The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 24, 1934, Page 6

Say } 1 | Page Six DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, ATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1934 Communists Must Fight Now to Win Majority of Working Class (Comtinued from preceding page) theses of the Thirteenth Plenum of the E. © C. 1, “the capitalists are no longer able to main- tain their dictatorship by the old methods of parliamentarism and by bourgeois democracy in general,” and “in view of this are compelled © pass to open terrorist dictatorship.” But the transition to the fascist dicatorship he crisis of bourgeois power does not disappear; becomes more profound, German fascism, away with the Weimar Constitution, »t done away with the crisis of the bour- power in Germany. German fascism has doing ed on the principle of “Trishka,” the char- er in Krylov's fable, i to patch up the orn coat of bourgeoi. ss it has been sbliged to cut off And here it is not only a case of one ¢ 1e bourgeoisie ¢ non-Aryan origin and the Catholic pri Germany go! nm against fas- ism. kicking social support of the liberals ng its own mass basis to the abyss. is contrac! and slipping further In these co es fascism laying the outburst of great mass movements by a terrorist dictatorship. And nevertheless Germany is the scene of revolutionary actions the importance of which is a hundred times} greater than in those countries where the move- ment exists under legal forms is temporarily de- ~o— franc, the soldiers sent to break up demonstra- tions fraternize with the workers, are hurriedly marched back to barracks and the officers there fire upOn the passing demon- stration: th volleys of machine-gun fire Twelve killed and 65 wounded. Holland. February, 1933 posts of imperialism in the colonies, in Soera- baya, there is prolonged unrest among the crew of the Dutch fleet stationed in Indonesia. On February 5, 1933, the powerful armored cruiser “De Zeven Provincien” reproduces the epic of the “Potemkin.” In face of the obvious sympa- thies of the crews of other ships towards the mutinying sailors, the Dutch government carries out on its own cruiser a bloody rehearsal for a | naval air war. Comrades, let us grant that these move- ments have not yet led to victory. But after | all without a “Potemkin” there would have been no “Aurora.” By virtue of these movements the Communist Parties are growing and strengthen- ing, the broad masses are learning the science of revolution, and they are learning it very quickly, for at the present time in the capital- ist countries the path that leads from the “Po- temkin” of 1905 to the “Aurora” of 1917 is being covered much more quickly than was the case in tsarist Russia, | The Present Level of the World | Revolutionary Movement | Weakest Imperialist Links Already} If we summarize the present condition of | the soldiers | At one of the out- | | tionary | troop of world bourgeois reaction. Japan I already become the gendarme of the Far East; fascist Germany wants fo become the gendarme of the capitalist order in Europe. Both uling cliques of Japan and Germany are ing as crusaders st. world Bc holding up the fascist whip and axe in oppo: tion to the Soviet hammer and sickle. Both governments desire expansion at the expense of the U.S.S.R., both are fighting with the same methods against “dangerous idea both dragging the capitalist world into advent for which the bourgeoisie of all capitalist coun- tries will have to pay. | Japan and Germany — Factors in | the Destruction of the Capitalist System | the The whole experience of world teaches us that the most reactionary govern- ments most frequently pave the way for the greatest revolutions. Russian tsarism with its bloody repressions did not destroy the revolu- the masses a burning hatred for the ruling | classes of old Russia the consequences of which are still being felt by the whole capitalist: world. Tsarism, too, like German fascism, attacked the working class and the Bolsheviks, but it was not tsarism which routed the working class and the Bolsheviks—it was the Bolsheviks at the head of the working class which routed tsarism. (Applause.) labor movement, but it evoked among | ment when it general crisis w! the indivi out the capitalist we already in the the case in 1914. Oisie cannot buy itself off from revo'e- by means of reforms as it did in Austria in 1918. Today the working masses in a number of capitalist countries have had experience of the “democratic so- of Hilferding and Otto Bauer. Today the Masses have been taught by the bloody ex- perience of the fascist movement to understand he meaning of revolutionary violence. Today we have the Leninist-Stalinist Communist In- ternational, which did not exist in 1914. (Pro- longed applause.) | Today Japan’s flank is threatened by the 350,- 000,000 plause.) | Today there is the U.S.S.R.