The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 26, 1930, Page 3

DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. MARCH 26, 1930 The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Com- mittee of ite Communist International, in describing the world economic and _ political situation, stressed the point that the outstand- ing feature of the Third Period of post-war — tion of the basic internal and external contra- dictions expressed at the present time in an accelerated shatteting of capitalist stabiliza- tion, in the deepening and widening of the rev- olationary tide of the international labor move- ment and in the ripening of anti-imperialist revolutions in the colonial countries. The reso- lution of the Tenth Plenum says: “The bank- ruptcy of the notorious prosperity proclaimed by the American bourgeoisie is becoming more and more obvious.” The economic crisis in the United States which set in three months after in the midst of a protracted depression in a number of capitalist countries and in the colo- nies, and which hastened the extreme accentu- ation of the fundamental contradictions of world capitalism, destroys the bourgeois legend of permanent prosperity in the United States (Hoover) and strikes a crushing blow at the social-democratic theories of “organized cap- italism.” Exposing the falsehood of the bourgeois re- formist views regarding “American exception- alism” (Lovestone, Pepper), and also the piti- ful hollowness of the theory that the “problems of the market, prices, competition and crisis, become more and more problems of world eco- nomy, and are being displaced inside the coun- try by the problem of organization” (Bukharin) —the crisis in America confirms the estimate of the Third Period given by the Sixth World Congress and the Tenth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. I. The Crisis, Growing Unemployment, and the Accentuation of the Contradictions of Capitalism. 1. The significance of the present crisis of over-production in the United States is height- ened by the fact that it is unfolding in a period when the contradiction of markets is becoming increasingly acute, when the tendency common to all capitalist countries for periods of de- pression to become longer and cause the de- pression to acquire character is certainly very marked, when certain important branches of world economy (coal, textile, shipbuilding, etc.) have failed for a number of years to emerge from a state of crisis, while other branches (rubber, oil, non-ferrous metals, silver, ete.) are entering a crisis, when the capitalist countries be the colonies are already in the midst of a |sharp agrarian crisis which manifests itself in some countries in the form of over-product- tion of raw materials and agricultural produce (United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina), and in others, mainly in colonial countries (In- dia, China) in the form of a serious under- production of foodstuffs. The American crisis finds a considerable part of the capitalist world already in a state of protracted economic depression. In some coun- tries of East and Central Europe (Poland, the Baltic countries, Austria and the Balkans) the development of capitalism is the sharp accentu- | of a crisis: slowing down of production, dis- charge of workers, falling of stocks (France). Thus the economic crisis deepens the general crisis of the capitalist system, sharpens its in- “ternal and external contradictions, breaks down its precarious stabilization, and accelerates the flow of the revolutionary tide in the capitalist countries and in the colonies. 3. The crisis brings incalculable hardship to the working class. The cruelest hardships are mass unemployment caused in a number of capitalist countries by the sharp curtailment of production, and the increased exploitation, resulting from the intensification of capitalist rationalization. In the United States where even in the period of increasing production in recent years the number of workers engaged in industry has declined owing to the extraordinary intensifi- cation of labor; the number of unemployed, which is rapidly increasing, is now about six million, and in the State of New York is the highest since 1914. Notwithstanding this enor- mous growth of unemployment, the American bourgeoisie, which is the richest in the world, has not to this day introduced state unemploy- ment insurance. In Germany, where the economic crisis is only beginning, three and a half million work- ers have already been thrown onto the streets. In Great Britain, which has not yet entered the crisis-phase, unemployment has grown from one and a half to two million. In Japan there are about one million unem- ployed. In fascist Italy, there are 800,000 unem- ployed; there has been a drastic fall in wages and the working day has been increased. In Poland, where one out of every three workers is unemployed; the number. of unem- ployed being 300,000. In Austria and Czecho- slovakia there are 400,000 unemployed workers in each country. In Latin America, where the industrial pro- letariat is relatively small, there are 1,500,000 unemployed. All in all, in capitalist countries, about 17,- 000,000,, and with their families numbering about 60,000,000 people have been thrown into the depths of povecy: Moreover, millions of workers are