Resolution on Co-operation
(On the report of N. Meshteriskoff).
During the last years preceding the world war and especially during the war, the co-operative movement developed extensively in all countries, and drew into its ranks the vast masses of workers and peasants. The present capitalist offensive the world over compels the workers, and especially the women, to appreciate still more highly the aid rendered by Consumers' Co-operatives.
The old social compromisers have long understood the great value of the co-operative movement for the attainment of their aims. They entrenched themselves firmly in the co-operative organisations, whence they indefatigably directed their efforts towards poisoning the minds of the toiling masses, and created a duality of consciousness and of conduct, even among the revolutionary elements of the proletariat. In certain countries the social-democratic parties, through having the leadership of the co-operative movement in their hands, derived funds from the co-operatives for the support of their parties, while under the flag of political neutrality they actually carried on a policy of supporting the bourgeoisie and its imperialist aims.
Retaining in their hands the leadership of the co-operative movement, some of the old leaders are unable, and others unwilling, to understand the changes in social conditions that have taken place, and the new tasks of the co-operative movement, and the necessity for adopting new methods of work. Obstinately refusing to renounce their time-honoured. co-operative principles, they disorganise even the purely economic work and undermine the existence of the co-operatives and consequently destroy the co-operative movement.
Finally, they do nothing to prepare the co-operatives for the immensely important tasks which will devolve upon them after the capture of power by the proletariat.
The foregoing compels the Communists to direct the most serious efforts towards wresting the co-operatives from the hands of the social compromisers, and the conversion of the co-operatives from instruments of the bourgeoisie into the weapon of the revolutionary proletariat.
The Third Congress of the Comintern studied and approved the theses on the work of the Communists in the co-operatives. The experience of a year and a-half has shown that these theses were based on a proper estimation of facts. The Fourth Congress of the Comintern reaffirms these theses, and urges all the Communist Parties, groups and organisations to take an active part in the co-operative movement, and instructs the press of the Party to devote sufficient space for the discussion of the questions of co-operation.
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