The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 1, 1928, Page 3

Py sh nose \ THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1928 Page Three Comrades, the discussion that took | and of the Executive Committee of °,° ° . . . I v t of all reply to € s but place here was a remarkable one in|the Communist International. Spe- ] he Positive and Ne ative Sides O the Discussion rade Kostrieva, of the Polish deleg = cate many respects. In the first place|cial mention must be. made of the tion who in her speech said ity for logic the y the least, there is the large number of com-|comments made on the organization- ference is made to three per- peculiar. While there is a close con- rades who took part in it. There were | al shortcomings of our apparatus. : ras [Foi es a A a MTR ec iods, into which the post-war period Nection between the development of nearly 90 speakers. Never has there| But there is also a negative side | Temoving the chaos in the currency,) the proletariat, the highest point | of Socialist Soviet Republics, wars | ,,1¢ has been said that there is no j° oo Ut ateacd put we productive forces and the develop- been so large a number of speakers|to the discussion to which I must © i 2 of development of which was of national liberation against im- ‘ifference between the second and _ ¥ that the line ef demarcation technique there does not on any one subject at previous Con-|refer. In this I include the rather| On the report of Comrade Zinoviev| yeached in 1921. This period cul- | perialism and imperialist interven. the third periods. But if that is the 1 between the second and alWays seem to be a similar connec- gresses. Particular mention should narrow limits to which much of the the Fifth Congress passed a resolu-) jinated in the victory of the — tion and to gigantic class battles. |C8¢ then I ask, why have we modi- ‘od is not the line of tion between logic and vocal capac- be made of the speeches delivered by| discussion was confined. The major-| tion on tactics. What was the essen-| Union of Socialist Soviet Repub- | As a result of the accentuation of fied our estimate of the general sit- (oc, nical progress, because the lat itY- our Negro comrades, by the dele-|ity of comrades who spoke here al-| ‘ial feature of the analysis of the! ics over the forces of foreign in- all the International antagonisms |YAtion? Not because we are cleverer j20'0 00" PVOm’Cts OM DEeBeaAnE. €6 the end of his speech Comrade gates from Oriental countries and | most exclusively dealt with their own Political situation contained in that) tervention and over the internal (antagonisms between the capital. Ban we were, but because the situa- tion of post-war capitalist | Straghov 2 third period colonial countries generally, and es-|countries and not with the funda-|Tesolution? The principal point) counter-revolution, with the con- _ ist States and the Union of Social. | tion has changed. nth What is the charac-| Should after all in the The- Pecially of the spegghes delivered by|mental problems of the, movement | ttessed in that resolution was the| solidation of the proletarian dic- | ist Soviet Republics, the military |the Process we had r teristi the third period? /Ses- But if there is no difference our Chinese comrafies. It is impor-| that arise from the present. situa-/®Xistence of a “pacifist-democratic tatorship and the organization of | occupation of Northern China — | itestations of stabilizat The feature ig Whatever between the second and tant also to note the active part that | tion. Of course, I do not object to | °T f the Communist International on | which is the beginning of the par- | #4 very serious grounds for believ- hick third periods, then dear comrade was taken in the discussion by Com- | the various delegations analyzing and munists from the South American | discussing the questions that directly countries, for this is the first time|concern them. On the contrary, I since the Communist International| think this is desirable because it was established that we have had so facilitates an exchange of experi- Many representatives of these coun-| ences, and, as it were, the collectivi- tries present. Reference should be|sation of our experiences. Without made also to the speeches delivered | such an exchange of experience the by numerous comrades from small work of the Communist International parties, to which we sometimes de- | and of its Congresses would be im- vote too little attention. possible. On the other hand I think Taking the discussion as a whole that the failure of many speakers to I must say that it was of enormous | deal with fundamental questions was Positive significance. I would like to|a drawback in the discussion. point out the characteristic positive) I will not dwell on the verbal skir- sides of the discussion. | mishes that took place here, but will First of all, I want to mention the merely recall the words of Heine: criticism and self-criticism that was | “This is not a knightly bout for the displayed. Our theses, my speech, | hearts of ladies fair; tis but a wordy the work of the Communist Interna-| war twixt Capucian monks and their tional and of the various parties, |foes,—the Rabbis” (Laughter). And were all subjected to criticism. I do not think it is necessary to deal The stream of self-criticism that|in detail with this monk and rabbi flowed through the whole of the dis-| contest. cussion is particularly to be wel-|II. The Stabilization of Capitalism comed. Another positive side of the) and the Controversy over the discussion was that the representa- | “Third Period.” tives of nearly every Party took part The Fifth Congress of the Comintern in it. A particularly pleasing fea-| and the Question of Stabilization ture, I repeat, is that representatives! Comrades, I will first of all deal of “new” parties in the colonies, in| with the fundamental problem, the South American countries, etc., par-| problem of the stabilization of cap- ticipated. italism and with the question around Many of the remarks that were | which the controversy centered most, uttered in the course of the discus- | namely, the question of the so-called sion were undoubtedly correct. These | period. remarks must be embodied in one| As you know, the term “stabiliza- way or another in the decisions to be tion” did not appear in the discus- passed by the Congress as well as in| sion at the Fifth Congress of the the future work of the Comintern.