The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 16, 1931, Page 7

—_ AUPE, oa annonce growing discontent within the fas- cist “Labor Party”—N. P. S.*) the Social-Fascist P. P. S. (Polish So- cialist Party) and the Fascist Pea-. Sant Parties; in the. growing fric- tion within the fascist camp, and also in the strengthening of ‘the Communist Party of Poland. In Spain where the exploitation of the working class and the misery of the peasant masses ruined by the crisis, the Church and the semi- feudal land system as well as na- tional ‘oppression (Catalonia, Bas- que) have reached an unheard-of degree, the growth of the elements of the revolutionary crisis is ex- pected in the following: the tre- mendous upsurge of the economic and political strikes of the prole- tariat, the commencing revolution- movement of the urban petty geoisie against the monarchy (demonstrations of students, etc.), the aggravation of the national re- volutionary movement in Catalonia and Basque, the disintegration of *)* Non-Party Socialists, the fac- tion that split off from. the Polish Socialist Party; alleged to be revo- lutionary but is even more fascist than the P. P. Ss. Ill, SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY AS a PRINCIPAL SOCIAL BULWARK OF THE DAtLY WORKER, ‘NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1931 es : Page Three ng the army as well as the dissolution of the ruling classes and~ their parties, In China the revolutionary crisis finds expression in the organization of Soviets and of the Red Army in a territory with a population of}: scores of millions which places China in the front rank of the na- tional revolutionary movement of the colonial world. The establish- ment of Soviets and the Red Army are a condition for the success of the hegemony of the proletariat in the national revolutionary move- ment, in the anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution. a hegemony which is already str: .¢thening it- self in the beginni-gs of State power. The Soviets and the Red Army, which have grown out of the agrarian revolution, are rousing to the fight by the concrete experierice of the Soviet districts the workers of the industrial centres and the masses of the-peasantry by“liquid- ating the feudal property of the landlords, re-distributing land in the interests of the masses of the peasantry and undermining the hangmen’s regime of the counter- revolutionary Kuomintang, ‘The further development of the Soviet BOURGEOISIE. 1, The world economic crisis has revealed in all its clarity the role of international -Social-Democracy as the principal social bulwark of the dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. At all the fundamental stages in the development of the class strug- gle since the world imperialist war and the rise of the proletarian dic- tatorship, Social-Democracy has been on thé side of capitalism against the working class. It sent millions of proletarians to the im- perialist slaughter under the ban- ner of “National Defense.” It as- sisted the bourgeoisie in the respec- tive countries to carry out military intervention in the USSR. in 1918- 20. It saved capitalism from pro- letarian revolution immediately af- ter the war (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Finland). It ac- tively assisted the bourgeoisie. to consolidate capitalist industry. It harnessed the masses of the work- ers to the yoke of capitalist ra- tionalization. It is now, in this period of severe crisis, exerting every effort to save the capitalist system of exploitation and slavery from impending doom. 2. The whole development of So- cial-Democracy from the time of the war and the rise of the Soviet Government of the USSR. is an uninterrupted process of evolution towards Fascism. Its policy in regard to the capi- talist offensive against the working class is a policy of direct and in- direct support of wage-cuts, of re- during the whole system of social insurance, of supporting the new wave of ruthless rationalization, the organization of the sabotage and the breaking up of strikes, the perfecting of the arbitration sys- tem as an instrument for strike- breaking and enslaving the work- ing class. /In regard to the economie and financial robbery of the masses of the people, its policy is to render banks, the trusts and the cartels, the policy of high prices for all commodities for mass consumption, of tightening the screw of taxation and active support for protection. In regard to colonial plunder its policy is that of the direct suppres- sion of the national-revolutionary movement in the colonial and semi- colonial countries, a policy that means tens of thousands of prison- ers and mass shootings in India, the destruction of villages from ae- roplanes; direct support for the ex- ecutioners’ government of Chiang- Kai-shek and for the open war which foreign warships are con- ducting on the Yangtze against the Red Army in the South of China; the mass executions in Indo-China. In regard to imperialist plunder, its policy is active and direct co- operation in the Versailles system, in intrigues behind the scenes of &@ pronounced secret diplomacy, sup- port under the mask of “pacifism” for the bachanalia of armaments and preparation for war, support for imperialist military alliances. In Great Britain the “Labor Par- ty” on coming into power, promised to relieve unemployment and im- prove the conditions of the unem- ployed, to fight against the lower- ing of the standard .of living of the workers, peace with India, a firm policy of disarmament. As a matter of fact, in carrying out the behests of the imperialist bourge- oisie, the “Labor” Government is carrying through capitalist ration- alization, reducing wages by means movement in China, which is reyo- lutionizing the whole of the colo- nial world, is linked up with the expansion and consolidation