3rd International : Bulgaria + Italy ( 2 of 4 )

[Adam Rose <adam@xxxxxxxx>]

Louis originally provoked this one person thread by presenting an argument
that what is required is a party whose one and only criterion for membership
is that its members are Marxists. [ Zeynep has also expressed her wish for 
something
similar ]. He argued that this is the basis that Lenin built on in Russia, and 
this
is how we should build today. He develops this argument by analysing the 
development
of the Bolshevik party up to 1917.

I choose not to meet him on ground of his choosing, but of mine, as is my habit.
The ground I have chosen is the early years of the Comintern, the best guide
to revolutionary strategy and tactics that we have available to us in the 
Marxist
tradition.

The central question is the question of the German revolution, 1918 - 23. On 
this
question the fate of humanity turned, and so everything else is really merely 
preamble,
commentary, or postscript to this.

By way of preamble, I posted my summary of the pre history of the Commintern, 
which
I presented as in essence as a political and organisational battle against 
centrism.
In other words, the pre history of the Commintern was a battle by one group of
people who called themselves Marxists, who favoured the dictatorship of the 
proletariat,
and who advocated violent overthrow of the capitalist state, against another.
[ I will repost this with this message ].

By way of commentary, I will go on now to look at first Bulgaria in 1923, and 
then
Italy in 1920. Bulgaria shows the disastrous consequences of one sort of non 
Leninist
"Marxism" , ultra leftism, Italy the disastrous consequences of another, 
centrism.
The price of failure, as usual, was fascism in both countries.

The argument I wish to present is that the Leninist tradition means a great 
deal more
than building a party on the basis of a verbal commitment to Marxism.

The reason Stalinism triumphed so quickly in the Commintern was that the 
national
leaderships had made so many mistakes in the years 1919 - 23, and had lost 
confidence
in their own ability to judge the situation.

They had made these mistakes precisely because it had proved impossible to 
absorb the
Leninist tradition quickly. Tragically, they turned towards the Russian CP at 
the very
moment when it began to turn decisively away from that tradition, ensuring the 
defeats
in Britain in 1926 and China in 1927, so  isolating the Russian Revolution even 
further.

Adam.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK



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