In the aftermath the profound defeats the previous October, one of the most important gatherings of German Communists was the 9th Congress of the K.P.D. held in secrecy during April, 1924 at Frankfort. After six months of intense debate, the ‘Left Wing’ led by Maslow, Thalmann, and Fischer would assume power, at least temporarily, with the former leadership (the ‘Right’) around Brandler and Thalheimer deposed. A third, ‘Center’, tendency associated with Ernest Meyer was also active in the meeting, as were representatives of the Comintern and affiliates. In the run-up to the meeting the leadership of the International sent two letters of practical advice and tactical consideration to the membership. While not yet directly ordering, and reordering sections, these E.C.C.I. letters would naturally carry considerable authority, with these being especially important for the understanding of developments in the Comintern’s most important non-governing party.
‘Letter of the E.C.C.I. to the Frankfort Conference of the Communist Party of Germany’ from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 4 Nos. 28 & 29. May 8 & 5, 1924.
First Letter of the E.C.C.I. to the Party Conference.
Dear Comrades,
Your Party Conference is being held at a moment of profound change, stirring the thinking section of the whole German working class to its inmost depths. Never before has such a heavy responsibility lain upon the Party Conference of the German C.P. as on this occasion. Without exaggeration it can be said, your Party Conference will decide the fate of the German C.P. for many years to come, and with this the fate of the German revolution.
I. The International Situation.
At the present juncture the III International is more than ever incorporated in Moscow, and the II International more than ever in London.
The international position of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has become strengthened in a manner hitherto unheard of. The number of recognitions of the Soviet Government on the part of the mightiest governments of the European bourgeoisie is the outcome of the foreign policy pursued by the first proletarian government in the world. And that the balance thus drawn is satisfactory is due to the efforts made by the vanguard of the whole international proletariat. That the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics has been recognized de jure by a number of bourgeois governments is not the most important point. What is important is that the de jure recognitions have taken place without any material or moral concessions whatever being made to the international bourgeoisie on the part of the proletarian government.
The mightiest party of the II International is in power at the moment in the mightiest of the bourgeois states. The so-called Labour Government, headed by MacDonald, is naturally pursuing a bourgeois and not a proletarian policy. At the present moment there are broad masses of workers in England who do not yet perceive MacDonald’s policy in the same light as the German workers have perceived the policy pursued by Ebert and Noske. But MacDonald’s government is showing itself in its true colors more and more. Since the time of Marx the greatest and most difficult problem of the labour movement in England has been the formation of a revolutionary proletarian mass party. At the present time the objective pre-requisites for the formation of a Communist mass party are given in England for the first time.
In the Far East and in the colonial and semi-colonial countries, the leaden clouds of imperialism are pierced by flashes of lightning with ever increasing frequency. In India, in Egypt and in China, the movement against imperialism is growing stronger and stronger.
New events are maturing in the Balkans, pregnant with fateful international consequence.
The knots tied by the shameful treaty of Versailles have not yet been cut.
The Anglo-French competitive antagonism becomes more and more acute. The French bourgeoisie is paying for the piratical occupation of the Ruhr district with the disastrous fall of the franc and by financial ruin. The impending election to the Chamber will draw the balance of the inexorable combat going on within the various fractions of the French bourgeoisie.
The German bourgeoisie is enjoying an apparent breathing space. What is happening at the present time may be designated as the shadow of an improvement in the international situation of the German bourgeoisie. But it is nothing more than a shadow. Now as before, the drawn sword is hanging over Germany. It will either become a colony exploited by victorious imperialism, or it will accomplish the proletarian revolution–Germany is definitely confronted by these alternatives.
II. The Further Prospects of the German Revolution.
The proletarian revolution in Germany is inevitable. The error made in the estimation of the speed of events in October 1923 has been the cause of much difficulty to the Party. But this is nonetheless a mere episode. The fundamental estimation remains. The revolution is coming.
It is difficult, at the present moment, to state definitely when the revolution is likely to take place. It is possible, and indeed highly probable, that the decisive struggle will begin much sooner than many people expect; it may be that before a year has passed we shall find ourselves in the midst of the decisive battle. But the possibility of the slower development of events is by no means excluded. The Party must at the given moment be prepared for both possibilities. And where the interests of our cause depend on the subjective factor, that is, upon the extent to which the proletarian vanguard is organized, the Party must so order its ranks that it is ready to plunge into the decisive struggle at the shortest notice.
