Strategy of the Communists/Letter from the Executive of the Communist International to the Communist Party of Mexico

by by the Communist International

Letter from the Executive of the Communist International to
the Communist Party of Mexico

Moscow, Aug. 21, 1923

Comrades:

We received your communication with reference to the Second National Congress of your Party, and the verbal report of your delegates to the Session of the Communist Youth International.

The resolutions adopted at your Congress indicate that the process of securing ideological clarity within the Party is progressing favorably. But we deem it our duty to go.into some detail with reference to certain concrete problems on which we do not find that a clear attitude has been adopted on your part.

The Question of Parliamentarism

The break with the policy of anti-parliamentarism, and the decision to participate in the elections, is a decisive step forward, not only for the development of your Party, but for the development of the whole Mexican labor movement. But this very fact makes it necessary that the Communist Party should examine and prepare with the greatest care, everything that it undertakes in connection with this question. The parliamentary struggle must not tax the strength of the Party to such an extent that the work of organization and education among the wide masses suffers, or that the activity of the fractions within the trade unions is hampered. The daily struggle of the workers against the employing class, and the struggle of the peasants against the landlords, must be the basis of our revolutionary activity from first to last, and must be the point on which the organization and guidance of the revolutionary class struggle must focus. We want to remind you of the decisions of the Second Congress of the Communist International on the question of parliamentarism, and we expect you strictly to adhere to them. It is important, above all, that you make concrete plans for parliamentary activity. Discussion on the attitude to be taken by your future representatives in the Chamber of Deputies and on local government bodies on the various questions on the agenda of the next session, or on the proposals the party will make, must be opened immediately in your meetings and in your Party press, and must be conducted from an exclusively revolutionary point of view. The parliamentary struggle of the communists is not one of reforms, but a struggle against the bourgeois system of society, a struggle to unmask bourgeois democracy, the entire spirit of which is to deceive the workers and peasants. The communists do not intend to "capture the Chamber of Deputies;" bourgeois parliaments do not allow themselves to be captured. The aim of the working class, on the contrary, is to smash parliament and to substitute proletarian organs of power (Factory Councils, Councils of Peasants and Soldiers, etc.).

But it would make the struggle of the bourgeoisie against the communists much easier if the latter did not send class enemies of the bourgeoisie to the parliamentary institutions. Of course, the Communist Party must not content itself with a purely opposition policy. The representatives in the district organizations especially, must do everything possible to help the poor sections of the population. They must make practical proposals for the protection of workers, housing, free education, etc. They must show that the bourgeois government sabotages every earnest attempt at fundamental change, and refuses to carry it through; they must "develop the keenest revolutionary propaganda on this basis without fearing to come in conflict with the State power." (Thesis of the Third Congress).

The Party must not undervalue the dangers of opportunism that confronts its representatives in the chamber of Deputies. These dangers are extraordinarily great, owing to the existing anarcho-idealistic mentality of your Party comrades and because of your inexperience in parliamentary struggles. Your representatives may be unconsciously dragged in the wake of the so-called socialist parties, labor parties, or agrarian parties. This danger will be especially great if the Party is already participating in the elections for provincial governments. Of course, the results of elections indicate our strength and influence over the masses, but we must on no account sacrifice our communist principles and the revolutionary class struggle in order to obtain a victory at the polls. Therefore, the choice of comrades who are to represent the Party in the national or provincial parliaments must be made very carefully. Before a comrade can be considered as a candidate, he must have behind him at least a year of activity within the Party itself or within a revolutionary trade union organization, and, in his attitude in general and his participation in the struggles of the labor movement in particular, he must have demonstrated his loyalty and discipline toward the proletarian revolution. The members of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies draw extraordinarily large salaries; the communist representatives must relinquish a considerable part of their pay to the Central Committee of the Party, even to the extent of retaining for themselves only as much as a good worker can earn. A comrade who cannot agree to this decision unhesitatingly must not even be considered as a candidate of a revolutionary labor party. The entire parliamentary activity must be under the guidance of the Party, which must have unlimited right of control over the representatives. Against comrades who either consciously or unconsciously sabotage the decisions and instructions of the Party, or whose general demeanor shows that they dare not venture to raise the demands of the Communists in the face of the bourgeois or socialist parties, the Party Executive must immediately take energetic proceedings, and, if necessary, must expel them from the Party. It will be easily understood that the parliamentary struggle in the rural districts will not assume the same form as in the industrial cities. Among the peasants the struggle must center above all on the control of the "Municipios" and the "Comites Ejectuvos Particulares." Besides the decisions of the national agrarian programme of the Party, you must work out detailed instructions for the activity of the sections depending upon the local conditions prevailing in the various regions concerned. One of your most important problems concerns your activities with reference to the agrarian question, and your influence among the wide masses of peasants who live in, poverty and misery. In a country where 75% of the population consists of poor peasants, the working class can carry through a proletarian revolution successfully only by allying itself with these peasants and recognizing their interests as its own class interests. At this very moment the peasants are being threatened by the Government. Obregon, with the tacit support of all the left bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties, is trying to deprive the peasants of their arms. The slogan of the Government: "Our national forces guarantee land to the peasants," is nothing but the beginnings of petty-bourgeois democratic betrayal. To counteract this, the communists must proclaim that "The only guarantee the peasants have for the security of their land is the weapons they hold in their own hands." Therefore, fight against bourgeois militarism and demand that the peasants be armed and that communal peasant corps be formed.

