A Declaration to the Congress Against Fascism

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From the Delegates of the International Left Opposition (Bolshevik-Leninists)

The victory of Hitler in Germany shows that capitalism cannot live in conditions of democracy, cannot even cover itself with democratic tatters. Either the dictatorship of the proletariat or the open dictatorship of finance capital! Either the workers' soviets or the armed bands of the desperate petty-bourgeois populace!

Fascism has not and cannot have any program for solving the crisis of capitalist society. But that does not mean that fascism will automatically fall a victim of its own contradictions. No, it will maintain capitalist exploitation by ruining the country, by degrading capitalist civilization, and by continually introducing greater savagery into the culture. The victory of fascism is the result of the inability of the proletariat to take the fate of society into its own hands. Fascism will live as long as the proletariat does not rise.

Social Democracy delivered the proletarian revolution of 1918 to the bourgeoisie and thus, once again, saved declining capitalism; it is the Social Democracy and it alone which gave the bourgeoisie the possibility to lean on fascist banditry in the following stage. Descending from one step to the other in pursuit of the lesser evil," the Social Democracy ended by voting for the reactionary field marshal, Hindenburg, who in his turn summoned Hitler to power. Demoralizing the proletariat by illusions of democracy in decadent capitalism, the Social Democracy deprived the proletariat of all its powers of resistance.

The attempts to cast this fundamental historic responsibility on communism are absurd and dishonest. Without communism the left wing of the proletariat would have, a long time ago, taken the road of anarchism, of terrorism, or would have simply swelled the fighting troops of fascism. The example of Austria shows only too clearly that where communism is extremely weak and the Social Democracy reigns unchallenged in the ranks of the working class within the framework of the democratic state which it created, its policy prepares, step by step, the triumph of fascism.

The top layers of the German Social Democracy are now trying to adapt themselves to Hitler's regime in order to preserve the remainder of their legal positions and the benefits that accrue from them. In vain! Fascism has brought with it a swarm of starved and ravenous locusts who demand and will obtain the monopoly of jobs and sinecures for themselves. The destitution of the reformist bureaucracy, a secondary result of the defeat of the proletarian organizations, represents the payment for the uninterrupted chain of treachery of the Social Democracy since August 4, 1914.

The leaders of the other Social Democratic parties are now trying to separate themselves from their German brothers-in-arms. It would be impermissible lightmindedness, however, to believe the words of the "left" critics of the reformist international, all of whose sections find themselves on different junctures of the same road. As in the time of the imperialist war, in the process of the fall of bourgeois democracy each section of the Second International is ready to rebuild its reputation on the back of another national party. But basically they do the same work. Leon Blum supports the militarist-imperialist French government. Vandervelde, president of the Second International, has not withdrawn, as far as we know, his signature from under this same Versailles peace which has given German fascism its present dimensions.

All the fundamental principled theses of the first four congresses of the Communist International — on the decadent character of imperialist capitalism, on the inevitability of the decomposition of bourgeois democracy, on the impasse of reformism, on the necessity of the revolutionary struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat — have found their irrevocable confirmation in the events in Germany. But their correctness has been demonstrated "ad absurdum": not by victory but by catastrophe. If despite almost fifteen years of existence of the Comintern, the Social Democracy has succeeded in carrying the policy of the "lesser evil" to its final conclusion, that is, to the worst evil that can be conceived of in modern history, we must look for its cause in the fact that the communism of the epigones has shown itself incapable of fulfilling its historic mission.

Up till 1923 the Comintern marched forward in all countries almost without a halt, weakening and ousting the Social Democracy. In the last ten years, not only did it not make any new quantitative conquests, but it suffered a profound qualitative degeneration. The shipwreck of the official Communist party in Germany is the fatal culmination of the "general line," which passed through the adventures of Estonia and Bulgaria, through the capitulation to the Kuomintang, through the no-less-infamous capitulation to the trade-union bureaucracy in England, through the Canton adventure, through the convulsions of the "third period," through the break with the mass trade unions, through the theory and practice of "social fascism," through the policy of "national liberation" and "people's revolution," through the rejection of the united front, through the banishment and persecution of the Left Opposition, and finally through the complete stifling of the independence of the proletarian vanguard by the replacement of democratic centralism with the omnipotence of an unprincipled and dull-witted apparatus.

The essence of bureaucratism lies in distrust of the masses and in the tendency to replace their conscious revolutionary activity by combinations from above or by naked commands. In Germany as well as in other countries the Stalinist bureaucracy continually put ultimatums before the working class. From above, it arbitrarily set the dates for strikes or "conquest of the streets," for "red days" or "red months"; it ordered the working class to accept all its slogans" and zigzags without criticism; it demanded that it recognize its leadership in the united front in advance and without question. On this monstrous ultimatism it based its struggle, false from beginning to end and impotent against fascism.