engaged only part time and are under the constant threat of being thrown onto the streets entirely to swell the already enor- mous army of unemployed. The conditions of these masses of unemployed are all the more unbearable, become desperate for the reason that in capitalist countries they are as a rule | deprived of any kind of support from the state, or receive miserable doles. Chronic unemployment is assuming even more frightful dimensions owing to the masses of peasants, ruined by the agrarian crisis, fill- | ing the ranks of the reserve army of labor thus still further depressing the labor market and enabling the capitalists to reduce wages still protracted economic depression and crises which | developed as a result of monstrous impoverish- ment of the masses, and which, are aggravated by post-war partition, feudal survivals, slavish dependence on world imperialism, create in- creasingly the pre-requisites for a general poli- tical crisis. In the colonies the crisis is due to he development of predatory forms of finance apital which relies on native feudalism, to the idespread practice of cultivating a single type of crop which makes the colonies economically totally dependent on market fluctuations in the imperialist countries (India, Egypt, etc.), and to the heavy drop in the price of colonial raw material far greater than the drop in the prices of all manufactured goods and other agricul- tural produce. The crisis is particularly acute in countries of the colonial type because the enslavement of the toiling masses by the im- perialists, the native landlords and the bour- geoisie is linked up with unparallelled impover- ishment of the workers and peasants. 2. The crisis in the United States, which arose out of the general crisis of the capitalist system, is beginning more and more to assume an international character because: (a) the United States plays a leading role in the cap- italist sector of world economy (about 50 per- cent of the world’s production and gold re- serves are concentrated in the United States); (b) the interests of the individual capitalist countries are so interlocked as a result of the organization of international trusts and yndicates, the development of the export of capital and the system of international debts, so that all capitalist countries are drawn into the economic crisis; (c) the shrinking of the home market in the United States compels American capital to fight more fiercely for the world market, which means that the world market becomes restricted for other capitalist countries; (d) the struggle American capital is waging for markets tends to force down world prices, thus ruining the weaker competitors; (e) curtailed output in the United States brings in its wake crises in countries which export raw material and semi- manufactured goods to the United States (Japan—silk, Indo-China—rubber, Brazil—cof- fee). Consequently, the crisis in the United States is beginning to affect the capitalist countries of West Europe, as is already mani- fested in the drop in prices, the fall of the value of stocks, reduced emissions, the begin- (ait of a currency crisis in a number of colo- nial countries, an increase in the number of /bankruptcies, almost a universal, though not equal, reduction of output, and finally, wage cuts and universal growth of unemployment. At the same time the uneven development of s tapitalist system explains the variety of form, degree and character which the crisis in the various countries assumes. In some coun- tries the effects of the American crisis are seen in their being drawn directly into the crisis- Hee ¥ (Canada, Australia); in others it is seen in the spreading over a wider territory (East Europe, colonies, China and India, the South American countries, Japan); in a third type of country it is seen in the maturing of a general. economic crisis (Germany); in a fourth it is seen in the accentuation of the chronic depres- sion prevailing in a number of important in- dustries (Great Britain); in a fifth it is mani- lower. Particularly appalling is the position of the agricultural proletariat which is held in bondage by the landlords, plantation owners and farmers. In the colonies where capitalist rationalization means ruthless extermination of labor power, incalculable unemployment in in- dustry and agriculture brings starvation to mil- | lions of toilers. At the same time, instead of | reducing the working day, the bourgeoisie pur- sues a policy of increasing the hours and speed- ing up of labor to an intense degree. Intensifying the pressure on the workers, speeding up and the intensity. making labor still more exhausting and cutting wages al- | ready low, the monopolist capitalist associa- tions and their state more and more ruthlessly hurl their attack upon the working class, wor- sening the position of the working masses to the utmost degree. 