Saturday, December 7, 1929 THE MILITANT Page The Communist Defeat in Czecho Slovakia 1925 The final results of the election in Czecho Elovakia are as follows: 1929 League of Czech Fascist 71, 947 German Nat Soc. 204, 588 168, 354 Czech Nat Democrats 359, 825 321. 006 Czech Agrarians 1, 094, 955 1, 005, 938 Czech People (Clericala) 623, 560 690, 832 Czech Industrial Party 291, 002 287, 269 German Nat Party 188, 875 240. 910 German Agrarians 395, 764 569, 696 All German Party 6, 669 Hlinka (Slov. Clericals) 423, 498 487, 773 Juriga Party Polish Jews 104, 467 115, 288 Hungarian Small Farmers 6, 893 Czech Soc. Democrats 963, 191 631, 263 Czech Socialists 767, 441 706, 504 German Soc. Democrats 506, 116 411, 682 German Christian Soc. 348, 096 314, 438 Hungarian Christian Soc. 257, 413 99, 148 Communist Party 752, 560 941. 698 5, 406 By Lenorovics anything but frank Bolshevik speech. It is contended that the votes in 1923 were given Czech Clericals, the Hlinka party (Slovakian for a Left social democracy, whereas the Autonomists and Clericals. present vote is meant for a revolutionary The Fascists Gain political line. It is true that the Communist Party has social democratic features, but As a new group, the Czech fascists the vote in 1925 was not only received by came to the fore. The disillusioned nation this Lett social democracy but through the al and religious voters were captured by effects of the heroic Russian Revolution in reformist or fascist demogogy.
Czecho Slovakia. The present vote is also The class situation, according to proa limited remnant of these effects, ducton relationships, is such that, as against a few hundred thousand capitalists, Stalinist Mass Party many more than three million proletarians, And the author of this article resumes: almost a million small employees, about The elections showed that we are a mass 800, 000 village poor and poor farmers create a sphere of influence for the proParty in the best sense of the word. We letarian party. It is these data that throw Communists always believed that the ability a proper light on the election figure of the to action is the characteristic of a Bol really mass Communist Party. Matters shevik mass party in the best sense of the are far, far worse of course with the word, and here all at once the 752, 000 votes Party ability to act. Yes, one cannot for a are supposed to show that we are a mass moment speak seriously of ability to act.
party in the best sense of the word.
In spite of the favorable prerequisites Absolutely, the vote of the Party sank 20 for the growth of Communism, the Com percent. The Bolshevik frank article demunist Party has lost 20 percent on the clares only 14. percent. On the order of average. Considering the favorable objective the day, according to the same article, 18 prerequisites for vote increases, ths twenty the winning of the majority of the working percent decrease is a very serious defeat. class. Just imagine: on one hand the alIn the German sectons there are some most four million workers, on the other, slight gains to register, but in the various 752, 560 parliamentary votes and the ideoprovinces we have the following results: logically disrupted Party incapable of acThe decline in Bohemia, 16 percent; Maetion. gren and Schleswig, 17 percent; Slovakia, But then the well informed author of 23 percent; Russian Carpathia, 47 percent the article says: The growth of the social The various industrial centers give the democracy and the simultaneous growth of following losses: Vicinity of Prague, 20 Communist influence is an international percent; Pilsen district, 15 percent; Brunn phenomeneon and to a certain extent necesdistrict, 25 percent; Mahrisch Ostrau, sary: Radicalization does not proceed in a percent; Tuernau district, 13 percent. straight line. still worse picture is shown in the Since when is the growth of Oommunism decisive industrial cities of these districts: an international phenomenon. Hasn t.
