvia and their consuls have pub-
licly expressed their satisfaction at the friendly relations between their countries
and the USSR. As a i-esult of these pacts, Mr. Johannes Kaiv, Esthonian Consul in
America, declared: "The pact of mutual assistance does not affect the political
status of Estonia. The fears about any change in the governmental or economic
systems are groundless."
The White Guard IVIannerheim government broke off negotiations with the Soviet
Union because behind "iittle Finland" is the Big Boss — the British War Office.
YOUNG PEOPLE MUST REMEMBER THE LIES OF THE LAST WORLD WAR
In the last World War, millions of Americans were fed the wildest propaganda
in order to get America into it. Let us not be fooled again. Learn the truth
about the British-Wall Street plot centered around "little Finland." The plan to
use Finland as an excuse to drag the whole world, including the U. S. A., into a
war against the Soviet Union is admitted even in the lying capitalist press.
Pope Pius informed the United Press in Vatican City that "the British proposal
called for the formation of a bloc of powers, such as the British Empire, France,
Spain, the U. S. A., and other nations wishing to halt Communism. The British
leaders wanted the I'ope to give his blessing to the movement and exhort Catholics
to participate in it." (U. P. dispatch from Vatican City.)
The British Government weeps crocodile tears over alleged Soviet bombings
(which did not take place) while plotting with General Franco against the Soviet
Union. General Franco is the fascist who bombed women and children in Madiid
for 2Vj years. General Franco, who with the aid of Nazi pilots and Mussolini's
planes bombed the holy city of Guernica off the earth, is the new British hero to
defend democracy and the "independence" of small nations.
The cry of "poor little honest Finland," the lies of Soviet bombings are being
spread now in order to get us into the imperialist war — to make us join a horrible
anti-Soviet world war.
THE HERALD-TRIBUNE AND "DEMOCRACY"
Mr. Walter Lippmann, writing in the Hcrald-Tribtine, suggests fascist Italy as
our partner in a war for "democracy." He says : "In order to give Finland active
diplomatic support, we should consult with Italy and find out whether it is possible
fo7' Italy and the U. S. to tcork together in support of the northern countries
against Bolshevism." Fascist Italy, which bombed and nvurdered women and
children in Ethiopia, Spain and Albania, has now become a champion of democracy
and freedom ! Walter* Lippman speaks for the British War Office and for Wail
Street.
Today as in 1919 America is urged to intervene against the Soviet Union. In
the files of the State Department in Washington is the record of American sup-
plies, credit and weapons sent to Czarist generals operating from Finland against
the Russian people and their newly chosen Socialist government.
BEWARE, AMERICA'S YOUTH — LET US KEEP OUT OF IT !
The old lies about this war being a war against "Hitlerism" did not take with
America. A new lie has been manufactured. The Finnish situation is cleverly
played up as the "moral issue of the war." It is meant to whip the peoples of
Europe and America into a war spirit. The real truth behind the news about
Finland was stated 20 years ago by British imperialism as follows: "The best
approach to Petrograd is from' the Baltic and the shortest and easiest route is
through Finland . . . Finland is the key to Petrograd and Petrograd is the key
to Moscow." (London Times. April. 1919.)— AMERICANS MUST NOT DIE FOR
BRITISH IMPERIALISM AND ITS WALL STREET PARTNERS. DON'T BE
FOOLED BY THE NEW WAR LIES. AMERICA MUST KEEP OUT OF IT
g72 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Yanks are not coming ! Our answer must be : Not a man, not a cent, not a
gun for imperialist war !
New Yokk Young Communist Le.\gue.
822 Broadway, New York, N. Y.
For the truth about the war read The Daily Worker and The Sunday Worker.
Exhibit No. 193
I Source : An original leaflet in the flies of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
Irish Patriots Hung— Chamberlain is the Hangman
More Irish blood has been shed. British imperialism has hung two Irish
patriots, Peter Barnes and Jame Richards.
Two more martyrs for Irish freedom have been added to the toll by bloody
British imperialism. All true Americans honor their names and memories, just
as they honor the martyrs for American independence.
The'vilo, hypocriticalChamberlain professes to be making war for "democracy
and self-determination of small nations". It was the vile Chamberlain that
betrayed these smaller nations to Hitler and Mussolini.
The same Chamberlain refused to show mercy to these two Irish patriots.
Chamberlain refused to spare them their lives. Chamberlain refuses freedom
to Ireland. Chamberlain refuses to grant any rights to the 350,000,000 Indian
I)eople.
Communists do not approve of any acts of terrorism or violence that have
been committed. But the real crime, for which British imperialism ruthlessly
exacts these Irish lives, is the crime of demanding Irish independence and of.
refusing to fight in Chamberlain's war for plunder.
Irish-Americans can now clearly see the kind of "civilization" which this
country is supporting, when it aids British imperialism in the war. And when
it rushes loans and "relief" to the imperialist puppet, the butcher Mannerheim
of Finland.
The whole American i)eople have one asnwer for Chamberlain and the Ameri-
can war mongers — The Yanks are not coming.
Keep America out of the imperialist war by opposing the Roosevelt War
Budget.
No loans or "relief" for the imperialist butclier, Mannerheim of Finland.
Feed America first, jobs and security, not war, for the American people.
All support for a free and United Ireland.
Phone your protest of the execution of Barnes and Richards to the British
Consul— Tel. Liberty 2810.
Issued by : Communist Party of ]Mass., 15 Essex St., Boston
Exhibit No. 19-1
[Source: An original leaflet in the files of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1910]
*******
Peace in Finland !
Peace in the Baltics is Assured ! The Finnish-Soviet Armistice, which began
at 12 noon Wednesday (Moscow time), means peace for all the Baltic states
and the Scandinavian countries.
Payment by Russia for leasing the Port of Haugo and the exchange of
land on both sides give the laugh to the fable that this is "Red Imperialism".
The gains made by the Soviet Union not only secure the protection of Lenin-
grad and the Gulf of Finland but open the way for genuinely peaceful trade
relations between the two countries. Among the Finnish people, in progressive
and trade union circles, the peace will be considered a great victory. It will
APPENDIX, PART 1 g73
discredit tfie Mannerlieim-Ryti crowd that insanely plunged Finland into war
under prompting of foreign imperialist powers.
In one stroke is swept away the whole tissue of lies constructed in the press.
The reports in the American press on the whole Finnish campaign now become
the comic section of history.
The Peace Means :
1. Chamberlain's and Daladier's attempts to spread the war to the Baltics
has been spiked.
2. Sweden and Norway have been saved from becoming battlefields against
their will.
3. Once again, the Soviet Union has been able to restrict and isolate the
Euroi)ean war.
4. The myth that England and France are fighting for the independence of
small nations vanishes as it becomes clearer and clearer that they are using
these peoples only as pawns lor their imperialist aims.
5. The efforts of British, French and American financial interests to prevent
peace show who the real Avar-mongers.
6. It becomes as clear as the noonday sun that the spread of war can be
stopped.
Wall Street's work to prolong the fighting in Finland and to keep the European
War going is a threat to American peace.
We Can Keep Out of It! The answer of Labor and peace-loving Americans
to the Wall Street-White House war plans is a thunderous — The Yanks Are
Not Coming This Time.
Issued by the Communist Party of Rhode Island, 767 Westminster St.,
Providence, March 13, 1940.
Exhibit No. 195
[Source: An original leaflet in the flies of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, 1940]
« « 4: :): « * 4:
Rally foe Civil Liberties and Against America's Involvement in the
Imperialist War
Attend Lenin Memorial Mass Meejting
Thursday Evening February 8th. 1940 at 8 : 15 P. M., at 408 Court Street,
Elizabeth, New Jersey. Admission 25 Cents.
Speaker : Martha Stone well known women labor leader
Also : "The Great Citizen" outstanding soviet film
The Roosevelt administration joined by "apple-Herbie" Hoover is working
hard to drag America into the Imperialist war. Like in 1917 when 50
thousand American boys gave their lives in a war that made the millionaires
billionaires, today the Roosevelt government is trying to get us into the present
squabble started by Chamberlain. Deladier and Hitler for a new division of
the world's markets. Today Finland like Belgium in the last war has been
made the issue around which to draw the U. S. into war, with its main
object being the destruction of the Soviet Union.
TODAY HOOVER AND THE BANKERS WANT YOUR PENNIES — TOMORBOW THEY'LL
WANT YOU
Hoover and the bankers are organizing committees to aid the Mannerheim
White Guard army in Finland. This they say is to help "Democracy". But
if these people are such lovers of Democracy, let them explain where they
were when Democratic Spain was being crushed by the joint forces of Ger-
many and Italy, and choked by the non-intervention of Chamberlain plus
America's own embargo. What help did these people give Ethiopia, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Albania? What are they doing to help democracv in China?
NOTHING !
g74 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Or is the reason for the sudden "democratic" gusto of these hankers and
"open-shoppers'' towards FinUmd to be found in tlie fact that they see in the
Mannerlieim-banker's government a clique to tlieir own liliing, one that has
allowed these international bankers to re:\p huge profits from their nickel
and mining investments in Finland, as well as to have a good base to carry
on their anti-Soviet Union intrigues and plottings.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME
Today 13 million people are still out of work in America. Decent housing,
adequate relief jobs, better working conditions and higlier wages, are still
l)ressing needs to America's imderprivlieged, where "one-third are ill-housed.
ill-clothed and ill-fed." Yet Pres. Roosevelt proposes in his recent budget
message to Congress drastic cuts for all social needs except military.
This is what Roosevelt's War and Hunger Budget Means.
MORE— Army and Navy— $574,000,00( » more; interest to bankers ,$100,000,000
more.
LESS— WPA. PWA etc. ,$800,000,000 less; NYA, CCC Camps, etc. $75,000,000
less; Farm aid $400,000,000 less.
Today more than ever unity of the American working class is needed to
protect the civil liberties and social need;^ of the iM'ople. The voice of the
American masses nuist be heard around such vital issues as I'EAC'E, .lOBS
AND CIVIL LIP.ERTIES.
Join with us in saying, "THE YANKS ARE NOT COMING."
Issued by: Communist Party. Union County, 1-17 '/j First Street,
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Exhibit No. 196
[Source: Excerpt from a prepared speech hy Thonins Patrick O'Doa, identified liy witness
before Special Committee on L'n-American Activities. Ai)ril 3, 1940, page 7.")02]
* * ^ If * * *
Our League has been working in groups for a period of several mmiths.
and during this time has participated in several cami)aigns, both Party and
mass campaigns, has distributed a great amount of literature, and has at least
raised the (piestion of our comrades going into mass organizations. Today,
let us take stock and evaluate.
Let us examine the work of our groups to see just where their strength and
weakness lie.
In our campaigns on the campus, in the campaign for the Washington Pil-
grimage, in the campaigns of the Party for the Browder and Foster meetings,
what part did our groups playV An evahiation of this kind is particularly
important at this time because we want to prepare now for several cami)aigns
much greater than any we have participated in thus far. Following the
Washington Institute we must be prepared, together with the whole youth
movement in the State, to launcli a campaign around th(> .slogan, "Tb(> Yanks
Are Not Coming." to culminate in some demonstrative action on April G, the
day that has been set aside by the N. M. U. as "The Yanks Are Not Coming"
Day. This year the spring peace demonstrations must not be limited to the
campus, but must become the property of the entire youth movement. At the
same time we must be prepared to participate in the campaign to popularize
the American Youth Act. These two must become real nniss campaigns, em-
bracing large numbers of young people.
The Y. C. L. must be ready to play an honorable part in the Party election
campaign which will begin immediately, and we should be able to sell 1000
tickets for the meeting in the Boston Arena which will be held at the end of
March or the begiiniing of April. We must make this meeting with Comrade
Browder a demonstration of the strength of our movement and of the demand
of the people to keep out of war.
Exhibit No. 197
[Source: Excerpts from The War rri.';is — Questions and Answers, by William Z. Foster,
published by Workers Library Publishers, January, 1040. Pages 5, 10, 47-48, 51]
APPENDIX, PART 1 §75
Q. Wiiich are the aggressor states in the present war between the Allies and
Germany?
A. In its recent statement the Comnninist International correctly puts the
war responsibility upon the imr.erialists in both camps. It says:
"The ruling circles of Britain, France and Germany are waging war for
world supremacy. This war is the continuation of many years of imperialist
strife in the camp of capitalism. . . . The blame for this war falls on all the
ruling classes of the belligerent states." ("Peace to the People," The Com-
nuuiist, p. 1092, Nov. 1!)39.) [page 5]
Now, however, Avith the beginning of rhe war between the Allies and Germany,
the fonner distinction between the "democracies" and the fascist countries has
lost its significance. The imperialist war, the product of capitalist reaction, has
become the organizer of every form of reaction, [page 10]
Q. How do you explain the rapidly growing tension between the United States
government and the Soviet Union, despite the fact that there is no rivalry for
markets or territory between them?
A. The United States is the central fortress of world capitalism and its ruling
circles have from the beginning watched with undisguised enmity the growth of
rhe young socialist giant, the U. S. S. R. In this hostile spirit the U. S. govern-
ment sent its troops, along with England, France, Japan, etc., to participate in
their counter-revolutionary efforts to destroy the Soviet Government by military
action in 1919 : it also gave moral and financial support to various White-Guard
movements in the Civil War of 1918-22.
Furthermore, for years it tried to strangle the U. S. S. R. by economic boy-
cott, and it was the last of the great powers to grant diplomatic recognition to
the Soviet Goverrunent.
For a time, imder the Roosevelt Administration, this deeply hostile attitude of
rhe U. S. Government toward the U. S. S. R. relaxed somewhat. Roosevelt,
then following a policy partially in opposition to the great banliing and indus-
trial interests, recognized the Soviet Govrnment in 1933.
But now Roosevelt has patched up his differences with the great capitalist
interests and therefore has lapsed back into the anti-Soviet attitude characteristic
of the Hoover-Coolidge days. He and the State Department are allowing no
occasion to pass unutilized (City of Flint case, Finland, etc.) in order to create
Tension between the U. S. A. and U. S. S. R. What the great exploiters of the
\vorld are striving for above everything else is a united war of all the big
capitalist powers against the Soviet Union, and the United States Government,
in coUaboi'ation with Great Britain and France, is becoming increasingly active
in developing this anti-Soviet campaign, [pages 47, 48]
****** Sj!
Q. What did the U. S. S. R. accomplish by the Soviet-German Non-Aggression
Pact?
A. Speaking to the Supreme Soviet of the U. S. S. R., when the pact with
Germany was up for adoption, I'remier Molotov stated its general purposes as
follows :
"This pact not only eliminates the menace of war with Germany, narrow*
down the zone of possible hostilities in Europe and serves thereby' the cause
of universal peace; it must open to us new possibilities for increasing our
strength, of further consolidation of our positions, for further growth of the
influence of Soviet Union on international developments." (The Meaning of
the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, p. 15.) [page 51]
Exhibit No. 198
L Source: Stenof^raphic reports of speeches by Stalin, Kuusmen, and Molotov. on "The
American Question," submitted in evidence by Jay Lovcstone before the Special Commit-
tee on Un-American Activltie.'-;, December 2, 19;!9, pages 7111-713;!]
* ******
Mr. IMatthews. Mr. Lovestone, I would like to have you identify this set
of documents, if you will, please.
Mr. LoA-ESTONE. That is a stenographic report of the speech of Stalin in the
American commission.
876 UX-AMERICAN PROrAG.YNDA ACTIVITIES
Mr. Matthkws. Mr. Chairman, there are several speeches here. I will ask
the witness to identify them more speoitic-ally and explicitly:
Stalin on 'The American Question." May 14. lOliO.
Stalin on "The American Question," again. May 14. a second speech on that
day.
Stalin on "The American Question." May 6. 1^2f>.
And then a .speech by Comrade Kuusinen. at the sitting of the American con-
vention on May 12, 1929.
Will you please see if tJiat is the way in which yuu identify these documents.
Mr. Lovestone?
Mr. LoxT.STONK. Yes, sir.
Mr. Matthews. Mr. Chairman, in view of thf imiKirtance of these. I think
we might correctly say the historical imiwrtance of these siieeches of Stalin and
Kmisinen, I should like to a.sk that they be incorporated in full in the record.
Mr. St.vknes. Yes.
Mr. ^Iatthkws. I think it is correct to say that these speeches, at least in
their full form, have never before appeared in print and they are now not
accessible to stlidents of the history of the Comintern.
Mr. IxnK.sTONK. I don't think anybody else has got them. I would like to
have them myself.
Mr. Matthews. I think, Mr. Chairman, wholly apart from Mr. Lovestono's
desire to have them, that they are a matter of historical importance to all
students of the question of the development of the Comintern.
Mr. Starnes. Without objection they will be incorporated in full in the record
(The documents in question are as follows:)
First Speech at the PREsiDHNf
Only for the Minutes
Session of the Presidium ok May 14. 1929
AMERICAN question
Stalin : Comrades, we are now confronted with a luiitpie fact which deserves
most serious attention. A month has already passed since the AnH-rican delega-
ti<m arrived in Moscfiw. It is already a mouth since we have been bu.sying
ourselves with it. discussing questions which have come to the fore in the
Americjtn I'arty. and finding a w.iy out of th*- present situation. Each memlxr
of the Delegation had a chance to use his right of .^peaking and criticising the
comrades with whom he disagrees. You know that all made f\ill use of this
right without l>eing in the least molested by the ECCI. You know that Com-
rade Lovestime insisted that the Russian comrades should express their opinion.
You know that the Russian comra<les have already spok*»n on the substance
of the matter. Hence the Commission has fulfilled the conditions necessary in
order to lie able to find a way out and to bring the matter to an end.
But what do we see? Instead fif serious attention being paid to the question
and readiness shown at last to liquidate factionalism, we meet with a new out-
burst of factionalism among ihe members of the American Delegation, new at-
tempts to destroy the cause of luiity in the American Party. A few days ago
we had no draft resolution of the Comintern on the American question as yet.
We merely had an outline of the general principles of the solution of the ques-
tion, an outline aiming at the liquidation of factionalism. But insread of wait-
ing for the draft resolution to be ready, the American Delegation flared up
without much ado with a Declaration of May 9th. an ultra-factional Doclaration.
an anti-Party declaration. YfiU know the hostility with which that Declaration
was received by the members of the Cfmimission of tlie Presidium of the
ECCI. You know th.it the Commission did not leave a stone unturned in
that Declaration. One might have thought that the American Delegation would
think matters over and correct its mistakes. However, quite the contrary has
been the ca.se. As soon as the Draft proposals of the Commission now dis-
tributed to all members of the Presidium of the ECCI and the American
Delegation appeared, the American Delegation flared up with a new Declaration
on May 14th. a Declaration more factional and more anti-Party than the Declara-
tion of May 9th. Of course you know that Declaration. Comrade Gitlow read
it here in his speech. Its main feature consists in the enunciation of the thesis
of NON-SUBORDIXATION to the decisions of the Pre.sidium of the ECCI.
APPENDIX, PART 1 g77
This means that the extreme factionalism of the Majority leaders has driven
them to the path of non-submission, that is to the path of struggle against the
Comintern.
There is no denial of the fact that the American comrades, as all Communists,
have a full right to disagree with the Draft Resolution of the Commission, that
rhey have the right to fight agaii.st it. And so long as they confine themselves
ro the utilization of this right, there is nothing wrong in that. But the trouble
is, that the Declaration of May 14th does not stop at that. It goes further than
that, saying that the struggle must be contintied even after the Draft will
have become a decision of the Presidium of the ECCI. We must, therefore, put
I he question squarely to the American Delegation, do they consider it per-
missible for themselves not to submit to the decision after the Draft will have
heen adopted as a mandatory resolution of the Comintern. We have been dis-
<-ussing in the Commission in the course of a month, we had a series of debates,
we spent an enormous amount of time on this business which might have been
used to better advantage elsewhere, and finally, we have come to the point
when the discussion has been exiiausted and when we are about to pass
Kesolutiojis which should be obligatory for all members of the Comintern. But
here is a (inestiou, do the members of the American Delegation, as commitnists,
as Leninists, deem it admissible not to submit to a decision of the Presidium of
the ECCI on the American question? * * * [Line missing.]
the various right errors and right tendencies in the work of the Party were all
pointed out. A study of the Theses of the VI World Congress and of these
documents is absolutely necessary for every single Party member in order to
really understand the situation in which the Party has to work.
THE TASKS OF THE PARTY
In view of the rapidly growing possibilities for work for our Party, the tasks
of the Party stand out as especially great in the pre.sent period. An appre-
ciation of the ix)litical and economic situation in this cotmtry must lead directly
to a real under.standing of the basic tasks before the Party.
1. International Red Day. — The International Red Day Camijaign to cul-
minate in militant mass demonstrations on Atigust 1st is the central campaign
for the entire Party, the campaign to which all Party work must be directed and
.subordinated. It is an international campaign against the war danger and in
defense of the Soviet Union and was initiated last year by the VI Congress of
the Comintern. In this campaign the work of political clarification of the mem-
bershii> — the explanation of the character of American imperialism, the relations
l)etween the war danger and rationalization, and especially the popularization of
the Leninist conceptions on militarism and war and the struggle against pacifism
must be brought into the foreground. The campaign must be rooted in the
factories and the shop papers widely used. The whole campaign must culminate
in mass denmnstrations and strikes on August 1, 1929, the fifteenth anniversary
• if the outbreak of the World War. Factory gate meetings, factory discussion
grotips, extensive distribution of Party literature and the Party press mitst be
organized in preparation for Red Day.'
2. The Trade Union Vnity Convention. — The preparation for the Trade Union
Unity Convention, to be held in Cleveland on August 31st remains a great task.
Comrades must remember that it is not just merely "another conference" ; it is
the estal)lisluuent of a new revolutionary trade union center in America in
opposition to the A F of L, an event of tremendous significance in the history
of the working class of this country. Comrades must also bear in mind that
the work for the TUUC must be the gathering point and focus of all our
activities in the existing trade unions, in the shops, and among the unorganized
workers, and only to the extent that we succeed in our work of building shop
committees, organing the unorganized, strengthening the left wing in the exist-
ing unions, will the Trade Union Unity Convention be a success.
3. The Gasfonia Campaifin. — From a number of viewpoints the recent events
in Gastonia constitute the most .significant feature in the American class strug-
gle for many years. It is the duty of the Party to draw the main political
lessons of these events and to popularize these lessons among the Party member-
shixi and among the ranks of the workers. It is the urgent task of the Party to
mobilize the working masses of this coiuitry in defence of the victims of the
murder frame-up in Gastonia. The campaign of the International Labor De-
fence is not a mere "technical"' matter btit is a political campaign of the
highest importance and must be given the fullest support by all Party members
and organizations.
378 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
.'/. Work Among the Miners. — The building of the Natioual Miners Union,
which shouhl boconio the backhone of the revohitionary trade union movement
of this country, must be apiireciated in all its iniiHirtauce by the Party member-
ship. The growiiis: niovemeut of tl;e miners away frem the Ivewis "union", the
coming struggle in the anthracite (upon the expiration of the live year agrfn--
ment) for which the operators are already preparing, the spontaneous nMjv*-
ntents in the unorganized territory, provide gi^at opportunities for the Party
wliich nuist be utilized. The building of the Party in the mining tields— c<m-
siderably neglected at all times- — should be made a central task.
.'}. Colonial )rork. The Party must really make a beginning in colonial work.
Hitherto our work in this respect has been extremely weak. The coming World
Congress against Imperialism and the recent Ail-American Revolutionary Trade
Union Congress held in Uruguay nuist be iiopularized among the workers nf
this comitry. Work anumg the Latin American masses in this coiuitry must
be intensilied. The developing activities of the All-America Anti-ln>perialisr
League. * * * [Line missing.]
of factionalism and the restoration of Unity, ever since 192.J. One only has to
ac(piaint oneself with the Resolutions of the Congresses of the Comintern to
convince him.self that we have, in the present Majority leaders incorrigible vio-
lators of the spirit and letter of the decisions of tiic Comintern.
As to the Gth Congress of the Comintern, it stpiarely said in its resolution on
the American question, that the "most important task <<)nfronting the Party
is to put an end to the faction.il strift^ — which is not l)ased on any serious differ-
ences on jirinciples". What has the Lovcstonc group done to execute this deci-
sion of the (ith Congress? Con can see for yourselves, comrades, that so far it
has done nothing. But instead, it has done and is doing its utmost to convert
this decision of the 6th Congress into a meaningless scrap of paper.
Such are the facts.
And if. desi)ite all these facts, the Declaration accuse^ the Presidiiuu of the
ECCI of its violation of "the letter and spirit of tlie line of the (Wh \\drl(l Con-
gress," what does it meanV It means that the authors of the Declaration want
to counterpoise the decisions of the Presidium of the ECCI by the line of the
Gth Congress, which they then>selves liave been, and are violating. What do
they do that for? They do that in order to combat decisions of the Presidium
of th<> ECCI, while phariseeically covering themselves with the banner of the
6th Congress. By doing so, it seems that the autliors of the Declaration wish
to say: we, the Lovestone group, are for the Gth Congress, but the Draft Ojteu
Letter is at variance with the line of the Gth Congress, and therefore, we are
going to fight against that decision of the Presidium of the ECCL
The authors of the Declaration apparently think that by this false "ma-
neouvre" they accomidish something new and that we are not going to decipher
its intrinsic meaning. But that is not .so. comrades. Their calculations are
(piite wrong. The history of the Comintern shows that comrades dcjiarting from
the Comintern always start precisely with such "niiineouvres". Wlicn Zinoviev
left the Comintern, he started by counterposing the line of the Comint(>rn to the
decisions of its P^xecutive Connnittee. He was doing so in order to veil his
struggle against the Executive Committee, by sjH^aking in the name of the
Comintern line. The same thing happened with Trotsky who began his de-
parture from the Comintern by coiuiterposing its line to the decisions of its
Executive Conunittee and the Presidium. This is an old and beaten path of
opportunism, as old as the world. It is sad, that the authors of the Declaration
have been attracted towards this path.
lu couriterposing the ECCI by the Comintern, the authors of the Declaration
mean just as Zinoviev and Trotsky meant to DIVORCE the Executive Com-
mittee from the Con>interu. A ridiculous and stujiid hope. The authors of the
Declaration f(n'get. apparently, that it is the Executive and its I'residiiun who
interpret the decisions of the Congresses of the Comintern, and not they. The
authors of the Declaration are mistaken, if they think that the American work-
ers will believe their commentaries more than the commentaries of the Presid-
ium of the ECCI.
Such is the substance of the Declaration of the American Delegation.
The Declaration of the American Delegation is tluis a j)latform of STRUGGLE
against the line of the Comintern on behalf of opportunist wavering, on behalf of
unprincipled factionalism, on behalf of violation of the unity of the Airverican
Party.
Now as to the Draft of the Commission.
APPENDIX, PART 1 879
What is the Draft of the Commission, now brought to the attention of the
Presidium of the BCCI. based ufxinV It is based on the idea of the defence of
the line of the Comintern within the ranlis of the American Party, the idea of
bolshevization of the American Party, the idea of struggle against deviations
from the Marxian position, and especially against the Right deviation, the idea
of Leninist unity in the Party, finally and first a}id foremost, the ideal of liqui-
dation of all factions. It must at last be realized, comrades, that factionalism
is the main evil in the Connnunist Party of America.
We bolsheviks have not infrequently had to v^-age a factional struggle against
opportunism in the history of the revolutionary movement of the working class.
That was at a time when the bolsheviks and mensheviks belonged to ONE PARTY,
when the bolsheviks were obliged to organize a faction in order to undermine the
prestige of the social-democrats, to organize a split away from the social-demo-
crats and to create an independent Communist Party. Factionalism was then
ttseful and essential. Cut now? Now it is quite different. The situation has
radically changed. Now we have our own Communist Parties, sections of the
Communist International. Now factionalism is dangerous and harmfvil, for it
weakens the force of the onslaughts of Communism against reformism, against
social-democracy in the Labour movement.
Why is factionalism harmful in the ranks of the Communist Parties?
First and foremost because factionalism weakens the sense of Party spirit,
dulls revolutionary sensitiveness, and blindfolds the Party leaders to stich an
extent that in their factional enthusiasm they are bound to place factional inter-
ests above the interests of the Party, above the interests of the Comintern,
above tJie interests of the working class. Factionalism frequently goes to such
lengths that Party leaders blinded by the factional struggle are inclined to regard
all facts and all events in the affairs of the Party, not from the point of view
of the interests of tlie Party and the workingclass, bttt from the point of view
of the interests of their own factional circle, from the point of view of the
interests of their own factional kitchen.
Did not Comrade Lovestone and his friends know that one mtist keep away
from Pepper, that one must disassociate oneself from him, lest one be discredited
as a revolutionary? Why did they not part with him in good time, notwith-
standing the several warnings of the Comintern? Because they acted primarily
as factionalists. Because in a factional struggle, each splinter, each string, each
soldier, though he be a poor one, each officer, though he be poor, is valuable.
Because, even stich people as Pepper might be useful in the factional struggle.
Because, factional blindness compelled them to place the interests of their faction
above the interests of the Party.
Did not Comrade Foster know that one must keep away from the hidderi
Trotskyists, who were to be found in his group? Why did lie not part with
them in good time notwithstanding the several warnings. Because he behaved
primarily as a factionalist. Because in his factional struggle against the Love-
stone group even hidden Trotskyites could be useful to him. Because factional
blindness kills the Party sense of people, and makes them indiscriminate in the
use of methods. True stich a policy is harmful and is at variance with the
interests of the Party. But as a rule, factionalists have an inclination to forget
the interests of the Party. They see their own factional clan only.
Sooondly, because factionalism interferes with the education of the Party in
the spiiit of principles, it interferes with the training of cadres in the spirit of
honest, proletarian, incorruptible revolutionaries, free from rotten diplomacy
and unprincipled machinations. Leninism teaches that politics based on prin-
ciple is the only correct policy. Factionalism, on the contrary holds that factional
diplomacy and unprincipled factional machination is the only correct policy.
That, in substance explains the reason why an atmosphere of factional strife
does not cultivate sotind politicians but shrewd factional schemers, experienced
rogues and crooks, capable of hoodwinking the "rival" and getting off the scent.
True, sttch "educational" work of the factionalists is at variance with the cardi-
nal interests of the Party and the working class. But that is none of the con-
cern of factionalists, they recognize only their own factional diplomatic kitchen
interests.
It is therefore, no wonder that sound politicians and honest revolutionary
proletarians are not sympathiz;'d with by the factionalists. Instead, factional
tricksters and schemers, ttnprinciplcd jugglers and masters in the secret are of
working behind scenes in the organization of tmprincipled blocs, have place of
honor.
880 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Thirdly, because factionalism, weakening the Party's desire for unity and
nndermininf; the Party's iron disciiiline, jiives rise in the Party to such a spe-
cifically factional regime under which all its internal life is exposed to the eyes
of the class foe, and the Party itself is in danger of becoming a plaything in
the hands of the agents of the bourgeoisie. Usually this happens as follows:
Say a certain question is decided upon in the Pelit. Bureau of the CC. In the
Polit. Bureau there is a Minority and a Majority each of which views that
decision from its own, factional point of view. If a factional regime prevails
in the Party the schemers of both factions immediately inform tlieir periphery
of the given decision of the Polit. Bui'eau, endeavouring to agitate them in their
favour and to work up sentiment in a corresiwnding manner. This method of
information usually becomes systematic. It becomes systematic because each
it in readiness for a tight with the factional opponent. The result is that confi-
dential and important Party decisions become the property of the street. And
since the street mingles with the surrounding environments, the agents of the
bourgeoisie find access to the secret decisions of the Party which facilitates
their possibility of u.sing information on inside affairs in the Party against the
interests of the latter. True, such a regime menaces the Party with total
demoralization of its ranks. But that is none of the business of factionalists,
for the interests of their own groups stand above all.
Finally, because the harmfuhiess of factionalism lies in the fact that faction-
ali.sm undermines the basis of all positive work in the Party, kills the desire of
Party members to concern themselves with questions of everyday needs of the
working class (wages, the working day, the betterment of the material condi-
tions of the working class, etc.), weakens the activities of the Party in the
organization of the working chiss for the class war with the bourgeoisie and
thus creates a situation in which the Party's prestige must inevitably decline
in the eyes of the workers, and the workers, instead of Hocking to the Party
in whole detachments, are compelled to leave the ranks of the Party. That is
exactly what I see in the American Party today. What have the factional lead-
ers of the Majority and the Minority chielly hi en doing of late? They were
engaged in factional intrigues, factional triviaities, comjxjsing of good for nothing
platforms, big and little, making tens and hundretls of l)ig and little amendments
to these platforms. Weeks and months are squandered, in order to catch the
factional rival, to drag him out. to dig up something out of his personal life,
and if there is nothing to dig up, theii to concoct sometliing out of nothing.
It is obvious that in such an atmosphere real work must sufler, I'arty life
must become nil. the prestige of the Party must decline, and the workers, the
best and revolutionary minded workers, who want deeds and not intrigues,
have to lenve the I'arty.
That is in substance, the harm of factionalism within the rank of the Com-
munist Parties.
The major task of the Communist Party of America, therefore, is to put a
stop to factionalism and to cure itself at last of this disease.
The Commission's draft brought to our attention, is based precisely on that.
A few words about the boastful manner of Comrade Lovestone's group, in
speaking here in the name of the whole Party, in the name of 99% of the
American Party. They never speak in any other way, but in the name of 999c
of the Party. One could really think that they have 99% of the Party member-
ship in their pocket. Th;it is bad style, comrades of the American delegation.
I should remind you of the fact that Zinoviev and Trotsky also at one time
trumped with percentages, assuring everybody that they have, or at any rate,
will have 99% of the I'arry membership. You know comrades how farcically
Trotsky's and Zinoviev's boastings ended. You assure us, that you have a sure
maj(;rty in the American Party, that that majority will be with you under anj'
conditions. That is not true, comrades of the American delegation, it is abso-
lutely luitrue. You had a majority because the Communist Party of America
saw in you until now staunch supporters of the Communist International. And
just because it beheld in you friends of the Comintern, you had a majority in
the ranks of the American Party. But what will happen when the American
workers find out that your intentions are to break up unity in the raidis of the
Comintern, and that you mean to conduct a struggle against its executive
bodies — that is the question, my dear comrades. Do you think that the American
workers will follow you against the Comintern, that they will give preference
to the interests of your factional group rather than the interests of tlie Comin-
tern? The history of the Comintern knows a series of instances, when popular
leaders, more popular than you are, became isolated, just as soon as they
APPENDIX, PART 1 ggl
raised their banner of revolt against the Comintern. Do you think that you
will be luckier than those leaders? No hopes, comrades! Now you still have
a formal majority. But tomorrow there will be no majority for you, and you,
and you will be hopelessly isolated if you try to fight against the decisions of
the Presidium of the ECCI. You can be sure of that, my dear comrades.
Comrade Lovestone is spoken of as a gifted leader, as the founder of the
Communist Party of America. They say that the American Party cannot do
without Comrade Lovestone and that his removal may ruin the Party. That is
not true, comrades. Moreover it is not sincere. Woe to a party which could
not do without one or another of its leaders. The Communist Party of America
is not as weak as some comrades think. At any rate, it is much stronger than
they image. Parties are created by the working class and not by the individual
leaders. It would be preposterous to assert the contrary. Added to that.
Comrade Lovestone is not such a wonderfully great leader. Of course he is a
capable and gifted comrade. But how has he used his talents? On factional
intrigues, on factional machinations. Comrade Lovestone is unquestionably an
able and talented factional schemer. You cannot deprive him of that. But one
must not confuse factional with Party leadership. A party leader is one thing —
a leader of a faction is quite another. Not every factional leader is destined to
be a Party leader. I very much doubt Comrade Lovestoue's fitness to be a
leader of the Party, in the present phase.
This is how matters stand, comrades.
What is the way out, you wiJl ask. In my opinion the way out lies in the
adoption of the Commission's draft, a rejection of the Declaration of the Ameri-
can delegation, and compelling all members of the American Party unreservedly
to carry out the decisions of the Presidium. Either the American comrades will
unhesitatingly submit to the decisions of the ECCI. and actively work for their
enforcement, — which will mark a great step towards the annihilation of faction-
alism, towards the establishment of peace in the Party, — or they will adhere
to their Declaration and refuse to submit to the decisions of the ECCI, which
will not mean peace but war against the Comintern, war in the ranks of the
American Party. We propose peace and unity. If the comrades of the American
delegation accept our terms — good and well, if they don't, so much the worse for
them. The Comintern will take its own under any circumstances. You can be
sure of that, dear comrades.
Finally, a couple of words on the new processes of bolshevisation of the
Comintern sections, taking place at the present moment.
The other day, Comrade Lovestone in a conversation with me said that his
expression about the "running sore" in the apparatus of the Comintern was just
a slip. He assured me that this phrase was used accidentally and had nothing
to do with the questions concerning his attitude towards the Comintern. My
answer was that if that phrase was really nothing but a slip, then it wasn't worth
while taking any notice of it, although in itself it was absolutely wrong and
mistaken. However, some time after that I made myself acquainted with Com-
rade Lovestone's speech at the 6th Convention of the American Party, in which
he referred also to a "running sore", this time not in relation to the apparatus
of the Comintern, but in relation to world capitalism. Apparently, the "running
sore" expression is not a chance phrase of Comrade Lovestone's vocabulary. The
"running sore" in relation to world capitalism one should think means the crisis
of world capitalism, the process of its decay. But what could Comrade Love-
stone have meant by the "running sore" in relation to the apparatus of the
Comintern. Apparently, the same crisis and decay in the Comintern apparatus.
What else could that phrase have implied? What was it that should have made
Comrade Lovestone speak of a "running sore'' or a crisis in the apparatus of
the Comintern? Apparently, the same thing that induces the Right wingers
in the ranks of the CPSU to speak of a crisis and demoralization in the Comin-
tern. Speaking of demoralization in fhe Comintern, the Right wingers usually
refer to such facts as the expulsion of the Rights from the Communist Party of
Germany, the demolition of the Right wingers in the Communist Party of Czecho-
slovakia, the isolation of the Right wingers of the Communist Party of France,
the struggle for the isolation of incurable factionalists in the Communist Party
of the United States, and so forth and so on. Well, perhaps these facts are
indeed a sign of serious illness of the Comintern, a sign of its demoralization, a
sign of a "running sore" In the Comintern? Of course not, comrades. Only
Philistines and mediocrities in the Party can regard matters in this light. In
reality it is a beneficial process of purging the sections of the Comintern from
Right wingers and Conciliators, a beneficial process which cleanses the Com-
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 57
882 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
munist International from opportunist and wavering elements. The Parties are
being bolshevised and strengthened by ridding themselves of bad elements. That
is the meaning of the recent events: in the German, Czeeho-Slovakia, American,
French and other commnnist parties. The Philistines in our parties see in that
a sign of demoralization of the Comintern because they cannot see further than
their noses. But revolutionary Marxians know that this is a bt^neflcial process
of bolshevisaliou in our parties, that without this l)enefi('ial process the parties
and the proletariat cannot be prepared for the forthcoming class combats.