of the territorial base of the Soviets and of the Red Army. In India, the revolutionary mass movements against British impe- rialism is becoming wider and deeper as a consequence of the growth of the labor and peasant movements and the simultaneous treacherous transactions and coun- ter-revolutionary alliance concluded between the national-reformist bourgeoisie and British imperialism. The revolutionary mass movement is absorbing new millions of work- ers, peasants and the urban poor; it is breaking down the frame-work of counter-revolutionary Gandhi- ism, is beginning to free the masses from its influence and is passing to open forms of revolutionary struggle (armed conflicts with the police and the troops, rebellion in Peshawar, Sholapur, peasant up- risings in Burma, Berar, etc., the rebellion in Cawnpore, the mass labor demonstrations against Gan- dhi and the National Congress). The proletarian leadership of the of arbitration, lengthening the working day (the Coal Mines Act), is reducing expenditure on social insurance, is drowning in blood the revolutionary movement for liber- ation in India, Egypt and. Arabia, is excelling the Baldwin Govern- ment in the construction and re- equipment of the navy and is prep- aring jointly with French imperial- ism a united front of military in- tervention against the U.S.S.R. (the role of the Labor Government in the naval agreement between France and Italy). In Germany, Social-Democracy, when it still recently was in the government, commenced by the hands of the Mueller Government the first attack on Social Insurance, first commenced the construction of new cruisers, shot down the workers during May ist demon- Strations in Berlin in 1929, pros- cribed the Red Front Fighters’ League, persecuted the workers’ press and suppressed workers strikes. Dismissed from the gov- ernment by the bourgeoisie after it had carried through the Young Plan and the anti-labor “Defense of the Republic” Act, after it had paved the way by a number of re- actionary measures for the govern- ment that is to introduce the Fas- cist dictatorship (Bruening). So- cial-Democracy, while in the gov- ernment (Prussia) and out of it, votes for all the anti-Labor laws of the Bruening government, is the organizer of strike-breaking and in- itiator of police terror against strikers and the unemployed, ac- tively supports the arming of Ger- man imperialism (the construction of new cruisers) and acts as the pace-maker in anti-Soviet propa- mass revolutionary liberation move- ment, which is an important con- dition for the victory of the Indian revolution, is now possible owing to the fact that the masses of the workers are to an increasing degree throwing off the influence of na- tional-reformism and of its most dangerous “Left” variety, and ow- ing to the fact that a Communist Party has now been formed. The task that now confronts the work- ing class is to organize the revolu- tionary action of the oppressed classes against British imperialism and the National Congress, to de- velop the labor and peasant move- ment, to organize a strong all-India Communist Party and mass Red trade unions and to prepare for a general political strike. In Indo-China the revolutionary upsurge which is taking place in the midst of the brutal terror, mass shootings and the destruction of whole villages by the French oc- cupational troops, finds expression in the unceasing growth of the anti-imperialist movement of the working class, of the peasantry and of the urban poor, which in the main is under Communist leader- ship. This movement, assuming the ganda and preparation for military intervention, 3. The whole of the counter- revolutionary anti-labor policy of international Social-Democracy is crowned by the preparation for the Blockade and military intervention against the first proletarian State in the world. The turn towards military intervention on the part of the world bourgeoisie — who have Jost hope in the capitalist degener- ation of the U.S.S.R. and in the victory of the Right Wing elements in the C.P.S.U., the general offen- sive against the capitalist elements now being carried out in the U.S. S.R. and the development of the revolutionary upsurge in the capit- alist countries have caused all the Parties of the II International (primarily. German Social-Democ- racy which is the core of. the IIT International), to turn more sharp- ly than ever towards intervention and sabotage in the U.S.S.R. for they realize that the victory of so- cialism in the U.S.S.R. will finally destroy their influence among the masses of the workers in the cap- italist countries, The trial of the Russian Men- shevist (Social-Democratic) “All Union Bureau” which disclosed the despicable role of duplicity played by Social-Democracy, revealed also that the II international, having set itself the aim of restoring cap- italism in the U.S.S.R, by means of military’ intervention, utilized its counter-revolutionary agency in the U.S.S.R. for the purpose of organ- izing sabotage in all spheres of in- dustry, it tried to disrupt the or- ganization of supplies for the work- ers and weasants, it deliberately tried to reduce the real wages of forms of mass demonstrationg guerrilla fighting and armed cone flicts with the police and the army, is accompanied in places in the North, where the influence of the Chinese revolution is particularly strong, by the establishment of Soviets. The developing revolutionary ups surge, simultaneously with the un- successful attempts of the bourgee oisie to solve the fundamental con- tradictions of the imperialist world (particularly in the colonies), create the conditions for the growth of the pre-requisites of the revolution- ary crisis in Germany and in Po- Jand, for the further development of a revolutionary crisis in China and in India and for the ripening of the pre-requisites