The Third Communist International

THE THIRD (COMMUNIST) INTERNATIONAL The Communist International (abbrev. Kornintern) is the in ternational organization of the Communist party of all nations, founded in 1919. It is also called the Third International. In structure and programme it differs from the First and Second. Communism sympathises unreservedly with the first International, founded under the leadership of Marx and Engels, whose policy was essentially one of active revolution. As, however, its organ ization lacked a definite central point and had not its roots in party associations, its practical manifestation, the Paris Com mune, was bound to fail. Lenin evolved his theory of revolution ary movement from the lessons of the failure of the Commune, and arrived at the conclusion that a successful revolution might begin as a spontaneous popular upheaval, but could only achieve and retain victory in the form of an organized and systematically controlled movement which could not only put down all opposi tion, but could at once organize the resources of the country.

Birth of the Third International.

In 1889, when the So cialist Labour movement had recovered its force, the Second In ternational (see above) was founded. Up to 1914 this repre sented the international organization of the Socialist-Labour movement as a whole. The constructive importance of the Sec ond International, from the point of view of the Communist par ties, lay in the fact that it organized and grouped labour in trade unions, co-operatives, educational associations and political par ties. The Second International already contained a Bolshevik op position which refused to assimilate with the larger body. It was led by Lenin, who was a member of the International Bureau (B.S.I.) of the Second International in 1914. In 1914 the Second International collapsed. The Communists date the epoch of the Communist International from this moment. This epoch emerged out of a transitional period comprising the first three years of the war, during which Lenin struggled to "transform the imperialist war into a civil war." The foundations of the Third International were laid at the conferences of Zimmerwald and Kienthal in Swit zerland. It only achieved real authority, however, when the leaders of the German army conceived the idea of making the Russian February revolution more extreme. The German supreme com mand brought Lenin and Trotsky to Russia in the fond hope that the fire of the Russian revolution which they were kindling in Russia would stop at the frontiers of Germany.

The Third International was not formally founded till March 1919. Up to that date the Communist parties believed that they would be able to break up the Socialist parties from within and transform the Second International bodily into a Communist or ganization in the tempest of the world revolution. Especially during the episodes of the Soviet republics in Bavaria and Hun gary, and even after their collapse, during the labour troubles in Britain, Germany, Italy, etc., Moscow continually believed the outbreak of world revolution imminent every hour, and expected that the Socialist parties could be simply absorbed in the Com munist parties. As it grew ever plainer that this hope (which at first was shared by Lenin) was Utopian, the Communists devoted even greater energy to their own International.

Fundamental Principles.

The following are their basic principles : 1. The Communist International is the organization of the Com munist parties of each nation ; it is therefore revolutionary. Its chief purpose is to accelerate the development of events towards world revolution. It rejects any compromise or co-operation with bourgeois parties. Similarly it rejects parliamentarism as a nor mal method of political development. In certain circumstances it advocates a unity of front with Socialist parties, including the Second International. This is, however, never more than a tem porary and tactical co-operation. The Communist International is honest enough to state openly that it is only ready to support the Socialist parties so far as "the hangman's rope supports the con vict." The aim of the Communist International is the creation of really revolutionary proletarian parties which shall be the ad vance guard of the revolution, and the combination of them in a great homogeneous international Communist party. Their head quarters are only "for the moment," as Lenin said, and probably not for long, in Moscow; later they will move to countries where the economic system and the proletariat alike are more advanced, so soon as one such country achieves a Soviet constitution.

2. The Communist International is no loose organization like the Second International, but an association bound together by a common programme and principles, and receiving its orders from a central organ, the bureau of the Third International. This cen tral organ does not merely issue general rules of conduct, which may be carried out or not by the individual national parties ac cording to their own convictions and views of the general situa tion; it lays down policy to the smallest details. The men at the head of Communist parties have been repeatedly changed under orders from the International, and tactics (e.g., the question of co-operation with the Socialist parties, or the attitude to be adopt ed towards parliament) have often been defined in detail by resolutions of the International bureau. This central organ of the Communist International is indubitably in close personal and political touch with the Russian Government, the Soviet of People's Commissaries.