Many are of the opinion tlnit nothing has recently changed in the international
situation, that everything is just as it was. That is wrong, comrades. The
fact of the matter is that we are witnessing an accentuation of the class struggle
in all capitalist countries, a growing revolutionary crisis in Europe, development
of conditions of a new revolutionary upheaval. This was signalized yesterday
by the General Strike in Lodz. The otlier day we had a signal in Berlin.
Tomorrow new signals will come fiom France, Great Britain, Czecho-Slovakia,
America, India, China. Soon the earth will be too hot for world capitali.sm.
The task of the Connnunist Parties is to begin riglit now with the development
of mass preparatory work for the imminent class (•ond)ats, to prepare the work-
ing class and the expioit'.'d masses for llie coming revolutionary battles. The
struggle against reformation and social democracy must be intensitied. The
struggle for the capture of the millions of the working class for comnuniism
must be strengthened. The struggle for the forging of genuine revolutionary
cadres and for the selection of genuine revolutionary party leaders, people
capable of going to war and leading the proletariat with them, people who will
not retreat lu'fore the storm and will not be panic-stricken, but will face that
storm, must be increa.^ed. But in order to do that we must right now, without
a moment's d(iuy, for time does not wait, clean.se the communist parties of
Right and (Conciliatory elements who are objectively the agents of social democ-
racy in the ranks of the Communist Parties. And this must be done, not in
the ordinary way, but at an accelerated rate, for I repeat, time does not wait,
and we cannot afford to let events find us unawares. A year or two ago, it
might not have been necessary to hurry, counting on the Parties' gradual ejection
of the right and vacillating elements, all the Brandlers and Thalheimers, all and
sundry factional schemers, etc., etc.. in the molecular process of their bolshevisa-
tion. Then it was not necessary to hurry, as there was no danger of being late.
But now, it is another matter. T ) go slowly now, means to be late, and to be
late means to Ik^ cau;iil unawares by the coming revolutionary crisis. ThereforOi
the process of cleansing the commninst parties of unstable elements now going
on. is a beneficial process (.f consolidation of the Comintern and its sections.
Philistines are afraid of this beneficial process and in their fright they blabber
about the demoralization of the Comintern, simply because they are Philistines.
Revolutionaries on the contrary will always welcome this beneficial process,
because it is a constituent part of the great work of preparation of the working
class for the coming class combats, which is now the main task of the Com-
munist Parties of the world.
It is a merit of the Commission's draft, by the way, that it facilitates the
American Party in the fulfillment of this main task.
* * * if * * t
[Strictly confidential]
Skcond Speech at thk Presidium
Not for Publication. Only for the Minutes.
Session of the Peesidium of May 14th, 1929
AMERICAN question
Stalin : It seems to me, comrades, that some American delegates do not
fully appreciate the situation which has been brought about by the adoption
of the Commission's project by the Presidium. Apparently the comrades do
not fully understand that to defend one's convictions prior to the passing of a
resolution, is one matter, and nonsubordination to the will of the Comintern
after such resolution has been passed, is quite another. One could and should
have criticized and combatted the project of the Commission to the extent
that the members of the delegation considered it fallacious. But now that the
Commission's draft has become a resolution of the Presidium, the American
APPENDIX, PART 1 883
delegates must muster sufficient manhood in order to submit to the collective
will, the will of the Cominterr., aud to undertake responsibility for its
execution.
The stubbornness and tenacity of the eight out of the ten American delegates
displayed here in their fight againsf the (Commission's draft should be appre-
ciated. But the fact that these eight comrades refuse to submit to the will of
the highest authoritative body, the will of the Presidium of the ECCI, after
their ideas have met with utter defeat, cannot be approved. Genuine courage
does not consist in placing one's individual will above collective will, above
the will of the Comintern. Genuine courage consists in finding sufficient
stamina in fighting against oneself, in restraining oneself, and in subordinating
one's will to the collective will, to the will of the highest Party authority.
Without this, there is no collective will. Without this there can be no collec-
tive leadership.
I think that you will not deny the manfulness, firmness and ability of the
Bussian Bolsheviks in defending their ideas. How did the various groups of
Russian Bolsheviks behave when they were foimd to be in the minority? Not
wishing to infringe upon the iron discipline of the Party, the minority usually
submitted to the will of the majority. There have been tens and hundreds
of instances in the history of our Party when one group of Bolsheviks, con-
vinced that the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party passed a wrong
resolution, nevertheless declared after a discussion, after heated debates, after
a fight for their ideas, that they are fully prepared to submit to the decisions
of the highest leading body and to carry them into effect. I could refer for
instance to such a fact as the case of 1907, when one part of the Bolsheviks
advocated a boycott of the Duma and a greater part stood for a change of
policy in favour of participation in the Duma, and when the minority uncondi-
tionally submitted to the will of the majority. The Russian Bolsheviks would
have defeated the cause of the Russian Revolution if they had not been able
to submit the will of individual comrades to the will of the majority if they
had been incapable of concerted action. That is how we Russian Bolsheviks,
the same Bolsheviks who have overthrown the bourgeoisie, established a Soviet
Government, and are now upsetting the foundations of world imperialism, have
been trained. Ability of concerted action, readiness to submit the will of individ-
vidual comrades to the collective will, that is exactly what we call genuine
Bolshevist manliness. That is so because without such manliness, without the
ability of being able to overcome, if you like, one's own egoism, and of subordi-
nating one's will to the collective will, without these qualities, there is no
collectivism, there is no collective leadership, there is no Communism. That is
true not only in respect to Parties and their Central Committees. It is par-
ticularly true in relation to the Comintern and its executive bodies which unite
all Communist Parties of the world.
Comrades Gitlow and Lovestone have declared here with self-confidence that
their conscience, their convictions, do not permit them to submit to the decisions
of the Presidium, and to carry them into effect. But only anarchists, indi-
vidualists, and not Bolsheviks, not Leninists, who must regard the collective
will above their individual will, can speak thus. They speak of their con-
science and convictions. But the members of the Presidium of the ECCI also
have their conscience and their convictions. What is to be done if the con-
science and convictions of the Presidium of the ECCI cla.sh with the conscience
and convictions of individual members of the American delegation? What is to
be done if the American delegation received only one vote in the Presidium in
favour of its declaration, the vote of Comrade Gitlow, while all other members
of the Presidium have unanimously expressed themselves against the American
delegation's declaration and in favour of the Commission's project? Do you,
comrades of the American delegation, think that Comrade Gitlow's conscience
and convictions are higher than the conscience and convictions of the over-
whelming majority of the Presidium of the ECCI? Does it not dawn upon
you that if each one of us will begin to act his own way, refusing to reckon
with the collective will, then we shall never have any decisions, we shall never
have a collective will or a collective leadership?
Let us take some mill or factory as an example. Suppose a majority of the
workers of a factory are inclined to strike, while a minority, based on its
convictions, is against the declaration of a strike. A struggle of ideas begins,
meetings are called, and at the end, the great majority decides in favour of
a strike. What would you think of tlie ten or twenty workers who constitute
the said minority of the factory, if they declared that they cannot submit to
3g4 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
the decision of the majority since tliey disagree with tliat decision? What
would you call thera, my dear comrades? You know that such workers are
usually called scabs. Is it not clear that strikes, demonstrations and other
concerted mass actions would be absolutely impossible if the minority would
not submit to the majority? Is it not clear that we should never have any
kind of decision or collective will, neither in the Parties nor in the Comintern,
if individuals or minorities would not submit to the majority, to the higher
collective will?
This is the turn that things have taken, comrades of the American Delegation.
Finally, a couple of words on the fate of the (\immunist Party of tlie United
States of America in connection with the decision of the Presidium of the
E. C. C. r. The comrades of the American delegation see the thing in too tragic
a light. They assure us that as a result of the adoption of the Conunission's
project, the American Party is doomed or at leiast is at the brink of a precipice.
That is not true, comrades. Moreover, it is absolutely ridiculous. The Ameri-
can Party lives and will live in spite of the prophesies of the comrades of the
Aj)ieri(an Delegation. Moreover, the American Parly will grow and prosper if
only it will drive unprincipled factionalism out of its midst. Tlu' signiticance
of the decision of the Presidium lies precisely in the fact that it facilitates the
liquidation of unprincipled factionalism in the American Party, that it will
bring about unity within the Party and that the Party will at last be in a
position to enter upon the highway of mass political action. No, comrades,
the American Party will not be ruinetl. It will live and prosper to the horror
(Of the enemies of the working class. Only a small factional group will be
ruined if it will persist, if it will not submit to the will of the Comintern, if it
will hold on to its mistakes. But the fate of a small factional group is by no
means identical with the fate of the American Party. From the fact that a
small factional group may be p<ilitically ruined, it does not at all follow that
the whole American Party will he ruined. If that small factional group is
destined to ruin, let it be ruined for the sake and development of the Com-
munist Party of America. Yours is too pessimistic an outlook, my comrades of
the American delegation. Mine is a more optimistic perspective.
:tt ***** *
[Strictly confidential]
Not for publication. For the Minutes only
American Commission. May 6th, 1929
Staun : Comrades, Since many speeches have already been delivered and the
political position of both groups of the Communist Party of the United States
of America has been made sufficiently clear, I shall not expatiate on the subject.
I shall not deal with the political position of the Majority and Minority leaders,
I shall not deal with that because both groups, as has been discovered in the
course of the discussions here, are guilty of the principal error of exaggeration
of the specific features of American capitalism. You know that this exaggera-
tion is the basis of all the sundry opportunist errors both of the Majority as
-well as the Minority groups. It would be a mistake to leave (mt of account
th^ si>ecific peculiarities of American capitalism. The Communist Party must
reckon with them in its work. But it would be even more incorrect to base
'.the activities of the Communist Party on these specific features, since the basis
(Of activity of any Communist Party, including the Communist Party of America,
are the general features of capitalism, features which in the main are the
same in all countries and are not the specific characteristics of the given
country. It is this that determines the international character of the com-
munisr parties. Specific features merely supplement the general features.
The mistake of both groups is that they exaggerate the importance of the
specific features of American capitalism and forget thereby the fundamental
features of American capitalism which are also the attributes of world capital-
ism. That is why when the leaders of the Majority and Minority mutually
accuse each other of elements of Right deviations, there is no doubt that these
accusations contain a grain of truth. There is no denial of the fact that Amer-
ican reality provides a favourable environment for the Communist Party to
blunder and to exaggerate the strength and firmness of American capitalism.
It is this situation that causes our American comrades, both of the Majority
and of the Minority, to commit mistakes of a Right wing character. It is this
situation that is the cause of the fact that now one and now another section
APPENDIX, PART 1 885
of the Communist Party of America in one degree or another fails to see
reformism in America, underestimates the radicalization of tlie working class
and is in general inclined to regard American capitalism as something stand-
ing outside of and above world capitalism. That is the basis of the unstead-
iness on methods of principle, on the part of the one as well as the other
section of the American Party.
After these general remarks we shall proceed with the practical political issues.
What are the main shortcomings in the work of the Majority and Minority
leaders :
They consist, firstly, in the fact that they, especially the Majority leaders,
are prompted in their daily work by considerations of unprincipled factionalism
and that they place the interests of their faction above the interests of the Party.
They consist, secondly, in the fact that both groups, and especially the
Majority group, are to such an extent infected with the malady of factionalism
that they take as the basis of their relations with the Comintern, not the prin-
ciple of confidence, but a policy of rotten diplomacy, a policy of diplomatic play.
Let us take a few examples. I take such a simple fact as the speculation on
the divergencies in the C. P. S. U., practiced both by the Majority as well as
the Minority leaders. You know that the one as well as the other section of the
Communist Party of America is vicing with each other, overtaking each other
as if at the races, strenuously try to speculate on the existing and non-existing
differences in the C. P. S. U. Why do they do that? Is that in the interests
of the American Party? No. Of course not! They do this for the benefit
of their own particular faction and to the detriment of the rival faction.
Foster and Bittelman see nothing criminal in declaring themselves to be
"Stalinites" so as to demonstrate thereby their loyalty to the CPSU. But this
is downright indecency, my dear comrades ! Don't you know that there are not
and there should not be any "Stalinites"? Why this indecency on the part
of the Minority? In order to pinch the Majority group, Lovestone's group, in
order to show that Lovestone's group is opposed to the CPSU and hence opposed
to the main kernel of the Comintern. This, of course, is not true and not
serious. But that is not the Minority's business. Its chief object is to pince and
discredit the Majority in the interests of the faction of the Minority.
And how does the Lovestone group behave in this respect? Is is perhaps
more decent than the Minority group? Unfortunately not. Unfortunately it
behaves even more indecently than the Minority group. Judge for yourselves.
Foster's group demonstrates its proximity to the CPSU, declaring itself as
"Stalinites." Lovestone sees that his faction loses something by that. Ergo,
to be out of debt, his group suddenly performs a "hair-raising" stunt and pro-
duces at the Convention of the American Party a resolution about the Comin-
tern's removal of Comrade Bucharin. The result is a race game on the prin-
ciple of who will outwit the other. Instead of a struggle of principles, we thus
meet with a most unprincipled speculation on dissentions in the CPSU.
Such are the results of a policy which places factional interests above the
interests of the Party.
Another example. I have in mind Comrade Pepper's affair. All of you are
more or less familiar with the history of that affair. The Comintern twice
demanded Comrade Pepper's recall to Moscow. The CEC of the American
Party resisted and essentially infringed upon a series of ECCI decisions con-
cerning Pepper. The Majority of the American Party has, by doing so, demon-
strated its kinship with Pepper whose opportunist waverings everybody knows.
Finally, the ECCI delegation comes to the Convention of the American Party
and again demands in the name of the ECCI Comrade Pepper's immediate re-
call. The Majority, headed by Lovestone and Gitlow, again resisted, finding
it unnecessary to carry out the decision of the ECCI. Foster's group utilizes
this affair against Lovestone's group, declaring that the Majority of the Ameri-
can Party goes against the Comintern. Lovestone's group finally begins to feel
that it may lose out from the point of view of the interest of its faction, if
it will be found to be in opposition to the Comintern, and, therefore, performs
another "hair-raising" stunt and expells Comrade Pepper from the Party, the
same Pepper whom it but yesterday defended against the CI. Again, we see a
struggle for first place — who wull beat the other. What explains the fact that
the Majority resisted and did not carry out the Comintern decision concerning
Pepper? Of course, not the interests of the Party. It is to be explained ex-
clusively by the interests of the Majority faction. What explains the fact
that suddenly the Majority turned the other way round and unexpectedly
expelled Pepper from the Party? Is it perhaps the interests of the Party?
886 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Of course not. It is to be explained simply by the interests of Lovestoue's
faction which did not want to leave an extra trump in the hands of its rival,
the Foster, Bittleman Factional Group. Factional interests above all !
The Foster Group wants to display its loyalty to the CPSU and proclaims
itself as "Stalinites". Gnod and well. We, Lovestonites, will go further and
the Foster group will demand the removal of Comrade Buldmnn from the
Comintern. Let the Fosterites try and beat us on that! Let the Muscovites
see how we Americans play on the Exchange !
The Foster Group wants to demonstrate its closeness to the Comintern and is
playing for the carrying out of the Comintern decision concerning Pepper.
Good and well. We, Lovestonites will go further than that. We will expel
Comrade Pepper from the Party. Let the Fosterites try and beat us on that I
,Let the Muscovites know how we Americans can play on the Exchange!
Such are the fruits of the Majority and Minority factionalism.
But comrades, the Comintern is not an Exchange. The Comintern is the
holy of holies of the working class. The Comintern must, therefore, not be
taken for an Exchange. EITHER we are Leninists and our relation.s toward
each other as well as the relations of the Sections towards the Comintern, and
vice versa, must be built on mutual trust, must be as clear and as transparent
as crystal, in which case there must be no rotten diplomacy in our midst, OR
we are not Leninists, in which case rotten diplomacy and luiprincipled fac-
tional struggle have full sway in our relationships. One or the other. One
must choose, comrades.
To characterise the manner in which pure Communist morals are jwrverted
and besmirched in the course of the factional struggle, one might refer to
such a fact ft>r example, as my conversations with Comrades Foster and
Lovestone. I have in mind the conversations which took place during the CI
Congress. It is characteristic that in writing to his friends Comrade Foster
refers to that conversation as something mysterious, as something about which
one must not speak aloud. It is also characteristic the Comrade Lovestone
in presenting his indictment against Comrade Foster in connection with this
conversation, refers to his own conversation with me, boasting that he, Ci>mrade
Lovestone, unlike Foster can keep a secret and will, under no condition, make
imblic the substance of his conversation with me. From whence this mysticism,
and what is it wanted for, my dear comrades? What could there be so mysteri-
ous in my conversations with Comrades Foster and Lovestone? Listening to
these comrades one might get the impression that I spoke with them concerning
matters which one would be ashamed to talk of here. But that is absurd
comrades. Why this play in my.sticism? Is it not clear that I have nothing
to hide from the comrades? Is it not clear that I am always ready to tell my
comrades, at any moment, the substance of my conversation with Foster and
Lovestone from beginning to end? Wiiat then becomes of the mysticism so dili-
gently spread here by Foster and Lovestone?
What did Foster speak to me about? He complained of the factionalism and
unprincipled character of Comrade Lovestone's group. What was my answer?
I admitted that Comrade Lovestone's group is guilty of these disgressitms but
immediately added that Comrade Foster's group is equally guilty of them.
From this. Comrade Foster comes to the strange conclusion that I sympathise
with the Minority group. The question arises, why? What grounds has Foster
to think that I see no .shortcomings in the Minority group and that I even,
sympathize with it? Is it not clear that that which Comrade Foster WISHES,
seems to him to be REALITY?
What did Comrade Lovestone speak to me about? Of the unfitness of the
Foster, Bittleman group. What was my answer? I told him that both groups
suffer from vital defects and advised him to take steps towards the liquidation
of factionalim. And that is all.
What mystery was there in that, concerning which one might not speak aloud?
Is it not strange that out of these simple and clear facts the comrades of the
Majority and Minority groups should have made a mystery which can only
evoke laughter among serious people? Is it not clear that there would have
been no mystification, and there been no factional atmosphere which poisons
the life of the American Party and degrades the most simple and pure com-
munist ethics?
Or, for example, let us take another fact. I will take my interview with
Comrade Lovestone which has taken place RECENTLY. It is characteristic
that Comrade Lovestone circulates absurd rumors also concerning this con-
versation of mine with him, and makes a secret of it. What an incorapre-
APPENDIX, PART 1 8g7
hensible passiou for "mysticism". . . . Wliat was tlie subject of our conversa-
tion? He spoke to me on the subject of rescinding the decision of his recall
from America by the Presidium of tlie Comintern. He said that he, Lovestone,
undertalves to carry out the proposed decision of tlie Presidium of the ECCI, if it
will not be accentuated against the Majority leaders of the American Party.
He said that he promises to be a loyal soldier of the Comintern and to prove
it in action if only the Comintern would give him a chance. He said that he
is not looking for any high position in the American Party, but lie only wants to
be tested and that he be given an opportunity to prove his loyalty to the
Comintern. What was my answer? I replied that the Comintern has been
experimenting on Comrade Lovestone's loyalty in the course of three years, but
nothing good has come of it. I replied that it will be advantageous for the
American Party and for the Comintern if Comrades Lovestone and Bittelman
remain for a while in Moscow. I replied that the mode of action devised by
the Comintern is one of the best methods of curing the American Party of
factionalism and of the danger of demoralization. I replied that regardless of
my opinion I agree to hand over his proposal for consideration by the Russian
comrades, and that I undertake to let him know the result.
That seems clear. Nevertheless, Comrade Lovestone is trying to shroud these
clear facts in mystery, circulating all kinds of absurd rumours on my conversation
with him.
It is clear that there would be no mystification and that ordinary things would
not be metamorphosed into mysterious legends if there had been no policy of re-
garding factional interests above the interests of the Party, and diplomatic play,
above the intei'ests of the Comintern.
To put a stop to this outrageous business and to put the American Party on
the path of Leninist policy, one must first of all put a stop to factionalism in
that Party.
That is the conclusion that the enumerated facts lead to.
What is the way out?
Comrade Foster has shown one way out. From his motion it follows that
the leadership must be handed over to the Minority. Can that be accepted?
No it cannot. The ECCI delegation made a mistake when it sharply disasso-
ciated itself from the Majority by not disassociating itself JUST AS SHARPLY
from the Minority. It would be sad if the Commission of the Presidium would
repeat the mistake of the ECCI delegation. I think that the Commission of the
Presidium of the ECCI must disassociate itself in its draft both from the mis-
takes of the Majority, as well as the mistakes of the Minority. And precisely
because it must disassociate itself from the first as well as the second, it cannot
be in favor of handing the leadership over to the Minority. Hence Comrade
Foster's motion with all that it implies, falls to the ground.
The American delegation proposed another way out which is diametrically
opposed to that of Comrade Foster. The proposal of the American delegation,
as you know, contains 10 points. Its substance amounts to a total rehabilita-
tion of the Majority leadership, a recognition that the factional work of the
Majority is correct, a withdrawal of the decision of the Presidium of the ECCI
to recall Comrade Lovestone, and, therefore, a sanctioning of the policy of
throttling the Minority. Can that be accepted? No, it cannot. It cannot be-
cause such a way out would mean, not the liquidation of factionalism, but its
adoption as a principle.
What then, is the way out?
It is as follows :
(1) The activity and proposals of the ECCI delegation must, in the main, be
approved, with the exception of the points which resemble Comrade Foster's
proposals.
(2) An open letter should be sent in the name of the ECCI to the members
of the Communist Party of America, giving an outline of the mistakes of both
sections of the Party, and accentuating the point of the necessity for eradica-
tion of all factionalism.
(3) The activities of the Majority leaders at the Convention of the American
Party, especially on the Pepper question, should be condemned.
(4> The present state of affairs in the American Party, whereby questions
of positive work, questions of the struggle of the working class against the
capitalist class, questions of wages, the working day. trade union work, the
struggle against reformism, the struggle against the Right deviation, are kept in
the shade and prominence is given to insignificant questions of factional strife
between the Foster and Lovestone groups, must be liquidated.
888 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
(5) The Secretariat of the C. E. C of the American Party must be altered
and people added to it, who are capable of reoi-ganizing the class struggle of the
workers against the capitalist class and not only the factional struggle, who
are capable of placing the interests of the Party and its unity above the interests
of Individual groups and leaders.
(6) Comrades Lovestone and Bittelman must be recalled and placed at the
disposal of the Comintern so that the leaders of the American Party may
realize at last that the Comintern is in real earnest about combatting fac-
tionalism.
That is the way out, in my opinion.
A few words concerning the tasks and mission of the American Party. I
think, comrades, that the Connnunist Party of America is one of the few (Com-
munist Parties in the world upon which history has placed tasks of decisive
importance from the point of view of the international revolutionary movement.
The power and might of American capitalism you all know. Many seem to
think that the general crisis of world capitalism will not affect America. This,
of course, is wrong. It is absolutely wrong, comrades. The crisis of world
capitalism is rapidly growing and it cannot fail to involve American capitalism.
The 3 million unemployed in the United States, is the first sign that a crisis
in America is brewing. The accentuated antagonism between America and
Great Britain, the struggle for markets and raw material, finally, the coliossal
growth of armament, these are another sign indicating the approach of a
crisis. I think that the moment is not far off when a revolutionary crisis
will be unleashed in America ; when that revolutionary crisis comes in the
United States, it will mark the beginning of the end of world capitalism. The
Comminiist Party of the United States must be aimed to be able to meet that
historical moment and to head the forthcoming class combats. Preparation is
necessary for this, comrades, a preparation of all forces. For this the American
Party must be improved and cleansed. For this all factionalism and all devia-
tions must be liquidated in that Party. For this it is necessary to establish
imity in the American Party. For this it is necessary to forge out real revolu-
tionary cadres and genuine revolutionary leaders of the proletariat, who would
be capable of leading the many millions of the American working class towards
their class revolutionary battles. For this it is necessary to throw aside all
and sundry personal feelings and factional considerations, making the revolu-
tionary education of the working class of America the fcu-emost issue.
That is why I think, comrades, that we must most seriously consider the pro-
posals of the commission of the Presidium of the ECCI, submitted for your con-
sideration, as these proposals are intended for curing the Communist Party of
America, for the annihilation of factionalism, for the establishment of unity,
for the strengthening and bolshevisation of the Party.
Comrade Kuusinen's Speech at the Sitting of the American Commis.sion on
May 12, 1929
NOT FOR publication
Comrades, The sub-commission proposes to you to adopt the draft Open Letter
to all members of the American Party, which has already been distributed among
the comrades.
It is not for the first time that the Executive has to deal with the question of
the factional strife in the American Party. But it is for the first time that such
a big delegation from the American Party Congress is here. We have listened
in the Commission to the extensive arguments of all the members of the delega-
tion, and after a thoroughgoing analysis of the question, we have arrived at
the proposals contained in the Open Letter. The delegates who have arrived
here have done a good deal to elucidate the question, but I must say that they
have done so from a one-sided point of view, or to be more exact, from two
factional points of view. Properly speaking, the delegation as a whole does not
exist. The comrades have now been here for over a month yet if I asked them
how many delegate meetings they have had during this time, I believe their
answer should be, none. This is already a highly characteristic fact. A dele-
gation from the American Party Congress comes to Mo.scow, and not once do all
the members of the delegation meet while in INIoscow. Even here in Moscow
the comrades behave themselves only as two factions. Precisely in the manner
APPENDIX, PART 1 889
that the factional strife was carried on iu America both before and during the
Party Congress, it has been continued here in Moscow.
The American Party convention liad to solve two problems. These problems
had been put before the Party both by the VI World Congress and by the Open
Letter of the ECCI. What were these two problems? (1) The Party had to
mobilize the membership for the fight against the Right danger; (2) For the
liquidation of the factional strife. Did the Party Congress seriously attempt to
solve these problems? No. Yet these two problems are insolubly bound up.
No successful struggle against the Right danger can be waged in the American
Party without disposing of the factional strife, and without the elimination of
the lack of principle which is inseparably associated with factionalism. On the
other hand, one canilot imagine a proper and serious fight to get rid of fac-
tionalism without waging a fight against the Right danger.
The two problems which had been put to the Party Congress by the VI
World Congress through the Open Letter of the Executive were entirely mis-
placed on account of the factionalism existing in the Party. Naturally, a really
correct solution of the most essential, iwlitical questions is impossible as long
as such a state of affairs prevails. The factional adherents accept without
critici.sm the slogans and proposals of their leaders and the factional leaders
are not fully responsible for their slogans and proposals, because they are
working without the control of the Party comrades. This leads to the intensi-
fication of political deviations in both factions. Of this we have many in-
stances. Whenever the factional leaders of one group or the other commit
political mistakes, their adherents endeavor to explain away such mistakes by
the flimsiest arguments. I shall cite here only a couple of instances.
Ail the members in the Politbureau of the American Party were agreed that
Comrade Zimmerman, a leading comrade in the clothing workers' strike of
January-February 1929, who nevertheless committed serious Right mistakes
and a grave breach of discipline, should be put upon the CC, and there was not
a word of criticism against it. Furthermore, Comrade Amter, an adherent of
the majority group who wrote an article on "good and bad mayors" in which
he opined that good mayors were those who carried out the laws of the bour-
geois state, and bad mayors were those who trespassed against such laws,
was also put on the CC without a word of criticism. Further the Minority did
not criticise Comrade Wagenknecht who had called for three cheers for the
"Vorwarts" newspaper. Did they wage a fight against his mistakes? If a
member of the faction commits ever so serious Right mistakes, no fight is made
against him, but rather an effort is made to protect him.
The Minority comrades, Foster and Bittelman, have said that they have car-
ried on a fight against the Right danger in the American Party. Yes, they did
carry on a factional fight against the Majority group. The Majority group
sees the Right danger in Trotskyism and in the Minority. The Minority sees
the Right danger only iu the Lovestone-Pepper group. On our part, we cannot
support this factional point of view. Our thesis is to the effect that the Right
danger is very much increased in the American Party precisely by serious
Right mistakes committed by both factions, that both factions have committed
serious deviations towards the Right of the proper Leninist line, and thus the
danger of open crystallization of the opportunistic Right deviation has been
created. This is the thesis which we recommend to adopt. The American
comrades must recognize that the Right danger has increased very much iu
the whole Party, in both groups, and that this fact urges the fight against the
Right danger, against the increased Right danger in both groups.
In a similar manner, the thesis about liquidation of factionalism has been
misplaced by both groups of the American Party. Properly speaking, what
could botli groups do in a practical way in the spirit of the Open Letter? Had
they earnestly desired to carry out the instructions, then they should have
directed their chief efforts to getting rid of factionalism in their own camp.
Yet what they have done was the very opposite.
Comrades Lovestone and Pepper said to themselves upon receiving the Open
Letter : Now that the Executive has pronounced against our faction, now there
is danger, now we must even further consolidate the faction and carry on the
fight against the Minority group.
What did the Foster-Bittelman group do upon receiving the Open Letter?
They .said to themselves: Yes, these instructions concerning the liquidation of
factionalism in both groups are naturally diplomatic instructions of the Com-
intern. It could not say openly that it supports our group, but this is how we
are to understand it, and we must pursue our factional fight with even greater
energy.
g9Q UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
We have been asked here by the Majority Comrades that the Comintern
should treat them as the Party. Yes, dear comrades, this demand would
have been proper if you had acted yourselves as a Party, but so far you have
not done so. During the Party Convention you thought it necessary to
organize caucus meetings. The Majority claims to have had 95% of the
delegates behind it. If so, why was it afraid of the decisions of the Party
Convention that it considered it necessary to discuss them previously at caucus
meeting? If they had 95% of the Party Convention behind them, there was
no need for caucus meetings. The only reason was that they wanted to mobilize
the whole faction against the organizational measures of the BCCI. They
were not sure that the Majority faction, without caucus meetings, and if given
the opportunity to consider the decisions on organizational measures for them-
selves, would not vote against these decisions. They were to be denied the
opportunity of independent thinking on these resolutions, but they were to be
tied by the instructions of the caucus.
What is the way out that is proposed by both factions? I cannot conceive
the Majority proposals otherwise than Miat they want the Comintern to give
them a free hand to organizationally exterminate the Minority group. In the
opinion of the leading comrades of the Majority group, the Comintern only
hinders them in getting rid of the factional strife. If left to themselves, they
would be quite able to dispose of the factional strife. Their solution would be
simply in entirely destroying the Minority group, if the Comintern had given
them a free hand in the matter.
If you want to go on in this way, you would have to expel one third of the
Party. But is this a solution? Is this the way for the unification of the
Party? No, this proposal cannot be accepted.
What is proposed by Foster and Blttelman?
Their propo.sals amount to this: A new Convention within three months.
At the new Convention they hope that their faction will become stronger.
They hope that in two or three years they may win a majority in the Party.
And what then? Then the organizational destruction of the present Majority
group. Thus, comrades, if we take up this prospect of development, it means
that in two or three years, at best, if Comrade Foster's and Bittelman's phins
will materialize, then we are going to have a situation similar to the one we
have today, only with a reverse co-relation of forces. The present Majority
would turn into a Minoritv. Would this be a solution of the question? Not
at all!
But is it necessary to put an end to the factional strife?
If Comrade Lenin wrote after the IVIarch action of 1929 in regard to the
German Party: "Now no more internal fighting, now must be an end to
factional strife," how much more reason have we now to give these instructions
to the American comrades. If things are to go on this way in the American
Party, there is the danger of the political dissolution of the leading cadres
of the Party, such a dissolution as will undermine the whole activity of the
Party. The factional strife has already led to a certain stagnation as regards
the growth of the Party. There is fluctuation going on the Party. Workers
come and go, because they become disgusted by the factional strife which goes
on in the Party. Instances of this kind might be cited without end. Even in
labour fights the detrimental effect of the factional strife becomes quite notice-
able. If one faction firmly holds the leadership of the fight in its hands, the
other side obstructs, sabotages, and puts difiiculties in the way. It is abso-
lutely impossible to allow things to go on in this way. The Comintern has
tolerated this situation altogether too long.
We are told here that the factional strife has already a history of six years.
Nay, even more than that. Not only does this factional strife exist for six
years, but it has existed already from the very beginning, since 1919-20. This
factional strife has a history of 10 years behind it. The first fight was waged
with Fraina. I have requested Comrade Reinstein to write an article on this
subject. It will be very instructive for the American Party. It is the opinion
of the Executive of the Comintern that it is necessary now to do everything
to compel the American Party to put an end to this factional strife.
Whence shall this compulsion come?
From the membership of the Party. It is our expectation that the member-
ship of the American Party will help the Comintern in doing away with the
factional strife. The comrades in the Party are tired of the factional strife.
We feel sure that the best elements of the Party will work hand in hand with
the Comintern in waging this fight. Our hopes are based upon this.
APPENDIX, PART 1 §91
111 the discussion here the majority delegation has levelled its bitterest attacks
against the comrades who have spoken unreservedly for the proposals of the
Open Letter, for the proposals of the ECCI, against the comrades Weinstone,
Wicks, and others. In the United States there is a whole number of such
comrades. Formerly it was said about these comrades that they are excellent
Party workers. But no sooner did they decide for the policy of the Comintern
than they became the target for the most reckless attacks.
If these comrades commit the only mistake of supporting the proposals of
the Executive, there is no ground for attacking them. I could only urge these
two comrades to keep rigidly apart from both factions. It would be the great-
est mistake for them to join either of the factions.
The sub-commission has had fairly long conversations with the Comrades
Gitlow, Wolfe, Bedacht, Lovestone, and Pepper. What did we find in the course
of those conversations? That these comrades have already far advanced along
the road of factionalism. We hope it is not yet too late for these comrades to
turn back from this road. We hope for the same from Comrade Foster. In
the discussion here, as well as during the Party Congress in America, there was
a campaign against Comrade Foster on account of his past mistakes, of his
articles of 1913-16. Comrades, you know what Foster is now politically. Such
campaigns can only compromise the whole Party in the eyes of the working
class. We know what Comrade Foster politically is. We have seen during
many years that he has been developing all the time ever closer to the policies
of the Comintern. But he is factionally inclined, that is his weakness. In the
instructions of the Presidium of the ECCI Comrade Foster was ordered to
play an objective part in the new Party leadership. Comrade Foster has pre-
ferred to continue the road of factionalism, and he has also interpreted the
Comintern line of organizational instruction in a factional way. He is too
intimately associated with factional friends who give him factional advice. I
tell Comrade Foster quite plainly that anyone who advises him to go on with
the factional strife, be he ever so much a good friend of his, is rendering him
a very bad service, whether it be Comrade Bittelman, Comrade Zack, Comrade
Browder, or anyone else.
I must also take it as a sign of factionalism on the part of Comrade Foster
that he did not early enough and clearly enough take a stand against the
Trotskyists. It should have been his duty, above all, to expose the Trotskyites
and to tackle the most reckless Cannon and the others. If Foster is now con-
structing a whole theory that it was not his group, but the group of Lovestone or
Ruthenberg which had from the very beginning, on the question of the Labor
Party and other questions, represented the opiwrtunistic standpoint while Foster
had represented the proper standpoint, we must say to Foster : You had better
give up these constructions, as they will lead nowhere. Both Foster and Love-
stone should earnestly think of what is the big difference between the method
of a good group leadership and of a good Party leadership. I believe in our
Parties we should elucidate this subject more than has been done hitherto. A
good group leader must possess the ability for astute political manoeuvering;
but he need not represent firm principles and a firm policy, he need not possess
the political courage to speak against his own adherents in the interest of the
Party if they commit mistakes. The Party leader must be able to place the
Party interest above the group interest. He must realize that the Party interest
coincides with the interest of the revolutionary working class. This ought to
be his highest consideration. I urge the leading comrades of both groups to
study the history of the Russian Party. Already during the time of Lenin you
will find a great many examples of the difference between Party and grovip
leadership, and even such examples you will find in the experience of the
Russian Party in recent times.
A word or two about Comrade Popper. We have had a conversation with
him in the Sub-Commission. He figures that the only purpose was to keep him
away from the Party Convention and that for this rea.son he was called back
to Moscow. The comrades know that he had already been called back in
September, when we did not yet know when the Party Convention would take
place. For many months he resorted to sabotage. The leadership of the
American Party, the Politbureau, have defended him in his sabotage towards the
Comintern. Finally, about the beginning of February, it was decided that he
shall depart. He asked then for a couple of weeks more to make his prepara-
tions for the journey. Then he ostensibly departed. Comrade Lovestone as-
sures us that he had given him the money for the journey. Lovestone called
that the decision of the Comintern was carried out. From that time on that is,
gg2 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
since February 20th, and until tlie end of Marcli, Comrade Pepper disappeared.
Where he was during that period, is hard to tell. I know only of two versions,
which are hardly compatible with each other, at all events.
Comrade Pepper said he had left for Moscow. lie did not wish to take the
direct route. He had gone to Mexico, and waited there for a boat. A boat
came, but it was not found suitable by Pepper. It was a slow-going vessel, and
as the Comintern had waited so long, he could not make up his mind to take a
slow boat. So he waited for a fast boat. But no fast boat came. He could
only board the steamer six weeks later. Sea tran.sportation must be in a very
backward condition in some countries on the Pacific! Comrade Pepper learnt
then that the other boat was also a slow one. So he went back to New York.
He had found no Communists in Mexico. I am not going to say any more about
Comrade Pepper's explanation. In Mexico there was a reactionary upheaval
during his stay. But Pepper had spoken to no Communists. We were here very
much worried that we had no representative of the Comintern in Mexico. The
leader of the American Party was there, he was only engaged in in.speciiug ships,
but spoke to no Communists. Eventually he got bored, and he went back to
New York.
As to the second version, we have two testimonies about it. Comrade Gilbert
Green, a suppoi-ter of the Majority group, has seen with his own eyes, during
this time that Pepper was supposed to be in Mexico, that he was in New York.
It may have been a "double" whom (Tilbert Green saw as Pepper, as well as
Lovestone and Stachel in whose company he is alleged to have been seen.
Maybe it was a double of Comrade Pepper, that is quite possible. I have per-
sonal experiences of this kind. My own dcnible is in Finland. He was killed,
and it was asserted by the Government that it was me. Therefore. I do not
implicitly put my faith in Comrade Gilbert Green's testimony; but there is yet
another testimony by Comrade Gannes, the shorthand typist. To wit, a repre-
sentative of the Comintern in a mass organization cables from America that it
was stated by the woman comrade in question that she had worked with Pepper
during the Party Congress.
Comrades, the sub-Commission was no ICC. We coiild not so far investigate
the question. But we must assume that these comrades do not lie when they
tell us that Pepper was seen by them in the company of Comrades Lovestone
and Stachel, and perhaps also Minor. It may perhaps be said that it was a
Mexican con.spiracy during the Party Congress in America. The Majority fac-
tion believed itself to be the Majority caucus, yet at the same time the little
caucus was holding its sittings.
At all events, to Pepper, when going back from Mexico to New York, as he
said, it was a question of his life whether he was to travel to Moscow or not.
On this question, to travel or not to travel, he had hesitated for a long time.
Until April 1st. On April 1st any strange thing may happen. Comrade Pepper
made a political statement, and the Secretariat expelled him from the I'arty.
