(Continued from previous post.)
The communist factions and their relations with the Party committees
Evidently it was easier for the Bolsheviks than for the communist parties of the capitalist countries to establish normal relations between the communist factions and the party committees.
The party organizations actually carried out multifaceted work: they led the economic struggle, organized unions and cooperatives, constituted all kinds of workers' organizations that had the possibility of existing during the tsarist regime, from 1905 until the war. That is why the party organizations were a recognized authority in the eyes of the militants of all the organizations, the vast majority of whom were party members and sympathizers. This situation was completely natural and no one was opposed to this state of affairs.
After the seizure of power, some tendencies appeared to replace party organs in certain communist fractions of the soviets. But this was a short-lived phenomenon. Before and especially after the seizure of power, the relations in the Bolshevik party between its organizations and the communist fractions (or with individual communists) of the mass workers' organizations without a party were posed as follows: Party organizations decide important issues and communist fractions, as well as isolated militants without exception, ensure the realization of these decisions in non-party organizations. The communist fractions themselves are the ones that establish the methods for carrying out these decisions. In their daily activities they are completely independent. They can and must display the initiative for their work within non-party organizations and bodies. The communist fractions of the governing bodies of non-party organizations must not only report on their work to the conferences and congresses that elected them but also to the party committees.
Before and even immediately after the October Revolution, when the non-party mass organizations were still influenced by the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries, the Bolsheviks made each position conquered a basis for the conquest of the entire organization of the neighborhood, of the city. , the region or the entire country. The Bolsheviks who demonstrated how to work better than others, how to prepare matters better, how to direct, coordinate and organize the working masses better. That is why they managed to eliminate the Mensheviks, the revolutionary socialists and all the "socialist" and populist parties from all mass workers' organizations.
In the communist parties of capitalist countries the situation is different because they have still preserved social democratic traditions, frequently mixed with sectarian conceptions. Unions and other mass proletarian organizations, as we have indicated above, appeared in the main capitalist countries long before the social democratic parties were established and were consolidated within the working class as independent organizations, directors of their economic struggle.
That is why the members of the social democratic parties who were at the head of the mass proletarian organizations had a certain independence. The social democratic parties not only did not fight this independence, but they themselves propagated the theory of equivalence and equal rights between the trade union movement and the social democratic parties, proclaiming the neutrality of the unions. As we will indicate later, only the Bolshevik party was an exception.
A series of cases can be cited from the German social democratic movement that will allow us to verify that the decisions of the congresses of the trade union organizations differed from the decisions of the congresses of the Social Democratic Party. Even if it was nothing more than the question of the General Strike of 1905. And this happened despite the fact that the same social democrats who knew very well the party's point of view participated in the trade union congress. The same case occurred with the celebration of May 1. The social democratic parties of Central Europe before the war celebrated May 1 precisely on the day corresponding to the date; while the "free" social democratic unions sabotaged the May 1 party to prevent the union funds from having to compensate workers who were fired by the companies due to their participation in the workers' party. The unions proposed postponing the May 1 celebration until the first Sunday of that month.
These abnormal relations existing between the social democratic parties and the unions before the war [5] are intolerable in a Bolshevik party, since they do not allow the unity of leadership of the revolutionary labor movement to be realized in all its aspects. But the communist parties of the capitalist countries have inherited these relations from the social democratic parties.
The abnormal relations between the parties and the communist fractions of the unions and the proletarian mass organizations in general have two starting points: sometimes the party committees replace the mass organizations, dismissing the elected secretaries, appointing others; They openly publish in the press: “we propose to the red unions to proceed in this or that way”; That is, they do what not even the communist party of the USSR does. The decisions of the CC of the Communist Party of the USSR, or of the local party committees, are made internally through the communist factions of the party members who work in this or that non-party organization.
Another cause of these abnormal relations is the fact that some members of the communist party work on their own, without taking into consideration the directives of the party organs and without subordinating themselves to them. There are cases, such as in France, in which the party organs consider that they must do absolutely everything: replace the Red Aid, the unions, the cooperatives, the sports organizations and that they alone can carry out the functions of these organizations. . This is absolutely false. Even if the leadership of many communist parties were a hundred times better than they actually are, they would not be able to work for all these organizations.
On the other hand, this is completely superfluous because both the CC and the local party organizations must only draw the line, control its implementation, direct the communist fractions and the isolated members of the party and carry out their directives in the mass workers' organizations by through the communist factions or the isolated members of the party (if there is no faction), but without working for them or in their place.
It seems pointless to me to explain in more detail how these abnormal relations between the party, the unions and the mass organizations prevent the party from expanding its contact with the masses and prevent it from truly consolidating within it.
In countries where red unions exist, there are parallel union organizations of other trends in the same branches of production. However, the red unions rarely manage to conquer entire organizations or more or less considerable groups of members of the union organizations of the other trends.
The union opposition of the reformist unions quite frequently manages to obtain a majority in the local reformist union sections; However, the communist parties and the union oppositions do not make them a point of support for their work with a view to extending their influence over the other sections of the same union or the sections of other unions, entering with the sections conquered by the union opposition. on the local union council.
