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46 THE WORKERS COUNCIL May 1, 1921 MAY 1, 1921 THE WORKERS COUNCIL 47 The Storm Center of the Comm. International By JOHN KIM 011 Much discussion has been aroused by the twenty to see to it that reliable party members are nominated one points put forth by Moscow as the necessary con and, if possible, elected to the responsible positions.
ditions for admission to the Third International. Such elections as a rule can be successful only when Subsequent events have fully proven from the the Communists take active part in these respective standpoint of the Third International the necessity for organizations so that the membership will appreciate these points.
their services and elect them. The influence of the further reason for the twenty one points is found Communists within these various organizations will in the breakdown of the Second International which be in proportion to their skill and devotion to the turned traitor to its own principles in a moment of cause of the working class as espoused by these organsupreme crisis. To preclude any repetition of such a izations. Obviously no dictation or compulsion by the shameful breakdown of the leadership of the work party will achieve that. However, the authority of ing class movement, it is necessary to enforce certain the Communist Party over its members working withtests upon those organizations which presume to lead in these various organizations must be upheld.
organized or unorganized masses of the workers in This point requires that the Communists give up their struggle for complete emancipation from capit their confidence in bourgeois laws and legal guaranalist exploitation.
ties and proceed at once with the creation of underThe world war with the economic misery and civil ground party apparatus which at the decisive moment war engendered by it in almost every capitalist country should in every way possible assist the revolution.
has created entirely new forms of the class struggle: The endless martial laws and other exceptional laws it has done away with the illusion of achieving any subprevalent in all capitalist states long since the war stantial and lasting betterment of the lot of the mass has actually ceased shows that the so called constiof the people through social reform. The war has tutional guaranties are a mere scrap of paper. Even swept away all so called parliamentary and legal the right to strike has been made unlawful in various guaranties of civil liberties as far as the exploited capitalist states where it is expressly recognized by masses are concerned. The war has further sharpened the constitution. Extra legal and illegal detective the capitalist rivalry and class conflicts within and agencies and various white guard societies had been without every capitalist state.
formed to make an onslaught on the leaders and even Let us examine briefly the conditions of admission the rank and file of the Communist movement, forcto the Communist International point by point.
ing it to create underground party machinery. This The first condition requires that the party press should not be understood, however, as a prohibition shall be a militant organ and should comply not only against the use of legal organizations and lawful means with the letter but with the spirit of the Third Inter to the limit. Quite to the contrary, Communists are national. The dictatorship of the proletariat should expected to use to the fullest extend all the constinot be reduced simply to a hackneyed formula, but tutional and legal possibilities offered by the capitalist it should be made plain in such a manner that its states.
necessity should become apparent to every man and It is perfectly natural to expect that the Communist woman of the communist movement.
Party will lead a more or less underground exThis point further stipulates that all party, pub istence in a country with a weak revolutionary movelications be subject to the control of the presidium ment. It may become open by sheer force of its weight.
of the party, irrespective of whether the party is legal It will break through the underground as it gathers or leads an underground life.
inomentum. Its great size and its influence with the Certainly there can be no objection to this require large masses of workers will prevent the ruling class ment, which is obvious to any political party. Unity from prosecuting it or from killing off its recognized of action can result only after unity of thought is acleaders.
complished. And unity of thought and conviction can This point insists on systematic propaganda and be achieved only through a control of the party press agitation in the military organizations of the capitalist by the responsible party organization.
states. This point requires that every organization de Non compliance with this requirement is considered siring to join the Communist International remove treason to the revolutionary cause and incompatible all reformists and compromisers from the responsible with affiliation with the Third International. In view posts in the labor movement (party organizations, of the fact that the bourgeois states have created editors, labor unions, parliamentary factions, cooper armed white guards of various denominations, such atives, municipalities, etc. and replace them by comas Knights of Columbus, American Legion, the Germunists, even though the latter be inexperienced.
man Orgesch (armed Junkers. the above requirement As pointed out by Comrade Geyer of the German seems fully justified. The capitalists believe in nothing Communist Party, this requirement is somewhat am but force and violence no matter how much they prate biguous. The Communist Party is powerless to re against the application of these means. It is the inmove or to replace officials elected by labor unions, tention of the Communist movement to rustrate all cooperatives or municipalities. All they can do is to attempts of the bourgeoisie to make force and violence instruct their members in those various organizations the only means for bringing about a change in the methods of production. Hence, the necessity for comThe Commune: munist agitation among the armed forces of the bourgeois state. It will be recalled in this connection that Half a Century of Struggle: England required the Soviet Government to abstain 1871. 1921 from agitation against the British government. However, there is no obligation on the British communists to abstain from agitation against their own oppressors. Had it not been for the Commune, the Republic This point requires systematic and regular pro would have fallen a prey to the big land owners.
paganda among the rural population in order to gain But in its dying struggle the Commune saved the the sympathies and support of at least part of the day for the Republic.
rural workers and of the poor farmers.
