The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-03-13
By l.. A.

nURING the ten years existence
- of the Comintern the class strug-
gle has assumed in the various
countries its sharpest form, that of
armed instruction. We wish mere
ly to recall few of the most i'm
portant episodes of these struggles:
instructions and Soviet Republics
in Munich and Hungary, 1919, oc-
cupation of enterprises and estates
in North Italy, 1920, Ruhr strug-
giles, 1920 (Kapp-Putsch), March
struggles in Central Germany, 1921,
instruction in Hamburg and Bull
garia, 1928, insurrection in Reval,
1924, July-struggles in Vienna,
1927, struggles in China, 1929,
Shanghai, Canton).
Shortly before the formal estab-
lishment of the Comintern, mighty
armed class struggles took place,
such as the big victorious October
insurrection in Russia, 1917, the
civil war in Finland, 1918, the mu-
tiny in the army and the transfer
nation of the imperialist war into
civil war in Germany and Austria,
1915, the January struggles, 1919,
in Berlin.
The leaders of cial-democracy
"repudIate" the armed class strug-
gle. They are advocates of armed
instruction only in the countries of
proletarian dictatorship (see Kaut-
sky: "The International and Soviet
Russia'0, whereas in the capitalist
countries they are for brutal sup
preston of the revolutionary mass
movements ebert, Scheidemann,
Noske).
Sometimes the Left social-demo-
Gratis pay even lip service to the
proletarian revolution. But when it
really comes to the struggle, and
especially when the struggle ends
in defeat for the struggling masses,
they declare "that one should not
have taken up arms"
An eloquent example of this was
given in the July days, 1927, when
the Austrian Left social-democrats,
who were certainly very "red"
shortly before the struggle, con-
demned already in July, 1927, the
demolition of the High Court of
Justice by the excited masses as a
dastardly action and FASTENED to
associate themselves from the Gin
cendiaries."
Class-conscious proletarians, Com
munists, take up a different atti-
tude to armed class struggles. They
cannot simply "repudiate" such
struggles, because they are unavoid-
able historic phenomena which can
not be ordained or forbidden at will.
They cannot desert the oppressed
masses, who are fighting for their
rights at such a critical moment Tin
contradistinction to the social
democratic leaders, who in such
cases do not want to desert their
own bourgeoisie).
They cannot associate them
selves from such struggles because
this would mean cowardly betrayal
Of the cause Of the international
proletariat. They declare them
selves for these struggles regard
less of whether they end in victory
or defeat, even if serious errors
were committed in their leadership.
They look upon the positive as well
as the negative experiences of these
struggles as a source from which
lessons can be drawn for the future
inevitable struggles.
This was exactly the attitudes of
Marx and Engels to armed revolu-
tionary struggles. They were not
only enthusiastic believers in such
struggles, they also thoroughly in
vestigated the experience Of these
struggles. (See "Civil War in
France" "The 18th Brumaire,"
Revolution and Counter Revolution
in Germany.")
At the same time, they did not
neglect careful study of the prac-
teal questions of the carrying out
Of an armed insurrection. Theirs is
the expression cart of instruction.
They elaborated the fundamental
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