An appeal to end divisions from the ‘Initiative Group of the Korean Communists’ at a time when the Korean movement was not cohesive geographically or politically with the local movement, as it was in Japan, China and in the Soviet Union, all divided by their own factions.

‘The Fractional Struggle Among the Korean Communists’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 14 Nos. 48. September 14, 1934.

In Nos. 11 and 14 of “Inprecorr” we published the “Platform of Action of the C.P. of Korea,” worked out by an initiative group of Korean Communists. We have now received (with considerable delay, it is true) the appeal of the same initiative group on the necessity for the complete liquidation of the factional struggle among the Korean Communists. The initiative group attaches great importance to this document, and in its covering letter expresses the hope that it will serve as an ideological and political foundation for rallying the Korean Communists and restoring the Communist Party. ED.

To All Factory, Mill and Village Communist Groups in Korea

Dear Comrades,

Our country is one of those countries in which there is not yet a recognised Communist Party. This is explained exclusively by the severe factional struggle between the Communists which in our country has taken on an entirely unprecedented and monstrous form.

The factional struggle excluded every possibility of training the members of the Party in the spirit of a principled policy. It dulled the Party spirit, destroyed the discipline of the Party, broke up the unity of its ranks and undermined the authority of the Party in the eyes of the workers and peasants, drawing them away from positive work. The Korean Communists, absorbed by factional conflicts, were not occupied with the organisation and the leadership of the struggles of the workers and peasants for their economic and political interests, they did not wage a struggle against national reformism, and did not aid the development of the national liberation movement of the toiling masses. As a result of the factional disintegration, the heroic work of individual honest comrades, unconditionally devoted to Communism, was almost entirely destroyed.

The further the factional struggle developed, the more hideous was the character that it assumed until it directly merged with the provocative activity of the Japanese gendarmerie and police. The Japanese imperialists ably utilised the factional contradictions of the various groups and corrupted a number of Communists. In the full swing of the factional struggle conditions were created in which provocateurs and spies could absolutely freely penetrate the ranks of the Communists. And in a whole number of groups they played a leading role. (The Kim-chana, Kho-er, De-gee-sen cases, etc.) Some of the most devoted revolutionaries were lost as a result of the activities of these spies, and they fomented the factional struggle with the aim of weakening and disintegrating the ranks of the Communists and discrediting them before the toilers.

This shows that all the factional groups without exception, regardless of what they are called and when they arose, played and continue to play the role of marionettes in the hands of the Japanese police.

The Comintern, taking all this into account, was compelled to disband the C.P. of Korea by a special decision in December, 1928. This decision demanded the liquidation of all factions and at the same time pointed out the path to the formation of a new, genuine Communist Party as the vanguard of the toiling proletariat. The formation of a centralised, disciplined, mass underground Communist Party with a single ideology is the main and basic task of the revolutionary movement of the Korean toilers. The chief elements of which the Communist Party, with iron discipline and with Bolshevist principles of conspiracy, should be formed are the advanced workers and peasants who have come forward during strikes, demonstrations, peasant conflicts and other forms of mass struggle against their class enemies.

To our regret, we have not yet got such a Party although there are all the grounds for its formation. The working class of Korea, the Party of which must be the C.P. of Korea, has already written a number of brilliant pages in the history of the class struggle in Korea. It is sufficient to recall the general Gen-sen-sku strike and a number of other strikes which took place during the past few years, in order to be convinced that the workers of our country have the desire and the determination to struggle against their class enemies.

The absence of a genuine Communist Party holds back the development of the struggle of the Korean, toilers, and in the first place, of the Korean workers against Japanese imperialism and its allies.