Prague, loss of 23 percent; Kladno, 37 pereven read the reports of the Tenth Plenum?
cent; Pilsen, 37 percent; Mahrisch Ostrau, Since when is the growth of the social de35 percent, Pressburg, 31 percent; Kaschau, mocracy necessary to a certain extent in 35 percent. Everywhere the gains were the epoch of imperialism, of revolutions and made mainly by the socialists; in Prague wars? Yes, and why doesn a leader of the and Pilsen the fascists also, at the cost say what the reasons are for the of the Party.
international growth of the social demoII cracy? and its continued growth? Not to In the central organ of the Party, Rude speak of the fact tha this growth was never to Pravo of October 30, one of the authoritative openly acknowledged, but so speak Party leaders, under the pseudonym t, smuggled into the minds of the Party. Why?
takes up the election results. He promises in order to stupify the Party so that it Bolshevik frankness (it is funny to hear does not ask about the reasons, about the the word Bolshevik frankness from the defeats, about the false course of the Cominmouth of these people who pass over tern on an international scale that was ana six year crisis of the Comintern in proved at the Sixth Congress.
silence) and says straight out what is now Investigating the reasons for the defeat, seen by every child, that the Communist the article says: Up to last year. the Party suffered a defeat. But what follows is Czecho Slovakian section of the I, was Total 7, 372, 266 6, 991, 799 The main tendencies are clear. Decrease of a part of the bourgeois parties, decrease of the Communist Party, increase in the reformist camps and the fascists. The social democracy as the leading section of the reformists grew at the expense of the Communists (chiefly among proletarian and petty bourgeois sections. The other reformist parties grew at the expense of the bourgeois parties. The gains of the fascists took place at the expense of the bourgeois camps and partly of the Communist Party.
With this, of course, only the most basic regroupings in the political camps of Czecho Slovakia are expressed. But even out of that, the breaking off of the petty bourgeois sections from the regular bourgeois parties, in two directions is clear: To the reformists and to the fascists. In addition, we have the movement of the proletarians in the same two directions, but with the difference that these proletarian forces must largely be entered a loss for the Communist Party.
The Shift in Class Relations The social explanation of the regroupings consists in the shifting of class relations. Under the pressure of finance capital, substantial sections of the petty bourgeoisie are proletarianized and the proletariat is set into motion. The masses set into motion become victims of reformist and fascist demagogy, these twin understrappers of the modern sharpened dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. The normal bourgeois parties no longes avail the bourgeoisie, and in Czecho Slovakia now it utilizes reformist demagogy. It can all the sooner do this because the Communist movement has no power of attraction for the masses. In spite of the appreciable losses of the bourgeois parties and the new increase in the electorate, the Communist Party has a loss of 189, 138 votes to its account.
Parliamentary combinations naturally do not indicate very much. From all indications the parties to form the nucleus of the next government will be the Agrarian and Social Democratic, a socalled Red Green coalition. Participation in the government will naturally bring the reformist camp to a difficult situation. Should the reformist wing decline because of an eventual strengthening of the Comunist Party, the bourgeosie is taking care of preparing the fascist wing. Since the existence of the CzechoSlovakian Republic, the eleventh government is about to be formed, a sign of socalled stabilization in the imperialist epoch. The rule of the bourgeoisie is no light matter after the war, yet it surmounts the difficulties thanks to the incapability of the Communist leadership. The Czech social democracy was almost runs in 1925; today it has a gain of 50 percent to register. At the same time the other reformist parties grew. brief summary: 1929 1925 Czech So. Democracy 963, 191 631, 263 Czech Socialists 767, 441 706, 504 German Soc. Domocrary 506, 116 411, 682 The owth of the Hun; arlar partie Christain Socialist, National, etc. In Slovakia shows how incapable the Communist Party is of leading the national minorities.
The dissatisfied national minorities passed under bourgeois reformist leadership. The German minorities, in their disillusionment, went over partly to the fascists (Swastikas)
and partly to the reformists.
The Czech Agrarians who advanced into Slovakia register a substantial gain (89, 017) and are the strongest party in general. They have behind them, almost lompactly, the Czech and many Slovakian peasants, including the village poor. The following parties also suffered losses: German Nationalists, German Agrarians, a Left social democracy with a thin veneer of Communist phrases. The cancer of opportunism gnawed its apparatus through to the bone. The Party was. completely rotted and that revealed itself by the growth of class antagonisms in the third period of the post war development of capitalism.