In the cities the Party will fight for seats in the Ayuntamientos, for representatives in the "Juntas de Cociliacion у Arbitraje," and for the control of the Labor Department by organized workers. On the question of the regulation of Article 123, the Party must work out concrete proposals. This is a question on which you must force the laborites to follow suit. You must call upon Morones and Company to advocate our revolutionary proposals on the subject of labor legislation. Under no circumstances must the Party resort to compromise in this matter. We repeat that the entrance of your Party into the arena of the parliamentary struggle signifies a triumph of revolutionary class policy over the anarcho-petty-bourgeois ideology and tactics of the syndicalists; but bound up with this victory is the danger to which all the so-called revolutionary parties of Mexico have hitherto succumbed, i. e. of "reforming" a party, which is struggling for the class interests of the poor peasants, into a Party of "superior" proletarians and petty-bourgeois intellectuals, seeking for careers; a Party pursuing a policy of continual compromise with bourgeois democracy at the expense of the workers and peasants. The Communist Party must therefore exercise continual self-criticisms of the work and tactics of every worker in the Party. But, at the same time, every comrade, as soon as the Party has decided on a definite tactic and has resorted to action, must observe the strictest discipline, and as long as the need for action lasts, must renounce adverse criticism. A Party can fight only when it is united. The Communist Party will gain decisive political importance when it is able, within the frame-work of the nation, to work out a united class policy of the workers and peasants, and to organize a united struggle for the realization of this policy. The Party must be conscious of the historic role of the working class, which consists in supplanting the bourgeois social system by that of the proletariat, i. e., a communist system. The proletariat forms the overwhelming majority of the population and only when the Communist Party understands how to fight and pursue a policy on behalf of the daily needs and the class interests of this majority, will it become the leading party of the proletariat and of the proletarian revolution.

The Coming Presidential Election

Mexico is approaching another presidential election. The whole political life of the next few months will be centered about this question. The results of the election will clearly show us the proportionate strength of the individual sections of the bourgeoisie in Mexico today. But it would be a mistake to infer that the Communist Party can confine itself to a policy of "watchful waiting." On the contrary, the Party must assume an unequivocal stand so that the simplest worker and peasant will see what the Communist Party is and what it is fighting for. Hence a detailed knowledge of the present situation and its possibile developments is necessary. The election campaign has just begun and it is difficult to prophesy what are the intentions of the opposing groups. So far we are in possession of only two concrete facts: first that the "Sindycato de Agricultores," a body consisting of landowners, has constituted itself a political party; and second, that General Villa has been murdered. Beyond this, we have at our disposal some Mexican and American newspaper material, and the verbal report of your delegates on the general political situation. In spite of the sparseness of the data, we want to say a few words to you about the situation as we judge it.