(Interjection: That was an April joke.) Why did Pepper make a political
statement? We have put this question to Comrade Lovestone in the Sub-Com-
mission. Comrade Lovestone said he believed that Pepper had the intention
of taking advantage of the absence of Lovestone, Bedacht, and other leading
comrades, to get into his own hands the leadership of the Party. This has been
asserted by Lovestone two or three times. (Hear, hear.) We believe this to
be nonsense. Personally, I know of another explanation. Comrade Pepper had
no prospect to gain the leadership of the Party. The time he is alleged to
have spent in Mexico is also evidence that he possessed no particular courage for
this step. I believe he hesitated between carrying out the instructions of the
Comintern and a third party. With one leg he was still standing inside, but
with the other leg he was already outside of the Party. He wanted to give his
political statement for the event of quitting. Who helped him eventually de-
cide to proceed to Moscow. I do not know. Perhaps Comrade Minor, i>erhaps
also other comrades. Naturally, it would have been very inconvenient, had
Pepper blurted out everything. Comrades, I must apologize for having at all
touched upon the Pepper case. It is a case for the ICC. I have mentioned it
only after even Comrade Stalin has spoken here and demanded that the rela-
tions of the leading comrades with the leaders of the Executive snould be clear
and crystalically pure. I fail to luiderstand why sucn things, such fairy tales
are brought up in the Sub-Commission.
The Majority of the American Party has entered the factional question
upon one single question, upon the Lovestone question. This has been par-
ticularly done so by Comrade Lovestone. Comrade Lovestone is a very able,
APPENDIX, PART 1 893
a very gifted comrade, but an exceedingly factional group leader. Already the
last time that the factional question was discussed here, I believe in 1927, we
told him that he had not yet learned the difference between a group and a
Party leader. I admit what has been said here by the other comrades about
Comrade Lovestoue, but I beg to differ when they want to Identify Comrade
Lovestone with the leadership spoken of by the YI World Congress. I say,
this is too much. The VI World Congress said that the Communist Party of
the United States had shown itself as a firm leader in many strenuous class
fights. This was said by the VI World Congress about the Party, but not,
as thought by Comrade Wolfe, about the CC Majority, or particularly about
Lovestone. Comrade Wolfe has said even a good deal more in the Sub-Com-
mission about Lovestone and other comrades. He opined that this was the
very best that had been produced by the American working class for many
years. This is a little too much, this is an exaggeration.
If Comrade Lovestone should agree to our proposal and spend a certain
length of time, not in the American Party, but in some other work in the
International, we believe this would not mean political death for the comrade;
on the contrary, this might mean his political betterment, if he only wishes
to be better. At any rate, this is a test for him. The rest depends on him-
self. I only consider it a bad sign, the threat which he uttered at the close
of his speech :
"Whatever work is given me I will do. But we have a deep conviction
that such an organizational proposal as the one aiming to take me away from
our Party today is not a personal matter but a slap and slam in the face of
our entire leadership. Go to the membership and you will be convinced. We
know that if the new opposition bloc were to take the leadership away from'
the present comrades it would absolutely lead to ruin and wreck the Party.
And it is our duty to come here and tell you that if you insist on takijg:
some of these organizational measures against our Party you will create a
situation in our Party under which thousands of workers will be disgusted and
totally demoralized. We say to you comrades; Criticise, condemn but don't
take any measures that will pull our Party out by its roots. Take no steps
which will weaken and wipe out our Party as an effective force for years."
What does this mean? Is this not a concealed threat? Still clearer were
Lovestone's threats after Comrade Stalin had addressed us here on the organi-
zational plans which we should apply and which are incorporated in our draft.
The comrades Lovestone, Bedacht and the others said: "By accepting this
draft letter we would only further the demoralization, collapse, and chaos in
the Party".
Comrades, have we ever before listened to such tones? That we are now lis-
tening to such tones in discussing the American question, is something striking,
something new in connection with this question, yet nothing new in the history
of the Comintern. Such tones we have already heard before from some of the
Right opportunists, on the eve of their departure upon the road of splitting
policies — from Hoglund and the others.
This we have characterized in our draft letter as an attempt at preparing
the ground for the violation of the Comintern decisions, for the splitting of
the Party. We call upon the comrades to turn back from this road uncon-
ditionally. We have told the Minority group that they are wrong when they
say that the Congress was an anti-Comintern Congress; we have said that it
was wrong to assert that the Majority of the Party consisted of anti-Comin-
tern elements. We have characterized this as a harmful untruth, and I wish
to remind Comrade Foster that we have told him that we have seen a deplor-
able anti-Comintern wing in their ranks, too, that those living in glass houses
should not start throwing stones, that the words contained in the last state-
ment of the Majority of the delegation were of ill omen. Our sub-commission
deems it necessary to call quite definitely upon the delegation as a whole, and
upon every individual member of the delegation, to state with absolutely clearness
whether they are prepared to submit to the decisions of the Comintern on the
American question and to carry them out implicitly and without reservations.
Yes or no? It will substantially depend upon your answer, what character the
measures of the Comintern upon the American question shall eventually assume.
From your declaration we see plainly that it is no longer a question of fac-
tionalism of the leaders of the Majority of the CC against the Minority group,
but it is already a factional attitude towards the Executive of the Comintern.
Do you really wish to enter upon the path of splitting? A clear answer to
this question must be given here, in Moscow. We are fully convinced that the
894 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Party will march hand in hand with the Executive. This is not the question;
the question is about the leadership of the Majority faction and about the
leadership of the Minority faction. Will you help the Comintern in the fight
for the elimination of factionalism, or will you hinder the work of the Execu-
tive? Will you take up a light against the Executive upon this question, or will
you submit unconditionally and without reservations? Will you urge your own
supiwrters, the whole of the membership, to carry out unconditionally the decisions
of the Comintern? Yes or no?
Mr. Matthews. Now, I would also like to have you identify this particular
document.
Mr. VooRHis. As I understand it these speeches were made by Stalin about
what the American party ought to do and what it ought to be?
Mr. Matthiows. That is correct.
Mr. Lovestonk. This appears to be the principal speech, or one of the principal
speeches, of Molotov in the American Commission, telling us what we ought to do
and what we ought not to do, and how we ought not to do it.
Mr. Matthews. Molotov is at present the Foreign Commissar of the Soviet
Union?
]Mr. Low.STONE. That is one of his titles.
Mr. Matthews. I should like, Mr. Chairman, to liave this also incorporated in
the record. These documents are marked "confidential," and "not for publication,"
but under the circumstances I think that may be ignored.
Mr. Staenes. They deal with the American situation?
Mr. Matthews. They deal with the American situation ; yes.
Mr. Starnks. Without objection, it may be incoi-porated in the record.
(The document referred to is as follows:)
[Confidential]
Not for publication
Speech in the Session of the AMEaucAN Commission
Comrade Molotov's: Comrades, the draft letter on the situation in the Com-
munist Party of America was handed out yesterday. It has been in the hands
of the delegates about twenty-four hours. The object of this draft is to direct
the Party, the forces of both sections of the I'arty, towards the struggle for
the liquidation of factionalism, a struggle for the unanimous carrying out of the
line of the Comintern. However, what we have heard just now from Comrade
Gitlow as a representative of the Majority group clearly indicates that that
Group is by all means trying to keep its faction intact, to keep its faction as a
separate group.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Commission and Comrade Kuusinen as the
reporter appealed to the delegates here, asking them to answer as to whether
they accept the draft letter as a basis afer having closely studied it, a^ to
whether they undertake unconditionally to submit to the decisions of the Comin-
tern, as to whether they will carry these decisions into operation, even to this
question which is elementary for each communist, we see that the comi-ades
give no answer, that they want to make first clear their factional position, that
they want to secede as a group, that they want to unite first so that the line
■of their group, the line of their faction may be more sharply counterposed to
the line defended by the Comintern.
It seems to me that this is a bad sign, that it shows that the comrades do not
go along the path desired by the Comintern, the path which must be followed
by the Communist Party of America in order to fulfill the great tasks which
confront it at the present time.
Recording this fact it seems to me that the Commission must decide today
whether the draft letter is adopted as a basis and then proceed with the con-
sideration of the various amendments that some of the comrades will make.
The question of the struggle against factionalism, the question of struggle
for the main line of the Comintern, is so clear that each of the comrades here
must declare openly and sincerely before taking the matter up in their caucus,
before elaborating the question in their faction, as to whether he is in favour
of combating factionalism which corrodes the Party, which menaces the develop-
ment of the American working class. We must get a clear and concise answer
to this question right here at this Session.
Comrades, I have very little to add to what Comrade Stalin has said. I fully
agree with his estimate of the situation in the American Party and his estimate
of the various Sections of that Party.
APPENDIX, PART 1 895
I will take up only one question, the question whicli was of particular im-
portance during the Convention of the American Party.
The comrades of the Majority, and partly also the comrades of the Minority,
attempted to draw a distinction between the political and the organizational sides
of the decision of the Comintern. This is true also of Comrade Foster who
defended the position of waiting — with the consideration of the question con-
cerning the adoption of the political proposals of the Comintern until its
organizational proiwsals will be known. By this Comrade Foster stressed his
factional attitude towards Comintern decisions.
On the other hand, what the Majority faction did in relation to the Comintern
proposals at the Convention of the Party has shown once more that the Majority
leaders do not want to reckon with the will of the Comintern and that they are
concerned in turning the Comintern decisions into something that is favourable
for their faction and not to take them as given by the Comintern. I said that
an attempt was made to differentiate the organizational from the political pro-
posals. Why is it necessary to speak of that? Because even now the repre-
sentatives of the Majority still hold this position. Therefore, even if the Open
Letter of the ECCI were adopted "unanimously" both by the Majority and the
Minority, that would be absolutely insuflacient guarantee that the desired prog-
ress will be made in the struggle against factionalism in the Communist Party of
America. It is not for the first time that the Comintern categorically demands
the cessation of the factionalist struggle in America. Not only the Executive
Committee and not only its Presidium, but also the Sixth Congress of the
Comintern categorically demanded from the factional leaders to stop the fac-
tional fight which is ruining the Party and which does not allow the Party to
occupy the place of honour in the American Labour movement and the Labour
movement of the world which it should hold, and which it will unquestionably
hold in the near future. The development of antagonisms in the system of
American imperalism, and the changes which are now taking place in the
American Labour movement, speak in favour of that. It is clear now that what
has happened at the Convention of the American Party has fully confirmed the
correctness of the Open Letter and the principal organizational conclusions which
were drawn by the Comintern. The carrying out of these decisions of the
Comintern (with the exception of the motion to make Comrade Foster General
Secretary, which has already been withdrawn) must now be guaranteed so as
to make it possible to shift the Party onto new rails.
Without organizational measures strengthening the position of the Comintern,
the Communist Party of America will get into an intolerable situation. And
yet the Party is confronted wtih great tasks.
Take the question of growth of the Communist Party. Has that Party become
a mass political Party? No, it would be too early to speak of that. Many facts
that have been cited here indicate that the workers are attracted to the Party,
that the workers do want to take active part in the work of the Communist
Party. However, not very many workers join the Party. The Party does not
coi>e with its tasks in this sphere. The numerical growth of the Party is in-
significant and, apart from that, there is gi-eat fluctuation in the membership.
Not much has been accomplished as yet in making the American Party a mass
Party.
It is still more important to touch upon the ideological development of the
Party. If we take the principal parties of the Communist International, say
the CPSU or the CPG, the process of ideological differentiation in the struggle
against the Right and "Left" opportunists has taken place. Tliis is shown by
many facts in the development of these Parties in the recent period. Take any
big Communist Party and you will find that there is no confusion on such ques-
tions as that of the struggle against Trotskyism. Moreover, it may be stated
that in most Communist Parties the struggle against Trotskyism has in the main,
already ended. Trotskyism has lost its influence in the Communist Parties, and
stands exposed as an anti-proletarian and anti-revolutionary tendency. Trotsky-
ism is smashed.
As to the Communist Party of America, this is not yet the situation there.
The Minority representatives, trying to defend tlie line of the Comintern, have
not yet succeeded in purging themselves of Trotskyist elements and only recently
have certain Trotskyist elements broken away from them and are now openly
fighting the Communist Party. The process has not yet quite ended here and it
is obvious that we must take into account the misdoings of the Minority in this
respect. The struggle along these lines is at the present time of vital importance
in the American Party.
896 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
But this is even much more so with regard to the Riglit Danger. Tlie Sixth
Congress raised tlie question of struggle against the Right danger as the central
question for the Communist Parties. What is the situation in tlie American
Party with reference to that? Here we see the clearest example of how far the
process of formation of the Communist Party of the United States as one of the
strongest forces of the Comintern, as a mass Communist Party, is still far from
completion. To say for example, that the question of the struggle against the
Right danger is not clear in the German Party would he ridiculous. However, it
is quite different with regard to the American Party. The factional struggle in
that Party has assumed such a character that it is still uncl(>ar as to what will
be the line of division between the Rights and the Party. The opjiortunist mis-
takes of the Majority in the past period give a great number of examples show-
ing that the Right danger is really of tremendous significance in the American
Party. This, by the way, is to a certain extent true also of the Minority. The
question of fighting the Right danger confronts lioth factions. P>ut whereas the
Open Letter of the Comintern says that the strngglo against the Right danger
must become of greatest importance in the American I'arty. the recent Conven-
tion of that Party did not do anything towards the carrying out of this line.
The struggle against the Right elements, the struggle against deviations in the
American Party is overshadowed by the factional group struggle.
The unprincipled factional struggle, the sulxn-dination of the practical revo-
lutionai*y tasks t<> group interests, to factional interests, shows that opportunism
in America is attired in motley colours. It is trying to don clothes which would
prevent the membership from seeing the full danger of that deviation in the
American Party. But the seriousness of the situation is obvious. With regard
to the Right danger in that Party, the process is not yet completed liut we must
at any rate see that at the present time the struggle against the Right danger in
the American Party, more than in any other, is very important owing to the
fargone uni)rincipled factionalism in its ranks which savours of petty-bourgeois
trickery and politiciandom. But the time is near when the Party will under-
stand what is going on, and then it will not go well with the Rights.
A few ilhistrations rc'lating to the conclusions to be drawn from the above. In
order to characterize the line of the leaders of the American Party a few in-
stances will suffice.
It seems to me that one of such instances is the Pepper instance. Pepper
played n very important role in the leadership of the American Party. For the
Comintern it has been clear for some tim(> that Pejijier expresses opportunist
tendencies, that he represents unsound Conunuuist elements. However, Pepper
until recently occupied one of the most prominent positions in the leadership of
the Party, especially in its ideological leadership. The history with referenc«>
to Pepper's work, on the one hand his leading role in the organization of the
Convention, and on the other the stubborn struggle for Pe])per together with the
struggle for Lovestone, has clearly revealed the ideological kinship of the Ma-
jority leaders with Pepper. Finally, that which happened after, — the decision of
the CEC of the American Party to expel Pejyper and the subsequent decision of
the same CEC to reinstate him, these machinations show to what extent prin-
ciples are subordinated to grovip interests, to factional interests. The Majority
leaders have shown by this how prone they are to fall fm- Pepper's opiiortmiist
tendencies. This reveals the ambiguous position of the leaders and the lack of
clarity in the Party which has as yet been unable to discover that the position
held by its leaders is intolerable.
Another example. The Russian question and the question of the attitude
towards Comrade Bucharin. The Majority leaders (Lovestone, Gitlow and others)
passed a resolution at the Convention calling for Comrade Bucharin's removal
from the Comintern, and later without giving new motives disavowed that de-
cision in their statement on behalf of the American delegation at the Plenum
of the Central Committee. All this goes to show how nn.sound, how unprincipled
is the attitude of the leaders of the American Party to the line of the Comintern.
Yet in the given case it is not only the interests of the American Party but the
most vital interests of the whole Comintern that are involved. From this it is
clear that the Comintern is confronted with the task of establishing a funda-
mental line in the American Party. What we have in America now is uni-eliable
and unsound. A ruthless struggle is necessary for Comintern principles, per-
sistent work must be conducted for the ideological consolidation of the Party.
We must see to it that on important political issues the Party should not pass
one decision today and an absolutely contradictory one to-morrow.
APPENDIX, PART 1 §97
From the point of view of tlie attitude to tlie Comiuteru, we see a position
wbicli it is doubtful as to wlietlier we had anything like it in any other Communist
Party in the last few years. Comrade Lovestone's reference to the "running
sore" in the Comintern, or what he now calls the "cancer" in the Comintern,
this shameful attack on the Comintern is no accident. To make the Convention
of the Party believe that the policy of the Comintern (and the organizational
measures of the Comintern are its policy as they are in.separably bound up with
its policy) is decided on the American question by the temporary correlation
of forces in the Comintern and to instigate the Party against the Comintern by
means of false maneouvres, urging the Convention to take no notice of or even
to openly violate the decision of the Comintern and to wait until the situation
in the Comintern will become more favourable from the point of view of the
interests of a certain group, means to fight against the Comintern, to make the
Party hostile to the Communist International.
If we add to this all that we know concerning the attitude of the Party leaders
to the Comintern Delegation which found expression during the Convention in
most brazen-faced mockery of the Delegation, going so far as the organization of
disloyal caucus meetings of the Convention (95 out of 104 delegates) behind the
back of the Delegation, then it becomes clear how far the Majority factionalists
have gone in their struggle against the Comintern. To train the Communist Party
in this manner means to train it not in the spirit of the Comintern, but in the
spirit of absolute hostility towards the Comintern. Such training of a Party
which is about to become a powerful factor, which is about to develop into one of
the most important parties of the Comintern, is of course, inadmissible. No mass
Communist Party will be organized in America in this manner. Is it not clear
that the present leaders of the Party who absolutely fail to understand their
most elementry duties towards the Comintern have gone too far?
As to the factional character of both sections of the American Party, enough
has already been said about that here. I fully agree with what has been said
here concerning the excessive group and factional division in the American
Party. This is at the present time the most dangerous thing because the Ameri-
can Party is now confronted with stupendous tasks. The radicalization of the
workers gives rise to most favourable conditions for the development of the Com-
munist Party as a mass political organization, as one of the most important
sections of the Comintern. Under such conditions a most vigorous struggle
against factionalism in the ranks of the American Party is absolutely necessary
and cannot be postponed.
The Comintern would be no Comintern if it were not to effect at the present
time a decisive change in tlie struggle against factionalism in the American Party.
The struggle against factionalism now, in the present phase, must be different
from what it was in the past. That is why it would not do to stop merely at the
sending of an open political letter without taking certain organizational measures,
measures mapped out by the Comintern prior to the Convention. The carrying
out of these decisions is absolutely necessary in order to stop the factional fight
in the Party. The time has come for the Communist Party of the United States
of America to get on a nev\' track, and, with the support of the Comintern, to
ensure the proper development of the Party, ensure the liquidation of factionalism
not in words hut in deeds, and to ensure the transformation of its organization
into a real leading force in the labour movement of America capable of playing
a leading role in the mass labour movement and occupying an outstanding position
in the ranks of the Comintern.
Exhibit No. 199
[Source: Excerpt from the testimony of Earl Browder, Hearings of the Special Committee
on Un-American Activities, September 5, 1939, page 4305]
Mr. Whitley. Mr. Browder, who are the men upon whose books or writings
communi.sm is based, or founded?
Mr. Browder. The greatest authorities on the theory of communism are Marx,
Engels, Lenin, and Stalin.
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 58
§9§ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 200
[Source : Excerpt from the testimony of Earl Browder, general secretary of the Communist
Party of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties,'September 5, 1939, page 4305]
Mr. Whitley. Now, to repeat for just a momeut, Mr. Browder. At the present
time, in addition to being general secretary of tlie Communist Party of tlie
United States, you are a member of the executive committee of the Comintern;
is that correct?
Mr. Browder. That is right — of the ronminnist Intornationul.
Exhibit No. 201
[Source: Excerpt from the testimony of William Z. Poster, chairman of the Communist
Party of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties, "September 29, 1939, page 5325]
Mr. Matthews. Will you please state for the record as nearly as you can
recollect, without notes before yon, the occasions on which you made visits to
the Soviet Union, beginning with the first.
Mr. FostI':r. All told, I have made a inimber, some 10 or more. 1 cannot state
them all ; I can state a number of them.
Exhibit No. 202
[Source: Excerpt from the testimony of William Z. Foster, chairman of the Communist
Party of the United States, Hearings of the Special Committee on Un-American Activi-
ties,'September 29, 1939, page 5325]
Mr. Matthews. What positions have you held in the Communist International?
Mr. Foster. I am a member of the executive tmd a member of the presidium
of the executive.
Mr. M.\tthews. How long have you occupied those positions?
Mr. Foster. Oh, probably — I cannot say exactly — probably about 10 years or
more a member of the executive of the Communist International, and a member
of the presidium since 1935.
Exhibit No. 203
[Source: Daily Worker, May 20, 1929, page 3]
To Ail Members of the Com.munist Party of United States
An Address hy the Exeoiitive Committee of the Communist Inter-national
Deiar Comrades : The Executive (^ommittee of the Communist International
together with the delegation of the Sixth Convention of the Communist Party of
the United States has very carefully discussed the situation in the American
Communist Party. Having given all delegates the fullest opportunity for ex-
pressing their views and for making proposals, having carefully examined all
material presented and having considered the question from all a.spects, the
Executive Committee of the Communist International deems it necessary to
place in all seriousness the situation within the Party before all members of
the Communist Party of the United States.
The Oi5eu Letter of the Executive Committee of the Communist International
to the Sixth Convention of the American Communist Party, has placed before
it the fundamental tasks arising in connection with accentuation of the inner
and outer contradictions of American imperialism in the present period, pointed
APPENDIX, PART 1 §99
out tlie necessity of the Party's converting ifself as soon as possible from a
numerically small propagandist organization into a mass political party of the
working class, which particularly at the present juncture is indissolubly con-
nected with the intensification of the struggle against the right danger. This
open letter declared categorically that the fundamental prerequisite for a
successful carrying out of these tasks is the cessation of the unprincipled
struggle of many years standing.
The Executive Committee of the Communist International is compelled to
record that at the Convention itself and after it not only was there no appre-
ciable result achieved in the matter of doing away with factionalism, but on the
contrary the factional struggle has become still more accentuated. Due to
the unprincipled factional struggle the Sixth Convention of the American Com-
nmnist Party failed to produce the results which it should have produced in
regard to bolshevizatiou and the establishment of a healthier condition within
the American Communist Party. Many of the most important political ques-
tions and tasks confronting the Party were not discussed by the Convention.
The members of the Majority and of the Minority of the Party were not ex-
amined at the Convention as they should have been as a matter of bolshevik
.self-criticism. The Party was not mobilized for the struggle against the right
danger. No consolidation of all forces of the Party for struggle against
factionalism was secured at the Convention. On the contrary this Convention,
which was composed of the best proletarian elements of the American Communist
Party who uphold the line of the Comintern, became an arena for unprincipled
maneiivers on the part of the top leaders of the Majority as well as on the
part of the leaders of the Minority. The Convention was forced off of the
line proposed by the Comintern and was mobilized for purposes of further fac-
tional struggle hy both groups.
A gross distortion of the line of the Comintern was the theory translated into
the Convention alleging that organizational proposals of the Executive Conimittee
of the Communist International were in contradiction to its political letter instead
of being a necessary guarantee for carrying out the line of the Open Letter to the
American Communist Party. A clearly factional distortion of the meaning of
the organizational proposals of the Executive Commitee of the Communist Inter-
national were also the efforts to interpret them as handing over the leadership
of the I'arty to the Minority, which was not and is not intended by the Comintern
since the fundamental task of the Open Letter and organizational proposals of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International to the Sixth Convention
\^'as the consolidation of the Party on the basis of the line of the Comintern in
the direction of the struggle against the factionalism of both groups. The Minor-
ity of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the United States
endeavored to make the Open Letter and organizational proposals of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Communist International an instrument for getting the
leadership of the Party into its own hands. The Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International condemns these attempts of the Minority which show that
it factionally distorted the meaning of the Open Letter of tlie Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International and its organizational proposals and that
certain leaders of the Minority have shown themselves unfit to play a role of a
imiting factor in the struggle of the Party against factionalism in conformity
with the directions of the Executive Committee of the Communist International.
It is the factional leaders of the Majority with Comrade Lovestone at the head
that are mainly responsible for making use of the Convention for factional
purposes, for misleading honest proletarian Party members who uphold the
line of the Comintern, for playing an unprincipled game with the question of
the struggle against the Right danger in the Comintern and in the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, for inadmissable personal hounding of the delega-
tion of the Comintern at the Convention, for the organization of caucus meetings
of the delegates of the Majority in direct contradiction with the Open Letter
of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and in spite of
verbal acceptance of that letter, for hounding those comrades who departed
from the Majority faction and unconditionally accepted the line of the Executive
Committee of the Communist International, for a campaign against certain
responsible comrades of the Minority who were cari-ying out the line of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International — for all these methods and
intrigues which cannot be tolerated in any section of the Comintern and which
clearly bear the imprint of petty bourgeois politiciandom.
Both factions of the American Communist Party have been guilty of right
errors. Both factions show serious deviations to the right on the general line
900 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the Comintern, which creates the danger of an openly opportunist right
deviation crystallizing within the Party.
Since the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International the Majority
of the Central Committee of the American Communist Party has been com-
mitting a series of gross right eri'ors pointed out in the Open Letter of the
Executive Committee of the Communist International. These errors foiuid their
expression in overestimating American imperialism and putting the question of
inner and outer contradictions in a wrong way, which led to the obscuring of the
inner contradictions of American capitalism, in Tuiderestiniating the swing to
the left of the American working class, in underestimating American v(>fr)rmism
which led to weakening tlie struggle against it. in underestimating the right
danger in the American Communist Party, in substituting in place of the cpiestion
of the right opportunist danger only the question of Trotskyism, in dealing with
the question iu a manner which led to the obscuring of the right danger.
The Minority of the Central Committee of the American Conununist Party
was conunilting, in regard to questions dealing with the crisis of American capi
talism and the swing of the masses to the left, "left", but in reality right oppor-
tunist errors; it dissociated the development of the inner contradictions of Amer-
ican capitalism fi'om its external contradictions and from the general crisis of
world capitalism, and in regard to the (piestion of the struggle against the war
danger it was sliding down to petty bourgeois pacitist slogans ( "no new cruisers" —
Comrade Rittelman). The Minority of the Central Committee was unable to
dissociate itself at the right time from Trotskyism and did not properly struggle
against it. An ideological lever of right errors in the American Communist Party
\^'as the so-called theory of "exceptionalism" which found its clearest exponents
in the pers(ms of Comrades Peppier .-ind T.ovestone whose conception was as
follows: There is a crisis of capitalism but not of American capitalism, there is
a swing of the masses leftwards but not in America, tliere is the necessity of
accentuating the struggle against reformism but not in the United States, there
is a necessity for struggling against the right dangcu- but not in he American
Conununist Party. And yet the present period, when the process shaking the
foundation of capitalist stabilization is going on, signifies for the United States
that it is being ever more closely involved in the general crisis of capitaliftin.
In America too the fundamental contradiction of eapitali.sm — the contradiction
between the growth of productive forces and the lagging behind of markets — is
becoming more accentuated. The bourgeoisie is increasing its efforts to find a
way out of the growing crisis by means of rationalization, i. e. by increasod
exploitation of the working class. The internal class contradictions are growing;
the struggle for markets and spheres for investment of capital against other
imperialist states is becoming more accentuated; there is a feverish growth of
armaments and the war danger is getting nearer and nearer. Witli a distinctness
unprecedented in history, American capitalism is exhibiting now the effects of
the inexorable laws of capitalist development, the laws of the decline and down-
fall of capitalist society. Tlie general crisis of capitalism is growing more rapidly
than it may seem at first glance. This crisis will shake also the foundation of
the power of American imperialism.
Under these conditions the theory of "exceptionalism" is a reflection of the
pressure of American capitalism and reformism which is endeavoring to create
among the mass of workers the impression of absolute firmness and "exceptional"
imperialist might of American capital in spite of its growing crisis and to
strengthen the tactic of class collaboration in spite of the accentuation of class
contradictions. The Executive Committee of the Communist International points
out that not only the mistakes of the Majority but also the most important mis-
takes of the Minority were based on the conception of American "exceptionalism."
While it records the political mistakes of both groups as well as the growth of
the right danger in the American Communist Party, the Executive Committee
of the Communist International regards as a factional exaggeration the claim
alleging that the group of the Majority as a whole is a bearer of the right tend-
ency as well as the claim alleging that the Minority group represents the Trotsky-
ist deviation. There are in the ranks of both groups elements with strong right
tendencies which either show themselves openly or are masked by "left" phrase-
ology. Neither of the two groups has carried on a proper struggle against these
right tendencies in the ranks of its own faction and the factionalism of both
groups has been the great impediment to the development within the Party of the
necessary self-criticism and to the political educational of the Party members in
the spirit of Bolshevik steadfastness based upon principle. A factional lack of
principle which is also an expression of opportunism finds its expression in the
APPENDIX, PART 1 QQl
fact that both groups were putting the interests of their faction above the inter-
ests of the Party. On the strength of this the American Comnnuiist Party is
confronted now in all sharpness with the question of the danger of the political
disintegration of the present leading cadres which threatens to undermine the
whole work of the Party. A characteristic manifestation of rotten factional
diplomacy in regard to the Communist International is the attitude of the Major-
ity of the Central Committee of the American Communist Party on the question
of Comrade Pepper's conduct. In spite of repeated decisions of the Comintern
on the removal from work in the American Comnmnist Party of Comrade Pepper
who repeatedly exhibited opportunistic tendencies, the Majority of the Central
Committee violated these decisions of the Comintern, shielding the political errors
and gross breaches of discipline which were being committed by Comrade Pepper.
The inconsistency and lack of principle in the attitude of the leaders of the
Majority of the Central Committee in regard to Comrade Pepper found vivid
expression in the fact that the Central Committee of the American Communist
Party expelled him from the Party, pointing out that "the political platform of
Comrade Pepper is no doubt the real cause of his cowardly disinclination to do
his duty and to go and place himself at the disposal of the Comintern" (decision
of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the American Communist Party
approved by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee), whereas a few days
later in spite of the political characteristic given to Comrade Pepper the Central
Committee reinstated him in the ranks of the Party. The Majority as well as
The Minority in 1929 was engaged in inadmissable, unprincipled speculation with
questions of the situation in the Connnunist Party of the Soviet Union and in the
Comintern. If the Minority speculated in the version as if it were the only
group in the American Communist Party sharing the attitude of the Communist
Pai-ty of the Soviet Union in its struggle against right deviations, the Majority,
making use of methods of rotten diplomacy, went to the length of unprincipled
maneuvering in regard to this question. This has fovmd expression in the adoption
by the Convention at the initiative of Comrades Lovestone and Gitlow and with-
out the least attempt at informing the delegates of the Convention about the
situation in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, of a resolution which pro-
posed organizational measures in the struggle against the right deviation. And
subsequently to the arrival in Moscow the delegation of the Majority in the
person of Comrade Gitlow made a declaration which practically disavows this
resolution and upholds the slanderous attacks of the right elements on the leader-
ship of the Connnunist Party of the Soviet Union and of the Comintern.
The Executive Committee of the Comintern draws special attention to attacks
entirely unworthy of a Communist, which during the Convention, Comrade Love-
stone ix.'rmitted himself to make on the leadership of the Comintern (Comrade
Lovestone's reference to "a running sore" in the apparatus of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International ) . The Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International emphasizes that the.se attacks of Comrade Lovestone repre-
sent a repetition of slanderous attacks upon the Comintern made by right
opportunists.
The Executive Committee of the Connnunist International draws special atten-
tion to the declaration of May 9th in which Comrades Bedacht, Lovestone and
others tried to discredit beforehand the decision of the Comintern by stating that
"the Executive Committee of the Communist International wants to destroy the
Central Committee and is therefore following a policy of legalizing forever the
factionalism of the opposition block and is recommending that it carry it on also
in future."
The Executive Committee of the Connnunist International holds that this most
factional and entirely impermissible anti-Party declaration of Comrades Bedacht,
Lovestone and others represents a direct attempt at preparing a condition neces-
sary for paralyzing the decisions of the Comintern and for a split in the Com-
munist Party of America. The same manifest determination to oppose their fac-
tion to the Comintern found expression also in a second statement of May 14th
submitted by the delegation from the Convention only in more diplomatic form.
The assertion of the leaders of the Majority faction concerning their "loyalty"
to the Comintern contained in that statement was clearly exposed at the very
session of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist Interna-
tional at which the statement was reported, by the refusal of the majority of the
signers unconditionally to carry into effect the decisions contained in this letter.
The Executive Committee of the Connnunist International declares that in case
the authors of the declaration refuse unconditionally to submit to the decisions
of the Comintern and to actively put them into practice, the Executive Committee
902 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the Communist Internatioual will be forced to adopt all measures necessary
to put a stop to all attempts at splitting the Party, to secure unity in the ranks
of the Communist Party of America and to realize the decisions adopted by the
Comintern.
In the course of years the Executive Committee of the Communist Internatioual
had repeatedly demanded the liquidation of factionalism in the Communist Party
of America. Thus for example in the resolution of the 5th enlarged Plenum of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International in 1925 it is stated:
"The Executive Conunittee holds tirmly to the opinion that the factional struggle
between the two groups must absolutely cease."
In a resolution of the 6tli Enlarged Plenum of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International in 1926 on the American question, among other things
it is stated : '"To enable the American Communist Party to fuUtil its historic
mission the first prerequisite is complete and unconditional termination of the
factional fight within the Comnuinist Party not in words but in deeds."
In its resolution of Jul.v 1st 1927 the Executive Committee of the Communist
International again reminded the Party that "this demand was not being
carried our seriously enough" and that there is still in the Party "an impermis-
sible situation of faction formation" which mny lead to "a crisis in tlic Party."
The Sixth World Congress of the Comintern in 1928, while mentioning in its
political theses that in the Party there is to be "observed a slackening of the
long standing factional struggle," nevertheless foimd sufficient ground for decid-
ing tliat "the most important task confronting the Party is to put an end to
factional strife — which is not based on any serious controversies on points of
principle."
Finally the Executive Committee of the Communist International, with the
object of carrying out the decisions of the World Congress and in view of the
fact that the inner-Party situation in the United States became anew accentu-
ated, bad addressed an open letter to tlie American Party in December 1928 and
demanded from the Convention then pending that it begin at last really to r-arry
out the decisions of the Comintern concerning the liquidation of factionalism.
All of this was absolutely of no avail so far. The leaders of the Majority as
well as the leaders of the Minority of the Central Committee, who repeatedly
gave their verbal pledges to the Executive Committee of the Communist Inter-
national that they will carry out the deci'^ions of the Comintern, have systemat-
icall.v violated the decisions of tlie Executive Committee of the Communist
International and their own pledges. Therefore the Executive Conunittee of the
Comintern, approving in the main the work of the delegation of the BCCI to
the Sixth Convention of the American Communist Party, resolves to adopt the
following measures :
1. To place the Majority as well as the Minority of tlie Central Committee
under the obligation of dissolving immediately all factions and ceasing all
factional work. To call upon all organizations of the American Communist
Part.v to secure the putting into practice of this instruction, not shrinking from
the application in regai-d to faciionalism of the most severe disciplinary meas-
ures clear up to expulsion from the Part.v.
2. Comrades Lovestone and Bittelman as the extreme factionalists of the
Majority and Minority, to be removed for a time from work in the American
Communist Party.
3. To reject the demand of the Minority of the Central Committee in regard
to the calling of a special Convention.
4. To recognize as necessary the reorganization and extension of the Secre-
tariat of the Central Committee on a basis of securing real collective, non-
factional activity, and to render to the Central Committee every possible help
in the matter of putting an end to all factionalism in the Party.
5. To turn over Comrade Pepper's case to the InternationarControl Commis-
sion for consideration.
The Executive Committee of tlie Communist International calls upon all
members of the Party to get together for the struggle against unprincipled fac-
tionalism in the Party, to be able to carry on the struggle against the right
danger, for the healing and bolshcvization of tlie American Communist Party,
for the genuine carrying out of inner-Party democracy and proletarian self-
criticism. With these objects in view the Party must initiate on a large scale
a discussion of the qtiestious concerning the situation within the Party and the
political tasks confronting the Party. It is neces.sary to carry on in all Party
and young Communist organization a thorough enlightenment campaign con-
cerning the decisions of the Sixth Congress of the Comintern, the Open Letter
APPENDIX, PART 1 903
of the ECCI to the Sixth Convention of the Communist Party of America, and
concerning the present address of the Executive Conunittee of the Communist
International. In the course of this enliglitenment campaign, while waging a
struggle against all opportunists who want to fight the Comintern, while unit-
ing in that struggle all honest and disciplined comrades who are loyal to the
Communist movement, the Communist Party must concentrate its attention on
the most important questions of revolutionary struggle of the proletariat of
America — on questions of unemployment, struggle for social insurance, wages,
working hours, work in existing trade unions, work for the organization of new
unions, struggle against reformism and struggle against the war danger. The
Communist Party of the United States must strengthen its work in regard to
recruiting and retaining in its ranks new cadres of workers that are joining the
Party, especially of the working youth. It must widen its agitational and
organizational work in the big plants in the main branches of industry and
among the Negroes and must secure for the Party an independent leading role
in the industrial struggles of the working class that are developing, organizing
in the process of the struggle the unorganized workers.
It is only by relentless struggle against unprincipled factionalism, which is
eating into the vitals of the Party, only by consolidating the whole Party for
carrying out its fundamental practical tasks on the basis of the line of the
Comintern and by more energetic struggle against the right danger that the
American Communist Party -will become tlie genuine Bolshevik vanguard of the
American proletariat and will be converted into a mass political Party of the
American workers in the ranks of which inner-Party democracy is being actually
unfolded while at the same time an iron proletarian discipline is strengthened,
to which all organizations and each individual member unconditionally submits ;
in the ranks of which is practised the submission of the Minority to the Major-
ity on the basis of the Party's perusal of the line and practical directions of
the Comintern. Such a Party will be capable to lead the American proletariat
to victorious struggle against capitalism.
With Communist Greetings,
— Executive Committee Communist International.
Exhibit No. 204
[Source: Daily Worker, July 8, 1029, pages 1, 2]
Party Is Thokoughly Mobilized Against Alt. Attempts to Break Its Unity;
Decisi\'ely Defeats Lovestone's Splitting Program
Statement of the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of the
U. S. A.
The campaign for the unreserved acceptance and immediate application of
the Address of the Communist International to our Party has now proceeded
for about one month. In this month the campaign has mobilized the Party,
has made the Party fully conscious of the timeliness and cori'ectness of the
criticisms contained in the Address, and of the correctness of the political line
laid down by it, and has fortified its determination to fight against and to defeat
all efforts of drawing the Party away from the political path of the 6th Congress
and on the road of opportunism, of Brandlerism. The Party is thoroughly
mobilized against any attempts of breaking the unity of our Party, and has
decisively defeated Lovestone's attempt to split.
The first response justified the judgment that our Party was a Comintern
Party politically and organizationally, an integral part of the Communist Inter-
national. The Party fully realized the right character of the political line
represented by Lovestone. It realized that the actions of Lovestone up to and
including his defiance of the Communist International were attempts to replace
the revolutionary, political line of the Comintern by a right opportunist line.
