The Programme of the Communist International

[heiss93]

Emile Burns began his Handbook of Marxism which basically contained the entire corpus of Marxist-Leninist classics with the Communist Manifesto of 1848 and The Programme of the Communist International of 1928, which he rightly considered an updated second manifesto. Having read William Z. Foster's United Soviet States of America, many of his most innovative ideas were an Americanization of the Program. Some points of interest are the analysis of the labor aristocracy and imperialism, the development of finance state monopoly, the idea of Soviets as the universal form of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the cultural revolution. As well as the analogy of colonial nations as the cities and colonies as the global rural countryside area. Included is a critique of Social Democracy and Fascism. It is also one of the few documents that goes into detail about the World Communist Republic. With the exception of the international situation most of it remains relevant today. It is the Leninist Manifesto.

http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/6th-congress/index.htm

The Programme of the Communist International
Together with the Statutes of the Communist International

First Published: February, 1929. Second Printing 1932, Modern Books Ltd., 23, Theobalds Road, London, W.C.1. County Press Printers London and Wembley;
Transcribed: by Mike MacNair.
CONTENTS

Introduction

I. – The World System fo Capitalism, Its Development, and Inevitable Downfall

1. The Dynamic Laws of Capitalism and the Epoch of Industrial Capital
2. The Era of Finance Capitalism (Imperialism)
3. The Forces of Imperialism and the Forces of Revolution
4. Imperialism and the Downfall of Capitalism

II. – The General Crisis of Capitalism and the First Phase of World Revolution

1. The World War and the Progress of the Revolutionary Crisis
2. The Revolutionary Crisis and Counter-Revolutionary Social-Democracy
3. The Crisis of Capitalism and Fascism
4. The Contradictions of Capitalist Stabilisation and the Inevitability of the Revolutionary Collapse of Capitalism

III. – The Ultimate Aim of the Communist International – World Communism

IV. – The Period of Transition from Capitalism to Socialism and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

1. The Transition Period and the Conquest of Power by the Proletariat
2. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and its Soviet Form
3. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Expropriation of the Expropriators
(Tasks of the Transition Period)

(A) Industry, Transport and Communication Services
(B) Agricu1ture
(C) Trade and Credit
(D) Conditions of Life, Labour, etc
(E) Housing
(F) National and Colonial Questions
(G) Means of Ideological Influence

4. The Basis for the Economic Policy of the Proletarian Dictatorship
5. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Classes
6. Mass Organisations in the System of the Proletarian Dictatorship
7. The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Cultural Revolution
8. The Struggle for the World Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Principal Types of Revolution
9. The Struggle for the World Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Colonial Revolution

V. – The Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the U.S.S.R. and the International Social Revolution

1. The Building up of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. and the Class Struggle
2. The Significance of the U.S.S.R. and her World Revolutionary Duties
3. The Duties of the International Proletariat to the U.S.S.R

VI. – The Strategy and Tactics of the Communist International in the Struggle for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat

1. Ideologies among the Working Class Inimical to Communism
2. The Fundamental Tasks of Communist Strategy and Tactics

Constitution and Rules of the Communist International

“Working men of all countries, Unite!”

[Tower of Bebel]

I don't know what the purpose is of this thread but I found the following draft programme (http://www.trotsky.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1924/02/draft_programme.htm) very interesting in the light of my every growing confusion:


Herein it surveys the history of the human struggle, traces the tortuous pathway of the exploited, examines the collapsing fabric of capitalism and blazes the light upon the tasks of the proletariat on the high road to Communism. This constitutes the Programme of the Communist International.This forms the basis of a tendency within Trotskyist parties to claim that the whole tradition of the working class from the days of Marx to the days of now constitutes their programme. "Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes." - Karl Marx.

1. The first proletarian organisations arise as instruments of defence against severe exploitation. They take the form of political parties, trades unions, co-operative societies, leagues and associations, etc. The precendence of one or another form depends upon the historic conditions. In Britain and Southern Europe unions precede political parties. In Germany and Russia parties precede the unions.