The murder of General Villa is the prelude to Obregon's policy in the coming election. We do not think you can be in doubt as to what the tendencies of the present Government are. As the representatives of the young, national bourgeoisie, it is striving to effect a favorable compromise with the large estate holders and with foreign industrial and commercial capital. The hubbub over the creation of an independent national economic life is due to the mixed feelings caused by the immediate wish to develop a national capitalist system and the consciousness that capitalism in Mexico can develop only with the active participation of foreign, and especially of North American capital. The worst of it is that the United States is able at any time to cross the wide northern frontier of Mexico and defend her invested capital by means of close and long range artillery and poison gas. National industry in Mexico can develop only on the foundation of the development of agricultural conditions. But these are still very primitive. As a rule, the peasants are working with the same implements they used at the time of feudalism, and the land-owners, on account of the cheapness of labor power, have no interest in introducing agricultural technique. For the same reason, the Mexican large estate owners put out their money at interest, but do not in any way support the development of national industry. The unrest which has been prevailing in the country for years is forcing foreign capital to exercise the greatest caution; besides, the financial strength of Europe is so enfeebled, that nothing of any importance can be expected from this quarter. This does not at all mean that the Mexican bourgeoisie is abandoning the idea of the creation of an independent national industry. But under the present economic conditions of the world, it cannot undertake a struggle against the United States with any hope of success; it dare not even venture openly to exploit the conflicting oil interests of England and America against the latter, for it fears intervention. Several comrades in the Central American and South American Parties have adopted the standpoint that it makes no difference to the working class whether it is exploited by domestic, native capitalism, or by the capitalism of the United States. No, it is not a matter of indifference for the working class.. The penetration and entrenchment of North American capitalism in the countries of Central America and South America means the consolidation of the entire capitalist system throughout the American continent. It is a favorite argument of the reformists of all economically backward countries, that such countries must go through the whole epoch of capitalism before they are ripe for the proletarian revolution. But these gentlemen (in the United States they are Gompers & Co.; in Mexico, Morones; in Argentine, Palacios, and such like) know very well that this is untrue; they are merely concerned with using the argument as a cloak for their treachery. The Russian Revolution has demonstrated that proletarian revolution is possible in a predominantly peasant country, but where there is a class-conscious, even if relatively small, industrial working class. By their very geographical and economic positions, Mexico and the countries of Central and South America have long ago come within the spheres of interest of international capitalism. In Mexico and in Argentine there exists today a strong and class-conscious revolutionary working and peasant class. There can be no doubt, therefore, that proletarian revolutions are possible in these countries, before capitalism "develops naturally into socialism." Besides, in the face of the massacres of workers in the United States, in Mexico, in Brazil, in Cuba, and in the countries of Central America, it would probably never occur to any class-conscious proletarian to believe that capitalism would be so good as to "develop naturally into socialism."

The working class throughout the American countries must struggle primarily against the capitalistic imperialism of the United States. The workers and peasants from Canada down to Argentine must proclaim the slogan of the united front of all the exploited masses of America against Wall Street, the heart and brain of the continental band of exploiters. From this point of view, the resistance of the individual national bourgeoisies to the domination of the United States is an essential part of the struggle against American capital in general.

In Mexico the efforts of the United States are directed toward industrializing those mineral fields of the north and those oil fields on the coast which its military forces can easily dominate. The American dollar has never entered Mexico in a "neutral" or "purely economic" way. The domination of American capitalism demands and engenders political changes. The present political situation in Mexico, from the point of view of the American industrial magnates is "too radical;" to overthrow the Government is too easy; the national ideology is too "bolshevistic;" the labor movement is too "extreme." It is of course untrue that the Obregon Government is actually "radical" or even "bolshevistic;" that Morones, the "dear friend" of Samuel Gompers, is the representative of a really extreme labor movement. Even the Hearst papers, which are always retailing stories of Mexican bolshevism, do not believe this. Obregon, like every "decent government" has often enough proved that he can crush striking workers and revolutionary peasants, and split the revolutionary trade unions by means of spies and provocateurs. He is also a past master at playing the socialist and by means of this art has won a revolutionary prestige not only among the backward Mexicans, but also among the American workers. Nevertheless, for the intervention policy of the American oil magnates, he is a substantial hindrance. Obregon exploits the possibilities of radicalism and the atmosphere of sham socialism in the fight for his share of the booty gained by the common exploitation of the Mexican workers and peasants. He either flirts with the proletariat or has their revolutionary leaders shot down in the streets, according as the state of negotiations demand. The real reason why the American Government is fighting Article 27 and 123 of the Mexican Constitution, is because these articles form a strong moral weapon in the hands of the Mexican Government.