| Comintern. What happened at the It is true that in the main these re-| Fifth Congress, and what estimate marks were concerned not with did we make then of the economic questions of principle, but with sec-| and political situation? In the theses | ondary questions; nevertheless, ex-| passed on the world economic situa- tremely important problems were | tion the Fifth Congress first of all touched upon. Among these I in- took note of the collapse of world clude the points made on the peasant economy; the theses speak directly questions, the references to the need | of the collapse of world economy, ot for more attention being devoted to; the chaos in the currency and of the the unemployed problem that were | crisis of European economy. At that made’ in the course of the discussion | time we said that European economy | of our analysis of the present period | was moving in a vicious circle and) ‘sion is correct. Thus, as a result of the analysis we made of the situation at that time we declared that world economy was in a state of collapse, that European economy was in a state of permanent erisis; and the political superstruc- tuve of that analy was the “era of democratic pacifism.” This era, as you know, was reflected by the “Labor Government” in England, the victory of the “Left Bloc” in France, the “Labor Government” in Den- mark, and the various coalition ten- dencies in other countries. Such was the general situation at that time, and such was the imate made of it by the Fifth World Congress a word was, said about stabil The word “stabi was uttered in our midst only in 1925. At the Fifth Congress, I repeat, and thrice stress it, in order to mark the change in the whole situation, there was as jet no talk of stabiliza- tion. Why do I stress this point so much? In order that we shall take special note of it so that we may clearly understand the changes that have taken place in the objective sit- uation since the Fifth Congress. This is precisely why in the first part of our theses we advanced the postu- late of the third period. The postu- late on the three periods was dis- cussed by the delegation of the Com- munist Party of the S. U. and there it was amended to make it more pre- cise. Of course, the fact that the situation since the Fifth Congress has been divided into three periods by the delegation of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is not in itself a logical proof that this di We must substanti- ate it by sound arguments. Why It Is Incorrect to Deny the Existence of a Third Period The part of the thesis which deals with this point réads as follows: “1. After the first period of the World Imeprialist War, the inter- national labor movement passed the one hand and with a series of severe defeats suffered by the Western European proletariat on the other. The final link in the chain of events in this period was the defeat of the German prole- tariat in 1923. This defeat was the starting point of the second per- iod, a period of gradual and partial stabilization of the capitalist sys- tem, of the process of the ‘restora- tion’ of capitalist economy, of the general capitalist offensive and of defensive battles fought by the proletarian army weakened by severe defe: On the other hand, this period was a period of rapid restoration in the Union of Social- ist Soviet Republics and of ex- tremely important successes in the work of building up Socialism. Finally came the third period which, in the main, was the period in which capitalist economy ex- ceeded the pre-war level and in which also the economy of the Union of Socialist Soviet Repub- lics almost exceeded the pre-war level (the beginning of the so- called ‘reconstruction period,’ the further growth of the Socialist forms of economy on the basis of a new technique). For the capital- ist system, this was the period of rapid development of technique, accelerated growth of cartels and trusts, of tendencies towards state capitalism and at the same time a period of intense development of the contradictions of world capital- ism operating’ in forms determined by the whole of the preceding pro- cess of the crisis of capitalism (contraction of markets, the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics col- onial movements, growth in the in- ternal contradictions of imperial- ism). This third period, in which the contradiction between the growth of the forces of production and the contraction of markets becomes accentuated with particu- tition of China and of the mutual struggle between the imperialists, etc.); as a result of the accentua- tion of the internal antagonisms in capitalist countries (the swing to the Left of the masses of the i ss, growing acuteness struggle), and as a re- outburst of colonial (China, India and the movements Egypt), this period will inevitably lead,—through the further devel- sult of opment of the contradictions of capitalist stabilization, to the fur- ther shattering of capit stabili- zation, and to the severe accentu- ation of the general crisis of cap- italism.” Those who are opposed to dividing the whole period into three periods assert that the second period in no y differs from the third; there- fore there is no reason whatever for making a distinction between the sec- ond and third periods and therefore the third period is superfluous. But suppose we assume for the sake of argument that there is no difference, how then are we to ex- plain the fact that world economy has exceeded the pre-war level? In my opinion this is a very important fact. Why? Permit me to explain this in as simple a manner as pos- sible. The importance of the fact just stated lies in that it reveals the dynamics of the development. Be- fore the pre-war level was exceeded we had reason for a ming that the growth of the productive forces in this country or that, was due to ac dental causes, that this growth was not typical and was not the charac- teristic feature of the given period. But as world econgmy, or rather the capitalist sector of world economy has gone beyond the pre-war level and is developing a new