The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-21
The German Party Discussion
By Fred Ellis

position Of Comrade Koshtcheva. To-
day however, Comrade Humbert-
Droz is attempting by his attitude
towards the "Third Period" to gen
eralize this error and to extend it
from Poland over the whole interna-
tional situation.
The contention of the conciliators
in the German C. P. that the major
ity in the German Party reject the
"Third Period" and that they wish
to revise the decisions of the Sixth
World Congress of the G. /. is moth
ing but an absurd attempt on the
part of the conciliators to detract
attention from their own errors.
1t is true, discussion did take
place in the German delegation to
the Sixth World Congress of the c.
1. concerning the Third Period" but
this discussion was caused by the
fact that the majority of the delega-
ton feared that the idea of the
"Third Period" might be interpreted
in the way in which the conciliators
actually do interpret it today. Of
course deviation is theoretically
possible, which bases an estimation
of the present situation of the world
economic system solely upon the
theses of the general crisis of capt.
talism and ignores the present stage
of the sterilization.
1t is a fact that the Weber group
in Germany completely ignored the
sterilization when forming its po-
litical platform. The nature of this
error is the same as that contained
in Trotsky's theory of the perman-
ent revolution. In both cases line
for the final victory of the prole-
tariat is laid down without attention
being paid to the concrete circum-
stances of the present period in
which the struggle of the working
class must take place. The result
with elements like Weber was that,
instead of a tactical line taking the
present conditions into account with
out losing sight of the final aim,
there was a schematic arrangement
cloaked in revolutionary phraseology.
We must and do fight against such
Iconfusionists who ignore the exist
ing situation in which the working
class must fight, who fail to take
into account such factors as the sta
bilization of capitalism, who arbi-
trarily shorten the historical stages
through which the working class
must pass and give the workers
empty defamation instead of the
complicated strategy Of the prole-
tartan struggle, who imagine that
capitalism can be abolished with re-
evolutionary gestures. A hysterical
line of this sort can do nothing but
bring the workers the bitterness of
defeat.
An open-offensive theory ignoring
the real situation at the present time
would do no more than nourish the
defeatist attitude of the Right wing
ers and the conciliators. Although
we must fight against such devia-
ton when it shows itself in our
ranks, at the present time we must
oppose with all the more ruthless
ness the other deviation which has
already taken form within our ranks
and which can see no farther than
the present day, which clings to the
perspective of capitalist sterilization
like a prisoner chained to a wheel,
which sees in every class collision
only the expression of the offensive
of capitalism, which underestimate
the powers of resistance possessed
by the working class, which under
estimates the rehabilitation of the
working masses, and in this way
threatens to disarm us ideologically
in the face of reformism ar. the So
cial democracy.
The recent struggle in the Ruhr
showed the danger of this deviation
very clearly. In the Ruhr struggle
this deviation exploited the passivity
which remained to a certain extent in
the ranks of the Communists from
a former period, in order to develop
this passivity into theory. 1t is i'm
possible to abolish the remnants oil
this passivity without exposing the