Today the whole problem for the American capitalists and for the Mexican bourgeoisie who are willing to compromise, lies in moulding the so-called radical movement in Mexico into a form acceptable to both sides. The chief representatives of Mexican radicalism are those elements of the trade union and peasant bureaucracy, who helped General Obregon to conclude his revolution against Carranza successfully. Their most important representative is General Calles. Consequently, he is the "natural" successor to Obregon, and the latter must officially approve of him, as the candidate if he is not to appear a traitor "to the cause of the revolution." Various useful functionaries of the labor party and of the C. R. O. M. will march into power with Calles. The policy of such a government can only be a policy of social-reformist compromise. It will not be able to satisfy the economic demands of a national economy developing itself on the basis of capitalist production, nor fulfill the promises made to the workers and peasants. Obregon shrewdly leaves this to his successor, together with the solution of a series of the most delicate problems, such as the issue of paper money; the restoration of lands "unlawfully" expropriated during the revolution; the denationalization and return of the railways to the British companies; the payment of interest and amortization of foreign debts and the regulation of Articles 27 and 123 of the Constitution. But it is absolutely impossible for a social-reformist government to solve these problems within the limits required by capitalist social order, or in a manner even remotely "satisfying all sections of the population." For the Calles Government there exist but two possibilities: either to betray the workers and peasants shamefully (i.e. to put the State apparatus fully at the disposal of the capitalists, to restrict and sabotage all the gains of organized labor, ruthlessly to apply the pressure of taxation on the, peasants and the petty-bourgeoisie, to maintain an expensive military apparatus, and to achieve all this by placing their own men in the appropriate administative posts), or, by trying to satisfy everyone, to end in complete bankruptcy. Both paths lead to results advantageously to the bourgeoisie, namely, the compromise of the so-called socialist government in the eyes of the masses. That will be the moment when reaction will reassert itself, and when the United States will be able to make good its threats of intervention. But at that moment, Obregon and his friend, De La Huerta, will appear as friends in need in order to "save the fatherland from its condition of permanent revolution and to lead it on the path to national prosperity." With the slogan "security for trade and industry," the Constitution of 1917 will be annulled.

Another trend of development, which will lead to the same results, is the following: The large estate owners, together with the dissatisfied army officers, and the rich adherents of the catholic church, supported financially by American oil capital, are preparing for a reactionary coup d'etat in the election. As soon as the movement has developed into a real danger, Obregon will intervene with all the forces at his command in order "to save the country from further years of civil war," and, by means of a provisional election, he will either have De La Huerta elected, or himself re-elected.

The possibilities of a reactionary victory are small; in the event of a counter-revolution, Obregon will have the support and sympathies of the majority of the population behind him.

In the face of these conditions, what are the tasks of the Communist Party, and what attitude must it adopt in the coming presidential election?

