Toward the United Front

Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20778-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 34, 1312 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 1486 g

Reihe: Historical Materialism Book Series

The proceedings of the last Comintern congress in which Lenin participated, now at last available in English, reveals a Communist world movement grappling to reconcile the goal of unifying workers and colonial people in struggle with that of pressing forward to socialist revolution. The principle of national parties’ autonomy strains against calls for more stringent centralisation. Debates range over the birth of Fascism, decay of the Versailles Treaty system, the rise of colonial revolution, and women’s emancipation. Newly translated and richly annotated, the stenographic transcript of the month-long congress discloses a rich spectrum of viewpoints among delegates. Indispensable source material on early Communism is supplemented by an analytic introduction, detailed footnotes, more than 500 short biographies, glossary, chronology, and index.

Zielgruppe

All those interested in Communist and labour history, the political theory of radical movements, global efforts at social change, and movements for colonial and women’s emancipation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Riddell, John

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Politische Parteien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Editorial Introduction
About This Edition
Acknowledgements
Proceedings
Session 1. Opening Session (5 November)
Session 2. Report of the Executive Committee (9 November)
Session 3. Report of the Executive Committee (Concluded), Discussion (10 November)
Session 4. Discussion of Executive Committee Report (Continued) (11 November)
Session 5. Discussion of Executive Committee Report (Continued) (11 November)
Session 6. Discussion of Executive Committee Report (Continued) (12 November)
Session 7. Discussion of Executive Committee Report (Conclusion) (12 November)
Session 8. Five Years of the Russian Revolution and Perspectives for the World-Revolution (13 November)
Session 9. Five Years of the Russian Revolution and Perspectives for the World-Revolution (Continued) (14 November)
Session 10. Five Years of the Russian Revolution and Perspectives for the World-Revolution (Concluded) (14 November)
Session 11. The Capitalist Offensive (15 November)
Session 12. Fascism; the Capitalist Offensive – Continued (16 November)
Session 13. Credentials Report; the Capitalist Offensive – Concluded (17 November)
Session 14. Programme (18 November)
Session 15. Programme – Continued (18 November)
Session 16. Trade Unions (20 November)
Session 17. Trade Unions – Continued (20 November)
Session 18. Trade Unions (Summary); Programme; Workers’ Aid (21 November)
Session 19. The Eastern Question (22 November)
Session 20. The Eastern Question (Concluded) (23 November)
Session 21. The Agrarian Question (24 November)
Session 22. The Agrarian Question; Youth; Blacks (25 November)
Session 23. The Cooperative Movement (25 November)
Session 24. Communist Work among Women (27 November)
Session 25. Educational Work; Versailles Treaty (28 November)
Session 26. Versailles Treaty; Austria; Executive Reorganisation (29 November)
Session 27. Executive Reorganisation; Yugoslavia; Egypt; Black and Agrarian Questions (30 November)
Session 28. France (1 December)
Session 29. France, Spain, Denmark, Executive, Youth (2 December)
Session 30. Italy; Czechoslovakia (4 December)
Session 31. Workers’ Aid; Yugoslavia; Norway (5 December) 0000
Session 32. Various Resolutions; Election of ECCI; Close of Congress (5 December)
Appendixes: Congress Resolutions and Appeals

Leseproben

Editorial Introduction

At the close of the Communist International’s Fourth Congress, held in Petrograd and Moscow between 5 November and 5 December 1922, the world movement’s president, Grigorii Zinoviev, summed up the gathering’s achievements in modest terms: it had made the decisions of the International’s previous congresses ‘more specific, more precise, more differentiated’. In fact, Zinoviev understated the Congress’s achievement. In a context of significant disagreements among delegates, the wide-ranging congress debates raised issues and adopted policies that broke significant new ground for the revolutionary Left, including on issues with strong resonance in the twenty-first century.
During 1921–2, the Communist International (Comintern) sought to modify its tactics in response to a new political situation – the ebbing of the post-1917 revolutionary upsurge in Europe and a general offensive by the capitalist class against gains won by working people during the initial postwar years. The Comintern was determined to carry out this shift in a manner that sharpened, rather than dulled, its strategic focus on preparing to lead a renewed offensive for socialist revolution – which, according to Zinoviev, would unfold in ‘a matter not of decades, but of years’. Initially, there were sharp disagreements in Comintern parties, including among leaders of the Russian Communist Party, regarding the form this adjustment should take. Discord, evident at the Third Congress in 1921, persisted in more muted form at the 1922 gathering.
The Fourth Congress also addressed other shifts in world politics: the Fascist takeover in Italy; signs that the postwar settlement imposed by the Versailles Treaty and related agreements was unravelling; and early indications of an approaching revolt by colonial peoples.
In July 1921, after protracted debate, the Third Congress had concluded with the call for Communist parties to ‘win the masses’ – that is, ‘win the majority of the working class to communism’ and ‘organise the more active section of the proletariat for the coming struggle for communism’. Five months later, the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI) concretised this perspective with a call for Communist parties to struggle for a ‘united front’, that is, for the ‘greatest possible unity of all workers’ organisations in every practical action against the united capitalists’, while preserving their ‘absolute autonomy’ and ‘freedom in presenting their point of view’. This goal was to be pursued, when appropriate, through negotiations and agreements with the leaderships of non-Communist workers’ organisations.
This policy, known as the ‘united-front tactic’, was initially opposed by the French, Italian, and Spanish Communist parties, and by significant minorities in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere. Despite continuing disagreements, the Fourth Congress confirmed this policy and shaped it into a coherent plan: to build a militant and united worker-led movement against capitalist and fascist attacks, to counter growing inter-imperialist conflicts with heightened working-class internationalism, and to promote an effective, united movement for colonial freedom.
The present introduction offers a road map to the multifaceted proceedings of the month-long Congress.

The split in world socialism

The Comintern’s united-front policy sought to address a profound and intractable split in the world socialist movement. When World War I broke out in August 1914, the majority leaderships of its main parties – in Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary – supported the war efforts of their respective capitalist ruling classes, thus bringing about the ignominious collapse of the Socialist or Second International. However, working-class resistance to the War, initially expressed only by the small socialist currents such as those represented at the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference, soon took shape in mass actions of resistance.

Über Autor(innen)

Riddell, John
John Riddell has translated and edited seven volumes of documents of the Communist movement in the era of the Russian revolution. Two further Brill volumes now in preparation will complete this ambitious project.