A valuable report from Walter Stoecker, leading German Communist later murdered by the Nazis, who attended the 5th congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain in October, 1922. Includes a brief history of the party’s formation and the full texts of resolutions on The Labour Party and the United Front, Imperialism, The Near East, Ireland, Unemployment, Russia, and Party Tasks.

‘The Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain’ by Walter Stoecker from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 2 No. 89. October 17, 1922.

London, October 10th, 1922. As the German Communist Party represents the direct continuation of the revolutionary movement which existed before the war under the leadership of Rosa Luxemburg, so the present Communist Party of Great Britain is also the direct successor of the old Marxist “Social Democratic Party”, which later became the “British Socialist Party” and which before the war was the only political organization which consciously and clearly represented the principles of Socialism. This old Marxist party however, did not understand how to come into actual and close connections with the working class and to obtain a strong influence over the proletariat.

The annual conference of the English Communists which took place from the 7th to the 9th of October in London, has shown that the present Communist Party has taken over the good Marxist theories of the old Social Democratic Party–supplemented in the meanwhile by the experiences of the Russian Revolution–while it does not intend to fall into the tactical errors which for decades hindered the former party from becoming a real proletarian mass party. It is true that this same tendency which consciously limits itself to purely theoretical propaganda, also existed in the present Communist Party. It shows itself in the anti-parliamentary tendency and in the great aversion to working with, and in the Labor Party. And the young Communist Party which came into existence in August 1920 through the fusion of the British Socialist Party with the Socialist Labor Party, particularly strong in Scotland, and several smaller groups, had a great deal of work during the first two years to overcome these tendencies. The conference which has just ended has shown that this work is practically completed, and that the Party has succeeded in convincing almost all these “left elements”–and they were for the most part, good and excellent revolutionary comrades–of the necessity of a real Marxist revolutionary policy. The decisions of the present conference clearly show that the present tactics will not only be theoretically recognized but will be carried out in practice by the overwhelming majority of the Party. The Party is thereby more politically consolidated and has obtained a firm basis from which it can successfully work. Thus the first preliminary condition has been established in England for the creation of a Communist mass movement.

That there is in the meanwhile a certain amount of resistance in the Party is shown by the debate on the tactics of the United Front, which has particular difficulties in England on account of the peculiar conditions and relationships of the labor movement in that country. In England there are no political party organizations such as we have on the Continent. The working class is politically organized in the Labor Party which in its composition consists of trade union organizations and of the smaller Independent Labor Party, the Fabian Society and individual members. The Labor Party, which originally was an altogether vague product, has developed more and more into the political organization of the English working class which is today almost entirely in the hands of the reformist leaders. If the Communist Party wishes to gain influence over the proletarian masses, then it must work within the Labor Party. There were long disputes in the Communist Party over the question of affiliation to the Labor Party, but the opposition to this affiliation is becoming continually weaker.

At the present London Conference it came to an exhaustive debate upon this question. Happily, however, the decision of the Central Committee which newly affirmed the tactics of affiliation, was finally adopted by 80 votes against 10. The opposition thereupon expressly and independently declared their acquiescence in this decision and promised to direct their political work to this end. The arguments of these comrades were very weak and mostly of a purely sentimental character. The decisive paragraph of the accepted resolution states:

(5) The Communist Party, claiming to be the vanguard of the fighting working class, can only fulfil its mission by constant contact with the workers’ organizations, and constant participation in the workers’ struggle against the forces of capitalism.

To this end it declares its readiness to support the Labor Party in every act of resistance against capitalist oppression; proclaims its solidarity with the whole working class organized in that body; and demands its right to affiliate as an integral part of the working class movement, whilst maintaining at the same time its own independent and revolutionary point of view based on the unassailable principles of Communism. While the Communists work in the local organizations of the Labor Party, often with great success, for the aims of Communism, the Labor Party as a whole has up till now refused the affiliation of the Communist Party, as it did at its last conference at Edinburgh.