4, The effect of the world crisis upon world | capitalism is made still more disastrous for the reason that it is maturing at the very time when tremendous economic development is tak- ing place in the U.S.S.R., which, in this respect presents a striking contrast to the whole cap- italist world. The extremely rapid progress of socialist industry which is developing at a rate unparallelled in the annals of history and is accompanied by a steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the working class, by a sharp drop of unem- ployment, the growing activity of the proleta- riat on the basis of ever-developing self-criti- cism and struggle against bureaucracy, the growth of creative initiative of the proletariat (socialist competition, shock brigades, depart- ments, and whole factories) and finally, the growing confidence of the masses of peasants in the Soviet government and the policy of the Communist Party, guarantee the possibility of an accelerated rate of socialist reconstruction of agriculture, and the turn of millions of peas- ants towards socialism as expressed in the mass transition from petty-individual peasant farming to large scale collective agriculture. The policy of liquidating the kulaks as a class now being applied, the ruthless suppression of all counter-revolutionary intrigues against the proletarian dictatorship, the increasing intro- duction of the seven-hour working day and the four-day working week, the acceleration of the fulfillment of the Five-year Plan so that it will be carried out in four years—all these are mighty achievements for the international pro- letarian revolution. There can be no doubt whatever that all this, altering as it does the correlation of forces of the two economic world systems in favor of international socialism, makes the U.S.S.R. an even more powerful factor than ever in. the intensification of the capitalist crisis and in the revolutionization of the proletariat and of the exploited masses of the world in general. The Communist Inter- national point to the powerful energy and rising enthusiasm displayed by i> working class of the U.S.S.R. which is ovevcoming all obstacles in its path and is smashing resistance of the elements hostile to the proletariat, and imposes on all its sections the obligation to organize a widespread publicity campaign among the masses of the workers and all toilers in general in order to explain the magnificent success of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. and for the purpose of welding together all tollers un- der the banner of the revolutionary struggle for the proletarian dictatorship, ‘ 5. “The development of the economic crisis, which extremely intensifies the struggle be- tween the capitalists monopolist combines in conjunction with their respective governments | ist wars. world supremacy, the frantic armament race | ‘Resolution on Comrade Manuilsky’s Report Passed by the Enlarged Presidium of the Executive re-division of the world, and carries the pro- tectionist policy to the extreme, is leading the capitalist world into a period of new imperial- The Anglo-American struggle for between Great Britain and the United States, the titantie pressure of the United States on British colonial possessions and dominions on the one hand, and Great Britain’s desperate struggles for the retention of her positions, especially in South America on the other hand. —the. whole struggle being conducted behind a screen of military-political regroupings and fic- titious disarmament conference, like the Lon- don Conference which, under the cloak of dis- armament, is working for the re-armament of the navies on the most up-to-date technical basis—are accompanied by the growth of: an- tagonisms in Europe itself, which is accentu- ated by the growing rivalry between Amerran capital and its European competitors on the world market. Under thése circumstances, the Young Plan, which is a program of struggle now being car- ried out under the hegemony of American fi- nance capital by the bourgeoisie of the victori- ous. countries in agreement with the finance oligarchy of Germany, represents: (a) a plan to subjugate the German proletariat, to lower its standard of living and to increase its exploi- tation; (b) a plan to increase the power of the finance capital of the victorious countries (the thousands of million extorted from Germany); consequently, it is a plan to renew the capital- ist attack on the working class of these coun- tries and to lower their standard of living; (c) a plan of financial blockade (the Bank of International Settlements) and preparation of military pressure on the U.S.S.R. and finally, the Young Plan means accentuation of the struggle within the imperialist camp itself around questions connected with the division of the imperialist booty. In this connection, the Presidium of the E.C. C.L. calls upon all Sections of the Communist International, and the British, French and Italian Communists Parties in particular, to give active support to the struggle of the working class of all countries, and of the Ger- man proletariat in particular, against the Young Plan and the domination of the im- perialist bourgeoisie and for the victory of the revolutionary dictatorship of the working class. In their endeavor to transfer the burden of | the disastrous consequences of the crisis to the economically and politically enslaved countries, the ruling imperialist powers are increasing their pressure on the dependent states as well as their oppression and financial strangu- lation of the colonies, and are extending the system of violence, military occupation and pre- datory seizure of the land of the ruined peas- antry. As the fierce struggle in the imperialist camp for the redivision of the world develops, ist countries and colonies