The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 23, 1925, Page 13

International Prospects and Bolshevization By G. ZINOVIEV. IV. The Democratic Pacifist Era, Fascism and Social Democracy. (Continued from last issue.) The True Character and Signifi- sance of the Democratic Pacifist Era. ‘NOMRADES, in recent times, all th 4 {important differences that have arisen in the ranks of the Communist International. in the final analysis, have centered round the estimation of the democratic pacifist “era.” sons like Newbold, Phillips, Price, Hogiund, Rosmer, to a certain degree are the casualties ‘of yesterday’s dem- ocratic “era.” ‘ How did these people picture the situation to themselves? Simply that the revolution has passed and that the world situation had ceased to be revolutionary. They said, since the Soviet Government has not been able, to achieve much im- provement in the lives of the work- ers, in the course of five or six years, then MacDonald should be given as much time. This was said by Com- munists! Hoglund judged events of world historical importance from the fact that Newbold was defeated in the parliamentary elections. y gee question of the proper method of approach to the _ democratic- pacifist era has been the central point of our tactics during the last nine months.. Several comrades were la- boring under doubts which, however, they feared to express openly. They stated that, on the whole, they were in agreement with the line of policy of the Fifth Congress, but they con- tinued to regard the democratic paci- fist episode as a genuine era, as a pro- jonged..period,.as a new epoch in world bistory. They thought that from this logically foilows the neces- sity to change the whole of our tac- tics in a more or less social-democrat- ic sense. Newbold and Hoglund fell caught one of their fingers in the door, but their astonishment First of all, with regard to the dura- tion of the notorious “era,” the facts show that the democratic-pacifist “era” was nothing more than an epi- sode, as was foretold in the resolution of the Fifth Congress. In a certain sense, it may be said that the “demo- cratic-pacifist” episode was tanta- mount to the approach to power of the petty bourgeoisie. As a matter of fact, power fell into the hands of the petty-bourgeoisie not entirely, but only within certain limits. In the period of imperialism and proletarian revolu- tion (a period which can least of all the petty-bourgeoisie cannot hold pow- er independently. For that reason, it was compelled to play the part of a puppet in the hands of the big bour- geoisie. England and France serve a8 a brilliant and historical illustra- tion of this situation, for in those govern a country as an independent force, T do the facts teach us? They Per-. chain of events which commenced as [ “defeated” by Russian czarism, These far back as 1914, ie., with the out- break of the war. The democratic pacifist “era” of 1924 is but an episode in the epoch of imperialist wars and preparations for proletarian revolution. We do not stand in need of “philosophic” defini- tions. It is sufficient for us to bear in mind: 1, that this period proved to be short-lived; 2, that the petty- bourgeoisie, evem as represented by the labor party, cannot play an inde- pendent role; 3, that the present time in England, we must count with two decisive factors of social life, viz., the working class and capitalism, and 4, that the. MacDonald government with its “constructive socialism’ worked for us, Communists, for the Comin- tern, The Estimation of Fascism and Social Democracy. HE question of the character of democratic pacifism is bound up with the estimation of fascism. You remember comrades, the fight that took place in our ranks over this question, Take the elections in Ger- many, England and in America. In Germany, the masses of the electors voted for the social-democrats; in England, for the labor party and in America for the party of LaFollette. The broad masses, petty-bourgeois as well as proletarian, voted for the group which represented the ideas of democratic-pacifism, even when its star was setting. The “era” passed away, but the conservative section of the population still clutching at uto- pias and all kinds of illusions, contin- ued to vote for democratic-pacifist politics. We do not wish to have dem- ocratic illusions reigning in the Com- munist Party, but the conservative masses still cling to them. We had to combat these illusions in the past, and of course, we must continue. to do so in the future. i the democratic-pacifist “era,” we must distinguish between two groups of countries. One of these were subjects and the other objects of the “era.” England and France were subjects, Germany was an object. In passing, I will say that the successes achieved by our party in England and France on the one hand, and the diffi- cult position of our German party on the other hand, arise out of the objec- tive condition of things. Both in Ger- many and in France, pacifist illusions reign. * But, the soil which fosters these il- lusions, is not the same in Germany as it is in France. When a man, roll- on the ground in the agonies of hun- ger, is roused with the hope of obtain- ing a mouthful of bread and water, or a drop of milk, naturally hopes and illusions arise in him. This was the position in which Ger™*=y found her- self. It was precisely upon this that the social-democrats speculated. It is not surprising therefore, that in the countries which have been the sub- jects of the ‘era,” where the ruling class were not in a position to propose or promise anything to the masses, could promise no improvement in their conditions, our Communist Par- ties obtained successes with relative ease. Social Democracy “Defeats” F; cism by Affittating to it. ¥ 1924, Radek formulated a resolu- tion on the vitcory of fascism over social-democracy. Was that resolu- tion correct? How in the present in- stance should the term “victory” be understood? You know for example, form of victory. Another form of vic- tory was observed in the Russian rev- slutionary movement in are two forms of “victory.” It was precisely in the latter form that so- cial-democracy was “defeated” by the bourgeoisie, and this on a world scale. The leaders of social<democracy sim- ply turned traitors, followed the ex- ample of Tikhomirov, and went over to the side of the bourgeoisie. Radek