Theses Presented to the Second World Congress of the Communist International/Chapter 8
Conditions for Joining the Communist International.
Theses of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International.
The First Constituent Congress of the Communist International did not draw up precise conditions for the joining of the Third International by separate parties. At the moment of the convocation of the First Congress, in the majority of countries there existed only Communist directions and groups.
The Second World Congress of the Communist International is assembling under different conditions. At the present moment in most countries there are not only Communist tendencies and directions, but Communist Parties and organizations.
The Communist International is more and more frequently receiving applications from parties and groups but a short time ago belonging to the Second International, now desirous of joining the Third International, but not yet really Communists.
The Second International parties and the groups of the "centre", seeing the complete hopelessness of the Second International, are trying to lean upon the ever-strengthening Communist International, hoping at the same time however to preserve a certain „autonomy“ which would enable them to carry on their former opportunist or "centrist" policy.
The Communist International is beginning to be the fashion.
The desire of certain leading groups of the „centre“ to join the Third International now is an indirect confirmation of the fact that the Third International has acquired the sympathies of the majority of conscient workers of the whole world, and that it is growing stronger every day.
Under certain circumstances the Communist International may be threatened with the danger of dilution by the fluctuating and half-and-half groups, which have not yet done with the ideology of the Second International.
Besides, in some of the large parties (Italy, Sweden), the majority of which are adhering to the point of view of Communism, there iis up to this moment a considerable reformist and social pacifist wing, which is only waiting for the moment to lift Its head again, begin an active "sabotage" of the proletarian revolution, and thus help the bourgeoisie and the Second International.
No Communist should forget the lessons of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.
The Union between the Hungarian Communists and the reformists cost the Hungarian proletariat very dear.
In view of this, the Second World Congress sees fit to establish the most precise conditions for the joining of new parties, and also to point out to such parties as have already joined the Communist International, the duties laid upon them.
The Second Congress of the Communist International decrees, that the conditions for joining the Communist International shall be as follows:
1. The daily propaganda must bear a truly Communist character.
All the organs of the press which are in the hands of the Party must be edited by reliable Communists, who have proved their loyalty to the cause of the proletarian revolution. The dictatorship of the proletariat should not be spoken of simply as a current well-learnt formula; it must be propagated In such a way that its necessity for each rank and file workman, workwoman, soldier, peasant should follow from every day facts, systematically recorded by our press day by day.
On the pages of the newspapers, at popular meetings, in the labour unions, in the cooperatives, in every place to which the partisans of the Third International have access, they must denounce not only the bourgeoisie, but its assistants, the reformists of all shades and colours.
2. Each organization wishing to join the Communist International shall be bound to remove systematically and regularly· from all the responsible posts in the Labour movement (Party organizations, editor's office, labour unions, parliamentary faction, cooperatives, municipalities, etc.) all reformists and partisans of the "centre", and to replace them by Communists without troubling about the fact that in the beginning it might be necessary to replace "experienced" men by rank-and-file workmen.
3. In all countries where in consequence of martial law or exceptional laws the Communists are unable to carry on their work lawfully, a combination of lawful and illegal work is absolutely necessary. The class struggle in almost all the countries of Europe and America is entering upon the phase of civil war. Under such conditions the Communists cannot have any confidence in the bourgeois laws. They are bound to create everywhere a parallel illegal apparatus, which at the decisive moment may help the Party to accomplish its duty to the Revolution.
4. An insistent systematic propaganda and agitation in the army is necessary, and the formation of Communist nuclei in each military organization. The Communists must carry on this work for the most part illegally, but a refusal to do such work would be equal to treason against the revolutionary cause, and inconsistent with their belonging to the Third International.
5. A systematic and regular propaganda in the rural districts is necessary. The working class cannot gain the victory without having at least part of the rural workers and the poorer peasants on its side, and without neutralising by its policy at least part of the other inhabitants of the country. Communist work in the rural districts is acquiring a primary importance in this epoch. It should be carried on through workmen—Communists—having connections in the country. To refuse to do this work or to transfer it to untrustworthy half-reformist hands is equal to desisting from the proletarian revolution.
6. Every party desirous of joining the Third International is bound to denounce not only open social patriotism, but also the falsehood and hypocrisy of social-pacifism: it must systematically demonstrate to the workmen that without a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism no international arbitration, no talk of disarmament, no democratic reorganization of the League of Nations will be able to save mankind from new imperialist wars.
7. Parties desirous of Joining the Communist International shall be bound to recognise the necessity of a complete and absolute rupture with reformism and the policy of the centrists, and to propagate this rupture among the widest circles of members of the Party. Without this condition a consecutive Communist policy is impossible.
