The Daily Worker Newspaper, August 23, 1924, Page 5

| ] | “The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. thee ewe ean =~ eee i yet, SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT THE DAILY WORKER. AUGUST 23, 1924 SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. The Results of the Fifth Congress By ALEXANDER BITTELMAN. -A JE have had five congresses. Ev- eryone of them has been of great importance to the revolutionary movement of the working class. Ev- ery single one of these congresses has marked’ a milestone in the for- ward march of the international pro- letariat towards its final goal. Some of these congresses, particularly the second and the third, were basic and fundamental, in the sense that they have given us our basic principles and fundamental policies. But none of these congresses were as instruc- tive in an immediate and practical sense as was the Fifth congress. None of them, it seems to us, have contri buted as much as the last congress toward the education, training and building up of a constant and reliable Communist leadership. Why? Because the Fifth congress was devoted main- ly to questions of strategy and tactics. Principles Versus Tactics. It is comparatively easy to grasp and even master the contents and im- plications of a Communist principle. What is necessary for this is a liv- ing sense of loyalty to the working class, hatred of the bourgeoisie, faith in the revolutionary mission of the proletariat and a will to fight to the very end. If you are in possession of these things, you will have no difficulty in grasping and accepting the fundamen- tals of Communism. However, it is an entirely different proposition when it cemes to Com- munist strategy and, particularly, tac- tics. Here revolutionary instincts alone will not suffice. We have known excellent revolutionaries, men and women with flaming hearts and iron wills, people with boundless devotion to the cause of the workers—and yet we have seen them time and again g0 wrong even on some of the most elementary propositions of revolution- ary tactics. Why is it so? Because the ques- tion of tactics is a matter of revolu- tionary leadership. Because the ap- plication of Communist tactics re- quires a highly developed and well- trained ability to gauge situations, to seize and hold on to the most de- termining factors in each given sit- uation and sufficient flexibility of mind and will to change when nec- essary and move. To develop these abilities, it takes time, struggle and experience. School- ing in the revolutionary struggle is the thing that will give us experienc- ed tacticians. Guidance of the Com- munist International in the spirit of Leninism will, no doubt, greatly en- hance the process by developing a capable Communist leadership. ° Con- sidered from this point of view the Fifth congress of the Comintern was about the most important gathering of our international organization. Wrong Applications of the United \ Front, The Fifth congress has dealt with quite a number of wrong applications of the United Front tactics. These had taken place almost in every sec- tion of the Comintern. In some plac- es, as in Germany, the mistakes were of such serious a nature as to threat- en the very existence of the Commun- ist Party as a revolutionary factor. These mistakes—right deviations— in Germany, Czecho-Slovakia and to some extent in England and in Amer- ica, can be treated from two angles, One angle is basic, that is, it en- ables us to answer the question to what extent these deviations were contrary to the revolutionary aims and strategy of the Comintern. The congress rendered its judgment. It said in effect, that the inanner in which the United Front policy was applied in Germany and in some other sections has been leading the parties straight into the mire of opportunism. It called a halt to these deviations and introduced the necessary correc- tives for the prevention of such mis- takes: in the future. What was the basis of these right deviations? The congress found this basis to be a wrong conception of the intent and purpose of the tactics of the United Front. Some sections of the Comintern have conceived this policy to be a tactic of peace and al- liance with the renegade socialists and reactionary union-bureaucrats in- stead of a tactic of merciless strug- gles against these leaders and for the winning over of the working masses to the cause of Communism. The congress adopted a thesis on Comintern forthwith. The trouble with them—and with us—has been the lack of suffiicent training in the art and science of Leninism. The congress has realized that too—hence its decision for more education, more training and a strict- er supervision of the Comintern over the doings of its national sections. The English Communists and the Labor Government. England has received more atten- tion at this congress than at any of the previous ones, and for an obvious reason. The political situation in Eng- land is fraught with many possibili- ties for the Communist movement. That’s why the congress has gone in- to very many details to devise a poli- cy of action for the British Commun- ists which would enable them to play its_part in the great days to come. GET THE BANNER OF THE COMMUNE The Moscow Proletariat Receiving the Banner of the Parisian Communards tactics, also dealing with the United The resolution on tactics contains Front, from which we quote the fol-|a specia? section on England which lowing: “The United Front policy has been and remains a means of revo- lution and not of peaceful evolution. The United Front policy has