Saturday, 18 November 1922 Programme
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Session 14 – Saturday, 18 November 1922 Programme The Programme of the International and the Communist Parties. Speakers: Bukharin, Thalheimer Convened: 11:45 a.m. Chairperson: Kolarov. Chair: The next agenda point is ‘The Programme of the International and the Communist parties’. I give the floor to the first speaker, Comrade Bukharin. Bukharin: As you all know, we will not adopt any definitive programme at this congress, because many parties have not yet taken a position on this ques- tion. Even the Russian Party has not yet discussed the draft that I am to present to you. For that reason, most of the delegations believe it to be more expe- dient not to adopt a definitive programme at this congress, but rather to only discuss the programme and then adopt it at the next congress.1 But the fact that we are daring to place a question as weighty as that of the programme on the agenda for discussion at a world congress is a sign of our rapid growth. The very fact that we are taking up this question today enables us to say confidently and with a clear 1. At the Fifth Comintern Congress in 1924 Bukharin presented a new draft pro- gramme, which was accepted as a basis for further discussion. A programme was ultimately adopted at the Sixth Congress, held in 1928, at a time when the Comintern leadership was profoundly divided. For the 1928 programme, see: <www.marxists .org/history/international/comintern/6th-congress/index.htm>. For a critique by Leon Trotsky, reflecting the viewpoint of the Left Opposition, see Trotsky 1936. 480 • Session 14 – 18 November 1922 conscience that the Communist International will resolve this problem. Meanwhile, in the camp of our opponents, the Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals, complete theoretical impotence reigns. Clara Zetkin: Very true! Bukharin: The first of the many questions that I will address concerns the basic theoretical questions regarding programme in the prewar Second International. I will present the thesis that the collapse of the Second International during the War has very deep theoretical roots in its prewar programmatic foundations. Generally speaking, we can identify three main phases in Marxism, its ideology, and its ideological structure. The first was the Marxism of Marx and Engels themselves. Then came the second phase, the Marxism of the Second International, of the epigones. And, now, we have Marxism’s third phase, Bolshevik or Communist Marx- ism, which, to a significant extent, goes back to the original Marxism of Marx and Engels. This original Marxism was itself the child of the 1848 revolution, and this gave it a highly revolutionary spirit, resulting from its birth at a time when all Europe was shaking and the proletariat stepped on the stage of world history. Then we entered a new period, in which there was an ideological turn. This entire historical evolution shows us again something that we find in the his- tory of almost all ideologies. An ideology born under certain conditions takes on a new face and a new form when these conditions change. So it was with Marxism. After the revolutionary epoch in Europe in the middle of the last century, we had an entirely different period in the capitalist system’s devel- opment, marked by the enormous expansion of capitalist territories. Growth was based essentially on the bourgeoisie’s colonial policy, and the flowering of industry on the European continent was rooted mainly in the exploitation of colonial peoples. This flowering, this prosperity of continental industry led to various social shifts among the European peoples. The economic position of the working class was strengthened. But, during the same period, capitalist development created a broad community of interests between the bourgeoisie and the con- tinental working class. This fact, this community of interests between the bourgeoisie and proletariat in the continent of Europe provided the basis for a highly significant psychological and ideological shift inside the working class and, of course, among the socialist parties. Then came the second phase in the development of Marxism, namely that of Social-Democratic Marxism, often called the Marxism of the Marxist epigones. .