This can only be explained by the fact that the opposition union sections themselves frequently slide towards reformist positions. The same can be said of many factory red committees. This happens because they are not assured of direction and the essential help for their work.
The press
The press of the Bolshevik Party, both in the illegal period and today, makes its decisions as an interpreter of the party's opinion. She mobilizes, organizes and educates the working masses. The party press cannot be separated from the party committees.
Abroad, the social democratic parties elected the editors of the party's newspapers at their congresses. There were cases in which the CC could not do anything against the newspaper: the newspaper had one line and the CC another. That happened in Germany with the Vorwerts and the same in Italy with the Avanti .
The communist parties naturally abandoned these "excellent" traditions, but that "independent" press that the social democrats had before the war has left deep marks on the communist parties. Although it cannot be said that the editors are appointed by the Congresses or are independent of the CC or the committees of the communist party, the CC and the party committees constantly deal very little with the press. Many times the press works on one side and the CC and the party committees on the other. The line of the CC and the party committees often differs from the line of the newspapers, and it is not because the CC, the party committees or the editorial office want it that way.
The German Communist Party has 38 newspapers. If these 38 newspapers had fair and rational management, they could exert a much greater influence than they actually do on the working masses.
From 1912 to 1914 the Bolshevik Party owned only one legal newspaper, Pravda . And what feats Pravda was accomplishing in Russia then! What invaluable help that newspaper brought to local militants, despite the fact that Pravda could not say everything it wanted due to censorship! Pravda spoke about the most important and serious issues in popular language, understandable even to the least educated workers, and devoted much space to workers' chronicles from factories and workshops.
In the countries to which I have referred, newspapers are legal, they can say more or less everything necessary to express and carry out the party line. The newspapers, like the mass workers' organizations, are the channels through which the communist parties can and must exert their influence on the workers, through which they can and must win over the workers. But you have to know how to use and direct the party newspapers.
The daily and legal communist press of many countries is not distinguished by popular exposition, nor by the topicality of its topics, nor by the brevity of its articles. The newspapers are full of articles written in the language of theses, instead of making a brief and popular exposition of the main current tasks. The press is guilty of the fact that the active militants, all the members of the party and the revolutionary workers are not provided with arguments for the fight against the social democratic parties, the reformist unions, the fascist parties and others whom the workers still follow.
The party press must not only draw the fundamental line, provide concrete facts about the betrayals of the social democrats and reformists, about the demagoguery of the fascists, but it must indicate how these facts should be used. In
most communist newspapers there is no workers' chronicle from the factories. There is no space for these things in the party press.
Not all communist parties have recognized the important role played by the party press. The teaching staff of international schools must pay special attention to the press in their work with students. Many students, after having studied in the party's international schools, become editors of the party's press; but it is not evident that they have contributed anything new, nor that they have contributed to a renewal of the party press, nor that they have broken with social democratic traditions in this domain.
The agitation
Currently, the capitalist world is going through a deep industrial crisis, an agrarian crisis, it is suffering financial losses and there is also an imperialist war in the Far East, which threatens to spread to other countries. All this not only affects the workers and poor peasants, but also the petty bourgeoisie of the city (employees, officials, etc.).
At the present time it is easier for communist agitation to penetrate these masses than during the "flowering" of stabilization. Unfortunately the agitation of the communist parties is abstract. The same can be said of the agitation done through newspapers, manifestos, as well as oral agitation. If an emergency decree ( Notverordnung ) is promulgated in Germany, which deeply affects every worker, lowers wages or increases taxes, etc., instead of analyzing the decree minutely point by point so that the masses understand and It is demonstrated how much each worker will have to pay to the treasury, in what proportion salaries will be reduced... instead of doing that, it is preferred to simply write: We protest against the emergency decree! We demand that a strike be held against this decree!
How did the Bolsheviks agitate then and now? Did the Bolsheviks carry out agitation in this way? The strength of the Bolsheviks consisted precisely in the fact that they spoke out on every issue: on the reduction of salaries, even by a cent; about the inconveniences of latrines; over factory windows; about the lack of boiled water for tea; about fines; about the quality of the products in the factory pantry; etc The Bolsheviks debated these issues to the point of drawing political deductions from them.
See the strikes that took place in southern Russia in 1903. The Bolsheviks knew how to transform this movement of economic strikes, provoked by the agents of Zubatov, Sehaevich and company, into a colossal political movement throughout southern Russia. Many communist parties still do not know how to properly organize agitation work. The fellow leaders, editors, propagandists, among others, think that from the moment in which they understand and orient themselves in the face of events, it means that the same thing also happens to the workers. And this is how they approach social democratic workers. Instead of taking every act of betrayal, no matter how small; indicate the place and date on which the betrayal was consummated; summon witnesses; mention exactly the date on which social democratic and reformist leaders had conversations with ministers and manufacturers, betraying the interests of the working class; patiently explain all these facts to the social democratic and reformist workers; Instead of doing that our colleagues fill their mouths saying: social fascists and union bureaucrats. And that's it.