The Party rejects this right line. It defends and will follow the revolutionary
line of the Comintern. It has manifested this intention very definitely by the
immediate and almost unanimous support of the Central Committee in the
expulsion of Lovestone. Aside from some hesitation shown in the Connecticut
and California districts, the district committees and functionary bodies have,
practically unanimously, endorsed Lovestone's expulsion.
904 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Lovestoue uuderestimated the political soundness of our Party. He hoped to
carry it with him on the wave of a factional momentum for a struggle against
the Communist International. The promptness with which the Party met this
attempt of anti-Comintern mobilization undeceived him. Therefore, he changed
his tactics. At first intending to mobilize the Party in its overwhelming ma-
jority for a direct fight against the Comintern, he now concentrates on mobilizing
his handful of followers for a struggle against the leadership of the Party.
That is why he made his gesture of a bow to Comintern discipline by a formal
acceptance of the Address; but at the same time he reiterated his platform of
opposition to the Comintern decisions, utilizing it as a recriiiting platform for
his followers. The political conflict between him and the Comintern is the all
overshadowing issue with him and his followers. Thus, even their statements
of "submission" take the form of a challenge to the political and organizational
authority of the Communist International. The conflict pointed out in the Central
Committee statement on Lovestone's expulsion again manifests itself: in words,
we had condemnations of the opportunists in Czechoslovakia, Germany — but in
deeds we met mobilization of the Party against the Comintern under the slogan
of "de.structive Comintern methods in the struggle against Brandler, Hais,"
etc: in words, we had condemnations of the conciliators, — but in deeds we met
mobilization against the Comintern under the slogan "the Comintern is killing
such valuable elements as Evert, Humbert Droz, etc." ; in words, we were treated
to condemnations of the Rights in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union —
but in deeds we were confronted by mobilization against the Comintern and
against the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet T^nion
under the slogan of "no hooliganism": in words, we are assured that they sup-
port the policies of the leadership of the C. P. S. U. — but in deeds we are treated
to an attempt of mobilization against the five-year plan : in words, we are
assured of submission to the decisions of the Comintern — but the deeds take the
form of mobilization against the Comintern under the slogan "the Address
destroys the Party and its leadership"; in words, they call upon all to dissolve
the faction.s — in deeds we find Lovestone in caucuses, making strenuous efforts
to reorganize and reconstitute his faction for a struggle against the Party
policy and against the Party.
This conflict between wordy protestations of loyalty to the Party and the
Comintern and active creation and mobilization of disloyalty has now taken the
form of an open conflict of Lovestone's anti-Party tendencies with the Party.
The small handful of followers of Lovestone are trying to deceive the Party by
a continuation of Lovestone's methods. They attempt to cover the meaning of
their open anti-Party and anti-Comintern six'eches with the introduction of and
the vote for a formal declaration of submission to the Comintern. The Party
resents this in.sult hui'led at its political intelligence. It can distingiiish very
well between its loyal members and its enemies who parade under the disguise
of loyalty. It demands unreserved submission to vhe leadership of the Com-
munist International. It demands that every Party member ])ecome an instru-
ment in carrying out the political line of the Communi.st International. It will
not permit any member to mobilize any section of The Party against the Com-
munist International. It will not be satisfied with formal professions of accep-
tance and submission ; it will demand action for the line of the Comintern.
The expulsion of Lovestone has brought out into the open his political platform.
This platform is one of political and organizational struggle against the Comin-
tern. Its ix)litical contentions build bridges into the camps of different enemies
of the Comintern. Lovestone's persistent propaganda of the deterioration and
disintegration of the Comintern bows to Trotsky's theory of Thermidor. His
assertions of the growing power of imperialism and his ridiculing of the most
serious recent struggles of the working class, such as the May Day events in
Berlin, are a bid to Brandler. His challenging of the correctness of the five-
year plan of the C. P. S. U. are an open annoiuicement of his engagement with
the Right wing in the C. P. S. U.
Lovestone's platform is now supplying one of the crystallization iwints of
hidden opportunists in our Party. When the Comintern demands disassociation
from Lovestone, it demands primarily the rejection of th.e Right platform of
Lovestone and the unconditional defense of the revolutionary platform of the
Communist International.
Some members of our Party are still meeting and caucusing with Lovestone.
Some of them are consciously determined to follow Lovestone's path of struggle
against the Party ; others are still wavering and undecided. To all those the
Party wants to make clear that the time of compromise is passed. The unity
APPENDIX, PART 1 905
of the Party demands a quick choice between the line of Lovestone and the
line of the Communist International. Some of the delegates who recently re-
turned from Moscow have not yet reported to the Central Committee for Party
duty; but they are found to tour the districts to agitate tlie Party in favor of
Lovestone's anti-Comintern platform. They must choose and choose quickly
between allegiance to the Party and allegiance to Lovestone
Comrade Gitlow has not even found his way yet to formal submission to the
Comintern decisions. In the meeting of the Presidium of the Comintern on
May 14, he declared that he will not only not accept, but that he will actively
oppose the decision. On June 29 he declared in a written statement to the
Central Committee that :
"I have nothing to add or detract from the statement I made to the Presidium
of the Comintern in reference to the Address of the Comintern to the American
Party. I adhere to that statement."
Thus Gitlow upholds his declaration of war against the Comintern. The
Party takes cognizance of this as well as of the active steps against Comintern
decisions taken by liim and others who declare their formal acceptance. The
Party decisively rejects the theory that one can be for the Party as an organiza-
tion, while being against the political line and purpose of the Party. The Party
as an organization is only the means to put the political line into operation and
to achieve the Party's purpose. The rejection of the line of the Party, after
the discussion period is over, becomes a rejection of the Party itself. Unwilling-
ness to carry out the line of the Party is objective support to the Party's
enemies.
The Party fully understands this and will not permit anyone to play further
with pro-Party words in order to hide anti-Party deeds. The Party has shown
this determination in the promptness and decisiveness with which it supported
the action of the Central Committee against Lovestone. The open defiance
of the Comintern by Lovestone has put his political conflict with the Comintern
into such clear relief that declarations of formal submission can no longer cover
it. That is why the concealed opposition of yesterday becomes the open anti-
Party army of Lovestone within our Party to-day. This fact enables the Party
to meet the political assertions and propaganda of the Right wing opposition in
the open. This will contribute to the clarification of the situation.
There is yet rampant in the Party a large amount of rumoring and whisper-
ing. "SecTet decisions" are peddled concerning new additions to the secretariat
or the Polcom of the Party ; wholesale expulsions from the Comintern and by
the Comintern are peddled as evidence of the disintegration of that body.
With such rumors and whispers the Lovestone Right opposition is endeavoring
to undermine the authority of the Comintern International and of the Central
Committee. It is endeavoring to create and keep alive suspicions and factional
sympathies. Even loyal Party members are still giving credence to such rumors
and whispers and relay them. Thereby they help the enemies of the Party.
Rumor and whispering campaigns are a disintegrating poison and must be
treated as such. The carriers of rumors and whispers are poison peddlers and
must be challenged as enemies of the Party.
The campaign for the acceptance and application of the Comintern Address
has resulted in consciousness of the Party of the correctness of the revolutionary
line of the Comintern. The political health of the Party found expression in
its unswerving confidence in the Communist International. The Party will not
permit any individual or any group of individuals to play with this confidence.
The unity of the Party and its revolutionary integrity stand above all. The
Party will defend this unity and strengthen this integrity by brushing aside all
obstacles in its path.
It will defeat all efforts to push it from the line of the revolutionary class
struggle. That the Party may do that effectively all the leading committees
must carefully analyze their tasks and must intensify their activity. While a
marked tendency is noticeable toward intensification of our trade union activity
and of our work among the unorganized masses, yet there is still too much
laxity ; there is a lack of system in the plans as well as a lack of energy in the
execution. This shortcoming must be consciously combatted. The coming
Convention of the Trade Union Educational League must be made a concen-
tration point of these activities. The Party must wholeheartedly support the
endeavors of the League to create a center for the left wing in the existing trade
unions, and to build up an active organization center for the masses of
unorganized workers.
The reorientation and revitalization of the work among the Negro masses
leaves still much to be desired. The leading committees of the Party must take
906 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
up in a concrete form all the problems comiected with this task, otherwise the
Comintern Address will not be transformed into real pulsating life of the
Party, into an element of Bolshevization.
The most important activities facing us at the present moment is the strength-
ening of our old and the systematic biiilditig of new shop nuclei. The intensi-
fication of every form of Party work finds its most effective expression in this
specific work. Party districts that will not Increase manifold their activities
in this field cannot claim to accept and carry out the Address of the Coniintern
inireservedly. "The Party's face toward the factories'' is a most important
slogan of the hour.
The problem of mobilization against the war danger is the problem of mobiliz-
ing the working masses for the class struggle. We cannot solve this problem
if we do not extend the roots of our Party more into the working class. Only
if our Party has its members and luiits distributed over all important industries
and industrial establishments, can it claim to be a real Communist Party.
Tlie Party has as yet spent inadequate elTorts on events in Gastonia. The
outrageoUvS attack by the police and mill guards on the strikers' colony and
the dastardly frame-up against the strike leaders nuist find an echo in every
city and every industrial establishment of the country. The Party must carry
its agitation into every factory so that the capitalist conspiracy in Gastonia
will be met by the united protest and resistance from the working class of the
whole country.
The next concentration point of all of oiu- Party activities must be Interna-
tional Red Day. on Aug. 1. Every fiber of strength that our Party has must be
brought into action to achieve mass mobilizatiim for this day. We have de-
feated the right opposition politically in the enlightemnent campaign. We will
annihilate it oi-ganizationally by putting the Party to work. In this work we
will demonstrate the correctness and value for our Party of the Comintern
Address. In this work we will also weed out from our Party all elements in
opposition to the political line of the Party. Tlie revolutionary enthusiasm and
tlie Bolshevist determination of the ranks of the Party will sweep these ele-
ments out of the path of the progress of the Party and none will shed a tear
for the loss.
FOR THE CENTRAL COMMITTRE:, THE SECRETARIAT.
ExHreiT No. 205
[Source: Daily Worker, June 1, 1929, page 1]
For a Broad, Enlightenment Campaign
The Address of the CJominteru to the American Party members was received
14 days ago. The Political Committee immediately, by unanimous vote, ac-
cepted, endorsed, and pledged to carry it into effect and to fight against any
opposition to it, open or concealed. The Address was published in the Daily
Worker of May 20, the first issue after receipt of the document. Every mem-
ber of the Party has had the opportunity to study iti.
Promptly and decisively the Party has responded to the Comintern Address.
By mail and telegraph a constant stream of messages has poured into the
Party office, from district organizers, district bureaus, language bureaus and
newspaper staffs, and from leading workers, all accepting, endorsing and pledg-
ing to struggle for the line of the Address and against all opposition to it.
Especially important to note is the fact, that the response of the proletarian
membership, the workers in the shops, mills, and mines, has been the most
prompt and unhesitating, the most determined to stand with the Communist
International against all who oppose it. The Party membership, especially its
proletarian core, has accepted the Address with the enthusiasm that springs
from conviction, and from the knowledge that it means a new period of ad-
vance and achievement for our Party.
Especially decisive has been the membership's understanding of the fact that
this Address liquidates once and for all the myth that the Comintern is trying
to transfer the leadership of the Party from one group to another. The Party
already understands that the Address is intended — and is achieving its end —
to really liquidate all the old groupings which have been a barrier to the healthy
development of the Party, and which have prevented an effective struggle
against opportunist tendencies within the Party. The editorial article in the
Daily Worker of May 27, which dealt with this point among others, has been
overwhelmingly approved by the membership.
APPENDIX, PART 1 907
FULL ENLIGHTENMENT NOW REQUIRED
Another stage is now reached in the acceptance and application of the line
of the Comintern Address.
Now that the Party has decisively entered upon the path pointed out by the
Comintern, it is necessary that the whole Party membership enter upon an
organized discussion, to malie clear to each and every one the full meaning of
the Address, and its application to the daily life of the Party. Such a discus-
sion, demanded by the Address itself, must now begin throughout the Party,
from bottom to top.
What docs the Party's acceptance of the Address mean? What will be
achieved by the Party Enlightenment Campaign now opening? The following
objectives must be set for this campaign, toward which every member must
strive :
(1) Implanting a deep understanding of the Comintern line, broadening
and deepening the ties between our Party and the World Party, the Comintern,
already demonstrated by the endorsement of the Address, and making this line
an intimate guiding force in all our activity.
(2) Solidifying the ranks of the Party, obliterating all the old group lines
and factional formations, in a great mobilization of all those who are for the
Comintern.
(3) Disclose who is against the Comintern, make clear to the Party as a
whole just what such opposition means, and break completely its influence in
the Party ranks.
WHO IS AGAINST THE COMINTERN?
It is clear from the Address itself that opposition existed in the Party
delegation to the Communist International. Comrades Lovestone and Gitlow in
their declaration of May 14, refused to accept the Address, or to carry it out,
and even went to the length of stating they would actively oppose it. They
are thus entering upon a course leading toward an attempt to split the Party,
a course in violation of the 21 Conditions and the Statutes of the Comintern.
In this splitting course they do not in any way represent the true proletariat
spirit of the American Party, and will find the Party membership solidly lined
up against them. Comrades Lovestone and Gitlow, on attempts to renew the
faction struggle on the basis of opposition to the Communist International, will
quickly feel the solid determination of the Party, which will tolerate no further
faction activities of any kind.
But let there be no mere mechanical acceptance of the Communist Interna-
tional Address. Such formal acceptance, without application in life of the
line of policy laid down in it, would be barren. The Party discussion now open-
ing must take the form of basic self-criticism, of development of inner-party
proletarian democracy, which will eliminate all elements of factionalism and
mobilize the Party for its really basic tasks — internally, to combat all traces
of opportunism, to struggle against the Right danger ; and externally, to
mobilize the awakening sections of the working class who are more and more
engaging in struggle against capitalist rationalization and against the danger
of war. The Party discussion must be made into a keep weapon against all
renmants of factionalism, as the first steps in a real drive against opportunism
which has been deeply imbedded in the American Party and which must be
burned out in the fires of merciless criticism, and to concentrate the full ener-
gies of the Party on the practical tasks emphasized in the Address.
Therefore, it is necessary for all Party Units forthwith to begin a full,
thorough, honest, self-critical, Bolshevist discussion of the Address of the
Comintern, and of the tasks of the Party in the light of this Address.
The next two weeks the Party press will especially concentrate upon this
discussion, which means a new stage in the forward march of the Communist
Party of the United States of America toward becoming a mass Party, the
leader of the American working class in the struggle against American capi-
talism.
Form up the ranks of the Party, for the Comintern, against the splitters or
splitting tendencies, no matter from what quarter !
The Communist Party of United States of America, is for the Comintern !
Reject and condemn all opposition whatsoever to the Comintern !
For a complete Bolshevist application of the Address, which shall infuse the
whole Party with the Comintern line, and completely unify its ranks from top
to bottom on the revolutionary line of the Communist International !
For the struggle against factionalism, against opportunism, and for the
pi'actical work that will build a mass Communist Party !
QQg UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Exhibit No. 206
[Source: Daily Worker, May 27, 1929, page 6]
A New Period Opens in the Communist Party op the United States
With a ruthless sweeping away of all the accumulated obstacles inherited from
the past — the heritage of narrow traditions which grow out of factional methods
in the unventilated, stifling atmosphere of factional group formations— the
Communist International has sent an Address to the membership of the Com-
munist Party of the United States which will not soon — in fact never— be for-
gotten.
This Address of the Comminiist International, published in the Daily Worker
of May 20, unquestionably murks the opening of a new period in the life of the
American Communist Party, and— because of the role and the vital connection of
the Communist Party with the working clas.s— this will bring a real and lasting
benefit to the working class which depends for the effectiveness of its struggles
upon the leadership of a healthy, strong. Bolshevik Communist Party.
Th(> very radical action of the Communist International in dealing with its
American section cannot be understood out of connection with the time and place.
The time is one of rapid approach to a second imperialist world war and the
inevitable flaming of proletarian revolution and colonial wars of liberation in a
.series of countries. In this of all times the Communist Party must at any cost
in the quickest possible time accomplish the transition from a narrow propa-
gandistlc organization to a mass party of thoroughly sound Bolshevik character.
The place is a capitalist imperialist country unexcelled in the arts and means
of debauching the labor movement with the imperialist ideology. It is not an
accident that the serious mistakes made by and in the American Communist
Party are of an opiiortunist or Right character, expressing the reflection within
the Communist Party itself of the influence of capitalist imperialist ideology
upon the working class in which the Party functions. It is not an accident
that the chief impediment to the development of the Communist Party of this
country into a mass party is found to he precisely that morass of vaiprinclpled
factioiialism which has no place in a Communist Party and which is, in fact,
an earmark of what the Comintern so aptly styles "potty-bourgeois politieian-
dom." The Address of the Comintern to the members of the American Com-
munist Party is a devastating exposure of the mistakes and the false methods
which spring from the pervading influence of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois
ideology — an influence which reaches not only the non-Communist workers, but
al.so penetrates into the Party itself. Unprincipled methods "which clearly bear
the imprint of petty-bourgeois politiciandom" are non-Communist methods from
which no good can come to a Communist Party, and the Comnumist International
is going to see to it that such methods arc ruthlessly crushed out of its
American section.
It is necessary to mark well what the Comintern .says is "the ideological
lever of Right errors in the American Party." The "ideological lever" is the
theory of "exceptionalism." When once the franK> of mind is reached where
the inexorable laws of capitalist development and decline and of proletarian
revolution are somehow subject to "exceptions" in regard to the particular
country which the capitalist system tries to teach us is "our own" country —
then tiie floodgates are dangerously near to opening to let in the whole flood
om imperialist chauvinism.
In refuting the common error of both groups, the theory of "exceptionalism"
the Address restates the Communist analysis of the position of American im-
perialism, in a paragraph Mhich will compare for brevity and clarity with the
best documents of Communism. It declares that : "With a distinctness unprece-
dented in history, American capitalism is exhibiting now the effects of the in-
exorable laws of capitalist development, the laws of the decline and downfall
of capitalist society." All shades and varieties of the "exceptionalism" theory
are "a reflection of the pressure of American capitalism and reformism which is
endeavoring to create among the mass of workers the impression of absolute
firmness and 'exceptional' imperialist might of American capital in spite of its
growing crisis, to strengthen the tactic of class collaboration in spite of the
accentuation of class contradictions."
The address undertakes to correct the line of the American Communist Party
in a most fundamental fashion, setting the Party on the road to becoming a real
Bolshevik mass party. Taken in connection with the Open Letter to the Sixth
Convention of the Party, of which the Address is a perfectly consistent extensi(ni
APPENDIX, PART 1 QQQ
and amplification along the same line ( which the American Party failed to under-
stand), it gives the American Communists a complete reorientation, which it is
already clear opens up a new and higher stage of Communist development.
The address deals mainly with the inner-Party situation, because it is this
which has been the main obstacle to the development of the American Section of
the Communist International. Here the dominant note is the demand for liqui-
dation of factionalism — complete and unconditional — addressed to all members
and former groupings in the Party. How deep the poison of factionalism had
entered our Party is shown when the Comintern Address establishes the indis-
putable fact that the Minority as well as the Majority had been guilty of unprin-
cipled factionalism, leading to a "gross distortion of the line of the Comintern."
It is absolutely true, as the Comintern Address says, that the Sixth National
Convention of the Communist Party of the United States was of splendid prole-
tarian composition representing the best qualities of the Party. But factional
leadership caused the convention to fail to accomplish its purposes, and "this
convention which was composed of the best proletarian elements of the American
Communist Party who uphold the line of the Comintern, became an arena for
unprincipled maneuvers on the part of the top leaders of the Majority as well as
on the part of the leaders of the Minority."
In the morass of factionalism both the Majority and the Minority saw, not the
aims of the Comintern to cure the American Communist Party of its illness
and to enable it release its powers for healthy growth, but an effort to hand
over the leadership of the Party to the Minority. This was not and is not now
the intention of the Comintern. Yet the Majority flew into a furious factional
struggle to defeat this imaginary intention, while the Minority just as wildly and
as factionally struggled to make the actions of the Comintern an instrument
for taking the leadership of the Party into its own hands. Certaui leaders of
The Minority showed themselves unfit to play a role of a uniting factor in the
struggle of the Party against factionalism in conformity with the directions of
the Comintern, and yet it is the factional leaders of the Majority with Comrade
Lovestone at the head who are mainly responsible for making use of the con-
vention for factional purposes.
The illusion of some former Minority comrades that their own mistakes were
of a left character, as contrasted with the "series of gross right errors" of the
Majority, is effectively destroyed by the Address, which traces these so-called
"left," but in reality Eight opportunist errors to exactly the same roots as the
errors of the Majority, namely the theory of American "exceptioualism." The
('onnnunist International establishes, as well, that it is "a factional exaggera-
tion" to say that the Majority as a whole is a bearer of the right tendency, just
as it is a factional exaggeration to say that the Minority grotip represents the
Trotskyist deviation.
It must cause our Party most drastically to readjust itself when it reads of
"rotten factional diplomacy" in regard to the Comintern being used in the Amer-
ican Party which has always and correctly prided itself upon being a "Comin-
tern Party" in the special sense of having never in its previous history found
itself in serious struggle with the Comintern line. The bright light of day now
being thrown by the Comintern Address upon these most unhealthy developments
will have the result of purging tlie Party completely from the germs of this
disease.
Ir is now the ta.sk of the American Communists to secure the full and uncondi-
tional acceptance, endorsement, and carrying into effect of the line and the
decisions of the Comintern.
The Address to the American Party membership is sharp, but its sharpness
is necessary to stir the Party out of its factional self-satisfaction of the groups
into which it is divided. On such occasions of open criticism in the revolu-
tionary party, all enemies of the working class delightedly sneer and jeer at the
Party of the Revolution. But the criticism is necessary, and we care nothing
for the opinions of the socialist party and other traitors to the revolution. Do
our enemies want to know how we will react to the criticism of our Communist
International — to this "interference of Moscow?" Let them have their answer
in the unanimous decision of our Political Committee, made on the same day
on which the Address was received, accepting and endorsing the Comintern
Address and already taking the first steps for carrying out its decisions. Let
our enemies ponder over the fact that within a week after the Address was
received (barely enough time for it to reach the far-away districts) every dis-
trict organizer, every Party editor, every language bureau has already accepted
and endorsed the Communist International's Address and the entire "machinery
of the Party is in motion to put it into effect. The Communist International
91Q UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
is correct in considering tliat, whatever its faults, the Communist Party of the
United Statt's is bound by unswerving loyalty to the Communist International
ai'd is f\dl of conhdence in the soundness of its leadership.
But it would be the most grave mistake to ignore the fact, pointed out in the
Address itself, tliat opposition exists and that it exists among some members
of the delegation sent to Moscow by the Sixth Convention. This opixtsition has
taken such dangerous forms that the Comintern has thought necessary to char-
acterize it as "a direct attempt at preparing the condition necessary for paralyz-
ing tlio decisions of ihe Comintern and for a split in the Connnunist Party of
America." The Connnunitt Youth International, in the course of its duty in
guiding the Communist Youth League of this country along the same line of
the Communist International, has cabled to the Youth League in America that
it must struggle "against the splitting roli*^'y of Lovestone and Gitlow." The
Party nuist and will without the slightest hesitation repel every splitting attempt,
and must proceed with a lirm hand against any and every sign of response to
or sympathy with such an anti-Comiutern policy as that pointed out and con-
demned in the Address. And already it has been made clear that such a strong
line will be the line of the overwhelming majority of the proletarian ranks of
the Party.
The Party is now to be mobilized in its full strength for the struggle against
unprincipled factionalism, to be able to carry out the struggle against the
liight danger, for the healing and bolshevization of the American Communist
Party, for the genuine carrying out of inner-party democracy and proletarian
self-criticism. A lai-ge scale discussion of the inner-party (piestions is necessary,
together with a discussion of the Party's political tasks. The Party membership
nuist fuse itself into an organic unity in the cours^e of this descussion and in
the course of the cjirrying out of the Comintern line in the daily life of the
Party. The Party must concentrate its attention on the most important ques-
tions of revolutionary struggle of the proletariat of America, the struggle against
unemployment, for social insurance, for better wages, hours and working con-
ditions, for building the left wiui: in the existing vrade unions, for the organiza-
tion of new unions, for struggle against reformism and against the war danger.
The Party must realize the words of the Comintern Ad<lress:
"It is only by consolidating the whole Party for carrying out its fundemental
practical tasks on the basis of the line of the Comintern and by more energetic
struggle against the Right danger that the American Communist Party will
become the genuine Rolshevilv vanguard of the proletariat and will be con-
verted into a mass political i>;irty of the American workers in the ranks of which
inner-party democracy is being unfolded while at the same time an iron prole-
tarian discipline is strengthened, to which all organizations and each individual
member unconditionally submits; in the ranks of which is practised the sub-
mission of the Minority to the Ma.1ority on the basis of the Party's pursual of the
line and practical directions of the Comintern. Surh a Party will be capable
to lead the American proletariat to victorious struggle against capitalism."
Exhibit No. 207
[Source: Daily Worker, May 30, 1929, page 2]
X'rge Unity of Party on Basis of Address From Comintern — Additional
Endorsements Rex-euvbd From Party Oixjanizations and Functionaries
(Continued from Page One)
for mass communist party.
As proletarian Central Committee member I fully and wholeheartedly approve
and endorse the Address of the Comintern to the membership of our Party. I
also appi'ove the unanimous Polcom action. I will exert every effort to
carry decision into full effect amongst entire membership. Forward to a united
Mass Communist Party. Long live the Comintern. — JOHN KAMP, Detroit, Mich.
supports address to the utmost.
The last factional strife was ruinous to the Party. The Comintern could do
no different than it has done. I welcome the address and will do my utmost
to support it and hope no member will fail to do so. — ZARTARIAN, Editor,
Norashkor.
APPENDIX, PART 1 ^H
GBEEHi EDITOR ENDORSES UNCONDITIONALLY.
I endorse unconditionally the Address of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International.- — Editor Empros, Greek Communist Daily, New York.
SCANDINAVIAN EDITOR ACCEPTS LETTER.
I accept and endorse without reservations the Comintern letter and the decision
of the Polcom.— ALBERT PEARSON, Editor of N. T. Tid, Scandinavian Com-
munist organ.
LUPIN ENDORSES FULLY.
I fully endorse the Comintern letter. Long live the Communist International. —
ABRAHAM LUPIN, New York.
ENDORSEMENT FROM WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.
I wholeheartedly endorse and pledge support to the Comintern Address to
liquidate factionalism. — N. MILO, Wilmington, Delaware.
DECISIVE STEP TOWARD LIQUIDATING FACTIONALISM.
I wish to state that I welcome the Address sent to the American Party by the
Comintern as a decisive step toward the final liquidation of factionalism and
factional groupings in the Party, toward the cleansing of the Party of the
impermissible political methods which have been used by both groups in the
factional struggle and the re-orientation of the Party on the correct line for the
struggle against imperialism and the capitalist offensive. The Comintern has in
this Address shown itself again as in the past as the leader of the American
Party along the true Communist line and the membership should rally to the
support of this leadership with united forces.— JULIET STUART POYNTZ, New
York City.
FOR COMPLETTE AND RBIAL C?OMMUNIST UNITY.
I accept fully and unconditionally the Comintern letter and the decisions of the
Polcom of the American Party relative to this letter. I pledge myself to work
wholeheartedly to carry out these decisions in letter and spirit against factional-
ism, for complete and real Communist unity in our Party. — ROBERT ZELMS,
Organization Secretary, District No. One (Boston) Communist Party of the
United States.
RUSSIAN FRACTION SECRETARY FOR LE7ITER.
As a loyal member of the Communist International I accept its Address to our
Party and will work to carry out its decisions.
The Central Bureau of the Russian Fraction will meet and define its position
in regard to the Address of the Communist International. — A. STRIZ, Secretary
of Russian Bureau, Communist Party.
FOR BUILDING POWERFUL MASS PABTY.
After reading carefully the Open Letter of the Communist International and
the decisions unanimously adopted by the Central Executive Committee of the
Communist Party of America we wish to state that we are first, last and all the
time loyal members and supporters of the Comintern. We, will, therefore, endorse
wholly and unreservedly the political and organizational decisions and we will
work hard to put them into effect. Factionalism must be done away with for good
as the first prerequisite to the building of a powerful mass Communist Party in
the United States. For the editorial staff of a Vangnasda.— RAPHAEL PIRES,
PETER HAGELIAS AND ELI KELLER, New Bedford, Mass.
DISTRICT NO. 5 ADOPTS RESOLUTION.
The District Bureau of District No. 5 (Pittsburgh) has adopted the following
two resolutions :
1.— The District Bureau of District No. 5 of the Communist Party of U. S. A.
fully endorses the addresses of the Comintern and the decisions of the C. E. C.
and pledges itself to carry them out without reservations. W^e pledge ourselves
912 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
to take energetic measures to win over the entire membership for tlie unqualified
support of the Address and to carry on a relentless struggle against the right
danger and crystallize the leftward drift of the workers into a struggle against
war and capitalist rationalization and to build the Party during these struggles.
The secretariat is instructed to immediately arrange a membership meeting
in Pittsburgh and to tour representatives of the District Executive Committee to
all outlying units to discuss the Open Letter to the Vlth Party Convention and
the Address to the membership.
2. — We recognize it as mistake of District Five Delegation to the 6th National
Convention to sign a resolution which had as its purpose slandering and under-
mining the Open Letter and the organizational decisions, the only guaranty for
realizing the Open Letter. This is the first prerequisite to the understanding and
realization of the Open Letter in this district. — Abram Jakira, acting district
organizer, District Five, Pittsburgh.
SECTION a. N. Y. niSTKICT, TAKES ACTION.
The Bureau of Section 3, District 2, New York resolved unanimously :
1. — To accept tlie address to the nicmborship by the Comintern printed in the
Daily Worker on May 20, unreservedly and unconditionally.
2. — To endorse the decision of the Central Committee of the Party in regard to
the open letter and the address, and to give wholehearted and sincere support
to the Central Committee in its carrying out of decisions of the Comintern.
3. — To rally the membership of our section behind the decisions of the
Comintern.
4. — To call upon all comrades of all groups and factions to renounce all caucuses
and former groupings for the purpose of a real imification of the Communist
Party of the U. S. A.— Bureau. Section Three, District 2, New York.
Exhibit No. 208
[Source: Daily Worker, May 2S, 1929, page 2]
Party Districts Sitpport the Comintern Address
Additional statements received from district organizers of the Communist
Party, members of the Central (^ommittee. Language Bureau secretaries and
editors of Party publications accepting and endorsing the Address of the
Connnunist International to the Communist Party of the United States follow :
declaration ok new YORK DISTRICT BUREAU
The motion adopted unanimously by the District Bureau, District Two,
New York, at its meeting May 24, was as follows:
'•The District Bureau of District Two fully accepts and endorses the Address
to the American Party membership by the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International and undertakes to win the entire membership of the
Party in District Two for the support of the Comintein Address,
"2. The District Bureau endorses wholeheartedly and solidarizes itself with
the unanimous decision of the Political Committee of the Party and pledges
itself unconditionally to aid the Political Committee to carry into effect the
decisions contained in the Address.
"3. The District Committee pledges it.self and its membership to defend the
Address of the Communist International before the membership against any
ideological or other opposition to the Address.
"The District Bureau joins with the Central Committee of the Party in call-
ing upon the members of the delegation in ]\Ioscow to withdraw all opposition
to the Addi'e.ss and to the decisions contained therein and to do all in their
power to assist the Communist International and the Central Committee of
the Party to unify the Party in support of tliese deci.sions."
CLE\-ELAND DISTRICT ENDORSES COMINTERN ADDRESS
District Bureau unanimously accepted and endorsed wholeheartedly Com-
munist International Address and pledged full support new secretariat. De-
APPENDIX, PART 1 9]_3
mands end factionalism, complete unification, fight against Right wing and
Trotskyism, organization unorganized, build up Party, complete subordination
Comintern. Full resolution for publication in few days. — Israel Amter, District
Organizer, Cleveland District.
TELEGRAM FROM KANSAS CITY DISTRICT ORGANIZER
I fully endorse Comintern letter to our Party and decisions of Polcom. Will
do all possible to mobilize entire membership Kansas District to support tliis
letter and decisions. In my opinion strongest measures must be taken against
opponents Comintern Letter and decisions. Long live the Communist Party
of the United States. — Roy Stephens, District Organizer, Kansas City.
AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT ORGANIZER TO POPULARIZE DECISION
I am glad to note our Communist International has taken decisive, final steps
to eliminate factionalism in our Communi-st Party of the United States, thus
making possible a united front of all Communist forces in the United States,
which is necessary in order that our Party may fulfill its historic mission of
organizing and leading the American Revolution.
I shall do everything possible to carry out the decisions of the Communist
International, to popularize them and to urge the Party membership to go
forward with the work energetically on the basis of these decisions. — Alfred
Knutson, Agricultural Organizer, Bi.sniarck, North Dakota.
KRUSE TO HELP MOBILIZE CHICAGO FOR COMINTERN
"As member Polcom solidarize myself action Polcom accept indorse Comintern
Address pledge mobilize Chicago District for decision. — William F. Kruse, Dis-
trict Organizer, Chicago District.
ESTHONIAN BUREAU SUPPORTS ADDRESS
I am in complete agreement with the address of the Communist International
and endorse the decisions of the Polcom. Bureau will meet Saturday. — Albert
Moller, Secretary of the Esthonian Bureau, Communist Party.
BUILD PARTY AS LEADER OF WORKERS
"We welcome this definite Address to our Party ! Unreservedly, we accept
and endorse the decision of the Communist International. Completely we
dissassociate ourselves from the former fractional groupings, considering that
they deviated from the line of the Communist International.
Through a determined struggle against all deviations from the line of the
Communist International we will be able to build the Party as the leader of
the American working class.
Long live the Communist Party of the U. S. A.
Long live the Communist International. — Section Executive Committee, Wor-
cester, Mass., District No. 1. Evalde Anderson, Section Organizer.
OLGIN SEES DUTY CLEAR FOR Px\RTY MEMBERS
As member of the Central Committee and editor of a mass organ of the
Party, the Daily Freiheit, I fully and unreservedly endorse the Comintern Ad-
dress, and the Polcom decision concerning the Address. It is the duty of every
Party member to stand firm behind the Comintern decision, to combat most
vigorously any opposition to the decision, and to carry out all measures of the
Comintern as leading to an absolute termination of factionalism, to a correcting
of the Party line and to a building up of a Mass Party in the United States. —
Moissaye J. Olgin, New York.
HOFFMAN SUPPORTS COMINTERN ADDRESS
"As a proletarian member of the District Committee of District 2, New York,
I accept unreservedly the Comintern's open Address to the Communist Party
of the United States of America on the past bitter factionalism in our Party. I
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 59
914 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
also accept the Polcom's decisions uncouditionally on this question. Tliercfore,
I ask all Party members to do likewise.
Long live the Communist International and the Communist Party of the
United States of America. — Albert Hoffman, Harrison, N. J.
Exhibit No. 209
[Source: Daily Worker, May 25, 1929, pages 1, 2]
Party Functionaries Support Comintern Addiu':ss Fuli.y
Additional statements received from district organizers of the Communist
Party, members of tlie Central Committee, Language Bureau secretaries and
editors of Party publications accepting and endorsing the Address of the Com-
munist International to the Communist Party of the United States follow :
eesolution unanimously adopt?:d by a he secttion bitre^vxt of seotion one,
NEW YORK city.
The Section Bureau of Section One, District 2, New York City, Communist
Party of America, unreservedly endores and accepts the Comintern Address, and
all decisions which may flow from it, printed in the Daily Worker of May 20th,
1929.
The Section Bureau, while accepting the line contained in this Address, calls
particular attention to the parts in tiie letter which severely criticises both the
former majority and minority groups and demands from the Party the imme-
diate cessation of all factional activities.
The Bureau interprets this to mean that the basis is laid for the Party to
function as a unified Party, with a unified leadership, made up of the best and
most proletarian comrades in our Party.
The Section Bureau accepts all decisions of our Central Committee on the
Comintern Address. We pledge our utmost support to the Central Committee to
uphold and carry out the Comintern line contained in the Address.
The Section Bureau urges all comrades of Section One to take action on the
Address, to accept it wholeheartedly, to cndor.se the unanimous Central Com-
mittee decisions, to endorse the decisions of the Section Bureau and help it
carry them out. And we are confident that the whole membership of our Party
will accept wholeheartedly the Comintern Address and its decisions.
The Bureau warns the comrades against inten)reting this Address, either as
a whole or any part of it, in a factional manner.
The Section Bureau calls upon all comrades to get to work. With a unified
Party, luider the guidance of the Comintern and our Central Committee, we will
march forward to new victories for our Party and the labor movement as a
whole, and will build a strong mass Communist Party in this country. — Section
Bureau, District 2, New York City.
accept and fight for COMINTERN LINE.
Our leader, the Communist International, calls upon us to consolidate our
forces in order to be more effective in mobilizing the workers under the leader-
ship of the Communist International for the general class struggle against world
imperialism.
I unreservedly approve and accept and shall carry out all of the provisions of
the "Open Address of the Communist International."
We must destroy every remnant of factionali.sm from our ranks, expose the
theory of exceptionalism, combat the right danger, etc. We must struggle
against any attempt at resistance to the Open Letter of the Comintern, since
such resistance would constitute a move toward the splitting of the Party.
In the name of every Negro member of the Conununist Party in District Two,
I call upon every member of the Communist Party to accept and fight for the
line of the Comintern — Harold Williams, Secretary, Negro Department, Com-
munist Party of U. S. A., District Two, New York City.
SCANDINAVIAN SECRETARY ENDORSES LETTBai.
"I endorse and promise to carry out the decision of the Comintern and promise
to mobilize the Scandinavian members of the Party for the Communist Inter-
national.— Gustav Nelson, Secretary, Scandinavian Bureau.
APPENDIX, PART 1 915
SPANISH BJIBEATJ WHOLEHEARTEOLY APPROVES
The Spanish Bureau of the Party, at a special meeting called for the purpose
of discussing the Address of the Comintern, unanimously adopted the following
resolution :
"That we wholeheartedly approve and accept the Address of the Comintern to
the American Party membership. We pledge ourselves to carry out the line and
decisions contained in the Address which we believe will eradicate once and for
all factionalism in our Party. The position taken by the Central Committee
with reference to the Address of the Comintern makes us feel confident that In
the very near future the Party will be on the road to become a mass Party. —
Spanish Bureau, Communist Party. U. S. A.
BUBGAEIAN EDITOR SUPPORTS DECISIONS.
I unreservedly endorse the letter of the Comintern and pledge full support
of final decision of the Executive Couunittee of the Communist International.
I urge all Bulgarian comrades to accept the decisions of the E.C.C.I. — G.
Raduloff, Editor, Bulgarian Party Organ.
Markoff Urges Acceptance
As representative of the Central Committee of the Italian section of our
Party and as a member of the District Executive Committee of District 2,
New York, I wish to declare my wholehearted acceptance and endorsement
of the Open Letter of the Communist International to the American Com-
munist Party.