—the armed sec- tion of the world proletariat. Let us assume, comrades, that the forces of | proletarian revolution will be insufficient to pre- vent the outbreak of an imperialist war. jus assume that in the individual capitalist countries these forces are still weaker than the forces of bourgeois reaction. But in union with the U.S.S.R. the relative strength of these forces is growing to an enormous degree on the inter- national arena. In the event of an attack by | imperialist Japan on the U.S.S.R., the forces of against imperialist oppression. (Ap- Cracking | | the world revolutionary movement, the fotlow- ise conclusions may be drawn Firstly, there is to be observed such a shat- tering of the capitalist system in its weak links The fascist dictatorship in Poland is already unable to check the continual growth of the | strike movement which is steadily advancing | that a crisis of the “upper classes” is maturing towards a general strike in Poland. It could not in some of these countries and in others has al- check the peasant movement in the Western| ready matured, and this crisis is beginning to | Ukraine in 1931, nor the uprising of hundreds| grow over into a nation-wide revolutionary | of thousands in the Cracow, voylooship—that | crisis. But there is not yet such a shattering is, in the heart of Poland—in 1931. In such} of the capitalist system as a whole as would @ small country as Greece, the attempt of the | create a situation favoring the immediate rup- | F bourgeoisie to set up the fascist dictatorship /|ture of the imperialist chain in its weak links. | of General Plastaris on March 6 of last year Was | The political domination of the bourgeoisie is broken up in twenty-four hours when the popu-| being undermined everywhere, but unevenly. | lation of Athens came out on the streets. Fas-| Teast of all has it been undermined, for the cist dictatorship in Italy, which has consolt-| time being, in the U.S.A., in France and to some dated its apparatus during the ten years of its | extent in England; most of all in the colonies existence, cannot prevent either the unem-|anq fascist countries. The setting up of fascist ployed movement or the strikes of agricultural dictatorship represents an intermediate stage Paes) #8 strike “in “the naval ‘stevion of | in the further. maturing of the revolutionary Spezzia. All the frenzies of the Rumanian Si-| .i3. | guranza have proved powerless to avert a Ru- manian “Lena massacre” at Bucharest, accom-| Secondly, comrades, there is to be observed panied by the shooting of five hundred people | uch @ profound discontent among the masses, and the arrest of two thousand insurgent rail- |Such an indignation on their part against capi- waymen in February of last year. Even these | ‘alist bondage as is already threatening the facts, taken by themselves, give a clear idea | bourgeoisie today with the overthrow of its of how much combustible material is accumulat- | dictatorship. This discontent is being displayed ing in the countries which are being fascised | 'Unevenly, at different times, in the most varied and in the countries of fascist dictatorship. {forms of the revolutionary movement, from Further, let us take the weakest links in the |Small scattered demonstrations and economic capitalist system. What do we see here? Rev- \strikes in Germany to guerilla warfare in the olutions in China and Spain. But the rev- colonies, to unrest in the army and open armed olution in China is a revolution in a vast coun- | Uprisings. However, in the overwhelming ma- Tsarism, just like imperialist Japan, wanted | the Japanese revolution will represent not only to disrupt a revolution by means of wars, but | Japanese workers and peasants, not only the the revolution of 1905 and 1917 disrupted the | Japanese Communist Party, out in addition to wars of tsarism. Tsarism, just like Gerinany | that the support of the whole international pro- and Japan, wanted to be the gendarnte of the | letariat and above all of its armed section— capitalist order, but the proletarian revolution | the U.S.S R. (Applause.) ae 2 meenees “= ere the antagonisms of the imperialist | jority of the capitalist countries the State appa- tertwined. The rupture of the | Tatus of coercion has not yet been so shattered, in this link will cause the whole world |the mass basis of the bourgeoisie dictatorship m to totter. And this rup-|is not so far destroyed and the mass revolu- wure has commenced w the formation of Soviet | tionary ‘movement is not so strong as to be China, whose forces are growing and strength- | able to break its way forcibly through the bay- ening every day. Soviet China represents the | onets of the bourgeoisie’s armed forces