basis we must adopt a more cautious estimate of the situation and very materially modify our previous estimate. We are not so blind as not to see such ma- ing that these were only of a casual character. Now we have no grounds for believing that. The situation has become much clearer; the facts speak much more eloquently. That is why we have modified our estimate of the situation. A number of comrades denied that there was any difference between the two periods but in the very next breath they said that contradictions had become very much more But why have these contr: become more acute? Did they be- come more acute suddenly, like a bolt from the blué? These two points of view cannot be harmonized. One can- not say: “there is no change in the situation” and at the same time ad- mit that contradictions have become more acute; for, these contradictio: must have some ba It has been said: no change has taken place in the situation; but a new we go- ing on in China. Is that a trifle? We in the simplicity of our hearts thought it was a fundamental fea-)* ture of the world political situation. If we are so blind as not to see these “trifles,” then our pretensions to leadership are not worth a brass far- thing, What sort of a leader can he be who fails to see the change in the situation and for whom it is a mat- ter of indifference whether the eco- nomy of Europe has sunk to the low- depths or is making rapid prog- ress: whether there is war in China or not; whether the imperialists are preparing to attack the Union of So- cialist Soviet Republics or not, etc., etc. If we are unable to see these new facts then we are finished. In that case our new tactical line (in England, France, etc.) is inexplic- able. If we are still marking time in the old place then the new tactical line is superfluous. I have quoted the strongest argu- ment that was advanced against the third period. But other less categor- ical arguments . Comrade aghov, why put it in the Theses. ation process due to the gre Do you me ant to waste pa- opment of the productive are | per? y not sound logic now coming to e and are to say there no third period, shattering the v n of capi- but we ought to about it in the talist socie Thesis. I that sometimes we ut in These ngs that do not ex- I must co not understand reasoning. Not ment, but co do th the technic tions! cor Kostrj are due to ‘great deve the productive force comrade Kostrjeva, is a velopment of the producti possible without technical progress Hitherto I, like a good m comrad together with thought that the productive were the sum of instruments of Marx, fore duction and labour power. That is why the “growth of productive for- be separated from “tech- This would be a To correct thec a great grow pro- ductive for in the present period and at the same time to deny the great growth in technique in the same period; to insist that contra- dictions have become ever so much more acute as a result of the chan- ges that have taken place in the pro- ductive forces and at the same time postulate of emph: ground ports period. bu such Thes tactical wisdom. > period then it the T of none of us es represent help us will not feeling that this od is of some nly it is of some to lay down cor- g of the third e meaning of The meaning note of a third per- we emphasise that the stabilis- TO RE PITTSBURGH, A United States senate sub-commit- the (To that our UM ld economy a single day. A postulate apitalism cannot disappear in the course \nd this must be d. It is precisely on these delegation sup- Be Continued.) VARE HEARING. Aug. (UP).— of the third believe that the acme of If there is no third better to leave it But the ience to throw away this very criterion ; st 3 ‘ vestiga the William S. reveals that something is wrong tee investigating tt fs ‘ Pat en Vare-William B. Wilson from the point of view of even ele- # : contest will resume mentary logic. The second speaker who with this question was Comrade Strakhov (China). He said: “we do not understand this question and therefore we believe that there is no third period. But we are in fav- our of having this period mentioned in the “Thi : Modesty certainly a virtue, and certain Communists should strive to cultivate it. Wth that I can fully Washington, was announced tod, Forecast for partly cloudy D. C northw and WEATHER FORECAST. WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UP),— y and Saturday: ern New York and New Jersey: cooler tonight; Saturday partly cloudy; gentle to north est ey were put forward such as: the third period does not exist, but still, we must y some- thing about it. I want very con- scientiously and precisely to analyze this “argument.” agree. But, comrades, I cannot ag- ree that this is a sound argument. When Comrade Straghov said that there is no difference between the second and third periods someone in the hall shouted “hear, hear”. I CA, Morocco, Aug. 81 The Sultan has ordered re- storation to former Sultan Moulay of his fortune, which was sequester- ed by the state. Moulay Hafid has been living in Paris. of capitalist development. A num-) was unable to extricate itself from ber of speakers also referred to the its state of crisis. We also pointed question of colonial work, the Negro|to the world agrarian crisis. The question, and also to the day to day Comintern at that time emphasized | practical work of the various parties | that the bourgeoisie was incapable of | through a series of historical phases of the general crisis of the capitalist system. “The first period was the period of direct revolutionary actions of lar force, will inevitably give rise to a fresh series of imperia wars: between the imperialist States themselves, wars of the im- perialist States against the Union terial facts and pass them by. Thus, there is no mistaking the fact that a difference exists. This dif- fenence is both technical and eco- nomic. We cannot ignore it. > : inti : i 1 ° ! Quotas for the A Subscription to the Daily Worker Is a Vote for Communism td Election Subscription Drive Special Offers During Sub Drive sostny District 1 res eas Brockton Cambridge District 8 September.-October Special Election Campaign stopher OFFER No. 1 OFFER No. 4 sei hb ‘ 6 mos. 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