The Communist International has spoken in a decisive manner. It is the
duty of every Party member of the language sections to carry out the deci-
sions of the Communist International to the fullest degree. The interests of
the Party must be above groups and individuals. Only thus can we develop
our Party into an effective instrument in the struggle for the principles of
the International Communist Movement. — A. Markoff.
Heino Accepts Address.
Answering the request of the secretariat, I, as editor of "Tyomies," a Fin-
nish language daily, fully accept and endorse the address of the Communist
International and the decision of the Party. I will do all in my power to
win members and readers of the paper for these decisions. The whole staff
stands by the decision. — David Heino.
South Slav Secretary Will Carry Out Decision.
I accept Hie Communist International letter and will carry it out uncondi-
tionally. The South Slav Bureau will meet Sunday and I will send you its
position. — Frank Borich.
Marinoff Accepts Address.
I fully endorse the Comintern letter and the Communist Party Polcom de-
cisions. Our bureau meets May 26, and after the meeting I will wire you
the positions. — Marinoff, acting secretary of the Bulgarian Bureau.
* * *
From Ukrainian Bureau Secretary
I fully endorse the letter of the Communist International and the Political
Committee decision. We are calling a bureau meeting but I assure you that
the whole bureau will endorse the Communist International letter and the
political committee decision. We are loyal to the Comintern and the Central
Committee.— D. Eolenko, secretary of the Ukrainian Bureau.
^IQ UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
From the Anthracite.
I fully accept the Comintern address and the decision of Polburo. I pledge
myself to carry out this decision of the Executive Committee of the Com-
munist International. I urge entire membership in anthracite to do likewise. —
Vratarick, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
* * *
The telegram from Charles Mitchell, Buffalo District Organizer follows:
"My views are entirely in accordance with the Central Committee decision
on the address of the Comintern. A District Bureau meeting will be held
here tomorrow. I will wire results." — Charles Mitchell, Buffalo.
Urges Admission of Mistakes.
Peter Chaunt, District Organizer, Connecticut, declares his "complete agree-
ment" as follows:
"I am in complete agreement with and express my wholehearted support of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International and the decisions
of the Polcom as a prerequisite for the unification of the Party and for the
strengthening of the ties between the Comintern and the Party of the U. S. A.
No matter how embittered comrades may be, we must admit mistakes and
renounce any policy of resistance to political and organizational consequences
of the E. C. C. I. decision."— Peter Chaunt.
Proletarian Supports Letter.
"As a proletarian member of the Central ("ommittee, I accept unreservedly
the Comintern decision and call upon all Party members to do likewise. Long
live our United Communist Party ! Long Live the Communist International." —
John Schmies, Detroit.
Gerlach Supports Decisions.
"As a proletarian member of the Central Committee, I wholeheartedly ac-
cept the address of the E. C. C. I. to our Party. I pledge myself to carry
out the decisions and to fight factionalism. I also urge other Party members
to do so." — Tony Gerlach, Detroit, Mich.
Heikkinen Supports Unconditionally.
"I am unconditionally in line with the Polcom decision on the E. C. C. I.
xiddress." — K. E. Heikkinen, Chicago.
For Mass Communist Party.
"I accept wholeheartedly the C. I. open letter and organizational proposals.
I urge all Party members, irrespective of former groupings, to go forward in
building a mass Communist Party." — Lena Chernenko.
Exhibit No. 210
[Source: Daily Worker, May 27, 1929, pages 1, 5]
Bedacht, Foster, Bittleman Urge Support of Address
Additional statements received from Comrades Bedacht, Foster and Bittleman
as well as from additional district organizers of the Communist Party, mem-
bers of the Central Committee, Language Bureau secretaries and editors of Party
publications accepting and endorsing the Address of the Communist Interna-
tional to the Communist Party of the United States follow :
executive decisions loyaixy, says bedacht
"The decision of the Communist International has been made. Although
some members of the United States delegation have opposed the decisions of the
Comintern, I emphatically believe that the decisions of the Communist Interna-
APPENDIX, PART 1 917
tioiial must be executed loyally. The address to the membership Party from the
Communist International must be published forthwith." — Max Bedacht.
APPEAL BY FOSTER AND BITTLEMAN
The full text of the appeal issued by Comrades Foster and Bittelman follows :
"To Comrades of the Minority : To All Members of the United States Section
of the Comintern :
"We, Minority Party Delegation have declared before the Communist Inter-
national our unreserved acceptance of the Comintern decision on the American
question and have pledged unconditional execution of the decisions. We now
appeal to you to do likewise.
"All Party delegates have had sufficient opportunity to present and defend
their iwints of view before the Conununist International. The decision was
finally rendered after an exhaustive study of the question. The decision con-
stitutes a powerful instrument for struggle against the Right danger, for the
final liquidation of factionalism, for the proletarianization of the Party leader-
ship and unification on the basis of Comintern discipline and the line of the
Sixth World Congress.
"With this decision the Party can confidently proceed to mobilize the working
class for developing big struggles against rationalization and the war danger,
against the treacherous reformists, the A. F. of L. and the socialist party, and
for the proletarian revolution.
"The first condition for the realization of these tasks is the immediate dis-
solution of all factions and the merger of all Party forces to follow the Comintern
leadership.
"We specifically appeal to all comrades associated with us to immediately
disband as a faction luiconditionally, to abandon all forms of factional activity
and to support energetically and in deed the carrying out the Comintern letter." —
Foster and Bittelman.
HUNGARIAN BI^REAU PLEDGES UNRESERVED ACCEPTANCE
Unreserved Acceptance of the decisions contained in the Comintern letter
is pledged in the resolutions adopted by the Hungarian Bureau of the Communist
Party at its meeting, Thursday, May 23 and sent to the Central Committee of
the Party through J. Peter, secretary. The resolution declares :
1. The Bureau fully and unreservedly and without any criticism endorses
and accepts the Comintern letter and the unanimous decisions of the Polcom.
The Bureau will do everything within its power to mobilize the membership
behind the Comintern letter.
2. The Bureau endorse the the criticism of the C. I. letter when it says : "Both
groups are guilty in opportunistic errors . . . both the Majority and Minority
placed their group interest above the interest of the Party . . . the self criticism
has been banished in the interest of the groups."
3. Some comrades of the Moscow delegation refused to submit to the C. I.
line laid down in the address to the E. C. C. I. The Bureau sharply condemns
their attitude.
4. The Bureau calls upon its members to sever relations with both groups.
The factional struggle threatens the very life of our Party and must be stopped
by all means. The Bureau pledges itself to do its utmost towards the unification
of all Party forces.
5. The Bureau calls upon the Central Committee to take organizational steps
against those who attempt to take a stand against the C. I. line.
G. The Burrau will work on the line of the Comintern Open Letter and will
liquidate all the survivals of language federationism and build the Communist
Party of the United States.
TO UNIFY DISTRICT 1."?, CALIFORNIA, ON BASIS OF DECISION AND CORRECT LINE
"I fully endorse and accept the Comintern letter and pledge myself to carry out
the decision and to secure unanimous acceptance by the District Executive
Committee and by the membership here. With District 13 torn by factionalism
and facing a dual, anti-Party organization, we expect that the Communist
International decision will speed up the complete unification and building up
of the Party on the basis of its correct line."— Emil Gardos, District Organizer,
California.
gj^g UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
ACCEPTS WITHOUT QUALIFICATION
"I endorse the unanimous action of the Polconi on the Communist International
Letter and agree wholeheartedly with the letter and ask all Party members
to accept it without any qualifications."— Nels Kjar, California.
"unqualified endorsement"
"I unqualifiedly accept and endorse the Address to the Party niombership
by the Executive Committee of the Connnunist International, which I have just
read in the Daily Worker on arrival at Seattle today. I pledge myself to carry
support of the letter to the district membership, whose acceptance and endorse-
ment I shall make my task to secure. I am calling a Bureau meeting for discus-
sion on the letter."— Sorenson, District Organizer, Seattle, Washington.
UNRESERVEDLY ACCEPTS ADDRESS
"I unreservedly accept the Comintern Address to the membership and the
polcom decision in connection with the letter." — V. Tauras, Brooklyn, N. Y.
PORTUGUESE PARTY EDITOR ACCEPTS
"I endorse and accept the Comintern letter." — Martin C. Correia, Portuguese
Editor.
KOPPEL SUPPORTS WITHOUT RESERVATION
"I fully endorse the Open Letter of the Comintern to the membership without
reservations." — A. Koppel, Brooklyn, N. Y.
VII.NIS STAFF FOR LETTER
"All 'Vilnis' Staff is for the Cdmintern Address. We support the decisions and
line of the address in letter and spirit."— Andrilulis, Bimba, Gasiunas, Bace-
vicius, Strazdas, Vilnis, Lithuanian Communist Daily, Chicago.
FIGHT AS SINGLE UNIT
"I unreservedly accept the Corainteru letter, and pledge my utmost to carry out
its decisions. The Party must shake off the last vestige of factionalism and
fight on as a single luiit." — .Tohn Lucas, Armenian Fraction Bureau.
ENDORSES LETTER UNCONDITIONALLY
"We endorse unconditionally the Open Letter of the Communist International
and the decision of the Polcom of the American Party relative to the letter." —
Editors, Toveri, Finnish Communist Daily, Astoria, Oregon.
JEWISH BUREAU FOR COMINTERN LINE
A call for unanimous acceptance of the Comintern Address to the member-
ship by the members of the Jewish sections of the Communist Party was made
in the resolutions unanimon.sly adopted by the Actions Committee of the Jewish
Bureau of the Connnunist Party last Thursday.
"The Jewish Bureau of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. fully accepts and
endorses the letter of May 20 of the Executive Committee of the Communist
International to the membership of the American Party," the resolution states.
"The Jewish Bureau greets and endorses the decisions of the Central Committee
to mobilize the membership of the Party for the decisions of the Communist
International.
"I fully accept and endorse the Address of the Communist International, which
tend to liquidate factionalism in the American Party.
"We pledge ourselves to help bring to a full understanding of the line of the
letter and its proper application against unprincipled factionalism, against right
wing deviations and against any split tendency.
"We call upon all members of the Jewish sections to unanimously accept the
letter addressed to the members of the Communist Party, U. S. A., and carry out
the decisions of the Communist International." — Jewish Bureau of the Communist
Party, U. S. A., S. Freeman, Secretary.
APPENDIX, PART 1 QIQ
JEWISH BUREAU SECEETARY ENDORSES LETTER
"I fully accept and endorse the address of the Communist International to the
members of the American Party.
"I pledge myself support to the Central Committee which has unanimously
accepted and pledged itself to unconditionally carry into effect the decisions con-
tained in this address.
I will do all in my power to mobilize the membership for the support and
decisions of the Commnuist International, for the liquidation of factionalism and
against right deviations and against any split tendencies.
"With more determination let us proceed towards the building of a stronger
section of the Communist International in the United States, a mass Communist
Party of the U. S. A."— S. Freeman, Secretary Jewish Bureau, C. P. of U. S. A.
Exhibit No. 211
[Source: Dally Worker, July 11, 1929, pages 1, 2]
Statement of NAxioNAii Executive Committee-YCL-USA on Suspension of
RUBENSTEIN ANB SiLVIS FROM NEC BURO
CABLE FROM YOUNG COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
The following cable was received by the Young Communist League of the
U. S. A. from the Young Communist International, on July 6, 1929 :
"Endorse suspension Rubenstein and Silvis. Call upon all members and units
to unite against concealed and open right wing. Fight renegades and splitt€>ys,
for Comintern Address and your Congress decisions.
Young Communist International.
Comrade Jack Rubenstein, a member of the Bureau of the National Executive
Committee of the Young Communist League, and Comrade Miriam Silvis, a
candidate member, have been suspended from the National Executive Committee
Bureau and from the leading posts which they held, because of their open
Right opposition to the Address of the Communist International to the American
Party membership and to the whole line of the Comintern as laid down at the
Sixth World Congress and specifically applied to the United States in this
Address and other decision. These comrades have further been carrying on
factional activities within the League. Comrade Rubenstein attended a caucus
meeting with Lovestone and spoke at a full meeting of the New York District
Executive Committee against the line of the National Executive Committee
which he is supposed to defend as a NEC member.
In speeclies, with factional activity and by their written statement these com-
rades not only brazenly attack the Communist International and our Party,
but they open up a fight against the vniauimous decision of our Fifth National
Convention for which they themselves voted. Here these comrades show the same
political inconsistency and unprincipledness which has marked their course
since the convention.
On May 20th these comrades voted "to endorse and energetically support the
Address and to mobilize the entire membership of Jhe League to light together
with the membership of the Party for a full understanding of its line .... to
unconditionally and unreservedly carry into effect the decisions contained
in this Address and 'to become one of the best interpreters of the policy of the
Comintern on the American question.' " This is how these comrades spoke
when they were fighting in a concealed manner against the line of the League,
the Party and the Comintern.
Today the pledge of "energetic support" is replaced by "We find it necessary
to state our disagreement to the Address . . because the consequences of the
Address are so disastrous that we must declare openly that we cannot accept
the political responsibility for what the Address will do in our Party and
League."
On May 20th these comrades voted unanimously with other members of the
NEC Bureau to "condemn the opposition on the part of Comrades Lovestone
and Gitlow to the Address and decisions of the Comintern and to call upon all
League and Party members to fight against this position," also endorsing the
cable from the YCI which called for a merciless fight against Lovestone's and
Gitlow's splitting policy.
920 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
Today, in the face of categoric instructions from the Comintern that "all
former adherents of Lovestone publicly disassociate themselves from him,"
these comrades write in their statement: "The expulsion of Comrade Lovestone
is not justified on either political or technical grounds," adding that he "was
the single outstanding leader of our Party until tlie eve of his expulsion."
In their attempt to open up a new factional struggle in the League, these
comrades have presented a new opposition thesis in the form of a statement
to the NEC Bureau. By bringing in this document signed by four comrades—
Rubenstein, Silvis, Lurye and Welsh — they show very clearly that they are
presenting a new caucus document and that this new Lovestone caucus within
the League has already been organized at the top. This new group which the
comrades wish to organize is, however, very different from the old unprincipled
factional groupings of the past. It is a group definitely in opposition to the
line of the Party and of the Comintern.
What is the platform of this anti-Comintern opposition as put forward in
their thesis?
1. — The comrades register their fundamental political disagreement with the
Address of the ECCT to the American Party membership.
They state: "We want to make clear our disagreement with the Address.
On a number of important jwlitical questions (the character of American
imi>erialism and its relations to world imi)orialisin; the relation and mutual
relations of inner and outer contradictions in Ihe present period, etc., etc.)
the line of the Address represents a distinct revi.sion of the line of the Sixth
World Congress." In this way these comrades follow the line of Lovestone
and the International Right Wing by struggling against the line of the VI
World Congress under the slogan that the Comintern is trying to revise its
own line. In reality these comrades still cling to their theory of exceptionalism
and refuse to accept the criticism of the address which points out the failure
of the American Party to correctly interpret the decisions of the VI Congress.
2. The comrades still continue to employ the methods of petty-bourgeois
politiciandom so sharply criticized in the Address.
This is evidenced not only in the methods of slander employed in their
statement but in their whole attitude to the Address and to the Comintern
which their statement and verbal speeches express. Such formulations as
"The Address, far from helping us to unify our Party and League and to
enable us to give leadership to the struggles of the worker.s, has resulted in the
disintegration of the Party cadres and in the rapid demoralization of the Party
ranks," are compnrable with the slanderous statement of May 14th in Mo.scow,
which sets up the Comintern as some outside agent trying to destroy the Party.
In the same strain they state "the logic of the Address is to pass the leadership
of the Party to the minority," etc.. — a slander reminiscent of the factional
period and proven so false by the Address and various actions of the Com-
intern which show it is out to smash all factions in the American Party.
3. The comrades make factional capital out of the difRculties confronting
the League and Party, painting a pessimistic picture for the United States in
line with their theories of the degeneration of the Comintern, etc.
They make factional issues of such serious problems as the bad financial
situation inherited from the period of irresponsible factionalism. They make
an issue of the small income of the National Office since the Convention, lack
of dues payments from the districts, etc. The sending of Secretariat members
to the South into a struggle situation becomes "haphazard" methods. These
comrades even raise the cry of "failure to issue The Daily Worker, for the first
time in its history, and the occurrence of this suspension on the second day of
the Furriers' Strike, the subsequent reduction of the paper to four pages at a
time when important struggles are taking place." etc. These comrades deal
in the same destructive way with such serious problems as the situation of the
Miners' Union, the Gastonia Campaign, the Furriers' Strike and the TUEL
Convention.
They show their lack of revolutionary faith in the proletarian members of our
League and Party and in the class-conscious workers generally when they speak
of the "disintegration of whole sections of the League in many of the most im-
portant sections of the country." and when in verbal speeches they express
opinions to the effect that the future is very dark for the League and Party.
The theories in regard to the degeneration of the leadership of the Ru.^sian
Party and the Comintern is very closelv linked to their theories as to the break
of the American Party. When comrades can state before a lower body of the
League: "I have faith in the forces that made the Russian Revolution. I have
APPENDIX, PART 1 921
faith in tlie forces tliat build tlie Communist Party of tlie Soviet Union. And
these forces which made the Revolution and built the CPSU will change the
present internal regime in the Russian Party and in the Comintern" — the League
members should take this as a warning where the anti-Comintern line of these
comrades must lead if they do not correct their present position. Such a formu-
lation has all the elements of the counter-revolutionary slogans of Trotsky and
other renegades.
4. The comrades put forward a petty-bourgeois conception of democracy for
the League and Party,
They reject the correct concept of League and Party democracy as prole-
tarian democracy based upon the interests of the class and bound up with firm
proletarian discipline. When comrades who not only fail to understand but
actively fight the CI line are removed from leading posts they raise the cry
of "terror" and "head-chopping," and the refusal to reopen the discussion as to
the correct line for the Party (i. e., to hear "both sides," Lovestone and the
Comintern) after the final decision has been rendered by the highest body,
becomes "no inner Party democracy." And the Enlightenment Campaign sud-
denly becomes a "darkening campaign" because it is not made a pre-Convention
discussion. These comrades even quote the American Mercury in an attempt
to compare the necessary Party discipline with the dogmatism of the capitalist
church.
Today, when the struggles of the workers are growing on every hand (New
Orleans, Gastonia, Elizabethton. Detroit, Oakland, etc.), and the preparations
for imminent wars bear down more and more upon the workers, our League
and Party are faced with tremendous tasks. The YCI and our own 5th Con-
vention already pointed out that the League, like the Party, is far from pre-
pared to fulfill its obligations in the growing workers' stiiiggles. Six long
years of destructive factional struggle has led to an irresponsible neglect of
some of the most elementary tasks confronting the movement and to a serious
weakening of our apparatus. Already the proletarian members of the League
are uniting their efforts to repair all those parts of our movement which have
been damaged. They are doing this by means of relentless self-criticism. They
are doing this by removing the greatest obstacle in the way of the League's
growth — factionalism.
With the help of the Comintern and the YCI, by concretely applying the
directives of the Open Letter and the Address and our 5th National Convention,
by a sharijened struggle against the new Right opposition, we will take big
strides forward to transforming tlie Party from a small propaganda organiza-
tion to a mass political Party of the American working class. The proletarian
elements in the League and Party will see that this is accomplished and that
the League and Party are strengthened to measure up to their growing tasks.
The splitting tactics of Lovestone, the factional course of Rubenstein, Silvis and
others, the open Right wing line of this anti-Comintern opposition in the Party
and League, will not be allowed to delay tlie Party in its march along this new
course.
The pessimistic talk of these comrades about the collapse of the Party and
League, their attempts to make factional capital of the problems confronting the
movement, and, finally, their attempts to obscure the line of the Party for the
present period, will not hinder our march forward but only add temporarily to
our diffieulties exposing at the same time the anti-Party character of this new
opposition.
The best guarantee for quickly liquidating this difficulty presented to us in
the form of the new anti-Comintern opposition is a sharpened struggle against
the Right danger. This struggle must be combined with an energetic fight
against all conciliatory tendencies which cloak and in every way aid the open
Right opposition. This struggle must be conducted sharply and decisively so
that this group will be rapidly exposed politically before it has any chance to
hold us back from playing our full role in the growing class struggles of this
period.
The League which made its line that of the CI at its 5th National Convention
Is already playing a leading role in the struggle for the Comintern line and is
showing the solid basis of its unity by its unanimous condemnation of Love-
stone and his few followers in the League. The League will follow the direc-
tives of the YCI and its own 5th National Convention by proving itself "one of
the best interpreters of the policy of the Comintern on the American question."
We will mobilize the entire League to prove our acceptance and understanding
of the CI Address in the field of everyday activity. We must immediately
922 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
activize and stabilize each unit, improve the social composition of the League,
further proletarianize the League's leadership from top to bottom and finally
stamp out all remnants of factionalism tliat we will be in a position to better
carry out our mass tasks.
The League must react more quickly to the growing struggles of the workers
and be the leader of the w^orking youth in the ever-more numerous strikes. In
our struggle against the war danger we must carry on more systematic anti-
militarist work, especially in the regular forces, and connect up our struggle
against the war danger more concretely with the struggle against the effect of
capitalist rationalization on the young workers. We must struggle more ener-
getically against pacifist illusions in the League and among the young workers,
especially against the under-estimation of the war danger by our League mem-
bers. We must broaden and concretize our anti-imperialist activities. We must
finally make a beginning in work among the masses of Negro youth and carry
on a bitter struggle against white cliiiuviiiism in the League. We must sharpen
our struggle against the influence of reformist ideology and organizations upon
the young workers by means of a sharpened struggle against the A. F. of L.
mii^leaders, the Socialist Party and the so-called progressives of the Muste
group who do their best to stitle the militancy and jjrevent the organization of
the young workers.
The League must immediately take up tli(> major campaigns confronting it
which have already been outlined in 3 months plan of work. Every League
member must be on the job in the defense of the framed-up Gastonia strikers;
every League member must be an organizer of the young workers for the TUEL
Convention: every League meml)er nuist mobilize the working ycuitli for a tre-
mendous demonstration against the war danger and capitalist rationalization on
Red Day, August 1st; every League member nnist help prepare a broad LSU
Convention and Meet August 21st.
Sharpen the struggle against capitalist rationalization and war!
Forward to a Mass Young Communist Licague in thk Unitkd St.\te8!
National Executive Committee ok the Youivg Communist League.
Exhibit No. 212
[Source: Daily Worker, May 24, 1929, page 1]
District Organizeirs. Members of the Central Committee, Language Bubeatj
Secretaries and EniroRs of PAnrY Papers Endorse Address of the Comin-
tern.
Additional statements received from district organizers of the Communist
Party, members of the Central Committee, Language Bureau secretaries and
editors of Party publications accepting and endorsing the Address of the Com-
munist International to the Communist Party of the United States follow :
FROM HUNGARIAN BUREAU SEX^RETART.
I fully and unreservedly endorse and accept the Comintern letter and the
Polcom's unanimous decisions. I pledge my full support to the Central Com-
mittee fighting against all factionalism, for building the mass Communist Party
in the United States. I will do all in my power to mobilize members to support
the Comintern letter and the unanimous decisions of the Central Committee. —
J. Peter, Secretary, Hungary Bureau, Communist Party.
DEATH BLOW TO FACTIONALISM, SAYS MOREAU.
The Comintern Address which proposes to deal a death blow to factionalism
in our Party, will now enable us to carry out the i)olitical line indicated in the
Open Letter. I approve, accept and pledge my support to all the decisions re-
ferred to in the Address. I urge the Central Committee, after its unanimous
decisions on the Address, to energetically continue Its campaign for the full
support of the decisions of the Comintern especially concentrating on the best
elements in the Party, the proletarian, and all sincere hard workers for our
movement. For a unified Communist Party. Long Live the Communist Inter-
national.— Albert Moreau, Secretary, Spanish Bureau, Communist Party.
APPENDIX, PAET 1 923
HINDRANCE TO PAETY GROWTH ELIMINATED.
I fully accept and endorse the Address of the Communist International to
the membership of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. I am confident every
comrade will agree on the necessity for eliminating the unprincipled factional-
ism which has hindered the growth of the Party and made it impossible for the
Party to carry out effectively its revolutionary tasks. I accept without any
reservation whatsoever the leadership and authority of the Communist Interna-
tional.— Cyril Briggs, New York City.
URGES AN END TO FACTIONALISM.
The "Arbeiter" welcomes wholeheartedly the Comintern letter and pledges its
unreserved help in carrying out the policies outlined in the letter. Factionalism
which has pervaded our Party from Its very beginning must cease. Our Party
has done splendid work in spite of its shortcomings. She wuU achieve much
greater results if all Party members will cast away their factional way of think-
ing, and united in a real Bolshevik spirit work to make our Party a political
mass-party of the American working class as an effective instrument in our
fight against all counter-revolutionist tendencies of the opportunists and pseudo-
radical demagogues, against the imperialist war danger, and for the protection
of the Soviet Union against capitalists' attacks.
Down with factionalism for all time! For a political mass-party of the work-
ing class by working on the line of the Comintern letter. — Theodore Berner, editor
of the "Arbeiter," New York.
MILLER URGES CARRYING OUT OF LETTER.
As a loyal member of the Communist International, I accept and will support
fully the decisions of the ECCI, the highest authority of our international party.
I urge every loyal Party member to endorse and carry out fully the letter of
the ECCI. Let us bend every effort to correct our errors, to eliminate factional-
ism, to unite our Party and lay the basis for a mass Communist Party in America
under the leadership of the Communist International.^ — Bert Miller, Organization
Secretary, District 2 (New York).
(Note: Ben Lifshitz, Acting District Organizer, now in prison, has already
voted as a member of the Political Committee for the unanimous decision to
accept and endorse the Comintern Letter.)
Exhibit No. 213
[Source: Daily Worker, Ma.v 22, 1929, page 1]
• «•***•
Party District Organizers Endorse Comintekn Address
JOIN with the unanimous ACTION TAKEN BY THE POLITICAL COMMITTEE
The first four District Organizers of the Party to express themselves on the
address of the Executive Connnittee of the Communist International to the
membership of the Communist Party of the U. S. A. are Abram Jakira, district
organizer in Pittsburgh ; Alex Bail, district organizer in Boston ; Herbert Ben-
jamin, district organizer in Philadelphia, and Norman Tallentire, district organ-
izer in Detroit.
JAKIRa'S TELEGRAM FOLLOWS,
"I fully endorse Comintern letter and Polcom decisions and have begun cam-
paign yesterday as soon as decisions become known to win over membership
for unqualified endorsement. Bureau meets Thursday. — A. Jakira."
bail's TELEGRAM FOLLOWS.
"Comintern letter indicated clearly and sharply ECCI determination to smash
all former factions, eliminate anti-Party and anti-Comintern methods of faction
fighting, lays down new and correct line for Party replacing incorrect line both
former groups. Am convinced correctness organization measures as necessary
prerequisite broader leadership on non-factional basis. Definitely disassociate
924 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
myself former majority to which I belonged since inception. Approve strongest
measures against vacillators or opponents Comintern letter. Will do all in my
power to mobilize membership support Comintern letter and unanimous deci-
sion Central Committee. — Alex Bail."
benjamin's tklegram follows.
"As a loyal member of Comintern with full faith in our revolutionary inter-
national leadership I accept, endorse and pledge full support for the final deci-
sion of ECCI. This decision excludes all possibility for confusion as decision
supporting one or another of the former groups and provides for the elimina-
tion of all group viewpoints, lays basis upon which our Party may go forward
unhampered by remnants of old factional considerations to the many important
tasks which confront our Party in the present period. Long Live Our United
Communist Party! Long Live the Communist International. — Herbert
Benjamin."
tallentibe's telegram follows.
"I urge that the entire Party both in its leadership and its proletarian rank
and file elements must unreservedly accept and endorse as I do the decision
of our Communist International — both in its organizational and political inipli-
•cations. The entire Party must be mobilized in the spirit of this latest decision
to concentrate on building a mass Party of Communism without respect to pre-
vious factional grouping. As one of the strongest and longest supporters of
the previous majority faction in the Party I pledge my support to the Central
Committee in carrying out the C.I. line in the Communist Party of America. —
Norman H. Talleutire.
These comrades .show by their telegrams that they support the decisions of
the Central Committee adopted unanimously by the Political Committee on
Saturday, May 18, accepting and endorsing the Comintern address.
Exhibit No. 214
[Source: Daily Worker, May 2.3, 1929, page 1]
*******
Finnish Bureau Endorses Co>riNTEEN's Address and Supports Decisions of the
Central Committee
The Finnish Bureau of the Communist Party of the United States in its meet-
ing Sunday, May 19, after reading the new Open Letter of the Communist Inter-
national to the membership of the American Party and after hearing the decision
of the Central Committee of the Party explained by Comrade Puro, adopted
following motions :
1. That the Finnish Bureau fully and unconditionally accepts and endorses
the Open Letter of the Communist International.
2. That we endorse the decision of the Central Committee of the Party in
regard to the Open Letter and give our whole-hearted support to the Central
Committee in carrying out the decisions of the Open Letter and mobilizing the
membership behind it.
3. That we write to all fractions explaining the means of carrying out the
Open Letter.
After receiving cable appeal from the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Finland, the Bureau with the advice of the Party Secretariat decided
to publish it immediately and also to cable to the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Finland that the Bureau has already endorsed and prom-
ised to fully and unconditionally carry out the Open Letter of the Communist
International. — Finnish Bureau, Communist Party of the United States, H. Euro,
Secretary.
telegram from pat DEVINE, MINNESOTA DISTRICT ORGANIZER
"Wholeheartedly endorse and pledge unswerved support to the Comintern
address as concrete progress towards the liquidation of unprincipled factional-
ism. The rigid enforcement of the address together with serious application to
the many important tasks facing us will double Party efficiency.— Pat Devine."
APPENDIX, PAKT 1 925
Exhibit No. 215
[Source: Daily Worker, May 23, 1929, page 1]
Cable Fkom Young Communist International to the Communist Youth
League (U. S. A.) on the Address of the Communist International
The cablegram of the Young Communist International (May 20) to the Com-
munist Youth League of the United States, and the motions adopted by the
Euro of the National Executive Committee of the League are as follows:
cablegram from the y. c. i.
"We demand from the Communist Youth League of the U. S. A. : Unreserved'
carrying out of the Comintern Letter in the Party and in the League as well,
imiting all for loyalty not in words but in deeds. All comrades must mercilessly
fight against Lovestone's and Gitlow's splitting policy and for the Comintern
and for Party unity. — Young Communist International."
MOTIONS adopted BY THE C. Y. L. BURO
The Euro of the NEC of the Communist Youth League unanimously adopted
the following motions in connection with the Open Letter (May 20th) of the
Communist International to the American Communist Party, and the cable of
the Y. C. I. to the Communist Youth League of the U. S. A. :
1. The Euro of the NEC endorses and will energetically support the Open
Letter of the Communist International to the American Party Membership (May
20th) and will mobilize the entire membership of the League to fight together
with the membership of the Party for a full understanding and application of
its line.
2. The NEC Euro greets the unanimous decisions of the Party Polcom accept-
ing and endorsing the letter of the ECCI to the CP, USA.
3. The Euro of the NEC pledges unconditionally and unreservedly to carry
into effect the decisions contained in this letter and "to become one of the best
interpreters of the policy of the Comintern on the American question."
4. The Euro of the NEC condenms the Opposition on the part of comrades
Lovestone and Gitlow to the letter and decisions of the Comintern and calls upon
all League and Party members to fight against this position.
5. The Euro of the NEC endorses the cable from the YCI (May 20th) and
instructs its publication in the next issue of the Young Worker.
6. The Euro of the NEC instructs all districts of the Communist Youth League
to organize a thorough discussion of the Open Letter of the Comintern, the Sixth
Congress decisions, together with the discussion of the thesis and resolutions of
the League's Fifth National Convention. This discussion must take place in all
units and at membership meetings and the Secretariat is instructed immediately
to issue detailed plans for this discussion.
Exhibit No. 216
[Source: Daily Worker, July 29, 1929, page 3]
Decision of the Tenth Plenum of the E. C. C. I. on the Appeal of Lovestone
We herewith print the decision of the Tenth Plenum of the ECCI on the
appeal of Jay Lovestone and the cablegram of the International Control
Commission.
In the telegram of the ECCI the Communist International gives a clear
answer to the political line, violation of discipline and splitting activity of
Jay Lovestone. Once more the Comintern condemns the opportunist political
platform of Lovestone as a platform directed against the line and decisions of
the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International. The Communist
International clearly characterizes Lovestone's position as one "finally descend-
ing into the camp of the renegades of Communism."
Regarding Lovestone's violation of Communist discipline the Communist In-
ternational characterizes Lovestone's acts as "a gross violation of the discipline
of the Communist Internatioual" and as "a criminal work of prepai-ation for
a split."
926 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
The Communist International lilco ihe Comuumist Party of tlie U. S. A. was
uot deceived by Lovestoue's appeal supposedly to the Communist International
but in reality against the Communist International. The Tenth Plenum of
the ECCI correctly branded Lovestoue's appeal as a maneuver against the
unity of the Party "not at all intending to remain in the ranks of the Party."
DECISION OF THE TENTH PLENUM OF THE EXECUTIX-E COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST
INTERNATIONAL ON THE APPEAL, CMP JAY LOVESTONE, MEMBEK OF THE E. C. C. I.,
AGAINST HIS EXPULSION EKOM THE COMMUNIST PAKTY OF THE U. S. OF A.
In refusing to carry out the decision of the Executive Conmiittee of the
Communist International removing him from work in the Comuumist Party of
the U. S. A., in the interest of the recovery of the Party, Lovestone committed
a gross violation of the discipline of the Communist International. He further
aggravated his offense by the fact that after his return to America, disregard-
ing the warning of the Central Committee on the necessity to conform to the
decision of the E. C. C. I. he began a criminal work of preparing for a split
in the Comnnuiist Party of the U. S. A. Most severely condenming the anti-
Party conduct of Lovestone, which is impermissable in the ranks of the Com-
munist International, the plenum does not consider it possible to change the
decision of tlie Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U. S. A.
on his expulsion from the Party, by which Lovestone ceases to be in the
composition of the E. C. C. I.
Lovestone, in appealing to the E. C. C. I. is making merely a maneuver,
not at all intending to remain in the ranks of the Party, against the unity
of the Party.
Tlie Tenth Plenum endorsed the expulsion of Lovestone from the ranks of
the Communist Party declaring "the plenum does not consider it possible *to
change the decision of the Central Committee of the CPUSA on his (Love-
stone's) expulsion from the Party."
At the same time the Comintern washes to give not only to Lovestone but
primarily to those members who still have some hesitation as to Lovestoue's
anti-Comintern attitude the final possibility to verify Lovestoue's true position
towards the Comintern.
The cablegram from the International Control Commission sent under the
proposal of the Tenth Pleinim of the ECCI proposes to Lovestone to present him-
self in Moscow, informing him that in case of his non arrival his expulsion from
the Comintern will be considered final.
The membership of the Party will be in full agreement with the sharp
political condemnation of Lovestone's opportunist line and splitting activity,
by the Comintern, because the overwhelming majority of the Party membership
has already rejected and condenmed the Right opportunist line of Lovestone
and is engaged in putting into effect thru its practical work in the American
class struggle the line of the Sixth "World Congress and the Comintern Address.
The E. C. C. I., in exposing his Right errors and condemning his factional
activities, declares that Lovestone has started upon the path of an open
splitting struggle against the Party and the Communist International, counter-
posing to the program and decisions of the Sixth World Congress his own
opportunist platform of the exceptional situation of America and his social-
democratic conception of discipline, thus finally descending into the camp of
the renegades of Conuuunist (Brandler, Hais, etc.).
Nevertheless, in view of his appeal to the E. C. C. I., the plenum instructs
the International Control Commission to review the appeal in the presence of
Lovestone in the shortest po.ssible time and make a final decision on his
appeal. In case of the refusal of Lovestone to be present at the review of
his appeal, the plenum considers Lovestone as finally expelled from the Com-
munist International and from the composition of the Executive Committee of
the Communist International.
NOTIFICATION OF INTERN ATIONAL CONTROL COMMISSION
r,ovestone, from the International Control Commission, through the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the United States of America : The con-
sideration of appeal is set for August 12th. In case of the non-arrival of
Lovestone in Moscow within this time his appeal will not be considered in
accord with the Tenth Plenum decision his expulsion from the Communist
International will be considered final. Inform Lovestone of this and advise
us of delivery of this message to him and whether he is leaving.
APPENDIX, PART 1 927
Exhibit 217
[Source : Daily Worker, July 9, 1929, page 4]
The Line of American Right Opposition to the Comintern
By Win, W. Weinstoue.
Two oiustanding facts define the present stage of the struggle of the American
Eight Opposition to the Address of the Communist International.
Firstly, the concealed opposition hidden previously by either formal acceptance
or endorsement of the Address has now come into the open.
Secondly, the platform of the Right opposition which is now being developed
against the Address is that of the International right. Members of the con-
cealed opposition have gone to the point of withdrawing their endorsement of
the Address and have stated open opposition to the line of the Comintern for the
■ Communist Party of the United States of America.
These events are not accidental but follow from the return of Jay Lovestone
to the United States, from his flagrant breach of discipline and open defiance
of the Communist International. It is evidence of the fact that those struggling
against the Commimist International are burning their bridges behind them
and are aiming to accomplish what was intended by their cable of May 15th.
THE PLATFOmi OF THE STilUCGLE AGAINST THE COMINTERN
What is the platform of the struggle against the Communist International?
First : That the Comintern and the leading Parry of the Communist Interna-
tional, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, has degenerated. The "run-
ning sore" conception of Lovestone is now reinforced by the idea that there is a
"scissors" between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the other
sections of the Comintern. This "scissors" conception rtnis as follows : "That
the Party of the Soviet Union having achieved its proletarian dictatorship is
far in advance of the other parties and since it is the leading Party of the
Comintern, the most authoritative section, it is driving the other sections into
adventurist tactics, for example, their allegations of "Putchist" tactics in Berlin
on May Day, etc."
Secondly, they support the theory of exceptionalism and challenge the concep-
tion of the Comintern regarding the estimation of American Imperialism.
Thirdly : They challenge the conception of the leftward swing of the masses
and the gi-owing radicalization of the working class in the United States.
Fourthly, they adopt the right interpretation of the decisions of the Sixth
World Congress of the Communist International and accept the opportunist con-
ception that American stabilization is growing stronger and disagree with the
conception of the sharpening of the class struggle, the growing intensification
of the contradictions and the entrance of a period "which will usher in fresh
imperialist wars, wide colonial movements and gigantic class battles" (Sixth
Congress thesis). Fifthly: They challenge the estimation of factionalism in
the American Party.
"the running sobe and the scissors."
What is the meaning of the 'running sore" agitation and the "scissors" con-
ception? It is nothing more nor less than the propaganda of Brandler. In the
organs of the Brandlerists, in Germany, this conception was expressed as fol-
lows : "It is fatal," said Brandler, "that there is no Party in the Comintern of
equal importance with the C. P. S. U."
The same idea was expressed by Thalbeimer when he declared, "That the
Russian comrades would not .see them (the leaders of the P)randler group) again
until they could speak on equal terms, as one power to another."