The slogan of the fight for the proletarian dictatorship, for the establishment of Soviet power and the preparation of armed insurrection for this purpose remains fully and entirely in force. Persevering and tenacious work for the arming of the workers this is the task to which we must now devote our most serious attention.
We can well comprehend the impassioned energy with which the German comrades discuss the question as to whether we should have resorted to arms in October and November 1923, or whether the retreat was unavoidable. To revolutionists such a question is bound to be a burning one. But despite everything the Party must not look backwards, but forwards. The Party is not demolished, the Party has retained its fundamental core, the Party has emerged with closely welded ranks and all honour from the period of illegality. The Party must now, more emphatically than ever before, make it clear to the working class of Germany that the most important of its tasks is: the preparation for the definite struggle for power, for the proletarian dictatorship.
III. Winning over the Majority.
The task of winning over the majority of the proletariat, and of augmenting its ranks by the largest possible number of sympathizers from the petty bourgeoisie of the towns and the peasantry, still remains one of the fundamental tasks of the Party. We must not underestimate the first successes gained by the Fascisti among the workers. These are extremely dangerous symptoms, and the Party must devote its serious attention to them. Unless we put the national question in a Bolshevist form, we shall not win over the man in small circumstances from the Fascisti. And to dispense with doing this signifies renouncing the hope of the hegemony of the revolutionary movement, and then it is superfluous to speak of the dictatorship of the proletariat at all.
There was much that was superfluous in the late campaign fought around Schlageter. But we cannot permit Nihilism in the national question.
We have no right to forget, even for a minute, that very considerable strata of the German proletariat are still under the influence of clericalism. The Party must regroup its ranks, and so conduct its work as to win the workers for Communism. This is rendered possible, beyond all doubt, by the pre-revolutionary period. In the coming parliamentary election the Party is marching forwards with closely welded ranks, penetrates into the deepest strata of the masses of the people, and seeks to further the cause of revolutionary enlightenment of millions and millions of working people. If the results of the elections are favourable to our Party, the working class will go forward with fresh courage, faith will be increased in the powers or the Communist Party, and the will to fight in the working class will be strengthened.
There can be nothing more dangerous for a revolutionary party, during a period in which it finds itself becalmed, than the underestimation of the tasks bound up with winning over the majority. This task has not yet been accomplished. Until we have won over the majority of the socially decisive strata of the workers we cannot vanquish the bourgeoisie. Your Party Conference must consider the whole of its steps and resolutions from the standpoint of whether these conduce to the furtherance of the aim of winning over the majority, or whether they are likely to lead to fresh danger of alienating the masses of workers, and of thus contributing to the conversion of the Party into a sect.
The trade union question must also be approached by us from this point of view. In the interests of winning over the majority of the working class it is our duty to maintain unity in the trade unions, and to keep in view the fact that the slightest false step in this direction may cost the Party its head. In view of the enormous importance of the trade union question, we devote a special document to its discussion.
IV. Party Work among the non-Proletarian Strata of the population.
A Party which demands the hegemony of the revolutionary movement, a Party which aims at the seizure of state power and the conversion of the bourgeois republic into a Soviet republic such a Party must perform much preparatory work among the non-proletarian strata of the population. The working class and its party can only put the idea of the proletarian dictatorship into actual practice if they prove capable of neutralizing a part of the petty and middle bourgeoisie in town and country, and in bringing the other part over into their camp. We may as well candidly admit that up to now our Party has done extremely little towards winning the sympathy of the man in a small way of business, the employee, etc. in the cities, and still less towards winning over those strata of the peasantry whose class position is such that they can and must join the working class against the bourgeoisie. The party conference must devote its main attention to this problem.
V. The United Front Tactics and the Transition Slogans.
The most important statements to be made by the E.C. of the C.I. with reference to this subject have already been given in the January theses based on the Moscow consultation. At the debates held in January between the E.C. of the C.I. and the leading representatives of the German left, we defined the united front tactics as a method of our agitation, and as a method for the organization and mobilization of the masses for a long period in advance. Have we any reason to depart from this formulation? In our opinion no such reason exists.
If we are to understand, under united front tactics, such opportunist errors as were lately committed in Saxony, then it need not be said that we are opposed to united front tactics of this description. Happily, the fact that opportunist errors have occurred in this or that country, during the utilisation of revolutionary parliamentarism, has not yet led anyone to draw the conclusion that it is unallowable to utilize revolutionary parliamentarism at all, and that the Party should not take part in the Reichstag elections.