overlooked this detail. He decided that, as the social-democracy had been “defeated” we ought to unite with it politically. This is an example of the theory of the “united front” according to Radek. He lost sight of the faet that the leaders of the social-democ- racy were “defeated” by the bour- geoisie in the sense that they began to form a wing of the bourgeoisie. It was for that reason, that the theses of the Fifth Congress, which described the socigl-democracy as the “third” party of the bourgeoisie, were abso- lutely correct. N Italy, fascism was a syntheses of the strivings of the capitalist bour- geoisie and of the social-democracy, and the social-democra¢y became a wing of fascism. The theses and reso- lutions of the Fifth Congress on this question were correct in so far as it has turned out that social-democracy is becoming stronger in proportion as the bourgeoisie is becoming stronger. The conservativeness of the broad masses and the retarded rate of de- velopment of class conflicts will have the same effect of increasing the strength of social-democracy in the future. The whole question is, what should be our attitude to this? Some of the right wing comrades are of the opin- ion that, in view of the increasing strength of the social-democracy, we must revise all our values! We are of a different opinion, and are con- vinced that to the extent that the bourgeoisie will increase its strength for a time, the social-democrats will take advantage of this; for in our Communication ef the director of the Marx-Engels Institute, Moscow, D. B. Riasanov to the Enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist Inter- national. The Fifth Congress of the Commun- ist International, upon hearing my report about the activity of the Marx- Engels Institute at Moscow (MEI), acknowledged the necessity of pub- lishing the complete works of Marks and Engels as well as separate edi- tions of some of them. The resolu- tion concerning this point requested moreover all the parties belonging to the Ill International and the mem- bers of those parties to help the In- stitute in its task of collecting all documents relative to Marx’s and En- gels’ lives and works. The nine months elapsed since have been employed by the MEI for the multifarious preparatory work neces- sary to the planned edition. The first thing to do was to secure the pos- sibility of an exhaustive study of the literary heirloom,of Marx and Engels preserved at the archives of the Ger- man Soc. Dem. Party at Berlin. I have happily succeeded in obtaining this possibility amd since December autograph. Several thousands of them having been taken already in 1923, the moment is not far off when the photos of the whole collection will manuscript and partly in photo cop- ies; it is quite natural however that these documents are not nearly as of the works have been collected with the utmost care and good results. The deciphering of the materials in- The Work of the Marx-Engels Institute. days the bourgeoisie and the social- democracy are twins. Marx and En- gels in their day, quite justly branded venal leaders of the British labor movement, Today, we must do the same thing on an international scale. A series of events renders this task easier for us. I will deal only with four of them. 1. The Barmat scandal, the Ebert trial, etc.; 2, the agreement coneluded between the Hungarian social democrats and Hor- they; 3, the last meeting of the Bu- reau of the Second International and 4, the funerals of Ebert, Branting and Gompers, Recently, I read an obita- ary notice on Branting written by Huysmans, Huysmans criticizes Branting with having been, in spite of his republican convictions, an old friend and school chum of the king of Sweden. Well said, was it not? Huys- mans “buried” Branting a second time. sum up: the social-democracy, Comrade Radek, was indeed “de- feated” by the bourgeoisie and by fas- cism, but unlike Karl Liebknecht and his followers, it did not fall in battle, but was defeated in the sense that it itself, as represented by its leaders, abandoned the labor party and took up a petty-bourgeois position as a wing of bourgeois “democracy.” The temporary increase in strength of the bourgeoisie is equal to a certain tem- porary increase in strength of the so- sialdemocracy. The doom of the bourgeoisie will at the same time also be the doom of social-democracy. Consequently, the tactics of the Communist International were abso- lutely correct. This is evidenced by the class struggle; this is taught us by the episodes in the civil war, this is testified to by the life and the movement of the masses. The Bol- shevist Lenini&t policy of the Fifth , Congress has been completely justi- fled. (Applause.) (To be continued.) tended for publishing is going on stead- fastly. A whole. staff of 12-15 per- sons—scientific collaborators with their technical helpers—are constant- ly occupied with it. The work is al- ready advanced considerably enough to allow the first number of the “Marx-Engels Archiv” to appear in May next; it will contain among other valuable contributions part of the “German Ideology”. In autum two volumes of the Com- plete Works will follow—vol. 1 with the juvenile writings of Marx, of which many have never been pub- lished yet, as, for instance, a rather large study upon Hegel’s Philosophy of the State and an essay upon the French Revolution; and Vol. XV con- taining some unknown manuscrips of Engels, among them his “Dialectics in Nature”. See for details the pro- spectus of the Marx-Engels Archiv, of which every delegate received a copy. The plan for the separate publish- ing of some of the works has yet to be discussed. Meanwhile, prelimin- ary steps are being taken for elucidat- ing difficulties which might arise in different countries in connection with the printing of these. editions. I should like to end with the repeti- tion of the earnest request addressed to all comrades by the Fifth Con- gress: lend a hand to the Marx-En- sary materials!* This appeal has re- mained nearly neglected until Ww. The Central Committees of the ‘See. ; tions should be sqmewhat more ener- getic in this respect, Telephone Monroe 2284 Genova Restaurant ITALIAN-AMERICAN 1238 Madison Street N. E. Cor, Elizabeth St, Spaghetti and Ravioli Our Specialty Special Arrangements for Parties” on Short Notice Bf ewdee Se Tene. Sere ‘ | 4 onal 8 EIR MGI tHE PORT ee