3. The individual Communist parties are, despite a general uni formity, not all organized on the Russian system. The Commun ist parties of Western Europe are "open parties" which anyone may join. In some countries the Communist parties are proscribed by law. Wherever it is possible, a sort of military organization probably exists, exactly as in the Nationalist and Fascist parties.

4. In

matters of internal policy the individual parties are, as already stated, strongly influenced by the Communist Interna tional, but there are great differences between the nations. In countries where democracy is firmly based and parliamentary tra dition of long standing, the tactics of the Communist parties are correspondingly modified. Communists take part in parliament, bring forward legislative motions, etc. ; at times they even co operate with the Socialist parties. This is, however, only a tem porary tactical move, the ultimate aim being always world revo lution. The formation of the so-called "unified front" is a means to an end and a tactical move. The organized workmen in the trade unions are to be captured in such a way that the trade unions gradually come under the influence of the Communist parties.

The conditions of affiliation to the Communist International prescribe that every party which. desires affiliation to the C.I. must develop a systematic and persistent Communist activity within the trade unions, works committees, co-operative societies and other mass organizations of workmen. Within these organizations it is necessary to organize cells, which by persistent and continu ous work must win the unions, etc., to the cause of Communism. The Communist cells must be completely subordinated to the party as a whole.

Developments Outside the Industrial Proletariat.—Since the aim of the Communist International is world revolution, and since the state of the Continent of Europe has grown much less disturbed since 1921, the chief aim of the Communist Interna tional proved unattainable. The revolution had taken the offen sive at isolated points, but failed to develop into a world-wide movement. The International therefore put forward officially the doctrine that sudden enthusiasm alone will not bring about world revolution; this must be achieved by a strict organization which must first be created. Such an organization, however, presupposes a compact Communist international unified front.

The Communist International began by continuing the tradi tional policy of the Second International. It desired to be an or ganization of manual labour. But in Russia the actualities of the situation soon forced the party to admit the peasants as mem bers (at first only the poor peasant, later the medium peasant). A Peasants' International was founded in 1923, but made slow prog ress. Nevertheless, it then became possible to embrace the ex tremist agrarian movement—a matter of the greatest importance in countries where large estates are common. The rather unex pected pronouncement was therefore made that "the peasants have become the natural allies of the workmen." Thus a link was forged with what had been the oldest revolutionary movement in Europe. To-day, indeed, with the emergence of the peasants from serfdom, their status and feelings, especially in central Europe, have changed radically. It is most unlikely that revolutionary feelings will ever become widespread among them.

Oriental and Colonial Propaganda.

Far more important is the connection between the Communist International and par ties and currents of thought which may be described as the heart of the movement for national and economic independence among the colonial and semi-colonial territories of Asia and Africa. Countries such as India, China and the wholly independent Japan are already represented in the Communist International by con siderable parties, although these parties differ very markedly from those of Western Europe. The psychological bases for intensive Communist propaganda in Asia are, firstly, the appalling condi tions in the newly developed enterprises (women's and children's labour, long hours of labour, barrack conditions for workmen) ; and secondly—perhaps more important—the breakdown of the social structures of these countries. Throughout Asia the family is the basis of society. Industry destroys this, and nothing comes to replace it. But man, in the Far East, cannot live except as member of a community. He cannot grasp the idea of an abstract existence, secured simply by a contract of labour. Existence is uprooted, and all his instincts revolt against an economic system which attempts to make him into an individual. This revolt finds its plainest expression in the Communist movement, the essence of which is thus the resistance of the social instincts to the destruc tive influences of industrial life.

Furthermore, the restrictions placed by the United States and Australia upon immigration, the restrictions placed on Indian emi gration to Africa, the unfortunate results which attended Chinese labour conditions in South Africa, combined with the insistence laid by the white races on the preservation of racial distinctions, have created a real and practical feeling of unity among all col oured races and nations throughout the world—a feeling which ex tends throughout all Africa and Asia, and as far as the negroes of America. In the face of this racial antagonism, Soviet Russia is the only Power to-day which stands on principle for racial equal ity and full equality of rights for all races on their own territory.

