The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-13

demned in October by the German
party conference on account of his
shameful attitude before the court
The resolution of the party confer
ence declared that up to that time no
political process in which Communists
took part had proceeded so inglorious-
ly for the Communist Party as the
Maslov process. No Communist ac-
cused before class court could
abandon the defense of the party pro-
gram, the party policy and the party
tactics as Maslov had done With re-
gard to Ruth Fischer, her policy both
before and after the open letter of the
Comintern was the policy of double
bookkeeping. The speaker then dealt
with the situation Of the Communist
Parties in Germany, Italy and Poland.
The crises in these parties are con-
nected with each other. Whilst the
Communist Parties in Czecho-Slova-
kia, Holland, Sweden and Norway are
experiencing a period of struggle
against right opportunism, in the most
important sections of the Comintern
we have a Strengthening of the left
digressions. In the opinion of the
speaker the struggle in the Russian
party would certainly strengthen the
ultra-left digressions and further de-
velopment of the struggle would re-
suit in still further strengthening of
these digressions. The Comintern had
previously succeeded in overcoming
the left digressions in Italy, Poland
and Germany, digressions which al
most led the parties to a catastrophe,
but these dangers can arise once
again if the discussion is carried into
the Comintern. For this reason the
Russian Communist Party must sep
arate itself definitely from the ultra
left and the right who are seeking to
utilize the present discussion for their
own ends.
THE last speaker in the discussion,
L Schmidt, stressed two mistakes in
the work of the Comintern:
/. The underestimation of the sig
nificance of the united front move
ment and,
2. The insufficient practical lead
ership of the work carried out by the
individual sections of the Comintern.
The underestimation Of the slogan for
the united front expressed itself par
ticularly in countries like Norway,
Sweden, Finland and Denmark.
In Holland also the Comintern must
work harder in order to urge the
Dutch Communist Party to fight for
the real unity of the working class
which can only be achieved thru the
trade union movement In a number
of other Countries for instance
Czecho- Slovakia, the slogan of the
united front is not being carried out
with sufficient energy.
In the question of the leadership in
the practical work carried out by the
individual Communist Parties, the
speaker declared that the Russian
delegation and the Comintern had in
this connection correct general line,
but that the Communist Parties of the
West and their leaderships very often
showed a lack of independence and in
itiative and waited very often in the
smallest questions for directives from
here.
This mistake in the work of the Co
mintern, in particularly the present
one, must be corrected, because the
present discussion can find its refiec-
ton in the brother parties. For this
reason our delegation to the Comm
tern must be instructed by the party
congress to abolish both of the mis-
takes mentioned. With regard to the
slogan of the united front thru the
trade unions, in this connection scep-
ticism must be fought. The extent to
which our Communist parties succeed
in becoming real mass parties will
depend to a great extent upon the
correct carrying thru Of this slogan.
VINOVIEV then closed the discus
~ sion. In a short speech he de-
clared that he did not understand
what Lominadse meant when he de-
manded that he, zinoviev, should de-
tinitely separate himself from Maslov.
With regard to the regret expressed
by several speakers in the debate that
the discussion would be carried into
the Comintern, he could only say that
even before the party congress this
discussion had penetrated into the
European press.
zinoviev stressed that he was con-
vinced that the decisions of the party
congress were predetermined also for
the future leadership of the Comm
tern. Zinoviev declared that on his
part no single attempt had been made
to take the discussion in the Russian
Communist Party into the Comintern.
One must remember that all the dis
cussion articles in the Pravda are also
read abroad interruption: And also
the provocative articles in the Lenin-
grad PravdaD zinoviev protested
against the suggestion that the Lenin-
grad comrades were ultra-left. The