The first task of the Party must be to state clearly and plainly what the situation is and how it will develop. Secondly, it must be clearly realized that it is not a matter of indifference for the revolutionary labor movement whether Calles or De La Huerta betray the working classes, even though both will end in the same results. The whole situation is not a comedy, as it might appear, but a real fight. It is an attempt on the part of petty-bourgeois democracy to keep its head above water, and it can do that only by possessing political power. The interests of the working class are also involved in this struggle, for the only allies on which the petty-bourgeoisie can rely, are the working class and the peasantry. Calles must therefore make concessions to these classes. It is already apparent that the overwhelming majority of the workers and peasants will support the candidature of Calles. If the whole working class participates m this struggle, the Communist Party must not stand aside and look on; it must fight with the others, for Calles today means protection for the masses from reaction and clerical domination. But it is the duty of the communists to combat the illusions of the masses as to the ability of the Calles Government actually to give this protection. Throughout the period of Obregon's regime, Calles silently participated in the attacks of the Government on the working class. Calles will behave on a national scale just as Felipe Carrillo behaved on a local scale in Yucatan. He will suppress the trade unions opposed to him and persecute the communists; he will not hesitate to shoot them down if necessary. In spite of this, the Communist Party must participate in the elections on behalf of Calles. Certainly not as enthusiastic followers of the coming government. This tactic is merely a necessary halting place on the road to the Workers' and Peasants' Government, on the road to the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The result developing from the Calles Government will open the eyes of the Mexican proletariat to the impotency of reformism, to the powerlessness and corruptibility of opportunistic and petty-bourgeois anarchist phraseology. The Mexican workers and peasants will recognize that there exist but two kinds of politics; the one that leads to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the one that leads to the domination of the proletariat, and which is represented by the slogan: All power to the workers and peasants. Many honest workers will say to the communists: If you are already prophesying the treachery of Calles, then your participation in the fight is nothing but a manoeuvre to compromise Calles. But such a statement of the question is incorrect and undialectical. That Calles will compromise himself does not depend on us, but on his opportunistic policy of compromise with the bourgeoisie. But we, on the contrary, point to the only path by which bankruptcy can be avoided, that is, the path to the realization of the proletarian revolution. But will Calles follow this path? We have sufficient reasons not only to doubt this but to answer in the negative. Calles, Morones, Felipe Carrillo, Soto у Gema, etc. are the Kerenskis, the Eberts, the Noskes, and the Scheidemanns of Mexico. They will wed themselves to Gompers and his whole treacherous clique. But in our propaganda we must as far as possible force the socialists and agrarians to the left. We must demand a declaration today from Calles on the disarming of the peasants which Obregon instigated; we must demand protection for striking workers; punishment for the officials guilty of the murder of workers in Vera Cruz and San-Angel; a ruthless struggle against the fascists; the regulation of Articles 27 and 123; measures against the housing crisis; the division of large estates without recompense to the landlords, etc.