The Comintern will not abandon the continued application of united front tactics in other parts of the world simply because this or that great opportunist error has been committed in Saxony.
It is now perfectly clear that the united front tactics in particular have to be exactly adapted, in each separate country, to the stage of development which has been attained by the labour movement in the given country. In Germany the stage arrived at requires us to adopt the tactics of a united front from below, that is, we can dispense with negotiations with the official leaders of Social Democracy. The united front tactics from below must, however, be carried out sincerely and determinedly, down to their last logical consequence. In this question all fractional diplomacy is unallowable.
It is equally imperative to arrive at a clear conclusion with reference to the question of partial demands and transition slogans. The Russian Bolsheviki fought against the Mensheviki for ten years on the question of partial demands and transition slogans. What was the attitude of the Bolsheviki? They never opposed partial demands and transition slogans. The Bolsheviki themselves even put partial demands and issued transition slogans. The Bolsheviki did not differ from the Mensheviki in that they opposed partial demands and transition slogans, whist the Mensheviki supported them. No, the Bolsheviki differed from the Mensheviki in standing for the preparation for proletarian revolution, whilst the Mensheviki opposed this. They differed in the fact that for the Bolsheviki every partial demand and every transition slogan was bound up with revolutionary agitation for the preparation of revolution, whilst for the Mensheviki the partial demands and transition slogans were substituted for revolutionary agitation, and opposed to the preparation of revolution.
It need not be said that the German C.P. cannot adopt an attitude of complete rejection with respect to partial demands and transition slogans. It need not be said that the German C.P. cannot renounce the struggle for the eight hour day. There is no fundamental difference between partial economic demands and political transition slogans, so long as we understand how to issue every transition slogan to the masses in its true light as an organic constituent of revolutionary agitation for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
VI. Organizatory Questions.
We are obliged to admit that up to now the German C.P. has not yet accomplished the task of building up its structure upon the basis of Communist nuclei in the works and shops themselves. In questions of organization, and in many other questions, we are still paying rich tribute to the traditions of Social Democracy.
And yet there can be no thought of creating a really revolutionary proletarian Party, capable of seizing power out of the hands of the bourgeoisie, until this Party is built up on the basis of Communist nuclei firmly anchored in the factories and shops themselves. The C.I. is of the opinion that it is high time for words to be converted into deeds in this matter. The Reich Party Conference must set a term, a term speedily expiring, within which the Party has to be reorganized everywhere on the principles here given. Without this prerequisite we repeat it is ridiculous to talk about the seizure of power by the German proletariat. Such a reorganization of the Party is not a simple organizatory task, nor a question of organizatory technics, it is a political question of the highest grade. The solution of this question decides whether the German C.P. is to be a mere machine for parliamentary elections, like the Social Democratic Party, or whether it is to be an organization capable of leading the millions of workers in the factories and workshops.
It is necessary that the Party Conference resolves upon the retention and completion of the illegal Party apparatus. We must not on any account calculate on the permanency of the present “legality”. On the contrary, we must be definitely prepared for repeated periods of illegality for the Party. The present breathing space should indeed be utilized for the creation of a really powerful illegal apparatus, one existing not only on paper, but actually capable of action, and of working efficiently under any circumstances. Until this is accomplished, it is impossible to speak seriously about the further arming of the workers.
VII. Arming the Workers, the Red Defence Units.
The arming of the workers is still the most important task before the Party. The preceding period bequeathed us something. But that which has so far been accomplished is merely a drop in the ocean. The German workers are striving to gain possession of arms. The Party must count it amongst its leading duties to satisfy this striving. And this must be done without unnecessary fuss, properly and efficiently, without stinting forces and means.
The Party must understand the work of strengthening the Red Hundreds; not only those consisting of Party members, but those participated in by other revolutionary workers. The Party must once and for all grasp the fact that the Red Hundreds can never form a real source of power so long as they are looked upon as an organization solely intended to appear on occasions of revolutionary celebrations, at the moment of a general strike, etc. It is an imperative necessity to impress upon the German workers the idea that the Red Hundreds are necessary for the daily struggles. The Red Hundreds will only be able to strike firm root in the working class if they accustom themselves to the idea that they have to protect workers’ demonstrations from the attacks of the Reichswehr, to defend the best fighters against arrest, to undertake this or that enterprise towards the arming of the workers, etc. The Red Hundreds must be rooted in the depths of the working class itself, in the factories and workshops. And then they will be immune against the attacks of the bourgeois authorities.
