Red Myth: International Communism

[Music] on December 26th less than two months after the bevic seizure of power in 1917 the Soviet of peoples Kars appropriated 2 million gold rubles for the support of World Revolution the Soviet of people's commissars considers it necessary to offer assistance by all possible means including money to the left International wing of the labor movement of all countries thus was established a the basic principle of international communism namely World Revolution under the assistance and guidance of the Soviet Union the year 1919 saw the founding of the international organization of communist parties the Communist International or common turn as it was called in 1919 in Moscow a meeting of the poet Bureau debated the importance and function of the new organization there were five members of the pet Bureau at that time lenon the acknowledged leader of the party and the new Russian State Trotsky outstanding propagandist and organizer of the Red Army the theoreticians bharan and kamenev and Joseph Stalin a party functionary uh the Tactical problem of the moment is one of ensuring coordinated leadership for the forthcoming Revolutions in Germany Austria and Bulgaria ah perhaps you're right Vladimir in but are we certain that the situation is genuinely right for revolution all the more reason my dear bukharin for assuring real communist leadership against the mere reformists particularly the social Democrats rigid discipline imposed from above on those organizations willing to join us and a campaign both legal and illegal to attract the masses to the Communist Banner that is what the Communist International should be striving for and who but ourselves should be uh making these preparations and determining the time to strike exactly our first objective should be to prepare for the proletarian revolution in the more advanced and industrialized countries without this socialism in Russia May perish we must not for one moment forget that socialism must be International try you just feding your theory of the permanent revolution again KF you're not the realist You Think You Are you know as well as I do that revolution in comrades please there's so much work to be done uh comrade Stalin have you anything to say at this point only that having our agents in other countries is probably use our agents you talk like a Russian nationalist not a communist the revolution must be International in order for communism to succeed the expected UPS never took place except for abortive uprisings in Germany and a short-lived Communist Regime in Hungary as a result of these failures the Communists outside of Russia gradually became exactly what the Kremlin wanted them to become agents of Soviet policy however the main objective of the common turn World Revolution followed by the dictatorship of the proletariat has never changed the history of international communism is extensively documented in the Hoover institution on war Revolution and peace at Stanford University here to comment on International communism is the assistant director of the Hoover institution wi sworakowski the first international organization of socialist oriented workers was created in 1864 by KL Marx this so-called First International was little more than a discussion club for the Airing of workers Grievances and was dissolved in 1876 the second International founded in 1889 6 years after Marx's death was a loose organization of socialist parties in various countries the second International attempted to coordinate the efforts of socialist parties and labor organizations to improve wages working conditions and the like prior to World War I it urged the workers not to support their governments in the event of War but when war broke out the workers particularly in France and Germany did support their government it was this action that prompted Lenin to denounce the second International and to form in January 1919 a third or communist International to this the third international came to be called the common turn the second Congress of the common turn met in petrograd and Moscow in July and August of 1920 there gregori zenf who had been installed as head of the common turn reaffirmed the ideas of the imminence of revolution in Europe and of the second International as the principal enemy of that Revolution the Communist International was founded 15 months ago and from its very first steps it naturally had to cross swords with the second International both our friends and our enemies in all Europe and America must face this fact and also recognize that our struggle has been crowned with success and that as a result of this Duo the second International has been knocked in the head by the third international the working class is coming into power and the bourgeois in its despair seizes upon the half dead second International and strangles it in its dying grasp there is no doubt that both are approaching definite ruin their collapse will make it possible for an international Union of workmen to create a new world founded on communism the idea of democracy has faded away before our very eyes Zenovia went on to analyze the political situations in various countries and to attack measures taken in the United States and elsewhere which suppressed the spread of revolutionary activities in the unsettled postwar years he then made a familiar prediction particularly a short time will pass and the proletariat of all countries in a single Outburst with a clearly defined aim and as a single entity will March forward to Victory under the leadership of the Communist International long live the working class of the whole world long live the Communist International the principal speech on the opening day of the Congress was made by lenon who was greeted with enthusiastic Applause as he made his report on the international situation he too spoke in terms of an imminent revolution in Europe a revolutionary crisis is at hand this now raises a question can we place hope in the strength and organization of a revolutionary Class A Class of a pressed to overthrow the disintegrating Society of exploiters the exploited masses lack the Revolutionary consciousness of the organization and preparedness of their Vanguard namely that very thing for the sake of which we have come together at this second Congress of the Communist International on our road are many difficulties but they are passing with each day and with each hour everywhere we have advanced detachments everywhere we have proletarian armies although poorly organized and needing reorganization we are able to organize these into a single Detachment a single Force if you will help us accomplish this then nothing will prevent us from accomplishing our task and this task will be that of leading on to the victory Of The World Revolution and to the establishment of an international proletarian Soviet Republic the executive