which morrow of the colonies and dependent coun-/|are beginning to waver. As a result of this, tries oppressed by imperialism. | the bourgeoisie by terrorist methods is driving Spain. On April 14, 1931, another crown slips | the discontent of the masses under ground, but from a monarch’s head and falls into the dust- | Precisely by this it is creating the conditions bin. The so-called Labor government in Eng- | for outbursts ef tremendous force which may land prudently gathers up the bankrupt mon-/|at any moment accelerate the growth of the arch Alphonso XIII. The military-terrorist | revolutionary crisis. This factor of “unex- dictatorship is overthrown at one blow by the pectedness” and “suddenness” of revolutionary insurgent workers and peasants, thus fore- Shadowing the future fate of German and Italian fascism. India. In November, 1930, at Peshawar the native riflemen refused to fire on the crowds. Uprising in Sholapur in the same year. The town in the hands of the workers’ unions for several days. Throughout 1932—continual peas- ant uprisings in Burma, in the United Provinces, in Bengal. In 1933, the peasant uprisings con- tinue. On another continent—in the countries of Latin America. September, 1931: spontaneous uprising of the navy in Chile. July, 1932: for- mation of Soviets in Chile, which last eleven days. August, 1932: anti-war movement on August 1 in Cuba, developing into a general strike and revolution, and so on. ‘What prevents these continual movements in the colonies and dependent countries, where the objective conditions for a revolutionary crisis have matured, from turning into victori- ous colonial revolution? They are prevented by the weakness and youth of the Communist Parties of these countries, by the continued influence of treacherous national reformism and above all by the monstrous pressure on the part of the world imperialist system which employs such methods of suppression combining in themselves the tortures of the Middle Ages, the bonfires of the Inquisition with the most mod- ern technique—bombardments from the air, the use of gases, etc. Were it not for this mon- strous pressure by imperialism, all China would long ago have been Soviet, and India would have dropped out of the system of British im-| perialism. But, comrades, even that armed force upon which the ruling classes rely in their efforts to retard the revolutionary movement of the masses is already beginning to waver in certain capitalist countries. The three and a half years that have elapsed since the Sixteenth Congress have been marked by unrest in the armies, in certain places taking the form of open rebellion. Cases of fraternization between soldiers and striking workers are becoming ever more frequent. So it was in France, so it was in Belgium during the miners’ strike at Borinage, so it was in other places also. Let me enu- nerate one or two individual cases. Japan. The attack on Shanghai in February, 1932. The Japanese newspapers, losing their ense of the ridiculous, write that about 600 Japanese soldiers and sailors before Chapei have “grown so homesick” that it was necessary to send them back to Tokyo at full speed. At the vresent time about 260 soldiers and officers of the Japanese army of occupation in Manchuria ure on trial, accused of holding “dangerous ‘deas.” Bulgaria. In 1932 death sentences are passed n 50 soldiers who part! ted in the Commu- | list organization in the army. Trials continue n 1934. Switzerland. November. Geneva, the residence of 1932. In peaceful League of Nations, | outbursts is an especially characteristic feature | of the whole present situation. | Thirdly, there is everywhere to be observed an | active participation of Communists in the front ranks of the revolutionary movement of the masses. In a number of cases the Communist | Parties have given the revolutionary movements independent leadership. But there is not yet such a political and organizational growth of the Communist Parties as would assure the jcountries” and of national reformism in the colonies, representing as they do the main fac- |tor retarding the revolutionary movement of the masses. In the overwhelming majority of |the capitalist countries the Communists have |not yet won over the majority of the working class. In a number of capitalist countries the Communists have already achieved the result that considerable sections of the peasantry are marching under the hegemony of the proleta- niat, for example, in Bulgaria and Poland— not to mention China—but they have not yet achieved this hegemony over a considerable part of the toilers in town and country in all the capitalist countries. And all this together is evidence of the fact that the most important conditions for a revo- lutionary crisis of the world capitalist system