VIII. The Situation within the Party.
The German C.P. is at present undergoing a thorough regrouping of forces, is working for a fresh orientation, is endeavoring to be a really Bolshevist party. Danger from the Right has been overcome in the Party, although there can be no doubt but that this Right danger still exists, and may involve serious danger for the German C.P. and for the whole Comintern. During transitional periods between two revolutions–and the German proletariat is experiencing such a period at the present time the proletarian party is threatened by two main dangers: on the one hand the opportunist deviations of the Right, and on the other the phrases of the “Left”. The lack of faith in the revolution of the one, the attempt to evade actually existing difficulties of the proletarian struggle by means of Left phrases of the other, form the two greatest dangers. Bolshevism in Russia fought under analogous circumstances against both aberrations, and it was solely in the struggle against these two aberrations that Russian Bolshevism became steeled, and became the Party which we all know.
The victory of the left wing of the German C.P. is of enormous significance for the fate of the German revolution. There is no doubt but that this victory is a reflection of far-reaching processes going on in the working class, or at least in its vanguard. This victory signalises the growing readiness to fight among the most advanced strata of the German working class. This victory bears witness to the commencing radicalisation of considerable strata of the German working class. But woe to us if we over-estimate these symptoms, if we imagine that what we desire has already been attained, if we imagine that the majority of the German proletariat is already prepared to plunge into battle under the leadership of the left wing of the German C.P. This is not yet the case. Work towards this goal is the leading task of the Party.
The acute crisis through which the German C.P. is passing at the present time may become the starting point for the rebirth and strengthening of the Party. The Party can now march forward on the broad road of revolution. The Party can at last free itself from opportunist errors, and take up a firm attitude towards the right and “left” leaders of German Social Democracy. We must succeed in finally creating a situation whereby the German proletariat will believe that the German C.P. will lead it, not only in word, but in deed, to revolutionary battle; and not only to heroic defeats as in January 1919 and in the year 1921, but to decisive victory over the bourgeoisie. Up to now the German proletarians have not had this faith in us. But it is a faith which the German C.P. must now impart to the working class.
It is an important duty incumbent on the Party to put an end to the existence of some factors within the Party, and to the contests of these fractions among themselves. It is time that we create a party which employs a hundred per cent of its forces in the struggle against the bourgeoisie and its agents, the Social Democrats, and does not waste its powers in squabbles among its own members. The victorious majority must be capable of taking a number of clearsighted political and organizatory steps, enabling the new majority to create a new regime in the Party, to utilize all forces of value, regardless of the camp to which they may have formerly belonged, and to lead the Party, on the basis of a firm and steadfast revolutionary communist line of action, to the fulfilment of the great historical tasks, lying before it.
Your last conference of the Central Committee quite rightly declared, that the tasks of the European Communist Parties do not consist of demands that the Russian C.P. be de-Bolshevized, but on the contrary, of work towards the Bolshevisation of the West European Communist Parties. This is well said. We are firmly convinced that your Party Conference will make further great strides forward in this respect. Unity–a truly steadfast proletarian unity, not a merely external paper unity, but a downright Bolshevist unity cost what if may must be created by your Party Conference. Go to the masses, and once more go to the masses! This was taught us by our lost comrade Lenin. The Party Conference must inspire the mass. of Party members and all followers of the Communist Party with infinite devotion to the cause of proletarian revolution. The Reich Party Conference must impart to the workers the belief that the proletarian party is preparing, without losing an instant, for the great fight which is coming. The Reich Party Conference must create a firm revolutionary majority. The Reich Party Conference must prove that the German C.P. is to be held in high esteem among the sections of the Communist International.
The Communist International for its part, will do its utmost to aid the brother Communist Party in Germany to accomplish the great historical tasks with which it is confronted.
Long live the proletarian revolution in Germany! Long live the dictatorship of the proletariat in the German Soviet Republic! Long live the C.P. of Germany!
Moscow, 26. March 1924.
The Executive Committee of the Communist International.
Chairman: Zinoviev.
II. Second Letter of the E.C.C.I. to the Party Conference.
The Trade Union Question.
Dear Comrades!
