Preface to the Greek Edition of The New Course

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The news that the pamphlet The New Course is to appear in Greek came as a surprise to me. I will not try to hide that this surprise made me happy. What is involved here is a collection of articles written ten years ago, when the Left Opposition (Bolshevik-Leninists) was only just emerging. Today the book will be of historical rather than of topical interest. The fact that it is being published in Athens shows that the advanced Greek workers entertain a lively interest in the old Left Opposition. It is impossible not to see in this a very important indication of the seriousness of our movement. Ideas and slogans do not descend from heaven. They are worked out in the course of long struggle. It is impossible to understand correctly either scientific or political ideas without knowing the history of their development. Tradition plays a great role in the historical movement of mankind, both negatively and positively. The conservative classes and parties make use of tradition in order to preserve the existing order, i.e., first and foremost, oppression and exploitation. Tradition is necessary to the revolutionary class for it is a rich arsenal from which arms can be borrowed for the struggle against existing evils.

The Left Opposition, which considers with full justification that it continues the work of Marx and Lenin, has existed as an independent tendency for about ten years. On the clock of history this is a short period. But during these ten years great events have unfolded in many countries. The Left Opposition invariably gave answers to all the problems arising from these events. Were its analyses correct? Has the course of events confirmed its prognoses? The answers to these questions can be given only from a study of the history of the Left Opposition in the light of these very important events. I have no doubt that such a study can only strengthen the confidence of the Greek Bolshevik-Leninists that they were correct historically to defend what they did.

The pamphlet The New Course is devoted exclusively to internal problems of the USSR. The problem of party democracy occupies a large place in it. But this problem is not put idealistically or abstractly; it is put materialistically, i.e., in indissoluble link with the mutual relations of the classes in the country and the political groupings in the proletariat. (See, in particular, the chapter "Bureaucratism and the Revolution.") Party democracy is not necessary in itself but as a means of educating and uniting the proletarian vanguard in the spirit of revolutionary Marxism. Democracy in no way means, however, that doors are open for all and sundry. A revolutionary organization can grow and become stronger only by constant self-purging and enlargement of its proletarian base. A correct class policy is the main condition for healthy party democracy. Without this, all talk of democracy and discipline remains hollow; worse, it becomes a weapon for the disorganization of the proletarian movement.

In the same autumn months of 1923 when this pamphlet was written and discussions were unfolding in the USSR about party democracy, industrialization, the attitude toward the peasantry, and planned economy, gigantic revolutionary events were being prepared in Germany which kept the international proletarian vanguard in suspense. The Russian workers were expecting that Soviet Russia would shortly be joined by Soviet Germany. This would have opened up boundless prospects for socialism. But, paralyzed by the opportunist leadership (Stalin-Zinoviev-Brandler), the German Communist Party proved unable to exploit a supremely revolutionary situation. With the help of the Social Democracy, the German bourgeoisie maintained and for a long time even strengthened its supremacy. A revolutionary ebb began to flow throughout the whole world. Disappointment and disillusion in international revolution gripped even the Russian workers. At this very moment the Stalinist bureaucracy advanced the theory of socialism in one country and initiated a furious struggle against the Bolshevik-Leninists as proponents of the program of permanent proletarian revolution. This large question, however, is completely outside the limits of the present article.

The organization of the Archio-Marxists originated in the special conditions of Greece and up to three years ago developed separately from the Left Opposition and independently of it. But at a certain point, as has happened more than once in history, our paths came together. Will this last? For how long? I think it will last, and forever. Thanks to its militant proletarian composition, the organization of the Archio-Marxists has proved more able to absorb and apply politically the ideas of the Left Opposition than have certain older sections. The Greek section of the Bolshevik-Leninists can hold its organization more firmly on its chosen path the more it can give its young proletarian cadres serious theoretical training. To my warm greetings to all Greek friends I add the wish that this little book will help them, if only partially, to understand the past of our international tendency that they may go to meet the future the more securely.