Errors are inevitable in the struggle of the proletariat. Through their own errors the parties learn, select the cadres, and educate the leaders. But in the present Comintern these are not errors but an erroneous system which renders a correct policy impossible. The social agents of this system are a large bureaucratic stratum, armed with enormous material and technical means, independent of the masses and conducting a furious struggle for self-preservation at the price of the disorganization of the proletarian vanguard and its weakening before the class enemy. Such is the essence of Stalinism in the world workers' movement.

In recent years the Left Opposition, before the eyes of the entire world, followed the fascist tide in all its stages and traced a policy of true revolutionary realism. As early as the autumn of 1929, that is, three and a half years ago at the very beginning of the world crisis, the Left Opposition wrote:

"Just as revolutionary situations developed more than once out of the conflict between liberalism and the monarchy, which later went over the heads of both opponents, so a revolutionary situation can develop out of the clash between the Social Democracy and fascism — two antagonistic agents of the bourgeoisie — which will pass over the heads of both of them.

"The proletarian revolutionist would be worthless if he did not understand, in the epoch of the bourgeois revolution, how to estimate the conflict between the liberals and the monarchy, and instead of utilizing the struggle in a revolutionary manner threw the two opponents into one pot. The Communist is not worth a copper who in the face of the collisions between fascism and the Social Democracy shouts down this formula with the barren formula of social fascism, which has no content at all."

The policy of the united front should have been built on this general strategic perspective. Step by step in the course of the last three years the Left Opposition followed the development of the political crisis in Germany. In its periodicals and in a series of pamphlets it analyzed all the stages of the struggle, unmasked the ultimatistic character of the formula "only from below," took upon itself where it could the initiative of united defense committees, supported the initiative of the workers in this direction, and incessantly demanded the extension of this initiative throughout the country. If the KPD had resolutely set out on this path, the reformist bureaucracy would have shown itself impotent to restrain the pressure of the workers for the united front. Smashing up against a new barrier at each step, fascism would have opened all its wounds. The local defense bodies would have grown irresistibly, in fact transforming themselves into workers' councils. Marching on this path, the German proletariat would have dealt a decisive blow to fascism and with one last stroke would have swept away the whole top oligarchy. The entire situation laid the basis for the revolutionary victory of the German proletariat

The Stalinist bureaucracy, however, took the path of unconscious but nevertheless actual sabotage of the revolution. They forbade agreements of Communists with the Social Democratic organizations, destroyed the common organs of defense created by the workers, and under the name of "counterrevolutionaries" expelled all the defenders of a correct revolutionary policy from its ranks. It could be said that such a manner of acting was especially created to isolate the Communists, to consolidate the bonds between the Social Democratic workers and their leaders, to sow confusion and disintegration in the ranks of the proletariat, and to prepare the unobstructed ascension of the fascists to power. The results are apparent!

On March 5, when the fate of the proletariat was already decided, the Executive Committee of the Comintern not only declared itself ready for the united front from above — true, on a national and not on an international scale — but consented, so as to satisfy the reformist bureaucracy, to renounce mutual criticism during the period of the united front A jump from incredible bluntness and ultimatistic presumptuousness to characterless concessions! The Stalinist bureaucracy, having stifled criticism as such within its own party, has evidently lost its understanding of criticism in the political struggle. Revolutionary criticism determines the attitude of the proletarian vanguard, that is, of the most critical party in contemporary society, towards all classes, parties, and groupings. A real Communist party can no more renounce criticism, not even for a day, than a living organism can renounce respiration. The policy of the united front does not exclude mutual criticism in any case; on the contrary, it demands it. Only two bureaucratic apparatuses, one of which is weighed down with betrayals and the other with a fatal chain of errors, can be interested in the suspension of mutual criticism, thereby transforming the united front into a silent conspiracy behind the masses, the aim of which is their own preservation. We Bolshevik-Leninists say that never and under no conditions will we join in such a conspiracy; on the contrary, we will unremittingly denounce it to the workers.

At the same time that it consents to renounce criticism, the Stalinist bureaucracy seizes upon the repulsive boot-licking of Wels, Leipart, and Co. before Hitler to revive the theory of social fascism. Actually this theory remains as false today as it was yesterday. Those who were only recently the masters of Germany, fallen under the boot of fascism, are licking this boot in order to gain indulgence from the fascists; that corresponds to the miserable nature of the reformist bureaucracy." But that does not at all signify that there is no difference for the reformists between democracy and the fascist boot, and that the Social Democratic masses are not capable of struggling against fascism when an issue is opened for them on the arena of struggle.