They think that from the moment the nickname "social fascists" and "union bureaucrats" have been called, all workers must understand the meaning given to these insulting nicknames and must believe that these leaders deserve them. This only serves to alienate from us the honest workers who are members of the social democratic parties and the reformist unions, since they do not consider themselves social fascists or union bureaucrats.
Shouldn't the problem of agitation occupy an important place in the teaching methods of the Party's international schools? See Lenin's articles in 1917 on this matter.
Take for example the accusation leveled against the Bolshevik Party of being in the pay of German imperialism. It would seem that against such an accusation, such an insinuation, it would be enough to simply reply: miserable scoundrels, we do not want to speak to you, we consider it useless to justify ourselves to you; Think what you want, we will continue on our way . Surely many communist parties would have acted this way, considering that our "dignity" would be diminished by refuting such dastardly accusations. On the other hand, what was Lenin's attitude? First of all, he began by saying who Alexinsky was and remembered all the base actions committed by Alexinsky in France and how in that country he had been expelled from a meeting for being a liar and a forger. Alexinsky returned to Russia. The Central Executive Committee (CEC) – made up of Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries – told him: we will not accept you until you have rehabilitated yourself. In July 1917 Alexinsky began a slander campaign in the press against the Bolsheviks, accusing them of working for the Germans and being paid by them. Lenin then painted Alexinsky in all the beauty of him. He actually painted him just as he was. And after making known the moral aspect of it and, consequently, having annihilated it, Lenin went on to examine the position of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries on that matter. The Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries knew that the Bolsheviks were accused of espionage and Zeretelli*** had telephoned all the newspapers so that they would not publish that vile forged document [6].. After that Lenin contributed a third fact. This slanderous document was known to the Provisional Government, which did not arrest any of the accused even though it had known about the document since June. So the Provisional Government did not believe in this slander against the Bolsheviks either. Lenin squeezed the matter well, explained all the facts in a very popular style and immediately moved on to the next question: who is at the head of the government? Kerensky? No. The Central Executive Committee? No. There is another power: that of the soldiery. It is the soldiery that has looted our printing press. Was this looting sanctioned by the provisional government? No. Did the Central Executive Committee decide it? No. Then there is another power, and that power is that of the military band. Do you know who is behind that military band? The constitutional democrats, the Cadets. And the next day in another article, quoting the words of the populist socialist Tchakovsky in the CEC, Lenin demonstrates that the constitutional democrats and the imperialists of the West make common cause, that the imperialists do not want to give money except to the constitutional democrats. Lenin started with Alexinsky and ended with power, due to his class character. He did not insult, he did not say that our dignity is lowered by denying infamous accusations, but he demonstrated that these were insinuations and falsehoods that were first circulated by a yellow newspaper and were later picked up and propagated by the provisional government and the entire bourgeois press, Menshevik, populist and revolutionary socialist. Thanks to such an understandable and popular agitation, the Bolsheviks were not only able to repel the attack of the Mensheviks, the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Constitutional Democrats in such a difficult period for the former, but they also carried out extensive agitation for three months against all the parties that existed then and mainly against the social democrats, the Mensheviks and the social revolutionaries, who still had influence over broad masses of workers, peasants and soldiers. To this end, the Bolsheviks knew how to take advantage of the behavior and deceptions of these parties in all the questions raised by life. On the eve of the October revolution millions of workers, peasants and soldiers were attracted to the movement. During the days of October the Bolsheviks already had the entire working class behind them, the majority of the soldiers and even the peasants were already marching behind the Bolshevik slogans about land and peace.
Do the communist parties of the capitalist countries agitate in this way? The social democrats have betrayed the working class so many times in all countries that the astonishment of the workers of the Soviet Union is perfectly understandable when they ask: what are foreign workers made of? The Social Democrats betray their interests daily, we see it from here, but the workers abroad still vote for the Social Democrats and are in their party.
This happens because many communist parties do not know how to agitate; not even in a situation as favorable for them as the current one, created by the global agrarian and industrial crisis.
A detailed, patient and persuasive criticism on the part of the communist parties is essential, especially because despite their multiple betrayals, social democratic leaders always find new ways for their demagogic maneuvers.
The German Social Democrats participated with all their forces in the application of the extraordinary decrees. They helped loot employed and unemployed workers. Now they present in the Reichstag a whole series of demagogic draft laws on reducing unemployment, on improving relief for the unemployed, on reducing rents, etc., but at the same time they vote against the communists in the Reichstag - the social democratic votes and the communists form the majority, after the departure of the national socialists – they make the Reichstag holidays enacted without indicating the date of its convocation, without discussing their own draft laws and, of course, without dealing with the fraction's proposals communist. In these circumstances, the task of the communist parties is to catch the social democratic charlatans in flagrante delicto and unmask with evidence in hand each of their maneuvers, each treacherous step they take.
The Bolshevik party, before and after the seizure of power, knew how to educate its members in this way and give such indications and directives that they all knew how to strike their blows in the same direction, wherever they worked, whatever work they did or wherever they were. And the local party organs often received directives only through the press.
