The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-01-31
COMMUNISM IN FRANCE GROWS

been putting its shoulder to the wheel
in such fine style, it has, unhappily
been faced with an attack from with
in. Certain comrads in leading circles
in the party who had been closely as
ISOLATED with Souvarine were dissatis-
fed with the latter's exclusion, and
with the new left" party lead. Chief
among these comrades were Monatte,
the well-known left wing trade union.
list, and Rosmer (former foreign edi.
tor and chief sub-editor Of Human
ite). They were also members of the
party executive.
These comrades supported Trotsky
against the Russian C. p and the In
ternational; and Rosmer made the
serious mistake, when the Macdonald
labor" government was formed, of
hailing it as if it were only one step
removed from the proletarian revolu-
ton. He also drafted letter for
the French party to send to the labor
party, greeting the labor government
and offering it without any
fundamental criticism or any indica-
ton Of revolutionary and Bolshevik
line on this question. 1t is only fair
to say, by the way, that this opportun-
list attitude was prevalent in our own
party at the time.
After the Souvarine affair had been
settled, Monatte and Rosmer, with
one or two others, formed little dis
contented "cave" within the party. In
party conferences and meetings they
occasionally defended their viewpoint,
and criticized the party lead, but were
voted down by overwhelming major
tiles. 1t was absolutely clear that the
mass Of the proletarian membership
was dead against them.
An "open Letter"
For a while they lay low. Then,
quite suddenly, in November, they
drew up an open letter to the mem.
bers of the party, which they had dis.
tributed as far as possible through
out the party. The letter was signed
Monatte, Rosmer, and DeIagarde, an
other member of, the party executive
1t contained violent personal attacks
on the party leadership, notably on
comrades Albert TRENT and Suzanne
Girault, who were declared to be Eau
tocrats" with whom any team work
was impossible. The letter attacked
the "barrack-room" discipline of the
party, and said that its bureaucracy
would soon be worse than that of the
French bourgeois state itself.
In this strain the letter continued /:
it did not propose any alternative pol
icy for the party.
AS soon as the letter became known
throughout the party resolutions be
gan to pour in from factory groups
and aggregate meetings condemnine
its authors and demanding their ex
pulsion from the party. The seriously
anti-communist character of the &C
ton of Monatte. Rosmer. and Della
garde is. shown by the enthusiasm
with which the publication of theil
letter was greeted by the capitalist
and sooial-democratic press and part.
leaders. Both these enemies Of Com
munism and the revolutionary work
class gleefully made use of the Mon
atte-Rosmer letter as a weapon to in
jure the Communist party.
Expulsion Voted
A special and urgent national party
council was held on December 5
which voted unanimously Cess two
abstentions) for the expulsion Of
Monatte. Rosmer. and Souvarine from
the party. This remains to be con
firmed by the forthcoming congress
We in England have had to dea
with our right wing opportunists, such
as Newbold and Ellen Wilkinson. Oul
sympathies must be with our French
comrads in their fight to make theil
party solidly Bolshevik, which in
wolves remorseless struggle against
the right deviations represented by
Monatte and Rosmer.