The extreme importance of the Trade Union Question induces us to deal with it in a special letter. What is at stake is not only and not so much the fate of the trade union movement, but the fate of the German C.P. itself, and consequently the fate of the German proletarian revolution. It is a question of whether the German C.P. is really going to be a proletarian mass party or not!
At the end of January 1924 we subjected the trade union question to a most detailed and thorough discussion, participated in by a delegation authoritative for the whole German Left, as represented by comrades Maslow, Ruth Fischer, Thälmann, König, Hesse, and Scholem. We debated the question from every point of view, and then unanimously adopted the following resolution, which has already been published in No. 1 of the Berlin periodical “Der Funke”:
“The Work of the Party in the Trade Union Movement.
The Unity of the Trade Union Movement.
The Communist Party of Germany, which holds the emancipation of the proletarian masses from the influence of reformism for its most urgent task, is decidedly opposed, now as before, to the slogan of withdrawal from the trade unions.
The Communists, who are to be found at work everywhere where there are proletarian masses, are now setting up and establishing their communist fractions within the trade unions with even greater energy than before, and, in view of the disintegration in the ranks of the Social Democracy, with greater prospects of success. These fractions form the central point or the broad movement of revolutionary trade union organization.
At the present moment, whilst the Party is suffering the disadvantage of illegality, and is obliged to strive for the utilization of every legal possibility, this is of special importance.
The Communists, now as before, are opposed to a split, and will continue to combat the schismatic policy of Social Democracy even if the latter expels them from the trade unions. The preservation of unity in the trade union movement is of special importance during a period of capitalist offensive and growth of reaction.
The Organization of those expelled, and of others.
Those who have been expelled from the trade unions, ana those workers who are not organized in trade unions, must be gathered together by the communists, in each case in accordance with the concrete conditions obtaining in each separate trade union. This implies the ability to apply many and multifarious methods (factory councils, control committees, employed committees, parallel trade unions formed by the expelled, Union of Hand and Brain Workers, general workers committees, etc.), without thereby becoming permanently bound to any of these methods and forms of opposition. The joint workers’ committee of the workers’ associations and of the Union of Hand and Brain Workers will cooperate with the Reich committee of the factory councils. Under the given circumstances the Party must devote especially careful, energetic, and systematic work towards the organization of the unorganized and non-partisan masses, in order that the scattering of labor forces desired by the employers and by the trade union bureaucracy may be prevented.
The United Front from below.
The communists must decline any negotiations with the leaders of the reformist trade union movement, or with the leaders of Social Democracy, the actual allies of the bourgeoisie and Fascism, and must succeed in forming the united front from below in the trade unions. They must induce the broad masses of those organized in the trade unions, and of the proletariat which is not yet organized, to join together for the daily struggle, and must even call upon those strata of the working class which have not yet broken with Social Democracy to take part in this common struggle. Negotiations and agreements made by the communists with the local mass organizations of the trade unions (local groups, cartels, etc.), in the interests of the struggle, are not only compatible with the united from below, but in fact form an important weapon against trade union bureaucracy and reformism.
In those cases in which the communists are members or the same unions as the Social Democratic workers, and work alongside of these in the factories and workshops, it must be the endeavor of the communists to combine the co-ordination of their practical activity with the sharpest accentuation of their essential principles, and with a relentless criticism of the errors, the vacillation, the half measures, and the inconsistency of Social Democratic demands.
Here the Communist Party must make it perfectly clear to the workers:
1. that the crisis being undergone by the trade unions arises from the whole history of the reformist trade unions, from then pursuance of the tactics and policy of civil peace;
2. that the present wretched economic condition of the working class is not to be overcome by the ordinary measures of trade union struggle, but solely by the overthrow of the power of the capitalists, by the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Party must not decline to utilize any workers’ mass organizations, especially anti-reformist organizations, in the fight against reformism. The Weimar conference is to be regarded from this standpoint, for here it proved possible to gather together not inconsiderable strata of anti-reformist elements beneath the common banner of a definite program of action. This applies equally to the associations formed by the expelled, to the Union of Hand and Brain Workers and others.
The slogan: “Save the Trade Unions”.
The slogan of “save the trade unions”, as it has hitherto been interpreted, is not right. The trade unions cannot be saved along the old lines. It is only possible to save them by means of a fundamental change in the trade unions, to be effectuated by factory nuclei aiming at organization according to industry and at the substitution of reformism by revolutionary activity.
The Role of the Factory Councils.