As the leaders of the Labor Party refused this affiliation of the Communists for the reason (among others) that they ran their own candidates at parliamentary elections in opposition to the Labor Party, the Central Committee decided “as an expression of its earnest desire to link up with the organized labor movement”, to withdraw all candidates who are standing in opposition to official candidates of the Labor Party. This decision which is to be traced to the peculiar English electoral system, naturally means a great sacrifice for our comrades, so much the more as many candidates of the Labor Party are scarcely to be distinguished from liberal capitalists. As they have, however, succeeded in a whole series of local organizations of the Labor Party in getting Communists adopted as official candidates of the Labor Party, this decision does not imply any shutting out of the Communists from the new Parliament or the municipal bodies. Notwithstanding, the opposition at the conference against this decision was fairly strong. The decision was finally approved by 55 votes against 25.

That the party is determined to engage more and more in the daily political struggles is shown by the report on the present foreign political situation (the situation in the Near East), the Irish question and the problem of the unemployed. For the first time in its young history the Communist Party was faced with the possibility of a new war adventure on the part of the English Imperialists. It has fulfilled its duty as a section of the Communist International and exerted all its powers for resistance against war. In this connection it was also the chief task of the English Communists to bring the English working class as a whole, i.e., the Labor Party, into the movement against the war. With enthusiastic applause of the whole conference, the chairman, Comrade Macmanus, declared that a new war must under all circumstances and with every means be hindered by the working class.

In a short debate over trade union tactics there came up the question of unemployment. The unemployed army in England amounts to over 2 millions. And there exist no signs of an abatement in the economic crisis. As in other countries so in England, there is great dissatisfaction with the trade unions and a tendency to withdraw from these economic organizations which are misused by the reformist leaders. England too the Communists are the promoters of trade union organizations and of their unity. The resolution adopted at this point contains a direct and earnest appeal to the English workers to get back to the trade unions.” The communists have in recent years gained a great influence in the trade unions. One of the most important tasks of the conference was the reorganization of the Party in accordance with the theses of the Communist International. Party life in England has for long been inspired with federalistic ideas. A party organization with a strong and strict centralized leadership, is for the English working class, long confused by phrases of “right of self-determination and “democracy”, something perfectly new. The Communist Party has created at this conference a new party constitution, a new party statute which entirely corresponds to the spirit of the Communist International, particularly in regard to a more stringent organization in the sense of democratic centralization. The overwhelming majority of the conference had made the experiences of the Russian and German. The Communists in their revolutionary struggles their own new party constitution was adopted almost unanimously.

The British Party Congress has therefore accomplished good work. The danger of relapsing into the tactical errors of the old school of English Socialists has been entirely overcome, and the preliminary conditions for a healthy development of the Communist movement have been created. The Communist Party will not capture the proletarian masses of England by storm, but slowly and tenaciously, step by step, for the prerequisites to a turbid development are lacking in the English working class. Before all it is necessary for the Communists to conduct a very intensive penetration into the political and economic daily struggles of the English working class, in order to win over the British workers to the revolutionary class struggle on the ground of their own experiences. The economic and political development of capitalist England will more and more accelerate the liberation of the proletarian masses from their “democratic” and pacifist” illusions. And the English Communist Party will be an earnest and quickening factor in this development of the class struggle.

Following are the resolutions adopted by the Congress.

I. The Labor Party and the United Front.

Resolved: (1) The policy of a united front of all sections of the working class is imperatively demanded by the conditions of the class struggle, as evidenced in particular by the never ceasing capitalist attacks upon the workers’ standard of living.

(2) Action by the working class can only be taken through the organizations thrown up by that class in the course of the struggle in which it is compelled to engage. Outside of these organizations the working class, for all effective purposes, does not exist as a fighting force.