The policy of fascism rests on demagogy, lies, and slander. The revolutionary policy can build only on truth. That is why we are obliged to resolutely condemn the organization bureau for the convocation of the present congress, which in its appeal, speaking of the powerful development of the antifascist struggle, has given an optimistically false picture of the state of things in Germany. In reality, for the moment, the German workers are retreating without fighting in complete disorder. Such is the bitter fact which cannot be blurred by words. In order to stand on its feet, to regroup, and to concentrate its forces, the proletariat, represented by its vanguard, must understand what has happened. Away with illusions! They are precisely the illusions which led to the catastrophe. We must say what is clearly, honestly, openly.

The situation in Germany is profoundly tragic. The butcher has only begun his work. The victims will be legion. Hundreds and thousands of workers in the KPD are imprisoned. Severe tests await those who remain faithful to their banner. The honest workers of the entire world are giving their wholehearted sympathy to the victims of the fascist butcher. But it will be the height of hypocrisy to demand silence on the fatal policy of Stalinism because its German representatives have now become its victims. Great historic problems are not settled by sentimentalism. The supreme law of the struggle is to conform to the end goal. Only the Marxist explanation of all that has happened can imbue the vanguard with self-confidence. It does not suffice for it to express its sympathies for the victims; it must become stronger in order to overthrow and strangle the butcher.

German fascism slavishly follows the Italian example. .That, however, does not signify that power is assured to Hitler for a series of years, as was the case with Mussolini. Fascist Germany starts out on its course in conditions of very advanced capitalist disintegration, of mass misery unprecedented in modern history, and of threatening tension in international relations. The denouement can come very much sooner than the masters of the day think. It will, however, not come of itself. A revolutionary shock is needed.

The Social Democratic press places great hopes in the existence of cracks in the German government bloc. Along this same path, fundamentally, marches Pravda of Moscow, which only yesterday denied the existence of antagonism between fascism and the Social Democracy but today counts on the antagonisms between Hitler and Hugenberg. Contradictions in the ruling camp are undeniable. But in themselves they are powerless to arrest the victorious development of the fascist dictatorship which is dependent upon the whole situation of German capitalism. We must not expect miracles. Only the proletariat can put an end to fascism. So that the workers may proceed onto their broad historic path, a decisive turn is necessary in the field of revolutionary leadership. It is necessary to return to the policy of Marx and Lenin.

We Bolshevik-Leninists don't come to the congress to entertain any illusions whatsoever or to save false reputations. Our aim is to clear the road for the future. Naturally, we do not doubt that tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of workers who are seriously prepared for struggle will be represented at this congress. No less are we inclined to believe that the delegates will be seriously disposed in their majority to do everything possible to crush fascism. Nevertheless the congress itself, in the manner in which it has been conceived and called together, cannot, we are profoundly convinced, bear serious revolutionary significance. Fascism is a formidable enemy. To struggle against it, we need compact masses of millions and tens of millions of workers well organized and well directed. We need a firm base in the shops and in the unions. We need the confidence of the masses in a leadership that has been tested by the experience of struggle. The problem is not solved by solemn meetings or sensational speeches. This congress, hastily improvised, represents isolated groups without any links between them, who after the congress will be just as isolated as before it from the millions of proletarians.

"Isolated" individuals from intellectual-bourgeois circles will color the antifascist congress as they colored the Amsterdam [antiwar] congress. It is not a very permanent color. The advanced workers, it is true, greatly appreciate the sympathy which the best representatives of science, literature, and art have for them. But from that it does not at all follow that radical scientists or artists are capable of replacing the mass organizations or of undertaking to lead the proletariat And yet this congress pretends to leadership! Those representatives of the bourgeois intelligentsia who really desire to participate in the revolutionary struggle should begin by clearly defining their program and by attaching themselves to a workers' organization. In other words, in order to have the right to vote at a congress of the fighting proletariat, the Isolated" must cease to be isolated.

Neither the work against war nor the march against fascism requires any special art which lies beyond the general struggle of the proletariat. The organization which is incapable of analyzing the situation precisely, of leading the daily defensive and offensive battles, of gathering about it the broadest masses, of achieving unity in defensive actions with the reformist workers, freeing them at the same time of their reformist prejudices — such an organization will inevitably suffer shipwreck in the face of war as well as of fascism.

The Amsterdam congress has already shown its inconsistency in the course of the offensive of the Japanese bandits against China. Even in the domain of agitation, the alliance of the Stalinist bureaucracy with the isolated pacifists has not achieved anything substantial. It must be said openly: the antifascist congress, which in its international composition is rather an accidental meeting, is called to create an appearance of action just when there has been a default of action. If the congress, conforming to the project of its organizers, contents itself with a barren appeal, in the history of the struggle against fascism it risks becoming not only a zero but a negative quantity, for the most serious crime in present conditions is to lead the workers into error about their actual forces and the real methods of struggle.

