Union.
What went wrong?
By Tariq The theoretica. basis of internationalism was deeply embedded in consciousness the Bolshevik leadership. fact determining the insurrection in October 1917 had been Lenin's belief that a revolution was imminent in Germany.
The revolution in Russia was seen by all Bolsheviks as the harbinger DO CLan al Europe.
The notion of 'building socialism in one country' appeared bizarre even six years after the revolution. Stalin wrote:
*The overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisic and une estabusament or a proletarian government in one country does not yet guarantee the complete victory of socialism...
'Can this task be accomplished, can the final victory of socialism in. one country be attained, without the joint efforts of the proletariat of several advanced countries? No, impossible.
*To overthrow the bourgeoisie, the efforts of one country are sufficient — the history of our revolution bears this out. For the final victory of socialism, organisations responded to an appeal signed by Lenin and Trotsky and gathered in Moscow. The Communist International was born.
Twenty-four years later its death was formally announced by Stalin and it was cremated without any fuss or pomp. In reality it had died long before that, and with it had been buried all the internationalist aspirations of the Communist Party of the Soviet The murder of proletarian internationalism four decades ago recently reaped its bitter harvest on the battlefields of Indochina.
for the organisation 'entire as Russia, are insufficient.
One important 'For this proletarians The formation of the of the world, but also for the throughout workers.
In 1924 created throughout the countries. this The first four less and less frequent.
OTTO GRIEBEL'S painting 'Die Internationale' (you won't spot any women). It now hangs in the East Berlin Museum for German History.
label of socialist production, the efforts of one country, particularly of such a peasant country the efforts of the of several advanced Communist therefore, a vital necessity not just for the oppressed of Russian day There could be many criticisms of some or me lacacs acobica Dy Comintern in its early years, but its aim was never in doubt. The Comintern was unify Party. world, to use the strengths of the Russian revolution in order to aid the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism on a global scale.
The message which emerged from the Soviet leaders was concise and clear: if you want to help the Soviet Union, then make the revolution in your own congresses of the Comintern were held annually from 1919 to 1922. Following Lenin's death, the sharp split inside the Russian party, and the victory of Stalin, they became them The sixth congress, which decided to social-democrats as fascists', was held in 1928; the seventh and last congress was held in 1935. This latter embarked on the strategy of popular fronts, a grotesque caricature of the early Comintern positions on the united front. The logic was obvious.
From 1933 onwards the Comintern disappeared from Stalin's speeches and writings. There was one mention March 1939 when he denounced slanderous the allegation that the CI was fomenting revolutions. 1943 he announced its stating that it would 'put an end to a calumny.
In reality the Comintern had ceased to be a revolutionary force after the tourta congress. It was increasingly being misused by the dominant faction in the Russian party.
Inner-party disputes in the CPSU determined the line in China in the 1920s. The defeat of the 1927 uprising in Shanghai was a serious blow for the working class in China and Russia.
By the 1930s the contours of presentSoviet foreign policy firmly established. The defeat Germany had been utilised to ram the theory of 'socialism in one country' down the throat of every Communist The main task Communist parties throughout world was, according to the Stalinised Comintern, to ensure the existence of the Soviet Union. How? Here Stalin stood Leninism on its head.
The tactics of CPs were to be determined not by the need overthrow the bourgeoisie in their own countries, but by the narrowly defined interests of the Soviet state. Thus the CPs were to align themselves with the bourgeoisie of their own countries if the local ruling class was on good terms with the Soviet Union.
The zig-zags carried out by the Communist parties and their questioning loyalty to the Soviet state and its bureaucracy reflected a form of perverted internationalism. It destroyed as revolutionary however.
In France, in 1936, the CP helped to defuse a strike wave of revolutionary proportions; in Spain the CP organised a civil war within the working class by liquidating forces on its left; in Greece Stalin disarmed the partisans at a crucial stage. After the war the French and Italian Ps loyally accepted the agreement at Yalta.