grow and as the vic- torious development of socialist construction in the U.S.S.R. progresses, the danger of new im- perialist wars, and of a military attack on the U.S.S.R. in particular, grows also. The col- lectivization of agriculture and the application of the policy of liquidating the kulak in the Soviet Union, which deprives the imperialist bourgeoisie of its last internal ally in the event of intervention, cannot but give rise to renewed activity on the anti-Soviet imperialist front and to attempt to widen it; they cannot but give rise to renewed acts of provocation against the Soviet Union on the part of the imperialist powers, who in this are strenuously supported and inspired by social-democracy in all countries (interference of the United States and France in the conflict on the Chinese East- ern Railway, the rupture of diplomatic relations between Mexico and the U.S.S.R., the anti- Soviet campaign in Great Britain, Germany and France in defense of the counter-revolu- tionary clergy in the U.S.S.R. and the action of the pope in coming out at the head of the whole clerical reaction against the U.S.S.R.). The defense of the Soviet Union from the menace of an attack by the imperialists is, more than ever before, the most important task of all the Sections of the Comintern. Il. The Parties of the Second International in Power. 6. In the midst of the developing crisis so- cial democracy reveals itself more than ever before in its role as active instrument of the policies of the counter-revolutionary bourgeoi- sie, by worsening the economic conditions of the working masses, converting the state ap- paratus into an open instrument of fascist dic- tatorship and preparing new imperialist wars. In Germany, the experience of eighteen months of rule of social-fascism has shown that at the head of the coalition government it really fulfilled the will of the German capital- ists, helped them to carry through with increas- ing ferocity a policy of suppressing the work- ing class and preparation of new wars. Instead of the promised consolidation of peace and reduction of the burden heaped on the toil= ing masses of Germany by the Versailles Trea- ty and the Dawes Plan, the social-fascist policy has resulted in the Young Plan which still further enslaves the working class and toiling masses of Germany to the victorious countries, means increased military and naval armaments and involves Germany in the anti-Soviet front ; (acquital of the white guard forgers, treaty with Poland against the U.S.S.R., ete.). Instead of the promised consolidation of poli- tical democracy, the policy of the social-fas- cists has brought greater repression for the working class: the suppression of the Red Front Fighters League which existed under bourgeois governments; the coercive “Defense of the Republic Act,” which is directed against the Communist Party and the revolutionary proletarian organizations; the persecution of the Communist press, not merely prohibition of labor demonstrations, but the shooting down of such demonstrations by the social-fascist police. Instead of the promised “industrial demo- . fested in the appearance of the first symptoms | and .in the various capitalist countries for the ' cracy” and wide social-legislation, the policy of as the revolutionary movements in the capital- ; | support to the bourgeois parties in introducing social-democracy has given the German work- | ers a consolidated and naked dictatorship of finance capital, further enforcement of capital- ist rationalization which throws hundreds of thousands of workers onto the street, worsen- ing of the Unemployment Insurance Act, the threat to deprive the workers of all public as- sistance, increased municipal taxes, the whole burden of which falls upon the working clas: reduction of real wages, scab measures of the fascist trade union and social-democratic apparatus against the revolutionary trade union opposition and against strikers, and nu- merous expulsions of revolutionary workers from trade unions. | 7. In Great Britain the same tendencies mark the policy of the labor government which at the general elections promised universal di armament, better relations with the U.S.S.R., democratic reforms in the colonies (first and foremost in India), improvement in the condi- tions of the working class and a reduction of | unemployment, but which in fact is not only continuing the policy of the conservatives, but goes even further in regard to worsening the conditions of the working class and oppressing the colonies (introduction of capitalist ration- | alization, wage cuts for textile opera » bru- tal suppression of revolutionary movements in | the colonies). R. Instead of the promised disarmament, we see, | under the cloak of pacifist phrases, growing armaments on land and Instead of im- proved relations with the U.S.S.R., the “labor” government continues with more subtle meth- ods the anti-Soviet policy of the die-hards (Henderson’s attitude on the question of czar- ist debts and “propaganda;” interference in the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway in favor of the Nanking usurpers; Henderson’s recent statement in defense of the counter- revolutionary clergy in the U R., ete.). a. Instead of democratic reforms in the colonies | we see that the terrorist regime in India is | becoming figrcer, the bloody suppression of the | Negro movement in South Africa, Arabian- Jewish massacres organized in Palestine, and | an enslaving treaty signed with Egypt. Instead of improvement in the conditions of | the workers we see wage cuts (in the textile industry and on the railways); the promise to | restore the seven-hour day in the mines is | shamelessly broken; a new law is passed which | will tend to worsen the conditions of the un- | employed. 