are not yet present, that the forces of the pro- Jetarian revolution have not yet matured for the decisive battle in the individual capitalist countries. And it is just because these conditions for the revolutionary crisis are not present—though they are maturing every month and every day— | that the bourgeoisie is hastening to let loose the |fury of war, in order to find a way out of the antagonisms which are throttling it. And it is just because the forces of the proletarian revolution have not yet matured in the indi- vidual capitalist countries—though they are maturing every day and every hour—that the bourgeoisie, preparing its rear for war, is un- leashing the fury of fascism. II. Fascism, War and Revolution But imperialist war and fascism are not only products of the accentuation of imperialist an- tagonisms and of the disintegration of capi- talism. They in their turn, as Comrade Stalin emphasized in his report, are still further deep- ening the general crisis of capitalism, still fur- ther disintegrating the capitalist system. Into this system, already a prey to disintegration, they are introducing still more elements of chaos and disorder. The two most reactionary governments in the world—Japan and Germany—are at present acting as objective factors in the destruction of the capitalist system, accelerating by their adventurist counter-revolutionary policy the maturing of the revolutionary crisis. Japan and the city of fashionable hotels and of the stable { " Germany at the present day represen? a shock- isolation of social democracy in the “mother | J. STALIN, Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, leader of the world proletariat. Of Stalin, carrier of the banner of Lenin, it has been truly said, has converted the most reactionary and back- ward country in the world into a mighty out- post of the socialist order. (Applause.) The military clique in Japan wants a war threat of revolution on the part of the Japa- nese workers and peasants. Imperialist Japan is being torn asunder by its inner contradic- tions. “At the present time, as before a thunder- storm, the whole sky is darkened by storm clouds. It is the calm before the storm,” de- clared General Araki in an interview after the great military maneuvers in October, 1933. And the Japanese militarists want to disperse these storm clouds by the thunder of cannon on the frontiers of the US.S.R. The firm, unswerving policy of peace pur- sued by the Soviet Union, reinforced as it now is by a number of non-aggression pacts, by the recognition of the U.S.S.R. by the United States of North America, has hitherto frustrated the provocational policy of the Japanese militarists. But counter-revolutionary adventurism is void of political reason. An attack on the U.S.S.R. by imperialist Japan cannot be removed from the order of the day. But what would a counter-revolutionary war by Japanese imperialism against the US.S.R. mean? This would not be a war between Para- guay and Bolivia, this would not be a war of two capitalist States against one another. This would be a war of the most reactionary dipi- talist State against the bulwark of world pro- letarian revolution. And it could not but lead to the setting in motion of the whole force of the world proletarian revolution. Masses Are Learning the Meaning of Revolutionary Force Lenin wrote of the war of 1914 that it cre- ated a revolutionar® situation in Europe. But in 1914, when capitalism entered the war, it was not after five years of an economic crisis which has already inflicte€ more losses upon capitalism than it sustained in the world im- perialist war of 1714-18. Capitalism today is approaching a new imperialist war at a mo- against the U.S.S.R. because there is a growing | “that there is no one in the world to whom the masses listen more eagerly than to Comrade Stalin.” Drawn by Morris Kallem Let the bourgeoisie today try. to arm the masses in the capitalist countries as it armed them at the end of the imperialist World War. it will understand then what armed peoples signify for the fate of capitalism, and how armed peoples hasten the development of a revolutionary crisis. (Applause.) German Fascism Narrows Base of Bourgeois Rule No matter that the Japanese military clique today is fanning racial chauvinism with some success. But if since 1929 30,000 persons have been arrested in Japan for holding “dangerous ideas”; if the illegal paper “Sekki’—the cen- \tral organ of the Communist Party of Japan— is appearing, not in Geneva or Paris (like “Pro- letarii” and “Vperyod”) but in Tokyo once ev- ery five days with a circulation of 60,000 copies a month; if, despite the bloody murders of Communists, a considerable section of the Tokyo students consider themselves Commu- nists; if Communist ideas are penetrating