committee of the common turn formulated a series of thesis or platform planks for presentation to the Congress one of the chief authors of the many thesis was Carl radic Secretary of the executive committee I shall reback section 18 of the platform resolution on the role of the Communist Party in the proletarian Revolution the basic starting point in the whole organization work of the Communist Party must be the creation of communist groups everywhere wherever there is even a small number of proletarians or semi- proletarians in every professional or Trade union in every Cooperative organization in every shop in every governmental institution everywhere where there can be found at least three people sympathetic with Communism it is necessary immediately to organize a communistic group only the organized activity of Communists makes it possible for the Vanguard of the working class to lead the whole class all communist groups operating in non-party organizations must submit implicitly to the the party organization as a whole irrespective of whether the party is at the given moment legal or illegal communist groups of all kinds should recognize further subordination to each other in strict hierarchial order and as far as possible according to a most rigid system comrade Ric will you also read back the preceding section of the resolution which stress is the importance of the illegal work of the party yes section 17 in a country where the Bourgeois or the counterrevolutionary social democracy is in power the Communist Party must learn to coordinate its legal work with its illegal work and the legal work must always be under the effective control of the illegal party throughout the Congress great emphasis was placed upon the importance of communist infiltration whenever and wherever possible and on the Primacy of the illegal apparatus of the party communism as an international conspiracy was on the March Trotsky in his closing speech at the Congress put it this way the months since the founding of the Communist International have been rich in profound historic content we must look backward in order to determine the road traveled but without taking our eyes off the enemy and without losing time go forward now we have come out on the road that leads to World communism in 1921 the Coman developed a tactical approach known as the united front this was an appeal direct to the workers over the heads of their Social Democratic leaders it invited them to follow communist leadership and in urged them to make demands for wage increases and working conditions demands so unreasonable as to create an irreconcilable situation between the workers on one hand and their employers and governments on the other these efforts of the Communists to bre break the workers away from their Social Democratic leaders failed attempts to forment Revolution in Germany in 1923 and in Bulgaria in 1925 Al ended in failure then when the USSR found it advantageous to establish normal diplomatic and Commercial relations with other states the Kremlin leaders were quick to perceive that their widely advertised aims of World Revolution were incompatible with the conduct of normal diplomacy this resulted in changing the Comming ter from being the Vanguard of the World Revolution to a kind of Border guard for the Soviet Fatherland Stalin's attitude toward the common turn is summed up in a word he used frequently when referring to it he called it lavka or little general store by the time the sixth Congress of the international convened in July 1928 Stalin had successfully eliminated Trotsky and zenov from all positions of leadership to the basic principal Larin was now head of the common turn but it was Stalin who pulled the strings the duties of the foreign communist parties to the USSR were clearly spelled out in a speech by bukar interalar and the USSR comrades in view of the fact that the USSR is the only Fatherland of the international proletariat the principal bulwark of its achievements and the most most important factor for its International emancipation the international proletariat must on its part facilitate the success of the work of socialist Construction in the USSR and defend her against the attacks of the imperialist Nations by all means in its power in the event of the imperialist states declaring war upon and attacking the USSR the international proletariat must retaliate by organizing bold and determined mass action and struggle for the overthrow of the imperialist government with the slogan dictatorship of the proletariat and alliance with the USSR the development of the contradictions within the modern world economy lead inevitably to a mighty revolutionary outbreak which must overwhelm capitalism in a number of so-called civilized countries unleash the Victorious revolution in the colonies broadened the base of the proletarian dictatorship to an enormous degree and thus with tremendous strides bring nearer the final World Victory of [Music] socialism the last Congress of the comter came when Stalin Was preparing the bloody Purge trials which were to result in the execution of buaran Zenovia KF and thousands of other party members during these years fascism was thriving in Italy and in Germany the black shadow of Hitler began to spread over Europe in response to these events the Soviet Union in 1934 joined the League of Nations an organization which Lenin had called a den of robbers Soviet foreign minister Maxim linov began making overtures which required a new Tactical line in the common term the result was the popular front which became an integral part of the new Soviet search for protective alliances at the seventh Congress of the common turn in Moscow in 1935 the popular front tactic was announced the head of the comter at this time was the Bulgarian stalinist giori demitro comrades millions of workers and toilers in the capitalist countries are asking the question how can fascism be prevented from coming to power and how can fascism be overthrown after it has come to power to this the Communist International replies the first thing that must be done is to establish a united front to form Unity of action of the workers in every District every Factory and every country all over the world the Communist International places no condition for Unity of action except one that the unity of action be directed against fascism against the offensive of capital against the threat of war and against the class enemy this is our condition Communists of course must not and cannot for a moment abandon their independent work of communist education organization and mobilization of the masses however in order to make sure that the workers find the road of unity of action it will be necessary to strive at the same time for long-term and short-term agreements providing for joint action with Social Democratic parties reformist trade unions and organizations of toilers