The Communist Party and the Tactics of the United Front

We will not discuss in detail the question of the united front. The debates held during the Third and Fourth World Congresses and during the meeting of the Enlarged Executive of the Comintern which was held recently, are familiar to you. The important thing is to put the question of the united front concretely with reference to conditions in Mexico. The Communist Party must link up the struggle for the united front with all the political and economic questions which affect the interests of the toiling masses. The first task is to popularize the idea of the united front within the organized masses. In the greatest mass movement which the Party has organized thus far, the "Movimiento del Inquilinato," it did not understand how to mould this movement into a mighty driving force for the unfolding of the struggle for the united front. The communists must realize clearly what it means to apply practically "the formation of the united front." It does not mean an amalgamation with the reformists and syndicalists into some rose-colored black-capped united organization. Nor, as some comrades believe, does it mean "temporary compromises," or "a sly artifice" on the part of the Communist Party to unmask the reformists. It is true that the communists, in their fight for the united front, want to unmask the reformists and will unmask them. That is no "sly artifice" on the part of the Communist Party, but a revolutionary fight of the advance guard of the working class against the bureaucratic leaders of the trade unions and parties who barter away to the bourgeoise the interests of the workers and peasants whose confidence they still possess. The tactics of the united front is the revolutionary fight of the Communist Party to win the wide organized and unorganized working and peasant masses for a common struggle for common demands. The Communist Party there openly turns towards the leaders of the reformist, syndicalist, and so-called independent trade union their participation in a joint Committee of Action. The same thing applies to the laborites and the Agrarian Party. The object of the Committee of Action is organized centralization of the fight for definite demands. The Committee of Action does not bind any of the participating parties or trade unions to its political agitation and propaganda or to its activity in general. Above all, the right of criticism of every Party will be fully preserved. In our manifesto, which we, jointly with the Red Trade Union International, sent to your Party, we pointed out the significance of the Committee of Action. We are, of course, not overlooking any of the difficulties in your present situation. The leading group of Morones, C. R. O. M. and the Laborites, is on the same level with Gompers—future ministers and heads of departments of bourgeois governments; people who made no protest when the mounted police and Obregon's soldiers shot down the striking tenants in Vera Cruz, Mexico, Guadalajar, Gordoba and Orizaba, and imprisoned them for months; people who persecute the communists and oppress the revolutionary railwaymen in Yucatan; trade union bureaucrats who putt off the demands of the workers with liberal phrases; party cliques in whose midst the spies and provocateurs of the American Government and of the Pan-American Federation of Labor hold confidential posts; representatives of peasant communes who call themselves socialists, but who support the policy of a petty-bourgeois government for disarming the peasants. It is apparent that such "representatives" will never voluntarily sit at the same table with the communists; but it is equally apparent that behind these leaders are great organized masses, important worker and peasant trade unions, exercising political and economic power. But the time when these masses allowed themselves to be steadily deceived by their leaders is passing. The workers and peasants of Mexico are awakening. The last ten years of revolution were rich experience for the Mexican proletariat. Under the stress of circumstances, the workers will either force the leaders to the left, or they will, over the heads of the leaders, find the way to a united front. The same applies to the C. G. T. Created by the will and enthusiasm of the revolutionary section of the Mexican working class, today it lies defeated, the result of the tactics of Quinteros and of the agents of the Government. But hundreds of the best and most loyal workers are still in the C. G. T., ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the proletarian revolution. The Communist International has never undervalued the strength and the revolutionary will of the anarchists and syndicalists, who are honestly fighting for the freedom of the working class. The fight of the Communist International is directed only against those anarchistic elements who, in their blind hatred of the communist movement and of Soviet Russia, slander communism and sabotage the common struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie. The communists have always been and always are ready to fight side by side with all revolutionary workers. But they will never look on in silence while the organizations of the working class are being crushed. Our tactics toward the sham anarchists of the type of Quinteros are the same as our tactics toward the sham socialists of the type of Morones. The Party must say to the honest elements among the anarchists and syndicalists: We demand nothing from you but a joint struggle with us for the demands and interests of the whole working class. We are opposed to the anarchistic tactics, because we are firmly convinced, and because the history of all class-struggles and especially of the Russian Revolution has demonstrated, that the oppressed workers and peasants can overthrow the mastery of the bourgeoisie only as a consciously organized class. But organization requires comprehension, centralization, leadership, discipline, and the possibility of manoeuvering swiftly with the striking strength of the proletariat. The federalism of the anarchists and of the anarcho-syndicalists is opposed to all these demands of the organized class struggle and, wittingly or unwittingly, makes it easier for the class enemies of the proletariat to oppress the working masses.

The liquidation of the social-reformist leader cliques and of the petty-bourgeois, anarcho-syndicalistic ideology, is the purpose of the fight for the united front. This fight is the political forge of the Communist Party; in it the interests of the proletariat, of the poor peasants and of the exploited petty-bourgeois are welded into a united class interests of all exploited masses; and here the weapons are forged for the struggle against the capitalistic social system and for the conquest of political and economic power by the workers and peasants. Closely connected with the question of the united front is the slogan of the Workers' and Peasants' Government. This slogan must take root in the profound and often unconscious conviction of the wide masses that only by the closest union of the industrial working class with the working peasantry can the exploitation and oppression by the large estate owners and by the industrial magnates be brought to an end. The Communist Party knows that only the dictatorship of the proletariat can finally shatter the power of the capitalist social order. But the Workers' and Peasants' Government may be the final halting place on the road to the proletarian dictatorship. The Communist Party must therefore formulate the question of the Workers' and Peasants' Government in a concrete form. The Workers' and Peasants' Government is a coalition of workers, peasants and exploited employees and members of the petty-bourgeoisie, against the parties of reaction and of the big bourgeoisie. The Workers' and Peasants; Government is the declaration of war of the masses to the capitalist social system. The Communist Party must make the halting place of the Workers' and Peasants' Government a period of preparation and organization for the proletarian dictatorship. The Workers' and Peasants' Government means civil war. But only the proletarian dictatorship can guarantee the victory of the workers and peasants.