The Bolshevik Party achieved all this thanks to the implementation of the methods and content of work we talked about earlier. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the majority of communist parties in capitalist countries. There are not rare cases in which party members strike their blows in completely different directions.
The events of the day, the tactics, the slogans, the theory of the "lesser evil" and the United Front
Before the October Revolution, the Mensheviks mocked the Bolsheviks because they regularly placed the question of the day's events on the agenda of their meetings. However, without an exact analysis of the situation and without determining the political moment, it is very difficult to establish tactics.
Developing a fair tactic for a given situation and knowing how to skillfully apply that tactic is a great art. Possessing this art means facilitating the struggle and contributing to the conquest of the masses. A no less important art consists of knowing how to choose and propose appropriately the slogans appropriate to the situation and needs of the moment. Nowadays, no one can deny that the Bolsheviks knew how to masterfully analyze the events in progress, develop fair tactics and launch precise and timely slogans that found echo and were taken up by the masses. Lenin mocked the Bolsheviks who relied on yesterday's tactics without understanding that it no longer corresponded to the next stage or to the new modified conditions*.
This ability to analyze "current events", the situation created, and thus be able to determine the correct tactics to follow is what is commonly lacking in the communist parties of capitalist countries. And this despite the fact that the Communist International, contrary to what happened under the Second International, frequently decides and sets the tasks of its sections.
If some communist parties interpreted the fall of a ministry as a "political crisis"; others, however, considered the provisional refusal of parliament to examine current issues as the establishment of the fascist dictatorship and therefore launched the fight against fascism as their main slogan, weakening the fight against social democracy. And when the error is corrected then the fight is carried out exclusively against social democracy and the fascists disappear from the horizon. The slogans tend to be incoherent, since sometimes some are launched related only to internal issues and other times anti-war slogans are launched, but without organic link with internal political issues. Unfortunately, such incoherent slogans are not only projected against issues of "high politics" but also in the economic struggle, where they are no less harmful. It is necessary to study with attention and thoroughness the particularities of the situation, observe the changes taking place and the trends of their development, study how the workers react to events, examine the preparations and work of the enemies - the social democrats, the fascists, among others – and the tactics they employ.
Only by carrying out this analysis, this study of current events, can the correct tactics be determined, specific and timely slogans can be launched, and the agitation can be given the indispensable content and the appropriate tone. Current issues must be discussed and clarified frequently and widely in the party press so that when analyzing the situation; refute the arguments and agitation of adversaries; as well as discovering their plans and schemes serves to arm, educate and prepare the members of the party for the fight. With that same objective, it is also necessary to raise and discuss current issues and the tasks of the party in the cells and assemblies of the organization.
These discussions will allow party members to assimilate both the tactics and the political line; orient yourself to current problems; provide arguments for controversy and agitation in companies, in unions, among unemployed workers, in the streets. Just as they will encourage the cells and local organizations of the party.
Social democratic parties and reformist unions have operated in recent years through the theory of the "lesser evil." The reformists advise the workers to accept the reduction in salaries by 8%, instead of the 12% that the bosses "demand", but not without
prior agreement between them and the reformists. Then they proclaim this “conquest” of 4% in favor of the workers as a victory. The social democrats support the most infamous laws, burden the workers with heavy contributions and lower salaries, pretexting that the government and the bourgeoisie intended to demand even higher costs from the workers. And they present this as a victory for the workers. They propose voting for Hindenburg – whom they attacked during the 1925 elections as reactionary and monarchist – presenting the issue in this way: Hindenburg is a “lesser evil” compared to Hitler.
The Russian Mensheviks also used the theory of the "lesser evil." During the elections to the Second State Duma, the Mensheviks invited people to vote for the party of constitutional democrats under the pretext that Russia was threatened by the danger of the black reaction. The Bolsheviks vigorously fought the position of the Mensheviks and convinced the revolutionary electors to vote for revolutionary candidates, demonstrating to them that the Mensheviks before, during and after the 1905 revolution supported the liberal bourgeoisie. Just as today the social democratic parties support their bourgeoisie on all issues. The Mensheviks were against the hegemony of the proletariat in the bourgeois-democratic revolution. Their cries about the danger of black reaction were nothing more than a maneuver to divert the working class from the right revolutionary path.
The communist parties have not managed to unmask the maneuvers that social democracy carries out through its theory of the "lesser evil" by applying the same methods that the Bolsheviks applied to unmask the Menshevik maneuver on the occasion of the reactionary threat of the Black Hundreds. And as long as this deception of social democracy is not clearly explained to the masses, it will be difficult to free the workers from its influence.
The working masses aspire to unity. Now, in various countries there are many cases in which the covert agents of the bourgeoisie use slogans about unity to better deceive the workers.
The social democratic parties also launch the slogan of unity. The renegade Trotsky comes to his aid by proposing the "bloc" of the communists with the social democrats. For that he cites the Bolsheviks and Lenin.
I have tried to demonstrate above how the Bolsheviks established the united front from below, in the factories and workshops.