against the class enemies of the proletarian the policy announced by dimitro differed in every respect but one from the policies followed before 1935 the main purpose of the Coman was still World Victory for communism but the popular front called for direct cooperation with the leaders of the Social Democratic and other labor parties the the key to this shift in tactics is to be found in Stalin's belated recognition of the Nazi threat to the Soviet Union Stalin had hoped that the rising power of the Nazis would be directed solely against the Western democracies however Nazi diplomatic negotiations with Poland and the Baltic State served to revive traditional Russian fears about German expansionist AIDS in the May 19 36 elections in France the popular front won 386 seats and a popular front Ministry was formed with Leon bloom a socialist as Premier while ostensibly supporting the government the Communist leaders refused to accept Ministry posts an equivocal position which did much to weaken the popular front government 6 weeks later the civil war broke out in Spain following the intervention of Hitler and musolini the Soviet Union became involved the stal Purge trials were getting underway in Russia and as part of their price for assistance to the Spanish loyalists Soviet leaders demanded the right to purge all socialist Anarchist and trotskyite elements within the Republican Camp as within the Soviet Union The Purge was carried out with equal efficiency in Spain by agents of the stalinist secret police believe me I'm as sympathetic toward the toward the Soviet Union as any other anti-fascist why do you suppose I volunteered for this God forsaken War my brother some of the things I've seen make me stop and think you know I saw a guy picked up just like that for making some crack or other about Stalin what's the matter with you you look green on your feet Soldier you're under arrest you're kidding well what for shut up come along all right uh bring in the next case yes I have a report here representing conclusive proof that you're one of the Agents of the counterrevolutionary conspiracy and also an agent of international fascism therefore wait a minute you're not an officer in my my Brigade now if there's there's some phony charge against me I want to know about it you can't just sit there and accuse me now listen to me and listen carefully I not only can accuse you I am your prosecutor I'm your judge and in a manner of speaking your executioner that's all what are you going to do you mean I can just take off yeah you can just take [Applause] off in the present International situation there is not nor can there be any more certain Criterion than one's attitude toward the Soviet Union in determining who is a supporter and who an opponent of democracy and peace you cannot carry on a real struggle against fascism if you do not lend all possible support in strengthening the USSR you cannot carry on a serious struggle against the fascist perpetrators of another world blood bath unless you lend all possible support to the Soviet Union you cannot carry on a sincere struggle for socialism in your own countries if you do not oppose the enemies of the USSR and you cannot be a real friend of the Soviet Union if you do not condemn its enemies the trky buaran night agents of fascism this was the party line in 1937 Nazism and fascism were then the arch enemies of the Soviet Union only two years later on August 23 1939 Stalin signed his Infamous pack with Hitler this P came as a surprise even to the Communist parties in the West for 10 days they were left without instructions from Moscow the result was a tragic comic model of conflicting statements the majority of them inconsistent with the new Kremlin policy but by the time of the Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland in mid-september all of the parties had received their official instructions and there was no longer any difference between the line as stated by the French British and other Communist Party neither was there any more doubt in the eyes of the world about the comel as a direct agent of Soviet policy on May 22nd 1943 the Soviet Union launched one of its more successful propaganda efforts the dissolution of the common turn when asked by a British journalist to give his views on the subject Stalin gave the following answer the dissolution of the communist International is proper And Timely because it facilitates the organization of the common onslaught of all Freedom loving peoples against the common enemy hitlerism it exposes the LIE of the Hitler ites to the effect that Moscow allegedly intends to intervene in the life of other countries and to bize them it EXP oses the calumny of the adversaries of Communism within the labor movement to the effect that communist parties in various countries allegedly are not acting in the interests of their people but on order from outside actually the Coman was not dissolved but went underground henceforth the Communist parties outside of Russia simply took their order not from the Comm ter but directly from the Soviet poit Bureau itself when the armies of the Grand Alliance met on April 25th 1945 the world was weary of War by taking advantage of this fact the Soviet Union was able to convert all of its military gains into Political Acquisitions the aim of World Revolution became converted into the aim of world Conquest between the years 1945 and 19 48 nearly a 100 million Europeans came under Soviet rule the Communist parties of France and Italy became important political forces Mal dong and his communist armies were successfully fighting the guandong in China and throughout Asia and the Middle East Communists emerged in strength in recent years communist pressure has been evident in the newly independent countries of Africa in fact the Communist parties have enjoyed far greater success since 1945 than in the days of the common turn in October 1947 a communist information Bureau the common form was set up in Belgrade it included representatives of the Communist parties of the Soviet Union France Italy and six of the East European people's democracies a year later Tito and Yugoslavia were expelled from the common form its offices were moved to Bucharest to be more directly under Soviet control subsequent events in East Berlin kosan Warsaw and and Budapest exploded the myth of Communism as a political ideology enjoying the support of a majority of the working people the common ter and the common form no longer exist however we must not forget that they were only temporary means to an end which has not changed today the Soviet government itself has assumed the task of directing Communists all over the world toward that end and that end was and still is communist world domination our next program will examine communism in the United States historical consultant WI sworakowski [Music] e this is National educational television