Where revolutions were made they were carried out by parties which broke empirically with Stalin:
Vietnam and China are the Call Co The dominant characteristic Soviet foreign policy became that of defending the status quo. For this was the best way of preserving the stability of bureaucratic rule.
Peaceful co-existence practised by Stalin, then Khrushchev, and finally by Mao, with devastating results for the international workers movement. The internationalIsm of lenin national chauvinism of the bureaucгасу.
bureaucracy was moving outwards. the assimilation of Eastern Europe, with the establishment of regimes modelled on the Stalinist as monstrosity in Russia, was required to consolidate its military and political Then in position in Europe. It was necessary to dissolution, contain imperialism.
occondly BUNC bureaucracy presides over a society in which capitalism does not exist compels it towards an objective tension with has no revolutionary content whatsoever, it is a fact that the Soviet Union provided vital military and economic aid to the Cuban extension of that was the decision of the Russian leaders not to oppose the Cuban intervention in Angola. had been in Soviet Union is the only major power which provides military aid designed to bring down the southern Africa. The important point is that it is quite happy to assign the confronting accomplishment of this task to African nationalists.
aiding the pro-Moscow Communist parties in the region!
to new Cubas (in the positive sense), the Kremlin advises caution and seeks to SHOUTE initiatives. Angola, South Yemen and Afghanistan are proclaimed by the Western press to be 'communist.
isolated by imperialism, held at arm's un- length by Comecon, but constructing powerful state apparatuses with the backing of the Germany. parties, areas. If they went the way of Cuba they would considerably weaken the imperialist hold in the region. But until differing degrees, as instruments or the foreign policy bureaucracy.
the Comintern was founded there is not the slightest trace of internationalism in the actions of those parties which once belonged to it.
Yugoslavia, best sole repository of the traditions of the early Comintern of International founded by Trostky in 1938.
justifiably proud at banner of proletarian internationalism. was first But a gulf still exists between where we by are and where we aim to go.
was replacca Dy lac WHETEST In order to defend this regime the quite capable of fact the so, although soviet foreign polic revolution. An There can be little doubt that the Even settler regimes in hatred, The Kremlin is totally uninterested in building of even Even where it is possible to create advance by spontancous states that are In fact they are curious hybrids:
USSR and East All three states are in vital strategic *Our TEYOOTER been used.
of the Soviet revolutionary It is a tragedy that sixty years after On an international scale today the Fourth Those of us who belong to it can be upholding the OUR foreign policy is and be characterised resoluteness in defending the sta of -ENE Soviet people, safeguarding the inviolability of o land frontiers, maritime coasts and a space, and in protecting the dignity the Soviet tiag and the rights ar security of Soviet citizens.
Trotsky, 1919 "SEVENTY-TWO years have pass since the Communist Party announc its programme to the world in the for of a Manifesto written by the greate teachers of the proletarian revolutio Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
communist which had barely entered the arena struggle, was beset by baiting, lie and persecution of possessing classes, who rightly sense in it their mortal enemy.
'In the course of those seven decad communism developed along compl paths, periods of stormy advan alternating with periods of decline; has known successes, but also seve defeats. But essentially the moveme proceeded along the path indicated Manitesto of ti "The epoch of final, decisive strugg came later than the apostles of soci revolution had expected and hope But it has come •We communists, the representativ of the revolutionary proletariat various countries of Europe, Americ and Asia, who have gathered in Sovi Moscow, feel and consider ourselves be heirs and executors of the whose programme was announced task is to generalise th experience of th working elass, to cleanse the movemer disintegrating opportunism and social-patriotism, mobilise the forces of all genuinel parties of the worl proletariat and thereby facilitate an hasten the victory of the communi revolution throughout the world.
Opening paragraphs
•Manifesto of the Communist Intel national to the Proletariat of the Entir written by Trotsky an adopted unanimously by the foundin congress of the Third Communis
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Socialist Challenge 15 March 1979 page 8 SIXTY YEARS ago this month, delegates from 35 revolutionary