been and remains a tactic of revolution- ary strategic maneuvering of the Communist vanguard, which is sur- rounded on all sides by enemies, for its struggles first of all against the treacherous leaders of the coun- ter-revolutionary social-democracy, and is under no circumstances to be construed as a tactic of alliance with these leaders. . “The United Front policy has been and remains a tactic for the gradual winning over to our side of those workers who are still follow- ing the social-democracy and of the best sections of the non-partisan workers and under no circumstanc- es is this tactic to be used to lower and limit our aims to the under- standing of those backward work- ers.” : There is, however, another angle to these right deviations in the matter of the United Front. It is the angle of leadership with which we started out in this article. Surely the com- rades of the old C. B. C. of the Ger- man party were not opportunistie in a conscious and deliberate way. They have committed opportunistic mis- takes, it is true, but not because they wanted to, Were that the case, they would have been expelled from the is in many respects so important to ourselves that we quote it in full: “Because of the existing world situation Great Britain is playing at present, the first role in all inter- national questions. In connection with this is also growing the im- portance of the English Commun- ist Party. It is, therefore, one of.. the most urgent tasks of the C. I. to so develop and educate the Com- munist Party of England as to en- able her to fulfill all the Commun- ist duties. “We found some ‘ideological and tactical deviations in the attitude taken by the-Communist Party of England toward the Labor Party. At present the Communist Party of England must concentrate all her forces toward the following end: “a. To support and promote the further growth of the left wing of the Labor Party in order that .it becomes a real revolutionary wing within the Labor Party and in or- der to intensify the activities of the minorities in the trade unions. “b. To fight against the so-called ‘Labor Government’ of MacDonald, clearly explaining to the masses its bourgeois and anti-working class character. ; “ce, Té maintain a clear Commun- ist line in all possible bye-elections.. and in the coming national elec- tion, “d. To conduct economic strug- * the gles in such a fashion as to con- centrate the main forces on the creation of united front organs from below (strike committees, factory committees, etc.) and to explain be- fore the working masses the politi- cal implications of their economic struggles. “e. The Communist Party of Eng- land must carry out an active cam- paign for the creation of Commit- tees of Action in the factories and in trade unions in order to exert pressure upon the so-called ‘Labor Government’ thus compelling it to realize those portions of the pro- gram of the ‘Labor Government’ which it refuses to carry out, name- ly, the socialization of the railroads and mines, increase the compensa- tion for the unemployed, construc- tion of dwellings for workers, etc. Only by exposing tne treachery of ‘Labor Government’ with re- gard to the immediate and pressing needs of the working class and by attempting to draw the working masses into the struggle for the sat- isfaction of thesé needs will the Communist Party of England be able to destroy the illusions of the masses in the so-called ‘Labor Gov- ernment,’ “f. The Communist Party of Eng- land must attach particular signi- ficance to the building up of con- nections with the colonies, to the support of the national revolution- ary movements in the colonies, to the question of miltarism and naval- ism, to the question of disarma- ment, to the relations of England to the Soviet Union; to imperialist France and to the Experts’ Re- port. “g. Further, the Communist Par- ty of England must begin a careful campaign to secure influence over the unemployed. “h. The Communist Party of Eng- land must pay particular attention to the internal organization of the party. It must draw into the party new members from among the ranks of the workers. It must or- ganize shop nuclei and must devel- op a campaign of education among the members of the party for the purpose of keeping them informed of the situation in the internation. al labor movement.” » The Shop as a Basis. The Fifth Congress issued a de- finite and categorial instruction to all its sections to immediately reorganize on the shop nucleus basis. We shall have to take this instruction very seriously not only because it was meant so, but also because the future of our movement depends upon a suc- cessful reorganization of our party with the shop as a basis. We speak of winning over the mass- es to the cause of Communism. We expect eventually to succeed in mobi- lizing them for a struggle for power. But how? How can we ever succeed in accomplishing this task when our party lacks the most elementary pre- requisite for getting in contact with the masses? The shop is the basis of industry. The shop is the starting point of the struggle between capital and labor. The shop is the place where the work- ers spend most of their lives. And yet we persist in disregarding all these facts and continue to build our organization along the old social-de- mocratic lines. The Comintern proposes to put a stap to it, not abruptly, not without preparation, but just the same, the reorganization will have to be carried thru, The Fifth Congress was a great congress. It contributed as no other did toward building a strong and re- liable Leninist leadership. a