DECISION OF THE ECCI PRESIDIUM AND THE ICC EXPELLING TROTSKY AND VUYOVICH FROM THE ECCI
Communist International
ECCI
September 1927
DECISION OF THE ECCI PRESIDIUM AND THE ICC EXPELLING TROTSKY AND VUYOVICH
FROM THE ECCI
EXTRACTS
Inprekorr, vii, 97, p. 2092, 4 October 1927
To all sections of the Comintern
At its meeting in May 1927 the eighth plenum of the ECCI 'categorically forbade comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to continue their fractional struggle'. . . .
The facts show that in the intervening time this warning was not taken to heart.
The opposition answered this categorical prohibition with an embittered attack on the CPSU and the Comintern, with further attempts to destroy the unity of the Leninist ranks both in the Soviet Union and throughout the world.
Called before the August plenum of the CC and the CCC of the CPSU, the opposition again promised, as it did in its statement of 16 October 1926, to cease its illegal fractional work against the party. This promise was given in the face of a direct threat to expel its leaders Trotsky and Zinoviev from the CC of the CPSU.
Nevertheless, a few days later, the undertaking given on 8 August met the same fate as that of 16 October. The opposition, in the most glaring fashion, broke the promise given to the party and the entire International, and thus finally made it impossible for comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to remain on the ECCI.
Despite the undertaking given at the August plenum of the CC and the CCC, the opposition continued openly to form its own organization centres; this, in the objective nature of the case, is nothing but an attempt to create the kernel of a Trotskyist party alongside the Leninist CPSU.
At the same time it continued to maintain and extend its connexions with various foreign groups of renegades, such as the Maslow-Ruth Fischer group in Germany, Souvarine in France. . . .
Besides the threat to create a second party outside and against the CPSU, it threatens to form a new 'fourth International' outside and against the Comintern.
At a time of the utmost gravity in the international position of the Soviet Union, when the danger of imperialist intervention looms over the first proletarian State in the world, the opposition openly forms a bloc with groups representing the foulest scum of the international labour movement. . . .
The opposition, which uses the ultra-left and right apostates from communism abroad (Maslow and Souvarine) as its mouthpiece, continues within the Soviet Union, with increasing stubbornness and shamelessness, to spread deliberate lies about the leadership of the Comintern and the CPSU...
The discovery a few days ago of a secret opposition printing-press shows particularly clearly how far the opposition has departed from the party and the Comintern. It transpired at the same time that in organizing this press the opposition did not shrink from using the services of non-party bourgeois intellectuals having connexions with politically suspect and openly anti-Soviet elements.
Whether it wants to or not, the opposition is thus becoming the centre, organizational as well as ideological, around which are crystallizing those strata hostile to us who cannot reconcile themselves to the proletarian dictatorship and work actively for its overthrow.
Called to task at the meeting of the ECCI presidium on 27 September, comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich made statements which in themselves indicate a further long step away from the Comintern and from Leninism towards Maslow and Souvarine.
Replying to the charge of malicious violation of party discipline, comrade Trotsky openly declared that the discipline of the bolshevik party was not binding for him. In the speech which he read he said: 'Bureaucratic discipline on the basis of a false policy is not an instrument to close the ranks, but an instrument to disrupt and undermine the party.'
It is quite obvious that comrade Trotsky refused to submit to the proletarian discipline which he condemned in these words. He therefore considered it quite unnecessary to defend in any way comrades Serebriakov, Preobrazhensky, and Sharov, who on their own admission organized the anti-party press. Comrade Trotsky stated openly before the ECCI presidium that comrades Preobrazhensky, Serebriakov, and Sharov, as regards their policy, towered high over those who sought to cover their crimes by party discipline. People who with the help of bourgeois intellectuals organize a secret press against the party are said to tower politically over those who on behalf of the party keep guard over its unity, defend the basic principles of its discipline, without which the party and the Comintern could not exist at all as fighting organizations. . . .
The world organization of the revolutionary proletariat, the Comintern, and its leading section, the CPSU, are described, in sweet harmony with the yellow bourgeois press, as a crowd of people without minds or wills of their own, following behind their leaders, comrades Stalin and Bukharin. 'No single organization', says Trotsky, 'now discusses or makes decisions; they only carry them out. Even the ECCI presidium is no exception.'
The ECCI presidium considers it impossible for comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to remain any longer on the ECCI, which they have accused of usurpation and against which they are conducting a bitter struggle, with the help of renegades abroad and secret printing-presses in the Soviet Union, organizing illegal centres, and uttering malicious slanders.
In order to maintain the unity of the Leninist ranks, to combat the undermining work of the opposition splitters, and in the belief that all the possible varieties of warning have already been exhausted, while to refrain any longer from organizational measures is beginning to be dangerous and intolerable, the presidium of the ECCI, at its joint meeting with the International Control Commission on 27 September 1927, unanimously resolves, in accordance with the resolution of the eighth plenum of the ECCI, to expel comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich from the ECCI.