(3) Politically the working class in Great Britain finds its fullest expression in the Labor Party. The aims, ideals, and leadership of the Labor Party remain anti-revolutionary, because the workers themselves lack consciousness, and, so far as large sections are concerned, are still dominated by middle class prejudices and ideology. For this attitude of mind the leaders themselves must bear their share of responsibility in turn.

(4) Only in action as the class struggle develops will the workers be able to gain the experience that will enable them to throw off middle class ideas and leadership alike, and trend more and more towards a revolutionary objective.

(5) The Communist Party, claiming to be the vanguard of the fighting working class, can only fulfil its mission by constant contact with the workers’ organizations, and constant participation in the workers’ struggle against the forces of capitalism.

To this end it declares its readiness to support the Labor Party in every act of resistance against capitalist oppression; proclaims its solidarity with the whole working class organized in that body; and demands its right to affiliate as an integral part of the working class movement, whilst maintaining at the same time its own independent and revolutionary point of view based on the unassailable principles of Communism.

II. Imperialism.

This Conference of the Communist Party of Great Britain, in applying itself with resolute will and systematic endeavour to the task of encountering and overcoming British capitalism, recognizes that this can only be achieved in active cooperation with those hundreds of millions of poor peasants and workers who, in every continent are the victims of this same British capitalism.

The recent strikes in the great industries such as mining, shipbuilding and engineering, where in blackleg coal was imported or sent to the markets of this country from Natal, India, and even China; wherein Asiatic seamen were used in the service of British Imperialism to defeat the seamen of the West; wherein machinery was imported to break the resistance of the engineer- ing workers, have strengthened the conviction of the Communist Party of Great Britain that it must more and more turn its energies to the task of breaking down Western prejudice against color and organize the proletariat as a class, whatever their race or creed.

The Communists believe it to be their duty, in every port and on every ship, in every factory and every mine, in every market place and from every platform, to help the workers of this or of other countries to realize the significance of Empire and to impress upon them the urgency of solidarity against it.

In increasing numbers the working class is beginning to understand its own historic role as the destined conqueror of capitalism, and steadily becomes conscious that its leadership must be vested in the Communist International. Upon the Communist Party of Great Britain, a section of the Communist International, therefore devolves the special and mighty task of leading the struggle of the masses in the stronghold of capitalism which has its foundations deeply laid in the economic groundwork of Great Britain. Here British capitalism develops its strength and machinery of oppression which enable it to spread its brigandage throughout the world. Here it forges the links of bondage which make the struggles of the peasants and workers of the Colonial Empire one with the struggles of the workers of Britain.

The Communist Party of Great Britain, assembled in national Conference, therefore sends its greetings to the workers and peasants of Mesopotamia, of Persia, and of all the lands that British Imperialism is seeking to steal. It welcomes their efforts at resistance, and pledges itself to render them aid by all means in its power. It hails with satisfaction the revolutionary efforts of the workers and peasants of India, of Egypt and China, and of all the countries under the bondage of our common oppressors.

It congratulates the workers of Hong-Kong on their splendid efforts in the recent strike and expresses its admiration of the fight of the cotton operatives of Bombay and Madras against the capitalist mill-owners of Lancashire and India.

It shares the hatred of the workers of S. Africa against the bloody tyranny of the cosmopolitan mine-owners of the Rand, and pledges itself to these workers and all the workers and peasants subject to British Imperialism, to be tireless in its efforts to promote sympathetic action which will culminate in the final overthrow of Imperialism everywhere. It calls on them to join with it, not only in sporadic outbreaks and sectional movements, but in concerted action under the banner of the Communist International, to shatter and replace the reign of Imperialist Terror by the rulership of the workers and peasants of all lands, bound to each other in a world-wide federation of Soviet Republics aspiring to Communism.