into the higher aviation academy; if the village school teachers in a tremendous number of Japanese prefectures are acting as supporters of Communism; if the peasant movements are taking hold of whole provinces, as for example Titori—then it is perfectly clear that with such a situation in the réar they will not be able to wage war successfully; with such a situation in the rear it is possible to fight against Chiang Kai-Shek but not against the U.S.S.R—the fatherland of the toilers of the whole world. (Voices: “Right!” Applause.) The victory of the U.S.S.R. and of the world proletariat over the imperialism of Japan will be the victory of the Japanese workers and peasants over the Japanese monarchy, over Araki, Mitsuri and Mitsubisi, the victory of the colonial revolution in Asia, the victory of the Soviets throughout all China; it will be a de- cisive blow against all world reaction, throw- ing open the doors for proletarian revolutions in the other capitalist countries. But if the imperialist clique of Japan is lay- ing a trap for capitalism at Port Arthur, then fascist Germany is undermining capitalism in strong Red Army of Soviet China, which in | vent of a war would lead a people of 400,- | hroes of a | the center of Europe, on the banks of the Rhine. ich did not exist in 1914. In | If Japan is laying a charge of dynamite for a jual capitalist countries and through- | war against the U.S.S.R. in order to destroy the orld as a whole elements of | correlation of forces between the proletariat and are already maturing today, | the bourgeoisie on the international arena, then Today the | fascist Germany is mining the soil for revolu- tionary explosions in its own house. But from this house, which reminds one of a mad house at the present. time, fuses stretch to all the ends of Europe. The German bourgeoi- sie, like a gambler who has lost at Monte Carlo, is now throwing on the table its last card— fascism. But on this card it is staking not only its own fate, but the fate of all capitalist Eu- rope as well. At the present time it has every right to say, paraphrasing the words of Louis XV: “After Hitler—the deluge.” The Gernian fascists wanted to rouse all Europe against the Bolsheviks, but up till now all they have achieved is that France and Poland—the ham- mer and anvil between which fascist Germany is flattened—have been obliged, in view of the | threatening danger of the new imperialist war, | to turn towards the U.S.S.R., the genuine revo- | lutionary outpost of Beace among the peoples. Germany today is bankrupt, deprived by the | fascists of that sympathy and support which Let | the world proletariat used to accord the Ger- man people, plundered at Versailles. Today not one proletarian in the world in the event of war will move a finger to support Fascist Ger- many in the struggle against Versailles. The German fascists, by means of blood-letting, wanted to rid the German proletariat of the desire for revolutionary violence, but by under- mining the democratic illusions among the so- cial-democratic workers and the prestige of bourgeois law, they are making the German proletariat an adherent of the armed uprising against the bourgeois dictatorship. The German fascists wanted to destroy Marx- ism, but they have only achieved a decisive turn of the social-democratic workers towards Communism. The German fascists wanted to destroy Communism, but they brought ifs vic- tory nearer by kindling in millions of workers throughout the world a class hatred not only against the German bourgeoisie but against the international bourgeoisie as well. The German fascists, by the burning of the Reichstag and the Leipzig trial, wanted to isolate Communism from the masses, but in actual fact they have covered themselves with universal shame in the eyes of the whole world. The German fascists, in order to undermine the influence of the Communist Party, wanted to pulverize the proletariat, but in actual fact they have brought about a united front not only of the German but also of the world pro- Tetariat which has risen in defense of Dimi- troff and the other Leipzig prisoners at the call of the Communist Party. The German fascists wanted to paralyze the influence of the Communists over the peas- antry and the petty bourgeoisie, but in actual fact, having brought these strata into political activity, they are paving the way for their tran- sition to the side of the proletariat as a result of disillusionment in fascist demagogy. Could the Fascist Dictatorship in Germany Have Been Averted? But, comrades, did the social-democratic masses really have to go through the hell of fascism in order to come closer to proletarian revolution? Did the path of the German revo- lution really lie only through fascist dictator- ship, and was it not