The Programme of the Comintern -The Strategy and Tactics
VI. 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, revolutionary Communism encounters numerous tendencies among the working class, which to a greater or less degree express the ideological subordination of the proletariat to the imperialist bourgeoisie, or reflect 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 organised 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, theatre and church-is primarily reflected in the existence of religious and reformist tendencies among the working class, which represent the main obstacles on the road towards the proletarian social revolution.
The religious-sectarian tendency among the working class, finds expression in religious-sectarian trade unions, which are frequently connected directly with corresponding bourgeois political organisations, and are affiliated to one or other of the church organisations of the dominant class (Catholic trade unions, Young Men’s Christian Association, Jewish Zionist organisations, etc.) All these tendencies, being the most striking product of the ideological enslavement of certain strata of the proletariat, bear, in most cases, a romantic feudal tinge. By sanctifying all the abominations of the capitalist regime with the holy water of religion, and by terrorising their flock with the spectre of punishment in the world to come, the leaders of these organisations serve as the most reactionary units of the class enemy in the camp of the proletariat.
A cynically commercial, and imperialist-secular mode of subjecting the proletariat to the ideological influence of the bourgeoisie is represented by contemporary “socialist” reformism. Taking its main gospel from the tablets of imperialist politics, its model to-day is the deliberately anti-socialist and openly counter-revolutionary “American Federation of Labour.” The ideological dictatorship 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 Labour Party, a most important ingredient in the theory and practice of international social democracy and of the leaders of the Amsterdam International, while the leaders of German and Austrian social democracy embellish these theories with Marxian phraseology in order to cover up their utter betrayal of Marxism. “Socialist” reformism, the principal enemy of revolutionary Communism in the labour movement, which has a broad organisational base in the social democratic parties and through these in the reformist trade unions, stands out in its entire policy and theoretical outlook as a force directed against the proletarian revolution.
In the sphere of foreign politics, the social democratic parties actively supported the imperialist war on the pretext of “defending the fatherland.” Imperialist 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, mobilisation of the masses under pseudo-pacifist slogans, and at the same time, active support of imperialism in its attacks upon the U.S.S.R. and in the impending war against the U.S.S.R.-are main features of reformist foreign policy.
In the sphere of home politics, social democracy has set itself the task of directly co-operating with and supporting the capitalist régime. Complete support for capitalist rationalisation and stabilisation, class peace, “peace in industry”; the policy of converting the labour organisations into organisations of the employers and of the predatory imperialist State; the practice of so-called “industrial democracy” which in fact means complete subordination to trustified capital; adoration of the imperialist State and particularly of its false democratic labels; active participation in the building up of the organs of the imperialist State-police, army, gendarmerie, its class judiciary-the defence of the state against the encroachments of the revolutionary Communist proletariat; and the executioner’s role played in time of revolutionary crisis-such is the line of social-democratic 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 a manner as to guard the capitalist class against any kind of shock, or, at all events, to preserve in complete inviolability the foundations of capitalist property.
In the sphere of theory, social democracy has utterly and completely betrayed 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 pigeon-holed the theory of crisis and of the pauperisation of the proletariat; it has turned the flaming and menacing theory of class struggle into prosaic advocacy of class peace; it has exchanged the theory of growing class antagonisms for the petty-bourgeois fairy-tale about the “democratisation” 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 revolution by evolution, the destruction of the bourgeois State by its active upbuilding, the theory of proletarian dictatorship by the theory of coalition with the bourgeoisie, the doctrine of international proletarian solidarity-by preaching defence of the imperialist fatherland; for Marxian dialectical materialism it has substituted 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.