The struggle of the Commune split the First The necessity of this requirement is obvious. The International. The Commune called forth a new endless meanderings of the Non Partisan Leaguers epoch of proletarian struggle. Its example has in the United States show the absolute necessity of awakened and strengthened in the toiling masses clear cut communist propaganda. The crisis ex the determination to participate in the good things perienced by the agricultural population makes it of life and the attainments of civilization, to assert highly receptive to such propaganda.
the power of the masses and to make use of democ6. This paragraph demands the renunciation of so racy for the purpose of elevating the position of cial patriotism and of social pacifism, disbelief in the working class in society. There appeared the international arbitration and disarmament, also dis parliamentary period of the labor movement, esbelief in the so called League of Nations and full sentially different in its methods of fighting from realization of the necessity of the revolutionary overthe stress of the Jacobine uprising, of the throw of capitalism as the only way to save mankind Blanquism that inspired the French workers to the from new imperialist wars.
revolts of the thirties, the social republic of 1848, No comment seems necessary to this point.
and the establishment of the Commune. And there This point requires a complete and absolute ruptwas in all the world no body of labor that was so ure with reformism; likewise the expulsion of certain completely inspired by the spirit of the Commune, individuals from the various national parties.
tliat so joyfully avowed itself in accord with that spirit, and that suffered so much for its faith as the While it is clear that reformism should be done away with, it is not so easy to carry out the expulsion working class of Germany. Bismarck decision to strike a blow at the workers of Germany through of individuals. It is easily understood that the the Socialist Laws dates back to the moment when affiliated parties may demand also from Moscow that Bebel speaking in the Reichstag declared the revolt certain members be elected to the Executive Committee and that certain others should not. Obviously, of the Commune to be a preliminary skirmish of the International and shouted in the ears of the such a procedure against individuals leads to personalities which may prove detrimental to the cause of Junkers and the bourgeoisie the battle cry of the workers of France.
And communism. It seems to us that the Third InterBlanquism and Proudhonism receded to make way for scientific national should stand by its principles and be content with the enforcement of those principles by the afcommunism according to the teachings of Marx and filiated parties. It is much wiser to make the nonEngels, it was the German workers that set the compliance with certain principles the cause for example in the parliamentary struggle of labor and took the lead in the Second International.
chastisement of a national party rather than the nonexpulsion of a certain individual. We venture to say And now another epoch has passed. In the that the fulfilment of the previous requirements will World War the parliamentary period has been foreventually eliminate the offensive individuals. At any ever submerged. The reformistic activity of the rate this elimination should be left to the national leaders, which was its chief characteristic, was reparties themselves. Otherwise, the list of non desirplaced by the revolutionary action of the masses.
ables may become too long to be enforced.
Socialism, which hitherto had lived in the programs and the will of parties, which were striving to weld This point requires that the colonial and imthe masses into a single class but were finally perialist policies of the bourgeois states be denounced and the truly fraternal attitude towards the working ganize, to succumb to the parliamentary apparatus forced, despite their power to educate and to orpopulation of colonies and oppressed nationalities be which threatened to destroy this movement revoinstilled into the workers of the great capitalist states.
lutionary socialism became an international force.
This requirement is obvious. Its application should frustrate the so called mandates and land grabs of the But it is no longer the German workers who are leading this new epoch of the Third International, imperialistic League of Nations.
it is Russia courageous, victorious, self sacrificing This point demands a systematic and consistent men and women of the great, battle scarred prolecommunist propaganda among the labor unions, co tariat. They are still engaged in the raging operatives and other labor organizations, such as struggle imposed upon them by the forces of interworkmen councils, food supply committees, etc. The national capitalism, screaming for revenge. Russia communist units working among these organizations is still surrounded by these vultures, who cannot are to be subordinate to the Communist Party as a yet comprehend that their domination is forever whole.
at an end. But they will be forced to reconcile No comment necessary.
themselves to the idea that the dictatorship of the (To be continued)
proletariat as practised by the workers educated as