possible to avert this dic- tatorship in Germany? Of course, it was possible, comrades. The sole condition for this was that social democ- racy should not have hindered the setting up of the united front of the working class which it had split, that it should have employed against the fascist organizations that degree of violence which it used against revoiutionary workers, This it could have done quite blood- lessly under the Mueller government in 1928. For this it would not have had to kill 20,000 fascists, as it killed 20,000 revolutionary sailors and soldiers by the hands of Noske; it would not even have had to shoot 33 men as was done with the Berlin workers by the police president Zoergiebel on May 1, 1929. It would have been enough for it to arrest 33 fascist leaders to- gether with two or three of the big capitalists who have supplied the fascists with funds, to dissolve the fascist organizations and their storm troops, to confiscate their arms, to seize their funds, to close down the fascist press, to create a regime for the fascists such as they have now created for the social-democratic workers, not to mention the Communists, And these measures would have had the support of the German Communist Party and the millions of workers who follow it. The German Com- munist Party, under these circumstances, would have only reserved for itself the right to criticise the vacillations and inconsistencies of social democracy, likewise insisting on the dissolution of the Reichswehr, the arming of the workers for defence against fascist bands and for ex- tending the gains of the working class. Social democracy could have blocked the way to fascism even under the Bruening government in 1930-32, for it had at its disposal five million trade union members and it had the State ap- paretus of Prussia in its hands. After all it was the members of the social-democratic party who manned the police tanks and armored cars; the Berlin police was recruited from among “democratic” elements by Grzezinski and Sever- ing. If the Communists had had at their dis- posal one-tenth or one-twentieth part of these arms which were in the hands of the Prussian. social-democratic government, there would be no fascism in Germany today. (Applause). Social democracy could also have spoiled the plans of the fascists under the Papen-Schleicher government, though with a greater expenditure of forces than under the Mueller government, by offering resistance, after July 20, to the dis- solution of the Prussian social-democratic gov- ernment and by putting the million members of the Reichsbanner organization into the field. It could have prevented Hitler from coming to power by accepting on the eve of his ad- vent to power the proposal made by the Com- munist Party of Germany for a united front of struggle in January, 1933; it could have overthrown the fascists after their advent to power by accepting the propoal of the Com- intern of March 5, 1933, for a common strug- gle against fascism. In November, 1932, the social democrats and the Communists together had upwards of 13,000,000 votes as against the 11,000,000 votes collected by the fascists. The influence of Hitler was already on the wane in the autumn of 1932; during three months— from July 31 to November 6, 1932—the fascists had lost over two million votes. A call for a l general strike by social democracy, the German General Federation of Trade Unions and the | Communist Party would have routed fasciam, just as in 1920 the general strike of the Ger- man workers put an end to the Kapp putech. But, comrades, social democracy did not take this course and it could not take this course because it had common ground with fascism— the preservation of capitalism—because it knew that the struggle of the working class, directed against fascism in the beginning, would surge up over its head and burst forth into revolution directed against the rule of capital in general. Course of German C. P. Correet im Given Situation But what could the Communist vanguard do under such conditions? Give battle alone with- out the support of the social-democratic work- ers, without the participation of the five milion workers organized in the reformist trade unions, having against it the united front of all bour- geois fascist reaction, including social dem- ocracy? No, comrades, this the German OCom- munist Party could not do if it did not want to become a victim of fascist and sooial-dem- ocratic provocation, which was designed, as is evident from the whole Leipzig trial, to provoke the vanguard of the proletariat to premature action and physically to annihilate it. Lenin said on the eve of the October uprising of 1917 that an uprising changes into Blanquism if those who organize it have not taken into account the political situation