8 Such is the practice of the two principal’ | parties of the Second International now in pow- er in the largest capitalist countries of Europe. Where the social-democrats are not in pow- er, they as a rule, support the measures of the most reactionary bourgeois governments against the working class and the Communist Parties; they are openly at the head of the fierce anti- Soviet campaigns hand in hand with the Rus- sian white guards (France); they give active a fascist constitution (Austria), they mobilize all their forces in the service of fascist terror against the Communists and revolutionary workers (Poland). The sharper the crisis of the capitalist sys- tem becomes the more rapidly are the social- democratic elements converted into police auxi- | liaries of the financial oligarchy, the more | active and direct is the part the social-demo- crats play in the defense of the capitalist sys- tem, in the suppression of the revolutionary movement of the working masses and the colo- nial peoples and in the war preparations | against the U.S.S.R. The “left” social-fascists continue to play this role of executioner in full agreement with-| the social-democrats, except that they do so with more intricate and concealed method which renders them the most dangerous enemies of the working class. IM, The Tasks of Communist Parties: Strike Struggles, Unemployed Movement, Demonstrations. 9. By accelerating the process of concentra- tion of capital and the ruin of the middle and petty-bourgeoisie, by increasing enormously the impoverishment of the vast masses of the peas- antry, especially in the colonies, finally, by intensifying to an unprecedented degree all forms of exploitation, the crisis intensifies the social. contradictions of the capitalist world to the utmost degree. The intensification of the class struggle aris- ing therefrom leads to the growth of fascism at one pole of society and, owing to the crisis, to the use of increasingly ferocious methods for suppressing the masses (shooting of strik- ers, smashing of revolutionary working class organizations, arrest of its foremost fighters, dismissal of Communists and revolutionary workers from the factories, etc.), while at the other pole, it leads to a rising revolutionary tide, a widening of the front of the revolution- ary struggle and inclusion in the general rev- olutionary front of the peasant reserves of the colonies and those of a number of capitalist countries. . 10. The Sixth World Congress placed on record the swing to the left of the working class which replaced a certain amount of de- pression noticeable in the preceding period in the labor movement. The Tenth Plenum of the E.C.C.I. emphasized the rise of a new rev- olutionary tide in capitalist countries which found expression in the development of mass economic strikes and which in many instances | assumed the character of a counter-offensive against the capitalist attack (the Ruhr, Lodz, | the textile workers in France, the strikes in the South of the U. S. A., Bombay), and in a series of demonstrations (demonstrations in France, May Day in Berlin and Poland). How- ever, these actions of the proletariat were of a desultory character and affected only certain of the proletarian centers. The outstanding feature in the labor move- ment since the Tenth Plenum of the E.C.C.1. is the further rise of tie revolutionary tide in the midst of a maturing world crisis and mass unemployment, MATURING INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC CR MASS UNEM Po ANI eR se | the working cla: The strike movement now developing thru- out the world on the basis of struggle for the economic demands of the prole at is char- acteristic for the fact that it develops more and } more outside of and in opposition to the refor- mist unions, which play the role of scabs and that the unorganized masses take an in- creasingly active part in them, in which con- nection the practice of creating organs for strike leadership by the masses themselves in the process of the struggle becomes more and more widespread. In the largest capitalist countries a further growth of the strike movement is observed. In France the number of strikes in 1929 was double that of 1928 and at the beginning of 1930 a further growth of strike movements was observed. In Great Britain the number of strikes in 1929 increased several fold com- pared with 1928. While the: a slight diminution in the number of strikes in Ger- many last year. the strikes that occurred bore a more fierce and stubborn character. In a number of countries strikes more often ac- companied by mass demonstrations, which not infrequently ended in collisions between the s and the coercive machinery of the bourgeois state (United States, Australia). In the overwhelming majority of cases these strikes commence as an economic movement for increased wages or against wage reductions, but in many cases they assume a political char- ter, are conyerted into solidarity strikes (16 per cent of strikes in France), strikes in defense of dismissed and victimized workers (Germany) ors in defense of proletarian revolution- | ary organizations (Rumania). Even in coun- tries where the most unbridled fascist terror prevails, strikes break through the framework of the ist dictatorship (Italy). 