Constructive socialism (MacDonald and Co.), which, by its very name suggests the struggle against the revolutionary proletariat and a favourable attitude towards the capitalist system, continues the liberal philanthropic, anti-revolutionary and bourgeois traditions of Fabianism (Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Bernard Shaw, Lord Olivier, etc.). While repudiating the dictatorship of the proletariat and the use of violence in the struggle against the bourgeoisie as a matter of principle, it favours violence in the struggle against the proletariat and the colonial peoples. While acting as the apologists of the capitalist State and preaching State capitalism under the guise of socialism, and in conjunction with the most vulgar ideologists of imperialism in both hemispheres-declaring the theory of the class struggle to be a “pre-scientific” theory, “constructive socialism” ostensibly advocates a moderate programme of nationalisation with compensation, taxation of land values, death duties, and taxation of surplus profits as a means of abolishing capitalism. Being resolutely opposed to the dictatorship of the proletariat in the U.S.S.R., “ constructive socialism,” in complete alliance with the bourgeoisie, is an active enemy of the Communist proletarian moven~ent and of colonial revolutions.
A special variety of “constructive socialism” is “co-operativism” or “co-operative socialism” (Charles Gide and Co.), which also strongly repudiates the class struggle and advocates the co-operative organisation of consumers as a means of overcoming capitalism, but which, in fact, does all it can to help the stabilisation of capitalism. Having at its command. an extensive propagandist apparatus, in the shape of the mass consumers’ co-operative organisations, which it employs for the purpose of systematically influencing the masses, “co-operativism” carries on a fierce struggle against the revolutionary Labour movement, hampers it in the achievement of its aims, and represents to-day one of the most potent factors in the camp of the reformist counter-revolution.
So-called “Guild socialism” (Penty, Orage, Hobson and others) is an eclectic attempt to unite “ revolutionary” syndicalism with bourgeois Liberal Fabianism, anarchist decentralisation (“ national industrial guilds “) with State capitalist centralisation 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 industry, guild socialism completely ignores the most important question, viz., the question of power. While striving to unite workers, intellectuals, 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, imperialist and anti-proletarian character, and allots to it the function of the non-class representative of the interests of the “consumers” as against the guild-organised “producers.” By its advocacy of “functional democracy,” i.e.,representation of classes in capitalist society-each class being presumed to have a 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, Austro-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 principles of revolutionary Marxism (the Kantism, Machism, etc., of the Austro-Marxists in the domain of philosophy), toying with religion, borrowing the theory of functional democracy” from the British reformists, agreeing with the principle of “building up the republic,” i.e., building up the bourgeois State, Austro-Marxism recommends “class co-operation” in periods of so-called “ equilibrium of class forces,” i.e., precisely at the time when the revolutionary crisis is maturing. This theory is a justification 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 attacks is converted into reactionary violence against the proletarian revolution. Hence the “functional role” of Austro-Marxism 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 degenerate city middle class, the lumpen-proletariat, the declassed Bohemian intellectuals, the pauperised artisans, certain strata of the peasantry, etc.). These tendencies, which are distinguishable by their extreme political instability, often cover up a right-wing policy which left-wing phraseology, or drop into adventurism, substitute noisy political gesticulation for objective estimation of forces. They 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 political situation and of forced tem[blank] disrupters of the proletarian ranks and consequently, a drag upon the revolutionary proletarian movement.
Anarchism, the most prominent representatives of which (Kropotkin, Jean Graves and others) treacherously went over to the side of the imperialist bourgeoisie in the war of 1914-1918, denies the necessity for wide, centralised and disciplined proletarian organisations and thus leaves the proletariat powerless before the powerful organisations of capital. By its advocacy of individual terror, it distracts the proletariat from the methods of mass organisation 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 movements of any kind in the most important centres 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 craft decentralisation of the labour movement generally and of the trade union movement in particular, by its repudiation of the need for a proletarian party, and of the necessity for rebellion, and by its exaggeration of the importance of the general strike (the “fold arms tactics”), like anarchism, hinders the revolutionisation 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 democracy, the principal enemy of the proletarian revolution, on the fundamental political issue, i.e., 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 completely betrayed Marxism, tends to rely more and more upon the ideology of the Fabians, of the Constructive Socialists and of the Guild Socialists. These 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 generally, Communism encounters the influence of peculiar tendencies in the labour movements 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.