Only on one condition can the Congress of Struggle Against Fascism play a progressive although modest role: if it shakes off the hypnosis of the bureaucratic impresarios who stand behind the scenes and puts on the agenda a free discussion on the causes of the victory of German fascism, on the responsibility of the leading proletarian organizations, and on a true program of revolutionary struggle. It is by taking this path and this one only that the congress will become a factor of revolutionary revival.

The platform of the International Left Opposition gives the only correct directives for the struggle against fascism. As the most immediate and most pressing measures, we Bolshevik-Leninists propose the following:

1. to immediately accept the proposals of the Second International for an agreement on an international scale (such an agreement does not exclude but demands the concretization of the slogans and the methods for each particular country);

2. to condemn in principle the formula of the united front "from below only," which means the rejection of the united front generally;

3. to reject and to condemn the theory of social fascism;

4. in no case and under no condition to renounce the right to criticize temporary allies;

5. to reestablish freedom within the Communist parties and all organizations that are under their control and those that make up the antifascist congress;

6. to renounce the policy of independent Communist trade-union organizations; to participate actively in the mass trade unions;

7. to renounce the infamous competition with fascism under the slogans of "national liberation" and "people's revolution";

8. to renounce the theory of socialism in one country, which nourishes petty-bourgeois nationalist tendencies and weakens the working class in the struggle against fascism;

9. to mobilize the European proletariat against Versailles and anti-Versailles chauvinism under the banner of the Soviet United States of Europe',

10. to prepare through an open and honest discussion and to convene an emergency congress of each section of the Comintern within the period of one month, in order to examine the experience of the struggle with counterrevolution and elaborate a program of action for the future;

11. to convene a democratically prepared congress of the Comintern within a period of two months;

12. to reinstate the Left Opposition into the ranks of the Comintern, its sections, and all the organizations that it controls.

It is necessary to begin to undertake the discussions between the Second and Third International by putting the question of Austria in first place. Everything has not yet been lost in that country. By starting immediately on the road of active defense the Austrian proletariat, supported by the proletariat of all the countries of Europe, could by consistent and courageous development of the offensive wrest the power from the hands of the enemy — the internal relation of forces in Austria assures victory. A Red Austria will immediately become a source of strength for the German workers. The whole situation will change abruptly in favor of the revolution. The European proletariat will feel that it represents an invincible force. And only this consciousness is necessary for it to wipe out all its enemies.

It is the USSR which occupies the central position in the struggle with world counterrevolution. In this domain, we Bolshevik-Leninists, less than ever, subscribe to the policy of official optimism. In the bureaucracy all is well five minutes before the catastrophe. Such was the case in Germany. The same method is being applied to the Soviet Union, but the situation in the first workers' state has never been so tense as at present. The basically false policy of the uncontrolled bureaucracy has thrown the country into unbearable privation, has brought the peasantry into conflict with the proletariat, has sown discontent among the working masses, has tied the hands and feet of the party, has weakened all the pillars and props of the dictatorship. The October Revolution has no need of "friends" who sing false hymns and repeat each word of the ruling bureaucracy in chorus. The October Revolution has need of militants who speak the truth, even if it is harsh, but who on the other hand maintain an unshakable loyalty in the hour of danger.

We sound the alarm before the world proletariat: the Soviet fatherland is in danger! Only fundamental reform of the entire policy will save it The program of such reform is the program of the Left Opposition in the USSR. Thousands of its best fighters, at their head Christian Rakovsky, at the present time fill the prisons and the places of deportation of the Soviet Union. From the tribune of this congress we send our fraternal greetings to our valiant comrades-in-arms. Their number is growing. No amount of persecution will shake their courage. In the difficult days to come the proletarian dictatorship will find in them not only wise counselors but also devoted soldiers.

The development of the international workers’ movement, and above all the European, has reached a decisive point. The KPD is smashed. To think of reestablishing it on the old basis and under the old leadership is a hopeless utopia. There are defeats that are unpardonable. The German Communist party will now be built on a new basis. Only those elements of the old party who have freed themselves from the heritage of Stalinism can take their place among the builders. Will this organizational succession be repeated in the development of the other sections of the Comintern? History has apparently not rendered its final verdict on that One thing is certain: very little time remains to correct the monstrous errors. If this time is lost, the Communist International will go down in history with the glorious Leninist beginning and the infamous Stalinist end.

We Bolshevik-Leninists propose to make the experience of the collapse of German communism a point of departure for the rebirth of all its remaining sections. We are ready to concentrate all our forces to that end. In the name of this task we extend our hand to our fiercest adversaries of yesterday. It is unnecessary to say that in the battle against fascism, in the defensive as in the offensive, the Bolshevik-Leninists will occupy their places of struggle in the common ranks as they have occupied them everywhere and always.

Under the banner of Marx and Lenin, forward to the world proletarian revolution.