11. In many countties which are entering the crisis-phase and where a slight decline is observed in the economic strike movement, the ion in ising revolutionary tide finds expr various militant forms of proletarian activity as well as in the more acute forms of economic struggle. Simultaneously with the strike movement, there is an extension of the unemployed move- ment which takes the form of hunger marches, political demonstrations of the working class which demand from governments and parlia- ments work and bread for the hungry, social insurance, unemployment relief at the expense of the state and the capitalists. These demon- | strations are cruelly suppressed by the joint efforts of the bourgeoisie and the social-fas- cists, ployed and unemployed workers, and leading in some places to the establishment of commit- Embracing ever wider masses of em- tees and councils of unemployed, this movement breaks through bourgeois legality, establishes the right of the working mi and rallies broad masses of the working class around the political slogans of the Communist Parties (the recent demonstrations in Germany, Poland, United States and Rumania). The slog- to the street an of a mass political strike is becoming the order of the day. 12. The development and intensification of the crisis not only worsens the conditions of 3 it severely hjts the peasantry, especially its poorer sections. As a result we witness a revival of the revolu- tionary peasant movement (Italy, Poland, Greece, Rumania). This movement assumes the widest dimensions in certain colonial coun- tries where it merges with the labor and na- tional revolutionary movements. The collapse of the counter-revolutionary unification of China, and the intensification of the struggle of the imperialists for spheres of influence in that country is accompanied by a new wave of revolutionary peasant outbreaks (guerilla and peasant armies). In India, owing to the sharp economic crisis and the intensification of the terrorist regime, we see, in addition to big s (Calcutta, the Great Indian Railway) and political demonstrations a revolutionary awakening of the peasant masses (Punjab). At the present time, a revolutionary struggle is flaring up against French imperialism in Indo-China, the mass of All this goes to show that notwithstanding the uneven flow of the revolutionary tide which is expressed in the variety of forms the class struggle assumes and in the varying degrees of its intensity, the revolutionary tide is rising nevertheless, lifting the’ working masses to the major tasks of the revolutionary struggles, the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of proletarian dictator- ship. 18. After the X Plenum of the ECCI, the ideological state of the Communist Parties passed through a process of further consolida- tion on the basis of the line of the VI Congress, the line of determined struggle against de- viations and especially against the Right , Wingers and conciliators accompanied by purg- ing the Communist Parties from decadent and semi-social-democratie elements. The correct- ness of the estimation of the Right Wingers and conciliators made by the X Plenum and its declaration that defence of the views of Right opportunism was incompatible with membership of the Comintern, and that the conciliators had adopted the Right Wing posi- tion, have been wholly and entirely confirmed. The Right Wing renegades of Germany, Czechoslovakia and the United States expelled from the Comintern even prior to the X Plenum have adopted the social-democratic position on | all fundamental issues of working class policy | and tactics. The Right opportunist opposition in the Communist Party of Sweden (Kilboom), formed after the X Plenum and expelled from | esp the ranks of the Comintern and also among the | | oppartunist elements of the unitarian trade unions and in the Communist Party of France, ete, have undergone the same process of evolu- tion (unification of renegades under the false banner of the so-called Trade Union Defence League, the vociferous agitation for the so- called workers’-peasants’ party). Together with the social-democrats, the Right Wing renegades .support the view regarding the further consolidation of capitalist stabiliza- tion: they deny that there is a rising revolu- ISIS. GROWING PLOYMENT AND STRIKE ACTION tionary tide, an increase in the war danger. They borrow the arguments from the social- democrats to use against the independent tactics of the Cor.munist Parties in the trade union movement, try to force upon the Communists working in reformist unions the discipline of the social-fascist trade union apparatus, ad- vocate a united front of Communists and social- fascist campaign against the Communist Parties and the U.S.S.R. and supply material for that campaign. The fragments of the Trotskyist groups headed by Trotzky have in fact also descended to this position. A complete identity of views is to