Both statements of these .spearheads of the international right are clearly the
expression of the "scissors" idea which Lovestone is developing in the United
States. But these ideas are not new. The es.sence of these ideas has already
been expressed in the theory time and again stated by right oppfnients of the
Communist International and by social democrats that "the methods of bolshe-
vism cannot be employed in the working class movements of the more developed
western European countries." Tliis idea is a repetition of the legends of the
old opponents of the Communi.st International that the Bolsheviks of the
Soviet Union are applying mechanical methods. It challenges the fundamental
928 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
idea that bolshevism is international in its principles and tactics. As early
as 1921 Lenin in his pamphlet on "Left Wing Commnuism" conibatted this
legend about the limited application of bolshevik tactics and declared : "We
have now considerable experience of international scope which pretty definitely
establishes the fact that some fundamental features of our revolution are not
local, not purely national, not Russian only, but that they are of international
significance. Not in the strictest sense of the word, that is, taking it in its
essence, or in the sense of the historical inevitability of a repetition, on an inter-
national scale, of what we in Russia have gone through, but one must admit some
fundamental features of our revolution to be of such international significance.
Of course, it would be the greatest mistake to exaggerate this truth and to apply
it to more than the fundamental features of our revolution. It would be like-
wise erroneous not to keep in mind that after the proletarian revolution in at
least one of the advance countries, things will in all probability take a sharp
turn ; Russia will cease to be the model, and will become again the backward
(in the Soviet and socialist sense) country.
"But at this historical moment the state of affairs is such that the Russian
example reveals something quite essential to all countries in their near and
Inevitable future. The advance workers in every land have long understood it—
although in many cases they did not so much understand it as feel it, through
the instinct of their revolutionary class. Hence the international significance
(in the strict sense of the word) of the Soviet Power as well as of the funda-
mentals of Bolshevik theory and tactics" (emphasis mine — W. W. ).
Those who maintain a contrary view to that expressed by Lenin not only
rei)eat the legend of mechanical application which all renegades have maintained
against Communist International as for example Levi, Hoeglund, and others,
but slide down to the position of Trotskyism, to the conception of 'Thermidor."
We must frankly face the fact that despite the struggle against Trotskyism in
our ranks, there are people today who are taking up the discredited weapons of
Trotskyism and are repeating the same slanderous accusations against the C. P.
S. U. and the Comintern. But this is not at all surprising. Those who take up
the struggle against the Communist International whether they proceed in their
attacks from the position of the so-called "left" or from the right inevitably
arrive at the same social-democratic opportunistic platform and sooner or later
will establish a common, united front against the Communist International
though they be independent of each other at the preesnt time.
"the accusation of putchist tactics"
The right are accusing the Communist International of putchist tactics in
Berlin on May 1. Where does this accusation spring from? It arises from the
fundamentally wrong conception of the rights regarding the third period. These
opportunists view capitalism today as growing stronger and is entering into a
period in which the contradictions are becoming weaker. For that reason, they
do not see that the revolutionary tide is rising higher and that the working class
is assuming the offensive against the capitalists. In order to deny this fact,
these opportunists seize upon every weakness and shortcoming of the struggles
of the working class, weaknesses which the proletariat will overcome in the
course of further struggles and they overlook the gigantic fact that 200,000
workers demonstrated in Berlin despite the prohibition and violence of the police
and that these workers showed a revolutionary will and energy which reminds
us of the great battles of the German workers during first post war i)eriod.
The accusations of putchism against the German Party can come only from
people that see the strength of the enemy but are blind to the fact of the grow-
ing power of the working class.
THE THEOEY of EXCEPTIONAUSM
Do the events now transpiring in the United States justify the theory of ex-
ceptionalism and that which flows from this theory, the exemption of America
from the left swing of the masses and the growing radiealization of the working
class? Quite the contrary. We see in the United States the class struggle
growing ever more acute. New layers of workers are being attracted to the
left wing. Strikes are breaking out in various sections of the country and the
rank and file workers are making renewed efforts to overthrow the bureaucracy
as for example in the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and among the Illinois
miners.
APPENDIX, PART 1 929
The sti-nggle of the textile workers in Gastonia shows how acute the class
sti'uggle is growing in the United States and only those who are blind will fail
to see that this great struggle is bound to have its repercussions in other
sections of the working class. The capitalist class understands full well the
meaning of the series of strikes that have been taking place in various indus-
tries and they are reacting to these developments of the workers within in-
creased terror. This was shown in the food workers strike in New York City
where 1,500 strikers were arrested before the strike was several weeks old.
The mad system of rationalization is driving the workers to take up the
struggle against the employing cla.s;:;, and the bourgeoisie recognizing this situa-
tion is making feverish preparations to break the fighting spirit of the masses
by terror. This accounts for the summary action of the courts in dealing with
workers, for the increase of injunctions, the sentencing of workers through
contempt of court proceedings, the long-term imprisonment of workers for
strike activity and the efforts of the bourgeoisie to reorganize their legal system
so that they can proceed more swiftly against the working class.
NEW WEAPONS OF STBUGGI.E
The developments among the working class show the following new facts :
First, the working class is adopting new forms of trade union struggle
(formation of revolutionary industrial imions) ; secondly, the workers are
looking to the Communist Party for leadership in their struggle ; thirdly, the
masses are beginning to overcome the barriers which have stood in their way
of unity (the solidarity of black and white workers in Gastonia). The Bolshe-
vization of the Communist Party which is now taking place is not some isolated
event biit is part of the entire process which is going on in the working class
and is linked up with the tasks pressing hard upon the Party of assuming more
vigorously the role of leadership of the masses of the country. The opportunists
in the Party resist this Bolshevization process because they completely fail to
understand the revolutionary requirements of the third period and the need for
a Communist Party cleansed of the opportunistic remnants of the past ; of
factionalism, unprincipledness, of the old chaos and demoralization caused by
the devastating factional fight and the lack of firm discipline and of a tendency
to follow in the tail of the masses in place of leading the masses to struggle —
through careful and systematic prepai-ation, through developing in vhe masses a
confidence in their power, through tactics relying upon the will of the masses
to struggle^all of which requires a well disciplined, a firmly united Party
following the revolutionary policies of the Communist Inteniational.
BIGHTS FIGHT PARTY UNITY
The right elements, however, do not aim to unite the Party but despite the
crying need for such unity, arc engaged in spreading all kinds of pessimistic
propaganda, are aiming to paralyze the execution of the Address of the Comin-
tern and thereby seek to justify theii opposition to the Address by a campaign
of demoralization of the Party wci'k. Under the guise of the slogan of de-
mocracy, Lovestone and those that follow him seek the right to establish
factions within the Party and show the reactions of petty-bourgeois individual-
ists to the demand for greater centralization and discipline. Like the Trotsky-
ites they challenge the doctrine of the twenty-one points and the fundamental
conception of Bolshevik organization which declares that the Communist Party
can lead the masses to revolution only on condition that it contains within its
ranks the vanguard of the pi'oletariat, a membership consisting of self-sacri-
ficing, disciplined workers who are ready to subordinate themselves to the will
of the majority and look upon themselves as members of a World Party.
What is Lovestone attempting to do? Without doubt to split the Party.
This was shown by the cable of May 15. The proof of this policy consists in
the fact that Lovestone has not only a platform that clashes fundamentally
with the line of the Communist International but he is also fighting the organ-
izational line of the Comintern. The efforts of Lovestone and others to discredit
those that are vigorously fighting for the line of the Communist International
has not merely the object of weakening Party authority so as to enable them to
conduct unchallenged their miserable factional work but is part of a calculated
plan to split up the Party and to build an organization outside the Comintern.
The right opportunists have lost faith or are quickly losing faith in the World
Party of Communism. They are unable in the present third period to maneu-
ver around with the World Party which has determinedly set upon the course
94931— 40— app., pt. 1 60
930 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of ridding itself of obstructive opportunist elements, of those who show no
desire to march together along the revolutionary path of Bolshevik principles
and tactics. As long as Lovostone thought it possible to maneuver around and
through tricks of petty-bourgeois politiciandom maintain the line which he has
followed, he declared that he would accept the decision of the Connuunist
International irrespective of what that decision might be. But when Lovestone
came face to face with the fact that the Comintern will not allow a continua-
tion of the devastating practices of the past, he refused to submit to the will
of the Communist International and took the next logical step of organization
against the C. I.
Lovestone miscalculated upon the development of our Party membership.
The members in the course of ten years of the existence of the Party have
developed ideologically and understand the issues at stake and despite the
propaganda of opportunist elements they know that the Communist Inter-
national is the real leader of the Auicriian Party. The overwhelming response
of the Party to the Address of tht Comintern is proof of the correctness of the
line of the Communist Internatioi:iil and the latter's confidence in proletarian
membership of the Party that it would understand that it was confronted with
two lines — one line for the Communist International and for revolutionary
policy and the other line against the Communist International and for an
opportunist policy.
BELATED ECHO OF INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS
Lovestone is fighting a futile battle. His platform is a belated echo of the
International Right. This fight has already been settled in the decisive sections
of the Comintern. The rights in the Russian Party have been decisively de-
feated. The IGth Party Conference showed that the Party of the Soviet Union
is firmly for the line of the Central Committee, for a decisive policy of class
struggle against the kulak elements, for a rapid tempo of industrialization.
The Russian Party membei's see in the policy of the rights a policy of pessi-
mism, of defeatism, of retreat before the capitalist elements, instead of the
correct course of overcoming the elements of capitalist economy in the rapid
march of the iron battalions of the proletariat.
In Germany, likewise, the rights have been defeated as was shown in the
parliamentary election in Saxony where the Brandlei'ists that had always
had their strongest position in this district and who have been the parliamen-
tarians of the Party in Saxony could secure only twenty thousand votes as
against 300,000 for the Communist Party. In (Czechoslovakia, likewise, the
Party membership has rid itself of the opportunists without a long struggle.
The tactics of Lovestone, his maneuvers, his aim to confuse the Party by
tricks of petty-bourgeois politiciandom will not gain a foothold among the
membership. Those that follow Uu- course of Lovestone will succeed only in
making them.selves generals without an army.
A course of determined opposition, of ruthlessly supporting opportunist
ideology in the Party, of quickly carrying out the practical tasks of the C. I.
Address will make our Party able to fulfill the role of leader of The growing
mass movements of the working class. The carrying out of these tasks will be
the best proof of the correctness of the Address of the Comintern and will
result in the establishment of a Party powerfully cemented by a Bolshevist
unity, a Party that will sink its roots deeper into the shops and that will act
with the will and determination of Bolsheviks, of followers of Lenin, in leading
the masses of the United States.
Exhibit No. 218
[Source: Dally Worlcer, July 25. 1929. page 4]
*******
Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the U. S. A.
On the Appeal of Jay Lo\T!:stone and Others to the Communist International
II. the relation of the communist party of the united states of AMERICA
WITH the COMINTERN
On the heels of theoretical deviations organizational disruption follows. Love-
stone sought to evade the statement of his full political platform, but proved
APPENDIX, PART 1 931
unable to hide it. His attack on the organization of the Communist International,
though still written with many evasive phrases, with insinuations rather than
assertions, is yet a more open attack. In this section of his appeal Lovestone
goes right against the 21 conditions of admission laid down at the Second Con-
gress of the Comintern in 1920, and against the rules and statutes as re-adopted
at the Sixth World Congress. First of all, with all the enthusiasm of a de-
fender of State rights against "encroachments" of the Federal Government,
he proceeds to delimit what should be the sphere of the Comintern. "The
Comintern deals with the basic problems confronting the various sections. The
E. C. C. I.," he says, "has never set itself the task of dealing with the smaller,
inner-Party matters of the various sections * * *. The Comintern deals with
the main iine." Later he goes on to indicate interference by the C. I., and it
becomes clear that Lovestone and not the C. I. is to be the judge of what are to
be considered "basic problems," of what are "the smaller, inner-Party matters."
But not only is the function of the C. I. delimited by Lovestone; he also has a
new reading of the work of the sections. "It depends," he says, "upon every
section to make the Comintern constantly better and more able to cope with its
tasks." This is a very comfortable doctine, coming from Jay Lovestone; and
when he goes on further, it becomes clear that he wishes to make this apparently
harmless statement a basis for an attack on the C. I., a basis for his conception
that the C. I. has not been able to cope with its tasks. This becomes clear when
he develops his arguments in to statements about "serious errors committed by tht
Comintern in its treatment of our Party." The objection which Jay Lovestone
transforms into a new theory of organizational relations is directed against the
fact that after six years of factionalism, which neither he, the Majority group
nor the Minority group were able to heal, the C. I. did prove able to cope with its
task and to put an end to the factionalism of which he was a top leader.
Developing his theme, Lovestone goes on to say : "It is a more decisive test
of discipline and loyalty to submit to decisions when one disagrees with them than
when one agrees with them." Then why, Jay Lovestone, did you not submit
to the decisions of the C. I.? Why did you break discipline, not once, but re-
peatedly? Why did you break discipline, then make profession of loyalty, then
break it again, and once more, after expulsion, make further professions of loy-
alty? Jay Lovestone is approaching very near the position when the best Com-
munists will be those who most disagree with the Comintern, and who differ
only from Jay Lovestone in the respect that they formally adhered to its deci-
sions. This quibbling logic of Lovestone is next shown in his statement that
"first of all, we must state categorically that the Comintern has full right to
order any comrade for work anywhere, but" — and with this but he goes on to
say that he is against this full right when it is applied to Jay Lovestone. The
hypocritical way in which Lovestone endeavors to cover up his new disruptionist
theory of the relations of the parties in the Comintern is shown by his profession
that those whom he arrogantly names the former leadership of the Party (thereby
setting on one side all members of the C. E. C. and Polburo who do not agree
with him) "have been and will continue to be very energetic in loyalty to the
C. I." This statement is to be compared with the passages in the Appeal, in
which he attacks, not once but several times, the leadership of the C. I., and
wherein he again makes covery insinuations and statements which are fully in
line with his "running sore" propaganda, which itself was in line with the
whole of the Brandlerist attack on the Comintern. This section of the Appeal is
nothing less than a pitiful attempt to justify his breach of discipline and his
political line by the erection of such a new, non-Leninist theory of international
relationships as would disrupt the Comintern and give free play to the Brandlers,
the Jileks, the Lovestones.
THE PRESENT SITUATION IN THE UNITED STATES
The outstanding feature of American imperialism in the recent period is the
speedy progress of rationalization. The replacement of workers by machinery on
the one hand and the speed-up of labor on the other are progressing at a rapid
pace. This process of rationalization has increased the productivity of the various
industries tremendously.
Thus, we see productivity accelerated, profits increased and new capital ac-
cumulated in an ever quicker tempo. All the apologists of capitalism, the eco-
omists, the politicians, the journalists, are commenting upon this feature and
boast about the prosperity of American capitalism.
But into all these glittering pictures of prosperity there falls the shadow
of the basic contradictions of capitalism. Society needs its productive machinery
932 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
in order to provide the necessities of life. Capitalism tises this machinery
in order to make profit and to increase its capital. The purpose of production
on the part of the capitalists, production for profit, is in flagrant contradiction
to the social purpose of production, production for use. This basic contradiction
is intensified with the intensification of the productivity of capitalist industry.
Rationalized production, with progressive rapidity robs ever larger section.s
of the working class of the only means of livelihood which capitalist society
provides for it : a market for its labor power. Consequently permanent unem-
ployment is growing tremendously in America. This teaches the workers some
lessons about class division.
Rationalization means a simplification of production. The skill of the artisan
acquired in years of training becomes more and more useless in modern produc-
tion. The masses of skilled workers are replaced by semi-skilled and unskilled.
Tlie skilled worker sees himself robbed of the value of his skill and often has to
hire out as unskilled. Thus automatically the standard of living of the American
workers is reduced. Because of that the American working class is becoming
more homogeneous. This, too, teaches the workers a lesson about class division.
The simplification of the mechanics of production enables capitalism to force
the workers to adapt themselves more and more to the tempo of the machinery.
Every ounce of energy possible of the worker is thus being exhausted in the process
of a day's work. Tliis speed-up uses up the life of the worker in America with
such rapidity that at the age of 40 he is thrown as useless on the scrap-heap.
This teaches the workers some lessons about class division.
The growing unemployment and the gradual elimination of special skill as
a necessary qualification for the workers is facilitating the onslaught of American
capitalism against the existing wage standards. Wage cuts become the order
of the day in all industries. This also teaches the workers some lessons about
class division.
Those continuous and numerous lessons begin to speak an imperative lan-
guage. The workers being to heed this language. They commence to fight. In
shoe, textile, auto, transportation, etc., the workers take the initiative with
increasing frequency for attacks against these conditions. In the New England
States, in New York, in the Middle Western States, in the South, strikes are taking
place. Unskilled and unorganized masses take the offensive against the increas-
ingly unbearable conditions imposed upon them by capitalism.
The American bourgeoisie answers this growing offensive with a counter-
offensive. A czarist police system is introduced against the workers. The private
individual spy system of the American capitalists of yesterday is today aug-
mented by official spy systems as inaugurated recently in New York. So-called
law enforcement commissions, as the one appointed by Hoover, are openly
concentrating their activities upon the problem of suppressing and paralyzing
the labor movement and the working class. Even the new American tariff laws,
primarily a method of economic warfare between the capitalists themselves, are
adorned with jokers aiming at the muzzling and gagging of the working class.
The sharpening of these internal contradictions of American capitalism are
an outgrowth of its very growth and power. The dominating role American im-
perialism and its financial interests play in the world, forced it into a leading
position in the settlement of the reparations question. American leading capi-
talists have prescribed the methods of settlement of this reparations question
through the Dawes and Young Plans. These Plans provide for a settlement by
means of a most intensive exploitation of the German workers. The execution
of these Plans presupposes that the commodities thus produced by the German
workers find a ready market. Otherwise the surplus pressed out of the blood
of the German workers cannot be realized. After American capital was instru-
mental in finding this solution and of helping to force it upon the German working
class, it proceeds with a new tariff bill to organize an economic war against
its European competitors. Thereby it is trying to close or take away the very
markets from the German-made commodities which are indispensibie to it if
Capitalist Germany is expected to live up to the provisions of the reparations
settlement.
The international relations of American capital today are dominated by the
desire to defeat its European competitors in the struggle for markets. American
capital needs markets for its goods and for its rapidly accumulating new capital.
The present economic war exemplified in the new tariff bill is only the fore-
runner of a military war. Every ounce of strength, every subterfuge of diplomacy
is used by the capitalist government of the United States to gain and secure the
needed markets from the capitalist competitors. And it becomes daily clearer that
APPENDIX, PART 1 933
diplomacy is insufficient and that force is going to be used. Tlie policy of the
government as agent of the capitalist class to secure markets at the expense of
the capitalist competitors remains the same in peace and war time. The only
difference is that in the war the soldier and his cannon replaces the diplomat
with his negotiations and pacts. Considered from this angle it is clear that
the American government today is already convinced that peaceful means are
no longer sufficient to secure the aim. Therefore, the present period is dominated
by the most intensive war preparations. While rationalization has partly led to
this condition, it is in turn intensified by it because the economic preparations for
war drive toward further rationalization.
Along with the economic and military preparations for war, American capital
is directing its offensive against the advance guard of the worliing class. The
anti-red propaganda is intensified. Persecution augments the propaganda. In
Pennsylvania our Party has again been forced to defend the right of workers
to belong to the Communist Party. Where the legally assigned funds for these
activities seem inadequate, these available funds are augmented by volunteer
collections and volunteer contributions to anti-red activities. Another form of
mobilization is the closer and ever closer connection established between the
functions of private capital and of government. The merger of private capital
and the State into specific forms of State-Capitalism, as pointed out in the
Sixth Congress program, finds its most classic realization in the present
Hoover administration. AH of the steps taken by the ruling class for meeting
the emergencies growing out of the contradictions of their social system are
dictated by a growing consciousness on their part of the weaknesses of this
system. The more glorious capitalism seems to be, when measured by the
seemingly phenomenal progress of its productive forces, the more hollow does
the colossus of capital become. Capitalist prosperity cuts the very branch on
which it is sitting. American capitalism is getting daily more aware of this.
It is preparing for emergencies. It prepares against the working class as well
as against its capitalist rivals and competitors. It proceeds against the work-
ing class by the ever bolder use of the State power for the suppression of the
workers and by participation in the conspiracy of international capital against
the Soviet Union. It prepares against its capitalist rivals for an imjierialist
economic and military war.
Lovestone in his so-called appeal refuses to see these main features of the
present economic and political situation in the United States,
While the Communists, because of their theoretical understanding of capi-
talism, are supposed to lead the workers, Lovestone insists to be even behind
the spontaneous reactions of the workers. These spontaneous reactions of the
workers manifest themselves in numerous sporadic strike movements of unor-
ganized Avorkers in many industries. Instead of seeing in the present strike
movements the manifestations of a process of radicalization, Lovestone insists
on protesting against a conception of a "general" radicalization of the workers.
He refuses to see that these manifestations of radicalization indicate the
process. If they are not yet general they present a broad and effective basis
of action for the Communist Party for the spreading and deepening of this
radicalization into all sections of the American working class. The Com-
munist International and our Party emphasize the process of radicalization to
show the Party's duties and tasks ; Lovestone emphasizes the insufficiently
general character of the radicalization in order to prove the difficulties of the
task and the limited character of the duties. One is the per.spective of revolu-
tion, the other is the perspective of opportunism.
Lovestone's opportunism manifests itself not any less definite in his con-
sideration of the inner-Party situation. The coming class struggles demand a
unified Party ; Lovestone fights for his faction against Party unity. The Party
needs the uudivided loyalty of all its members ; Lovestone ridicules Party
loyalty, accuses those loyal to the Party of treachery to his faction, and raises
factional loyalty upon the pedestal of revolutionary virtue. The Party needs
an iron discipline ; Lovestone does everything in his power to undermine Party
discipline and to replace it with factional discipline. The Party welcomed the
C. I. Address as a formidable weapon against factionalism ; Lovestone de-
nounces the C. I. Address because it destroys his faction.
The Party recognizes how fast and how far Lovestone has traveled toward
the camp of the enemy since our Sixth Party Convention. It unhesitatingly
expressed this recognition in the promptness with which it accepted the ex-
pulsion of Lovestone. In the most proletarian sections of our Party, like in
Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, there is practical unanimity in support
934 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
of the expulsion. Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Kansas, promptly and
wholeheartedly answered the defiance of the C. I. by Lovestone with a deter-
mined support of the expulsion of Lovestone by the Central Committee. The
Young Communist League met and fought practically unanimous Lovestone's
splitting attempt in the League itself, and supports Lovestone's expulsion. In
New York, where Lovestone after his return established a headquarters fof
his splitting campaign, he succeeded up to now to organize only a pitiful hand-
ful of followers. The general direction of Lovestone's political views is char-
acterized by the very composition of his group of followers. Three-fourths of
them are school teachers, pedagogues who lack a proletarian class approach to
the problems of our Party. They are condescending toward the working
clas.s — expecting thankfulness on the part of the workers for the "service"
condescendingly rendered them. But even with this congregation at his dis-
posal, Lovestone did not succeed in getting more than 2 per cent of the votes
in the meetings of the Party in New York, the headquarters of the opposition.
The Party recognized this as a necessary condition for its further existence
as a revolutionary party, and therefore accepted and immediately applied the
Address. As a result the factions have been shattered; a collective leadership
has been established : factional groupings have given way to the Party as the
only organization ; the free contribution of political opinions and proposals of
all individual members of the Party has replaced the two-Party system with its
fixed factional plans, platforms, and proposals.
Lovestone refuses to accept this new condition. He feels that he can "lead"
only under the old conditions. His "Communist" conception and "revolutionary
loyalty" do not fit into a Communist Party and a section of the Communist
International. They only fit into a faction in which he is not merely a soldier
or officer of the revolutionary army, but in which he is the boss. This role
fits his petty-bourgeois individualism much better than the role of a disciplined
comrade. That is why he strives with all his might to bring back to the Party
the pre-Comintern Address days of factionalism.
In his appeal Lovestone tries to play as his trump card the financial diffi-
culties of the Party at the present moment. In renegade fashion he attempts
to spread defeatism and to exploit the difficulties of the Party for his splitting
purposes. In doing this he withholds from the membership the information
that the financial difficulty is heritage from his "administration." The finances
of the Party were left by him in a most chaotic condition.
The suspension of the Daily Worker for one day, caused by an unexpected
crisis growing out of Lovestone's financing policy, is used by him as an argu-
ment against the Party, against the Party leadership, and against the C. I.
Address. In reality it is the C. I. Address which has saved the Party from
an otherwise inevitable financial catastrophe and which has created conditions
under which it may be possible for the Party to straighten out the indescribable
financial chaos inherited from Lovestone.
Lovestone complains that "What is demanded of us by the Address is self-
abuse," not self-criticism. With this he tries to cover up his refusal to admit
openly to the Party the many indefensible actions on his part. He found it
perfectly in order to abuse and deceive the Party and the Communist Inter-
national on the matter of Pepper's return to Moscow. But when he is re-
quested to admit this deception to the Party and the C. I. then he balks at
"self-abuse." Like a typical petty-bourgeois shop-keeper he tries to defend his
personal conduct, even though it is obviously indefensible, while he does not
care a damn what happens to the reputation of the Party.
The C. I. demands of him that he admit and condemn the deception he
practiced on the C. I. and the Party in the matter of Pepper. Lovestone
answers this demand with a denunciation of other comrades who are carrying
out the decisions of the Comintern. All comrades of the Polburo who had
knowledge of Pepper's presence in America during the period when he, sup-
ported by Lovestone. claimed to have been in Mexico, have submitted long ago
their statements of the facts to the International Control Commission, the only
body that is acting on this question. Lovestone must understand that he is not
called upon now to inform upon others but to own up for him.self.
Lovestone is trying to play a similar trick with the factional cable of May
15th. First he attempts to disown it, and then, doubtful of the success of his
maneuver, he denies its splitting character. But the cable speaks such a clear
language that no effort will succeed in explaining away its purpose. It is an
act leading directly to a split to refuse to publish Comintern decisions. It is a
direct .splitting act to instruct the caucus to dispose of the Party's property.
It is a direct splitting act to instruct a caucus to remove without cause and
APPENDIX, PART 1 935
without any official action Pai-ty functionaries for the sole purpose of getting
Party funds into the possession of the caucus. What the Party had a right
to demand of Lovestone was that he should condemn this cable as an act of
splitting, and also that he should immediately discontinue all actions in line
with this cable.
Lovestone raves about his right to return to America to set right his private
affairs. He keeps quiet, first, about the fact that he had ample opportunity
to set in order his private affairs before he left for Moscow ; secondly, he hides
the fact tliat the "private" affairs he attended to immediately upon his return
was the holding of caucuses and the organization of a split movement against
the Party. This movement has now crystallized into the setting up of a directing
body for the Lovestoneites' abortive grouping. This directing body is that
section of the majority of the delegation to Moscow which still defies the
Comintern. Lovestone in his appeal even tries to give a legal status to this
body. He says, "There are only two bodies wliich owe their authority directly
to the last National Convention and the membership, namely, the Central Com-
mittee and the Delegation of the Convention to the Comintern." The Party
understands this threat very well, and knows that it is nothing less than an
attempt to set up a parallel body to the C. E. C, a rival O. E. C. It will tell
Lovestone that the delegation to Moscow was elected by the Polburo on the
night before their departure. It will tell Lovestone that the delegation to the
C. I. has no legal existence within the Party except for the execution of the
functions assigned to it. This function was to represent the viewpoint of the
Party in Moscow. With the decision of the C. I. on the question involved the
delegation ceased to have any legal existence within the Party and can con-
tinue its meetings and the formulation of documents only as a caucus in de-
fiance of the authority of the Party and of the C. L
The Central Committee of the Party, the responsible leading body of the
Party is exercising its authority and duty — in spite of Lovestone. It has
answered Lovestone's splitting tactics through the Political Committee and will
answer as decisively in its coming plenary session.
Precisely at a time when the Political Committee of our Party has become a
real leading body, discussing the policies and tactics of our organization, Love-
stone complains of the liquidation of the Polcom. As long as he confined the
activities of the Polcom to rubber stamping the decisions of his faction, he
had no fault to find with the functions of the Polcom. But when the Polcom
begins to disregard the interests of his faction and consider only the problems
of the Party, then his ire is aroused and he raves of "degeneration." Were it
not so serious one could laugh at the "Knight of the Sorrowful Figure," the
Don Quixote Lovestone, whose mind and body are still wandering in the far-
gone past and who tries to force the condemned and dead practices of the past
into the healthy pulsating Party life of the present.
Our Party has entered a new life. Its inner-relationships are re-orientated
from factional groupings, factional sympathies and antipathies to Party loyalty.
TTie Party consciously carries out the line of the E. C. C. I. by a gradual but
purposeful transformation into a Communist mass Party of action. The deroga-
tory remarks of Lovestone's appeal notwithstanding, the Party carries on wide-
spread mass activities, is intensely active in the offensive struggles of the textile
workers in the South. It is now organizing the defense of the frame-up victims
in Gastonia. It is organizing the defense not merely as a legal technicality but
in the form of mass agitation among the American workers, mobilizing the
American workers for a defense through more conscious action in the class
struggle. The Party is active in all fields of industrial struggles in spite of the
persistent efforts of Lovestone and his handful of followers to paralyze its
activities, to sabotage its work, to misdirect its energies and to split its oi'gani-
zatiou. The Party has suffered too long from the paralyzing influence of
factionalism. It is too keenly aware of the danger of opportunist and petty
bourgeois ideology in this present period of struggle. That is why the Party is
ready and able to defeat Lovestone's maneuvers and propaganda. It is just
this readiness of the Party to defeat him that irritates Lovestone most. He
sees that his agents and emissaries who defy the Comintern Decision, who
violate Party instructions, who counteract Party policies, are taken to task by
the nuclei, by the section committees and by the District Committees. In every
case of such anti-Party activities these local Party bodies took the initiative
in removing the insubordinate official or functionary. Lovestone is peeved by
the effectiveness with which the Party and all its units are fighting all mani-
festations of the Right danger concretely wherever this danger arises in proposals
936 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
and actions in contradiction to the revolutionary line and of the Party. Lovestone
sheds tears about the bygone days in which the Right danger supplied him
with a factional issue against his opponents and where he could, without a
quiver of his conscience, hide and suppress all manifestations of Right tenden-
cies within the ranks of his own faction. He sees the Party taking serious
the war danger. He sees the agitation and propaganda of the Party concretized
in the mobilization for International Red Day on the 1st of August. He sees
the line of the Comintern put into action and bringing results and he is mak-
ing a desperate effort to defend his line, the line of maintenance of factionalism
and the substitution of his right line for the line of the Comintern and the
Party. It is exactly a realization of this that makes him so desperate and that
dictated to him this appeal. Only thus can the spirit of vindictiveiioss be
understood which dominates this document. Only thus can the pettiness be
explained with which this so-called appeal to the Comintern is formulated.
The Comintern and the Party will answer this latest effort as it has all his
other attempts to deviate the Party from the line of the Communist International.
The Party is correcting its errors. The Party is closing its ranks. The Party
is intensifying its activity on every front. The Party is going forward towards
carrying out the great tasks that stand liefore it.
CeNTRAT. C0MMITTf:B,
0. P., U. 8. A.
By the Secretariat.
Exhibit No. 219
ISomce: Excerpt from the "Draft Resolution of the Eighth Convention of the Communist
Party, U. S. A.," published by Worlcers Library Publishers, New York : March, 1934 ;
page 35]
**♦***»
The whole Party must be aroused for a fight against the imminence of im-
perialist war and intervention. The main task consists in * * * strength-
ening the Party and the revolutionary mass organizations in the decisive war
industries and in the harbors * * * By our struggle against the danger of
imperialist war, we must prepare to convert the imperialist war into civil war.
Exhibit No. 220
[Source: Excerpts from the "Theses and Decisions of the Thirteenth Plenum of the Execu-
tive Committee of the Communist International — ^December, 1033," published by Work-
ers Library Publishers, New York : March, 1934 ; page 13]
****** ^
In fighting against tear, the Communists must prepare even now for the trans-
formation of the imperialist war into civil war, concentrate their forces in each
country, at the vital parts of the icar machine of imperialism.
Exhibit No. 221
[Source: 'Thesis and Resolutions for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of U. S. A. by Central Committee Plenum," March 31-April 4, 1930]
In view of this growing danger of war, the Communist Party must carry thru
an intensive and continuous campaign for the poiiularization of Lenin's teachings
on the struggle against war, propagating the slogan of the transformation of
imperialist war into civil war, the defeat of "our own" capitalist government, for
the overthrow of "our own" bourgeoisie, [pages 13, 14]
Exhibit No. 222
(Source : "Thesis and Resolutions for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of U. S. A. by Central Committee Plenum," March 31-April 4, 1930]
*******
In all the mass activities of the T. U. U. L. the question of the fight against the
impending imperialist war and the struggle in defense of the Soviet Union must
be kept in the very foreground, [page 44]
APPENDIX, PART 1 937
Exhibit No. 223
[Source: "Theses and Resolutions for the Seventh National Convention of the Communist
Party of U. S. A. by Central Committee Plenum," March 31-April 4, 1930]
The Partys' shop vrork must be strengthened, nob only to strengthen the regular
units of the Party but especially to have the roots of the Party deep in the fac-
tories to meet the efforts of the bourgeoisie to drive the Party into illegality in
this period of sharpened class struggles and preparation for imperialist war.
[page 51]
Exhibit No. 224
[Source: The Communist, September, 1933, Vol. XII, No. 9. From an article entitled,
"The Intensified Drive Toward Imperialist War," by W. Weinstone]
7. The center where these central tasks outlined above are to be carried out
must be the factories, particularly the war industries. To do this, however, the
Party must make an inner turn, it must really explain, based upon the last Central
Committee letter, precisely why the anti-war struggle must now be based on the
factories aud trade unions. Only if our anti-war campaign is developed in the
factories, munition plants, docks and ships can our struggle against war be
effective. Only by such means can we actually paralyze the war plans of the
American bourgeoisie ; only in this way can the Soviet Union be defended from
American imperialist intervention. The factories, the places of heavy industry,
will be the necessary guarantees that it will be the proletariat that will lead, which
is the only class capable to lead the anti-war movements of all non-proletarian
stratas of the population. The next strategic places for the anti-war activities
of the Party and the Y. C. L. must be within the armed forces, as well as within
the various semi-military reforestation and concentration camps of adult unem-
ployed and homeless youth, [pages 937, 938]
Exhibit No. 225
[Source: Communism in the United States, by Earl Browder, published by International
Publishers Co., Inc., 1935]
These elements are valuable: their contribution to the League has been con-
siderable, but they will themselves be the first to admit that the most important
work of the League — rooting it among the workers in the basic and war indus-
tries, cannot be done by them, but only the trade unions and workers' organiza-
tions, and first of all by the Communists. [Page 266.]
Exhibit No. 226
[Source: Excerpt from "The Tasks of the C. I. in Connection With the Preparations of
the Imperialists for a New World War — Resolution on the Report of Comrade Ercoli"
International Press Correspondence, September 7, 1935, Vol. 15, No. 43, page 1128]
*******
The Communist Parties of all capitalist countries must fight against military
expenditures (war budgets), for the recall of military forces from the colonies
and mandated territories, against militarization measures taken by capitalist
governments, especially the militarization of the youth, women and the unem-
ployed, again.st emergency decrees restricting bourgeois-democratic liberties with
the aim of preparing for war ; against restricting the rights of workers em-
ployed in war industry plants ; against subsidizing the war industry and against
trading in or transporting arms.
Exhibit No. 227
[Source: Excerpt from "The Second American Youth Congress," by Leo Thompson, Inter-
national Press Correspondence, August 31, 1935, Vol. 15, No. 42, page 1084]
*******
938 UN-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES
It is imperative that the A. Y. C. becomes keenly mindful of the fact that
only by entrenching itself in the factories, along with the worlviiig youth, in the
centers of war production, in the trade unions — only by wiiniing tlie wurliing
youth — can it really become a decisive force whicli cannot be destroyed by war
or fascism. . . . The perspective of developing stoppages of worli and anti-war
strikes on the part of youth and adult workers in war industries should be
raised. The whole question of militant anti-militarist activity in the factories
should be dramatically stressed.
Exhibit No. 228
[Source: Excerpt from "Militant Action Against War on August First," by A. TJlrich,
International I'ress Correspondence, August 10, 1935, Vol. 15, No. 34, page 874]
It is the duty of revolutionary opponents of war to advance by every means
unity of action among the masses precisely in tlie nerve-centres of war-
preparation.
Exhibit No. 229
[Source: Excerpt from "Fight Against War and Fascism," by Harry (Paris), International
Press Correspondence, August 3, 1935, Vol. 15, No. 32, page 836]
*******
In this situation it is necessary not only to talk of peace but to act against
war. Therefore the anti-war movement has to approacli those whose work is
closely connected with war preparations, i. e., the workers of the armament
and transport industries. It is one of the most important taslis laid down
by the World Committee in its instructions to the national committee to win
for active participation in the anti-war campaign the workers in the metal and
chemical industries, without the help of which it is impossible to manufacture
war material, the transport workers, without who.se help the war material
cannot be brought to the scenes of war. In the next few days the national
and local committees will approach the trade unions and trade union meetings
of these workers' categories in order to mobilize with their assistance the
staffs of the transport and munitions factories. The committees will do every-
thing in order to got the slogan of refusal to transport war material adopted
and carried out. In addition, supervision connnittees for the prevention of
war material transports are to be set up wherever possible during this great
ant i -war week.
Exhibit No. 230
[Source: E.xceriJt from "Tlie International of Seamen and Harbour Workers in the Strug-
gle Against War," International Press Correspondence, April 20, 1935, Vol. 15, No. 17,
page 459]
Water-Transport Workers, live i(p to the traditions of the struggle against
War.
Transport is called the vital artery of the bourgeoisie in peace and war.
Standing as they do in this vitally strategic key position none can do more in
the struggle against fascism, in the struggle against imperialist war than the
international transport proletariat.
The water-transport workers have a good tradition in the fight against War.
These traditions must now be renewed.
Exhibit No. 231
[Source : Excerpt from "Mass Campaign of tlie World Committee Against War and
Fascism," by P. Rax ; International Press Correspondence, April 13, 1935, Vol. 15, No.
16, page 485]
*:!:*****
International meetings will be organized in order to express the determina-
tion of the toilers of all countries to fight against war and fasci.sm. These
meetings are also to serve to organize effectively the stopping of the transport
of munitions and armaments.
INDEX
Page
Abern, Martin 333
Acharia 214
Adler, P>iedrich 445, 656
Agitation and Propaganda Commission 727, 728
Agit-prop department 304, 305, 307, 312, 314, 319, 413, 425, 465, 466, 487
Agnelli 206
Agrarian Commission 727
Agrarian department 319
Agrarian League in Bulgaria 665
Agrarians in Greece 665
Agricultural department 354
Agriculture:
Communist resolution on 391f
Department in Communist Party 354, 913
Thesis on 145f, 223f, 236f
Under communism 49, 175, 176
See Farmers.