in general and the international situation in particular, if the objective facts do not prove that the Party which is organizing the uprising has on its side the sympathies of the majority of the people; if the development of events in the revolution has not led to the practical refutation of the illusions of the petty bourgeoisie; if the party of revolt has not won a majority in such organs of revlutionary struggle as the Soviets; if there is not a fully matured state of feeling in the army against the government; if the slogans of revolts do not win the widest publicity and popularity; if the advanced workers are not as- sured of the support of the countryside, of the support of a considerable movement among the peasants. Were these conditions of our October Rev olution of 1917 present in Germany in January- February, 1933? The resolution of the Presi- dium of the E. C. C. I. of April 1, 1983, and the article by Comrade Heckert have provided an exhaustive answer to this question. These con- ditions were not present in Germany; they were only maturing there. The whole international situation was not yet favorable to such an ae- tion by the German Communists in January- February, 1933. In France and England, i. e, in two decisive capitalist countries, whose guns were trained on the rising Gersan revolution, the Blums and Jouhaux held about NN of the organized work- ers under their influence; in England the Cit- rines and Henderstns had the majority of them under their influence. And they broke down the active support of the French and English workers towards. the German revolution. The blame for the advent of fascism to power in power Germany is borne not only by the Welses and Leiparts in Germany, but also by the socialists and reformists in’ France, bu tte General Council of Trade Unions and the Labor Party in England and by the whole Second International. The Second International — The Main Bulwark of World Reaction Under conditions of the growing world rev- olutionary crisis the Second International is playing the same role as was played for cen- turies by the church as an instrument for de- ceiving the masses. What happened to social democracy in Germany in February, 1998, will happen to Blum and Henderson in an analogous situation. The destruction of the influence of social democracy is one of the most important con- ditions for accelerating the growth of the rev- olutionary crisis. And one of the greatest in- dications of such growth of the revolutionary crisis is the incipient crisis of the Second In- ternational. As the cleavage of capitalism is growing more profound, the cleavage of social democracy is also growing. The pre-war accentuation of imperialist an- tagonisms is causing the collapse of the Second International as an international organization . and this is happening, in contradistinction to. 1914, before the outbreak of war; neo-fascist groups are appearing, there is wrangling among the social-fascist leaders, reflecting the inner Struggle in the camp of the bourgeoisie. The advanced social-democratic workers are begin- ning to turn towards Communism—more rapidly __ in some countries, such as Germany, in others more slowly. In Germany social democracy, the leading party of the Second International, has killed itself as a political party, although it is making attempts to gather together the remnants of its cadres. In France the socialist party has split into three parts. In England the Independent Labor party left the Labor party in August, 1932, and in April, | 1933, it also left the Second International; the { number of members in the reformist trade unions has diminished by 400,000. There are already two or three social-dem- ocratic parties in every capitalist country. But still more characteristic for the present condition of international social democracy is its ideological confusion. Its slogans of the present day are hysterical dartings hither and thither, testifying to the — utter confusion in its ranks. # We are for socialism, proclaims the Second _ International, but without proletarian revolu- tion. We are for proletarian revolttion, declares German social democracy, but without proleta- tian dictatorship. We only favor the restoration of democracy. % We. are for the proletarian dictatorship, but we ask the Commintern to make an exception in the case of Scandinavia, where democracy is still possible, declares Friedrich Adler. We are for organized unity, but against the united front, says the Sdfond International. And the late minister Largo Caballero in Spain makes the following comment on this thesis: There has already ceased to be any difference between us and the Communists. Why should we merge with them if we are one and the same? (Laughter), (To be concluded in Monday's towed ud | ) \