be recorded between the Trotskyites and the Ring Wing renegades on all fundamental questions of policy and tactics, and there is complete harmony Between them, even to the extent of open blocs (Hamburg and China) in regard to the work which both alike are en- deavoring to carry on as the direct agents of social-democracy, in order to demoralize the Communist Parties, The determined struggle of the Communist Parties against the social-democrats which is inseparably linked up with the task of winning the masses to the side of Communism, pre- supposes the ruthless exposure of the social- democratic agents acting under the Communist flag, both the Right Wing and Trotskyite re- negades, the further purging of the Parties of elements that attempt to play the same role inside our organizations, and the overcoming of all opportunist deviations, both Right, which is the main danger, as well as the Left, in the Communist ranks, 14. In the midst of the developing crisis, of the further intensification of the class strug- gle and the rising revolutionary tide the fun- damental tasks of the Communist Parties are: to capture the main masses of the proletariat, to mobilize around the proletariat and under its hegemony the broad toiling masses (the peasantry, the ruined urban petty-bourgeoisie, the oppressed nationalities); secure Party lead- ership in > ass actions, and to direct these ac- tions (strikes, unemployed movements, demon- strations), actions which often break out spon- taneously, along the channels of an organized political struggle, especially in the form of mass political strikes, which will bring the working class towards the task of the revolutionary struggle for rower. The fulfilment of these fundamental tasks— which are decisive in the present stage—in accordance with the decisions of the X Plenum, calls for: 1, Consolidation of the Party organizations, ially the factory nuclei and trade union fractions: wider embracing of the masses of revolutionary workers by Party organizations, in connection with which the campaign for the recruiting of new members which has been successfully, though not sufficiently, conducted in the last few months in the Communist Par- ties of Germany and the United States of Amer- ica, is of exceptional importance. 2. While further strengthening the work of agitation and propaganda to the fullest possible extent a change must be made in the forms and methods of work of the Communist Parties to make them correspond with the task of lead- ing the mass actions of the proletariat (strikes, unemployed movements, demonstrations), of the revolutionary peasantry and agricultural labor- ers (at home and in the colonies), while real and effective preparation must be made for these actions. In Great Britain where this task of changing the forms and methods of work is very urgent indeéd, the “Daily Worker” play an important part in bringing about this change, 3. In connection with the fundamental tasks of capturing: the masses, the process of radical- ization of which must be accelerated to a con- siderable degree by the maturing crisis—work in the reformist Unions, and work on the basis of the united front tactic from below for the liberation of the masses from the influence of the social traitors, becomes of particular im- portance. This requires also more intensive work by the Communist Parties in the revolu- tionary Trade Unions (France, Czechoslovakia, United States), exergetic recruitment of work- ers for these tride unions, the securing for the Communist Parties of the leadership in all the organs of mass proletarian struggle created from below (factory committees, strike com- mittees, unemployed committees, etc.) and strengthening on this basis the revolutionary trade union opposition in the reformist unions, and its definite organization. In ‘connection with all this, the task in Germany is to con- solidate to the utmost the ranks of the revolu- tionary trade union movement and the organi- zational centre of this trade union movement. 4, The unfolding strike struggle which in some countries is combined with other forms of political struggle of the working class (mass demonstrations, solidarity strikes, ete.) raises before the Communist Parties the task of ex- tensive popularizing the slogan “mass political strike” and in the work of the Communist Parties themselves it raises the task of com- bining open with illegal work. In this connec- tion, the duty of the Communist Party of Poland is to prepare the working class for the leading role in the maturing general political crisis, 5. The Communist Parties in the colonies and dependencies must .concentrate their ac- tivity on the creation and consolidation of mass proletarian organizations and on securing their class independence as a fundamental condition for the pholetariat obtaining the leading role in the growing revolutionary movement of the toiling masses of town and country. In China, the task is of strengthening the Communi Party and red trade unions, and also of cap- turing the rank and file of the Kuomintang trade unions and of securing the leadership of the working class over the revolutionary peasant masses. The first task in India is that of creating a Communist Party as the genuine leader of the proletariat. The same task confronts also the Communists of Inde nesia and Indo-China,