III. Near East Resolution.

This Conference of the Communist Party of Great Britain warns the workers of Britain and comrades in Turkey and India that the war crisis is not over. Alarmed by the general anger of the workers at the prospects of war, and by the growing solidarity of the Islamic peoples in the East, the kept politicians of Finance Capital are seeking to lull us into a false security so that they can better prosecute their scheme to gain and keep control of the resources of the Near East, of the Straits, and of Constantinople.

This Conference protests against any secret negotiations between Trade Union or Labor Party leaders and the Government.

This Conference therefore, determined to do all in its power to prevent the accomplishment of this design to close the outlet of Soviet Russia and to prevent the domination of European Finance Capital over the peasant millions of the Near and Further East, calls upon the British Working Class to refuse to spend their lives, limbs and energies, in this plot for the maintenance of plundering Capitalist Imperialism.

It urges the Transport Workers to repeat their courageous conduct in the class case of the “Jolly George” and to refuse to load men or Munitions for the creation of new shambles. It calls upon all other Workers to back the Dockers by a deter- mined, courageous, prompt and universal refusal to do anything to aid the crushing of either the Turkish or any other Eastern peasants and workers’ movement, or of Soviet Russia. It reaffirms its solidarity with the masses of India and urges them to make common cause with the masses of Russia and other European Countries who have now realized fully the evils of Western Capitalism exploiting East regions.

Moreover, in the interests of the exploited masses all over the world, the Conference endorses the action of the Executive Committee in approaching the leaders of the Second International and the Labor Party with proposals for the establishment of effective centres of working class resistance to the threatened war, in the shape of Workers’ Councils of Action, throughout Gt. Britain. The Conference reiterates its readiness, and pledges the Communist Party which it represents, loyally to join with every and any other working class organization in an effort to stop the war by mobilizing the workers around such Councils of Action.

The Conference endorses the demands put forward by the Executive Committee as the minimum essential for the preservation of peace, namely:

1. Evacuation of the Dardanelles by all Entente Troops.

2. Recognition of the Angora Government as the national Government of Turkey, and of Turkey’s right to sovereign independence.

3. Summoning of an international conference to settle the future of the Dardanelles, composed only of the States bordering on the Black Sea.

IV. Resolution on Ireland.

The Communist Party of Great Britain feels compelled to call the attention of the working masses of Britain and other countries to the reign of terror established once again by British Imperialism in Ireland. Having failed to conquer the Irish nation by its own army it has bribed the capitalist and the landlord class of Ireland with the so-called “Treaty” to become the instrument of Imperialist oppression. True to their class interests they have accepted the money, the guns, the military equipment of Britain to subdue the heroic Republican army, still maintaining the traditional struggle for Irish emancipation, to whom are rallying the Workers and peasants of Ireland who have throughout borne the brunt of the fight.

True to their instinctive hatred of the working masses, they have produced their own Black and Tans in Free State uniform to kill and torture, to banish and imprison their fellow countrymen who dared to continue to fight for what they themselves have betrayed.

Thus have they made clear to all the world who are the real standard bearers of national and social freedom; thus have they demonstrated that the fight against Imperialism is the fight of the working class against the capitalist class of the world.

We congratulate the Irish Republican Army on its magnificent struggle against British Imperialism represented by the Irish Free State Government.

We heartily agree with the Communist Party of Ireland in rendering assistance to the Irish Republican Army and call upon the workers and peasants of Ireland to rally behind these forces as a means to the creation of a Workers’ and Peasants’ Republic of Ireland, upon the basis of the Social Program already accepted by the best and foremost Republicans.

We appeal to the rank and file of the Irish labor movement to be true to the cause for which their leader James Connolly sacrificed his life, to dismiss the leadership of today, and rally to a new leadership which will dare to line up the forces of Labor with the Communist Party of Ireland and the I.R.A. in the fight against Imperialism.