[...]

The political parties are historically later organisations with more definite political aims, utopian—reflecting revolt against oppression and aspirations for a new social order, revolutionary—aiming at the overthrow of capitalism and the inauguration of socialism, reformist—adapting working class aims to the claims of capitalism. Each of these types of parties appears according to the intensity of the class struggle and the stage of political development reach by the working class.It seems the CPGB did not bend the stick just like Trotsky did in his Transitional Program ("Classical Social Democracy [...] limited itself to reforms within the framework of bourgeois society, and the maximum program which promised substitution of socialism for capitalism in the indefinite future. Between the minimum and the maximum program no bridge existed. And indeed Social Democracy has no need of such a bridge, since the word socialism is used only for holiday speechifying.")


The political efforts of the workers. change from utopian measures of substitution to limited aims, such as the extension of the franchise and increased representation within the parliamentary and municipal institutions of capitalism.

Through these defensive struggles the workers gradually become conscious of the character of the struggle they are waging and of their political destiny as a class. This process is intensified as the reform struggles bring them up more and more sharply against the powers of the stateSounds like Kautsky's reasoning in "The class struggle".


7. This process of uniting the masses under the Communist flag can only be carried out in the actual struggle of daily life, in which the reformist parties and trade union leaders continually betray the interests of the workers by siding with the bourgeoisie. The struggle assumes more than an ideological struggle within the unions. It becomes a struggle for the elementary needs of the workers and compels them to reinforce their struggle against the reactionary leaders in the unions by the creation of factory and workshop committees organised irrespective of trades and crafts. The sharper the class struggle is waged, the more prominent is the role of these organisations as the basic units of the revolutionary mass organisations for waging the workers’, war against capitalism. The workers see in them the forerunners of the Soviets which are developed out of them in the revolutionary crisis, and look upon them as the new units of the revolutionary, industrial unions.This reflects the reasoning from Trotsky in his Transitional Programme. Is this ulitmately what "everyone" is talking about when they speak of the transitional method being part of the core discussion within the Comintern?


13. In the period leading to civil war, the period of the penetration and decay of the bourgeois institutions and the struggle against the reformism of the social-democratic parties and the trade union bureaucracy, a variety of transitory forms of government may take place. Bourgeois governments, Constituent Assemblies, etc., may exist side by side with Soviets or Workers’ and Peasants’ Councils. In the Soviets there may be at first the supporters of the capitalists. In the Parliaments and Assemblies there may be representatives of the workers. In such a situation the whole aim of the Communist Party must be to strengthen the apparatus of the Workers’ Councils and to destroy the apparatus of the bourgeoisie.Does this form the base of the idea that we must struggle towards dual power (which is probably the aim of Trotsky's OP)?


1. Between the period of the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and the establishment of Communism a long interval of transition must ensue, in which the capitalist forces and the forces of revolution continually war with each other. Neither the defenders of capitalism nor the warriors of revolution can shake themselves free from the material and cultural conditions which exist throughout the world in varied array. Although modern imperialism brought all the regions of the earth beneath its sway, neither the great imperialist powers nor the smaller nations are uniformally developed. Hence the great crisis of capitalism, which produced the war of 1914-18, not only violently changed the relative positions of the imperialist powers, it also made vast changes in the material and political conditions of all the countries and in the class aspirations of large social strata throughout the world. From periodic crises such as had occurred repeatedly in its development it passed into its permanent historic crisis.

2. The world war constitutes the main factor in precipitating capitalism from its ascendent period into the present condition of chronic crisis. Instead, of proving a means to the consolidation and uniform development of capitalism, it set the contradiction and uniform development of capitalism, it set the contradictions of capitalism in more violent antagonism, let loose the forces of social revolution, shattered vast productive forces, dislocated its markets and made inevitable the periodic repetitions of world war until the social revolution intervenes.This, of course, reminds us not only of the predictions comming from Engels but also of Trotsky's "the death agony of capitalism and the tasks of the Fourth International".


