The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-02
A View on the v Congress Of the
Communist international.
BY MoIssAYE J. oLelN.

InlS is tne eleventh udy VI thS
Congress. More than half of the
work still remains undone. There will
come out Of the commissions vast
amount of leading principles and
practical propositions as to the ma
tional and colonial problem, the pea
SAINT problem, the trade unions, or
ganization and propaganda There
will, probably, be a number of deci
sions concerning the inner life of the
most important parties of the Com
intern.
Still, the heyday of the Congress is
over. The debate on the political re-
port of the Executive Committee has
boen completed. A resolution APPROX
ing the policy of the Executive Com
mittee has been adopted by the whole
Congress against eight dissenting
votes. The character of the Congress
is now clear. All the rest of its work
viii only be an amplification Of what
is contained in this basic resolution.
1t would be futile to attempt sur
sey of ten days debate in a newspa-
per correspondence. There has been
q wealth of Communist ideas poured
forth in sixty-two speeches, some of
which, reported geographically
grew into fair size pamphlets. A brief
analysis of this part of the Congress
work alone will require a series Of
careful essays. What can be under
taken here is few conclusions which
force themselves upon every partici-
pant as self-evident and beyond dis
pute. These conclusions become a
certainty as discussion develops.
They lay, so to speak, on the surface.
1. This is a Congress of parties.
There was a time, said Comrade Tin
oviev in his report, when we were
propaganda associations. We had no
consciousness of being so, but we
were no parties as yet. We saw a
mass Of discomfort in every country,
and we thought that was an organ
lied Communist force. How the stu
alton has changed. The seething of
tho masses referred to by Comrade
Zinoviev, is smaller than it was four
;u1u nve years asO. Tno sttstch OF
capital is fiercer. The companies
work in a less favorable medium.
Communists work requires a solidly
built organization, a pliability of tao
tics along a sharply drawn class line
OF action Illuminated by theoretical
groundwork. AS one listens here to
the reports of the various parties and
to the passionate defense or denunci-
alton OF one policy or the other, one
bScomes aware that those are no
more societies for the propaganda of
Communism" but political revolution
airy parties IN action. The main par
ties OF The continent have a firm or
gaBization. They have developed a
strict discipline. They are deeply
rooted in the masses Of the probe
Lariat. They are winning over large
numbers of workers. Some are mass
parties themselves. Aud they are
hooked up with seery phase of the
political, the economic, the social and
the cultural life which has any rela-
ton to the interests OF the working
class or to the futurc~Uf the social
revolution. They are political factors
of first Importance.
2. This is a Congress Of revolution
airy parties. Revolution here is no
abstraction, no pious desire. Revo-
luton is the daily bread of most dele
gates here assembled. Europe is be-
ing shaken by revolutionary convul-
sions these last six years, and many
parties have actually participated in
proletarian upheavals. Here are the
Italian Communists who fought bloody
battles against their bourgeoisie and
against the Fascist. Here are the
Bulgarian representatives of a party
which as late as September, 1923,
conducted series of armed insur-
rections. Here are the Poles in whose
country there was workers revolt
on the sixth OF November, 1898, in
Cracow. Here are the German COM
rades, steeled in numerous insurrec-