Thus the most important task set the communists is the concentration of the whole of their forces upon work in the workshops and in the factory councils, for the purpose of developing the factory councils into the starting point and fulcrura of the whole of the work being done by the Party among the masses, especially the work of opposing the reformist leaders.
The shop stewards have a further important task to deal with, that of combining the accumulating elementary struggles of the masses organized in the trade unions with those of the non-organized masses.
This requires that the factory councils be organizatorily connected with one another in industrial groups, that is, they must be associated locally and in regard to the technics of production, in districts and as a whole, as the pre-requisite and basis for the future organization of production.
At the same time any subordination of the factory councils to the reformist trade unions is to be combatted as harmful at the present time.
The Economic Struggle.
The decentralization arising inevitably from the existing situation (the unfavorable economic conditions, the reduction of production, the bankruptcy of the reformist trade unions, etc.), and the elementary outbreaks of strikes among the workers (against the will of the trade unions and without the financial support of these), confront the communists with the duty of undertaking the leadership of these strikes.
Every concrete question of economic struggle and trade union tactics must be combined by the communists with the general historical task of the working class, with the necessity of fighting for the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The communists must take energetic part in the organization of strike leadership and committees of action, and maintain the connection between these and the factories and shops.
But the whole responsibility of the economic struggle must not be thrown exclusively upon the shoulders of the factory councils, for the factory councils form the foundation for the general regrouping of the forces of the working class for its struggle.
The factory councils must indict the trade unions and hold them responsible for the increasing impoverishment of the working class.
General Tactics in the Trade Unions.
Trade union tactics, and the slogans issued in the trade unions, will be decided by the communists solely upon the basis of the general and concrete estimation of the tasks incumbent upon the working class and the Party and of the forces participating in the struggle.”
Only a short time has elapsed since this. What has changed since then?
1. The Party has become legal: The future will show how long this legality will last. (It need not be said that we must retain our illegal apparatus, which we shall still require.)
2. The leaders of German Social Democracy, and the leaders of the ADGB. (General German Trade Union Federation), are working with persevering determination at provoking a split in the trade unions, and are endeavouring to bring this about by means of expulsions and similar measures.
3, Within the C.P. itself the Left has won a decided victory. 4. The Reichstag elections are fixed for the beginning of May. These are the most important changes which have taken place since the time during which we collaborated with the delegation of the Left in drawing up the well-known resolution in the trade union question.
The fact that the leaders of the ADGB. are working perseveringly towards split in the trade unions, and are resorting to the most despicable provocations in pursuit of this object, naturally adds greatly to your difficulties. And yet this fact does not by any means create a perfectly new situation. Similar provocation has often enough been offered in the past and will be offered again in the future. And as regards the other above mentioned new political factors, these could not in any case form a basis upon which we could undertake a revision of our tactics in the trade union question.
We are well aware that there are conditions under which a split in the trade unions becomes inevitable, and we have no intention of binding ourselves in principle in this respect in Germany more than anywhere else. We know that sooner or later the reformist leaders will bring about a split in the trade unions, as they have done for instance in France. But on the other hand we know equally well that we communists are interested in precisely the reverse, in the maintenance of unity in the trade union movement. As already mentioned above, the question of the tactics to be pursued towards the trade unions by the Communist Party is a question of the fate of the German C.P. as the mass party of the revolutionary proletariat. The question at present raised in the C.P. regarding the trade unions can only be properly solved if taken in combination with the question of the future prospects of the German revolution. Schematically considered, two possibilities exist:
a) either a more or less rapidly maturing of a fresh revolutionary uplift, bringing about the decisive, struggle within a few months, or, let us say, in the course of one to two years,
b) or a somewhat longer drawn out period, extending over a number of years.
In the first case, the errors committed by the German C.P. in the trade union question would naturally be obliterated by a victorious revolution, whilst in the second case a mistake made by the German C.P. in the trade union question would unquestionably and certainly lead to disaster.
We have already stated that the German C.P., whilst doing its utmost to increase the chances of the first possibility, must at the same time so regulate its tactics as to be armed for the second possibility.
