Session 15 – Saturday, 18 November 1922 Programme (Continued)

The Programme of the International and the Communist Parties. Speaker: Kabakchiev Convened: 7:30 p.m. Chairperson: Kolarov Kabakchiev (Bulgaria): Comrades, the faces the important task of working out a programme for itself and its most important sections. What are the factors that have placed this task before the International?

The need for a Communist programme The Second International is bankrupt. The epoch of peaceful development and growing prosperity that enjoyed from 1871 until the begin- ning of the twentieth century created and sharpened opportunist tendencies within the Second Interna- tional and placed its stamp on the programme of the Social-Democratic parties. The characteristic feature of the Social-Democratic parties is that they lead the working class to accommodate itself to capitalism, to reconcile itself to capitalism, and accept the post- ponement of into the indefinite future. That is why the Social-Democratic parties place such heavy emphasis on the minimum programme – that is, demands that can be achieved inside the limits and on the basis of capitalist society. They 520 • Session 15 – 18 November 1922 obscure the final goal – the conquest of political power through the proletar- ian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The new revolutionary epoch Now, however, the peaceful epoch of capitalism has been brought to an end and we have entered a new epoch, rich in wars and revolutions. This was brought about, firstly, by the onset of imperialism and imperialist wars, which broke out initially on the periphery of the capitalist world and finally hurled the great capitalist states into the imperialist world war of 1914. In addition, we saw the Russian Revolution of 1905, followed by revolutions in Turkey, China, Iran, and elsewhere. This epoch threw the entire capitalist world into a generalised and profound economic and political crisis. This epoch gave a new impetus to the revolutionary movement of the proletariat. Imperialism, war, and crisis sharpened class contradictions and endowed the class struggle with a new and powerful impulse. The class-conscious and revolutionary forces of the proletariat broke loose from the Social-Democratic parties and were able to restore international soli- darity of the revolutionary proletariat through a relentless struggle against opportunism and a break with the national bourgeoisie. That created the preconditions for the launching of the Communist Interna- tional, whose foundation was laid in 1919 in Moscow. The revolutionary Communist working-class movement is distinguished by new methods of struggle, namely a struggle to conquer political power through mass action, general strike, and armed uprising. The centrepiece of proletarian activity is no longer the minimum programme but the revolution- ary struggle to establish proletarian dictatorship.

The lessons of the Russian Revolution Obviously, the Communist parties could not and do not utilise the old programme of the Social-Democratic parties. Recall that it was the , the proletariat’s first attempt to take political power, that enabled Marx to clearly specify the goal and instrument of proletarian revolution, namely the dictatorship of the proletariat. Of even greater historical impor- tance is the great Russian Revolution, which brought the proletariat to power in the world’s largest country, and which already has existed for five years. It has shown the world proletariat the forms and instruments of proletarian dic- tatorship. The example of the Russian Revolution must serve the Communist International and its sections as the most important source assisting it in specifying the goals and forms of proletarian dictatorship, as well as the