DECLARATION
PRESENTED AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE PRESENTATIONS OF THE KAPD IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE
DISCUSSION ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE EXECUTIVE
We protest with extreme firmness the attempt to put us in the same
sack as the Dittmanns and
Serratis by means of some quotations taken out of
context. We do not disregard for a
moment the difficulties in which the soviet power finds itself due to the fact
of the slowness of the world revolution; but we are at the same time conscious of the risk that with all these
difficulties, a contradiction between
the world revolutionary proletariat and the momentary interests of soviet Russia
not result — apparent or real contradiction.
In a commission meeting
it was declared that it wasn't necessary to consider the 3rd International as an instrument of the soviet
power, but that the latter was only
the strongest bastion of the 3rd International. We also, we think that it must be like that. But we consider that when any
contradictions arise between the vital interests of the soviet power and those
of the 3rd International, it is a must to have it out openly and
fraternally within the International.
Concerning the practical solidarity towards soviet Russia, we have always
carried out our duties because they
were a matter of course. For example, the celebration of the
anniversary of October through demonstrations, the most important participation
in the assistance to the imprisoned soldiers
of the Red Army, preparation of a solidarity action in August 1920 (the latter having failed
through the fault of the USPD and the
Communist Party). The demonstrations of solidarity with soviet Russia were one of the determining motives of our party
when it decided to adhere to the 3rd
International, despite its very grave apprehensions concerning the tactics of this organisation.
We remain on this line, but everywhere and always we offer the hardest
resistance when we observe that the policy of soviet Russia has as its effect a
reformist practice
on the part of the 3rd International. We are convinced that such reformism contradicts the real
interests of Soviet Russia as much as those of the world proletariat.
MOTION PRESENTED IN VIEW OF THE VOTE ON THE ULTIMATUM ADDRESSED TO THE KAPD BY THE EXECUTIVE
1) The 21
conditions of the 2nd congress are even less capable
in the future than
up to now
of creating any one guarantee against reformist putrefaction.
2) After the
creation and admission of great mass parties, the 3rd International
needs the presence of a
purely proletarian revolutionary opposition more than ever.
3) Such an opposition will not be built if it is crushed by the apparatus and electorate
of a party that wants to unite the masses behind it at any price (and in
principle) and which can thus only
be necessarily opportunist and reformist.
4) As far as its principles, the United Communist Party (VKPD), in
particular, today remains on the
terrain of Paul Levi. The left wing is at best imprisoned by a fatal self-deceit.
5) In conclusion, at the present time, in all the parties of the Comintern some currents connected to the KAPD are being
formed, but they cannot continue to
develop themselves in the interest of the proletarian revolution and the International
if the KAPD can remain as an independent
party within the CI.
For all these
reasons we propose:
That the congress decide the maintenance of the adherence of the KAPD
to the CI as a sympathising organization.
DECLARATION PRESENTED
IN VIEW OF THE VOTE 0N THE QUESTICN OF TACTICS
The theses presented for a vote by the 3rd Congress are the consequence and even intensified continuation of the fundamental line of the 2nd congress, as well as of the policy followed up to now by the Executive Committee. They leave the traitorous intelligentsias of the opportunists and reformists of all countries an unlimited field of action in their work of mystification, particularly if one takes them in relation to the theses on the world economic situation.
One
introduces a confusion that contradicts the idea of revolution itself. Any line of clear demarcation from the Hilferdings is erased; one abandons all organic relationship
with the reality of modern class struggle.
The so-called left of the Congress, pushed by the revolutionary workers who find themselves behind it, undertook some weak attempts to correct the tactical theses. These attempts have been rightly opposed by the majority as inconsequential. They most certainly testify to a good will to raise revolutionary activity; but they do not take into account the concrete conditions of the struggle; they attack neither the bourgeois parliamentary foundation of the 21 conditions, nor the global tendency of the theses which this foundation subtends; these attempts have thereby become an obstacle to a later elucidation.
The preparation of the victory of the proletarian revolution in the capitalist countries can only be made in the struggles themselves. These struggles are necessarily born of the fact of the economic and political attacks of capital. The communist party cannot set these struggles in motion; it can no longer refuse the fight, or else it sabotages the preparation of victory. In the long run it can only obtain the leadership of these struggles if it opposes to all the illusions of the masses, the full clarity of the goal and of the methods of struggle. It is only thus that it can become, through a dialectical process, the core of crystallisation of revolutionary combatants who, in the course of the struggle, obtain the confidence of the masses.
By opposing ourselves – as inferred by this declaration — to the adoption under any possible forms of the theses on tactics, we refer to the theses that we have presented on the role of the party in the proletarian revolution.