There were cases in the history of Bolshevism when the tactics of the united front were applied from below and from above, simultaneously,
but only in the course of an effective struggle. This occurred in 1905. During the strikes, demonstrations, pogroms and uprisings in Moscow. Federation and relations committees were created in the course of common action. Common manifestos were published. The united front that emerged from below in the practical struggle of the masses forced the Menshevik leaders to join the struggle led by the Bolsheviks.
What was the situation during the Kornilov days in 1917? The renegade Trotsky wants to deceive the communists on this question. At the end of August 1917, Kerensky – not without the consent of the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Mensheviks – invited Kornilov to appear with reliable troops to dominate Bolshevik Petrograd. Kornilov responded to the call, but before reaching Petersburg he demanded that all power be handed over to him. The workers and soldiers who still followed the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries understood that Kornilov, upon taking power, would surely hang not only the Bolsheviks but also them. Under pressure from the masses, the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries were forced to join the struggle led by the Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries had to give weapons to the workers of Petrograd to carry out this struggle. That was a "block" in the course of the struggle and only in the course of the struggle against Kornilov. But even during the fight against Kornilov the Bolsheviks did not cease their campaign against the Mensheviks, the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Provisional Government; who, due to their betrayal of the interests of the workers, soldiers and peasants, led the country to the Kornilov uprising and hesitated between supporting Kornilov or fighting against him.
Can this situation be compared with the situation in Germany? How can one deduce from the events that accompanied the Kornilov putsch the need to form a "bloc" with German social democracy for the fight against fascism, when social democracy does nothing but help the fascists and the bourgeoisie? The Social Democratic Police Minister of Prussia dissolved the Red Front association because it was fighting against the fascists, however at the same time it tolerated and protected the fascist barracks from the assault squads. The social democratic police always take the side of the fascists to massacre the workers every time they answer the fascists.
The communists will not be fooled by the fact that Hindenburg has "dissolved" the fascist assault squads on the eve of the Prussian elections. If the assault squads were formally disbanded, this was done without destroying their organization and without
doing them any harm. The purpose of this "dissolution" was to give the social democrats the possibility of deceiving the voters and winning them over to their side thanks to the apparent fight against fascism.
In the application of the united front tactic many mistakes have been and are being made in almost all communist parties, however it must be added that there are also examples of a fair application of the united front: the miners' struggle led by the party communist and red unions in North Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. We must avoid mistakes and succeed at all costs in establishing with justice and energy a Bolshevik united front of struggle from below in the factories.
Legal and illegal work. The use of legal possibilities
The Bolshevik party, being entirely illegal in tsarist Russia, also knew how to make extensive use of legal possibilities.
Starting in 1905, legal weeklies, magazines or more solid collections appeared incessantly – even in the years of the darkest reaction – in the various regions of the immense territory of Russia. Not to mention Pravda , the daily organ of the Bolshevik party, which played such an enormous role in the unification of the Bolshevik party, in the fight against tsarism and the bourgeoisie, in the fight against the Mensheviks, the liquidationists, the Trotskyists and conciliators , etc.
Parallel to the legal press, the party's illegal newspapers and manifestos also appeared.
The illegal Bolshevik party used all the legal congresses of the different societies: doctors, cooperators, teachers, etc., to intervene and push through the demands inspired by the Bolshevik program. The party works in all legal workers' societies: in unions, in cooperatives, in recreational societies, in educational societies and in other similar organizations. The Bolshevik party even used the legal workers' organizations created by the police – those of Zubatov and Gapon during the events of 1905 – in order to remove the workers from the influence of police officers and police ambushes, which They were fully achieved thanks to the unmasking of the machinations of the police in the very assemblies of these organizations.
The successes achieved by the actions of the Bolsheviks can be realized by observing that the police priest Gapon was forced, in order not to unmask himself as a police agent and under pressure from
the working masses, to include in his program the most important demands. of the minimum program of the Bolshevik party.
It must be recognized that not only the illegal communist parties did not know how to use legal possibilities; But, even more strangely, the legal communist parties also failed to successfully apply illegal work methods, despite the fact that they have many more resources than the illegal communist parties.
When the legal communist press is temporarily banned or when the authorities prohibit writing about the extraordinary decrees directed against the working class – decrees that currently fall as if they came from a cornucopia – or about the murders of participants in the demonstrations, among others issues, the legal communist parties fail to widely disseminate in the factories and workshops the illegal newspapers and manifestos in which the issues that cannot be written about in the permitted newspapers are raised.
The same is noted regarding the prohibition of public assemblies and demonstrations. Holding assemblies and rallies under another banner or denomination are possible and indispensable things; suddenly call demonstrations in working-class neighborhoods, after thorough preparation and despite prohibitions.
The authorities and police ban newspapers at various periods; They prohibit the calling of workers' assemblies and demonstrations at the most critical moments for them. For this reason, the communist parties are keenly interested in the workers not only knowing what the public powers want to silence, but also expressing their protest against the government measures under the leadership of the communist party.
Only in this way will the communist parties be able to conquer and lead the masses. With the absence of business cells, it will become much more difficult to work and maintain links with them when legal communist parties are forced to become illegal.