The absence of such a Party is felt particularly now when a new wave of the revolutionary movement of the masses of the people is developing in the country. The present situation in Korea is characterised by the fact that the entire policy of Japanese imperialism is summed up in its trying to adapt our country to the needs of the imperialist wars of pillage. Japanese imperialism, striving to extricate itself from the crisis at the expense of the toiling masses, is more and more intensifying the oppression and exploitation of the masses of the people. On the other hand, it is savagely preparing a war against the U.S.S.R.–the bulwark of the world revolutionary movement. In consequence of this, the situation of the Korean toilers, which is already miserable enough as it is, is becoming constantly worse. Unemployment is increasing, the peasantry is being ruined on a mass scale, particularly the poor peasants, and an army of poor peasants consisting of many millions is being formed. To all this there is added the fact that the robber war of Japan in China has already ruined millions of toilers. The Korean bourgeoisie, which more and more proceeds along the path of capitulation to Japanese imperialism, also comes forward in the struggle against the masses of the people. Under these conditions, only the C.P. of Korea can ensure the successful development of the struggle of the Korean workers and peasants against the existing order and for the complete independence of Korea, for the abolition of the land-owning rights of the landlords, for the eight-hour day, for a radical improvement in the conditions of the workers, and for the establishment of the workers’ and peasants’ Soviet power. There are no other paths. Only the C.P. of Korea can correctly lead the struggle of the working class and ensure its hegemony in the national liberation struggle against Japanese imperialism.

We, an initiative group of Korean Communists, conscious of the importance and the responsibility of the given historical moment, set ourselves the task of forming a united Communist Party for organising and leading the struggle of the Korean toilers. We appeal to the Communist workers in the factories and mills and to the Communists in the villages, to whom the interests of the Korean revolution are dear, to respond to our call. We, proposing a platform of action for the C.P. of Korea, call upon all Communist workers and Communists in the villages to fight for those demands which are set out in this platform and taking an active part in this struggle, to organise themselves into Communist groups in the enterprises and in the villages.

Thanks to the firm and undeviating anti-faction line of the Comintern, a considerable part of the factional groups have been exposed before the toilers. But there are still remnants of factional groups which, in connection with the growth of the workers’ and peasants’ movement, strive to penetrate into their midst in order to continue their rotten factional struggle. For this reason the process of forming Communist groups in the factories, mills, docks, villages, on the ships, railroads, and other places of work, should be accompanied by a severe struggle against all factional groups and factionalists. The factionalists should be exposed and driven out of our ranks. The rage of the masses should be directed against them. Under the present conditions, when factional groups without exception and when every factionalist is objectively a tool in the hands of Japanese imperialism for the purpose of disintegrating the revolutionary ranks, they should call forth in us Justified disbelief and lack of confidence with regard to their political honesty. We must show exceptional vigilance with regard to all these varieties of provocateurs. The admission of any former factionalist into the Communist groups that are to be newly organised in the enterprises and villages can only be decided after he has shown his devotion to the cause of the revolution, not in words but in deeds, in the revolutionary struggle.

Only in this way, by organising and rallying together the most advanced workers and peasants in the Communist groups directly in the enterprises and the villages, at the same time isolating and exposing the factionalists, will we be able to organise a genuine Communist Party, worthy to bear the high name of a section of the Communist International.

We, the initiative group, boldly state that notwithstanding any of the artifices of the factionalists, the agents of Japanese imperialism in the ranks of the workers, notwithstanding their attempts to frustrate again the endeavour to form a Communist vanguard of the Korean proletariat, we shall overcome all difficulties and attain our aims with the aid of the newly organised Communist groups of workers and peasants. We are entirely able to liquidate the factional groups, and rally the best Communist elements from the workers and peasants in the towns and villages. Long live the Communist Party of Korea!

Long live the Comintern–the General Staff of the world revolution!

Down with the factional struggle, the instrument of the Japanese imperialists in disintegrating the ranks of the revolutionary movement of the Korean tollers! Initiative Group of Korean Communists.

International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” 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. Inprecor’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 Inprecor, 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/1934/v14n48-sep-14-1934-Inprecor-op.pdf