Good, but where was the leadership of the all this time? Why did it allow the poor to be gnawed to the bone by opportunism and rot away? Why did it approve its political line at the Fourth Congress (1927. for example? Doesn the author of the article know that he is actually exhibiting the in a wretched light? Didn Gottwald, Gutmann and others hold responsible positions in the Jilek Central Committee? Where were they then. The Party Masses Are to Blame Who then is to blame? The Party leadership answers: The Party organization, because it is not at the head of the radicalized masses. The leadership of the Party, it is true, places itself at the head, but by jumping over the lower Party apparatus which consists in part of sabotagers, traitors and do nothings.
That is how leaders of the Party speak of the worker functionaries. They acclaim themselves and call the worker functionaries traitors and sabotagers.
Now the meaning of the socalled selfcriticism becomes understandable. This new invention is now to be tested in the Wthout infringing upon the leadership, to start out on the basis of selfcriticism against the Party apparatus.
Where the Fault Lies Nevertheless, it would be wrong to ascribe all the blame to the Gottwald Fried leadership. The present leadership has heavy opportunist heritage. The final reason for the catastrophic defeats is the false, opportunist course in the I, that has lasted for six years. Back in 1926 the elections were only success in appearance, a standstill in reality. The present defeat in the election is the sharp verdict on the policy of Gottwald, Fried, Jilek, Smeral and the leadership of the The Communist International and the Parties proceed from a false estimation of forces, therefore the false policy, false slogans, mistakes, failures, crises. The main Parties are willing to acknowledge the great reasons are that neither the nor the defeats and weakening of the Why? So as to conceal the fact that these defeats were incurred by the opportunist course of the leadership of the that the foundations of the proletarian revolution in Europe and China were not extneded. Thence the growth of reformism, the strengthening of the bourgeoisie, the opportunism in the the driving away of the Left Opposition (Trotsky and his comrades. Stalin and Bucharin bear the main blame, Smeral and Jilek are accessories in the offense. Gottwald and Fried are also accomplices because at the Congresses they silently approve this policy of defeats of the This bureaucratic transgression is bearing its fruit in the present policy of the The cause of the workers needs clarity.
An end must be made to the tragi comedy of the Centrists. It is time to uncover the reasons for the decline of Communism, to acknowledge the defeats on an international scale, to evaluate forces correctly, to install a real proletarian leadership. The first prerequisite is the recall of comrade Trotsky to Soviet Russia, and in the Communist International, the readmission of all the Left Communists into the Party. National and international congress must take place with the participation of the Left Opposition, which will give the Parties ideological clarity and Marxist direction.
Prague, November 1929. Comrades who have extra copies of old numbers of the Daily Worker or the International Press Correspondence are urgently requested to send them to the office of the Militant. Our files were complete at one time until they were taken by the second story men of the central Committee.
We are in great need of these old numbers for reference purposes and any responses wll be appreciated. CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU YOUR FELLOW WORKER HRISTMAS doesn mean very much to the worker under capitalism except a date on the calendar. holiday now and then does not make up for the year round of exploitation and misesty. But you can ake this Christmas the occasion for enlightening some workers on the way out of the anarchy of capitalism. Send your comrade or friend a one year subscription to The Militant. Give it to him as a Christmas gift. And if you are not a subscriber yourself, give yourself a Christmas present too! The sub is 00 a yearfifty two issues of The Militant. FI out the handy blank: The Militant 25 Third Avenue, New York, NY.
Name Address City State am enclosing 00 to cover the subscription.
CHICAGO!
CABARET DANCE at Stiska Hall 4021 Drake Ave. 3535 West)
SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 11, 1929 Excellent Music Refreshments Admission: Men 50c Ladies 35 Wa Open Auspices: Communist League of America Chicago branch