1. Current tasks.
1.1 Communist and union work in companies
On what point should attention be concentrated in the party schools? At all costs, about work in companies. Without work in companies it is impossible to win over the majority of the working class and therefore it is impossible to successfully fight for the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is the essential.
But work in companies acquires an extraordinary meaning in relation to the approaching imperialist war, which means first of all the destruction of the legal revolutionary labor movement, the communist organizations and the legal red unions.
Under these conditions, work in companies becomes more important than ever, it is almost the only means, the only possibility of linking with the masses of workers in the factories and workshops, of influencing them and directing their actions. Furthermore, during the war almost all companies will switch to the production of war elements to supply the imperialist armies of their countries or others and more than ever the fight against war will have to be carried out in companies.
Working in companies is difficult. Now during the strike all the revolutionary workers are fired. The task is to penetrate the workplaces at all costs and by all means, under a different banner if necessary, but we must penetrate the companies to carry out communist work there.
The agitation must be popular, as the Bolsheviks did before the war and in the period from February to October 1917. The parties of the main capitalist countries are momentarily legal, they have their press, they can call meetings. The agitation must acquire another character, developing at work, at the exit from work, at tram stops and subway stations, everywhere where workers and employees work and where they gather. We must form cadres of militants who speak clearly and briefly, give them information, instruct them and send them to the streets, factories and workshops to carry out the agitation. Is this possible? Completely. It is necessary that the students understand and know how to organize this work themselves when they return to militancy in their respective parties.
1.2 Strikes
How to prepare for strikes? How to direct them and how to raise demands? These are not so easy questions. In the majority of communist parties, red unions and union oppositions these are questions that very rarely find a happy solution. Until recently, many communist parties raised only the demands of the maximum program and neglected the immediate demands.
Currently they reason in the following way: we are going to raise only the immediate demands, without linking them with politics and with the maximum program, because when we launched the political demands the workers did not pay attention to us, they did not follow us and the work was going badly. We know from experience that the Bolsheviks always linked politics with the economy and vice versa. I know of cases, which refer to the year 1905, in which the Bolsheviks unleashed a political strike by launching slogans of an economic nature and vice versa.
Preparing well for strikes is a difficult task. Both in the organization and carrying out of the strikes and in the objectives pursued by the social democrats and reformists on the one hand, and the Bolsheviks on the other, there was a great difference. The Bolsheviks gathered data on the situation of the workers in the factories and workshops, and separately carried out propaganda work for the workers in order to explain their situation. After having completed the preparatory work (examination of all the details of the strike by the cell together with the most active revolutionaries without a party), it was declared, the demands were launched and the strike committee was elected, which brought together the workers and raised before them the questions related to it. In those cases in which the strike committee and the most active revolutionaries were arrested, another committee was created in the same way. There were no collective bargaining contracts. If strikes arose unexpectedly, due to the worsening of working conditions, due to accidents or due to lack of protective devices to protect oneself from the danger of the machines, etc., then the Bolsheviks of the factory or workshop put themselves at the head of the strike. movement, formulating demands, among other things. In this way, strikes were prepared from below in the companies and even in cases where the strikes spread from one factory to another, or from one city to another, they did not occur spontaneously either. The party, city, district and cell organizations discussed methods of expanding the movement. By declaring strikes, the Bolsheviks pursued two objectives: firstly, to improve the material and cultural situation of the workers through them and, secondly, a broader objective, that of attracting large masses of workers to the struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The social democrats and reformists, since the unions were created, dedicated themselves to centralizing strikes in such a way that the members of the factory and workshop unions could not go on strike without the authorization of their union organization. And if they started the strike without that authorization and the
union leadership (its president) did not sanction it, the strike was declared "wild" and no material aid was provided; But in the case of sanctioning the strike, it was the union commission that assumed its leadership and the strikers had nothing to do, except perhaps to send strike pickets to the workplaces if that was necessary. As the reformist unions became stronger, they began to sign long-term collective bargaining contracts with the employers' societies, and strikes arose rarely during the time the contracts were in force. Strikes, sometimes very important, broke out when collective contracts were due to be renewed. Then those who directed the strikes were the Central Committees of the respective union organizations. The strikers were at best used to form the pickets.
The reformist unions, when leading the economic struggle (before the war they carried out strikes), are guided solely by the idea of improving the material and cultural situation of the working class without worrying about the fight against the entire bourgeois system.
The communist parties, when leading the union opposition and the red unions – which almost always exist parallel to the reformist unions and do not gather broad masses – in most cases do not apply the Bolshevik methods of preparing strikes in companies. , but the social democratic and reformist methods; who limit themselves to preparation from their offices without frequently knowing the mood of the workers. That is why until now the workers regularly do not respond to the strike calls of the red unions and the union opposition, or it happens that precisely the workers of those factories and workshops that had not been counted on at all go on strike.
In the party's International schools, students must also learn how to prepare, carry out and lead strikes.