12. But there is no escape; the decisive struggle between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat is being waged. The capitalists are trying to win through the crisis also by intensifying the process of exploitation, reducing real wages, abolishing the eight-hour day, cutting the costs of production wherever possible. The proletariat is resisting fiercely and with revolutionary energy. In spite of the endeavours of treacherous Trade Union and Labour Leaders to persuade the workers to submit peacefully to the demands of the capitalists, the proletariat offers stubborn resistance. Strikes, armed risings, civil war, have become the normal conditions of many countries. The vanguard of the workers is inspired by the triumph of Soviet Russia to courageous and decisive actions. The Proletariat everywhere is making great strides in class consciousness and losing all faith in the permanence and durability of capitalism.

13. The capitalists can no longer depend upon the power of the state for protection, and fear the revolt of the rank and file of their army and officials. They find it necessary, therefore, to organise new forces drawn from their own class and the disappointed petit-bourgeoisie, and make a new state power which over-rules the old parliamentary machinery. These forces gather strength from every failure of the proletariat and even win workers into their ranks. By these means they have administered military and political defeats to the workers in a number of European countries. But military conquests by force which have not the mass of the workers behind them are compelled to broaden their social foundations and make way for the re-invigoration of the proletariat by concessions, in order to get the machinery of production to work again. This is the dilemma of the capitalists in Europe. Having destroyed the illusions of the masses by violence they are compelled, in order to restore production, to give the proletariat strength and greater liberty of movement. Renewed strength and shedding of illusions leads to the extension of the social revolution beyond the borders of Russia.
The first piece in bold is similar to the way Trotsky used his assesement of the objective and subjective situations to defend his programme. The second part in bold is interesting because it coincides with Kautsky: ("[...] a great transfer of political power that shall destroy a tyrannical regime is only to be expected where all of the following conditions exist:

The great mass of the people must be decisively hostile to such a regime.
There mast be a great organized party in irreconcilable opposition to such a regime.
This party must represent the interests of the great majority of the population and possess their confidence.
Confidence in the ruling regime, both in its power and in its stability, mast have been destroyed by its own tools, by the bureaucracy and the army.")


18. The Communist International therefore affirms that only by the proletariat of the capitalist countries seizing political power, breaking the resistance of the bourgeoisie, expropriating the expropriators, can the productive forces again be restored and developed, and the masses of mankind set free to advance from Capitalist slavery to Communism. To meet the demands of the economic and political crisis, which varies in acuteness from country to country, the Communist International proposes the following fundamental measures to be applied by the various proletariat. 1. Nationalisation of all land without compensation, the handing over of the small farms to the farmers and the operation of the large farms by the state under the control of the workers.
2. Nationalisation of all banks, mines, railways, communications, transport, engineering, shipping, cotton and woollen industries.
3. The disarming of the bourgeoisie and the arming of the proletariat; the creation of a proletarian army, navy and civil guard.
4. The abolition of capitalist law courts and the establishment of workers’ tribunals.
5. The monopoly of foreign trade.
6. Nationalisation of distributive trades and fusion with co-operative societies, which become state distributive organs.
7. State monopoly of press.
8. Annulment of state debts, with allowance to small investors.
9. Nationalisation of all building and housing property, except small property owned by small tenants. Rents to be payable to the state.
10. Separation of church from state and equal status of all religious opinions.
11. Nationalisation of all day schools and universities; raising of school age to 18 years with equal opportunities for all the children to fullest secular, technical, and political education.
12. The liberation of the colonies held in military subjection (Egypt, India, etc.), and support of countries liberated against imperialism, whether the liberated countries are proletarian states or not, the question of their proletarian character being determined by the relation of social forces within them.
13. Recognition and alliance of the proletarian republic with the U.S.S.R.
Proletarians of all lands unite under the banner of the Communist International, in the revolutionary struggle for power and the dictatorship of the proletariat!