Alexinsky, G 530, 531
Algren, Nelson 809
Allen, James S 749
Allen, R 214
Alsop 855
Amalgamated Clothing Workers 928
American Bolshevik Party 622
American Commission 734, 798, 888, 894
American delegation to Moscow 833, 876, 877, 878, 880, 881, 883, 884, 887
American Federation of Labor 61,
282, 356, 376, 377, 380, 424, 489, 491, 493, 494, 506, 552, 553, 554,
555, 609, 614, 615, 617, 093, 696, 697, 702, 707, 710, 782, 787, 788,
794, 795, 863, 869, 922.
American Labor Alliance 232, 622
American League Against War and Fascism 616, 617, 773
American Party Congress 888
American Progressives 809
American Youth Congress 849, 850, 853, 869, 938
Amsterdam Federation of Trade Unions 42,
61, 88, 97, 123, 138, 222, 246, 247, 260, 266, 267, 278, 280, 281, 290,
364, 367, 405, 445, 450, 473, 570, 604, 606, 629, 674, 676, 841.
See International Federation of Trade Unions.
Amter, Lsrael 334, 499, 889, 913
Anarchism 28, 63, 121, 160, 161,435, 782
Andrilulis 918
Anti-Imperialist League 878
Antikainen 656
Araki, General 753
Arent, Arthur 809
Armand, Inez 469
Armstrong, David 772
Armed force. See Violence.
Army :
Revolutionary work in 67, 68, 118, 122, 223, 224, 268, 494, 495, 505, 545,
574, 575, 576, 580, .581, .583, 584, 585, 591, 592, 599, 600, 606,
615, 741, 742, 937.
See Violence.
Arnhold 292
939
940 INDEX
Page
Arnold, Thurman 854
Aronberg, P 333
Ashkenuzi, George 334
Atlee . 84 1
Automobile Workers Union 507
A vksentyev 758, 763
Axelrod, P. B 561n, 564
Babeuf , Francois Noel 17, 20n, 80
Bacevicius 918
Bail, Alex 333, 923, 924
Bakunin, Michael 2, 19n, 88, 782
Balabanoff, Angelica 10&
Baldwin 292
Ballam, John J 334, 335, 386, 390
Nationalization of 170, 171, 172, 607
See Property.
Barnes, Peter 872
Basle Congress 469
Bassett, Fred 499
Bauer, Bruno 22
Baiier, Otto 42, 93, 281, 445, 652, 656, 663, 675
Becker, Beril 809
Bedacht, Max 334, 335, 343, 458, 482, 486.
487, 488, 490, 494, 495, 502, 619, 813, 891, 892, 893, 901, 916, 917
Belinsky 88
Bell 292
Benjamin, Herbert 333, 481, 923, 924
Bennett, Thomas B 809
Berger, Victor L 232,402, 620
Berne Youth Conference 469
Berner, Theodore 923
Bernstein, Edouard 461, 516
Berry 377
"Betriebs Rat" (Factory Council in Germany) 222
Bilan 214
Billings, Warren K 393
Bimba 918
Bimba, A 333
Bissolati 762
Bittelman, Alexander 73, 75, 333, 395, 557, 608, 774
824, 829, 830, 885, 886, 887, 888, 889, 890, 891, 900, 902, 916, 917
Black Hundred Press 168
Blanc, Louis 20n
Blanch, Arnold . 809
Blankenstein, Israel 355, 393
Blitzstein, Marc 809
Blockland, C. J 333
Bloor, Ella Reeve 333
Blum, Leon 841, 842
Bogdano V, Alexander 532
Bohnen, Roman 809
Bolshevik, Organ of the Communist Partv of the Soviet Union 20
Bolshevik Partv 109, 425, 471, 473, 477, 480, 485, 505. 515, 516, 517, 518, 522,
525, 526, 527, 528, 531, 538, 620, 624, 625, 632, 742, 819, 908
Bolshevik Party in Czarist Russia 534
Bolshevik Party in Russia 472, 537, 617, 620, 621, 679, 688
Bolshevik Party of the Soviet Union 823
Bolshevist Party Press .* 528
Bombacci 214
Boncour, Paul 42, 443, 569
Bordiga 214, 397, 475
Bordisoff , B . 334
Borich, Frank 915
Boro Park Youth Clubs 869
INDEX 941
Page
Boudin, Louis B 784
Boukharine, N. See Bukharin.
Brahdy, J 333
Bramson, Charles 352
Brand, Millen 809
Brand, Phoebe 809
Brandler, Heinrich 255, 387, 461, 476, 520, 882, 904, 926, 927, 931
Branting, K. Hjahnar 211, 762
Braun 397,657
Brewster, Dorothy 809
Bridgeman Convention (Michigan) 622
Briggs, Cyril 923
British Labor Party 212, 444, 667
Brisson 86
Brodsky, Joseph 813
Broun, Hey wood 499
Browder, Earl 341,
395, 495, 497, 505, 546, 548, 555, 696, 731, 739, 765, 767, 769, 775,
812, 813, 815, 817, 818, 819, 821, 822, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829,
830, 831, 832, 833, 834, 847, 848, 849, 854, 857, 870, 874, 891, 897,
898, 937
Browder, WiUiam E 825, 826
Brown, Ed 822
Brown, J. R 809
Brown, Jay 341
Bruening 658
Bryan 817
Bucharin, N. See Bukharin.
Buck, Robert Morris 367
Buhrman, Fahle 333,334,395
Bukharin, Nikolai I 107, 155, 214, 292, 293, 397, 439, 885, 886, 896
Bulgarian Bureau 915
Burgum, Edwin Berry 809
Burian 292
Burtseflf 260
Cachin, Marcel 494
Cadres 607, 690, 733
Cahan, Abe 617
Campbell, Alan 809
Candela, L 333
Cannon, James P 333, 335, 341, 350, 395, 461, 797, 891
Capellini, Rinaldo 381
Carnot, Marie Francois Sadi 19n
Carno vsky , Morris 809
Carr 293
Caspary , Vera 809
Cavaignac, General 19n
Cebet, Etienne 2, 19n, 20n
Chablin 214
Chamberlain, Neville 844, 845, 851, 852, 862, 872, 873
Charles I 104n
Charles X 20n
Chauut, Peter 916
Chekov, Anton 104n, 808
Chen Si-Lan 809
Chernenko, Lena 916
Chernov, V. M 79, 758, 763
Chernyshevsky, N. G 103
Chevalier, Haakon M 809
Chi Ch'ao-Ting 809
Chiang Kai-Shek 579, 585, 613, 614
Chicago Federation of Labor 363, 365, 366, 368
Chicherin, George V 109
Childs, Morris 823
942 INDEX
China: Pag*
Liberation of 447
Revolution in 446
Christensen, N. Juel 334
Christian ty. See Religion.
Chubar, V 107
Church. See Religion.
Churchill, Winston 206, 852
Citrhie, Walter 841
Civil liberties. See Freedom.
Civil war:
And front organizations 126
As class war 73, 122, 408, 600
Turning imperialist war into 85, 97, 464, 466, 469, 470,
471, 546, 576, 577, 580, 588, 592, 606, 609, 647, 754, 766, 784, 936
In France 597
In Russia 472, 589, 770, 815, 819
In the United States 99, 104
Is war.--' 131,548
Lenin on 84, 660
Need of 3, 9, 32, 42, 46, 68, 198, 212, 741
Period of 129, 130, 209, 559, 595
Preparation for 268, 547
Presence of 124,246,256,401
Object of 126,218,219
Weapons of 169
See also Class struggle; Violence; Armed force; Army.
Clark, Joe 858
Class struggle:
As political struggles 131, 213, 287, 570, 745
History of 2,3,9, 18,43,52,54,62
International nature of 85
Lenin on 73
Level of 66
Marx on 786
Present form of 4, 7, 368f
Propaganda fund for 328
Sharpening of 42, 115, 116,232
Trade unions in 87, 136
See also Civil War; Violence.
Clemenceau, Georges 89, 206
Cline, Paul 856
Clurman, Harold 809
Coates, Robert 809
Colby, Merle 809
Cole, Lester 809
CoUege Teachers' Union 809
Colonies :
And Chinese revolution 446f
Communist policy on 39,
66, 123, 140, 196, 398, 439, 444, 449, 558, 586, 641, 695
Stalin on 878
Union with Soviet Republics 14 1
Comintern. See Communist International.
Comintern delegation 897
Communist Children's League 451
Communist commonwealth 245
Communist International:
Against fascism 662
Aim of 45
American section of 217, 31 1, 396, 399, 466, 797
And Communist Party 31, 100, 128
And parliamentarism 129
And Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 86, 88, 92
Anniversary celebrations 395f, 409, 410
As guiding hand for all communist parties 458, 621, 749, 799
Banner of 214
INDEX 943
Communist International — Continued. Page
Browdor's lovaltv to 833
Call to workers by 288f
Conditions for admission to 121-124
Connection with Red International of Labor Unions 279f, 823f, 295
Constitution of 34ff, 69ff
Couriers from 100
Criticizes parties 590
Decisions of 68, 69, 71, 421, 422. 464, 697, 895
Deviations from 457,458,461,462, 876ff. 898ff
Directives of 464,483
Discipline by 931, 933f
Emblem of 225, 239, 310
Endorsed bv American party 407, 408, 410, 799, 800, 801
Factional opposition to_. 701, 876ff, 898ff, 927f, 930, 935
Fifth Congress of 397,411,415, 416
Founding of 109, 233
Fourth Congress 293, 297, 404
Grave diggers of capitalist order 36
Guide for American party 802, 803ff, 881, 882
Holidays for all sections 336f ,
343, 350, 399, 462, 465, 485, 615, 616, 672, 675f, 862, 874, 877
Instructs all sections 300, 328, 360, 423, 622, 624, 633, 634, 636, 890, 891
International control commission of 71f, 414, 902, 925, 926
International policy of 43, 47, 58, 80, 142, 257
Intervention in affairs of national parties 293, 423, 798
Leadership of 375, 382, 402
Lenin as founder of 73, 86, 468, 470
Lenin on 89
Second Congress of 199ff
Membership in 69, 71, 120, 121ff
Minutes of national parties to 294f
Obedience to 403f, 425, 464, 829, 830, 831, 833
On American party 465
On colonial questions 141, 143f
On German social democracy 541
On terror 400
Organization of 278
Organizer of international proletarian revolution 36,
66, 210, 257, 463, 477, 515, 567
Parties of 67
Place in history of 89f, 91, 208
Program of 34, 36, 71, 699, 828
Reports to 264, 275, 294, 311, 323, 414, 490, 492, 697, 848
Relationship between sections of 72
Representatives to 278f, 423, 424
Representatives from 834
Second Congress of 121f, 473
Seventh Congress of 626ff, 649, 651
Significance of 87
Sixth Congress of 439, 478f, 479f, 564f
Special tasks of 57, 68, 113f, 448
Statutes of 1 lOf , 4 1 1
Strategy and tactics of 61, 65, 84, 245ff, 255f, 276, 284ff, 406, 517
Structure of 706f
Supporter of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 477
Ten years' history of 467ff
Third Congress of 258, 475
Trade-union policy of 378f, 476, 520, 526
Transfers within 72, 113
United States member expulsion by 925f
United States party members required to accept decisions of 881,
882ff, 887, 889, 901ff, 909
United States representatives to 292,
397, 468, 503, 827, 828, 83 If, 834, 887f, 897f, 910
A world party 69, 294, 474, 907
944 INDEX
Page
Communist Labor Party 619, 621, 622, 791, 793f
Communist Labor Partv of Germany 121, 126, 127, 130, 248, 473, 785
Communist Manifesto If, 20ff, 331, 480, 779
Communist Party of Austria 283, 471, 663, 675
Communist Party of Belgium 283
Communist Party of Brazil 678
Communist Party of Bulgaria 258, 658
Communist Party of China 455, 578, 645f, 678
Communist Party of England 248
Communist Party of Esthonia 471
Communist Party of Finland 471, 658
Communist Party of France. 212, 249f, 258, 282, 299, 398f, 452, 627, 667, 839, 881
Communist Partv of Germany 34,
97n, 107, 258, 283, 398, 419, 453, 463, 497, 513, 519, 521, 523,
524, 541, 628, 645, 686, 881, 890, 895, 896, 928, 930.
Communist Party of Great Britain 293f, 397f, 400, 406, 452, 473, 663
Communist Party of Hungary 471
Communist Party of Italy 247, 249, 406, 453, 473
Communist Party of Japan 455, 474, 645
Communist Party of Latvia 471
Communist Party of Lithuania 471
Communist Partv of Norwav 283
Communist Party of Poland. 247f, 454, 471, 537, 658
Communist Party of Rumania 454, 474
Communist Party of Serbia 258
Communist Party of the Soviet Union:
A model-...' 31, 128, 300, 411, 515, 531, 537, 538, 647, 844
And Soviet Government 108
And Trotskyism 463, 612
Attacks on 260, 462
History of 814ff
Leading party in Communist International 689, 749
Lenin as founder of 73, 77, 83, 505, 620
Organized on basis of shop nuclei 299
Purges of 456
Section of Communist International 60
Seventeenth congress of 652
Strategy and tactics of 517
Struggle against opportunism 649
Communist Party of Spain 282
Communist Party of Sweden 283
Communist Party of Switzerland 121
Communist Party of United States:
Affiliation with Communist International 848, 898, 903, 930f
Approves and endorses statements of Communist International 514,
906, 91 Iff
Assistance from Russia 108, 795
Constitution and program of 214f, 310--330
Decisions on address of Communist International 465, 931, 935
DiscipUne in 229, 311, 316, 933, 934
Factions within 624f
On following instructions from Communist International 79 If,
802, 804f, 824, 848f, 877, 890, 894ff, 899ff, 908, 936
History of 619ff, 774-805
Illegal activity of 19,
27, 68, 72, 113, 117fF, 122, 128, 133, 151, 153, 213, 220, 226,
248, 264f, 269, 276f, 404, 410, 414, 451, 457, 468, 494, 503, 516,
518, 520f, 525f, 534, 545, 566, 572, 593, 600, 621f, 642, 659, 698,
707, 795, 829, 837.
Intervention by Communist International in 423,
425, 458, 459, 465, 803, 925, 926
Leninism as guide of 621, 776
Members adhere to Communist International 73 1,
776, 799ff, 904f, 907, 909, 925
Membership in 31 Of
Organizational charts of 319-322, 714
INDEX 945
Communist Party of United States — Continued. Page
Represents Communist International in United States 797
Representatives to Communist International 214,
292, 397, 458, 504, 876f, 889, 891, 898, 910
Russian Party history as guide to 814-825
Violence endorsed by. See Violence.
Confederation Generale du Travail Union 453
Conference for Progressive Political Action 324, 337, 348. 356f, 359, 419, 421
Congress of Industrial Organization 863, 869
Conroy, Jack • 809
Conscription 582, 583, 861, 864f
Conspiracy :
By Communist Party 150f, 152ff, 277f, 302, 448, 706, 708
Secrecy 773f
Couriers : 100
Underground apparatus 451, 455
Treason 577
Seizure of factories 280, 284
Sedition 66
Consumers' cooperatives 288, 305, 426, 641
Convention of Technical Aid 396
Conway, Curt 809
Cooperatives. See Consumers' cooperatives.
Coolidge, Calvin 381, 385, 392, 393, 875
Correia, Martin C 918
Couday, Ted 809
Coughiin, Father Charles E 739,846
Councils for Protection of the Foreign Born 417
Cowley, Malcolm 809
Crawford , Bruce 809
Crenbach, Robert M 809
Crichton, Kyle 809
Criminal syndicalist laws 336
Cromwell, James 866
Cromwell, Oliver 104n
Cunow 26
Curzon - 206
Custance, F 333
Dahlstrem _ _ 214
Daily Worker 150, 295, 326, 343, 386flf, 398, 723, 725, 728
Daladier, Edouard 852f, 862, 873
Damon 293
Dan, T 183, 198,564
Dana, H. W. L 809
D'Aragona, Lodovico 249, 260
Darwin, Charles 2
Dasczinsky , Ignace 211, 28 1
Daumig 95
Davis, James J 385, 611
Davis, Jerome 809
Davis, Lena 823
Davis, Stuart 809
Dawes, Charles G 384
De Brouckere, Louis 841f
Debs, Eugene 104, 245, 324
de Kruif, Paul 809
de Lubersac ]02f
Democracy :
American 666
Armed force in 207f
Bourgeois _ __ 48,
60, 92, 115f, 140, 217, 218, 219, 220, 224, 26"8, 471, 596, 601, 628,
652, 653, 660, 692, 694.
Destruction of 198, 597, 760
Fake 402f, 783
Illusions of 549
Nature of 4
94931 — 40 — app., pt. 1 61
946 INDEX
Democracy — Continued. Page
J.enin on 106
Soviet 217
See Parliamentarism.
Denikin, General 201, 208, 807, 810
Deutsch, Felix 70, 20G
Devine, Pat 924
Dictatorship of the Proletariat 20,
23, 27. 30, 34, 40, 41, 46, 47, 49, 51, .'S2, 53, 55, 57, 61, 64, 65, 67,
69, 80, 87, 90, 93, 94, 106, 111, 112, 113, 114, Ho, 116, 117, 119,
120, 130, 137, 138, 140, 142, 162, 167, 169, 198, 213, 216, 218,
222, 224, 225, 245, 2(K), 284, 286, 287, 374, 375, 396, 401, 402,
408, 409, 411, 416, 425, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432, 435, 436,
449, 450, 465, 467, 468, 471, 472, 474, 478, 479, 480, 481, 505,
516, 536, 557, 562, 564, 577, 585. 589, 593, 594, 595, .596, 597,
598, 642, 648, 649, 659, 687, 689, 692, 694, 741, 744, 760, 762,
765, 783, 784, 786, 811.
Dimitroff, Georgi 616, 626, 627.
628, 632, 634, 635, 651, 689, 751, 779, 810, 821, 827, 835, 848, 870
Disarmament 587, 588, 589, 590, 609
Discipline:
In Communist Partv 65,
68, 69, 123, 151, 152, 214, 229, 230, 275, 276, 292, 361, 412, 424,
431, 432, 458, 461, 480, 492, 524. 5.59, 560, 562, 563, 607, 624,
630, 631, 697, 699, 700, 702, 735, 736, 737. 738, 748, 789, 829,
880, 889. 892, 903, 904, 925. 926, 931.
Expulsions 133. 229, 239, 316, 413, 563, 564, 882, 902, 925, 926, 931
Of the Communist International 294, 402, 403, 404
See International Control Commission.
Divine, Father 768, 769
Dc.h'-ol i ubov, N 88
Dolla, Jacob 393
Doriot, .lacciues 397
Dozenber^, Nicholas 407, 408
Draper, Muriel 809
Droz, Humbert 904
Dubinskv, David 863, 867
DuUring 761
Dnmoulin 282
Dunne, William F 334, 378, 395, 397, 408, 497, 553
Durdella, M 334
Duret 293
Dutoff 163, 169
Education:
In Bourgeois society 191
For connnunism 244
By Communist Party 326f
In partv schools 519, 536, 747
Ebert, Friedrich 33. 34, 211, 656
Edwards, .lohn 333
Emerson, Marian 334
Endore, Guv 809
Engdahl, J. Louis 334,387,395,401,407,408,411
Engels, Friedrich 1,
3. 19n, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 36, 41, 65, 91, 100, 472, 480,
481, .505, 517, 578, 581, 582, 585, .597, 619, 632, 645, 688, 692, 699,
722, 755, 756, 757, 758, 759, 760, 761, 762, 775, 776, 779, 782, 823,
897.
Ercoli, M .504,626,643 827,937
Ethel, Garland 809
Evergood, Phil 809
Factory committees:
Composition of 151. 284
Revolutionary functions of 136, 137, 222, 304
Family relations 4, 11, 12, 50
INDEX 947
Farmers: Page
Class struggle among 65, 129, 236f, 372,
373, 391f, 424, 506, 510, 614, 616, 666, 694, 716f, 741, 787, 789
Confiscation of estates of 68
As peasants 80, 142, 451
In Communist society 146, 147, 501
Nuclei among 223
Program for 332, 492, 500f
See Agriculture.
Farmer-Labor Party:
Relation to Comnaunist Party of . _ __ 324,
336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 356, 357, 358, 359, 362, 364, 365,
366, 367, 368, 410, 415, 417, 508, 512, 801.
Fascism _ 42,
43, 444, 446, 477, 512, 542, 543f, 587, 591, 592, 593, 600, 601, 604,
605, 616, 617, 627, 628, 633, 634, 635, 636, 639, 640, 642, 646, 651,
652, 653, 654, 655, 656, 657, 658, 659, 660, 661, 689, 692, 711, 750,
777, 845, 864.
Fatherland:
Duties of proletariat to defend 60, 102
Lenin on _ _ 74, 84
Defense of 194, 196, 444, 477, 600, 612, 695, 839, 841
Soviet Union as 577, 611, 644, 693, 754, 832
See Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Faures, Paul 841
Ferstadt, Louis 809
Feuerbach, Ludwig 22
Field, Frederick V 809
Fifth Congress of the Communist International 397, 411, 415, 416, 478f, 679
Finnila, Joseph 333
First Congress of the Communist International 468, 471f, 785
First International. _ 28, 30, 35, 36, 86, 89, 90, 111, 129, 467, 472, 481, 619, 775, 782
Fitzpatrick, John 337f, 342, 364, 367f
Florin, M 827
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley 809, 862
Foch, Marshal 206
Force. See Violence.
Ford, James W 502, 749, 817, 828
Foreign-born:
Work among 344f, 385, 393, 417, 512, 614
Foster, William Z 34,
333, 343, 355, 375, 393, 395, 396, 397, 415, 419, 482, 499, 502, 775,
782, 788, 789, 800, 804, 813, 817, 821, 822, 828, 847, 874, 879, 885,
886, 887, 889, 890, 891, 895, 898, 916, 917.
Fourier, Francois Charles 17, 19n, 20n, 21
Fourth Congress of the Communist International 293,
294, 297, 404, 405, 406, 411, 479, 679
Fraina, L 214, 890
Franco, Francisco 871
Frankfeld, Phil 851
Freedom:
Under bourgeoisie 10, 596, 646
Lenin on 92
Under dictatorship of proletariat 116, 168f, 170
Use by Communists of 247, 336, 856, 863, 870, 873
Freeman, S 918f
Freidman, Samuel 353
Friends of the Soviet Union 733
Froehlich 292
Frossard, Leon 293
Furst 655
Gallagher 214
Gandhi, Mahatma 447
Cannes, Harry 892
Gapon, Father 534
Gardos, Emil 917
Garfield , Jules 809
Garner, John Nance 858
948 INDEX
Page
Gasiunas 91g
GavStonia campaign 877, 920
Gebhardt 397
Gellert, Hugo 809
General strike 67,
118, 168, 269, 285, 369, 374, 462, 523, 527, 542, 573, 574, 577, 599, 781
Gennari 292
George V 212
George, Lloyd 89, 174, 203, 205, 206, 207, 248, 256, 667
Gerlach, Tony 916
German-Bohemian Communist Party 250
German National Socialist Party 34
• Germany:
Brest-Litovsk Treaty with 1 99
Relationship with Russia 103
Support of Soviet-German Pact 838, 849
Gessner, Robert 809
Gide, Charles 62
Giolitti 205
Gitlow, Benjamin ■ 333,355,382, 393, 395,
460, 876, 883, 885, 891, 894, 896, 901, 905, 907, 910, 919, 925
Goering, Herman 754
Gompers, Samuel 99, 107, 118, 138, 279, 357, 364, 377, 384, 786, 787, 800, 804
Gorman, D 333
Gottlieb, Harry 809
Gottwald, Klement 827
Goutchkoff 168
Gowan, Emmett 809
Graciadei 214
Gramsci 656
Grassman, Peter Ottmar 281
Grebanier, B. D. N 809
Green, Gilbert 751, 752, 828, 892
Green, William 552, 863
Greenleaf , Richard 809
Greenwood 84 1
Guilbeaux 214
Guizot 3, 19n
Gusev, S. I 423,548, 555
GutchkoflF, A 183
Haase 33, 34,97
Haeglund 132
Hagelias, Peter 911
Hais 904,926
Hall, Robert F 822
Halonen, George 333
Hammett, Dashiell 809
Hansen, Peter 333
Hardman, J. B. Salutsky 799, 801, 802, 803
Harney, George Julian 1
Harrison, Caleb 233
Harriton, Abraham 809
Hart, Henry 809
Hathaway, C. A 333, 482, 859
Haxthausen, August von 19n
Hearst, William Randolph 498, 771, 846
Heckert, Fritz 292, 541
Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich 21, 22, 755
Heikkinen, K. E 916
Hei iiOj David 915
Hfller, A. A 834,835
Hellman, Lillian 809
Henderson, Arthur 31, 107, 211, 212, 247, 595, 762
Henderson, Neville 838
Herschler, F 333
INDEX 949
Page
Herve 573
Herzen, Alexander 2
Herzog 214
Hicks, Granville 809
Hilferding, Rudolf 42, 93, 94, 140, 569
Hillquit, Morris 99,
123, 232, 402, 502, 547, 552, 620, 783, 784, 785, 786, 788, 790, 800
Hillman, Sidney 863,867
Hindenburg, Paul von 192, 502, 532, 533, 547, 601
Hitler, Adolf 502, 532,
541, 542, 543, 544, 615, 617, 643, 645, 654, 655, 658, 660, 669, 671,
675, 739, 838, 846, 849, 852, 853, 859, 861, 862, 864, 865, 872, 873
Hitler Youth Leagues 671
Hobson, J. A 63
Hoeglund. See Hoglund.
Hoffman, Albert 914
Hoglund 893, 928
Hohenzollern.. . 1 39, 205
Hoover, Herbert 497, 498, 500, 508, 556, 849, 854, 865, 873, 875, 933
Horthy 258
Hourwich, Nicholas 503
House, Colonel 858, 862, 868
Howard, Roy W 835, 836n
Hughes, Charles Evans 362
Hughes, Langston 809
Hula 214
Humbert-Droz 214
Humphries, Rolph 809
Hurwitz, Lee 809
Hyndman, Henry 581
Hyogikai 455
International Communist Workers Party of America 451, 477
Indian National Congress 678
Industrial Workers of the World 118,
121, 126, 130, 220, 221, 282, 283, 393, 782, 787, 800
Inprecorr 352, 399,400
Instructions or directives from Comintern 302,
304, 307, 309, 360, 362, 391, 390, 399, 410, 411, 415, 423, 452, 458,
464, 483, 484, 485, 490, 491, 493, 503, 504, 515, 525, 538, 539, 590,
600, 606, 607, 609, 611, 613, 615, 618, 633, 636, 640, 641, 674, 677,
679, 690, 697, 698, 725, 749, 751, 777, 778, 781, 791f, 795, 798,
799, 800f, 802, 803, 889, 890, 892, 893, 897, 899, 901, 902, 903,
904, 905.
Insurrection. See Violence.
Intellectuals:
Party work among 506, 511, 650, 695, 772fif
International Association of Machinists 238
International Control Commission 70, 71, 72, 412, 414, 892, 902, 925, 926, 934
International Cooperative Alliance 569
International Federation of Trade Unions (Amsterdam International) 42,
61, 88, 97, 123, 138, 222, 246, 247, 260, 266, 267, 279, 280, 281,
290, 364, 367, 405, 445, 450, 473, 570, 604, 606, 629, 674, 676, 841
International Labor Defense 70, 484, 489, 719, 877
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union 378, 381
International Oxygen Co ' 835
International Publishers __ _ i
98, 425, 437, 557, 593, 597, 631, 651, 652, 656, 6'60n, 674n, 683n,
685n, 688n, 750, 754, 762, 765, 776n, 779n, 798n, 813, 814,
823, 834, 835n, 937.
International Red Aid 477, 484, 528, 655
International Workers Order 489, 813, 817
International Workingmen's Association 1, 90, 411, 412,' 47oi 480
Ivanov, Ivan Philipovich 805, 806, 808
Jakira, Abram 334, 335, 355^ 912, 923
James, Burton O 809
James, Florence B 809
950 INDEX
Page
Jampolsky , J 333
Jansen 214,292
Jelibov, Alexander 88
Jerome, V.J 557
Jilek 931
Jolinstone, J 333, 488
Johnstone, William H 377
Jones, Joe 809
Jorge nsen 214
Jouhaux, Leon 118, 138, 212, 247, 279, 281, 282, 842
Kabaktchiev 214
Kai V , Johannes 87 1
Kalcdin 163
Kalousek, Joseph — 333
Kamenev, Leo B 532, 806
Kamp, John 910
Kant, Imnianuel 78
Karaj , Stephen 682
Karsner, Rose 334
Kasakevich, V. D 809
Katavama, J. Sen 397
Katt6rfieM, L. E 334,355,393
Kautsky.-Karl Johann 24, 26, 31. 33, 42, 86, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95. 90, 97. 118,
123, 140, 150, 211, 436, 444, 558, 594, 596, 660, 756, 757, 762, 783
Kazelkov 805f
Keller, Eli 911
Kelley, Florence 19n
Kerenskv, Alexander 79, 93, 98,
103, 131, 168, 169, 174, 183, 192, 194, 523, 530, 533, 538, 758
Kin-Tulin 214
Kintner 855
Kjar, Nels 918
Klein, Adelaide 809
Knudsen, William S 861
Knutson, Alfred 354,913
Kofardzhiev 655
Kolarov, W 362, 397
Kolchak, Admiral 201,208,436,807,810
Kowalski, J 334
Komar, I 467
Koppel, A 918
Koritschoner i 292
Korniloff 139, 163, 165, 168, 169, 533
Korsch 457
Koteff, Christ 333
Kracvsk V 397
Kraft, H. S 809
Krastin 214
Kreibich 292
Kropotkin, Peter 63
Knunbein, Charles 333, 341, 355
Krupskava, N. K 469
Kruse, William F 334, 913
Kucinic, Paul 333
Kugelmann, Dr 597, 631n
Kuls 251
Kun, Bela 292,477
Kuomintang 64, 447, 455, 499, 578, 579, 580, 586, 603, 646
Kutuzoff 435
Kuusinen, Otto 20, 26,
484, 485, 611, 651, 750, 805, 810, 827, 832, 875, 876, 888, 894
Labor Sports Union 922
La FoUette 324, 325, 801
INDEX 951
Page
LaGuardia, FioreUo H 853, 857, 863
Lamont, Corliss 809
Landon, Alfred M 854
Landv, A 821
Laoii-Siu-Than 214
Lassalle, Ferdinand 19n
Latin America 382, 383, 384, 441, 446, 450, 451, 455, 456, 548, 613, 878
Lawrence, Catherine 809
Lawrence, Martin 89
Lawson, John Howard 809
League for the Struggle Against Imperialism 451, 591
League of Red Front Fighters 657
League of Struggle for Negro Rights 484, 485, 486, 487, 489, 494
League of the Just 27
Ledebour, Georg 469
Ledru-RoUin 20n
Legien 91, 138,279,762, 763
Leipart, Theodor 281, 543
Lekai 292
Lenin, V. I 21,
22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 60, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77,
78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 98, 99, 100, 107, 109.
150, 214, 292, 293, 397, 398, 400, 425, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431,
432, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 458, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471,
473, 475, 477, 480, 485, 494, 502, 503, 504, 505, 515, 516, 517,
524, 530, 531, 532, 533, 538, 543, 546, 547, 548, 549, 560, 561,
562, 563, 564, 568, 570, 571, 572, 573, 574, 578, 579, 581, 588
589, 593, 594, 595, 596, 597, 598, 599, 600, 617, 620, 622, 632'
640, 645, 647, 656, 660, 681, 682, 683, 685, 688, 692, 693, 699^
706, 722, 734, 754, 762, 765, 770, 775, 776, 781, 782, 784, 788,
793, 799, 800, 804, 805, 807, 810, 811, 812, 815, 820, 829, 835,
836, 843, 844, 890, 891, 897, 928, 930, 936.
Lenin School 831
Leninism 36, 67, 73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84,
398, 400, 425, 426, 462, 463, 593, 630, 693f, 775, 781, 807
Lerner, M 333
Levi, Paul 214, 255, 419, 475, 928
Levitsky 214
Levsky, Vassil 682
Levy, 'Melviu 809
Lewis, John L 851, 878
Leyda, Jay 809
Liebknecht, Karl 30, 32, 33, 34, 97n, 107, 131, 132, 197, 206, 212, 469, 472, 580
Liebknecht, V/ilhelm 24
Lifschitz, Benjamin 333, 923
Lincoln, Abraham 682, 775
Lindbergh, Charles A 846
Lindgren, Edward 334
Lippmann, Walter 871
Litvinov, Maxim 557, 609, 610, 611
Loeb, Moritz J 411
Loeb, Philip 809
Long, Huey 739
Longuet, Jean 31, 123, 130, 250, 251, 258-
Lore, Ludwig 333, 335, 395, 418, 419, 420, 422, 424
Lotoni tsky 214
Lovestone, Jay 295,
334, 335, 354, 395, 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 780, 797, 802, 803,
875, 876, 878, 879, 880, 881, 883, 885, 886, 887, 888, 889, 891, 892,
893, 894, 896, 897, 900, 901, 902, 903, 904, 905, 907, 909, 910, 919,
920, 921, 925, 926, 927, 929, 930, 931, 933, 934, 935, 936.
Lozovick, Louis 809
Lozovsky , A 73, 75
Lucas, John 918
Lupin, Abraham 911
952 INDEX
Page
Lurye 920
Lusher 20G
Lutibrosky 655
Luttgens 655
Luxemburg, Rosa 34, 85, 97n, 107, 206, 212, 472, 617, 647
MacDonald, Ramsay 31,34,42,62, 123,547,569,595, 596
Macfarlane, Helen 1
MachiavcUi 206
MacLane 214
MacLeod, William C 809
MacManus 397
Madseii 214
Mahoney 367
Maksiniow 214
Malraux, Andre 753
Malt z, Albert 809
Manifesto of the Communist Partv. See Communist manifesto.
Manlev, Joseph ' 333, 335, 382
Mann, Tom 387
Mannerheim, Baron 849, 872
Manuilsky, D. Z . 626,647,805,810,827
Marcholovzky 214
Marcovicz 292
Maring 214
Marinoff 915
Markoff, A 915
Marrast 19n
Martinowich, Joseph 355, 393
Martov, Y. O 469, 560, 561n, 564
Marty, Andre 827
Marx, Karl . 1,
2, 3, 19n, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 36, 41, 65, 75, 76,
78, 85, 87, 89, 92, 93, 100, 193, 198, 199, 331, 397, 401, 402, 438,
472, 480, 481, 505, 517, 538, 578, 579, 581, 585, 595, 597, 619, 631,
632, 645, 684, 688, 692, 699, 700, 722, 754, 755, 756, 758, 760, 761,
762, 763, 768, 775, 776, 779, 782, 783, 786, 799, 823, 897.
Matthews, J. B 34, 812, 814,
824, 825, 828, 829, 830, 831, 832, 833, 834, 835, 875, 876, 894, 898
Maurer, George 334
Maurer, Georg Ludwig von 20n
McGill, V. J 809
McKee 482
Mehring, Franz 481
Menefee, Selden C 809
Merino 292
Merrick, Fred H 333, 393
Metal Workers Industrial League 488
Metternich 3, 19n
Michigan defense campaign 336
Mihelic, John 333
Miliukov, Paul 260
Milkitz 214
Miller, Bert 923
Miller, John 333
Millerand 203,204,206,256
Milo, N 911
Milutin 397
Minor, Robert 334, 335, 387, 408, 482, 499, 503, 892
Mitchell, Charles 916
Mizara, Roy 333
Modigliani 123
Molev, Raymond 614
Moller, Albert 913
Molotoff, V. M 870,875,894
Monroe Doctrine 200
Mooney, Tom 393, 656
Moore, Samuel 3
INDEX 953
Page
Morang, Alfred 809
Moreau, Albert 922
Morgan, J. P 206, 368, 369, 384, 498, 596, 611, 694, 786, 861
Morgan, Lewis H 20n
Morones, Luis N 384
Moskvin, M. A 827
Mullen, J. F 333
Muna 251,397
Munzenberg, Willi 292,469
Mussolini, Benito 477, 654, 669, 682, 739, 769, 871, 872
Muste, A. J 507, 552, 617, 791, 798, 799, 801, 802, 803
Napoleon III 579
National defense:
conscription for 575, 583, 861, 862, 864, 866
defeatism, advocacy of 448, 500, 573, 575, 582, 583, 585, 586, 936
Military service in 572, 574, 575, 580, 582, 583, 584, 586, 647, 854
Opposition to 62, 72, 74, 84, 123, 211, 213, 352, 481, 547, 569, 570, 571,
572, 577, 580, 592, 600, 618, 645, 683, 812, 813, 836, 839, 841, 868
National Miners Union 507, 874, 878
Nasaritjan 214
Nastasievsky , A 334
Navv:
Revolutionary work in 67, 68, 118, 223, 224, 268, 505, 575, 580, 615
Nearing, Scott 419
Negroes :
Revolutionizing of 64f ,
66, 142, 236, 237, 332, 361, 373f, 394, 424, 449, 483, 488, 490, 492,
493, 496, 499, 510, 511, 512, 540, 613, 614, 616, 618, 694f, 696, 703,
711, 716, 731, 734, 749f, 787, 789, 795, 802, 867, 903.
Nelson, Gustav 914
Netschajev 88
Neumann, Heinz 658
Neurath 397
New Deal 610,611,613,614, 617, 798,855,859
New ec onomic policy:
In Russia 84
Nichad 214
Niemetz 211
Nilsen 214
Nockels, Edward N 364, 367
Non-Partisan League 235
Noske 33, 34, 42, 91, 211, 246, 595
O'Dea, Thomas Patrick 874
O'Flahertv 343
Olds, Elizabeth 809
Olgin, M. J 333, 334, 913
Oliver, Lord 62
O'Mallev, John 809
Oneal, James 402, 617, 783, 785, 788
Ordjonikidze, Sergo 107
Ornitz, Samuel 809
Otis, Raymond 809
Ottenheimer, A. L 809
Owen, Robert 17, 19n, 21
Owens, Edgar 333, 352
Paivio, C 333
Pak-Din-Chun 214
Palchinskv 758
Palmer, Michell 621, 780, 794, 799
Panken, Jacob 617
Pankhurst, E. Sylvia 214
Pankratov 530n
Pano v, Yonko 656
Paris Commune 30, 47, 80, 89, 92, 93, 125, 580, 599, 757
Parker, Dorothy 809
Parliamentarism :
And Communist Party 117, 123, 129, 130, 132, 213
Bourgeois 220, 597, 762, 763
Revolutionarv 133f, 473, 745
Utilization of _ 219, 600, 786
954 INDEX
Pagfl
Pasionaria 810
Pearson, Albert 911
Pegelman 214
Penty 63
Pepper, John 334, 354,
382, 395, 879, 885, 886, 887, 889, 891, 892, 896, 900, 901, 902, 934
Perry, Pettis 856
Pestana 214
Peter, J 690, 917,922
Peters, Paul 809
Philippe, Louis 1 9n, 20n
Piatnitski, O 397, 484, 489, 515, 805
Pieck, Wilhelm 626, 632, 827
Pilsudsky, Marshall Joseph 211, 259, 654, 658
Pinchot, Gifford 381
Pires, Raphael 911
Pitts, Rebecca E 809
Piatt, Leon 458, 465
Platten 109
Piekhanov (also Plechanov) 19n, 76, 762, 764
Police :
Attitude toward 256,491,582, 584, 638,743,756, 757
Pollitt , H arry 834
Pope Pius 87 1
Popoff 292
Potresov, A. N 561n, 564
Povntz, Juliet Stuart 333, 422, 424, 911
Preston, John Hyde 809
Production:
Workers' management of 137, 173, 177, 178, 286
Professionals. See Intellectuals.