1.3 The fight against the reformists and social democratic parties
It is necessary to unmask social democracy and the reformists. Make known what they say and what they do. This must be done every day, in every article in the party press, in manifestos, in verbal agitation.
It is necessary to monitor the social democratic and reformist press; and we must respond immediately to their agitation, to their manifestos. We must react in a popular and intelligent way. Every article, every speech by social democrats and reformists can provide material to
communist propagandists and agitators for their interventions against them. Only in this way can we unmask social democracy; In any other way it is unlikely to be achieved. When unmasking the social democrats and reformists, one should not ignore the other parties and organizations that have or seek to obtain influence over the working class (Catholics, fascists, among others).
Social democratic parties apply various methods in different countries to carry out their main role of social support for the bourgeoisie.
In England, until the last election, the Labor party openly played that role while in power. Then, upon realizing that the working masses were leaving disillusioned with his politics, since he saw that a danger threatened him from that side, he sacrificed his leaders and joined the "opposition."
In France, after the war the socialist party did not participate in the government. Sometimes, before the elections, they even vote in parliament against this or that law, knowing that the government will still obtain the majority. In fact, the social democratic party of France is a faithful servant and supporter of French warlike imperialism.
Not to mention German social democracy. She is virtuous in the art of deceiving the masses and is the most skillful party in the Second International when it comes to maneuvering.
The communist parties must, as the Bolsheviks did in Russia, foresee the maneuvers of social democracy and denounce them to the masses. They are unmasked when the social democrats have already managed to carry out their maneuvers and deceive the workers. The communist parties, the red unions, all the revolutionary mass organizations must tirelessly unmask the social democrats and the reformists because without removing the workers from their influence the communist parties will not be able to conquer the majority of the working class, without which they cannot It is possible to successfully fight against the bourgeoisie.
The communist parties must carry out an energetic and constant fight against the fascists, who take advantage of the betrayals of social democracy and the reformists, as well as the errors and weaknesses of the communist parties, to extend their influence among the petty bourgeoisie and penetrate through their slogans. demagogic, sometimes even with communist slogans, among the unemployed workers.
1.4 About unemployment
We are in the presence of colossal unemployment. In fact, no one outside the communist parties really cares about the unemployed. And when workers without jobs could really be organized, and it was easy to do so based on the defense of their daily interests, the communist parties did not know how to use that situation. Very few communists work in the companies since most of them are expelled from the companies. It is difficult to carry out action in companies. But why is work not organized among the unemployed, in the labor exchanges, in the night shelters, in the lines where they wait to receive a piece of bread and soup?
Among the unemployed there are a huge number of party members and members of revolutionary unions. Is it difficult to organize work among the unemployed through them?
In Czechoslovakia and Poland, the organizations of the unemployed managed to mobilize significant masses and exert pressure on the municipalities, which is why they managed to get the unemployed subsidized.
In North America the unemployed do not receive any subsidies, neither from the State nor from companies. The unemployed are forced to resort to philanthropic help. They are evicted en masse from their homes. During the years 1930-1931 in New York alone, 352,469 families were evicted.
This is a great field of action for revolutionary and communist organizations, however they use these conditions to a minimal degree. Now it creates a closed organization of the unemployed, now it is reduced only to the organization of demonstrations, forgetting that it is necessary to create soup kitchens for the unemployed, that it is necessary to organize a movement capable of preventing the eviction of the unemployed from their homes and demanding until they achieve subsidies for the unemployed, etc.
The causes of the backwardness of the communist parties and the revolutionary unions in the face of the revolutionary worker and peasant movement
In my report I have tried to demonstrate the difference between the tactics, organization, methods, content of work and
final objectives of the Bolsheviks with respect to the social democrats; as well as the causes that motivated this difference.
We, who work in the Executive Committee of the Communist International (EC of the CI) have had the opportunity to hear opinions stating that the old Bolshevik experience, especially its method of work in factories, is not suitable for the communist parties. of the capitalist countries. The practice of recent years has refuted that view. Where Bolshevik work methods were applied, where there was flexibility in tactics and work in companies, the results were excellent.
In Poland, don't the mass worker and peasant movement, the intensification of the struggle, the leading role of the Polish Communist Party in that struggle and in that movement demonstrate the advantages of Bolshevik methods over social democratic methods? That is because the revolutionary proletariat of Poland, the old Social Democratic Party – the current Communist Party – despite its errors has fought alongside the Bolshevik party of Russia. They adopted Bolshevik methods of work, therefore they did not separate from the Polish proletariat despite the enormous fascist terror.
The communist parties, the red unions and the union opposition of the capitalist countries that have not yet freed themselves from social democratic traditions, have not adopted, do not apply or poorly apply Bolshevik work methods and their forms of organization; They do not give the work a Bolshevik content and that is why they delay the revolutionary events with respect to the revolutionary labor movement and cannot crystallize their growing political influence through the organization. For example, 4 to 5 million votes are obtained, but it is not possible to organize resistance to the bosses' offensive against salaries.
This delay is inevitable until the communist parties, the red unions and the trade union opposition do not free themselves from social democratic traditions and replace them in all domains of their political work and daily practice, assimilating the true Bolshevik experience.