On the basis of the above and in adaptation to the conditions obtaining in its own country the British Section of the Communist International presents the following complementary demands and programme theses.


14. The Communist Party sees no way out of this chaos for the workers other than through the revolutionary action of the working class, and outlines the fundamental economic and political measures necessary for a solution in the interests of the workers and all the oppressed of mankind.


(1) Nationalisation of all land without compensation, the handing over of the small farms to the farmers and the operation of the large farms by the state under the control of the workers.
(2) Nationalisation without compensation of all mines, railways, communications, transport, engineering, shipping, cotton and woollen industries, banks.
(3) The disarming of the bourgeoisie, the arming of the proletariat, and the creation of a proletarian army, navy and civil guard.
(4) The abolition of capitalist law courts and the establishment of workers’ tribunals.
(5) Monopoly of foreign trade.
(6) Nationalisation of distributive trades and fusion with co-operative societies, which become the state distributive organs.
(7) State monopoly of the press.
(8) Annulment of state debts with allowance to small investors.
(9) Confiscation of all fortunes over £5,000.
(10) Nationalisation of all property, except property owned by small tenants. Rents to be payable to the state.
(11) Establishment of national minimum wages and 40-hour week, in agreement with trade unions.
(12) Separation of Church from State and equal status of all religious opinions.
(13) Abolition of Poor Law. State responsibility for aged over 60, for unfit, for widows unable to work, and for unemployed.
(14) Free medical service.
(15) Nationalisation of all day schools and universities, raising of school age to 18 years with equal opportunity for all the children of the workers to fullest secular, technical and political education.
(16) The abolition of the monarchy and all hereditary titles.
(17) The liberation of the colonies held in military and political subjection. India, Egypt, etc., and support of the colonies liberated, whether they are liberated proletarian states or not, the question of the proletarian character being determined by the relation of social forces within them.
(18) The creation of economic and political agreements with all countries with a view to peaceful development and exchange of goods.
(19) Alliance of Britain with the U.S.S.R. and other Soviet Republics.
(20) Repudiation of the Versailles Treaty: The cancelling of war debts and reparations.
(21) Universal simultaneous disarmament.
These measures cannot be carried through in their entirety without the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, exercised through the Soviets, and the crushing of the capitalist class. The working class is the only social force which can give effect to the demands.
Is this a programma of transitional demands or one of transitory meassures?

But until the illusions concerning all other “solutions” to their social problems have been swept away from the mind of the workers, until the reformist leaders are disowned and the workers support the Communist Party and this programme, a succession of critical experiences is inevitable. The complex social character of the Labour Party produces conflicts within its ranks. The proletariat, who form the majority of the membership, feel the distress and poverty arising from the breakdown of industry, and increase their demands for improvements, while the petit-bourgeois elements, fearful of the development of a revolutionary crisis, strive to divert the protests of the workers from mass action into parliamentary channels. In this policy the Labour Party leaders have the assistance of the trade union bureaucracy, who, in addition to being reformist in outlook; use the narrow constitutions of the unions as a means of confining the workers to sectional action, and thus prove a tremendous bulwark of capitalism.
It is the task of our Party to penetrate the ranks of the Labour Party and the unions, to combat their reformist leaders, and to encourage the workers increasingly to united mass action in the defence and prosecution of their interests. It is incumbent upon every Communist to be a member of a trade union, the most elementary form of workers’ organisation, in order to help the workers to secure greater solidarity in action, combat reaction, and win their confidence as the real leaders in the fight for their interests.
10. The British working class is politically backward. All its existing traditions belong to the period of social patriotism. The revolutionary experiences of its early history, including the struggles of the Chartists, are only, known to the students. It has been taught to regard the unions as only instruments for “collective bargaining” and to relegate politics to “politicians.” The wealth accumulated by the capitalists throughout the period of imperial expansion has enabled the exploiters to corrupt the British workers, creating a labour aristocracy of skilled workers, while the unskilled have been organised into general labour organisations staffed by a well-paid reactionary bureaucracy.