Thus Communist propaganda directed against the influence of European capitalists and the partizans of racial superiority in Asia has an easy task. Even Japan has been led by similar motives to a political rapprochement with Soviet Russia. Communist prop aganda in Asia and Africa is therefore adapted to local condi tions. Social and national considerations take the first place; less insistence is laid on the purely economic factor.

The resentment against capitalist exploitation, combined with the struggle against the Imperialist European Powers and against the United States, inevitably draws the leaders of those move ments towards Russia, and thus towards the Communist Inter national. This connection has been developed by special con gresses to the oriental peoples (as that of Baku in 192o), and has certainly been exploited by the Russian Government to further Russia's traditional foreign policy in Asia. In all these countries the small tenant farmers are particularly susceptible to the allurements of the Communist programme.

In the last few years, however, the economic antagonisms have become intensified in the Far East also, especially in China. Chinese industrialists and capitalists have rejected the com munistic influence, which has frequently made itself felt by very drastic means, and this class antagonism in the Far East has undoubtedly caused a weakening in the authority of the Third International. (E. LE.) Results up to 1939.—The Communist International has been a bond between Soviet Russia and Communist parties in the capi talist bourgeois states. The aim has been the "formation of the front line of a world-revolution," and the hope was that no coun try with an active Communist Party would find it possible to participate in a European counter-revolutionary movement. Com munists in capitalist Europe would prevent their countries under taking war against Russia.

During the depression, which became serious in 1929, the situa tion changed. In Germany and Eastern Europe, dictatorships of the Right crushed the Communist parties, and parliamentarianism itself. In the three years immediately preceding the outbreak of the European war in 1939, Fascism developed into an interna tional of the Right opposed to an international of the Left. In Spain the issue was fought out in the civil war of 1936-39. In France a "Popular Front" Government was formed, consisting of a political alliance between the various Leftist groups that all had a common opposition to Fascism. Soviet Russia encouraged such "Popular Fronts" as an antidote to Fascism and as a tempo rary substitute for active revolutionary movements in capitalist countries. But this distinction of international Leftists and in ternational Rightists broke down with the Nazi-Soviet rapproche ment of Aug. 24, BIBLIOGRAPHY.-K. Marx and Fr. Engels, Manifesto of the ComBibliography.-K. Marx and Fr. Engels, Manifesto of the Com- munists, end ed. (Inter. Working Men's Assn.) (1886) ; Fr. Engels, Grundsatze des Kommunismus (Berlin, 1923) ; L. Trotsky, Russland in der Revolution, trans. by T. Herzmark, etc. (Dresden, 191o) ; N. Lenin, Staat and Revolution (Berlin, 1918) ; N. Lenin, Die Nachsten Ausgaben der Sowjet-Macht (Berlin, 1919) ; Dr. Max Hirschberg, Bolschewismus (Munich and Leipzig, 1919) ; N. Bucharin, Programme of the World Revolution (Glasgow, 192o) ; L. Trotsky, Die neue okonomische Politik Sowjetrusslands and die Weltrevolution (Hamburg, 1923) ; Friedrich Wieser, Leopold Wenger and Peter Klein, Der Staat, das Recht and die Wirtschaft des Bolschewismus (Berlin, 1925 ; bibl. by E. Drahn) ; Manfred Langhans, Vom Absolutismus zum Ratefreistaat (1925) ; Dr. Michael Eljaschoff, Die Grundzi ge der Sow jet-V er f assung (1925) ; Dr. Alexander Hirsch, Kulturelle Krafte and wirtschaftliche Gestaltung im gegenwiirtigen Russland (Berlin, 1925). For an account of the propaganda methods of the Third International and the relation of the organization to the Government of the U.S.S.R. see A. Toynbee, Survey of Inter national Affairs, pp. (1924)• Seventh session of the extended E.K.Ki. (publ. in German, 1926) . I. Stalin, das Problem des Leninismus, end ed. (1927).