Sun Yat-Senism in China expressed 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 carried on by a specific class, i.e., by the proletariat, but as a vague state of social well-being, while no connection was made between the struggle against imperialism and the perspectives of the development of the class struggle. 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 emphasising and exaggerating the very features of this ideology that have become objectively reactionary, have made it the official ideology of the Kuomintang, which is now an openly counter-revolutionary force. The ideological growth of the masses of the Chinese proletariat and of the toiling peasantry must therefore be accompanied by determined decisive struggle against the Kuomintang deception and by opposition to the remnants of the Sun Yat-Senist ideology.
Tendencies like Gandhism in India, thoroughly imbued with religious conceptions, idealise 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 the class struggle, and in the process of the development of the revolution become transformed into an openly reactionary force. Ghandism 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 masses, like Ghandism, has become a hindrance to the revolutionisation of the Negro masses. Originally advocating social equality for Negroes, Garveyism subsequently developed into a peculiar form of Negro “Zionism” which, instead of fighting American imperialism, advanced the slogan: “Back to Africa!” This dangerous ideology, which bears not a single genuine democratic trait, and which toys with the aristocratic attributes of a non-existent “Negro kingdom,” must be strongly resisted, for it is not a help but a hindrance to the mass Negro struggle for liberation against American imperialism.
Standing out against all these tendencies is proletarian Communism. The sublime ideology of the international revolutionary working class, it 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 and practical revolutionary struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and in the struggle, 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 proletariat presupposes the existence in every country of a compact Communist Party, hardened in the struggle, disciplined, centralised, and closely 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 revolutionary action. It is a revolutionary organisation, bound by an iron discipline and strict revolutionary rules of democratic centralism-which can be carried out owing to the class-consciousness of the proletarian vanguard-to its loyalty to the revolution, its ability to maintain inseparable ties with the proletarian masses and to its correct political leadership, which is constantly verified and clarified by the experiences of the masses themselves.
In order that it may fulfil its historic mission of achieving the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Communist Party must first of all set itself to accomplish the following fundamental strategic aims:
Extend its influence over the majority of the members of its own class, including working women and the working youth. To achieve this the Communist Party must secure predominant influence in the broad mass proletarian organisations (Soviets, trade unions, factory councils, co-operative societies, sport organisations, cultural organisations, etc.). It is particularly important for this purpose of winning over the majority of the proletariat, to capture the trade unions, which are genuine mass working-class organisations closely bound up with the every-day struggles of the working class. To work in reactionary trade unions and skilfully to capture them, to win the confidence of the broad masses of the industrially organised workers, and to remove from their posts and replace the reformist leaders, are all important tasks in the preparatory period.
The achievement of the dictatorship of the proletariat presupposes also that the proletariat acquires leadership of wide sections of the toi1ing 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 “small man,” i.e., 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, i.e., the agricultural labourers and the rural poor. To this end the agricultural labourers must be organised in separate organisations; all possible support must be given them in their struggles against the rural bourgeoisie, and strenuous work must be carried on among the small allotment farmers and small peasants. In regard to the middle strata of the peasantry in developed capitalist countries, the Communist Parties must conduct a policy to secure their neutrality. The fulfilment of all these tasks by the proletariat-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 condition precedent for the victorious Communist revolution.
The tasks of the Communist International connected with the revolutionary struggle in colonies, semi-colonies and dependencies are extremely important strategical tasks in the world proletarian struggle. The colonial struggle presupposes that the broad masses of the working class and of the peasantry in the colonies must be won over to the banner of the revolution; but this cannot be achieved unless the closest co-operation is maintained between the proletariat in the oppressing countries and the toiling masses in the oppressed countries.