The preparation of cadres and teaching methods in party schools
Under current conditions the question of cadres acquires enormous importance for the communist parties, for the red unions and for the union opposition. One of the figures of no small importance in forging revolutionary cadres are the international schools of the Party.
The question of the education provided is therefore of current importance, because the need for theoretically prepared cadres who know how to coordinate theoretical preparation with practical work experience is extremely great in the sections of the Communist International (CI). This need not only has not decreased in recent years, but on the contrary has increased; because the influx of sufficiently qualified cadres has been very small. Those cadres that the communist parties of the capitalist countries need can be provided by the party's international schools.
Some of them have been around for quite some time; but until now the CI has not yet obtained from them the cadres that communist action needs. Better said, when after finishing the courses the students of the Party's international schools return to their respective countries, they know, and possibly well, the main works of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and in some countries those students, upon returning, are even placed in the head of the party. However, the communist parties to date have not obtained from the international schools of the party comrades capable of applying the notions of Marxism and Leninism in practice in accordance with local conditions and of organizing and directing mass work, which It is precisely more indispensable for the communist parties at the present time. Until today, these did not receive the militants who could really help them reorganize the parties, the red unions and the union opposition on the basis of work in the companies.
What are the causes? Here it is: students study the construction of the party in the Soviet Union, that is, the forms of organization that cannot be fully applied in their countries until after the proletariat has taken power. Furthermore, the party construction of the Soviet Union is studied by them only superficially. They do not study with due attention what they should above all study, namely: the methods of work among the masses; their mobilization methods; the differentiated way in which the tactic is applied to reach the different layers of workers; mass agitation and its forms of organization; the relationship between communist fractions (especially in mass organizations without a party at the base) and the cells and committees of the corresponding party; the work of non-party grassroots organizations and the role of communist fractions in them; the direction and control of the party cells and committees over the work of the communist factions; the work of the party cells and works committees in factories and workshops, etc. They do not study or assimilate that experience that is related to the period before the conquest of power by the working class; that is, the Bolshevik experience in the era of tsarism and Kerensky, the latter from February to October 1917.
And yet that experience is what our sister parties need most.
It is precisely in this experience where one finds moments analogous to the situation of the communist parties of capitalist countries at the present time; but there are also moments that differ in specific points. This is why I have devoted part of my report to the difference between the situation of the Bolshevik party under tsarism, on the one hand, and the situation of the communist parties in the capitalist countries, on the other.
The fact that the communist parties do not receive the students they need at the end of the party's international schools shows that education is evidently not related to the particularities of each party, to the particularities of its development, its traditions and traditions.
The task of the international schools of the party is to help students to assimilate and understand the Bolshevik experience, both in what concerns the organization of the party, as well as in all the work of the party; in a way that allows them to apply that experience in the conditions of their own country. These conditions are not the same in all countries: if you take the conditions of Germany you will see that they differ from the French conditions and even more from the conditions of England and no less from the conditions of the USA. Each country has its labor movement. , its history, its traditions, its party structure and its labor organizations. When teaching by groups of countries you have to take that into consideration.
It is necessary to note that the necessary and concrete materials about each country – which correspond to its situation, which characterize its conditions – will be received by the teachers from the same students who take part in the practical work of their respective communist parties.
The international schools of the party must help the communist parties and the revolutionary trade union movements to forge true Bolshevik cadres.
–.–.–.–.–.–.–
1 Lenin, “The revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasants”, in Complete Works , Volume VI, Russian edition. The citations in number correspond to The Communist International and/or Osip Piatnitsky.
2 Otsovistas : those who are in line, followers.
3 In some countries it was the result of splits; In others, such as Czechoslovakia and France, the majority of the Social Democratic Party decided to join the Communist International and the minority had to organize itself into its own Social Democratic Party.
4 After 1905, the Black Hundreds gangs were formed, led by tsarism, who penetrated the ranks of the railway workers, mainly among the employees. However, they had no influence among the workers and employees of the factories.
5 After the war between the social democratic parties and their unions, unanimity and absolute concord reign in the work of betrayal of the interests of the working class of each country (O. Piatnitsky).
6 In the popular [populist] newspaper Givoie Slovo, number 51, May 18, 1917, Petrograd, a statement by Alexinsky and Pankratov was published in which, on the basis of the depositions of the sub-officer Ermolenko during the state interrogation Major and the counterespionage service on May 28, 1927, accused the Bolsheviks of having received money from the German General Staff to carry out anti-war agitation.
7 As an example, we can remember the proposal of Kamenev and Bogdanov to boycott the elections to the third State Duma, just as the first one was boycotted on behalf of the Bolsheviks (O. Piatnitsky).
* This article was originally published in two parts by The Communist International , central organ of the Third International or Communist International, in its numbers 3 and 4, corresponding to June and July 1932. All notes with an asterisk correspond to El Comunista Magazine .
** In French in the original. Bureau, in Spanish. The term is presented in the text under the meaning of the leading body of a political organization.
*** Refers to Irakli Tsereteli (1881-1959).
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