10. The Opposition in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by L. D. Trotsky has been fighting for the unity of the Comintern [Communist International] and all its sections on the basis of the victory of Leninism. The correctness of the position taken by the Russian Opposition over a period of five years of struggle has been fully confirmed by events.
a. The struggle led by Trotsky since 1923 for party democracy and against bureaucratism as the pressure of another class upon the party of the proletariat, was absolutely correct then and is even more so now. The adoption of this position by Zinoviev, Kamenev, and others in 1926, and the attempt by Stalin to adopt it now, demonstrates the tremendous pressure of class forces which impel the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to this platform.(1) The struggle for party democracy, against bureaucratism, and for a regime of genuine Leninist self- criticism are burning questions now for every party and for the Comintern as a whole.
b. The necessity for a more relentless struggle against the kulak and the nepman(2) - for an orientation exclusively toward the workers and hired hands, united with the village poor and lower peasantry and in alliance with the middle peasantry-proclaimed by the Opposition, becomes clearer every day. The trend of events and the irresistible pressure of class forces is already driving a deep cleavage in the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and is forcing the Stalin group to struggle against the right wing (Rykov, etc.), with other elements (Bukharin) vacillating between the two.
The platform of the Russian Opposition, prepared for the Fifteenth Congress of the CPSU, indicates the revolutionary policy for the present situation in the Soviet Union. The prediction and warning contained in this platform against the inevitable growth and aggressiveness of a genuine right wing in the party (Rykov, Tomsky, etc.) has been precisely confirmed in the intervening period, particularly in recent months. The activities of this right wing have already necessitated organizational measures in the Moscow and other organizations of the party - a proof of the awakening of the proletarian masses of the party to this danger. The "left" course of the Stalin group in the direction of a struggle against the right dangers, for party democracy and self-criticism, against the bureaucrats, the nepmen, and the kulaks, can become a real left course only insofar as it abandons zigzag movements, adopts the whole platform of the Opposition, and reinstates the tested Bolshevik fighters who have been expelled to their rightful places in the party.
c. The attempts to revise the basic Marxist-Leninist doctrine with the spurious theory of socialism in one country have been rightly resisted by the Opposition led by Trotsky. A number of revisionist and opportunist errors in various fields of Comintern activity and its ideological life in general have proceeded from this false theory. To this, in part at least, can be traced the false line in the Chinese revolution, the debacle of the Anglo- Russian Committee, the alarming and unprecedented growth of bureaucratism in the Comintern, an incorrect attitude and policy in the Soviet Union, etc., etc. This new "theory" is bound up with an overemphasis on the power and duration of the temporary stabilization of capitalism. Herein lies the true source of pessimism regarding the development of the proletarian world revolution. One of the principal duties of every Communist in every party of the Cominten is to fight along with the Opposition for the teachings of Marks, Engels, and Lenin on this basic question.
d. The Opposition was absolutely correct when it demanded the immediate rupture of the Anglo-Russian Committee and the concentration of all the fire of the Comintern and the British party upon the leaders of the British Trades Union General Council (Purcell, Hicks, and Company) immediately after the betrayal of the general strike.(3) The maintenance of the Anglo- Russian Committee after this event did not serve as a bridge to the British masses but as a partial shield of the traitorous leaders from the fire of the Communists.
e. Rarely before in history has a Marxist-Leninist appraisal and forecast been so completely and swiftly confirmed as in the case of the Opposition theses and proposals (Trotsky, Zinoviev) on the problems and tasks of the Chinese revolution.(4) The line of the ECCI, formulated by Stalin, Bukharin, Martynov, etc., and the rejection of the proposals of the Opposition, which were suppressed and concealed from the parties of the Comintern, have brought catastrophic results and hampered the genuine development of the Communist Party of China and the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants. In view of its world- historical importance, a real discussion of the problems of the Chinese revolution, with all the documents being made available, is imperative for all parties of the Comintern. The prohibition of this discussion must be broken down, the truth must be told and the enormous errors exposed down to their roots. Only in this way can the great lessons of the Chinese revolution be learned by the parties of the Comintern....
13. The consolidation of the Opposition in the American party, which logically and inevitably merges with the path of the Opposition in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union led by Trotsky, has developed in the struggle against the right danger.... The attempts to exclude us from responsible party work, and even from the party itself, along with the proletarian communists who support us, while at the same time the control of the party apparatus and the party leadership in such unions as the needle trades consolidates more firmly in the hands of the opportunists, who fight their communist worker critics with expulsion and physical violence-all this can only accelerate the rapprochement between the right wing and petty-bourgeois elements now outside the party.
ENDNOTES
1. Gregory Zinoviev, Leon Kamenev, and their followers in
Leningrad formed a bloc with the Bolshevik-Leninists called the
United Opposition in 1926. Its platform called for
industrialization and for limitations on the better-off peasants
(kulaks), who were gaining strength under the regime of Stalin
and Nikolai Bukharin in Moscow. In 1928 a nationwide grain strike
by the kulaks threatened the cities with starvation. In panic,
Stalin instituted forced collectivization of the land and rapid,
bureaucratic industrialization.
2. Nepmen was a popular term for traders, merchants, and others who took advantage of opportunities for profitmaking under the New Economic Policy adopted by the Soviet government in 1921.
3. The May 1926 British general strike, called in solidarity with a bitter miners' strike, brought the country to a standstill. Its power frightened not only the capitalists but also the union bureaucrats, who called it off after nine days. Soviet trade unions continued their collaboration with the British union officials in the Anglo-Russian Trade Union Unity Committee until the British withdrew from that body in September 1927.
4. The Chinese revolution of 1925-27 began with a general strike in Shanghai. It spread with the Northern Expedition of Chiang Kai-shek's army, which conquered the pro-imperialist warlords of the North, unified the country, and sparked workers' uprising and peasant land seizures on a massive scale. The revolution was crushed when the Communist Party, after leading a successful insurrection in Shanghai in March 1927, welcomed Chiang's troops into the city, leading to a massacre of the workers. The CP, under the orders of the Comintern, had joined the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, in 1925, and Chiang was the principal military leader of that party.