While organising under the banner of the proletarian dictatorship the revolution against imperialism in the so-called civilised States, the Communist International supports every movernent against imperialist violence in the colonies, semi-colonies and dependencies themselves (for example, Latin-America); it carries on propaganda against all forms of chauvinism and against the imperialist maltreatment of enslaved peoples and races, big and small (treatment of negroes, “yellow labour,” anti-semitism, etc.), and supports their struggles against the bourgeoisie of the oppressing nations. The Communist International especially combats the chauvinism that is preached in the Empire-owning countries by the imperialist bourgeoisie, as well as by its social-democratic agency, the Second International, and constantly holds up in contrast to the practises 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 nations are economically, financially or politically dependent. The Communist Parties must openly recognise the right of the colonies to separation and their right to carry on propaganda for this separation, i.e., propaganda in favour of the independence of the colonies from the imperialist State.
They must recognise their right of armed defence against imperialism (i.e., the right of rebellion and revolutionary war) and advocate and give active support to this defence 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 colonial and semi-colonial countries must carry on a bold and consistent struggle against foreign imperialism and unfailingly conduct propaganda in favour of friendship and unity with the proletariat in the imperialist countries. They must openly advance, conduct propaganda for and carry out the slogan of agrarian revolution, rouse the broad masses of the peasantry for the overthrow of the landlords and combat the reactionary and medieval influence of the priesthood, of the missionaries and other similar elements.
In these countries, the principal task is to organise the workers and the peasantry independently (to establish class Communist Parties of the proletariat, trade unions, peasant leagues and committees and-in a revolutionary situation, Soviets, etc.), 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 organisation 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 co-relation 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, etc., in its country. The Party determines slogans and methods of struggle in accordance with these circumstances, with the view to organising and mobilising the masses on the broadest possible scale and on the highest possible level of this struggle.
When a revolutionary situation is developing, the Party advances certain transitional slogans and partial demands corresponding to the concrete situation; but these demands and slogans 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 struggles of the working class nor confine its activities exclusively to them. The task of the Party is to utilise these minor everyday needs as a starting point from which to lead the working class to the revolutionary struggle for power.
When the revolutionary tide is rising, when the ruling classes are disorganised, the masses are in a state of revolutionary ferment, the intermediary strata are inclining towards the proletariat and the masses are ready for action and for sacrifice, 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 favour of increasingly radical transitional slogans (for Soviets, workers’ control of industry, for peasant committees, for the seizure of the big landed properties, for disarming the bourgeoisie and arming the proletariat, etc.), and by organising mass action, upon which, all branches of Party agitation and propaganda, including parliamentary activity, must be concentrated. This mass action includes: strikes; a combination of strikes and demonstrations; a combination of 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 rules of war; it presupposes a plan of campaign, offensive fighting operations and unbounded devotion and heroism on the part of the proletariat. An absolutely essential condition precedent for this form of action is the organisation 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 position’s 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 putschism, to the ideological degeneration of Communism into “leftist” dogmatism, and to petty bourgeois “revolutionary” adventurism. Failure to take advantage of the culminating point in the development of the revolutionary situation, when the Party of the proletariat is called upon to conduct a bold and determined attack upon the enemy, is not less dangerous. To allow that opportunity to slip by and to fail to start rebellion at that point, means to allow the initiative to pass to the enemy and to doom the revolution to defeat.
When the revolutionary tide is not rising, the Communist Parties must advance partial slogans and demands that correspond to the everyday needs of the toilers, and combine them with the fundamental tasks of the Communist International. The Communist 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 situation means to transform them into slogans that favour merging with the capitalist system of organisation. Partial demands and slogans form generally an essential part of correct tactics; but certain transitional slogans go inseparably with a revolutionary situation. Repudiation of partial demands and transitional slogans “on principle,” however, is incompatible with the tactical principles of Communism, for in effect, such repudiation condemns the Party to inaction and isolates it from the masses. United front tactics also occupy an important place in the tactics of the Communist Parties throughout the whole pre-revolutionary period as a means towards achieving success in the struggle against capital, towards the class mobilisation of the masses and the exposure and isolation of the reformist leaders.