This is the only way the workers and peasants of Ireland can defeat the forces of reaction and secure the Workers’ Republic to which they are pledged. To this end the Communist Party of Great Britain pledges every possible assistance to the present revolutionary forces in Ireland, and as a first step suggests the establishment of Hands Off Ireland Committees to prevent the transport of munitions to the Imperialist Free State butchers. We are confident that in so doing we can deliver the greatest blow to British Imperialism and pave the way to a Federation of the Workers’ Republics of the World.

V. Resolution on Unemployment.

This Conference of the Communist Party of Great Britain sees in the persistence of the large army of the unemployed in this country a sweeping condemnation of the capitalist system of economy. It recalls the robber peace of Versailles and sees in it with its criminal folly of indemnities and reparations, the immediate cause of the dislocation of industry and ruin of the markets of the world.

In the vicious claims of the metal, coal, and shipping barons of Great Britain, France, and their Allies, upon the exhausted peoples of Central Europe, is to be found the direct responsibility for the terrible plight that millions of the working class find themselves in today, in conjunction with the two million unemployed in this country. At the same time the Conference takes note that in addition to the systematic sabotaging of production for purposes of profit, the employing class of this country is ruthlessly using the present industrial slump to weaken and destroy the trade union movement.

As a consequence of this offensive by the capitalists, tens of thousands of workers, finding themselves thrust below the economic status of the coolie, and disheartened and discouraged for lack of a strong official lead, are leaving the unions when more than ever a United Labor Front is necessary. Against this tendency this conference urges the slogan of Back to the Unions as a preliminary to stopping the retreat. Out of the weakened morale in the labor ranks, demands are being made for new and fanciful schemes of organization intended to embrace employed as well as unemployed. Were the workers to adopt such proposals as a national policy it would still further weaken the present labor organizations and spread confusion in the ranks.

This conference, therefore, while placing on record its appreciation of the valuable help of the National Unemployed Workers’ Committee in the task of advancing the interests of the unemployed, in preventing blacklegging against the labor unions, and in the training of large masses of the unemployed to the value of organization, at the same time urges the N.U.W.C. to remain an Unemployed Workers’ Committee. We urge it to take joint action with the trade unions and become attached to the local trades and labor councils; to identify itself with the Bureau of the Red International of Labor Unions, and to work side by side with the minority movements now operating under its leadership, for the united struggle against capitalism. Further, in view of the approaching winter, it should concentrate all its resources for the struggle against the government locally and nationally.

This Conference of the Communist Party of Great Britain therefore pledges its support to the full demands of the National Unemployed Workers’ Committee, and will unreservedly use the whole of its resources in the carrying out of this program.

VI. Resolution on Russia.

This Conference of the Communist Party of Gt. Britain sends its fraternal greetings to the workers and peasants of Soviet Russia.

It expresses its heartfelt sympathy with them because of their terrible sufferings caused by the famine, and records its unbounded admiration for the heroic efforts of the workers of the world to combat the famine, and denounces the efforts of the counter-revolutionaries to use the famine as a means for attacking Soviet Russia.

It is mindful of the fact that more was done to fight the famine by the workers of Russia than by all the relief agencies in. the world, and it pledges itself to continue its whole-hearted support to the efforts of the Workers’ International Relief Committee in its new program of economic help for Russia.

VII. The Task of the Party.

During an extremely strenuous week-end the British Section of the Communist International in conference assembled, set itself to the task of transforming its organization from that of a purely propagandist and educational body into a real organized revolutionary leadership of the toiling masses.

In taking up this work the desire of the Conference has been to become a more efficient section of the International movement for Communism.

Realizing that the service to the world’s workers given by the Communist International demands of us every effort and sacrifice in order that the British Section may become worthy of its place in the International Movement, we hereby pledge ourselves to work unceasingly to that end.

We extend our heartiest fraternal greetings to the Communist International and to the heroic Russian Comrades who have so magnificently led the van of the Revolutionary struggle against the attacks of all the Capitalist Imperialist forces of the world.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecorr” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecorr’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecorr, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1922/v02n089-x-supp-oct-17-1922-Inprecor.pdf