DECLARATION WRITTEN AT THE END OF THE
CONGRESS, BY WHICH IT DREW THE BALANCE OF THE VIEWPOINT OF THE KAPD
The delegation of the KAPD has submitted the results of the Congress to a new examination; besides what concerns the decision that it must make vis-a-vis the decision of the congress that demands in an ultimative fashion the dissolution of the KAPD into the VKPD, what concerns our relationship with the 3rd International. Fully conscious of the gravity of the responsibilities that it takes, the delegation, unanimously, made the following conclusions:
The tactical struggle against the KAPD during the congress has been carried out from the beginning under the forms of a struggle against an adversary whose arguments must not be appreciated as to their essential features and whose existence as a political factor must be annihilated under the pretext of discipline:
To this correspond the following facts:
1. The participants of the congress have been given, for several weeks, a completely false image of the KAPD, by some distorting articles in the Russian press, in the "Communist International" and in the journal of the Congress. While our fundamental statements and our rectifications were not printed.
2. The manner in which the congress has been conducted has resulted in our having been permanently obliged to give only a fragmentary expression of our positions. That this tactic was maturely reflected comes out in a particularly clear way in the fact that we were not even given the possibility of writing a review or quite simply a complementary review on the affair that interests us directly, the question of the KAPD. Which has constrained us not to speak in order to not make ourselves involuntary accomplices in a farce.
3. As foundation of the ultimatum that has been addressed to
us, a so-called resolution of the
Executive Committee was brought to
the knowledge of the congressists. And this
although the Executive Committee would not
itself be occupied with this matter at any of its
sessions, although it had not heard us and it had not, a fortiori, been
able to take a decision on this problem.
4. For some weeks the question of the KAPD has been considered as one
of the last questions on the agenda, and as a subject to look at autonomously;
well, it was not even solely discussed in particular with us in view of the
report of the Executive Committee (second point on the agenda); it was settled by a
"decision". It thus came to
the hoped for result: to bias the judgment of the congress before it risked looking into our positions in the course
of the debates on the principled questions.
The formal aspect of this behavior is in strict keeping with the political line
in which the 3rd International evolved under
the determinant influence of the Russian comrades. The course of the congress has demonstrated it: the political
line of Paul Levi has prevailed, the
formal recognition of the "March Action" has been revealed as "freedom of revolution”.
The Czechoslovak party has been admitted as a section of full
practice, but without any real guarantee and on the basis of empty
promises. Its chief opportunist Smeral has been timorously
indulged. As for the Italian Socialist Party, which concludes an agreement with
the fascists, one has conducted
oneself in an obliging way and by losing
oneself in details. The participation
on principle in the bourgeois parliament has been maintained, despite the
sad experiences that have been made, in Germany, Austria, France, etc. and although the caricatures of
this so-called revolutionary parliamentarism have
been seen in the activity. By reaffirming the
fatal policy of work in the old trade unions, you have given
in, in spite of all the phrases,
before Amsterdam, you have supported the capitalist dupery of economic parliamentarism.
The congress has even supported the ridiculous idea of the revolutionisation of the
consumers' co-operatives without flinching.
All this testifies that you continue to
follow the path entered into at the 2nd
congress, that you continue
to be on the wrong track: from revolution to reformism, from the sphere
of struggle to the tactics of diplomacy, to traffickings,
and
the illusory faking of
contradictions. All these examples justify the protest
against the adoption of the
theses on tactics which we have given to be published
in the minutes.
These are some facts that one must have in view when one considers the
resolution demanding our dissolution into the VKPD, and one must
recognise that this ultimatum is totally unacceptable for the KAPD. This
reunification would mean subordinating
ourselves to the discipline of a decomposing party, in which reformism has gotten the upper hand under the influence
of the congress. We would be gagged
by an organisational
apparatus (press, finances, leadership
cliques) which has been set against us; all hope of having a saving influence
in such a party would be deprived
of a real foundation. The attitude of the delegation flows itself from all of these facts. Even without a special order on the part of the party:
!
It unanimously
rejects the ultimatum that calls on it to fuse with the VKPD.
We do not declare the exit of the KAPD from the 3rd
International, although we have full power to act in the name of our party. Our comrades will speak
for themselves. They will give their response to the pretention that you have had
to make them march with others on the path
of reformism and opportunism. The international proletariat will hear this response.
Our decision has been taken with full consciousness of its gravity. We
are fully conscious
of our responsibility towards the German workers, towards Soviet Russia,
towards the world revolution. The revolution will not allow itself to be bound hand and foot by a
congress resolution. It lives, it goes its path, we go with it, we follow our path, in its service.
Signed:
Delegation of the KAPD