The correct application of united front tactics and the fulfilment of the general task of winning over the masses presupposes in their turn systematic and persistent work in the trade unions and other mass proletarian organisations. It is the bounden duty of every Communist to belong to a trade union, even a most reactionary one, provided it is a mass organisation. Only by constant and persistent work in the trade unions and in the factories for the steadfast and energetic defence 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 organised workers over to the side of the Party.
Unlike the reformists, whose policy is to split the trade unions, the Communists defend trade union unity nationally and internationally on the basis of the class struggle, and render every support to and strengthen the work of the Red Trade Union International.
In championing universally the current everyday needs of the masses of the workers and of the toilers generally, in utilising the bourgeois parliament as a platform for revolutionary agitation and propaganda, and subordinating all partial tasks to the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Parties of the Communist International advance partial demands and slogans in the following main spheres:
In the sphere of Labour, in the narrow meaning of the term, i.e., questions concerned with the industrial struggle: the fight against the trustified capital offensive, wages questions, the working day, compulsory arbitration, unemployment; which grow into questions of the general political struggle, big industrial conflicts, fight for the right to organise, right to strike, etc.; in the sphere of politics proper: taxation, high cost of living, Fascism, persecution of revolutionary parties, white terror and current politics generally; and finally in the sphere of world politics, viz., attitude towards the U.S.S.R. and colonial revolutions, struggle for the unity of the international trade union movement, struggle against imperialism and the war danger, and systematic preparation for the fight against imperialist war.
In the sphere of the peasant problem, the partial demands are those appertaining to taxation, peasant mortgage indebtedness, struggle against usurer’s capital, the land hunger of the peasant smallholders, 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: confiscation of large estates, and workers’ and peasants’ government (the synonym for the proletarian dictatorship in developed capitalist countries and for a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry in backward countries and in certain colonies).
Systematic work must also be carried on among the proletarian and peasant youth (mainly through the Young Communist International and its Sections) and also among working women 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 oppression, the Communist Parties in the colonies must advance partial demands that correspond to the special circumstances prevailing in each country such as: complete equality for all nations and races; abolition of all privileges for foreigners; the right of association for workers and peasants; reduction of the working day; prohibition of child labour; 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 Communist Parties such as: complete political national independence 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 countries, 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 defence of the oppressed countries fighting for their liberation, mobilise the masses to refuse to transport troops and munitions, and in connection with this, to organise strikes and other forms of mass protest, etc.
The Communist International must devote itself especially to systematic preparation for the struggle against the danger of imperialist wars. Ruthless exposure of social chauvinism, of social imperialism and of pacifist phrase-mongering intended to camouflage the imperialist plans of the bourgeoisie; propaganda in favour of the principal slogans of the Communist International; everyday organisational work in connection with this in the course of which constitutional methods must unfailingly be combined with unconstitutional methods; organised 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 the “home” 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 bounden duty of all Sections of the Communist International, and of everyone of its members, to carry on propaganda for these slogans, to expose the “ socialistic” sophisms and the “socialistic” 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 co-ordinated and in order that these activities may be guided most successfully, the international 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.
This international Communist discipline must find expression in the subordination of the partial and local interests of the movement to its general and lasting interests and in the strict fulfilment, by all members, of the decisions passed by the leading bodies of the Communist International.
Unlike the social-democratic Second International, each Section of which submits to the discipline of “its own,” national bourgeoisie and of its own “fatherland,” the Sections of the Communist International submit to only one discipline, viz., 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 organisation 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 Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their aims can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all the existing social conditions. Let the ruling class tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
“Working men of all countries, Unite!”
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