ProHiitern 295
Protoppopoff 183
Proudhon, Pierre Joseph 1, 19n, 22
Publications:
Control of 305
Daily Worker 502
Financial report on 389, 390
For shop nuclei 309, 711, 712, 713
Function of 124
Inprecorr 352, 399, 400, 690
International 278,399
Of Communist Party 230,
27'2, 325f, 353, 354, 360, 395, 504, 528, 529, 690, 720, 721, 722
Party organizer 690
Pravda 273
Report of Daily Worker 386ff
Sale of 718
Purcell 445
Puro, Henry 333,924
Putnam, Samuel 809
Quelch _ 214
Rachia 214
Racovskv, Christian. See Rakovsky.
Radek, Karl 109, 292, 293, 387
Radschev 88
Raduloflf, G 915
Rakosi 656
Rakoszv 214
Rakovskv, Christian 109, 590
Rand School 834
Rathenau, Walter 97
Rax, P 938
Raymond, Harry 499
Recht, Charles 809
Red Army 128,
191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 208, 276, 290, 397, 472, 496, 574, 577,
578, 581, 582, 584, 628, 641, 644, 645, 646, 647, 807, 808, 811, 812,
837, 838, 844, 850, 863.
INDEX 955
Page
Red International of Labor Unions 67»
70, 86, 88, 123, 222, 237, 238, 279f, 283f, 287, 290, 295, 373, 376,
377, 378, 380, 405, 450, 473, 492, 629, 639, 676, 788, 795.
Reeve, Carl 856
Reinstein 890
Reiss, Paul 333
Religion:
The opium of the people 12, 14, 55, 61, 142, 156, 188ff, 214, 767ff, 780
Renaudel, Paul 31, 107, 763
Renner, Karl 90, 107, 211, 656, 66
Revolution:
Agrarian 66
Bucharin on 155
Chinese 446f
Colonial 57
Counter 116
Cultural or bourgeois 54
Engels on 761f
Forces of 39
French 80
German and Austrian 139
Hungarian 47
International Socialist 58
In various countries 41
Lenin on 78, 85
Mass 64
Methods of 67
Necessary for communism 692
Nonconcealment of aims 19
October 33, 47, 79, 80, 84, 85, 98, 158, 162, 167, 168, 435, 470, 607
Party of 28
Preparation for 115, 438, 741
Proletarian 32, 33, 54f, 254
Role of 7,9,13,25,27,35,38
Russian 100,
148, 149, 163, 167, 216, 244, 300, 401, 465, 466, 476, 495, 497, 765, 766
Science of 75
State and 754flf, 759ff
Struggle for 646f
Upsurge of 44, 504
World 40,405
See Violence.
Revolutionary activity:
Bolshevik theory on 689
Class against class 500
Demonstrations 67, 131, 269, 284, 464, 512, 514, 523, 549, 554, 572, 573
Direct action 252, 255
Insurrection 741
Marches 554
Mass actions 65, 67, 511, 547, 549, 556, 616, 695, 787
Mass political strikes 637, 664
Overthrow of Government by 208, 482, 580
Peaceful means of 18, 79, 120, 285, 286, 376, 497, 627, 900
Uprisings 212, 213, 284, 416, 478, 543, 741
Way out 493
See Violence.
Reynaud, Paul 852
Riabtzeff, Colonel 169
Ricardo 21
Richards, J 872
Richter, Herman 333
Ridpath 353
Riegger, Wallingford 809
Riggs, Lynn 809
Rizello 206
Roberts, Holland D 809
Robinson, Henry 384, 498
Robles, Gil 657
956 INDEX
Page
Rochester,' Anna 809
Rockefeller, John D 206, 368, 369, 498, 596, 694, 786
Rodgers, W 333
Rodriguez 367
Rodzianko, M. V 168, 183
Rolenko, D 915
Romaine, Paul 809
Romanoff, Nicholas 183
Rome, Harold J 809
Roosevelt, Franklin D 508,
549, 556, 557, 610, 611, 613, 614, 618, 752, 771, 849, 851, 852,
853, 854, 855, 857, 858, 859, 860, 861, 862, 863, 864, 865, 866,
868, 869, 872, 873, 874, 875.
Rosmer 214
Roth, Henry 809
Rothschild, Lord __ 206, 596, 694
Roudneff 169
Rov, M. N 214,397
Rubenstein, Jack 919, 920, 921
Rudniansky 214
Rusanov 763
Russell, Charles Edward 619
Rutgers 109
Ruthenberg, C. E 295, 310, 330, 333, 334, 335, 338, 339, 343, 354, 355,
393, 395, 396, 397, 401, 402, 410, 415, 423, 609, 782, 800, 804, 891
Sabotage. See Violence; Class struggle.
Sabototsky 251
Sacco 393, 399, 444, 455
Sadoul 102,214
Saint-Simon, Claude Henri de Rouvroy 17, 20n, 21
Sallai 655
Saniuelson 214
Sassulitsch, Vera. See Zasulich.
Sapotozky 214
Schaeffer, A 333
Schappes, Morris U 809
Scheer, John 655
Schefflo 214,292
Scheidemann 31, 33,
34, 90, 91, 107, 197, 198, 211, 246, 247, 256, 595, 596, 656, 762, 763
Schlauch, Margaret 809
Schlochower, Harry 809
Schmidt, Robert..'. 281
Schmies, John 916
Schneider 206
Schneiderman, William 856
Schulenberg, Gus 388
Schulz, Fiete 655
Schweitzer 517
Seaman, F 214
Searles, Ellis 377,378
Seaver, Edwin 809
Second Congress of the Communist International 119,
120, 122, 124, 128, 130, 247, 281, 288, 411, 427, 428, 436, 437, 473,
475, 494, 503, 622, 931.
Second International 28,
30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 41, 42, 64, 66, 69, 84, 86, 89, 90, 92, 93, 111, 113,
114, 117, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 138, 142, 144, 145,
146, 150, 207, 211, 212, 213, 217, 225, 233, 260, 280, 281, 283, 341,
364, 405, 409, 445, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 472, 475, 476, 481, 532,
541, 546, 547, 557, 558, 563, 567, 569, 581, 600, 601, 602, 604, 606,
608, 609, 617, 629, 636, 642, 647, 660, 661, 688, 783, 785, 786, 793,
805, 841.
Sections of the Communist International 71,
72, 414, 477, 480, 632, 633, 634, 642, 651, 663, 688, 705
Seldes, George 809
SeUier, Louis 397
INDEX 957
Page
Selsam, Howard 809
Sembat, Marcel 762, 763
Seminoff , Esaul 163
Serrati, Giacinto M 214,260,419
Seventh Congress of the Communist International 626,
632ff, 642f, 645ff, 649, 651, 684, 776fl, 832, 848
Severing 246,657
Severino, A. V 333
Shaw , Bernard 62
Shaw, Irwin 809
Shaw, Tom 211
Shavevich 530
Sheffik : 214
Shumsky 292
Sigerist, Henry E 809
Silvis, Miriam 919, 920, 921
Simons, William 333
Sinclair, Upton 387, 619
Sinisalo, E. J 333
Sirola 292
Sismondi, Jean Cliarles Leonard 15, 20n, 22
Sixth Congress of the Communist International 34,
439, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 468, 477, 478, 479, 480, 565, 590, 593,
599, 626, 632, 645, 651, 675, 684, 685, 688, 794, 795, 801, 877, 878,
889, 893, 895, 896, 900, 902, 917, 919, 920, 925, 926, 927, 931, 933
Sklar, George 809
Skobelev 758,763
Skoglund, J 333
Smeral 397
Smith, Adam 21
Smith, Bernard 809
Smith, F. Tredwell 809
Smith , Jessica 809
Snyder, J. E 354
Social democracy 25,
28, 30, 41, 43, 54, 61, 62, 64, 77, 82, 134, 212, 443, 444, 445, 446,
449, 450, 451, 457, 459, 460, 462, 472, 475, 477, 479, 480, 481, 541,
576, 588, 602, 604, 606, 637, 652, 662, 674, 680, 688, 759.
Sondergard, Hester 809
Sorenson 918
Sorin 428,435
Souvarine, Boris 107, 292, 293
Soviet Union. See Union of ^oviet Socialist Republics.
Soviets:
New tvpe of state 47, 57, 66, 69, 91, 435
In the United States 106, 113, 120
As basic form of proletarian dictatorship 127,
131, 164f, 167, 213, 217, 218, 374, 402, 409, 426, 427, 687, 812
When formed 139, 150, 209
And revolution 140, 470, 744
Russian 141, 742, 743
Of workers, soldiers, and peasants 165
Versus democracy 166
All power to 209, 642, 681
Struggle for 473, 618, 639
Socialist order guaranties 650
Soyer, Raphael 809
Spartacus League 97n, 107, 251, 471
Spehar, D 333
Stachel, .lack 691, 892
Stalin, Joseph 24,
25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 99, 107, 108, 397, 425, 427n, 429n, 430n,
431n, 433n, 435n, 437, 485, 505, 538, 557, 593, 613, 620, 628, 632,
640, 643, 645, 652, 656, 674n, 675, 682, 683, 688, 689, 692, 693,
694, 699, 701, 722, 734, 750, 754, 775, 776, 777, 781, 798, 800, 803,
805, 806, 807, 808, 810, 815, 817, 818, 824, 829, 832, 833, 835, 836,
843, 844, 849, 875, 876, 882, 884, 892, 893, 894, 897.
958 INDEX
Page
Stander, Lionel 809
Starnes, Joe 827, 829, 831, 876, 894
State:
Lenin on 82, 754ff
Nature of 94, 232, 370
Bourgeois 158, 217, 445
Capture of 438, 564
Destruction of 581, 740, 749, 786
Power 39
Stalin on 693fiF
Courts 369
Soviet 743
As instrument of exploitation 757fif, 693, 755, 756, 758, 759, 760, 761
W ithering away of 759f
Stauning, Thorvald A. M 762
Staviskv 654
Steele, Al 868
Steinhardt 214
Stephens, Rov 913
Stern, Bcrnhard J 809
Stettinius, Edward R., Jr 861
Stevens, Houselv, Jr 809
Stevenson, Philip 809
Stewart 397
Stewart, Maxwell 809
Stinncs, Hugo 206, 256, 596, 694
Stirner, Max 22, 397
Stokes, Rose Pastor 334, 343
Stolypin, P 516
Stone, Martha 873
Strand, Paul 809
Strazdas 918
Stremer 214
Strikes:
Funds for 349
Leadership of 507, 675
Political 664
Preparation for 535
Strategy in 539
Use of, in revolution 67,
68, 118, 131, 158, 196, 209, 210, 212, 213, 219, 256, 268, 269, 278,
284, 285, 361, 369, 380, 381, 400, 443, 444, 464, 465, 492, 501, 504,
509, 511, 512, 514, 516, 517, 518, 523, 536, 554, 615, 695, 796
See General strike.
Striz, A 911
Struve, Peter 76, 77
Stuart, John 809
Sturmer 183
Stutchka 214,292
Suhr 393
Sukhomlinoff 183
Sullivan, T. R 333
Sultan-Sade 214
Sun-Yat-Senism 64
Sunarin 411
Swabeck, Arne 333, 341, 36^
Taggard, Geneviev 80 J
Tallentire, Norman H 333, 923, 924
Tanner 427
Tauras, V 918
Tchaikovsk V 53 1
Tchkheidze 211
Tenhunen, Matti 333
Tereschenko 168
Terracini 292
Thaelmann, Ernst 541, 606, 615, 617, 635, 656, 805, 810
Thalheimer, August 387, 461, 520, 882, 927
INDEX 959
Third International. See Communist International. Page
Third Congress of the Communist International 132,
245, 258, 284, 288, 290,292, 400, 411, 458, 474, 475, 476, 503, 504
Thoman 214
Thomas, Albert 42, 211, 281
Thomas, J. Parnell 831, 835, 849
Thomas, James Henry 118, 281
Thomao, Norman 498, 617, 618, 739, 863, 867
Thompson, Leo 937
Thorez, Maurice 627, 632, 810
Tichabasov, Nahum 809
Tobin 863
Toohey, Pat 862
Totomvautz 62
Toveri 918
Trachtenberg, Alexander 100, 334, 813, 814, 822, 834, 835
Trade Union Educational League 73,327,328,364,
386, 367, 377, 379, 380, 381, 417, 788, 795, 796, 800, 905, 920, 922
Trade Union Unitv League 464,
484, 485, 487, 488, 489, 492, 494, 553, 554, 615, 616, 797, 800, 936
Trade-unions:
As school for communism. 7, 29, 65, 67, 239, 290, 372f, 376, 426, 427, 605, 664
Bureaucracy in 135
Communist factions in 136, 138, 221,
222, 256, 263, 266, 267, 273, 282, 284, 305, 327, 450, 477, 480, 691
Communist International and 279-281
Communist Party and 378f, 380f, 421, 424, 492, 509, 513, 534, 788
Control of 113, 123, 135, 218, 270, 332
Department of in Communist Party 312, 314, 323, 327f
Dual unionism 221, 231, 238
Function of 220f, 235, 237
In America 212, 303
International action on 285, 675f
In united front 639, 696f
Leaders of 116, 592
Lenin on 87f
Movement of 134, 675
Reformist 443,444,445,515, 686, 688, 784
Revolutionary 485, 491, 493, 507, 524
Russian 517, 518, 553
Stalin on 878
Tactics of 213,284,287
Unity in 674
See International Federation of Trade Unions; Red International of
Labor Unions.
Transmission belts 427, 482, 484, 485, 488, 789
Transport Workers Union 853
Treint 387, 397
Treves 249
Troelstra, Pieter Jelles 211
Trotsky, Leon 109, 214, 292, 293, 397, 397,
419, 460, 461. 516, 533, 547, 780, 783, 797, 806, 878, 880, 904, 921
Trotskyism 400, 418f, 452, 456, 457, 459, 460, 463, 480, 522, 576,
578, 589, 715, 775, 780, 806, 847, 879, 889, 891, 895, 900, 909, 928
Tschernischevskv 88
Tschilbum I __ _ _ 292
Tseretelli, I 530, 758, 763, 764
Turati, Filippo 118, 123, 130, 249
Turner, Ethel 809
Tuzar 211
Two and a half International 247, 258, 259, 260, 280, 283, 364, 405, 475. 476
Tzertelli 168, 183, 198
Unemployed:
Communist work among 37,
253, 285, 329, 441, 449, 455, 482, 483, 485, 486, 487, 488, 489, 490,
491, 492, 500, 501, 506, 507, 510, 511, 512, 513, 521, 537, 548, 549,
550, 551, 553, 554, 555, 606, 614, 640, 664, 695, 702, 731, 747,
748, 937.
960 INDEX
Patre
Unemployment councils. _ 482, 483, 484, 486, 487, 488, 489, 491, 719, 744, 746, 747
Union of Socialist Soviet Republics:
Center of international revolution 43, 46, 59, 81, 438
Communist Partv's connections with 29,
31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 43, 45, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70,
72, 73, 74, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, lOOff, 108, 111, 112, 124, 129,
141, 195, 190, 198, 199. 208, 214, 216, 217, 218, 225, 227, 233, 235.
244, 257, 258, 259, 264, 275, 276, 278, 279. 283, 289, 292, 293, 294,
295, 300, 304, 307, 310, 328, 336, 360, 368, 375, 378, 379, 382, 385,
389, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408,
409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416. 419, 420, 422, 423, 425, 440,
448, 451, 458, 459, 460, 461, 463, 464, 465, 468, 470, 473, 476, 477,
480. 481, 484, 485, 490, 493, 494, 495, 497, 500, 501, 502, 504, 505,
512, 514. 539, 545, 550, 551, 576, 577, 578, 589, 592, 593, 600, 606,
607, 608, 609, 610, 611, 612, 614, 618, 620, 621, 622, 624, 625, 632.
634, 641, 642, 644, 645, 647, 650, 651, 652, 684, 685, 688, 689, 690,
692, 693, 694, 695, 698, 699, 705, 706, 722, 731, 738, 749, 753, 754,
770, 773, 776 777, 779, 782, 784, 786, 792, 796, 797, 798, 799, 800,
801. 802, 803, 804, 805, 807, 808, 809, 810, 812, 813, 814, 815 816,
817, 818, 819. 820, 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 827, 828, 829, 830i 831,
832 833, 834, 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 843, 844, 845, 847, 848, 875,
876, 877, 878, 879, 880, 881, 882, 883, 884, 885, 886, 887, 888, 890,
892, 894, 895, 896, 897, 898, 899, 900, 901, 902, 903, 904, 905, 906,
907, 908, 909, 910, 911, 912, 913, 914, 915, 916. 917, 918, 919, 920,
921, 922, 923, 924, 925, 926, 927, 929, 930, 931, 934, 935, 936, 937.
Communist Partv must defend 111,
124, 194, 195, 196, 198, 216, 244, 259, 294, 332, 448, 451, 462, 463,
464, 466, 477, 481, 494, 495, 496, 500, 506, 509, 512, .545, 565, 566,
568f. 574, 576, 577, .586, 587, 590, 592, .593, 606, 609, 610, 611, 614,
618, 644, 645, 647, 651, 695, 711, 731, 745, 807, 808, 809, 811, 812,
813, 838, 841. 873, 875, 936.
Communist Party's source of directives. See Instructions.
Driving force for world revolution 60
Equivalent of Communist International 90
Fatherland of working class 31,
43. 60, 74, 477, 500, 577, 610, 611, 612, 618, 693, 695, 753
Foster accepts program from 34
Gave birth to Soviet democracy 92, 502
Has international revolutionary duties 59, 60
Has leading party of Communist International 411
Has vanguard party of international proletariat 31, 88, 141, 505, 843
Help to world proletariat 293
Holds hegemony over Communist International 91
International Communist discipline originates in 404, 458, 699
International proletariat must ally itself with 61, 684, 806
International proletariat must retaliate on behalf of 60
Inspiration of American Communist Partv 402,
411, 470, 471, 477, 505, 647, 689, 754, 770
Leader of anticapitalist states and parties 43,
60, 66, 199, 235, 257, 375, 379, 397, 440, 480, 495, 634, 642, 652
Living example 60, 233, 497, 607, 621, 689, 738, 844
Lovaltv toward from international proletariat 60,
196, 294, 395, 651, 807
Outpost of world revolution 404
Pledged aid by American Communists 244
Program for Communist International originated in 36, 60, 195, 828
Prototype of new society 60, 368, 463, 468, 501, 6.50
Provides general staff for international Communist movement 293, 749
Provides model party for all countries 31, 814-825
Renders financial assistance to American Communist Party 108
Revolution upheld by Communist International and its sections 111, 477
Seat of executive committee of Communist International 279
Seat of training of American Communists 830f
Source of international organization of working class 35, 36, 60, 208
Source of world revolution 60,
233, 404, 405, 409, 410, 440, 468, 470, 477, 578, 642, 749, 805
INDEX 961
Union of Socialist Soviet Republics— Continued. Pag«
Supplied guidance througli Communist Party of Soviet Union for
Comintern and American Party 31,
67, 87, 399, 410, 458, 481, 539, 624, 749, 770, 782, 814-825, 84o
Supplied leadership for American Communist Party 625, 838
Tactical and ideological bases of Communist International derived
from 31, 87, 608, 620, 692, 722, 798ff, 802ff, 829
United States Communist movement owes existence to 401, 416
Workers in America advised from lOOff
World party originated in. _. 31, 45, 57, 58, 60, 65, 278, 294, 505, 621, 705, 805
World union of socialist republics, aim of 60, 468, 618-
United front 67,.
294, 324f, 336, 340, 341, 359, 361, 362, 365, 368, 405, 417, 419,.
449, 475, 476, 512, 513, 532, 606, 616, 628, 632, 635, 636, 637, 639;.
643, 645, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, 666, 669, 672, 674, 676, 677, 67S,
679, 680, 681, 684, 685, 686, 688, 696, 697, 776, 778, 779, 780.
United Mine Workers of America 343, 378, 381, 394
Urozhenko 805, 806, 808
Vakman 214
Valher 214
Van der Lubbe 754
Vandervelde, Emile 42, 211, 547, 673, 762, 763
Vanek 214
Van Leuven 214
Van Oeverstraetten 214, 292
Vanzetti 393, 399, 444, 455
Varga 214
Violence:
In need for destroying bourgeois state machinery. 3
In death to bourgeoisie 6
In occasional revolts against bourgeoisie 7
Overthrow of bourgeoisie by 9
Implied in Communist revolution 13
In proletariat's rule by force 13
Openly declared by Communists 19
Inevitable in break-down of capitalism 25
In Lenin on revolutionary overthrow of bourgeoisie 26
Implied in open clashes between classes 27
In turning imperialist war into civil war 31-32
From gravediggers of capitalist order 36
Implied in forces of revolution 38
In civil war 42
In revolutionary upsurge . 44
In civil wars against bourgeoisie 1 46
In forcible invasion of bourgeoisie by proletariat 47
Proletariat's conquest of power not peaceful 47
Necessary in overthrow of bourgeoisie 47
Implied in disarming and suppressing of bourgeoisie 48
Implied in Soviet's disarming of bourgeoisie 48
Implied in revolutionary expropriation of bourgeoisie 49
Implied in expropriations by proletarian state 50
Necessary to meet wars against dictatorship of proletariat 52
Used by dictatorship of proletariat 52
In civil war 53
Implied in overthrow of capital 53
In Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' international revolutionary
duties 59
Implied in Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as center of interna-
tional revolution 59
Implied in criticism of advocacy of class peace 62
Its use in struggle against bourgeoisie 62
Admitted by Austro- Marxism 63
In necessity of insurrection . 64
In direct attack upon bourgeois state 67
In armed demonstrations 67
94931 — 40— app., pt. 1 62
962 INDEX
Violence — Continued. Paere
In armed insurrection against state power of bourgeoisie 67
Implied in revolutionary work in army and navy 07
Implied in propaganda in army and navy 68
Implied in organized work in army and navy 68
In converting imperialist war into civil war 68
In bringing about of defeat of one's own government 68
In forcible overthrow of existing social conditions 69
In Lenin as great strategist of class war 73
In jircparation for armed insurrection 78
Lenin on impossibility of establishing proletarian power without 82
In Lenin on necessity of civil war 85
In Bolshevik Party on turning imperialist war into civil war 97
In Lenin on inevitability of civil war 104
In Communist International's aim to put up armed struggle 111
In crushing resistance of bourgeoisie 114
In defeat of bourgeoisie 114
In resisting restoration of capitalist slavery 115
In inevitability of decision by force of arms 116
Implied in unlawful work in army, navy, and police 118
In class struggle's entering phase of 'il war in America 122
In present time of acute civil war 123
Implied in refusal to transport military equipment 124
Imjilied in legal or illegal propaganda among troops 124
In present epoch of civil war 124
In class struggle's inevitably turning into civil war 126
In proletariat's resort to armed uprising 126
In direct preparation for proletarian uprising 130
In proletariat's preparation for civil war 131
Implied in Communist Party's blowing up whole bourgeois machinery. 131
Implied in impossibility of Soviets without proletarian revolution — 140
In preparation to meet open armed counterrevolution 147
In sometimes unavoidable killing of spies, provocateurs, and traitors.. 151
In depriving ricli of their power by force 159
In Communists' declaration for revolutionary force 162
In organization of force over bourgeoisie 163
In ruthlessness of workers' revolution 164
In civil war of revolutionary epoch 169
In use of munition stores, machine guns, powder and bombs 169
In bayonets in hands of workers 191
In international working-class dictatorship through armed insurrec-
tion 196
In declaring that there is no revolution without civil war 198
In view that democracy has become nothing more than armed force.- 208
In declaring civil war to be order of day all over the world 209
In promoting armed uprising in colonies 210
In not flinching from civil war and revolutionary terrorism 212
In uprisings of proletariat 212
In Communist International's rejection of peaceful solution 213
In armed insurrection, as in Russia 215
In open armed conflicts, as in Germany 215
In proletariat's destruction of bourgeois state machinery by force 217
In proletarian state as an organ of suppression and coercion 218
In inevitability of civil war 218
In maes action culminating in armed insurrection and civil war 219
In necessity of violent revolution 219
Implied in work in army and navy 223
In systematic agitation by Communist Party in American Army and
Navy 224
In violent uprisings by workers 233
In civil wars in capitalist countries 246
On economic and political conflicts developing into civil war 256
In acts of sabotage against movement of troops 257
In Communist Parties' revolutionizing of armies 258
Implied in propaganda in armies and navies of capitalist states 268
In preparing workers for revolutionary battles 268
In providing workers with weapons 268
INDEX 963
Violence — Continued. ^^^^
In arming of working class 280
In direct action of seizure of factories and armed uprisings 284
In slogan "Arm yourselves for new stiuggles" 289
In proletariat's seizure of arms ■ 290
Implied in suppressing of capitalists 374
In Communist bold avowal of inevitability of resort to force 396
In Communist viewpoint on inevitability of resort to force 397
In use of armed force 400
In acts of sabotage against movement of troops 400
I n opposition to disarming of working class 400
In proletariat's defense by force of arms 401
In veiled civil war breaking out into open revolution 401
In abolishing capitalism with use of force 401
In "wresting state from hands of ruling class 402
In wresting Government of United States from present hands 403
In Communist International's v.arfare against every capitalist govern-
ment 405
In Communist International's furthering world revolution 405
In turning imperialist war into civil war 408
In preparation of workers for class war 408
In wrenching government from hands of capitalists 409
In armed uprising of working masses 416
Implied in seizure of power by proletarian vanguard 433
In complete overthrow of capital 437
In crushing bourgeois resistance 437
In Lenin on dictatorship based on force 438
In Lenin's rejection of rule by law 438
In civil war and dictatorship 438
In incitation to revolt against capitalists 438
In recourse to armed insurrection against exploiting classes 438
In Union of Soviet Socialist Republics fostering of revolution in other
countries 438
In Union of Soviet Socialist Republics awakening revolution in all
other countries 438
In turning imperialist war into civil war 464, 466, 469
Implied in mobilizing workers for defense of Soviet Union 464
In calling on American workers to go over to side of Red Army 466
In transfoimation of imperialist war into civil war 469, 471
In extending class struggle to extent of civil war • 469
In use of armed insurrection 471
Implied in revolutionary activity in factories for war materials 481
In Foster on revolution by force and violence 482
In Minor on necessity of 482
In Dunne on "no orderly revolution" ' 497
Implied in penetrating the Army and Navy 505
Implied in value of destroying democratic illusions 544
Implied in carrying on work among soldiers 545
Implied in organizing struggle of soldiers for everyday demands 546
In organizing in favor of civil war 547
In Lenin on necessity of accepting civil wars 548
In transforming imperialist war into revolution 557
In impossibility of overthrow of capitalism without armed uprising. _ 568
In Lenin on inevitability of proletarian civil wars 568
In transformation of imperialist war into civil war 568
In fundamental slogan of transforming imperialist war into civil war. 571
Implied in activity in factories essential for war 571
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 571
In working for defeat of home government in war 573
In transformation of imperialist war into civil war 573
In combating "peace phrase-mongering" against civil war 573
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 573
In Communist attitude on transforming imperialist war into civil war. 573
In strikes in munition works 573
In transition to armed uprising 573
In transforming a strike into an armed rebellion 574
964
INDEX
Violence — Continued. Page
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 574
In utilizing guerilla forces for civil war 574
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 575
In promoting civil war by revolutionary work at the front 575
Implied in organization of revolutionary forces in army 575
In putting question of civil war openly to the masses 575
In subordinating party activities to requirements of armed struggle. _ 576
In revolutionary war of proletarian dictatorship 578
In work in army for preparing for revolutionary wars 580
In Communists' advancing a revolutionary military policy 581
In attitude toward armies of imperialist states 581
Implied in advocacy of defeat of home government 582
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 582
In the slogan : "Arm to proletariat" 582
Implied in program for revolutionizing the bourgeois army 584
ImpHed in revolutionary work in Army 584
In main slogans: "Disarm the bourgeosie; arm the proletariat" 584
In seizure of power and formation of proletarian militia 584
In necessitj' for arming proletariat and for civil war 588
In absolute necessity for arming proletariat 588
In defeating bourgeoisie in ci\il war 589
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 592
In Lenin on dictatorship of proletariat as most ruthless war 595
In necessity for civil wars, according to Marx 595
In the process of violent proletarian revolution 596
In Lenin on proletarian dictatorship based on violence 596
In impossibility of proletarian dictatorship by peaceful means 597
In Marx on impossibility of peaceful evolution 597
In Lenin on impossibilit}' of peaceful evolution in United States 597
In Stalin on law of violent proletarian revolution 597
In Lenin on necessity for violent destruction of bourgeois state 597
In transition to armed uprising .. 599
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 599
Implied in progaganda in Armj' 600
In necessity' for turning weapons against bourgeois governments 600
In Communists' fight to overthrow exploiting classes 605
In Communists' preparation for transforming imperialist war into civil
war 606
In concentration of Communist forces at vital parts of war machine.. 606
In call of Executive Committee of the Communist International for
workers of world to defend Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 606
In revolutionary policy of defense of Union of Soviet Socialist Re-
publics 612
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 615
In preventing shipment of arms and troops 615
Implied in Communist concentration in plants producing munitions. _ 616
In working for proletarian revolution in United States 618
In transforming imperialist war into civil war 646
In Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as force for world proletarian
revolution 650
Implied in the shaking of "democratic illusions" 660
In teaching oppressed classes how to conduct civil war 660
In use of Government positions for arming proletariat 680
Implied in Dimitroff' s criticism of Communist parliamentarj' ministers. 681
Implied in Dimitroff 's "illusion of a peaceful parliamentary" process.. 681
Implied in Dimitroff 's position "against any infection with reformist
and legalist illusions" 685
In refusal to support bourgeoisie in an imperialist war 687
In Communist Party's fight for revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. 692
In working class mission for revolutionary overthrow of capitalism 694
In Olgin's criticism of Socialists' belief in peaceful methods 739
In Olgin's criticism of Socialists' nonadvocacy of resistance to brutal
capitalist oppression 740
Implied in saj'ing that capitahst state cannot be used to abolish
capitalism 740
In Olgin's call to smash capitalist state by force 740
INDEX 965
"Violence — Continued. ^^°^
[n Olgin's inevitability of being forced to fight the state 740
[mplied in propagandizing the Army 740
[n Communists' not closing eyes to need for civil war 741
[n Olgin's inevitability of civil war 741
[n seizing arms by attacking arsenal 741
[n workers' arming themselves 741
[n frequency of street fights 741
[n Communist Party's command of uprising 741
[n battles in principal cities 741
[n building barricades 741
[mplied in workers' decisive influence with the soldiers 741
[n desertion of Army units to revolution 741
In fraternization between workers and soldiers ■ 742
[n capitahsm's loss of the Arm}' 742
[n silencing the police 742
[n necessity of winning part of armed forces 742
[n workers' possessing rifles, cannon, airships, poison gas, and battle-
ships to fight bosses 742
[n Olgin's defense of Communists' using force and violence 742
Implied in Olgin's "no respect for boss law" 743
[n crushing capitalist state through armed workers 743
[n crushing exploiters with iron hand 744
[n seizure of political power by workers 744
[n overthrow of entire capitalist system 748
[n Communist Party's crushing of a capitalist state 749
[n emphasizing that capitalism cannot be done away with by ballot-- 749
In rejecting dependence upon ballot 750
[n Stalin's statement on revolution as a long and violent process 750
[n transforming imperialist war into civil war 754
[n learning art of war 754
In proletarian seizure of state power 759
[n ' 'special repressive force" of proletariat 760
[n Engels on use of force 761
[n Engels' panegyric on violent revolution 761
tn Marx on inevitabilit.y of violent revolution 762
[n proletarian state as impossible without violent revolution 762
[mplied in destruction of parliamentarism 762
[n Browder on force and violence 765
[n Browder on impossibility of use of peaceful means 766
[n transforming imperialist war into civil war 784
[n destruction of capitalist state 786
[n waging war upon capitalism and the state 786
Tn workers' defense of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 812
[n Browder on turning war against Soviet Union into civil war 812
In preparing to convert imperialist war into civil war 936
[n transformation of imperialist war into civil war 936
[n defeat of "our own" capitalist government 936
In the overthrow of "our own" bourgeoisie 936
[mplied in defense of the Soviet Union 936
[n preparation for imperialist war by organizing in factories 937
[n organization work in war industries 937
[mplied in defense of Soviet Union from American imperialist inter-
vention 937
[mplied in activities within the armed forces 937
[n Bro wder's call for work in war industries 937
[n Communist position against transporting arms for war purposes 937
[mplied in organizing in war industries 938
[n organizing in the nerve centers of war preparation 938
[n sabotage of transport of war materials 938
[n water-transport workers organizing against shipment of munitions. _ 938
[mplied in stoppages of transport of munitions and armaments 938
Voikov 655
Volfstein 214
Von Mirbach 98
Voorhis, Jerry 894
Vratarick 916
111. .M., M., „., „„ mn HI, „„ ,11, 1,1, III, 1,1 III,, ,1 1,11111 INDEX
9999 05445 4903
^^ Page
Wagenknecht, Alfred 333, 88i>
Walcher 520
Walker, James J 482,499, 502
Wallis, Keene 809
Wallisch, Koloman 655
War:
Activities in munition plants 535, 572, 741, 936, 937, 938
Antimilitarism 453
Communists' attitude toward 614, 615, 643, 645, 646f, 844ff, 849-875
Dimitroff on 835-844
Imperialist 31, 32, 38, 85, 103,
104, 111, 141, 157, 158, 371, 407, 408, 439, 451, 463, 464, 468, 469,
471, 500, 509, 545, 547, 567, 569, 593, 599, 628, 629, 664, 687f, 766
In capitalism 37, 498, 609, 613, 624
Inseparable from capitalism 568
Lenin on 26, 74, 85, 546, 547, 548, 589
Marx on 26, 589
Present 849-875
Revolutionary 32, 557, 578
Russo-Japanese 27
Trade-unions and 59 1
World 27, 40, 157, 200, 201, 205, 209, 233, 289
Use of w^ar danger by Communists 477,
478, 493, 504, 569, 570, 574, 605, 849-875
See Civil war; Violence.
Ware, Clarissa S 354
Ware, Hal 354
Warski 292
Washington , George 682
Webb, Beatrice 62
Webb, Sidney 62,279
Weber 628
Weber, Max _ 809
Woiner, Robert William 486, 487, 826
Weiustone, William W 334, 891, 927, 937
Weis, Lord 206
Weitling, Wilhelm 2, 19n
Welles, Sumner 858, 862, 868
Wells, H. G 750
White, Maude 856
White, W 333
Whitlev, Rhea 825, 826, 827, 828, 830, 831, 832, 833, 834, 848, 897, 898
Wholesale Book Corporation 825, 826
Wicks, H. M 334, 343, 402, 404, 599, 891
Wiesel 281
Wijnkoop 214
Williamson, John 333
Williams, Harold 914
Willison, George T 809
Wilson, W. H 333
Wilson, Woodrow 89, 90, 98, 104, 174, 200,
206, 207, 382, 608, 609, 621, 780, 785, 799, 854, 855, 858, 866, 868
Winberg 214
Winitskj', Harry 355, 393
Winwar, Frances 809
Wischnewetskv, Horence Kellcv 19ii
Wolfe, B. D_: I 460, 463, 464, 891, 893
Wolfson, Martin 809
Woll, Matthew 377, 867
Women 12, 50, 65, 113, 245, 267, 312, 314, 420, 421, 451,
476, 545, 572, 582, 592, 593, 607, 614, 640, 677f, 728, 734, 735, 937
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 569
Wood, Leonard 383
Woodring, Harry H 610
Workers International Relief 70, 451, 484, 491
Workers Librarv Publishers 34,
'108, 439, 465, 467, 497, 515, 548, 564, 626, 651, 690, 739, 749, 750,
765, 767, 769, 774, 777n, 812, 818, 826, 832, 835, 874, 936.
INDEX 957
Page
Workers Partv of America (forerunner of Communist Party of the United
States) :
Accepts leadership of Communist International 410
Constitution of 239
Election campaign of 324
Finances of 346-353
General references to 231,
232, 235, 236, 237, 243, 244, 245, 301, 303, 305, 306, 325, 333, 338,
339, 340, 342, 343, 359, 360, 361, 365, 367, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373,
374, 375, 379, 381, 382, 384, 385, 386, 387, 389, 391, 392, 393, 394,
396, 398, 401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 407, 408, 415, 416, 419, 420, 421,
504, 622, 793, 795, 799.
History of 417f
Instructions to units 323
Membership figures of 344ff
Pohcy on labor unions 238, 323, 327
Program of 233f, 323, 330ff, 368
Reports of 330ff, 335ff
Requirements for membership in 239
Shop nuclei in 323, ?28f
Workers (Communist) Party of America (forerunner of Communist Party
of the United States) 295, 296, 297, 299, 310, 311, 398, 455, 791, 796
Workers' schools 733, 817, 823
Workers' self-defense corps 455
World Committee Against War and Fascism 938
World Congress Against Imperialism 878
World Federal Republic of Soviets 89
World party. See Communist International; Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics.
World Union of Socialist Soviet Republics 69
Wrangel, General P 201, 205, 208, 260
Wright, Richard 809
Yanks Are Not Coming 850, 851, 853, 855, 856,
,857, 858, 859, 860, 861, 862, 863, 865, 866, 868, 869, 870, 872, 874
Yakhontoff, Victor A 809
Yermalenko, Lieutenant 530n
Young, Owen D 384
Young Communist International 68, 244, 414, 450, 451, 751, 919, 921, 925
Young Communist League 54,
59, 450, 451, 488, 513, 540, 546, 571, 593, 607, 633, 640, 676, 677,
712, 728, 729, 731, 748, 751, 752, 753, 805, 806, 808, 815, 816, 817,
823, 861, 865, 868, 869, 874, 934, 937.
Young Workers League of America (forerunner of Young Communist
League) 244, 315, 318, 327, 335, 349, 392, 393
Youth 65,
72, 113, 244, 267, 268, 318, 392f, 426, 451, 469, 477, 513, 546, 571,
593, 607, 633, 640, 658, 669, 676f, 750, 751, 752, 753, 754, 851f,
865, 868, 871f, 937.
Youth Congress 752
Youth International 472
Yudenitch, General 208
Zack, Joseph 891
Zahn, Lillian 868
Zartarian, A 333, 910
Zasulich, Vera 2, 19n, 76
Zeigner 519, 680
Zeitz 211
Zelms, Robert 388, 911
Zenzinov 763
Zetkin, Clara 85, 96, 387, 397, 469, 477
Zhakaia, Lita 214
Zimmerman 889
Zimmerwald Conference 470
Zinoviev, Gregorv 107, 109, 214, 292, 293, 296,
300, 387, 388, 396, 397, 402, 406, 416, 435, 436, 470, 806, 878, 880
Zubatov 530, 534
Zulawsky _ 281
1
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