17. The whole period of the existence of the Labour Government is one of fluctuating struggles, wherein the masses are repeatedly roused to action by their deepening anxieties concerning the uncertainties of their conditions. The Communist Party formulates demands accordingly, keeping constantly in mind the limitations of the workers’ outlook and the fundamental tasks before them. Either the Labour Government must take action on behalf of the workers’ demands or lose the support of the workers. On the other hand, the attempt to carry them through meets with relentless opposition of the bourgeoisie, which in turn compels them to face the issues of the class war, convincing the workers by their own experience of the correctness of the declarations of the Communist Party. The Communist Party in this period accordingly sets forth the following demands on behalf of the working class.
1. Nationalisation without compensation of mines and railways, and the control of the industries by the workers’ organisations.
2. Application of the Capital Levy to all incomes over £5,000, and the use of the capital so obtained for the relief of unemployment, and for other social measures.
3. Cancelling of the National Debt with compensation to small depositors only.
4. State control of banks and opening of accounts to inspection.
5. Control of foreign trade and state regulation of internal prices.
6. Grants and credits to local authorities for the building of houses by direct labour.
7. Payment of unemployed relief from the national exchequer through the trade unions.
8. Payment of old age pensions from 6o years of age, without any other qualifications.
9. Granting of political rights to soldiers and sailors, placing them on the same footing as civilians, with the right to refuse to blackleg in industrial disputes.
10. Establishment by law of minimum wage, based on subsistance minimum, for all young workers.
11. Raising of the school-leaving age to sixteen years, and the granting of full maintenance based on subsistence minimum. Youths between 14 and 16 years to receive vocational training based on the work school and training centres attached to workshops.
12. Elimination of all night work for all youths under eighteen years.
13. Provision of free meals for all school children, and abolition of child labour.

In addition the Communist Party supports every demand and struggle of the workers for increased wages and shorter working hours and improvements in conditions, and encourages them continually to increase their demands for control in the factories and workshops.


The Labour Party and the unions cannot escape this process, wherein class issues become sharper and society divides up into two opposing camps. The advent of a Labour Government with a majority over all other parties would make no difference to this fundamental process, involved in the clash of the workers’ interests with the demands for the preservation of capitalism torn by its conflicting elements.
19. The more these tendencies develop, the more urgent and imperative becomes the full programme of the Communist Party, and more and more workers are attracted to it.
This sounds like a Transitional Porgramme and method.


22. The Communist Party, therefore, proposes the following measures for the strengthening and developing of the working class organisations.
1. Amalgamation of trade unions into industrial unions, with factory committees as the units of organisation.
2. Creation of workshop and factory committees as the immediate means of struggle, both for the fusion of the union and the driving force in the economic and political fights.
3. Federation of Industrial Unions and the General Council of Unions, which shall be bound by the decisions of the Union Congress in order to act as a united body.
4. Formation of a joint council of unions, workers’ parties, and co-operatives, for united action in all campaigns and struggles.
5. Reinforcement of the Trades Councils, the local organisations of the trade unions, by delegates from districts committees of the unions and from the factory committees. The affiliation of the Trades Councils to the Trades Union Congress.
6. The creation of a central council of Consumers’ Cooperatives and C.W.S. drawn from the National Conference of Consumers and Wholesale Societies. Every worker to be a Co-operator.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I don't know what the purpose is of this thread but I found the following draft programme (http://www.trotsky.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1924/02/draft_programme.htm) very interesting in the light of my every growing confusion

For some reason you resemble me so much in terms of having deficits of confidence at the wrong time, especially when you're many steps ahead of typical Trotskyists, including *certain ones* younger than you on this board. :( ;)

Thanks very much for that Draft Program of the CPGB. I did not know I was emulating the format of that program, which de-emphasizes the national stuff. BTW, who was the individual author of the program?