The Communist Party of Mexico and the
Oppressed Countries of Central America

In conclusion, we want to say a few words about the significance of the nationalist and revolutionary struggle for freedom in the Central American countries. The capitalist development of North America and the backward economic and social development of the countries of Latin America, determine the political attitude of the United States towards the countries of the South. The drying up of the purchasing power of Europe is forcing American products into the South American markets. In the American capitalist press one notices a stronger imperialist tendency towards the South than ever before. What has been done in the West Indies and in Central America, can be tried in Mexico and South America as well. In Cuba, Haiti, San Domingo; m Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama, the American "system," the most ruthless exploitation of the proletariat, reigns supreme. Revolutionary workers are persecuted and thrown into prison. Such organizations as oppose Gompers are disrupted, betrayed and violently crushed by the agents of the local and American governments. The peasants, who are held under conditions of Medieval slavery, are stripped to the bone and controlled by cudgel and whip. The workers' press is suppressed, the frontiers are controlled, the censorship is severe, for the world must not discover how American capitalism is murdering the Negroes and Indians of those countries. The America which advocated Wilson's Fourteen Points has been violating for years the national freedom of the West Indian and Central American Republic. The most primitive rights of existence of these people are being trampled underfoot. The United States hopes "in time" to parcel out Mexico into single "independent" territories. It is already openly advocating the annexation of fruitful Lower California to the United States as a territory. In Yucatan and in the State of Chiapas, the Americans are fanning the flames of the separatist movements. But times are changing. Even in these backward areas, the proletariat is awakening, is organizing, and is beginning to understand its class condition. In Cuba the revolutionary trade union movement is again raising its head after the defeat it suffered in 1921 at the hands of reaction. In Guatemala a Communist Party of Central America has been founded; in Mexico the revolutionary labor movement has such strong roots that neither the claws of American capital nor of any other capital can tear it to pieces. But the conception is still lacking of the fight for freedom for all the oppressed masses in the West Indies, in Central America and in South America, against the imperialism of the oil magnates and industrial barons of Wall Street. The workers and peasants of Mexico and Central America especially must stand close together. The aim of the common struggle must be to create a League of Central American Workers' and Peasants' Republics. It is the duty of the Communist Party of Mexico to announce this slogan with all revolutionary fervor to the oppressed masses of Central America. The Mexican Party must treat exhaustively the question which we have roughly sketched here. In conjunction with the Communist Party of Central America and the communist group in Cuba, a programme of work and action must be prepared. But the communists must be conscious of the fact that this is not only a most difficult and dangerous matter, but one of grave responsibility. The American capitalists will not look on in silence. They will mobilize all their bourgeois hangmen, their hirelings, spies and agents, to stifle your voices. The best of you will be thrown into prison or murdered treacherously. But your fight is the fight of the dawn against the night; it is the fight of the near future, which belongs to the proletariat.

In the most important industrial countries of Europe, the working class is being confronted with a decisive struggle. The European revolution may at any moment develop into a reality. The American bourgeoisie will not sit quietly by while the mastery of capitalism in Europe is smashed by the fist of the working class. Hundreds of transports will cross the Atlantic Ocean, loaded with the cannon fodder of counter-revolution, with thousands of tons of munition and weapons, with barrels of plague and cholera bombs; in order to put an end to the world revolution. The United States will swing the lash of starvation over the countries where the European revolution is victorious. But the European revolution shall triumph.

We expect the workers of all American countries to contribute to this victory. We expect you to fight against the efforts of the counter-revolution to recruit the white and colored fascisti and unemployed of America; to fight against the attempt to set the machinery in motion for the defeat of the European revolution; we expect you to control the railways and ships in order to prevent them from coming to the assistance of European reaction.

Agitation on these lines must be organized by you immediately. The workers of America must be prepared when the workers of Europe rush into battle.

The Russian Revolution is the heroic prelude to the World Revolution. The victory of the working class in the most important countries of Europe assures the victory of the proletariat in all countries. But the destruction of the last stronghold of capitalist imperialism, the overthrow of the North American bourgeoisie, is the task of the workers and peasants of all the American countries. The Communist International, the World Party of the revolutionary proletariat, is convinced that the workers and peasants of Mexico will fight shoulder to shoulder with the international working class until the victory of the world revolution is achieved.

 

For the Executive of the Communist International.