ECCI
September 1927
DECISION OF THE ECCI PRESIDIUM AND THE ICC EXPELLING TROTSKY AND VUYOVICH
FROM THE ECCI
EXTRACTS
Inprekorr, vii, 97, p. 2092, 4 October 1927
To all sections of the Comintern
At its meeting in May 1927 the eighth plenum of the ECCI 'categorically forbade comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to continue their fractional struggle'. . . .
The facts show that in the intervening time this warning was not taken to heart.
The opposition answered this categorical prohibition with an embittered attack on the CPSU and the Comintern, with further attempts to destroy the unity of the Leninist ranks both in the Soviet Union and throughout the world.
Called before the August plenum of the CC and the CCC of the CPSU, the opposition again promised, as it did in its statement of 16 October 1926, to cease its illegal fractional work against the party. This promise was given in the face of a direct threat to expel its leaders Trotsky and Zinoviev from the CC of the CPSU.
Nevertheless, a few days later, the undertaking given on 8 August met the same fate as that of 16 October. The opposition, in the most glaring fashion, broke the promise given to the party and the entire International, and thus finally made it impossible for comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to remain on the ECCI.
Despite the undertaking given at the August plenum of the CC and the CCC, the opposition continued openly to form its own organization centres; this, in the objective nature of the case, is nothing but an attempt to create the kernel of a Trotskyist party alongside the Leninist CPSU.
At the same time it continued to maintain and extend its connexions with various foreign groups of renegades, such as the Maslow-Ruth Fischer group in Germany, Souvarine in France. . . .
Besides the threat to create a second party outside and against the CPSU, it threatens to form a new 'fourth International' outside and against the Comintern.
At a time of the utmost gravity in the international position of the Soviet Union, when the danger of imperialist intervention looms over the first proletarian State in the world, the opposition openly forms a bloc with groups representing the foulest scum of the international labour movement. . . .
The opposition, which uses the ultra-left and right apostates from communism abroad (Maslow and Souvarine) as its mouthpiece, continues within the Soviet Union, with increasing stubbornness and shamelessness, to spread deliberate lies about the leadership of the Comintern and the CPSU...
The discovery a few days ago of a secret opposition printing-press shows particularly clearly how far the opposition has departed from the party and the Comintern. It transpired at the same time that in organizing this press the opposition did not shrink from using the services of non-party bourgeois intellectuals having connexions with politically suspect and openly anti-Soviet elements.
Whether it wants to or not, the opposition is thus becoming the centre, organizational as well as ideological, around which are crystallizing those strata hostile to us who cannot reconcile themselves to the proletarian dictatorship and work actively for its overthrow.
Called to task at the meeting of the ECCI presidium on 27 September, comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich made statements which in themselves indicate a further long step away from the Comintern and from Leninism towards Maslow and Souvarine.
Replying to the charge of malicious violation of party discipline, comrade Trotsky openly declared that the discipline of the bolshevik party was not binding for him. In the speech which he read he said: 'Bureaucratic discipline on the basis of a false policy is not an instrument to close the ranks, but an instrument to disrupt and undermine the party.'
It is quite obvious that comrade Trotsky refused to submit to the proletarian discipline which he condemned in these words. He therefore considered it quite unnecessary to defend in any way comrades Serebriakov, Preobrazhensky, and Sharov, who on their own admission organized the anti-party press. Comrade Trotsky stated openly before the ECCI presidium that comrades Preobrazhensky, Serebriakov, and Sharov, as regards their policy, towered high over those who sought to cover their crimes by party discipline. People who with the help of bourgeois intellectuals organize a secret press against the party are said to tower politically over those who on behalf of the party keep guard over its unity, defend the basic principles of its discipline, without which the party and the Comintern could not exist at all as fighting organizations. . . .
The world organization of the revolutionary proletariat, the Comintern, and its leading section, the CPSU, are described, in sweet harmony with the yellow bourgeois press, as a crowd of people without minds or wills of their own, following behind their leaders, comrades Stalin and Bukharin. 'No single organization', says Trotsky, 'now discusses or makes decisions; they only carry them out. Even the ECCI presidium is no exception.'
The ECCI presidium considers it impossible for comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich to remain any longer on the ECCI, which they have accused of usurpation and against which they are conducting a bitter struggle, with the help of renegades abroad and secret printing-presses in the Soviet Union, organizing illegal centres, and uttering malicious slanders.
In order to maintain the unity of the Leninist ranks, to combat the undermining work of the opposition splitters, and in the belief that all the possible varieties of warning have already been exhausted, while to refrain any longer from organizational measures is beginning to be dangerous and intolerable, the presidium of the ECCI, at its joint meeting with the International Control Commission on 27 September 1927, unanimously resolves, in accordance with the resolution of the eighth plenum of the ECCI, to expel comrades Trotsky and Vuyovich from the ECCI.
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