In the case of a speedy victory of the proletarian revolution we should naturally at once find a large number of new and rapidly effective measures securing us the allegiance of the trade unions. But should the maturing process of the revolution require a longer period, and were we at the same time to give the leaders of the ADGB. the possibility of crowding us out of the trade unions, then this would mean the end of the German C.P. The great art of the Bolsheviki, in the epoch between the two revolutions (from about 1907 till 1914) consisted of the fact that they were capable, besides conducting a relentless fight against opportunism and liquidation, of preventing by every means at their disposal, their separation from the mass organizations of the workers. They did not permit themselves to be carried away by “left” phrases. At that time there was no lack of voices, in the Bolshevik fraction, from impatient comrades demanding the cessation of work in the Menshevist trade unions, in the Duma, etc. Comrade Lenin fought determinedly and relentlessly against all untenable “left” tendencies. He declared that we must be prepared, in the interest of the proletarian revolution, to enter not only a reactionary parliament or a Menshevist trade union, but even a “pigstye” if necessary.
We can well understand the indignation of those workers who do not want to pay members’ subscriptions to the reformist trade unions out of their few hard-earned pence, for the workers are daily witnesses of the treachery of these unions, and have even to look on whilst the leaders fetch the Reich militia against fighting workers. We can well understand the revolutionary impatience of many hotspurs among the workers, the indignant clenching of fists against the leaders of the ADGB. But emotions alone are bad advisers in a position so difficult as your present one.
It is ridiculous to suppose that we could suddenly invent some new form of organization for the working class in place of the trade unions. Such a supposition is un-Marxian, and therefore un-Bolshevist. The trade unions were not invented by Grassman, or Wels, or Dissmann, or any of these people. It is nonsense to assert that we could easily find some “new type” of labour organization in Germany. This is mere empty imagination; when the wave of revolution rises again, the new type of workers’ organization will be the workers’ Soviet. But even then the trade unions will continue to exist; we shall only reorganize them and inspire them with a different spirit. The trade unions are the historically given form of mass organization for the duration of the whole epoch. Even if the German proletariat does not succeed in utilizing the trade unions in its fight for emancipation before the victory of the proletarian revolution, the unions will none the less play a very important role during the proletarian revolution, and an even more important one immediately after the victory of the proletarian revolution.
Recollect the experience gained during the Russian revolution and in the Russian trade union movement. Up to the October revolution the Mensheviki had the majority in the trade unions. And yet a very considerable section of the trade unions revolutionized by us helped us to seize power at the time of the October revolution. After the October revolution we won over the trade unions rapidly, and these rendered inestimable service to the proletarian dictatorship. Without the help of the trade unions, the proletarian dictatorship could not have been maintained even for a few weeks in Russia. This was repeatedly and rightly pointed out by comrade Lenin.
Your German Mensheviki are only a very little worse than the Russian Mensheviki, whilst the German communist proletarians of this we are confident will not prove to be worse communists than the Russian communists.
If you attempt the immediate formation of parallel trade unions aided by practically formless unemployed organizations, factory council representatives and other such organizations, you will only arrive at hopeless confusion. You will not create powerful proletarian organizations on such lines. The result would be more likely to be trade unions of the unemployed than trade unions of working comrades. The unemployed can and must be organized. Under favourable circumstances they can play a very important part in the preparation for proletarian revolution. Nevertheless, it is impossible to build up parallel trade unions of the unemployed.
After you had formed these parallel trade unions, the masses would demand of you, on the very next day, that you conduct successful economic struggles. Under the conditions obtaining at present in German industry, and with the counter-revolutionary German Social Democrats and the ADGB. attacking you from behind (and at least two thirds of the workers would remain members of this last), you would be entirely unable to carry any economic strike to a successful issue. And the leaders of Social Democracy have still another weapon at their disposal: they can declare our parallel trade unions to be illegal, and thus throw fresh obstacles in the way of the movement. But as soon as the masses see that our trade unions are unable to carry out successful economic strikes, they will be disappointed, and turn their backs on our parallel trade unions. Our forces would be frittered away, and as a result the traitorous leaders of the ADGB would only have their aims facilitated.
It is frequently maintained that the movement in favour of quitting the trade unions has assumed enormous proportions, that it cannot be dammed any longer, and that the trade unions are losing precisely the best and most revolutionary workers. This argument does not hold good. Were it a fact that but few workers are remaining in the Social Democratic trade unions, it would be all the easier for the firm kernel organized by the communists to capture the trade unions from within. But the real facts of the case are that these Social Democratic unions are not by any means so weak. At the present time they count double the number of members possessed by them before the war. To this must be added that the slightest improvement in Germany’s industrial circumstances, and it is quite possible that such temporary improvement may take place as a passing episode, will enable the old traditions to be revived and the Social Democratic trade unions reconsolidated.