of a revolu- tionary crisis in other capitalist countries in proportion as, primar- ily, the Communist Parties are able to mobilize and lead the mass movements against the capitalist offensive and political reaction, and to prove to the proletariat and other sections of the toiling masses, on the basis of their own experi- ence, the necessity for a revolu- tionary way out of the crisis of cap- italism. into a shock brigade of world Im- perialism which is preparing for war agains. the U.S.S.R. 4. Under pressure of the grow- ing discontent of the workers and their mass desertion from Social- Democracy the latter, revealing its impotence in the face of the crisis and unemployment, is compelled, in order to deceive the masses to resort to “Left” demagogic maneou- vers and in words hypocritically advocates a shorter working day and a 5-day week, extension of so- cial-insurance, disarmament and a fight against Fascism. Im deeds, however, by these manoeuvres, So- cial Democracy helps capital to car- ry through its attack on the stand- ard of living of the working class, to consolidate its dictatorship, to accelerate the fascisation of the bourgeois state, to suppress the mass resistance to Fascism, to un- dermine the spontaneous striving of the broad masses of the workers for the united front, and to conceal the preparations for war against the U. S.S.R. All these and similar facts plain- ly reveal the counter-revolutionary role of international Social-Democ- racy as the chief social support of the bourgeoisie in its stru7 “mle against the proletariat. Therefore, the exposure of the Social-Democrats, the exposure of the II International, the liberation of the working masses from the in- fluence of Social-Democracy, the isolation and overcoming of Social- Democracy is the immediate task for the Communist Parties. If this task is not fulfilled it will be im- possible for the proletariat to carry on a successful struggle for ii ation from the chains of ca the workers and transformed itself ism. IV. THE CONDITIONS OF THE SECTIONS OF THE C.I. AND THEIR IMMEDIATE TASKS. 1, The XI. Plenum of the ECCI notes with satisfaction a number of important political and organiza- tional achievements standing to the credit of the Sections of the Com- munist International. Since the X. Plenum of the ECCI the Right Wing elements in the C.P.S.U., who reflected the resistance of the cap- italist restoration elements in the US.S.R, to the Socialist offensive, have been utterly routed and the Right and Conciliatory groups in the Communist Parties in the cap- italist countries, who reflected with- in the Communist Movement the of the mass basis of Social Demo- cracy for the purpose of overthrow- ing capitalism and establishing the Proletarian Dictatorship. The principal achievements of the Sections of the C.I. in the past period found their expression in the following: 8) The establishment of Soviets Bulgaria in the municipal elec- tions, etg. c) In the growth of the leading role of the Communist Parties in organizing the resistance of the working class to the capitalist of- fensive and the .working class coun- ter-offensive; in the growth of the independent leadership of the Com- munist Parties (primarily of the Communist Party of Germany), of the economic struggles of the pro- letariat. d) In the successful carrying out of the general line of the V. Con- gress of the R.ILL.U. in regard to the formation of an independent revolutionary trade union move- ment in Germany. e) In the growth of the political influence of the Communist Parties among the peasantry (for example the CP, of Poland). - f) In the organisational growth of a number of Communist Parties (C.P.. of China, C.P. of Czécho- Slovakia, C.P, of Italy, etc.). The Communist Party of Germany has erable step forward in the direction of winning the majority of the working class and its experience acquires considerable international significance, g) In the formation of a Com- munist Party in India, which has issued a militant revolutionary pro- gram, and in the strengthening of the Communist Party in Indo- China, 2. Simultaneously with these suc- cesses, the XI. Plenum of the E.C. C.L has to record a number of seri- ous weaknesses and shortcomings in the work of the majority of the Sections of the Comintern which in the main find expression in the lagging behind the radicalization of the masses, in the inadequate ex- posure of Social Democracy and are the signals of a particularly serious danger in the conditions of the pre- sent higher stage of the class strug- gle. These shortcomings were ex- pressed in the following: a) In dragging at the tail of a number of important revolutionary ments; in the weakness of the work of the Communist Parties in the rural districts and particularly among agricultural laborers, Y | munist Patties failed to ‘njake, "| quate use of the “Industrial, Party” b) In lagging behind in the work of mobilizing the masses on the | basis of the defense of the everyday needs of the workers, in the in- adequate linking of the struggle for these demands with the struggle for the proletarian dictatorship (weak activity, on the part of the majority of the Sections of the C.I. in regard to carrying through in- ternational unemployed day on 25 February). c) In the intolerable passivity in resisting aggressive fascism, which occurred in Finland at the tine of the Lapuas coup d’etat, which was admitted and sharply criticised by the Central Committee and the Conference of the C.P. of Finland. d@) In opportunist passivity in re- gard to work in the army, in regard to the struggle against the danger of imperialist war and of military intervention in the U.S.S.R. (in particular the majority of the Com- ade- and Menshevist trials for the pur- pose of intensifying this Work). e) In the absolutely tnadequate support rendered by the Commun- f / y