The Communist International demands unconditionally and peremptorily that such rupture be realised with the least possible delay. The Communist International cannot reconcile itself with the fact that such acknowledged reformists as for instance Turatti, Modigliani and others should be entitled to consider themselves members of the Third International. This would make the Third International resemble the late Second International.
8. In the question of colonies and the oppressed nationalities an especially distinct and clear line of conduct of the parties of countries whose bourgeoisie possess such colonies or oppress other nationalities is necessary. Each party desirous of belonging to the Third International shall be bound to denounce without any mercy all the tricks of "its own" imperialists in the colonies, supporting not in words only, but in deeds, all liberation movements in the colonies. It must demand the expulsion of its own imperialists from such colonies, and cultivate in the hearts of the workmen of its own country a truly fraternal attitude towards the worker population of the colonies and oppressed nationalities, and carry on a systematic agitation in its own army against any oppression of the colonial population.
9. Every party desirous of belonging to the Communist International shall be bound to carry on a systematic and persistent Communist work in the labour unions, cooperatives and other labour organizations of the masses. It is necessary to form Communist nuclei within these organizations, which by persistent and lasting work must win over the labour unions to the side of Communism. These nuclei must constantly denounce the treachery of the social patriots and the fluctuations of the "centre". These Communist nuclei must be completely subordinated to the Party in general.
10. Any party belonging to the Communist International is bound to carry on a stubborn struggle against the Amsterdam "International" of the Yellow Labour Unions. It must insistently propagate among the organized workers the necessity of a rupture with the yellow Amsterdam International. It must support by all the means in its power the international unification of Red Labour Unions, adhering to the Communist International, which is now beginning.
11. Parties desirous of joining the Third International shall be bound to reinspeet the personnel of their parliamentary factions, remove all unreliable elements therefrom, subordinate such factions not verbally only, but in reality, to the Central Committee of the Party, and demand from each proletarian Communist to submit his whole work to the interests of real revolutionary propaganda.
12. In the same way should all the periodical and other press and all publications be fully subordinated to the Central Committee, whether the Party as a whole at the given moment is lawful or illegal; it is quite inadmissible that any publishers abusing their autonomy might carry on a policy different from that of the Party.
13. The parties belonging to the Communist International must be organized on the principles of democratic centralism. At the present moment of acute civil war the Communist Party will be able to fulfill its duty only if it is organized in the most centralised form, if it is ruled by an iron discipline, almost a military one, and if its Party centre is an organ of authority with full power, enjoying the complete confidence of the members of the Party.
14. The Communist Parties of countries where the Communists may carry on their work lawfully, must periodically weed out (by re-registration) the personnel of the Party organisations, in order to clean the Party systematically from all the petty bourgeois elements which inevitably creep into it.
15. Each Party desirous of belonging to the Communist International shall be bound to render all possible aid to the Soviet Republics in their struggle against counter-revolutionary forces. The Communist Parties shall carry on an unfaillng propaganda to induce the workers to refuse to transport objects of military equipment addressed to the enemies of the Soviet Republics, and also by lawful means or illegally to carry on a propaganda among the troops sent out against the Workers Republics, etc.
16. The Parties which up to the present moment have stood upon the old Social and Democratic programs within the shortest time possible, and to draw up a new Communist program in conformity with the special conditions of their country, and in accordance with the resolutions of the Communist International. As a rule the program of each Party belonging to the Communist International must be confirmed by the next Congress of the Communist International or its Executive Committee. In the event of nonconfirmation of the program of any Party by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, said party shall be entitled to appeal to the Congress of the Communist International.
17. All the resolutions of the congresses of the Communist international, as well as the resolutions of its Executive Committee, are binding for all parties joining the Communist International. The Communist International, operating under the conditions of most acute civil warfare, must be organised in a more centralised form than the Second International. At the same time the Communist International and its Executive Committee are naturally bound in all their work to consider the variety of conditions under which the different Parties have to work and struggle, and generally binding resolutions shall be passed only on such questions, on which such resolutions are possible.
18. In connection with the above all Parties desiring to join the Communist International must alter their names.
Each Party desirous of joining the Communist International must bear the following name:
Communist Party of such-and-such country (Section of Third Communist International). The question of denomination of a party is not only a formal one, but it is a political question of great importance. The Communist International has declared a decisive war against the whole bourgeois world and all yellow Social Democratic Parties. It is necessary that each rank-and-file worker should be able to distinguish clearly the difference between the Communist Parties and the old official "Social Democratic" or "Socialist" parties, which have betrayed the cause of the working class.