The number of organized workers has diminished. This is true. This confronts us with fresh tasks. We must form organizations in the ranks of the unorganized. We must work amongst them. But it is unallowable to desert the trade unions, and to leave them in the hands of the Social Democrats.
There are many practical difficulties. Moscow cannot foresee all these beforehand. In this respect you will have to depend much upon your own exertions.
The resistance against the Social Democratic leaders must be organized from below in the trade unions. Every expulsion of a comrade must be responded to by a struggle, a resistance, if possible by a street demonstration, a mass declaration of solidarity from below etc.
We are told that the best revolutionary workers are leaving the trade unions. No, no, a thousand times no! Those who leave the trade unions against the instructions of their communist Party cannot in any case be regarded as the best and most revolutionary elements. We Bolsheviki were frequently told the same during the years from 1908 till 1914. And we invariably replied: those who leave the Menshevist trade unions in disobedience to the instructions of the Bolshevist party are not the best and most revolutionary elements, but the worst disciplined–at best emotional revolutionists. If our German C.P. is worth anything, it must above all prove its capability to carry out the directions issued by the Party with reference to the non-withdrawal from the reformist trade unions. Remember what Lenin bequeathed us in his magnificent book: “Leftism, An Infantile Disease of Communism”. Above all the chapter “Should Communists work in reactionary Trade Unions?” Remember the passion and implacability with which he even then combatted communists of the extreme “left”, who refused to work in the reformist trade unions. Had the II Congress of the C.I., in response to comrade Lenin’s insistent demands, not decisively and categorically forbidden the communists to withdraw from the reformist trade unions, we should not have had one single communist mass party in Europe today, and we should have had no influence on the existing mass organizations.
The leadership of the German C.P. is now passing into other hands, into the hands of the Left. This may prove of great service to the revolutionary movement in Germany, but only so long as the Left takes no steps paramount to a liquidation of the whole tactics of the C.I., that is, of the whole tactics of Leninian Bolshevism. Were your Party Conference to approve the so-called “new tactics” in the trade union movement, it would signify a renunciation of Bolshevism in one of the most fundamental questions. The C.I. would not in any case undertake the responsibility for such an alteration in tactics. Were you to come to such a decision, you would place yourselves in absolute opposition to the fundamental decisions of the C.I. The C.I. would then be obliged to combat your decision, as we are profoundly convinced that it would involve the greatest possible harm to the cause of proletarian revolution in Germany, and would bring about no less unhappy results internationally.
The C.I. recommends your Party Conference to confirm the resolution on the trade union question passed in Moscow in January of this year, drawn up by the representatives of the Left in collaboration with the E.C. of the C.I. We recommend you to oppose positively and emphatically, and supported by the full authority of the Party Conference, those comrades who are withdrawing from the reformist trade unions. We shall suggest to you a number of practical measures for the purpose of forming a united association of all expelled members, enabling these to fight together for their re-admission into the trade unions, and to cooperate in finding the best solution of the question of the restoration of unity in the trade unions. We further propose to you that you take the slogan: “Trade Union Unity” for one of your leading slogans in the coming Reichstag election, and during the whole of the impending fighting period. We propose that you declare, in the name of the Party Conference, that you are prepared to renounce the immediate convention of a congress of the trade union opposition, in order to deprive the leaders of the ADGB of even an external pretext for a split. We advise you to attach no fundamental significance to the question of the obligation entailed by membership of these trade unions, but to treat this question as we do the oath taken in the bourgeois parliaments, and to maintain this attitude openly before the working class. At the same time we are of the opinion that one of the chief tasks of the German C.P. lies in increased work in the factory councils and trade unions. It is time that we succeed in making the communist fractions in the trade unions something more than organizations existing merely on paper; it is time for our communist fractions to become something more than mere leader organizations. In so far as we are forced to it by the leaders of the German S.P., we must be capable of carrying on illegal communist work in the reformist trade unions.
Up to now nobody has adduced any serious argument proving that the resolution passed in Moscow at the end of January 1924 is now already no longer suitable of application. The C.I. has taken years to work out its tactics with reference to the trade unions, and it most certainly has no reason whatever for changing these tactics.
Moscow. 24. March 1924.
The Executive Committee of the Communist International. Chairman: Zinoviev.
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/1924/v04n28-may-08-1924-inprecor.pdf
PDF of issue 2: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1924/v04n29-may-15-1924-inprecor.pdf
